EworksWSI Cyprus Internet marketing Blog

Confirmed Internet marketing trends 2013 that you should not miss

Mon, 20 May 2013 08:32:00 GMT

Internet marketing trends 2013

The year 2012 was very eventful in internet marketing. Several trends emerged that will influence the progress of internet marketing during 2013. Based on the trends from the previous year and the developments until today we can identify some trends that are confirmed for the year 2013 concerning internet marketing.

Internet marketing is developing extremely fast

In the beginning of the previous year Google announced that they plan to roll out more than 500 algorithms and data based updates in 2012. World’s biggest search engine kept its word and last year brought substantial development in search results quality. Google is only a small part of internet marketing and it must be noted that other internet marketing channels develop as fast as Google.

More business owners search for opportunities to gain extra value from the opportunities internet has to offer. Competition in internet marketing channels is only growing and to compete with competitors you need to be up to date with the latest internet marketing trends.

The main trends of internet marketing in 2013

1. Increase in internet and internet marketing users

The number of internet and internet marketing users grow rapidly worldwide. Compared to the previous year there was an 8% growth in internet users around the world, which forms 34% of the whole population. In Europe alone 500 million internet users exist, which is 63% of the European population. The growing internet community affects the media market where more money is directed online. The competition goes fiercer and businesses must implement new strategies to stay in competition.

Internet is a continuously growing marketing channel where penetration grows each year.

2. Search engine marketing

Google has made a clear statement that they will improve their search engine results in expense of content that offers little or no value to users. Author Rank is a new tool by Google that evaluates authors the same way as Page Rank evaluates websites reliability. Author Rank links authors Google+ account with author-generated content. Google will evaluate reliable links that originate from the same author and makes its conclusions about the authors’ authority. This is an effective method to fight against copyright violators and raise awareness about quality content. Google has not yet rolled out with Author Rank but it’s predicted that in the end of 2013 Author Rank will be part of Page rank.

Search engine marketing will remain an important activity in website marketing.

3. Social media revolution continues

Businesses that are active in social media should already get considerable amount of traffic via social channels. Facebook reached 1 billion users in 2012 and the social media king will continue with the growth this year. Lately they announced Graph Search that will give the social network a whole new perspective. It’s been discussed that Facebook will overtake search function from Google and they put some effort to achieve this.

As mentioned above Google+ will gain more importance in SEO which results in growth in users’ rate. But the transition to G+ is not because of the social network itself but because it’s a vital part of optimization.

LinkedIn will stay on top of its niche. And for Twitter it’s a question whether to IPO or not to IPO.

Don’t forget: “What happens in life stays in Facebook and Twitter”

4. Content marketing

Content marketing has been a trend for a few years now. But content is going only stronger and Agent Rank with other algorithm updates like Panda and Penguin will push the content to be more valuable. Great content includes quality information, pictures, videos, whitepapers, e-books and interactive infographs. In addition, killer content spreads like wildfire in social media which also boosts your SEO.

Quality content is worth investment as you gain loyal followers whom may become your next customers.

5. Smartphones will continue their triumph

There are 1.1 billion smartphone users which include about 17% of the whole population. To consider that there are 5 billion mobile users the number of smartphone users has grown extremely fast. In addition, 13% of all internet traffic comes from mobile devices. It is predicted that by the year 2014 global mobile internet usage will exceed the internet usage on PC’s (Morgan Stanley). This kind of vast development is driven by 3G internet, the fast development of gadgets and the development of e-commerce.

When planning your marketing strategy don’t forget that users will change the big screen for smaller devices that they will carry 24/7.

6. Analytics become even more important

When you start investing into internet marketing you need to analyse the metrics to know the return on investments. Today there are countless abilities to measure web analytics but the chances are not used wisely. For example, free analytical tools like Google Analytics offer amazing opportunities to measure your marketing activities and make conclusions that will help to make better investments but business owners’ lack of knowledge to use all these abilities. Furthermore, Google says that in the end of 2013 Analytics will be unrecognizably changed. Improved functionality, of course! You can read more from here.

Only what you can measure you can fix as well.

Conclusion

Internet marketing changes really quickly bringing substantial developments every year. New opportunities emerge for businesses to be visible and interact with customers online. The best advice to give all internet marketers is to follow the emerging trends and implement them to your marketing strategy.

Have a successful marketing year!

First published on wsidigitalmarketingvoice.com/

EworksWSI et la crise financière à Chypre dans une émission radio

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 06:59:00 GMT

Vu l’ampleur de la tourmente financière qui s’est abattue sur Chypre, et ses répercussions sur la vie quotidienne de ses habitants, EworksWSI a participé à une cette émission radio consacrée à la crise économique de Chypre avec:

Hartmut Clasen, ancien cadre bancaire, dirige aujourd'hui la société EworksWSI à Chypre. En contact quotidien avec le milieu des entreprises chypriotes, ce Consultant en informatique témoigne des ravages engendrés par cette crise, et raconte les vagues successives de faillites déclenchées depuis l'été 2012.

Jean-Claude Boloux, ex-directeur de la banque Société Générale à Chypre, apporte un éclairage sur l'origine de la crise et les dispositions inédites imposées par les créanciers internationaux pour assurer un plan de financement, passé désormais à 23 milliards d'euros.

Nos avons tenté de répondre aux questions que tout le monde se pose:

• Comment Chypre en est-elle arrivée là?

• Quelles sont les mesures prises par le gouvernement pour éviter les fuites de capitaux?

• d'autres banques que la Laiki et la Bank of Cyprus, seront-elles touchées dans l'avenir?

• Que penser des quelques propositions avancées pour sauver Chypre du marasme:
- sortie de la zone euro,
- exploitation des gisements gaziers,
- légalisation des casinos,
- hausse des impôts sur les sociétés.

Emis dimanche 14 avril 2013, à 18h05 sur Radio Astra, 92.8FM et 105.3FM.

Vous pouvez réécouter les émissions en podcast

en cliquant ici

Use LinkedIn to Find a Job in Cyprus

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 21:00:00 GMT

80% of all jobs are landed because of networking. But there are only so many networking lunches and coffees in Cyprus that you can attend.

We thought sharing some alternative ideas on how to use LinkedIn to find a job. LinkedIn is an exceptional social networking tool for salespeople, but it can also be a terrific tool to use if you’re looking for your next job.

You can hit the 'JOB' button on the top menu and all jobs in your network are listed. But this approach remains rather untargeted.

One of the best ways to use LinkedIn to find a job is to use your college affiliation. Many people in Cyprus went to well known colleges and Universities and those who have graduated from the same college as you are typically very happy to help others who share their college experience.

Here are some quick tips on how to connect with people who attended your college or university:

1. Connect with your alumni group.

The first step is to become a member of your university’s alumni group on LinkedIn. Virtually every college and university in the world has one or more. Just go to the Groups Directory and search for the name of any educational institutions you attended. You’ll find that some schools have multiple groups, so join as many as appeal to you.

Once you’re a member, scan the group’s Discussions, Members and Jobs for networking opportunities. For instance, join a discussion of fellow alums talking about your industry, comment on an article someone has posted or introduce yourself to the Group Manager, who is often a representative of the Alumni Association (often a very connected and helpful person).

You can also start your own discussion, perhaps posting an article with a few personal comments or posing a question to group members. Or, you can introduce yourself and your goals: “Hi fellow Eagles: I’m new to the group and excited to connect with fellow alums. I’m currently looking for a job as an accountant and am eager to connect with any other job seekers. Thanks!”

Remember also that LinkedIn permits you to send a message or connection request to anyone with whom you share a group on LinkedIn (as long as that person has opted to accept such messages), which will help you build one-on-one relationships with individual group members.

2. Use the LinkedIn Alumni tool.

The LinkedIn Alumni tool provides you with information about where your fellow alums work, what they do and where they live. The tool pre-fills the years you attended a school listed on your LinkedIn profile and shows you the classmates who attended at the same time. For a broader search, you can enter additional graduation years.

Let’s say you are looking for a job in public relations at a university or nonprofit organization in the Nicosia area. The tool helps you narrow your vast alumni network to those who live in Nicosia and work in public relations. You can scan the list of “Where they work” and find the universities and nonprofits where your fellow alums are employed. LinkedIn Alumni will show you the exact profiles of the alums who fit all of your criteria.

Considering a move to Limassol? Just start a new search and click on that region under “Where they live” and all of the data will change to show you fellow alumni in that geographic region instead. If you attended more than one university, you can use the “change school” feature at the top of the page to explore other colleges and universities.

3. Connect with your fellow alums.

Once you’ve identified some alums in your desired field and location, make contact. While there are no guarantees, fellow alums are more likely to reply to a networking request than random strangers, because you share a common experience.

Ideally, your message will mention your alumni connection early on. It’ll also be polite and professional and show that you’ve done your research on the other person (signifying that you’re not just sending out generic blast messages).

Remember, you never want to sound desperate and you never want to ask directly for a job or to send a resume. The goal here, as with any good networking message, is to establish rapport and ask for general information and advice.

4. Connecting on LinkedIn via mobile device.

LinkedIn has a terrific mobile user interface which is easy to use and a great way to make connections or do research just prior to your job interview. If you haven’t already downloaded LinkedIn to your smartphone, just visit your app store and download it now. More importantly, use the app!

Here are a few ways you can use LinkedIn’s mobile app to help you find a job:

Just before your job interview, do a search on the company so you can refresh your memory about key facts, figures and management
Check for any news about the company or the industry just before walking through the door so that you’re up-to-speed on the latest news and events
Review your interviewer’s biographical information while you’re waiting in the lobby or riding the elevator
Check to see if you and your prospective employer have any mutual connections. If so, mention them in the interview

The bottom line on using LinkedIn to find a job.

LinkedIn is a terrific tool that can be used in a variety of ways.

• If you’re a salesperson, you can use it to connect with prospects.

• If you’re an employer, you can use it to review prospective employee’s background information. And

• if you’re looking for a job, you can use it to connect with potential employers and smooth the way to a successful interview.

Those are just a few of the ways people are using LinkedIn to look for a job. What are some of your favorite LinkedIn tips and techniques? Let us know in the comments section below.

Three Ways to Attract Customers using Inbound Marketing

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 06:31:00 GMT

Communicators rely on outbound or ‘push’ marketing strategies to generate sales leads.

However, customers are inundated with countless advertising messages every day. Inbound, or marketing by attraction, breaks through the clutter.

The term “Inbound marketing” suggests creating valuable, engaging content and resources that pull customers to your brand organically.

Examples include blogs, YouTube videos, social media conversations, whitepapers and strong search placement, all of which should complement your outbound campaigns (e.g. email).

1	Connect with the customer One of the best ways to attract customers is connect with them on more than a transactional level using social media and events. Whether providing valuable information or a much-needed laugh, inject some brand personality and show the human side of your company.

2	Get visual Photographs, infographics and videos are shareable on social media and digestible for busy customers. Aim to visually convey your brand’s story on your blog and through social channels through content. Some good ideas include filming a video interview with your CEO, asking customers to submit a picture of themselves using your product, or uploading video demos and tutorials. Look around these days and you’ll find it’s hard to miss the growth of sites and services that rely on the more visual aspect of our senses growing rapidly. Sites like Pinterest rely on lots of pretty picture to tell stories and attract visitors. Infographics and visualized data still attract lots of interest. It’s a well documented fact that images get much more engagement on social networks like Facebook and Google+. Even Twitter, land of 140 characters, has introduced a visually based service called Vine in an effort to grab a greater share of the eyeball. A picture immediately lights our emotions and initiates a complex cognitive process that is a true wonder in the world of science.

3	Provide a call to action Make sure customers have a clear path toward a deeper level of engagement with the company - even if it’s as simple as leaving a comment. Inbound marketing is about fostering a long-term relationship. The more customers interact with your brand, the more they’ll remember you when it’s time to make a purchasing decision. Make it easy for them with simple calls-to-action.

Customers often ignore, blatant marketing speak. Providing accessible and valuable content and conversations as part of an inbound marketing campaign will help your brand will become a trusted resource – and attract future customers.

Slideshare can help your business to be found on Search Engines

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 15:57:00 GMT

SlideShare

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Overview: What is SlideShare?

Think of SlideShare as the YouTube for slideshows. Launched in 2006, SlideShare was originally meant to be used for businesses to share slides among employees more easily. However, it has since exploded globally, now allowing anyone to host and share presentations for business or entertainment purposes. SlideShare is the world’s largest community for sharing presentations. Individuals and organisations alike upload documents to SlideShare to share ideas, conduct research, connect with others and generate leads for their businesses.

Why use Slideshare

SlideShare is the world's largest community for sharing presentations. With 60 million monthly visitors and 130 million pageviews, it is amongst the most visited 200 websites in the world. Besides presentations, SlideShare also supports documents, PDFs, videos and webinars.

SlideShare 101 from Amit Ranjan

SlideShare features a vibrant professional and educational community that regularly comments, favorites and downloads content. SlideShare content spreads virally through blogs and social networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Individuals & organizations upload documents to SlideShare to share ideas, conduct research, connect with others, and generate leads for their businesses. Anyone can view presentations & documents on topics that interest them, download them and reuse or remix for their own work.

Capture Leads with SlideShare

Your SlideShare profile also allows you to execute a LeadShare campaign to increase your presentations’ exposure, while collecting leads. You can either upgrade your business’ profile to a SlideShare PRO account in order to leverage the leads feature or you can simply create a customized LeadShare campaign in which you pay accordingly to the type of leads your business is interested in capturing. Essentially, your business’ LeadShare campaign can be fully customizable and it will allow you to:

• Choose a select group of documents or presentations for your campaign
• Customize your lead questions
• Select specific countries to target
• Receive emails any time a lead is collected
• Measure and control campaign performance

The LeadShare feature is an ideal solution for businesses who want to reach potential customers through their presentations.

Buying Twitter and Facebook followers may hurt you!

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 22:00:00 GMT

When businesses start using social media, they often focus on their number of Twitter followers, Facebook likes, etc. and desperately want to increase those numbers. That’s why “services” that offer hundreds of thousands of new “real” followers for $5 or $150 can look like a good idea.

But it's not

Increasing your number of followers – or reach – can be instrumental in making your social media marketing more effective. But, having more followers only helps if those followers are real people. You want followers who will notice you in their stream and be interested in what you have to say and sell.

Unfortunately, the Twitter followers you can buy are not real.They’re kind of like the “valuable” video clicks you can get from Buyral,

As advertised in this (parody) video.

(This video is a parody!)

Don’t forget about your business’s real goals. Your primary goal is probably to sell more of your product or service. In addition, you may have sub-goals that you think will help you get there – like increasing your reach in social media.

Socialbakers developed an interesting tool that allows you to check if your Twitter followers are real or fake (and if you find a high percentage of fake followers you should probably have a discussion with your marketing agency!)

Check if your Twitter followers are real here

Sometimes it is just too obvious: like the electrical appliances shop in Cyprus that went from 0 to 2500 friends/followers in 40 days and then remained at the same level, probably all the same "friends" that are following the other clients of the same marketing company that generated the first 2500....

Think of it this way: If you’re a real estate agent, one of your goals may be to get more people to show up to your open houses. But, would it make sense to put an ad on Craiglist and offer to pay random people to show up to the open house? I doubt it, because your real goal is to sell the house. What are the odds that one of those people would buy that particular house, or that they’re even in the market for a house?

Getting more followers in social media can help your business get more sales, but only if you are gaining real, qualified followers.

What can buying followers get you?

A higher number on your profile.
Less money in your budget.
A lower conversion rate.
Bad press and/or snarky tweets.
Possibly hacked.
Possibly in trouble with Twitter or Facebook.
You could easily be back where you started.

In summary: At best, buying social media followers is a waste of money.

So, what are the alternatives? How can you get meaningful followers in social media?

Be interesting. When you post interesting things in your social media accounts, your real followers will notice and possibly retweet, share or +1 your content – thereby getting in front of more eyeballs that may choose to follow, like or circle you. Also, when someone is considering whether to follow or “like” your page, they will often look at your recent posts to see if they will want to see them in their stream.
Post regularly. Posting often keeps you on your followers’ radar, and will make it harder for people to forget about you. Also, many people will only see a small percentage of all your posts – either because they follow too many people, they don’t check their account very often, or because Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm only shows them a few posts from the pages they like. So you want to keep post often, so that all your real followers will at least see some of your posts.
Make the first move. On the social networks that you can follow people as a business page, go for it. They may notice and follow you back.
Be social. For example, view your stream and reply to interesting posts or tweets. Many people don’t want to follow companies that only push out marketing drivel day after day.
Let people know you use social media, and make it easy for people to follow you. Does your website have easy buttons or links to your Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn pages? Do your email newsletters link to your social presences?
Facebook ads are a way to indirectly buy likes/fans. You can target your ads to the type of people you would like to see your ad. (Pro tip: Go for the type of people you think might want to buy your product or service.)
Promoted tweets are another indirect way to buy followers. They get your tweets seen by more (real) people that don’t already follow you, and if they like your tweet, they just might follow you.

So save your money, and possibly a few headaches work with a serious digital amrketing agency: Don’t buy Twitter followers. You’ll get much more out of your social media efforts by putting your resources towards quality content and engaging with people.

(This post is based on an article from Kristina Weis)

Have a question? Or a comment?

Backlinking is DEAD: Updated SEO procedures at WSI

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 22:00:00 GMT

SEO: Linkbuilding is replaced by Linkearning

Is Link Building really dead?
Yes, since the last Pinguin, Panda updates - Google is fighting webspam and doesn't want artificial link building (and your site will be penalized from now on)

To answer the numerous queries regarding the new SEO procedures we would like to clarify as to what works and what doesn’t. Particularly regarding link building. So let me give you the facts. This information is coming directly from Google who answered some burning questions we all wanted to know on a Google Hangout about 2 weeks ago, and summaries are below:

Building artificial links, using keywords in anchor text and pointing them back to your site etc is a strategy Google really fought against in 2012.

I mean we shouldn’t even be using “link building” as a term in the SEO community anymore. I know this is hard to do. I even catch myself saying it from time to time. However, the focus is on link earning which is much different.

What does still work and Google is OK with:

Directory Submissions

Google did target a bunch of spammy directories , but overall this is still a strategy that works. Sites like Best of Web Directory, BBB.org, Yahoo Directory etc are all high quality stuff that Google values.

Social Bookmarking

Sites like Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon etc. That is why we are adding social sharing implementation part of our SEO programs, so it encourages users to share content.

Citations

Submitting your business information, not only to Google, Yahoo and Bing local, but also citation sites such as Yelp, YellowPages, Manta, MerchantCircle ect.

Press Releases

Not those free PR sites, but use PRWeb.com or something similar to get high quality backlinks. Again, not that there is anything wrong with free PR submissions; it is just the fact that since link “earning” has become more difficult this is still one really cool way to build high quality links, when a company writes news worthy info. So, don’t waste the effort on low quality sites that may or may not help. Focus on the high quality submissions.

Blog Submissions

This stuff is still good. There have been reports about spammy blog syndication sites that have been hit, but nothing really confirmed. But, again, if it is spammy it is just a matter of time as well…

Google’s Matt Cutts on how to figure out which links to remove (video)

What does NOT work and Google is against:

or consider of extremely low value (and can still potentially hurt your rankings):

Link Building – getting one way links from sites/microsites that are merely used for that purpose. We all know what these sites look like and this is a big no no.

Article Submissions – a lot of those free article spinning sites are targeted, so you are better off publishing articles on your own site as unique content. Now again this doesn’t mean if you were on ehow.com, or sites like that, articles wouldn’t work. That stuff still works.

Why did Google launch the disavow tool in Google Webmasters?

Because now that links can hurt you what is stopping your competitors sending your website all these crappy links that Google doesn’t even like? This tool was engineered so you can let Google know if this happens. It is also helping Google build a database of ‘spammy’ sites. If all these people report xyz.com, Google will know if your site is getting a link from there it is potentially bad for you.

In summary: New linkearning parameters

Our job as being SEO professionals is no longer about link building, and page ranks. That stuff is a thing of the past. This is how our job is changing and what we need to focus on:

What social signals will help me rank?
Remember as we said on the webinar – this is information coming DIRECTLY from Google… When asked “What social metrics/signals will help you rank?” They replied:

Shares
Reshares
Links that are shared
Repins
Retweets
Google +1

How can I improve my bounce rate, time spent on site, and social signals activity on my site, along with the SERP listing, to improve CTR?

Again coming from Google; they said “If you want your page to rank it has to focus on a topic, or it will not rank well.” They also went on to say that they are looking to see if someone clicks on your links in the SERP page, goes to your website, leaves, and clicks on someone else's page. These are metrics they are tracking to see if the user got the information they wanted. Try to get more involved on social media sites as it relates to SEO.

How should we approach content generation, specifically regarding articles?

Content generation should always be unique. Content is of paramount importance online now, and adding high quality content to your websites on a regular basis can help you rank better, as well as prompt users to share your content with other people. Always be sure your content is providing value to the end user, and not the search engines.

Hopefully this helps and if you have any questions, or if you would like us to personally look into an SEO program you currently have, you can email us directly at info@eworkswsi.com.cy

How to Start an Effective Mobile Marketing Campaign

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 18:38:00 GMT

Start an Effective Mobile Marketing Campaign

While a SMS Mobil Marketing program is similar to an email campaign there are also many differences. Most companies choose to work with an experienced digital marketing company such as Eworks WSI who package the expertise and creativity, along with an easy-to use tool where you can create, send and analyze the results of your campaign.

An Effective Mobile Marketing Campaign Starts With:

•   Permission Based Marketing
•   How to Build Your Mobile Marketing Customer Base
•   Identify and Group Campaign Customers
•   Create your Message
•   Define Your Objectives and Leverage Mobile’s unique Advantages
•   Set Measurable Goals and Track results
•   Multilevel Marketing

1.   Permission based Marketing - Because mobile marketing requires the customer to opt in, you are reaching people who are most interested in receiving your promotions. Your business will not be able to purchase mobile phone number lists and send SMS messages uninvited - this is spam. The mobile phone is a highly personal device and you may risk customer backlash if you do not first receive permission. Instead, you will need to promote your offers by building a permission based customer list of mobile phone numbers. It’s this opt-in permission that is precisely the reason why mobile marketing works so well. Targeted messages to customers that have requested the information.

2.   How to Build an Opt-in Customer List - One of the best way to encourage customers to join your mobile campaign is to utilize your existing marketing efforts. You can use any medium to promote your opt-in customer list: bill-board, print, TV, Web or mobile Web advertisement, a poster on your front door, opt-in instructions on your customers billing statements or just a promotional card by the cash register. Make sure to create a call to action or inducement that catches the consumers' attention and encourages them to interact. It may be a survey, discount voucher, competition or promotion for free mobile content or simply additional information.

Opt-in Ideas

a.   Use promotional specials that entice customers in-store or online to sign up for future discounts, events or coupons.
b.   Offer information that interests your customer such as nutritional ideas, local areas to visit or product knowledge.
c.   Offer free multimedia giveaways such as ringtones and music as incentive to join up for your mobile marketing campaign.
d.   Offer a VIP or Membership Service through text message alerts with exclusive news and specials.
e.   Include an Opt-in button on your company website for your mobile marketing campaign. Be sure to include some sort of incentive for sign up; coupons, ringtones or other promotions.
f.   Use your packaging, paper receipts, billboards and posters to encourage your customers to opt-in. Ask the customer to text in for a discount, prize, contest or to support a particular campaign.
g.   Create “text-to-win contests” whereby customers can text to win prizes, trips, ringtones, music and other items.
h.   Sweepstakes are a great way to generate a database of consumers who have opted-in to begin a relationship with your company or brand.
i.   Offering Mobile coupons have been very effective in building a database of potential customers.

3. Identify Your Target Audience – Collect names, emails, mobile phone numbers, and other useful information about your opt-in customers and group them into similar demographics and interests. Understand the target demographic, sex, age and mobile technology skill level to determine what mobile strategy best suits your customer. Your customers are more likely to respond to your offers if they are highly relevant to their interests. Target a niche market that has strong interest in your product rather than focusing on the masses. Build a personal dialogue with your customer.

4. Create your Message - Understand the big picture, first, and then determine which mobile solution fits into the overall marketing objective. Unlike other channels, mobile marketing can reach consumers making a buying decision anytime, anywhere (including at the point of sale). Each industry will require a different strategy, call to action and campaign so be sure to visit EworksWSI Mobile Strategies, Campaigns and Case Studies for details. Remember, consumers are constantly inundated with marketing messages, so be sure to provide them with something simple, relevant, and of interest. Make sure your message does more than drive traffic to your site but engages your customer, generating an on-going and sustained dialogue with your brand.

5. Define Your Objectives and Leverage Mobile’s unique Advantages - To get results, messages not only need to be opt-in, they need to be personalized and targeted to the customer. If the messages aren't relevant, the consumer will not respond.

a. Objective - First determine the mobile campaign program objective. Do you wish to increase sales, build brand awareness or create customer loyalty?

b. Demographics - Pay attention to your customer’s profile. What are they most likely to respond to? Is the customer a teenager interested in ringtones or a family looking for dining discounts. Utilize which products or promotions have interested the consumers in the past. Use previous surveys to gain a better understanding of the individual. In summary, determine what you have to offer your targeted consumer.

c. Include a Call-to-Action - A successful mobile campaign depends on an effective call to action. After you have identified who will receive your message and what that message will be, include a call to action to entice the customer to act. Your mobile campaign will not generate activity if you do not require a response of any kind. Good call to actions include: Click here for a 20% coupon, text for a schedule of events, click to a landing page, opt into auto responder messages or just call. One of the benefits of SMS is the brevity, as a limit of 160 characters forces the sender to be precise and allows a quicker response from the consumer.

d. Timing - is everything and the time of day or year can influence response rates. Successful mobile campaigns reach their customers at the exact moments when they can be most effective. When a customer’s phone beeps with a text message they look at it 95% of the time. Timing can allow restaurants to advertise for daily lunch specials at 11:30, instead of promoting one special for the whole week. Timing allows a retail store to generate buzz in an empty store with instant random specials. EworksWSI's Mobile platform allows you to schedule outgoing messages up to a year in advance.

e. Quality not Quantity - Your Customers have entrusted you by opting-in so don’t inundate them with messages. Think very carefully about the message that will be most relevant to them. Start with what you think your customers would be interested in, not what you'd like to sell them.

f. Personalize - Use this collected data to engage customers on a personal level with information or offerings relevant with the user’s preferences and relationship with the brand. A customer who interacts often with the brand should receive a more personalized message than someone who just sent his or her first SMS message.

g. Sell to Current Customers - One advantage of mobile marketing campaign is its ability to generate new customers. However it is also important and profitable to engage and sell more to current customers. Current customers already know and trust you, so it’s not as difficult to get them to buy additional services or upgrade current ones. Make sure to offer special promotions to your current customer base.

i. Location - Google's new location-finding technology enables you to take advantage of someone's physical location when targeting your messages. Delivering the right message, at the right time and in the right location is a marketer’s dream.

6. Set Measurable Goals / Track results & Adjust - Set a measurable goal to your mobile campaign from the start. Do you want a certain number of new customers or a determined number of visits to your web site? Track the response to your mobile campaign and determine if customers are taking advantage of your offers and whether or not you’re reaching your goals. Periodically conduct surveys to find out what your customers like or don’t like about your offers and make adjustments to your campaign if necessary.

7. Multi-channel Marketing – Mobile Marketing is most effective when used with other advertising media. Make sure to coordinate your mobile offers with your email, mobile website, web presence, radio and print advertising efforts. Mobile can enhance and pull together all other advertising channels into a cohesive message.

Writing good Web and why it is so important

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 22:00:00 GMT

What is Web Copy?

Purpose of Webcopy

The purpose of Web copy is to engage customers by telling them about the problem, predicament or ‘pain’ that your product can solve in a way that compels them to take the next step in the buying cycle. This means that not everything written on a Web page is classified as Web copy; items such as articles or valuable information for the end client are considered content.

Copy writing for offline sales is very different in comparison with website copy. People are more relaxed on the Internet, so it is important to use a friendly and engaging style of copy as opposed to a hard sell approach that is often used in offline sales copy.

On the Web, you only have a small amount of “real estate” to capture the visitor’s attention. Your message must be presented in a clear and concise way that compels the visitor to take the next step. All of this must be accomplished in the small space of the Web page “above the fold” (the area of the page visible on-screen without scrolling down). Another important consideration is that people do not read the same way on the Web that they do on paper. All of these factors play an important part in creating effective Web copy.

Why is web copy important?

Effective Web copy is what persuades someone to take action. On the Web, action can be anything from getting people to read the next page, follow a link, sign up for a newsletter, call the business, or purchase a product.

Most companies, Web designers and developers do not understand the importance of Web copy. Actually, the majority of copy on the web today is quite shocking. Much of what is found on the Web is recycled copy from brochures, mission statements and other marketing material on the home page using language and industry- specific jargon that only industry experts would understand or be interested in. This material focuses on the company and not the most important person – the intended online audience. Readers can be alienated by confusing and untargeted copy, and will not continue reading. The bottom line is that good Web copy focuses on the customer and sales, which means profitability.

Creating Website Content That Sizzles

Write content for your website that surfers will actually stop to read!

Writing for the Web isn't as simple as it might seem. Without proper knowledge of how the medium works and what visitors to your page want and need, you could inadvertently be driving them away!

Before sitting down to write your content, you must understand that you must tackle writing Web content differently than you would when writing for traditional print media. You have to write in a way that will get your point across without losing your readers' interest.

The following three tips will help to make your Web content more accessible and engaging to your readers, helping to make your website a more effective tool for your business.

Get to the Good Stuff

Let's face it: reading text on a computer monitor is more difficult than reading off a paper copy. In fact, a study by Sun Microsystems states that it takes up to 50 percent longer to read on-screen copy than it does traditional paper copy. Because of this, most Web users tend to scan the screen first to determine its relevance, before actually reading the content. Knowing this, you can adjust your content accordingly to enable easier reading and scannability.

First, be sure to start with what's most important – keep your most relevant information at the top of the page (“above the fold”), so readers can see it without scrolling down. The first few paragraphs of your home page should give a summary of what readers will find on all pages, not just a general overview of your company.

Since they can't scan the entire 'document' like they could with paper copy, you need to make sure they know what other relevant info they will find on inner pages to encourage them to venture further into your site. Herein lies the importance of creating an intuitive site navigation structure allowing your visitors to locate the information they are looking for in a timely and efficient manner. If a visitor to your site doesn't find what they need off your home page, they are unlikely to browse through the rest of your site, where the 'real' information lies. As journalists would say, 'never bury your lead' – don't make your readers search for your main message.

Use Language Effectively

Reading Web content shouldn't feel like reading an essay; paragraphs should be short and concise, and sentences should be kept simple. You want your readers to actually read the content, not skip past it because it looks daunting and 'solid'. White space, or, text-free space, on the page is easy on the reader's eye, so try to break up large blocks of text. If the content you wish to portray is particularly complex or lengthy, utilize the 'read more' format, where the first couple of paragraphs are shown, and the reader can click to read more, or download a white paper on the topic.

Make the most of your content by using simple, 'tight' copy. Leave out unnecessary adjectives, flowery language, clichés and exaggeration, as they take away from the factual content, which is what your readers are actually interested in. One way to make your copy tight is to use the active voice instead of the passive, and write in the present tense. For example, instead of writing "Our products have been used by customers to improve their visibility on the Internet," you could write "Customers use our products to improve their visibility on the Internet."

Avoid technical jargon and acronyms whenever possible, unless your website caters solely to technically-minded people. Use easy to understand language to ensure that your message is clear.

Know When to Use it, and When to Leave it out

Graphics and hyperlinks can add value to your website, but when used unnecessarily, they can actually decrease the impact of your copy.

Images should help support your text, adding a graphically pleasing element to the page, thus augmenting the impact of your text. However, images must be topical and not interfere with the text. Also, file size of graphics should be kept to a minimum to ensure that they do not increase the time it takes to open the page.

The same concept holds true for inserting hyperlinks. While some links that lead your reader to more information on external websites can be useful, you must determine the relevance and necessity of the links. Do you really want your reader to stop reading your content to leave your site and read something else? Over-linking can work against you, since it forces the reader to decide between continuing through your content and reading the information in the additional link. Don't force your readers away from your content unnecessarily!

Cyprus Crisis: Communication in uncertain times

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 11:17:00 GMT

Outstanding communication is even more important in crisis times, especially in Cyprus!

As budgets are tighter, competition is getting more aggressive and WSI will help you to reduce your advertisement cost not only to survive this crisis in Cyprus but to come out stronger than your competitors.

Moving offline to online is the most cost effective digital marketing strategy and WSI consultants are assisting businesses all over the world.

Watch the WSI video on crisis communication below

WSI Digital Marketing communication schedule 2013

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 22:00:00 GMT

The EworksWSI monthly DM (Digital Marketing) communication schedule for 2013

Each month we will provide a secure link to an educational webinar on the specific topic followed by a downloadable executive summary and our Inside Edge Newletter with more details on the subject.

We are working as well on a project to publish in 2013 a WSI E-book containing all above information in one place!

• January: Understanding the digital landscape in 2013

• February: Content Marketing

• March: Pay Per Click (PPC)

• April: Landing Page Optimization

• May: Display Advertising and Re-Marketing

• June: SEO (Search Engine Optimization 2013)

• July: Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+)

• August: Video Marketing

• September: Email Marketing

• October: Web Design parameters (Responsive design)

• November: MobileMarketing

• December: Digital Marketing Measurement and Metrics - Google Analytics

Increased of standard VAT rate in Cyprus 2013 / 2014: E-commerce adjustments

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 10:18:00 GMT

Increased of standard VAT rate in Cyprus

Effective 14 January 2013, the current standard VAT rate of 17% will increase to 18%.
Effective 13 January 2014, the standard VAT rate of 18% will increase to 19%

Also effective 13 January 2014, the reduced VAT rate of 8% applies for services under Schedule 12 of the Cyprus VAT law (including catering services, passenger and baggage transport within Cyprus via taxi or bus).

VAT rates for Cyprus need to be adjusted on e-commerce systems.

Below please find a short reminder how to modify Cyprus tax rates on your WSI e-commerce application.

		Under E-commerce, Tax rates, adjust the corresponding rate (generally T1)
		Under ASAP Admin open a shopping page - Payment options - Tax calculation
		Administrator - Components - VirtueMart - Store Administration - Tax
		From the Admin panel, select Sales > Tax > Customer Tax Classes
		Configuration - Tax Zones
		Product Manager - Tax
		For WSI Business Edge and all other custom built e-commerce solutions - incl Real Estate platforms, please refer to the catalogue module adminstration

If you have any queries of how to adjust VAT rates in your WSI e-commerce application, please do not hesitate to contact us.

SEO Tips for Your Online Store

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 19:15:00 GMT

Setting up and running an e-Commerce site is hard enough, but getting traffic to it and making sales is even more complicated. We would like to share below some Search Engine Optimization tips to assist you maximize search engine generated traffic to your online store.

Optimize your meta tags

Label each of your pages with a unique title and description – search engines love it. You can find the meta tags in the <head> section of your HTML code.

Most e-Commerce software generate automatically meta tag, and some (such as WSI efusion) allow you to customize each page. The title tag is still a major factor in search engine optimization, but Google and Bing have both acknowledged that keywords are no longer a part of their ranking algorithm. If you are creating an e-shop select a platform that generates each catalog and product as indivudal page with its unique title tag.

Example: <title>e-Commerce Search Engine Submission & Optimization – Eworkswsi.com.cy</title>

Google sometimes displays the description within their search results. Having a good, enticing description can generate more clicks on your listing.

Optimize your URLs

URL structure is still a factor of SEO, so be sure to set them up properly. Use a few descriptive keywords in your URLs, but avoid URLs that are too long. Use hyphens to separate keywords, and avoid underscores and symbols.

Example: http://eworkswsi.com.cy/SEO.html

You’ll need some technical knowledge to implement URL rewriting as most CMS software do not do this by default. However, most current CMS and eCommerce software offer this feature as an option when setting up a website. More advanced integrated e-CRM with e-commerce platforms will generate correctly phrased URLs with the option to personalize them on a product by product basis.

Add unique, relevant content to your pages - catalogs - products

Except you are the only one on the Internet selling your products and services, you have competition. You need to stand out from the crowd by offering some unique images and textual content. By adding descritive text to your category and product pages, you are not only giving the search engines more content to index, but providing as well more information to visitors. Add your main keywords in the detailed product description in your online store.

In addition to adding a bit of “meat” to your product pages, you should also consider adding a blog to your eCommerce site. Content is king and a blog is a smart way to add more relevant content to your site.

Want to know how you site is doing? Test it for free with WSI Webscore

Make sure your website loads quickly

A slow website is one of the quickest ways to lose customers. No one wants to wait for a page to load, especially with increasing connection speeds that are available today. Make sure your images and scripts are optimized for afst loading and that your website server is fast enough to handle all traffic and resources. Page load times not only affect user experience, but also plays a role in search engine optimization.

Do you have doubts about you site's loading speed? Read More here

Make use of internal links

External links are great, but internal links also matter for SEO. Whenever you get a chance to link to a product page, you should do so. Of course, internal linking should be done in moderation. Use common sense and don’t go overboard with linking to every keyword you come across. Diversify your anchor text to various pages and make it look natural. Your blog is a good way to create new links by making announcements of new products, promoting popular items, or showcasing your seasonal products.

Select an e-commerce system that allows the easy creation of 'Related products', these are perfect natural interal links.

Read more about e-commerce site optimization in our free white paper (pdf download)

Launch New Products with the help of Social Media

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 08:12:00 GMT

“We have a great product,
but how do we get people to buy it?”

Thousands of new businesses are started every month with entrepreneurs turning their understanding of a consumer or business problem into a new product or service solution.
But there’s more to starting a business or launching a new product than a great idea and a market in need of a solution.

Many new businesses score well with the solution they’ve created including the logistics of suppliers, manufacturing, and distribution to bring that product or service to market. However, one of the greatest challenges of starting a new business centers on marketing:

When considering how to communicate to a market about a new product or service, there are several important questions that social media can help solve for a new business owner:

•   Who is talking about the problem your product solves?
•   Where are they talking about it and what language are they using?
•   Who are the influencers actively able to affect awareness and product use?

To help answer those key questions, here are three ways you can use social media to gain insight, grow awareness, and optimize their online marketing.

Listen for Insight

Social media monitoring is an ongoing effort to assess online interest trends and for hits about a particular topic during a given moment in time. Social listening can help uncover other key insights that could fuel social media outreach, content, and engagement to drive relevant awareness of your product in Cyprus.

Social media research and listening are also useful for identifying topically relevant influencers. In any given online community, there are people who make recommendations that others really listen to and act on. In combination with community participation, the social listening tools above, and influence tracking services like Klout, Kred, Traackr or Followerwonk, you can find centers of influence in Cyprus.

Content is the Engine of Marketing - consider a blog

Social content for marketing often starts with a blog where new business owners can talk about the story of their product and how it solves important problems in the marketplace. A blog can also serve as a communication channel with other blogs in the industry, the media, customers, and a community.

A blog could serve as a living FAQ repository and as a hub to other social participation channels including Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest. Blogs are also excellent marketing resources to attract new customers actively looking for products and services through search. What better time to be easy to find than when customers are actively looking? Findable and sharable content makes the social web go ’round.

Monitor, Measure and Refine

Social media analytics and optimization is a growing trend for successful businesses, and taps into marketing performance data and web analytics to reveal insights into the success of specific messages, media, and offers. Those data-driven insights can provide direction for optimizing social media marketing efforts for better performance, whether it’s different topics for blog posts, words used in tweets, or types of images shared on Pinterest. Google Analytics is an easy choice for entrepreneurs because it is free and its robust features include some social media-tracking integration.

The sheer volume of information created and promoted on the social web can be overwhelming. With the right questions and tools, entrepreneurs or business marketers with companies of any size can leverage that data and the connections between people the information represents to better understand the digital marketplace, the voice of the customers, who can influence sales, and insights to optimize marketing performance.

If you’re an entrepreneur, how have you leveraged social media to launch a new product or service? What was some of the best (and worst) advice you received?

An earlier version of this post originally appeared by Lee Odden on ClickZ .

Updated Facebook Statistics for Cyprus

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 18:30:00 GMT

Cyprus slips from position #91 in January 2012 to position #101 in terms of Facebook users per country.

The total number of facebook users in Cyprus increased though from 553900 Facebook users on Jan 21st 2012 to 562640 users as of beginning November 2012 (+ 8740 users) an increase of 1.6%.

The complete numbers are:

Total Facebook Users		562640
Position in the list		101
Penetration of population		51.02%
Penetration of online population		129.70%

PPC advertising cost estimation for facebook ads running in Cyprus

Average CPC (cost per click)		$0.12
Average CPM (cost per 1k displays)		$0.02
(Source: Socialbakers)