Here are the links from this week’s posts on Marcy Design

Do You Need an Open-Ended Budget to Find Customers on Sites Like Facebook?

Don’t Wait to Buy Foreign Domains

How Social Media Sites are Making Life Easier for the Best B2B Vendors

Call Marcy Design, a Columbus Ohio website design company to help with your web, marketing and advertising campaigns.

Regular readers of this blog will already know that we are enormous fans of social media marketing. Not only are the numbers incredibly exciting – with more than 500 million users on Facebook alone, there are bound to be thousands of new opportunities for every company – but it’s possibly the first form of promotion that allows for nearly instantaneous word-of-mouth advertising.
And so, even though it’s something we think every professional should be trying, there are some groups who can stand to do really well from social media.
One of them is professionals who sell products and services in the business-to-business market. Partly because they can’t typically rely on slick television and magazine ads, and partly because the sales processes tend to be longer, more complicated, and with bigger dollar amounts, these industries are ideally-suited for social networking. That’s because, instead of telling prospective buyers how great your company and products are, sites like Facebook and LinkedIn let existing customers do it for you.
The best B2B vendors have always relied on strong relationships, but with Facebook fan page isn’t LinkedIn feedback, they can allow that process to go “viral” in a way that’s never been possible in the past. In other words, they can leverage comments from satisfied customers and use them to grow their client list quickly.
If you work in the business-to-business setting, run – don’t walk – to start using social media as part of your marketing plan. It shouldn’t take long to gather some recommendations from happy customers, and once you do the rest of your sales and marketing process is going to get a lot easier.

Call Marcy Design, a Columbus Ohio website design company to help with your web, marketing and advertising campaigns.

Ever wish that your grandparents would have had the foresight to snatch up some real estate in Manhattan, or that you could have found a way to buy shares of Microsoft when you were in grade school?

Hindsight being what it is, most of us have experienced that sensation at one time or another. After all, if we had only known then, we’d be fantastically rich and successful today. And while we can’t tell you what tomorrow’s stock prices will look like, we can pass on a piece of advice that you might be glad you took later: don’t wait to buy your company’s foreign domain names.

Lots of business owners have never considered branching out into different countries and continents… but why? With the small amount of time and effort it takes to duplicate your website, or have it translated, what are the risks in spreading your marketing message overseas?

Even if the tax or legal considerations make you feel less than excited about selling your goods in pounds, rupees, or Euros, it still makes sense to reserve a small piece of virtual real estate, just in case the future holds something different for you. Buying these domains typically costs very little, but could end up being important years down the road.

Deciding to reserve your company’s domain name overseas might not be the same as following a hot stock tip, but it’s still something small you can do today that has the potential to pay big dividends in the future. The world is getting smaller all the time, especially when it comes to finding customers overseas.

Thinking your company could use more customers from outside your local area? Let Marcy Design work with you to come up with an international web strategy that works.

Call Marcy Design, a Columbus Ohio website design company to help with your web, marketing and advertising campaigns.

It isn’t just shopping mall retailers who love the holidays; there are thousands of online stores selling everything from toys to fishing equipment that see a huge spike in new orders when December comes around.

Not everything is red ribbons and overstuffed stockings when sales drop off, however. It can be tough when you’re counting on an end of the year sales blizzard, and all you see at the end of the year is a light dusting of new orders. And with more competition than ever in nearly every online retail category, there are more grinches than ever waiting to steal your holiday cheer.

With that in mind, here are three things you can do to gear up your online store for strong holiday sales:

Include wrapping. Doing your holiday shopping online is all about convenience. By offering free gift wrapping with every purchase after Thanksgiving and before the end of the year, for example, you give customers one more reason to buy from you… without having to run up large costs for your business.

Offer gift cards. It isn’t just the big box retailers who can benefit from offering gift cards. If you think someone might like to give credit from your store, give them the opportunity.

Get to know your local shipping center. It isn’t a matter of whether your customers will leave their shopping to the last minute – they will – but whether you’re going to be able to guarantee them that their purchases will arrive on time. Figure out beforehand what kinds of shipping options you’ll have available, what the costs will be, and how late you can send to different parts of the country and still have packages arrive on time.

Is your business ready for the holiday rush? Don’t wait until the last minute – find out how Marcy Design can give your pages the upgrades they need in time for the busy retail season.

Call Marcy Design, a Columbus Ohio website design company to help with your web, marketing and advertising campaigns.

This is a question that comes up surprisingly often. I suspect it’s because so many small and medium-sized business owners and marketing managers see celebrities and huge corporations leveraging social media heavily and feel like they might not be able to get in on the act.

The truth, however, is that it doesn’t take a bottomless pit of money to succeed with social media marketing.

In fact, while a small budget can definitely help you get the right tools, the most important parts of your plan don’t have to cost a lot. Like any marketing operation, having a sense of focus and direction, the willingness to keep at it, and a strong value proposition for your ideal customer will nearly always win out over a big budget.

Don’t let anyone convince you that it takes a huge pile of cash to find customers on Facebook, twitter, and LinkedIn – it doesn’t. Instead, work on finding a partner who can help you streamline the process and make things as efficient as they are affordable. Money doesn’t hurt in any area of business, but it’s not the first requirement, either.

Call Marcy Design, a Columbus Ohio website design company to help with your web, marketing and advertising campaigns.

Here are the links from this week’s posts on Marcy Design

Are You Making a Classic Online Marketing Mistake?

Can You Really Gain New Customers Over Facebook?

The Easiest Way to Improve Your Website

A Good Rule of Thumb for Facebook Marketing

Are You Promoting Your Small Business Events as Effectively as You Could Be?

Call Marcy Design, a Columbus Ohio website design company to help with your web, marketing andadvertising campaigns.

A lot of us can still remember how strange it was to receive those first electronic or e-mail invitations to a party or event. The whole thing seemed pretty novel, but even if you confirmed the appointment right there on your screen, you often had to turn around and scribble the date by hand into a calendar on your desk if you weren’t going to forget.

These days, of course, the exact opposite is true: appointments that are made off-line typically have to be entered into an iPhone or contact manager if they are going to be kept. Most of the world has simply realized that keeping our calendars in computerized form makes them quicker and more convenient.

So what does any of this have to do with your small business? More than you might think. Despite the fact that a lot of us keep our calendars online, we have a tendency to promote our own events with flyers, newspaper advertisements, and other traditional print venues. It’s understandable: why not stick with what has worked in the past?

The reason has to do with the way we are actually keeping those appointments. Savvy marketers can no longer promote their events in print – or at least not only in print. By inviting attendees through e-mail, Outlook confirmation links, Facebook fan pages, and other social media paths, we make it easy for them to see the event coming up and actually make an appearance.

To get the most out of your small business events, leverage the connections and tools you have in social media. It’s a lot less work than posting flyers, and you’ll probably get a much bigger response.

Call Marcy Design, a Columbus Ohio website design company to help with your web, marketing andadvertising campaigns.

Of all the tools you can use to find new customers online, Facebook is quickly becoming a favorite of a lot of business owners and marketers. Not only does it boast hundreds of millions of users, and offer a unique way to advertise to them, but most of us just enjoy using the site. How many chances do you really get in your day to combine a bit of fun with your Internet marketing plan?

As great as that is, though, it also presents a bit of a catch-22: when you’re having a good time, it can become easy to give yourself too much of a good thing. In other words, it’s easy to let your Facebook time eat significantly into your workday.

So what is the answer? The best way to manage your need for Internet marketing with the other demands on your time is simply to budget small pieces of your schedule for sites like Facebook. Promise yourself that you’ll spend 15 min. each morning on the site, and then stop after that. You might have to set a timer or alarm at first, but before long, you’ll develop a good habit.

After a few weeks or months, if you find that Facebook becomes a major source of new business, that you can increase your time commitment. Until then, follow our quick rule of thumb and budget out the time you spend on social networking.

Call Marcy Design, a Columbus Ohio website design company to help with your web, marketing and advertising campaigns.

We are sometimes asked what the easiest, simplest, and fastest ways to improve your business website’s profitability are. There are a lot of answers we can give, ranging from better search engine optimization to adding e-commerce features. The reality is that the right answer depends on the website and business in question.

In most cases, however, there is one fast way to find something that could make a big difference: look at what you aren’t doing or trying right now.

People are creatures of habit. When we find something we like, or that works, we tend to keep repeating it over time. That can be a good thing, since it magnifies our successes, but it can also hold us back by preventing us from testing out new ideas. And so, sometimes the very best thing you can do – especially when it comes to uncovering new customers and opportunities – is to break out of your existing habits and give something different a shot.

Whether it’s social media marketing, pay per click advertising, or something completely different, resolve to try something new in your online marketing plan in the coming weeks. At worst, you’ll learn how something different works; and best, you’ll find a whole new way to attract revenue online.

Call Marcy Design, a Columbus Ohio website design company to help with your web, marketing and advertising campaigns.

When it comes to Internet marketing, a lot of business owners and executives quickly find that they only really have two modes: putting things off, or working at them furiously. In other words, they wait too long to get started on things like search engine optimization, and when they do get moving, they want to start seeing action – and results – right away.

That’s understandable, but it’s also a classic online marketing mistake. Why? There are really two important reasons to consider:

First, quality matters when you are adding pieces to your business website or social profiles. You don’t want to get into the habit of putting just anything online to fill some space. Your messages should be creative, concise, and most importantly, impactful. That typically takes some time…

And secondly, gradual approach is more effective. Even if you could produce great content at the drop of a hat, search engines (not to mention customers) like to see a gradual, steady flow of new content and marketing messages. Producing too much, too quickly, is a good way to overwhelm them.

Procrastinating on your Internet marketing plan is a bad idea, as is trying to “force feed” too much to search engines and customers in a short period of time. Avoid making these classic mistakes, and work with an online marketing partner who can help you stay on a realistic and profitable schedule.

Call Marcy Design, a Columbus Ohio website design company to help with your web, marketing and advertising campaigns.