We need social media  advice. Our marketing director has banned anyone from using social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, during company time. Since many employees were abusing it and a hacker compromised our company email system; social media is forbidden at our office.  How do I convince our director that social media is important for our company without being fired?

-Anonymous Marketer

 ————————

Social Media Advice  

Not that Ashton Kutcher,  Gary Zuckerberg or Apple’s new iPad are the only living testaments that social media drives profitability, but tens of thousands of companies could not be wrong.  

As safeguarding a company’s technology is necessary for streamlining productivity, most companies cannot afford the downtime that some hackers can inflict upon an entity’s enterprise system. Just think of the magnitude that Google’s 30-minute plus outage caused in 2009. While most managers are not going to sacrifice safety for a marketing whim, social media networking is too paramount to overlook.

Some executives still consider the old school of nurturing relationships to be the primary catalyst for business cultivation. Social media is slowly, but surely replacing traditional advertising and marketing mediums. Open forums, online networking events, market research, sweepstakes, and games typify the interactive characteristics of social media.

An article published by the Harvard Business Review indicated that Intel provides guidelines and stipulations, encouraging their employees to post technology topics pertaining to their department on the Facebook page. Intel is not the only company promoting such social media interaction.

With the right social media design, strategy and security, any organization has the capacity to fortify consumer loyalty. While Best Website Designers cannot provide your manager with a cogent reason to incorporate social media with the rest of the web marketing strategy, the best recommendation is

Hire a web design company to develop the Twitter and Facebook pages. Request that the social media design incorporate all security contingencies.

For professional advice, please click on social media.

• Define your target market. Based on your organization’s products and services, the core competency reflects the target audience.

• What is the underlying marketing purpose of the company Web site’s design? Effective web design generally inspires an action:

> | > subscribe to a newsletter
> | > request more information
> | > inspire new fans or followers on Facebook or Twitter
> | > conclude sales transaction

• How will the site serve or provide value for the site traffic as in your target audience?

• What sets your products and services apart from the online competitors?

• What are the distinctive characteristics of your site’s Web design?

•  Who will ultimately manage the sites updates? Since, the company Web site is not only an extension  of the marketing strategy, it is an efficacious  marketing tool. Given the popularity of social media networking and microsite,  regular content updates are a vital accessory to the SEO and Internet marketing DNA. 

In order to vie for any online business, maintaining a social media, or company blog is imperative to attracting targeted traffic. Moreover, social media sites and blogs are as mandatory marketing accessories to building awareness.

• How does your organization delegate the responsibility of making site updates? While the IT and marketing departments may not be in sync about security issues and avoiding Web site glitches,  a content management system eradicates these potential outage nightmares. For instance, the Auctori (tm), is customized to accommodate the unique workflow, ease site and page updates, but maintain your site’s branding specifications.

• What web design company can you entrust to deliver all your specifications? Contact The Net Impact

Location. Location. Location. Online research shows that most people are initially struck by design over text. As a result, your call to action button should be slightly isolated from the rest of the sales message.

Specify purpose.  What is the ultimate objective? Just as Web sites are created for awareness to convert site traffic into lead or prospects, your Web site visitors want gentle directives too. That’s why a well-designed button with a specific call to action can be more effective than lengthy sales copy.  Make sure the button instructs the purpose or outcome of clicking on your site button:

-    Obtain a price quote
-    Make a purchase – Check out
-    Request follow-up information

Give them an incentive. Most businesses want to collect email addresses for future communications (newsletter, promotions, sales letters). But the problem is that only 7-10 percent of site guests will sign up for your newsletter. Offering a free incentive when a visitor opts in to receive communications is the easiest way to convert site traffic into a new prospect.

Simplify the process. Well after your visitor follows your call to action button to the next step, remember to simplify whatever the purpose of the outcome of the click was intended.

Achieve more prospects; contact the best web site designers.

Related Articles:

Call To Action Buttons: Examples and Best Practices

Good Call to Action Buttons

Call To Action Buttons: Does Size Matter?

10 Techniques for an Effective Call To Action

We’ve been in business for six years now.  Our site is a catalog of the latest fashions for women. We’re considering the redesign of our Web site. After receiving mixed reviews about adding flash animation to our site, we’re hoping you can offer some insight?

St. Charles, Missouri

_________________________________________________

Since your ecommerce site is intensive on the graphics of your clothing line, a site with flash animation has many considerations. To simplify your decision, we published a few essential factors to evaluate:

•    If you plan to attract a lot of site traffic, the bandwidth may eat into your hosting budget.

•    Although flash or splash home pages may seem like they give a site bells and whistles, they can impair how rapidly your site loads. Slow loading sites have higher bounce rates (site abandonment).

•    Many consumers do their shopping during work hours. As a result, if your fashion catalog is promoting a sale, and visitors have to watch a 15-second splash introduction, there’s a higher probability of losing more traffic. Flash introductions should be optional. Not all visitors want to sit through the presentation; especially, if they’re trying make a purchase without being caught on company time.

•    Web design tip: Hire a web design company, who can harmonize your site’s splash and non-flash functionality.

Click here to obtain a no obligation web design analysis.

Related Articles:

Flash Animation – Good or Bad?

Should I use Flash In My Website?

Design color-wise.
Select a visually appealing color scheme. Market studies and psychiatrists say that colors tremendously influence the human psyche. Select shades that are easy to read. Avoid dark backgrounds with light or white lettering, making it easy for your prospects to read your message and enticing them enough—to take action now.

Inspire mass-market appeal.
Email marketing is a balance between creativity and mass market appeal.  Being too esoteric may detract from the primary goal of the email marketing campaign: an incentive to act now. Integrate a direct marketing communiqué that harmonizes innovation with mass-market appeal.

Keep it scan worthy.
Email recipients receive a glut of promotions in their email box. Dense text blocks are not reader friendly. Breaking up the text allows the reader to scan for information of interest. Also, be sure to use a font readable for a cross spectrum of recipients.

Delegate it.
Meanwhile, a professionally designed email market campaign is the difference between customer conversions and emails bound for the trash bin. When all creativity fails, delegate your email campaign’s design to a Web design firm.

Click here to learn more about designing your email marketing campaign.

Related Articles:

Formatting Email Marketing Messages

Evaluating Your Email Marketing Campaign

Mass Email Marketing Campaign

On the Internet, the rapidly fleeting visitor is tantamount to someone walking out of your office during the sales presentation. Premature Web site abandonment (PWSA) is not a new phenomenon. Since the dawn of the worldwide Web, Internet users of all walks of life have been deploying the “back” button.

As we know today, immediate site abandonment is indicative of low conversions. In other words, it’s a downright hindrance to new business.  To assess the retention of your company’s site, we’re asking you to download a copy of your site’s traffic activity or web site statistics. If the vast majority of your traffic vacates your site within the first 30 seconds or less, your Web site suffers from Premature Web site Abandonment (PWSA).

Below are the symptoms of PWSA:

•    Clumsy site navigation
•    An unappealing interface
•    Cluttered layout
•    Inappropriate keywords
•    Vague product and service information
•    A misaligned pay-per-click ad campaign

If your site’s statistics tell a story of high traffic and a conversion rate of 7 percent or less, let the best web site designers, diagnose and cure your bout of PWSA.

Related Articles:

Optimizing Conversion Rates It’s All About Usability

How To Increase the Conversion Rate of Your Online Business

Top Tips To Increase Your Conversion Rates From Your Website

Although the Budweiser commercial tells a memorable story, it is does not inspire the average American male or female for that matter–to indulge in a frosty cold Budweiser. In fact, the TV ad alienates the target audience. It does nothing to fortify the brand.

The lesson applies to marketing and advertising any-sized business. To prevent entities from committing similar missteps, this week on Best Web site Designers, we’re taking an introspective evaluation of your Web site. Conduct your own market research, recruiting several individuals to answer the following questions about your Web site:

•    What does your web site convey about your products and services?

•    Is your marketing message suited for the appropriate audience?

•    Is your marketing model enticing enough to bolster your brand?

•    Does the design reflect your company’s brand identity?

•    Does your search engine marketing campaign attract or repel to new consumers?

An inability to answer these questions is tantamount to the Anheuser-Busch InBev Company producing the aforementioned Budweiser commercial. Clueless marketing zaps business.

Discover how one St. Louis Web design company leverages their client’s success.

Related Articles:
Evaluating Web Sites: Criteria and Tools

More evidence of clueless marketing using social networks