Chargebacks are a major threat for merchants online and brick-and-mortar businesses too. In fact, chargebacks cost businesses about $19 billion per year, according to Visa. Chargebacks affect each merchant differently, depending on the size of the business, industry, and other factors. However, most companies processing credit cards deal with chargebacks every month.

Mastercard reports that, in total, chargebacks likely topped 600 million in 2021. While some of these chargebacks were ultimately denied, they were still a major burden on merchants, payment processors, banks, and other stakeholders. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to prevent and mitigate chargebacks.

We’re going to take a look at the three most common causes of chargebacks. We’ll also cover how they affect your business and how to fight chargebacks. Let’s get to it.

The Most Common Chargebacks: Friendly Fraud

While each merchant’s experience is different, for many businesses, friendly fraud is the most common cause of chargebacks. Estimates vary, but friendly fraud often accounts for more than half of all chargebacks, with some sources pinning friendly fraud for 60 to 80 percent of disputes.

Don’t let the name fool you. “Friendly” fraud is anything but friendly. “Fraud” is the keyword, and it’s a serious risk for merchants. Friendly fraud occurs when a cardholder makes a legitimate purchase with their debit or credit card but then tries to score free products and services by filing an unwarranted chargeback.

To be clear, the merchant fulfilled the order and the products/services were delivered. The client is not upset with the purchase and doesn’t try to return it. Often, they simply want free stuff, or they simply don’t remember or recognize the purchase

Not all friendly fraud is malicious, however. In some cases, shipping took too long and the customer may have thought the shipment got lost. In other cases, the customer may have intended to return the product but instead filed a chargeback. They may have simply not wanted to deal with the hassle of returns.

No matter the reason, however, the ball is in the buyer’s court. Often, merchants have little recourse except to fight the chargeback. Unfortunately, friendly fraud is common and on the rise. Businesswire reports that 80 percent of merchants have seen an increase in friendly fraud.

How To Prevent and Fight Friendly Fraud

Business can take several steps to prevent and mitigate friendly fraud, including:

• Providing accurate, clear shipping information
• Offering an easy-to-understand and use return policy
• Requiring signature upon receipt of a delivery
• Using a chargeback dispute management platform to combat fraud

Fighting friendly fraud is often a hassle. That said, if you fail to do so, your business suffers. Not only will you lose revenues from sales, if your chargeback ratio gets too high, payment processors may decline to work with you altogether. For many businesses, this could turn into a death knell.

Second Most Common Chargebacks: Merchant Error

Ultimately, between 20 to 40 percent of chargebacks are due to merchant errors. Rates can vary substantially from business to business, depending on how proactive companies are (or are not) at managing them.

Merchant errors typically occur because the business somewhere along the line dropped the ball. Perhaps employees lost track of an order and didn’t ship it out, or maybe they shipped the wrong product.

In some cases, the merchant did everything right but something on their end still went wrong. For example, maybe you quickly shipped the right product but the shipper lost or damaged it. In this case, since it’s on the company’s side of the transaction, this is considered a merchant error.

Another common cause is poor billing descriptions. Let’s say you run “Blasting Games,” an online gaming business, but you hold the business under a different company, say Jon Doe Holdings. When a customer buys a video game, instead of seeing a charge from “Blasting Games” they see “Jon Doe Holdings.” In this case, the customer may not recognize the charge and could file a chargeback.

Whatever the cause of merchant error, it’s important for merchants to address the issues resulting in disputes. With merchant errors, the ball is in the seller’s court, meaning the steps they take (or don’t) could have a dramatic impact on the number of chargebacks received. Fortunately, there are things businesses can do to reduce these chargebacks.

How To Prevent Merchant Errors

Companies can take several steps to prevent and mitigate merchant errors, including:

• Using clear billing descriptors
• Providing shipping and tracking information
• Closely monitoring internal business processes to ensure responsive service
• Providing accurate product descriptions
• Offering an easy-to-utilize return process

Ultimately, if you find that the dispute is the result of a merchant error, it may be best to simply refund the customer before they file for a chargeback. If you’re at fault, card issuers are likely to side with cardholders and against the business. By offering responsive customer service, say through live chat, and an easy return process, you could reduce chargebacks.

Getting into a dispute over merchant errors is often a lose-lose for the business. Not only will that company lose the revenue from the sale, but they’ll also have to pay penalty fees, and eventually a rising chargeback ratio may result in higher penalties or payment processors refusing to work with you.

Third Most Common Chargebacks: Criminal Fraud

These disputes arise when an unscrupulous third-party steals someone’s credit or debit card information and then makes a purchase. Since they’re using someone else’s cards, that means they can score free stuff.

Criminal fraud, aka “true fraud,” is one of the primary reasons the American government passed the “Fair Credit Billing Act” in 1974, requiring payment processors to offer cardholders recourse, paving the way for chargebacks. However, it’s estimated that such chargebacks these days constitute only 1 to 10 percent of the total.

That said, even a single instance of criminal fraud is a serious issue. When these chargebacks arise, both the cardholder and the business are adversely affected. If the criminal is not caught, he or she may get away with free money, products, or services.

Unfortunately, customers engaging in friendly fraud may try to pass the incident off as criminal fraud. Remember, with friendly fraud, it’s the legitimate cardholder trying to score free products or money. With criminal fraud, it’s a third party. Distinguishing between friendly and criminal chargebacks is difficult.

Fortunately, there are steps you can take to mitigate criminal fraud.

How To Prevent Criminal Fraud Chargebacks

Companies can take several steps to prevent and mitigate criminal fraud, including:

• Requiring customers to provide the Card Security Code or Card Verification Value
• Shipping products only to verified addresses
• Mandating signatures for in-person sales
• Using online criminal fraud detection systems

Criminal fraud may not be a common source of disputes. Still, the numbers can add up and any revenue lost hurts. Ultimately, it’s important to proactively prevent and fight all types of chargebacks. Doing so will protect your organization.

Fortunately, modern chargeback dispute management platforms make it easier for businesses to manage chargeback disputes. And by working with chargeback experts, you can identify potential weaknesses in your business processes and operations. Once identified, it’s often possible to reduce if not eliminate risks.

 

Marketing has always been a field that has been on the cutting edge of innovation and change. For any business, staying up to date with the latest forms of communication, impact, and influence is important. Staying relevant is about more than having a good or service that can stand toe-to-toe with the competition, it’s about getting the potential consumer to become aware.

 As the world of marketing has changed, the prominence of the internet and increases in communication have made it easier for consumers to go directly to the source when looking to invest. This kind of marketing is known as direct-to-consumer marketing and is a powerful tool to help businesses not only increase their profitability but also expand their brand awareness.

 But what is direct-to-consumer marketing and how can you use it to increase your brand awareness and find more potential customers?

 Here is everything you need to know about direct-to-consumer marketing, and how Kevin Miller can help get you the tools you need to make this kind of marketing work for you.

What Exactly is Direct To Consumer Marketing?

Direct-to-consumer marketing is nothing new. In fact, it’s one of the oldest forms of marketing in business and dates back to the origins of exchange between goods and services. Think of a farmer that takes their produce to a local market and sells it directly to a consumer. This is an example of a direct-to-consumer transaction. There is no middle man, there is no reseller involved, just the consumer and the provider.

 Marketing for this kind of transaction has changed throughout the years and recently has become a powerful tool to help move industry and business forward. Historically, in mainstream modern culture before the internet and increased communication made direct-to-consumer marketing as feasible as it is, there was business-to-consumer marketing.

What is Business to Consumer Marketing?

This kind of marketing involved the retailer as the middle man. A consumer would produce a product, then that product would be housed by a middle man that would put on a campaign to attract the consumer. Maybe that campaign was an ad in a local newspaper or storefront window. When the consumer purchased the product, the transaction happened between the consumer and the middle man, not the direct producer.

Why is Direct to Consumer Marketing Powerful?

One of the main reasons that direct-to-consumer marketing is powerful is that it increases the levels of authenticity, relationship, and trust between a consumer and a producer. By avoiding the middle man completely, you not only get to make more profit for your product, but you also begin to form a direct relationship with the consumer.

 This kind of marketing capitalizes on optimizing the interactions between potential consumers and the producer. Largely this kind of marketing exists in the digital sphere, as digital marketplaces like websites have made this kind of direct transaction more available and prominent than ever before.

What Are Some of The Best D2C Marketing Tools?

Instead of working through a middle man, like a retailer, a consumer can go directly to a business’s own website and interact with them this way. This means that tools that help to make this process smoother, faster, and easier are going to be the most impactful when it comes to increasing your direct-to-consumer marketing.

 Thankfully, this doesn’t have to be something that you figure out alone. Experts like Kevin Miller have helped successful businesses for years increase their revenue and maximize their brand awareness through effective D2C marketing. One of those tools that can bring incredible results is organic SEO content building.

 Kevin Miller is the co-founder and current CEO of gr0 which is one of the most successful SEO content-building platforms on the market. They have helped hundreds of businesses organically grow powerful SEO content that connects businesses to potential customers by optimizing their search engine results.

 This form of organic marketing creates content that Google recognizes as valuable and high quality and links specifically to searches that are relevant to a business’s goods or services. Effective SEO increases a brand’s awareness to potential customers by improving their ranking on relevant Google search results. This moves a brand up the ladder and closer to the top of a Google search result. This is a powerful tool when you consider that some Google search results can have hundreds of thousands to millions of results.

 This elevates your brand above the noise, with content that not only optimizes your search results but gives customers the content they want.

Conclusion

Finding out how your business can be uniquely impacted by effective direct-to-consumer marketing is what Kevin Miller and his team specialize in. Growing your brand awareness and increasing your clientele doesn’t have to be a mystery, get help from the experts who can make reaching your goals a reality!

Running a business is an ever-changing process. With advancements in technology, currency and advertising happening rapidly, it can be tricky to keep up with the times. Here we have compiled some of the best tips you can use to take your business to the next level in 2022. All business savvy companies are using these practices, and so should you. Keep reading to learn more.

Accepting Payments

One of the best practices you can have for your business is using aBitcoin payment gateway. There’s been a lot of buzz around Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in the past few years. Crypto has blown up since Bitcoin was created in 2009 due to its high growth potential and decentralization. However, it has gained hesitancy amongst people who are not avid users due to its volatility and heavy day to day fluctuations. We’d like to make it clear that installing a gateway for your business does not come with any of the risks that investors experience. A gateway installed on your webpage will allow users of Crypto to pay with this currency without having to first convert their money to USD. Once you have received the payment in Bitcoin, you can immediately convert it back to USD if you don’t have any personal interest in investing in cryptocurrency. The lack of ways to currently spend Bitcoin is an issue that many holders have. It is a great benefit to your business to welcome users of Crypto to spend their money with you. Only select businesses are utilizing gateways currently, but we believe that this will be standard practice in the future so it is smart to be ahead of the game.

Financial Tools

A goodcredit report tool will allow you to show customers their credit or to see your client’s credit before you choose to work with them. A credit reporting system helps you take the risk and guesswork out of choosing lenders and clients. Gaining access to an accurate report of someone’s credit can be tricker then you may realize, so using a service for this can help with the accuracy of information. These soft credit check inquiries are especially great because they will not have an effect on the credit score of the entity you will be inquiring about. When API technology is used it can enhance banking infrastructure, online applications, and other financial tools. When it comes to mitigating risk for your business, you cannot be too cautious, so don’t skip this step.

Even if you have no plans to liquidate your company,cash liquidation distribution is a term that all businesses with investors should familiarize themselves with. Cash liquidation distribution is a summary of the capital that will be returned to your investors when liquidating your corporation. If you do have investors, you are probably familiar with dividends. This is the sum of money that is paid on a regular basis to the company’s shareholders from the profits. If you are to ever liquidate your business, you may need to distribute semi-liquid or liquid assets amongst your investors. It is important to be aware of this process for tax purposes, should you ever need to close your doors for good.

If you are in the early stages of your business, using acapitalization table to keep track of your shareholders can be incredibly helpful. A capitalization table is a spreadsheet that lays out the equity capitalization for a company and shows an intricate breakdown of a business’s shareholders’ equity. These tables can be as simple or as complex as needed to keep the finances of your business organized. This will also help show a total market value of your company and all of its components. The business manager should use this as their main point of reference for financial decisions made within the company.

Smart Advertising

Advertising is an obvious necessity for all businesses, but the success of your ads come down to how you choose to advertise your specific business. Social media has been one of the most successful ways to advertise to a target audience. You just need to know exactly what to look for. Instagram and TikTok are great if you have the resources to reach out to specific influencers that have the right audience for you. However, if you are looking for something that is a bit more hands off, YouTube is a fantastic platform. While you have the option to reach out to specific creators on this platform, you can also do some more standard advertising on this platform. We also love YouTube for advertising due to video ads being more effective and wider reaching then photo ads. YouTube also has a powerful targeting mechanism to ensure your ads are being shown to an appropriate audience for your brand. So, you’re probably wonderinghow much YouTube ads cost and how they work. Your ads on YouTube will be determined by things like ad format, watch time, targeting mechanisms and campaign objectives. The cost is charged per click and will range from an average of $0.10 to $0.30. The specific cost will vary due to the bidding mechanism used on the platform. Brands that advertise through YouTube will bid against each other for the best placement, but you can set a max bit if you’d like to cap your spending at a certain point.

Software Assistance

In the early stages of your company, you will be making decisions on software and technical set-up. If you are not specifically trained in this area, it can be challenging to know where to start.Capterra is a great resource for new business to help get set up on the technology side of things. Capterra allows you to compare your options side by side so you can evaluate what you need in a program and how much you want to spend. They’ve got program options for just about every type of business you can imagine, so if you need help in this area, you need to check them out.

If you are a business owner, these are the things you can be doing to help experience exponential growth and security this year. So be smart and try out some of these tips today!

 

As a business owner, issuing invoices to your clients or business partners will inevitably always be part of your routine. An invoice is a document that consists of a list of purchased products or services rendered to the buyer. It usually includes your business name, the client’s name, description and prices of the services or products, as well as the acceptable modes of payment. But sometimes, due to its prevalence, many business owners fail or forget to realize the importance of invoicing and how it can impact their business, especially when done ineffectively.

Why is invoicing important?     

The fundamental purpose of an invoice is to ensure your buyers will pay you promptly. The invoice will serve as a sales agreement between you and your client, in which the buyer should pay the stated total cost within the invoice due date. In case of potential fraudulent lawsuits, the invoice will protect the merchant since it can serve as legal proof that the seller and buyer had agreed on the set price.

Creating invoices will also help you keep track of your sales and manage your finances better, while at the same time, your buyers can easily monitor their pending payments. Furthermore, you can gather valuable data regarding your daily, weekly, or monthly sales and eventually help you formulate accurate sales forecasts through your invoices. You can also overview your clients’ buying patterns, average payment timeline, most popular products sold, and other details that could help you develop effective marketing strategies.   

Thankfully invoicing software similar to that offered by Jobber is available to help businesses streamline their invoicing process, allowing them to easily send accurate invoices to their clients. Regardless of which industry you belong to––may it be a plumbing, commercial, or landscaping business––investing in invoicing software will help smoothen your daily business operations.   

How to do invoicing properly?   

Keep in mind that your invoice should make it convenient for your clients to pay their bills. Otherwise, messy invoices will only make your business look unprofessional and leave your clients perplexed about how and what they’re paying for.

Here are some invoicing best practices to help you create professional invoices properly:

• Personalize the invoice  

Giving out invoices that appear similar to others might make yours unrecognizable and easily forgotten. If you’re using an invoicing app, you can customize your invoice to ensure it fits the type of business you have. You can personalize it by adding your color scheme, tagline, and business logo. These things may not be necessary, but a personalized invoice will make it more distinguishable, memorable, and help you get paid more promptly.

• Come up with a professional invoice layout  

A professional invoice layout can also boost your business’s authority and credibility, increasing the likelihood of getting paid. This is important since fake invoice scams are becoming more prevalent nowadays. Preferably, your business name and logo must be at the topmost part of the page in large fonts. Then, you can place your address and contact details in smaller fonts below the logo. This way, your clients can contact you easily in case they have any questions.

Having incomplete contact details could potentially hold up clients’ payments, especially if they have concerns regarding the invoice. Depending on your preferences, you may also refer to the pre-built layout from your invoicing software and customize the font sizes. 

• Include the customer details  

Typically, the customer’s details like their name, mailing address, contact numbers, and email address should be included within the context. This ensures that you’re billing the payments to the right client.

Furthermore, you should also assign an identifier or invoice number for every invoice you issue. This will keep your records more organized and easily identifiable in case the client forgets to pay one of their invoices. An invoice number is usually issued automatically by your invoicing software. 

• Incorporate the invoice due date and payment terms 

Many businesses often fail to include the invoice due date, which is why some clients can easily make up excuses for delaying their payments. Hence, add an invoice due date and payment terms to make it clear to your buyers how long they can pay. 

In most cases, some businesses provide 30 days as the default term, while some may go for 14 days or even payment upon receiving the issued invoice. Moreover, you must also state the payment terms that tell how much you should charge for late payments. 

• Include descriptions of goods or services 

Putting the descriptions of the goods or services will help clients know what they’re actually paying for. Otherwise, placing only the product’s name will leave them confused and further delay their payments.

• Add your payment options 

To complete your invoice, add the list of your accepted payment options such as cash, bank transfer, debit/credit card, or online payment methods. If you only have limited preferred payment methods, ensure you give your client a heads-up and see if they agree with it to avoid potential payment disputes.

The bottom line

Dealing with your company’s invoices shouldn’t be complicated. As long as you’re using efficient invoicing software and create a professional invoice layout that offers convenience to both the merchant and the buyer, you can ensure that collecting payments won’t be a hassle and your clients will pay their bills on time.

 

 

Cannabis businesses have long struggled with excessive packaging, especially plastics and paper needed to ensure durability. On top of that, many companies used heavy wrapping materials to make sure their products didn’t end up in the wrong hands, primarily children’s.

But that struggle might be coming to an end soon. The cannabis market has seen an influx of new plant-based papers and plastics that might become the next go-to option. Let’s find out more about how these products might help reduce waste in the future.

What Is It All About?

Conventional packaging will not do the trick anymore. Not only do cannabis manufacturers use excessive plastics and paper that neither they nor the customers like, but they also spend a lot of funds on them. Aside from switching to more sustainable choices, a top machine like the industrial joint rolling machine can help reduce waste in the long run.

Regarding the materials, there have been talks about recycling cannabis waste. Some businesses have already started implementing this idea by using the leftover waste to create environmentally friendly products, like hemp paper, that can be recycled a few times.

Good Timing Is Key

When it comes to such initiatives, timing is everything. For example, the global pandemic has discovered weaknesses in the supply chain. When everything was halted, both smaller and bigger businesses had to fend for themselves. This was the right moment for North American companies to go green.

And since now is the right time to think green, let’s take a look at a few reasons why.

Reduced Waste, Increased Use, and Profits

The first reason for going green is less waste. But many manufacturers would be surprised to learn that increased cannabis use and profits go hand in hand with reduced waste. Companies can easily convert waste to usable raw materials, regardless of their purpose. A bit of research and the appropriate human resources will do the trick.

Consumer Care

Once brands start communicating with consumers, they’ll realize how much of the same things they want. Take, for example, Hefestus. This manufacturer has stood by its customers from the very beginning. Just visit Hefestus on YouTube to get the complete picture of what this packaging solutions company does.

You can do the same by simply communicating with your users. People want to reduce the industry’s footprint, and you should want to do the same. This will help you build long-term relationships with your customers.

No Waste Pollution

Putting a stop to waste pollution is much more complicated than it sounds. History has shown that cannabis destruction was necessary during waste disposal. As a result, this biodegradable material ended up in landfills, creating an additional burden to cannabis processors. 

A great solution to this problem comes from entrepreneurs who can use and repurpose biodegradable material. This way, specialized businesses eliminate two issues at once while enforcing sustainable packaging.

Bio-Circular Requirements Are the Future

Not only do big corporations and businesses worldwide aim to eliminate waste, but they also keep an eye out for bio-circular requirements. Thinking this way can position the companies for the years ahead. Anyone with the right tools can use waste to create environmentally friendly products, like plant-based plastic containers, instead of relying on fossil fuels.

Sustainability is the key to a healthy future, and you can read more about it in this article. 

This change is ready to happen. The next green revolution will bring just that to industries worldwide, including the cannabis one. This is especially important if the industry already has an opportunity to become bio-circular. It also makes sense in the financial sector of the cannabis industry as 80% of biomass comes from the ground and is not being used.

Running a special offer for your home-based business is a great idea to drum up some extra revenue. Home-based businesses often have smaller budgets, so it’s essential to find creative ways to entice customers. In this blog post, you will learn four unique but straightforward ways you can run special offers for your home-based business!

Who doesn’t like freebies?

It’s hard to say “no” to someone who’s offering a free sample of ice cream, isn’t it? Everyone likes freebies, even if it’s something as small as a chocolate chip cookie. Free samples are the lifeblood of every small business. They appear expensive, but when you compare that cost to the revenue you’ll get by getting loyal customers for a lifetime, they’re worth it!

Start by offering a free consultation or estimate. Whether you’re a virtual marketing agency, software house, or content mill, your clients know your services aren’t free. The problem is that they won’t reach out to you and ask for a quote unless you sprinkle in a little incentive for them. A free consultation might do the trick and entice your potential clients to keep knocking on your door all day long.

Some clients will still be skeptical about your services even after the free consultation. It’s here when you offer them a free trial so that they can get a glimpse of what you’re all about. This is where you prove you’re not only an expert at what you do but also willing to go the extra mile for your customers. This kind of loyalty reciprocates sooner or later!

It’s all about flash sales and discounts.

Don’t sales just make your heart throb faster? Sales are limited-time events that make it seem like you’re saving money but encourage spending more! That’s magic, isn’t it? That’s why occasional flash sales and discounts can do wonders for your home-based business. Not all sales take the cake, though. The trick here is to make sure they’re limited-time, so people feel they need to take advantage of it before it expires.

For example, you could offer a 50% discount on your services for the first ten clients who sign up. By doing this, you’ll create a sense of urgency and encourage people to take action fast. You can also increase the excitement by marketing your business on social media or create an email marketing campaign – just make sure the offer is time-sensitive!

That’s all very nifty, but how do you take this to the next level? Once your flash sale has brought in a flood of customers, you can give out small complementary products. For instance, if you have a home-based website development company and a client pays you for building a website, you can provide them with two months of free SEO services for free. That’s like telling your customer that you’re as much invested in their business as they are.

Reward loyalty

While special offers are supposed to attract new customers, what if you designed them in a way that keeps your existing customers happy too? A great way of doing this is by offering special pricing and discounts for repeat customers. Not only will this encourage them to come back for more, but they will also recommend your services to others. After all, word-of-mouth buzz is a potent marketing tool!

Consider creating a loyalty program for your repeat customers. You can give them special discounts or even free products/services after they have reached a certain spending threshold. It all depends on what you offer and how you want to structure it, but the key is to make it worthwhile for your customers.

Speaking of discounts, why not give out gift cards to your customers? Gift cards are simple to set up, easy on your customers’ pockets, and an excellent way to bring in new clients or reward repeat ones! One advantage of gift cards is that there’s a good chance the recipients won’t use them. Statistics show that since 2005, $45 billion worth of gift cards have gone unused.

Go BOGO

Buy one, get one free (BOGO) deals provide an excellent incentive for your customers to try out your services. While discounts are great, consumers value free stuff more than discounted stuff. If you can take advantage of that, you would have swarms of loyal customers. 

Think about it – if a dentist offers a patient free teeth-whitening at their first appointment, the dentist only loses a tiny amount of money but gains a loyal customer for a lifetime. Now, let’s translate that to your home-based business. Let’s say you are a web development company. You could offer a special deal where the customer gets a free website template for every website you create for them. Similarly, if you’re a graphic designer, you could create a free logo for your client.

BOGO deals require heavy advertising, especially on social media. In fact, all your promos should go up on social media. It’s better to post flyers and posters than to write walls of bland text. I recommend these social media templates tailored to each social media platform: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, to name a few.

Final thoughts

While deciding to run special offers for your home-based business isn’t rocket science, how to run them is the challenging bit. Special offers can drive up your sales significantly and attract new customers if done right. Whether it’s BOGO deals, special pricing for repeat customers, or flash sales – any special offer you run for your home-based business will be successful if you market them the right way.

There’s no one correct answer to that, but perhaps the cheapest and most effective way to run your promos is by advertising them on social media. As discussed, you need to craft appealing flyers and posters. The only problem is that every social media platform is different, so you’ll have to tailor your flyers to each one accordingly. To get around this problem, you can resize designs for different platforms in a few clicks and have your promos up and running in no time!

Have you got some cool new clothes to show them off to the world? If yes, you would probably take a snap of them and upload them on social media. Whether you know it or not, this is user generated contentor simply UGC. This is becoming the most popular form of marketing nowadays. The brands themselves do not post the promotional content and snaps of their new clothes. The people do this for them. The user generated content has proved to be an effective marketing strategy for brands. Today’s topic is all about this type of marketing in which the brand is not involved. It will discuss different types and platforms for user generated content marketing. So, before moving on towards the details, let’s begin our topic with the definition of UGC.

What is meant by user-generated content?

In its simplest form, user generated content is any content created by the people, not the brands. It can be a text, image, video, blog, review, or testimonial. The content is original, and only the customers of a brand generate it. The customers publish this content on different platforms involving social media.

For example, the Coca Cola beverages company launched a campaign“Share a Coke.” The brand asked its consumers to take a photo while drinking a coke.Coca-Cola posted those images of its consumers on their pages and used them for advertisement. This campaign was a strategy to market the product through customers. The coke consumers generated the content, and the brand enjoyed high sales. So, this is the meaning of user generated content.

What are the types of user generated content?

There are many types of user generated content. They all fall under three categories. Those categories are text, image and video. A brief description of all the types of this content is as follows as shared by a best assignment help service;

Social media content

The first type of user generated content is social media content. Millions of people around the world use social media, and they post things on those platforms. Social media has taken the internet by storm due to its adaptability. People share different content on social media platforms, and it is called social media content. It can be about a resort you visited last summer or the cloth you wore at a wedding. All this content falls under the user generated content. You are promoting the resort by posting the visuals of it on social media.

Reviews and testimonials

Feedback and reviews are the second types of user generated content. It falls under the text category of this content. You write a review about some product you have used recently. The customers give reviews on the website or social media handles of the brand. Regardless of their nature, those reviews play their part in the marketing of the brand. The positive testimonials about any service make the brand more credible.

Blog posts

The blog posts fall under the category of user generated content. In this type, the consumer writes a blog on the product or service of the brand. Remember that it is not the brand that writes these things. The blog posts can be a review of something or an explanation of the brand’s new product features.

Bloggers who write blog posts often display products with their “how to use” tutorials. It involves both text and video content. Such content acts asuser generated content, and it gives recognition to the brand. Popular bloggers can affect a larger audience through their blog posts, hence, increasing the brand’s reputation.

Video content

Video content such as Instagram and YouTube videos also come under user generated content. You would be amazed to know that YouTube has twomillion users every month. All the video creators create videos content on different topics and products. Instagram has about onemillion new users every month. All these users are contributing towards brand marketing through their content. The users make videos on different topics or wearing clothes of a brand. Such videos have a lasting effect on other people’s minds.

Hashtag campaigns

The hashtag campaigns are the most successful content marketingcampaigns. The brand initiates a hashtag, and its consumers participate in the trend. Hashtag campaigns are simple promotional events. In such campaigns, the brands use the content posted by consumers to show their products.

The Coca-Cola used#ShareACoke campaign to market the new coke bottle. Other brands like Redbull and Gatorade also use such campaigns to promote their products. Many consumers participate in such a campaign making the product or service of the brand a success. So, this is also the type of user generated content.

What is a user generated content platform?

Nothing can market your product better than user generated content when it comes to marketing. There are different platforms available where brands collect this content. A user generated content platform is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) product. It assists the brands in collecting all the UGC about a product in one place.

Moreover, a UGC platform helps you own the content rightfully. It helps you manage the rights with their Right Management system. Also, such platforms let you display the user generated content on your websites. Now, the question is, what are those user generated content platforms? A brief description of the best platforms is as follows;

Taggbox

It is one of the best UGC platforms available in 2022. It can assist you to enhance user engagement, build trust and drive conversions for your brand.The main feature of this tool is that it helps you collect, manage and display the user generated content. Through Taggbox display feature, you can display the UGC on your website. This display can inspire the visitors of your website and power up your brand marketing.

The amazing features of this tool help you in the customisation of the UGC. You can choose different themes to display the content on your website. The analytics’ feature of this platform helps you track your brand’s performance.

Yotpo

The next user generated content platform on the list is Yotpo. It is an e-commerce marketing platform that helps brands with visual marketing, customer reviews and referrals. It collects all the data related to these things and helps the brands improve themselves. Yotpo helps the brands to increase trust, increase sales and earn customer loyalty. Many brands are already using this UGC platform to get insights into their business. To no surprise, this platform is giving them great results. Based on the collected reviews, the brands make informed decisions to power up the marketing.

CrowdRiff

CrowdRiff is also a type of user generated content platform that operates for hospitality and travel brands. It helps brands discover all user content and display it on their websites. It collects the brand-related user content from different social media platforms and displays it in one window. You can choose the right set of content from that window based upon the liking of your site visitors. The AI-based system of this platform automatically displays the posts with high attraction. This feature generates performance reports of your brand.

Turn To

Turn to user generated content platform provides some new methods to manage the user content. The four innovative applications of this platform are as follows;

• Ratings and review
• Visual reviews
• Check out comments
• Community Q&A

The community Q&A feature in particular allows the users to ask questions about a brand’s product. The existing or old users can give their answers. This platform is more like a Q&A forum. The main motive of the brands is to provide new customers with reviews, ratings and answers by the old users. Every aspect of this platform requires the users to give their reviews about the product they have purchased.

How do I use user-generated content?

You can use user generated content in many ways. One of the best use of this content is to enhance the marketing power of your brand. It can power up the marketing of your products and services. More than seventy per cent of customers say that they buy things after reading the reviews and ratings of a product. The reviews and ratings can help you increase the sales of a particular product.Therefore, you should encourage your customers to leave reviews after buying the products. The positive reviews become user generated content and attract more customers.

What are the benefits of user generated content?

Among all other tools of brand promotions, the user generated content tool is the most potent. It is a statement of confidence in a particular brand. Below are some of the benefits of this content;

• Win-win situation: One of the most important benefits of user-generated content is a win-win situation for both the brand and its customers. Customers know that the brand hears their voices by telling their stories. On the other hand, the brand is promoting its products using the reviews of its customers.
• Social proof: The user generated content serves as social proof. The reviews from the original customers increase the brand’s credibility.Also, they bring the brand’s promises into perspective.
• Trustworthy:Consumers find user generated content more trustworthy. The real reviews and ratings help the new customers look deeper at the brand. Also, the content is generated by the people, not the brand. This satisfies the new customers the most and attracts them. This is because the brand can manipulate things but seeing original feedback, it becomes trustworthy.
• Budget: The user generated visuals can supplement your branded content. Often the budget of the brands is very thin concerning the marketing. The user content does not leave a dent in the budget of brands. The brands use the pictures shared by the customers for marketing.
• Open to the conversation:By using the UGC, you tell your customers that your brand is open to the conversation. It builds a deeper and more authentic relationship between customers and brands.

What is the difference between social media and user-generated content?

There exists a huge difference between social media and user generated content. Social media content is something that brands cannot curate or control. Everyone can post a comment for their benefit and get fame. Sometimes companies use different software to analyse the social media content related to their brand. But it does not come under the user generated content. In fact, it is against the privacy policies, and brands should seek formal permission from the content creators first.

On the other hand, the user generated content is specific to promoting or powering up the marketing of a product. By writing a review or making a video, the users give permission to brands to use their content. The brands, in turn, use this content on their social media profiles to attract new customers. So, this is the major difference between social media and user generated content.

Is user-generated content credible in content marketing?

The user generated content is the most credible in content marketing. Content marketing is all about sharing videos, texts and images about something. The users also share their experiences of different brand products on different platforms. Due to its experience-driven nature, user generated content is the most reliable in content marketing. It is the most trustworthy, reliable and authentic content than other brand-based content. The brands only write content to promote their business. You can expect some kind of biasness in this. In the case of the UGC, you will not find biasness. It is purely based on experience. So, user generated content is credible in content marketing.

Conclusion

In the upcoming times, you will see a boost in the user generated content. The marketers must get used to this form of marketing. More than seventy per cent of the customers now buy things based on the reviews of past customers. You can imagine the importance of this content from the above discussion. The benefits of the UGC make it the top priority of marketers. Thus, UGC is a secret ingredient that every brand must use to enjoy success.

 

Social media was once used solely for finding new friends and sharing memories. Today, businesses are taking their entities online, while HR. personnel is posting jobs on these platforms to find the right talents.

If you are a student, a graduate, or a professional looking to advance or change your career path, it’s time you consider going social. Here are few pointers on how to use social media in your career:

1. Use Few Social Media Platforms

As much as you want to gain online visibility, it is not a smart move to be on all of them. Why? Because it can be tedious. You see, creating a social media account comes with some demands if you want it to work. Keep posting consistently to have algorithms working in your favor. You can choose to focus on Facebook and Instagram, for example, and keep sharing your interests and knowledge.

So, joining all social media platforms can be draining and time-consuming, which leaves you with little time for private stuff.

Being on a few social media platforms helps you understand how they work and you can navigate them with ease. You also find a lot of information such as the advantages of buying essays from a writing professional. Your education journey becomes more enjoyable and easy when you are well informed.

2. Maximize Your Profiles

There are billions of social media users, and each person has a reason they are online. Approximately 80% of hiring managers get their candidates on these platforms. LinkedIn is their favorite place to hang around and it has established itself as a platform for professionals. So, you may want to create a striking impression on the recruiter, especially if you are planning to apply for a position using your LinkedIn account.

Most students are tempted to put funny information on their profiles. This becomes a blow in your future career if that is the information you are going to put yourself out with. Serious employers are interested in working with professionals.

Consider adding relevant information such as where you schooled, if you have attended any internship and if you are actively searching for work or not. Some platforms such as LinkedIn have a provision where you can have your profile showing you are ‘open to work.’

If you have some experience, whether part-time, shadowing or a few years, consider adding it to your profiles. This information help recruiters have an idea of who you are even before inviting you for an interview.

3. Know What to Share and with Whom

It is easy to feel like you can post anything on social media because you technically own the account. Wrong! It is the things we consider small that end ruining our future careers. So, before you put something for everyone to see, remember there is the power of screenshots.

That video you saw on TikTok of people doing nasty things and found it funny, and you decided to share. Or that Facebook meme about an employee being rude to the employer, and you decided to add a cheeky comment. These can have a negative long-term effect on your career.

To be on the safe side, make your account private if what you want to upload is not something you would like a potential employer to see.

4. Use Social Media for Networking

Most people do not understand the power of networking. Just because you have your excellent academic papers isn’t a reason to overlook this tool. Some platforms like Instagram are thought of as places to show off the best photos. But, they can give you quality leads to your next big job or business.

Because creating a network and influence is not an overnight exercise, consider starting as early as when still a student. It will help you build genuine connections with people that matter. LinkedIn is particularly known for these and people have landed their dream jobs by creating a relevant network.

Connect with people in the field you would like to work in in the future. First, engage with them and ask questions so they can notice you. Then, when you have established a solid connection, you can ask them to refer you to opportunities.

While networking, it is wrong to limit yourself to people you only know. They may not have the leads you want. Social media breaks the barriers of location limitation, and the purpose of networking is to meet other professionals.

Take it as a job search. You do not apply for a job in a particular company because you know the owner at a personal level. Instead, you apply there because the company aligns with your career expectations.

5. Proofread Your Posts

Some typos can change the meaning of your messages. Some of them are so bad that you look so careless and unprofessional. Nobody wants to risk having an irresponsible person in their business.

Do not be in a rush to post anything. Go through your post before posting. The surefire way to proofread and edit your work is some hours or the following day after creating that content. You may not spot such errors when you proofread the work immediately.

Let your network see you mean business. Most errors are hard to get away with, while some can be excused.

6. Personalize Your Messages

When you meet with new connections, send them a personalized message after accepting your request. This concept also applies when sending a direct message to a recruiter who has posted a job on socials.

You do not want to look like a spam sender. Instead of using copy and paste messages to your connections, try being creative. Most people will be interested in taking the conversations further when they feel some authenticity in the message.

But, when your message feels like it was a forward to 10 other people, you are likely to be blocked or unfollowed. Let the person know you have taken time to go through their profile. You can include their recent achievement on the personalized message and congratulate them on the milestone!

7. Use Hashtags

If you are hunting for a job, learn how to use the relevant hashtags. LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram are specifically strong at these. Although other socials use the hashtags, these stand out.

Hashtags help with filtering information available online. Recruiters use them so they can reach a wider audience too. So, instead of reading everything in your feed, narrow your results by filtering using hashtags.

8. Clean Up Your Accounts

If your social media accounts have questionable content, consider pulling such posts down or hide them. Today, hiring managers are keen on what you share on your timeline. It is notable because they mostly ask you to share a link to one of your social media accounts.

When job hunting, go through your posts to see if they can hurt your credibility. If you feel the content is too much to delete, you can consider creating fresh accounts. Let them be oriented to your career. Start posting relevant and professional material. If you are uncertain about the content that can hurt your reputation, here are some examples:

• Complaining about your job place/boss/teacher publicly
• Posts/comments that bully other users
• Offensive videos

If you decide to create new accounts, be ready to answer why you have very few connections. Some recruiters are cautious about new accounts, and you should have an intelligent answer. Indeed, creating connections is not an easy task either.

Social media is a goldmine to people planning to start or advance their careers. You get to meet people, business owners, and business opportunities when you use it well. Unfortunately, some people may never understand how it works because they refuse to see it from a different angle. Instead, they stick to finding it as a place for fun. Use these tips and discover what other beneficiaries of social media are enjoying today!

 

If you’ve reached a point where you want to put your startup on the market, how much confidence do you have it will sell?

Yes, parting ways with your startup can provide some anxious moments. Of most importance, it should provide you with lots of thought.

Doing your homework ahead of time to make sure your startup is in a prime position to sell is critical.

So, how confident are you that your startup is going to sell without much anxiety?

Be Smart When it Comes to Your Money Needs

In deciding to put your startup on the marketplace, here are three tips to keep in the back of your head:

1. Be smart with money – It is critical you are quite cognizant of your company’s financial situation. You need to figure that any prospective buyer is going to want to know the ins and outs of your company finances. As such, you have to be able to provide that information in a clear manner. One thing that can guide you would be when you know how to value a startup. You can go online and research different tools out there such as a valuation calculator and more. See how such things can make it easier for you to get a true financial read on your startup and what you should get for it. Also make it a point to have any company debt under control. Few buyers will come your way if you have massive debt hanging over your head.
2. Tout all your startup offers – You also want to be sure that any potential buyers know what your startup is about. Let them know why buying it would make sense for them. How can they use your startup to make sales and revenue? Why does your startup stand out from competitors in your industry? These are but a few of the things you will need to convey to any prospects. Failing to do this can lead your startup to be left hanging out there. Sitting for sale for too long impedes your ability. That is to move on with your career and even personal life for that matter.
3. What is next for you? – Finally, as part of your game plan, do you know what is next for you? Yes, knowing the next step your career will take is important. With that in mind, have you mapped out the next move? Unless you are at a point where you plan to retire from the working world, odds are you will need income coming in. So, do you have plans to buy another startup or do you have more than one business as it is now? Is there a possibility you would go to work in the corporate world? While you do not get to be in charge when working for someone else, there tends to be less pressure. That is because someone else has to make the big decisions. Know what you plan to do next once the startup hopefully sells. Doing so makes the transition easier.

In putting your startup on the market, are you excited about the possibilities ahead?

There are eight of the most typical adjustments and additions, as well as why they may or may not be beneficial.

Web-based applications

Web-based platforms like Lanteriamake data collecting easier, which makes it easier to achieve cascade goals. It also offers managers and employees a uniform framework, as well as ideas for involvement in the many elements of performance management solutions.

Well-designed Web-based performance management solutions will help to improve program consistency all through the organization, as well as impartiality and reliability opinions. Lanteria, for instance, may assist you with all these tasks. In contrast, the software does solve managerial competency or dedication to employee development, also helps explain the pay-performance link.

Scales of evaluation

The rating scale used to measure performance is one of the most typical improvements firms make to their performance management solutions.

If you’re using a scale (numbers or description) as part of your evaluation, make sure each rating point is clearly defined and that all supervisors are aware of how to utilize the scale to determine quality standards. This is crucial because it handles consistency and allows managers to make better decisions.

If the scale has more than five points, double-check that the descriptions accurately reflect rating differences. People find it simplest to comprehend and implement clearly defined five-point scales (with numbers and labels) in our experience.

Compulsory Distribution

Managers must assess a person’s performance concerning other persons in a forced distribution (rather than against clearly defined individual goals and performance expectations). If employees are aware that their performance is being “judged” against their peers, this can have a detrimental influence on cooperation and collaboration.

A fair decision and result should be given out. Every superior should be fair and should provide equal opportunity to all the members working.

Skill Development

Managerial competency in all four aspects of performance management—goal formulation, mentoring, development strategies, and performance assessment critical to the system’s success. Lanteria makes this work earlier.

Consistency is one of the most essential variables impacting people’s perceptions of fairness, accuracy, and total business value, and training increases it. Managers who have undergone coaching and development planning training are more likely to provide performance feedback and cooperate with their direct reports to construct growth goals. The opinion of a person also matters a lot as this helps in improving performance management.

Evaluate performance on a regular basis.

Mandating or encouraging supervisors to have close examination meetings is linked to the concept that the system aids in the development of employees’ skills and competencies, which is a critical driver of fairness, accuracy, and total corporate value.It also increases the likelihood of a positive annual performance review session (versus a surprise).

Multiple reviews

Employees are more likely to see the entire performance review process as fair and accurate when they get multi-rater input. Although multi-rater feedback has several benefits, it will only be effective if it is effectively introduced and incorporated into larger performance management solutions. Managers and staff must have a common understanding of the objective of multi-rater feedback and how the information is used.

Self-Evaluations

The usage of self-assessments is founded on the notion that giving employees a way to provide input into their evaluation would increase their perception of the process as fair and accurate.

Self-assessments alone, on the other hand, will not have the desired effect. The extent to which self-assessment data is genuinely integrated into the performance review process is what distinguishes it. This demands managerial competence and cannot be done only via the use of a form.