Colocation Hosting - A Look at Migration for Servers

Colocation hosting is a great option for people who have businesses that depend on the internet. If you have a blog, a web channel or a search engine optimization business, this will prove to be extra beneficial for you, your enterprise, and its staff.

If you are owning a It Business or a SEO task than Colocation becomes an important factor for you. Colocation hosting means that you have a server in someone else's facility. There are several flavors. In the simplest version, you rent space in a server rack but you actually own the server. In this model, the owner of the hosting center doesn't really touch your computer. They provide you bandwidth, power, and an appropriate environment (air conditioning, fire suppression, physical security).

There are also facilities on lease for clients to use for housing their computing devices. It can be done by installing the machinery in the facility leased from the data center. The leased facility is usually composed of storage measured in rack units. On the other hand, larger facilities like suites are also offered.

And When it comes to virtual hosting we can't forget the name of VPS Hosting is the common choice now for small as well as medium scale enterprises. VPS Hosting is cost effective as well as feature rich so people find it more attractive as compared to dedicated servers as well as Shared Hosting solutions. It comes in two forms namely Windows VPS as well as Linux VPS. A Windows VPS is definitely more popular as it is compatible with lots of software and programs and hence it serves varied purposes for different requirements of businesses. It is more friendly with the user too as it is based on GUI and is not based on text commands. Windows VPS is also known as Cheap VPS as it is very cheap and so it is the best VPS among all.

To get complete control over the VPS server, one should always choose unmanaged VPS service. However once should have good knowledge about the operating system on which VPS is working because any changes or up gradation is in the hand of the customer. Managed VPS services has an upper edge over unmanaged VPS hosting services because of the flexibility of increasing space as per business requirement with an added cost. However one should understand that during peak hours, due to such system, the web traffic is on the higher end and which can make the site slow or inaccessible. However with new softwares, these issues have also been taken care off in last few years.

And if you are talking about the Web hosting. The quest for a colocation centre Singapore, best hosting provider for a Singaporean business owner involves research and a dedicated approach. There are a myriad of hosting services being offered that are not only cost effective, but also in sync with the latest technology. Singapore hosting has got its unique name in the field of web hosting and it provides all the essential components of webhosting.

Colocation hosting and VPS hosting is a great option for people who have businesses that depend on the internet. Choose best colocation centre Singapore for web hosting service. Further more information about this articles, the author invites you to visit Sparkstation VPS Singapore.

By Sparkstation

Repost by Acarre Community Media

Introduction - Perspectives on Big Data

‘Big Data’ has become a catchy term that, for the moment, retains some mystique and persuasive impact in use. For example, one could imagine hearing in a sales presentation, or at a conference or cocktail party, ‘big data is the key to success; harness big data and you harness the world; if you are not using big data, you are doomed; big data changes everything’. Similar to the way we perceive Twitter, online shopping, customer relationship management (CRM) systems and many other technology-related phenomena that have had their moments of hype, we believe that there is meaningful value in BD. However, we do not believe that BD’s impact is as near to solving the world’s problems as some might suggest. We expect that BD will continue to be a cool term to use in the short term.

We are not trying to shut down that practice. However, we are curious about what people associate with the term BD. Certainly it must communicate and reflect notions that people rally around and act on. What are these notions? Are they good? Bad? Ugly? Or, are they the Good, the Bad and the Ugly? Do they frame a valuable way to look at the world? Does BD, whatever it means to managers, scientists, researchers and others, motivate and enable actions that may become, or are, worthwhile and better than the status quo or rival alternatives?

Etymology

Before sharing the perspectives of the leading scholars that we interviewed, we feel that we would be remiss to not indicate some research into the etymology of the expression BD. Lohr (2013), who was curious about the origins of the term, finds roots in direct marketing and in technology. He cites a Harper’s Magazine article written by Erik Larson in 1989 that makes reference to junk mail and the direct-marketing industry, ‘The keepers of big data say they do it for the consumer’s benefit. But data have a way of being used for purposes other than originally intended’. However, Lohr rejects this as the origin of BD, writing, ‘Prescient indeed. But not, I don’t think, a use of the term that suggests an inkling of the technology we call Big Data today’.

He felt that credit was more appropriate to give to John Mashey, who was Chief Scientist at Silicon Graphics during the 1990s, as his use of the term reflected ‘not just a lot of data, but different types of data handled in new ways’. In addition, Lohr (2013) references Francis X. Diebold, who is the Paul F. Miller, Jr and E. Warren Shafer Miller Professor of Social Sciences, a Professor of Economics, and a Professor of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania, as the first to have published an academic research paper that includes the term ‘Big Data’.

A tale of two disciplines

Well, Lohr certainly explained how he arrived at his conclusion. A definition with a bias toward computer science and technology informs it. The scholars whom we interviewed explained that, indeed, multiple definitions of BD exist as a function of the discipline in which one operates. There appears to be a difference between what boils down to two groups – and probably some other groups as well. Those who are technology focused (for example, computer scientists, computer engineers) are fascinated more with the amount of data that can be stored; the speed with which data can be stored, accessed or manipulated; and the structure of data, among a variety of technology-related aspects. One might suggest that to them, it is all about the data. Managerial problem solvers (for example, marketing scientists, management scientists) are focused more on testing theory, making discoveries and solving problems. With respect to data, they might think, just show me the data!!!

Feit makes reference to some of those with a technology focus:People who are experts in storing and managing data, they mean something very specific by big data. They mean a very specific set of tools, and a different approach to structuring data. So they think of any kind of big table database, as opposed to a relational database, as big data. So for them, big data isn’t necessarily size, but it’s the structure. It turns out that one structure is more useful when the data gets large than another, and so they think of big data as intimately tied to how you structure it. And they structure it in one big table, which facilitates parallel computation.

Thompson elaborates further, suggesting an important distinction between those who promote or sell ‘data-related’ technology and those focused on the problems for which data can be used to help solve: There’s a very strong tendency to basically blur the distinction between what you’re talking about and the underlying technology. SAS has a page up on what are big data, and SAS, of course, is the original master of big data. When the human genome project was being done in the late 90’s, the result was going to be the largest database that had ever been constructed to date. SAS software was chosen for that, because it was the only software package that could handle, at that time, data files of that size, that much data, and actually process it. It was considered to be the paragon, the ultimate big data project, of course outside of what the National Security Agency does. So the thing about this is, is that if you go and you read, what is big data, much of that is written by the technology firm. The software companies, the hardware companies that are selling it. And so what they do is, is that they blur the distinction between the technology and the actual concept that the technology is designed to address. You see the same thing when we talk about communities."(For example,) companies selling software for online portals, basically treat the software as synonymous with the (meaning of a) community. (They see) community (as,) essentially, a software package, (as) a website. But of course in practice, community is a sociological construct. All the software does is, it provides a communications means for a community to potentially use to communicate. But just because people are using the software doesn’t mean they actually form a community. So what happens is, a lot of the definitions you see of big data are defined, not by big data or the managerial issue, or the concept itself, but rather, they define big data in terms of the product they’re selling, which is software and hardware … I would argue that one of the things that’s derailing the conversation about big data, both within the organization and academia, is a failure to distinguish between essentially the marketing speak of the firms selling the software and the hardware, and the actual underlying problem the software is meant to address (Technology providers) want to define the problem in technological terms.

Important components and attributes of BD

Perspectives aside, we all agree that data are part of a process that informs theory development and decision making. We believe that data should be considered only one part of the BD concept. The perspectives that we have heard from the marketing scholars whom we interviewed led us to believe that it could be beneficial to think of BD as a term that represents a period of time or era, a process, and some new wrinkles associated with components of that process. In this section, we draw attention to these components and new wrinkles.

Purpose

A first critical consideration of BD is the purpose of it. Little says, ‘I’m problem driven’. Lehmann quotes T.S. Eliot, ‘Where is the information that we have lost in the information’, in making the point that ‘people may get so obsessed with analyzing the data that they’ll forget why they are analyzing it, and why they want to know about particular relationships’. Moe states, ‘Think about what you’re trying to accomplish’. Duparcq adds, ‘All the new connected platforms in the world won’t make a difference if they can’t justify their existence by the value they create. This is no doubt the core challenge’. And Thompson emphasizes, ‘You need to start with a theory. Theory is what allows you to frame a meaningful question. If you start looking for answers, and you don’t know what the question is, you’ve got a problem’. With more data and richer data available through technologies today, BD enables the conceptualization of new problems and associated purpose, or, deeper exploration of pre-existing problems.

Data attributes

Indeed, it is important to be aware of certain characteristics, or nature, of the data associated with BD. Yes, there is the attribute of size. However, the ‘bigness’ of BD is, as Feinberg calls it, … a moving target. Remember when scanner data came out? That was big data. We were stunned. Like wow, tens of thousands of households and dozens of purchases. And now, you can fit all of that data on anyone’s phone. You may not be able to analyze it on someone’s phone, but you can certainly do it on any PC. It’s kind of a joke by today’s standards.

Lehmann concurs: When I was in school, I ran a five variable, one-hundred observation regression that took more than a day to run. That was BD at the time. Now, it is considered quite small. As computing power has increased, BD has become bigger. The problem is the same today as it was years ago.

Winer agrees as well: When people first started using the term big data, I kind of laughed a little bit, because big data sets, huge data sets have been around for a long time. If you take a look at the kind of data that, say, telecom companies have on all their customers, or airlines form loyalty programs, banks on their customers, it’s not new. I think what the term tends to be used for is maybe, at least my perception is, the integration of customer databases, which as I said have been around for a while, and other information that they may be able to get about customers through social media, through user generated content, trying to integrate the two. Even though the sort of cyberspace data is not generally at the individual level, it’s usually anonymous, I think that the incremental availability of huge amounts of information that are flowing across the internet is what really people are referring to as big data. So maybe the airline and banking and telecom data were big data, and now we’re in the era of really big data or huge data or something like that. But as I said, I don’t see it being revolutionary, as much as evolutionary.

And, similar to Winer, Duparcq likes to use a definition if BD that involves database integration and vast amounts of online data: The entirety of data that is collected on a singular individual, in a multitude of platforms (online traditional, online mobile, online new, internet capable connected devices, offline stores, offline media & credit card data), connected (all online and offline datasets in one database), correlated, and interpreted from both a single and larger group perspective.

Little commented, ‘In fact, I had an email from my co-author (of) years ago, Peter Guadagni, and he said, I think we were using big data’ (n.b., Guadagni and Little’s (1983) seminal paper was based on the analysis of scanner data).

Bradlow provides a more generalized notion of size that considers norms, One way I think about it, just from most users’ perspective … (and) I don’t want to call this a technical definition, but it’s kind of a technical layman’s definition, is, data that’s bigger than you can open up with standard software. To me, that’s big data. Can I not even open up the file using … Excel, or do I really need Hadoop and massive big data skills even to open up the file? So to me, the technical definition of big data is just, does it require specialized training just to kind of observe and look at the file? Now that’s not what I think most people mean. But to me, that’s my first definition. If I have to call over to my computer science department just to open up the file, that’s big.

Pitt has a similar perspective, I think it’s data that’s too big to fit into even the largest single database, or, if you want to think of it in simple terms, it’s too big to fit into even the very largest spreadsheet you could find. And I’d also say that it’s probably not analyzable by even the biggest computer in an organization. It probably has to be analyzed on something like clusters of different computers running special applications.

The data of BD are also different in terms of structure and form. Sawhney adds, ‘The data is coming from lots of unstructured sources’. Pitt points out that What makes this different to most of the data that marketing people are generally used to, is that it also has lots and lots of text to it. So it’s not just about numbers about what people are doing. It’s also text about what people are saying, and what they’re writing, and what they’re indicating by means of words.

Feinberg takes it a step further: So I think that the whole idea has been around for a long time … electronic data capture by the internet, and the ability to create databases from every single thing we do, that’s what’s really fueled this huge cusp, like all of a sudden, everyone’s talking about big data, because every single thing is captured. So if you capture an enormous amount of information, suddenly it’s big. ‘The reason we’re really in the era of big data is that we’re getting a lot of information on every single thing that every person does. And the ability to store that at low cost, and analyze it later, is what really is, to me, the functional definition of big data.

Duparcq provides some texture to the availability of consumer data:Consumers’ propensity to generate data will largely be determined by two important factors, (including) the amount of access points available (number of connected platforms and consumer’s willingness to adopt those platforms). The average time users spend online rising constantly, data generated during that time is steadily increasing as well. In the US, usage has increased from an average of 5.2 hours a week in 2001 to 19.6 hours in 2012. Part of that increase can be attributed to consumers finding more ways to make interactive media an important part of their daily habits: shopping, information, news, entertainment, social interaction, etc.

In addition to highlighting data attributes that partly distinguish or define BD, scholars note that a key distinction of BD may be in the analytical tools or techniques that are used to monitor, share and process the data and convert it into information. In concert with this, they call attention to the ‘speed’ of the data and a need to act on it swiftly. Winer remarks: It’s not so much the data that’s new. It’s the kind of tools that we have to analyze those data and react to the data in real time, or close to real time. So if a company is monitoring its comments about it on Twitter, they can immediately try to take corrective action by starting their own Twitter feeds, or putting out a message on a Facebook site, or that kind of thing. So, I think that that’s where the change is, not so much the fact that we’ve got more data.

Further more information about this articles, please you check on Journal of Marketing Analytics or e-mail Bostongarden@gmail.com.

By Bruce D Weinberg, Lenita Davis & Paul D Berger

Repost by Acarre Community Media

Introduction - Giving too much social support: social overload on social networking sites

Social networking sites (SNS) have become well-established online services in the daily lives of individuals. A key functionality of SNS such as Facebook is networking with others (Koroleva et al, 2011). The primarily function of SNS is to post private or public messages to contacts (Krasnova et al, 2010; Tow et al, 2010). While some messages exchanged over SNS provide neutral information (I am waiting for the bus), others are social requests demanding reaction and assistance (Help me! I need an apartment in New York!, I am sick. Cross your fingers for my recovery!; I’m bored – entertain me!). The number of messages a user receives increases with the number of her social relationships embedded in SNS (Manago et al, 2012). As a result, SNS users might be confronted with an increasing number of social requests that require some form of reaction. This raises questions about the consequences of increasing SNS usage on a user’s life (Brandtzaeg, 2012; Amichai-Hamburger, 2013). On the one hand, social embeddedness through SNS can benefit SNS users, who experience more social support than non-SNS users (Hampton et al, 2011). On the other, users can be drawn into exhausting social situations. In particular, the many social relations enabled in SNS might cause users to feel they are giving too much social support in SNS to individuals embedded in their social network out of a sense of duty to respond to social support requests. We call this newly observed phenomenon ‘social overload’, and we will develop a theory of its impact in this paper. Social overload might have negative psychological and behavioral consequences. Such consequences, as elaborated in studies based on non-IT enabled social networks (Bliese & Britt, 2001) and social support theory (SST) (Caplan, 1974; Cassel, 1976; Cobb, 1976), emphasize the need to better understand the social exhaustion phenomenon, its drivers, and consequences in IT-enabled SNS as well. Some consequences may range from short-term exhaustion to long-term physiological, social, and/or psychological harm (Tarafdar et al, 2010) and could result in users reducing or complete stopping platform usage.

This research aims at identifying the possible negative effects of SNS usage on the individual (Brandtzaeg, 2012; Turel & Serenko, 2012; Amichai-Hamburger, 2013), as SNS replace other individual communication channels. In addition to being used to post personal messages to private and public social networks, SNS are also used by organizations in marketing (Culnan et al, 2010) and recruiting (Weitzel et al, 2009; Leidner et al, 2010) to communicate with external stakeholders, and for internal business communication (Majchrzak et al, 2009; Koch et al, 2012). In addition to causing stress, if social overload leads to reduction or stopping SNS channel usage, it could threaten user participation in social media. A better understanding of SNS is necessary to avoid such negative consequences, as well as those observed with other communication media (e.g., Barley et al, 2011).

The goal of this paper is to understand the phenomenon of social overload, its antecedents, and its consequences for the individual. As defined above, social overload is the negative perception of SNS usage when users receive too many social support requests and feel they are giving too much social support to other individuals embedded in their virtual social network. Increasing SNS usage for both private and professional communication and the societal need to understand drivers of possibly negative physiological, social, and psychological consequences of IT-enabled SNS motivate our research question: What are the antecedents of social overload and its consequences for SNS users?

In the following, we first discuss SNS as a technology enabling social connections among individuals and organizations and introduce SST as the theoretical base for developing the concept of social overload. Second, we develop social overload as a theoretical variable and derive hypotheses for its drivers and consequences. Third, using a study with 571 SNS users, we empirically evaluate social overload and the hypotheses. We then discuss the results, limitations, and implications for research and for practice.

Further more information about this articles, please you check on European Journal of Information Systems or e-mail christian.maier@uni-bamberg.de.

By Christian Maier, Sven Laumer, Andreas Eckhardt & Tim Weitzel

Repost by Acarre Community Media

An integrative marketing channel performance measurement framework - Introduction

Recent research into strategy implementation is damning in its findings. 'The reality is that traditional (marketing) implementation approaches have failed'. Similarly in the October 1999 issue of the Journal of Marketing, Noble and Mokwa wrote, '[Marketing] Implementation [...] is a critical link between formulation of marketing strategies and the achievement of superior organizational performance [...]. Yet, the nature of implementation and reasons for success or failure are understood poorly'.

According to Yeniyurt, the marketing field is now giving high priority to developing marketing metrics. The role of marketing channels is to implement marketing strategy. The difficulty of channel strategy is compounded by the emergence of e-channels and the need to integrate e-channels into traditional or 'bricks and mortar' channels. Ambler et al. contend that metrics usage is substantially moderated by (a company's) size and sector. The authors suggest that 'larger firms use more metrics and the needs of retail, for example, are different from those in the consumer goods sector'.

A fundamental proposition in marketing strategy is that distribution channels must be aligned with customers and competitive advantage. Unfortunately, channel performance measurement literature has provided ambiguous guidance to marketing managers. This paper addresses the problem by putting forward a conceptual model that uses strategy as the primary determinant of the characteristics of the performance measurement system.

Measurement plays a crucial role in strategy implementation according to Kaplan and Norton. Neely et al. conducted a review of the performance measurement literature. They observed that while many measurement frameworks have been developed and many others have offered criteria for the measurement system design, a generally pertinent systematic approach to performance measurement has not been built. In this respect, research in distribution channels has highlighted a 'channel performance metric paradox.' Because different systems and different channels necessitate particular measurement structure characteristics, it is impossible for a business organisation to maximise concurrently, all channel performance measures.

The literature argues, however, that the extent to which each determinant of performance impacts firm performance is a function of the performance metrics (see, eg Eccles; Neely; Simons). Further, Lebas and Euske define performance as 'the sum of all processes that will lead managers to taking appropriate actions in the present that will create a performing organisation in the future' or in other words, 'doing today what will lead to measured value outcomes tomorrow'.

This paper is conceptual in nature and while adopting Miles and Snow strategy types' framework, it offers a model that endeavours to reconcile the 'channel performance metric paradox'. In so doing, we show that in order to achieve marketing success, it is important to understand the relationship between channel performance measures and strategy deployment success. Our research seeks to identify that strategy is the key determinant of channel metric characteristics.

This paper is organised in the following way. First, a review of the performance measurement, marketing channels and strategy implementation literature is undertaken. Next, channel performance measurements are integrated with Miles and Snow's strategy implementation framework. Following that a research model that is specific to channels is developed with research propositions. Finally, guidance is provided to marketing managers in the use of the model in framing a system of marketing channel performance measurement.

The paper contributes to marketing practice by clarifying the key channel performance measures in an organisational context. It also identifies which performance measures should be emphasised to avoid the channel performance metric paradox. This paradox occurs where undesirable performance trade-offs occur when the improvement of one performance measure reduces the performance of another measure.

Further more information about this articles, please you check on Journal of Database Marketing & Customer Strategy Management.

By Michael J Valos & Andrea Vocino

Repost by Acarre Community Media

What makes for CRM system success or failure?

Payne and Frow argue that successful implementation of CRM programme depends upon four critical factors: 

            (1) CRM readiness assessment

            (2) CRM change management

            (3) CRM project management

            (4) employee engagement. 

A CRM readiness assessment is an overview audit which helps managers to assess the overall position in terms of readiness to progress with CRM implementations and to identify how well developed their organisation is relative to other companies. CRM change management involves strategic organisational change and cultural change. Senior level understanding, sponsorship, leadership and cross-functional integration are clearly critical in a complex CRM implementation. CRM project management requires forming cross-functional teams of specialists who manage the enterprise's CRM implementation programme. Successful CRM projects deliver against the CRM objectives derived from the corporate objectives and support the overall business strategy. Finally, employee engagement comprises support and commitment of the employees to CRM projects. Increasingly, firms recognise the significant value their employees contribute to the business, which extents well beyond the basic fulfilment of core duties. Companies cannot develop and operate appropriately customer-focussed CRM systems and processes without motivated and trained employees.

Various arguments have been put forward for the failure of CRM systems. Day suggests that main reason for CRM project failure is the lack of strategic planning prior to the implementation of CRM. Maselli found that the reasons for failure of many CRM initiatives ranged from technological implementation problems to a lack of organisational integration and customer orientation. Jain et al. state that most such failures are attributed to poor design, planning and measurement of CRM projects. They comment that capturing the wrong customer information, unclear goals, inappropriate selection and use of technology, inability to integrate people and processes and use of misleading metrics or improper measurement approaches are the major barriers in implementing and managing CRM projects. According to Kale, the seven deadly sins for unsatisfactory CRM outcome are: 

           (1) viewing the CRM initiative as a technology initiative; 

           (2) lack of customer-centric vision; 

           (3) insufficient appreciation of customer lifetime value; 

           (4) inadequate support from top management; 

           (5) underestimating the importance of change management; 

           (6) failing to re-engineer business processes; and 

           (7) underestimating the difficulties involved in data mining and data integration. 

He states that most executives are not even aware of these issues, even though they could spell disaster for their careers and for the company. Others argue CRM failures are heavily influenced by the firm's lack of ability to integrate CRM technologies into its functional processes.

Further more information about this articles, please you check on Journal of Database Marketing & Customer Strategy Management.

 

By Bryan Foss, Merlin Stone & Yuksel Ekinci

Repost by Acarre Community Media

Tips to Make Money through Blogging

Blogs are beneficial if you wish to promote your business or product. Writing blogs can be monetarily very helpful for a business venture to flourish as it informs the audience about the business, eventually intriguing them to buy the services or product. Usually, we write a blog to inform our target audience about our services we provide, or to share our views on something. But, if we become a little business-minded, we can make a substantial amount of money through our blog.

We just need to learn some basic strategies in order to make money through blog-posts. Here are some of the ways that would help you to earn money through blog-writing.

By selling other's products or services

This is one click-through opportunity that can make you earn loads of money via affiliate programs. Affiliate programs serve as a bridge between the readers/viewers and the websites that offer various products and services. One of the best examples of affiliate programs is Amazon.com.  For example, if you write a book review and mention any of the books in it, affiliate program will enable the readers to click on the book's name and direct them to Amazon so that they can get further details about it. And, if they purchase that book, you get paid as well.

By selling ad-space

This is one of the most convenient and common ways of generating income through blog-writing. If you become a renowned blogger or blog about a particular product or topic, you can sell the ad-space in your blog. Bloggers can use Google AdSense or BlogAds in order to establish several ad programs. For instance, AdSense enables the blogger to choose ads that are related to the content of their blog post, and then pays on the basis of clicks that come to the advertisements. BlogAds is another way of selling ad-space that connect bloggers with the advertisers and pay a commission for any advertisements that come up on their blogs.


Ask for contributions

Bloggers can also ask their readers for contributions. For example, if your blog supports a particular issue or cause, like if you mention health care, tax reform, you can ask your readers for a little financial help. Even if you have some of the followers who just enjoy reading your thoughts and opinions, you can ask them for small contributions as a way to show their loyalty towards you. Sites such as Paypal offer on-site contribution button.

Develop and maintain customer relations

When you write a blog in order to communicate with your existing customers or for attracting new ones, you can include all the essential details of your business – what it does & how, while maintaining good relations with your clients. Through this, the readers get to know more about the product or services that are offered by your business. The customers obtain knowledge about the full range of services provided, and, therefore, decide to purchase them.

Market your products or services through blogs

It is obvious that blogs are the perfect platform to express your views or opinions, but they are also useful in making money. Marketing the products and services through blogs will naturally earn you more customers and increase your income. You can also write short journal articles that explain your strategies, as well as perspectives on a variety of issues. Through this, bloggers can make a lot of money by attracting new clients.

You can earn a good amount of money by making use of the above mentioned ways while writing a blog post for your business.

By Apoorva

Repost by Acarre Media Community 

10 Tips to Rank on the Top in Search Engine

Web marketing is the media where you can get the eclectic ideas as well as can share your ideas with the world. It is the place where you can navigate, till you find your choicest thing. There to serve the best, you need to incur 'something', so that people can find you the unique one.

Generally most of the internet users visit those sites frequently that ranks top in the search engine. So, to increase the volume of the traffic in your website, you should rank high in the search engine result page. Achieving high rankings is not a tough job but it needs few tips to be followed.


Tips to be on the Top :
So, are you ready to win the challenge through your business? Just polish your ideas a bit and you will fulfill your agendas. The identified points which can really help you out for optimization in this field can be stated as :

• Usage of keywords is an important factor. While using them keyword density, keyword frequency, should be very well taken care off. The keyword should appear possibly while starting the paragraph so that it could be easily seen by the viewers. Keyword should appear in the page after periodic intervals.

• The title and the Meta description tags should be self explanatory and should be different for each and every page in your website. It should be written in simple terms which can be easily understood by the online users.

• It is advisable to use the header tags at the top – most position of the page. It should be in the source order and not in the visual order.

• You should not copy the content of the web page from other websites. Your website content should depict your actual product and services. It should not exaggerate little things in your website.

• The site should contain less flash files as the crawlers of the search engine can read only the textual data. If the flash file would be used less then it would help the search engine to meet the search criteria.

• Where ever you are using the image files try to use alternate texts which will make the crawlers easy to find the web pages. Only images can not be read by the search engine crawlers. In order to get the top ranking your website should be search engine friendly.

• Build other websites which could help you to enhance your primary website. These secondary websites will help you in better marketing, branding etc. for achieving the primary niche.

• Always update the users with your website's new products and services through news and articles. So that interested users can visit your website as per the requirement arises.

• Your website should contain useful links. So, that when the person visits your websites can navigate various details through other websites when required. This result into their satisfaction, which makes them re-visit your website.

• Your website should be designed in a very simple manner. It should include cascading style sheets rather than including tabular structures. This also enhances the search process.

The trust and support from the clients/customers never comes automatically, these are part of assets which are earned and not obtained. In the world of online business, to be at the top needs a bit of hard work, and intelligence. When concatenating both, helps SEO services provider in beating the world very easily.

Resource : SEO Service Provider for business consultation
Reprint : Acarre Community Media

What Do You Think - 6 Small Business Marketing Trends For 2014

As the world of marketing evolves and becomes more complex, one has to wonder how small business owners can stay abreast of what marketing trends are emerging, never mind figure out which are worth investing in for their particular situation.
Let me offer some help. First, as you update (or create) your marketing plan for 2014 (get your template here), ask yourself:

• Will the marketing activities that have been effective continue to work for my business?
• Will I need to add new marketing tactics or simply make adjustments to those in which we currently invest?
• What should I be adding to my marketing activities that are worth my time and effort?

1. The integrated marketing plan becomes popular again

Although I’m not a huge fan of complex marketing plans, I do believe having a plan is more important for small businesses than they realize. A marketing plan focuses your efforts and helps you avoid wasting time and money doing things that aren’t moving your business towards your goals.

And now, with all the varying online activities – email marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, mobile marketing, search marketing – you need one place where you define what you will be doing and in what time frame.

2. Content marketing dominates small business marketing strategies

Today’s buyers are smart – we no longer want to be sold and we are sure going to know a lot about the possible solutions to our problems before we make a purchase decision. In fact, according to the Corporate Executive Board (CEB) almost 60% of the purchase decision is made before prospects reach out to vendors. This means the buyer is finding content from expert sources to help them determine the best solution to their problem.

To position your business as an expert resource, you need to create content that speaks to your audience, helping them determine the best route to take. What this means for small businesses is that you need to have a blog if you don’t already have one and you must keep adding new, fresh content regularly. Blogs convert readers into buyers. 42% of consumers look to blogs for information about potential purchases; 52% say blogs have impacted their purchase decisions. According to Hubspot’s 2013 State of Inbound Marketing, almost 80% of marketers with a company blog have acquired new customers.

3. Case studies get reinvented into content marketing stories

It’s hard to continually produce content that is relevant to your audience. Most small businesses have plenty of satisfied customers but few use these experiences as a source of rich content that will help others understand how you solve a problem better than anyone else.

But did you know that for B2B marketers customer testimonials (89%) and case studies (88%) have the highest effectiveness rating for influencing potential buyers? And 85% of consumers say that they read online reviews for local businesses and 73% of consumers say positive customer reviews make them trust a business more.

4. Marketing activities evolve from mobile enabled to mobile optimized

A year ago in my post on small business marketing trends for 2013, I said that mobile support was mission critical and that mobile responsive design would be the most popular small business solution. Today, responsive design is just the first step.

If you are like me, you read email, participate in social media and research information regularly via your mobile device. According to Pew Internet research, 63% of adult cell owners now use their phones to go online and 34% of these cell internet users say that they mostly go online using their cell phone.
With this growth, if the first impression a buyer has of your brand on their smartphone or tablet is not the experience they expect, you can potentially lose a customer before you even know they are interested. Review your marketing tools and determine if mobile access provides a user experience that doesn’t detract from the message you are trying to convey:

• Can your email newsletters be easily read?
• Is your website content consumable?
• Can the visitor fill in your contact forms?
• Can they use the shopping cart easily from their mobile device?

5. Getting and staying visible is no longer an option

I ask this question every time I am speaking with a small business owner who is wondering if they should create a solid web presence for their business. 93% of online research starts with a search engine, and 68% of consumers check out companies on social networking sites before buying. Online visibility is a must, so every small business needs a strategy that increases their visibility when someone is in need of their products or services.

6. Simplicity in marketing will become the norm

 Many marketers feel that today’s buyers are web-savvy, mobile-enabled researchers capable of sifting through the complex information about a product or service in order to make a purchase decision. In reality, buyers are looking for trustworthy information that helps them easily and efficiently weigh their purchase options. Too many options and messages can paralyze decision making, encouraging the buyer to look at your competitors.

Keep your marketing simple. It will help both you and your prospective customer. Make your value clear, your purchase process simple and customer service awesome. Focus on creating websites and marketing materials whose design is clean and message is clear to attract more people to your business.


By  Debra Murphy
Repost : Acarre Community Media

The Online Advertising for 2013 part 2

Problems of online advertising

A. Privacy

The use of online advertising has implications on the privacy and anonymity of users. Hosting the banner images on its servers and using third-party cookies, the advertising company is able to track the browsing of users across these two sites.

Third-party cookies can be blocked by most browsers to increase privacy and reduce tracking by advertising and tracking companies without negatively affecting the user's Web experience. Many advertising operators have an opt-out option to behavioral advertising, with a generic cookie in the browser stopping behavioral advertising.

B. Malware

There is also a class of advertising methods which are considered unethical and may even be illegal. These include external applications which alter system settings (such as a browser's home page), spawn pop-ups, and insert advertisements into non-affiliated webpages. Such applications are usually labelled as spyware or adware. They may mask their questionable activities by performing a simple service, such as displaying the weather or providing a search bar. These programs are designed to dupe the user, acting effectively as Trojan horses. These applications are commonly designed so as to be difficult to remove or uninstall. The ever-increasing audience of online users, many of whom are not computer-savvy, frequently lack the knowledge and technical ability to protect themselves from these programs.

C. Limitations

• One of the challenges that Internet marketers face (as does the general public) is that many internet products are outright scams or promoted with deception making it difficult to know which one is worth buying. This is especially the case with products that are supposed to train or aid Internet marketers in making money. While the quality of products has improved in the past few years, ethics are often still missing in online marketing. Many so-called money making products are "empty boxes" in which there is essentially nothing there, yet a buyer is to make money by reselling this empty box to others. Pyramid schemes are also still prevalent.
• The consumer is unable to physically feel or try on the product which can be a limitation for certain goods. However a survey of consumers of cosmetics products shows that email marketing can be used to interest a consumer in visiting a store to try a product or to speak with sales representatives; from here a purchase decision can be made 
• The marketer will not be able to use personal interaction to influence the audience as the marketing is completely based on the advertisement and the information that the advertisement might lead to (websites, blogs and other channels).

D. Security concerns

Information security is important both to companies and consumers that participate in online business. Many consumers are hesitant to purchase items over the Internet because they do not believe that their personal information will remain private. Some companies that purchase customer information offer the option for individuals to have their information removed from their promotional redistribution, also known as opting out. However, many customers are unaware if and when their information is being shared, and are unable to stop the transfer of their information between companies if such activity occurs. Additionally, companies holding private information are vulnerable to data attacks and leaks. Internet browsing privacy is a related consumer concern. Web sites routinely capture browsing and search history which can be used to provide targeted advertising. Privacy policies can provide transparency to these practices. Spyware prevention software can also be used to shield the consumer.

E. Ethics

Online advertising encompasses a range of types of advertising, some of which are deployed ethically and some are not. Some websites use large numbers of advertisements, including flashing banners that distract the user, and some have misleading images designed to look like error messages from the operating system, rather than advertisements. Websites that unethically use online advertising for revenue frequently do not monitor what advertisements on their website link to, allowing advertisements to lead to sites with malicious software or audience-inappropriate material. The ethical propriety of advertisers that use web searches for competitors' brands to trigger their own ads has been questioned.

Some argue that website operators who ethically use online advertising typically use a small number of advertisements that are not intended to distract or irritate the user, and do not detract from the design and layout of their websites.Many website owners deal directly with companies that want to place ads, meaning that the website linked to by the advertisement is legitimate.

The use of technologies like Adobe Flash in online advertising has led to some users disabling it in their browsers, or using browser plug-ins like Adblock or NoScript. Many sites use centralized advertising services whose advertisement may be blocked as a side effect of security and privacy measures, because the services require JavaScript and cross-site requests to function, while such features are often not necessary to use the sites and are a potential source of vulnerabilities.

Some companies perform customer engagement studies in online marketing to insure consumer satisfaction, through the use of online compliance centers, building and deploying fraud detection tools, while inspecting websites and publishers to insure website pages offer the highest degree of information security and compliance with Can Spam Requirements.

For any question or suggestion. I hope we can share about tips internet business. thanks

Source : Encyclopedia, SFI- Marketing Group

The Online Advertising for 2013 part 1

Competitive advantage over traditional advertising

One major benefit of online advertising is the immediate publishing of information and content that is not limited by geography or time. To that end, the emerging area of interactive advertising presents fresh challenges for advertisers who have hitherto adopted an interruptive strategy.
Another benefit is the efficiency of the advertiser's investment. Online advertising allows for the customization of advertisements, including content and posted websites. For example, AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Google AdSense enable ads to be shown on relevant web pages or alongside search results.

Types of Internet marketing

Internet marketing is broadly divided into the following types:

• Display advertising: the use of web banners or banner ads placed on a third-party website or blog to drive traffic to a company's own website and increase product awareness.
• Search engine marketing (SEM): a form of marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs) through the use of either paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion, or through the use of free search engine optimization techniques also known as organic result.
• Search engine optimization (SEO): the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results.
• Social media marketing: the process of gaining traffic or attention through social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
• Email marketing: directly marketing a commercial message to a group of people using electronic mail.
• Referral marketing: a method of promoting products or services to new customers through referrals, usually word of mouth.
• Affiliate marketing: a marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's own marketing efforts.
• Content marketing: the process of creating specialized content such as infographics, blog articles and ebooks to attract more customers.
• Inbound marketing: involves creating and freely sharing informative content as a means of converting prospects into customers and customers into repeat buyers.
• Video marketing: This type of marketing specializes in creating videos that engage the viewer into a buying state by presenting information in video form and guiding them to a product or service online video is increasingly becoming more popular among internet users and companies are seeing it as a viable method of attracting customers.

Revenue models

The three most common ways in which online advertising is purchased are CPM, CPC, and CPA.

• CPM (Cost Per Mille) or CPT (Cost Per Thousand Impressions)

• CPV (Cost Per Visitor)

• CPV (Cost Per View)

• CPC (Cost Per Click) or PPC (Pay per click)

• CPA (Cost Per Action or Cost Per Acquisition) or PPF (Pay Per Performance) The following are common variants of CPA:
  • CPL (Cost Per Lead)
  • CPS (Cost Per Sale), PPS (Pay Per Sale), or CPO (Cost Per Order)

• eCPM: Effective CPM or eCPM

• Fixed Cost

• Cost per conversion

Geo-targeting

In Internet marketing, geotargeting is the methods of determining the geolocation of a website visitor with geolocation software, and delivering different content to that visitor based on his or her location, such as latitude and longitude, country, region or state, city, metro code or zip code, organization, Internet Protocol (IP) address, ISP, and other criteria.

Though, as seen above, the large majority of online advertising has a cost that is brought about by usage or interaction of an ad, there are a few other methods of advertising online that only require a one time payment. The Million Dollar Homepage is a very successful example of this. Visitors were able to pay $1 per pixel of advertising space and their advert would remain on the homepage for as long as the website exists with no extra costs.

• Floating ad: An ad which moves across the user's screen or floats above the content.
• Expanding ad: An ad which changes size and which may alter the contents of the webpage.
• Polite ad: A method by which a large ad will be downloaded in smaller pieces to minimize the disruption of the content being viewed
• Wallpaper ad: An ad which changes the background of the page being viewed.
• Trick banner: A banner ad that looks like a dialog box with buttons. It simulates an error message or an alert.
• Pop-up: A new window which opens in front of the current one, displaying an advertisement, or entire webpage.
• Pop-under: Similar to a Pop-Up except that the window is loaded or sent behind the current window so that the user does not see it until they close one or more active windows.
• Video ad: similar to a banner ad, except that instead of a static or animated image, actual moving video clips are displayed. This is the kind of advertising most prominent in television, and many advertisers will use the same clips for both television and online advertising.
• Map ad: text or graphics linked from, and appearing in or over, a location on an electronic map such as on Google Maps.
• Mobile ad: an SMS text or multi-media message sent to a cell phone.
• Superstitial: An animated ad on a Web page from Enliven Marketing Technologies. It uses video, 3D content or Flash to provide a TV-like advertisement. Used to be known as Unicast Transitional ads as they were originally made by Unicast Communications but the company was acquired by Viewpoint Corporation in 2004, which then changed its name to Enliven in 2008.
• Interstitial ad: a full-page ad that appears before a user reaches their original destination.
• Frame ad: an ad that appeared within an HTML frame, usually at the top with the site logo. As the user browsed the site, the frame would not change.

In addition, ads containing streaming video or streaming audio are becoming very popular with advertisers.
 Source : Blog, Encyclopedia, SFI- Marketing Group

Industrial Video Marketing Strategies - Part I (Reprint)

More smart industrial marketers are recognizing the power of online video marketing. The benefits are numerous, not the least of which is a significant leap for your website in terms of SEO. What use to be a marketing tool reserved for the BtoC space has finally migrated over to manufacturing and other industrial companies as they seek new ways to engage with their online audience.

Perhaps surprisingly, there is really not a huge difference in how an industrial company should approach a video marketing campaign as opposed to a retail business. Of course there will be a shift in the creative approach and the viral marketing strategy. Industrial business video content will no doubt be much more conservative and few industrial companies can depend on social media sites like Facebook to spread their video virally. This is where the differences end, however.

Just as with any other marketing initiative, the core fundamentals of establishing goals and objectives will ensure a more successful outcome and provide insight into ROI. Remember that goals are the end results you are predicting you will achieve. For example, a goal might be "improve brand image and credibility." Objectives are the steps you must take that will enable you to achieve your goals. They are generally short-term and might include items like "post one new video per month on all social media sites and website," or "obtain 15 specific online mentions per video each month."

Begin with this process and your efforts will be much more purposeful:

1.Establish goals that, if achieved, will be worth the investment you're making.

2.Establish objectives that will enable you to achieve the goals.

3.Measure the achieved goals against your investment to determine ROI.

Just remember that whether BtoC or BtoB, the videos you produce must appeal to YOUR consumer. You may be selling to businesses, but the video will be viewed by individuals within those businesses. Understanding their interests, needs, and problems will allow you to provide videos that get watched, commented on, and shared.

In Part II we will discuss specific strategies for content, viral marketing, and SEO for industrial videos.
For more information about this on http://www.marketectsinc.com.

Author : Kerry O'Malley
Repost : Acarre Community Media

Can Mobile Marketing Benefit From Mobile Commerce? (Reprint)

According to the latest predictions, mobile marketing will hog the limelight in the coming years as far as the field of digital marketing is concerned. This is primarily because more and more companies are realizing that there is a lot of potential in this particular arena. With the passage of time, the attention has been slowly shifted from the computer to the mobile phone. Mobile commerce or m-commerce services are nothing but buying and selling of products and services through the mobile phones. They make use of the wireless application provider sites to reach out to their audience.

Now, as far as mobile marketing is concerned, it includes the ability to zero down on a particular group of consumers. They could belong to a particular age group, geographical region as well as educational background. This specific medium of targeting the customers is extremely beneficial in this age of smart phones. If you are the owner of a business, you have to look for subtle ways in which you can promote your company. If you follow the method of texting, you will reap the benefits of viral marketing as the recipients of the messages usually forward them in case they are offer or discount coupons. It saves you a lot of time as well as money because you do not need to create a promotional message and the text can be sent to a large number of consumers in a matter of minutes.

A fact that has been established from a latest research is that, the paper coupons have taken a beating from their mobile counterparts as far as the redemption rates are concerned. For the mobile coupons, the redemption rates are more than 50% whereas for the paper coupons, it hardly touches the 2% mark. This explains why mobile coupons have become so popular these days amongst the retailers as well as the advertisers.

M-commerce has been able to successfully overtake e-commerce by enabling the users to break away the limitations imposed by wired means of communication. Thanks to these technological advancements, m-commerce services have been picked as the preferred form of transaction.

As far as the buyers are concerned, they can now purchase goods online even if they do not have access to a computer. Be it a hotel booking or a purchasing a movie ticket, it can be done in a matter of minutes through the hand-held device called the mobile phone.

In case you are the owner of a business, with the help of m-commerce services you can carry on with the transactions while you are on the move. You do not have to carry a heavy laptop along for such purposes anymore.

With the arrival of mobile commerce

, buying, selling as well as promotion of products and services has indeed evolved for the better. More and more people therefore are using this particular means to fulfill their marketing as well as sales requirements.

Ashley Forrester is a prolific writer. She is an expert in the domain of mobile commerce and has authored several articles on mobile commerce and mobile marketing trends. For more information visit http://www.cart2mobile.com.

Author : Ashley Forrester
Repost : Acarre Community Media

Mobile Text Message Marketing

Marketing is one of the most important things you can do as a business owner. Without a marketing strategy and targeted advertising, many businesses simply do not make it. Many business owners think that simply having a store front or running an ad in the yellow pages is all they need to do and soon realize, it's not that easy.

In today's world, businesses big or small are finding more and more challenges when it comes to traditional marketing strategies. Running an ad in a local publication or paying for a spot in the yellow pages, just doesn't produce the same results they once achieved and are very expensive.

The reason why this is happening is that we are in a rapid changing communication age. With the birth of the Internet and number of internet-ready cellphones expanding globally, the effects on marketing are tremendous and are taking the marketing challenges to a new level. International businesses large or small are facing the same challenges.

The technical requirements associated with setting up a website, understanding social media, creating campaigns that will promote brand and convert traffic into buyers, are all part of the requirements necessary to market a business in today's world. The problem is many business owners need to focus on running the business and do not have the time, can't manage, nor have all the skillset required to create and manage an effective marketing program.

One new marketing method that will have a tremendous impact on businesses globally has to do with mobile text marketing. Mobile text marketing targets cell phone users in a very unique way. Similar to the time when e-mail marketing was brand new, mobile text marketing has a much higher response rate. With response rates at 90% plus, business owners need pay attention and incorporate this strategy into the overall marketing strategy.

There are a lot of reasons for the high response rate in mobile text marketing. Here are a few:

* When a user receives a text message they almost never ignore it due to the alert features on cell phones.

* It's considered more personal than an e-mail because it is used primarily by personal friends and family. So, the user always responds to a new text.

* Most businesses have not yet utilized this strategy so; the opportunity is here right now to be on the cutting edge of this new marketing concept.

* Users do not ignore the messages when received.

* Messages are short and to the point.

* Newer cell phones display the message right on the front of the screen.

* Users almost always have their cell phone on them.

* Cell phones do not require internet access to receive a text..

* Almost every cell phone made today has text messaging built in.

The most important factor is that cell phone users out number internet users worldwide. With the rapid increase in internet-capable phones, there will also be a proportional increase in a business' ability to market to a cell phone user.

For those who don't know, here is how mobile text marketing works in general. Let's say you want to run a campaign to offer a discount for a product, service, or an event. As a business owner, you would target your existing customer base first. You would offer a coupon or discount, when a user sends a text message from their cell phone to your advertised campaign word. An example of this would look something like the following:

To receive a discount today, text "specialoffer" to 41242

What happens is the customer wants to receive a discount, so they text the word to the number. Then they immediately receive a response back with a promo code or message authorizing a discount. They are also informed they will receive future discount offers and can opt out anytime. Your customers are ok with this since they are already patrons of your business. This process all happens automatically.

Now, a month later you decide you want to have a sale or run a special on the weekend. If you didn't have a mobile marketing strategy, and in order to let your customers know you're having a sale, you would need to run an ad in the newspaper, pay for ads on TV, run an ad on the radio, send mail outs or some other means to let them know. This is expensive and takes time to plan and the customers response time may not coincide with time advertised was received.

But, as a smart business owner, you simply send out a text message to your existing customers and because you know they will read it, your sales are a success. You managed to increase business with the least amount of effort and greatest response.

With traditional marketing, the customer would need to read their junk mail, newspaper ads, or be in front of the TV at the exact time your ad ran. But with a cell phone in hand, your customer receives your promotion. You didn't need to pay for expensive ad materials or hope the customer was in the right place at the right time.

Did I say this was powerful, cutting edge stuff?

There is an added benefit to marketing this way. Consumers do not receive junk mail from you and you won't kill a tree to run an ad in the local paper.

Did I mention it is good for the environment?

In today's world, a customer will jump at the opportunity to do something good for the environment. This is especially true when it doesn't require much effort from them. I think most of us would be willing to receive a promo code to our cell phone in comparison to a bunch of junk mail at home that fills up our mailbox and usually gets tossed in the garbage and then finds its way to our landfills!

There is also another advantage over traditional advertising. I call it the on demand factor. This makes it a must strategy for restaurant owners or businesses that operate in a daily entertainment industry.

Here is an example of the on demand marketing factor. Let's say you own a restaurant. You expect the coming weekend lunch crowd to be slow due to an event in the area during that time of day. So, you have a message sent out to your mobile list letting them know they can get a free appetizer at lunch - but for this weekend only. You do this two hours before lunch to a hundred people on your list. Then an hour later you decide that the response wasn't enough to fill the seats up completely and you believe you will have a few open seats. So, you quickly have another message sent to another hundred people.

The result:

An hour later you have a small line at the door. You managed to let your customers know about your special for the weekend only. You also filled the seats and maximized your business without over promoting. You wouldn't want customers that would have come to your restaurant without a promo code to be turned away due to an extra-long wait.

On demand marketing lends itself to maximum flexibility in timing and number variations. There is no other marketing strategy that has this type of on demand capability. I wonder what happened to the other restaurants in the area that didn't have a mobile marketing strategy.

To this point we have only targeted existing customers. You can build your customer base in a more powerful way. All of the traditional marketing methods still work and can augment your mobile marketing strategy. It is important to not be tied to other marketing channels for all your marketing needs.

One reason to not be handcuffed to traditional marketing channels is that they dictate to you the options and the cost for advertisements. Most of them can be expensive because of the media that must be designed for the ads. The biggest factor is that the consumers of a particular media channel belong to that media company. But as a mobile text marketer, you can place your mobile text campaign word on printed ads, radio ads, and TV ads. This will enable you to capture more leads. When the consumer opts in to your mobile marketing list, you can then market to them over and over without paying the original media company another dime.

Building a list is one of the most important business strategies you can have. A mobile marketing list is the most effective.

Mobile text marketing may not work for every business. There are a few businesses where this strategy is very exciting. Here is a list of some businesses that could benefit:

1. Restaurants

2. Salons & Spas

3. Bars & Night Clubs

4. Florist

5. Theaters

6. Vacation Rentals

7. Events and Nightly Entertainment

8. Department Stores

9. Any service that the consumer does regularly

10. Most business that advertises a lot.

As you can see there are a lot of businesses that could save money on their advertising expenses while increasing their ROI.

So, how does a business owner get started?

Well if your business is a big brand, you can lease your own short code for $500 to $1000 a month. A short code is the number the campaign word is texted to. You will also need to pay web programmer money to develop a campaign management system to receive and respond to opt-ins. This can cost thousands of dollars to develop.

Option two; you can contact a mobile marketing consultant such as Rapid Action Marketing or Mobile Helpers and they will help tailor a marketing strategy to the size of your company and manage your campaigns for you. Plus they help build your list and leaving you to run the business. When you want to send a special offer out to your mobile list, you simply call and they will take it from there. They also implement various techniques to help increase opt-ins for your campaigns.

There are also many mobile text marketing platforms available. Most are tailored towards the big boys of marketing and priced accordingly. There are two in particular that I have found that offer all the features in the expensive services but at a price starting around $15 a month and as much as $1000 plus per month.

For the mid-size business, I recommend option two as the text marketing firm can get your mobile marketing campaign started right. But, for the smaller business a self-management option maybe the only option.

They will help tailor a marketing strategy to the size of your company and manage your campaigns for you. Plus they help build your list and leaving you to run the business. When you want to send a special offer out to your mobile list, you simply call and they will take it from there. They also implement various techniques to help increase opt-ins for your campaigns.

There are also many mobile text marketing platforms available. Most are tailored towards the big boys of marketing and priced accordingly. There are two in particular that I have found that offer all the features in the expensive services but at a price starting around $15 a month and as much as $1000 plus per month.For the mid-size business, I recommend option two as the text marketing firm can get your mobile marketing campaign started right. But, for the smaller business a self-management option maybe the only option. See Author Bio for recommended services.

To get more information on how to market your business via text message marketing. Please visit  http://wwwyeptext.com

Author : Eric Sullivan
Repost : Acarre Community Media

The Competitive Battle Plan For Flyer Marketing (Reprint)

You will undoubtedly have tough competition in flyer marketing. Thus, it is important to have a good and competitive battle plan for its deployment.

The objective here is to make each piece count so that the investment i will be well worth it, with all color flyers eliciting some kind of response from the market. Let me help you out with this by giving you my basic competitive battle plan. Use this as your guide to ensure more success for each piece of color flyer.

1. Do your oculars – The ocular inspection or actually looking at the different areas for deployment is important for a competitive battle plan. You will not only want to know if the place has people. You will also want to know if the places you are going for have the right people. Your key target markets should be there and you should know exactly the right times where they pass by or arrive in those places. Knowing all these should help you make your efforts more effective and efficient so make sure you do this ocular data gathering.

2. Do your consumer research – Next, you should also do your consumer research. As with most marketing tasks, knowing your consumer helps you gain insights on how exactly to deliver your marketing tool. For example if your consumers typically shop in certain days on certain places, then deploying precisely at those days and places should be ideal. Along with the ocular data above, you should be able to figure out the best locations where the environment and the people combine to give you the ideal climate.

3. Identify opportune times for distribution in the near future – Also, you should consider the public holidays and seasons that are opportune for distribution. Shopping holidays like black Fridays or Christmas holidays for examples are the most obvious times for good flyer distribution. Start of the season celebrations are also good for marketing as changing environments typically have people scrambling for new products.

4. Identify where your competitors are distributing – Of course, you should also be aware of the places where your competitors are distributing. This can be a threat to your marketing efforts. By knowing where they are, you will know which locations where you should double your efforts, so that you can be more competitive and beat them on those areas. Of course, if you see them having too much of a dominant stake in an area, you might also want to raise the white flag and leave it to them. You do not want to waste money on areas where you actually can gain no benefit at all.

5. Creating the ideal plan – Once you have all the data described above, you should then be able to create the ideal plan for a competitive deployment strategy. You should go deploy your flyers at the best places and the best times where your target markets or consumers are. Make sure that you take into account any competitor activity in those ideal areas and double your efforts if there is an increased threat. That is how you can maximize your efforts and succeed competitively.

Now you have a battle plan. Just go through each step above and there can be no doubt about your marketing campaign success.Visit http://www.unitedgraphics.com/product/flyers for more information.

Author : Kaye Marks
Repost : Acarre Community Media

Social Media Principle 6 – Be Open and Be Human (Reprint)

Social marketing earns, not buys attention so have an opinion, be true to what you say, be of value, be open - above all be human.

"Ask not what your customers can do for you; ask what you can do for your customers" Stan Rapp

As 'markets become conversations' customer relationships and advertising models are changing for good. Passive consumption becomes active interaction. Monologue becomes dialogue. Control becomes collaboration. Customers are empowered, well informed, connected. Companies are becoming more transparent whether they like it or not.

It's an environment in which the balance of effective communication shifts from being less about interruption to more about participation, less about delivering a message to more about being part of a conversation, less about what you say to people and more about what people are saying about you.

It's an environment, which operates to social principles - creating not subtracting value, serving a larger purpose than your own, being useful, facilitating.

It's an environment in which the more human elements matter - having a point of view, being true to yourself and what you say, being open, honest, transparent. Ford use social media to (in the words of Scott Monty) "humanize the Ford brand and put consumers in touch with Ford employees", and regularly reach out to bloggers for feedback and to encourage the spread of positive word of mouth.

Zappos believe that their "culture is their brand" and use social media to create touch points throughout every area of their business and ensure customer service isn't just a department, it’s the entire company. Authenticity is the currency that encourages trust, involvement, and engagement. Authenticity is what turns an audience into a following. To find out more about Jon and receive access to some awesome FREE gifts, go to: - http://whoisjonleuty.com

Author : Jon Leuty
Repost : Acarre Community Media

Developing A Strategy For Real Estate Mobile Marketing

Realtors are constantly seeking new ways to control business costs, in a slow market. Placing print advertisements, and printing up fliers to leave at listings, may eat a sizable portion of a realtor's budget. Fortunately, real estate mobile marketing, as part of an overall digital strategy, provides a no-paper, low-cost avenue for reaching potential clients. This type of marketing also helps realtors to be more proactive with advertising, rather than reactive.

Mobile marketing is defined as communicating with customers via a mobile device. This capability appeals to a clientele that is rapidly growing more technologically sophisticated. Realtors who have mobile capability may assist buyers twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. This availability gives the realtor a competitive advantage, in the recruitment and retention of clients.

Realtors are set back in a reactive position with print ads, and even with websites. In both cases, realtors have to wait for clients to contact them about the property. Even fliers will never be picked up unless a client actually sets up a property showing. Ideally, realtors should be able to proactively market their listings to potential clients. Mobile capability will give realtors a platform in which to be more assertive, while, at the same time, saving money.

Digital advertising may be realized in a number of ways. When realtors list a new property, for instance, they may choose to send the information to clients, using text messaging. Or, when an open house is about to begin, realtors could sent a text message to interested clients in their database.

Realtors should also take advantage of SMS. For instance, realtors could establish a service, in which clients could text a keyword to a specific number, and then receive property listing information, right on their smart phone. SMS would replace the hassle of printing and carrying fliers to every property site, producing a savings of both time and money, while still delivering a valuable service.

Advertising is only one aspect of an overall digital strategy. Many clients use their phones to look at property information online. For this reason, realtors should ensure that their websites are easily navigated with a smart phone, and that they do not publish too much Flash content. Additionally, good visuals on a website are important, and realtors may even consider adding a video element to their pages.

Of course, there are even less expensive alternatives for digital strategy. One idea is for realtors to list homes on real estate websites, like Zillow or Trulia. Both of these websites feature high-quality mobile applications, and are rich in visual features. Another idea is for realtors to use social media to communicate with their client base.

Real estate mobile marketing gives realtors new, fresh ways to reach out to potential clients. Web and phone-based services offer convenience to clients, at a low cost to realtors, thus helping them to recruit and retain more prospective buyers. Utilizing all of the capabilities of computers and smart phones allows realtors to match their services to the technological savvy of their client base. Click here for more information http://interactive-mobile.com.

Author : Dave Spearson
Repost : Acarre Community Media

High Tech Marketing for Modest Business Enterprise

What is High tech marketing?

In a business market where senior managers have completely different consumer lifestyles than the younger talent, it’s time that everyone gets on the same page about marketing. Traditional marketing went along with the era of analyzing the daily newspaper-at the kitchen table and not on a mobile device. High tech marketing strategies can cover B2B marketing as well as what is targeted to end consumers. A high tech unified marketing plan will make sure that all of the high tech marketing platforms you choose to use will be monitored from a single place, with simple change controls.

High tech unified marketing can include outlets like facebook and twitter and other social media niches, as well as online spaces like blogs and community directories, search spaces and email marketing. Many high tech unified marketing experts recommend targeted SMS and mobile phone compatibility for increased conversions with B2B marketing. This might include gathering cell phone lists and texting out discounts, announcements, and important details to draw relevant attention. As many business owners have smart phones and other tablet devices, it’s an important part of your high tech unified marketing campaign to make sure that any email and website material as part of a B2B marketing initiative is formatted correctly.

What High Tech Unified Marketing Specialists can do

If you discover that you might be staying caught behind the tides in the marketplace, consider at least an initial conversation with a B2B marketingor High tech marketing specialist. Even if you do not choose a long term service contract, initial conversations can shed light on many areas where you can make some baby steps of your own. They can start by introducing you to any relevant lingo, examine your specific industry and see how competitors have found success with high tech marketing, and take a look at how to bring your current goals to play in a high tech unified marketing plan.

They will have teams of specialists. From traditional marketing and new media marketing insiders to tech teams to strategic planning managers, a high tech marketing firm will offer a host of resources that you would not be able to hire individually yourself.

Choosing to expose your business through inventive B2B marketing campaigns will draw new relationships and clients. It is at least worth your while to open the conversations with a high tech unified marketing specialist in your industry. For more info about b2b marketing please visit our website. http://www.connectmarketing.com/

Author : Enyonstack
Repost : Acarre Community Media