Brand, though a small word in itself, encompasses within itself the reputation and goodwill of the business. A brand is the subtotal of every marketing strategy that you incorporate to make your business reach its targeted audience. It includes the content you put out for your customers, the products or services you provide, the way you handle your customer service, your engagement in social media, and even includes your business logo.

A brand is a continuously evolving entity. It changes with the market and its trends regularly, and therefore it is crucial to constantly reinvent your brand strategy.

Developing a brand is a continuous process. It helps maintain the quality of the brand and plays an essential role in earning the consumer’s trust. It separates you from others and makes you unique in every aspect.

Strategies for Brand Development

Define the Purpose of Your Brand

Defining the purpose of your brand helps align oneself with the customer’s values and thought process. It helps your users get a perspective of what you stand for and the value that you bring to the table as an organization.

Therefore, make sure that you have answers to questions like your viewpoint as a company, the services or products you offer to the customer, the value you pursue as an organization, and what you intend to give back to society and the country as a whole. 

The interpretations of these queries will help the end-user to better identify you and your purpose. A good practice is to start by doing SWOT analysis so that you can define your core message properly.

Understand the Market as Well as the Customer

Once you have zeroed in on your scope, the next step is to identify the customer and the market trends. Do your research about what works in the market, the latest trends and also invest some time in your competitors. 

Make sure that you recognize your customers. Who your clients are, their expectations, and what they are looking for, their demographic data, and other related information are essential to cater to their needs.

The best ways to get all such information is to conduct surveys, talk to people on social media, listen to their grievances and try to resolve their queries. This is important to delve deeper into customers’ minds and help you anticipate their needs well in advance.

Develop Your Position as a Brand

Positioning the brand is the next step in the process. It is also known as market positioning. This involves creating your unique value in the eyes of the customer. It helps in customers placing their confidence in you and separates you and your competitors. 

To help in capturing people’s attention, you also need a positioning statement. A positioning statement is the mouthpiece of your product. It lets the customer discover your product’s usability and helps establish your connection with your target audience.

The positioning statement should be both based on solid facts and should also be aspirational in nature. This helps in warming up with users.

Build the Necessary Weapons for the Brand Development

After the initial steps, develop a toolbox that is necessary for creating the brand identity. This includes the brand’s logo, tagline, and website that is customized for SEO and other parameters.

Next, focus on your content. The content marketing strategy, as it is commonly known, helps in increasing the visibility and the goodwill or reputation of the brand. Your content is the magic wand that enables you to connect with the audience. Therefore, make sure that your content is consistent with your purpose and solves your audience’s pain points.

All these weapons are vital to give a name and a platform to your brand on which it can firmly dig its heels. It helps in making the brand relevant to the customers.

Act, Track, and Adjust

All the strategies developed by the businesses to build a brand should be acted upon so that the results can be obtained. Most firms get busy with their day-to-day work to take time out to act on the strategies developed. 

Therefore, tracking the branding strategies regularly is essential to analyze the results and resize the approach. Analyzing the results includes knowing how people receive your brand, their expectations, and opinions about your company. This will help you in formulating policies in an informed manner.

It enhances sales and revenues and also safeguards your business.

We often come across the term “website traffic” while talking about digital marketing practices. Website traffic means the number of web users who come to the website for a specific purpose. The metric to analyze the website traffic is the number of visits to the website. 

Website traffic is one of the most common ways of measuring the website’s effectiveness in attracting an audience. It is also a parameter of accessing the business’s popularity among its customers.

Traffic is crucial to organizations to get a comprehensive view of their website’s success. It allows tweaking their marketing strategies based on the traffic. There are numerous ways of measuring website traffic, such as:

• Sessions: It involves studying the number of visits to the websites within a specified time period to analyze the effectiveness of different digital marketing measures.

To know about different types of digital marketing strategies, go through our blog https://shivila.com2021/11/25/7-types-of-digital-marketing/.

• Purchase numbers: Most business-related websites sell products or services related to their business. The number of people buying the product indicates the website’s effectiveness in convincing the end-users to purchase the product.
• Tracing the source: It involves finding out the source of the website’s visits, such as email marketing, PPC, or organic search.
• Bouncing Ratio: It implies the number of visitors who leave the website after going through a single page. The businesses aim to keep it as low as possible.

Types of website traffic

Before delving further into the types of website traffic, it is essential to know the difference between the visits and the visitors. Visits refer to the overall traffic visiting the website during a given period, including a single person visiting multiple times, whereas visitors reflect the unique clicks that the website gets.

Organic Traffic

It refers to those visitors who visit the website after conducting a search-on-search engine like Google or Bing and then click on the links displayed in the search result to enter the website.

Organic traffic account for a significant portion of web traffic. Different SEO techniques are incorporated to enhance the website’s ranking and increase the genuine customers who visit the website.

Though organic traffic is considered free, it includes some initial investments and time to optimize the website. If done correctly repeatedly, it bears fruit which helps in the long run.

Direct Traffic

Direct traffic means the users directly land in your webpage by searching the URL of your website in the search bar or through other means like through emails or by saving the URL of your website as favorites.

To increase the direct traffic to the website, it is necessary to keep the URL of your website simple and easy to remember. Another way is to encourage the users to bookmark your site to visit in the future.

Referral Traffic

This type of traffic refers to people visiting a website by clicking on the links in a blog or forum on another site.

It involves activities like link building, guest blogging, and other such activities. 

Social Networking

The source of this traffic is from social media networks. People visit the website after clicking on social media posts. Having a web page on social media platforms is necessary to bring this traffic to the website.

Paid search

The source of this traffic are those who visit the website after clicking on Google Ads or other PPC methods.

Different types of platforms include various kinds of ads. With Google Ads, the ads can be shown on the search page or third-party sites, or a campaign can be launched on YouTube.

To get the best results, proper keywords should be selected along with the location targeting.

Email Marketing

It refers to the people visiting the websites after going through the messages in the email. Email marketing campaigns help in tracking the number of visitors who visit the site after viewing their messages.

Email marketing helps analyze the traffic through different parameters like unique clicks, opening rate, clicks on links, etc.

Tips to improve the website traffic

• Actively engaging with people on social media and providing them with informative content that makes the user visit the website.
• Improving the SEO to enhance the site rankings so that more organic visits can be ensured.
• Using email marketing automation so that you can effectively let your customer know about the latest offers, discounts so that people visit the website.

Final words

The number of people visiting the website depends on various factors like the purpose of the website, the visitor’s own choices, and how the website is beneficial for their use. A consistent flow of traffic enhances the website’s rankings, making it feature on top of the search engine results.

With life in general and business, in particular, getting dependent on the internet, web developers rely heavily on the user interface to convert the users to customers. An optimized user interface ensures that the users visiting the website get a seamless user experience. 

Definition of user interface

User interface refers to the point when the user interacts with the computer or a website or application. UI, as it is popularly called, appeals to the human senses. It encompasses both the input devices (mouse, keyboard, etc.) and output devices (speakers, monitors, etc.).

Types of user interface

Graphical User interface (GUI)

This type of interface is graphical in nature. This type of UI includes multiple menus that are specific to GUI, such as keyboard and mouse movements.

Attractive visuals enhance the GUI, and the complex action is hidden from the user. Most of us have used GUI. The web browsers that we use is an example of GUI. The GUI is characterized by drop-down menus and pointers. 

Its models and images are based on the real world.

Command Line Interface (CLI)

CLI refers to the text-based user interface for communicating with the computer. This interface is not meant for the regular user. The system administrator mainly uses it to carry out their routine work.

The most example of CLI is the terminal of any operating system. It works on lesser resolution screens and is faster than other types of the user interface.

Form-Based User Interface

This type of user interface is similar to the paper forms. It is used to enter data related to a particular field. These interfaces are used by the business where a lot of information needs to be stored about the customers.

These are generally used by credit card companies or companies taking bulk orders.

Menu-Driven User Interface

This interface uses screens or menus. The user selects by tapping the menus or screens, which then takes them to the following menu. 

The hierarchy is created and gives more control to the user to handle the interactions. It is simple to integrate with different kinds of platforms. The menus should be thought out well in advance so that the user doesn’t have to tap every item in the menu to get the desired result.

Touch User Interface

This interface requires the user to interact with the device through their fingers. Most of the mobile devices use this interface to deal with their user. Many developers popularly use this interface.

It is easier to use and manipulate than other input devices like a mouse or keyboard. There is a possibility of adding different motions to the interface to make it more easily accessible. It can be easily used by any user, children, and even elderly people.

It is easily adaptable with a wide range of devices.

Final word

A good user interface is a key to holding the customers for the long run. Therefore, it is imperative to use suitable colors and design techniques to make it more user-friendly.

If you have a small business and you think that having a website at this juncture is a luxury you can’t afford, think again. Your business is missing a chance of exposure and revenue by not having a website. 

In current times, almost all the customers are online. Virtually all the buying and purchasing happens online nowadays. Before making any purchasing decision, most users search online for the product.

Having a website is not an opulence anymore. It has become a need for businesses of any scale. Here we will answer the “why’s” that are still nagging you in having a website for your business.

Help find customers

If the truth is to be told, your website lets the customers find you. If your website ranks higher in rankings, the customers automatically visit your website. They can look at the products you offer, the latest discounts, or provide additional information to the customers. 

This works in making your business a brand with authority and increases awareness about your brand. This works in your favor as it helps the company to grow.

Improved credibility

Though you can advertise your business on different social media platforms, a website is still necessary.

Please read our blog to know if you still need a website if you have a social media presence. Please read it here https://shivila.com2021/10/04/do-we-still-need-a-website-for-our-business-in-this-age-of-social-media-2/.

While using a social media platform, you are restricted by its terms of use and other constraints. The website provides you with more flexibility and control. It lends credibility to the business. Therefore, every company having a social media page also has a website that is clearly mentioned on their web page.

Better leads and conversions

Having a website is like an entry pass to enter the magical world of digital marketing. As your business is online 24X7, you can apply different types of digital marketing strategies to increase the flow of traffic to your website.

A website is like a key for unlocking the door that can bring more traffic to your business. Increased traffic means increased chances of conversion, which translates to a gain in revenue.

It helps in controlling the narrative.

Controlling people’s perception in your favor is like climbing a steep mountain. Though not impossible to achieve, it takes time and energy. Having a website is one way of controlling the narrative.

A website helps you control the narrative. According to SEOTribunal, 63,000 searches happen on any given day in Google. With such a massive amount of search volume, there are high chances that a person can be looking for your products.

Without a website, you will lose the chance of getting a customer. It will go to your competitor, who has a well-maintained website.

Expanding your horizon

Even if you are a small business, expanding your business beyond the realm of your geographical location is always at the back of your mind. A website is one way by which you can grow your business.

As your website represents your business, it helps in letting the thousands know online about your services. It helps in expanding the service area of the company, thus helping the business to grow.

It gives you a competitive edge.

As a monopoly does not exist in the market, gaining a competitive edge over your peers is the key to achieving more customers. As most people search for the business online, if you don’t have a website, people will automatically visit your competitor, who has a well-maintained website.

Contrary to this, if you have a website that is optimized and well presented, it will lead to improved SEO rankings and gaining a competitive edge over your peers.

If you have launched a new website and want to know about the strategies that should be implemented for better SEO rankings, go through our blog https://shivila.com2021/11/22/seo-strategies-for-new-websites/.

Conclusion

We are sure that you have grasped the importance of a website for your business. It is an investment that offers returns in the long run. Invest it in so now so that you don’t have to pay the price later.

Web development traveled a long distance in a relatively short span of time. It has incorporated new features that make the website look appealing to its users. Responsive web design is one such feature that has made the websites fit on every screen irrespective of their size.

A brief history

Prior to 2015, a website viewed in the mobile screens used to look shrunken and was challenging to use. One has to continuously pinch and zoom the screens to view the website on a mobile screen. As the number of mobile users began to increase, Google rolled out an update in their search algorithms. 

This update took into account the website’s mobile view as a factor that influences the ranking of the websites. To date on which the update was rolled out was called Mobilegeddon.

What is a responsive website?

A responsive website is essentially a website that changes the layout according to the user’s device to provide the best experience. 

Qualities of a responsive website are: 

• Text is readable without pinching and zooming repeatedly.
• Available space for tapping the tabs.
• Horizontal scrolling is not available.

Importance of responsive websites

Improved SEO ranking

Every website wants to rank higher in the search engine results. Having a responsive website enhances SEO rankings. Goggle analyses any website’s responsiveness as one of its parameters while determining the SEO rankings.

If the website is not responsive, it will result in lower rankings and, therefore, less chance of attracting users.

Seamless User Experience

UI/UX has become one of the crucial factors that help the user have a positive experience while using the website. A great user experience retains the customer for a longer duration.

Responsive websites make it possible irrespective of the device that the customer is using for accessing the website. It increases the navigability of the website and helps in retaining the customer.

Please read our blog to know the importance of UI/UX  https://shivila.com2021/11/10/relevance-of-ui-ux-in-app-development/

Increased traffic to the website

According to traffic statistics of the website, in the first quarter of 2021, almost 54.8% of the global website traffic was from mobile devices. This figure shows that more than half of the worldwide internet traffic comes from mobile devices.

Therefore, the responsiveness gives an impetus to the traffic flow on the website. On the other hand, if a website does not render on a mobile device efficiently, it can have a damaging effect on the company and can lead to the loss of a precious customer.

Provides the option of scalability

The term scalability implies the ability to change or scale according to the need. Responsive websites provide the brands with the option of scaling the websites based on their requirements in the future.

The fluidity of the responsive websites ensures that the websites can be effectively deployed for any new devices without the hassle of redesigning it again and again. Responsiveness makes it ready for any change that can happen in the future.

Faster loading time

Data shows that 53% of the users leave the site if the loading time is more than 3 seconds. Website’s that are responsive provide faster loading, thus helping in retaining the customer for a longer duration.

The fluid grids and responsive images facilitate a faster loading time. It provides the user with a positive experience while using the website leading to a better reputation and more business opportunities. 

Simple to maintain

Two separate websites for mobile and desktop requires spending double time in maintaining those sites. Teams have to focus most of their time and energy on doing additional tests and constantly update the sites. This requires additional resources and cost and less time to focus on other strategies.

On the other hand, with responsive websites, the maintenance time is drastically reduced. The teams can focus their energy and resources on other tasks that are equally important, like content marketing, additions or deletions of products, etc.

Wrapping Up

The number of users accessing websites from smartphones has increased in large numbers. Therefore, the brand’s website should look and work great on different platforms to attract the user. If you do not have a responsive website, make sure to redesign it and make it more responsive. It will help your website ranking and help in attracting more business.

The Internet touches every aspect of our life. Be it education, entertainment, socializing, or research, the Internet is needed for all these activities. So much so that even shopping takes place online nowadays.

People of every age indulge in online shopping. It is growing. The e-commerce market is expected to grow exponentially.

If we go by the data available, 43% of the people use the Internet to search for the products before purchasing.

There is no way to ignore the e-commerce sites, both by buyers and sellers. If you are a seller and want to reach new customers and open new avenues for your business, an e-commerce site is a must. Most e-commerce sites like Myntra, Amazon, and others are very popular and make a considerable amount of money by selling their products online.

A new business also gains immensely from e-commerce sites. It creates a brand identity and gives access to worldwide markets.

An e-commerce website aligned to your business keeps you in the driver’s seat and gives the control of the business to your hands. The benefits of e-commerce websites are numerous. Some of them are listed below.

Helps in gaining customers

Reaching a vast customer base is the aim of every business, whatever be its scale. As most people now search the Internet before purchasing the product, if your company does not have a e-commerce website, you will not be able to get new customers.

On the other hand, your online store will help you get new customers. They can visit your e-commerce websites and look at the products increasing your customer base.

Works 24X7X365

Earlier businesses used to run for a fixed hour. The customers used to visit the stores in those fixed hours. These concepts are gradually vanishing. Amidst our busy schedules, most people do not have the time to visit the stores physically and that too in a fixed time. Customers now want to shop anytime and from the comforts of their homes.

An online store is a perfect solution to the above problem. E-commerce stores work at all times of the day and around the year (even Sundays!). People can visit the store and order the products whenever they like. As everything happens in a pre-defined way, you don’t need to make any extra effort (how magical!).

People visit your online store and purchase, and you get the money with the least amount of trouble.

Make shopping experiences that linger.

Every customer wants to feel special and pampered. With online stores, you can give your customer a shopping experience that they can remember for a long time. Give them special discounts on their first purchase or during festive seasons. 

You can do so through stories, videos, or personalized services that will make shopping with your site a gratifying experience for the user. You can also opt for email marketing or social media promotions to lure new customers.

These experiences will go a long way in increasing the number of customers and gaining new customers. It is also helpful in convincing them these exclusive offers can only be availed in an e-commerce store, thus repeating the customer.

Decreased costs in running the business

An online store can be set up in a relatively short time and half the budget of a physical store. There is no need to set up a store, pay rent monthly, and keep employees to manage your store.

Most of the processes are automated on the website, leaving you free to focus on marketing strategies and other core issues.

Work from home

Many people had come across the concept of work from home when the pandemic struck. But with online stores, it was prevalent even before the pandemic. With e-commerce sites, you can work from anywhere. 

You need your laptop, internet access, and your mobile; you can access your store from anywhere on the globe. You don’t have to slog long hours in the office.

Wrapping up

E-commerce markets are set to grow in the years to come. Its benefits are too many to be counted on fingers. If you do not have an e-commerce site, invest in one now to reap the dividends later.

A website represents your business in the virtual world. Making it usable, accessible and easily navigable is one of the core ways of enhancing the reputation of your business. Your website acts as a mouthpiece of your business 24X7X365 days. It is an asset that is at the heart of marketing plans.

With changing trends and newer technologies coming up every day, implementing those regularly can cost both time and money. However, with some of the UI/UX tips that are easy to implement and use, you can enhance your website to make it more user-friendly.

Please go through our blog to know the relevance of UI/UX https://shivila.com2021/11/10/relevance-of-ui-ux-in-app-development/.

Go with the flow

Make sure that the design of the website is such that it flows seamlessly from one element to another. It should not be one where people have to learn new things to navigate the web page. It should be consistent, and the interface should be plain-sailing. 

Important information should be mentioned at the top so that it is recognizable. Go with the set standards and protocols of web designing and maintain the flow of the website.

Visually indicative

Make your website visually indicative. It should include the direction of scrolling and should also provide an indication that additional relevant information is given at the bottom of the website. Do not make your website lengthy unnecessarily. 

People tend to lose interest if they have to keep scrolling the website continuously. It impacts users negatively, which is not desirable.

Make use of white spaces.

White spaces make the website feel open and make the user using the website feel fresh and give a modern touch to it. It makes the website clutter-free, and all the contents that are obsolete or have surpassed its usability should be removed.

This helps the user get the information you want to convey to them quickly, and it gives them a smooth experience while using the website.

Choose your colors wisely.

Colors play an important role in the human mind. Colors evoke emotion in humans. Therefore, make sure that the color combination of your website is such that it adequately conveys your thought process to the customers.

All your CTA buttons should be in a single color to be easily distinguishable to the user from other buttons. Use warm colors for your website as it has a soothing effect on the user’s mind. It gives a feeling of happiness and positivity. Avoid using cold colors as much as you can.

Make links easily identifiable.

Whenever you are using links on your website, make them easily identifiable. Your users should find it easier to distinguish between regular text and the links that provide them with additional information.

The best way is to stick to conventional methods where links are underlined and is blue in color. It is a standard practice worldwide, and most of the users are accustomed to it. Make the length of the links longer so that it is easily visible.

Make your website load faster.

If the website’s loading time is greater than a few seconds, people lose interest and leave the website. Therefore, make your website load faster so that the users can efficiently finish their tasks quickly.

Make sure that the text load faster than images so that the users can start reading without waiting forever. This gives a perception of speed to the users, which is your main aim. It will help in holding the customer for a longer duration.

Buttons are important

Buttons are the main focus of your websites. It tells the user about the actions that are to be taken by them. Invest your time in buttons. Make them clickable and place them in those areas of your websites that are easily visible and reachable.

Buttons should be large enough for the users to click on them. Choose the button colors, borders in a way that it is instantly recognizable by the user. Users should be informed that the button click was successful within 0.1 seconds of the click.

Always remember: keep it simple.

If your website is like a maze, and the users get lost, they will make sure never to visit your website. Keep your website simple. Remove everything that can be removed. Declutter it completely.

Make your website simple. Stick to minimal colors and keep enough white spaces. Use an average of two fonts and use a third font for the logo. Make your website graphic insightful and not clumsy.

Epilogue

UI/UX is about making your website easy to handle by both customers and the platform. A well-designed website will lead the customer to their goal, removing all the unnecessary components. The tips mentioned here are sure to give your website a necessary boost and make it user-friendly.

The old marketing strategies like print marketing or television, or radio marketing are gradually vanishing. The high costs associated with them, coupled with non-measuring metrics, make the old ways of marketing obsolete. 

Digital marketing campaigns are easier to implement and set up. It is measurable and cheaper than other types of marketing strategies. Digital marketing strategies are monitorable and quantifiable, making it a tough choice for businesses to resist.

But if you are a new-bee who wants to implement digital marketing strategies to uplift your business, choosing the right digital marketing option can be a daunting task. Most companies don’t know what type of marketing they should opt for while promoting their business. It makes them hesitant to go for digital marketing.

Though there are different types of digital marketing strategies that can be followed, here we will look at seven types that are most common and can be easily used.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is one of the most common digital marketing strategies. Most of the companies, be it of any scale, invest their time and energy in SEO strategy. SEO ensures that your websites that represent the virtual aspect of your business are optimized for various search engines, like Google and Bing.

SEO is all about ensuring that the website ranks higher in the organic search performed in the search engine. Multiple approaches can be used for high performing SEO 

If you are looking for some of the strategies for your website, you can visit our blog https://shivila.com2021/11/22/seo-strategies-for-new-websites/.

SEO takes time to yield the results, so it has to be done repeatedly so that results can be obtained.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

SEM generally refers to the paid method of advertising. SEM is a comparatively faster way of enhancing traffic to your website. SEM helps in increasing brand awareness in a relatively short time. 

Though it is a paid method of increasing the rankings, but it is a cost-effective solution that can be implemented according to the scale of your business. SEM helps in bringing your business to the first page of the search engine results and helps in better targeting the desired customers.

Want to get an overview of SEM? Then read it here at https://shivila.com2021/11/21/what-is-sem-a-simple-overview/.

SEM shows instant results if done correctly and helps the business grow exponentially.

Pay Per Click (PPC)

As the name itself suggests, PPC is an advertising strategy that uses paid method to increase traffic flow to your website. PPC is a relatively cheaper option to invest in as you have to pay only if someone clicks on your advertisements.

PPC coupled with SEO helps in bringing high-quality leads to your website. You can expect results as soon as your ad goes live. With the help of PPC, you can better target your audience based on different parameters like demography, geographical location, gender, etc.

PPC also provides advanced targeting options to boost the flow of traffic to your website.  

Content Marketing

This type of digital marketing strategy is different from all the types mentioned above. It is about giving information to the customers about your business domain.

Contents are of different types like blogs, video content, images that help answer the customer query. A content that is enriched with valuable information helps in increasing the user expectations of the business. 

Good quality content acts as a bridge between the customer and the business. It builds durable relationships and helps in bringing 3x more leads than other traditional methods.

As is the case with SEO, content marketing is also a long-term strategy. It has to be done diligently regularly for best results.

Email Marketing

According to a survey, for every $1 invested in email marketing, you will get $44 in return. This data is enough to showcase the importance of email marketing as a digital marketing technique. Email marketing means sending the latest offers, blogs, or other informative content to your customers through email.

Email marketing is an excellent way of maintaining correspondence with customers. It helps in getting genuine feedback from them as well as helps in repeating the business. If done correctly, it can bring considerable profits to the company.

But sending mails through unsolicited means can land you in trouble. Ensure that the emails are sent to your genuine customers who have engaged with your business in the past and not some random person who has never even heard about you.

Social Media Marketing (SMM)

 Social media is one of the most valuable digital marketing mediums. With 4.48 billion social media users, capturing the users’ attention can give a considerable impetus to the business.

With the massive popularity of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., having a page on these sites is crucial to increasing the business’s visibility. It helps in engaging with the customers.

SMM also helps formulate new strategies for brand expansion and uncover the new and emerging trends related to your business.

Affiliate Marketing

In this marketing strategy, a famous influencer from different social media platforms promotes the business. Affiliate marketing helps in marketing the product to the influencer’s audience, promoting the brand value.

Affiliate marketing has gained popularity due to YouTube and Instagram. Affiliate marketing includes collaborating with the influencers for different activities like lucky draws, discount coupons, etc., to create a positive vibe around the business.

Epilogue

You have the list now with you. These are the primary methods of digital marketing which help prepare the business for the long flight. Depending on your need, pick the best option for your webpage.

The software has traveled from being a non-essential part of our lives. The importance of software cannot be stressed enough in the current times. Be it for online shopping or video call, or watching videos, the software has a crucial role to play in our lives.

Software Development Definition

Software development can be defined as a process to develop or create new software using different computer languages for a specific business-related or individual purpose. It is also called Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and includes several phases that help create software that meets technical requirements as specified by the client.

SDLC acts as an international benchmark that the software developing companies follow to create a new product. The primary purpose of the software development process is to build products that have all the functionalities as specified by the user within a defined time limit and budget.

There are different types of software development. Depending on the industry and the scope of the business, a developer chooses the type best suited for their purpose.

Primary steps in Software Development Process

Research and analysis

Before the software is developed, it is imperative that the project manager, the stakeholders, and all the associated team members sit for a brainstorming session. The basic questions such as the purpose for which the software is to be used, what kind of products are to be showcased, the products’ target audience, and such other related questions should be answered.

After the completion of primary research, the functionalities and other technical requirements should be discussed. Proper analysis should be undertaken about every element that is to be incorporated in the end- products. 

Proper answers to all these questions should be followed by choosing the different software models that will assist in the developing process.

Design of the software

In this step, the design of the software is specified. This step ensures defining the product architecture, the different modules, and the underlying relationships between them. In this phase, the choice of varying front-end and back-end platforms is finalized to start the work on the development.

The UI and UX of the software are also contemplated in this process. It helps in building software that provides the user with an enjoyable experience while using it. UI/UX forms an essential part of the SDLC process.

If you want to know the importance of UI/UX, please read our UI/UX-related blog here.

Implementation

After the phases mentioned above are completed, actual work on the software begins. The developer or the team of developers moves to the coding and implementation phase of the software development. They incorporate all the features that are pre-determined in the previous stages.

Based on the specifications, front-end interfaces are built and connected to the back-end architecture. Once the coding aspect is completed, it is tested on a pilot basis. The developers also test and review each other’s code, and improvisation is undertaken.

Testing of the software

After the coding and implementation part is completed, it is time for integration and validation testing. This process ensures that the product developed is vigorously tested for all the parameters and the requirements as specified earlier. It helps to correct any bugs or errors that the software may have, saving costs that otherwise have to be incurred later.

There are different testing methodologies that are used by the developers to test applications developed. Testing ensures that all the vital points in the research phase are duly implemented and the final product is behaving and working in the way it was supposed to.

Deployment

After successful completion of the testing phase, the product is deployed for public use. This is also called Beta testing. The customer’s feedback is also incorporated in the application in this phase. 

Any bugs not seen in the testing phase are also corrected in this step.

Maintenance of the software

After the proper completion of the above steps, the application created is fully deployed for public use. It is released in the market, and regular maintenance is carried out for the product. Installing the latest updates, fixing issues, and other such routine work is carried from time to time so that the application functions efficiently.

In case the functionalities of the application developed need to be enhanced, expansion of the application is undertaken to keep it running smoothly and effectively.

Wrapping Up

These steps or phases ensure that the software developed is a quality product that is cost-effective and incorporates all the user requirements and specifications.

Data has become the fuel that powers businesses. Data is necessary for every facet of the company. Correct data helps in faster decision-making and better market analysis, assisting the business to grow quickly.

Data quality attributes to the reliability of a particular data set. High-quality data helps arrive at solutions effectively and ensures that the data is consistent and accurate in every aspect. A high-quality data helps in formulating better marketing strategies. 

If an organization makes its strategies around data from incongruous sources, it runs the risk of being misguided. This can lead to a waste of money and, in the worst case, can damage the relationships with the customers.

Importance of data quality

The primary purpose of high-quality data is for organizations to make informed choices so that maximum returns can be assured. 

Data quality is helpful for marketing analysis in the following ways:

• Faster decisions: In the current, when every business wants to put their best foot forward, high-quality data can come to your rescue. It will help in making decisions keeping the customer at the center. It gives the organizations that their decisions are based on solid ground and right to the best of their ability.
• Integrates the teams: Different teams working with a consistent data-set ensure a high level of productivity. It helps in making the processes streamlined, yielding more cohesive and positive results.
• Helps in getting a sneak peek of customers: Knowing your customer is one of the best ways of making strategies. A high-quality data ensures that you know the preferences of your customer. It is also helpful in gaining their trust.

Dimensions of Data Quality

• Comprehensiveness: Make sure that the data that you collect is complete in all the essential aspects. Make sure to mark the required fields as mandatory so that they are not left out by mistake.
• Consistency: It is crucial to maintain the same format while entering any particular information. Specify the format that you want so that inconsistencies can be avoided later.
• Accuracy: Maintaining accuracy is essential so that the consistent values are entered and reflected correctly while analyzing the data.
• Periodicity: It is vital to ensure that the decision-making body has updated data available at its disposal whenever it needs it.
• Integrity: Integrity of the data ensures that the data set follows all the specifications as mandated by the organization. It helps in better analysis of the patterns and helps detect the relationships.

How bad data can affect your business?

• Increased costs: According to IBM, bad data was costing them $3.1 trillion in 2016. This is a considerable amount to pay by any standards. It shows that bad data can lead to increased costs of operations.
• Incorrect inferences: Bad data can make you overlook some of the critical parameters associated with your business. This can lead to wrong assumptions and can lead to erroneous conclusions.
• A fall-out with customers: If based on bad data-sets, marketing strategies are formulated, it can adversely affect the relationships with the customers. It can lead you to market a product that the customer is not interested in, leading to a fall-out and loss of a precious customer.