With people wanting to maximize their dollars more and more these days, I am often asked, “If I had to spend money in an area online to market my business, what would it be? Should I use Google Adwords or do the “Social Media” thing?” The thing is, most people think that if you do not have a ton of time, you can treat it like a heat wave oven and “set it and forget it.” This is far from the truth. As a matter of fact, if you do it this way there is a good chance that you will find yourself spending a lot of money and not getting any return! Believe me, your budget can get gone really quick when you are paying $10 per click and people are going to your website and realizing that they are not in the right place.

One illustration of how an inexperienced Google advertiser may waste time and money is in the example from entrepreneur.com below. It shows how not knowing your market and/or the difference in the different networks you are advertising on, can cost you $’s!

If you are thinking that social media is easier to maintain than pay per click campaigns, then you are sadly mistaken. Most people feel like just because they know all about Facebook and have tons of friends that they can navigate a successful social media campaign. The fact is that social networking for business across all social mediums takes a lot of knowledge and clever writing. You have to make sure you are talking to and engaging your audience and not selling to them while still using your keyword sets and companies message to help build your brand awareness.

I would always recommend consulting with a professional firm before trying to go at a Google Adwords campaign. If you do not have the time and know-how to invest in a good social media campaign, you should also consult a professional. If for nothing else, to get everything set up correctly. I recommend this not just because my company offers these services, but because I have had to personally set-up new accounts for people who have lost hundreds, and sometimes thousands of dollars with little or no leads to show for it. Even if you get leads, are they good quality leads? Do not spend tons of money or start a huge Adwords campaign until you have consulted a professional - or you could be spending money for no reason.

Social media has been around since the early days of the internet. People used to connect with friends on message boards and meet new ones in chat rooms. The fact that businesses are getting into the act is a sure sign of these desperate economic times. A business in the past had to spend tons of $ in advertising to gain new clients/customers. Businesses can now do that for $0. Better yet, you can do that in an area where the clients/customers already are. You can take the message, (and in most cases a highly targeted message) directly to your potential clients/customers. The fact is that social media markets are where people are spending the most time. They get on the networks on their smart-phones, iPads, net-books, work computers - you can access it literally anywhere. Below are things you need to keep in mind if you are going to use social media to get the word out about your business.

When you are blasting your followers with your marketing message you have to remember that this is where they are spending time, and in this “every minute counts” world we live in, you also have to know that they are only going to take so much getting sold to before the ignore feature of their network gets involved. Having 100 followers that are all hiding your updates is about like talking to yourself, or worse, you are wasting time you could be using to better your business, therefore you are actually hurting your business more than helping. So craft your messages to be status updates that will actually mean something to your followers, not that you have shirts on sale for a limited time only. Let them know its almost St. Paddy’s day and they need to get some green on or else they will get pinched.

Have you ever gone to a website and seen something that looked like it was made in 1991? Then you started to go though it and found that it had lots of good fresh information? What about the opposite? Have you been to a website that looked like it had new fresh content only to find that it was not kept up, possibly having a last updated stamp of death at the bottom for 2001 or something? This is what you do not want to happen to your social marketing efforts or your website. You cannot afford to have potential clients see a half finished project. Some people may see this (subconsciously) as a sign that you will not follow through on your promises.  I had someone tell me one time that it was OK because then the clients would think “they are too busy to update so they must be good.” Who wants to go to that guy? If you do not have time there are companies that will update your networks on a regular basis, these companies (like ARC Design Agency) typically charge anywhere from $50-$500 a month to update and usually write your updates for you.

Do not forget that social media can still be an arm of your business. If all other forms of advertising that you do market your business a specific way, then carry this vibe over through your social updates. It would be odd for most domain registrars to do updates with links to racy videos. However you can expect this from other websites like godaddy.com. Do not try to be something your not just because you feel like that is who the social media crowd wants. Stick to your message to keep your brand going.

Keep the conversation going
If someone has an @ reply or writes on your wall, try to respond. If you are unable to respond to everyone, it is OK, do not feel like you are dissing them. Some people will feel like you have deliberately ignored them, but most understand that they are not going to get a reply. It is almost expected in the social marketing community, especially if you have a large amount of followers.

Most companies look like large companies when they are doing updates. They post press releases and information about the company and never show anyone at the company. Link to pictures from company outings, customers, old photos from when the business was two people in a 300 sq. ft. office, things like that. This shows your followers and fans that you are a person too. Creating that connection will allow people to fall more in love with your company.

Boost your clients
If you find out a customer just won an award, or you went to a nice sushi place for lunch that is close to the office, tweet about it. They will comment back if they are online or possible followers of that organization will pick up on yours. Write directly on their wall, and tell them thanks. This opens your profile stream up to their stream of followers. Now you are not only broadcasting to your friends but to others as well. Increasing the # of people viewing you on social networks is always a good thing.

Yelp.com has a huge following of business owners who boost signs at their restaurants and bars saying things like “We are big on Yelp.” This lets people who are on smartphones eating in the restaurant log on and follow right then. They may never know the “cool” social media side of the business and now you can open that person up to all the good your business does, all the day to day stuff that will make that one time customer a customer for life. So put your social info on your cards, website, maybe a sign at your business or on your phone system.

That is it. If you follow these guidelines I can guarantee you will see a difference, especially if you are not currently using social media to market your business

Many people will contract with a website professional, or maybe even give a website revamping a try in 2010. I have compiled a list of elements to look for and try to incorporate when setting up a new web presence or upgrading an existing one in order to get the best return on your investment.

Content is King
Search engines love fresh content, and having a way to easily update content is crucial. If you have to use an antiquated content management system (CMS), or worse, if you have to purchase a specific program in order to update your site - don’t! Find another designer. Programs get outdated quick and may not have the most up-to-date tools. Plus, in most cases you cannot use those programs from another computer. Having the ability to update from anywhere is a great asset to your business on the web. Look for a web based CMS because they offer the best flexibility.

Also, look for a CMS that separates the code and design from the content. This allows you to focus on the content and not worry about the other things. I have seen many people log into their website using a program like dream weaver, and actually end up deleting vital information from the webpage.

Simplify the Design
Less is more. Open spaces make people want to open their wallets. (I heard that on HGTV). But seriously, a clean professional website will gain more interest than a website that has a ton of information to try to decipher and dig through. Make sure you have a clear message and that all links are labeled correctly. Do not use abbreviations and icons when the actual word works best. Use complementary colors and try to not use tiling backgrounds that may take away from the text.

Use Clean Code
I know you may not know how to read code. Honestly, it is a foreign language to almost everyone and it makes some people hyperventilate. This is where it is best to get a professional involved, no matter what your friends’ son tells you - the code matters. Having good clean code for each page is key to getting good search engine ranking. Things like Alt tags and the use of proper linking are important.

Make Things Unique
The design, code, graphics, title tags, content, description - everything should be different. It is ok to use some elements over and over, but the main thing is that each page is differentiated so that the search engine spiders see a website with tons of new information. A large site with different information in all the right places goes a long way in getting your site ranked properly.

That is it, a lot of basic things that you need to remind yourself of when you are looking to redesign your website. Remember the main thing is search relevance. Making your website available online to all the search traffic is key to success online. Ask your developer to show you examples of good search placement that they have established for other businesses. If they can do it, they will show you, and more than likely they can replicate it for your business.

There are a lot of ways to generate sales for your business. However, in this economy, most of them aren’t working. Something that will continue to work is website sales leads. I am constantly told by our clients that the only reliable lead stream for their business is their website. I believe this to be true for a number of reasons.

Anonymity
No one knows when you are surfing the internet. The sales people can’t walk up to you and pressure you. They cant talk you into upgrading or selling you something extra. Most people are already turned off by sales people anyway and being able to learn about a company’s products or services before making a decision to contact is a huge plus.

Tire Kicking
Financially, people are more fiscal than they have been in the past. A few years ago I would have someone call and order a product and forget they had even done so, but not anymore. In this economy where every dollar counts even the people who have plenty of money do not want to waste it. Customers will not be visiting your site to do their due diligence before making a commitment to purchase. You should have someone that isn’t in your industry (and preferably not computer savvy) take a stroll through your website and try to learn more about your products, then have them do the same for three competitors and give you a report back. This exercise always produces the best feedback about usability and lets you know immediately if you need to do something about your website. You do not want someone who is kicking tires to go to another lot.

Looking for someone like me
Most business owners/customers are…wait for it…just like you. They have kids, love to go to the movies, have a life. They want to see that the people who will be taking their money are like them too. Your website should have a nice about us/company page that has any information you would want to know about a company before making a significant investment. Who is the management team, what is their education, do they have a family, etc. Remember this is the main reason real estate agents place their head shots on everything, people will buy your product if they have a connection. Even if it isn’t the perfect fit, people will make exceptions.

Less money to go around
Think about it. Most of the things, above all, stem from the fact that there just isn’t as much disposable income for consumers and businesses any more. Nest eggs and savings have in some cases vanished and most people do not have the luxury of saying “oh well” anymore - every decision has to be a winner. Make yours the easy score.

The good friend usability test is always a good indicator of where your website stands and if it needs an upgrade. If you are not getting sales from your website, you need to make changes, and you need to make them now. You can believe that your competitors are getting the leads you are missing and will one day be looking down at you if you do not make a decision now to compete in all areas. You should have a website professional look at your website and tell you where you can make improvements that will drive traffic and leads to your website. To get a free evaluation and quote, contact ARC Design Agency today.

Internet marketing suite takes the guess work out of multiple product lines, or services.

ARC can now run multiple products from one online ad and get tracking data back from internet advertising campaigns on the Google Content Network.

Building  compelling ads that use multiple images of several products with unique destination URLs  allows us to track which products will be a hit with customers.  This data will allow advertisers to decide which products will be more likely to sell from any given line, model, color, or price.

This can be taken one step further with branding campaigns involving story telling that generates a message covering several ideas or feelings. Use this to find out what motivates buyers to engage your site and which ads are more likely to work on your demographics.

Data of this caliber is invaluable, taking the guess work out of running many different ad campaigns for multiple products or services.  Tracking interactions is very compelling, not only saving money  on the advertising budget, but knowing  what interests the viewer has and what  will sell.

I have long been telling clients to shoot more video and use social media to market their business. I have told them that it is going to be big, (why else would Google have paid a zillion dollars for YouTube?).  Well after years of talking about it, I finally got a client that I have been trying to work with for years to use video. Posted on YouTube regularly, they will use it on almost all of the main pages of the website that we are building for them. They will have their employees shoot their own videos, and upload them to their Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn accounts.  This is a big deal because companies, especially smaller companies, are not using social networking sites to their advantage.  I read this article about social marketing and how big companies are using it. DAVID RANII of McClatchy Newspapers says companies realized the importance of a good social marketing campaign during the Olympics when Lenovo used it to market their laptops. I would say that if you are a business, and you are marketing to the public, you HAVE to include this in your marketing budget. It costs you only time and energy in most cases and that is cheap compared to the click costs on the same sites. Larger companies are just throwing money at the banner ads and ad links for these sites. The problem is that due to the way it is being displayed, most browsers don’t display all of those ads to customers. So you may be throwing money out the window. You can pay your assistant to find people on social sites that have interests similar to yours and ask them to become “your friend.”  This lets you market to them on a whole new level, as a peer.

There are so many ways to use social sites that I cannot even begin to break it down, but I am going to try to show one way you can use one of these sites to market your business in an unobtrusive way.

Let’s say your company makes really comfy socks (I love comfy socks).  Everyone is potentially your client because, well, everyone wears socks, or at least they should.  A website like MySpace is a perfect place to find potential buyers of your socks since it is such a wide cross section of America.  You create a MySpace account for Cushy, (he’s a sock). You take pictures of your company sock Cushy hanging with his homies, (other socks of course.) and doing crazy things like base jumping, posing with a Elvis impersonator in Vegas, all that.  Maybe even create some video of him talking about how to get stains out of him, using household items like baking soda. (I don’t know if that works - I just made it up.)  Post all of this on your MySpace and ask people to be Cushy’s friend.  Of course, Cushy is a sock from your company so there will be links to your website and where to buy him and his friends and family (you get where I’m going with this).

You may say, look man I don’t have this type of budget. I can’t hire a large agency to come up with this. It is not as expensive as you think as long as Cushy stays in the social media world. Once you start traditional means of marketing it does get expensive, but I would encourage companies to contact a local online marketing company, (like ARC Design, Hint, Hint.) and find your target audience online. They are there, I promise.

Adobe Systems, Inc. has been feeling more and more pressure from Microsoft Corp. since the release of Silverlight in 2007.  For about 80% of internet-connected PCs, adobe flash player in the program installed.  Silverlight has a mere 25% but is steadily climbing.

From the stand point of a web design company, Microsoft has made head way but Abode still has the upper hand having been in the game longer.  “It’s difficult to find designers who know Silverlight.  I can’t imagine a more hostile community [to Microsoft] than designers,” said Scott Stanfield, chief executive of Vertigo Software Inc.

Microsoft and Adobe are doing their fair share of wooing current clients and courting those of their competitors.  Microsoft is gaining with Netflix Inc., CBS Corp.’s college sports group, and General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal coverage of the Beijing Olympics.  As an official sponsor of the Democratic National Convention, Microsoft’s Silverlight technology was used for the website.

Adobe isn’t without it’s victories though; MLB.com LLC switched to Flash from Silverlight and Navtrak Inc. built their fleet-management software using Adobe technology.  Adobe just launched a new project, Open Screen Project, that promises developers the ability to build software once and it will run on PCs, mobile phones and televisions alike.  Adobe is said to be counting in part on loyalty from graphic designers to hold Microsoft at bay.

ARC Design has been dominating the world of website design in Fayetteville, North Carolina for a few years now.  So it only makes sense that we would venture out into other parts of our state eventually.  Recently, ARC Design decided to take a step in another direction by putting together a team of marketing sales associates in the Wilmington, NC area.

This talented team will market ARC Design’s products and services to Wilmington and the surrounding areas.   Award-winning website design and innovative graphic design, as well as our corporate branding and multimedia services are available to a whole new base of clientele.

But just as important as those services, are the services we offer our clients through Search Engine Marketing.  From AdWords campaigns, to content review for SEO purposes and so much more, ARC Design knows what it takes to increase your website visibility on the internet.  A great website deserves to be seen, and a great business or organization deserves to have their website seen by their target audience.

A big welcome to the newest members of the ARC Design family.  Michael Duprey joins our staff as an ambitious and talented Web Designer who made his way to Fayetteville, NC from Southern California.  Rob Good, Sydney Wells and Brad Crowder make up our brilliant Website Marketing team in WIlmington, NC.

As always, our staff are available to answer any questions you may have about the services we offer.  Call us today at (910) 221-5357.