Internet Marketing Blog

Unique Features of a Successful eCommerce Website

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E-commerce websites are mainly designed to sell products and their success is very essential for better business results. When designing and developing an e-commerce website, a designer has to face so many challenges in order to deliver the best of all. Hence, it is very essential to analyze all the areas of the process to ensure delivery of a good product. E-commerce is a unique topic in online business with various beneficial features, including global audience reach, high standards, user interaction, valuable information, and customization.

There are a range of essential factors that influence the look and feel of e-commerce websites. The top features include quick & easy navigation, product related simple design for increased visibility of product, effective branding, specific product images, displaying related or recommended products, listing popular products, offers & discounts, simple checkout process, and complete website search option.  

The navigation of product pages should be carefully designed with more options for the users to locate the product easily.  This feature of the site requires thorough user experience testing to ensure all navigational issues are addressed properly. With the help of some simple design approaches, the site will give better visibility to the product, as selling is the key point of any e-commerce website. For better performance of the website, the design should be related to the style of products available and thus making a direct connection with the brand.

Your firm should include product specific photos, especially in different angles.  This will help the user get a feel of the product and to make an easy purchasing decision. They should also make use of the homepage and help the users to find something really interesting by adding offers, popular products, new arrivals and other discounts. Displaying a list of related products on the product details page to the user may result in increased sales of those products as well and serves as a promotional tool for similar products. Users may find it difficult to land with the particular product of their interest even with good navigation, so in order to avoid this and help them gain easy access to the product, it is advised to include search box with range of options.

In total, e-commerce websites with all the above good features provides advantages for small and medium businesses in developing countries reducing operational costs and increasing efficiency.

Posted by Mohamed Mohideen
Posted in 7 Pillars of Internet Marketing, Interactive Marketing, Marketing Agencies, Offshore Outsourcing, Photography, Small Business, Website Design, eCommerce, web 2.0, web development | No Comments »
Tags: eCommerce, Internet Marketing, Mohamed Mohideen, new york web development agency, small businesses, web analytics, web design, web development

How To Measure Social Media Marketing

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How do you measure social media marketing? This is the top question nowadays among web marketing professionals who also use social media as a tool, making a social media analytics plan highly recommended. Studies indicate that almost 50% of the marketers are not sure about the direct value or how to measure the impact of social media on business. It is important to analyze the data by creating a unique analytics plan so that you can make well informed decisions on your marketing efforts.  

First define your goal when you are planning to measure the social media performance metrics on your business. Then go ahead and define actionable performance indicators to effectively measure the results of your campaign and then adjust your marketing strategy accordingly. Social media analytics are all about measuring the results to understand your customers, opportunities for business development, and how you translate your conversations with prospects to make business decisions.

Plenty of great tools are available either paid or free to monitor your social media marketing strategies. Both the free and paid tools offer different features and benefits. IBM introduced one such tool named the IBM SPSS Modeler Professional that helps marketers to find insights of campaigns. You should find such a tool, monitor your customers or prospect’s online activity and their conversation about your products or services to learn how to enhance the social media campaigns further.

Posted by Mohamed Mohideen
Posted in 7 Pillars of Internet Marketing, Content Marketing, Interactive Marketing, Public Relations, Small Business, Social Media Marketing, blog | No Comments »
Tags: Content Marketing, internet marketing agency, Mohamed Mohideen, Social Media Analysis, Social Media Marketing, social media optimization, web analytics

Target Stays On Point With and Without Gilt

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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In today’s news, Target will enter a partnership with Gilt Groupe to do an exclusive flash-sale of its fall collection.  It’s a deft move for brands to leverage two popular consumer bases and improve their online advertising metrics.  Target, for years, has cemented their reach as a haute purveyor with thrifty price points through esteemed labels such as Isaac Mizrahi and Alexander McQueen.  This experiment with Gilt Groupe takes their interactive marketing reach to a higher level, but one must wonder the inverse effect for Gilt?  This is the second premiere retailer they are working with on an exclusive sale campaign.  They initially ran a Rewards Program Sale with Starbucks earlier this month.  Are they trying to sell out for mainstream fervor?  The economic downturn has been a blessing for this online apparel retailer, which gained popularity through exclusive membership offers that allow entrants to purchase quality products at a reasonable price within a certain amount of time.  Their e-commerce model is sound, and the navigable, metallic website creates an aura of mystique.  Why the rush to outreach?

Brands that emerge from obscurity often face a crossroads from an equity standpoint and must decide on whether to branch far beyond their niche on a broad level or make incremental growth strategies.  Some have the product that stands the test of durability and competition, allowing profitability to flow from above.  The other side of that coin are those that do not have the vision to see pitfalls in the marketplace nor make the necessary adjustments to keep the brand afloat.

The partnership of these two firms is interesting in that their approach mirrors the scenario explained in the prior paragraph.  Target has clear advantages in their retail market strategy with a wider level of products and stores to maintain fixed cash flow, such as personal care items.  Their marketing team can afford to create niche strategies, while giving them the resources to develop their own unique consumer base.  

Gilt Groupe, as a novice e-commerce retailer, doesn’t have this same flexibility in terms of risk.  They could be compromising the integrity of their mission, for all we know.  It will be interesting to see if they maintain this aggressive outreach into mainstream brand partnerships.  The sale starts at high noon Eastern Time on Friday, at Gilt.com.  Your fingers and debit card should be ready.

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Posted by Abdul Fattah Ismail
Posted in Interactive Marketing, Marketing, Small Business, World, blog | 1 Comment »
Tags: abdul fattah ismail, Blueliner Marketing, gilt groupe, internet marketing agency ny, new york interactive marketing agency, new york web design agency, search marketing agency ny, target fashion labels, target mashable

Facebook – Facebook Optimization – New SEO

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Facebook changed the way people use the internet to post and share information. Today one in every 14 people on Earth use the social networking website. Today, there are 12 million users in India, 6 million users in Brazil and these numbers are going to grow much faster in the near future. Facebook gained about 100 million new users since February of this year and now made half a billion users collectively.

Facts about Facebook:

1. 50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day
2. Facebook has about 100 billion hits a day
3. 50 billion photos on Facebook and more than 3 billion photos uploaded each month
4. More than 3 million active pages on Facebook
5. More than 70 translations options available on the site
6. 1.5 million Local businesses have active pages on Facebook
7. Every month, more than 70% of Facebook users engage with Platform applications
8. 100 million active users are accessing Facebook through their mobile phones

So how do companies successfully use Facebook to market its products or services to large group of users? Facebook Optimization is the answer. Here are some key points that need to be followed on a Facebook Marketing Campaign includes: developing specific messages to target audience, paying appropriate attention to what is being discussed, and engaging in a good conversation. There are special tools that are specifically made for Facebook portal that help small businesses engage more and more deeply with the consumers and prospects. Facebook open graph tool help optimize your Facebook pages and with this tool, Facebook Optimization is now increasingly becoming the new SEO.

Posted by Mohamed Mohideen
Posted in 7 Pillars of Internet Marketing, Blog Marketing, Content Marketing, Interactive Marketing, Interactive PR, Marketing Agencies, Mobile Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Small Business, Social Media Marketing, blog, online advertising | 1 Comment »
Tags: Blueliner Marketing, digital marketing, Interactive Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Mohamed Mohideen, online advertising, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing

Pay Per Call Advertising from Skype

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Skype users are able to call, send text messages, or video chat with other Skype users for free.  They are charged with a small rate if a user makes a call to land lines or mobile phone numbers from their computers.  Skype is growing every day and has over half a billion registered users.  Now, Skype introduces a new technique to add revenue with the new pay per call ad unit.  This new type of advertising will turn phone numbers into small advertisements to about 560 million users of Skype service.

Click and call advertising service of Skype allows the users to make free calls to participating businesses found on any web page. This allows the advertisers to get easy access to the consumers or prospects.  Consumers can also call businesses free of cost using Skype. The advertisements will appear in blue, saying “Free call,” in addition to Skype numbers that appear in gray color. Skype offers this service in association with Marchex, which provides analytics for the services. Advertisers can plan a monthly budget based on the number of calls they would like to pay or they can pay based on the number of calls they receive via Skype.

A phone call is a much more valuable lead than a click on a hyperlink and can result in actual sales since the conversion rate is higher on a call. Users can see the free call button or the advertisements only if the Skype browser plug-in installed. This type of advertising is good for local businesses that don’t sell their products or services via online shopping but can generate good leads.

Donal Albert, General Manager of Skype Americas said, “It is an opportunity to tap into a large community of consumers that are initiating calls from their computers.”  Skype generated $550 million revenue in 2008, and its parent company eBay projects $1 billion in revenue by 2011. Skype estimates it currently accounts for 12% of all international call minutes. To find more information on Click & Call Advertising, check out the Skype website by clicking the logo.

Posted by Mohamed Mohideen
Posted in 7 Pillars of Internet Marketing, Content Marketing, Interactive Marketing, Marketing, Marketing Agencies, Pay Per Click (PPC), Small Business, blog, online advertising, web 2.0 | No Comments »
Tags: Blueliner Marketing, digital marketing, Interactive Marketing, Internet Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Mohamed Mohideen, online advertising, pay per click advertising

Interactive PR as part of your Internet Marketing Campaigns

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As we all know, commercial businesses, organizations, not-for-profit associations and other high profile individuals maintain their public images using the well-known field of Public Relations. PR is all about shaping the appropriate message to the public and it involves a lot of functions that include: crisis management, publicity and maintaining a steady relationship with customers, communities, employees, investors, media, government and others with the industry.

The internet is much more than just a channel of communication. In the present scenario, the internet has become the fastest and most convenient way to communicate and to spread the message to the public in a cost effective model. Often called Interactive PR, Online PR or Digital PR, this process is helpful for companies of any size as it is a two-way communication that aims to build better relationships. When compared to the traditional PR, this method helps organizations build reliability with the target audience directly.

VSS data shows that PR spending in the US grew by more than 3% in 2009 to $3.7 billion. Also PR spending in America is predicted to go beyond $8 billion in 2013 with increased usage of corporate blogs and social media.

The important components of Interactive PR include: distributing press releases online with relevant keywords and optimizing for search engine rankings, news wire services, defining a new blogging strategy to engage prospects and customers in conversation about the products or services, effective podcasting, organizing webinars, starting discussions and following up in forums, creating news and events page in the website to cover the old and latest information about the company.

There is a greater demand for Interactive PR services than in previous years and firms of all sizes are looking at the ways they communicate with their prospects and customers. There are companies that do not practice PR on its own and may request help or outsource their needs for Online PR activities. This way they can build an ongoing relationship with the public and the media in a very cost effective manner.

Posted by Mohamed Mohideen
Posted in 7 Pillars of Internet Marketing, Blog Marketing, Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Interactive Marketing, Interactive PR, Marketing, Marketing Agencies, Podcast Production, Public Relations, Search Engine Optimization, Small Business, Social Media Marketing, Video Sharing | No Comments »
Tags: Blueliner Marketing, Content Marketing, digital marketing, Digital PR, Interactive PR, Mohamed Mohideen, Online PR, Online Reputation Management, podcast marketing, Public Relations, Social Media Marketing, Video Sharing

Furniture By Duval

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Blueliner Marketing continues to add new clients and we are very happy to welcome Furniture By Duval to our stable. Furniture by Duval has recently moved into a brand new, beautiful showroom on Fulton Street in the heart of the Financial District in New York City.

Our team is working to promote their ecommerce site by implementing the full range of SEO services in order to help them grow in the competitive modern furniture category. Blueliner is also helping Furniture by Duval upgrade their social media presence and reach their target audience on the various social media platforms.

In the first few weeks, we have already helped them increase search engine rankings and web traffic for their most important keywords, as well as increase conversion rates and web sales.

Visitors to the site can view the full inventory of products, as well as purchase some fantastic contemporary modern furniture pieces. If you are looking for modern furniture, we highly recommend checking out the site or stopping by the showroom.
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Posted by Abdul Fattah Ismail
Posted in Business News, Small Business, Social Media Marketing | 1 Comment »
Tags: abdul fattah ismail, Blueliner, Blueliner Marketing, furniture by duval, new york furniture showroom, seo media agency, Social Media Marketing

Goodbye To Crystal

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The Blueliner team took Crystal out for lunch this afternoon at Beckett’s on Stone Street. We thank Crystal for two months of service and wish her well at Deluxe Studios!

Posted by Abdul Fattah Ismail
Posted in Marketing, Small Business | No Comments »
Tags: abdul fattah ismail, Blueliner, Blueliner Marketing, crystal whelan, nguyen phuong

Content Is Human, But Distribution….Divine

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I started with the Blueliner family back in late October of 2009.  I had a strong desire to enter the world of digital media, but little experience.  Over time, I have learned some about the peripatetic nature of this industry.  The frenetic pace of digital media can be dizzying to the naked eye.  One thing has remained constant.  In a world where attention spans are short and information is endless, distribution and marketing trumps the quality of content.  Hands down.

In the 20th century, distribution was more of an art form.  Trailers, posters, stickers, and samples were used to elicit certain emotions in consumers to purchase a product or service.  Google, with its revolutionary search algorithm, takes marketing strategy to a new level.  Nowadays, your website must be optimized for search keywords.  Otherwise, your content will not make an eye blink.  Social media and mobile marketing also are rising factors in strategy, along with good web design.  Through the 7 Pillars of Marketing, Blueliner delivers all these elements at a high quality with a reasonable price point.

The internet, as we know, is a thrifty way to distribute content to the masses.  We also know that the internet has a lot of content to keep minds busy.  How do you get through the clutter? I believe that segmenting your demographic with steady content is a good start.  You don’t always become an overnight sensation, but you build a client base.  Advertisers like client bases since they increase the chance of realized revenue gain.  Small firms should have a budget for technical upgrades.  It doesn’t make sense to start up a business without reserve capital for technological improvements that catapult revenue gains. Before anything else, though, you need a staff with energy and imagination.  They collaborate to produce the content for a mass demographic.  If a firm can deliver high quality distribution at a good price and quality, then they shine above all.

Posted by Abdul Fattah Ismail
Posted in Interactive Marketing, Interactive PR, Marketing, Marketing Agencies, Mobile Applications, Mobile Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Small Business, Social Media Marketing, online advertising, web development | No Comments »
Tags: abdul fattah ismail, Advertising Age, Blueliner, Blueliner Marketing, google, google analytics, keith richman, Mobile Marketing, SEO, SEO company, web design

Remember Your Interface

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The staff at Blueliner prides itself on delivering quality web design to our clients in all phases. Unfortunately, the process contains pitfalls that derail the process. At times, businesses may concentrate too much on the application and forget to execute the web development necessary for quality design.  Sometimes, the original designers do not factor into the process.  Web developers will choose to handle the web applications and design, even if design is not their forté.

It is critical for interactive teams to clearly determine several phases of the web construction process. One of them is understanding the difference between a website and web application.  To the general public, they may be considered one and the same.  A website’s main purpose is to convey information in a clear manner with sound visual stimulation to generate traffic, which as we know leads to higher ROI metrics.  A web application, on the other hand, is the guts behind a website.  It allows businesses to perform several tasks at a singular time in order to carry out initiatives and ensure production.  Web applications are further segmented into open and closed applications. Open applications are simply accessible to everyone while closed applications are used for a corporate network on-site, carrying an offline status.

Businesses must also identify their users to ensure that the project meets their needs.  Interviewing users and stakeholders give answers about their knowledge of the system.  ”Shadowing” is another technique, where observation of user behavior through disclosed channels can reveal insightful answers.

These are just a few examples for businesses to consider when implementing a quality web strategy.  Janko Jovanovic of Smashing Magazine goes further in detail to discuss prototypes and other principals of the design process here.

Posted by Abdul Fattah Ismail
Posted in Graphic Design, Marketing, Marketing Agencies, Search Engine Optimization, Small Business, Website Analytics, Website Design, online advertising, web 2.0, web development | No Comments »
Tags: abdul fattah ismail, Blueliner, Blueliner Marketing, janko jovanovic, prototypes, smashing magazine, web applications, web design, web development agency