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Why and how referral marketing is exceeding paid search and paid social

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By Mark Choueke

Referral marketing is often an overlooked strategy. However, Mark Choueke, marketing director at Mention Me, explains why it can be an effective route for marketers and how it works to earn customer trust.

For marketers yet to turn their attention to the extraordinary customer acquisition mechanic of earned growth, referral might be the last marketing channel to come to mind.

For those already giving their customers a participating role in their brand’s success, it’s the last marketing channel they’d switch off.

This was literally true for Lindsay Newell, head of UK marketing at Bloom & Wild, one of Europe’s largest online florists. She knew the customer lifetime value the business derived from referral marketing exceeded that of both paid search and paid social.

So much confidence did the business have in its referral marketing program as a growth driver that when it was forced to ‘turn off’ marketing in May 2020 after the Covid-19 pandemic prompted the first lockdown, referral marketing was the only channel it left running.

The florist grew its UK referrals by 800%, despite promoting it at fewer points in the customer journey than previously.

Newell, meanwhile, says her team tests constantly to learn how various markets and customer cohorts respond differently to messaging and incentives through referral campaigns.

Such success stories were once rare for a marketing channel that is now fast growing into its own skin and becoming comfortable with a more pivotal, strategic status in the marketing stack.

Traditional household brands and established retailers are now joining pure play online businesses in approaching customer acquisition and experience with an ‘advocacy-first’ mindset.

This shift toward earned growth isn’t a replacement for anything. Comprehensive Referral Engineering® programs act as a valuable addition to, and amplifier of, existing marketing strategies.

Menswear brand Spoke put its first-party referral data to work across its paid social channels to target consumers that looked like the retailer’s most valuable referrers. The experiment saw a 65% increase in conversion rates, a 30% jump in ‘return on ad spend’ and a 12% reduction in the cost of acquiring new customers.

Crucially, though, none of the above speaks to the single most important opportunity addressed by a move toward earned growth.

That is that advocacy – and importantly the level of participation it encourages in those we sell to – is slowly shifting the emphasis of marketing from the brand to the customer.

Referral done properly is data-driven – but it’s customer-led.

Amplified in the past two years by the forced loss of so many day-to-day freedoms we once took for granted, consumers are hungry for autonomy and self-determination. They want a more direct role in the way they shop for (and engage with) the products and services with which they choose to identify.

Consumers want to participate; to interact, share and recommend. Your buyers’ e-commerce journeys don’t begin on screens. Increasingly they start with offline conversations; not about your brand or product, but about their interests, their passions and their needs.

What does that mean for your brand? Well, it means your best marketing in 2022 will likely happen in the most ‘un-marketing’ moments.

It means your effective media channels will include everyday occasions in your customers’ lives: chats between parents at the school gates; picnics and pub nights; weekend walks and barbecues with friends; Sunday roasts with the family.

Customer participation will become as crucial in delivering experiences that match your buyers’ expectations as personalization has been in recent years.

For while automation driven by big data has transformed customer experience capability, the spreadsheets and numbers that dominate our customer experience conversations risk becoming somewhat divorced from the end users they represent.

Abstract scores only tell us so much about our customers’ values, beliefs and versions of what a relationship with our brands should look like.

New perspectives and a shared commitment to twinning comfortably volunteered first- and zero-party data with more innovative partnerships will get brand marketers closer to the customer stories that end users would recognize, buy into and participate in.

Referral is a rare marketing discipline, carried out in the cultural mode and language of consumers – normal people who don’t share the marketer’s vocabulary of ‘funnels,’ ‘touchpoints’ and ‘conversions.’

Our businesses are drowning in third-party data (though perhaps not for much longer). Yet how much does this data really tell us about our customers? There’s an unfilled gap between the reported customer insight that much of our data promises, and the legitimacy – the purity – of customer participation. It’s a gap similar to that between reading sheet music and being in a live audience while witnessing a spine-tingling performance.

After thousands of years of retail, your customers still sell your stuff better than you do, without even trying. Now we have the expertise to understand the psychology of referral and the science to drive, track and measure it, you can give your best customers the power to grow your companies.

Click here to see how leading brands use Referral Engineering® to acquire high-value customers while energizing existing ones.

By Mark Choueke

Sourced from The Drum

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Where Franchisors are Headed in the Marketing World

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People are wondering whether pay-per-click advertising is dying out.

In the marketing spend budgets of most franchisors, PPC – “pay-per-click” – advertising is a vital part of their overall digital strategy to enhance lead-generation efforts. To the untrained eye, and even a few of the trained ones, PPC can be a study in contradictions. Is it expensive? It can be. Is it effective? Some studies seem to indicate so. Is it a labour-intensive resource? Yes, unless you’re using a digital platform that manages the PPC on your behalf. Is that expensive? Well… you get the picture.

Two decades ago, the advent of Google AdWords began, introducing online ad campaigns where you only paid for consumer clicks. One of PPC’s early benefits was the ability to closely track and monitor the metrics that defined the campaign’s success rate in converting leads. It’s still much the same today, but the digital landscape has evolved quite considerably since the year 2000.

So where are franchisors headed with PPC in a post-pandemic world?

A competitive bid process means higher prices

The steady increase of brands participating in the PPC craze eventually led to a bid-based system for high-performing keywords. Competition to secure the best placement for your PPC ads has noticeably driven up the cost, but it hasn’t necessarily translated to increased conversion rates. Getting top-paid search placements (and results) has become a hotly contested process.

A short-sighted view

It’s been said that PPC ads give brands a great shot at a one-time customer — not exactly a great long-term acquisition strategy. B2B customers — such as franchisors looking to attract franchisees — often struggle to display the right content to reel in an interested candidate. Unlike consumer brands, the format and limitations of PPC ads offer limited opportunities to close an immediate sale.

Should franchisors ditch pay-per-click advertising altogether? Most digital advertising experts caution patience. For franchisors still engaged in the once tried-and-true PPC space, here are some post-pandemic trends to consider.

Automation to the rescue?

With as many intricate details and moving parts as a PPC, it should come as no surprise that digital ad campaigns might be better suited for automation. In an environment rife with data-driven decisions, AI, machine learning and algorithms seem to match up well with successful PPC campaign requirements. For the most part, most brands have left human marketers in charge of these automated smart programs, mainly to oversee the emotional factors of insight and strategy.

Integration means optimization

If marketing mixes were comparable to a basic cable lineup, PPC is still but one channel on the dial. And integrating paid ads to work in concert with other channels such as PR, SEO, social media and organic content development may prove to be a winning strategy. PPC isn’t supposed to be siloed and once these campaigns are integrated across the full spectrum of marketing options, a clearer ROI picture should emerge as to their effectiveness in the future.

In summary, PPC can still be a viable component of any brand’s digital marketing spend. Some studies reveal that people who click on PPC ads are twice as likely to make a purchase as an organic visitor to the site. When compared to the myriad of other marketing channels and their varying rates of effectiveness, any belief that PPC is dying out may still be up for a healthy debate.

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Jeff Cheatham is a regular contributor for Entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Creative Content, a full-service copywriting and public relations firm. He’s based in Dallas and works with multiple B2B clients and over a dozen franchise brands to develop proprietary content campaigns for lead-generation and sales development programs.  https://creativecontent-llc.com/

Sourced from Franchise 500

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The data game: what Amazon knows about you and how to stop it

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The tech giant has many ways of gathering information about its users’ activity – from Prime to Alexa. But how much can it collect and what can you do to keep your life private?

rom selling books out of Jeff Bezos’s garage to a global conglomerate with a yearly revenue topping $400bn (£290bn), much of the monstrous growth of Amazon has been fuelled by its customers’ data. Continuous analysis of customer data determines, among other things, prices, suggested purchases and what profitable own-label products Amazon chooses to produce. The 200 million users who are Amazon Prime members are not only the corporation’s most valuable customers but also their richest source of user data. The more Amazon and services you use – whether it’s the shopping app, the Kindle e-reader, the Ring doorbell, Echo smart speaker or the Prime streaming service – the more their algorithms can infer what kind of person you are and what you are most likely to buy next. The firm’s software is so accomplished at prediction that third parties can hire its algorithms as a service called Amazon Forecast.

Not everyone is happy about this level of surveillance. Those who have requested their data from Amazon are astonished by the vast amounts of information they are sent, including audio files from each time they speak to the company’s voice assistant, Alexa.

Like its data-grabbing counterparts Google and Facebook, Amazon’s practices have come under the scrutiny of regulators. Last year, Amazon was hit with a $886.6m (£636m) fine for processing personal data in violation of EU data protection rules, which it is appealing against. And a recent Wired investigation showed concerning privacy and security failings at the tech giant.

So, what data does Amazon collect and share and what can you do to stop it?

The data Amazon collects, according to its privacy policy

Strict EU regulation in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and UK equivalent the Data Protection Act limit the ways personal data can be used in Europe compared with the US. But, according to Amazon’s privacy policy, the tech giant still collects a large amount of information. This covers three areas: information you give Amazon, data it collects automatically and information from other sources such as delivery data from carriers.

Amazon can collect your name, address, searches and recordings when you speak to the Alexa voice assistant. It knows your orders, content you watch on Prime, your contacts if you upload them and communications with it via email. Meanwhile, when you use its website, cookie trackers are used to “enhance your shopping experience” and improve its services, Amazon says.

Some of the data is used for “personalisation” – big tech speak for using your data to improve your online experience – but it can reveal a lot about you. For example, if you just use its online retail site via the app or website, Amazon will collect data such as purchase dates and payment and delivery information.

“From this information, Amazon can work out where you work, where you live, how you spend your leisure time and who your family and friends are,” says Rowenna Fielding, director of data protection consultancy Miss IG Geek.

At the same time, Prime Video and Fire TV information about what you watch and listen to can reveal your politics, religion, culture and economic status, says Fielding. If you use Amazon to store your photos, a facial recognition feature is enabled by default, she says. “Amazon promises not to share facial recognition data with third parties. But it makes no such commitment about other types of photo data, such as geolocation tags, device information or attributes of people and objects featured in images.”

Amazon Photos does not sell customer information and data to third parties or use content for ad targeting, an Amazon spokesperson says, insisting the feature is for ease of use. You also have the option to turn the feature off in the Amazon Photos app or on the website.

Meanwhile, Amazon’s Kindle e-reader will collect data such as what you read, when, how fast you read, what you’ve highlighted and book genres. “This could reveal a lot about your thoughts, feelings, preferences and beliefs,” says Fielding, pointing out that how often you look up words might indicate how literate you are in a certain language.

Smart speakers have been criticised by privacy advocates and devices such as Amazon’s Echo have been known to be activated accidentally. But Amazon says its Echo devices are designed to record “as little audio as possible”.

No audio is stored or sent to the cloud unless the device detects the wake word and the audio stream is closed immediately after a request has ended, an Amazon spokesperson says.

More broadly, Amazon says much of the information it collects is needed to keep its products working properly. An Amazon spokesperson says the company is “thoughtful about the information we collect”.

But it can add up to a lot of data. In 2020, a BBC investigation showed how every motion detected by its Ring doorbells and each interaction with the app is stored, including the model of phone or tablet and mobile network used. Ring can share your stored data with law enforcement, if you give your consent or if a warrant is issued.

How Amazon shares data across its own services

The more services you use, the bigger Amazon’s opportunity to collect your data. “If you have bought fully into the Amazon experience, you will share details, habits and information that the company will collect and potentially use to ‘enhance your experience’,” says Richard Hale, a senior lecturer in digital forensics at Birmingham City University.

But what exactly is shared within its own companies isn’t clear. The privacy policy section on data sharing within the Amazon group of companies is “pretty limited”, says Will Richmond-Coggan, an information and privacy law specialist at Freeths LLP. Taking this into account, he says, people should “assume that any information shared with one Amazon entity will be known to any other”.

How Amazon shares your data with third parties

Like Google and Facebook, Amazon operates an advertising network allowing advertisers to use its customer data for targeting.

“Although Amazon doesn’t share information that can directly identify someone, such as a name or email address, it does allow advertisers to target by demographic, location, interests and previous purchases,” says Paul Bischoff, privacy advocate at Comparitech.

Amazon lets other companies track users visiting its website, says Wolfie Christl, a researcher who investigates the data industry. “It lets companies such as Google and Facebook ‘tag’ people and synchronise identifiers that refer to them. These companies can then potentially better track people on the web and exchange data on them.”

Amazon says it doesn’t sell your data to third parties or use personally identifiable information such as your name or email for advertising purposes. Advertising audiences are only available within its ads systems and cannot be exported and you can opt out of ad targeting via its advertising preferences page.

What you can do to stop Amazon collecting data

Amazon’s data collection is so vast that the only way to stop it completely is not to use the service at all. That requires a lot of dedication but there are some ways to reduce the amount of data collected and shared.

If you are concerned about what Amazon knows about you, you can ask the company for a copy of your data by applying under a “data subject access request”. The Alexa assistant and Ring doorbell have their own privacy hubs that allow you to delete recordings and adjust privacy settings. Ring’s Control Centre allows you to tweak settings including who’s able to see and access your videos and personal information from a central dashboard. Speaking to Alexa, you can say: “Alexa, delete what I just said” or: “Alexa, delete everything I said today.”

Amazon says it allows customers to view their browsing and purchase history from “Your Account” and manage which items can be used for product recommendations. More broadly, you can also use privacy-focused browsers such as DuckDuckGo or Brave to stop Amazon from tracking you.

But it’s not always easy to change the settings on Amazon itself, says Chris Boyd, lead analyst at security company Malwarebytes. He recommends turning off browsing history on Amazon and opting out of interest-based ads to reduce the level of tracking by the company. Yet he warns: “You’ll likely still see ads from Amazon or encounter third-party advertisers in one form or another – they just won’t be as targeted.”

Feature Image Credit: Under scrutiny: Jeff Bezos and his empire of platforms and devices. Illustration: Philip Lay/The Observer

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Sourced from The Guardian

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5 Worst Small Business Website Mistakes That Make You Look Like a Rookie (And 5 Fixes)

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By Mark Stephens

With technology getting smart, we as small business owners cannot afford to be otherwise. Here are a few website mistakes to look out for: speed, responsiveness, and design.

Let me preface this by saying that most of us judge a book by its cover. The unpopular opinion is that it is true to quite some extent. While it may or may not apply to people, it certainly applies to products, services, and websites. It’s only fair, right? With the number of tasks we conduct in today’s world, and the number of options we have, a small business owner must do their best to ensure their website design stands out.

It is not all theoretical. As per Stanford’s web credibility research, 75% of users admit that they make judgments concerning a company’s credibility based on their website design. With 87% of shoppers searching for products on the internet, you as a small business owner cannot possibly afford to portray a poorly designed website, which translates into mediocre credibility.

That being said, at this point, most of us might make the mistake of simply seeking newer and better website creation approaches. Nonetheless, before you look into that, I suggest you need to unlearn ways of creating a website that you already know, and that shall effectively and accurately direct you towards creating an extraordinary website.

“Before people can begin something new, they have to end what they used to be and unlearn the old way.”

William Bridges

Mistake 1: Slow Website Speed

When was the last time you waited in a queue? Exactly, that is not a pretty memory, and you mostly won’t suggest that to anyone. Now imagine having to stand in a queue when there are other options available with no waiting time. It goes without saying, you will want to go with the latter option.

If your website is taking anywhere more than 2-4 seconds to load, you might want to look into the bounce rate of your website, and it will not be pleasing. As some of you may know, the speed of your website pages serves as a ranking factor to assess its index. As a small business owner, any mistake to slow down your website is simply unaffordable.

In order to ensure your website speed does not make the user leave, it is important to understand the factors that affect your website speed: document completeness, visual completeness, and a number of file requests, to name a few.

Fix 1: Prompt as a Wink Website

You cannot improve something without knowing its current state. Therefore, before applying any of the below-mentioned approaches to increase your website speed, I highly recommend checking the speed of your website as it is at the current moment using tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights and GT Metrix. Post that, here are some of the actionable tips to increase your website speed:

  1. Try compressing the images on your website.
  2. Explore another web hosting service (one which is known for its speed).
  3. Consider reducing redirects.

Mistake 2: Poor Search Options

Many times, when a user comes across something on your website that they (almost) like, they search for similar products or blogs or details that exactly match their requirements. It goes without saying, this becomes a lot more difficult if there is no search bar on your website.

While it is quite a subtle and overlooked aspect of the website, it does most of the work, especially for eCommerce websites. In the more physical-store sense, without an option to search, it’s like you are asking your viewers to explore packages in your warehouse. Inconvenient, right? The same applies to your website.

Fix 2: Searchable Unlike Waldo

Be it for a small business or an established brand, an online presence is crucial. However, a clumsy and cluttered online presence is worse than no online presence at all. On the same front, your website shall have an option to help users navigate through complex and massive websites: a search option.

If you are using WordPress as your content management system (CMS), you can simply place the widget at any position on the website (preferably on the top right corner of every page that includes multiple products, blogs, or services).

Also, make sure your website has an on-site search engine that is relevant to your business and prioritizes the best result. Some of the aspects your on-site search engine shall be able to manage are:

  1. Typing errors
  2. Errors in the name of a product or service
  3. Abbreviations
  4. Keyword variation
  5. Punctuation-centric errors

Mistake 3: Overwhelming Text and Typography

Let me preface this section by saying: no, I do not mean that text and typography are the same in any manner.

By text, I mean the length of text (is it too short and incomplete or too long and confusing) and quality of the text (are the resources cited, is the content well-researched, and is it all updated). On the other hand, typography is how this text is represented on the website.

For instance, cursive fonts look pretty on some websites but you shall make sure if it is readable – easily readable? How many fonts should you use on a website?

While there are several other typography options, you must ensure that the font you choose conveys your brand message to the target audience.

Fix 3: Readable and Comprehensive as Children’s Books

No, a website shall not look like a children’s book. However, most children’s books have visuals and huge font sizes which makes it easier for them to read and understand the book. Similarly, know your target audience: do they prefer minimalistic views or do they like beautiful typography even if it is unconventional.

While doing so, understand that mostly the key component concerning the text and typography of a website is clarity. Therefore, ensure the following elements:

  1.  Kerning: space between the characters (letters, numbers, and symbols).
  2. Tracking: space between words and/or phrases.
  3. Leading: space (vertical) between the lines.

Mistake 4: Unresponsive Website Design

As one of the most important features of a website, an unresponsive design can do harm in ways you might not realize yet. Of course, it seems like a thing people say but is not true. Wrong.

If you give it a thought, you will realize that the primary aspect of having an online presence of a business, a.k.a. a website, is to reach out to a wider audience. Be that as it may, without a responsive website design, your website will not be accessible to certain viewers on certain devices.

Mobile accounts for almost half of the traffic around the world, which was 54.4 in 2021 – and this is excluding tablets. Clearly, devices besides smartphones, such as tablets and PS4s, are widely used worldwide to surf the internet. Thus, having an unresponsive website can cost you in several ways.

Fix 4: Responsive on a Click

I strongly recommend beginning by avoiding pieces of content that are accessible or functional only on a number of devices. Also, change your website design as per smaller screen requirements. For perspective, it is not always effortless to navigate through a menu bar of a website using a mobile device. Thus, having a mobile-friendly header can be a starting point for making your website more responsive.

Besides it, here are some of the approaches you can explore to make your website responsive:

  1. Use images and videos which are responsive.
  2. Consider touch screens while designing.
  3. Differentiate and decide elements that will be included separately for each device type.

Mistake 5: No Leverage of Analytics

You can do everything right – from images and responsiveness to speed of a website and various other elements – but it will all be of no worth if there is no direction towards which the performance of a website is indicated.

By analysing your website analytics, not only will you have an idea of the current state of your website, but will also be able to know the areas of improvement. Additionally, the website will be more optimized, user-friendly, and higher concerning lead generation than ever before.

Fix 5: Track Like a Rolling Stone

Slow loading time, viewers having problems with readability and search bar on the website, and lack of responsiveness – it can all be known only when you get down to the metrics of your website’s performance.

However, I do not suggest spending hours tracking and noting down all the data of your website. Rather, target the ones which are related to your business. For perspective, bounce rate, page views, and so on.

Through this, you can make informed decisions concerning your website.

To Conclude,

At any point in a business, you will find yourself surrounded by mistakes or errors or simply things not falling into place. However, the only constant is to make changes with time, not only in our business but also the website associated with the same.

While the above-mentioned aspects are nowhere ‘ultimate guide to better website design,’ they are certainly acting as your wake-up call to analyse the overall performance of your website.

By Mark Stephens

Business Development Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the Media and Digital marketing sector, Passionate about innovation and bringing the future into new business solutions.

Sourced from DB DesignBro

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The Quiet Way Advertisers Are Tracking Your Browsing

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By Matt Burgess

Cookies are on the way out—but not enough is being done about browser fingerprinting. So what is it?

Creepy cookies that track all your online activity are (slowly) being eradicated. In recent years major web browsers, including Safari and Firefox, have restricted the practice. Even Chrome has realized that cookies present a privacy nightmare. But stopping them ends only one kind of online tracking—others are arguably worse.

Fingerprinting, which involves gathering detailed information about your browser’s or your phone’s settings, falls into this category. The tracking method is largely hidden, there’s not much you can do to stop it, and regulators have done little to limit how companies use it to follow you around the internet.

What Is Fingerprinting?

The exact configuration of lines and swirls that make up your fingerprints are thought to be unique to you. Similarly, your browser fingerprint is a set of information that’s collected from your phone or laptop each time you use it that advertisers can eventually link back to you.

“It takes information about your browser, your network, your device and combines it together to create a set of characteristics that is mostly unique to you,” says Tanvi Vyas, a principal engineer at Firefox. The data that makes up your fingerprint can include the language you use, keyboard layout, your timezone, whether you have cookies turned on, the version of the operating system your device runs, and much more.

By combining all this information into a fingerprint, it’s possible for advertisers to recognize you as you move from one website to the next. Multiple studies looking at fingerprinting have found that around 80 to 90 percent of browser fingerprints are unique. Fingerprinting is often done by advertising technology companies that insert their code onto websites. Fingerprinting code—which comes in the form of a variety of scripts, such as the FingerprintJS library—is deployed by dozens of ad tech firms to collect data about your online activity. Sometimes websites that have fingerprinting scripts on them don’t even know about it. And the companies are often opaque and unclear in the ways they track you.

Once established, someone’s fingerprint can potentially be combined with other personal information—such as linking it with existing profiles or information murky data brokers hold about you. “There are so many data sets available today, and there are so many other means to connect your fingerprint with other identifying information,” says Nataliia Bielova, a research scientist at France’s National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology, who is currently working at the French data regulator, CNIL.

Fingerprinting evolved alongside the development of web browsers and is intertwined with the web’s history. As browsers have matured they have communicated more with servers—through APIs and HTTP headers—about people’s device settings, says Bielova, who has studied the development of fingerprinting. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) first identified fingerprinting back in 2010. Since then fingerprinting has become increasingly common as advertisers have tried to get around cookie blocks and limits put on ad tracking by Google and Apple.

So How Bad Is It?

While there’s little transparency around the companies that run fingerprinting scripts, the practice is verifiably widespread across the web. Many of the websites you visit will fingerprint your device; research from 2020 found a quarter of the world’s top 10,000 websites running fingerprinting scripts.

New ways of fingerprinting are being created too. “The existing fingerprinting algorithms are not the upper boundary in terms of trackability,” says Gaston Pugliese, a research fellow at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität in Germany, who has studied the long-term impact of fingerprinting. For instance, earlier this year researchers proved they could create fingerprints of GPUs to identify people. Tracking people across different browsers is also possible.

But not all fingerprinting is bad. David Emm, a principal security researcher at Kaspersky, says the technique can often be used as a way to spot potential fraud, such as banks using it to identify suspicious behaviour.

However, the widespread use of fingerprinting for targeted advertising and tracking people’s online movement raises legal problems. Across Europe regulators have been calling for a clampdown on cookie banners, which appear on websites asking people if they give their permission to be tracked. The banners are so ubiquitous (and frustrating) that people largely click Accept and don’t understand how they are agreeing to be tracked—that’s leaving aside the fact that many cookie banners may not even do what they claim.

In Europe fingerprinting falls under the same General Data Protection Regulation and marketing rules as cookies, says Elle Todd, a partner specializing in data and tech at law firm Reed Smith. European regulators have warned since 2014 that fingerprinting “presents serious data protection concerns,” and Todd says many websites don’t tell consumers that they may track people with fingerprinting. “I think that a lot of companies don’t realize, and they think that this is a nice way to get around the cookie rules,” she says.

How Can You Stop It?

Unlike cookies, it’s hard to stop fingerprinting. Cookies are stored in your browser, and it’s possible to delete your cookie history, block them, or turn them off entirely. “With the fingerprinting, it’s all invisible,” Emm says. “People don’t know about it; they don’t see it.” When the EFF first detailed fingerprinting in 2010, it said it was “akin to a cookie that cannot be deleted.”

Various browser plugins claim to help reduce or stop fingerprinting, but there’s a mix in quality. A 2019 study by a researcher from Snap and two US academics found many anti-fingerprinting tools aren’t that useful. The biggest thing you can do to stop fingerprinting is pick a browser that limits tracking and increases privacy.

“The most promising approach that is also built into browsers nowadays is the approach of the Tor browser,” Pugliese says. To prevent fingerprinting, Tor tries to standardize all the parts of its browser so everyone appears to have the same fingerprint. Tor isn’t always practical, though; some websites will break, and many companies don’t allow it on corporate networks. Other browsers, including Firefox and Brave, have their own anti-fingerprinting methods. Firefox blocks third-party requests to companies that fingerprint, while Brave adds noise by randomizing fingerprints.

“In the fingerprinting space, browsers are going to have to evolve,” says Firefox’s Vyas, adding that anti-fingerprinting technology needs to change in a way that doesn’t break parts of the web. More action from regulators would also help to stamp out the tracking. “If we had legislative support that said ‘these fingerprinting technologies and scripts are unlawful,’ then that would help us.”

Feature Image Credit: Hiroshi Watanabe/Getty Images

By Matt Burgess

Matt Burgess is a senior writer at WIRED focused on information security, privacy, and data regulation in Europe. He graduated from the University of Sheffield with a degree in journalism and now lives in London. Send tips to [email protected].

Sourced from WIRED

 

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Top Companies Hiring Graphic Designers in 2022

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Graphic designers are a vital part of digital advertising, and the best companies for graphic designers use their valuable skills to increase their digital presence and create brand awareness. Creating visually appealing designs has proven to be an effective strategy in both online and traditional marketing in this advertising age.

If you are a professional graphic designer looking for a career change, you should consider applying to the highest-paying graphic designer companies. In this guide, we will discuss these companies in detail, disclose their salaries, and explore whether or not each company is worthwhile based on employee reviews.

What Is a Graphic Designer?

Graphic designers, or graphic artists, create and design digital materials. These could be images, digital marketing materials, print materials, book design, or web page layouts. They use design software and apply graphic design techniques to create decorative effects and design elements.

Graphic designers are highly independent and often work as freelancers. If a graphic designer works within a graphic design company, they are often part of a design team that works on projects for the biggest clients. Designers with advanced skills and work experience can earn supervisory positions or become art directors.

How to Get a Graphic Design Job

To be a graphic designer, you need to have the appropriate skills, qualifications, and creativity. There are five standard steps to becoming a professional graphic designer. Below is an explanation of each of these steps.

  1. Get a bachelor’s degree. A degree in graphic design or fine arts will provide the knowledge you need to become a professional graphic designer. Find a school accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design to study digital design.
  2. Enrol in a boot camp. Even if you have a bachelor’s degree, you can improve your resume and credentials by enrolling in a boot camp and earning a certificate. You can enrol in advanced web design courses or learn specific design software.
  3. Enrol in short design courses. Basic art and design certificate courses are ideal for those with a high school degree who wish to become graphic designers. Some bachelor’s degree programs require students to take short courses before enrolment in their degree programs.
  4. Apply for an internship. Apply for an internship in graphic design agencies or other companies that give you a creative workload. Companies prefer to hire employees with internship experience because it means they have hands-on experience with design processes from concept to completion.
  5. Secure licenses and certifications. You can earn certifications from product software vendors. Having a license or specific software certification shows competence, giving you an advantage over other job applicants.

Top 10 Highest-Paying Graphic Design Companies

Company Salary for {Professions}
Microsoft $84,000
Airbnb $79,288
Adobe Systems, Inc. $70,262
IKEA $68,000
Cisco Systems, Inc. $64,428
Intel Corporation $63,052
Amazon $62,500
The Home Depot $59,981
Saatchi & Saatchi $58,715
Apple, Inc. $55,000

 

Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft is a technology company that produces consumer electronics and computer software. Microsoft is well-known for products such as Windows and Xbox, ranked as one of the top three global brands in terms of valuation

What Does Microsoft Pay Its Graphic Designers?

The average annual salary of graphic designers at Microsoft is $84,000. Art directors, creative directors, or other mid-career professionals earn closer to $107,000, with the addition of benefits and bonuses.

Microsoft Reviews

Based on reviews on Indeed, Microsoft has an overall review score of four out of five stars. The company’s highest-scoring categories include its compensation and benefits, as well as its culture. Job security and advancement, however, scored lower.

Airbnb

Founded in 2008, AirBnb, Inc. is headquartered in San Francisco, California It is an online platform that serves as a marketplace for travel information and booking services. Airbnb offers lodging, home-stay, and tourism services via websites and mobile applications with a global clientele.

What Does Airbnb Pay Its Graphic Designers?

The average annual salary of graphic designers in Airbnb is $79,288. The estimated annual salary range is between $60,000 and $102,000. Their benefits include group health care coverage and group life insurance. They also offer generous pension and welfare benefits.

Airbnb Reviews

Airbnb scores fairly well among employees with a four out of five-star overall rating. The company received its best reviews on its work-life balance and company culture.  However, Airbnb does not appear to be very highly regarded in terms of job advancement opportunities.

Adobe Systems, Inc.

Adobe Systems, Inc. is an American multinational company specializing in computer software and digital products for the creation and publication of content. They have a global team of graphic designers, program managers, researchers, and prototypers.

What Does Adobe Systems, Inc. Pay Its Graphic Designers?

Adobe hires graphic design specialists who receive an average annual salary of $70,262. The estimated pay range is between $52,000 to $97,000 annually, depending on the level of experience and work arrangements.

Adobe Systems, Inc. Reviews

Employee reviews describe Adobe Systems, Inc. as a great workplace with friendly colleagues and an inclusive environment. Although they sometimes have long work hours, they provide decent pay with benefits and opportunities for career advancement.

IKEA

IKEA is a multinational conglomerate that focuses on designing and selling home furnishings and kitchen appliances. There are 422 stores in 50 countries and have 225,000 IKEA employees worldwide.

What Does IKEA Pay Its Graphic Designers?

IKEA hires graphic designers who receive an average annual salary of $70,262. The estimated pay range is between $52,000 to $97,000 annually, depending on the level of experience and work arrangements.

IKEA Reviews

According to employee reviews, the IKEA work environment does not discriminate. The company culture promotes togetherness where employees work as a team. Although work can be stressful because it is mainly customer-cantered, it is a great place to learn new things every day.

Cisco Systems, Inc.

Cisco is a multinational corporation that develops and sells software, networking hardware, telecom equipment, and other high-tech products. The company hires designers to actively participate in the design process and help shape products and user experiences.

What Does Cisco Systems, Inc. Pay Its Graphic Designers?

Cisco Systems pays its graphic designers $64,428 as a median annual wage. The pay range is from $46,000 to $89,000, depending on the employee’s skills, job title, and range of experience. Employees at Cisco are given comprehensive health insurance, profit-sharing, and a defined contribution pension plan.

Cisco Systems, Inc. Reviews

Cisco employee reviews state that the company has a very healthy work culture. They provide numerous opportunities to develop technical skills. Employees typically work long hours in a fast-paced environment.

Intel Corporation

Intel is an American multinational corporation located in Silicon Valley, and is the world’s largest manufacturer of semiconductor chips. They have 121,100 employees serving customers worldwide. Intel is the leading supplier of microprocessors for computer system giants such as Acer, HP, Dell, and Lenovo.

What Does Intel Corporation Pay Its Graphic Designers?

The average annual salary of graphic designers at Intel is $63,052. The pay range is from $45,000 to $90,000, depending on the job type and range of experience. Senior positions are open, including senior level and layout designers, with an average salary of $138,149.

Intel Corporation Reviews

Employee reviews commend Intel for its generous employee benefits and excellent work culture. They foster personal growth and promote continuous learning by providing multiple training options. Some employees complain of politics within the organization and long work hours, but the company continues to regulate and improve critical internal issues.

Amazon

Amazon is an American multinational ecommerce company that also offers digital streaming, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing. In 2020, the company employed 1,289,000 full-time and part-time employees and had $386 billion in net revenues.

What Does Amazon Pay Its Graphic Designers?

Amazon pays its graphic designers $62,500 as a median annual wage. Employee benefits include health insurance, life insurance, and temporary and long-term disability insurance.

Amazon Reviews

Employees say that life at Amazon is fast-paced and competitive, but in a fun and challenging way that is not stressful. The workload is well-distributed among employees, creating a good work-life balance.

The Home Depot

The Home Depot Inc. is a home improvement retailer with headquarters in Cobb County, Georgia. It’s the biggest and most popular home improvement and building-material retailer in the US. Its vast operations require several design jobs including graphic, instructional, kitchen, and UX designers.

What Does The Home Depot Pay Its Graphic Designers?

The average annual salary of graphic designers at The Home Depot is $59,981. Its employee benefits include paid holidays, a 401k, profit-sharing, and a defined contribution pension plan.

The Home Depot Reviews

Employee reviews say that the work is challenging but rewarding. Despite the physical demands and long work hours, the company’s appreciation for hard work and monetary compensation is well worth it.

Saatchi & Saatchi

Founded by brothers Charles and Maurice Saatchi in 1970, Saatchi & Saatchi is a marketing agency and communications services company. Conducting its operations internationally, the company is one of the world’s most renowned advertising agencies. It offers electronic media, print design, search engine optimization, and corporate branding for advertising customers such as Toyota and Procter & Gamble.

What Does Saatchi & Saatchi Pay Its Graphic Designers?

The average annual salary of graphic designers at Saatchi & Saatchi is $58,715. The estimated annual salary range is between $45,000 and $76,000. They also hire junior graphic designers for $41,413 annually, while the art director position earns $62,324.

Saatchi & Saatchi Reviews

Based on employee reviews on Indeed, Saatchi and Saatchi has an overall review score of four out of five stars. Its highest scoring categories include company culture and compensation, while its lowest-scoring categories include job security and advancement.

Apple, Inc.

Founded in 1976, Apple Computer Company developed into Apple Inc., a globally celebrated company that is involved in product design, manufacturing, and marketing of personal computers, tablets, smartphones, and accessories. It also offers a range of services related to its physical products, such as app design.

What Does Apple, Inc. Pay Its Graphic Designers?

The average annual salary of graphic designers at Apple is $55,000. If a graphic designer improves their art direction skills and is promoted to an art director role, their annual salary can increase to $97,307, while the senior art director can receive as much as $137,304. It also hires layout artists, UX designers, and digital producers.

Apple, Inc. Reviews

Based on Apple employee reviews on Indeed, Apple has an overall review score of four out of five stars. The company scores the highest in culture, compensation, and benefits. However, it scores a bit lower in terms of work-life balance, job security, and advancement.

Why You Should Become a Graphic Designer in 2022

There are a lot of opportunities for graphic artists in 2022, and the job outlook for graphic designers is generally stable at three percent between 2020 and 2030. Whether you have a bachelor’s degree or not, you can improve your chances of getting hired by enrolling in a graphic design bootcamp.

Due to the tough competition in this profession, the median pay for graphic designers is only $53,380. This salary may not be as high as other IT-related jobs, but the income opportunities for graphic designers are promising.

Best Companies for Graphic Designers FAQ

What is the highest salary for graphic designers?

The highest salary of a graphic designer is $84,000. Those earning more than this are usually graphic designers promoted to higher positions, such as an art director role.

What industries hire graphic designers?

The top employer of graphic designers is the specialized design services industry, employing nearly 18 percent of graphic designers. The other top hiring industries include advertising, printing, publishing, and design consultancy.

How do graphic designers get rich?

Graphic designers get rich by holding a job in a high-paying creative agency with growth opportunities. Some choose to go the freelance route to offer visual design, packaging design, and product design services. On the other hand, some establish their own graphic design firm or graphic design studio.

Is it hard to get a job in graphic design?

Yes, it is hard to get a job in a graphic design studio or a graphic design company, mainly because of the competition. It is especially hard if you’re a beginner-level designer. Taking short courses and doing practice projects will help hone your skills to increase your chances of getting a job as a graphic designer.

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Sourced from Career Karma

Career Karma is a platform designed to help job seekers find, research, and connect with job training programs to advance their careers. Learn about the CK publication.

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Digital Business Cards: What They Are & How to Make One

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By Gargi Ghosal

Digital business cards are the future. Here are some of the best apps that will help you make one for yourself and share it easily.

You’ve probably heard of digital business cards; they are a staple in the online world. But with so many apps out there, how do you know which one to choose? Whether you’re a blogger, business owner, or brand ambassador, this article will help you get noticed.

Today we want to talk about digital business cards and how you can use them to expand your business and connect with other like-minded people.

What Is a Digital Business Card?

You’re probably wondering what a digital business card is, right? It’s similar to a physical business card, except it is digital and can be stored on your computer or mobile device. A digital business card is a super effective way to show off your contact info.

It’s sophisticated, slick, and makes you look remarkable. Why walk around with a business card, when you can have a digital business card that showcases your information in a simple, easy-to-access format?

Why Should You Use a Digital Business Card?

Digital business cards provide a new way of making business connections. While the old-style vCard is still used, more sophisticated digital business cards provide larger amounts of information and can be designed to look more pleasing.

Because digital business cards don’t have to be small like a physical card, you can put as much information on your card as you want. People enrich their cards with photos, logos, or links to social media profiles.

Some people even include their Venmo accounts or Twitch profile information on the back of a business card. Since you don’t have to worry about printing costs, you can have more cards printed than you would with a regular business card.

Related: How to Send and Receive Virtual Business Cards (vCards) in Mail on a Mac

Some people even include their Venmo accounts or Twitch profile information on the back of a business card. Since you don’t have to worry about printing costs, you can have more cards printed than you would with a regular business card.

The 6 Best Tools to Create & Share a Digital Business Card

If you are looking for a quick way to share your contact information with potential clients, digital business cards can help you get in touch with your audience. With these six best apps, you’ll find it much easier to create and generate a business card that will translate well across any device platform.

1. HiHello

HiHello is a service that helps you create and share business cards, create virtual backgrounds and email signatures, and manage your contacts with your phone. You have the option of creating multiple cards, each with different information.

With HiHello, digital business cards can be created in just minutes within the iOS, Android, or on the computer. Your business card can be completely customized to show yourself in the best light.

Moreover, you can send a digital business card from HiHello to anyone, even people who don’t have the app. It’ll open in their browser, as a fully functional card, ready to be downloaded and saved.

2. Dibiz

Dibiz lets you create excellent digital business cards with impressive rich content and share them anytime, anywhere. They are ready in no time and are entirely free of cost.

Trusted by leading companies, you can save your digital business cards on your device, and share them on any channel you’d desire.

Related: Free Project Proposal Templates That Grab Attention

Additionally, they offer two premium versions that provide a host of useful features such as unlimited custom links, unlimited images and videos, a contact form, easy access to custom domains, colour adjustment, etc. You can also have Dibiz design your digital business card.

3. Haystack

Haystack is designed for your team’s digital business cards. You can use it to set up a style that everyone within your organization can easily tap into. All they’ve got to do is add their user-specific contact details, and they’ll quickly create a digital business card.

Being a tech-savvy marketing tool, Haystack makes it easy to see who views your company’s contact cards, which helps you effectively target marketing efforts. It also has useful CRM and app integrations to help the job of sharing it more effortlessly.

4. Switchit

Switchit is a virtual business card tool that helps you create and share custom cards quickly. Switchit comes with pre-built templates and designs, but also supplies the ability to completely customize cards with a few clicks and drag-and-drops.

Switchit is also a good option because the recipients don’t even need to use the app to view your card. You get an easily shareable link or template that you can drop into a variety of outlets, including email and social media.

5. L-card

L-card is a great tool for creating digital business cards. It comes with dozens of templates, so you can launch your card much faster than designing one from scratch.

Digital business cards on L-Card are designed to replace physical copies thanks to their ability to be scanned and shared easily. You can build a deep and easy-to-browse library with their organization tools as well.

6. about.me

Another cool site for building a quick virtual business card is about.me. It creates an easily shared website customized with your contact information.

With Intro, users create a business card by signing in with their Facebook or about.me accounts, and can customize the business card with the appropriate email address, contact photo, and phone number they want to share with others.

You can get started for free, but the premium version gives you access to great features like connecting a domain, page stats, visitor details, customizable spotlight button, and more.

Digital Business Cards Are the Future

Digital business cards seem like a step towards the futuristic world, which so many people dream of. It is only a matter of time before they will become as common as physical business cards are now, if they already aren’t. You may not be interested in them now, but you never know when you might change your mind.

The great thing about creating digital business cards is that you have the power to design them however you please. Since there are several apps available, you can try designing with different ones and see which one best suits your needs.

All in all, digital business cards are a great way to make an efficient, lasting impression. No one can lose your email address or accidentally give out the wrong information. And when your job changes, you can easily transfer all of your contact info to a new card. Plus, they’re reusable, so they require very little in the way of replacement.

By Gargi Ghosal

Sourced from MUO

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A tap away — tips on protecting your smartphone privacy

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By Dr. Brian Krupp

Smartphones hold some of our most personal data. This not only includes material like personal photos, but also data that is sensed from the device, such as your location.

With smartphone users spending on average more than five hours a day on their devices, it is critical that we understand how to protect our privacy by controlling what data apps and services can access.

Often, these “free” apps and services are funded by our data. With many of them, if you are not paying for the product, you are the product.

Fortunately, there are now more ways to protect your data. Let’s dive into a few basic steps you can take to shield your information.

By Dr. Brian Krupp

Guest columnist Dr. Brian Krupp is an associate professor of computer science at Baldwin Wallace University. He leads the MObile, Privacy and Security Research Group (MOPS) at BW and also advises BW’s CS+ group that provides educational opportunities for young minds in the community to learn computing. More information is on his website.

Sourced from cleveland.com

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3 Things You Must Know When Marketing on Youtube

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Marketing your services and your business through YouTube sounds super simple, but there are guidelines to be aware of if you want your videos to be found.

Leveraging YouTube means being able to know and understand the users of the platform, what metrics to track and what to create content about in the first place. When you have these pieces of the puzzle down, your channel will become a natural extension of your lead generation efforts.

Here are three things to keep in mind when marketing on Youtube:

1. Obey the laws of YouTube SEO

SEO (search engine optimization) is a fancy term for making your content visible in search engines such that when people search for a term your content comes up in search results. In other words, if you’re searching for “how to start a podcast with an iPhone”, then your content should be optimized with keywords, tags and a title supporting that search phrase.

Another point to remember is that you should not be making content that people aren’t searching for. If you’re trying to answer a question people don’t have or solving a problem that doesn’t exist, your videos will go nowhere and people won’t find your business or your content.

2. Know which metrics to measure

Like any platform, there are many metrics you could use to measure the success of your channel and its ability to generate leads and revenue. Most often people look at subscriber count and number of views to measure success, but that’s not actually what YouTube loves to see. YouTube, like any other platform, wants to keep viewers on the platform for as long as possible — so it’s going to pay attention to metrics in support of that goal. To that end, what you want to pay the most attention to is your average view duration and click-through rate.

The average view duration is a good indication of how long your viewers are spending watching your content. When that’s high, YouTube recognizes that your content is good for the platform and will likely push out more of it on their platform. The click-through rate is a measure of the percentage of viewers who click through to your view after it’s been presented to them (like on the home page or as a suggested video). This is an important signal in determining that your content is relevant to viewers and is more likely to keep them on the platform and coming back for more.

3. Answer specific questions

People come to YouTube to be entertained and to learn. YouTube is, after all, a search engine. Your video should be able to provide the information they need. In return, you are boosting the authority of your business and your channel in the eyes of the viewer. They are then more likely to get to know you and your business.

When you answer specific questions with your YouTube videos, it can be as specific as, “How to change the colour of a menu item on Elementor” (I know because I Googled that very thing this afternoon.) If you’re not sure where to start, begin by listing the 25 most frequently asked questions in your niche or line of work. Don’t worry that they seem too basic because people are looking for the answers to these questions.

The more videos you make, the larger your audience will eventually be. Then, you’ll be able to tailor your content to their questions. But it all starts with answering specific questions.

By

Entrepreneur Leadership Network Contributor

Zach Benson is the founder of Assistagram, a company that empowers influencers and Fortune 500 companies to connect with real followers in their target audience. Benson helps influencers and brands cut through the noise to accrue millions of new followers on Instagram.

Sourced from Entrepreneur Europe

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AAI Toolkit: Understanding the advertising landscape and your brand’s place within it

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Sourced from Association of Advertisers in Ireland

We are delighted to welcome Lisa McNulty and Siobhán Weafer from Nielsen Media Ireland to take part in our next Toolkit session on March 29th at 10am.

Date: 29th March
Time: 10am
Location: Online
Registration: Here. 

This month marked a positive milestone in Ireland with the final COVID-19 restrictions being lifted. As consumers emerge from the unforeseen circumstances of the past couple of years, media consumption and advertising spend levels will continue to evolve and change. While the restrictions had an impact on all media suppliers, categories and advertisers, the impact across different media types and categories was varied and Nielsen Media observed these trends first-hand in their data.

In this session, Lisa and Siobhan will talk through key trends in advertising spend in 2021 and give an overview of the insights and data Nielsen provides to help media suppliers, advertising agencies and brand owners stay on top of overall market trends, trends in categories and their competitive position in the market.

Lisa McNulty has worked in the Irish Media industry for over 20 years. She is currently the Managing Director of Nielsen Media Ireland, overseeing their two main services, Television Audience Measurement (TAM) and Ad Intel, having started with the company in 2014 as TAM Manager. Before joining Nielsen, she was a Research Executive in RTÉ and worked across various Research & Marketing roles across Radio and TV. She is a committee member of AIMRO (Association of Irish Market Research Organisations).

Siobhán Weafer leads Nielsen’s Ad Intel Service. She joined Nielsen in 2013 as Panel Controller for the Television Audience Measurement service. She then moved to the Ad Intel Client Service in 2018 and currently leads the Ad Intel Service, where she works with multiple co-operator groups within the media industry to continually expand and improve the service. Before joining Nielsen, Siobhán worked for Kantar Millward Brown as a Research Executive working across multiple client accounts.

Click to Register Now

Sourced from Association of Advertisers in Ireland

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