Q: How can I manage crash-inducing traffic spikes to my website? A: First off, congratulations–this is a good problem to have. Maybe a new product on your retail website got big media attention. Suddenly your online traffic jumped sevenfold, and 90 minutes later, your site shut down, the victim of too many consumers trying to…
Email is the single most effective marketing tool for many businesses — and being blocked as an email spammer can be their biggest headache. It’s getting more difficult to get into inboxes, as the battle between spammers and Internet service providers rages on. Nearly one in four commercial emails doesn’t make it to the inbox…
Email marketing is a powerful tool that can extend your reach beyond your website and create new sales opportunities. If you simply sell to customers when they happen to visit your site, you have an all-or-nothing chance of making a sale. Should they leave without making a purchase, there’s no guarantee they’ll return later. But…
Your online presence is a vital part of any sales strategy. But is your website the sales powerhouse it should be? Replicating the effectiveness of the face-to-face sales process online — and getting customers to go from clicking to buying — can be difficult. The good news is that there are a few simple tricks…
Your business’s Facebook Page is every bit as important as a face-to-face encounter with a customer. But some well-known retailers fail to provide adequate customer service online. Ginger Domain went undercover and posted service-related questions on 20 retailers’ Facebook walls or in the comments section below the page owner’s own status updates. Some retailers removed…
As an entrepreneur or merchant, you should become a vigilant watchdog about what’s being written or said about your brand or product online. Reviews show up in a number of places in google search, as well as in comments or full-on posts on blogs and social media utilities. These reviews offer word-of-mouth advertising, and consumers…
As a small business owner using the web to reach customers, you’ve surely been implementing search engine optimization tactics to make sure your site turns up high in web searches. But just when you might feel like you’re starting to get the hang of this SEO thing, it appears that search giant Google might start…
Facebook told marketers that its new Timeline interface would improve consumer interaction with brands. Timeline is living up to that promise, according to a new study. Recent study focusing on 15 large brands, including Toyota, Ben & Jerry’s, and The Humane Society. It compares each brand’s engagement rate with its fans both before and after…
Can Facebook really generate leads for B2B companies? For many that try to attract and engage fans through the networking site, there is something fundamentally awkward about the attempt. Indeed, Facebook “can be a lonely place for B2B marketers. B2B marketers are increasingly looking to Facebook as a content distribution and engagement channel. In 2011,…
The “language of business” is based around the common denominator of currency. Business decisions are made on whether that currency will make you more currency, cover your expenses and leave enough for expansion. But in today’s atmosphere of global trade, the language of business has become a literal term. As more non-English speakers find themselves…