Apple. An amazing brand that has captured people's imagination the world over. Their products (love 'em or hate 'em) have revolutionised the way we work, play and do business. At the airport this week I noticed more Apple iPads being used than people reading magazines!

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Let me begin with a simple question: Do your customers look out for your newsletters or do they flush them away as an annoyance? 

Not long ago, email marketing held poll position as the preferred method of connecting with customers online. Companies would invest time building their contact databases, and direct campaign to those contact lists, bestowing upon each lucky recipient a wealth of information, offers and all-round good advice. Once upon a time, email recipients were indeed a lucky bunch.

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Last week we talked about using your product descriptions as a selling tool. One thing that is often overlooked though is the role that the snippets presented in the search results have in getting customers to your site. If the text that you use for your descriptions doesn’t grab the customers’ attention, they will immediately move to the next result and they might never get to see what you have to offer on your site.

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Restaurants, clubs, consultancy firms - they all have an opportunity to take full advantage of the public interest swell in eCommerce. Knowledge can be sold online, just ask any wine enthusiast who subscribes to wine blog websites and periodical eNewsletters. Even accountancy firms have an opportunity. The question is, will those businesses begin to think outside the box or will they continue to ignore the growing demand for buying information online?

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That’s a question I often ask an ecommerce store owner, and surprisingly frequently, it’s clear that the site hasn’t been thought about in those terms.

It’s very easy to get caught up in the jargon of online commerce; conversion rates, cart abandonment, fulfillment systems etc etc, and of course these things are all important. The problem with focusing on the technology though is that we tend to forget the psychology of buying and selling.

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Almost always when we’re talking to business owners about a new website development, we ask what work has been done on branding their business, as it is extremely important to understand what messages the website style and design need to project. However, this is usually interpreted as whether the business has a logo and graphic identifier for the business.

Brand and branding are different and understanding what brand is will help with the activities that are part of branding. I found an excellent description of brand and branding by EC (Lisa) Stewart on the website “Indie Creative”.

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Discover the 10 steps that could take your business from a hobby to leading brand in just 3 years. This article is written by the owner of one of Australia's leading online brands, a business founded on the principles of 10 simple steps. Read on...

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Many shoppers are already turning their attention to Christmas buying. Most retailers instinctively spring into action around this time as well by planning their marketing efforts for the lead up to Christmas.

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Generally speaking, email Campaigns will drive more customers to your store than Twitter and Facebook. With all the hoopla and media attention given to social marketing channels such as Twitter and Facebook, the tried and tested way of connecting with customers, email newsletters, has seemingly taken a back seat of late.

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Having been involved in sales and marketing in one form or another for most of my working life, it still amazes me that “marketing” is still commonly considered to be another term for sales promotion and advertising, and in the online age the definition seems to be shrinking still further. In reality, marketing consists of a wide range of activities that touch almost every part of any business, and in this blog I want to cover marketing for small business.

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What business are you really in? Many companies define themselves almost completely through the products or services they offer. This is a common approach, especially if the very reason for the business existing has been a new product or service. However, taking a product based approach can seriously narrow your focus, particularly with regard to understanding your chosen market and your customers' needs.

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It's no great secret that psychology plays an important part in the determination of how your customers react to your website content or its products. Considerations such as colour, imagery, pricing and so on, all need to be carefully planned if you want to capture and retain a buyer's attention.

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Back in August we started a series of articles looking closely at the likes of Twitter, as well as blogging for your business. Since we launched our new website in May 2010 and began our own social media campaigns we've seen a steady increase in enquiries from both existing clients and new "leads" alike. So, do social media campaigns really work?

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Your focus should be on introducing at least some form of VIP Club Membership, whether it's access to special information, special product offers, special pricing, etc. Because if you don't offer your customers something special and beyond the norm, your competitors most certainly will.

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It wasn’t so long ago that the hardest part about selling websites was convincing the business owner or manager why they needed a website at all. In 2010, a web site is no longer a luxury or something that sits on the periphery of a business marketing plan, it’s a “must have” for any small business in the digital age. The conversation we have with business owners these days is not about whether to have a website or not, it’s about how to make a website effective, so this blog provides 15 Essential tips for your online marketing strategy.

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