The latter comes with several perks-flexible working hours, earning on your own terms and being your own boss.

You can earn from the advice you might have given to others as an employee.

Having said that, going through the transition between a salaried employee and a freelance consultant is no mean feat.

Most people just lack the know-how to kickstart a business consulting firm.

If you are contemplating making the move, here is a definitive guide to getting you started. So, let’s dive in.

How to Start a Consulting Business in India

Well, there are a few key tips to remember while starting a consulting business in India. So, let’s come to the point.

1) Choose your Niche

One of the key steps in starting a consulting business in India is to identify your niche.

If you specialise, it will be easier for you to differentiate yourself from the generalised consultants who offer services for ‘everything’ under the sun.

Just think about this for a second. If you have an eye infection, would you go to an ophthalmologist (eye specialist) or a general practitioner?

Of course, an eye specialist because he will be able to solve your unique problem better.

The same logic applies to consulting space as well. Consultants that are specialists in a given niche appear most qualified to potential clients.

Now, when it comes to identifying what your niche or speciality might be, ask yourself the following questions:

• Which niches in your domain are currently underserved?
• What are the areas in your domain where potential clients struggle with the most?
• Do you hold adequate experience in the chosen niche to serve others?
• Are you sure people would be willing to pay for your services in the given niche?

And when you have decided on your niche, find if you need special training to sharpen your skill set further. Take advantage of the learning opportunities available in the online and offline world to make yourself stand out.

2) Define your Consulting Services

If you want your newfound venture to succeed, you have to show your clients the specific services you will deliver.

For this reason, it’s vital that you define your services, deliverables, and your business model at the very outset.

Begin by assessing your skills and the specific services you would like to offer.

This is important for several reasons:

• When pitching services to prospective clients, you have to convince them that your services will add value to their business.
• You will be able to set realistic expectations for your clients.
• You and your clients will be able to make informed decisions.

These days, businesses hire consultants for several different reasons. If you can cater to any of these areas, it will improve the odds of your succeeding as a consultant:

• Identify an existing problem
• Facilitate change across the organisation
• Supplement the existing staff
• Conduct training programs
• Make breakthrough changes
• Influence key decision-makers in the industry
• Find new ideas for ideating products/services
• Create new business or products/services

Your services form the cornerstone of your business. Once you are clear what exactly you will deliver to your clients, you can move on to the next step-getting your business registered.

3) Register your Business

Getting your business registered will portray your venture in a credible light. It will provide you with the confidence and mental strength for demanding appropriate fees.

If you are based in India, you can choose from any of the following business models:

• Sole Proprietor
• Proprietorship Firm
• Limited Liability Partnership
• Private Limited Company

If you are starting alone, you can work either as a sole proprietor or set up a proprietorship firm. From a legal point of view, a sole proprietor and a proprietorship firm are given the same treatment and tax assessment is carried out in the name of the concerned individual. On the contrary, LLPs and private limited companies are considered a separate legal identity and are taxed accordingly.

To make sure that your business name, logo and brand are protected, it is essential that you get registered under the Trademark Act, 1999.

4) Hire People Wisely

Once registered, it is time to hire people to do the work for you. Hiring the right support staff can make your work more streamlined as each of your staff members will focus on their designated work.

Even if you want to do all the consulting work on your own, it is advisable to have someone who focuses on the routine work. This may include answering calls, reading emails, typing documentation, pitching potential clients, and so on. This way, you will be able to focus on your core operations i.e. delivering consulting services.

In addition, you will have someone to take care of the office when you are outside meeting clients.

5) Invest in the Right Tools

In addition to hiring the right set of people, it is imperative that you have the right tools of the trade to build and maintain a connection with existing or prospective clients and employees.

We all know how remote working has gained traction over the last few months. Using any of the popular video conferencing software such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, GoToMeeting, Skype for Business or Cisco WebEx will stand you in good stead.

These tools will not only lend authenticity to your business but also make you communicate seamlessly with clients, even when you are out of office. All you need is a smartphone with a reliable internet connection.

In addition, a budding business consulting firm should invest in:

• A website
• Bookkeeping Software
• Recruitment Software
• Business Cards
• Business Bank Account
• Professional Email IDs

6) Advertise your business in Online and Offline Space

We have seen how companies of this age are counting on the internet to spread the word about their services.

Start with building a website that paints an accurate picture of your business consulting firm. Market your services using your website.

You can leverage the social podium to create awareness about your services. Social channels like Facebook, LinkedIn, etc are powerful avenues to reach the right set of audience.

Listing your business on Google My Business will augment its visibility in the local searches.

In addition to online marketing, you can count on references and word of mouth to drive people to your business.

When you finish working with a client and they appear happy with your work, ask them to refer your services to others. If possible, get a recommendation letter.

In the offline world, you also have the option to advertise your firm locally. This method of advertising can, however, be a bit expensive.

7) Manage your Pricing and Expenses

Before you decide on what you will charge, find out what other consultants in your niche are charging for their service. Do a bit of research and set up your rates in a manner that you remain competitive with the rest of the industry.

When establishing your rates, you have several options-hourly rates, project fees, and working on a retainer basis.

While some clients may choose to be billed on an hourly basis, others may prefer lump sum payment for a project. When working on a project basis, consultants typically get a fixed amount for a period of time, that may be quarterly or bi-quarterly.

When working as a retainer, you can set up monthly fees depending on the availability of work for a given number of hours. This will help when you are new to the industry and require a guaranteed income each month to keep yourself afloat.

When establishing charges, make sure you have taken all your expenses into account. If you fail to do so and then find out later that your fees didn’t include many of your expenses, you will only be disappointed.

Setting up prices for your business is a tricky task. This is because if you charge too little, your venture will not be profitable and if you charge too much, you will face difficulty in acquiring clients. The solution lies in studying what other business consulting firms (in the same stage of growth and offering similar services) are charging and fix your rates accordingly.

8) Plan for What Lies Ahead

As with any line of business, you will achieve more success if you have a plan for what lies ahead. This applies to both short-term as well as long-term plans.

In the short term, you can work on a plan as to how you will approach a new project. This way, when a client agrees to avail of your services, you can establish a realistic timeline of how the project will proceed from the beginning to the end.

In the long term, you can have clarity on how you can position yourself within the industry, how you can market your services, and how you can grow your business down the line. With a long-term plan, you can set goals for the next 5 or 10 years.

Once you have your plans in place, review them regularly in order to make the required adjustments from time to time.

Looking for best-in-class business consulting services? Connect with our experts and get a solution tailored to your needs.

The post Starting a Consulting Business in 2021: A Definitive Guide appeared first on Cyfuture Blog.

Across the globe, businesses are increasingly availing of chatbot services. But only a few of them have been able to come up with outstanding chatbot solutions that leave their customers with a ‘wow’ feeling and help them attain the desired outcomes.

In this blog, we will talk about some such exceptional chatbots. So, let’s begin.

1) Duolingo

Learning a new language isn’t an easy feat. What is especially challenging is that you don’t usually get native speakers to practice with. To tackle the problem, Duolingo has launched an AI-powered chatbot app.

It is one of the most popular language learning chatbot apps with powerful AI-ML algorithms. The app understands the context and learning level of the user and, accordingly, assists him with learning. As a result, different users get different responses for a given query.

The most striking benefit of this chatbot app is that a user can have adequate practice before he communicates with a fluent speaker of any language. This way, he makes fewer mistakes and doesn’t feel as embarrassed during communication.

Initially launched in just 4 languages-English, French, Spanish and German-the bot is now available in 23 languages.

2) Expedia

An online travel agency, Expedia.com can be used to book airline tickets, hotel reservations, cab bookings and vacation packages. Its Facebook Messenger bot, however, is programmed for hotel searches and bookings only.

All a user needs to do is to open his Facebook Messenger, tell the chatbot a little about his travel plan. Once it has gathered sufficient information, the chatbot will display the five most popular hotel options in the given location. If the user clicks on any of the suggested hotels, he will be directed to Expedia’s website. On the website, the user can make a booking directly. And once the book is done, the user gets a message on his Messenger interface with a link to his itinerary.

3)  Sephora

If you are a make-up enthusiast who needs make-up tips designed especially for you, give Sephora chatbot a try. This powerful bot on Facebook Messenger makes everything as simple as possible for a given user.

Thanks to the chatbot, you can get tips, product recommendations, and other useful information delivered directly to you. You can even book appointments, browse new products, and try on make-up through its AR filters without leaving the Messenger chat.

The chatbot first takes a quiz in order to comprehend a user’s needs. This way, it can know its target audience better and serve what they are looking for.

Sephora is a highly intuitive and easy to use solution that’s incredibly popular among its users. It attracts even those users that are merely interested in interacting with the bot, not buying anything. When at a Sephora store, users can bypass a sales associate and interact directly with the bot.

4) Bank of America’s Erica

Bank of America has designed an AI-driven financial assistant-Erica. The bot is available for free within their mobile banking app to the bank’s customers.

Erica combines Artificial Intelligence, predictive analytics and natural language processing to help customers access balance information, transfer funds between accounts, view past transactions, get credit scores, and schedule meetings at financial centers. Users get plenty of options for interacting with Erica-voice commands, text, or tapping options on their app interface.

The chatbot can also integrate with the bank’s spending and budgeting tools and connect with agents’ consoles in call centers. So, when using Erica, users can get in touch with a human agent by means of a simple tap. And since the agent can view the user’s communication with Erica, he doesn’t need to explain the issue he wants to get resolved.

The bot is a huge hit among Bank of America’s customers; so far, it has crossed 7 million users and completed over 50 million transactions.

5) HelloFresh’s Freddy

Unable to decide what to have for dinner? Ask Freddy, HelloFresh’s Facebook Messenger chatbot to help you with your ordering choices.

If a user types in an ingredient or a dish, Freddy searches HelloFresh’s blog for suitable recipes. And if you have ordered a meal, the bot sends you a reminder when it’s time to pick up your meal.

Though a button-based chatbot, Freddy understands keywords related to food. It offers options in the form of buttons to connect the user with customer service agents whenever he requests so. At times, the bot entertains the users with food-related quizzes and riddles.

The chatbot was created with an intent to manage the high volume of messages HelloFresh used to receive on its Messenger platform. Owing to Freddy’s AI capabilities, the company has been able to trim down their response time by 76%, all while reporting a 47% rise in incoming messages.

6) Domino’s Dom

Don’t feel like cooking? Order your food without making even a single phone call. We are talking about Domino’s pizza ordering assistant Dom.

While we have too many examples of food ordering bots in the industry, this one stands out, simply because it makes the task of ordering a pizza far too convenient. You choose what you want, type in your address, and you are done.

A large percentage of chatbots fail to live up to expectations merely because too much is asked of them. Domino’s bot is different. It has just one job and it does it well.

And the best thing about the bot is that it is available on many different platforms- Facebook Messenger, Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. So, you can order from the device of your choice.

In addition, the bot remembers your order history, so you can reorder if you want. The bot tracks your order and also estimates when it will be delivered.

7) Mya

Another powerful chatbot on the list is Mya, an AI-enabled recruitment assistant. It leverages machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) to automate the recruitment process. The bot engages both active and passive candidates by means of natural, dynamic conversations. This kind of solution is a must for organisations that receive hundreds of applications on a daily basis.

Companies such as L’Oréal are using Mya to slash the workload of their human resource department. The bot helps the company filter out promising candidates. It asks the candidates a few questions, verifies their qualifications and answers queries related to company culture, policy and benefits.

Once this is done, an HR professional from the company reaches out to the candidate and informs him whether they will go ahead with the subsequent rounds. This way, more than 75% of the hiring process gets automated.

8) Woebot

Founded in 2017 by a team of Stanford psychologists and AI experts, Woebot is a virtual therapist that helps people monitor their moods and learn about themselves. Trained in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), the bot asks the users how they are feeling in daily brief conversations that don’t last longer than 10 minutes.

The bot stores all the data from the previous conversations; this data is used as a reference in all subsequent interactions to provide specific responses. Woebot addresses the mental health needs of the users by keeping a track of their moods and sharing videos and other tools on the chat if required.

The chatbot isn’t meant to replace human therapists. It, however, is a decent option for those who don’t have access to mental healthcare or don’t feel like visiting a therapist.

Read More– What is a Chatbot and Why Your Business Need Chatbots?

Start Building a World-Class Chatbot with Cyfuture

If the above examples have inspired you to create a chatbot solution of your own, you are at the right place. Whether you need a chatbot solution for your WhatsApp channel or want to integrate your bot with Facebook Messenger, we’ve got you covered.

Connect with our AI experts on sales@cyfuture.com to avail of our chatbot services in India and get a conversational, personalised solution for your needs.

The post 8 Great Chatbot Examples you can Draw Inspiration from in 2021 appeared first on Cyfuture Blog.

Against the backdrop of the pandemic, businesses are scrambling to optimize their expenses and shifting focus on the integral aspects of their business. So, the non-core operations are getting transferred to BPO companies adept at handling such work.

No wonder, the BPO market is thriving. It is poised to grow by a whopping $105 billion during the period 2020-2024, at a CAGR of around 10%.

As a growing business, you can count on BPO service providers to take care of processes that are important but not core to your business. That said, you cannot realize any of the aforementioned benefits unless you have chosen the right business process outsourcing company to run your functions.

So, what should you look for when finalizing a BPO service provider? How can you select an outsourcing partner that can set your business for success?

That’s what we are going to talk about in this post. So, let’s dive in.

What to look for in your outsourcing partner?

1) Industry Reputation

Reputation is imperative when selecting a business partner. Choosing a BPO service provider that has earned the trust and respect of the industry will stand you in good stead. Now the question is how will you assess the reputation of your prospective vendor?

Here are a few things you can count on:

Awards: Companies that have earned awards and accolades are most likely the ones with above-par services.

Certifications and Accreditations: These are granted by independent bodies, so are an apt indicator of an organization’s overall well-being.

Industry Ranking: Companies ranking well in industry surveys are the ones delivering high-performing solutions.

2) Domain Expertise

Every industry vertical has its distinct processes, regulations, and challenges. Regardless of how experienced a BPO service provider is, if they haven’t worked in your niche, there are high chances they will not comprehend its nuances well and deliver a below-par solution.

To avoid such a scenario, you must pick a solution provider that has ample experience in your vertical and has successfully executed projects in the same.

3) Scalability

The demand for your product or service can expand or shrink depending on the performance of the economy and the seasonality of your offerings. A BPO provider should have the necessary facilities and resource strength to ramp up or down with the least hassle. Only a company that demonstrates scalability and agility can consistently deliver a high level of service to your end-users regardless of demand.

4) Technology

Around 60% of the businesses regard access to technology as important to BPOs, as this allows them to benefit from the latest innovations without kind of major investment. Unfortunately, several BPOs do not have robust technological solutions in place to fulfill the demands of their clients.

A lot of activities in various functions like accounting, customer support, etc. can be automated through technologies such as Artificial Intelligence; this not only does away with the labor costs associated with repetitive tasks but also eradicates inefficiency and errors happening on account of human intervention.

So, when looking for an outsourcing partner, make sure they have integrated the latest technologies in their processes. Also, these should be relevant to the function you seek to outsource.

Also Read: Top 7 Trends impacting BPO Companies in 2021 and Beyond

5) Security

Often overlooked, security is a vital aspect to consider when choosing a BPO service provider. When outsourcing, you are required to share a great deal of information with your service provider. As a result, it is essential to assess if your outsourcing partner has top-notch security policies in place, e.g. non-disclosure agreement (NDA), service level agreement (SLA). An NDA prohibits the sharing of confidential information. Likewise, an SLA stipulates the standards the service provider has to meet when delivering work.

In addition, your partner should have cybersecurity provisions to prevent unsolicited access to sensitive data. Measures such as biometric access, CCTV cameras, multi-factor authentication, firewalls, etc. need to be in place.

6) Culture and Language Fit

In an age when offshoring is gaining traction, experts still recommended going for service providers located nearby. While offshore BPOs may charge you less than their counterparts located closer, their services are bound to come with plenty of challenges such as language barriers, cultural differences, and significant time zone differences that can negatively affect communication and workflow. These challenges can prove detrimental to the growth of your business.

7) Pricing

We all know there is always a trade-off between quality and price. So, pricing should never be the sole criterion when choosing a BPO partner. That said, every business should strive to optimize its expenses when outsourcing.

It is recommended that you compare the prices quoted by different BPO companies and assess the quality of services delivered by them. While a very low price may indicate poor quality of service, a very high price can be something you may not be able to afford. So, choose judiciously and decide on pricing that fits within your estimated budget.

8) Turn-around Time

When it comes to business process outsourcing, turn-around time is of key consideration. Your outsourcing partner should have a track record of delivering within the turn-around time. If such criteria are met, you will be able to achieve your milestones in a hassle-free manner.

9) Infrastructure

A solid infrastructure is integral to the smooth delivery of BPO services. It helps the BPO service provider set up their teams and resources in a proper manner. It is, therefore, recommended to select a provider that assures you of a robust infrastructure including high-speed internet connection, phone connectivity, UPS, data storage devices, Interactive Voice Response System (IVR), predictive dialler, CRM software, and so on.

10) Reporting

In a situation when you cannot be physically present to track what kind of work BPO agents are doing, you need to have a reporting system in place. A reliable reporting and management tool can help you get unhindered access to regular reports and offer insight into how your outsourcing partner is performing. This way, you can ensure all the key performance indicators (KPIs) are being met in a timely fashion.

Get the leverage to Stay Ahead in the Game

The success of your business depends on building a strategic association with a reliable outsourcing partner that can take a considerable amount of burden off your shoulders so that you can focus on the strategic aspects of your business and take it to the next level.

A leading technology company, we blend in our technological know-how with our outsourcing expertise and offer carefully crafted outsourcing solutions in areas of market research, debt collection, inbound and outbound services, etc. So far, we have catered to over 10,000 happy clients in diverse business verticals including e-commerce, retail, banking, finance, oil and gas, power, and so on.

To avail of our world-class solutions, get in touch with our outsourcing professionals at 91-120-6277700 or through email at sales@cyfuture.com

The post How to choose the Right Business Process Outsourcing Company for your Business in 2021: A Brief Guide appeared first on Cyfuture Blog.

However, if you haven’t outsourced any of your projects before, the task can appear to be daunting. To help you out, we have presented a guide on what steps you can undertake to make the outsourcing process as smooth as possible. So, let’s get started.

Outsourcing Mobile App Development: 5 Steps to Follow

Define your Requirements

To begin with, outline your requirements in terms of platforms and technology you want your app built on along with the features you want in your app. Do not forget to align your requirements with your business plan. Doing so will help you evaluate what exactly you are expecting from the outsourcing project. Assess your target audience-their demographics, needs and preferences-and how your app can fulfill these requirements.

Platforms you will launch the app on:

Here, you can choose any of the following options:

a) Native apps:

Apps in this category are built for a specific platform such as Android or iOS. For a native app, you will need to hire two different teams, so be ready to spend accordingly. This is the most expensive development option but fares the best in terms of quality.

b) Hybrid apps:

These apps can be developed once and then deployed on any platform. A hybrid app costs far less than a native one-all you need to build is just one app that will run anywhere. Needless to say, these apps don’t perform as well as their native counterparts.

c) Web apps:

These work on any device with a browser. Though they can be developed fast, they are limited in terms of functionality. So, if you need something just to test your idea, a web app can be a great option.

Technology your app will be built on:

Once you have figured out the kind of app you need, it’s time to decide the technology. Your technology stack will depend on the approach you have chosen.

1. If you have decided to go the native way, you’ll need at least two development teams-Java or Kotlin developers for the Android app and Swift or Objective C for the iOS app.
2. For hybrid apps, you can use JavaScript in addition to frameworks such as Cordova. Flutter and React Native are also great for building cross-platform hybrid applications.
3. Web apps are also created using JavaScript. Here, you can go for Angular or React for front-end development and Node.js or Laravel for back-end development.

In addition, you will need to discuss the databases and cloud solutions used for your projects. With well-defined requirements in place, you will have clear communication with your development partner and get a product that meets your expectations.

Features your app will have:

An application can have a wide range of functionalities but integrating all of them right away is a bad idea. A unique feature will take time more time to develop than a generic one, driving up the total time of development. So, at this stage, it would be a good idea to consider just the features you would require in your minimal viable product (MVP).

Search for App Development Companies

Considering the plethora of app development companies we have, shortlisting some of these for your project can be a real pain. You can count on the following sources to speed up your work:

1. Freelance websites:Freelance sites such as Up-work and Guru are great places to start with. Here, you can get a lot of information on app development companies: number of projects completed, ratings, reviews, etc.
2. Google Search:Through Google, you can look for companies specialized in the kind of product you seek. For instance, if you are looking to develop a food delivery app, your Google search query can be ‘food delivery app development company’.

• Recommendations:Find if any of your connections have outsourced development for any of their apps in the recent past.

Finalize your App Development Company

When you have a list of prospective vendors, it’s time to finalize one of these for your project. When doing so, make use of the following parameters:

• Technology Stack and Experience:Check if the company has the experience of working with similar clients in the past. Also, if they work on the technology stack you are looking for.
• Industry Certifications:Find if the vendor is recognized as a high-rated custom mobile app development company by trusted organisations. It’s good to associate with a company with reputed organisations as its partners.
• Communication:Spend some time discussing how they will communicate during the development process, how they will ensure transparency in communication, and which tools they will use for collaboration.
• Live Products: It’s always recommended to check the live mobile applications of your prospective vendor. Install one or two of their apps and assess the overall quality of the product. Does it live up to your expectation?
• Reviews: Check out the reviews of the company on review websites and ask if you can connect with any of their clients for a recommendation.

By following the above steps, your task of choosing a development partner will become quite easy.

 Choose a Service Model

App development projects typically work on any of the service models mentioned below:

1. Project-based model:Also called end-to-end development model. In this case, your app is built by a dedicated team that works on a fixed budget to achieve pre-defined goals within a fixed time frame. As it is an end-to-end development model, it will include complete support, both before and after product release. This model is employed by companies with no development team or no experience in project management.
2. Dedicated Team:In this case, your development vendor is responsible for building the team, assigning tasks, handling project management and process quality. You can delegate project decisions to the vendor and manage the overall project at a high level. This model can be a fit for mid-size companies looking to outsource a part of their project such as developing a chatbot.
3. Team Extension:In this case, you assign various tasks to developers and provide them with a place to work. You are responsible for controlling the work process, managing the project, regulating working time, and promoting inside the team. The model works well for mid-and-large sized companies that already have a developers’ team and want to hire a specialist for a particular task while staying within the project’s budget.

Once you have chosen a service model, it’s time to consider the payment aspect of the project.

Choose a Payment Model

If you go for the team extension service model, you will pay the developers a monthly salary like regular staff members. If, however, you decide to work with a dedicated team or a project-based model, any of the payment models mentioned below can work for you:

1. Fixed Price: This model can a good choice if you are working on a relatively smaller project with a limited budget wherein you have a clear understanding of what needs to be done. This model can be a good fit in cases where you want to build an MVP with no third-party integration. A clear drawback of this model is that if you want to change the scope of work by adding new features, a re-estimation would be needed and that would be time-consuming. That’s why most of the companies prefer the other model i.e. time and material model.
2. Time and Material Model:This payment model is popular among companies using agile methodology. Here, you agree on the hourly rate of each developer and pay according to the actual time spent on development. The time and material model works well when you cannot decide the scope of work beforehand. An advantage of this model is that it works for projects of all sizes.

How much does Mobile App Development Outsourcing cost?

The cost of mobile app development can vary depending on the complexity of your app, features, tools, platform, and, the location to which the work has been outsourced.

Building a decent application requires a team of around 10 people, each with distinct roles-project manager, business analyst, front-end developers, back-end developers, UI/UX designers and quality analysts.

Let’s consider the cost range for the common types of apps:

• Messaging app: $50,000-$130,000
• Ride booking app: $25,000-$100,000
• Social networking app: $70,000-$100,000
• Video streaming app: $20,000-$50,000
• E-commerce app: $25,000-$50,000
• Food Delivery app: $70,000-$80,000

Choose Cyfuture’s Application Development Services to Stay Ahead of the Digital Curve

In today’s ultra-competitive world, most businesses look upon outsourcing as a strategic move that helps them focus on their core competencies. Companies of all types and sizes from start-ups and mid-sized entities to large-sized corporations are collaborating with development companies within and outside their country and getting innovative apps built within a specified time frame and budget.

If you too are looking to outsource app development, get in touch with our technical consultants and get a free quote today.

The post A Brief Guide to Mobile App Development Outsourcing in 2021 appeared first on Cyfuture Blog.

A seamless and glitch-free website is the result of the combined effort of website designer, website developer and hosting partner. This article will help you understand why it is important to ensure utmost synergy between them.

Website – Design to development to hosting

Let us first realise that building an impressive website is no easy feat by any means. It involves a range of complexities right from the inception to the very end. And the hurdles do not end at the design and development stage. In order to publish your website on the internet (and become visible to web users), you need to have something extra – a reliable web hosting service.

If you are wondering what web hosting is, let me explain. You have files, images, and HTML code that make up your website. These files need some space in the online world, or else they would just remain stored on your PC and your business won’t get off the ground.

A web hosting service offers space on a powerful computer (web server) where you can store the files needed for your website to run properly. When an internet user types in your domain name (website address), his browser makes a request to this web server, and your site becomes visible to him.

So, long story short, your work doesn’t stop with getting a website built. You need a robust hosting solution to make it visible to users.

Having said that, you don’t need any fancy hosting plans for your business as a beginner. Even a simple shared hosting plan will serve the purpose. If you are based out of India, you can buy a decent shared hosting service for as low as INR 150/month.

As your website grows more complex and heavier with time (as most sites do), you can go ahead and upgrade to a premium hosting plan later.

To get a better understanding on choosing the right hosting solution,watch out our video:

But your work doesn’t end even with the purchase of a hosting solution. If your website has a wide range of functionalities, stores a massive amount of customer data, or caters to a wide range of geographies, there is so much extra you will need to do to your site.

You will have to fine-tune your security settings and set up SSL. You will have to optimise for SEO, set up web analytics, set up Google Webmaster tools, monitor your site’s uptime, speed and search engine rankings. If that sounds like a lot of work, it actually is.

So, you can either handle all these activities on your own or outsource them to a well-established web development company.In the former case, you will have to hire resources to get the work done, each resource managing one or more aspects of your site.

In the latter, a full-fledged technology company will handle everything on your behalf. They will not just launch, run, and maintain your website, but also take care of the IT needs that arise at any point in time.

So, the exercise of finalizing a web development company and a hosting company must be done simultaneously. Your hosting partner should be able to support every functionality that you have asked your web development partner to add to your website. These features may include a search bar, navigation bar, CTA buttons, images, videos, live chat, social media icons, contact form, internal links, FAQs and so on.

Alternately, you can opt for a company that offers several different services combined in one package i.e., design, development, support and maintenance, hosting, security, SEO, and many more, all of which are crucial for the seamless functioning of your website.

This will not only do away with the hassle of hiring many different service providers but also ensure consistency in the quality of services delivered.

After all, a company that has designed your website will instantly understand what to tweak in order to improve search engine optimisation. Or, a company that has developed your webpages will have an idea of the security settings you need to implement. Cyfuture is one such company.

At Cyfuture, we offer the whole gamut of technology solutions to help you operate your website in the most convenient manner. As a matter of fact, we are a one-stop-shop for everything you need to build and run your online business, be it web design, development or maintenance, data migration, CMS integration, third-party integration, web hosting, digital marketing, and much more.

We spin up websites that are not only responsive in nature but also compliant with the latest industry standards. Our team of technical experts offers round-the-clock support and maintenance in addition to regular backups that make sure you face no issues with your website once it gets up and running.

Thanks to our tier-III data centre facilities equipped with the latest hardware and software, we also deliver powerful hosting solutions that fuel your site with adequate processing power, RAM, bandwidth, and storage. We are also adept at crafting omni-channel digital marketing strategies that include SEO, PPC, email marketing, content marketing, and online PR to assist you in building your brand and reinforcing your digital footprint.

So, you see, our solutions can not only enable you to build an impressive website from the ground up in a matter of a few weeks but also ward off issues arising at any point in time. Because our services are carefully customized, they cater to your precise needs and address your key pain areas.

Visit our page for a more in-depth understanding of the solutions we offer.

The post Why Synergy between a Website Developer and a Hosting Partner means a lot? appeared first on Cyfuture Blog.

Even so, few of us have been able to apply digital marketing successfully to our own business. Many of us don’t even understand what falls under the ambit of digital marketing and what does not. Don’t fret. In this blog, we will cover digital marketing strategies that you can use to grow your business. Of course, choosing one strategy over the other will require some deliberation on your end.

Here’s a list of 7 tried and tested strategies for digital marketing:

1. Content Marketing
2. Search Engine Optimization
3. Pay-per-click Advertising
4. Affiliate Marketing
5. Email Marketing
6. Social Media Marketing
7. Video Marketing

So, let’s discuss them one by one.

1) Content Marketing

Content marketing is a digital marketing strategy that focusses on creating and distributing content-text, graphics, audio, videos-for your target audience. This content should be relevant and offer some value to the target audience. By this definition, spammy emails that we receive on a regular basis don’t fall in the bracket of content marketing.

With the emergence of multi-media, the field of content marketing has become quite versatile, so you can experiment with different kinds of content to entertain and inform your target users while building your brand.

However, of late, it has become an immensely crowded space, so standing out from the crowd and regularly creating new forms of content to engage your target audience is no mean feat.

How to start content marketing?

To start with content marketing, you need to have a robust content strategy in place. Here’s how you can build one:

• Decide the core focus areas or themes around which you will create content. These will depend not only on how you want to position your brand but also on what your customers want.
• Establish the formats you will use for content creation. These can be in the form of blogs, case studies, press releases, podcasts, videos, and so on.
• Decide the channels on which this content has to be published. e.g. your website, guest websites, social media platforms.
• Make a content calendar deciding what to post when and get started.

2) Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimisation, or SEO, is what the name suggests-optimising your content for search engines so that it ranks high in search engine results when users look for keywords related to your product or service. SEO helps your brand to become more visible to your target users, so you should practice it regardless of the industry you operate in.

SEO is considered free in the manner that you aren’t paying specifically to make your content appear high up in search results. But to create high-quality, relevant content that has the potential to rank and implement the technical optimization of your website, you need to hire (and pay for) resources who will do the work.

There is a kind of content deluge on the internet today, so ranking high for any keyword is getting harder by the day. Plus, Google where most of the internet users search stuff keeps on tweaking its algorithms. So, you have to stay abreast of these changes in order to stay relevant in the online world.

How to start search engine optimization?

A great content strategy acts as the foundation for your SEO, so make sure you have one in place. In addition, you will need to:

Do thorough keyword research: Keyword research helps you understand what your user base is looking for on the internet. This helps you come up with a list of keywords you need to focus on.

Analyse Results on Google’s first page: Identify what kind of content ranks on the first page of Google for any specific keyword. Try to create something that’s better or, at least, equally good.

Optimise Title and Meta Description: Tweak the URL, title tags and meta descriptions of your existing webpages to match your targeted keywords.

Build Relevant Backlinks: Identify high-quality websites relevant to your niche. Look for ways to make your content valuable to the site owner. Reach out for a backlink created either directly or through a guest blog, etc.

Remember, SEO is a complex field, so unless you are an SEO expert, you will need to hire resources to do the heavy lifting.

A link building agency can shoulder this part of digital marketing for you. Getting a quality backlink is important so that your business stays on the good side of Google.

3) Pay-per-Click Advertising (PPC)

Image Courtesy: inc.com

PPC is simply paid advertising on search engines such as Google or Bing. It is used to bring more visitors to your site by paying a fee, as opposed to the organic method employed in SEO (discussed above). Here, you have to pay a fee every time a user clicks on your ad.

It’s important to remember that paid search results look similar to organic ones. The only difference is that they are displayed on the top of the page and have a small box that says ‘Ad’.

PPC advertising can help you appear in top results quickly, provided you are ready to pay for it. This strategy also carries a high RoI (return on investment) as you are charged only when an interested person clicks on your ad.

The downside to a PPC method is that it can get quickly expensive, especially if you are targeting highly popular and competitive keywords. Besides, a lot of users are sceptical of paid ads and tend to trust organic results.

How to Start with PPC advertising?

If you have the budget, you can run PPC campaigns to augment your SEO efforts. Here’s how you run a PPC ad for your business:

Decide on your customer persona: Create a profile of your ideal customer describing their demographics, needs, preferences, shopping habits.

Do keyword research: An in-depth research helps you come up with a list of potential keywords. Refine this list to choose the keywords you are likely to focus on.

Finalise your keywords: It’s good to focus on keywords with a high search volume. But such keywords may also have a high competition and, therefore, a high cost-per-click. So, choose keywords depending on your PPC budget.

Create an ad copy: Once you have your keywords, create a killer ad copy that’s likely to attract customers. The ad needs to have a snappy yet attention-grabbing headline and a description that includes your USP and a compelling call to action (CTA).

Build a landing page optimised for conversion: Create a landing page that relates to the product/service you are trying to sell in the campaign. This will improve the odds of your visitors getting converted.

Monitor and Improve your Results: Track key metrics such as click-through rates and conversion rates. If these metrics are not satisfactory, it means the ad is not bringing the desired results. In that case, experiment with a different ad copy or use a different CTA.

4) Affiliate Marketing

Image Courtesy: www.thebalancesmb.com

In this digital marketing strategy, you associate with other individuals/companies (affiliates) who promote your product/service in return for a commission. Here, the affiliate markets your product on their site and, if a user clicks and buys the product, they will be paid for bringing in sales.

The apparent advantage of this method is that your affiliate does the hard work of promoting the product on your behalf. Besides, there is no upfront fee as you pay only when someone actually buys from you.

Affiliate marketing, however, does not give you complete control over your branding; you will have to educate the affiliates on how you want your brand to be positioned and what message you want to convey.

How to start affiliate marketing?

       Here are steps you take to start with affiliate marketing:

• Research on the various types of affiliate marketing programs around you and the kind of commission they offer.
• You can start an affiliate program on your own or partner with a reliable affiliate management agency.
• Define unambiguous terms and conditions with respect to the program; be clear with respect to payment details.
• Train your affiliates on your brand guidelines so that they understand what’s allowed and what isn’t.

     5) Email Marketing

In the world of instant messaging and social media chats, emails may appear to be quite old school. In reality, they are among the most effective ways to promote your business.

In a recent study, it was found that the average RoI (return on investment) of email marketing hovers around 122%. And the best part is that it hardly costs you anything. Possibly the only thing you will need to spend on is buying a subscription plan on your email marketing software.

If you are an e-commerce brand, you can use emails to push seasonal promotions and discounts. Even as a B2B business like Cyfuture, you can use newsletters to nurture your prospects and offer them something of value.

That said, a large number of emails lie unopened in users’ inbox, so you will need to put in some thought while drafting your emails.

Check out this interesting promotional email I received from CoSchedule:

How to start email marketing?

• To begin with, choose a good email marketing software for your campaigns. Recommended options include Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, Sendinblue, etc.
• Draft a Compelling email copy for your brand. Things to keep in mind when writing your copy:
  • Keep your subject line catchy. It should entice the recipient to open the email.
  • Write in simple, persuasive language. Steer clear of industry jargons.
  • Focus on the benefits you can offer to the user.
  • Do not make the copy too long. Break the text into bullets, etc. to make it scannable.
  • Optimise the email for small screens.
  • Add an email signature as well as the physical address and contact details of your brand. Of course, you don’t want your email to look like yet another spam message.
• Collect the email address of your prospects through the contact form on your website. Entice users to opt for your email subscription by offering them something in exchange e.g. an e-book, a small guide, etc.
• Once you have a sufficient number of email addresses, create a campaign calendar and start sending out regular emails.
• Follow up on the users who read your mails or reply to it. And more importantly, remove the ones who have unsubscribed.

6) Social Media Marketing

As per a recent study, users spend an average of 2 hours and 25 minutes every day on social media. Social media is, therefore, something you cannot afford to neglect.

In comparison to other marketing channels where you just broadcast a message to a large audience, social media platforms bring in a new dimension of engagement. On Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, you can interact with your customers and listen to what they have to say about your product/service.

For example, Facebook has stories, groups, business pages, Messenger, live videos to help you connect with your audience. Plus, you can run paid ads for more precise targeting. So, if you are not actively pursuing social media marketing, it’s time to start it now.

How to start social media marketing?

As with pretty much everything else, great social media marketing starts with setting the right goals.

• Create goals aligned with your business objectives. Research everything you can about your target audience.
• Decide which social networks to use. Set up accounts on each of these networks and create a compelling profile.
• For creating content, draw inspiration from brands doing great on social media. A little research will help you discover brands that are doing great on social. Take cues from your favourite accounts.
• Create a social media content calendar, set up a posting schedule, and determine the right content mix.
• Use a social media management tool like Buffer or Hootsuite to schedule posts for every network.
• Assess your performance through metrics such as likes, comments, shares, views, impressions, received on a post and see what works for your brand. Fine-tune your strategy accordingly.

Don’t feel like reading the entire blog? Watch out our video on social media marketing: 5 Approaches to Effective Social Media Marketing

7) Video Marketing

It has been estimated that an average user will spend close to 100 minutes watching videos in 2021, a 19% increase over 84 minutes in 2019. So, videos are gaining tremendous traction in the digital world, and those who fail to harness this trend are sure to lag behind.

Videos are immensely effective in conveying your message as they are far more engaging and more likely to be remembered by your audience. Plus, all the major social platforms prioritise video content, so videos tend to rank higher in social feeds. This simply means your behind-the-scenes video or thought leadership video is likely to garner more eyeballs than a simple blog or infographic.

The only downside of video marketing is that it requires both time and skill to make high-quality videos.

How to start video marketing?

First of all, make videos an integral part of your content marketing strategy as well as your social media strategy. You can then proceed with the following:

Plan your Video: Decide why you are going to create a video in the first place. Be clear with respect to your target audience, platforms, budget, creative requirements, etc.

Script your Video: Craft a proper script for your video. Keep the language simple and conversational. The script should be crisp yet engrossing.

Gather necessary equipment: A high-quality professional video requires the right set of equipment-DSLR camera, tripod, microphone, lights.

Shoot and publish the video: Set up a designated place to shoot your videos in, and record your video, one section at a time. Once shot, edit the video using a reliable video editing software such as iMovie or Adobe Premiere Pro. Add music and voice-over to the video. Publish the edited video on the platform of choice.

Optimise your video for search: To make sure your video appears in YouTube and Google search results, optimise the video for search. Add the targeted keywords to the title and description of the video, add a transcript to the video and classify it into an appropriate category.

Analyse and Refine your Strategy: Evaluate the performance of your videos on metrics such as view count, watch time, video completions, etc. Refine your strategy accordingly.

Read: A Must-Read Guide to Video Marketing in 2020

Ready to take the plunge?

These are the top digital marketing strategies you should consider implementing but considering that each of these is pretty time-consuming, it is suggested you focus on just 2 or 3 strategies in the beginning and start building thereon.

Looking for digital marketing services? Connect with our marketing consultants today and get a solution aligned with your needs.

The post Digital Marketing Strategies that Actually Work: 7 Tried-and-Tested Ways to Boost Business Online appeared first on Cyfuture Blog.

Are you, too, looking to reap the benefits of the digital revolution?

Are you, too, considering getting a website for your business?

If yes, you must have surely taken the first step, i.e., a Google search to explore web development services.

While this digital frenzy appears recent, the web development industry isn’t and has a multitude of players, big and small. To put things in perspective, here is what a quick Google search will yield:

No wonder, choosing the right website development company for your business can be mind-boggling. But don’t fret. Because that’s what we are going to talk about.

In this blog, we will discuss the most important factors you should consider while finalizing a website development company for your business.

1. Company’s Website

This one is a no-brainer. If the company hasn’t put in efforts into their own website, they are not likely to build an impressive product for your business. Check out the look and feel of the website, its functionalities, and the user experience it offers. Also, evaluate the quality of content published on it.

Most web development companies have a section on their past projects. Simply having a look at it will give you a fair idea of what the company is capable of doing. And this brings us to the second vital parameter-portfolio.

2. Work Portfolio

Depending on the vertical you operate in, you may need anything from a very simple to a highly complex website. For instance, something like an e-commerce portal requires intricate work on both the front-end and back-end. Hence, choosing a company experienced in your niche would stand you in good stead.

We have noticed how trends in any industry keep changing with time. Target web development vendors that have a good understanding of your vertical and are familiar with its challenges. This way, you will have a product that’s in line with your expectations.

3. Technology Stack

As you may already know, a technology stack is nothing, but the combination of tools, frameworks, and programming languages used in web development. Before discussing which technology stack to choose, let’s have a look at the various popular stacks used these days:

LAMP Stack: This stack comprises Linux operating system, Apache HTTP server, MySQL database management, and PHP programming language. LAMP is typically used for building dynamic web applications.

MEAN Stack: MEAN stack is a collection of JavaScript technologies that include MongoDB, Express.js, Angular JS, and Node.js. Out of these, MongoDB is a NoSQL database system, Angular JS is a JavaScript framework, Express.js is a framework running on Node execution domain, and Node.js is a server-side JavaScript execution environment. Owing to the use of JavaScript and MVC architecture, MEAN is commonly used for creating scalable applications.

Ruby on Rails Stack: In this stack, Rails is a web development framework written in Ruby language. Ruby on Rails enables swift development and deployment of your website owing to its MVC pattern, RESTful design and object-oriented programming.

Python/Django: Django is a server-side framework written in the Python programming language. The stack is commonly employed for building a minimum viable product (MVP) that has all the essential tools for scalability. It can be integrated with third-party applications to speed up development.

.NET: This technology stack includes C# programming language in addition to the .NET framework.

Now, the choice of your technology stack will depend on a whole range of factors like the size of your project, timeframe for development, and ease of scalability. Let’s discuss briefly how different stacks can be used in different scenarios.

You may be looking for anything ranging from a small, simple website to a complex web portal. If you are looking for a basic website, a content management system (CMS) such as WordPress, Drupal, or Joomla would do the trick.

If, on the other hand, you need a small e-commerce portal or an organisational website that needs a couple of functionalities and integration across various platforms, MEAN or .NET can be a good fit.

If you are eyeing a large project such as a social media site or a large e-commerce platform that demands customization as well as scalability, the recommended technology stacks would be PHP, Python/Django or RoR.

For those of you looking to publish a website real fast, Ruby on Rails and Python/Django can be great options. While the former comes with open-source libraries, the latter offers seamless integration with third-party applications.

Then, some of you may not be looking to build a full-fledged product right away. Many businesses first get a minimum viable product (MVP) built with all the core functionalities they want in the final product. If they find the MVP is up to their expectations, they go ahead and get the final product built. In such a scenario, your stack of choice should be MEAN or Python/Django.

There’s no denying that your web development partner would guide you on the technology stack before the project kicks off. Even so, with a fair idea of various stacks, you can ask them to use the stack that would be most appropriate under any scenario. Hence, we strongly suggest that you go for a technology company that offers a range of stacks. This way, you can have what exactly you are looking for and not forced to choose from a narrow range of options.

4. Pricing

Web development companies work across a broad price range. As is mostly the case, the higher the price, the better the quality. A good approach can be to fix a budget and search for companies falling within that range.

You may be enamoured by the glossy websites of various multi-national corporations, but keep in mind that they all come at a cost. At the same time, you will find a lot of website designers who work on a project basis and command a low price.

It is essential to figure out how much you can afford to spend on developing the site without compromising on the prime goal of getting the website made.

Regardless of how small your website is, you will have to incur expenses on security certifications and digital marketing services once you go live. These have to be factored in while deciding the total cost of project.

5. Level of Communication

In any development project, you are required to work in close association with your vendor for a span of at least 3-6 months. Hence, it’s vital that you have developers who are capable of communicating with the utmost ease.

Assess the soft skills of the developers, check how frequently they reply to your email queries, and how proactive they are otherwise. By doing so, you will get a fair idea of how well they have understood what you have communicated and how easy or difficult the communication is going to be once the project commences.

6. Qualification & Experience of Developers

It’s essential that you know the people working on your project well. What if you work with one of the best web development companies but have your work assigned to newbies?

In addition to connecting with these people on e-mail and video chats, you should try to meet them in person. This will not only help dispel any doubts regarding their credibility but also lay the foundation for solid communication channels.

7. Development Methodology

As you might know, development companies usually follow any of the three methodologies while executing their projects:

• Waterfall

This method is akin to building a house. The development team works on one section at a time, and once that section is finished, only then they move on to the next. Testing is done only when the product has been deployed.

In this model, the project timeline and cost are determined in the very beginning, so the entire picture is clear from the outset. That said, the waterfall approach happens to be somewhat rigid, so you might face challenges in getting changes done to your product.

• Agile

As the name implies, agile is an iterative approach where a project is divided into smaller chunks (sprints), and teams are divided to work on different sprints. At the end of a sprint, they come together to discuss their progress and the issues they may be facing. Testing is done at the end of every sprint (and not at the end of the project as in waterfall). This way, bugs are fixed right away.

The chief benefit of agile is that you can add or remove features while the project is going on and adjust requirements along the way.

• Hybrid

While agile is gaining popularity as the preferred model, no one wants to miss out on the benefits of the waterfall. So, a hybrid approach has come into the picture lately. Here, the development team tries to define the planning and budgeting requirements upfront (waterfall approach) and then shifts to the agile methodology when it comes to design, development and testing.

The methodology you choose depends on how well your development team understands your requirements and what they are comfortable with.

8. Additional Services

Once you have the design and development part sorted, you will need additional services to make your website function seamlessly. These include web hosting, SEO, data migration, security certification, etc. If you believe these are just a bunch of ‘good-to-have’ services, they are not. They are integral to the running of your website.

If you don’t have a quality hosting solution in place, your website may experience frequent downtime or take time to load. Similarly, if you fail to promote your business properly, it will not rank in search engines and the purpose of creating a website will be defeated.

Instead of getting these services from different vendors, look for a company that offers every such service as a part of your web development package.

As an illustrious technology company in India, Cyfuture offers the whole gamut of web development services in their end-to-end solution. Owing to our tier-III data centre facilities, we provide our clients with robust web hosting, data migration, and cloud-based services. These services not only support your website but also do away with the hassle of contacting dozens of vendors.

9. Post Go-Live Support

Many of you may be under the impression that your web development project will end when your website goes live. No, it does not. In fact, that’s the period when most of the issues come to the fore. You may load your site and find that a crucial feature is missing. Or, you may want to add a functionality after seeing the live version of the website.

The level of support you need will vary depending on the size and complexity of your project, the experience of your developers, and the level of communication between the two parties. Assess the kind of support your prospective vendor is offering, and if it will be adequate for smooth running of your application.

Questions to Ask your Prospects

We have already discussed a few criteria to help you shortlist prospective candidates. In addition to these criteria, there are certain questions you must ask your prospective vendor to make sure they fulfil your requirements in the best possible manner.

• Which methodology would they follow for development and what is the expected time frame for completion of the project?
• Which technology stack are they using to build the product?
• What is the range of services offered by them? Do they offer anything in addition to design and development?
• What is their pricing strategy and how would they bill you in case some additional feature/functionality gets included in your solution?
• Have they delivered similar projects in the recent past? If so, can they share the links for the same?
• How will they ensure your website has a responsive design?
• How will they ensure the SEO optimisation of your website? Do they have any content strategy in place?
• What KPIs would they rely on to measure the success/completion rate of your project?

Choose the Right Web Development Partner to Get the most out of your Online Business

There’s no denying that getting a website built is a complex task and you are likely to face unforeseen hurdles as your project hits the ground. By selecting a reliable web development company like Cyfuture over any freelance agency, you can not only make the task less overwhelming but also bring down time-to-market and the overall project cost significantly.

As a two-decade-old entity, we have profound experience in the technological space, particularly in web development, custom mobile application development, hosting, SEO and cloud & infrastructure solutions. Choose Cyfuture’s meticulously tailored solutions NOW to ace your online game. Visit our new page for details.

Thanks for reading!

The post The Ultimate Guide to Finding the Right Website Development Company for your Business in 2021 appeared first on Cyfuture Blog.

That’s the number of people using social media in 2021!

Needless to say, social media has taken the centre stage in our lives.

Businesses have taken note and are using social to streamline their marketing efforts.

Because, arguably, there is no better way to reach millions of people within a short time.

Need results from your social media marketing in India? Check out these tried-and-tested tips to boost your social strategy.

1) Define your Goals

If there are no concrete goals, how will you measure or refine your strategy with time?

So, you need to have goals to align with your marketing efforts.

When setting a goal, it’s essential that you keep the following in mind:

• Make SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Bound.
• Use numbers to make your goals measurable. (e.g. 5000 followers in 2 months)
• Establish realistic deadlines for these goals.
• Break down your goals into small, attainable steps.

2) Research about your Target Audience

Once your goals have been well defined, it’s time to have a look at the audience. Unless you know your target users well, you cannot decide what steps to implement.

In other words, you have to understand your audience fully-their needs, wants, preferences, pain points, and so on. But how? Here’s what you can do:

• Conduct surveys to collate data on your audience.
• Participate in Discussions on Forums your Audience Uses Frequently.
• Respond to comments on your social media page or other similar pages.
• Gather feedback using any of the available online tools.

Once you get this step right, a large chunk of work will be taken off your shoulders.

3) Treat each Social Media Channel differently

There are so many social platforms, each with unique features and benefits. So, creating a single post and posting it mindlessly on each channel will not serve the purpose.

It’s important to learn what each platform is meant for. For example:

Facebook: Especially good for promoting news or entertainment-related content. Facebook Groups are a great way of interacting with your audience.

LinkedIn: Being a professional network, LinkedIn is perfect for a B2B audience. LinkedIn Pulse can be used to publish insightful, informative posts.

Instagram: Works great for highly visual content. Images and short videos do particularly well.

Twitter: Ideal for real-time news and one-on-one interactions.

In essence, each social media channel will help you fulfil a different goal. So, if you want to generate a loyal following, use a different creative strategy for each channel, and post content that appeals to the audience.

4) Decide ‘When’ and ‘How Often’ to Post

For every social media platform, the audience may be the most active at different times of the day. So, what’s the ideal time for posting content on different channels? And how frequently should you post on social media?

Frankly speaking, there’s no single answer to this. To make your social media strategy a success, it’s vital that you test and identify the posting time and frequency that works for your business. Having said that, a lot of studies have been conducted on the subject in order to find a suitable time range to post on social. Here’s what these studies say about various platforms:

Facebook: Facebook is the biggest social network that’s extensively used all through the day on both weekdays and weekends. Afternoon hours i.e. 1 to 3 pm have been found to be optimal for this channel.

LinkedIn: LinkedIn is primarily a B2B network, so it makes sense to post on weekdays during business hours-10 am to 6 pm. Also, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays have been found to be the best days to post.

Instagram: Instagram is meant to be used on mobile devices, so people use it practically all the time. So, you can post anytime on Monday through Thursday except between 3 and 4 pm because that’s the time when posts spike on the network.

Twitter: As Twitter is mainly used during breaks or commutes, both at home and at work, the ideal time for posting on the network has been found to be between 12 noon and 3 pm, all weekdays.

Posting frequency is equally important. For platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn, just 1-2 posts per day are fine. For Twitter, the recommended number is up to 5 times a day.

5) Share High-Quality Visual Content

As per a study by Wyzowl, we remember only 20% of what we read and 80% of what we see. People find visual content-photos, images, infographics-more appealing compared to written text. So, they are more likely to interact with it and share it.

But fret not. You don’t need to be a graphic designer to create stunning visuals for your brand. Tools like Canva, PicMonkey, Picktochart can help you craft high-quality photos and illustrations within minutes.

Since you will need graphics for cover photos for each social media platform as well for social media posts, it’s important to remember that the dimensions of each of these graphics keep changing with time. So, research properly when finding the right size for social media images.

6) Invest in Video Content as much as possible

We all have seen the meteoric rise of video content in the past few years. Going by the stats, videos generate far more engagement than any other form of content.

To put things in perspective, let us have a look at the following stats:

• Tweets with videos draw 10x more engagement than those without videos.
• 77% of the marketers on Instagram post a video on IGTV.
• 70% of social media marketing companies plan to use video marketing on Facebook this year.
• 84% of people believe they have been convinced to buy a product/service after watching its video.
• 17% of the companies use live videos in social media marketing.

When it comes to videos, you can go for either pre-recorded or live videos. While pre-recorded videos allow you to convey your message the way you want, live videos let you connect with your audience in a manner that’s not possible with other kinds of content. As users engage with your content by asking questions, you can showcase the human aspect of your brand.

Creating an optimal mix of live and pre-recorded videos can do wonders for your brand.

Live videos on Facebook and Instagram have gained a lot of traction in the past few years and the reasons are pretty evident. These platforms, especially Facebook, prioritise, in their algorithm, users who post video content. This means simply by posting videos you can gain higher exposure than the brands that post just text and images.

7) Use Hashtags Strategically

Hashtags are a great means of organising your content on social media. Hashtags help you enhance visibility on social platforms, engage with your followers and initiate conversations on topics of interest.

Many brands try to join conversations on every trending topic, whether it relates to them or not. While this may seem to be an easy way to stay on top of conversations, it’s definitely not the right approach. It will dilute the message of your core brand.

Instead, you can focus on branded hashtags that you create for your brand. These hashtags may feature just your company name or a product name or a combination of both. If you are running a digital campaign or launching a product, launch a campaign hashtag for the same. Similarly, if your company is organising an event, or if your people are participating in any seminar/conference, incorporate the event hashtag in all your posts related to the event.

When sharing a blog or company-related news, it’s imperative that you use hashtags that are popular and likely to be seen by your audience. Tools like RiteTag can come in handy in such situations.

8) Showcase the Human Aspect of your Brand

When promoting your brand, it’s possible that you just focus on your offerings, and neglect the human aspect of your business. The latter includes your work culture, and everything related to the people who have gone into making your brand what it is today.

When on social, it’s important to highlight the human face of your business.

A good idea is to spin up stories around your brand. These stories are different from an ad or a sales pitch; they help the audience connect with your brand. Your stories define what you stand for, they showcase your culture as well as your values.

You can post employee testimonials from time to time, describing how people are happily contributing towards building your brand or how your organisation has helped them accomplish professional goals, work-life balance, etc.

You can share behind-the-scenes posts and show how your team comes together to create what you sell. Images or short videos of employees engaged in team building activities can be posted once or twice a week. This may include anything from birthday or festival celebrations and games to donation camps and CSR activities. 

9) Run Contests to Amp your Social Game

When posting on social media, engagement is what we need to focus on the most.

If people engage with your posts well, they are more likely to take interest in your brand. This, in the long run, can translate into higher conversion rates.

Here’s how you can run a contest on social media:

• Set the objectives you want to accomplish through this contest e.g. increase followers on Instagram or improve the sales of a particular product. These goals need to be specific and time bound.
• Decide the social media channel you want to host the contest on.
• Establish a deadline when the contest will end, and the winners will receive their prize.
• Create the contest. This can be in the form of a quiz contest, a voting contest, etc. You can count on user-generated content and ask users to post their pictures with your product. The contest has to be framed keeping in mind your audience demographics.
• Promote the contest as much as you can. Use hashtags if possible.

As most of the contests require the entrants to tag their friends, like and share the post and page, contests are an easy way to boost your following.

10) Count on Tools to Streamline Work

As a business, you may be running at least 4 or 5 social media pages. Add posting on each at least 2-3 times a day. Done manually, imagine how much time it’s going to take. That’s where tools come to your rescue. Using tools, you can not only automate a large portion of your work but also analyse the data coming from various channels.

Social media management tools such as Hootsuite, Buffer and CoSchedule simplify the monotonous task of creating and scheduling posts. This way, you can schedule posts in advance, ensure your content reaches the audience on time, and save some time as well.

These tools also come with social media monitoring as well as analytical capabilities, so you can keep track of what’s being said about your brand/competitors/niche and stay ahead in the social game. For instance, you can track a branded hashtag on Instagram or a Twitter handle of your competitor.

With these tools, it’s possible to identify how many likes, comments, shares, views or impressions a post generated. This will give you an idea of which posts did well, and which ones didn’t. So, you can analyse past posts, and, accordingly, generate content that’s likely to generate higher traction. In other words, you can get more done with less effort.

The Final Word

So, you see, social media marketing involves a lot of work. But once you get it right, there’s no looking back. You can generate a high number of leads, customers, improve sales, enhance brand awareness and much more, just by using the social platform the right way.

Make use of the aforementioned tips and create a winning strategy for your business. If, however, you find all this work overwhelming, we are there to help.

An eminent social media marketing company in India, we can ease a lot of burden off your shoulders.

Choose our social media marketing services today and notice the difference yourself.

Thanks for reading!

The post 10 Insanely Useful Tips to Supercharge your Social Media Strategy this year appeared first on Cyfuture Blog.

In other words, your e-commerce site has to offer an above-par experience that makes your users stay for a long time. This will improve the odds of their buying from you. To make sure this happens, you have to keep in mind certain things when creating your online store.

Let’s discuss these one by one.

1. Design matching your Products

The look and feel of your website need to be coherent with what you are selling. This simply means everything from images, colour scheme, and font should define your website. So, for instance, if you are selling women’s products, the design has to look feminine. If, on the other hand, you are selling gadgets, the design has to be modern. (See image below) Just by the appearance of your website, your visitors should get an idea of what you are selling.

2. Product Showcase and Descriptions

Image Courtesy: Websitebuilderexpert.com

The purpose of building an online store is to sell your products. So, it’s vital that you highlight your products well on your website. First of all, use high-quality images that are likely to get the attention of users. High-resolution images make your customers understand how the product actually looks.

For showcasing products, it is good to have a layout that emphasizes your products. Your visitors should not find it difficult to search for a particular product. If they find it too hard to get the information they need, they will bounce off your site.

In addition, if you enter wrong or inadequate information regarding a product, it will create a bad first impression on your users, and you risk losing some of your prospects. It is essential that you describe your products accurately and in detail. As your customers are not purchasing the product from a physical store, they need to be given as much information as possible so that they can picture how an item is going to be. This may include its colour, size, weight, fit, and the instructions they should know before making the purchase.

Image Courtesy: www.pickfu.com

3. Shipping Rates

Many e-commerce sites offer products at discounted rates but include a high shipping charge. If this happens, the customer is likely to think twice before making a purchase. Why would he buy from you if the overall cost is so high? He would be better off buying the item from a regular brick-and-mortar store.  Low to no shipping charges tempt your customer to shop through online means.

4. Guest Checkout

Several e-commerce websites make it mandatory for users to sign up and create an account before they can buy from it. While this may be convenient for you as an online store owner for it lets you communicate and follow up with your customers, it isn’t something your customers want to do. They want everything as hassle-free and as quick as possible.

A customer just wants to buy from you. He doesn’t want to fill in long forms soliciting his details. In case of a guest checkout, the customers are not required to fill in a lot of personal information before buying anything from your site. Such an arrangement eliminates the barrier of creating an account and boosts your conversion rates to a significant degree.

5. Ease of Checkout

In addition to allowing guest checkouts, your online store should make it as easy as possible for customers to check out their products. The easier the checkout process, the higher the motivation for your customers to make repeat purchases from your site.

So, make sure your customers do not have too many pages for checking out. If the checkout is a single-page process, it won’t become overwhelming for your customers. If you are acquainted with the basics of building a website, you can easily get a good check-out page designed from a web development company.

6. Site Search

As per a study, over 30% of users visiting an e-commerce website use the search feature to find the products they are looking for. This simply means you have to ensure your site has a search functionality. Besides, this search functionality needs to have an autocomplete feature that can help your users find products easily.

If you have a large range of products, a faceted search can be especially useful. Faceted search allows the shoppers to narrow the search results using a variety of attributes-price range, size, brand, keywords, etc. This functionality helps users to select the features they find essential and eliminate the ones they don’t need. This way, they have a manageable list of items to choose from.

Image Courtesy: www.webapphuddle.com

7. Security

Regardless of how appealing your online store looks, it will remain incomplete if its security settings are inadequate. Your site should support SSL and encrypt all kinds of information that should remain secure. This includes everything from customers’ personal details such as full name, date of birth, mobile number, social security number to credit or debit card details.

Remember: Your customers expect their online information to remain safe and secure when they shop from your website. Installing an SSL certificate can be an important step towards winning their credibility.

Besides, SSL also helps you comply with the PCI DSS (The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) requirements essential for businesses accepting payments through credit cards.

It is vital that you do not store your customers’ card numbers on your website’s database. Such a move poses a grave security risk to you as well as your customers. If there is a security breach, your business will have to deal with financial and legal repercussions.

8. Page Loading Speed

Loading speed dictates the overall user experience of your visitors. A webpage that takes more than 3-4 seconds to load ruins the browsing experience of your visitors. They may even bounce off your site, and not come back again, and that’s probably the last thing you would want to happen.

To ensure your site delivers an impressive loading speed, you need to have a hosting plan that offers ample processing power, RAM, storage, and bandwidth to support your site even when traffic surges or your site becomes heavier through the addition of new pages/images/videos.

Technology companies like Cyfuture offer an array of web hosting plans in different price ranges, so you can choose the one that fits your needs perfectly and provide your users with an impeccable experience.

9. Social Media Integration

Integrating your e-commerce site with social media can have long-term benefits. Social media is a great avenue to promote your product line, discounts, and new offers. You can collect data from visitors and provide recommendations on products that are likely to match their preferences.

By fully integrating your website with social media, you can deliver a coherent user experience. You can also use social platforms to gather positive reviews on your products. So, after a user completes a purchase, you can offer him the option to post feedback on your Facebook or Instagram page. This way, social media can go a long way in streamlining your branding efforts.

So, these are certain aspects of an e-commerce website that you need to consider when building your online space. Keep in mind that there are many more elements that should be taken into account during e-commerce website development. e.g. search engine optimisation or targeting different user bases. If you need assistance in starting your e-commerce store, feel free to connect with our custom software development experts. All you need to do is to fill out this form. We will offer you a consultation free of cost.

The post 9 Key Factors to Consider when Building an E-commerce Website appeared first on Cyfuture Blog.

But with so many website builders in the market, how will you know which one is right for you?

That can well be a genuine issue considering the wide array of options available in the marketplace.

No need to fret. Because that’s what we are about to discuss in this post.

After comparing dozens of options, we have compiled a list of the best website builders available in the marketplace. We have stated the pros and cons of each builder so as to help you decide which is the best for your needs. Here’s our list:

1) Wix

Wix.com is one of the most popular website builders out there. A beginner-friendly software, Wix comes with a set of robust features to build your website with.

Pros:

Wide Range of Templates: The platform offers access to over 500 templates for building your site’s design. Each of these templates is fully customisable, giving you complete creative control over your website.

Unstructured Editor: Wix has an unstructured editor that lets you drag and drop elements easily on the page to create your layout.

Apps: In addition to templates, Wix lets you install several free and paid apps. These apps enable you to add new features and functionality to your website e.g. newsletter subscription or events calendar.

Fully Hosted: Another great aspect of Wix is that it is fully hosted, so you don’t need to spend extra bucks on hosting. All the Wix plans have a free SSL as well, but you need to switch it on for your website.

Cons:

Ads: If you choose any of their low-tier plans, you will see Wix branded ads on your website. So, you will need to upgrade to their Combo or Unlimited plan to remove these ads.

Switching Themes: If you get bored of your old theme and want to switch to a new one, the transition is not as hassle-free as it should have been.

Pricing:

Wix comes with a free plan that has a Wix subdomain. For building a professional website, you can go for any of its eight premium plans, starting from $14/month. With premium plans, you get a personalized domain name. Their e-commerce plan for an online store costs $26/month.

2) Squarespace

Squarespace is a professional website builder that has been around since 2003. The platform is known for its great designs and appealing aesthetics of its websites.

Pros:

Templates: Squarespace is famous for its excellent templates. They are arguably the best in the marketplace and apt for anyone who needs a visually appealing website. These templates are fully editable. You can even use multiple templates for the same website at one time.

Best-in-Class Features: The platform offers a host of best-in-class features including template customization, scheduling software, photo galleries, podcast hosting, video backgrounds, and so on.

Online Store: Squarespace also comes with an e-commerce plan that allows you to add an online store to your site. Its interface lets you manage products, inventory, discounts, etc. with ease.

Cons:

Limited Integration: Squarespace offers limited integration with third-party services and this can be an impediment to your growing business.

Not the best for Beginners: Squarespace has a steeper learning curve when compared to other website builders. So, you might need a bit of time and patience to become adept at using it.

Pricing:

Squarespace offers a 14-day free trial. After the trial is over, you can choose from any of its 4 premium plans, ranging from $12 to $40 per month. All of these are billed annually. The two highest plans include e-commerce features.

3) Weebly

Weebly is among the easiest to use website builders, a quality that has made it many users’ favourite. Not surprising that over 40 million websites have been created using the platform.

Pros:

Range of Designs: Weebly has hundreds of great designs that you can use as a starting point to build your website. The design can be changed even after you have published your site.

Fully Hosted: Since it is a completely hosted platform, no need to spend extra bucks to buy a web hosting service. Your hosting needs are taken care of.

Built-in Features: Weebly comes with several built-in features for online store, contact form, sliders, photo-galleries, and so on. As a result, you can add functionalities to your site without hassle.

Cons:

Less Creative Freedom: While Weebly offers a decent range of templates, the latter are quite structured. This simply means you may feel constrained if you are looking for creative freedom.

Pricing:

Weebly does come with a free plan, but it’s very basic. Its paid plan starts from $5/month paid annually. The Pro plan meant for groups and organisations costs $12/month, while the Business plan for small businesses and stores costs $25/month, both billed annually.

4) Shopify

Shopify is a great e-commerce website builder specifically meant for creating online stores. It caters to over half a million businesses around the planet. Over $40 billion worth of products have already been sold on the platform.

Pros:

Fully Hosted: Like many of its competitors, Shopify is fully hosted. This means you don’t have to worry about maintaining backups or installing updates.

Intuitive Interface: Shopify comes with a clean and intuitive interface, especially when compared to most of its competitors.

Innovative Features: Shopify offers the whole range of solutions needed to create an impressive online store, including inventory management, unlimited products, video and 3D support, SEO product tags, Social media integration, Google analytics, and many more. As a result, creating a full-fledged e-commerce store becomes super-easy.

Integrated Payment: The platform boasts of an integrated payment solution that allows you to accept credit cards. Third-party payment gateways can also be added to accept payments.

Cons:

Learning Curve: Although a powerful platform, Shopify has a longer learning curve. It may take you some time to get accustomed to it.

Cost: For those who are starting out, Shopify may appear slightly pricier than other website builders.

Pricing:

Shopify comes with a ‘Basic Shopify’ plan that costs around $29/month. You have the option to upgrade to ‘Shopify’ for $79/month or ‘Advanced Shopify’ for $299/month and access their advanced features.

5) GoDaddy

GoDaddy is amongst the largest domain name and hosting service providers that offers a simple, user-friendly platform to create a website quickly.

Pros:

User-friendly: The website builder from GoDaddy is a simple, beginner-friendly tool that comes with many preloaded, ready-to-use blocks that you can use to create various layouts.

Time-Saving: GoDaddy’s website builder uses Artificial Design Intelligence to create a personalised template that you can make changes to. This saves time as most of the work is already done for you.

Photo-library: The platform offers an integrated photo library with professional images that you can use on your site. Plus, you can add your own images also, if you want.

Cons:

Not as Feature-Rich: While GoDaddy offers speed and simplicity, it isn’t the best choice for creating a highly personalised site. So, if you are looking to build a complex website with a wide range of features, GoDaddy isn’t the option to go for. You are better off with other feature-rich builders like Wix or WordPress.

Pricing:

GoDaddy’s personal plan will cost you $5.99/month, business plan $9.99/month and business plus plan for $14.99/month. All these plans are billed annually.

6) Site123

This is yet another simple and beginner-friendly website builder, great for those with no website-building experience. So, if you just want a basic website without a great deal of customisation, this is the option to go for.

Pros:

Suitable for Simple Websites: Site123 is suitable for those who want to build a simple website with a straightforward design quickly.

Brilliant Customer Support: Site123 has a great customer support feature that includes a live chat. The latter helps you whenever you get stuck somewhere while building or editing your website.

Good for Multi-lingual sites: Great option for building a multi-lingual website. The editor is available in over 20 languages.

Cons:

Limited Customisation: The platform gives you limited options in terms of customization. Not for ambitious site owners.

Pricing:

The platform comes with a free basic plan. Its paid plans range between $12.8/month to $41/month.

7) WordPress.com

WordPress.com is the basic website building platform from WordPress. For those who don’t know, WordPress.com is different from self-hosted WordPress.org that offers more features but demands higher technical expertise.

Pros:

Fully Hosted: WordPress.com is a fully hosted platform, so you don’t need to take care of aspects such as software and backups.

Plenty of Themes: All the plans allow users to choose from hundreds of free and paid themes. You can then customise the theme and add navigation menus, widgets, etc. The customisation part becomes simpler if you know a bit of coding.

Blogging Tools: WordPress.com provides you with a wide array of blogging tools that include social bookmarking, RSS feeds, archives, comments, and so on. All in all, a great platform for bloggers with some coding knowledge.

Cons:

Not for absolute beginners: Though WordPress is user-friendly on the whole, absolute beginners may struggle with the editing layout. It is not as straightforward as that of many other competing platforms.

Best for Blogging: If you try to create something using WordPress.com that’s not a blog, you will have to struggle a bit. It is not as easy as on other builders.

Pricing:

WordPress.com comes with a free plan that’s very limited in terms of features. The personal plans costing $4/month is billed annually and includes a custom domain. The premium plan at $8.25/month lets you monetise your website and implement advanced level customisation. Their business plan costs $24.92/month and offers advanced SEO tools and access to its vast plugin library.

Best Website Builder: A Recapitulation

Now that we have reviewed some of the most popular website builders, let’s have a quick recap of these:

• Wix: Best all-round Website Builder
• Squarespace: Best for creating visually appealing sites
• Weebly: Best for Small websites
• Shopify: Best for Building Online Stores
• GoDaddy: Best for Building a Simple Website Quickly
• Site123: Best for Novices requiring support while creating a site
• com: Best for Bloggers with Coding Skills

If you are still unsure of which platform to choose, connect with our agile software development experts today. As a leading web development company, we will analyse your business needs carefully and suggest the best solution for you.

Thanks for reading!

The post 7 Popular Platforms to Build a Website on: A Beginner’s Guide appeared first on Cyfuture Blog.