Articles

PureNFT Disrupts the NFT Market

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Combining minimalist aesthetics with the ongoing trend for digital art, PureNFT is an awesome new app that lets anyone break into the lucrative NFT market.

The app aims to lower the bar for prospective NFT creators by creating a minimal artwork from a single-pixel captured anywhere on your viewport. You can mint your NFT directly in the app — the process of recording your artwork on the blockchain — and list it for free on PureNFT’s dedicated marketplace.

Using PureNFT’s ArtPicker tool, hover the tool over any part of your screen, click a pixel to generate your NFT, and then click the “Mint Now” button to mint it. The app will upscale the pixel to a solid-color artwork with an ultra-high resolution of 5,000 x 5,000px. On the pro plan, PureNFT will automatically generate a 250 x 250px thumbnail to ensure your artwork isn’t pirated.

One of the best features of PureNFT is that you don’t need any drawing ability to break into the exciting NFT trend. Just point your mouse at a pixel and click, and the app will generate a pure high-resolution version of the pixel for you.

Unlike most marketplaces that favor Ethereum, PureNFT is powered by the Solana blockchain, which is far more energy-efficient, and, consequently, environmentally friendly. Despite this, PureNFT’s tokens are platform-agnostic, which means you can mint them on the native platform and then transfer them to popular marketplaces like OpenSea and Rarible.

The potential for NFTs created with PureNFT is limitless. You can literally click any pixel, mint it as an NFT, and wait for the money to start rolling in.

NFTs are a hugely popular way of monetizing artwork, but they are limited in scope; you can only sell one unique NFT of the Mona Lisa, and even then, you have to be the Louvre to do it. But with PureNFT, anyone can visit Wikipedia and open an image of the Mona Lisa that is 7,479 x 11,146px. That translates to 83.3 million potential NFTs; if each pixel sells for an average of $1,000, you might make enough to buy the actual Mona Lisa!

Minting an NFT on PureNFT currently costs 1 SOL (approximately $125 at the time of writing). The first NFT minted by PureNFT — an azure pixel from an unknown screen grab — has an asking price of 375 SOL (approximately $46,875 at the time of writing), but not all PureNFT users have been so lucky, with some early beta users complaining of returns as low as 300%. Nonetheless, the potential for substantial financial gains is evident.

According to Brendan Lewes, co-founder and CTO of PureNFT, the team is interested in introducing AI-powered automation in the near future: Imagine an automated tool searching for popular images, breaking them down into pixels, minting them, and selling them for you, while you live your life. NFT mining could be the next big area of crypto.

However, automation isn’t likely to come anytime soon, according to Lewes:

For now, we’re focussed on maintaining a stable platform. But…we’re super excited about the journey we’re on, and [co-founder Max Schriebport ] and I can’t wait to see where it take us.

PureNFT is currently in beta on macOS, Windows, and iOS, with an Android version on the way. There’s a free plan that allows you to preview up to 5 NFTs, and pro plans start at $399/month.

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How to Build a Strong Brand Reputation

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Most of us are concerned about our public image, right? It matters a lot how people see and think of us. Export the same sentiment to a brand instead of a person. That’s what brand reputation is all about!  

Yes, it’s that simple – the public’s perception of a brand constitutes its brand reputation. And since the internet plays a significant role in public perception nowadays, a brand’s online reputation essentially drives brand perception.

If we come at it from a slightly different angle, it’s the sum of all ideas and emotions a customer or client associates with a brand while interacting with it at any stage. It includes everything, from what kind of customer services they get when purchasing goods or services to after-sales services the company provides. Reputation management is usually done via social media, emails, and online chats.

(Remember, you shouldn’t confine brand reputation only to a brand’s customers or end-users. It includes all stakeholders’ opinions of a brand. It can be anyone from customers to retailers and shippers to manufacturers.)

In short, brand reputation is the most vital intangible asset for any organization striving to make it big in today’s cutthroat market.

What’s The Importance Of A Strong Brand Reputation For Today’s Businesses?

It wouldn’t be wrong to say that nothing affects every stage of the marketing and sales funnel, like a brand’s reputation. Whether it’s awareness, interest, evaluation, commitment, sales, or reputation, a strong brand reputation will only supplement it.

Recent research reveals that about 94% of consumers say that their likelihood of frequenting a business increases if it has positive reviews. Conversely, 92% say that their chance of patronizing a business decreases if it has negative reviews.

Now, let’s look at various factors that make working on your brand reputation important.

Market Trust

Strengthening brand reputation earns your business the trust factor, making your brand a more viable choice for existing and prospective customers. It helps them place their faith in you, believing that your brand is here to thrive and fulfill any promises it makes.

Moreover, it’s a fact that people prefer buying goods and services from a brand that enjoys a solid reputation, especially if people in their social circle use its products.  

Higher Sales

You can’t be far from the truth if you believe brand reputation only yields intangible business gains. It lends you tangible improvements as well, most importantly, in the form of higher sales volume, which translates as higher profits.

All this can’t be achieved without the push from a strong brand reputation, helping the brand carve a niche for itself amongst tough competition.

Customer Loyalty

When a brand succeeds in earning a higher trust level and a positive reputation, the customers are more likely to remain loyal. And, will continue to buy products and services from it, refuting various incentives by the competition, such as discount packages & low prices.

Customer loyalty also leads a brand to a host of other fringe benefits, i.e., demanding a premium price after some time.

Competitive Edge

One thing is for sure, the level of competition in the market is always going to soar higher and higher. And it’s almost impossible for a business to make its way through it without a competitive edge. That’s where a positive brand reputation can make a business’s life easier.

Having the edge over the competition means your potential for catching new customers increases exponentially, helping your brand claim more of the market share.

Word of Mouth

Happy customers remain one of the most significant assets of a brand, especially in this digital era. They serve as brand ambassadors, and if they’re happy and satisfied, they’ll pass the word on, advocating for the brand for free.

It not only leads to increased brand awareness in the market, but it also paves the way for a business to improve its sales and profit margins over time.

What Are The Best Strategies For Managing Your Brand’s Reputation Online?

We’ll keep our focus on the ones proven to be the most effective, starting with:

Staying Ahead of The Curve

Being proactive is among the primary requisites for today’s brand managers. They should be thinking ahead of their competitors and the target audience. While branding online, the margin of error is relatively low, and any slipup can lead to a ripple effect in nullifying the brand’s positive image.

The best way to cope with such a situation is to embrace the mistake quickly and be upbeat enough to resolve the issue immediately rather than have a wait-and-see attitude.

Be Specific About The Deliverables

Social media has played a phenomenal role in educating today’s customers, making them very intelligent and demanding at the same time. It has opened up infinite mediums and channels to get alternatives for almost everything.

That’s why brands need to be very specific in delivery time and after-sales services to avoid earning themselves a bad name in the market. Most experts recommend the “under promise and over deliver” approach to avoid disappointing your customers.

Establish Yourself as An Authority

If you have complete faith in your offerings as a business, knowing that you’re the best in the market, you better be loud and clear about it. It will help you catch immediate attention from your target audience, increasing your brand awareness and your potential to bag more sales and revenue.

Let’s talk about the quality of the product as an example. If you believe that the quality of your product is the unique selling prospect, you must let people know about it. Flaunt this factor with full force, vigor, and authority.

It will help you establish your brand in the market as an authority, and your target market will start looking up to you for the best and the latest on it.

Be Consistent and Assertive

As they say, consistency is the key. If you do it right, your brand reputation will go beyond the lifespan of your brand. People will relate to your brand positively even after your business shuts down.

However, this demands the next level of consistency from your business. You have to make sure you deliver your best in all aspects of branding your business, from the quality of the products and services to the level of customer service you offer.

It doesn’t work well if you outperform your competition by miles for the first time and then step back from delivering those high service standards. You roll your sleeves up and get to compete yourself if you believe you’re outdoing your competition so well.

Deliver on Your Promises

You cannot overstate the significance of delivering on your promises if you want to make the most of your brand reputation. Nothing brands your business better than a bunch of happy and satisfied customers.

And, delivering on your promises consistently is the least of what you need to do to win over your customers to the level they turn into your unofficial brand ambassadors.

Value Feedback

It would be best if you realign your thinking this way. 

Who are you producing your products/services for? Your clients/customers, of course!

What if it’s not working well for them?

Redo your product/service to the requirements and likings of your customers. Otherwise, your business will earn you nothing but a bad name in the market.

You have to realize the importance of listening to your customers, gathering customers’ opinions about what’s not working for them and what areas they would like to see improved. 

Learn to accept and respect your customers’ grievances, praises, issues, tips, or any feedback they give you about your product or service.

You’ll upscale your brand’s reputation considerably if you start doing this.

How Can Influencer Marketing Help You Grow Your Brand’s Reach

Influencer marketing is the concept of branding your business through influential people and opinion leaders in the industry rather than engaging your business directly in doing so. They also brand indirectly, setting a practical example rather than advocating verbally for it.

Research reveals that 94% of marketers using influencer marketing find it highly effective, potentially increasing the ROI 11% times higher than conventional marketing.

Brands that indulge in influencer marketing associate themselves with influential personalities resonating with their message, driving it across their target market in a manner that a large number of people develop an affiliation toward it.

Influencer campaigns help brands tap into an existing community comprising their influencer’s dedicated followers, compelling them to tilt toward a brand they use. Most of us have observed how renowned YouTubers, Tiktokers, and bloggers proactively advertise different brands to their followers.

The increased penetration of a rapidly growing number of social media platforms also helps the influencers garner a solid following and significantly impact the communities that follow them.

They are like a part of the family for their followers, who value their opinion and try to imitate them in what they do and how they do it.

Conclusion

With the competition getting steeper every passing day, earning the trust and business of your target market is becoming a challenging task for most companies. It makes branding even more imperative.

Make a great customer experience your top priority, also keeping a focus on the customer and employee retention and customer feedback to establish yourself as a customer-centric brand. 

Though it might take some time, it will surely help you grab your target market’s attention and respect in the long run. Once you achieve that, you’ll see sales and profits soaring accordingly.

 

Featured image via Pexels.

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Overcoming Blank Page Paralysis

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Whether you’re new to the job or are an experienced designer, the anxiety of a new project can sometimes – often unexpectedly – cause us to freeze in our tracks. This creative paralysis sees us staring at a blank page, unable to come up with ideas, and the knowledge that time is slowly ticking away.

We’ve all been there. So we thought it would be helpful to share our tips and tricks for overcoming the tyranny of the blank page and help you get back to doing great work.

The first thing to know is that you are not alone; blank page syndrome has a basis in science, with a clearly identifiable set of symptoms that consistently occur together. 

The first thing to know is that you are not alone; blank page syndrome has a basis in science

It starts when you become stressed. Stress causes your brain to produce hormones that slow down neural functions, which only serves to increase the feelings of inadequacy over a lack of creative spark – and fuel anxiety. Understandably, this causes a spiral as your mind seems to get emptier and the blank page more threatening.

But don’t fear! Because there are ways to move past blank page paralysis and get back to productivity. 

Just Relax

Once you’re in a negative spiral, it’s notoriously difficult to get out of. The best solution is to avoid the spiral entirely – by starting in the right frame of mind. This means setting up a calm work environment before you even sit down. 

Do your best to avoid major distractions – such as young children who need your attention or colleagues who like to play music that vexes your soul. We’re not saying that you need a sound-proofed home office – the kitchen table might be fine – but schedule your work time for when the kids are at school or with a minder, or work from home if the office is likely to be noisy. A pair of noise-canceling headphones can be handy, too.

Avoid Distractions

Seemingly small things can also get in the way of your work. Chat and email notifications are the digital equivalents of a person calling your name from across a room. Try to avoid or silence anything that stops you getting into the creative mindset, even if you just mute things for a few hours. It’ll help you mentally separate your creative workspace from everything else.

all of those notifications will still be there when you resurface

Ultimately, you need to create a mood that you subconsciously associate with being productive. But even when the space around you is perfect, it can still take a while to get into the zone. Brains don’t just flip into creativity at the flick of a switch, so be kind to yourself. And remember – all of those notifications will still be there when you resurface later in the day. 

Do a Warm-Up

Studies have shown that a blank page is particularly stressful because it makes the task in front of you feel bigger than it really is. Gazing at an empty page is like seeing the whole project stretching out before you. The stress comes from the feeling of having to fill the whole journey, all the way from A to Z.

So don’t start with A! Instead, begin with a warm-up. Just as dancers always start with a series of exercises to warm up their muscles, creative designers can benefit from something similar. You could start by talking things through with colleagues or sketch some ideas using pen and paper, before opening your design app. 

Alternatively, you could start by planning your content hierarchy. You don’t need all the final words – but it can be helpful to work out how many headings you’re going to have, where images will sit, and whether your copy will be in paragraphs or lists. 

By doing this, you’ll have elements to place and a rough idea of their relative importance. It’s easy to get overawed by the importance of actual content – so start by getting a grip on the type, density, and length of content. 

Take Inspiration

The world around us is filled with inspiration and according to an icon designer Yannick Lung:

It helps to observe things in the real world and play around with them.

It can also help to borrow an idea. Obviously, we never condone copying someone’s work, but using existing work as a reference or jumping-off-point can help. Think of it as putting your own twist on an existing idea.

“I sometimes find it useful to reverse engineer a good example of the sort of thing I’m trying to write (and this works for design too). I usually break down a successful example into its constituent parts and swap them out for things more relevant to the project at hand, then refine from there,” says Harvey, one of Sketch’s brand storytellers.

Let Templates Take the Strain

Instead of putting pressure on yourself to instantly start designing, begin by creating templates or wireframes. This isn’t an avoidance tactic. Spending time creating an outline template saves time in the long run – plus, doing practical work that doesn’t need lots of detail will act as a warm-up. It might even help you catch potential issues in your designs earlier. 

Be Collaborative and Welcome Early Feedback

In general, people don’t work well in isolation – so collaborating with colleagues is a great way to get design ideas flowing. At the start of a project, reach out to your colleagues to let them know what you’re going to be working on and set up a session to collaborate on ideas and ask for direct input.

Never wait until the end of a project to ask for feedback. Involving your colleagues in the process early helps counter blank page paralysis and involving stakeholders can help you manage expectations. Aim to get regular and consistent feedback rather than waiting for it – which could cause a delay in your project. 

And of course, you should always choose a design software that enables real-time collaboration so that everyone working on a project can avoid version conflicts.

Avoid Burnout

When work isn’t physical, it can be hard to judge how much it takes out of us

When work isn’t physical, it can be hard to judge how much it takes out of us. If you’re suffering from blank page paralysis, it’s probably a sign that you’re starting to get burnt out. Try setting an alarm on the other side of the room so you have to get up to turn it off regularly – or just scheduling some time into your day to take a break, stretch, or even take a walk. Stepping away from your screen is good for your brain and your body.

In the end, the most important thing to remember when it comes to blank page syndrome is that you have to be kind to yourself. Nobody can be productive 100% of the time – we’re only human, after all. What matters is that you do whatever you need to get your creativity flowing.

 

Featured image via Pexels.

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SAP classée parmi les leaders de la formation informatique aux États-Unis et en Europe par IDC MarketScape

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Nous sommes entrés dans une ère de transformation numérique en accélération constante dans un monde des affaires très concurrentiel, et cela ne devrait qu’augmenter avec le temps.

Chaque entreprise travaille ardemment à la mise à jour de ses processus. Cependant, pour que les entreprises puissent soutenir ces évolutions rapides, leurs collaborateurs doivent constamment affiner leurs compétences pour répondre aux besoins technologiques croissants. Pour rester à la pointe des changements et des enjeux auxquels seront confrontés tous les secteurs d’activité dans les prochaines années, il est essentiel que les employés aient accès à une formation continue et à une évolution de carrière intéressante, pour parvenir à la fois à la rétention des talents essentiels et à une culture d’entreprise de l’innovation continue.

Pour relever ces défis, de nombreuses entreprises et personnes se tournent vers des ressources, des cours et des certifications facilement accessibles sur le site SAP Learning afin de combler leur déficit de compétences. SAP est classée parmi les leaders dans le rapport d’Évaluation des prestataires de formation informatique de l’IDC MarketScape U.S. et MarketScape Europe. Cette recherche porte sur l’analyse des entreprises de formation informatique les plus connues, dotées de portefeuilles de formation adaptés aux entreprises qui envisagent d’importantes initiatives de transformation.

Les formations SAP favorisent l’acquisition de compétences innovantes

Le portefeuille de formations SAP Learning aide à répondre aux besoins de formation individuels et à renforcer les aptitudes technologiques des entreprises. SAP estime que les ressources de formation et de certification sont de plus en plus nécessaires dans l’environnement de travail actuel. Selon le rapport d’Évaluation des prestataires de formation informatique de l’IDC MarketScape U.S. les points forts de l’offre SAP sont les suivants :

  • Les clients apprécient les services de formation supplémentaires.
  • Les clients apprécient l’offre de préparation des tests de certification.
  • Les clients disent qu’ils l’utiliseront plus souvent l’année prochaine.
  • Elle peut aider les clients à personnaliser le contenu ou les parcours.
  • Elle a un point de vue important sur l’utilité de la formation.
  • Elle dispose d’un excellent processus d’actualisation et de mise à jour de son contenu.
  • Elle contient des exemples concrets d’amélioration des processus client.
  • Elle intègre des travaux pratiques dans une bonne partie de son contenu.
  • Elle propose une gamme intéressante de tarification et de packages.
  • Les apprenants apprécient l’utilisation des quiz pour valider les apprentissages.

Prenons l’exemple de Neils Wijsbeek, spécialiste chez Deloitte Consulting B.V. Malgré ses sept années d’expérience des solutions SAP, Wijsbeek continue de se former en permanence et valide ses compétences en passant régulièrement les certifications sur les solutions SAP SuccessFactors. Wijsbeek constate que le fait de continuer à mettre à jour ses certifications est important pour sa carrière et permet de démontrer son expertise de manière très visible. «Le processus de certification, notamment sa préparation, vous oblige à approfondir le contenu et à développer rapidement vos compétences », dit-il. À une époque où il n’a jamais été aussi crucial de rester à l’avant-garde des évolutions dans le secteur numérique, il a également déclaré que le contenu delta obligatoire de la certification SAP exige des utilisateurs qu’ils se forment sur les nouveautés des versions et les derniers développements, ce qui implique un accroissement de l’expertise tant individuelle que de son entreprise auprès des clients.

Notre équipe chez SAP se consacre à la création d’expériences de formation épanouissantes telles que celles de Wijsbeek, qui permettent aux collaborateurs d’approfondir facilement et souvent leurs compétences. Les responsables de recrutement sont actuellement confrontés à des défis de fidélisation des collaborateurs, ce qui limite considérablement la croissance de leurs entreprises. Avec l’avancée rapide des progrès technologiques, les meilleurs talents sont constamment sollicités et débauchés, ce qui crée des ruptures au niveau des compétences et des collaborateurs surchargés de travail. Par exemple, bien que la plupart des entreprises soient devenues multi-cloud, 86 % des professionnels de l’informatique pensent qu’un manque de compétences ralentira les projets Cloud.

Chez SAP Learning, nous veillons à ce que les entreprises puissent facilement transformer et perfectionner leurs compétences, ce qui donne aux collaborateurs des opportunités de développement de leur carrière et participe grandement à leur motivation. Pour aider les entreprises à accomplir cette tâche et rencontrer les besoins des individus à chaque étape de leur parcours d’apprentissage, nous avons lancé un nouveau site SAP Learning qui devient le point d’accès unique et simplifié à l’ensemble des ressources de formation SAP.

 

Formation SAP disponible pour les apprenants quelque soit leur niveau

SAP Learning offre à tous des opportunités de perfectionnement, de reconversion et de validation de compétences SAP. Par exemple, avec notre récente version du site SAP Learning, nous offrons un accès gratuit à plusieurs contenus pour la mise à niveau des compétences sur la plateforme SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), y compris un tout nouveau parcours de formation axé sur le développement d’applications Low-code/No- code. Cela permet de garantir que des apprenants, quelque soit leur niveau, depuis les développeurs débutants jusqu’à ceux qui occupent déjà un poste de développeur confirmé, peuvent facilement acquérir des compétences SAP dans des domaines d’innovation clés et se préparer à une certification SAP gratuitement.

Afin de soutenir l’effort des entreprises pour consolider les compétences d’innovation de leurs employés, SAP fournit les ressources d’apprentissage nécessaires, permettant d’accroître la compétitivité globale de leur business. La mise à disposition de formations et de certifications SAP dans une organisation est devenue un élément essentiel d’atteinte des objectifs stratégiques.

Les solutions SAP Learning aident à valider les compétences et l’expérience SAP des utilisateurs et permettent aux apprenants tout au long de leur vie professionnelle, comme Wijsbeek, de rester à la pointe de l’évolution du secteur et de se présenter, ainsi que leur organisation, comme des leaders de l’innovation. « La façon dont les programmes de formation ont évolué au fil des années permet de trouver très facilement les supports nécessaires, notamment pour maintenir sa certification à jour grâce au contenu delta », explique Wijsbeek.

Alors que SAP Learning continue d’évoluer pour satisfaire les besoins des apprenants partout dans le monde, je suis extrêmement enthousiasmé par le dévouement de notre équipe pour faciliter la progression des compétences et de la carrière des apprenants SAP, alors que nous entamons cette année supplémentaire de transformation de nos formations en mode digital.

En savoir plus sur la valeur et les avantages du développement professionnel.

Jan Meyer est responsable des systèmes de formation pour SAP Learning.

*IDC MarketScape, Évaluation des fournisseurs de formations informatiques États-Unis 2021 (doc. #US47541121, décembre 2021)
**IDC MarketScape : Évaluation des fournisseurs de formation informatique européenne 2021 (doc. #EUR148400521, décembre 2021)

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Competition: Win One of Four Free Online Passes to MUXL

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The fourth edition of MUXL (Mobile UX London) conference kicks off on the 21st of March, and you could win one of four free passes to the five-day digital event.

Running from the 21st of March to 25th, MUXL is a digital festival of UX and design, entirely online, meaning you can attend remotely from anywhere in the world.

The digital festival is themed around design systems, human-centered design, service designing the future, and UX psychology. MUXL features talks and live panels Q&A Monday – Wednesday, interactive workshops taking place on Thursday and Friday, with global networking opportunities throughout.

Speakers include senior UX researchers, managers, design strategists, and designers at companies including Google, IBM, Microsoft, Disney, and more…

MUXL is an excellent opportunity for UX designers of all levels to improve their skillset, make connections, and find inspiration.

Tickets are available now, but we have four Festival Passes to give away, and all you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is make sure you’re signed up for our weekly newsletter before the 14th of March. And don’t worry if you’re already a subscriber, you’ll be automatically entered into the draw.

We’ll select four winners at random on the 14th of March. Good luck!

 

Featured image via Pexels.

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4 Tips For Getting Design Proposals Signed Faster

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Creating and sending business proposals can be a lot of work. However, if you have the right tools and knowledge, you can quickly create and send high-converting proposals that your clients will love. 

This article will explain how to create a fantastic business proposal that looks great and gets signed quickly. Although we’re focussed on design, our tips apply to every industry and type of business.

1. Know When to Talk About Yourself

One of the most common mistakes people make is starting the proposal by talking about themselves. 

You might be surprised to know that clients spend the most time on the introduction chapter, so it’s essential to use it right. You need to set the right tone by explaining to your clients how your solution will help them achieve their goals. 

They want to hear the benefits and feel assured that you’re the best choice for them. If you start the proposal by talking about your company and the values you believe in, you’ll lose the attention of your clients. 

In most cases, the clients have already researched you and know the points you make in your PR releases.

Once you explain your process and the time scales, you can introduce your team and talk about the company. Just make sure it’s short and sweet. 

2. Divide Your Proposal into 6 Sections

Sending a one-page proposal will only confuse your clients and won’t incentivize them to reach out. The best way to format your proposal is to create six sections. 

This should include:

  • Introduction
  • Process
  • Timescales
  • Pricing
  • Next steps
  • Terms and Conditions

You need to showcase what their future could look like if they work with you, listing all the benefits as well as explaining the next steps. You need to write down what happens if they don’t agree with some parts of the proposal, what will happen when you reach an agreement, how much they have to pay, and more. 

Be clear on your follow-up process to speed things up. 

3. Use a Dedicated Proposal App

If you’re someone who fires up MS Word and hopes for the best, your proposals probably don’t get a lot of traction. That’s because you’re spending too much time reinventing the wheel. The best jumping-off point for your proposal strategy is choosing the right app. It will help you automate and speed up the whole process. 

Different solutions suit different people, but some of the features you might want include: 

Digital Signatures

The digital signature option helps you get your proposals signed faster and turns your proposals into legally binding documents. This significantly reduces the agreement time since your clients no longer have to print out your documents, scan them and send them back.

Integrated Payment Methods

Speed up your payment process by choosing the proposal software that has a payment option that allows clients to pay as soon as they agree to your terms and conditions. It can significantly decrease the time it takes to get paid. 

Sales Tool Integration

For an even more straightforward sales process, select a proposal tool that has native integrations with your sales CRM and other sales tools. 

Proposal Analytics

Proposal analytics can help you in the follow-up process. They show when your proposal was opened, on which device, and how much time the client spent on each of the sections. 

Content Library

The content library lets you save any part of the content (text, pictures, videos, terms and conditions, pricing table) for easier access in the future—no more copy and pasting huge chunks of text. 

An Easy-To-Use Editor

In order to be able to create any documents with your proposals software, their editor needs to be very easy to use. If the editor requires design experience, look for a better one.

4. Let’s Talk About Price

When it comes to the price section, there are two significant things you need to look out for: the name of the section and the format of your price.

Naming your pricing section pricing, expenses, or something along those lines cheapens your proposals and makes it seem like a regular invoice. Try naming the section ROI or Investment. It will evoke positive feelings with your clients because if they think of working with you as an investment, they will know that a return on investment is a part of the deal. 

The way you format your prices won’t make or break your deal but can help you speed up the proposal process. Firstly, you need to figure out if you’re going to charge by the hour, based on the value of the project, based on the commission, or something else. 

Once you reach a decision, you have to format the prices in an easy-to-understand and short way. Many companies try to upsell their clients at the very start of their business relationship and create proposals with three different packages. 

We believe that the way you present your prices should be the same as the way doctors prescribe medicine. You need to be the authority on your prices and tell the client what type of package fits their needs. If you leave it up to your client to pick the right package, it will just lead to confusion, and you’ll have to do the extra work to explain the difference to them.

Bonus Tips

Web-based business proposals speed up the signing process. If you make your proposals printable, it will lengthen the time your clients take to agree to your terms and sign them. Make sure your proposals are web-based and have a digital signature option. 

Another tip is to send your proposal as quickly as possible. As soon as you meet with your client and hear them out, start working on your proposal. 

Our last tip is to send your proposal at the beginning of the week. If you send it on a Friday, it will negatively impact the time it takes to get your proposal signed.

 

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7 Worst Fails in Email Marketing

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The email channel is known for multiple advantages. It is convenient to implement practically, offers many options, and has a fantastic ROI of up to 4200%.

But we also face problems, the most disappointing of which is people ignore emails, not performing the desired action, or worst of all unsubscribing. Why does it happen?

The web is constantly progressing. It offers many tools like modern HTML template builders, ESP services, and other digital assistants that help us at all stages. But even the best tools are not enough; the secret of success still rests with us.

In this post we’ll cover the 7 cardinal sins of email marketing, to help you avoid them.

1. Being Too Late

I can define this mistake as probably the worst. It’s worse than broken links, incorrect dates, or prices. Even more harmful than ugly design.

We lose a lot when postponing email strategy implementation. Beginners often focus all their attention on the content, social media activities, SEO issues… All that is important, right. But ignoring email campaigns is a hard fail.

Thousands of visitors never come again to your website. In other words, they leave the very first levels of the marketing funnel. While regular emailing keeps them engaged and prevents churn.

So delays here are only profitable for competitors. Don’t wait until you collect “enough” contacts. Start as soon as possible. 

Frequency matters too. Don’t bomb people with emails; it annoys and causes unsubscribes. Email frequency is an individual parameter depending on many factors.

2. Disregarding Clients’ Expectations

A fundamental axiom: people unsubscribe when emails are irrelevant. The same goes for neglected expectations. Even the best content with next-gen features won’t save the situation.

I mentioned the email frequency a bit above. Notice that if you announce the weekly emails but send them every day, this is an example of ignoring expectations. Be honest with readers.

Another typical issue is off-topic. If your subscribers are waiting for content related to smartphones, send them newsletters about smartphones, not dresses or domestic turtles :)

But in some cases, getting off-topic can be good. It all depends on the target audience, actual situation, and communication style. 

3. Bad Segmentation 

Once again, relevance is vital. So we must avoid generic emails. Instead, especially if your contact list is extensive enough, apply all the possible parameters: age, gender, location, customers history, etc.

Where to get the respective data? A typical solution is to use update preferences forms in emails or on the website. Let clients choose the topics that are interesting for them.

Use surveys, sign-in forms, AI-based techniques of segmentation… Smart algorithms are great helpers that track clients’ behavior and then process the data for segmentation purposes. 

The better we know our subscribers, the deeper we segment the contact list. It allows sending precisely targeted newsletters to respective segments.

4. Insufficient Personalization 

As Hubspot stats say, personalized emails’ open rate is 26% higher, and their click-through rate is 14% better. But even besides index data, poor personalization is just nonsense today.

Clients are looking for content that matches their preferences, so marketers have to consider these expectations. Segmentation and dynamic range are essential here, but they are not the only techniques.

Everything is much more sophisticated here, in addition to personalized subjects and content. Another solution is to generate recommendations that include the previously browsed products.

AI-powered automation comes to help. Machines will upgrade the classical personalization to the next level called hyper-personalization.

5. Underestimating Mobile-Friendliness 

It’s simply unacceptable to send non-responsive emails today. With so many people opening email on different devices, this is a huge fail.

The modern world is full of gadgets and devices. Email has been opened on smartphones more frequently than on desktop PCs and notebooks in recent years. Up to 70% of readers will read messages on mobiles very soon. No wonder that responsivity turned into a mobile priority.

Regarding layout and design, there are no problems: modern template editors are featured with automated responsivity. But mobile-first means not only layout/design adjustment for mobiles, full-width buttons, or larger fonts. We have to work with content too. Don’t overwrite text remember that recipients read inbox emails on the run. 

Just imagine yourself reading emails in the cafe or cab. And ask yourself: is everything convenient? Would you take the desired action on the run?

6. Non-Professional Approach 

People are quite skeptical of new brands. We need to do our best to attract them. So everything must be done professionally.

The best solution: be a perfectionist. If newsletters look amateurish, they are likely to repel.  

Being amateurish will also ruin your brand identity and reduce customers’ trust. Pay close attention to design, stick to your corporate style, analyze each detail in the context of overall harmony.

7. Overlooking Tests and Improvements 

Testing is vital. Before sending an email campaign, check it via Litmus or Email on Acid to be sure that message looks just as planned. These tools allow testing email rendering by +90 combinations of email clients, devices, and OS.

Knowledge is power. Always try and test your marketing strategies. Are you satisfied with your actual performance? Run A/B tests and focus on the most significant wins and failures. 

Summing Up

Of course, threats are not limited to these seven failures. The last piece of advice: never ignore trends. 

Accessibility? Don’t forget about clients with special requirements. Get whitelisted and incorporate these technologies in your campaigns.

And constantly strive for perfection. With this doctrine, you’ll win!

 

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Myth-Busting NFTs: 7 Claims Fact-Checked

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With all the marketing aplomb of basement-coders worldwide, NFTs were named with an acronym that does little to clarify their utility.

You probably know by now that NFT stands for Non-Fungible Token; what is perhaps less clear is what “Fungible” actually means; in this context, it means interchangeable.

Consider an ounce of platinum. That platinum is fungible, meaning it can be exchanged for any other ounce of platinum. Now consider a piece of jewelry made from one ounce of platinum. That jewelry is not interchangeable with any other ounce of platinum; it has the same core materials, but it has unique characteristics that may be artistically valuable, such as shape, or craft. The jewelry is non-fungible.

The letter that actually matters in NFT is T for Token. Tokens are little chunks of a blockchain that is a universally agreed dataset. You don’t need to know how it works any more than you need to understand how a computer processor works; you just need to know it’s in there.

Like any new technology, NFTs are surrounded by propaganda, counter-propaganda, skepticism, evangelism, and Facebook-confusion. In this post, we’ll look at some of the common misconceptions so you can develop an informed opinion.

1. NFTs Are Bad For The Environment

We’ll tackle this one first because it’s the classic argument leveled against anything in the crypto-space, whether Bitcoin or NFTs, and it’s nonsensical.

The root of this myth is that cryptocurrency transactions use vast amounts of electricity, the generation of which is terrible for the environment. The answer is threefold:

Firstly, electricity is used to run computers that maintain a blockchain, such as Ethereum. The blockchain is maintained whether NFTs are minted (registered) or not.

Secondly, NFTs tend to be minted on blockchains like Ethereum that are moving to less resource-intensive models, blockchains like Solana that already have less resource-intensive models, or blockchains like Algorand that are already carbon-neutral.

Lastly, the fact is that electricity is not inherently planet-killing. Renewables like solar and wind are perfectly capable of powering the grid; it’s just that power companies make higher profits by burning fossil fuels. That swanky new electric car you’ve bought so you can drive guilt-free is fuelled with fossil fuels on the power company’s end (and that’s before you consider the damage done getting those minerals out of the ground).

Until the computer you’re using is solar-powered, repairable, and upgradable, anything digital is terrible for the environment; NFTs are as bad, but no more so, than anything digital.

2. NFTs Are Just [Insert Patronizing Economic Metaphor Here]

NFTs, and crypto in general, are frequently referred to as a Ponzi Scheme. In the 1920s, Charles Ponzi duped investors into handing over cash. Returns were paid to early investors with the income from new investors. Early investors made a lot of money, and later investors lost everything.

One of the key characteristics of a Ponzi Scheme is that it’s a confidence trick that presents itself as low-risk. NFTs as an investment are widely understood to be high-risk. Calling NFTs a Ponzi Scheme is an excellent way of letting people know you don’t know what a Ponzi Scheme is.

In the 17th century, the price of tulip bulbs reached astronomical proportions. The Dutch tulip trade was a complex economic investment system that eventually collapsed, thanks in part to a global pandemic. Ever since, Tulpenmanie (Tulip Mania, in English) has been a byword for an economic bubble.

NFTs are frequently linked to Tulip Mania, thanks partly to the prices and the expectation (or hope) that the market will collapse. However, if you drive through the Netherlands today, you’ll see vast fields of tulips. They’re not being grown because they’re worthless.

While demand may fluctuate, it doesn’t fluctuate as much as media hysteria implies. And ultimately, tulips are nice.

3. You Can Buy And Sell NFTs

This is where pedantry plays a role. You cannot buy and sell NFTs; NFTs are the vehicle by which you conduct transactions for digital (or, in some cases, physical) goods and services.

If you have software installed on your computer, you probably have a license key. The license key identifies you as holding certain rights over that software, such as being allowed to use it to produce digital goods of your own. The license key is how the company identifies you as the individual to whom it has sold those rights.

NFTs are license keys for digital goods that are recorded on a blockchain instead of being held in a single database.

4. NFTs Can Be Easily Copied

When I was a kid in the 90s, I would record music off the radio with a tape player. I’d make mix-tapes and give them away. I was, in every literal sense, pirating music. And it wasn’t just me; home-taping kept the cassette industry going for decades past its use-by date. Despite this, the music industry did not collapse.

Art is even easier to copy than music because there’s no risk of a vapid DJ wittering over the intro to I Wanna Be Adored.

On my morning commute, I pass a shop that sells art prints. Around 80% are screen prints of Marilyn Monroe. They are original prints made by an artist and sold for not inconsiderable amounts. Not one of those pieces diminishes the quality, importance, or financial value of Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe prints in New York’s MoMA.

The difference is that MoMA’s Warhols have provenance — they can be tracked to a time and place and authenticated as by Warhol. Precisely the same provenance that NFTs provide digital artists.

5. You Can Get Rich From NFTs

Earning money, potentially a vast amount of money, is one of the main driving factors behind the boom in NFTs.

But the truth is that while it is possible to make a lot of money — some NFTs sell for millions of dollars — most NFTs sell for a modest amount.

If you are an accomplished artist with original ideas, you may make money from selling your art as NFTs. If you are an accomplished trader capable of recognizing quality, you may make money from buying and selling NFTs. However, very few people get rich.

6. NFT Resale Rights Undermine Value

NFTs have many potential uses, but the earliest adoption has been in digital art. The main economic benefit to artists is not just an easy way to sell their art but a widely accepted royalty system in which the original artist receives a commission every time the artwork is resold. It represents the ongoing investment the artist is making by continuing to produce and promote their work.

It might seem a strange way to approach ownership, but resale rights are not new in the art world. In the EU and the UK, the resale rights of artists are legally recognized. In France, the legal rights of the artist or the artist’s descendants to be compensated from the sale of artwork have been established in law for over a century.

Despite high-profile artists like Robert Rauschenberg fighting for resale rights, and legislation in New York and California supporting the concept, resale rights are still not recognized in the US.

NFTs introduce a fairer system that grants the same rights to all artists, that Europeans already enjoy.

7. NFTs Are Worthless

Anything with value, whether physical currency, NFTs, or a block of wood, only has value because two or more people agree it has value.

The most expensive baseball card in the world is reportedly a mint-condition Honus Wagner, priced at $3m. It might be hard to understand why anyone would pay $3m for a piece of cardboard with an image of a 1950s sportsman on it, but apparently, someone would.

All goods, all the things we spend money on, are worth what we agree they are worth. To me, a tulip bulb is worth more than a baseball card, but who knows, perhaps you don’t like tulips.

There are plenty of flaws in the systems that use NFTs, and there are plenty of detractors, but if you want to create and sell artwork and someone wants to buy it from you, NFTs are an excellent way of facilitating that transaction.

 

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What is the “Minimum” in Minimum Viable Product?

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“Minimum Viable Product,” or “MVP,” is a concept of agile development and business growth. With a minimum viable product, you focus on creating the simplest, most basic version of your product, web application, or code possible.

Minimum viable products include just enough features to attract early adopters and validate your idea in the early stages of the development lifecycle. Choosing an MVP workflow can be particularly valuable in the software environment because it helps teams receive, learn from, and respond to feedback as quickly as possible.

The question is, how exactly do you define the “minimum” in MVP? How do you know if your MVP creation is basic enough while still being “viable”?

Defining the Minimum Viable Product: An Introduction

The concept of “Minimum Viable Product” comes from the Lean Start-up Methodology, introduced by Eric Ries. The purpose of MVP is to help companies quickly create versions of a product while collecting validated insights from customers for each iteration. Companies may choose to develop and release minimum viable products because they want to:

  • Introduce new products into the market as quickly as possible;
  • Test an idea with real users before committing a large budget to product development;
  • Create a competitive product with the use of frequent upgrades;
  • Learn what resonates with the target market of the company;
  • Explore different versions of the same product.

Aside from allowing your company to validate an idea for a product without building the entire concept from scratch, an MVP can also reduce the demand on a company’s time and resources. This is why so many smaller start-ups with limited budgets use the MVP and lean production strategy to keep costs as low as possible.

Defining an MVP: What your Minimum Viable Product Isn’t

When you’re building a Minimum Viable Product, you’re concentrating on developing only the most “essential” features that need to be in that product. For instance, you might be building a shopping app for a website. For the app to be “viable,” it would need to allow customers to search through products and add them to a basket or shopping cart. The app would also need a checkout feature and security components.

However, additional functionality, like the ability to send questions about an item to a customer service team or features that allow clients to add products to a “wish list,” may not be necessary straight away. Part of defining a minimum viable product is understanding what it isn’t. For instance, an MVP is not:

  • A prototype: Prototypes are often mentioned alongside MVPs because they can help with early-stage product validation. However, prototypes are generally not intended for customers to use. The “minimum” version of a viable product still needs to be developed enough for clients and users to put it to the test and provide feedback.
  • A minimum marketable product: An MVP is a learning vehicle that allows companies to create various iterations of an item over time. However, a minimum marketable product is a complete item, ready to sell, with features or “selling points” the company can highlight to differentiate the item from the competition.
  • Proof of concept: This is another similar but distinct idea from MVP. Proof of concept items test an idea you have to determine whether it’s attainable. There usually aren’t any customers involved in this process. Instead, companies create small projects to assess business solutions’ technical capabilities and feasibility. You can sometimes use a proof of concept before moving on to an MVP.

Finding the Minimum in your MVP

When finding the “minimum” in a minimum viable product, the primary challenge is ensuring the right balance. Ideally, you need your MVP to be as essential, cost-effective, and straightforward as possible so that you can create several iterations in a short space of time. The simpler the product, the easier it is to adapt it, roll it out to your customers, and learn from their feedback.

However, developers and business leaders shouldn’t get so caught up focusing on the “Minimum” part of Minimum Viable Product that they forget the central segment: “Viable”; your product still needs to achieve a specific purpose.

So, how do you find the minimum in your MVP?

1. Decide on Your Goal or Purpose

First, you’ll need to determine what your product needs to do to be deemed viable. What goal or target do you hope to achieve with your new product? For instance, in the example we mentioned above, where you’re creating an ecommerce shopping app, the most basic thing the app needs to do is allow customers to shop for and purchase items on a smartphone.

Consider the overall selling point of your product or service and decide what the “nice to haves” are, compared to the essential features. For instance, your AR app needs to allow people to interact with augmented digital content on a smartphone, but it may not need to work with all versions of the latest AR smart glasses.

2. Make a List of Features

Once you know the goal or purpose of your product, the next step is to make a list of features or capabilities you can rank according to importance. You can base your knowledge of what’s “most important” for your customers by looking at things like:

  • Competitor analysis: What do your competitors already offer in this category, and where are the gaps in their service or product?
  • User research: Which features or functionalities are most important to your target audience? How can you make your solution stand out from the crowd?
  • Industry knowledge: As an expert in your industry, you should have some basic understanding of what it will take to make your product “usable.”

3. Create Your Iterations

Once you’ve defined your most important features, the next stage is simply building the simplest version of your product. Build the item according to what you consider to be its most essential features and ask yourself whether it’s serving its purpose.

If your solution seems to be “viable,” you can roll it out to your target audience or a small group of beta testers to get their feedback and validate the offering. Use focus groups and market interviews to collect as much information as possible about what people like or dislike.

Using your feedback, you can begin to implement changes to your “minimum” viable product to add more essential features or functionality.

Understanding the “Minimum Viable Product”

Minimum viable products are evident throughout multiple industries and markets today – particularly in the digitally transforming world. For instance, Amazon might be one of the world’s most popular online marketplaces today, but it didn’t start that way. Instead, Jeff Bezos began purchasing books from distributors and shipping them to customers every time his online store received an order to determine whether the book-selling landscape would work.

When Foursquare first began, it had only one feature. People could check-in at different locations and win badges. The gamification factor was what made people so excited about using the service. Other examples include:

  • Groupon: Groupon is a pretty huge discount and voucher platform today, operating in companies all around the world. However, it started life as a simple minimum viable product promoting the services of local businesses and offering exclusive deals for a short time. Now Groupon is constantly evolving and updating its offerings.
  • Airbnb: Beginning with the use of the founders’ own apartment, Airbnb became a unicorn company giving people the opportunity to list places for short-term rental worldwide. The founders rented out their own apartment to determine whether people would consider staying in someone else’s home before eventually expanding.
  • Facebook: Upon release, Facebook was a simple social media tool used for connecting with friends. Profiles were basic, and all members were students of Harvard University. The idea quickly grew and evolved into a global social network. Facebook continues to learn from the feedback of its users and implement new features today.

Creating Your Minimum Viable Product

Your definition of a “minimum viable product” may not be the same as the definition chosen by another developer or business leader. The key to success is finding the right balance between viability – and the purpose of your product, and simplicity – or minimizing your features.

Start by figuring out what your product simply can’t be without, and gradually add more features as you learn and gain feedback from your audience. While it can be challenging to produce something so “minimalistic” at first, you need to be willing to release those small and consistent iterations if you want to leverage all the benefits of an MVP.

Suppose you can successfully define the meaning of the words “Minimum” and “Viable” simultaneously with your new product creations. In that case, the result should be an agile business, lean workflows, and better development processes for your entire team.

 

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Harness the Power of Digital Transformation With the Help of Citizen Development

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The demand for automation has skyrocketed across industries and global markets in the past few years, and the need for workflows along with it. Why? Because they make communication easier, reduce time and effort, enhance functionality, and improve control, leading to increased organizational efficiency. They allow businesses to identify and respond to new opportunities.

More and more organizations are embracing digital transformation and changing the way they operate. But for digital technology to be integrated into all areas of a business, solutions must be built. Systems, processes, workflows must change. This transformation puts a lot of pressure on IT, a department that’s already overwhelmed. Digital transformation can no longer be solely driven by IT, and that’s where citizen development comes in. With citizen development, companies can pursue their digital transformation initiatives without worrying about IT’s backlog.

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