Author: J. Warholic

Business Marketing And Advertising Internet Empowered

J. Warholic

Empowering Businesses With Internet Marketing, Online Advertising, And Web Branding Services Strategies and SolutionsThe Internet Is An Empowering Media Form For Customers And Businesses Alike

Take a look at how the Internet is providing a form of online customer service feedback that can both be good and bad for your business depending on the customer service you provide.

Consumer Experiences

Years ago, before the Great Expansive Web Landscape >> before the Mozilla and Internet Explorer and high-speed internet came along, a dissatisfied customer would maybe complain to management or write a letter to the President of the company about poor customer services or false advertising. Now, that has all changed. Customers that become dissatisfied are fighting back.

To be a reporter does not require going to four years at a university or getting hired by the local newspaper. No, anyone that has a beef about something is free to report it online through a free blog service. Make no mistake about this though, falsely reporting news and information can hold serious consequences for individuals online. See: Internet Ethics

With that said, people can and do document information related to businesses online all the time. In fact blogging has changed the face of how the large media giants respond to news stories. Many times the networks are slow, very slow at jumping on a breaking story and it is the blogging community that is the first to share the story online. With technology, through the form of automatic news feeds from every single blog, the story can be picked up by thousands of individuals that then turn and share more information online. Once the chronicled account is published, search engines catalog the information making it a matter of historical public record for all times sake.

Businesses, from local, national, and international companies need to be more aware of the new technology that is creating the Internet landscape Where There Is No Place To Hide

In an article written by Chuck Mckay, from his Fishing For Customers website the following is quoted:

What happens when your ads brag about your customer service, and customer dreads going on hold with your automated call center?

What happens when your customer finally understands that your “money back guarantee” is actually pro-rated for the number of weeks that she owned your product?

What happens when your angry customer makes the evening news carrying a placard which declares you to be a crook?

Where do you hide when there’s no place to hide?

From the customer service standpoint it makes sense to follow good B2B, B2C, and C2C ethical guidelines. Fraud and other different unethical activities will become exposed. It might not happen overnight but with poor customer service, fraudulent activities, advertising scams, and even copyright infringement there certainly is no place to hide online.

Empower your Business for Marketing And Advertising

Blogs are not just for individuals. In fact blogs are being used more and more for businesses everyday. I just received an email update from Google about how their AdWords blog is becoming more of a newsletter in their thinking than just some place to post thoughts and updates. Click link to read more on this perspective.

Inside AdWords

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Are you thinking what I’m thinking? That, just maybe, a blog might prove to be an effective newsletter for your customers as well?

Imagine it: A place where you could easily tell your customers what’s new and interesting about your business, and where you could even show them photos of your latest collection of high fashion widgets from Paris. Perhaps you’d also like to get some useful feedback from your customers? Yep, you can do that too.
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Executive Platform

This type of e-business marketing and advertising works. Customers have been sharing with me the good feedback that they are receiving from this type of executive Internet marketing and branding approach. Many times people are blocking the pictures and images that are embedded in emails, especially in an unethical age with email spam and malicious spyware viruses, but are likely to click on a link to a website to view more information. Information can be posted online for future use. Imagine being able to write a sales and marketing pitch or create an Ad for use in a Pay-Per-Click advertising campaign with a link to a posting targeted to exactly what it is that your company is advertising.

The Internet is still a baby

The interconnectivity and alliances between businesses both vertically and horizontally as well as the mix of Individuals into the broad spectrum of things online will continue to create new opportunities for new businesses, market expansion of existing companies, and the opportunities for private individuals to make a difference, shake up the world, and breath a measure of fresh air to the World Wide Web.

Professional Web Services, Empowering Businesses On Line To Make A Difference With Internet Marketing, Online Advertising, And Web Branding SERVICES STRATEGIES SOLUTIONS.

Sales and Marketing Moving Picture Shows – Web Videos

J. Warholic

Getting found Online on the major search engines is only half the battle. Utilizing sound marketing and advertising concepts once a lead source visits your business or consumer website is the other.

Websites that only have pictures are not likely to get discovered in the search engine results for the keywords of a particular business. Most of the search engine information is in the words of a website not the graphic images. On the other hand, sites that only have text copy writing will get dry and boring over time. Incorporating these two marketing and advertising concepts when it comes to the Internet is a continual challenge.

Mitigating Factors

As broadband connectivity continues to expand on a world wide basis the Hi-Tech options for promoting various business industries on the Internet are becoming much larger and can be done relatively inexpensively.

Technology continues to merge in what can be accomplished in online advertising. Once considered the high-end for only the major technology players the likes of IBM, Motorola, or Microsoft on the Internet, incorporating videos into a website is becoming more of a cost-effective sales and marketing tool for even the smaller B2B and B2C businesses on the Web.

Making a Sale

A prospective customer finds your website by doing the keyword searches for your business. What happens next? Sometimes the best way to demonstrate what it is that your company does is to provide a video demonstration. Prospects may not be familiar with the operation of a product, software, or machinery equipment operation. Short video clips can make a huge sales impact when done in the right context. If, you do not have the bandwidth at your hosting service, Google provides free hosting for your videos. For an example of free Google Video hosting, check out Professional Web Services short clip of the Grand Opening of the TechBA center in San Jose, CA. Follow the links at the bottom of that page to find out how simple it is to upload videos to Google.

The applications for utilizing videos in websites are quite extensive. Realtors for example could do virtual tours utilizing a digital camera themselves. Then have the Webmaster upload it to the server and provide a link from the Realtor's website to the video feed. Software companies are using video feeds to train new customers and demonstrate their software programs. OEM machine equipment manufactures are using streaming video feeds to demonstrate how their machines operate. Additional feeds in other languages can also be very helpful when marketing globally to the rest of the world. Individuals can even use this on demand video technology to sell items online. Consider the small business owner, who operates a business out of their house. By using an intro page to a video as a landing page for PPC, Pay-Per-Click Advertising a small business owner can sell their products as an additional online outlet to the eBay way. A seller can even place a link on an eBay listing to demonstrate the device or product.

Once a video is stored online, the link to it can always be used in the future for any type of on demand marketing or advertising. Take email as an example. Email marketing to prospects can include a link directly to the video production. Simply describe what you are featuring and provide, either the actual link, or anchor text (text actually displayed to the reader) link in the body of the email. Sales and Marketing events captured for you by: Professional Web Services.

The saying, A picture tells a thousand words; is certainly true, but the Web videos moving picture shows can make a lasting visual impression that can improve your company sales.

Professional Web Services provides SEO Internet marketing, Online advertising, and Web branding services, Email Marketing strategies, and solutions.

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Above The Fold Internet Marketing

J. Warholic

Courtesy of USA Today

The term “Above The Fold” was used in the newspaper business which represented everything above the fold on the top half of the page. The Premium Content Area.

Internet marketing for a B2B and B2C site today requires the same key concepts that were once only in the news print industry. Deciding what to place at the top of the web page may be the most important marketing decisions to make.

The issues:

How do you design a page that is going to capture the attention of the reader when they first visit a web site?

How do you make a page search engine friendly at the same time?

Key factors of understanding

First, it is important to understand that someone will arrive at a website in one of two ways. The first is they know your website by name. The second is they found your website through a search engine, web directory, or reference link. Each of these has its own set of variables when deciding what to place above the fold.

In some businesses it may be very easy to sum up and describe what your company does. Others may find this exceeding difficult to place a description on it. Take for example a B2B business which fabricates widget pieces for hundreds if not thousands of broadly different industries. Each of these industries has a different understanding of the engineering terminologies involved in the manufacturing process to fabricate the various components used in their company’s final product. This might actually be more typical then what most might have thought.

Bridging the gap between the first time visitor and a repeat customer is definitely a challenge. In the example above it is important to cover the bases to the best of your abilities on each web page. Graphics can tell a lot about the company brand. Sometimes the graphics displayed just does not tell the right brand story. Typically most websites have a graphic image at the top quarter or third of a displayed page. Using this area wisely can provide a powerful E marketing impact. Many times the company name can give a great indication of what the company is all about. Highlight the name if this is the case. Other times providing an image of what is manufactured can bring a viewer quickly to an understanding of what your company does.

The old adage that “A Picture Tells A Thousand Words” can certainly be true right here. Graphic logos can even be used both as a functional tool and a visual advertisement of what the site is all about.

Then comes the meat and potatoes. This is where you want to place your most important online information at the top. Get to the facts and issues as quickly as possible. Some have said that you only have three seconds to grab the attention of the viewer. If attention of the reader is captured in these first few seconds, they are much more likely to expand their knowledge of your business or consumer website by reading more information online. Just like in writing a newspaper article the facts and issues are at the top, and from there the story details are expanded upon.

Stories are great to read if they are interspersed with helpful illustrations or pictures depicting the subject matter. Going to new sites I personally want to find out as much information as I can especially if it is something I am interested in. Improperly assuming the new visitor is going to have an understanding of what it is you do with only a few words and a few pictures may be the wrong assumption indeed. Not only that, but with few words in the body, this will not provide the search engines enough information to really categorize the web page and place it in the search engine results pages.

Yes, it is possible to go overboard on your webpages at times. From an Internet marketing perspective it is important to continually revise and improve the story line. Online revision is an area that should never stop occurring.

For help with your Internet marketing story line and Online Advertising contact Professional Web Services.

Marketing and Advertising Resources

Building Pay-Per-Click PPC Ads

J. Warholic

The Google Adsense program is a great way to earn some extra dollars for your website.

Sometimes for various reasons the normal pay-per-click, PPC ads are not available from the server and what will be displayed is a Public Service ad (PSA).

Consider replacing these ads with your own advertisements. Sure you can get other feeds to substitute the Adsense feed, but in the long run you may not be maximizing the website for the best sales tool available to your business.

By crafting your own advertising you can actually be building up a number of advertisements for future PPC AdWords campaigns to run for your company. This way you can get an actual feel of how the ad will look on similar sites.

Some business folks may have an aversion to displaying advertisements on their web site to begin with. The argument is that if someone has come to your B2B or B2C site why in the world would you want to send them away. While this argument certainly has validity from a quick look, another argument could be made. With competition blocking filtering and displaying ads that are related but not directly in competition with your business you are actually providing a service for your Clients and Customers and who are much more likely to return in the future. Additionally, if your product or service is strong then you will get the cream of the crop staying with you.

Many times the normal PPC advertising feed will not display the standard advertisements because there simply is not enough content in the pages for the algorithm to figure what is the best ads fit. Other times, there might not be enough advertisers that are bidding on the keywords in the page. But no matter what the reason take the time to generate some advertisements for your own business. It will pay sales dividends in the end.

For help with Advertising online and Internet marketing visit us at Professional Web Services, with solutions for your business today.

Reaching Global Customers

J. Warholic

Professional Web Services

Internet marketing gives a company an inside sales and advertising track on reaching global customers in a non-threating way if done properly.

Internet marketing seems to have many meanings depending on who you talk to. Typically though, it is about using the internet to promote goods and services ethically, using a variety of online tools for advertising and selling to other businesses (B2B) or consumers (B2C and C2C).

Understanding what an online approach can accomplish for companies utilizing the various subsets from Online advertising, direct marketing Email, E-mail newsletters, Blogs, publishing articles on the Web, content management, and Search engine optimization (SEO misnomer) will be covered in subsequent articles.

Approaching Internet marketing as though it is the business cure all for: not having a strong sales force, providing good customer service relations, having a strong or growing brand awareness, & advertisement of a company through other market channels would be a foolish assumption indeed. On the other hand, an exponetial integration of utilizing the online web applications tools into the overall business plan can have a dramatic affect on a company’s bottom line.

See how Professional Web Services can help improve your search engine visibility with web marketing today.