Targeting Customers with Contextual Advertising

Contextual advertising is the latest method that marketers and advertisers use to target consumers online and attempt to steal their attention in hopes of converting them to paying customers. It’s a form of online marketing that we all love to hate, but those ads certainly aren’t going anywhere just yet because it is still one of the most effective forms of advertising. If everyone hates it, how can it be profitable? The thing that sets contextual advertising apart from traditional forms of advertising is exactly what makes it effective. The truth is that most of the time, the ads don’t get any bites and turn into sales, but the sheer volume of ads that are put in front of the right people means that even a small success rate makes it profitable enough for advertisers to keep doing it. Search network vs. display network The search network is the network …

Heat Maps: Worth Every Penny—or a Waste of Time?

Heat maps are a jumping-off point; they are a good start. There are some flaws that unfortunately prevent heat maps from being a go-to resource that reveals concrete data. No, you can’t be sure that the visitor is actually looking at the spot where their cursor hovers; no, the nebulous blurs and smears don’t give you exact metrics; but yes, they do provide some valuable insight that you may not have otherwise seen. Statistics and other findings of research conducted to determine the effectiveness of heat maps is beyond the scope of this article. This article discusses a general overview of the potential usefulness of heat maps for understanding your customers’ behavior, and how you might go about utilizing them to increase web sales. It might help you get your bounce rate down. People leave your site right away for a few reasons, so a heat map won’t always help …

voicemail transcription

Why Voicemail Transcription May Not Be Reliable

As recently as a few years ago, speech-to-text was nowhere near as capable as it is now. It was highly unreliable and barely considered for voicemail transcription. Now, as the technology advances and speech recognition becomes more accurate, speech-to-text is used for a variety of different applications, including voicemail transcription offered by some telecom providers. You see it in action all the time when your device lets you use your voice to type on your computer, speak your text messages using dictation, so that you can keep your eyes on the road (which we all do, of course), and even tell an automated voice what menu option you want when you call a business, rather than press any numbers. We just posted an article that goes into more depth about how Automatic Speech Recognition works with the IVR on a phone system, which you can find here: Automatic Speech Recognition …

How to Promote Your Company by Bragging

    The method a business uses to advertise will be different in each case, and there is no single method that works for everyone all the time. Some will see a significant response from aggressive ad campaigns, while others will benefit more from word-of-mouth alone. Another important thing to consider is exactly what you are saying in your promotional materials. What is the impression that people get when they see the label on your product, or hit the landing page of your website? These are the kind of choices that will either attract potential customers, or deter them. The following are a few pointers for sending the right message as you promote your business   Treat it like a resumé. Advertising and promoting for your business is just like writing a resumé, in that you want to highlight the best things about your business that are more likely to …

10 of the Most Awful Yet Delightful Business Names

    When it comes time to give your business a name, you can actually have a lot of fun coming up with a great one, but don’t have too much fun. If you don’t pay attention to how it may look or sound to others, you could end up stuck with a name for your business that is memorable, but in the worst way. The following is a list of some of the worst company names ever conceived, while at the same time, they may be total genius.   10. Boring Business Systems Named after one of its original executives, Allan D. Boring, this company is unashamed of its Boring namesake. In fact, they embrace it, explaining to outsiders that there is “nothing boring” about their features and services. (WorldWideInterweb)   9. Frying Nemo Going strong to this day, Frying Nemo is a fish & chips restaurant serving the …

Automatic Speech Recognition & Mixing it with IVR

The first time companies began using Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) to direct callers through their automated menus, callers were constantly becoming frustrated because in the beginning, speech recognition was crude and very limited in its capability. Though it is vastly improved from the original versions and used by more businesses all the time, there is still some debate as to whether it is effective, or not. In fact, most callers who are forced to interact with it would probably tell you that they would rather never hear that automated customer service robot again. How has speech recognition improved? ASR now uses advanced algorithms to process data it compiles from your voice, filters out background noise, and can even learn your voice patterns in real time, all of which allow the program to understand what you’re saying with far greater accuracy than the original versions. Speech recognition programs are also making …

Multitasking vs. Single Tasking: Which is More Effective?

    Do you consider yourself a multitasker? Just about everyone does, and none of us are afraid to brag about it. But you have to ask yourself, are you actually multitasking? Not only that, but we have to consider whether or not it’s a good thing, in the first place. Here, we’ll take a closer look at this method of working and see if it holds water.   Why do we want to be multitaskers? Anytime someone questions if we can handle the things we’re working on, we immediately tell them, “I’m a multitasker.” We’re proud of this because we feel that this ability somehow makes us superior beings, smarter than others. But are we really doing multiple things, at the same time?   There is no such thing. Jim Taylor, Ph.D. comments on this misconception in his article, Technology: Myth of Multitasking (Psychology Today). He says, “There is …

16 New Year’s Resolutions for Entrepreneurs

We’re headed into another new year that promises to be very interesting, at the very least. Below, you will find 16 New Year’s resolutions that are perfect for entrepreneurs, from cleaning out the office, to updating your company website. Start the year off right, and take one of these resolutions, to improve your quality of life and bring your business to the next level. 1. Start setting reasonable deadlines, and meet them consistently. One of the most common mistakes business owners make is giving customers and colleagues unrealistic completion dates that just don’t allow for enough time to finish the project. Most people will be happy to wait a little longer for something to be finished, if you consistently deliver by the time you promised, rather than giving them an earlier deadline that you end up blowing past. 2. Meet with your accountant. First of all, if you don’t have …

3 Undignified Stories of Office Christmas Parties

When coworkers gather together for some spirits and holiday cheer, they sometimes forget that they’re at a work party. The alcohol doesn’t help, and some pretty awkward things can happen when everyone lets it all hang out. These 3 unforgettable stories are as entertaining as they are cringeworthy. Taking the Edge Off A mild-mannered maintenance worker at a foster home was happy to be invited to the Christmas party by a coworker, but he had a dilemma. The man suffered from debilitating social anxiety. Would he attempt to face the small crowd at the party and try to overcome his fears? Or would he just stay home, and avoid a potentially terrible experience, altogether? Excited at the thought of actually having a good time in public, he decided to brave the party. Because he was so nervous about being around that many people, the man had eight shots of vodka …

Why Business Owners Need a Mental Health Day

    In this country, we have been brought up to pursue success at any cost, by way of the American Dream (most of us have, anyway). Though this universally-held dream of the good life has been all but debunked in the past few decades, as we ride out the wave of the so-called Great Recession, American entrepreneurs still work themselves into the ground to keep their business alive. As the owner of a new small business or startup, you will naturally have to eat, sleep, and breathe your business. That takes its toll on someone pretty quickly, which is why you have to periodically take some time for self-care.   What is a “mental health day”? A mental health day is basically a new way of saying you’re taking a day off from work. We started to call it this only as everyone began to place more value and …