Month: July 2022

iA Writer Pro

Do you need a simple interface to just start typing? Sometimes Microsoft Word or even Google Docs can feel way too heavy. This is where iA Writer Pro enters the conversation. Its usefulness lies in its simplicity. It’s a stripped down program: a sheet of digital paper that you can access on iOS, Mac, or Android. There’s nothing for you to do but type, and sometimes that’s exactly what you need to do to improve your writing.

In an effort to improve your writing, check out Twords. Twords is a tracker. You input how many words you’d like to write each day, and then Twords will nudge you until you get it done. It creates a sense of accountability, and pushes you out of procrastination. Twords also has a library of writing prompts to help you if you’re stuck. No excuses.

Grammar & Spelling Skills

Building students’ grammar and spelling skills is foundational for strong written communication. The following apps are great tools for helping students master grammar and spelling.

Winner of the 2010 IEAR Language Arts App of the Year, Sentence Builder is an app geared toward elementary students. It uses a game-like interface to teach students to form grammatically correct simple, compound, and complex sentences. The app offers audio reinforcement, progress monitoring, and a “teen” module for older or struggling ELA students.

Spelling is a cornerstone of strong writing. But how can students locate a new word in the dictionary if they don’t already know how to spell it? American Wordspeller is an app that can solve this problem by helping students to “find a word by the way it sounds!” Students can type the first two to three letters that they think the word starts with, and American Wordspeller will use a predictive function based on the letters’ sounds to generate a list of suggested words and help the student identify the word he or she is looking for! This app builds agency and confidence in proper spelling.

Written by a team of linguists from the University College of London, the grammar in this app is based on the most current research and reflects real situations and real sentences, not just the repetition of archaic rules. The app is progressive, spanning concepts from basic level understanding to complex, collegiate-level pieces of writing.

Technically, No Red Ink is an interactive website, but it is so functional and easy to navigate, that it has earned its place on a list alongside self-contained apps! No Red Ink is a personalized approach to drilling grammar skills. The site uses the students’ self-reported interests to build sentences that pretest, practice, and evaluate students’ grammar knowledge and acquired learning. Teachers can set the topic for a class, monitor student progress, and peruse the data provided by the site reflecting students’ achievement. It’s an easy and effective grammar skill tool.

Writing Skills

The Writing Challenge App allows students to enjoy writing in the guide of a fun, interactive game. The app provides a prompt to get student writing started…then, every minute, the app supplies another prompt to add new ideas, words, characters, sentences, places or actions to the plot. Students who have a hard time getting started with creative writing assignments will enjoy the fast-paced, game-like setup of this app. And in the end, they’ll have been inspired to write an entire story!

This app generates fiction, and nonfiction writing prompts, helping students master the skill of the short write. The app uses current events, scene elements, words, pictures, colors, and even random tidbits from fiction works to inspire students to write both short and long pieces. The 600 creative writing prompts are available both on- and offline to encourage student writing wherever they may be.

Story Builder is an app from the same company that produces Sentence Builder. Story Builder was Huffington Post’s 2011 winner of Best Reading App. The app is designed to help students improve paragraph formation, integration of idea, inference, and abstract thinking and expression. The app’s use of audio clips promotes access to writing skills, even for students with special needs. The app offers a talk-to-text function, which allows students to narrate their thoughts and see them transformed into paragraphs; this is an essential scaffold for struggling writers.

Write About This is an app that addresses all genres of writing throughout elementary school, engaging students and making them feel excited about writing! Educators report that even struggling writers are engaged and motivated by the game-like feel of this writing app; by the end of its integration, many couldn’t get their students to turn it off! This app is worth investigating for teachers of reluctant writers.

Storyrobe allows writers to write, share their work, and receive feedback from others. This is a great way to integrate student editing and revision as well as teaching how to incorporate positive feedback to writers. With this app, you can easily save and upload your story to social media platforms as well!

For traditional essay writing in classrooms, there is no better app than Google Docs! Google Docs has all the traditional functionality of Microsoft Word but allows for collaboration between students and for easy-to-give and easy-to-receive feedback from teachers through the commenting and suggesting functions. When paired with Google Classroom, Google Docs makes the assigning, collecting, and grading of essays a breeze for teachers and students.

It’s time to harness technology’s strengths, instead of dwelling on their weaknesses. While written communication can, at times, be undercut by social media, teachers can also use it to motivate students to write more and write better. By tapping into these writing apps, teachers can get their students invested in improving their writing skills!

Drafts 4

People who faced this situation will get our point: you are almost done with your draft saved on Android/iOS device. You try to open it in some time to discover your file was deleted or cannot be read properly. Each time you want to enter an immediate idea, it is better to rely on a loyal assistant, Drafts 4, which won’t let your files disappear.

It is important to answer a single question: what do you know about mindmapping & brainstorming procedures? These are two factors every good writer must remember to compose a masterpiece. Sign up with the WiseMapping official website to get a simple mapping/brainstorming tool. Many students share it is easy to solve various problems with the help of the innovative solution.

Disadvantage:

It is necessary to pass a long registration procedure, but you receive unlimited access to mindmapping & brainstorming functions.

Write

Say you are a lucky owner of the iOS device who wishes to make the entire writing process comfortable & fast. Have you used Lenovo laptops? The idea is the same: one of the best writing apps for iPad has a flagship feature in the shape of a cursor nub.

The developers of good apps for writing mention Q10 created to avoid the distractions during the writing process. Feel confident closing the current draft; the application opens the document you keep on working automatically the next time you use it. Set a timer to have breaks with the equal intervals not to get thirsty/hungry/overwhelmed. Automatic save and word count functions are the best features of this modest yet useful software.

Conclusion:

You should love technology created especially for writers because many regular life situations require an in-depth knowledge of composition. We recommend downloading at least a couple of apps discussed in our post to ease your academic or professional pain.

Resource:

https://nybookeditors.com/2016/04/use-these-18-apps-to-improve-your-writing/
https://www.thetechedvocate.org/ten-apps-help-students-develop-writing-skills/
https://studycrumb.com/writing-apps

Plan the work, then work the plan. Here’s how to create a plan that works

After a lot of hard work, you’re ready to make your mark with your next project. You want to make a great first impression with your boss. Whether you’ve got big ideas to pitch or big challenges being pitched at you, execution matters.

You know that you need to communicate your ideas clearly. But you also need to communicate your ability to execute on them and rally the resources to help. That starts with demonstrating that you have a solid grasp of the nature, size, and complexity of the project.

So before you change the world, think about your approach. Are you following a known methodology? Your manager will need specifics, everything from your project timelines to a high-level action plan. (And, eventually, a detailed action plan.)

In short, you’ll need a work plan — a roadmap for accomplishing your work goals. Whether you want to streamline your team’s workflow, build a new app, or put on the event of the century, a strategic plan will take you there.

Look at What’s Not Working

When you’re figuring out how to make a life plan, it helps to know what you want to change, and in what areas of your life. Here’s where it helps to get out a journal and assess different areas of your life. This can be in list form, narrative form, created like a mind map, or in another format, but should cover the areas of life that are most important to you. For most people, that means a job, family, wellness, finances, other areas of stress, and even home environment. Think about what your values are in life, and assess how those areas of life are currently working for you.

When you’re making a life plan, you should work around your values–what’s important to you, and what you hope to maintain in your life. Do you value family, but find yourself spending too little time with your family because you’re working overtime at a job you hate? Do you value fitness, but find yourself watching too much t.v. instead? Oftentimes, people include activities in their lives that have little value to them without realizing it. To be sure you’re spending your time wisely, assess what you value the most in life, and pay attention to how you actually behave around the expression of these values in your real life; be sure you include activities that fulfill those values.

Look at the Future

As you make a life plan, it helps to plan not only months into the future but for years. Looking at your values and thinking about how you want the next few months, year, and five years to be (even up to ten years!) and then working backward can really clarify what next steps will bring you a payoff, and can help you decide where to put your time. For example, if you want to be working in a new field, maybe now is time to make connections and look for work experience that you can gain in your off-hours; you can take small steps to build up for a bigger change in the future.

Looking at where you’d like to be, and at where you are now, you can break down the path from “here” to “there” into small, manageable steps that you can more easily take. This way, you can more easily experience successes that can sustain your motivation, can look at where you may need to change your plan as you go, and can consistently put one step in front of the other and move forward. (See this for more on setting goals.)

Press Play for Advice On Dealing With Perfectionism

Hosted by Editor-in-Chief and therapist Amy Morin, LCSW, this episode of The Verywell Mind Podcast, featuring Peloton instructor Ally Love, shares how to focus on progress instead of aiming for perfection. Click below to listen now.

Tips to Write an Action Plan

Tasks

ProjectManager can help you build your action plan and then execute it. Collect all your action steps tasks on our list view, which does more than light-weight to-do list apps. Unlike them, we can prioritize action items, customize tags and show the percentage complete for each task. Our cloud-based project management software gives you real-time data to help you create an action plan and stick to it.

Note Phases and Assignments

It’s important to note all the phases of the project timeline to know what action steps and tasks will take place, and when. You’ll also want to set roles and responsibilities to ensure the work is carried out properly.

Track Progress

Once you start the project, you’ll need to chart the progress of the work being done. This leads us to the timeline, where you’ll have a start and due date for each of your tasks, as well as how long you plan for it to take, so you can use this as a baseline and make sure you’re staying on target. You can make your project timeline on a Gantt chart.

Note Resources

Finally, your action plan will list resources. Who is responsible for which task, and what materials are involved? What are those costs? You also should have a section in the action plan for notes that don’t fall into any of the other categories. ProjectManager has resource management features that allow you to allocate resources for each action step and task of your action plan.

How ProjectManager Can Help Your Action Plan

If you’re looking to make an action plan and then take action on it by executing, monitoring and reporting on a project, then you’ll want ProjectManager. Our cloud-based project management software can import your action plan into an online Gantt chart. Now you can organize your tasks, link dependencies and set milestones. More than that you can filter for the critical path. When you’re done scheduling, set the baseline. This allows you to always see the planned versus actual progress of your project to help you stay on track. Try our tool for free today.

From there you can assign tasks and give teams a collaborative platform to comment and share relevant documents. Dependent tasks can be linked to avoiding bottlenecks, and when things change, the schedule can be easily edited by simply dragging and dropping start and end dates.

Source:

https://www.betterup.com/blog/how-to-create-a-work-plan
https://www.verywellmind.com/how-to-make-a-life-plan-first-steps-3144639
https://www.projectmanager.com/training/make-action-plan

When and How to Follow Up After an Interview

Jobseekers often have a hard time deciding the best way to follow up after an interview. Once it’s over, you’re instantly waiting for feedback. When you are eager to hear about a new opportunity, it can be frustrating to wait, but sometimes the interview process takes a lot longer than you’d like.

The employer has to interview all the suitable candidates, which might take a few weeks since this depends on the availability of both the applicants and everyone who will interview them. To keep your expectations in check, it’s always a good idea to ask the interviewer about their timeline for deciding on a candidate before you leave the interview room. This way you’ll know when it’s appropriate to follow up after an interview.

Post-interview thank you email

For a standard thank-you email, you don’t need to say much beyond your expression of gratitude and continued interest. If you feel motivated to do so, you can mention things that stuck out to you from the conversation or aspects that you’re excited to continue learning about, but there’s no need to rehash your interview if you don’t have anything to add to the conversation, such as a reaction, how you feel, something you later remembered, or additional questions directly related to your conversation.

Post-interview thank you email sample

Thank you for taking the time to talk about the marketing coordinator position earlier today. It was great connecting with you and learning more about who you’re looking for and the company culture.

I remain interested in the role and am excited to continue showing you what I can offer. Please let me know if there is anything else I can send to enhance my application. Otherwise, I am looking forward to hearing from you in the coming week.

Tip: Add a personal touch to your thank-you email by referencing something you and your interviewer bonded over during your conversation. Maybe you had a hobby in common or they revealed something about their life outside of work. Briefly mentioning that detail can help reinforce the relationship and show that you were listening.

What About Physical Follow-Up Letters?

You may have heard stories of people who have skipped the standard interview follow-up email template and instead sent a personalized piece of snail mail. A personal letter, possibly on your very own stationary, has a certain old-school charm. But that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.

Unless you have a pre-existing relationship with the interviewer, then we actually don’t recommend taking this additional step. There’s a chance the interviewer could appreciate the gesture, but there’s an equal chance they’ll see it as overeager.

Sure, you may have seen TikToks or viral videos about creative job applications (did you see the one where an applicant sent their resume in a box of donuts?), but usually these ideas are too clever by half.

Resource:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/when-how-follow-up-after-interview-margaret-buj
https://www.coursera.org/articles/follow-up-email-after-interview
https://spy.com/articles/lifestyle/personal-finance/follow-up-email-after-interview-1202864816/

How to Create an Ebook In 8 Steps (2022 Beginner’s Guide)

Whichever you choose, make sure it resonates with your clients and potential customers. The main idea behind offering an ebook is to give value and solve a problem. The subscribers you gain are also great of course.

Knowing your audience will also make the content creation process much easier. Direct the text to your ideal client. Use the language your clients use so they can grasp the information quickly.

The title must be attention-grabbing, informative and should encompass the topic completely. Avoid using obscure metaphors or contrived wording. Readers must know what they are getting from your ebook before they download it.

Step #2: Organize Your Content

Before designing your ebook, it’s best to organize your content into sections. A great ebook will have a table of contents with descriptive titles for each section. These should use just a few words, the right amount for each topic to be clear.

Take notes on sections which could be well suited to use as captions or quotes. These can break up long blocks of text in a visual way, helping the reader skim the content before reading.

Edit and proofread all your text. Grammar mistakes and typos will make content seem unprofessional even if well written. Use online editors like Grammarly, Hemingway or Prowritingaid for help.

Make sure that you’ve really thought out your page layout before you hop into a designer, especially when considering the mobile devices your ebook will be read on, whether Android or Apple smartphones, ereaders, an iPad or something else.

Step #3: Organize Your Content

Organizing your ebook content in a way that is easy to read and understand gives an extra incentive to the reader to continue reading. To do this effectively, you need to think about all sections of your ebook thoroughly.

Main Body: the in-between sections are your key chapters in which you will explore the topic further. If you are writing about yoga practice, for example, you will need to explain what yoga is, the benefits of yoga, how the reader can practice yoga and what are the different yoga styles etc.:

Treat each chapter as a separate blog post so that you give them the appropriate amount of focus in context. Make sure that they connect well to one another and that the flow is smooth.

Conclusion: the closing section of your ebook needs to lead to a certain conclusion or results, and should always prompt the reader to carry out a task, e.g. visiting your page through a call to action (more on this later on).

To get these effectively on a Word document, we would recommend using Microsoft Word or Google Docs. When it comes to producing content and giving it structure, it is the easiest and most cost-effective tool to use.

Think of your ebook as a collection of blog posts bundled together. It should have a character and convey whatever needs to be conveyed without adding unnecessary details or unnecessary information.

Step #4: Design Your Ebook

All these tools have free ebook templates you can choose from. Simply follow the steps each tool describes to customize the design of the ebook to your needs and preferences.
In this article, we will demonstrate how to create an ebook with Canva.

In the example above, you will notice that we changed the background color of the original template, the color of the text in the title and its font – from League Gothic to Anton.

The key here is that your customization options are saved and so you get to remove or add any other elements that you want to have in your page e.g. stock photos or behind-the-scenes pictures, or any other visuals like infographics, direct quotes, statistical data etc., that can bring out the result you are hoping to get.

Before you finish designing your ebook, make sure that your ebook will be accessible on smartphones – Android or iPhone, tablets – iPad or Surface, desktop and laptops – Windows or Mac, and popular e-readers – Kindle, Nook or Kobo.

How long should eBooks be?

There is no perfect eBook word count or page length. It all depends on the audience and subject. Generally, as long as it completely covers the chosen topic and successfully educates readers, there is no reason to worry about the length. If you can write a reasonably short eBook that covers the details you need the better off you are. Be concise and to the point.

Get Your eBook Proofread

Next you want to have your eBook read by someone that is not afraid to give you constructive criticism. Ideally, this should be a competent editor or a qualified person in your field, someone who can give you honest feedback about your writing style and the execution of your ideas. Check out some of our proofreading tips.

Before you share your eBook use online proofreading tools like Grammarly to get rid of all the spelling and grammar mistakes. That way your proof-reader/editor can concentrate on whether the content solves the problems you are addressing and verifies that the thought process is logical with a consistent flow.

Step 3: Choose the Right Ebook Format

Until recently, PDFs were the preferred format for delivering ebooks , and they’re still pretty popular. That’s because they’re easy to create and worked well on any PC platform. Of course, not all PDFs work well on all devices. And when a PDF doesn’t resize or reflow correctly, then readers can have a pretty poor experience . That’s something you definitely want to avoid.

Amazon dominates the e-reader space which is why it’s important to offer the Kindle format. With the right tool (we’ll get to that in a minute) creating a Kindle ebook can be a one-click process, and even simpler than creating it via Amazon itself. So ideally, you’ll make your ebook available in the .MOBI format that’s compatible with Kindles .

Of course, there ARE other e-readers out there, and they don’t use the Kindle -compatible format. To make sure people using those e-readers can access your lead magnet ebook , you’ll need to supply the . EPUB format.

And for mobile users, the flipbook is a great option that’ looks great, is fully interactive, and is easy to use. Plus, if you care about those things, it uses HTML5 and is fully compliant with the latest web standards.

• PDF: The “PDF” extension stands for “Portable Document Format,” which is better tailored to eBooks that are intended to be read on a device (digital advertisers, you’ll want to note this one).

• EPUB: This file class stands for “Electronic Publication,” which is more versatile in eBook formats. By that I mean, EPUB eBooks can ‘reflow’ their content so that it can be tailored on various mobile devices and tablets. This is called agnostic layout, meaning that the size of the screen does not influence formatting. They are especially useful for viewing on smaller screens.

• MOBI: The MOBI format emerged from the Mobipocket Reader program that was acquired by Amazon in 2005 but was later shut down in 2016. However, the MOBI file extension is still a common eBook format with consistency across major e-readers. This format is minimal and supports bookmarks, notes, corrections, and JavaScript. Although this format has certain drawbacks, such as not allowing audio or video, it does support DRM, which prevents proprietary content from being reproduced for sale or accessed unlawfully.

• AZW: This is an eBook file form built for Kindle, an Amazon e-reader product. AZW files first rolled out to Kindle users in 2007; based on the MOBI file format that Amazon acquired in 2005. While AZW files are based on MOBI, they contain better compression than MOBI files and can be used on Amazon Kindle or a tablet with Kindle apps.

• ODF: It stands for “OpenDocument Format,” a file type specifically designed for OpenOffice, a series of open-source content development applications similar to Microsoft Office.

• IBA: This is the proprietary eBook format of the Apple iBooks Author app. IBA files also have the option to convert to the IBOOKS format so that they can be imported directly to devices like the iPad and exchanged directly with others. This format supports video, voice, pictures, and interactive functionality, but is only used for books published in iBooks authors. This is not consistent with other e-readers.

Step 4: Choose Your Ebook Creation Software

The next important step is to choose your ebook creation software. Believe us, the software you choose makes a huge difference to how easy it is to create a content upgrade or lead magnet. Here are some of the features to look for.

Seamless Content Import

First, you’ll want to choose ebook design software that makes it easy for you to import the content you have or create. Ideally, you’ll be able to create an ebook from a Word document , from HTML or, to make ebook creation really quick, an URL .

Pro Tips for Using Designrr For Ebook Creation

Second, Designrr stores version history . This makes it easy to go back to a previous design if you really mess things up (though it’s so simple, we’re pretty sure you won’t.) To find this, go to your dashboard, and check out the project menu where it says restore.

Q. What is Designrr?

Designrr is an eBook software that imports existing content from various sources to create an eBook. It is easy to use and has over 100 professionally designed templates to choose from. Use the drag and drop editor to style your eBook and add elements like CTAs, images, and shapes. Download the finished eBook and share with your audience.

Q. Why Designrr is the best eBook software?

If you’re looking for a software to create your eBooks, Designrr is the best option due to its ability to import almost any content. You can import blog posts, podcasts, videos, and PDFs, or even combine sources to create your eBooks. Whether you are creating an eBook for lead generation or selling it on Amazon, Designrr simplifies the process for you.

Source:

https://visme.co/blog/how-to-make-an-ebook/
https://www.learnworlds.com/how-to-create-an-ebook/
https://designrr.io/how-to-make-an-ebook-in-5-steps-without-breaking-a-sweat/

We can see that the search for the topic “low lactose cheese” exceeds the “vegan dairy” topic by almost 300% in the US. Also, uncovering that parent topic gave us 879 potential keyword ideas (some of them have even higher search volume, like “lactose free cheese”).

What is the role of market research in a marketing strategy?

The key word in the above definition is “game plan”. Entering a market with a product is like starting a new game. Since you’re new to the game, you don’t know the rules, and you don’t know who you’re playing against.

This is exactly where market research comes in. Market research allows you to discover the rules of the marketing game by understanding your target audience. Moreover, it allows you to understand who your opponent is by assessing the strengths and weaknesses of your competition.

(…) it cannot be assumed that market research is an exact science, as it would be unrealistic and unreasonable to expect market researchers to predict the precise demand for a new concept, given that there are numerous variables that can impact demand outside of the market researchers’ remit.

That’s why market research with all of its significance is “only” a part of marketing, and it’s “only” an experiment. It’s up to you whether you will conduct your experiment, and when you will end it.

For example, Crystal Pepsi seemed very promising in the market research phase, yet it failed when released onto the market (a similar thing happened to New Coke). Xerox’s idea for a commercial photocopier was a no-go in the eyes of research analysts; Xerox did it anyway, and the rest is history.

When should you conduct market research?

For example, launching a new car on the market is quite a big event, right? So maybe Ford could have avoided losing 350 million dollars with the Ford Edsel if they had done their research properly. I mean, with the right methods in place it shouldn’t be that hard to predict that consumers will deem the car overpriced and ugly.

That said, market research doesn’t always have to be a large, complex project. The relatively new trend of agile market research allows you to research the market regularly and in a cost-effective way. This is where you employ bite-size, iterative, and evolutionary methods to react to fast-changing circumstances and adapt to unknown market territories.

Furthermore, if you’re working in startup conditions, especially if you’re developing an innovative product, you may be interested in customer development. In this methodology market research is at its “agilest” and it’s tightly woven into the product development process.

Take Ahrefs for example. We stick to agile market research hacks anyone can use. As you will see later in the article, we use simple (but effective!) stuff like social media polls, crowdsourcing, in-house competitive analysis, or just tracking the pricing of our competitors.

How Market Research Gathers Information

Market research consists of a combination of primary information, or what has been gathered by the company or by a person hired by the company, and secondary information, or what has been gathered by an outside source.

Primary Information

Primary information is the data that the company has collected directly or that has been collected by a person or business hired to conduct the research. This type of information generally falls into two categories: exploratory and specific research.

Exploratory research is a less structured option and functions via more open-ended questions, and it results in questions or issues being presented that the company may need to address. Specific research finds answers to previously identified issues that are often brought to attention through exploratory research.

Secondary Information

Secondary information is data that an outside entity has already gathered. This can include population information from government census data, trade association research reports, or presented research from another business operating within the same market sector.

Three key objectives of market research

• Valuable information: It provides information and opportunities about the value of existing and new products, thus, helping businesses plan and strategize accordingly.
• Customer-centric: It helps to determine what the customers need and want. Marketing is customer-centric and understanding the customers and their needs will help businesses design products or services that best suit them.
• Forecasts: By understanding the needs of customers, businesses can also forecast their production and sales. Market research also helps in determining optimum inventory stock.
• Competitive advantage: To stay ahead of competitors market research is a vital tool to carry out comparative studies. Businesses can devise business strategies that can help them stay ahead of their competitors.

Whether an organization or business wishes to know purchase behavior of consumers or the likelihood of consumers paying a certain cost for a product, market research helps in drawing meaningful conclusions.

1. Primary Market Research (A combination of both Qualitative and Quantitative Research): Primary market research is a process, where organizations or businesses get in touch with the end consumers or employ a third party to carry out relevant studies to collect data. The data collected can be qualitative data (non-numerical data) or quantitative data (numerical or statistical data).

While conducting primary market research, one can gather two types of information: Exploratory and Specific. Exploratory research is open ended, where a problem is explored by asking open ended questions in a detailed interview format usually with a small group of people also known as sample. Here the sample size is restricted to 6-10 members. Specific research, on the other hand, is more pinpointed and is used to solve the problems that are identified by exploratory research.

As mentioned earlier primary market research is a combination of qualitative market research and quantitative market research. Qualitative market research study involves semi-structured or unstructured data collected through some of the commonly used qualitative research methods like:

Focus groups : Focus group is one of the commonly used qualitative research methods. Focus group is a small group of people (6-10) who typically respond to online surveys sent to them. The best part about focus group is the information can be collected remotely, can be done without personally interacting with the group members. However, this is a more expensive method as it is used to collect complex information.

One-to-one interview: As the name suggests this method involves personal interaction in the form of an interview, where the researcher asks a series of questions to collect information or data from the respondents. The questions are mostly open ended questions and asked in a way to facilitate responses. This method is heavily dependent on the ability and experience of the interviewer to ask questions that evoke responses.

Ethnographic research : This type of in-depth research is conducted in the natural settings of the respondents. This method requires the interviewer to adapt himself/herself to the natural environment of the respondents which could be a city or a remote village. Geographical constraints can be a hindering factor in conducting this kind of research. Ethnographic research can last from a few days to a few years.

This method was once conducted using pen and paper. This has now evolved to sending structured online surveys to the respondents to gain actionable insights. Researchers tend to use modern and technology-oriented survey platforms to structure and design their survey to evoke maximum response from respondents.

2. Secondary Market Research: Secondary research uses information that is organized by outside source like government agencies, media, chambers of commerce etc. This information is published in newspaper, magazines, books, company website, free government and nongovernment agencies and so on. Secondary source makes use of the following:

Public sources: Public sources like library are an awesome way of gathering free information. Government libraries usually offer services free of cost and a researcher can document available information.

Educational Institutions: Although not a very popular source of collecting information, most universities and educational institutions are a rich source of information as many research projects are carried out there than any business sector.

Steps for conducting Market Research

Knowing what to do in various situations that arise during the investigation will save the researcher’s time and reduce problems. Today’s successful enterprises use powerful market research survey software that helps them conduct comprehensive research under a unified platform and hence provide actionable insights much faster with fewer problems.

Sources:

https://ahrefs.com/blog/market-research/
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/market-research.asp
https://www.questionpro.com/blog/what-is-market-research/
Market research

A market study is the proactive analysis of market demand for a product or service. A market study looks at all of the factors involved in the market that influence the demand for that product or service. This includes price, location, competition, substitutes, and general economic activity.

What Is the Role of Market Research?

While market research involves analyzing analytics data, it’s more than simply tracking numbers like traffic volume or what items customers purchase. Market research goes one step further by attempting to uncover the “why” behind the numbers. We want to understand why customers connect on an emotional level.

• Before launching a new business or venture — Initial market research is important before making investments in new businesses or ventures. It’ll help you uncover competing products, pricing structures, and marketing efforts.
• Before entering new markets — It’s crucial to understand your potential customers in new markets. Economic shifts, emerging trends, and cultural values differ from place to place. Market research can help you avoid costly mistakes.
• Before developing or launching new products or services — As your company grows, you’ll likely roll out new products and/or services. You’ll want to understand the market conditions before making any big moves.
• After any of the above — After launching a new business, entering new markets, or releasing new products or services, make plans to conduct a follow-up round of research. This will help you determine what’s working and what needs work.

What Are the Different Types of Market Research?

When you’re ready to begin research, start considering what insights you’re looking for. Are you trying to understand your competitors? Do you want to better market your products? Looking to address a customer pain point?

Primary Market Research

Primary market research is completed “in house” through your own efforts. Conducting primary research allows you to tailor your research to your specific products and services. It gives you the highest level of control over research quality.

Secondary Market Research

With secondary sources that know how to do proper market research, you’ll usually receive a macro level view of your industry and insights about other competitors in the market. Just be sure the data and insights are valid, accurate, and reliable.

How Market Research Gathers Information

Market research consists of a combination of primary information, or what has been gathered by the company or by a person hired by the company, and secondary information, or what has been gathered by an outside source.

Primary Information

Primary information is the data that the company has collected directly or that has been collected by a person or business hired to conduct the research. This type of information generally falls into two categories: exploratory and specific research.

Exploratory research is a less structured option and functions via more open-ended questions, and it results in questions or issues being presented that the company may need to address. Specific research finds answers to previously identified issues that are often brought to attention through exploratory research.

Secondary Information

Secondary information is data that an outside entity has already gathered. This can include population information from government census data, trade association research reports, or presented research from another business operating within the same market sector.

Example of Market Research

For example, a company that was considering going into business might conduct market research to test the viability of its product or service. If the market research confirms consumer interest, the business can proceed confidently with the business plan. If not, the company should use the results of the market research to make adjustments to the product to bring it in line with customer desires.

Formal market research began in Germany during the 1920s. Around the same time, market research in the United States took off during the advertising boom of the Golden Age of Radio. Companies that advertised on the radio began to understand the demographics that were revealed by how different radio shows were sponsored.

Face-to-Face Interviews

From there, companies were developed that would interview people on the street about publications that they read and whether they recognized any of the ads or brands within the ads that were published in the magazines or newspapers the interviewer showed them. Data collected from these interviews were compared to the circulation of the publication in order to see how effective those ads were. Market research and surveys were adapted from these early techniques.

Phone Research

Data collection then shifted to the telephone, making face-to-face contact unnecessary. A telephone operator could collect information or organize focus groups—and do so quickly and in a more organized and orderly fashion. This method improved the market research model greatly.

Online Market Research

With people spending more time online, many market research activities have shifted online as well. While the platform may have changed, data collection is still mainly done in a survey-style form. But instead of companies actively seeking participants by finding them on the street or by cold calling them on the phone, people can choose to sign up and take surveys and offer opinions when they have time. This makes the process far less intrusive and less rushed since people can do so on their own time and by their own volition.

Three key objectives of market research

• Valuable information: It provides information and opportunities about the value of existing and new products, thus, helping businesses plan and strategize accordingly.
• Customer-centric: It helps to determine what the customers need and want. Marketing is customer-centric and understanding the customers and their needs will help businesses design products or services that best suit them.
• Forecasts: By understanding the needs of customers, businesses can also forecast their production and sales. Market research also helps in determining optimum inventory stock.
• Competitive advantage: To stay ahead of competitors market research is a vital tool to carry out comparative studies. Businesses can devise business strategies that can help them stay ahead of their competitors.

Whether an organization or business wishes to know purchase behavior of consumers or the likelihood of consumers paying a certain cost for a product, market research helps in drawing meaningful conclusions.

1. Primary Market Research (A combination of both Qualitative and Quantitative Research): Primary market research is a process, where organizations or businesses get in touch with the end consumers or employ a third party to carry out relevant studies to collect data. The data collected can be qualitative data (non-numerical data) or quantitative data (numerical or statistical data).

While conducting primary market research, one can gather two types of information: Exploratory and Specific. Exploratory research is open ended, where a problem is explored by asking open ended questions in a detailed interview format usually with a small group of people also known as sample. Here the sample size is restricted to 6-10 members. Specific research, on the other hand, is more pinpointed and is used to solve the problems that are identified by exploratory research.

As mentioned earlier primary market research is a combination of qualitative market research and quantitative market research. Qualitative market research study involves semi-structured or unstructured data collected through some of the commonly used qualitative research methods like:

Focus groups : Focus group is one of the commonly used qualitative research methods. Focus group is a small group of people (6-10) who typically respond to online surveys sent to them. The best part about focus group is the information can be collected remotely, can be done without personally interacting with the group members. However, this is a more expensive method as it is used to collect complex information.

One-to-one interview: As the name suggests this method involves personal interaction in the form of an interview, where the researcher asks a series of questions to collect information or data from the respondents. The questions are mostly open ended questions and asked in a way to facilitate responses. This method is heavily dependent on the ability and experience of the interviewer to ask questions that evoke responses.

Ethnographic research : This type of in-depth research is conducted in the natural settings of the respondents. This method requires the interviewer to adapt himself/herself to the natural environment of the respondents which could be a city or a remote village. Geographical constraints can be a hindering factor in conducting this kind of research. Ethnographic research can last from a few days to a few years.

This method was once conducted using pen and paper. This has now evolved to sending structured online surveys to the respondents to gain actionable insights. Researchers tend to use modern and technology-oriented survey platforms to structure and design their survey to evoke maximum response from respondents.

2. Secondary Market Research: Secondary research uses information that is organized by outside source like government agencies, media, chambers of commerce etc. This information is published in newspaper, magazines, books, company website, free government and nongovernment agencies and so on. Secondary source makes use of the following:

Public sources: Public sources like library are an awesome way of gathering free information. Government libraries usually offer services free of cost and a researcher can document available information.

Educational Institutions: Although not a very popular source of collecting information, most universities and educational institutions are a rich source of information as many research projects are carried out there than any business sector.

Steps for conducting Market Research

Knowing what to do in various situations that arise during the investigation will save the researcher’s time and reduce problems. Today’s successful enterprises use powerful market research survey software that helps them conduct comprehensive research under a unified platform and hence provide actionable insights much faster with fewer problems.

Authorship:

https://www.semrush.com/blog/market-research-guide/
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/market-research.asp
https://www.questionpro.com/blog/what-is-market-research/

A Buyer, or Purchasing Agent, is responsible for purchasing materials, supplies or equipment for a business. Their duties include negotiating deals with suppliers, researching possible item selections and taking inventory of current products.

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What does a Buyer do?

Buyers work for offices or retail stores purchasing products and supplies for a business to either resell or use in the office. They take inventory or work with executives to determine which products the business needs. They’ll then conduct research to find the best product within the company’s budget. Buyers will negotiate a price with the suppliers, track the order’s progress after purchasing it, then add this item to their inventory. Some Buyers who work in offices meet with several departments to determine their supply needs and will make the necessary purchases to help the office remain productive and efficient.

Typically, many large corporate retailers require Buyers to have at least a bachelor’s degree in business, accounting or a related field. Buyers may also elect to pursue a graduate degree such as an MBA (master’s degree in business administration) to further their qualifications and advancement opportunities. To be competitive, Buyer candidates could have a Certified Professional in Supply Management (CPSM) or related certification.

Education

Purchasing managers, buyers, and purchasing agents typically need a bachelor’s degree. Programs vary but may include fields of study such as military technologies. Purchasing managers also need 5 or more years of work experience in procurement.

Educational requirements for buyers and purchasing agents usually vary with the size of the organization. Although a high school diploma may be enough at some organizations, many businesses require applicants to have a bachelor’s degree. For many positions, a degree in business, finance, or supply management is sufficient. For positions as a buyer or purchasing agent of farm products, a degree in agriculture, agriculture production, or animal science may be beneficial.

Training

Buyers and purchasing agents typically get on-the-job training for a few months. During this time, they learn how to perform their basic duties, including monitoring inventory levels and negotiating with suppliers.

Licenses, Certifications, and Registrations

The American Purchasing Society offers the Certified Purchasing Professional (CPP) certification. The CPP certification is valid for 5 years. Candidates must earn a certain number of professional development “points” to renew their certification. Candidates initially become eligible and can renew their certification through a combination of purchasing-related experience, education, and professional contributions (such as published articles or delivered speeches).

The Association for Supply Chain Management offers the Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) credential. Applicants must have 3 years of relevant business experience or a bachelor’s degree in order to be eligible for the CSCP credential. The credential is valid for 5 years. Candidates must also earn a certain number of professional development points to renew their certification.

The Next Level Purchasing Association offers the Senior Professional in Supply Management (SPSM) certification. Although there are no education or work experience requirements, applicants must complete six online courses and pass an SPSM exam. Certification is valid for 4 years. Candidates must complete 32 continuing education hours in procurement-related topics to recertify for an additional 4-year period.

The Universal Public Procurement Certification Council (UPPCC) offers two certifications for workers in federal, state, and local government. The Certified Professional Public Buyer (CPPB) credential requires applicants to have earned at least an associate’s degree, possess at least 3 years of public procurement experience, and complete relevant training courses. The Certified Public Purchasing Officer (CPPO) requires applicants to have earned a bachelor’s degree, possess at least 5 years of public procurement experience, and complete additional training courses.

Work Experience in a Related Occupation

Purchasing managers typically must have at least 5 years of experience as a buyer or purchasing agent. At the top levels, purchasing manager duties may overlap with other management functions, such as production, planning, logistics, and marketing.

Advancement

Important Qualities

Analytical skills. When evaluating suppliers, purchasing managers and buyers and purchasing agents must analyze their options and choose a supplier with the best combination of price, quality, delivery, or service.

Math skills. Purchasing managers and buyers and purchasing agents must possess math skills. They must be able to compare prices from different suppliers to ensure that their organization is getting the best deal.

Negotiating skills. Purchasing managers and buyers and purchasing agents often must negotiate the terms of a contract with a supplier. Interpersonal skills and self-confidence, in addition to knowledge of the product, can help lead to successful negotiations.

Sources:

https://www.tradewheel.com/buyers/
https://www.indeed.com/hire/job-description/buyer
https://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/purchasing-managers-buyers-and-purchasing-agents.htm