Archive for November, 2013

Tis the Season to Be Prepared

Wednesday, November 27th, 2013
It is that time of year again – the holiday season is almost upon us – beginning with Black Friday and Cyber Monday! Are you prepared?

However, sales start far ahead of Black Friday (Thanksgiving or before), while Cyber Monday is a little more defined, as people get back to work.

Research indicates that social media drove .34% of online sales during Black Friday; on Cyber Monday, social drove .41% of online sales. This means four of every one-thousand transactions were attributable to social media. However, businesses should not solely rely on social media to drive holiday sales.

Mobile accounted for 24% of all e-commerce purchases on Black Friday and 18% of all e-commerce purchases on Cyber Monday.

This validates the growing amount of computing that takes place on mobile devices. Mobile optimization of e-commerce sites and emails should be an important consideration for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Of course, this should be the case in general. You need to make sure that a customer can purchase using their mobile device as easily as they could buy stuff on their PC.

Consumers were most likely to purchase in response to two things in 2012 — discounts and free shipping. All businesses need to consider promoting these and additional deals for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, on their website and through email marketing.

You should be accumulating a database of email addresses through your website, and you should definitely be sending email newsletter campaigns and offers to advertise Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals on a weekly, if not daily basis.

Online press releases are also a tool you can employ to increase your website’s exposure. You can send a press release for Black Friday and additional holiday promotions.

Never underestimate word of mouth marketing –asking people to visit your website for quality deals should not be undervalued. Having a website URL that can be emailed, posted on social sites, or otherwise communicated is a simple, but effective strategy.

The goal should be to use your holiday season activity to acquire consent and information you will transform into sales in 2014. The easier you make it for your customers and prospects to achieve their objectives, the more they will be loyal to your business. They will remember the positive experiences when things settle down after the holidays.

Do not forget to capture email addresses and permissions by offering a free gift, discount, or bonus for people to opt in to your email programs. The email obtained today can become future profit.

Use Black Friday and Cyber Monday to bring people back for more. Create triggered email messages that do more than provide status updates. Educating customers about your products and services improves their experience and your revenue.

Plan your follow-up, so you do not neglect your customers, which is paramount just like good service. Create customized follow-up website and email strategies targeting specific customers.

So here are some things to consider for this holiday season.

The mobile focus will intensify during the holidays. The National Retail Federation is forecasting mobile to drive e-commerce sales gains of between 13 and 15%. Last year, e-commerce sales increased 15.5%. They are predicting retail sales to gain only 3.9% as the United States economy continues to improve, however, online sales across-the-board, and mobile sales more specifically, should be very positive.

Did You Know? According to data published by the National Retail Federation, more than 35 million Americans visited retailers’ stores and websites during Thanksgiving, 2012 – up from 29 million in 2011.

How To Find a Secure Web Host

Wednesday, November 20th, 2013

Web Hosting Security Issues and Prevention GuideBeing a webmaster isn’t all about web design and content creation. While both design and content creation are very important and easily make up majority of the duties of a webmaster, there is one other responsibility that is usually neglected yet important enough to a website that its neglect could ruin everything: Web Hosting Security.

Hackers these days have more tools at their disposal and more unpatched exploits and soon to be discovered vulnerabilities at their disposal, and now that the Internet has become an important aspect of businesses, the profit-oriented motivation has also solidified, which means your website getting hacked is no longer a matter of IF, but WHEN.

Granted that the web hosting companies are already doing their able best in order to ensure the security of their servers, and that security is technically their responsibility, but it’s still important to remember that webmasters themselves need to take precautions on their end. After all, it is their personal info and precious data that’s at risk.

All Web Hosting plans of Prestige Technologies provides redundant security measures. Click here and check out the different plans. (more…)

3 Most Common Ways Hackers Get You

Tuesday, November 12th, 2013

Common Ways Hackers Get YouNow that computers and the Internet have become indispensable parts of people’s lives in most parts of the world, the issue of cyber security has become important. It is crucial that you learn the most common ways hackers get you, so that you can avoid being targeted, or at least know what to do if you ever get hacked.


Phishing


Phishing is one of the most common – and dangerous methods hackers employ to get your personal details, as it preys on people who are not paying too much attention to what they are doing or have below average experience with computers, which means security software tools are usually not effective in preventing them (because there’s no software-based exploit or vulnerability being used.)

Prestige Technologies has a redundant security system which protects you and your data. We also have a 24/7 customer assistance so you can ask for help if anything goes wrong with your site any time. Click here and sign up to our 6 months free hosting. (more…)