The CTO Handbook to Offshore Software Development

Offshore software development has recently been on the rise as a viable solution. This model is transformative for the flooded marketplace. Building teams in countries like India costs less and accesses highly talented engineers and those with niche skills.

mediaimage
The software industry is jam-packed. Despite big tech’s crisis, software companies will hit over one million in the next decade. Nearly half cluster in Western Europe and America, causing cutthroat competition, sky-high costs, and an engineering talent drought.

These are familiar pain points for seasoned leaders at US and European companies. Local engineering hires are pricey and limit access to top talent.

Offshore software development has recently been on the rise as a viable solution. This model is transformative for the flooded marketplace. Building teams in countries like India costs less and accesses highly talented engineers and those with niche skills.

But how can dedicated offshore teams benefit your business?

Let’s dive in and uncover what offshore development is, its benefits, and how to implement it.

What is offshore software development, and who is it for
Offshore software development means hiring overseas engineers to build your company’s software. To maximise efficiency, organisations going offshore often open new offices with dedicated teams in countries like India. These offshore development centres feature fully equipped facilities.

Tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and Apple have established R&D Centers in Bangalore to access world-class developers and quick scaling without stress or expense. So, if finding and hiring top tech talent at home is challenging, offshore development is worth considering.

Two types of companies leverage offshore teams:

1. Non-technical businesses needing website improvements or new digital products.

2. Companies expanding in-house teams to take on bigger contracts and boost value.

The first lacks software expertise and needs skilled developers. The second wants to scale up and outpace competitors.

In both cases, dedicated offshore teams provide talent that is expensive and hard to find locally.

Three major benefits of going offshore
Access global talent
Offshoring opens access to top tech talent across the globe. Diligent developers in Eastern Europe, savvy English-speaking experts in India – the world is your oyster.

The US currently faces a developer shortage, with a demand for 170,000 new programmers annually. However, there is a lack of qualified experts to fill these roles domestically. Offshoring allows companies to tap into overseas talent pools ready to build software. For example, India produces 1.5 million engineering graduates yearly with strong English skills, primed to join international teams.

Scale fast

Scaling development teams offshore is faster and easier than expanding locally. Flexible cooperation models make it simple to build and grow teams on demand.

Offshoring provides agility to add talent at speed. If growth arises, your overseas provider can swiftly supply additional developers to scale your capabilities, take on more work, and meet expectations. The flexible offshore talent pool allows for rapid expansion when required.

Focus on your business
A strong offshore partner takes care of recruitment, administration, payroll and more – allowing you to focus your efforts elsewhere with peace of mind.

As they handle hiring and onboarding excellent developers, you can devote time to engaging with clients and expanding your business. Offshoring lifts heavy administrative burdens, empowering you to concentrate on core priorities and growth. With personnel and payroll managed overseas, you can direct energy toward what truly matters – your customers!

Top 3 offshore software development locations
Asia
India is the leader in IT offshoring, with tech hubs like Bangalore producing 90,000 engineering graduates annually. Its large talent pool and lower costs make India an ideal destination for budget-conscious teams.

The Philippines also provides affordable overseas talent, though with fewer advanced qualifications on average. The average hourly rate in the Philippines is €28 — significantly lower than in Western markets.

Eastern Europe
Countries such as Poland and Ukraine are renowned for their technical expertise. Their proximity to Western markets and similar time zones also facilitates seamless communication.

Experienced developers in these Eastern European nations excel at delivering complex projects that demand close coordination. With competitive average rates of around €32/hr, Poland and Ukraine balance top talent with cost efficiency.

Latin America
Colombia, Mexico, and Argentina are emerging as strong tech hubs with cultural ties to Western clients. However, English proficiency can vary across these regions.

These Latin American countries offer proximity and cultural alignment for effective partnerships, though they may lack the depth of English fluency in other markets. With average hourly rates of around €37, they present cost savings over Western teams.

Choosing an offshore partner: 5 top tips

Once you decide to go offshore, finding the right partner is critical. A partner provides talent and guidance to achieve your goals. Follow these suggestions:

1. Identify needs – define what you want and filter partners specialising in those areas.

2. Assess communication – partners fluent in your language smooth collaboration.

3. Verify developer quality – look beyond claims to source, skills and experience.

4. Evaluate security – proper data protection and cybersecurity are non-negotiable.

5. Background check – search experience, testimonials and portfolios for trustworthy partners.

The right partner shares your vision, provides top talent, enables security, and ensures flawless communication. With an aligned offshore team, your development goals become a reality!

How to manage a successful offshore software development team
Building an offshore software development team is a significant accomplishment, but effective management is the next crucial step. Without proper leadership, offshore groups can feel disconnected, negatively affecting performance. To avoid this, focus on the following areas.

Share your mission and vision
Don’t view your offshore team as just execution partners. Introduce them to your company’s goals, brand vision, and product plans early on. The more context they have, the more invested they’ll be in your shared mission. Build trust through transparency and foster two-way communication.

Bridge culture gaps
You’ll encounter cultural differences between your local and offshore groups. As a leader, nurture a unified culture across locations. Make offshore teams feel appreciated through visits, social activities, and recognition. Dedicate time to two-way learning so both sides understand cultural perspectives.

Communicate clearly
Miscommunication affects all teams but can plague offshore groups. Combat this through:

Email for official information
Instant messaging for quick check-ins
Project management tools to track work
Set consistent daily standups, weekly reviews, and rituals to align everyone. Overcommunicate early until offshore teams grasp expectations.

Invest time in bringing offshore groups into the fold, and they’ll reward you with skill, creativity and commitment.

Summing up
Offshoring comes down to two critical factors: finding top talent and choosing a solid offshore partner. With effective leadership, you’ll maximise the benefits of offshore collaboration.

This guide has hopefully provided valuable solutions and insights into offshoring software development. The pieces are now in place to start building high-performance offshore teams that take your technology capabilities to the next level. It’s an exciting time — enjoy the journey!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off

How can you manage your offshore software development team?

Once you’ve done all the groundwork, the next step is to start building your offshore team with an offshore development company that you can trust.

mediaimage
Once you’ve done all the groundwork, the next step is to start building your offshore team with an offshore development centre that you can trust. Your offshore partner will take care of the recruitment, administration, and everything in between. However, as a stakeholder in the business, here are some tips on how you can manage your offshore team.

Share the vision and mission of your company

The first step towards a successful collaboration with your offshore team is to explain the vision and mission of your business to them. This is an opportunity to formally introduce the objectives, goals, and needs of your business and define where you see your company in the next couple of years.

A lot of the time, companies see their offshore team only as an execution partner for their development processes and nothing more. However, establishing a connection with your remote team is extremely important. The more they know about your brand, what you want to build, and why, the more invested they’re going to become in the vision and mission of your company.

Right from the moment you start building your offshore team, you should always have a clear vision and mission for your project, and that vision must be consistently and continuously communicated to your offshore team.

Bridge the culture gap
When working with a local team in the US and an offshore team in a country like India, you’re bound to come across some cultural differences. The key is to foster a unified culture of belonging across both your teams.

Remind your teams that they are both working towards a common goal and that if the project is a success, then everyone wins – together. It doesn’t matter where the person sits or what his role in the organization is.

As the lead on a project, it is your responsibility to make your offshore team feel appreciated and recognized. Make it your mission to ensure that every single person who is contributing to your project feels included, and as a part of your greater vision.

Visit your offshore team from time to time; conduct ice-breaker conference calls where both your teams get a chance to get to know each other and always be vocal about how you feel about their collaboration.

Communicate effectively
Effective communication is the key to a successful partnership with your offshore team, and many times, this aspect is overlooked by companies.

It is crucial to foster an environment in which effective communication becomes the first, and most important goal, without which your development project can derail. Some communication channels that you can use between your in-house and virtual teams include:

E-mails: official communication, schedules, and project meeting notes can be shared via emails.
Instant messaging: Instant messaging tools like Slack and Skype work best for quick clarifications, status updates, and queries.
Productivity tools: Project management is crucial when working with offshore teams because without it, you wouldn’t know what your remote team is working on. Tools like JIRA, Asana, and Basecamp are worth exploring.
These are just a few of the many strategies that you can implement when working with remote teams. We’ve written an entire blog post dedicated to the topic — a resource that can prove to be extremely helpful for your business.

Now that you know everything there is about offshore software development and how it can be a great move for your business, feel free to reach out to us by filling out the contact form, and let’s get started!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off

Hiring Offshore Developers: A Strategic Approach to Scaling Your Tech Team

In the fast-paced world of technology, businesses are constantly looking for ways to scale their development capabilities while maintaining cost efficiency and access to top talent. Hiring offshore developers has emerged as a powerful strategy to achieve these goals. By tapping into a global talent pool, companies can overcome local talent shortages, accelerate time-to-market, and optimize their budgets. In this article, we’ll explore the key benefits of hiring offshore developers and offer insights on how to make this approach work for your organization.

mediaimage
In the fast-paced world of technology, businesses are constantly looking for ways to scale their development capabilities while maintaining cost efficiency and access to top talent. Hiring offshore developers has emerged as a powerful strategy to achieve these goals. By tapping into a global talent pool, companies can overcome local talent shortages, accelerate time-to-market, and optimize their budgets. In this article, we’ll explore the key benefits of hiring offshore developers and offer insights on how to make this approach work for your organization.

Why Hire Offshore Developers?
Hiring offshore developers allows businesses to access a vast pool of highly skilled professionals from around the world. Countries like India, Poland, and Ukraine have become popular destinations for offshore development due to their large number of qualified developers, cost advantages, and robust IT infrastructure. Here are some of the primary reasons companies choose to hire offshore developers:

Access to Specialized Skills: Offshore developers often bring specialized skills that may be hard to find locally. Whether you need expertise in cutting-edge technologies like AI, blockchain, or cloud computing, or you’re looking for proficiency in specific programming languages, offshore developers can fill these gaps.

Cost Efficiency: One of the most compelling reasons to hire offshore developers is the potential for significant cost savings. The lower cost of living in many offshore locations means that companies can access top-tier talent at a fraction of the cost of hiring locally. This allows businesses to invest more in other critical areas like marketing, R&D, or customer support.

Scalability and Flexibility: Offshore development teams offer unmatched scalability and flexibility. As your project evolves, you can easily scale the team up or down based on your needs. This flexibility ensures that you only pay for the resources you need when you need them, making it easier to manage budgets and timelines.

Faster Time-to-Market: With an offshore team working alongside your in-house developers, you can take advantage of different time zones to accelerate project timelines. This “follow-the-sun” approach allows for continuous development, reducing time-to-market and giving your business a competitive edge.

Focus on Core Business: By outsourcing development tasks to offshore developers, your in-house team can focus on core business activities such as strategy, sales, and customer relations. This division of labor helps improve overall productivity and allows your business to grow more efficiently.

Challenges of Hiring Offshore Developers
While the benefits of hiring offshore developers are clear, it’s important to be aware of the potential challenges that come with this approach:

Communication Barriers: Working across different time zones, languages, and cultures can create communication challenges. It’s crucial to establish clear communication protocols, use collaborative tools, and ensure that all team members are aligned with project goals and expectations.

Quality Control: Ensuring the quality of work delivered by offshore developers can be challenging, especially when there are differences in work standards or practices. Regular code reviews, testing, and clear documentation can help maintain high-quality outputs.

Cultural Differences: Cultural differences can impact work styles, decision-making processes, and team dynamics. Understanding and respecting these differences is key to building a cohesive and productive team.

Security and Compliance: When hiring offshore developers, it’s essential to ensure that your intellectual property and data are protected. Work with reputable offshore partners who adhere to strict security protocols and comply with relevant regulations.

Best Practices for Hiring Offshore Developers
To maximize the benefits and minimize the challenges of hiring offshore developers, consider the following best practices:

Choose the Right Partner: Partnering with a reputable offshore development company is crucial. Look for a company with a proven track record, strong client testimonials, and expertise in the technologies you need.

Establish Clear Communication Channels: Effective communication is the cornerstone of successful offshore development. Set up regular meetings, use project management tools, and ensure that all stakeholders are aligned on project timelines and deliverables.

Define Clear Expectations: Clearly define your project requirements, quality standards, and timelines from the outset. This helps prevent misunderstandings and ensures that your offshore developers are working towards the same goals as your in-house team.

Invest in Relationship Building: Building a strong relationship with your offshore developers is essential for long-term success. Regularly engage with the team, provide constructive feedback, and recognize their contributions to foster a positive working environment.

Focus on Security and Compliance: Protecting your intellectual property and ensuring compliance with industry standards is critical. Make sure your offshore partner has robust security measures in place and understands the importance of maintaining confidentiality.

Conclusion
Hiring offshore developers can be a game-changing strategy for businesses looking to scale their tech capabilities, reduce costs, and accelerate time-to-market. By accessing a global talent pool, companies can overcome local talent shortages and gain a competitive edge in the market. However, success in offshore development requires careful planning, effective communication, and a strong partnership with the right offshore team.

By following best practices and staying mindful of the challenges, your organization can harness the full potential of offshore developers and drive your business toward greater innovation and growth.

This article draws on insights from The Scalers to provide a comprehensive overview of the benefits and considerations of hiring offshore developers, helping businesses make informed decisions when expanding their development teams.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off

Search Engine Marketing Firm – For Carving a Niche in the Online World

The business who has an established offline strategy feels that they are likely to make huge success in the online marketing as well. They are of the view that they do not have to make any attempts to catch hold attention of the online potential consumers. Quite the reverse, they should understand that they require rationalizing their endorsement as well as marketing stratagem as online marketing is entirely diverse. People making use of online means for any product, employ search engine ratings for their consideration. If in case any product or service does not have an online presence then its chances of increment slashes to great extent. All those businesses that are keen on reaching out to their potential customers through the techniques of online marketing but are clueless about them can take assistance from search engine marketing firm. These firms offer a business with the essential search engine marketing tips.

For a business to prosper, it is extremely essential to take in account the essential necessities of the potential consumers. This holds true for either offline business or online business. A search engine marketing firm enables the owner of the business to consider the needs of the consumers and form the strategy of marketing accordingly. The professionals who deal with the procedures of marketing are very much acquainted with the online strategies. They are in a position to know about the actual reason for not hitting at the target audience even after implementation of the marketing strategy in the devised manner. To draw more traffic and to raise the overall sales of the business owner, a search engine marketing firm will proffer the desired assistance.

The motive of online as well as offline marketing is to attract traffic which suggests more potential clients as more the consumers the sales of the product or the services tend to shoot for every business. An appropriate search engine marketing firm is responsible for changing the outlook of an ordinary website. With this it joins the brigade of top most sites in the search engine rankings. The listings of search engine are important as people delve for services as well as goods through the search engine. The business can take their support not only to target potential clients but also to promote and expand their sales at a much fast rate.

Search engine marketing firms are apt for each and every industry irrespective of the kind of services they promote. With the search engine marketing strategies they can definitely hope for outstanding outcome with comparatively more traffic. Theses tips are of great assistance for business who are established and those who are beginners in their respective field. These firms enable the business owner to carve out his own independent space in their arena and reach their set goals with the help of well define marketing strategy. For this all you are required to do is check the authenticity of the firm by carrying out a thorough research. With this you will be able to make a decision if your selected firm is appropriate in handling the task or not.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Traffic Assistants – Managed Search Engine Marketing

Search engine marketing is the process of gaining visibility for your company website on search engines like Google, Yahoo! and MSN. However, some knowledge, some capable assistance, and well-managed
search engine marketing can increase your chances for home business success. There are three primary goals associated with SEM:

1. Lead generation

2. Selling products online

3. Brand building

Managed search engine marketing takes into consideration all these key elements for ranking purposes. This gives you instant targeted traffic and builds up lots of cost effective targeted traffic over time.

The process of SEM-enabling a website includes both online and off line initiatives such as optimizing a website for search engine crawlers (search engine optimization, or SEO), managing paid listings and inclusions, submitting to directories, and pursuing link building programs.

Managed search engine marketing provides solutions to website owners that help to deliver traffic and customer leads while supplying tracking performance. The most popular way for people to find information on the Internet is through search engines. Search engine positioning experts help their clients to take advantage of top placement through keyword searches. Website design through content enhancement and by adding search engine friendly pages can help a website achieve higher rankings. Through analysis, marketing companies offer quality services that get a website the exposure it needs to grow and realize profits through website design, content and keywords.

You have built a website for your business. Are you getting the business you had hoped for? Now all you need are visitors, sales, and satisfied customers. Is your website doing all this well? A complete managed search engine marketing services would provide you with necessary techniques to helm your business. A completely managed search engine marketing service is based on constant and proactive management – as opposed to the reactive, project-based approach that is the industry norm today.

Before one can fully understand the importance and necessity of implementing a managed search engine marketing program into their marketing mix, it is important to look first at the phenomenal statistics regarding Internet use.

Search engine marketing is a new marketing method in the world of Internet marketing. Search engine marketing is about high web rankings, effective key phrases, qualified traffic, and measurable results. Search engine marketing is not just getting visitors to your site; it is getting bottom line results, sales, leads, subscribers. This marketing technique helps to bring up your site in the search results and to the customers and clients around the world. Under the broad category of search engine marketing, there are different methods which bring up revenue directly or indirectly.

A good marketing company would have search engine positioning experts on its staff that desire to learn about a client’s company through consultation, determining the best options that provide the greatest advantage. They will also take into consideration a company’s budget and cost constraints when determining the best way to obtain higher rankings with engines. Evaluation of a website will help to see where enhancements need to be made for organic listings to bring optimal results. Daily performance reviews should be conducted to ensure that desired results are being maintained.

Choosing keywords that best describe products and web content is essential for generating web traffic and providing access to search engine spiders. Research, selection, and placement of keywords need to be given careful consideration through search engine positioning experts. Keywords may be placed within a title, a domain name, first sentence of first paragraph, text link, heading, or even at the bottom of a page and the more specific they are the better, to narrow choices of viewers thus driving more traffic to a website. Don’t force keywords but instead use them to add quality to an article and try to maintain an average of a 3% ratio with keywords in comparison to total word content per article.

Effectively planned and managed search engine marketing programs can deliver tremendous results in the form of brand building and lead generation for B2B marketers. The most powerful SEM programs are tightly integrated with other marketing efforts–both off line (e.g., print, radio, trade shows) and online (e.g., email marketing, banner ads)–so target messages and offers are repeatedly presented to important audiences, no matter the medium.

A managed approach to search engine marketing is not simply about long-term commitments, fixed price budgets, reporting tools etc; these are just a few features – but they are certainly not the key benefits.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

eCommerce Website Design

eCommerce websites have their own unique character that is designed to lead the visitor to one simple task – make an online purchase. A web designer needs to consider a variety of online selling principles while designing an eCommerce website. In this article we will try to take a look at some of the major design aspects that you must have in an eCommerce website.

Many of you are probably already asking why eCommerce website design is different from any other website design. They all need to be attractive, well organized and use the right colors that fits the website spirit and so on. Your instincts are good. However a close look at some successful eCommerce websites will reveal the conceptual differences that are typical in a successful eCommerce website.

An eCommerce website needs to follow certain selling principles:

  1. Give the user a pleasant experience during his online shopping.
  2. Make certain you provide sufficient information on who owns the website and why they should be trusted.
  3. The website must be easy to use. If it isn’t, the visitor will go to your competitor.

Those principles are not new. We all know those basics from our day to day experiences in the mall, shopping center and every other market place that is waiting for us to open up our wallets. The big challenge for a web designer is how to translate those conventional marketing techniques to the virtual world of the internet. I’m sure you’ve all noticed that in most supermarkets the bread stand is placed at the far end of the building, yet you can smell the fresh bread at the entrance (sometimes they even use a special air duct to carry the smells). That has been done deliberately. Marketers use our sense of smell to draw us through the store where we are exposed to all sorts of tempting goodies as we go to get our loaf of bread.

How do you draw an imaginarily path in a web page? A path designed to lead the visitor to do what you want him to do…make an online purchase. Unlike the supermarket our website has no smell. In a website the distance from one point to the other is pretty much the same, so the exit is always right there. In a website you can try to order the “shelf” in the way you think will best expose the visitor to many of your products, but there is always a chance that he will find a short cut to another page that can also be the way off your site.

As can be see, although putting your products on the web is much easier then renting space and opening a supermarket. However, selling your products on the web can be difficult.

A good eCommerce website design will lead the visitor to the right page in one click or two at the most. Sometime web designers will use techniques that would never be considered for non-eCommerce websites. Everyone has seen at least one sales letter website. On these web pages the only link is to the order form. Sales letters are not the most typical eCommerce website because they usually sell only one product. That allows the web designer the ability to exaggerate the one click principle and make it an advantage. All the facts about the product have been presented to the user is a smart way while every few lines he has the option to click on the order form. If he is not yet convinced he will have the option to continue to read more facts and testimonials about the products. Believe it or not, those sales letter websites are actually selling.

“What about online shops?” Online shops have to deal with more then one product. Of course, the greater number of products increases the complexity of the website. Sophisticated eCommerce websites use a variety of personalization technologies in an effort to determine the best selection of products to offer to the visitor. Personalization technologies are a major part of advanced eCommerce websites. However this topic is beyond the scope of this article. The cleverness of an eCommerce website’s personalization technology has a major influence on its design. The first to use such technology was Amazon.com who decided to push their client’s books to a visitor based on that visitor’s past orders combined with the statistics they had collected on all visitors used to predict what someone looking at a specific book might also be interested in reading. Today the goal is to try to predict what to offer the user on his first visit as well.

An eCommerce web design is also about the layout. One important aspect is where the user’s eyes look first when accessing a web page. Lots of research has been done on this topic. Most research showed that the middle left side area will attract the most attention followed by the center of the page. By using these techniques web designers try to draw the “walking path” for the visitor’s eye, much like what was done at the supermarket. An experienced eCommerce web designer will know how to create designs to meets those demands.

If you are about to open an eCommerce website or you are already own one, make sure you understand the web design principles for online selling. Consider consulting with an experienced website designer preferably someone who has experience with eCommerce websites.

Good luck with your sales.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

What Are The Options For Ecommerce Business Solutions?

Ecommerce business solutions vary depending on a company’s requirements. These solutions can be purchased in a ‘ready made’ state or require a custom tailored solution. Some common ecommerce business solutions are introduced below:

Content management: This solution is the framework that controls the website content. Ready made content management systems can be purchased at the enterprise level or sought through open source sharing networks. Design templates can accommodate the integration of content management systems such as Drupal, WordPress and Joolma. This permits an organization to update content dynamically on the fly. Organizations that require large scale solutions can build from the ground up or purchase high end enterprise versions. These are typically more expensive.

Payment Gateways: Business ecommerce solutions to facilitate transactions include 3rd party solution providers and services provided by local banks. To integrate your website with your bank account is typically more expensive unless you support a large volume of transactions. Setup fees, monthly access fees and programming fees constitute part of this process. Third party solutions such as PayPal, and 2Checkout provide the vendor with the ability to transact in multiple currencies without integrating directly into a bank account. The money can be later transferred into your account by wire or direct deposit.

Security: Protecting your site from outside malicious attacks is a top priority for all ecommerce site owners. Reported cases of identity theft erode consumer confidence. Installing firewalls and using a service such as hacker-safe can protect your infrastructure and business reputation. Security is a growing area of concern for all site owners. Employing an appropriate ecommerce business solution to safeguard your system should be part of every ecommerce platform.

Email: Third party email services allow site owners to communicate and retain records of their customers. Companies such as Aweber and Getresponse host databases and provide front ends to correspond with customers.

Hosting: Ecommerce business solutions for hosting cater to organizational platform and functional requirements. Usually the web development company can recommend or has arrangements with hosting services. This requires a technical understanding to select a service that is appropriate for your site framework.

Custom ecommerce internet solutions for business: This requires the services of a programmer who can work to implement the technical scope. Internet developments have reached a stage where many of the common requirements of ecommerce sites can be fulfilled by cost effective third party solutions. If the technical requirement is more complex in nature, a custom approach is required.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

6 Major Benefits of Custom ECommerce Development Services

Is your brick and mortar business doing well?

Are you looking for ways to expand your sales and reach?

Then an eCommerce is the best solution for all your traditional business problems.

In fact, with everything digital, it has become essential to have an eCommerce store. That’s why it is better to understand the custom eCommerce development services, and how it will advance your business. If you’re worried about security or isn’t sure about the eCommerce development then this article is for you. It will help you understand the benefits of having an eCommerce solution.

eCommerce Development in Nutshell:

eCommerce website allows selling your products and services online. Users can easily browse your products and buy them online. Multiple payment gateways are integrated to provide instant payment options. All these without any physical presence or meet up. Here are some facts to prove the competitive edge of eCommerce development:

Around 67% of US millennials prefer online purchasing.
eCommerce has grown by 300% over the last few years
The revenue generated by eCommerce in the US last year was approx. $600-700 billion
Global B2B sales are expected to reach over $6.6 trillion by 2021
eCommerce sales are predicted to hit $4.48 trillion by 2021
By 2040, approx. 95% of shopping will be facilitated by eCommerce
Now, let’s explore the major benefits of going online
1. Global Presence

Unlike those brick and mortar shops that are bound to a single location, your ecommerce store is way beyond geographical limitations. You can sell your products or services to anyone across the globe. Consider Amazon, an eCommerce store that allows people in Australia as well as in Canada to buy the spices from Indian merchants. While Amazon is a marketplace, you can have an estore with just your products and services and sell according to your shipping capabilities.

2. Enhanced Customer Experience

The best part of eCommerce development is customer experience. You can provide them with all the support and details without having to actually interact in person. On the other hand, customers can simply buy/order the product or service from the comfort of their home.

3. Detailed Information

Do you recall explaining each and every customer about the product, its details, price, expiry, or other attributes?

The daunting task!

With eCommerce web development, you can provide all the necessary information about the products to your customers via the product detail page. With details about products, their specifications, images, attributes, customers can select the best-suited product/service. And you won’t have to act like a recorder that keeps repeating the same details.

4. No Time Constraints

You can sell your products 24*7. With eCommerce stores, there’s nothing like opening or closing a shop. You can run your business through your mobile phones or laptops even while relaxing on a beach or on a vacation on some isolated island.

And for customers, they can search for the product whenever they want – @ 3 am or 3 pm. Doesn’t matter!

You don’t have to attend them physically and that’s amazing.

5. Inventory Management

Management of orders, stocks, inventory, and customer data gets easy with eCommerce development. You can get rid of those manual billing and bulk files. Instant notifications and alerts with backend database support can help you track and save every detail online, which can be accessed from anywhere anytime.

6. Cost Saving

Spending on renting a place and its maintenance with staff costs too much. Whereas, a monthly or annual subscription, or opting for eCommerce development services would cost way less than a brick and mortar.

Conclusion:

In simple terms, it’s less risky and effective to go for an eCommerce web development whether you have a brick or mortar store or not. But planning wisely and choosing the right eCommerce development company is a must. After all, it has a lot of potential and ROI in the long term.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Arenas in Digital Marketing

Introduction to digital marketing:

Digital Marketing can be defined as promoting of brands or products and services using all forms of digital advertising. Digital marketing uses Television, Radio, Internet, mobile and any form of digital media to reach customers in a timely, relevant, personal and cost-effective manner.

Ways to do digital marketing:

1. Search Engine Optimization

2. PPC

3. Email Marketing (factors such as subject line, quality, and personalization are matters)

4. Social Media Marketing

5. Digital Display Marketing

6. Mobile Marketing

7. Content Marketing (It also includes blogs, eBooks, webinars, White papers and a variety of other outlets.)

8. Traditional Marketing Methods

Strategies and their Introduction:

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO):

SEO helps to make a website to be founded in Search Engine Results Page (SERP) for desired Keywords. SEO helps to build a brand.

Process: Measurable link-building and the creation of quality viral content are respectable marketing processes that work.

SEO’s return on investment (ROI) fluctuates as PPC (see below) rises and falls, and organic search results are more trusted than paid advertising.

That’s why SEO is more worthwhile over time. This includes:

• Keyword Analysis

• On page optimization (optimizing a website in page level)

• Off page optimization (building quality back links to web site and to web pages)

• Building authority for brand terms (This includes company profiles in major Social networks)

• Website health checkups (checking technical issues)

• Analytics Reports (Provides how our campaigns are working by seeing traffic)

2. PPC:

PPC helps to get traffic from Search Engines for targeted keyword terms. The benefit of this process is that, we are going to pay only for the clicks that we have received.

Google AdWords is the most popular PPC program.

Strategy: Identifying converting keywords, effective bidding process to keep the costs low etc…

PPC marketing provides instant results because it generates visitors quickly and also lets you measure your budget and ROI appropriately. Becoming well-versed in Google AdWords helps your company take full advantage of the potential benefits of PPC marketing.

3. Email Marketing:

Email Marketing is most traditional form of digital marketing, yet it gives exceptional results if we can personalize every email.

Important things to consider:

Step 1: gathering email IDs list. (Offering something like a PDF, eBook etc… , at our website, can be helpful to gather recipients email IDs.)

Step 2: A service like Aweber.com, mailchimp.com can be handy for instant reply messages and managing newsletter campaigns.

Step 3: Personalization is very important for a successful email campaigns. Personalization should be in Subject line, Body of the Message.

And the factors like catchy “Subject line” and “brief message” motivates the recipient to visit the targeted page.

News Letters: They are a wonderful way to engage with our community by sending weekly or monthly newsletters.

4. Social Media Marketing:

Social Media is the most and the very cost effective digital marketing strategy to engage with existing customers and to build a brand name across different Social Media communities.

First, define your goals. What are you trying to get out of social media?

Strategy: This starts with identifying right channels for the type of business we are in.

Step 1: creating business profiles on Social Networks: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ & Pinterest

Step 2: using photo sharing services like Flicker, Instagram etc…

using video sharing services like YouTube, Vimeo etc…
using PPTs sharing service like SlideShare…
using PDF sharing services like Scribd.com, SlideShare.com etc…

Step 3: Starting activities which represents your company business sector.

Step 4: Building a community at these third party Social Sites.

Step 5: Develop an editorial calendar to plan when posts go up, or manage your social media content stream through a platform such as Hoot suite.

5. Digital Display marketing:

• This includes paid advertisements (mostly image banner ads and video ads) on websites, portals, blogs which related to our industry.

• This works well because the pages displaying these advertisements are conveying something throughout their website, which is our business industry. So, the rate of converses is good in this process.

• With this display marketing we can raise traffic from the ad providing site and thus we might gain some leads with conversion rate strategies.

6. Mobile Marketing:

Before going to start this campaign we need to be sure that can we offer our services which can be accessible through mobile phones? If yes, then optimize your site for mobile phones.

• Optimizing website for mobile is important.

Mobile marketing includes… mobile search, content presentation (optimized site), display ads (PPC) and mobile compatible emails.

7. Content Marketing:

Content Marketing is a popular trend in digital marketing as it includes blogs, eBooks, webinars, White papers and a variety of other outlets.

All these are signals for freshness of the website. Google likes the sites which updated frequently and provides great deal of info.

The information that we provide should answer some question or show some solutions to a problem. So that it will gain respect and can be shared at online.

Note: This content marketing alone will work with almost all other online marketing campaigns.

8. Traditional Marketing Methods:

Digital marketing not only depends on internet. Apart from that it extends beyond this by including other channels such as mobile phones or cell phones, display banner ads, SMS /mms and digital outdoor etc…
All of these can be effectively used to build a brand name for an organization. Most of these are paid and when we have some campaign regards any public service that we can offer, we can get coverage by the following media for free of cost. In other words, they are earned.

Television: Advertisements (paid)

Radio: Advertisements (paid)

Newspapers: Advertisements (paid) and News created by any activity done by organization (earned).

News created by a program which offers some of the services to public for free (earned)

Magazines: Advertisements (paid)

Conclusion:

Strategies made for an organization are completely depends on their business model, the products they offering and the types of services they offer etc… However these are main and most used methods in best digital marketing service and we can inter relate them for any desired results.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Why Word of Mouth Marketing Strategy Is the Most Powerful Method for Growing Your Business

Sometimes, marketing can be a risky investment, especially true if you find that you try all the famous tools and strategies, but receive no results. Luckily, one of the most effective marketing strategies is practically free – and that’s word of mouth marketing.

Before making a decision to buy a product or service, people typically ask a family member or a friend for suggestions. They don’t rely on commercials. Word of mouth is the fastest way for people to get information. What is even more important, we perceive our friends’ and family’s experiences as the most trustworthy source of information.

Within the last few years, marketers have focused mostly on boosting the number of social media fans instead of connecting with them. Having a few hundred satisfied fans who love your products is far more effective than thousands who’ve only “liked” your website to win something.

WHY A WORD OF MOUTH MARKETING STRATEGY IS SO POWERFUL

Word of mouth marketing is the oldest and the most original social media platform. It is the most valuable form of marketing proven to drive the highest sales for companies. For this reason alone, no marketer shoulder overlook it.

Whether you are choosing a restaurant, smartphone or a hand cream, you will often highly value a suggestion from a close friend, neighbor or a co-worker. Why? Because traditional marketing strategies such as TV and newspaper ads aren’t as trustworthy as the actual people in your community.

Despite the numerous media platforms available nowadays, verbal communication about a certain product or brand is the best way to expand your business. Once a person passes the word about a certain product to their friends, they are much more likely to become loyal fans and regular consumers.

A word of mouth marketing strategy provides a long-term benefit for your business. When a consumer purchase is based on a prior referral, they often buy more in comparison with consumers who find products through conventional marketing. These consumers usually stick with your products or brand longer than others.

Moreover, when referred consumers communicate with their friends about your products and services, the value of the first referral spreads even more. Naturally, if these consumers are satisfied with your products, building a high quality brand should be your next business step.

Building your brand may be somewhat challenging if you are developing a small business. Brand building may prove demanding even if you have a franchise, especially if your competitors have already established their spot. Luckily, a good word of mouth marketing strategy can help consumers develop a positive feeling about your brand really quickly.

Once you establish your brand, a word of mouth, marketing strategy becomes a valuable method to expand your business and increase your profits. In comparison with the cost of a consistent conventional marketing campaign, which involves newspapers, radio and television, referrals are almost free.

BUILD UP YOUR WORD OF MOUTH MARKETING METHOD

You may have a great product to sell, but if consumers don’t know about it, you can’t turn it into profit. It is always a good idea to keep track of what people are saying about your products online, but there is a lot more to it than just creating your Twitter and Facebook profiles. Effective and successful word of mouth marketing requires serious thinking and lots of hard work.

Social platforms are the easiest way to get in direct communication with your target consumers. Due to the fact that social media has rapidly grown in the past few years, nowadays over seventy percent of all internet users use social media.

Almost forty percent of social media users, have shared brand-promoting content. This includes sharing information about a certain brand or product on their Facebook wall. Such content sharing is highly valuable since it inspires a great mass of people to talk about this brand or product, and eventually become consumers.

TARGET THE OPINION-MAKERS

The success of the word of mouth marketing method can increase even more if you take the time to win over the opinion-makers in your community. Opinion-makers are people who can influence a mass of people and shape the creation of opinions. This includes public figures, trendsetters, bloggers and journalists. They are the active voice in a community – and often speak out and give advice to others.

Since you want to reach as many people as possible, opinion-makers can be of great benefit for your business. They can help you build your brand successfully through word of mouth marketing. Therefore, it’s a good idea to make a list of the opinion-makers that appeal to your targeted audience and include them when promoting your brand.

MAKE AN IMPACT – BECOME A THOUGHT LEADER

Engaging the opinion-makers to promote your brand is great, but becoming a thought influencer is even better. You know what makes your business unique, so go ahead and tell people about it. Get the word of mouth process rolling by communicating with your audience.

You can reach your potential consumers through social media platforms, blogs or even at a conference. Choose the medium that supports your ideas best and establish a strategy to increase your influence in your community. Increasing your personal social influence will help you promote your brand more successfully.

WORD OF MOUTH IS THE KEY MARKETING STRATEGY

Word of mouth should be a key aspect of your marketing strategy. Many companies use a word of mouth marketing strategy, encouraging their happy customers to promote their products. It is crucial to provide consumers with a great product or service, so that they happily share their experience with others.

If consumers are satisfied with the quality of your products and services, they will be willing to share their experience with their close ones. Their family, friends, co-workers and even random people that read their tweets or blog posts, or ask them for advice, will certainly consider their suggestions.

A successful word of mouth marketing method promotes your business and convinces consumers to buy your products. By buying your products, people should be convinced that they are joining special ranks, and that your brand products or services will define their identity in a more positive way.

Whether planned or not, a word of mouth marketing strategy is well worth the effort. It is still considered the most powerful and influential type of marketing communication. If you put your energy into this effective marketing method, your company can become a beneficiary of word of mouth and build a successful brand. Remember that your brand is only as good as consumers claim it is.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off