Tech News – WhatsApp Update, Artificial Intelligence, Robots & More…

Technology is changing every day & it is becoming impossible to keep up at times.

Every week there is something new the tech world has to offer to the world.

To make things a little easy, here are our top picks for this week’s tech news!

Let’s have a look.

Outlook for Androids got a new feature

Microsoft came up with a new update for the Outlook app on Android.

The new Outlook app to Version 4.0.88, makes it easier to find files & documents relevant to your meetings by making them appear in the events described.

Also, with this Microsoft recently introduced Actional Messages to Outlook for Android. This feature allows a manager to easily approve or decline a leave approval email within the Outlook app.

For further details read here.

Google informed about RCS-based texting on all US Android Smartphones

Earlier this year, it was being reported that Google started testing its RCS standard in the United Kingdom and France earlier this year, but it needed availability in the United States where SMS texting remains very popular.

Finally, the testing was successful & it was reported that Google’s Chat has finished the new features across the U.S.

Now after turning on the chat, people can experience receipts, real-time typing indicators, large file transfers, and reliable group messaging.

Read more here.

Whatsapp to stop working on some mobile phones in 2020

It was earlier reported that Whatsapp will cease operating on millions of phones around the world. Any iPhone operating on iOS 8 or older will no longer be able to use WhatsApp, while Android users still wanting to use the app will need a version newer than 2.3.7.

The changes will be integrated from 1st February 2020.

A spokesperson recently said, “Because we no longer actively develop for these operating systems, some features might stop functioning at any time.”

To get more details read here.

AI can draw pictures based on what the person looks like by decoding brainwaves

Yes. Another development in Artificial Intelligence.

A team based on the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, in collaboration with the Russian corporation Nerobotics, has recently developed an artificial intelligence that can draw a person in real-time.

It works by noninvasively reading and decoding their brainwaves!

For more details on it, here is the link.

Now Apple & Spotify podcasts are available on Amazon Echo

Apple and Spotify‘s podcasts are now available on Amazon’s Echo line up of devices.

On Friday, The Verge reported, “Apple Podcasts can be set as the default podcast player from the Alexa app, too, so Amazon will default to checking Apple Podcasts first whenever a show is requested. Spotify also announced today that its users would be able to ask Alexa to play podcasts from its platform,”.

The HomePod offers syncing with Apple Podcasts, offering a unique selling point.

Now, Spotify says that both Free and Premium customers in the US will be able to ask Alexa for podcasts as well as set Spotify as their default player.

China becoming the world’s largest industrial robot market

China’s growing robot industry will take over the world. From 2018 to 2020, a sales increase between 15 and 20 percent on average per year is possible for industrial robots.

Recently, the annual sales volume has reached o its maximum level with a staggering number of 156,000 units.

The International Federation of Robotic’s recently published report says that China, Japan, South Korea, the United States, and Germany are the top five markets, in industrial robots.

The total value has risen upto 21%.

For more details read here.

Samsung denies reports on selling 1 million Galaxy Fold

Earlier, Samsung said it expected to sell 500,000 Galaxy Fold globally this year.

Recently, Samsung denied claims about the claim that the company has sold one million Galaxy Fold smartphones globally since it’s launch in September.

For more information read here.

Motorola teased Razr (2019) on Twitter

On a Twitter post, Motorola recently posted about their much-awaited Motorola Razr, the first foldable smartphone in a clamshell design by the Lenovo-owned company, is set to make its way to India. The smartphone is said to compete against the likes of Samsung Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X with a flexible screen.

The price is roughly around $1,499 significantly lower than Samsung Galaxy Fold.

For more features, read here.

Windows 10 gets phone calls support via Android

Windows new Your Phone app for Windows 10, is said to make things easier for the users.

Now with this app, the users won’t be needing to keep the phone around when you have to carry on a conversation, view photos, and notifications.

Microsoft’s Your Phone app is an app that makes it easier to reply to messages, check phone notifications, mirror phone screen to PC, and now you can also initiate calls.

For further details read here.

Here you have it.

Our top Tech News from all over the world. Did we miss anything? Let us know here! Also, for more Tech News read here!

Social Media Influence In Purchasing

Social media initially started as a platform to share photos or simply connect with family & friends.

But with emerging technology, it has eventually grown into a much more impactful platform for business. Studies have shown that almost 74% of consumers rely on social media for their purchasing decisions.

A HubSpot report shows 71% of consumers are more likely to make purchases based on social media referrals.

Advertising funnel on Social Media
Advertising funnel on Social Media

Now, how do social media influence us at this level?

Literally, businesses are earning in millions through social media advertising. Molz, a Shopify based website and generated $2.2 million in sales using only social media to generate traffic.

Now, before diving into more details here are three main social media platforms that influence us the most as a customer.

Facebook

Facebook has a major involvement in turning social media into a business platform. Product advertisement, references pages, posts they use it all.

Facebook
Facebook

Facebook accounts for 50% of total social referrals & 64% of the overall social revenue, according to Business Insider.

Instagram

It is a steadily growing platform, getting popular each day.

Instagram Study
Instagram Study

With a swarm of micro-influencers along with an adequate amount of major social influencers, the platform boasts around 500 million monthly active users.

In fact, according to Awario, in 2017, the engagement rate of Instagram was 70% higher than Facebook.

Twitter

SproutSocial shows that 53% of consumers recommend business or products in tweets while a further 48% follow through to purchase those products or services.

Twitter
Twitter

Now, coming to how does social media influence the purchasing decisions of customers?

Rise of social media influencers

A social media influencer is a person who has the power to sway the decisions of their followers.

Influencer marketing has become of the most popular tools for digital marketers.

Suppose an influencer shares a small video of a new pair of jeans & raves about how comfortable they are, obviously her followers would be interested to buy that. Levis often does influencer marketing with popular faces.

Social influencers are typically pretty well-versed on social media and will tag the store or brand of the products they use in their posts. This makes it easier for followers to become familiar with the brand and influence a purchase.

Peer Recommendations

Recommendations from friends & families can influence the buying habit of millennials.

Studies show that nearly 80% of the people buy products recommended by their friend’s group, according to Forbes.

Forbes
Forbes

Think yourself only, how many times have you tried a product or a new clothing brand because your friend went ga-ga over it?

This is especially popular among the demographic of 16-30 years, which is the target demography of many online brands!

The store’s presence on social media

An active online presence of the brand on social media has a major significance.

A lot of stores are pretty active on Facebook & Instagram. A consistent feed that showcases their products in use and provides value will help turn visitors into followers and into buyers.

See it is simple, cool posts + lots of followers= higher probability of purchase.

Social Media Advertising

Brands like Nykaa, Levis, Myntra posts regular advertisements on social media. When an individual clicks through a social media ad and lands on the advertiser’s website, retargeting ads can also be placed to move people through the sales funnel.

Advertising in social media can help with repetitive sales. Brands posts about their offers, new collections on social media to involve customers as much as they can.

Remarketing

Remarketing through social media is a very powerful way to attract customers who have already visited your site.

Have you ever noticed that you looked at a product once at some website, say Myntra, & you get ads from them everywhere in your social media handles?

Yes, that is exactly what remarketing is!

E-commerce sites like Ajio or Myntra gives a lot of stress on remarketing!

Engaging customers through contests or discussions

Brands create buzz on social media platforms by creating contests on their pages or replying to customers. Depending on the terms of the contest, businesses usually see a rise in engagement; they gain more followers, increased brand awareness, and sometimes even an increase in sales.

Hopefully, now you can see how social media can really influence your business.

Investing in social media marketing can actually help you to build an empire. Haven’t you heard about Kylie Cosmetics? She uses only social media to advertise her products & they sellout like popcorns!

Interested to build a strong social media marketing to grow your business? Contact us at Skyram Technologies. Our expertise at Social Media Marketing will help your business to reach a whole new level! Connect with us here!

Also, for more such engaging content, read our blogs here!

Top 5 Visitor Analytics Tools In 2020

When you are running a business, understanding your audience engagement is extremely crucial for a company.

Each individual visitor brings his own set of data that requires to be collected, measured & reported. But doing that manually is quite a task really!

It is almost like a Rubik’s cube where it can get confusing.

Why do you need a Visitor analytics tool?

· Getting to know your visitors to enhance user experience

· To know your best content & focus on it

· Boosting your site’s SEO

· Track top referral & build strategies around it

· Tracking your e-commerce metrics 7 utilizing them for sales

Fortunately, there are several tools in the market now which helps marketer get a comprehensive report helping them to get a definite insight about your business.

But not all of them are competent enough.

And getting a misleading report can hamper your long-term business goals.

To help you guys out, here are the top 5 visitor analytics tools to use for getting more insights about your website traffic.

Adobe Analytics

It is one of the leading real-time analytics tools in the market.

Analysts all over the world use Adobe to discover high-value audiences and power customer intelligence for their business. It helps to helps gather, organize, analyze, and report on everything customers do through web analytics.

Adobe Analytics
Adobe Analytics

Adobe Analytics has a very flexible, easy-to-use UI, that allows users to simply drag & drop data, visualizations, data tables & components such as dimensions, metrics, time granularities, or segments to generate reports.

The AI used by Adobe makes things much more simple. It enables features such as intelligence alert or anomaly detection!

Some key features:

· Easy-to-use UI

· Full omnichannel data sources

· Handle a vast volume of data

· Mathematical & Statistical calculation

· Adobe Sensei

· Intelligence alert

Price- Paid

Google Analytics

For a free tool, Google Analytics is one of the best out there in the market.

It can obviously be used for tracking & analyzing web traffic. You get to see what keywords are working in favor of your business, bringing you maximum visitors & what are the aspects which are turning them off.

Google Analytics
Google Analytics

It’s simple to set up, customizable and provides all the basic information you could want about your site.

And because of it’s immense popularity, it tends to be easy to integrate with other platforms.

If you are a new entrepreneur & just finding your foot in the industry, go for this one.

Some key features:

· Analytics Intelligence

· Audience Reports

· Behaviour Reports

· Conversion Reports

· Funnel analysis

· Advanced analysis

· Data Activation

Price- Mostly Free

Clicky

Clicky is flexible as well as a powerful web analytics tool with some features even Google Analytics lacks.

The Big Screen feature lets you see exactly what’s happening on your site – how many visitors you have, what they’re doing, and when they’re leaving – in real-time.

Clicky
Clicky

It even has a separate Twitter analytics feature that allows you to search for mentions of your business on Twitter! I mean how cool is that!

It has one of the most simple dashboards & the best part is you don’t have to search for your results. It is presented right in front of you!

Moreover, the mobile version makes it convenient for marketers to check the stats anytime they want!

Some key features:

· No bots or referral spams

· Individual visitors & actions analytics

· Heatmaps

· On-site analytics

· Uptime Monitoring

Price- Partly Free

Mixpanel

Very similar to Google Analytics, one of the crucial features of Mixpanel is Event tracking.

Here you can specifically track a particular event without having to code those events manually. They have a tremendous customer support panel, regardless of what package you can go for.

Mixpanel
Mixpanel

Some key features:

· Behavioral Analytics

· Messaging & Testing

· Data Science

· Data Governance

· Infrastructure

Price: Partly Free

Kissmetrics

Kissmetrics allows you to track the movements of individual visitors throughout their websites.

You can see how customer behavior is changing with time, their references.

The “Timeline View” of visitor activity makes up for an easy-to-understand visual format. In short, if you are interested to know each individual journey through sales funnel, then it is the right tool for you.

kissmetrics
kissmetrics

This people-focused tool tracks individuals through multiple visits to your site which helps you get a proper insight into the psychology behind your customer’s purchase. What’s more, is that it has an inbuilt email marketing function to send automated emails & generate leads!

Recently, after Neil Patel undertook the brand, it has got a re-branding.

Some key features:

· Timeline View

· Individual tracking

· Automated email marketing

Price- Paid

Apart from these, there are few other visitor analytics tools like Spring Metrics, Woopra, Crazy Egg & Chartbeat which can be used as well.

Ultimately, there are tons of analytics tools available in the market.

You need to choose which one suits you the best. If your budget allows for it, there’s no reason you have to limit yourself to a single analytics tool. Using more than one can give you a better-rounded picture of what’s going on with your site.

Also, different businesses might need different sorts of analytics tools. At times, a single tool might be unable to deliver you proper results. It is better to go for an expert who knows his way using several tools for a report.

Want some help? Consult us at Skyram Technologies for all sorts of digital marketing & business analytics. Contact us here!

And for more such amazing blogs about different marketing tools, read here!

Top 5 Social Media Management Tools in 2020

Are you looking for a way to get your business more visibility online?

Do you want to increase your followers?

All businesses want this, isn’t it? But how many of them have a definite presence on social media? A handful right?

This is because of effective social media management (SMM) tools.

With so many unique businesses rising every month, you can’t just afford to log into your Facebook or Twitter account & make some posts.

You will need a proper system to manage your social media strategy.

What makes a great SMM tool?

One of the vital reasons to have a managing tool is for queuing & scheduling updates. This will create a coordinated campaign which you can run according to your choice.

Some of them will help you recycle your best-performing updates. Others analyze your patterns of engagement in order to tell you the best time to post.

Also, with the right set of tools you can easily access keyword searches, monitor mentions, and follow hashtags to better engage with your audience, pass honest feedback to your team, or identify issues that need addressing.

What are some of the key features of SMM tools?

The key focus of SMM tools are:

  • Engagement- A single dashboard where you monitor all the social networks & engage your audience.

  • Automation- A system of scheduling & recycling your social content.

  • Reporting- A details of analyzing & reporting how your content is performing.

Buffer

It is a very well established SMM platform with some really good features.

buffer

Buffer

These include publishing with queue, engagement, analytics, and team features. Buffer integrates with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Linkedin.

However, it’s not made for evergreen posts. In other words, it will not let you upload hundreds of posts and then recycle them.

Price– Paid

Networks– Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest

Sprout Social

This one is a leading social media management platform that supports engagement, publishing, analytics & collaborations.

Sprout Social

Sprout Social

Sprout Social allows you to schedule publish & queue messages each social network from their web app, browser extension, and mobile apps. It has a tool called ViralPost that determines the best time to post content to maximize your engagement.

Sprout Social has a social inbox, which is great!

Also, it has social monitoring and keyword searching features that help you monitor your brand on social media.

Price– 30 day free trial available.

Networks- Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn

HootSuite

One of the oldest SMM tools, HootSuite has bulk scheduling options to upload several posts at one time. It has all the various applications you need and some robust content features, as well as content curation.

HootSuite

HootSuite

Also, it has a cool feature to create social sweepstakes or contests on social media.

However, it doesn’t have a Social Inbox. You need to manually engage with each follower logging into each social media account separately.

The Auto Scheduling on HootSuite can maintain a 24/7 presence on social media.

The default reporting available on their site will show your key metrics on Facebook, Instagram & Twitter. It has a connection with 35 popular social media networks.

Price- Paid

Networks- Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, WordPress.

Marketo

It is the Marketing Automation Platform, a choice of many marketers.

It has a bunch of features available out the box when it comes to combining MAP + SoMe, though most of them are focused around email and landing pages.

Some of the primary features of Marketo’s SMM tool is the ability to create qualified leads from social conversations & an integrated system record data visibility within the SMM tool.

Price– Paid

Networks– Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Word Press

Socialbakers

It is one of the best AI- specialized SMM software designed to manage & measure everything from social media to the audience.

Socialbakers
Socialbakers

They are equipped for distribution, the growth of total followers. etc. It has a content library 7 tracking keywords and hashtags.

Networks: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest

Price: Paid

Other than these, there are few other tools like IFTTT, MavSocial, Zoho Social, Sendible which can be used.

One thing to keep in mind is that different businesses has different requirements. So your target audience & business goal determines what tools to be used.

Also, at times it can happen that one single tool isn’t competent enough to provide you with all the requirements.

In that case, the best way is to go for a customized social media management tool that would be tailor-made for your own business.

How to get one you may ask?

Contact us at Skyram Technologies for a customized social media management that suited for your business type. This will totally ensure that you get the maximum benefits & customer engagement!

Connect with us here!

What are the tools that you prefer for social media management? Comment & let us know here!

And for more such interesting blogs on the most popular digital marketing tools in the market read our blogs here!

Robotics & Automation In Modern Farms

With technology developing rapidly, the agricultural sector is quickly drawing attention to high-tech industries, new professionals & new investors.

The UN estimates the world population will rise from 7.3 billion today to 9.7 billion in 2050. As a result, the world will need more food & will be facing serious pressure to keep up with the rise in demand.

New advanced technologies, ranging from robotics to autonomous tractors, harvest automation have completely transformed modern agriculture.

Let’s dive into some details.

What is farm automation?

Mostly associated with “smart farming”, this technology makes farms more productive by automating the crops or livestock invention cycle.

A number of corporations are already working on automation technologies like drone development, robotic harvesters, seeding robots & automatic watering.

One of the most important things to keep in mind is the significance of the Internet of Things (IoT), which is the hub of innovation of the number of sensors, machines & gadgets to connect to a single network!

So many startups have been working on focusing on the improvement of software that allows us to monitor various jobs in agricultural sectors. This, in turn, has welcomed some real-time big investors who with their steady investment made about $1.5 billion in 2017.

What are the major technologies used in farm automation?

The primary goal of farm automation, as well as robotics in agriculture, is to cover mundane, physically challenging tasks so that the farmers can focus more on their overall business development.

Harvest Automation

Harvesting automation in vegetables & fruits is slightly difficult as harvesting robots must be gentle.

Also, they must have a proper understanding of some intricate details like how much ripe is the fruit? Is it ready to be plugged yet?

Agrobot is a company that has been successfully harvesting strawberries.

From a flexible mobile platform, up to 24 robotics manipulators work together to pick the fruit which meets the farmer’s quality standard.

Seeding & Weeding

This is so far the most popular area where robots have been used extensively.

Traditionally seeding is done by scattering the seeds simply using a “broadcast spreader” attached to a tractor or at times by hand as well. It often leads to wastage of seeds.

Seeding can be tedious & with robots it the job can be much faster with more efficiency. Weeding with robots can also reducing pesticide usage by 90% with computer vision.

Fertilizing & Irrigation

Irrigation & fertilization can use a lot of water & can have a lot of wastage!

Robot-Assisted Precision Irrigation can reduce wasted water by targeting specific plants. Ground robots autonomously navigate between rows of crops and pour water directly at the base of each plant.

For example, corn growers often face a problem that the plants grow too quickly to reliably fertilize them. Robots can easily solve the issue as it can easily drive in between the rows of corns & target the fertilizer directly to their base!

Thinning & Pruning

Thinning involves reducing the density of plants so that each has a better chance of growing.

Robots uses computer vision to detect lettuce plants as it drives over them and decides at that moment which plants to keep and which to remove.

In the case of pruning which is cutting back parts of plants to improve their growth, one of the major landmarks achieved by automated machines is in the wine industry.

Drones

Drones are a quick & cost-effective solution to identify problem areas with imagery and infrared analysis to help farmers diagnose issues early on.

They can also be used to monitor conditions remotely and even apply fertilizers, pesticides, and other treatments from above.

What are the major benefits of farm automation?

Consumer Benefit

The world is moving towards organic & sustainable products. An increase in productivity from automation increases the yield and rate of production, therefore reducing costs for consumers.

Labor Efficiency

31% of farmers are moving to less labor-intensive crops. Routine tasks can be easily done with robotics technology, reducing labor cost & manpower as well.

Reducing Environmental Damage

Farm automation can make agriculture more profitable while reducing ecological damage as well.

Site-specific application software can reduce the amount of pesticides and fertilizer used while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Some of the most popular agriculture automation companies are:

Abundant Robotics, Agrobot, American Robotics, Blue River Technologies, Bear Flag Robotics

The future

Agriculture automation offers a path towards sustainable and more efficient agriculture through advancements of technologies, production systems, and software.

With each year, the automation industry gets more sophisticated & within a few years, it has the potential to turn the agriculture sector into a fully automated.

What is your take on agricultural automation? Comment here!

Also, for more such interesting articles on robotics & artificial intelligence check out our blogs here!

How WhatsApp Business account changed Digital Marketing?

Social media business is spreading its wings with each year.

Recently we discussed Facebook Messenger marketing. In case you haven’t read it we will have the link down below.

Today we have a new member in the social media marketing family- Whatsapp Business Account!

Why Whatsapp, you may ask?

Why not? Whatsapp is by far the most used messaging app in the world! Not a single soul with a smartphone uses or hasn’t used Whatsapp.

Here are some stats for your benefit.

WhatsApp

What is the WhatsApp business app? How will it function?

WhatsApp Business app is specifically designed for a concierge-like service for customers and will only be used by business owners.

Although many people were skeptical about the fact that it has the potential to become an unwanted intrusion on a platform meant for personal communication only.

However, here is where Whatsapp played it cool.

A business cannot send you messages unless you allow that by sharing your phone number. So, the whole situation is your choice with no intrusion whatsoever!

To set up your business account in WhatsApp, you will need an Android phone & of course your official business number.

It’s best if this is a separate number altogether, so you might want to take a new SIM. The reason for this is WhatsApp’s verification process.

Whatsapp generally allows one phone number to be linked with their account.

Now, once you are set, you simply need to download the WhatsApp Business App, you need to verify your business number.

Skyram WhatsApp

After setting your business name you need to tap on the menu button, head to Setting> Business Setiings> Profile.

You will get a variety of similar fields to fill out, add your details & get started!

This is the basic set-up process. You can later customize this according to your business requirements.

What kind of business can be done on the WhatsApp business app?

If an app has over 1.3 billion global users & around 53% of the people prefer shopping on DMs, you can very well understand that Whatsapp is bound to the hub of selling all kinds of stuff.

Most Quora users have stated that most items are “sold out” within 30 mins of launch on Whatsapp!

Some of the business that you can do through Whatsapp business app are:

  • Services: Event planning, photography, stylists, show bookings, a lot of services can be done through WhatsApp business.
  • Customers can have a comprehensive conversation with professionals over chats. Bookmyshow is one of the first service company to introduce Whatsapp business to send notifications, confirmations & so on.
  • Home Décor: Interior décor items is a huge business, especially among the urban cities. Home décor items can be easily sold through this platform.
  • Jewelry & Accessories- there are a lot of companies out there who sell homemade jewelry in affordable budgets. Even customized jewelry like wedding rings available through Whatsapp business stores.
  • Food- Imagine if you have a home-based bakery or confectionery business but you don’t have enough capital to invest through large-scale branding, you can easily have your niche customers through a Whatsapp business account along with a Facebook or Instagram page!

What are WhatsApp Business’ competitive advantages?

Interactive Communication-

One of the major advantages of Whatsapp business account is its plethora of features for like texts, audios, images, display pictures, status, stories with which you can create numerous content for your audiences.

Personal customer Relations-

Whatsapp was primarily a personal messaging platform.

Therefore any form of communication is somewhat meant to be personal than say emails.

WhatsApp makes this process easier by providing a closed and secure platform, through which you can enable one-on-one communication with each and every customer.

Through your account, you can build a more trustworthy relationship with your customers.

Companies can also create awareness of new promotions and events that might be taking place, through their business profile on WhatsApp.

Global Reach

Whatsapp has users from all over the world.

You can easily do business through Saudi Arabia, Germany, the USA, Brazil & so on.

You can communicate all you want with your customers without thinking about money!

It’s free

Well, there are free messaging platforms, of course.

But Whatsapp with its immense reach that too free of cost makes your investment as an entrepreneur much less, which is a boon, to be honest!

Businesses don’t have to think twice about their communication strategies while tapping into new markets as it is free of cost!

Security

The ‘business profiles’ will be unique to each company and will only be made after WhatsApp has verified your business accounts. Moreover, with end-to-end encryption and two-factor authentication (2FA), both businesses and customers are safeguarded.

How can the WhatsApp business app help digital marketers?

There are a number of ways you can use your business account!

Let’s have a look:

Updating Order status or Confirmations

A great option for any service providing businesses.

You can send order status, order tracking links, etc on WhatsApp to keep the user updated on their transaction. BookMyShow is one such example.

BookMyShow

To send reminders

Millennials have used to checking Whatsapp on a daily basis.

Marketers can use this opportunity to send reminders, like a policy that needs renewing, flight time reminders, delivery reminders.

This way you can also reduce the risk of them missing out on important deadlines.

Product Demos

Suppose you have a bakery business, you can showcase your creations on your business profile.

Online bakery

Or you can post about offers, on their birthdays or anniversaries. It is a great way to bond with your customers.

To get ratings & reviews

You can get your customers to review your product or service. Give them links or options to reply to a survey. WhatsApp being a go-to platform for communication can actually motivate your customers to give you more accurate feedback.

Some companies even give discounts on a good review to increase their customer base!

Want to tap WhatsApp business account to boost up your business? However, you might not get the time to manage everything single-handedly!

Contact us at Skyram Technologies! We provide intricate & invaluable marketing ideas only suited to your business needs. Connect with us here!

Also, for our blog on Facebook Messenger Marketing & lots of other exciting topics, read here!

Facebook Messenger Marketing with Chatbots

There are more than 1.3 billion active Facebook users every month!

And most of them also use Facebook Messenger for networking as well.

Facebook Messenger bots are a relative newcomer to the marketing scene. Studies have shown that Facebook Messenger Marketing has about 88% open rate and a 56% click-through rate!

Now, what does Facebook bots do? How do they actually work?

Let’s learn about this exciting new tool in the online marketing world!

What is Facebook Messenger marketing?

Simply speaking, it is a form of email marketing but using Facebook Messenger.

It uses Messenger as a conversational source to send targeted messages to reach more customers.

Chatbot
Chatbot

However, one of the main differences between Messenger marketing & email marketing is the execution. Messenger marketing is essentially more conversational, interactive & spontaneous, unlike email marketing which is more formal & impersonal.

Why use Facebook Messenger Marketing?

There can be two reasons- one is strategic & the other one is tactical.

Let’s discuss the strategic one at first.

Few businesses are using Facebook Messenger marketing or they are not using that to maximum potential. I mean a lot of them have a contact button on their Facebook page. But very few of them a responsive. It is very average!

Most of them don’t use chatbot which will reply to the query immediately or initiate conversation.

Now coming to the second one, which is tactical.

A competitive email marketer is expected to achieve 5-10% open rates.

Facebook Messenger Stats
Facebook Messenger Stats

But with Messenger marketing, open rates skyrocket to 70-80% in the first hour.

It is a huge difference.

Here are some more facts which will prove our point better:

· A huge portion of the customers are often unsure to share their mail address. Worse, they might completely ignore your marketing emails.

· Messenger sequences are way faster than email campaign sequences. It gives instant response. As a customer would you want to wait for like 30 mins to get an answer?

· Retargeting your Messenger leads is easier and faster than retargeting email leads since the leads are already on Facebook.

· Human engagement is far more real in messenger marketing. It is just like chatting with a person online!

How to do Facebook Messenger marketing?

This form of marketing requires using chatbots.

Chatbots are automated messaging programs that simulate conversations, ask questions, gather feedback, send blasts, segment users, schedule appointments, make reservations, purchase items, track order status, provide feedback, provide 24/7 customer service, offer downloadable resources, drive traffic to landing pages & often used to get in touch with a real human being.

To get started with your Facebook Messenger marketing, you need a few steps.

  • First, you need a Facebook page.

If you don’t have one yet, create a Facebook page for your business.

  • Choose a Chatbot

Building a proper conversation with Facebook’s native tools is not possible. You need to have a chatbot builder like MobileMonkey to get started. They even have some free plans!

  • Build Your Chatbot

The process of building a Messenger chatbot depends on which tool you’ve selected. Some tools allow you to be up-and-running with a simple chatbot in ten minutes.

Just add a Messenger chat widget to your website & boom!

Chat Blast
Chat Blast

You have everything you need for Messenger marketing. You can even customize your chatbot accordingly.

Here are some of the most popular chatbots in the market.

MobileMonkey

MobileMonkey is a chatbot building platform for marketers focusing on Facebook Messenger. There is a free version available as well where you can easily start your marketing without having to spend any money.

MobileMonkey
MobileMonkey

While using it, you need to name your chatbot so you can identify it in case you have multiple bots and pages.

Some of its major advantages include:

· They do not require any coding experience or web developer.

· They’re on 24/7 and provide instant answers to leads

· They take just minutes to create when you use a pre-made template.

Chatfuel

Chatfuel is another leading company that helps the user build their chatbots. It was founded in 2015.

ChatFuel
ChatFuel

There is a free version with basic features, which you can use until you reach 1k subscribers.

Some of its features include:

· Get audience insights via the segments you created

· Easily delete inactive users.

· With the premium version, you get a VIP support treatment, with a dedicated account manager

ManyChat

This one is used by most of the influencers. And of course, there is a reason for that.

They have a free version but you get their branding which is fair if you’ll use their tool without paying money.

Some of their features:

· Easily create message automation to send the exact messages you want to send without you doing it for every person

· In the pro version, you can convert people who click on an ad into a bot subscriber

· Easily convert people who comment on any post you choose into a bot subscriber

Although, the main game lies in the way you want to create your message strings.

If not well composed, it can drive your customer away or worse, misleading information.

Want some help?!

Contact Skyram Technologies. With our expert digital marketers, we will create the perfect Facebook Messenger Marketing campaign designed just for your business. Connect with us here!

Also, for more blogs on marketing, read here!

Demand-Side Platform (DSP)

Digital advertisement is gaining popularity every day!

But what’s more, is that ad buying and selling has changed a lot since the advent of digital ads. Agencies no longer need to spend hours in contracts, meeting to buy an ad.

With demand-side platform & supply-side platforms, ads have become much more efficient & quicker.

What is a Demand-Side Platform or DSP?

To put in simple words, a demand-side platform is a piece of software used to purchase advertising in an automated fashion. DSPs are most often used by advertisers and agencies to help them buy display, video, mobile and search ads.

The key purpose of DSP is to buy the impressions on the suitable inventory & show them to the user to meet the target requirements for optimal price.

What are the key differences between DSP & Ad networks?

It can be a bit confusing as both Ad Network & DSP offers targeting and the ability to reach a large pool of potential resources.

Online advertising
Online advertising

But here are a few differences:

DSP Ad Network
Multiple inventory sources, leading to several ad exchanges. You choose which sites to buy.
It is generally used for programmatic sales. It is a tool for direct media buying
Almost entirely automated It involves a more manual routine.
Based on real-time bidding. It is based on waterfalling (daisy chain)

How does DSP actually work?

Basically, DSPs allow advertisers to buy impressions across a range of publisher sites but targeted to specific users based on information like their location, search behavior & so on.

Now, for the publishers, they make their ad impression available through ad exchanges. DSPs automatically decide which of those impressions it makes the most sense for an advertiser to buy.

For the price of these impressions, it is determined by a real-time auction, through a process known as real-time bidding. You see everything is automated without any need for a human salesperson to sit for hours to negotiate the price with buyers.

Why use DSP?

Using DSP has some major benefits which includes:

· Cost-effective

While buying traffic, media buyers already set a bid that they can afford to pay. DSP purchases the impression that ideally matches the media buyers’ requirements.

By this, the media buyers don’t have to pay excessive for the traffic. They can get way cheaper than say a print ad.

· Efficiency

DSP makes everything is adjustable from one dashboard.

· Better targeting

DSP allows advertisers to target their audience better. As DSP chooses the websites or platforms which would be suitable to the target audience of the buyer as with more data comes pinpoint targeting capabilities.

· High-quality inventory-

DSPs have access to major networks, so if you are looking for more premium inventory, a demand-side platform is something you should look out for.

Everything is done in milliseconds, as a user’s computer loads a webpage.

Is DSP replacing ad agencies?

In some sense, yes.

DSP works directly with advertising clients. So this considerably affects the agencies when it comes to buying media ads.

All of the things done by agencies is done automatically & within a very short span of time!

What are the most popular DSPs available in the market?

DoubleClick Bid Manager

DoubleClick Bid Manager, a Google product, is used by agencies, trading desks, and advertisers to get access to ad exchanges with a wide range of exclusive video, display and mobile inventory from Google.

It has a record of more than 100 ad exchanges & 1 billion websites with add that can run across desktop, mobile and tablet, multiple bidding strategies support and more.

Adobe Advertising Cloud

Although it is a cross-channel advertising platform, it also runs an independent DSP providing brand marketers with integration with the world’s best targeting, reporting and inventory partners.

Their major USP is their programmatic ad campaigns which can cover desktop, mobile, TV & offline out-of-home channels.

Amazon DSP

Formerly known as AAP or Amazon Advertising Platform, is a DSP that provides advertisers to display their ads from Amazon Inc.

With Amazon DSP, advertisers can easily reach audiences both on Amazon sites and apps as well as through its publishing partners and third-party exchanges.

AppNexus platform

AppNexus, New York-based company provides a platform for real-time advertising across multiple devices including mobile.

It offers a highly scalable ad serving to mobile & networks, multiple screen campaigns & most importantly customizable extensive targeting & reporting.

Need some programmatic ad buying but confused as to how to go through the whole process? Contact Skyram Technologies & leave the whole process to us! Contact us here!

Also, for more interesting blogs read here!

Marketing For Entertainment – Game Of Thrones

TV series encompasses a huge part of the entertainment industry.

They have their separate fan base even after the show ends. Come on, you have heard about F.R.I.E.N.D.S, right? Warner Bros earns about $1 billion every year just through its reruns.

And here is some more! The cast members earn about $20 million each as royalties.

Hopefully, now you have an idea of how big of an industry this is!

Earlier we have already discussed about movie marketing in our previous blogs. If you haven’t read it we will leave all the links below.

Today we will be discussing the marketing of TV series.

Game of Thrones– 17.4 million views per week, cult followers all over the world with record-breaking profits ever made by a TV show!

Whether you watch it or not, GoT can’t be avoided, with its unanimous fame, it is quite interesting to know how a fantasy fictional TV show created such a legacy did.

Apart from its extraordinary storytelling, massive production & epic characters GoT did a phenomenal job at marketing. Be it online promotions or offline marketing, PR moves they did all of the right strategies to make the series what it is today.

Here are some of the bold marketing strategies by GoT team:

The Scavenger Hunt

This was a fan-led scavenger hunt introduced by HBO, where fans had the opportunity to cross the fourth wall and search for six replica Iron Thrones, situated in six destinations around the world.

With a scavenger hunt along with the hashtag #FortheThrone & dripping content on all social media platforms, the team was able to create a massive buzz among the fans throughout the globe.

By visiting GoT’s official website, it’s possible to view 360-degree videos of each Iron Throne, offering striking visual clues as to their whereabouts.

The Visual Contents

Be it their #BringDowntheKing campaign for season 4, by SoHo, the broadcasters of the show in New Zealand or their 3D street art of Jon Snow Scaling The Wall, the show never missed a bit to engage fans all over the world.

Game of Thrones
Game of Thrones

Here they used a long-hated character, King Joffrey, as a statue, with a rope around his waist which is to be pulled by the fans.

Here is a picture of the HBO building to promote GoT.

 Game of Thrones (HBO)
Game of Thrones (HBO)

They even made White Walkers take a stroll in the streets of London!

 Game of Thrones (HBO)
Game of Thrones (HBO)

The Innovative Brand Tie-ups

Sure, brand tie-ups aren’t a new thing. But the way the GoT team did it was something to talk about!

Here is a list of few of them:

Oreos

A super Bowl offering, Oreo made a limited edition pack of Game of Thrones-themed cookies.

The cookies had four embossments of the four major houses battling for the Iron Throne- House Lannister, House Targaryen, and House Stark & the White Walkers of course.

 Game of Thrones Oreos
Game of Thrones Oreos

Moreover, they also re-created the iconic Game of Thrones opening title sequence with Oreo Cookies.

Mountain Dew

The brand participated with the iconic “A Can Has No Name” campaign.

Game of Thrones Mountain Dew
Game of Thrones Mountain Dew

They produced a limited edition blank can but when warm reveals the kill list of character Arya Stark!

How clever is that!

A simple but quite an innovative idea to promote GoT & sell more drinks.

American Red Cross

You wouldn’t normally find a correlation between Game of Thrones and a healthcare organization like the Red Cross, as the show has a lot of death & blood.

But Red Cross used this point very efficiently to encourage blood donation in exchange for an immersive experience of the Iron Throne.

 Game of Thrones Red Cross
Game of Thrones Red Cross

Their “Bleed for the Throne” campaign included an engaging fan experience where people could hear voices of prominent Game of Thrones characters who have literally “shed blood” in their fight to get closer to the Throne.

Bud Light

Another Super Bowl entry in the list.

Game of Thrones Bud Light
Game of Thrones Bud Light

For the 2019 Super Bowl Commercial, HBO tied-up with Bud Light to deliver an epic visual display that transforms from well, light, to the dark, ominous and edgy landscape that GoT is famed for in the blink of an eye.

Social Media Marketing Strokes

GoT heavily relied on social media for keeping up the awareness of the show among the fans worldwide.

Spotify

One of their major online campaign partner was Spotify.

 Game of Thrones Spotify
Game of Thrones Spotify

Spotify is no stranger to curated playlists; indeed, that’s one of the things the music streaming service is most well-known for. So for the final season of Game of Thrones, Spotify curated a special playlist of around 30 to 45 tracks for each house.

Facebook, Youtube & Twitter

Currently, their Facebook page has over 23 million followers. This is a huge testament to the massive, strong fan base that Game of Thrones has built.

The show’s content, characters, and other elements are constantly appropriated and integrated into jokes, memes, and a plethora of other materials. This, in turn, helps to amplify GoT’s strong presence by spreading brand awareness.

Their promotional trailers and teasers are always very well-done and effectively create buzz, excitement, and suspense. They constantly share countless photos, behind-the-scene footage on their Youtube channel, Facebook.

One campaign that they launched was called “#ArtTheThrone”. This campaign was executed by recruiting five rising artists to produce artwork in different mediums. Each of them had a specific element from the series.

On Twitter, some of their catchy hashtags with #RoastJoffrey, #CatchDragon, #TakeTheThrone which generated millions of retweets & fan engagement worldwide.

Storytelling

Last but definitely of the most crucial marketing strategy of the GoT team!

Yup, that’s right!

Think about all the sudden deaths, one of the most complicated storytelling, out-of-the-world characters & very different plotlines for the books & TV series. All of them helped to generate more curiosity among the fans! One particular marketing move, inspired by the storytelling was the Beautiful Death website.

Game of Thrones Beautiful Death
Game of Thrones Beautiful Death

The website has visually stunning, regularly updated space filled with eye-grabbing artwork and Top Trump-style guides to commemorate all of the iconic deaths that have occurred throughout the series. The site attracts traffic regularly.

GoT never wanted to go mainstream, they pushed boundaries and explore new avenues when it comes to creating meaningful experiences and stories.

 Game of Thrones
Game of Thrones

As a result, Northern Ireland which has over 26 of the prime filming spots, attracted €58 million in GoT-inspired tourism in 2017!

Which one is your favorite GoT season? Comment down below!

And for our other blogs read here!

Top 5 Keyword Research Tools 2019

Keyword research is the most important aspect of any content related campaigns.

SEO depends a lot on proper keywords. Without definitive keywords, a website can fail to get proper online traffic on Google.

There are plenty of SEO keyword tools in the market to help you with keyword research but only a handful of them seems legitimate.

Now being a digital marketing agency, keyword research is a daily routine for us. Here is a list of top 5 trustworthy keyword research tool according to us:

Google Keyword Planner

It is not uncommon at all.

Google Keyword Planner is no doubt one of the best tool when comes to keyword research.

It’s designed for advertising, but you can use it to research organic keywords by customizing your results for one of your competitors.

Some of the primary advantages of Google Keyword are:

· Get search volume for a list of keywords or group them into ad groups

· Get traffic forecasts for a given set of keywords

· Multiple lists to get new keyword ideas.

· Search for new keywords & ad group ideas.

Also, if you are planning to go for SEO & PPC together, this tool can help you determine which keywords are better to target organically or with advertising.

MOZ Keyword Explorer

Moz is excellent when it comes to finding lateral keywords.

Which means you get outside-the-box suggestions that you probably won’t find anywhere else.

The tool draws on Keyword Planner, Google Suggest, and Related Searches.

Some of its major advantages are:

· Finding lateral keywords

· Relative CTR of the organic results on a SERP

· Suggests keywords critical to your campaign

Also, Moz gives a deeper analysis of certain pages is getting better ranks based on links & social data. This, in turn, helps planning your SEO strategy beyond keywords.

SEMrush

SEMrush is not a typical keyword research tool, it offers much more than that.

Unlike other tools where you need to add seed keywords to start your research, here you just need to add your URL (or your competitor’s URL) and it will show you all of the keywords that are ranking for that site.

Some of its major benefits are:

· In-depth details on traffic status.

· Maintain search engine reports

· Analyzing common keywords found in the top 100 domains for a search term in Google.

· Helps you adapt keywords to different international regions

Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest is specifically designed to work through Google’s Suggest feature, utilizing the same algorithms that the search engine uses to suggest keywords to its users.

It helps you to maintain an effective game plan for developing your website’s keywords.

Some of the pros of using this tool are:

· Ubersuggest has a well-designed, attractive, and easy-to-use interface which is easy to use.

· There’s no need for a tedious registration or login process in this tool.

· Ubersuggest gives you percentage-chance based stats.

· It is able to provide you with real-time results and stats.

Furthermore, there is a competitive overview section which will show all the other website competing for ranking with the same keyword.

Keyword Tool

A great place for keyword mining, this tool uses Google Autocomplete data for its database of long-tail keyword suggestions.

This tool is free for the first 750+ keyword suggestions; sign up for the pro version to analyze keywords further and see data such as search volume, CPC on AdWords, and competition.

Another very important feature of the Keyword Tool is that it helps you find long-tail keywords for YouTube, Bing, Amazon, and even the App Store.

Since Keyword Planner is designed for advertisers, it gives pretty relevant keywords that will generate more traffic to your page.

Apart from these, there are few other tools like KWFinder, Ahrefs Keyword Explorer & SpyFU.

Keywords also depends on the type of projects that you are handling & also your target audience. So it may differ for each project.

Also, taking professional help can be beneficial for the long-run. Want some help? Contact Skyram Technologies for SEO strategy & management. Connect with us here! And for more such blogs read here!