Archives for August 2018

How to Integrate Email with Social Media for a Powerful Marketing Strategy

August 22, 2018 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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People think that email is dead. However, it’s not. In fact, it’s very much alive! By 2020, more than 3 billion people worldwide will be using email. That’s 3 billion potential customers you can reach via your email marketing software.

Every day people send billions of emails. This number is expected to grow to 246 billion by the end of 2019. In short, email is still powerful. Plus, it’s a great way to communicate with your customers.

One way to maximize email is to tie it in with an equally powerful platform—social media. There are around 2.46 billion users of social media worldwide. Even more are expected by the end of the year.

Making these platforms work hand-in-hand can make your marketing automation strategy even more powerful than it already is. Here are some ways you can do that.

RELATED ARTICLE: INBOX ZERO: MANAGE YOUR EMAIL INBOX EFFECTIVELY

1. Add Your Email List to Your Social Networks

Uploading your email list to your social networks helps you to understand the kind of customers you have. By putting a face to your current subscribers, you can create a deeper relationship with them. Relationships are important, especially between a business and its customers.

Another good thing you can draw from this exercise is that you can get a glimpse of your customers’ needs. Browse through their feeds. This will help you to understand what makes them tick or what they are looking for in certain products.

2. Show Social Profiles in Your Emails

One great way to integrate email marketing and social media is by showing in your email campaigns that you have active social media accounts. By dedicating a space for them, people will be aware of your business’s presence across different platforms.

Amp up your display by adding a short overview of your account beside each social media logo. In this way, people will know which platform they will prioritize in terms of following or which one they will check more often.

3. Embed Email Newsletter Signup Form on Your Facebook Page

Social media pages give your customers a mix and mash of readily available information. Give them a menu they can browse through depending on their needs.

Add a newsletter signup form on your page. This will encourage existing customers to sign up if they haven’t already. In this way, you will add more subscribers to your existing list. Check with your email marketing automation software to see if they offer this kind of service.

4. Promote Your Email Content on Social Media

Make your content diverse and flexible. That’s because another great way to maximize your resources is to syndicate your newsletters on different social media platforms. You can post on LinkedIn groups, Facebook groups, Twitter threads, and on other platforms as well. Why is this beneficial? You get to market your content to a different set of your audience on each of these platforms. This could then lead to new customers or subscribers to your email list, making them one step closer to converting them to your product.

Plus, you’ll save time in coming up with content. After all, you have the same message you want to deliver to each segment. This makes for a wise investment. At the same time, it’s a cost-efficient way to spread your presence over the digital space.

5. Create an Exclusive Social Community for Your Email Subscribers

Create an exclusive social community for your subscribers. This is a place where like-minded people can mingle, engage, and learn more about your business. In this way, you’ll have another avenue where you can build a more personal relationship with your customers.

Some great ways to keep it thriving are to:

Create exclusive content for these communities
Listen to their feedback about your business

This will give you a better understanding of how your current customers think and behave. Then use these insights to draft an even better strategy for promoting your business to your intended markets.

Wrapping Up

These are just a few tips for integrating social media with your email marketing.

Make your content work for you and don’t be afraid to explore options. For instance, you could embed a sign-up form on your social media pages.

Be creative so your customers and subscribers will actually engage with your content. Also, seek out an email marketing automation software that can help you seamlessly achieve your goals as quickly as possible.

Author Bio

Kimberly Maceda is a content writer for ActiveTrail. She writes for top online marketing sites and gives blogging advice on email marketing and marketing automation. ActiveTrail is a leading provider of professional-grade email marketing and automation software for growing businesses.

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Critical Business Aspects of Building an Authoritative Affiliate Site

August 22, 2018 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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Building a successful affiliate site today is more competitive and more difficult than it has been in the past. However, these higher barriers to entry aren’t necessarily a bad thing. They just mean that if you’re willing to put in the effort, you can isolate yourself from new competition in the long term.

Back in the day, simply having some keywords in your domain name and showing up with a few pages of content was enough. However, things are more competitive now. Therefore, you need to go above and beyond the types of sites that used to be good enough.

Throwing up a few pages of reviews and buying some spam backlinks might still work occasionally in the short term. But if you’re looking at building the type of authoritative affiliate site that can pay your mortgage, it’s going to take more than just showing up.

Let’s have a look at some successful affiliate websites, and then let’s talk about traits they have in common. We’ll talk about some things that make them unique, and what makes them so successful.

RELATED ARTICLE: AFFILIATE MARKETING: HOW IT WORKS AND HOW IT CAN HELP YOU

Software: G2 Crowd

This website has nearly 500,000 validated user reviews of business software products. Targeting the business market is what works for them. To put it bluntly, software that’s geared towards businesses can be wildly expensive. However, businesses are willing to spend a lot more on software than individuals are in most cases. This leaves a lot of room for affiliates to grab a piece of the pie.

To succeed in this space, G2 Crowd needs a clean and easy-to-navigate interface. This gives viewers a way to quickly compare different software options. Further, viewers can put together their own comparisons to get an overview of the features that are the most important to them. What’s more, they also have access to in-depth reviews.

When businesses or individuals find software they’re interested in, they get a referral link. G2 says they have more than one and a half million active software buyers each month. Plus, this affiliate site encourages vendors to get in touch with them to become featured on their marketing platform.

Everything: Amazon

This humble book website has grown to be one of the biggest forces in our economy. They sell just about any product you can imagine. And they run a lot of the Internet’s infrastructure on their hosting platforms.

While Amazon isn’t an affiliate site in the traditional sense, a large portion of their marketplace is filled with third-party sellers. Amazon essentially helps to promote and send visitors to these sellers in exchange for a fee from each sale. Additionally, for what it’s worth, Amazon’s growth has come in large part because they run their own affiliate program.

Whatever Amazon is, it’s worth paying close attention to this site and how they operate. Nothing on Amazon happens by accident. All of the categories, the design, the checkout process, the upsells, and more have been thoroughly tested for the best user experience and the strongest results.

iGaming: AskGamblers

AskGamblers is a hub for online igaming. They collect user reviews and vet sites for trustworthiness. They feature the best deals and promotions currently happening across all of the popular sites. Further, they also help settle disputes between players and online casinos.

In short, they found a lucrative market and thereby managed to find a way to serve both the players and the casinos.

This affiliate site gives casinos a platform where they can address and respond to negative reviews. Therefore, the honest and trustworthy sites rise to the top. Players benefit as well. They get bonuses, valuable information, and the assurance that they are being treated fairly.

Computers: Tom’s Hardware

This affiliate site has a popular forum filled with user-generated content. It’s a popular place to ask questions and get educated responses quickly. This gives Tom’s Hardware a first-rate SEO ranking for multiple complex questions like this one: “Should I get a GTX 1050 or an R9 290?”

Tom’s Hardware has countless pages ranking for similar specific questions. People who are close to making an expensive hardware purchase are thereby drawn to this affiliate site. The site also offers trusted reviews, guides, news, and everything else that might appeal to people who are interested in computers and hardware.

Similarities Among These Successful Sites

User-Generated Content

Some traits you’ll notice in common among these sites is that they all rely on user-generated content. G2, Amazon, Tom’s Hardware, and AskGamblers all receive a considerable number of their visitors via content that was submitted by other users. This content might be reviews, forum posts, or something else.

Marketing Prowess

Additionally, they all have excellent SEO rankings. They’re all skillful with marketing in general. Plus, they are sites that people want to spend time contributing to.

What’s more, they rely on traffic sources beyond search engines. They’re often doing things that are media-worthy in order to get organic PR, too.

Take Amazon’s acquisition of Twitch, for example. When a popular Twitch streamer is playing a game, viewers could see a link to buy that game from Amazon. Also, they encourage viewers to connect their Twitch to their Amazon Prime accounts. This supports their favorite streamers and has certainly made the Prime offering irresistible to many Twitch users.

Customer Service and User Experience

Most smaller affiliate sites see themselves as static entities. In other words, they focus on getting the click and referring the sale. Then they’re done.

However, the top sites take a much bigger sense of ownership. They are a lot more connected to their users. For example, a strong affiliate site will create returning visitors, even actual fans. Their visitors are not people who are just going to click through to their site once and never think about it again.

What makes the difference? It’s great customer support. That’s what drives word-of-mouth advertising. These major players are all about building a positive relationship with their site’s audience.

What’s more, these sites have all worked hard to create the type of content that converts. If you’re looking for business software, for example, and you’re a savvy business person, you want to read reviews from other users. You don’t want to just read sales materials from the companies themselves.

To give another example, say you’re looking to gamble online. You find a site that has user reviews you can trust. What’s more, it highlights the current best deposit bonuses and other offers. Then you know you’re getting the information you need. In a nutshell, you get a value-added experience from that affiliate site. That’s something every affiliate site should aim for.

Learn from These Sites and Make Your Affiliate Site Stand Out

We’ve looked at some top-tier sites here. Granted, they all have huge teams and massive budgets, not to mention years and years under their belts.

So maybe your affiliate site won’t be the next Tom’s Hardware or Amazon. However, you can still borrow elements from these giants. Look for what helped these sites succeed and apply those attributes to your own affiliate site at an appropriate scale.

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What Does Your State’s Laws Require of your Business Following a Data Breach? (INFOGRAPHIC)

August 21, 2018 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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State Cybersecurity Laws: If You Suffer a Cyber Attack, Does Your State Have Your Back? (INFOGRAPHIC)

If you fall victim to a cyber-attack in the United States, do you know each state has different laws when it comes to a data breach?

The Definitive Guide to US State Data Breach Laws from Digital Guardian is a comprehensive report of what you can expect from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands in the event of a cyber-attack.

State Cybersecurity Laws

Knowing the laws in each state is important because as a digital small business owner your customers can be in any one of the 50 states, or around the world for that matter. The guide from Digital Guardian shows you the laws enacted by the different states in March of 2018 as announced by the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).

The legislation requires private or governmental organizations to notify individuals in the event of a security breach involving their personal identifiable information.

The guide shows existing notification requirements to individuals and regulators as well as the information covered in the legislation for the state and the penalties for each violation. It also has a rundown of pending legislation.

Not knowing the differences in all the states can leave you vulnerable to increased liability thereby jeopardizing your business and personal finances.

In the report, Digital Guardian said, “Entities that conduct business in any state must be familiar with not only federal regulations, but also individual state laws that apply to any agency or entity that collects, stores, or processes data pertaining to residents in that state.”

Digital Guardian specializes in providing solutions for protecting the data of organizations. According to the company, it has the only security platform purpose-built to stop data theft in the industry. The solution it provides can be implemented on premises, SaaS or managed service deployments.

It has been named Leader by Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Data Loss Prevention in 2017 and Forrester Wave: Endpoint Detection and Response in 2018.

What is a Breach?

Although there are some differences as to how states define a data breach, the guide says almost all of them define it as:

The Unauthorized Acquisition of Covered Information That Compromise the Security, Integrity, or Confidentiality.

Notification

When there is a breach, how and when you get notified varies greatly. While Alabama, Maryland, Ohio and others require individuals to be notified within 45 days, South Dakota allows up to 60 days and Tennessee grants up to 90 days as needed by law enforcement.

The way the notifications are delivered also vary by state, with most of them requiring a written notice along with a telephone call and electronic notices.

You can look at the infographic below for a summary of the guide. If you want the full 108 page Definitive Guide to US State Data Breach Laws from Digital Guardian you can download it here (PDF).

This is a worthwhile document to have as a reference tool.

State Cybersecurity Laws: If You Suffer a Cyber Attack, Does Your State Have Your Back? (INFOGRAPHIC)

Infographic by Digital Guardian

Image: Digital Guardian

This article, “What Does Your State’s Laws Require of your Business Following a Data Breach? (INFOGRAPHIC)” was first published on Small Business Trends

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Want to Be a Growth-Hacker? You Need to Read These Growth-Hacking Business Books.

August 21, 2018 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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Learn about the potential to be found in ‘grit,’ ‘pre-suasion,’ explosive growth and other strategies these authors describe.

August
21, 2018

5 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Reading is one of the best ways to expand your knowledge and learn new skills. And growth-hacking is definitely one of those skills you’ll need to learn if you want your startup to skyrocket. The term “growth-hacking,” in fact, refers to the strategy of experimenting with marketing, product development, sales and other areas to determine the most effective way to grow your particular business.

Related: 10 Books Every Aspiring Millionaire Must Read

Of course, your startup’s budget may be small, but growth-hacking is a tactic you can use to boost your sales without spending a fortune. There’s a wealth of information out there to help you become an expert growth hacker. But where do you start?

Take a look at these seven growth-hacking business books you need to read.

1. “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance”

A New York Times bestseller, psychologist Angela Duckworth’s Grit takes a scientific look at what drives success — and that doesn’t have to mean being a genius. Instead, the “grit” she writes of is actually a combination of passion and long-term perseverance.

Grit, by Angela Duckworth

Duckworth, a celebrated researcher and professor whose TED talk has been viewed over eight million times, shares valuable lessons on how grit can be learned regardless of one’s IQ or circumstances. She also teaches about how to trigger lifelong interest — and so much more. This book is the perfect read for anyone who has ever doubted his or her own “genius” or ability to succeed.

Related: The 5 Books Billionaire Bill Gates Recommends for Summer Reading

2. “Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade”

Want to become a truly effective persuader? Pre-Suasion, by Robert Cialdini, an expert on effective persuasion, explains in his book that it’s not necessarily the message itself that changes people’s minds but the key moment right before the message is delivered.

Pre-Suasion, by Robert Cialdini

By giving this book a look, you’ll learn how to make people more receptive to a message before they receive it. You can get your target audience to say “yes” to your company every time with the techniques Cialdini provides here.

3. “Explosive Growth: A Few Things I Learned While Growing to 100 Million Users and Losing $78 Million”

Want to know how to grow your startup to 100 million users? Then this is the book for you. Explosive Growth, by Cliff Lerner is a book that gives step-by-step instructions, case studies and proven tactics on how to explode your growth.

Explosive Growth, by Cliff Lerner

You’ll learn how to ignite explosive growth by creating a superb product, explore viral growth strategies and master how to implement the genius media hacks that helped Lerner’s Facebook dating app, AreYouInterested, gain 100 million users.

4. “Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products”

Hooked by Nir Eyal is a book that answers questions such as why some products capture major attention and others flop, what makes us engage with products out of habit and how certain technologies hook us.

Hooked, by Nir Eyal

Eyal answers these questions and many more in this how-to guide to building better products. His book will come in handy for any entrepreneur, inventor or innovator who wants to create products consumers will obsess over.

5. “Hacking Growth: How Today’s Fastest-Growing Companies Drive Breakout Success”

Sean Ellis, CEO and cofounder of GrowthHackers.com, and Morgan Brown, COO of Inman News, have put together Hacking Growth, an amazing book that’s an accessible and practical toolkit that companies of all sizes and in all industries can use to increase their customer base and market share.

Hacking Growth, by Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown

Hacking Growth is a must-read for any marketer, entrepreneur, innovator or manager who wants to replicate the growth-hacking strategy and data-driven, cost-effective results used by some of the biggest companies in the world, like Pinterest, Uber and LinkedIn, to get to where they are today.

6. “Smartcuts: How Hackers, Innovators and Icons Accelerate Success”

Smartcuts is by Shane Snow, an entrepreneur, journalist and cofounder of Contently. This book takes a look into companies and the lives of people who have done amazing things in an unbelievably short amount of time.

Smartcuts, by Shane Snow

Snow talks about how those he profiles obtained the success they did by employing a method called lateral thinking. Lateral thinking solves problems through an indirect and creative approach that views the problem in a new and unusual way. If you want to know how some startups have gone from zero to billions in a short space of time, this is the perfect read for you.

Related: 5 Must-Read Books to Build Your Personal Brand by Women Authors Who Know How to Get It Done

So, if you want your startup to be a success, add these books to your shelf. Start reading and get ready to learn some growth hacks that will take your business to levels you’ve only dreamed of.

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What’s the Difference Between Federal and Private Student Loans?

August 21, 2018 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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Image via Flickr by GotCredit

Are you looking at going to school to boost your chances of succeeding in the business world? If so, you might be interested in obtaining student loans.

However, if you can get money for tuition through a grant or a scholarship, then you should definitely do so. If you can save up enough money to pay for classes by working, that works too. If your parents can afford to send you to college, you’re among the truly fortunate.

But for many college students, the best option available is a student loan. You can obtain student loans either from a federal institution or a private lender. Loans and interest rates work basically the same no matter who lends you the money. However, there are some fundamental differences between federal and private student loans.

RELATED ARTICLE: 6 REASONS WHY AN ENTREPRENEUR NEEDS A COLLEGE DEGREE

Different Student Loans Have Different Interest Rates

The federal government offers student loans for public benefit, not so they can maximize their profits. This means they keep interest rates both fixed and low.

Private interest rates are almost universally higher. They can have either fixed or variable interest rates. Variable-rate loans offer a lower initial interest rate. However, the numbers go up or down depending on the market and the prime interest rate. This the interest rate that is set by the Federal Reserve. Variable-rate loans tend to be a better deal since they let banks keep a consistent profit. However, that’s only as compared to a private fixed-rate loan.

There are Various Payment Plans

The payment plan on federal student loans is about as forgiving as they get. Payments only begin once you graduate from college. Plus, you can tie payment amounts to your current income. Therefore, your payment amount won’t overwhelm you even if you don’t get your dream job straight out of the gate. You also don’t have to worry about prepayment fees. And if you run into financial trouble, you can probably get a deferment.

With private student loans you can get some, all, or none of these benefits. Each institution has its own policies, and some of them are more forgiving than others. You also might qualify for some benefits based on where you live, what your credit rating looks like, and whether you can get a cosigner for your loan. The key is to make sure you shop around for the best private student loans.

Your Financial Background Matters

Image via Flickr by Daniil Vin

Not everyone is eligible for federal student loans. Most of them only go to students with a financial need, as proven by filling out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). If you and/or your parents are well off enough, the best loan terms won’t be available.

Private lenders may also use the FAFSA, but they’re also likely to use your credit rating to decide whether you’re eligible for the best interest rates and perks. And since most students have no real credit rating, you’ll almost always need a cosigner with a good credit rating to get decent loan terms.

Ultimately, there are as many differences between private student loans from different lenders as there are between federal and private student loans. No matter which kind of loan you pursue, however, make sure you know all there is to know about it. Know all your alternatives before you sign the dotted line.

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Here’s the Biggest Lesson I Learned Working for Elon Musk at Tesla

August 20, 2018 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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Tesla veteran Sisun Lee has worked at some of the most prominent companies on the planet, and now he’s running his own with a mission to help you think clearly and feel energized no matter what you drank the night before.

August
20, 2018

5 min read

Most great business ideas offer a way to solve problems and cure people’s headaches. CEO Sisun Lee, aims to do that literally with his product Morning Recovery, a drink supplement engineered to help the heartiest of partiers wake up with great memories and zero hangover.

During a trip to South Korea, where drinkers down a mind-scrambling average of 13.7 shots per week, Sisun noticed many of the locals drank concoctions containing dihydromyricetin that helped them function the day after the most epic booze-a-thons. He brought some back to the U.S., gave it out to friends and quickly realized that he might have bottled success in his hands.

Related: How to Start a Business With (Almost) No Money

What started as something fun to do on the side suddenly got serious after he was able to quickly raise $250,000 with an Indiegogo campaign for his company 82 Labs. A year later, Lee left his day job at Tesla and went all in on 82 Labs, which closed an $8 million series A funding round this April that valued the company at $33 million. (We’ll drink to that!)

Entrepreneur spoke with Lee, a Facebook, Uber and Tesla vet, about how he launched this company, the steps he took to grow it and what those three big names on his resume taught him about running a business.

Idea in a bottle

“While traveling in Seoul, I saw a tremendous amount of people drinking these morning recovery drinks. I thought to myself that there was a market for this in the United States, but no product. So I brought some of the leading brands home with me to the Bay Area, used them myself and started giving them away to friends. Everyone kept asking me how it worked, and where they could get more. So I started researching, which led me to Dr. Jing Liang, an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California’s School of Pharmacy. Eventually, we partnered and utilized her research behind DHM (dihydromyricetin), which we call ‘the liver superhero.’ Another professor at USC, Dr. Daryl Davies, Ph.D., is helping us to iterate and innovate new versions of the product.”

Image credit: Morning Recovery

Distilling success

“After getting lots of positive feedback and requests for samples, we built a website to try to get it into as many hands as possible. The site got posted on Product Hunt and went viral. Overnight we got 20,000 subscribers. At this point we weren’t yet incorporated, it was just something that was fun. I was still working at Tesla. But when we started an Indiegogo campaign and quickly amassed over $250,000, we saw the big potential here and formalized the company.”

Related: How to Conquer Your Fear of Starting a Business

Scaling up

“In terms of sales, we’re still mostly direct to consumer. It’s available on our website with our own fulfillment centers as well as on Amazon, which takes care of their fulfillment. That makes up about 90 to 95 percent of revenue, the rest comes from retail. And so a big push that we’re making now is to get it onto shelves. We’re looking to get placement in nightlife spots, convenience stores, liquor stores, wineries and places like that.”

Elon education

“When I worked at Tesla, I was a staff product manager. Most of my work related to ecommerce — trying to make it so that it was really easy for customers to purchase a Tesla online without ever having to go to a store. While I didn’t have one-on-one time with Elon Musk, whenever my team had new proposals, we’d review it with him. I was amazed at how fast he is able to switch gears and how knowledgeable he is about every aspect of his businesses. The first time we launched a referral program, he literally launched SpaceX the same day. We were sure he’d cancel the meeting because we were watching it take off live, but 10 minutes later, he was on a call with us talking in-depth about car sales. It seems pretty ridiculous, but it is pretty common when you work at Tesla. His ability to change focus like that is amazing. I wish I could say I learned how to do it, but it takes a pretty special person to know that much about that many things.”

Related: Elon Musk’s ‘Productivity’ Email to Tesla Employees Is Required Reading for Every Entrepreneur

Launch lessons

“The hardest part of running our business is probably two things. One is just because of what we are, a beverage, the rate of iteration is much slower than companies like Facebook that can simply just launch something online and quickly scale it up or down depending how people react to it. And two, as we’ve grown, we now have 20 employees. I touch a little bit of everything at the company, but I don’t own any particular part like I used to. And at the same time, if anything goes wrong, it is ultimately my responsibility. That can be stressful at times, so I’ve had to learn to how to delegate and to trust.”

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Only 66% of Businesses Advertise Online, Even though 89% of their Customers are There

August 20, 2018 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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A survey of digital marketers by The Manifest has revealed 2/3 or 66% of them advertise online. But when they do, they use different channels to reach their audience and influence them.

When you take into account 89% of Americans use the internet, just as many businesses — or more — should also be advertising there. Online advertising demonstrates greater reach at a lower cost than traditional channels.

For small businesses, it means a higher return on their ad dollars while reaching a much larger and targeted audience. The digital ecosystem also provides data with different metrics small businesses can use to improve their marketing campaigns and deliver better results.

Reporting on the survey on The Manifest’s official blog, Kristen Herhold writes “Online advertising helps businesses reach consumers using more innovative and cost-effective methods than traditional advertising… Businesses can more easily target potential customers with online advertising.”

The Manifest surveyed 501 digital marketers from US businesses included 73% B2C and 27% B2B companies. Respondents to the survey included managers (36%), associates (15%), C-level executives (13%), senior managers (12%), and directors (12%).

Online Advertising Stats

There are many reasons a business uses advertising and each of these reasons have to be taken into account to launch a successful campaign. While the ultimate goal is to increase revenue, today’s digital ecosystem requires a higher level of engagement to connect with potential customers.

According to the survey, 24% of businesses said their top goal was to increase sales and revenue. This was followed by another 18% who said they wanted to improve brand recognition.

Another 16% of businesses participating in the survey said they wanted to drive website traffic, 13% wanted to acquire new leads and 11% said they hoped to convert customers.

As to their preferred online advertising channel, businesses invested across different platforms. The top three channels are social media at 86%, display and banner ads at 80%, and paid search at 66%.

According to Herhold, businesses are able to reach the maximum number of consumers if they invest in the top three channels together.

In the report, Flynn Zaiger, CEO of Online Optimism, a digital marketing agency in New Orleans, said, “Social media and paid search allow you to reach users on the main platforms they use: Facebook, Instagram, Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Display advertising lets you extend that reach and awareness across most other major web platforms. With all three, you can reach nearly all your likely customer population.”

Online Advertising is Essential

As Herhold put it, “Businesses that don’t invest in online advertising miss out on successfully reaching the majority of Americans who are online.”

With smartphone penetration rates fast approaching 100%, more people will be online more often. When that happens, online advertising will become even more important for businesses he survey predicts.

Photo via Shutterstock

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Replacing Point-to-Point Connectivity with Automation

August 20, 2018 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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Oracle’s Netsuite is a powerful solution. For example, it enables enterprises to manage various business operations over the cloud.

Organizations will get more value from NetSuite if it is integrated with other applications on a single interface. However, NetSuite integration can be a daunting task. Even teams with advanced competency centers face debilitating errors while developing its integration flows. Moreover, it is difficult to integrate NetSuite with legacy systems and on premise applications.

Nonetheless, many teams still use point-to-point connectivity for integrating NetSuite with other applications. But this approach is time-consuming. Plus, it requires a lot of engineering resources. Moreover, it is not feasible to connect NetSuite with hundreds of legacy systems using this approach. That’s because developers often code something and thereby change the behavior of another application.

Additionally, here are some disadvantages of this point-to-point approach:

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1. Cost Overheads

Imagine a situation where you need to integrate NetSuite with 500 applications. Hand coding each connection will take several months. Moreover, entities need to invest a huge amount of resources for recruiting and building teams. Costs will expand further because of down times and network breakdowns.

2. Maintenance

Organizations will need to expend enormous efforts to maintain systems and keep up the integration layer. Moreover, the integration layer is disturbed when teams change anything in the ecosystem. Teams have to spend huge cycle runs for incorporating minor changes. These changes keep the IT team busy. They also depreciate the quality of the service.

3. Rigidity

Point-to-point integration is difficult to scale. What’s more, the same coding cannot be used for developing other flows. Therefore, IT teams have to build new codes for accommodating new changes.

4. IT Complexity

Point-to-point connectivity is a good solution where two or three applications are involved. However, it is not a viable solution for an IT ecosystem where several new and old applications run in parallel.

An API-Led Approach for Integrating NetSuite

NetSuite offers several features for integrating with other applications. One feature is Suite Connect. However, there are several things to consider in this approach. Unfortunately, many organizations still view application development in binary. That is, they develop a single code and then send it to maintenance. However, developers generate several lines of coding just to bring data from other applications. Here is a use case of integrating NetSuite with Salesforce for a better understanding:

Step 1

Check remote site settings in Salesforce.

Step 2

Include NetSuite remote URL.

Step 3

Generate a script in NetSuite.

Step 4

Click Document → Files → SuiteScripts → Manual Script.

Step 5

Add a new customer by creating the JavaScript.

Step 6

Add a new script with the Add File option.

Step 7

Click Customization → Scripting → Scripts → New.

Step 8

Click Select the type and Name the created script.

Step 9

Click Save. You will have created an endpoint in Salesforce in the form of a URL.

Step 10

Click Add Authentication Request.

Step 11

Use the Rest Call option in Salesforce for data transfer.

Note: The endpoint will be different for different use cases.

Teams encounter several scale and fail-over issues with this method. For example, the development team develops codes and testing teams validate them. This whole process is repeated several times.

However, teams can overcome all these issues if they can automate NetSuite integration with an end-to-end integration solution. This method thus empowers business teams to build workflows without needing to write a single line of code.

Automating NetSuite Integration

Automation augments the orchestration of technologies. Moreover, it allows teams to bring in data from any source. Therefore, teams can get a 360-degree view of data and integrate apps in simple steps. Also, teams can monitor and resolve IT complexity. This can prevent network breakdowns. Plus, they can access a number of business benefits by addressing pervasive integration needs.