by Nick Throlson | Jun 20, 2018 | Off Topic
Digital marketing has evolved rapidly over the last two decades. It?s now impossible to run a successful business without doing some marketing online. Here are just 8 ways in which you can promote you business on the web.Start by building a websiteBuilding a company website should be every business?s first priority. A website is your shopfront to the digital world and is where you?ll generate most new customers ? almost every other form of digital marketing is simply a way of leading customers to your website.There are lots of factors that go into creating a successful website from a striking homepage to easy navigation. You can create your own website using free website builders like WordPress ? you don?t need any coding know-how to do this. For a more elaborate and bespoke website, you could alternatively hire a professional company such as Svitla Systems custom web development company to build your site. Both have their advantages ? you?ll save money with a free website builder, but could have more freedom when it comes to design when choosing a professional company.Consider search engine optimizationHaving a website is no use if people can?t easily stumble across it. The most common way in which people stumble across websites is through search engines like Google and Bing. SEO (search engine optimisation) is a means of improving your rankings on search engines when certain keywords are entered. It?s possible to do your own keyword research and incorporate these words into your site, but you could be better off using an SEO company who have a more thorough understanding of keywords and the general field. Keywords aren?t the only thing that will boost your rankings ? having a strong presence can help, which all the following marketing methods can help to achieve.Image SourceReach out to new clients with social mediaSocial media is another great medium for finding new customers. By creating engaging content on these platforms, you can lure in new customers and then direct them to your website.There are lots of different social media mediums, all of which can be worth getting involved in, although certain social media channels may deserve more focus depending on the nature of your business. Local businesses can thrive using Facebook, whilst global businesses can benefit more from Twitter. LinkedIn can be great for marketing to other businesses, whilst Instagram is better suited for marketing to general consumers. There are then mediums like YouTube, which can be used for creating video content.The key to generate leads through social media is to make it fun and engaging. Constant promotional content won?t get people interested ? ideally your social media should be 20% promotional, 80% non-promotional. This could include using humours or offer advice or simply sharing facts and world news related to your niche. Images, videos, creative hashtags, memes, emojis, infographics and polls can all help to make your posts more varied and engaging. The likes of Facebook and Twitter can allow you to pay to promote posts to extend their range beyond your existing followers to strangers.Build trust with online reviewsMany customers look for signs of credibility before committing to a company. Online reviews on sites like Trip Advisor and TrustPilot are the best way of building this trust. You can help to build positive reviews by encouraging all happy customers to leave a review on these platforms. If you receive negative reviews, try to reply to these if possible as this can give you a chance to publicly apologize and explain yourself, which could help your reputation.Get other people to promote you through blogs and social mediaYou can expand your online presence further with third-party endorsements. This could involve getting a blog to write a promotional post on your company, getting a social media influencer to shout about you or encouraging a fellow company owner to endorse your work. Often this involves doing something in return ? you may throw some money their way, or promote them in turn. The more people you encourage to promote you, the greater your web presence. This can be a great organic way of attracting clients much like word of mouth in person.
Try email marketingAnother way of promoting your company online could be to use email marketing. This is most effective at encouraging return customers as it involved sending emails to people that are already on your mailing list. Like any form of digital marketing, there?s an art to email marketing ? your emails headers firstly need to grab people?s attention and the content needs to be engaging. Email marketing is mostly used for letting people know of updates and new promotions that you?re offering.Create PPC adsPPC ads are what most people think of when they hear ?digital marketing?. These are the adverts that you find all over the internet. PPC stands for ?pay-per-click? ? you usually pay an ad to run for certain amount of clicks before it is taken down. There are picture ads that you?ll find on most sites and there are text ads which you?ll find displayed at the top of search engine results. You can hire a professional PPC company such as Click Consult to design a picture ad or run a text ad marketing campaign on Ad words.Use video advertisingVideo advertising is another way of promoting your business. Before the internet, the only form of this was TV advertising, but the internet has made this exciting form of advertising for accessible for the average person. Video advertising include starting a channel on YouTube from which you create videos with your own camera and mic, or it could involve hiring a professional video production company to create content. This could be live action footage or an animation depending on what you feel is best for you. Video advertising is thought to be the future of digital marketing with a huge growing interest in the field.
by Nick Throlson | Jun 14, 2018 | Off Topic
If you don?t already know, computers were first built for military and scientific purposes, which businesses later adopted and it finally trickled down to the consumer market. With smartphones, the flow is just the opposite. They were built for the consumer market but now are widely used by businesses to bring operational efficiency and transparency.? And just like computers, mobile platforms too have over time evolved to become a duopoly. That is, if a business wants to build an enterprise application, they have only two feasible options- Android or iOS.While we won?t be delving into a detailed debate between the two platforms, the crux of the matter remains- Android yields lion?s share of app userbase but iOS has more secure and consistent market. That is, Android remains the preferred choice for businesses who need to reach a large number of users while iOS is tuned for businesses who need to deliver a superior and secure user experience. Upon that matrix, the enterprise applications clearly fall into the second category.? So let?s now take a detailed look at the benefits businesses can have by building an iOS app for their enterprise:Simplicity
One of the key selling points of iOS devices is its simplicity- the ease of use for even the most technically naive person. And because businesses can?t expect all of their employees to be technically proficient, it is their responsibility to keep enterprise application as simple to use as possible. Not only does it ensure wider acceptability but also brings down the initial barrier of training. Especially if some application is going to be used across all verticals,Userbase
Although it is used by less number of people as compared to Android, iOS platform claims higher usage in a very niche category of users- those financially well-off and reasonably educated, precisely the class employed by enterprises. That is, enterprises generally have an employee base that is already accustomed to the platform and so instead of introducing a new platform will be far less productive than building on what they are already comfortable with.Security
Apple is renowned for its tight security leash on both hardware and software levels- making the entire ecosystem much less vulnerable to security leaks and hacks. For businesses that rely on enterprise applications not just for operational efficiency but also handing confidential data, this can be a major priority. While developers are still free to add extra layers of security, the inherent iOS security is alone enough to ward off most of the vulnerabilities.Better Hardware And Software Integration
At its recent WWDC 2018 event, Apple demonstrated how valuable it can be to have tight integration between hardware and software. Not only most of its devices run the same version of iOS, but it even rolled out the latest update- iOS 12 to its five years old devices. For enterprise mobile application development environment, this is a major blessing. Unlike consumers, businesses do not frequently change hardware and are notorious for running legacy systems. But with such consistent and long-term update cycle, they can rest assured.Ecosystem Unlike consumer applications that generally work stand-alone, enterprise applications work in coordination with a host of other apps including cloud apps, system apps, and more. With iOS, you have the option to leverage the entire Apple?s ecosystem- which probably is the best available. Having almost all the solutions, it ensures all your business runs on a secure, stable, and feature-rich platform.
by Nick Throlson | Jun 5, 2018 | Business, Off Topic, Social Media
Having high website traffic is the necessary condition of success for small businesses specializing in online-based services. Without a steadily-increasing stream of visitors, internet-based companies have little room for growth. However, drawing in new consumers is not a simple task in today's marketplace. There are over 1 billion websites registered in the world today, meaning there is a lot of competition to be had between online businesses.
Coming out on top is not easy, but there are steps each company can take to improve their chance at success. Specifically, companies need to utilize a wide variety of marketing tactics in order to reach out to more and more potential customers. Choosing the right approach can be difficult, in no small part due to the abundance of low-quality online articles which tend to promise wonders, but deliver only trifles. So instead of pretending to sell you marketing panacea, we will use the rest of this article to outline what are some of the most commonly used methods of increasing online traffic.
Magazine Ads
Despite what some naysayers have been telling you, traditional media hasn't quite gone the way of the dinosaur yet. They are dwindling, however, which means they are more likely to support themselves through advertising. This is where your website comes in. Advertising your website through newspaper and magazine ads has never been cheaper. Use this opportunity to introduce people to your company logo, tag-line, and website URL.
Stickers, Leaflets, Business Cards
Don't underestimate the advertising potential of small bits of paper with your logo and website address on them. Printing and distributing paper-based materials is an inexpensive way to infiltrate the pockets of your fellow city-dwellers. Make sure to include these materials in your official press-kits, as local media can be a powerful ally for getting your name heard.
Mobile Advertising
People are taught to pay attention to moving vehicles from an early age. And if you know where their eyes will be looking, why not put an ad there? A single line of text such as a web address can easily be put on a bike, a car, or on the side of a train, thus ensuring your brand is circulating on the streets.
Outdoor Panels
Placing a Display Melightbox with your company logo and a QR code pointing to your website at the entrance of your business office, combines online and offline marketing for maximum impact. Passersby who regularly move through your area will have many opportunities to check out your ad, and some might even scan the code out of curiosity. This will lead them to your website irrespective of how popular it might be online.
Search Engine Optimization
People are not going to visit your website if they can't find it. Your service might be excellent and your site might be a masterpiece of design, but if no one comes across it while browsing online, all your effort will go to waste. SEO works by making your site more visible on search engine result pages. Optimization is achieved through the tactical use of keywords and keyword phrases throughout your site's content. The better your site is optimized, the greater the likelihood of it appearing among top search results on Google or Bing, which makes it easier to find through while browsing the web.
Blogging
Incorporating a company blog in your website ensures that you have a means of expanding your content on a regular basis. Blog posts are very versatile when it comes to increasing traffic. First, they are ripe for SEO because they can incorporate trending keywords as they become popular. Second, they are a free source of content for your social media page. Finally, quality blog posts can be valuable sources of information for other blog writers, who will in turn link to them, further spreading your online presence.
Social media marketing
By creating a social media profile for your business, you are setting it up to become a part of the online conversation. If they like your social media content, your soon-to-be followers will check out your profile, which should contain a link to your website, which is where you want to lead them. The best part comes from the fact that your followers are likely to share your content with their friends, potentially creating new followers at no extra cost to you.
Celebrity Streamers
The popularity of video-based services like Twitch and YouTube in recent years has brought about the rise of a new kind of entrepreneur: the celebrity streamer. These individuals make living by creating video content for their massive audiences. Having your website featured in one of these videos is sure to give a boost to your traffic. While it can be difficult to get a hold of top-level streamers, there are plenty of young, eager celebrity-wannabes that would be willing to promote your content at a fair price.
Causing a Traffic Jam Online
Increasing online traffic is often presented as something achievable only through esoteric means. The reality is that increasing website traffic is not as difficult as it seems. Understanding the basic principles behind online (and offline) advertising allows companies to expand their traffic quickly, conveniently, and at very little extra cost.
by Nick Throlson | May 28, 2018 | Off Topic
Consumer-grade computer devices come in many shapes and sizes nowadays. What they all have in common is the ability to access the internet, allowing consumers to browse the web whether they have desktop PC, a tablet, or a smart-watch. Add to that a variety of web browsing software, each with their own suite of add-ons, plug-ins, and extensions, and you get a digital ecosystem where everyone gets to surf the web in way they find most comfortable.On the other side of the equation, things couldn't be more different. Web developers and designers now have to create websites that render equally well across the myriad of devices in use today. Methods of input, screen sizes, and bandwidth limitations, are only some of the factors?that make the professional lives of modern website creators more difficult than they used to be.To address the issue of designing for an increasing variety of browsing configurations, a set of standards about what constitutes responsive web design were developed. These provide guidelines on how to adapt websites for optimal browsing on different devices and software. There are now various software packages on the market that allow you to test whether your website conforms to these principles. Here is a list of 5 of them that caught our attention recently.
Responsinator's main selling point is its ease-of-use. Simply type in a web-page URL, and Responsinator will give you a preview of how the page renders on a variety of common screen shapes and sizes. The page previews are fully functional as well, allowing you conduct rudimentary tests by clicking on links, filling out search fields, etc. Responsinator also has a handy feature in the form of a button for toggling between HTTPS and HTTP modes of previewing a site. This will give you an additional perspective for analyzing web pages. Responsinator is available for free online, and is used through a browser interface.Google Resizer, DevTools Device Mode, and Mobile-Friendly Test
Google offers a variety of tools for helping web developers and designers create websites that display perfectly on a range of popular devices, with a focus on mobile browsing. Google Resizer offers the ability to test a web-page across multiple screen sizes. Google DevTools Device Mode provides software simulations of various common devices, thus providing an opportunity to see how a given website works in practice. Google Mobile-Friendly Test is not a design tool per se, but it nonetheless presents a handy tool for?analyzing whether a web site is mobile friendly. All of Google's tools are available for free online.
The XRespond app markets itself as a "virtual device lab". The app offers the standard preview features for this kind of software, giving users the ability to see how a website looks on a variety of devices. The app interface is based around scrolling sideways to see how a site displays on a variety of screens, side by side. At the top of the screen is a toolbar that displays relevant information, such as the exact screen size, pixel density, etc. Supported devices include popular smartphones, tablets, and laptops. There is the option to manually specify screen sizes as well, for conducting tests for specific devices. XRespond is available for free online as a browser app.
Ghostlab is something of an industry standard when it comes to testing for responsive design. It offers the ability to test a site for multiple devices at the same time, side by side, giving you a clear overview on how well it renders on a variety of configurations. Actions in one browser sub-window, such as following links, clicking on buttons, or filling out forms, will get replicated on all others, giving you an unparalleled productivity boost. Sydney based web design agency?recommend Ghostlab as the definitive tool to use when creating responsive websites. Ghostlab is a paid app, with a 7-day trial being offered as well. It is a mid-point between free online apps, and expensive corporate solutions.
If you need a quick and dirty way to check how responsive your website is, look no further than the Am I Responsive? browser app. It is not intended for serious design analysis, but it works really well for what it is intended for. You can choose between a generic desktop, laptop, tablet and smartphone display, which are good enough for giving you a rough estimate on a website runs on such devices. It has a handy screenshot feature that puts the various display modes all into the same frame, which is great for creating promotional screenshots. You are not limited to testing remote websites either ? just type in a localhost address into the search field, and get a preview of how a website in progress from your hard drive is panning out. by Nick Throlson | May 24, 2018 | Off Topic
Magento is by accounts, the most popular and powerful eCommerce development platform available on the market. It is feature-rich, secure, scales seamlessly, and houses ample diversity in itself. In fact, even if there are thousands of virtual stores built using Magento, there are so many themes and plugins available that none of them would look or feel similar. This is also perhaps the reason why irrespective of goals, Magento development services do a pretty fine job of fitting-in in every industry and meet unique business requirements for all.That said, Magento isn?t just a static tool but an evolving technology that partly owing to its open-source tag is consistently endowed with new features. Those features when implemented, ultimately define the course of eCommerce as a whole. That is if you wish to gauge at the larger picture, just follow up with the trends on Magento. Here are the latest ones:Personalized Shopping
This has been in making for a very long time and has finally started to gain traction. Earlier online stores used to be somewhat like a warehouse where each customer was bombarded with the same set of products. And customers had to simply browse through countless number of products until they found what they were looking for.That onus now falls on businesses. With personalized shopping, eCommerce businesses now take into account the past purchases, general interests, budget considerations, among many other factors to finally curate a handful of products displayed uniquely to each customer. This is like walking into a store that may have countless number of products stored but only a few- the most meaningful to them are on display.Related: Vital Tips to Hire the Experienced and Reliable Magento DevelopersEnriched Content
Images, though important, aren?t appealing enough to persuade customers on their own. What businesses need to sell is not just a product but a story around it. Magento development is feature-rich to match that as well. Be it through animation, videos, or cutting-edge AR incorporation, we can expect more of these content to feature in eCommerce as we move further into 2018.Enhanced User Experience
From overall navigation theme to the time it takes to load a page, every aspect of an online store plays a crucial role in customer engagement and retention. For instance, if your site takes more than 3 seconds to load, chances are they won?t hang around. If they do not find their preferred payment option during checkout, they might abandon the cart.Magento development service now takes into account all these tidbits that are as important as core functionalities to improve not just the engagement but also overall business prospects. That is, as we move further, you will find Magento applications to be more engaging, faster, and all-inclusive.Notifications and Opt-in Forms
Businesses realize that people can?t and will not shop every day. But if they let them loose, they might not ever come back. To ensure engagement and nurture a business-customer relationship, notifications are newsletters are a fantastic channel.More and more Magento services are now incorporating notifications on their platform to consistently keep nudging their customers and occupy an exclusive mind-space.Opt-in forms are another sustainable channel to keep users informed by not acting just a destination for shopping but also the source of information.Mobile Commerce
Yes, there is the responsive design and the mobile-first strategy but we aren?t just talking about how the eCommerce looks and feel on mobile devices but how it works. And with the rise of wireless broadband and mobile wallets, the integration couldn?t be any easier for eCommerce to exploit. Magento, having full range of features for mobile devices, is guaranteed to fuel this segment in coming days by Nick Throlson | May 16, 2018 | Off Topic
With millions of apps competing for user attention, the road to success is really steep that only a handful of top mobile application development companies have managed to trace. So, no matter how great an idea you have, unless it takes the shape of an equally appealing app, there is little chance that you will achieve the desired success.Here are 10 tips to ensure the success of your app, which isn?t left to mere luck:1. Design to captivate
The first thing that a user experiences after launching your app isn?t its features or performance, but the design. And it is this first impression that largely determines the appreciation it evokes in users, that may later turn into loyalty. So, be it Android?s material design or iOS?s flat design concept, be sure to exploit the full potential of the powerful UI/UX customization they offer.2. Keep it simple
In a rush to create the most appealing and responsive design of all time, do not underestimate the basics. The first rule of creating an elegant UI is to minimize the number of clicks that it takes to do any particular tasks. Expect for one-click solutions, conventionally, if it is more than 4-5 clicks to reach any particular page or task, it is evident that there is something wrong and you may need to take the design back to the drawing board.3. Target all platforms
Unless you have some specific users in mind or your app performs some functionality that?s acceptable on any particular platform, your app must be available on all platforms. Be it Android, iOS or iPad, each of these platforms has their own set of users, any of which must not be missed if you wish to create a highly successful app.That said, you don?t necessarily need to hit all those platforms at once and can take your time to test the feasibility and response on one platform and then use that knowledge for subsequent releases.4. Keep evolving
As the technology evolves, your users expect your app to provide new features. Because if your app offers the same set of functions even after months or years after they installed it, they have every reason to come out looking for a better, more productive alternative.5. Do not hesitate to experiment
It doesn?t mean you should force your whims on all your existing users. Be it a new feature or a design change, release them first to certain small test groups across different regions. And if the response is positive, you can proceed to a full-scale release.6. Keep your goals in sight
Most times, in an effort to offer something refreshing, businesses tend to betray the core concept of an app, which as expected, irks the users. If you wish to offer a new service, a separate app is the better path to take and not treat the existing app as a testing ground.7. Clear monetization strategy
There are instances when an app starts out as free and after a while, when the user base swells and they struggle with the revenues, they bombard the app with ads and in-app purchases. This is something you must not indulge into. Get your revenue channels figured out from the beginning else it will risk the credibility of your app.8. Make it secure
Perhaps, this goes without saying- no matter what your app does, if it?s not secure, don?t even bother launching it. Especially, if it collects personal, sensitive information, employ the finest encryption methods and try to store data locally than routing it to servers.Also read: How to Integrate Security in App Development at Early Stage9. Go for offline
There is possibly nothing more annoying when an app goes useless the moment internet connection is turned off. Especially if your app does something important, try to make some functionalities available offline to help users when they are off-grid.10. Retention is the key
If you know anything about mobile app business or even marking in general, you may know that referrals are in fact the cheapest way of customer acquisition. So, instead of burning your resources on acquiring users, focus more on retaining those who are already there. Because if you manage to delight a small number of users, they will work as a catalyst to bring new ones.
Try email marketingAnother way of promoting your company online could be to use email marketing. This is most effective at encouraging return customers as it involved sending emails to people that are already on your mailing list. Like any form of digital marketing, there?s an art to email marketing ? your emails headers firstly need to grab people?s attention and the content needs to be engaging. Email marketing is mostly used for letting people know of updates and new promotions that you?re offering.Create PPC adsPPC ads are what most people think of when they hear ?digital marketing?. These are the adverts that you find all over the internet. PPC stands for ?pay-per-click? ? you usually pay an ad to run for certain amount of clicks before it is taken down. There are picture ads that you?ll find on most sites and there are text ads which you?ll find displayed at the top of search engine results. You can hire a professional PPC company such as Click Consult to design a picture ad or run a text ad marketing campaign on Ad words.Use video advertisingVideo advertising is another way of promoting your business. Before the internet, the only form of this was TV advertising, but the internet has made this exciting form of advertising for accessible for the average person. Video advertising include starting a channel on YouTube from which you create videos with your own camera and mic, or it could involve hiring a professional video production company to create content. This could be live action footage or an animation depending on what you feel is best for you. Video advertising is thought to be the future of digital marketing with a huge growing interest in the field.
Consumer-grade computer devices come in many shapes and sizes nowadays. What they all have in common is the ability to access the internet, allowing consumers to browse the web whether they have desktop PC, a tablet, or a smart-watch. Add to that a variety of web browsing software, each with their own suite of add-ons, plug-ins, and extensions, and you get a digital ecosystem where everyone gets to surf the web in way they find most comfortable.On the other side of the equation, things couldn't be more different. Web developers and designers now have to create websites that render equally well across the myriad of devices in use today. Methods of input, screen sizes, and bandwidth limitations, are 
Magento is by accounts, the most popular and powerful eCommerce development platform available on the market. It is feature-rich, secure, scales seamlessly, and houses ample diversity in itself. In fact, even if there are thousands of virtual stores built using Magento, there are so many themes and plugins available that none of them would look or feel similar. This is also perhaps the reason why irrespective of goals, Magento development services do a pretty fine job of fitting-in in every industry and meet unique business requirements for all.That said, Magento isn?t just a static tool but an evolving technology that partly owing to its open-source tag is consistently endowed with new features. Those features when implemented, ultimately define the course of eCommerce as a whole. That is if you wish to gauge at the larger picture, just follow up with the trends on Magento. Here are the latest ones:
With millions of apps competing for user attention, the road to success is really steep that only a handful of top mobile application development companies have managed to trace. So, no matter how great an idea you have, unless it takes the shape of an equally appealing app, there is little chance that you will achieve the desired success.Here are 10 tips to ensure the success of your app, which isn?t left to mere luck:
