Mediaboss Marketing

New training and tools for digital commerce will give small businesses, especially in the tourism sector, the support they need to adapt and innovate in a COVID world.

Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis and Small Business Minister Stuart Nash have announced details of how $20 million digital capability funding set aside earlier this year will be allocated.

The $20 million package includes:

$10 million specifically for SMEs, announced in Budget 2020.$10 million announced in August as part of the Tourism Recovery Package: $5 million to boost digital capability in the tourism sector through existing digital enablement programmes, and $5 million for Qualmark to help operators develop strategies and skills.

"Recent Qualmark analysis of 700 tourism businesses found more than half needed support with digital capability. This investment in digital tools and training will help tourism businesses develop digital strategies, increase their visibility and appeal, and tap into new markets," Kelvin Davis said.

"In the past, many smaller tourism businesses haven't had to invest in strong digital marketing to find customers, because of the volume of international visitors and the role of travel agents and tour operators to bring people to their door.

"Tourism businesses are now pivoting towards the intrepid domestic traveller who likes to shop around online and book their own holiday, so operators now find their websites, booking systems and social media platforms need to be redeveloped or outsourced to a specialist provider as they feel they lack the capability and resources to take on the job themselves.

"This funding will make a real difference and builds on the support we're delivering through the Tourism Transitions Programme, which has already provided business support and advice to over 1,500 tourism businesses impacted by COVID-19," Kelvin Davis said.

Stuart Nash said the tourism sector is not alone in finding its activity is held back by limited awareness or use of digital tools and processes.

"Recent research by McKinsey suggested that over the course of eight weeks, COVID had caused the equivalent of five years' worth of advances in digital transformation for both customers and businesses," Stuart Nash said.

"Big businesses like supermarkets, banks, professional and corporate service providers and manufacturers have made the transformation, but small and medium enterprises are at risk of lagging behind. The wider use of digital commerce by SMEs will help them adapt and innovate in order to thrive in the COVID economy.

"The package will help small businesses and tourism operators transition in the COVID-19 world by lifting digital capability.

"The private sector has great leadership and vision in this space, and the Government will support this with initiatives to take New Zealand small businesses forward on their digital journey."

"This package will help deliver on our vision of New Zealand's small businesses being the most digitally engaged in the world," Stuart Nash said.

Key initiatives within the package include:

A 'Spotlight Series' where small business owners, including tourism businesses, who have transformed their business by becoming digital can share their experiences.

Digital skills training and support focused on enabling SMEs, including tourism SMEs, to benefit from digitising their business.

Working with the private sector to put together the most relevant digital tools, technologies, products and services to support small businesses with becoming digital, including offerings tailored for the tourism sector.

Industry specialists appointed by Qualmark to provide a series of workshops and one-on-one advice. Key areas are strategic digital marketing, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), organic growth, website performance and online booking system audits, online advertising and paid media, social media content and creation, conversion optimisation, lead generation and measuring success.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is working with the Ministers' Small Business Advisors and Digital Industry Leaders to ensure the design of these initiatives is driven by business, and are useful, accessible and build digital confidence for small businesses.

Tourism operators can find out more about Qualmark support by visiting the Qualmark website.

(With Inputs from New Zealand Government Press Release)

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New digital training and tools to give small businesses support in COVID world - Devdiscourse

Once trained, Hitchhikers whether they are developers, digital marketers, SEO specialists, IT professionals, or another profession become official Yext administrators and have the skills to build custom search solutions that meet their brand's unique needs. As part of this launch, Yext is also offering its revolutionary site search product, Yext Answers, in a new self-serve format to allow for more autonomous and faster learning, development, and deployment.

The program is inspired by Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy specifically, "The Ultimate Question of Life" that is discussed in the iconic novel. Yext's mission is to put more truth online by enabling businesses around the world to directly answer their customer's "ultimate" questions about them with official answers.

"The trifecta of Yext's Knowledge Graph, Answers, and Pages products allowed Yext to become a full-fledged technology platform, opening the door to a limitless number of solutions that brands can build on top of it," said Marc Ferrentino, Chief Strategy Officer at Yext. "We're thrilled to launch Hitchhikers another major milestone in Yext's history because it marks the first time that anyone in the world can specialize in implementing tailored solutions with our platform, no matter what their role inside the company might be."

Hitchhikers will be able to guide themselves through detailed, interactive modules and participate in hands-on challenges related to the full suite of Yext products. Whether a healthcare organization needs to make doctors easier to find on its website, a CPG company needs to accelerate its hiring, or a bank needs its branch locations and hours of operations to be correct across the Internet, Hitchhikers within those organizations will learn the specific skills to solve for their company's unique priorities and business objectives.

The self-serve version of Answers connected to the program allows Hitchhikers to immediately start adding their brand's information to a brain-like database of millions of facts called the Yext Knowledge Graph, and is available as a 90-day free trial at yext.com/free-trial. Users can upgrade to a paid account with no additional setup or integration needed for the Answers experience they build.

In addition, Hitchhikers will get access to special content, community forums, and virtual events to help them as they embark on developing solutions for their respective businesses.

"One of the most important aspects of this program is the community," said Liz Frailey, Vice President of Developer and Admin Experience at Yext. "We envision Hitchhikers becoming the epicenter for innovation, and we're thrilled to see what our clients and partners start building."

Visit the Hitchhikers website to learn more.

About YextThe ultimate source for official answers about a business online should be the business itself. However, when consumers ask questions on company websites, too often they are left in the dark with wrong answers. Yext (NYSE: YEXT), the Search Experience Cloud, solves this problem by organizing a business's facts so it can provide official answers to consumer questions wherever people search. Starting with the company website, then extending across search engines and voice assistants, businesses around the world, like T-Mobile, Jaguar Land Rover, BBVA USA, and Kiehl's as well as organizations like the U.S. State Department and World Health Organization trust Yext to radically improve the search experience on their websites and across the entire search ecosystem.

Yext's mission is to help businesses and organizations around the world deliver official answers everywhere people search. Yext has been named a Best Place to Work by Fortune and Great Place to Work, as well as a Best Workplace for Women. Yext is headquartered in New York City with offices in Amsterdam, Berlin, Chicago, Dallas, Geneva, London, Miami, Milan, Paris, San Francisco, Shanghai, Tokyo, and the Washington, D.C. area and work-from-home offices all around the world.

CONTACT: Amanda Kontor, [emailprotected]

SOURCE Yext, Inc.

http://www.yext.com

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Yext Launches "Hitchhikers" Program to Spur The Next Generation of Platform Builders - PRNewswire

Dublin, Sept. 22, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "AR/VR based Healthcare Digital Marketing Service Providers Market, 2020-2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The AR/VR based Healthcare Digital Marketing Service Providers, 2020-2030' report features an extensive study of the current market landscape and future opportunities associated with the AR/VR based digital marketing industry in the healthcare domain.

The advent of smartphones coupled with the easy accessibility of information on the internet has rendered it crucial for companies to establish a digital presence. As opposed to traditional strategies, digital marketing is not only cost-effective but offers several ancillary benefits, such as targeted outreach and data-driven output.

In fact, a recent study stated that digital advertising is expected to account for around 50% of the overall global advertisement spend by 2021. However, the adoption of digital marketing solutions in the pharmaceutical industry has been stymied owing to various regulatory restrictions; presently, the healthcare industry accounts for only 2% of the US digital ad spend.

Despite this, it is encouraging to note that over 85% of the patients in the US have access to digital and online resources to assist them in making informed healthcare decisions. Further, most of the individuals claim to use healthcare apps to track their diagnosed condition; therefore, a large amount of data is available for studying the trends associated with a particular indication.

In addition, a recent study concluded that physicians are actively using different digital and social media platforms in order to make healthcare-related decisions, such as prescription of a particular drug. The aforementioned factors indicate that there is a growing need for pharma companies to increase their digital presence, through activity on social media and participation in online forums, in order to widen their reach to target the relevant customer segments.

Amongst other elements, the report features:

One of the key objectives of the report was to understand the primary growth drivers and estimate the future opportunity within the market. Based on several parameters, such as digital marketing spend within the pharma industry, the extent of adoption of AR/VR technologies and expected annual growth rate, we have provided an informed estimate of the likely evolution of the market, in the mid to long term, for the period 2020-2030.

Key Topics Covered:

1. PREFACE1.1. Scope of the Report1.2. Research Methodology1.3. Chapter Outlines

2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

3. INTRODUCTION3.1. Chapter Overview3.2. Key Challenges in Pharmaceutical Marketing3.2.1. Need for Product Differentiation3.2.2. Growing Demand for Patient Centric Healthcare3.2.3. Lack of Standard Performance Metrics3.2.4. Need for Scientific Communication3.3. Importance of Digital Marketing3.4. Popular Digital Marketing Strategies3.4.1. Social Media Marketing3.4.2. Content Marketing Strategy3.4.3. Marketing Automation3.4.4. Search Engine Optimization and Marketing3.4.5. Artificial Intelligence based Marketing3.5. Use of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) in Pharmaceutical Digital Marketing3.6. Growth Constraints in AR/VR Industry3.7. Future Perspectives

4. AR/VR BASED HEALTHCARE DIGITAL MARKETING COMPANIES: CURRENT MARKET LANDSCAPE4.1. Chapter Overview4.2. Digital Marketing in Pharmaceutical Industry: Overall Market4.2.1. Analysis by Type of Technology4.2.2. Analysis by AR/VR based Services Offered4.2.3. Analysis by Type of Digital Marketing Services Offered4.2.4. Analysis by Secondary Marketing Services Offered4.2.5. Analysis by Year of Establishment4.2.6. Analysis by Company Size4.2.7. Analysis by Geographical Location

5. COMPANY COMPETITIVENESS ANALYSIS5.1. Chapter Overview5.2. Methodology and Key Parameters5.2.1. Competitiveness Analysis: AR/VR based Digital Marketing Service Providers based in North America5.2.2. Competitiveness Analysis: AR/VR based Digital Marketing Service Providers based in Europe5.2.3. Competitiveness Analysis: AR/VR based Digital Marketing Service Providers based in Asia-Pacific

6. COMPANY PROFILES6.1. Chapter Overview6.2. ARworks6.2.1. Company Overview6.2.2. Recent Developments and Future Outlook6.3. CG Life6.4. CubeZoo6. 5. Impact XM6.6. INVIVO Communications6.7. Mindgrub6.8. Mirum6.9. PIXACORE6.10. Quast Media6.11. Random426.12. Tipping Point Media6.13. vStream

7. POTENTIAL STRATEGIC PARTNERS7.1. Chapter Overview7.2. Scope and Methodology7.3. Potential Strategic Partners for Digital Marketing Companies7.3.1. Most Likely Partners7.3.2. Likely Partners7.3.3. Less Likely Partners7.3.4. Least Likely Partners

8. DIGITAL MARKETING RELATED INITIATIVES OF BIG PHARMA PLAYERS8.1. Chapter Overview8.1.1. Analysis by Year8.1.2. Analysis by Type of Initiative8.1.3. Analysis by Type of Application Area8.1.4. Analysis by Type of Solution8.1.5. Leading Players: Analysis by Number of Initiatives8.1.6. Leading Partners: Analysis by Number of Initiatives

9. CASE STUDY9.1. Chapter Overview9.2. Narola Infotech for Zocular9.2.1. Narola Infotech9.2.2. Zocular9.2.3. Business Needs9.2.4. Objectives Achieved and Solutions Provided9.3. Viscira for Actelion9.4. SoftCover VR for LifeLabs9.5. Virtual Reality Ireland for MISA9.6. ViitorCloud for vCura9.7. Kwebmaker for Lilavati Hospital9.8. Intermind for My Health Meter9.9. VR Vision for Providence Healthcare9.10. CitrusBits for Zoetis

10. MARKET FORECAST10.1. Chapter Overview10.2. Forecast Methodology and Key Assumptions10.3. Overall AR/VR based Digital Marketing Opportunity in Healthcare Industry, 2020-203010.4. AR/VR based Digital Marketing Opportunity in Healthcare Industry: Distribution by Type of Technology, 2020 and 203010.5. AR/VR based Digital Marketing Opportunity in Healthcare Industry: Distribution by Product, 2020 and 203010.6. AR/VR based Digital Marketing Opportunity in Healthcare Industry: Distribution by End-User, 2020 and 203010.7. AR/VR based Digital Marketing Opportunity in Healthcare Industry: Distribution by Key Geographical Regions, 2020 and 2030

11. EXECUTIVE INSIGHTS11.1. Chapter Overview11.2. Unanimity Information & Technology11.2.1. Interview Transcript: Pritam Sahu, Director, Unanimity Information & Technology11.3. Kwebmaker11.3.1. Interview Transcript: Dhananjay Arora, Founder, and CEO, Kwebmaker

12. CONCLUSION

13. APPENDIX 1: TABULATED DATA

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/4pibz8

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

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Global AR/VR based Healthcare Digital Marketing Service Providers Market, 2020-2030: Understand the Primary Growth Drivers and Estimate the Future...

By Laura Harker, writer and editor based in Gateshead, UK, working closely with Latana.

Public relations (PR) is often held up as the golden ticket for maintaining the reputation of a company. Just place some interviews and news pieces in newspapers and online publications, and thats all there is to PR, right?

Well, not quite. PR is actually a lot more multi-faceted and isnt just there to protect the public opinion of a brand. In fact, when used well, PR can really go the distance in helping branding strategy too, especially when it comes to improving reach.

Do you think your PR could be doing more for your brand overall? If the answer is a resounding yes, then its time to add it to your branding strategy. By following these next few steps, youll find that a PR-based blueprint for your brand can help spread your reach super efficiently.

Using PR as a Branding Strategy to Improve Your Reach

Every brand needs to tell its story. Customers love a good story[1]55% are more likely to buy a product if they like the brand story behind it. Thats because it makes your brand look like more than just a business; it will come across as a lot more human and relatable.

Now youve just got to write a story and get it out there so everyone hears it. Theres no better way to do this than with a PR strategy.

Firstly, its important to create a story that is consistent throughout the brand. Whats the brands history? What values do you hold? Why are you doing what you do? Make sure you iron out all the details that you want to stick in your audiences mind as storytelling is [2]22-times more memorable than simply relaying facts.

A solid PR strategy can help get this brand story into all the right places. PR is, essentially, creative storytelling, so its a great tool to use here. From getting a well-placed piece in an industry publication showcasing a member of staff to collaborating with influencers who share your values, there are various ways PR can push your brand story into the mainstream.

PR is incredibly useful when you need to reach your target audience. Of course, youll probably have multiple audiences that you try to attract, as its most common for [3]brands to market to three audience segments.

Heres an example of how PR can help: If you sell hearing aids that are aimed at the elderly, it would be wrong to focus the brands story and PR outreach on millennials. That generation just wont have any interest in or need for the product. So, the PR team will build a strategy that places your product and overall brand story in front of the elderly; they wont waste time trying to win placements in millennial-driven publications and sites.

It pays to define the target audience before launching into a new PR strategy. Then its a win-win situation: knowing the audience will help build a strong strategy, while the PR side of things will ensure the right people are always exposed to your brand and its story.

PR should also be used to develop and improve your brands identity.

To start off with, think about what the key selling points of your brand are. Why should customers be interested in you if youre not aligning your brand with [4]proactive customer service? What are you offering them that other brands dont? Use answers to these kinds of questions to shape the PR strategy.

To cement your brand identity, youll also have to choose the right kind of media in which to place your stories. These should be publications that will reach your target audience. Whether you choose to go for a story in a national broadsheet or a tabloid newspaper could really change the way consumers think of the brand. And dont forget to try to get as much earned media as possible[5]92% of consumers trust this over promotional content.

PR is the best opportunity to tell consumers about your brand; you can tell them everything you want them to know. Youll already be doing this with other branding efforts, [6]including content marketing, but youll find that your branding becomes a lot more effective and successful when combined with PR. This is especially the case when youre trying to bring new products onto the market or going through a brand redesign.

For a good example of how to do a brand extension well, take a look at [7]Dunkin Donuts. Originally, the brand started out selling simple pastries and mediocre coffee. Eventually, they wanted to take on the big-name coffee chains, so they started adding more breakfast items to their menu and greatly improved their coffee.

Just making these changes wouldnt have been enough; they needed to get the word out there so that consumers knew they were moving over into the specialty coffee market. Thanks to PR and branding working together to shift the publics perception of the brand, the extension was a huge success. So much so, that the brand has announced they are dropping Donuts from their name.

Weve already hinted at PR being able to boost consumer trust. After all, if that 92% of consumers who do trust earned media more see your media placements in respectable publications, then they are much more likely to view your brand as trustworthy.

Personal PR can also really help to build trust as well. Every day, [8]we produce as much data as was generated in all of human existence leading up to 2003. Thats a whole lot of data and info to get distracted by, and when the average human [9]attention span is only 8 seconds, you need to make sure that whatever your brand says is cutting through all the noise to grab people. Personal PR does just that. Youll be reaching out to and addressing customers directly, so they cant help but listen.

PR can also help a brand get more referrals, something that is super important for B2B companies; [10]82% of B2B buyers start the process with a referral. Good PR can get plenty of people talking about a brand. When someone likes a particular product or company, theyre going to be a lot more likely to tell their friends and family about it. If a customer knows that someone close to them trusts a brand, it then provides the foundations for them to build their own trust in it too.

Every startup could use a good serving of PR in the very early stages. Doing so can help to attract investors and customers. As 70% of startups fail to get any funding during the early months, adding some good PR alongside marketing and SEO could help the startup get over the initial hurdles that most new businesses face.

Just think: if you get your startup brand a mention in a national newspaper or on a popular blog, then it could open you up to hundreds of thousands of consumers. With the backing of such a reliable publication behind you, your validation will start to grow. Thats especially the case when you think that [11]80% of business decision-makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles versus an advertisement.

Of course, you need to think carefully when choosing the PR placement used to try to get this validation. Choosing the wrong one could alienate your target audience. For instance, 247% of millennials are more likely to be influenced by blogs or social media sites, so getting media placement in a national newspaper wouldnt do much good when trying to reach them. Back up your strategy by really understanding where your target audience actually spends most of their time and use [12]marketing tools to better communicate with your team and identify channels that work best for your brand.

PR is such a multi-faceted tool, and using it to improve your reach through a [13]branding strategy is just one way it can be put to use. As youve seen in this article, you wont need to alter your use of it vastly in order to see a difference in reach.

Its all about making subtle changes, such as implementing a brand story and fine-tuning your target audience. This shouldnt be too difficult when you always keep PR in your mind while working on aspects of your brand strategy.

Once you enable a branding strategy that takes into account good PR practices, you certainly wont look back. When done well together, branding and PR are the dream team!

[1] https://www.marketsmiths.com/2017/roi-brand-story/

[2]https://www.forbes.com/sites/celinnedacosta/2019/01/31/3-reasons-why-brand-storytelling-is-the-future-of-marketing/#3d20006955ff

[3] https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics

[4] https://www.tidio.com/blog/proactive-customer-service/

[5] https://www.prdaily.com/infographic-statistics-to-drive-your-pr-campaigns/

[6] https://www.latana.com/post/content-marketing-brand-identity

[7] https://www.5wpr.com/new/branding/

[8] https://blog.hubspot.com/agency/5-must-know-stats-pr-pros

[9] https://blog.hubspot.com/agency/5-must-know-stats-pr-pros

[10] https://carabinercomms.com/pr-helps-build-trust/

[11] https://www.launchwaymedia.com/blog/2017/7/11/10-stats-that-prove-startups-and-small-businesses-need-pr

[12] https://biz30.timedoctor.com/marketing-consultant-tools/

[13] https://www.latana.com/post/brand-strategy-brand-tracking

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Sure-fire results with slick SEO - Global Banking And Finance Review

Virat Kohli during training for the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Image Credit: Twitter

Dubai: The Royal Challengers Bangalore unit is looking more intense and hungry than ever before after two weeks of practice sessions in Dubai, according to their captain and master batsman Virat Kohli.

The Challengers, who made three final appearances but are yet to break their duck in the Indian Premier League (IPL), arrived on September 21 and got down to business after the customary six-day quarantine - alternately at the ICC Academy, Sharjah Stadium and the Oval grounds of the Emirates Sevens.

We are more hungry, more balanced than ever before after two weeks of practice. I am very happy with the way the team is shaping up, Kohli said in a video on the RCB teams Twitter handle.

When we started throwing in practice, a few shoulders were sore because the guys did not do it for five months. We had been away from the game for a while, hence we didnt want to push anybody and get some niggles. We didnt want to be like a maniac in our training like six sessions in six days. We have given ample free time to everyone and thats how we plan to continue for the next few days, said Kohli, who led the way in terms of intensity.

Its a question of everyone feeling good and reach that optimum level going into the tournament. Over the next few days, we will be batting at the main wicket - trying to look at the hitting angles, pace of the wicket etc, said the Indian captain. Kohli, incidentally, is the highest rungetter in the history of IPL with 5412 runs.

Meanwhile, former Pakistan pace ace Shoaib Akhtar praised Indias cricket system for developing Kohli to become one of the leading batsmen of the present generation.

Virat Kohli has reached a whole new level, but who is behind the Kohli brand? In 2010-2011, Kohli was nowhere to be seen. He was part of the circle; he was a brat like me. All of a sudden, the system supported him. The management went around him. He also realised that theres a lot of reputation at stake, Akhtar said on a YouTube show Cricket Baaz.

Its not his fault that hes playing in an era of easy cricket, or if Sachin [Tendulkar] played in a tougher era or Wasim [Akram], Waqar [Younis] and Inzamam [ul-Haq] have played a much more competitive brand of cricket. So, if hes scoring runs, what we can say about it? he wondered.

Akhtar said runs speak on behalf of Kohli, who has scored 7,240 runs in 86 Tests, 11,867 in 248 ODIs, and 2,794 in 82 T20 Internationals.

I criticise India as well. But if Virat Kohli has 12,000 runs, what else you can say. Rohit Sharma has two [three] double centuries in one-day cricket, what can you say? The opponents qualities should be known to us. Kohli has become the greatest batsman. What can you say? Should I say: he is a bad person or he is not a good player? Akhtar argued.

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IPL in UAE: We are more intense and hungrier than ever before, says Virat Kohli - Gulf News