Published on: 21 October 2017
Last Updated on: 16 August 2019
Portable tradeshow displays offer numerous advantages for businesses that are aiming at cutting down on costs without giving up on exhibition. It has the design of being light weight, easy, and small to transport, allowing you to enjoy a hassle free and cost effective display experience. While they may not have all the options for custom exhibits, they can get the design of supporting the goals of the trade show. Below are some tips that can guide you when choosing the display of your choice.
Choose the display that will fit in your display space
Portable trade show displays are smaller than the custom exhibits. Their light weight and smaller size are part of what makes them easy to transport. However, they can be put together or purchased in different sizes to match the display space you own.
For the same reason, you need to start by creating an effective display that will fit into the available space you have. You need to fill the space you have so that you can attract visitors to your stand. Therefore, choosing a larger display or constructing additions like LCD screens in a small display area will add both size and appeal.
Choose a background similar to the business colors
A lot of trade show displays have background material that the messaging and graphics are added. While the material may not be as crucial as designing images that are outstanding to attendees, the background appearance will play a role in the impact of the display to your visitors. For example, colors like red captures the attention visitors while yellow and blue showcases professionalism.
Therefore, when crafting a display, you need to choose a background color that will match your business. If your business is edgy, for example, you will have to choose a bright and bold color. However, in case your industry runs on professionalism, you need to choose cooler colors. It is vital to choose a background which meshes with your brand to keep your message cohesive. The immediate result is telling your visitors who you are.
Create a visible and clear message
Messaging is critical for any portable trade show display, be it a custom exhibit, rental exhibit, or a portable display. Nevertheless, the message type you choose for your display will differentiate between attaining the attention you want or falling short of your goals. For this reason, it is vital to spend time to create a visible, clear message for your display.
Especially, on small displays, visitors need to determine your business and what they can benefit from it. The elements which lead to clear and visible messaging are a short message, clear fonts, and a visible size for the attendees to see the messaging from far. The display should showcase a message that is readable and with the likeness of attracting visitors.
Build a balance in your design
When creating your portable displays, incorporating balance is key. It means that all images, text, and colors need to spread out in a way that is visually satisfying. For example, large images and dark colors are heavy to users, and therefore need to be counteracted with smaller objects and lighter colors. When you get the right balance, the display will be refreshing and even.
If you desire to create effective portable trade show displays, you need to consider adding details that enhances the overall appearance of your displays. Even though portable displays are not similar to custom displays, you can add technology, lighting, and other accessories. These features will enhance the effectiveness of the display by making it to be more interactive, modern, and polished than it would be without the additives.
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As an entrepreneur, your customers are the biggest pillar of your business. No matter your industry of domain, area of specialization, or even your business focus, they are the single most valuable asset to your organization and you should treat them as so.
Through their valuable feedback, your business can gain a new sense of direction, develop new concepts, as well as bring in more revenue. With that said, as a business owner, simply appreciating your customers isn’t enough. You need to truly understand them to tailor your products and services to meet them at their point of need. And that’s where Salesforce application development comes in.
It entails creating integrated customer relationship management solutions that interface businesses with their customers. These CRM platforms also give all the departments in a particular organization a unified view of all the customers and how they interact with various aspects of the business.
In this article, we are going to look at what Salesforce is and its uses. While at it, we are also going to delve deeper to see the entire Salesforce application development lifecycle.
What Is Salesforce?
Simply put, it’s a cloud computing SaaS company that provides customer relationship management (CRM) solutions. Thanks to the company’s cloud technology, businesses are able to better connect with their existing clientele, partners, and potential customers.
Over the years, Salesforce software has grown to become the leading marketing and customer behavior tracking solution for both small startups and Fortune 500 companies. As it turns out, customer relationship management is one of the key driving factors for the increasing demand for application development in Salesforce.
Recent research from Vonage offered a compelling view of the effects and consequences of poor customer service. In the US alone, the research revealed that an estimated $62 billion is lost annually as a result of bad customer experience.
To underwrite this figure, a different report from Huffpost has indicated that 91% of customers won’t hesitate to switch brands once they experience bad customer service. These are mind-blowing figures, especially if a business has no solution to counter the consequences of poor customer experience.
However, with Salesforce in place, businesses are able to overcome the problems caused by poor customer service and other business process variables. According to statistics published on Salesforce’s website, companies that are currently using their software have continued to see average increases in multiple areas. For instance, 34% of users have seen an increase in customer satisfaction, with 27% and 32% users seeing an increase in sales revenues and lead conversion respectively.
In 2018, Salesforce emerged as the biggest CRM software commanding a total of 19.8% market share of the CRM software market. During the same period, the company was voted as the #1 CRM provider by the International Data Corporation. It shouldn't come as a surprise that companies are willing to pay the highest Salesforce consultant salary just to get wind of this technology.
The Benefits of Using Salesforce
Given the commendable portfolio of Salesforce, here are areas it can help your business find success. Below I am going to discuss the benefits of using Salesforce.
Helps Collect Customer Intel
In the prevailing competitive business environment, overlooking data collection can be a fatal and unforgiving mistake. As a business, collecting and collating customer intelligence should be an obsession or the very least treated as a full-time affair, because it can lead to loss of revenue. As such, if you are to improve customer satisfaction and continue remaining competitive, hiring qualified Salesforce developers to build a high-quality CRM tool is inevitable.
And with Salesforce, you get an upper hand over your competitors by enjoying tools that help you identify, understand, and solve customer problems.
Flexible And Scalable
As companies and business needs continue to evolve, the tools of trade must also adapt. For instance, if the structures of your business start to grow, the management software should be able to seamlessly accommodate the changes. Cognizant of this fact, Salesforce CRM comes with multiple functions that allow for scalability right from the initial stages to any future interactions.
Helps in Account Planning
Having a unified view of customer information allows your teams to independently make plans for various accounts. It also facilitates a more hands-on customer connection approach as well as allows various reps and departments in your organization to modify their plans for optimized results. Salesforce also comes with a to-do items feature, which helps your entire workforce stay organized throughout the day.
Along with that, Salesforce also works as an organizational tool. Your team can create calendar reminders specifying the future customer follow-ups or important duties reminders to the upper management, which helps prevent anything from falling through the cracks.
If you are in the service-based businesses, Salesforce also gives you insights into the amount of time a particular customer/s has stayed in a particular subscription package. Once this info is established, your team is able to customize marketing materials to match a particular customer niche.
Cloud Connectivity
Many companies are now gravitating towards software as a service (SaaS), which means software that is available online. Luckily, Salesforce doesn’t need to be installed on a computer as it is cloud-based. This means that you can easily access it everywhere, interface it with other digitized services, and enjoy unlimited storage capacity. And since no maintenance is required, you get to save on a Salesforce developer salary that would have otherwise been paid for this purpose.
Facilitates Team Collaboration
Poor team communication and collaboration can lead to reduced productivity. On top of a unified view of customer data, Salesforce’s “Chatter” feature allows your team members to easily and regularly communicate work-related information. Additionally, the feature also lets you highlight and prioritize urgent issues that require special attention by inviting different team members to look at them.
Salesforce Application Development Lifecycle
Software developers spend a lot of time designing, developing, securing, and delivering products that perform better than initially envisioned. As a result, different software development approaches like agile development, waterfall model, and many others have merged.
When it comes to cloud-based solutions, the incorporation and implementation of various software development methodologies make it even more complex. Moreover, the Salesforce Development Lifecycle also means that the software is developed, tested, and deployed in a cloud environment.
Below, we have laid down 6 steps that clearly illustrate the entire Salesforce Development Lifecycle:
Business Requirements Analysis
The first step towards a successful custom Salesforce application is to conduct an internal business needs analysis. It entails the development team eliciting the potential customer needs, elaborating them, validating all the assumptions, and devising efficient methodologies to meet these requirements.
Business requirements analysis is important as it helps avert potential mistakes as well as make the final product both efficient and compatible with the existing system and security standards.
UI/UX Design
Another important aspect of Salesforce application development is optimizing the app for user experience. A report by iMPACT indicates that 52% of customers are less likely to conduct business with a brand offering a poor mobile experience. On the other hand, Forbes conservative estimates indicate that intentional and strategic user experience can yield a conversion rate as high as 400%.
If these numbers are anything to go by, designing a user-friendly and highly responsive Salesforce application development is absolutely paramount. In order to optimize an app for effective and enjoyable use, developers need to map out the user journey and creatively choreograph user/platform interactions to benefit the end-user.
Development Phase
The next step in Salesforce application development entails creating developers creating isolated sandboxes. Generally, these distinct sandboxes hold the main production app copy and other supplementary Salesforce configuration information. They are also independent, implying that changes in a single sandbox don’t affect the main Salesforce production enterprise. Individual developers have to clone their branches.
To retrieve the metadata from the sandboxes to the IDE, the developers need to use Force.com IDE. Once they have the metadata, they continue coding their assigned app features, performing initial unit testing, and then submit the finished code to the Git repository.
If a subsequent developer wants to build on top of this freshly updated branch, they need to clone it to their sandbox and continue developing new features. Once done, they also have to submit their latest development to the repository.
With that said, the possibility of multiple developers working on the same branch cant be overlooked. To avoid conflicts, it is important for everyone in the development team to check for possible branch updates before committing.
Testing
The next step after building a Salesforce application is to ensure that it has an excellent and stable performance. This mainly entails developers carrying out QA activities including unit tests and code reviews. It is also at this stage that functional, performance, and integration testing is conducted within the development process.
Lastly, automation tests and debugging are conducted to augment the app’s speedy delivery.
Integration
During the integration phase, the custom CRM application is interfaced with third-party software like CMS. To facilitate a smooth transition, the development team also conduct hands-on training sessions as well as provides training materials to the client.
Launch
Once the app is launched for internal use, it is transferred to the client and subjected to their User Acceptance Testing environment (UAT). Once satisfied, the finished product is moved to the production environment and deployed to the end-users.
Salesforce Application Development Team Actors
During the app development process, different players are involved and handle different aspects of the app. In the Salesforce app development life cycle, the most common actors include:
Product Manager: Help finalize business requirements.
Release Manager: Help coordinate the app’s release schedule.
Software Developer: Handles the main coding and produces the requisite deliverables.
Quality Analyst: Tests and confirms the functionality of various app features.
Potential money from the Salesforce AppExchange development:
After researching the fact this has been seen that Potential money from the salesforce AppExchange development can depend on several other factors.
How To Build an App for Salesforce AppExchange?
To build your AppExchange app, you must go through the multi-step procedure, which includes compliance, release, ongoing support, and demand app development. Below, I will discuss how to create an App for Salesforce AppExchange.
1st Step: Become the Part of Salesforce Business Partner Community
The first and foremost step in becoming a Salesforce AppExchange trade Partner is to join the Salesforce Partner Community. In this case, you must submit the form using AppExchange. After all, the Salesforce Partner Community is the hub of existing AppExchange Partners.
2nd Step: Examine AppExchange Market
The next step in building the app is to examine the AppExchange market. AppExchange offers many products and solutions for several products and cloud services in Salesforce. In this case, for optimal outcomes, you must use the curated collections of AppExchange.
3rd Step: Make the First Sketches of Your Product
Once you are done researching the existing solutions on AppExchange, you must start defining the unique value proposition of your product. For the outline, you must follow the below-mentioned procedure such as:
Firstly, you must understand your target audience.
Secondly, ensure you have an idea of business targets.
Thirdly, you must follow the types of Salesforce editions you will support.
After that, ensure you have an idea of the package type.
Next, ensure you have the Salesforce Licenses that you want to use.
Lastly, it would help if you ensured the requirements for your AppExchange App security.
4th Step: Define the Type of ISV Partnership and the Type Of Your AppExchange Solution
Once you have joined the Salesforce Partner Community, then, you must analyze the existing products, and you can create a rough roadmap. In this case, ensure you have defined the type of ISV partnership, and consequently, you also have built the AppExchange solution.
There are seven types of ISV partners in AppExchange. It includes OEM, CDP Cloud Partner, Commerce Cloud Partner, All Other Clouds (paid), All Other Clouds (free), and Technology Partner/Tableau.
5th Step: Choose the Programming Type and Tools to Build Your Salesforce App
Recently, Salesforce provided two types of programming languages and two types of tools that you can use. Let’s know what programming tools are used in Salesforce App development. This includes Apex Cloud-based programming language. Next are Lightning components and Visualforce.
6th Step: Build Your Salesforce App
Once you can identify the exact type of solution, it must have the programming language, licensing, and packaging, and of course, you must continue with the building procedure.
Two ways to do this are using internal sources or outsourcing the dedicated team. If you want to build the SalesForce App using an in-house team, it could be one the most viable and remarkable options. If you don’t have enough resources, ensure you can control the entire product cycle of AppExchange.
7th Step: Test Your Salesforce App
If you want to ensure optimal performance, then it must conduct comprehensive end-to-end testing in technological domains. In this case, you must adhere to the development of best business practices, especially for testing.
8th Step: Prepare Your App for the Launch on AppExchange
Once you are done testing and finalizing the app, the next step is to prepare by submitting it to the SalesForce AppExchange. In this procedure, it includes creating the managed packages and providing screenshots.
9th Step: Submit Your App for Security Review and Market This
Ensure you have submitted your final app by undergoing the security review and then have met the necessary security requirements.
Final Thoughts
Salesforce CRM is a critical business tool. It helps streamline data analysis and reporting, provides invaluable customer feedback, and aid in formulating better customer service strategies. As a result, businesses are able to align their resources towards creating timely, customer-oriented solutions.
With that said, Salesforce application development isn’t a linear process. It entails working with different tools and multiple software development methodologies. And with cloud solutions continuing to capture the imaginations of business owners, the world is yet to see the full potential of CRM Salesforce and the cloud ecosystem as a whole.
Read also:
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Are you running a business on your own? If yes, chances are you may face many hurdles along the way, especially if things get too busy in your shop. You have to look out for numerous aspects to make sure that your business will grow and every operation will run as smoothly as possible.
Businesses flourish not only because of the customers buying their goods but also because the operations inside are also well-controlled and tracked, thanks to various business software that makes the hardest tasks easier!
As a business owner, you must be wise in making decisions and taking rightful actions to smooth sailing sales. This is why having software for your business matters because it could make complex things simpler. Also, get a chance to save a lot of money too! You may check out the information stated below about reasons why having software matters in running a business.
Reduces Workload
If you have a fast-growing business, it is not a shock to encounter complex and numerous customer demands. Not to mention, trends change from time to time, which adds to the workload you have to face.
To better handle these kinds of situations, business software could make the challenging and most time-consuming jobs finish faster than manually. So, if you're one of those starters who can't afford to hire new employees, having the right kind of software could help your company's progress. Additionally, you could significantly cut costs of your business and allow your employees to focus on other, more important priorities.
Helps Improve the Company's Customer Service
If you want to build a good and long-lasting relationship with your customers, getting business software could help. As technology gets better over time, connecting with a wide audience is also more accessible and faster. Software specializing in phone systems like Weave VOIP phones could help you track your customer's requests and easily respond to them right away. In this way, you could also build a better business image.
Additionally, having great software makes it easier for you to reach out to your customers and respond to numerous requests, even if you have a long list of notifications. You could manage, organize, and be reminded through the software about your urgent schedule with it.
Makes Scheduling Easier and Faster
Time management is vital in running a business. There's no time you could waste, and employees should be productive in their work. In helping you improve in this aspect of your business operations, scheduling business software could help promote better workflow and prevent misunderstandings. Not to mention, it gives a better work-life balance and cuts down on labor costs and the overtime employees.
As your business grows, you will also deal with training new staff, adding time shifts, handling orders, and the good thing is that software will take charge of your scheduling needs. It could also remind you of your important tasks and projects to help you keep track of your progress. If you could execute professional scheduling in your business, you will see positive changes.
Good and Reliable Tracking
In having a better run business, you must have a backup wherein you could keep the important information of your customers using the software. The software will make things easier for you and help in organizing them too.
For instance, if you have a customer that you have not gotten into contact with for a couple of months, your chosen software could help you identify who they are and give you valuable information about the history of the relationship you have with them. Through this, you could establish a better response to them.
Eliminate Space for Mistakes
Everyone is indeed capable of committing mistakes. That is something that we all cannot deny. Committing an error is a natural part of life. Still, with the help of software, it could significantly reduce the usual human errors that are usually the roots of losing customers and business profit.
Technology has grown better over time, and obviously, more people are now dependent on gadgets and various advancements. Thus, it has been very beneficial to business owners who use software to reduce human error since technologies are accurate and well-trusted.
Some of the common mistakes that software could help solve are misunderstandings, forgetfulness, proper standardization, and more. But, you have to remember that you must not be frustrated when something goes wrong. Mistakes are made for people to learn and improve, and fortunately, the software is one of the best ways to reduce its likelihood of occurring.
Takeaway
There are many more ways on how good business software could help create better and faster operations. Having software is proven to help in management, sales, tracking, and many more. If you wish to have business software in handling some of your business needs, this could be the right time. You may check out the reasons, as mentioned earlier, why it's good to have one!
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The product launch is a proud day for your company and a vital one as well. If you want that product to succeed, you need to find a meaningful way to connect with the customers. That can be more challenging than you might realize at first.
We’ll run down the three things you should do to make sure your product launch works. Doing these three things won’t guarantee the product’s success, but it gives you the best chance to get the market penetration for which you’re undoubtedly hoping.
Product Launch Tips that Dramatically Increase Your Success Chances
There are various product launch tips that can increase your success chances significantly and some of the major ones we have described below. Have a look!
1. Announce the Product Via the Right Venue or Channel
As you’re getting ready for your product launch, your company’s employees might be a little bit nervous. Your R and D department might have worked on that product for weeks, months, or even years. You might need this product to succeed if your company is going to remain afloat or gain ground over your competitors.
If you want to give that product the best successful chance, you should announce it at the right venue or using the proper channel. That venue might be your website, but it could also be a podcast. You might also set up a press conference and announce the new product that way.
If your company is just a startup, though, a press conference is probably not a possibility. You haven’t established yourself yet, so there’s no reason why the press would care enough to show up.
You might choose social media as a way to announce your new product is out now. If you do, you’ll need to figure out the right platform to use.
You should utilize what social media platform you know your customers use the most. Using an online video editor, you can create a video introducing your product. It could be Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, or something else.
You might also announce the new product via your website. Again, that’s only going to work if you’ve already established your company and a good amount of people know about it.
2. Build the Anticipation to a Fever Pitch
You also need to run a marketing campaign before dropping the product to attract as much attention as possible. Think about the marketing leading up to a new movie or album release. Consider the various ways the marketing team drums up as much anticipation as possible.
Exactly how you can promote the product before the launch depends on several factors, such as what the product is, how much money you have to work with, and what channels you have available. You might release featurettes on your YouTube channel about the product for months in advance. You can offer related merchandise if that’s practical.
You might offer a limited edition of the product for those who preorder it. Try to fill up the waitlist on your website. You could include a special giveaway that comes with the product, but only for the first 500 customers.
3. Make Sure Your Product Fills a Need
The last thing you need to think about is whether your product addresses a customer pain point. The pain point is something the customer wants or a need they have.
If you do a lot of market research using advanced analytics and customer surveys, you should develop a very clear idea of what your customers want. If you don’t bother to do that, you’re leaving the product’s success up to chance.
That can’t happen, especially if you’ve sunk a lot of time and energy into this particular product. If you miss the mark when you feel like you’ve determined what your customers want, that can be an error from which your company might not recover.
Remember that if you’re deviating too much from what your customer base has bought in the past, you’re taking a significant risk. If you launch a product that’s a major departure from your prior offerings, offer it in a much more limited capacity. If it catches on, you can mass-produce it.
You have a much better product success chance if you derive your product from what you already make. If you’re a clothing manufacturer, for instance, and you decide to expand your brand to something wildly different, like office supplies, the odds are against it succeeding.
The Final Thoughts
You’ll need to plan the launch meticulously, with painstaking research and customer focus groups beforehand. If you do all that, you can probably count on a strong reception. With any luck, your product might go viral. It could be what propels your company to new recognition and previously unseen success. Hence, this is all about product launch tips that will help you to dramatically increase your success chances.
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