How to develop an effective lead generation strategy

Lead generation is essentially all the activities relating to the identification and development of potential customers. Businesses use a range of tools through sales and marketing functions in order to generate leads and increase revenue for their enterprises. Without leads, businesses could not survive as their sales pipelines would eventually dry up. 

There exist distinct differences between B2C (business to consumer/retail marketing) and B2B (business to business/corporate marketing) lead generation. The most tangible difference is that B2C markets generally tend to be broad-based whereas B2B markets are more carefully segmented, with customers and competition tending to be more advanced and knowledgeable about products and services.

Lead generation encompasses a variety of different tactics include conducting detailed market research, developing the sales funnel (more on this in our next post), carefully managing your social media channels (through effective social media management), maintaining your website and pages (namely your landing page, product pages and call to action) and keeping your viewers hooked and wanting more through effective content marketing through blogs, social media snippets and e-mail newsletters.

In order to develop an effective lead generation strategy, you will have to have a keen understanding of how the sales funnel works and how to convert a general consumer in your target segment into a lead who steadily converts from a 'cold' lead to a 'hot' lead and eventually a customer of your business.

COVID and the Future of Work

The ongoing global pandemic has ravaged the way people work and do business. Previous public gatherings, meetings, office parties and social celebrations have all but been binned indefinitely owing to the disruptions caused by COVID-19. As businesses and workers scramble to adjust to the 'new normal,' we will explore what the future entails for work in the current environment as well as what is to come in the days ahead.

The previous 'normal' involved a great deal of social interaction and community. Business owners, managers and employees would make it a habit to spend as much time physically in their office rooms, desks and cubicles to show others their loyalty and dedication to their work. 'Working hard' meant putting in extra effort and time to the office in order to excel and climb the corporate ladder or scale the business to new heights.

After the widespread dispersion of the novel COVID-19 in January 2020, slowly but surely, businesses and society in general began feeling the adverse effects of the virus to not just their operations but how they go about their daily lives. Restrictions on when to leave homes, where you are allowed to go and what you are supposed to wear all became too much of a nightmarish reality for much of the global population which suddenly saw themselves locked under house arrest to try to contain the spread of the virus.

This resulted in a massive paradigm shift in the WoW (way of working) for most businesses and their employees. Now, stuck in their homes, people were forced to connect online and start working remotely using their laptops, mobiles and other devices to make sure they stayed up-to-date with the latest news and developments affecting their companies. Previously uncommon concepts like "work from home" and "remote working" suddenly became the rage and the expected standard for businesses large and small.

How to Choose the Best VPN for You

Nowadays, the use of VPN (virtual private networks) to connect to the internet has become commonplace. Just a few years ago, there was a time when only government agencies, large corporations and professional programmers would use VPNs to securely browse the confines of the internet.

Today, due to the huge supply and variety of VPNs available in the market owing to widespread internet use and technological availability, consumers now have a nearly virtually unlimited supply of options to choose from - both paid and free.

Basically, VPNs function as extra networks in between a normal networked connection between a client and server providing additional functionality, security and in many cases, more encryption. The technology uses various tunneling protocols to encrypt online connections allowing IP addresses to be disguised or altered.

The true origin of VPN even to this day remains a topic of debate. The majority of sources credit the discovery of the innovation to then Microsoft employee Gurdeep Singh-Pall who invented PPTP (Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol) in 1996 as a method of implementing a private network. By 1999, the specification was published to the general public and the technology was quickly adopted by government agencies and corporations to access data securely from remote locations. 

Currently, VPNs are most popularly used for such activities like circumventing geo-restrictions and censorship from their home countries and also to protect their personal identities and location from tracking websites and applications. 

With the pervasiveness of mobile devices, dozens of VPN services have cropped up over the years to cater specifically to mobile phone users. Additionally, browser-specific VPN extensions have also become very popular in recent years. 

To help you make an informed decision in choosing a VPN, we have shortlisted the best paid and free VPN in our opinion so you can start browsing right away more securely and anonymously!

Basics of Binary Options Trading

Binary options are basically financial products that provide a profit or loss depending on if a particular asset/option's price will go up or down. 

They are based on the options trading of securities conducted by large companies, banks, institutional investors and brokers who are daily transacting billions of dollars worth of options as a means of risk management and hedging. 

The simplicity of binary options is, you have essentially a 50/50 chance of making the right decision (ie a yes/no proposition) and all you need to do is identify if the particular asset you are trading is will be going up or down in price.  

The three basic types of options are high/low options where you predict whether the asset's price will end higher/lower as compared to the initial price; one-touch options that you decide will either go up or down; range/digital options where you determine which range the price will strike at.

"In the money" (ITM) refers to when the asset has a favorable strike price (price when the option is closed) relative to the current market price of the underlying asset. 

For example, you would have an ITM call/buy option when you buy an asset below the current market price. Conversely, you would have an ITM put option when you sell the asset above the current market price. In both cases, you would be making a gain from the price differential (however other factors like cost of buying the option and fees would also need to be considered).

At the time of the strike/expiration price, you need to make sure that the asset is on the "correct side" of the strike price in order to profit. The option is exercised when the stipulated time period - which can be as short as sixty seconds to as long as one month!

It's important to note that the outcome of  a binary option will either be a gain or a loss. Traders will either receive a fixed amount profit payout if the option expires in the money or they will incur a loss if it expires out of the money. 

The beauty of binary options, apart from the simple yes/no proposition, is that you can trade in a wide variety of assets ranging from currency pairs (forex), stock prices, cryptocurrency, gold, silver, oil, bonds, indices and also ETFs. 

It is quite possible to generate consistent returns of 80-90% or even more from your investment, but the caveat is that you will need to test out the best strategies for you in order to have the best chance of trading successfully to win more and lose less. 

That's why it's always a good idea to start trading using demo accounts in order to "test the waters" and make sure you don't lose any money at the outset.

We have narrowed down the 2 best binary options websites/platforms in the market where you can start trading instantly for free using demo accounts. Please be sure to thank us later on!