Atilus Internet Marketing & Web Development

Hmmm… I have heard this a million times. And frankly, I’m tired of the excuses.

“My clients don’t use the internet.”
“My clients are older.”
“My clients are not technically savvy.”
“My clients only respond to conventional advertising.”

First of all, stop making such assumptions about your audience! And even if your current audience are the way you presumptively describe them, do you not want to open your company up to a new audience to augment your marketing?

As so eloquently stated in the latest edition of Marketing Profs e-newsletter:

David Meerman Scott, in a post at his Web Ink Now blog says:
“Nonsense! These days everyone is online. Executives use Google, government workers read blogs, people who donate money watch YouTube videos. And even if they don’t go online at work, they do at home. Stop making excuses and reach your buyers in the way they want to be reached.”

Shabam!

The internet is the fastest growing, most accommodating, flexible, laser precise, form of marketing available today. Expand onto the web, and if your current audience doesn’t respond accordingly, then capture a new one.

30 Jun | Post by Scott L. Clark. Filed under Business, Internet Marketing.

SOAMHO stands for South American Homes, a crazy domain name, and the company has some crazy plans. The basic site recently completed by Atilus for South American Homes Holdings was created to build awareness of new housing projects in Brazil & Peru.

South American Homes Holdings has some grand plans to bring incredibly affordable housing to the citizens of both Peru & Brazil. Using a very specialized building process and mixture, called Moladi, the housing can be quickly and cost-effectively erected helping families put a roof over their head. The construction is environmentally friendly and special precautions and technologies are being implemented to ward off disease carrying insects.

It was a pleasure working with everyone from South American Homes and we look forward to building out the site as their project and business progresses.

30 Jun | Post by Zach Katkin. Filed under Site Launch, Uncategorized.

It’s official! After days, weeks and months of corporate deliberation the decision has been made to pull the plug on Windows XP through most sales channels as of this Monday June 30, 2008.

The era of the XP operating system is over.

Read more from Tech.Yahoo here.

27 Jun | Post by Scott L. Clark. Filed under Tech Trends.

During a great meditative session last night, I was able to completely let myself be taken over. I opened my heart and shut off my mind. This enabled me to listen intensively, without hesitation, doubt or self hindrance.

As I reflected, I thought a lot about Atilus’ recent level of success and how easy it will be for us to sustain this and continue to move towards greater and greater goals with larger and larger accomplishments. But we must remain solid as a unit. Any deviation from positive progression of thoughts, words and actions can derail this.

With that said, I would also like to take a moment to thank every team member for being a part of this working miracle that has become Atilus. We all play an intricate role in this machine and all parts are certainly firing on all cylinders. Zach, our CEO, offers brilliant innovation, leadership and creative deliverance, Harry, our COO, is a very caring, attentive and strategic project manager that is always refining our process to ensure intuitive success, while Jermaine is the best project facilitator I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with, as he stops at nothing to ensure all clients are well taken care of at the expense of his very sanity. And certainly, our driving force is the design, development and marketing teams that continue to produce the highest quality work for our clients.

And this post wouldn’t be even a figment of imagination if it wasn’t for our clients. We have been truly graced with excellent clients and we will continue to work diligently towards their success, as well. Our success depends on our clients success. We are what they make us.

In conclusion, Atilus’ is an excellent team and I am honored and blessed to have joined this team. Thank you and God speed to us all.

Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.

— Andrew Carnegie

27 Jun | Post by Scott L. Clark. Filed under Clients, Community.

As an internet marketing firm, we are asked more and more if it is possible to make money online with a web application that does not have commerce functionality and do you have to dump your life’s savings into a project to get to a point of monetization?

Well, certainly its helps sustain a web venture if you have significant capital to allocate towards its success. I will never suggest that throwing gobs of money at a web application will ensure its’ success, but one cannot deny that it adds a lot of security.

This article is not intended for web companies or venturers with significant capital as a driving force, though, but rather the average guy who is looking to make extra money on the side to subsidize his existing income, or a new web application developer who seeks to monetize his project without seeking excessive VC funding.

As we first approach how to drive traffic to your site and then discuss how to CAPITALIZE on their presence, here are my 10 Tips to Making Money Online:

Read the rest of this entry …

26 Jun | Post by Scott L. Clark. Filed under Make Money Online.

You can learn a lot from a bank teller.

I never realized how important tellers are to a bank’s success or failure, but I think there are some fundamentals any business can learn from this fact.

Bank tellers ARE a key component of any bank’s sales force. I had never thought about this. I have been banking with Wachovia for a number of years - and will shortly be switching, but I have never thought of the tellers as “sales people.” Only once do I remember going into a Bank of America and being hounded by a representative about some bank services. But, bank teller’s really are a key component to any bank’s sales force and I realized this while reading Karen Miller’s (bank marketing guru) blog:

Getting bank and credit union tellers to sell has always been a challenge, even if they’ve had all the sales training money can buy… (read full post)

Today I spent a very enjoyable morning at a branch with two experienced tellers, leading an updated sales training session… when [tellers are] asked if they feel good when they help a customer by recommending a beneficial product, they always respond “yes”. So, the “feeling good” part is what we focused on. (read full post)

Although each of the two linked posts don’t specifically address this, I think there is an underlining message. A message similar to Seth Godin’s idea “Proximity to Pain“:

The closer you are to the point of need, the more you can charge. Pizza at the airport costs five times more than pizza on the way to the airport. Tax audit services in the middle of an SEC investigation cost triple what they cost before one. Scalped tickets cost more than ones bought in advance, by mail.

Emergency towing in a strange town costs more too.

The single easiest way to increase your fees is to get closer to the pain. It’s interesting to note that no large-scale advertising ventures are closer to the pain than the Yellow Pages or Google. Both of which are insanely successful.

Teller’s are the one’s talking to the customer, learning about the bank’s customer’s families their lives and problems. Teller’s are closest to the pain. A teller then can simply connect that pain, with a possible bank solution. For example, maybe a teller learns of recent trouble with a regular’s car and makes the connection to a personal auto loan the bank offers.

But, what can any business conclude from this? And can I possibly relate this to a website?

Too Many Companies Specialize Their Sales Staff

Selling to existing customers is easiest, and selling products to existing customers that solves their problems, validates their worth by you the company selling to them! This is madness!

By selling them a solution, you are proving to them you are listening. And, as long as your product holds up to your claims, it should actually be solving, or making their lives better - always a terrific thing.

Concentrate on those people and processes closest to the customer

Your receptionist is close to the pain, your website is closest to the pain, your account executive or teller’s are closest to your customer’s pain. Listen to them and provide them with the materials and assistance they need to match that pain with your solutions.

23 Jun | Post by Zach Katkin. Filed under Business.

Kind of on the heels of Scott’s latest post, it seems that many of the top U.S. advertisers are taking his advice - and that many television, radio, and newspapers may be in for even more trouble. Thanks to TechCrunch:

The top 100 advertisers in the U.S., who represent 41 percent of total advertising spending, shifted about $1 billion last year from TV and newspapers to the Web. An analysis from Ad Age shows that overall media spending in “measured” categories (TV, print, radio, Web) by the top 100 advertisers was flat in 2007, with 0.3 percent growth to $61.3 billion. But spending on Web display ads rose 33 percent to $4.2 billion.

Take a look at this great chart:

This signifies two big things.

1) Things Are Changing

First, things are clearly changing. A shift this big is monumental and is surely hurting those publishers that relied on these “top 100 advertisers.” Questions to ask yourself include, “why?” and by why I mean, “Why would the top advertisers shift so much of their advertising dollars to the web?” When dealing with these amounts it was probably a very calculated and measured move. And every small business should take note - the world is moving to the web.

2) There is Plenty of Opportunity

Second, the shift is big compared to previous years’ spend on Internet advertising, but still miniscule compared to the entire amount. What does this mean? It means there is plenty of time and plenty of opportunity. I am sure this revolution will swing like a pendulum. Conventional advertising still has its place and I wouldn’t be surprised if prices were slashed in the next decade and I am sure some early Internet converts will switch back.

23 Jun | Post by Zach Katkin. Filed under Internet Marketing.

A short and dirty review of Skype 4.

I’m a big fan of Skype. We’ve been using it in the office as our primary method of communication for years for a number of reasons. It allows us to instantly communicate via instant message. We can make calls in and out. Best of all, it has history, allowing us to backtrack through conversations and messages.

I thought Skype 4 would be more of the same.

But I hate Skype 4.

I honestly hate it. I don’t not like it, I hate it. I wish it were never born. Okay, I don’t feel that negative, but I will be downgrading and hope it gets taken in another direction.

Technologically there is nothing wrong with it. In fact it is now offering better, bigger video, and is supposed to sound even better than previous versions during phone calls (could not tell a difference). But, the thing that has changed for the worse in Skype 4 is the interface. I am all for revolutionary changes, but the current Beta is terribly confusing, albeit bubbly with big buttons.

The usual buddy list has been replaced with a huge window that houses both a buddy list as well as a right panel that houses everything else.

The phone itself has been given a nice makeover with new bigger buttons, but while in a phone call the big phone is replaced by a tiny phone icon that confusingly leads to ANOTHER mini dialpad. With this new setup quickly navigating a phone tree is a pain, for example.

Check out the skype 4 beta here.

23 Jun | Post by Zach Katkin. Filed under Tech Trends.

Have you flipped a piece of paper between your flesh and fingernail as you make a decision? If you’ve ever been in an uncomfortable meeting perhaps you’ve done this; making people’s heads turn or eyes twitch as you make a tiny popping sound with a piece of paper in your hands. But this simple, awkward display, is a great example of a fundamental sense missing from all or most of computing, touch.

I have to admit, some of my purchasing decisions have been made because of the type of paper stock that was used.

I remember a few years ago selecting a car from a dealer because of the terrific brochure they had. It was dense, stark white, mostly covered with tiny dimples, but at certain spots the paper turned smooth and blue like the hood of the car they were trying to sell me. After about an hour the deal was done. I had purchased a used Toyota because of fancy paper.

Well, maybe not exactly. But, all of your senses play a significant role in your decisions, in your conclusions.

The packaging of a product often-times sells a product. Apple’s ipod wasn’t too revolutionary. Sure that dial was cool, but beyond that advanced functionality, the menu, the volume, the headphone jack, the screen everything was pretty conventional. But, it’s form, shape, and fit in the human hand were light years beyond its nearest competitors when it first came out.

With the advent of new monitors technologies like, Microsoft’s Surface or Apple’s Iphone/Ipod touch, we are in the midst of a revolution. These advances will challenge software, graphics, and interface engineers to rethink and completely erase many of the interaction conventions we take for granted. No longer should there be just 1 pointer, or one spot on the screen where the user can interact. Maybe… the mouse and keyboard will be erased by two monitors (or touchscreens) - one flat on your desk that can switch between mouse, keyboard, additional display, and one directly in front of you now that you are accustomed to.

Perhaps in the future they will add feedback through the movement of the table, monitor, or even tiny electric impulses that will simulate different responses. But I don’t know if I want to get shocked by my keyboard evertime I receive an email.

19 Jun | Post by Zach Katkin. Filed under Tech Trends.

It’s official. The world has gone green. It is no longer ‘cool’ to buy ridiculously large gas guzzling vehicles, and nothing is more attractive to a woman than a man who recycles.

Hmmm… have you taken your company green?

Have you thought of the many ways to market yourself as a green company?

Do you recycle, conserve energy, or use eco-friendly products and perform eco-friendly services?

If not, shame on you. If so, market the hell out of it!

But think before you engage in marketing this… don’t contradict your self.

Read the rest of this entry …

19 Jun | Post by Scott L. Clark. Filed under Community, Internet Marketing.