OVO Creatives » Internet Marketing

4 Ways to Acquire Existing and New Customer Information

admin — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 12:47:39 +0000

If you already have a retail store, you have many opportunities to connect with existing and potential customers and acquire their information for marketing. When you expand this storefront to the Internet, your opportunities mount even further. Gathering customer information allows you to continually reach your customers and prospects, either through online or offline marketing campaigns.

Depending on your business, you may want to send regular newsletters, monthly email specials, calendar events, postcards, or catalogs to current and potential customers. The more information you collect about each patron, the greater impact your marketing efforts can make, the stronger understanding you’ll have about your customers, and the better you’ll be able to serve them.

Before you begin building a database of existing and potential customers, make sure that you understand the basics behind protecting and ensuring their privacy. Businesses need to build customer trust and protect the data they’ve gathered. Make sure your new contacts are fully aware of the ways you’ll use their data, regardless of how you collect their information. The best way to do this is by instituting a “privacy policy.”

A privacy policy simply explains to your database what you’ll do with their personal information. Depending on your budget, you can either use a free policy wizard to create a basic privacy policy for you, like the one at p3pwiz.com, or you can hire a copywriter or an attorney to develop a more complex policy for you, but this is usually only necessary for very large corporations that sell products online, offer password-restricted user functions, or deliver other advanced features on their website.

Some questions to address when creating your Privacy Policy include:

Do you, or will you ever share or sell customer information with outside parties?
If you do sell their information, who will you sell it to and what will they use it for – contests, advertising, simple sales, or order processing?
If you use customer information to send promotions out, how frequently can they expect these?
What should your customers do if they want to opt-out from mailings in the future?

Proactively addressing your customer’s potential questions builds trust and confidence and keeps you compliant with growing federal privacy legislation. For more information on privacy, your responsibilities when collecting data from minors, or securing financial information, visit the Federal Trade Commission’s online resource on the subject (http://ftc.gov/privacy/).

If you collect customer information online, post your detailed privacy policy on an easily-accessible page on your website and ask those giving you their information to read it. If you gather information at your store, keep your privacy policy posted in plain site near your sign-up mechanism, put pamphlets that customers can take with them somewhere by the sign-up mechanism, or be prepared to brief the customer before taking their information.

Once your privacy policy is in place, you can start building your contact list. Here are four quick and easy ways to gather new customer information, both online and off:

1. Add an “opt-in” mailing-list sign-up or newsletter subscription to your website. Opt-in means that the person is choosing to give you their information. Customers and prospects enjoy receiving valuable information, discounts, newsletters, and “email-only” exclusive offers, so if you position the way you’re going to use their information correctly, they’ll be more willing to give you their information. Give your website visitors the opportunity to opt-in to your promotions, then follow-up with an email marketing campaign every two to four weeks to stay in touch.

2. Offer a free download. A great way to draw interest and gather contact data is by offering a free download on your website. Examples of free downloads include:

White papers or research reports. These reports usually show industry trends, comparisons between various problems and solutions, and other industry-specific findings. Sites that offer these reports often suggest that visitors download these items to learn about the latest trends in their industry.

A short manual or ebook. These may be offered by any industry and adapted accordingly. For instance, a pet-supply store might offer a pet-care guide in the form of a medium-sized pamphlet or an online version of the work, known as an ebook.

A special report. Special reports are usually reviews or overviews of certain topics. Examples of downloadable special reports include things like a review of audio equipment provided by an audio/video shop, or a report exploring the importance of long-term care insurance authored by an insurance agent or agency.

A coupon. You’re familiar with coupons – certificates that consumers can redeem for discounts on certain products and services. Clothing stores, pharmacies, and just about any other retailer can offer downloadable coupons or rebates for customers, and various service providers can also integrate coupons into their marketing mix.

When your visitor requests this download, send them to a new web page where they’ll fill out a short registration process. When visitors are focused on downloading a free item at the end of the registration process, they’ll offer information freely.

3. Put an email sign-up sheet or book near the cash register. Many walk-in visitors would love to receive exclusive promotions, discounts, or special offers, but will forget to sign up if they have to visit your website when they return home. Popular clothing shops will often put a mailing list sign-up sheet or book next to the cash register and ask each customer if they’d like to put their email address on the list as they’re checking out. And restaurants will often use the “fishbowl” approach – they’ll ask customers to drop in a business card into a fishbowl or a similar container to win a free drink, appetizer, or lunch. If you offer a good incentive, customers will have a receptive disposition and won’t thing twice about giving you their information.

4. Include a tell-a-friend option on your website and email promotions. Word-of-mouth advertising is one of the most valuable customer-acquisition methods. When friends recommend an product or service to a friend, that referral holds much more weight than if a business alone boasted about its benefits. Let your website visitors or email promotion recipients tell their friends about you. This system can have a powerful, domino effect. To add this promotion’s function, ask your web designer to include the program on your website or do it yourself by using a free, tell-a-friend service like Refer A Friend.

It’s easy to leverage the strength of your online and walk-in traffic and encourage each visitor to join your contact database. These people have already shown interest in your products or services in one form or another – either by visiting your web site or your store. When you implement one or more of these strategies you’ll be on the path to building a strong, targeted contact list of current and potential customers that are eager to buy your product. Once you establish consistent communication with those people you’ll be able to watch your bottom line grow exponentially.

Technorati Tags: customer database, build customer database, increase clients, attract clients, attract customers, increase website traffic, website traffic

Internet Marketing Basics: What worked years ago still works today!

admin — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 12:17:25 +0000

Internet marketing can seem mystifying not only for beginners, but for moderately skilled internet marketers. With all the courses, forums, blogs, reports, seminars and teleconferences available to help people learn how to get traffic to their sites, it is one of the most overwhelmingly dense subjects on the internet.

Unfortunately, and this is perfectly true, most of the advice or “expert” tips are outdated or completely false. Since anyone can publish on the internet, you have a mixed bag of good information followed with much more bad information.

The mysticism of internet marketing is created largely by this glut of some good and mostly bad information. It makes the whole topic SEEM like rocket science when, in fact, much of what was true about internet marketing years ago is true today.

Most people think that since search engine marketing changes every five minutes, that ALL internet marketing tactics must have changed as much in the same amount of time. Not true.

The basics, like trading links, article syndication, testimonials, forum signatures, joint ventures, affiliate programs – most work as well today as they did years ago. That is, if you know how to value the work above for what it will truly do for your website traffic.

Funny thing is, no one places much value on the above tactics anymore because there is always some “new” tactic around the corner that claims the death of everything that came before it. And most people blindly follow that advice as if it were true.

Most of the time, this is to the detriment of their internet marketing efforts. The basics are what work all the time and what have always worked on the internet.

You can always experiment with new things, as long as you have not forgotten to do the basics. The basics proven to drive traffic, page rank, link popularity, and branding to your business.

Conservative, relevant reciprocal linking
Article syndication
Participation in your field and among your market (forums)
Blogging
Offline advertising
Non-reciprocal linking tactics
Press releases
…and many other proven methods.

Everything else is just a big experiment until proven to work over time. “Over time” being the operative words. Lots of flash in the pan crack pot schemes work for awhile. But most never stand the test of time.

Links from a widely syndicated article will never fade away, yet I see people chasing down fly-by-night linking pyramid schemes as if they truly believe something like that is a smart thing to base their internet business on!

Tens of thousands have walked away from their dreams, gone back to their depressing, predictable, slave-la! bor jobs never knowing how close they were to actually succeeding.

Good people have left this business proclaiming it an utter lie that any average person can make it with an internet business and an internet marketing plan.

I guess there is truth in that statement. Average people do in fact quit this business before they ever get started because average people fall for tricks and schemes that above average people avoid on their way to success.

If you have read this far, you are probably in the above average category. Why? Because average people would have take one look at the list of things I mentioned that are the bread and butter of internet marketing and saw nothing but hard work. And they’d be right!

Above average people don’t shy away from work though. I don’t know a single soul (and my rolodex has some of the biggest names in internet marketing in it) who got where they are today without a lot of hard work.

You can succeed in internet marketing if you are not afraid to work, and not constantly tempted by those who say you can succeed without it!

Focus on the basics of internet marketing and stay with them as you try new strategies. We all experiment. But successful internet marketers never leave their bread and butter tactics behind unless they cease to be effective.

Technorati Tags: internet marketing, internet marketing basics, how internet marketing

Top Ten Social Bookmarking Sites

admin — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 23:24:25 +0000

Sharing favorite webpages has become popular recently. Social bookmarking sites allow visitors to let everyone else know where they found important or just plain interesting information. With the popularity spreading we are seeing more sites offering social bookmarking. Listed below you’ll find information on ten of the popular bookmarking sites.

blinklist.com–This site allows you to bookmark sites with the click of a button on your toolbar. You can keep your lists private or share them with the world.

del.icio.us– One of the first social bookmarking sites to spark the world’s attention is still a favorite.

digg.com– Digg has several categories for the 8.7 million visitors it gets monthly to browse through to find the information and statistics they need quickly. Digg also allows its members to post to their blog through this site when a visitor wants to leave a link to a webpage or article on their blog.

fark.com– With categories such as sports, politics, music, and business on the main page, this site allows users to browse others bookmarked sites by topic to help you easily find what you are looking for.

ma.gnolia.com– The ease of use makes this smaller site attractive. Ma.gnolia.com allows the user to become familiar with the whole social bookmarking process making it a great site to start with if you are new to social bookmarking.

mybloglog.com– Combining social bookmarking and blogging into a social networking package makes this site a great place to promote your pages while finding other sites that may interest you.

reddit.com– users can view what’s new or what’s hot at the moment as well as see the weekly stats on this social bookmarking site.

stumbleupon.com– A relatively new site that combines myspace and social bookmarking where users can make multiple pages on any topic.

tailrank.com– Blogs often contain a lot of valuable information. This site helps to find the hot buzz online by keeping track of what is being said between blogs. Users search through topics such as politics, technology, video and entertainment or even randomly if they prefer to find out what is going on online.

technorati.com– Technorati allows its million and a half visitors share their blog posts, photos, favorite videos and other favorite sites every month.

Each social bookmarking site is unique, all are geared toward different audiences. For a website owner to get the most out of social bookmarking you can use a combination of several different sites. Start by putting your blog on one site, Technorati for instance. You can then start a webpage or two on Stumbleupon with themes that match your blog. Listing your pages as favorites on Digg after you have set them up will drive traffic to your site.

Bookmarking your own site gives users of these sites easy access to your webpages. Keep an eye on sites like tailrank.com to see what other users are talking about, use that information for inspiration for your own blog. This will keep your site fresh and in line with what others are looking for online.

If you use these sites together you can introduce your site to people who have similar interests while helping your site to increase traffic as well as linking you to possible future partners in other projects that can help you to increase your traffic and revenue online. Read the rules of each site and make sure you stay within the guidelines and use these tools to help your site grow.

Technorati Tags: social bookmarks, social bookmark, social bookmarking, digg, blink, delicious, twitter, facebook, reddit, stumbleupon

What is SEO Copywriting?

admin — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 07:48:14 +0000

SEO copywriting is using compelling copy to attract new customers.

People searching for your products and services will use a search engine. Most likely, they’ll use one of the top three search engines: Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. When searching for your products and services, people enter keywords and key phrases (a series of keywords together) and wait for the search engine to retrieve the most relevant results to the keywords or key phrases they entered.

For example, let’s say you own an email marketing software services firm. Your software is web based and provides users with the ability to send newsletters to their mailing list. Your prospective customers enters “email marketing software” in Google. They click on one of the top five results Google retrieves.

Let’s take it a step further and assume your website content has been written by a professional SEO copywriting services firm. When the prospective customer reads your website’s content, they see keywords and key phrases such as:

email marketing software
email newsletter software
HTML email software
email campaign distribution service
and so on….

When your prospective customers see those keywords and key phrases, they automatically know that you provide the service they want. Now you need to convince them to buy your software. How do you do that? You hire a professional SEO copywriting services firm to write compelling copy using the right words, phrases, and consumer psychology to attract, convert, and retain the right customers.

SEO copywriting is using keywords and key phrases to attract search engines.

Okay, so I described how keywords and key phrases attract your prospective customers. I discussed how using the right keywords and key phrases along with compelling copywriting will show your prospective customers that your service is related to the keywords and key phrases they entered in a search engine.

Search engines thrive on content central to a specific theme. Recall the “email marketing software” key phrase. The theme for that particular phrase is “email marketing” and/or “marketing software.” SEO copywriting services utilize all the related keywords and key phrases to your website’s central theme to develop content that makes it easy for search engine spiders to crawl and quickly recognize the point of your website.

SEO copywriting services combine the best of both worlds.

SEO copywriting services combine the benefits of search engine marketing with compelling copy. Your website can achieve top rankings in major search engines with the right combination of keywords and key phrases. Your website can achieve higher conversion rates with compelling copy that utilizes targeted keywords and key phrases. Put it all together and your website will outsell, outperform, and quash your competition.

SEO copywriting services should be part of your marketing campaign.

You want to maximize your marketing efforts. You want your return on investment (ROI) to be significantly high. And you want to implement a campaign that produces real results by experienced professionals. SEO copywriting services do the following and more.

produce organic results
create fresh content for search engines (and your site’s visitors)
create a “sticky-ness” factor to keep your visitors on your website
build traffic, increase revenue, generate results

Don’t let your competition attract your prospective customers first. Instead, hire a professional SEO copywriting services firm to write compelling copy that attracts your prospective customers and search engines.

Technorati Tags: copywriting, seo copywriting

1000+ Free Twitter Icons Collection

admin — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 08:02:26 +0000

Your Twitter account may be a powerful medium to interact with your audience, but you’re missing out if your site visitors keep ignoring your Twitter icon! Make sure you’re getting all the followers you should by getting a Twitter icon that’s creative, original, and delightful. You’re spoiled for choice in this Huge Collection of Free Twitter Icons, so get your favorite and win new followers through the impact of your new icon’s design!

100+ Remarkably Beautiful Twitter Icons And Buttons from Hongkiat

100+ Free Twitter Icon Sets from Geek Sucks

400+ Beautiful Twitter icons for your Website from Blog Godown

650+ Ultimate Twitter Icons Collection For Web designers

A Huge Collection of Free Twitter Icons

Technorati Tags: twitter, twitter icons, free twitter icons, twitter icon download

Branding Design

admin — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:45:13 +0000

Blending our strategic, digital branding and brand design services enables us to produce integrated solutions that engage thought, build awareness and most importantly deliver results.

At OVO Creatives, we recognise the importance of the role that your brand identity and all of the components associated with it play in both the public and internal perception of your business.

For your brand to be effective in a crowded market it needs to cut through the clutter. A strong brand will be perceived as a strong organisation, one you can rely on. For your brand to be effective, the design of your brand identity and its touchpoints must be based on a sound brand strategy platform that allows you to be more innovative, more dynamic and more consistent than your competitors. It all starts with establishing a clear understanding of the essence of your organisation and how it relates to your customers. It is then a matter of ensuring consistency across all communication mediums – conventional and online – making sure that your messages are loud and clear.

From business cards to corporate brochures, OVO Creatives offers a wide range of custom graphic and print design services that would help you add value to your marketing and communications strategies. We understand what it takes to communicate your message in a manner that is enticing to the intended audience, and our creative skills and experience can help you achieve the following goals:

Communicate core company values and differentiate your products or services from those of your competitors;

Develop a unique corporate personality and get a lasting impression on your target audience;

Establish trust and build loyalty among your prospects and customers

Technorati Tags: brand design, branding, branding design, brand company, branding company, brand consultant

Email Marketing

admin — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:42:53 +0000

Internet marketing works on the same basis as any other forms of traditional marketing methods. Increase the visibility of your company products and services, create an interest, receive enquiry from potential customer, and the rest will be up to you to convert this potential customer to your REAL customer.

Email marketing / email blasting is one of the most effective ways to keep in touch with customers. It is generally cost-effective, and if done properly, can help build brand awareness and loyalty. At a typical cost of only a few cents per message, it’s a bargain compared to traditional direct mail at $1 or more per piece. In addition, response rates on e-mail marketing are strong, ranging from five to 35% depending on the industry and format. Response rates for traditional mail averages in the 1-3% range.

The advantages of our email marketing / email blasting services:

Dynamic newsletter templates or your own HTML designs

We can help design a customized html newsletter / EDM after finding out your email marketing objectives and needs
Let us manage the customization of your email campaigns or you can DIY too!
Update the newsletter on a monthly, bi-monthly basis or as and when you need a campaign done!
Subscriber Management

Subscriber list uploaded through a CSV file or copy and paste into our system
We will handle the removal of duplicates, flagging syntax errors and managing your email bounces and unsubscribes
Ability to export your subscribers back into your CRM software
Get real-time stats on your email campaigns

Tracks your email marketing campaigns Click Open and Click Through details as well as your Bounce rates
View detailed click-through data through an interactive interface
Gather information on exactly who did what on your email campaigns
Export PDF reports easily with elegant and simple graphs
Report on Forwards, Unsubscribes, click-open, click-through, Bounces, Interactive Click Through performance table
Email deliverability matters most

Proper Sender Policy Frameworks (SFPs)
Further configured to work with DomainKeys, Sender ID and other email authentication protocols
We’ve white listed our servers, accredited with various ISPs worldwide to ensure maximum deliverability and reach

Technorati Tags: email marketing, edm, edm blast, html emailer, online marketing, internet marketing

Singapore Web Design

admin — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:39:27 +0000

Custom Web Design

Get a strong and effective presence with an original look and feel web design personalized for your business.

The multitude of web design goals include: usability, visual impact, consumer trust, consumer loyalty, consumer remembrance, and creating a positive overall experience for visitors. Custom design services provide for all of the above. Our team will design and develop an original look and feel personalized for your business, setting you apart from competition, and enhancing your image; all of which are proven ways to help your business grow.

Whatever your Website needs, OVO Creatives has the solution.

Each Business has its own unique needs, and therefore, each web site we build is unique. We strongly believe that customers should be able to be involved in every aspect of our design process, bearing in mind that your website must accurately represent your philosophy, your approach, and your sense of style.

To achieve this first we provide you with design concepts, which you can review for color, layout, graphics, and overall presentation. Then we refine the design making changes based on your suggestions.

We’ll work with you to project the image you want for your business and help you reach your goals online.

Create an extremely effective Web site — and watch your sales rise!

People visit Web sites with a goal in mind: to learn more, to buy a product or service, to be convinced or reassured about something, to register for information, or for any one of a number of other reasons. By understanding your customers’ goals and motivations, we can create an intuitive experience to match. We can convert visitors to clients.

Technorati Tags: web design. web designer. singapore web design, singapore web designer, singapore website design, web design singapore, web designer singapore

Singapore Internet Marketing

admin — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:38:05 +0000

Internet marketing, also referred to as online web marketing, Internet advertising, eMarketing (or e-Marketing), is the marketing of products or services over the Internet.

The Internet has brought many unique benefits to marketing including low costs in the distribution of information and media to a global audience. The interactive nature of Internet marketing, both in terms of instant response and in eliciting response, are unique qualities of the medium.

Internet marketing ties together creative and technical aspects of the internet, including web design, development, advertising and sales. Internet marketing methods and strategies encompass a wide range of services such as search engine optimisation (SEO) and pay per click (PPC), e-mail marketing, newsletter marketing, web press releases, and also Social Media Marketing Methods such as blog marketing.

Internet marketing is the process of promoting an organization using online media, typically with the goals of increasing sales and boosting profits thru the web. Effective Internet marketing requires a comprehensive strategy that synergizes a given company’s business model and sales goes with their website function & appearance, focusing on their target market through proper choice of advertising type, media, and design.

Technorati Tags: internet marketing, singapore internet marketing, par per click, search engine optimization, singapore internet marketing, internet branding

Internet Marketing and Web Marketing Singapore

admin — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 12:34:03 +0000

Internet marketing, also referred to as online web marketing, Internet advertising, eMarketing (or e-Marketing), is the marketing of products or services over the Internet. The Internet has brought many unique benefits to marketing including low costs in the distribution of information and media to a global audience. The interactive nature of Internet marketing, both in terms of instant response and in eliciting response, are unique qualities of the medium.

E-mail / Newsletter Marketing Campaigns

E-mail marketing (EDM) is one of the most effective ways to keep in touch with customers. It is cost-effective and can help build brand awareness and loyalty.

E-mail marketing allows you to communicate more information, more often. Your communications can include newsletters, preferred customer promotions, sale notifications, new service announcements, event invitations, greetings and much, much more.

With a well-planned-out e-mail campaign, your e-mail communications can gently lead a prospect through the sales process, provide important data, and drive the prospect to your website for more details and/or a purchase.

Website Banner Advertisement

Web Banner Advertising is a type of Internet Marketing where by you pay another website X amount to display an advertising banner on their website for a certain length of time. The web banner links directly to your website, tempting visitors away from theirs and onto yours. Some times advertising on another website in the form of a web banner advert can yield a fairly good return.

We provide this type Internet Marketing service by utilising a network of high traffic websites, selecting similarly themed websites covering a similar topic as the target website. We will conduct the relevant research on which websites are best suitable for your web banner advertisement campaign.

Technorati Tags: edm, internet marketing, email marketing, html newsletter, online marketing, pay per click, web marketing