B2B or B2C – Your Business Needs a Clear Strategy to Become a Genuine Hit

Back in the day, during the ‘50s and much of the ‘60s, a song's popularity was measured merely by the sales of sheet music.  But it wasn’t until February, 1969 that the record sales from stores across the country were first compiled and recorded – giving birth to the UK’s first official top 40 chart.

Over the decades countless acts, from bands to solo singers have made their mark on the history of the charts – some much more than others – as musical styles and popular culture changed. 

Some have collected multiple number 1s, like Elvis Pressley (21) and The Beatles (17). However some have managed just the solitary number one, going down into the history books as ‘one hit wonders’ such as: Berlin with Take My Breath Away and Edwyn Collins’ A Girl Like you. 

But what’s the best way for a company to ensure its own chart success and to then build upon it so that it doesn’t just become a flash in the pan, one hit wonder, but instead – a sustained hit-making machine? 

Well, intelligent business marketing helps immensely with creating the foundations and forward trajectory of a company. 

From the conclusions made from dedicated market research, a marketing initiative can really come to fruition.

As a local operation, whether it’s business to business or business to consumer – it’s important that you walk before you attempt to run. So, with that in mind, establishing a foothold within your immediate and surrounding community is paramount.

A marketing agency will offer your business the know-how and resources to achieve this and help you when the time is right to look towards frying bigger fish and casting your net further afield.

A business specialist will pull online and other mediums of advertising into one cohesive strategy for your company to truly become platinum-selling.

Do You Need a Business Consultant if You’re a Solopreneur?

If you’re thinking that only large corporations need a business consultant, think again. You might be surprised to learn that even a one man or one woman business could significantly benefit from business consulting. The reasonable cost and return on investment will probably surprise you!

Small business owners, sometimes referred to as solopreneurs, believe that they need to be able to do it all. If you run your business on your own, you’ll be wearing many hats as an entrepreneur and as a result, you’ll often be in react mode. You’ll motor through each day doing what needs to be done. But how will you plan for the future? How can you proactively plan for growth when you’re flying by the seat of your trousers? A business consultant can help you. Some entrepreneurs that like to work alone are not thrilled with the prospect of someone coming in and telling them what they’re doing wrong. But a business consultant doesn’t work like that. A skilled consultant can help in a non-obtrusive way that doesn’t take over your business --- this can enhance your business according to your own desires and long term goals. An expert adviser can do a lot for a small business owner, on the business owner’s terms.

What do business consultants do?
A business consultant can do various things for you, such as:

• Analyse your existing business infrastructure to help you make positive changes to procedures for productivity and profitability. This can help you find more time and make more money. What could be better than that?

• Marketing and advertising services. A business consultant could help you gain more exposure with your target audience and become your outsourced marketing department.

• Internet marketing services. Want to take advantage of the vast online audience that could be buying from you? A skilled consultant can help you get found online so you can make more sales.

Sure, large companies need consultants but small businesses can benefit form consulting services as well. Working one on one with someone who has accumulated business experience in many areas could help you in a vast way. A consultant will listen to your concerns, find out what’s important to you as an entrepreneur, and come up with a plan that can work for you and do it on your terms.

How do you choose a consultancy firm?

Finding the right people to help you succeed isn’t always easy. There are some red flags that should set off warning bells for you, such as:

• Companies or consultants that promise “the moon” super fast.
• Companies that you can’t find background information about.
• Companies who don’t offer guarantees.

Signs that you’ve found a solid resource include:

• Testimonials
• A background you can investigate yourself (online and perhaps locally)
• A guarantee about satisfaction
• Flexible services that suit your specific needs.

While most entrepreneurs like to keep a tight rein on their business, the possibilities, when you have someone like a skilled business consultant to help you, can result in your achievement of your goals and dreams much sooner.

Tips for Running a Successful Home Business

Running a successful home business takes hard work and commitment as well as the desire to make it work. This short article will give you some ideas on what you need to consider to get the most out of your home business venture.

Many people may think that running a home business will be easy once you have decided what it is you are going to do. However this is not the case as there is a great deal of time and commitment needed to run a successful home business venture. You will need to factor in how you are going to manage your working day as well as considering your internet marketing and in particular how to get your website to rank well online.

1.Be Committed

For any business to ever be successful you will need to be 100% committed to the task in hand. Failure to do this could ultimately result in the failure of your business which could be an expensive mistake! Before you decide to set up a home business ask yourself if you have the time, money and dedication to really give everything to making it as successful as possible.

2.Plan Your Time

It is vital that you plan your time effectively so that you can fit in all of your work, internet marketing and communication each day. Try to come up with a list of all the tasks you will need to carry out on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. You can then plan your time around these tasks. When working for yourself it may be tempting to work whatever hours you like, but remember that you will need to be available for at least some of the standard 9-5 so that customers can contact you. Time management is one of the most effective tips to running a home business successfully so make sure your timetable is realistic to ensure you stick to it.

3.Advertising

This is key to getting your home business out there so that people know you exist. Setting up a website is a great way for people to find you and you can place the link on business cards, forums, blogs etc. Make sure that your website is unique and professional and provides people with information on what you do and something interesting to read.

4.SEO

One of the most important elements of your internet marketing is search engine optimization, otherwise known as SEO. What this essentially means is trying to get your website from the bottom of the search rankings to the top. For this reason it is important that you understand keywords and which words people most commonly search for to find what you are offering. If you still find SEO confusing then there are many companies and freelance writers who can help you with this.

Social Media Marketing . . . Where Failure To Plan Is Most Definitely Planning To Fail . . .

What do you think is the single biggest mistake businesses make when engaging in social media marketing?

Undoubtedly, it’s a failure to plan. And this ‘lack of planning’ affects businesses of all sizes; from the rawest of start-ups, to the biggest of empires.

So why does this happen? After all, you wouldn’t embark on any new business venture without a solid business plan to hand (I trust).

Possibly because the vast majority of social media is, in effect, a free tool, business owners think social media is something they can dip in and out of.

Huge mistake.

Because the real key to successful social media marketing is having a solid plan you can work through week-on-week, month-on-month, year-on-year.

The stark reality is that the average person on Facebook has 130 connections and belongs to 50-60 online groups. So to really influence audiences on social media sites you will need to break through this already established network.

The only way to do that properly is to devise a social media strategy that’s right for your business.

Here are some proven tips to help you get started:

Define your target audience

Be as specific as possible about who you want to connect with: What is their gender? Age group? Earnings? Hobbies? Relationship status? Build up a picture of your ideal customer – the more detail the better.

The worst case scenario is that you will try to reach everybody, in which case your marketing message will be too bland to make an impact and you will end up reaching no-one.

Decide on the right social media networks for your business

Where does your target audience hang out? LinkedIn? Facebook? Twitter? Create a clear outline of who you want to reach and then determine which of the social media platforms can best help you achieve your goals. Make sure the type of content you intend posting suits the medium you are posting to.

Listen to what your target audience is saying

What is your target audience interested in? What do they talk about online? What worries them? What kind of role might your product or service play in their lives? By listening to discussion groups on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter etc, you will gain valuable insights into your potential customers’ lives, which you can then translate into a meaningful action plan.

Call them to action

What do you want to achieve? What are your goals? Once you know what your primary purpose is – what you want to achieve – create a ‘call to action’ that will back up that goal. It could be as simple as asking people to sign up for your newsletter, or phone for a free consultation.

Create a content planner

This is one of the most important, but often overlooked, components of your social media marketing plan. What sort of subjects will you write about? What are the kinds of things that will engage and inspire your target audience? Create a content plan in advance of starting your campaign and you’ll be surprised how much better received your postings are.

Track and measure your success

Tracking your social media marketing campaign in detail will show you what is and what isn’t working as well as proving your ROI. It will also help you identify the best use of your resources such as time and money. Be prepared to refine/ adjust your content in order to achieve the optimum response levels.

Social media is a cheap and easy way to win more fans for your business. The fact that the tools are (mainly) free can create a problem for business owners who are new to social media marketing.

Begin with a well-defined strategy and you won’t go far wrong. In fact, you’ll be streets ahead of those companies who view social media as something you can opt in and out of whenever you feel like it.

You really can’t.

Snoop Dogg Currently Leads The Pack . . . Here’s How Your Business Can Gain More Followers With Twellow

What is Twellow? And how can it help my business?


Twellow, dubbed the “Yellow Pages of Twitter,” makes it easy for you to find people within a certain niche or location, and allows people searching for your business type, product or service to find you!

How does it work?

Twellow analyses publicly available ‘tweets’ and places the writer of those tweets into several ‘defining’ categories. Of course you will need to have a Twitter account first, but assuming you have one already, here’s how to make the most of Twellow:

Use Your Maximum 10 Categories To Define Your Areas Of Expertise:

Twellow allows you to be listed in a maximum of 10 categories. Initially this is determined by the keywords Twellow ‘grabs’ from your Twitter profile. However you can change the categories assigned to you using the Profile Editor. You can also request a category be considered for addition if it isn’t currently available – new categories are being added all the time.

Created An Extended Biography That “Sells” You Better

Twellow permits you to extend your standard bio by 2000 characters, which is ideal for better explaining what you do and what you have to offer. You can also use links to your website, blog, or social media profiles. For example: “Check out my Top 10 Social Media Tips at my blog.” Using keywords and phrases in this way will boost your search engine rankings. You can also include a call to action: “For one week only, FREE consultation on how to get more traffic to your website!”

Use TwellowHood To Help You Connect With The Right People

Looking to do more business locally? Or within a certain radius of a particular place or city? TwellowHood is the tool you need. This giant map of the world will let you place your screen cursor on a particular continent, then zoom in to the locality you need. TwellowHood then identifies the Twitter users in your selected location. TwellowHood is great for finding business leads and joint venture partners. Or maybe you outsource work and need to find a copywriter or graphic designer in your neighbourhood. TwellowHood will help you identify the right people in the right locations.

Check Out Twellow’s ‘Advanced Search’ Tips

Twellow allows you to narrow or broaden your search criteria using characters such as quotation marks, ampersand and plus/ minus sign, then returns the search results in descending order according to each person’s number of followers. This is a great facility as you don’t need to wade through an entire list of search results to find the people with the biggest audience. The advanced search option is full of shortcuts which will make all your searches simpler and quicker.

Use A Twellow Sticker On Your Website Or Blog

Why wait for people to find you on Twellow? Place a sticker on your website or blog and they’ll know instantly. You can choose from four standard sticker colours, or customise your own.

If you’re on Twitter as part of your internet marketing you really need to be on Twellow too. And if you’re not already a Twitter fan, Twellow might just convert you. There are so many potential benefits to using Twellow for business:- people waiting for you to find them and people searching for you, it really is worth taking a closer look at how Twellow can improve your ‘bottom line.’

Oh and . . . in case you were wondering, Snoop Dogg currently has a whopping 4,293,842 followers on Twellow.

Something to aspire to perhaps?

Overwhelmed By Social Media? How HootSuite Can Help You Get Organized And Save Time!

If as part of your small business marketing you’ve already decided your business could profit from social media, but the whole thing is frankly so overwhelming that you don’t know where to start, help is at hand. Perhaps you’re already signed up to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Foursquare, but other than that you’ve done nothing with your accounts. Maybe you also have a WordPress blog you make the odd posting to every month or so.


The reality is, dabbling in social media doesn’t work . . . particularly if you’re in business. For businesses, social media is a kind of ‘all or nothing’ experience. And it’s extremely time-consuming, right? Particularly if you’re a one-man or one-woman business when there just never seems enough hours in the day generally.

Well now there’s a programme that can help you automate all your social media activity. It’s called HootSuite – and it’s brilliant for updating all your social media platforms at the same time.

Here’s an overview of what you get when you sign up to HootSuite:

The Ability to Manage Multiple Social Networks

With HootSuite, you can integrate all your social networking sites like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook and update them easily via a single manageable location. HootSuite also lets you update a range of other social networks through Ping.fm.

Control Your Team’s Workflow

HootSuite allows you to add multiple remote users and permit them to update feeds and tweets on your behalf.

Manage Twitter Feeds

Once you start following more than a dozen Twitter accounts, keeping up with all the constant feeds can be an almost impossible task. With HootSuite, it’s a doddle. HootSuite enables you to create lists of Twitter followers easily and stay tuned to their updates.

Upload Files and Customize URLs

HootSuite uses its own shortening function “ow.ly” which enables you to customize URL parameters. And when you want to share updates or files with your followers, HootSuite converts your content into a shortened link and embeds it into the file.

Pre-write Your Content and Schedule It For Posting Later

Another great feature of HootSuite is that you can pre-write content in advance and schedule it to be posted on your Twitter site whenever you want. This facility makes it easier to keep up with the demand for fresh content. With HootSuite, if you want to post a tweet a 3am you won’t have to set your alarm to do it!

HootSuite is iPhone and Droid App compatible

Compatible with the latest iPhone and Droid App, your marketing team can perform their social media functions anytime, anywhere.

Tracking Statistics & Data

Want to know how many clicks your tweets are getting and where from? HootSuite’s tracking system provides you with comprehensive data on all this and much more.

HootSuite is the perfect tool for managing your brand’s social media activity. It allows you to track backlinks and retweets and find out what people are saying about your business. HootSuite encourages greater and more efficient productivity and better interaction with your social media team.

Web Marketing For Business

If you want to succeed in business on the internet, marketing is vital. There are many facets to internet marketing. Which ones are the most important?


There’s no right answer to that question. This is a subjective topic and because the internet is very open source, there is no right or wrong answer but here is some information from a web marketing company about several vital steps that could help you increase your chances of online success:


Do Your Research

Before you embark on an internet marketing campaign, doing a substantial amount of research is essential. You’ll want to research your market, your competition, your audience, and review information to help you define a search engine marketing and / or pay per click advertising strategy. If you can’t do the research yourself either due to lack of expertise in this area or lack of cycles you could hire an internet research or consultancy firm to help you.

What’s important from a research perspective? Whether you do it yourself or get some help, keyword analysis is important. Analysing your competition will help you as well. Looking at various social media strategies can provide a wealth of info and gathering general business intelligence will pay off in multiple ways --- helping you define, strategise, and execute a campaign that will work.
Analysis

After you’ve defined and executed your web marketing strategy, ongoing analysis will tell you what’s going well and what isn’t going so well. Info gathered for internet marketing campaigns can help you with improvements and can also help you fuel future campaigns as well.

Reputation and Relationship Development & Management

Work to develop a great reputation online. Establish yourself as a professional and establish your company’s presence as one that believes in customer experience, value, and service.

Online success needs more that just development of a reputation and / or a brand. It also requires that you nurture relationships. Social marketing is a two way street. So is blogging. Customers are looking for value and this can help to establish trust. Nurturing online reputation and relationships can equate to trust and success in gathering subscribers and followers to your website. Those subscribers and followers could become future clients and sources of word of mouth referrals.

Again, there are many facets to web marketing and taking a step at a time can help you success. Regardless of whether you’re embarking on a campaign on your own or getting help and whether you’re new to this or not, taking steps toward increasing your online presence is exciting and can pay off huge dividends.

Boost Your Search Engine Ranking

For any company operating in today’s increasingly digital age, taking steps to improve traffic to their websites is a must if they are going to remain competitive. But it’s not as easy as it may appear, and sometimes reading up on the subject yourself or taking one of the many quick-fix ‘courses’ on offer is not enough to get you the results you want. This is where it may be a good idea to look at bringing in one of the many online and search marketing companies out there to give your business an expert boost. Here are just some of the key services they can provide you with to take you to the next level:


Increasing traffic: You may have identified the keywords potential customers will need to type into the search engine to bring you to your site, but do you know how to convert these to newly generated traffic? Experienced internet marketing companies know exactly how to place these keywords to improve your search engine rankings. Rather than floundering in the sea of other websites all clamouring to rank highest for those particular terms, a paying for a professional, targeted approach will start getting you visitors quickly, and this will lead to...

Higher conversion levels: You have now got the visitors to your site, which is great – but that is only half the battle. Your site needs to be appealing and, above all, easy to use. If a customer is unsure whether to buy from you and the payment process is complicated or difficult to see, you may well lose that sale. Find yourself an expert to provide the full package, from search engine optimisation to a comprehensive website review and your new site traffic will soon start translating to bigger sales and profitability.

Research and analysis: Do you know how to thoroughly research your market and competitors, as well as providing a thorough analysis of your current website performance? Do you know how to find out the most common search enquiries people are making relating to your sector? Don’t worry if not – these are essential elements to any company’s business strategy but it is also part of what the best search marketing companies are there to do.

Paid online marketing: There are times – perhaps during peak sale times – when SEO methods are not enough. At these times it may be advisable to use online advertising methods such as paid placement and pay-per-click to further enhance your ratings. If employed correctly, these methods can provide a real boost, but handled inexpertly and you are spending money to no purpose. If you’re not sure, it’s best to get expert advice from somebody who can advise you on what is appropriate for your website and your market.

Hiring search marketing companies, then, can be a wise medium-term investment. Do choose wisely though, as the quality of service out there does vary. Most importantly, it is worth finding out whether the company you are considering is highly ranked for their keywords themselves, and whether they can provide evidence and testimonials from clients to back up their claims. If not, move on and look for someone else.

Hiring a search engine marketing company to improve your website’s search engine ranking can be looked on as a wise investment. If you hire the right one you can look forward to increased website traffic and much greater visitor conversion levels.

The Pros and Cons of Paid Search Marketing

Using search engine marketing (SEM) methods such as pay-per-click (PPC) or paid inclusion can be very effective in terms of increasing traffic to your website and widening your customer base. But you have to be aware of the best times to employ these strategies, and if you are considering going down this route it may be a good idea to hire a search engine marketing company to advise you on the latest methods – otherwise you may be spending money with very little reward. So when should you use SEM, and what should you avoid?

On the plus side, paid search marketing is a highly targeted method with corresponding low wastage. Because the traffic driven to your website will be those with the right match types in terms of keywords or Google Adwords, your ads only appear when potential customers are searching for products in your particular area, and therefore have a high purchase intent. Logically, then, if your website has a very specific or niche product to sell, pay-per-click may be the right marketing option for you. Traffic volumes with PPC are also more predictable and easier to manage than with search engine optimisation methods (SEO).

Pay-per-click listings can also give you the advantage of speed, since they can appear within a few hours. Contrast this with SEO, which has a much longer lead time. If you are selling a product within a particular time-frame (perhaps for Halloween, for example), then you will want to make the most of the time you have so in this case PPC could be appropriate in terms of overall cost benefits. On the other hand, if your product is more of a slow-burner then SEO may work just as well, if not better, in building up your brand. Basically, you need to decide which approach will be best for the product or service you have.

One of the major disadvantages of pay-per-click marketing is actually born from its strengths. Because it is such an efficient way for companies to achieve high rankings and drive customers to their websites, there is a correspondingly high level of competition. Pay-per-click is based on competitive bids and for some sectors this can lead to alarming levels of inflation. Basically, this can be a prohibitively expensive business if you don’t know when to employ it effectively, or when the placement costs will begin to outweigh the benefits. If you are at all unsure about this, consult a search marketing company who will be able to give you a realistic idea of your potential return on investment, and whether PPC is right for your company.

Because of the potential for inflated PPC prices, sadly this method can often favour larger brands which have a bigger budget and more effective infrastructure in place for managing competition or bigger campaigns, for example. If you are a start-up, it may be a good idea to build up your brand first before embarking on paid search marketing.

Pay-per-click marketing can be a very effective way of driving traffic to your website and improving your search engine rankings. However, it can also be costly and there is a great deal of competition in certain sectors so you need to think carefully about the right time for your company to employ this approach.

The Benefits of Search Engine Marketing

Traditional forms of marketing such as magazine advertising, billboards, TV etc are slowly being replaced by search engine marketing (SEM). SEM can allow you to reach your target market in a very effective way, wherever your customers are in the world. It promotes your website by increasing its presence in search engine results pages using paid placement methods such as targeted advertising, paid inclusion. All those ads you see on the right hand side of the search results pages when you type in a key word – chances are these are the result of SEM.

The initial outlay of hiring a search marketing company to optimise your website’s visibility in this way can bring substantial rewards, and here’s why:

Typing keywords into search engines is the number one method people use to find websites. If you have used any of the methods listed above then you are tapping in to a global audience, all potentially getting ready to type in your key words. Furthermore, the majority of people will check a search engine every day – that’s a lot of potential clients that you simply wouldn’t have access to using the more traditional marketing channels.

Your website will appear to an audience who are already actively searching for your keywords. For example, if you are a company making toy prams for children, a person looking for this product will type in your key words and, if you are using paid-for, targeted advertising such as pay-per-click your website will appear to somebody who is already in the market for your products. If you pay enough per click then you are almost certain to increase the visibility of your website to your customer base.

Search engine marketing can also be far more cost-effective than other forms of internet advertising. For example, with pay-per-click you don’t pay until a user clicks on your advert so you are really only paying for those interested in your products. Furthermore, it has been estimated that there are 5-6 times more online purchases made from traffic coming from search engines than from banner adverts, and the cost is lower.
Search engine marketing can allow you to keep up with, or ahead of, your competition.

Really, if you want to maximise your business opportunities these days you need to be thinking about online marketing – because if you aren’t you can be sure that many of your competitors, whatever sector you are working in, are already doing it and reaping the benefits. If you want access to the latest search marketing methods, particularly if you are a start-up and want to hit the ground running, it may be a good idea to seek expert advice from a specialist search marketing company who will be able to develop the best online strategy to fit the particular needs of your market.

Search engine marketing is today one of the most sure-fire ways of increasing the visibility of your website and reaching out to a global customer base. Using a search engine marketing company can allow you to increase your profits at a relatively low outlay – and it should be remembered that online marketing is relatively outstripping the more established channels.

7 Reasons to Look at Cloud-based ERP Solutions

Businesses have been using cloud-based solutions (also known as SaaS – Software as a Service) for years, especially for CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and HCM (Human Capital Management), but many have shied away from implementing Enterprise Resource Planning as a cloud-based solution. In the past many organizations feared the security implications with deploying a mission-critical solution like ERP to the cloud, however as SaaS ERP becomes more established its apparent that cloud-based ERP can be even more secure than traditional on-premise solutions.


Momentum for cloud-based ERP is growing with worldwide spending on expected to rise by 21 percent a year through 2015, according to Forrester Research. So what are the benefits behind cloud-based ERP and can your organization gain a competitive advantage from looking at this SaaS deployment model?


1. Low Initial and Predictable Ongoing Costs

Because SaaS solutions are provided on a subscription basis, companies with limited budgets can substantially reduce their initial capital costs of investing in an ERP System. Instead, the software becomes a monthly operational expense that allows customers to spread the cost over time in a pay-as-you-go manner. In addition, most SaaS vendors provide assurances that customers will not face large fee increases to continue using the solution once the initial term expires by capping fee increases.


2. Faster Implementations and Time to Value

As SaaS solutions are hosted and managed by the vendor, customers have no hardware to set up or software to install. The implementation is solely focused on configuring the system and, if necessary, importing data. Advanced SaaS ERP systems come preconfigured based on best practices to further simplify and expedite the implementation process. This translates into faster, less complex implementation projects. Because implementation is rapid and customers invest little up-front capital, but receive the benefits from the system as soon as they go live; customers achieve a faster return on their investment.


3. Reduced Cost of Ownership

With a SaaS solution, customers pay only for users that actually use the software. Businesses don’t need to invest in all the peripheral resources and technology to support an on-premise deployment. If the needs of the business expand over time, the customer simply adds users at a pre-specified cost without worrying about investing in additional resources (e.g., hardware). In addition, with a shared, multitenant SaaS model, vendors can pass along lower costs due to the economies of scale achieved through the use of a shared data center, network, and management services.


4. Greater Reliability

SaaS vendors typically offer reliability that exceeds that provided by the IT departments within most job shops and small manufacturers. Due to the economies of scale associated with SaaS solutions, vendors can make significantly greater investments in skilled staff and technology than an individual company. These investments go towards ensuring performance, reliability, and security. In addition, most SaaS vendors offer service level agreements that guarantee uptime, typically 99.5%, assuring customers of system availability.


5. Improved Support

When a customer reports a problem with an on-premise solution, that problem could easily be related to the hardware at the customer site, interactions with other software, the network, or other components that the remote support site has no visibility into, making troubleshooting difficult and time-consuming. However, in a SaaS environment, the vendor’s development and support teams control the entire environment, which gives them a high level of visibility and enables better, faster service.


6. Reduced IT Complexity

The SaaS model transfers the burden of managing and keeping the system up-to-date and running from the customer to the software vendor. The software vendor takes responsibility for maintaining the entire infrastructure including: networks, storage, operating systems, databases, application servers, Web servers, disaster recovery, and backup services. Further, SaaS eliminates the need for customers to upgrade their software to the latest release and to update outdated infrastructure (including hardware) to support major software upgrades. The software vendor takes responsibility for all upgrades, ensuring that the system is always running on up-to-date hardware and the latest software version.


7. Improved Business Focus

Finally, one of the most important benefits of the SaaS model is that it frees the customer from the responsibility of maintaining and managing the hardware, software, and infrastructure associated with ERP systems. Instead they can focus on and devote their time, staff, and resources to their core business and new strategic opportunities.

Why Link Tracking is Important for Successful Internet Marketing

Once you have set up your internet marketing it is vital that you keep track of how it is working and if it is as successful as you require. This is mainly because it is not worth spending out money on certain types of search marketing if they are not generating the sales that you need. Link tracking is the process in which you use software, website logs and other means of tracking to keep an eye on the response that you get.

How does Tracking Work?
These days there are a number of different methods that you can use to track links including services that will actually do the hard work for you; although these will cost you a small fee. However if you wish to do this yourself then services such as Google Analytics may help and can be a great place to get started before spending out money on paid services. In the main you will need to know a few details about the pages you are interested in such as a small piece of tracking code.

You could also try your own version of tracking by creating separate pages that are identical and giving them different names and then linking your various internet marketing pages to these. This is one way to quickly see which pages are being viewed the most and therefore which of your adverts are proving most effective at generating leads.

Why Track Links?
The main reason for tracking your internet marketing is to see how effective your campaigns are and therefore which to continue with and which may need some work. By tracking this information you can create better advertising campaigns in the future and know exactly how to appeal to your niche market. In the long run this can help you save a considerable amount of money on campaigns that are just not working.

So if you want to make your business successful and profitable you must track your internet marketing and find out exactly how many visitors you are getting. It may seem complicated and time consuming to begin with but the results will be worth it! If you aren't sure of how to go about this look up an internet marketing consultant.

When to hire a SEO agency

To begin with, it would be a good idea to understand what SEO agencies are designed to do for your company. Basically, they specialise in driving traffic to your company’s website without which, even if you have the most original and beautifully put-together site in the world, you will never be able to command the sales figures necessary to keep your business afloat. It hardly needs saying that a service like this is particularly vital if your company is of the rapidly-increasing number that does most, if not all, of its trade online. So when is the best time to research the SEO agencies out there and select the right one for you; and how should you go about this? Here are a few pointers to bear in mind.

In my personal opinion, the time to hire an SEO agency is very early on, if not from the start, of your company’s activities. Many companies will struggle along with poor visitor ratings before concluding that they need the services of an expert, by which time they will already have lost revenue and will have far more ground to catch up on than if they had budgeted for this in the first place. Think about it: if your business is based online then your website is your main selling tool, so why would you neglect to budget for the service that will bring customers to you?

Let’s assume, then, that however well-established your company is you have now decided to choose one from the burgeoning number of SEO agencies out there. All well and good, but how should you go about this and what should you be looking out for? The thing to bear in mind is that the best SEO service is not necessarily the most expensive one. Instead, you should be looking for those who can lay out every service they will be providing in a business plan so you can see exactly where your money is going. If a company won’t do this because they prefer to keep their mysterious ways to themselves you should probably give them a wide berth. After all, you’re a business person and you want to know what you are paying for.

Secondly, it is very important that you check out the agency’s credentials thoroughly. If possible, use a company that has been recommended by several sources and that has been proven to boost traffic to a number of sites. Of course, most of them will claim to have done this but really the only way to check this conclusively is by sufficient word-of-mouth endorsement. Obviously it will take a little longer to gather this information, but it will be worth it in the long run.

Thirdly, you should be aware of your time-frames if this is an issue for you. For example, if you have a seasonal product and you are hoping to shift large volumes of it then you really need to bring the SEO agency in several months in advance. Remember that driving the required business to your website is not an overnight process. Patience is required and no SEO company, not even the most experienced, can work miracles with search engines which all operate under specific rules of their own.

This is just a short list of points to bear in mind, and there are of course other issues to consider such as budgetary constraints, whether you want the kind of agency which will be on-call 24/7 and so on. But no business which relies heavily on its website for sales can really afford, in these days of fierce online competition, to ignore the need for SEO.

Using effective SEO tactics is a must today for any company that conducts its business online. So when should you bring in SEO agencies and what should you bear in mind when choosing the right one for you?

Marketing a Small Business on a Budget

Setting up a small business can be expensive and you may not have a huge budget available for your marketing. This article offers help and advice on managing your advertising in a cost effective manner.

Marketing is vital to get a business noticed by its target audience and this is possibly just as important if not more so if your business is on a small scale. With so much competition around you cannot simply sit and hope that people will find you or before you know it your business will be making a loss. Many people assume that marketing is going to be incredibly expensive and never make it past handing out a few leaflets. However this need not be the case and even those on a tight budget can find marketing methods to suit their needs.

Lead Generation and Email Marketing

Setting up a website is incredibly important as this gives you somewhere to refer potential customers to but you need to make sure that you are thinking about every visitor being a possible sale or lead. For this reason you should try and make sure that you entice them into leaving their contact details so that you can contact them with future promotions and offers and generally remind them that you exist. This can be as simple as you make it and many people often just have a short contact form for their name and email address. This is a great way to market your business without being expensive or too time consuming.

Search Engine Optimisation

This type of marketing is something you may have heard of since SEO, or search engine optimisation, is incredibly popular and does not cost much to put in place. It will however take a little time and effort initially to establish important keywords and phrases that people use to search for what you offer and make sure these are placed in all of your web content. In this way you should find that people are able to locate your website quickly as you will rank well in the search engines. If you are in a competitive industry search marketing companies could help you to increase your rankings.

Pay per click advertising

This is another marketing strategy that does not cost much but will take a little time and effort on your part; however the results will be worth it. It is important that you understand how this works before you begin otherwise it could end up costly. For this reason you should take your time to do your research or perhaps consider hiring a marketing consultant of some kind to make sure that you are doing it right.

How Link Building could Increase your Website Rankings

If you wish your marketing to be a success you will need to make sure that any online content ranks well within the search engines. This short article offers you a brief glimpse into link building and how this may help your business.

Setting up a business can take up a lot of time and requires a great deal of commitment to make it as successful as possible. You will need to focus on your marketing if you wish it to really take off since there is so much competition around that it is easy to get lost in the crowd. For this reason you should make sure that you come up with regular online content and that you keep your website and/or blog ranking highly in the search engines. Perhaps one of the best ways to help improve your internet marketing rankings is by using link building which essentially aids website optimisation.

What is Link Building?

If you have a computer then you will almost have certainly used a search engine to find something online and you will realise that most people only tend to use the results on the first page. Therefore if your website ranks lower then this you will often find it is overlooked; which is of course bad for business. This is where link building can prove to be useful since it allows you to increase and improve the ranking of your website so that it is on the first page of results. This may at first seem like it could be quite time consuming and whilst it will take time and effort initially the results speak for themselves.

Link building basically refers to the quality, quantity and the relevance of links that are focussed on your website. Say a link to your website is included on a number of other websites then it will be seen by the search engine as being of greater importance. Therefore marketing links that point people in the direction of your website tend to increase the popularity of your internet marketing and should increase the ranking of your site.

How Link Building Works

Link building tends to be focused in two different ways as some websites may ask for a reciprocal link, meaning they require you to place a link to their website on yours so that you help each other. Or you may be able to find one way links which will not require help from you. In some cases these sites may charge a small fee so it may be worth looking for other businesses that are perhaps linked in someway with what you do, but are not in direct competition and helping each other out for free. If you go down this route then try to pick sites that already rank well so there is a greater chance of your link being viewed.

Considering a career in PR

Getting a job in public relations can often seem like a glamorous choice – travelling, working with high-profile clients, maybe even celebrities – but it can be stressful and it’s certainly not for everyone. Before you decide to embark on this path, you need to be sure you are the right kind of person to cope with the challenges this sector can throw at you.

A career in public relations involves a lot more than you might think: It is not just about marketing a person or brand. To succeed in this industry, you need communication skills and the confidence to talk convincingly to a wide range of people. You will almost certainly have to give presentations to clients, as well as liaising with journalists or other groups, so if you are the shy retiring type you may find it difficult. It also helps to have strong writing skills as you may well be called upon to put together press releases, newsletters and other promotional material.

Creativity is also an essential attribute. Many a UK PR agency is involved in the building of a brand from the outset – including aspects such as product development, packaging, in-store placement - not just the marketing side of things. This being the case, do you think you would be able to contribute effectively to brainstorming sessions to come up with original ideas? Above all, this requires the confidence to put your ideas across and not be embarrassed if they seem a little ‘out-there’.

Organisational skills and the ability to work under pressure are also a must. PR work doesn’t come in a steady stream like some jobs. You may have periods of relative calm followed by a frantic few days trying to organise an event or product launch, etc. This means you must be prepared to work flexibly – even staying late at weekends and during the evening if the project in hand demands it.

Still interested? Then you will benefit enormously from some kind of business qualification. Whilst it isn’t an absolute essential, a UK PR agency will tend to prefer its employees to have a bachelor’s degree in communications, English language, journalism or public relations. Of course, nothing can compare to on-the-job experience but with the increasing competition in this market today you may find yourself at a disadvantage alongside other candidates if you have no formal training.
You should also research the kinds of roles that appeal to you: Do you see yourself as a media analyst? A marketing executive? Try to speak to people already working in the industry to get a feel for the pleasures and pitfalls of such positions.

Whilst there is fierce competition for such roles, trying to land yourself an internship at a PR company is a great way of getting a feel for the industry, and is also a good way of establishing contacts or finding a mentor – an invaluable asset when you’re starting out.

If variety is important to you when making a career choice then public relations could be the right path for you. There are certain skills you need your foot in the door there are wide and exciting range of roles to choose from.

Tips for Successful Online Business Marketing

In order to successfully run a business you need to give careful consideration to internet marketing. This article will advise you on the areas you need to think about.

It is important to understand what internet marketing is and how it works if you wish to make a success of your advertising. In the main, marketing online is about providing your potential customers with information on what it is you do or sell and offering them answers to any questions that you may have.


Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization or SEO is something that is often talked about but many do not realise how important it really is. Knowing what your target audience will search for is vital if you wish to gain their attention. Often the best way to do this is using a tool that will tell you what terms people are searching for when they visit sites such as Google. You can then include these keywords and any other variations within your text.

Blogs

Many businesses believe that blogs are no longer really used or read and that this is not an effective method of internet marketing. Blogs can take many different forms and they are in fact a really useful way to provide readers with clear information on what you do, as well as offering them advice.
It is also important to remember that blogs still rank well with search engines as they are generally updated regularly as well as containing high quality content. Therefore by having a blog linked to your website you are greatly increasing your internet marketing and the chance for potential customers to find you.

Can your Customers find you?

Having a website is vital and once you have one set up and have made sure that it is search engine optimized it is all too easy to forget about it and assume it will run itself. However it is important to keep trying to generate traffic by other means of internet marketing. Try to make sure that your website is featured on social media websites and perhaps consider taking out adverts as well.

It is also worth bearing in mind that once customers have found your website they need to be able to contact you. To make it easy for people to do this try posting this information on the footer of each page.

What to Consider when Using an Internet Marketing Company

If you decide that you need some help carrying out advertising for your business then you may wish to consider finding an internet marketing company. This article explains what you should look out for.

The invention of the internet has meant that the way people spend money and buy items has completely changed. These days if people wish to buy a product or service from a business they will conduct their research online. For this reason internet marketing is vital if you wish to capture as much of the market as possible.

No matter how big or small your business is you need to focus on advertising and creating an attractive and appealing website. However this may not always be easy, especially if you have little or no experience of running a business or advertising. If this is the case then you may wish to find an internet marketing agency to help you achieve your goals and advise you on how best to approach your advertising.

Why Advertise Online?

If you fail to conduct sufficient advertising online then you are not only losing out on potential prospects but also a platform that can reach out to your target audience all over the world. Internet marketing also has the bonus of being affordable for every business as there is a method of advertising to suit all budgets. This then gives you greater control over your business marketing as well as your brand.

Finding an Internet Marketing Company

If you are unsure of internet marketing and how best to approach this you could choose to find an internet marketing company to assist you. However it is vital that you run checks on the agency first and read as many reviews to ensure that you have chosen a reputable company. Be sure to select the best internet marketing company if you wish to help preserve and grow your company brand in the online world, as the wrong agency could actually damage your reputation. It is advisable to request for proof of their past results as well as asking for references if possible.
One thing you should be clear of before you decide to find an internet marketing company to help you is what your goals are and what you would like to achieve.

The Characteristics Required to Run a Successful Business

If you wish to run a successful business it is not simply enough to have a good idea these days. With so much competition around you need to make sure you know exactly how to run your business to get the most out of it and make a profit. There are a number of characteristics that are essential for running and marketing that you will need to possess; although having the motivation and willingness to work hard are essential from the beginning.

Have Confidence in your Business

Running a business is hard work so it is important that whichever area you choose to go into it is one that you enjoy! This will mean that you are more likely to be motivated to work hard and spend the time needed to get everything up and running. You will no doubt find that in the beginning you have to spend a lot of time and effort drawing up business plans, visiting the bank and suppliers and also drafting out marketing plans so if you do not believe in what it is you are doing you will find this much harder.

Planning

This may not sound incredibly interesting but planning is vital if you wish to meet your goals and make your business as profitable as it can be. Even with a great business idea many people have failed due to a lack of preparation as they are unsure of which direction to go in to make sure their business grows. It is also a good idea to have an idea of how your days will be spent to ensure that you meet all of your deadlines and that you get everything done within the necessary time frame. This is vital in the beginning since you will want to get your business up and running as soon as possible so that you can begin making money. If this is not an area that you feel you can manage alone then ask a friend or family member or perhaps consider hiring a business consultant for help.

Helping your Business Grow

All of the most successful businesses need to constantly think about what they can do to make sure their business grows. One of the easiest ways to do this is to think about your marketing and new and exciting ways to promote your business. Try to keep up to date with what your competition may be doing so that you do not get left behind and try to come up with new ideas and products. You may find that subscribing to newsletters and publications can help you to develop your business and marketing skills and keep you up to date.

What to Avoid when Choosing a Marketing Consultant

Running a business can be hard work so you may feel at some point that you need help. A marketing consultant could be just the person but it is a good idea to understand the traits you should avoid when looking to hire someone.

If you feel that your business needs some help then you may be wondering what you need to look for when hiring a good marketing consultant. In some cases it may actually be simpler to highlight the traits that should be avoided to make finding the right person for you that much simpler. In this was you should be able to find someone who understands what it will take to make a success of your business and who can help you find your niche market.

Overly Aggressive Marketing

To run a successful business you need to think carefully about your marketing, however if you come across as too aggressive this can often have a detrimental effect. Your marketing consultant should understand everything regarding your sales but they need to consider other areas as well and should not spend all of their time attempting to sell you an idea if you do not feel it is right. For this reason a good marketing consultant should take everything in steps to ensure that it is what you want and that you are happy with the level of progress that is being made.

You may come across some marketing consultants who are overly aggressive with the way they carry out their marketing which could result in you having a plan that you are not happy with. Therefore if you feel this may be the case or they fail to listen to what you want you should walk away and look somewhere else.

Not up-to-date

These days there are so many different types of marketing that you could pursue and if you want to stay one step above the competition you need to be using the most up to date methods. For this reason it is vital that the marketing consultant you choose knows all about the most modern marketing methods and how they work. If you feel they are not up to speed then look elsewhere.

Lacking Experience

For peace of mind it is a good idea to choose a marketing consultant with plenty of experience so that you know they can achieve what they say. Be sure to check their CV as well as reading client testimonials to be sure that they have done a good job for past clients. Try to choose someone who has lots of experience within your line of business so that they understand the market.

Why Link Tracking is Important for Successful Internet Marketing

Once you have set up your internet marketing it is vital that you keep track of how it is working and if it is as successful as you require. This is mainly because it is not worth spending out money on certain types of internet marketing if they are not generating the sales that you need. Link tracking is the process in which you use software, website logs and other means of tracking to keep an eye on the response that you get.

How does Tracking Work?

These days there are a number of different methods that you can use to track links including services that will actually do the hard work for you; although these will cost you a small fee. However if you wish to do this yourself then services such as Google Analytics may help and can be a great place to get started before spending out money on paid services. In the main you will need to know a few details about the pages you are interested in such as a small piece of tracking code.

You could also try your own version of tracking by creating separate pages that are identical and giving them different names and then linking your various internet marketing pages to these. This is one way to quickly see which pages are being viewed the most and therefore which of your adverts are proving most effective at generating leads.

Why Track Links?

The main reason for tracking your internet marketing is to see how effective your campaigns are and therefore which to continue with and which may need some work. By tracking this information you can create better advertising campaigns in the future and know exactly how to appeal to your niche market. In the long run this can help you save a considerable amount of money on campaigns that are just not working.

So if you want to make your business successful and profitable you must track your internet marketing and find out exactly how many visitors you are getting. It may seem complicated and time consuming to begin with but the results will be worth it!
Or if you aren't sure then try speaking to an internet marketing consultant, they should be able to help.

Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing

If you have come across internet marketing before then you will no doubt have heard many people talking about search engine optimization, or SEO, but what exactly does this mean and how can it work for you? Essentially it is a way of being aware of what your potential customers look for online and the way in which they search for similar companies. It is important to understand that SEO is crucial if you want to make a success of your online marketing and make your business profitable.

How to Get Started

Firstly you will need to make sure that you have a website in place for your business and that it looks good and functions well. SEO is a way in which you will set up the internal structure of your website so that it can be easily found in the search engines and by those who want what it is you offer.

This may sound complicated but it need not be. It is important that you pay attention to the keywords and phrases that you use within your site and search marketing as it is by using these that the search engines will rank your website. By ranking as high as possible you have a much better chance of being found since people tend to only click on the first few results that come up when they search. If you aren't sure then contacting a good B2B Marketing Agency should help you.

It is also vital to be sure that the content that you place on your site is interesting, informative and above all of high quality. This is because anything that looks or sounds unprofessional or is not interesting to read will put people off investigating your site further and returning.

Targeting Your Niche Market

When you are thinking about SEO as part of your internet marketing you need to always keep in mind your niche market and who exactly you are targeting. This is important as obviously you wish to attract the people that want your services or products to come and visit you and they will find you much quicker if you know the kind of words and phrases they will search with.

In this way your internet marketing should really take off and you should notice a marked improvement in the number of visitors to your website.