Web Design Devon: Yellow Pages & Print Advertising vs. Internet Marketing - Updated for July 2016

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We found a great case study as to the demise of print advertising v’s online…

By using a seperate telephone number this company guaged just how ineffective Yellow Pages was – and found that their business was being driven by internet marketing.

Another point which many people are unaware of (and highlighted here) is that the value of the link from a Yellow Pages website is minimal and only promotes them – not your business! Read on and see how your business could be affected by using Yellow Pages online or offline!

 

Web Design Barnstaple: Creating A Great Squeeze Page - Updated for July 2016

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In the two minutes it takes to read this post, you’re going to learn some excellent tips for creating a great squeeze page. If you don’t know what a squeeze page is, it’s not because you haven’t seen one. You just didn’t know that’s what they’re called.

They are pages designed to squeeze contact information from your prospects, thus turning them into members of your email marketing list. That’s not the way you’ll refer to them though. You’ll call them subscribers to your newsletter.

The number one key to creating a great squeeze page is, you absolutely must have an ethical bribe to get people to give you their email address. This enticement needs to be valuable, because these days, people are a lot more reluctant than ever to give out their email address.

Targeting plays a huge role in the choice of your gift. For instance, if they came to your page from a Google search about information on Rottweilers, don’t offer them a free report on how to groom poodles. Your enticement will usually be a free report, ebook or audio that helps them solve a problem or answer a pressing question. Something of high perceived value.

Your gift can also be software, but again it needs to be targeted, and thought of as highly valuable. Some marketers even offer deep discounts to their products on their squeeze pages. The operative word, is deep. Whatever you choose, you should be able to deliver it digitally. In other words, via a download link in your email and it should be worth their time since they subscribed to your list.

Until you become advanced in the art of creating a great squeeze page, you should keep your pages from having too much text on them. Make the font fairly large and use black text on a white background for best results. It’s also good to have an image or two, but don’t crowd the page too much.

The latest research has shown you can get higher opt-in conversions by not asking for name, and instead just asking for their email address.

Need more information? Call us on 01271 324 841 or contact us.

Web Design Barnstaple: Establish An Expert Reputation - Updated for July 2016

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One of the most important things that any business can have, whether online or not, is legitimacy. If customers think that a particular business knows how to get a job done correctly or sells flawless products, not only will they come back, but they’ll also offer your name to others. And all business owners crave that word of mouth referral like nothing else, as it’s marketing gold.

But how to get that reputation? With online businesses, it can be a little bit more difficult to cultivate word of mouth recommendations simply because your customers might be from all around the globe, and thus are less likely to ask each other for referrals as compared to neighbors in a single community are. Like everything else about online businesses, it’s possible to get that reputation you want going, it just requires a bit of ingenuity and unconventional thought.

One of the best ways to start building your reputation as an online business is to start off with a bang – give away free content. This doesn’t mean that you need to give out free products; though, certainly, if you can afford to do so, freebies are a great way to get a customer’s attention. What you can do, however, is start giving out your advice. If you’re a construction company, set up a “how to fix it” section of your site that anybody can visit. If you’re a shoe repair shop, make some videos about how to do simple things like fix shoelaces and upload them to YouTube. This is a great way to draw in potential customers who may not have originally been looking for your services, but advice – but these surfers can quickly become customers if they believe in the strength of your advice.

Another great way is to get involved with online forums relating to the product or services that you sell. If you’re a car repair shop, consider joining some forums based on car repair and start offering up your free advice on the subject. Most of these forums allow their users to post “signatures,” which are little text/picture snippets that appear at the bottom of every post. If you use this opportunity to advertise your site, you’ll start generating interest when you build your reputation within that particular forum. Just be sure to actually contribute to the conversations in the forum itself, though – most forums have moderators and if your account is deemed to be producing too much spam, you’ll be removed from the community. Not to mention, people who only use forums to place advertisements and not contribute to the topics at hand are looked at with derision. Besides, if the topic of the forum is something that you are interested in – and assuming that you started a business in a particular topic, it hints that you are – you might even end up having fun by participating in forums.

Fun? Online business? Who knew?

Web Design Barnstaple: Hosting Hosting Hosting - Updated for March 2022

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Hosting plays a massive role when taking about having a website.
Without hosting, your website can’t function. So if you’re new
to Internet marketing and don’t have a clue what web hosting is
all about, then I’ll explain for you.

Web hosting is where all your website’s data is stored. For
example, photos, videos, text etc… It’s all stored in your web
host. There are thousands of web hosts out there, and choosing
the right one can be hard. Most offer fair prices for you. Some
hosts are even free, but I recommend staying away from those
since they tend to include ads on your websites.

If you’re wanting to create a website for your business, you’re
going to need a web host. You can find them all over the
internet. If you’re just starting off, you’ll need nothing more
than a simple package. Make sure that it can hold a lot of disk
space and bandwidth though so you can get lots of traffic and
upload lots of files without worrying about your site going down.

Once you’ve gotten a hosting account you can basically
upload all your files to the web host. These files can include
text, images, videos, music, the website layout and more!
Once you get the hang of it, it’s actually really simple.

Make sure to keep an eye on your hosting by checking every now
and again to make sure everything is in place. If you ever get
stuck, just contact your web host customer support via email or
live chat. Most web hosts have very friendly, helpful customer
support agents that are more than happy to resolve your issues.

To sum it up, web hosts are the place where all your content for
your websites are stored, and your sites can’t function without
them. A great and affordable hosting service I recommend is
HostGator.