Economy Driving Customers to the Web

The economic changes are forcing all consumers to look for ways to save money and one of those ways is shopping online. And the latest study by Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates (in partnership with LinkShare) reveals that all those consumers who have turned to the Web are sticking with their new habit!

According to a press released about the study: "With the economy slowing down over the past year, a shopping behavior that for some consumers had been an occasional habit has now become a routine - turning to the Internet to find the best value."

Earlier in the downturn, PSB coined the term "Recession Shoppers" to refer to those consumers. Now they're calling this group "Value Hunters," because the shoppers aren't just comparing prices anymore....they're looking for overall better value and a better experience on the Web!

"These consumers...claimed that as economic situations worsened, they would look to the Internet to find the best deals. Now, months later, even as the economy's vital signs are improving, online shopping behavior shows consumers are still heavily focused on value - in quality price, convenience and time."

Now, according to the researchers, "value" is the new fundamental objective of online consumers! As LinkShare's Yaz! Iida explains, "More than ever before, consumers are searching online for products, services and Web sites that provide value."

Here's a breakdown of the study's findings based on their survey of "Value Hunters:"

• 51% look for incentives when making online purchases
• 63% have purchased something online they wouldn't normally have because of a special offer
• 68% of online shoppers search for value in the form of coupons and special promotions
• 45% purchase something online once a week or more
• 47% prefer shopping online to shopping in-store
• 22% plan to make more purchases online this year than last year

PSB advises that online businesses can "differentiate themselves from competition through value offerings." That means focusing on "pricing, quality and experience."

These businesses must "create an online experience built on value." PSB specifically emphasizes accomplishing this "through the use of an easy-to-navigate Web site!"

At FirstClick Web Solutions, we specialize in helping our customers create a dynamic, engaging Web site that provides visitors with a superior experience, including an online store and e-mail campaigns that promote discounts! If you already have a website with us, but want to take it to the next level, give your customer manager a call.

We now offer live receptionist answering services

Now that you have an online e-Commerce site, your customers can order products 24-hours a day, 7 days a week. But what if they have problems? If you don't have an 800 number listed on your site and a person who can take the call, you could loose the sale. Also, some people simply aren't comfortable ordering from a site they haven't visited before and would prefer to speak with a live human being first.

FirstClick Web Solutions is proud to offer a solution--live receptionist answering services from BusinessReceptionist.com. Now your customer can call anytime day or night and speak to a live US-based operator. Unlike a typical answering service, our operators can:

• Answer frequently-asked questions
• Book appointments
• Take orders
• Capture relevant customer information for your industry (i.e. medical, financial, real estate, etc.)
  

Here is a short video overview of the service:



For additional information and pricing, visit http://businessreceptionist.com. To get started on the service or just your questions answered, give us a call at 1-800-878-1909.

IRS e-News for Small Businesses: a useful resource

Keeping up with federal tax requirements is not easy in today’s fast-changing business environment. Even if you use a tax professional’s services, you still need to know and understand your tax responsibilities.

That’s why the IRS offers you a time-saver: IRS e-News for Small Businesses. E-news is a bi-weekly newsletter that alerts you to what’s new, hot and important for small business owners to know. It’s quick to read, easy to subscribe – and it’s free. We here at FirstClick Web Solutions subscribe to the newletter and it is a useful resource.

IRS e-News for Small Businesses features:

• Tax dates for small business owners, to help you avoid missing a deadline
• Links to new items on IRS.gov for small businesses
• Reminders and tips to help you meet your tax obligations
• Quick links to IRS news releases and announcements
• Info about IRS products, services, and educational opportunities

Subscribe to e-News on IRS.gov at http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=154825,00.html , click “Subscribe Now” at the bottom of the page and enter your e-mail address.

Online E-Commerce is a Key to Surviving the Recession

Experts are continuing to highlight the advantages of a Web presence during the economic downturn! This week, it's Irwin Kramer at E-Commerce Times! Kramer points out that "Online sales continue to show steady growth in face of adverse economic conditions!"

Also, Kramer warns of a dismal outcome for those businesses that choose not to leverage the Web, giving competitors who are online a considerable advantage.

"As in-store retailers that haven't embraced online shopping go out of business, orphaned shoppers are turning to the retailers that have."

Kramer outlines some key benefits of selling online using what's known as a "cross-channel" strategy. (For instance, allowing customers to order online and pick up in-store, or enabling customers to use things like gift cards online.) By implementing a cross-channel strategy, Kramer writes, retailers and their customers can experience the following benefits:

• Convenience: "You can't always keep your physical retail locations open 24/7," Kramer writes, "but an automated online platform allows retailers to receive orders at any time." This is a major benefit for any kind of business! A professional, content-rich Web site is available at all hours to provide information as well as accept customer orders!
• Eco-Friendly practices: "Increasing attention is being placed on 'green' business practices these days, and an e-commerce platform helps retailers promote ecologically-friendly business practices," Kramer writes. We told you about this growing trend last week. Don't underestimate its influence as a marketing tool!
• Savings: According to Kramer, "From a business perspective, retailers can save significant costs by eliminating traditional paper marketing and distribution methods." Research increasingly shows that direct-mail marketing is losing to avenues like e-mail marketing. Tell your prospects about the money they'll save in the long run with your Web solution!

Kramer sums up his perspective by explaining that leveraging the Web during the downturn depends on effective use of the Web and e-commerce tools. He writes that a growing number of businesses are "relying on e-commerce platforms to gain a greater understanding of their customers, cut costs, and run operations more efficiently."

Google rule change helps local businesses

Google just changed that way that it prioritizes search results that is important for all small businesses to be aware of. Before April of this year, if you searched for "auto mechanic" on Google, you would get nationwide results, which pretty much limits the results to the big chains. However, now that same search will look at your IP address and give higher placement to matching businesses that are close to you.

This is important for any business with a website that wants to attract local customers. Prior to this change, you had to try to optimize your website to compete with many businesses that you don't actually compete with in the real world. Now that your site is ranked with other local businesses, you can adjust your website content to more effectively compete locally.

Read the full article at Small Business Computing.com.

If you are a FirstClick Web Solutions customer and would like more information on how to update your website keywords and content for better search result ranking at major search engines, contact your Customer Manager or Technical Support.

Small Business Confidence Improves, but 62% still don't Have Websites

According to Discover Financials Services, the number of small business owners who say the economy is improving doubled between March and April to 31 percent, the highest level in two years. However, the number of owners who thought the economy was getting worse was still in the majority at 51 percent, but this is down from 69 percent in February, so the trend is in the right direction.

Included in the survey were a number of questions about how business owners are using the internet. A few of the interesting statistics are:

• 38% are members of social networking sites such as Facebook, Linked-in, and Twitter, but only 45% of those use the sites to promote their business.
• 45% have used email to promote their business.
• 46% prefer traditional methods such as conferences, trade shows, and in-person business networking over online methods.
• 62% do not have a website.
  

So if you are interested in staying ahead of your competition and take full advantage of an improving economy, invest in your online marketing methods now.

Act Now to Get Free Holiday Promotion

If your business features products that make interesting gifts, consider submitting them to newspapers and magazines to be featured in their annual Christmas gift guide issue. However, you have to get started in May due to publication lead-times.

Public Relations Expert Margie Zable Fisher gives 10 tips on how to get your products featured in holiday gift guides. Click here to read the complete article.

Promote Your Business with iPhone Coupons

Actor Greg Grunberg, who you've seen in Heroes, Lost, Alias, and Felicity, has launched a new company called Yowza! that allows businesses to post coupons that appear on iPhone users' phones when are physically near your business.

I think this is a great idea and yet another way to generate business using new technology. Put a "Got Yowza?" link on your website. If you have a physical location with walk-by traffic, put a sign in your window "Check your iPhone for discount coupons! Ask inside."

Check out the video from GeekBrief.tv:

Small Businesses Seek Solutions Online

Market researcher Bredin Business recently surveyed 50 leading marketers and 741 SMBs (small and medium-sized businesses) about their online and offline media preferences. Some of their key findings were:

• SMBs top business challenges are finding new customers, managing costs, and retaining current customers.
• Marketers continue to shift their efforts to the internet. Efforts put towards offline tactics will remain about the same in 2009 verses a significant increase in online efforts.
• Online efforts slated to grow the most are Social Networking, Resource Centers, and Search Marketing.
  

Here are some of the 2009 initiatives that SMB's cited:

Experts predict strong e-commerce growth AFTER 2009

Analysts at eMarketer.com are predicting flat e-commerce sales through 2009 with growth resuming in 2010. Senior Analyst, Jeffrey Grau states:

"Growth will come from online buyers who shift a greater share of their discretionary spending from stores to the Web. Pent-up consumer demand, especially among affluent online shoppers, will provide an additional sales boost."

Read the complete article

Customers like receiving email newsletters

The marketing services firm Epsilon reported recently that retailers greatly benefit from using e-mail to reach out to opt-in customers and visitors on their mailing list. Here's what Epsilon found:

• 56% of shoppers are more likely to buy from a retailer who sends them e-mail
• 48% of shoppers surveyed said they feel "more loyal" to a store after receiving an e-mail from that business
• 52% said they have a more "favorable opinion" of the companies that send them e-mail
• 87% said e-mail is a great way to get information from companies about new and upcoming products

If you are a FirstClick Web Solutions customer and have not taken advantage of the powerful newsletter feature of our e-commerce module, you are missing out on an incredible marketing tool. With just a few clicks, you can send professional e-newsletters that will draw those favorable responses that the Epsilon study describes!

Click here to read the Epsilon article.

Now on Facebook

FirstClick Web Solutions is now on Facebook. Visit our page and become a fan.

ma WebCenters Demonstration Video

FirstClick Web Solutions is proud to offer the MA WebCenters 4.0 internet business platform to our customers. With MA WebCenters, businesses get a comprehensive online solution that includes a feature-rich website, customer relationship management (CRM), and e-commerce for your webstore.

The following 13-minute video is a quick overview of the major features of the MA WebCenters solution.



TIP: Click on the markers in the timeline to skip to a specific section.

To learn how the MA WebCenters solution can help your business get more customers and increase sales, click here or give us a call at 1-888-878-1909.

Copyright Infringement Myths

Current technology makes it fairly easy to combine material created by others - film and television clips, music, graphics, photographs, and text - into a website. Just because you have the technology to copy these works does not mean you have the legal right to do so. If you use copyrighted material owned by others without getting permission, you can incur liability for hundreds of thousands dollars in damages.

Many third-party works you might find on the internet (including photos and clipart) to use on your website are protected by copyright. Using copyrighted material without getting permission - either by obtaining an "assignment" or a "license" - can have disastrous consequences. An assignment is generally understood to transfer all of the intellectual property rights in a particular work (although an assignment can be more limited). A license provides the right to use a work and is generally quite limited.

You will not need to obtain a license to use copyrighted material if:

1. It meets “fair use” requirements (like many non-commercial applications such as education, research, or news).
2. It falls under public domain (works that are not protected by copyright).
3. It involves factual statistics or other data.

Don't make the mistake of believing these myths about copying material from the Net:

Internet Myth #1: If I find something on the Net, it's okay to copy it and use it without getting permission.

While you are free to copy public domain material that you find on the Net, generally you should not use copyrighted material without getting permission from the copyright owner -- whether you find the material on the Net or in a more traditional medium (book, music CD, software disk, etc.).

Internet Myth #2: Anyone who puts material on a Web server wants people to use that material, so I can do anything I want with material that I get from a Web server.

Individuals and organizations put material on a Web server to make it accessible by others. They do not give up their copyright rights by putting material on a Web server. Also, the person who posted the material may not own it.

Internet Myth #3: It's okay to copy material from a Home Page or Web site without getting permission.

Much of the material that appears in Web sites and Home Pages is protected by copyright. If you want to use something from someone else's Home Page or Web site, get permission unless permission to copy is granted in the text of the Home Page or Web site.

Internet Myth #4: It's okay to use copyrighted material in my Web site as long as no one has to pay to visit my Web site.

Unless your use of the copyrighted work is fair use (see Fair Use, later in this article), you need a license to copy and use the work in your Web site -- even if you won't be charging people to view your Web site. (You also need a public display license.)

Internet Myth #5: It's okay to make other people's copyrighted material available on my Web server so long as I don't charge people anything to get the material.

Copying and distributing copyrighted material without permission can be copyright infringement even if you don't charge for the copied material. Making material available for others to copy can be contributory infringement.

Summary

All of the art and graphics that FirstClick Web Solutions uses on the websites we create is either properly licensed or is custom-created in house. However, if you want to add new images to your site yourself, be sure that either:

• You own the images (because you created or photographed them).
• You have licensed the images for use on the web (using a source such as istockphoto.com).
• The images are in the public domain and/or fall under "Fair Use".

Experts Stress Importance of a Web Presence

Writer Bill Sass at Canada's Calgary Herald is trumpeting the importance of a Web presence for all businesses, no matter what their size-especially during economic turmoil!

"It's important...for business, especially small business, to remain viable by using every marketing device within their means-including a presence on the Internet."

Sass interviewed Web expert Kyle Loranger, who specializes in helping businesses with online solutions. Loranger said, "I think there's a fair bit of pressure on local companies to set up some sort of Web site."

And that pressure's just going to keep building! As Sass explains, it's "just something the increasingly tech-savvy public expects in an era where "shopping around" involves more than a trip to the mall or a finger stroll through a phone book."

Consumers want the most convenient way to access information about businesses, and research is repeatedly revealing that the Web has become their premiere resource! Sass says people are turning to the Web to search out products and services, "and, at the least, they want to know what the business sells, hours of operation, location and if there are any sales going on."

Now offering Spanish websites

FirstClick Web Solutions is now offering Spanish-language website and e-commerce solutions in addition to the English, Mandarin, and Cantonese support we already offer. Not only can you get a complete customer-facing website in Spanish, but our Design Center and Customer Support have Spanish-speaking representatives on staff to support you!

In addition, we are also expanding internationally and can build and deploy websites for Mexico-based businesses.

A Guidance/Synovate survey recently revealed that one-third of surveyed shoppers encountered difficulty during their online shopping process...in fact, some shoppers eventually abandoned the Web site completely! Here's a breakdown of their findings:

• 13% complained that a site was slow while they were shopping
• 8% said a site froze or crashed
• 6% said the site was down or unavailable

So if you are shopping for an e-commerce solution to host your online store, make sure it is reliable and hosted with a reputable company.

Small Business Owners not Reducing Online Marketing

A recent article from eMarketer.com reports that most small businesses plan to increase or continue investing in online marketing methods despite a shrinking economy.

25% of respondents reported that they planned to increase spending on Social Networking. Other top investment areas are email marketing, company websites, and e-commerce.

What I find particularly shocking in these results is how many small business do not invest in online marketing techniques at all! A full 38% don't even have a website.

Online Christmas Sales up 30% in the UK

Internet Retailer reports that online retailers based in the UK saw sales increase 30% in December compared to 2007. That's a huge increase in contrast to the overall decrease in sales of 3.3%. The analysts view this as primarily an indication of shoppers delaying their online purchases closer to Christmas given that November internet sales only grew by 9.5% from the previous year.

Regardless of how you interpret the data, it is clear that online shopping is a growing trend and retailers without a online store are at a significant disadvantage.

Free ways to increase foot traffic

If you have both a website and a storefront, there are some easy and free techniques you can use to increase foot traffic to your store, office, or restaurant.

1. Online coupons
   Post discount coupons online that must be redeemed in your store. When you talk to your customers in your store, be sure to mention to check your website for special coupons. This not only increases traffic to your website (which can increase your search engine rankings), but your customers will have a reason to return to your business.
   
   
2. Put your website URL on everything
   This may seem obvious, but your website address needs to be on your business cards, brochures, stationary, invoices, cash register receipts, ads, and be prominently visible from outside your location (i.e. in the window or under your business name).
   
   
3. Start a monthly email newsletter
   Give your customers an opportunity to sign up for an email newsletter with updates, specials, news, events, employee profiles, and customer testimonials. I'm not talking about spam--your customers should be able to opt out or opt in as they wish. The articles in your newsletter can include links back to your website for additional details on specific promotions as well.
   
   If you are a FirstClick Web Solutions customer, your website already includes a comprehensive email newsletter manager that integrates with your customer database. Contact Support if you need help setting it up.
   
   
4. Get listed on Google Maps
   Google offers a free service to list your business on Google Maps. When Google Map users look up a nearby address, your business will be shown on the map! You can even create coupon links as part of your listing. (link: http://www.google.com/local/add)
   
   
5. List your business on Yahoo Local
   Similar to Google Maps, Yahoo Local allows you to list your business for free. (link: http://listings.local.yahoo.com/basic.php)
   

Customer Referral Program

We have launched a new customer referral program. If you are a FirstClick Web Solutions customer, you are probably asked periodically "who created your website?" Now when you refer a business to us who becomes a customer, your monthly hosting & maintenance fee will be waived for one month. There is no limit to how many customers you can refer.

Online Spending Trends Outperform Brick-And-Mortar

Despite a weak economy and slow holiday buying season, consumers spent more money online than they did in stores compared to the previous year. Three categories: Sport & Fitness; Video Games, Consoles & Accessories; and apparel & Accessories grew in 2008 compared to 2007. Most other categories fell, but online sales still outpaced overall sales across the board.

Here are a few highlights from the research compiled by comScore:

• Apparel & Accessories--Online: 4% increase. Overall: 19-21% decline
• Consumer Electronics--Online: 5% decline. Overall: 26% decline
• Jewelry & Watches--Onine: 24% decline. Overall: 34% decline

ComScore chairman Gian Fulgoni concludes "For an online holiday shopping season that recorded a disappointing 3-percent decline in sales, a positive note is that e-commerce trends outperformed overall consumer spending in several product categories, which is to say that e-commerce continued to capture an increasing share of consumers’ wallet...when the consumer economy eventually does rebound, e-commerce is poised to benefit from its emergence as an important consumer sales channel."

Why all businesses need a website in 2009

With every passing year, small- and medium-sized businesses that don't have a Web site are losing their competitive edge. And since the Web is quickly becoming a beacon of light during a dark and dismal economic crunch, there's a strong possibility that a web presence could save a company. Here are a few reasons why every business needs a feature-rich, credible Web presence in the 2009:

• You'll expose your business to markets you never thought possible
  A Web site gives small businesses the opportunity to compete with even the largest enterprises. This means a business owner can reach its target audience anywhere-across the street or across the continent!
  
• The competition already has a Web site
  Although a surprising percentage of small- to medium-sized businesses still don't have a site, plenty of them do. That means the competition is already displaying its online catalog, making appointments, selling products and reaping the benefits of a Web presence.
  
• A Web site establishes your credibility
  Research has repeatedly shown that consumers don't instill much trust in a business that doesn't have a Web site. And if they don't trust the source, they won't give it their money--especially as they become more budget conscious.
  
• You'll decrease advertising expenses while getting MORE exposure for your business
  A Web site beats out all the other methods of business promotion--even direct-mail campaigns! If your hosting provider includes site promotion tools, you can ensure that your business stays in the limelight on the most popular search engines.