Bringing Old School Marketing Strategies Online

Those who were so used to brick-and-mortar stores might be a bit uneasy about putting their businesses online. While most of these websites are just complementary storefronts to their actual offline store, they still worry, and the really traditional ones won’t ever consider putting up online stores without the brick-and-mortar one.

This is a strange phenomenon because the principles behind online and offline marketing are actually one and the same. Some factors are just replaces with others. For example, instead of meeting your customers face-to-face, you talk to them over emails or char messages instead. The process is also slightly longer when you exchange money for actual goods online. Shipping can take up to half a week, so customers are forced to trust shop owners to complete the exchange. Usually, shop owners require a “deposit first” policy.

There are a lot of things that stay the same, however. For example, there’s the “customer is always right” policy. To effectively carry out business online, small business owners should try to please their customers. If they ask for minor adjustments in a made-to-order product, you may have to comply with it just to keep them interested. If they request for special packaging, or a different shipping company, it’s also better for you to bend unless your store has already implemented a strict policy about these things.

Strict policies hardly work for online shops, though. Remember, online stores have more difficulty trying to look credible for consumers, so when you’re putting up the wall too high and making sure that the terms benefit you and not your customers, you will eventually lose them. Try to keep the playing field even. Lay it easy with the profit as well. Once they find out that you’ve “robbed” them because you priced a product too high, things are going to get ugly.

If they’re nice, they won’t say anything about it. They just won’t buy from you again. Most online consumers are a bit more vocal, though, and they could start an online campaign against your store. Remember, it doesn’t cost much to keep your store when you’re selling your goods through the net. If the shipping fees are shouldered by the customer, there’s no reason for you to price your goods too high. The old marketing rule here is to trade fairly, and that’s always the golden rule whether you’re selling online or offline.

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The Principle behind Blogs and Search Engine Rankings

One of the best ways to make it through the clutter of information in the World Wide Web is to publish your writing through blogs and to do it well. Blogs have ready-made templates which makes you do away with the trouble of creating pages yourself. Blogs also have popular domain names, so as long as your article is optimised and it’s written well, it’s bound to be listed on top of search engines. Below are things you should double check, though, to make sure that you’re doing things right.

Look at your URL

Your URL’s tail might have random characters. This is what is usually generated by blog programs, but you can tweak it a bit and make it more search engine-friendly. To stress the relevance of your article, apply the whole title of your article at the tail end of the URL. This way, search engines can track it easier and list your page on top of every other page in the same niche.

Apply Internal Linking

Is one of your pages more popular than the rest? Try linking the other pages to this popular article and soon enough, all of your web pages will rank higher in search engines. Internal linking or self referencing works wonders. Anyway, most of your articles will be talking about related things, so self referencing will also help your reader find his/her way around your website.

Apply Image

Some people aren’t on the look-out for textual information, but they do look for images. Whenever you can, make sure that your articles come with useful and related images. Instead of naming them with random characters, name the image file with the most relevant keyword you can think of, or even the title of your article. Search engines will automatically provide a link back to your article when they index the image onto their databases. If the Internet user is curious enough, s/he will click on your website’s link.

Ignition Media offer various Search Engine Optimisation servers to enhance your website’s performance on the major search engines including article submissions, blog posts /copywriting, link building and on-page optimisation. To find out more, contact Ignition Media and ask about the RankIT SEO Packages.

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SPAM Alert: How to Conduct Social Media Marketing at a Distance

The main point, really, is to recognize that the Internet is made up of social networking communities who are here to share information with one another. While this sharing culture is the perfect setting for online shops wishing to announce their main events, someone has to draw the line. When is store visibility a positive thing, and when does it turn into a nuisance?

It’s not really that hard to figure out. If you have a salesman following you around just to hand you a flyer about houses on sale, you’ll feel harassed, right? The same thing happens in an online social networking community. When you add a store, thinking that it’s good to have a commercial contact on your list, you’ll eventually regret the decision once that store floods your newsfeed with too many announcements. Entrepreneurs should always think this way and put themselves in their contact’s shoes.

On the other hand, too little visibility is also a bad thing. When nothing happens to your store for an entire month, clients might start thinking that the business is over. Zero-progress is often translated as zero-profits, and if a store isn’t getting any money from its prospective clients, then that says bad things about its products.

It’s safe to post announcements at least once a week, and at most, on a daily basis. Timing announcements and sales during payday is also a good strategy. There’s no use trying to oversell your products when people have no means to pay for them. Making your goods look like a necessity by promoting them through articles and videos is also a good accompaniment to your social networking announcements.

Make sure that you give out useful information while you’re promoting your products. Clients appreciate it when you give out free tips instead of just overselling everything that’s in your store. Even if you know they’re smart enough to notice it’s a marketing ploy, efforts to make your sales talk appear like a DIY tip will always be appreciated.

If you’re unsure what constitutes spam then you’re best to talk to a professional as spamming can be detrimental to your website rankings and credibility. Ignition Media offer Social Media services to enhance your websites rankings through their Gold Coast website promotion packages. Contact Ignition Media and ask about the RankIt SEO packages and custom SEO solutions.

Social networks online have the same nuances as your college life. If you play it cool, you’ll be popular among your peers. When you push too hard, you’ll be annoying people and no one would want to talk to you.

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The Pros & Cons of Artistic Website Design for Businesses

What if the artwork overshadows the website’s message? This is what usually worries small business owners when they use extremely artistic and rather experimental website designs. While hand-drawn images are trendy in shirts and blog sites today, they’re not always the right background images to use on a website—unless they do embody the brand’s attitude.

Website designs should always be “in character”. It’s not enough that the elements are pretty, or that the page looks attractive when all the elements have been put together. They need to present a whole idea to the website visitors, and this idea should always be distinctively characteristic of the product or service that’s being marketed.

An artistic website is only advantageous if the website is selling artistic products. Ideally, the principle behind the website’s focal point (the artistic icon or background image) matches the designs on the products on display. If the image, no matter how good it is as an artwork, has nothing to do with the company or the products on display, then it doesn’t work well as an element of the website. If the “artistic” object on the other hand is also an icon used to identify the brand, then it might work well as an element of the website.

The key here is to keep all the elements of the website unified. Experimental website designs might catch the attention of visitors because they look new. However, the experimental factors in the website shouldn’t get in the way of the website’s navigation. Make sure that artistic experiments still keep the visitors’ needs in mind. If they make the content appear too cluttered, and if they tend to confuse the visitors, then they might be bad for business. It would be safer for small business owners to stick to conventional website templates.

To make sure you have the right design for your business talk to a professional. Ignition Media offers professional Gold Coast website design services for small businesses to large corporations. We offer free website analysis of existing websites and free no obligation quotes.

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Stomp Footware

Ignition Media was contracted by BlueX2 to design the PSD templates for their client Stomp Footware

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Spirit Publishing

Using WordPress CMS with a custom built Product Manager, and E-Card System, Ignition Media designed and developed Spirit Publishing’s Website.

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The Magazine Layout: Print Trends Online

The distinction between print and online layout standards is blurring. People are seeing more and more conventional print layouts used in websites as well. Why is that? Some people think it’s because old habits die hard. Readers are so attuned to seeing these standard layout designs on magazines that they think it would be chic to apply them on websites as well.

Content managers, on the other hand, find the magazine layout more attractive than other website layouts because it keeps the text and images in neat, distinct columns. The result is a text-heavy page which is tight but not visually appalling. After all, how can one disagree with years of experience? Print media has been applying the same “look” for decades, and the magazines continue to sell.

Company owners mostly nod in agreement. They read the Time Magazine, and are big fans of the layout as well. They think it looks more professional, and it does let the website highlight as many articles as possible without letting the website elements look cluttered. For them, the design appears sleek. It’s automatically information-heavy. Therefore, it’s attractive for website visitors who are curious about the content being offered by the site.

The magazine layout, in other words, will work well for websites which have a lot of textual content to offer. Just like a print magazine, a website using an online magazine needs to reflect the personality of its target readers. It can be as straightforward and plain as a business magazine, or as flamboyant as an image-heavy kid’s magazine. This will be upon the discretion of the layout artist and the idea s/he plans to deliver.

The only downside to this layout is that it may be too busy for website visitors wishing to see less text and more images. This layout design is the antithesis of the billboard single-page design. If the website wants to copy the look of an old fashioned food magazine, though, because it’s a website for a food channel, then the magazine design will definitely work better than any image-heavy single page layout.

If you require a magazine layout for your CMS website contact Ignition Media. Our Gold Coast website designers love web 2.0 design and code with only the best css to ensure you’re site meets the highest standards.

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Media Comparison: Social Networking Sites vs. E-Newsletters

When it comes to online marketing, trends play a very big role. For example, when emails were the “in” thing, consumers saw a wide dissemination of electronic newsletters. Five to ten years later, the marketing flavors have changed. From banners and e-newsletters, we now have social networking pages, otherwise known as “Fan Pages” doing what e-newsletters used to do.

Micro blogging as a trend

Compared to electronic newsletters, though, these fan pages only give out snippets of announcements to readers. Also, they don’t crowd email space with their announcements and catalogues. Instead, these announcements and catalogues are posted publicly, on an online “mini-site”, with links to the main website. Why would small business owners want to do this? These days, online networking websites have newsfeeds which publish newly posted announcements from the user’s contacts in a single page.

This is a more effective and affective promotional campaign for most Internet marketers simply because they’re not annoying their clients with too much information. Instead, they’re just passively there. Their clients get to know about their products only when the links are clicked on. Otherwise, they’re not considered a nuisance because they’re eating up too much bandwidth.

Possible disadvantages

Passivity is a double edged sword though. Not all social networking users log in at the same time, and when you post in the morning, for example, you’re announcing your business event only to a limited number of contacts. Other contacts will have to click on your page for them to be able to read your announcements.

There’s also the possibility that an unhappy client would post something nasty on your social networking page. This can’t be helped because the social networking culture is all about dialogues. It’s not about you announcing something and enjoying the power of speech alone. Unless you’re good at handling negative comments, social networking pages can also damage the reputation of your business.

If you look at the ups and downs of the social networking page, though, you’ll realize that it’s all about how well you adjust to the changing cultures online. The dialogue culture of Web 2.0 will be around for many years. Between the emailed newsletter and the social media page, the latter is still the better choice.

To take advantage of what social networking can bring to your website contact Ignition Media. We specialise in Social Media marketing, SEO and website promotion for small to large Gold Coast and Brisbane businesses.

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How Useful Information can give you Top Ranking

Fill your web pages with a lot of keywords and you’ll probably get the attention of web crawlers, enjoy top ranking for a day or two, and then get blacklisted permanently because you employed black hat. Does this sound attractive to you? Probably not. No one wants to be wiped out of the face of the World Wide Web. Now, how about getting long term results? If you want to enjoy long term top page rankings, fill your pages with useful information. Write for humans and you will top that list.

The Internet is experiencing a paradigm shift. It’s more human-oriented now because people are realizing that all this business of generating text, images, and information in general is all about sharing knowledge. You can’t get that with “keyword-rich” articles which say nothing at all. Instead of generating 300 words of fluffs and bluffs, fill that space with an article that would rival those written for the print magazines.

Do-It-Yourself articles for beginners in almost every niche are very hot these days. If you happen to specialize in a particular field, from gardening to construction, you can fill a blog with helpful information which could help anyone who’s out there looking for DIY tips. One of the constantly “hot” topics is pet care. You can talk about caring for conventional pets like dogs, cats and fishes, or try to be more unique and put up a page for hedgehog lovers or chinchilla pet owners.

No matter what type of articles you write, always try to help people out. Readers will always appreciate the effort you’ve put into building that blog. Blogs aren’t just spaces for confessional ravings and rants. The trend now is to share as much information as you can. The information can be derived from your first hand experiences, or a collation of everything you’ve researched and read about the topic. You’ll be surprised at how rich the material can be.

If you’re interested in creating a blog or require articles contact Ignition Media. We have professional copywriters experienced in creating blog posts and articles to enhance a websites ranking performance.

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Enterprise Search

Ignition Media was contracted by Web and Print Design to do the Website Design and CSS Templates for all elements of this website.

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Communicating well with your Niche Market

Your niche market isn’t a static character you can depend on whenever you need someone to affirm how you’re doing very well. Customers have needs, and sometimes we might think we already have them all figured out. The thing is, just because we’ve done very well in starting our business doesn’t mean we can already sit back and be complacent about our online business.

The moment that online store is operating and generating revenue, the real work begins. Monitoring the influx of customers is one thing, but what we’re really interested in is what they have to say about the store.

Offer online support

Whether you’re running a shipping company or an online store for fancy jewelry, you should always make yourself (or at least a representative of your company) available to customer queries. Putting up modal boxes for online chat support is one of the best ways to support customers these days.

The static (and public) chat boxes at the side columns of websites are now passé. They’re also pretty damaging when customers post queries or comments which negatively reflect your store or service. Accommodate customers but don’t give them the opportunity to bring your image down.

Ask for service feedback

After processing their orders or answering their online queries, you can also ask them about how happy they are with the service and the product you’ve given. Tell them that this will help you improve your store, and don’t forget to thank them. While this may seem like a lot of work, customers actually like it when you make them feel that their opinions matter. As a matter of fact it does. A single unhappy customer can permanently damage your online business. Try to keep your reputation intact while you’re in this field.

Freebies for loyalty

Do you have repeat customers? Always let them know how happy you are to see them again. Give them a little freebie on their second or third transaction with you. Customers like freebies, no matter how small it is. If they were happy with your service before, they’ll be happier with your little gift. Who knows, they might even refer friends your way, just to help you out with your business.

In any sort of marketing, whether it’s online or brick-and-mortar, feedback is necessary. Small business owners can’t afford to trust their instincts alone. Customer ratings are necessary.

If you’re a small business looking for affordable Gold Coast website design solutions, contact Ignition Media. We can assist in all your website design, development and website promotion needs.

Posted in E-Commerce, Online Entrepreneur | No Comments | Posted by nicole

Arranging Your Website’s Centerpiece

Whether you’ve chosen to lay everything out on a single page, or to create a more conventional “gateway” website with a lot of links in columns, a good website design is always like a good photograph. It needs to have a single focal point. It has to have a subject. Before you get started, you need to decide on this subject. Is it the company’s logo? Is it the slogan? Every other element will revolve around this subject. This subject will predetermine the website’s color scheme, attitude, and shape.

Logo

The most commonly used subject is the company’s logo because it embodies the entire branding direction of a product or a service. For example, a water company’s logo may be colored with hues of blue and white, and these colors are encapsulated within circular figures. Naturally, when a logo like this is used as the subject, the rest of the website elements, including buttons and fonts, will have to be patterned after the logo.

When the logo is too intricate, the website designer may also choose to use a plainer layout to juxtapose the details of the logo. Either way, the logo set the direction of the website’s overall design.

Slogan

Sometimes, the company’s slogan is more popular than its logo. A prime example is Nike’s “Just do it” slogan which has outlived a lot of other global slogans in the same field. Because it’s so effective, it also controlled the theme of the company’s posters and television advertisements. When you’re working with a slogan this strong, it’s safe to pattern the website according to the “blue print” of ads the company has been running for years. Slogan subjects are also pretty common in sites kept by service providers.

For example, the slogan “Be remarkable.” may be the highlight of a website advertising unique domain names. A photo of a browser with an address bar scrolling down to five very similar domain names would be a good background image. It’s a subtle way of saying, “You want to be unique if you want to sell products.” The design sends the message across without being to overbearing.

If you’re looking to re-design your existing website or even starting from scratch… whether you have a clear idea of what you want or no idea at all, contact Ignition Media and talk with one of our Gold Coast website designers today. We can assist in the website design element of your website or the complete development.

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