PSPINC Official Company Blog

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 137 “Content Marketing”

10月

14日

As a business, it’s important to build trust with your customers. But it’s even more important for small businesses. While your website may have an “About Us” or perhaps even a “History” page, it may not be enough for potential customers. People want to know more about the companies they buy from. Especially younger generations. Customers increasingly want to buy from brands that have the same values that they do. And it’s why we see big brands support different social issues, even if they are controversial.

For small businesses, one way to build trust easily is through content marketing. Content marketing involves creating and sharing content online, through social media, videos, and/or blog posts. The content itself isn’t explicitly promoting anything though. Instead, it demonstrates your company’s expertise. This blog post is an example of content marketing, by the way. And while website traffic is the only directly measurable thing you can track, it will undoubtedly grow your business sustainably. So, while creating content that isn’t directly selling may seem counterintuitive, it’s well worth it 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.

#b2b #blog #branding #business #businesstips #contentcreation #contentmarketing #customers #digitalmarketing #growth #marketing #marketingtps #newsletter #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #sales #smallbusiness #socialmedia #video #web #website

Announcement: DENREI’s 6th App Release Out Now!

10月

7日

We’re so excited to announce that we’ve updated our secure private messaging broadcasting app, DENREI! For users in both the U.S. and Japan, the app's available for download in the App Store. If you already have the app, please update the latest version from the app store.

In the sixth app release, we’ve made the following updates:

Added a zoom and download feature for images to make it easier for users to see image details they may miss from afar.

Revamped the “About” section of the app and added release notes, release dates, and the link to the DENREI website to inform users more about DENREI and how to stay up to date with DENREI app changes.

Made various styling and UX improvements and minor bug fixes to improve our members’ overall experience with the DENREI app:

1. With a single click of a button, users can now delete and/or approve followers, making it easier to manage followers.

2. Users can now reply to a follower without going back to the top of the message now that we’ve added the “Reply” button to the bottom of messages.

3. The inbox, side menu, community, and incoming messages now look a little different as we’ve partially changed the background color and font size to make them easier to see and understand.

4. To make it easier to manage folders, we've added icons next to each folder name as well as a button to create a new folder.

5. The language-setting button is now a drop-down menu, making it easier to see your language preference.

To learn more about DENREI's amazing features, head over to our blog announcement blog post. To sign up, download the free DENREI app today! Only available for iOS users.

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.

#announcement #app #blog #business #cybersecurity #denrei #mobile #mobileapp #pacificsoftwarepublishing #pspinc #security #smallbusiness #socialmedia #softwaredevelopment #tech #technology #update #web #webdesign #webdevelopment #website

Pass Wizard Now Supports One-Time Password Authentication

10月

6日

We’re pleased to announce that Pass Wizard now supports one-time password (OTP) authentication. On top of text message two-factor authentication (SMS 2FA), it’s now easier for you to add another layer of security using common authenticator apps to generate a new OTP every 30 seconds.

How to Enable OTP Authentication

otp authentication pass wizard interface

To enable OTP authentication in Pass Wizard:

Log in to Pass Wizard
Go to your settings page in the upper right corner
Under General -> Multi-factor authentication, select Authenticator App option
Connect your account to your choice of authenticator app by either scanning the QR code or manually entering the key. While Pass Wizard’s new OTP authentication should support all authenticator apps, we recommend:

Google Authenticator

Microsoft Authenticator

2FA Authenticator (2FAS)

Enter the code displayed in your authenticator app to confirm the connection

After you successfully connect your account, Pass Wizard will prompt you to enter the one-time password displayed in your authenticator app the next time you sign in.

What is Pass Wizard?

pass wizard login on laptop and authenticator app open on cell phone

Pass Wizard is a password management system designed and developed by PSPINC that allows you to store passwords securely. With the free account, you can store up to 30 passwords. If you upgrade to the paid Pro account, you can save an unlimited number of passwords and gain access to our group sharing features, which include sharing specific passwords with a group.

To safely protect your data, Pass Wizard uses a multi-factor authentication (MFA) system via SMS or OTP, designed with ultra-high security and encryption technology. We will continue to not only improve Pass Wizard’s easy functionality, but also its security measures. If you still haven’t signed up for Pass Wizard, sign up for free 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.

#2fa #announcement #app #authenticatorapp #blog #business #cybersecurity #marketing #mfa #otp #otpauthentication #passwizard #password #passwordmanagement #passwords #paswordmanager #pspinc #security #smallbusiness #tech #technology #update #web #website

Dreamersi UI Update

9月

1日

We’re pleased to announce that we’ve now updated the user interface (UI) user panel for the non-admin users of our web hosting service, Dreamersi.

screenshot of the new user panel in dreamersi that shows the offers and services section and the online tools section

In this update, we've:

Organized and updated the "Offers and Services" section

Added "Web Design"

Added "Custom Development"

Dreamersi is our premiere hosting service that we’ve designed in-house that is perfect for your web and email hosting needs. If you need help setting up your site with our hosting services, we have an incredible support team who'd be happy to help. To contact our support team, you can call us at 800-232-3989 or email us at support@pspinc.com.

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 #customerservice #dreamersi #email #emailhosting #hosting #pspinc #smallbusiness #softwaredevelopment #tech #technology #update #web #webdesign #webdevelopment #webhosting #website #websites #webtools

How Voice Assistants Are Changing Marketing

8月

10日

Are you one of the many people who use a voice assistant like Siri, Amazon Alexa, or Google Assistant? Insider Intelligence predicts that 123.5 million adults will use a voice assistant at least once a month in the U.S. this year. While this technology isn’t particularly new anymore, it is still rife with opportunities from a marketing perspective that many are unaware of as well as not taking advantage of.

For example, people largely use voice assistants to get quick answers to their questions. Voice assistants, as a result, emphasize what’s called featured snippets. If you type a question into a search engine, you’ll get an immediate answer. And that’s because, at the top, there will be some bolded text that should answer your question. But that text is pulled from a specific website. That whole section is the featured snippet. And for voice assistants, that’s where they pull their answers from. And website owners, in turn, will get a bump in website traffic.

How It Affects Marketing

From a marketing standpoint, this only enforces the need for great search engine optimization (SEO) for your site. If your site is well optimized, it’s more likely it’ll pop up as the first search result, making it the most relevant to Google’s algorithm. If you’ve optimized your site well enough, it’ll show at the top when users search certain queries and you’ll receive better results. And luckily, we here at PSPINC have a lot of experience helping customers with their website SEO.

But voice assistants have more marketing potential for business as well. For example, did you know you can order a pizza from Domino’s using Amazon’s Alexa? Well, you can. And with it being an Amazon product, you can also order products off of Amazon with just your voice. The biggest benefit that voice assistants offer is convenience. And it's a convenience that’s just unmatched when compared to other platforms.

So, while voice assistants have gained popularity over the years, it still isn’t used as a marketing tool on a wide scale just yet. But those who are, reap the benefits they provide. And advertisers predict this will change in the next few years. While it doesn’t exist yet, voice assistants could integrate sponsored ads by having advertisers pay to be mentioned first when users ask a question like, “what Italian restaurants are near me?”. With Spotify already personalizing its ads based on what users listen to, it’s not too big of a stretch.

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 #amazon #amazonalexa #blog #business #businesstips #cortana #digitalmarketing #google #googlehome #marketing #searchengineoptimization #seo #siri #smallbusiness #tech #technology #voice #voiceassistants #web #website #websites #webtools

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

Creating a Digital Presence for Your Business

7月

13日

Today, your business can’t afford to stay offline. Especially with so many small businesses out there. In this regard, it’s hard to believe that about 28% of small businesses don’t even have a website, according to survey data from 2021. And if those businesses don’t have a website, they probably don’t have social media pages either. But not taking your business online can be a real disservice because many people research online before purchasing. It can be the simple act of searching what the best product on the market is or how to get to your physical store, but it happens all the time. But creating an online presence doesn’t have to be hard. At the very least, a business should have both a website and social media pages.

Building a Website

a woman looking at a website on her laptop with a mug of tea on the left and an iphone on the right

With so many web hosting options and website builders today, starting a new website for your business couldn’t be easier. And it's even easier if you’re just using it to provide potential customers information about your company. Basic information includes ways to contact you (a phone number and email) and your store’s physical location (an address). Additionally, you’ll want to add what your business is selling, how much each product is, and how people can purchase them. And you can easily add other pages to your website like an "About Us" section and a blog.

If you want to make it possible for customers to buy products directly from your website, you’ll have to build out your e-commerce site a little more. Features needed for a great e-commerce site take a little more time and effort, but they can be well worth it. But if building a professional website still feels like too daunting of a task, you’re in luck. PSPINC has a great support team that can help you out.

Creating Social Media Pages

a woman open to facebook on her laptop with 2 notebooks, a pen, and 2 small succulent plants placed beside her on the desk

Social media is a great tool to increase overall brand exposure and direct users toward your website. And it’s an easy and inexpensive digital marketing tactic if you don’t want to invest in paid ads. Each social media platform has a purpose as well as its own audience. But the one platform every business should be using is Facebook. Facebook is the largest with about 2.93 billion active users as of March 2022 according to Statista. Therefore, it’s also the most widely used. The immense number of active users alone is enough to argue that every business should be using Facebook to increase awareness online.

But to effectively use social media to your business’s advantage, you’ll need to figure out what kinds of content you’re going to post and how often you’re going to post. The content you post will depend on what kind of business you run but there is one thing to keep in mind when it comes to social media content. There should be a good mix of promotional and non-promotional posts. That way you won’t just sound like a pushy salesperson. As for your posting frequency, each platform has different recommendations, but the important thing to remember is to stick with whatever schedule you decide to use.

While creating and maintaining a digital presence for your business may seem daunting, it is essential to effectively compete with other small businesses. But if this all still feels like too much work, contact our amazing support team if you’d like our help in growing your business online.

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 #businesstools #customerservice #customersupport #digitalmarketing #ecommerce #facebook #socialmedia #tech #technology #web #webdesign #webdevelopment #webdexpress #webhosting #website #websitebuilder #websites #webtools #wordpress

Announcement: Dreamersi WebdeXpress Update

6月

24日

We’re pleased to announce that we’ve now updated the admin panel within WebdeXpress that encourages customers to switch over to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) from Universal Analytics (UA). Earlier this year, Google announced they’d phase out UA. Because of this, it’s recommended for website owners to switch to GA4 sooner rather than later. That way, users can start accumulating data as your historical data from UA won’t move over to the new system.

screenshot of the new google analytics panel in dreamersi webdexpress

In line with this, we updated the WebdeXpress admin panel, a website creation tool our hosting service provides. The new changes are as follows:
• Added GA4 as an option.
• A notice on the side encouraging UA users to switch over to GA4 if they haven’t already.

screenshot inside data streams settings in ga4

screenshot inside data streams settings in ga4

To switch over from UA to GA4, you’ll first need to open Google Analytics. Then, you’ll see GA Setup Assistant under the Property column. From there, it’ll give you instructions on how to set up your GA4 for your website. After that, you’ll want to find the tracking ID on your newly updated GA4 property. To do that, open your new GA4 property in Google Analytics and go into the admin settings. Then, click on Data Streams which you can find under the Property column. After that, click on the web data stream icon (looks like a white globe against a blue background). Once you do that, you’ll see the measurement ID in the far right with a G in front of it. To add it to the new admin panel update, copy and paste that code and put it in the Tracking ID input box.

How to configure settings in WebdeXpress:
1. Click on “Site Settings Management” on the WebdeXpress admin panel.
2. Click on “Basic Settings” and then “Google Analytics”.
3. Select “Google Analytics 4” from the “Analytics Version” drop-down menu.
4. Enter the measurement ID for your website in the form of "G-XXXXXXXXX" in the input form.
5. Click “Save” at the bottom of the page.

If you’re not a Dreamersi WebdeXpress customer but need to update your embed code to support GA4, we have an incredible support team who'd be happy to help. To contact our support team, you can call us at 800-232-3989 or email us at support@pspinc.com.

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 #customerservice #customersupport #dreamersi #googleanalytics #marketing #seo #smallbusiness #tech #technology #universalanlytics #update #web #webdevelopment #webdexpress #webhosting #website #webtools

PSPINC What’s New Newsletter Vol. 119 “ShopSite Plans on Sale for New Customers”

6月

10日

YourHost is PSPINC's easy and reliable e-commerce hosting solution. With the power of ShopSite, customers get resourceful e-commerce tools to help build and maintain your online store. We’re excited to announce that we’ve just reduced our price plans specifically for new customers! For the first two years, new YourHost ShopSite customers can start selling online with an impressive e-commerce site starting at just $15/month! After the first two years, standard rates will apply.

shopsite plans with pricing and features included in all 3 plans

shopsite plans with pricing and features included in all 3 plans

With our ShopSite plans, customers get incredible web hosting features! All ShopSite plan customers get access to our YourHost Neo web and email features, an SSL certificate, an initial setup by a trained technician, over 50 themes to choose from, over 25 payment methods, and U.S-based support from our team! Those who choose our Pro plan will also get many more features such as:

• Unlimited products
• Store search
• Real-time shipping rates
• Coupons
• Quantity pricing
• Cross-selling
• Product reviews
• Facebook store

This will be an ongoing promotion for new customers, and the new prices will be in effect for customers’ first two years on one of our YourHost ShopSite plans. Plans are billed monthly. Grow your online business by creating a stunning e-commerce site with one of our YourHost ShopSite plans.

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 #ecommerce #hosting #pacificsoftwarepublishing #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #sale #shopsite #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web #webdesign #webdevelopment #webhosting #website #websitebuilder #webtools #yourhost

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.