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The Gender Pay Gap & the Importance of Retirement Planning

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StrategyDriven Diversity and Inclusion Article |Gender Pay Gap|The Gender Pay Gap & the Importance of Retirement PlanningWhile there has been progress made in terms of gender equality in recent times, it is clear that there is still much more that needs to be done. The gender pay gap is one of the biggest issues in the workplace right now, especially when you consider that it is not just career earnings that this will impact as it will also result in women having a smaller pension at retirement.

The Retirement Gap

The gender pension gap is a serious issue that needs to be addressed. Additionally, it means that women need to plan their retirement finances and make sure that they have taken action to try and bridge the gap as best they can. Key Advice CEO, Will Hale, commented on the worrying issue of the gender pay gap and its impact on retirement finances:

“With women typically earning less over the course of their careers, more likely to work part-time or need to juggle their career and caring responsibilities, the gender pay gap quickly becomes the gender pension’s gap at retirement. It is disheartening that in 2021, women still expect 25% less than their male counterparts and nearly a third expect their income to fall below Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s (JRF) Minimum Income Standard. There is no quick fix to this situation but it does illustrate how important it is to consider all your assets at retirement.”

So, what are a few of the best steps that women can take to plan their retirement finances?

Equity Release

Many people are turning to equity release these days and it can certainly be an effective way to give your retirement income a healthy boost. Essentially, equity release is a way of freeing up the value in your home. The loan amount and any interest are paid back by selling once the last borrower dies or they move into long-term care. Equity release can be a great solution for many homeowners, but there are key considerations so you should always speak with an equity release specialist to see if it is right for you.

Passive Income

Anyone looking to grow their wealth and build towards a brighter retirement may also want to look into passive income streams. This can be a smart way to boost your income while you work and requires little effort once it is up and running. There are a few passive income options, such as rental properties, affiliate marketing and dropshipping businesses.

Investing

Investing is also a smart move for anyone looking to improve their retirement fund. Obviously, there is risk when it comes to investing, but options like index funds can be a smart way to diversify and build wealth over time.

There is no quick fix to the gender pay gap issue, which means that it is important that women are planning ahead when it comes to retirement and doing all that they can to boost their finances.

10 Examples of AI In Our Everyday Lives

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |AI|10 Examples of AI In Our Everyday LivesPerhaps you think that artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning (ML) are concepts that do not concern you at all or are too complicated for everyday use? In theory, you may be correct, but in practice, these concepts are already an indispensable part of your daily life, though you may not be aware of them. In this article, we will give you ten examples of AI in our everyday lives.

Do you remember the image of artificial intelligence you had in 2010? At that time, for most of us, artificial intelligence was reserved mainly for science fiction works. It was not yet anchored in our daily lives. It was, in fact, a research discipline. Over the past eleven years, this technology has made great strides in many industrial sectors. It has also burst into our daily lives and has materialized in the form of smartphones and autonomous cars, robotic vacuum cleaners, and self-propelled lawnmowers. Based on a few particularly relevant examples, see for yourself how much artificial intelligence has changed the world in recent years.

Email Messaging

Electronic messaging relies heavily on AI to optimize its performance and increase user satisfaction. Our email boxes have been learning over time thanks to advanced algorithms—for example, spam filtering. Spam filters rely heavily on artificial intelligence, which can process large amounts of messages and detect new spam flooding of your inboxes very quickly.

The publishers of these spam emails change their strategies regularly. As a result, having a few keywords is not enough to identify adverse content. Hence the need to use AI solutions. A perfect example is Gmail from Google, which uses TensorFlow and blocks over 99.9% of spam.

Search Engines

Search engines could hardly function without AI, given the massive size of the web. The AI is deployed in robots that crawl the sites to index them, classify them, and ascertain the display order according to the search expressions. As a result, search engines are fully harnessing the benefits of AI: Technology is helping to understand user behaviors better and drive better outcomes for brands and internet users alike.

Social Networks

AI largely determines the way information is displayed, especially on social networks. For instance, Facebook distributes posts from followed pages, then filters them to highlight those considered most significant while covering the rest. However, no matter what social media platform you use, what you see and do in these applications is primarily influenced by machine learning. As a result, AI controls the channels you see when browsing these platforms or the notifications you receive.

E-commerce

While it’s impossible to predict the future with precision, an excellent data-driven strategy allows marketers to get a more holistic view of upcoming consumer trends. As a result, consumers receive more personalized purchase suggestions based on research conducted by sellers and based on their purchase decisions made so far. As a result, online retailers increasingly use AI consulting companies to take full advantage of the available data and provide their customers with more personalized offers, thus generating higher revenues.

Banking applications

When discussing online shopping, you cannot ignore online banking. Banking is one area that has adopted technological inventions earlier than most other areas. Secure payment is possible in particular thanks to artificial intelligence, as systems continually learn to recognize fraudulent transactions. Have you ever got information from your bank when you purchase using the new device? That is a case where banks used artificial intelligence to detect any potential fraud. Notifications from banks and financial institutions regarding their services and products are examples of artificial intelligence that allows you to understand your preferences, requirements, and financial condition to propose appropriate products.

But the process goes further. Banks use artificial intelligence in many areas, including analyzing customer investment trends, providing customer service, and more.

Chatbots and Customer Service

For most retailers, dealing with many inquiries and comments from consumers through multiple phones, email, and social media channels can be challenging even for the most experienced marketing departments. For this reason, brands are increasingly using chatbots.

With chatbots, the customer experience is smoother. Social media and customer service teams can free themselves from tasks like scheduling appointments and focus on more strategic activities. They can seek out brand ambassadors and create interaction with user-generated content (UGC). Through intelligent learning, chatbots can better understand the language used by each customer, which makes interactions more authentic and easier to navigate. It also allows brands to respond more quickly to micro-moments–targeted junctions where consumers look for specific products or information.

Artificial Intelligence and Smartphones

Imagining life without cell phones seems like a challenge. However, the various applications in our cell phones are now an integral part of our daily life. Many of these applications are based on artificial intelligence. The intelligent assistants built into our phones, such as Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant, are the most prominent examples of AI that most of us know and use.

In addition, more and more mobile technology platforms are developing solutions that use artificial intelligence to manage various aspects of the device, such as battery management, event suggestions, etc. One of the standard functions, such as unlocking the screen with the image of a face, also uses artificial intelligence. As a result, AI-enabled services are now an essential part of iOS and Android platform updates.

Smart Homes

Alexa and Bixby come to mind when it comes to using AI in the development of smart homes. However, these applications of artificial intelligence are not limited to these intelligent voice assistants. A great example of smart homes are AI apps that save energy by automatically turning lights based on human presence. And we also have intelligent speakers, apps that change the color of light according to today. These are just some of the applications where AI is used to make homes smarter.

Navigation

In the morning, you leave your apartment and log into your favorite navigation app. What happens most often? Without even typing a single character, it offers to take you to your work or school, if that’s where you are used to going at that time. Artificial intelligence has changed our traffic habits. Thanks to navigation applications like Waze or Google Maps. These determine the shortest route and estimate the time of arrival. They can even take real-time traffic into account to automatically change the trajectory to avoid traffic jams.

There is no doubt that AI will grow more and more, and thanks to it, people will become more productive and lead a more comfortable life to a higher standard. The possibilities offered by artificial intelligence seem endless. Therefore, we should enjoy them and use them instead of perceiving them as a threat.

What Is The Difference Between An Academic Coach And A Tutor?

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StrategyDriven Professional Development Article |Academic Coach|What Is The Difference Between An Academic Coach And A Tutor?If you are a student interested in pursuing academic assistance, you may have considered academic tutoring or academic coaching. The differences between the two titles can be confusing and leave you scratching your head. To sort out this conundrum, we’ve outlined the differences between academic coaches and tutors so that you can hire the professional that is right for you.

The Differences: Tutoring vs. Coaching

The puzzle of academic coach vs tutor stems from the similarities that both professions share. Both have a common mission to help students reach academic success, but, in many cases, these successes are achieved by focusing in on skills that are more specific to each respective profession. Academic coaches, for instance, may not have course expertise, but they do have the organization skills that academic tutors may not.

When To Consider Either Approach

Academic coaches are best suited for students whose struggles are due to:

  • poor student organization tactics
  • poor schoolwork management
  • difficulty balancing school and personal life

Academic tutors are a better fit for students whose struggles stem from:

  • ongoing course-related challenges
  • consistent trouble staying concentrated
  • persistent inability to keep up with peers

Key Objectives: Academic Coaches

Academic coaches are tasked with the following objectives to support their students:

  • enhance student wellbeing by guiding evidence-based progress
  • guide students on foundational skills for mastering course content
  • help students plan to achieve academic goals

Key Objectives: Academic Tutors

Academic tutors execute the following objectives to guide student achievement:

  • help students overcome academic obstacles through independent learning
  • use their expertise to teach material
  • encourage personalized approaches to reaching one’s academic potential
  • integrate motivation to facilitate student interest in academics

The Overarching Factors

Every student carries their own strengths, weaknesses, and learning style(s). It is up to the academic coaches and the academic tutors to seriously consider these individual factors while creating ways to help students advance to the next level of learning and academic achievement. Sometimes factors of academic coach vs tutor lack distinction; tutors consider themselves to be coaches and vice versa when they possess the skills for both professions.

The Main Takeaways

Some academic professionals hold no distinction between tutoring and coaching, whereas others maintain a fine line between educational assistance and academic organization. Consider the similarities and differences in the objectives mentioned above to decide which approach is right for your academic needs. The right tutor or coach is waiting to help you thrive.

4 Hard-Hitting Strategies For Effective Marketing

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Effective Marketing|4 Hard-Hitting Strategies For Effective MarketingIs your business sitting on a secret? Are you hiding your light under a bushel? The answer could very well be yes if you are not using effective marketing to get your message out there. The good news is you can read all about how to ensure your marketing efforts are hard-hitting as possible, in the post below.

Decide on a clear branding message

The first strategy that you need to use if you want your marketing to be as powerful as possible, is deciding on a clear branding message. This means you need a unique value proposition that will ensure customers flock to you instead of your competitors. You also need to convey this message in a consistent style that encompasses fonts, colours, imagery, and even the tone of the text you are using.

Indeed, many businesses choose to publish a scheme or guide to maintain consistency. Yet, to do this, they must first go through the process of defining the parameters listed above.

Of course, some companies choose to do all of this creative branding work themselves. Although many have greater success using a business offering professional branding services that have experience in this area. Indeed, many organizations find the detailed research and analysis that such specialists can offer, invaluable to the process.

The branding message is also always made clearer if you have a clear brand to begin with, so you should spend a lot of time on the brand voice, the name, the logo design and so on. The better that you can do these things, the more likely it is that you are going to have success with the branding message itself – and therefore that your marketing will be much more hard-hitting. The clearer your brand is, the easier it will be for potential customers to relate to it and show an interest. In addition to designing a great logo, you could consider using an Email signature generator as well, which could prove extremely helpful when tackling email marketing as one of your strategies. A great email signature will not only promote your brand, but it will offer your clients yet another chance to get in contact or get back to your website where the sales are made.

Use paid social media

Social media marketing is often appealing because of the low costs involved. After all, it costs nothing to set up a business account, and publish content there. However, if you want your marketing to be as impactful as possible it’s vital that you don’t ignore paid social media marketing.

Indeed, now other platforms have followed facebook’s example, being seen on social media largely depends on paying for posts. Additionally, be sure that you time the publication of your social media posts and paid promotions as well if you want them to be as effective as possible in reaching the right people.

Pay attention to UX

To be successful your marketing message needs to match up with the experience that you are offering your customers. This means if you want to get them to trust and have faith in your product, the experience you offer them, particularly online, is highly important.

To that end, investing in great UX is money well spent, as it will help maximize customers’ experience, whenever they have contact with you. Additionally, by making sure your UX is the best it can be you will remove any potential hurdles to the purchase process, ensuring you maximize sales.

Show authenticity

Today’s consumers are savvy to the processes they are a part of. They know that the content you release is designed to further your goals as a business. With that in mind, too much sales content can leave your customers with a bad taste in their mouths.

Instead, the focus should be on authenticity. That means less cheesy advert and more honest discussion about the use, features, and benefits of your product. Humanizing your marketing can also work wonders here – so consider using real people from your workforce instead of trained actors and offer content with a sense of rawness like live video.

How is 3D printing revolutionising the packaging industry?

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StrategyDriven StrategyDriven Editorial Perspective Article |3D Printing|How is 3D printing revolutionising the packaging industry?Packaging and transporting the product is as important as manufacturing it. Since ancient times, people have been wrapping things for different purposes using variegated materials such as leaves, tree barks, cloths, etc. The novelistic invention of a 3D printer has revolutionised many sectors and finds utility in every field. Now, it is being used by packaging companies to their advantage.

What is Additive Manufacturing?

It is nothing but the industrial name of 3D printing. It is a process that helps in materialising a definitively defined digital idea into the physical world. We can understand the process of 3D printing into two steps, such as: –

  • The transferring of coded data to printed structure on the printer.
  • Positioning the printer’s head in three directions in space for printing layer by layer.

There are three main types of 3D printing: –

  • SLA- Stereo Lithography
  • SLS- Selective Laser Sintering
  • FDM- Fused

The third method of 3D printing is used widely in packaging. Thermoplastics are used mainly as raw material in 3D printing on the industrial level. They can be remodelled many times by heating without causing any chemical change. Other plastics such as PLA- Polylactic acid, ABS- Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene and PVA- Polyvinyl alcohol plastic are also used, including powders, photopolymers, ceramics, and metals.

Process of 3D printing

The general process of 3D printing can be divided into four steps: –

  1. CAD model making- A virtual 3D model of the object to be made is designed using a computer-aided design. The designer can use variables that are already defined in the Auto-Cad or use a ready-made design.
  2. STL format conversion- CAD is software that provides various components that can be used to represent solid format. They are saved in different file formats. In the prototyping business, the STL stereolithography technique is adopted to avoid any inconsistency. Therefore, the CAD file type is converted to STL format.
  3. Part by part construction- The final step in 3D printing is when the printer builds layer by layer of the object.
  4. Finishing and cleaning- The printed object is removed from the printing bed and may need some final cuts for finishing. The fourth steps involve giving the finishing touch to the thing. Its surface is treated with manual labour or chemicals for the desired shape.

Use of 3D Printing in Packaging

3D printing techniques have many advantages over traditional packaging methods. It is most effective in supplying packaging material when the demand is not high, and manufacturing needs to be very limited. It avoids the wastage of finished goods that are produced in a batch that is not required.

Moreover, there is no need for creating the raw material of the desired specification and density through the extrusion process. 3D Printing can do the same; thus, it can allow personal packaging too. It means that even a single object with a customised structural design can be made without creating or altering any mould. Packaging the product is as important as the product itself. It defines the brand value and identity when it comes to accumulating sales and maintaining a customer base.

Traditional packaging methods use subtractive production methods. Most of the raw material gets wasted due to its inefficiency. But with 3D printing’s additive technology, we can use as much as we want. As a consequence, we can curb carbon emissions.

Fused Deposition Modelling and Packaging

FDM is the most widely used 3D technology that helps manufacture 3D printed moulds for thermoforming or vacuum forming, though it is a little simplified. Plastic is heated to make it soft, and then it is pressed against a mould in a vacuum for the desired shape.

3D printing machines are utilised to make those moulds. They are more heat-resistant, and they are made with FDM 3D printing technology. The moulds made with FDM are sturdy and can be for longer lengths of time than moulds made with traditional methods.

For instance, 3D printed moulds made of plastics are used to encase toys in a PTEG shell. The plastic sheet is vacuum formed through FDM tools. It also used traditional materials such as HIPE and ABS.

Personalised Packaging and 3D Printing

There has been a surge in marketing strategies being modelled around making personalised products and services for customers. It is a fool-proof strategy for generating sales. Many established brands have been employing this to their benefit, such as: –

    • Share a Coke Campaign
      The Coca-Cola Company has adopted the campaign to replace their traditional logo with the most famous American names.
    • Nutella’s personalised Jars
      Nutella has also followed suit of Coke. They are also offering Nutella jars displaying the name of the customers.
    • My Burberry
      Burberry, the high-end fragrance company, allows its customers to engrave their initials on the bottles they purchase.
    • Johnny Walker
      The whiskey bottles come with a sensor that will notify the owner on their smartphones as to when the bottle was opened and closed.

Therefore, manufacturers offering personalised packaging and limited-edition models will surely benefit from this. The technology is emerging as a boon for manufacturers as they can break free from the limitations of mass production. For instance, it has become easier for brands to give custom-made products as per their customers’ desire at lower costs. The technique has become affordable and immensely sustainable for the environment. Therefore, it is touching the sky by leaps and bounds.