Understanding a global culture

The challenges and benefits of working in this global culture and the effects of a business’ worldview all prove the importance of cross-cultural communication.

Cross-cultural communication refers to the communication between participants from different cultures. Even within the same country, different locations can have cultural differences. Communication styles, standard norms of turn-taking in conversation, and accepted methods of address may all differ. 

So, before getting into the workplace and the effects of cross-cultural communication, it’s necessary to understand cross-cultural communication and inclusion while keeping several things in mind. 

Each of us needs to develop our knowledge and understanding of our own cultural background and biases. Without this understanding, we take many things for granted. This will undoubtedly lead to misunderstandings and misinterpretations. We also need to cultivate open-mindedness of other cultures and ways of doing things. Keeping these points in mind, let’s proceed.

8 aspects that prove the importance of cross cultural communication

For businesses to thrive in the global economy, it’s becoming increasingly vital to be aware of the importance of cross-cultural communication. Those businesses that successfully navigate and harness the differences and similarities between cultures can create more resilient interconnection and interdependence. 

Accordingly, the importance of cross-cultural communication in business plays its role in increasing productivity which helps businesses to thrive and increase their profits. So, let’s go through some of the greatest benefits of improved cross-cultural communication in the workplace and see how they drive success.

Communication and trust

Good cross-cultural understanding improves communication between people from different cultures. Consequently, it fosters greater trust.

When employees or customers are aware of potential differences and similarities, they’re likely to pay closer attention. They’ll think more about what other people are saying and doing. This is important to minimize misunderstandings and to consider what the other side is actually trying to communicate.

When employees or customers demonstrate an understanding of each other’s cultural background, greater trust is built. This creates a feeling of being a team and it enhances collaboration.

Increasing productivity and profits

Improved communication and trust promote greater productivity of all. The improved communication between colleagues boosts productivity in numerous ways, including reducing misinterpretation and a better understanding of strategies and goals.

With greater trust, participants can focus more on their aspect of the common work. All without the worry of whether the other participants are fulfilling the requirements of their respective tasks. Furthermore, greater trust also promotes collaboration and a sense of unity amongst team members.

Incentives

Another reason why cross-cultural communication is important is that it impacts the understanding of the different incentive drives of participants. By applying good cross-cultural understanding, we cater to these various incentives and create an inclusive environment. Consequently, there is an improvement in productivity when the participants are appropriately incentivized.

Appropriate incentives make employees or customers feel more valued because they recognize that attention has been paid to their relevant cultural norms.

Creativity

With a larger pool of cultural influences and views, creativity is improved as well.

Because of the greater variety in cultural influences and views, there are more inputs to any creative endeavor. This cultural diversity is important because it provides a larger selection of possible solutions to any problem or challenge faced in the workplace. 

Also, a better cross-cultural understanding is important to develop open-mindedness. It promotes the understanding that there’s more than one solution that’s suitable for any given situation or challenge.

In today’s rapidly changing markets and fast-paced lifestyles, improved creativity and problem-solving can provide a business with a noticeable edge.

Human resources

The importance of cross-cultural communication and understanding has its part in a business’s human resources department as well. When they have the ability to recruit globally and successfully integrate international talent, a business can make use of the most talented people, irrespective of their location. 

Not only would such diversity improve productivity, but it would also have a positive impact on the company’s image. It demonstrates that they value ability and talent wherever it comes from.

Challenging the status quo

Cultural diversity means that more questions are asked between participants as they seek to ensure effective communication and understanding. This results in the challenging of the status quo which often leads to potential improvements that would have been missed in a monocultural environment.

Moreover, frequent improvements often mean more efficient workflows, which can also drive greater success within the workplace.

Local needs

In utilizing cross-cultural communication and the application of a diverse talent pool, businesses can adapt to regional requirements with greater finesse and understanding. By making use of the relevant knowledge from within their global workforce, they’re better equipped to adapt to and understand local needs, habits, and requirements.

Demonstrating such local understanding could be a primary determiner of success in a local market. By catering to local culture, your business is almost certain to have a competitive edge over any rivals.

A great growth opportunity

While there are numerous challenges that occur when different cultures interact, there is a great opportunity too.

Ideally, the development and implementation of cross-cultural communication should take place from the top of the organization. When the leaders set an example and demonstrate their awareness and adaptability, they pave the way for everyone else in the organization to follow suit.

The benefits of effective cross-cultural communication, not only toward success and profit, can be immense. It generally outweighs the challenges posed and has major long-term benefits.

To start the development of cross-cultural communication, keep the above in mind. Remember to actively listen to all participants. And, always pause before reacting, in case there has been a cultural misunderstanding.

Conclusion

Society’s integration with technology and the resulting development of global culture has placed greater pressures on business. It highlighted the need for developing and training cultural understanding and the importance of cross-cultural communication. Therefore, breaking the cross-cultural communication barriers in the workplace goes a long way towards increasing success. 

What is local presence dialing?

Local presence dialing is a sales and marketing strategy that aims to increase engagement and response rates by displaying a local phone number to prospects, rather than a toll-free or out-of-state number. The theory behind local presence dialing is that people are more likely to answer a call from a number that appears to be local to their area, versus an unfamiliar long-distance number.

How does local presence dialing work?

To use local presence dialing, you need to purchase local DID numbers from a service provider such as VoiceSpin which offers international local numbers from 160+ countries. These providers maintain a pool of numbers with local area codes from various geographic locations. When a business initiates outbound calls using the dialer software for call center, the dialing system automatically selects a number from the pool with the same area code as the recipient’s location. It ensures that your prospect will see a local number on their caller ID screen, helping your business appear legitimate, more credible, and trustworthy.

For example, if you are calling prospects located in New York, the dialer system will select numbers with 212 or 315 area codes from your pool of purchased numbers. From the recipient’s perspective, the call appears to be coming from a local business. The best part is that your agents don’t have to select numbers for each location manually. The dialer system automatically detects the location based on the area code of the prospect’s number and adjusts the local caller ID accordingly, saving your reps a great deal of time and effort.

How can local presence dialing help you improve sales

Before we go into more detail, first let’s see how local presence dialing can help you improve sales.

Local presence dialing increases your call answer rates

Low call answer rate has always been one of the biggest challenges sales reps face when making cold calls. There might be several reasons why your prospects aren’t picking up (e.g., you might have called at the wrong time). But if you call your prospects from numbers with local area codes rather than toll-free numbers, that can dramatically change the outcome.

According to research by Software Advice, people are nearly four times more likely to answer calls from local numbers. While only 7% of the respondents said they’re likely to answer a call from an unknown caller with a toll-free area code – that number leaps to 27.5% when the unknown caller is using a local area code.

Local presence increases the efficiency of your outbound calling campaigns

Leveraging local presence dialing doesn’t just improve call answer rates – it can also have a significant impact on the overall productivity and efficiency of your outbound sales team. Since more prospects are likely to answer calls from local numbers, your sales reps will engage in more conversations with potential customers rather than wasting time dialing numbers and waiting for calls to connect.

This boost in productivity is compounded by the cost-effectiveness of using a local presence dialer. Rather than having to staff separate call center teams in each location you’re calling, you can simply purchase bulk local phone numbers from a DID provider and have your agents call prospects from those local presence numbers, regardless of their actual physical location. This allows you to streamline your operations and focus your resources on generating more sales opportunities, rather than managing complex multi-site infrastructure.

Best practices for using local presence dialing

Since we’ve established the benefits of local presence dialing for sales without further ado it’s time to explain the best practices that you can incorporate to .

Purchase local numbers from reputable providers

To ensure you get the maximum out of local presence dialing, purchase local DID numbers from a reputable service provider. Carefully research different VoIP providers, paying close attention to customer reviews and factors like availability of numbers in your desired geographic regions, pricing, per-minute charges, any restrictions and limitations, and the quality of customer support.

Keep an eye on the reputation of your numbers

When using local presence dialing, it’s essential to constantly monitor the reputation of your numbers to ensure they don’t appear as ‘Scam Likely’ on your recipients’ phone screens as it may negatively impact your call answer rates. If you are making large volumes of outbound calls in a specific area, you should have multiple numbers in rotation to ensure the same number isn’t used multiple times in a row. That will also naturally reduce the number of phone calls made per hour from each of these numbers. And if some of your numbers get flagged for suspicious calling behavior, it’s important to timely take them out of rotation and replace them with fresh numbers.

Combine local presence dialing with other strategies

While using local presence is an effective tactic that can improve your outbound calling success, use it alongside other strategies like:

• Use predictive auto-dialers: Predictive auto-dialing solutions can help you further improve the efficiency of your cold calling campaigns by increasing agent talk times and reducing idle time between calls. Predictive dialers use AI and machine learning capabilities to ‘predict’ agent availability based on real-time and historical metrics and connect agents to answered calls as soon as they complete their previous interaction. That means each agent can handle more outbound calls in less time, helping you maximize conversions.
• Call during the recommended times: Calling your prospects during recommended times and days of the week can also make a difference, increasing your call answer rates. For example, research by CallHippo revealed that the best time of day to make cold calls is between 4:00 – 5:00 PM, following the second best time between 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM. According to another study by Revenue.io, decision-makers are more likely to engage in the late afternoon, with the best times to cold call between 4:00 – 5:00 PM, followed closely by the 3:00 – 4:00 PM and 5:00 – 6:00 PM hours.

Conclusion

Despite the low average success rate for cold calls, cold calling remains an effective outbound sales strategy many businesses and organizations rely on. Using local presence dialing when running cold calling campaigns is an excellent way to improve your call connections and increase the efficiency of your cold calling campaigns. When prospects get calls from a number with an area code that matches their location, they are more likely to answer even though the number is unknown. Combined with other effective strategies and tactics, local presence dialing can make your outbound sales team much more productive and efficient and help you boost sales.

What is your approach to SEO?

The first question to ask potential SEO experts is about their approach to SEO. Understanding their methodology is crucial to ensure it aligns with your business objectives. A comprehensive SEO strategy should include on-page optimization, off-page optimization, and technical SEO. Ask how they balance these elements to create a cohesive strategy. 

For instance, if your business is located in Arizona and you’re looking for Tucson SEO experts, you’ll want a professional who understands global SEO tactics and can also apply local SEO strategies that attract and retain a local audience. How do they plan to make your firm visible to the local community? This gives you insight into their ability to handle both macro and micro aspects of SEO. 

Moreover, inquire about their adaptability to Google’s frequently changing algorithms and how they plan to keep your site compliant to avoid penalties. Their answers will reveal their expertise and how proactively they stay current with SEO trends. 

How do you stay ahead of SEO trends and changes?

Top SEO experts must be proactive in anticipating what’s coming next. When evaluating the best SEO experts, ask about their approach to continuous learning and how they keep up with the latest SEO industry developments. 

It would help if you also inquired about their involvement in SEO forums, their connections within the network of SEO professionals, and any thought leadership activities they participate in, such as writing articles or speaking at conferences. These questions can help you assess their dedication to their profession and their ability to keep your SEO strategy innovative and competitive. 

How do you optimize for user experience?

SEO has evolved beyond just keywords and backlinks, it now heavily focuses on enhancing the user experience. Google regularly updates its algorithms to prioritize user experience as a crucial ranking factor, this shift underlines the importance of having a website that’s user-friendly, fast to load, and responsive.  

When speaking with top SEO experts, it’s important to ask how they plan to improve the user experience on your site. Your questions should touch on their methods for speeding up page load times, ensuring your site is mobile-friendly, and making navigation intuitive. 

Also, discuss how they plan to format content to boost engagement and keep visitors on your site longer. Understanding their strategies in these areas will show you their ability to manage comprehensive SEO that goes beyond just the basics. 

Can you share success stories and references?

The importance of solid evidence when choosing top SEO experts cannot be overstated. Always ask for case studies, client references, and before-and-after comparisons to demonstrate their effectiveness. You’ll particularly want to hear about campaigns that have significantly improved search engine rankings, increased traffic, and, most importantly, boosted conversions. 

Take it a step further by asking how these successes align with their clients’ original goals. This will help you understand if the SEO experts are skilled at developing and implementing strategies that meet specific needs.  

Additionally, find out how frequently they provide reports to their clients and what kind of details these reports contain. Remember, clear and consistent communication is crucial for monitoring progress and adjusting strategies as necessary. 

How do you conduct keyword research?

Keyword research is foundational in SEO, as it determines the target queries your potential customers are using.  So, understanding how top SEO experts conduct keyword research will give you insight into how they tailor their SEO strategies to target the appropriate audience. 

Discover which SEO tools they use, learn about their keyword selection process, and understand how they balance high-competition with long-tail keywords. Moreover, inquire how they integrate these keywords into your content strategy to not only attract traffic but also drive engagement.  

How do they ensure the content remains relevant and valuable to your audience while incorporating these keywords? This reveals their ability to merge technical SEO with user-friendly content. 

Conclusion

Choosing the right SEO expert is a strategic decision that can significantly influence the future success of your firm’s online presence. By asking insightful questions about their strategies and successes, you’ll get a clearer idea of which experts are truly capable of boosting your site’s rankings and attracting meaningful traffic.  

Remember, top SEO experts won’t just provide quick fixes, they’ll become your strategic partners in boosting your business’s growth, adapting their tactics as your business and the digital industry change. Make a wise choice to ensure your investment enhances your search engine rankings and makes a substantial contribution to your overall business objectives.

What is an NFT startup?

NFT Startups are business companies that work with Blockchain technology and have created or leveraged non-transferable tokens that represent unique digital assets, that can be sold as physical products.

The top 24 NFT startups

In the list below, we show you the top 24 NFT startups that are changing the game in the Blockchain industry.

Element Market

Element Market operates a digital asset exchange that allows trading of cryptocurrencies and NFTs (non-fungible tokens). What makes Element Market unique is that it goes beyond being just a trading platform. The service also aggregates and analyzes NFT sales data from multiple marketplaces, providing transparency into price histories, floor values, bid-ask spreads, volatility, and other analytics. This gives traders and collectors more context about the true underlying value and demand dynamics of individual NFT projects.

With robust tools for valuation and discovery across the fragmented NFT landscape, Element Market aims to become the go-to platform for investors to research, buy, sell, and track the performance of crypto-assets like NFT collections along with traditional cryptocurrencies.

ConsenSys

Founded in 2014 in Brooklyn, New York. It’s one of the leading Ethereum companies in the blockchain industry. Their mission is to create next-generation applications, launch cutting-edge financial infrastructure, and gain access to the decentralized web. Their product suite, which includes Infura, Quorum, Truffle, Codefi, MetaMask, and Diligence, serves millions of users globally and has raised billions of dollars in digital assets.

Dotmoovs

It’s a new startup, founded in 2021 in Tallinn, Estonia. It’s a Play2Earn e-sport competition platform that allows users to rate their performance and challenge each other in their favorite sports using AI video judges. By using the platform, players can earn $MOOV, NFTs, and other rewards. The company’s motto is “We eliminate any physical and geographical limitations in sports and allow everyone to turn their training into powerful peer-to-peer competitions.”

Dapper Labs

Founded in 2018 in Vancouver, British Columbia, this startup is a pioneer in the e-gaming world.
This startup stays behind companies like CryptoKitties, NBA Top Shot, NFL All Day, UFC Strike, and Flow blockchain. In their work, they use Blockchain technology to bring NFTs and new forms of digital assets closer to their fans.

In four years, this startup has successfully raised over $600 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue, Union Square Ventures, Venrock, Google Ventures, Samsung, Dreamworks, Coinbase, and Zynga.

Polkawar

Is a decentralized platform for online game fighting based on a blockchain network. Inspired by the NFT subcategories, PolkaWar creates a fighting game in the real-time world. Players build a character system with various levels of weapons and equipment to battle other players (characters). Also, players can buy and sell digital items on the NFT marketplace.

Element

This project is founded and designed in 2021 from three viewpoints of creators, users, and communities. Their vision behind the project is to enable more users to enter the NFTs market and facilitate the integration of traditional markets and the crypto economy.

Element is a decentralized NFT marketplace built on a decentralized blockchain network to help create, discover and share a valuable trading platform for both NFT creators and investors.

VulcanForged

It’s a community-based project launched in 2020. It presents the development of world-class blockchain games by supporting developers from the entire world to participate through incubation and crowdfunding development programs.

In just two years since its launching has grown from a small NFT platform to an immense App platform, game studio, launchpad, and NFT marketplace. In 2021, has launched its decentralized exchange marketplace called VulcanDex which entered into the top 5 NFT marketplaces.

Polychain Monsters

Previously known as Polkamon is a P2E trading game based on blockchain technology that incorporates elements and gameplay patterns from Pokemon cards.

Offers playful entertainment, easy trading, and different types of animated NFTs of unique and colorful monster and creature characters. Its advanced features make it different from other NFT collecting platforms currently available. To participate in the ecosystem, players can use the Polychain Monster, which is an NFT token. 

OpenSea

Launched in 2017 with headquarter in New York. This startup represents an open and comprehensive web3 platform that allows an individual to explore their NFTs, connect and buy and sell their NFTs. 

OpenSeathe first and largest peer-to-peer marketplace for non-fungible tokens or NFTs. It also includes collectibles, game items, domain names, digital art, and many other items secured by blockchain.

YieldGuild Games

It’s a blockchain-based organization that pools funds and invests in in-game NFTs, allowing members to play Metaverse games and earn rewards. This organization is created in 2021 and is one of the first Yields to bring his DeFi concept of Yield Farming to Play to Earn.

Yield Guild Games acts as a device for lending in-game NFTs to members who cannot afford to purchase NFTs themselves.

OTM NFT

Own the Moment is another “new kid from the block”. This startup is launched in 2021 and since then it has seen tremendous growth. 

It’s an immense platform that consists of, a content provider, and a community that provides everything you need to collect and invest in NFTs. Their mission is to help and support everyone that needs a strategy in this emerging field, through NFT discovery, education, analysis, and discussion.

Verisart

Launched in 2015 with headquarters in Los Angeles, California is a creator-driven platform to mint NFTs, sell digital art pieces, and connect with collectors.

To assist artists, the company has created a blockchain-based digital certification platform for certifying and verifying artworks and collectibles. Every NFT carries an integrated Certificate of Authenticity designed to verify creative authenticity for physical and digital art and collectibles.

Doingud

Is a new upcoming NFT startup that comes from Europe, with headquarters in Zug, Switzerland launched in 2021.

Is a next-generation ecosystem that is investigating the future of digital media and collectibles. It aspires to be a community-owned platform, working to empower creators, curators, brands, and organizations to engage with their audiences. Their mission is to get into sustainable revenue streams, generate value for their audiences, and make a meaningful impact in the blockchain industry.

Ternoa

Is a blockchain design created in 2013 which serves for storing and transferring particular data anonymously and securely.

It works by operating decentralized blockchain storehouse networks to store this data which is also passed down across generations. It uses NFTs as transmission technology. It’s also allowed, to transfer a variety of data like prints, vids, watchwords, legal documents, bank details, and more. Along with that, it’s also able of driving event- grounded data transfers.

Mintable

If you are looking for an NFT marketplace for collectors and digital artists, Mintable is a name that has recognition among collectors. This platform exist since 2018 and is a great place to begin exploring the wide world of NFTs. Offers a variety of non-fungible commemoratives including digital collectibles, music, art, in-game particulars, and many more.

This is an Ethereum- grounded NFT business that gives collectors an easy way to produce, buy, and sell colorful NFTs. To buy or sell on Mintable, you need to have Ethereum coins.

Rarible

It’s an open-source NFT marketplace launched in 2020. In the short two years since its launching, it became one of the best NFT marketplaces that work on the Ethereum blockchain technology. Their main goal is one day to be a decentralized-independent association.

The platform uses its cryptocurrency called RARI which is the first governance commemorative in the NFT world. RARI enables the collectors on Rarible to bounce for any platform upgrades and share in curation at a rate of,000 RARI a week. While artists are needed to submit their creations for endorsement.

Spores

The founders of this startup have a vision that crypto will guide to decentralization of ownership and redistribution of capital. So, their mission is to develop an NFT ecosystem that will be centered and community-driven.

Spores Network builds a blockchain technology that will be the fundamentals for a full-stack, blockchain-agnostic NFT- DeFi platform. They believe that the platform will be secure, flawless, and friendly for all actors, making mass relinquishment of NFTs possible.

Applify

This is a startup that comes from India, founded in 2014 with headquarters in Mohali City, Punjab. Besides their specialty in mobile and web development, they also started developing NFTs.

Team Applify has created some incredible, cutting-edge products. Such as a marketplace for NFT watch faces which is a fusion of blockchain technology, crypto dynamics, and an OTT platform that converts any smart screen into a theater.

Charged Particles

This project was launched in 2020 in Aurora, Ontario. Designed as a protocol combining Decentralized Finance and Non-Fungible Commemoratives. With this protocol, you are suitable to turn a standard NFT into a yield-generating investment.

Their vision is to integrate this protocol into every NFT platform with the end goal to become a fundamental technology in the development of NFTs.

Bitski

Is an NFT business launched in 2016 in San Francisco, California. Their product is the first digital wallet for mainstream usage. Their developer-focused blockchain Etherium wallet allows creators, brands, and platforms to easily create, sell, and purchase NFTs through their platforms. 

Nifty

Nifty allows artists, creators, and collectors to mint, display, and trade NFT digital art and collectibles.

Key features include artist profiles, social feeds, and wallet-free transactions. This allows community engagement directly on the site, unlike some NFT marketplaces. Nifty’s also handles gas fees behind the scenes, simplifying the transaction process for buyers.

OneOf

Launched in 2020, OneOf aims to bring environmentally friendly NFTs to the music industry. Their curated marketplace allows fans to buy certified digital collectibles from major artists and icons.

OneOf operates on the energy-efficient Tezos blockchain. This enables their NFTs to use nearly negligible energy versus counterparts on proof-of-work blockchains which allows fans can collect music NFTs with confidence in a lower carbon footprint.

CryptoSlam

Founded in 2021, CryptoSlam aims to bring transparency to the nascent NFT market through data. Their dashboard lets users view real-time and historical NFT sales activity across marketplaces and blockchains.

Tools include ranking of top collections, rarity analysis of traits, listings of top sales, and more. For individual NFTs, users can access backgrounds, current listings, sale history, and other details.

RBL

RBL Labs burst onto the scene with their hit blockchain card game Legends of Crypto. The game struck a chord by featuring real crypto influencers and personalities on collectible NFT cards. From LOCGame to the metaverse city of Cryptise, their goal is to bring fun, lucrative, decentralized games to the future users of Web3.

With $10M in funding, RBL Labs is poised for rapid growth alongside the GameFi movement.

KnownOrigin

Founded in 2018, KnownOrigin was one of the first NFT marketplaces focused on digital art. Their platform allows artists to mint and sell original works as NFTs directly to collectors. Artists can build their brand and body of work over time, cultivating a fanbase of owners. Collectors can discover and invest early in emerging digital artists.

With more than $300M in sales to date, KnownOrigin demonstrates the potential of NFT marketplaces to empower independent artists.

What do all these NFT startups have in common

As we said at the beginning, all these startups are still new and in development. But they have a huge potential to transform not the Blockchain industry only, but also the way of doing business and transferring money as never seen before.  Keep up with this new industry by following these startups, getting deep into the unique parts of NFT marketing and being active in the community.