More consumers are using the internet to shop than ever before and those who still purchase offline will often use the web to begin their search. This means that any business without a website is increasingly losing business. A smaller, less popular business with a website will be more likely to attract clients than a larger, well known business that does not have a site. Building a website is not very expensive and will greatly increase your company’s sales potential. Having a site is much less expensive than taking advantage of other mediums of advertising such as radio and television.
What a web site can do for you:
Introduction
Word of mouth is a great marketing tool. Usually this free marketing stratagem is thought of in terms of a consumer having a spectacular experience and then going on to tell others about your company, services, and/or products. What if you didn't have to rely on customers having the opportunity to tell others? What if they relayed feedback on a regular basis? What if they were offered incentives for providing feedback?
The web has created a new thoroughfare for marketing. The consumer can make a purchase in the click of a minute. Lines of communication are wide open creating opportunity for ecommerce. Businesses need to utilize the web to maximize their communication directly with their consumers.
A New Idea
Blogs and forums are popular and much visited on the web. It would be a great idea to have an ongoing blog or forum connected to your company's products and services, and an even better idea to have a blog/forum based on consumer feedback.
The difference would be that the business in conjunction with the consumer would "rate" the usefulness of the feedback. It would be comparable to a "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" option seen on blogs, but the participants would accumulate points based on how they are rated. A certain number of points would grant participants discounts and some other favorable acclaim (such as featured consumer of the month on the web page).
Good for All
This idea would be good for business and good for the consumers. Businesses want feedback but rarely get it. Consumers may see present feedback offered by companies but might be skeptical of its truthfulness. This would add a new dimension to feedback; instead of it being mostly a trophy for the business to showcase, it would create a useful resource for both the consumer and business.
Some consumers may not mind leaving feedback but most would not want to spend time on the process. If the consumer was offered incentive in leaving their insight, then more people would participate.
The idea would also create more of a community for consumers of the same company. Consumers could directly communicate with one another and the company. Irrelevant comments could be eradicated by close monitoring. People would be curious of how their feedback was rated and will return to the company's page which would create more opportunities for sales and higher rankings on search engine
We would like to discuss the advantageous nature of instilling a blog as an addition to an already established Web address.
Blogs are formatted in a forum-like way in order for users to communicate. The most popular blogs will pose the visitor with topics that are highly geared towards stimulating opinion and conversation. In relation to business, blogs are a fantastic way to generate consumer interest and feedback.
Previously, a "frequently asked question" page on a site offered a way to let the owner's of the site relay the sentiment, "We know that our visitors are out there and here are some useful tips and answers to questions and concerns that you may have". This element reassures the visitor that the business does in fact take note of their existence and the consumers are taken in consideration.
Blogs relate an equal sentiment, but are more dynamic in nature. A blog can be posted once a week, once a day, or several times a day. In many ways, blogs can take the shape of a web site, but be more interactive. Blogs can serve as a means to directly communicate often with your on-going and potential consumers, and for them to communicate with one another as well.
Thanks to the Internet, any person with an idea for a service or product can establish a business with a computer and access to the Web. This is great for the economy, but bad for businesses vying for the allegiance of loyal and returning consumers. This creates a sense of urgency screaming,"How am I going to convey a sense of distinction from the next person offering my product and services"? Blogs may be an immediate answer to the question. If our word seems not as convincing, maybe the word of the captain of a multimillion dollar company will serve better.
The marketing implications attached to blogs are enormous. The customer is a business' most valued asset. Depending on the size of your business, it may be difficult to facilitate a sense of individualized rapport with consumers. There are ways such as mailing lists, emails, and phone calls (maybe not a fantastic idea) to let the consumer know, "You are thinking about them", but as of late, nothing seems to be more economical, has the ability of proliferation, or involves so many consumers as blogs.
If you are going to make the decision to create a blog for your business, do it with full force! One of the drawbacks of having a blog is that you will lose all of the advantages if it is neglected. Be prepared to blog regularly with information on your company, products and services, and links to resources that are both fun and informative. Blogs are an excellent way to transcend the impersonal feel of the business-to-customer relationship and create a gregarious and personable connotation to your business fostered by the consumers. Word travels super-fast on the Web, the potential for word-of-mouth marketing is extraordinary; if your blog is a success, it will create a surge of traffic to your site.
Tips for Marketing Your Blog
Technology has enabled mankind to make great strides from landing on the moon, to speaking on cell phones, to the advent of the Internet. Speaking of the web, software and applications are being originated with great alacrity. It is as if you need your brain to be running at high cable speeds in order to internalize all of the options and advancements being offered. Well, it is too late to slow down now...
New Evolution
AJAX, short for Asynchronous Java Script and XML, is a web development technique for engineering interactive web applications. It was invented with the hopes of allowing web pages to react quickly by exchanging small amounts of data with the server (in a covert fashion) without the need of the entire web page to be reloaded with every change request. This ability facilitates interactivity, speed, and usability.
An example of AJAX in action is the applications of Google Suggest and Google Maps. In using the former, suggested terms appear and modify themselves as the user types instantaneously. The latter allows the user to zoom in, use the cursor to apprehend the map and scroll around without the page needing to be reloaded.
AJAX represents a synergy of technologies infused together to allow powerful possibilities. AJAX entails:
Before AJAX, web application worked by:
Again, we cannot completely frown on these events with our hindsight of 20/20. It was a marvel at the time, but AJAX has enabled something better. When an interface is loaded why does the interaction have to come to a halt with each request from the user? Why does the application have to go to the server at all? Now it doesn't!
An AJAX application is equipped with an AJAX engine filling the gap between the user and the server. This "middle man" does not prolong the process but expedites the process. An AJAX engine written in JavaScript and remaining incognito behind a frame is responsible for presenting the interface the user views and interacting with the server for the user. The interactions happen asynchronously (independent of relations with the server). The user never views a blank browser window or hourglass icon.
User actions that would warrant an HTTP request is replaced by a JavaScript call to the AJAX engine. Data validation, editing data in memory, and some navigation is handled solely by the AJAX engine. The engine will make requests for information from the server asynchronously (usually using XML) without prolonging the user's interaction.
Who's using AJAX?
Mochanin is making AJAX available to clients! AJAX is versatile enough to use in small to large applications and is technically sound!
Also, Google has taken great stock in AJAX. All major products Google has released recently (Orkut, Gmail, Google Groups, Google Suggest, and Google Maps) use the AJAX approach. Do you like some of the more fancy features present in Flickr? Guess what is responsible for the usability technology?
AJAX is an exciting development for web applications. Its proliferation is only going to grow as time goes on.
