AWS today announced the beta launch of Amazon Honeycode, a new, fully managed low-code/no-code development tool that aims to make it easy for anybody in a company to build their own applications. All of this, of course, is backed by a database in AWS and a web-based, drag-and-drop interface builder.

Developers can build applications for up to 20 users for free. After that, they pay per user and for the storage their applications take up.

“Customers have told us that the need for custom applications far outstrips the capacity of developers to create them,” said AWS VP Larry Augustin in the announcement. “Now with Amazon Honeycode, almost anyone can create powerful custom mobile and web applications without the need to write code.”

Like similar tools, Honeycode provides users with a set of templates for common use cases like to-do list applications, customer trackers, surveys, schedules and inventory management. Traditionally, AWS argues, a lot of businesses have relied on shared spreadsheets to do these things.

“Customers try to solve for the static nature of spreadsheets by emailing them back and forth, but all of the emailing just compounds the inefficiency because email is slow, doesn’t scale, and introduces versioning and data syncing errors,” the company notes in today’s announcement. “As a result, people often prefer having custom applications built, but the demand for custom programming often outstrips developer capacity, creating a situation where teams either need to wait for developers to free up or have to hire expensive consultants to build applications.”

It’s no surprise then that Honeycode uses a spreadsheet view as its core data interface, which makes sense, given how familiar virtually every potential user is with this concept. To manipulate data, users can work with standard spreadsheet-style formulas, which seems to be about the closest the service gets to actual programming. ‘Builders,” as AWS calls Honeycode users, can also set up notifications, reminders and approval workflows within the service.

AWS says these databases can easily scale up to 100,000 rows per workbook. With this, AWS argues, users can then focus on building their applications without having to worry about the underlying infrastructure.

As of now, it doesn’t look like users will be able to bring in any outside data sources, though that may still be on the company’s roadmap. On the other hand, these kinds of integrations would also complicate the process of building an app and it looks like AWS is trying to keep things simple for now.

Honeycode currently only runs in the AWS US West region in Oregon but is coming to other regions soon.

Among Honeycode’s first customers are SmugMug and Slack.

“We’re excited about the opportunity that Amazon Honeycode creates for teams to build apps to drive and adapt to today’s ever-changing business landscape,” said Brad Armstrong, VP of Business and Corporate Development at Slack in today’s release. “We see Amazon Honeycode as a great complement and extension to Slack and are excited about the opportunity to work together to create ways for our joint customers to work more efficiently and to do more with their data than ever before.”

Digital marketing is unarguably one of the most effective and strategic marketing tools that the internet has brought to our doorstep. Businesses all over the world are churning in millions and even billions in returns each year. Digital Expert Richard Olaotan, the CEO of Aims Digital Network, gives some powerful and winning business tips for digital marketing.  

1. Visual Elements

Everyone is attracted first by what they see. Having visual elements in business is key because people can only buy what they see. And on the average, a prospective client has got to see your product or service ad about seven times before they make a purchase. Whether it is your business logo, mascot, color theme or font you are choosing, the whole idea is to catch the attention of the audience, while also maintaining that attention enough for them to remember your brand. When advertising on social media, visual creativity is key. You must, at all times, ensure that whatever it is you are putting out there is as relevant as it is eye-catching. Your digital ads must appeal to the aesthetics of viewers and will be remembered. Using images that have consistent aesthetic and gives your campaign that familiarity every time it pops up is key.

2. Invest wisely 

Truth is there are several digital marketing tools and services out there, but not all of them will create the same level of impact you desire for your kind of business. So, take time to analyze your business and the service or product you wish to put out there, the age demographic you are targeting, and the location too. Afterward, you can go through the various digital marketing platforms available and select the ones that will most effectively achieve what you desire. 

3. Understand the buyer process

If you can understand the journey of a buyer, you will know what marketing strategy to present at each stage. Through buyer analytics, you can deduce the actions a visitor takes throughout your website, and use this information garnered to make the buying process easier for them. For instance, Google analytics gives user history that can help you better understand where they are in their buying phase.

4. Understand your target audience

Before delving into employing digital marketing tools, it is highly advised that you have a clear understanding of who you are targeting to make your bulk purchasing audience. Everyone is a potential buyer of your product or service; however, an age range or designated people of certain classes are the best benefactors of your product or service. Those are your target audience, and in digital marketing, you engage marketing tools strategically to send unique ads to this audience.

5. Analyze your social media metrics

To see the digital marketing tool that is most effective for your product or service, Olaotan Richard advises that you analyze your data and tie it back to the direct result it produces. The best SEO company in Chicago or anywhere else would first help you find what promotes engagements for your business niche. With their finding, they can easily suggest which tool or ad style is most effective for you.

Social media giants, Facebook, has called on publishers to leverage on creative content for better revenue generation.

Facebook’s Strategic Media Partnerships Manager for Sub Sahara Africa, Jocelyn Muhutu-Remy, made the call while speaking at a session tagged ‘Art of monetizing good storytelling through the social media’ hosted by The Guardian during the Social Media Week at Victoria Island, Lagos.

Muhutu-Remy urged social media publishers to avoid clustering on already competitive content publishings.

“Propose what is different and unique to you. It is not about the followers you have but the uniqueness of your content. I advise starting by promoting your page using your location to reduce pay.”

Muhutu-Remy cited an example of a publisher on Instagram whose main contents were on natural hair care and maintenance for women and urged social media publishers to follow suit.

She added that brands would only be attracted and convinced to partner and invest in a publisher whose contents is specific and specialized.

Storytelling is about engaging your audience and ensuring they can relate with your content subject,” Mutuhuru-Remy said.

Other speakers at the session moderated by Guardian Life editor, Chidera Muoka, were Instagram publishers, Sisi Yemmie, a food blogger and Comedian Wofai Fada.

Wofai Fada, a comedian, said passion is key for any publisher that wants to thrive in the digital publishing space.

“It comes easy because it’s something I love doing. Passion is necessary to push one further.”

She advised publishers to be consistent and continually renew strategies to communicate with their audience.

Sisi Yemmie, a food blogger, said specialization in Instagram publishing has given her an edge in digital publishing.

She urged other publishers to harness Google analytics tool to examine the interests of their audience, as well as means to grow their platforms.

“Your social media analytics helps you decide what types of contents you should post and what time of the day you should post. You need to be aware of what type of content is to be promoted, but be creative and dynamic too,” Sisi Yemmie said.