All posts by Suryakant Behera

About Suryakant Behera

Business Manager at Mindfire Solutions. I am responsible for generating leads from Social Media @ Mindfire. Loves to play Cricket and share knowledge.Author - Suryakant Behera

Changes In Marketing Functions Over The Years!

Changes In Marketing Over The Years
Changes In Marketing Over The Years

To build an effective marketing strategy in order to lure customers was never easy. With the introduction of Internet there was a bit of change in every company’s marketing strategy. Previously, companies used to have print ads only but, when the Internet storm barged in, many businesses started to have online presence. And, then with the surge of social networking portals, multifunctional cell phones, and gadgets, the face of marketing again took a major makeover. In order to retain existing customers and to attract new ones, companies keep them updated about  changes in marketing over the years and latest trends in marketing.

Internet and technology has not only benefited customers but also, created newer space for marketing in the virtual world. With the emergence of various other forms of marketing such as social media marketing, e-mail marketing, text/display ad marketing etc. companies have become more aggressive and innovative in building their marketing strategies to attract new customers.

Gone are the old Days!

A decade ago, creating personal relationship with customers was given utter importance to boost sales through one-to-one interaction. Consumers had to believe to what is being said. They did not bother to verify the information provided. But, the tables have turned now and the customer is full of information at the click of a finger. Study says, majority of Internet users today, tend to conduct a background research of a product before making a purchase decision. For example: what would you do first when you decide to purchase a smartphone for yourself? You will immediately jump on to the Internet and start comparing, reading reviews & feedback for a few of them before making a decision. Consumers have become more and more demanding and adventurous to try out different offerings which have eventually put greater emphasis on creating brand value.

New Age Marketing!

The gigantic online presence of consumers has revolutionized the way of advertising and marketing. An Internet user today can buy almost everything online today. Thanks to the Internet which has changed the way of trade and commerce. Businesses have started capitalizing the virtual world by forming networks which eventually allows them to get closer to their clients. New age marketing is not limited to banner ads on websites only but has extended beyond in the form of video marketing, blogging, campaigns on social networking websites, discussion forums etc. Internet has not only been a reliable source to gather information through interactions, polls and surveys but is also a great medium to keep marketers updated about consumer needs and taste. Search engines have been eminent in promoting a product/service. If you are not present in any of the search engines, it means that your business has lost reputation amongst your target audience. Different forms of Marketing help search engines to rank websites. Hence, companies are now focusing on marketing to boost sales. According to statistics; Twitter has assisted 42% companies present on its portal to bag new customers, Facebook has helped 67% B2C and 41% B2B companies to generate business, Inbound marketing will cost 62% cheaper than outbound marketing. This shows the intent for aggression among companies. Previously, companies had to rely on customer loyalty to prevail in the market. But, today if a company’s presence is not felt to customers then, possibility is more for competitors to climb over.

This post briefly describes how the face of marketing has changed over the years and how important is marketing for a business. Marketing is not limited to just bigger profit making businesses only. Rather, it has turned out to be an important weapon for every business. Every business (big or small) is marketing itself today.

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Avoid Offshore Outsourcing IT Project failure!

In today’s world, technology can be influential in bringing nations together and on the adverse can destroy nations. Businesses these days are taking advantage of it to manage work across geographical boundaries and as a result minimizing their cost and effort. This is what is coined as the term “Outsourcing”. Though there are some worries in offshore software development work, still it is a widely accepted phenomenon by a majority of companies.

The topic of outsourcing continues to grab headlines irrespective of success or failure of offshore outsourcing projects. Companies have mixed response when it comes to feedback on their working experience with outsourced companies. Some companies might have had very good experience working with outsourced companies whereas others might have faced failure. Reasons may be many but identifying one or even a group of reasons is a tough task and sometimes impossible. A number of contributing factors cumulatively result in Offshore Outsourcing IT projects to fail. Some of the generic factors might be improper planning, ineffective management, inaccurate estimates or unclear objectives. But, apart from these, projects fail for some other minor but very influential factors such as communication, infrastructure complexity, culture and sometimes labor division. Let us discuss each of these minor factors to avoid mistakes and as a result avoid project failure.

Communication: We know that communication alone does not only mean language. While dealing with different teams across different geographies, it is obvious that communication would undergo other major challenges like time zones, location, distance etc. All these should be managed properly before the start of an offshore outsourcing project. Anybody dealing with an outsourcing project should previously finalize upon the modes and mechanism of communicating. By this I mean that, whether e-mails/Skype calls/video conferencing is sufficient or do they need daily status reports and other online facilities to monitor.

Infrastructure: A very important aspect of offshore outsourcing project is infrastructure. This not only includes physical presence but other underlying factors like facilities & hardware. The companies outsourcing needs to ensure that all the team members have adequate tools and access required to complete the work. Hence, they need to make sure that all issues related to privacy, licensing, intellectual property rights and trade agreements are sorted out.

Culture: Culture is an under-estimated factor for project failure but, it is very subtle and can affect offshore outsourcing projects to a great extent. Work culture is different in different countries. Hence it is imperative that, every organization should be fully aware of the outsourced location and its culture. Properly managing culture would definitely yield a successful project. One always needs to understand how people in different cultures behave to work with them as work attitude may differ from one culture to the other.

Labor Division: Sometimes work is divided among various outsourced companies by the offshore company in order to reduce money. But doing so will not reduce your pain. Instead, it will affect the project’s success, increase worries and also affect long term relationship. Evaluating companies based on their strengths and weaknesses irrespective of the price is rather a better and less risky way of allocating work.

In my knowledge, these factors are the most under-rated ones but are highly effective while deciding upon a project’s future apart from the other mentioned points of improper planning, ineffective management, inaccurate estimates and unclear objectives. Hence, these should not be neglected and taken care of prior to outsourcing a project.

Cheers,

Author – Suryakant Behera

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Effective Tools to manage your Social Media efforts

Continuing with my previous post about managing social media during busy office hours, I am writing this post to make readers understand how social media tools can be used to reduce time effort and thus  effectively manage social media sites.

Let us start with a simple task. Have you integrated your Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter accounts yet? These are considered to be widely used platforms and presence in these sites will help you gain that extra mileage. Check your account settings and integrate these sites today. Continue reading Effective Tools to manage your Social Media efforts

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Managing social media is easy during busy office hours

There has been a sudden rise in the number of social sites recently. The reason being, it’s acceptance by individuals as well as businesses and the fact that people are getting social. Most of the readers must have registered at multiple sites. But, the usage would be restricted to a limited number of sites. This is solely because of the fact that people do not get enough time to visit every site and update the same status everywhere. Taking time out from busy schedules and updating every site looks like a tedious task to them. Hence, most people update their Facebook page only and leave the rest. The status update is effective when it reaches to people worldwide. Continue reading Managing social media is easy during busy office hours

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Social Mindfire

Mindfire + Social Media = Success for everyone!

Social MindfireHow important is Social Media for a business? This is a question that business owners ask themselves before barging in to any of the social media platforms.

In today’s world Social Media is the heart and soul of any business. It does not mean that other things are not important but, businesses which have presence in social media platforms have an edge over others.  Therefore, every website you find on the web has some or the other social media icon on their pages as everyone wants to be at top of the race.

Continue reading Mindfire + Social Media = Success for everyone!

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