Agog in Cyberspace

How do Search Engines Calculate Trust and Authority?

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 15:55:00 GMT

Registration information about the history of your domain is a primary resource of data that is used. More trust may be offered to a public registration than a private registration. Maintaining a physical address on your website also helps to establish trust. The hosting information, integrity of the data, security that is in place to protect the user and that business’ willingness to protect the user’s data all speak to the trustworthiness of a host domain.

If you collect user information in a webform or other form of data transfer, it is important you have a well written privacy policy and employ a form of secure data transfer (i.e. SSL Certificate) and advise your users how that information is being used. Click Thru Data and other user data signals may also be other calculated.

Is there a testimonial page on your website?

If users need a quick answer to a question, is there a FAQ page or knowledge base that is easily searched for the answer?

Obviously the domain age is VERY important. Choosing a reputable hosting service is critical and you should avoid moving your domain often as longevity with your hosting service also plays a critical role in establishing trust. Register your domain name for at period of at least 5 years. 10 years is best.

Which Marketing Channels are found to be most successful?

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 00:02:00 GMT

Research consultancy Software Advice recently released the results of a five month-long investigation into which channels, content and offers business-to-business marketers find most successful. The project called the “2012 B2B Demand Generation Benchmark Survey” asked 156 professional marketers which channels are most productive for producing a high quantity of leads, and which produce the highest quality prospects. The poll also asked similar questions about content and offers, such as live demos, free trials, webinars, videos and more. Finally, the group was surveyed about their spending priorities next year and how that might change from 2012. Overall, digital channels – particularly those related to search – dominated the results. Email marketing to a house list was the most popular channel and voted most as producing quality and quantity of leads. Oddly, social media was among the most popular and a top spending priority next year, despite receiving low marks for quality and volume.

8 Tips for Retaining subscribers to your eMail Marketing List

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 15:23:00 GMT

Source: ExactTarget

Your email marketing list is one of the most valuable assets a business can own. If you have followed specific guidelines to develop your list, its loaded with a population that has already shown interest in your products and services, or at least has a demonstrated interest in your industry. Using this list effectively, you can promote your products and services to an already willing participant as well as grow your reach and build brand loyalty.

Why then would you want to jeopardize losing even 1 subscriber?

8 Tips for Retaining Subscribers:

Let them control the frequency of the emails they receive.
Let them control which topics they receive emails about.
Create multiple, targeted email subscription types, and let subscribers pick and choose among their options.
Describe each email subscription option, including the value of the content and the frequency to expect.
Remind them why they're getting your emails.
Share why you thought they'd enjoy your content/remind them of the email's value.
Ask them to confirm they no longer want your emails in a light or humorous way.
Give them an option to re-subscribe to other email lists.

Are you still on the fence about Mobile Ready Websites?

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 20:30:00 GMT

With Consumers spending $1 out of every $10 eCommerce dollar from a smart phone, can you afford not to have a Mobile Ready website?

Do you have 'Influence' ?

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 07:00:00 GMT

We still hear people say - 'I already have a web site, so we don't have a need for your services.' My response back is this: Is your web site working for you? Is it keeping pace with your changing environment? Is it as compelling and fresh as the day it was launched? When people search for you online, do they find you easily?

The way people use the Internet to shop, get information, or communicate evolves continuously. As Internet Presence professionals, it is our job to stay on top of the latest trends and technology.

Influence is defined as 'the action or process of producing effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of another or others'. As an Internet Presence firm, we deal with helping our clients gain 'Influence' on the web everyday

As a people, we are influenced everyday by other people, events and experiences. We base many of our choices by the words and and actions of others. That is where Social Media Marketing comes in.

Your customers are meeting each other and sharing ideas. Don't you want to be involved in the conversation? Just having a Facebook Page and Twitter account is NOT going to get you the results you expect. Let us demonstrate to you what we do that makes Social Media work for you. We will customize a monthly Social Media Marketing program for you which will drive BUZZ and qualified leads to you and your web site. You'll see results within the first month.

Our monthly service comes with periodic reports measuring the results against the goals we set. The key to an effective Social Media Marketing program is Message, Consistency, Follow up, and Measurement.

Checklist for Hiring a Web Design Firm

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 15:46:00 GMT

There are a lot of Web design firms out there. If you're like most people, the task of hiring someone seems like a daunting one, especially in an industry that you may not be very familiar with.

Even though 95% of our Clients are referrals from existing Clients, we still hear the anxiety and stress from them during our initial consultation. We've learned that there are 5 key areas that you can focus on in your initial discussion with a potential firm to make the selection process more efficient and palatable.

1. Experience You can determine experience by asking for references from Clients they have worked with in the past. Ask the following questions of references:

• Did they meet deadlines?
• Were you satisfied with the end product?
• How effective was their website design?
• Do you still have the same website design today?
• Would you use them again?

Visit the firm’s website and review their portfolio. You’ll be able to see from their previous work what type of projects they’ve been involved with. Don’t expect that they have every website published in their portfolio, so be sure to ask them for projects that are similar to yours that are not shown in their portfolio.

2. Knowledge They should be able to speak clearly about the key elements of effective website design, including color schemes, themes, use of fonts, content and website structure. They should be able to give you a good explanation of ‘good content’ verses ‘poor content’. The key understanding you should get from the discussion is that they are able to translate your ideas into a concrete website design plan.

3. Price This is where it gets tricky. You should go into the discussion with some idea of a budget for your project. Web Design firms charge a number of different ways: flat rate for the entire project, an hourly rate, or a basic flat rate with additional charges if the project runs over a specific estimated number of hours. You need to choose the firm that best matches your budget and value proposition. Don’t be misled by lower rates. This could be an indication of the use of less experienced web designers or a less flexible design process. Less flexible design process isn’t necessarily bad if you are willing to accept what the firm produces without much input after the fact. Less flexible can also mean lots of change orders when specifications and design are not clear, detailed, and precise. The marks you gave the firm on Experience will be a good guide in gauging the value of the firm’s pricing.

4. Flexibility Custom Web Design is an iterative process. It’s one that involves a number of changes as the project progresses. When talking to references, ask how the designer handled changes. It is important that you know if changes to the design added to the cost of the project and if they were easy to make. Get a sense of how the firm reacted to changes. Were they resistant? Was the process difficult? Be sure that you are comfortable with whatever the response is.

5. Communication You should get a good idea of how well a firm communicates from your very first encounter. Great Website design firms put a premium on communication. Can you reach the person you are working with directly on the telephone? How accessible is the designer to you? Look for firms that provide you with an outline of their design and communication process. There should be well defined milestones in the process that involve direct communication with you. Don’t forget about after launch support. We’ll they still take your call after the project is completed?

Content Marketing produces loyal customers

Sun, 14 Oct 2012 21:51:00 GMT

What is Content Marketing? Content Marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience with the objective of driving profitable customer action.

Content Marketing is a way of marketing your products and services without selling. At the core of Content Marketing is delivering information about your products thru storytelling. The successful content marketing campaign delivers information that makes their target audience more intelligent. This blog, as an example, is the cornerstone of our Content Marketing. Our blog provides information that is relevant to the business owner who has a need to promote their products and services. Smart marketers understand that traditional marketing is becoming less and less effective.

According to Roper Public Affairs, 80% of business decision makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles versus an advertisement. 70% say content marketing makes them feel closer to the sponsoring company, while 60% say that company contests helps them make better product decisions. These facts are supported by the increasing number of companies who are now Blogging and producing Newsletters. One of the barriers most small business owners say keeps them from using Content Marketing as one of their marketing tools is TIME. Clearly, it is much less time consuming to put an ad in the local paper. An Internet Presence firm, such as ours, can assist in providing Content Marketing Services. The key is to find the firm that best fits and supports your needs.

Every Internet Presence firm that provides Content Marketing as one of their services has their own philosophy. Ours is very simple. We believe in creating a Content Marketing campaign that establishes you as the authority in your field. We do this by publishing blog posts that provide a mix of informational, humorous, and whimsical blog posts; all anchored in the products and services you wish to promote. We back these blog posts up with vibrant Social Media activity. For most clients, including a periodic Newsletter featuring content from the Blog posts completes the circle. This approach, within a very short period of time, results in a loyal online following and a dramatic increase in website traffic. Over time, our Clients list high in the search results for the key words and phrases that define their products and services. The result is a sustainable marketing program that continuously delivers loyal customers to you.

How do you define Social Media Marketing Success?

Sun, 07 Oct 2012 07:00:00 GMT

As with all of your marketing programs, you should start with a clear definition of what you hope to achieve. What do you what to achieve with your Facebook page? Most of our potential Clients answer that question with ‘I want 500 followers on Facebook’ or ‘I don’t know, but everyone says I should be doing it’. Today’s small business owner is getting much more sophisticated when it comes to Social Media. They all know it’s out there and everyone’s talking about it. Most however don’t appreciate the marketing power it has. Because Social Media is free, everyone can setup a Facebook or Twitter account, and many business owners do. Most jump into setting up accounts and start posting without any real training or coaching on Best Practices. As a result, many become discouraged when the results they expect don’t happen overnight.

For many, success is measured by the number of Facebook Likes or Twitter Followers they have. I call that ‘Playing the Numbers Game’. For others, it’s about how many ‘Shares’ or ‘Comments’ they receive. However you choose to measure your Social Media Success, you need to stay true to the proven business goal – Relationship Building. Relationship Building is in Social Media’s sweet spot.

We believe that successful social media engagement is focused on quality first. What do we mean by this, and why is it important for your social media engagement? Well, consider the following:

Is it better to have 500 highly-engaged, motivated, Facebook fans, or 5,000 fans who rarely share or comment on your posts? Our experience is that meaningless, random or generic ‘inspirational’ quotes get far less interaction than posting selective, personal and meaningful links and photos.

You have to give before you can ask for anything. The hard lesson to learn is that social media engagement, not direct selling online. Here are some lessons learned managing Client’s Social Media Marketing over diverse industries and disciplines:

Like attracts like - Remember that your social media contacts all have their own networks, many of which could be beneficial to you. Try tapping into the key influencers within your social media networks, and switch them on with quality content. It will be liked, followed and shared by the simple fact that good social media content is worthy of spreading.

Deliver quality to targeted groups - It’s better to network with less people/groups if those groups have a strong following. Social Media is today’s ‘Word of Mouth’. Having a small quality network is better than a large network that is hollow. Be sure to network and engage with a smaller, committed group of social media contacts and watch the positive results. Going for a quantity approach might look impressive, but it’s unlikely to deliver a quality ROI over time.

Quality will decrease your ability to get quantity - To deliver a quality message, you need to invest time and effort– this means investing in creating, researching, and sharing the very best to your audience. If you feed your followers with the best, you increase the odds of a quality ROI on social media marketing. This is not to say you won’t get to that magic number you are shooting for, you just won’t get there as quickly as you would if you ‘troll’ for Fans and Followers.

It will be obvious that you are putting out quality – Your audience will reward you with their actions. They vote with their mouse. If you produce quality, you’ll see comments, shares and visits to your website pages. If the quality isn’t there, they will click elsewhere.

The 3 C's of Successful Social Media Marketing.

Sun, 07 Oct 2012 02:55:00 GMT

Consistency, Content, and Conversation are the 3 main ingredients of a successful Social Media Marketing program. Many potential clients I speak with don't grasp the impact that managed online marketing can have on their reach. Typically, the first thing they want to know is why they would need to pay someone for doing something they could be doing themselves for free. True, Facebook does not charge a fee to create and maintain a Facebook page. Theoretically, the potential client could create and maintain their social media themselves.

The fact of the matter is that most businesses don't have the expertise or time in-house to create and maintain a Social Media Marketing plan. Our experience is that on days that things are slow, the potential client posts something to their Facebook page. It's typically whatever comes to mind at the time, or something that is relevant at the moment.

Does that sound like YOU?

The typical person doesn't post or tweet to their social media on a regular basis. Activity is spastic: multiple posts on one day followed by several days of 'nothingness'. I have found that the way to consistently increase the number of people you reach with your social media, is to provide timely and meaningful information. Our typical approach when starting a new program with a Client is to produce an event and activities Story Board. The Story Board is an outline, in chronological order, of special events or promotions planned in the future. We then start adding sub levels to the outline below each special event or promotion that talks about or provides information about the item. We call that - building up the Buzz. By building up the Buzz slowly over time, we find that people are more apt to engage in conversation. A recent example was a special class one of our Clients was going to host at one of their retail stores. The conventional approach for a novice would be to post details of the event a few days prior.

Our approach was to start posting general information about the topic of the class, in this case Pet Dental Care, a couple of weeks prior to the event. Topics we posted were statistics on pets infected with dental disease left untreated until the pet became ill and required a visit to the Vet. We added posts and tweets that linked to helpful webpages that discussed what pet owners can do at home as a preventative measure. Finally we posted the event information. By the time the Facebook post for the event came out, people were already sharing and commenting on the subject.

Using this approach, we build a calendar of Posts and Tweets in our favorite calendar where we can visualize the 'Story Board." By planning out the posts and tweets in advance, we can delivery relevant content consistently and drive conversation that increases the normal reach of our Facebook audience. When our audience shares and comments on our posts, their Friends get engaged. That increases our reach and drives new fans to our page.

The key to a successful Social Media Marketing program is CONSISTENCY CONTENT, and CONVERSATION.

Save money with a CMS Website design

Sat, 22 Sep 2012 03:03:00 GMT

Content Management Systems (CMS) have been around for more than a decade, but really didn’t start getting popular until a few years ago. Designers and web professionals have been producing websites on CMS platforms because it allows for quick and simple editing. There isn’t a real need to master special design software, and updates can be made from any browser/internet accessible device. Up until a few years ago, businesses that had in-house technical support also preferred CMS websites because it allowed them to make updates and edits to their websites without contracting out the work to expensive consultants.

Today’s business owners have become much more tech savvy. With the proliferation of technology in our lives, almost everyone processes the computer skills necessary to edit and update a CMS website. If you are reading this, chances are you too fit into that category. The question is – is your website a CMS website? Is your website built on a WordPress, Joomla, or Daupal platform? Maybe you went a bit more high end and commissioned an Adobe Business Catalyst, Rocketship, or Volusion website? If your website is not built on a CMS platform, you are either paying a web developer to update your website for you, or you are one of the many small business owners who simply launch their website and forget about it.

Updating your website on a regular basis is the single most effective way to ensure you are getting the most out of your online marketing. If you don’t have the cash flow to hire someone to edit and update your website, then owning a CMS website will save you money. True, you will need to devote an hour here and there to edit and update content on your website, but it will pay off quickly. Your website will show up higher in the Search Engine results and attract more potential customers. Stale and outdated websites get passed over by today’s discerning customers. Search engines will drop you from the first page if your website hasn’t been updated in a while, or hasn’t kept pace with today’s web standards.

Converting your existing website to a CMS format can save you money in the long run. If you are in the market for a new website, be sure to consider a CMS website. Web designers can change upwards of $80/hr to maintain your website. Instead, contact a professional design firm such as ours, and ask about getting a CMS website developed with the option to retain the firm to be available to maintain your website when you’re busy with running your business. Don’t be held hostage – take control of your own website.

Why reorganizing your marketing around the Social Customer is the smart move.

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 19:11:00 GMT

By now you must be getting tired of reading headlines like FACEBOOK reaches 955 Million Active Users. The question I hear many business owners raise is ‘what’s that mean to me?” If you are like most business owners, you are too busy running your business and providing customer service to be reading and studying up on the latest marketing trends. Sadly however, not moving forward with the latest technology has to offer is not a sustainable strategy. At some point, you will recognize that your marketing dollars are not getting you the biggest bang for the buck. Most don’t realize their existing marketing efforts are failing until it’s too late. It’s disheartening when I hear a potential Client tell me that they don’t have enough cash flow to support a marketing campaign. This reinforces the proven adage that it’s critical to market while your business is doing well.

Back to ‘what’s that mean to me?’ It’s not important to understand why Facebook has such a huge reach but that there are proven methodologies and strategies to effectively reach these users. It means that you can tap into a vast number of people who have chosen to engage in a ‘community’ of social networks. Studies show time and time again that people respond to recommendations and suggestions from friends far more favorably than advertisements. Joining the Facebook community and following some very simple guidelines will establish your business within the Social Media community and will yield incredible results. What this means for you is a sizable ROI on your marketing dollars.

True, many businesses are successful marketing themselves on Facebook without the aid of hiring a professional Internet Presence firm. When you read about their stories, what you’ll find is most achieved this by lots of trial and error and with a huge investment of time on their part. The benefit of hiring a professional firm to manage your Social Media Marketing is that you’ll reap the benefits of implementing a proven strategy almost immediately. I’m by no way implying that you will receive immediate results. The standard Facebook online marketing starts with these simple steps:

1. Build a Facebook business page: A professionally designed business page includes a Cover Image that graphically depicts the image of your business or organization. This image should visually communicate the essence of your products and services.

2. Get the page to look well visited: Before launching your Facebook page officially, post a couple of weeks’ worth of content. Ask friends and family to like the page. It’s important to have some activity on the page before launching it. People are not going to interact with a page that looks unused. No one likes being the first fan.

3. Setup a sustainable program that posts content to your page on a regular basis: Consistency is critical. Your fans will expect to read and see relevant content on a regular basis. Studies suggest that you need a minimum of 3 posts per week to maintain interest.

4. Launch your Facebook page with an announcement to all your existing Clients: Send out a notification to your existing Clients. Provide them with an offer or enticement to visit your page and like you. People love promotions.

5. Start a Facebook Ad Campaign at launch: Set a goal of how many ‘Likes’ you wish to reach in the first month. For most businesses, 1,000 is a good goal. Use Facebook’s paid Campaigns to drive qualified visitors to your Facebook page. Run the Campaign until you’ve reached 500 likes.

6. Follow up Ad Campaigns with Sponsored Stories: Once you’ve reached 500 likes, follow up with the Facebook Sponsored Stores ads. This will market to your Facebook fans friends. Basically, your fans friends will see that their friends have liked your page. It’s a great way to generate an online ‘Word of Mouth’ campaign.

These are 6 simple steps to take to build an active Facebook community. Your posts and messages will be seen and shared by your Fans. The key will be to maintain a healthy balance of content. A good rule to follow is: Promote your business 70% of the time, while posting information that lets your visitors get to know you 30% of the time.

Hopefully I’ve given you an answer of ‘What’s it mean to me?’ If you have the desire to start moving some of your marketing dollars from traditional print media marketing and telephone book ads to a more interactive, real-time marketing medium, contact us. Don’t just take my word for it; State Bicycle Company earns $500,000 in annual sales from coupon codes and traffic. 12% of their website traffic comes from Facebook fans. We will work with you and within your budget to develop the Social Media Marketing program that will get you noticed.

You don’t need to read the Ultimate Guide to Facebook Advertising!

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 01:54:00 GMT

Perry Marshall, author of the #1 selling book on Google advertising, and internet strategist Thomas Meloche wrote what some in the industry claim to be the authoritative guide on reaching the 600 million potential customers on Facebook. Their book explains how to reach and convert them to fans and customers. Their book reviews the mechanics of Facebook Paid advertising and talks about how to get a ROI on marketing dollars.

What they draw upon is the latest Facebook has to offer businesses. I’ve become rather intrigued with the idea of using Facebook’s massive appeal and reach to market our services and recently started up a relationship with Facebook for the purpose of taking full advantage of their paid advertising. Like most Internet Presence professionals, I’ve been staying informed about the most current capabilities Facebook has to offer. Between readings the literature Facebook publishes, other professionals blog posts on the subject, and webinars, I considered myself to be above average when it comes to mastering Social Media Marketing. After only 2 weeks working directly with a Facebook account representative, I found that my knowledge and abilities had lots of room to grow. Books and blog posts are not a replacement for working with the help of an insider.

Facebook paid advertising provides some powerful elements and segmentation that GOOGLE does not. Targeting by birthday and family status, pinpointing who sees you ads, managing impressions per ad to avoid ad fatigue, and using sponsored Story Ads, are a few I’ve found most powerful. If you are not familiar with any of the above mentions elements, then you should either dedicate a couple of days to researching or hire an Internet Presence firm to handle the management of your online advertising. It’s really simple to toss a thousand dollars at the program without any tangible return on your investment.

If you are like most business owners, you’re time is spent running and maintaining your business. That’s where Internet Presence professionals like us come in. You don’t need to read the Ultimate Guide to Facebook Advertising – you just need to give us a call. We may be a bit different than most web designers you’ll encounter. Unlike the traditional web designers, we are a full service Internet Presence firm. What that means is that we provide any and all the services necessary to become highly visible on the web.

Benefits of having a website for your small business

Wed, 05 Sep 2012 20:37:00 GMT

It’s becoming less likely today that you will find a business that does not have a website. Less likely, however does not mean that there still aren’t many who don’t have any Internet Presence. You may know some businesses that are doing well without a website. I do too. The question I always ask myself is how much better they would be doing if they did have a website? Likewise, most businesses I know that don’t have a website, but do well, do so because they spend a lot of money on print ads and trade shows. I always imagine how much more profitable the business would be if they had a more balanced method of marketing.

I recently developed an Internet Presence for a local Retailer. He was getting by as long as he and his wife worked the majority of hours the store was open. He only had enough cash flow to afford 1 part-time employee. All of his advertising was in local print media and outdoor signage. The traditional ‘Yellow Pages’ type sales people were pressing him to add on a web component to his existing account. Shocked by the cost of going with a ‘Yellow Pages’ web component, his wife decided to do some research online to find more favorable pricing for such advertising. Lucky for us, a Blog post discussing the benefits of Search Marketing versus Yellow Pages came up in the search. The Blog post, which was one of my articles, captured their interest and they decided to schedule a free consultation. That was the beginning of a great business relationship.

We produced a custom website for his business and launched a very successful Social Media Marketing campaign for him. As expected, his volume picked up. His website not only brought in more customers, it generated leads that he was now able to email his holiday promotions to. His customer base increased, and so did his repeat business. All the while, he was able to reduce the outlay of funds to the traditional marketing by 75%. In the end, his annual marketing budget was reduced by 50%, while increasing his sales.

This is only one of many real world examples of how online marketing can improve your ROI. In reality, our services will provide several benefits:

Become Visible

Study after study tells us that customers are researching online before buying offline. Your customers are typing in their needs or problems into browser search boxes and are going to companies that appear in their search results. If you don’t have a web presence, your competitors will become the authority, and you’ll lose out on a customer.

Make a great first impression.

Most customers search online for products and services long before making a purchase in a brick-and-mortar store. Your website may be the first and only chance you have to make a good impression on a potential customer. We design websites that produce results. If your website is designed by a novice, your chance of making that lasting first impression will be lost.

Make effective use of your limited marketing dollars.

We can work with any size budget. Benefit from our experience. We know how to get the biggest bang for your budget. Getting an effective Internet Presence does not need to be expensive.

Having a web presence may make the difference between keeping your doors open or going out of business. The good news is that having a robust web presence contributes to your marketing reach and enhances your ability to succeed in even the most difficult economies. Working with a professional Internet Presence firm will not only save you time and money in the long run, but will open your doors to customers you aren’t even aware of yet.

Your business evolves, and so should your website

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Redesigning your old website will ensure your code meets current standards and the look and feel is modern (not stale). Your visitors should be treated to new and refreshing content and layout. It is human nature to get bored with the old and mundane. Keep your customers coming back to see what's new.

Is it time for you to hire a web design firm to redesign your website in a manner that retains your business Image, while refreshing your website's LOOK and FEEL? If you are thinking your website does not reflect your businesses profile, or is not getting the results you expect, it’s time for a redesign

Businesses redesign their websites for a variety of reasons. "I think many companies decide to redesign their site because something has changed," says Emily Cotler, co-author of Web Redesign 2.0. "Either they have a new product, their industry position has changed, or their audience has changed their expectations, habits, or technological capabilities. But it's often hard to identify how the Website should be redesigned to meet the challenge of those changes." Use your website to include your customer's feedback and marketing research. Let your website evolve as your business does. Call for your free one hour consultation now.

Online Marketing Challenge – Marketers no longer control the business relationship, the consumer does.

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Once you realize the vast majority of consumers turn to the web for product and services information, and that you are no longer in control of the business relationship, your Internet marketing will start producing results. Gone are the days when consumers follow a predictable path to making a purchase decision. Marketing classes taught business owners how to read where a customer was in a buying cycle. Remember Leads, Cold Prospects, Warm Prospects and Hot Prospects? Today’s tech savvy audience has become fast and fickle. Customers want the information at their fingertips immediately, and are prone to change their minds quickly. Last year, searches from Mobile devices increased by 55%. It’s no longer just searching for product and service information from their home computer, consumers are now searching for information while out and about.

What can you do? In order to reach today’s consumer, you must understand who they are. Segmenting your customers will help create more predictability and will allow you to better ‘target’ your message. This may not be something you have the tools or expertise to do, but that’s where an Internet Presence firm like ours comes in. Internet Presence professions design and develop websites and social media marketing campaigns to make use of Cross-Channel Marketing. This is a methodology where we work to integrate your message across channels (multiple platforms such as Desktops, Tablets, and Mobile Phones). By designing the layout of your website to interact differently with a Desktop device than with a Mobile phone, the customer’s perceived desired outcome is supported. As an example, mobile users are not going to get excited about a rich graphic when searching for information. Their screen size is and download speed is limited. It doesn’t make sense to push graphic rich content to a mobile phone.

One of the key methods we use to get our Clients message out there is to push content out differently on different channels. Social Media sites like Facebook and Twitter for example, have a high mobile user following. For that reason, those platforms are designed and optimized for the Mobile User. The content you push out promoting your business or service on Social Media sites should be tailored to the customer on the go: Someone who is looking for quick, concise, and near real-time information. The bulky and graphical information is presented on your website where it will be visited primarily from desktops, laptops, and tablets. If you are highly engaged with your potential clients, you’ll have a website designed using Responsive Design. That will give your website the ability to reach both Desktop and Mobile users equally well.

The word is out. 91% of consumers look online before making purchasing decisions. Now, every click, every search, every Facebook post or Twitter tweet is an opportunity to engage your customers and reach new prospects. We learned a long time ago that results and ROI come when all facets of Online Marketing work together. Social media, SEO, and web design all need to work in concert to meet consumer needs. We don’t believe in creating empty websites that can’t generate leads or in designing meaningless campaigns. We believe in creating comprehensive strategies and implementing them with consistency. That’s what makes our clients really shine.