Lets look at some examples of changing design.

In the 1970’s there was a lot of design being done with flowers and Earth Tones.  This was due to the state of our society being in the “Hippy” era.  Designs were Psychedelic and crazy with the floral patterns and fun shapes.

In the 1980’s we found the masses being attracted to bright neon colors and a sort of robotic feel.  This was most likely due to the advent of computers and the emergence of technology.

The 1990’s brought us a sort of transition phase to where we are now.  I personally cannot think of any defined style or relevance of the 1990’s but it was probably in anticipation of the new millennium.

In this dawn of the new century we have a new style that is prevalent all around us.  This sort of minimalistic yet bold approach to design.  Quite a few ads and designs are not much more than well places images with a couple splashes of text and a logo.  This style has been driving Websites, Print Ad Campaigns and Outdoor Media for quite a few years now.

No matter what style of design an individual likes, if they are a designer, they still have to follow some basic elements of the trends around them.  Adopting parts of various styles will make a design unique, but making sure it appeals to the masses is what will make the design successful.

Pier Marketing is a marketing firm that has worked closely with various companies to develop Graphics for everything from Advertisements and Point of Sale Materials to Trade Show Booths and Websites. To learn more Pier Marketing’s Graphic Design and Advertising services, Please contact us today for a no obligation consultation.

Services like Yahoo eCommerce or an eBay store are great starting points to test out the waters and get a feel for your market. These services have some nice features and definitely get a person or company comfortable with selling online. The services offer some great tracking and reports while making order management fairly simple.

Though services like this are a great starting point they are very limited in what you can do with them. They are customizable to a point as far a look and feel, you can change color schemes and graphics, have logo control and some various styling points, but when it comes to standing out and really catching the eye of your audience the tools that are offered are very limited. Once the market is established it is key to graduate to a more robust software based eCommerce application like Magento Commerce, this is where selling online really takes off!

By moving to a software solution such as Magento Commerce you will realize why all extremely successful eCommerce sites operate like this. Not only can the look and feel be changed and modified as needed the entire software can be customized to fit the owners needs. Custom programming can be done for specific sales reports, customer statistics and inventory needs. Also the ability to add on new features and tools can be developed and custom built for any variety of reason that the store owner sees fit.

Some of the great tools that are a part of Magento Commerce are visual graphs for tracking sales, multiple images and views of the products in the site, graphical newletter creation and a secure backend administration area that only the Merchant has access to.

Another advantage of using Magento Commerce is the Merchanct Account advantages. While using a Yahoo payment service is fine to start out with, usually Yahoo is charging more in fees and transaction percentages. A true Merchant account will closely linked to an established bank Account as well as offer the Merchant a lower fee for processing transactions.

All in all Magento Commerce based eCommerce solution is hands down the way to go. With the amount of features and flexibility that is offered with this type of system it allows for infinite growth.

Pier Marketing is a marketing firm that has worked closely with various companies to develop eCommerce applications. To learn more about eCommerce applications and development, Please contact us today for a no obligation consultation.

Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing are the most effective ways to increase traffic to a given Website. When done properly with long term campaign commitments and diligence, SEO/SEM can lead to increased notoriety and a focused spectrum of visitors.

SEO vs SEM

SEO is essentially the beginnings of SEM. To effectively market a Website it must first be optimized. The Search Engine Optimization process involves stocking the Website with relevant content that is specific to the audience the Website is intended for. Things like relevant Titles, Keywords and Meta Tags are imbedded into the underlying code of the Website pages.

The second part of the a SEO/SEM campaign is to start marketing the Website around the internet and the most effective way to do this is to keep producing content.

Contrary to popular belief, Search Engines are so advanced that they understand basic language skills and are able to decipher proper linguistics, so the general content of the pages is fine tuned to utilizing specific verbiage and enticing phrases. Press Releases, News Articles, Reviews, Events and of course Blogs are all pieces of SEM that boost rankings among the Search Engines. Search Engines themselves love new and fresh content. The Search Engines will come back to a site more often, if in fact, content is added on a frequent basis. The Search Engines collect the information in these articles and compare the data to the content of the Website as a whole. As the amount of content on the Website grows, the amount of data stored for searchability by end users on Search Engines grows.

Overall this is most effective when done as an ongoing process. SEM should be part of any Websites perpetual marketing budget. When SEM is done once or only for short periods of time the content gets stale and the Search Engines pass over it.

Fresh Content

Utilizing a tool like a blogging platform (WordPress) is the best way to keep a website and it’s content relevant. Blogging is not only used to express opinions and interests, it is the perfect way to distribute news, upcoming events and press releases. By adding content to a blog on a regular basis it will keep readers interested.

Adding a blog component is a simple setup and should not be overlooked. WordPress itself can be added to a Website in a folder and the appearance of the blog can be easily skinned to fully and seamlessly integrate with the rest of the Website. The backend of the WordPress platform is easy to learn and simple to use.

The other great thing about WordPress is the fact that it has been built from the ground up with Search Engine Optimization as a priority. Search Engines frequent WordPress sites because of the way it has things like Pingbacks and Clean URLs built right in. These are features that will help Websites climb the ranks of Search Engines when content is added on a regular basis.

3rd Party Content

Search Engines also compare relevant content across all Websites. If there is content about a specific topic on a company’s website, the Search Engines will compare that to a review on the company and the search results will show up next to each other in the search results presented to the end user.

This information is important because in today’s market everyone has on opinion and it can be voiced. Not everyone likes the same things or views experiences the same. If someone utilizes a review site to voice an opinion about a company or experience it may not be what the provider had in mind for a review to be. Websites like CitySearch and Yelp are open to anyone. People can register and post a review or opinion on an experience they had. While everyone has the right to do this, it may not be what the business owner was looking for as a favorable review.

To combat this it is important to be active in submitting content and being a part of these 3rd party Websites. With tactful responses, these reviews and opinions can be counteracted with subjective content that is in favor or the business or organization. This also servers a humanistic approach that someone knowledgeable is taking the time to actively respond to another person’s opinion and tends to boost the reputation of the entity begin reviewed.

Closing

All in all SEM is an ongoing aspect of a successful marketing plan. As time goes by the nature of writing content for a Website becomes second nature and the thought of putting new information out for the world to indulge in is exciting. Expressing thoughts, news and keeping other abreast with the happenings is very satisfying and leads to constant exposure across the largest information medium in the world.

Pier Marketing is a marketing firm that has worked closely with various companies to develop eCommerce applications. To learn more about eCommerce applications and development, Please contact us today for a no obligation consultation.

1. Present yourself as your business
   When scouting out new clients you should make them believe that you and your business are one in the same.  People work with people, not with companies
2. Have a clear image
   Make sure that your product or service is to the point and people can understand what you are promoting.
3. Cut the BS!
   Do not hide fees or try to sell someone on something and then have restrictions.  Be upfront with people and let everyone be on the same page.  It will do wonders for your word of mouth referrals.
4. Communicate
   Make sure to constantly be in touch with colleagues and associates.  By keeping the lines of communication open people will think of you as the “Go To Person”.
5. Offer Advice
   Be insightful for your peers.  By offering advice and knowledge to those around you will let them know that you can be a valuable resource and could lead to future business.
6. Collaborate
   Get with other people in your industry or outside of your industry.  By talking to those around you you may end up with ideas of your own that you didn’t realize.
7. Stay Organized
   Keeping yourself on top of things and being organized will keep your brain on track.  Make lists, write things down and focus to achieve your goals.
8. Don’t Be Shy
   In order to attract customers you need to be willing to get out there and show yourself off.  By being having an outgoing attitude you will be contagious to others.
9. Keep Deadlines
   Make sure that your projects and services are delivered on time.  Clients love the fact that deadlines are met.  Even if changes end needing to be made once the deadline is met, clients will know that you are committed to getting projects done or deliverd when promised.
10. Don’t Waste Time
    Time is so important that you want to make good use of all of it.  By maximizing your time you will get more accomplished and feel better about yourself for being productive.

These are just some of the things I can think of off the top of my head to offer advice.

Pier Marketing is a marketing firm that has worked closely with various companies to develop eCommerce applications. To learn more about eCommerce applications and development, Please contact us today for a no obligation consultation.