Article URL: https://www.pachyderm.com/careers/#positions
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27048812
Points: 1
# Comments: 0
Month: May 2021
BillionToOne (YC S17) is hiring software engineers to advance genetic testing
BillionToOne is a YC Top Company (https://www.ycombinator.com/topcompanies/) that has the most advanced genetic tests in the world. Our proprietary DNA sequencing technology has enabled us to launch:
– The world’s first and only blood test to use pregnant mom’s blood to detect fetal diseases like sickle cell disease and cystic fibrosis (www.unityscreen.com)
– The only prenatal test in the US for detecting fetal Rh blood type incompatibility (affects 15% of births)
– The first FDA Emergency Use Authorized COVID-19 test to run on high-throughput Sanger instruments (https://billiontoone.com/covid-19/)
In the coming years, we will also launch a cell-free DNA test for cancer detection and monitoring.
We’re looking to hire a few engineers to help us with a number of projects that are used by patients, physicians, and internal staff.
Our HQ is in Menlo Park, but engineering is fully remote (US based). Tech stack: Python/Django, PostgreSQL, React, etc.
Apply here:
– Frontend / Fullstack: https://apply.workable.com/billiontoone/j/4ED9B27860/
– Backend / Fullstack: https://apply.workable.com/billiontoone/j/14D61DA914/
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27052498
Points: 1
# Comments: 0
Dow Industrials on Track for New High
The blue-chip index rose toward a fresh record as concern about the potential for a rise in interest rates eased.
The post Dow Industrials on Track for New High first appeared on Online Web Store Site.
Get to Know Your Experian Business Credit Report
Do You Want to Learn About Your Experian Business Credit Report?
This is a good time to learn about your Experian business credit report.
But first we should start with some definitions and background on business credit.
Business Credit
This is credit in the name of a business. It is not tied to the creditworthiness of its owner or owners. Rather, business credit scores will depend on how well a company can pay its bills. Hence consumer and business credit scores can vary dramatically.
Business Credit Benefits
There are no demands for a personal guarantee. You can quickly get business credit regardless of personal credit quality. And there is no personal credit reporting of business accounts. Business credit use won’t affect your consumer FICO score. Plus the business owner won’t be personally liable for the debt the business incurs.
Business Credit Details
Being accepted for business credit is not automatic. Building business credit requires some work. Some of the steps are intuitive, and some of them are not.
Fundability
Fundability is the current ability of our business to get funding. Some factors are within your control. Others (like your time in business) are not. Your online presence and data are one area which is at or close to 100% with your control.
The better your business credit and fundability are, the more likely you will get approval for business financing.
Build Fundability on Business Credit Applications to Avoid Denials
Keep your business looking fundable (legit) with:
- A professional website and email address
- A toll-free phone number
- List your phone number with 411
- A business address (not a PO box or a UPS box)
- Get all necessary licenses for running your business
Online Fundability
There are some aspects of fundability where you should pay particular attention to what is online. Such as:
- Business owners listed and listed ownership uniform
- Business name and address uniform
- Industry aligned
- Company domain
- Data uniform on all records
Business Ownership Listings
Records consistency matters here. Your website should show who owns your business. And that info must be consistent. So if the owner is named Susan Johnson on your website’s About page, then she should not be listed as Sue Johnson on your Contact page. If your business ownership changes, you need to show that here.
Business Name and Address Uniformity
Abbreviations can be your downfall here, as can punctuation like hyphens, commas, and colons. Maybe your Contact page says your main office is on Main Street. Then your About page should not say it is on Main St.
If your business moves, or you add subsidiaries and other locations, then you need to update that info everywhere. This even means whether you use your 5-digit ZIP code, or a ZIP plus 4 code (9 digits).
Fundability: Industry Alignment
If your business is over the road trucking, then it needs to be listed that way. Pro tip: when your industry can be called several different names, mention those other phrases on your site.
Your Business Email and Website: Company Domain
When your company domain matches your business name, it helps with fundability. Pro tip: try to match what people are searching for online. So if the word ‘brothers’ is in your company name, then determine if ‘brothers’ or ‘bros’ is used by people searching for your company online.
Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring.
There are Three Different Credit Bureaus – But What Makes Your Experian Business Credit Report Special?
What distinguishes an Experian business credit report from reports through the two other big credit bureaus? And can you use that data to your advantage?
There are three major credit bureaus for business: Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, and Equifax. FICO SBSS and CreditSafe are also players.
In the business world Equifax and Experian are up there. But it is Dun & Bradstreet which is the major player.
Dun and Bradstreet has more than 10 times the records of the next closest reporting agency. See dnb.com/about-us/company.html. It makes sense to start with Dun and Bradstreet even when going over your Experian business credit report. This is because you must start the business credit building process with them anyway.
Dun & Bradstreet
Go to the Dun and Bradstreet website and look for your business, at dnb.com/duns-number. But just what happens if you are unable to find it? Then get a free D-U-N-S number. You will always need a D-U-N-S number to start building business credit. Go here to get a D-U-N-S number: dnb.com/duns-number/get-a-duns.html.
A D-U-N-S number is how Dun and Bradstreet gets your company into their system. And a D-U-N-S number plus 3 payment experiences leads to a PAYDEX score. A payment experience is a record of a purchase from a business which reports to a credit reporting agency. In this case, Dun and Bradstreet. Once your business is in Dun and Bradstreet’s system, search Equifax and Experian’s sites for your business. You can do so at creditsuite.com/reports.
Your Experian Business Credit Report
Business credit is in a business’s name. And it depends on how well a company can pay its bills. But Experian uses both consumer and business credit data to gauge risk.
They have found that blended data and reports work a lot better for them. For troubled businesses, blended scores dropped an average of 30% over the four quarters leading up to a bad event. The owner’s consumer scores showed no statistically significant decline during the same period.
53% of the time, the first signs of credit problems were on the business credit reports. 46% of the time, the first signs of credit problems were on the owner’s personal report. Blended scores outperformed consumer or business alone by 10 – 20%.
Per Experian:
“By combining personal and commercial credit information in one report, Experian provides a complete picture of the creditworthiness of small businesses”
You Must Get Set Up with Experian
Get a BIN (Business Identification Number) from Experian. Experian’s BizSource assigns a BIN.
How Long Data Stays on Your Reports at the Different Credit Bureaus
Per Experian Business, bankruptcies stay for 7 to 10 years. Chapter 13 bankruptcy rolls off your credit report 7 years from the filing date. While Chapter 7 bankruptcy stays for 10 years from the filing date. Trade data stays on for 36 months. Judgments, collections, and tax liens stay on for 6 years and 9 months. UCC filings stay on for 5 years. See experian.com/small-business/how-long-credit-report. There are similar time frames for the two other big business credit bureaus.
Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring.
Your Experian Business Credit Report: The Particulars
We’ll look at a Typical Experian Business Credit Advantage SM Report. Experian provides a sample report where you can get an idea of what to expect. Experian changes its reports at times. So the best, most accurate and up to date source for this info is the Experian website. Find it online at https://sbcr.experian.com/pdp.aspx?pg=Sample-BCAI&hdr=report.
Business Background Information
The first part of a report has:
- Name
- Address
- Main phone number
- Experian BIN
- Annual sales
- Business type (corporation, etc.)
- Date Experian file established
- Years in business
- Total number of employees
- Incorporation date and state
Experian Business Credit Score
Business Credit Scores range from 1 to 100. Higher scores mean lower risk. This score predicts the chance of serious credit delinquencies within the next 12 months. This score uses tradeline and collections info, public filings as well as other variables to predict future risk. This part of the report has a graph to show the score.
Key Score Factors:
- Number of commercial accounts with terms other than Net 1-30 days
- The number of commercial accounts that are not current
- Number of commercial accounts with high utilization
- Length of time on Experian’s file
Experian Financial Stability Risk Rating
Financial Stability Risk Ratings range from 1 to 5. Lower ratings indicate lower risk. A Financial Stability Risk Rating of 1 indicates a 0.55% potential risk of severe financial distress. So this is within the next 12 months.
Experian puts all businesses in one of five risk segments. This rating predicts the chance of payment default and/or bankruptcy, in the next 12 months. This rating uses tradeline and collections data. It also uses public filings and other variables to predict future risk.
Key Rating Factors:
- Number of active commercial accounts
- Risk associated with the business type
- Risk associated with the company’s industry sector
- Employee size of business
Credit Summary
This part has several counts of various data points. For the most part, the details are further within the report.
The data outlined shows:
- Current Days Beyond Terms (DBT)
- Predicted DBT for a particular date
- Average industry DBT
- Payment Trend Indicator (stable, or not)
This part also shows:
- Lowest 6 month balance
- Highest 6 month balance
- Current total account balance
- Highest credit amount extended
- Median credit amount extended
- Number of payment tradelines
- Also, how many lender consortium experiences
- Number of business inquiries
- Number of UCC Filings
More on the Credit Summary
This part also has:
- Number of Banking/Insurance/Leasing
- A percentage of businesses scoring worse than the company in the report
- Number of bankruptcies
- How many liens
- Also the number of judgments filed
- Number of accounts in collections
- Company background
Company background has info on founding date, and where the company’s headquarters are. Plus there’s a basic background of what the business does.
Payment Trend Summary
This part starts with two graphs. They show the company in question versus its industry on Monthly payment trends and Quarterly payment trends.
These are percentages of on-time payments by month and quarter, respectively.
This part then shows tables with recent payment info by month and quarter. Then there are three more graphs:
- Continuous Payment Trends: continuous distribution with DBT (days beyond terms)
- Newly Reported Payment Trends: newly reported distribution with DBT
- Combined Payment Trends: combined distribution with DBT
Trade Payment Information
This next part shows details on payment experiences (financial trades). There is also data on lender consortium experiences (financial exchange trades):
- Tradeline experiences (continuous trades)
- Aged trades
- Payment trend detail
- There is also a link to send any missing payment experiences
Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring.
Inquiries, Collection Filings, and Collections Summary
The Inquiries part shows the industry making the inquiry and a total made during a given month. The Collection Filings sector has the date, name of the agency, and status (open or closed). If a collection is closed, the Collection Filing sector also shows the closing date. The Collections Summary shows: status, number of collections, dollar amount in dispute, and amount collected (even if $0).
Commercial Banking, Insurance, Leasing
For leasing, this part shows:
- Leasing institution name and address
- Product type
- Lease start date and term
- Original and remaining balances
- The scheduled amount due
- Also the number of payments per year
- The number of payments which are current, late, or overdue
Judgement Filings
This part shows:
- Date and plaintiff
- Filing location
- Legal type and action
- Document number
- Liability amount
This part shows cases where the company in the report is plaintiff or defendant.
Tax Lien Filings
This part has:
- Date and owner
- Filing location
- Legal type and action
- Document number
- Liability amount
- Description
UCC Filings
This part has:
- Date
- Filing number
- Jurisdiction
- Secured party
- Activity (filed, or not)
UCC Filings Summary
This part shows:
- Filing period
- Number of cautionary filings
- Total filed
- Also the total released
- Total continued
- Amended/Assigned
Cautionary UCC Filings have one or more of the following collateral:
- Accounts
- Accounts receivable
- Contracts
- Hereafter acquired property
- Leases
- Notes receivable, or
- Proceeds
Score Improvement Tips
Experian offers suggestions on how to improve your reports. Such as:
- Get net-30 terms, if possible, from existing and future tradeline suppliers
- Pay accounts on time or work with the tradeline supplier on a payment plan so a business is not delinquent
- Lower credit utilization
- Make sure all the data in the report is correct
Disputing Issues with Your Experian Business Credit Report
None of the different business bureaus will change your scores without proof. They are starting to accept more and more online disputes. But include proofs of payment with it. These are documents like receipts and cancelled checks.
Fixing credit report errors also means you specifically spell out any charges you challenge. Make your dispute as crystal clear as possible. If you need to snail mail anything in, use certified mail. This is so that you have proof that you sent in your dispute. With all the different credit bureaus, be specific about the concerns with your report.
You can correct Experian issues at: experian.com/small-business/business-credit-information.
Monitoring Experian Credit Scores and Reports
The costs of monitoring at all three big business credit reporting agencies can add up fast. At Experian, your best (least expensive) bet would be a Business Credit Advantage. Subscription Plan. It currently costs $189 per year. See sbcr.experian.com/pdp.aspx?pg=Sample&link.
Monitor Business Credit at D&B, Experian, and Equifax for Less
All of Experian’s reports are expensive! But did you know that you can get business credit monitoring for all 3 of the big business CRAs. And all in one place – for less? Credit Suite offers monitoring through its Business Finance Suite (through Nav). See what credit issuers and lenders see. So you can directly improve your scores and get the business credit and funding you need. See suitelogin.com and creditsuite.com/monitoring.
Your Experian Business Credit Report: Takeaways
So Experian has revamped their reports dramatically. They no longer use the term ‘Intelliscore’. This major business credit reporting agency is committed to correct data, and to helping companies improve their reports. To monitor Experian, Equifax, and Dun and Bradstreet for a lot less, monitor through Credit Suite!
The post Get to Know Your Experian Business Credit Report appeared first on Credit Suite.
How to Optimize Microsoft AdCenter for More Effective Paid Campaigns
Gaining paid search footholds can be challenging, and once you’ve built a successful Google Ads campaign and watched it perform, it can be disheartening to reach the end of that campaign’s lifespan.
However, it doesn’t have to end there.
An excellent strategy for expanding the success of your PPC campaigns is to look beyond Google Ads to other platforms like Microsoft AdCenter, which allows you to advertise on Bing, Yahoo!, and other affiliate platforms.
It’s simple to translate your Google Ads campaign to the Microsoft platform because they have similar functionality. Using the same fundamental best practices, you can create more leads through PPC on an entirely new platform.
What Is Microsoft AdCenter?
Microsoft AdCenter is the centralized hub where advertisers go to buy sponsored ads on Bing or Yahoo!
Previously Bing Ads, the platform underwent a rebrand after combining forces with Yahoo!
While it’s safe to say that the majority of internet search traffic comes through Google, that doesn’t mean digital marketers should be sleeping on Microsoft AdCenter.
In fact, with a combined 30 percent market share of the internet’s search function, you’re going to want to add a visit to Microsoft AdCenter to your digital marketing itinerary.
Benefits of Optimizing Microsoft AdCenter for Your Ad Campaigns
Whenever you’re running a PPC campaign, you want to be constantly optimizing.
Why?
When you recalibrate through optimization, you increase your chances of reaching your target audience. This practice will not only increase your overall revenue but will also decrease your ad spend.
Microsoft AdCenter is no different. You want to continuously optimize your campaigns for success. While there’s much work to be done before launching a campaign, it’s arguable that the most valuable work is done post-launch.
With 1.03 billion unique users each month, Bing offers advertisers extensive reach.
However, without optimizing your campaigns, how can you ensure you’re reaching the right audience members?
Short answer: You can’t, which is why understanding how to optimize in Microsoft AdCenter is vitally important to your success on the platform.
Difference Between Microsoft AdCenter and Google Ads
As mentioned above, Microsoft AdCenter has similar functionality to Google Ads. However, the two PPC platforms differ greatly in five key areas: campaign-level control, closed variants, engagement rates, search partner targeting options, and ad scheduling.
Campaign-Level Control
Google Ads requires users to set the language, ad rotation, network, ad scheduling, and location settings at the campaign level. Groups are then restricted to these settings.
On the other hand, Microsoft AdCenter opens these options at the ad group level, permitting users to easily make change settings at any time, rather than having to build an entirely new campaign.
Closed Variants
After eliminating exact and phrase match keywords by enforcing a “close variant” target within Google Ads, the reach of exact and phrase keywords extended by 7 percent, including misspellings, pluralized terms, and grammatical iterations.
While Microsoft AdCenter does have an option to use the close variant query, it is just that: optional.
Increased Engagement and Conversion Rates
Users who engage with Microsoft AdCenter PPC ads have increased engagement with the selected sites and landing pages.
In fact, studies found that automotive search users who interacted with Microsoft AdCenter content had conversation rates 10-56 percent higher than Google Ads.
While this is clearly a particular audience subset, it is still indicative of increased interaction overall.
In addition to these factors, another difference emerges between Google Ads and Microsoft AdCenter.
As we discussed above, it’s simple to import your Google Ads campaign into Microsoft AdCenter. Despite this ease, there are considerable differences to keep in mind as you optimize your campaigns on each respective platform, including:
- search partner targeting options
- ad scheduling
While both Google Ads and Microsoft Ads have search partner networks (external sites that permit advertisers to expand reach on their platforms), the networks are notably different.
Search Partner Targeting Options
Unsurprisingly, Google boasts hundreds of sites in their search partner network. If you’re not seeing big returns on including this extended network in your targeted campaign, you can remove the function. Unfortunately, that removal is all or nothing—you can’t cherry-pick which partners you’d like to reach.
With Microsoft Ads, however, you can select which partners to reach, a key difference as you optimize your campaigns.
Ad Scheduling
While ad scheduling is a key component of any PPC campaign, different parameters for setting ad schedules apply when transitioning your Google Ads strategy to Microsoft.
With Google Ads, dashboard time is automatically set to the time selected upon account creation, so users need to update scheduled times depending on the time zone they’re trying to reach.
Microsoft Ads, however, allows users to set schedules based on the location of the target, making scheduling infinitely easier.
While these differences may not seem huge, they’re important to note as you begin your Microsoft AdCenter campaign.
Tips for Optimizing Microsoft AdCenter
We’ve already highlighted the importance of optimization; now it’s time to break down exactly how to optimize your Microsoft AdCenter campaigns.
1. Perform Keyword Research
If you don’t have a solid grasp on your keywords, now’s the time to start. By researching what terms apply to your purpose and audience, you can incorporate that language into your campaigns to ensure you’re reaching your desired audience.
2. Use Negative Keywords
When you include negative keywords in your campaign, you can exclude confusing or irrelevant terms from your strategy. This allows more accurate audience reach as well as reduced ad spend due to more precise matching.
3. Segment Your Campaigns
For data-driven PPC advertisers, segmenting campaigns into ad groups will allow you to make more intelligent optimization decisions. Segmentation lets marketers focus their message on different groups, which enables the collection of targeted metrics. Through a more segmented audience, you can tailor the message and receiver.
4. Use Ad Extensions
With ad extensions, you can add additional pieces of information about your business, including phone number, address, or a particular link. These free-to-add options can increase the visibility and utility of your ads.
5. Follow Ad Writing Best Practices
Strong, relevant copy is vital to the success of any PPC campaign. As you optimize your Microsoft AdCenter content, keep these best practices in mind:
- Underscore the audience’s primary pain point: By speaking toward your audience’s primary pain point, you not only establish how you can solve their pain; you also establish that you understand their pain. This builds trust and connection between the advertiser and consumer.
- Incorporate numbers or statistics: Historically, numbers work to grab reader attention. This was true long before the internet and will continue to be true as the internet evolves.
- Utilize emotional triggers: It’s no secret that people react to emotional triggers. When you harness the power of emotion in your ads, you can almost guarantee a reaction from your audience. Check out how this law firm used emotion to advertise its services:
6. Adjust Audience Type
Microsoft Ads provides users with several different types of audiences to use to ensure your ads reach the right group. You can adjust the type of audience to optimize your campaign and improve your reach.
7. Experiment With Dynamic Search Ads
These ads will automatically target relevant search queries formed from your website content. The ads are then dynamically created to react to those custom queries, reducing workload and increasing audience reach.
8. Use the Microsoft Audience Network
This audience marketing solution draws on Microsoft’s artificial intelligence (AI) to better target your ideal audience. Be sure to take advantage of this Microsoft-exclusive offering, as it can drastically boost ad performance.
9. Use Universal Event Tracking (UET)
Yet another Microsoft-exclusive solution, you can use UET to view customer behavior after they interact with your ad. By placing a UET tag across your website, Microsoft gathers data that tracks goals and audiences with remarketing lists.
10. Set up Conversion Tracking
By setting up conversion tracking in Microsoft AdCenter, the platform matches you with relevant searchers across the Microsoft network. Conversion tracking also provides tools to optimize your campaigns for success.
Measuring the Success of Your Microsoft AdCenter Campaign
You’ve optimized your campaign throughout its lifespan, and now you want to know if it should be deemed a success or a failure.
Below, we break down three key metrics that will highlight your campaign’s overall performance.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
This metric is key to understanding whether your ads are relevant to your customers. CTR is determined by dividing the number of clicks your ad receives by the number of times your ad is shown.
Conversion Rate
Strong conversion rates indicate that what you spend on clicks is returning to you in profits. This metric is calculated by dividing the number of conversions by the number of total ad interactions tracked to a conversion in a given time period.
Cost Per Conversion
If you’re overpaying for conversions, it’s time to go back to the drawing board. This metric is determined by dividing the total cost for clicks by the number of conversions.
These three metrics provide a strong, foundational assessment of your campaign’s performance. While you can get lost in the intricacies of data, these figures always provide a clear result.
Examples of Great Microsoft AdCenter Campaigns
Although Microsoft AdCenter is filled with examples of great PPC advertising, here are three excellent PPC ads that used a unique feature of the platform for a successful campaign.
Maybelline
Maybelline uses a detailed breakdown in their paid listing to allow searchers to find exactly what they need. By segmenting by eyes, lips, mascara, and face makeup, the beauty company increases the likelihood that the searcher with clear intent will readily find what they need.
From You Flowers
These product ads rely on visuals to interest the searcher. By placing product images, pricing, and information along the side of the page, searchers have all the information they need instantly.
Papa John’s
Ad extensions can go a long way for PPC ads. Pizza vendor Papa John’s made their listing as informative as possible, while also touting their success and visibility by sharing the number of monthly site visitors. This strategy not only provides helpful information like deals and pizza type options, but it also increases consumer trust through the sheer number of social visitors.
While all three of these ads use extensions in very different ways, they bring more texture to the search engine results page (SERP), engaging the audience through images, increasing the immediacy of search success, and building consumer trust.
Conclusion
While both Google Ads and Microsoft AdCenter offer similar functionality, the options to optimize in Microsoft AdCenter are completely different.
Be sure to take advantage of Microsoft’s unique offerings and optimize your content and strategy through the Microsoft lens, ensuring that you get the most bang out of your advertising buck.
As you become more familiar with Microsoft AdCenter’s features, you could see your success rate rise as you optimize for target audience reach.
If you’re ready to find an agency partner to help you kickstart your paid campaign on Microsoft’s ad platform, let us know!
What’s the best Microsoft AdCenter campaign you’ve ever seen?
How to Use Data as a Service (DaaS) Tools in Your Marketing Analysis
Data as a service (DaaS) is becoming increasingly popular. New advancements in cloud computing technology have made remote, cloud-based data storage and management easier to use and more accessible.
Businesses using DaaS platforms can see improvements in data collection, usage, and management. Additionally, offloading data management to DaaS companies means more internal capacity for business development.
Interested in getting started with a DaaS platform? Below, we’ll outline the benefits, solutions, and tools you can use to improve your data management strategies.
What Is Data as a Service (DaaS)?
Data as a service uses a cloud computing strategy to make business data readily available to stakeholders and third parties.
DaaS functions similarly to software as a service (SaaS), which removes the need for managing and downloading software locally. Unlike SaaS, which has been popular for the last decade, DaaS has only recently seen widespread adoption, primarily due to advancements in cloud computing technology.
Now, with low-cost cloud storage and bandwidth and cloud-based platforms explicitly designed for DaaS available, more businesses are moving their data storage out of local servers and into the cloud.
With DaaS services, businesses are no longer tied to local servers and storage systems, allowing them to securely store and access data remotely, collaborate with global partners, and find important business insights to drive new growth.
To put it simply, by using DaaS, you can access critical business data from anywhere at any time.
On the Gartner Hype Cycle, data and analytics services have already reached the Plateau of Productivity, showing their staying power in the market.
What Are the Benefits of Using Data as a Service Tools?
Businesses of all shapes and sizes can benefit from using data as a service tools.
Here are a few ways data as a service tools can improve your current data management processes:
- Remote collaboration: DaaS allows partners in different locations to collaborate because employees can easily access the data from their devices regardless of location.
- Seamless data access: Cloud storage also means team members don’t need to go into the office to download a file or check their analytics, saving individual employees valuable time and energy.
- Simple setup: Businesses that adopt these platforms can begin storing and processing their data immediately, with very little setup time.
- Crash protection: Cloud infrastructure is less likely to crash than traditional storage methods. This makes working on a DaaS server more secure and less prone to complications.
- Improved financial reporting: Data as a service also improves financial reporting as businesses can convert IT costs from capital expenditures into operational expenditures.
- Cost-effective: DaaS solutions are more cost-effective, allowing businesses to direct money where it’s most needed. Automated maintenance further alleviates internal management needs.
- Insights and improvements: With features like data marketplaces, businesses can buy, sell, and trade data to drive new business growth. Each platform offers different insight and optimization methods to improve overall data management.
Who Benefits Most from DaaS Tools?
Data as a service is beneficial to any business model informed by data.
Whether you’re a marketing company focused on improving consumer insights or a product-based company with a global distribution process, there are many ways to leverage these exciting cloud-based services.
For example, if a company regularly tracks, mines, stores, and implements data insights, they can benefit from DaaS.
Or, if the business’s success is dependent on being aligned with customer needs and product offerings, data services can give important insights into improving this alignment.
Companies with remote teams can benefit from DaaS tools because they allow easy access to data from anywhere in the world.
DaaS also minimizes the need for in-house data management, which is a good strategy for companies looking to divert resources to other departments.
Additionally, companies that want access to data-backed analytics to improve internal processes or enhance customer relations can also benefit from this service.
Data collected by RocketSource has shown one of the greatest benefits of DaaS is improved customer experiences. This is due to the ability of these platforms to simplify data management both internally and externally.
For businesses, DaaS tools make it easy to understand and optimize decisions and campaigns. For customers, it can result in more tailored experiences overall.
Using DaaS Tools in Your Marketing Analysis
Data as a service tools give businesses the ability to segment unique data sets generated from Big Data. This information can be collected from six specific categories:
- web mining: data compiled by mining the open internet
- search information: data compiled from browser activity and intent behavior
- social media: data compiled from shares, comments, check-ins, and other actions taken on social media
- crowdsourcing: data collected from the public through surveys, polls, forums, and so on
- transactional: data created from financial, logistical, and other such business practices, including withdrawals, deposits, insurance claims, flight reservations, and more
- mobile: data compiled from apps and services working in the background of mobile phones
The ability to collect, analyze, and store all of this user-specific data is a huge advantage to marketers, allowing for more cohesive and clear market research.
Here are a few ways you can use this data to improve your marketing tactics:
Benchmarking Reports
DaaS makes comparing your performance against competitors easy. With simple, global access to organizational data, marketers can create benchmarking reports to gather data on financials, turnover, and leadership efforts and back everything up with percentile breakdowns. Workday is one data as a service provider offering exceptional benchmarking tools.
Business Intelligence Sharing
Data as a Service tools make data standardization easy by bringing together data sources and analytics with unique data visualizations. Companies can then offer this data to internal users to help facilitate business intelligence processes.
Access to Data Marketplaces
DaaS tools can give businesses access to data marketplaces where users can buy and sell different data sets from multiple sources. This data can then be repurposed and monetized for future business growth.
Consumer Research
Many data as a service platforms offer consumer insights and research options. These insights can alleviate internal research for marketing teams and give more refined solutions to improving consumer relationships.
How to Pick the Right DaaS Tool for You
Getting set up with data as a service is relatively simple, as most setup and preparation work is done through the service rather than on-site.
Most DaaS providers offer technical support solutions that alleviate this management from the business side.
How to Pick a DaaS Tool
Consider your business needs. Depending on your size, growth goals, and team, you may need different features in a data as a service tool.
Points to consider when choosing a data as a service tool are:
- price
- scalability
- reliability
- flexibility
- infrastructure integrations
- team access requirements
- existing workflows and needs
Once you have these points laid out, it’s time to choose a data as a service tool and get your business signed up.
7 Great Data as a Service Tools
1. Snowflake
Snowflake offers data engineering, data lakes, data applications, data warehouses, and data sharing. Some of their biggest value propositions include unlimited scale, seamless access across clouds, and near-zero maintenance. Snowflake is a good choice for large, international businesses needing scalability and high-security features.
2. SAP HANA Cloud
SAP HANA Cloud is the cloud-based data foundation for SAP Business Technology Platform. It integrates data from across its enterprise system, creating live data solutions. This DaaS platform offers a low total cost of ownership and high processing performance through hybrid multimodal transactions. Real-time analytic processing allows for quick, data-backed decisions. SAP HANA is best for businesses already working in the AP Business Technology Platform.
3. Oracle
Oracle is the world’s leading converged, multi-model database management system. It offers NoSQL and MySQL databases, simplifies recreational database access, and reduces internal management workloads. Oracle boasts high-level performance, scalability, and availability for its clients. This DaaS tool is optimal for businesses looking for a hands-off approach to data management.
4. Kantar Marketplace
Kantar Marketplace is a data as a service platform designed to deliver market research insights to marketers and agencies. Their platform includes insights into ad testing and development, consumer and retail trends, product development, media planning and effectiveness, and provides custom survey options.
5. D&B M-DaaS
The dun & bradstreet M-DaaS: Master Data as a Service platform allows companies to integrate master data into native workflows seamlessly. Pre-mastered commercial content is delivered through a consistent and dependable platform, allowing brands to improve their master data management programs. This tool is a good choice for large or legacy companies with complex, large data sets to manage.
6. Refinitiv
Refinitiv is a data as a service platform providing risk intelligence data for financial institutions. They offer a centralized view of the legal entity of a company, supplier, or issuer so entity relationships and risks can be easily identified and managed. Regulatory compliance and requirements are the backbones of this service. Refinitiv is an excellent choice for businesses with high compliance requirements and diverse entity partnerships.
7. Dynata
Dynata is the world’s largest first-party data and insights platform, reaching over 62 million consumers and business professionals worldwide. Their service offers real-time feedback loops so marketers can understand what’s working and what’s not. Dynata is driven to maximize ROI at every stage of a campaign for continuous optimization.
How to Use DaaS Tools in Your Marketing Analysis
- In Your Competitor Benchmarking Reports:
You can use DaaS tools to gather benchmarking data based on competitors.
- In Your Business Intelligence Sharing:
You can use DaaS tools to get images of your brand’s performance across data points.
- In Data Marketplaces:
DaaS tools buy and sell audience data from multiple marketplaces.
- In Consumer Research:
DaaS tools can offer consumer insights.
Conclusion
Data as a service platforms allow for cohesive and accurate data management that can be accessed anywhere, anytime.
DaaS can also alleviate some internal management and IT needs, allowing businesses to move budgets towards more profitable markets and employees to focus on big picture issues.
Internal platform insights from DaaS platforms can be beneficial to marketers looking to improve consumer research and optimize existing data sets.
With improved data visualization, storage, access, and consumer data insights, data as a service offers growth and ease to partners and affiliates alike.
Once you have a DaaS system in place, you can start levering the data and investing in your marketing strategy. Let us know if we can help you reach your audience!
What excites you about data as a service?
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A/B Testing: Definition, How it Works, Examples & Tools
A/B testing is a fantastic method for figuring out the best online promotional and marketing strategies for your business. It can be used to test everything from website copy to sales emails to search ads. While it can be time-consuming, the advantages of A/B testing are enough to offset the additional time it takes. Well-planned …
The post A/B Testing: Definition, How it Works, Examples & Tools first appeared on Online Web Store Site.
Berkshire Chooses Greg Abel as Warren Buffett's Successor in CEO Role
The choice of Mr. Abel to eventually lead Berkshire Hathaway answers a question that had hovered over the firm for decades.
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A/B Testing: Definition, How it Works, Examples & Tools
A/B testing is a fantastic method for figuring out the best online promotional and marketing strategies for your business. It can be used to test everything from website copy to sales emails to search ads. While it can be time-consuming, the advantages of A/B testing are enough to offset the additional time it takes.
Well-planned tests can make a huge difference in the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. Narrowing down the most effective elements of a promotion and then combining them, can create a far more effective marketing plan.
What is A/B Testing and Why Does it Matter?
A/B testing is a marketing strategy that pits two different versions of a website, ad, email, popup, or landing page against each other to see which is most effective.
For example, you might test two different popups to see which drives more webinar sign-ups or two different Google Ads to see which drives more purchases.
On my own site, I spent time A/B testing my popup to find out what encouraged users to engage with my brand.
Over time, we found offering a free website analysis (which provides tons of value) was the most effective way to establish expertise and show visitors the value we offer.
Why is A/B Testing Important?
Accurate A/B tests can make a huge difference to your bottom line. By using controlled tests and gathering empirical data, you can figure out exactly which marketing strategies work best for your company and your product.
When you figure that one variation might work two, three, or even four times better than another, the idea that you would run promotions without testing starts to seem a bit ludicrous.
When done consistentyly, testing can improve your bottom line substantially. If you know what works and what doesn’t (and have evidence to back it up) it’s easier to make decisions and craft more effective marketing strategies.
Here are a few other benefits to running regular tests on your website and marketing materials:
- Helps You Better Understand Your Target Audience: When you see what types of emails, headlines, and other features your audience responds to, you can better understand who your audience is and what they want.
- Higher Conversion Rates: A/B testing is the single most effective way to increase conversion rates. Knowing what works and what doesn’t gives you actionable data that can help you streamline the conversion process.
- Stay On Top of Changing Trends: It’s hard to predict what type of content, images, or other features people will respond to. Testing regularly helps you stay ahead of changing consumer behavior.
- Reduce Bounce Rates: When site visitors see content they like, they stay on your site longer. Testing to find the type of content and marketing materials your users like will help you create a better site — and one that users want to stay on.
How Do You Plan an A/B Test?
The first thing to do when planning an A/B test is to figure out what you want to test. Are you running an on-site test, or an off-site test? If you’re running an on-site test, you’ll want to think of all the sales-related pieces of your website, and then figure out which elements to test.
For example, you might test:
- headlines
- calls to action text
- calls to action location
- pop up
- featured images
- copy
- the number of fields in a form
With off-site tests, you’re probably testing either an ad or a sales email. Testing ad copy to see which ad drives more conversions can help you focus your advertising efforts. Once you know your ad is converting as well as possible, it’s easier to justify spending more money on it.
The same goes for emails. If you send out two versions to your list (randomly selecting which half gets which email), and then track which one converts better, you can send only that version the next time.
Once you know what you’ll test, make a list of all the variables you’ll test. For example, if you’ve decided to test your call to action, you might test:
- the location
- the exact text used
- the button color or surrounding space
It’s a process, and it’s common for multiple A/B tests to be carried out prior to making a final decision or final change.
Before you start testing, make sure you have a clear idea of the results you’re looking for. You should already know your baseline result, which is the results you’re currently getting. You want to test option A and B against each other, but you also want to know that whichever one does better in the test is also doing better than your current results.
Alternatively, you can use A as your control (leaving whatever you’re currently using) and then use something new for B.
Tests need to be run simultaneously to account for any variations in timing. You can’t test one variation today and the other one tomorrow, because you can’t factor in any variables that might have changed between today and tomorrow. Instead, you need to split the traffic seeing your variations at the same time.
Here’s an A/B testing checklist to review before running your first test:
- Decide what you want to test.
- Create two versions of the same ad, landing page, etc.
- Decide how long your test will run (I suggest at least two weeks, but it may be longer or slightly shorter depending on your traffic and industry)
- Chose a testing tool to help you run your test. (More on that later.)
- Launch!
- After two or so weeks, take a look at the results. Which version won?
- Rinse, and repeat. A/B testing is most effective when done continually.
What to Use A/B Testing to Test
You can test virtually anything in your marketing materials or on your website: headlines, calls to action, body copy, images, etc. If you can change it, you can test it.
That doesn’t mean you should spend months testing every little thing. Instead, focus on changes most likely to have a big impact on traffic and conversions.
On your website, this likely includes:
- the headline
- your call to action
- any graphic you use in direct correlation to your sales efforts
- the sales copy or product descriptions
- feature image
In an email, you might test the title, images, links, CTAs, or segmenting options. In a paid ad, especially a text ad (like a search ad), you have fewer things to change, and so you might test the main headline, the offer, or targeting.
Testing different offers is also important. Just make sure that each person is always offered the same promotion. For example, if a free gift is offered to group A, and a discount is offered to group B, then you want to make sure that group A always contains the same visitors, as does group B.
You can also test the full path of conversion. For example, you might test newsletter A with landing page A, and newsletter B with landing page B. Later, you may want to test newsletter A with landing page B, and vice versa.
This can give you a better idea of what is working, especially if you’re getting mixed results or if the results are very close. Here are a few other tests you can run.
How Much Time Does A/B Testing Take?
A/B testing is not an overnight project. Depending on the amount of traffic you get, you might want to run tests for anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks. Remember, you only want to run one test at a time for the most accurate results.
Running a test for an insufficient amount of time can skew the results, as you don’t get a large enough group of visitors to be statistically accurate. Running a test for too long can also give skewed results, though, since there are more variables you can’t control over a longer period.
Make sure that you stay abreast of anything that might affect your test results, so that you can account for statistical anomalies in your results. When in doubt, run the test again.
Considering the impact A/B testing can have on your bottom line, it’s worth taking a few weeks to properly conduct tests. Test one variable at a time, and give each test sufficient time to run.
Can I Test More Than One Thing At a Time?
There are two approaches to this question. Say you just want to test your headline, but you have three possible variations. In that case, running a single test and splitting your visitors (or recipients in the case of an email) into three groups instead of two is reasonable, and would likely still be considered an A/B test.
This is more efficient than running three separate tests (A vs. B, B vs. C, and A vs. C). You may want to give your test an extra couple of days to run, so you have enough results to see what actually works.
Testing more than one thing at a time, such as headlines and calls to action, is called a multi-variate test, and is more complicated to run. There are plenty of resources out there for multi-variate testing, but we won’t be covering that when talking about A/B testing.
A/B Testing FAQs
What is A/B Testing and Why Does It Matter?
A/B testing is a marketing strategy that pits two different versions of a website, ad, email, popup, or landing page against each other to see which is most effective. It’s one of the most effective ways to increase conversion rates.
How Do You Plan an A/B Test?
Decide what to test, create two versions, decide on how long to run the test, choose a tool, then see what works!
What to Use A/B Testing to Test
Any part of a paid ad, website, or marketing material including (but not limited to) pop-ups, emails, landing pages, and featured images.
How Much Time Does A/B Testing Take?
Most tests should be run for at least two weeks, but A/B testing should be continual.
Can I Test More Than One Thing At A Time?
Yes, in some cases. In general, it is best to stick to two versions of the same asset.
What A/B Testing Tools Should I Use?
Google’s Optimize is a free, powerful A/B testing tool. Your email platform, landing page tools, or website plugins may also offer this feature. For paid tools, consider Optimizely.
Conclusion
A/B testing is a marketer’s best friend. It allows you to see, for example, what ads drive the most conversions, what offers your audience responds to, or what blog headlines drive the most traffic.
There are a variety of tools you can use to get started, including Google Optimize (which is free!) and Optimizely.
If you’re looking to get started with A/B testing, you can start by learning how to a/b test in Google Analytics.
Are you considering trying A/B testing? What is holding you back?