Lexie Lu

We're living in a time of extreme global competition and rapid technological changes. For your business to remain competitive, you have to stay on top of day-to-day improvements and advances in technology. You might think you have an automatic handle on shifts in technical knowledge since you're in the industry, but it's impossible to stay on top of everything unless you make a concerted effort to do so. 

There are many different reasons for adding an online map to your website. It offers visitors a point of reference based on location, weather or even geographic locations served. Some businesses benefit more from maps than others, and different types serve various purposes. 

There are around 30 million small businesses in the United States, with small-business owners earning about $50,347 per year. If your company has a brick-and-mortar location, office space or distribution area, then a map shows users exactly where your products are available or where to find you. 

Have you ever visited a website that created a strong impression and made you want to return again? What is that special formula that makes one site appealing and another boring? A basic website includes some features you'll see over and over again. You can expect a navigation bar, a footer and content. However, you can make a number of simple additions to a business website that enhance the user experience (UX) and help your site stand out from the competition.

No matter what type of business you run, there are risk factors you must navigate if you wish to maintain the same level of profit and growth. Tech businesses, in particular, may be susceptible to harm from interruptions such as hacking or power loss. Although there is potential for great profit in this sector, there is also the possibility that people could steal your ideas — not to mention fierce competition. A minor mishap can cause you to fall behind others selling the same or similar services or products.

Do people land on your website and instantly bounce away? If conversion rates are low, you may be lacking a key ingredient — visitor intent. To meet user needs and stand out from competitors, understand why your audience seeks you out in the first place. People are attracted to websites for a variety of reasons, and it's essential to address them all.

No matter what type of business you run, a style guide helps solidify your brand and present a consistent image across multiple media. The style for an industrial business may vary slightly from other types of businesses. People want to know they can trust you, so consistency and reliability become even more of a factor than, say, for an e-commerce store that sells kitchen gadgets. However, some of the rules are similar.

While every aspect of your business deserves attention, customer relationship management (CRM) is one of the most important. How you form and keep the interactions between you and your customers makes the difference in retaining them. At the same time, you need to build new leads and prevent people from bouncing away to one of your competitors.

In today's global economy, if you aren't on top of your game when it comes to the customer experience, you risk losing out. CRM software is one tool worth investing in because it improves the customer pipeline in several ways.

Excellent customer support is essential to any type of business, but in the tech industry, it can be particularly beneficial. Since many tech companies offer a service or software, it's much more likely customers will reach out for support. Their first experience after purchasing the product is often with your service team. If your employees aren't fully trained to meet consumer expectations, you risk losing repeat business from those people.

You may wonder why your industrial site needs to be responsive. After all, don't most business people access the Internet from their desktops? Not necessarily. When you look at the general population and their smartphone patterns, you realize mobile is the wave of the future and if you aren't already focused on making your site friendly to mobile users, you should create a plan to get there by the end of the year.

For as long as anyone can remember, buildings have always been rigid, unintelligent things. Most are nothing more than a frame or structure used to provide shelter, a place of work or general space. However, as is evident from the advancement of modern technology, that’s soon to change with the next generation of structural areas.

Intelligent, more-aware buildings are being developed to offer unprecedented levels of energy and resource efficiency, organizational management, general optimization, and improved occupant health and productivity.