Android

The Who, Why & What of Developing a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

Building a product that perfectly resonates with your target audience is every business’ dream. However, 80-95% of newly launched consumer products never make it big. Even with products backed with in-depth market research, and huge development budgets, the numbers still don’t look very good.

With digital products, where development and marketing are considered relatively easier, the story is still the same. Although top Mobile App Development Companies might seem to be churning-out record-breaking apps one after another, the average small business is often left stranded in a volatile, highly competitive, and ever-changing market.

Product development is an expensive, lengthy process, and nothing hurts a business more than tediously developing products that don’t sell as well as they are supposed to. Because of this uncertainty, it is crucial for businesses to only invest in reliable products that they know will bring in the desired returns.

One good way to minimize the risk of a product’s failure and to judge its success potential is to build and launch a Minimum Viable Product (MVP).

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What is a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)?

A good way to understand the term MVP is to consider what it tries to do. MVPs try to answer the most fundamental question every business is concerned with: Will my product sell?

A Minimum Viable Product is a simple, ‘barebone’ version of a final product designed and launched with the sole intent of gaining customer feedback and product validation.

An MVP only contains the core features essential to the product. The idea is to build and launch a basic but functional version of your product (Making it minimal but also viable).

Doing so does two important things, one it helps you understand if there is a demand for your product, and secondly it gives you access to customer feedback that helps in the rest of the development process. Both of these are massive advantages and will significantly help you align your product development efforts in the right direction.

Sure, it sounds counter-intuitive, launching an ‘unfinished’ product. But MVPs are not meant to generate revenue or maximize customer satisfaction. Instead, MVPs let you save time by entering the market early and then transitioning into incremental development.

At this point, you would be thinking, Who would buy an underdeveloped product?

As long as your product solves a real problem and does what it says, there will always be people who’ll need it. Call them early adopters or beta testers; it doesn’t matter. What matters is that there is a core group of people who either badly need or are too curious to try out your product.

These are your initial customers, who’ll buy from you no matter what, even when your apps don’t have the smoothest of animations or are jam-packed with features. Once you’ve launched your MVP, you play the waiting game. Remember, the biggest purpose your MVP serves is validating your product idea and providing you with customer feedback, so make sure you establish reliable feedback channels to make the most out of it.

Once the early customers start offering you feedback, you’ll have a good idea about what is and isn’t working with your core idea. You’ll also have more clarity on what new features to add and how to improve the user experience. Armed with this crucial knowledge, you can now double down on your development process with the confidence that you are building something your consumers really need.

At this point, it is worth noting that an MVP can be almost anything. We can have MVPs of physical as well as digital products; even services can have MVPs. For this article, we’ve confined ourselves to digital MVPs like apps and websites, mainly because they are easy to build and provide the most benefits.

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Who should develop an MVP?

Knowing what an MVP is, you must be tempted to ask yourself: Does my business need an MVP?

The Answer is YES, if:

1. You are entering a new market and/or have a new concept for a product or service. With novelty comes uncertainty. If you would like to validate your product idea or business model before pouring resources into its development, then going on the MVP route is the best for you.
2. You would like to have more clarity on what features you should add to your existing core idea. An MVP can provide excellent customer feedback, streamlining your development process.
3. Anyone trying to launch early, hoping to secure some market share, or trying to get ahead of competitors, can potentially benefit from an MVP. However, it is easier said than done. MVPs are built to test your ideas and generate feedback, don’t bank on them for building a loyal following or beating your competitors.

As stated above, product development can be an exhaustive, time-consuming process. Most businesses will not have the time to spare for the development of an MVP. It is always better to hire top mobile app developers in such a scenario to do the work for you. Having a dedicated team of developers on board saves time and drastically improves the quality of the end product.

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Why build an MVP?

By now, you must already have got a good idea about the advantages of building MVPs. Here are the major takeaways:

1. Minimum Risk
   MVPs let you minimize risk by keeping you from overdeveloping a product or developing products the market doesn’t need. It follows the Build – Measure – Learn approach, where you start with the core features and build your way outwards, adding the extra features later.
   This is obviously better than trying to build the whole product at once, without having any clue if your consumers will even need/enjoy the ‘cool features’ you painstakingly incorporate into your product.
2. Customer Feedback
   There is a giant gap between thinking you know what your customers want and knowing what they want. Businesses often try to adopt a consumer’s ‘point of view’ with little to no success.
   With an MVP, there is no guessing. You know what your customers need and can focus on building exactly that. Customer feedback is invaluable. It saves you time and streamlines the development process, which further gives you a better shot at ensuring customer satisfaction.
3. Solid Functionality
   MVPs make you focus on building your core features while allowing you to avoid additional efforts that would have otherwise been a distraction. It is really good to be able to focus on your key features without having to do a thousand things at once.
   Once your core features are built, the sky is the limit. This approach provides you a solid foundation for your product, which is great for scalability and improvements later down the line.
4. Early Customers
   As stated before, your MVP will mostly gather a small momentum after its launch. From this point on, you can leverage these early adopters and convert them into loyal fans.
   If you manage to resolve the problem you promised to solve and successfully adopt the given feedback, they would love to be a part of your community (built around a product that they helped develop and grow!). A stronger userbase goes way further than any marketing campaign when it comes to the long-term adoption and success of a product.

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Final remarks to consider

To recap, you’ve learned what an MVP is, who needs one, and why it matters; here are some key points to keep in mind:

1. Make sure it works
   When it comes to MVPs, many businesses launch either a very poor or sometimes even a non-functioning product. Please don’t do that. An MVP can be as simple as you desire, but it has to be functional. Ensure that your product works, make sure the core features are well done and in the right place and make sure it delivers what it promises.
2. Incorporate Feedback
   The most critical reason for launching an MVP is to generate and capitalize on customer feedback. Offer surveys, ask for reviews, ask what’s missing, ask what would take them from liking the product to loving the product. Remember that the development should be incremental and based on feedback.
3. MVP don’t necessarily save you time and money
   Most of the talk about building MVPs revolves around saving time and cutting development costs. While indeed an MVP is a quick and cheap way to launch your product, you still have to invest time and money in developing the final version. An MVP can cut your costs in the sense that it helps you streamline your development process, so you avoid wasting your efforts on unnecessary tangents. But it is never a replacement for the final product.

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Endnote

MVPs, when done right, can be incredibly beneficial to your development process. They reduce risks, generate customer feedback, and help build extremely functional and effective products.

For anyone who values efficiency, risk aversion, and informed incremental development, MVPs are the way to go. If you too wish to go down the MVP road, consider giving this brilliant guide on building a successful MVP a read.

A good MVP can be a game-changer for your product development strategy. However, it requires a ton of research, clarity, and a commitment to receive and incorporate feedback in the form of persistent and steady improvements.

We sincerely hope you find great success in your product development endeavors!

Successful Practices to Build a Secure Mobile Application

The number of mobile applications is confronting a remarkable hike with each passing day.

However, the constantly increasing number of mobile applications is also giving a significant rise to the number of hacking attacks occurring in our surroundings.

Looking at the scenario, it becomes the duty of developers to be watchful about the application’s security in addition to injecting advanced features into it.

We will commence with our discussion shortly, meanwhile, contact us to hire mobile app programmer well-versed with all the practices required to develop well secure mobile applications.

Let’s start by understanding different types of hacking attacks that are likely to hit a mobile application

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4 Types of Hacking Attacks Associated with a Mobile Application

1. Browser-based Attacks
   These types of hacking attacks occur on web servers. These include a range of activities including phishing, clickjacking, and so on.
2. SMS-based Attacks
   While performing these types of attacks, the hackers intent to spread unauthorized messages across mobile devices. These texts are addressed to chargeable SMS text services run by the attacker.
3. OS-based Attacks
   The OS-based attacks are aimed to find loopholes in the mobile operating systems like Android and iOS and misuse them.
4. Application-based Attacks
   The application-based attacks are intended to find faults in the developed application and utilize them to fetch the sensitive data of the user.
   The factors like poor encryption, faulty SSL injection, etc. may be the major cause of these types of attacks.

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3 Most Common Reasons Behind Successful Hacking Attempts

1. Weak Encryption
   Weak and faulty encryption allows hackers to easily understand your confidential data. Hence, if you are not following the best encryption practices, you are most likely to encounter hacking attacks.
2. Absence of Proper Authentication
   The second most important cause for successful hacking attacks is the absence of proper authentication.
   Passwords are the oldest technique to apply authentication and are losing effects with the advancement in hacking technologies.
   Finding out another effective way to implement authentication has become a necessity.
3. Faulty Storage of Data
   User’s data is a liability for you and you should handle it with care.
   If there are errors in your data storage methods, you are likely to lose your user’s confidential data in the hands of hackers.

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8 Practices to Build Secure Mobile Applications

1. Draft a Secure Code
   One of the most crucial yet weak elements of any application is the application’s code.
   It becomes very easy for hackers to exploit your application if it is made with malefic code. Hence, try to draft as much secure code as you can.
2. Ensure Proper Encryption of Data
   Data encryption is an effective way to protect valuable data from getting exploited even if it gets stolen.
   If you encrypt your data properly before transmission, it will not allow hackers to understand it unless they know the decryption code.
   Hence, make sure to apply the latest encryption techniques to all your application’s data to protect it from attackers.
3. Utilize Two-Factor Authentication
   Password security is the most common type of security measure implemented for a long time.
   However, there are many limitations associated with password security like failing to remember the password, higher chances of password hacking, and so on.
   Moreover to this, guessing a user’s password is not a tough chore in many cases.
   The scenarios demand the need for a more reliable security measure and two-factor authentication emerges as a great option in this respect.
   The most traditional and popular application of two-factor authentication is – whenever a user tries to log in to an application, he receives a code via a text message or email, only when he submits the required code in addition to the password, he is allowed to log in to the application.
   Two-factor authentication is an excellent way to protect such applications that are likely to hold confidential data of the user.
4. Employ SSL Certificates
   SSL certificates are a powerful way to guarantee protected data transfers, logins, etc. as well as guard your confidential data.
   The lack of SSL may open the doors of hacking attacks for your application.
   Hence, implementing the SSL certificates can be one of your best moves towards protecting your application against digital attacks.
5. Use Secure Hosting Providers
   Always ensure to use the best and well-secured hosting server incorporated with all the security measures for hosting your application.
   No matter you are adopting a dedicated server, shared server, or cloud hosting provider, security should always be at the top of your list and you should always be very careful while making a selection.
6. Be Selective with the Libraries
   The utilization of third-party libraries is a common practice while developing a secure mobile applications. However, all the libraries do not comply well with the security measures and are not safe when used in your application.
   The flaws in these libraries can give the chance to hackers to enter your app.
   Hence, using the libraries with caution is a mandatory thing.
7. Perform Adequate Security Testing
   Next comes security, one of the most important phases of a software development life cycle.
   Perform adequate security testing on your application. Make sure to use all the latest tools and technologies to achieve better results.
   The retesting, regression testing, all should be done every time whenever the changes are introduced to the application.
   You can hire a dedicated testing team if you need to perform the job in a more beneficial way.
8. Avoid Storing Unnecessary Sensitive Data
   Don’t store user’s sensitive data forever. Use practices that automatically delete the user’s data after a specific period of time.
   Also, avoid collecting too much data from the user. Ask only for the mandatory data instead.
   And again, whatever data you are storing, it should be in the encrypted format.

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EndNote

Secure mobile applications are surely a major concern that can have a big impact on the decision between acceptance and abandonment of the application.

The hackers can employ any strategy including utilizing your microphone, camera, or even location to have access to your confidential data.
So guys, if you are overlooking the security aspect of your mobile application, it is time to be careful and follow the best development practices guaranteeing better application security.
Connect with us if you need help. We have an excellent team capable of assuring the development of secure mobile applications with all the advanced features incorporated. Good Luck!

Why is Application Store Optimization So Much Important?

The significance of mobile applications in today’s world is prominent. The application stores are choke – packed with a huge number of mobile applications.

Looking at the current scenario, it seems every second businessman is planning to create a new mobile application. However, only building a mobile application is not enough to achieve the required results. In fact, your application must reach your targeted audience to fulfill the predefined set of goals. 

Here comes the biggest headache: –

How to achieve a higher application ranking in the search results of an application store?

The solution to this problem gives rise to a term called ASO (App Store Optimization). 

We will take a detailed tour of this solution, meanwhile, if you need assistance from the best App store optimization professionals to take your application towards the path of success, you can hire our team anytime.

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What is the App Store Optimization

“ASO refers to the set of actions you are taking to achieve a higher application ranking in the search pages of application stores.“

It is a continuous process that focuses on enhancing your application’s ranking and findability within the application stores. 

ASO increases your application visibility which leads to enhanced traffic to your application store page and finally, increases the number of your application downloads.

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Importance of App Store Optimization

With the presence of 2.7 million apps on Google play store and 1.82 million apps on Apple’s application store, the possibilities of your app getting lost in the crowd are very high. 

Taking necessary actions to ensure your application reaches a significant number of your potential customers becomes highly crucial in the scenario. 

If you are not taking ASO seriously and not putting efforts to boost your application’s search ranking, you are probably wasting your time and money in planning and creating the application.

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Taking good care of an application’s ASO can avail you of numerous advantages. A few of them are given as under

• ASO increases your profits and revenues
  ASO rewards your website with a significant number of extra downloads. This will eventually add big numbers to your profits as well as revenues.
• ASO connects your application with potential users
  Your ASO efforts can link your application with more relevant users provided you are making optimized use of your keywords.
• ASO makes your application stable
  With all the extra downloads and revenues offered by ASO, your application gets rewarded with a more stable, prolonged future.

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The App store optimization of your application depends on many application factors. These factors can be divided into two categories namely primary and secondary. Let’s have a look at both of them

1. Primary/Main Factors
   Primary or main factors are those factors that are in our control. These include
   • Title of your application 
   • Keywords included in the application name and description
2. Secondary Factors
   Secondary factors are those factors over which we cannot have complete control. These include.
   • The number of your application downloads
   • The rating and reviews your application has received

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Relation Between Application Rating and Ranking

Here comes an obvious question:

Does an application with good ratings also rank good in the search results?

And the answer to this question is YES. As per a survey, an application with good ratings also ranks good in the search results of application stores.

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7 Effective Tips to Improve Your Application Store Optimization

1. Review Your Title

The first and foremost thing you need to think carefully about is the title of your app. Your application title should be such that it defines the purpose of your application to the searchers. 

A well-thought, relevant title is very helpful in enhancing the rankings of your application. 

Hence, don’t make any compromises in selecting your application’s title and take sufficient time to decide on a title that is exceptional, explanatory, and keyword-rich. Try including the main keyword in your application title if possible. 

Google play store and Apple’s application store handle titles in completely different ways. Hence, make sure to draft your titles accordingly.

2. Treat Your Keywords with Care

Just like SEO, keywords are a crucial element of your Application store optimization as well. Your application title and description should have an adequate number of keyword occurrences. However, you have to be very careful while doing the same as too much keyword stuffing may lead to adverse results instead of positive ones. 

3. Have a Glance at Your Description

Next comes your application description. 

Your application description should be clear, effective and should contain the most important information such as what purpose your application fulfills, in what manner your application is going to help the users, what are the main benefits of using your application, and likewise.

Your application description should be relevant to what your audience is seeking. It should look approachable and stimulate searchers to download and utilize it.

4. Revise the Quality of Your Screenshots

The screenshots play a very important role in influencing a searcher to download your application. 

Emphasize the most interesting parts of your application while using the screenshots. Plenty of powerful tools including Figma, MockUPhone, AppLaunchPad, etc. are available in the market that may help you create great screenshots. 

5. Leverage the Reviews

Your application’s ratings and reviews from your existing users can make big differences to your Application Store Optimization. 

Try to get as many positive reviews as you can from your application users. 

There are many ways to achieve this. You can either send push notifications to your existing users requesting them to review your application. You can also display a popup notification in front of your users asking them to review your application and so on.

6. Keyword Research for Application Store Optimization

Of course, keyword injection is important to accomplish effective ASO, however, performing adequate keyword research before adding them to your content is vital too. Make sure to spend some time researching the optimum and result-drawing keywords before coming up with your title and description. 

7. Select an Appropriate Category for Your Application

No matter you are uploading your application to Google play store or Apple’s application store, choosing a proper and relevant category to upload your application is highly important. 

Placing your application in the wrong category may hinder the ways your application reaches the target audience. 

You may sometimes feel your application fits more than one category, however, it is your duty to come up with the best solution to this problem before moving forward. 

Take necessary actions to find your ways towards your success.

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Application Store Optimization V/S SEO – A Quick Comparison

It’s a general belief that ASO is nothing more than SEO for mobile applications. However, the former is not completely true. 

Of course, ASO and SEO have some resemblance in terms of the definition and characteristics, they do have differences too. Let’s discuss these differences in brief- 

S.no	Aspects	ASO	SEO
1	Definition	ASO refers to the process of optimizing a mobile application’s ranking in the search pages of application stores.	SEO refers to the process of optimizing a website’s ranking on the result pages of search engines.
2	Aim	The main aim of ASO is to increase an application’s visibility to enhance the number of application downloads.	The main aim here is to drive quantity traffic towards a website to increase its click-through rate.
3	Target	ASO targets application stores including Apple’s app store, Google play store, Huawei AppGallery, etc.	SEO targets a variety of search engines including Google, Bing, Yahoo, and so on.
4	Factors	The factors impacting ASO can be divided into two categories namely on-meta factors and off-meta factors On-meta factors include application title, description, screenshots, icons, videos, URL, and so on. Off-meta factors include downloads, ratings, and reviews.	The factors impacting SEO can again be divided into two categories namely off-page factors and on-page factors.  On-page factors include metadata, loading speed, content quality, heading tags, responsive design, and so on. Off-page factors include backlinks and traffic volume.
5	Result	The result generation here takes a relatively lesser time and is a matter of only a few days or weeks.	SEO takes more time to show the results. You have to be patient and wait for at least 3-4 months to start getting the desired results.

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EndNote

ASO is important whether you have created a new application or want to improve the existing one and overlooking the same may lead to big losses in terms of both money as well as efforts.

In addition to offering many significant benefits discussed above, it also helps you to enhance your brand exposure. 

So guys, don’t just create an application, in fact, do proper care of its ASO as well.

Contact us to get more assistance on how, when, and why!

A Step-by-Step Guide to Android Development with Eclipse

Hey there

Planning to develop a mobile application?

You must be wondering which is the best platform to target and the most obvious answer to this is Android.

In this blog, I will guide you with the important details associated with Android development along with a detailed step by step guide to Android development with Eclipse IDE. 

Meanwhile, if you are seeking out the best Hire android app developer to create your next application, contact a mobile app development company straightaway. 

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A Brief Introduction to Android

Android is an open-source platform created on Linux and has become the first choice of one and all willing to create a mobile application. 

Android is typically seen as a mobile operating system, however, it is no more restricted to mobile. The platform is used in many other devices nowadays including televisions and mobiles. 

The Android platform can be used to run a variety of applications including entertainment, communication, social, media, travel, and so on. 

Now, let’s understand the most important benefits offered by Android application development. 

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6 Prominent Benefits of Android Development

1. Lesser Development Cost
   Android is a completely free and open-source platform where you only need to pay for the development process. Hence, you can come up with a great application without investing large sums of money.
2. Adaptable User Interface
   An appealing and user-friendly UI is vital to assure the success of a mobile application. The use of Android for application development enables you to develop convenient and comprehensible user interfaces for your mobile applications.
3. Popularity
   Android is the most popular and widely used platform utilized by more than 80% of mobile devices across the world.  Hence, investing in Android application development can reward you with a vast number of application users.
4. Security
   The security of an application is always the topmost concern no matter you are creating a web or a mobile application. With Android application development, you can assure a secure and smooth operation of your mobile application.
5. Easy to Start
   Android development is based on Java which is one of the most popular and widely used languages across the world. Hence, anyone having sound knowledge of Java programming can learn and start Android development easily. 
   Android development is based on Java which is one of the most popular and widely used languages across the world. Hence, anyone having sound knowledge of Java programming can learn and start Android development easily. 
6. Fast Time to Market
   Today’s market is full of competition where a quick and easy deployment of the application has become a primary need and the delays caused in the same may introduce big losses to the business. With Android development, you can develop and deploy your application quickly and flawlessly. 

So, guys, I hope you understood the benefits of Android application development very well and are convinced to adopt it.

Now, the next thing about which you need to think is the IDE. If you are not aware of what an IDE is, let me explain the term for you in brief. 

“IDE or Integrated Development Environment is a software comprising an editor, compiler, required tools, and a debugger. The primary objective of any IDE is to make the application development fast and easy.”

Here is the question that arises :

Which IDE (Integrated Development Environment) to choose for the development?

Although many options including Android Studio etc. are available, one of the most recommended and widely used IDE to accomplish Android application development is Eclipse. 

Let’s have a look at what is it and what benefits it offers. An Introduction to Eclipse

“Eclipse is a popular IDE that permits the development of applications using a variety of programming languages including Java, C, C++, Python, Ruby, and so on.”

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The Primary Benefits of Using Eclipse IDE Include

• Simple layout 
• Enhanced project management
• Lessen boot-up time
• GIT integration
• Accelerated application development
• Easy debugging and likewise

Guys, I hope you are clear with all the information given above and we are all set to commence the main topic of this blog i.e. step-by-step guide to Android development with Eclipse.  We will start shortly but before that let’s understand a few important terminologies first

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Key Terminologies of Android App Development

• SDK 
  An SDK or Software Development Kit is a collection of tools and libraries required to develop the underlying application.
• ADT
  ADT or Android Development Tools is a plugin to expand the Eclipse IDE. The plugin avails the developers with an enhanced set of tools required to accomplish Android application development successfully.
• AVD
  AVD or Android Virtual Device is an emulator that aids to understand the behavior of the application on the actual Android device. 
• JDK
  JDK or Java Development Kit is utilized to code the underlying Android application.

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Building Blocks of Android

Below is a brief look at the essential building blocks of Android

1. Activity – A class exemplifying an individual screen. 
2. Intents – Utilized to call components. 
3. Services – A background process capable of running for a prolonged time.
4. Content Providers – Allow data sharing between the applications.
5. Fragments – These are the partitions of an activity. 
6. AndroidManifest.XML – Holds the information about activities, content providers, and likewise. 

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A Step-by-Step Guide to Commence Android Development with Eclipse

1. Setting up the development environment

The very first thing you need to do while creating an application is setting up the development environment. 

To proceed with Android application development using Eclipse, you are required to download and set up the following mentioned tools. Make sure you have Windows XP or later, or MAC OS 10.5.8 or later before you proceed

• Java JDK5 or JDK6
• Android SDK
• Eclipse IDE
• Android Development Tools Eclipse Plugin (optional)

• JDK Setup and Installation

Download JDK using this link <https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/javase-downloads.html> and install it on your device. 

Now, set up the PATH and JAVA_HOME variables. This path will be directed to the folder where your java and javac resides.

Suppose you are working on windows and installed JDK in C:\jdk 1.6.0_15.

You are required to include the given lines in the C:\autoexec.bat file.

set PATH=C:\jdk1.6.0_15\bin;%PATH%

set JAVA_HOME=C:\jdk1.6.0_15

• Installing and Configuring Android SDK

Download and install Android SDK using this link <https://developer.android.com/studio>. 

Let’s configure it now. 

You must be seeing the above window after a successful installation. 

Deselect the given two options as it will help you to diminish the installation time

• Documentation for Android SDK
• Samples for SDK

Now click on ‘Install 7 Packages’. A dialog box given in the below screenshot will appear

Finish the installation and shut the SDK manager.

• Installing and Setting Eclipse IDE

Now, download and install the Eclipse IDE. Your system will show a window like below after successful installation

• Setting up the ADT plugin

Next comes the installation of the ADT plugin. 

Open Eclipse and Navigate to Help > Software Updates > Install New Software.

A dialog box will appear as shown below

Click ‘Add’

Give https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/ in the location field and click ‘Ok’.

By doing this, Eclipse will find out and show the list of discovered plugins. Select All and click Next.

• Establishment of Android Virtual Device

Android Virtual Device is where you will test your Android applications. Follow the below steps to create Android Virtual Device

• Launch Eclipse
• Go to Window > AVD Manager 
• Click ‘New’
• Give appropriate values and click ‘Create AVD’

2. Creating a New Android Application

• Open Eclipse 
• Go to File > New > Project
• Choose Android Project from the shown folder
• Click Next
• Fill in the required details i.e. the Project Name, Build Target, Application Name, Package Name, and Create Activity
  • Project Name is the name of the folder where Eclipse will save all your project files.
  • Build Target is that version of Android SDK which will be used to create your project.
  • Application Name is the name you want to give to your underlying application.
  • The Package Name is the namespace where all your source code will reside.
  • Create Activity is the name of the class stub created by the plugin.

• Click on Finish

3.  Drafting the Application Code

The next comes drafting the code for your application. This includes Modifying

• Text.
• Layout.
• java code.

Do it as per the requirements of the underlying application.

4. Running the Application

• Click on the green circle given at the top of the screen.
• Select the AVD generated in the above steps.
• This will make the program get executed successfully.

Hey, you have created your first Android application. Congrats!!

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Below is a List of a Few Questions That May Need an Answer

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Conclusion

Most people consider Android as the first priority when it comes to application development and the most recommended IDE to accomplish the task is Eclipse.

The possible reasons are already mentioned in the information given above.

So, if you are also planning to create a mobile application, do think about Android development once.

Contact Indylogix to get the best assistance. 

I hope the information was helpful and you enjoyed reading it. Thank you !!

WordPress GDPR Compliance – Get The Complete Details Here

GDPR is a buzzword and a trending term these days bounding website owners to think about the compliance of their websites with the regulation and the probable impacts of the violation. However, people often get confused with the buzzword and the impacts of the same on their website. Hence, If you are a website owner running a WordPress website and wondering about what is GDPR and how it is going to impact your WordPress website then this article is for you. For your ease, we have divided our article into different sections that include the following

1. What is GDPR?
2. Main goals behind GDPR 
3. For whom GDPR is?
4. How GDPR can impact your WordPress site?
5. Why making your WordPress site GDPR compliant is important?
6. Possible ways to make your WordPress site GDPR compliant?
7. List of WordPress plugins for GDPR compliance

What is GDPR?

GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation. It is nothing but a European Union law that permits EU citizens to have full control of their personal data. The law came into effect on 15 May 2018 with the main goal of defending consumers from the careless management of their personal data. This personal data generally comprises the name, email address, IP address, photo, location, mobile number, health status, and so on. In and all, the GDPR law applies to both the personal as well as the sensitive data of the user. 

GDPR is much more restrictive as well as protective as compared to the existing laws and bounds organizations to alter their plan towards their privacy policy. The law is applicable to every business across the globe be it a big or small provided its website is having visitors from the European countries. Although the GDPR regulation is a long documentation, the most important points of the law can be seen as under

1. A website user has the privilege to know about how its data will be collected and utilized. 
2. Users must always be free to restrict the processing of their personal data whenever they want. 
3. No business can sell the data of the customers without their permission.
4. Businesses must delete the account of the user and remove them from their email list if the user wants. 
5. Businesses must report the data violations, if any, to the users within 72 hours of knowing about the same. 

Main goals behind GDPR

1. User’s personal data should be handled with care and should be processed keeping in mind the complete security of the data.
2. User’s data should be treated fairly and processed transparently.
3. The collection of user’s data should be limited to only the necessary details. There should not be any demand for irrelevant and unnecessary stuff.
4. The data should be gathered for a specific purpose and should be utilized to fulfil that purpose only. 
5. User’s data should be valid and up to date.
6. The data should be identifiable only for the period it is needed.

For whom GDPR is

Now, when we have understood what is GDPR law and what are the main goals behind the creation of this law, the next important thing we need to understand is – where is this law applicable? Is it applicable to my website? Well, this is a common question that must be arising in every individual running a website over the internet and the answer for them is – Yes,

GDPR is applicable to every website all over the world connecting visitors from the European countries regardless of the location and the country where the business is established. For example, if you are running a WordPress community website that gathers the personal data of each and every user, an eCommerce site that stores user’s information to make the digital sales, or a WordPress blog that enables visitors to post their comments then GDPR is for you. 

How GDPR can impact your WordPress site

WordPress, as we all know, rules over 30% of the overall websites present on the internet, the probabilities of getting WordPress websites impacted by the law are significantly higher. GDPR can impact your WordPress website in a number of different ways no matter if you are a website owner, a content marketer, or a developer.

A few of your websites’ areas that have a higher possibility of having GDPR impacts include – Google analytics, contact forms, email marketing, eCommerce, and so on. 

 For example – let’s assume you are a web developer then GDPR may affect you in developing plugins or themes that are likely to include forms to collect user information, in utilizing third-party themes and plugins, in coding functionality that may include identifying the user through its location, IP address, and so on. 

Secondly, if you are a website owner then also GDPR has a lot of rooms to impact on you. A few of them include the data collection forms like payments, contact forms, etc., how and where you gather the analytical data, where do you utilize the customer data, the ways you get in touch with the customers and contacts, what plugins and themes you utilize to create your website and so on. 

Luckily, a number of the prominent WordPress plugins have already incorporated GDPR compliance innovations into their functionalities for your ease.  

Why making your WordPress website GDPR compliant is important

GDPR is a strict law applicable to each and every website likely to have visitors from the European countries. If your website does not comply with GDPR’s rules, you may have to pay huge penalties of up to 4%  of the global annual revenue of your company or euro 20 million (whichever is higher). These penalties are so high that they can easily put an individual and its business into big trouble. Hence, to protect yourself from the serious consequences of violating the GDPR rules, making your WordPress website GDPR compliant and playing safe is highly crucial.

But, hold on,  there is no need to get panic on this as the government is not going to impose a fine on you directly, in fact, it will raise and warning first then will go with a reprimand then will come to the deferment of data processing and still if you don’t stop to break the rules then only the turn of the penalty will come. 

Below picture will give you a brief idea about the consequences of non-compliance with the GDPR rules

Possible Ways To Make Your WordPress Website GDPR Compliant

There is an ample number of practices that you can follow to make your WordPress website GDPR compliant. A few of them are listed out as under

1. By installing a Firewall plugin like All in One WP Security and Firewall to ensure better protection of both your website as well as data.
2. By enhancing your login security using two-factor authentication methods.
3. By updating your privacy policy.
4. By utilizing GDPR plugins.
5. By going transparent with the user on how, where, and for what purpose their data has been stored and will be utilized. 
6. By ensuring better protection of your mailbox.
7. By getting an SSL certificate.
8. By providing ease to the users for requesting or deleting their information anytime.
9. By upgrading your WordPress version to 4.9.6 or higher.
10. By analyzing and improving your information collection and processing tactics.
11. By saving user’s data in the encrypted format.
12. By keeping a check on your themes, plugins, and APIs.
13. By attaching a cookie consent.
14. By giving data portability facilities to the users.

List Of WordPress Plugins For GDPR Compliance

Although no plugin can guarantee complete legal GDPR compliance of your website still, there are a few plugins that can aid you to automate the GDPR compliance of your WordPress website to some extent. These plugins can be seen as under

1. Shared Counts
2. Delete Me
3. Cookie Notice
4. WP Forms
5. Monster Insights
6. OptinMonster
7. WP Security Audit Log
8. WP GDPR Compliance

Ending Words

GDPR is for everyone collecting user’s data for whatever purpose. Making your website GDPR compliant is definitely a tough chore but if you want to target the visitors from European countries and increase the amount of traffic towards your website then you have no option other than making your website GDPR compliant. The compliance with the GDPR law offers a lot of other benefits as well including aiding you to increase the possibilities of online business by gaining the faith of your customers and boosting your sales and profits.

When it comes to WordPress websites, there are a hell lot of things that need to be practised to ensure better security and the protection of user’s data. However, at the same time, this compliance is highly crucial to keep yourself protected from the adverse consequences of violating the law and putting yourself in big troubles. 

Hence, if you are running a WordPress website then do make sure it is following all the GDPR compliance rules. If you are still having confusion or facing tough times with the same, and need assistance, you can hire dedicated WordPress developer straight away to get the problem resolved easily!

WordPress 5.5.1 – Find Everything You Want To Know Here

WordPress released its last version i.e. version 5.5 on Aug 11, 2020. Although the newer version arrived with a lot of improvements in areas like speed, search, and security, it did have loopholes to affecting a number of themes and plugins. To cope with these issues, WordPress has recently launched a new update i.e. 5.5.1 in the first week of this month covering 34 bug fixes, 5 enhancements, and 5 fixes for the blog editor. 

WordPress also revealed the information describing the causes behind WordPress 5.5’s adverse impacts over a large number of websites. As per the WordPress statements

“In WordPress 5.5 the global JavaScript objects listed below were removed without being deprecated. WordPress 5.5.1 adds a backfill for these globals so they no longer cause JavaScript errors.”

Although there are a lot of issues that are yet to get fixed, the main purpose behind the release of WordPress 5.5.1 is to prevent the sites from breaking. 

No. Of Sites Impacting By WordPress Version 5.5

To understand the issues thoroughly and make the things more clear, WordPress created and maintained a spreadsheet containing the names of the themes and the plugins affecting WordPress version 5.5. The spreadsheet also contained the details of the specific issues different themes and plugins were encountering. Although the main goal behind creating the spreadsheet was to ease the job of developers, it too revealed the number of websites adversely affecting WordPress version 5.5. To their surprise, the number was not in hundreds or thousands but was in millions which became the main reason behind this urgent and early release of WordPress 5.5.1. Our dedicated experts are capable to resolve the Update issues and develop the error-free website for your business, Hire dedicated wordpress developer Now.

Plugins Impacted By WordPress Version 5.5

Below are a few names from the long list of plugins adversely impacted with WordPress version 5.5

• Polylang
• Ocean Extra
• Max Mega Menu
• Child Theme Configurator
• Rank Math
• Simple Custom CSS and JS
• YITH WooCommerce Wishlist
• WordPress Gallery Plugin – NextGEN Gallery

Themes Impacted By WordPress Version 5.5

Below is given a small list from the long list of themes adversely impacted by WordPress version 5.5

• Astra
• Hueman
• Neve
• Zakra
• Customizr
• Storefront
• ColorMag

Ending Words

WordPress 5.5.1 update is primarily designed to patch a huge number of bugs encountered after the release of WordPress 5.5. Hence, the release is good news and a big relief for everyone facing the issues with their sites as a result of utilizing WordPress version 5.5. They can either download the latest version directly from WordPress.org or can visit dashboard > updates on the WordPress dashboard to update their WordPress version!

5 Effective Ways To Use LinkedIn To Enhance A Business

Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, etc. are an excellent way to connect with people at the present date and when it comes to promoting a business, one of the most prominent social media platforms that cannot be overlooked is Linkedln. LinkedIn is considered as the biggest professional network available across the globe till date that can be utilized for a variety of purposes including finding suitable jobs, building excellent professional relationships, learning/enhancing any type of skills, and so on. When it comes to growing a business, LinkedIn provides excellent opportunities to connect with top-level leads and decision-makers of a business which sometimes becomes very crucial to grow an existing business or establish the new one. 

This article is aimed at putting some light on how Linkedln can be best used to enhance and grow a business. Let us start

How Linkedln Can Be Best Used To Grow A Business

LinkedIn can serve as an excellent platform that gives you an ample number of business opportunities and aids you to enhance your business in a number of ways. Few of them can be seen as under

Exploring the new talent

Every business requires a team of talented professionals to grow successfully. However, finding new talent in today’s competitive and rapidly changing market is no more an easy job. Linkedln, in such a scenario, can act as a great bridge diminishing the gap between you and your next hire. LinkedIn provides excellent recruitment plans that you can leverage to reward your business with highly skilled and talented professionals. You can post your new job opening, send personal messages to the experts you may be interested in, make advanced searches to come up with the exact profiles you are looking for, and so on. This way you can save a hell lot of money. You may be investing in recruitment agencies and other necessary stuff required to find out the perfect talent to grow your business. 

Forming new leads

Growing profits and revenues of business with effective lead generation are the ultimate goal of any marketing strategy including social media marketing. LinkedIn is an excellent platform to generate new leads and transform them into your long-lasting customers. You can do it in a number of ways including following your present clients and prospects, joining the groups associated with your niche, posting regular updates, and so on. 

Connecting with people

LinkedIn provides you the opportunity to connect with an ample number of people that maybe your colleagues, friends, and so on. You can even get connected with the people you don’t know personally. The more numbers of connections you will have, the more will be the people knowing about your business, and more will be the possibilities of generating potential customers through your connections. Here are some recommendations that you can follow to significantly increase the number of your connections

1. Make sure your profile is set to public and it is accessible to every individual interested in your profile and attempting to get connected with you.
2. Make sure you check all the connection requests you get and not miss any chance to get connected with your future leads.
3. If somebody posts a blog or something, make sure you are checking his/her profile adequately. Do not miss to send the connection request if the person sounds interesting.

Searching for new business opportunities

Connecting the right people at the right time and in the right manner is the key to generate more business. Your LinkedIn profile can reward you with an ample number of business opportunities by exposing your business to the people looking for the products and services of your niche, making them aware of the offers and discounts you are providing, and so on. LinkedIn is all about building connections, generating new leads, and reaching potential customers which ultimately is a gateway to new business opportunities. The platform provides a hell lot of powerful toys that you can play around to make your marketing and advertising efforts more effective and result-oriented.

Sharing the regular content

One of the most awesome digital marketing strategies that people usually follow are sharing regular content on any topic in your niche. The main goal behind publishing the content regularly is keeping yourself alive in the minds of your audience and building their trust towards you by showcasing your expertise in the niche with the help of meaningful content. LinkedIn serves as an excellent platform to accomplish the task as it enables you to post the company blogs, links to long content, articles along with the powerful images, and so on in your LinkedIn account. 

Leveraging the personal messages

No platform be it Facebook or Linkedln can give you the desired results unless you are proactive and put in an adequate number of efforts. One of the best ways to be proactive and influence the maximum number of your potential customers is personal messaging. LinkedIn provides you the opportunities to personally get in touch with your connections and make them aware of your business as well as your available offers and discounts. However, at the same time, you should also be very cautious while drafting a message to your connection. Your message should be only from a sales perspective and should not contain any unwanted or harsh stuff that not only harms your relations with your connection but also can diminish your reputation and goodwill in the market.  

Conclusion

LinkedIn is a platform that mainly revolves around career professionals. No matter if you want to improve your home business, looking for freelance work, or want to connect with other professionals in your field, LinkedIn acts as the best platform. Hire social media marketing manager to manage your social media profiles professionally which allows you to generate the leads and increase your social media presence. The platform is a great source to accomplish Digital Marketing as well. Hence, having a well-planned Linkedln profile is mandatory to reserve a safe corner in today’s vastly competitive and ever-changing market. So, if you have still not established a Linkedln profile for your business, it is the time to establish it now and enjoy all the amazing benefits offered by the platform. Good luck!

How to Fix the WordPress 5.5 jQuery issue

Is your website broken after updating WordPress 5.5? Let’s discuss the jQuery issue in details and how to fix it.

What changes made?

WordPress 5.5 killed jQuery Migrate, a device that WordPress has included for a long time to help theme & plugins with obsolete code despite everything run appropriately. By turning jQuery Migrate off, numerous theme & plugins no longer work appropriately, which can bring about broken sites. Also, you can set Auto-Update Feature for Themes and Plugins – WordPress 5.5 to avoid manual updates or broken site issues.

Why WordPress remove jQuery migrate?

More established forms of jQuery are not, at this point upheld, so WordPress needs to refresh coding norms. As WordPress gets ready to make the progress to refreshing to the most recent bolstered variant of jQuery, evacuating jQuery Migrate was a necessary initial step to ensure theme & plugins are updated and done utilizing belittled code.

How to fix it a jQuery issue?

• jQuery Migrate Helper Plugin

Enable JQuery Migrate helper plugin will re-empower the jQuery Migrate tool that was evacuated in WordPress 5.5, and give you data about what theme & plugins may be acting mischievously.

• Use Brower Console

The jQuery Migrate Helper module will likewise yield blunder messages in your program comfort to assist you with distinguishing which theme or plugins have broken your site. Just note that investigating along these lines is more specialized.

Which Kind of Apps Are Most Suitable for React Native?

The mobile application is the heart of today’s world. It has become a necessity for almost all kinds of businesses and enterprises to survive in today’s competitive and rapidly changing market. A number of powerful frameworks are available in the market for the development of mobile applications. So, whenever one plans to develop a mobile application for his business, the biggest question arises in his mind is which among the available frameworks is the best suitable for building a beautiful, goal-oriented, budget-friendly, fast, and efficient mobile application.

One of the most popular frameworks available in the market for the development of mobile applications is React Native. We can observe that organizations often look to hire React Native Developers these days to get their mobile applications developed. Let us have a brief introduction to React Native.

React Native is a Javascript framework that enables the development of native mobile applications for both android and iOS. With react-native, developers need to create the code only once and it can be shared across both Android and iOS. Writing codes twice to manage two platforms is no more required. This helps to boost the development speed excessively.

React Native permits to achieve the identical result as native faster, with a smaller team, and at a more economical cost. It was introduced by Facebook in February 2015 and soon gained the confidence of a number of companies and developers worldwide. It allows developers to create an application from scratch as well as to modify an already developed android or ios app. The concept of React Native has arrived from the React platform created for the development of web applications. Some of the advantages of using this framework for Mobile Application Development are:

1. This framework is completely open-source and free. One need not pay anything to use this outstanding framework.
2. This framework works with Javascript which is one of the oldest and most popular programming languages among the developer community. The probability of getting developers who are JavaScript professionals is much higher.
3. The use of this framework makes the development of a mobile application much faster with reduced cost and effort.
4. It allows the code written for one platform to be used for another platform.

Some of the most popular applications built using this framework are Instagram, Walmart, Skype, UberEATS, Gyroscope, Bloomberg, etc.

Although this framework has gained a lot of popularity in the world of Mobile Application Development in recent years, it is not suitable for all kinds of applications. There are few specific types of applications for which this framework can be the best choice for development. Here in this article, we will have a look at the kinds of applications for which React Native has proved to be a perfect framework.

• Applications that do not require native APIs

If the application relies closely on native APIs then React-Native may not be the great choice for development. This framework was actually designed for creating apps that are easy and to the point. If the application needs native APIs to do what it is expected to do, moving with a native framework like swift or java would be the satisfactory choice.

• E-Commerce Apps

React Native has tremendous versatility to offer to its users and consists of numerous features that are needed to create an effective and efficient e-commerce app. These features help the developers to preserve a lot of time, money, and efforts while building e-commerce applications.

• Simple Cross-Platform Apps

The applications that are easy and clear work well on React Native. If the app that needs to be developed is a complicated one and consists of a large number of screens then this framework might not be the appropriate choice to work with.

• Quick Prototype

If the application is only a swift prototype that has to be used to check out the market then React Native is apparently the right framework to carry on. The reason for suggesting this framework in such cases is that it is capable of building apps for both Android and iOS quickly, with very limited functionality and lightweight UI.

• Quick applications for short term use

When there is a need to develop a swift application that is required for a short period without the need for any maintenance or updates, React Native may be the perfect framework to use. The application developed can later be improved, elongated or even abandoned once the goal is achieved.

• Social Media Apps

If there is a need to develop a relatively fast social media app with more features and options then React Native may be the right choice for the development. Instagram, Skype, Pinterest, Discord are some of the most popular social media apps developed using this framework.

• Applications with Synchronized UI

With this framework, it is very easy to develop applications that have a simplified UI. React Native, being a cross-platform development framework, allows developers to modify a line of code only once and realize the modifications across different platforms. This helps developers to preserve a lot of time as they do not need to modify separate codebases to perform changes across multiple platforms, which is a very lengthy and time-consuming process.

Wrapping Up

React Native works very well for all the above-mentioned kinds of apps hence giving an amazing development experience. The applications developed using this framework are lightweight, serviceable, quick, and budget-friendly.

The framework is growing day by day and providing us answers for our different queries. The use of this framework makes the application more powerful in a number of ways ranging from a simple code structure to a fabulous UI and great run-time flexibility. This platform also holds a check on memory spacing as well.

React Native is proved to be an excellent framework that has a huge community of developers all over the world. It is an outstanding choice if you are looking to turn out your idea into a cross-platform application and create a corner in both ios and android markets and Indylogix Solutions is the perfect choice to achieve this!

Top Digital Marketing Trends You Cannot Afford To Avoid In 2020

Digital marketing is a term that needs no introduction. It has become an indispensable part of almost all kinds of businesses in the last few years. It is hard for any business to survive in today’s competitive market without utilizing the tools and tactics of digital marketing. However, only the adoption of digital marketing is not enough for businesses to reserve a safe corner in the market there is a lot more they are required to do. 

As we all know the technology is constantly changing and consumer behavior is always unpredictable, the old, typical digital marketing techniques may not work effectively all the time. Hence, businesses are required to bring constant innovations to their digital marketing tactics and introduce new strategies to go in line with the current market rate. 

With the help of this article, I am putting some light on the latest digital marketing that any business should adopt in 2020. Let us start

Chat Bots

ChatBots has become an indispensable part of digital marketing in recent times. It is hard to find any website over the internet nowadays that does not have chatbots incorporated in it. The amazing AI-based technology enables businesses to assure an enriched customer experience by providing swift responses to their inquiries and ensuring round the clock services to the customers. A tremendous number of visitors prefer utilizing chatbots to communicate with the company and get answers to their simple questions instantly without having to wait for long hours that is likely to happen in the case of email inquiries and other methods. 

Visual Search

The technology has reached a level where a user can get the information about anything just by uploading a picture instead of typing long phrases of keywords in the search engines. The scenario demands the digital marketers to utilize high-quality images in their content along with detailed keywords. This increases the chance of their images being recognized by the search engines as a result of a visual search and their content to get displayed in front of the user. 

Social Media Story

Social media stories are an effective way to describe products and events over social media. These are a powerful way to bring a significant amount of traffic towards business. According to the reports, more than 1 billion people use stories daily to describe and promote their products. Hence, social media stories are something that digital marketers cannot afford to overlook if they want to achieve the best results from their social media marketing efforts.

Artificial Intelligence

The concept of AI is progressing with each passing day. Today, it can be seen everywhere including healthcare, video games, banking, and so on. It is also impacting the world of digital marketing on a very large scale. From sentiment analysis to better analysis of data and AI-powered chatbots, it is helping the digital marketing world in many ways.

For example, AI can enable brands to present only those products to the buyers that are relevant to their past purchases, searches, and views. This increases the likelihood of the customer making a purchasing decision on the given products that ultimately assures more sales generation. 

This is just one example however there is a lot more that AI can incorporate into the digital marketing world.

Voice Search

Voice search is in trend now and is generally used by people who do not prefer wasting time typing keywords. As the search phrases that people use while performing a voice search are very different than the ones they use while typing their search, the digital marketers are required to put those keywords in their content that are likely to be utilized while performing a voice search. This will ultimately help in boosting the visibility of their brands and generating more satisfactory outcomes as a result of their efforts.

Video Marketing

The utilization of videos is one of the most prominent marketing trends today and is going to be in place for a long time. Sharing videos of a brand can incorporate significant hikes in its conversion rates. It can also bound customers to make an instant purchasing decision. As videos are more capable of grasping the instant attention of the viewer, the site that includes videos are likely to get 50 times more search traffic than that of the one comprising only text. Hence, video marketing is something that should not be overlooked and should be taken at high priority by any digital marketer. 

Social Commerce

Social Commerce emerging as an excellent option for online store owners to enhance their businesses in a significant way. It allows customers to buy the products directly via social media posts or ads without any need to switch the site to make a purchase. This encourages customers to make an instant buying decision and diminishes the chances of abandonment as they are required to undergo very few steps for making a successful purchase. As the number of people making use of social media in their daily routine is tremendously higher, the concept of social commerce can aid digital marketers to add big numbers to their sales and revenues. 

Conclusion

We all know that change is the law of nature. As technology changes, consumer behavior changes, market changes, and competition changes, digital marketing tactics also need to be changed to make a business go with the trends of the current time. Above are a few digital marketing trends that digital marketers must adopt looking at the changing market situations if they want to get the best out of their marketing endeavors. 

Well, this was just an overview of the latest digital marketing trends that can help you to run your business successfully in 2020 and beyond, however, if you need more assistance in the same our digital marketing team is always happy to help you.