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5 details about AdBlock Plus every browser user should know

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It’s complicated. Eyeo, which makes the top ad blocker, is also an ally of online advertising.

You might be perturbed if somebody calls your business an “extortion racket” or your sales pitch a “ransom note.” But Eyeo Chief Executive Till Faida, leader of the widely used Adblock Plus browser extension, is unruffled. The way he sees it, he’s just trying to rescue online advertising and the websites that rely on it.

The criticism stems from the company’s business: Offer a browser extension that blocks ads, then carve off 30% of ad revenue from large publishers that agree to participate in an Eyeo program that unblocks ads. Faida doesn’t say who’s paying, but looking through Eyeo’s “whitelist” that governs which websites get to show ads, you’ll see big names like Google and Amazon.

“There needs to be a sustainable way to fund content on the web, but it should be done in a user-controlled way,” Faida told me while visiting CNET during one of his periodic US excursions from Eyeo headquarters in Cologne, Germany.

Back in the good old days of online advertising, people blocked ads because they didn’t like in-your-face clutter. Now people often block them because they can invade your privacy, slow down websites, flatten your phone’s battery, eat through your data plan and deliver malware.

No wonder, then, that Eyeo’s ad-blocking software is on 100 million PCs and smartphones and that AdBlock Plus is the top Firefox extension by far. But it’s hard to block ads everywhere without driving websites to paywalls, and Eyeo’s situation is complicated. Even as it blocks some ads, it also offers an ad exchange of its own to help supply publishers with ads. Here’s a closer look at the Adblock Plus landscape.

1. How does Eyeo’s Acceptable Ads program work?

Eyeo launched the Acceptable Ads program in 2011 to codify its standards for ad usage that Adblock Plus wouldn’t block on websites that agree to cooperate and get on Eyeo’s whitelist. To meet the requirements, ads can’t be too large, flashy or intrusive. It’s a matter of striking the right balance between what users like and what websites need, Faida said.

By default, Adblock Plus blocks ads for all sites that aren’t on Eyeo’s whitelist, though some of Eyeo’s nearly 170 employees are hired to keep publishers from sneaking past the system. You can set Adblock Plus to block all ads.

More than 90 percent of companies on Eyeo’s whitelist don’t have to pay to participate, Faida said. Only larger publishers showing more than 10 million Acceptable Ads per month have to pay Eyeo the 30% of resulting revenue.

Ad blocking may drive publishers toward paywalls, but Faida believes ad blocking is here to stay. “What’s really putting the free and open web at risk is not ad blockers,” he said. Instead, it’s that there are too many spots available for online ads. “There’s a vicious cycle where ads are more and more aggressive at same time they’re less and less valuable.”

2. Who sets the Acceptable Ads rules?

In 2017, Eyeo set up the work as a nonprofit with participation from other companies involved in online advertising. Its 50 members include ad technology companies, ad agencies, publishers and others in the industry.

Another outfit, the Coalition for Better Ads, serves a similar role. That’s the one Google chose when looking for standards for Chrome’s ad blocking policy, which began in 2018 for websites that overused ads. That was a notable move given that Google, in addition to making the dominant web browser, is one of the biggest online ad players and operates some of the internet’s biggest online services.

3. Why doesn’t Adblock Plus block ad trackers by default?

Tracker blocking is catching on, with notable moves in Apple’s Safari, Mozilla’s Firefox and Brave Software’s Brave today. Some tracking protections are coming to Microsoft Edge and even Chrome, too. That’s on top of tracker blocking from extensions like uBlock Origin, DuckDuckGo, Privacy Badger and Ghostery.

But Adblock Plus doesn’t block tracking by default through the Acceptable Ads program. It’s up to users to decide, Faida said. If you don’t like Facebook and Twitter tracking you, there’s also an option to disable those social sharing and like buttons.

“Some consumers don’t mind tracking and want to support the websites they use,” Faida said. “Other users are more concerned about privacy.” But when users engage the stiffer privacy controls, that shuts off the revenue for Eyeo, not just publishers.

4. Will Chrome cripple Adblock Plus?

Through a policy called Manifest v3, Google’s Chrome team is adding new limits to extensions, including ad blockers, in an effort to improve security, privacy and performance. Unfortunately for ad blockers, that puts limits on rules they use to probe website elements — for example, finding if an ad comes from a whitelisted internet domain.

Google lifted an earlier proposed rules limit from 30,000 to 150,000, but some content blocking extensions say that’s not enough. And that’s after months of discussion and user threats to quit Chrome if it hurts ad blockers. Google has said it wants to allow content-blocking extensions, though, and Faida doesn’t expect Adblock Plus will be crippled.

“I’m optimistic they will listen to our feedback,” he said. Google has legitimate security concerns, but he believes engineers can find a solution that doesn’t hobble blockers. And if Chrome goes ahead anyway, other browsers will swoop in to claim disaffected users, Faida said.

5. What about building ad blocking into the browser?

Ad blocking is becoming a built-in option in some browsers like Opera and UC Browser. Brave enables it automatically. Adblock itself is joining the trend, too.

Microsoft’s mobile version of Edge is integrating Adblock Plus directly, and it can be enabled with Firefox and Samsung Internet on Android. Adblock Plus also offers its own ad-blocking browser for iPhones.

But Faida disagrees with Brave’s ad-blocking approach. Specifically, he doesn’t like that Brave’s ad system shows Brave-supplied ads after stripping out publishers’ ads. “Blocking ads and injecting your own is a very different approach than helping publishers to show their own ads,” Faida said. “We want to create an open ecosystem.”

But Brave’s ad system, which is optional, pays users a portion of the revenue generated and has a mechanism to share that revenue back with publishers. Brave is also working on a system to show ads directly on websites in cooperation with publishers that will receive the lion’s share of that revenue.

“Unlike Eyeo, we block trackers and refuse to whitelist them, because privacy-by-default is the only way to rebalance the system and to justly reward users and publishers instead of intermediaries that perpetuate a toxic ecosystem,” Brave CEO Brendan Eich said in a statement.

Brave’s technology offers both user privacy and publisher revenue — something Eyeo can’t manage if you enable its tracker blocking, Faida acknowledges. “There are very few ads available that don’t require any tracking at all,” Faida said.

So, as even ad-supported companies like Google and Facebook join Apple’s call for online privacy, it’s clear more change is coming to today’s online ad industry.

Feature Image Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET. Ad blocking is becoming a built-in option in some browsers like Opera and UC Browser. Brave enables it automatically. 

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Budgeting for Advertising and PR for a Small Company

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Sourced from Inc.

It’s a testing and assessing game.

As the old question goes, “If a tree falls in the woods, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” Well, I want to update it: “If you have a great product, but no one knows about it, then what’s the point?”

I’m proud of my e-liquid, so I want to get the word out to my demographic. How else will they know about it? But budgeting for marketing can be tricky, especially for a small business, so I have to switch my trucker hat for my thinking cap or else I might rush into spending too rashly.

So what is the right amount to budget for marketing when you own a small business? Should you focus on ads or public relations? I’m going to break it down for you.

Advertising vs. PR

Before I get into how to budget, let me define my terms. Advertising is what you project to the world, as in a social media ad that says, “Hey, check out my new e-liquid.” PR involves more of a subtle dance with the community. You want to interact with your consumers and get them to fall in love with your product, and then they can tell the world how awesome it is.

Case in point: Spending money on a billboard at a music festival is advertising, but showing up at the festival and giving out samples is PR. By interacting directly with the public, you can create a buzz. Who knows? You might even make a splash in the local paper, which creates another wave of PR momentum.

Setting Your Budget

When it comes to marketing, you usually get what you pay for. It’s a numbers game, and it scales to fit the size of your business and the scope of your growth. According to marketing communications consultant Caron Beesley in a post on the U.S. Small Business Administration’s blog, many businesses set aside 2-3% of their revenue for “run-rate marketing and up to 3-5% for start-up marketing.” The percentage can vary by industry, the size of your company and what stage it’s in, of course. Retail businesses in their early years, for example, spend as much as 20% of sales on marketing. After all, you’ve got to create a spark before you can ignite your dreams.

Setting a marketing budget can be different for small businesses like mine. “As a general rule, small businesses with revenues less than $5 million should allocate 7-8% of their revenues to marketing,” Beesley writes. That number might even double when you’re first building your brand to account for trial and error, video production and other ancillary factors.

PR is an entirely different beast from advertising, even when it comes to budgeting. Ideally, PR and advertising should each have their own individual budget. I recommend testing some advertising and PR strategies to find out what works best for your brand before you decide how to divvy up your budget. Try putting a small advertisement in a magazine that shares the same customer base as your product.

Or better yet, think of some free or low-cost PR options. In my case, extreme sports events, car shows and concerts are all places where I’ve created some word of mouth by showing up and introducing my product to attendees.

Is It Working?

This is a question to ask early and often as you determine how to allocate your marketing budget. Check the data on where the traffic to your website is coming from and how much of that traffic is converting to sales, and then assess your return on investment before heavily investing in any specific advertising channel or form of PR. If people are seeing your social media ads but ignoring them, for example, then they’re worthless. Ditch the lower performing ads, and determine where your advertising dollars may be better spent.

In conclusion, budgeting for PR and advertising is a testing and assessing game. Some products resonate with people through PR better than they do through an advertisement, but in my experience, trial and error is the best way to find out where you should be spending your money.

Feature Image Credit: Getty Images

By Young Entrepreneur Council @yec

By Colbey Pfund, co-founder of LFNT Distribution

Colbey Pfund is co-founder of LFNT Distribution, a leading international distributor of premium eliquid.

Sourced from Inc.

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Intent Data in Your Marketing Funnel: Challenges and Strategies

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By Meghan Huston

Technology has changed the way consumers behave, requiring companies to overhaul their sales and marketing strategies. Clients and prospects do not only expect premium products and services, they expect an outstanding customer experience throughout the whole process.

The role of marketing and sales are intertwined – their work is complimentary and leads to collective revenue growth. Specifically, marketers have the goal to get customers to utilize the company’s product or service, this is done mainly through convincing them that investing in your business will provide solution to your needs.

The process of guiding a customer from learning about your company to closing is referred to as a sales and marketing funnel. In order to effectively nurture your leads and establish prospects as clients you need to understand your prospects motivation to buy.

Quick Takeaways:

  • Understanding your customer is the first step in optimizing your marketing funnel.
  • In order to generate good leads, you need the right lead generation infrastructure and appropriate campaign strategy.
  • Intent data allows you to target potential buyers more accurately.
  • Sales-Marketing alignment is crucial to generating high quality leads.

Marketing today is completely different from what it was a decade ago when businesses experienced better name recall, less congested markets, and endless opportunities for innovation. Today, there is more competition in all aspects of business development. Businesses need to not only amplify their products or service quality, offer affordable price points, and deliver practical innovation, they also have to provide excellent customer-centric marketing and client servicing.

Understanding customer interactions across all touch points is the number one challenge for marketers. Companies who adopt data-driven marketing are more likely to have an advantage over the competition and increase profitability. Moreover, these firms are six times more likely to be profitable year-over-year.

Some of the common challenges related to on-boarding intent data include

Understanding Your Buyers

Competition is high, and customers know they have options. B2B companies need to be intuitive and distinguish what their customers need without being told. Intent data informs service providers of buyers’ intention based on their online behavior. Being aware of your prospects actions and properly analyzing the information allows you to predict interests and preferences that will set you apart from the competition.

Source: TechTarget

Having a marketing and sales solution that gives your company’s insights from accurate buyer-intent data to identify critical behaviors and patterns for better conversion strategies is important. By using tools that provide critical information on your prospects, touch-points, and key actions, generates higher conversion rates. Allowing you to know your clients better and accelerate your sales and marketing funnel for better, sustainable profits.

Ensuring Quality Data

Utilizing intent data has a wide range of advantages, aside from being able to target buyers more accurately, intent data allows you to have quality information to build successful marketing campaigns around.

Managing and Modeling Data

Intent data is not only beneficial for sales and marketing teams, it can bring more order and better back-end data management by aligning your data around the overall goals and objectives of the company.

Giving your marketers the power of intent data will provide your company a huge competitive edge. Maximize quality data collections to build your analytics towards a better and more detailed understanding of client demographics, geographical analysis and market trends.

Aligning Sales and Marketing

In order to have a seamless approach to lead generation, sales and marketing are the two significant units that need to know how to work together. Marketing teams need to be able to properly identify potential clients and send high potential prospects to the sales team for up-selling and eventual closure.

It’s vital that these two units have their goals and objectives aligned. Then, intent data can streamline any concerns through the provision of real-time accurate insights.

Managing Your Timing

There is such a thing as customer fatigue and there is no time for blind testing and targeting. With high-quality intent data available at your fingertips, companies can position themselves to achieve maximum gains from their efforts. By working off accurate data, your team is better informed to make decisions regarding the right approach and timing with regard to sales efforts and engagements.

There are plenty of challenges that need to be addressed with regard to your intent data and marketing funnel, ranging from the quality of data to overall back end data management. Intent data is a marketing solution that offers a great advantage when properly utilized. Maximize sales and marketing efforts and minimize barriers related to quality of data, inharmonious customer interaction efforts, and under-appreciation of customer data through proper use of buyers’ intent data. Having a strong customer-oriented sales and marketing campaign starts with information on your target market.

By building a content marketing strategy that is anchored on the intent signals reflected in the data gathered regarding your prospective customers, you will be able to generate positive online activity and relationships through appropriate interactions, product displays, and offerings. Bringing together intent data and including it into your marketing funnel will give you stronger predictive power and in turn, revenue impact.

The post Intent Data in your Marketing Funnel: The Challenges and Strategies appeared first on PureB2B.com.

By Meghan Huston

Sourced from Marketing Insider Group

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The Sad Tyranny of an Inbound-Only Approach to Winning Clients

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By Anthony Iannarino

Each of us is a prisoner to our beliefs. Our beliefs shape our interpretation of reality, as well as what we believe is good and right and true. Our interpretation can constrain our thoughts, and those thoughts can restrict our actions, even when other people have different beliefs, ones that increase their choices instead of limiting them. Those constraints can be a form of self-imposed tyranny.

For the last decade, since Web 2.0 and the advent of the social channels, there has been a significant push towards Inbound Marketing. The ability to create and share content to share with your prospective clients changed marketing, eliminating the need for a budget, an agency, or most importantly, permission to publish. For the better part of this period, salespeople, sales leaders, and sales organizations have been sold the idea that Inbound is more effective than Outbound, with the loudest voices suggesting that outbound and cold outreach is no longer necessary. They have also suggested that salespeople and sales organizations that employ an outbound approach will soon be out of business, that no one will work with people companies that use cold outreach.

Inbound-only is not a strategy that any salesperson or sales organization should consider. The result is an opportunity-starved sales force, and on that is reliant on others.

100 Pieces of Content

Recently, a well-known social media marketer suggested that people create 100 pieces of content, a strategy this individual executes perfectly, with help from a large team and a massive investment of both time and money. The inbound-only proponents applauded the idea as an excellent idea. While it might be helpful for an individual working to develop a well-recognized brand, and a terrible idea for salespeople, and one that would be impossible to execute.

Imagine a sales force of 200 salespeople. Each salesperson creates a single blog post each week. First, someone is going to have to approve the content, another person will have to edit the content, marketing will have to vet the content, and in many industries, legal will have to consent to the publication. There is no reason for a sales force to create 10,400 pieces of content a year, and there is no marketing professional who approves a strategy that would create confusion and chaos.

Let’s set aside this extreme misinterpretation of a strategy for personal brand building as a sales strategy, and look at the real problem with an inbound-only approach.

Passivity and Waiting

Nothing about selling lends itself to passivity or waiting. The idea that one must sit patiently, waiting for content to bring them leads and opportunities might be one of the most debilitating and destructive beliefs to take hold in some organizations. The idea that content will cause people to beat a path to your door is every salesperson’s dream; what could be easier than merely taking orders? What could be better?

There is a reason we use the word “hunter” to describe salespeople. It signifies one that has to go out work to be able to feed themselves. We ‘don’t describe salespeople as fishermen or fisherwomen; the idea that someone would put a line in the water and wait for a bite, no matter how long it takes, and no matter how hungry they might be is a non-starter.

For many reasons, there is no waiting in sales. Unlike most other areas of business, salespeople have a quota, a time-bound goal. With each day that slips by without the salesperson creating new opportunities, the deadline gets closer. Waiting is a dangerous strategy and a choice that isn’t available to salespeople or companies that intend to grow.

A Detrimental Reliance on Others

Some people with sales titles believe that inbound should replace outbound, that it is marketing’s responsibility to bring them leads. When salespeople complain about leads not being qualified, what they are suggesting is that marketing should bring them “opportunities,” a prospect that is “ready-to-buy.” Marketing has its metrics and goals, and “new opportunities” ‘isn’t likely to be found among them. The idea that a salesperson should rely on marketing is to misunderstand the difference in the roles and goals.

Not only does an inbound-only approach cause one to rely on marketing, but it also requires them to rely heavily on luck (even though Luck loves a hustler and ignores non-hustlers). Inbound requires your dream client to open their browser, navigate to a search engine, and type it some keyword that an algorithm directs to your website. You have to rely on your client searching, the algorithm to deliver them to you, and the content to cause them to reach out to you proactively.

A Sad Form of Tyranny

The idea that your results are not within your control or influence is an unhealthy belief, and especially harmful for salespeople. Having to wait for someone else to proactively reach out to them before being able to engage with a person or company who would benefit from their help is to accept that you have no agency, that you are nothing more than a victim of circumstances beyond your control.

There is no question that inbound marketing is important, that it should be done and done well, and that it is a powerful form of marketing that can and does help sales organizations. But inbound is ancillary to an effective outbound approach, one that includes cold outreach. Outbound is greater than Inbound.

By Anthony Iannarino

Sourced from IANNARINO

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10 of the Best Business Podcasts to Help Your Company Thrive

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By John Boitnott

If you’re looking for concrete tips and advice to grow your company, these podcasts are where it’s at.

The internet offers a wealth of free business information and advice. You can find articles on everything from writing the perfect business plan to the ins and outs of marketing your business. While quality, in-depth articles can be valuable tools, you need to sit down and read them. I prefer business podcasts, because they’re easier to fit into my busy, on-the-go lifestyle.

Business podcasts cover a wide range of topics that can help you establish and grow your company. You can stream podcasts anytime, whether you’re working out, driving, or commuting to work. So they’re just more accessible.

Listen to just one podcast a day and, in a year, you’ll have dramatically expanded your business knowledge and probably improved your company, too.

Whether you’re just starting to explore the podcast world or want to find some new podcasts to add to your favorites, these 10 business podcasts are well worth a listen.

1. StartUp

Focusing on the experience of starting a business and entrepreneurial life, StartUp 
launched in 2014 and is powered by a team of women, including senior producer Molly Messick, co-host Lisa Chow, and reporter Amy Standen. Past episodes have tackled issues such as balancing entrepreneurship with parenthood, pitching a business to investors, and previous mistakes entrepreneurs have made.

2. Mixergy

Created by Andrew Warner, Mixergy features interviews with business founders. During each podcast, a founder tells their story and shares solutions to some of the challenging issues they face. Past guests have included Gabe Schillinger of Legion Beats, Max Makeev of Owl Labs, and Maria Paz Gillet of Jooycar.

3. The Tim Ferriss Show 

Tim Ferris, author of The 4-Hour Workweek, hosts this popular show, which has amassed over 300 million downloads and been included in Apple Podcasts’ “Best of” ranking for three years. Ferris interviews guests such as LeBron James, Maria Sharapova, Jamie Foxx, and more, examining the routines, tactics, and tools that contribute to their success, so you can put those strategies to work in your life.

4. Business Wars

Pitting competing businesses against each other, Business Wars examines what drives a company’s success or failure. Hosted by David Brown, this podcast focuses on massive companies such as Netflix, Blockbuster, Anheuser-Busch, Miller, and more.

5. Rise and Grind with Daymond John

Daymond John, founder and CEO of FUBU, interviews successful entrepreneurs, musicians, and athletes such as Barbara Corcoran, Ian Siegel, and more. Each interviewee shares their secrets to how they achieved success, and you can benefit from them too.

6. The Brand Builder Podcast

Looking to understand the current trends in branding? The Brand Builder Podcast examines what’s working for some of the most successful brands and gives you actionable advice that you can use for your own business.

7. This Week in Startups

Longtime Silicon Valley investor Jason Calacanis hosts this series of conversations, usually with talented startup founders. If you want insight into the nuts and bolts of scaling a small business in competitive environments, this is a helpful podcast.

8. The Hirsch Marketing Underground Podcast

This podcast digs into marketing strategy with detailed, precise advice for any business. The short episodes are easy to catch while on the go, giving you new concise marketing strategies in just 15 minutes.

9. The Brainy Business

Conversion expert Melina Palmer shares tips on behavioral economics to help you better understand why people make purchases. Use these insights to increase your business’ sales and customers.

10. The School of Greatness

Hosted by The New York Times best-selling author Lewis Howes, The School of Greatness examines just what it is that makes people great. Guests include business owners and entrepreneurs, celebrities, athletes, and more.

Many of these podcasts give you the opportunity to learn from hugely successful entrepreneurs and business owners. They all give you concrete tips and advice that you can apply to your company. And, whether you’re looking to develop productivity habits or refine your marketing strategy, you’re sure to find valuable information (and some entertainment, too) from these podcasts.

Feature Image Credit: Jonathan Velasquez/Unsplash

By John Boitnott

Journalist and digital consultant@jboitnott

 

 

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Think Tank: Changing Marketing Tactics When Temps Rise

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By Kyle Flaherty

Kyle Flaherty, chief marketing officer at Zaius, offers insights into engaging consumers when the summer heats up.

Unless your target audience lives somewhere lucky enough to experience hot weather year-round, your customers’ behavior is bound to change as the temperature rises and vacation auto-responders go up this summer.

Whether you’re a swimsuit brand gearing up for your busiest buying season or a ski brand making it through a slow buying season, seasonal buying can have a huge impact on revenue.

But many business owners may not realize the impact the summer months will have on their customer behavior: from increased vacation time to summer hours to more time on mobile than at their desks. And as your buyers’ behaviors change, your marketing must as well.

So how do you shift your marketing to effectively reach your customers during the summer months? Your marketing team has the answer at their fingertips.

Historical customer behavior helps you understand how this season typically shifts your business and come up with interactions to create an ideal customer experience. It takes a little forethought, sure, but it’s not too late to adjust your marketing strategy to reach your buyers effectively as the temperatures rise.

Analyze last summer’s buying habits

The key to great marketing is simple: know your buyers. The more you know about how your buyers behave, the better you can tailor your marketing to their preferences and habits. This applies to all of your marketing activities, but can be especially powerful during seasonal ebbs and flows in your business.

For example, if you look at your customer data from last summer in detail, you may notice that your most popular line of products slightly underperformed, while another line did fantastically well in comparison. You may also notice that your share of site traffic from mobile jumped 15 percent overall and your best channel for promotion was Instagram.

These examples are all speculation, but by digging deep into your own customer data, you can find out what holds true for your business. With that data in hand, you can adjust your overall marketing strategy to take advantage of your buyers’ behavior and reach them where they are this summer.

Adjust your promotion mix

The same promotions that you use throughout the year may not resonate as well for buyers during the summer. Many of your buyers are likely on their mobile devices more frequently in the summer because they’re outside — whether by the pool or on the beach. If your customer data tells you this is true for your audience, it’s a huge opportunity to increase your investment in social ads and pull back on other channels.

In the summer, your brand should likely:

  • decrease investment in search ads;
  • increase investment in social ads,
  • and explore traditional ads like magazines or billboards in areas with summer tourism.

These are just a few examples, but you should run a number of A/B tests to assess whether changing up your promotions during the summer results in better conversion rates for your ads. Again, your business is unique and so are your buyers — so test everything!

Promote summer-friendly products

Going back to your customer data, you can see what products and brands perform the best during the summer months. Depending on your business and what you sell, the products that perform best may be obvious, or completely surprising.

For example, it only makes sense that if your business sells ski equipment, the summer may be a bit slow no matter what line of products you promote, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get creative. For example, a ski brand could have a mega-hyped summer sale to clear out excess inventory and drive revenue during slower months. But brands shouldn’t just send the same sale message to everyone — send personalized product recommendation campaigns to your buyers to drive higher conversion rates on the sale.

In comparison, a swimsuit brand should significantly increase its paid marketing spend for its busiest season. Using segment sync and lookalike campaigns across Facebook and Instagram, the team could identify similar buyers to their most loyal customers and make the most of their campaign spend during the most profitable season.

Either way your business shifts, you should use customer data to power your summer marketing campaigns and make sure your business adjusts to the season. Don’t get stuck with underperforming marketing campaigns this summer — be proactive and drive real revenue for your brand.

Feature Image Credit: Shutterstock / i like photo 

Kyle Flaherty is chief marketing officer at Zaius.

By Kyle Flaherty

Sourced from WWD

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Ten Things To Live By In Business Tech

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By Steph Panecasio

It seems like lately every man and his dog has a side hustle or business that they’ve begun in their backyard, ready to take to the next level. Entrepreneurship is thriving and it’s all the more important for folks to wrap their heads around ‘biztech’.

If you’re out of the loop, biztech refers to the increasing reliance on information technology in a business context – it can be as simple as knocking together a pristine spreadsheet with all your data (a deeply satisfying feeling if ever there was one, I stand by this).

If you’re new to the world of business tech, it can seem pretty daunting. But it doesn’t have to be – with a bit of structure you can escalate your business from garage hobby to genuine hustle. All you have to do is follow these ten things to live by.

1. Consult with experts

There is always going to be someone out there with a stronger understanding and skill set than you. Maybe you’re an ideas person who needs financial grounding or vice versa, but either way it can be hugely influential to consult with people whose talents lie in areas you’re lacking in. Sure, it can be tempting to stay insular to protect the business, but it’s worth expanding your fences for the sake of furthering progress.

2. Learn to love the data

Numbers are a beautiful thing, and it’s crazy how underestimated they are until you get your head around how they can affect your business in every way – from workflow to revenue and everything in between. Even if you’re not particularly strong with mathematics (I can definitely sympathise), it’s worth developing an understanding of how the numbers reflect your status and growth as a business. Relying on ‘gut feeling’ can only take you so far.

3. Ensure your security is top-level

From a technological standpoint, we’ve never been both so well protected and simultaneously so at risk of technological security breaches. You’ve worked hard to develop your business, and you don’t want that to be all for nothing just because you didn’t upgrade your security systems alongside your other growth areas. From elements as simple as having strong passwords through to full on encryption with layers of authentication protocols, it’s vital that you stay protected.

4. Stay up-to-date with innovation

Business technology is all about staying ahead of the curve wherever possible, and the easiest way to do that is to make sure you stay current when it comes to innovation and technology. Whether that means upgrading your internal software or using new techniques and methods in your day-to-day, you don’t want to end up being the contemporary equivalent of the business that still uses faxes as a central correspondence tool.

5. Be smart about investing

The ultimate sign of faith in your business is to invest your own hard-earned money into it, but there’s no use piling your funds in if you’re not aware of where the money should go. Allocate your funds wisely by focusing on areas that will make things run more smoothly, from software to people – maybe even hiring someone who can assist you with deciding where the funds would be most efficient. Also remember to take advantage of the instant asset tax-writeoff.

6. Implement marketing strategies

The core tenet of a successful business is fulfilling a customer’s needs – but there’s little chance if your customers aren’t even aware of who you are and what you do. Branding is imperative, and spreading awareness can open you up to new markets, new customers and new growth. With 14% of businesses folding due to poor marketing (according to CB Insights), implementing marketing strategies is vital to continued progress. Remember: setting up a Facebook page is free and a great way to stay connected to customers.

7. Know your market

There’s not much point spending on marketing strategies if you don’t know who your target market is. Sometimes this will be very self-explanatory (if you’re selling jewellery then chances are your demo will be females of a certain age group, and so on), but sometimes it can be a bit harder to narrow down.

8. Learn as much as you can

In order to stay on top of all the new developments in business tech, continual learning can be a huge help. Whether that’s brushing up on a skill or two, or enrolling in a course like RMIT’s Master of Business Administration (which is all online and allows you to focus on a specific concentration area suited to you), it can make a sizeable difference in how you approach biztech and the future of your own endeavours.

9. Stay flexible

We’re not talking about splits here. Flexibility is imperative, especially if you’re only just starting out or are in the early years of your business. A little adaptability goes a long way in safeguarding you against unexpected downturns, and that goes for all areas. Be flexible with your expectations, your goals, and even your employees. BYOD flexibility can increase productivity and employee happiness, for example (just be sure to follow commandment 3!)

10. Focus on what’s important

You’re obviously looking to make a profit from your business, and we don’t blame you. But remember that you started the business for a purpose and a passion – and those are the areas you don’t want to lose sight of. It can be easy to get bogged down in the minutiae of your day-to-day and lose sight of your bigger goals. When it comes down to it, the three most important elements of any business are: having purpose, continually learning, and surrounding yourself with the right people.

Feature Image Credit: iStock/Drazen_

By Steph Panecasio

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Buy now, pay later: AI and the ‘red-light risk’ for millions of Australian jobs

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Supermarkets are among the businesses forging ahead with new technology, and observers warn that cutting jobs is a prime motive

If you are ever worried about slipping over at the Woolworths store in Gregory Hills, south-west of Sydney, Greggles has got your back. Greggles is a test safety robot that patrols the store and scans floors for slip hazards.

It’s just a trial, and a simple task for a robot to complete, but the rapid pace of technological advancement in AI, robotics and automation is both a benefit – and a threat – to employment.

Want to skip the checkout? In New Zealand, grocery chain Foodstuffs is testing the use of a smart trolley or smart basket, which recognises products as they are placed inside, removing the need for customers to go through the checkout.

And in the UK, Ocado, which delivers groceries for the supermarket chains Waitrose and Morrison, has tested a C-3PO-style maintenance assistant to work in its warehouses, another in the online grocery specialist’s moves to reduce reliance on human workers.

The pace of technological change, particularly the speed at which companies are moving to automate, introduce artificial intelligence to find efficiencies and even bring in robots like Greggles has Australian experts calling for a public debate and proper policy framework around how we cope with the massive changes to society it will bring. Chief among the concerns is the impact on jobs.

According to Toby Walsh, scientia professor of artificial intelligence at the University of New South Wales, supermarkets’ adoption of AI, robotics and automation is partly dictated by the cut-throat competition between the chains – and the news is not good for workers.

“Saving manpower will help them stay competitive and increase profits,” he tells Guardian Australia. “They’ll make promises that this will free up time for their staff to interact with customers, but in a cut-throat business like supermarkets, where the consumer is always looking for lower prices, they’ll be tempted to reduce head counts and improve their margins.”

This week a report by the Australian Council of Learned Academies, of which Walsh is co-chair, quoted 2016 Google Australia data suggesting 3.5 million Australian workers were at high risk of being displaced by automation over the next decade.

Toby Walsh
Toby Walsh says supermarkets will always be ‘tempted to reduce head counts and improve their margins’. Photograph: Julian Smith/AAP

The report said there needed to be greater retraining and income support for workers as AI encroaches on the workplace.

The Australian Human Rights Commission is currently undertaking a project looking at the impact technology including AI, automation and robotics is having on human rights.

Human rights commissioner Ed Santow told a digital rights conference in Melbourne last month that Australia needed to be “clear-minded” about the harms posed by AI and address them.

“It is easy to be interested and excited by new technology but if we humans are the ones too often being asked to adapt to deal with some of those negative consequences of technology, has something gone deeply wrong?” he said. “That’s the fundamental question we need to grapple with in a really vigorous way.”

Last month, supermarket giant Coles announced it was working with Microsoft to use the data from its 21 million weekly transactions to “optimise” and simplify its business. The aim is to save $1bn by 2023.

The announcement was one of several made by Coles indicating an expanded use of artificial intelligence and automation. In January, the company signed what it described as a “game-changing” $950m deal with German automation specialist Witron to build fully automated distribution centres in Sydney and Brisbane and a $150m partnership with British online food retailer Ocado to build two highly automated fulfilment centres in Melbourne and Sydney.

Coles currently collects data on what its customers buy and is planning to use AI to target customers individually. Among its plans are to install electronic shelf-edge labels so workers do not have to manually price down specials on thousands of items in each of its 800 stores each week and sensors to alert stores to when products need to be restocked.

Coles’s chief operations officer, Matt Swindells, said in a statement at the time of the announcement that AI would be used to determine how energy was being used in the stores.

“How are we using energy in our refrigeration? How are we using energy in some of our in-store ovens for chickens? What’s the right time, the wrong time, the optimal time?” he said.

“Previously operators would have had a gut feeling and what they know from experience. Now you can put data scientists and advanced analytics to that and really optimise a model. At our scale those small improvements in operation can have a material, commercial impact.”

For all these efficiencies, which Coles calls “stripping waste from the business”, it is unclear what it means for jobs.

Coles did not directly respond to questions on how its $1bn investment in technology would affect jobs or the number of jobs that could be expected to go. The company has already announced as part of its transformation program that 450 head office jobs will be going.

In a statement, a spokesperson said that the changes would “boost productivity and allow our team to focus on the things that matter most to customers”.

“Customers won’t necessarily see these in development in our stores as many of the technology innovations will improve our supply chain and back of house operations.”

Unions are understandably suspicious of AI’s impact on jobs. In his first speech to parliament this week, new Labor senator and former Transport Workers Union secretary Tony Sheldon sounded the alarm on technology-driven disruption in the Australian economy.

“The basic rights of working people are under threat from the gig economy, tech platforms, artificial intelligence and worker surveillance systems,” he said. “Australia has no coordinated approach to managing the future of work in Australia. I regard this fact alone as a very bright red-light risk for Australia.

“Ultimately, how can there be prosperity if we enter a world of permanently high unemployment and permanently higher underemployment?”

On the other side of politics, former deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop this week announced she had accepted a job with Afiniti, a US technology company established by Zia Chishti, which uses AI algorithms to link customers with call centre operators.

At a speech at the National Press Club this week, Telstra chief executive Andy Penn said Australia was underestimating how quickly automation and robotic technology would transform the workplace.

Tony Sheldon
Labor senator Tony Sheldon said the basic rights of workers were under threat from artificial intelligence and worker surveillance systems. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

“It is increasingly difficult to describe the sheer scale and implications of the changes digital technologies are driving in Australia and across the globe,” he said. “We are rapidly approaching a tidal wave of technology innovation where the rate of change will never be as slow again as it is today.”

Penn said the rise of artificial intelligence was driving job growth in certain areas and Telstra was recruiting 1,500 people in software engineering, data science, data analytics and cyber security. The company has, however, announced it is cutting 18,000 direct workforce and contractor roles by 2022.

The ACOLA report released this week urged Australia to develop a national strategy for AI, a community awareness campaign, safe and accessible digital infrastructure, a responsive regulatory system, and a diverse and highly skilled workforce.

“What kind of society do we want to be?” said Australia’s chief scientist, Alan Finkel, who commissioned the report. “That is the crucial question for all Australians, and for governments as our elected representatives.”

Australia’s media…

… has never been more concentrated, at a time when clear, factual reporting is so desperately needed. Guardian Australia will hold the new Coalition government to account and continue to report on the escalating climate emergency. We are editorially independent, free from commercial and political bias – this means we can promise to keep delivering quality journalism without favour or interference.

More people are reading and supporting our independent, investigative reporting than ever before. And unlike many news organisations, we have chosen an approach that allows us to keep our journalism accessible to all, regardless of where they live or what they can afford.

The Guardian is editorially independent, meaning we set our own agenda. Our journalism is free from commercial bias and not influenced by billionaire owners, politicians or shareholders. No one edits our editor. No one steers our opinion. This is important as it enables us to give a voice to those less heard, challenge the powerful and hold them to account. It’s what makes us different to so many others in the media, at a time when factual, honest reporting is critical.

Every contribution we receive from readers like you, big or small, goes directly into funding our journalism. This support enables us to keep working as we do – but we must maintain and build on it for every year to come. Support The Guardian from as little as £1 – and it only takes a minute. Thank you. Support The Guardian 

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How Marketing Strategy Drives Customer Retention

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By Paul Talbot

Marketing strategy works better when it encourages customer retention. Sound strategy can prevent too many resources from being allocated to customer acquisition and focuses marketers on the potentially significant financial benefits of customer retention.

I recently asked Raji Srinivasan, professor of marketing administration and associate dean for diversity and inclusion at the University of Texas McCombs School of Business, for her thoughts on this challenge.

Paul Talbot: What factors should a marketer consider when trying to strike an optimal balance between acquisition and retention?

Raji Srinivasan: The factors a marketer should consider:

  • High cost of acquisition of a customer. Ironically, the higher the cost of acquisition of a customer, the greater the need to focus on retention as a lost customer will be more expensive to re-acquire.
  • Low market share of the marketer. The smaller the market share of the marketer, given a finite set of resources, the greater the need to focus on acquisition of customers.
  • The stickiness of the product. In some technology products, such as software and social networks, there is stickiness in terms of consumer learning and/or social network connectivity. In those cases, it may be wise to invest in customer acquisition to build an installed base of customers, who will benefit by staying with your product.

Talbot: Could situations arise where retention is more profitable for the marketer than acquisition? If so, what would this situation look like?

Srinivasan: Yes, customer retention can be more profitable than customer acquisition. For example, under the following conditions.

  • When there are few customers and they are very expensive to acquire.
  • When the market for your product is shrinking and there may not be a very large number of new prospects in the market.
  • In very price-competitive markets, where there may be a few large marketers.

Talbot: These decisions on allocating resources to both acquisition and retention are partly based on the lifetime value of the customer. But LTV is often an elusive metric, difficult to establish with a strong degree of confidence. How can the process of determining LTV be strengthened, particularly when a brand is new, and metrics are in short supply?

Srinivasan: LTV is most valuable when a brand is new because it can guide the allocation of resources to the ‘right’ customer, one who will offer a strong stream of revenues. The computation of the LTV entails assumptions about:

  • The revenues and costs of serving the customer into the future.
  • The risk profile of the customer and therefore the discount rate for the customer’s cash flows.
  • The retention rate of the customer in the future.

These three factors depend on the firm’s investments in products, technologies, and the customer. There is a potential chicken-and-egg problem here. The LTV estimate depends on the firm’s investments in products, technologies, and customer which, in turn, influence the firm’s investments in its customers. So, this is, undoubtedly, a challenge.

There is a way out. Specifically, after the computation of the LTV of a customer, analysts can model the sensitivity of the LTV of the customer to various assumptions about investments in products, technologies, and the customer. A factor that may be useful here is the marketer’s experience in previous generation products which can provide some guidance for modeling the sensitivity analysis.

Talbot: As the nature of brand loyalty evolves, how does this relate to retention?

Srinivasan: There is a straightforward positive relationship between brand loyalty and retention. Higher brand loyalty will result in higher customer retention and higher positive word of mouth. Interestingly, this will also lower customer acquisition costs. This illustrates the synergistic relationship between customer acquisition and customer retention, specifically, that retention benefits translate into acquisition benefits as well.

Talbot: Any other insights on the role of retention in marketing strategy you’d like to share?

Srinivasan: Ironically, despite the benefits of customer retention which have been touted extensively, some marketers still continue to focus on customer acquisition, ignoring customer retention. This is because of the structure of incentive schemes for sales and new business development teams. Sales and business development executives are compensated only when they acquire new customers not when they work to retain existing customers.

Feature Image Credit: null Getty

 

By Paul Talbot

Minus strategy marketing staggers. I am a somewhat reformed ex-media business executive, with tours of duty at AOL, CBS Radio, and Nationwide Communications. I’m a fan of F. Scott Fitzgerald, the Boston Red Sox, the Principality of Liechtenstein, fried clams, fog, and prices that end in the number 7.

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website.

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Tips to Develop Marketing Strategy Using Micro-influencers

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The concept micro-influencer marketing which has recently joined the social media scene, has the same concept as of influencer marketing, but on a smaller scale. This involves developing relationships with influential personalities to promote your brand to the influencer’s audience. But approaching just any influencer won’t drive sales — that requires a strategy.

For many businesses, especially small and medium-sized ones, influencer marketing seems challenging because of the high costs involved. However, this is not the only way you can market your brand. If you can’t afford the thousands of dollars charged for a single Instagram post, you can always count on micro-influencers.

Just as the name suggests, they are influencers with a smaller audience base that range between 1000-100,000 followers on their social media profiles. The number of followers shouldn’t matter compared to what these types of influencers have to offer. Their small followers make it possible for them to engage with them directly unlike influencers with a large following.

How can you develop your marketing strategy using micro-influencers? Here are 5 tips to get you started.

1. Turn micro-influential fans to brand advocates

Influencers who already love your brand are the best type to select. If you are developing a marketing strategy and want to reap the benefits of micro-influencers, look no further than that everyday consumer who has at least 1000 followers.

It will be very easy to convince such a fan to be your brand advocate. Offering them a discount or a free product can be enough to convince them to represent your brand on social platforms. The best part is that micro influential fans are more relatable to customers than celebrities and influencers with millions of followers.

Recommended: 6 Secrets to Getting a Social Influencer’s Attention

You can get started on this by monitoring your brand mentions on social media. There are many tools that you can use for social listening. You will be surprised at the long list of influential fans who are always talking about you. Use them to promote your brand among their hyper-engaged audiences.

Alternatively, you can turn that consumer who regularly interacts with your business on social media to be your brand advocate as they do on Glossier.

2. Tap into storytelling

If you have reached this far with your social media marketing strategy, probably you have come to the realization that using still photos of your product is not getting you the traffic you want to get. Instead, have your micro-influencers tell the story.

Storytelling is a powerful tool that makes potential customers associate your business with something they can relate. It taps into emotions, thus encouraging potential customers to take action. Use the superpower of stories.

Encourage your micro-influencers to tell flesh and unique stories about your brand in their own voice. Let them share their own experiences or personal stories as a testimony that relates to your brand. Such narratives resonate well with your target audience since they are relatable. Make the stories believable to gain more attention and credibility.

3. Set up a long-term campaign

In marketing campaigns, one is never enough. If your goal is to promote your brand, a one-off influencer campaign is not enough to gain your brand awareness you need. Unless you are promoting the launch of a new product, you will need to be consistent with your campaigns. Ensure the influencer posts regularly in the appropriate times and at reasonable intervals.

Hire micro-influencers on a long-term basis. When the influencer talks about your product for a long period, your target audience absorbs more information about the brand from them. It will sink in their mind better and promote brand recall as well as recognition.

Give the micro-influencers a long term contract. If it expires, renew it again for as long as they are interested. A study by Experticity found out that 82% of customers are more likely to follow recommendations made by a micro-Influencer.

4. Have your micro-influencers’ content reviewed and optimized

The effectiveness of an influencer’s content comes from how original, authentic, and natural it is. That is how they manage to get a large following on their social media profiles. Content is the king. As a brand, you have a responsibility to ensure the content posted by your micro-influencers aligns with your marketing goals and values.

With this, your brand becomes visible on other online sites that you might have never gotten an audience. You can join forces with the micro-influencers by reviewing their content before they post.

Promote such content by sharing it on your online platforms. The influencer should also return the favor by promoting your content in their profiles. However, this should be done in a smart way to avoid losing the authenticity of your micro-influencers‘ content.

5. Measure the effectiveness of the micro-influencers in real-time

Don’t use micro-Influencers in your marketing strategy with no purpose. Like any other marketing strategy, you should measure their performance using the key metrics.

You will get to know where your micro-influencers campaign strategy is working and where to put more effort. There are various tools you can use to get real-time analysis of engagement and click-through rates. You will in return increase your ROI.

Bottom line:

If you are still not utilizing influencer marketing due to the thousands of dollars you will need to invest, you are losing out on a lot. Micro-Influencers are out there promoting your competitors’ brands effectively and at very friendly rates.

With the above useful tips, you will get ahead of the game and reap the benefits of using micro-influencers. You will enjoy watching your brands’ engagement rates and conversations skyrocket. What are you waiting for? Start using micro-influencers for your marketing strategy today!

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Kevin Whalez is a marketing specialist, business consultant, and psychologist, who investigates how to make people and organizations more effective. He is passionate about leveraging the right strategic partnerships and scaling your online influence. He is a regular contributor to PotencyUP website, as well as to various marketing and business related resources.

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