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The first impression is the last impression, and the same stands true in the case of product pages. When customers see your product page, it takes just a few seconds for them to decide whether to make a purchase or not. The product page is your salesperson, responsible for boosting your store’s sales. So, don’t risk building your e-commerce store without designing highly converting product pages. I have put together this ultimate guide along with examples of different brands to help you design a compelling landing page - one that will win customers. How Do You Create a Product Page? Your only salesperson that works 24/7 is your website. That is why a great product page matters. However, these are some basic things a product page should contain: You should make this clear in a first glimpse of what you are selling, how it looks, and how much it costs. What are you selling? You should not fill the product page with loads of text. Bombarding the customer won’t help in the process. Keep it simple and state how your product can benefit the customer in a few emotional, touching words! Straightforward product description: Don’t focus on praising your product repeatedly. Try to mention some cons too. Example: “This product is not made for people with asthma”. Doing so builds customer trust. Stay loyal to the customer: Make sure to highlight both problem and solution for your customer. It works like a wonder! Customers can’t help themselves but buy the product when they see the solution to their problem or need. State solution to the problem: A 360 representation of your product will create a great user experience to help customers fully understand the product. Your product page should contain visuals like images and videos. Make your product visible: HUDA BEAUTY is killing it with product page design. Have a look: How to Display Products on My eCommerce Product Page: the Content of a Product Page While designing your product page, make sure your content is in the right place on the page. Meaning that your customer should not have to scroll down the screen to see further information about the product. The “above the fold” screen is where the most important features are displayed. So let’s start there: This section of the product page contains a brand logo and different categories options. Although the category sections consume more space, the best practice is to place them vertically on the page, just like Chubbies did. Page header: The middle section of the product page contains the product description. This is usually in the right-centre of the page. Product description usually includes a products’ name, price, and features. Make sure to add these in less complex words. Product description: Product images or videos usually are on the left-centre of the page. It contains product images and sometimes product videos of unboxing. Images on the product page: Video marketing strategy is an integral part of the overall visual marketing tactics you apply to promote your product or service. Therefore, it is critically important to create product videos. This format of content works great on every stage of the marketing funnel. Especially, product videos can help you build more awareness for your brand. Whereas, Illustrations are placed in a carousel display with 360 representation.  You can also zoom these pictures to get a better view. The button that says ‘Add to Cart,’ ‘Buy Now,’ and ‘Purchase Now’ is called the CTA button. This button leads the customer to immediately buy the product. Call-To-Action(CTA) button: Here’s a live example: What Should Be Included on A Product Page? These are some extra details that should be included in a product page to increase the product’s authenticity. So, let’s have a look: You should include detailed information about the product, such as product size, weight, and exact specifications of the product. A detailed description of the product: Include FAQs on your product page to make it easy for your customer to place orders right away- without asking the same questions from the customer service representative. FAQs: According to your customer buying history and stats, do place recommended products. By doing so, the chances that customers will buy both products or buy any of the products increase. Trust me,  it works most of the time! Recommend products: This is the only place where people trust strangers and their reviews about the product. So, list customer reviews on the page to make your customer feel safe while buying the product. Product reviews: Design a Product Page That is Aligned With Your Brand Identity Your product page should not look like it’s from another world. This is not how it works. Decide your signature design and use it all over your website. This will help you create a different identity. Similarly, your product pages should not look like they are abandoned from the rest of the website Tell Your Brand Story With Images According to research, people who shop online frequently expect to see 6 images and a product video before making a purchase. Although, it’s no surprise that images are the most crucial and attractive part of the product page. But they don’t have to be eye-appealing only; they are responsible to give customers a live experience as the product is placed right in front of the customer’s eyes. They should tell a brand story without speaking and sell without selling! Never Overlook Negative Messages and Comments Always reply to negative messages and comments in a thoughtful way. By doing so, you are creating a positive brand image. Your customers feel cared for. Don’t worry about these negative statements, as positive reviews will outrun negativity in the customer’s mind. Use negative comments as the opportunity to showcase your best customer service. If you don’t respond, customers won’t trust you. Eventually, your brand won’t survive, so make everything clear confidently! Utilize User-Generated Content Utilizing user-generated content means allowing users to comment on their reviews, sending queries, and posting photos of the product. Although, allowing these might invite instability, but user-generated content is worth it. More than images and other benefits that a brand provides, users trust other users more than they trust brands. These trusts can make or destroy a purchase. This is why user-generated content usually is visible at the bottom of the product page. To help the customer make the decision. It’s a Wrap! A product page’s design is a combination of science, art, style, and business. The goal of a great product page is to bring a product’s value beyond the screen of a computer. Products should also be easy to use and integrate into the daily lives of customers. This guide was meant to help you start the process. Be sure to design your product pages properly and make customers close the deal!

First Impressions Matter: How to Design a Product Page Effectively

is a boutique consultancy bureau focused on fintech and Web3. We closely watch developing trends in the modern technology sector. However, our team lacks technicians, back-enders, and designers at the startup level. Being far from a pure tech background, we are welcoming and eagerly exploring AI-powered technologies and tools to facilitate solving our current tasks, mainly tackled by web and graphic design. What the Money? This article is a reflection of our personal experience with several AI tools. We specialize in producing various digital products based on research and business intelligence, with the help of up-to-date online design and data management tools. We always continue improving the tactics and technics of packing and delivering WTM reports and news in the best and most attractive way. That’s why we came to AI as a prospective solution to accelerate the ‘graphic design part’ of our daily routine. What digital products do we seek AI-graphic tools for? Their main aim is to provide a basic understanding of the key financial, economic, and technological aspects of a country — for example, check out the UK or South Africa and many more on the : Mini reports or country reviews. WTM website While formatting these reports, we utilize and explore new AI tools. For instance, we are currently training a built-in AI tool in Notion (Notion AI, lifehack #1) to transform it into a WTM team helper that assists us with formatting mini reports, which we publish on the Notion platform. Thanks to the assistance of AI, our mini reports are turning out well, and Notion inherently provides the necessary and intuitively understandable functionality for customizing pages to meet any requirements. The size and format of these reports don’t require any additional external tools. For context: are a pleasant prelude to transitioning to WTM extended reports. Mini reports (coming soon) are approximately 50–70 pages and require more attention to designing and formatting. Extended reports This task led us to ask: Can we use AI tools to format reports where the work would be mainly in the hands of AI? WTM news channel on Telegram is dedicated to posting top fintech news and monthly digests. Occasionally, we curate specific posts from various news sources, which raises the question of how to gather all the essential information while adhering to the post's character limit. We aim to provide detailed descriptions for each case, but it can be challenging to fit within the constraints. To address this challenge, we have explored AI text-generative tools like ChatGPT and Jasper. These tools have proven to be highly effective in handling the summary task. They excel at condensing information and generating concise yet informative summaries of the original content. Leveraging such tools allows us to present comprehensive coverage of fintech developments while ensuring our posts remain concise and engaging for our audience. The task we are solving a completed text document formatted according to all the principles of readable material. Given: an AI application or applications where we can upload the entire document as a whole (not in fragments, this is important) and, as a result, get a designed report. The AI provides its vision for fonts, color schemes, possible decorative elements, build-up infographics, and paragraph formatting while preserving all the links embedded in the document. Essentially, we need a ready-made template with variable pages and basic settings (fonts, colors, decorations) into which we can simply upload a document as a file with a single click and obtain a finished product as output. Needed: And now, let’s delve into the search for the AI tool we need. In addition to personal experience, this article briefly overviews the AI apps market. Testing AI tools: a step-by-step guide Step 1: Taking the straightforward approach I started with the chart collecting the most popular AI-powered apps categorized by type. I reviewed and tested all the applications in the “Text” category. Some allow users to create a collaborative workspace, while others help build email newsletters and generate texts. None of them came close to my task. The main drawback was the inability to work with my existing document. Therefore, let’s move to the next step. Okay, no success with text, but I also need to add images to any formats of our work to make products more understandable and attractive, and of course, I want my visual elements to be unique. For this purpose, I found , an AI tool that creates images out of text and has different image styles to make precisely what you want. Fotor Step 2: Basic browser search Here, I tried different combinations of words to search for the specific application I needed. It started with “AI that works with existing text,” “can design the text into a report,” “can transform the text into a document,” “find design solutions,” “work with fonts and highlights,” and so on. I came across various interesting AI applications, but once again, none of them were suitable for my needs. The issue persisted: AI was eager to write the text for me but did not format it appropriately. I found one helpful tool that helps in building up an infographic. It is called , consists of templates, and is similar to . I watched a tutorial on how to use it, and its interface is very user-friendly and intuitive; there is an extensive collection of elements so that it can be suitable for any kind of business or personal use. I worked here to create the infographic for , and it took me a little time to make the requested image. Visme Canva our Green eCommerce article Step 3: Changing tactics — presentation format comes into play I recalled encountering reports formatted as presentations rather than in A4 format, and the market for AI applications for presentations would surely not disappoint. There are indeed numerous options available, catering to various preferences. Some even function as plugins in . However, the major obstacle I faced was that only some applications I found could seamlessly insert the entire document text into the slides while evenly distributing the information. They would truncate the text or suggest again, “Just provide the idea, and I will handle everything for you.” No, thank you. Automation is necessary; I need to prepare to painstakingly insert the text into predefined cells myself, as it would be a time-consuming task. Figma Later we decided that the presentation format differed from how we wanted to see our extended reports. However, this type of info presentation can find a place in our other tasks, so I suppose that is a tool that deserves attention. It is a plugin that works in Google Workspace, and it creates slides out of your text and fulfills it with design and pictures by installing an AI machine. I downloaded the first part of its article to see its power. SlidesAI transformed my text into a minimalistic presentation where I could work with design: SlidesAI Step 4: AI for AI — not a tautology but a necessary solution I came across a resource that gathered various AI tools and categorized them. The user had to enter keywords to search for the desired AI app, and it displayed subscription costs and brief descriptions. Desperation and inflated expectations played a significant role here. I tried numerous combinations and spent hours searching, but my AI grail remained elusive. Step 5: Acceptance By then, the most suitable tool (not AI) for us is . Yes, it has some AI tools, but they are simple and less potent than a self-sufficient application. However, it has enormous potential, like Google Docs, but in addition to text, it has different decorative elements. Now we are developing the design of our extended reports, monthly digests, and social media posts here, and its page with Brand Templates is beneficial. Its primary disadvantage is that it takes time to upload all text by dividing it into pieces for each page and adding space. Canva The search is not over; we hope to find the perfect solution for our task. After all, new AI solutions are emerging right before our eyes. Of course, I may have missed out on a particular application or failed to recognize the potential of a specific tool. AI solution for our request. Wanted: infinite gratitude and Part II of this story with a mention. Reward: is a fintech consultancy bureau that advises on doing business globally and talks about digital innovations, payment landscapes, and e-commerce. WTM releases monthly digests, regular reports, and articles on hot topics in these industries. ‘What the Money?’ Find available reports on the website, or follow WTM socials to learn more fintech insights and news: , , and . official blog LinkedIn community Telegram-channel

AI Graphic Tools For A Non-Designer: Practical Advice For Startups

Herramientas gráficas de IA para personas que no son diseñadores: consejos prácticos para empresas emergentes

Outils graphiques d'IA pour un non-designer : conseils pratiques pour les startups

गैर-डिज़ाइनर के लिए एआई ग्राफिक उपकरण: स्टार्टअप के लिए व्यावहारिक सलाह

非デザイナーのための AI グラフィック ツール: スタートアップ向けの実践的なアドバイス

Ferramentas gráficas de IA para quem não é designer: conselhos práticos para startups

Công cụ đồ họa AI dành cho người không phải là nhà thiết kế: Lời khuyên thiết thực cho các công ty khởi nghiệp

面向非设计师的人工智能图形工具：给初创公司的实用建议

Every marketer worth their salt knows that customer testimonial videos are essential for driving conversions on SaaS landing pages. I am not saying it’s easy to fake written testimonials, but video testimonials are in comparison. more authentic and persuasive Video is which makes your prospects spend more time on your landing page (also good for SEO) more immersive Video is as it engages both the visual and auditory senses, making your message more impactful. more memorable Overall, a study by Nifty Marketing reveals that such as explainers, product demos, how-tos, and brand videos. 25% of the highest-performing landing pages use some form of video marketing Yet, even with this knowledge, a report by Vidyard reveals that only , and even fewer (41%) use customer testimonial videos. 57% of marketers use video on their landing pages This begs the question: why aren’t more markets using customer testimonial videos to increase landing page conversions? Possible explanations: they think it’s too expensive, time-consuming, or too difficult to get customers to respond. According to , 30% of marketers don't have time to create video content. 10% feel that video is too expensive, and 18% admit that they don't know where to start. Wyzowl’s 2023 video marketing statistics As a marketer or a SaaS founder, you’re probably wondering: Who’s gonna do all the editing? It’s one thing to ask a customer for a written testimonial, but will they actually agree to record a video? How many videos do I need to put on my landing page to increase conversions? Can customer videos slow down my landing page loading speed? Where do I position them for the maximum impact? The concerns are endless, but what if I told you that you don't need a big budget, a production team, or editing experience to collect professional customer testimonial videos? Makes it Easy to Request, Record, and Edit Customer Videos Vocal Video It takes more effort to record a video than to write a testimonial. Your customer has to get up, get to a place with enough light, put on their best smile, and actively engage with the screen. Vocal Video makes this process as easy as possible both for you and for your customers. First, you need to build a video collector (they have to help with that) that includes your welcome message, the questions you want answered, and a thank you message. video collector templates Next, send a link to your customers inviting them to record a response. They don’t need to download or install anything—all they do is click a link and answer the prompts on the screen whenever they’re ready. No schedules, no back and forth, no meetings, no pressure. For users who'd rather not appear on screen, Vocal Video provides the option of recording audio which can then be turned into video by incorporating images, subtitles, audiograms, and animated transitions. Vocal Video then automatically generates professional videos for you based on the response you get from customers. The results are complete with your brand’s colors and name, the questions you asked, auto-generated captions, your respondent’s name, soundtracks, subtitles, and animated transitions between responses. Finally, the easy-to-use editing interface allows you to add or remove components and transform your video into an attention-grabbing marketing tool: Add your logo in the intro, outro, and subtly throughout the video Change the order of the responses Break up the video and make it more engaging with interesting graphics Add a CTA at the end of the video to prompt viewers into action Include subtitles to make the video more accessible Add animated slides that display the questions being answered by your interviewee The option to upload your own soundtrack or choose from the Vocal Video library Intersperse multiple scenes to make a customer highlight reel, or a multi-person testimonial video Now, there are many solutions that make it easy to record customer videos; and ; but my personal favorite is Vocal Video for two reasons: VideoPeel VideoAsk Compared to VideoPeel, Vocal Video has a cleaner and more spaced-out interface. The editing capabilities of VideoPeel are limited to overlays and disclaimers; you can’t do much else to manipulate the responses your customers send which may limit your engagement and conversion rates. Vocal Video allows you to do much more as outlined above. And the best part? It’s only $49 a month for a Solo account, $33 per user per month for the Team version, which allows up to 3 users, and $39 per user per month for the Pro account, which allows up to 5 users. Now that you know you don’t need to break the bank for professional customer testimonial videos, let’s get into it. How SaaS (and non-SaaS) Landing Pages are Using Customer Videos to Drive Conversions. Positioned a Customer Video Strategically Life360 Most landing page advice will tell you to always position your videos ‘above the fold’ so prospects can see them without scrolling. Looks like Life360 flipped that script, literally, and placed a customer testimonial at the very bottom of their landing page. This confirms that the position of a video on your landing page doesnt always matter; it’s the content you should be worried about. If your message is impactful enough, your video will work anywhere. Uses Multiple Video Types Samsung Galaxy Pay attention to this one if you’re wondering how many videos to place on your landing page. Samsung includes a product film, expert customer review highlights, and an introduction to their product’s features on their landing page. This can increase conversions for a couple of reasons: First, it caters to different stages of the buyer’s journey. A product video is a great way to introduce your product to potential customers who are in the awareness stage of the funnel. A customer video (expert review highlights in this case) can provide additional credibility and reassurance to those in the consideration stage, while an introduction film caters to those in the decision stage of the funnel. . Second, multiple video types also provide different perspectives on the product In this case, prospects can get an overview of the product and see how it has helped others. Additionally, having multiple video types can , address different concerns about your product, and offer more engagement opportunities. increase the time your prospects spend on your page I recommend using this approach to optimize your landing page if you have a complex product or limited customer testimonial videos. Made a Wall of Customer Videos Recruit Rockstars An entire wall of happy customers is enough social proof to reinforce the authenticity of your product. Besides, it’s visually appealing (just look at the design, complete with brand colors and everything). Having said that, I’d like to point out that over-reliance on video content may decrease your landing page conversion rates because videos are not easy to scan like written content. If not designed properly, too many videos can be overwhelming for prospects. It can also be redundant to include multiple videos addressing the same concerns. Recruit Rockstars doesn't fall into the trap of over-reliance. While they don't have any written copy on the page, they do have that is always visible at the top of the page. a clear and strong call to action Besides, their videos reflect how their product has helped , solving the redundancy issue. different people in multiple industries Furthermore, the ; some are less than a minute, and others are longer than four minutes. Varying video lengths cater to different attention spans which provides a dynamic experience to your prospects. videos have varying lengths Just like the video position, the length of your customer testimonials doesn’t always matter as long as the video content is relevant to the audience. Uses a Highlight Reel Airbnb Host A highlight reel saves you some serious real estate on your landing page. Within seconds, AirBnB Host was able to demonstrate how multiple customers use their product. Depending on your product and the context of your landing page, you can use customer video highlights to: Create a sense of urgency Highlight the most important benefits of your product Provide a glimpse into the typical customer experience You’ll notice that this landing page uses autoplay which may or may not work for you depending on your product and audience. My best advice is to A/B test it and track the impact it has on conversions. Always consider the video context when making a highlight reel. However, don’t use videos that are too similar to avoid redundancy (unless you make the reel short and snappy like AirBnB Host did). Uses both Animation and Live Video Visme Presentation Software Visme’s customer testimonial is visual gold because it incorporates something extra; animation that explains the product features. Essentially, it’s a mash-up of a product video and a customer testimonial. Instead of placing your videos separately (like in Samsung Galaxy’s case) you can combine them into one. Visme does a few things to prevent the video from being too busy or flashy: They overlay the animation on top of the video so the customer is always visible in the background The video gets bigger as you scroll the page, further grabbing the attention of prospects. Rather than being distracting or overwhelming (the difference largely depends on design), the activity in the video adds a layer of excitement. The animation emphasizes what the customer is saying and makes the video more memorable. Overlaying animation over the live video also caters to different learning styles that customers prefer. Customer Videos Can Decrease Landing Page Conversions in These Instances You’re bound to run into some challenges along the way, but it’s never anything that can’t be fixed. Low-quality or blurry videos can turn off your prospects. If you can’t ask the customer to re-record the video, change its encoding settings, or use editing tools to improve the brightness/ contrast, you’re better off discarding that video. Maybe just upload the audio into Vocal Video and keep the screen busy with animations and text? It may not be as persuasive as a real customer on the screen, but it’s your next best option. Irrelevant testimonials can cause confusion and decrease trust in your brand ...so don’t do it. It’s better to have no testimonial videos than use videos that appear out of place. Unconvincing or scripted testimonials can bite you in the a** Scenes that appear still or fake (read inauthentic) can reduce trust in your brand as well as damage your reputation. The trick is in the editing (lots of fun b-rolls), or you can simply write a fun script that feels personal to your prospects. A good example of a scripted video that presents as fun and authentic is this Slack customer testimonial done by , a company that makes commercials. The video does a great job of capturing the natural responses of the interviewees. Sandwich Video https://youtu.be/B6zVzWU95Sw?embedable=true Video can slow down your landing page loading time To fix this, you can compress the video file before uploading, optimize the video player you’re using, or use lazy loading which defers the loading of the video until your prospect scrolls to the section of the page where the video is located. If you’re designing a landing page for mobile or targeting prospects with slow connections, using video might be the wrong call altogether. Are You Ready to Increase Your Landing Page Conversions? As a marketing professional, I understand that testimonials are just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to a successful lead generation strategy. It's essential to approach lead generation holistically and consider all of the different tactics that can help your business succeed. For instance, you might want to optimize your web copy, strengthen your social media presence, run targeted ads and remarketing campaigns, build meaningful lead magnets, create relevant blog content that targets high-buying intent keywords, or conduct SEO audits to identify and address any issues that could be holding you back. If you need help developing or improving your lead generation strategies, don't hesitate to reach out. I'm an experienced pro when it comes to creating copy that converts. With a custom lead generation plan tailored just for you, we'll be able to get your business the results it needs to thrive. Let's chat! First published . here

Numbers Don't Lie: Video Testimonials Boost Conversions on SaaS Landing Pages

Testimonials are a strong way to build customer trust and drive potential customers to your website. However, getting your customers to offer reviews and testimonials for your products and services could be quite a daunting task, especially when you’re seeking video testimonials. But, it’s not impossible. If you know how to talk to your customers about testimonials, you can convince them into giving a great video testimonial that will instantly boost your rates. conversion So, if you’re confused about it, this article has all the tips to help you know how to get video testimonials from your customers. What is a Video Testimonial? A video testimonial, as its name itself suggests, is a review from your customers in a video format. The customers share their experiences about your product and services in an audio-visual form thereby helping garner more trust and loyalty and assuring peers in a more effective manner about the efficacy of your services. Why Video Testimonials Work It’s a world where trust is rare. Prospective customers will face trust gaps with your company and would be highly unsure about your products and services. They’ll look for means that would assure them that they can expect good service from you. Video testimonials act as a bridge to cross the trust gap that prospective customers have with your brand. Statistics reveal that of customers go through reviews before making a purchase decision. Video reviews are more engaging as they have an emotional appeal attached to them. 95% Video testimonials work because they tend to tell a story. The prospects can see someone else having a great experience with your brand and such stories sell instantly thereby offering you the much-needed conversions that lead to boosted sales and profitability. 5 Ways to Get Video Testimonials from Your Customers As important as customer testimonials are, it’s not easy to get them, especially video testimonials. You can come across objections like “I don’t have the time to create a video”, “I am not comfortable on a video” or “I wouldn’t know what to say” and the like. Alternatively, the customers may share a low-quality video that doesn’t really serve your purpose. So, you can understand the work it takes to get customers to give a good quality video testimonial that you can use to appeal to your prospects and leads. However, knowing the right tactics to get video testimonials from customers helps. So, here we are, sharing five easy and quick ways to get video testimonials from your customers. These tactics will work like a charm, and you’ll have more leads coming in no time at all. 1. Communicate with Customers Directly Personal communication is the best way to meet your requirements. This is true with video testimonials too. Your customers will appreciate that you directly talked with them about the testimonial. You can simply send an email about sharing a video testimonial. Make sure that you’re making the customer feel special in the email and that the email connects personally and emotionally with the customer. A better option yet would be to send a video email. This way your customers would become more comfortable in sharing the video and your chances of response on the email and video testimonials coming in will increase. Remember that you need to convince the customers for sharing their videos. Some people are more comfortable with the camera than others. So, you need to identify such customers and send emails accordingly. You may also need to work on the videos you receive in terms of the quality of the videos and the stories being shared. The beauty of asking customers directly for the video testimonials is that they look more authentic and trustworthy because they’re raw and customers have shared their real stories and experiences in them without altering any details at all. However, such raw videos may not have the desired video quality in terms of visuals and audio. You may also have to cut out and edit a few things to make sure that everything is as per your requirements. Another important factor in resorting to this tactic for getting video testimonials is that you need to have proper staff for customer outreach and management. Once you have all these things figured out, asking your customers directly for video testimonials works out without you having to face many objections from them. 2. Include a Video Testimonial Clause in the Contract When you’re entering into sales agreements and contracts, businesses are always on the lookout for discounts and offers. They’ll want to make you go down on the prices as much as they can. Now, offering discounts makes sense if you can get something in return from these businesses, especially when they’re large businesses with huge buying powers and niche positions in the marketplace. Here, putting in the clause that the businesses would help you with your marketing activities and initiatives makes sense. However, having businesses do good on that promise is an essential thing to consider. You can discuss your needs with them. They could talk about your business in their marketing promotions, seminars, releases, etc. At the least, getting a video testimonial is something you could do. You can simply add a clause that the customer will share a video testimonial speaking about their experience with the company in return for some discounts that you’re offering. Any business would never give in to anything without getting something in return. You need to follow that principle too. The least you can get is an appreciation for a service that you’re offering at a discount for the sake of better customer relationships. 3. Offer to Interview Customers Interviewing your customers for video testimonials is a great way to get quality videos that you can use for the best leverage. When you offer to interview your customers for your service or , they get the notion that you care for their experiences. product feedback Moreover, when you share their experiences with others, they feel special as a customer, and you instantly build a good customer relationship that is full of customer loyalty and trust. The video testimonials you get by interviewing your customers are also more natural and engaging. As the customers talk about their experience with you, you can create a story that sells and brings conversions from other prospects as well. You may have to edit the interviews as per your needs and spare time for taking such interviews, but everything pans out to be bringing more business and profitability. Such one-time interviews offer an opportunity to make more customers in the long term. 4. Approach Customers in Live Events Live events are a great opportunity to get your customers to share their experiences with your company. You can simply approach the customers and ask them a few questions while taking their permission to record them. This method particularly works if you have large businesses in your clientele that often decline to share testimonials if you approach them in any other manner. When you approach them at live events, they’d most probably agree to give a quick video and you can edit the video for later and assure them that there’s nothing wrong with posting the video. However, how you approach the customers at these events will matter a lot. Not many people are open to sparing their free time during an event to create videos for you. So, you’ll have to approach tactfully and assure the customers that it will not consume much of their time. The best options are to have your video set up ready, have some questions handy, and be quick with the entire process in a way that the customers are in and out before they know. What events you choose for approaching the customers for a video testimonial is also essential. You don’t want to come out creating the impression that the event is only for the sake of testimonials. Everything must flow naturally at the event and your customers must get value from what they’re attending. 5. Create a SPIFF Program Putting your employees up to the task of securing the testimonial videos from the customers is also a good approach. However, you need to ensure that your employees are taking the task seriously. What you need to understand here is that there’s already a lot on your employees’ plates and they would not be up to taking on any additional responsibilities. So, when you’re handing them the task of securing testimonial videos from the customers, which is a daunting job, you need to assure them that they’ll get incentivized for it. This is where a SPIFF program comes into the picture. A SPIFF program is mainly created for the sales team of the company where the sales reps get commissions based on the sales they make for the company. So, for video testimonials, the SPIFF program would work on the basis that the employees get an incentive of some value, whether monetary or otherwise for every customer they convince for a video testimonial. Offering such incentives to the employees would put them more dedicatedly to the task. You simply need to ensure that you’re creating the program for the right individuals. The customers will not be open to talking to anybody. They need to be comfortable with the person who’s asking for their videos. So, how employees approach their customers needs to be kept in check. You want to ensure that the salesperson directly connected and coordinating with the customers is approaching them for their video testimonials. This way there will already be an established customer relationship and the chances of customers agreeing to the request will be higher. The sales reps also need to understand the correct tactics to ask for video testimonials. Being casual with the tone is essential. You don’t want to sound desperate for the testimonials nor do you want to make the customer feel uncomfortable. Adding it as an afterthought seeking whether the customer would be comfortable sharing their experience with the company’s product or service would do the trick. In any case, the SPIFF program works like a charm with multiple employees in your organization bringing in the desired video testimonials from the client accounts they’re handling. Platforms that Help in Collecting Video Testimonials from Customers We are surrounded by technology, and you’ll need it to take video testimonials from the customers. Be it camera set-up, approaching the customers for video, or anything else required for getting video testimonials from the customers, some platforms are always helpful with the process. Let us discuss some of the best platforms that you can leverage to the best of your benefit. 1. VocalVideo Vocal Video is one of the easiest tools to get video testimonials from anyone at any time. The tool helps to collect, edit, share, and host video testimonials and increase your chances of making more conversions. Your customers can directly make the videos on the app and share them with you. The tool also comes with multiple templates that you can use to customize and edit the videos. You can also ask questions within the templates and make it easier for your customers to record their testimonials. There’s almost every feature that you’d need to create a good and shareable video with options to add themes, brand logo, background music, subtitles, etc., and the ability to edit and customize the testimonials as you like. Plans - $0/month with limited features Free Plan - $99/month Team Plan - $299/month Pro Plan 2. Visme Visme is not simply a video creation tool, but it’s a complete workshop for the creation of multiple types of content. With simple usage functionalities, Visme helps you create the most amazing customer testimonial videos. It has multiple templates to choose from and the features are such that seasoned and beginner designers and video editors, both can use the tool alike without any difficulties or hassles. Plans - Free Basic - $12.25/month Personal - $24.75/month Business - Custom Pricing Enterprise 3. Canva’s Video Editor Canva’s free online video editor allows you to create engaging videos (including video testimonials) on the go using thousands of fully customizable templates, with no software installation required. You can edit videos that look awesome and professional on any platform — whether it’s on a widescreen, tablet, or mobile device. It allows you to upload and manage your media clips, add text, transitions, and graphic elements, as well as include music, audio tracks, sound effects, and more. Plans - $0/month Canva Free - $12.99/month Canva Pro - $14.99/month Canva for Teams Are You Ready to Boost Your Conversions with Video Testimonials? Customer testimonials are the best way to conduct proof-based marketing. Getting video testimonials from the customers could be quite daunting, however, knowing the right tactics makes the process easier. We hope this article was helpful in giving you the idea of getting video testimonials from your customers and that you’re all set to boost your conversions by sharing excellent video testimonials.

5 Easy Ways to Get Video Testimonials from Your Customers

Businesses worldwide rely on data to enhance their daily operations but struggle to use it in its raw form. According to Nucleus Research, businesses that invest in analytics tend to get a return on investment (ROI) of on every dollar spent. Data visualization tools play a critical role in analytics by converting raw data into incredible visuals that are easy to comprehend by an organization’s stakeholders. $13.01 What is a Data Visualization Tool? Even though data visualization is a general term, it can be used to refer to specific software that can process and convert data into a visual format including graphs, charts, tables, and much more. These visuals are a great way to disseminate information in an easy-to-digest format and communicate important information to a wide variety of stakeholders. As a user, you need to choose a data visualization tool that is easy to use and provides you with the functionality that meets your requirements. Here are some options for some of the best data visualization tools available in 2022. Tableau Tableau is the industry-leading data visualization tool known for its accuracy and features. It offers an advanced data analytics platform, as well as the option for processing big data for larger organizations. Tableau can be used to create simple charts or more interactive visualizations and does not require an immediate subscription to use. It also lets you import data from other sources, such as spreadsheets — eliminating the need to copy data manually. With room to create visualizations from a variety of options, Tableau is a strong pick for businesses both small and large. ChartExpo ChartExpo is an interactive, easy-to-use data visualization tool that gives researchers, data analysts, marketers, and business professionals the option to create visualizations in a few clicks. Like Tableau, it lets you import data from spreadsheets to create basic to advanced data visualizations like the , Likert Scale Chart, Pareto Chart, Comparison Charts, Sunburst Chart, and Scatter Plot. Sankey Diagram It also lets you export your visuals in JPG or PNG format for use in business reports, dashboards, and data presentations. Datapine Datapine is an all-in-one data visualization tool and business intelligence platform that is a good choice for generating classic charts and graphs. It is designed to be user-friendly and collaborative, with features ranging from the intuitive drag and drop interface to giving users multiple sharing options. The tool does not require any technical skills to use and its user-friendly layout makes navigation a breeze and speeds up the process of visualizing data for business operations. It also allows for the use of adding data from multiple sources. Visme Visme is an advanced data visualization and analytics tool that goes beyond the typical way of data processing. It comes with a complete set of tools, including a graph maker and data widget library, that is a great choice for anyone looking to generate data visualization to communicate specific information. In addition to its suite of data visualization tools, it gives users the freedom to take on additional projects such as generating proposals, reports, or any other types of presentation that involve bits of data — combining business intelligence with data visualization to produce output that can be easily comprehended. Whatagraph Whatagraph is the go-to data visualization tool for digital marketers who need to develop highly interactive dashboards for clients and the market audience. The tool creates visuals by using integrations from different sources such as SEO, social media, and PPC marketing activities, to create visualizations that can be modified according to brand or marketing strategy. It also comes with white label templates that give users the freedom to enhance engagement within the target market. Whatagraph analyses marketing data campaigns and other forms of data within the business environment to present insights that can be easily understood and applied in business operations. Infogram Infogram is a versatile and friendly data visualization tool that comes with various options that are easy to integrate and use. Business operators prioritize using this tool since it does not come with any form of technicalities and includes a dashboard template library with multiple features that make data processing and presentation a breeze. Visuals created using Infogram are straight to the point and are easy to understand without the need for further interpretation. It comes with more than 30 different types of charts that can be used while creating visuals. Infogram is an excellent choice for organizations that intend to analyze data to get the best out of their businesses. Final Verdict Using data visualization tools to process data makes it easier for teams to comprehend areas of focus as well as their target market. So feel free to use any of the aforementioned tools while keep in mind things like ease of use and whether a tool has the features you need.

Top 6 Data Visualization Tools for 2022

While browsing through your social media account, chances are you often stumble upon which displays information and data with the help of colorful charts, icons, images, and expressive fonts. This piece of content is known as an infographic, breaking this term down can help one understand this term easier. striking content material Information presented with the help of graphic aid to present facts and knowledge, turning dry and monotonous words to engaging and eye-catching visualizations is the mission of infographics. Multinational companies today hold full faith in the power of customized infographics. For example, Intercom, an AI chatbot company, makes use of quirky and innovative illustrations to highlight youth and amusement as the core values of their spirit. You may recall them from when your professor used them in class to present a timeline of facts about the history of Apple Inc. or when your boss presented the monthly statistics of the profits made by your firm through a PowerPoint presentation. As per Xerox, people’s motivation to select a piece of content is governed by colors and hence black and white font seems less engaging. They also point out that the use of colored graphics can increase sales by up to . Not only do infographics grab viewers' attention, but they also help to learn and memorize the presented information with a lot of ease and clarity. For this exact purpose, bloggers must utilize this aid in their articles. 80% However, they may often find themselves perplexed regarding how to go about it and which type of infographic shall fulfill their purpose. This article is your pocket guide to steps involved in creating awesome infographics, specific to the purpose of your blog. We shall also look into the tools that can help you design these infographics without much hassle. Designing Infographics From Scratch Now that you have some information about the importance and benefits of infographics, the next step involves learning to design this aid. If you hold the perception that infographics designing is specifically for professionals and is not something that can be done by a person with no background in visual designing, it may come as a shock to you that it in fact is quite easy. In this section, we have broken down the process into five simple steps involved in designing infographics. Step 1 - Establish Clear Motives Every masterpiece begins with an idea. To begin with, a blogger must brainstorm with their marketing and creative teams to select an appropriate idea to work upon from an array of ideas. For this, allow free flow of suggestions and work towards creating a pool of 5-6 topics. Upon further research, discussions, and debates, finalize a particular topic for which the infographic is to be designed. This topic must be of greater importance and urgency than the other options in sight. Once a topic has been selected, its target audience is decided. The key idea is to please and cater to a particular group of people and not all. The particular reason behind this is the fact that specific infographics interest a specific set of people and unspecific infographics interest no one in specific, i.e., they do not have a definite target audience and hence can be overlooked. This also helps in providing clarity about the overall style of the infographic and whether specific jargon and nomenclature can be included in the infographic or not. Confused about your target audience? Ask yourself the following two questions: 1. What is the occupation of my target audience? An infographic that is targeted at managers will be very different from that which is targeted at students. A manager may have a higher level of expertise in a particular field as compared to a student with no work experience at all. It is thus important to know the occupational background of your target audience. 2. What is the level of intellect or expertise of my target audience? When you are aware that your target audience primarily comprises students then you can avoid the usage of technical jargon in your infographic and focus on more basic information. On the other hand, if your target audience includes specialized individuals, you may easily skip over the unnecessary base-level knowledge and include more nomenclature. Step 2 - Collect and Compile Data/Content for the Infographic The next step involves gathering data that is in line with your motives behind the creation of the infographic. This step can be especially confusing for a lot of people as there is no dearth of information online or elsewhere. To scan through such vast amounts of information to pick up only the necessary ones can be extremely time-consuming and challenging. To avoid such a situation, begin with scanning your blog for key pointers such as data analytics, sales, etc. Next, try and narrow down the essence of elaborate essays to form bullet points that can go on your infographic. At the end of this process, you will ideally be left with precise points and pieces of information that can directly go onto your infographic. Step 3 - Derive Inspiration from Similar Works Now, you may be thinking that this is similar to copying others’ ideas and that it is unethical. However, looking for inspiration does not mean picking up exactly what you are presented with. By having a look at previously published infographic works by bloggers who are tackling the same topics as you may be, you can learn new ways to present their data with your hint of magic. Step 4 - Roughly Visualize the Data Presentation The next step is to plan out the structure of your infographic. The following points can be considered before you finally pan out your infographic: Information hierarchy: Type out the information that will go onto the final infographic on a word document according to importance. The trick is to present the most important information at the beginning of your infographic and the least at the end. Selecting the right template or creating a new template: For this, you may use free apps (which will be mentioned at the end of this article) or take the help of an . infographics creation service Color pallet: Choosing the right color pallet is necessary to attract viewers’ attention. Choose colors that comply with the color scheme of your blog. For instance, if you are a food blogger then a color pallet of reds should be a part of your infographic as it is the color that aggravates hunger in people, according to color psychology. Choice of the font: The font choice for headers should be bold and enlarged in size while the rest of the content can be small. Step 5 - Put It Together This final step includes jotting down the finalized information and data onto the selected template. You can finish it up by adding additional and relevant images and icons. Use Infographics Specific To Your Blog Category Infographics contribute a great deal to different industries and sectors – Education, Marketing, News and Mass Media Communication, Business, etc. Since the users come from a plethora of industries and sectors, there exists a wide variety of infographics that enables people to select the most accurate infographic that will help them meet their goals. Specific categories of infographics do a fine job of delivering specific data or information. Although there exist over 13 different types of infographics, for the purpose of this article we will be looking into the five most popular categories of infographics. Informational Infographics If you wish to present information in the form of text then informational infographics should be your choice. These infographics make use of descriptive messages and do not rely upon graphs or other diagrammatic representations. A typical informational infographic is divided into multiple headers or bullet points. However, it is important to note that these headers are crisp and precise and not lengthy and boring to read. This type of infographic is particularly great to present novel ideas and content and is one of the most popular forms of infographics that many companies adopt. For instance, if you have an e-Learning or a writing blog, you may consider making informational infographics a part of your website. Statistical Infographics Do you want to use statistical tools like pie charts, bar graphs, or histograms to bring life to the boring numbers presented in the form of texts on your blog? Use statistical infographics. These infographics showcase data in interesting visually appealing ways that make the comprehension of confusing data a lot easier. With these types of infographics, all it takes is a quick glance to understand complex data. Additionally, they are especially attractive as they make use of shapes and figures. If you are a health blogger, for instance, make use of this tactic to gain a competitive advantage by presenting surveys on vegetarian, non-vegetarian, and vegan populations in the form of pie charts. Comparison Infographics As the name may suggest, this type of infographic is used when making comparisons amongst two or more options within a category. Typically, this is presented by dividing the page into equal sections, either vertically or horizontally, amongst the options. The information is then noted down side by side in the form of short phrases or bullet points. For example, if you are to do a comparative analysis between the features of two different laptops, you can make use of comparison infographics. Timeline Infographics Timeline Infographics help trace the history of a topic or thing in a visual manner. They highlight the birth, important developments, dates, etc. about the same. This is a great way to easily trace the historical beginning and development of a company or anything else. We tend to understand time spatially and thus using a visual aid that helps create a clearer image of a timeframe can facilitate understanding and thus learning. For instance, if you wish to visualize the conception and growth of a company like Apple Inc., you may adopt timeline infographics for the same. Process Infographics Ever came across How-To Guides or Step-By-Step guides to bake a cake or build a dog house from scratch at home? These are all examples of process infographics. Process infographics summarize the steps involved in a process. They work as instructional guides to help you accomplish tasks without having to go through paragraphs and paragraphs of information. Tools to Make Awesome Infographics According to Forbes, and other visual aid to establish their credibility and create brand awareness. As demand creates supply, the players within the infographic creation apps and services have significantly rocketed over the years. 74% of marketers rely on infographics With more competition comes greater confusion for the customers of these tools. Making a choice from the available plethora of infographic designing tools can be puzzling. We have made you a list of the best and most popular infographic creation tools to help you make a decision. Adobe Creative Cloud Express Canva Infographic Tool Venngage, Inc. Piktochart Snappa DesignCap Visme Infogram Human beings are naturally more inclined towards things that satisfy their aesthetic needs and please their eyes. This is why the field of creative design has been flourishing over the last decade or so. Additionally, infographics help in Search Engine Optimization thus improving the ranking of your blog on a search engine results page. Content that makes use of images and visuals gets than content that does not do so. They also bring in a sense of universality making it bias-free of specific geographic regions or cultures. People from all over the world are drawn to visual content alike. 94% more views Conclusion This article delved deep into the world of infographics. We started off with a pocket guide to help you create your own infographics with five easy steps. We then looked into the various types of infographics that you may choose from depending on the goals of your blog and your target audience. Lastly, we provided you with a list of the best and most popular infographic designing tools and aids. We hope this article helped you learn the process of making awesome infographics for your blog.

How to Make Awesome Infographics for Your Blog

P2E Public Relations Checklist for a Successful Campaign

You might have heard this several times before — Content is King! Yes, it is. But today visuals materials like infographics are outperforming. Infographics are all in the rage now and they will continue to be widely used. Some of the benefits of using an infographic can include the image-making viewers stick around and increase the average session duration In 2012, the hashtag #infographic was shared 56,765 times on Twitter and it will continue to be the most commonly used for your blog rankings and content visibility. As the human brain processes image 60,000 times faster than text, and 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, people are naturally drawn to engage with infographics more than written content. Infographics can be found useful by providing useful and value information to users and they’re a good tool for building backlinks to your site, on the assumption you’ve done the correct research into potential publications who might be interested. The following are the reasons for every inbound marketer to use high-quality infographics as their marketing weapon: Infographics are Easily Shareable and Linkable Infographics have jumped on the visual Ferrari, exploding in a form of easily shareable content and ensuring marketers with measurable results in terms of social media popularity. An infographic makes your content more likely to be shared and linked to, which boosts the visibility and organic reach of the page on which the infographic resides. Sharing of infographics to different social media platforms not only helps people to engage with your content but these social signals also indicate search engine crawlers about your social media presence which will ultimately result in higher SERP (Search Engine Result Page) rankings. Creating eye-catching and well-designed Infographics was not easy task for marketers, but now you can easily create infographics from the templates of various online Services like Visme, PiktoChart, and Canvas. With an infographic embedded in your website, you have a permanent linkable asset that retains relevancy and will continue to be a source of social shares for months after it is displayed on your website. Infographics for High-Quality Link Building Link building is one of the most essential yet most challenging aspects of SEO but infographics can solve that problem for you. Stand-alone and unresearched infographics will rarely perform in search engines. Well-designed and insightful infographics can help you garner a boatload of backlinks. Make sure to craft a well-researched infographic that’s of interest to a particular niche or industry, they will not only share that information but also give you credit. And the best part: These backlinks will help you rank higher in Search Engine Rankings. I recently designed a well-researched infographic — — that helped me seek tons of traffic to my website and on my social media. Safety Precautions for Travelers during Coronavirus Pandemic The technique works extremely well, because, in addition to the inner links from the pages within the content hub, the external links to the infographics bring in link juice which builds the site's authority for the hub topic. Infographics for Guest Posts The industry of guest posting is becoming challenging and acquiring natural links to your content requires great efforts as webmasters are adopting very tough external linking policies. On the other hand, Engaging and relevant Infographics help provide an excuse for webmasters to link back to your website whilst providing value to the reader. The best way is to outreach the webmasters and inform them about your great infographic. After that, make them aware of how it relates to their readers and why it is a good fit for their blog. It is one of the simplest yet most effective ways to promote your content to earn backlinks to your website. The second way in which infographics improve your rankings is that they increase the dwell time or time spent on-page, which is an important ranking factor. If readers spend a long time on your webpage then clearly the page must be meeting their needs. Infographics for Reducing Bounce-Rate That’s why marketers today are experimenting with every trick in the book to help them with decreasing the bounce rates of their websites. I know what you’re thinking… Yes, there is one underrated technique that most of the web managers haven’t implemented i.e Infographics! Highly attractive and compelling infographics sustain the attention of your readers and help them get engaged with your content even longer ultimately resulting in a low bounce rate of your website. There are many SEO benefits to Infographics. I use them often as a great way to get more backlinks, establish authority while keeping things visually appealing and simple for the reader. Infotic Technique The Infotic Technique is a method that I invented to acquire good quality backlinks to my website. Simply search for any topic in your niche and examine the top-ranking websites. After examining the websites, go through their content and craft a thorough infographic. Lastly, outreach webmasters of the sites by emailing them about the infographic you have designed for them that covers all of their topics. There are high chances that they will embed your infographic and provide a backlink to your website. This technique takes time but helped me generate multiple high-quality backlinks to my site. An infographic that responds to user search intent, has its presence and contents mentioned in the title and expanded on and detailed in the post/article/page can help boost rankings. Case Study: Airport Sleeping Pods Back in the Holiday season of 2019, Frequent travelers showed a significant concern about “Sleeping at the airports”. That is when I started the Keyword Research against the query to write a great insightful blog for travelers to take advantage of. I published a guide on that provides travelers with a place where they can rest and sleep in the airport. Airport Sleeping Pod The blog ranked at 31st Position on Google Rank as soon as I published it: I tried to work out every possible technique from the optimization of On-Page and Off-Page SEO to Content Marketing of my blog but failed to get any positive results. After that, I created multiple good-quality and well-researched infographics and embedded them on my blog. The results I witnessed right away after I updated my blog with infographics were astonishing: Infographics Impact on SEO Ranking: I was surprised to see that the blog that glued on the 31st position on Google Rank boosted up straight to Featured Snippet immediately after I embedded the Infographics in my blog. Amazing, isn’t it? You can also notice the uprising trend for the ranking of my blog from February to March — when I published the infographics on my blog. Infographics Impact on Blog Traffic: Apart from the traffic gained from social shares, I was not able to seek a good number of organic traffic on my blog. But as soon as my rankings skyrocketed the blog experience a significant surge in the organic traffic. Infographics Impact on Backlinks: The social shares and backlinks for the blog also saw a sharp increase in numbers. The infographic was shared on different platforms including Reddit, Pinterest, and other infographic submission websites. Conclusion: Although there are numerous factors to improve the overall SEO of your website, Infographics are the simplest yet most underrated way to fuel up your search engine rankings. These infographics are now gaining popularity on the internet for the sake of sharing information in creative ways and for other SEO purposes. It’s just as simple as that. Make sure to embed Killer Infographics in your websites and experience a notable rise in your SEO rankings.

How Infographics Can Positively Impact your SEO Rankings[Case-Study]

Messy government data has been part of the reason we've been the COVID-19 pandemic. If federal organizations can't decode big data, what hope do small businesses have? unable to understand We’ve never had this much data on our hands. But as the material we’re dealing with grows, we need to ensure the skeleton that supports it is evolving sturdily alongside it. That’s no small feat, given the breakneck speed at which our data load . The more data we have at our fingertips, the more unbridled its potential is - but the harder it also becomes to harness it, especially for companies with less of a tech background or smaller R&D capabilities. A lack of accessible and affordable tooling would leave smaller players behind, making access to big data analytics an increasingly exclusive privilege. increases every day Nevertheless, the past decade has shown us that data analytics and tools have the capacity to speedily advance to accommodate the growing wave of information. And has a big role to play in that. As all companies are also becoming tech companies, engineering teams need to develop software that captures big data and uses machine learning so they can stay in the game. Development Analytics tools like Waydev are there to help engineering managers fully understand and improve the development process of these analytics projects. So it’s a bit of an analytics inception if you will. Development Analytics In today’s landscape, three essential pillars have emerged in data analytics - visualization, open source, and AI. Here's how the future of data analytics and tools can make this sphere more democratic, and what this means for software development. Data visualization tools will make big data digestible Startups are no stranger to big data. They can get huge swaths of it relatively straightforward, but that doesn't mean they hold the keys to understanding it. One of the first data visualization tools, the Gantt chart, was invented in 1910 to visually track data across large teams. Big data is typically unstructured, making it difficult to draw conclusions from the figures. But if companies can't accurately interpret data, its value is wasted. Raw data doesn't always tell a story; to do that it has to be processed and curated in a more visually appealing form. The next generation of big data tools will prioritize simple data visualization for all users. Graphics, maps, tables, and patterns are far more intuitive than text and can stitch seemingly abstract stats together - which is especially useful for small business leaders who don't have a tech background. In fact, we're already seeing the shift with tools like Visme and Tableau, which transform big data into engaging charts and infographics. Visualization becomes all the more powerful when coupled with relevant data sources to provide business insights and help leaders gain a better understanding of their team’s work. Gantt charts may have been an innovation for its time but in the Agile software development environment, they are of no use. Development Analytics tools like Waydev and Pluralsight Flow use user-friendly dashboards, heatmaps, color-coding, charts, and diagrams to signal progress, issues, and steer the user’s attention to the important values. Open source will improve data tools' transparency and quality The popularization of data tools has paved the way for open source software like Android (the operating system used by Google phones), which can be freely used or modified by anyone. Whereas data tools used to be exclusively reserved for paying customers (read: deep-pocketed corporations), open source tooling is free and made for the public, by the public. Many tools that were once closed source have made the switch to open source in recent years. For example, Apache Hadoop, the framework that uses programming models for distributed processing of large data sets, quickly became supported by NoSQL databases and other open source infrastructure when it started to be widely adopted. Today, the majority of infrastructure used to store and stream large volumes of data is open source, including databases like MongoDB and tools like TensorFlow. Even the notoriously secretive Apple has hopped on the bandwagon, releasing its programming language, Swift, as open source in 2014. Data science wouldn't be as large in scope, nor as efficient, without open source tooling. As data grows, small businesses need more sophisticated data processing tools, which will benefit from open contributions. The more people that contribute to code, the higher the quality of the tool. And, as more people own a cell phone, are active online, and share information digitally, data sets will continue to grow exponentially and push demand for data-processing tools. In order to maximize the functionality and interoperability of these tools, businesses should start embracing open source from the get-go. AI data tools will become mainstream (at last) Despite finding its roots in the 1950s, AI didn't really until the 1990s. In 1997, the world chess champion was beaten by IBM's AI chess-playing program, Deep Blue. In the same year, Dragon System developed and implemented its speech-recognition software on Windows. The two creations were a big step for AI, and for many people, signaled its impending uptake across industries. get started The reality though, is that AI is yet to be adopted on a mass scale. A 2020 survey revealed that only of US businesses use AI, and the ones that do are mostly big companies that have the money to invest in the tech: not surprising when companies pay between for AI software. 8.9% $6,000 and $300,000 Although the uptake is relatively slow, early signs of more financially flexible AI exist, and they go a long way toward democratizing data tools for all companies, regardless of their size. Takeaway Data and analytics tools won't be fizzling out any time soon. Both have progressed considerably in recent years, and with expanding data sets at the heart of these tools, they'll not only get better, they’ll also get smarter. In software development, in particular, we’ll be seeing widespread adoption of development analytics in the following years. Engineering leaders will keep investing in Development Analytics tools so they can meet the growing demands of their organizations, and remain ahead of the innovation curve. This only means we’re getting one step closer to normalizing a data-driven culture in software engineering.

How to Democratize Access to Data Insights for Businesses of All Sizes

This story is for the people who doesn't have any experience in IT industry, whether you are completely new to job market or have some experience in other fields yet want to start over a new career. Sometimes you just feel lost when starting out a career. That happens to most people too. These steps will help you to get a glimpse of what to do when you are starting to look for an entirely new position in the IT industry. Make a list for the positions you think is interesting Before anything, you need to be prepared for the journey you are going to take. And first thing first, you have to pick a career that may interest you. Software developer Front-end or Back-end engineer Business analyst System analyst Project manager Network engineer The purpose of this step is to get to know you. Let's assume that you never have any experience related to information technology industry; then you may not know what these positions are, or maybe never even heard of it, and you need to take a look a little bit a what do they do before jumping into one career. You never know that maybe you are a talented guy for the position you never heard of! Set goals We all know that goal setting is important, yet sometimes we overlook this important process. Knowing what you want will escalate your learning progress and it will be more satisfying if you know that you are getting closer to the goal. In order to get good at something, you must understand how to achieve that. Write that down on your sticky note or you notebook. The point is to make it visible everyday, so you don't ever forget why you are doing that. Also, you need to make sure that the goals are achievable. If you got a big goal, or maybe the goal is a bit overwhelming, you can start breaking it down to smaller, achievable ones. Internet is your friend Internet is the most underrated source of study that even professional software developers still use to look for codes they don't understand. Honestly, they even use it to get job done for the most basic things you may find it silly. However, you must understand that there are ups and downs by learning from the internet. The good thing is: You don't need a degree to get a job Internet is free Information technology is closely related to internet The bad thing is: The information is scattered Too much information could be overwhelming at the beginning There are a few courses you can find on the internet, starting from free to paid services. If you are on codes, you can start by looking at the documentations of the language, which will be really helpful. Take a look at these websites: codecademy.com w3schools.com edx.org udemy.com If you are a non-code guy, you can start by learning how to make flowcharts with lucidchart.com or visme.com. Trust me, this is an underrated skill that a non-technical guys could have ever had. The point is to get more understanding with learning by doing, so never get stuck on this list and feel free to get more sources if it doesn't suit you. Get comfortable with codes and current technologies Whether you are into software, hardware, networking, you need to make yourself closer to the subject you are about to take, especially if you don't have any knowledge in the industry. Try to create small portfolios or samples, or getting certificates. I personally use this step to get to know the terms that I never heard of before, but it's commonly used by professionals. Aside from getting technical knowledge, the good thing of being familiar with this terms is that you can engage yourself into deep discussions with seniors who you want to get to know! Find a good support system This is the most important aspect for everyone, not only when building a career only. A good support system will help you stand in difficult situations. Many of my colleagues (including me lol) over stressed ourselves during the first six months into the industry. Some of them almost cried too because of the workload (real story). This is where support system helps you the most, and you will feel glad they are with you. Lastly, don't give up! Although starting a career new has always been difficult, no matter what industry you are into, there always be ways to get there. The first step is to get familiar with the positions you are interested into. Then you start making goals for you guidelines. After that, start by learning from the internet as it's a free source of information. Then you should get to know what technology is commonly used by the people of your position. Then don't forget to get a support system. This steps are not fool proof, so you should improvise whenever needed. Nevertheless, I hope this article helps you to get a gist of what to do when starting a new career in the information technology industry. Cheers and good luck!

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