Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Business Building Tips for Small Company owners

You may be just start your own dream to realistic. The journey is long way to go. Sometimes you may tired or boring. It wont grow as you dreamed. Many obstacles. But don’t give up. Only few people have smooth path to reach the top. All other face many difficulties while they grow their business.

Below are some little hits, how you keep your head up.
01.    Find your passion to your business.
02.    Make a list  of all reasons why you love your business, your products and services.
03.    Share your thoughts and story, why you became a entrepreneur. It will bring you big enthusiasm about yourself.
04.    Don’t stop your dreaming habit. Imagine how you and your business in another 5 years, 10 years. It will give you courage to achieve most difficult goals in your business.
05.    Read the stories of rich people, successful businessmen. There are enough inspirational books, blogs articles online freely available for everyone. Gain the benefits from those materials, Good strategies, thinking can be achieved though continuous learning.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Select right web development company for your business


Now web site is must to any type of business, you may be in small or medium scale organization or large organization, it is better to have web site when your customers search you on the internet. However building a web site is not easy task and we need some expert knowledge to implement this project and it is an on - going project as well. It is an investment for the company. Some companies, especially large organizations maintain separate division for web site development and maintain it’s operations. However most of companies now out sourcing this project to external company due to various reasons such as internal division maintain is more costly than our sourcing, need to hire more experts to develop the web site and manage it. Other infrastructure like servers are additional cost to company.
Therefore most of companies, event large companies now out sourcing their web site development project to external companies. However finding a best matching web development company might be difficult. This article will help to find the right web development company and what are the main areas to be consider. If you have not selected right company, you could not achieve your target and it is wasting money as well.

01. Plan your basic requirement
Before go to service provider, your should understand your need well. You are the person who explain the need to web development company and they will develop the site according to your requirement. If you have them incomplete or wrong information, They may develop incomplete product for you.

02. Set your budget
Before finding a company to out- source your project you should know, how much you can afford for this investment. There are so many companies doing web development at different price range, careful for very low prices, they may fool you. Most probably, it may be an incomplete project

03. Start searching
Now start to search who is doing web development. Give high priority for local area people such as , if you are in Manchester, search for web development companies in Manchester area . Easy to negotiate and will understand your need and your target audience well. You can search through main search engines, like google, yahoo, or you can collect information from some referral sites like linkdin, facebook. List down most attractive vendors match to your needs.

04. Evaluate each vendor.
Careful evaluation will help you to find the best match to your needs, budget, time limit and other factors. If you have big list first short list them and evaluate. Otherwise you may not be able to take correct decision. It is better to consider positive and negative both factors.

05. Check their previous clients
This is not feasible all the time, but if you can get some feedback from previous clients, that will be big support to evaluate vendors.

06. Ask them the brief and proposal
You can ask short listed web development companies to send you small brief or proposal after you explain your need to them, then you can understand their professionalism for web development area and it will help you to select one company to hand over your project.

Web site is must to any company. Bespoke Web designing is recommended

Online, internet, web sites are now very common topics and everyone is interesting it. Any company in this world should have a web site. Because now, your customers may ask, what is your web site? Can I order through web site, Can I get all the information from your web site? Now no one ask you, whether you have a web site or an email? That was gone for history. Even you are a very small company it is better to have a web site. You may surprise 20 billion shoppers now online, they buy small groceries to land to cars through web site. Even doctors’ consultations are selling through online. In early days we thought to get the services from Service providers like doctors, lawyers, beauticians, we should visit the  service providers location. Now that was change completely. You can get their service to your home instantly. 

When you think about having a website for your web site, there are several options available. If you want to get common and basic website, there is a way to get it from some template driven web sites. Then there are so many web sites more similar to your one. Only content is different. But if you want unique web site to standing among others, you should develop your own web site. We called it bespoke web desiagning.  Bespoke web design help  you to create unique web site match to your corporate theme, colors and can integrate physical company  appearance to web site as well. Customers who come to your office or store, will feel the same when they visit to web site as well.
If you have low budget for website development, or no enough technical support, or you are hurry to go online and you are not worrying about your unique presence in online, then template driven sites or CMS( content management System) sites are the easy way to implement your web site. Only thing you have to do is to do needed content or information relating to your company and products you sell and update the content management system accordingly. 

But if you are more concern about your business presence on internet and line to aline all things together and you have some budget to spend, you can have bespoke web design to your site. This will help to build the credibility among your customers, because if your site and the other stuff wont match together customers may confused which one should believe. They believe what they experience first. That mean  website may to achieve the expected objectives. Therefore it is better to have you unique bespoke web site for your own. That’s why all big brands in the world have their own web site with match to company themes and gaining good revenue from online as well. 

Now you may think seriously, how to get bespoke web design for your company web site and how much should you spend for this project. Nowadays there are enough bespoke web deign companies in the world and your area as well. It is better to select local company. Then you can communicate effectively and can implement your need quickly. Most of companies offer web design consultations and suggest their recommendations. If you select local company, it is easy to negotiate and web design company may know about your customers well due to same area. My recommendation is, if you are based in Manchester, search for web designers in Manchester

Other than the uniqueness and individuality in bespoke web design, site quality, speed are the other main plus points I can highlighted. Cost is the negative point I can mention with compared to CMS sites. But I can guarantee, it is an investment, not just as cost for your company. Even though you need more technical knowledge, web design company will help secure you from this area always

Monday, May 10, 2010

Is Retargeting Ready to go Mainstream?

Alongside all of the coverage of the iPad, Apple and Google's growing war, and iPhones being left on bar stools, Google's launch in March of a retargeting capability from search into the content network felt comparatively ignored.
This is one of the important trends for search and display marketers of 2010. Many may not be using retargeting now (sorry, remarketing as Google calls it), but we'll look back on 2010 as the year this became a mainstream tactic. This should be the year most paid search and ad serving tool providers rushed to support retargeting, if they didn't offer it already.
Why? Three reasons: the recession, Google and the growing maturity of digital.
Tear Down the Digital Wall!
We all know display budgets have suffered from recessionary pressure over the last few years as brands cut budgets, looked for efficiencies, and in many cases stopped any activity that didn't generate a return in terms of direct acquisition.
Retargeting helps close the loop between search and display and knocks down some of the walls that have developed in the industry. Consumers don't perceive display and search silos – they go about their business on the Web, reading content, using Facebook, seeing ads, and then search when they're ready to start their journey to a purchase. They don't care about how we structure agency teams or brands allocate their budgets across channels or attribute sales.
Retargeting allows display and search budgets to work in a more complementary manner; not passively when post-campaign analysis is carried out and trends are spotted, but actively, with conscious decisions taken to retarget consumers based on search clicks during their research phase.
A Boost for the Google Content Network – and Paid Search Generics
Google entering this space is an obvious move for the company. Their revenues from the content network will increase if this works, and many advertisers have, despite Google's insistence to the opposite, found that the content network just doesn't work for them.
This could bring them back into the content fold. Once Google backs a marketing technique, agencies and many brands start questioning if it's something they should make a pillar of their strategy (to the frustration and relief of display and search people who have been shouting into the dark that this was the way to integrate disciplines for years).
Potentially, retargeting will also further underline the need to invest in generics term in paid search or as part of a natural search strategy. While often expensive and competitive, these terms many receive a boost as brands deliberately re-engage consumers "lost" after visiting a site via a generic term.
If a retargeted ad causes them to revisit the site and buy, when previously they may have not done so, future investment in a generic term can been justified and the cash involved made to work harder. This approach drives increased volumes and becomes a positive feedback loop feeding into the bottom line if managed efficiently.
Next time, we'll look at how digital is getting wiser, some third-party tools, and display's new best friend.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Price is matter for online shopping.

When we buying online, we always think, whether we get the right price . Internet shopping is like so many competitors under one roof. No any switching cost to search from another supplier. So having great price for your products is most important thing in online business. There are few tactics you can use to show that you have great price for your products.


01. Try slash through pricing

02. Use free shipping/delivery ( this is use by many companies online)

03. Add a limited time offers

04. Show comparisons to competitors

05. Show good, better, and best options.

06. Don’t give offers to all the products. Give few offers among big range.




Wednesday, May 20, 2009

How you improve your conversion instantly?

Conversion means, your web site, your product or service can meet the your customer expectations or customer needs. To satisfy your all customers need may be impossible, but as far as you can you have to meet the customer expectation, otherwise your business will die day by day.
Therefore , all the marketing gurus always emphasis about understanding about customer needs. When any visitor come to your site, can they find what they are looking for? When we drive visitors through search engine , we target specific key words terms that how customers search the product or service, May be they directly type about your web site name, product name or the benefits that can get from your product. If we can give most relevant page them to find what they search, you may win the visitor and if he satisfy with your product, he may be a repeat visitor to your web site. Below are some suggestions to improve your web site conversion
01. Give high prominence for fast moving Items. All the customers may not aware about it. But when they see it, there may be impulse buying
02. Match the lading pages to your campaigns, drive visitors to most relevant page
03. Tune your internal search engine to match top search terms as well as very niche terms that may your customer search.
04. Test your categories, navigation, pages with your customers, they are the best people to test. Most loyal customers will always willing to give their ideas.
05. Try cross selling, you can add related items to products reviews, look at Amazon. They do this in best way.
06. Smooth navigation is must. Add relevant, topically based shopping navigation.
07. Ensure interactivity is in each pages to bring visitors through pages.
08. Display large photos of your products, this the online merchandising. When visitor see more detail about the product, it is easy to get fast decision.
09. Show the products in action
10. Give the more prominence the key benefits of the products
11. Look at the headings of each products. It is one way to get quick attention from the visitors.
12. Do not Display large paragraphs for product information, short and sweet way is best, but ensure most important information are available

Friday, May 1, 2009

Top 10 - The Most Famous Night Clubs in the World

For those who are tired of the nightclubs in their city, this version of international discos and clubs is a reliable one! However, you have to pay attention to prices, as they can be much higher than prices in your native town! For those who are not bothered by high prices, here is a top 10 list of the hottest nightclubs in the world:

The tenth in this top is the nightclub Cocoon Club in Frankfurt, Germany. Those who want an unforgettable nightlife are invited to Cocoon Club, where they will discover high quality music in a dream like setting.

The nightclub Skye in Sao Paulo occupies the ninth position in the top. What will you discover here? It is a stylish club, at the last floor of the tallest hotel in the city. You can feel as close as never to the Brazilian sky enjoying the time of your life!

On the eighth position, you can discover the alert rhythm of Spanish people, having fun in a famous Spanish club. La Fira in Barcelona is the perfect place for those who enjoy high quality live concerts. The club La Fira will exceed a lot the expectations of many young people, taking into consideration that having fun in a museum is not an everyday event.

The seventh position in the top belongs to the disco called Le Batofar in Paris. Once you have arrived there, you will definitely be impressed by the lights and the modern electronic music. If you have not discovered yet what water fun means, Le Batofar will invite you to feel the river Seine under your feet, in amazing rhythms!

The nightclub on the sixth position invites young people willing to have fun to Switzerland, where Chlosterli is the ideal place for those who adore the rhythms of the music in an old room, with contemporary interior design.

Guacara Taina occupies the fifth position in the list of the most popular nightclubs in the world. Located in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, Guacara Taina is actually a cave and it is one of the oldest clubs in the world. The intimacy of the setting, located at several meters underground, offers great fun to anybody!

The fourth position is occupied by the Aquarium Club in London. Apart from the moments of fun it offers, you can also enjoy special cocktails, Jacuzzi, and a huge dancing rink.

The third position belongs to a disco in London as well, where you can feel great in a cozy atmosphere. Miniscule of Sound is a nightclub for couples or for those who love intimacy, in the real sense of the term.

Halikarnas is the name of the nightclub that occupies the second position in the top of the best stylish nightclubs in the world. Halikarnas (Turkey) is the only club in the world set up in the Roman style, where the party takes place in the open and fresh air invites you to have more fun.

The first place is occupied by Privilege in Ibiza, the largest nightclub in the world. Those who really want to discover what nightlife means are invited in Privilege to discover the latest trends in the electronic, trance and house music area.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Do you do accidental marketing to your web site?

I have seen some people is more excited about new technology that allows us to perform miracles and track the results of what miracles offer with various metrics. After using those miracles and metrics and all, if you could nothing to add your traffic level or conversion, what’s wrong with your new technology miracles you used or something wrong with your planning process? After all, do you this that all the tools you used is useless ? I think nothing wrong with the tools, but the planning process you follow.
Did you think that what will customers perceive as valuable enough to pay for you and why you can provide it better than competitors. E – marketers are trained to develop their natural abilities and hone their skills. Persuading people to take action is both an art and a science requiring lots of smart planning by professionals trained in the nitty-gritty of marketing and in correctly how marketing needs to be done to support sales.
Try to know whether you practice add hock marketing to your business.

Give honest answers to below questions
1. What came to first your mind, when you think about your business? Your product or service or the there is a need in the market that you can fulfill
2.  Who are your customers?
3.  What they really need?
4.  What benefits of your product or service offer to the customers’ real need?
5.  Why customers should buy your products? Uniqueness
6. What are the other options that customer s have other than buying your products ?
7.  How customers take a decision to buy a product like yours?
8.  What does your customer need to know before buy your products?
9.  How you customers perceive about your product, your company with compared to the competitors
10. What is the buying process that customer should follow to buy your products
11. What is the value that your product offers to your customer?
12. What will say your customer as recommendation to your product or service?

If you are unable to give quick and clear answers to above all questions, that I can say, you are doing add hock marketing or accidental marketing to your business. There are other few ways that we can say we do practice accidental marketing. If you put more effort on discussing how things look that what they convey. If you put more effort on tracking metrics than understanding what they really show of customer behavior. Further if you always looking for and implementing latest technical tactics than what really help tom improve your customer experience and web site and if you always focus on attracting new customers as much as you can than thinking to retain your existing customer, you do accidental marketing in you business. My advice is to stop everything for a moment and plan your work well, otherwise sooner you will face the disaster situation

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Do you have a web site and are you getting enough Revenue?

Just having web site is in wan without any income. Therefore millions of web sites today focus on the area of revenue generation from their web site, already some people in very mature stage while still some are trying to finding ways to earn money through their web site. Therefore, thought to write something helpful for beginners.

As everyone know there are three fundamental ways to increase web sites’ revenue

  1. By increasing traffic
  2. By increasing Web Merchandising
  3. By increasing Conversion rate


Increase traffic

Traffic means visitors to the web site. The theory behind the increase traffic means, when we increase traffic, more will buy the product or service we sell. There are several ways we can increase traffic by spending money and without spending money. Advertising ( PPC ads, banner Ads, Content ads etc) Search engine Positioning , in other words listing in natural results in search engines ( search engine optimization) ,public relation campaigns, viral marketing activities ( today mostly used in social media sites) and various loyalty programs to return the customers. Most of the companies use combination of tactics to increase their traffic as much as possible, then revenue will increase.

Increase web Merchandising

This is the way to encourage customers to buy more or spend on more items at once, Package selling, cross selling, up selling techniques comes under this. Per customer spending need to high here. Some web sites offer extra services at discounted rates, then customer will spend for both product and the service and both party gain the benefit. Some create ads ( just the wording ) itself motivate visitors to become customers and spend more money on one site. Some web site keep very low margin and give the products or service at low price, then customers tend to spend more with them and they may become repeat customers as well

Increase the conversion rate

This is the area, should have more focus. Coz small changes in selling process without single spending, will increase revenue dramatically. If you have better understanding of your customers and their needs and what you sell, you can do this well. There are several ways I can noted here,

i. Remove unnecessary content on your site – visitors may come to you site with definite intention and not to go through all things you have. So make it easy to find what customers seek. Over estimating phrases or paragraphs are useless other than the benefits that customer can enjoy.

ii. Remove unnecessary steps in check out process – As I explain above point, customer wants to finish his work as soon as possible and want to focus on what he needs, most of web sites I have noted, they want to show all things they have to all to visitors come to site. It is not the wise way of check out process. Maximum three steps are good.

iii. Ensure navigation funnel is more clear. Don’t assume, your customers know your site as you know it, they know very less about your site and they want to navigate the pages they need very quickly. There is no human interaction to show the correct path to visit by customer. So you should facilitate the best navigation funnel to your customers to get the conversion rate as you wish

iv. Be transparent to your customer – display your privacy and guarantees well, then visitors may believe you, when you try to cheat your customer, long term you will lose lot, coz they never return to you.

Therefore when you think to increase your web site revenue, concentrate on all three aspects, you need more visitors and they should spend more money with you and then you will have better conversion rate. If your conversion rate is below 1.5%, you have to focus on your site arrangement, not to increase more traffic, it means you won’t offer what customer seeks. If you focus on all three aspects, and continue on improvements in all three areas, you will have good foundation to your web business and long term you can enjoy the benefits.