Author: Franz Malten Buemann

In order for your eCommerce business to thrive, you need to sell products. But you can’t sell products if consumers can’t see what they’re buying.  It’s one thing to provide product images, but if your images are low-quality or don’t do a great job of depicting the product, then no one will be buying that…
The post How to Create Top-Notch Product Images for Your eCommerce Store appeared first on Benchmark Email.

Fall in soldier… you take point submitted by /u/GirlsGoneRowdy [link] [comments]

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Hey all, As a small business owner, I am interested to know what are the biggest problems you face in your content marketing efforts. For example, finding the time to deliver content marketing, resource and budget etc. Any responses are much appreciated! submitted by /u/Morgan0217 [link] [comments]

Many creatives become business owners because they want to bring their ideas to life in the world. The problem is we can get stuck in our own heads and end up developing products and services that we think are brilliant, only to put them on the market and find that nobody wants them. In addition to being the co-founder of Caeli—a slow-living brand that helps people feel more relaxed and inspired in their homes—I am a certified business design consultant who helps other founders avoid this trap. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, business design is a process through which you thoughtfully design new businesses right alongside your customers. It can be used to ensure you’re releasing something they’re truly excited about, pricing products correctly, and marketing in the most effective way possible, essentially de-risking the aspects of a business launch.Thanks to the process of business design, within six months of launching Caeli’s Evening Rituals Meditation Box, the product is already in ten retail stores and has become our best-seller—without us spending a dime on marketing.Below, I’m going to walk you through how my team developed this product, step by step. Follow the process next time you’re developing a new product, launching a new service, or making any business decision, and you’ll be guided to the right path by the very people you’re here to serve: your customers.1. We learned about customer needs before we even started brainstormingThe impetus for the Evening Rituals Box came at the start of the pandemic when we noticed the levels of anxiety in our friends and customers skyrocketing. As a slow-living brand with a focus on wellness, we felt we were in a position to help. I already had plenty of ideas spinning in my mind, the forerunner being a kit that would help people develop a morning ritual to start their day off on a grounded, relaxed note. But, instead of diving straight into product development, we started with customer research. We posted on our Instagram that we were looking for people to help us with developing a new product, outlining exactly what would be required of them and offering incentives in return: a 20€ (about $22) gift card, ten percent off the site for a year, and free product. We had anyone interested fill out a survey to apply with questions related to their experience with slow living, their current wellness practices, the challenges they currently face when it comes to slowing down, and some demographic data. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Caeli | Slow Homewares, Art & Wellness (@caeli.deco) We chose 12 customers who expressed interest in slow living but were facing significant challenges in practicing it. Some were more advanced than others in terms of their “mindfulness” practice; we selected a range to be able to compare the needs of different user personas. To kick off the process, I had a 30-minute call with each of them to understand who they were, their current practices, and what was contributing most to their stress.We immediately learned that most of our customers already had some sort of wellness practice in the morning, but were struggling to disconnect and wind down after a long day of working from home. That clued us into the fact that we should instead be developing something for the evening.2. We shared prototypes at every stepWith a clear customer need in mind, we started brainstorming and had lots of ideas. But instead of spending time mulling over the various directions this product could take, we turned to another key aspect of business design to help us out: rapid prototyping. By getting our ideas in front of customers as quickly as possible, we could make decisions based on their feedback. Through our interviews, we learned that our customers loved rituals, so we decided to explore the idea of an evening ritual. We picked an idea to start with—a box that would pair incense with music to help customers relax or reconnect with themselves—and got to work on creating something we could put in front of customers. I’m not even talking about a sample box at this point: We kept things really simple to start by creating a digital prototype.This essentially amounted to some mock Facebook and Instagram ads that showed a sample picture of the product along with a short description of the value proposition. We wanted it to feel real enough that customers could imagine it was a product they were considering buying, without us having to put a lot of time or effort into development before we verified the idea was interesting to them. We sent this along with a short survey with questions like:How would you describe the product or service?Who do you think it is for? Who is it not for?Is there something that appeals to you?What are you unsure about? What could make it better?Which of the two ads resonates more with you? Why?One of our main doubts was that people would perceive incense as something that was too “hippie” and wouldn’t be open to using it. This digital prototyping step helped verify that customers were willing to try a more modern take on incense, so we felt confident moving onto the next stage: building a physical prototype.3. We asked specific questions to help shape the productBy the time we were building out a physical prototype—essentially a sample product—we felt confident in the core direction of our idea. We wanted to use this phase to verify that our idea would help our customers in practice, and then hone every detail to make our product as perfect as possible.We pulled together a draft box with a lot of options so we could get a variety of feedback: every participant would receive five different incense smells from two different brands (in total we were testing 12 smells), with QR codes to three guided meditations of varying styles, and two different music selections. We asked our test customers to use these for about a month and keep a diary of their experience, experimenting with the different smells and sounds and sharing how they felt after. Then, I had another call with them to dig into all their thoughts.We learned a lot. We learned what kind of scents they liked and didn’t like. We learned that the meditations had to be around ten minutes or else people wouldn’t use them regularly and build a real ritual. We learned what styles of meditation people connected with (and which they hated). We learned that they loved the glass tubes and valued our eco-friendly packaging.Most importantly, we learned that the box was achieving our goal of helping them create a daily habit of slowing down. Before we started developing the final box, we just had one more thing to verify with our customers…4. We used this process to inform everything from pricing to positioning Business design can be used for all sorts of things outside of core product development (you are actually designing the whole business!). For instance, the last survey we sent to our customer testers was about how much they would be willing to pay for the box. This helped us verify that we could make a profit from this product before we invested in manufacturing it.We also used the data we collected during user interviews to create customer personas and help us determine the best positioning. For instance, we had two customers who hated the prototype. We had enough other participants who loved it that this didn’t turn us off from launching it entirely, but instead helped us identify the types of people the box was and wasn’t a good fit for. Common questions or doubts that customers had during the testing phase also helped inform our marketing copy, allowing us to alleviate those up front. For instance, we still had some customers who weren’t sure if they would like incense, so we made sure to frame our product as modern incense and encourage buyers to put their past perceptions aside. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Caeli | Slow Homewares, Art & Wellness (@caeli.deco) And the business design process never stops. We’re still using it as we test various sales channels, comparing selling in places like yoga studios to more high-end, concept boutiques to see what works best, and even to think about ways we could improve the product.Ultimately, it’s about always looking for ways to quickly test, learn as much as you can from your customers, and constantly analyze so you can move forward with confidence that your idea will truly create an experience beyond their expectations.Business design could seem like a bit of extra work, but taking this approach can help you avoid costly mistakes and ensure your product or service meets your customer’s needs. And the results speak for themselves — after launching the Evening Rituals Box in September, our Q4 revenue jumped up 195 percent compared to the previous year. I’ll take that over going with my gut on business decisions any day.

Artificial intelligence is being introduced to more users every day — using it to shuffle through music, write strategic plans, make images or art, and improve our lives and business.
But many people don’t entirely trust it. Lack of transparency and discrepancies in results could prevent the tech from improving, and the implementation of an AI ethical framework can reform that.

In this post, we’ll discuss AI ethics and how ethical decision-making can improve the technology. But if you’re in a pinch, jump to the information you need.

What are AI ethics?
Why are AI ethics important?
Biggest AI Ethical Concerns
Benefits of Ethical AI

It’s a system that AI developers should have in place to serve people better while minimizing negative consequences. Technology can only be as efficient as it’s built to be and should follow a universal guideline to benefit its user base.

Why are AI ethics important?
The use of ethics in AI is essential to prevent the misuse of technology. Without an ethical framework behind it, artificial intelligence can result in privacy invasion, unequal bias, and other risks many may not even consider when beginning to use it.
Let’s break down some of the biggest ethical focuses in AI that developers should prioritize as it evolves.

Biggest AI Ethical Concerns
AI is just like any other technological advancement in need of guidelines. Many professionals can already see the consequences of using the tool without moral consideration. HubSpot Product Manager Kevin Walsh and the founder of PR 20/20, Paul Roetzer, sat down to discuss ethical concerns for the future of AI.

Professionals from different backgrounds and industries have much to consider as they incorporate AI into their strategy, and we’ll discuss some of the biggest ethical concerns in AI.
1. Privacy and Security Concerns
We interviewed one of HubSpot’s marketing blog editors, Martina Bretous, to get her perspective on this concern, “It can impact the brand’s credibility but also bring legal ramifications. For content creators and artists, there is a real fear of intellectual property theft. How can I ensure that my content is protected from AI?”
AI is a valuable and time-saving tool, but the information it uses to improve isn’t guaranteed to be protected. The amount of personal data users unknowingly give away for AI solutions isn’t disclosed — and it could be using unauthorized intellectual property to work. Without ethical guidelines, it can lead to data breaches, legal conflict, and other misuses.
2. Social and Environmental Wellbeing Concerns
AI systems can have an impact on individual and environmental well-being. Developers of the technology should clearly outline the objectives of the tech they create to erase ambiguity. Additionally, they should ensure its use is for the benefit of everyone who uses it equally.
3. Reliability Concerns
According to the HubSpot State of AI survey, 30% of marketers don’t use AI because they believe it sometimes produces inaccurate information. Users of artificial intelligence rely on the tech to operate as advertised, but there are valid concerns about whether the results it generates are reliable.
Bretous builds on this point to say, “With AI, there’s no shortage of ethical implications – it just depends on whose lens you’re looking from. For brands, for instance, one ethical dilemma they may have to wrestle with is how they’ll disclose the use of generative AI in their content marketing. Does the audience deserve to know when something – say a blog post – has been AI-generated or should audiences just assume it’s the name of the game now?”
Typically, AI doesn’t disclose the exact sources of information it shares with users — much less a game plan for accident mitigation or investigation when information is false or leaked. To combat these concerns, AI ethics could change these doubts into real plans for beneficial change.

Benefits of Ethical AI
More trustworthiness and privacy protection.
AI ethics can change people’s perception of the technology if it becomes an industry standard to provide transparency and explainable disclosures to its users. Building confidence in the technology will likely increase its use and allow users to understand processes and how data is used.
Avoid unfair bias.
Bretous also said, “From a consumer’s perspective, bias is an incredibly important concern and this is where AI literacy will be key – just because AI said it, doesn’t mean it’s accurate or reliable. This is all to say that we’ve only scratched the surface of what’s possible but also what’s dangerous about AI.”
A benefit of AI ethics is that its use can become fairer. Many AIs have displayed an insensitive or unfair bias for certain individuals or groups using the technology, and adhering to ethical guidelines can help prevent these results. It provides equitable access and representation.
Universal value alignment.
People make decisions by considering universal values, a framework that can be forgotten if not included in artificial intelligence. While AI developers could gradually address individuals’ ethical issues, a universal code of ethics can set the standard for how humans use the technology and how AI evolves according to guidelines.
Ethics in AI are a Must
Just as humans have moral guidelines behind what they do, so should the technology we use. AI will become a standard tool across many industries, and to ensure it’s used equitably and safely, will benefit from ethical guidelines.