ATILUS - Web Design | Internet Marketing

Facebook Flyers Pro Cost Per Click

On Friday Facebook released an upgrade to their flyers system.

For those unfamiliar Facebook is the social platform (social networking tool) that is sweeping the online world. Created by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004. Facebook is quickly approaching MySpace in size and users and is set to take over. It is growing at a phenomenal rate.

One of the nice features of Facebook is the ability for any user to advertise to their “network” easily and inexpensively. Their flyer system will allow a student or user of Facebook to easily blast a message or advertise an event in the form of a standard banner to the school or networks they desire. Until Friday these flyers were impression based (cost $ per the number of times they were seen by users).

Friday these flyers received a major update in the form of flyers pro. Now advertisers have the option of paying per click - a giant leap over cost per impression.

According to Facebook follower and online advertiser Willy Franzen, this new tool opens up a lot of possibilities:

...with the Facebook Flyers Pro option, I’m extremely excited about the prospects of advertising on Facebook. Beyond the fact that now you only have to pay for results, the platform allows for an impressive amount of targeting (by gender, relationship status, network/school, interests, age, etc).

As someone who has used the flyer advertising tool for both personal and professional purposes with limited results I hope this latest update will have an impact on a market segment that is easy to reach, but hard to break through. College students and other (generally younger) computer-savvy audiences are familiar with online advertising and although it is easy to get in front of them, it can be very difficult to get them to react.

New Site Launched www.aconservativeapproach.com

Unique ID is proud to present AConservativeApproach.com.

”A Conservative Approach is dedicated to restoring and conserving a broad array of works on paper. We specialize in the restoration of modern and antique prints and the problems associated with aged paper. Our expertise also extends to original drawings, pastels, watercolors, acrylics, photographs, documents, architectural drawings, letters, tickets, newspapers and collectible cards.”  (Excerpt from web site)

Unique ID created a basic site design with a gallery. We are also doing search engine optimization and pay per click management.

We are happy to add A conservative Approach to our list of satisfied clients.

The (TWO) Reasons Web Marketing Works

After authoring my last post about the potential of websites I came to two conclusions about web marketing and why it’s so effective.

It’s Effective?

I am often told by potential clients that “I will never get a customer online.” Many of the businesses we deal with are targeting a very specific niche. That niche is often older wealthy people or high-end services that aren’t usually associated with success online. Sure, you can sell t-shirts online, but can you really sell estate-planning or high-end Remodeling services in Naples or Fort Myers, FL?

CEOs and the elderly don’t use the Internet!

But they do! (more to come in later posts)

Without getting too far off topic, my point is websites are often misclassified as a supplemental form of marketing. Industries that have conventionally succeeded with post-cards and brochures sometimes have trouble switching from a physical medium to something digital. Its impersonal, it will never work.

But, online marketing and websites do work. Our own personal statistics, for our own website as well as our clients’ reveal that websites and Internet marketing beat older more conventional forms of marketing (sometimes by 1000%‘s). Most importantly though, after experimenting with online marketing (pay per click, social marketing, article marketing, etc.) many of our clients completely switch; online marketing becomes their primary form of marketing!

Undoubtedly one of the big reasons online marketing is so successful is because so many people are moving online. Studies put U.S. Internet usage and availability in 75% of households. There are a lot of reasons why Internet marketing is more effective than conventional marketing

there are two BIG reasons why Internet marketing is so successful:

1) Internet Marketing Turns Conventional Marketing On Its Head

Internet marketing is so successful because it turns conventional marketing on its head. In conventional marketing you force yourself in front of your potential customer. You send them a direct mail postcard, you create a billboard, or tv advertisement and try as much as possible to get their attention - to atrract their eyes or ears. Maybe you’ve done your homework, targeting a very specific list, but you’re still asking for their attention and who knows when and if you’ll get it.

Online marketing is the complete opposite, your potential customer always find you. By strategically marketing and creating your website you ensure your audience sees you when they are looking for what you have to offer. As long as you’ve taken the proper steps (setup a nice site, organized things for success, and written your pages well) your services come pre-sold, by one of the greatest word-of-mouth tools ever created, the search engine!

In Internet marketing your client seeks you out.

When a user goes to a search engine, types in something they are looking for and your website appears it is a huge vote of confidence. Google is effectively telling your future customer “Hey I know a great construction business consultant. Why don’t you check them out?” And Google and the other search engines are good friends to billions of people throughout the world.

2) Timing

The other important thing to note about why Internet marketing is so successful is timing. Unlike the targeted post card, (which may reach the right audience but may do so after a long day of work, when it and the other “junk” mail will get promptly thrown out) Internet marketing and your website, when done well, will only appear when your target market is looking for you.

If a user searches for “apples” your video production company shouldn’t come up. And our best friend the search engine knows this. But, when your audience is searching for “video production” suddenly the results displayed change, your website appears you reach your target audience at the exact moment they need you.

Web Basics: What is a Website? Part II

In our last installment of the web basic series we briefly touched on what a website. I described a website’s internals, how it works, by comparing it to a house or building. I compared it in this way in order to give you incite as to the virtual workings of its construction. In this installment I would like to talk about the possibilities, the potentials of a website.

The possibilities or the potential of websites is literally limitless. As new technologies emerge, and new ideas introduced websites are solving increasingly complex real world problems.

Most people or business owners surf the web often, finding products and services online. To understand just a little bit about the potential of a website just try to remember the last time you opened the yellow pages to find a business or service. When was the last time your colleagues did the same?

Below is a list of what websites have the potential to be for all kinds of companies. In subsequent Web Basics installments I will elaborate on each.

Websites are:

Supplemental Marketing Pieces  Use it to establish your legitimacy and experience. Show some of your work or client testimonials in order to help persuade leads and potential customers.

Primary Marketing Piece  Use your website as you main marketing piece. Using some techniques a good web design company will assist you in driving targeted visitors to your website and help you generate leads or close clients right on your site.

Your New Yellow Pages Ad  People search for everything online. A website will appear when people search for stuff online. If you are an attorney, are people seeing your website when the search the web locally for your services. If you are a spa are your therapies at the top of the list? If you are not thinking about search engines and how your website compares to your competition in this regard you will be unable to compete in our evolving technological society.

A Money Maker I’ve said it before, a great website should be making you money in someway. Whether you have a shopping cart and process orders for socks, you have some kind of online journal where you sell ad space, or it helps you generate leads and get clients, a website is a great money maker.

Your Sales Person  Your website is a 24x7 sales person, ready to answer the sales questions of your clients, able to take in visitor information (through a contact form) and process requests.

Your Tech Support & Client Representative  Whether you are a Plastic Surgeon in Naples, FL or have an Auto Parts distribution business in Cape Coral, FL your customers always have consistent questions. With a website you can post those general questions and answers saving you and your client time. A well designed site will help make this important information available and your clients will thank you.

An Invaluable Business Tool  A website can help your employees collaborate better. A website can help your employees communicate with your clients better. A website can help your entire business be more productive!

Web Basics - What is a Website?

After a brief discussion with everyone yesterday we decided to create a new series of posts called “Web Basics.” We agreed that we needed to take a step back for you, our friends and family, and stop talking about all this technical stuff. Web people have a habit of using web speak. I suppose, like most professions, we use the slang and acronyms pertaining to our industry; but we know this doesn’t help. It only succeeds in turning your eyes into the back of your heads and gets you frustrated…

Well no more!

So, what is a website?

I think a website can really be explained on two fundamental levels, the literal and the potential. For now lets concentrate on the literal. A website is literally a collection of information beamed to you through the Internet and reassembled through a host of very complicated processes (most of which we won’t get into). It is a series of codes, written in a language your computer can understand, that is automatically assembled revealing the pretty boxes and do-hickey’s you see on screen.

Your average website has 4 fundamental components. Backend Code, XHTML, CSS, Javascript

F!@(), Zach! You promised you wouldn’t use any of those fancy acronyms…

Yes, I know, but wait…. (I like to talk to myself)

Websites are a lot like any physical building or construction project. You have a base, a foundation of cement and steel beams on top of which you layer design elements. On top of the cement foundation and vertical wooden planks you add drywall, paint, molding, pictures, etc. Additionally, components are added to allow you to interact with the building. Doors are bolted on, windows are added, allowing light and entry into your new building.

Websites are just like buildings.

The basis of any website, its foundation is called XHTML (eXtensible Hypertext Markup Language). It is literally the support beams and concrete that holds everything up and together. On top of this base you layer on CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). CSS is the design element, it is a file that dictates how everything will look, what color paint will go here, what pictures will go there. Finally Javascript are the doors, the elements that control interaction - the fancy hover effects, the cool popups, the scrolling.

And finally, the backend code for any website really just spits out the XHTML, you can think of it as the mixer of the cement that will be used as the base or foundation.

In additional Web Basics posts we plan to explain more about the basics of XHTML, CSS, Javascript, web marketing, and much more. But, we’d love to hear from you. This whole series was really the culmination of input we received from friends, relatives, and clients and we want more. If you have any ideas for a post or have been wanting to learn something about the web or technology in general, please contact us and let us know.