By Virteom
April 16, 2018
Category: Website Maintenance
If you are running a business, your website is the tool that highlights what your business is all about. Your website defines your business and the services it offers, giving clients the information that influences their decision to buy. Over the years, though, this information can quickly become outdated, which can adversely affect your business if you do not make the necessary changes.
Consistent website maintenance is vital to your business online presence. Here are three reasons why you should continually update your website:
An Updated Website Attracts New Visitors
A great website provides useful information that immediately captures the attention of visitors. If your website is professional and tidy, you are likely to leave a lasting first impression with your websites new visitors. An unkept, outdated website will often scare prospective customers and traffic away.
Make sure you consistently update your websites design themes and content to ensure that your visitors are getting
By Virteom
April 09, 2018
Category: Website Trends
The internet has been around for decades. So, most people are comfortable with it and know how to use it to their best advantage. Websites are an integral part of the internet, and without them, life would be difficult for both everyday and business use. Over the years, the standards for web design have evolved and been refined. Here are some of the best practices and standards that you can see in web design in the coming year.
The Basics of web design:
The Header
The header of your website is one of the most valuable areas of yor site. It made up of your logo, navigation, sub menus and search features.
Navigation
Navigation tools are important for any website. The navigation of your website are the links that take visitors to one page or another on your website. This information is most often placed in a header across the top of the homepage. That way it is easy to find and use. For more on navigation best practices click here.
Search Feature Placement
If you are going to include
By Virteom
April 05, 2018
Category: Video Marketing, Marketing
A television show, movie, video game they all hold our interest. And, while most of us love a good quality program, even the less-than-stellar options keep our attention at times. Incorporating video marketing into your marketing strategy capitalizes on this draw.
Why Video Marketing is Important to You
Videos hold human attention longer than our usual eight second, similar-to-a-goldfish span. Elevating us to new heights, video marketing interactively engages your audience, raises brand awareness and prompts lead generation. EyeView Digital suggests that landing page videos boost conversions by 80 percent.
Increased time spent on your branded page, the trust raised with your audience and capitalizing on our human preference for having material fed to us (rather than reading it) gives video a leg up. But theres more. Check out this HighQ infographic for the stats on why video must be an integral part of your marketing strategy this year.
How Video Marketing Fits Your Strategy
Incorporating
By Virteom
February 06, 2018
Category: Marketing101, Online Advertising, Google AdWords, Social Media Ads, Advertising, Paid Ads, PPC
Online advertising meets consumers where they hang. Its effective and its success continues to grow with the explosion of technology and SaaS platforms. There are hundreds of strategies to online advertising and many places you can post ads. So where do you start?
Your Online Advertising Options
There are many places to advertise online but for our purposes here, we are going to break it down into two ad types: Passive and Active Advertising. Think about these from the customer perspective; are they finding your ads in passing or are they searching for the answer?
Active Advertising
Active advertising means that the user you reach is actively looking for a solution to a problem. These are typically Search Ads but can also be found on sites like Yelp or Angies List. Have you noticed the results labeled Ad at the top?
Search engine ads come up when you search for something on Google (or any search engine) and are based on PPC (Pay per click). Something to keep in mind here is that
By Virteom
February 01, 2018
Category: Content Creation, Content Marketing, Marketing 101
Content is king, but what does that mean for you? How will it keep your business moving forward when content writing requires so much time? How will that bring leads in? Youre wantto write the best content because you want yourcustomers to find you first, find you fast, and find what they need.
Creating valuable content that finds its way to your audience requires you to stay true to your purpose, the customer. Of course, efficiency makes it happen week after week drawing in consumer and search engine traffic through frequency and follow through. But successful web content come from the value within it.
Use these seven tips to get your content done right and get ready to see the leads roll in.
1.Know Your Purpose and Plan
An editorial calendar lays out content topics ahead of schedule. This tool saves valuable time and defeats creators block. Knowing your purpose for each piece of content and how it fits into your goals keeps you on track. Try grouping similar topics together for
By Virteom
January 09, 2018
Category: Marketing101, Marketing Automation, Marketing, Blogging
Sometimes, the most valuable things cannot be measured. Gone are the days of a brands marketing strategy being only about the metrics and products or services. Marketing can be an impossible game to play as its based on assumptions. As our CEO Dan Carbone once put it, Its really just guessing and testing. However, the secret to success here can be simplified; Think Like Your Customer.
Many businesses know that this is easier said than done, but once you have it down, everything falls into place. Many companies put a lot of resources into finding out their target market, the ideal customer. Some companies, dont put a focus on determining their buyer personas at all. Whether you have or have not pinpointed who your true audience is, understand that knowing who they are and how they behave is half of the battle. You have to put resources diligent effort into understanding who the people are that you will truly help with your business.
Once you know who your buyers are, the rest flows naturally,
By Virteom
December 26, 2017
Category: SEO, Link Building, Marketing
Link building is an important aspect of SEO marketing. If you have not yet employed link building strategies in your marketing structure, you are possibly missing out on potential business. Using link building strategies will help you create high-quality SEO marketing campaigns that will help your business thrive. But, first you need to understand what it is and how to use it.
What is link building?
Link building is a strategy that that gets web pages to link to each other by acquiring hyperlinks from other websites and apply them to your own site. It helps users navigate between different pages on the Internet. They also help search engines crawl between the pages on your website. There are different ways to build links. But, if you can master at least one of them, it can catapult you ahead of your competition.In the United States, the interest for link building has grown 43 percent since 2005.
How are links created?
Since links are at the crux of link building, it is important to
By Virteom
December 21, 2017
Category: Web Development
elaying the launch, or renewing, of a website is a guaranteed way to miss out on customers for any business.
While many people who are running businesses are perfectionists and dont want to launch anything that would be considered incomplete; when it comes to putting out an updated website, or launching one for the first time, the sooner it goes online the better.
Your website is a member of your sales team...except it is working for you24/7. With this constant availability
Delaying the launch of your website can be costly. Check out these three reasons you shouldnt delay launching your new website:
customers need to find your business
Businesses derive so much business from their online presence these days that it can be crippling to have a poor online presence. Being searchable on the web makes it easier and faster for people to find your business, much like how the Yellow Pages used to be the go-to method for finding the business a customer needs, now they turn to Google and Bing.
to
By Virteom
December 19, 2017
Category: AdWords, Online Advertising, Tips And Tricks, Online Marketing, Google Ads
Google AdWords is THE online advertising platform to getyour product out there in front of millions of viewers and help you edge out the competition online. Whether youve already started dabbling in AdWords or are new to the AdWords game, you want to make sure its going to provide valueand be worth your time.
To determine the value of AdWords for your business, you have to do some research into the keywords and competitiveness of your industry. To help you prepare for your preliminary research, lets break it down:
Heres how it works: Google displays ads in a text format and posts the content you create within the Googlenetwork through search results. This gets your information to users all over the internet and more specifically, users who have searched for your keywords that you targeted.
You bid for keywords against other competitors, so there are industries with more expensive keywords and some that are cheaper. If you dont see an immediate impact on your conversions (the ad clicks
By Virteom
December 14, 2017
Category: Websites
Many companies make the mistake of creating the perfect website for their business, just to let it sit there unattended for years. As long as its out there and not showing an error page, theyre satisfied. But that attitude could be costing you customers.
Weve noticed that every three years customers come to us looking to refresh their websites visuals and content. Its like their websites have an expiration date and go through a death cycle.Sounds ominous, but bear with us - its a real thing. If you dont keep up with the latest web trends, keep fresh content and stay compliant with the latest search engine trends youre likely to fall off the face of the web.
So, what attributes to the three year website death cycle?
1. Your Website Becomes Out of Date
Internet trends move quickly, and in just three years your business website can go from impressive to meh for a couple of reasons:
your website Design is Out Of Date:
Web design is constantly changing, and what may have been trending
By Virteom
December 05, 2017
Category: SaaS, Marketing101, Virteom, Digital Marketing
Software as a service (SaaS) is something that you need to utilize for your business. Moving into 2018, SaaS is a growing industry that business owners all over the world are taking advantage of. You can grow your company, automate operations, increase your marketing efforts long-term with shorter-term input, and keep financing costs low with vendors.
Today, well look at the 7 things you need to know about SaaS. As a business owner, understanding software as a service can bring you to prosperity and profit. But first, lets tackle what SaaS means today and how to use it profitably.
What is SaaS?
Its a type of product -- think of it as software delivery -- where all you need is the internet and place to browse to take advantage. This is not something new, but does stand to take over what used to be extensive hardware, heavy internal investment, hosting, IT, and more. All of those things ( more) will be taken care of by your SaaS vendor, the expert on the software because they do more
By Virteom
November 30, 2017
Category: Images, Web Performance
Anyone from a web guru to a casual Internet user can tell you that images for your website are a big deal. But images can do more than just look pretty - they can actually drive more traffic to your website. And you dont need professional photography skills to bring that attention to your site. All you need are a few tricks to optimize your images.
While adding a picture to your website is a breeze, it takes a little more work to get the full optimization from your image. When youre ready to upload your picture, keep these tips in mind:
1. Name Your Images
When you go to upload your image, its label will default to whatever name your camera or the stock website gave the file. While it may seem tedious, take a moment to rename your file with descriptive words in order to help your webpage rank higher on search engines.
Bots crawling through pages pick up on image file names just like they would text, and they will be more likely to pick up a filename like your-product-here.jpeg over
By Virteom
November 02, 2017
Category: Website
With social media being all the rage, the temptation to think that a Facebook page is all your small business needs is common. After all, with limited staffing it proves difficult to stay current with these applications. Why add the work and cost of a website to the mix?
The truth is that a social media presence is not enough to market your company. Yes, social media proves a hefty tool in your marketing strategy. However, you need a web presence to capitalize on and boost your social media / Facebook presence.
Lets take a closer look.
Rent vs. Own
Ultimately, with social media, you do not own the space. This fact means that changes to the platform are made without your approval or even your liking. These changes may impact your business negatively and unfortunately, you have no say.
A website on the other hand is owned and controlled by you. If an aspect of your site is not seeing good returns, you change it or have your web development team fix it. If your consumers express trouble
By Olivia Justice
October 27, 2017
Category: Account Managers, Services, Maintenance
Once youve sign up with Virteom, you have an entire team behind you from website development to post launch. Think of us as your extended marketing partner. We wont abandon you once your website is built and leave you wondering what now?. Our mission is to help your company grow which is why post website launch success is so important to us.
In order to fulfill our mission we assign each account to an account manager. This allows the account manager to personalize your experience based on your industry and marketing goals.
But, what is an account manager anyway? What can they do for you? In this video we summarize a few of the things we help our customers with:
What is an Account Manager? What does an Account Manager do?
An account manager is an individual who will work with you to achieve success within your website and beyond. This can be through marketing tactics, specific deliverables, online marketing, and much more.
We can handle any overflow you may have and execute
By Virteom
October 24, 2017
Category: Landing Pages, Lead Generation, Conversion, Online Marketing, Marketing
Every nano-second on the web counts. Creating landing pages that score leads and sales brings a high return on investment and after all, thats the benefit of online marketing. But what strategies earn you the biggest lead in the game of online marketing?
Lets take a look.
1. Know Your Team
Strategies which work for one team, fail for others. One jersey does not fit all. Think about it: Your call-to-action (CTA) or goal, reader or user, product or niche are all unique. Your strategy must address these factors. Craft strategies which target your specific audience and reach your goals.
At Virteom, our Persona Development helps you identify your buyers for your marketing strategy. Creating campaigns for different buyers and following the funnel with a landing page tailored to them as well not only leads to more conversions, but better-quality leads.
2. Spell It Out
Fans in the stands know that cheers and chants that are short and spell things out reach the teams ears and engage the
By Virteom
October 03, 2017
Category: Web Trends, Marketing
Over the past few years, a new trend has been gaining steam online: chatbots. Theyre a type of artificial intelligence that can hold conversations with people in a realistic and human-like manner. In 2016, chatbots seemed to explode onto the scene as a new interactive marketing and customer service tool and this year, theyre only growing as new uses and environments start cropping up..
how are chatbots used?
Typically, business chatbots have been used in a customer service capacity when you visit a website, a chatbot in the corner will pop up and ask you if you have any questions. This type of user engagement has worked well in the past, especially as it helps users save what can be a significant amount of time waiting for a customer service representative to become available simply to answer a routine question. But now, chatbots are moving into an even more personalized realm conducting routine activities for their users, from paying bills to scheduling meetings to ordering online.
For
By Virteom
September 07, 2017
Category: SSL, HTTPS
If youre running a website or online company, you probably already know the importance of things like SEO. You know that you need keywords, that you need a great landing page, that you need social media profiles and ways for visitors to easily contact you.
But, did you know that you may be overlooking one of the most powerful tools you need? If your website does not have a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) or Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) certification, then you could be losing out on many customers. Youre at risk for losing traffic, potential leads and your ranking on search engines.
who needs a ssl or https site?
In October 2017, Google will begin to mark websites who collect information on the web with a not secure warning if they do not have a SSL certification. Additionally, if you search the web in incognito mode, all sites will be marked as not secure.
Before now, only websites that collected credit card information were required to have this type of protection, but it
By Admin
September 05, 2017
Category: Blogging, Marketing, SEO, Content
With a lot on your mind, you pour your heart and soul into blog post after blog post. You post all the new events, awards and recognition your company gets. Isnt that quality? No fluff topics. No sales pitchy posts. Just trustworthy, heartfelt content.
Unfortunately, even this noble foundation leaves many blogs unread. To create an A+ blog that ranks high in search engines, your content needs to provide value and speak to readers by doing the following.
Feed Your Audience What It Wants
Great content means little if it only has meaning to you. To draw readers in, you need to give audiences what they want to read. Look for trending topics, provide solutions to reader problems and answer their questions with your blog posts. Become a resource for your current customers and readers and future ones!
To accomplish this, you need to do your research.
Use Google Trends to find up-to-date topics based on search volume.
Look to Quora, LinkedIn Answers and other such sites to identify
By Virteom
August 10, 2017
Category: Online Presence, Website, Social Media
As you know, having a strong web presence is no longer optional if you want to succeed in business. Its an absolute necessity.Your web presence is, more often than not, an individuals first impression of you. Regardless of your industry, your business or your size, you need to be ahead of your competitors online in every way.
Countless potential clients will first come into contact with you via your online presence so you have to make sure that they can find everything theyll need to know about you easily online. But doing so can be a time-consuming and complicated process. So, what are the things you absolutely should have? How do you build your online presence and get ahead of the competition?
Website
Your website is where it all starts. If youre doing all the right things to be found on search engines, your potential customers will find your website and begin looking through the pages. What they find will likely determine whether they decide to go with you or your competitors. So,
By Admin
July 25, 2017
Category: SEO, Marketing101, Content Creation
If your new to SEO (Search Engine Optimization)Check out this video before reading!
If you have an online business, search engine optimization (SEO) is a crucial aspect to your business. It cant be an afterthought. You have to build it into your online marketing strategy from the very beginning.
Generating traffic from organic searches to your website is a key part of your online business, but many businesses design their websites without factoring SEO into the design. You might have a beautiful design, but without the SEO guts you wont get too far. Your site should look nice and modern, but it also needs to be built to handle lead generation and search marketing.
Where to Begin with SEO
You really should be spending significant time on your SEO, or paying someone to think about it for you. So what are the things you need to consider?
It starts with the domain you choose. It has to make sense and relate to what you do in your business. For example: if youre in the landscaping business,
