PSPINC Official Company Blog

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 200 “The Importance of Brand Design”

12月

29日

One of the most important parts of running a business involves developing and maintaining your brand. While there are multiple definitions of what a brand is, in its simplest form, a brand is an immediately recognizable identity that differentiates itself from others. Having a clear brand for your company is especially vital for small businesses because it helps you establish credibility and trust with your target audience. For a small business, credibility and trust are crucial to long-term success.

Larger businesses will probably already have credibility built in because they’ve spent years growing and perfecting their brand. So, as a small business, making your brand clear to your customers will give you a competitive edge over other small businesses. One way that’ll help establish your brand is through brand attributes like your company’s logo. Whether you’re just starting or looking for a design refresh, we’ve got you covered! Starting at just $200 a logo, you can get a professional brand logo at an affordable price. Get started by heading over to our Brand and Graphic Design page.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#blog #brand #branding #business #businesstips #design #digitalmarketing #graphicdesign #logo #logodesign #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #smallbusiness #technology #web #webdesign #website

The 5 Biggest Marketing Trends to Look Out For in 2024

12月

27日

As this year comes to a close, we’re reflecting on how marketing has evolved over the past year and how we can improve for next year, not only for our company but for our customers as well. When looking back, one thing’s for certain: advancements in technology are driving the trends that will only become even more popular next year. Here are five of the biggest marketing trends to look out for in 2024.

1. AI Marketing Automation

Artificial intelligence, or AI, has become an increasing trend over the past few years in multiple industries, but many marketers have also jumped on the bandwagon. Marketers have started using AI to create content and to take advantage of how AI integration analyzes data, personalizes customers’ experiences, and optimizes campaigns. Integrating AI into marketing strategies also helps hyper-personalize content, which has gained popularity over the past year.

But as helpful as AI technology has been to the marketing industry, it’s important not to employ a “set it and forget it” type of strategy. It’s still a largely developing technology, so there are still times when it’ll get things wrong, so it’s better to use AI integration in a more collaborative approach.

2. Video Marketing

person recording a video with their phone

As we’ve mentioned before, video marketing, especially short-form video marketing, has become more popular over the past few years. The rise of TikTok, Facebook/Instagram Stories, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts made this clear. Other video marketing tactics that have also shown great success include live streaming and interactive video content. For more tips, check out our blog post all about how to start marketing with short-form videos.

3. User-Generated Content (UGC)

a person presenting user-generated content results to a marketing team

One of the best ways to build credibility, increase user engagement, and foster a sense of community online is through user-generated content (UGC), which just refers to content your customers share about you online. This usually involves encouraging customers to share their experiences with your brand on social media through a specific hashtag or throwing contests where the best entry wins. But there are other ways to garner content from your customers.

Customer reviews, either on Google, Facebook, Yelp, or any other platform, also count as user-generated content. It just takes a little more work to share it on social media since it isn’t already on the same platform. You can either take a screenshot and resize it for social media, or you can add it into a template of sorts from a site like Canva to share with your social media followers.

4. Social Shopping

Over the past year especially, selling and shopping directly on social media has only become more accessible with Facebook Marketplace, Instagram’s buy button, and TikTok Shop. It’s pushed social shopping more toward social media, being an e-commerce ecosystem all on its own. With social shopping already gaining popularity, marketers expect this will significantly impact the online shopping landscape.

5. Privacy and Data Protection

One of the largest growing concerns among customers today consists of protecting their data, thanks to the uptick in cybercrimes over the past few years. Because of this, customers are much more informed and vigilant about how others handle their data and how they share their data. On the business side, it’s important to implement secure data collection and storage practices to protect your employees’ accounts, which is easy to do with a password manager like Pass Wizard. On the consumer-facing side, businesses should be very transparent about their data collection and storage practices and obtain explicit consent when collecting user data.

With how fast technology evolves today, there are bound to be many more marketing trends coming next year that we haven’t anticipated. However, our team here at PSPINC has the experience and expertise to help you grow your business by strengthening your marketing efforts. Whether it’s social media marketing, paid ads on Google, email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, or even blogging, we’ve got you covered. Get started today.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#ai #b2b #blog #branding #business #businesstips #data #digitalmarketing #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingonline #marketingtips #passwordmanager #sales #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #ugc #usergeneratedcontent #videomarketing #web #website

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 199 “Starter Web Design Plan Now on Sale!”

12月

21日

The new year is the perfect time to give your website an update to make sure it continues performing well and helps reach your business goals. So, why not get your site custom-designed? While it’s easy to use a popular website builder, it also traps your website into looking very similar to many others on the market. With a custom design, you not only stick out amongst your competitors, but it also lets you add design elements and features that may not be included in the multitude of popular templates and gives you more opportunity to add more of your business’s branding to your website.

That’s why we’re now offering $200 off our Starter web design plan for the holidays! With our Starter plan, get:

Ten custom pages
WebdeXpress (our website builder) or WordPress template selection
One-year web hosting with SSL certificate included
Contact form
Mobile-friendly
Social media integration
One additional language
20% off web updates for one year

With over 36 years of experience helping hundreds of customers grow their online business, our designers and developers at PSPINC have the expertise you need. Get started by heading over to our web design page and get $200 off our Starter web design plan now.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#b2b #blog #branding #business #businesstips #designer #developer #ecommerce #newsletter #pspinc #searchengineoptimization #seo #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web #webdesign #webdevelopment #webdexpress #webhosting #website #websites #wordpress

Custom Design and Development Showcase: Payroll Solutions Inc.

12月

12日

Payroll Solutions Inc. is a payroll service provider in the Pacific Northwest, founded in 2005 and now serves hundreds of clients throughout the U.S. Their services include payroll management, workforce management services, and employee time management services. They came to us looking for a visual rebranding and an improved organizational structure for their navigation bar and content, while incorporating their branding and color scheme, with a focus on leveraging their branding attributes, which consist of:

Delivering the best payroll services for small and mid-sized businesses
Always having a customer-centric mindset – focusing on their client’s needs and businesses and providing an exceptional experience.

So, to help them, we fully custom-designed their website by:

Rebuilding the website with WordPress with a fully custom theme
Redesigning their website
Integrating a client resource portal
Following branding guidelines, verbiage, and logo usage
Improving their website’s organizational structure – especially for their navigation bar and content
Leveraging their branding and color scheme
Redesigning their icon
Improving their previous sitemap

Now, if you go to PayrollSolutionsWA.com, you’ll find a fully responsive website that works on all device types. If you’re looking to custom-design your website, you’re in luck! Our Starter plan is now $799 ($200 off the regular price!). Or choose from one of our other budget-friendly web design plans by heading to our web design page.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#b2b #blog #branding #business #businesstips #businesstools #ecommerce #marketing #pspinc #searchengineoptimization #smallbusiness #tech #technology #update #web #webdesign #webdevelopment #website #websitebuilder #websites #wordpress

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 197 “Localize for English and Japanese-Speaking Customers”

12月

7日

For over 20 years now, we’ve been localizing content for small businesses looking to market toward both English-speaking customers and Japanese-speaking customers. Beyond just translating, we also build custom web applications, design and develop websites, and create digital marketing assets like social media posts using our localization expertise.

Our team at PSPINC knows it’s about more than just translating the words; it’s also about translating the meaning behind those words. That is the core of the localization work we’ve done for the past two decades, and what we continue to do even today. If you’re not quite sure of where to start, we always start with a consultation between you and our localization team before embarking on our project together. Learn more by heading over to our localization page on our website.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #b2b #blog #branding #business #businesstips #businesstools #content #design #development #digitalmarketing #localization #marketing #marketingtips #newsletter #pspinc #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web #webdevelopment #website #websites

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 195 “Establishing Brand Identity Through Design”

11月

23日

Brand identity is important to any business, especially small businesses. Large businesses have an advantage in terms of credibility compared to small businesses. A solid brand identity helps small businesses gain credibility and inspire customer loyalty. But what is brand identity? Internally, it’s the values your company stands for and how you want your customers to feel about you. Externally, it’s your logo and other graphic design attributes.

Here at PSPINC, we pride ourselves on helping small businesses every step of the way in the design process. If you’re unsure what your brand should be or what it should look like, or if you’re looking for a fresh rebrand for your company, we have your back! Whether it’s creating a logo design, designing a business card, or custom designing your website, we have you covered. Just visit our brand and graphic design page and/or our web design page to get started.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #blog #branding #business #businesstips #design #digitalmarketing #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #sales #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web #webdesign #website #webtools

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 193 “New Marketing Packages”

11月

9日

We are thrilled to announce that we now have new marketing packages available to fit your specific business needs. From small businesses just looking to spread awareness to those who want to completely transform their digital marketing strategy, we have the right plan for you.

pspinc marketing plans

Our plans are billed monthly, without any minimum contract. However, we recommend you run your ad campaign for at least three months for the best results. Our team has the experience and expertise to help you grow your business by strengthening your marketing efforts. Whether it’s social media marketing, paid ads on Google, email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, or even blogging, we’ve got you covered. Get started today.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #b2b #blog #branding #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #newsletter #pspinc #searchengineoptimization #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #technology #webtools

Why Threads Hasn’t Taken Off (Yet?)

10月

24日

Back in July, Meta (the company behind Facebook and Instagram) released Threads, their text-based social media platform after weeks of speculation that would directly compete with X (formerly Twitter). Because of how easy it was for users to sign up, ten million people joined the app within seven hours of its launch according to Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s CEO.

But now, more than three months later, Threads’ popularity has dwindled. Sensor Data reports that at its peak, 44 million daily active users were on Threads. Just a few weeks later, at the end of July, there were only eight million daily active users—an 82% drop. Many users have stopped posting and many have even forgotten about the platform altogether. Largely due to the fact that it just isn’t built out enough with the robust features that users crave on social media.

Lack of Popular Features

Every popular social media platform has its own niche, along with key features. However, Threads is still missing a lot of those features, including but not limited to a Discover page, direct message functions, and the ability to share Threads posts via Instagram direct messages, among others. It wasn’t until the end of July when Threads rolled out a Following feed and it wasn’t until August when Threads released a web version for desktop users. The other unknown thus far is whether Meta will expand their advertising network to Threads. Meta is known for being great for advertisers, but unless their daily active user count goes back up, advertisers may not be willing to spend advertising dollars on Threads.

While they’re going in the right direction in terms of working on adding more features, Threads is still missing something that will make them stand apart from their competitors. Many saw Threads as the direct competitor to X, and the fact that users’ accounts could connect to their Instagram pages and bring over their following was an attractive asset, but it wasn’t enough to keep users on the platform. Overall, many have theorized that Meta released Threads quickly when users were looking for a better alternative to X. Unfortunately, developers hadn’t really built out the program enough to really retain users on the platform. While Meta developers continue to work on adding more features to the platform, it may be a while before users will consider Threads to be a real threat to a platform like X.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #app #blog #branding #business #businesstips #digitalmarketing #facebook #instagram #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #meta #mobile #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #technology #threads #twitter #web #webdevelopment #website #x

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 190 “Norco Print”

10月

19日

Recently, we had a customer, Norco Print, who came to us needing some updates to their website. When we looked over their requests and how they’d set up their previous site, our experts realized the scope of this project would be well over their budget. Instead, we suggested we rebuild their entire site for them with one of our web packages. That way, they wouldn’t spend thousands of dollars to update their site in the way they needed it.

With WebdeXpress, our experts went to work building out the new website for Norco Print, making sure to incorporate their original change requests while doing so. Using a WebdeXpress template, we made a few design edits in addition to creating a new logo for their new website. Because of how easy it is with WebdeXpress, we also showed them how to update their site themselves moving forward.

Norco Print’s Website Before:

norco print's website before desktop and mobile view

norco print's website before desktop and mobile view

Norco Print’s Website After:

norco print's website after desktop and mobile view

WebdeXpress is a simple, user-friendly web builder that makes it easy for non-technical business owners to create a simple, professional website. Get started with one of our budget-friendly web design plans fit to meet your business needs.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#blog #branding #business #businesstips #businesstools #design #marketing #norcoprint #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #smallbusiness #tech #technology #update #web #webdesign #webdevelopment #webdexpress #website

Market Online with Canva

10月

10日

Marketing online is vital in business, especially small businesses. Most small businesses know that it’s important to have an online presence, but not all of us are skilled graphic designers. With billions of people actively using the internet worldwide, it gives you that much more opportunity to increase your brand’s awareness, build your online community, and increase traffic toward your website, all while promoting your business.

One popular, easy-to-use graphic design tool among digital marketers alike is Canva. With Canva, users can easily design professional social media posts, emails, videos, websites, and more, using their drag-and-drop editor, more than 250,000 free templates, more than 100 premium stock photos, videos, audio, and graphics, and more.

Ways to Market with Canva

1. Website design

With one of Canva’s many professional and customizable templates, design websites one page at a time. Just drag and drop elements to create a very simple wireframe and/or mockup to give web designers an idea of what you’re looking for for your website.

2. Email marketing

Browse design ideas for email newsletters among the various newsletter templates, which makes it easy to design visually-appealing marketing emails, proven to help marketers increase open rates, click rates, and overall retention rates.

3. Social media marketing

Social media marketing design is arguably the most popular use of Canva among marketers. Browse through Canva’s large collection of social media post templates to create engaging content with 100 free images, graphics, videos, and audio tracks. Collaborate with your team with the rest of your team by easily making real-time edits, leaving comments, and assigning tasks with Canva’s Team plan. You can even create a more consistent brand by using Canva’s branding tools to your advantage, which are available with premium plans.

Get professional marketing help which includes but is not limited to social media marketing from our expert team here at PSPINC.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.