BlogmyQuery – BMQ

Don’t want your competitors to get ahead? Ready to perfect your operations? Never want to post a flopped marketing campaign again? 

Then you’ll need access to solid, ongoing insights to inform your business, marketing, and sales strategies.

Enter: Big Data and analytics.

With big data and analytics leading you in the right direction, there’s no limit to the growth and innovations your business can bring forth.

Unfortunately, organizations that don’t recognize the importance of big data (and worse, don’t apply it), can end up wasting time, money, and precious resources on advancements that simply don’t work and are misaligned.  

From helping you mitigate spending to supporting the customer experience, there are endless reasons you need to focus on big data and your analytics efforts. 

If you’re ready to embrace big data and analytics, stick around to learn more about how these two components work, why businesses care about them, and the top five benefits of applying them. 

What Is Big Data? And How Do Analytics Play a Role? 

“Big Data” is a term that refers to a large volume of data and data sets that come in from a variety of publicly accessible sources, such as IoT devices, mobile apps, the cloud, websites, social media, and other channels. 

When talking about big data, you might notice people characterizing it using the following three Vs:

1. Variety: Data that comes in from a great variety of sources 
2. Volume: Data that comes in increasing volumes 
3. Velocity: A high velocity of data 

Businesses rely on big data to collect important user information, such as B2B data on their sales prospects, target audience preferences, what they searched for, their purchasing history, and other behavioral details.

Image Source: Sales.Rocks

Then, the technical analysis happens. 

Businesses use analytic techniques as part of their data analytics strategy to discover key patterns, trends, and correlations.

This final analysis helps businesses make more strategic decisions going forward. 

For instance, using reverse ETL, you can copy big data from your central data warehouse to your operational tools, such as your marketing apps, sales automation tools, support software and other relevant SaaS growth tools.

Your marketing and sales departments can then use analytic techniques to examine the data pulled from these tools to better inform and personalize their future campaigns. No more shooting in the dark!

Which Industries Care About Big Data and Analytics? 

Businesses with large amounts of customer and prospect data all over the world rely on big data and analytics to make informed decisions. 

Image source: Yasir Ekinci

For instance, authentication and SCIM SaaS companies use big data and analytics to understand their B2B audiences’ pain points so they can build better, custom software solutions. 

FinTech and insurance companies leverage big data analytics for risk assessment, detection and prevention of fraud, cost reductions, personalized service and offers, customer acquisition and more.

Marketing agencies use big data and analytics to craft compelling and tailored campaigns at scale and measure their results so they can improve them later on. And retailers use big data and analytics to uncover which products and innovations their target audiences value most.

The Top 5 Benefits of Big Data and Analytics

Here are the top five big data and benefits every organization needs to know for their business intelligence reporting:

1. The Lifeblood of Innovation 

Big data and analytics are the lifeblood of innovation. By uncovering key patterns in big data, you can learn how to improve and innovate your products and services according to your audience’s preferences.

For instance, let’s say you designed an eco-friendly water bottle that comes with a lifetime warranty. Your business is growing, but not as quickly as you’d hoped. After combing through big data, your team notices a major buying trend your audience is participating in: Purchasing filtered eco-friendly water bottles. 

Your next mission? Figure out how to add a filtration system to your current product or add a new product line of filtered, eco-friendly water bottles.

2. Faster Decision-Making 

With the right analytics software, you can analyze big data in real-time. 

For example, enterprise companies receive enormous number of applications for their open job positions. That means parsing through huge chunks of data and comparing all data points between candidates and deciding on how to proceed with each one of them. 

Without data analytics software it would be impossible for the HR department or the talent recruitment team in a big company to identify and employ the right candidates for the job.

Applicant tracking systems help organize all aspects of the recruiting process and are an absolute necessity for anyone tasked with managing candidate information. They help you find the ideal candidates, compare their skills & experience side-by-side and advance them through the interviewing & hiring process.

That means you’ll have invaluable insights at your fingertips you can immediately use to make faster and better business decisions. You can also use these insights to pivot and course-correct if things ever go awry. In other words, real-time analytics also allow you to be more agile in your decision-making. 

3. Personalized, Targeted Campaigns 

With marketing messages flooding your audience’s screens, standing out from countless competitors can feel like a steep, uphill battle.

Image Source: ReallyGoodEmails

By analyzing big data, you can discover your audience’s messaging preferences and core needs so you can design irresistible offers and create personalized email campaigns and targeted marketing ads.

4. A Deeper Understanding of Your Market

There’s nothing like the thrill and impact of truly knowing who you serve. By focusing on your analytics efforts, you can learn about your market in a profound way. 

From uncovering their biggest fears to discovering the “why” behind their dreams, big data can help you understand your audience the way you’d understand a trusted friend.

For example, the dental clinic Dentfix used the Porter’s 5 forces model to identify their:

• Competitive rivalry
• Supplier power
• Buyer power
• Threat of substitution, and
• Threat of new entry

After the proper market research Dentfix gathered huge chunks of information (big data) on their competitors, their target audience, the price range of alternative services in the market, and the ideal cost of quality (COQ) they can offer to their customers. This led them to appropriate the cost for dental veneers and focus their marketing efforts on this specific service.

The benefits of using data analytics go way beyond just making a sale. By looking at the data, you can find out what drives your customers’ decisions and then tailor your products and services to meet their needs. 

Image Source: Divya

You can also discover any pain points that they’re experiencing and use that information to improve your overall customer experience.

5. Improved Operations

Any kind of data can help a business improve its operations. But big data has limitless potential to help a business improve its routine processes.

Noticing your opt-in form isn’t click-worthy? Big data can help you learn which forms your audience flocks to most, so you can design opt-in templates that convert.

Trouble managing your inventory levels? Whether you’re a Fort Lauderdale florist selling flowers online, or an eCommerce enterprise specializing in truck accessories, big data can help you understand which items to keep in stock, how many to store and at what times. 

It can help you organize your entire inventory, plan for new orders, delivery processes and keep your eCommerce site updated for your clients. There’s virtually no limit to what you can improve by analyzing and applying the insights you’ve learned from big data.

Wrap Up 

Big data is radically changing the way businesses operate, compete, and serve their audiences. And with big data comes big responsibility. 

Organizations use a colocation data center to integrate multiple applications, data types and store data sources in a secure, predictable, lower-latency enabling digital business success.

From inspiring product and service innovation to helping leaders make faster and better decisions to delivering a deeper understanding of the customer, there are endless ways big data and analytics can help a business grow.

For good measure, here’s a quick summary of what we covered in today’s article:

• What is big data? And how do analytics play a role?
• Which industries care about big data and analytics?
• The top 5 benefits of big data and analytics 

That’s it for now!

Are you ready to use big data and analytics to transform your business? Be sure to bookmark this article for inspiration. 

To your success! 

Featured Image by Pixabay

The post Big Data, Big Reputation: 5 Reasons Why You Need to Focus On Your Analytics Efforts appeared first on noupe.

With multiple changes in trends and user preferences, organizations are constantly revamping their websites with a better UX strategy. However, it is not an easy task considering the majority of organizations use agile methodologies.

It is a prominent argument that UX strategy doesn’t go hand in hand with agile methodology. Also to pull it off, it is important to understand what a UX strategy and agile development are in essence, their associated problems, the importance of incorporation, and key points to make them compatible.

Therefore without any delay, let’s try to sort out this problem for app design companies.

What is a UX Strategy?

For applications today, it is important to be user-centric. A UX or user experience is the overall experience a user feels while using a service or product created by an organization. With a UX strategy, the idea is to create an overall improved user experience that creates more engagement, user retention, and is easy to use.

To further extrapolate, it is a systematic process of further enhancing the user experience for an application or a service.

There are primarily three components of a UX strategy. These are

• Intention behind the strategy
• Requirements, goals, and ROIs
• Associated plan

Implications of not having a UX Strategy!

Failing to have a UX strategy for the development process can lead to the following problems:

• It can affect the profitability of the organization
• It means that the organization doesn’t have a better understanding of its user base.
• The organization will lack a long-term competitive advantage.
• The organization can suffer in terms of retention and engagement.

What is an Agile Website Development?

There are prominently seven types of SDLCs (Software Development Life Cycles). Agile development is amongst the most popular ones used today. 

Due to consistent requirements for feature changes and software requirements in the existing projects, the requirement of agile development came into existence.

It takes the help of cross-functional teams for continuous development and aggregation of new code modules. 

Agile development is based on the following factors:

• Proper control of tools and resources.
• Collaboration should be based on customer requirements.
• Active response to incident change instead of a firm plan.

It comprises four factors primarily which are:

• Discover
• Design
• Develop
• Test

The overall idea behind the agile development process is the continuous integration of elements with ease.

Problem Associated with the Implementation of Agile Methodology along with a UX Strategy!

The problem associated with agile development is that it is a very developer-centric approach. The moment a particular requirement is fulfilled from the backend side, the team moves to another task. However, the realm of designing is very subjective and can often take a lot more time & resources than expected. It is because different perception leads to different perspectives.

This particular problem creates a lot of confusion for app designing companies and increases the toll on them in terms of workload. Another major problem is the higher adoption of agile methodologies for website development. It is considering the flexible nature of the implementation methodology. Therefore, a lot of organizations try to figure out ways to handle UX strategy along with the agile methodology effectively.

Importance of including a UX Strategy and Agile Website Development

While agile methodology predominantly focuses on the backend side of things, majorly the factors that distinguish the two websites are the UI/UX part. Design is a much more important aspect than a lot of people might think it would be.

It is because primarily the user requires an excellent design and navigable elements to interact with the backend services. Therefore without a great UX strategy creating a sustainable experience is not possible. Also with the inclusion of agile methodology, the task of finding a way to make the UX strategy work with agile development becomes much more important.

How to incorporate UX Strategy with Agile Website Development?

Incorporating a UX Strategy into agile website development is a complicated process. However, nothing is impossible and this can also be pulled off.

To make that happen, below are the key points:

• Focus on Customer Satisfaction: Call it clients or customers, the major reason behind a methodology such as agile is to gratify customers. For instance, there are multiple applications today that incorporate a new element every week. However, the teams make sure that the design elements meet the overall theme of the project, otherwise, it is not released.
• Support for UX Strategists: The feedback received by the designing teams can often be subjective and open to interpretation. For instance, sometimes the responses to a particular design can be like “It’s Good Enough”, “It’s Fine”, “Looks Decent”, etc. Also, another variable is that the process doesn’t always run parallel to the backend process. Therefore, the intention behind the support should be to help minimize the pending backlog instead of dragging it along the way. A clear explanation of what is expected and some freedom for the UX strategist can create wonders.
• Consistency: Maintain consistency with the overall design elements. Make sure that the design elements hit a particular benchmark and below that the design itself should be unacceptable to the designer itself.
• Focus on Use Case or Workflow: Each & every workflow and use case is unique and it can vary from organization to organization. It is because each organization follows its own unique process based on its values, goals, and vision. It often creates a contrast and makes every design element unique for each organization. The idea is to learn about the workflow and create a UX experience that is easily navigable by the user.
• Leave room for improvement: The overall agile methodology adopted by the organization should always leave room for improvements on the way. A tightly packed process doesn’t leave any extra time for incoming issues. This creates a collision of deadlines and further confusion with the process.
• Engage with every service: Most services that are created by the team are treated as MVPs. For instance, if the team is done with a service then they won’t consider further updation of the process for enhancement. Keeping some room for this process too would help in overall integrating the UX strategy.

Wrapping Up!

The capability to pull off a great UX strategy with agile methodology is truly a boon for multiple app design companies. It is one of the major impediment that people on the design team faces. By focusing on the key points mentioned above, any organization can create a great user-centric website. Yet implementing these points would require an organization-wide transition from their routine work to these strategies. Therefore, it is not just the factors but the effectiveness of the way they are integrated that truly matters.

The post A Practical Guide to UX Strategy and Agile Website Development appeared first on noupe.

Reduced color perception or the capacity to distinguish between colors are symptoms of color blindness. Color blindness affects 1 in 200 women and 1 in every 12 men. Do digital resources like websites and educational materials affect color blindness? 

Absolutely! Consider accessibility best practices when creating online documents to ensure that your website or online products are accessible to all visitors.

Color blindness explained

A widespread myth is that color-blind people can only see the world in black and white, a different condition termed monochromacy. In actuality, color blindness affects everyone differently, ranging from being unable to distinguish between two or three colors to having trouble with certain tints.

This X-chromosome mutation caused this neurological anomaly. Women are less likely to inherit the illness because they have two X-chromosomes, one of which serves as a backup to offset probable problems. The disorder normally shows itself in one of three ways.

Red/green color blindness is the most prevalent type, when victims confuse all colors that contain either red or green as a component of the entire hue. Those with Protan color blindness are less sensitive to red light, whereas Deuteranopia patients are less sensitive to green light. 

For instance, a protanope will mistake blue for purple because they are unable to distinguish the red component of the color purple. Tritanopia, the third type of color blindness, is the least prevalent and affects those who have trouble telling whether a light is blue or yellow.

Importance of Color in Presenting Data

The use of color is crucial for data visualization. To begin with, colors are used to draw attention to significant information and to show connections between different sorts of data. Furthermore, it is important in directing the viewer’s eye to color.

Though understanding color theory and design composition is crucial, there are other factors to take into account when optimizing for accessibility.

Designing for Inclusion

What happens when a design is interpreted differently than it was intended? If your workplace is still not using an inclusive design approach, there is a good possibility that this is already taking place.

Keep in mind that we don’t want you to work twice as hard on your designs—quite the opposite. Instead of developing specifically for this group, the objective is to take their needs into account when creating a product that is accessible to all.

This approach should be used when creating additional visuals, such as flow charts, mind maps and graphs, all of which frequently rely on color to convey distinct information, rather than only when developing website layouts.

You can rely on online tools such as an infographic maker or an infographic template library to create inclusive visuals.

The Guide to creating an inclusive design

1. Create a color palette in advance.

Utilizing accessible colors and a colorblind-friendly palette doesn’t need you to sacrifice aesthetics or completely exclude color from your charts. By doing your research in advance, you can make sure that a color blind-friendly palette enhances rather than detracts from your design.

There are a variety of 8- and 15-color palettes available if you’re starting from scratch. You can see some of the best contrasting colors for colorblind persons in these palettes.

2. Choose the color scheme.

Consider all the different ways contrast may be used in your designs to increase color-blind accessibility. Employ vivid hues rather than subdued alternatives. 

Use colors that are as dissimilar from one another as you can when you need to employ two colors next to one another. Also, you must examine how to optimize contrast among dynamic elements while thinking about color blindness and online design. 

Which hues are used for buttons and hyperlinks? And what happens to these colors when a site visitor moves their mouse over the element? In these circumstances, you might need to draw attention to the element by surrounding it with color.

3. Employ textures and patterns.

A fantastic technique to include visual aspects in your design that don’t rely on color is to use patterns and textures. For instance, color-blind users could find it challenging to understand graphs and charts. In this instance, it’s preferable to employ contrasting patterns and, whenever it’s practical, to use text in its place.

Those who are colorblind might not trust colors as much as those with normal vision. They frequently perceive colors differently from how others do, hence they frequently rely on non-color cues to confirm hues or decipher meanings.

4. Keep contrasting colors to a minimum.

The use of problematic color combinations, some of which can render your charts or infographics totally inaccessible to color-blind individuals, is another reason why you should think out your color strategy in advance.

Avoid the following color combinations to protect people with color blindness:

• Green and red: The red-green kind of color blindness is the most prevalent. Protanopiacs are unable to see any “red” light, while deuteranopiacs are incapable of seeing “green” light because they lack green cones.
• Brown and green: For people who have red-green colorblindness, the light brown can resemble the green color and the dark green might be perceived as brown. Hence, colorblind individuals are unable to tell the two hues differently.
• Blue and green: When it comes to the red-green variety, light green appears as yellow and dark green as brown. Turquoise or blue-green is seen as gray.
• Gray and blue: A person who is red-green colorblind might not be able to distinguish the green hue of turquoise and instead see it as gray. 
• Purple and blue: Those who suffer from protanopia cannot see the color purple; instead, they perceive it as a deep blue.
• Gray and green: It is best to avoid this color combination depending on the hue of the blue and gray.
• Black and green: Protanopes are more likely to mistake various colors of red for black.

5. Create a monochrome chart.

Consider making your chart monochromatic because color blindness has no effect on the capacity to discern between various shades. Naturally, using a limited color palette will result in less opportunities to apply unfavorable color combinations.

6. Keep your design simple and straightforward.

Your infographics should be as straightforward and organized as feasible when creating for accessibility. Whether or not your audience is color blind, taking a minimalistic approach will assist make your presentations easier to understand.

Featured Image by Denise Chan on Unsplash

The post A Quick Guide to Color Blind Design: How to Present Data to Everyone appeared first on noupe.

Despite being a relatively new player in the social media space, TikTok has already established itself as an absolute powerhouse.

The platform is insanely influential, leading the way when it comes to viral trends and attracting a colossal audience of actively engaged users. 

Unsurprisingly, this also means that brands around the globe are frantically scrambling to capitalise on TikTok marketing opportunities. 

But in the race to stamp their mark on the TikTok app, many of these advertisers are overlooking the importance of a solid marketing strategy. 

The result? Rushed campaigns, mediocre content, and underwhelming results. 

If you want to maximise the full potential of TikTok marketing, then you’ll need an expertly planned, data-driven strategy that allows you to connect with your target audience and leave your competitors scratching their heads. 

Is TikTok marketing effective? 

TikTok marketing can be incredibly effective for brands, allowing them to reach a huge audience of younger users, produce creative content, and launch data-fuelled ad campaigns. However, if you want to drive optimal results on TikTok, then you’ll need a solid marketing strategy. 

A clear and actionable TikTok advertising strategy provides you with a strong foundation for everything you do on the platform. 

Your TikTok strategy will help you to establish who you’re looking to reach and how you can communicate with them. It will help you measure the impact of your marketing, create content that resonates with your audience, and differentiate yourself from the competition. 

If you’re trying to freestyle TikTok marketing without a clear strategy in place, you might as well run your campaigns blindfolded. 

But where should you start with your strategic planning? And what are the most important areas to focus on when you’re preparing to launch a new TikTok marketing campaign? 

Let’s run through the 7 key steps to a wildly successful TikTok marketing strategy. 

7 key steps to an effective TikTok marketing strategy 

Building a TikTok marketing strategy from scratch can feel a little intimidating at first – but if you follow these 7 steps, you’ll be equipped with all the insights you need to blow your objectives out of the water. 

Step #1 – Collect high-value UGC 

User Generated Content is extremely powerful on social media, and this is particularly true on the TikTok platform. 

UGC provides your brand with content that feels human and authentic. This helps you to generate instant credibility and authority with your target audience, which can build trust and ultimately lead to conversions. 

One study even found that UGC on TikTok outperformed traditional ads in several core areas, including attention, interest, and emotional engagement. 

Always ensure that you’re carving out a space for UGC in your TikTok marketing plans. 

There are several ways to gather UGC on TikTok, including:

• Searching for hashtags that are connected to your brand 
• Encouraging your audience to upload content (i.e. competitions, rewards)
• Partnering with ‘UGC creators’ to produce assets 

If you’re smart, you can even set up a never-ending cycle of UGC production on TikTok by constantly harvesting, promoting, and incentivizing fresh content.

Step #2 – Learn the platform inside-out ½

Familiarising yourself with the TikTok platform is a must before you start planning and executing marketing campaigns. 

Take some time to scroll through the TikTok feed to understand what types of videos are resonating with audiences, and how users interact with branded content.  

How are the most popular brands communicating with viewers? Which types of videos are engaging your target customers? Where are the biggest opportunities for your brand? 

Applying a few TikTok best practices will also have a major impact on your performance.

For example, videos that include closed captioning (or text that displays a CTA) deliver a 55.7% lift in impressions compared to videos that don’t. Video duration is also massively important – 1 in 4 top-performing TikTok videos run between 21 and 34 seconds. 

Understanding what makes trending TikTok videos successful will pay dividends when it’s time to produce your own assets. If you’re keen to unlock expert insights about TikTok advertising, then partnering with a specialist marketing agency can be a wise move. 

Step #3 – Focus on your target audience 

Establishing your target audience is a hugely important part of your TikTok strategy.

Once you’ve identified the users you’d like to reach, you can begin to gather insights about them, tailor content based on their interests, and target them with paid ads. 

There are several ways that you can build a clearer picture of your target audience on TikTok. For instance, you might: 

• Deep dive your existing customer data for demographic information 
• Apply audience learnings you’ve gathered on other social platforms 
• Analyse competitors to identify who they’re targeting on TikTok 
• Explore relevant topics and hashtags to understand audience interests 

Once you’ve launched your marketing efforts, you should also frequently check TikTok analytics to understand which audiences are engaging with your content. 

You might discover user segments that you hadn’t even considered targeting previously, which can open up new opportunities for content strategies and conversions! 

Step #4 – Learn from competitor successes (and failures)

While your competitors may be working hard to capture the attention of your target audience, they can also provide you with a lot of useful performance insights. 

When you’re pulling together your TikTok marketing strategy, write up a list of relevant competitors in your industry. You can also use TikTok analytics tools to keep track of them.

(If you’re a small business, try to balance established corporations with brands that are of a similar size.)

Once you’ve identified a few of your most important competitors, follow their activity on TikTok to gather as many learnings as possible. If they post a successful piece of content, analyse why it’s resonating with viewers – have they utilised a new format, or experimented with a different creative message?

Keeping tabs on the competition is also a great way to discover new opportunities for your brand.  

Monitoring other brands in your market will help you to differentiate yourself and avoid duplicating similar content. You might even spot a gap in the market that you can fill with a new product or feature, helping you to stay ahead of the pack.

Step #5 – Stick to a set posting schedule

It’s easy to obsess over the quality of your TikTok uploads, but you should also place an equally strong emphasis on the consistency of your posts. 

Maintaining an active TikTok profile is vital to feeding the TikTok algorithm. 

The more you upload quality videos and interact with other profiles, the more engagement you’ll generate, which signals to the TikTok machine that your content is worthy of promoting.

To help you stay consistent, draw up a content schedule that dictates how frequently you’ll post on TikTok. Plan out a few different content ideas, and make sure that you’re producing enough videos to keep your profile lively. 

Creating a viral post with a flash of inspiration is great, but steadily building your TikTok presence and growing an organic following will pay off massively in the long run. 

Step #6 – Measure your results 

Crafting an intelligent TikTok strategy isn’t much good if you don’t know how it’s performing, so make sure that you’re constantly measuring performance on the app. 

By monitoring and analysing your marketing results, you can: 

• Identify (and expand) your best-performing content strategies
• Understand who your most valuable audiences are 
• Utilise performance data to optimise ad campaigns 
• Quantify the impact TikTok is having on your business/revenue 

You can also leverage multiple platforms to stay on top of your performance data and track different metrics. 

TikTok’s built-in measurement tools are great for collecting basic performance data, enabling you to track the engagements, views, clicks and conversions generated from your marketing.

Step #7 – Test, test, test your ad campaigns

The best performing TikTok strategies are those that evolve and optimise over time.

To make sure that you’re consistently improving marketing performance, focus on setting up regular A/B tests that enhance your campaigns. 

The more you test and experiment with different TikTok tactics, the faster you’ll boost advertising returns and reduce inefficient spend. 

There are plenty of marketing variables that you can test on TikTok, such as:

• Target audiences
• Ad formats
• Creative assets
• CTAs
• Ad text
• Bidding strategies 

And to make life even easier, TikTok allows marketers to set up automated split tests quickly and easily. All you need to do is select your desired test variable, confirm your primary KPI, and launch your test ad.

By following these steps, you’ll be able to create a potent TikTok marketing strategy that resonates with your target audience, strengthens your brand identity, and allows you to capitalise on the mind-blowing potential of the platform. 

But remember – don’t take your foot off the pedal once your strategy is complete. 

There are always new insights to gather and new learnings to apply, so make sure you’re constantly developing your strategy to deliver the best possible results for your business.

Featured Image by Mourizal Zativa on Unsplash

The post How to Create a Successful TikTok Marketing Strategy appeared first on noupe.

Signup and onboarding are important to get right whether you’re a SaaS or online business – while many of your customers registering with you will be genuine, some accounts will be made by fraudsters. While you want to stop these users from registering with you, deep customer vetting during the onboarding process can cause user experience friction as it often involves asking for documentation or too many questions. Some B2Cs avoid customer vetting for that reason, but one key frictionless method of checking security at onboarding includes data enrichment. We’ll be going into detail about how this works and how it can protect you against suspicious customers.

How at risk are B2Cs when it comes to fraud?

When it comes to B2Cs, the e-Commerce sector is particularly at risk of being targeted by fraudsters. (And SaaS companies have a lot to learn from this too.) According to Finances Online, e-Commerce sites have to deal with an average of 206,000 attacks every month. The same article also found in another survey that: “companies that implemented fraud prevention programs were able to reduce their fraud attack response expenses by 42%, their remedy expenses by 17% compared to companies without such programs in place”. This goes to show that while fraud is big on the agenda for e-Commerce, implementing fraud prevention software can reduce your expenses greatly. A good investment surely, but often companies find they’re reluctant to take the plunge because of one important factor that affects customer experience – friction.

As a business, you’re probably looking to avoid increasing friction regarding a user’s onboarding experience. You’re perhaps looking at implementing ways of making the process more streamlined so that there are fewer boxes to tick or fill in during registration (which can put some customers or users off registering at all). However, Profitwell found in their study that good customer onboarding can actually lead to higher retention and willingness to pay – so if you get this right, it could be of great benefit in the long-run.

Unfortunately, one of the most popular forms of fraud prevention technique – Know Your Customer checks which include document or biometric verification for example – can introduce a lot of friction for your customer (and extra costs for you). Some checks like biometric verification are known as hard KYC checks. This means that they’re particularly hard for fraudsters to get around but also provide a great deal of friction to all of your customers in general.
If you ask every customer for document identification, it’s going to not only cost extra time for the customer in terms of them locating important, relevant documentation (such as their driver’s license or passport), but it’s also potentially going to take time to verify that these documents are valid. Verification is also importantly not completely failsafe. Criminals can also find ways around document or biometric verification. This could come in the form of forging ID documents using Photoshop or combining real and fake data to make a synthetic identity, as SEON explains in their guide to synthetic identity fraud.

How to check security without involving friction

Thankfully, there’s another route to safer onboarding, and that’s via data enrichment. Data enrichment handles many different data points along the entire onboarding process, like a user’s phone number, email address, IP address and device fingerprinting.

Data enrichment isn’t limited to just fraud prevention per se (although this is what we’re interested in here) – it’s generally a means to merge a primary data point with other data sets in order to provide a bigger context for your original data point. For example, you could start with a user’s email address as a primary data point. Using a data enrichment tool on the email address, you can combine it with other datasets out there such as via internet open sources or other records to find out whether it’s linked to any social media accounts.

Uncovering a very limited or non-existent social media footprint using data enrichment on a user’s data points means they’re more likely to be a fraudster or automated attacker. A customer is more likely to be genuine if they have a history of social media that’s over a few years. What’s more, a suspicious user is more likely to be hiding their IP address behind a VPN, using a web browser like Tor, and has a disposable phone number or an email address that’s not linked to any social media profiles. This entire process is known as digital footprint analysis.

These are all clues that create a picture of how likely a user is a fraudster – some fraud prevention tools that enlist data enrichment to find out more about your customers have a “traffic light” system, which involves providing each customer with a risk score. Phone numbers belonging to a blacklist will lead to a user receiving a very high score, as will a user using a Tor browser. You might ban them outright before or during the onboarding process itself, as they’re likely a criminal based on the information you’ve gleaned. When it comes to suspicious users with a high score, you might ask for additional details in the form of a phone call with your customer services, or extra documentation to show that they are who they claim to be. 

Blacklisting and flagging suspicious users early means you’re more likely to catch them. When a customer’s been flagged as suspicious, it’s fine to introduce a bit of friction, because you’re trying to decide whether they’re fraudulent or not – most of your regular customers not flagged as suspicious don’t have to undergo this level of scrutiny. This is dynamic friction – in other words, friction that’s introduced only when it’s deemed necessary, not all the time and for every single user looking to register with you. 

Bringing it all together: by enriching a customer’s email address, phone number or by looking at the kind of device they’re using, you can find out a lot about their identity during the onboarding process (or even just via them taking actions on your site). You might even be able to use this process instead of KYC-related verification checks to save money and reduce friction overall. That’s because this data can be gained fairly early on – you can even find a user’s IP address and device information just through them taking actions on your site. 
Using data enrichment to replace KYC is an option if you don’t have to comply with any KYC and AML-related mandates, which you might have to if you’re in the gambling industry. As Experian found, as more people become interested in gambling, this is leading to an increase in fraud targeted at the industry itself.

In sum

As we’ve explained above, there are several ways to go about creating a safe onboarding process that doesn’t let in fraudsters. Hard KYC checks like biometric verification can cause the kind of friction that leaves most of your genuine customers unsatisfied. But with the help of data enrichment, you can filter out fraudsters even before they reach the onboarding stage itself.

Featured Image by FLY:D on Unsplash

The post Safer Onboarding Doesn’t Have to Involve Friction appeared first on noupe.