• SiteCatalyst permits you to simplify operations and improve data quality as well as create custom goal-related reports. There are 22 customizable reports that feature real-time reporting and web service APIs that allow you to implement flexible strategies to optimize your website.
• You have the ability to track social media with the use of SiteCatalyst, as it allows businesses to gain insight into the correlation between Facebook applications and website traffic.

• Using Google Analytics can generate a variety of types of reports, such as keyword reports, new user vs returning user reports and content reports showing what users are actually reading on your website. Google also allows you to save these reports on the dashboard so that they can be easily accessed.
• Google Analytics does more than just monitor page stats, you can also track your e-commerce transactions. With this information you can measure the success of marketing campaigns and find which ones lead to higher ROI.
• You can even track social media campaigns and traffic generated from social media. All it takes to set up Google Analytics is copying and pasting code into the HTML files for your website. Sign up for Google Analytics.

(author:inmotion)

Do you think of M-shaped arches, a shell or a swoosh? All are simple concepts, effectively employed by McDonalds, Shell and Nike. How can you tell if a logo’s going to be memorable? If you can’t look at a logo for fewer than 10 seconds and re-draw it with decent accuracy, it’s probably too complex to be easily remembered. (Besides being difficult to remember, most complex logos can’t effectively be reduced in size or rendered in black and white, making them useless for such elements as fax cover sheets and other business forms.)

You learn where they came from (referring website), what type of user they are (Mac user, PC user), what keywords they used to find you, and what they did while on your website (path taken to conversion). By monitoring web analytics, you learn how your website works well and where the weak spots are.

However, with effective management of your website and continual improvement, you can drive desired outcomes, both online and offline. Most hosting companies offer plans that come equipped with analytic tools.  Neocaptiva currently provides AWstats, Web/FTP stats and a tracker for monitoring the latest visitors to your website. These tools are the first step in getting a handle on measuring your website’s effectiveness.

There are many web analytic tools that are available to help provide insight into the workings of websites. Stayed tuned to our next three blogs that will discuss popular tools that simplify web analytics and are helpful to businesses looking to monitor their web presence.

author- inmotion

And if you want to look like a large company, remember this irony: The bigger the company, the smaller the logo.

2. Graphics. Use distinctive symbols and shapes in a consistent way. Choosing the same basic graphic elements will help customers remember your brand faster. Also, be consistent when using borders and/or backgrounds–or show a pattern of consistency that complies with your brand standards. For example, you could choose a cupid-themed border for a Valentine’s Day ad and a clover-themed border for a St. Patrick’s Day ad. In both cases, your border should be consistent in size and/or weight (the amount of emphasis it receives relative to the other elements on the page).

3. Colors. Color is one of the most important components when it comes to brand identity. The colors you choose will make an immediate impression on your audience, and play a large role in memory retrieval. Therefore color can significantly impact someone’s perception of your brand. For example, gold, silver and burgundy are perceived to be upscale, while green is viewed as fresh and healthy. I highly recommend you research and/or test-market certain colors before you commit to a palette. One easy–if not scientific–way to do this is to create a brochure or ad in three or four different color palettes, then survey various people for feedback. And remember that colors have different meanings in different cultures.

4. Fonts. Choose just a handful of fonts for use on all your materials, selecting at least one serif font and one san-serif font. Serif fonts have “feet” at the bottom of the font to guide the reader’s eye, while san-serif fonts don’t–”Times” is an example of a serif font; “Helvetica” is an example of a san-serif font. Serif fonts work well in paragraphs or body copy because they give the eye something to “hang on to.” San-serif fonts should be reserved for headlines, numbers in charts, very small text or text that’s reversed out of a color. As a general rule, you should use no more than two fonts in a document, although a third, decorative font could be used sparingly.

5. Illustrative or photographic style. Consider what type of visuals-pictures–you want to feature on your marketing materials. Will your visuals consist of illustrations or photos? Try to stick with one or the other. Regardless of your choice, your visuals should be similar in style and color usage–black and white, four-color, two-color, etc.

When you’ve identified rules for the above areas, write them down and distribute them to any employee or vendor–such as a designer or printer–who may need to reference them. Your brand standards will go a long way toward building your brand equity. It’s worth the time and effort to do it right.

Facebook is now as big as the whole Internet was in 2004 may or may not be true. More important is that it seems entirely believable. And that should scare competitors.

FORTUNE — If you’re not convinced of the immense challenge faced by Google and every other company that wants to take on the social-media market, consider this fact: Facebook today is reportedly bigger than the entire Internet was in 2004 — in terms of number of users.

Caveats abound, the biggest being that Facebook probably doesn’t actually have the 800 million users it claims. Case in point: recently, in testing my keyboard, I slapped some keys at random. I happened to have Facebook on my screen, and my keyboard-plonking ended up searching on “jmjyttyj.” I got three hits.

There is no member named jmjyttyj, but Facebook helpfully pointed me toward some members it thought I might be looking for: Jmyjtyj Kujytmm, Ujgyjy Hjyttyj, and Yjhtyj Rjyttyj. That was weeks ago, and all those clearly fake accounts are still there, even though Facebook says it assiduously seeks and destroys such dummy accounts. The company restricts people to one account each, and it says the 800 million figure represents “active monthly users.” But I have a second account, which I use approximately monthly for testing spam links and so forth. And lots of other people I know also have more than one that they use with some regularity.

Still, the figures for the total Internet population have likewise been inflated all along, taken as they generally are from polling Internet companies, which have an interest in presenting their customer bases as large. So it’s quite possible that, whatever the real numbers are, Facebook is indeed as big as the Internet was in 2004 — maybe even bigger. And either way, that such a claim can even be believably made is itself proof that any company that wants to steal social-media market share away from Facebook will have a tough go of it.

PPC for ecommerce is a blessing and a curse. PPC is clearly a blessing when it works as intended: driving qualified leads that make a purchase. But it’s a curse when you watch your PPC ad dollars going down the drain. To make things worse, your competitors are laughing at your expense (literally) as you scramble to keep up with their big budgets. Never fear – you can turn things around by following these five tips that your competition has been hiding:

1. Use negative PPC keywords like nobody’s business. Negative keywords are extremely important in protecting your budget. In a nutshell, negative keywords are words that filter your ad from appearing in search results for a corresponding query. For example, if you’re selling Teddy bears, but don’t offer giraffes, you could enter negative keywords like “stuffed giraffes,” and “plush giraffes.” This would keep your ad from appearing to customers that simply aren’t interested in your cuddly Teddy bears. To start building your list of negative keywords start by using Google’s Keyword Tool. Another idea is to go through your search queries and find keywords that rarely lead to conversions. By adding these negative keywords to your campaigns, you’ll save a lot of money on otherwise wasted clicks.

2. Let searchers know if your ad is right for them. One of the biggest misconceptions of PPC ad text is that it should appeal to everyone. Instead, you should write your ad to help prevent unqualified traffic. For example, if you only sell women’s apparel in sizes 12+, you want to indicate that in your ad text. This will prevent shoppers in search of smaller sizes from clicking into your ad and wasting your money. Another tip is to include a price range within your ad text, especially if you’re selling a product that ranges from low-end to high-end, like jewelry. That way, if your product is too expensive for a potential customer, they won’t be inclined to look at your 3-carat diamond rings for their upcoming costume party.

3. Steal your competitors’ customers (and keep your own). Your stealthiest competitors spend tons of SEO dollars to make their brand appear on the first page of search engine results. You can take advantage of this by advertising on the exact same page. All you have to do is start bidding on branded keywords. Branded keywords are those that reflect a specific brand or company name, whether it’s a competitor or your own. By bidding on searches based on brand name, you insert yourself as a direct competitor to the brand in question. And with compelling ad text (insert shiny discount here), you have a better chance of stealing that shopper away. It’s also a good idea to bid on your own branded keywords. This will give you more real estate in search engine results for your online business, which takes away space from your competitors.

4. Include discounts in your ad text. Another tactic to steal customers from your competition is to include discounts within your ad text, particularly for keywords that are for a specific product. If a shopper enters “42-inch Sony LCD TV,” it’s pretty likely that they’ve already decided on what they want to buy and are now comparing prices. By including a discount in your ad text, you’ll automatically appeal to this discount-seeking shopper and increase your chances for a sale. One extra tip: if you’re offering a discount in your ad text, reinforce that discount by listing it on your landing page.

5. Cater your landing pages to various stages of the buying cycle. All shoppers are not created equal. Your landing pages should reflect this. Some shoppers are ready to buy now, much like the previous example of the “42-inch Sony LCD TV” search. On the other hand, other shoppers are in the information-seeking stage, and are trying to figure out which type of TV is best for them. In this case, they may search for “What is LCD?” For the information-seeker, your ad text should provide information on the benefits of an LCD and why it’s all the rage. But for the shopper who’s ready to buy, your landing page should offer brilliant product photography and pricing information. Thus, take a close look at your popular search queries and cater their corresponding landing pages to provide information on what the shopper is trying to find. While this might take some extra effort, the boost in conversions will be well worth it. There you have it – five tricks that your biggest competitors have been keeping up their proverbial sleeves. Now that you have this knowledge, get to work and pump up your PPC campaigns!

Various Business Cards designed by Neocaptiva Marketing

5 tips for creating a professional business card that leaves a lasting impression

By John Williams

June 05, 2006

Expert Advice

Corporate Guide to Benefits

Many people overlook the value of having a professional business card that accurately reflects your brand image,yet this small piece of paper can be an important part of your collateral package. It’s often the first item prospects receive from you, so it’s your first opportunity to make a strong, positive impression on them.

The preponderance of do-it-yourself online business-card printing companies is an interesting and somewhat troubling phenomenon. With limited exceptions, it’s fairly easy to spot an inexpensively produced card. When you choose to “go cheap” on your business cards, what message does that send to those with whom you wish to do business? Are you really doing yourself any favors by missing out on the opportunity to start building a positive brand image right from the start?

Cheaper isn’t always better when it comes to first impressions. Give clients a great first impression with these tips and tactics:

Design Tips

Tip #1: Enlist the help of a professional designer unless you have the requisite skills to design your business card yourself.

Ideally, this person’s also tasked with designing your other collateral (letterhead, brochures, website, etc.), so it’ll be intuitive to carry your brand image through from those pieces to your card.

Tip #2: Keep it simple.

Business cards are typically just 3.5″ x 2″ (except when they’re not–see below), so you don’t have too much space with which to work. Don’t make your logo too large, don’t make the type too small to be comfortably read, and don’t be afraid to use white space.

Tip #3: Keep to the standard business card size–unless you’re the adventurous type.

There are things you can do to a 3.5″ x 2″ card to differentiate yourself (e.g., rounded corners), but going with an unusual shape can be tricky. A round card, for instance, is quite memorable, but it certainly won’t fit in standard business-card holder devices. You must be willing to trade convenience for memorability if you choose an unconventional shape or size.

Content Tips

Tip #4: Be deliberate in choosing the information to appear on your card.

What’s most important? Your name certainly needs to be there, along with the name of your company (via your logo), your phone number and your e-mail address. Space permitting, you can add your physical address, fax number, cell-phone number and company website address, if desired. Don’t clutter things up too much–as with the design, simpler and cleaner is always better.

Tip #5: Keep the back blank, or use it for non-critical information.

How often will people see the back of your business card? Traditional card storage modes assume that side is blank. If you do wish to put copy on it, be sure the information is of a supplemental nature: e.g., your company’s mission or tagline. While business cards should promote your brand identity, they shouldn’t be confused with advertising.

The Bottom Line

Think about how you use other people’s business cards when you make decisions regarding your own. Do you get frustrated when you can’t quickly find the information you need? Or the type is too small to read? Or printed in a font that’s hard to decipher? Do cheaply produced cards make you think less of the person or company represented? Does it take you a while to realize whose card it is, or what company that person works for?

Don’t make those same mistakes when designing your business card. Make sure it’s a positive reflection of both you and your company, and it mirrors your well-defined brand identity.

Branding~

When optimizing your website for the search engines, you want to target those keywords and keyword phrases that your audience searches most often. Whether you believe it or not, every industry simply has some buzz words that are used more often than others. For example, in the travel industry, the word “cheap flights” is used more readily than “discount hotels”.

Besides more traffic, you instantly brand your company as the leading resource for your audience’s queries. Because your keywords will naturally be thematically related to more and more search queries, as the prospect continues their research and your website continues to show up, you begin to build a powerful relationship in their mind that your company is probably a good starting point to a solution for their specific needs. That relationship is otherwise known as your brand.

Reputation~

An integral part of search marketing is cultivating links from reputable, authoritative websites in your industry that point to your website. These incoming links help your site in two distinctive ways. It will help your site rise in the search engine rankings because from all of the tests I’ve run, the Google algorithm considers these reputable links to account for roughly 70% – 80% of the weight of your website metrics.

The second thing it does is that your audience will see that other leaders in your industry are linking to you – which amounts to a vote of approval, or endorsing you as an expert.