Source: Design Rush

Mar.20.2023, Singapore ------ Small business data analytics significantly drives growth and expansion. As a small-scale business owner, you know that every task completed, goal hit, and step taken is made toward scaling your business. 

You know how your work, objectives and digital marketing strategies are all impactful on your bottom line. There is information about the traffic driven to your website or online stores, the number of unique one-time buyers and returning purchasers, and your sales trends, among others. However, you may not be precisely aware of the most important revenue-generating factors that you should focus on more. 

Small business data analytics steps in then. While data can be readily available when you have the right tools, they can be overwhelming. 

Gather up and read through this guide we have put together. Let us discuss the best approaches to small business data analytics, how you can greatly benefit from big data for small business, and the foremost solutions to data analytics for small businesses. 
​The full article can be found here: ​https://www.designrush.com/agency/digital-marketing/trends/small-business-data-analytics

Best Practices for Data Analytics for Small Businesses 
​
Small business data analytics can monitor vital information that can help improve your sales performance, increase your bottom line, and bring in greater revenues. Here are the best approaches so you can get the most out of big data for small business. 
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1. Pay Closer Attention to Trends Trends in big data for small business are quantifiable information. They accumulate over time and explain patterns in the long-term. When you follow these trends and spot the patterns they create, you can better predict and foresee where your business is going in the future. 
With this practicable knowledge in hand, you can take actions to support and sustain the favorable trends, and enhance them. On the other hand, you can put a stop or come up with a resolution to overturn the negative, detrimental patterns. 
Use the timeframe that works best based on your business model and strategies. You can monitor trends to identify patterns on a daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis. Set up your tool for small business data analytics then wait for patterns to form. That is when you put them side-by-side with each other and compare. 
Focus on these top trends and patterns in your big data for small business: 

• Source of traffic: This report shows you the overview of where your audience and prospective clients come from before reaching your landing page. Segregate the direct source, i.e., website visits by audiences who directly key in your URL, from the organic source, i.e., website visits redirected from looking up your website on a search engine. 
• Keywords use and SEO: This tells you which of your contents are ranking well and which need improvement. It also gives you a better idea of what contents to generate in the future. 

2. Look and Monitor beyond Web Traffic 
Apart from web traffic in general, it is most advisable that you also look into the following:  

• Amount of time visitors stay on your website: Take note of the time period when people hang out on your site, browse through it, and interact. If your report exhibits a high bounce rate, then it may be an indicator of the need for a design revamp or creation of better, more engaging contents. 
• The number of visitors that actually buy: Track and examine your conversion rate. It says so much about the effectiveness of your messaging and your offering’s standard of quality. 

Based on the results of your demographic data analysis for small business, you can then modify your future plans for marketing and products to sell. You can launch more efficient promotions, change your advertising tactics, and hence, improve on your conversion rate. 

3. Keep an Eye on How Much You Spend on Customer Acquisition 
The customer lifetime value (CLTV) allows for you to calculate your potential net profits attributed to how many client groups you currently cater to. Through this particular area of your small business data analytics report, you can invest more in acquiring and retaining the customer base that: 

• Generates the most revenues 
• Is most fitting and rewarding for your brand 
• With whom your products or services resonate the most 

​4. Track Content Engagement Based on Accurate Data 
They say that content is king and could not be any truer for businesses operating in the digital space. As a business owner, your goal is to capture your prospective audience’s attention, keep them drawn and attracted, and ultimately convince them to place orders. 
Content engagement and effectiveness come down to the quality, relevance, and relatability of the messages you put out there. Here are the metrics to watch out for when you perform data analytics for small businesses: 

• Signups: Give your website visitors the option to sign up for your email newsletters. Briefly explain to them what is in it for them when they subscribe to your updates. 
• Click-through rates (CTR): So, you have a long list of subscribers. Now, what you should do is analyze how many of them take the time to open your mail and act on your CTAs. Consequently, the higher your CTR is, the greater the chances for conversion, and ultimately, the better for your business. 
• Social sharing: While the more obvious identifier of successful engagement is the number of reactions, likes, and comments, the number of social shares is just as important. The more reposts your contents get, the farther your audience reach gets. Also, it suggests that your contents are worth the while to be read and spread through social sharing.

Source: Wunderman Thompson, Deisgn Rush

Mar.09.2023, Shanghai ------ Wunderman Thompson, a leading creative, consultant and technology, has won multiple rewareds with it's communication work for Children's book "The Birds And The Bees". The rewards include the Best Print Designs by Design Rush, Print & Publishing by 2022 Spikes Asia and The Green Pencil by 2022 One Show. The book garnered 17 million earned media impressions, and now has 915k readers and counting.

The Birds and The Bees is now available in multiple languages, as well as two audiobooks - one voiced by Game of Thrones star and UNDP Ambassador Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and the second by Melanie Zanetti from the International Emmy-Winning kids’ show Bluey.

Today’s children will be more affected by climate change than any other generation. In fact, a recent UNICEF report revealed that every child around the world is at risk from at least one climate change event today, including heatwaves, floods, cyclones, disease, drought, and air pollution. What’s most concerning is that approximately one billion children are at an ‘extremely high risk’ of the impacts of the climate crisis, experiencing three or four of these impacts simultaneously.

About the ideal, this version of ‘The Birds & The Bees’ isn’t a story about how life is made, but how life on Earth can be saved.

This children's book was created to help kids have 'the talk' with their parents about what greenhouse gases are doing to our planet, and show them how one conversation can lead to a brighter future for the birds, the bees, and every single one of us. Importantly, it reminds kids that they have the power to protect the planet by talking with the adults in their lives who care about their future.
​

Read full story here: 
https://www.wundermanthompson.com/work/the-birds-and-the-bees

Source: Design Rush

A consistent branding produces 23% more revenue on a yearly basis, surprisingly? Despite the obvious advantages of the above fact, only one-fourth of businesses have formal branding guidelines such as a brand book (also known as brand style guide) that they enforce consistently. 
Having and enforcing a brand book’s guidelines is helps businesses achieve the consistency necessary for brand awareness, recognition and, ultimately, loyalty. 
​
Read more to find out:

Benefits of creating a brand style guide
A step-by-step guide to building your style guide
5 brand book examples by tech, retail and beauty giants

Full article: ​https://www.designrush.com/agency/branding/trends/brand-book

​What Is A Brand Book Or A Style Guide?A brand book, or a brand style guide, is a document that sets specific guidelines for perpetuating brand identity in all external and internal communications.
They most commonly focus on 

• The use of logo
• The use of color
• Image and photo manipulation
• Tone of voice

The Key Elements Of A Brand BookTypically, these type of books contain three main sections:

• About
• Visual guidelines
• Communication guidelines

1. About
In this section, you need to specify your mission, values and target audience. 
Defining this right from the get-go gives context to the content that follows and adds logic to everything you or your partners plan to do using the brand style guide.

2. Visual Guide
linesIn this section, you should list the following design:

• Logo: Its placement, variations for different platforms and channels, colors, size and proportions
• Colors: Primary and secondary colors as well its monochrome version
• Fonts: Corporate typography that are used in headlines and bodies of text in official documents
• Photography: Its style and guidelines used for consistent presentation
• Brandmark: Where to use it
• Other: Patterns, textures, graphics, icons

3. Communication Guidelines
​This section of the brand style guide defines the following:
Language: the official language or languages in which a brand communicates with its audience
Style: formatting, technical and non-technical messaging
Tone of voice: professional, logical, emotional, humorous etc.
Social media presence: posting types, posting times, different social media styles
Emails: structure, signature and tone
Readability and grammar: types of sentences and its lengths, capitalization, numbers, abbreviations, acronyms, proofreading with Grammarly or any other similar tools.

How To Create A Brand Style GuideBusinesses can create brand books only when they define their unique character and vision.
To do this, define the four components of your business:

• Vision and core values
• Brand mission
• Brand persona
• Target audience

Brand’s vision and core values 
Guide the brand and all business decisions. They point the company towards its long-term objectives such as gaining brand awareness, trust and customers’ loyalty.

Answering the following questions can help determine your vision and values:

• How big do you want your company to get?
• Do you plan to branch out with products and services not currently offered?
• What kind of legacy do you want your business to leave behind?

Brand mission 
Must be devoid of any vague concepts and establish itself on the grounds of the following questions:

• What is your company’s purpose and its reason for being?
• What is the difference it is trying to make?

Once you answer these, your business will be able to differentiate itself from the competition, inspire greater consumer engagement and hire the talent that fits the company’s vision. 
Both your mission and vision should be in the opening lines of the brand style guide, so as to underline the reasons why it is important for everyone to be on the same page with the following style rules. 

Brand persona 
Or personality, is vital for getting the right tone of voice for messaging across all channels.
Consistent messaging that stems from a well-defined persona makes it easier for customers to connect and identify with your brand.
Brand can be thought about as a person with a list of traits you want it to have. Once you identify the collection of traits to incorporate into a persona, they can become a guide for the company’s messaging. 

Target audience 
One of the most important things to define - and to do that, you need to ask yourself:

• What type of people do you want to use your products?
• Which people would you like to visit your site and subscribe to your newsletters?
• What are your audience’s needs, wants and values - and how do you factor into them?

Knowing your market segment narrows down your audience’s focus and allows you to tailor your message to very specific demographics.

​What To Include In Brand Book’s Style Guidelines?

1. Logo
A brand style guide should define how to ensure that a distinct logo stays optimized and consistent in different media environments.
It should detail all the variations and versions of your logo and how it will look in these different platforms, what its placement, sizes and white space will be.


2. Colors
It’s standard practice to pick four or fewer main hues as your primary color palette.
This type of book should define when and how to use each color: 
Which one is used for the text and which for the design elements? 
Which color is for the logo, and which is for the background to make it “pop”? 
Sometimes, these books also define the specific brand color names, color hexadecimal, RGB and CMYK values or a Pantone name and number, secondary and alternate colors. 


3. Typography
Similarly, there should be a defined font style for both print and digital applications. 
In your book, typography should cover how and when to use certain fonts, which typefaces are acceptable, as well as guidelines for additional styling, size, and use of color.
As pointed out by Mayven, most brands use one or two primary typefaces, a complementary typeface, and substitute typefaces.


4. Voice And Messaging
Your tone of voice needs to be consistent across all communication channels - email, social media, press releases, blog posts, ads, etc.
Your brand’s voice should be aligned with its persona, mission, vision, values and target audience.
You can start by identifying words you like and don't like to be associated with. 
Then, decide what type of language fits your persona and your target audience. 
Go back to your list of adjectives describing your brand personality to come up with language that is on-brand.


5. Images
Apart from indicating whether you'll be using photos, illustrations and other types of graphics (as well as when and how you'll be using them), your brand book should also detail how to edit images, which colors to place them with, and any other design elements related to image use.
Collect inspiration from successful brands, particularly those that have similar brand messaging as yours. 
You can also create a mood board with images that convey the feelings you want people to get when they interact with your brand.


6. Dos And Don’t
Brand style guides that also include the things that marketers, designers, partners and advertisers shouldn’t do - along with the things they should - are double helpful.

Having “Do” and “Don’t” columns with specific items under each helps drive home the point and importance of adhering to branding requirements.


7. Other Specifics
Don’t be afraid to be very specific about anything that you feel is necessary to be explained. The more details you have in your brand book, the better.

It could be helpful for everyone to include specific scenarios, case studies, visual aids and examples of use for different logos, imagery, tone of voice and colors.
If you want to have a different font used across different communication channels, demonstrate this in very specific examples of typeface for body copy, headlines and titles on all of these channels. This leaves no room for interpretations and uncertainties.

Source: American Express

​Financial risk management is an ongoing concern whether you're running a startup or a mature business. Mitigating financial risk, however, is not just about managing cash flow and preparing for rainy days. Your financial-risk mitigation strategy needs to account for all areas of your business, from human resources to operations.

One common mistake that many businesses make is not treating their financial risk management as a continuous activity. While the annual budgeting process or an insurance expiration date are natural times for reviewing your risk mitigation strategy, it's a good idea to tie periodic risk evaluations to other business activities.

The five financial-risk mitigation strategies that have worked for three successful entrepreneurs:

1. Evaluate business operations for efficiency.
Dorian Lam, a former management consultant, is now executive vice president at title insurance company Cornerstone Land Abstract in New York City. As one of the business partners, at least once a year he assesses the production workflow to understand where the costs are, especially in outsourced areas. Since the company's revenue is cyclical and depends on the real estate market—which means forces outside of his and his partners' control—he says it's important to hedge those risks that they can control.

“I deconstruct production, or the method in which the product is created, looking at parts individually and the sum of the parts to see if it's all happening in the most efficient manner," he says.

During his last assessment last year, Lam discovered that Cornerstone Land Abstract could save about 50 percent of costs by purchasing its research data and hiring someone to synthesize it in-house, rather than outsourcing the entire process. In addition to cost-savings, the discovery led to a new revenue idea.

2. Nurture your talent—and outsource where it makes sense.

In a customer-facing business, employee turnover can directly impact the bottom line. Gabriel Shaoolian, who grew his digital-media agency Blue Fountain Media from zero to 250 employees before selling it, said losing employees was his biggest risk.

“When you have someone managing an account, when they leave, the client confidence gets shaken and you can lose that client," says Shaoolian, who founded a new startup in 2018 called DesignRush, a marketplace for companies to hire agencies (vs. individual freelancers).

With his previous agency located in New York City, he says it was especially challenging to compete with other technology companies.

“If you have good employees, they're constantly being approached," he says.

With DesignRush, Shaoolian took a completely different tactic. Instead of opening a physical location and hiring employees, the company is entirely virtual and operates with consultants and vendors.

“One way to reduce risk is to not hire people full time if you don't need to, lowering overhead," he says.

Nurturing employees is another way to mitigate the turnover risk, Lam says. The talent pool for people trained in land title insurance is limited, so his company is especially focused on knowing the employees' concerns and providing growth opportunities. For example, employees can take an hour every week to research something they're interested in learning.

“It's our responsibility as partners to make our employees feel safe, give them something to be passionate about and allow them an environment where they can continuously learn," he says.

3. Create a strong foundation for your HR practices.

An often-overlooked risk-management area includes employment practices, says Frank Costa, a certified risk manager and certified insurance counselor with 30 years of experience in the industry. Costa, who is the chief operating officer for World Insurance Associates, LLC, in Tinton Falls, New Jersey, had previously owned an independent insurance agency. He says the company's relationships with its employees create financial risks such as litigation for wrongful termination, harassment and discrimination.

“Everyone wants to believe their company is like a nice little family, but there's potential financial risk that can be a significant drain on resources, create high legal expenses and have an impact on corporate culture and productivity," he says.

To manage that financial risk, Costa says it's important to have a strong foundation that includes a multitude of best practices.

“You need to have strong human resources practices and procedures, including an employee handbook, harassment training and education; and company leaders must be present in terms of relationships with employees and be sensitive to their needs," he says.

4. Use metrics for every decision.

It's not enough to use metrics to measure business performance. Shaoolian says every decision needs to be measured ahead of time.

“I learned quickly not to make a move unless I can measure it," he says. “You don't throw a client event unless you know exactly what you want to get out of it. You don't hire someone if you don't know exactly what you expect them to produce. If you can't measure a decision, you shouldn't move on it."

Sometimes the metrics are qualitative rather than quantitative. For example, when Shaoolian looked at cutting expenses, he would not lay off employees to save money.

“I was always careful about cutting people—when you cut someone because you're having financial difficulties, that lowers the morale of the team and they fear job insecurity," he says.

5. Be prepared to cover a loss.

When the unexpected happens, whether it's a supplier factory shutdown, a cybersecurity incident or an employee liability claim, you need to know how you'll pay for a major loss.

“If you have a strong risk-management plan and have identified your risks and ways to control them, part of the plan is how you'll finance the risk. You need to decide if you're going to finance it through your savings and retained earnings, or if you want to finance it through an insurance policy," Costa says.

Besides the foundational insurance coverage that is mandatory or required by client contracts, decide what optional insurance makes sense based on your industry and business characteristics. For example, Costa says, an employment practice liability policy would not be a high priority for a small business with three employees, while a restaurant with 300 employees, high turnover and constant public interaction may want to strongly consider it.

He cautions that insurance is not a risk-transfer mechanism.

“The company is still at risk. The difference is, if there's a loss, who pays for it," he says.

Insurance is only one piece of financial risk management, and you still need to have all the best practices and procedures in place to mitigate the risks.

“Insurance is not the answer to everything," Costa says. “It's an important tool and a part of your overall strategy, but not a silver bullet.

Source: Birdeye

Feb.05.2023, Brisban ------ Birdeye, the leading all-in-one digital customer experience platform, announced the acquisition of Cube Online (Cube), Australia’s leading customer experience platform.
In Asia-Pacific and Europe, more than 3,000 businesses trust Cube, it helps businesses connect with consumers through its digital customer experience platform, enabling local brands and businesses to go digital to be found online, generate reviews, monitor and post on social media, and holistically view all customer touchpoints. Now, with the acquisition of Cube, Birdeye has more than 100,000 businesses and nearly 1,000 employees worldwide.

​“We are thrilled to welcome Cube to the Birdeye family,” said Naveen Gupta, Co-founder and CEO of Birdeye. “In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, 65% of all customer interactions are digital, and local brands and businesses have been forced to adapt to this new reality. As more and more consumers expect the convenience of digital interactions, it’s becoming clear that going digital is now a necessity for every business. Cube’s all-in-one digital customer experience platform mirrors Birdeye’s, and combining our two companies is a win for all customers, especially businesses with a global presence.”

While many other software companies are downsizing investments in innovation and people, Birdeye has been on a tear recently announcing brand new products like Social, Appointments as well as hiring top talent. Birdeye has been the highest-rated reputation and customer experience platform in the last five years, and recently got the rare distinction of rating #1 in sixty-four different categories on G2.

The acquisition of Cube expands Birdeye’s international presence into Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. By combining the two businesses, Cube customers worldwide can utilize best-in-class software that manages all aspects of their digital customer experience, and thousands of Cube customers have already migrated to the Birdeye platform. Terms of the deal are not being disclosed.

“Birdeye’s product innovation, customer obsession, and company culture make this a natural fit,” said Tony Van-Eyk, Co-Founder and CEO of Cube Online. “This is a great outcome for Cube customers as they will access the best technology in the world and massively enhanced support infrastructure. We couldn’t be more excited to join the Birdeye family, and we look forward to the work ahead.”

About Birdeye

Birdeye is the leading all-in-one digital customer experience platform trusted by over 100,000 local brands and businesses. Founded in 2012 by Naveen and Neeraj Gupta, Birdeye is based in Palo Alto, CA, and backed by Accel-KKR, Trinity Ventures, World Innovation Lab, and Silicon Valley investors Marc Benioff and Jerry Yang.

Learn more at birdeye.com