20 Jan News – Dec 2011/Jan 2012 Issue 83
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A Look Back on 2011 and Forward To 2012
A very Happy and Prosperous New Year to you.
Despite the rather depressing world financial situation, many of our clients continue to benefit from their well-constructed online strategies – with our hosted online transactions having increased around 50% to £6 Million over the previous year.
On this basis we are looking forward to 2012 with optimism, having invested in a brand new server infrastructure benefiting from the latest technologies in both hardware and software.
In addition to our actively-developed Content Management System, new for 2012 we will soon be launching our Hosted CRM linked to your website and external systems.
Our Online Marketing services include, Search Engine Optimisation & Social Media Marketing.
Our leading-edge eCommerce offerings include the innovative QuickBuy one-click-checkout solution that lets you utilise customer credit card numbers without having to manage the complex security and PCI issues.
Effortlessly manage your email marketing and information campaigns with the Broadcast campaign management platform.
To smooth your business processes, we can offer online systems billing automatically and integrating with accounts packages such as Sage and other third party software.
In telecommunications, we can supply a variety of numbers including 0800 Freephone, 0844 and 0845 local-rate numbers, voicemail and number porting, as well as cutting-edge hosted call centre software solutions.
Look out for announcements of further upgrades and additional services in the coming year, notably more development to our new server infrastructure, further enhancements to our Support Ticket System, integration of the Magento eCommerce platform, and much more.
A review of the key trends from 2011 and predictions for 2012:
A year of bargain hunting is in prospect while the economy is still recovering and customers have so many price-checking tools at their fingertips. An ideal opportunity to use your marketing to attract consumers with unbeatable deals, then seek profits by generating repeat business and referrals from those new customers. Also, be ready to respond with incentives when shoppers use mobile devices to compare prices.
Mobile commerce continues to heat up. The latest ComScore figures said 38% of people had bought something using their phone. Currently, most mobile-targeted websites are based on the desktop versions. As some users primarily use tablets and phones, expect many online businesses to review their designs. Mobile push marketing means sending promotional messages through texts and voice calls. It’s still quite expensive for small businesses to become bulk senders of texts and voice calls, so instead many will invest in their email list. Emails are much less expensive than texts and can contain unlimited content.
Social Media – With the continuous upward trend in user numbers, more and more companies are going to start looking at their business goals and ask themselves how social media can help meet them. If you have customers, then some are probably reviewing and talking about you online. Use a social-media monitoring tool such as Google Alerts to find out what people are saying when they mention your company or products.
SoLoMo – a new term coined by Google’s Matt Cutts – describes social, local and mobile combined in one trend. Startups heading in this direction include Foursquare, Gowalla, SCVNGR and the many mobile local services that have followed. The reason SoLoMo matters is that it’s unique to the mobile device; it shuns the search ethic that ruled the desktop-based web in favour of pushing deals, suggestions or events at customers based on their check-ins or social activity as they move from location to location.
App Crazy – not just Facebook, Twitter or Angry Birds any more, the proliferation of business apps creates opportunities to reach customers via both the apps themselves, and the data sources they consume.
Blogging – Every writer hopes for lots of relevant comments on their published articles. Google is now taking into account how many people commented on content, whether they shared it on Twitter, Facebook, G+, and others as an indicator of your content relevance and likeability.
SEO – most search engines have used quantity of pages, at least in part, to indicate quality. Most now don’t, and with Google Panda 2 even more importance is placed on the quality and uniqueness of the content. In 2012 you can expect a huge expansion in the mobile search market. No longer is digital marketing just for those who have a PC … mobile search is here, and this will likely be the biggest search medium in 2012.
Please also see our latest Twitter and Blog updates to get the very latest web & telecom news as it happens.
If you are looking for informed advice about any of these new technologies, proven and reliable mission critical hosting, and support for your online presence then look no further.
I hope you enjoy reading this newsletter and we very much look forward to working with you in the coming 12 months, so here’s wishing you a Happy, Healthy & Prosperous 2012.
Kind regards
David Morgan
(Managing Director)