Articles

Online Marketing Fundamentals – People

group of people viewing their smartphones
The crux of this post is simple, even though it’s called the online world it’s really still all about real people and their real fears, needs and desires.

Find out what your customers like and who they are. Make your interactions enjoyable and exceed expectations.

You know your best customers like you know your own family. Or do you? Maybe you know them about as well as you know your second cousins on your mothers side…
 
You need to look at real data, not just go with your gut feelings.

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Let’s Encrypt Issues 1 Billion FREE SSL Certificates!

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Want to make your website rank higher on Google for FREE?

Google stated that they were going to rank sites with SSL certificates higher than sites without them more than a year ago.  Now, if you go to a website without one you’ll likely see a warning appear on your browser, this can be confusing and often scares people away from proceeding further – even more reason to get one installed!

An SSL certificate encrypts the transmission of data from your website to the web browser that your viewer is using.  It proves that no one has intercepted the content and messed with it.  You don’t have to be an e-commerce website for this to be important.  Trust is everything on the web.

Get Your FREE SSL Certificate From Let’s Encrypt…

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Improving Your Website’s ROI – Part 1

You need to routinely evaluate how your website is performing. Don’t just throw money or hours of labor at the Internet and hope for the best.

How do people find you and how can you grow efficiently without wasting time or money?

To get your best return on investment (ROI) of time and/or money, just being found isn’t enough. You’ve got to be useful to your target audience.

If your target audience finds you useful they will happily promote you to other similar people. Just like a snowball rolling down hill. This is the most effective way to grow your business or organization today. Read More …

Global Social Media Trends

Captain Obvious will happily declare that Facebook is still the reigning champion of social media worldwide with a commanding lead of 2167 million users.

Yet, what I find very interesting is that YouTube, with 1500 million users, is almost twice as popular as Instagram with 800 million users. Yet, YouTube is often misunderstood and ignored by many marketers and organizations who could otherwise leverage YouTube to improve their reach and engagement. Read More …

Tech Tuesday: Online Security

picture of a computer cursor hovering over a button entitled "Security"

Given the number of high profile data hacks that we hear about almost every day, using two factor authentication (2FA) is no longer just an “option”.  Its a requirement if you are serious about your security online.

2FA is a way of adding additional security on your online account. The first “factor” is your usual “password”.  The second factor in this scenario is an ever-changing random code that is retrieved from an external device.  The most common devices today for generating these codes are smartphones… Read More …

Focus on Your Audience

Website Wednesday

Short & Simple Ideas to Improve Your Website’s ROI

A good website will connect with its audience. To do this you need to do your homework, know what your audience wants, and organize your content in ways that make it easy to navigate.

But wait, there’s more! With millions of websites fighting for the same viewers I think you have to do more…

(click the link or the picture to learn more) Read More …

Adapt or Perish – Facebook Marketing Reality

a picture of a smartphone with a Facebook login and lying on the table nearby are some word tiles spelling out "Social Media"

When planning Facebook marketing it’s crucial to have realistic expectations given the current state of the “pay to play” environment.

There have been a lot of changes since 2007 when “Fan Pages” were first rolled. At the time it was amazing to think that any organization could reach out and directly engage with their audiences simply by posting on Facebook.

Currently there is chatter in the online marketing world saying that organic reach is now less than 4% of your audience.

At Market Street we don’t believe you have to hand over your checkbook to Facebook just to get the word out. Read More …

Is Your Website Getting Found

picture of online search engine webpages

A Good Website Gets Found Easily

Search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo love websites that we design because smart SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is built into everything we do.  We keep up with the latest rules and recommendations from Google to make sure that your website will not be at risk of losing traction in search results.

We Are Here to Help

We go a step further than most and actually show you simple ways you can tune your online marketing materials for better search results.  At Market Street we give you as much education as possible to help you do what you want without having to come back to us for help. Read More …