BlogmyQuery – BMQ

At first glance, the profession of a graphic designer seems to be the most attractive for creative people. However, the freelancer’s path brings specific challenges you must be prepared for. Today we will discuss the main hardships of freelance graphic designers’ careers.

Graphic designers are among the top most in-demand professions in the internet industry. Designers work with many objects, such as advertisements, websites, apps, book designs, storefronts, press, etc. In addition, graphic designers engage when clients need to design a brand style, logo, and visual concept.

More than talent is needed to build a successful career as a graphic designer. Professional skills and soft skills are equally important. 

Anyone with creative ability can start such a career. However, there are some challenges to overcome and find solutions. 

The path of a designer is winding and thorny, full of uncertainty. Every year the requirements for professionals are increasing. They need to be able to do a lot, understand the product they are creating from beginning to end, and at the same time, have time to find projects for themselves. 

Freelance Graphic Designers’ Operational Challenges 

Time Management

A flexible work schedule is undoubtedly convenient, but only if people can manage their time. Unfortunately, the creative nature of graphic designers can cause them to lose track of time, extending an entire day on tasks that could have taken one hour to complete.

Being creative and passionate about a task is fine, but the clients always want their orders on time. Meeting deadlines is a vital part of a freelancer’s job in any field. Irrational use of time becomes a stumbling block. 

Improper organization of one’s work time results in sacrificing personal needs, boundaries, and physical and mental health. Or on the contrary, the other extreme – is not being able to fulfill the client’s contract in a quality and timely manner. Both options harm their careers.

Tip: Use time management software, and create time limits for your work-time to keep your life and work balanced. Use tools to manage projects and communicate with clients.

Organizing Work

Designers working on their own must understand that they must deal with more than just creative tasks. Freelancers have to advertise and offer themselves, especially in the initial stages. To build a serious career, they must be able to draw up contracts, and documents, make payments, and conduct business activities legally. 

Projects are created in different ways, so every time, freelance designers need to organize and negotiate the time to complete, the cost of services, and the terms of cooperation in detail.

Tip: Study legal business practices in your country, carefully draft specifications and contractor agreements, and study convenient payment and invoicing methods.

Organizing Finance

Designers don’t have to be accountants, but they must understand how payments for services are made and conducted, how to pay taxes, etc. Another challenge in finance is the difficulty in estimating the cost of designing services. How not to inflate the price and scare away the client, but at the same time not to work for a cookie?

First, the salary depends on the graphic designer’s market – the USA, EU, Asia, or CIS countries. Also, the salary level increases in proportion to experience.

Tip: Carefully study the pricing policy of the market and the cost of competitors, exchanges, and stocks. From your experience, compare how much time it takes to complete UI/UX design tasks and how much you can spend on them in the future. Study the models of cooperation “pay per hour,” “pay per result,” etc.

Competition

The competition among graphic designers working from home is very high indeed. The availability of technology for remote work has allowed many professionals to move away from office work to free-floating. In addition, the demand for designers in the traditional industry has decreased. It is much cheaper for companies to hire a designer for a project than to keep him on the staff.

The growth of competition is also conditioned by the appeal of the occupation for young people. On the one hand, they can work creatively without submitting to the strict conventions of the offices, and on the other hand, they can earn decent money. However, as we know, high competition leads to lower fees.

Tip: Work hard to create the best portfolio that shows off your talent and makes you stand out from the competition.

Graphic Designers Career Challenges

Service Promoting

Like any product, graphic designers must promote their services. Often there are difficulties with this since it involves more than just the design of their website, business cards, or contextual advertising. In addition, designers must learn how to communicate with potential clients or collaborate with platforms.

Lifetime Learning

A designer’s career always has room for development and learning. Moreover, keeping up with trends and new technologies is not a privilege but a necessity amidst fierce competition and ever-increasing demand. A designer’s growth can be linear: beginner-experienced-virtuoso, etc. Interestingly, many years of practice do not automatically mean experience growth because one can draw icons for five years or pass from icons to branding. Transitioning to every new level requires increased complexity, knowledge growth, and evolution toward new directions.

Career Uncertainty

Uncertainty follows freelancers along until they establish their permanent client base. Graphic designers often need more stable orders and consistent income. In addition to the lack of stability, career growth is also in question. How to measure it? How to make it move forward? 

To grow professionally as a freelancer, designers need to get a lot of experience, build a steep portfolio, post their work on websites like Behance and Dribbble, follow trends and innovations, learn new tools and software, and jump over the top.

Soft skills should be taught more. And this is almost half of the necessary knowledge. So first, it is important to get the technical background, theory, and observation, then a lot of practice, and then to supplement this luggage with “flexible skills”: plan the work, present a solution, and so on.

Difficulties When Working With Freelance Designers

Low-quality Design

Anyone who has mastered a graphic editor can become a designer. Unfortunately, the conditionally low threshold of entry into the profession leads to many “professionals” on the market not having the best creative, professional, and personal qualities. 

Before choosing a particular designer, research the market thoroughly, review the candidate’s portfolio, and ask for feedback from previous clients.

Unfixed Price Tag

A lousy expert doesn’t know the actual cost of the job because he needs help understanding and estimating the tasks and scope of the job. As a result, he can name one price that seems adequate, but the price tag can increase significantly during the work.

Write the cost and scope of work in the contract, stipulating all the requirements and deadlines.

Lack of Communication

Often freelance designers choose the “take-order-give-order” position. And this can lead to unsatisfactory results. Ideally, the client should seek a system of communication and interim reporting from the performer to ensure the result is consistent with the goal.

Use collaboration tools where you can track the project’s progress and make adjustments in time.

As a designer or as a client of a designer, what problems have you encountered? What solutions have you found? Please share in the comments.

The post Biggest Challenges Of Freelance Graphic Designers appeared first on noupe.

Social media is a way for you to communicate both directly and in a human way. As inbound marketing is all about creating valuable experiences and building long-term relationships, social media can be of great benefit to your inbound marketing. Let’s find out how…

What is Inbound Marketing?

Inbound marketing is a relatively new approach pioneered by HubSpot co-founder Brian Halligan. Traditional, outbound marketing, is focused on pushing messages to consumers they may not want, or provides little value for driving sales.

The hard-sell approach that was once popular no longer works in today’s digital landscape. Inbound marketing provides an alternative that empowers customers and develops long-term relationships.

Inbound marketing has 3 stages:

• Attract
• Engage
• Delight

Attract

Inbound marketing begins with attracting customers. The attract stage involves your potential customers seeking possible options to help address their challenges or pain points. Most potential customers will be unaware of your brand at this stage.

Delivering the right message to the right customer at the right time, allows you to attract high-quality leads that are more likely to convert into sales. While SEO plays a key role in the attraction stage, social media can also play a pivotal role in delivering messages that provide value.

Understanding your buyer personas (a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer) helps you to better understand your customers. A buyer persona will help to develop a message that provides value to your customers and identify the right channels to deliver your message.

Engage

The engage stage is all about developing long-lasting relationships with the potential customers you gathered during the attract stage. At this stage, your potential customers want to find out more about your brand and how your product/service can alleviate any pain points.

Personalization and creating tailored experiences can go a long way at the engage stage. Around 50% of customers are likely to purchase from a brand that provides a personalized experience, highlighting how important it is to deliver the experience customers expect.

You can continue to use social media during the engage stage to encourage customers to interact with your brand. Continuing to post relevant content to your social channels and engaging with customers helps to develop long-lasting relationships.

Delight

The final stage of inbound marketing is the delight stage. Your content strategy, SEO, and social media have all helped to convert your visitors and leads. But even though the hard task of converting customers is done, the job is not finished!

Even after a customer has converted, you need to continue delighting that customer and maintaining the long-lasting relationships you formed at the engage stage. Delighting your customers post-purchase increases loyalty which can lead to repeat purchases and brand advocacy. 

Social media continues to play a role during the delight stage. You can use your social media channels to respond to customer questions or suggestions. You could also look to explore running competitions, surveys, and events to continue showing support and appreciation.

What are the Benefits of Social Media for Inbound Marketing?

We’ve covered what inbound marketing is and how you can use social media at each stage, but what about the benefits of social media for your inbound marketing strategy?

It helps to raise awareness and attract customers

Social media can act as the building blocks for raising brand awareness. Making social media a core area of your inbound strategy will help to grow your reach and inform potential customers about your business.

Creating and sharing videos on your social media can be a great way to attract customers and raise awareness of your brand. Videos that resonate with your target audience and use emotional appeal are more likely to perform well.

Helps build your authority and online presence

Not only is it important for you to raise awareness of your brand and attract customers, but you also need to build trust and authority. Not only do you need to regularly update your social media pages, but you also need to engage to help grow your social presence.

Engaging with customers and responding to feedback goes a lot further in building credibility than just posting new content. Potential customers like to see that you care about customer satisfaction. 

Drives better quality leads and traffic

Social media can be a major source of driving traffic to your site and landing pages. Without social media, your traffic would be heavily limited to those from search (and we all know how difficult gaining top-ranking positions can be).

Social media makes life a lot easier for driving traffic. Every profile you have and every link you post is another gateway for potential customers. Increased exposure plus valuable content is a great formula for expanding your reach and building lasting relationships.

Your social media strategy can organically boost your SEO

Social media can help boost your SEO efforts too. But let’s make one thing clear. Social media is not a ranking factor. However, a link has been established between being active on social media and a boost to your SEO.

Establishing your authority and credibility on social media stands you in a much better position for gaining valuable backlinks to your site. Providing these also come from authoritative websites, you’ll benefit from some nice link juice.

Feedback can help develop your content creation

The great thing about social media is that it’s not a one-way street. Your business can gain from using social media as well as your customers. A brand that is highly engaged on social media can gain great insights from customers.

Social media can provide insights about your customers that will be beneficial for developing your buyer personas. Customers can also provide feedback, giving you ideas and directions that you may not have otherwise considered. 

Gain more insights into your customers

We also mentioned about the insights you can gain from customers on social media. But given how important this benefit is, it deserves a separate mention. The insights that social media provides about your customers are crucial for developing content that provides value.

Creating content that offers value is the bread and butter of any successful inbound marketing strategy. You’ll be able to find out what content appeals most to your customers, the best time for posting, and how customers want to receive the content.

It helps you to continue delighting your customers

While social media is most beneficial at the attract stage of inbound marketing, in no way should you disregard it from every other stage. You can use your social media to delight your customers by:

• Hosting live events or webinars
• Offering customer support through chat
• Conducting surveys and polls
• Engaging in social listening to find what customers are saying away from your page

The important thing to remember is that delighting your customers goes beyond satisfaction. At the delight stage, even the smallest gesture can go a long way in maintaining positive relationships that will continue to bring customers back again.
Social media is a vital tool for any inbound marketing strategy, providing many great benefits. Combined with a successful content marketing strategy, you can provide both valuable and engaging content that helps empower your customers.

The post 7 Benefits of Social Media for Inbound Marketing appeared first on noupe.

Today most small and large businesses use a sales app or a CRM to forecast sales, gauge teams’ performance, and manage the sales funnel. CRM and sales app use has been on the rise of late. 

At least 91% of small businesses with more than 11 employees are now using sales applications to enable collaboration and streamline the sales funnel.

It has become vital for businesses to create and customize their sales applications to match their needs. Designing the right sales app is essential to any business that intends to grow sales. 

Every day new, affordable, and reliable solutions enter the field. It means even companies with fixed budgets can now design or develop a custom sales app. Most sale app solutions tend to focus on communication, automation, flexibility, and user-friendliness.

It is hard to know the best sales apps that improve efficiency and platforms that give  you detailed sales analytics in real time. 

The objective behind having a sales app is to offer sales and marketing teams an informed and streamlined sales path. When having a sales app for your business, these are some features you should be looking for.

1. Mobile access 

Mobile access is becoming paramount for any app today since sales are increasingly mobile. As a business, your sales and marketing team will be working remotely and need to access the sales app on the go. Therefore, you should have a sales app that is as mobile as your sales team to maximize functionality and productivity.

The sales app you develop should also have offline capabilities so that sales reps can serve customers without relying heavily on the internet. The app should be able to synchronize the changes once the user connects to the internet.

2. Ease of use 

When choosing a sales app for your company, usability and versatility should come to mind. The sales app should be simple to use, scalable, and versatile. This makes it easy to adopt by your teams, so your business gets the most out of it.

Additionally, the sales app should be more interactive and offer optimal performance. It should provide a high amount of data and convey the brand image to all users. The app should be compatible with most operating systems, have a multi-language feature, and be a cross-platform.

3. Automation 

Automation plays a critical role in sales success. Ideally, companies that employ sales automation tend to perform better than those that don’t use it. With sales automation, your business can see a sales increase of up to 34%.

A sales app should automate email follow-up. This way, sales reps can keep leads on the conversation trail and convert them. Your sales reps can also encourage leads to take action by sending them customized and purpose-driven content in emails.

Customized content generates high engagement. If your sales app enables your team to respond to customers fast, you increase your sales. Studies show that most users looking for solutions will always go with a company that responds first.

4. User intuitive interface 

All sales apps will always have a learning curve. However, it should be easy to adopt and start using the app. It should be easy for salespersons to start using the app as soon as you launch it. 

An intuitive user interface will make it easy for your team to understand using the app and save you time on training. Your sales reps can get back to work fast when you have a sales app that is easy to adopt.

Ideally, before committing to a sales app, it is vital to try them first. This way, you get a glimpse of how the app functions and what it takes to navigate the different features.

5. Reporting features 

Sales reports are useful to any sales leader. You can use daily sales reports to forecast sales and decide on stock acquisition. Reports are useful in gauging company and individual sales rep performance so you can tell if the set metrics are being met.

Sales reports make it easy for sales leaders to identify all the bottlenecks in the sales process and make all necessary adjustments. You should be able to find out everything you want to know with all the data passing through the sales app daily.

6. Security 

When choosing a sales app for your business, you should consider the security features. The sales app should safeguard customer and business data. 

To guarantee the security of confidential data, a sales app should have a list of security features like encryption, protected access, a recovery system, data fee protection, remote supervision, and many other features.

Final Thoughts 

A reliable sales app is useful in sales process management. You should look out for the most vital features when choosing a sales app for your business. 

Find out if the sales app is easy to use, secure, and enables automation. With these features, you can be confident the sales app will streamline service delivery in your business.

The post 6 Things You Should Look for in a Sales App appeared first on noupe.

We know that the first mode of interaction with anything is the visuals. This is why brands spend huge amounts of money to make their advertisement visually appealing. It highlights the importance of the interface with which the audience interacts with the brand.

In web development, the frontend holds the same value. It is the webpage that is displayed to the user with which they interact. It is very important to build a strong frontend for a web project. If the app or the website is not visually appealing, then there would be very little traffic. 

This would eventually lead to all the hard work getting wasted that was put in the backend.

This is why a well-developed frontend guarantees a smooth user interaction with the website. However, developing the best user interface can get a little tricky. To solve this problem, we have some helpful building blocks which we call frontend frameworks. Below we have provided detail on what the frontend framework is.

What is Frontend Framework?

To put it simply, a frontend framework is a package that contains pre-written code. They allow a user to build apps and websites without the hassle of writing codes from scratch. These frameworks are in no way rigid. You can easily make modifications to set them according to your needs.

Some people might fear that their end product would look similar to the thousands of others who have used the same framework. But, they are highly customizable which means every website or app would be unique. A frontend framework has features like buttons, font style, grids, navigation bar, etc.

These features make the process of web development very easy. The web page turns out to be responsive, easy to use, and interactive. Now, if you are all set to use a frontend framework then you have come to the right place. Below we have created a list of the top 7 best frontend frameworks for admin templates.

Top 7 Best Frontend Frameworks for Admin Templates

There are many frontend frameworks available for people to choose from. We have narrowed it down to the top 7 so you can choose from them easily. These frameworks are very popular amongst developers in 2022. Note that this list is not in any particular order.

VueJS

One of the most popular JavaScript frameworks is VueJs. It has a number of amazing features which make it one of the most demanded frameworks. Being an open-source frontend framework, it can be used to create visually appealing and interactive websites.

If you are looking for a framework for your single-page web project, then VueJS can be your best bet. Many big companies that use this framework include Alibaba, Xiaomi, 9gag, etc. Some of the benefits of this framework are listed below:

• It uses virtual DOM
• It has detailed documentation
• It is highly flexible and customizable
• It has a simple and easy syntax

React

React should be at the top of the list in terms of popularity. With around 3 million users worldwide, it can be categorized as one of the best front-end frameworks in the market. It is the best option for developers who want to build single-page websites. It also works great in building mobile applications.

It is an open-source JavaScript library that has a bunch of reusable components. With a bunch of unique components, a developer can create striking interfaces. Created and maintained by Meta, it is used by companies like Walmart, PayPal, Netflix, Tesla, etc. Some amazing features of React are listed below:

• A huge user community
• Can be used for desktop and mobile applications
• Support from industry giants
• Easy to use

Angular

Another very popular free open-source JavaScript-based framework is Angular. It is created and maintained by Google. Angular is one of the most basic frameworks. Developers try to master it first when they are beginning with JavaScript. Though Angular has a number of useful features, its best one is the two-way data binding feature.

One reason behind its success is that it is highly versatile. It can be used for web applications and mobile applications alike. Some of its striking features are MVC, CLI, Typescript support, directives, etc. Its latest version also includes typed forms. Companies like Forbes, Xbox, and BMW use Angular. Some of the benefits of using Angular are mentioned below:

• Easy to code in
• It has built-in services
• It has amazing server performance

JQuery

Anyone who wants to start with a simple framework should opt for JQuery. It is also an open-source JavaScript framework. It works wonders in creating the frontend of a website. Despite being one of the oldest frameworks in the market, it has been updated from time to time to match modern needs.

Companies like Microsoft and Nokia use this framework on their platforms. JQuery has the following helpful features which make it one of the best frontend frameworks:

• It is compatible with a number of browsers
• It is easy to use
• It has an MIT license

Preact

People who are familiar with React can work with Preact very easily. The reason is that it was created as a lighter substitute for React. Many developers prefer this frontend framework as it comes with a solution for the shortcomings of React.

A big benefit of using Preact is that it can be used with other libraries. It is smaller, lighter, and faster than React which makes it one of the most used frameworks for frontend development. Its benefits are listed below:

• It is faster and more efficient
• Smaller in size
• Easy to understand

Svelte

Unlike JQuery, Svelte is one of the newest frameworks in the market. It is a JavaScript framework that works at an impressively fast speed. It is constructed in such a way that it does not need a DOM. It has brought a revolution in coding and can make beautiful and interactive web pages. Its features are listed as follows:

• It is highly reactive
• It has good stability in his performance
• It does not require virtual DOM

Backbone.Js

Another JavaScript framework on the list is Backbone.Js. The main purpose of creating this framework was to develop impressive single-page web applications. It primarily uses one JavaScript library, which is why it is lightweight.

Another big benefit of Backbone.Js is that it is compatible with REST API. This compatibility makes the frontend and back end synchronize well with each other. It also has other helpful benefits which are listed below:

• One can use a number of tools with this framework like Thorax and Chaplin
• It has a fast processing speed
• It is flexible and easy to understand and learn

So these were some of the best frontend frameworks that are used in 2022. A developer can choose a framework from this list as per their needs. Each comes with a set of unique features that are useful in their own way.

Sources:

1. https://themeselection.com/best-frontend-framework/
2. https://www.bootstrapdash.com/blog/frontend-frameworks-for-admin-templates
3. https://write.agrevolution.in/react-admin-introduction-2aa72e075689
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vue.js
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/React_(JavaScript_library)
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angular_(web_framework)
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backbone.js

The post Top 7 Best Frontend Frameworks for Admin Templates in 2022 appeared first on noupe.

The cybersecurity market was valued at about $197 billion in 2020 and is projected to rise to $478+ billion in the next eight years. As the space continues to grow, both startups and legacy cybersecurity vendors are aware of the sheer number of vendors and must consider how they can better work together to help enterprises solve cybersecurity challenges. 

Two of the biggest challenges? The first is that CISOs (Chief Information Security Officers), CIOs, and their teams are juggling too many security products and services. In the unfortunate event of a breach, they must juggle numerous pieces of software to create reports and review all possible indicators of compromise, all of which impacts dwell and response times and ultimately gives bad actors more time to steal data and cause serious damage. The second challenge is that limited budgets and resources are further straining IT teams, forcing them to find more value from their solutions.

For CISOs and their teams to be successful, they cannot rely on a growing list of security products to function. While it is true that many of these solutions are essential and address the unique issues enterprises face today, the volume of technologies CISOs and their teams must navigate is making it difficult to adequately respond to new and emerging threats. 

Vendor consolidation for CISOs is top priority, and a Gartner survey found that 80 percent of respondents are planning for a vendor consolidation strategy in the next three years, and 30 percent are already in the process of consolidating. While consolidating every security product and service is not possible, building a cybersecurity tech stack with open and interoperable solutions is very realistic. To truly solve cybersecurity threats and help practitioners, identity and cybersecurity solutions need to break down existing silos and interoperate. 

An Open and Interoperable Cybersecurity Future

The concept of openness and interoperability as it relates to cybersecurity means solutions integrate with common enterprise applications and services by leveraging common industry standards (aka OpenID Connect, SAML, and FIDO in the authentication space and open APIs for various other offerings). This ensures external developers can access the software they need. 

This concept was first made popular in Gartner’s Cybersecurity Mesh Architecture. Cybersecurity vendors must fully embrace this concept to enable orchestration and automation for CISOs and their organizations to best meet modern business demands. 

All segments within the cybersecurity market can greatly benefit from the concept of openness and interoperability. One such segment is the PKI (public key infrastructure), Certificate Authority (CA), and digital certificate space. Today, the world’s data is secured with technology that acts like a passport. This technology – a PKI digital certificate issued by a CA – contains identity information related to the holder. In the digital world, certificates act as passports for humans and the machines and applications they use (i.e. devices, software, code, bots, IoT/OT, etc.). These cryptographic certificates are proven in their ability to establish digital trust. 

With the rapid shift to remote work, a company’s data is no longer behind a firewall but rather being accessed from locations around the world. Therefore, the data is likely to cross hostile network boundaries. The digital identity of humans and machines is the new perimeter, which is why there’s been a dramatic increase in demand for certificates. The mounting challenge for enterprises now is governing these certificates, which can be issued by any number of CAs. 

According to a Sectigo survey, 59 percent of enterprises have deployed digital certificates from multiple CAs. This is a prime example of IT teams engaging with overlapping solutions to secure their networks. Without open and interoperable security solutions, these teams must invest in multiple Certificate Lifecycle Management (CLM) solutions or consolidate their certificates under one CA – neither option is realistic. The same survey revealed that 80 percent of enterprise leaders believe it’s important for their CLM solution to support management through a single pane of glass. 

Next-generation Certificate Lifecycle Management 

For a CLM solution to meet these needs of enterprise IT leaders today, it must work with a host of different IT environments, including digital certificate types and use cases, and certificate origins. CLM needs to be CA agnostic with the power to discover, govern, and manage the lifecycle of any certificate, regardless of what CA it came from.  

As IT teams continue to enhance and grow their cybersecurity infrastructures, they face a widening security perimeter that can see millions of endpoints and siloed certificate and identity management. It is critical to have a universal, high-value solution with the power to automate every single certificate’s lifecycle. This is the only way enterprises can effectively manage their digital identities at scale. 

The modern approach to CLM is a CA agnostic cloud-first solution that delivers a single administration portal to secure and manage growing numbers of digital identities, both human and machine. Further than just managing digital certificates, the CLM solution must also focus on enabling use cases that support business outcomes, such as secure email and DevOps security. The goal must be to ease security, complexity, management, and orchestration for IT leaders. This must be enabled at a foundational level, with a focus on openness and interoperability with leading technology stacks. 

No longer can IT teams slap on band-aids and duct tape solutions just to keep things moving along. All digital businesses need a firm foundation of digital trust and identity-first security to compete and operate today, and this must start with flexible, cloud-first, digital identities, enabled with a digital certificate platform that is CA agnostic and includes CLM functionality. Of course, that is in addition to other identity security tools, technologies, and processes. 

Establishing digital trust is no longer a ‘nice to have.’ Enterprises across the globe need to invest in CLM that leverages open standards and can easily interoperate with existing technology solutions. This will only be possible if the cybersecurity industry adopts an open and interoperable approach to developing products.

The post Openness and Interoperability in An Enterprise’s Cybersecurity Stack is Critical appeared first on noupe.