The announcement is the latest curveball to be slung into the industry, one that’s already rife with uncertainty.
Apple has announced its plans to muscle its way into the Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) market with a new service that will be available when iOS 16 is rolled out.
Since the pandemic, BNPL serviceslike Klarna have become an ever-present fixture of ecommerce websites – which itself enjoyed a boom in lockdown – but calls for regulation and worsening economic conditions
The question of whether Apple’s financial and technological might will be too much for smaller BNPL businesses to take is an open one,
Apple’s Pay Later Plans
Apple’s Buy Now Pay Later offering – unveiled at the tech giant’s developer conference – will let users in the US pay for single purchases in four instalments over a six-week period.
The feature is built-in to Apple pay and will be able to be used anywhere the company’s payment service is accepted (roughly 85% of US businesses), and will be supported by Mastercard’s Network.
In a press release, Apple described the new service as a “seamless and secure way to split the cost of an Apple Pay purchase” and confirmed that no interest or fees would be applied to purchases. A “soft credit check” will be carried out, however.
The announcement comes just a couple of months after Apple acquired UK startup Credit Kudos, which creates alternative credit scores using machine learning capabilities – it may be a sign the company is exploring new ways to determine people’s capacity to pay up.
Competitive Now, Monopoly Later
The BNPL market, to put it lightly, is controversial for a number of reasons. Financial regulators in a number of countries – including the UK and US – have started to take notice and regulation seems to be around the corner.
It couldn’t come at a worse time for companies like Affirm and Klarna – the latter of which just laid off a significant portion of its workforce– as worsening global economic conditions coupled with a plateau in ecommerce interest inject uncertainty into the industry.
Economic and regulatory factors – plus Apple’s sheer size – have led some analysts have projected Apple to swallow up the already fragile market space.
“It’s not that it obliterates the existing businesses, but . . . buy now, pay later is most powerful when you have a whole ecosystem around it,” Gwera Kiwana, product manager at fintech consultancy 11:FS, told the Financial Times.
The move feels eerily similar to Apple’s decision to create a Tap-to-Pay feature for iPhone – which will launch this month – effectively turning your iPhone into a working payment terminal without the need for external hardware.
The move sent ripples through the POS industry, with the potential effect on existing market leaders like Block (formerly Square) similarly unclear.
How does Apple Benefit From its New Service?
Two words: money and data. First and foremost, Apple can charge both ecommerce websites and brick-and-mortar stores that offer Apple Pay merchant fees, and having BNPL services available will, in theory, mean more people opt to use Apple pay over other methods of payment.
On top of this, the longer that Apple can keep a user inside the Apple ecosystem, the more purchase data it can obtain for free. The more people using Apple to pay for things (or indeed, to take payment) the easier it’ll be for the tech behemoth to make predictions about consumer spending.
With both a Tap-to-Pay and Buy Now, Pay Later Service, Apple has a stake in the game on both sides of the transaction – and that will make all the competitors operating in those spaces uneasy.
The ecommerce giant is starting a new Local Ads division that could be a boon to small business and a blow to competitors
Amazon’s burgeoning ad business is already raking in tens of billions of dollars for the company annually, and it looks like that number’s about to get bigger. The e-commerce giant has begun quietly hiring for roles in a newly created Local Ads team, a move that will likely rankle some of its biggest competitors (read: Facebook and Google), Insider reported Wednesday.
Like the name implies, Amazon is tasking this team with working alongside smaller, city-specific ad companies—the kind that run ads for local mom-and-pop shops or smaller local chains, the kind of ads you would see in a local newspaper. Insider’s report is largely based on a handful of job openings across cities like New York and Chicago for a new “Local Ads” team as well as interviews with Amazon employees. In postings like this one, Amazon calls the effort “a rare opportunity to join a start-up business” within the Amazon Ads team, and will help “create a brand new business and revenue stream for Amazon Advertising.”
Amazon’s ad biz makes up a tiny slice of the company’s mammoth revenues, but that slice is getting bigger by the day. Just over a year ago, the company told investors that its “Other” unit—of which ads is a major part—was pulling in roughly $7 billion per quarter. Then in 2022, Amazon announced in its first-ever report on its ad numbers that it pulled in more than $31 billion in ads alone over 2021.
Just to put that in perspective, Amazon’s 2021 ad profits alone were worth more than six times what Twitter’s entire platform pulled in that year. You could pay off the medical bills of close to 2.5 million Americans with that much cash. Amazon’s ad business is big enough that analysts in the ad space have mostly nixed talking about the Google-Meta ad duopoly in favour of talking about the Google-Meta-Amazon triopoly, since Amazon’s figures are quickly reaching those other giants’ calibre.
This Local Ads team seems to be a new gambit to eat more of those two companies’ lunches. Right now, the primary marketing on the platform—much to the chagrin of the average Amazon shopper—are sponsored search results. Those slots are becoming more and more expensive to buy, which means when you’re looking up something like “toothpaste,” you’re probably getting sponsored results from Crest and Colgate instead of a smaller brand.
So instead, those smaller brands go to other platforms—often Meta’s properties like Facebook or Instagram—to do that advertising instead. Meta is fully aware that these small businesses depend heavily on its platforms, and is fond of using that fact as a cudgel against competitors, or calls for regulation from lawmakers. At one point early last year, the company even rolled out a full ad campaign of its own (starring Grace Frickin’ Jones) just to remind people that small businesses rely on Facebook ads to reach customers.
So when Amazon says it’s going to target smaller, local advertisers with this new department, it’s not just a bid to start a new business wing for Amazon, and it’s not just a sign that Amazon’s looking to court the millions of small businesses that are still standing on shaky ground in our new post-pandemic hellscape. It’s a shot across the bow to its competitors, too.
We’ve reached out to Amazon about the listings and will update this story when we hear back.
Feature Image Credit: Ina Fassbender (Getty Images)
Even established players are joining the blockchain revolution. You should as well.
We are currently witnessing a migration from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0. While most people have no idea what that even means, a number of entrepreneurs are already busy capitalizing on the transition.
The hallmark of Web 2.0 was technological service providers, such as Microsoft, Google, Facebook and other firms. A company offered a service to customers and stored their information in a database.
Decisions were voted on by company executives who had to inform the shareholders and comply with regulations. Customer service representatives were employed to make sure the customers had a good experience, so they would keep subscribing.
With Web 3.0, none of the above applies. There are no shareholders, no customers, no personally identifying information and no centralized profits. Decision-making is done by community governance and voting, through DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) and staking. It’s a completely new paradigm.
Some entrepreneurs have understood what was happening a long time ago and moved to position themselves for the inevitable future, built on distributed ledgers. They are currently converting their Web 2.0 wisdom into Web 3.0 gold.
From Deloitte to crypto-enhanced online shopping
Luxury goods are not for everybody, but Web 3.0 shopping is definitely made to be. Cyrus Taghehchian is a Deloitte alumni with a focus on using distributed ledgers to make a better planet rather than better profits. His CV is extensive, having worked with Intel, Deloitte, Bank of America, PayPal, Charles Schwab and Cisco.
Apart from this, he founded Flyt Technology, Cartrev, Krypton Ventures and SHOPX. These experiences have given him insights into multiple levels of the e-commerce industry, particularly PayPal and Cartrev.
SHOPX is his latest brainchild, where he is translating his prior expertise with Web 2.0 firms into a platform that will democratize and decentralize the e-commerce experience. (Disclaimer: As shown in my bio, I work at SHOPX on the core team.)
SHOPX acts as a bridge between blockchain and e-commerce. Everything that can be done through existing e-commerce platforms can be streamlined when goods are converted to NFT assets. It allows for increased ownership, tracking and control for merchants, as opposed to paying third parties for this functionality.
Decentralizing e-commerce is vital to the development of our society. The ability to buy and sell online has become a necessary utility. Just like the internet became a sort of utility for communication and connectivity. For a small handful of companies to gatekeep what humanity requires to survive is a key factor in our struggling economy.
From private equity to token launchpads
Entrepreneurs and investors are often more interested in getting in early on projects as opposed to setting them up. Web 3.0 offers incredible potential for those who spot trends when the project is just beginning. It is in many ways a dream come true for ambitious entrepreneurs.
Scott H. Weissman is a serial entrepreneur with experience in a wide range of industries. He began building his first NFT platform, CoinCopyright, in late 2016 as a free dapp (decentralized application). It was meant to protect creative work on the CoinFilms platform, which was also developed for the purpose of funding films in foreign markets using blockchain and cryptocurrency.
In 2021, he founded TokenSociety.io, an NFT project launchpad for entertainment and metaverse projects. This is a transformation of his original CoinCopyright concept, which was meant to protect the ownership rights of creators. The new platform takes a step further to help finance entertainment projects through NFT sales. The concept has already proven to be successful through “Men of the House,” a TV show financed with NFTs they call Snippetz. “Gay Aliens in the Metaverse,” a second TV show, is coming soon.
This is a clear and organic evolution of the ownership and distribution of content away from studios and investors, and towards individuals and creatives. By controlling the flow and facilitation of funds, centralized entities can maintain power over a large group of people. Gig-type platforms owned by a small handful of individuals like Spotify and YouTube make the rules and force millions to obey. Simply because they are on that side of the computer. But it’s a creator-economy now; the power needs to be in the creators’ hands.
From Microsoft to luxury NFTs
Individuals from premier Web 2.0 firms like Microsoft are taking their experience with them into modern markets. Damon Nam has over 23 years as a technology executive and entrepreneur, including 17 years at Microsoft (he is also a Microsoft alumnus). After this, he spent six years engaged in the emerging blockchain industry with a focus on DeFi.
He then became the founder of Privé, a community-owned DAO for luxury lifestyle goods and services. He is using his previous network connections, combined with blockchain technology, to build an ecosystem combining the best of both worlds.
Privé NFT owners will receive a bottle of specialty champagne annually as well as invitations to VIP events, among other benefits. Special edition bottles of Privé Réserve from Avize, France will feature art that is sourced directly from the community. It will be the first spirit in the world that is powered by a global community of members.
DAOs are particularly interesting to me because of their power to break up established powers. When centralized agencies gatekeep services, including luxury services like this, they create a narrative and charge extremely high prices to keep up the façade. Often, the products and services they sell are the same or worse than you could find for a fraction of the price. Creating a DAO for luxury services will de-emphasize the profit motive and focus on the quality of the experience. I hope this leads to a less wasteful consumer mindset.
There can be no more doubts about Web 3.0
The clear trend is that the most experienced and qualified professionals are rapidly moving to Web 3.0 in droves. Unlike the early days of blockchain, it is now relatively easy to take part in the rapidly expanding ecosystem of projects created on distributed ledgers.
Key executives from Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Facebook are leaving to create Web 3.0 projects. These are more lucrative and allow more creative freedom, compared to the Web 2.0 environment, which can be somewhat stale and stifling.
It’s obvious from the numbers of talented entrepreneurs moving to Web 3.0 that the industry provides superior outcomes across practically every conceivable category.
And the ecosystem needs these individuals in order to move forward.
It’s just the tip of what’s in store for artificial intelligence-powered shopping.
If it’s been a while since you’ve checked out Pinterest, you might want to reconsider unpinning it.
The San Francisco-based image-sharing platform has been making inroads into social commerce that might deserve your attention. To wit, Pinterest last Thursday announced its acquisition of The Yes, the San Francisco-based A.I.-powered shopping platform for fashion brands. The tie-up is expected to bring more interactive sales opportunities to retailers using Pinterest. And that could lead to more customers flocking to the app shopping for cool trends.
A.I.-powered shopping is not new. However, with the pandemic-fuelled e-commerce boom, the competition is growing ever more fierce–which makes standing out all the more necessary. As a result, consumers may be looking for ways to make the shopping experience more streamlined. Enter A.I.-powered shopping, with the promise offully automated self-service and highly personalized shopping experiences.
“Using intelligent, real-time learning, the recommendation algorithms get smarter over time as they learn more about the individual–similar to how music apps like Pandora or Spotify understand your tastes and preferences depending on the feedback they receive,” Julie Bornstein, the co-founder and CEO of THE YES tells Inc.
Bornstein adds that A.I.-powered shopping is poised to become the future of commerce five to 10 years from now.“Over the next few years, we will see more and more retailers and brands invest in A.I. as they can all benefit from high-signal data from their customers,” she says.
Here’s what you need to know now to stay ahead of the curve:
1. Get familiar with these A.I. tools
To get started, explore these online resources and platforms to get a sense of how A.I. can help your business grow in the long term.
If you want to develop a customer-centric experience through advanced image and video recognition, the New York City-based tech startup Clarifai helps businesses use machine learning and deep neural networks to identify and analyse images and videos. The tools can be useful for improving ranking search results, increasing conversions with similar product recommendations, and personalizing product recommendations.
If you are looking for a platform to analyse your customers’ interaction data, like email newsletter subscription and online chatbot conversations, NYC-based marketing technology company Zeta Global may be for you. The company says it can support brands by suggesting audience segmentations that leverage the service’s more than 235 million consumer identities–including demographic, location, behavioural, and transactional signals.
2. Expect a warm welcome
Your customers are likely already using A.I.-powered online shopping. According to 5WPR’s 2022 Consumer Culture Report, which looks into consumers’ consumption trends, more than half of consumers between the ages of 16 and 44 report using A.I. when online shopping. While half of consumers polled said they use interactive chats, 43 percent indulge in voice search, and 37 percent turn to reverse image search. The last tool allows for a consumer to search for a product using a photo instead of typing in keywords in the search bar.
“For years, consumer industries have been saying that artificial intelligence is the future, and now we’re seeing younger consumers seeking out and utilizing these offerings at an increasingly fast pace,” says 5WPR co-CEO Dara A. Busch. So, expect open minds.
3. Consider offline applications
A.I.-powered shopping is not only for online stores. A 2021 report that looks into the future of shopping, by Santa Clara-based A.I.-powered retail solutions company AiFi, shows that brands can use A.I. to collect data on a shopper’s path through a physical store, logging which items they pick up, replace, move, or add to a cart, the overall time they spend inside, and which checkout and payment options they choose. In this way, A.I. can improve customer service and offer more personalized guidance.
“Seamless integration into e-commerce is only the beginning of how consumer-facing companies will be utilizing emerging A.I. technologies. We can also expect to see brick-and-mortar shops incorporating A.I. in their stores as a way to draw consumers away from the online experience and in through their physical doors,” says Busch.
Design a remote workplace that inspires collaboration and accelerates productivity.
The pandemic created a real shift in workplace norms, and although many of these changes were temporary, some are here to stay. People are redefining, through their pandemic experiences, what matters most to them in work: opting for hybrid or fully remote workplaces over traditional workplaces to improve how they interact with their families and their workplace comfort.
With such a drastic shift in how people are working, it’s more important than ever to build a remote workflow and structure that is catered to ensuring continued workplace satisfaction, while empowering productivity in this new environment.
Consider the new tools you might need to support a remote workforce in your industry
You might need to invest in new software, licenses, or hardware (e.g., laptops, computers, monitors, etc.). Use this opportunity to allocate budget you would otherwise have to use on hosting these employees in-person to ensure that they can build a comfortable and productive working environment at home; for example, you might provide a stipend for a team member to put together their at-home office (for things such as a chair, a desk, etc.).
You’ll need to think about how you’ll manage communication and collaboration among team members. Remote workers do best when given clear expectations and deadlines, and a comprehensive way to easily stay in touch with one another. Whether that’s via a more traditional communication software, like Slack or Skype, or virtual platforms like Gather, which allow somewhat of a re-creation of the positive elements of office culture such as casual communication or the ability to “drop by a co-worker’s desk.”
I personally use Gather as a virtual workplace for my remote teams in the games development space, and the natural flow of being able to just walk up to a co-worker’s “desk” and chat with them while retaining the benefits of a remote workplace has been something my team have taken to really well. There’s something just inherently human about being able to walk into a conference room, albeit virtually, for a meeting. And I’m not talking about the kind of overbearing “immersive” virtual workplace you might envision in a dystopian fashion. Gather is centered on 2-D visuals in a Pokémon-esque style. It’s fun and functional.
Create a system for tracking progress and effectively measuring success
This will help you identify areas where your remote workflow could be improved in the long term. Task management tools like ClickUp, Monday, and Asana are great for ensuring your team are on task and working toward the overall goal, tracking teamwork patterns, and leveraging data to improve your remote workflow.
It’s vital to keep an ongoing, overarching goal for your team and to ensure everyone knows what that goal is to ensure that team members don’t lose sight of why they’re at your organization while being remote.
Most important, don’t forget to focus on culture
Remote work can be incredibly isolating, so it’s important to find ways to keep your team connected and engaged with one another in a way that will inspire workplace happiness, encourage collaboration, and cross-pollinate ideas. Some ways you can work toward this in a remote team include:
Holding regular coffee chats or lunchtime catch-ups
Creating virtual spaces for people to naturally collaborate on projects (this could be an actual virtual office on a platform like Gather, or just an open channel in Slack)
Ensuring everyone has the opportunity to share their ideas and be heard, and feels involved in the team vision
As a part of my game development team’s schedule, we have events such as an optional biweekly “Let’s Play” session. We jump in a call and recommend games to one another, and play through them. It is a lot of fun and a great way for us to connect, and doubles as a really great market research exercise unintentionally.
I’ve found that my remote working structure has really led to an optimal level of productivity across my team. Everyone’s satisfied with the workflow, and, most important, people are happy with the flexibility we’re able to offer in our remote workplace and the quality of life that leads to. It’s been an ideal situation for us as a team, and for our team members as individuals.
Building an effective remote workflow takes some time and care, but creating a workplace that works for everyone is worth it. By taking some of the steps above while designing your remote work experience, you can work toward a satisfying workplace that delivers productivity and leverages the benefits of remote working.
Amazon stopped 10 billion bad listings and removed 2 million phony products in 2020, the company said
Amazon released its second annual report Wednesday, detailing that the online retailer in 2021 blocked 4 billion counterfeit listings from being posted and scrubbed more than 3 million phony products from its site.
In 2020, Amazon stopped 10 billion bad listings and removed 2 million phony products.
The company also reported a decline in complaints of intellectual property infringement in 2021, and the number of active brands on the site increased.
The report stated that Amazon blocked more than 2.5 million attempts to create fake accounts on its e-commerce site, a 58% decline from 2020. The company attributes the drop-off to its vetting process and other efforts to discourage bad actors.
Amazon released its second annual report Wednesday, detailing that the online retailer in 2021 blocked 4 billion counterfeit listings from being posted and scrubbed more than 3 million phony products from its site. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File / AP Newsroom)
Counterfeit sellers have hurt online retailers like Amazon for years, and the company has ramped up efforts to combat the problem in recent years as it endures scrutiny from brands and lawmakers advocating for anti-counterfeit laws.
Amazon supports the INFORM Act, a House online retail bill that would require online stores to gather contact and financial information from high-volume sellers and reveal some of the information to buyers.
Amazon had previously opposed a Senate version of the bill, which would mandate that online retailers collect information from a larger group of third-party merchants.
Close-up of logo for Amazon Warehouse on Amazon Prime package, San Ramon, California, May 20, 2020. (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images / Getty Images)
Another bill on Capitol Hill would hold the online retailers responsible for counterfeit goods sold on their platforms.
Amazon recognizes “the intent of the legislation is to stop counterfeits” and is looking forward to working with Congress to reach that goal, a company spokesperson said.
The e-commerce giant said in its report that it implemented a program last year making it more difficult for bad actors to create accounts for selling products by requiring one-on-one conversations with an Amazon team member to verify their authenticity.
Logos of Amazon and Amazon Prime are pictured on vehicles outside the Amazon Fulfilment Centre in Altrincham, near Manchester, Britain, November 26, 2021. REUTERS/Carl Recine/File Photo (Reuters / Reuters Photos)
The report also said the company is verifying the seller’s physical location and payment instruments.
Amazon said last year it had spent more than $900 million to fund efforts fighting fraud. The company sued or referred more than 600 sellers for investigation in the U.S., China and elsewhere.
From small to large projects, a workflow template can help you identify everything needed to complete a project. This guide covers the six steps for creating a successful project management workflow.
When you’re working on a project, being organized and approaching the task methodically ensures consistent, timely results, and the best way to do that is through workflow management. The following step-by-step guide walks you through the process of creating a project management workflow template that you can implement for all your future projects.
What is workflow management in project management?
Workflow management refers to the identification, organization and coordination of the set of tasks that result in a specific outcome. When done correctly, workflow management will ensure you get to the desired outcome as quickly and efficiently as possible. If you are new to the topic of workflow management, comparing and contrasting it to project management is a good place to start.
What is workflow vs. project management?
Project management is the science of all the things it takes to complete a project or task. By providing transparency to all aspects of the project, formalized project management seeks to answer what is going to be delivered, by whom and when.
Workflow management is the next layer of detail below project management. While project management is broad, workflow management is more narrowly focused. Workflows are the specific, sequenced steps required to complete a task or project. In short, while project management is charged with answering what, who and when, a workflow is primarily focused on the how.
Why is project management workflow important?
It is entirely possible to deliver a project without workflow management. That said, it’s not recommended.
While you can make a reasonable argument that as you deliver the project the workflows will emerge, failure to manage your workflows will result in missed dependencies, which manifest as delays and work stoppages. This lack of efficiency will make it difficult to answer when a project will be complete, one of the desired outcomes of good project management.
The goal of workflow management is to create efficient, repeatable ways to get work done. The repeatable aspect is especially important if you manage similar types of projects. For example if you are part of a team that primarily delivers software, you’ll find that once you have a good workflow defined, your ability to predict the other aspects of project management such as resources and timelines will greatly improve.
At the end of the day, the best project managers utilize project management and workflow management to successfully deliver a project.
You don’t necessarily need any tools other than a pen and some paper to design your project management workflows. Here are the steps we recommend.
1. Tasks
The first action for designing a project management workflow is thinking through all the steps required to complete your project. It’s important to think categorically versus discreetly. For example, a typical software workflow might consist of:
Interviewing stakeholders
Creating wireframes
Building the software
Testing
Deploying
These are repeatable steps you could apply to multiple projects. As you are documenting your task list, try your best to sequence the items chronologically, as this will be handy later.
2. Resources
After you’ve detailed the tasks required to complete your project, it’s time to consider what sorts of resources you’ll need to get it done. These usually fall into the categories of tools and people. If you are delivering software, you’ll need developers and visual designers. Make sure you not only list out all the resources required but highlight gaps, or areas where you are missing the people and/or tools needed to be successful.
3. Deliverables
Just to make sure you haven’t left any critical steps out of your workflow, it’s a good idea to jot down exactly what the output from your project will be. For example, if you are designing a new report for the accounting team, your deliverables might be the new reporting software itself, documentation on how to use that report and a training class to teach the accounting team how the new software works.
Going through this thought process might cause you to reevaluate the tasks and resources you’ve identified previously. Maybe there should be a documentation task between the build and test steps. Or maybe you need a change manager as a resource on your team to successfully deliver the training.
4. Roles and assignments
With your list of tasks and required resources determined, decide who will contribute to which tasks to complete your project. Remember, the goal is to design a reusable workflow, not a specific project plan. Therefore, think roles like user experience designer instead of names like Tracy from creative.
5. Diagram your workflow
It can be especially effective to visualize a project management workflow. There are a number of ways you can visualize the workflow from a flow chart to Gantt chart. The table below is an example of an easy way to diagram a project management workflow. Across the x-axis, we have laid out all of our tasks, chronologically. On the y-axis, we’ve detailed the required resources at each step. In our example, those resources are people, but they could consist of people, tools or both.
1. Interviews
2. Wireframes
3. Development
4. Test
5. Deploy
CX researchers
Visual designer and information architect
Engineering manager, developers and tech architect
Manual tester and automation engineer
DevSecOps engineer
With this visual representation, it becomes more clear both the sequence of the tasks, and any dependencies between them.
6. Iterate
Last but not least, don’t let perfection get in the way of good enough. It’s unlikely you’ll get everything right with your project management workflow the first go round. Don’t let that stop you from putting it into practice. If you constantly inspect and adapt along the way, in no time your project management workflow will be humming.
There are possibly hundreds of digital marketing strategies for businesses to use, and most of them have significant potential to be profitable. Search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, social media marketing, email marketing, and other forms of online engagement are you able to boost the visibility of your brand, help you reach new people, and ultimately win more sales.
That said, entrepreneurs and marketers delving into the world of digital marketing often find that seeing these results isn’t as straightforward or easy as they first imagined. One of the biggest problems they face is competition – but why is competition such a massive roadblock in your digital marketing strategy, and what can you do about it?
The Competition Problem
Let’s start with an explanation of the competition problem in digital marketing. In business, competition is a well-known and well-studied threat; if a competing business offers a similar product for a lower price and does a better job of reaching your target audience, they could easily wick away much of your customer base.
But for our purposes, we’re going to be focusing exclusively on how competition interferes with your digital marketing strategy. Ultimately, there are three main issues:
Higher costs. Dealing with competitors usually means higher costs, both in terms of time and money. If you’re competitively bidding on advertising, and many of your competitors are aggressively bidding on the same keywords as you, the cost of an ad for those keywords is going to increase. If you’re trying to outrank a competitor on a major search engine, and they already have a decade of experience at the top, it’s going to take an enormous amount of time and resources to challenge them. Existing competition can also threaten the return on investment (ROI) you see from your existing marketing strategies, since your impact may be reduced by the visibility of competing offers.
Lower visibility. Competition also lowers your visibility in at least some contexts. If you end a competitor have ads side by side, users may only take the time to fully read one of them, or they may feel overwhelmed or bombarded by advertisements, choosing to skip over them altogether.
User confusion. If a user sees a video demonstration of your product in action, then immediately sees a video demonstration of a competitor’s similar product in action, they may walk away feeling confused. They may remember one or neither brand or mistakenly associate one brand name with the other product. This isn’t good for either one of you.
Obviously, you can’t push a magic button and instantly remove your competitors from the market. Instead, you’ll need to find creative strategies to deal with the competition problem in the digital marketing space.
These are some of our best recommendations.
Get to Know Your Competitors
The first step to take is always to get to know your competitors better. The better you understand your competition, the better you’ll be able to handle them.
Understanding their strengths and weaknesses will give you a clear path to optimizing your offers and your presentation. Noting their most powerful marketing strategies can help you decide whether you want to avoid those specific areas or lean into them and double down.
Take note that competitive research isn’t a one-time ordeal; many entrepreneurs rate the competitive research section of their business plan, then never return to it, but this is a mistake. Your competitors are always growing and evolving, just like you are, so you need to keep researching and updating your understanding accordingly.
Differentiate Yourself
Possibly the best way to deal with competition in digital marketing is to differentiate yourself. Making yourself extremely different or pursuing different strategies will immediately distinguish you from your closest counterparts. In some cases, this allows you to find inexpensive alternative paths to reaching customers.
In others, it’s more about making sure there is no confusion for your target audience. In any case, differentiating yourself could help you seize control.
Think like an entrepreneur and get creative here. There are many different ways you can differentiate yourself, though these are some of the most common:
Geographic location. For starters, you could target a different geographic location than your competitors. If one of your competitors has a national presence, you could focus exclusively on one metropolitan area.
Target demographics. You can also target different demographics. If you already have a firm target audience and your marketing campaigns have always been built around them, this may be a difficult transition to make. But sometimes, targeting a different age group or a different socioeconomic class is all it takes to immediately distinguish yourself.
Buyer intent. Your marketing strategy probably includes specific targeting tactics for different stages of buyer intent. You can competitively differentiate yourself by focusing more heavily on one of these stages.
Brand, image, and voice. Another option is to revitalize your brand, changing your image and your voice to stand apart from your competition more strongly. For example, if all your competitors seem to have a stuffy, overly professional voice, you could offer something more casual and laid back. This is especially powerful if you also update your demographic targeting in the process.
Quality and support. Consider setting yourself apart from the competition by offering better product and service quality, better support, or both. Make these distinctions the centrepieces of your digital marketing strategy moving forward – as long as you can back up your claims.
Outspend Where Appropriate
Thanks to automation and other scalable, high-tech tools, digital marketing is relatively cheap. A small business or an individual can get started with a basic digital marketing strategy for just a few hundred dollars. But if you want to compete on a national scale with some of your biggest competitors, you’re going to have to spend far more.
Many entrepreneurs and marketers are too intimidated to attempt such a bold gambit, but there are cases when outspending your competition is the wisest strategy. If a competitor spent $50,000 to reach rank one for a specific keyword, there’s probably a good reason they did – and spending $60,000 to outrank them could be the best use of your resources.
Use the Competition to Your Advantage
It’s natural to think of your competitors as enemies or threats, but they could also present new opportunities to you. Consider tapping into the power of your competition, rather than simply avoiding or dominating them.
For example:
Content collaborations. partner up with one of your competitors and collaborate on a piece of shared content. It could help you both improve your visibility.
Partnerships. Form a partnership with one of your competitors to expand your reach and provide mutual benefits.
Branded keyword optimization. It’s possible to optimize for your competitors’ branded keywords, or even pay for ads that display when users search for your competitors’ branded keywords. This is a bit of a dirty strategy, but it could be a valuable trump card if you’re having trouble beating your competition in other ways.
Focus on Retention
You can get more value out of your current digital marketing strategies by focusing on retention. Remember, customer retention is less expensive and more effective than customer acquisition. If you’re already spending a hefty sum on your digital marketing strategies, you should maximize the value of each new customer you attract to your brand.
Offering more support, customer loyalty incentives and stronger client relationships are great places to start. Also, consider setting up a referral program, so you can naturally attract more loyal customers to your brand.
There are many ways that you can adequately address the competition problem in your digital marketing work. Some are naturally going to be more favourable for your brand than others. It’s up to you to study your competition carefully, set the right budget, and analyse your effectiveness to choose the best path forward.
Cybercriminals know this, with phishing and other email-targeting tactics the top attack vectors ― because they work so well. And as we discussed in the first article of this two-part series, “For MSPs, Next-Gen Email Security Is a Must,” advances in automation have made it easy to run these attacks at scale, with no organization too small to target anymore.
It only takes one successful attack to spell disaster. What can you do to protect your company? Although proper email security is never a walk in the park, we have prepared a checklist of email security best practices for small and midsize businesses (SMBs), divided into three categories: organizational culture, security posture management, and technology stack.
Organizational Culture
A security-first organizational culture bolsters email safety by prioritizing the following:
Clear policies: Get IT and business leaders to co-formulate clear security policies, including email-specific ones.
Continuous reinforcement: Make email security practices part of employee onboarding, ongoing training, and performance reviews.
Peer buy-in: Buy-in for the company’s security strategy from non-security peers is crucial for good security outcomes for SMBs.
Learning from incidents: Leverage email security incidents to address vulnerabilities and finetune policies.
Security Posture Management
Here are four best practices for email security posture management that SMBs can adopt:
Timely incident response: A companywide incident response plan (that includes notifications, responsibilities, response and mitigation workflows, reporting, etc.) must be regularly tested and updated.
Data loss prevention (DLP) program: A DLP program incurs costs, but the ROI is clear when a company can achieve near-zero RPO/RTO outcomes in response to ransomware or other data theft exploits.
Systematic management of email passwords: UK survey: 82% of security breaches over the previous year started with weak email passwords. IT should enforce strong, unique passwords that are updated regularly.
Clear reporting: Be able to demonstrate diligent tracking of email security metrics and effectively address incidents and vulnerabilities.
Staying on Top of Technology
Cyber threats are constantly evolving, increasing the pressure on businesses to optimize and modernize their protection. Ensure that your current email security stack is best of breed and up to date:
Proactive refreshing of email security stack: SMBs with a process in place to proactively refresh their security technology stack achieve superior security outcomes.
SaaS: A SaaS email security solution ensures continuous improvement while eliminating infrastructure overhead.
Two-factor authentication (2FA): An additional authentication step considerably hardens email security. There are plenty of freeware and commercial 2FA solutions out there.
Multiple, overlapping layers of defence: Sophisticated exploits require a multilayer defence based on email security gateways; anti-phishing or anti-malware tools; and threat intelligence solutions.
Using an MSP
MSPs have the resources and experience to deploy a well-integrated, end-to-end solution that protects their customers’ email flows. The benefits of using an MSP include:
24/7/365 threat detection and response
Scalability
Easy integration with existing email infrastructure
Flexibility and configurability
It’s a win-win solution: The MSP works against the weaponization of email while the SMB can focus its resources on core business activities.
Acronis and Email Security
Whether a business manages email security itself or turns to an MSP, having an integrated data protection and cybersecurity solution that secures an organization’s online assets — including email — is critical. Learn how Acronis can help with its cyber protection solutions, featuring ML-based anti-malware, antivirus, and anti-ransomware protection, fail-proof patching, continuous backups, safe and rapid recovery, global threat monitoring, smart alerts, and more.
Feature Image Credit: ar130405 via Adobe Stock
By Candid Wüest
Candid Wüest is the VP of Cyber Protection Research at Acronis, where he researches new threat trends and comprehensive protection methods. Previously, he worked for more than 16 years as the tech lead for Symantec’s global security response team. Wüest is a frequent speaker at security-related conferences, including RSAC and AREA41, and is an adviser for the Swiss federal government on cyber-risks. He holds a master’s in computer science from ETH Zurich and various certifications and patents.
Integrating a password manager into your life can be done without slowing down your routine.
Many people still have weak security practices, especially when it comes to passwords. They’re reusing them, relying on easily cracked ones, or aren’t aware that recommended guidelines have changed. And the reasons they have for not using a password manager aren’t crazy or stupid—their feelings are entirely understandable. But they’re still wrong.
Passwords are similar to the locks on the front door of a house. And when you live in a city (the internet is definitely that crowded), everyone throws on at least one lock. But choose the doorknob’s lock, and it takes but a minute for an experienced burglar to get past it. You want a deadbolt at a minimum, and in higher traffic or rougher neighbourhoods, you might have a thicker door (or even an iron gate before your door), sturdier hinges, and longer screws for your deadbolt strike plate, too.
And yet, you don’t have to rely solely on keys to deal with your door locks. These days you can tailor your safety setup to make life easier and still more secure—e.g., using PIN pads, Bluetooth readers, and other methods to gain entry.
Password managers are the same. You can choose one that works for you, whatever your needs or concerns—you don’t need to rearrange your life for it. Don’t believe me? Watch as I dismantle the top six reasons people don’t use a password manager lickety-split.
Reason 1: I have my own system and it works fine
Your passwords are hopefully not this weak, but a homebrew system still can’t beat out a password manager.
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A lot of folks still believe using numbers and symbols in place of letters or riffing off of a base password is sufficient protection. The sad news is that those strategies aren’t strong enough anymore and haven’t been for a while. My colleague Mark Hachman explains how easy it can be to crack a password—and extrapolate patterns and habits to make cracking future passwords even easier. In other words, it’s becoming easier and easier to pick the lock on a digital door.
You can gamble on never getting hit with an account takeover attempt, but you’re going to lose that bet sooner rather than later. Data breaches are only increasing in frequency (and scope), with potential fallout also increasing as vital services move further online. And even if you are generating your own long passphrases or even randomized passwords, keeping track of them will either be less protected than in a password manager (a spreadsheet with an innocuous name isn’t secure, alas) or slip your memory at some point.
Reason 2: It takes too much time
You can set up a password manager to automatically fill in your login info, as well as generate and save passwords. It’s much faster than manual input. (Shown here: iCloud Keychain on an iPhone.)
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Not true! Typing out your login info takes longer than having your password manager pop up and autofill the credentials for you. So while it may seem like it’s slowing down your process to use one, it’s not.
As for setting up the password manager—some require no work to make them part of your routine. The ones built into Google, Apple, and Microsoft’s ecosystems (heck, even into browsers like Firefox) tie in with your existing account and offer automated password management across devices.
Even third-party password managers are pretty seamless if you can spare a few minutes to sign up and then install a browser extension and mobile app. You might have to also tweak a system setting or two to ensure full integration into your flow, but it’s fast if you do. Once that’s complete, the experience is nearly as effortless as with first-party password managers—and you get more robust features.
Oh, and entering all your passwords into the manager doesn’t have to happen all at once, either. It’s ideal of course, but if you take care of the sensitive accounts (and upgrade the quality of your passwords for them too!), you can then gradually add more credentials as you log into those accounts.
Yes, paid password managers do often get recommended, but that’s because of their extra useful features—not their level of protection. A paid service will offer a wider range of two-factor authentication options (like hardware authentication keys or the ability in the password manager to generate software-based tokens), easier password sharing, family plans with group access to passwords, special travel-oriented features, and more. For not much cash, you get a tangible quality of life improvement.
But a good free password manager will store all of your login info securely and also easily generate long, random passwords for every website and app. And just like paid password managers, it will also recognize sites you visit and offer to automatically fill in your credentials, as well as support basic two-factor authentication.
The better free services also provide a way to share passwords securely, set an emergency access for trusted contacts, and can generate unique user names (not just passwords), email masks, and more.
Reason 4: Having all my passwords in one place is dangerous
You can use an app like Authy or Aegis to generate two-factor authentication tokens.
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I hear you on this one. The idea that you would put all of your passwords in one place can seem like a direct contradiction with security. If someone breaks in, you could be in for a world of pain.
But you can mitigate this concern with little difficulty. Your first line of defense: Choose a good master password and enable two-factor authentication. This is arguably the most important thing you can do to safeguard yourself. You can (and should) also protect your accounts by requiring a PIN, biometric authentication, or your master password for all installed browser extensions and apps.
How you choose to store your passwords can minimize or eliminate this issue, too. For example, you can lean on KeePass as your manager, which gives you complete control over the file holding all your login info. Save it on a trusted PC or external drive (don’t forget to back it up!) and access to your passwords will remain limited.
KeePass might not look like much, but it gets the job done while giving you complete control over your password database. You can also opt for one of its forks, like KeePassXC, for a more modern interface.
PCWorld
Or you can spread your passwords between different services and apps. Maybe you sign up for both LastPass and Bitwarden, storing a mix of accounts in each. Alternatively, you could put your info for less valuable accounts in a cloud-based manager, while your high-value account info stays locked up tight in a KeePass file. Another riff on this idea: Split passwords themselves into different fragments and store them across different accounts. For all of these scenarios, you can have both browser extensions or apps installed on your devices for simultaneous use.
These options are a little more complicated, but you’ll still be remembering no more than a couple of mega-strong passwords. And you’ll have a faster and stronger system than typing out passwords kept in your brain.
Reason 5: Storing my passwords in the cloud seems risky
You can approximate a DIY cloud-based password system if you choose KeePass and store its database with a cloud provider you trust. Or just keep the file offline for complete control—the choice is yours.
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This is a fair concern. Even the most diligent company could have a vulnerability in their system. Bugs are an unfortunate but regular part of software development.
But you still have options. As mentioned earlier, KeePass saves passwords to a local file, which lets you keep that data out of cloud-based storage. Or you can DIY your own cloud solution by uploading a KeePass vault file to a cloud storage provider you trust (one that has enough engineers to properly ward off hackers or proper safeguards against rogue employees)—e.g., Dropbox, OneDrive, iCloud Drive, or Google Drive.
You can go with a hybrid system instead as well. Use an online password manager for medium- and lower-value accounts (places that have your address and billing info, but not more), while financial and other highly personal accounts are stored in a more tightly controlled environment. If you’ve been OK with using Ilovetarget.com as your password for shopping online at Target, this solution surely can’t be that objectionable.
Reason 6: I’ll get stuck with a password manager I hate
Nope, you can move at will. A standard practice for all reputable password managers is the ability to export your passwords. The better services allow you to export as an encrypted file, which minimizes the risk of sensitive data falling into the wrong hands. By the way, always choose the encrypted option, because a plain-text file of all your passwords is no bueno.
(This one’s easy to lay to rest!)
Good password managers will let you export your passwords in an encrypted format for easy and safe transfers.
(Shown here: Bitwarden’s browser extension.)
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Any (reputable) password manager is better than none
This won’t be the last time I write about password managers, much less try to convince people to use them.
But let me say, whenever you hear different arguments from tech journalists (even right here among the PCWorld staff!) about why paid password managers are better, or that browser-based password managers should be passed over—don’t let that confuse you. Or turn that into a reason to write off online security as too complicated.
The reputable password manager that you use is the best one. Simple as that. I just want you all to be safe. Having to frantically recover an account or deal with identity theft is no one’s idea of a good time.
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Alaina Yee is PCWorld’s resident bargain hunter—when she’s not covering PC building, computer components, mini-PCs, and more, she’s scouring for the best tech deals. Previously her work has appeared in PC Gamer, IGN, Maximum PC, and Official Xbox Magazine. You can find her on Twitter at @morphingball.
