Chatbots are taking over the place of real personnel’s, hence reducing the expenses of a company

You must have come across the pop-up box that opens when you visit some specific websites online. Generally, the first question that it asks you is, “How may I help you?”.

Those pop-up menus are specially designed bots to assist you throughout your queries regarding any product or service on that particular website. 

Whether you open the website in the morning or the middle of the night, these chatbots are always there to assist you as well as solve your issues. 

Furthermore, it asks you to drop your contact details like email id and phone number to reach you through a customer support executive at a good time.

Today, these chatbots are taking over the place of real personnel’s, hence reducing the expenses of a company. 

More than 100k business houses are using Chatbots to deliver a response to customers instantly. And at approx. 80 per cent of customers are satisfied and have improved their perceptions for the businesses after chatting them online.

No doubt, every start-up or a traditional business owner’s priority after the production of products is to sell them and generate revenue to survive in this competitive world. 

So, why not use those techniques that are specifically designed to help your business and that too, without delays? 

Also Read: 10 Instagram tools to supercharge your brand awareness

You might have a top-notch customer support team; however, the consumer taste and preferences are changing drastically. 

Today’s customers want ever-ready best services beforehand and when they are getting these facilities elsewhere, why will they come to you?

Think! in this competitive world of online trade, there is a need to have the latest bots like chatbots for your business. 

Following are the attributes that will let you know how to use these chatbots effectively and efficiently:

Keep the service available for 24*7 hours

There is no use of making the Chatbot service available in the morning hours only. More than 50% of individuals surf the internet during late-night hours, and then it is the perfect time to keep this service available. 

This helps you to grab more customer base. Even when I was surfing the internet to purchase a laptop for myself, I bought that online after getting assisted on the chatbot of a reputed company’s website. 

The conversations facilitated with artificial intelligence having neuro-linguistic programming can perform better when the humans (customer support) are out of reach.

Hypostatize the chatbot experience 

There is a subtle line difference between customer satisfaction and customer frustration when they are talking to a machine. Though the technology has taken over the world through the coding and decoding of formulas. 

However, artificial intelligence is a non-living thing, and in an artificial state of mind cannot equalise itself to human brains and thereby becomes crucial that the technology is used correctly. 

Also Read:  How do I create a memorable promotional brand or product video?

The reason being, the chatbots are programmed in a certain way that the responses they give are pre-defined as per the set keywords to the customer’s queries, so it becomes imperative to ensure that the answers are personalized as much as they are possible.

 

Design to create a healthy first impression

Yes, the first impression is the last impression, and we all know that. Not many small and medium enterprises are using chatbots yet. It can become your plus point to use it. 

The customer knocking at your door may visit your website for the first time. What do you expect from him or her? To buy your products or heir your services in the first go?

You must be! And for that, you must make it more appealing for the first time users. The teacher gives an “excellent” remark to a student only when the homework is done correctly.

 

Use a lively and cheerful design

No one likes boring and default designs with no colourful or bright designs. Chat-bots effectively streamline you’re your ability to service customers and increase the revenue. 

Providing customers with normal quick responses, answering basing queries is one thing, and proving them a pleasant environment on chatbots is another level of thinking. 

Some of the best companies have added colourful designs to their chatbots to make it more interesting for their users to interact with the bots. So this feature can also help attract an excellent customer base.

Some people are opting for mobile apps for this purpose. For that purpose, they need to find out – How To Make An App? Instead of that, Chatbots can be your one-time solution.

 

Use them to work as a sales apprentice

Many successful brands are already using chatbots to take orders and offer the customers much other sales-related stuff. 

For instance, when you visit any restaurant app that uses a chatbot, you must have seen the pop-up assistant shows you similar results of the food menu based on your current as well as past search history. 

This is the technique that can fetch you a better customer base as well as regular sales.

Use Them to Conduct Dynamic Surveys

The traditional methods of surveying the customers are out-dated now. The customers today are no more excited about filling those long survey forms to give their feedback. 

They avoid and ignore such type of surveys, but the modern way the chatbots are designed to conduct investigations is really different and quite interesting where the chatbots give you a question with some multiple choice answers. 

Also Read: The A, B, and C of startup branding

You have to click one of your choices, and then another question comes up quickly without you waiting for much time.

The exciting thing is that there are already many companies specialising in chatbots for surveys. Amongst others, these surveys allow the companies to develop bot-powered studies and seamlessly deploying them to social media platforms.

Conclusion

These are some of the ways you can use chatbots for your website, Whatsapp, and other applications where you have made your company services available to reach the customers.

Also, be very sure of not relying wholly on these bots as mentioned earlier these are the artificial intelligence designed with predetermined keywords, so they should be kept for limited interaction which is sure of taking place correctly.

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Incentivising on climate change can assure people to behave much more efficiently

No one is taking climate change seriously. Seriously.  No one.

Take the Amazon rainforest fires, for example. The fires have been burning for months now, but has only come into the light in the past week after it has been doubling with more than 9,500 infernos.

The lungs of the earth are burning to ashes and the government is really not doing much about it.

But, why does the government do nothing about it?

The answer is simple. The government lacks the incentive to protect it.

The president, in the past, has, in turn, supported the clearing of Amazon to further the prospects of agriculture and mining in the region.

While recently the government has banned burning for 60 days, The National Space Research Institute (INPE) has published a data showing a continued outbreak of 3,859 –out of which 2,000 are within the Amazon.

Climate change is one of the biggest issues that the world is facing, and we are already facing serious consequences of it. Forget the media talking about a broken world in the future for the next generation; the world is already breaking.

The Alps are warming, ice caps are melting, cold cities are growing warmer, new diseases are emerging … yet not much is being done about it.

Leaders of any institution have great power. They have influence over their businesses, employees and sometimes even consumers. If climate change is taken seriously by these leaders, it can make a significant difference.

Here are some ways businesses can incentivise employees to be more aware of climate change and not make the same mistake as President Jair Bolsonaro.

Invest in an electrical mode of transport for employees or offer loans

If you’re a big company, investing in purchasing a fleet of electronic cars which can be used to pick up and drop off employees can be helpful. Or, alternatively, you could also offer special loans for employees to purchase electronic cars.

Electronic cars are nowadays readily available and have also recently entered some of the low GDP countries.

These cars are not only perfect for the environment compared to normal cars which increase the levels of carbon dioxide with their emissions. They are also cheaper to run and maintain.

Start catering plant-based food for employees

According to research by Harvard, greenhouse gas emissions from livestock is 50 per cent greater than transport. This is why cutting down on meat is one of the key solutions to protect the environment. It is also why investors are also looking to invest in companies that are working to develop meat alternatives.

Some companies may think that this is ridiculous, as a healthy, plant-based food tends to be more expensive. But it is definitely a myth and there are plenty of healthy and tasty plant-based options that are cheap and easy to make.

For example, a good old peanut butter sandwich with bananas can be filling and tasty at the same time.

There are hundreds of options from foodies and Instagrammers who can help build the perfect healthy catering option recipes for your employees. This way, you keep your employees healthy, and at the same time save the planet.

Phase out the use of plastics

India will be banning plastics completely as announced on October 2. 

This sets a great example, not only for countries but also for businesses. Try to phase out the use of plastics as much as possible.

A lot of companies are using reusable shopping bags, a much more eco-friendly option.

Don’t just incentivise employees, incentivise customers too

Offer special discounts for customers who reuse their shopping bags.

I once had a friend who started collecting glass soda bottles from all his friends, in return for a good amount of money. He didn’t really know much about climate change, but it was definitely a good incentive.

In conclusion, these are only some ways businesses can make a difference for the benefit of the environment and themselves.

Sometimes people are not aware of the issues that surround them around climate change and for that matter, the only way to motivate is to incentivise, incentivise, incentivise.

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Image Credit: The Washington Post

 

 

 

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Some of the top tried and tested ways of increasing reach in the digital sphere

Being a new start-up in the industry is not easy. Managing budgets and finances, trying to reach deadlines every day and struggling to turn your dream into reality.

The digital age has made it considerably easier, now that almost everyone has access to the internet. Marketing is the core step in building a start-up successfully.

If marketing is done right, your start-up will flourish: it will make a name for itself in the world of new businesses.

Social media marketing 

Social media marketing is a rising trend for promoting products and services through major social media channels.

This type of marketing involves creating and sharing content on social media networks, like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter, to achieve your social media marketing and branding goals.

Every start-up takes the first step by creating business profiles on these social media platforms. In digital marketing, presence on all major social media platforms is the primary step for startups to build brand trust and influence in the target market. 

A sound social media strategy for start-up involves setting goals, researching your audience, studying your competitors and creating content to market your services or products. 

Content marketing 

This brings us to content marketing. Content marketing is a strategic approach to modern digital marketing that is purely focused on creating, publishing, and distributing quality content for a targeted audience online.

Also Read: Modernising your ventures marketing tactics by understanding how to communicate effectively

This strategic approach focuses on building a base of potential clients and customers. 

Search engine optimisation (SEO) 

Search engine optimisation is a methodology involving strategies, techniques and tactics used to increase the number of visitors to a website.

It helps achieve the objective of a high-ranking placement in the search results page of a search engine (SERP), including Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines.

If your website ranks high in search results, then every time your potential customers search for keywords related to your products or services, it leaves them with the impression that you are a reputable company.

SEO is the mandatory part of advanced digital marketing plans for startups. 

Pay-per-click marketing (Google adwords)

PPC stands for pay-per-click advertisement, a mode of internet marketing, in which advertisers are paid a sum of money each time one of their ads is clicked.

This marketing strategy helps you generate quick revenue and drive targeted traffic by placing main keywords on Google Ads area.

However, pay-per-click marketing works best as a short campaign, usually spanning a few months.

The advertiser should analyse the effectiveness of each campaign and then adjust keywords, placement, and budget allocation to capitalise upon the data from previous campaigns.

Influencer marketing 

The growing trend on social media revolves around influencers. Bloggers, YouTubers and Instagrammers- influencers are sprouting up from all avenues, each with thousands of followers. Ads they post will reach a global audience. 

Also Read: How do you grow your startup? Take some advice from 4 experts in digital marketing

It is a bit affordable as compared to other paid marketing strategies.

This type of marketing uses word-of-mouth as an aspect to help you in building a trusted brand, Customers trust the authenticity, so they get engaged if you are a brand

Web analytics

Web analytics is a must-have tool for digital marketers who collect, analyse, measure and report website data for understanding and optimising web pages.

If you own a business website then connecting with the web analytics tool can give you a broader picture of your website visitors, their devices, time spent on your site, web browser they are using, regional data and search queries related to your business, etc.

 The analysis of Internet data and user information through various means is referred to as Web Analytics. It is employed as a way of fully understanding pertinent trends and rendering Web usage efficacious. 

Digital advertising  

Digital advertising is the promotion of your business on the internet. It is the usage of this unique platform as a basis for promotional work. Think of the websites as billboards, carrying Ads of your business. 

In digital advertising, you can utilise different promotional advertisements strategies and deliver business messages through website and search engine paid adverts, emails, social media channels (paid and organic) banner ads, mobile app ads and affiliate programs and other marketing channels available in the digital media space.

Optimising for voice search

Usability has been significantly advanced in this modern age. More and more people are emerging and making it easier for you to use our phones. Voice search technology is an excellent step for improving user experience.

Digital marketing requires precision and fool-proof strategy. Due to the introduction of the Google Hummingbird update, voice search has become more widely enhanced and intelligent.

The results are much more intricate as the algorithm digs up ‘hidden’ or contextual data from the voice and displays it on the screen. 

Optimising for video search

Nobody likes to see a page full of black and white text, without any visual aids. Pictures and videos make the website seems more attractive to the audience.

Adding videos to the site also makes the start-up achieve a more significant market, growing the business two-fold. Start by renaming the video to the pertinent keywords and add keywords in your video description as well.

Also Read: Meme marketing isn’t a joke its an A-1 strategy, especially in Asia

So, if you already have videos on YouTube or other video search engines then optimise them with relevant description, titles and keywords to get maximum benefit for your new business. Good video optimisation is the backbone of modern digital marketing strategy. 

Chatbots and more content!

People talk to customer service for more details about the product or any queries they might have. It is not possible to hire so many people right at the beginning of a start-up, as funding is low.

The initial investment does not allow the person to pay salaries for employees, so chatbots are the perfect solution. 

Remember a pop-up text message that appears on the corner of a website, asking basic questions like “How was your day?” or specific ones like, “Which section of the magazine do you enjoy reading the most?”.

These chatbots make your site more interactive. However, don’t underestimate the power of content. Your start-up can only flourish when you have quality content. Don’t stress about the number of blogs you post per day; quality is far more critical than quantity.  

Conclusion

Building a successful startup is an uphill battle. You have to fight against fierce competition in the business world of today.

However, by selecting the proven digital marketing strategies, you can stand out from the crowd.

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In addition to Parkable, we also have updates from Team Flash, Sociolla, and Aspire

Australia’s parking app Parkable raises US$2.9M in Series A – Press Release

Australian parking app Parkable announced an NZ$4.6 million (US$2.9 million) Series A funding round led by New Zealander digital services company Spark.

The funding round also included the participation of investors such as Peter Beguely, Rowan Simpson, as well as existing investors and advisory board members Jason Kilgour and David Brain.

The funding will be used to increase Parkable’s leadership in New Zealand’s shared economy parking market, further develop its presence in Australia and China and explore new international markets.

Parkable is a sharing economy platform for car parking that allows companies and individuals to rent out their empty parking bays.

The startup has recently announced a joint venture in China. It has also acquired Brisbane-based parking solutions business Park Genie, which it has subsequently rebranded and integrated onto the Parkable platform.

Parkable is now operating in three Australian cities as well as in Shanghai.

Team Flash raises US$1.5M in seed funding round – e27

Singapore-based esports company Team Flash has secured an S$2,084,000 (US$1.5 million) seed funding round led by country-based family office Octava.

Founded in October 2017 by Terence Ting and Samson Oh, Team Flash is an e-sports franchise that empowers talented athletes to pursue a professional career in competitive gaming. It has invested in talent and infrastructure across Vietnam and Singapore.

The funding will be used mainly for international expansion, further grow its business in Vietnam, recruit e-sports players and content creators across the region, and also to focus on bringing in brand sponsorships and media partners.

The startup also plans to launch a dedicated merchandising arm later this year.

Also Read: Today’s top tech news, July 8: Investments into Australian startups Employment Hero, Jacobi

Beacon VC participated in Aspire’s US$32.5M Series A funding round – e27

Kasikornbank’s Beacon VC announced that it has participated in a US$32.5 million Series A funding round for Singapore-based fintech startup Aspire.

Beacon VC joins a pool of international investors, including Y Combinator, Mass-Mutual Ventures (MMV) Southeast Asia, Insignia Ventures Partners, Hummingbird Ventures, Silicon Valley’s Arc Labs, and Picus Capital.

KBank and Aspire aim to work together to digitise banking to small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and online merchants in Thailand.

Sociolla’s parent company gets US$40M Series D funding round – e27

Social Bella Indonesia, the parent company beauty e-commerce platform Sociolla, has secured US$40 million in Series D round of investment, co-led by EV Growth and Temasek.

New investors such as Singapore-based EDBI, Pavilion Capital, and Jungle Ventures also participated in the funding round.

The startup will use the funding to strengthen its human resources capabilities, with particular attention on technology-related functions.

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Image Credit: Parkable

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Businesses need to create different environments with a different balance of security and convenience for different processes

The boundaries between the personal and the worker are blurring more and more. People often spend more time in the office than at home.

At the same time, about a quarter of employees work remotely. We believe that in the modern world the perfect balance between life and work is generally unattainable.

Due to the growth in digital data, there is no longer a clear separation of which tasks to perform at work and which at home.

In both personal and professional life, we rely heavily on social networks, email, digital documents, and shared folders. As our recent study showed, chaos reigns in the management of corporate records and credentials.

Death balance between work and personal life

Working from nine to five is not so bad.

Nevertheless, this approach is already outdated. Now it is welcome to linger a bit – for the sake of important meetings, meeting tight deadlines, and even corporate parties. Millions of people recycle to cope with their tasks.

Adapting to modern conditions, employees often mix work and personal life: they solve household issues at the workplace and vice versa – they finish work from home.

Also Read: The curious case of the cybersecurity skill gap

Many even have a removable set of clothes in the office. What is worse digital data? Access to the right information both from home and from work makes life easier.

There is a big problem with this desire for convenience: careless handling of corporate data.

Employees who store them on personal devices are not always able to ensure the security of this information unless they use VPN Chrome browser extensions. Easy access to data puts them at unnecessary risk. For a company, this can have serious consequences.

Companies must manage data

While employees are struggling with personal and corporate information, companies are racking their brains in questions like protecting growing volumes of data.

As our study showed, 80 per cent of employees do not even consider that restricting access to work letters, files and documents are their direct responsibility.

Personal and payment data, authorization codes – these are just a couple of examples of confidential information necessary for the effective work of the company.

Also Read: From meditating to delegating; how I manage work-life balance as a startup founder

Staff do not always safely store this information. Just 56 per cent of employees regularly delete obsolete letters, and only 34 per cent get rid of old files on hard drives.

Digital mess becomes an even more serious problem when information is stored in the cloud or public folders, where it is more difficult to control.

We add here the constant growth of data volumes, and now – managing corporate information is becoming extremely difficult. But it still needs to be protected from prying eyes!

For example, if an employee can accidentally stumble upon information about the salary of colleagues, a hacker can also find it.

To ensure secure data management, it is necessary to involve employees themselves in solving information security issues.

Only then can a new corporate culture be formed in which each participant will be responsible for data protection and help colleagues do the same.

Therefore, it is extremely important to train personnel in the basics of cybersecurity, communicating to people the significance of the problem and their role in solving it.

As a result, employees will learn to manage information more efficiently – both corporate and personal.

How to relieve the pressure?

It seems to us that the solution to the problem should not consist of reducing digital clutter per se. The catch is rather in insufficient personal responsibility and inability of people to choose and use different types of environments for different purposes.

We are all different. For example, older people are less willing to share their passwords than youth — especially those who are too young to be responsible for their actions.

It’s more convenient for some employees to work in an organized space, while others do more in the middle of a pile of papers or files (and this is not a mess, but just a different working environment).

You should not give up all efforts to install corporate applications on personal devices (which is difficult, and in some countries, it is completely impossible) or attempts to change people’s habits with the help of intimidation.

Also Read:  Ensure a balance between building your product and building the venture: Snapcart CEO

It’s even more important to explain to people the difference between the environments in which they communicate with other employees and the environments where it is possible to collaborate with third parties, whether they are contractors or personal acquaintances.

Everyone can clean up their home. However, a common “home” – an office workstation or a cloud solution – should be convenient and safe for everyone. Here you can not do without the universally accepted rules and understanding.

And, of course, someone must control how these rules are implemented so that the habits of employees do not harm the business and do not infringe on the interests of colleagues.

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Image Credit:Marten Bjork

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To what extent has having a social message in dating helped Bumble?

Having a business with a social message can have a great impact on society. As brands influence customer psychology, to have customers associate with your social cause is a massive win not just for the business but for the world. Companies like Lokai, We Wood and Skyline Socks to name a few are built around giving back to the society. But while these companies give back, to what extent are they effective in growing in terms of scalability?

Bumble was launched in 2014 by business mogul Whitney Wolfe Herd following her sexual harassment lawsuit against Justin Mateen, former co-founder of Tinder, whom she had dated on and off. 

As it turns out, the then 24-year-old female entrepreneur was not just fired from Tinder for being too young and “female” but also harassed through comments, emails and text messages post-breakup.

This was a bold move for Whitney, who decided to create Bumble, a dating app that allows women to make the first move with male users. 

This addresses the problem of creepy texting and downright dangerous harassment, which are the major reasons why a lot of people have always been sceptical about online dating.

The launch of this app was a powerful social statement globally, where it sent off a strong message about women empowerment, encouraging women to make bolder choices in not just dating, but in business and life!

This also led to a lot of celebrities to come out in support of the app, including popular Kardashian – Jenner mom Kris Jenner, actor, producer and filmmaker Priyanka Chopra; and supermodel and entrepreneur Karlie Kloss, to name a few. 

Everything seemed perfect for the brand, but then why did Tinder still manage to retain itself as the crowd favourite? 

More convenient

If you are one of the millions who have downloaded Tinder, you will notice that it is much easier and quicker to sign up on the platform and get going.

All it asks for is a short bio and your music preferences which are generally synced from your Spotify playlist. 

In comparison, Bumble asks you to answer a series of questions and build a more detailed profile, which can sometimes feel like a matrimonial page. For example, it asks you questions about liking dogs, smoking, drinking etc.

This can be because Bumble widely markets itself as an app for relationships, while Tinder is sometimes seen as an app for hookups (although, it is used for relationships as well).

Sexist

While I am all in for a dating app with an empowering concept, the sexist nature of the app, which only allows women to pick who they want to speak with can potentially carve down the entire niche of the market, making it more attractive to women. Male users can sometimes feel alienated by this system.

Although is a great social message, it may not be very good in terms of acquiring users. 

Tinder, on the other hand, has no such barriers and freely allows male and female users to swipe and make the first move regardless of gender.

Logo

Tinder’s logo is that of a red and white flame which represents passion. While the red flame is perfect for a dating app since it signifies the fieriness of new relationships. This is also more attractive to millennials and college students.

Bumble’s logo is yellow in colour with the image of a beehive signifying a queen bee and the busy nature of people.

 In a statement, Wolfe also said “But then we thought about it. Wait a second — Bumble—like the bee society. There’s a queen bee, the woman is in charge, and it’s a really respectful community. It’s all about the queen bee and everyone working together. It was very serendipitous.”

The yellow colour is more often associated with positivity and joy, which somehow cannot be related to the idea of dating strangers — realistically speaking.

While there are people who have experienced happy endings on dating apps, most of them are usually looking for casual relationships.

In terms of logo and aesthetics, Tinder comes out as the clear winner.

More features

Given the open nature of Tinder, the app has been successful in branching out to many fun and innovative features revolving around dating. For example, Tinder allows you to swipe on people from other countries while Bumble doesn’t.

However, Bumble has managed to create a reputation of safety and trust around it so much that it recently launched the Bumble Bizz platform which allows people to network professionally through the app. 

Only the feature is not in terms of dating.

Power is only there where there are users.

For an app like Bumble to give power to women users where there are lesser users compared to Tinder sounds odd.

One of the best examples to shed more light on this point is Bumble’s recent launch in India. India is one of the world’s most highly populated countries. But it is also a country which is considered unsafe for women.

Bringing in Bumble’s feature would be more than perfect, but just when that happens, Tinder decides to introduce a new feature in India, called “My Move”, which is similar to Bumble’s feature where it lets women make the first move.

On top of that Tinder has confirmed that it would begin to test a new feature that will allow women to choose when to start a conversation, rather than have it as a default setting like Bumble.

Being the current more popular app in India, Tinder has clearly kept up with trends and keeping an eagle eye on competition has proven to be beneficial for the company.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the point is that while Bumble sends off a great message, users care more about the convenience, easiness of the process — and this leads to increased usage and signups as there are more people to swipe on. 

This can be an important lesson for businesses that, it is not just important to have a socially responsible message but also a scalable, user-friendly business model.

And even though Bumble sends out an important message of feminism and women empowerment, Tinder sends off an even greater message – Equality.

The post Why Tinder beats Bumble and the world is still not ready for a feminist dating app appeared first on e27.

Victor Chua explains why he is so bullish on “female-focussed economics”

For more great episodes, subscribe to the e27 Podcast Network. 

This week’s special guest is Victor Chua, managing partner of Vynn Capital.  Victor was formally the Vice President of Investments for Gobi Partners and managed two Southeast Asia focused early-stage funds. Prior to that, he was with the venture capital arm of Malaysia’s Ministry of Finance, managing direct and indirect investments.

Some of his notable investments are Carsome, Travelio, Triip, Hermo, and Jirnexu. Victor has invested in over 20 companies in Southeast Asia, especially in Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Also Read: Asia VC Cast with Simon Wu from Cathay Innovation

Together, we discuss why Victor is so bullish on “female-focussed economics” and why there’s so much more excitement in startups serving the female consumers. 

Also, he shares his insights on increasing trend in family offices & corporates making direct investments and why he believes it’s important to create more vehicles for corporates to bring complementary values for startups. 

Hope you guys enjoy this one!

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The history of communication has a profound impact on the way we function as a society today

All businesses market themselves in one way or another because they want their target audiences to choose their products or services over a competitor’s.

Marketing is more than just that in the modern world, though. Not only do customers and clients want to purchase business’ products or services – they want to align with the business’s journey, mission and vision.

Marketing mindsets have not always been this way. So, how did we go from accepting services from nearby vendors to choosing from a vast amount of service providers?

And when did we decide that a business’ journey, mission and vision were essential aspects in the decision-making process?

Well, there’s a history of marketing for businesses, and it starts with word of mouth communication.

History of marketing communications

Word of mouth communication

Before printing supplies were utilised for marketing purposes, word of mouth reigned as the supreme marketing tool. The factors that made a business unique or credible had to be relayed verbally.

People couldn’t go on Yelp or Google to review a business or worker. They heard about a business – and peoples’ experiences with that business – by communicating face to face with friends, family and colleagues.

Also read: 3 essential crisis communication strategies every entrepreneur should know

When word of mouth communication was the primary way of delivering information, it was likely only a handful of people in the area were skilled to complete a task.

So, there wasn’t an extreme demand for people to prove their worth to a vast amount of people because the business was already theirs.

Word of mouth communication is advantageous for directly receiving messages, understanding who the message is intended to reach, clarifying information on the spot, as well as free marketing for the business.

On the flip side, the cons of word of mouth communication concern the possible inaccuracy of information etc., difficulty reaching a wide amount of people, coming to a standstill of interest and engagement and it’s not easy to measure.

At this period in time, business owners and merchants needed tangible ways to market themselves for a profit. In response, print communication was utilised for marketing.

Print communication

Years ago, print resources were more popular than digital platforms.

By this time, there was a reason to purchase a place in the newspaper for your business ad, there were grounds for posting flyers around town, and there was justification for handing out business cards for people to retain your contact information.

It’s all because there was competition, and proximity was no longer the biggest factor when choosing a business to buy from.

Although, newspapers, flyers and business cards were posted and handed out among audiences that weren’t quite targeted to the highest potential.

With numerous corporations competing for the same peoples’ business, business owners had to give those audiences a reason to choose them.

Businesses had to come up with ways to showcase the offerings of the business in a 2D format. Without someone there to explain the benefits of choosing one company over another, it was left to the consumer to analyse information and make a choice on their own.

Positive aspects of print communication include the ability to take marketing materials with you, targeted marketing with strategically placed advertisements and a loyal readership of publications.

Conversely, the negative aspects of print communication are that printouts can be easily ignored, tossed to the side or thrown away, there is limited readership of print communication channels and print quality is not as high as digital displays.

So, our marketing tactics could be improved. Thankfully, the internet was created, and social media platforms were developed for digital social interactions.

Digital communication

Now that we live in a digital world, businesses are discovering how critical it is to involve itself in a variety of digital platforms, including social media.

Social media isn’t only for business, though. The reason businesses started creating profiles on social media was to reach their audiences.

Not only are the online platforms showcases for your business, but they entice audiences with visual and audio content.

Today’s competitive market requires businesses to uniquely position themselves to attract people to give them their business.

Digital communication is excellent for reaching a lot of people in your target market, cost-effective marketing, and measuring the success of your marketing efforts.

Unfortunately, involvement on the web can put users at risk of privacy and security of the technology being used. Public feedback can be negative and there is a high amount of competition.

Today, digital marketing is arguably the most accessible forms of marketing. Millions of people communicate digitally across types of social media platforms.

Present-day implications

Word of mouth communication

You can’t control what every customer says about your business, but you can give them a reason to speak positively on your behalf.

Word of mouth, while not a form of marketing to solely rely on, is still an important aspect of marketing. People trust their friends and family members to give them an honest account of their experiences.

Drive conversations by bringing up relevant company achievements and recent projects.

Print communication

Print communication is a form of visual communication, and the purpose of marketing through visuals should be to turn the reader into your customer.

Some print materials are handed to people. Others sit on tables or other platforms where interested consumers can grab them on their own.

No one is there to explain what your text means, so you have to relay your message in an understandable, two-dimensional way.

Additionally, your business’ message should be represented consistently across all print forms.

Interpretation is up to the viewer, but it’s your responsibility to direct and capture their attention using thoughtful marketing strategies.

Also read: Effective communication is key to startup growth

Some business owners grab viewers’ attention by including eye-catching visuals. Others exquisitely describe their offerings with text.

Combining the two is a sure way to grab the attention of your target audience. Just make sure to remain consistent across your marketing materials.

Digital communication

Your business’ interaction online plays a big role in the overall success of the company. These platforms are too critical for businesses to engage on to skip signing up for them.

The target audiences you’re trying to reach is accessible. They’re looking for the best in the business. Show them why you’re the right business to choose!

Your commitment means increased publicity, increased engagement and increased wealth. What business owner doesn’t want that for themselves and their company?

Journey, mission and vision

Conclusion

From word-of-mouth-only times to the world’s digital transformation period, marketing one’s business has changed tremendously.

There are positive aspects and drawbacks to all communication forms, but using them interchangeably can have an impact on your digital marketing success.

Your business’ marketing tactics should be modernised to fulfil the needs of your consumer and ultimately boost revenue.

While your mode of communication may differ, your message should be consistent. What is it you want your consumer to know, and why should they choose you instead of the competition?

Also read: Beyond managing PR disasters, effective communications strategy ensures all stakeholders are united in achieving organisational goals

Drive your customers online, where they can interact with your company digitally. Encourage them to engage with your business on social media, and they will learn more about your business’ journey, mission and vision in the process.

Use your understanding of effective communication when marketing your business and persuade your audience to engage with your business in a modern way.

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An informative guide for foreigners who wish to explore the business landscape in China

China offers entrepreneurs in various industries promising opportunities.

For this reason, many foreign entrepreneurs like yourself are starting businesses in “the world’s factory”.

However, you need to follow the proper steps to fully take advantage of the opportunities for businesses in China.

Without the proper preparation, your startup could end up failing before getting established overseas.

If you want to achieve a better outcome, read this post on how to start a business in China as a foreigner.

Conduct market research

To start a company in China as a foreigner, you need to conduct market research. While researching, you will determine what the best opportunities available are.

Keep in mind that businesses thriving in the United States may not be successful in China. Different products and services may be in high demand in “the world’s factory”.

Also Read: A China VC gives you the lowdown on the future of Chinese tech (Pt. 1 )

You need to identify these products and services to achieve your entrepreneurial goals and earn a profit.

During this process, you should also learn about the “barter economy” and how it affects the market.

If you complete market research well, you will choose a promising product or service to sell. In turn, you will succeed in starting a business in China as a foreigner.

Choose a business structure

After you decide on a promising product or service to sell in China’s market, choose a business structure.

In China, you have four options to choose from. They include a joint venture, representative office, a wholly foreign-owned enterprise (WFOE), an umbrella company.

If you set up your business as a joint venture, you declare that you will run it with a local partner.

The representative office option does not yield any revenue because it is strictly for communicating. WFOE businesses take longer to set up than other options.

However, they provide entrepreneurs with full sovereignty on their businesses, making the extra time worth it for some foreigners.

Lastly, umbrella companies do not actually create structures in China. Determine which option would suit you the best to start and scale a successful business in China.

Pick a promising location

Moreover, entrepreneurs need to pick promising locations to launch their startups in China. The best way to choose a location is to travel there in person. Then, you can experience the areas first-hand.

Consider your transportation and logistical needs when visiting so that you can make a well-informed decision.

Additionally, you should research the culture before traveling to China for the first time. This is especially crucial for foreign entrepreneurs planning to network.

Also Read: A China VC gives you the lowdown on the future of Chinese tech (Pt. 2 )

If you accidentally disrespect a potential investor, customer or employee, you could create a bad reputation for your startup before it even launches.

Guarantee yourself success by not only picking a promising location for your business but also making a good first impression when you travel to China.

Then, you will succeed in starting up your company.

Gather the necessary documents

Foreign entrepreneurs also need to gather the required documents to launch startups in China.

These documents include Articles of Formation certified by the Chinese embassy, copies of your investors’ passports and bank references.

You also need to supply a business scope, registered capital, copies of your letter of authorisation and your new office address in China.

Furthermore, prepare copies of the Chinese legal representative and a resume as well.

You will need all of these documents to legally start a business in China as a foreigner.

Wait for government approval

Finally, you need Chinese government approval to start conducting business. Typically, foreign entrepreneurs hear back from the Chinese government within two to three months.

However, it depends on the size and location of different projects.

If you plan to set up a new business in a big city, it will likely take longer to receive notice from the government. Additionally, more extensive projects usually call for negotiations.

Therefore, entrepreneurs trying to start large projects in China should brush up on their negotiation skills to achieve their startup goals.

Regardless of the size of your project idea, you need government approval before you can officially start your business in China.

Entrepreneurs jump at the idea of doing business in China, which is also known as “the world’s factory”.

To take advantage of the possibilities the country offers, you need to determine what the options are through market research.

Then, choose one of the four business structures.

Travel to China to select a promising location for your startup, brushing up on your culture knowledge before departing.

Also Read: How China is outperforming the US and Europe in technology and innovation

Gather the documents the government requires foreign entrepreneurs. Lastly, wait for government approval and prepare to negotiate terms.

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Tips, from the perspective of a mentor and judge, on how you should make the best use of your time during a hackathon

Hackathons are awesome. In the short span of 36-54 hours, you and your team work tirelessly to solve problems and create amazing solutions.

Occasionally, promising solutions even spin off into standalone companies, e.g., teams that win Startup Weekend Singapore. Heck, even my first startup was conceived during a hackathon many years ago.

Interestingly, companies have also started organising hackathons as a way to hire, e.g., Grab’s AI for SEA (powered by Padang & Co), DBS’s Hack2Hire (powered by HackerRank), and Shopee’s National Data Science Challenge (powered by Kaggle).

In short, hackathons are an exciting part of the startup ecosystem not just to spur innovation, but to open up opportunities for people who may not normally have access to.

Over the years, I have transitioned from being a participant to being on the other end of the pitching stage as a judge and a mentor.

After my observation (and a bit of free time), I was motivated to write this guide in hopes of helping participants enjoy their sleepless weekends hacking away.

Who knows, you might also stand a chance of being in the top three or even find a job in your next hackathon?

1. Understand the problem

Let’s start with the most obvious tip. What does it mean to understand the hackathon’s problem? For starters, you should know what the challenge statements in the hackathon are if the hackathon is themed.

The next step is homing in who exactly will benefit from your solution/product.

Typically it’s not enough to have a top-level description of who you’re helping – you gotta know their persona. Identifying personas is something UX designers are very good at.

I’ve seen UX designers winning competitions from solely explaining how their solution transforms user journeys with a high-fidelity mockup.

As such, it’s often important to talk to the stakeholders involved in the problem. If the hackathon is themed, the organisers will usually invite individuals or representatives who can share pain points in detail. They might even be a roaming mentor during the hackathon.

Maximise your time and ask mentors the right questions, focus on their pain points rather than running solutions by them.

The chances are that you might over-optimise and create biases when you pitch a solution before you have an opportunity to understand the problem truly.

If the hackathon requires you to define your solution, it’s also important to make sure that you understand the problem inside and out by talking to more people, e.g. target users.

In addition, from my experience, the best teams (or at least the designated business person) know the problem that they’re trying to solve inside out and weaker teams struggle with understanding and articulating the same problem.

2. Check your ego at the door

Even when a team understands what problem to solve, they may not necessarily arrive at the same idea to solve it. A very common reason why teams don’t make it to Day 2 is when the teams fail to focus on a single problem, fail to arrive at an agreed-upon solution to tackle the problem.

Also Read: [Discussion] Are hackathons a waste of time? Are there better alternatives?

More specifically, conflicts occur when there are two (or more) people in the team try to dominate the direction of the team and insist that their respective idea is the best. This results in endless discussion with neither side budging. I have seen teams taking more than half a day to debate.

There are three ways to solve this:

1. If you find yourself the one trying to convince your team that your idea is the best, keep your ego in check and come to a compromise with the team. Commit to taking 1-2h to research the problem and everyone present their ideas. Whoever sounds the most reasonable wins.

2. If you find that your teammate is giving the team a hard time, consider 1). Otherwise, kick the teammate out if he/she continues to be a source of indecision and annoyance. Better cut your losses early.

3. Find a mentor as a sounding board and let him/her decide whose idea is the best. One of the roles of a hackathon mentor is to ensure that teams work well, and they do not end up disbanding over conflicts. Also, agree on just one mentor. Don’t look for another mentor just because your idea lost.

If it doesn’t work out in the end, consider disbanding altogether and find other teammates. It’s better than sticking it out with a discordant team and having a bad time all weekend. Sometimes, you gotta let go, y’know?

3. Get validation

Now that you’ve understood the problem on a deeper level, what’s next? A solution is not exactly a solution if no one wants to use it.

For consumer solutions, you can always call up a friend or two (or your village) and run it by them to see if it’s something that works. For B2B-centric solutions, there’s absolutely nothing stopping you from picking up a phone and harassing/engaging/asking people on LinkedIn.

Not only do you get to unbiased feedback, but you might also end up getting validation from your would-be users/customers. The only challenge is that you’d have to message hard because it’s the weekend after all.

For most of the hackathons I judge in, validation gives you extra points. I recall watching a pitch where a team reached out to large institutions, identified decisionmakers, and got a letter of interest. They won.

It’s really how hard you hustle for that “yes that’s something I want to use”.

4. Tell a story, not the product features

I see this happening very often with teams which are solution/product-centric. During the pitch, I often encountered teams that spent most of their time describing their solution and product features rather than how the solution solves a particular problem.

Take a pitch for the Grab app, for example. You can do it two ways during a hypothetical pitch:

1. Problem centric: “The Grab app helps users save time hailing a ride and ensures that they reach their location in time. This is in contrast to waiting by the roadside to hail a taxi without any certainty, or spending a long time queuing at the taxi stand.”

2.Product centric: “The Grab app lets you input your current location and your intended location and then contacts the nearest available vehicle to come to you. You can keep track of the car using the phone’s GPS. When it arrives, you get on!”

These two pitchers have almost the same number of words (45 vs 41), but one pitch is more meaningful. Teams often fall prey to the shininess of their product. Don’t let that team be yours.

But wait a minute. Does it mean that there’s no point in creating a product? Yes and no.

Sometimes, if the judging rubric does not involve a completely functioning prototype, it may be better to consider a high-fidelity mockup that shows the judges what you’re solving, rather than what you’re telling.

Also Read: Go-Jek launches a new hackathon to solve everyday problems in the lives of Indonesians

This evens the ground for non-technical teams. I have seen high-fidelity mockups beating fully functioning websites, by the sheer power of telling a good story and explaining how their solution tackles the problem.

5. Do your homework

During the pitching session, as a judge, I often ask teams whether they’ve seen any solutions out there doing what they proposed, i.e. competitors, and how and why their solution is better.

If they didn’t do their homework, they’d stammer a no. Good teams often do extensive research on the problem and can compare themselves to existing solutions.

It’s also prudent to anticipate questions from judges and prepare additional slides to answer those questions.

Show judges that you know your shit.

6. Practice, practice, practice

As a judge, it is very easy to tell whether a team is prepared or otherwise. Even when they’re tired, you can see the gleam in their eyes and confidence.

Pitching can be daunting since you’re essentially compressing 36-54 hours of work into a 5-minute pitch. Despite that, most of the time, I see teams practising their pitch on the last day, sometimes only a few hours before their pitching session.

Doing last-minute pitch preparation is a bad idea for a few reasons. Firstly, the chances are that you’re exhausted from working on your solution for the past 36+ hours. This means that it’ll be much harder to organise your thoughts in this tired state of mind.

Secondly, when you organise your pitch, you’ll start discovering holes in your idea which may not have been apparent at first. If you’re lucky, you can fix those holes.

If you’re not, these holes surface during the pitch and Q&A. If you don’t fix those holes, it will result in a subpar pitch which doesn’t do anyone in the team and the idea any justice.

Lastly, it’s very easy to develop nerves if you don’t practise enough. This is even truer if there’s no reliable pitcher in the team. Avoid pitching as a team and designate a single person to pitch; the time you spend moving from one person to another should be spent on presenting instead.

The solution to this?

Start early. Your pitch should be developed alongside your hackathon solution, the moment your team agrees on what to solve. This can (and should) happen on Day 1.

Also Read: Smart floating dome, zombie detector emerge winners at Sci-Fi Hardware Hackathon 2016

It’s never too early to start designing your pitch deck. This way, you’re continuously iterating your pitch as the idea is developed into a product. Another plus side is that the pitcher (usually the business person) is hustling along with the developer, which spurs greater team harmony and dynamics.

Good luck, and don’t fu-, mess it up

That’s all folks; this is my take on how participants can experience the spirit of a hackathon.

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