editor, Author at Mediastreet

In News

How I Earn a Living as a Blogger from ProBlogger and Digital Photography School

April 22, 2020 No Comments

One of our main aims here at ProBlogger is to help people make money (if not a living) from their blogs. And we’ve certainly talked about it a lot over the years. We even have a portal dedicated to this very topic.

But this week I’d like to give you some concrete examples by telling you how I earn a living from ProBlogger and Digital Photography School.

Now before I get into the details, I need to tell you a few things.

Firstly, this information is based on ProBlogger and Digital Photography School (dPS) combined. Of course, seeing as dPS is about eight times the size of ProBlogger that’s where the bulk of the profit comes from. But these figures (or rather percentages) are for the entire business.

Secondly, I’ll be talking about profit, not revenue. They are two very different things, and talking about revenue without mentioning expenses isn’t very useful. Spending a thousand dollars to make a thousand dollars won’t get you very far.

Finally, I’ll be talking about percentages rather than actual amounts because talking about what I earn makes me feel a little uncomfortable. And depending on what stage you’re at on your blogging journey, the percentages will be far easier to relate to.

So, with that out of the way let me tell you how I earn a living as a blogger.

1. Affiliate commissions

Nearly half of my income (46%) comes from affiliate commissions. Around 10% of those commissions are from Amazon, with the rest distributed among eBooks, courses, software and online services.

The great thing about commissions is there are no expenses (other than the time it takes to set them up), and so you can keep whatever you earn.

2. Product sales

My second-largest income earner is product sales at 31%.

Remember how I said it was important to look at profits rather than revenue? I earn pretty much the same revenue from product sales as I do from affiliate commissions. But the eBooks, Lightroom presets, courses and printables I sell don’t just appear out of thin air. People put time and effort into creating them. And we pay them for their time and effort, which reduces our profits.

3. AdSense revenue

My third-highest income stream (8%) comes via Google’s AdSense program.

This was the first income stream I ever tried (somewhere around 2003–2004), and it still works for me. I don’t have to split the money with anyone, and because AdSense has already taken its cut there aren’t too many direct expenses.

Of course, that doesn’t mean it will work for every blogger and every type of blog. Digital Photography School gets four to five million visitors a month, which really helps with banner ads. AdSense seems to like our site as well.

And I should also point out that our AdSense income isn’t what it used to be. Some of that has to do with the direct sponsorship we’ve managed to secure. But even if we ignore that fact for a moment, AdSense’s earnings have been slowly declining over the past few years.

And it’s not just us. Most people who use AdSense or other ad networks have seen similar declines in income. And a lot of the ad networks are now developing different products because their revenue is slipping.

AdSense makes up about 8% of our total income. That sounds small but it’s fairly significant. It’s certainly a nice direct deposit to get in my bank account every month. It doesn’t go up and down a lot. It just really depends on traffic. As I said, slowly declining as well.

4. Sponsorships

Next at 6% is sponsorships (i.e. working directly with brands).

I started doing this around 2004–2005. I can still remember ringing a camera store for the first time and saying, “Hey, would you like to reach people looking to buy cameras? Because I’ve got a photography blog”.

Of course, I then had to explain what a blog actually was. But I eventually convinced a camera store to pay me $20 a month to advertise on my blog. And as my traffic increased I’d would raise the monthly amount accordingly.

On Digital Photography School we offer sponsorship options to advertisers, and replace AdSense with their ads. But we’ll only do it if we’d earn more from the sponsorship deal than we would from AdSense. (We know how much an AdSense slot will earn us, and so we try to at least double the amount from a direct sponsorship ad campaign.

So far we’ve had sponsorship from:

Canon and Tamron
other photography education sites
centers such as the New York Institute of Photography.

We also offer:

placements in our newsletter (which goes out to about 700,000 readers every month)
opportunities to run competitions on the site
social media advertising (which we always disclose).

We haven’t used banner advertising or AdSense much on ProBlogger. But we have done a few sponsorships campaigns on the podcast and at events. In fact, the profit we make at events comes mostly from the sponsors.

(I’ve put the money we make from events in a separate category that I’ll get to shortly.)

5. The ProBlogger job board

Following closely at 5% is the ProBlogger job board, which we started back in 2006.

People pay US$50 to have their ad put on the job board for 30 days, which we then tell our audience about on Twitter.

The jobs barely trickled in at first, and weeks would go by with only one ad on the board. But it’s been growing ever since, and while I probably spent several thousand dollars getting it up and running, it now provides us with 5% of our income.

6. ProBlogger events

Around 3% of my income comes from the ProBlogger events we run.

For the first three or four years we just broke even. But then the event grew to around 300–400 bloggers, and the expenses also grew. (I once received a hotel bill for more than $100,000.) I started thinking, If this doesn’t work, people don’t show up, or something goes wrong it’s going to hurt a lot of people.

And so I started building in a profit margin to cover those potential risks.

But we still try to keep it as affordable as possible. And we must be doing a pretty good job because we always get comments from our attendees saying, “This is just so cheap”.

We charge our attendees around 80% of what it costs to put the event on. The profit comes from our sponsors, and varies from year to year as different sponsors come and go.

We’ve had some amazing sponsors over the last few years. Olympus is an ongoing sponsor for us, Olympus Australia, the camera maker. We’ve had a variety of different sponsors over the years.

7. Miscellaneous

The final 1% comes from things such as:

speaking fees
book royalties
copyright fees (when Australian schools use Digital Photography School material).

Over to you

And there you have it: my income stream broken up into the various categories it comes from.

If you’re earning money from your blog, how do you earn it? Are you using affiliate links or AdSense? Are you selling products or services? Or are you doing something else? Let us know in the comments.

Feature Image Credit: Volodymyr Hryshchenko

By Darren Rowse

Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn.

Sourced from PROBLOGGER

In News

Brand Marketing Through the Coronavirus Crisis

April 22, 2020 No Comments

By Janet Balis

In times of crisis, it may be hard for marketers to know where to begin. In just a few short weeks, people have shifted into protection mode, focused on themselves, their families, their employees, their customers, and their communities. Social media reflects this, with pleas for fellow citizens to follow government safety guidelines. People have crossed partisan lines to build bridges within their neighborhoods and communities and unify against an invisible force.

With social distancing keeping many people at home, we’re also seeing major shifts in behavioral trends. Consumers have returned to broadcast and cable television and other premium media sources for credible information. They are also seeking more in the way of escapism and entertainment — downloading gaming apps, spending even more time on social media, and streaming more movies and scripted programming. And between remote working arrangements and live-streamed workout classes, college lectures, and social engagements, we are testing the bandwidth of our homes in a largely pre-5G world.

Meanwhile, the need for physical goods is placing pressure on new channels, with demand for e-commerce rising to new levels. For those who do venture out, grocery and convenience stores are the source for essentials, but supply is inconsistent. Health and safety concerns are driving more customers toward frictionless payment systems, such as using mobile phones to pay at check-out without touching a surface or stylus.

Some of these behavior changes may be temporary, but many may be more permanent. As people move beyond the current mode of survival, the momentum behind digital-experience adoption is unlikely to reverse as people are forced by circumstances to try new things. With so much changing so fast during this difficult time, what actions can brands take to serve and grow their customer base, mitigate risk, and take care of their people ?

1. Present with empathy and transparency

People feel vulnerable right now. Empathy is critical. Many banks, for example, have moved to waive overdraft fees, recognizing the hardship on their customers. SAP has made its Qualtrics Remote Work Pulse platform free to companies who might be rapidly transitioning to new ways of working. Such instances show humility in the face of a force larger than all of us.

The nuances of brand voice are more delicate than ever. Brands that use this time to be commercially exploitative will not fare well. Better to do as Guinness did in the period surrounding St. Patrick’s Day, when the company shifted its focus away from celebrations and pub gatherings and instead leaned into a message of longevity and wellbeing. In these moments, we don’t have all the answers, and we need to acknowledge that. If you make pledges, even during uncertain times, you have to be able to deliver on what you say.

2. Use media in more agile ways

To quickly pivot creative messages as circumstances change, marketers will want to build more rapid-response operating models internally and with agencies. Access to remote production and creative capacity will become particularly important as the crisis evolves. Nike, for example, immediately moved to adopt a new message: “Play inside, play for the world.” And in order to promote social distancing and show a commitment to public safety, Chiquita Brands removed Miss Chiquita from their logo. “I’m already home. Please do the same and protect yourself,” its Instagram caption read.

Beyond creative, as the mix of actual media platforms used by consumers changes quickly, marketers should consider modifying their media mix. For example, with digital entertainment spiking, marketers may want to amplify their use of ad-supported premium video streaming and mobile gaming. Similarly, as news consumption peaks while consumers jostle to stay informed, brands should not fear that adjacency, given the level of engagement and relevance. News may simply be an environment that requires more careful monitoring of how frequently ads appear to avoid creative being over-exposed, which can damage brand equity.

3. Associate your brand with good

People will remember brands for their acts of good in a time of crisis, particularly if done with true heart and generosity. This could take the form of donating to food banks, providing free products for medical personnel, or continuing to pay employees while the company’s doors are closed. Adobe, for example, immediately made Creative Cloud available to K-12 institutions, knowing this was a moment to give rather than be purely commercial. Consumers will likely remember how Ford, GE, and 3M partnered to repurpose manufacturing capacity and put people back to work to make respirators and ventilators to fight coronavirus. And people appreciate that many adult beverage companies, from Diageo to AB InBev, repurposed their alcohol-manufacturing capabilities to make hand sanitizer, alleviating short supplies with their “It’s in our hands to make a difference” message.

Feel-good content that alleviates anxiety and promotes positive messaging will go a long way to enhancing the brand. However, companies need to show that their contributions are material and not solely for commercial benefit. Consumers recognize authenticity and true purpose.

4. Track trends and build scenarios

Frequent tracking of human behavioral trends will help marketers gain better insights in real time. Marketers will want to measure sentiment and consumption trends on a regular basis to better adapt messaging, closely observing the conversation across social-media platforms, community sites, and e-commerce product pages to look for opportunities and identify looming crises more quickly. Companies should consider quickly building dashboards with this kind of data to fuel the right decisions.

Marketers will also want to consider building deeper connections with their C-suite colleagues to provide insights to executives who, increasingly, will be involved with marketing choices. The marketing team should work closely with finance and operations to forecast different scenarios and potential outcomes, depending on how long the crisis lasts.

5. Adapt to new ways of working to keep delivering

It’s encouraging how quickly many companies were able to transition to remote working arrangements. Deploying collaboration technologies can seamlessly provide chat, file sharing, meeting and call capabilities, enabling teams to stay connected and remain productive. Already, virtual happy hours are emerging as the new normal to build team morale. Partners are “pitching” remotely, recognizing that an in-face sales call is unlikely to transpire for weeks to come. Leaders have to do their best to transition each element of the operating model—from marketing, to sales, to service—to this new normal. New sources of innovation and even margin improvement will emerge out of our current discomfort.

How we can plan for the next and the beyond

We are in the acknowledge-and-adapt phase of the Covid-19 pandemic. But we also have to plan for life beyond the crisis. As we navigate what we know, marketing leaders must work externally to keep their brands and customer journeys as whole as possible, while working internally to do three things:

Understand the impact of business interruption and continue to triage the unexpected.
Lean into digital ways of working and connecting with customers, knowing that this will likely have lasting effects.
Mitigate risks to the customer experience by thinking realistically from the outside-in.

Unquestionably, there is a forced acceleration of the digital transformation agenda as we recognize how quickly customers and employees have embraced digitally enabled journeys and experiences.

Brands are all having to think, operate, and lead in new ways during these uncertain and unprecedented circumstances, and we will all have to learn together with both confidence and humility.

The views reflected in this article are the views of the authors and don’t necessarily reflect the views of the global EY organization or its member firms.

Feature Image Credit: zakokor/Getty Images

By Janet Balis

Janet Balis is a principal with Ernst & Young LLP, where she serves as Global Advisory Leader for Media & Entertainment and Americas Marketing Consulting Leader. She has also served as a partner at Betaworks, publisher of The Huffington Post, and EVP Media Sales and Marketing at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. Balis is on the global board of the Mobile Marketing Association and the International Television Academy of Arts and Sciences, and she is also an advisor to the Harvard Business School Digital Initiative. You can follow her on Twitter: @digitalstrategy.

Sourced from Harvard Business School

In News

Earth Day Marketing May Be More Important Than Ever

April 22, 2020 No Comments

By Kaley Roshitsh.

“I can’t think of a better time to have an answer to a very difficult question. Why is my brand essential? That’s the lens upon which all your communications should shine.”

Like two peas in a pod, disease outbreaks and natural disasters occur as a consequence of a changing climate. One could even say the upcoming 50th anniversary of Earth Day on April 22 against the backdrop of a pandemic is perfect illustrative timing.

Mother Nature is clashing her cymbals as a lot of commercial activity in the U.S. and Europe falls silent. Even Earth Day, the world’s largest environmental movement based in Washington, D.C., is being forced to go digital with its conference, called “24 Hours of Action.”

But the noise of green-washing, or the usual sustainable product launches, capsule collections and so on, won’t cease on Earth Day regardless of the pandemic.

But there is a change in tune.

“While these uncertain times have put some of our adventures on hold, our fans still count on us to inspire and uplift them,” Erika Gabrielli, senior director of marketing at Teva, told WWD.

Teva, which this spring converted all of its “iconic” webbings to recycled content, is leaning into custom content and a sustainability sweepstakes to re-educate consumers on how they can help to decrease their impact on the planet.

At the same time, it’s providing a reminder of why they matter to their customers, which for the brand is most palpable in the sales uptick in its sandals, hiking styles and — naturally — house slippers.

Ryan Jordan, executive creative director at marketing and communications firm Imre, who has worked on projects for brands such as Under Armour, L’Oréal and Target, among others, believes the messaging stakes are even higher this Earth Day.

“Listen harder and better than you ever have,” he said. “It’s actually the same advice I would have given to brands three months ago, but it’s now more important than ever.”

Listening right now may be as simple as a company showing its compassion, reminding customers that they stand by their employees and aim to help them weather the hardships of the crisis to the best of their abilities.

While he doesn’t believe brands should outright cancel initiatives, especially if they’re really an “awesome game-changer” (although every brand may be biased to think so), he still calls for a rethink.

“I challenge you to do this; ask your target audience what they think. Get them involved in the execution,” said Jordan, adding “actual proof of empathy is not only the right thing to do, it’s good business.”

For some companies, it may just be that marketing campaigns that focus on the upbeat, humorous and self-aware hit the bull’s-eye with younger generations, especially in matters of sustainability and environmentalism, as opposed to the opposite: doom and gloom.

“Find something that works for you and make sure to have fun with it,” said Topper Luciani, chief executive officer and founder of online thrift start-up Goodfair.

Although luxury consignment, rental and resale businesses are dealing with their own set of challenges amid the coronavirus pandemic, Goodfair is seeing booming sales among its predominantly Millennial and Gen Z audience.

The company pulled in $300,000 in sales on Easter Sunday, according to Luciani. What he attributes it to is not simply a shift in consumer behavior but speaking Internet.

What do you meme?

At least for his company, “meme culture is what wins,” said Luciani, who credits the steep sales day to a viral TikTok from the company’s account. “If a brand is not on TikTok, they’re sleeping,” he added. With more than 1 billion users, TikTok has already seen the entry of heritage brands like Ralph Lauren and the christening of Fenty Beauty’s TikTok creative house in March.

Bundles offered by Goodfair, with a largely Millennial and Gen Z customer base. Courtesy

Start-ups like Goodfair may be more willing to front the risk and wrestle with the Internet. It offers various thrift bundles on its web site like the “cure corona bundle” retailing for $48 or the “tree hugger bundle” for $65 compiled of entire outfits including sweatpants and Henley shirts in the former and flannels in the case of the latter.

“But it can’t feel forced,” Luciani reiterated.

Speaking of forced, will sustainable capsule collections — often just a piecemeal sustainability effort and exercise in marketing — continue to pass by consumers’ eyes without them evaluating into the respective supply chains?

It depends, but they’re not always too good to be true in the case that brand values actually match up, according to Brendan Synnott, chief executive officer of organic essentials brand Pact.

Calling on a simple recipe of a few star ingredients, a successful capsule collection should mean: sharing the same long-term values and “working with partners that are 100 percent committed to sustainability in everything that they do. It can’t be just 5 percent of your product line,” Synnott said.

That also means shying away from greenwashing or “fakers,” as Synnott puts it.

Pact is pairing with Brooklyn-based label Zero Waste Daniel to release 100-percent organic Fair Trade-certified hoodies and sweat shorts for spring adorned with handmade, upcycled patches by designer Daniel Silverstein.

As with others, the company is broadening its approach, extending Earth Day festivities into a monthlong celebration and more importantly shifting the focus from product to engaging content — showcasing the brand alongside others in the sustainability space.

Doing so virtually is as simple as inviting like-minded sustainability thought-leaders to a joint Instagram Live broadcast, to the detriment of those with their notifications on. Virtual sustainability forums are another trending pursuit among brands small and large.

“As we are in a time of crisis, it’s important to show some of the more positive moments that we can all cling to for a smile,” reiterated Synnott.

Upbeat messaging is important in any case. U.S. unemployment benefits are sought by some 17 million workers who filed for it over the last few weeks, according to the Labor Department, and Coresight Research’s latest weekly U.S. consumer survey published last Wednesday showed a bleak outlook in discretionary shopping.

So this Earth Day, as they sit in lockdown wondering whether anything will ever be the same and spend time evaluating what is essential in their lives, will consumers be looking at the messaging around the 50th anniversary — or the core values of the brands themselves?

Jordan put it bluntly: “I can’t think of a better time to have an answer to a very difficult question. Why is my brand essential? That’s the lens upon which all your communications should shine.”

Feature Image Credit: Many wonder how Earth Day marketing messages will pivot during the pandemic. Courtesy

By Kaley Roshitsh

Sourced from WWD

In News

A new Google policy threatens to further squeeze the location-data ad market

April 21, 2020 No Comments

By Lara O’Reilly

Google plans to roll out a policy change later this year that will require developers to go through an approval process before their apps can collect user location data when the app isn’t visible to the user.

The idea, the company said in a blog post, is to clamp down on apps collecting such information unnecessarily and to protect user privacy. It should further squeeze an already rattled location-based ad market, which has been forced — through consumer awareness, regulation and the actions of operating systems — to reduce its reliance on GPS signals to target consumers.

From Aug. 3, all new apps in the Google Play store will need to pass a review process before collecting location data in the background, Google said last week in a blog post. The policy will expand to existing apps by Nov. 3. Google is asking developers to consider factors such as whether users would have an expectation that the app would be collecting their data while it wasn’t open and in use, and whether the app can deliver the same experience without such data. The precise dates could change, Google said.

Location-data vendors tend to work by paying developers to embed their software development kits into their apps. For some apps, location-sharing makes sense to the user — a running tracker or a weather app, for example. But it’s less logical to give over such permission when the app in question is a flashlight or a calculator. Location-data vendors say that they seek consent before collecting location information, but that doesn’t always mean users are fully aware about the types of companies that are consuming their data and what they are doing with it.

New versions of the Android mobile operating system (from Android 10 and beyond) now include a prompt whenever an app is collecting a user’s location information. The user is then given the option to only grant the app permission to access their location when they are using the app. “Over half” of Android 10 users have selected the “while app is in use,” option Google said in the blog post. Android 11 gives users more controls over how their location data is shared.

The changes bring Google more in line with Apple’s stance on location data. Apple has included similar prompts and controls since its iOS 13 update last September. Location Sciences, a location verification company, said it has seen a 68% drop in background location data being shared since the iOS 13 update, according to CEO Mark Slade. The forthcoming Play Store policy change will likely stifle available GPS data signals further.

“There wasn’t so many checks and balances in the Google Play Store, so you could get away with more if you were an app developer than you would on iOS,” Slade said. The data stifling “will probably apply to the longtail of apps, which contribute a lot of the amount of GPS signals.”

Still, Slade added, despite the reduction in GPS data supply, owing to the recent Android and iOS changes, prices for location data haven’t budged over the last six months. “The market is not behaving like a free market,” he said.

While some media buyers find value in serving ads to people when they are in the vicinity of a physical store, “there’s always been a skepticism about location data and the scale” of it, said Doug Chisholm, CEO of data firm Rippll. “I think some [location] ad networks figured out clever ways of explaining they can get reach and hyper-targeting — which is an oxymoron — but they figured out how to sell that story.”

Ultimately, many advertisers don’t verify the accuracy of the location data they get back from their vendors, said Shailin Dhar, CEO of marketing analytics business Method Media Intelligence. For example, already when there is no ad ID present, some attribution and targeting providers look to other signals such as IP addresses (which often include multiple users and devices,) or the type of device or browser being used to pad out their datasets.

“Location data isn’t like some magic pill for making your campaign effective,” said Dhar. Yet, marketers aren’t always incentivized to check the data they’re being offered their location-data vendors, not least as it comes with an added cost. “Nobody feels a financial pinch by not verifying — there’s no penalty,” at least not one that is immediately clear, Dhar added.

From a targeting perspective, city-level data is usually sufficient for most campaigns, according to Raman Sidhu, vp of business development at analytics company Beemray, who added that location data tends to be more useful for insights versus targeting.

Coupled with the recent Apple and Google changes, new global privacy regulations have already put some location-data vendors in a tight spot. In 2018, some location-based ad companies, such as GroundTruth and Verve, closed their European operations, citing concerns related to the General Data Protection Regulation. (Verve was sold last month to German investment group MGI, after significantly reducing its overall headcount.)

Also in 2018, French data protection authority CNIL issued warnings to location ad tech vendors Fidzup, Teemo and Vectaury. The CNIL has now closed those investigations, and the companies avoided fines.

“The supply of [location] data in the market was already diminished, was already to some degree questionable in its authenticity, now [advertisers] will be looking elsewhere,” said Beemray’s Sidhu.

By Lara O’Reilly

Sourced from DIGIDAY

In News

Actioning Individual Customer Context With Artificial Intelligence

April 21, 2020 No Comments

By Pradeep Aradhya

Today’s customers interact with products or brands at various stages, from brand awareness to comparison to purchase to product support and loyalty. Most marketers are focused on awareness and maybe a little on experience during comparison and loyalty. They rarely get deeper, either because they do not have access to the full customer experience cycle, because there has not been a way to handle all of it, or because they are not incentivized to do so,

In recent years, marketing has started to delve into customer support to standardize customer experience. However, machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) have started to provide tools that can offer much deeper insight and actions. So, what are the true and far-reaching opportunities for marketers with AI?

Imagine being able to serve every customer or potential customer at any touch point in the cycle as if there were a live salesperson there who instantly knew that person’s history with the brand — the summary of clickstream, purchase history, loyalty, support encounters and sentiment. Imagine that salesperson’s efficiency if they could instantly have at their disposal a best offer or reward, or information to nudge the customer to engage or repeat engage with the brand.

So far, we have seen data analytics and maybe some ML used to analyze clickstreams and some digital visitor behaviour to make recommendations for cross-selling and up-selling. Much more recently, we have seen chatbots used to scale customer support, as well as do voice-based sentiment analysis with tools based in some form of ML, AI, natural language processing and speech recognition. While these have been steps in the right direction, they are very narrow. They are point solutions based on isolated data pools. They take no steps toward either determining broader context or finding the best opportunities for marketers and sales folks to increase acquisition and retention. Catering to customer segment is old-fashioned. With AI, we can cater to individuals based on extended or immediate history with the brand.

The current capabilities of ML and AI allow not only the complete context of the customer to be gathered instantly, but also to serve the experience most likely to drive customers further down the funnel. The following key elements are required to exploit this phenomenal opportunity that is now available to marketing and sales.

To enable capture of complete customer context: Data from the following different pools needs to be joined and integrated into a single customer 360 view or hub: store and online purchase data, website and mobile clickstream, social behavior, support encounters, sentiment analysis, demographics and loyalty data. Joining data across anonymous and authenticated customer sessions is still not easy, but there are workarounds. Data so integrated provides a complete immediate and extended history of any customer.
To create the right experience for each context: Whether created manually or generated via automated methods, content and experiences that cater to customer intent and context at various points in the customer life cycle have to be developed. Everything from appropriately keyworded variations of product or service descriptions and videos to granular reward schemes for loyalty or for support scenarios to different purchase experiences that surprise and delight must be generated and kept at the ready.
To serve the best experience each time: Previously, data analysis and even ML was used to determine hidden customer segmentation and to predict product or service demand. Marketing and sales then manually arranged experiences to be served, after some A/B and even multivariate testing. Now AI can be used to run acquisition and retention maximization models. AI can run multivariate testing using the data and the experiences developed in the previous steps. Based on training gained from such testing (at scale or in smaller focus areas), AI can instantly determine the most likely experience that would cause new customer acquisition or repeat sale and retention.

All of the above should only be done in stages. Companies have spent years attempting to pull together customer 360 databases. Start by integrating online clickstreams with demographics and purchase and support data. Bring in-store purchase, sentiment analysis and social data at a later stage. With the same objective of leveraging online first, create content and experiences in digital formats before taking on in-store experiences or field sales agent empowerment. Retention models to achieve or increase customer lifetime value are much more lucrative and less infested with stakeholders. Honing and running retention models before new customer acquisition models is a great way to prove out AI capabilities with the fewest unnecessary concerns and the least amount of interference.

Relinquishing manual or even rules-based recommendation is not an easy cultural shift, but already, results with ML and AI outperform anything marketing and sales have otherwise done.

Best Western used AI-based tips and tricks for various destinations to help travelers plan and realized a 48% increase in traffic to Best Western Locations.
The Humane Society used ML messaging and realized an 86% lift in shelter pet adoption by reaching friends and cohabitants in the relationship graphs of those who had been identified visiting a shelter and showing any intentions to adopt.

Marketers reacting in retrospect to segmentation analysis is old-school and far too late. The new tech-savvy marketer wants to wield individual customer context and experiences nimbly, in real time, to catch the most new customers and achieve the greatest customer lifetime value. The race is on. Brands that win this race will set themselves so far ahead of the rest that they will not be caught for years.

Feature Image Credit: Getty

By Pradeep Aradhya

CEO of Novus Laurus. Business and transformation strategist. Digital technology, film, and food investor. Read Pradeep Aradhya’s full executive profile here.

Sourced from Forbes

In News

4 Ways HR Analytics Help Small Businesses Make Data-Driven Decisions

April 21, 2020 No Comments

By Rhiân Davies

HR Analytics help businesses generate insights and make data-driven decisions. The Blueprint explains the benefits of using HR Analytics, and the different ways small businesses can use them.

Data has changed the HR department as we knew it.

Far from being known as the ‘personnel’ department, with its physical folders and paper employee records, technology has turned the modern HR department into one of the most data-reliant departments in the modern workplace. Data analytics, however, has taken longer to catch on.

HR analytics is often perceived as too advanced or complex for small businesses, while the assumed cost of HR analytics has also been a barrier in uptake.

Yet, HR analytics has become an integral part of successful human resource planning, by helping businesses gain a better understanding of their workforce and helping them make more impactful strategic decisions.

If you’re struggling to understand HR analytics, stick with us as we go through four ways it could make an impact on your small business and its strategic business objectives.

Overview: What is HR analytics?

Businesses use human resources analytics (HR analytics) to interpret and analyze HR data to aid decision-making, drive business value, and inform human resource management strategies.

While HR metrics track activity, such as employee turnover and time to hire, metrics alone don’t analyze this data to make meaningful deductions and identify any causal relationships.

For example, your average time to hire may be 45 days, but this figure alone doesn’t tell you how this length of time to hire is impacting the business.

HR analytics uses the results of HR metrics to determine what impact they are making on the business, and what’s causing them. So, when you consider your time to hire, instead of looking at the data in a silo, HR analytics looks at what’s causing the hiring process to take 45 days instead of 30.

Many HR software tools come packaged with HR analytics functionality, but the market has recently seen an increase in vendors offering dedicated and specialized analytics software.

Benefits of tracking your HR analytics

Tracking HR metrics is all but a worthless exercise if businesses don’t know what to do with the data. Every business should be tracking their key HR metrics, but HR analytics takes that data and transforms it into actionable, data-driven business insights.

Let’s take a look at a few of the ways that HR data analytics benefits businesses and decision-makers.

1. Optimization of people costs

Labor is by far your biggest cost, and HR analytics give you the ability to break your workforce costs down into granular detail so that you can better understand how your expenses can be optimized.

For example, HR analytics can help you ascertain if certain employee training activities are providing ROI or how overtime is affecting profit margins.

2. Provides a basis for business agility

A business’s success depends on its ability to adapt its people and processes during periods of uncertainty or change. Many HR software vendors offer predictive HR analytics tools, which allows decision-makers to access real-time data and insights.

Rather than trawling through historical records and data in order to make quick judgments and decisions, HR analytics can provide insight into “what if” scenarios, ensuring that businesses can deftly realign resources when necessary.

3. Future proofs the business

Wouldn’t it be great if you could forecast your staffing needs and budgets while protecting your business’s future? Many HR analytics tools can help you predict trends such as employee attrition, while others can predict what skills you’ll need based on trends and growth.

Using HR analytics means less guesswork, fewer surprises, and more forward planning.

How can HR Analytics help your small business?

These days, HR departments have more access to data than ever before, but many are still challenged by where to start or how to draw meaningful conclusions from it.

Let’s take a look at some of the areas where HR analytics can make a difference to your strategic business objectives.

1. Talent acquisition

Hiring and recruiting is a costly business: one bad hire could set you back $240,000 in expenses. Employee retention is also a challenge for businesses during periods of almost full employment.

Your business needs an informed talent acquisition and recruitment strategy in order to avoid bad hires and to save your business time and money.

During the recruitment and hiring process, several software systems are typically used, all of which gather candidate and eventual employee data. However, when it comes to using all of that data, many businesses struggle with how to link it all together.

HR and talent analytics help you get to the heart of how all of this data can help you strategize when it comes to hiring, recruiting, and retaining top talent.

How to use HR analytics to improve talent acquisition:

Before you get started, you’ll need to know what data you have and what kind of insights you want to glean from it.

Know what questions you want answered: When you’re just getting started with HR analytics, knowing where you want to begin is crucial. Whether you’re looking to find out what’s causing a high turnover rate, or find out what’s causing long hiring times, make sure you’re not overwhelming yourself with answers you don’t need.
Review your sources of data: Along with your Applicant Tracking System and information from employee satisfaction surveys, where else are you drawing essential people data from? Knowing this beforehand will help you select the right HR analytics solution for your business.

2. Performance management

Annual performance management reviews don’t reveal the whole picture about an employee’s overall performance. Often there are performance peaks and troughs, and almost always a reason behind them.

Traditional performance measures and performance improvement plans have been based on these annual reviews, without much extra context surrounding them.

HR analytics can help align the results of performance metrics with other patterns that might not be glaringly obvious. For example, a decline in a usually high-performing department may be due to the effects of a particular member of staff leaving the organization.

HR analytics can also show where there are dips in productivity over certain periods of the employee life cycle, which can help to surface inadequacies in training or development programs, and issues within employee management processes.

How to use HR analytics to improve performance management:

Performance management processes play a key role in ensuring that employees are producing quality work that helps to achieve business goals. Using the following tips, businesses can use HR analytics to help them improve their performance management processes.

Review your existing sources of employees: Check what data you have on your employees, and what systems you’re storing it in. This will range from performance data such as reviews, to absence records, and feedback records.
Always double check your data against your own knowledge: HR analytics can provide “red-flag warnings” on certain low-performance indicators like absence rates and lateness, but make sure this adds up with what you know about your employees as individuals. For example, an employee who has recently been sick might have a high absence rate, but you know their performance is in check.

3. Workforce planning

Many studies have shown that inadequate workforce planning leads to unmet business goals.

Using HR analytics in workforce planning, organizations can calculate how many employees will retire in one year, what kind of candidates would be needed to replace them, or whether at-will employment contracts are impacting turnover.

HR workforce analytics can help businesses analyze talent and skills gaps, solve persistent workforce planning issues, and uncover trends. It can also take into account potential future scenarios to deliver multiple potential planning solutions.

How to use HR analytics to improve workforce planning:

HR analytics can help organizations to address challenges or opportunities in workforce planning. Here are a few points to consider before you get started.

Decide on a time frame: How far back do you want to analyze your workforce data, and how far do you want to plan ahead? Consider any events that occurred that could skew the analysis.
Map your current workforce formation: This includes taking a good look at your current high performing employees and those with potential to be high performers to see how current individuals could be matched to future needs.

4. Employee engagement

Collecting employee engagement data is just as important as collecting customer data. Without it, you’re unable to use HR analytics to make links between engagement, productivity, wellbeing, and importantly, employee retention.

HR analytics combines people data with employee feedback and helps to determine how, what, and why people are doing what they do and how it’s affecting their performance and engagement.

How to use HR analytics to improve employee engagement:

Employee engagement data has a huge impact on being able to attain strategic business objectives. Here’s how to get started with employee engagement and HR analytics.

Start collecting information from employee pulse surveys: Pulse surveys are a great way of collecting real-time, actionable data that can really have an impact on business decisions. The results can also help decision-makers in helping to develop employee engagement techniques to boost and sustain morale.
Determine your key engagement KPIs: What KPIs are most important to measure and help you achieve your business goals? These could range from tenure, retention rates, to sickness rates.

HR analytics drive better business results

Many HR software tools have built in HR analytics functionality, so it’s time for businesses to get familiar with them. Leaders need to encourage HR departments to be making the most of the reams of data they’re sitting on, and drive home the importance of human capital analytics in making strategic business decisions.

The Motley Fool has a Disclosure Policy. The Author and/or The Motley Fool may have an interest in companies mentioned. Click here for more information.

By Rhiân Davies

Sourced from the blueprint

In News

Acronis: Lack of backup process within organisations causing data losses

April 20, 2020 No Comments

By Shannon Williams

New research has revealed 42% of organisations across the world have experienced downtime as a result of a data loss event.

According to Acronis’ 2020 World Cyber Protection Week Survey, the high number of incidents is likely caused by the fact that while nearly 90% are backing up the IT components they’re responsible for protecting, only 41% back up daily – leaving many businesses with gaps in the valuable data available for recovery.

Acronis says the figures illustrate the new reality that traditional strategies and solutions to data protection are no longer able to keep up with the modern IT needs of individuals and organisations.

In response to this, Acronis has expanded World Backup Day – the annual holiday celebrated on March 31 as a reminder to back up data – to World Cyber Protection Week.

The annual survey, completed this year by nearly 3,000 people, gauges the protection habits of users around the globe. The findings revealed that while 91% of individuals back up data and devices, 68% still lose data as a result of accidental deletion, hardware or software failure, or an out-of-date backup.

Meanwhile, 85% of organisations aren’t backing up multiple times per day, only 15% report they are. 26% back up daily, 28% back up weekly, 20% back up monthly, and 10% aren’t backing up at all, which can mean days, weeks, or months of data lost with no possibility of complete recovery.

Of those professional users who don’t back up, nearly 50% believe backups aren’t necessary. A belief the survey contradicts: 42% of organisations reported data loss resulting in downtime this year and 41% report losing productivity or money due to data inaccessibility. Furthermore, only 17% of personal users and 20% of IT professionals follow best practices, employing hybrid backups on local media and in the cloud.

Acronis says these findings stress the importance of implementing a cyber protection strategy that includes backing up data multiple times a day and practicing the 3-2-1 backup rule: create three copies of your data (one primary copy and two backups), store copies in at least two types of storage media, and store one of these copies remotely or in the cloud.

“Individuals and organisations keep suffering from data loss and cyberattacks. Everything around us is rapidly becoming dependent on digital, and it is time for everyone to take cyber protection seriously,” explains Acronis chief cyber officer, Gaidar Magdanurov.

“Cyber protection in the digital world becomes the fifth basic human need, especially during this unprecedented time when many people must work remotely and use less secure home networks,” he says.

“It is critical to proactively implement a cyber protection strategy that ensures the safety, accessibility, privacy, authenticity, and security of all data, applications, and systems – whether you’re a home user, an IT professional, or an IT service provider.”

Cyber Protection Changes the Game

Acronis says that with increasing cyberattacks, traditional backup is no longer sufficient to protect data, applications, and systems, relying on backup alone for true business continuity is too dangerous. Cybercriminals target backup software with ransomware and try to modify backup files, which magnifies the need for authenticity verification when restoring workloads.

“It makes sense, then, that the survey indicated a universally high level of concern about cyberthreats like ransomware,” the organisations says.

The research found 88% of IT professionals reported concern over ransomware, 86% are concerned about cryptojacking, 87% are concerned about social engineering attacks like phishing, and 91% are concerned about data breaches. Among personal users, awareness and concern regarding all four of these threat types were nearly as high. In fact, compared to Acronis’ 2019 survey their concern about cyberthreats rose by 33%.

The survey also revealed a lack of insight into data management, exposing a great need for cyber protection solutions with greater visibility and analytics. The findings indicate that 30% of personal users and 12% of IT professionals wouldn’t know if their data was modified unexpectedly. 30% of personal users and 13% of IT professionals aren’t sure if their anti-malware solution stops zero-day threats. Additionally, 9% of organisations reported that they didn’t know if they experienced downtime as a result of data loss this year.

“To ensure complete protection, secure backups must be part of an organisation’s comprehensive cyber protection approach, which includes ransomware protection, disaster recovery, cybersecurity, and management tools. This deeply integrated approach also addresses the Five Vectors of Cyber Protection, delivering safety, accessibility, privacy, authenticity, and security (SAPAS) for all data, applications, and systems,” says Acronis.

World Cyber Protection Week Recommendations

“Whether you are concerned about personal files or your company’s business continuity, Acronis has five simple recommendations to ensure fast, efficient, and secure protection of your workloads.”

These include:

Always create backups of important data. Keep multiple copies of the backup both locally (so it’s available for fast, frequent recoveries) and in the cloud (to guarantee you have everything if a fire, flood, or disaster hits your facilities).
Ensure your operating systems and applications are current. Relying on outdated OSes or apps means they lack the bug fixes and security patches that help block cybercriminals from gaining access to your systems.
Beware suspicious email, links, and attachments. Most virus and ransomware infections are the result of social engineering techniques that trick unsuspecting individuals into opening infected email attachments or clicking on links to websites that host malware.
Install anti-virus, anti-malware, and anti-ransomware software while enabling automatic updates so your system is protected against malware, with the best software also able to protect against zero-day threats.
Consider deploying an integrated cyber protection solution that combines backup, anti-ransomware, anti-virus, vulnerability assessment and patch management in a single solution. An integrated solution increases ease of use, efficiency and reliability of protection.

By Shannon Williams

Sourced from IT Brief

In News

High Quality Data is Key to Quality Care

April 20, 2020 No Comments

By Colin Hung

An interview with Charlie Harp, CEO of Clinical Architecture

We have more data than we know what to do with in healthcare. We have clinical data held in EHRs, results from lab systems, images from imaging platforms, as well as wellness data from personal devices and apps. So how do we sift through it all to find the relevant information? The solution starts with quality data.

I recently sat down with (well, maybe not “with” in the traditional sense – it was a virtual meeting) Charlie Harp, CEO of Clinical Architecture to learn about the importance of data quality in healthcare. Harp had some great insights on data – especially the new responsibility we have in Health IT to ensure the data we use is of high quality.

“To do value-based care well,” stated Harp. “You have to be able to communicate how you’re doing, understand how you’re doing, and then be able to leverage how you can improve how you’re doing,”

For years, data was a byproduct of activities in healthcare. Services were delivered to patients and records were kept of those encounters. In the beginning that data was primarily used for billing purposes, but with the growing sophistication of analytics, that data has newfound value. It can hold the key to improved treatments, operational efficiencies, and better patient engagement.

According to Harp, in order to unlock the true value of your collected data, you must first focus on improving its quality. What is quality data? Harp defined it this way:

Current
Correct
Complete
Comprehensible

These four “Cs” are the guiding principle behind Clinical Architecture’s solutions.

I think most of us understand the importance of the first three Cs – current, correct, and complete. Comprehensible, however, was not something I expected to see. Harp explained it simply – in order to leverage data in any software system, that system must be able to not only ingest that data, but also understand/comprehend that data.

In some data repositories, 60-80% of the most valuable information is stored in the form of unstructured text (aka clinical notes). To make this data comprehensible, it must first be codified, then normalized so that it can be made useful for other systems. If a system can’t understand that data, it can’t use the data.

Data can give us a complete picture of a patient, but it is difficult to know which parts of the picture are relevant to the task/problem at hand. A medical record can tell you that a patient broke their arm when they were 16 years old and that they were put on an antibiotic 5 years ago, but neither are useful to help diagnose why they are in your office with a fever and shortness of breath.

Harp would like to see us get to a place where systems know the right contextual information to use from the mountain of healthcare data.

At Clinical Architecture, Harp and his team are helping organizations understand and leverage data. But perhaps most importantly, they’re doing the heavy lifting organizations need to do to ensure the quality of their data. They recently helped an organization normalize medications and labs in over 100 facilities in just two months – a project that would have taken about 5 years to complete had that organization done it with internal resources. They know data, they know how to normalize it, and they know how to help organizations use it right.

Check out my conversation with Charlie Harp, CEO of Clinical Architecture to learn:

What the “informonster” is
How data gives people superpowers
How to avoid “artificial uncertainty”
Why we work in “big pixels” and what it means for bridging gaps in understanding

This interview is part of our #HealthIT100in100 initiative.

By Colin Hung

Sourced from Healthcare IT TODAY

In News

How your data is helping to fatten up big tech firms like Amazon

April 20, 2020 No Comments

By George Storr.

How many times have you been asked to fill in an online survey? Or answer ‘a quick question’ after buying something online? It’s a lot right? That’s because customer experience data is more crucial than ever, in the eyes of growing businesses.

Companies that have seen their revenues grow over the last year collected far more customer experience (CX) data than non-growth companies, according to a new survey conducted by Gartner.

The results of the survey showed that almost 80% of growth businesses use customer surveys to collect CX data, while only 58% of non-growth organisations do the same.

“There is a clear trend among growing companies to actively collect CX data using a wide variety of tools such as surveys, usability testing, focus groups and real-time analytics,” said Jessica Ekholm, research vice president at Gartner.

“This is what we call the outside-in approach — the idea that customer value creation, customer orientation and CX will drive long-term business success.”

Data has been a hot topic in the world of tech for some time, with increasing pressure on giants like Facebook and Amazon to be responsible with users’ data. CX data is slightly different, being sourced mainly via surveys, rather than given to a company when you sign up for their service.

However, both sorts of data are contributing to the huge amounts of information that ‘big tech’ collects from users.

A Guardian report shone more light on this as long ago as 2017. A reporter requested all the data that dating app, Tinder, had collected on her and received 800 pages in response. It’s a figure that puts the importance of data – and the popularity of collecting it – into sharp perspective.

Gartner’s latest findings reinforce the fact that businesses believe your data is crucial to growth. In this case, CX data can offer real insight into what customers want from products and services. However, as Gartner notes – and as internet users well know – the sheer amount of ‘quick questions’ thrown at us online can easily lead to survey fatigue, which reduces the accuracy and quality of responses.

“Despite their widespread use, customer surveys have some flaws that limit their ability to collect quality CX data,” said Ekholm. “Recognizing this, growth companies are beginning to use near- or real-time analytics, to complement or build upon the data collected from surveys.”

“Companies that leverage AI and near- and real-time analytics applications to collect customer data will stand out as CX leaders in the next five to 10 years.”

Between survey fatigue, data breach stories and the slightly scary amount of data that companies hold on their customers, it’s easy to see why consumers aren’t always excited about the subject. However, companies are more enthusiastic than ever to collect consumer data and we shouldn’t expect that to change any time soon.

Feature Image Credit: BERLIN, GERMANY: Symbolic photo on the subject of hackers and data security. Hands write on a computer keyboard on February 02, 2020 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images)

By George Storr

George recently joined the Trusted Reviews team after graduating with an MA in Magazine Journalism from The University of Sheffield. He was previously Tech Editor for The National Student and won ‘BBC…

Sourced from Trusted Reviews

In News

The far-reaching impact of AI in education

April 17, 2020 No Comments

By Randhir Kumar

With the rise of AI, the Indian learning and e-learning landscape have seen considerable change. Here’s how the power of AI is being capitalised in the field of education.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the major technological innovations in recent times, set to revolutionise industries across verticals. In simple terms, AI is the capacity of a computer/machine to collect, anticipate, analyse information, recognise patterns and, consequently, perform actions as opposed to natural human intelligence.

AI has permeated industries throughout the years, aiding and executing taxing responsibilities such as customer service (voice assistant services), in automobiles, robotics, etc. Its presence has likewise penetrated the education sector, which can be further corroborated by the surge in edtech startups in India.

With the rise of AI, the Indian learning and e-learning landscape have seen considerable change. Here’s how the power of AI is being capitalised in the field of education:

Modernisation of education

AI aids the process of channeling focus on core concepts of all subjects, while embedding interdisciplinary concepts on the same platform. AI has allowed education to be personalised for students to fit their unique needs. It aids the process of designing and developing technology, which facilitates quick resolution of queries with independent support to students as opposed to a teacher teaching a class of 20+ students.

Meeting unique needs

AI also brings value on the table by procuring information on the unique requirements on students, courses, and their syllabi to develop a holistic and robust learning trajectory. Leading and competing players in the e-learning market have harnessed AI’s ability to recognise patterns, and congregate data by mapping online movement/footprints from numerous sources to decipher the finest techniques of learning for students in general and individuals in particular. It has filled the gaps, which a normal classroom lacks, through clever coding, algorithms, and big data, enabling students to choose subjects, concepts that suit them best in accordance with where their interests lie. In this manner, content isn’t imposed on students unlike in schools.

Ultimately, the student excels in their academic goals and paves way for a brighter future. The same ability throws statistics on how quickly or slowly an individual can digest information besides preferences, interests, and degree of involvement to further help e-learning platforms tailor their offerings for them. AI has ensured a personalised learning journey while making education more relevant to students, parents, and teachers.

Feedback that supports growth

AI lends support by monitoring and mapping the learning graph of a student or an individual. Once the data has been acquired on the individual, it’s scrutinised using advanced analytics for insight generation (strengths and weaknesses) to develop tailored plans for an individual to ensure that the person gets the most out of his/her course online.

Learning can be fun

Artificial intelligence can turn learning into an enjoyable experience. One of the newest ways teachers can engage students online or in a classroom is by using simulation. Leading gaming companies have been using simulation to engage their customers for decades. Many medical and flying institutes have started using computer-powered simulations to put candidates/students in a real-life situation wherein students can react and interact, based on which one can be judged.

Breaking geographical barriers

Students can move beyond the geographies of their classroom/room without actually stepping out. AI makes communication with peers on a global scale easier through the Internet. With the help of third-party apps, getting insights on a subject matter of concern to the student is just a click away.

This ability can be further used to enable partnerships on a global scale, similar to an electronic student exchange program, where students or individuals could come together and provide answers to solutions or create a collective craft.

Beyond learning

We have adopted AI in all forms, from chatbots to adtech in our lives, making our life simple and easier. We have embraced a greater scientific approach, which enhances strategy, targeting, insight, creativity, knowledge, and experience. Basic and redundant processes are made easy, like the creation of profiles, which require consolidating information of students, which also, at times requires constant updating. Another understated potential is regular updates to the online alumni community. To that end, a feed framework can be created on a subscription basis, to update students with developments in the field and enable them to take calculated steps to enhance their career curve.

Segmentation framework

Another facet of how AI is used in the edtech industry is in the segmentation framework model. Under this, AI aids the study of different data sources that are available to understand their structures for profiling. The data, which is profiled, addresses different objectives, for instance:

Assessment: Whenever an individual poses a question, with the help of advanced analytics, AI can determine the level of understanding of the student/individual. It helps in assessing whether the analytical intelligence of the student/individual is on par with the level of the concept and whether they have a proper understanding of the subject.

Cross-selling of content: AI identifies the learning patterns of a student or an individual basis, which it provides them with supplementary learning content to ensure that the individual grasps the concept in its entirety.

Dropout: When a student or an individual chooses to opt out of a course or arbitrarily drops out, AI is able to determine the reason by determining how interested the individual was in the subject.

With the baseline data and touch points, educators can then proceed to develop predictive model layers over the data to draw and retrieve inferences, which will form the foundation of all future engagements.

By Randhir Kumar

Sourced from YOURSTORY