17 Aug

Chatbots: The new Marketing tool

Did you ever notice a small chat window, which pops up on a website, asking if it can help you? One might think that it’s human on the other side of the computer but it is actually a chatbot that has been programmed to assist you. Essentially, they are software applications that perform automated tasks, mostly by interacting with users using spoken or written communication. Chatbots are also known as talkbots, IM bots or simply bots, even though the original term was ‘Chatterbot’, given by Michael Mauldin who created the first bot- Julia in 1994.

Chatbots are instant, interactive, and they are here to stay. They have become increasingly popular as an engagement tool and deemed to be the next big thing in the world of marketing and business communication. Moving beyond old-style online advertising, brands all across are now integrating chatbots into their strategies to offer a more personalised experience to the consumers or prospective customers.

Chatbots are designed to have a conversational interface that emulates how humans behave in real life while talking to each other. They rely heavily on sophisticated technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP). The more modest systems scan the inputs for keywords and produce the most relevant response accordingly.

Today, bots are mostly used for B2C customer service and marketing across different categories that include e-commerce, education, entertainment, finance, marketing, shopping, travel and customer support, to name a few. Many companies rely on messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, WeChat and Telegram to place their bots. Even WhatsApp is testing a pilot program, allowing developers to run their bots from the platform.

At present, bots are either accessed through these web-based applications or through virtual assistants such as Google Assistant, Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Microsoft’s Cortana. Some brands also offer them as stand-alone apps to act as personal shopping assistants for the consumers.

Even though still in its nascent stages, chatbots are responsive, provide quick services to the users and are a powerful link between brands and their consumers. But like most things on the web, the success of chatbots is largely dependent on content. Chatbots are computer programs that are designed to have good conversations. There a lot of tools on the internet that a layman can use to create the structure of a bot. It is developing the conversational interface that is challenging because unlike humans, bots are not capable of understanding contextual conversation.

While designing content for bots, one thing to keep in mind is that it should give the user exactly what they are looking for. Short and precise content and a perfect balance of images are important for better appeal and utility. This is, however, the somewhat easy part. The real challenge lies in replicating the human behaviour in conversational situations. This is why content creators today need to have an in-depth knowledge of the way people communicate with each other. Nobody would like to interact with a bot that throws up abrupt and unrelated responses. The messages – right from how the bot greets the user to the actual response should feel ‘human-like’. A good chatbot must be able to offer the nearest replicas of real-time communication transactions. This can be ensured by hiring accomplished content agencies.

Chatbots are capable for redefining how businesses communicate with their consumers or target population and are undoubtedly the future of communication and engagement platforms. Designing content for chatbots requires a deep understanding of human behaviour and their reactions. Ultimately, a chatbot is simply a software that has been designed to ‘converse’ with users. It needs human intervention that can transform it from a bot to human-like, and complicated to helpful. Given this newfound opportunity, it would be fair to assume that the importance of expert content agencies will continue to grow in the time to come. Content, still is the King.

By admin Content Management, Content Service Provider, Content Writing bot content, chatbot, chatbot content, content companies in india, Content Service Providers in India, creating content for chatbot Comments Off

16 Jul

How can content writing training help your writing career?

Being a content writer is not just about churning out articles one after the other. It requires a person to play many roles – a reporter, a salesperson, SEO and marketing specialist, an expert. You could be writing for a government website one day and a corporate blog after that. Career as a content writer is a challenging one and the most difficult is striking a balance between presenting your ideas in a simple and forthright yet engaging manner. Pursuing a content writing training program is a sure shot way to succeed as a content writer.

This is something that is achieved with time, practice and training and to accomplish this you should be able to gauge what your audience is looking for and what is the most meaningful way of reaching out to them. However, this is just one aspect of content writing and to establish yourself as an accomplished content writer, you should be able to keep-up with the rapidly changing digital space. This requires constant improvement in skills and knowledge, which can be achieved through training.

Genres of Content

There are also some other important aspects that aspiring content writers must be aware of, such as:

Business Content Writing

Content writing at large means writing for the internet. It takes many forms such as articles, columns, websites and even blogs even though they are comparatively less formal in their language and approach. It is also used as an umbrella term to include business writing (newsletters, power point presentations, proposals etc.); web writing (online columns, e-magazines); marketing and SEO writing, copy writing among others. SEO and marketing being one of the most challenging and in-demand genres in India right now and require a very target-oriented and strategic approach.

Technical Writing

This is a specialized field and people with some sort of technological knowledge about the subject are usually preferred. This genre caters to the demand for white papers, guides, instruction manuals, etc. Basically precise and accurate documents that will provide users with product related technical assistance by transforming complex information into simple user manuals.

Creative Writing

Creative writing goes beyond other forms of writing to capture the unique writing style of a person. It may be fiction, non-fiction, poetry writing, speech writing, script writing, short stories, novels – all are a part of this genre. Copy writing, though used for marketing, is also a considered creative writing as copywriters; especially those in advertising are responsible for the catchy phrases and jingles that engage the audiences.

Content writing training – Processes

Like everything else, writing too involves a process which must be followed to deliver quality content. Although the process will vary as per the writer’s style, there are some basics which remain the same:

Research
Know your audience
Content Development (Drafting, SEO, Image optimization etc.)
Proof reading, Editing
Publishing content online

Knowledge about project management, concepts and techniques of writing are some other important things to know to give your content that edge over others and achieve the desired goals.

Content Writing Training – Tools

Writing is a complex process and there are times when even the most talented writers struggle to produce content. To make the process simpler, there are a plethora of writing tools available that make a writer’s life easy, letting their creativity take over without any hindrances. A writer can utilize some awesome tools for grammar help, plagiarism check, and improving SEO effectiveness of the web content.

A broad outline of our content writing training course is as follows:

U.S. Vs U.K. English
Gender Neutral Language
Plagiarism What? How to detect, control and avoid?
Formal vs Informal Content
Writing for Websites, Blogs
Search Engine friendly content
Newsletters, Magazines
Case Studies
Business Proposals, Pre-sales, RFP, RFI
Company, Management Profile
Brochures
Presentations: Importance, Uses, Types, How to create, How to Deliver (Business communication)
Project reports
Synopsis
White paper
Research paper

Get in touch with us to know how content writing training at Ascezen can help you develop your content writing skills needed to bag a content writer job.

By admin Content Writing, Training content writer, Content Writing Training, Informal Content, marketing, SEO Comments Off

18 May

Be counted among the Top-notch Content Writers in India

Going digital is no longer a matter of popularity. Having the presence on the world wide web has become a necessity. Businesses in India are shifting their operations online and are constantly working towards gaining a strong foothold on the web using high quality content created by top-notch content writers in India. To produce specific, compelling and targeted content, the search for content writing talent and the best content writers is on.

Content writing, as the name suggests, means writing content for a wide variety of audience available through websites, newsletters and brochures, emails, flyers and so on. Even though writers have always been valued in media and journalism, digitization has given the demand of quality content writers a massive push.

Demand for Content Writers in India

Earlier, content creation in the form of articles, news items and scripts, was limited to media such as print, radio and television. However, with the increasing internet penetration and the need to access information at a few mouse clicks, the world needs many more content writers who can deliver quality content.

For some reasons, despite the increased demand, there is still a considerable scarcity of good content writers in India. Quite a lot of content writers in India are unable to meet the industry standards and produce engaging, effective content. There is a vast difference between the demand and supply of the writers in the country and some reasons that can be understood are as follows:

Societal Perception
Lack of professional content writing training
Inadequate training on the job

There has been a perception in India that writers can never make good money. On top of it, the society and primarily the parents play a dominant role in choosing a career for their child. Mostly with that background, budding writers are seldom motivated to take up writing as a career. So, it is never easy for an aspiring writer to ask parents for sponsoring a training in content writing, technical writing or anything similar.

Like any other profession, content writing too presents its own challenges and opportunities. As traditional marketing is seeing a decline, content writing holds immense potential in its avatar of content marketing and the sheer scale of opportunities that the industry is promising cannot be overlooked.

It wouldn’t be naive to claim that content creation will never become outdated. In fact, right from big corporations to start-ups, everyone will need more content as part of their marketing strategies, especially in this age of user-generated content.

Need for Content Writing Training

Those aspiring writers who take on a content writing or technical job after a few internship stints are trained on the job. Now, it largely depends on the organizations they were employed at or the people they have worked with, to train them as writers. It would purely a game of chance that such interns or junior writers were trained by a professional writer or someone who has good understanding of the domain. A good writer comes out only when the organization is process-driven and doesn’t make an exception for the content department to operate on ad hoc basis. Since most organizations do not have a regular content department in place, they have no means to train and groom people on writing skills.

The answer lies in Training. Today, there are good number of training institutions in India that deliver high quality training in Content Writing, Technical Writing or Instructional Design. The aspiring writers must invest in training themselves to get hired by the high-paying, reputed organizations in India and abroad.

Most people keen on pursuing a career in content writing or development feel that writing ability is the only skill required to become a writer but that is far from being true. Besides having a natural flair for writing, there are other skills needed as well and these can be acquired through structured and balanced content writing training.

At Ascezen Consulting Private Limited – a Lucknow based Content Writing Services Provider, we offer content and technical writing training for aspiring and junior writers to hone their skills and groom them to be ready enough to work for the best IT companies in India.

By admin Content Service Provider, Content Writing Content, content writer, India, lucknow, marketing, uttar pradesh, Writing Comments Off

18 Apr

How does Search Engine ranking of your website help your business?

Website – A crucial aspect of Online Identity

For a business, a website is the most crucial aspect of its online identity. A lot of businesses go through the entire process of web designing only to end up with a website that surely looks good but does not yield the desired results. By desired results, we mean the website does not generate enough traffic, thereby affecting its ranking on search engines and ultimately the organisation’s business growth prospects. Bear in mind: Search engine ranking of your website helps your business growth. We already told you why it is important for any business to have its own website and today we will be talking about how they work.

How Search Engines Work

Google, for example, uses software applications called Googlebots that crawl through billions of pages gathering links, words and tags as they go along to create an index of all the information. The Googlebots are always at work hence the index is updated constantly. When we search for something in particular, these bots match those pages to the query and shows results as per the relevance.

This is how search engines work in general. However, each of them uses a distinct formula or ‘algorithm’ which is why the same query will yield different results on Yahoo than it did on Google. These algorithms keep evolving continually as the search engines work towards providing more relevant results.

It is important to note here that the search results don’t just show up in a random order; rather they reflect their ranking. So if a website shows up in the fifth spot, it is indicative that there are four other web pages that the search engines find more relevant.

This factor plays a key role in directing traffic to your website because most people do not go beyond the first two (or, very rarely- three) pages when searching for something. So if your website is not on the first page, chances are that you might be losing out on a lot of potential customers. This process of improving a website’s ranking is called search engine optimization or simply SEO.

Google alone takes into consideration over 200 factors that determine a website’s ranking. Similarly, there are some basic factors that all the search engines rely on, such as:

• High Quality Content
• Backlinks
• Alt Tags
• Technical SEO
• Metadata Optimisation

Of all the factors mentioned above, content is undoubtedly the most crucial consideration for search engines. An informative yet easy to understand website goes a long way in improving site traffic and ranking. The content should be original, presentable and supplemented with appropriate images and videos. It should be intent-specific i.e. it should clearly spell out what your business seeks to achieve and how you plan to achieve it.

When populating content, it is no longer sufficient to focus solely on keywords. Search engines now take into account whether the content suits the users’ intent or not. Hence, it is important that the website provides and is constantly updated with high-quality, organic content that genuinely addresses the visitors’ needs in the most natural tone possible. Such relevant websites are bound to have better overall rankings and visitor traffic which will translate to more business leads.

At Ascezen, we have a team of professionals adept at web and content development. We give shape to your ideas by creating appealing, interactive websites that are optimised for search engines. Get in touch with us to know how we can take you closer to attaining your business goals.

By admin Content Writing, Search Engine Optimization Alt Tags, Backlinks, business growth, content development, High Quality Content, Metadata Optimisation, natural search, search engine, search engine marketing, search engine rankings, Technical SEO Comments Off

19 Dec

Outsource Digital Marketing or Social Media Marketing to an Agency?

Why Outsource Digital Marketing?

Are you ready to outsource digital marketing or the social media operations to a third party agency? With growing competition in social media or digital marketing and its huge impact in brand and reputation building, it might serve well to outsource digital marketing or the social media operations to a third party agency. However, the notion of outsourcing often sparks the debate on DIY vs Outsource. Reason for this reluctance is attributed to certain incidents in the past whereby social media campaigns for very popular brands went awry, almost costing their reputation.

Noteworthy, the A-listers of the industry are still actively outsourcing their social media marketing portfolio to be managed by a third party consultant. Therefore, first of all we take a look as to why exactly should we hire an external agency.

Expertise

It is not easy to maintain the top ranking in social media circles. An agency however can ensure, owing to its specialization on insights, what will work wonders for you and what wouldn’t. Dedicating enough time for social media marketing might distract you from your core operations whereas an expert of social media marketing works 24×7 to keep your campaigns updated on following parameters:

Who’s the target audience?
What are the latest social media platforms and how are they suitable for a particular line of business?
What should be the frequency of posting content?
What time of the day gets the maximum engagement depending on the product and target set?
What’s the best form of content to share on a particular social media platform?
How to track social media success for a particular campaign?
How much does current campaign contribute in increasing the followers and traffic to the website? Performance makes the bottom-line. Right?

Time

Ever came across an aesthetically appealing and informative post on Facebook that caught your attention and impressed you? And then you also shared it with your team as well as your peers.

It is worth making a note that such content requires time to develop and does not materialize within minutes. While you may have time to develop such content, do consider the fact as to which other task deserved more of your time?

If the trade-off seems that good to you, only then you may choose not to hire a dedicated consultant or an agency for social media marketing.

Save Money

Hiring a digital marketing agency is usually a far economical option, as compared to hiring an in-house consultant. Simple reason being that an individual may not be good at each and every aspect of social media like devising strategies, content development, creating visuals or short animated videos, and eventually tracking its success through analytics. In such a scenario, hiring an external agency is always a better option as it brings specialized individuals to your service.

Besides, an external social media marketing agency also plays a crucial role in keeping your brand abreast of latest industry trends as well as track your competition on this particular front. However, given the serious nature of the task as well as the amount of sensitive information invested in it, it is of utmost importance to choose an agency working on higher parameters of ethics, professionalism as well as expertise.

With that, comes a proposition that meets all your social media marketing management related needs.

Ascezen Consulting Pvt. Ltd. is a reliable name you can consider while making the decision to outsource digital marketing. Ascezen fits the bill with its dedicated team of professionals well versed in digital marketing strategies , analyzing campaigns, graphic designing and content development. We, at Ascezen Consulting, realize that social media marketing is a means for you to promote your business goals online.

As such we take the initiative of working as an internal team, in close co-ordination with your core team. What distinguishes us from the others is the effort we put in understanding the overall history and context of your campaigns. This extra step of groundwork is what brings the difference in our social media marketing campaigns. Plus we ensure that we duly meet all the SLAs provided.

Working with Ascezen, you get a commitment of high levels of business ethics, professionalism and expertise.

By admin Content Writing, DIgital Marketing analytics, animated videos, digital marketing agency india, DIY, graphic design, metrics, outsource social media, outsourcing digital marketing, short videos, social media, social media management, social media marketing, target audience, visual design Comments Off

01 Feb

Business Content Writing Needs of a Start-up

Business Content Writing Needs of a Start-up company may include a variety ranging from website content to promotional content. Let’s try to create a rough sequence of activities and stages during the early days of any business setup.

An infograph showing the names of content deliverables required by a start-up company- business plan, website content, presentations, brochures, proposals, training content, case studies, and process documents.

Content Needs of a Start-up

Create a Business Plan
It all starts with an idea to create and sell. Identifying the needs of a large customer base or a niche market that was not being served adequately becomes the point where an entrepreneur begins the journey. The first document that needs to be created is a business plan—a document that gives details of the business idea, expected profitability, associated risks and mitigation plans, phase-wise implementation plan, milestones, and the required resources as well as funds. The first objective to create a business plan is to achieve clarity of purpose and goal setting. Next, it can be used to convince prospective sponsors, investors, and other stakeholders. While some entrepreneurs may have desired skill to create a business plan but many of them may want to seek expert advice. Hiring a business consultant with knowledge and expertise in creating business documents may be a good choice.

Create a Website with Good Content Appeal
Today it is unthinkable to start a business without a website, irrespective of your type of business. Any entrepreneurial venture will need to have an impressive website. Apart from the visual appeal, your website should effectively communicate with your prospective partners, vendors, or customers. It should have content that speaks about your services, convince the visitors about your capabilities, and evoke a positive response. Quality content on your website and regular content updates will make it popular in web search, resulting in high search engine rankings for the website. Fresh and original content will help get business leads and this is a vital requirement for a start-up company.

Spread the Word – Promote your Products & Services
As a new entrant, what you would really need is to have your prospective customers know about your products and services through internet advertising, print media, and product or service brochures. You will require convincing business proposals targeting each prospect specifically. You will need to create crisp and appealing presentations to take along in business meetings with future clients.

Train your Staff
You will need professionally skilled and trained staff to conduct business. As a start-up, your budget may not allow hiring many experienced professionals. It will be more feasible to hire fresh talent and train them. Needless to mention that you will need personalized training content and possibly resort to e-learning for saving costs and providing a consistent, standardized training to your staff.

Strengthen your Position
After you have taken off by winning a few deals, you need to gear up for bagging bigger projects, clients, or accounts. You need to build a reputation that breeds trust on your capabilities. You will need to demonstrate that your company follows standard processes by maintaining proper process documentation – particularly for functions like HR and Operations. To prove your capabilities on delivery front, you will need to take about past successes through some convincing success stories in the form of case studies. This will be an ongoing activity as you get more experience and process maturity of your organization increases.

There you go… You need good content all along—whether it is building up, winning business deals, or showcasing your strengths.

To know about the business content writing services provided by Ascezen, please visit the services page or send an email to biz at ascezen dot com.

By admin Business Writing, Content Writing brochures, business plan, Case Studies, e-learning, entrepreneur, HR, original content, presentations, start-up, training content 0 Comments

06 Dec

Who Needs a Content Vendor?

It is as early as toying with the idea of a start-up that the wannabe entrepreneurs would need a good hand at content. Be it an impressive pitch to raise venture capital or funding through a bank loan, all entrepreneurs need to sell their ideas that must also be presented beautifully. And this selling must persist to get different potential stakeholders such as business partners, the founding team, and the first customers. An entrepreneur needs to communicate through various mediums such as the corporate website, blog, product or service brochure, online or print ads and anything else that’s thinkable. Most entrepreneurs are ripe with great ideas but not all of them can put them across a wide outreach. Why just entrepreneurs, even established businesses are also among those who might need help with corporate communication.

Let’s go deeper to find out more about who needs a content vendor…

You have an excellent idea and want to create a convincing business plan: You need someone who can organize your thoughts and ideas, and present them in words as well as statistical visuals. A business plan becomes compelling when it has everything thought out and planned. It flows in a sequence and answers questions as they come up. All this can be done by professionals who understand business as well as excel in the art of communication. So, it will help if you hire a company that can trusted enough to keep your well-guarded secrets and help you put in all on paper.

You have a product ready for market and need help with branding and advertising: Your team might believe that they created the best product for a certain market but the word needs to go out as well. You need to inform your prospective customers and distribution networks about the unique features of a great product. Who can help you better than communication specialists who can understand the technology and explain it to the world in a lucid manner? You certainly need a business content writing services provider—a content vendor capable of creating compelling business collaterals such as presentations, demonstrations, and brochures.

You have a product that can’t go without documentation: You were so busy developing a wonderful application or product that you completely overlooked the support documentation angle. Now when the product is almost ready, you find out that it must be supported by some user documentation such as a user manual, product guide or help videos. Assisting the users in installing, deploying and using a product or application is a vital part of customer relationship management.

You need to engage with your customers intelligently: Today, nobody might disagree that it is increasingly becoming crucial to engage in a constant dialogue with one’s customers. It helps you understand their changing needs, shift in choices, issues with one’s products and what’s being talking about the most. Most importantly, you get a chance to tell your loyal and about-to-leave customers about your future plans, product enhancements and new releases. A blog or social media campaign might be the first thing to start from. Again, you would need communication experts who think like your users to interact with them and find out what’s on your customers’ minds.

Your company needs content to support some products but that’s not a round-the-year requirement: Let’s say your organization doesn’t have much of regular content production needs but once or twice a year you need someone to spruce up the corporate website content or update existing product and process documentation. It might not be feasible to hire and retain a content team through the year but hiring a content vendor to provide a periodic fixed-cost service might serve the need.

Your company needs to produce and edit content through the year: There are fair chances that your company would already have a content or technical writing team in place. It is also likely that workload might at times go out-of-proportion if there aren’t a good number of people sitting idle. Maintaining a good bench strength helps handle the extra work but it isn’t a cost-effective or lean strategy. Those aiming for optimum resource utilization might consider having some content vendors shortlisted for seasonal spikes in workload. The cost would be lesser than having an unproductive team with a downward learning curve.

The competitive business scenario would leave no room for a product or service not marketed well. An excellent idea or product must not die a premature death for the want of fair publicity. It must be talked about to get its fair share of limelight. Every product needs a voice to announce its arrival. Once the product or idea takes off, it marks the onset of life-long quest to support the product to sustain in the market. This is where fresh content will always be needed and it is not a bad idea to invest in a content vendor.free translation greek to english

By admin Business Writing, Content Service Provider, Content Vendor, Content Writing brochures, business plan, Case Studies, content writing services provider, customer relationship management, demonstrations, entrepreneur, help videos, presentations, product guide, social media, User Manual, white papers 0 Comments

28 Nov

Top 5 Reasons Why Should You Invest in a Content Vendor?

Top 5 Reasons Why Should You Invest in a Content Vendor?

In the present business scenario, there are quite a few companies who have a content team or technical publications department in place. They are the ones who understand the value of having content creation or documentation expertise in-house. There are other companies who either don’t have the budget or a permanent need to employ a team of writers and obviously some managers to look after them. Most of such companies rely on freelancers or contractors when they have a content requirement such as refurbishing their website or blog, and may be when a product needs documentation just before shipping it out. Many people would agree that there are challenges in working with freelancers. Here are top five reasons why organizations should seriously consider investing in a specialist content vendor or content service provider.

1. Using A Specialist On The Job Is Always Better

It is always safer to have a specialist do the job. Though it seems anyone with good language skills can produce any kind of content but let’s admit that it is just a myth. Even within the range of content, there is whole lot of variety to be dealt with and there are specialists in handling technical content, business content, web content or something for print media.

Besides, there are some search engine (read google) trends to be followed at a given time, differences in writing styles across geographies and industries. An experienced writing professional would be able to add greater value from all the significant perspectives.

2. An Established Content Services Provider Is More Reliable Than A Freelancer

If a content vendor is a registered company then its reliability quotient is much higher than a freelancer sitting in a remote place, a few continents away. While it is possible for a freelancer to vanish and return with a brand-new profile and persona, it is not so easy for a company that has to create a name for itself and grow its business in the long term.

A content vendor would be more likely to have a business continuity plan and adequate resources to deliver in time even in case of materialization of some risks.

3. A Content Vendor Can Give More Variety Than A Freelancer

A content service provider would be able to provide a great deal of variety in content solutions ranging from website content, blogs, brochures, case studies to user manuals, online help and training videos or e-learning solutions. A team of independent contractors or freelancers may be able to produce all of this but it would be a herculean task to coordinate and get consistent results in quality as well as timelines.

4. A Content Vendor Assumes More Accountability And Shares The Risks

Some organizations, owing to their domain and industry segment, might often be under the threat of facing legal consequences due to copyright or plagiarism issues. It is imperative to review their content for originality before it is published or circulated. Service-level agreements are one of the means of ensuring that the authors take some responsibility but a vendor company is far better risk-sharing partner than an individual. Besides, a content vendor may employ better means to check plagiarism such as a peer-review process or using plagiarism detection tools.

5. A Content Vendor Saves Management And Quality Assurance Costs On Content Production

Managing a team of freelancers also has a cost. More than the cost factor, it is the ability to judge the quality, originality and cost of content production that needs a relatively much experienced professional with content or documentation expertise. A freelance writer is self-managed but a team of contractors would need a manager. A content services provider, on the contrary, would be able to provide an expert supervision and project management at a comparable much lower cost than a full-time manager to manage a need-based engagement with freelancers.

By admin Content Writing, e-learning, Instructional Designing, Technical Writing Content Service Provider, Content Service Vendor, Content Writing Services, plagiarism, Technical Writing Services 0 Comments

05 Nov

The Potential of Minimalism in Content and Website Design

If you want to develop a mobile version of any website, it will be a good idea to go with a minimalist approach. Quite a few critics cringe at the notion of minimalist design, presuming it will make the overall design and layout boring. The concept is also misinterpreted as black text on a white background devoid of any effects or graphics. However, all these assumptions are very far from the reality. It must be noted that minimalism does not involve dull or uninteresting techniques or features. The main objective of minimalism is to present different elements and features in their primary role, without the need to involve unnecessary frills and distractions. In reality, several usability experts have a view that minimalism will enhance the impact and effectiveness of website designs.

Some Advantages of Minimalism

Most usability experts believe that minimalism will definitely rule the roost in the future. The concept offers several interesting and unique ways to simplify uncomplicated website designs without much effort. Minimalism will enable users to use their smartphones and internet to access most of the web applications without any technical glitches emanating from compatibility issues.
The main functionality of minimalism is to restrict the intended message to its bottom line so as to provide clarity of ideas and expressions. Users may begin to complain as little as possible after being exposed to the powerful results of minimalism.
The concept will certainly find favor with mobile web users. It will enable users to download the content faster.
Users will be able to access the content in different layouts on different platforms with superior quality and increased smoothness.
Smartphone users browse internet on their phones quite frequently and they might easily get irritated if they have to needlessly navigate to many web pages or unrelated information before they get what they are looking for. A minimalist website design can easily eliminate inappropriate clutter of information or webpages.
Minimalism helps in brand building too. It is very important for a brand to stay consistent in order to be remembered for being neat in expressions. By removing clutter that is considered to be perplexing, a brand can definitely stand out in the crowd.

Mobile manufacturing companies can get benefited with the assistance from usability professionals to adopt minimalism in design. Today, mobile devices and components come with smaller bandwidth, slower data internet connectivity and smaller screens. All these technical restrictions can be effortlessly overcome by a unique minimalist design. The technology will unquestionably enhance mobile website designs and other technicalities in the future.

Minimalism in Writing

“The more you say, the less people remember. The fewer the words, the greater the profit.”
– Francois Fenelon

Most popular writers, authors, and poets have believed that brevity is very important to engage one’s audience. There, all we want to say must be said in brief. Let’s find out how some of us tend to get lengthier. Some writers create content using 2^nd person singular tone. It is considered very friendly. Certainly, it results in passive voice, which tends to detach the reader from the action because the sentences become lengthy and boring. This type of writing might confuse the readers as well. Therefore, it is better to create understandable active voice constructions to appeal the readers’ minds.

The current norm is minimalist writing. This type of writing is considered to be straightforward without being lengthy and uninteresting. The overall idea is to include appropriate information needed for the readers – no more, no less. The writer should create the content in a comprehensible, direct active voice.

Minimalism Unchained

Some people have an opinion that minimalist writing includes very few words or sentences. But in reality, minimalist writing is not easy. You need to explain the entire information or concept involving very words or phrases. The idea is to use less words and sentences but they must have a bigger impact on the mind of the readers. You need to question any phrase or word that you are about to use to know whether it is essential to communicate your intended message. You might need to think, review and rewrite to be sure of being brief and complete in communicating.

Some Tips for Minimalist Writing

Keep sentences brief and straightforward.
Infuse coherence in successive sentences to keep the flow.
Consolidate the cluster of short sentences in meaningful paragraphs.
Do not discuss several topics in a single paragraph to avoid confusing the reader.
Ensure that paragraph length is appropriate.
Always prefer active voice.
Use images or pictures to convey a powerful message instead of explaining it endlessly.

translate from french to english

By admin Content Writing, Creative Writing, Minimalism, Technical Communication, Technical Writing Content Writing, Francois Fenelon, Minimalism, Technical Communication, Technical Writing, Technical Writing skills, Writing 0 Comments

28 Oct

Preventing and Detecting Plagiarism

Today, the world thrives on information whether it is in the form of print or anything shared using electronic media. Content is used to sell products and services while at times, it is the content that is sold for consumption. One of the biggest problems miring the content industry today is plagiarism. Some people tend to copy and paste the desired content from the internet. This is certainly not welcome for a variety of reasons. We need to create fresh and original content for learning as well as growth.

Plagiarism: Why does it hurt?

Everyone loves appreciation! It hurts when it is wrongfully denied.

Some people tend to take undue credit for someone’s hard work, thus ruining the entire notion of creativity and ownership. There are some basic rules and guidelines for content creation that must be strictly followed to prevent plagiarism.

Plan

It is very essential to plan your requirements and know your objectives well before starting to create content. You need to create an outline right at the beginning. This useful technique can go a long way in avoiding plagiarism, which mainly stems from lack of ideas. You need to assess what information is most essential. Incorporating a detailed work plan will allow you to have a clear understanding of the scope of your work. Do not begin your writing assignment in haste. Planning is extremely essential and if you start writing an assignment without a detailed preparation, you will certainly lose your way and might end up in the trap of plagiarism.

Research the Subject

It is very important to research the subject of your writing assignment. You can easily include important details, facts and figures in your intended content if you research the web or other sources of information adequately. You will be able to create informative, unique and original content if you understand the concepts or information that you would cover in your work assignment. On the other hand, it is very important to develop and adopt a personal style of writing in order to evade plagiarism.

Attributions

It is imperative that we give proper attributions and citations if we quote from a primary source of information such as a research, journal, or a website. This process should begin with asking permission from the original publisher or copyright holder to reuse and republish the data in a different form. We must give away the credit to the owners or originators of the information reused.

Utilize Different Plagiarism Detectors

There are useful online plagiarism detection tools such as copyscape, writecheck and others that can be of great help to writers checking plagiarism. These online plagiarism detectors have the ability to detect traces of duplicate content in any type of work quite easily. If you have unknowingly included the content of another writer, you can effortlessly detect the errors with the help from effective online plagiarism detectors. There are both paid and free plagiarism detection software available in the market. Generally, people go with free plagiarism software available on the internet but it is preferable to buy a full and licensed version, which is more reliable.

Get Assistance from Expert Writers

It is a known fact that experienced and accomplished writers have the required skills and expertise to write plagiarism-free content. They can easily assist you in getting absolutely plagiarism-free content according to your needs. If you do not have sufficient time to write your assignment, then seeking professional help from an experienced ghost writer is the best possible alternative. This technique will ensure proper completion of your assignment within the stipulated deadline without any errors and plagiarism.

Plagiarism is a common occurrence across the world. People tend to engage in this malpractice in order to save their time, effort and money. It is very rampant in academic institutions all over the world, therefore, quite a few professors and teachers make it almost mandatory for all the students to check their work for plagiarism before submission.

If you are looking for a content provider that gives you original and plagiarism-free content, get in touch with Ascezen Consulting.

By admin Content Writing, Plagiarism checking plagiarism, original content, plagiarism, plagiarism checker, plagiarism detection software 0 Comments

28 Jun

Editing versus Writing

All editors are writers but all writers aren’t editors.

I am quite sure most editors will agree with what I said above. Editing is different from writing and it is much more than proof-reading or reviewing. Those who don’t agree with that opinion, may be actually editing the content under the garb of reviewing and it’s time they start calling themselves Editors. With time, experience and bigger responsibilities, writers are poised to assume the role of an editor. It begins with prolonged exposure to a particular genre of writing, subject matter and the writing style followed. Obviously, when you know your content’s context in and out, you become an authority and can visualize the result of the smallest variations in tone and verbiage. With that, comes the attitude required to become an editor. You start looking at “drafts” and start making “edits” to make the copies read better and explain everything precisely and correctly. You begin to identify and remove the excesses. You look at documents from readers’ perspectives. You are the biggest critic.

Let’s try to answer this – How do you plan your editing?
I think you have to be pretty sure about the expected outcome. You try and match the content drafts with your visualization, make edits, rephrase, paraphrase, reorganize to get an edited version. An editor essentially intends to ensure the following:

Correctness of information
Accuracy of language
Logical flow of information
Ability to grab and sustain readers’ attention
Conciseness of content
Adherence to style guidelines

A point of caution for wannabe editors is that you should respect a writer’s style of writing and expression if it doesn’t come in the way of delivering the right quality. All of us know that we can say one thing in so many ways. However, some editors may want to stick only to their style of writing. This can hamper creativity and leave the writers with little motivation to do something new.

On the other hand, writers need to study the edits, make notes, ask questions, and prepare a personal review checklist. Using the checklist would help reduce the number of editorial changes that writers see in their future drafts.

Editing is also Mentoring
Editing is at best a feedback mechanism for writers. It tells them how to put it better and make it pleasure-to-read. When editors explain their edits either by entering descriptive comments within documents or explaining verbally while being respectful, they are bound to influence the writers positively and they are likelier to see rewarding results soon.translation english to french

By admin Business Writing, Content Writing, Creative Writing, Documentation Process, Technical Communication, Technical Writing Editing, Proof-reading, Proofing, Reviewing Documents, Technical Writing, Writing 0 Comments

18 Apr

Creating an Effective Presentation

Presentations make a powerful medium to share information or sell products and services. Have you ever wondered what makes a PowerPoint presentation effective? Most of us are unsure when asked to make one. What makes a PowerPoint presentation become effective? Is it about the appealing visuals or catchy phrases? Or has it got to do with jazzy animations? Naturally, we end up asking experts for their inputs to reach some conclusions. Honestly, there isn’t a single thumb rule to achieve that but there surely are a few best practices widely acknowledged and accepted. There are certain do’s and don’ts to be followed while making PowerPoint presentations. Some tips to create an effective presentation are as below:

Get hold of the viewer’s attention

This is one of the most important aspects of a presentation. At the beginning of a presentation, one has to attract the attention of their audience. Grabbing their attention does not mean to overcrowd your slides but instead make them look effective. If your presentation is not able to retain the audience’s interest, all your hard work may go waste.

Keep it simple and clear

A good presentation is easy to follow. One must always keep in mind that the content should flow smoothly without confusing the audience. There shouldn’t be conflicting ideas or contradictory statements within a single presentation. The content should use simple, clear words to reach the audience.

Do not overcrowd the slides

Every slide should cover a uniform number of points, for example, limit the number to 5 or 6 points for each slide. Considering the font used, we must keep in mind how many points can be accommodated on each slide to avoid the clutter on the slides. Keep the points short and brief. To make your presentation effective, always filter unnecessary information.

Maintain the word limit

Effective presentations generally deal with the right words, at the right place, in the right tone. We must always take care of the number of words used in each point or sentence. Always try to convey the message effectively in the least number of words possible.

Be careful with images and animations

To make your PowerPoint presentations appear catchy and appealing, always try to use images related with the topics covered. The use of animations should be judicious such that it shouldn’t distract the audience.

Choose right fonts, sizes and colors

The latest versions of Microsoft Office offer a variety of options when it comes to choosing the fonts. An effective presentation should contain font sizes which are legible for a large audience. Avoid using light font colors as it might not be clearly visible to viewers at a distance. Instead, the use of contrasting colors is recommended. Fonts and their sizes should be chosen keeping in mind that they do not appear blurred or pose any difficulty to the audience.

Maintain consistency and flow

It is vital to ensure consistency within and across all the slides to create an efficient presentation. For example, a presentation should have carefully designed slides to mark the beginning, main content and a logical end.

By admin Business Writing, Content Writing, Technical Writing Business Content, effective presentation, Microsoft Office, Microsoft PowerPoint, presentation 0 Comments

09 Oct

Power of Textual Content

Content can be audio, visual, textual or a mix of all of them. The idea is to always reach the audience and make the best appeal. It all depends on the type of content or information that needs to be communicated and the target audience.

Talking in India’s context, print media was the biggest medium to reach the maximum number of educated people till the advent of Radio. The introduction of Radio in India could well be called the beginning of a revolution. It became an important medium for not just giving out news, but also spreading awareness about the plans implemented for country’s growth and development, and turning them successful at the mass level.
Then came Television—the advanced medium that took the country by storm. It reaffirmed the age-old beliefs in the power of visuals. People could see their leaders in action, they could see places they would have never dreamt of visiting, and the creativity that they could never imagine.
All the above examples easily the demonstrate the power of content that increases when it becomes multi-dimensional, from text to speech, auditory to visual, and still picture to moving videos. But the fact remains that at the crux of all content lies the Text – the written word. The written word—whether on paper or a screen—will never wither.

By admin Content Writing auditory, India 0 Comments

27 May

Content is Important

Content is the soul of every communication transaction. It isn’t just about communication these days. The world has moved on to effective communication. Effective communication is about conveying the right information to the target audience in the most lucid and appealing way. The essence of good content lies in the way it is encoded and presented, keeping the target audience in mind. To understand the audience is just the first step and then starts the journey of communication, leading to a never-ending fruitful relationship.

In this dynamic world, all transactions have to be swift and effective. These transactions, most primarily, include sharing information, assisting users, and transmitting new ideas and concepts. So, eventually it means communicating with a purpose, a goal, or a definite motive. The world knows the communication genres that are employed today as Technical Writing, Content Writing, and Instructional Designing, e-Learning and so on. Nevertheless, the underlying principle remains to know the user and communicate to convey the message.

By admin Content Writing Content, Content Writing, Instructional Designing, Technical Writing 2 Comments