Online shopping is moving towards a new direction in the world, undergoing constant modifications and growing rapidly. The marketing trends are changing in the blink of an eye.
The e-commerce marketplace is evolving so quickly that it is hard to imagine how the industry will look in the next decade.
A study says 80% of shopping is done online globally. In 2021, eBay alone had a market cap of 47.8 billion dollars. Online sale is increasing every year and now it’s the right time to build your e-commerce marketplace.
Starting an online marketplace is not easy, it requires an investment and a clear-cut scheme.
Now the question is, how much does an eCommerce marketplace development cost?
Well, in this article, we will cover the investment needed for developing an e-commerce marketplace website.
An eCommerce marketplace is an online platform where buyers can find different brands’ products from different sellers showcased on the same platform. It allows all the vendors to sell their goods on the same eCommerce marketplace, which entirely runs on one software infrastructure.
These eCommerce marketplace companies take a small percentage of product sales from vendors selling across the platforms. For example Amazon, eBay, Flipkart, etc.
Types of Marketplaces
Are you sure about the category of the marketplace? Let’s understand the classification of the marketplaces. Depending upon the type of marketplace, the cost of development is affected. The marketplace is divided into two parts that affect the eCommerce marketplace development cost.
Based on Participants
The target audience and the intention of the buyer-seller relationship decide your marketplace, which can be one of the following:
B2C Marketplaces: It offers an opportunity to vendors to sell products directly to the consumers. B2C marketplaces are generally monetized by listing fees, commissions, subscription fees, etc. For instance, booking.com.
B2B Marketplaces: It provides an opportunity for manufacturers to sell products or services. A third party usually operates them. Their motive is to promote transparency in deals and buying/selling processes. These are monetized through listing fees, commission, subscription fees, etc. For instance, eWorldTrade, and Alibaba.
C2C or P2P Marketplaces: These marketplaces connect people to share their products and services in exchange for money, such as a car. The motive behind C2C marketplaces is for maximum utilisation of resources, which are monetized through paid ads and promotions. For instance, Etsy, OLX.
Ecommerce Marketplace: It allows individuals and multiple businesses to sell their products and services online to consumers. These marketplaces are the most popular imaging eCommerce marketplace development cost. Example: Amazon, eBay.
mCommerce or Mobile Marketplaces: These are designed to facilitate mobile shopping. These are digital stores monetized through subscription fees, commission fees, freemium plans, lead fees, and listing fees. Example: Upwork, Fiverr, Sephora.
Crowdfunding Marketplaces: It allows its members to raise funds from the groups for a specific project. Monetization strategies include transaction fees and commission fees. Example: Kickstarter, Indiegogo.
Auction Platforms: They encourage vendors to fulfil the services by bidding. It exclusively helps to gain the most competitive rates for a specific item or service. Auction platforms monetize through transaction fees. Example: Artsy.
Based on Business Model
The structure of your marketplace depends upon the business model. The business model defines the strategies to attract buyers and sellers and generate revenue. It helps determine the essential functionality and even affects the marketplace development cost. Business models are classified into three groups:
Horizontal marketplaces: They deal in different categories to different consumers. consumers can find all the necessary products. Here the competition is fierce, and a wider audience is covered. Example: OLX, Etsy
Vertical Marketplace: Instead of selling every product to everyone, these are mainly focused on niche services or products. Here you experience less competition. Additionally, you can focus on delivering better personalization. Example: StockX
Global Marketplace: It allows the exchange of goods and services worldwide. It has the widest audience and hence more power to generate revenue. You will face some language barriers and legal constraints in the global marketplace. Example: amazon.com, ebay.com
How Much Does an eCommerce Marketplace Development Cost?
The eCommerce marketplace development cost depends upon what features you want to add account. However, here’s an estimated cost if you’re building an e-commerce marketplace such as Amazon.
The eCommerce marketplace is built on two platforms: Website and App.
Marketplace Website Development Cost
The table contains the eCommerce marketplace development cost of a website like Amazon. Amazon is a B2C marketplace where one can find any product. Here is the average possible development cost.
Stage: Development
Estimated cost
Business Analysis
$10,000 – $22,000
Design
$5000 – $14,000
Front-end
$25,000 – $75,000
Back-end
$39,000 – $116,000
Quality Assurance
$14,000 – $62,000
Basic Features
Feature
Estimated Cost
Authorization
$5,000 – $21,000
Profiles (Host, Admin, Guest)
$18,000 – $25,000
Search with Filters
$15,000 – $20,000
Product Pages
$10,000 – $14,000
Shopping Cart
$12,000 – $17,000
Payment System
$15,000 – $20,000
Customer Review
$12,000 – $18,000
Notifications
$10,000 – $20,000
Advanced features
Feature
Estimated Cost
Product Comparison
$10,000 – $16,000
WishList
$5,000 – $10,000
Geographical Location
$10,000 – $16,000
Message and Texts
$10,000 – $20,000
CRM Integration
$12,000 – $16,000
Vendor Admin Panel
$10,000 – $16,000
Product Recommendation
$10,000 – $40,000
Marketplace App Development Cost
A simple marketplace app includes an admin panel, buyers profile, sellers profile, reviews, search system, product page, messaging feature, notifications, payment gateway, shopping cart, and search filters.
If you’re looking for the exact numbers, the table below shows the estimated range as the cost may differ depending upon the complexity.
Feature
Estimated Cost
Authorization and Authentication
$5,000 – $21,000
Admin Panel
$18,000 – $25,000
Search with Filters
$15,000 – $20,000
Product Pages
$10,000 – $14,000
Shopping Cart
$12,000 – $17,000
Product Recommendations
$10,000 – $40,000
Payment System
$15,000 – $20,000
Shipping
$10,000 – $20,000
Geolocation
$10,000 – $16,000
Photoshopping
$10,000 – $20,000
Virtual Placement
$16,000 – $30,000
Customer Review
$12,000 – $18,000
Notifications
$10,000 – $20,000
The cost of developing a marketplace website and an app depends upon the industry, marketplace type and target audience.
Conclusion
The eCommerce marketplace development cost depends upon the target audience, marketplace type and industry. It can cost you $80,000 to $289,000 depending upon the features you want to add. Preliminary research is needed to build an e-commerce marketplace platform. However, reaching out to an expert might solve this.
FAQs
How long does it take to develop an online marketplace?
If you want to build a basic marketplace website from scratch, it would require more than 1000 hours.
How much does it cost to build a platform like Amazon?
It would cost you around 60, 000 to more than 90,000 to build an e-commerce marketplace like Amazon.
Nothing can change the fact that we all enter into a business to earn money. Setting up your own business is not easy. There are many things one has to cover before they can get their business up and running. One of the critical components of every business is the initial investment. Irrespective of the kind of business you intend to start.
There is more to investments than just the investment. People become so desperate for profits that they overlook that business is solely dependent on the outside market. But before moving on to the gains, one has to ensure a sufficient cash flow required for sustaining the business. Every business entrepreneur knows the importance of not letting their cash flow become stagnant.
As a result, they are always looking for methods and strategies that will help improve their business cash flow. In this article, we will walk you through the different ways using which you can significantly improve your business cash flow.
As a business owner, you understand the importance of staying on top of your cash flow to keep your business sustained. But what exactly does cash flow mean? In simple words, cash flow refers to the net amount of money flowing in and out of a company.
Every organisation’s success is mainly dependent on how positive its cash flow is. A positive cash flow is when a company brings in more money than it sends out. The cash that goes out of the company generally consists of debts and other expenses.
Ways To Improve Your Business Cash Flow
In order to sustain itself in the business industry, the key ingredient is to always keep positive cash flow. Staying on top of your cash flow allows you to see the broader picture, wherein you will be able to scope out areas of improvement and work on the same.
Opt For Leasing Instead Of Purchasing
Your business’ daily expenses are going to be divided into different categories. All these categories will be required to be fulfilled whenever they are due. Apart from that, every business needs some money in hand for day-to-day operations. This includes supplies, types of equipment, and your entire workplace. In such cases, opting to lease all these things will leave you with enough money at the end of the day.
When you lease, you pay for the leased commodity in smaller increments from time to time. This saves you from spending all your money at the same time. Leasing is a proven way to help increase cash flow. Moreover, since lease payments come under business expenses, they can always be written off your taxes.
Buying, on the contrary, will cause you to spend all your money at once, leaving you with little to nothing when in need. Therefore, unless your business is booming with cash, it is always better to lease instead of buy.
Create A Cash-Flow Forecast
In order to sustain, every business must have a positive cash flow. This means the company should bring in more money than it sends out. To determine whether you have a positive or a negative cash flow, you need to first create a cash flow forecast. There are several benefits to a cash-flow forecast.
For starters, it gives you an estimate of the company’s total money and spending in a year. Next up, you get a clear idea about the surpluses and shortages. With all this information at hand, you are better prepared when it comes to making decisions about new purchases or borrowing new facilities.
Cashflow Forecast Template Example
A cash flow forecast is a vital tool for every growing business as a forecast helps predict profitability and determine the company’s future cash flow situation at the same time. Moreover, this allows business owners to have increased flexibility, higher efficiency, and the ability to map out more and more potential growth opportunities.
Better Terms And Prices With Your Vendors/Suppliers
Being in a business is more like being in a relationship as both these things depend on the give-and-take policy. But in the case of businesses, you first need to give a whole lot before you can reap its benefits. This includes taking care and keeping your vendors/suppliers happy. Keeping these people happy primarily includes building a long-term relationship with the team.
Once you have taken care of this, the next part includes maintaining the relationship. Otherwise, you’d just be overspending on things that you know aren’t going to last. To do so, you will need to set up better terms and conditions for both parties.
In terms of suppliers, you can negotiate favourable prices for both you and them. One of the common practices is asking for bulk inventory rates. If your suppliers allow for bulk inventory rates, you are likely to score more discounts, lower pricings, or other better terms of trade. Establishing better terms and prices with your suppliers can help you drastically cut down on costs and boost your cash flow.
Encourage Your Customers To Make Early Payments
One of the primary reasons why your business’ cash flow isn’t improving or has become stagnant is because of pending payments from the customers. The majority of the businesses right now are awaiting huge a chunk of payment from their respective customers.
Know that the sooner you receive your payables, the better your cash flow becomes. To make this possible, you have to implement different ways that will encourage your customers to make early payments on their purchases.
Immediate Invoices
To begin with, start sending out invoices immediately after a particular order is dispatched. Ensure the invoice is easy to read and the terms are clearly stated for the customers to understand. An invoice with a due date and a late penalty charge is bound to get the customer’s attention. Finally, layout clear instructions regarding the different forms of payment accepted.
Early Bird Discounts/Incentives
Everyone enjoys getting a little extra for a little less. You can offer incentives or other suitable rewards for customers who make early payments by banking on this principle. If you have customers paying their bills ahead of time, it creates a healthy situation for your company. In return, you can surprise them by adding a suitable incentive or taking a little off the top.
Set Up A Quick-Payment Option
While the whole world goes digital, you can’t afford to stay behind. The 21st century demands you to be swift in your actions. A quick order dispatch requires a fast payout.
Waiting for a cash payment or a bank transfer can be a tedious task. And by tedious, we mean it means more waiting on your end. As an alternative, you can look to set up a quick payment option that will help save valuable time and allow your consumers to transfer money with ease.
Cost-Cutting
The outbreak of the pandemic has been tough on all of us, especially in the business sector. As the world slowly rises from its slumber, businesses find it difficult to keep themselves afloat.
If your company too has suffered or slowed down during COVID, then you may want to look at cutting down on costs. Cost-cutting is a technique that is implemented everywhere globally.
It generally includes taking stock of your inventory and dumping things you have been paying for but do not need. For example, if you are in the restaurant business, you can look at replacing the majority of your glass utensils, such as glassware and cutlery, with plastic to help save on costs.
The best way to find out which expenses you can cut out is by taking stock of everything there is. Are there any services you are paying for but aren’t using? Or are there any insurances you no longer need? Is there excess stock of which you have zero need?
These are some things you cannot track while you’re manning your everyday business. But taking the time out to take stock and complete this admin task will put you better financially.
Conclusion
Whether it’s a small retail shop or a full-fledged business in the clothing industry, everything has a parameter based on which you can track your success. A healthy cash flow is one of the vital parameters that indicates you have a healthy and highly efficient business at hand. You can use either of the strategies mentioned above to increase your current cash flow.
Note that your business does not solely depend on these strategies when it comes to increasing the cash flow. You need to club these techniques by making the right decisions concerning your customer servicing, marketing, product development, and sales acquisitions. All these things in combination will give you a healthy business setting that comprises a cash flow that is only improving by the minute
FAQs
Why should a business always have a cash flow forecast?
Creating a cash flow forecast helps keep you on top of your finances by allowing the following things,
It gives you a quick estimate about when and how much collectables you are going to receive or spend.
It gives you complete visibility of your company’s finances.
Allows you to correct your course at any point in time.
It helps improve the accuracy of cash inflow and outflow.
It saves you from manually inputting the payment data every time.
It helps keep sight of both your short and long-term investments.
What are the ways of improving cash flow?
Apart from the ones mentioned above, the following are some of the ways using which you can improve your cash flow.
Establishing a healthy relationship with your bank.
Follow up with your customers after dispatching the invoice.
Payment extensions.
Use your credit card strategically.
Increased prices.
High-interest savings account.
What is a negative cash flow?
A negative cash flow is when your company spends more money than it earns. A negative cash flow is an indicator of an inefficient business.
How often should you update your business plan?
To update your business plan, you must keep reviewing it from time to time to ensure you anticipate all the trends and challenges in the near future.
In this fast-paced world, where the speed of women is always compared with that of men, long gone has the time when women lagged. The exponential growth of women in all possible areas of interest has proven how unstoppable feminine energy has become. One of the many fields where women are leaving a significant mark is the startup industry. With every passing year, there is a notable amount of growth in the unicorns led by women. The entrepreneurial venture is welcomed more warmly than ever with every passing quarter.
MyGlamm’s Valuation: $1.2+ Billion Year Founded: 2014 Unicorn Status: 2021
MyGlamm – Women-Led Startups That Turned Unicorns
Founder and CEO of POPxo, Priyanka Gill is now a successful entrepreneur, journalist, and angel investor. She started her journey by starting a digital community platform for women- POPxo. It was started in 2014 to engage millennial women with content related to Personal care, beauty, and Fashion. In no time POPxo emerged as the largest digital platform with roaring popularity. Later in 2021, Gill joined Darpan Sanghvi (MyGlamm) and Naiyya Saggi (BabyChakra) to establish “The Good Glamm Group” to form a house of brands. They further strengthen each other’s position in the beauty and personal care market to rule the Digital FMCG industry.
Naiyya Saggi – BabyChakra, MyGlamm (The Good Glamm Group)
The Good Glamm Group Valuation: $1.2+ Billion
Year Founded: 2021 Unicorn Status: 2021
Naiyya Saggi – Founder, The Good Glamm Group – Women-led Unicorn Startups of India
Also known as the founder of BabyChakra, who is also the Co-founder and the President of MyGlamm, and the Co-founder of The Good Glamm Group along with Priyanka Gill, Naiyya Saggi is counted as one of the most successful young woman entrepreneurs in India. She completed her MBA from Harvard Business School, where she was a Fulbright and J.N.Tata scholar, after obtaining a BALLB (Hons). Saggi served as a Business Analyst at McKinsey & Company, and eventually, after completing her MBA, she founded BabyChakra, then became the Co-founder and President at MyGlamm, and eventually became the Co-Founder of The Good Glamm Group, when Darpan Sanghvi, Priyanka Gill, and Naiyya Saggi from came together to establish The Good Glamm Group in September 2021.
Falguni Nayar – Nykaa
Nykaa’s Valuation: $12.86+ Billion Year Founded: 2012 Unicorn Status: 2020
Nykaa’s name stands with one of the very few female-led profitable unicorns. Falguni Nayar, an IIM Ahemdabad alumni quit her job at the age of 49 in 2012 to finally set a rolling pin for her entrepreneurial journey that was sitting in her head for a long time. Nykaa gained instant popularity among Indian women due to its wide range of beauty segments. The Falguni Nayar-led company turned unicorn in 2020 and is hailed as the first women-led unicorn startup in India. After the Nykaa IPO, which was oversubscribed 81.78 times, the company managed to catapult its valuation to more than $12 bn, and Falguni Nayyar, who owns more than 53% stakes in the company, turned to be the richest self-made female Indian billionaire.
Upasana Taku is the founder of MobiKwik, one of the most prominent Indian payment service providers that offer mobile phone-based payment systems and digital wallet services. Bipin Preet Singh and his wife, Upasana Taku, founded MobiKwik in 2009, the valuation of which reached $1 bn in October 2021.
Upasana Taku is a Stanford University graduate who completed her MS in Management Science and Engineering from the same university. Starting as a Business Analyst, Product Management at HSBC, Upasana founded MobiKwik, where she is still serving the role of the Chairperson, Cofounder and COO. Taku was also the Senior Product Manager at PayPal, Consultant at multiple companies and the Co-founder of ZaakPay.
Divya Gokulnath – Byju’s
Byju’s Valuation: $18+ Billion Year Founded: 2011 Unicorn Status: 2018
Divya Gokulnath, a businesswoman and a teacher, happens to be the co-founder and the Director of Byju’s. Byju’s is an Indian educational technology (EdTech) online tutoring firm. It was founded in 2011 by the power duo – Byju Raveendran and Divya Gokulnath. Over the years the tutoring app has evolved and grown into one of India’s most valuable unicorns with a current valuation of $18 billion. Divya Gokulnath has played a key role right from the beginning by offering the expertise she had as a former teacher.
Ghazal Alagh – Mamaearth
Mamaearth’s Valuation: $1.2+ Billion Year Founded: 2016 Unicorn Status: 2022
Founder of Mamaearth, Ghazal Alagh, and her story has caught the eyes of many Indians after starring as an investor in the reality show called shark tank. Her brand, “Mamaearth” offers a wide range of skincare, and beauty products and is very popular among Indian households. Mamaearth was founded by Ghazal and her husband Varun Alagh in the year 2016. Her goal is to make the beauty industry chemical toxicity free.
Rajoshi Ghosh – Hasura
Hasura’s Valuation: $1+ Billion Year Founded: 2017 Unicorn Status: 2022
Rajoshi Ghosh happens to be a National University of Singapore and Stanford Ignite alumni. Hasura went from being a home-cooked food delivery company to a Software-as-a-service company. It was founded by Rajoshi Ghosh and Tanmai Gopal in the year 2017. In 2022, it entered the unicorn club soon after raising $100 million in series C funding.
Gazal Kalra – Rivigo
Rivigo’s Valuation: $1.07+ Billion Year Founded: 2014 Unicorn Status: 2019
Gazal Kalra along with Deepak Garg visioned revolutionizing truck driving in India by establishing Rivigo Services. It was founded in 2014. It is a tech-enabled Cargo service offered in India. In the year 2019, the company turned into a unicorn. Gazal quit the company’s board in 2018. She is currently working on her new startup, which is in stealth mode.
Dr. Garima Sawhney is a Gynecologist by profession. She, along with Harsimarbir Singh and Vaibhav Kapoor founded Pristyn Care in the year 2018. Pristyn Care focuses on availing surgeries and treatment with ease to the masses. The company has a widespread partnership with over 500 hospitals spreading out in the major cities of India. The healthcare-tech startup entered the $1 billion club when it raised around $100 mn in funds via its series E round in December 2021.
Ofbusiness’ Valuation: $1+ Billion Year Founded: 2016 Unicorn Status: 2022
39-year-old Ruchi Kalra has been into the startup game for quite a long time. Ofbusiness was founded by Ruchi and her husband Ashish Mahapatra in the year 2016. The company is one of the best raw materials supplying startups in India, which is known for offering a wide range of products at the lowest prices. Ofbusiness turned unicorn in July 2021 and is currently valued at $1.5 bn. The financial services arm of Ofbusiness, Oxyzo is also a unicorn that achieved the unicorn valuation in March 2022. Kalra recently made a statement that her company is all set for its Initial Public Offering.
Smita Deorah – LEAD
LEAD Valuation: $1.1+ Billion Year Founded: 2012 Unicorn Status: 2022
Smita Deorah – Co-CEO and Co-Founder of LEAD
Smita Deorah is the Co-Founder & Co-CEO of LEAD. It was founded in 2012 by Sumeet Mehta and Smita Deorah. LEAD is a technology-based school Ed-tech company that focuses on transforming the education system in India, ensuring high-quality education for children. LEAD is also a unicorn, and now under the guidance of Smita Deorah, it is giving some of the major players like Unacademy, Byju’s, UpGrad, Vedantu, and Eruditus a cut-throat competition.
Ambiga Subramanian – Mu Sigma
Mu Sigma’s Valuation: $1.5+ Billion (2018) Year Founded: 2004 Unicorn Status: 2016
Dhiraj Rajaram, Ambiga Subramanian’s ex-husband, launched Mu Sigma in 2004. After their divorce, Dhiraj took over as CEO, in addition to being the former CEO of a data analytics service provider with offices in Bangalore (Karnataka) and Illinois (Chicago). Ambiga is also India’s very first youngest rich woman who is self-made. With her devotion and expertise, she turned the company into a high-profit-making machine, establishing herself as one of the first self-made women to turn a company into a unicorn in no time. Mu Sigma has last been valued at $1.5 billion, in 2018. The former founder CEO, COO, Head of Innovation, and Head of Talent.
Conclusion
In the Indian startup ecosystem, women have broken the glass ceiling of prejudice and have proved themselves as able leaders, guiding their companies to unicorn valuations and letting them achieve many feats. It is crystal clear that over the recent years, this number kept growing several folds. From Ghazal Alagh’s “Mamaearth” to Priyanka Gill’s “The Good Glamm Group” and Falguni Nayyar’s “Nykaa”, the women entrepreneurs of India have left no stone unturned to bring the companies they’re leading to greater heights. Indian female entrepreneurs have surpassed the limits of age, qualification, and many other stereotypes and climbed the ladders of great opportunities fearlessly. According to surveys, with women leaders sitting at the top, the culture of the companies also has improved significantly over time.
FAQs
Who are the top female entrepreneurs in India?
A list of the Top Female Entrepreneurs in India are:
Falguni Nayar
Naiyya Saggi
Priyanka Gill
Ghazal Alagh
Upasana Taku
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw
Vandana Luthra
Indra Nooyi
Vani Kola
Radhika Ghai Aggarwal
Supriya Paul
Malini Agarwal
Which are the top startups led by women?
Top women-led startups that turned into unicorns are:
MyGlamm (The Good Glamm group)
Nykaa
Byju’s
MobiKwik
Mamaearth
MobiKwik
Hasura
Rivigo
Pristyn Care
Ofbusiness
LEAD
Mu Sigma
Who are the women who lead billion-dollar startups in India?
Some of the most prominent billion-dollar startups led by women in India are:
Priyanka Gill – MyGlamm (The Good Glamm Group)
Naiyya Saggi – The Good Glamm Group
Falguni Nayar – Nykaa
Upasana Taku – MobiKwik
Divya Gokulnath – Byju’s
Ghazal Alagh – Mamaearth
Rajoshi Ghosh – Hasura
Gazal Kalra – Rivigo
Dr. Garima Sawhney – Pristyn Care
Ruchi Kalra – Ofbusiness
Smita Deorah – LEAD
Ambiga Subramanian – Mu Sigma
How many unicorns does India have now?
India has over 100 unicorn startups, as of May 2022.
Which are the women-led highest-valued startups in India?
Nykaa is the highest valued startup in India led by Falguni Nayar with a valuation of $12.86 Billion.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved byRemitout.
We saw a lot of parents and students come to bank branches with a bunch of questions regarding paying their tuition fees, rents, etc. overseas. Most of the time, they would fill out forms that would have cancellations or unclear information, this often resulted in funds getting returned after a lot of deductions due to charges and exchange rates. People go through the same running around and stress for sending money overseas in time which should have been the last thing to worry if at all in the entire admission process.
Remitout allows its users to complete the registration process withhin few minutes and then use the platform as per their need easily. Remitout provides an online platform that allows users to remit money from India to other countries. The service can be used to send money for various purposes including travel, medical fees, education fees, immigration fees, and more.
Remitout offers you different services that make easy online money transfers using Remitout’s forex card. Remitout allows the registered users to buy and sell currencies at the live rate by an easy process. It allows its users to get the account loaded with money and then cashed it out under any available currency.
Remitout is an online money transfer service for students. The process is done in 5 easy steps on the website from registration to making payment using a secure payment gateway. The platform enables easy and fast access to the facility by availing the option of a one-time sign-up process. Remitout is also noted to associate with RBI Authorised AD II License holders only. They are completely secure with no hidden charges.
Remitout provides a simplified online platform for Indian students to transfer their education-related funds out of India. With the number of students opting to study overseas growing each year, so is the requirement for overseas money transfers. As these students are first-time remitters of overseas funds there are a lot of doubts and concerns, with Remitout we want to make an overseas money transfer as simple as purchasing products/services on one commerce website.
In the current calculation, Remitout has successfully helped 3000 students to make their remittances and trust the platform. The future goal of Remitout can be assumed to gain the trust of more students and parents by becoming their remittance partner. Remitout is also known to provide currency exchange in 15 different currencies.
Remitout- Founders
Nafees Dadi
Nafees Dadi- Co-founder of Remitout
Nafees Dadi successfully straddled several mantles during his stint at renowned banks at ABN Amro, HDFC, and ICICI, he managed their trade processes and teams while playing a vital role in setting up policies. Surprised by the time most students and parents spent on money transfers abroad at the bank, he wanted to do something to ease the process. This resulted in him co-founding Remitout Service Private Limited and he played a crucial role in its inception and growth. At Remitout, he oversees business functions, technology, advancement, and strategic alliances.
Kritika Saini
kritika Saini has completed her Executive MBA from Narsee Monjee Institute of management studies in Jan 2019.Kritika is a banker turned entrepreneur. Before starting out as an enterpreneur, she was noted to work with different banks such as HDFC, ICICI, Bank of Maharashtra, etc. Kritika Saini was reported to work in varied industries during her banking job ranging from wealth management, SHG finance, Foreign Trade, etc. In Remitout, Kritika Saini works and oversees various activities and work such as Business Functions & advancement, Marketing, promotions, product development, and PR activities.
The co-founders of Remitout were both shocked by the time taken to fulfill the whole process of transferring money. With the increased demand for money transfer, the traditional method was not the best option. Nafees Dadi always wanted to do something to help those students with the money-wiring process. His role in the development and growth of Remitout is too crucial due to the basic thought process behind it. He noticed that the time taken by each parent to fill up the form and complete the transaction process was quite high.
And another essential thing noticed by him was that even after consuming so much time, there is always greater room for mistakes. Mistakes made in the application form can actually cancel the transaction nullifying the efforts and time usage. Hence, the rise of Remitout was initiated after the whole scenario and calculation. While doing a basic search on the project, the co-founders of Remitout realized that India is listed in the second position for migrated students after China. Making them affirm their decision of initiating the project because, the higher the number of students away from the country for education, the more the need to find a good alternative to the traditional method.
A few sessions with the team and discussion then led to the creation of the now known Remitout platform with a detailed workflow system.
Remitout is a joint word of Remit=Remittance and Out=Outward. Remitting money outward of India. Remitout, a name which is a mix of Remittances outside India typically called “Outward Remittances” in Bank.
Remitout Logo consists of an orange color square covered with two square brackets like shaped orange color objects. On the left side of Logo, the word “Remitout” is written.
Remitout- Vision and Mission
They believe that a genuine exchange transaction of a student paying fees overseas should be as simple as making any local transfer within India. The processes and jargon used make it complicated for first timers, hence the company thought of making the transfer process as it should be. Simple and Easy.
Remitout- Target Market Size
Education domestic or overseas is a growing market and shall keep growing as it’s the need of the future. As the company is in the money transfer business for students our market size directly correlates to the number of students going overseas from India. The number of students going overseas has been growing at a robust average annual growth rate of 22% in a span of 16 years (as per so n so data). Annually the money which is sent from India towards education expenses is close to $ 4 billion growing at an average of 44% every year.
Remitout- Challenges
With zero users and an online business model targeting students, both of the founders started working day and night on various WhatsApp and other social media groups formed for student discussions. They gave their inputs in queries related to foreign exchange and fee payments. It took a while but they were able to demonstrate their expertise in the field and convince students to try their service.
The biggest challenge for Remitout was to get people to trust a new entity with a large sum of money and more importantly for transacting online with their funds. The Remitout founders tried for weeks to speak to everybody through various online and offline channels until they got their very first student on the website.
The students were delighted with the overall experience and got a few of their friends to register with them. The team called each of the students taking feedback on their experience and requesting them to refer their services to their contacts. It took a while but the word of mouth spread around, they were able to get students to come to them because of the experience and not any marketing activities.
Remitout- Products And Services
By digitizing the application process, they have been able to have error-free transactions, the forms are filled automatically and hence are clear to read. The process is completed in easy steps which can be done in the comfort of the customer’s home hence there is no more running around or unanswered questions. Now anybody who uses a computer can send money overseas by themselves.
They introduced an additional platform towards the end of 2019 which worked on the same base principle. However, this time around they wanted to enter into the B2B space by partnering with Overseas Education Consultants. So, they created a platform for these consultants who can now register with them and process their student remittances from their offices. This helps these consultants to provide an additional service that is relevant to their processing time and at the same time helps them reach more students in different parts of India.
The team has been working on transparency to students on processes and charges, keeping low expenditure avoiding any unwarranted expenses, and working on the profit-making model.
They have always worked on word-of-mouth references to get their next customer, this is a slow process but a definite as per their belief. Along with this, the team has made some partnerships overseas with companies that receive payments from Indian students for their visa processes. With their new vertical they are also partnering with various consultants to get them a better reach.
Remitout- Recoginition and Achievements
With simple and realistic goals, Remitout has achieved its registration in Startup India. For them, their biggest achievement is to maintain the average 5-star rating on Google with 700+ reviews.
Conclusion
Remitout was started with the purpose of providing a helping hand to students and parents looking for money transfers across the globe. They provided an easy way for money transfer through their medium by removing the complicated process of transferring money via bank. With the simple purpose, they are currently in a good development pace with constant updates to maintain their fame.
FAQs
Is Remitout a better option for the needy?
Remitout provides hassle-free service with good security. Hence it can be considered a better option to use when required.
When was Remitout introduced to the world?
Remitout was introduced to the world on 24th August 2017 by the joint efforts of Nafees Dadi and Kritika Saini.
What is the business model of Remitout?
Remitout works on the business model of Business to Consumer (B2C).
In the 21st century, the top brands prefer to get the topmost actor, celebrity, or sportsperson to become their brand ambassador. May it be Hollywood or Bollywood the popular actors are always in high demand as they help the company grow by reaching out to the mass by becoming the face of the brand. George Clooney is one of the most reputable Hollywood actors, film directors, producers, screenwriters, and philanthropists in the advertising world.
The actor has won prestigious awards like Golden Globe Awards three times, Academy Awards two times, and was even the recipient of the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018. George Clooney made his acting debut on Television in 1978 and got recognition with ER (1994 – 1999), along with the appreciation of receiving two Emmy Award nominations.
He is known for his exceptional performances in movies such as Syriana, Argo, Ocean’s Eleven, The Monuments Men, Leatherheads, Up in the Air, Michael Clayton, The Descendants, etc. George Clooney was also tagged under the 100 most influential people in the world by the Times list for the period of three years (2006-2009). According to Forbes, George Clooney is one of the wealthiest Hollywood celebrities and was the highest-paid actor in 2018.
Besides his remarkable acting career, George Clooney is also a successful businessman as he sold his tequila company named Casamigos to Diageo (a liquor giant) at the cost of $1 billion in 2018. The esteemed actor has also recorded of heavily investing in real estate properties from across the globe. He is also a political, social, and economic activist and made the United Nations Messenger of Peace in 2008.
The A-list Hollywood actor has an estimated net worth of $550 million(2021). While he was paid over $40 million for a brand endorsement deal with Nespresso in 2017. Some of the brands endorsed by George Clooney are Nespresso, Casamigos, DnB, Omaze, Martini, Warburtons, Mercedes Benz, and Toyota.
George Clooney is highly known for his endorsements due to multiple reasons. His endorsements are quickly hyped by the media for varied purposes such as criticizing them or for appraising the choice. Another key point is that George Clooney is known to get 90% of his income by means of endorsements. He was also included in the list of the highest-paid actor on Earth in 2018 despite not releasing a single movie for that period. Some of the best-known endorsements of George Clooney are given below.
Nespresso
Nespresso is one of the most successful operating units of Nestle Group with its headquarters based in Lausanne, Switzerland. The company is known for its premium machines that brew coffee from coffee capsules. Nespresso machines are designed to help its customers make a premium cup of coffee in an easier and fast manner. Nespresso also sells its premium coffee capsules that are made from the best quality coffee and manufactured in three Switzerland factories.
As of 2011, the company’s annual sales were over 3 billion Swiss francs. George Clooney was signed as a Nespresso brand ambassador in 2006, since then the actor is known to receive $40 million from Nespresso endorsement deals. The acclaimed actors have been the face of the brand since 2006 and have appeared in many multimedia ad campaigns that have garnered popularity and helped the brand grow in the European and US market.
George Clooney has paired up with other actors like John Malkovich, Danny DeVito, and Matt Damon to endorse Nespresso in commercials. George Clooney was also noted to serve as a member of the Nespresso Sustainability Advisory Board. His role was to collaborate on ideas and solutions for improving the lives and futures of coffee farmers.
Casamigos
Casamigos is a popular tequila company that was co-founded by George Clooney and his friends Rande Gerber and Mike Meldman and launched in 2013. The tequila brand was said to be accidentally founded as the friends only wanted to make a tequila according to their tastes and for their personal use, with no intention of taking the company public.
The company, however, became incredibly popular and was acquired by Diageo (the world’s largest spirits company) for a whopping $1 billion in 2017. The purchase was equivalent to Diageo paying almost $500 a bottle. George Clooney went on a US road trip to promote the launch of the Casamigos Tequila.
The actor also appeared in an ad commercial and the supermodel Cindy Crawford, Rande Gerber’s wife. The funny commercial showcases Clooney waking up next to Crawford with a puzzled expression. A bottle of Casamigos Tequila on the nightstand behind him ends with a message saying “Please drink responsibly”.
Omaze is an upcoming for-profit fundraising company that partners with charities in fundraising events. The company was founded by Ryan Cummins and Matthew Pohlson in 2012, with its headquarters based in Los Angeles, California. The events organized by the company is combined with prizes, such as material goods, property, or celebrity experiences, and come along with one grand prize and several lesser prizes.
The urge to win prizes actually led them to the path of making donations. Omaze has so far, raised over $130 million for more than 350 charities including UNICEF, Julia’s House, Make A Wish foundation, etc. The company partnered with George and his wife Amal Clooney to raise funds and awareness for the Clooney Foundation for Justice, which fights for justice and accountability for human rights abuses.
The winner of the event was said to get a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have lunch with George and Amal Clooney at their home in Lake Como. The actor is featured in a funny commercial where he talks about how his wife’s resume is far more impressive than his and how people would rather hang out with her than “just an actor”.
DnB Bank
DnB is stated as Norway’s largest financial service group that has its headquarters in Oslo. The DNB Bank Group is the largest unit of the DNB Group, which works to provide financial services to the corporate, retail, securities markets, and the public sector. So far, the company is known to have more than 2.3 million retail customers and over 200,000 corporate clients, with 61 branch offices across the world.
DnB is considerd as one of the major name in energy sector internationally along with the tag of being worlds foremost shipping bank. In 2012, The company signed George Clooney as its brand endorser. The actor was featured in a two-part multimedia ad campaign. The comedic ad showcases a random woman who has woken up one morning married to George Clooney. DnB NOR commercial tries to illustrate that our dreams can come true irrespective of their base, however planning and being cautious of the finances is in our best interest.
Martini is one of the top brands of Italian drinks, which was started by Clemente Michel, Carlo Re, Carlo Agnelli, and Eligio Baudino in 1847. The vermouth brand belongs to Martini & Rossi which is an Italian multinational alcoholic beverage company, the company also makes another popular sparkling wine called Asti and French vermouth named Noilly Prat.
Martini and Rossi are behind the name of the American martini and gin cocktail drink. Since the beginning, the company has marketed its products aggressively, and created some memorable TV advertising and sponsoring events under its Martini logo.
George Clooney became the endorser of Martini in 2006 and since then has appeared in some of its ad campaigns. The visuals of advertisements showcase the actor swapping his luxury boat and a beautiful woman for the Bacardi cocktail drink. In another martini ad, George can be seen denied entry while his stock of Martini is welcomed without him.
Warburtons
Warburtons is one of the leading England-based baking companies that was founded by Thomas Warburton in 1876. As of 2018, the company is known to have over 12 bakeries, 14 depots, and more than 4,500 employees across the UK. Warburtons is one of the most popular bread sellers in the UK, as it holds over 15% of the market share in London. The company signed George Clooney as its endorser in 2021, the company has also made commercials with actors like Robert De Niro and Sylvester Stallone.
The multimedia ad campaign showcases George Clooney attempting to field a Zoom call with a disinterested Jonathan Warburton (head of Warburton) who would rather eat a delicious slice of buttered toast than have a conversation with the star. Commenting on the same commercial, Clooney added, “It’s not every day that your call is turned down for a slice of toast, but needless to say I had a lot of fun filming this spot.”
Conclusion
George Clooney is known not only for being the greatest actor in Hollywood but also for his business acumen. George Clooney is also a political, social, and economic activity and has even started the Clooney Foundation for justice which advocates against human rights abuses around the world. This is why the actor is one of the most influential figures in Hollywood and any brand around the world would love to have him as their brand ambassador.
FAQs
Who is George Clooney?
George Clooney is a popular Hollywood actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, and philanthropist.
What is the net worth of George Clooney?
George Clooney has an estimated net worth of $550 million in 2021.
What are the brands endorsed by George Clooney?
Some of the brands endorsed by George Clooney are Nespresso, Casamigos, DnB, Omaze, Martini, Mercedes Benz, Warburtons, and Toyota, among others.
How much does George Clooney charge for Brand endorsements?
George Clooney was once paid over $40 million for brand endorsement deals with Nespresso.
Amazon is the most common e-commerce platform providing services across the globe. The start of an Amazon was quite simple with a single product in its basket. Now in the year 2022, Amazon consists of millions of products on its e-commerce platform. Apart from the e-commerce market, Amazon has also topped in its Technology business.
It is not an easy task to manage and achieve a position as high as Amazon has reached. There are many tactics applied by Amazon in all possible directions. The prime service enabled by Amazon earned it many customers. Especially those who wanted to receive their product delivery within a short period. Apart from these, Amazon is famous for good quality products at a lower rate. To achieve this, Amazon applies many Psychological Tricks in its pricing strategy.
Each platform has its pricing strategies built for better functioning. Pricing strategies are essential to finalize a cost of a particular product or service by considering many related aspects such as market conditions, demand, supply, etc. Amazon also has many strategies to use for its pricing model. The pricing model used by Amazon is to keep the prices as low as possible to achieve a higher buying rate. Based on this model, pricing strategies are planned.
Need Of Using Psychological Tricks By Amazon
The graph demonstrates a tremendous increment in the annual net sale of Amazon mainly because of its strategies.
Each seller needs to be ahead of others. For this purpose, they need to use tricks. One of the most useful methods is to apply psychological tricks. Psychological tricks are used to make customers believe that the deal cracked by them is truly a saving one. However, Psychological tricks are just a trick. There are many tricks one can apply for increasing sales.
Apart from each seller, Amazon as a whole also needs to be ahead of its competitive platforms. For this purpose, multiple psychological tricks are used by Amazon in its pricing strategy.
Basics of Amazon Data Collection
It is not a mystery now that all e-commerce platforms collect their users’ data. This data is then used by the platforms to provide better services. The same is done by Amazon too. Amazon collects all inputted data from its users such as searches made on Amazon, filters applied, etc. This data is then combined with a few psychological tricks to make Amazon work as a customer store.
Psychological Tricks Applied By Amazon On Its Pricing Strategies:
Amazon is a continuously evolving platform. There are many chances for one trick to be applicable now and get an alternative after some time. This is mainly because the process is always applicable to improvement. Some of the psychological tricks are:
1. Concepting The Prices Lower Than Other Platforms
Amazon is known for its high-quality products at cheap rates. But is it factual or just a concept? Amazon sells its products at an average rate and not at low prices. However, the most trending products are sold at Lesser prices than on other platforms. This itself allows the manufacturers to sell a higher number of products at a minimum profit. On the contrary, some products have significantly higher prices on Amazon to indicate a better pricing strategy for customers.
Similar Items are grouped together to provide a better understanding and comparison of products without the need of visiting any other place.
Comparison is the key to reaching a decision. Amazon understands this well. Amazon allows its users with three or more similar options of the same product with different packages. This allows the customers to make better choices from a single platform only, rather than going to other places for comparison of prices.
3. Preparing A Free Gift For Customers
Giving a free trial always has a better impression on customers. It can give them trust in the provided facility. Way Amazon allows its customers the facility of using Amazon Prime free of cost for 30 days. Once a customer starts using this facility, they will indirectly feel debted to Amazon. One can also try to purchase as much as possible in this period just for the sake of that membership. It can also make others purchase the facility once its free trial is completed.
The complete clarification about shipping details helps in the proper placement of orders as per need.
There are many customers purchasing orders from Amazon as a gift. Giving out clear clarification about shipping details and days required for the order to arrive can ultimately speed up the process of purchasing. This can be because no one likes to receive the product after its needed date. This step gives an ultimatum to customers without the actual use of any warning.
Periodic sales work as a time bomb, the difference is that they work on the human mind. For any product available in the sale, with a limited time offer. Customers do not have the option of pondering much on the same thing. This forces the customers to make a quick decision. Hence, eventually, they can also lead to good sales once the psychology is well understood.
6. Attaching Social Reviews
Customer Reviews Summed Up For Easy Understanding.
Almost everyone goes to the comments section of Amazon before purchasing a product. This gives the impression of the received product. There are thousands of users purchasing products from Amazon. Each customer can’t read all the given comments for a better understanding of the product. Hence, Amazon came up with a great solution of summarising all comments into one simple rating box. This allows quick and easy identification for customers. Higher the rating, the higher the number of customers willing to buy the product. Keeping the review and rating box on the product detail page is a great innovative step taken by Amazon.
7. Summing Up The Cost With Number 9
The Easy Explanation Of “Charm Pricing”.
Also known as “Charm Pricing“, it is considered one of the most successful strategies used by Amazon. In this method, the left number of cost is exchanged with the number “9”. Price number ending in 99 or 9 number makes the Price looks quite lesser than the whole number of cost. It primarily deals with the thought process of the human mind. It is estimated that Nine ending prices are slightly lower than the one ending a process or whole numbers.
Conclusion
Amazon is known for its multiple services. It is one of the best examples to acknowledge e-commerce platforms. Amazon is always in a changing phase. Amazon has its share behind making great Strategies for its products to be on top. This takes the teamwork of both the manufacturers and Amazon together for increasing its rank in the eye of customers. Amazon is always known for its good quality products at less prices. To maintain this, Amazon takes the help of psychological tricks. Some of the psychological tricks have been explained above.
FAQs
Who is the CEO of Amazon?
The current CEO of Amazon is Andy Jassy.
When was Amazon Incorporated?
Amazon was incorporated in 1995.
What is the cost of Amazon Prime for one month?
Amazon Prime costs about Rs 179 per month.
Do retailers use any tricks to increase their sales?
Retailers on Amazon use a number of tricks in order to achieve a higher sale compared to their competitors.
When it comes to Facebook, no one knows how the algorithm might change, what will be promoted to users, and what will be lost forever in the millions of posts made by Facebook users every day. Businesses and influencers spend a lot of money to get their posts sponsored so that it gets promoted to their targeted demographic but still sometimes the result is not quite satisfying or what they expected it to be.
But there are some ways people can improve their reach and promote their services on Facebook, as it is one of the most profitable platforms because of the number of users it has. It has more than 2.8 billion active monthly users and the number keeps on increasing, so you know that it is quite beneficial to promote a business, especially new ones that need extra reach and attention.
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Now the question is how to do that? How to increase your Facebook reach when the platform is overly saturated and populated? Following are some tips and tricks to improve your Facebook reach and gather the audience you desire.
These days, short videos are ruling social media and are the most consumed form of entertainment by users. This happened after the extreme success of TikTok, and from there, every major social media platform created its own short video option for its users. It is quite effective as it catches the attention of the user in a very short time and it is easy to make.
So the platform wants you to make more videos as they are getting more clicks and people love to watch short videos. So if you make original videos on the Facebook platform, it is going to promote them more and they will reach thousands and millions of new people who might be interested in what you have to say or offer, and this will result in getting new followers for your account.
Do Livestreams
One more video format that you can do is a live stream. People love to stop by and interact sometimes, and it is proven by a lot of studies that it increases the reach and number of followers. If you want to create a more personal bond with your audience, you can do live streams about sharing some of your experiences or you can cover some topics close to your heart that your audience will be able to relate to and connect to. These days, Q&As are getting really popular.
In this format, the audience asks questions to the person, and this creates a great conversation and a connecting moment for both the creator and the audience. If your audience finds the interactions interesting and entertaining, they might come again, which will increase your number of followers.
Keep Mixing Your Post Feed
If you want to keep the audience interested in your account, you have to mix up the content. You can’t just do the live streams all the time or only post pictures or videos. You have to mix things up. It is important to keep your feed interesting and attractive for new visitors and for those who are already following your page.
So you can post a picture, share a nice quote with your audience, or post a video sometimes. It is all about making your feed and content diverse so that different types of people can tune in and can interact with your content.
Make a Perfect Posting Schedule
Even if your posts are very interesting or the memes you are posting are really funny, if your publishing timing is not good, then it is all in vain. It is important to post your content when most of your audience is online and will be able to see the content, like, and share it. This is something you have to figure out by posting frequently and regularly and understanding the reaction you are getting from your followers.
Do Not Use Click Baits
One thing people do not like on the internet is clickbait. The internet is already full of clickbait, so if you also use clickbait to attract your audience, it might work in the beginning, but as time passes, the audience will stop clicking on your posts or stop following you because of the reputation of you posting clickbaity stuff. So try not to feed into it. It seems lucrative, but the people on the internet know what they want, and if you keep on disappointing them with clickbait, they will stop following your account.
Share Your Content on Facebook Groups
Facebook groups have over 400 million members, providing a tremendous chance for businesses or individuals to market their content or services to the group’s like-minded members. It’s a fantastic way to spread your message while also gaining new followers for your account. You can also start your own group and invite your friends and followers to join. This makes following you more enjoyable, and as more people join your group, more people will learn about your company or anything you have to offer.
Make the Most of Popular Topics
Things are always changing on the internet, especially the trends. Anything can be a trend on the internet. Try to be with the times keep track of the trends and post accordingly. So that your audience is never bored with your content and you are always on the cutting edge. If you want to attract a new audience, especially from the younger generation, you should always keep tabs on what is trending and how you can use that to create new content for your feed.
Humanize Your Brand
If you give more humanized and personal responses to the comments on your posts and share real-life experiences and stories, then more people will feel connected to your account. Authenticity is what attracts people on the internet. If your posts and interactions feel more human and thoughtful, then it will attract more people to your account, and they will promote your account to others too.
Learn From Your Competitors
One of your best teachers is your competitor. You can learn a lot from them. Check out the ads that your competitors are showing on Facebook. Three are several ad spying that you can take the help from. One of the Ad Spying tools is AdSpyder, which provides insight into the SEO strategy of your competitors. After this, you can implement these strategies on your own Facebook Page.
Try to Respond Quickly to Comments
If your followers or viewers have any questions or remarks, it’s a good chance to make a solid first impression. However, if you do not answer soon, it may be too late and you will be unable to engage in meaningful conversation with the commenter. If you get a query or comment, attempt to react within 30 minutes. After that, the commenter may forget that they asked you a question, or they may believe that their query is unimportant to you. And this is not a nice first impression for a new company.
Set up a Facebook Contest
It is always a good idea to run a competition for your audience. You can give a prize to a winner, or a “shoutout” will also do. And you can make your audience vote for the winner, so the competition is fair and everyone has a chance to win. The competition can be about anything related to your brand, anything creative, like “best quote” or “best caption for your picture”.
Conclusion
Sometimes you don’t have to pay a ton of money to promote your Facebook account and increase your reach, but it does require a lot of hard work and planning. It can be a little tricky sometimes as the platform keeps on changing its terms and algorithms, but there are some steps you can follow to improve your reach and create a loyal fanbase. Being consistent with your postings and keeping them genuine and humanised will help you a lot, especially if the account is a startup.
FAQs
What is Organic reach on Facebook?
The number of individuals who saw content that wasn’t promoted with advertising money is known as organic reach.
How does Facebook calculate organic reach?
The number of times a post appears on a person’s screen is used by Facebook to determine reach.
With the increasing number of options that are available to people on a product, competition has been on the rise since the last century. To gain an upper hand in the tussle between demand and supply, every company tries to understand the strategies of their competitors to prepare ahead of them and get a lead in the market.
This kind of spying has become a very common part of any company that today there are people assigned to analyse the activities of their competitors. Spying over a company is easier said than done.
It requires a collation of a lot of small but important things. In this article a few very important methods and spy tools that anybody who wants to understand what your competitor is doing are discussed.
Let’s look at the 10 ways on how you can Spy on your Competition.
Here literature means any kind of text that they release on their behalf. These can be blogs, articles on papers, newsletters, surveys etc. It is obvious that they won’t share any information with their competitors, but following the above-mentioned one will help. You will get to know their ventures and campaigns before they actually happen. It is important to follow them judiciously and more important to analyse and elucidate the inner meanings if any.
Following on Social Media
There is no better campaigning alternative for a brand other than popular social media platforms to connect with customers and share their plans efficiently. The activities and engagements of your competitors on social media platforms tells a lot about the future plans.
Not only that, it also tells a great deal about their digital marketing strategy as well. It is a great way to understand a significant part of your competitors’ ways of doing business.
Look Out for Keywords
As mentioned earlier, one of the most popular ways of setting a brand’s name is through social media campaigns. And here the importance of choosing the right keywords cannot be stressed enough. Hence, one of the best ways to check on your competitor is by trying to understand the keywords that they use to increase the traffic into their website. You can use various tools available online like SEMrush, Ahrefs Keyword Explorer, and Google Keyword Planner etc. to see the keywords used by your competitors rather than trying to understand each keyword.
Focus On SEO
Finding the keywords brings us to another important thing to be done. That is, checking theirSEO tools. You might wonder what it is that makes your competitor have an edge over you despite selling the same kind of products, the answer might be in their SEO techniques. You can also understand the techniques that will bring organic traffic. There are tools like Positionly (now Unamo) which will really help in getting real time comparative data on website traffic.
Follow the Ads
Advertisements are a great way to entice customers and increase business. Ads will play a big role if they are formed correctly and placed rightly. The websites and platforms on which these ads come up is also very important. It tells a lot about their campaigns. You can track and spy on the websites and platforms on which their ads are displayed and plan accordingly.
There are Ad Spying tools that give an insight into your competitor’s ads. One of the tools that can be used is AdSpyder. AdSpyder gives you an insight into the SEO strategy used by your competitors on different platforms. With the help of this tool, you can understand the secrets of your competitors and make them useful for your own ads.
Check Up on the Products They Promote
Promotion is a very important part of any marketing campaign. The nature of products and the way of promotion will tell you a lot of their strategies. It can be a great way to adapt better things and reject things that are unnecessary.
Tracking Indexed Websites
Indexing in Google is one of the most important things that any brands would do to increase their reach. Rather than going after all the websites of your competitor, track the websites that are indexed in Google. It will help you organise the work in a more efficient manner. Google in itself is a good tool to do it.
Checking Google Ranks
Checking Google ranks is a great way to know where you and your competitor stands as far as traffic is concerned. You should understand where your competitor is ranked for every relevant keyword that will be searched. Finding a competitor’s ranking alone is not enough. You should also analyse their growth over a period of time. It will help you get an idea of their pattern of growth.
Finding Backlinks
Backlinks are very important to maintain good rankings for your website. That makes it clear how important it is to find the backlink strategy of your competitor. It will help you get a better clarity on their marketing strategy. You will also have an idea on how to effectively use your backlinks to reap the best outcomes.
Going Through the Reviews
All the campaigns that brands do, boils down to one thing – customer satisfaction. It is the key to increasing business. Analysing the customer reviews is a great way to spy on your competitor although it might sound direct. While the review of the customer gives an idea about their reception of the campaign, the reply of the competitor tells a lot about their strategies. If the reviews are negative, it will be an insight to correct your mistakes before it gets out.
Conclusion
It is true that competition has increased significantly in recent times. But it also means that there is more scope for improvement and learning from mistakes without actually making mistakes now than ever before. Understanding your competitors’ marketing will really help you in getting an idea about consumer requirements and expectations.
The above-mentioned steps are an integral part of this understanding and it is not an exhaustive list. These pointers are not to spy on your competitor but to serve as an opportunity to reflect upon your strategies and initiatives.
FAQs
Is spying on competitors illegal?
It is not illegal to spy on your competitors unless you break laws, like hacking into the security of your competitor’s database.
How can I see what keywords your competitors are using?
BuzzSumo, SEM Rush, SpyFu, and Ahrefs’ are some of the top keyword research tools you can use to spy on your competitors.
Why is it important to do competitor analysis?
The purpose of a competitor analysis is to understand your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses in comparison to your own and to find a gap in the market. A competitor analysis is important because: It will help you recognise how you can enhance your own business strategy.
Every good marketing technique requires a strategy and content forms the core of this strategy. The leading goal of using content marketing is to create brand awareness. Using the content wisely would not only help you get more customers but also in reviving and strengthening the trust of older ones.
Today, most brands including the big ones like Microsoft, P&G, Google, etc. are using content marketing. But, do you really need content marketing for a successful business?
The answer is yes. If you are still asking why we have listed below the areas where content marketing will help your business to grow:
By creating awareness about your products & services.
By building a strong and loyal relationship with your customers.
By reaching your target audience with solutions.
By developing a community around your brand.
By boosting your conversion rates.
Owing to all these reasons content marketing has emerged to be not just important rather mandatory for the success of any brand across the globe.
There are several tips and tricks that will help you master the art of content marketing. For example, posting fresh content regularly would help you to earn links, rank on SERPs, and also in driving social engagement. However, to get the desired results a good content marketing strategy is as crucial as good content itself. This means the right content must reach the right audience at the right time for the right reasons.
This has become especially important in post COVID times when most companies have to cut down the cost of marketing owing to the future uncertainties. As per the studies, the overall revenue spent on marketing has declined from 11% in 2020 to 6.4% in 2021.
This has resulted in businesses rapidly moving towards online forms of marketing resulting in a sudden boost in demand for compelling and valuable online content. Owing to this the revenue for content marketing has increased several folds worldwide.
As per statistics, the overall worldwide revenue for content marketing which was around the U.S. $42.2 billion in 2018 has increased to the U.S. $76.09 billion in 2022. Moreover, this revenue is expected to increase to the U.S. $137.2 billion by 2026.
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So if you are struggling to develop a perfect content marketing strategy for your business, you have ended up at the right place. In this blog, we will share the best content marketing strategies for 2022.
Before you begin devising your strategy, we must first understand what all will we require for it i.e. the key elements of a content marketing strategy.
There are five key elements that must be clear in your mind before you begin your planning. These elements will help you come up with the perfect strategy and take your business to new heights. They are:
Audience Persona
Before you feed them, you must know what they like. For a successful content marketing strategy, you should know the persona of your target audience. Their choices, preferences, expectations, etc. everything should be clear.
This is also sometimes called buyer person. It will enable you to bond with your target audience through effective communication.
There are a number of ways to do this:
Review the analytics of your website: Make category-wise notes on your audience includes. Divide them into groups like customers, potential customers, visitors, etc. This way you can identify your target audience as well as their pickings.
Conduct surveys: The best way to know what they like is to directly ask them. This would save you from making assumptions. Leave small one-word or one-sentence answer-type questions for your visitors. Review the poles to get a clear picture.
Analyze the latest trends: Whatever your business is everything changes with time. To sell better you must always remain updated. Explore the market regularly to know what your customers might be expecting from you. Keep revising your products as per the need.
Track your competitors: “Keep your friends close and enemies closer.” This might sound dramatic but is true for any business person. If you wish to stay ahead keeping track of your competitors is imperative. See what makes them desirable to the customers.
Overall knowing the challenges, preferences, and priorities of your audience would help increase your conversion rate.
Positioning & Brand Storytelling
The story of your brand and the positions of your products should be clear. This will help in providing a consistent experience to the audience even when they visit you through different content channels. Moreover, as multiple individuals are involved in developing content a clear story will also help them create the right image of the product.
Knowing your existing and potential customers as well as your top competitors is very important. Further, knowing the unique value of your brand, and the challenges it is helping to resolve would be very useful in creating your brand story. All this together will aid in bringing your brand forward as a better and preferable choice for your customers, over your competitors.
Content Marketing Mission
It is actually a statement meant to answer all your questions regarding content marketing. This describes the target you wish to accomplish using content marketing.
This may include questions like “why to create content, who is your target audience, how to reach them, what goal will you accomplish through this?” etc.
This must also focus on the unique value you wish to provide your audience through your content as well as your detailed business model. Doing this will help you identify the right format for your content.
Business Case
The ultimate aim of your content marketing strategy is to get more business. Therefore, documenting a well-defined business case is highly crucial. The business case will assist you in identifying your business goals and how your content marketing strategy will help you in achieving them.
Moreover, it will also recognize the resources that need to be invested in your strategy to generate desired results. Benefits, costs, and risks related to a content marketing strategy can be easily figured out using the business case.
Action Plan
Finally, you will need an action plan that covers all your goals. This should include everything starting from the format and language of your content, content topics and campaigns, channels for promotion and distribution, as well as publishing and managing your content. Creating an editorial calendar can also help you with your plan.
7 Steps for Creating the Best Content Marketing Strategy
In this section, we will share with you the 7 most powerful steps to craft the best content marketing strategy for your brand. So let’s begin.
Categorize Your Audience and Content
As described in the earlier section, you must have your audience persona handy and segregated it into different categories. However, an important piece of advice here is to not consider any of these categories useless.
The visitors of today may turn into your loyal customers tomorrow it all depends on what you have in offer for them. So, observe the activities of every kind of audience you have.
Usually, an individual connects with the brand slowly. They may just scroll down through your websites for months before they finally decide to take an action. It takes time for people to trust a brand and its products.
Moreover, remember that you would buy a product on the advice of a friend, not a salesperson. So, try to be a caring friend to your audience whom they can trust. The best way to do this is to provide them with the right information. For example, if you are a skincare brand, tell them about the skin requirements and basic skincare tips before you actually introduce them to your product.
Having said that don’t forget that your ultimate goal is to increase conversion rate and that will only happen if your audience remembers your product. Integrate your brand with every story you tell your audience. They should get comfortably aware of everything you are providing.
The customer must feel that you genuinely care for their needs. Once they start trusting you try to resolve their problems by extending your relevant product. A clear call to action is extremely important at this point.
Another important thing to remember here is that no customer will buy every product. Each of them has different requirements. Hence, you must serve them accordingly.
The book “Business model generation” written by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur talks about the Empathy map based on a comprehensive approach. They describe it as a collaborative tool that will help you understand and connect with your audience better. It actually promotes walking in the shoes of your customers.
This concept focuses on adopting the audience’s perspective to understand their needs. This will provide you with an overview of what they think and feel. Also, you can decipher the factors that will encourage them to develop a strong relationship with you.
The audience is looking for the solutions to various problems they have and your responsibility, as a marketer, is to fit your product into their requirements.
Setting Your Content Marketing Goals
Your content marketing goals must comprehend the overall goals of your company. By looking at the wider scenario you will be able to make a better analysis of how can you actually make every content count.
You must also identify suitable content marketing metrics for your business. They might be primary, for example, the direct revenue generated by content marketing, or secondary, for example, organic traffic, SERP rankings, etc.
Further, consider the resources that are available to you. This will let you set motivating yet practical goals that are specific, measurable, and achievable. Setting the timeline and using realistic benchmarks to assess the goals is also very crucial.
There are a number of frameworks that will help you through the entire process of goal setting and tracking. Key Performance Indicators can be of great help if you are trying to set higher goals for your business. However, if you are worried about the complexities or intricacies of most frameworks as a beginner, we would advise you to go for OKRs. Objective and Key Results will help you set agile goals and track your performance through key results.
As a leader make sure to involve your team in every discussion. Ask for their opinion, and see how some of them may surprise you. Allow them to set separate goals individually or for the teams. This will make them feel more independent and important. Also, it will encourage them to work more efficiently towards the goals.
Analyze Your Existing Content
There are almost 1.17 million websites on the internet that produce around 70 million blog posts every month. This data is enough to bring your attention to the quantity of content available for your audience. Hence, if you want to have more engagement with your audience focus on quality. It is important to remain active but, it is equally important to maintain eminence.
This is why you must analyze the content that already exists on your website. Also known as content audit it is done by most successful companies annually or half-yearly. The basic idea here is to analyze the existing content to identify the best-performing topics and keywords. Also, it will help you recognize the communication channel most preferred by your audience.
When implemented correctly it can help in generating more organic traffic, securing better ranks on SERPs, as well as in boosting the engagement of your content.
Editorial Plan and Content Calendar
To create an editorial plan and content calendar is to allocate your resources and recognize your limitations. You should be absolutely clear about your content marketing goals at the beginning of the year.
After your goals are set it is extremely important to prioritize them. At this stage, you can actually identify opportunities to experiment and at the same time create a plan that will save you from making blunders.
Your entire plan should be based on what services or products you are offering, renewing, or launching for your audience. The plan will include the roadmap for the product campaign and recognize the resources needed to implement it. It should also be able to estimate the potential gains.
Creating an excellent editorial plan starts with finding relevant topics. You can use various paid and unpaid tools available for this purpose depending on your budget. These topics must be in the interest of your target audience. Try looking for content that is evergreen. This means that your content should be sustainable yet fresh for the readers.
Topic Selection
It should always top your priority list. Majorly there are two factors that help you in topic selection. First, whether it will sound attractive to your target audience, and second, does it have the ability to achieve conversions.
If you have a problem finding a large number of topics try to create topic clusters. These are several inter-related topics that share the same central term with other relevant subtopics. This will help you establish yourself as a pioneer of that particular topic amongst your readers making them trust you even more.
Also, before you finalize your list of topics do not forget to dive into the content of your competitors. It might prove really useful in finding relevant topics, formats, or keywords. For more ideas you can also visit the other content publishers, for example, influencers, online magazines, etc., that share the same area of expertise.
Your content plan should be such that it covers all the aspects of the customer’s journey. This is highly important as you will have a variety of audiences visiting your site for a variety of purposes, this is known as the customer journey. You must have content for each of their need.
The different aspects of a customer’s journey include:
Recognition: Recognition is when an individual recognizes you as a brand and begins interacting with you.
Contemplation: Contemplation is when they start considering you for their needs.
Selection: Selection is when they select you to help them with their issues.
Retention: Retention is when they start relying on your product for their requirements.
Endorsement: Endorsement, is when they start recommending your products to their nearby people.
Prepare a list of your topics based on these factors. Once you have the list in hand, decide a deadline for each topic and put the schedule on your content calendar. This will keep the information handy and organized. You can also track the progress of a project at any point in time and not miss a deadline.
Content Development
The entire process of content marketing revolves around the content. You cannot afford to make mistakes in this area. Even when you want to speed up the entire process and reach your goal with rocket speed, you cannot compromise the quality of your content.
The originality of the content is most important. No matter how well you write if the content isn’t original neither the audience nor Google will give weightage to it. For good quality content apart from reading the resources online also include your personal opinion, knowledge, and experience while writing.
Do not just focus on specific areas rather include diversity in your topics. More diversity means more engagement for a variety of people. Use graphics and images to keep your readers engaged. Whenever possible provide statistics for better understanding and acceptance of your content.
Repurpose your content into different styles to make it reach a wider audience. For example, you can create podcasts, infographics, or even videos out of a blog after publishing it.
You can also include User Generated content for your website. The top positive comments you received, or videos or photos shared by your customers, share all on your website. This will attract a lot of positive attention to your product.
Content Distribution Plan
As discussed in the earlier section, good content is only valuable if you can make it reach the right audience at the right time. Even the best content becomes worthless without proper recognition. For this, you need an excellent content distribution plan.
There are majorly three channels for content distribution. They are:
Owned media channels: Includes blog posts, landing pages, newsletters, social media profiles, etc.
Paid media channels: Includes social media ads, influencer campaigns, sponsored content, etc.
Earned media channels: Comments, shares, mentions, guest posts, etc.
Basically, the purpose of all of these channels is to publish your content and promote your products. While you plan your content distribution analyze all the channels. Use past performance and experiences to identify the best suitable channel for your audience. Also, look for other new alternatives available in the market.
Align your messages and goals across all the channels to provide a clear picture of your brand and products. The omnichannel approach is considered the best to bring your product to the attention of your audience.
Focus on content optimization and content quality to get desired results. The main target while developing any kind of content should be to improve user experience. The readability of the text, the tone, and format, everything should be as per the convenience of your users.
Regular Update & Analysis
Content marketing is a regularly evolving process. Therefore, the evolution of your content is also mandatory. Analyze the performances of your previous content to understand where the audience connects the most and where they don’t. These are the signboards for the success of your content.
Identify the content with the best engagement and conversion rates, and develop more similar content that intrigues them. There are four essential metrics of content marketing that decide whether your content is valuable or not.
User behaviour: See how users react to a particular type of content. How much time they spend on that page or the number of new or returning visitors. Identify your top-performing pages.
Engagement: The comments, reviews, and shares are all signs of engagement. Look at them to know the worth of your content.
SEO outcomes: The dwell times, backlinks, organic traffic as well as keyword rankings will define how often you will appear in searches.
Company revenue: Nurturing old leads, generating new leads, cost per acquisition, conversion rates, etc. will help you identify the best and worst content on your site.
Examine your content based on the above factors to decide upon the future course of action in your content marketing plan.
Conclusion
Like any other industry, the trends in content marketing also keep changing with time. However, if you understand the basic principle your brand will sustain all the changes and still stand strong.
Understanding your customer and winning their trust is the ultimate key to becoming a master of content marketing.
P.S. Special advice for beginners: Don’t jump into the rat race immediately as a single wrong decision can ruin your goodwill forever. Keep optimum pace and take time to establish yourself amongst your audience. Build trust as well as brand value. Soon the audience will start engaging with your content.
FAQs
What is a content marketing strategy?
Content marketing is a marketing strategy that is built to attract more visitors, create high-quality content and rank higher on Google.
What are the 4 pillars of content marketing?
The four pillars of content creation are originality, relevance, engagement, and relevancy.
As one of the largest manufacturers of consumer and professional electronic products, the largest video game console company and the largest video game publisher in the world, it should come as no surprise that Sony has started with selling rice cookers. But fully failed on the market. There are nuggets of information that you perhaps haven’t heard of. Here’s a short collection of the 6 most interesting facts about Sony.
Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka are the one who made Sony.
Sony was founded by Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka in 1946. Initially, the company was called TTK or Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo. But later the name “Sony” was chosen for the brand as a mix of two words: one was the Latin word “sonus“, which is the root of sonic and sound, and the other was “sonny“, a common slang term used in 1950s America to call a young boy. While on the contrary, “sonnyboys” is a loan word used in 1950s Japan to call smart and presentable young men.
There was a student because of whom Sony became what it is today. But do you know how it started to focus its efforts to make its audio reception and quality better? All the credit can be given to an opera student at the Tokyo Academy of Art. This student complained to the founders about the bad quality of its first batch of sound recorders. The founders were impressed with him and happy about the critique. They eventually hired the boy to make an improvement in the product.
Sony Walkman revolutionized the Music world
Sony Walkman
The idea of Walkman was never something that any executive at Sony was keen for. This was a product that revolutionized music world. It changed the way we hear music. This was the reason it went on ‘to be sold’ for 31years. The Walkman was sold as “Soundabout” in the US, “Stowaway” in the United Kingdom, and “Freestyle” in Australia.
The reason behind this was that overseas sales companies thought the name as Japanese-English. Sony America initially suggested the name “Sony Disco Jogger”.
Sony is not just a company that makes for the living rooms but has also produced electronics for those who are behind bars. This issue is known as the prison-issue Walkman SRF-39FP. FP stands for Federal Prison.
It comes with a transparent body. A see-through case prevents the inmates from hiding any contraband inside. But despite their inability to store devices. These small boxes were capable to pick up radio signals through the walls along with a battery backup of 40 hours.
The company started producing pocket radios in the late 1950s and claimed it was the world’s smallest radio. However, the problem which the company faced was the radios were too big to fit in shirt pockets. To get around this obstacle, custom-made shirts with larger pockets were ordered for its salesmen, to make the radios look pocket-fit.
Nintendo actually signed an agreement with Sony to manufacture an add-on device that could play CDs(Compact Disks) for their Nintendo console. But there were some complications between Nintendo and Sony over software licensing for the newly developed add-on device. So, the partnership fell off all of a sudden.
Then, Sony went ahead and worked on the new console on its own. It was 1994 when Sony released the first PlayStation console. And, the rest is history.
Sony Bizarre Creations
Sony Chorocco
One of the bizarre creations that Sony could never make it to the market was Chorroco, a mini plastic VW campervan that sat on the vinyl record and played music through its speaker as it drove around it.
In 1998, Sony made a fool of itself by releasing a camcorder with night vision. What was so special about this? The camera could be used to see through the clothes. Anyone who wore dark clothes would be exposed. It used Infra-Red light. The company however recalled the product despite selling over 70,000 pieces.
Sony is famous for Innovations
Sony was famous for its inventions. They always looked towards developing newer things. Sony was the developer of compact disks and floppy disks in association with other companies. Sony had some impacts on the development of flask drives.
Issey Miyake is one of the famous fashion designers of Japan known for his technology-driven clothing designs.
Let me tell you one of the fun facts about Sony. Sony had implemented a dress code during the late ’70s and early ’80s. Issey Miyake,a fashion designer in Japan, designed the uniform for all the staff of Sony.
Interestingly, the iconic black turtlenecks worn by Steve Jobs were also designed by Issey Miyake. And, getting inspired by the idea of Sony uniform, Steve Jobs actually tried to implement a new dress code for his Apple employees as well. But nobody liked the idea of a uniform at Apple.
Conclusion
It would be hard to find anyone that doesn’t know about Sony or has not even heard of it. If you have read the post above, then you will know that Sony has gone through a lot of breakthroughs and setbacks.
Despite being surrounded by naysayers, Sony is making highly innovative technologies and products available to us on a consistent basis. We hope they will continue to do so.
FAQs
What is unique about Sony?
Sony is an electronics manufacturer who has gone above what many other electronic companies value, as such Sony has brought us many great inventions which have benefited mankind. Sony continues to innovate and be a world-class leader in reliable electronics, with that elegant and ergonomic Sony style.
What is Sony famous for?
Sony designs and sells electronic equipment, consumer electronics products, home entertainment products, mobile communication devices and imaging products and services.
How did Sony get its name?
Sony, which became the official name for the company in January 1958, was derived from the Latin word “sonus” (sound) and was conceived to be an international and not a Japanese term.
Which country made Sony?
Sony is a Japanese company.
Why did Sony fail?
The high price tag is undoubtedly a major flaw in Sony’s phones. They have poor battery life and charging speed. Low specs even for flagships. Poor sound quality and damn signal plus weird design.
Who founded Sony?
Sony was founded by Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka in 1946.
What was first product of Sony?
The TR-55 was the first product to be labeled with the brand name as Sony.
Rishabh Rathi
