Photo by Freddie Collins on Unsplash

When there is a sharp depreciation in the value of a currency, we call that a currency crisis. This can cause volatility in the financial markets and upend the everyday lives of ordinary people.

A sharp appreciation in the value of a currency can also cause a currency crisis. Moreover, the reasons behind currency crises can vary significantly. These reasons range from a monetary policy that follows a fixed exchange rate, to economic failures and political crises.

Currency crises have happened throughout history. In fact, currency crises involving the Russian ruble and Turkish lira are just two recent examples.

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A Currency Crisis Brings with It Extreme Volatility

The volatility that accompanies a currency crisis often draws the attention of speculators as well as central banks. However, when a currency crisis occurs, it generally comes unannounced. But usually the causes for it can be easy to explain in hindsight.

Some currency crises have a short-term effect, while others last longer, sometimes for years.

Some Common Crises

There are a number of reasons a currency crisis could occur, including:

Inflation

Inflation is the single biggest threat to currencies. Typically, governments charge their central banks with the responsibility of maintaining price stability. However, inflation can start to creep up nonetheless. Examples of inflation leading to a crisis include the one in Zimbabwe that began in 2007 and the more recent one in Venezuela.

Debt

It can be said that debt fuels the economy. However, under general circumstances, governments tend to keep a close watch on the amount of borrowing in the economy. This is because when lenders learn about potential factors that could lead to a cut in credit ratings, they raise the cost of borrowing. This can eventually lead to a freeze in borrowing.

Political Instability

A crisis in a country’s currency can occur because of political reasons, too. Basically, a stable economy requires a stable political environment. However, political infighting or riots against the government can lead to instability. This spurs foreign investment coming into the economy, which has an indirect effect on that currency’s value.

Economic Factors

The global economy also plays a role in a currency crisis. For example, when there is a faltering economy, central banks lower interest rates. However, if a country is following a fixed-rate policy, this can cause difficulties for that country’s economy.

Examples of Currency Crises

Ruble Trouble in 1998

In 1998, trouble with the ruble got so bad in Russia that the nation had to devalue its exchange rate. One of the reasons was falling productivity amid a higher fixed exchange rate. As a result, the Russian central bank had to intervene in the markets to devalue the ruble. The economic emergency got so bad that Russia had to seek loans from the International Monetary Fund.

Swiss Franc Emergency in 2015

In 2015, the Swiss National Bank shocked the foreign exchange markets by announcing that it would de-peg the exchange rate of the Swiss franc (CHF) from the Euro (EUR). The Swiss Bank took this radical step because of fears that allowing the two currencies to remain wedded would eventually lead to hyperinflation.

EURCHF Currency depeg

Turkish Lira Devaluation in 2018

In 2018, the Turkish lira (TRY) made headlines when, amid high inflation and rising borrowing costs, the Turkish government used its power to influence the actions of the Turkish central bank. This only added to the chaos. The TRY became strongly devalued, falling to only 4 US dollars (USD) per Turkish lira. In comparison, the exchange rate in 2005 was about 1.34 USD/TRY.

USDTRY Currency Crisis, 2018

The effect of the devaluation in the Turkish lira reached into Europe, since Europe investors had invested a significant amount of money in the Turkish economy.

Conclusion

While volatility is often low in the financial exchange markets, a currency crisis can deeply affect the exchange rate, and the effects can be felt far and wide.

Over the last few years, the social media advertising landscape has changed dramatically, and the obstacles that prevented small businesses from investing in social video ads are no longer a challenge. This is because tools like Yala have made it easier for small businesses to hop on the trend of video and succeed on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

In this article, we take a look at some of the main features on offer with Yala and help you understand how your business can benefit from it.

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What
Is Yala?

Video ads are the
most common way customers learn about new brands before buying their products.
Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are among the top social media sites
influencing audience behavior through social video ads.

Most Social Media Users Watch Social Video Ads

According to Statista, 85% of social media users in the United States watch online videos. Moreover, Nielsen reports that the time spent watching video content has been on a steady increase over the past few years.

Yala is a powerful yet simple social media creation and scheduling tool. It supports integration with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Also, it brings together video ads with smart schedule posting features. This increases reach and improves brand engagement.

You’ll Be Able to Easily Organize Your Ads

Additionally, Yala allows you to easily organize your posts and ads. It enables you to efficiently design high-performing video ads and assign posting schedules, all from one place.

Now that you know
what Yala is and what it can do for you, let’s dig deeper to learn more about
its key features and how your business can benefit from them.

Key
Features on Offer with Yala

Here we’ll step through some of the standout features on offer with Yala. This way, you can see how it fits into your existing social media marketing tech stack and whether you think it might be a worthy addition.

Video
Ad Creator

Yala features a neat, point-and-click video creator that makes it incredibly easy to render stunning videos without any technical know-how. Also, for each social video ad, you’ll be able to enter your own marketing copy. Additionally, you can select a custom color palette and choose from a library of backgrounds, animations, and clips to add visual appeal.

Notably, Yala is designed for users who don’t have experience with video production. This means that you won’t have to invest time and money into learning new software. Instead, you’ll be able to focus on increasing your social media presence with social video ads.

A Library of Video and Graphic Design Templates

It also gives you access to a library of video and graphic design templates. These will allow you to quickly create, design, and edit video posts that evoke emotion and engage viewers. You’ll be able to reuse professional-looking graphics and artwork to create social media ads, memes, gifs, and other types of visual content.

With Yala, you can create an unlimited number of videos. Moreover, you can custom-label them with your own branding—in both mp4 and gif format. Then, you can upload them to your social media profiles within seconds.

Yala is an ideal tool for both freelance and in-house marketers. Yala’s wide range of resources are especially useful for businesses that are looking to gain visibility for their products and services on social media in an easy and cost-effective way.

Automated
Branding and Animations

Yala lets you upload your business’s logo to your account. Then it automatically detects the brand colors in your logo and pulls up a matching color palette. Therefore, you’ll have your colors as the primary color options for your social video ads. However, you can also tweak these settings manually. Also, the animations you add to your video ad will automatically adjust to your brand settings.

Yala enables small businesses to create the same sort of stunning social video ads as the big-budget corporations do.

A Wide Range of Tools for Creating Engaging Social Video Ads

Do you want to increase your social media engagement, get more followers, or simply send out a message to promote your new product? Whatever your purpose, Yala’s automated branding and animations can help you create an engaging social video ad. Moreover, your new ad will boost brand recognition and generate customer interest.

Most social media tools let you create colorful static content. However, you need something that catches your target audience’s attention right off the bat. To this end, Yala gives you a number of animation options to choose from. Use these tools to add life to your video ads. For example, take your pick of Sprinkles, Rubik, and Interstellar.

As a result,
you’ll be able to easily create consistent-looking and visually appealing video
ads for your business.

Library
of Human-Centric, Social-Media-First Footage

Yala has a built-in library of original, human-centric video footage. Users can utilize this footage to create engaging social video ads. All of the videos in its library feature people who are relatable and clips that are meant to stir up emotions in viewers.

This is especially important. That’s because emotions are what get people to stop swiping and start paying attention. Also, people are more likely to remember and reshare clips that are emotionally driven. In fact, a study by Unruly, along with the UK Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, found that ads that touch people’s emotions have twice as much business impact as ads that appeal to logic.

Therefore, Yala offers an extensive library that features different clip categories for different sorts of emotions such as frustration, excitement, calm, confidence, and attention.

While most social media marketing tools only let you add over-used stock clips, memes, and emojis, you need something that’s unique to your brand. That’s because you need to speak to your customers in a direct way.

Perfect for Humanizing Your Brand

Another benefit of making social video ads human-centric is that it enables you to humanize your brand. More and more brands are trying to be personal and human-like in the way they communicate with customers. Seeing people in video ads allows viewers to imagine themselves as the person in the video, using your product, or going through the same experiences.

Therefore, if you’re looking to transform your business into a story-driven brand, Yala is a perfect fit for your social media marketing tech stack. It can help you easily create a stream of cleverly crafted videos and graphics to keep customers engaged with your brand.

AI-Based
Scheduling

Yala’s auto-schedule feature allows you to post video clips to multiple social sites when your target audience is most likely to see your content. This gives your ads more exposure and better engagement rates.

How this works is by tracking which times and posts result in the most likes, shares, and clicks. The AI engine then allows Yala to automatically make corrections, improve itself, and identify patterns that predict the best posting schedule for your videos over time.

Accordingly, you can choose to set the time (or day) when you’d like to post your content. Then, Yala will handle the rest. Additionally, you can configure it to focus on distinct audience segments and engage them with targeted content based on their previous behavior and interactions.

Plans
and Pricing

Yala offers three
different pricing plans. Here’s a full breakdown of what you get with each.

There’s a “free
forever” plan, as well as plans for $10 or $39 per month. All features are
available to all account levels, with two exceptions. With the free plan, you
can only post directly from Yala to one social media profile, whereas the
others have no limits. And only with the “premium” plan can you remove the
“Made with Yala” bumper from the end of your clips.

Conclusion

Yala is a social media video creation and scheduling tool. Yala makes it easy for small businesses to build and post visually stunning, branded video ads, even if they have no design skills. This is because it gives you access to a library of social-media-friendly templates and human-centric clips. What’s more, you can animate these tools to bring life to your ads.

Let’s quickly
recap some of the ways your business can benefit from using Yala:

• It’s amazingly easy and affordable to get started with, which means you won’t have to spend time learning how to use video creation software.
• It comes with a library of human-centric clips that you can add to social video ads to rouse emotions in your viewers and social media followers.
• It’s the perfect tool for marketers who are looking for a way to boost social media engagement through visually-rich social video ads.

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:

1. Under-promise but over-deliver
2. 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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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.

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.

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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?

To ensure your restaurant, café, or bar is welcoming to customers instead of driving them away, consider the following tips to make your front of house areas and street-facing facades unmissable. With these tips, you will ensure that your dining area always stays busy.

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Use Colors Effectively

If your restaurant is located in a small space, or in
a place that doesn’t offer a lot of natural light, consider using light-colored
paint schemes in your front of house. For example, use white, cream, and soft
pastels. This can help make a small space feel larger than it is. It will also prevent
a small front of house from looking cramped, poorly lit, or unattractive from a
distance.

Don’t forget that the balance of the colors you use is
also important. Too much of one color can make your exterior or interiors
boring to look at. So break up wide stretches of color with a few brightly colored
highlights or flashes.

You don’t have to do this on the walls themselves. Instead, it can be as simple as adding brightly colored flowers or decorative soft furnishings to your front of house, such as the style shown here.

Additionally, if you have more space to play with, you have a wider range of colors to experiment with. What’s more, in a larger space bolder colors won’t negatively affect the atmosphere of your dining area. In fact, you can even create themed areas by combining different colors and furniture in different areas.

Remember, however, that the intensity of some colors
can affect the mood you want to evoke in your front of house. For example,
bright, vibrant reds and yellows convey a sense of urgency. Fast food
restaurants commonly use these colors.

On the other hand, shades of blues and purples can be
off-putting to a restaurant’s customers. In fact, these shades have been shown
to decrease appetites.

Convey Comfort and Relaxation

We’ve all sat down somewhere that didn’t look particularly comfortable on first glance, but then found ourselves sinking into plush, luxurious comfort that we never wanted to leave.

Creating areas that provide this sense of comfort and exclusivity is a fantastic way to invite people into your business to sit for a while. An easy way to do this is to create dining nooks or private booth areas throughout your front of house.

As a matter of fact, you don’t need to build
individual booths. Instead, you can create the same sense of privacy and
seclusion by installing fabric walls. Other ideas are to create small shelters or
to offer a spread of picnic benches or outdoor furniture in your front of
house. However, be sure to provide ample distance between each station. In this
way, customers won’t feel like they are on top of each other.

If you aren’t sure what furniture would work best with your front of house, make a rough sketch layout of your available indoor and outdoor space. Start by using a blank grid so you can jot down measurements approximately to scale. Then locate your nearest showroom for hospitality furniture and equipment and take a wander at your leisure.

This a great way to get a feel for the atmosphere certain materials and products can bring to your restaurant’s front of house. Additionally, it gives you the opportunity to try out possible furniture and see what it offers in quality, comfort, and functionality.

Consider the Season

A large part of keeping your dining areas busy is to
ensure that you cater to the current climate. No customer wants to walk into a
place that looks warm and cozy on a hot summer’s day. Likewise, they probably wouldn’t
frequent an ice cream bar in the depths of winter.

Additionally, if your front of house includes outdoor areas, make sure these areas have shelter available. For example, provide an awning over a terrace that can be pulled back on pleasant days but offer protection when needed from the sun or the rain.

However, if your front of house only has indoor space, consider adding extra air conditioning or cooling facilities for the peak of summer. This will be inviting to people who want to escape the hot sun and spend time somewhere cool with a refreshing drink.

Spruce Up Your Front of House to Invite More Customers In

Creating a unique space in your front of house is key
to attracting customers into your dining establishment. This is true whether
you’re advertising online or seeking to attract business from passing footfall.

However, don’t get distracted by trying to create something different without considering the bigger picture of functionality and comfort. Once you nail the basics of creating an attractive, welcoming space, you will be free to add decorations and unique characteristics to your front of house that will set you apart from neighboring hospitality businesses.

There are some creative people in the world. Are you one of them? These days, thanks to the Internet and platforms like YouTube and Etsy, creative souls like you can not only learn more creative skills but also sell your crafts.

However, marketing your creations online isn’t easy. There is a lot of competition and it’s hard to stand out. So let’s look at some tips that can help you market your crafts online.

Know
Your Audience

One thing that creative individuals have in their favor when it comes to selling their crafts online is that many of them find they can be great at marketing. That’s because marketing, too, is a creative endeavor.

For example, even selling something as ordinary as a cutting mat can become a lucrative business if the seller puts the work into marketing it appropriately. To see a great example of this kind of creative marketing, click here. Then you will see how one such seller is achieving success. 

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Moreover, crafting tools such as cutting mats are popular online. All you need to do is to appeal to an audience of people who are interested in crafting. To market your products to that audience, create videos showcasing your own crafts. Also, design an online shop with an emphasis on arts and crafts.

You could also create a blog wherein you write about crafting. Include links back to your products in your posts. It will often take time to market your products in this way. However, in time you will build up a strong audience of buyers for your crafts and begin to make a name for yourself.

Find Your Niche

One way independent sellers can successfully market their crafts is to appeal to their niche. While big businesses can take a more general approach by appealing to as many people as possible, small sellers must take the exact opposite approach. Therefore, find your people and sell your crafts to that audience instead.

Let’s use the previous example of selling cutting mats again to illustrate how this approach can benefit you. You can find success by making your cutting mats different. For example, you could make them of higher quality materials than those other websites offer. In this way, your products will appeal to hardcore crafters who will want what you’re offering.

Taking this analogy a step further, showcase how your crafts are better than those available on other websites. Also, remember to celebrate your niche. Always remember that you don’t have to try and please everyone like the bigger businesses do. And that is actually a good thing.

Learn to Take Good Photographs of Your Crafts

One area where independent sellers and big businesses don’t really differ is their equal need for excellent photography. In fact, since your crafts will likely be selling as a niche product, you should really go all out with your photography.

Focus on capturing the ways in which your crafts are different from others’ and include a slideshow of detailed photographs to capture details and special features.

Use Social Media to Market Your Crafts

Social media is essential for independent sellers. That’s because social media gives you a way to display new products while also building interest in your crafts and interacting with your audience.

Additionally, platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter also give you the freedom to express your personality as an independent crafts seller. For one thing, you don’t have to be as rigid as a larger, more traditional business might need to be.

This is not to say that you won’t need to be professional. However, you can have a little more fun and be creative with your social media posts.

So set up some social media pages for your crafting business. Then encourage anyone who buys from you to follow you and interact with you there. Social media offers many benefits when it comes to small independent sellers, so it is well worth investing your time into it.

Offer Variety

Good online sellers always have several different products to offer their customers. You might have a particular crafting specialty, but you should also try to have some options for your buyers.

Your cutting mats, for example, could come in different sizes and colors. This would appeal to more people. Another idea is to add some different designs on them. Variety can mean small variations as well as new products.

Conclusion

If you enjoy making things with your hands, and you dream of making a living by selling your crafts online, don’t buy into the myth of the starving artist. Put your creative talents to work not only in creating your crafts but also into creative marketing techniques. Before you know it, you could be making a living—or at least be the proud owner of a thriving side gig—by selling your crafts online.

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

New technologies are bringing change to the hospitality industry. If you own a hotel or a restaurant, you already know this.

However, perhaps your involvement with the hospitality industry is only that your business requires you to travel frequently. If that’s the case, these new technologies affect your life in many ways, too.

Let’s look at some of the ways the hospitality industry is enjoying the benefits of technology.

Software Developments Alter the Hospitality Industry

One of the improvements technology has brought to the hospitality industry is enterprise software development. This endeavor has helped millions of hospitality businesses to scale their businesses quickly. Meanwhile, they are able to offer even better service to their customers.

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Social Media Drives Hospitality Industry Marketing Campaigns

Social media is one of the most influential driving forces of this decade. Moreover, it has changed the way both businesses and individuals communicate. And it has become a valuable tool in the hospitality industry.

Thousands of hospitality businesses have benefited enormously from incorporating social media into their marketing strategies. For example, many have turned to social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to engage and build their customer base.

Enterprise Application Solutions Allow for Faster Growth

In particular, enterprise application solutions in the hospitality industry have helped the industry grow by engaging more clients.

For example, a recent study showed that clients say they can more easily access hotels and restaurants that have their own apps. This is because clients appreciate the ease with which they can now make bookings and reservations on their own.

Photo by joenibraw from Pexels

In other words, customers like that they don’t need to do these things the old-fashioned way, in person or on the phone. All they need to do is go online and search for listings of hotels and restaurants. Then they click on the ones they like the looks of, wherever in the world they happen to be traveling to.

New Technologies Allow for Faster Service

Additionally, technology makes it possible for businesses in the hospitality industry to deliver their services faster than ever.

For instance, the reliability of customer service departments in the hospitality industry is one of the primary reasons why the industry continues to grow. Clients these days know they can reach out to hotels and restaurants to find what they need quickly.

Also, many businesses in the industry now automate their services by way of websites, applications, sales channels, and other means. All of these technologies boost their service delivery. Moreover, they encourage efficiency by significantly reducing human error.

Staff Members Provide Location-Based Services

Hospitality enterprises that quickly provide solutions to their guests’ needs are at the forefront of this revolution in the hospitality industry. To do this, they calculate precisely where their clients are, then sanction a nearby staffer to attend to the client’s needs as quickly as possible.

One traveler shared her experience with us for this article:

“On a recent trip to Colombia, I inadvertently left my usual toiletries at home. Only a few seconds after I called the reception desk from my room to ask for help, I heard a knock at my door. There stood a smiling hotel attendant who handed me a small purse containing all the toiletries I needed. There was no way this young man had had time to zoom up the elevator to my floor from the first floor. Instead, I understood that the hotel had anticipated issues like mine. And they dealt with it by using technology.”

Additionally, many hospitality enterprises now attract clients from all over the world by way of the Internet. Some also offer additional services, such as a virtual assistants for guests who come in official capacities. Others offer flight bookings and chauffeur service for guests who are visiting from outside of the country.

Recruitment Is Easier Now

Restaurants, conference centers, hotels, and other enterprises in the hospitality industry now use new technologies to recruit new members for their professional staff. No longer must they settle for unqualified local talent. Instead, they can now recruit workers from all over the world. Plus, they do all of this without going over budget.

Make Investments in the Hospitality Industry Today

Technology is changing the hospitality industry in many ways, and the time to jump on the bandwagon is now. And if you already own a business in the hospitality industry, be sure to take advantage of all the technological advancements that can help you run your business more efficiently.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay 

You have probably heard the terms “bull market” and “bear market.” But what do these two terms mean? In this post, we explain the differences between bull and bear markets.

Wall Street traders use the phrases “bull market” and “bear market” to describe how the markets are performing. Also, the terms bull and bear characterize economic conditions as they are reflected in the markets.

Moreover, the context in which someone uses these terms plays an important role. Typically, someone will use the terms bull and bear to denote a specific asset class such as stocks, bonds, real estate, even the economy itself.

As a rule, when someone speaks of a bull market, they mean that the economic outlook is mostly optimistic and expanding. When they talk about a bear market, on the other hand, the outlook is pessimistic and growth is contracting.

Therefore, when the markets are rising, it’s a bull market. Alternatively, when the markets are falling, it’s a bear market.

Generally, when there is a correction of 10-20% or more from the 52-week high, traders call this a bear market. Or they just say it’s “bearish.”

On the other hand, when the markets rise 20% or more from the correction, traders call that a bull market. Also, within the bull markets, there is another term called the secular bull market. This is a bull market that lasts 5 to 25 years or more. It is common for the markets to correct at least 10 times over the course of a secular bull market.

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Where Do the Terms Bull and Bear Come From?

The bull, with his sharp horns inclining upward, provides an illustration of the movement of the markets during a bullish period. Also, bulls attack by swinging their heads upward.

On the other hand, a bear generally attacks by striking downward with its paws. Then, too, bears hibernate for prolonged periods of time.

In other words, the known habits of the bull and bear provide analogies for the behavior of the markets during upswings and downturns. That’s why traders use terms bull and bear to describe the movements of the markets, whether they’re going up or down.

When it comes to the chief differences between bull and bear markets, bear markets generally last for shorter lengths of time. On the other hand, bull markets tend to last longer. In fact, various studies show that if you look to the S&P500 index over a span of decades, bull markets outperform bear markets.

For example, take a look at the chart below, showing the bull and bear markets over the course of a little more than two years.

This chart shows a bull market with intermittent bear market corrections.

However, past performance is in no way an indicator of future returns. Generally speaking, bear markets last roughly one or two years at most. On the other hand, bull markets tend to have an average lifespan of six years or more.

Characteristics of Bull and Bear Markets

Both the bull and bear markets have their own unique characteristics. For example, in a bull market, investors are optimistic. The economy is expanding and asset class returns are positive. People have more confidence in the markets. Basically, a bull market is good for the economy.

But in a bear market, investors are pessimistic and the economy is contracting. Asset class returns are negative, and people have less confidence in the markets. And a bear market is bad for the economy.

What About Hawks and Doves?

People use other terms besides bull and bear to describe other features of the markets. For instance, in the terminology of institutions such as central banks, the equivalent of the bull market is “hawkish,” and the equivalent of the bear market is “dovish.”

The animal analogies hold true here as well. People think of doves as peaceful birds, but hawks are birds of prey. When bankers release their monetary policy reports, those reports are accordingly considered either hawkish or dovish.

When a central bank is dovish, for instance, it means that policymakers expect the economy to perform poorly. This signals lower interest rates or loose monetary policy. On the other hand, when a central bank is hawkish, it means policymakers expect an expanding economy. This translates to higher interest rates or tighter monetary policy.

A Final Word About Bulls and Bears

Finally, whether the current market is a bull market or a bearish one, or whether bankers are sounding dovish or hawkish, you now know that all of these animal references are describing the varying aspects of the financial markets. 

CloudBooks is specifically designed to help small businesses and freelancers manage their billing. But what makes this platform truly unique are its additional features that help with successful client management.

Relationships with clients have a direct effect on the growth and success of your small business.

That’s why many small to medium-sized businesses (SMB’s) look for ways to stay connected with their clients through marketing systems. For example many turn to a customer relationship management platform to manage face-to-face meetings between customers and salespeople. These tools can certainly improve the business-customer relationship. However, one area that business owners often overlook in this regard is accounting and billing.

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The way you handle finances between your business and your customers is incredibly important for creating a good relationship. For instance, if you should happen to bill a customer incorrectly or send them an inaccurate estimate report, you could damage the trust you are trying to build with them.

On the other hand, if they miss a billing cycle or are late on a payment, it could cause you frustration and eat into your profitability.

Therefore, it is important to keep all of these financial forms organized and accurate. Also, in order to simultaneously help your business grow, it is best to utilize an online system to support all of your billing and accounting processes.

CloudBooks is a great cloud-based option that is specifically designed for small businesses and freelancers for managing their billing. But what makes this platform truly unique are the additional features that help with successful client management.

Here’s how.

CloudBooks Helps You Nurture Relationships with Clients and Partners

Relationships with customers is typically an area where SMB’s shine. This is because smaller organizations can truly focus on individual customers.

CloudBooks can help to ensure that the financial side of these relationships remains organized and available. All finance-related items are accessible from anywhere, thanks to the cloud system. This includes invoices, estimates, reimbursements, and expense reports.

Therefore, if a client needs an updated copy of an invoice, for example, you can instantly email it to them or share it with them online. What’s more, if anything changes, all of the numbers will automatically adjust in real time.

Image Source: CloudBooksApp.com

CloudBooks also offers forecasting capabilities. This allows for accurate estimates and time-tracking. In this way, your clients will know exactly how long a project will take as well as how much it will cost them.

Estimating a project is always tricky. If you overestimate, you might lose a sale. On the other hand, under-estimating could cause major issues with your client later on. CloudBooks can help you keep all of your estimates organized and itemized. Consequently, you can look to past quotes. This will help you to create more accurate estimates based on proven numbers.

Easily Schedule On-Time Payments

It is difficult for a small business to grow financially if they are
failing to collect payments in a timely manner. Furthermore, if you charge late
fees on missed payments, failing to catch these charges leaves money on the
table.

Maintaining a regular billing cycle is important for client relationships. Obviously, a customer will not be happy if they are suddenly hit with additional late fees without warning.

This is why your small business needs to utilize an organized, regularly scheduled payment system. What’s more, you need a system that will accommodate your clients’ payment agendas while keeping you on top of due dates for your accounts receivable.

With CloudBooks, it will be far easier for your small business to stay on top of client payment schedules so that you don’t miss anything. You can even send out automatic reminders to notify a client that a bill will be coming soon.

Moreover, to make things smoother for international transactions, CloudBooks offers auto billing. Plus, it is integrated with PayPal and 2checkout.

Image Source: CloudBooksApp.com

With CloudBooks You Will Get Better Feedback

Establishing a trustworthy reputation is essential for small
business growth.

According to BrightLocal’s latest report, 86% of customers read reviews when they are considering a new small business. Also, 91% of people trust online reviews as much as they trust a personal recommendation.

Therefore, gathering lots of feedback from your clients is crucial for generating new leads. You must also pay attention to feedback you get from clients. This will help you to improve clients’ future experiences.

However, most customers are unlikely to leave a review of their own accord, unless their experience was either exceptionally great or incredibly poor. Therefore, it is best to use a review gathering system that invites all of your customers to share their honest opinions.

Image Source: CloudBooksApp.com

To this end, CloudBooks offers an automated follow-up email requesting reviews from all of your customers. This greatly increases the likelihood of receiving feedback. Post positive reviews online as social proof that your business is trustworthy. Also, be sure to scrutinize all reviews, both positive and negative, to make improvements to your business.

Monitor Your Growth for Financial Responsibility

Just because your business is attracting more clients or closing more deals does not necessarily mean that it is growing and succeeding. If your profit margins are shrinking or you are spending more on marketing in order to generate leads, your small business may actually be reverting in terms of profitability.

Staying on top of financial growth is key for every single business. CloudBooks is designed to help you stay on top of all aspects of your company’s margins. It does this by generating financial reports based on your accounting information. These reports will provide you with up-to-date and instant information about where your money is coming from and where it is going.

Image Source: CloudBooksApp.com

CloudBooks offers five main types of accounting reports:

• Expense reports to show where your money is being spent
• Payments collected
• Profit and loss
• Tax summaries
• PayPal payments for summaries of all online transactions with this platform

In short, CloudBooks takes the guesswork out of financial reporting by breaking down the most important metrics into easily readable reports. Use these reports for smarter planning.

Conclusion

Most small businesses feel like the cards are stacked against them when it comes to staying competitive with larger organizations.

It’s true that bigger businesses have bigger budgets for targeting more customers. They also have the ability to serve more customers due to their larger facilities and greater numbers of employees. However, small businesses do have one distinct advantage over large corporations: their ability to focus on each individual customer by creating personal relationships.

With CloudBooks, it is far easier for small businesses to nurture their financial relationships with their customers by staying on top of all payments and bills.

This platform offers truly great features for both businesses and their clients. With these features, small businesses can create a better customer experience. And this will help your company grow financially.