Blockchain Success Sees BTL’s Interbit Aim For Production

    

Blockchain platform BTL Group has announced it is to pursue the development

of its Interbit trading solution after a successful oil market pilot. Interbit, which has been used by BP and Eni in conjunction with Wien Energie to handle oil trades, will now work towards a “go-to production phase,” Finance Magnates reports.

“Having demonstrated the reductions in risk and cost savings that are achievable we now have an opportunity to deliver the first successful blockchain based application to the energy market,” BTL co-founder and CEO Guy Halford-Thompson said. “We are also very excited that the pilot has enabled participating companies to better understand the benefits of Interbit and identify other areas in their organizations where they can apply it.” The 12-week oil pilot, which began in February, showed its value even while under initial scrutiny, Reuters further reports on Monday, as it unearthed an accounting issue which would otherwise have caused delays later on in the trading process.

Ernst & Young, which provided consulting support during the pilot, said the benefits of Blockchain extend far beyond simple accounts reinforcement. “Use of such technology can help by streamlining back office processes, leading to reduced risk, better protection against cyber threats and ultimately significant cost savings,” partner Andrew Woosey commented, adding that “further engineering and organisational effort is needed to achieve these outcomes.” Blockchain is also making inroads into oil trading streamlining elsewhere thanks to IBM’s Hyperledger-based IBM Blockchain platform and other partnerships.

Chuck Reynolds
Contributor
Please click either Link to Learn more about – TCC-Bitcoin.

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member

Newegg Canada Drops Bitcoin Payments, BitPay in Spotlight

    

Newegg’s Canada arm appears to have dropped Bitcoin payments

after BitPay’s halting of settlements in Canadian dollars (CAD) last week. Citing information from a company representative, a Reddit user claimed Newegg, which was one of the first major retailers to begin accepting Bitcoin, will no longer offer the option to customers on its Newegg.ca platform. Asked why Bitcoin was no longer a payment method, the representative during an instant chat stated they were “not provided with more information” but that “bitcoin is no longer available to be used on Newegg.ca.” Newegg’s main .com site appears not to have adopted the policy, suggesting the problem lies with the company’s payment processor, BitPay.

In a circular last month, BitPay said that it “will no longer be able to support settlements in CAD” and that businesses in Canada would have to accept BTC or USD payouts instead. “You still have the option to continue accepting bitcoin payments via our platform and receive your settlement in BTC (bitcoin) or via USD (US Dollar) wires going forward,” it stated, with the new arrangement effective May 31. BitPay introduced minimum $1,000 minimum withdrawals after losing its Canadian banking partner in May last year. More recently, it has added further changes to its gateway in response to rising mining fees.

Chuck Reynolds
Contributor
Please click either Link to Learn more about – TCC-Bitcoin.

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member

    

Bitcoin price is headed towards $2,600

as of Monday as a week of sustained growth reverses losses from the last week of May. Altcoins broadly followed suit, the top 10 adding up to eight percent in the 24 hours to press time on the back of Bitcoin’s steady upward trend. The move marks a return to more stable price action following last month’s comparatively significant volatility.

Eighth week factor

Analyzing Bitcoin, one commentator nonetheless drew attention to the fact that the virtual currency was completing its eighth week of overall growth. This had only occurred twice before, both periods signifying bubbles. While multiple sources had warned about the adverse effects of a third bubble and considered it to be far from over following the recent correction under $2,000, the reversal is now challenging them to forecast new ceilings once again. Despite the rapid rise in 2017, Bitcoin’s current price is only around twice the previous all-time “bubble” high of $1,200 in November 2013.

A curious big mover in June, meanwhile, has come in the form of SysCoin, the asset which was first to debut Lightning Network transactions on its mainnet at the end of April. Having seen a spike to around $0.165 per coin at the time, prices then tailed off, suddenly racing back in recent days to hit almost $0.23.

Chuck Reynolds
Contributor
Please click either Link to Learn more about – TCC-Bitcoin.

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member

    

Real time is a new mindset in marketing,

and that is what inbound marketing is all about. Interruptive sales approaches include telemarketing calls, direct mail, email spam, print advertising, television and radio ads, interstitial and transitional online and pre-rolls ads. And you know what? Your customers are fed up with these outdated and traditional approaches. In the digital era, outbound sales practices such as the ones mentioned above are losing their effectiveness rapidly.

Inbound marketing strategy is the new kid on the block!

Rather than pushing your product/service to consumers, an inbound approach focuses on educating them about a particular offering. Inbound marketing is a type of permission-based marketing which concentrates on presenting offers and related information to people who are actively looking for the same product/service. There are several ways to increase your leads, but the most effective way is to increase your lead capture rate. An inbound marketing approach could also help your sales team in maximizing this rate. So how does this methodology help your sales team in boosting their work productivity? Let’s find out…

Why your sales team needs an inbound marketing strategy ASAP!

Saves Time and Money (and a lot of it)

A primary advantage of the inbound methodology is that you can easily identify your customer’s behavior and develop a precise buyer persona. This approach saves a lot of money and time for your sales team as they can quickly eliminate all the leads which don’t match the persona. Your sales team can easily identify the ideal prospect which enables them to focus more on the leads that require more attention, in terms of calls or in-person meetings.

Helps you get more Qualified Leads

Sales teams wind up losing tremendous time and effort on low quality leads. With inbound marketing, you can improve your lead quality by running more relevant and effective campaigns. Let’s say your sales team is using a CRM to track conversions. With inbound marketing, your sales rep can record all their activities in the CRM and send it to the marketing team to review. Your marketing team can then check all the logs and collaborate easily with the sales team for better feedback. This invaluable data enables marketing department to learn more about the effectiveness of each campaign and improve the buyer persona in the future. These small improvements can generate high quality leads for your sales team in the future.

Inbound methodology attracts a customer base that is truly interested in your product or service. By offering the most valuable and relevant content to visitors, the entire process not only assists your sales team in getting better leads but also provides a huge amount of relevant content to share during the sales process. As a result, you can build your own loyal customer base. This method also helps amplify  the reach of your content which boosts your chances of getting more qualified leads.

Enables Collaboration Between Sales & Marketing teams! (smarketing!)

In most companies, sales and marketing teams tend to have a troubled relationship.There is no alignment between both teams and blame games are quite common. Inbound marketing strategy plays cupid between both teams! Inbound methodology increases collaboration between ales and marketing teams through a Service Level Agreement (SLA). This agreement:

• Holds both teams accountable to each other
• Measures outcomes of respective teams
• Helps in determining exactly what is going wrong if enough leads aren’t being generated.

The whole process creates a unified sales and marketing alignment or as we like to call it – Smarketing

Facilitates meaningful Sales Conversations:

Gone are the days when a sales rep closes a deal by blabbering a few persuasive words. Due to information explosion on the digital platform, people refuse to accept traditional sales gimmicks. In inbound marketing, the role of a sales rep is more of an educator than a hardcore seller. By understanding the buyer persona and buyer journey of a customer, a sales rep can have a much more meaningful communication with the prospect. By determining interest levels of a customer and establishing a plan beforehand, your sales team can close deals armed with relevant knowledge about the prospect. Has your sales team considered going inbound? Or have you already adopted the inbound route? How well did it work out for you?

Chuck Reynolds
Contributor
Please click either Link to Learn more about –Inbound Marketing.

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member

 Here's some Inbound Marketing Strategies for Your Business

-“Inbound” has become a bit of a buzzword in the world of marketing lately –

so much so that many business owners, CEOs, and marketing managers are beginning to abandon their old ways, choosing to market their business with inbound strategies instead. They’re catching on to the fact that outdated “interruption marketing” strategies like cold-calling and impersonal spam emails simply don’t work. Inbound marketing is all about attracting visitors with strategies tailored to their individual needs, rather than going out into the market and begging for their attention.

Savvy marketers know that a customer who is earned, rather than forced, is more likely to convert. Even better, they’re more likely to become a long-term account than someone who wasn’t the right fit for your products or services from the start. Regardless of your niche, every business can adapt at least a few inbound marketing strategies to meet their needs. And when you do, you’ll understand what the inbound buzz is about.

Creation of marketing plans

Every inbound strategy is basically the same – attract leads, turn them into qualified accounts, close the deal, and keep them coming back for more. The mistake that many marketers make is jumping right into the Attraction phase, without knowing who their customer really is. Inbound marketing’s biggest strength is the personalization behind every single strategy. Regardless of whether it’s a seemingly insignificant social post or a complex, time-intensive whitepaper, every strategy must be perfect tailored to the intended audience. The scope of the project is relatively insignificant here – what really matters is the targeting.

For your strategy to be perfectly targeted, understanding your buyer persona in relation to your marketing plan is the first thing you need to do. When you don’t have a definitive plan that clearly outlines your business goals and how they relate to your ideal customer, your strategy is bound to fail. The most effective inbound marketing plan calls for a clear definition of your target customer, or buyer persona. Everything you do from then on depends on your buyer personas. Well-researched buyer personas tell you not only what content you should create, but where it should be placed, on what networks to advertise, how to position yourself, and even what language to use.

Without a marketing plan that ties goals to buyer personas, any strategies you use will be a shot in the dark. Conversions happen when your content is aligned with the right audience. Aside from creating necessary buyer personas, things like market research, data analysis, and deep discovery help create a strong foundation for your marketing plan. When you’re armed with the right data and buyer personas, you can better leverage any other marketing strategy you want to use.

Emphasis on content

We’ve already mentioned content quite a few times by now. That’s because without content, you don’t really have an inbound marketing strategy – or any marketing strategy for that matter. The new age of marketing is all about proving your worth by using content to educate, engage, and ultimately encourage the lead to become a customer. Content can be anything from the 140 words your tweet out to your followers on a daily basis to the 1,000-word blog post you carefully curated to help solve a problem your potential customer might have. Inbound marketing stresses the importance of content because without it, you’re left with very few ways to prove you’re valuable to potential customers.

But can content really provide that much value? According to Curata, 95% of buyers consider vendor-related content as trustworthy. This means that the whitepapers, eBooks, blog posts, and even Facebook updates your company puts out increases your trustworthiness among your potential customers. And when people trust you, they want to buy from you. Even other non-vendor related content like informational blogs or educational infographics create trust. This happens when the content becomes highly useful to the reader, or even helps to answer a question or solve a problem they have. Gaining the customer’s trust well before your services are even introduced sets you up for long-term success more than anything else can – all thanks to good content.

Running email campaigns

The final big inbound marketing strategy every marketer should be using is a good email campaign. You may recall a few years back when marketers were claiming that email was dead. Just like snail mail, people were calling email out as the next biggest waste of marketing dollars. They claimed there was very little return for all of the effort you’d need to put into running a campaign. While email open rates and click-through greatly depend on your given industry, they are rarely above 25% and 6% respectively. In the past, marketers have looked at these numbers as proof that their time and money is better spent elsewhere.

Despite lower engagement metrics than other strategies, an email marketing campaign is arguably the best way to nurture your leads. How else are you going to deliver on offers leads may have shown interest in and signed-up to receive? Email campaigns go far beyond delivering an offer, though. They can help turn leads into customers, than eventually nurture that relationship into a lasting one. A drip email campaign is the perfect way to align the goals and objective in your marketing plan with the content you created, presenting it to your ideal user at just the right time. You can deliver on a promised offer like an eBook or whitepaper download. Then once you have that person’s email, they can be shifted into an entirely new email campaign aimed at getting them closer to a bigger conversion.

These new campaign are often referred to as “drip” campaigns – as they work to create multiple touch-points, getting you in front of the right customer at the right time in their buying journey. Drip campaigns cans are used to nurture the lead, moving them further down the sales funnel and closer to a conversion. You can use these to send leads informational content like an eBook, then later an offer for a free demo when you know they’re closer to being ready to buy.

Email is also effective for forging a bond between your company and an existing client. Have someone that recently purchased a specific product? Create a return customer email campaign to send discount codes and coupons personalized to past purchases. From the first interaction after signing up for an offer to regular interactions to encourage a return purchase, an email campaign helps take your lead full circle.

These are just a few inbound strategies that can boost your marketing strategies to the next level. Inbound marketing revolves around the customer, earning their attention and giving them valuable information through their entire buyer’s journey. Instead of aiming and missing, take the time to target your marketing to right customer at the right time, and the conversions will follow.

Chuck Reynolds
Contributor
Please click either Link to Learn more about –Inbound Marketing.

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member

Tools to Develop an Outstanding Social Media Marketing Strategy

In today's technological world,

it seems that social media dominates everything. This can make it difficult for a company to stand out. Big companies as well as smaller companies and entrepreneurs will be all over social media, trying to gain the attention of customers. All of this can make it harder for the less social media-adept companies to get a foothold among their competitors.

All of these companies want to get in on the social media craze and use it to their advantage, to advertise and market themselves to all the users out there. But there are so many different social media channels out there, and so many different ways to market on social media. What can a company do to make themselves stand out among the crowd of other companies on social media? What strategies are there they could use?

Twitter.

Twitter is a very popular social media channel. It's a great way to build a following and keep in contact with your customers. However, it can be tricky as it limits your posts to 140 characters, and it's fast-paced. It's demanding in that it requires constant communication with your followers. If you can handle that, one way to stand out on Twitter is to send a thank you any time your company gets mentioned. Try to respond to questions the same day, or within the hour if possible.  Add symbols and emoticons for a fun twist to your posts as a way to cultivate interest in your posts while also making them shorter and easier to read.

Facebook.

Facebook recently changed up their algorithms, so brands are getting less exposure. This makes it more important for them to stand out. One way for this is make short and simple posts. Longer posts tend to not perform as well. Also, asking questions rather than making statements tends to increase interaction. Pinning posts is also a good tactic, especially for drawing attention to current specials or important information. Experiment with Facebook ads, too.

Images.

Use images when you can. It doesn't matter what it is — a photo of a favorite celebrity, a pretty landscape, a cute animal, a colorful infographic or a fun GIF. A photo or animation will catch the eye and more than likely make them stop browsing long enough to look. It will also help with your SEO optimization. Videos also work well for this.

Content.

Content is king. Remember that. Once your image has caught their eye, the viewer will be looking for the content behind the photo. What they read will determine if they click through. So provide content that will make them want to click. Be sure to keep your target audience in mind when creating your content. What will catch their attention? What are they looking for from you? What answers can you provide to their questions?

Build a community.

Don't just look for followers. Build a community with them. Put some personality and humor into your brand with your posts. You want to be “social”, after all. That means you need to entertain your followers once in a while. And remember to converse directly with your followers. Interact with them. Like and respond to their posts. Retweet them. And ask them to interact directly with your posts.

Campaigns.

To keep your audience engaged, you need to be engaging as well. One way to do that is run cross-channel campaigns on all you social platforms. But while anyone can run a contest or campaign like this, to stand out you need to make yours have a charitable, inspirational, or emotional component to it — something that will tug at the heartstrings of whoever is reading about it. If your company is already involved in some sort of volunteer work, this is a good way to inspire and engage followers. How do you do this across channels?

1. Tell a powerful story. Use short quotes about if you have to, and link back to your website so they can find out more.

2. Brand your campaign with a unique name and hashtags to make it memorable and stand out.These are just a few ways to make your social media marketing stand out. Good luck!

Chuck Reynolds
Contributor
Please click either Link to Learn more about – Inbound Marketing.

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member

Digital Marketing Stats That Got Our Attention This Week

Social TV, gamers and Wonder Woman chatter

    

It was an unusually busy week in the realm of interactive numbers.

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member

Is this Business Development strategy  Correct? 

Our expert has given us some pointers on how to address the various issues

below. A strong and experienced business leader, he has worked in the aerospace, defence and energy sectors for industry leading global companies. Identified as a high potential individual early in his career he has a proven track record in new business and product development, project management of manufacturing and process plant engineering and procurement and construction (EPC) projects.

He has extensive international experience, having worked in the MENA region for more than half of his career including his most recent role growing a ‘start-up’ business from company registration to a significant multi-sector, multi-product 300m+ AED order book, based in the United Arab Emirates  He challenges the norm and has the long term strategic focus required to successfully lead and manage business at executive level.

What is the most important aspect of developing a BD strategy?

Macro level marketing is important as a first step when developing a business development strategy, however, it is not enough to truly understand the market conditions for a given product or service. Upfront, limited level of investment in field marketing is critical to define the market entry requirements, the competitive landscape, and the delivery model. This must be executed by a combination of personnel that have in depth knowledge and experience of the

a) Company’s existing business and

b) Those of a similar knowledge, experience and network in the particular market in which you are developing business.

You have a proven track record in developing and delivering new businesses to grow organisation structure – what is the most important ingredients to make this happen? It is my firm believe that success in successfully developing and delivering new business is driven by clearly addressing the strategy, tactics and operations of the business through the following:-

Business Planning & Preparation

The upfront marketing is paramount to set a clear vision for the business and to then follow that with a strategic plan which adequately addresses the steps required to enter (‘right to play’) and to succeed (‘right to win’). It is important to aim high, to get the attention of the top executives in the business and get them to believe that the particular venture is worth exploring and investing in.

It is also fundamental to be clear from as early as possible in the business development process the estimated investment requirements, the associated business case (Return On Investment, Internal Rate of Return etc.), and timescale required to win and deliver business and in doing so build the organisation as business volume grows, whether it be via internal product development, organic growth, strategic partnering, or mergers & acquisitions.

People

Recruitment of the right type of people is another key ingredient in developing and growing business. This has to be a dynamic and complementary mix of vastly experienced people with less experienced people motivated and driven to succeed, and willing challenge ‘the norm’.

Policies, Processes, & Procedures

Clear policies, processes and procedures aligned to the regulatory, market and company requirements must be in place and available to all as part of a robust management system for a new and developing business. This has to be complimented with meaningful induction and training to ensure that there is a consistent approach and that any issues or concerns are addressed as part of continuous improvement initiatives.

Communications

Open and transparent communications must be encourage up and down the various levels in the organisation as it grows to ensure that there is a ‘no surprises good or bad’ culture in the organisation. This has to be both formal via reporting, regular review meetings, electronic communications, social media, ‘townhall’ sessions etc., and informal by creating an environment where all levels in the organisation are encouraged to interact transparently, whilst maintaining mutual respect for their respective roles.

The key to the success has been striking a balance between global brand and best practice, whilst localising the organisation, operations and business management systems to ensure that a robust and cost competitive delivery model is in place to give clients the overall technical and commercial solution that they require.

What strategy did you implement to grow from to 300m+ AED in less than 2 years?

We conducted a thorough assessment of market entry options for an engineering services business offering products and services similar to Doosan Babcock. This involved a complete cross sector (i.e. oil & gas, power & water, nuclear and industrial) analysis of client business delivery models, project pipelines, and procurement systems, as well as the competitions’ business models and business performance – benchmarking. This exercise established 3 core options to satisfy the legislative market entry requirements, delivery infrastructure and competitive, profitable product and service offering.

1. Aggressive organic growth

• Head hunt key personnel from main competitors to provide client confidence and improved competitive position
• Invest in establish the offices and facilities required to satisfy customer of delivery capability
• Pre-qualify with key customers and develop strong relationships to grow business sales pipeline
• Develop new product and service offerings outside of traditional offering, specific to the market
• Invest in training and integration of new organising to ensure that a consistent, robust business management model and common understanding of the company’s standard and expectations of its people.

2. Merger & Acquisition

• Purchase controlling shareholding in competitor best aligned to company’s core business and future business aspiration with ‘1 + 1 = 3’ philosophy.
• Embed post-merger integration team to establish common business management system.

3. Strategic Partnering

• Form incorporated or unincorporated joint venture (JV) with complimentary interest and clear division of responsibility covering technical delivery and corporate governance requirements, managed by an integrated executive committee.

Following consultation and review with board, Option 1 was adopted as the initial business development route that could bring the required short term (1 to 2 years) success when compared with the investment required. This has proven to be a good selection, and now that the business has achieved significant organic growth in this short term, all of these options are being revisited on regular basis (as part of the business planning cycle) to ensure that the future growth aspirations are achieved

What advice would you give anyone trying to emulate the above?

Minimal upfront investment is required to conduct detailed field marketing to drive robust business planning. This cannot be independently so make sure that you put experienced, dynamic team players around you to support in achieving excellence!

Chuck Reynolds
Contributor
Please click either Link to Learn more about –Inbound Marketing.

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member

How to Create a Typical
Business Development Plan

A Typical Business Development Plan:

You should plan out the whole year and review / revise quarterly. List your existing accounts and plan what activities / actions need to be completed in order to fully exhaust all opportunities. You may for instance, plan to cover more bases within the decision making unit or contact associated companies or offices. The Strategic Account Profile can be used as a prompt.

Begin to target new accounts using business directories etc. and set targets per week / month / quarter i.e. I normally allow for eight hours per week as a minimum (Don’t forget to continually refer back to your Ideal Profile). Then build in what assistance you need from your marketing function ñ i.e. qualified leads, seminars, exhibition attendance etc. Finally share your plan with your manager and then commit to it. You should also measure it against S.M.A.R.T.E.R. i.e. is it. S.pecific, M.easurable, A.chievable, R.elevant, T.imed, E.xciting, R.ecorded

Linking With Your Commercial Plan:

I have suggested that your Business Development Strategy, would link with your Master Business Plan but logically you should also integrate it into your Commercial Kit(this is a document that outlines your monthly,quarterly and annual targets) specifically the areas that deal with new business generation, account management and development, four tier account lists etc. These three documents when combined should drive and guide you through the next twelve months and beyond.

Summary:

As I have said often enough “People do not fail because they planned to fail but rather because they failed to plan” The man who knows where he wants to go is more likely to get there, he just has to decide how to get there. All plans are essentially maps and guides; the strategic element is the How. Do be prepared to change course, flexibility is key, and don’t be afraid to experiment, look outside the square.

Chuck Reynolds
Contributor
Please click either Link to Learn more about –Inbound Marketing.

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member

OneGram Sharia Compliant, Gold-Backed Cryptocurrency Announces ICO

OneGram, the first ever Sharia-compliant gold-backed cryptocurrency announces the launch of its ICO.

    

Dubai holds the distinction of being the financial capital of the Islamic world.

Now, a firm based out of the Emirate has decided to redefine the digital “gold standard” with OneGram, while factoring in the 1.6 billion followers of the Islamic faith. The gold-backed cryptocurrency has announced its ICO at the recently concluded Consensus 2017.

OneGram calls itself the world’s first Sharia-compliant cryptocurrency whose value is backed by actual gold reserves. Hailed as a Bitcoin alternative for the Islamic world, the ICO was announced to coincide with the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan. The OneGram platform is aiming to raise a total of $500 million against 12 million OneGram tokens (OGC).

In the recent press release, the CEO of OneGram, Ibrahim Mohammed is quoted saying,

“We are very pleased with early support for the OGC token crowdsale from the cryptocurrency and Islamic finance communities. More than 1,000 people have registered for GoldGuard accounts to participate, and the number is growing each day as we prepare to launch our crowdsale in alignment with Ramadan.”

The ICO will go on for 120 days, and the purchase of OGC tokens during the crowdsale will also include a 10% fee which will be utilized by the platform for business development, marketing costs, operational costs, and salaries. In the release, the company also states that each OGC will have a 1% transaction fee associated with it, of which 70% will be reinvested to buy more gold reserves.

Those buying OGC tokens will have to create an account on GoldGuard and purchase gold at live spot rates. The platform has announced that a portion of the proceeds from collected purchase fees will be used for charity donations and PoS mining rewards. This is not the first time someone has created a gold-backed cryptocurrency. There are various initiatives which revolve around the same core concept. However, unlike the rest, OneGram will have a much greater appeal to devout Muslims who prefer to follow the Islamic laws. With a huge target population, OGC has a huge potential in front of it, which could be realized in due time.

Chuck Reynolds
Contributor
Please click either Link to Learn more about – TCC-Bitcoin.

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member