PSPINC Official Company Blog

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 129 “Good Marketing Takes Time”

8月

19日

Business-to-business (B2B) marketing can be a hard task sometimes because it regularly takes time for results to occur. In fact, it takes longer than it would in a traditional business-to-customer (B2C) marketing campaign. But the key to any marketing effort is being patient. Marketing, in essence, is all about experimenting and figuring out what works for your business. While there are many industry-proven tactics and strategies, what works for one company won’t necessarily work for another.

For business owners, that can be a frustrating process. It’s tempting to give up altogether because it’s hard waiting to see if your efforts will be worth it in the end. But it’s essential. To truly find success, marketers need to find the right balance between all marketing facets like your audience, channel, timing, promotional offer, and more. In trying times, look at what’s working and what isn’t. It’ll help you figure out where to pivot your strategy and how to proceed. So, no matter how difficult it can be, just remember to be patient. You’ll figure it out, eventually.

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 #b2c #blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #maretingtips #marketing #marketingdigital #newsletter #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #smallbusiness #technology

The Difference Between Sales and Marketing

8月

17日

Sales and marketing are commonly used interchangeably in business, but they don’t mean the same thing. Sales and marketing work in tandem to increase revenue. When both strike a perfect balance, businesses benefit in the long run. So, it’s an understatement to say that those in sales and marketing can learn from each other.

Although they are different, it’s not surprising that many people think they’re the same. Mostly because they have the same end goal, and that is to generate revenue. What makes them different is how they go about it and what parts of the customer journey they affect.

Marketing Professionals and Salespeople

In short, marketing is how potential customers become aware of the company and what it’s selling. Those efforts, when done effectively, encourages customers to engage with the company to purchase or at least show interest in the product. Sales, however, pushes them across the finish line. Neither can work without the other.

Marketing efforts target much larger groups of people who may be or become interested in what the company’s trying to sell. Therefore, marketing professionals focus on long-term strategies, and they aim to meet customers’ demands. Those efforts are all done through indirect methods like advertising, social media marketing, email marketing, etc. Then, it creates a trigger that will lead customers toward sales.

Salespeople, however, are more often working directly with customers after they’ve already made contact with the company. Sales aims at understanding and meeting customers’ demands and desires. While their goals are generally more short-term, arming the company with more information about what customers are looking for only helps with future sales efforts.

Sales and Marketing Working Together

To remember the difference between marketing, think of them as the internet and email. They both use the same technologies, but one can’t exist without the other. Bringing awareness to products and driving interest through marketing efforts lead potential customers closer to the purchase stage. Sales comes in at the end to meet customers’ needs. Therefore, facilitating both to work well together will allow businesses to reach prospects no matter where they are in the customer journey.

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 #customersupport #digitalmarketing #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingprofessionals #marketingtips #sales #salespeople #smallbusiness #tech #technology

How to Create a Brand

8月

3日

A brand and a company, while used interchangeably, are not the same. A company is the name of an organization that engages in business activities, like producing and selling products. A brand, however, is about how people perceive your company through identifying brand attributes like your logo, name, and products. To remember the difference, think of it this way: a business owner, founder, and/or CEO owns a company whereas the people own a brand. While there’s significant influence coming from whoever’s in charge, the people are the ones who derive meaning from what you have to offer.

Starting a company can be as easy as setting up a great e-commerce website and selling products. However, creating a great brand isn’t quite as easy to do. Setting up your company website is a great first step because it forces you to figure out the essentials needed to run a business. If you’re just creating a business, it’s easy to go on from there by designing your website, adding your products, and advertising said products. A brand, however, also requires a vision and mission statement. A mission statement tells people where your company currently stands and what it does. A vision statement is more aspirational and tells people where you want to see the company go in the future.

After creating your mission and vision statements, it’s time to determine your brand’s values. This is what you want your business to stand for. More importantly, this is what you want your business to be known for. Truly successful brands keep all of those in mind in every experience a customer has with them. Look at Coca-Cola, one of the world’s most successful brands. But it isn’t based on the product alone. Coca-Cola’s brand is about refreshing the world in a way that makes a difference. While their drink is known to be refreshing worldwide, Coca-Cola also actively works toward its commitment to making the world a better place. And this can be seen through multiple sustainability efforts by the brand.

Lastly, with so many other small businesses out there, it’s important to consider who your competitors are and what makes your business different. To succeed, your business needs to be different in a way that’s attractive to your target market. And creating customer persona to figure that out will help immensely. After figuring all that out, then come all the recognizable elements of a brand like designing a logo and determining a color palette. While developing a brand can be a lengthy process, it’s not impossible. And great brands tend to change and evolve, so just remember that when trying to create your own.

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 #brand #brandidentity #branding #brands #business #businesstips #businesstools #cocacola #digitalmarketing #logo #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingonline #marketingstrategy #marketingtips #smallbusiness #success #tech #technology

PSPINC What's New Newsletter Vol. 126 "Business Competition"

7月

29日

Making it today in business can be difficult. And one of the reasons why is because of how competitive the small business world can be. The best way to combat that is to always be aware of what your competitors are doing. While trends in your industry will come and go, seeing which ones perform well will help you stay ahead of the game. When looking at your competitors, you’ll want to look at what products they offer, how much they cost, and how they market them. Then, you’ll want to compare them to your business.

Through this, you can figure out what your weaknesses may be and what competitive advantage you have by comparison. Generally, the most important purchasing considerations are price and product quality. If your offering is cheaper than your competitor, market that. If it’s more expensive, maybe it’s because the quality's better than your competitor's. Make sure your customers know that. But don’t obsess over your competitors. In the end, the focus should still be serving your customers’ needs and desires.

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 #business #businesscompetition #businesscompetitors #businesstips #competition #digitalmarketing #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #newsletter #pacificsoftwarepublishing #price #quality #smallbusiness #technology

PSPINC What's New Newsletter Vol. 125 "Starting a Business"

7月

22日

Starting and building a business isn’t always the easiest thing to do. But it’s easier if you start with one thing first. For example, Pacific Software Publishing Inc. (PSPINC) got its start introducing already-established U.S. software to Japan. Since then, we’ve expanded to create our own proprietary software. And now, PSPINC sells products and services all to help small businesses grow online. And that initial focus has also given us a specialty in localizing software for our customers in Japan. And we’re not the only company that’s done this.

Take Amazon for example. Customers can find almost anything on Amazon nowadays. But did you know it actually started as a small bookstore? Slowly, over time, Amazon started selling other products until it became what it is today. Focusing on one thing allows your business to build up a loyal audience, which will make your future marketing efforts easier in the long run.

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 #digitalmarketing #dreamersi #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #products #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #services #smallbusiness #tech #technology

PSPINC What’s New Newsletter Vol. 124 “Simplifying Sales Cycles”

7月

15日

When selling products, it’s essential to always think about the sales cycle from the customer’s point of view. Many content management systems (CMS) have built-in or additional features that make it easy to set up a payment portal. But you can still inadvertently make the purchasing experience complicated or too invasive. For example, if users have to get through too many pages before they get to the end, they’ll likely bail midway. Or if you’re asking for personal information that customers don’t think is necessary, they won’t be willing to share it. Instead, they'll shop elsewhere.

While the purchasing stage of the overall customer journey may seem simple to you as the business owner or developer, it doesn’t mean it’s easy for the customer. If you’re unsure how easy it is to purchase something from your site, try it out! Act like a customer by going to your website. Then try purchasing your product. If there are too many steps in the process, get rid of some. If the questions are too personal, take them out because, odds are, you probably won’t need them. So, when selling a product on your website, pay special attention to how the customer will go through the sales cycle. Then, eliminate everything that could cause a customer to abandon the process and simplify it everywhere you can.

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 #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #ecommerce #marketing #marketingdigital #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #smallbusiness #tech #technology #webdesign #webdevelopment #website #websitebuilder

PSPINC What’s New Newsletter Vol. 123 “Turning Frustration Into a Successful Business”

7月

8日

When marketing your business, a lot of business advice tells you to stand out among your competitors. After all, you want to give potential customers a good reason to choose your product over another. Especially if there are numerous like-products already out there. One thing entrepreneurs might want to consider when developing products is finding a solution to something frustrating.

For example, have you ever tried to attach a file to an email only for it to say that your file’s too big? Every email provider has a file size limit. But for users who need to send over large files, it’s a frustrating experience. It’s why PSPINC created MegaMail, which allows us and users alike to send or transfer large files to anyone. If you’re frustrated about something, odds are other people feel the same way. If you can create a product that does it better than anything else on the market, you’ve got yourself a successful business.

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 #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #marketing #marketingdigital #newsletter #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web

How to Market Your E-Commerce Site

7月

6日

If your business sells online, a great e-commerce site isn’t the only thing you need to be successful. Like every sold offering, you also need to market your e-commerce site. After all, what good is an e-commerce site if no one knows about it? According to DataReportal, about 58.4% of internet users buy something online every week. And that figure will only continue rising. To reach those users, they need to know that you offer what they want or need. To do that, you’ll need to market your site effectively.

Optimize for Search Engines

a laptop open to google with a travel mug on the table

Search engine optimization, or SEO for short, is a process that will help your site and your products come up on relevant searches. This process involves finding and optimizing your site for keywords related to your business and what you’re selling. And throughout the process, you’ll want to focus on making sure your site is mobile-friendly and doesn’t take too long to load. All this combined will give users a better overall shopping experience, encouraging them to purchase from you.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising

letter tiles spelling out pay per click on a desk with a computer keyboard in the top left corner and an iphone in the bottom right corner

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising refers to a paid marketing strategy that helps increase your site’s overall exposure. Specifically to people actively interested or looking for what you have to offer. As the name suggests, you pay every time someone clicks on your ad. These ads refer to paid search, display, or shopping ads, all run on Google’s display network. And because of how popular Google is, you’re almost guaranteed brand awareness. However, you’ll need to use relevant keywords to reach the right people.

Email Marketing

the google, mail, and phone apps close up on an iphone

Another great tactic to promote your e-commerce site is email marketing. On your e-commerce site, you can add a pop-up form where visitors can opt-in with their emails. With this, you can send personalized emails to your customers and/or potential customers about upcoming sales and overall company news. And with email marketing tools like NewsMAIL, creating an effective email marketing campaign is easy. People who sign up for these emails send the message that they’re interested in what you have to offer, increasing the likelihood that they’ll convert into paying customers. You can also use this tactic to personalize offers depending on their interests, send surveys to learn more about your customers, and even recapture those who abandoned their cart.

Social Media Marketing

Then, there’s social media marketing, which can be helpful for all things business-related. Like all the other marketing tactics on this list, it will help increase your brand’s awareness. Plus, it'll encourage people to engage with your content. To better market your e-commerce website, your social media content should not only promote special deals but also spark conversation. And when users engage with your posts, reply to them to build that relationship with them. Over time, they'll convert them from social media spectators to potential customers.

Optimize for Conversions

The focus of an e-commerce business is to generate sales and earn conversions. But sometimes, you might not be converting as much as you’d like to. This is where conversion rate optimization (CRO) comes in. What this entails is making sure that the checkout process is as seamless as possible. The checkout process should be streamlined, with clear and actionable call-to-action (CTA) buttons and attractive visuals of your offerings.

Overall, an e-commerce business needs a good marketing strategy to be successful. But before you can do that, your e-commerce site needs to be in the best shape possible. Luckily, PSPINC has a stellar e-commerce hosting solution, YourHost. And our ShopSite plans are currently on sale for new customers. For the first two years, you can start your e-commerce site starting at just $15/month.

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 #business #businesstips #businesstools #conversions #digitalmarketing #ecommerce #emailmarketing #google #internet #marketing #marketingdigital #newsmail #ppc #seo #shopsite #smallbusiness #socialmediamarketing #technology #websites #yourhost

PSPINC What's New Newsletter Vol. 121"An Elevator Pitch"

6月

24日

Have you heard of an elevator pitch? It’s the idea that if you got into an elevator with an investor, what would you say to try to sell to them? It should be short, concise, but still compelling enough to introduce yourself and showcase your expertise in a way that will convince the other person to invest in you. Like marketing yourself or whatever you’re trying to sell in a short amount of time. But what components do you need to make a good elevator pitch into a great one? You want to sell effectively, but you also want to stand out amongst others who are also trying to sell to this investor.

While every elevator pitch will undoubtedly be different, there are components you want to ensure you include. For example, say you’re trying to sell a specific product. The first and obvious thing you need is the name of that product. Then, informing them about what market category it fits in and who the target customer would be is also an important detail to add.

After that, the investor needs to know why a potential customer would need this product, at least one key benefit, what similar products already exist on the market and what makes it different than everything that's already on the market. While it seems like a lot to fit in a 90-second window, if you know your product well and truly believe in it, it’s easy. Making an elevator pitch go successfully can be tricky, but it relies on making sure you include the most crucial details. The rest is up to you.

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 #business #businesstips #digitalmarketing #elevatorpitch #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #newsletter #pitch #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #sales #salespitch #smallbusiness #tech #technology

What Makes a Great E-Commerce Site

6月

8日

For small businesses that sell online, a great e-commerce site is essential. While there’s still something to be said for brick-and-mortar stores, the ease of purchasing online is unmatched. And it’s only become more popular during the last few years as online shopping revenue grew by 20% in 2021 (according to Retail Insider). It’s also important to acknowledge that much of that website traffic comes from a mobile device. The number of people shopping online with a mobile device increased by more than double since 2018 according to a 2021 survey of global consumer insights. This only means that creating effective and user-friendly e-commerce sites is even more important today than ever.

While every e-commerce site builder is different, there are still a handful of features that every good e-commerce site needs. Without them, it’s unlikely that users will complete the entire purchase cycle. For a customer, these aren’t things they actively seek in an online shopping site. Rather, they’re what they expect to see. Without them, customers find it blatantly obvious and if it’s an important enough feature, they may find the site unreliable. So, here’s everything you need to create an exceptional e-commerce site.

Necessary Features

someone holding a phone open to an e-commerce site

First and foremost, making sure the interface is user-friendly is the most important aspect of any website. But even more so for a shopping site. What this entails is a simplistic as well as responsive navigation menu. Especially given that so many website visitors will be using a mobile device. Users expect to see categories with some subcategories, all of which should be clear as to what they mean. The last thing you want is to confuse your customers all because you wanted to use a more creative yet unhelpful category name. Your navigation bar should also include:

• A Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page
• A Contact Us page
• A way for shoppers to view their cart, which not only incudes product names but also an image with it

Additionally, with it being a site where payment’s involved, the checkout process shouldn’t just be streamlined but also secure. The easiest way to ensure this is by purchasing an SSL certificate, which PSPINC offers in addition to our web hosting. Other vital security features include an address verification system (AVS) and a credit card verification value (CVV).

Regarding the purchase process, additional costs, shipping details, and return instructions should be clearly outlined before users check out. And they should have multiple payment options as well. While product pages should include images of the product itself, they must be high-quality images. And seeing products from different angle as well as how it works in action through multiple photos or even a video will make them more attractive to customers. Lastly, product descriptions shouldn’t just include physical attributes but also the benefits they can provide your customers.

Additional E-Commerce Features

a woman at her laptop while holding a credit card

From a marketing perspective, there are also some other features worth adding. If a product isn’t exactly what they’re looking for, they may want to find something similar. Putting recommendations makes it that much easier for customers. Plus, you can create targeted newsletters based on what customers looked at and/or bought previously. Allowing users to create a wish list of items they want but aren’t ready to purchase yet as well as a guest account option will also result in a better user experience.

A wish list persuades users to come back to purchase later while a guest account allows them to bypass the longer account registration process. There’s also the option of adding newsletter pop-ups or even in-browser notifications to encourage brand loyalty. Lastly, there’s the abandoned cart reminder. About 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned, according to Shopify. To take advantage of that statistic, creating a reminder that sends an email out afterward can be a way to get those users to come back. As popular as e-commerce sites are for businesses today, building them can be a hassle. Luckily, PSPINC has an easy and reliable e-commerce hosting solution, YourHost, to help build your e-commerce site.

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 #business #businesstips #crm #customerservice #ecommerce #marketing #marketingdigital #mobile #onlinebusiness #onlineshopping #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web #webdesign #webdevelopment #webhosting #website #websitebuilder #yourhost

PSPINC Official Company Blog

フリースペース

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 129 “Good Marketing Takes Time”

The Difference Between Sales and Marketing

Marketing Professionals and Salespeople

Sales and Marketing Working Together

How to Create a Brand

PSPINC What's New Newsletter Vol. 126 "Business Competition"

PSPINC What's New Newsletter Vol. 125 "Starting a Business"

PSPINC What’s New Newsletter Vol. 124 “Simplifying Sales Cycles”

PSPINC What’s New Newsletter Vol. 123 “Turning Frustration Into a Successful Business”

How to Market Your E-Commerce Site

Optimize for Search Engines

Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Email Marketing

Social Media Marketing

Optimize for Conversions

PSPINC What's New Newsletter Vol. 121"An Elevator Pitch"

What Makes a Great E-Commerce Site

Necessary Features

Additional E-Commerce Features

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