Natural Language Generation

Natural language processing (NLP) is an area of computer science and artificial intelligence concerned with the interaction between computers and humans in natural language. The ultimate goal of NLP is to help computers understand language as well as we do. It is the driving force behind things like virtual assistants, speech recognition, sentiment analysis, automatic text summarization, machine translation, and much more. In this post, we'll cover the basics of natural language processing, dive into some of its techniques, and also learn how NLP has benefited from recent advances in Deep Learing.

Introduction 

Natural language processing (NLP) is the intersection of computer science, linguistics, and machine learning. The field focuses on communication between computers and humans in natural language and NLP is all about making computers understand and generate human language. Applications of NLP  techniques include voice assistants like Amazon's Alexa and Apple's Siri, but also things like machine translation and text-filtering.

NLP is Artificial Intelligence or Machine Learning or a Deep Learning

The answer is here. The question itself is not fully correct! Sometimes people incorrectly use the terms AI, ML, and DL. Why not simplify those first and then come back.

Clearing the Confusion: AI vs. Machine Learning vs. Deep Learning Differences

The commencement of modern AI can be traced to classical philosophers’ attempts to describe human thinking as a symbolic system. But the field of AI wasn’t formally founded until 1956, at a conference at Dartmouth College, in Hanover, New Hampshire, where the term “artificial intelligence” was coined.

NLP: How Does NLP Fit into the AI World

With a basic understanding of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning, let's revisit our very first query NLP is Artificial Intelligence or Machine Learning or Deep Learning? The words AI, NLP, and ML (machine learning) are sometimes used almost interchangeably. However, there is an order to the madness of their relationship. Hierarchically, natural language processing is considered a subset of machine learning while NLP and ML both fall under the larger category of artificial intelligence.

Natural Language Processing combines Artificial Intelligence (AI) and computational linguistics so that computers and humans can talk seamlessly.

NLP endeavors to bridge the divide between machines and people by enabling a computer to analyze what a user said (input speech recognition) and process what the user meant. This task has proven quite complex.

To converse with humans, a program must understand syntax (grammar), semantics (word meaning), and morphology (tense), pragmatics (conversation). The number of rules to track can seem overwhelming and explains why earlier attempts at NLP initially led to disappointing results. With a different system in place, NLP slowly improved moving from a cumbersome-rule based to a pattern learning-based computer programming methodology. Siri appeared on the iPhone in 2011. In 2012, the new discovery of the use of graphical processing units (GPU) improved digital neural networks and NLP.

NLP empowers computer programs to comprehend unstructured content by utilizing AI and machine learning to make derivations and give context to language, similar as what human brains do. It is a device for revealing and analyzing the “signals” covered in unstructured information. Organizations would then be able to get a deeper comprehension of public perception around their products, services, and brand, just like those of their rivals.

Now Google has released its own neural-net-based engine for eight language pairs, closing much of the quality gap between its old system and a human translator and fuelling increasing interest in the technology. Computers today can already produce an eerie echo of human language if fed with the appropriate material. Over the past few years, Deep Learning (DL) architectures and algorithms have made impressive advances in fields such as image recognition and speech processing. Their application to Natural Language Processing (NLP) was less impressive at first but has now proven to make significant contributions, yielding state-of-the-art results for some common NLP tasks. Named entity recognition (NER), part of speech (POS) tagging or sentiment analysis are some of the problems where neural network models have outperformed traditional approaches. The progress in machine translation is perhaps the most remarkable of all.

NLP is not Just About Creating Intelligent bots

NLP is a tool for computers to analyze, comprehend, and derive meaning from natural language in an intelligent and useful way. This goes way beyond the most recently developed chatbots and smart virtual assistants. In fact, natural language processing algorithms are everywhere from search, online translation, spam filters, and spell checking.

Components of NLP

NLP can be divided into two basic components.

Natural Language Understanding

Natural Language Generation

Natural Language Understanding (NLU)

NLU is naturally harder than NLG tasks. Really? Let’s see what are all challenges faced by a machine while understanding. There are lot of ambiguity while learning or trying to interpret a language.

Lexical Ambiguity can occur when a word carries different sense, i.e. having more than one meaning and the sentence in which it is contained can be interpreted differently depending on its correct sense. Lexical ambiguity can be resolved to some extent using parts-of-speech tagging techniques.

Syntactical Ambiguity means when we see more than one meaning in a sequence of words. It is also termed as grammatical ambiguity.

Referential Ambiguity: Very often a text mentions as entity (something/someone), and then refers to it again, possibly in a different sentence, using another word. Pronoun causing ambiguiyty when it is not clear which noun it is refering to

Natural Language Generation (NLG)

It is the process of producing meaningful phrases and sentences in the form of natural language from some internal representation.

Text planning  

It includes retrieving the relevant content from the knowledge base.

Sentence planning 

It includes choosing required words, forming meaningful phrases, and setting the tone of the sentence.

Text Realization 

It is mapping sentence plans into sentence structure.

Levels of NLP

In the previous sections, we have discussed different problems associated with NLP. Now let us see what are all the typical steps involved while performing NLP tasks. We should keep in mind that the below section describes some standard workflow, it may however differ drastically as we do real-life implementations basis on our problem statement or requirements.

Phonological Analysis: 

This level is applied only if the text's origin is a speech. It deals with the interpretation of speech sounds within and across words. Speech sound might give a big hint about the meaning of a word or a sentence

Morphological Analysis: 

Deals with understanding distinct words according to their morphemes ( the smallest units of meanings). Take, for example, the word: “unhappiness ”. It can be broken down into three morphemes (prefix, stem, and suffix), with each conveying some form of meaning: the prefix un- refers to “not being”, while the suffix -ness refers to “a state of being”. The stem happy is considered as a free morpheme since it is a “word” in its own right. Bound morphemes (prefixes and suffixes) require a free morpheme to which they can be attached to, and can therefore not appear as a “word” on their own.

Lexical Analysis:

It involves identifying and analyzing the structure of words. Lexicon of a language means the collection of words and phrases in a language. Lexical analysis is dividing the whole chunk of text into paragraphs, sentences, and words. In order to deal with lexical analysis, we often need to perform Lexicon Normalization.

Stemming: Stemming is a rudimentary rule-based process of stripping the suffixes (“ing”, “ly”, “es”, “s” etc) from a word.

Lemmatization: Lemmatization, on the other hand, is an organized & step by step procedure of obtaining the root form of the word, it makes use of vocabulary (dictionary importance of words) and morphological analysis (word structure and grammar relations).

Syntactic Analysis:

 Deals with analyzing the words of a sentence so as to uncover the grammatical structure of the sentence. E.g.. "Colourless green idea." This would be rejected by the Symantec analysis as colorless here; green doesn't make any sense. Syntactical parsing involves the analysis of words in the sentence for grammar and their arrangement in a manner that shows the relationships among the words. Dependency Grammar and Part of Speech tags are the important attributes of text syntactic.

Semantic Analysis:

Determines the possible meanings of a sentence by focusing on the interactions among word-level meanings in the sentence. Some people may think it’s the level that determines the meaning, but actually, all the levels do. The semantic analyzer disregards sentences such as “hot ice cream”.

Discourse Integration:

Focuses on the properties of the text as a whole that convey meaning by making connections between component sentences. It means a sense of the context. The meaning of any single sentence depends upon that sentence. It also considers the meaning of the following sentence. For example, the word "that" in the sentence "He wanted that" depends upon the prior discourse context.

Pragmatic Analysis: 

Explains how extra meaning is read into texts without actually being encoded in them. This requires much world knowledge, including the understanding of intentions, plans, and goals. Consider the following two sentences:

The city police refused the demonstrators a permit because they feared violence.

The city police refused the demonstrators a permit because they advocated revolution.

The meaning of “they” in the 2 sentences is different. In order to figure out the difference, world knowledge in knowledge bases and inference modules should be utilized. Pragmatic analysis helps users to discover this intended effect by applying a set of rules that characterize cooperative dialogues. E.g., "close the window?" should be interpreted as a request instead of an order.

Cybersecurity & Importance of Cybersecurity

Every square IS a rectangle because a square is a quadrilateral with all four angles being right angles. Similarly, cybersecurity IS a part of the IT security umbrella, along with its counterparts, physical security and information security. But not every rectangle is a square, since the criteria to qualify as a square means all sides must be the same length. The point is, that not all IT security measures qualify as cybersecurity, as cybersecurity has its own distinct assets to protect. Of course, the threat to these electronic assets is hackers who have malicious intent to steal proprietary data and information via data breaches. Thus, it would seem the fully realized definition should include an evolving set of cybersecurity tools designed to protect confidential data from unauthorized access. To do so, it’s necessary to consider how people, processes, and technology all play equally important roles in keeping information safe.

What Is IT Security?

Physical security:

 Focuses on how you keep people and infrastructure safe. In this category, you focus on securing buildings, server rooms, and wiring closets. You focus on proper lighting for buildings and parking lots, for example. It also involves understanding how to use camera guards, as well as actual guards and even guard dogs.

Information security:

 Focuses on keeping all data and derived information safe. This includes physical data (e.g., paper, computers) as well as electronic information. In this category, individuals focus on data backups, as well as monitoring techniques to make sure that no one has tampered with data or exfiltrated information. This category focuses less on the actual equipment and computing resources because it focuses on the data itself. And, yes, I’m distinguishing between data and information: data is raw and unprocessed. Information is derived from data after quite a bit of scrubbing, processing, and handling.

Cybersecurity:

 Focuses on protecting electronic assets – including the Internet, WAN, and LAN resources – used to store and transmit that information. Cybersecurity tends to focus on how malicious actors use these resources to attack information. Those individuals interested in cybersecurity are the ones interested in making sure that hackers can’t use electronic means to gain improper access to data and information.

Cybersecurity Important

One of the many advantages of living in a world where every device is connected is convenience. It’s incredibly easy to conduct work, manage your social calendar, shop and make appointments from your smartphone or device. That’s why it’s become second nature to many of us. But, of course, the convenience of connected data also means threats from bad actors can do a lot of damage. Cybersecurity initiatives are essential to protecting our data and thus, our way of life.

Types of Cybersecurity

Critical infrastructure security

Application security

Network security

Cloud security

Internet of Things (IoT) security

Cybersecurity risk

Suspicious URLs and Emails: 

Explain to employees that if something looks strange – it probably is! Encourage staff to pay attention to URLS delete emails that don’t have content or look like they are coming from a spoofed address, and stress the importance of guarding personal information. As an IT professional, it’s your responsibility to raise awareness of potential cybersecurity threats.

Password Idleness: 

We know that holding on to the same password for ages isn’t a great idea. But, Bob in finance may not understand that We all carry a plethora of passwords and since it’s a best practice not to duplicate your passwords, it’s understandable that some of us need to write them down somewhere. Provide suggestions on where to store passwords.

Personally Identifiable Information: 

Most employees should understand the need to keep personal browsing, like shopping and banking tasks, to their own devices. But everybody does a bit of browsing for work, right? Emphasize the importance of keeping an eye on what websites may lead to others. And, that includes social media. Karen in customer service may not realize that sharing too much on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. (like personally identifiable information) is just one-way hackers can gather intel.

Backups and Updates:

 It’s fairly easy for unsavvy tech consumers to go about their daily business without backing up their data regularly and updating their system’s anti-virus. This is a job for the IT department. The biggest challenge here is getting employees to understand when they need your help with these items.

Physical Security for Devices:

 Think about how many people in your office leave their desks for meetings, gatherings, and lunch breaks. Are they locking their devices? Highlight the need to protect information each and every time a device is left unattended. You can use the airport analogy. Airport staff is constantly telling us to keep track of our bags and never leave them unattended. Why? Well, because you just don’t know who is walking by. Encourage employees to protect their devices with as much care as they protect their baggage.

Processes

When employees outside of the IT department are trained, IT pros can focus on the process. The processes by which cybersecurity professionals go about protecting confidential data are multi-faceted. In short, these IT pros are tasked with detecting and identifying threats, protecting information, and responding to incidents as well as recovering from them. Putting processes into place not only ensures each of these buckets is being continuously monitored, but if cybersecurity attacks happen, referencing a well-documented process can save your company time, money, and the trust of your most valuable asset – your customers. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) under the U.S. Commerce Department has developed the cybersecurity framework for private-sector companies to use as a guide in creating their own best practices. The standards were compiled by NIST after former U.S. President Barack Obama signed an executive order in 2014. It’s a great resource to use as you work to combat your cybersecurity risk.

Technology

1) The technology you’ll use to prevent and combat cybersecurity attacks, like DNS filtering, malware protection, antivirus software, firewalls, and email security solutions.

2) The technology your data lives on that needs your protection, like computers, smart devices, routers, networks & the cloud.

Back in the day, cybersecurity initiatives focused on defensive measures inside the boundaries of traditional tech. But today, policies, like Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), have blurred those lines and handed hackers a much broader realm to penetrate. Remembering cybersecurity basics like locking all of your doors, windows, elevators, and skylights will keep you from joining the cyber-crime statistics.

Cybersecurity Threats

Malware
Malware is software that has been created to intentionally cause damage. Commonly known as a virus (among other things), malware can cause harm simply by opening the wrong attachment or clicking on the wrong link.

Ransomware
Ransomware is actually a type of malware. The difference here is that ransomware infects a network or steals confidential data and then demands a ransom (typically currency of some sort) in exchange for access to your systems.

Phishing Attacks
Phishing is just like it sounds. Hackers throw a line out there hoping that you’ll bite, and when you do, they steal sensitive information like passwords, credit card numbers, and more. Phishing attacks usually come in the form of emails that look legitimate and encourage you to reply.

Social Engineering
Social engineering involves malicious human interaction. This is a case of people outright lying and manipulating others to divulge personal information. Often, these people obtain information from social media profiles and posts.

Security Analyst

What is a security analyst?

Security analysts can work across the spectrum of computer and information networks. From corporate databases to banking networks and from office networks to military intelligence, security analysts can be found anywhere that large amounts of information are being stored, shared, or used by a computer. A well-trained security analyst will probably have an advanced understanding of both hardware and software, and how data is stored and managed. The top three cybersecurity threats facing information technology networks of all scales are ransomware attacks, social engineering attacks, and the theft or compromise of sensitive information from inside an organization or company. This means that cybersecurity analysts need to be prepared to deal with a wide variety of threats and look for security issues both internally and externally. 

Security analyst skills

The cybersecurity skills and expertise required will vary widely from job to job. Some security analyst job openings are looking for people with specific skills, like managing a proprietary network, or training other employees, or conducting penetration testing on the organization’s digital properties. For students and early career professionals, one key tactic to understand what the most valuable and marketable job skills is to study a number of different job descriptions at various kinds of employers. That research should start to show trends and reveal how current skills and experience map to opportunities. Understanding the current job market will also help make decisions about what kinds of security certifications and degrees to pursue.

Despite the wide variability of cybersecurity analyst jobs, there are a number of characteristics or skills that are common to the profession.

1) Programming experience. Since cybersecurity analysts are charged with defending digital infrastructure, it makes sense that cybersecurity professionals are expected to have some base level of programming experience and familiarity with foundational programming languages such as C, C++, PHP, Perl, and Java. 

2) Analytical. Security analysts work with data from a variety of sources and so they need to be able to take information from many inputs to make decisions.

3) Detail-oriented. Much of the work of cybersecurity analysts comes down to examining small details — like lines of computer code or network commands — that could have major impacts.

4) Forward-thinking. Security analysts need to anticipate the future based on current data and trends and then make security recommendations accordingly.

What do security analysts do?

A security analyst often wears a lot of hats in an organization or company. They might be part police officers, part systems designers, part policymakers, and part trainers or teacher. 

While security analysts could be thought of as the first responders of the digital world, as they are often called on to triage security incidents the reality is that most cybersecurity analysts spend their time developing policies and procedures and reviewing best practices, and providing training for company or organization employees. In an optimal world, a security analyst is taking proactive steps to prevent security breaches in the first place. That could mean constantly updating systems and software, or it could mean actively looking for ways to knock down firewalls or find loopholes in computer code or operating systems. 

Outlook for security analysts

As the digital transformation across industries and sectors grows, security analysts will continue to be in high demand. Traditional cybersecurity analysts worked in niche industries related to vulnerable sectors of the economy such as the military, finance and banking, and the oil and gas companies. But now, consumer companies and everyday brands are hiring cybersecurity analysts to help protect their companies and operations. The need for well-trained cybersecurity analysts is so pronounced that the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) predicts that employment opportunities for cybersecurity professionals will grow by 36 percent through 2024. The projected rate of job growth is much faster than other sectors of the economy and is projected to continue to grow into the next several years as more companies and organizations begin investing in cybersecurity positions.

Cybersecurity Skills

Cybersecurity professionals should be well-versed in computer systems and networks and should have the ability to solve problems and communicate solutions despite the wide variance in job responsibilities across different cybersecurity roles in different industries, studies have shown that specific skills are universally essential for cybersecurity professionals. A recent study from labor market analytics firm Burning Glass showed that application development security and cloud security skills were the most in-demand for cybersecurity professionals, with five-year projected growth rates of 164 and 115 percent respectively. Those skills were also lucrative, each with a $12,000-15,000 average salary premium. With a 60 percent expected growth rate and a $13,000 cybersecurity analyst salary premium, risk management skills were next.

Cybersecurity Technical Skills

Networking

Understanding how computers connect and interact with each other is a key skill to succeed in cybersecurity. In a survey by The SANS Institute of more than 500 cybersecurity professionals, 85 percent of respondents ranked networking as a critical skill. Understanding elements like network architecture, routing and switching, network protocols, firewalls, and virtual private networks is key to planning security policies.

Operating systems and database management

Cybersecurity professionals need to understand information technology fundamentals for a range of systems, including Linux, Windows, and macOS. They should be knowledgeable on how operating systems and databases work and how to keep them secure.

Threat detection

The threat landscape in cybersecurity is constantly evolving. Threats and vulnerabilities, big or small, can come at any time and remain undetected if not carefully analyzed. Cybersecurity professionals need to know how to use the right tools and strategies to ensure that threats are identified and swiftly managed.

Risk management

In their role, cybersecurity professionals identify and mitigate any incoming security risk. Should a data breach occur, they need to be able to recover quickly so that damage is minimized.

Cybersecurity Analyst

A Cybersecurity Analyst enacts cybersecurity measures designed to protect and secure IT infrastructure including networks, hardware, and software from threats, attacks, and malicious actors.

1)  Phishing, often takes the form of fraudulent emails, calls, and other communications that aim to steal information including bank accounts, login information, and credit card numbers.

2)  Malware or other malicious computer software can take forms including viruses, Trojans, or spyware.

3)  Denial-of-service attacks where criminals try to overwhelm servers and a network with bogus traffic that locks out legitimate users.

4)  SQL injections into an application’s database that give criminal actors access to sensitive data.

Cybersecurity Important

Cybersecurity is important because so much of our sensitive information – including personal and health data, intellectual property, and governmental information systems – is vulnerable to attack, and it needs to be properly protected. The purpose of cybersecurity is to protect systems and data from cyber-attacks. Individuals and organizations use cybersecurity to ensure that their data is safe from unauthorized access. Cyber attacks can happen at any level, big or small. There have been incidences of governmental organizations being breached and citizens losing access to essential services. On an individual level, cybercrime victims have faced identity theft, blackmail, and extortion.

Cyber attacks are one of the world’s fastest-growing crimes, and cybersecurity is a crucial practice as the rate of cybercrime skyrockets. Risk Based Security found that, in 2019, over 15.1 billion records were exposed and 7,098 breaches were reported. By 2021, it is projected that damage from cybercrime will exceed $6 trillion, making cybersecurity more important now than ever. Cybercriminals are also becoming more innovative in their tactics, making cybersecurity critically important. Any business that relies on internet-connected systems (which is nearly every modern business) needs to put cybersecurity measures in place. A robust cybersecurity strategy involves implementing multiple layers of protection on devices, programs, and networks. Tools, such as firewalls and antivirus software, should be used alongside cybersecurity best practices to ensure that data is protected.

Network security monitoring tools

These tools are used to analyze network data and detect network-based threats. Examples of tools include Argus, Nagios, Pof, Splunk, and OSSEC.

Encryption tools

Encryption protects data by scrambling text so that it is unreadable to unauthorized users. Examples of tools include Tor, KeePass, VeraCrypt, NordLocker, AxCrypt, and TrueCrypt.

Web vulnerability scanning tools

These software programs scan web applications to identify security vulnerabilities including cross-site scripting, SQL injection, and path traversal. Examples of tools include Burp Suite, Nikto, Paros Proxy, and SQLMap.

Penetration testing

Penetration testing, also known as the “pen test”, simulates an attack on a computer system in order to evaluate the security of that system. Examples of penetration testing tools include Metasploit, Kali Linux, Netsparker, and Wireshark.

Antivirus software

This software is designed to find viruses and other harmful malware, including ransomware, worms, spyware, adware, and Trojans. Examples of tools include Norton 360, Bitdefender Antivirus, Norton AntiVirus, Kaspersky Anti-Virus, and McAfee Total Protection.

Network intrusion detection

An Intrusion Detection System (IDS) monitors network and system traffic for unusual or suspicious activity and notifies the administrator if a potential threat is detected. Examples of tools include Snort, Security Onion, SolarWinds Security Event Manager, Kismet, and Zeek.

Packet sniffers

A packet sniffer, also called a packet analyzer, protocol analyzer or network analyzer, is used to intercept, log, and analyze network traffic and data. Examples of tools include Wireshark, Tcpdump, and Windump.

Firewall tools

Top firewall security management suites include Tufin, AlgoSec, FireMon, and RedSeal.

Managed detection services

Managed detection services to analyze and proactively detect and eventually eliminate cyber threats. Alerts are investigated to determine if any action is required.

Marketing Techniques for Small Businesses

Flyers

This is the carpet-bombing method of cheap advertising. You find an area where you would like to do business and distribute flyers to all the mailboxes within reach. Your flyer should be brief and to the point, highlighting the services you offer or products you sell and providing contact information. Offering a free appraisal, coupon, or discount never hurts.

Posters

Most supermarkets, public spaces, and malls offer free bulletin board space for announcements and advertisements. This method is hit-or-miss, but you should try to make your poster reasonably visible and have removable tabs that the customers can present for a discount. Make each location a different color to get an idea from the tabs where the most leads are being generated. If one area is producing most of your leads, you can better target your campaign (flyers, ads in local media catering to those areas, cold calling, etc.)

Value Additions

Value additions (or value-ads) are powerful selling points for any product or service. On the surface, value additions are very similar to coupons and free appraisals, but they aim to increase customer satisfaction and widen the gap between you and the competition. Common value additions include guarantees, discounts for repeat customers, point cards, and referral rewards. The deciding factor for a customer choosing between two similar shops is the one that offers a point card or preferred customer card. You don’t have to promise the moon to add value. Instead, state something that the customer may not realize about your product or service. It's important to highlight the value additions when creating your advertising materials.

Referral Networks

Referral networks are invaluable to a business, which often include customer referrals, who are encouraged through discounts or other rewards per referral. However, referral networks also include business-to-business referrals. If you have ever found yourself saying, “We don’t do/sell that here, but X down the street does,” you should make certain that you are getting a referral in return. When dealing with white-collar professions, this network is even stronger. A lawyer refers people to an accountant; an accountant refers people to a broker; a financial planner refers to a real estate agent. In each of these situations, the person stakes their professional reputation on the referral. Regardless of your business, make sure you create a referral network that has the same outlook and commitment to quality that you do. As a final note on referral networks, remember that your competition is not always your enemy. If you are too busy to take a job, throw it their way. Most times, you will find the favor returned. Besides, it can be bad for your reputation if a customer has to wait too long.

Follow-Ups

Advertising can help you get a job, but what you do after a job can often be a much stronger marketing tool. Follow-up questionnaires are one of the best sources of feedback on how your ad campaign is going.

Why did the customer choose your business?

Where did they hear about it?

Which other companies had they considered?

What produced the most customer satisfaction?

What was the least satisfying?

Also, if your job involves going to the customer, make sure to slip a flyer into nearby mailboxes, as people of similar needs and interests tend to live in the same area.

Cold Calls

Cold calling—whether it happens over the phone or door to door—is a baptism of fire for many small businesses. Cold calling forces you to sell yourself as well as your business. If people can’t buy you (the person talking to them), they won’t buy anything from you. Over the phone, you don’t have the benefit of a smile or face-to-face conversation—a phone is a license for people to be as caustic and abrupt as possible (we are all guilty of this at one time or another). However, cold calling does make you think on your feet and encourages creativity and adaptability when facing potential customers.

The Internet

difficult to overstate the internet’s importance to building a successful business. Methods of marketing have stayed pretty much the same across the last 50 years, except for the birth and rapid evolution of the internet. No company (even a local café) should be without, at the very least, a website with vital details such as location and hours. You need a point of access for everyone who Googles first when they want to make a buying decision. You also need a social media presence (Facebook page, Instagram, and Twitter accounts) combined with a content management system (CMS) with good search engine optimization (SEO). All this digital dexterity may feel intimidating at first. However, publishing technology has evolved to the point where Wordpress—just one example of a free CMS—can meet all these needs. Yes, the internet is a beast. Make it your friendly one.

The Bottom Line

More than likely, you will find that the conversion rate on marketing is very low. Even the most successful campaigns measure leads (and converted sales from those leads) in the 10% to 20% range. This helps to shatter any illusions about instant success, but it is also an opportunity for improvement. Do you want a company to buy your product? Give a presentation showing its benefits to that company. Do you want someone to use your service? Give an estimate or a sample of what you will do for them. Be confident, creative, and unapologetic, and people will eventually respond.