Marketing is a hard game to get into when running your own business. Analysing current trends, doing research in your area and finding professional help are all taxing things to attend to when you’re looking to increase your business’s exposure. This is all made even harder in the year of 2020. That’s why we’ve made a list below of three things you can do to attract more customers to your business:

Make/Update Your Website

If you haven’t made one already, your business should have a website. This may seem very basic, but there have been countless occasions where customers have wanted to look into a business but found them to have no online presence. Your website should be a complete package of everything your business offers and why people should give you their custom. On top of this, updating your website regularly will keep it fresh. People will want to frequently check what changes you have brought about, and it shows that you want to keep a connection with your customers.

If you feel that you’re in need of help with your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), then look no further than Caffeine Marketing. They are a marketing agency Reading based, that can help you improve your business’s visibility. They utilise technical analysis and keyword research that is personal to your needs. Getting help from professionals in this area will completely change the game for you. An ever-adapting online presence will bring in more customers that want to see what you’re about.

Social Media

Showing yourself and your business on social media platforms adds a more human experience to your company. Giving people a look behind the curtain shows you to be more than a logo and masthead. Displaying your company as a people run company, grounds it for potential customers. You can also run competitions on social media platforms to increase your followers and notoriety. This is an especially useful technique if you are a product-based business, granting a greater exposure to what you sell and enticing people into trying to win it! If you’re looking to get started, then Facebook and Twitter are the obvious first choices. Make sure to link your posting to each site so no follower misses out.

Improving Your Look

An attractive business is a thriving business. Having a strong and recognisable logo is beneficial to much more than just your aesthetics. Having a good logo can grab the attention of casual browsers. When we see something pretty, our brain wants to investigate! You can summarise your business in a small image, keeping in mind that first impressions are very important. They stick with us whether we like it or not. So, if you feel like your look needs sprucing up, it’s definitely worth getting in touch with a graphic designer. There we have it. Increasing your customer numbers this year can be as easy as updating your website, adding a Twitter page to your portfolio or giving your logo a makeover. Stay positive and stay productive. People enjoy others’ passion. So, enjoy yourself and look forward to where this could take you.

The development of artificial intelligence (AI) is experiencing a boiling moment. According to the report on Digital Society in Spain in 2019, by the Fundación Telefónica, one in 12 European startups that year focused their activity around this technology, a proportion that in 2013 was only one in 50.

The majority work around to the category that the report defines as “necessary”: they develop systems around facial recognition, e-commerce search or imaging and medical diagnostics. This last typology, that of health technologies, brings together a fifth of emerging companies.

It is precisely in the field of health that some of the applications with the greatest practical impact are taking place. Sherpa.ai , a Basque artificial intelligence company –considered among the 10 most important in the world in this field by various specialized publications–, has developed a platform so that health authorities can estimate the number of ICU beds needed throughout a week.

An essential calculation for hospital logistics and to avoid the overflow scenes that were experienced in some territories.

“We believed that artificial intelligence could be important to combat the pandemic and we began to work hand in hand with the Basque Health Service,” explains Xabi Uribe-Etxebarria, founder and CEO of the company.

The Sherpa.ai team began to shape a predictive model by feeding it with data from Italy, the only ones existing at that time, originating from regions similar in demography to the Basque Country. “First we calculate the data by province and by hospital,” continues Uribe-Etxebarria.

“Later we created a platform that could be consulted virtually and we added functionalities. For example, how would the number of deaths and the number of infected evolve or where would the new outbreaks of the pandemic be “.

The platform calculates the number of ICU beds needed within seven days and analyzes patterns and trends in the evolution of the virus, a fundamental aspect so that health workers can react in time. It also predicts the number of mild hospitalizations, which would allow, for example, to set up a specific hospital for this class of patients.

“The ICUs have not been saturated. The work of the health authorities and the health service has been tremendous. We have all gone out of our way to do this in weeks, ”Uribe-Etxebarría rejoices.

Sherpa.ai develops conversational systems, recommendation, content analysis and detection of fake news and application of artificial intelligence in data privacy.

“We are at the beginning of a new era in which we will coexist with AI. Many times we associate it with futuristic robots, but it is applied in everyday life and has the ability to solve urgent challenges for humanity ”, he argues.

“It is present when we unlock the mobile with the fingerprint or facial recognition, when we pay for parking and the barrier is opened, or in health applications that detect cancers. It is a complement to the human, not a substitute ”.

Francisco Herrera, professor of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Granada, set a simple goal for his work: that anyone, through a simple X-ray, could know if they had covid-19 or not.

To do this, together with the San Cecilio de Granada Clinical Hospital, its team works with a database of hundreds of X-rays, both of sick and healthy patients. A sea of ​​information from which the AI ​​will learn which radiographs correspond to sick patients, and to what degree, to later be able to analyze any new image.

“The hospital began to make a database of images of patients with a positive PCR test performed, thereby guaranteeing the quality of the sample. On the other hand, we had a set of healthy lung contrast, with a guarantee that there was no covid-19, ”Herrera added.

Currently, the model determines by 81% if a patient has coronavirus. The main advantage of the system is that it works with chest x-rays, a rapid test available throughout the health system, something that would improve diagnostic times.

With a CT test, accuracies of more than 90% are obtained, the scientist warns, but it is much more expensive and is only available in large hospitals.

“We want anyone who lives in a town to come to the health center, have an X-ray and that image is analyzed by our system, which will respond with the probability of associated disease,” Herrera details.

“Then the complementary tests will be requested and the relevant protocols will be activated.”

The more radiographs, the professor explains, the better the algorithm’s learning and the better the model’s behavior. Herrera underlines the importance of the quality of the images that feed the base.

“If you take X-rays from different hospitals, the annotations or colors may vary,” he says. “You have to segment the image and keep the part that collects the lungs to avoid any type of noise.”

The project, at the moment, has seven research teams and six associated hospitals. Herrera hopes that other hospitals will join soon.

Asian people waiting for body temperature check before access to building for against epidemic flu covid19 or corona virus from wuhan in office by thermoscan or infrared thermal camera

By now, anyone has passed a temperature control that, in addition, is capable of recognizing the identity of the user and discerning if they are wearing a mask.

These operations are also based on artificial intelligence, a technology that is already widely used to guarantee safety in work centers, shops and public places.

“The algorithms can detect situations that go beyond the pre-established, such as crowds, objects that remain immobile in high traffic areas or even breaches of social distancing,” explains Iñaki San Román, Prosegur’s Artificial Intelligence manager.

The incorporation of AI in the field of security allows security guards to operate with a large number of cameras or alarms.

AI is being joined by another technology: data science, a system that analyzes large volumes of information to predict patterns or failures, a way to, for example, know in advance when alarm peaks will occur at the central station.

In addition to the field of security, there are AI application lines focused on the world of retail with which it is tried to help customers improve their sales.

Apriori, all banks seem the same. After all, most of them offer more or less similar financial products and services. But reality shows that this is not the case.

The latest Customer Satisfaction Benchmarking report , prepared by the independent consulting firm Stiga, concludes that Banco Mediolanum is the one that generates the highest overall satisfaction index among Spanish banking customers: the score reaches 8.35 points out of 10, compared to 7.48 on average obtained by the other 16 banks analyzed.

The study has been carried out since 2012, and examines the banking sector based on the responses of users of financial institutions. In the results of this ranking , Mediolanum has also been the best valued by its clients in nine other categories.

One of the aspects that respondents score the most is the clarity and timeliness with which they receive information about their accounts (8.45 compared to 7.71 for the competition). Another of the issues best valued by clients is the relationship established with their manager, one of the factors that differentiate Banco Mediolanum’s business model.

The entity offers a personalized service to users through its financial advisers, its Family Bankers: specialists who help them plan their savings and investments, based on their needs. This trust relationship translates into a score of 8.83, above the 8.41 for the rest of the entities.

Precisely, customers appreciate trust, as well as transparency and personalization of the entity. They are the so-called intangibles of relation that obtain as a whole an 8.04 compared to 6.79 in the sector.

The same happens with the range of products, commissions and interests that the bank offers its users, a competitive offer that has obtained a score of 7.84, compared to 6.01 for the other banks.

In addition, clients link the Banco Mediolanum brand to values ​​of financial strength and solvency, as it has shown throughout its 38-year history.

Today the bank stands out for a modern image adapted to the new digital times and committed to the advancement of society. Here, it scores an 8.20 versus 7.43 for the competition.

Banco Mediolanum has also been ranked among the best valued banks in internet and mobile banking services ( app and web), which shows the will and commitment to a model that combines the best of technology with personalized financial advice. In fact, the entity closed 2019 with 69% of digital clients and a 77% share of mobile users. Satisfaction with the Telephone Attention Service stands out especially, reaching a score of 8.78.

The sum of all these factors is what makes Banco Mediolanum obtain the best percentage of committed customers, 33.7% compared to 25.9% for the rest of the banking system. People willing to buy or hire products and services again, and to recommend the bank to other people.

Banco Mediolanum obtains the best bank valuation for the treatment received by its financial advisors’ clients.

“The results confirm that our commitment to offer personalized advice supported by a complete multichannel banking service responds to the needs and expectations of savers,” admits Banco Mediolanum’s CEO, Igor Garzesi.

The study endorses, in short, a way of understanding and doing banking that has not changed in almost four decades, and that has generated a climate of trust, closeness and proximity with customers, who recognize the efforts of the entity. A hallmark of quality brand of the house.

Telefónica rises strongly on the IBEX thanks to the support received by Fitch

After the blow received by S&P, Telefónica led the increases in the IBEX 35 thanks to a report by Fitch, which considers that the telecom has a solid predominant position in Spain , and that its national operations provide a solid base for the broader group .

The rating agency points out that the Spanish market is competitive and in which fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) is important; But thanks to Telefónica’s investment in fiber and content, it makes it a leader in the fixed, mobile and FMC segments.

In this regard, he explains that Spain is at the forefront of Europe thanks to investment in fiber, maintaining one of the highest levels of fiber coverage (fiber to the home).

In this sense, Telefónica contributes with the access to the conduits and poles and the shared use of the network.

Brazil is also a strong point for the company .The report also analyzes Telefónica’s leading market position in Brazil and its evolution towards the broader Latin American region.

Thus, Fitch experts consider that the separation between Latin America and Brazil at the business level is potentially positive for the company’s credit profile.

It also refers to the balanced approach to leverage and shareholder compensation . However, “we expect funds for 2020 of net leverage from operations to reach 3.7x compared to a reduction threshold of 3.6x”, although they acknowledge that there is a currency risk with the depreciation of the Brazilian real that its competitors do not have.

Bankinter lowers the recommendation to sell.But not all analysts see these strengths. From Bankinter add to S & P believes that this rebate, leaving the Telefónica rating one step away from losing the “investment grade” increases the likelihood of a cut in the dividend in 2021.

A higher risk premium in the event of this eventuality and the possible increase in the cost of the group’s debt makes it difficult for the security to reach its fundamental value of 4.2 euros and for this reason they change their recommendation from holding to selling.

For this they explain that “the potential for structural growth is low and the reduction of the debt progresses slowly, weighing down the evolution of the group.”

In the current environment, the objective of stabilizing free cash flow (OIBDA – capex) necessarily requires containment of investment that reduces the competitiveness of the group in the medium term.

There is also a risk that operations to obtain value from the company will be delayed.