TechPatio » Marketing

What to Look for in a Marketing Agency

Emily — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:50:12 +0000

As an SME, or even a large business, it can often be difficult to stretch your resources far enough to cover the costs of an inhouse marketing team. And if you already have one, more often than not, they will be completely overrun with projects and tasks, so new campaigns and urgent marketing work can’t be undertaken as urgently as it needs to be.

If this is the case in your business, likely you are considering outsourcing to a marketing agency – whether just on a project basis, or retaining their ongoing services so they become almost an extension of your business. The difficulty is – how do you select the right one for you? Ideally, you want to get your selection right the first time so you can build an ongoing relationship with the agency, and save time later re-briefing company details and other general information for future projects.

So what should you consider?

Size and spend

First and foremost, try to match the size of your business with the size of the agency you are commissioning – this is especially essential for small businesses in order to build stronger relationships. Unless you’re just after some business cards and letterheads, it is vitally important the agency grows to understand your business, aims and objectives and also the culture.

Similarly, the size of the agency will often have some bearing on the cost. If you’re inclined to go with a big, top five agency, you need to be aware your marketing costs will reflect this. In contrast, a boutique agency may be more affordable.

Strong pitch, thorough understanding

When the agency pitches to you, it should be evident not only that they’ve done their homework, but that they’ve taken the time to analyse what they have found in order to build a thorough understanding of your business. Look for a pitch that resonates with you, and that speaks to the ideals, goals and values you see represented in the business. The more your agency understands you, the less time and money you will waste.

New media specialisation

Of more importance than ever, is making sure your selected agency is up-to-date with current trends. You will want them to have digital experts on their team so they can advise you of the best and latest technologies and channels you can use to communicate. You will need an agency not only with web experience, but now perhaps more significantly, one that knows its stuff when it comes to social media as well as SEO.

Previous clients and work

While many of us generally skip over the testimonials page, take the time to have a look at it. First, read all the testimonials so you can get an idea of what work the agency undertook and how satisfactory it was. Next, get more in depth – ask the agency if you can possibly speak to previous clients they have worked with so you can gain and honest and open understanding of how the agency works with its clients of all sectors.
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7 Reasons why your Website Sucks and Why People Avoid It

Guest Author — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:39:58 +0000

Perhaps you have decided to create a website many times but have always seen your efforts end up in a failure.

Experiencing trouble with your website?

It is important for the ranking of your website with the SEOs that the visitors stay on your website and see what you have displayed for them. It is possible that many times your visitors leave your website more quickly and do not go through the content that you have made available for them. If you want to know the reasons for it and also learn about some common things to avoid having on your website to make it a success then hang on and read further ahead.

Reasons behind why this happens?

Auto sound: this is something that makes people leave your website quickly. It is possible that at time when you visit a website a sound or a video starts playing automatically. This distracts the visitors to the website and they avoid it altogether the next time they log in. many people also have background music of their choice playing on their website and they think it might please the visitors however this is not the case. The background music might annoy your visitors and they might leave it before viewing the content. Therefore auto sound or background music on your website is one major reason for its failure.
Complex or bad navigation: if the visitors find the navigation system on your website complex or bad they might leave your website within seconds. It is important therefore to make your navigation system as simple and as effective as possible.
Slow loading: slow loading of your website even on a high speed network connection might make people leave your website or not visit it altogether.
Too many pop-ups: if your site has too many pop-ups, it will be responsible for the less visitors you get on it. Pop-ups distract the visitors and they try to avoid sites which have too many of them
Lack of relevant information or useless content: the main reason somebody will stick to your website despite everything else will be its content. If your website does not contain relevant content then there is a big chance that people will avoid it altogether.
Outdated information: if your site contains outdated information, people will stop referring or getting back to it in the future. You need to make sure your website remains up to-date all the time.
Boring: your content might be boring or the appearance of your website might just be plain dull. Make sure you make your website colorful, in an accepted manner and try to add only relevant yet interesting content.

What should be done to avoid it?

You can always try to avoid the points mentioned above for a better traffic to your website and its success. Make your content interesting and not too over bright so that everything else remains balanced on it.

Guest article written by: Crystal J. Briscoe is from Self Test Engine. Looking for 642-481 exam help? Let’s take advantage of Self test engine self paced 642-591 training and pass your IT exams on first try.
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4 Reasons a Business Should Invest in Social Media

Emily — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:08:56 +0000

Social media is proliferating across all walks of life and is increasingly infiltrating everything we do. Business owners should realise this as they stand to gain many benefits from engaging in social media marketing and utilising methods such as facebook marketing to increase online profitability as well as drive traffic to their retail store fronts. This article explores how to do this and why it is so crucial.

To build your online presence

Spread the word of your business through social media because it is free, unlike traditional advertising forms. The internet represents a dynamic marketplace which businesses use as a platform to attract the attention of vying customers and prospective buyers.

If utilised correctly, it can result in numerous new visitors on a daily basis. Social media is all about social networking so use it as a medium to promote your business to new people.

Allows you to monitor public discourse

Having a public Facebook fanpage for your customers will allow you to observe the conversations that people are having about your brand and business. In turn, you will develop a better understanding of how customers perceive your brand and this will result in deeper insight into your target market.

Apart from helping you amend potential problems with your current product and drive their sales upwards, you will be able to identify what your target market wants and execute new product or service opportunities. Social media is the easiest way to reach out to your customers in this era of technology.

Increases exposure and drives sales

For bricks-and-mortar businesses, social media such as Facebook and FourSquare is an ideal opportunity to increase exposure and drive sales from the online sphere to the retail front. Customers visiting businesses can now ‘check in’ or ‘rate and review’ a particular business and share their experience with their established network of friends.

As a business owner, you should check to see if your business is listed. Once you have done that, it will appear on a smartphone whenever people in the radius click the ‘check-in’ button. Once the listing has been created, you can even manipulate the information that appears under the listing.

Facebook now allows business owners to merge their check-in listing with their business Facebook page whilst FourSquare allows business owners to create check-in rewards and set up loyalty campaigns. It’s free advertising and statistical evidence shows customers trust word-of-mouth more than advertisements! The more people who check into your place, the more publicity you receive and the more sales you generate.

To command a presence and build authority

These days, it is as important to have a Facebook fanpage or a Twitter personality as it is to have a website. Existing and prospective customers will look for a Facebook fanpage or a Twitter presence to learn more about your company.

They want to know what other people think of you, they want to conduct research into what product you are selling, and they want to learn more about how the company works and how it portrays itself to its customers.

Your Facebook fanpage or Twitter personality can be a one-stop-shop for customers to learn everything they can about you. Greater visibility of a business will contribute to greater feelings of trust between customer and business.
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Social Media Tips for Small Businesses

Guest Author — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:44:39 +0000

If you haven’t heard of social media, odds are you don’t own a business. Still, some small business owners are hesitant to adapt to the new medium. Some feel that it isn’t relevant to their business, others are afraid of screwing things up, and still others don’t think that they can compete with the big brands.

Today, a large number of people in every demographic is using social media. People who like spreading the word about something are using it even more. You don’t need to compete with big brands to succeed. And if you do screw things up, social networks are very forgiving once you “get it.”

To help you get past your hesitation, or improve your social media skills, here are some tips to get some momentum going.

It’s Not About You

The biggest mistake that businesses make when they try to use social media is thinking that it is all about them. They confuse social media with traditional advertising. Remember, people only see traditional ads because they are there to see something else. You have to think of yourself more like a media outlet than a marketer. It’s about your audience, not yourself.

It’s Not One Way Communication

The difference between a traditional media outlet and social media is the ability of the customer to talk back. Since you can “hear” what they have to say, they expect you to react rather than just promote. Listening can be just as important as talking, not just because of the image it provides. It can also be a valuable source of feedback and new ideas.

It’s Not Fast

Social media takes time. You need to build a following before you can sell anything. Don’t expect instant gratification.

Don’t Spread Yourself Thin

You achieve the best results from social media if you dive all the way into a single community rather than mass publishing to a large number of communities. If you aren’t spending enough time on a social network to understand what appeals to the users, how to start a conversation in it, or how to build a following, you won’t achieve the success you are looking for. This is why you should spend some time deciding which networks are the best fit for you, so that you can focus your efforts where they will be most helpful.

It’s Not a Numbers Game

Instead of going after quantity, sift for quality. Instead of looking for a big audience, build connections with real people who have influence in your niche. Go out of your way to help these people and be genuine. It’s best to go into it without thinking about any particular reward you might receive. Just keep giving. They will give back. Earning the acceptance of experts in your niche is the best way to earn the reputation of an expert yourself.

Don’t assume that you should only help influential people, either. While this is where you should be putting about half of your effort, the other half should be put toward everyday people that are looking for help. This helps build your reputation as a reliable source, something that money can’t buy.

Be An Expert

To be an expert in your niche you simply need to be more willing to find information than most people are. You don’t need to know everything about your niche, you just need to know where to look or who to call. Spend some time talking to people in your niche and find out what they want to know. Give them the answers and they will be grateful.

Emulate Success

No need to start from scratch. Look for people who have achieved success because of social media and study what they did right. Don’t copy them; originality is an extremely important part of social media success. Learn from them. Study the experts and look for patterns.

Conclusion

Success in social media is about connecting with your audience, finding out what they want, and giving it to them. The more you go out of your way, the more success you will find. Involve yourself in the online community and distance yourself from the idea of making money right off the bat. Instead, focus on building a solid reputation and build a business from there.

Guest article written by: Jeff has been blogging since 2007 & contributing on many websites since that time. He is a professional internet marketing and blogging consultant. Jeff is also a consultant and content contributor for Queens homes NY community.

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Basic Internet Marketing Tools for Online Businesses

Emily — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 16:54:28 +0000

With businesses popping up anytime and anywhere, making a living in any business venture today surely is a very tough challenge. Whether your business is big or small, in the age of the Internet, you need to establish your business’ exposure online. Fortunately, there are many Internet marketing tools and techniques that can be used for any type of business. It just goes down to learning what they are, and knowing which ones to use for a particular purpose.Below are some basic Internet marketing tools for online businesses:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – is a very efficient Internet marketing tool for improving the quality and volume of traffic going into your website. It involves a combination of “off-page” and “on-page” strategies that are designed to carry out your business goals. Hiring a reputable SEO company can help provide you effective strategies regarding SEO.
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PPC Management – is considered to be a very crucial part of any Internet marketing plan. Pay per click is when an advertising company (such as Google and Yahoo!) charges a fee to the company being advertised every time somebody clicks on their advertisements. A good PPC management implementation can enable websites to maintain a good page ranking. Since PPC management is a continuous process that involves regular testing and tweaking, it is highly recommended for companies to hire an experienced and reputable SEO company to manage their campaigns to achieve desired results.
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Free SEO Software – Many individuals and companies use many free SEO software solutions aside from the other Internet marketing tools and techniques because they see that they provide some significant value. Just like many software products, it typically depends on the user’s implementation and the nature of the website. Free SEO software can do many things for your site such as provide you with your website statistics, check for broken links, help with market research, etc.

The Internet marketing tools mentioned above are just some of the invaluable ones that you need to know in order to establish an effective business plan. These tools will significantly help you stay ahead of your competition online.

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How to Use Facebook Tools to Market Your Business

Guest Author — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 14:22:27 +0000

Facebook offers a wide range of tools which can be used for business promotion. In addition, there are several apps that are available. Facebook is great for generating buzz and keeping in touch with your customers. The following are some of the tools available on Facebook.

Profile Page

This is where business profiles are created. Based on what you are promoting, use information which will make it easy for people to find you. Make sure you select the right category. Make sure profile page is interesting so as to generate many page views.

Facebook Pages

This is where you will post all kinds of things to be seen by people – news, photos, messages, videos, and any other content. Use your page to establish brand presence. Make sure you customize it with apps, Flash and relevant content. Your page will enable you to relay updates in real time to your fans.

Facebook Groups

After your profile has been created, you can then build groups which will involve people with similar interests. This will help you create awareness of your brand and business through interactions and conversations. Though this feature does not allow users to be fans, it enables you to communicate with members in a more intimate way. Facebook Groups have played a key role in creating awareness about my blog which promotes register.com discounts and webhostingpad coupons.

Facebook Events

This is an application which is useful for promoting events like contests, parties, product launches and upcoming sales. Each event has its own page which allows fans to sign up for notifications and request invitations. This feature is ideal for building up a group of people who want to get involved in an event.

Notes and photos

These applications are great for sharing pictures and blog posts. However, make sure you avoid too much sales talk, and don’t flood people with too much company logos or information. To maintain your credibility, focus on photos and text that are educational. Photos and notes can be brought to the attention of specific people by tagging them.

Marketplace

This is like an ad section or a classified. If you want to offer goods and services to your members and fans, you can have your ads posted here. This feature can generate sales and leads by targeting individual who may be interested.

Guest article by: Charles Mburugu often writes about social media and technology. He also blogs about special coupon and discount offers such as webhostingpad discounts and register.com coupons. He is currently writing for a coupon blog that offers webhostingpad voucher codes and register.com discount codes.

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5 Steps To Promote Your Blog Using Social Media Marketing

Guest Author — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 09:22:02 +0000

Social media marketing has evolved in this new age, and promoting your business with this powerful system has become necessary, if not mandatory. A lot of people shy away from social media marketing, because they don’t know how to to it. It all boils down to your knowledge of the web, and how people react to new developments.

Every blog owner should be using social media tools. There are a lot of mobile applications that can boost your productivity, without all the hassles associated with online marketing. As a matter of fact, social media can elevate your blog’s popularity and quicken your relationship building.

1. Understand How Social Media Works

There is a way you should approach social media like Facebook and Twitter, as well as Linkedin. These sites have all it takes to turn your small business blog into a go-to for quality information. Getting your web pages found requires more than content, you need to market your content properly and hence the term “content marketing.”

2. Content Marketing Concept

Content marketing doesn’t stop at writing articles and getting them syndicated. It entails understanding what makes people read, what their ultimate goal is and how to help them achieve it. Content marketing works so well in the areas of social media, because there is a lot of interactivity, like sharing, uploading and chatting.

There is a kind of behavior that’s obvious with social media users. For instance, Those who use twitter are much more aligned to business, marketing and selling. Whereas, Facebook is primarily viewed from the friendship aspect. Although, quite a bunch of marketers are benefitting from Facebook, it’s still easier to convert social networkers into customers via the former.

3. People Optimized Content

Knowing that people are real, with blood running in their veins, you can only make success with social media when you optimize your content for them.

Don’t be like those who stuff their content with with keywords, with the hope of ranking on Google top 10. Well, even though some poeple have benefitted from it, it doesn’t make it legal and good. People read informative content, not necessarily articles that have keywords here and there. I’m not saying you should forget about keywords, but in using them, make sure it appears natural. This way, you would be able to entice people to link back to you.

4. Link Juice Content

What is the secret of link juice content? By this I mean content that gets a lot of social sharing, link backs and natural backlinks.

The secret is in the content style. It’s not necessarily the topic that matters. Even in competitive markets like blogging, you can still write contents that appeals to human. It’s all about catching the concept behind the words. How does the word present impact lives and persuade readers to take action. These are some of the questions you need to answer when writing your content.

It’s much easier to share and link back to an interesting post, than an informative post. But when combined, your traffic and web credibility would go on steroids.

5. Earn Your Reader Trust

When your blog readers trust you, it become easier to share your content on social media sites. Trust is contagious and magnetic. That is why, every effort you put online must be geared towards improving and strengthening your trust.

No matter the niche you’re in, earn the trust of your visitors, and they would naturally link back to you. Sharing becomes fun and rewarding when they like and enjoy you as a person. For instance, when creating my review blog that features sittercity coupons and 6pm discounts, my ultimate goal is to help online shoppers save money. This has earned me a degree of trust and so, getting these people to share my content with friends and family is as simple as your next meal.

Marketing Takeaway

By following the above steps, that is somewhat simple, you would be able to drive quality traffic from social media sites, engage these visitors and willingly persuade them to share your content naturally. I’m sure every blogger knows about these tips, but only a few are doing it. Go take action today and reap the rewards.

Guest article written by: Michael Chibuzor is a Freelance Writer and often writes about discount deals at coupon blogs that sitterciy Coupon and 6pm discount codes. He is currently contributing to a coupon site that offers a free sittercity.com coupons and 6pm coupons codes.

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Tools to Building a Better Website for Your Business

Klaus — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 13:43:02 +0000

Gone are the days of business websites hosted by Geocities and other easy to use web based site creation services. If you want to make a real impact with your customers, you need to have a well built and effective website. Most people are going to discover your company by searching for it online before anything else, and it is a good investment to make sure your site leaves a strong impression.

Create a Simple Layout

The average amount of time a user spends on a website is less than 60 seconds. When searching a website for information, people tend to look for the information they need and quickly leave. By creating a site that conveys information in a creative and engaging way, you are more likely to communicate your message. According to psychiatrist Pam Briggs of Nottingham University in the UK, your website needs to have an element of “stickiness” or your customers will simply click on a competitor’s link.

To create an engaging website that maintains a good level of “stickiness” there are two options. If you have abundant resources, you can hire a graphic/web designer to create a professional looking page for a nominal fee. If you are a small business owner, you can create a website of your own by using a free web editor such as CoffeeCup or Komodo Edit

Hosting

Based on the needs and resources of your company, there are two types of hosting plans available:

Managed Server Hosting

When you choose to use a managed server hosting service, you are guaranteed the best maintenance of your server and the fastest speeds for the services you provide. If your website relies on rich media presentations, has a wide selection of e-commerce products, or you are a large national company, this is the most advisable option. Your servers will be stored in a data center and be maintained by a secure staff of professionals.

Shared Hosting

If you are running a small business that just needs a basic presence on the web, you can purchase a shared hosting. This type of plan provides similar benefits as a managed server, but your data is stored on a shared server with several other websites.

Marketing

It is important for your business to stand out amongst the rest. Purchasing a domain name that is easy to remember and not loaded with backslashes and extra words is an effective strategy. You can also build a presence on Twitter and Facebook gaining fans and providing interesting content for them that is related to your company.

With some patience and a little bit of creativity, your business can stand out from the competition on the World Wide Web.
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Yahoo Kindness shows how much exposure $100 can get you

Klaus — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 20:57:22 +0000

It’s amazing how much marketing $100 can buy you, when you pick the right people to do the job for you. Take for example this $100 spent by Yahoo!. They gave $100 to Justine Ezarik (iJustine) for her to conduct a simple act of kindness. The video got around 150,000 views on YouTube in about two weeks.

150,000 views for $100 ain’t bad. I’m sure every single one of the viewers heard “Yahoo” mentioned at least once during the video, and that’s what branding is all about, being present in the mind of customers so they think about you next time they need what you provide.

But let’s put marketing aside, I still think it’s a good move by Yahoo, even though their reasons are probably motivated by money in the end.

Take a look at Justine’s $100 Yahoo Kindness video below:

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Using Visual Similarity In Image Searching on Your Mac

Guest Author — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 19:47:44 +0000

Some amazing developments in Mac software continue to come from both research centers and private developers.

We are well aware of applications like Spring Cleaning from Smith Micro Software. This software will perform a large variety of functions, such as finding archives, disk images, empty folders, font files, superfluous help files, music, podcast and even Poser files scattered around one’s hard drive. It will also search for duplicate files, such as duplicate images. However, the files have to be exact duplicates in either name or content. If a single pixel of an image varies from another, it will not be considered a “duplicate” file.

However, files that have visual similarity can be located with software. The software can be set at the desired level of visual similarity (although it is still necessary to review its results so that the desired version of a duplicate pair is retained). Locating and purging image files which are essentially, but not exactly, the same allows you to optimize your disk space so that it is not taken up with duplicate files.

A search for images based on similarity identifies and displays images that are essentially the same in appearance despite the data underlying the image. The similarities can include color, shape and texture. Therefore, if there are two identical pictures but one has been brightened in Photoshop it may still be found by the software, since the content of the images is still essentially the same even if the brightness is not. Such an image content search can even find two duplicate images if one is of a different resolution.

Duplicate image finders can be handy for Mac using Internet marketers, for example, to weed out duplicates that exist in a folder of downloaded PLR (private label rights) images. Even if some of the images have been adjusted in Photoshop or are of a different resolution, the software may be able to find them.

The venerable Mac graphics program GraphicConverter has a built in image similarity search. In version 6 of the program, for example, you simply first browse the folder in which you want to find duplicates by choosing Browse Folder from the File menu. When the browser window opens, you then choose Edit > Find, compare and replace > Find duplicate files… This brings up a dialog that lets you choose the sensitivity of the search. I find that even with the slider all the way over to Less Image Similarity, it still finds very few files that aren’t duplicates (although it may fail to find some that are).

The no-cost way to find duplicate images is with the freeware program PixCompare. I like the software’s large preview windows that give a very good idea of the resolution of the duplicates found so that you can delete the poorer-quality images. On the minus side, the search results are not very well organized and it finds a lot of files that are not at all duplicates (it does, however, place the most likely duplicate candidates at the very beginning of the search results). PixCompare tries to find duplicates even if they have been flipped or rotated, with varying results. Both GraphicConverter and PixCompare will fail to find some duplicates, but fewer duplicates remaining in a folder is better than more.

There are duplicate image finders for iPhoto as well, including Duplicate Annihilator (Brattoo Propaganda Software) and Tidy Up! (the exclamation point is part of the name) but these find duplicates based on the filename, date modified, date created, label visibility, etc., rather than visual similarity.

Software for finding duplicate images has not become as wildly popular as the software companies may have hoped. However, the concept is finding new uses on the web. For example visual similarity software can be used to help shoppers online. For example, if you see a pair of earrings on the Internet that you must have, you may be able to do a search to find visually similar images elsewhere so that you may know where to shop for the item.

Similar uses could be in finding a similar shirt of a different color or a table lamp that would match a particular room decor. In the future, watches, jewelry, handbags shoes and clothing may be indexed, followed by furniture, and home and garden items. In addition, the software might also be used to find plagiarized or modified images, making it useful to artists and photographers.

One thing is certain: as artificial intelligence improves, the usefulness of this type of software is sure to increase.

Guest article written by: Timothy Arends. You might get the impression that the Mac is the forgotten stepchild of the Internet marketing industry. But did you know that some of the top names in Internet Marketing use Macs? Visit http://internetmacmarketing.com and get a FREE 75-page ebook that covers everything you need to know about running your Internet business using a Mac, iPhone and iPad. http://internetmacmarketing.com/10tools.html

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