The environmental cost of paper contracts on Valentine's Day

Valentine's day environmental cost infographic

Infographic: The environmental cost of paper contracts on Valentine’s Day

Flowers, especially roses, have always been a symbol of love, new beginnings, hope and are the ideal gift for Valentine’s Day. With this infographic we hope to let readers get an understanding of where these flowers come from, how many paper contracts get signed in the process, and most importantly, what the environmental effects are of the said paperwork. 
Signority Valentines Day and paper contracts Infographic 2017
The explosion of technology and rapid increase in online spending, are proving that a complete digital future is inevitable. Yet, the flower industry still seems to be using dated paper contracts, directly resulting in hundreds of trees lost in the process and other negative environmental effects, for no reason. We decided to go with a high-level visual representation and focused on calculating the wastage of paper in only one major step of the big supply chain that makes Valentine’s Day happen, since we believe it covers some of the more critical data that impacts all of us — be it a consumer or business owner. We hope to help businesses rethink their paper contract processes and help avoid wastage by going digital.
We’d love to know what you think, tweet us your thoughts and reactions @Signority.
[socialpug_tweet tweet=”On Valentine’s 750M+ stems to be sold = 400+ trees killed in paper contracts”]
If you are in an organization with cross-border business operations, we invite you to read our guide to International Contracts.
Bonus: Businesses ready to go paperless are invited to read our post that outlines 5 ways to achieve a paperless office today.

How to avoid: The 3 big costs most businesses incur today without realizing

Business-Process-Management-and-pitfalls-of-ignoring

As any growing business,  we at Signority are constantly looking for ways to become more efficient in our operations. In a recent chat with our friends at Indellient — experts in business process management — we explored internal areas and processes to improve our business. Katie Hulan, their Marketing Manager, was gracious enough to accept our invitation for a guest post to share her insights for other small businesses.
As businesses, we are often fixated on the next immediate business need – shipping the next version of our product, making that next big sale, fixing that bug, applying for funding. These outward-facing or revenue-driving activities are the first to be given resources as they are directly related to the success of your business. But what about what’s happening internally? Are you set up to be as efficient as possible? Believe it or not, business success comes quicker when your team is set up to be successful first. And that, my friends, is where business process management (BPM) comes to play – it is a systematic approach to making the workflow of an organization more efficient, effective and capable of adjusting to an ever-shifting environment. A business process is an activity or group of activities that will achieve a goal of the organization. So, when your people, who, by the way, are your greatest asset of the company, are equipped with productive processes and effective tools, they are better prepared to meet the goals of your organization.  

There are many costs that an organization can incur if the business process management is not implemented.  

  1. First, the cost of customer support. Customers can easily get discouraged when they do not receive services efficiently and satisfactorily. Due to poor organizational workflow and not adapting to the changing environment, the customers will lose morale and migrate to those that have adapted to modern technology and with efficient services. In today’s world, you know that when customers complain about their dissatisfaction, they don’t complain to you but to the public instead. And the customers are good at this! Allow me to explain. The increasing popularity of social networks acts as a forum for frustrated customers to talk about their awful experiences with given companies and it spreads like wildfire! Now, this is very costly to the business since it implies the loss of loyal potential customers, loss of reputation, and profit.And when the organization fails to meet its financial goals, it cuts costs by reducing the number of employees. Cue the loss of morale and confidence because job insecurity takes away their focus from work. Obviously, the moment there is a shift in attention, productivity declines and more absenteeism follows and customer complaints rise. Thus it becomes a fierce cycle.
  1. Opportunities! Missing opportunities can be disastrous for businesses. Indecision, or, not taking advantage of the chance to make a decision, leads to its own costs and those costs more often are beyond that of a bad decision.  Bigger costs of inaction are the cost of missed opportunities. One of the major factors that lead to missed opportunities is the failure to adapt to the ever-changing environment, a role that Business Process Management accomplishes very well. It is commonly said that opportunities come once in a lifetime and therefore should be seized immediately. You may not calculate the exact cost of missed opportunities, but it is great. This is because, without an organized effort to find them, the opportunities to increase the performance will go un-noticed.
  1. Engaged Employees. A study conducted by the Gallup in 2015 shows that 32% of U.S workers were considered engaged in work.  Most of the employees were not engaged that is 50.8%, while the 17.2% were actively disengaged. The detailed research of Gallup reveals that the engagement of the employee is powerfully linked to business results, an element essential to the success of the financial goals of the organization, measured by productivity, profitability and customer engagement. Employees that are engaged are involved in the innovation, development, and revenue that their companies aim at.

    The “engaged” workers are those that were considered as having an opportunity to do their best on a daily at the workplace and had somebody to encourage and recognize their opinions as workable. These elements foretell the outcomes of the performance of the organization.Gallup further describes the engaged employees as those who participate and are enthusiastic about their work. Thus the research outcomes, according to Gallup, indicate clearly that employee engagement is strongly linked to business results. Lastly, the study concludes that the engaged employees boost the development, innovation, and revenue that their companies aim at.

In general, the cost of the inaction of Business Process Management is huge and leads to a vicious cycle. Right from customer support, loss of staff, inefficiencies, the cost of missed opportunities, reputation damage to loss of profits.  All these lead to a general decline of business efficiency, stagnation and may end up in the closure of business.
As you look to optimize your processes, take note of the 5 predictions for BPM in 2017.
Interested in BPM solutions? Look at this evaluation criteria for BPM.

About the Author

SMB_Growth_Katie_HulanThe author Katie is the Marketing and Communications Manager at Indellient, a software development and IT professional services firm that helps companies meet and exceed their critical technology and business objectives. Katie writes about the importance of effective business process management and how it is a revenue-driver for organizations today. She also explores topics on competitive advantages, marketing, and more. Connect with her on LinkedIn.

The 4 Biggest Emerging Insurance Trends and Its Implications

Top 4 Emerging Insurance Trends

Emerging trends, such as driverless cars, P2P insurance and electronic signatures, have disrupted the usually steady world of insurance. But how exactly have these emerging insurance trends affected and changed the industry?

Let’s take a look at some of the emerging insurance trends!

Driverless Cars

Since the emergence of Tesla’s electric cars and the way they took the automotive market by storm, competitors and disruptors, and Tesla themselves, are looking into introducing fully autonomous cars as soon as two years time. Naturally, this changes things significantly for the insurance world. As this market continues to develop, insurers will need to consider potential risks to drivers, passengers and cars, as well as who (or what) is ultimately held responsible.

Driverless Cars Explained

Driverless cars sense their surroundings through integrated circuits and advanced technology, without the help of human input. As such, they provide users with a safer and more convenient means of transportation. Their way of operation includes different levels of autonomy:

  1.     Driver only – self-explanatory
  2.     Driver assistance – automated only for steering, acceleration and braking
  3.     Full autonomy – the car can travel on its own without a human present in the vehicle
  4.     High autonomy – requires human control only periodically during the trip, but are otherwise automated
  5.     Partial autonomy – drivers can interfere only in the event of an emergency

Implications for the Insurance Industry

The whole point of auto insurance is to protect people from human or mechanical error, but what happens when human error is eliminated? The main issues the insurance industry needs to tackle are as follows:

  1. Personal Insurance – Since the drivers essentially become passengers, who will be held accountable in case of an accident? The driver, car manufacturer, or both?
  2. Commercial Insurance – With companies such as Uber or Lyft using driverless cars to take their passengers’ places, how will these vehicles be insured if an accident occurs while on duty?

Driverless cars transitioned quickly from a radical idea to a very real product, with a very fast adoption rate. The insurance industry needs to adapt to these new changes just as quickly.

P2P Insurance

When Lemonade entered the insurance market this past fall, everyone with at least minimal knowledge in insurance knew things were about to change. The implications for the insurance industry were very deep, even though they only operated in New York. Unsurprisingly, requests for expansion into other states were made as soon as it launched. What will this mean for the insurance industry long-term?

P2P Insurance Explained

Peer-to-peer insurance is simpler than it sounds. It’s when a group of people with a mutual cause gather their money in one place, which is then used to pay the claims of any of the members in case of an accident. Usually, companies offering this type of insurance have a backup top-insurer supporting them in case the sum is too big for them to cover. Lemonade uses unpaid claims to support causes close to the heart of the insured. As such, customer trust in their company is bigger, and the tendency to find ways to circumvent the system is considerably lower. Since the company’s profits do not depend on what claims they can and can’t deny you.

Implications for the Insurance Industry

Even though the insurance industry has started to shift, P2P companies have not yet completely and irrevocably disrupted the market. P2P insurance exploits one of the biggest flaws of traditional insurance companies, by inspiring trust and a sense of community with their customers. However, when P2P companies go to traditional insurance companies for help in controversial cases, this newly placed trust in P2P companies will wear off. With that being said, the fact that this new model emerged at all, and has the success it has had so far, existing companies will rethink their stance on insurance going forward.

Drones

As the number of private drone enthusiasts increases and a growing number of commercial drones take flight, so do the risks associated with them. Aside from providing insurance to drones or unmanned vehicles, they hold large potential for changing the insurance game, from fighting fraud to increasing accuracy in risk-management and tailored pricing.
According to Dean Anderson, National Aviation Practice Leader, Wells Fargo Insurance, “The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) estimates that approximately 2.5 million drones/unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) will be sold this year, with almost 600,000 used for commercial purposes. The trend leaves a vast unknown in the aviation insurance sector, one that presents excitement, new product development, and a changing underwriting mentality. With widespread US-potential, industries such as industrial inspection, agriculture, real estate, aerial photography, government, and others are investing considerable amounts of money into this emerging industry.”

Drone insurance explained

Drone insurance acts like any other insurance policy. If a drone is damaged in an accident or lost, the loss is covered to an extent by the insurance company. 
There are primarily two types of insurance coverages, UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) UAS (Unmanned Aircraft Systems) insurance provided to the all:  Manufacturer, Owner and Operator Coverage.
And non-owned UAV / UAS Liability Coverage: coverage to companies or individuals that use or hire UAVs that they do not own and that are operated by third parties.
Some of the pre-requisites for these type of insurance are:

  • Buyer or operator’s proof of training
  • Maintenance of drone operational logs
  • Parts or add-ons purchased so far

Implications for the Insurance Industry

Increasing accuracy during catastrophes
During catastrophes, drones can play a critical role in surveying the damage of the insured property. The flexibility of drones allows for immediate surveying and reporting, allowing for a speedy insurance process.
Risk-management
According to PWC’s recent report “Clarity from Above”, drones could be used for instantaneous data collection and risk monitoring. With immediate access and improved quality of data. Insurance companies could easily assess high-risk areas and notify customers of those high-risk areas, ultimately helping them avoid those risks.
Tailored pricing
By often performing hazardous work, drones access and collect critical data sets that effectively allow for insurance companies to provide their customers custom pricing.

eSignatures

Initially frowned upon by lawmakers for its perceived poor cyber security and the consequences of having important legal information stolen, eSignatures are the new norm. The advancement of technology pushed insurers and the laws governing insurance companies to catch up with the times and start using eSignatures as part of their daily work.

eSignatures Explained

Like we mentioned in our previous post “Quick Reference Guide: Electronic Signatures & the ESIGN Act“. According to the eSign Act, an eSignature is “any sound, symbol, or process, attached to or logically associated with a contract or other record and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the record.” If that definition sounds vague or unclear, don’t worry. That’s sort of the idea; it is, after all, “legal-ese”. In plain English, however, the above definition simply “states” an eSignature as a legal concept. That is, its legal definition simply means that it is possible for an electronic signature to carry the same sort of legal “weight” as its pen-and-paper equivalent.
Let’s take a quick look at the basic components of an electronic signature:
Consent:
Basically, any individual who signs an electronic document must explicitly consent to do so in the first place. Should an individual choose not to consent to an electronically signed agreement, a non-electronic option must be made available.
Intent:
In the simplest terms, this means that the signer clearly understands his or her intent to sign the document, and the process by which the individual signed the document was clear and understood from beginning to end.
Verification:
For an electronic document to be considered legally binding it must be signed by the same person whose signature appears on the dotted line. In turn, most electronic signature solutions have built-in verification methods.
Auditability:
This is the electronic equivalent of a “paper trail,” (popularly know in the electronic signature industry as an ‘Audit Trail’) whereby each party involved in an electronic agreement (or a legal entity, for instance) can if necessary, easily access each step of the electronic signature process. You can read more about the anatomy and importance of an audit trail in our post titled “The Anatomy of an Audit Trail: Electronic Signature Simplified”.
While the most known type of an eSignature is the drawn signature, there are other types as well:

  1. Click to sign – these include tick boxes, e-squiggles, scanned images, and typed names. However, they are not considered as a functioning signature. As such, they are commonly used in addition to other types of eSignatures
  2. eSignatures – These typically involve the signer applying their hand-signature mark on the document, which is then protected with a cryptographic digital signature
  3. Advanced and Qualified eSignatures – AES and QES use unique signing keys for every signer, as such, they provide the highest level of trust and assurance. These unique signing keys directly link the user’s identity to the signed document, so anyone is able to verify the signature using an industry standard PDF reader

Implications for Insurance Industry

eSignatures makes life much easier for insurance brokers. eSignature companies like Signority revolutionize document signing and management by creating seamless digital transactions for your customers. Experts agree eSignatures close sales quicker, are more secure and traceable than paper and can be easily integrated into already existing business processes. You are able to securely maintain legal electronic copies of every document, keeping your documents safe from any harm. Communication is also simplified, so much so that it only takes a few minutes to set up, draft, sign and file any necessary documents… no more long days waiting for documents to arrive by mail! Everything is automated and digitalized and at your disposal. To learn more about the habits of highly effective insurance brokers, click here.
While driverless cars and P2P insurance have both positive and negative effects on the insurance market, eSignatures and drones impact looks to be solely positive. We will see in later years how each one of these trends will change the way insurance works, but for now, we can safely say things are looking up!
Disclaimer:
This post focuses on technology and its impact on the North American insurance sector, specifically. It’s important to point out that Signority is not an insurance company, nor are we the expert authority on the subject. However, we have referenced experts often in this post. It would be equally wise (and perhaps a bit obvious) to point out that the insurance industry is incredibly complex. Admittedly, this post is a brief, simplified look at a complex topic.

Looking to take your business paperless? Sign-up now and get a 14-day free trial to a Signority eSignature Plan.

Hand-picked business growth reads

Top business growth reads - January 2017 Signority

Here at Signority, we strive to improve ourselves, our product, our company and the lives we touch. That goal requires a level of commitment to keep making things better and more efficient. Making things better requires us to be open-minded and challenge the status quo. This is why every day, we make the time to look outward at leaders and change-makers – in our community and far away – to learn from their stories.
Recently, it occurred to us that we should share with you a list of the top business articles our team stumbled upon this past month. We hope this helps you and your business to grow and keep improving at whatever your craft is.

On Managing your Business

From Brad Feld, Managing Director at Foundry Group
Brad Feld, a successful entrepreneur and early stage investor. Brad shares with us his views on organizational structures. He describes for us what he calls, “The Three Machines” (Product, Customer, and Company). This is one of our top business articles for any business owner or leader starting a company or looking to shake things up!
>>> Read “The Three Machines” <<<
From First Round Review
We love what they write at the First Round Review, seriously, big fans! When they started out, they claimed their goal was “to become the Harvard Business Review for Startups” and they do not disappoint.
In this post, they share the importance and benefits of finding advisors for your business early on, and how to find the best advisors for you.
>>> Read “Snag the Best Advisors for Your Startup, from Best-selling Authors to Fortune 500 CEOs” <<<
In this post, First Round covers, at length, many strategies to develop your team. Seriously, great insights and best practices you can put to work ASAP.
>>> Read “Three Powerful Conversations Managers Must Have To Develop Their People” <<<

On Marketing & Growth

From Pierre Lechelle, SaaS growth thought leader
Pierre shares his model to help you audit and analyze business growth. The main goal is to give you all the keys you need to develop a cohesive strategy. Plan to lose yourself for an hour or two with this top business article and other posts on his site. They rock.
>>> Read “How to Perform a Growth Audit” <<<
From Alvin Hsia, Product Designer at AirBnB
This is an 11 min read from late last year but it has so much that I’m sure you will immerse yourself in it for a lot longer. Any time you put in here is worth it as you’ll end up knowing so much more about the human mind. This new knowledge will sure help you in your communications, marketing and more.
>>> Read “Cognitive Bias” <<<
From Rand Fishkin at Moz
Rand shares his 8 predictions for SEO this year, as well as, shows a frank grading of his 2016 predictions. If you are into optimizing your site for better ranking, please read their blog. This post is a good start.
>>> Read “8 Predictions for SEO in 2017” <<<

On Tools to Increase Productivity

From Product Hunt
This post shows a list of key tools to help you in your writing. Mentions include: Hemmingway Editor, Refly.it and more.
>>> Check out: “9 Tools That Will Help You Become a Better Writer” <<<

Making the Most Out of Your Online Ad Spending

online-ad-spending-done-effectively

Back in January, waspbarcode released fresh data from their small business survey indicating that not only do small business have a marketing budget, they also intend to increase it in 2017. Investing in marketing is great for business growth, especially if the investment allows businesses to reach new customers. The report did mention those small businesses are considering investing some of that budget in online marketing, but is that the right thing for your growing organization?
When I talk to owners of small and medium businesses, they quickly mention Facebook and Google Adwords as the place to start, and that is understandable, these platforms have great targeting ability and the largest audience reach. Google also has the added advantage of search intent. If I am searching for Car insurance, I am more likely to be looking to purchase a policy soon. But are there any things to look out for? Let’s look at the insurance industry.
It turns out that keywords related to insurance are the most expensive ones to bid on, $54.91 USD is the cost of a click on an insurance related ad according to data released by wordstream. Using this data 100 clicks would cost a company $5,491, and if your website is typical it would convert at an 4% rate, that means of the 100 customers that clicked 4 would have provided their information and become a lead, a cost of $1,372.25 per lead. There are ways to optimize that experience, no doubt one can get to a 10% conversion rate by using well-designed web pages, placing good offers on the website, etc…, if we use a 10% rate, the cost per lead is $549.1
That is the range for Cost Per Lead online, approximately $549 – $1,372.25 for an insurance broker. If your brokerage is looking to acquire 100 customers from the web channel, what should your budget be? That number highly depends on how well your brokers/agents close leads, if we assume that they are able to close 54% of all leads, then the cost per customer would be 2*Cost per lead, or $1,098 on the low end or $2,744 on the high end.
The question is, can this be optimized? Remember that customers searching for car insurance probably clicked a few ads and are getting quotes from various parties, converting these customers fast is key to success, here are some tips to convert potential customers.

Optimizing Your Online Ad Spending

  1. Create a Well-Designed Web Page and Clear Value Proposition

Make sure you have a well-designed web page and a compelling offer to increase your website conversion page. In a previous article on usability, we gave some tips on how to optimize your website for a better customer experience
What is important is to create a compelling and clear value proposition: A value proposition is a business declaration that describes why your potential customer should use your product or service. Usually, a great value proposition should address what your company does, how are you are different or unique and who your company serves.
A/B test website content: Split testing, most popularly known as A/B testing, is a method of determining the more successful content piece (that could be a web page, copy or even buttons) by putting two variations of content against each other and basing it on a common goal set by you.
The goal could be, the number of conversions, sign-ups, increase in downloads etc.  

  1. Responding and Interacting to Leads

Responds to leads fast: the 5-minute rule is in full effect here, data released by The Lead Response Management study show that the odds of contacting a lead if called in 5 minutes versus 30 minutes drop 100 times. The odds of qualifying a lead if called in 5 minutes versus 30 minutes drop 21 times. So stay on top of those leads.
Address objections: Objections are a part of the buying cycle and are inevitable. The critical part about an objection is to understand that it might be due to your potential customer’s lack of knowledge regarding your product or inability to understand your solution thoroughly.
Listening to your customer and addressing these objections in a concise manner is primary for your business’ success. In terms of your site, spend the time to address typical questions that you expect or have been asked frequently through an FAQ page or even landing page copy and imagery.

  1. Increasing Trust

It’s natural tendency to make a purchase from a person or company that you trust, so why would this be different for your potential customer? Ensuring you give your potential customers a reason to trust you and your product can be critical in the conversion process. Few ways you can do that is:

  • Being transparent about the services or product features you offer.
  • Always honor any promises you make to your customers, whether online or offline.
  • Display your product or service’s price on your website.
  • Show social proof by creating a section for mentions or quotes about your product or service from happy customers.
  • And finally, be consistent with your brand and product throughout your website, collateral and communication.

  1. Sealing the Deal – Online

Remove the possibility of leakage: customers do not want to print, sign, scan, fax, it’s inconvenient and if I am shopping my quote around and your competitor sent me a document ready for my digital signature, you would have lost me as a potential customer. Stats show that 46% of customers drop off after a broker sends them a paper based quote. In terms of Google online ad spending, that equals $43,920, meaning that if a digital signature solution saves one customer dropping off, the $50 investment is well worth it!
Looking to seal the deal? Why not try Signority’s Digital Signature solution for free. Click here

The Benefits of eSignature

the-business-benefits-of-eSignature

Thankfully, most eSignature software (like Signority) are easy to use—even for the most inexperienced users. In fact, it’s ease of use has been one of the contributing factors to its sky-high adoption rate.
Though the exact process may vary depending on the software solution, the basic workflow is virtually the same.
Here’s how a basic eSignature solution works:

  1. A document is uploaded to a website (usually a third-party software)
  2. The document is tagged to pinpoint exactly where a signature is required
  3. The document is then emailed to the participants who are required to sign
  4. The signer(s) completes all required fields, then signs the document electronically
  5. The completed document is then automatically emailed back to the original sender
  6. The document is automatically stored for safe, secure, and easy access

Now that you understand the basics of how eSignatures work, let’s look at some of the benefits of eSignature.

Benefits of eSignature

Legally-binding eSignatures have a number of important benefits for businesses:

  1. Easy to use. Signing an electronic document is super simple for all those involved. In fact, most eSignature software is intuitive even to complete beginners, which means less time spent learning how to use new software.
  2. Save money: Paper isn’t cheap, especially when you account for purchasing, copying, scanning, and printing costs, among other paper-related expenditures. Needless to say, these costs add up quickly. Moving to a paperless system can reduce expenditures and instantly increase your profit margins. You can access our post ”A Paperless Business and 5 Ways You Can Achieve It Now”.
  3. Save time. Printing, copying and scanning take time. Preparing documents for signature takes time. Tracking down (and waiting for) signatures take even more time. eSignatures can shorten the turnaround time by as much as 90 percent.
  4. Improve accuracy. There’s nothing more frustrating than waiting for a signed document only to realize the recipient forgot to fill out a required piece of information, eSignature software allow you to specify mandatory fields, which, as you probably guessed, require the recipient to complete all such fields before the document can be signed.  
  5. Stay organized. Keeping track of paperwork (regardless of how efficient your filing system may be) is often burdensome. eSignatures create an easily sortable, organized filing system by which you can easily store and retrieve important documents.
  6. Add an extra layer of security: Electronic documents can be protected by a variety of methods, including passcodes, encryption, two-factor authentication, and even biometric authentication methods. These methods instantly make your important documents more secure.
  7. Make things easier for customers and/or vendors. While the benefits of eSignature can be obvious for your own business, they also make things much easier for your customers, partners, suppliers, or other vendors (for many of the same reasons we’ve already covered). Customers prefer eSignature solutions not only because it is more convenient, but it brings a number of important advantages, including eliminating unnecessary back-and-forth (saving time), simplifying internal processes, facilitating quicker onboarding, and increasing operational efficiency, among a laundry list of other benefits.

Planning to take your business paperless? Check out our recent guide “A Brief Introduction to eSignatures”, you can download if for free here.

The Millennial Movement: 7 Ways Your Business Can Optimize for Mobile-Savvy Consumers

The Millennial Movement - How to Optimize for Mobile-Savvy Consumers

Quick, throw out your desktops and burn all your landlines, the millennials are coming!
Millennials are non-traditionalists who want things their way, and they want them now. According to Pew Research, there are 75.4 million millennials in the United States alone; officially surpassing the number of Baby Boomers. With a buying power of over $200 billion, they are quickly becoming a hugely untapped market. With this in mind, millennials account for 41% of the total time Americans spend using their phones. Turns out the stereotype is true, millennials are glued to their phones. Predictably, they use their phones for shopping. In fact, millennials use their phones for every step of the buying process; for researching, browsing/evaluating alternatives, and during the actual purchase. As such, your small- to medium-sized business should change with the tide and implement an optimized, mobile-first strategy, or else face the same fate of the once popular Blockbuster video. 

How to Optimize for Mobile: The Basics

First things first, before you personalize your site to tailor the needs of millennials, let’s go over some basics:

1. Functionality

In order for Millennials to use your mobile site, it must be easy to use. Concentrate on clear, focused content, with large, easy to read text. Smaller screens will already make navigating your website harder, so having a cluttered/distracting layout and small font will only amplify this. Users should never have to pinch or zoom their screens in order to see something more clearly. Along the same line, keep menus and navigations limited. If your users have to transition between four different pages before they get to the one they want, they’ll be gone after the second page. You should also limit things that will slow down your pages speed, like pop-ups (which can sometimes be super-frustrating to close!)

2. Design

Mobile-friendly layouts are simple and well-integrated with your main website. User’s want the same feel and experience on a mobile site as they would from your desktop website. Having your sites match each other presents a united front and a stronger brand image. And don’t forget about your big-handed customers! Make sure the buttons are big enough for easy usage. Along the same lines, keep your fill-out forms to a minimum, as small screens and big hands can make them difficult to complete. Lastly, the site must be configured in a way that allows for easy scrolling.

3. Use Already-Existing Mobile Features

Take advantage of the various functions and features that are only available on mobile phones. You’ll be able to know where all of your users are located in real time, allowing you to better their search results, and better promote yourself. The camera and microphone also open up a ton of opportunities for user engagement, like barcode scanning, and visual/verbal searches. You can also utilize push notifications, as they are less annoying than email notifications, and easier for users to see. For example, instead of notifying a customer through email when an item has come back in stock, send them a push notification. Not only is this more convenient for them, but it also speeds up the buying process for you. Another way to shorten the buying process is by incorporating click through links on your site. A specific example of how to optimize for mobile is allowing users to click on your business’s phone number, and having their phone directly call.

How to Optimize for Mobile: Tech-Savvy Millennials

Customer experience is taking center stage in 2017, and millennials know exactly what they want. If you can successfully cater to this new and profitable target segment, you will be, as they say, “on fleek”.

4. Online Browsing

According to Data Mentors, 50% of millennials use mobile devices to research products and reviews, a whopping 30% increase compared with non-millennials. They search for product information, product details, and past customer reviews. As such, each item on your site should have an accurate picture, a concise description and a place for customers to directly comment their reviews.

5. In-store Shopping

Millennials use their phone during their entire purchase; a colossal 84% use their smartphones in-store to assist with their shopping. As explained by DigiDay, retailers can leverage this to their advantage in many ways. Home Depot lets their customers see an item’s inventory, location in the store, price, product details and customer ratings, all by using their phone to scan an item’s barcode. Millennials are price sensitive shoppers, and two-thirds use their phones to compare/check prices. As such, you should strongly promote any deals and price promotions on your mobile site.

6. Online Purchases

Unsurprisingly, millennials are not scared to shop online. Roughly 40% prefer to shop online and they are comfortable with paying through their mobile phone — Apple and Android Pay have made this possible. However, millennials are not immune to security concerns. One solution to combat this could be to allow customers to pay through gift cards, as 64% of millennials believe gift cards to be the safest online payment method.

7. Other Features

Since the majority of millennials still shop in store, your mobile site should support this. You can monitor visitors’ behaviour on your site, and, based on their GPS location, refer them to the nearest store location when the time is right. You should also have your store directory easily accessible and noticeable. Additionally, millennials are active social media users and value the ability to share everything online. You can add sharing features on your products, enabling customers to send any items they’re interested in to their friends. Through this, you can increase your exposure and reach, and millennials will appreciate their ability to easily share over their social media pages.
Plot twist, I’m a millennial (and yes, this may have been written on my phone). A new age is here, and your business needs to keep up with the times. Millennials are unlike any other consumer group and we have immense buying power. Ditch the old way of thinking, take a millennials advice and start investing in upgrading your mobile site.
Gotta run, my phones almost out of battery!
If you liked this post, you may also be interested in our recent article on how to “Modernize Your Business for Under $1000 Per Month”.
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The Ultimate List: 70+ business experts you should follow for explosive business growth

Ultimate List of Top Business Experts to Follow on Social Media

All of us, including some of the greatest thinkers in the world, have turned to other great achievers and experts of their time for inspiration.
In fact, I think it’s safe to say, that the road to achieving success — whatever success may mean to you — has quite a bit to do with hearing what the experts have to say, looking at problem-solving from their perspective and hopefully learn from their mistakes.
So, I compiled a list of business experts, marketing gurus and those rising business stars that, I believe, can be of great help to small and medium business owners out there. In business, growth and marketing, these women and men are transforming the world and inspiring others to do the same.
The list is broken into Top Content Marketers, Top Business Growth Experts, Top Canadian Business Experts, Top Social Media Marketers and Top Up-and-Coming Experts.
So, who are these prominent business leaders and experts in the world you should look out for?
Let’s take a look!

Top Content Marketers

Because content marketing works, yes, even for small and medium businesses. Take a look the list below and make sure to follow these experts to supercharge your learning. The best thing is that all of them put out great free content and resources so you don’t have to spend a dime to get this knowledge

  1. Jeff Bullas–  Jeff was voted  #1 Content Marketing Influencer and h.as been featured in Forbes’ Top 10 Social Media Influencer list, among his other awards. Jeff is also a speaker and author. His self-proclaimed mission is to“Inspire and educate people to win at business and life in a digital world”.
  2. Sam Hurley – Sam frequently published a variety of easy-to-understand articles on Digital Marketing and always pushes the value of strong relationships in business. He also shares heaps of friendly, helpful material each day across Twitter, LinkedIn + Facebook. Interact with him and you can guarantee a vibrant response in the form of emojis and GIFs! Sam’s been featured in Forbes, Inc and FastCompany Magazine.
  3. Kevan Lee – As the Director of Marketing at Buffer, Kevan writes about the importance of content writing and publishing. You can see more about what his thought-process are like and follow his updates here.
  4. Joe Pulizzi – Best-selling author and self-proclaimed “content marketing evangelist”, Jeff Pulizzi is the founder of the Content Marketing Institute and is often found blogging or hosting one of his two podcasts —  ‘Content Inc.’ and ‘This Old Marketing’.
  5. Steve Cartwright –  Is an influencer and content marketer, whose Twitter feed is a curated list of content marketing articles about design, social media, website design and strategy from around the web. His blog is a great resource for marketers and entrepreneurs looking to understand how good design experience can help make great content.
  6. Lee Odden – CEO at TopRank Marketing —  a company that helps attract, engage, convert & retain more business with integrated marketing services: content, SEO, influencer marketing Author, Speaker & Consultant on B2B Content & Influencer Marketing, Social Media, PR & SEO. Proud Dad, World Traveler, Foodie, Beardie.
  7. Ann Handley – Ann is the Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs and a veteran when it comes to content creation. She is also a Wall Street Journal best-selling author for Everybody Writes, co-author of another best-seller Content Rules, and a big LinkedIn influencer. She was cited by ForbesWoman as one of the top 20 women bloggers, and her knowledge and experience is worth checking out!
  8. Martin Jones – Is a leading content marketer and currently Sr. Social Media & Content Marketing Manager with the corporate Cox Communications marketing team.  He is also a recognized writer and keynote speaker.
  9. Heidi Cohen – Actionable Marketer, speaker, professor, journalist shares practical advice on social media, content marketing, small business & life.
  10. Jason Miller – As a global Content & Social Media Marketing leader, Jason leads content and social media marketing for LinkedIn. He is the author of the best seller ‘Welcome to the Funnel’.
  11. Jay Baer – Jay Baer is a prominent Keynote speaker & emcee. He is also the President of Convince and Convert, a marketing & social media customer service consultancy.
  12. Mark Schaefer – Mark is a professional keynote speaker, internationally acclaimed author and strategy consultant, He was recently voted #1 Social media keynote speaker and has five best-selling marketing books under his belt.  Check out his podcast ‘Marketing Companion podcast’.
  13. Joanna Wiebe – Is the founder of Copy Hackers, a site that teaches — just about anyone — how to write persuasive copy that converts. She is also a prominent speaker and a social media maven.
  14. Aaron Orendorff – Featured in Forbes Top 25 Marketing Influencers, Aaron is an expert content writer and marketer. He writes at Mashable, Lifehacker and Huffington Post to name a few.  You can read more about him here.

Top Business Growth Experts

The majority of the people on this list are from the technology world, and that’s because I firmly believe you can take away a lot from their successes in high-tech and still incorporate key learnings into your business — no matter the size.

  1. Sean Ellis – Entrepreneur, angel investor and startup consulter, Ellis is the “original growth hacker”, the person who both coined the term and founded GrowthHackers. He was the first marketer for EventBrite, DropBox and LookOut, and clearly a solid foundation of their successful and fast growth.
  2. Noah Kagan – Originally FaceBook’s 30th employee, now he’s known for founding and growing AppSumo, a web-based company trading in digitally distributes goods such as software and digital material for e-learning.
  3. David King – Another FaceBook-related growth expert, King is the founder of (Lil) Green Patch apps, which in itself is a growth hacking technique, as the brackets will make the apps list first in search results.
  4. Dave Zohrob – Currently an angel investor and working to create the perfect startup job environment, Zohrob comes from a technical background as a web engineer for Hot or Not. He started and launched, among others: Readr, Mix.io, LOLQuiz, 140 Mafia etc.
  5. Andrew Johns – Working with the likes of Quora, FaceBook, Twitter and Wealthfront inc., he boasts an impressive resume, dedicating his career to growth hacking, SEO management and content marketing.
  6. Joe Greenstein – Co-founder and CEO of Flixster and Rottentomattoes.  Prior to Flixster, Greenstein was part of the startup team and Director of Product Management at Edusoft, a curriculum and assessment platform for public school districts. Edusoft grew to serve over 4M students nationwide before being acquired by Houghton-Mifflin in 2003.
  7. Pierre Lechelle –  With a track record of helping 60+ companies reach higher goals. Pierre Lechelle is a passionate growth hacker and SAAS marketer, you can learn more about him and check out his tools on his site.  
  8. Wade Foster – Zapier CEO and co-founder Wade Foster, built the earliest prototype of their product (Zapier) in just two days at a Startup Weekend event in Columbia, Missouri. Since then, Wade has helped  Zapier become the leading automated app integration platform it is today.
  9. Ryan Singer Currently handling the Product strategy at Basecamp, Ryan often writes and speaks about: Product, Design and  Strategy. You can find out more about him via his site.  
  10. Clate Mask:  As CEO and co-founder of Infusionsoft, Clate has been educating and inspiring entrepreneurs for over ten years. Highly popular in the small business community, he is regarded as a visionary leader by many and has also, co-authored ‘Conquer the Chaos’, a New York Times best-selling book.
  11. Eric Siu: Popularly know for insightful weekly interview series, where he interviews leading industry experts. Eric Sui is currently the CEO of Single Grain LLC — a digital marketing agency focused on driving scalable and predictable growth using SEM, SEO and content marketing.
  12. Sujan Patel: With over a decade of experience in digital marketing, Sujan Patel is now a popular name in the digital marketing and tech space. He has led the marketing strategy for Fortune 500 companies, including Sales Force, Zillow, Linkedin and Mint. He is also a  weekly contributor to Inc. and Entrepreneur magazine.
  13. Jeremy Goldman: Jeremy is a marketing strategist and author of the book ‘Going Social’. He is also the founder & CEO of Firebrand Group, a digital branding and marketing consultancy devoted to Fortune 500 brands and high-growth startups.
  14. Ben Thompson: Has worked on strategy for some of the largest tech companies out there,  including Apple and Microsoft. He is the author and founder of Stratechery a blog that is dedicated to strategy, technology and business.
  15. Guillaume Cabane: Is the marketing expert and VP of Growth at Segment, a platform used for collecting important customer data and used for effective business decisions. He currently a startup Mentor.
  16. Andrew Chen: Andrew Chen is a marketer that I personally look up to. His writing is practical, insightful and can almost be applied to any type of growing company. He currently works on the growth team in Uber.  

Top Canadian Business Experts

We’re Canadian, so I had to include some of the top Canadian experts we follow at Signority. These people are change makers that inspire us every day. Follow them and learn about their stories and the knowledge they share.

  1. Mitch Joel – A communications and digital marketing visionary, Mr.Joel is often seen speaking at tech conferences on how digital technology and data are transforming the business world. He is president of Twist Image, a digital marketing agency and president and a founding partner of Distort Entertainment.
  2. Michael Hyatt – Executive Chairman of Bluecat, one of the leading growth companies in Canada focused on Internet of Things (IoT), he is a “virtual mentor”, open to discussing everything entrepreneurship, building and developing successful teams and how IoT is shaping up to be.
  3. Byron Holland – Byron Holland has been the president and CEO of the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) and has held many other leading positions. He gives his opinions on technology and recent trends in the blog “Public Domain”.
  4. Tobias Lutke – He’s the founder and CEO of e-commerce company Shopify, and a the same time, a part of the core development team for Ruby on Rails. An important name in the tech industry, making Shopify one of the biggest companies in the world was definitely one of his biggest achievements.
  5. Ryan Holmes –  Founder and CEO of Hootsuite, a social media management tool for businesses developed by him through his agency Invoke Media. Additionally, he is an influencer and contributor to LinkedIn’s Influencer Program, writing about tech and entrepreneurship.  
  6. Peter Aceto – Peter Aceto is the CEO  of Tangerine Bank. He is a globally recognized business leader and is the author of Weology — an insightful and practical approach to successful business leadership.   
  7. Eli Fathi – Eli Fathi is a serial entrepreneur with several successful exits and currently the CEO of MindBridge Ai.  He helps other emerging leaders and entrepreneurs, by sharing his experiences in business on his blog ‘My Take On Business’.
  8. Adrian Salamunovic : Founder of several multi-million dollar companies including CanvasPop.com, DNA11.com and Crated.com. He’s been featured in Techcrunch, Mashable, CNN, The Verge, WIRED.  He loves working with and helping entrepreneurs like you kick ass. You can connect with him on Clarity.
  9. Mathew Ingram: Mathew is a senior writer at Fortune and a former columnist for the Globe and Mail. He is also an active player in the Canadian technology space and co-founded the Mesh Conference in Toronto.
  10. Rick Spence: As a former editor of Profit magazine, he has an extensive career helping entrepreneurs and SMBs evolve into revenue-generating powerhouses. He’s a columnist for the National Post and regularly publishes on LinkedIn.
  11. Sarah Prevette: Sarah has a wealth of experience and knowledge when it comes to the SMB market. She was the co-founder of Sprouter, an online community that helped connect small businesses with helpful advisors, as well as, founding BetaKit, an online magazine about tech startups. She’s currently a managing director at BrandProject, a venture capital firm looking to help push innovation within Canada.
  12. Andrew Patricio: Andrew is the CEO of BizLaunch, a company that specializes in webinars for small and medium businesses. With a bevvy of knowledge in search engine optimization, email marketing and other areas of marketing operations, Andrew has a wealth of knowledge, having started seven businesses himself, written two books on running a small business, and has a YouTube channel, BizlaunchTV.
  13. Victoria Lennox: The co-founder of Startup Canada and is one of the most recognized young entrepreneurs in Canada, as recognized in 2012, where Victoria was one of Canada’s Top 30 Entrepreneurs by PROFIT Magazine. She is also the first Canadian and one of the youngest recipients of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion thanks to the work she did in the UK with the founding of NACUE.
  14. Erin Bury: Erin is the Managing Director at 88Creative, a creative communications agency in Toronto, as well as a columnist at the Financial Post and part of the founding team for Sprouter. With experience as the Managing Editor at BetaKit and Marketing Advisor for Abacus.Agency, her knowledge and skill set have made her one of Marketing Magazine’s Top 30 Under 30 Marketing Pros in 2012.

Top Social Media Marketers

It’s very likely that you found this list via social media and that you’re active on it, so I’m not going to sell you on the benefits of having your business being present there. Read on to find out about the top minds in this category and take your social media business account to the next level.

  1. Kristin Maverick – Director of The Barbarian Group, she’s one of the top social media marketers in the world. She has led social media campaigns for the likes of Samsung, General Electric, Attention and BBDO.
  2. Laura Olin – If you think you don’t know Laura Olin, think again. She’s the moving hand behind President Obama’s social media campaign. Except from overseeing the social media presence of  no-ex POTUS, Michelle Obama and Joe Biden, she also has created a ton of Obama-memes circulating around the internet.
  3. Sarah Hofstetter – As President of 360i and leader of one of the coolest social shops of the moment. Her company was behind Oreo’s viral response to SuperBowl blackout, and this was successful not because of dumb luck but because she had a team waiting to live comment on any occurrence during transmission.
  4. Jeff Greenspan – Now a freelancer, his most notable stints include BBDO, FaceBook and most recently being Chief Creative Officer at Buzzfeed. He is one of the few creatives who has experienced social marketing from every end of the spectrum. He has worked inside agencies, experimented with native advertising on one of the most viral publishers out there, and even has insider knowledge of what works on social media from his days at Facebook.
  5. “The Squirrels” – DraftFCB has a group of four creatives (Jared Isle, Noel Hamilton, Michael Lubrano, Jackie Anzaldi)  who worked together on one of Oreo’s most successful FaceBook campaigns: Oreo’s Daily Twist. They did some pretty memorable, culturally relevant posts, such as the one for Gay Pride, or celebrating the landing of the Mars Rover.
  6. Ram Krishan – He’s the one leading Lay’s and Doritos’ “Do us a flavor” and “Crash the SuperBowl” social media campaigns. His speciality is engaging users; they were asked to choose the Lay’s flavor that would get to go on markets on a very successful FaceBook campaign.
  7. Michaela Alexis – Michaela is an Ottawa-based content marketing specialist, turned Linkedin influencer. Her first viral article garnered over 120,000 views, shares, likes and comments to followers in less than a year! Her writing has been published on Yahoo! Finance, PR Daily, The Muse, Job.com, CNBC, and other large publications.  
  8. Ryan Biddulph –  Besides being a social media master, Ryan’s writes and manages his blog ‘Welcome to Blogging From Paradise’, an active community to help people build a full time, professional blogging career. As his blog’s title suggests, he primarily blogs as he travels the world. If travelling is your passion, then his blog is a must-read for you.
  9. Neal Schaffer – Neal is the founder of Maximize Your Social and a three-time award-winning author, most notable for his definitive book “Maximize Your Social”. His success has awarded and recognized him as a leader in social media, being named as CMO.com’s top 10 biggest thought leaders, Forbes Top 50 Social Media Power Influencers, and Forbes Top 5 Social Sales Influencer. His wealth of knowledge and success is tremendous and definitely worth checking out!
  10. Mike Kawula: Michael is the CEO of Social Quant, a top ranked Twitter Marketing tool by Hubspot, and ranked as one of Inc. Magazine’s Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Businesses in 2012. He is the author of “Twitter Marketing That Sells” and has great experience and knowledge when it comes to all things social media.
  11. Sandi Krakowski: Sandi is the founder and president of A Real Change International, Inc., that deals with helping businesses with marketing strategies, as well as working together to help bring faith and cohesion into workplaces. She has been featured on the Forbes Top 20 Online Marketing Influencers, Top 20 Women Social Media Influencer, and Top 50 Social Media Power Influencer lists.
  12. Ian Cleary: Ian is a huge player in the world of influencers. Founder of RazorSocial, he helps businesses understand social media tools and how to leverage them to be more efficient and effective. Ian’s credentials are outstanding, especially with blog content, becoming one of Social Media Examiner’s top 10 social media blogs within 6 months of the start of RazorSocial.
  13. Pam Moore: Pam is the CEO and Founder of Marketing Nutz, a full service, social media and digital marketing agency and has helped businesses develop and integrate digital marketing, social media, and content marketing strategies. Pam’s success hasn’t been unnoticed. She is one of Forbes’ Top 10 Social Media Power Influencer and Top 10 Social Media Women Power Influencers for her influence in the marketing world.
  14. Michael Stelzner – Michael Stelzner is a social media champion and founder of Social Media Examiner, the absolute resource for everything social media and online marketing. Besides this, he is also an author and speaker.
  15. Kim Garst – Through Boom!Social — a consulting firm that Kim Garst founded — she trains, educates, inspires and motivates entrepreneurs on how to use social media for personal branding. Kim is also the author of, “The Quick and Easy Guide to Branding Your Business and Creating Massive Sales with Pinterest”.
  16. Chris Brogan – As CEO, of Owner Media Group, Inc. Chris uses his expert background in business strategy to provide actionable skills to businesses to grow their capabilities and connections for businesses of all sizes.

Top Up-and-Coming Experts

Like the name implies, these experts are not widely known yet, but they will be, trust me. Read and follow their stories from now on so you can get inspired and informed.

  1. Nathan Lands – CEO and co-founder of recently emerging Blockai, or else artificial intelligence that protects the copyright of your Instagram photos with only the use of a hashtag. This is such a genuine way to avoid copyright infringement that the general public can’t help but love.
  2. Rob May – Characterized by a fresh way of looking at things, except for being a blogger and publishing his own articles, Rob has founded chatbot startup Talla. He’s expected to be one of the biggest names in the industry in a few years time.
  3. David & Orion Hindawi – This father-son pair have founded Tanium together, a cybersecurity firm that offers a new approach to endpoint security systems.
  4. Marcy Boyle – feature filmmaker and founder of HotBit VR, a virtual Reality startup aiming to bring virtual reality stunt and make it the next thing.
  5. Noah Kraft – Founder of The Doppler Labs, he’s also a business expert to watch out for. He’s behind all this “augmented reality for the ears” thing, that sooner or later will have to bloom in between us common folks. This guy’s such a visionary, that he’s bringing it to us in the “sooner” part of the spectrum.
  6. Melanie Pinola – Melanie is a former Lifehacker writer and current Zapier editorial team manager. She writes on various topics, from technology to investing. You can view her work here.   
  7. Lisa Sicard – Is a social media marketer and blogger. Her blog ‘Inspire To thrive’, contains some great material about social media today, blogging and SEO tips.   
  8. Kimra Luna – Kimra is a personal brand strategist and a must-follow for 2017, according to Forbes. She exploded into the industry just a few years ago and built a multi-million business through her brand ‘ Be True Brand You’  from scratch.
  9. Jason Stone – With over 1.6 million followers on Instagram, Jason is a true social media maven and his motivational posts are great picker-uppers if you’re in need of it. He is also an internationally recognized sales trainer.
  10. Reach Branding – Another branding and personal branding to look out for is Reach Branding. William Arruda, founder of Reach Branding gives tips, tricks and expert advice on how to build your personal brand. Aside from blogging, William delivers workshops on the power of personal branding for some of the world’s most successful companies.

Bonus: Top Content Marketing Platforms

We covered experts in business, now here’s a look at brands and platforms that have put content marketing at the forefront of their marketing strategy and executing it almost flawlessly. Take these learnings and inject into your small business for a 2017 full of success and growth.

  1. LinkedIn – LinkedIn is today’s social media leader as far as content marketing goes. With its long-post feature and promotion for its users, the possibilities are endless, hence it getting first place.
  2. Salesforce – With its myriad of webinars, whitepapers and expert opinions on industry matters, Salesforce is another winner of the content marketing game.
  3. Stanford Graduate School of Business – Stanford publishes Insights, which is very well received among students and professionals alike for its in-depth articles, research and documentation on a range of topics such as finance, social innovation, energy, all with well-known and established authors and researchers.
  4. IBM – This is another example of how tech companies are leading in the content marketing matters. By regularly posting tutorials, research and whitepapers on specific issues, this company has built quite a following.
  5. Adobe – Adobe’s strong point regarding content marketing is their digital magazine CMO.com. It contains slideshows, digital marketing news and insights, interviews and general articles on a variety of categories such as technology, research, strategy, management, etc. The real gem though, is their interview section, with original and straightforward expert opinions.
  6. Cisco – Cisco made waves with their documentary-style video sessions: My Networked Life, consisting of personal stories of young engineers and technology people showing how they used hardware and software to improve their lives. It was both inspiring and helpful for the careers of many young people featured there.  

A quick shoutout to Danny Schreiber (Zapier), Cody Jones (Zapier), Adrian Salamunovic and Sam Hurley for the help!
In case you missed our massively-helpful post on ‘The Ultimate List: 100+ Tools & Resources For Skyrocketing Business Growth in 2017’, you can read it here.

The Insurance Risks of Cyber Attacks

The Insurance Risks of Cyber Attacks

As the use of technology is becoming more prevalent in everyday business, insurance included, there are aspects that are prone to high levels of risk, and require ramping up on security. While it may look like a mundane issue at first, it can have severe consequences for your company. As more insurance companies, in particular, are migrating towards digital channels in order to create tighter relationships with their customers, they also are trusted with sensitive personal information for each client such as Social Security Numbers, credit card data, and so much more. In case —  but, hopefully not — you are a victim of a cyber attack, what does this mean for you? Let’s take a look at some of the insurance risks to consider when looking at cyber attacks!

Lost Sales

Cyber attacks are not always orchestrated by large-scale, highly qualified hackers, but even small DOS (denial of service) attacks can pose a great risk and affect your company severely if they catch you unprepared. Seeing as insurance companies collect data from their customers that range from personal information such as addresses, passport numbers, Social Security Numbers (SSN) or EIN, to financial info including, but not limited to credit card numbers, PINs, anything really, it is understandable for your customers to be wary, in case you have had to deal with a cyber attack previously. Studies say that 60% of SMEs who have been a victim of such attacks go out of business within three months.
Another type of cyber attacks that can cost your company quite a lot is called ‘Social cyber attack’. The most clear-cut example was the group of protesters who collectively attacked PayPal for not allowing payments to WikiLeaks. While it didn’t go down entirely, the lost sales were tremendous.

Protection Costs

According to a recent article published in Forbes magazine, cyber crime costs are projected to reach $2 Trillion by 2019. Which means that businesses need to be extra-vigilant when it comes to protecting their data.
Doing business online comes with a great number of rewards, but also with a risk or two. If you do insurance online, then you have to be aware of the cyber attacks at all times. For this, you have to prepare and protect yourself before hackers even try to get to you, and this preparation has to be thorough.
To avoid the risk of getting hacked and losing critical data, you have to hire qualified and capable people who can take care of the cyber-security section of your digital business. If you want your help to be highly professional, then you will have to spend a good amount of money for supporting it, both in terms of hiring competent IT staff and for other overheads required for smooth operations.

Changing your business model

Financial costs are not the only thing insurance companies have to worry about when dealing with cyber-crime. They have to remodel the way information is collected, stored and handled, so as to ensure that sensitive information is safe and non-vulnerable to these kinds of attacks. Many businesses have elected to altogether stop storing their customers’ financial and personal information, some others have shut down their online presence, at least online stores, if not all. This is all done when they cannot protect themselves properly, as the implications such attack can have on them, can be fatal.
Lately, customers also are being more proactive in educating themselves on online security and request to be informed on how their insurance company of choice handles security issues. You may have noticed that clients are more likely to choose businesses that are upfront and sincere about their methods — we noticed this soon after we launched our post on transparent pricing!
Making these changes to prepare and protect you and your company from these cyber risk are integral and can be daunting, but minor changes in the way you conduct business, the infrastructure, and various technological advancements can all be used to help mitigate much of the risks and improve your company.
Begin looking into cheap and secure methods to improve small processes of your work before ramping up to bigger, more complex security issues. Try looking into things like eSignature solutions, that can provide extra layers of security to already existing workflows and processes! Learn more by checking out our website or feel free to contact us directly with more questions!
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Top 5 conferences and groups in 2017 for Women in Tech

List of top 5 groups and conferences for Women in Tech for 2017

One of the best ways to get ahead of the game in for a women in tech, is attending conferences and gatherings on the topics you’re interested in. As a female in tech, this could mean you finding yourself surrounded by an audience consisting of more than 80% male. For many, it can be daunting, intimidating and dealing with prejudice is almost a given.
Why choose All-Women-in-Tech conferences?
There are many reasons why women in technology should choose to go to conferences, with the top reasons being: a chance to learn industry best practices, career advancement and networking opportunities. That being said, we can find so many other reasons why you should go to one as soon as possible. Some of them are:

  • Sharpening your skills – Sometimes we have to take a break from all the work, not to rest per se, but to learn how to work better and more efficiently. Conferences are a great way to do just that.
  • Meet experts and influencers face-to-face – There is no better way to get feedback from people you look up to as a business person, which wouldn’t be possible with online webinars or emails.
  • Networking opportunities – Except for all gurus you will get the chance to meet, you can also network and make some new connections and friends in high places.
  • New tips and tricks – Being in the same space as other people with the same interests as you, you’re bound to get some recommendations on what tools to use, how to use them and what they’re good for.

So basically, all-female conferences are just as good as mixed-gender ones, except being surrounded by like-minded females, which are more likely to have the same problems juggling housework and career. Which are the best groups and conferences to attend in 2017 if you are a woman in tech? Let’s see!

Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing  

The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference is the world’s largest gathering of women in tech, it is organized by the Anita Borg Institute and will be held on the 4th– 6th October of 2017 in the Orange County Convention center in Orlando, Florida. It has been going on for almost 15 years now and its aim is to raise awareness of the contribution of women in the computing world. With its focus on topics such as Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Software Engineering and Security/Privacy, the conference offers professional development for its attendees through the means of mentoring and collaborations.

The Women in Tech Summit  (This summit is no longer in production)

With a combination of hands-on workshops, networking and multiple career discussions with other women in the technology field, the Women in Tech Summit conference’s main goal is to inspire, educate and connect their attendees to one another. There are multiple editions of it, so if you can’t make it to one of them you can always get to another one. The dates are as follows:  Washington D.C on March 24th, Philadelphia on 21st and 22nd of April,  Boston on July 22nd and finally, Raleigh-Durham on November  11th.

Fortune’s The Most Powerful Women Summit 2017  

Fortune’s The Most Powerful Women Summit 2017 gathering is built specifically for inspiring women, with speakers sharing their road to success. On October 9th-11th in Washington D.C, you will have some of the biggest names in the technology world and beyond answer your questions about how you can reach the same levels of success. Past speakers have included now-ex first lady Michelle Obama and many more.

WITI Women in Technology Summit 2017

Currently in their 23rd edition, WITI Women in Technology Summit 2017 conference is one of the most important meetups for women in technology. Held in Silicon Valley on June 11th-13th, You will find yourself in the midst of top women executives, entrepreneurs and thought leaders. The WITI gives you the opportunity to collaborate with peers on innovative solutions for some of the most pressing problems, explore new business opportunities and make new connections.  

InnoTech Women in Tech Summit

Organized as a friendly fireside chat, along with some workshops and discussions, the 2017 InnoTech Women in Tech Summit focuses on keeping you and IT relevant. Held in Dallas on Wednesday, April 26th, some of the main topics that will be discussed during this meeting will be: IT leadership, operations and digital transformation, analytics as well as how to embrace digital disruptions.
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