Our Blog

Why Your Business NEEDS to Make Digital Marketing a Priority in 2012!

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 06:10:00 GMT

So your business is set and is starting to flourish. Your marketing department is keeping up with the new trends - be it online or offline. But in the year 2012, your marketing focus should be on digital marketing. Here’s a lowdown of the top five reasons why and how you NEED to make digital marketing a priority in 2012:

High Return on Investment (ROI):72% of respondents to an Econsultancy survey in early 2011 described email's ROI as excellent or good. Only organic SEO scored better. This survey, the fifth annual Email Marketing Industry Census, sponsored by Adestra is based on the largest UK survey of email marketers.
Be a social media scout: Love it or hate it, social media plays an essential role in making or breaking a person or a business. Having a decent presence on the social media sites and sharing links to your business website and to product and promos pages of your business will help make it an instant hit amongst users. This will ensure sharing of the information of your business and products.
Good customer service to improve online reputation: It is observed that most of the consumers consult online reviews before buying and many consumers trust the reviews they read. Therefore, monitoring your online reputation and working towards it is very essential. If the reviews and the image on the internet are positive, it will attract more and more users to your business. This will also speak volumes about your excellent customer service. If you have any negative reviews, make sure that they are addressed in a professional manner and found a solution to.
Let photos speak about your business: The best way to put forth the personality of your business is through photos. This new digital marketing move will make the consumers go “gaga” over your website. Through the pictures on your business website or on your social media pages, people will come to know what goes on daily in your business and also it will help boost your organic web presence if you tag the photos correctly. Posting photos is a hot and growing trend and you need to tap into it.
Make your website go mobile: Digital marketing via internet has been in usage since a long time. Now the trend is to market your products through apps. So make a presence for yourself in the mobile space and see the results yield in no time. It is observed that by 2015, the iPhones, Androids and other tablets will replace the modest home computer as the home hardware of choice. So don’t give your potential customers an excuse to buy from your rivals by not having a mobile presence. Make sure that your website is available in all formats.

Physical or offline advertising has its own benefits but online digital marketing is your today’s new game plan. So tap into it now in order to make the most of it. Visit WSI Web Applications (www.wsiwebapplications.com) to learn more about Digital Marketing.

Why You Need A QR Code?

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 05:31:00 GMT

What is QR code? Quick Response code abbreviated as QR code is a code that employs a matrix for barcode representation. Precisely it is a matrix barcode. It was, at first, designed to be put into application in the automotive industry. QR code was designed in the year 1994 by Denso Wave and was used for tracking purposes of vehicles during the process of manufacturing. QR codes represent a black and white pattern in which black modules are visible on a background that is white in color. QR codes are encoded using four types of modes which are alphanumeric, numeric, binary and Kanji. QR codes have a huge storage space and the materials of this code can be decoded at a fast rate. These are two of the main reasons for the huge usage of QR codes. Apart from automotive industry, QR codes are now used in many other popular domains.

The original use of QR codes was to track manufacturing vehicles. However owing to its advantageous features, it is now used for commercial purposes as well. Applications like transport ticketing, marketing of products etc. use this code. Another important usage of QR codes is done by governments of many countries. QR codes are used by the governments to store personal information of its citizens.

The popularity of QR codes apart from having a good amount if storage space can be owed to mobile phones. That is, with many mobile phones offering the facility for scanning a QR code, and retrieving the information, the popularity of QR codes have received a huge boost. Individuals can easily scan QR codes with the help of their cell phones and use the information that is stored in the code. Users can open an URL, or receive a Vcard by scanning the QR code. Not all mobile phones have the facility of scanning QR codes. Mobiles should be equipped with the right camera and a correct QR code reading software or application. Once done, QR codes can be easily scanned with the press of a button. The recent invention- the Android operating system comes with QR code reading application. This has been welcomed by the mass well and good and huge numbers of QR codes are scanned daily.

Due to its large storage space QR codes are hugely used nowadays. In addition to it comes the feature of fast decoding. However there are some privacy risks with QR codes which one should take care of. In summary, QR codes are a great invention and are here to stay and will very soon be a part of everyday life.

For more information on QR codes and how they help in the marketing of your business, please visit WSI Web Applications (www.wsiwebapplications.com).

Marketing Plans for Successful Business In 2012

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 06:28:00 GMT

The dawn of year 2012 has brought oodles of hopes, dreams and opportunities with it. Every individual, every business is looking forward to have a great year ahead that proves flourishing and rewarding on every front of life. Professionals have their goals and targets for the year so have various organizations and companies. Industries are beaming with upsurge of new revenues and associations.

However, the ups and downs experienced by industries make it imperative for them to have a strong marketing plan for the coming year. A well-researched and well-defined marketing plan struck in advance gives ample time for implementation, helping you achieve and exceed the objectives. A detailed plan encompassing all the important business aspects, considerations and trends along with the costing gives your business a needed boost that brings the business lot of revenue apart from long term beneficial associations.

Considering the rise of high technology, mobile gadgets, personalization, social media and changing expectations of customers, the blueprint of your marketing plan should reflect the dynamism of your business which attracts new clients while sustaining your previous clients. Here are some of the potential marketing tactics that are applicable to any and every type of business. They will help you to grow effectively in 2012.

SMS Marketing

Text marketing is a huge hit today also and will be moving into 2012. Various companies have been using this tactic to announce their new launches of products and services. Information about gift vouchers and discount sales are usually uncovered through SMS marketing. These text messages work as reminders to customers who might have noticed the scheme that skipped out of their minds, these messages also work as notifications to people about market updates. Text marketing is a favorite marketing strategy for multi-channel businesses. Here’s something to think about – the average text message is read within 4 minutes of it being sent!!

Mobile Commerce or M-Commerce

Mobile commerce is the new revolutionary emergence gathering much curiosity with businesses. With more than 90 million smartphone users and 24 million tablet users in the United States alone, connecting with customers through mobile optimized websites becomes undeniable for businesses. Asserting a strong online presence has become the need of the day and with so many people choosing online shopping vs. traditional shopping, a mobile optimized website becomes mandatory for every business irrespective of its size.

Businesses have been working on integrating their brand identity and strengthening it further; enlarge their customer base through the following initiatives:

A Mobile-App for Your Business

Getting a mobile app to sell your products or services adds up to business value. You can be in constant touch with your customers; they can view the products, new additions at their convenience and buy it online anytime anywhere. Updating customers becomes so easy with a mobile app.

With companies offering ready-to-go mobile applications getting an app for business is now easy and cost-effective. Add an innovative initiative to your business and boost it to a higher level this year.

Optimum Use of Social Media

Use the social networking sites to the fullest. Many companies have been doing this for the last few years. However, continuing it with same vigor and interest will surely bare its fruits. Social media offers an open platform to all and works as an effective and efficient customer care tool for your business. Organizations openly accepting criticism as well as handling complaints are the huge favorite of customers who remain loyal to these brands in the long term.

2012 provides many challenges. Nevertheless, a good marketing plan aimed at escalating customer satisfaction earns both profits and brand reputation for organizations.

For more information visit www.wsiwebapplications.com or follow me on twitter @cmappleton

Tips for a Successful Presentation

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 07:49:00 GMT

Is a good presentation between you and cracking a big business deal? A successful presentation is a stepping stone for achieving great success- be it in your business or as a person. A good orator always commands a lot of attention and respect.

In the case of a presentation, the age old cliché of ‘the first impression is the last impression’ holds true. People always are in the awe of a person who makes a presentation that is sound content-wise and presentation-wise.

Keep the following tips in mind to give that applause-worthy presentation:

Check the equipment beforehand:

This is perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind before the presentation. Make sure that all the equipment to be used is in proper condition and is functioning well. An erratic projector or a mouse that refuses to click will cause trouble during presentation. Such inconveniences only cause the attention to waiver from the important issues in the speech.

Make a great start:

A good start is half the battle won. The attention of the audience peaks during the first few minutes of the talk. In these few minutes, you have to put forth the most interesting points of the presentation, which will attract their attention and make them feel that the rest of the presentation is as important.

Don’t memorize:

If your speech looks like you have learned everything by-heart, it will make you look dull and the audience will lose their attention. Be as natural as possible and use body gestures to make the audience focus on you. Try to bring out your personality in your presentation and use plenty of real-life examples to emphasize the points you are making.

Keep your ideas concise and to the point:

Nobody likes to hear jargons and flowery words. As the attention span of the audience is very short, use of words that most of them won’t understand will lead to lose their attention. Concise and to the point ideas will receive proper attention and consideration from the audience. Easier words and simpler sentences won’t put a burden of the audience’s brains and will make the session more interactive.

Provide hand-outs:

Giving away some material like feedback forms or question and answer sheets will ensure participation of the people present in the hall. This will make it fun for those participating and they will pay more attention if there is a form to be filled or a partner activity to be done.

Be interactive:

Always involve your audience in what you do. Ask them questions randomly or tell them to jot down important points that would be discussed at the end of the session. This will not only ensure their attention but will also keep them active and enjoy your talk.

Keep it visual:

Pictures speak more than words. People remember things when a visual aid is provided. Use colourful charts, texts and graphs to make your presentation more interesting. Use of specific colour schemes such as yellow text on a dark blue background helps people to focus on it and remember it for a long time. Don’t use cluttered diagrams or graphs. Don’t go overboard with the use of colour.

Don’t make an effort to be funny, be natural:

Many a times, the speaker goes overboard by trying to be funny and win the hearts of the audiences. Unfortunately, instead of winning hearts he/she ends up losing their attention. So remember, always be natural. If humour comes naturally to you, it’s welcome. Otherwise, don’t force it!

Take questions:

One of the key traits of a good speaker is to take questions from the participants and answer them humbly. Do not speak about things you don’t know or are unaware of. Most people are okay with you saying, “I don’t know”. Never fake it because nothing will shoot down your credibility faster! Be honest and answer questions which you can do the most justice to.

Have a good conclusion:

A good conclusion is as necessary as a good start to make your session successful. Summarize all the key and important points at the end of the lecture. Try and cover every aspect possible in a concise way. The participants should feel that they have learnt many important things as a result of your session. This ensures participation in future presentations too.

Keep it short and simple:

Always value time and never exceed your stipulated time limit. Don’t test the patience of the audience by taking more time to finish than expected. A presentation that is short yet effective is remembered and is appreciated.

If all these things are kept in mind, you are sure to make a mark in the presentation arena!

For more information visit www.wsiwebapplications.com or follow me on twitter @cmappleton

Why Your Business NEEDS Mobile Marketing

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 06:49:00 GMT

Smartphones have become an integral part of users’ daily lives. There is a swell in the number of people using mobiles to surf the net, check mails, networking as well as shopping. Analysts at Morgan Stanley estimate that by 2020 there will be about 10 billion mobile internet devices worldwide – 10 times the number of PCs currently in use. Here is round up on some of the strongest stats to support the argument that your business needs mobile marketing -

1 “The mobile Internet is ramping faster than desktop Internet did, and we believe more users may connect to the Internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs within 5 years.” – Morgan Stanley report 2010

2 “Internet companies and brands now have a new internet audience. These ‘Mobile Only’ internet browsers are the next frontier and are a glimpse into the next billion of connected consumers. In emerging countries fixed-line internet is being completely bypassed by mobile users and is an exciting time for content owners and brands to interact with their customers.” - Alistair Hill, Managing Director at On Device Research

3 “71% of smartphone users search because of an ad they’ve seen either online or offline; 82% of smartphone users notice mobile ads, 74% of smartphone shoppers make a purchase as a result of using their smartphones to help with shopping, and 88% of those who look for local information on their smartphones take action within a day. “ - Google

4 “70% of mobile searches lead to action within one hour, as opposed to online searches, 70% of which lead to action within 1 month.” - Jamie Wells at Microsoft

Mobile Connection to Google Places

With a leap in mobile marketing, it’s more important than ever to have your business listed on Google Places. By doing this you can showcase your business to a large number of potential audience. Getting started on Google Places is easy. Create an account on Google Places and simply log into your account and create a listing. You can add coupons, description, location and you can use the QR code to market your business.

Making your website Mobile-Friendly

A mobile website is essential for marketing your product or service is best way possible. It is difficult to read full size websites, even on the larger screens now available in smartphones. A websites that you view on a computer often includes larger images and file sizes. These factors make it difficult to view any ordinary website on your mobile and so the images you see are distorted and the content is indecipherable. But with a mobile website you are able to present your website’s information in an easy-to-read and easy-to-navigate manner that is compatible with your visitor’s mobile device and much faster to download on the go.

So how can you make sure your site is up to par for all those mobile readers out there?

If you don’t have a site that works for mobile, you’re missing out on 61% of users that are unlikely to return to a site that’s not mobile-friendly. Here are some easy things you can do to assure a more mobile-friendly site.

1 Install a Plug-in

2 Create Easy-to-Use navigation

3 Write clear content

4 Use fewer images

5 Implement a good design

For more information on how social media can help your business, visit www.wsiwebapplications.com or follow me on twitter @cmappleton

Best On-Line Lead Generators!

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 06:37:00 GMT

The online business marketing world has become very competitive and challenging. Lead generation is one of the many ways to stay ahead of the game when it comes to marketing your business.

Pay-per-click (PPC)

Pay-per-click (PPC) is when you purchase ads to display in the search engines when a user enters your target keywords.

PPC Highlights

PPC is scalable. You control your budget to fit your sales goals.
PPC furnishes instant results
PPC endows flexibility allowing you to target numerous keywords and people from different geographical regions.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing your website to get top ranking on search engines for specific keywords.

SEO Highlights

1 SEO drives qualified, cost-efficient traffic and sales

2 SEO extends brand recognition and keyword-brand associations

3 SEO enhances credibility and legitimacy

4 SEO reinforces investment in your domain name

5 SEO costs are more predictable than most other forms of marketing

Display Advertising

Display advertising provides a unique platform for products or services to resonate with prospective customers. This occurs as display ads engage interactions like clicks, mouse-over, video plays, game plays etc that increases the chances of your advertisement to be absorbed and acted upon.

Display Advertising Highlights

Lower Cost per click and conversion.
Display advertising reinforces Remarketing
Better targeting to content-rich and relevant sites
More visually appealing ad options rather than just text
Behavioral, demographic, and geographic targeting capabilities

Video Advertising

Video ads are a new buzzword for lead generation. The theory behind it is simple – what appeals to the eyes keeps you hooked onto it for longer. And the longer the client takes to view your product or service the higher the number of leads.

Video Advertising Highlights

1 A larger portion of audiences interact with video ads as compared to other lead generators.

2 Play-through rates do not vary greatly by expandable or standard video ad formats.

3 Video click rates are far higher than image format ads.

Which is the best on-line LEAD GENERATOR?

All the lead generators are vehicles to get your business searched when a consumer is ready to buy your product or service. It is your take on what you want to achieve room your advertisements. If you are looking for instant advertising of brand name and a higher ROI than PPC will suit your needs more. But if you solely depend on PPC traffic, you will lose all your traffic if you stop PPC. This is where SEO gets thumbs up as it is long lasting. Using the short term advantages of PPC is a good way to identify keyword phrases that produce quality leads and conversion. These keyword phrases can be implemented into SEO for more long term results. A golden mean between PPC and SEO should be maintained. If you are aiming for high website traffic with an effective branding that is appealing, then you would benefit from a display advertising or video advertising.

For more information on how social media can help your business, visit www.wsiwebapplications.com or follow me on twitter @cmappleton

Deals of the day and Social Buying

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 09:22:00 GMT

Social shopping is just the latest solution to a constant problem for online retailers and shoppers. Many shoppers aren’t sure what to buy, but they know they won’t find it on the sites of mainstream retailers. The social shopping sites hope to gamble that enthusiasm into advertising revenue, once they attract enough visitors to go back to merchants with a better sales pitch.

The main trends in Social Shopping now-a-days are:

Control rests with the consumers: Online research puts the consumer in control of the research experience.
Research starts with search, but happens on brand and retailer sites: Search continues to be a starting point for research that is a majority of shoppers begin research with a search engine.
Consumers expect social tools for their research experience, engaging mostly with the basics: Shoppers are reading more customer reviews to be confident judging a product.
Consumers seek a variety of voices throughout the research experience: Consumers trust reviews to corroborate other research/voices.
Facebook is the social platform for researching/shopping: Facebook features show the most potential to inform buying behavior.

LivingSocial and Groupon:

LivingSocial offers a new deal each day to its members who subscribe via email. After subscribing to one or more of its 580+ markets, users receive a daily e-mail presenting the city’s deal for that day. Members are offered discounts of 50-90% on experiences in their area. Once a deal has been purchased, members are e-mailed their redemption vouchers the following business day, around 5 a.m. local time. In addition, purchasing members have the option to send a link to any or all of their contacts and if three of them purchase the offer the original purchasing member obtains their offer free. Members must either print out their vouchers or download the LivingSocial app on their Android, iPhone, iPad, or iPod to redeem.
Groupon prompts consumers of the world to get united, shop as groups rather than as individuals, so they can gain deep discounts from local businesses. Each day, Groupon emails its members one unbeatable offer on something great to do in your city. We offer consumers great values by guaranteeing businesses a minimum number of customers. If a certain number of people sign up, then everyone gets the Groupon offer. If that minimum isn’t reached, then no one gets it

How does the Social buying and Groupon work?

At Groupon, for each new friend that signs up and buys a deal through your referral link, you’ll get a $10 referral bonus. So when letting your friends know about the amazing deal you found, tell them to “use my referral link to get the same deal and help me win 10 bucks.” And if the deal is for a restaurant or local event, mention how fun it would be to experience it together as a group.
Another way is to buy now and purchase later. If you feel that you do not want to redeem the voucher or coupon immediately, you can think ahead about what you may want. So, the next time you see a discounted offer you may consume it.
Groupon and LivingSocial also offer free iPhone applications so that you may check the offers on the move.
You can also save when you travel and access specific deals on the various social buying sites.
If you are unhappy with the deal and fail to get proper help from the merchant, social-buying sites encourage their customers to complain to the site.
You can also make suggestions, recommend or Tweet on the site

Groupon Now! is the newly launched feature specially for merchants. Groupon Now! is a great way for you to get nearby deals on demand that you can buy and use the same day. Most deals are only valid for a few hours and have a limited quantity.

For more information on how social media can help your business, visit www.wsiwebapplications.com or follow me on twitter @cmappleton

Facebook Advertising to increase Site Traffic

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 10:44:00 GMT

The use of Facebook advertising is one particular of the fastest methods by which you (marketer or as an organization) can get your Crowd Conversion out to millions of folks worldwide.

As an advertiser paying for clicks, you are indicating what is most important to you is driving traffic to a page on Facebook or your own website. You may want to focus on making sure your ad is highly targeted to the most relevant, appropriate audience. Your landing page should be set up to let users easily find what your ad offers. As an advertiser paying for views (impressions), you are indicating that it is most important for users to see your ad. You may also want to focus on making your ad as clear and informative as possible and having your brand or company's name be easily recognized.

There are 2 types of payment modes which the advertiser can choose to use. The advertiser can either shell out per click (meaning you only pay whenever a person clicks on your advertisement), or pay per thousand impressions (which means you specify a quantity you would like to pay for the ads for each thousand times your posting is displayed to your targeted visitors). Targeting Your Prospects, Facebook allows you to target your prospects by:

Age group
Gender
Relationship status
Country
Education level
Languages
Keywords

Effective Facebook advertising, though, requires that people recommend your offer to their friends. Attracting Facebook users includes subjective factors, and is more like making a great TV commercial. Everything you do has to be “right”—copy, images, layout, spelling—just to get people to pay attention.

Facebook is a great way for businesses to connect with existing customers, make new contacts, and get the word out about products and services. Following figure depicts the US Ad spend per user/subscriber:

The most efficient type of Facebook advertising is one particular that drives prospective customers to a site compared to a person that sells a product or service. You can also take advantage of friends talking to friends with sponsored stories, a natural way to amplify word of mouth. You can transform your website into a social experience with plug-ins and custom apps.

There are other drawbacks for serious business folk thinking about networking via Facebook. First of all, it’s nearly impossible to remove all traces of yourself from the social-networking site, even if you deactivate your account or request it be removed in its entirety. Then there’s the triple threat of potential legal liability, disclosure of personal information, and the risk of leaking corporate secrets. And in reality, not many executives actually use Facebook anyway, with many preferring more professionally oriented sites such as LinkedIn and Plaxo.

Perhaps the biggest downfall of Facebook is that the friends you have aren't always that. Some people may friend you without knowing a thing about you. Others might be total strangers. While Facebook allows us to connect with people, without providing the same type of interaction that you'd get in real life. This can give you a false sense of what friendship really is.

The best bet is to combine the benefits of Facebook with real, in-person, connections. It's okay to have a lot of Facebook friends and enjoy spending time on the site, but couple it with time spent with people you see in person.

For more information on how social media can help your business, visit www.wsiwebapplications.com or follow me on twitter @cmappleton

Twitter for Increased Business

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 06:41:00 GMT

Twitter is a Micro blogging service, Social Network, Real-Time Information Network and Social Search Engine all rolled into one. In short, Twitter is a place where people share what’s on their mind – and it can be great for your business. When someone follows you on Twitter, your status updates are sent directly to their stream. Similar to when someone opts to join an Email mailing list, this means that they have opted to receive your tweets. Bottom line is that the more people you have following you, the more people who see your content.

You can take advantage of your existing networks and add links to your Twitter Profile every place, for example – including your blog, website, Facebook profile, LinkedIn profile, Business Cards, Shop Windows, and other print collateral. The more places you let it be known you're on Twitter, the easier it will be for people to start finding you. Integrate Twitter into your website, blog, and Facebook. This can help to increase your Twitter following and brand awareness and overall web presence!

Provide better customer service:

Track the conversation: There are lots of tools for tracking Twitter conversations around your brand including Hootsuite, and Constant Contact’s NutshellMail. You may use Hootsuite for advanced users who want to track their brand in real time or NutshellMail for users who want to keep tabs on their brand once or twice a day.
Engage with customers: Re-tweet when they mention your brand positively. Ask followers questions that relate to your business, industry, or something fun and topical. Thank and reward loyal customers. There are lots of ways to go, just make it meaningful, positive, and authentic.
Respond to complaints and requests quickly: The great thing about Twitter’s real time nature is that you can respond quickly to customer complaints and requests. No on-hold wait time, no long lines. Plus, when you publicly help one customer, you often help other customers too.

Twitter for Market Research

Twitter lets you in on what your competitors are up to:

Monitor your Brand: Save time and money by using Twitter to find out what people are saying about your brand - and use that feedback to improve your products and services.

If you have NutshellMail, it will automatically display your saved searches in your updates. Don’t forget to search for different variations of your brand, since people will mention you in different ways.

Monitor your competition: Knowing what's happening in your industry can be a huge advantage. You can use Twitter search and tracking tools like NutshellMail to keep tabs on your competition. Just like you would search for yourself, save searches for your competitors’ mentions. Even consider following up with them to see what they’re saying.

Twitter is a great free way to build brand awareness. It takes a minimum of 5-7 mentions of a brand before people remember it. Twitter will help to up your brand's mentions and get your brand into the minds of customers.

Know your brand: Before you can introduce your brand to others, you’ve got to know it inside and out! How well do you know your brand?
Decide on an approach. There’s no one-size-fits all approach to branding. That’s why it’s important to decide how you’re going to showcase your company.
Become an expert: Twitter is a great platform for demonstrating your expertise in a specific niche. This will make you the go-to resource for customers, while attracting potential customers.
Have a plan: Harnessing the power of Twitter to build brand awareness requires strategy and consistency. Good tweeting comes from a balance of planning and flexibility – you need to have an idea of what you want to say, and how you want to say it in advance, but you also need to be on the look-out for comments, stories, and conversations that are relevant to your brand.

For more information on how social media can help your business, visit www.wsiwebapplications.com or follow me on twitter @cmappleton

Facebook for Increased Business

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 07:51:00 GMT

Facebook is all about connecting with people. It’s an effective way to keep in touch—easier than meeting in person or a phone call, but richer and more personal than many email or text message exchanges.

Facebook has added new features that make it a potent tool for business. These tools include:

Facebook Places, which allows people to “check in” to a specific place on a mobile device
Facebook Deals, which can reward you for checking in to a place and
Facebook Ads, which can be much more cost-effective than Google Adwords

Facebook has also improved Fan pages—pages controlled by a business, organization, or well-known individual. The owner of a Fan page can comment, like other Fan pages, and interact much like an individual user of Facebook. This opens the door to a whole new way to stay connected to your customers.

Part of the way you “win” new business through Facebook is quite challenging. You have to help people feel comfortable with your Facebook presence. That includes well-written copy, interesting images, and compelling special offers. But it also means understanding how people work, how they see your company and your products, and how they use Facebook within their lives.

Effective Facebook advertising requires that people recommend your offer to their friends. Attracting Facebook users includes subjective factors, and is more like making a great TV commercial. Everything you do has to be “right”—copy, images, layout, spelling—just to get people to pay attention.

Facebook is a great way for businesses to connect with existing customers, make new contacts, and get the word out about products and services. Following figure depicts the users within US:

One of the many aspects for your Business is to use a Brand Page in Facebook. Your Facebook Brand Page is basically a profile page, but for your business. Set one up so that your customers can “like” your business on Facebook. When they “like” you, you can get your messages in front of them.

What's it good for:

Promoting your company
Posting announcements
Running promotions
Offering specials
Sharing photos, videos, and links
Encouraging people to like your Brand
Getting people to sign up for your newsletter

One point to remember is that your Brand Page is not the place to have personal interactions; it’s where you interact with people as your business. Save the personal stuff for your Profile Page.

A custom Facebook URL is a great way to increase brand awareness and make it even easier for someone to find, and like, your page. So instead of your page being called “http://facebook.com/profile.php?id=2330495”, you can create a link that looks like: http://facebook.com/yourusername.

For more information on how social media can help your business, visit www.wsiwebapplications.com or follow me on twitter @cmappleton

Landing Pages That Create Revenue!

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 07:46:00 GMT

Landing Pages are simply pages within your site designed to gather hits and create conversions. These landing pages are just normal pages on your site, and you don’t necessarily have to use them to make money online selling products or services. However, they can bring in more passive income than any other product or service you offer. They are very different from home pages, but often the two are used together.

The following are some of the main characteristics of a Landing Page which will ensure revenue:

Size and Graphics: Ensure that everything important to the conversion: Call to action, images, headlines, and so on are visible without scrolling. The graphic should look professional but doesn’t need to be the same as the rest of the website.

Heading and Contents: The headline should explain what you want to sell. Be quick and smart, and include a slogan with more explanation. Show preference to bullets and numbered lists to explain the key features and advantages of using you service.

Pictures and Videos: A picture or a video is highly recommended, almost mandatory but keep it simple. Clients want to see what they’re buying so keep in mind that a picture worth thousand words.

Buttons and Calls to Action: They must be visible without having to scroll and the use of colors and catchy words is helpful. Be a little creative and don’t use words like “Click here” or “Subscribe” but rather “Try it now for free” or “Join the community today” or “Buy now and we’ll toss in a bonus item” or “This offer is only available until ___”. Such calls to action encourage the buyer and create a sense of urgency in order to get the best deal.

Testimonials and Trust Signs: Only a small percentage of people (known as early adopters) like to be the first to buy something. Therefore, include testimonials and include trusted signs like PayPal, Credit Cards and Verisign logos to show your clients that your partners are solid and established.

How many Landing Pages: Often one per site works, unless you are selling many different products or services. Still, if you use more than one keep them a bit shorter.

When do Landing Pages work: You’ll know by the bottom line: the number of hits and how many conversions you get. Of course you want a reasonable percentage to go ahead and buy your product or service. If you fail to sell enough, you might want to rework the Landing Page.

Incorporate Meta data: SEO is the foundation behind any pages on your website but no more so than the Landing Page. Search engines are hungry for Meta data to navigate so feed them keyword rich title tags and description tags. Your efforts should include careful marketing analysis to determine the most effective terms to include in your copy.

When you are looking to make money online you have to consider the user experience, marketing tactics, keyword research, and the effectiveness of your Landing Pages. That is why it is always a good idea to employ A/B split testing. It is difficult if not impossible in all cases to tell at a glance if one Landing Page will "sell" more than another. This is where split testing, or A/B testing comes into play. Split testing is the practice of using separate pages to sell a product in an effort to learn which one sells more and why. Frequently, advertising and search marketers will test components such as the length of sales copy, images which enhance the desire of a product or include empirical data such as charts and graphs to create a rationale of why someone should use a product.

For more information visit www.wsiwebapplications.com and follow me on Twitter @cmappleton

Do You Know Your Online Competitors?

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 05:56:00 GMT

Every business plan needs to include a competitive analysis. So, who exactly is your online competitor? Companies tend to see competitors solely as who they bump up against when going after new business, or who prospects say they are also considering. But in the search world, the competition extends beyond other companies in your industry. It also includes any kind of content or information source that appears in search results wherever prospects are looking. A competitive analysis is your chance to look closely at your market and your competition, to learn what the others are doing and why. Have you ever had challenges with defining the competition in an online marketing effort? Have you encountered brand marketers that refuse to accept the difference between search results competition and industry competitors?

Understanding the difference between Industry Competition and Search Competition is the key to taking effective SEO strategy. The things a brand marketer can do with their SEO program to gain visibility on competing, non-commercial web pages can attract direct traffic as well as provide signals that will be useful in building top visibility for brand content in search.

The difference between competition and search competition is quite interesting. If you are in a 'niche' business, the chances are your search competition and your competition is one and the same. But, you may find companies from other regions or countries beating you for certain keywords or phrases, which may steal any business from you by competing with your clients. There are also chances of going up the SEO rankings. A great way to battle this is to invest in SEO tools such as SEOmoz (some of them are mentioned below) and track the rank of your competitors for keywords and start to combat against them. This way you can rise above them on the search engines. This will ensure an increase in traffic to your website and generate more leads, which will counter the business you may lose by your physical competition.

The following are some tools and tips to find your competitors keyword ranking:

Do not just copy-paste your competitors’ keywords, use it as additional help for your keyword research.
Examine which keywords your competitors optimized for their pages (i.e. tried to rank for) and which keywords they ended up ranking for. Doing this will help you avoid the mistakes they are making.

Helpful Tools:

SEO Digger (paid with free trial) – It will indicate Google keyword position, check date (International style: DD/MM/YYYY) and Wordtracker rank.
SpyFu (paid with free trial) – It spies for both your competitors’ organic search rankings and Google Adwords campaign keywords.

Make sure your website is NOT missing the mark with your target audience:

Look at the copy on your site. Your copy should be speaking to your audience, addressing their needs, engaging them in an organized conversation. Self important copy is death to conversion.
Your visitor may not read long, so you can provide more info further down the page to easily figure out what’s in it for them and if it’s worth the cost.
Ensure your site adheres to commonly accepted conventions of website design. Put the navigation in a familiar place, make it look like navigation, make links look like links and so on
There’s always a next step (even after they buy, but that’s another post), so ensure that every page on your site tells visitors what’s next and provide a way to move in that direction. This makes your site “sticky” and makes visitors want to stay.

For more information, visit us online at www.wsiwebapplications.com and follow me on Twitter @cmappleton

Social Media for Increased Web Presence

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 13:00:00 GMT

Social media represents one of the largest shifts in modern business—and because of this your customers are changing. No longer satisfied with listening to marketing messages and doing what companies want them to do, customers now want their voices heard and they want companies to react and fulfill their needs—not the other way around.

Social media marketing is simply too big a field for any company or aspiring web company to ignore. The numbers don’t lie. There are over 700 million subscribers on Facebook, an ever-growing community on Twitter, over 2 billion video downloads a day on YouTube. It’s small wonder that these and other social networking sites are becoming key fields for any business, home business, small business, or corporation--to separate from the pack.

Social media can be an incredibly effective way for companies to get their messages out to their audience, but more importantly, it’s a way for companies to actively engage and listen. Social media creates direct access never before seen in the business world, access that helps businesses provide products and services directly to those who want or need them in targeted, real-time manner.

Google Adsense is perhaps the most well known social media advertising tool available, and the most powerful. Google Adwords (a sister to Adsense, and under its umbrella) and Yahoo! Search Marketing are also very powerful programs. Yahoo and Google implement social media into much of their projects, from blogging to messaging, and do so because it works. Social media may seem complicated, but using these two sites can make it often very simple and easy to get started.

Google isn’t technically a social media platform, but you can use it as a social tool to drive visits to your well-optimized website. In 2011, 58% of the US will have used the internet at least once a day. By 2012 that will be 60%. There are officially twice as many people on Facebook than the entire population of America. If Facebook were a country it would be the 3rd largest country in the world. 7% of the entire world is on Facebook. With over 500 million users, Facebook is now used by 1 in every 13 people on earth, with over 250 million of them (over 50%) who log in every day. The average user still has about 130 friends, but that should expand in 2011. More than 30 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) are shared each month. 24 hours of video are uploaded every MINUTE to YouTube. Over 2 billion views per day on YouTube which is double the prime time viewing audience of 3 major networks combined.

Social media is an invaluable tool for fashion brands and retailers. Social media has produced the most profound changes in communications, news dissemination and social interaction.

Google Analytics (GA)is a free service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about the visitors to a website. It is the most widely used website statistics service, currently in use at around 57% of the 10,000 most popular websites. Another market share analysis claims that Google Analytics is used at around 49.95% of the top 1,000,000 websites (as currently ranked by Alexa).

GA can track visitors from all referrers [the address of the web page (commonly the Uniform Resource Locator (URL)], including search engines, display advertising, pay-per-click networks, e-mail marketing and digital collateral such as links within PDF documents.

Integrated with AdWords, users can review online campaigns by tracking landing page quality and conversions (goals). Goals might include sales, lead generation, viewing a specific page, or downloading a particular file. These can also be monetized. By using GA, marketers can determine which ads are performing, and which are not, providing the information to optimise or cull campaigns.

Contact WSI Web Applications For Social Media Marketing in Canada.

Make Your Website Traffic Soar – Optimize it!

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 10:03:00 GMT

The best way to know whether your Web site is achieving its goals is to gather extensive traffic data – not just how many hits you're getting, but which pages are popular, who's visiting your site, when do they visit, and a host of other data that can give you a clearer idea of what's going on. We will discuss some of them in brief:

Video Marketing
Video marketing can bring you an unprecedented number of referral visitors, but it is important to have the video made and uploaded in the right way. There are ways to tag the video and even put commentary on it with text bubbles so you can mention certain sections or your website. This also has the ability to be placed on other websites such as blogs and social book marketing pages in order to increase the visibility.

Internet Marketing
Everybody wants their website to display on the first page after the internet search. Search engines are designed to present their results in order of the page’s relevance to the search criteria and their quality, based on a number of factors. Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, refers to a range of techniques designed to ensure that your site demands as much of the search engine’s attention as possible. You could offer the best product or service in your field but if nobody can see your site, they’re unlikely to ever know it. One of the most important facts to get your head around when trying to optimize your site is the power of the written word. They say a picture speaks a thousand words, but search engines don’t see pictures, so I’d take the thousand words every time.

Search Engine Optimization
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of improving the visibility of your website to Search Engines so you can achieve the highest possible position within the natural search listings on the Search Engines. Search Engine Optimization is essentially the process of understanding how Search Engines calculate their search results and applying that understanding to enable your site to appear as high in their results as possible. The higher your rankings are the more visitors you will have; the more visitors you have the more conversions you will get.

Another way to optimize your website is through PPC (Pay-Per-Click). This involves positioning your business in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) for a selection of terms that your potential customers use, to search for the products and services you offer. For example, retail customers being able to find the physical location of a high street store or find the number of a call center.

Advertising your web address on printed media/ radio or TV is not enough because you cannot be certain that all potential clients will pick up or hear the advertisement. However, if a potential client types a few words into a search engine, they can be directed to your website. To ensure they are taken to your website above your competitors, your website needs to be optimized correctly to be in the highest rankings of the search.

How optimizing your website will help your business by:

Lowering advertising costs
Increasing sales leads
Reaching globally through international search engines and target specific geographic regions with different campaigns
Bringing high quality potential clients to your website
Building an online reputation and building your online brand

For more information visit - http://wsiwebapplications.com/

High Returns with Internet Marketing

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 06:04:00 GMT

There are currently 2 billion users on the internet which is roughly 28% of the global human population. A global market of 2 billion, and a local market of 1.7million, is usually a significant motivator for companies to seriously consider internet branding and marketing.

Well-planned marketing

It’s easy to liken this situation to a housing developer who builds a fantastic mansion with every conceivable luxury, but does so in the middle of a jungle. It lacks a good approach road and thus nobody knows where it exists or cares to find it. He is left with the ultimate house in the middle of the ultimate wilderness. This is the same principle that underlies building a comprehensive website strategy. A good website requires well-planned internet marketing, a plan that can guide potential customers, through the clutter and maze of the internet, to the respective web pages and thus generate the necessary leads or sales.

Three major types:

Internet Marketing can be an extremely broad-based subject, but in the scope of this article, only the 3 major types of Internet Marketing will be considered. Thus Internet Marketing can be separated into:

Though there are many variations of each type. In brief PPC/I would place your brand or product advertisement at pre-set websites and generate leads. A good SEO program will make your website list on the 1st page of search engines as such as Google and yahoo for select keywords. Social media marketing would make it possible to create a direct communication channel and loyal fan base with existing customers.

It is imperative to combine any Internet Marketing activity with a good reporting and analysis tool. This will ensure that money spent on this activity can create measurable results. There are numerous reporting and analysis tools available on the internet however Google Analytics stands out as the most robust and inventive. The regular reports generated through Google analytics will provide the website owner with detailed marketing information on website visitors and the condition of the website.

Here are some tips to provide a high ROI to your marketing campaigns:

Create emphasis on adverts, media and products that give you long term high potential value to your customer’s and start to create less emphasis on those marketing campaigns that don’t.
Evaluate some customer retention methods so that your website starts to generate more returning visitors.
E-Mail marketing is a great way to sustain a high ROI and is really easy to set up

Source: http://www.seotips247.com/email-marketing-roi-statistics-2010

Social Media Marketing Yes, it’s the one that is most talked about at the moment. It’s all very well employing this method but here again you need to measure the results of any social media campaign. Social media must support brand strategy as indeed should every internet marketing campaign.

Social Media Marketing

It’s getting to the point where businesses who undertook online campaigns like SEO and PPC are going more and more into major social media venues like Face book, Twitter, Wordpress, and dozens of other powerful social media tools.

Twitter

Twitter has the social media world by storm, and a year or two from now Twitter will still be a powerhouse in the social media world. While Facebook may have the edge as of right now, soon

Twitter will even eclipse them in terms of chatting friends and business associates.

Facebook

Facebook is the king of social media, even if Twitter is gaining in popularity. There are over 300 million potential customers. It’s free. You can both upload pictures and chat via text with clients. While it’s a more chat oriented social media tool like Twitter, Facebook’s sheer size makes it impossible to ignore. Used in tandem with other social media tools is putting money in the book. Sign up is free, chat with clients, find new business, and find out what your customers truly want.

For more information visit www.wsiwebapplications.com