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  • 21 Biggest Marketing Failures of All Time

    Advertisement failure can be a nightmare for a company. It may occur due to more focus on creativity than the product itself. Other reasons may include an improper tone or just the wrong timing.

    Advertising your brand is the best way to reach your customers. It helps to communicate the details of your product and increases brand value. It brings the attention of your target audience to your company.

    In short, it helps bring more money to your business. This makes advertising a very useful and powerful tool.

    In today’s world, it has become really easy to advertise your brand. There are several platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. that are free. You can advertise your product here without spending much.

    However, with this ease and availability of advertisement options, the frequency of advertisement failures has also increased. We often become an audience to such incidents. These blunders can cost a brand its goodwill and an ample amount of money.

    In this article, we bring for you the biggest advertisement failures of all times and the lessons to learn from them.

    1. Pepsi: Kendel Jenner Protest
    2. Dove: Body Shape Bottles
    3. McDonald’s Filet-o-Fish Burger
    4. Ford: Figo India Poster
    5. Sony PSP White Billboard
    6. Burger King: Smartphone Campaign
    7. Audi: Chinese Wedding Commercial
    8. Adidas: Boston Marathon Email
    9. Airbnb: Floating World Email
    10. Ink Coffee: Gentrification Sign
    11. Dove: Racist Facebook Campaign
    12. Bud Light Beer: Removing NO From Your Vocabulary
    13. Blackberry: Tweet From iPhone
    14. Kurl on: Malala Poster Ad
    15. KFC: Oprah Winfrey Free Chicken Giveaway
    16. Walker’s: Selfie Competition
    17. Facebook: VR Puerto Rico Tour
    18. Nivea: Invisible Deodrant
    19. Snapchat: Would You Rather!
    20. Starbucks: Blonde Espresso
    21. Bootea Shake: Copy and Paste Caption

    1. Pepsi: Kendel Jenner Protest

    An advertisement of Pepsi casting Kendel Jenner was released on 4th April 2017. In the advertisement, Jenner is shown resolving the issues of black people by handing over a can of Pepsi to a Police officer. The tagline of the advertisement was “Live Bolder”.

    Although, as per Pepsi, the purpose of the advertisement was to show Pepsi as a unifying tool for different people, the audience did not feel the same. There was a lot of outrage regarding the advertisement which was finally pulled back by the company.

    2. Dove: Body Shape Bottles

    Dove Body Shape Bottle
    Dove Body Shape Bottle

    Dove as a brand has been appreciated a lot for its real beauty campaigns. The company is a part of Unilever and has brought a great difference to the meaning of beauty for people. The company runs reality-based advertisements casting real-life women.

    They have always claimed that their motto is to celebrate body diversity and also, to spread the beauty confidence in women of all shapes. However, a 2017 advertisement of the company became a huge controversy.

    The company decided to launch a limited edition of body wash bottles in different shapes resembling women of different sizes. But, the campaign did not go as expected and was ridiculed a lot.

    It was said that choosing one out of different shaped bottles made women more self-conscious. Even Kristen Bellstrom of Fortune’s broadsheet newsletter criticized the advertisement.

    3. McDonald’s Filet-o-Fish Burger

    On May 12, 2017, McDonald’s launched an ad that showed a boy trying to find similarities with his dead father. In the end, the boy is seen happy as he finds that his father liked the same burger as he does.

    The ad was highly criticized and called upsetting. McDonald’s was accused of exploiting the misery and pain of children by selling food. Later, an apology was released by McDonald’s in which they said “This was by no means an intention of ours. We wanted to highlight the role McDonald’s has played in our customers’ everyday lives – both in good and difficult times.”

    4. Ford: Figo India Poster

    In 2013, Ford launched a poster campaign in India for its Figo car. It was produced by JWT India and focused on the larger trunk capacity of the vehicle. The tagline was “Leave your worries behind with Figo’s extra-large boot (trunk).”

    The advertisement showed caricatures of three tied and gagged women in the trunk. The caricature of Ex-Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was shown in the driver’s seat. Berlusconi was charged and was known for his many affairs.

    As a result, Ford faced a huge backlash. Ford Marketing chief Jim Farley officially apologized publicly. Also, it resulted in the termination of a few employees at JWT India.

    5. Sony PSP White Poster

    Sony PSP White Poster
    Sony PSP White Poster

    In 2006, Sony launched a printed ad in Netherland to promote its white-coloured Playstation Portable. The tagline was “Playstation Portable. White is Coming”.

    The poster showed a massive white woman with aggressive expressions tightly holding the face of a black woman, who looks scared. This was called the racist ad and was criticized a lot.

    Sony later withdrew the campaign and issued an apology saying: “The images that were used in the campaign were intended solely to highlight the contrast between the different colours available for the PSP.”

    6. Burger King: Smartphone Campaign

    A smartphone campaign was launched by Burger King that let users see their menu and ingredients on their smart devices. They made use of Wikipedia as a platform. Although the campaign in itself did not have any issue, it was hacked by someone who altered the name of ingredients including poisonous substances such as cyanide. This caused an overnight panic. Finally, the company had to shut a potentially innovative marketing channel.

    7. Audi: Chinese Wedding Commercial

    A commercial was aired for the promotion of used Audi cars in 2017. The tagline was “An important decision must be made carefully.”

    The ad begins at a wedding scene and shows an old woman is seen running to the altar where his son is getting married. The woman checks the nose, ears, teeth, and other body parts of the bride. After which she gets down giving an okay sign. The campaign was highly criticized for objectifying women.

    8. Adidas: Boston Marathon Email

    Adidas was the sponsor of the 121st annual race in Boston, named Adidas Boston Marathon. A congratulations email was sent to all the Marathon finishers. The subject of the email read “Congrats, you survived the Boston Marathon!”

    Adidas Boston Marathon Email
    Adidas Boston Marathon Email

    This might seem like a normal fun-filled heading. However, people were deeply offended owing to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing case. The incident had caused the death of 3 people and injured around 250.

    An official apology was issued by Adidas. In a statement to TIME, they said “We are incredibly sorry. Clearly, there was no thought given to the insensitive email subject line we sent Tuesday. We deeply apologize for our mistake.”

    List Of Best Storytelling Ads that Inspired Many
    Storytelling plays a very important role in advertising. Here are the best examples of storytelling ads that took the brand to new heights.
    StartupTalkyAvantika Bhardwaj

    9. Airbnb: Floating World Email

    On August 28, 2017, Airbnb sent an email to its subscribers. It was themed “Floating homes, waterfall slides, & more reasons to travel”. Also, the email said, “Stay above water, live the life aquatic with these floating homes.”

    Airbnb Floating World
    Airbnb Floating World

    Although it appears as a harmless email, it came at the time Hurricane Harvey was still creating havoc in Houston, Texas. Obviously, it was not taken with ease and faced criticism.

    10. Ink Coffee: Gentrification Sign

    A coffee shop located in the north of downtown Denver suffered huge backlash and even vandalism owing to a signboard placed in front of the shop.

    ink Coffee Gentrification Board
    ink Coffee Gentrification Board

    The board stated, “Happily Gentrifying the neighbourhood since 2014.” The founder and owner of the coffee shop Keith Herbert faced huge crowds of protestors. He later issued an apology saying, he was not exactly aware of the issues related to gentrification.

    11. Dove: Racist Facebook Campaign

    Once again in 2017 Dove landed into controversy owing to its Facebook ad. It was a four-panel image that had a black woman wearing a dark-coloured T-shirt in the first two panels. However, as the woman removes her T-shirt a white woman in light colour T-shirt comes out.

    Dove Facebook Campaign
    Dove Facebook Campaign

    The complete ad was a GIF featuring three women. The next woman was revealed as the earlier one who removed her T-shirt. As per the Company, the idea was to show “the diversity of beauty”. However, the ad was highly criticized for its racist nature. Dove removed the ad and apologized through Facebook.

    12. Bud Light Beer: Removing NO From Your Vocabulary

    All the bottles of Bud Light Beer released in April 2015, had a tagline printed on the label. It said “The perfect beer for removing “NO” from your vocabulary for the night # up for whatever”.

    Bud Light Beer Label
    Bud Light Beer Label

    People felt that the campaign was promoting rape culture and neglecting the power of consent. The certainly was a misleading advertisement.

    13. Blackberry: Tweet From iPhone

    A new smartphone was launched by Blackberry in 2015. For the promotion, a picture of the phone was shared on Twitter. Although the new smartphone appeared smart and sleek, problem was that the picture was taken using an iPhone.

    BlackBerry Tweet from iPhone
    BlackBerry Tweet from iPhone

    The picture was removed but, it had already got noticed with screenshots taken. This invited a lot of trolling for the company.

    14. Kurl on: Malala Poster Ad

    A print ad was released by Kurl On, a mattress brand in India. The ad showed a caricature of Malala Yousafzai being shot and different stages of her recovery. Then, she bounces back on Kurl on the mattress to receive the international award.

    Kurl-on Poster
    Kurl-on Poster

    The ad was one in a series of three. The other two featured Mahatma Gandhi and Steve Job. Although, the company meant no harm, using a sensitive incident like that of Malala disturbed public emotions inviting criticism.

    15. KFC: Oprah Winfrey Free Chicken Giveaway

    At that time, Oprah’s show was quite popular in the US. KFC saw this as an opportunity to advertise their newly launched Kentucky Fried Chicken. They offered a free meal to the viewers of the Oprah show by using a coupon that could be downloaded from the Oprah website. However, little did they know that the plan would backfire.

    KFC Free Chicken
    KFC Free Chicken

    Over 10.5 million people downloaded the coupons and applied for a free meal. The company finally had to cancel the deal under the reason of overwhelming response.

    16. Walker’s: Selfie Competition

    Walkers Wave Campaign
    Walkers Wave Campaign

    In 2017, a UK-based Snack Company named “Walker’s” started #WalkersWave campaign on Twitter. The visitors were asked to share their selfies. Through this people could participate in a lucky draw to win tickets to the Champion’s League final. However, the issues arose some miscreants instead of selfies shared pictures of serial killers and other criminals. These pictures appeared in an auto-generated video.

    17. Facebook: VR Puerto Rico Tour

    Facebook VR
    Facebook VR

    In 2017, a hurricane hit Puerto Rico. Mark Zuckerberg used the VR app of Facebook (Now Meta) to visit there through an NPR-produced 360-video of Puerto Rico. The idea was to tell people about the help Facebook has been providing in the disaster-struck country. However, the cartoonish avatars used in the video looked funny and this, Facebook was condemned for its insensitivity. The video appeared more of a show-off of the VR capabilities of Facebook. An apology was issued by Mark Zuckerberg clarifying his intent.

    18. Nivea: Invisible Deodrant

    Nivea launched a range of transparent deodorants in 2017. The ad campaign featured a woman, with her back facing the camera. She had black hair and wore a white-coloured dress. The tagline was “white is purity”. The advertisement was criticized for its racist nature.

    Nivea White is Purity
    Nivea White is Purity Ad

    19. Snapchat: Would You Rather!

    An advertisement was launched on Snapchat for a game named “Would You Rather?”, in 2018. The ad presented the users with the question “Would you rather slap Rihanna or punch Chris Brown?” This was a disaster owing to the much highlighted 2009 domestic violence case of Chris Brown and Rihanna.

    Snapchat Would you rather ad
    Snapchat Would you rather ad

    Later, the ad was pulled off. Snapchat issued a public apology using its competitor app Instagram.

    20. Starbucks: Blonde Espresso

    Starbucks launched a new blonde espresso in 2018. This was a gentle drink and was said to be more suitable for the new coffee drinkers. However, the advertisement to promote this espresso was mocked owing to the vague language used. The landing page read Also, the coffee name like “Tall blonde” appeared weird to people for placing an order.

    21. Bootea Shake: Copy and Paste Caption

    In 2016, the shake company asked Scott Disick, a social media influencer, to promote their brand through Instagram.

    Scott Disick Bootea Shake Caption
    Scott Disick Bootea Shake Caption

    Well, he did what he had to. He copy-pasted the caption along with the promotional photo clicked for the post. However, he accidentally also pasted the instructions received from the company. Both the Company and Scott were heavily trolled.

    Lessons to learn from these advertisements

    • Choose the tone and timing of your advertisement carefully.
    • Keep political and social scenarios in mind while creating an ad.
    • It is better to focus on the product itself instead of trying to be creative.
    • Double-check your work before you finally release it to the public.
    • Be cautious with who you partner with. The influencers and celebrities that align with your work should be clear on what they are expected to do.

    Why Blackberry Failed to dominate the Smartphone market? [Case Study]
    Blackberry one of the brands that once dominated the whole mobile phone market but What led to its downfall, Where did it went wrong? Lets find out.
    StartupTalkyPratyusha Srivastava

    Conclusion

    Advertising is a double-edged sword. It is capable of creating an extremely positive or exceptionally negative image of a brand. We sincerely hope this article helps you choose your advertisement wisely.

    FAQs

    What are some marketing fails?

    Pepsi: Kendel Jenner Protest, Dove: Body Shape Bottles, Airbnb: Floating World, Nivea: Invisible Deodrant, Sony PSP White billboard, and Adidas: Boston Marathon Email.

    What is the most successful ad of all time?

    Apple – “1984”, Wendy’s – “Where’s the Beef?”, Tootsie Pop – “How Many Licks?”, Coca-Cola – “Meet Joe Greene are some of the most successful campaigns of all time.

    Why do most marketing campaigns fail?

    Unrealistic expectations, Less research, not targeting the right audience, and delivering a wrong message are some of the common reasons why most marketing campaigns fail.

  • How to Become Best at Event Planning?

    Event planning is a cool job to have but hard to execute and make a living out of it. The event planning business is a grey area that only a limited number of experts know in and out. There are five basic skills you need as an event planner. You don’t have to go to a specific school, follow a specific course or education on event planning. One gains event planning education through experience and actual projects. Planning can be quite needy and hard at times, and that’s where real-life experiences help.

    An event planner who makes money out of selling events is no less than an entrepreneur. It’s different and a bit harder than working as an event planner on the payroll for a company that pays a set salary every month. Either way, you need to gain experience and basic knowledge. Networking is the most effective strategy for event planners to find new clients with a significant share attained through social media.

    Learn to Plan
    Listen to Your Clients
    Manage Your Finances
    Be Prepared for Everything
    Learn to Handle Criticism
    Research About Event Planning
    Get Experience
    Choose Your Specialization
    Get a Website

    Learn to Plan

    You need to know about planning. Though it’s obvious by the name, several event planners are not able to plan. As an event planner, you have strict deadlines and you should hit those deadlines earlier rather than later. A lot of event planners think they can delay a bit but that’s equal to inviting the client’s wrath. Those event planners who tend to procrastinate should know that their procrastination will lead to difficulties. So, you need to plan well not just for yourself but also for your team and clients.

    Listen to Your Clients

    A lot of people go into the event planning business with their perception of what a good party or event looks like. You should bring in your ideas but in the end, your client needs to be happy with your services while you cater to their needs. If your client comes to you and says, “Oh, I want a balloon themed party, ‘ and you bluntly disagree with the idea, it means you are not listening to the client. A client’s requirement has to be met; after all, you’re being paid for meeting certain expectations. Add your creativity while adhering to the customer’s core requirements, and listen to your clients. The event is meant for the customer and he or she needs to be happy.

    Manage Your Finances

    You need to be good with finances. A lot of event planners don’t know about managing money. As an event planner, you work with a tight budget. It’s good to be cool and awesome while planning the event but don’t go overboard with the budget. You always need to have an emergency fund to bank on if things go awry.

    For example, if you order a cake and the baker doesn’t show up, you need to have some extra money to order an alternative. If you do not have basic financial skills, work on them immediately. Your clients will be not fond of your service if they are forced to spend more than their budget.

    Be Prepared for Everything

    Creativity is the secret sauce. Through creativity, event planners can find solutions on the spot when everyone else is flipping out. As an event planner, you often troubleshoot when least expected, even though you assume everything is planned well. Your clients can turn the course of the entire event in five minutes before and you have to be creative to solve such issues.

    What if the caterer turns up late? You arrange for quick bites. If there are electricity problems, the generator you had as backup comes to the rescue. The scenarios are innumerable, you may not be able to prepare for all of them. However, even a small attempt at mitigating the effects goes a long way.

    Learn to Handle Criticism

    One of the most important skills you need is having nerves of steel. As an event planner, you organize the entire event and also lead the way for others. You need to be strong enough to handle client criticism.

    You need to be disciplined to ensure your team does what is to be done and they are not slacking off. If something goes wrong, you bear the brunt as the lead. You need to have nerves of steel to tackle situations when you or your team members get stressed out due to unforeseen circumstances.

    A lot of event planners start to buckle under stress. That’s when events go wrong, learn to handle criticism. Learn to keep calm in the midst of the storm because everyone looks up to you to make the event a success.

    Research About Event Planning

    Now on to the business side of being an event planner.  So go and research how many planners are in your area, what do they work on, and the potential clients in the area. If you live in an area people don’t have money to hire an event planner, you will only sit at home and be frustrated. After all, people won’t be able to afford your services.

    If you want to be a freelance event planner or a workforce member, you need to do your research first. When it comes to finding potential clients. figure out if you want to work b2b so business to business or b2c (business to customer).

    Get Experience

    Finally, you have all of your event planning skills in your pocket – you know your target group, your market, how many event planners are there in your area, and potential clients. However, it only matters when you have real-time experience. If you don’t have event planning experience, start by organizing small parties and events for friends. Do such events for free or for a small fee and then start using their references for your portfolio. Ensure you get enough footage like pictures and videos of the party you organized because that’s going to build your first portfolio item which you can then show to paying clients.

    If you have no event planning experience, start helping out here and there. If you can get an internship, grab it. You can learn a lot from an event planner that’s been in the business for a long time. Sometimes you start two to three months ahead and there is a lot of turning wheels you need to keep an eye on.

    Do your homework, make sure your basic event planning and organization skills are up to the mark before you start setting events. Otherwise, bad reviews are inevitable and that’s not good for your business.

    Choose Your Specialization

    It’s better to specialize in a certain type of event. For instance, you may plan a kids’ party. But if you are not into kids and have an “it’s another job” mindset, it will never be as amazing as planning a press event or a company party that you’re passionate about. You may initially take up all kinds of events in the beginning, but there will be a time when you’ll have to specialize.

    To make sure there are enough events for you to sell, it’s a good idea to specialize in a certain type of event. You can be a wedding planner, kids party planner, company event planner, or press event planner. If you have public relations experience, you could easily cross over into PR events. There are so many events like hen parties, and bachelor parties, you can even plan funerals.

    Specializing in an event sets you off from the crowd and it will help you sell that event without too much competition. Figure out if there is anyone that is doing the same type of event that you want to specialize in.

    Get a Website

    You need to get yourself a website, you need to start posting the reviews you get from friends, smaller jobs, or employers. Add photos, videos and other graphics that reflect the assignments you have taken up. People need visuals to rate an event planner.

    Documenting every step of the way is a good idea to get your event planning business off the ground. Create a workflow that fits you. Make sure your workflow has your clients face minimal or no stress. The same goes for you. Your workflow needs to be smooth, it should be a template to quick-start planning events.

    Conclusion

    Planning an event is a very big responsibility, everything depends on you and how you follow all the steps to make the event a success. Those who are venturing into event planning for the first time, need to research and be aware of how to plan properly, through this only one can become a good event planner.

    FAQs

    Which is the first event management company in India?

    Touchwood entertainment is the first listed event management company in India.

    What makes a person the best event planner?

    An event planner has to be organised, must have a keen eye, and have good observing sense.

    How much do event planners make?

    An average Event Planner with 4 to 9 years of experience makes INR 4 Lakhs a year.

  • What Is WhatsApp Communities and How Businesses Can Leverage it?

    In the 21st century, staying connected with your friends and families is a necessity and it is not an impossible task as technology has bestowed us with an option to do that. Social media helps us get connected with people, even if they are from the opposite part of the world.

    Apart from staying connected, social media also helps us stay up to date, join communities, and share our similar interests with others and also helps people with their business.

    One of the most essential and popular social media platforms that help us stay connected with each other is definitely, WhatsApp Messenger. This instant messaging app is owned by Meta and was founded in the year 2009 by Brian Acton and Jan Koum. Today, the instant messaging app is used by over 2 billion people.

    Recently, WhatsApp is said to have launched a new feature called WhatsApp Communities. In this article, we will talk about what WhatsApp Communities is and how it is going to help businesses. So, without any further ado, let’s get right into the business.

    “WhatsApp’ began as a simple idea: ensuring that anyone could stay in touch with family and friends anywhere on the planet, without costs or gimmicks standing in the way.” -Jan Koum

    What Is WhatsApp Communities?
    What Will WhatsApp Communities Offer?
    How Whatsapp Communities Is Different From WhatsApp Groups?
    How Can Businesses Leverage WhatsApp Communities?

    What Is Whatsapp Communities?

    The first update about the WhatsApp community feature came from WABetainfo in the first week of November 2021. WhatsApp Communities is an upcoming feature by WhatsApp for its users where they can combine different WhatsApp groups into a single one and can be controlled by the admin.

    This community will be used to communicate with people from different groups in the same space and they can also share their opinions here about different topics. The feature is said to be available first for iOS users than for android users. WhatsApp has been working on this feature for quite a while, as its competitors like Telegram and Discord already have a similar feature like this called Telegram Channel and Discord Server.

    Telegram Channel
    Telegram Channel

    What Will WhatsApp Communities Offer?

    The WhatsApp Communities introduced by WhatsApp will offer some exciting and necessary features to its users and they are:

    • One can add multiple WhatsApp Groups with the help of this feature into a larger group known as the Communities.
    • Just like any other WhatsApp group, Communities also have the option to add descriptions and names of the community.
    • There is an announcement section that is open for only the admins of the group.
    • Any kind of message that is photos, videos, voice messages, or files like doc, mp3, and zip can be sent in the community without any restrictions.
    • As different groups will be present in a single community, it becomes easier to reach a large number of people at once by sending a message in the community.
    WhatsApp Communities Feature
    WhatsApp Communities 

    How WhatsApp Communities Is Different From Whatsapp Groups?

    Some of the differences from regular WhatsApp groups that make WhatsApp Communities unique are:

    • WhatsApp lets you add only 256 people to a WhatsApp group, while Communities is said to have an option of adding as many groups as they can in the community, their number of individual contacts will be there in the community.
    • The Communities admin is set to have more power and control over the groups added to the community.
    • To connect with different groups, now only one message is enough that can be sent to the community and everyone present there from all the groups will receive the message.
    • The admin has the power to specify who can message in this community.
    • The icon of the Communities is going to be different. While normal chats and groups have round icons, the community will have a square icon with round edges, this will help the user to differentiate normal chats and groups from the Communities.

    WhatsApp Interesting Facts and Secret Features
    WhatsApp, the most widely used messaging app has some secret facts to know about. Here are some interesting facts & features of WhatsApp.
    StartupTalkyAnnika Motamarri

    How Can Businesses Leverage WhatsApp Communities?

    WhatsApp is used by businesses to promote their products and services and of course, it also helps in keeping the customers engaged with the brand. With the instant messaging app’s new feature WhatsApp Community that is about to roll in, businesses will also receive some advantages with the help of this community. Those advantages are:

    • The community is made to put together individuals who have the same interests in a single big group and create a community that will be for their business.
    • Marketing of the products and services can be done easily as videos or other informative things can be shared there to reach the masses.
    • The community can be easily managed by the admin; it provides all the similar options to a normal group but also this upgraded feature gives the admin of the community better control.
    • The best thing about this is that it is free, and marketing your business through this feature will not cost you an extra penny, and you will also be able to reach a large number of people to market your business.

    How to Create a WhatsApp Channel: A Step-By-Step Guide
    In this step-by-step guide, we’ll walk you through the process of creating and managing WhatsApp Channels, enabling you to harness this powerful feature effectively.
    StartupTalkyAbira Dutta

    Conclusion

    WhatsApp has conquered the entire world since 2009. It is the most used instant messaging app in the world. WhatsApp has always helped small businesses with marketing and other stuff with its features. Now with the new feature called Community, it is only going to get bigger for businesses.

    FAQs

    What is WhatsApp communities?

    Whatsapp communities is an upcoming community feature by WhatsApp that will let you connect with different WhatsApp groups and will give more power to the admin.

    When will WhatsApp communities launch?

    There is no release date announced yet as the feature is still under development and will launch on iOS first and then on Android.

  • What is Team Coordination? | Importance of Coordination in a Team

    Coordination is the essence of every successful organization. So what exactly is coordination? In simple words, it is a mechanism or strategy that enables different entities to work together. Coordination helps with maintaining and improving efficiency while striving for a common goal or target. Hence, team coordination is of utmost importance if a company wants to make it big.

    In fact, experts quip, “Ineffective communication and coordination is the primary contributor to project failure one-third of the time, and had a negative impact on project success more than half the time.”

    This post by StartupTalky gives you an overview on the importance of coordination and also provides some tips to improve the coordination levels in a team.

    What is Team Coordination?
    Importance of Coordination in Teamwork
    Importance of Team Coordination in Project Management
    Tips to Improve Coordination Between Team Members

    why is coordination important?

    What is Team Coordination?

    At times, the situation calls for individuals with differing backgrounds, perspectives, and thought-processes to come together.  It could be to fulfill a goal or an objective that is impossible to achieve single-handedly. How can this be done? Through coordination, i.e., the act of getting people to communicate and collaborate without creating chaos or confusion. Coordination has a major role to play in any successful team-based initiative.

    Importance of Coordination in Teamwork

    Can a business operate without employees’ cooperation? No. A business entity can be viewed as the concoction of different groups and hierarchies. It’s imperative for these groups to work alongside each other in harmony to achieve organizational goals. Hence, coordination becomes a major driver of success and growth.

    Coordination is required among members of a team and between teams for the following reasons:

    Interlinking of Different Business Operations

    Importance of Team Coordination
    Interlinking of Variours Teams

    Coordination helps in connecting multiple business operations. The organisation members are able to connect business operations together to get the desired output. If there will be no interlinking of such business operations then there will be wastage of resources or maybe a delay in getting results.

    Suppose, what will happen if there is no connection between the HR Department and the Marketing Head? If the Marketing Head was looking for immediate results and in the meantime, the HR granted a leave. If HR has already granted leave then why will the employee wait for anything? This will result in the loss of required manpower and can cause delay to get results.

    The HR could directly reject the leave if was aware of such a requirement. But due to the absence of coordination, he wasn’t. The lack of coordination caused a delay in getting results.

    Each Department Focuses on Its Own Objectives

    In a business or an organisation, each person or department has its own objectives to meet. Each of the departments is concerned about its own objectives and goals.

    The objective of the organization is met with them while making informed decisions. Sometimes, the goals of the department get diverted from organizational goals. It will be too difficult to identify such incidents because of business complexity. If coordination is not present among both, then it can cause damage to the business goals.

    There are times when the objectives of one department cause the loss of others. In this case, also, it will cause damage to the business. The success and failure of one department are linked with the other. So the success of one department at the cost of losses to another will result in failures too.

    Socializing and Understanding Among Team Members

    Importance of Team Coordination
    Understanding Among Team Members

    There are different personal needs of every individual. Socializing are also the personal needs of every human being. The process of coordination helps in fulfilling such personal needs.

    The employees will be able to connect with other teammates. This will create a strong bonding among team. The process of coordination helps in building improved relations among teammates.

    Helps in Saving Resources By Avoiding Repeat Activities in Different Departments

    There may be several activities which are repeatedly performed in different departments. These activities cannot be identified if there’s a great barrier between the departments.

    The repetition of such activities will result in more use of resources. If all the activities are performed in one place, then it will save resources. Suppose two different departments have hired a person for the same task which they require not much often.

    These tasks can be performed in one place and will save the extra expense of an employee. But this couldn’t be possible because of a lack of coordination. But if there was any coordination among them then they could have saved such extra expenses.

    Avoiding Conflicts Among Employees

    Conflicts inside business always end up doing multiple losses. They make the working environment disturbed for all. So they kill their time and also of the team members.  Every conflict results in wastage of time as well as resources. Any arguments/conflicts among the team members will cause damage to business resources.

    Conflicts must be avoided to create a healthy working environment among team members. Coordination helps in avoiding conflicts among them. The communication gap or misinformation is easily sorted out with coordination.

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    Importance of Team Coordination in Project Management

    Importance of Team Coordination in Project Management
    Importance of Team Coordination in Project Management

    Project coordination involves managing the day-to-day operations of a project, making sure the resources are aware of deadlines and tasks that they are responsible for managing meeting minutes, and so on.

    Coordination helps you better monitor and control each stage of the project to ensure it’s progressing according to your prescribed timeline. It helps in Collaborating with your team on the issues you encounter, to manage risks and the validity of tasks to the project’s current scope.

    Tips to Improve Coordination Between Team Members

    Here are some tips to improve coordination between team members:

    Conclusion

    Coordination is one of the most important activities in any business. It is present in every company but some do it right while others don’t focus much on it. The best way to ensure good coordination is to create and manage the proper structure of the company while giving the required power to people.

    If you have anything else to add, please let us know in the comments.

    FAQs

    What is team coordination?

    Team coordination is a process that involves the use of strategies and patterns of behaviour aimed to integrate actions, knowledge, and goals of interdependent members, in order to achieve common goals.

    Why is team coordination important?

    Coordination ensures that employees do not engage in cross-purpose work. Team coordination minimizes conflicts, wastages, delays, indifferences and other organizational problems.

    How do you bring coordination to a team?

    5 Steps To Successful Team Coordination or coordination in a team:

    1. Know the Big Picture.
    2. Create Well-Defined Roles.
    3. Foster Great Communication.
    4. Master Your Planning.
    5. Don’t Overdo It.

    What are the key elements of teamwork?

    Key elements for a successful team:

    • Communication
    • Commitment
    • Accountability
    • Delegation
    • Support

    Who is responsible for coordination between different teams assigned for project?

    Project Manager is responsible for coordination between different teams assigned for project.

  • Business Model of HDFC Life Insurance Company | How HDFC Life Makes Money?

    Life is a gift that each one of us cherishes. Indeed, life is so beautiful, but at the same, it’s also very uncertain. As we drive through life, we find a partner, bring up a sweet family, and perhaps start a business. Today we’re enjoying our life, spending time with our loved ones, working for our family, no matter what our profession is. However, we still remain in the dark about what happens the following day.

    Here, the significance of insurance in a long-term plan rises. It’s because insurance is all about giving financial protection that helps us take care of ourselves, our families, and our loved ones. The main motive of life insurance is to furnish financial help to dependants upon the sudden death of their persons.

    These are the following reasons why people purchase life insurance:

    1. To extend another income arm, to restore the earning ability.
    2. To sponsor college education and dependency earnings for the family.
    3. To sponsor retirement plans, to repay a loan in the event of sudden death.
    4. To sponsor business or alliance in the incident of death of one of the company owners.

    The agreement expends a stipulated amount. It’s provided to the named legatee after the insured dies. The HDFC Life Insurance Company Ltd. is one of the most reputed private life insurance companies for the Indian citizens, who can avail of a wide range of life insurance plans and packages that the company brings.

    Founded in 2000, headquartered in Mumbai, HDFC is a subsidiary of Housing Finance Development Corporation (HDFC), and Standard Life, Abrdn, which operates as a long-term life insurance provider, which brings an array of individual and group insurance services.

    HDFC Life Insurance Company Highlights

    Startup Name HDFC Life Insurance Company Ltd.
    Founded 2000
    Owned by HDFC, and Standard Life, Abrdn
    Headquarters Mumbai, Maharashtra
    Industry Insurtech, Insurance, Fintech
    CEO Vibha Padalkar (CEO and MD)
    Website hdfclife.com

    About HDFC Life Insurance Company
    HDFC Life Insurance History
    Business Model Of HDFC Life Insurance Company
    What’s unique about HDFC Life Insurance Company’s Business Model
    How does HDFC Life Insurance company make money?

    HDFC Life Insurance

    About HDFC Life Insurance Company

    When we talk about life insurance companies, there are numerous such companies that strike our minds, out of which HDFC life is one of the prominent ones. HDFC refers to Housing Development Finance Corporation, which is a leading long-term life insurance solutions provider along with being a huge banking institution. HDFC currently boasts of having 421+ branches and operates in over 980 cities, villages and towns in India. The company is presently working with a whopping 16544+ people. Furthermore, the HDFC Life parent organization, HDFC Bank is hailed as the 3rd largest firm on the Indian product exchanges. Besides, it is also identified as the 19th largest employer in India, with the gigantic workforce it operates with.

    Areas of operation

    Since 23 October 2000, HDFC Life Insurance company has been serving as a trusted life insurance organization, which is currently spread in over 421 branches and 980+ cities and villages of developing India. This business has also established a liaison department in Dubai.

    With a multi-channel network, It has a powerful existence in its markets. Its network comprises bancassurance partners, SFBs, direct channels, MFIs, and insurance brokers. Apart from this, it also has partnerships with about 39 ecosystems that are non-traditional.

    Key products and services

    HDFC Life Plans
    HDFC Life Plans

    Its essential products and services include pension, health, savings, protection investment, and a wide range of plans providing the requirements of youths and women. These products add up to an aggregate of 37 commercial stocks with more than 13 group products.

    Yet, it formulates other optional riders (customization of existing plans with optional benefits) to help the customers. HDFC Life Insurance Company has about seven riders for its customers.

    The essential products include protection plans, health plans, retirement plans, rural & social plans, children’s plans, savings & investment plans, women’s plans, etc.

    Target Audiences

    The HDFC Life Insurance Company has been offering insurance solutions, both individual and group, across all cities of India. It mainly targets adults.

    HDFC Life Insurance Company has been successful in big cities such as Delhi, Pune, Mumbai, and Bangalore. It’s working to extend its services to the remotest corners of the country with the assistance of about 250 partners.

    HDFC is performing a commendable job both online and offline. Its overall strategy is to target audiences by establishing its presence on the three most prominent social media platforms: Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

    HDFC Life Insurance History

    HDFC Life Insurance was incorporated on August 14, 2000, and currently stands owned by HDFC Ltd and Standard Life. The HDFC bank now wants to own some additional stakes in the Life Insurance segment of HDFC Ltd to cross the 50% mark in shareholding. For this, the HDFC bank has written to RBI on April 5, 2022, requesting the approval of owning 47.82% shares that HDFC Ltd. owns in HDFC Life, or buying additional shares from the market and thereby, increase its holding to over 50%.

    Starting in the month of August 2000, the HDFC life insurance corporation had successfully obtained the certificate of commencement of business not earlier than October 12, 2000. Furthermore, it was on October 23, 2000, that it obtained the certificate of registration from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) to undertake the life insurance business. From here, to have partnerships with over 39 non-traditional ecosystems along with possessing a multi-channel network, consisting of Insurance agents, Bancassurance partners, a Direct channel, Insurance Brokers, MFIs, SFBs and more, the journey of HDFC Life Insurance is fascinating indeed!

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    –

    Business Model Of HDFC Life Insurance Company

    HDFC Life Logo
    HDFC Life Logo

    The HDFC Life has already evolved from a product-centric to a customer-centric model of approach. It needed to set the customers in the middle of our business model, influence the vast quantities of customer data that is being produced and deliver specific offerings fitted to their unique necessities, which it is continuing to work on.

    Everything and everyone are required to be accessible anytime and anywhere. It implies that the services are needed to be created digitally first! The life insurance business models have improved over the last decade, ridden by the policyholders. The company is working on it and presently created a robust customer approval architecture; you would see businesses striding into the successive era of customer-centricity.

    The life insurance company of HDFC has classified its product portfolio that covers all the major five principal categories across the individual and company categories namely participating, non-participating insurance term, non-participating insurance health, other non participating, and unit-linked insurance products.

    Moving on to decoding the company’s business model, the company has two types of products and services. The first category includes lean products such as ULIP. The second category of products is the traditional products.

    Lean products contribute about 55% to the business model of the company. On the other hand, traditional products contribute about 45% to the business model of the company. The company also has tie-ups with many bancassurance, SFBs, MFIs which help in selling the products of the company on their premises.

    The company has a scaling-based business model, which means the profit during the initial years wasn’t much. HDFC Life Insurance Company started getting earnings from 2011. It’s the blend of perfect consumer-oriented architecture along with proper scaling and investment which has helped HDFC Life Insurance Company reach glorious heights.

    What’s unique about HDFC Life Insurance Company’s Business Model?

    HDFC Life Insurance Company is a cooperative business between HDFC Ltd and one of India’s leading housing finance associations, and Standard Life Aberdeen, an international investment company. It was established in 2000; HDFC Life is a prominent long-term life security solutions provider in India.

    1. Costumer-centered approach: Presently, one of the transformative ideas that propel customer-centricity to another phase is a customer approval architecture that chops across regions. The company’s visualization of the customer as the only authority to choose and decide when, how, and with whom to share the data is the key.

    It could be related to his/her health, finances, identity, location, driving records, and anything else produced (only) on the customer’s approval. While numerous leaders and entities could be behaving as the custodians of this data, they are not the owners – that authority would rest entirely only with the person. With such an architecture, insurers would be able to personalize, price better and even serve better!

    A consumer who provides the insurer access to their medical data constantly can be given bonuses for updating, enhancing, and maintaining their health metrics in a more organized way than the average consumer.

    Similarly, an individual who shares his/her driving data can look forward to discounts on machine protection on the back of their safe driving. The insurance company is taming success with such a consumer-centered approach.

    2. Coalitions & Tie-ups: On March 31st, 2020, the Company comprised 37 private and 11 group products in its portfolio, along with six discretionary rider benefits, catering to a different extent of customer requirements.
    HDFC Life proceeds to profit from its existence across the nation with 421 branches and more portions of touch-points through various coalitions. The coalitions include 270 bancassurance members, including NBFCs (Non-Banking Financial Companies), SFBs (Small Finance Banks), MFIs (Micro Finance Institutions), etc., and an additional 40 new ecosystem me.

    ‌It’s a prominent financial business company in India that has always been fulfilling and ensuring quality services. It has developed an enviable foothold in the market as a finance and insurance provider.

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    –

    How does HDFC Life Insurance Company make money?

    HDFC Life Insurance Company makes money primarily via its life insurance plans, which are laid out as:

    • Protection Plans
    • Health Plans
    • Children’s Plans
    • Savings Plans
    • Retirement Plans
    • SHAURYA Plans
    • ULIP Plans
    • Group Insurance Plans
    • Discontinued Insurance Plans
    • Rural and Social Plans

    Now, let us understand how HDFC Life Insurance Company makes money through its business strategy by taking a small example. They take money from overseas and increase capital through investing in ECBs, the domestic bond market, Masala Bonds, deposits, and a variety of references. Commercial paper is just one of the numerous sources through which they increase their money.

    They generate income in two ways: Charging bonuses in trade for insurance range and also re-investing those dividends into other interest-generating assets. Like all private companies, HDFC insurance companies, too, try to market productively and lowers managerial costs.

    The returns from the premiums of policies are also a part of how the company generated its revenue. The other miscellaneous charges from the customers also contribute to the business model.

    The profitability mainly depends on three factors. These factors are:
    1. Profit extracted from policyholders
    2. Rate of claim settlement ratio
    3. Mortality rate

    With a well-prepared business model, the company has generated healthy revenue. HDFC Life keeps checking the rate of inflow and outflow, which helps it manage its revenue. The company has reported a 3% increase in its net Q3 profits, which rose from INR 264.99 cr to INR 273.65, whereas the total revenue of HDFC Life has significantly decreased from INR 21126 cr to INR 14222 cr, as of January 2022.    

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    Conclusion

    The above study on HDFC Life Insurance Company states all its key products and services to the insurers by making it a profitable business through their planning and strategies. They even perfected their business model and provided greater access to a holistic suite of services, including bank accounts.

    HDFC Life has been thinking of widening its agencies and also enhance its assistance to bonuses from 12-13%. With that too, the proportioned level of 25% by moving beyond the top 25-30 cities.
    The company plans to develop the agency force and look out for LIC’s defense of its attrition to private peers.

    HDFC is India’s leading life insurance company which is extending its range to you individually as well as group insurance solutions—and tailored to fulfill your needs, life objectives, and plans.

    FAQs

    What is the full form of HDFC?

    HDFC stands for Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd.

    When was HDFC Life established?

    HDFC Life is a leading long-term life insurance solutions provider in India which was established in 2000.

    Who is owner of HDFC Life?

    HDFC Ltd. and Standard Life, Abrdn are the owners of HDFC Life.

    Is HDFC Life a subsidiary of HDFC Bank?

    HDFC Life Insurance Company Limited is a joint venture between HDFC Ltd. and Standard Life Aberdeen, a global investment company.

    Which is the HDFC bank parent organization?

    The HDFC bank’s parent organizations are HDFC Ltd. and Standard Life, Abrdn.

  • 5 Biggest Sales Challenges in Selling SaaS and How to Overcome Them

    Software as a service, commonly abbreviated as SaaS, is a type of software that is hosted by a software company or single provider. It permits its customers to connect to and use apps based on the exclusive cloud-based feature over the internet.

    The customer need not need to worry about the storage. The software is backed up by the product engineers of the providers. The customer success team looks after the management of the software.

    SaaS sales can be understood as the process of selling web-based software that is accessible by the customers through an online portal. SaaS sales products help solve business-related issues.

    SaaS sales are regulated by the following sales representatives- Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) and Business Development Managers (BDMs). The former focuses on the outbound sales and qualifying leads, and the latter works on conducting product demos and closing deals respectively. Here is a list of a few most common challenges faced by SaaS founders that they face when selling SaaS, along with suggestions on how to overcome them.

    1. Qualified and Unqualified Leads
    2. Stressful SaaS Sales Cycle
    3. Choosing the Right SaaS Sales Model
    4. Conversion from Freemium to Premium
    5. Too Many Competitors

    Importance of SaaS Sales Strategy

    Like all B2B sales, the prime objective of the SaaS sales team is to generate qualified leads and revenue for the company.

    Planning gives an idea about what we are up to and paves the direction for us. Therefore, a strategized sales technique must be adopted. The decision of the SaaS sales strategy depends on the company’s SaaS adoption and development.

    The SaaS sales strategy includes various sales techniques to fulfil two-fold objectives i.e., upselling clients and closing deals.

    A SaaS Sales strategy plays a vital role in the success of the company as it focuses on the growth of the company and its position in the market, in the longer run. The SaaS sales strategy most commonly uses the subscription-based pricing model. While creating the strategy the team must focus on the following points:

    • Lead generation to turn interested into sales.
    • Focus on the target group of the market and convert prospects into consumers by introducing them to the company and its offerings.
    • The final stage of the transaction includes the agreements signed between the company and the customers thereby, resulting in sales.

    This simple 3-step transaction has to face a lot during the implementation phase.

    1. Qualified and Unqualified Leads

    Lead generation
    Lead Generation

    Lead generation gives happiness. But the same end up in tears if it does not give you a sale in return. Therefore, it is necessary to make sure that you do not waste time on unqualified leads.

    Categorization of your leads into qualified and unqualified must be followed after lead generation as not all leads require an equal amount of attention. Contacting all leads will result in a waste of time and leave you exhausted.

    Here, the team needs to come up with a strategy so that more time and focus can be given to the most important leads. This distinction could be made by a little survey through an interesting and engaging questionnaire in a Google form or measuring their quality through a lead scoring formula.

    Preparing a lead scoring model that fits your business model is a good idea. It helps to focus and save time on the most important inbound leads. It can also prepare you for future dealings with bigger opportunities yet to come in the future. The lead scoring formula gives amazing results when comes to filtering the potential customers from the free trial users who are never planning to convert.

    2. Stressful SaaS Sales Cycle

    SaaS sales cycle
    SaaS Sales Cycle

    SaaS sales cycles vary from product to product. Each sales cycle depends on various factors such as the target market, the pricing model, or even the target audience.

    It might involve dealing with unrealistic expectations at times, which creates pressure on the sales team. The only solution to this problem is- Benchmarking. It helps you get started as you have a goal set to achieve. Once the benchmark is reached, it’s no more an issue. The next step is to align the results with the expectations.

    The team should set a benchmark to predict the average sales cycle based on industry, pricing, and customers’ needs.

    3. Choosing the Right SaaS Sales Model

    Sales models play a vital role in the success journey. However, picking one isn’t as simple as it may seem. Your decision directly impacts the growth and revenue. Therefore, all the SaaS sales model options available must be reviewed thoroughly. Further, there should be a test to find the most suitable one in a limited time.

    Finally, it can be rolled out if successful. Otherwise, there should be a re-test if your sales model lacks at any point for your SaaS product.

    4. Conversion from Freemium to Premium

    This one can be regarded as the biggest challenge for every SaaS business that wants to grow.

    Many of the generated leads are of the view that they would enjoy the free trial and switch to the other SaaS product’s free trial once the previous one gets over, without paying for the product in the end.

    It’s good to know that all the free trial users cannot be convinced to pay. But at the same time, you need to pay attention to those who are showing interest in your SaaS product in a different way as compared to others. They could be the ones who would like to continue.

    That is the point where you need to create an engagement and keep those warmest leads engaged throughout the trial period. You need to set up a strategy for how you approach them.

    You need to make them well versed with the benefits and further exclusive features eagerly waiting for your customers once their free trial ends. You should let them know how that your product is important to them as they are to you.

    You must try to find out more about them and try not to overwhelm them. Take them into trust with your pocket-friendly policy and other benefits by the time they get ready to retain with you.

    5. Too Many Options to Choose From

    Too Many Options
    Too Many Options

    New SaaS products pop up like crazy. Having competition is good – it increases the value of the market.

    When a customer is looking for that one product that satisfies exactly what he wants, he faces too many options. The customer gets confused about which SaaS product to choose from when several options are presented before them.

    To make your product the most obvious and preferable choice out of many alternatives, you must think like a customer. You need to figure out the ways to stand out in the heavily crowded market.

    You need to highlight the most exclusive feature that compels your customer to opt for your offering, over the other options available to them at the same time.

    While presenting your product, you need to explain its value, how is it different from the other offerings, and how it benefits your customer.

    Your website must be customer-friendly. It must be a little more informative than your competitors; fill it with the past experiences of you and your present and current customers. The content must be such that it helps customers make more informed decisions.

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    Conclusion

    Every SaaS business faces sales challenges. Sales is not an easy task, we need to earn it. There is a solution to all the challenges. Whether it’s the lack of time to qualify all the leads, a longer sales cycle, or dealing with a saturated market. The only thing we need to do is to figure out the right strategy and find the best possible solution to get the SaaS product in front of customers.

    FAQs

    What are sales biggest challenges in selling SaaS?

    The customer is faced with too many options, converting a customer from a free trial to a paid customer, choosing the right sales model, and qualified and unqualified leads.

    Is it hard to sell SaaS?

    Yes, selling a SaaS product is not easy as there are already other companies trying to convert customers into paid customers so it is important to make your product stand out and provide the best customer service.

    Why is SaaS so profitable?

    SaaS businesses are profitable as it is a recurring model where you are already earning revenue from recurring customers as well as from new customers.

  • How To Become A Freelance Writer? | 9 Tips to Follow

    Freelancing is on the verge of conquering industry upon industry, people are leaving their daily 9 to 5 jobs and are opting to become a freelancer. There are various reasons for this, flexibility, good payments, and freedom of work are some of them. Freelancing is one of the strongest career paths today. Writing is one of the most popular tracks in freelancing. This is a major reason behind the plethora of content writers you see today. A freelance writer can reach great heights once he or she perfects the art of writing and indulge themselves in the profession.

    There are several categories within freelancing writing one can pursue, copywriting, editing, blog writing, b2b writing, and others. Each one of them is an entire world in its own sense. The process of becoming a freelance writer within any of these mediums is all similar.

    A freelance writer with enviable skills can easily earn more than 50,000 INR per month in India, in fact, even more. In this article, we will talk about how to become a good freelance writer. So without any further ado, let’s get right into the business.

    Skills You Possess
    Choose a Niche
    Research About Your Niche
    Create Your Target Audience
    Build Your Portfolio
    Platform for Freelance Content Writing
    Email Marketing
    Seeking Clients Through Social Media
    Think Yourself as a Brand

    Skills You Possess

    Writing capabilities in terms of grammatical expertise and eloquence is the base requirement. If you don’t know the difference between they’re and there, and is completely clueless about vocabulary and grammar, no one’s going to be interested in your write-ups. Hence, having command over the written form of the language is essential.

    You can become a freelance writer in literally any field and industry. However, if you have some experience and expertise in a certain field, any piece you write related to that domain is a notch higher than writing on a totally alien topic. For example, if you have done some cool projects related to Blockchain and know the nitty-gritty details about it, the information you’ll impart via a Blockchain-based article will be a treat to read. So make a list of the domains and fields you have knowledge about. Go through your work experience, education, hobbies, other activities you follow, and the topics people reach out to you for advice as to the guiding star, this is how you build a niche. Figure out the overlap between a profitable freelance writing niche and your background and then work on it.

    Choose a Niche

    Once you have a list of topics and domains decided, it’s now time to prioritize them. There’s going to be one topic where your experience and expertise triumph over the other shortlisted topics. While the ability to write on multiple topics as a freelancer is appealing, establishing credibility in one genre is better for the writer and shows their excellence in the said genre. Keep in mind that it may take some time to figure out what your niche is. Don’t be afraid to start broad and then narrow down as you go.

    Research About Your Niche

    Once you get your niche, you need to research further. Make a comprehensive list of businesses, agencies, social media accounts, blogs and websites of the big shots in the industry dealing with that same genre. The more you know about the industry, the better off you are going to be. Having a list and the contact information of all relevant individuals in the niche get you through a long way.

    Create Your Target Audience

    Figure out the potential clients who will be interested in your write-ups. You should ask questions like who are they? Where do they live? How much money do they have? What do they do for a living? What do they do for fun? These are some indicators to get a good sense of the audience you want to market yourself to.

    The more you can get in their head and understand their needs, the easier it becomes to showcase your offerings. Say, you want to start writing about smart homes and connected devices. Make a list of all the products the target audience uses every day, it could be smartwatches,  audio systems, Alexa, and whatnot. It could be a connected car technology. These components fit in the smart home universe. Remember, the aim is to establish a deeper connection with the client.

    Make a list of the different resources the target audience uses to get information online. You want to be familiar with the concepts and the trending news in the niche domain chosen.

    So, when you are talking to potential clients you have to be upto date relevant and be speaking the same language as them. Then, start thinking about what can you write. It might be product blogs, trade magazines, trade publications, industry sites or others. You can start breaking it down, you should have a good idea of the types of people you are going to pitch.

    When it comes to the type of writing, there’s a long list as well. It could be a blog post, white paper, thought pieces, E-books, product launches, sales email. By the time you are done with all the decisions, you have a game plan and is ready to go. Now, it’s time to start putting the business into motion.

    Build Your Portfolio

    You can use Wix, Squarespace, or WordPress. WordPress is the most flexible and robust way to build a portfolio at present. New resources like Ghost are also coming up. You are not necessarily using this website to find a bunch of new clients, and it is probably going to take some time for you to rank in search engines. You need to build up content on this website where people can organically find you and your portfolio.

    One doesn’t need an over-the-top website. An about page, contact page, portfolio page, and an appealing homepage would suffice to start with. You may also have a rates page where you talk about your pricing. Adding a link to your blog is an awesome way of showing off your writing ability. You can have a handful of samples that shows the different writing types you are capable of offering as a freelance writer. The aim is to give people concrete visibility which sets you apart from other random freelance writers down the street.

    Platform for Freelance Content Writing

    After confirming your niche, one needs to look for platforms where they can get freelance content writing jobs. Sites like Contently, Skyward, and Freelancer are some platforms to seek freelance writing assignments. They have the best-paying customers and clients and you can reach out to them directly. Having some projects done on freelancing websites helps build a profile and makes it easy to find new leads.

    Email Marketing

    Sending a personalized cold email is a famous way to gain clients. It can be painful, tedious, and time-consuming, but it works overtime. It is truly a numbers game if you send 500 personalized emails even if it takes a couple of months to do it. Email marketing is surely one of the best form of marketing.

    You will get clients this way, and some of them will become permanent. The key to doing this correctly is not sending the same email template to every prospect. That’s not going to work. Take time to research, the person you’re pitching to, and send a personalized email. It’s a matter of dedicating some time. These people probably get dozens of emails. Do something to reflect the time and efforts you put in and that you respect them enough to send something personal beyond a blanket template email.

    Seeking Clients Through Social Media

    This is important for any freelancer and not just a freelance writer. LinkedIn is phenomenal for building relationships via social media. Most people don’t think about it, they overlook LinkedIn even though that’s where most of your target customers are hanging out.

    Identify organizations and companies that are looking for freelance content writers. This will also give you an idea of what’s in demand with respect to a content writer, what do the majority of the job descriptions seek, these details worth a lot.

    Go to LinkedIn and click on the jobs section; you might get lucky and find some engaging projects. If not jobs, connect with people who work for the type of organizations listed above. Look for people with titles related to marketing, content, or social media.

    Send a contact request with a personalized introduction. Under any circumstance, do not directly pitch for a job in the first introduction. Establish a connection, start a relationship, and get the conversation going. If you do this with enough people in your industry, there’s a good chance of finding some freelance jobs along the way.

    Think Yourself as a Brand

    You have to be consistent with your effort. Have a plan for building relationships and clients? Spend some time every single day on marketing your business, be it by sending emails, talking to people on LinkedIn, working on your website, creating content for yourself, meetups, or looking on freelancing platforms for projects.

    Think of yourself as a brand, a business that has to succeed on all frontiers. If you truly invest in yourself and treat the entire process akin to building a business, you will secure plenty of paid writing assignments over time. It will help transition from being unhappy to bringing in money accompanied by newfound skills to building a long-term content writing business.

    Conclusion

    After Covid-19, the freelance market of the world has increased tremendously, people have found their peace in this way of employment and are preferring it over a 9to 5 job. Freelance writers are in great demand and with the current ongoing trend, the demand is only going to increase in coming years.

    FAQs

    Do freelancers get paid?

    Freelancers get paid after completing their work.

    What does a freelance writer do?

    A freelance writer is a self-employed person who writes articles, copy and and other types of content.

    How many people are involve in freelancing?

    Approximately, there are 1.1 billion people who are freelancers.

  • How Brands Use Surrogate Advertising to Promote Banned Products?

    Advertising is the most common and effective method of sales promotion. Advertisements are the best way to generate leads for the sale. But a few products stand out of availing the opportunity of being advertised.

    Consumption of certain products such as liquor which causes harm to health, should not be allowed as a result which government has not allowed publicizing such products. So, Surrogate Marketing acts as a solution to such products. Whereby, a product of the same brand other than the main product is advertised. This product acts as the ‘surrogate’ of the original one. This type of advertising method, where another product is advertised as a glimpse under the name of another product usually of the same or similar brand is called Surrogate Advertising. Let’s understand the origin and examples to understand surrogate advertising in India in detail.

    What is Surrogate Advertising?
    Origin of Surrogate Advertising
    Surrogate Advertising Examples – How Brands Promote Products Using Surrogate Advertising?

    What is Surrogate Advertising?

    Surrogate marketing is a marketing strategy, which is specifically a form of sales promotion strategy used for the branding of products that are generally banned to advertise by the government. The list includes products like alcohol, cigarettes, etc in the market.

    These products are preferably advertised indirectly or masked under another product. The brands secretly demonstrate surrogate products to their audience to indirectly promote the banned products.

    Origin of Surrogate Advertising

    Surrogate advertising came into existence as an alternative option for advertising the banned products. The roots concepts relating to surrogate advertising have their origin in Britain.

    The housewives in Britain began protesting against liquor advertisements as they believed that such type of brands incites their husbands to consume such products. The protest began to grow at an alarming rate as a result of which, and liquor advertising was banned.

    To mitigate the adverse impact of the protest, the brand owners decided to adopt an alternative method to bring such products before the public. They decided to do this the other way round. They started the promotion of some other products of their brands like fruit juices and soda which later emerged as surrogate marketing.

    As per the reports of several surveys and interviews, the stats draw inferences that 42 out of 50 people are easily able to recognize the actual product being advertised correctly.

    Surrogate Marketing is beneficial to several brands as it is a kind of marketing strategy that helps to market banned products and keep their brand name active in the minds of customers. Surrogate marketing helps companies to sustain themselves in the market.

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    Surrogate Advertising Examples – How Brands Promote Using Surrogate Advertising?

    Listed below are a few ways that brands opt to showcase their surrogate advertising strategy along with a few interesting examples of surrogate marketing.

    Advertising

    You must have been interrupted by a series of advertisements in the middle of your favourite T.V. show. Advertising on televisions through videos is the highly opted method of creating brand awareness. All most all marketers use this as their major marketing tool.

    Surrogate Marketing also involves the creation of impressive, creative, and attractive advertisements. They are also remembered for their catchy taglines. Take a look at a few examples of surrogate advertising.

    Magic Moments Music Studio & CDs

    Vodka is the main and primary product of this brand. But, there is just a glimpse of the vodka bottle in its video advertisement which prima facie shows Music CDs and studios. The connection between music and liquor, depicted in the video is sufficient for the viewers to comprehend the actual advertisement i.e. people generally prefer listening to music while drinking.

    Bagpiper

    Bagpiper is one of the top whiskey brands in India which shows Water, Soda, and Music in its video advertisement. It also applies a surrogate marketing strategy to sell its product in the name of – Bagpiper Club Soda. The very famous and interesting catchy line “Khub Jamega Rang” is brought up by this brand only.

    Rajnigandha Silver Pearls

    Rajnigandha sells a wide range of ‘pan masala’. The brand advertises silver cardamom and promotes it as a tobacco-free product. Therefore, it is deceptive sometimes as well.

    Imperial Blue Music CDs

    The “Men will be men” tagline is very popular and attractive. Imperial Blue brand is the one who has brought it. It also uses CDs to eclipse its actual product.

    Sponsoring events and tournaments

    The second most popular way opted as the surrogate marketing technique after video advertisement is sponsoring events and tournaments to promote the banned products indirectly.

    Indian Premier League (IPL)

    IPL has an immense fan following and is India’s biggest cricket tournament. Several brands sponsor IPL teams and the whole tournament. Kingfisher sponsors the IPL as its good times partner with – Oo La La La Le O with good times.

    Sunburn

    Sunburn is a music festival that is celebrated in India. Famous liquor brands including Carlsberg, Kingfisher, and Magic Moments sponsor this event. Music festivals are usually regarded as the colossal platform for Surrogate marketing.

    Sunburn Festival
    Sunburn Festival

    Bacardi NH7 Weekender

    Bacardi NH7 Weekender is a music festival sponsored by Bacardi which is a liquor brand. It is an example of blending music and liquor. It is a famous tagline because of its catchy tagline- ‘When Music kicks into the rescue’.

    Bacardi Weekender
    Bacardi Weekender

    Conclusion

    Certain products like alcohol, tobacco or cigarettes, pose a moral issue and remain deprived of getting an opportunity to be featured on advertising platforms mainly due to the prohibition of marketing imposed on them.

    So the only option left with the marketers is to advertise their original product in the disguise of another product of their brand, such method is termed ‘Surrogate Marketing’.

    Marketing is necessary to create awareness, increase sales and, sustain the market in the longer run. Without Surrogate Marketing, brands offering controversial products would have no existence in the market. It allows them to sustain themselves in the competitive world, which is the essence of Surrogate Marketing. The customer needs to comprehend and recognize the actual product being advertised and is hidden behind another, then only it can be concluded that this strategy worked well.

    FAQs

    Which company uses surrogate marketing?

    Bacardi, Kingfisher, Bagpiper, Rajnigandha, and Imperial Blue are some of the top brands that use surrogate marketing.

    What is an example of surrogate advertising?

    Imperial Blue Music Cds, Bagpiper Soda, and Officers Choice soda are some examples of surrogate advertising.

    Why surrogate advertising is important?

    Surrogate advertising is important as it helps brands advertise their product that is banned from advertising and indirectly impact consumers buying decisions.

  • Creating an E-commerce Website? Here Are the Vital Features That You Need

    Online markets have been in existence for quite a long time. But the pandemic made them a necessity more than a want.

    The e-commerce industry has seen significant growth over the past few years. This has encouraged many people to launch new startups in this field.

    To build an e-commerce platform, the most important base is a strong website. If the website is not well-made and easy to use, it will not bear the fruits of success.

    A successful website needs certain features to work well. These include- customer services, detailed information, reviews section, different payment options, and more.

    Overview of E-commerce Websites
    Most Important Features for E-commerce Websites

    E-commerce website Features

    Overview of E-commerce Websites

    Trade and commerce play a huge role in the global economy. Buying and selling have been in existence almost since the existence of mankind. Earlier it took place as barter and then the monetary values got involved.

    Now, the buying and selling process has modernized because of the increasing technology and digitization. This has given birth to e-commerce. It stands for electronic commerce. In simple terms, it is just the commerce happening over the internet.

    But how does this happen? The entire process happens over a website. It is a website that gives power to people to buy and sell products, services, and more, over the internet. For this, a person does not have to go to a physical store.

    E-commerce websites enable businesses to take orders, receive payments, manage to ship, and also provide services to the people at home.

    WIDGET: leadform | CAMPAIGN: undefined

    Most Important Features for E-commerce Websites

    The origin of a startup is based on an idea. The idea is to solve a problem and add value to society. There is no doubt that the problem of providing products and services at home has been solved. Some of the leading platforms like Amazon, Flipkart have done that already.

    But this does not mean that the newcomers cannot enter the market. To dive into this market and swim successfully needs strategic planning and its implementations. The basic and foremost strategy is to build an effective website that can help you earn a place in the market.

    Here are some of the important features that you need to add to your e-commerce website:

    Accessible Design

    The first thing you do before putting in the various elements in anything is to make a blueprint. The most important thing for any website is its design. Make sure to keep it simple and uncomplicated. Adding a lot of elements can be fun and attractive for some. But it is the road that can lead to further complications.

    Your design should be such that when a user enters your website, they access everything at ease. This makes for a great experience for the users. So, always remember to keep your design easy, uncomplicated, and user-friendly.

    Mobile Optimization

    E-commerce Website feature - Mobile optimization
    E-commerce Website feature – Mobile optimization

    Most people like access to everything at their hands. This means nowadays, they want everything on their smartphones. So, while developing a website make sure that it is suitable for mobile phones as well.

    It is important to include the feature of mobile optimization. The design must be adaptive for both computer and phone screens. Its size should change according to the screen size.

    Different Payment Options

    E-commerce Website feature - Several Payment Options
    E-commerce Website feature – Several Payment Options

    This is the most important feature that ensures the seal of a purchasing deal. Many people might like the platform and fill their carts with your products and services. But when they proceed to the checkout and do not find their preferred payment option, they won’t make a buy.

    So, it is important to include various payment options as your feature. You can add options of debit and credit cards, Net banking, PayPal, COD, and more. If suitable, you can also add buy now and pay in the future plugins.

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    Descriptions and Shipping Information

    Another feature to include is product description and shipping information. It is important that every product or service has its description with it. It should also include the information of when is the shipment expected and extra charges (if any).

    This feature makes the website appear clearer and more trustworthy.

    E-commerce Website feature - Filter and Sort Feature
    E-commerce Website feature – Filter and Sort Feature

    This feature makes the process for customers easy and effective. Search enables the customers to look for products and services without endless browsing. The Filter ensures that they can target their exact preferences. Sorting helps them to select a criterion for listing.

    So, for a sorted user experience, it is important to include this feature.

    Cart and Wishlist

    E-commerce Website feature - Cart
    E-commerce Website feature – Cart

    It is the most important feature needed for an e-commerce website. This enables the users to add all their items in one place. Many websites ditch the e-commerce buttons of a wishlist, thinking that it’s not important.

    But it is necessary to think from the people’s perspective. There are times when a customer likes six items but they only have the budget for four. So, they like a place where they can keep the left items for some time and come back later for it. Thus, this is a vital feature for ensuring a good experience for users.

    Review Section

    This feature is helpful in many ways. It will help you to get feedback about what is good and what is not. It will help you know about customer preferences. The most important thing is that it will help the customers build more trust in your site.

    Since the customers cannot see the product as they do in a physical store, they gain trust with these reviews. It is like word of mouth that helps attract more customers. So, make sure to include the feature of user reviews on your site.

    Customer Care

    It means to be available for support for online customers. The whole process works over the internet. So, many customers have questions to ask and also face challenges with certain things.

    It is the duty of the platform to keep the customers satisfied. Including the feature of customer care service in your website shows your support and availability for the users. This feature can also gain new potential customers as they can get their doubts cleared.

    Discount and Offers

    E-commerce Website feature - Discount Feature
    E-commerce Website feature – Discount Feature

    This is an important feature, responsible for attracting more customers. Everyone loves when they get a discount while making a buy. You can add this feature to the homepage. So, when a person opens your platform, this is the first highlight on their screen.

    You can send certain offers and codes to users via various marketing channels. For this, you can add the feature of the code box at the time of checkout.

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    Conclusion

    The above-mentioned are the most important features to include in one’s site. Apart from these another thing to keep in mind is to ensure that the website has a short loading time. Long wait snatches the interest of users from the platform.

    A great e-commerce website is not one that is too fancy. It is the one that gives a clear, accessible, and intuitive experience to its users. So, when you offer quality items and clear access to the website features, it is bound to take you towards the path of success.

    FAQs

    What are the important features of an E-commerce Website?

    Some main features of a Good E-commerce websites are:

    • Accessible Design
    • Mobile Optimization
    • Different Payment Options
    • Descriptions and Shipping Information
    • Filter, Sort, and Search
    • Cart and Wishlist
    • Review Section
    • Customer Care
    • Discount and Offers

    What are types of e-commerce?

    There are four traditional types of e-commerce:

    • B2C (Business-to-Consumer)
    • B2B (Business-to-Business)
    • C2B (Consumer-to-Business)
    • C2C (Consumer-to-Consumer)

    What are the best platforms to build an E-commerce website?

    The best platforms to build an E-commerce website are:

    • Shopify
    • BigCommerce
    • WooCommerce
    • Wix
    • Square