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Top 5 Industries That Are Changing Due To AR

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship ArticleAugmented reality (AR) is on the crest of a wave these days. If you haven’t heard about it yet there are only two possibilities: you either have lived under a rock for the past two years or you are simply not interested in the latest tech trends (AT ALL). More and more industries and people are incredibly excited that their science fiction dreams born from iconic movies are finally becoming reality. That I can tell you!

But how is society going to change once we manage to implement augmented reality in every aspect of our lives? How is this going to impact our way of living? To one’s mind, used wisely, this new technology can certainly help us improve and ease the way we learn, work and even have fun. Here are five industries that are definitely changing due to AR.

1. Education

It’s no secret that children love technology. Some of them use a smartphone before learning how to speak or walk and that points out something rather important about our relationship with technology.

Probably the best example in this particular case is Mondly, the app that allows users to learn languages in augmented reality. Just imagine how cool can it be to have your own virtual teacher that brings animals and other objects to life in your living room. Learning that “elephant” is “elefante” in Spanish because an actual size elephant is roaming around in my house!? Yes, sir! I’d very much like that!

2. Healthcare

Healthcare is definitely the first industry we should try to perfect when a new kind of technology emerges. It’s needless to say that we have come a long way since early centuries when doctors would experiment on human beings to discover new cures and procedures, but this is just the beginning.

Augmented reality, the newest and coolest kid in the yard, now allows doctors and nurses to locate patients’ veins more accurately for injections. Other AR apps on the market let physicians show their exact plans for surgeries or visualize detailed bone structures and organ systems. How awesome is that?

3. Architecture and construction

At this the point you can’t be surprised anymore. Yes, AR will also influence the way we build our houses! The market already offers a lot of apps that help constructors visualize and interact with architectural three-dimensional models. Based on the same principle as the language learning app mentioned in the first bullet point, these apps allow users to superimpose virtual buildings, models or projects wherever they want in their environment.

Material selection, real-time shadow analysis, structural layers observation and scaling are also sci-fi features possible with just a simple touch and scroll.

4. Marketing and sales

This one is downright inevitable. When given the chance, brands will use new tech to increase brand awareness, loyalty and, unavoidably, sales! Sales could go through the roof with the right strategy.

Ikea and Amazon give the best example yet. Using augmented reality, these two giants give customers the possibility to visualize exactly how a product would look in their home. This new feature eliminates the drudgery of buying a sofa and discovering it simply doesn’t fit in your living room. At the same time, it increases the quality of your daydreaming by showing how that home cinema you’ve always wanted looks like in your bedroom.

5. Gaming

Saved the obvious for the last. The gaming industry always keeps up with tech trends and integrating AR in the game is no surprise! People chased pokémons in augmented reality before it was this cool.

Nowadays however, gamers can bring small battlefields into their living rooms, look for portals around the city (if they don’t like chasing pokémons anymore), destroy strongholds or investigate crime scenes at home – nothing too special (yet) if you take in consideration the examples from the other four industries mentioned above. Nevertheless, there is one example that might get you super excited. Ready? How does “exploring the wizarding world of Harry Potter” sound? In AR! Because apparently someone is working to release this bad boy. Can’t wait!

3 Strategies to Fuel Your Business Growth

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship ArticleGrowing a business is a complicated matter because it takes a lot of time, determination and sometimes even a bit of investment. Besides finding a profitable idea, defining a target audience and providing them with either a valuable product or service, one has to figure out the best marketing strategies for their company. Whether they are selling products, services or sharing information with their customers, it is important to note that the business world has become hard to access. That is why it is vital to find the right marketing strategies. Otherwise, making a profit or staying afloat is a complicated matter.

Nonetheless, finding the right marketing strategy is a struggle itself. You need to find a way to get your message to the right audience, boost visibility, increase sales and many more. To do that, you can check out the following strategies.

Create Video Tutorials

Creating video tutorials is probably the best and most effective way of getting the word out. It is simple and quite quick. Moreover, thanks to your expertise and valuable knowledge, prospects can easily turn into regular customers or at least frequent visitors of your page. Video tutorials are a very good way to start. The better those videos are, the more value you provide to your audience. As a result, you are able to boost your visibility and ultimately, increase your sales. Most people use video platforms in order to learn something quick. This could be the future of marketing, especially since people don’t have a lot of time on their hands.

Start Blogging

Every business company should have a blog. However, it is not absolutely necessary to have a blog on your own. There are a lot of entrepreneurs out there who find this task mundane because they don’t get that much visibility. Therefore, they start authority blogging. If you’re new to the blogging world, this is a great way to gain exposure. There are quite a few platforms out there that allow you to post valuable content. The only difference between your blog and those platforms is that they have massive audiences, a factor that gives you instant reach. Though, if you consider starting a blog, you should definitely learn more about SEO techniques. Get online and learn how powerful SEO Techniques can boost you and lead to business growth.

Build a Great Lead Magnet

Another great and effective marketing strategy is creating a lead magnet. A lot of professionals believe that the right lead magnet presented to the right candidates can have incredible results. There are many types of lead magnets that one can build from e-books, to cheat sheets to videos and checklists. Though, before doing that is it important to identify pain points so that you know how to offer solutions. Of course, the lead market plays a small part in this equation, but it is important to create the right one. If you want to reach your audience, you need to make it as effective as possible.

There are many great strategies that entrepreneurs can use to grow their business. While most of them are effective, they all require a bit of effort.

How To Create More Revenue From Your Online Presence

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship ArticleWhile every business owner should be aware of the need for a strong online presence, often this comes down to making the occasional Facebook post about their new product and nothing else. In the digital age, where even the youngest consumers are internet-aware, that’s simply not going to be good enough. You want your online presence to not only act as a roadmap to purchase but also to work for you in order to attract more customers and create more profits. That’s why it is essential that you look at every way possible to optimize your website, streamline your social media management, and find new ways to make your online presence work for you. There are a number of ways that you can use what you already have to increase revenue, and this handy list will help you to generate more profit.

Reach more people

The internet allows you to reach across geography and attract potential new customers from anywhere in the world. This is a huge benefit to businesses that are now able to boost global sales and source cheaper suppliers. It used to be a matter of billboards and newspaper ads, but now your advertising can be controlled in-house, and by using your market research into your customer demographic, you can literally target potential customers based on age, interests and current trends. By targeting your brand to your potential audience, you are making it far more likely that you will be able to find new customers and increase your sales figures. Keep an eye on your conversion rates and make sure that you are up to date on the latest sales tools.

Internet marketing strategy

A significant part of your marketing strategy should be focused on online platforms. Although it can be all too easy to either dismiss social media as oversaturated or even worse, put all of your eggs in the social media basket, the truth is that social media platforms are an incredibly useful tool for every business. They allow you to interact regularly with both current and potential customers, and that interaction is key. Consumers now demand interaction, and that alone can boost your company profile. You want consistent two-way communication that reflects your branding and reinforces your business in the minds of those that interact with you. It’s simply not good enough these days to post a new product and walk away. Remember, it’s called social media for a reason. So be social, and always stay on brand.

The benefits of membership sites

There are a number of key reasons why you may be considering a membership site. If you’re unsure what this means, it’s simply an area of your website (or the website in its entirety) that is only accessible to certain paying customers. A membership website can pay dividends, and for several reasons. The main benefit of a membership site is that it can reinforce loyalty to your brand that makes it far less likely that your customers will look elsewhere for your services when they need them. They have committed to your business financially, which means that they already have a vested interest in your output. It is a lot easier to than you may think, however, look for guidance on how to create a membership site. They can help in not only attracting users but keeping them too. Whether you’re offering an online course, granting early access to new products, or showcasing industry-relevant how-to guides, having a membership site can end up being a very profitable extension of your company.

Lift your Google rankings

Having a strong presence on search engine rankings can drive more customers to your site than you might think. Underestimating the importance of Google is an issue that more and more businesses are facing, so to avoid that you need to make sure that you are doing everything possible to appear on the first page of any related Google search, and the higher, the better. There a number of ways that you can boost your search engine rankings, and whether you do it via fresh and regular content updates or even through Pay Per Click advertising, a good search engine ranking will play an important part of your online marketing strategy. Don’t be afraid to invest some of your marketing budgets in SEO, and you’ll find that your rankings will grow organically.

It may seem an obvious truism, but every customer facing element of your business needs to be optimized in order to attract as many potential customers as possible and convert those visitors into sales. Failing to make use of the online presence that you have cultivated means that your business is not making the most of every revenue source.

Ready to Grow Your Business? How to Appeal to Niche Audiences

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship ArticleRunning your own business means that you must make major decisions daily, but the one decision that a lot of owners tend to struggle with is when to expand their business. It’s a big leap, and you must prepare well for the transition, but how do you know when it’s time to take the first steps?

Here are 5 signs that you are ready to expand:

1. You have a loyal customer base

Loyalty is the key word here. If you have regular repeat customers, you are on to a winner. It’s a sure sign that the products or services that you are offering are quality and that you are providing customer satisfaction. The more interactions and positive experiences that your customers have with you, the more likely they are to convert from consumer into a brand advocate, and so the message of your brand will spread organically.

2. Your business is stable

You can’t base your desire to expand your business on the fact that you have had a good quarter. It needs to have been making a stable profit for at least a couple of years before you contemplate expanding. This delay may frustrate your plans, but it is essential so that you can gauge seasonal variations and confirm that your boost in profits is not just a temporary position.

3. Your team is A1

If you are planning an expansion, you need to have an efficient and strong team behind you to cope with the demands of growth. They need to be agile and dynamic to respond to the new challenges expansion creates – increased demands on their knowledge, skills and time.

4. Your processes are A1

When your operational and back office processes are aligned you work efficiently and productively. Your streamlined processes mean that you have the capacity to take on more work and the time to devote to growing your business.

5. You identify gaps

If you have steady sales of the products and services that you offer, you may repeatedly be asked for associated items that you can add to your product list. Associated items that will complement the products or services that you offer are a natural way to grow your business.

You may also recognize that you are not servicing niche audiences and that you have gaps in your products’ appeal. By adapting your marketing strategy, you will be able to target new audiences for your products and services.

Let’s look at the niche markets that you can tap into boost your business’s growth and profitability:

Seniors

With life expectancy typically increasing and medical innovations positively impacting people’s health, for the first time since records began there are more seniors than children under 5 years. This means that products or services that appeal to the older generations are tapping into a huge market with an equally impressive potential profit – something to consider for your business and perhaps where to invest your profits.

Shares in companies that supply products for seniors have a very healthy return – the health sector, pharmaceuticals, and even the leisure industry have been boosted by the change in demographics. Do your research into how to invest in a global aging economy to become inspired as to how different markets are making serious profits from seniors.

When marketing for seniors you need to pay great attention to the content that you produce, especially online. Your content should primarily focus on their abilities rather than the things that they can no longer do. You shouldn’t use over the top language; they want to know who, what, where and how – they don’t want over descriptive language that dilutes the message that you are communicating.

Moms

Nearly 60% of mothers who work control the household expenses, and make the key decisions within the household. Moms are keen to make purchases that offer solutions to the challenges they face bringing up their children – whether it’s saving them time, saving them money or offering them products that satisfy their values.

Your marketing strategy should be focused on making your content snappy – this particular audience values efficiency. Avoid trying to appeal to the stereotypes of moms who are on the edge of coping, too perfect or other stereotypes – you risk labeling women in a way that they won’t appreciate. You want your campaign to be inclusive and not something that restricts the idea of diversity.

Bilingual Consumers

In the United States, there are approximately 20% of the population speak a language other than English as their first language – Spanish and Spanish Creole being 12% of that figure. It makes great sense to provide information about your products or services in more than one language.

The rise of the internet means that you are not limited to just serving your local community with products and services. Even small businesses can embrace using different languages in their marketing strategy. The most obvious sector to benefit is the tourism industry, but other sectors can thrive by appealing to non-English speakers – we all have the same needs and requirements. If you market to consumers in their native tongue, you will inspire confidence in your offerings and profit from referral within their communities.

By tapping into niche audiences, you can access a new market in which to promote your products. The senior, mom and bilingual consumers are examples of niche markets that you can target, and by doing so, you have the very real opportunity to become a market leader by exploiting the gaps that others have not yet identified. To do this successfully, you must spend some time to understand who your consumers are and what their needs are. You can then deliver a better solution to their problem that other firms have failed to address.

Recognizing when it’s the right time to grow your business is key to its success. Your timing is critical. You want the decisions you make to support a long-term strategy to achieve your goals, expand your business and accomplish success.

Why a Company Blog Should be Incorporated into Your Marketing Strategy

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales ArticleAs a business owner, you’re open to any and all tips to aid in the growth of your business. But, if you haven’t started your company blog yet, you may want to reevaluate your marketing strategy.

A company blog has influential benefits, such as improving your website authority and raising awareness of your brand, which in turn produces loyal readers which translate into customers. A major component in the success of your business is the marketing plan that you’ve implemented. Optimize it by introducing well-written, professional, informational, and engaging content that’s sure to take your company to the next level.

Search Engine Optimization and Traffic

Regularly publishing fresh, updated content containing your relevant keywords will boost your SEO and help you rank higher for those keywords in Google. In addition to rankings, your engaging and informational content will attract new readers and land them directly on your page. If you utilize you call-to-action properly and effectively, those visitors will be converted to leads, hopefully generating loyal and happy customers.

Establish Authority and Grow Your Backlink Profile

A blog gives you the chance to establish yourself as an expert in your field. For example, I create the blog content for a cubicle manufacturer and office furniture supplier, Skutchi Designs. “Cubicle specialist” is how I refer to myself in the blog. I am building my credibility for related topics in this field. People will begin to trust my blog and writing and specifically search for our site when they have a question or are looking for a product related to office spaces.

As your blog gains traction and becomes a more popular, reliable source, you’ll find yourself gaining natural backlinks from sites in related industries as well. This will only increase your site’s authority more and help you rank higher, driving even more visitors to your site.

Spread Brand Awareness to Reach a Larger Potential Audience and Customers

As you continue to publish content of exceptional quality to your blog (hosted on your primary domain), you’re spreading awareness of your brand. Using Skutchi Designs as an example again; someone who has never heard the name “Skutchi” before may be searching for tips on cubicle organization. They come across the blog post, “25 Office Cubicle Organization Ideas,” and click on one of our cubicle organizers I suggested in the post, then decide to buy. The blog content just converted a stranger looking for a solution into a customer. If they’re happy with the product, they’ll become a loyal user of our blog, website, and products.

The trick is to create content that people are genuinely interested in. Through some keyword research, you’ll discover what topics in your industry people are searching for. If you can develop great content, your blog and website will expand and gain popularity through likes and shares and backlinks from other sites or industry leaders. Your goal is to develop trust and relationships with your customers and influencers through the use of your company blog.

Ultimately, a blog just makes sense. It’s a free and effective way to grow your business, spread brand awareness, establish authority, and acquire new customers. Give yourself a boost above your competitors by establishing yourself as the most credible and trusted source in your industry and grow your search traffic naturally.