Month: September 2020

How to Quickly Build a Social Network with WordPress
Having a social media presence is a must for every business. The social community with top-notch features regulates the businesses to attract the community members in their services and products. Nowadays, social media is known as the perfect way to know and secure more customers. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter are some of those social media handles that have gained popularity in less time.

Daily, more and more website owners are indulging in social networks, and, indeed, they are getting proficient results. So, if you are also one of those, and is looking for the platform to establish a social media presence, then WordPress is the name for you. WordPress as the leading CMS in the market can offer you an ideal solution to build a social network for your business quickly and also, make the website more interactive. Thus, there is a huge demand for dedicated WordPress developers to build custom themes that play an important role to extend advanced functionality so that all activities run smoothly.

Hence, to build social media in less time, you require some essential things, such as:
- WordPress; either installed on the web server or locally
- A social network plugin; we are mentioning some of the best social network plugins. You can choose what you think suits you best.
- A social networking WordPress theme; some of the social network themes are also mentioned, or, you can choose the one from the default WordPress themes as well.
WordPress Social Networking Themes

1. Mingle

Mingle is the multipurpose WordPress theme. It contains impeccable features and a higher aesthetic value. This WordPress theme is built by Parallelus, which is an elite author. Particularly, Mingle is meant for the BuddyPress platform.

It allows you to have the amazingly versatile contact form builder, drag and drop layout builder, sidebar generator, shortcodes, clean HTML5 + CSS3, portfolio, blogs, SEO-friendly code, in addition to all other features. It is estimated that Mingle has taken over approximately 5k potential customers.

2. Woffice

It is the Intranet/Extranet WordPress theme that is here to build a niche-oriented social media presence. Starting from the high standards of coding, a wide range of features, multipurpose capabilities, great support, and regular updates, it has all. Woffice could be used to make intranets, extranets, social networks, or communities for your workplace, schools, government agencies, businesses, etc.

Woffice incorporates the comprehensive files manager, BuddyPress network, messaging and chats, font remarkable icons, responsive design, Google fonts, documentation, demo content, shortcodes, WPML support, video tutorials, Trello integration, calendar, unlimited sidebars, clean code, custom login page, breadcrumbs, and many more.

3. Klein

Allow your viewers to have an exceptional social networking experience with the outstanding range of features that provides nothing, but, the best user experience.

By using Klein, the users can add connections, share events, send countless messages, design beautiful user-profiles, and explain ideas in forums. This WordPress theme allows you to sell the products to the members of the network including the WooCommerce capacity. Despite the other eCommerce platforms, this social media platform supports the recent version of WordPress, BuddyPress, and bbPress, etc. Also, empower you to change the WordPress website to the new social media network.

Revolution Slider, custom colors, Visual Composer Page Builder, responsive design, WPML-ready, intuitive admin panel, 6 different headers + layouts, SEO-ready code, 1000+ font icons, social media sign-in, etc are some of its other features.

4. Serpent

Serpent includes the features that you might be looking for to add to your social network. The main aim of this WordPress theme is to make your website visible to everyone. Assuredly, its results are remarkable.

The elite author, Cosmothemes is the name behind setting up Serpent. It holds the features, like, Facebook-style like button on posts, responsive layout, lightbox login and registration, front-end post submission, keyboard navigation, tooltip helpers, user profiles, social media icons, Facebook comments, widgets, sidebars, drop-down menus, tooltip helpers, etc.

Wrapping Up

We cannot deny the fact that creating the social network is a profitable approach and it surely, can lead to fruitful results. Additionally, you can ask the like-minded experts to have top-notch interests and ideas.

From all the themes mentioned above, you can get the one that you think is according to your preferences.

Building a robust social network with WordPress is not only about picking the theme. There is a need to set up things, such as WordPress promotion and WordPress hosting.

We hope that you liked this article, if you have some doubts or suggestions, then let us know in the comment section below.

Thanks for reading!!
September 14, 2020
How are Digital Business Models Driving Customer Engagements for Insurers?

Digitalization is revolutionizing industries like never before, and it is benefiting not just the businesses but consumers as well. If we talk about the insurance sector, it is not lagging behind in terms of incorporating digital technologies’ use to streamline the internal processes and provide exceptional customer service for high retention and acquisition.

Customer engagement plays a vital role in making customers stay loyal to your brand, along with winning the trust of new customers. Customers who are highly engaged buy and promote a brand more and one of the key components involved in engaging customers is the high-quality customer experience.

It is the experience of a customer only that makes him/her associated with a particular insurance brand for a long time. Firms that provide exceptional customer experience are able to engage and retain clients more than others.

The New-Age Customers

Now, due to the fact that customers of today are your digital customers who remain highly engaged over the internet using their Smartphones, it is time for insurers to focus on digital strategies more than anything else.

They need to engage customers in a very coherent and intelligent manner across the various digital platforms to cash on the opportunities learned from the use of integrated advanced analytics and artificial intelligence techniques to figure out what exactly the customer wants.

So, let us get started and know about the different areas where insurers can engage customers more with the help of digital solutions.

Top Customer Engagement Areas

1. Acquiring New Customers

Acquiring new customers was never easy until digitalization came into play. Now due to the fact that customers spend a lot of time on the internet, it becomes easy for any industry to collect behavioral data about prospective clients through the use of advanced analytics.

Insurers can use this data to profile and target different users based on their gender, age, lifestyle, etc. Most the people look on the internet when they are trying to buy something new, and if they are searching for a new insurance partner, insurers have a pretty good chance to cash upon.

Also, investing in the live chat technology will put an insurer ahead of the competition since new prospects have a lot of queries in mind, and the insurers who will be able to answer the same at the earliest using live chat will be able to acquire clients effortlessly.

2. Underwriting and Retention

We all know this pretty well that underwriting forms the backbone of the insurance company. Premiums are charged differently from customers after assessing their risk factors.

With the help of technology, insurers are able to better assess the risks associated with every person and offer premiums accordingly. With the support of digitalization, insurers gain better access to customer information related to health records, home history, driving skills, auto insurance, and more.

And with the support of advanced analytics and telematics, insurers are able to monitor the behavior of customers easily. With so much information available to insurers, they can streamline their underwriting process easily and offer the best solutions to their customers, leading to enhanced customer retention eventually.

3. Social Media Platforms

We all know about the importance of different social media platforms in our lives. In the past, insurers used to wait for the customers to reach them or used calling and email tactics. However, with the social media platforms’ rise, insurers know exactly where their customers are.

They only need to reach out to them and get them engaged through effective communication strategies. The customer engagement opportunities that come with social media platforms are large, and insurers cannot afford to miss out on the same.

This engagement can be in any form; from answering their queries related to different insurance products and services to offering them unique offers and discounts, taking their feedback, discussing ways of improving the processes, service, products, and more.

In other words, social media platforms give an opportunity for insurers to understand customer grievances and address the same at the earliest, adding to enhanced customer experience and engagement eventually.

4. Claims

If we talk about the insurance customers, one factor that creates the maximum impact on the customer experience is nothing but claims. The sooner and fairer a claim gets processed by the insurer, the more easily will an insurer be able to engage customers in the long run.

Digital overhaul of FNOL (First Notice of Loss) supports insurers in the same, making the claim process extra dynamic, leading to quick resolutions and enhanced claim metrics.Apart from this, with the help of pre-populated claim forms/apps, insurers can make the customer experience seamless by eliminating the need to answer repetitive questions.

So, if customers get to submit their information without any hassle, it makes a huge difference when it comes to customer experience.

5. Personalization

With customers becoming demanding with the passing of each year, there is a lot of competition amongst insurers to meet the evolving customer demands. The solution lies in providing them with personalized solutions that comprise multiple options to choose from.

Data analytics and machine learning help in understanding the preferences of the different customers and in preparing coverage that suits their requirements the best, modifying the quote-to-buy experience at large. So, in a way, customers become the ones who evaluate their own policy risks and select the most appropriate one for them.

6. The Rise of the Ecosystem

From offering products and services to customers, insurers are leveraging every opportunity that comes their way in retaining and acquiring customers. They are looking to foray into areas that do not cover their expertise.

Insurance firms are getting into the shoes of advisory roles where they are offering beneficial advice to customers on selecting the different products, taking precautionary measures, along with suggesting ways to lower the related risks.

This has been turned into a possibility with the rise of an ecosystem of products and services where everything is connected. Insurance firms are getting into collaborations with emerging communities of InsurTech, outsourcing insurance claims processing, technology giants, and other related industries.

Insurers need to be very careful as mutual collaborations cannot pave the way for their success until they take a unique path to brand in the eyes of customers with their own deliverables.

7. Automatic Execution

The ‘automatic execution’ strategy is fast gaining recognition in the insurance sector due to the fact that it offers customers help when they actually need it, making the insurance and customer relationship to be more customer-centric.

For instance, by making use of the Smartphone’s sensors, GPS, and various algorithms to calculate extreme and rapid accelerations, mobile or insurance apps can detect at the earliest if someone is going to get involved in a car crash.

Not only this, based on the app preferences of the customers, insurers can also offer assistance to the customers directly, fostering their mutual relationship in the long run.

8. Ongoing Engagement

Using IoT devices and technology, insurers can become a part of the lives of their customers and learn about the changing preferences and phases of the customers on a consistent basis. This can include any information with respect to customers like new cars, new babies, or a new home.

Insurers can use this information to offer additional services to their existing customers with a personalized touch. Also, consumers don’t have to worry about their data since the latest privacy laws ensure complete control of customers over their data.

Apart from this, customer feedback can be analyzed quickly using big data to improve the service and processes. Insurers must realize that customer engagement is an ongoing affair that needs to be addressed from time to time with new/exciting offers and services aimed at providing exceptional end-to-end experience to the customers, leading to a long-term association with the insurance brand.

Wrapping Up

Undeniably, the insurance industry is leaving no stone unturned when it comes to leveraging technology to strengthen customer bonding through enhanced customer engagement. It is not just insurance carriers who have to move with the pace of technology; this trend is similar in almost every industry today, and the reason is also very clear and common.

Since customers and their needs are evolving in the technological age, insurers need to evolve too. Yes, this new technology change might come with a few challenges for insurers, but the kind of opportunities that come along with it will simply outshine the challenges.
There can be a few instances when insurers are overwhelmed with core competencies and are unable to focus on digital transformation.

During such a scenario, it is recommended to join hands with a leading provider of insurance policy administrative services. This will enable insurers to free them from the unproductive back-office tasks and instead focus on devising digital customer engagement strategies. Lastly, it is all about improving customer experience, and technology is the only way through which customer engagement can be achieved in the present times

September 14, 2020
Tips to Begin Pinterest Advertising and Marketing
Pinterest can often be overlooked as a marketing platform. This is because it’s shadowed by the big players such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Don’t let the audience size fool you though, because up to 93% of Pinterest’s user base utilizes the site for business purposes.

This means that out of the hundred million users that pinterest has, 93 million of them are using it for business. This number is highly favorable for internet marketing, as it ensures that your advertisements reach potential customers almost all of the time.

The only catch is that the people on Pinterest are more interested in home decor, cooking, fashion, beauty, and handmade goods. If your business doesn’t fall within these categories, it might be harder to attract customers. That’s why this article is here to help you maximize your ads despite that fact.

Make a business account.

The first step in tackling Pinterest advertising is to create a business account. You do so by following these simple steps:
1. Convert your personal account into a business account, or sign up as one on the website itself.
2. Download Pinterest Tag. This application allows you to measure your audience activity, down to their checkouts, sign-ups, and searches.
3. Fill up the form in the app itself which determines your campaign goal as well as your campaign budget.
4. Create an audience for your campaign. This can be a pre-existing group or a newly created one by you. Each ad group can target different budgets as well as different targeting.
5. Choose your ad groups wisely by choosing your target audience.
6. It will next ask you what ad placement you have, select one.
7. Maximize the use of keywords. The maximum amount is 25.
By finishing all these steps within the Pinterest Tag, you have successfully created your business account on Pinterest. The succeeding tips will focus on how you can turn it into a success.

Apply good SEO practices to your account.

One should remember that Pinterest is not only social media. It’s also a search engine. Therefore, applying good SEO practices in a Pinterest business account would be a huge benefit to your campaign goal.

A good SEO will help your product or advertisement rise higher and generally garner more audience. Insert what you do next to your name, input keywords on your profile description, and try to utilize the brand description by adding a keyword there too.

However, make sure that you research the best keywords to input on your profile. This is to ensure that you also maximize your SEO practices. Consult your tools as well as various software that you may have in your arsenal in order to determine such keywords.

Use different types of Pinterest Ads:

There are multiple types of Pinterest ads. Knowing which ones to use is an important aspect in reaching Pinterest marketing success. In order to determine which ones to use, we’ve listed them down below:
- Promoted pins – appear in the home search results just like a regular search result, with more exposure. These are labeled as “promoted” though (the label disappears after someone shares the pin itself).
- Promoted carousels – features two to five images that the viewer can scroll through.
- Promoted video pins – are much like promoted pins, however, you may utilize .mpvs, .movs or short video clips.
- Promoted app pins – are the same as promoted pins and video pins that allow the users to click it and download your application.
- Buyable pins – pins that can contain your products that when clicked on, redirects the user to your shop listing. This essentially allows them to click and buy in the most efficient way possible.
- Story pins – if you’re familiar with Instagram stories and Facebook stories, these work essentially the same. However, unlike those others mentioned, these stay on your boards once published.
Use audience targeting

Pinterest campaigns allow you to use audience targeting. This means that you can control which user groups can more extensively be reached by your campaign. In order to fully maximize this feature, research on the different interests that your current audience has on their profile, or what “interests” that you can pique with your product.

Once you have this information, you can properly target your audience. If you do this successfully, you can convert those people interested in your products into customers right off the bat.

Make your posts visually aesthetic

Pinterest capitalizes on your visual prowess. This means that the better your website is, the more likely people will purchase your products. Having a visually pleasing board will also help in attracting new possible audiences for your account.

Make your photo text (if you have any) large and easy to read. Use a font that isn’t too confusing to read, and be as straightforward as you can. This helps manage peoples’ expectations if they stumble across your pin.

Use infographics. People love it when you integrate your text and your data into a nice graphic. This increases the peoples’ willingness to read whatever text you input on the image, and in turn, raises their interest about what you do or sell.

Choose your landing page carefully.

Having people interact with your pins is one thing. Having them navigate your landing page is another. If you have a user-friendly interface, this will more likely attract them to purchase from your store. However, if they find your website confusing to deal with, more likely than not, they’ll turn away and look for an alternative.

This means that you will have to invest on your landing website, or at least make it simpler for people to use. A simple UI will allow most people to understand what they’re doing, regardless of the age gap.

Conclusion

These tips have been tried and tested by Larby Amirouche, a pioneer in e-commerce and internet marketing. If you would like to succeed in the same field, following these tips would help you reach your goal. Remember that following the lead isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and often results in one form of success or another.
September 2, 2020