Posted on February 20th, 2012 by Jeromy | No Comments
Ugh. I think a kitten just died.
Usability and ease of access are two of the most important aspects of modern web design — although often overlooked by design/development teams. We, as users, expect the websites we frequent to be quick, intuitive, and allow easy access to the content we’re seeking. At Marketingpugetsound, user experience starts from the initial client contact, and is adhered to throughout the web design and development process. We strive for clean, lean, and semantic HTML markup, and work toward delivering a website that is quick and easy to use.
How to make your website fast(er)
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Posted on January 29th, 2012 by Bobbie Bailey | No Comments
In June 2011, Google+ set sail, and a sea of people washed in with their thoughts. Many have speculated that Google+ would be the big wave to take out the social-networking giant, Facebook. With an explosive 40-million users netted at launch, many believed that savvy social networkers would jump ship for Google+, especially with the growing number of privacy issues on Facebook. However, Google+’s sign-up numbers have staggered. As a result, Google has released a new look and feel to its SERP. Now, with the integration of social networking to search (i.e. the “+1” recommendations and comments), many are asking, “Should I create a Google+ page?”
What is Google+?
Some have dubbed Google+, Google’s Facebook. Indeed, it is another social networking site where one can connect with others by adding them to “circles” and interact by sharing photos, videos, and links. However, it is more than just a social network. Aside from its unique features such as video conferencing called “hangouts,” Google+ pulls all of Google’s services together (i.e. blogging, email, videos), which allows users to do more of everything in one place.
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Posted on November 17th, 2011 by MPS Author | No Comments
When competing in an online market where numerous companies sell similar products, it is essential to create an emotional attachment to your brand in customers’ minds. Though there are so many companies out there that sell similar or the same products as you, distinguishing your brand is still possible. Selecting a catchy advertising phrase is an effective method to establish your brand’s unique and solid position in the crowd.
What does catchy advertising copy do?
When customers visit a website, they first take a look at the top portion of the landing page. If you display effective advertising copy there, it will spark the customers’ interest and they will continue reading the page further. Also, knowing what your brand focuses on helps you build a coherent brand image.
Analyzing your brand
The first step to creating a phrase is to analyze your brand’s strengths. Advertising copy should be your brand’s self-introduction that grasps customers’ attention in a second. In order to enhance the chance of your success, you need to select powerful words for your phrase and provide information that your customers are looking for.
Posted on November 7th, 2011 by MPS Author | No Comments
When developing marketing strategies some companies try to involve their customers. Others strive to come up with ideas to boost sales by pushing and selling their products. However, as social media has changed the marketing environment, the strategies to capture customers need to be changed accordingly. Some companies use marketing strategies that leave customers with a bad impression and unsatisfied customers may write unfavorable online reviews. Information flows more freely on the Internet, and, as a result, those reviews tend to spread quickly and widely and hurt sales.
Change strategies
If the old strategies potentially do harm, how should businesses change marketing tactics in order to acquire good reputations and positions in this environment? Now that customers have a powerful influence on the Internet community and can sway your company’s reputation and success, building closer and stronger relationships with them is crucial. In that market environment, a better strategy is the reverse of involving customers – getting involved with them. By attracting them and getting pulled by them instead of pushing, your business can generate more demand from customers.
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Posted on September 18th, 2011 by Bobbie Bailey | No Comments
Approaching various customers with the same marketing strategy is inefficient and ineffective since each has different characteristics and needs. A better marketing strategy is to sort customers into groups whose members share similar characteristics and to try to reach them by using the most suitable marketing tactics.
Separating Tactics for Different Groups
There are four different types of customer: prospects, casual visitors, purchase customers, and repeat customers. The goal of any businesses is to turn the first three types into repeat customers. Repeat customers spend more on purchases but cost less to maintain, and they are very valuable for their customer lifetime value.
The four types of customers have different psychological characteristics. Being aware of customer psychology and satisfying each group’s needs will help your business grow faster.
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Posted on August 26th, 2011 by Bobbie Bailey | No Comments
Case Study: MK Restaurant (Thailand)
If your product is highly competitive, how do you distinguish your brand from others? How do you draw customers to buy and/or use your service over others? Here is how you do it. Make your brand memorable through good marketing strategies. Just like how people think of iPod in MP3 player category or sharpie in permanent marker.
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Posted on August 14th, 2011 by Bobbie Bailey | No Comments
This is a re-post of an email that was sent out to Marketing Puget Sound customers August 12th, 2011.
I wanted to share with you a major change from Google that may have an impact upon our SEO efforts. (You may have already noticed the changes – one highly-visible aspect is the “black bar” at top of all Google pages & the integration with Google +, their new competitor to Facebook). All these changes mainly affect Google Places. So far we have noticed no major difference to the way Google ranks websites (beyond the many OTHER changes Google has instituted in last few months).
The new Places pages look a little different, but the more important difference in the new version is the lack of third-party reviews. Due to the threat of a lawsuit from Yelp, Google no longer shows reviews from other IYPs like Yelp, Citysearch, Avvo, etc. They do not appear to be using these reviews as “ranking signals”, either. This means that reviews _ON_ your Places page(s) are suddenly much, much more important to good ranks & traffic! Another issue other SEOs are noticing is large variances in their Places traffic. We are confident that this will stabilize with time.
There are other changes, but most of them are irrelevant for small business owners who have an SEO firm keeping up with the technical aspects. More info:
Please be thinking about ways to send more satisfied customers to your Google Maps page(s) in as large numbers as possible. This is truly the #1 ranking signal in Google local now. The next time we talk, we should go over creating methods to get more reviews. Methods may include
- Review pages on your site – Example http://www.remodelingsouthsound.com/reviews
- Review Cards – Business cards with links printed on them, for handing out to happy customers
- Review sign(s) – Small printed poster in a plastic upright holder for countertop in your office.
- Email newsletters with links – talk to Bobbie about this
- Incentives such as Starbucks gift cards, movie tickets, service discounts, etc
Of course be aware that Google’s methods of determining false reviews are extremely effective now. Typically they just delete false reviews, but too many from a single source could cause the Places page to be “Frozen” or even deleted. More info (& tips at bottom)
Posted on August 11th, 2011 by Bobbie Bailey | No Comments
Google Analytics is an essential and free addition for any business with a website. It allows business owners and marketing directors to easily determine the two most important things about the visitors to their website: Where the visitors came from and what they did once they were on the site. This tool allows you to measure the number of visitors to a particular site, types of traffic, how they accessed the site, and what words were entered into search engines to get them to your site. This detailed information makes Google Analytics an effective tool for measuring the success of marketing campaigns, how to better enhance your site for different users, and the keywords and links visitors use to find your site.
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Posted on August 4th, 2011 by MPS Author | No Comments
Video is hot right now. You've probably at least thought about getting a video. Here's a great article on why you should put that thought into action. Also, make sure to check out our Videography page for more information on how we could help your business with video.
From Entrepreneur.Com, by Mikal E. Belicove:
If the findings of a recent report are any indication, you should be slapping pancake makeup on your business and telling the director that you’re ready for your close-up. The survey, from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, shows that 71 percent of U.S. adults who use the Internet have used video-sharing sites such as YouTube and Vimeo. And these aren’t infrequent users. When asked if they’d visited such sites as recently as “yesterday,” a full 28 percent answered to the affirmative.
That’s a lot of consumers watching a lot of online videos. What does this mean for your business? First, a few fun facts.
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Posted on July 28th, 2011 by Leah Knoll | No Comments
I’m instantly drawn to any article on sales. This makes sense of course since I’m a salesperson. And, I wholeheartedly agree with Tom Szaky that sales is the most important function of a business. You can’t have a business without sales. And, as with anything, in sales there is always room for improvement. Here are the key points from The New York Times article “My Top 10 Sales Tips” by Tom Szaky:
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