Author: Henry R. Lares

Henry Lares is still early into his career as tech reporter but has already had his work published in many major publications including Tech Crunch and the Huffington Post.  In regards to academics, Henry earned an engineering degree from Apex Technical School. Henry has a passion for emerging technology and covers upcoming products and breakthroughs in science and tech.

Categories
News

How Collection Agencies Work

While they tend to be looked upon as being villainous, collection agencies actually serve a vital purpose. Without them, lenders would be far more reluctant to extend loans. Moreover, while you’ll often see collectors portrayed as venomous scoundrels relentlessly haranguing people who are struggling financially, most of them are actually concerned professionals who are looking for ways to help consumers resolve bad debts.

Here’s how collection agencies work.

Debt Collection Defined

A debt goes into collections when it meets the criteria of being considered past due according to the agreement signed when the loan was issued. In the case of credit card debt, this refers to the cardholder agreement a consumer signs when they accept the card. This usually happens when payment on a debt has not been made for 60 days or so.

At this point, the obligation is turned over to the “collections department” within the organization, though some companies may assign it straight to third-party collection agencies at this point instead. Debt collectors will then use the information they have to get in touch with the borrower to try to work out a payment agreement.

What Debt Collectors Can & Cannot Do

Collection efforts usually begin with a letter mailed to the address listed on the loan agreement for the borrower. Phone calls and text messages typically begin at this point as well. Collectors also seek to determine whether the contact information they have for the borrower is still current.

To this end, they can contact the people listed as references on the credit application. However they cannot disclose the nature of the situation to that person, unless they co-signed the loan or are listed as a co-borrower.

The exact regulations governing the actions of debt collectors are spelled out in the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act. Harassment and threats are prohibited. The Act also contains rules governing when and how they are allowed to contact you.

If a collector violates any of these regulations in their communications, consumers should;

It should be noted FDCPA rules apply only to third-party collectors, though legitimate original creditor collectors generally abide by them as well.

How to Respond to Debt Collectors

The most important thing to remember if a debt collector contacts you is to ask for all of the pertinent information they have about the debt before acknowledging responsibility for repaying it. People make mistakes all the time. Moreover, the debt might be too old to pursue legally.

Confirmation information should include:

  • Name of the original creditor and the date the loan was issued
  • Amounts borrowed and owed — including late fees and other charges
  • Options for disputing the debt

The next thing you should do is get copies of your Experian, Equifax and TransUnion credit reports to see if the debt in question is listed there and its payment status (if it is listed).  Dispute it vigorously within 30 days of receiving the information if the debt isn’t yours. Devise a plan to satisfy the debt or look into getting credit card debt relief if is yours and paying it will be a problem.

Understanding how collection agencies work will help you get a handle on your rights so you can deal with them more effectively. With that said, if you owe, you owe — there’s no way around it. However, you can always work out deals to make repaying debts easier so don’t be afraid to face them head on.

Categories
News Tech

Insights into Local SEO – Beyond Google Maps

Looking at statistical facts and figures,

92.96% of global traffic comes from Google search, Google Images, and Google Maps. (Sparktoro).

76% of people who search on their smartphones for something nearby visit a business within a day. (Think With Google)

30% of all mobile searches are related to location. (Think With Google)

Here are a few tips that give evidence that there is a lot beyond Google Maps, which can work for local SEO and, in turn, for your business.

  • Turn your local knowledge into an asset

The necessity of increasing visibility online is promoted through knowledge of in and around the place you stay. Although hiring a local SEO services company is a good idea, once you have gained an established understanding of the nuances of living like a local in a particular area, you can let others know more about it too. This method helps in brand-building and adds value to your neighborhood in terms of your business.

For people visiting the places for the first time, a quick sneak peek into the local hangouts gives them a bird’s eye view of the attractions and the places they should visit. Such lists can easily talk about your business and promote it depending upon the niche it belongs to.

It’s a universally accepted fact that setting up a blog or a newsletter is time-consuming and cumbersome. Hence, to increase online visibility, it is advisable to instantly level up by creating comprehensive lists that discuss the locality and the marketing perspective.

  • Online directories and the knowhow

Remember when Yellow pages were the go-to option for searching classifieds and the whereabouts of a particular person. Fast forward a few years, and you can still check and recheck information in such directories, which instead of being available as a physical listing, is now live online.

There is a wide variety of options for online directories that one can choose from.

Once you get your business registered in it, people have the opportunity to rate it accordingly and make a more massive crowd aware of the provisions and offerings. Bonus points can also be highlighted in the listings, and the visibility of your brand is hit a few notches higher with this technique.

While choosing the online directory, ensure that there is an organic reach, and the daily traffic is worth your business and its performance online.

  • Search for social media influencers

Social media influencers and bloggers are the real deal! They are the online connections that can maximize your business profits through word-of-mouth marketing and sharing on social media sites depending upon the outreach required for your business.

Social media is the rage nowadays and for a good reason too. People spend more time on their smartphones than anywhere else, so it is ideal to capitalize on an asset like social media sites.

One of the most accessible and useful options is Twitter, wherein you can gain interactions with bloggers and influencers among other like-minded people. Once you get a tweet, retweet, share, and a reshare, you have nonetheless set up a path of going viral on these sites in a strategic manner. Being discussed is the best way to get featured online in social circles, which would not have been possible otherwise.

  • Monetize on your hashtags

Hashtags nowadays are equivalent to a groundbreaking scientific discovery. The emergence of the hashtag has changed the algorithms of the social media accounts and has also added the variety and spice to online searches.

The use of hashtags has taken various social media sites by surprise. Its ruling is noteworthy and certainly deserves all the attention coming its way. Once you gain information about the hashtags that have gained popularity in your locality, you can market your business depending upon their extensive usage.

The number of people using it determines the statistics and, in turn, the number of followers of the accounts. For a textile business, if the hashtag of sustainability and comfort is trending in the searches, you increase your chances of getting visible by marketing your brand with the same hashtags. It is all about knowing which hashtag has been searched more often and how relevant it is to your brand.

  • Keep a close look at your competition.

Knowing your place in the market is as important as promoting a business in today’s times. Gaining a competitive edge should focus on every trade, notwithstanding the time spent in reaching there.

It is always beneficial to know about the things working for your competitors and how they thrive with specific options. It is not still about envy or shunning a business just because it is doing better than you. Instead, healthy competition leans towards learning from your competitors and their networking skills while monitoring them too.

Similarly, you can also gain through collaborations with peers and generate revenue for your business and a fair share of business for your partners. This is where you gain their trust and understand the importance and the value of connections in the social circuit.

  • Make your business stronger with advertising on social media.

Social media advertising campaigns have never got the spotlight that it deserves. Even though it leads to a significant increase in the website traffic and, in turn, promotion of the business, it is still taken for granted and ignored at times.

Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook have algorithms and quirks dedicated individually to each platform and are certainly not uniform. All that is known is if you’re consistent with these platforms, you can generate a lot of revenue for your business, and the result will be a noticeable increase in profits as well.

Here’s the most obvious – yet surprisingly still the most ignored – bit of advice: be active. Social media is not a passive pursuit, and social advertising is only a small part of the equation.

The forums can generate interest and localize focus areas on your business’s various avenues, which can thrive and make you feel better about the entire process. The interaction and communication points are refined, and one can reach the desired engagement levels with focus and patience.

So that was our take on all things pertaining to Local SEO. Hope you had a ball.

Author Bio: Sheryl Jones

Sheryl is the Sr. Marketing Specialist at Uplers who has a great experience in designing well-defined user journeys across the digital marketing domain. She leverages her digital marketing expertise to help businesses draw significant ROIs.

Categories
News

All The Different Tools And Skills You Need To Get Into Real Estate Marketing

There are so many apartments, houses, and commercial properties in any given area that it becomes near impossible for an individual to find the ideal real estate property without the help of an agent. It is because of the vast market that every year, hundreds of people around the world take to the profession of a real estate agent.

But it is interesting to note that not everyone is successful. There are a few people who stand apart from the rest. Not only do they come up with deals that benefit their clients, but they also close each transaction with perfection.

There are certain traits, skills, and tools that set these overachieving real estate agents a class apart from the rest. This article delves into all such devices and skills that are required to ace the game of real estate marketing.

Knowing the Local Language

As a real estate marketing professional, one must have a good understanding of the home value in all relevant areas you will be working.

Interacting with people at the ground level will help you have a realistic image in your mind. By knowing the local language, you will be able to establish a certain level of trust better.

If you are new to an area where you aspire to work as a real estate agent, the first step would be to pick up the local language.

Having a Sense of Professional Integrity

As a real estate agent, you need to realize that the people who rent or buy a property with your assistance will need such services in the future as well.

Moreover, in this field, word of mouth is compelling. That is why you must be honest in all that you say professionally.

If you have the integrity to offer concrete evidence for every claim that you make, you will be able to establish a reputation as a trustworthy real estate professional. Such testimonials will develop a decent client-base for yourself and help you grow in the profession.

Being Persistent with the Follow-Up

All real estate marketing professionals get leads on potential clients. How you follow up on them will decide your professional success. Ideally, you should take up every lead that you get and not wait for a potential client to reach out to you.

If things get overwhelming, and there are just too many leads to follow, try to hire people who will help you achieve the targets. Alternatively, you can look for automation tools that will keep a tab on leads by sending emails, notifications, etc.

Acquaintance with Property Rules

As a real estate marketer, it is vital that you do not pass on the minutest of inaccurate information to your clients. For that, you must be well versed in the real estate laws yourself.

Understand that laws relating to a property often vary from state to state, and it is your duty to ensure that your personal database is up to date with the laws of the region.

Most clients will not be familiar with the complicated process of the legal formalities surrounding the buying and selling of a house. As a real estate marketer, you should walk the extra mile and guide them through the necessary paperwork.

Recommended read: 11 Evergreen Real Estate Marketing Ideas

Establish a Social Media Presence

One of the ways of making your presence known is to be active on social media. Strategically posting across different platforms like Twitter, Linkedin, and Facebook require effort (especially when you know that doing it consistently will garner better results). As a busy marketing professional, you may not always have the time for it.

An easy way to deal with this challenge would be to take the assistance of a professional instagram marketing service provider. Alternatively, you may want to use tools like MeetEdgar to help you automate your social media content.

Investments in establishing a robust social media presence will play a significant role in your success story.

Recommended read: https://invideo.io/blog/instagram-marketing/

Go Live on Different Platforms

When an individual approaches a real estate marketer, they have an expectation of being provided a property that is tailored to their taste. To establish your credibility in the field, you may want to personalize your broadcasts.

These days, with Facebook Live and Instagram Live, there are ample opportunities to come up with customized marketing campaigns at a relatively low cost.

You must choose your time of going live carefully. Try to schedule it on the weekend at a time when most people are likely to be online. Also, try to involve personal anecdotes to your live marketing tools to have people relate to you (and thereby pay more attention to the property you are trying to sell).

Be Accessible

These days, most people rely on Google to tell them the best local service providers. To help prospective clients find you efficiently, you can choose to use Google My Business tool. The tool allows you to customize your business profile to make sure that it is represented in a way that you would like.

By adding photos and videos, you can ensure that your real estate service lists up on the top of the search. The fact that this tool is available free of cost is an added advantage for people who are new in the world of real estate marketing and do not have a lot of cash to spare.

Conclusion

To make a name for yourself in the world of real estate marketing, you do not need sound financial backing. All you need is excellent people skills and the zeal to work hard. The money and will follow automatically.

In this field, it all boils down to the communications you use, the relationships you build, and how you elevate these relationships to steer your professional success in the right direction.

Staying focused and putting in the extra hours will give you the required experience to improve your real estate marketing techniques and stay ahead in this competitive field.

Categories
News Tech

Why Video Marketing Has Become Very Important in 2020?

Videos are slowly becoming the most used medium for marketing. They have proved themselves to give a high return on investment, among other benefits such as connecting to the viewers instantly. They have become an essential component of people’s daily entertainment and information fix.

From television ads to YouTube, Reels on Instagram and Facebook Live – videos are the best way to connect to the audience. What makes them so popular and favorite forms of the content is that they are engaging and have a lot of variety to produce, thus giving a realistic view of what is happening. Video and marketing are just like peanut and jelly, which complement each other in the best way. The excellent part is anyone with an internet connection can access them and can also produce their own content using a free movie maker online.

Marketing people find videos an attractive proposition due to their easy accessibility and the ease of sharing.

Research reveals the following facts about videos:

  • Videos are overtaking other conventional forms of marketing like print or direct mail since they are more effective.
  • The click rate of email marketing is found to be increased by 13% if it has a video in the subject line.
  • More than 85% of the total internet traffic will be related to videos in the coming years.
  • 50% of the audience watch most of their videos on their smartphones
  • Short video clips up to around two minutes are the most viewed, provided they are engaging enough.

How video marketing can transform your business?

  • Viewer retention: This is the era of mobile phones and the internet with people so busy that they make their purchases and searches on the go. Researches reveal that the visiting traffic retains most of the messages related to a product or service while watching videos than text or print.
  • More engagement: As per marketing surveys, it is evident that videos lead to more end-user engagement. The studies conducted on platforms like Facebook validate this fact. Video links embedded in the content are seen to increase the click-rate. Make sure that you optimize your videos for mobiles since more than 50% of people are reported to watch videos on their smartphones, and you surely do not want to lose this segment of the audience.
  • Increased brand awareness: Videos are excellent for promoting your brands. The more platforms you upload your videos to the better, be it Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or any other. Your videos need to be short, precise, and to the point, since viewers are impatient with long videos.
  • More traffic and sales: Videos can have a tremendous impact on your returns on investment. Videos explain clearly through storytelling about the features of a brand and its benefits. Viewers are glued to interestingly made videos, and this customer engagement creates more leads and sales. Videos that strike an emotional chord with viewers and solve their problems can entice potential customers to buy the products shown. Short, entertaining videos with Call-to-Action included can lead to more sales.

Some effective ways to use Video marketing

Video is just coming over and speaking on the camera. There are many types – animation, typography, demos. So, let us look at the video marketing which can be used in several ways such as:

  • Explainers: They are meant to educate the target audience to provide information about complex products such as mobile apps. They are mostly animated and suit those products that are difficult to explain using a physical demonstration.
  • Product demos: They explain in detail about the product features and advantages to potential customers. These videos target those who are seriously contemplating buying. When made properly, they can lure the customer into deciding on purchasing the product.
  • Videos to launch products or services: These videos are specially made to highlight a new product or service that is reset or started shortly. Such videos can be made entirely using a bb to add features that will positively impact the audience.
  • Webinars: When used in the right manner, they can take your digital strategy to a new level. Webinars can add a human touch to launches by putting a face behind the product or service. They can also be utilized for running online demos of your products using your sales team. This will help create interest and awareness for your brand and can lead to sales. Webinars are also great for using recorded talks and demo slides after an event to a broader audience. They help in creating leads by asking viewers to register to watch the content on-demand.
  • Social media: Videos are most effective in social media, and millions of people watch them on platforms like Twitter, YouTube, or Facebook. They have a far better reach than television and are watched for several hours in a day.
  • Video landing pages: They are landing pages with embedded video that explains the value of a product or service. If made of a high standard, these pages are excellent for providing information about your product quickly. They can engage your audience and explain complex products adequately than text or images.

Did you know that more than 85% of the Facebook videos are watched in mute? So, go ahead and make your own videos with a great caption with a lasting visual impact on your audience using simple video editors. Like a movie teaser, make your videos a teaser too and give a curious description to the viewer so that he is compelled to watch it. There is no perfect day to start your video marketing, and if there is one – it is now.

Categories
News

Introduction to observability 

Everyone’s experienced it. Your application gives you an error — and it’s just an inscrutable hex code. While the technicians know something is wrong, they can’t tell you what’s wrong. Even worse, maybe you’re the technician. Your application knows something has gone wrong, but it can’t tell you what.

It’s a failure of “observability.”

In science, everything must be observable and measurable. The disciplines of engineering and development are the same. Without observability, you can’t know what has gone wrong when something has gone wrong. But by improving observability, you can reduce troubleshooting time, and avoid system disruption.

What is observability?

So, what exactly is observability? It’s the ability to determine the internal state of something — whether hardware or software — by the information it gives you.

Let’s start with a small example. Every once in a while, a system will shut down, and you’ll get an error like this:

ERROR: SYSTEM STOPPED.

This error doesn’t provide for good observability because you have no idea where the error occurred. You don’t know what happened. On the other hand, how about this more common error:

ERROR: PRINT SPOOLER STOPPED.

Now, you know that the error is with the printer. (And of course it is; the error is always with the printer.) You have heightened observability, but you still don’t know why the error occurred. An even better error might be:

ERROR: PRINT SPOOLER FAILED. PRINTER LOW ON INK.

Now you know everything. You know where the error occurred and why. You have high levels of observability.

Naturally, in today’s technology, it’s not going to be a print spooler. It’s likely going to be the API of a third-party system malfunctioning deep within your infrastructure. And that’s what makes observability even more critical.

What does observability measure?

The error itself is not considered “observability.” Instead, observability is a metric. Observability itself is a measurement of how much you know regarding what has gone wrong and where to varying degrees of specificity. Thus, a system has high or low levels of observability.

And that means that the entirety of the system needs to have higher observability. It’s not enough for some of it to have robust reporting; all of it needs to have reliable reporting.

Why do you need observability?

In the old days, systems were quite simple. Though there might be reams and reams of code, you could usually pare down to where an error occurred due to the process of elimination. Entire infrastructures were set up on a single server with internal programs.

Today, system complexity is far greater. Companies are using public and private cloud architectures. They are using Internet of Things devices. They are using third-party applications. They are introducing endpoints: laptops, tablets, and smartphones. These endpoints may have any operating system under the sun.

Because of this, observability has become far more critical. When building applications and infrastructure, it’s now critical that observability standards be met. If they aren’t, then as the system grows in complexity and breadth, it becomes impossible to reliably and efficiently track down errors.

Observability vs. Monitoring

The modern infrastructure requires both better observability and better monitoring. But it’s essential to understand the distinction — because observability isn’t monitoring, nor vice versa. Monitoring involves reporting on the system’s performance both in real-time and in the past. Observability is the specificity and accuracy of that monitoring data. Observability and monitoring operate hand-in-hand. But they shouldn’t be confused.

Systems can have solid monitoring but imperfect observability. They may report precisely when a system goes down or how the system is performing, but these instances may not be traceable. Likewise, systems can have solid observability but inadequate monitoring. When an incident occurs, they may be able to tell you exactly where that incident occurred. But they may not have the robust logs required to identify how frequently these issues are happening or how bad they are.

Observability best practices

So, we know that systems today are complex, and that makes observability complex, too. Observability has to be baked in from the ground up; if it’s not at all levels of the infrastructure, it falters.

What are some best practices when it comes to observability?

  • Use utilities that make it easier to comb through and search through logs and events.
  • Track events through unique request IDs which do not change during data transfer.
  • Maintain access to raw events, rather than aggregating or consolidating them.
  • Collect high-level context data regarding how events occur and the environment.

Observability is something that is rapidly becoming more important throughout development. Systems are only moving forward, not back, in terms of complexity. But by following the right best practices, and pairing observability with better monitoring, developers can create systems that are optimized even for failure.

Exit mobile version