For a long time, real estate investing was the game of the rich. You needed to have a lot of capital to participate. The barriers to entry were simply too high for the average investor – but not anymore!
In the past, investing in real estate required a lot of capital, time, and effort. Publicly traded stocks, bonds, and mutual funds were the only viable investment option for the middle and lower classes. They could contribute to an IRA or a 401(K) with their employer and hope to have a nice retirement. But only accredited investors or those with a lot of capital could invest in the often more stable and lucrative private real estate market.
Then in 1960, real estate investment trusts (REITs) came on the scene. REITs pool together several real estate assets into a financial instrument that can be traded like a stock in a mutual fund. For these, you don’t have to be an accredited investor, and the barrier to entry is much lower because you can participate by buying just one share.
Crowdfunded Real Estate Investing
Today, technology is democratizing real estate even further. Starting in 2012, the JOBS Act allowed real estate syndications to adopt crowdfunding strategies. Crowdfunding is raising funds from a large number of people even if they can only make small contributions. This means real estate deals no longer need to be funded by one investor or a handful of accredited investors. Instead, many small investors can pool their resources together to fund a large real estate deal.
Crowdfunding changes the real estate investing landscape for both investors and syndicators. Now, you can organize a national or even international real estate syndication that both accredited and non-accredited investors can participate in. This means investors with different risk tolerances can benefit from greater diversification, dollar-cost averaging (CA), and better returns.
Ultimately, crowdfunding opens the real estate market doors to lay investors. Some real estate crowfunding platforms include Fundrise, DiversyFund, BuyProperly, Roofstock, and Bricksave. They allow you to start investing in properties and REITS online in no time, and some for as little as $1,000.
Tokenized Real Estate Investing
When most people think of blockchain, they think of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. But blockchain is just the mechanism behind cryptocurrency. It’s a digital record-keeping technology that uses distributed ledgers in a shared network. And in 2017, entrepreneurs started seeing blockchain’s potential to streamline real estate investing transactions.
As with crowdfunding, blockchain technology can leverage fractional real estate ownership by creating tokens that represent shares in a real estate investment. It does this by turning real estate investment securities into what are called smart contracts. Smart contracts are a form of digital contract that don’t require an intermediary to verify them. They are executed automatically as soon as predetermined conditions and rules are met. This way, you can eliminate slow and costly middlemen like brokers and make transactions faster and more transparent.
Blockchain solves traditional real estate information and access bottlenecks. On the one hand, it democratizes information like rent roll, audits, compliance data, appraisals, and insurance binders. Everyone can see the information on the public ledger. On the other hand, it gives more investment opportunities to the average investor by lowering investment minimums and globalizing investment options. Overall, this leads to increased diversification, liquidity, and efficiency and turns a traditionally illiquid asset into a liquid one.
Of course, blockchain real estate investing is not without its challenges. Governments are still trying to figure out how to regulate it. Getting around the red tape of the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) is also not easy. But it’s easier with private and consortium blockchains because they are tailored to specific use cases.
Though it still has a ways to go, tokenized real estate investing is already being tried by companies like RealT, Vave, BlokHaus Real Estate, and Lofty.ai. These and other platforms have a lot of potential to disrupt real estate investing as we know it.
Final Thoughts
Real estate investing is easier than ever. Time will tell how it looks 10, 20, 30 years from now. If you don’t have a lot of capital but you want to take advantage of this hot market, now is the time to explore the crowdfunding and tokenization options out there.
In the long run, you’ll benefit from increased diversification and high returns. It’s a win-win for the small investor.
How Technology is Making it Easier to Invest in Real Estate was last modified: January 7th, 2025 by Alex Sanders
Maybe you’ve been thinking about taking up cycling and renting a bike to try it out. That’s great! Cycling is a fantastic sport that offers many benefits that we outline below.
We think once you try cycling and enjoy the advantages, you’ll want to buy your own bike soon.
Enhances Mental Health
Many clinical studies find that people who are physically active every day feel about 30% better than those who are sedentary. But, ever feel that ‘high’ after a 60-mile bike ride or 10-mile run?
Exercise improves your mood by releasing a stream of endorphins and hormones into the bloodstream, making you feel fantastic. And the benefits last for hours after your workout.
Improves Immune System
Intense physical exercise has substantial benefits for your upper respiratory system – of particular importance during the COVID-19 era. You’re also less likely to get the common cold.
Some scientists maintain that you can reduce your sick time by up to 40% by biking or running most days of the week.
Even mild daily exercise can boost your immune system by activating white blood cells and making the body produce vital proteins.
Builds Muscle
Cycling involves lower-body resistance, so it doesn’t merely burn fat – it also builds muscle! As a result, bikers tend to have well-developed glutes, calves, and quads.
People who have higher muscle mass usually burn more calories even when they are at rest.
Eat More
Most of us enjoy eating and overindulging from time to time. However, you can add a few snacks to your day when you cycle regularly.
For example, if you bike 30 minutes to and from work every day, you may burn up to 500 extra calories.
So you can feel good about having a second helping of breakfast at your desk!
Enhanced Lung Health
This might be surprising, but people who cycle may be exposed less to toxic fumes than those who go by car.
One study in the United Kingdom found that cyclists and pedestrians in central London were exposed to less pollution than drivers.
Works Out The Core
Biking also gives your abdominals and back a great workout. Keeping your body upright requires you to have a higher level of core strength as the miles pass.
Having stronger abdominals and back muscles gives support to your spine and enhances stability.
Better Heart Health
Cycling is excellent for the cardiovascular system. A recent study spent 60 months studying 1,500 physically active people. Those who engaged in exercise every day were 30% less likely to have high blood pressure.
Another study suggests that doing a strenuous daily workout can reduce hypertension as much as prescription drugs.
Lower Cancer Risk
Keeping a healthy weight, daily exercise, and a nutritious diet will reduce your chances of getting various cancers.
Not only is biking fun, but it can also help you to ward off cancer, which is a big deal.
Low Impact
Cycling is easier on your body than running, so it’s a good choice for people who want an intense activity without pounding the joints.
Biking also is perfect for those who have more stiffness and joint problems.
Boost Self-Esteem
Biking and exercise generally can raise your self-esteem. For example, when you finish a challenging 50-mile ride and beat your previous time by three minutes, it makes you feel good.
And when you feel good after a workout, you’re highly likely to do it again.
The many benefits of cycling are apparent, so you’ll be sure to want to keep doing this fantastic sport for years in the future.
Why Should You Take Up Cycling? was last modified: May 1st, 2022 by Alex Sanders
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could automate your entire life and all of your landlord duties? That dream could become a reality in the not-so-distant future, but automating your life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
For example, you wouldn’t want an AI bot to write your rental listings. What if your properties have distinct features? A standard rental listing won’t do those properties justice.
Property managers from Los Angeles explain thatwriting a good rental listing description begins with a captivating title and includes brief, descriptive sentences. You won’t get captivating descriptions from AI.
You Can’t Automate Being a Great Landlord
Landlords can benefit from automation, but it’s critical to maintain a balance and not get distracted by technology. Much of being a good landlord relies on maintaining a personal touch in your tenant relationships.
When a tenant has an issue, like a leaky roof, they don’t want to leave a voicemail and have a robot schedule the repair. They want to talk to their landlord live, explain the problem in detail, and work out a convenient time for repairs.
Being a great landlord requires personal interactions with your tenants. If you automate all of your landlord duties, you’ll eliminate personal interaction. Without personal interaction, you can’t build strong rapport with your tenants. Without rapport, your tenants are less likely to treat your property with care and take their lease obligations seriously.
Why Landlords Favor Automation
Most property investors prioritize profits. Automation provides an opportunity to maximize profits by reducing time spent getting involved in minutia. For landlords focused on building wealth, automation is a blessing. However, it’s also a curse.
The more landlords rely on automation, the less personal interaction they have with their tenants.
Automation Is Good for Technical Landlord Tasks
Although automating your landlord duties is mostly a bad idea, you can automate your technical tasks. For example, it’s easy to use software to collect rent online and have tenants request repairs. This streamlines your duties. However, you still need to have some personal interaction to confirm appointments and discuss issues in-depth.
There’s nothing wrong with using automation to manage paperwork and other back-end tasks. For example, it makes sense to use automated invoicing software, apps to track your expenses, and apps to manage each property’s history of repairs.
Tenants want to feel heard, and that’s not something technology can offer. They don’t want to talk to a voicemail or send a text message to a robot when they have an issue. Tenants want tocommunicate with their landlord personally.
2. Being Compassionate
When a tenant needs an extra week to pay the rent, you can show compassion by having a personal conversation. Without that personal interaction, an automated rent collection system will penalize the tenant as if their circumstances don’t matter.
While no landlord wants excuses for late rent, sometimes tenants legitimately need a break. Being compassionate will help your tenant feel less anxious and stressed about being late with the rent.
3. Revisiting and Customizing the Lease
Compromise and leniency can go a long way with a tenant. When you have a tenant who wants to adjust the lease, that requires a personal conversation. As a human being, you can extend compassion and understanding by changing the lease terms when appropriate.
Automating this task wouldn’t be possible, since robots would lack the human connection and compassion needed to compromise.
4. Reviewing Reasonable Modification Requests
The only way to automate reasonable modification request approvals is to create a form that a tenant fills out that has definite yes/no answers for each question. You can’t factor open-ended questions into the formula to create an automated decision.
Since many reasonable modification requests require an in-depth look plus a possible supporting letter from a physician, this can’t be automated.
Avoid Becoming an Automated Landlord – Keep Your Personal Touch
Technology will make your job easier as a landlord, but keep your personal touch with your tenant relationships.
Save the tech for back-end tasks. Life will be better for both you and your tenants when you make yourself personally available.
Landlords: Don’t Let Technology Distract You from What’s Important was last modified: November 21st, 2021 by Alex Sanders
Google Chrome is one of, if not the, most widely used search engines in the world. Many of us use it every day, on both our desktop and our handheld devices, to answer queries and help us navigate the real world. With all that use, you’re inevitably going to have a few errors occasionally. Fortunately, these are often minor and easy to rectify.
Today we’re taking a look at the steps you should take when Google Chrome errors occur and detailing how you can troubleshoot them. This can help you figure out what is wrong and then make changes to solve any problems. For example, if you’re wondering why a site refuses to display itself, you’d want to find out what does err_connection_reset mean and then take steps with your anti-virus, firewall, or network settings to solve it.
1. Identify The Problem
You use Google Chrome every day, or close to it, so you should know when something goes wrong. The most obvious issue is where Chrome itself crashes, where one of four things will happen:
You’ll get the ‘Aw, Snap!’ error message.
You’ll get the ‘page unresponsive’ pop-up response.
You get a hanging tab, which is where the tab just never loads in.
Your entire Chrome device crashes or freezes.
The ‘Aw, Snap!’ messages can often be fixed by reloading but, if you’re here, you may need something more comprehensive like closing all webpages, re-establishing your Internet connection, and/or restarting your device. The ‘page unresponsive’ message is much more common. These are where web pages can’t be interacted with. It is advised that you right-click on the web pages and kill them, so you can then reload. Otherwise, restarting your device is advised.
2. Ask Troubleshooting Questions
The core of troubleshooting is all about asking questions. Here’s a selection of questions you should keep in mind when something goes wrong with your computer, along with some inferences that you can draw from the answers.
Is Your Chrome Updated?
First, you should ask yourself if Chrome is properly updated. This is because outdated Chrome windows are more prone to issues. Where your Chrome application is unsupported, there’s a much higher likelihood that extensions won’t work and you won’t be able to customize your browser that much.
Can You Reproduce The Problem?
Sometimes there are minor loading issues that go away when you tab out or reload the page. If you can open another browser and get the same issue, it’s probably not something wrong with Chrome and so you’ll need to divert your troubleshooting efforts elsewhere. It may also be an issue with a certain site, in which case you can contact them.
Can You Work Properly In Incognito Mode?
If you’re able to work in incognito mode, that suggests something is in your standard Chrome that is causing the problem. This is because incognito mode strips away all extensions and cookies, and empties the cache, and so maybe something in there is problematic.
In those cases, you should disable all extensions and test each one to see if it causes the same error. Likewise, clear Chrome’s cache and delete any cookies that are lingering on your PC.
3. Get Help
If you’ve asked the common troubleshooting questions but there aren’t any obvious answers, it may be time to get some help. Not every issue can be solved by opening and closing the window or restarting your device. Your issue may be a complex one that needs to be addressed by the folks at Google HQ. Fortunately, there are ways to get help.
Fortunately, there are troubleshooting logs you can gather and send off to the relevant people. If you’re having network issues, you need to get your network log files and export them in JSON format. To do that, just open chrome://net-export/ and then select your detail level. Log to disk, save the file, recreate the problem, then stop logging in to the net-export tab.
On Chrome browsers or devices, you’ll want to get the corresponding debug logs. For the browser, this is in the Properties section where you can alter the target: line to add in –enable-logging –v=1 and then launch the browser. You may also want to report a crash, which you may be prompted to do when that happens, but you can also manually go to chrome://crashes and find IDs related to your issues, which can then be used to file a bug report.
Steps On How To Troubleshoot Google Chrome Errors was last modified: September 8th, 2022 by Holly Hicks
E-commerce is steadily growing. This is primarily due to the usability of websites. By the end of 2022, global e-commerce sales are expected to exceed $6.5 trillion, which is $1.3 trillion more than in 2021.
Business people shaking hands in a meeting room
In order for businesses in this area to remain successful, they need to learn how to use various tools that help reduce the time and financial resources for monotonous processes and pay more attention to potential customers.
In this article, we will take a look at the best SaaS tools for small e-commerce businesses, and why your business needs them.
What Are SaaS Tools and How Do They Work?
SaaS tools are cloud-based software that allows you to connect to various applications over the Internet. Users do not have to deal with maintenance issues, the provider does. For e-commerce businesses, SaaS tools are also an opportunity to optimize one or more business functions.
Advantages:
Cost reduction. Businesses don’t need to buy and install their own infrastructure;
Availability. For proper work of SaaS tools, all you need is a computer and stable Internet connection;
Scalability. When a business, due to its growth, needs to increase the number of functions, you just need to connect a new package of services;
Regular updates. This process is carried out by the service provider, while the user is not required to do any work.
SaaS tools greatly simplify business processes by reducing the amount of manual work, making it more accurate, faster, and more efficient. And to help your e-commerce business grow and keep up with the times, we offer to consider the 5 best SaaS solutions.
A business should consider using an outbound call center to proactively reach out to potential customers, enhance lead generation, and establish personalized connections, ultimately driving sales and fostering customer loyalty.
The 5 Best SaaS Tools for Small E-commerce Businesses
In this list, we present popular SaaS tools in 5 areas: marketing, collaboration, sales, analytics, personalization, and optimization.
Google AdWords for Marketing
Google AdWords services is a contextual advertising service that helps businesses increase the number of visitors to their website and get more actions from their target audience through optimized advertising.
How does it work? In the personal Google AdWords account, users can set up ads for their audience in a few steps: defining a goal, choosing where to place ads, uploading promos, and setting a budget. The service also provides other tools related to analytics, statistics, and forecasts, which all help you implement your own digital strategies.
Pricing: the budget is set by the user. And they can pay in 3 ways: “result” (pay per click), “flexible” (you can adjust the budget or suspend the campaign at any time), “limited budget” (allows the user to configure the maximum amount of costs for a certain period).
Slack for Collaboration
This cloud-based software solution will simplify communication and teamwork. Thus, businesses will be able to streamline workspace, creating a separate channel for each task. Here you can also store project files, select participants to access them, and exchange messages in chats.
How does it work? You can control Slack via the app or your browser. By the way, some have noted that the app reveals more features than the browser version of the software. Once you choose one of the options, create an account and invite employees via a unique link.
Pricing: You can try Slack for free, and if you like it, order one of the packages: Pro ($6.67 per month), Business+ ($12.50 per month), Enterprise Grid (negotiable).
Aritic PinPoint is a full-stack marketing automation software platform for marketing operations teams at small and medium businesses. It helps you to build relationships with leads, automate marketing campaigns and convert leads to paying customers easily.
It has features such as landing page builder, SEO tracking, keywords tracking, lead scoring, lead tracking, lead nurturing, email campaign management, email campaign automation, push notification campaigns, marketing campaign builder, a/b testing, website tracking features with marketing assets management.
How to get started: Sign up, activate, Import your contact, Create a list or Segment, Create a form, Setup your tracking and connect your website, Create an email campaign broadcast to your segment, Build an automation flow, Design and enable conversation widget, lastly Create website popup or onsite widget and get started!
Pricing: Aritic Starting Price from $19/month for Lite, $99/month for Professional and
$149/month for Enterprise. You can sign up for a free trial and then move on to explore more with the Paid features of Aritic PinPoint.
Hubspot for Sales
To eliminate manual sales work, you need to take a look at Hubspot. The main features of the program are integrated CRM, email automation, lead and task tracking,social media management, customer surveys, advanced reporting, scheduling, making calls from your browser, optimizing advertising campaigns, and more.
How to get started? Sign up and activate your account, invite colleagues, integrate your shopping cart, synchronize data, set up popular workflows, and automate orders.
Pricing: to get started with Hubspot, you don’t need to buy a package right away, you can take advantage of the free offer. There are also 3 packages available in the paid version: Starter (from $45/month), Professional (from $360/month), and Enterprise (from $1,200/month).
Moz as an Analytics Tool
Such software will be useful for website analytics. Its main areas are portal auditing (the software scans the resource, identifying problems), keyword queries tracking, analysis of their effectiveness, backlinks analysis, keyword research for targeting, content quality analysis, and much more. This can also be assisted by a top-quality SEO consultant.
How to get started? By signing up for the Moz PRO package, businesses have the opportunity to try out the platform for 30 days. For this period, they get a full set of tools and expert assistance.
If you’re ready to sign a contract, there are 4 packages available: STANDARD ($99 per month), MEDIUM ($179 per month), LARGE ($249 per month), PREMIUM ($599 per month). Paying for any package one year in advance will cost 20% less.
How to get started? Before you buy the full package, the BloomReach team suggests contacting a manager to request a personalized demo of the app and calculate how relevant the platform will be for your business.
Pricing: BloomReach offers 3 packages to consider: Content, Discovery, Engagement. Pricing is not specified on the site, as the cost of each option depends on the number of business customers and the size of the product catalog.
MyOperator for Sales-Support Calls
Customer calls are one of the important aspects of a business. And in the digital marketing age, it may seem like calls being a traditional aspect of a business is not an important channel anymore. But that assumption could not be far from the truth. In the age of the internet and social media, people still prefer to pick up the phone and call for any help, especially for local businesses.
Due to the personal nature of calls, it’s vital to professionally and timely manage all your sales-support calls. MyOperator is a cloud-based call management service that has been providing a complete suite for business call management and is currently used by 7000+ brands in 60+ countries.
MyOperator provides solutions like toll-free numbers, virtual phone numbers, cloud-based call centers for sales support, outbound calling solutions, and all things you can think of for call management. Every plan comes with advanced business call management features like call recording, call tracking, agent performance reporting, call logs, IVR surveys, etc. To get started with MyOperator, you can get a free 3-day trial and plans start at USD 10 per month.
As a small ecommerce business, you want to make sure that all your time is accountable. Timely is an automatic time tracking software that leverages AI. It helps companies stay connected with their workforce and report accurately on their business – for payroll, project management, team management, and capacity planning.
By automating timesheet admin, Timely frees teams for the important work that matters and helps teams know exactly where their time is going, enabling them to create a winning and accurate weekly schedule. Offering strict user-level privacy by design, it’s a tracking tool that employees actually trust; and with intuitive controls and a colorful interface, it’s simple to use as well as to implement.
Conclusion
All of the tools presented will help optimize specific operations and make the business more profitable. Therefore, by investing in them, you will see positive achievements in your company’s working process.
Best SaaS Tools for Small Ecommerce Business was last modified: November 7th, 2023 by Edward Bishop
The number of mobile health apps reached an all-time high last year. Over 90,000 new mobile solutions entered the market in 2020, according to a new report by the IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science on digital health trends. With the growing interest in wellness and alternative therapies, like exploring cold plunge benefits, the overall number of mHealth solutions has surged to more than 350,000 digital health apps available to users.
If you’re mulling over investing in a medical app, then you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we’ll share everything you need to know about how to build a health app.
This is certainly the best time to build a mobile health app and tap into the new, lucrative market.
Also, we cannot underestimate the impact of the pandemic on the healthcare industry. Thus, the global market for Mobile Medical Apps is expected to reach a revised size of $20.7 billion by 2027, as the Globe NewsWire suggests.
Types of medical applications
Before diving into the mobile app development process, it is important to get the lay of the land. In particular, you need to look into the existing types of medical applications and the features that make them stand out.
Clinical and Diagnostic Apps
These apps allow doctors to collect, analyze, and exchange information about their patients. They usually include mobile access to electronic health records (EHRs), test results viewing, and digital imaging. Symptom checkers built within the device assist physicians and patients in promptly diagnosing illnesses and injuries. Patient scheduling is also made easier with these apps.
Clinical Reference
This type of mobile application caters to practitioners since mobile references allow healthcare providers to brush up their knowledge on any subject. Clinical reference applications offer digital access to drug dosages, urgent health-related concerns, and other specialized reference material helping to provide diagnoses.
Remote Patient Monitoring
App-enabled remote patient monitoring is an especially useful alternative amidst the pandemic. This type of app assists doctors in supervising stay-at-home patients virtually. Thus, healthcare providers can monitor changes in the patients’ health status, including vitals.
Doctor Appointment and Clinical Assistance Apps
A healthcare app specialized in medical appointment booking amplifies the doctor-patient interaction and makes it more effective. These mobile solutions aid in scheduling, mobile charting, remote dictation, and internal communication. In this case, the application keeps track of cancelations and appointments so that doctors will have a better idea of their workload and last-minute cancelations.
Lifestyle Tracking Apps
Getting enough sleep, staying active, and maintaining a medication regimen also play important roles in keeping your body and mind healthy. And this is exactly what lifestyle tracking apps do.
These apps collect critical parameters like heart rate, sleep, physical activity, etc. based on their target area. Habit trackers also allow you to check off accomplished habits and monitor your progress. You can become a better version of yourself by building long streaks of success and maintaining consistency in your healthy habits.
What are the Benefits of Mobile Health Applications?
The medical apps entail the potential for both sides. These include the patient, obtaining medical care, and the physician – rendering medical services. Mobile access to patient data makes it faster to perform diagnostics, get a holistic picture of one’s well-being, and brings patients closer to the doctors.
Among other things, the benefits of mobile solutions for the patient include:
Healthcare apps offer virtual consultations
Streamline appointment scheduling process
Prevent frequent clinic visits
Include updated information on healthcare-related topics, like vaccines
Provide easier access to patient data
Enable patients to monitor health conditions
Include medication reminders
Offer safe data storage
Amplify more effective and personalized treatment
Make healthcare more accessible to rural and far-flung areas
Benefits of mobile health apps for healthcare providers include:
Increased customer loyalty and engagement by connecting directly with patients
Automated repetitive tasks and paperwork
More time allocated to providing healthcare services
Reduced costs of healthcare provision
Allowing patients to participate more in their own conditions
Reduced risks of the wrong diagnosis
And these are just a sliver of all the benefits that medical apps bring to both sides. That is the main reason they are widely and wholeheartedly accepted by patients and clinics all over the world, which builds up the global demand for such solutions.
The Core Functionality of Healthcare Apps For Patients
The total of building a mobile app depends on various factors, including UI/UX design, number of platforms, prototyping, cooperation model, and much more. However, the complexity of your future application will always be one of the main cost drivers. So, every feature on your wishlist is going to get reflected on the bill.
In terms of medical applications, the list of core features looks like this:
User login – for personalized and safe access
User profile – for managing user accounts and vital patient data
Push notifications – for keeping the user updated about upcoming appointments, cancellations, and incoming bills.
Messaging system – for connecting doctors and patients
Payment gates – for transferring payment data safely to the user
Promo code/Referral code feature – for better customer engagement and loyalty
Admin panel – for manipulating the data within the application
Based on your business needs, the core functionality can be integrated into your Minimum Viable Product to test your idea and further enhance the solution with more complex and expensive features.
After collecting feedback from end-users, you can turn the MVP into a full-fledged healthcare application. To do that, your development team will need to integrate the following features:
Video calls – the video conferencing feature will enable both sides to run a remote-friendly healthcare practice.
Medical device Integration – the MDI functionality will automatically collect and send patients’ vital signs data from various medical devices such as glucose monitors directly to the mobile application.
Health activity tracking – this option will help patients and doctors monitor their health condition and enter daily measurements such as their physical activity or calorie intake.
Cloud integration – cloud storage will guarantee 24/7 access to data from anywhere across the devices by logging into the accounts.
Compliance – mHealth apps must meet federal regulations such as HIPAA and GDPR, which impose certain privacy and security requirements.
Third-party integrations – APIs promote better data management and enhance access to electronic health records for doctors.
Electronic prescriptions – digital prescriptions allow physicians to make and share prescriptions with patients without visiting the facility.
These are the most popular features that medical apps contain. The set of functionality may differ based on the app time. With that in mind, try not to squeeze all the functions into one application:
Plan functionality and design around end-users
Factor in the type of users: patient-facing or doctor-oriented
Launch an MVP first to get rid of excessive features and include the most important ones.
How Much Does Healthcare Software Cost in 2021?
A full-fledged healthcare application includes a wide variety of features based on its type. Moreover, the cost of creating a healthcare mobile app depends on a great number of other factors like the type of mobile app, number of platforms, and others. Therefore, it’s quite difficult to name the exact cost of developing a healthcare mobile app.
Overall, the price range for building a custom mHealth solution varies from $60K to $500K. To have a better understanding of the future investments, you need to factor in the number of hours developers spend on building your app:
A standard app with simple functionality can take up around 700 development hours.
A medium complexity app takes up from 900 hours.
A complex app with advanced functionality will require 1000+ hours to complete.
Mind that developer rates differ by country. Thus, the most well-paid mobile engineers are based in the US with an average of $80–250/hour. On the other hand, companies based in Eastern Europe charge around $70–150/hour for the same amount of work.
The Bottom Line
Healthcare applications owe their meteoric rise to the pandemic-induced reality. They hold great potential for improving the overall healthcare system, costs, and quality of healthcare services. That is why an increasing number of forward-looking business owners invest in building mobile medical solutions.
The total for developing health apps depends on a gamut of factors. These include the number of features, app complexity, location, and the type of app. Therefore, if you are looking to tap into this lucrative market, make sure to give thorough consideration to the process and technology vendor.
Healthcare Mobile App Development in 2022: A Comprehensive Guide was last modified: August 30th, 2024 by Tatsiana Isakova
POS or Point Of Sale is a system that is used by people working in the retail industry and also in the restaurant business. This system helps business owners to track each sale they make and their overall cash flow, making it a huge time saver. It also allows restaurant owners to monitor their food inventory, which is fundamental. Many kinds of POS systems are made available and all of these systems try to give the best experience to their users. However, when it comes to making a choice, you might find yourself feeling overwhelmed. Do not worry at all, we are here to guide you with your selection process. Here are things you should look for when choosing a POS system for your restaurant.
User-Friendliness
The POS system will be used by your staff members, it is going to be the link between your waiters and chefs. That is why it is highly important that the interface is simple and easy to use for your employees. Managing a restaurant is hard enough on its own, do not make it harder on yourself by choosing a system that is difficult to navigate. You would not want to have delayed orders just because someone is unable to put the data correctly and things are over complicated for them.
A user-friendly system will save you the time you otherwise would have spent on training your staff and making sure every one of them understood how to use it. The last thing you want is a waiter standing in front of a customer puzzled in front of a machine or someone in the kitchen unable to know what order is next.
Choose One That Will Grow With You
When you embark on your business journey, your plans include expansion and having more branches, and growing your number of customers. Before deciding which system you will use, go over a list of restaurant computer systems and pick the one with the room for potential growth. Being able to modify your system to the current needs of your restaurant is important because when you expand your business, you will need something that provides you with the numbers you should know about your most successful dishes and the least favorite ones as well.
The system you choose should have a feature that allows you to add more terminals and connect them together. You might also want to consider one that supports multiple language options in case you would like to open a new branch of your restaurant in a different country.
One With Excellent Reviews
Any company that is looking to make a successful sale will only say what is good about their systems. No one is going to be straightforward about what their system is missing. It’s much better to talk to one of the customers who can provide feedback about the system you are considering. User experience is a reputable resource and will provide you with many insights. Ensure you ask users about the good and the bad about the system as well. The importance of getting both positive and negative feedback is because restaurants are different and what is good for you might not be the same for others and vice versa.
A System That Provides You With Data Quickly
No one has time to wait in front of the machine to get the data they want. Therefore, pick a system that retrieves the information efficiently and quickly. Imagine you are talking to a customer who is upset about a reservation or a to-go order and you keep them waiting beside the barista because your POS is taking longer to get the order or reservation data. This is the kind of situation that can make a restaurant lose a customer even if they like the food. The system will be used as well by waiters to take orders, again a task that does not allow for any delays or lagging.
The ability of a system to retrieve information quickly is a sign of professionalism and can get you out of many difficult situations. POS systems can also help you when it comes to payroll and calculating the number of hours your waiters have worked. Since you will depend on this system for many things that concern internal operations or customer service, it better does the job quickly.
Specialized For Restaurants
All businesses are hectic to run, but not all of them are run the same way. Opt for a system that is specifically designed for restaurants to ensure that it has all the options that will be of benefit to you. The fact that you and a grocery shop both sell food does not mean that both establishments do the same thing or can be served by the same system. Only a system made for a restaurant will enable you, for example, to make a certain coffee offer for your regular customers, or split the bill if there is a group of people eating and everyone will pay for their own meal. This will be beneficial for you and your customers as well and will impress your customers too, making their experience at your restaurant something they would like to have again. Additionally, incorporating a music streaming solution might be a helpful way to create the ideal playlist to go with the ambiance of the dining room. Whether it’s soothing background music or upbeat songs, the appropriate music selection can improve the atmosphere, and make dining more enjoyable.
Your business is like your child, you want what is the best for it and you always hope you live and see it grow and prosper. Back in the days when there was no technology, restaurant owners had to write everything down and go through tons of paperwork to get the information they needed. Thanks to technology, this job is made way easier now and can save you time and help you make more money and have more loyal customers.
When choosing a POS system using the latest technology will also make the job of your staff easier and that is one of the things that will make them want to continue working for you for years. No one wants to work in a job with a system that is difficult to use or where there is no system at all. Take your time before you decide upon a certain system, the time you invest in research is time well spent.
What You Should Look For in a Restaurant POS Systems was last modified: May 23rd, 2023 by Allen Brown
Being able to successfully run a business usually entails making sure you have everything in place so that everything is going smoothly and you’re making the most out of your time and resources. While this can be a lot easier said than done, it’s worth noting that there are many different kinds of software that can be helpful for a variety of hotels, whether they’re small or large hotels, independently or as part of a chain. In order to provide your guests with the best stay, it’s important for things to run as smoothly as possible, and there are ways in which having the right software can simplify your day-to-day hotel operations.
1. Streamlines Front Office Operations
While it can be said that a hotel is a small business, it offers and requires some things that are pretty unique. This is why it’s important to get software for the hotel industry specifically. The first thing you’ll probably want to look into is the property management system (POS). The benefit of having a system like this is that it can streamline your front office operations.
Your staff will be able to easily check out and keep track of who’s staying at the hotel, as well as how long they’re staying for and more. PMS is used by owners and front desk employees use to administer their operations by keeping track of reservations, online booking availability, payments, and reporting – all in one location. In other words, it can help employees with guest check-ins and check-outs, view room availability, make changes to existing reservations. Every hotel owner and manager knows how important it is to be aware of the average daily rate, occupancy, as well as revenue per available room, and PMS – software specifically designed for hotels, provides you with that.
2. Better Staff Collaboration
While managing a hotel can be complex, you also need to ensure that it’s done properly, which means your employees have to keep in touch and coordinate. Investing in a program that can sync your business contacts will help with staff collaboration by allowing them to communicate with each other more easily. At the same time, it will allow you to keep track of all your contacts on one platform, which means you won’t need to spend hours looking through emails or calendars.
Increasing staff productivity can only have positive effects on your business – both by providing a better guest experience and by increasing revenue. By being able to communicate clearly regardless of which shift, floor, or department someone’s from, the possibility of dropped tasks, mistakes, and misunderstandings goes down to a minimum. Knowing exactly how to contact someone from the team will make the job easier for any staff member, and by promoting collaboration among your employees, you’re also taking steps to ensure higher job satisfaction.
3. Faster Room Turnovers
Hotel room turnover rates have a direct influence on profits, and hotel housekeeping software is speeding up the process considerably, resulting in lower expenses and greater profits. When it comes to housekeeping, you’ll want to make sure that you’re doing everything possible so that rooms get cleaned faster, since rooms get cleaned before, during, and after a guests’ stay. By getting notified in real-time about the status of every room, you not only get to see if everyone’s doing what they should be, but your staff will also now have a tool that will help them know exactly where to be and at what time.
When there is no time wasted by checking if a room is empty, or whether it was already cleaned or not, the housekeeping process becomes much faster, more efficient, and guests don’t get disturbed. Additionally, this kind of housekeeping software will let you know what the average time of room turnover is in your hotel, as well as how long does it take for individual employees to do it in different rooms. That will in turn make it easier for you to see where there’s room for improvement.
4. Improved Guest Experience
A hotel is only as good as its guest experience, and as such, you need to make sure that your hotel runs smoothly at all times. With the right software, you’ll be able to improve this aspect significantly by making it easier for your employees to cater to guests’ needs and requests. More than that, having this kind of program allows you to get direct feedback from guests. By gathering and analyzing the feedback you receive, you can use it to further improve the guest experience. Knowing what your guests want is important because it will help you understand their needs better, and the only way to do that is by having a tool that can gather real-time feedback. By knowing what kind of service they expect, you’ll also be able to provide them with exactly that – and more.
However, it’s always recommended to first perfect the services you already provide. If a single person doesn’t like something at your hotel, it doesn’t really have to mean anything. On the other hand, if there are multiple people that have a similar complaint, that’s a different story. It means that you have a problem with the service you provide, and it’s time to adjust it accordingly. By constantly working on bettering your services, you are making sure that the guests love spending time at your hotel, and are much more likely to recommend it to other friends, which means more business for you!
5. Tracking Inventory
One of the most important things when running a hotel is always tracking your inventory – from guest rooms to towels and sheets, to food storage in your kitchen. If you’re not tracking your inventory, then you simply don’t know what’s going on with the materials and goods that are essential for running a hotel. Are there enough soaps and shampoo bottles in each room? Are you short of towels? How much food do we have left, and when we should order more? Luckily, hotel owner software packages include features that allow you to easily monitor the amount, quality, and flow of goods that come into and flow out of your hotel. Inventory management is extremely important for any business, but when it comes to a hotel, it’s crucial to know when certain items might run out because they need to be replaced at specific times.
The right hotel management software can help you solve a lot of problems without putting too much effort on your shoulders. With a good piece of software, you’ll have the peace of mind that comes with knowing that everything in your hotel is running smoothly at all times. As long as there are enough people making sure that nothing is missed, this kind of software can streamline your operations and help you give excellent guest service. All in all, managing a hotel is much more simple when you have the right tools to do it with.
How Having the Right Software Can Simplify Your Day-to-Day Hotel Operations was last modified: February 16th, 2024 by Francis Brown
Using a computer system, device or any machine with an operating system that stores sensitive data without the proper cybersecurity tools watching your back can undoubtedly result in the complete compromise of that system. Such is the state of the connected realm nowadays. This is why it has become practically obligatory to ensure that you have these tools installed, and especially the correct and verified ones at that. A cyber breach can have devastating consequences, and especially when it comes to modern-day cybercrime it is the primary priority of governments all over the world to curb cybercrime. The most common mistake is thinking that it cannot happen to you, but simply entering your email addresses for a quick check on websites such as haveibeenpwned.com will most likely show you otherwise. You can also perform a slightly more in-depth scan on a website such as dehashed.com for a wider range of information and possible search queries relating to whether your personal information has been hacked in the past.
Since we live in 2021, almost all data and transactions out there that are critical to our daily lives have been digitized. As the world moves to innovative new standards and technologies, the requirement that everything is connected is now set in stone. This also pertains to our habits and how we are now used to storing our data on our computers, smartphones, and other devices without much afterthought. The issue is that all of these devices are susceptible to data breaches and remember, cybercriminals have no mercy. At least 40% of businesses report data breaches every year, the cost of which can be millions of dollars for a single breach. By 2025, the annual cost of financial damages incurred by cybercrime such as phishing and ransomware is estimated to exceed $10 trillion. Annual reports coming from cybersecurity tool vendors such as antivirus and antimalware makers reveal that increasingly sophisticated malicious tools are being detected, especially those of the polymorphic type (with the ability to mutate and escape detection.) Statistics also indicate that cybercriminal extortion and blackmail have resulted in a peaking of ransom payments since 2020.
With these worrying findings in mind, it is time to take cybersecurity into our hands to avoid our data being stolen, corrupted, or compromised and, ultimately, to protect our safety and the safety of our families and friends from cyber threats.
What Types of Cyber Threats Are There Out There?
There are countless types of cyber threats out there, that vary in design and purpose e.g. which attack surface they are directed at and via which attack vector/method they will be orchestrated. Some of the most common cyber threats that both organizations and the common citizen can fall victim to include;
Ransomware
Phishing
Viruses
Trojans
Worms
Keyloggers
Cryptojacking
DDoS attacks
MiTM Attacks
Cyber threats can cause many frightful scenarios with varying degrees of severity, from website downtime, data that is taken for ransom, to the destruction of sensitive data which can easily result in the erasure of a company. Cybercrime is even strong enough to bring the world’s most cutting-edge government defense to its knees. As more and more data is online, the opportunity for cybercriminals grows exponentially.
What Are Cybersecurity Tools?
Cybersecurity is a sector dedicated to the protection (security) of data and systems (cyber) from cyber threats (hackers and other threats.) Vendors that work in this sector offer familiar products and services that are indispensable to all of us, like; antivirus software, antimalware software, anonymization solutions, password protection, and on a greater and more modern scale complete managed security solutions. Cybersecurity for home use differs greatly in scope from enterprise cybersecurity which protects much larger systems and enormous amounts of data, but in essence, the purpose is the same.
Which Cybersecurity Tools Are Indispensable For The Home User?
There are several types of cybersecurity tools and solutions that you should be making use of daily if you value the security, integrity, and stability of your data (not to mention your personal safety.) A lot of these tools have already been available for more than a decade, but some have recently been popularized due to increasing digital safety demands from the economy. The most important ones to keep account of are;
Antivirus software
Antimalware software
Virtual Private Networks
Encrypted Password Managers
Specialized Firewalls
Security and privacy-focused web browsers
Including the batch of cybersecurity tools above on your devices (laptop, tablet, smartphone, or other), as well as knowing how to use them, will give you a satisfactory entry-level security blanket from most modern cyber threats. Here is why you need them;
An antivirus software serves to protect your devices from classical harmful viruses, as well as prevent them from infecting your devices
Like antivirus software, antimalware programs focus on scanning, identifying, and removing malicious software but refer to a different library of threats
A Virtual Private Network is a network anonymization tool that can cloak your physical location by modifying your IP address and encrypting your connection from all sides
A password manager is a unified solution where you can keep all of your passwords under lock and key
A specialized firewall is more advanced than default firewalls and offers more security features
Specialized web browsers will reduce fingerprinting, ads, tracking and also are designed under better ethical and moral standards than mainstream browsers
Nobody wants their personal security compromised via an email phishing scheme, their data taken for ransom by advanced cybercriminals, their systems riddled with destabilizing malware, or their business websites compromised by brute force attacks. For this reason, it is important to have a basic level of security and an understanding of the usage of cybersecurity tools. The cherry on top would be an additional level of security via common-sense information security best practices, such as; using long and unique passwords for each account or service (and keeping them private), avoiding unsecured websites, avoiding public wifi, practicing offline data backups, and avoiding interaction with emails from suspicious or unknown senders.
What Cybersecurity Software Should You Be Using? was last modified: November 12th, 2021 by Matt Outreach
Businesses stand to win from their use of RSS feed readers in their day-to-day work especially when it comes to the realm of digital marketing and research. RSS feed readers have been on an upswing in popularity and are quite the overall powerhouse tools. We’ll discuss this in detail in a minute. But first…
What is RSS?
In case you need a refresher, RSS is the abbreviation of Real Simple Syndication. It’s a technology that makes it easy for users to receive and follow content from many sites in a single application – that’s the RSS feed reader. You use the RSS feed reader to subscribe to a site via an RSS feed.
As soon as there’s a new article published, the RSS feed updates, and when the feed reader crawls the feed pulls the article and loads it. The RSS feed is a simple XML file, which displays the most important information about the posts – title, URL, timestamp, author, and a short summary or an excerpt.
Traditionally, RSS only showed the title and a little bit of text. Once you click on the headline, you’d be directed to the site. RSS readers today display articles in full length and with embedded multimedia files.
Can Businesses Use It?
Absolutely.
RSS feed readers have made the jump into the land of productivity and are excellent for a variety of tasks, ranging from improving your value proposition via social listening to brand monitoring. The applications are varied and the best part is that there are so many options on the market.
You’re bound to find an RSS reader to match your taste and pay relatively little for its features, which is not something you can say for the big tools that promise you the same results. All you need is a bit of ingenuity.
How RSS Feeds Can Benefit Your Business
Identify Blog Topics
Let’s start with something RSS feed readers are known for – handling massive amounts of content and information. As long as it’s written or recorded somewhere, an RSS feed reader will probably be able to read it. That’s quite useful when you need to perform research on what customers would find useful and resonate with, and what current hot topics in your industry are.
RSS readers today are great at recommending content. The Old Reader does so socially through what your friends are reading and liking, and user-generated trending page for articles that have caught the attention of everyone on the reader. Feedly and Inoreader have their own designated areas for content discovery, where you can perform all kinds of searches and dig into topics.
Maybe you’ve stumbled on a great new site that can act as an inspiration. Through Inoreader’s fast Chrome extension, you can identify whether the site has an RSS feed and then subscribe to it with one click.
Get To Know Your Customers
Once you start monitoring your industry for trends, it’s easy to make the transition into monitoring branded words – these would be your brand name, slogan, products, and services. People are talking about your brand, whether you’re tagged in the conversations or not. RSS feed readers make it so easy to tune into conversations and gain valuable insight.
What are the main drawbacks to what you do? What are you being praised for? What do customers also want to see in a product or service from you? What are their concerns about the type of product you sell? All these questions come in handy when you’re workshopping new products or looking to update existing offerings.
Collaborate Better in a Team
At their most basic levels, RSS readers are meant for individual, casual use, but once you get into the higher-priced subscriptions you unlock a lot of team features for collaborative work. Inoreader has an excellent team feature to assist units in organizing their research together.
It’s a trend you’ll see all around major RSS readers. Feedly also has team boards, where you can directly tag team members and then convert the curated content into newsletters. Feeder is another good example of how you can make groups together.
Save Time and Money
In the long run, pro accounts are a smart investment, because you’re able to add a small degree of automation to some menial, repetitive task. It’s distracting and time-consuming to have to open a lot of tabs and refresh websites to check for new articles.
Plus, current readers have nice little tricks. Like sharing articles to social media without leaving your dashboard. Integrate your reader with IFTTT and Zapier and see how you can create chains of triggers and commands to automate your process further. Or command your whole army of apps by getting Netvibes, which is one of the most powerful RSS readers out there.
Understand Your Niche Better
All that research into potential blog content makes it easier to understand where your industry is heading and what’s the status quo at the moment. That’s incredibly valuable in terms of what you want your digital media strategy to be. What are you targeting? What are the keywords you want to focus on for your SEO?
But also you’re seeing trends form, which opens up opportunities for you to better target your ideal customer and give directions for new product development.
Keep Track of Your Competitors
We wrap up with the old faithful – competitor analysis. I’m sure you’ve all heard about keeping your enemies closer. In business, this has never been truer. Following your competitors gives you several advantages:
· Knowing their release schedule and campaigns so that you can schedule around them.
· Adapting what they’re doing right to your brand in order to cater to your shared audience in the hopes of attracting some of their less enthusiastic customers.
· Learning from their past mistakes. Sooner or later every business makes a public mistake, and it’s very useful information on what to avoid in your digital messaging from here on out.
Why Do Businesses Need to Use RSS Feed Readers? was last modified: November 12th, 2021 by Lokesh Jaral
Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, the online community has seen a surge of audience, especially the streaming platforms like Netflix. According to Forbes, Netflix saw 1.54 million new global subscribers in the second quarter of 2020. Unfortunately, a certain rise also came in online scams and frauds.
The scammers came up with ways to trick online users into giving their credit card information. At this point, we cannot stop the scammers, but we can get educated. This is why we share with you the Netflix scams and how to avoid them.
This guide will include some of the lessons learned from past mistakes and remedies to dodge them. One best way to do so is to have a Netflix specialized VPN that secures your streaming experience. Let’s start with understanding these Netflix scams as follows:
The “Free Pass” scam:
This is a type of scam that circulates on social media as a “free lottery” “fake prize/sweepstake”. In mid of 2020, it was reported that many users received an e-mail saying “Due to the Coronavirus pandemic worldwide, Netflix is giving some free passes for their platform during the period of isolation.
Run on the site because it will end quickly!” with a link attached under it. Many people clicked the link and are redirected to share it further with 10 of their friends to avail the free pass (even after doing so, it does not happen).
One major red flag in such e-mails is the grammar. In this e-mail, sentences like “Run on-site” are concerning, especially if it’s a global giant like Netflix. Another red flag is the sender’s e-mail and the link URL. Just because it has ‘Netflix’ written in it, does not mean it is legit. By sharing with friends, scammers collect your information and personal data.
The “Account suspension” scam
During the pandemic, it’d be a nightmare to have your Netflix account suspended. This is how the scammers play on the sense of urgency. In this type of scam, people receive an e-mail with the subject line “Your account suspension notification” and the body reads “We are unable to validate your billing information for the next billing month of your subscription. Therefore, we will suspend your membership within 48 hours. Update your account details to avoid cancellation”.
The call-to-action button is a big “update account now button”. This scam was also found active back in the 2019 “Game of Thrones” season 8 premiere. In this situation, the signs of a scam include punctuation, super urgent deadline, and e-mail address.
How to avoid Netflix scams?
If you have encountered any such e-mails or phishing messages, you need to act on them to make sure it doesn’t spread further. If we look at Netflix’s terms of service, we will find a lot of clauses that can help us detect the scam faster. Here are some of the precautionary points to note:
Netflix does not use a 3rd party app for credit card payment. If you are being redirected to another website, back out ASAP
Netflix never collects personal information through e-mail or text, not even the username, and password.
Netflix URLs have Netflix.com at the start. If it is a long unrecognizable URL, it is risky to click.
Awful grammar mistakes
Sense of urgency that pushes you to start ASAP
In this list, some points can be a conflict of interest. For example, genuine e-mail marketers give a sense of urgency to their customers. It should not be mistaken as a scam. However, no e-mail marketers collect sensitive information on e-mail so we’re good.
Not only do we avoid this scam, but it is also our responsibility to report it to the proper authorities. Whenever you receive such an e-mail, take a screenshot, and forward it to phishing@netflix.com. That way, Netflix can act against such scammers and fraudsters.
There is a possibility that you may have clicked and done as the scammers wanted you to. There are some remedial things to do to survive.
Change your Netflix password in case the scam URL asked for it
Change your bank account password and details in case it has acquired your credit card information
Log out from all signed-in devices and sign back in afterward with the new password
Regularly update your Netflix password and make it complex (but not too complex that it becomes forgettable).
Conclusion
The online market will continue to see growth and it is our joint responsibility to make the internet a safer place. Lately, e-mail services like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft are making a stronger effort in reducing internet scams. Even so, we must stay educated on differentiating between a genuine e-mail and a scam. Hope this guide will help!
Netflix Scams: How They Work And How To Avoid Them In 2022 was last modified: November 8th, 2021 by David Michaels
As a SaaS company owner, there is no such thing as too much improvement. With your competition launching new products or releasing new features for their existing products, you constantly have to be at the top of your game. Your marketing strategies should also be constantly evolving to keep up with market demand and audience tastes.
Business people in a video call meeting
By working on your marketing strategies, you increase the number of new customers and reduce customer churn. With that in mind, here are eight SaaS marketing strategies that you can implement.
1. Content Marketing
Marketing SaaS products varies a lot from marketing consumer products. First, SaaS customers tend to do a lot of research before deciding to make a purchase. Second, the buyer journey often takes longer. Content marketing will help your brand position itself as a credible source of information, convince your target audience to give your products a try, and improve your website’s performance in search engine rankings.
Your audience consumes content through a variety of methods, such as blogs, videos, and emails. To ensure that your content helps maintain your authority in your niche, you need to ensure that the content you produce is of high quality. Using a grammar check tool will help you avoid errors that erode your credibility and increase your articles’ readability.
Content marketing goes beyond posting just a few articles on your blog. You also need to create a link-building strategy that will get your content on high-authority websites and increase organic traffic to your own site. Creating different types of content will also increase your brand’s visibility across different demographics. Younger audiences, for example, prefer videos, while those aged 55 or older prefer receiving emails.
Understanding the impact of mass media strategy is crucial in tailoring your content to meet the diverse preferences of your audience, ensuring you effectively reach and engage with each segment.
To create effective content, you need to know the questions your customers are likely to ask as they search for solutions for their problems. Addressing these concerns will help you raise your search engine profile as well as convince potential customers that your solutions are based on solid research.
Other forms of content that help generate leads include white papers, case studies, and ebooks. You can use those types of free content as lead magnets on your landing pages, allowing you to grow your email list rapidly. You can also use an email tracking tool to get insights into the performance of your campaigns.
2. Co-marketing
Collaborations between brands are nothing new. One type of inter-company collaboration, co-marketing, involves multiple brands getting together to create a product or set of products that carry the names of all brands involved. While co-marketing is pretty common among businesses that offer consumer goods, SaaS businesses are also starting to realize the benefits of this strategy.
Co-marketing campaigns usually involve two brands that operate in different niches. For example, CRM company HubSpot and professional network LinkedIn collaborated on a book about social selling:
Your business doesn’t have to be as large as HubSpot to engage in co-marketing campaigns. You may start doing it on a smaller scale by finding a small business that shares your corporate values or offers products that add value to yours. Once you find that business, you can start creating content together. You may publish a common blog, feature their content on your social media platforms, or mention them in your videos whenever you feel it’s appropriate.
Co-marketing helps you increase your reach rapidly and exposes your brand to new audiences, especially those outside your industry. Collaborating with the right type of partner will allow you to maximize your gains, amplify your message, and generate more leads.
Co-marketing partnerships between same-niche companies with complementary product offerings can also be effective. To learn more, go now to this guide on co-selling.
3. Referrals and affiliate marketing
A good reputation is the best currency your brand can ever possess, and every time one of your satisfied customers recommend your product to others, they are sending potential revenue your way. It’s just right to reward your most loyal customers for promoting your brand to their contacts through a referral program.
In a referral program, you offer rewards to customers who bring in more new customers. These rewards range from cash gifts to discounts on future purchases. You may also give them free products, such as extra storage or a few months’ worth of subscription to your product.
Affiliate marketing runs on the same principle as referral marketing, which is to reward people or websites that help bring in new customers. However, affiliate campaigns almost always give your partners a cut of each sale that you identify as coming from their websites. Most affiliate marketing campaigns include either a code or a special product page that automatically sends a commission to your affiliate partners.
Through referral and affiliate marketing, you recognize your most loyal customers and encourage them to keep being advocates for your brand.
4. Free trials
SaaS companies are known for offering free trials to potential customers. While this may seem like a total loss for your brand, the cost of offering a month’s worth of free access to your solutions is a lot lower than the cost of losing a potential customer to a competing brand.
There are a few reasons free trials are popular marketing strategies in the SaaS space:
They allow potential users to experience your solution for themselves before making a purchase decision.
Free trials are easier to convert into paid accounts.
They also present an excellent opportunity to collect user feedback that can help you improve your product.
Because your business follows a SaaS business model, giving your leads a free limited-time subscription won’t involve a lot of work or expense. Sometimes, it’s as easy as locating the user in your database and adding a few more months to their trial periods.
5. SEO
Many Saas businesses struggle with appearing on search engine results for their niche, especially if it is crowded with multiple competitors or dominated by one or two large businesses. Search engine optimization (SEO) will help your business stand out and attract organic traffic to your site. You can also show Google reviews on website to increase your organic business.
Most people associate SEO with keywords. However, keyword usage is just one factor that Google and other search engines use to find and rank websites. The Google algorithm is too complex for a detailed discussion on this space, but it all comes down to how easily Google finds and indexes your content and how relevant your content is to your audience.
For example, building backlinks from high-authority sites to yours will allow you to benefit from potential click-throughs. It also lets your website benefit indirectly from your guest sites’ domain authority score. You also need to do on-page SEO on your content. This involves adding internal backlinks within your domain to allow Google to crawl through your site and index it efficiently.
The easier you make it for Google to look for your content, the easier it becomes for people to find it. Performing SEO on your web pages and content will not just improve your search engine ranking but also drive traffic back to your site, increasing your potential revenue.
6. Improve your PPC campaign
Aside from SEO, you may also use Google ads to push your content to the top of the search results. Most ads follow a pay-per-click campaign; that is, you only pay for the ad when a user clicks on it. Running a well-planned PPC campaign will allow you to maximize your ads’ visibility and increase the chances of users clicking through to your site.
To make the most out of PPC ads, you need to target a good mix of short and long-tail keywords. Short keywords are often high-volume and high-competition, which means the cost per click is higher. Long-tail keywords, on the other hand, tend to have lower search volumes and high click-through rates, which lowers the cost per click. You need to use both types of keywords to maximize the number of people your ads reach.
Aside from creating a list of keywords that you can use to reach Google users, you can also use a list of negative keywords or keywords that you don’t want to rank for. These are often keywords that appear heavily in your niche but refer to a product or service that you don’t offer. For example, if your business involves just selling houses in a specific area, you don’t want to appear in Google searches for property rentals.
7. Tap into review sites
The growth of your SaaS company will not just depend on your marketing efforts, but also on your customers’ perception of your brand and products. Consumers tend to research their options before making a purchase, and online reviews play a major role in influencing purchase decisions. Embed Google reviews on your website to leverage positive customer feedback, enhancing trust and credibility among potential buyers.
Most users browse through review sites such as G2 or Capterra to find out what current and previous customers think of your products and services. If you are not encouraging your customers to post reviews on these sites, you need to start now. Positive reviews go a long way in convincing your leads to give your products a try as they are seen as more credible than branded content.
Aside from getting your customers to post positive reviews, responding to both positive and negative reviews will allow you to engage your customer base. Acknowledging and replying to negative reviews, in particular, shows that you value all types of feedback and are serious about putting out the best product available.
8. Easy registration process
Marketing doesn’t end when a user visits your site. Unless they’ve successfully completed the sales or registration process, you haven’t gained a new customer yet. In the SaaS industry, many customers complain that complicated registration processes have turned them away from otherwise promising products.
The longer your registration process is, the more chances you give your customers to back out of the transaction or abandon their shopping carts. However, many brands tend to ask too many questions that don’t seem related to the product itself. Reducing the number of questions to just a few important ones will help streamline the process and increase conversions.
You may also use the Google and Facebook APIs to simplify the user experience. Because your leads’ Google and Facebook profiles already have their personal and demographic information, your website can import that data instead of requiring new users to fill out registration forms. Better yet, you may also use dynamic QR codes to reduce the number of keystrokes, especially if you’re dealing with mobile device users.
In Closing
SaaS marketing is a bit different from other types of marketing. Your potential customers are less prone to impulse purchases. They will take their time looking for the best option and are not hesitant about doing research about your products. Your SaaS marketing strategies should adapt to this type of behavior and gently nudge them into making a purchase.
Content marketing, SEO, and PPC, for example, help drive customer awareness of your brand, especially in competitive niches. Free trials, on the other hand, give potential customers a glimpse of what they can expect from your product and a positive experience will help convince them to switch over to the paid version.
You may also use review sites, referrals, and affiliate marketing to boost your promotional campaigns and expand your audience. Finally, a quick and convenient registration process will remove the last barrier to entry for new customers.
By constantly seeking and analyzing customer feedback, testing new combinations of content, and streamlining your processes, you set up your SaaS business for greater success ahead.
8 SaaS Marketing Strategies to Help You Grow Your Business was last modified: July 25th, 2024 by Shakti Mataya
Businesses have more data at their disposal than ever before and the analytics firms are finding ever more imaginative ways of putting it to use. But while all that information can certainly bring a competitive edge, it can also bring big problems and liabilities if it is not handled with care. The SEC is not shy about handing out six, or even seven figure penalties to offenders. Don’t risk becoming just another statistic.
Archiving is mandatory
First, let’s get one thing clear. If your business is subject to SEC oversight, archiving web data is not optional. The SEC sees your website as the main conduit between your business and its clients. But that conduit is comprised of many channels, including web pages, webchats, social media posts and comments, even discussions over platforms like Facebook Messenger. All of this data needs to be archived in a particular way to meet regulatory requirements. Specifically, SEC rules state that it must be in its original format – in other words, PDFs and screenshots are unlikely to be good enough in most cases.
Archiving is different from a backup
A common misunderstanding is that if you already have backup procedures in place, that checks the archiving box, too. Unfortunately, that is seldom the case. Of course, it depends on the type of backup you perform, but most often, this is an emergency copy of your live data, saved in a simplified format and retained for a few days in case you suffer a sudden data loss and need to recover it. Archive data needs to be fully searchable, instantly accessible and retained for 3-6 years depending on the type and nature of the data and the industry sector in which you operate.
No different to paper records
Today, we send emails and instant messages instead of faxes and letters. Even commercial contracts are often finalized electronically. Under the circumstances, it is reasonable that business correspondence we type, even if it’s from our smartphone as a WhatsApp or Facebook message needs to be properly stored in its original form. It amounts to exactly the same rules that we have lived with for paper correspondence for years, but it takes some getting used to. Obtaining professional support to ensure you are in compliance is a wise investment if you are in any doubt – the alternative could carry a cost, both financial and reputational, that does not bear thinking about.
Are Your Business’s Data Archiving Practices Compliant? was last modified: November 7th, 2021 by Cindy Cummings
Looking for ways to record mobile phone calls for your enterprise but don’t know where to start? You’ve come to the right place.
Today, we have various different options to record mobile phone calls, and here we’ll look at all the details you might need to know before investing in a mobile recorder solution.
Let us begin, however, by discussing the concept of recording mobile phone calls, its benefits, and whether it’s the right investment for your business.
Mobile Phone Recording: Use Cases
Why do you need to record mobile phone calls in the first place?
In general, there are four main reasons for a business to record phone calls:
To ensure that your business is in compliance with legal regulations
To record evidence of customer transactions/deals
Investigate the quality of phone calls (i.e. for evaluating employees and for training new employees)
To check for unauthorized practices
With that being said, recording mobile phone calls can provide the following benefits for your business:
Can potentially protect your business when you are sued by customers or other legal disputes
Better control over the quality of service on your phone calls
Comprehensive records of transactions made over phone calls and communication records
However, there are also some key concerns you should have before implementing mobile recording for your business:
Legal requirements in your area, which might vary between states and countries
How audio files are going to be stored to maintain data security and accessibility
How your employees are going to react when their calls are being monitored
Is It Legal To Record Mobile Phone Calls?
Is it legal to record mobile phone calls? For some industries, recording calls might be legally required, but it’s very important to ensure that all phone calls, mobile or otherwise, must be recorded in compliance with the legal requirements according to the location of both parties (your business and your caller).
As you embrace mobile phone recording technology for your business, it’s also crucial to establish your business legally. If you’re based in Georgia and ready to register your business entity, you can learn the steps to apply for an LLC in Georgia. Securing your LLC in Georgia is a big step towards ensuring your business’s compliance and success.
Call recording and monitoring laws vary among states and countries, and we should also take into account the possibility of our callers being located in different countries or states during the phone call.
In general, it is both legal and ethical to record mobile phone calls as long as there’s consent, so you should always inform the customer that the call is being recorded. However, mobile phone call recording laws can be divided into two different types based on consent:
States that Allow One-Party Consent
Most (38) states in the U.S. require the full consent of only one party on the call. Meaning, your business can technically record the conversation without the consent of the other party, if the other party is also in states with one-party consent recording laws.
However, if your enterprise mainly operates in a one-party consent state, it doesn’t necessarily mean you can freely record all calls without consent. You might still be required to follow the relevant state laws, and again, you’ll need to take into consideration whether the other party is located in a state with all-party consent laws.
Here are the 38 states with one-party consent recording laws:
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
Colorado
Delaware
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Nebraska
Nevada
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
States Requiring Two-Party/All-Party Consent
Twelve states, on the other hand, require the knowledge and consent of all parties involved before the call can be legally recorded.
California
Connecticut
Florida
Illinois
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Montana
Nevada
New Hampshire
Pennsylvania
Washington
Also, some states do allow “implied consent”. Meaning, as long as you’ve informed the other party that you are going to record the call, if this other party continues to participate in the conversation, it can be treated as implied consent.
Again, it’s best to always ask for consent before recording any mobile phone call. This way, you don’t need to worry whether the other party is in a one-party or all-party state. Remember that failure to follow and understand the recording laws in your area can result in expensive fines and penalties, not to mention damages to your reputation.
Choose The Right Mobile Phone Recorder Solution
There’s always the possibility of building your own mobile recording solution from scratch, but in most cases, you’d want to rely on a third-party service.
With that being said, when choosing a third-party mobile phone recorder solution, you should consider three main factors:
Reliability: how reliable is the service in recording mobile phone calls (i.e. audio quality, low error rate, etc.)
Data security: whether the solution has implemented security best practices like end-to-end encryption for data at rest and in transit. Very important if you are in a highly regulated industry and/or frequently dealing with sensitive and confidential data
Features: based on your objective(s) in performing mobile recording, whether the solution can provide the features you’ll need.
Especially if you are in a heavily regulated industry, it’s very important to choose the right solution that is compliant with the legal requirements and state laws that might apply to your business.
If you are in the financial industry, for example, a mobile call recording solution like Truphone for Finance can provide the required experience and features in the complex industry. With Truphone, you also don’t need to worry about storage, since included in the package is access to Truphone’s secure global cloud, although you can also opt to deliver the recording files to another storage infrastructure.
Closing Thoughts
While all companies can certainly benefit from business mobile phone recording, it’s also important to pay attention to local regulations that might apply to your business before investing in a mobile recorder solution.
To really unlock the full benefits of recording mobile phone calls, you’ll need a legally compliant solution that can also meet your needs, and secure cloud storage and backup solution to keep your audio files safe.
A Comprehensive Guide to Mobile Phone Recording was last modified: September 14th, 2023 by Mike Khorev
We live in a world that is full of opportunity, and that remains especially true if you happen to have access to technology. While we can see that digital marketing and everything that comes with it is evolving over time, it feels like there is one thing that gets left out all too often. If you’ve never heard of the term “Growth Hacking”, this article is just for you.
Most people don’t understand what growth hacking is all about, and many of you will claim that it’s merely a buzzword. I used to think the same thing, as I thought it was just another phrase that tech-geeks murmured to each other to seem special. Now that I know growth hacking is real and how effective it can be, I’m just sad that I didn’t get into things sooner.
There’s a difference between digital marketing and using everything at your disposal to grow a company. Some people are content with setting up a few YouTube ads and seeing what happens, but others are genuinely addicted to growing companies.
Is Growth Hacking Just Another Hoax?
We’ve all been through a phase in life where we feel like everything sucks and it’s all fake, which is true for most things in the world. Growth hacking, thankfully, doesn’t fall under that category, and you would know that first-hand if you’ve ever read into it yourself. It’s a concept that seems complicated, but it’s generally quite simple. Your sole purpose in the business world is to grow your company, regardless of what you’re doing.
Every step you make, and every technique being used is done so with growth in mind. The best part about all of this? It makes you a much more flexible person. You aren’t going to be stuck with one industry for your entire entrepreneurial career, and instead, will be able to dabble in a bunch of other things. Doesn’t that sound like fun?
Why Are There So Many “Gurus”?
Like anything else in life, where there is money to be made, there are bound to be fakes. There are genuine gurus like Roy Abou Trabi, and then there are plenty of fraudulent ones to avoid entirely. It’s tough to figure out which ones are just trying to sell you a poorly written eBook, and which ones are genuinely trying to help you grow your business, but there are some tricks you can use.
Read up on reviews that other people have written about their course or eBook, and see how valuable the information they’re giving out truly is. The fact that there are so many gurus alone is a red flag, but it’s quite easy to sniff out the ones that are just going to waste both your money and time.
How Do I Know Who To Trust?
I’m glad you asked! As somebody who has consumed a large number of useless eBooks in his time, I would say that you can tell whether it’s worth it almost right away. There are times where my “scam alert” was ringing like crazy, and I still decided to go ahead with the purchase anyway. It’s a gut feeling at times, and there are other times when a poorly designed website or bad reviews will be the giveaway.
Whatever the case may be, know your worth and understand that you’re giving these “gurus” your time. Not only that, but you’ll be giving them a reasonable amount of money as well, so it’s crucial to be sure that it was well spent.
Growth Hacking vs. Digital Marketing
Digital Marketing
Digital marketing is when you’re facing off against other companies head-on, fighting to see who can retain more customers. It’s a war at times, and there are budget limits, unreasonable targets, and plenty of other resource issues that can make it tough to master.
Growth Hacking
Being a complete addict when it comes to growth and worrying about much more than just the traditional means of digital marketing. You aren’t competing with anyone because you’re too busy competing with yourself.
Which One is Better?
Every successful company will have a CEO that considers themselves a growth hacker, but also have a department that handles the traditional digital marketing path as well. You cannot ignore digital marketing entirely, but you cannot use it to replace the growth hacking mentality either.
The best way to approach growing your business is with a mixture of the two, giving you the flexibility needed to grow your business regardless of what the future holds for us. Many of you reading this will have an opinion one way or the other, but can’t we all just get along for one article?
Grow Your Business with Peace of Mind
You won’t ever have to worry about whether you’re doing “enough” to build a successful brand when you’ve adapted to the growth hacking approach. If you’re not willing to adapt and change your marketing with the times, you’re only going to be limiting your potential.
It’s easy to confuse digital marketing with growth hacking and vice versa, which is probably why the industry is so saturated these days, but that doesn’t mean you can’t decipher things for yourself and benefit from it.
If you are always willing to change and do whatever it takes to grow, be happy! You’re already well on your way to become a certified growth hacker.
What is Growth Hacking (And Why You Should Be Doing It) was last modified: November 7th, 2021 by Haya Elkeshawy
Being your own boss has its perks, even in the medical world. Many doctors who work at hospitals dream of having their own practice. Although having your own private medical practice can be very exciting, it can have its challenges as well. You are a doctor whose main concern is to help people and make them feel better but running a private practice requires more than that. It is a business, at the end of the day, and you need to take care of this side of the practice just like you take care of your patients. If you don’t, you will end up losing money and maybe even your business. However, there are ways that can help you with running your independent practice and also stay on top, so read on.
Hire an Accountant
Any business’s goal is to make money, and if you hope to remain that way then you should hire an accountant or a financial planner to help you manage your money. Sometimes businessmen make huge financial decisions without considering their budget and they end up losing money and getting into financial trouble. Having a financial planner will give you an idea of your financial situation so you can set realistic goals accordingly. They will also help you manage your investments and keep you on track with your budget and financial goals.
Hire a Billing Service
Normally, as a doctor, you only want to focus on the medicine side of your private practice. While helping sick people is a noble cause, there are other aspects of the business that you must consider as well. You need to hire a billing service who can take care of the things that you don’t care about so you can focus on your work. A billing service will take care of the paperwork, negotiate contracts, and help you boost your ROI. If you don’t want to deal with these things on-site, you can always hire a third party medical billing that will help you handle all aspects of your practice without crowding you.
Make sure to hire a company that has the experience to handle a business like yours. You don’t need people who are still learning that will come to you with questions rather than solutions. Hire a place that you can trust to help you grow and stand out in a competitive market. Be sure to read about autonomous medical coding and how it can benefit your practice. Not only will it save you time and money, but it can also prevent coding errors and ultimately improve patient satisfaction.
This is particularly important when dealing with sensitive areas such as substance abuse, where accurate coding and billing practices can significantly impact reimbursement rates and patient care. By utilizing a professional substance abuse billing service, you can mitigate these challenges and enhance the overall efficiency of your practice. Plus, by outsourcing this aspect of your business, you can focus on providing the best possible treatment for your patients.
Hire a Medical Attorney
It is important for any private medical practice to seek the help of a medical attorney. An attorney can help with negotiations with the insurance company to get you better rates. They can also handle any legal troubles that you may face in cases of malpractice and represent you in court. Additionally, they will keep you updated with healthcare regulations to help you avoid any complications.
If you want to keep your medical practice on top then you need to hire a team to help you run things smoothly. You need to be so focused on helping people and paperwork or legal troubles can be a distraction. Hiring a team that you trust will save you the headache of dealing with things that are out of your depth and protect your practice from financial or legal troubles.
Helpful Advice for Independent Medical Practices: How to Stay on Top was last modified: July 30th, 2024 by Allen Brown
