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That’s why diversifying your methods of increasing web traffic can offer better results. If you have multiple traffic sources, changing algorithms won’t completely halt your business. You will have a toolkit full of optimization strategies to keep your business running. Diversifying your web traffic can also be helpful in cases where there’s little scope for search engine optimization (for example, podcasts).
In this post, we’re going to look at effective strategies to grow your website traffic without SEO so you’re never left stranded by algorithm changes again. We’ll also look at practical tips you can start using right now, so you can get back in the game if your traffic has been low for a while.
Why Should You Try to Grow Traffic Without SEO?
You can generate substantial traffic from SEO alone, but not all traffic is equal. High-quality traffic (that includes users more likely to convert) offers better ROI, so you need to prioritize it.
Plus, if you aren’t an SEO expert, you may want to focus on other strategies to grow your website traffic efficiently.
This doesn’t mean you completely ignore SEO. All websites, irrespective of their niche, must follow the best SEO practices to avoid being penalized by Google and to ensure the site gets indexed.
The strategies we’ll discuss below can be a helpful addition to a pre-existing SEO plan.
Top Strategies to Increase Website Traffic Without SEO
1. Content Marketing
If you have been reading about digital marketing for a while, you must have heard the term “content marketing.” In simple words, it’s a way to organically advertise your brand through high-quality content.
Content marketing strategies often include blog posts, podcast episodes, infographics, YouTube videos, downloadable PDFs, etc.
For instance, Toggl, a time tracking software company frequently uploads informative blog posts and research data about productivity, work-life, and career.
This attracts users interested in time management, productivity, and wellbeing in the workplace. When they read Toggl’s blog, they eventually discover Toggl’s time tracking app, among its other productivity tools. Some of these users convert, helping Toggl increase their website traffic and ROI.
Content marketing isn’t limited to blog posts. If you connect better through audio, you can try launching a podcast or host a webinar.
Nowadays, most social media apps let you post a variety of content formats including photos, audio clips, long-form text, and videos. You can experiment with one or more of these formats to see what works best for your audience.
2. Paid Ads
Content marketing is beneficial but it can take a lot of money, especially if you’re paying established writers to create original, well-researched posts for you.
Most of these projects also take weeks or months to show results, which isn’t a practical timeline for many businesses.
If you want quicker results with a budget you can control, why not try paid ads?
Paid ads can instantly generate hundreds, if not thousands, of clicks to your website. Plus, with new advertising and social media platforms appearing and innovating regularly, getting your ads in front of the right people is becoming easier than ever.
However, you don’t have to stick to the largest platforms for effective advertising. In fact, advertising on lesser-known platforms whose audience aligns with your products can be more effective in the long run.
For example, if your ideal customer includes teens who enjoy memes and weird stories, you’d have much better results by advertising on Reddit, rather than Facebook or YouTube.
Another option is dating apps. If your brand is focused on relationships or if you’re targeting young singles, advertising on dating apps like Tinder can help you find your target customers faster.
If you’re worried paid ads will take a lot of money, remember, you don’t need to spend $1,000 on your first day.
Test the waters with $5-$10 a day and see what happens. Do that for a week, just to learn how different media platforms work.
3. Social Media Strategies
One of the best ways to increase your website traffic is to meet your customers where they like to hang out. Like we discussed earlier, almost everyone is using social media today. Ramping up your social media marketing efforts can help you reach new users, develop brand awareness and increase website traffic.
How to gain website traffic through social media?
When it comes to social media, you can’t just barge into “conversations” and ask people to buy something from you or to visit your website.
Think about how you’d present your brand in real life when you meet an individual for the first time. Would you immediately talk sales in their face? How about providing details about your product/service without introducing yourself first?
Remember, users visit their preferred social media platforms for entertainment, not for being sold to.
To make sure your efforts are well-received, you need to provide value first and develop positive relationships with your potential “followers.”
You can do this by sharing informative posts like How-Tos, or posting fun photos of your employees, like this post from Casper.
Leave thoughtful comments on user-generated content
4. Link Building Strategies
When marketing teams talk about SEO, link building frequently comes to mind. When reputable websites link to your content, the algorithm favors your website and increases its rank on the search page.
Sounds helpful, but that’s not all.
Did you know link building can help you increase web traffic without relying on SEO?
Link building for brand awareness is a process where you focus your strategies on expanding your reach, putting your content in front of new users, and generating conversations around your brand.
This is more than just a casual backlink in a blog post. Link building for brand awareness takes more planning and resources, but the investment is worth the high-quality leads you’ll get.
Here are some tips for developing effective link building strategies to increase website traffic:
Engage with your audience: Create interesting, shareable posts and encourage your followers to respond and share your content.
Work with PRs: Recruit efficient PRs to help generate brand awareness and distribute your story to your desired audience.
Guest blog intentionally: Choose unique publications that align with your readers’ key interests and post guest blogs on their page.
5. Interact With Other Blogs
Guest blogging is an effective traffic-driving strategy aimed at leveraging somebody else’s audience to widen your brand’s reach.
Think about it: Somebody in your niche has a large, engaged following. Imagine if you could put your content in front of them. How much traffic could you drive to your website!
Why would someone publish your work?
Probably because you’re good at what you do.
Everyone is looking for high-quality content. If you can provide a well-researched, helpful post for free, people are often open to publishing it on their website. After all, it’s benefiting their audience at zero cost.
Why would you give precious content away for free?
It’ll help you gain access to hundreds, if not thousands of new users, many of whom could become long-term customers.
It’s a win-win situation, but you have to be careful how you approach it.
Start by searching for blogs and media publications that publish content relevant to your business. For example, if you run a recruiting company, publish content on business blogs read by people interested in the latest recruiting practices.
If you want to find blogs in your industry that are accepting guest posts, use the following search queries to see more specific results:
name of your niche + “write for us”
name of your niche + “submit guest post”
name of your niche + “sites that accept guest posts”
In addition, research online biographies of specific companies and bloggers. More often than not, their web profiles contain a handy list of sites where they’ve been invited to guest post. That’s a plethora of most fitting guest blog opportunities presented to you on a silver platter.
Then, send a request. Most websites will have publication guidelines you can follow. Follow these instructions carefully to increase your chances of publication.
There’s also the option of using blog comments as a way to generate traffic to your site.
How exactly do you go about using comments to generate traffic?
When leaving a comment, make sure you are adding something worthwhile to the discussion.
There is no use in leaving comments like “Awesome post!” or “Nice website!”
If someone posts a question, make sure you take the time to answer thoughtfully.
This showcases your expertise in the given niche and will encourage someone reading to click on your name and be taken through to your site.
If you read an article on a subject you don’t know very well, it would be imprudent to voice your own thoughts as fact. In this situation, you should simply ask questions. Then the website owner would be able to elaborate more on complex topics or complicated sections.
If you’re knowledgeable about a subject, feel free to contribute (e.g., suggest something, recommend a solution, answer a question). If you’re a novice, it’s best to ask questions. Powerful questions can bring you website traffic by encouraging blog readers to check you out.
Avoid embedding links in your comments. It comes off as a wretched attempt to plant your flag on someone’s lawn.
It’s okay to use your website’s link in the URL field when entering your name and email address, but your comment needs to add to the conversation or challenge an idea without lazy attempts at driving traffic to your blog.
Refrain from using the name of your business as your “commenting name.” Use your actual full name instead.
Using a random or fake name is a missed opportunity to build strong branding because your brand actually starts with your name. In fact, failing to use your full name will reduce your chances of the website owner approving your comment.
6. Email Marketing
If you read a few posts on digital marketing, email marketing would be mentioned in most of them. That’s because it’s still one of the most efficient ways to increase website traffic.
Email marketing lets you reach potential customers directly. It’s an ideal platform for building long-term relationships for improved customer loyalty. You can post questions, ask for feedback, introduce soft sales, and persuade customers for the “big buy.”
Here are some tips for effective email marketing to increase website traffic:
Be real: Share stories, post behind-the-scenes content, and solicit original user-generated content.
Offer value: Just like content marketing needs a high value to convert readers, emails and newsletters must provide value before they make an ask.
Include all your links: Make it easy to read and share your post. Include links to your social media profiles, latest blog posts, and sales page in every email you send.
7. Provide Excellent Customer Service and Ask Customers to Review Your Brand
Ramping up your social media marketing efforts to increase website traffic is useless if you offer poor customer service.
According to a survey, 42 percent of customers said they bought more after pleasant customer service experiences.
Think about it: Users complain on social media, you offer a prompt and polite response. What happens? The person starts respecting your brand.
Even when users complain privately via email, it’s important to offer the best possible service so they come back for more.
How can you offer great customer service?
reply promptly
offer as many suggestions for customer problems as possible
apologize when you make a mistake and offer coupons/refunds
If you consistently provide great customer service, you can request users to review your brand.
Platforms like Trustpilot and Yelp can be great for building positive reviews. Many users consult these websites before making a purchase decision, so having a solid profile can help improve your reputation.
Increase Website Traffic Without SEO Frequently Asked Questions
Is it possible to increase website traffic without SEO?
Yes. You can use a combination of social media marketing strategies and content marketing techniques to increase website traffic without SEO.
Are there ways to increase website traffic for free?
Guest blogging, posting on social media, and requesting user-generated content are some of the most effective ways to increase website traffic for free.
Can I increase website traffic through marketing without an agency?
You can use techniques like guest blogging and content marketing to engage audiences without relying on any agency.
What's the best strategy to increase website traffic quickly?
Working on improving your social media strategies can help you connect with new users, develop brand awareness and drive organic traffic relatively fast.
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Increase Website Traffic Without SEO Conclusion
You shouldn’t only rely on search engines to increase website traffic. Algorithm changes and SEO techniques become outdated quickly.
The strategies we discussed today can help you create a comprehensive digital marketing plan to increase website traffic effectively.
Whether you use one of these tactics in isolation, or you use all of them together, they can transform the way you attract customers.
Which traffic-driving strategy will you try today?
Federato | Head of Software architecture | Senior SWE | Remote |Full-time | www.Federato.ai We are an impact driven startup helping insurance companies optimize their portfolio through reinforcement learning and dynamic optimization. We’re an early stage startup backed by VC’s in the Bay area. We’re looking for: Head of software architecture: has experience designing software …
Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.
What would it be like for your business to never miss another call?
Nothing scares away new business like hard-to-reach customer service or disorganized sales calls. Adopt the best call center software and you will outfit your teams with the tools they need to communicate effectively.
Today, an affordable call center is within reach of any business with an internet connection.
Forget about the requirements of a physical office space, infrastructure, or even a business phone system.
Modern call center software is all you need to get up and running. You still have the hard work of engaging your customers and clients, but all the heavy lifting associated with maintaining a call center is off your plate.
How to Choose The Best Call Center Software For You
I make calls when I’m thinking about committing to a new product or service. Lots of people do.
The human connection is real, intimate, and—unfortunately—easy to mess up.
One dropped call. One mistaken name from an agent who’s spoken to 35 other people within the hour.
It doesn’t take much to lose a lead or earn a 1-star review carved in digital stone on the internet.
You’re looking for a system that establishes trust with customers because they know they can call and speak with the right person quickly.
It must also come with an interface that empowers agents by giving them insight into calls, client histories, and any other information they need to resolve issues in real-time.
Customers need prompt answers from helpful agents. End of story.
The best call center software comes with everything you need to meet these two fundamental call center objectives, and much more.
Let’s go through the core call center features that help businesses make their customers happier and their agents more productive.
Calling Capabilities
Blended call center software will let the same agent receive incoming calls and make outgoing calls. This isn’t the case with every product, as some are limited to a single direction: inbound or outbound.
This can work to your advantage.
If you only need one or the other, you may be able to get a less expensive plan that’s easier to secure and manage. A helpdesk might only need inbound and a sales team might be fine with outbound calls only.
Dialing Capabilities
For outbound call centers, having the right dialing capabilities can make a huge difference in terms of agent productivity (and sanity). The four types you are likely to see are:
Preview dialer: Lets an agent review contact information before they call
Progressive dialer: Automatically dials one contact per available agent
Power dialer: Automatically dials multiple contacts per available agents
Predictive dialer: Automatically dials based on predicted agent availability
Dialers decrease an agent’s down-time considerably and completely eliminate the manual grind process of making calls from their cognitive workload.
Channels
Call center software should be able to accommodate every channel you currently use or plan to use in the future. If you see something billed as omnichannel, it should cover:
Phone
VoIP
Email
SMS
Chat
Social
Video
Ensure that whatever product you choose will let customers interact seamlessly with agents across all supported company channels.
Call Routing
Call center software comes with routing features that segment and direct incoming calls, potentially automating the processes which connect callers with the expert or agent they seek.
Some of the popular call routing features explained:
Automatic Call Distribution (ACD): Greets customers and allows them to select from a main menu or enter extension to route themselves.
Automated attendant: Takes calls when all agents are busy, plays hold music, relays wait times, and reminds callers that their time is valuable.
Intelligent call routing: Uses automation, AI, or interactive voice response to route customers to the most appropriate agent.
Mobile device routing: Allows calls to be routed to mobile devices.
Omnichannel routing: Allows calls to be routed across any channel.
Virtual hold: Gives customers the option to receive a call back when an agent is ready, instead of waiting on the phone.
Warm transfer: Lets customers speak to a new agent before the call is transferred, and allows the previous agent to explain any ground that’s already been covered.
If call center software comes with intelligent call routing, it’s safe to assume it can handle most, if not all, of the capabilities listed above.
Interactive Voice Response
Interactive voice response (IVR) enables customers to use a phone system to access information from a connected database. This could be someone calling to find out their checking balance, hear the status of their order, or pay a bill.
If you have customers routinely calling to access information, you can free up a lot of phone time simply by implementing IVR. It’s a truly self-service solution that helps people get what they want, without ever talking to an agent.
Call Recording
You have probably heard a thousand times that “this call is being recorded for safety, security, or training purposes.” Well it’s all true.
Call recording is extremely important. Supervisors can listen back to trainee calls and give advice about how to improve. In the event of a legal or compliance issue, call recording will cover your bases.
Good call center software makes it as easy as possible to save and store every call in a highly organized, searchable database. If you integrate your CRM, every recording can also be tied to the appropriate customer or client account.
One advanced call recording feature that can be really useful for sales teams is voicemail-to-email. This sends an email with an audio attachment or transcription of the voicemail to the account owner who missed the call. This is a huge time saver, especially for agents who are remote and on the go.
Workforce Management
How efficient is your call center? How do you know?
Reporting and analytics are important features of modern call center software. Look for products with both historical and real-time reporting capabilities to support workforce management and optimization.
By tracking key metrics about calls, wait times, and first contact resolution, among others, those in supervisory roles are better able to forecast staffing needs to fit fluctuating demand.
Integrations, APIs, and SDKs
Put key customer data in front of your agents by integrating customer data sources with your call center software. The top products come with seamless integrations that work out of the box with leading CRMs like Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics.
Many top call center software options have APIs and software development kits (SDKs) that allow you to build out custom solutions.
The better connectivity you can provide, the richer the customer information your call center will collect.
Done right, you’ll provide marketing, sales, and customer service with data-driven insights to steer their efforts.
Security
Even if your customers aren’t giving their social security number over the phone, they’re sharing personal and potentially sensitive information. It’s unpleasant to imagine how much havoc an attacker could cause with full access to a database of client conversations.
Consider potential vulnerabilities that come with deploying call center software. Does it integrate with your current security stack? If not, be sure to add the cost of securing your new IT perimeter to the total cost of ownership.
The Different Types of Call Center Software
It’s getting less and less important for call center solutions to offer traditional business phone systems. Some do, but most are focused on helping companies migrate gradually to a centralized, cloud-based, multi-channel interface.
As important as the phone is, the reality is that customers are reaching out on more and more channels.
This is why you’ll see the name “call center” being dropped in favor of “contact center.”
It simply reflects that companies have to be able to respond however they are contacted: phone, chat, email, and so on.
Whether you are starting from zero or looking to modernize your existing system, picking the right type of call center software is the first step.
On-Premises Call Center Software
Many companies still maintain their own call centers and it can be important to keep everything in house for compliance reasons.
If this is a concern, make sure you choose an option that supports your infrastructure needs.
Cloud Call Center Software
Cloud-based call center software provides the same capabilities as a traditional call center, but it’s delivered as a service. Companies don’t have to manage any of the hardware or software.
A SaaS call center can be deployed in just a few hours or days, since there isn’t much required beyond headsets and devices to work from.
It’s very easy to run a distributed or work-from-home call center with a cloud-based solution, which is another reason these solutions are so popular.
CCaaS
Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) centralizes all of the channels your teams use to communicate externally.
Whereas a cloud call center may only give you VoIP, a CCaaS solution is going to loop in text, chat, social, and video as well.
UCaaS
Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) has all the capabilities of a CCaaS, with an additional focus of integrating legacy communication technology like fax and teleconferencing.
These products truly unify all forms of communication, helping companies adopt future-proof solutions as they phase out old equipment.
#1 – Five9 — Best For Blended Call Centers
Five9 empowers call center agents to deliver the best possible experience to their customers by providing true omnichannel functionality from anywhere within an intuitive interface.
Agents can switch between chat, email, mobile, social, video, or voice to maintain seamless customer interactions.
Plus, integrations with top CRM platforms mean that all data is captured, providing an end-to-end contact center solution. Whether agents are reaching out or picking up a call, they always have current information about who they’re speaking with.
There are also built-in workforce management tools that make accurate forecasting and scheduling much easier.
For all the power of Five9 call center software, it’s not overwhelming, and people can quickly master the tools at their disposal, such as:
Predictive, power, progressive, and preview dialers
Intelligent omnichannel routing
IVR
Historic and real-time analytics dashboards
Six built-in CRM integrations
Cloud APIs and SDKs
Blended call centers will definitely notice increased efficiency using Five9. Active blending, one of the intelligent routing features, automatically sends inbound calls to agents working outbound campaigns when call volume is high.
Five9 pricing is based on whether you want inbound, outbound, or blended service. You’ll have to get in touch with sales, but there are three options for how to pay:
Monthly on-demand
Per-minute fees
Annual contracts
The lowest price will come with an annual contract, but companies can scale quickly at low cost with on-demand pricing if need be.
As sleek as it is, Five9 is one of the top call center solutions for companies that need to integrate legacy technology. If you’re thinking about using a cloud-based solution for your blended call center, Five9 can help no matter where you are starting from.
The VoIP quality is great, calls don’t drop, and agents can work from anywhere on their laptop or personal mobile device. It’s a great solution for virtual cloud call centers because of the built-in security, workforce management, and collaborative features.
Customers can leave voicemails which can be quickly assigned to the right person. New hires can listen into calls to hear what good service sounds like. In fact, you can host up to five people on the same live call.
One of the biggest perks for teams is the ability to assign, tag, and comment on calls. This is so helpful—assign the call to an individual, tag it to a specific department, and leave a short explanation about what’s going on.
It’s not that other call center software can’t do this—it’s just easier in Aircall.
For all the ease of using Aircall, it is a complete CCaaS that provides
Automatic call-back
Intelligent call routing
IVR
Power dialer
One-click CRM integrations
Call center analytics
Aircall pricing is broken down into three tiers:
Essentials: starting at $30 per user/month
Professional: starting at $50 per user/month
Custom: contact sales
One quick thing: Salesforce integration only comes at the Professional tier, whereas integrations for Pipedrive, Zendesk, Hubspot, Slack and more than 60 others come with Essentials.
Aircall still supports traditional phone systems, which makes it an attractive option for companies that want to expand their call center operations to the cloud at their own pace.
#3 – 8×8 Contact Center — Best For Enterprise
8×8 Contact Center is one of the more robust tools on the market. 8×8 has been around for a long time and can fully support migration to a UCaaS call center.
It’s a powerful solution that can help large organizations in particular. Build out complex IVR paths, optimize a large workforce, and process payments all within a navigable interface.
There may be a little more of a learning curve with 8×8 than with other call center software simply because the platform is so feature rich.
That said, once you have everything set up, the support and online documentation is enough to help people take advantage of 8×8’s advanced features, including:
Call and screen recording
Predictive dialer
Drag-and-drop IVR designer
Speech analytics
Customer surveys
Native CRM and integrations with top products
The pricing for 8×8 Contact Center breaks down into three tiers:
Contact Center – Voice
Contact Center – Omnichannel
Contact Center – Advanced
8×8 is not going to be the most budget-friendly option, even at its voice-only tier.
To include digital channels, you will need the Omnichannel plan. For speech analytics and screen recording, you will need Advanced.
For voice-only call centers, other options from this list will meet your needs at a lower cost. If you are trying to build out an omnichannel contact center, however, 8×8 will give you a level of visibility and control that lighter products can’t.
#4 – Dialpad — Best For Startups
Dialpad is a next-generation UCaaS that completely supports today’s on-the-go, distributed workplace. Choose Dialpad for agile, constantly improving call center software.
You can add agents via the web client or Dialpad app. Both are updated frequently for security and to add new features.
For all the flexibility provided to end-users, Dialpad doesn’t skimp on the backend reporting, recording, or monitoring features. This is huge for companies that are still trying to figure out what’s important.
With Dialpad, your team can assess KPIs and discover meaningful trends in real-time. Simply integrate your CRM and watch as Dialpad surfaces the most important metrics from calls on clean dashboards or highly-visible leaderboards.
Some of the other great capabilities of Dialpad include:
IVR
Seamless mobile routing
Call/Voicemail transcription
Warm transfer
APIs and webhooks
Integrations with top SSOs, CRMs, G Suite, and Microsoft 365,
There are two plan options for Dialpad Contact Center:
Pro: starting at $225/month for 3 agents
Enterprise: contact sales, 100 agent minimum
Businesses thrive with Dialpad because of its efficiency. Deployment is simple, integrations are tight, and it performs extremely well for organizations with many remote workers.
#5 – Talkdesk CX Cloud — Best For Salesforce Integration
Talkdesk is a leading CCaaS product that works well for large organizations who need to scale their contact center operations. Quickly provision new agents and securely connect them to sensitive customer data, no matter where they are.
It’s a feature-rich, yet very approachable, solution. People who have never used Talkdesk can sit down and start taking calls.
Talkdesk has more than 60 integrations ready to go, but the seamless connection with Salesforce CRM is definitely a key selling point. Agents can see a rich history of who they are talking to and all calls are automatically recorded in the proper place.
When agents forget call details, they can listen back with a few clicks.
Some tasks, like creating new IVRs, take some getting used to, but for the most part, non-technical users are going to be able to get the most out of every feature, including:
Intelligent routing
Warm transfer
Customer sentiment surveys
Real-time dashboards for workforce management
Custom IVR
Guardian Standard fraud prevention
Talkdesk also offers AI-driven add-ons for speech analytics, workforce management, and quality control.
Talkdesk has rolled out affordable solutions for SMB call centers. Adopting something this powerful early on will deliver superior customer engagement, and may even cut down on costs by increasing agent productivity.
Summary
Ten years ago, setting up a call center took months. Today, you can deploy one over the weekend.
To make your choice, focus on how the feature set of each product will:
Enable customers connect to the right agent quickly
Empower agents serve customers and connect with clients
While every option on this list is fairly easy to get set up, Dialpad or Aircall are exceptionally easy in this regard. Aircall will better accommodate legacy technology than Dialpad, if that’s a consideration, and the collaborative features are more mature.
Then again, it depends how you collaborate. The ease of routing calls between devices on Dialpad is phenomenal, which is critical for distrubed call centers.
Five9 has the edge on many other full-scale contact center software when it comes to outbound dialing capabilities. Sales teams can automatically ramp up their call volume without increasing call abandonment numbers. As the inbound call functionality is comparatively rich, Five9 is a great option for a blended call center.
Companies using Salesforce CRM will enjoy using Talkdesk. The integration works with ease and employee familiarity with the Salesforce interface makes adopting Talkdesk that much easier.
Choose 8×8 if your company is going to benefit from building out complex IVR pathways. It’s easy to design customer journeys in the visual, drag-and-drop editor, which really stands out from the crowd.
Additionally, the security in 8×8 is payment card industry compliant, so you can rest assured that connecting customers to sensitive information via IVR won’t cause problems down the line.
Do terms like “AI” and “machine learning” make you think of robots and science fiction?
These technologies are being used everywhere, and the age of AI is already in full swing.
AI and technology offer a solution to inefficiency. Deloitte has shown that 83 percent of early adopters of AI and cognitive technologies achieved either “moderate” or “substantial” benefits.
AI is somewhat part of augmented intelligence tools’ technology, but how is it used in marketing right now?
What is Augmented Intelligence?
Gartner defines “augmented intelligence” as “a human-centric partnership model of people and artificial intelligence working together to enhance cognitive performance.”
What that means is that augmented intelligence isn’t just about creating super smart machines. It’s about creating technology that can help you and your brain do things better.
Augmented intelligence is sometimes also called intelligence automation (IA).
How is Augmented Intelligence Different From Artificial Intelligence (AI)?
Artificial intelligence is all about computers making decisions. But augmented intelligence is about you making better decisions, with the help of a computer.
Let’s dive into some specific examples so we can see how this works:
Artificial Intelligence Examples
Artificial intelligence operates on its own, without help from humans.
That might make you think of autonomous killer robots, but the reality is usually a little less exciting.
Ever used a grammar checker tool? Lots of those use AI to give you more sophisticated grammar recommendations.
Even Google Docs uses an AI grammar checker. Google’s engineers train the model using correct sentences. It’s then able to predict whether sentences are correct or incorrect on its own, without needing to be programmed with every single grammar rule.
Know where else Google uses AI? In its search engine algorithms.
Now that we’ve seen how AI is used, how is augmented intelligence used? How are its applications different from AI?
Augmented intelligence is a pretty general term. You can use it to talk about basically any machine that helps humans enhance their capabilities and make better decisions, even something as simple as a compass or telescope.
But in practice, augmented intelligence is usually used to talk about automated systems that need direction or input from humans to function. Augmented reality tools, like Google Glass, are just one example.
The augmented intelligence tool gives recommendations, and then the human makes the final call. Feedback from humans helps the tool to learn and grow continuously.
Why would you want to use augmented intelligence when you could use “true AI?” Well, augmented intelligence allows us to do more with the technology we currently have, without needing to wait for AI to advance.
It also adds a human element to the decision-making process, which can be helpful for complying with regulation in some industries. Plus, with augmented intelligence, we can take advantage of new technologies while also continuing to use human talent.
But the best thing about augmented intelligence? When humans and machines work together, they can achieve better results than one or the other working alone.
For example, an experiment by a team from a Harvard Medical School hospital at the Camelyon Grand Challenge showed that an algorithm could accurately detect breast cancer 92% of the time, while a human pathologist accurately detected it 96% of the time. When the pathologist worked together with the algorithm, the results were accurate 99% of the time.
Overall, augmented intelligence is just a different philosophy that can help us get the most from AI, without needing really sophisticated capabilities.
How Can Augmented Intelligence Help Your Business?
The truth is, augmented intelligence can do huge things for your company.
There are tons of different ways to use augmented intelligence. There’s probably an IA application out there that can help you streamline and improve every single area of your business.
Here’s an example: Augmented intelligence can help you sell things online.
Think about the last time you thought about buying something online. What were some reasons you might have hesitated before making a purchase?
You might not want to lay out money for certain items before trying them out in person. Furniture, glasses, clothes are examples of products users want to see how they look up close before you buy.
Enter augmented intelligence. With augmented reality (AR) applications, your customers can “try on” things virtually. Even if they’d prefer to shop from home, they can still get a feel for your merchandise.
Want to know how this works in practice? Check out some of the companies using augmented reality to sell furniture (Wayfair), glasses (EyeBuyDirect), and makeup (MAC Cosmetics).
To use the virtual try-on tools, you can upload a photo or open your webcam, and the tool will show you what the product looks like in real life.
But sales isn’t the only area where augmented intelligence can help your business.
Want to make your product safer? Car companies are already using augmented reality to help drivers spot dangers on the road and avoid looking down at their phones.
Want to thrill your customers with a cool new feature? Google did that when they introduced internet searchers to AR animals.
You can improve your customer service with augmented intelligence, too. Chatbots can help answer some more straightforward customer questions, freeing up more time for your human staff. IA can also help support your customer service reps when they need more information to help customers.
Finally, just like with sales, product, and customer service, augmented intelligence tools can take your marketing efforts to the next level.
Here are three crucial reasons why you should use augmented intelligence tools to supercharge your marketing.
If you use augmented intelligence to create an extra cool or innovative product, your marketing will basically be halfway done for you. An awesome customer experience pretty much markets itself. Just look at all the videos people have made about Google’s AR animals:
Check out all these articles people have written about Wayfair’s augmented reality feature for furniture:
If you make something interesting enough, you might end up getting lots of new backlinks and traffic without even trying.
Besides creating new product features, you can also improve your customer experience with augmented intelligence in other ways.
For instance, customers are more likely to be satisfied if they can get their questions answered faster with technology like automated chatbots, as mentioned above.
You can also use augmented intelligence to help personalize the customer experience. An example of this would be user recommendations. You’ve probably seen these on YouTube on the right-hand side:
And on Amazon as suggested product examples:
These websites use algorithms to make recommendations based on the videos you’ve already watched or products you’ve already shown interest in. When you click on a recommendation, you’re sending a signal to the algorithm that the recommendation was relevant.
Recommendations help you offer a better experience by helping your customers find things they might be interested in. They are also a way to convince customers to stay on your website for longer.
Augmented Intelligence Can Reduce Busywork
Another major reason why companies are interested in automation is that it saves time. According to WorkMarket’s 2020 In(Sight) Report, over half of employees think they could save 240 hours every yearthrough automation.
IA can help your marketing department save time in lots of different ways. If you’re currently using data for strategic planning, augmented intelligence tools can help.
You can use these tools to help clean data sets, forecast future trends with predictive modeling, or even keep an eye on competitors, social trends, and customer feedback. This can help you create more effective marketing plans more quickly.
If you decide to use augmented intelligence in your marketing, you won’t be alone. According to a Forrester report, 46% of respondents say that marketing and sales teams are leading AI adoption.
It’s no wonder marketers are excited to adopt this technology. Hubspot found that using AI software cut the time one agency spent on reporting by 97 percent.
Augmented Intelligence Can Help Write Content
Here’s another way that augmented intelligence can help with your marketing: It can help you write better content, faster.
If you’re a marketer, you know that writing quality content takes serious time and effort.
A survey by Orbit Media Studios states that the average blog post takes almost four hours to write. That’s actually a 63% increase over 2014, when the average blog post took just under 2.5 hours.
If you’re wondering why the writing time has gone up so much, it’s because Google’s algorithm updates have started to favor long-form content.
Besides the actual writing, researching, adding photos, and publishing also take up lots of time, not to mention content planning and SEO.
Augmented intelligence can helpfully write text, but it can’t add much research, facts, or emotions to it.
AI’s writing style can be a little different from what we’re used to, so it needs human polishing.
As you can see, AI can write sentences, but you might need to edit or adjust them to fit your content needs.
Even if you don’t want a robot to write your articles, you can still use augmented intelligence tools to help you in your writing. Spelling and grammar checkers, like Grammarly, are a good example of this.
Augmented intelligence can also help you create better content by coming up with more relevant topics for your audience.
To do that, you’ll need to have the best tools, including artificial intelligence.
However, a lot of people are skeptical about AI. In fact, research by PwC shows that 67% of CEOs think AI and automation will have a negative impact on trust in their industry over the next five years.
With augmented intelligence tools, you don’t have to rely on AI alone. Instead, you can use AI’s strengths and human strengths together to get better results.
If you’ve already started using augmented intelligence in your marketing, or if you’re thinking about using it soon, tell us about your experience in the comments.
You may think it is impossible to get business loans with bad credit. In truth, it is just impossible to do so from traditional banks without some sort of guarantee. There are other options however.
Is It Possible to Get Business Loans with Bad Credit?
For example, the government guarantees loans from traditional banks through The Small Business Administration, or SBA. This government guarantee makes it easier to get loans with lower credit scores than would normally be acceptable.
Business Loans with Bad Credit: SBA Loans
The key is, how bad is “bad” credit. Generally speaking, you can qualify for a loan most anywhere with a credit score over 730. However, your interest rates may leave a lot to be desired. If your credit score is less than that, but above 650, you may qualify for one of these SBA loans programs.
7(a) Loans
This most popular SBA loan program offers federally funded term loans up to $5 million. In addition, the funds can be used for expansion, purchasing equipment, working capital and more. Banks, credit unions, and other specialized institutions process these loans and disburse the funds. What does that mean? It means that you apply with a traditional lender, but it isn’t exactly a traditional loan.
The minimum credit score to qualify is 680. Also, there is a required down payment of at least 10% for the purchase of a business, commercial real estate, or equipment. Lastly, the minimum time in business is 2 years. In the case of startups, business experience equivalent to two years will work.
Funds are available for a wide variety of projects, from working capital to refinancing debt. You can even buy a new business or real estate.
504 Loans
These loans are available up to $5 million. You can use the funds to buy machinery, facilities, or land. Typically, these are expansion loans. They especially work well for commercial real estate purchases.
Terms for 504 Loans range from 10 to 20 years. Unfortunately, funding is slow. It can take from 30 to 90 days. They require a minimum credit score of 680, and they use the asset the loan is financing as collateral. Furthermore, there is a down payment requirement of 10%. This can increase to 15% for a new business.
Like 7 (a) loans, you must be in business for at least 2 years, or management must have equivalent experience if the business is a startup.
Microloans
Microloans go up to $50,000. They work well for starting a business, purchasing equipment, buying inventory, or as working capital. Community based non-profits administer microloan programs as intermediaries. Unlike most other SBA loans, financing comes directly from the Small Business Administration.
They can take upwards of 90 days to fund. The minimum credit score for microloans is 640, and collateral and down payment requirements vary by lender.
SBA Disaster Loans
As a general rule, disaster loans go up to $2 million. However, there are tons of changes in the program right now due to the need for COVID-19 relief. These loans are also processed directly through the SBA rather than through partner lenders. They are for small-business owners that have been affected by natural disasters, and the COVID-19 pandemic has been deemed to qualify as a natural disaster. Terms go up to 30 years. The maximum interest rate is 4%, and you can apply for disaster loans directly at SBA.gov.
The minimum credit score for these loans is 660. Additionally, collateral is necessary if the loan goes over a certain amount. That amount is usually $25,000. For a military economic injury disaster, the amount that requires collateral is $50,000. Either way, a down payment is not necessary.
SBA Express Loans
The max amount for these loans is $350,000. Terms range from 5 to 25 years. To qualify, your credit score must be above 680. Also, you must have a debt to service ratio of 1.1 or higher. If the loan is greater than $25,000, collateral may be necessary depending on the lender.
As the name suggests, you get funds from express loans much faster. In fact, the SBA takes 36 hours or less to give a decision. Not only that, but the necessary paperwork for application is less also. This makes express loans a great option for working capital, among other things, if you qualify.
SBA CAPLine
There are 4 distinct CAPLine programs that differ mostly in the expenses they can fund. Each of them carries a maximum amount of $5 million. In addition, the interest rate for each range from 7% to 10%. Like many of the others, funding can take 45 to 90 days.
The four different programs are:
Seasonal CAPLines
Contract CAPLines
Builder’s CAPLines
Working Capital CAPLines
For these, the minimum credit score to qualify is 680. However, there is no minimum time in business requirement unless you are getting a seasonal CAPLine. That one carries a one year in business requirement.
Get our business credit building checklist and build business credit the fast and easy way to beat the recession blues.
Business Loans with Bad Credit: Alternative Loans
These are loans from private lenders rather than traditional banks. Most of them operate online exclusively. We’ve listed a few for you below. Be sure to double check details like required credit score and interest rate, as these things can change without notice.
Fundbox
Fundbox is going to be one of the first lenders to pop up if you search for alternative business loans. It is a line of credit rather than a loan, but it is a great funding option because there is no minimum credit score requirement.
They offer an automated process that is super-fast. Repayments are automatic, meaning they draft them electronically, and they occur on a weekly basis. One thing to remember is that you could have a repayment as high as 5 to 7% of the amount you have drawn currently, as the repayment period is comparatively short. This means you need to be sure you have enough funds in whatever account you connect them to so that it can cover your payment each week.
Loan amounts come as low as $100 and as high as up to $100,000, but the max initial draw is $50,000. Though there is no minimum credit score requirement, they do require at least 3 months in business, $50,000 or more in annual revenue, and a business checking account with a minimum balance of $500.
BlueVine
The minimum loan amount available from BlueVine is $5,000 and the maximum is $100,000. Annual revenue must be $120,000 or more and the borrower must be in business for at least 6 months. Your personal credit score has to be 600 or above. It is important to note also, that BlueVine does not offer a line of credit in all states.
Upstart
Upstart uses a completely innovative platform for alternative loans. The company questions the ability of financial information and FICO alone to truly determine the risk of lending to a specific borrower. Instead, they choose to use a combination of artificial intelligence and machine learning to collect alternative data. They then use that data to help them make credit decisions.
Alternative data can include mobile phone bills, rent, deposits, withdrawals, and even other information less directly tied to finances. The software they use learns and improves on its own. You can use their online quote tool to play with different amounts and terms to see the various interest rate possibilities. Typically, business loans are available ranging from $1,000 to $50,000. Interest rates vary greatly, ranging from 7.5% to 35.99%. You can pay back loans over either 3-years or 5-years.
To be eligible for a loan with Upstart, you must meet the following qualifications:
Credit score of 620+
No bankruptcies or negative public records
No delinquent accounts
Meet debt to income standards (they only note they will check this ratio, not what their standards are.)
Have fewer than 6 inquiries in the past 6 months on your credit report, not including those related to student loans, vehicle loans, or mortgages
These are the requirements they list on their website. One independent review said that the requirement for the debt to income ratio is a maximum of 45%. It also says that the minimum annual income has to be at least $12,000.
Fora Financial
Fora Financial funds more than $1.3 million in working capital around the United States. There is an early repayment discount if you qualify.
This is a great option for business loans with bad credit. Why? Here is what Fora Financial says about credit score:
“At Fora Financial we do not believe that the number of your credit score defines who you are as a business owner. We look at your entire business model along with your future plans to create a financing program that will help you reach your goals.”
As you can see, there really isn’t a minimum credit score requirement.
Loan amounts range from $5,000 to $500,000. The business must be at least 6 months in operation and the monthly revenue has to be $12,000 or more. There can be no open bankruptcies.
OnDeck
Obtaining financing from OnDeck is quick and easy. First, you apply online and receive your decision once application processing is complete. If you receive approval, your loan funds will go directly to your bank account. The minimum loan amount is $5,000 and the maximum is $500,000.
They do require a personal credit score of 600 or more for at least one owner. Also, you must be in business for at least 3 years. Annual revenue must be at or exceed $100,000. In addition, there can be no bankruptcy on file in the past 2 years and no unresolved liens or judgements.
Kiva
Kiva is an online lender that is a little different. For example, the interest rate is 0%, so even though you have to pay it back it is absolutely free money. They don’t even check your credit. However, there is one catch. You have to get at least 5 family members or friends to throw some money in the pot as well. In addition, you have to pitch in a $25 loan to another business on the platform.
Accion
Accion is a microlender, a nonprofit, that offers installment loans to both startups and already existing businesses. You don’t have to already be in business, but if you are not, you must have less than $500 in past due debt. In addition, your business needs to be home or incubator based.
Loans are from 6 to 60 months and interest rates range from 7% to 34%. A personal guarantee, and sometimes specific collateral, is necessary in most circumstances.
What’s the minimum credit score? Accion says it best in their FAQ’s:
“Credit is just one of many factors that we look at when we work with business owners. If your credit isn’t well established or damaged, we can work to find strengths in your business or finances to make the loan possible. We do have firm requirements on past due debt and bankruptcies and have credit score minimums in some areas, so please check our loan requirements to see if we are a good fit for you.”
Basically, depending on your other information, Accion can be a good option for business loans with bad credit.
Get our business credit building checklist and build business credit the fast and easy way to beat the recession blues.
Build and Improve Business Credit and Forget About Business Loans with Bad Credit
Maybe one of these options will work for you. But what if you didn’t have to worry about finding business loans for bad credit? What if you could have good business credit? Guess what? You absolutely can! How? Well, first, you have to set up your business to be an entity separate from yourself. That way, when you take out debt in your business name and repay it, the accounts will report to your business credit report and not your personal credit report.
There is a lot to building fundability and business credit, but here is a starting point.
Make sure you and your business do not share contact information. Your business needs a separate phone number and address.
Get your business an EIN so you can apply for business credit without your SSN.
Incorporate your business as an LLC, S-corp, or corporation.
Make sure your business has all the licenses it needs to operate legally.
Open a separate, dedicated business bank account.
After your business is set up properly, you can work with starter vendors to build business credit. These are companies that sell things you use in the course of everyday business, like office supplies, cleaning supplies, even packaging materials. They will issue net invoices without doing a credit check, so you don’t have to have credit to get credit with them. Then, they will report your payments to the business credit reporting agencies. That gets the ball rolling.
It is Possible to Get Business Loans with Bad Credit
It is absolutely possible to get business loans with bad credit. However, once you get the funding you need, don’t stay in a bad credit hole. Get to work building a ladder to get yourself out. Get the funds you need to stay open, but at the same time, work to put yourself in a better position for the future.
Get our business credit building checklist and build business credit the fast and easy way to beat the recession blues.
Ambra Health (https://ambrahealth.com) | REMOTE (US), Full time | Performance/Reliability Engineer (SRE-like), Medical Image Processing and Storage
At Ambra Health we help the health care system solve complex problems with storing and sharing medical imaging data (X-rays, CT’s, etc), at locations around the world – including many renowned health centers. This involves managing a lot of medical data, getting it to the right place quickly and reliably over the Internet – some very challenging and interesting engineering problems.
We are looking for a US-based remote-only DevOps-oriented engineer to work closely with our storage and image-processing services development team. You would find ways (in hardware and software) to improve performance and reliability of those services, which manage over 10 billion images (5PB) in the cloud and in data centers around the world.
The ideal candidate would be able to work independently with minimal supervision, seasoned to make good productivity/planning decisions – but please reach out if you think you’re the right less-experienced person.
Requirements:
– Strong Linux system administration and diagnostic skills
– Experience operating a distributed application and diagnosing problems at the application, network and hardware level
– JVM tuning experience
– Full-stack tuning, at the hardware, OS, network and software levels
Big plus if you’ve got these skills:
– Familiarity with programming, profiling, or debugging a JVM or system language
– Experience with application instrumentation (specifying, collecting and analysing performance metrics)
– Experience with automating testing or deployment
Our hiring process is pretty painless – short introduction call, 1-hour phone call with the team to get to know each other, then (if it works for you) a paid part-time trial period to see if we like working together.
Send me an email with your resume: pete+jobs@ambrahealth.com
The long predicted impending recession is here. Now it’s time to figure out how to survive. Equity crowdfunding recession investing could be a viable option. How Equity Crowdfunding Recession Investing Could Be Your Ticket Out I am sure you are thinking, “Your ticket out of what?” The answer is, “Your ticket out of the recession.” … Continue reading Equity Crowdfunding: Recession Investing is a Legitimate Option
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