Author: David Dinh

For over 10 years David has helped drive hundreds of thousands of customers to businesses and understands what it takes to manage the chaos and headache of customers across different departments, systems and platforms. From roles in product development, product management, working in enterprises and advising for businesses going to sale and exit, David’s DNA is understanding the customer. David currently serves as Chief Operating Officer and Growth at Woveon, ensuring teams can scale and respond back to all their customers.

Ways to Use LinkedIn for Lead Generation

Posted on April 15, 2019April 17, 2019 by David Dinh

Cynics do not believe in using social media as an effective lead generation tool and choose to invest their time and energy at advertising and trade shows in trade publications. However, social media, particularly LinkedIn, is an effective tool to drive traffic to your website.

To attract new people to your website, using LinkedIn as a marketing tool helps you pique the prospect clients’ interest with great content and subsequently generating a sales lead.

Here are the ways on how to use Linkedin to generate leads

1. Try LinkedIn Mobile

If you have not already downloaded the Linkedin mobile app on your smartphone, do so now; it’s free after all. This app is best suited for an event like a trade show where you are interacting with contacts on a one-on-one basis. Ask your prospect during a conversation to turn on LinkedIn on their smartphone. Bump your phones together lightly. If they have an iPhone and their settings are correct, then LinkedIn will transfer contact information between phones using Bluetooth. Instant transfer of information, and a lead.

2. Join LinkedIn Groups

Join several groups on LinkedIn. The trick is joining other groups outside your industry other than joining the obvious groups in your industry. It might help grow your business. You are expanding your reach by stretching out a little bit, which is always good for business and helpful in lead generation.

3. Experiment with LinkedIn Direct Ads

To drive new prospects to your landing pages or LinkedIn groups, LinkedIn has an advertising program. You simply write a headline, add relevant copy, and create a destination link; the ads work the same way Google paid search ads work. Then you bid on how much you will pay LinkedIn every time someone clicks on the ad. If your product sells for $500 each, investing $50 to generate $500 is not a bad return on investment.

4. Participate in LinkedIn Answers

It is one the most under-utilized tools on LinkedIn- a section where people ask for advice and industry specific questions. You are the one giving advice here and answering questions. Regularly engaging in answering the questions can help you establish yourself as a thought leader. If you have blog posts or other content that provides helpful information about another user’s question, make sure it’s optimized for lead gen (with a call-to-action), and link to it in your answer.

5. Conduct a LinkedIn People Search

For people looking for jobs or business-to-business owners, this is a terrific tool. Using the upper right hand search box, do a people search for your target company. Use the refining options on the left when you generate results to view your direct connections and your second connections. Just ask your friends to introduce you via LinkedIn to the people at that target company with which you want to connect.

6. Add LinkedIn Applications

Application section can improve the experience people have on your LinkedIn page by adding new and interesting apps. You can even set up simple polls to find out what’s on the minds of your customers and prospects. Add an app that pulls your recent blog posts on your page for lead generation.

Are you using LinkedIn to generate leads? Know of more effective ways to generate leads not mentioned here? Do tell!

Business Networking and its Benefits

Posted on April 11, 2019March 13, 2019 by David Dinh

In essence, networking is all about developing rapport, building connections, and interacting with people in order to expand your circle of influence. Good networking is important for the growth of your career. Through development of lasting relationships for mutual gain and creation of lasting impressions with different individuals, you will be able to benefit from it both professionally and personally.

Business networking is undoubtedly one the most successful marketing techniques to sustain and accelerate your success. It is a valuable tactic to increase your knowledge, learn from others’ success, attract new clients, and nurture your business.

Below are the Benefits of Business Networking

1. Knowledge Sharing

Sharing knowledge and ideas is one of the major advantages of networking. Whether you share your opinion, discuss a viewpoint, or obtain feedback, networking will assist you in expanding your knowledge and allowing you to view things from a different perspective.

2. Enhanced Opportunities

From our experience business networking opens up a whole new world of opportunities. From business partnerships to client leads, from joint ventures to asset or business sales and so many more, your business is bound to land referrals and that too of excellent quality. It helps in growing your business. It is then completely up to your business as to how you make use of these opportunities. Opportunities you can take on include attending local business events, business seminars and “meetups”.

See: How to Drive More Customers to Your Business

According to a survey, 70% jobs are found due to networking and people find out about 40% jobs which are not advertised. This shows that there are plenty of opportunities for individuals who opt for networking.

3. Improved Credibility

Through business networking, you can improve the credibility and reputation of your business. As you gradually start meeting more people, you will eventually attain a reputation as being someone who loves interacting with and helping people. Once your reputation and credibility grows, you will get better opportunities and support. You will be able to help others with valuable sources, ideas, and information. This will further enhance your credibility.

4. Confidence

Regular networking will assist in improving your confidence. The more you do it, the better you will become. This is something extremely important being a business owner or someone who represents a business. The way you talk, convey your message, and make connections, strongly impacts your business.

5. Connections

It is important to remember that business networking is not merely about getting exposure and promoting your business, it is also about making connections with other networks as well. This is an opportunity for mutual gain. If you have the resources and information to help out others, then you should, and if they know someone in need that matches your skills and your business, then you will surely gain a referral. This works both ways and helps strengthen business relations.

6. New Information

Business networking is also an opportunity of exchanging knowledge about best practices, business tactics, and latest trends of the market. A network with interconnected and well-informed contacts means wider access to valuable and new information.

7. Better Support and Advice

Through business networking, you can attain valuable advice and support of experienced peers. It is the best platform to discuss opportunities and challenges as it will open doors to valuable guidance and suggestions. You can make the foundation and relationship even stronger by offering advice and giving suggestions to your contacts.

There are countless more benefits of business networking. It is important to stay in regular contact with your connections in order to attain the maximum advantages for you and for your business.

Why is Mobile Marketing Essential for Business?

Posted on April 8, 2019March 20, 2019 by David Dinh

Successful businesses around the world have started relying on mobile marketing for extending their reach to the increasingly growing market segment of mobile phone users. In today’s world, the importance of technology can’t be denied and business owners can’t afford to miss out on these advancements.

Mobile marketing can assist you in fulfilling most of your business goals which include customer services, customer data collection, product enhancement, increasing sales and more. Majority of businesses have developed their own mobile apps for enhanced mobile marketing experiences.

Here are some reasons why it is essential for your business to venture into mobile marketing:

1. Enhanced Brand Image

A strong brand image is significant for the success of your business. By opting for mobile marketing or developing a mobile app, you will be able to show your customers what your brand is about and how it is in line with the latest trends. This will in turn brighten up the future prospects of your business.

2. To Attain Immediate Response

Through mobile marketing, you get an immediate response. Smart phone users are constantly using their phones, so when they receive a message on their device, they are going to check it immediately. In comparison, an email can sit in a customer’s inbox for weeks before it is read.

3. Message Delivery and Product Purchase Anytime and Anywhere

With mobile marketing you can deliver a message to your customers, wherever they are and whenever you want. You can inform them about the latest products or services, new deals, discounts and more. This will be instantly viewed by your target audience. Not only this, but your customers will also be able to buy your products or services whenever they want. This is way faster than advertising or marketing through print media, TV or radio. As a matter of fact, there are more purchases through mobile marketing as compared to any other form of marketing.

According to a survey, $8.4 million worth of purchases were made on mobile devices in 2012. Since then there has been a drastic increase in purchases made in response to mobile marketing, especially through mobile apps. In total about $37 billion worth of purchases are expected from mobile marketing by 2016 and about $1 trillion by the end of 2017.

4. Personalised Customer Management

Mobile marketing allows personalised customer management. You can receive immediate feedback from your customers and interact with them to ensure that they are happy with the products and services. You can do regular surveys and offer discounts and promotional deals to your customers through mobile marketing which can further enhance customer engagement.

5. Countless Earning Potential at Low Costs

An effective mobile marketing strategy will enable you to target a larger audience, build highly marketable products or services and attract and maintain a loyal customer following. The best thing about mobile marketing is that it is cost effective so you have the opportunity to earn more profit.

It is a fact that the percentage of smart phone users will continue to increase in the coming years. Mobile marketing is the future of marketing, so it is wise to opt for it now and build a strong following for your business as it will position you for greater revenues and increased opportunities in the future.

What are the ways to leverage Social Media to enhance Customer Service?

Posted on April 4, 2019April 8, 2019 by David Dinh

Wondering how to generate more leads successfully? You just have to go where the people hang out. With 1.23 billion users on Facebook and 271 million users on Twitter, you clearly have to make your presence felt on social media. Not only is it the most effective means of business promotion, but is also very cost-effective. If you know to how to effectively leverage this medium to your advantage, you can retain your customers and attract new ones. Interacting with your customers directly and fostering relationships results in your loyal customer base expanding. Polls indicate 63% of small business owners find social media an effective source of promoting their business and that it is a successful means of creating more loyal customers.

Below are the Ways on How to Utilize Social Media to Enhance Customer Service

1. Regular Interaction with Customers

You probably already have a social media profile on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and more. However, in order to interact with your customers, you must have a separate social networking profile for your business.

2. Start Blogging

Create a blog for your business to share news about new products, latest promotions, or simply share useful information related to your products or services.

Related:
Blogging — Just What Your Business Needs To Boost Your Online Marketing

3. Ask For Feedback and Respond To It

Encourage your customers and followers to give your feedback regarding your services and products. Create polls and surveys and ask your followers, friends, and regular customers to provide feedback. Furthermore, it is essential to always respond to whatever feedback you get from your fans or followers. If there is any complaint, immediately act on it and provide solutions to the customers. Ask for suggestions. This will make the customers feel important and involved, subsequently resulting in an increase in their loyalty towards your business.

4. Regularly Monitor Online Feedback

There are several other mediums online where your customers can give feedback about your services and products besides your official website, blog, or social networking profiles. You must be aware of what individuals are saying about your products and business. Use tools or search engines like Google Analytics to look for reviews and feedback.

5. Know Your Competition Better

Keep an eye on review sites where people provide their feedback about products and services they used. This is not merely to see what people are saying about your business but also to know what they are saying about your competitors and determine what you can do to improve your business. For example, if they are providing special offers which the consumers love then maybe it is a wise idea for your business to launch a special offer as well.

6. Understand the Needs of Your Customers

If your customers are regularly sending your queries or complaints, then maybe it is time to really look into the problem and find its root cause. Change or modify the processes, if needed, to satisfy the needs of your customers. For example, you can add a FAQ section to answer the most regularly received queries.

Through social media, you can effectively promote and market your business in order to reach maximum number of your customers. It is better to have a strong social media plan to ensure that your business maintains a positive presence on the web and bring positive results for your business.

Strategies to Build Stronger and Lasting B2B Relationships

Posted on April 1, 2019April 3, 2019 by David Dinh

Many B2B organisations operate with the perception that selling their services or products at the lowest possible rates will make them successful. This approach may very well bring them success for a while, but once a competitor comes up with a better price or a better product, then the company becomes vulnerable and its products replaceable. Focusing on the price along will always be an unsuccessful and unnecessary strategy in the long run. A better and more successful approach is improving and nurturing their B2B relationships. B2B organisations have more chances of becoming successful if they are able to maintain strong business relationships.

Successful Strategies to Enhance Business to Business Relations

There are numerous strategies that your company can employ to improve and enhance their relationships. Some of them are discussed below:

1. Understand Clients’ Personalities

The most essential strategy for stronger relationships is to actually assess and understand the personality of your clients. This will assist you and your employees to communicate with them in a better way, whether it is face-to-face communication, email, phone, or any other form of communication. It will help you in developing a message that your client can relate to and understand in a better way. The most effective ways of understanding your clients and customers is through the social media.

As per our experience, 83% of B2B marketers believe that social media is essential for business and 58% have reported that social media has improved their sales. This means that through better communications with the clients and customers, processes and strategies can be improved and hence sales can increase.

2. Analysis of Sales Cycle

It is always a good strategy to understand the sales cycle of your clients so that you are aware of what is going on in their business. Do they need a simple solution to enhance their success or do they need to work on an entirely different approach? Are there any additional ways you can assist them?

3. Provide Effective Solutions

The right message at the right time can do wonders for your business relations. If you understand your business relations and the needs of their business, then you can effectively offer solutions for their existing problems as well as come up with effective strategies for problems they might face in the future.

4. Knowledge About Business Issues

When you are aware about the market trends and the potential problems your clients and customers can face, your company will be able to assist them properly. It is extremely easy to stay updated in today’s technological era. You can simply research latest company reports, look up the trends and latest happenings in an industry, search about the latest products, what they offer and how they can challenge your own or your client’s services and products. With the most recent information at hand, you will be better equipped to help your clients, leading to increased trust and confidence, enhancing business relationships as a result.

No matter which sector your business belongs to or which products or services it sells, if the relationship with the customers, clients, and other business associates are strong, then your company will attain success. When partnerships and business is done on genuine advice instead of price, it gives a mutual benefit to all the parties which improves B2B relationships and helps in maintaining them. Low prices can be offered by any company but it’s merely a short term quick fix, while strengthening business relationships is a sustainable and long term strategy.

What is CRM and How it Benefits your Business?

Posted on March 29, 2019April 1, 2019 by David Dinh

What is CRM or Customer Relationship Management?

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) allows your business to enhance your service and sales operations by sharing vital information throughout your company.

CRM is a beneficial system that focuses on enhancing relationships with current customers, attracting potential customers, and retaining existing customers. This software also enables you to collect, organise, and manage the information of the customers.

As per our experience, CRM can assist in retaining customers by 27% and helps in decreasing the marketing and sales cost by 23%. This indicates how much your business can benefit from CRM.

CRM data analysis — Image source: Trackvia

Below are the benefits of Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

1. Better Customer Relations

One of the major advantages of utilising CRM in your business is that you obtain better customer relations. Through CRM, all the dealings including selling, marketing, and servicing your products to your customers can be done in a systematic and organised manner. You will be able to understand their problems and issues in a better way and provide appropriate solutions. This will help in enhancing the loyalty of your customers and decreasing the agitation of customers. You will also be able to attain regular feedback from your customers on your services and products.

2. Enhancing Customer Revenues

Through utilising an effective CRM strategy, your business will experience a boost in its revenue. By collecting data with the help of CRM, you will be able to create marketing campaigns effectively. The CRM software will help you in reaching out to new and different set of customers. This will help in attracting customers and enhancing your customer revenue. According to a survey, CRM can increase revenue by 41% per sales person.

3. Maximising Cross Selling and Up Selling

Another benefit of a CRM system is that it enables up-selling, allowing you to provide customers premium products which come under similar categories as that of their purchase. It also allows cross selling through which you can offer complementary products or services to your customers as per their previous purchases. This can be achieved by engaging customers and determining their purchase patterns, their needs and wants. All the details are then stored in the central database which can be accessed by all authorised employees. When the right opportunity arises, your sales employees or executives can promote the service or product, thus maximising cross selling and up selling.

4. Improved Internal Communication

CRM also results in enhanced communication within the organisation. Sharing of customers’ details between different departments will enable the employees and departments to work together as a team and move towards a single goal. As a result, this will increase the profitability of your company and improved service to your customers.

5. Optimised Marketing

Another benefit of CRM is that it will help you in determining the behaviour and needs of your customers, hence enabling you to come up with the right time to market your services and products. It will also provide you with details and ideas regarding most profitable customer base, and through that information, you will be able to target such groups. This will help you in optimising your marketing resources most effectively.

These are the top reasons why CRM is rapidly becoming essential to businesses of all sizes. As there is a continuous increase in the expectations of customers, businesses must start adopting new strategies and services like CRM to enhance customer support, increase sales and success of the business.

Content Marketing Ideas for Your Business Website

Posted on March 22, 2019March 27, 2019 by David Dinh

Content marketing stands as the most efficient forms of marketing today. However, at times, the best websites get stale, with repetitive content. What can be done to remedy it? Here, we are going to talk about a few content marketing ideas that will help keep the content on your website fresh, generating more traffic.

Below are 5 Content Marketing Ideas for your Business Website

1. Focus on One Narrow Topic

The key to creating content is coming up with ideas consistent and relevant to your product and services. Content marketing ideas must find a niche and fill information needs. Become the go-to-place for information on a specific niche. There are websites that have e-books video training uploaded in an attempt to fill the information need. It helps tap into prospects they would not have reached otherwise. While doing this, do not forget to stay relevant.

2. Ideas Consistent with Your Expertise

All the information on your website should be relevant to your topic; leaving conflicting information will make potential customers avoid your website, because instead of being an expert site, you have now become a non-reliable place because of your inconsistencies. Be prepared to spend your time, money and effort in creating and maintaining an information portal that is the talk of the town.

3. More is Best

Keep adding content on your website to generate traffic. It is easy to lose perspective once your portal becomes an expert site; however, do not fall prey to the mistake of not updating and adding new content regularly. Add fresh content on your website at least once a week so that the number of visitors and SEO ratings do not drop. In your attempt to increase the content, do not, I repeat, do not, fall into the trap of plagiarism. Other than the ethical implications, it seriously hurts your position on the search engine rankings.

4. Don’t Keep it Scattered

If your website gets little to no traffic, it could be because no one is searching for you, or your website is inconsistent with less than 50 pages of information. You can always do something about it; get experts on board and start over. Research your keywords as they help bring you traffic. Over time, with the right content marketing ideas and efforts, your website will become an information portal garnering more traffic.

5. No Unauthorised Entries

Blog takes on a character, usually a company that addresses the audience in a friendly way. The readers must see consistency, and they should be able to see the face of the blog for you to able to build a loyal following. Add a personal touch, share stories time and again so that readers get a feel of who you are as a person; it helps in keeping the content fresh. Do not deviate from the topic though, and keep it professional.

With the help of the aforementioned ideas, you can market your website efficiently guaranteeing a maximum return on investment and increasing the number of sales and potential clients.

Senior Full Stack Developer

Posted on March 19, 2019June 23, 2021 by David Dinh

Work on helping shape how customer conversations can be managed better using AI and UX. Be part of a young startup that is making an impact in the world. We use AI/ML and UX to revolutionize the way businesses talk with their customers. We want Full Stack Developers who want to be part of a product that will be the next transformative multi-channel AI conversation technology platform.

Why us?

Join an experienced team who have successfully executed in the startup environments before. We’re on a global mission with our team already in the US and Australia. Backed by seasoned enterprise and startup specialists there are loads of opportunities to grow, pioneer and lead in new business areas, innovate and experiment with new technology without any boundaries. We’re a fun, lively team where you can create your own challenges and opportunities.

Expectations

“I want someone that gets things done; that takes the reins and goes. That means someone with years of experience or a junior star waiting for a chance to shine and eager to learn. I value drive, curiosity and creativity, and at the end of the day, someone that puts in the hours because they love their work and love to improve. It will pay off here at Woveon.” — Chadwick Wingrave CTO.

Job Responsibilities

Be our web application structure and framework subject matter expert
Work closely with, and report to, our CTO on microservice design and implementation in a cloud infrastructure.
Build integrations with existing RESTful frameworks, implement AI/ML algorithms developed in-house and tune and optimize performance.
Work closely with UI/UX engineers, AI/ML experts, security experts and DevOps.
Write elegant, easily maintainable, readable and reusable code – please.
Provide guidance and timelines to future efforts
Implement automated tests on platforms and unit tests to enhance the application

Ideally you will have

Years of experience on large projects with good mentors.
Degree/Diploma in Computer Science, Engineering or related subject matter
Experience in a startup and growth-stage environments
Excellent written and verbal communication
Skillful at back-end programming languages (esp. Python, NodeJS, Javascript)
Implementations of web service technologies with HTTP, JSON, REST
Experience with networks, security and encryption
Experience with databases: Postgres, Mongo, SQL, NoSQL
Experience with a JavaScript framework such as React or Vue
Experience with Cloud/microservices; Kubernetes, AWS
Knowledge of test driven development/unit testing is preferred
Self-starter with the ability to multitask, own complex projects, and handle time effectively under tight deadlines

Perks

Stock Options
Remote work friendly
Flexible hours

About Woveon

Conversation is an increasingly dominant medium of customer interaction that isn’t well-leveraged by companies for the purpose of building connections, and, by extension, increasing loyalty. This is more than just a sentiment, but a painfully expensive aspect for businesses as well. Our founders have strong Engineering, Product Management and Sales backgrounds. We have previously executed and been part of successful startups ranging from healthcare, SaaS to marketing consultancy. We’re willing to share the experiences and knowledge with new team members. Our team is super motivated, driven and passionate about Woveon.

https://www.woveon.com/
https://inkedin.com/company/woveon
https://angel.co/woveon/jobs/

Experienced React Frontend Developer

Posted on March 19, 2019June 23, 2021 by David Dinh

Why us?

Expectations: “I want someone that gets things done; that takes the reigns and goes. That means someone with years of experience or a junior star waiting for a chance to shine and eager to learn. I value drive, curiosity and creativity, and at the end of the day, someone that puts in the hours because they love their work and love to improve. It will pay off here at Woveon.” —Chadwick Wingrave CTO.

Job Responsibilities

Be our web application structure and framework subject matter expert
Work closely with, and report to, our CTO on microservice design and implementation in a cloud infrastructure.
Build integrations with existing RESTful frameworks, implement AI/ML algorithms developed in-house and tune and optimize performance.
Work closely with UI/UX engineers, AI/ML experts, security experts and DevOps.
Write elegant, easily maintainable, readable and reusable code – please.
Provide guidance and timelines to future efforts
Implement automated tests on platforms and unit tests to enhance the application

Ideally you will have

Years of experience on large projects with good mentors.
Degree/Diploma in Computer Science, Engineering or related subject matter
Experience in a startup and growth-stage environments
Excellent written and verbal communication
Skilful at back-end programming languages (esp. Python, NodeJS, Javascript)
Implementations of web service technologies with HTTP, JSON, REST
Experience with networks, security and encryption
Experience with databases: Postgres, Mongo, SQL, NoSQL
Experience with a JavaScript framework such as React or Vue
Experience with Cloud/microservices; Kubernetes, AWS
Knowledge of test driven development/unit testing is preferred
Self-starter with the ability to multitask, own complex projects, and handle time effectively under tight deadlines

Perks

Stock Options
Remote work friendly
Flexible hours

About Woveon

https://www.woveon.com/
https://linkedin.com/company/woveon
https://angel.co/woveon/jobs

How Can Social Media Benefit Your Startup Business

Posted on March 19, 2019March 20, 2019 by David Dinh

There are still sceptics out there who do not understand the advantages of social media for their business, sticking stubbornly to traditional marketing methods. However, businesses over the world have started recognising the importance of social media for their success and growth.

Benefits of social media for your business that will turn even the most hardened of cynics into believers

1. Learn about your Audience

The key to success for any business in the industry is understanding their target audience. Social media helps you do just that. With the help of tools like Facebook Insights in Hootsuite, it is possible to determine the age and gender of the social media audience, in addition to a number of other insights. Business can cater campaigns and product offers to their target audience using this knowledge, ultimately leading to a higher return on investment.

2. Instant Feedback

Social media allows the customers to provide feedback – positive or negative – giving the business valuable insight on how customers perceive the business and its offerings. For instance, many companies launch new products on social media to gauge how well it is received by their audience. One can also glean insights on how customers’ needs are evolving with regards to their offerings, allowing them to cater to their products and services better to customers’ tastes, preferences, and needs. New product ideas can also stem from this insight.

3. Increase in Web Traffic and Search Ranking

One of the most important benefits of using social media for a business is the increase in web traffic. It helps direct people to the business’s website. Moreover, the higher the number of shares of a business’ posts on social media, the greater its search ranking and online exposure. Use keywords in your post title and subheadings for good results in search media optimisation.

4. Increasing Brand Awareness

Companies have managed to increase brand awareness with the help of social media with minimal or no budget. Traditional methods of advertising were associated with higher cost of brand awareness strategies. Marketing departments across countries are hiring community mangers now in an attempt to increase brand awareness and reach through social media. These community managers foster relationships with the online audience scattered in different locations.

5. Viral Content

Social media has made sharing content easier and faster. Companies now use social media for content curation or sharing content about their business in particular. All they do is share their brand on their social network accounts. However, companies should keep in mind that if they want customers to share your content with their followers, they need to ensure that their social media content is aligned to the brand and captures the attention of the audience.

6. Get Ahead of Your Competitor

Social media help businesses gain valuable information about their competitors, improving your market intelligence. This information will allow companies to stay ahead of their competitors by making strategic business decisions. For instance, through Hootsuite, businesses can create search streams to monitor their competitors. Based on the results they can offer a new product which their competitors are missing, thus improving their business.

There you go- some of the many benefits of using social media for business disclosed.