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Online reviews: get your business noticed

May 12, 2011 By

 

Reviews play a vastly important role in today’s marketplace. Whether your business is online, offline or somewhere in between, many of your potential customers will seek reviews of your products and services. As regards online retail, the impact that reviews have on creating a purchasing decision is immense – as well as fairly obvious. Users simply don’t purchase products with consistently poor reviews, and they flock to the other end of the spectrum with all the confidence that a personal endorsement can engender.

What if your business conducts most of its business offline, though? How do online reviews bring you new customers, shape your business, and ultimately affect affect your bottom line? How can you ensure you’re getting good reviews?

Getting to know the review giants


There are hundreds of websites dedicated to reviewing offline businesses of all sorts. From restaurants to contractors, cafes to gift shops, movie theaters to bars and clubs. If someone’s paying for a product or service, you can bet they have an opinion on it. Sure, only one in a thousand or less customers are likely to write an online review, but that makes it even more important to ensure each of your customers is a potential “positive review writer.” If there’s one thing you don’t want, it’s for your one or two lonely reviews to come from the least satisfied of all your customers.

So who are the major players in terms of online reviews? Google, Yelp! and Citysearch are probably the most important review giants at present. While you can bet plenty more will spring up, you can probably count on these three to be around for quite awhile.

How do online reviews create business?

Many people who use online reviews to make decisions about their patronage are either new to the area, only in the area temporarily, new to whatever product or service they’re seeking, or are simply looking for a new friendly spot in their hometown. As may be clear already, reviews can be very helpful in creating new business, or at least in building the potential to create new business.

Google tries to recognize when search terms are place oriented, and returns a special set of results titled “Places for [search terms] near [city].” Try performing a Google search for “Cheap pet stores, Denver, CO” and you’ll be able to follow along. The results of these types of searches are listed with an overall rating (out of five stars), as well as a link to all of the place’s reviews. You’ll notice that Google incorporates reviews from Google users as well as Yelp! users. If you were searching for cheap pet stores in Denver, which link would you click? Probably one with a good rating and at least a few reviews available.

Much like Google, websites like Yelp! and Citysearch let users enter a city as well as search terms. Unlike Google, these websites are dedicated entirely to reviewing local businesses and will only return results for businesses which have already accumulated one or more review. These websites receive incredible amounts of traffic and are widely used for seeking restaurants, night-life and other entertainment, especially in metropolitan areas like Chicago, New York, Boston, San Diego, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, etc. Yelp! is widely used by review writers and deal-hunters alike, and boasted nearly two and a half million reviews at the beginning of 2008.

How can I get my customers to create reviews?

First, choose a primary review website that you’d like to use. You should choose which website to build your review campaign on depending on that website’s prevalence in your area and relevance to your business. To research this, simply browse to a few different reviewing websites and search for businesses similar to yours in your area. The website which produces the most results is almost certainly the one with the most traffic for your business type and city combination. Once you’ve decided which review website to go with, familiarize yourself with the reviewing process so that you can more easily guide your customers to publishing their comments, as well as answer any questions they might have.

Next, ask your customers to create reviews! Place a simple call to action on business cards, place-mats, menus, brochures, tracts, receipts or anything else that your customers come into contact with. Instruct your cashiers, servers, concierges, salespersons or whoever else you employ to engage your customers about reviewing your business online. It’s important that you mention it to as many customers as possible, as very, very few will actually follow through – even if they appear willing and interested.

Remember, reviews can help or hurt your business. If you’re not active about soliciting them, the chances are that only customers with the most powerful impressions of your business are actually going to submit reviews – and often, that spells trouble. So take an active role and beat your one-in-a-thousand naysayers to the punch: solicit online reviews and build your business.

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Marketing Cosmetic Surgery Services To Asians

February 23, 2011 By

What makes you an expert in cosmetic surgery? You become an expert only with practice. You would be more skillful with your work if you have good experience in the cosmetic surgery department. The more experience you have, the better your patients will feel staying around with you. Are you a cosmetic surgery expert and have dealt with Asian patients in the past? Well, if you have then you can use this to your advantage, but how? There is only one way- Hire an Internet Marketing expert to do the job for you.

The Asian market is huge; however, it is not targeted properly. If you want to target the Asian market, then you have to be sure that you do the marketing according. Asian people prefer cosmetic surgery doctors that have experience in dealing with Asian patients. So if you are a doctor with experience, then this should be used for your benefit. When you hire an Internet Marketing firm, then you should make sure that they are able to popularize you to the Asian Market.

SEO Professional will make sure that the target keywords for you like “Cosmetic Surgery For Asians” and many such keywords. Once you start ranking for these keywords, people who are looking for these search results would come to know that you are able to provide all of these service. The SEO firm should ensure the utilization of all of these keywords, so that soon after you become popular over the internet.

Another important aspect, which will play a major role in your marketing strategy, is the landing page of your website. Design the landing page in such a way that you are able to target both the locals and the Asians. So whenever someone comes to your website, they know what all you specialize in. This is one of the best ways to get attention in the market. You can also display the pictures of your patients and the staff members. This will make the audience more connected to you. They would develop a trust factor with you, which is important for a doctor and a patient.

The next important thing to focus on is the content on the website. The content that you write on the website, should be in such a way that it tells about your experience, expertise and your success stories. Majority of the website these days have testimonials on the website, this is again an amazing way to get your customers towards you.

You should know that the patients are very intelligent and smart these days. They can get all the information that they need about you from the internet. They don’t have to go anywhere and do any research at all. The patients these days go through all the articles and website content that is written. So it is even more important for you to focus on cosmetic surgery marketing.

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3 Critical Practices For Creating New Business On The Web

January 13, 2011 By

1) Publish Quality Content

Your website’s content is what connects your users to your products and services. While search engines use a huge array of complicated algorithms to rank websites and create meaningful, relevant connections with users, it’s important to remember that their focus is constant. Effectively connecting people with the content they’re looking for. The internet is a sweeping network of real people with real needs and priorities, and appealing to your customers – not using cheap tricks meant to play search engine’s algorithms – is the real path to success.

It’s vastly important that your content is as clear, concise and as readable as possible if you’re looking to grasp an audience long enough to inspire some interest and create sales. As a vendor, it’s your duty to provide products or services that people are willing to pay for, and to communicate effectively with those people about the benefits of your offerings. There are certainly steps that can be taken to ensure your website is properly ranked and parsed by the various search engines, but first and foremost you need clear content that pushes your selling points into the forefront of users’ minds.

Using direct, no nonsense language, selecting clear, easy to read fonts, and applying meaningful formatting that brings attention to important bits of information within your website are the basic tenets of publishing quality content.

2) Use the tools available to you:

While publishing quality content should definitely be your first priority, the SEO “tricks” like keyword counts, META tags, and inbound links are an important part of your overall visibility on the web.
Ensuring that your website reflects its content accurately to the automated “spiders” – programs which catalog web content – is a necessary part of gaining search engine ranking. Working with a results-oriented, straightforward SEO professional can help to bring your website to the surface of the internet, giving your potential customers a better chance of reading your content and making a purchasing decision.

It’s important to remember that while configuring your website to be cataloged properly with the web’s search engines is a critical step, it won’t help if your potential customers aren’t interested in your content. Using the tools available to you – keyword configuration, META tags, inbound links and the like – can be incredibly helpful, but you must first publish quality content.

3) Ask your customers for help:

Satisfied customers beget satisfied customers. Asking your happy customers to mention your services on their website or blog can help to push you to the forefront of the competition. Word of mouth works on the internet about the same that it works in real life – it’s simply one of the best ways to create new business. And truly satisfied customers are more willing to help promote your services than you might think.

Offering discounts on future purchases or other incentives is a great way to get your customers to lend you a hand. A simple “25% off for mentioning us on your blog!” can really work wonders.

Filed Under: SEO Blog, Small Business Blog Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Facebook is an absolute Must for your Business

November 22, 2010 By

Facebook is an absolute must for your business. No question about it. It’s a free tool that as a business owner you must take advantage of. If you don’t you are missing the boat on getting your business name out to over 500 million people. [Read more...]

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Protecting Cardholder Data with PCI Security Standards – Introduction

April 30, 2010 By

The twentieth century U.S. criminal Willie Sutton was said to rob banks because “that’s where the money is.” The same motivation in our digital age makes merchants the new target for financial fraud.   Occasionally lax security by some merchants enables criminals to easily steal and use personal consumer financial information from payment card transactions and processing systems. 

It’s a serious problem – most recently compiled statistics show more than 234 million records with sensitive information has been breached since January 2005, according to Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.org.   As a merchant, you are at the center of payment card transactions.  So it is imperative that you use standard security procedures and technologies to thwart theft of cardholder data.  Merchant-based vulnerabilities may appear almost anywhere in the card-processing ecosystem, including point-of-sale devices, personal computers or servers, wireless hotspots or Web shopping applications, in paper-based storage systems and unsecured transmission of cardholder data to service providers.  Vulnerabilities may even extend to systems operated by service providers and acquirers, which are the financial institutions that initiate and maintain the relationships with merchants that accept payment cards.  Compliance with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS) helps to alleviate these vulnerabilities and protect cardholder data.(1)

Do not fall into the mistake that only the big boys are the ones who are breached.  Sure we hear and see the news about Heartland, TJMax, Office Max, Dave & Busters Restaurants , Hannaford Brothers Supermarket Chain, 7-Eleven and others.  However, they account for only 20% of the breaches.  Since 2005, more than 80% of the instances of unauthorized access to card data have involved small merchants, according to Visa USA Inc.  These small businesses account for 85% of the seven million locations nationwide that accept credit cards. 

Already in April of this year there has been a security breach in a small eatery in Minnesota, The Mad Capper Saloon & Eatery.  Last year in September a MacDonald’s in Miami, Florida uncovered a skimming operation that was ongoing for close to 8 months.  This resulted in over $50,000 worth of fines, fees and audit costs.  Then there is the multimillion dollar suit being filed by 7 locally owned restaurants in Mississippi and Louisiana against a Louisiana-based distributor for a point of sale system for violating data protocols, which directly contributed to security breaches at these restaurants.

Are you at a loss or unsure about the complexities of the PCI Compliance requirements and how best to easily fulfill these requirements?  Have you attempted to figure all of this out and just want to throw up your hands about it?  Do you want to have peace of mind that you are as secure as possible, while not having to place a lot of time and effort into doing so?  We have established a strategic business alliance with Effective Payment Management to provide our clients with the necessary expertise and options for being PCI Compliant.  If you are interested in exploring your options, so you can easily have the security in place to protect you and the cardholders who pay via credit card for your products or services, then complete the FORM below and forward your contact information. 

Pump Up Your Website has established a strategic Business Alliance with Effective Payment Management to aid businesses to take full advantage of PCI Compliance, while not becoming encumbered by the complexities.  Once you completed the FORM below and provide your contact information, Bill Hearon from Effective Payment Management will follow up with you within 24 hours and work with you to facilitate your having all in place in an as easy and painless manner as possible.

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(1)   PCI Quick Reference Guide, pcisecuritystandards.org.

Filed Under: Small Business Blog Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Best and Worst Email Open Rates

January 28, 2009 By

People who are new to email marketing often ask me, “How should I write my subject lines so that more recipients will open my emails?” In order to answer that question, I would like to share with a study based on 40 MIO email sent. Below are the ones with the highest open rates and the ones with the lowest open rates. The “highest” open rates were in the range of 60%-87%, while the “lowest” performers fell in the dismal 1%-14% range. Do you see a pattern below?

>>> Best Open Rates (60%-87%) <<<
[COMPANYNAME] Sales & Marketing Newsletter
Eye on the [COMPANYNAME] Update (Oct 31 – Nov 4)
[COMPANYNAME] May 2005 News Bulletin!
[COMPANYNAME] Newsletter – February 2006
[COMPANYNAME] and [COMPANYNAME] Invites You!
Upcoming Events at [COMPANYNAME]
We’re Throwing a Party
October 2005 Newsletter
>>> Worst Open Rates (1%-14%) <<<
Last Minute Gift – We Have The Answer
Valentines – Shop Early & Save 10%
Give a Gift Certificate this Holiday
Valentine’s Day Salon and Spa Specials!
Gift Certificates – Easy & Elegant Giving – Let Them Choose
[COMPANYNAME] Holiday Sales Event
[COMPANYNAME] for your next dream home.
[COMPANYNAME] Resort – Spring into May Savings
You Asked For More…

Observations
On the “best” side, you’ll notice the subject lines are pretty straightforward. They’re not very “salesy” or “pushy” at all. Heck, some people might even say they’re “boring.” On the “worst” side however, notice how the subject lines read like headlines from advertisements you’d see in the Sunday paper. They might look more “creative,” but their open rates are horrible. It’s as if those email marketers assumed that subject lines have to jump off the screen and “GRAB THE READER’S ATTENTION!” or something. Unfortunately, most people get so much junk mail in their inbox, anything that even hints of spam gets thrown away immediately.

Setting Expectations
So does that mean your subject lines should be really stale and un-creative to get high open rates? We don’t think so. In our study, we actually saw some campaigns that used more “creative” subject lines (like the ones on the “bad” side of our table) but they had pretty decent open rates. The difference seemed to be in the expectations that were set for the emails.

For example, email “newsletters” are for “soft-selling.” They build relationships with your customers, and they’re great if your products have a very long sales cycle. Use them to slowly soften your customers for the sale, or to make them feel really good about your brand. If your recipients signed up for these kinds of emails, don’t expect them to be very enthusiastic when, out of the blue, you send an email with a subject line like, “10% Discount! Open Now!” For newsletters, keep your subject lines simple, straightforward, and consistent.

On the other hand, if your subscribers specifically opted-in to receive “special offers and promotions” from your company, there’s nothing wrong with saying there’s a “10% off e-coupon inside.” They’ll be expecting a “hard sell” from you. It’s when marketers send promotional emails to their entire “newsletter” list when things go wrong. The idea is to create a totally separate opt-in list for those who want to receive promotional emails. Furthermore, segment your promotions list into smaller, more focused groups before you send your campaign (don’t send an offer for purses and high-heel shoes to the men on your list).

The Secret Formula for Subject-Lines
So what’s our advice for email subject lines? This is going to sound “stupid simple” to a lot of people, but here goes: Your subject line should (drum roll please): Describe the subject of your email. Yep, that’s it.

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Filed Under: Small Business Blog

Boynton Beach Business Web Hosting

October 25, 2008 By

Businesses located in Boynton Beach has their websites which convey almost all the word to the users. It release all the indispensable news about the neatness. Business web hosting is very admired these days. The company which does not have its website is considered to be less forward-looking than the new companies in Boynton Beach.

There are many nature of packages available for the professional business web hosting. Business web hosting is available in many circulars. Some of these letters are free while additional parcels are not free. Before pick any box full acquaintance about these packages ought to be taken as any wrong selection can negatively pretend the business firm. Before pick out any wallet, commercial company in Boynton Beach must do the exploration for the same. They must see the trustworthiness of the examination.

People have many probe with them and these question can be solved working also. If your website will not be operational then it can negatively disturb the occupational corporation. People will not count this website as the good one and the favor and selling of the company will be unnatural. Website should be such that it covers all the basic things in it. Online help ought to be specified to the family at any time and genteel tidings about the corporate firm should be certain to the nation. So, the choice of corporate web hosting should be done delicately and with fitting investigation for business owners in Boynton Beach Web Hosting.

You must acquaintance that company for business web hosting that is providing the services within your modest. If it will be beyond your economical then it will not be advantageous for you. So, it is better to work with that company which is if their facility within the low-priced of your commercial firm in Boynton Beach. You must choose that you want a website which is completely separate or you want it in business. If you want to form a website in partnership then it will be much sacrificial than the erstwhile one.

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Corporations located in West Palm Beach have their websites hosted with reliable providers

October 25, 2008 By

Nowadays every one corporation located in West Palm Beach has their websites which spend more or less all the word to the users. It discloses all the necessary knowledge about the business. Business web hosting is very trendy these days. The company which does not have its website is careful to be less well ahead than the extra companies in West Palm Beach.

There are many font of post available for the professional organization. Business web hosting is available in many packages. Some of these correspondence are free while other circulars are not free. Before decide on any packet full awareness about these bulk mail ought to be reserved as any wide of the mark selection can negatively imitate the commercial firm. Before plump for any set, business partnership in West Palm Beach must do the inquiry for the same. They must see the steadfastness of the deal.

People have many reservation with them and these demand can be solved operational also. If your website will not be working then it can negatively distress the corporate multinational. People will not think through this website as the good one and the kindness and interest of the company will be la-di-da. Website should be such that it covers all the essential effects in it. Online help should be given to the nation at any time and own gen about the occupational firm ought to be known to the family. So, the range of commercial web hosting should be done warily and with apposite research for business owners in West Palm Beach.

You must contact that company for business web hosting that is so long as the services within your inexpensive. If it will be beyond your modest then it will not be moneymaking for you. So, it is better to work with that company which is only if their provision within the cheap of your corporate firm in West Palm Beach. You must go for that you want a website which is completely separate or you want it in organization. If you want to size a website in firm then it will be much rich than the foregoing one. The main independent of all the occupational firms is to make gain. So, you must not select that company which is if unpredictable check. These companies are subscription services at penny-pinching tax so inhabitants get interest to these companies. People ought to take all the understanding of these companies then they ought to choice the West Palm Beach company which is offering best services.

If you want to have more and more data about this then you can search for the same in the internet. To search in the internet you just have to type the West Palm Beach professional web hosting in the search tank locomotive and you will be on condition that with the necessitous statistics. You can also get the communication from various magazines and red-top. These West Palm Beach magazines also contain various articles on the same.

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Economic Doom and Gloom? I say think BOOM!

October 13, 2008 By

Our brains are being bombarded with daily messages on doom and gloom! Of course we can’t overlook the hard facts and act accordingly, but when it comes down to GROWING your business we need to think BOOM not gloom.

In my opinion it means to think more pro-active, positive and fight inaction.

Create an Action Plan that will sustain you through these tough times. Create your own BOOM times!

Step 1) Stay Positive and read Norman Vincent Peale’s “The Power of Positive Thinking”. This will definitely revive your gloomy mind.

Step 2) Revise your current marketing strategy and include strategies that are easy on your budget, but help you stay in touch with potential customers. You are the expert in your industry! Present yourself as a resource of knowledge and expertise. Clean your contact list and collect email addresses of potential customers you are not usually in contact with. Create an ON TOPIC newsletter and send this FREE valuable information to your “new” list.

Step 3) Nurture your contacts, now more than ever. Don’t think sales, think how YOU can actually HELP them with the KNOWLEDGE you have. Network and make those valuable connections, update your address book and become a great networker.

Step 4) Most likely your business is localized, ensure that your ONLINE MARKETING STRATEGY reflects a targeted, localized effort. Now it is possible to rank on TOP of Google in minutes! Consumers are searching LOCALLY, make sure they find you and not your competition. Organic Traffic is FREE!

So stop saying “I cannot succeed in this economic downturn,” and incorporate some specific actions that will set you on a path to Boom and not gloom.

Please feel free to contact me with any help or advice you need related to the INTERNET. My passion is Online Marketing and helping small business owners realize the potential LOCAL Internet Marketing strategies can have for their business.

Filed Under: Small Business Blog

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