KG Information Systems Private Limited [KGiSL] in association with UiPath has announced the launch of ThinkAHack, an RPA specific Hackathon event to happen in January 2019. KGiSL, a leading fintech solutions and services provider catering the global capital market and insurance domains has partnered with UiPath, one of the fastest growing enterprise software companies in history backed by over $400 million in funding. ‘ThinkAHack’ will be a 36-hour RPA Hackathon contest involving continuous research and learning which will see a participation of 1000+ college students and technology enthusiasts with different backgrounds across India.
‘ThinkAHack’ encourages the development of cutting-edge technology and aims at talent identification. The top teams get a total cash price of INR 4,50,000/- and the best 200 participants who demonstrate effective talent and technological innovation will be absorbed into the folds of UiPath and KGiSL. The Winning team gets a cash prize of Rs.2,00,000 and the Runner up team gets Rs. 1,00,000. The next three top teams get a cash prize of Rs.75,000, Rs.50,000 & Rs.25,000 respectively.
The participants who will register for the hackathon will have to go through a UiPath certificate course which will help them familiarize with the UiPath RPA tool that will be used in the Hackathon. Registered members can participate in the Hackathon only after going through the certificate course. The participants do not have to incur any cost for registration or for the certificate course. Registrations will be live on ThinkAHack.
These participants will meet, form groups, brainstorm, discuss, impart ideas and aid each other in developing innovative and smart projects completely based on Robotic Process Automation.
The Hackathon provides a great opportunity for young talents to work with KGiSL and UiPath. ThinkAHack will bring together intelligent minds, who will experience mentorship from Industry Experts specializing in the respective themes/ problem statements. We are planning to facilitate an arena for Hacking, Designing, Tinkering and sharing of ideas aimed at around 1000+ Creative Developers, Designers & Ideators from various backgrounds.
Addressing the gathering Prassadh S Shanmugam, Chief Executive Officer, KGiSL said
RPA has a lot of potential to grow and it is a primary route for organizations to benefit from. We are glad to tie up with UiPath as they deliver the best RPA technology globally and this will provide an opportunity for young talents from India. We will further extend our partnership through the launch of Centre of Excellence [CoE] for Robotic Process Automation [RPA] at the KGiSL campus, Coimbatore.
Dr. Ashok Bakthavathsalam, Managing Director, KGiSL, said
We are happy to launch this hackathon which will help students develop their technological skills by applying their expertise in a creative way and drive innovation. We are also planning to make this an annual program.
During the course of the Hackathon, KGiSL will organize on all aspects of participant management such as, accommodation at the campus, meal, and free kit that includes the Hackathon T-shirt, ID cards, stationery as well as other necessary stuff required for the Hackathon.
Each team will be provided with a system to work on their codes with uninterrupted wi-fi and dedicated mentors will be appointed to clarify any queries of participants before and after registration.
For registrations & other information, please visit ThinkAHack
CloudSEK, an information security risk management SaaS-based start-up, has raised Rs. 14 Crores in its Pre-Series A investment led by Exfinity Venture Partners and StartupXseed. CloudSEK will leverage the freshly raised funds to evolve its flagship product XVigil, a unified risk management platform. The company will also use the funds to expand its footprints in India and South East Asia. After establishing itself as a preferred cybersecurity solution in the financial, e-commerce and transportation sector, CloudSEK now plans to target the pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals and retail industry.
CloudSEK is the brainchild of Rahul Sasi and was founded in 2015 with its headquarter in Singapore and an operational center in Bengaluru, India. CloudSEK, a cybersecurity platform powered by machine learning, entails Rahul’s journey from being a college dropout to becoming a successful tech entrepreneur. Being criticized for dropping out of engineering college and predicted for a career failure, Rahul continued his journey as an ethical hacker and security expert through his successful career. Before co-founding CloudSEK, he has worked with Citrix Systems, one of the biggest names in the software industry.
Commenting on the post-funding plan Sourabh Issar, the CEO, CloudSEK, said
Being a product-only organization, our revenues are primarily generated through license sales. This investment for us is a vote of confidence from some of the eminent architects of the Indian IT Industry. We plan to utilize the funds to develop the existing products and expand our presence in India as well as South East Asia.
CloudSEK offers cybersecurity platform powered by machine learning and promises to build a risk-free digital security ecosystem. X-Vigil, CloudSEK’s SaaS-based flagship product is an outcome of the company’s four years of diligent research and development efforts. Cloudmon, another product by CloudSEK, tracks network and application related security issues associated with the client. The start-up was seed funded in 2015 by M.E. Meeran Foundation, the investment arm of Kochi-based Eastern Group.
The dark web is moving faster than Law Enforcement agencies. The losses due to cyber-related crime, worldwide, is estimated to be upwards of USD 600 Billion. Globally, Cyber Attacks are on the rise and about 500,000+ Cyber Attacks have already been reported in India in 2018.
Many of these attacks are targeted towards BFSI networks, Government Departments and may potentially end up targeting power grids, oil and gas pipelines which have the potential to cripple any economy. With companies increasingly adopting cloud solutions, CloudSEK’s unique non-intrusive solution can detect digital footprint leakages of any enterprise in real-time helping the CSOs to strengthen the Cyber-Defence.
Speaking of its investment, Ravi Thakur, Partner, StartupXseed Ventures said
Technology is redefining the way Risk Management is being practiced and CloudSEK has forayed into that space with applications in Cyber Security. Looking at their product, clientele and growth rate, they have struck the right chord to crack the business. Moreover, what fascinated us is their way of solving the problem which is very effective and scalable at large along with strong team background and execution capabilities.
CloudSEK already includes leading banks, e-commerce and technology organizations in its clientele. Federal Bank, Go-Jek, Bank Bazaar, HDFC Bank and Grab Taxi are in CloudSEK’s client list, five of which are unicorns.
[L-R] Rahul Sasi & Sourabh Issar, Founders of CloudSEK
Talking about the association with CloudSEK, Shalini Warrier, CFO, Federal Bank, said
Federal Bank and CloudSEK have had a relationship since July 2017 and it is a relationship that has grown over the last few months. Cybersecurity is a key risk for the financial services industry and CloudSEK has played an important role in mitigating some of the risks we experience in the fast-changing digital world.
Through this association, we have been successful in unearthing potential points of compromise in our security posture and they have worked with us to address these concerns. Their threat intelligence has been very useful to us. We wish Rahul and CloudSEK the very best in their future endeavors.
Sameer Ratolikar, EVP & CISO of the largest stable Indian Private Sector Bank, while speaking about the relationship with CloudSEK, said
It has been a great experience working with the team at CloudSEK, their focus on building a Machine Learning driven Digital Risk Management platform is commendable.
CloudSEK has been helping organizations by providing them timely, specific and actionable intelligence, thereby preventing digital security infractions. The start-up promises to build a risk-free cyber security ecosystem in Asia. The exclusive gamut of cyber security tools offered by CloudSEK is all set to make India ready for what is being assumed to be the next phase of the digital revolution.
About StartupXseed Ventures
StartupXseed is a Seed-stage VC firm led by bureaucrat-turned-VC investor Mr. B.V. Naidu. It is backed by former Infosys board members Mr. V Balakrishnan and Mr. TV Mohandas Pai, along with Mr. Ramakrishnan [Ex CDO and M&A head – HCL], Mr. Siddhartha Mookerji [Founder – Software Paradigm International] and Mr. Ravi Thakur [Entrepreneur]. It invests from Aaruha Technology Fund, whose focus is Deep Technology Start-ups creating products for B2B Businesses. For more information, visit StartupXseed
About Exfinity Ventures Partners
Exfinity Venture Partners is an early-stage frontier technology fund backing enterprise companies [B2B] in India and across the India-US business corridor. With established connections and ecosystem across India and USA, Exfinity focuses on pioneering startups that are ready to scale across the global stage. Exfinity follows a practitioner-driven Investment approach knowing what it takes to build, scale and list technology companies in India and the USA. For more information, visit Exfinity Venture Partners.
Living life in the fast lane comes with a lot of ups and down. You will face several obstructions and challenges that will make your life difficult. The unpredictability of such events can’t be calculated as they lead to unfavorable twists and turns in life. A personal accident insurance plan ensures that you and your family members get adequate financial help to recover from such tragedies.
Image Source – Forbes
Go through these 5 points to understand the nitty-gritty of personal accident covers-
1.What Is Personal Accident Insurance?
Accidents can occur anytime, anywhere! A personal accident policy is an insurance policy issued to cover the risk of death, permanent disability, partial disability or temporary disability in case of accidents. The insured sum is reimbursed to the policyholder in case of disablement or the family members in case of death.
2.What Does It Cover?
Personal accident insurance policy covers partial/ permanent/ temporary disability and death caused due to the accident. It also includes medical expenses owing to the treatment of accidental injuries caused due to accidents. In short, a personal accident insurance will take care of your financial needs in the hours of need.
3. Benefits
An accident can lead to terrifying catastrophic events in one’s life. If you are the breadwinner of the family, then it will be even more difficult for you and your family to manage in such an untoward situation. The financial stability goes for a toss, and the family members have to go through a lot.
Hence, it is advisable to buy a personal accident cover as it offers a host of benefits –
No Medical Check-ups needed – Personal accident policies do not require medical check-ups for issuance
High Cover – You can avail a good, substantial cover for
Group Discounts – If you opt for group accidents cover, you stand to get discounts from the insurance companies.
Death and Disability Cover – It offers double indemnity for death or disability caused while traveling on public transport
Life Support Benefit – It provides life support benefits as well.
Child Education Benefits – Legal and funeral costs are covered with Child education benefits.
Flexibility – You can opt to buy a personal accident cover for either yourself or for the family.
Safeguard against the Sky-rocketing Healthcare Costs – With healthcare costs rising about 15-18% each year, within the next five years, the cost of hospitalization will be more than twice. This plan will protect you against this inflation.
4. Who Should Buy It?
Everyone, irrespective of the age or gender should buy a personal accident cover. The best time to buy a personal accident plan is the early 20’s of your life – when you start earning and don’t have many liabilities on your shoulder. Even if you meet with an accident, the insurance policy will take care of the best medical treatment and help you recover and get back on your feet.
5. How Much Is Enough?
Human life is precious! Therefore, you cannot estimate the sum insured which can adequately take care of the needs of your family when you are seriously injured or not around. However, according to the traditional approach, one should have a personal insurance cover worth 100 times of their monthly income. The amount is said to be enough to cover hospitalization expenses, medical costs, and other obligations and liabilities in your life. For example – if your monthly income is Rs. 20,000, then you should have a personal accident cover of at least Rs. 20, 00, 000/-.
If you are looking forward to buying a personal accident insurance policy for yourself, then you should research various plans online. Consider going through their benefits, features, terms, and conditions and only then decide to buy. From the information mentioned in the blog, you are fully equipped with the necessary knowledge of personal accident insurance. So, what are you waiting for? Buy a personal accident insurance plan immediately and lead a worry-free and relaxed life. You owe it to yourself as well as your family members!
There is one wave that is catching up slowly catching up in India is the ‘wave of entrepreneurship’. Open any leading newspaper and you would find a separate section on ‘Business & Startups’. This is the kind of change that has been observed since the last couple of years and many Indians are taking the plunge in order to change the world. However, building or scaling a business is not only about the idea, but it revolves a lot around the implementation of the idea. Once you have built a core team, created a Minimum Viable Product [MVP], acquired initial set of customers; your intent would be to take your startup to the next phase i.e. the growth phase.
As an organization scales up, you need to hire the right set of people who are not only technically sound but who also fit into your company’s culture. As a business owner/entrepreneur, your constant focus should be on growth, whilst keeping the burn-rate to the minimum. ‘Outsourcing’ has been used widely by organizations since it helps them reduce the overhead expenses, focus on their core business areas, and utilize the expertise of the ‘outsourcing provider’ in the ‘focus area’ that is outsourced to them.
One department that can remain under-utilized is the Human Resources department and if the HR team does not have the right expertise, there is a possibility that you might end up hiring the wrong people for your organization. Hence, many businesses [irrespective of their scale of operations] partner with staffing solutions in India for their human resource management requirements.
Along with expertise, these staffing companies bring a huge amount of experience & expertise in different aspects related to staffing and hiring. In case you are leading an organization and have a full-time staffing team that is not driving results; you might want to consider the option of outsourcing your staffing activities. Let’s look into some of the advantages of partnering with an experienced staffing-solution company for staffing requirements
1. Focus on Core Business Activities – As an entrepreneur or a business leader, your main focus would be growing the business. While expanding the business, you need to ensure that you are ‘investing your time and money’ in the activities that matter to the organization. In some cases, you may prefer to use a lean or agile approach in running the business since that keep the complexities in running the business to the minimum. When the business expands, you need to prioritize the areas where you want to invest in the company and possibility is that expansion of non-core areas like HR & Finance might impact the investment in the core businesses. Hence, you need to look at the ROI [Return On Investment] of having a resident HR team. In most scenarios, partnering with a staffing company like ManPower Consultants would yield better results and helps you stay focused on things that matter the most in your business.
2. Lower Costs – When your organization has a full-time HR team, you would need to train them about the fundamentals of the business that is being built and the qualities that are required in prospective hires. Building any kind of team is challenging and the same also applies to the HR/Staffing Team. You might need a team to screen candidates, interview them, background verification, etc. and all these skills are readily available in consultants working in staffing companies. Employees in staffing companies also possess necessary negotiation skills along with expertise in HR, Payroll, etc. Hence, engaging with staffing companies definitely has a huge impact on the savings since it helps in minimizing the operational costs in running the organization.
3. Quality Candidates – As an organization, you would not want that a wrong-hire is on boarded since an additional amount of time & money would be spent in getting an ideal replacement. This would increase the overall turn-around time, which could impact the business deliverables. When it comes to hiring, you would always prefer to hit the bullseye at the first instant and for that, you need to hire ‘quality candidates’ for your organization. Placement companies in India have a database of talent pool catering to different domains and this makes spotting the right candidates an easier task.
Staffing companies work very closely with the management team of the partnering organization and hence, they are aware of the qualities that are required in an ideal candidate. This expedites the entire process of hiring, which is critical in today’s changing business scenario.
4. Workforce Flexibility – Business situations are dynamic and hence you do not want any bench-strength as it would add up to the resource-count & also increase your operational costs. The same principle also applies to the Human Resource & Staffing team. Outsourcing your staffing requirements by collaborating with an experienced HR outsourcing company like ManPower Consultants helps you in bringing the necessary flexibility in the hiring/onboarding process i.e. hire contract or temporary workers/employees when there is a business demand and scale down when required. Large organizations also have a significant number of ‘temporary employees’ and an experienced staffing company can be instrumental in hiring these employees.
In case you are looking for a renowned staffing organization to fulfill your company’s hiring needs, do have a look at the work being done by ManpowerGroup Consultants in the fields of contract staffing, management consultancy, etc. How do you hire people, do leave your suggestions in the comments section.
The stock market is an excellent investment option if you want to earn high returns albeit at a higher risk. In India, the number of individuals investing on their own in the stock market has increased. This trend has been particularly increasing since the availability of the online trading and banking services.
To trade in the equity markets, you will need a dematerialization or demat account. This type of account allows you to hold your shares, mutual funds, securities, and other investments in an electronic form. The account is opened with one of the several depository participants (DPs).
A DP acts as an intermediary between you and the depository. In India, there are two depositories, namely Central Depository Services (India) Limited (CDSL) and National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL).
You may open your demat account with any of the DPs. Here are five factors that must be considered when you open such an account.
Brokerage
In addition to the dematerialization account, a trading account to buy and sell the securities is required. The brokerage is the primary source of income for the service providers. It is determined by the frequency of your trades. Therefore, choosing a competitive brokerage if you are going to be an active trader is recommended.
Annual maintenance charges
The DPs levy an annual maintenance charge. It is important you check these charges and negotiate the same prior to opening the account.
Trading platform fees
Most service providers offer their own software that facilitates buy and sell trades on your behalf. While some of these providers levy additional fees others may include it within the overall package. Seeking clarification on such trading platform fees and comparing these among the different service providers before you make your decision is advisable. In addition to the charges, it is crucial you choose a provider that offers an easy-to-understand trading platform.
Background of the service provider
The track record of the broker should be checked for their authenticity, reliability, efficiency, and capabilities. You can always search the Internet for feedback from existing and past account holders to know more about their services. Taking the time to conduct extensive research will help you avoid any difficulties in the future.
Financial institutions
Several reliable and reputed financial institutions offer three-in-one account to attract more customers. These accounts provide you with a complete package of different financial services. You might want to open your demat and trading account with such an institution to make it convenient and simple.
You must have a demat account to trade on the stock market. Most banks and institutions offer such services and conducting your research will help you make an informed decision. It is recommended you do not make a hasty decision that may have severe implications in the future.
An efficient and effective hiring process is one of the main pillars of a successful company. The recruitment team has a difficult job on their hands as they’re responsible for sourcing the future employees of a company. If this process is flawed and they take too much time to find the right candidates, it can incur a substantial cost to the company. You might also lose out on good candidates while your competitors might end up hiring them.
Qualified candidates are always in demand and research has found that they’re usually available for 10 days only. So, your hiring process needs to be quick and effective.
Here are some awesome strategies that will help you speed up your time-to-hire in the best possible ways.
Create a Structured Hiring Process
Not having a structured hiring process can lead to mismanagement and confusion. Candidates won’t get to know what the next step in the hiring process is. This will result in a poor candidate experience which can drive away many qualified candidates.
A documented and streamlined hiring process will help you minimize your time-to-hire as you will know what to do next. Your hiring team needs to be knowledgeable and experienced enough to set up an efficient recruiting process.
Build a Strong Employer Brand
Passive candidates are those who aren’t actively searching for other opportunities but wouldn’t mind considering suitable opportunities if they come up.
Building a strong employer brand can help you attract these passive candidates who constitute 85% of the workforce. This can help you tap into a wider pool of experienced and knowledgeable candidates.
Candidates are likely to be impressed and apply for positions at your company when you have a strong employer brand. You can build a strong employer brand by regularly responding to your online reviews and sharing updates about your work environment and culture.
When you build a strong employer brand, you might become an employer of choice for many applicants. This is likely to bring a steady source of quality candidates to your job openings.
Building consistent and loyal employee is also a great way to attract new talent which enhances the sound work culture in the organization. Time to hire will speed up automatically and you will get what you want for work.
Audit Existing Talent
You need to keep yourself updated about the status of existing candidates in your recruitment database. Internal auditing will save you time and can help you keep better track of candidates who might be looking for jobs. You can even fill out some of your vacant job positions by carefully auditing this talent pool.
If you want to learn more about how can you reduce your time-to-hire, check out the infographic given below
Ray O’Donnell is the Founder & CEO of TotalRewards Software, Inc. and Candidate Rewards. He has been helping companies to find, retain, and engage top talent by bridging the gap between the two. TotalRewards Software, Inc. is available on on LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.
Living in times when the food, air and water are exposed to supreme levels of contamination, the risk of life-threatening health hazards is deemed to be alarmingly high. Stress, sedentary lifestyle, unhealthy dietary habits and severe anxiety are among the key factors that are encouraging chronic health disorders and fatal diseases in people. In a critical time as this, it is imperative to prioritize one’s health before everything for the sake of a secured and independent future. This is where health insurance plays an important role in our lives.
Source – fstoppers
A good health insurance plan will offer protection to you and your family members against the uncertainties that arise due to lack of funds for proper treatment.
What are the popular choices of health insurance in each stage of life?
Primarily there are four different types of health coverage plans that take care of the requirements of the people of different age groups. It is extremely crucial that a person invests in a sound health scheme to avail its benefits at the time of need. The primary focus of people during their peak years in work life should be to protect the resources and income of their loved ones and their own. While in the latter half of their life, their focus should be driven towards planning their life after retirement and ensuring the financial security for the same.
The following are the different types of health insurance classified as per the changing stages of life.
1. Self-employed, small-scale employer and adult
Personal health insurance – This insurance plan includes all the health-related expenses that are usually not covered by a typical provincial or employer insurance plan. This mostly covers areas of personal medication, dental health and other health and wellness oriented-needs. The benefit is payable at the time of meeting the eligible expenses under the claim. Find out if your existing personal health plan is inclusive of cardiovascular ailments or if you need to avail a high cholesterol health insurance plan.
2. Working adult
Disability insurance – This plan intends to replace a portion of your income at a time when you are unable to work because of any form of disability. The benefit is payable when the person is incapable to work as defined under the chosen coverage. Any adult whose lifestyle relies heavily on their constraint income should avail the benefits of disability insurance to safeguard their livelihood even in disability.
3. Children and adult
Critical illness insurance – This insurance is designed with the aim of helping the insurer and their loved ones to meet the expenses of treating a life-threatening disease. The insured can claim the benefits of the policy when they are diagnosed with a critical disease and meet the requirements of the coverage.
The insured avails a sum for meeting their medical treatment. This is not an age-specific insurance plan; both children and adults should get a critical illness insurance coverage to be prepared to meet the uncertainties of life.be two steps ahead of critical illness related to heart by opting for the best of medical insurance plans for high cholesterol today.
4. Middle-aged and older people
Long-term care insurance – This plan is designed to cover your expenses for an extended period of time, especially at an age when one requires other’s assistance due to reduced mental and physical abilities. This can be deemed be as the perfect retirement planning and a step for gaining control over assets. Working class people who are thinking to start their retirement planning should consider this sort of plan for a financially secured life after their retirement from work.
More people are suffering from cardio-vascular diseases these days, why don’t you be prepared for the situation by opting for one of the best medical insurance plans for high cholesterol. Start with an investment in a high cholesterol health insurance plan if you are concerned about your cardiac health.
You can also browse through various health insurance plans online and compare the best ones to find out which plan offers the best and broadest health coverage and at what cost. Consult a trustworthy and qualified insurance advisor to avail the best health insurance scheme that not only suits your finances but also prepares you to meet any health-related emergencies.
Take the case of the following scenario – You are not a married person and obviously, you do not have any kids [Hopefully!]. But for some reason, you receive promotional emails from a vertical e-commerce website during their online shopping festival and guess what; the promotional email contains offers highlighting Baby Products. And to make things worse, the email campaign has zero-personalization and it is quite likely that the same email was sent to all their customers [without taking any personal traits of the customer into consideration]. As per a report, 86% of customers feel that personalization played a major role in their purchase decisions. This is the era of hyper-personalization and marketers have a plethora of information about customers – Age, Sex, Browsing History, Social Media information, Purchasing History, etc. which can be extremely helpful in charting their ‘hyper-personalization marketing’ strategy.
It is of prime importance that when an email campaign is sent to the customer; it is designed well, conveys the relevant information, is personalized, clearly has the ‘Call to Action’ and has a ‘well-designed subject line’ so that the recipient opens the email. To summarize, a sub-standard subject of an email campaign results in low ‘open rate’ and average email content & design results in low ‘Click-Through Rate’. Email marketing companies are also leveraging the power of Machine Learning [ML] & Artificial Intelligence [AI] in order to cater to the hyper-personalization requirement of email marketers. Entrepreneurs Ben Richardson and David Greiner faced a similar problem where they could not find email marketing a tool that could suffice their requirements and that is what made them co-found ‘Campaign Monitor’. ‘Campaign Monitor’ is a global email-marketing company that offers a full range of email solutions to help marketers create meaningful, lasting connections with their audience. ‘Campaign Monitor’ streamlines every part of the email marketing process and the beauty of the product lies in its elegant design & scalability across different verticals.
Campaign Monitor – Overview
Campaign Monitor is an email marketing platform that companies can use to design personalized messages to its customers. Once a campaign is created using ‘Campaign Monitor’, tracking & analytics that is integrated with the dashboard can be used to measure the effectiveness of the campaign. The platform also provides list-management tools in the ‘List & subscribers’ tab where a brand can create segmented lists in order to send ‘personalized email campaigns’ based on the customer’s profile & other important data points about the customers in the list.
Along with personalized email campaigns, Campaign Monitor can also be used to create personalized customer journeys. Campaign Monitor can be integrated with close to 250+ platforms; some of them being Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, SalesForce, etc.
Campaign Monitor – Features
Design customer-centric emails – Once the marketer logs into the Campaign Monitor dashboard, he can use the drag & drop mechanism to create simple, yet beautifully designed emails. Due to the simplicity of the interface, designing email campaigns is a very simple task.
Insights & Analytics – Similar to Google Analytics, ‘Insights’ feature of Campaign Monitor helps in tracking the CTR, open rate, engagement, and geographical coverage of the audience. It also provides analytics through which marketers can improve the performance of a campaign.
Automation Emails – Through the ‘Journey’ feature, a marketer can set up customer journeys as well as RSS campaign to send automated updates from the customer’s website. You can choose the appropriate ‘Industry Vertical’ [Media & Entertainment, Publishing & Digital Media, Retail, Travel & Hospitality, Travel, Hospitality, etc.] and your intent of sending the email campaign. You could send a personalized welcome-email on signup or send an email in order to keep a customer engaged on the platform.
While creating the ‘customer journey’, you should choose the end-goal of the campaign. You could choose from the following options
Drive a series of actions
Drive conversions
Increase email engagement
Smarter Transactional Emails – Transactional emails are triggered by your own site or app, typically in response to a user’s action, such as an order confirmation or a plan renewal. They are some of the most valuable emails a company send but usually, aren’t measured or optimized. ‘New sign-up email’ is an ideal example of a transactional email and is used to welcome a new user. Transactional Email can be created using the Email builder feature and there is also an option to import your own design. This category of email is triggered on demand and you can choose from a portfolio of ‘wide range of designs’. API or SMTP can also be used to send email directly from your site or app.
Campaign Monitor – Email Campaign Creation
Campaign Monitor has a number of templates that can be used for creating an effective email campaign. It has a WYSIWYG editor through which you can design campaigns by using the ‘drag & drop’ facility. The design of the campaigns can be optimized for different mediums namely, desktop, mobile, tablet, etc. There is also an option to import HTML template or HTML design, but you might need certain coding knowledge to use the HTML feature.
A/B Testing or Split Testing is used widely by designers & developers to compare two versions of a web-page and measure the overall performance of the test. Campaign Monitor provides a facility of A/B Testing where a user can create two versions of the same campaign. This also helps in figuring out which design works well and designing a long-term marketing strategy. In a nutshell, Campaign Monitor can be used to send personalized email campaigns and trigger automated workflows based on customer behavior.
Campaign Monitor – Pricing and Third Party API integration
There are three plans of Campaign Monitor – Basic, Unlimited, and Premier. The Basic Plan costs $9/month, Unlimited Plan costs $29/month, and Premier Plan costs $149/month. Below are more details about each plan
Basic Plan [$9/month]
2,500 emails across campaigns and automated emails
Customer support via email
All core email marketing features Use our drag-and-drop email builder and professionally-designed templates to launch completely branded email campaigns.
Insights analytics suite
Basic marketing automation
Unlimited Plan [$29/month]
Unlimited emails across campaigns and automated emails
Priority customer support via email
All core email marketing features
Insights analytics suite
Basic marketing automation
Advanced marketing automation
Unlimited inbox previews
Time zone sending
Unlimited spam testing
Premier Plan [$149/month]
Unlimited emails across campaigns and automated emails
Premier phone and email support
All core email marketing features
Insights analytics suite
Basic marketing automation
Advanced marketing automation
Unlimited inbox previews
Time zone sending
Unlimited spam testing
Send-time optimization
Advanced link tracking
Template management for teams
In case you are using emails occasionally, you can use the ‘Pay per Campaign’ feature of Campaign Monitor. Further details about pricing can be found here.
Campaign Monitor – API Integration
Campaign Monitor has a robust third-party API support and using those APIs, you can connect all your core business apps to meet your unique email marketing and automation needs. You can also integrate the platform with popular Content Management System [CMS], Blog, and other third-party software. Based on the ‘core requirement’ of the email campaign, you can use the third-party APIs from the host of services mentioned below
Account
Campaigns
Lists
Clients
Segments
Subscribers
Templates
Transactional
Webhooks
More details about API integration can be found here.
Campaign Monitor – Conclusion
There are number of companies that provide ’email marketing’, some of them being SendPulse, Moz, LeadsRx, SocialPilot, etc. and each of them have flexible pricing structure & variety of features. Campaign Monitor’s extensive feature-list, attractive pricing strategy, excellent customer-support makes it an ideal choice for companies that plan to use email-marketing to welcome new customers and retain existing customers. You can also create simple, yet effective surveys using Campaign Monitor.
In case you are Campaign Monitor use, do leave your feedback in the comments section.. You can log on to Campaign Monitor in case you want to give Campaign Monitor a spin!
