February 18th, 2010 by Nick Kuzmin
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We all want the best possible deal. However, the best possible deal is not necessarily the lowest price we can find. That is the point I try to make to people when showing them how to find what they are looking for online.
The internet gives today’s consumers much more power than they had 20 years ago. Today, I can easily compare the selling price of TV in California with the same one selling in North Dakota. The problem this causes for sellers is that they have to put as much emphasis on added value as they do on price.
Low prices are simply not enough anymore. Sure, it will get you listed at the top of an ascending search for having the lowest price, but that is just the starting point. Are you expecting all your clients to buy on pricing alone? What if your price isn’t the lowest in the world? Remember, this is the World Wide Web we are dealing with here. Users can research retail information from around the globe.
You have to do more today than just deliver a low price. Don’t get me wrong, price is a great starting point…but do you want to build your business around first-time and one-time shoppers? Or, do you want to do business with shoppers that come back to the same place because they feel like they get more from their purchases than just a low price? Continue Reading »
Tags: B2C Internet Marketing, business, helping others, Online Business, successful website
Posted in B2C Internet Marketing, Online Business | 1 Comment »
February 16th, 2010 by Nick Kuzmin
The web, as many know, is a new beast. Long gone are the days of first grabbing your phone book, flipping to the “Moving Company” section, and looking for the best looking ad or simply the nearest company. Back in those days the “leg work” of the sale was done after the initial contact. The rise of the internet era has completely reversed this train of thought.
Consumers are now looking to have the work done by researching online, reading other customer’s reviews, and gathering as many facts as possible BEFORE any contact is made with the business. As potential buyers, today’s shoppers first leverage the power of the internet in their shopping experience. They don’t want to be contacted until they are ready to be. A shopper empowered with search engines is able to gather vast amounts of extremely precise decision-making data before even thinking about contacting a seller. Continue Reading »
Tags: B2C Internet Marketing, business, consumer, data research, information, web marketing
Posted in B2C Internet Marketing, Online Business | No Comments »
February 11th, 2010 by Pete Brand
I received an email today from someone who is taking steps to get their company engaged in social media and now that they’ve got a presence, they’d like to know how to get followers and fans.
I am sure this is a question you, and everyone else on the planet, has been faced with at one time or the other while wading into the social media-sphere.
I know it was definitely a hot question for me in the beginning days.
The famous line, “Build it and they will come,” from the movie Field of Dreams is just that …. a dream! It’s also NOT something that will happen within social media unless you are some HUGE celebrity and have an extreme amount of luck. Continue Reading »
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
February 2nd, 2010 by Paul Ferrier
I just received an email from Google Apps and am grinning from ear to ear. Google announced, “…we will be phasing out support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as other older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers.”
Amen!
IE6 was released in August of 2001! Yet people still use it today, not taking advantage of the latest technology. Could you imagine in 2001 using a browser from 1992. No, you wouldn’t because the experience would be so much different (Mosaic was starting development in December of 1992!)
Continue Reading »
Tags: browsers, google, ie6, internet explorer 6, LinkedIn
Posted in B2B Internet Marketing, B2C Internet Marketing, Online Business, Website Development | No Comments »
January 25th, 2010 by Paul Ferrier
I have had this same question posed to me several times over the last year and I thought it would make a good blog post.
It’s no secret the last year has been very difficult for people personally and professionally. The good thing, however, is that the economy is looking up and the downturn has produced a lot of opportunity.
But here’s the question: How can I stay motivated when things are hard?
For me, motivation is assisted mostly from attitude. Keeping an upbeat attitude is key even when you feel like you’re getting kicked in the gut over and over again.
What else is a big motivator? Money. You need it to survive, and you really need it for your business to survive. So here’s a quick way to think positive and get motivated.
Start by thinking about how much money you NEED to make to pay your bills and be happy per year (that’s X). Something very realistic.
Continue Reading »
Tags: LinkedIn, Motivation, Sales
Posted in B2B Internet Marketing, B2C Internet Marketing, Online Business | No Comments »
December 4th, 2009 by Pete Brand
If you’ve ever been deep sea fishing I’m sure you remember how there were far more fishing poles with lines in the water than there were people on the boat. This helped increase the chances that each person on the trip enjoyed the awesome experience of hooking and reeling in a nice big fish.
You should employ this same strategy when you are looking to build traffic to your website.
The most effective way to do it is to expand your digital footprint by increasing the amount of content that links back to your website from other websites.
You can accomplish this several ways which include:
Tags: blogging, internet marketing, Online Business, Search Engines, SEO, social media, Social Media Engagement
Posted in B2C Internet Marketing | No Comments »
November 20th, 2009 by Paul Ferrier
For some companies, times are tough. So when a marketing manager or CMO (chief marketing officer) receives an email from an “Internet marketing specialist” who can get their site to the top of the search engines for a specific phrase, the company might jump at the opportunity.
Marketers beware…these “opportunities” from these “Internet marketing specialists” may not be as good as they sound.
Here’s a real world example that just prompted this blog post.
Continue Reading »
Tags: Fraud, Internet Marketing Specialist, Scam, Search Engines, SEO
Posted in B2B Internet Marketing, B2C Internet Marketing, Online Business, Website Development | No Comments »
November 17th, 2009 by Pete Brand
So it’s been a touch over two months since I posted my rant on the “posers” in the online marketing world.
Believe it or not I am still fired up over the “hacks” that swindle business owners out of their money for services they are less than qualified to provide. I am quite sure I’ll continue to be irritated because this type of junk will never stop.
Rather than go off on another tangent, I want to provide some value and equip you with a step-by-step process I promised to post if enough of you asked for it.
Well, I received several requests and although it’s been awhile … here you go!
Continue Reading »
Tags: b2b, B2B Internet Marketing, Fraud, internet marketing, keyword research, web business
Posted in B2C Internet Marketing | No Comments »
September 22nd, 2009 by Paul Ferrier
A very common statement made by clients to their design firm is, “Make my logo bigger.” In some instances this might be a good thing, like on a billboard where your target audience is doing 70 MPH (on a slow day). But I’m here to help you understand why “make my logo bigger” regarding your website is actually, believe it or not, a pretty bad idea.
Let’s face it. You love your company. With the logo being your staple, why wouldn’t it be BIG on your website?
The answer actually has two parts: Your logo doesn’t sell and visitors really don’t care.
Now, let me explain.
Continue Reading »
Tags: LinkedIn, logo design, make my logo bigger, web design, website design
Posted in B2B Internet Marketing, B2C Internet Marketing, Online Business, Website Development | No Comments »
September 16th, 2009 by Paul Ferrier
Harvard Business School recently published a working paper titled Do Friends Influence Purchases in a Social Network.
And I read it, of course. So I’ll save you some time and give you a simple overview on what they learned, and what I learned from them.
- First, I had to get back to my Trigonometry and Calculus classes to get my head around all the equations they have in the document to define their findings. Very interesting. Very amazing. Very intelligent. And I am not pretending to really understand what all of it was. Ha.
- Second, the paper is a working paper, so a bit of duplicate content to get through. Unless they were just trying to really drive the point home.
- Third, I found it odd that a paper from 2009 would use data mined in 2004. Sure seems like behaviors could change over this 4+ year span.
Ok, so this is what I gained from it:
Continue Reading »
Tags: LinkedIn, social media, social networks, web marketing
Posted in social media | 1 Comment »
