Archives for July 2019

Most U.S. Cannabis Cultivators Choose to Compete on Quality Rather Than Cost (Chart)

July 19, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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Many wholesale growers are focusing on cannabis quality, though market forces tend to favor those who reliably supply low-cost cannabis.

July
19, 2019

2 min read

This story originally appeared on MJBizDaily

Many wholesale cannabis growers choose to compete on quality, even while market forces favor growers who can reliably supply low-cost cannabis.

Nearly half of U.S. cultivators are attempting to make high-quality flower their key differentiator, according to the recently released 2019 Marijuana Business Factbook. But with flower sales on the decline, the market likely will prove unable to sustain that proportion of growers competing on those grounds alone.

In the extract market, consumers have shown a preference for high-potency, low-cost concentrates, creating high demand for inexpensive flower. Demand for high-quality concentrates may increase as cannabis use continues to become more mainstream, though it’s unlikely to supplant low-cost, value-oriented concentrates in the near future.

While there may be an immediate opportunity for growers to specialize in and provide low-cost product if and when marijuana is legalized at the federal level, all but the largest and most efficient cultivators ultimately may be squeezed out of the market for value cannabis.

If large-scale retailers, such as big-box and grocery stores, eventually are able to sell cannabis, these outlets likely will offer prices that small-scale producers cannot match. However, experienced marijuana business owners caution that as cannabis becomes a commodity, the value of a company is more dependent upon brand reputation and products lineup than price.

Value-added cultivation — such as sustainable and organic production — could emerge as a key segment similar to the food industry. That creates a proverbial tightrope for cultivators to walk: They need to understand that meeting the current needs of the market for low-cost cannabis could come at a huge price if a major shake-up — such as federal legalization — occurs.

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The Historical Basketball League is Disrupting the NCAA

July 19, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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One of my favorite conferences to attend every year is the annual Sports and Entertainment Alliance in Technology (SEAT) conference. It’s one of the leading events for C-level execs at professional sports teams and leagues. This includes the NFL, NBA, MLB and MLS. But it also includes major college athletic departments. And it’s the only business conference I know of where I can moderate a general session panel while wearing my Eric Dickerson authentic throwback jersey.

Historical Basketball League

Speaking of which, I had the pleasure of hosting a fireside chat with two of the C-level executives of the Historical Basketball League (HBL). I’m talking about CEO and cofounder Ricky Volante and COO David West. David also played 15 years in the NBA and was a two-time champion with the Golden State Warriors. The chat was all about the HBL.

This startup basketball league looks to provide college athletes with an alternative pathway to the NBA. So it seeks to disrupt the NCAA’s stranglehold by paying athletes, giving them scholarships and allowing them to benefit financially on their own personal brands. The discussion proved so interesting. So my CRM Playaz partner Paul Greenberg and I asked Ricky and David to join us for an episode. So we can dig in a bit more and discuss why they decided to challenge an organization with the power and clout of the NCAA.

Below you’ll find an edited transcript of our conversation. To see the full conversation watch the video or click on the embedded SoundCloud player below.

Brent Leary: So, Historical Basketball League. You got to tell us what it’s all about and you also got to tell us about the name too.

Ricky Volante: Yeah, so I guess we’ll start with what it’s about. We’re trying to become the primary destination for elite college basketball players across the globe competing directly with the NCAA and then to some extent also with organizations like the MBL and the G League, but we’re trying to become that 18 to 23 year olds that are the best in the world at what they do in terms of college basketball, we want them to be playing in our league. Yeah, if you want to-

David West: Yeah. Again, a lot with Ricky said, we were aiming to become the premier destination for college basketball athletes to start. We want to create an environment that is centered around them and give them options and opportunities that benefit them more than the universities.

Ricky Volante: The name itself. So, in 1929 the Carnegie Foundation had a commission that was similar to what Condoleezza Rice recently did with the NCAA and what they were trying to do was determine whether or not universities were providing anything beyond a scholarship to their college athletes and so, they surveyed 121 universities and found that 84 of them were outright paying players.

When you think back to that point of time, Harvard was a football powerhouse. Why? Harvard paid more than everybody else and nothing more than that. I mean, Harvard was one of the first super stadiums within college football. They redevelop them and the University of Pennsylvania pretty much changed the entire landscape of college football building the first 30 and 40 and 50,000 seat stadiums back in the beginning of the 20th century and again, that’s because they were paying more than the other universities.

Brent Leary: It wasn’t because of the Ivy League and all. It was about cash-

Ricky Volante: I’m sure that there are Ivy Leaguer’s that’ll tell you that it was because of the education. It was not because they were paying the most.

Brent Leary: Wow. All right. So, let’s talk about why you guys founded to do this. What was the reason that you just wanted to come out and pretty much try to disrupt what the NCAA is all about?

David West: Yeah, I think first of all, it’s the right thing to do. When I was looking at the layout of the league and the concepts behind it and what the intent was, it was just the right thing to do. There’s career opportunities that exist off the backs of the labor of these young athletes and they are the people that have the fewest opportunities, the fewest career choices, particularly while they’re in school. So, the model that we have is just the right model to present to the market at this time.

Paul Greenberg: So, fill us in a little more on the actual model, what you’re actually going to do with these athletes and what your plan is for you too.

Ricky Volante: Yeah. So to start with, we’re a single entity. So, we’re going to have eight teams. The cities that those teams are going to be located in going north to south, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, DC, Richmond and Norfolk, Virginia, Raleigh and Charlotte, North Carolina and Atlanta.

Paul Greenberg: And why that?

Ricky Volante: Atlanta was a critical one for us, but overall if you break down those markets, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and DC are three of the top 10 markets in the US. When you throw in Baltimore and Charlotte, you’ve got five of the top 21 markets in the US and then Richmond, Norfolk and Raleigh, where a lot of people might scratch their heads and say, “How can you throw those in with the others?” They ranked as three of the top eight markets in terms of NBA viewership and so, Norfolk was number one, Raleigh was number seven and Richmond was number eight.

Paul Greenberg: So, what becomes the value to the athlete?

Ricky Volante: First and foremost, we’re going to be providing them with salaries, salaries of 50 to $150,000 per season. Beyond that, we’re also providing them with five year guaranteed scholarships, which can be completed on a non-continuous base or on a continuous basis. So, if they go to the NBA, they can come back and complete it at a later date. In addition to that, there are not restrictions on name, image and likeness.

So, they can sign endorsement deals, they can have agents, they can have financial planners, they can have attorneys, all the things that in some way shape or form is either impermissible or severely restricted by the NCAA. We felt taking a focus on having it as player centric as possible would allow us to bring in maybe not all, but a good percentage of the elite basketball players in the US and globally and then from there your revenue streams, going back to your question about the business side, people are going to tune in and watch.

Companies are going to want to be associated with these athletes. Another thing that happens within college is you have this inefficient relationship between sponsors and players because the sponsorship deals can’t be directly with the players. They have to be with the university, which means you have to work through the athletic department, which means the players get nothing out of it. So, the athletic department is playing middleman. The Athletic Department forces the athletes to participate. They’re getting nothing out of it.

Brent Leary: What I like about the model is people are getting salaries. They’re getting paid. But they’re also getting scholarships. So, instead of having to be tied to the university who’s under the NCAA rules, which restricts money they can make. Now, you’re basically allowing these athletes to get a salary. Find the college of their choice and then you give scholarship money for them to go to that. And they get the opportunity to build their own brand and actually make money off of their own brand as opposed to the NCAA making money off of their brand.

David West: Right. And in the most simplified form is it’s just you have a student who has a summer job, right? So, these guys’ job is in the summer. Their job just happens to be basketball. In the fall, winter and spring, they are students where they are developing and training in an academic pursuit that fits their needs. And is best going to serve them as they look forward to their professional futures.

Ricky Volante: It’s a great analogy in a lot of ways and when you think about it, for CS majors, Google has a program that pays a CS major, if you get into it, $100,000 for the summer. None of us would ever think-

Brent Leary: For the summer?

Ricky Volante: Yeah.

Paul Greenberg: OK we’re done with the show… We have to go fill out a job application.

Ricky Volante: None of us would, in our craziest minds think that makes that student’s academic experience less meaningful because they’re getting paid while they’re in college. All of us were like, “No, that’s exactly what you should be doing.” If you develop an app, if Google itself was developed out of a Stanford course once upon a time, it’s Stanford doesn’t get 100% ownership of that as a result of the fact that it was developed in a Stanford class. So, there’s those types of things that again, it would be insane for us to say that Stanford should have had 100% ownership rights of Google, but if a Stanford athlete is playing for Stanford, they pretty much do.

Paul Greenberg: One of your criteria was they have to be a college student. Now, let’s say they’re incredibly talented, but not college student and when I say not college, I’m deliberately not saying high school because if you remember years ago, huge amount of street talent in New York for example, right? So, what about those kids?

David West: That’s why we aren’t going to try to fit a square peg into a circular hole. We’re going to work with those kids and their families and our academic advisors and our nonprofit to find an education that suits their needs. So, we’re not going to say, “Okay, you’ve got to go to this university.” No, we’re going to say we’ll identify the kids. We know the kids that don’t fit the traditional classroom model, but we can put them in a trade school-

Paul Greenberg: And you’ll work with them, get them into the trade school?

David West: We’re going to work to get them into … Each one of our student athletes are going to have an educational track that they’re on and I guess no singular athlete will have the… There won’t be a cookie cutter look at it. We’re going to be very nimble with it. We’re going to make sure that it suits the needs of that athlete And we’re going to utilize the community college network, local college, smaller universities, online curriculums, like we said vocational and trade schools if we have to, but we’re going to find some education that fits each one of our athletes.

Ricky Volante: And that’s part of what we want to do is instill upon these guys what they can do on and off the court and how everything off the court impacts what they do on the court as well. So, financial literacy, public speaking, media training, selecting and vetting agents, all these things that whether you like it or not, it’s going to impact how successful you are as an athlete.

Brent Leary: And you were saying you don’t get that from college. You talked to a lot of young talent and if things don’t go the way they expect them to go, they’re lost.

David West: Most athletes today are in educational tracks that meet the needs of their athletic requirements, right? So, your schedule, your schooling, your major, your class schedule is all built around to make you most available for athletics. So, there’s very little space or room for the guys who want to pursue certain academic tracks. If it interferes with your sport, then that’s something that’s off the table, right? Because you go to that school as an athlete first. Particularly the scholarship athletes. And that’s one of the narratives we want to change. And we want to fight, right? Players have the right, if they want to commit themselves to the sport.

Sports are a global phenomenon and a massive opportunity, not just at the player level. But the whole range of athletics can be available to these guys. So, for us it’s most important to put them in tracks that fit what they want to do. And fit what we ask them. What is your idea? What are you gonna do after sport? What are you going to do while you’re in sport? Because as a professional and former professional now, the conversation is, for us, once you become a pro, you can’t wait to figure out your next step when the basketball is done.

So, you’ve got to start figuring out your next steps while you’re in your career and that’s relatively new for professional athletes because we were trained and brought up to put all of our eggs in this basket and then for this younger generation, this new, this future athlete, they have all types of interests and they have all types of ideas and things that they wanna pursue such as being media mavens.

I mean, these guys are talented, they have other things that peak their interest and basketball is still their centerpiece, but they don’t buy into the idea that they’ve got to deny these other aspects of themselves and not build these other aspects of themselves just to play the sport.

Ricky Volante: That’s part of how we want to reshape how people view college athletes to start with, but athletes overall; they aren’t just athletes. A lot of people only think of it in that term that an athlete is an athlete. They have huge significant platforms. They have significant influence and we want to be able to again start to shape that a little earlier so that these guys understand going into the NBA, this is what I can accomplish, not just on the court.

But off the court to have a more profound success on my community, where I came from, from my family, all those types of things because a lot of these guys come from low socioeconomic backgrounds and that’s part of the stress that is associated with the current system is that these guys have to go a year unpaid and again they come from families that live below the poverty line. They’ve got people that are counting on them to make it.

Brent Leary: This has been great. But I got to throw one thing out there. I mean, you are going up against the NCAA. And all the power and money they have. So, what are the things that keep you up at night the most? What are the biggest challenges that you foresee with battling a behemoth?

Ricky Volante: Well, I’ll start my answer by saying mountains are there to be climbed. So, this absolutely it’s going to be a mountain. We aren’t shying away from that. They were formed in 1906. College sports generates about $13 billion a year. The financial power and economic power that they can wield is significant. And it’s not just the NCAA. A lot of people think about it in just those terms.

There’s a lot of institutions and corporations and donors and alums and universities out there that all benefit from the status quo remaining as it is. And so, there’s a lot of people out there that if we’re successful, their pockets are going to get a little lighter. So, for us it’s about maneuvering and finding the right groups that want to be associated with us and work with us.

Take distribution as an example. Looking at purely digital companies that don’t have long standing relationships with the NCAA or conferences. And there’s a lot of them out there that people don’t even realize. Facebook Watch, Amazon Prime, Twitch, Flow Sports, 11 Sports, Caffeine Stadium. And I’m sure I’m missing a whole bunch.

Once upon a time when leagues were trying to compete against, whether it’s the NFL or the MLB or whatever, you had four channels. Sometimes two or three channels. And those were your only options to distribute. That’s no longer a challenge today.

We can get the product in front of people, but it’s about finding mission-aligned investors, going back to your original question now. Mission-aligned investors who understand what we’re trying to accomplish as much on the court as off the court. People that are going to understand that this is going to take time to develop and develop the right way.

What we launch with next June, a decade from now is probably going to look very — those two products are probably going to look very different. But because we have a clean slate, because we don’t have a century’s worth of policies and procedures that have always been in place that we have to follow. We can tweak and go back and forth on different things to find out what the fans want. What’s going to be supported. What the players want and so, I mean, yeah, it’s all a challenge. But if it was easy, someone would have already done what we’re doing.

This is part of the One-on-One Interview series with thought leaders. The transcript has been edited for publication. If it’s an audio or video interview, click on the embedded player above, or subscribe via iTunes or via Stitcher.

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Ready to Start Freelancing? Kick Off on the Right Foot – Business Ideas

July 17, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

There are a number of reasons why you might want to start freelancing. Maybe you just want to make a little money on the side. Or maybe you’d like to start freelancing so you can eventually be your own boss.

Now Is a Great Time to Start Freelancing

With freelance platforms growing and more companies looking for that outsourced creative, it’s now becoming crystal clear we’re living in an increasingly gig-based economy.

This is something Charles Towers-Clark at Forbes calls the “uberization of work.” By this he is referring to traditional work that has turned into freelance contracts. Simply put, digital channels make location-independent work possible today. And this makes it easier than ever for many people to start freelancing.

All the same, life can get a little rough when you first start freelancing. Basically, this way of working comes with pros and cons, even though working more flexibly on a job-by-job basis is touted by some as the ultimate in employment.

And it’s true that when you start freelancing you experience a lot of freedom. “However,” writes Towers-Clark, “part-time workers do not have the same benefits as full-time employees do, leaving them without the job security and peace of mind that nine-to-fivers enjoy.”

So while there are a number of reasons why you might want to start freelancing, it can pay to give this big change in your life some thought before you take the plunge. Therefore, consider: Do you just want to earn some pocket money on the side? Or do you want to start your own freelancing business?

Whatever the case, you’ll need the right tools to succeed. Many people who started freelancing say it’s fantastic. However, it’s not necessarily the easiest way to make a living. You’ll need the right processes to take advantage of the sense of freedom. In other words, if you decide to start freelancing, you want to avoid being left without peace of mind.

Three areas in particular can make or break your peace of mind when you start freelancing. These three areas are communication, invoicing, and continual learning.

Put Your Best Foot Forward with Great Communication

“Communication is a big part of your success as a freelancer,” writes Richard Lorenzen at HuffPost. “What steps will you take to put your best foot forward?”

The
following two rules will serve you well when you start freelancing:

Under-promise but over-deliver
Communicate clearly and often

The
importance of Rule #2 cannot be overstated. Ask clarifying questions, send
updates, and follow up, even after a project has been completed. This will
almost certainly set you apart from other freelancers your clients work with.

Also, when
you start freelancing, learn to make use of the wide range of communication
tools you have at your disposal today. For example:

Set up a business number with Skype to keep texts and calls as seamless as possible
Get on Google Hangouts as soon as you start freelancing, for free and easy face-to-face meetings
If your client is on Slack, ask to be added to a channel so you can keep up with the whole team
Look at collaboration tools like Trello or Basecamp to make the back-and-forth on projects easier
When you start freelancing, also start using an organizational tool and learn to use it well. Perhaps you’ll choose Wunderlist to keep things straight or Evernote to track everything related to a project. Either of these tools will help you with communication, project completion, and everything in between.

RELATED ARTICLE: WANT TO LOOK MORE PROFESSIONAL? CONSIDER THESE 7 LITTLE TOUCHES

Use Professional Invoices When You Start Freelancing

One of the things you’ll soon learn after you start freelancing is that getting paid can be tricky. In other words, it’s not easy to establish a steady cash flow.

It’s certainly satisfying to see a paycheck roll in after you have successfully completed a project. On the other hand, having to chase after a paycheck can be troublesome.

However, you can avoid those difficulties if you use a professional invoice as the foundation of your payment process.

Additionally, clients appreciate an invoice that is clear and professional, one that is reflective of your work as a contractor or freelancer. Therefore, instead of presenting an invoice that shows only a lump sum, spell out the work you’ve completed, line by line.

Make your invoices as professional as possible. In other words, be sure to include your contact information, clear lines, and perhaps a little pop of color. Starting with an accurate and professional invoice will decrease your chances of having to deal with the headache of unpaid invoices.

To this end, there are a handful of online billing software tools that can help you when you start freelancing. These will aid you in connecting with clients for payment. However, some of these tools can be overly complicated, and this can be particularly true if you just started freelancing.

Therefore, when you first start freelancing, you need something simple but professional.

For a happy medium between “let-me-jot-something-down-in-Word” and “let-me-figure-out-this-fancy-schmancy-accounting-software,” consider putting a freelance invoice template to use. With a template, you can keep the invoice tidy and professional, but also tailor it to your needs.

Source: InvoiceSimple.com

Moreover, you can use a template to provide a professional quality to more than just your invoices. “If you find yourself struggling to format project proposals, meeting agendas, or customer invoices, use a template you can quickly modify as needed,” writes John Boitnott at Inc. “This way you don’t have to start from scratch every time.”

So save yourself some time and stand out from the crowd when you start freelancing. You will be way ahead of other beginning freelancers when you use an invoice template.

Keep on Learning

Finally, the best freelancers are always learning, long past the time when they first started freelancing. Even if you are a master graphic designer or stellar writer, there is always something new to learn.

Maybe you need to read up on marketing for your newly established business. On the other hand, perhaps you should review some new tools for your photography business. When you start freelancing, establish a habit of spending a few hours each week finding out what’s new in your niche and in the freelancing industry as a whole.

In order to keep learning, use the abundant resources of the Internet. They are practically endless.

For example, go to Udemy or Skillshare and take an entire course in an area that will be useful to your freelancing career. Read Neil Patel or the Hubspot blog to learn more about marketing best practices. And be sure to check out Inc or Work Made for Hire to polish your professional skills.

You get the idea. Once you start freelancing and stick with it for a while, you’ll see that you must continuously learn new things, especially within your own niche. It may seem like a lot of effort at first, and perhaps it is. But learning new things will make a big difference not only as you start freelancing but also as you take your place as a successful freelancer.

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5 Tips to Help Marketers Win in What’s Shaping up to Be the Future: Voice Search

July 17, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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Over half of consumers, one study revealed, have used voice search to find local business information within the last year. Doesn’t that tell you where “search” is headed?

July
17, 2019

4 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Every day, millions of Americans rely on voice-activated devices to tell them the weather, wake them up in the morning and answer a plethora of random questions they’re curious about. While the average voice assistant user may not worry about where those answers come from, digital marketers are working hard to ensure that voice devices rely on information from their sites to inform the answers people receive.

Related: 3 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Position Their Brand to Dominate Voice Search

And for good reason. Over half of consumers, according to a data roundup by Bradley Shaw, have used voice search to find local business information within the last year, and a quarter (27 percent) actually went on to visit the company’s website after conducting a voice search.

Voice is an increasingly common avenue for engagement between brands and consumers, and marketers must fight hard to rank high as a source of information within the voice realm. Here is what they need to know:

Five key ranking factors

Because voice-activated technologies are relatively new, marketing strategies designed to make use of voice devices are often undefined.

However, certain ranking factors (i.e., the factors that determine how high a web page ranks on Google’s search engine results page) do guide voice searches the most.

According to research by my own company, SEMRush, nearly 80 percent of the answers voice assistants provided for our searches ranked among the top three organic results, and 97 percent of the answers provided by Google Assistant ranked among the top 10 organic results.

Therefore, marketers seem to be prioritizing a first-page ranking before even considering a ranking for voice search queries.

Here are additional factors marketers should consider, which affect the ranking factors behind voice searches:

Featured snippets: The pictures and blurbs that help illustrate answers to search queries are essential when companies rank for voice searches. In fact, nearly 70 percent of all voice answers come from featured snippets, according to our study. To rank high for voice search queries, marketers should optimize pages to take advantage of this increasing phenomenon.

Related: Why Do Businesses Need to Optimize For Voice Search

Average word count: The average length of a voice search answer is 41.4 words. For example, Google Home has an average word count of 41.4, and, with the Mini version, 42 words. So, keep the answers on your search-page results at around 40 words or you’ll risk being outranked by competitors that do.

Readability: Search engines look for well-structured, well-written content that ultimately matches the intent of the query. This means that the readability of a page’s content is a key factor for ranking high on the results page. In general, the results from voice searches are understandable to the average 15-year-old, according to the Flesch Kincaid reading level test.

Page speed: The faster that results load, the better. For the majority of questions asked via voice, Google chooses an answer that loads faster than the average page on the search engine results page. In some cases, answers for Google Home voice searches have a page speed 10 times faster than the rest of the options found on the first page, making page speed one of the biggest factors in ranking for voice search.

Backlinks: Backlink anchors matching users’ search queries are found in 50 percent of answers for Google Home and Mini. Likewise, keywords in the title of the result are found in over a third of voice answers, a fact that offers increased opportunities for marketers to put their page results in front of target audiences. However, backlinks play a less significant role in voice searches conducted via smartphone devices, so marketers interested in mobile should be sure to blend backlinks with the other strategies listed above.

Search engine optimization (SEO) tactics are always evolving, and marketers must proactively learn new skills to stay ahead of their competitors and earn valuable web traffic from voice searches.

While the world has not completely transitioned to voice search, there’s no denying that consumers are quickly moving in that direction. In fact, by 2020, eConsultantcy has predicted, 50 percent of all searches will be conducted using voice.

Related: How Entrepreneurs Can Take Advantage of Voice Search Marketing

To stay ahead of search trends, start by using SEO tools to determine how a website ranks. Then, layer on upgrades in key areas like page speed, ranking in the top three results and occupying a featured snippet position. SEO strategies can take several months to yield results, so it’s important to get started now and prepare for a future where voice searches will be the norm.

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Level setting

July 17, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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In his new book, The Levelling, author Michael O’Sullivan looks back to 17th-century England to sketch a road map for how the world can create institutions and economic arrangements that will drive the next phase of globalization.

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New TaxWise Mobile App Helps Preparers Keep in Touch Clients

July 16, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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The big five accounting firms get most of the attention in the industry. But they only make up 10% of the firms in the U.S. Overall, 90% of these accounting firms have 10 or fewer owners or partners.

Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting designed its new TaxWise Mobile app for tax preparers. These preparers have a heavy focus on individual tax returns and thus a very seasonal business. As a result, the company says the mobile interface will streamline tax preparation for this particular group.

For example, small firms compete with their large counterparts by providing personalized services. And this requires being available at all times.

So when a CPA ventures out of the office, providing access to their clients’ information becomes a personalized service. And on the client side, making remote options available to securely fill out and send their tax forms becomes equally important.

Accessibility

Global company Wolters Kluwer provides professional information, software solutions and services. It specializes in the health, tax and accounting industries. And it also figures prominently in the finance, risk and compliance, and legal sectors that support public and private enterprises

The company is bringing this experience and infrastructure and making it available more available for firms of all sizes. This includes meeting the strict compliance in place for storing and transmitting financial data online.

In the press release, Shannon Bond, Vice President, Preparer Segment, Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting North America, address this very point. Bond says, “Wolters Kluwer is expanding our expert compliance capabilities with technologies that enable an end-to-end mobile experience for high volume, seasonal tax preparers. TaxWise Mobile helps tax preparers reach more clients, where they are, which is critical in today’s mobile society.”

The new TaxWise Mobile solution is fully integrated with TaxWise Online for end-to-end remote return preparation.

As a client, TaxWise Mobile is going to allow you to complete the tax preparation process from virtually anywhere. You can use your smartphone, computer, or tablet and not have to visit an office.

The app lets you fill out your information, upload documents, and review the prepared tax return. You can then sign the document and send it to your CPA for electronic filing. After it is complete, you can use TaxWise Mobile to check the status and any refund updates.

For the Preparer

With this application, your clients can fill out critical information and upload documents from their preferred mobile device. This includes adding images of their tax documents and E-signatures. The information then goes into the TaxWise Online platform automatically.

As the preparer, you can also use the platform to share documents and communicate directly with your clients. Combined with the TaxWise desktop version you can offer popular refund options to simplify your workflow through integration with CCH iFirm Practice Manager.

The TaxWise Mobile app is now available.

Image: Depositphotos.com

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Dan Lok Failed in 13 Business Ventures Over Three Years. Now This ‘Unemployable’ Immigrant Manages Millions and Mentors Young Entrepreneurs.

July 16, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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From thousands in debt to helping thousands around the world find success.

July
16, 2019

8 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

At just 20 years old, Dan Lok was already $150,000 in debt. Over three years, he launched 13 businesses — and every single one of them failed. Today Lok is a multimillionaire and business mentor, thanks to the help of one man and his life-altering lessons. Now he’s paying it forward.

Lok with his parents in Hong Kong, China.

Image credit: Dan Lok

Lok’s parents separated when he was 14 years old. He and his mother emigrated from Hong Kong to Vancouver, Canada, later that year. His father continued providing for them, but when Lok was 16, his father filed for bankruptcy and could no longer support them.

“I will never forget the look of hopelessness on my mom’s face and the tears in her eyes,” says Lok. “At that moment, I decided that I would be successful. I didn’t need my dad; I would provide for my mom. I never wanted to see that look again.”

His mother had limited work experience, so Lok supported them by working part-time at a grocery store for minimum wage. After a year, he learned an enlightening lesson: “I was told that I was unemployable because I don’t like being told what to do. I cannot disagree with that statement,” he smirks.

Stocking shelves was Lok’s first and last “traditional” job.

Losses with lessons.

Lok began mowing lawns, delivering papers, and doing anything that had a remote possibility of making money. After high school, he enrolled at Douglas College in Vancouver. He attended full-time business classes while cycling through one failed entrepreneurial idea after another — from vending machines to delivery services and day trading.

Lok maxed out several credit cards and borrowed from everyone he knew. “No one understood why I didn’t just get a job,” he says. “But I knew that I could never repay my debts and provide for my family by working for the minimum wage. I knew I would be better off as an entrepreneur, even if it took a decade. I never gave up because I couldn’t afford to quit — and if you don’t quit, then you can’t fail.”

Lok calls those ventures “losses with lessons.” He acknowledges that most people would have quit somewhere between their first and thirteenth attempt. His response? “Success is on the razor’s edge of failure. When you think it can’t get any worse, hang on just a little longer.”

Picking up trash for mentorship.

After Lok read Claude Hopkins’ book, “Scientific Advertising,” he became obsessed with marketing and soon discovered marketing expert Alan Jacques. Lok studied his sales letters and attended his seminars, where he met Jacques in person.

Lok offered to buy Jacques lunch, and they talked for hours. When Lok asked to be his mentee, Jacques declined, but Lok wasn’t discouraged. “I visited his office every day for about a month. I did everything possible to demonstrate my willingness to help — including picking up trash around the office — until he finally hired me.”

Lok dropped out of college to work for Jacques. The 21-year-old spent weeks crafting his first sales letter, only for Jacques to tell him it was terrible. Lok rewrote it seven times before Jacques was satisfied. Jacques later confessed that the first draft was “OK” — but “OK” isn’t how you master anything.

Though Lok didn’t earn much money, he says the 12-month mentorship with Jacques was his first “million-dollar year.” Under Jacques’ guidance, Lok started a one-person advertising agency, and within 12 months his clients were generating millions of dollars from his sales letters. By 22 years old, Lok commanded $10,000 per project and was comfortably earning six figures.

Worthwhile struggles.

“I could finally provide for my mom. I didn’t have to go to the ‘nearly expired’ section of the grocery store anymore,” says Lok. “The mentorship from Alan truly changed my life. That’s why I choose to mentor young entrepreneurs each and every day.”

Several years later, Lok returned to Hong Kong for the first time to visit his father, who was getting by but worried about having a place to live. Walking down the street, Lok stopped and pointed to a window. He pulled out a set of keys and said, “I bought that apartment for you.” The look on his father’s face made all the struggles worthwhile.

Lok invested the profits from his online business into real estate and became a millionaire at age 27. Since his businesses could run without him, he retired as well and set off to “live the dream.” He sat on the beach nearly every day for a month, then spent the next month watching six movies a day. After two months of retirement, he’d had enough.

Lok began sharing his knowledge with a self-published marketing manual, “Forbidden Psychological Tactics.” In a quest to sell the manual, Lok mastered online marketing. He went on to become an accomplished affiliate marketer, sell informational products, and create copywriting software.

Over the next decade, Lok founded or partnered in more than 15 companies in industries ranging from beauty salons to e-commerce. Today their combined sales exceed eight figures annually. Lok attributes this success to three things he lacked early in his career: mentorship, focus, and “high-income skills” like copywriting, marketing, and public speaking.

His biggest regret and motivation.

When his father had a stroke, Lok was in the U.S. chasing his biggest deal yet. “I wanted to make my dad proud, so I told him I’d be with him as soon as I finished. That was the last time I spoke to him. I never got to say goodbye, and it’s my biggest regret.

“I realized that chasing money and achievement wasn’t making me happy. Suddenly it all meant a lot less.” Lok’s motivation shifted from providing for his family to providing opportunities for others around the world. Now his mission is to impact 1 billion people by teaching them how to develop high-income skills, unlock financial confidence, and master their economic destinies.

Lok invests significant time teaching others on his social media channels, where he has 4.5 million followers at the time of writing, and on his podcast, “The Dan Lok Show.” Through his video series and programs like “Dan on Demand” and “Tube Your Own Horn,” Lok teaches others to grow their businesses with social media. He has penned over a dozen books, including his latest, “Unlock It!” which hits bookshelves with ForbesBooks in September 2019.

Lok also offers coaching, masterminds, and masterclasses. He teaches sales and other business skills through his High-Ticket Closer Certification Program and Inner Circle mastermind. His project, Closers.com, then matches companies with the high-ticket closers he has trained.

“It’s an entirely holistic method,” says Lok. “I’m proud of all of my students and their success, and it brings me joy to offer them a platform to continually enrich themselves, financially and otherwise. I’ve even hired graduates of my High-Ticket Closer program to work for me in my personal business.”

Lok with 1,000 graduates from his High-Ticket Closer Certification Program.

Image credit: Dan Lok

Lok’s wife, Jennie Li, has been there through it all as his chief strategy officer. After meeting at a karaoke place when Lok was 26, they started dating and working together before getting married in 2015.

“Her intuition and instincts are unmatched,” says Lok, who adds that she keeps him humble. “I remember coming home after giving my first TEDx speech. I’m in a red suit, on top of the world, and Jennie tells me to take out the trash. I love that.”

Though Lok is an international speaker who enjoys wearing flamboyant suits, he still remembers his roots. “Who would’ve thought a poor immigrant boy could accomplish so much?” he asks. “No matter where you’re from or what obstacles you’re facing, you can accomplish anything too — if you never give up.”

Connect with Dan on YouTube or read his latest book, “Unlock It!” (ForbesBooks) when it hits bookshelves in September 2019.

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2019 Marketing Tips and Tools for Online Businesses – Online Businesses

July 16, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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Featured image from Pixabay

Online businesses have benefited in 2019 from using more effective marketing tools. These tools help them to grow revenues, expand operations, and increase profitability. In this post, we share about those tools and describe how businesses like yours are using them.

Think of Social Media as a Marketing Tool

Take social media for example. What began as a novel concept rapidly transformed into a pervasive and indispensable marketing tool. Today, an estimated 70% of Americans actively engage with social media on a daily basis. Back in 2005 this number was just 5%.

Businesses are eager to cash in on the latest marketing trends, and they conduct much of their communications with their target market via social media. By implementing an effective social media marketing strategy, your business, too, can reach ever deeper into the global online marketplace. This will help you to grow a diversified audience, generate and convert more leads, drive sales growth and performance, and stay up-to-date with the real-time pulse of the people. Clearly, social media is powering the narrative as the premier marketing tool for online businesses.

Consider the following social media statistics:

*Source**: Statista Instagram Users Globally (Male & Female)*

One billion people use Instagram every month, and 500 million people use Instagram daily. What’s more, 88% of Instagram users are located outside of the US. This means that Instagram is a truly global social media marketing tool. Here’s another interesting statistic: 71% of Instagram users are younger than 35 years of age. And there is a near-even split of users between the sexes.
Additionally, 95% of Instagram users in the US also use YouTube; 91% use Facebook, and 60% use Snapchat. While just 35% of Americans currently use Instagram, 68% use Facebook and 73% use YouTube. The Pew Center reports growing interest in Twitter at 24%, LinkedIn at 25%, and Snapchat at 27%.

*Source**: Facebook User Stats Statista 1*^st Quarter 2019

Global usage of Facebook between 2008 and 2019 indicates a substantial increase in the number of users. For example, by Q1 2019, the number of Facebook users topped out at 2.38 billion monthly active users (MAUs). It’s important to point out that Facebook owns multiple social media platforms. They include Messenger, Whatsapp, and Instagram. These social media platforms dominate the landscape, particularly with the highly effective Facebook marketing campaigns.
By contrast, Twitter boasts 326 million MAUs. Moreover, there are 100 million daily active users (DAUs) on Twitter. Plus, people send 500 million tweets daily. With 261 million Twitter users outside the US and 69 million Twitter users in the US, this social media platform is the premier microblogging platform in the world. Businesses routinely use Twitter to get real-time news updates out to their customers.

2019 Trends in Digital Marketing Tools

Given the significance of social media as a powerful marketing tool, it makes sense that online businesses are investing heavily in global online ads. According to the stats, 2019 ad spend is expected to rise by 4.7% for 2019. Additionally, location-based marketing initiatives are expected to grow by 14%, reaching $24.4 billion in ad spend this year alone.

Plus, influencer marketing is hogging the limelight in 2019. For example, 43% of advertisers announced big budget allocations toward influencer marketing initiatives for the year.

Additionally, Snapchat has become a popular choice for digital marketers in 2019. The average Snapchat user now generates $1.68 in revenue for 2019, compared to $1.21 in 2018. One of the most promising social media hubs on the scene is TikTok. Advertisers are plenty interested in this new app. That’s because it had already generated $9 million in sales by May 2019. Moreover, marketing experts expect it to produce $100 million in sales as the year progresses.

Effective Content Marketing Strategies Drive Sales

Content truly is king. This was true back in the day, and it’s true in 2019. Content marketing managers understand that premium-value content is worth its weight in gold. Content marketing via blogs, website platforms, product pages, social media sites, newsletters, webinars, seminars, podcasts, and so on are highly valuable. High-quality content conveys a value proposition to customers, who then purchase goods and services. Moreover, they share ideas and add value to the transaction process.

Email Is a Powerful Marketing Tool

Part of the content marketing initiative involves email marketing. In 2019, email marketing is a central component of the marketing process. Email marketing is a cost-effective tool that generates leads and drive sales. And it also facilitates predictable results for businesses.

Marketing experts readily attest to the fact that with email marketing, the business owns the network. Unlike Facebook, which requires businesses to pay for the privilege of sharing posts with a wide audience, email marketing puts businesses in control of their marketing strategy.

RELATED ARTICLE: EMAIL VALIDATION: GIVING YOU MORE ROBUST AND EFFECTIVE EMAIL CAMPAIGNS

Take a Hands-On Approach

This means you can take a hands-on approach to building a valuable asset. It begins with constructing an email database, born from a subscriber list of contacts and clients. Of course, it’s imperative that each person on your email list has granted you permission to contact them in this way. Otherwise, your emails will be relegated to the spam filter.

Marketing managers have fine-tuned this technique by limiting email marketing to just one message every week or two.

Using Effective Tools to Drive Marketing
Results

In 2019, marketing experts are using various tools to generate effective results. These include a combination of high-quality software tools such as Hootsuite, Hubspot, Social Oomph, Sendible, and Sprout Social. However, given that many marketing tools are redundant, experts conduct processes to bring more efficiency to these marketing tasks.

These tools save time, money, and manpower by automating and consolidating activities. Additionally, they reduce the likelihood of error by way of optimal performance strategies and advanced analytics.

In other words, marketing tools span the full spectrum. That is, they include social media, content marketing, and email marketing channels.

Turn to Enticements to Engage Your Customers

Various multinational corporations are also turning to enticements to drive home their marketing message to customers.

For example, incentive-based marketing communications such as special offers, bonuses, promotions, and gamification of marketing offers abound. The 888 casino no deposit bonus is a case in point. This global gaming phenomenon consistently ranks atop the pile of reputable online casino providers.

The success of 888casino is largely attributed to its unique marketing initiatives. Bonuses and promotional offers are enticements designed to make it worthwhile for players to register, deposit, and play. By wooing players to register, this online casino has found the “elixir” to marketing success in 2019.

Marketing Tactics Must Serve Marketing
Objectives

*Source**: Sprout Social*

Tactical activities are short-term objectives. Typically, these are day-to-day activities. On the other hand, marketers measure strategic objectives over the long term.

Successful implementation of marketing strategies requires the establishment of a sound plan of action. In the words of management guru David H. Levy, “If you don’t have a direction, any path will take your business to its destination.”

However, a clearly formulated strategy allows for contingencies with all these issues. Social media objectives, content marketing objectives, and promotional tools should work in sync to establish an efficient plan of action for your business.

This means that your social media goals must gel with your online business’s overall marketing plan. Therefore, you must write your goals down. Only in this way can you measure and achieve your goals.

Consider this: Marketing studies indicate that businesses with written goals are 30%-40% more likely to succeed. Unfortunately, however, various infographics suggest that 83% of people have no strategic goals.

Only 14% of people have strategic goals. However, these are the people who are ten times more successful. People whose business plans encompass written goals (just 3% of operations) are thirty times more successful in the long term.

Research Your Marketing Strategy

To achieve success, you must thoroughly research your marketing strategy. Moreover, your goals must be quantifiable and qualifiable.

Some metrics are more easily understood through numerical data. On the other hand, others are qualitative in terms of appeal, satisfaction, and opinion. You can garner audience insights through surveys, market research, blogs, social media platforms, customer support analytics, email, and other means. However, you’ll best achieve engagement through interactive elements such as gamification, promotional offers, contests, and social media engagement plans.

Moreover, the only way to ensure engagement on social media is through proper communication.

Marketing professionals stress the importance of knowing your target market. This involves targeting your audience with the right content at the right time. Additionally, use the right lingo to hook customers into responding to posts and offers. Match every post with a description and a functional link.

Effective social media strategies always bear fruit because they engage users. More importantly, remember that audiences are smarter today. They don’t want a hard sell. They want to partner with companies and feel invested in the products and services your business is offering.

Conclusion

Effective marketing is really about resonating with your customers. They want to know you follow their life philosophy of responsible behavior, respect for the environment, and inclusiveness. Today, companies that adopt socially responsible practices are more likely to strike it rich with their customers.

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Analytics Platforms for Mobile App Attribution – Online Businesses

July 15, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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Mobile app attribution allows acquisition marketers to understand how users learn about and start using apps. This allows marketers to map out data points for specific actions users take, from clicking an advertisement to installing the app to making in-app purchases.

In this article, we look at what mobile app attribution is. Then we discuss the features you need to look for in a mobile app attribution analytics platform.

Additionally, we compare AppsFlyer and Branch, two of the most popular mobile app attribution platforms. Hopefully, this comparison will help you determine the right solution for your business.

RELATED ARTICLE: THE 10 ESSENTIAL FEATURES YOU NEED IN YOUR CRM SOFTWARE

What Is Mobile App Attribution?

Mobile app attribution is the process of identifying how and where users learn about your app. Then it allows you to map interactions across platforms. Ultimately, this lets you monitor and optimize the journeys people take to becoming your customers.

Advertising platforms can provide a good deal of data on the effects your ads have on your conversion rate. However, these platforms are more interested in reporting conversions than in conveying information that could be more useful to you.

What’s more, if you’re working in a high-growth environment, then you’re likely running campaigns on several networks at once. Therefore, there’s high value in having the ability to consolidate reporting in a single place.

Ideally, mobile app attribution allows app marketers to collect unbiased data about their return on investment (ROI) from their various marketing efforts. This data gives insight into what led a user to install your app. Also, it allows you to figure out exactly what caused a rise or fall in app installs. This information is helpful in optimizing marketing campaigns. Additionally, you can use it when you’re scaling up a business. Also, you can use it to maximize your ROI.

To this end, here are some features you should look for in a mobile app attribution platform:

Mobile App Attribution Across Channels

Mobile app attribution across channels typically involves advanced technologies such as universal deep linking, fingerprinting, and secure postbacks for data sync.

Marketing Engagement Analytics

This involves combining mobile business and app use insights with mobile app attribution. This helps marketers to better understand and optimize sources of real value. For example, app marketers look at metrics such as user engagement, revenue, lifetime value, and ROI.

Integrations

It’s important to know which media sources,
retargeting networks, third-party analytics platforms, and marketing automation
providers your mobile app attribution platform offers integration with.

Data Integrity

Your mobile app attribution platform needs to collect its own data. Further, what you don’t want is a mobile app attribution platform that simply aggregates data that ad networks provide. Therefore, you need to select a platform that’s GDPR-compliant and follows industry security standards.

A Comparison of AppsFlyer and Branch

Now that we have a clear understanding of what mobile app attribution is, let’s compare two mobile app attribution providers, AppsFlyer and Branch. These are two of the leading providers in the industry. We’ll take a look at the key features of each. This will let you see how they stack up against each other in terms of features and functionality.

Factor #1: Mobile App Attribution Across Channels

We’re living in a multi-device, multi-channel world. Therefore, app marketers need to promote their products pretty much everywhere a potential customer might be active.

This can make it hard to know which specific marketing activities are driving conversions. That’s because the audience’s journey often spans a variety of “walled garden” digital environments. Therefore, since the customer’s journey is directed within those environments, it is difficult to monitor.

On the other hand, cross-channel mobile app attribution helps marketers understand which parts of their marketing strategies are most effective and which ones need to be scrapped. Without it, marketers would have no way of knowing what drives prospective users to act on a conversion goal.

AppsFlyer and Cross-Channel Mobile App Attribution

With AppsFlyer, you’ll be able to monitor every app install and connect it to the promotional campaigns and media sources that drove it. This makes it easy to see which media sources perform best. That’s because AppsFlyer’s granular dashboards let you know which channel or network, ad group, ad type, and ad creative drove individual users.

Additionally, the platform’s deep-linking feature enables you to direct users to the right app store. Then you can display a welcome message after the app is installed. This improves your customer’s user experience and increases conversion rates.

AppsFlyer multi-touch for mobile app attribution

Most users interact with multiple ads before they decide to install an app. AppsFlyer’s multi-touch attribution enables you to know exactly which ads helped nudge the user in the right direction. Moreover, you’ll also know which ad was the driving factor behind the final install.

In addition, AppsFlyer helps you attribute new users coming from TV campaigns. This lets you promote your app via its deep integrations with TVSquared, Adalyser, and others. Also, it lets you generate reports about which marketing campaigns drive the best user re-engagement and reactivation results.

Branch and Cross-Channel Mobile App Attribution

With Branch, you can use automatic cross-platform identifiers to track your users on the web and in apps. Importantly, you can do this even if they’re logged out. Therefore, even if customers first learn about your app on a blog and then interact with your ad on Facebook, you’ll be able to connect touch points from each channel. Also, it lets you customize attribution windows based on your marketing campaigns, right down to individual links.

Branch automatic cross-platform identifiers for mobile app attribution

Additionally, Branch’s view-through attribution will give you insight into the users who viewed your ads, even when they didn’t interact with them (for example, by clicking the ad). This gives you a better idea about the ROI of your marketing efforts. That’s because views can help a great deal with brand awareness, even though CPM (cost per thousand) campaigns are measured differently across different networks.

Also, Branch aims for accurate attribution across all channels. It does this by using links to seamlessly track user engagement. Therefore, prospective customers will be able to view your ads and make purchases across multiple platforms.

Factor #2: Marketing Engagement Analytics

One of the key benefits of marketing engagement analytics is that they empower marketers to make informed decisions. Essentially, these analytics answer two important questions: Which marketing campaigns should you be investing in, and how should you prioritize them?

How AppsFlyer Performs with Analytics

With AppsFlyer, you’ll get useful insights about your marketing performance and user retention. That’s because its powerful cohort and retention reporting tools show you areas where marketing campaigns are doing great and where there’s glaring need for improvement.

Additionally, you can customize AppsFlyer’s dashboard with their drag-and-drop interface. This way, you can easily build and view dashboards based on your specific campaigns.

Additionally, the AppsFlyer mobile app enables you to monitor analytics data in real time and share it with your team members. You can also receive live alerts about your key performance indicators (KPIs). Plus, you’ll get other information that’s important for your business.

What’s more, AppsFlyer’s Pivot tool also uses the drag-and-drop interface. This lets you quickly save, edit, clone, and collaborate with your team. Plus, you can do all of this without having to download data or rebuild pivot tables. This way, marketers can better manage and understand complex data. For instance, you can use it for aggregating performance by media source. Or you can run deep campaign analyses.

How Branch Provides Analytics

One of the practical-use cases of Branch’s detailed analytics reporting is that it makes it easy to identify top-performing influencer campaigns. For example, when you know which ones are driving the most app downloads, you can deepen your most lucrative relationships. Then you can also forge more of them with similar figures.

Although Branch
does offer a cohort analysis tool to help marketers understand the ROI of their
campaigns, it doesn’t support retention monitoring or reporting.

Branch’s Content Analytics section allows you to figure out which content is most successful at driving app installs. This way, you’ll be able to promote that particular content with marketing campaigns or deep linked sharing. With Branch, you can repeat this process to identify new content that drives app downloads.

Additionally, Branch’s Data Feeds feature allows you to import analytics data using several integrations. For instance:

Webhooks let you send Branch events to any endpoint you want
Data integrations offers a number of analytics and marketing features
The query API will help you programmatically query analytics data
Data export API will give you access to all of your Branch data

However, unlike AppsFlyer, Branch doesn’t let you create custom dashboards to view specific information sets based on your marketing campaigns.

Factor #3: Integrated Partners

The mobile ecosystem calls for many types of reports that have an effect on acquisition. These could include metrics from the services you use for attribution. Also, they can include product analytics, A/B testing, and marketing automation.

Integrating with third-party platforms provides more value to advertisers. That’s because you can use the insights you glean for optimizing marketing efforts or running retargeting campaigns.

Using AppsFlyer Mobile App Attribution with Integrated Partners

With the AppsFlyer software development kit (SDK) you can experiment with different integrated partners. This lets you identify the ones that give you the best ROI from your marketing campaigns.

Here are some of
the different types of integrated partners you can get access to with the
AppsFlyer platform:

Ad Networks

These networks connect advertisers to apps looking to host ads. Ad networks act as consolidations of a large ad space supply from publishers and match it to fulfill advertisers’ demands.

Agency Reports

There are companies that manage marketing campaigns on behalf of advertisers. They might work with all types of apps or focus on a specific area, such as gaming apps.

Analytics Platforms

These are third-party solutions that offer in-app analytics reporting. Interestingly, these integrations can push data back and forth. Therefore, you can perform behavioral analysis based on various segments of your end users.

Affiliate Networks

These networks enable publishers to get a share of the revenue advertisers earn that result from visitors to the publisher’s app. Alternatively, publishers earn a fee for each visitor who performs a specific action.

RELATED ARTICLE: CRITICAL ASPECTS OF BUILDING AN AUTHORITATIVE AFFILIATE SITE

Retargeting Networks

These are ad networks that specialize in retargeting. Retargeting engages users who interacted with an ad but didn’t yet install the app. You can also use these networks for re-engagement. With re-engagement, you give targeted discounts to users who’ve already installed your apps to make them active users. Also, use these networks for re-attribution. These are campaigns targeted at users who’ve uninstalled the app to get them to reinstall it.

Direct Publishers

These are app owners who integrate their apps
directly with AppsFlyer for superior in-app monitoring.

Facebook Marketing Partners/Twitter Official Partners

These are partners who comply with Facebook and Twitter’s criteria and get their approval. For example, this could be a particular technology such as automated posting apps. Or they could be media-buying platforms that allow marketers to book ads on Facebook and Twitter.

Programmatic Advertising

This refers to the ability of an ad network to buy spots for ads from different platforms without involving a third party.

Branch and Integrations

With Branch, you get a number of integrations to make sure your attribution workflow runs smoothly.

These include:

Universal Ad Partners

With Branch Universal Ads, you’re able to try
out ad networks with unique segmentation algorithms to reach a targeted
audience. This is available as a pre-configured and ready-to-use integration.

Universal Email Partners

These services enable you to seamlessly integrate email marketing campaigns within your workflows. For example, you can use leading email service providers without losing your current analytics.

Data Integration Partners

This integration enables you to use
pre-formatted webhooks to automatically send Branch data to your analytics and
marketing tools.

Factor #4: Data Integrity

When it comes to mobile app attribution, it’s important to make sure you’re keeping customer data secure. Failure to do so can cause serious data breaches. These can cause serious damage to your brand and might even expose you to potential lawsuits or fines from regulators.

AppsFlyer and Data Integrity

AppsFlyer maintains full compliance with industry standards. This means AppsFlyer keeps its data centers secure. Moreover, it enforces strict physical, environmental, and hosting controls.

Additionally, AppsFlyer uses multi-layered controls to protect the data infrastructure. This means it actively monitors the improvement of applications, systems, and processes regularly.

This continuous monitoring lets AppsFlyer keep up with the ever-changing security ecosystem and its challenges.

This mobile app attribution platform also isolates each customer’s account data from that of other customers. Additionally, it encrypts the data at rest. Also, AppsFlyer’s web servers use strong encryption protocols. These protocols secure the connections between its users’ devices and its own web services and servers.

Every change made at AppsFlyer is measured, reviewed, and approved by following a strict process. This process ensures that operational changes meet AppsFlyer’s business goals and compliance guidelines. These include GDPR, TRUSTe, and ePrivacyseal.

Branch and Data Integrity

Branch ensures strict compliance with GDPR to secure the data it holds. This data security directive gives specific guidelines, including the right to object to data processing. However, to submit a GDPR end user request, you’ll have to go through the Branch GDPR portal. Then you must specify the end user’s advertising identifier (for example, IDFA or GAID). Also, you must specify the date when you received their request.

Just keep in mind that even after Branch stops tracking end users, they’ll still be able to generate and share Branch links. In addition, basic deep-linking functionality will also continue to work.

However, end users who object to data processing won’t be able to benefit from seamless customer journeys across multiple platforms. (Branch enables marketers to offer their other end users these seamless journeys.)

Which Mobile App Attribution Platform Is Right for You?

With the right
mobile app attribution platform, you’ll be able to find out how a user first
learns about your app, what drives them to install it, and how they interact
with it. This information can help you optimize your marketing campaigns and
convert more customers.

After reading
this article, between AppsFlyer and Branch, which mobile app attribution
platform are you leaning toward and why?

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25 Unforgettable Moments in Space Exploration to Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11

July 15, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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The moon landing was just the beginning.

July
15, 2019

8 min read

On July 20, 1969, 650 million people watched as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon. NASA’s lunar landing was years in the making, a feat of engineering and ingenuity taken on by a team of more than 400,000 people to test and build the spacecraft, rockets, suits and instruments on board and to calculate how to get Armstrong, Aldrin and Michael Collins safely there and back — although at the time there was no guarantee that would be the case.

The space race kicked into high gear in April 1961 when Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the Earth. While the Soviet Union’s accomplishment spurred the United States to put a man on the moon before the 1960s came to a close, space exploration has long since become a more internationally collaborative affair.

In the private sector, Virgin Galactic announced that it was going public, making it the first space tourism company to be publicly listed, beating out main competitors Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Related: Buzz Aldrin Wants You to Know — the Sky Is Not the Limit

Image credit:

NASA

On Feb. 22, 2017, NASA announced the discovery of a planetary system of seven Earth-sized planets orbiting around a red dwarf star. It was named TRAPPIST-1 and it is the first system that NASA has found like it. Three of the planets in the system are in what’s called the habitable zone, which means that there is a possibility that the worlds are home to liquid water and a life-supporting atmosphere.

Breaking records and glass ceilings.

Image credit:

Amanda Edwards | Getty Images

In June 2018, Peggy Whitson, the first female commander of the International Space Station and first woman to be chief of NASA’s astronaut corps, retired after 32 years with NASA. Whitson completed three missions on board the ISS — two of which she led — and spent 665 total days in space, which is more than any other NASA astronaut.

Whitson also conducted more spacewalks than any other female astronaut, spending 60 hours and 21 minutes outside of the space station. On her last space station mission, Whitson became the oldest female astronaut, at 57, to reach orbit.

In February 2020, Astronaut Christina Koch will return to Earth after an 11-month stay onboard the ISS, nearing Kelly’s 340 days in orbit. In December 2019, she will pass Whitson’s 288 days in space, setting a new record for female astronauts.

The secrets of Mars.

Image credit:

AL SEIB | Getty Images

On Nov. 26, 2018, NASA successfully landed the InSight Mars lander on the red planet in order to better understand the inner workings of Mars. NASA will use the probe to take the planet’s “vital signs,” closely monitoring weather, temperature, tectonic activity — meaning Marsquakes — and what happens when meteorites hit the planet. It took the probe six months to travel more than 300 million miles, and was the first landing on Mars since the Curiosity Rover in 2012.

Farewell Kepler, Hello TESS.

Image credit:

Orlando Sentinel | Getty Images

On Oct. 30, 2018, NASA’s Kepler space telescope was retired, and the nine-year-long planet hunting mission came to an end. The Kepler team discovered 2,899 exoplanet candidates and confirmed the existence of 2,681 exoplanets in the galaxy outside of our solar system.

But while Kepler said goodbye, in April of 2018, NASA launched TESS — short for Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite — into orbit for a two-year mission to see which exoplanets could harbor and support life.

Going farther than ever before.

Image credit:

NASA | Getty Images

On Jan. 1, 2019, NASA’s New Horizon spacecraft completed the furthest flyby ever, capturing images of a 20-mile wide minor planet classified as 2014 MU69. Its nickname is Ultima Thule, which translates to “distant places beyond the known world.” New Horizons was also the first spacecraft to fly past Pluto in 2015.

Humans living in space?

Image credit:

NBC NewsWire | Getty Images

On April 12, 2019, the results of NASA’s Twin Study was published in the academic journal Science. The paper detailed the findings of the research, which monitored the effect of spaceflight on the human body. The study’s test subjects were twin brothers and retired NASA astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly.

Scott Kelly spent 340 days in space on the International Space Station and became the first American astronaut to spend almost a year in space. He returned to earth on March 2, 2016. The research revealed the ways spending that much time in space can affect things such as the expression of genes and immune system responses.

“Our space agencies won’t be able to push out farther into space, to a destination like Mars, until we can learn more about how to strengthen the weakest links in the chain that make space flight possible: the human body and mind,” wrote Kelly in his memoir, Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery.

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Archives for July 2019

Historical Basketball League

Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

Now Is a Great Time to Start Freelancing

Put Your Best Foot Forward with Great Communication

Use Professional Invoices When You Start Freelancing

Source: InvoiceSimple.com

Keep on Learning

Five key ranking factors

Accessibility

For the Preparer

Losses with lessons.

Picking up trash for mentorship.

Worthwhile struggles.

His biggest regret and motivation.

Featured image from Pixabay

Think of Social Media as a Marketing Tool

Consider the following social media statistics:

Source: Statista Instagram Users Globally (Male & Female)

Source: Facebook User Stats Statista 1st Quarter 2019

2019 Trends in Digital Marketing Tools

Effective Content Marketing Strategies Drive Sales

Email Is a Powerful Marketing Tool

Take a Hands-On Approach

Using Effective Tools to Drive Marketing Results

Turn to Enticements to Engage Your Customers

Marketing Tactics Must Serve Marketing Objectives

Source: Sprout Social

Research Your Marketing Strategy

Conclusion

What Is Mobile App Attribution?

Mobile App Attribution Across Channels

Marketing Engagement Analytics

Integrations

Data Integrity

A Comparison of AppsFlyer and Branch

Factor #1: Mobile App Attribution Across Channels

AppsFlyer and Cross-Channel Mobile App Attribution

Branch and Cross-Channel Mobile App Attribution

Factor #2: Marketing Engagement Analytics

How AppsFlyer Performs with Analytics

How Branch Provides Analytics

Factor #3: Integrated Partners

Using AppsFlyer Mobile App Attribution with Integrated Partners

Ad Networks

Agency Reports

Analytics Platforms

Affiliate Networks

Retargeting Networks

Direct Publishers

Facebook Marketing Partners/Twitter Official Partners

Programmatic Advertising

Branch and Integrations

Universal Ad Partners

Universal Email Partners

Data Integration Partners

Factor #4: Data Integrity

AppsFlyer and Data Integrity

Branch and Data Integrity

Which Mobile App Attribution Platform Is Right for You?

Don’t stop me now.

Here’s looking at you.

The space race begins.

America gets in the game.

To put a man on the moon.

Beaten to the punch.

Making an impact.

First contact.

Competition is mounting.

Take a lap.

The Red Planet.

A new frontier.

A tragic day.

Step right up.

A new member of the team.

A sweet ride.

Sticking the landing.

Third time’s a charm.

Are we alone in the universe?

New worlds to explore.

*Source**: Statista Instagram Users Globally (Male & Female)*

*Source**: Facebook User Stats Statista 1*^st Quarter 2019

Using Effective Tools to Drive Marketing
Results

Marketing Tactics Must Serve Marketing
Objectives

*Source**: Sprout Social*