Web Design In A Recession – How To Survive

admin    Website Marketing Companies     design, Recession, Survive

We are currently in what is possibly the worst economic crisis in history. Web design companies and web designers are almost certainly wondering if they are safe or not.This all comes down to one question. Will companies spend money on web design? The answer is :In the short run: they will spend lessIn the long run: they will spend moreMy reasoning is based on my years of experience as a business owner and on my interpretation of the existing marketplace.In the short runPeople are uneasy at the moment. They listen to all the downbeat news and thus they are withdrawing from their expenditures and waiting to see what happens.At this point you’re probably wondering what this has to do with web design. Well, for quite a few months of the recession, you will notice a slowing down in the web design business. Companies are worried, too.So, what should you do as a web design company owner or a freelance web designer?You sell cheap!Instead of offering out of budget quote for web design jobs, offer more cost-effective web design packages.You can easily do this by employing a blog as a base and then influence a pre-made web template that you would modify. With this type of package, you can offer customers the functionality found in a blog/CMS with an attractive website layout for just a fraction of the cost. It will take much less time for you to launch the website.In the long runI think that once the preliminary upset of the recession passes, companies will once again start to look at economical ways to obtaining new customers and to reduce the cost. The web is ideal for this so this is where they will turn.Web design companies and web designers will need to be able to offer some web marketing ability for the sites that are thinking of branding. The web design companies who are offering this will have a greater ability to attract new customers. Thus, understanding how Google Adwords can be used with a well established website is something interesting to look in. Also, you will need to have an improved grasp on dynamic web technologies like PHP and AJAX in order to attract new customers.ConclusionIn conclusion, the present recession does not bring catastrophe for web design companies but what it means however is that you will have to adapt to the current reality. For those who adapt, it can be a very advantageous time.If you’re looking for a reliable web design company that will develop towards your business goals, while looking fantastic with a high search engine ranking – check out Designzillas!

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Cost Effective Advertising in a Recession With Branded Flash Games

admin    Web Marketing     Advertising, Branded, Cost, Effective, flash, Games, Recession

The current global recession has made it essential to get the most out of ever decreasing advertising budgets. Are branded Flash games worth considering as part of your advertising efforts?
Branded web based Flash games can be a great, fun, engaging way to advertise your brand, product or service online. They offer a number of advantages over traditional advertising, at a fraction of the cost. Branded games are a great way to get potential customers onto your website, keep them there far longer than they would usually visit and encourage repeat visits. Your game can directly feature the product or service you are trying to promote, or simply highlight the main benefits and problems it solves. Using branded Flash games encourage players to interact with your brand in a way that’s just not possible with traditional, passive advertising.
Because you’re offering a great, addictive game for people to play, your audience are less likely to even perceive what they are viewing as an advert. As long as you don’t overdo the advertising element within the game, you can get your marketing message across to your audience, without the negative feelings associated with some other forms of online advertising. Plus, a branded game will usually engage your audience for many times longer per visit than other forms of advertising. The player is seeing your advert for the full duration of game play, which can add up to minutes rather than seconds on average.
When effectively distributed, they can offer potential exposure far above and beyond what you could get for a similar spend using traditional advertising. It’s not unusual for branded games to get millions of plays and after the initial production and distribution costs, they can continue working for you over the long term. Unlike traditional advertising, branded Flash games can continue to provide good brand exposure years after initial launch.
Targeting a particular demographic with a branded Flash game is difficult, so we don’t recommend them for niche market products or services. The nature of the internet means your game will be available to a worldwide audience of online game players, which covers a broad age range as well as geographical location. If you’re trying to increase awareness of a mass market product the potential exposure is massive and can help launch a product to a new, worldwide audience.
Despite all these advantages, it’s extremely important to find the right developer for your branded Flash game. Just getting your branded game produced and including it on your website isn’t enough to guarantee success. Distributing your branded game to a large number of online games portals and community sites, as well as including your game on your own website, is recommended for best results. This way you’re not relying on player pass-ons to dictate the success or failure of your game. Finding a Flash game developer with expertise in both branded Flash game development, to give you the best possible interactive experience for your brand, and the distribution needed to get the most out of your branded game will ensure you get the best possible return on your investment, in these tough financial times.

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The Importance Of Online Marketing During A Recession

admin    Website Marketing Companies     During, Importance, marketing, Online, Recession

These are difficult times for businesses all over the world. The current financial crisis has left many corporations – large and small – with lower revenues and shrinking budgets. During these difficult days, it is absolutely essential that marketing campaigns reach their desired targets with frequency and efficiency. And that is why, with marketing spend dollars so precious, that there has never been a better time to turn to the web as a means of reaching new customers.Why Online Marketing is More Important Now than EverThere are two primary reasons why your business needs to get online, in a hurry, during this recession:· Your competitors are already there. This is no time to come late to the party. With your competitors already online, they are established their web presence and authority and building solid rankings for the keywords relevant to your business.· It is the most efficient way to reach customers. Send out 10,000 direct mail pieces and you’ll be lucky if even a handful get to your intended targets. Create an optimized web site, and the customers who are looking for you RIGHT NOW will be presented with links to your site.The Online Marketing Techniques you need to Implement· An effective website. It all starts with a great website. Your online presence should be an extension of your brand – offering visitors product information, answers to commonly asked question and an overall compelling experience that makes them want to come back time and time again. Why it’s important during a recession: Think of your website as a storefront with little overhead and a 24/7 cycle of operation that customers can visit any time of day or night.· Blog development – After your website, a blog is the best way to disseminate information about your business on the web. Your company’s blog is a place to share industry news, spread viral content throughout the web and let customers interact with you and other people from around the world. Why it’s important during a recession: Blogs are another inexpensive way to spread the word about your company online. More people will find your blog thanks to search, which can drive them back to your core site.· Search engine optimization – Perhaps the most important aspect of web marketing in 2009 is search engine optimization (or “SEO”). With SEO, you build the content of your site around a number of relevant keywords and phrases. If done correctly and professionally, your site will then come up at the top of the search results for Google and Yahoo! when a customer enters those terms. Why it’s important during a recession: Hands down, there is no more cost-effective way to reach customers in a highly targeted manner. The leads you will get from SEO are incredibly qualified because they represent individuals who are searching for your business right now!· Email marketing. An email newsletter campaign helps you provide your existing customer base with news, information and offers surrounding your business. They are also a great way to capture leads – when you place a sign up form on your website. Why it’s important during a recession: When times are tight, it is important to stay in constant contact with your customer base. A monthly email newsletter helps remind them of your presence.Times are tough, but there’s no need to panic or shut down your marketing efforts. To do so would be highly counter-productive. Instead, work with a professional to develop a cost-effective, targeted online marketing campaign that builds your online presence, generate leads and increases sales.A Smart Internet Marketing Plan for Small Businesses.

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Contextured Uncovers how Leading Automotive Firms are Turning to Online Marketing to Beat the Recession

admin    Website Marketing Companies     Automotive, Beat, Contextured, Firms, Leading, marketing, Online, Recession, Turning, Uncovers

London, Farringdon,  2009 — Major car retailers no longer see a policy of injecting huge amounts of capital into traditional forms of offline advertising as the best means of promotion. Many are are now focused on an interactive web marketing strategy. This year Fords main marketing aim has been to bolstered their online presence, which has seen websites, online ads and social media meshing with their product line and positioning. Other leading automobile companies are following this trend as CMR (competitive media reporting) interactive has noted, listed Toyota, Honda and Ford amongst the top ten spenders in online marketing.

Car companies can use social media applications and blogs to move closer to customers, gain more attention and interest in their services and brand, as well as gaining a better understanding of their customers needs. Car retailers have also seen and noted the importance of an interactive engaging website. In bids to gain and retain customer attention online, motoring companies have become more creative, for example Ford have created and posted on their website a video version of the Ford story. As a result of their online marketing efforts, Ad Age ( adage) reports that the number of qualified buyers who planned to buy a Ford jumped 16% from 2008.

“Over 75% of consumers when searching for the nearest local car retailer start their research online’”– (Jim Rucker- TK productions-chief marketing executive. July 2009)

Car retailers who are market leaders in sales generated via the Internet, share an approach that has revealed some common practices that are critical to a successful Internet strategy. Number one amongst these best practices is taking the time to develop and manage an organic strategy, information regarding how to drive organic traffic can be accessed at: http://www.contextured.com/search-engine-optimization/

Number is to invest in a paid search strategy, you can access more info on paid search marketing at: http://www.contextured.com/search-engine-marketing/. A comprehensive online marketing plan plan will be geared towards driving traffic to your website in the most cost effective manner.

Thankfully there are technologies readily available that can help smaller car retailers run profitable web marketing campaigns.

Website Grader is one of these technologies now readily available for free. By simply inserting your website URL and some competing websites into the text fields provided on their website the software will generate a report that measures the marketing effectiveness of your website and SEM (search engine marketing). It provides a score that incorporates factors such as website traffic, SEO (search engine optimization), social popularity. Website Grader will also provide some basic advice on how the website can be improved from a marketing perspective. For more information on tools and techniques available to monitor your websites performance visit: http://www.contextured.com/2009/08/how-do-i-monitor-traffic-to-my-website/

Google Analytics is another online marketing technology which is totally free offering businesses the opportunity to gain invaluable rich insight into its website traffic and online marketing effectiveness. Google has made the features of this product flexible and simple to use. This tool clearly presents the effectiveness of your PPC (pay-per-click) ads, search ranking, website content, click through rates in the form of reports, mapping and charts. Google analytics allows you to understand your website visitors, what and where they’re clicking and therefore identifying any leaks on your website resulting in a lost opportunities.

Contextured offers a full search engine marketing and optimization package for a low monthly fee. Their technology helps ensure your car retailer is ranking highly in organic search results on Google, Yahoo, and Bing for searches on words like “local garages” “Car dealers” “Motors Dealerships”. As experts in keyword optimization process they can help your website up the rankings in search engine results. For a one week free trial use the promotional code “7days” during signup. See more information at: http://www.contextured.com/?ref=4

There are no quick solutions, but by employing the best possible online marketing tools and technologies readily available on the market, motoring companies can drive increased traffic to their site resulting in more sales, quires, and leads, enjoying increasing success like many leading automotive companies are amongst the doom and gloom.

For additional information on the news that is the subject of this release contact Michael Benjamin or Visit: http://www.contextured.com/solutions/

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Fighting Recession With Social Media – Part 2

admin    Social Media Marketing     Fighting, Media, Part, Recession, Social

Ramp up your marketing

Companies ranging small and large are increasingly turning to outside blogs, viral videos and websites such as Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed and Digg — and their tens of millions of users — to reach consumers. Instead of cringing at the idea of relinquishing control to social media outlets, smart executives realize that there is more benefit in joining the conversation than fighting it. Instead of controlling information about your brand, your social media strategy should be about engagement.

Advertising as we know it is expensive; social media is cheap. For this reason, the recession is bad news for traditional marketers, while the same environment is full of opportunities for social media marketers. Setting up a company blog or a Facebook page is significantly less expensive than traditional marketing. Even creating your own community web site can be significantly cheaper than traditional advertising campaigns.

Social media marketing is not without risk. While every company wants to generate buzz, online backlash can be vicious. Recently a Motrin commercial aimed at moms created quite a stir. You can view the ad on YouTube as did another 210,000 people. The ad makes the apparently condescending claim that carrying babies in a sling is a painful experience for moms. According to moms, the ad was wrong and they made it loud and clear through social media applications such as Twitter. Some moms found the Motrin ad outright offensive, and they were quite vocal about it. You can catch them on YouTube. Of course, the disaster doesn’t end there. It continues on a myriad of blogs, and carries on in a Facebook page dedicated to boycotting Motrin. The backlash ad on YouTube can be viewed.

What to do when your target rejects your ad? Turn to social media. Instead of rejecting the market reaction Johnson & Johnson could have used social media applications to learn about their market prior to creating and publishing the controversial ad. There could have been a Facebook page created to learn about young moms and pain. There could have been a blog inviting moms to provide video testimonials on YouTube. The lesson learned in this case is to use social media to learn about your market, or be prepared to be taught very quickly and painfully.

Reduce your expenses

Save time and money on travel and use LinkedIn to network. Instead of driving to the other end of town fighting your way through traffic use the largest business social network to build new connections and to nurture existing ones. Only attend your most valuable networking events, and transfer as much of your networking as you can to the web. LinkedIn, Plaxo, and Facebook are some of the best social networking applications.

Reduce your legal fees through a fairly new social media site called Docstoc. It is a place to find and share professional documents such as contracts, confidentiality agreements, intellectual property documents and more. Docstoc is a social community resource that enables anyone to find and share professional documents. The site provides an opportunity for individuals and organizations to share their professional documents. Documents available on Docstoc can be easily searched, previewed and downloaded for free.

Decrease your recruiting costs as you hire your employees though Craigslist, which has quietly become one of the most visited websites in cyberspace. It offers a much cheaper way to recruit online, and your company can expect excellent response rates for your job posts.

Putting it all together

Are more companies turning to social media in this economy? They should if they want to improve their marketing efficiencies, enhance their customer service experience, or develop their research techniques. Social media allows companies to engage with the customers instead of shouting about their own wonderfulness. It offers ways to business to partner with the community in an effort to develop a better product. In the end everybody wins because both the company and the consumer end up with a better product.

Virtually all companies can benefit from using social media not just to create awareness, but also to become part of the conversation. Managing your corporate reputation is impossible without social media, and ignoring it can be outright devastating. Instead if fighting against it, embrace it as it rockets your business forward as it deepens your relationship with the only reason you are in business for, your customer.

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Fighting Recession With Social Media – Part 1

admin    Social Media Marketing     Fighting, Media, Part, Recession, Social

As budgets are drying up entrepreneurs are turning, yet again, to technology, social media comes to the rescue. Words such as YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn would have been considered typos not too recently have become part of our corporate success dictionary. Social media offers companies inexpensive ways to improve their customer service, ramp up their customer service, learn more about their market, reduce their expenses, and more.

Improve your customer service

Having a conversation with your customers through social media is a new business skill. In an effort to improve its public image, Dell has made a conscious effort to connect with its customers through various social media channels such as blogs, forums, and various third-party websites. Dell had to appreciate that customers talked about their products online, and the company was forced to become part of the conversation. With a little help from their social media friend Dell managed to make improvements to its Latitude laptop. Note: It was a Dell laptop that exploded into flames at a conference in Japan.

Social media is the great equalizer as the story of Jeff Jarvis, an unhappy Dell customer, shows. Jarvis took on this giant of a company using his own blog. He managed to create awareness about customer concerns that had reached an international audience. Initially, Dell had ignored the blog voicing Jarvis’ concerns until his blog became the outlet for public conversation of customer issues. His blog, the BuzzMachine, has become the focus of Dell’s mistakes, poor customer service and flawed products.

The blogosphere doesn’t create the problems it simply brings them to light, and it makes it possible for business to address the issues at hand. Now, the CEOs of companies don’t have to take customer service managers word for it, they can learn about customer issues directly from the source. Some might argue that somehow this is a bad thing. On the contrary, with social media, companies and consumers can realize problems that need to be addressed. Customer engagement through social media could only hurt a company in the long run that is not interested in positive change. Instead of creating a problem social media brings a new level of efficiency to the corporate world.

Do more research

Market research is no longer a luxury only large companies can afford. Social media is the market research alternative for small and mid-size businesses that don’t have money to burn. Especially in a recession, market research is an essential part of a winning corporate strategy. Using social media, companies can carry out their own market research, and the best part is that it’s free.

Search for the topic of your choice on StumbleUpon and learn what people say. One of the greatest aspects of StumbleUpon is that marketers can easily find websites related to their market that they would never find on their own. Businesses can use this website to get instant feedback. The community is continually engaged providing constant opinion that result in a better product. A company might be developing new packaging for a product and get instant criticism from the online community. Something that might have taken weeks and months using traditional methods can be done in a matter of days or even hours. This method is not only fast, but it is also free.

LinkedIn, the social media outlet for grownups, is a rich and dynamic database, which can be searched, mined, and yield insightful and useful information to you and your business. Through its “Answers” feature LinkedIn serves as a valuable market research tool because it enables users to ask questions on virtually any topic, and expect to get answers quickly from the community. Executives can ask questions about products, services, trends, or any topic that might be useful to gain a better insight into their market. You can use the search feature to find people by industry, job title, company, or geographical location. The search results include vital corporate information.

Twitter, a micro blogging service, with its millions of users, offers a world of market intelligence for your business. Twitter is the killer app for marketers that are dying to become the fly on the wall as they are given the opportunity to listen in on public conversations about their market, social issues, products, services, or industry trends. Twitter provides near-real time intelligence on virtually any market.

Should StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Twitter, or other social media applications going to be your only source of market research? Of course not, but social media offers an abundance of honest conversation from which business can gather a wide range of vital information.

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Beat The Global Recession With SEO | SEO Traffic Spider

admin    Website Design Resources     Beat, Global, Recession, Spider, Traffic

As the world economy experiences a gloomy backdrop and continues to be on the brink of recession, its time to position yourself to a stand where you can still hope to profit from the recession.

There are several options you can consider to rise up in the shrinking economy, but an option that can really show remarkable results in every stage of your business lifecycle is search engine optimization.

SEO offers a platform for corporates, entrepreneurs, as well as individuals to promote their products and services across the web by helping them rank on top of search engines. The real essence of SEO is to ensure that profitable results are achieved regardless of the financial crises broadening and intensifying at every stage and suffocating the global economy.

Amidst all this, the point to focus is the SEO company one might open doors for as their solution provider. It may be a cake walk to hire one in no time, but, definitely not when you have to make sure the genuineness of the company which is a must.

With the right choice of an SEO company to work for you on an ongoing basis, you can expect better search engine rankings, which in turn compliment your SEO efforts with increased traffic. Long term sustainability and profitability are two factors that any company or individual will look forward to, and this is precisely what SEO can achieve if done the right way.

SEO done on a continual basis can help you beat your competition and gain more visibility and exposure by showing on the top of SERPs. Increased visibility creates more awareness about your website or blog and drives more targeted traffic which would otherwise be lost without SEO. Search engine optimization can help you plunge into a more comfortable zone by penetrating your target market and making the most out of your advertising dollars.

During economic recession, advertisers are more bound to find different means (online and offline) of advertising and promoting their products and services in order to sustain their business. However, these offline marketing mediums require a huge amount of money to promote a brand which may not be feasible for every person. It is at this point where one can hope to cash in on SEO which provides an opportunity to make all ends meet with affordable costs that are way less than offline marketing mediums.

If you are still considering your options to beat the global recession, its time to move forward with hiring an SEO professional who can potentially improve your ranking, performance, and save you time. However, it is important that you do not risk your company’s success with SEO practises that are questionable. Therefore, you must conduct a thorough research on SEO companies to avoid any damage some of them can cause to you by employing unethical techniques that are penalized by search engines.

So make your hiring decision today! Spot your SEO company, relieve yourself of the economic backdrop that can or has affected your performance and look over to the greener side of the fence – SEO Traffic Spider – a solution provider for all your SEO needs.

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Internet Marketing and the Global Recession

admin    Website Marketing Resources     Global, Internet, marketing, Recession

Internet marketing experts are thriving today as never before; more people are making money online than at any time in the 14 years the World Wide Web, and Internet marketing, has existed. But those considering starting a business online may not realize that Internet marketing is still viable during the current world-wide financial meltdown.
The global recession is an accepted fact – right now every major economy in the world is suffering a recession, as defined by two consecutive quarters of negative growth. Worldwide, for more detail go to: www.squeeze-page-profits.com.media outlets scream their headlines of the latest layoffs, foreclosures, bankruptcies, bailouts, devastated retirement savings, repossessions and the like.
On a personal level, every intelligent, caring human hates it – the pain, suffering and stress it generates, and the jump in hunger, homelessness and true poverty that results in more and more instances.
Offline businesses hate it too. In the business-to-business realm, keeping your own business afloat, supporting your share prices and maintaining a positive cash flow are just the start of it – but what about your customers and suppliers? As businesses slash their expenditures, customer lists are shrinking and average order value is plummeting.
And ‘Just-In-Time’ supply systems, the darling of the 80’s and 90’s with it’s reduced inventories, has become a major headache. With no existing inventory to fall back on, corporations are finding it necessary to prop up their suppliers or face a lack of product while they search for new sources.
Business-to-Consumer business is just as bad, if not worse. Millions of jobs have evaporated in the past year alone, taking those salaries with them. Falling home values in the US and UK, for example, for more detail go to:www.tube-traffic.com.have dried up many equity lines of credit, and the general credit squeeze is making it even tougher to ride out the storm on credit. Credit card companies are lowering limits and/or raising the interest rates for those already struggling, exacerbating the situation even more.
And even families with no job losses or income reduction are realizing that savings are at all-time lows while household debt is reaching record heights. So again spending is curtailed in an attempt to pay down debt and rebuild a financial cushion against the unexpected.
Yet Internet marketing and its subsets – affiliate marketing and niche marketing – continue to thrive and even boom during it all. If you’ve been considering getting into Internet marketing but have hesitated because of the recession, it’s time for a major reframe of your viewpoint…
Let’s start with the headspace of people using the Internet in general. In tough economic times people don’t head out to the mall as often – because the mall is a place to shop and spend money. But the main reason people go online is for information, so that psychological barrier isn’t there. While they’re still willing to spend SOME money, they just aren’t heading out LOOKING to spend it.
Second, no market is expanding, or has ever expanded, at the pace the Internet community is growing today. Every single day tens or hundreds of thousands of new people come online, and some will be potential buyers for any online business. Even if Internet marketing had reached market saturation, new blood would provide a new potential market every single day.
But the truth is, Internet marketing is nowhere near market saturation – not by a long shot. Think of the number of stores in the offline world. Not in your locale, your city, your state or even your country – but in the WORLD. Obviously, the number dwarfs current Internet marketing ventures. Even the biggest Internet marketing opt-in e-mail lists have just millions of subscribers out of the billions of Internet users – and most Internet marketers have lists of less than 50,000.
But even if the market wasn’t growing, sales and profits would still be climbing fast due to higher conversions through new tools and techniques. Like Internet marketing itself, the World Wide Web is still in it’s infancy – new technologies like audio & video are being developed all over the world. And as older phone company and cable company hardware systems are upgraded, these technologies will advance faster and faster, both in penetration and presentation.

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