Fashion boost for online marketeers Fifteen Digital

Posted on April 28, 2011 by John Borthwick

Taken from today’s The Journal: http://www.nebusiness.co.uk/business-news/science-and-technology/2011/04/28/fashion-boost-for-online-marketeers-fifteen-digital-51140-28594314/

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ONLINE marketing support firm Fifteen Digital is seeing particular interest from clothing companies as it builds its client base in the region.

The Stoke-on-Trent company brought Middlesbrough-bred director John Borthwick back to the North East last year when it set up a Darlington office.

It has since used this outpost to develop a client list including financial services firms, storage companies and retailers. The Darlington office deals with the online marketing side of Fifteen Digital’s operations, which also include IT and web development.

Borthwick revealed the biggest surge of interest had come from the clothing sector, which has seen people increasingly move online from the high street in recent times.

Borthwick said: “We’ve got about four or five clothing retailers on our books at the minute.

“It’s a big growth area for us because the amount of money people are spending online on clothes is increasing massively.

“People used to be worried about what happens if something doesn’t fit, but that doesn’t seem to be as much of a concern any more.

“They’re much more willing to pop into the post office if they have to pick it up or return it if it’s going to save them around £10 to £15.”

One business that has worked with Fifteen Digital since 2007 is the Greenhouse People, which is now on target to reach a return on its investment of 1,708% compared to 530% initially.

Co-owner Richard Baggaley said Fifteen Digital had turbo-charged the internet growth of the company he runs with his brother Jeremy.

He said: “The efficiencies which we have made in optimising our pay-per-click campaigns have had a speedy pay-back and we also don’t have to commit in-house resources to the detailed work.

“Our e-commerce shop has been successful as we have tested many features in the past to ensure that we are always improving the conversion rate from visitors into buyers.”

 

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Fifteen Digital triple revenues for online greenhouse retailer

Posted on March 22, 2011 by John Borthwick

This story has been reproduced from the Evening Gazette Newspaper, http://www.nebusiness.co.uk/business-news/latest-business-news/2011/03/21/fifteen-digital-triple-revenues-for-online-greenhouse-retailer-51140-28375211/

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AN ONLINE greenhouse retailer has seen its annual revenues triple in three years after working with Fifteen Digital.

The greenhousepeople.co.uk called in the online marketing support company to help it maximise sales opportunities through a new online shop and a more efficient digital marketing strategy.

In 2007, when The Greenhouse People first began working with Fifteen Digital, its return on investment stood at 530% while its pay-per-click advertising spend was not delivering the sales results needed to make the overheads worthwhile.

Fifteen Digital quickly outlined ways to cut out the waste on the company’s online advertising spend and increase the sales conversion rate of people visiting the site.

By 2008, the retailer’s annual sales had more than doubled and three years later, the company had achieved the same sales revenue by February 14 as it had in the whole of 2007, and is now on target to increase its return on investment to 1,708%.

Richard Baggaley, who runs the greenhouse business with his brother Jeremy, said: “Working with Fifteen Digital over the last few years has turbo-charged our internet growth.

“The efficiencies which we have made in optimising our pay-per-click campaigns have had a speedy pay-back and we also don’t have to commit in-house resources to the detailed work. Our ecommerce shop has been successful as we have tested many features in the past to ensure that we are always improving the conversion rate from visitors into buyers.”

John Borthwick, director at Fifteen Digital, said: “We have shown what can be achieved in online trading with some expert assistance. Many online retailers don’t realise what a difference investment in improving their ecommerce strategy can have on their earning potential.”

Fifteen Digital employs nine people and has offices in Darlington and Stoke-on-Trent and is in the process of expanding its online marketing and development teams. The firm is also on the hunt for partnership arrangements with fellow web development agencies that may wish to offer the online marketing services to their clients but do not have the skill set in-house.

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PCI Compliance: Vital Information for Online Store owners

Posted on March 15, 2011 by John Borthwick

Confusion Runs Rampant
Many folks in the e-commerce industry have found themselves scratching their heads in confusion over the new PCI PA-DSS (Payment Card Industry, Payment Application – Data Security Standard) rules and guidelines.  PCI Compliance has never been an easy topic to wrap one’s head around and the new DSS is starting to cause panic among some involved in businesses that operate online.  The July 1, 2010 compliance deadline is looming and many payment applications are still not DSS certified.

This is not good news for anyone involved in the e-commerce sector.  There is no set punishment established for non-compliance with the new PA-DSS.   If an online storeowner is found to be non-compliant then they will likely be charged increased merchant fees and penalties, face hefty fines and in some cases have their merchant account or even their entire website terminated.

Most of the confusion and controversy revolves around who exactly needs to comply with the new DSS.  The answer to this is somewhat complex but the primary rule of thumb is that if your store processes credit cards online then you need to use a shopping cart that is PA-DSS certified in order to be PCI Compliant.

As an e-commerce merchant, vendor or retailer (those operating a business online), it is your duty to ensure you are utilizing fully PCI Compliant Hosting and that your shopping cart application is PA-DSS certified.  If either your host or cart is not compliant with the PCI than your site is in trouble.  Many carts and other merchant service providers are still shuffling to get scanned and added to the list of compliant applications before the July deadline.

If you are in the market for new shopping cart software than you do not want to use a program that is non-compliant with the PCI or PA-DSS.  It is not worth losing money or possibly your business over something so simple to remedy.  The responsibility falls on you – the storeowner – to find a host and cart that are compliant with the PCI and to fulfill the required network scans and questionnaires.

PCI Compliance vs PA-DSS – what’s the difference?
The PA-DSS (Payment Application – Data Security Standard) applies to products that are distributed as applications that people can purchase and then do whatever they wish.  For example, this applies to shopping cart programs and e-commerce solutions.  The DSS started as the PABP (Payment Application Best Practices) by Visa before becoming affiliated with the PCI Security Council, which represents all five major credit card companies.  In order to be PCI Compliant you must be on a DSS certified application.  In other words, your cart must be compliant.

PCI Compliance is a broader set of rules and guidelines.  The PCI Compliance rules are the standards for the way in which credit card transactions and other confidential information is processed online.

As of July 2010, both PCI and PA-DSS Compliance are necessary for a site that accepts credit card payments.  The PCI applies to all e-commerce businesses, web hosts, shopping carts, payment gateways and merchant account providers.  When a company becomes DSS certified they are then added to Visa’s list of compliant companies.  The PCI Compliance rules are the standards for the way in which credit card transactions and other confidential information is processed online.

In order to be fully PCI compliant with the new PA-DSS, level 4 merchants must be running compliant applications on their site (such as their shopping cart).  Their web hosts must also be PCI compliant by using properly encrypted networks, regularly updating their anti-virus software and performing regular system scans.

There are a number of PCI scanning companies approved by Visa and MasterCard that will help small merchants pass PCI audits and complete the PCI questionnaire in order to show PCI compliance. Being fully PCI and DSS compliant is like having an insurance policy in the event of a security breech.

For the list of requirements that QSAs will be checking for in your scan check out:

https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/security_standards/pci_pa_dss.shtml

 

By Forrest Yingling
Forrest Yingling is the Marketing Director for WebNet Hosting, Premier Partner Miva Hosts since 2004.   WebNet Hosting provides PCI Compliant Miva Web Hosting and e-commerce solutions

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Web Design For Mobile Devices

Posted on March 3, 2011 by John Borthwick

More and more, people are accessing the internet on their iPhones, Blackberries and Androids. And now, even regular cell phones are coming with wi-fi and internet functionality. The web has truly gone handheld…but is your website keeping up? No matter how great your web design is, if it doesn’t display properly on mobile devices then you could be losing valuable traffic and customers. Read on to discover best practices in web design for mobile devices.

HTML
Some mobiles, like the iPhone, are very good at translating web pages into a smaller size without losing layout and function. But many are not, and non-smartphone mobiles usually only support a very limited version of HTML 3.2. It is best to use basic formatting and layout tags. Tables are not supported on all phones, so it is best to not use them.

Content
Content is key, especially when it comes to mobile devices. It has to be engaging and interesting, but it also has to be easy to read and to navigate through. Text should be in small chunks, with lots of white space. If you can lay your text out in one long column, it will be easier to scroll through and read on a tiny screen. Also, use a basic font…many fancier fonts are not available on cell phones.

Images
Keep graphics to a minimum, and make sure they download quickly and can be resized according to the monitor they are being displayed on. Remember, mobile screens are tiny! The smaller the dimensions and the quicker the download time, the better. For sizing, relative sizes work better than absolute sizes.

Navigation
Web design for mobile devices must take into account ease of navigation, and placing it at the top of the screen makes for a frustrating experience on a cell phone. Have the content show up first, and keep links at the bottom. For touch screen devices like the iPhone, long link text is easier to tap on than short links, so use more than three words for your text links.

If your website is more complicated, consider creating a version of a webpage specifically for mobile users. Place a link at the top of your home page so it is the first thing mobile users see. You can make the link invisible to regular users if you like, so only people on cell phones will see it.

These are just some basic tips on web design for mobile devices. The best way to see if your site is keeping up with your visitors is to view it on several different devices, and see how easy it is to view, read and navigate. If you find yourself getting frustrated, then it’s time to make your site mobile friendly!

Fifteen Digital’s E-commerce platform, Fifteen Shop, is natively mobile friendly, with a specially adapted version as standard. It offers a sleek design while retaining the full functionality of the original site. See Fifteen E-commerce for more info.

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Bing Beats Yahoo!

Posted on March 1, 2011 by John Borthwick

According to analytics firm StatCounter, the Bing search engine has just overtaken Yahoo for the first time worldwide during the month of February 2011. From StatCounter Global Stats, Bing closed out the month with a 4.37% search share compared with Yahoo’s 3.93%. However, both still fall far behind Google’s search share of 89.94% of the global market.

This past month was also the first time Google dipped below 90% since August of 2009, but it shows little sign of losing its global dominance any time soon.

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Using Your Picture Can Increase Sales

Posted on February 28, 2011 by John Borthwick

Make no mistake, there is great power in using your picture. When people can see what you look like, they feel as if they know you.

Over time, they begin to bond with you and trust you. In essence, you become their friend. And once friendship and trust are established, people will buy whatever it is you’re offering over and over and over again.

Why? Because psychologically, human beings have an innate need to connect with other human beings emotionally. Using your picture on your website and in your marketing makes an emotional connection that much easier.

The corporate world has known the importance of connecting emotionally with their customers for many decades. Need proof? Look no further than the classic tv commercials featuring Lee Iacocca (Chrysler), Dave Thomas (Wendy’s) and the adorable Rodney Allen Rippy (Jack in the Box)…three of the most popular characters in US television history.

But if marketers don’t use their picture, doesn’t it give the impression that they’re hiding something?

It could. But sometimes there are perfectly legitimate reasons why marketers don’t use their picture.

Also, some marketers are ashamed of their appearance. They may have a bad case of acne, a badly burned face, a prominent scar or birthmark, or some other physical malady that they’re embarrassed about.

There may be perfectly legitimate reasons why someone chooses not to use his or her picture.

So should you use your picture on your website and in your marketing?

Obviously, that’s a personal choice. However, in addition to the trust factor, studies show using your picture also increases conversions.

Ultimately, whether or not you should use your picture, depends on what you are trying to accomplish. If you are trying to build your personal brand, as well as establish credibility and trust, then yes, you should definitely use your picture.

But all of the positives notwithstanding, using your picture certainly isn’t a prerequisite for success. After all, there are many successful businesses whose owners operate anonymously or in the shadows.

Like I said, it’s a personal choice.

Original article by David Jackson of http://free-marketing-tips-blog.com
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Good Keywords Result In Shoppers

Posted on February 21, 2011 by John Borthwick

Successful stores need shopaholics, not window shoppers. It is the fashion bugs that stuff bank accounts, not the banal browsers. Every brick-and-mortar store knows this rule, but many online businesses forget this fact in the fevered frenzy of Internet marketing. Their ambiguous keywords and chaotic content may attract window shoppers, but loyal customers are few and far between. What is the secret? How to find good keywords?

In marketing vernacular, good keywords are targeted phrases designed to acquire potential customers likely to convert to a call to action – aka, good keywords attract visitors likely to enjoy the website and follow up.

Good Keyword Strategies & Tactics

Unfortunately, good keywords, like spouses, are hard to find. But what makes a keyword good? Before beginning an exhausting trek to track down good keywords, a business must identify the goal of the keyword. Goals may include selling a service, boosting website traffic, increasing conversion rates or acquiring new blog visitors. Choice of keywords depends upon choice of goal.

Should a keyword be generic or specific? Generic keywords are likely to attract more visitors but lower conversion rates and SERP rankings, while specific keywords will receive fewer hits but attract more focused visitors.

Ambiguous keyword phrases tend to be short tail, with only a few terms, while targeted phrases contain many terms, called long tail. Most SEO experts “ladder” their good keywords by identifying an ideal future keyword, a generic goal phrase, and an immediate specific keyword.

Most marketers use keyword analytic services to take the mammoth amount of amassed information and separate it into easily digestible morsels. Web analytic services can rate time spent per page, point of entry and exit, demographic and geographic trends, number of searches per keyword, and more.

Warning & Caution

Many webmasters throw caution to the wind and rampage about grabbing a term here, a short-tail phrase here and specific long-tail phrase there. Good keywords should have a consistent theme and should attract a certain caliber of customer.

The late 1990s suffered from a viral Internet pandemic of keyword stuffing. Writers crammed keyword after keyword into blocks of text, and search engine algorithms were victims of a bad case of information overload. Now, search engine algorithms punish keyword spamming, so no keyword phrase should be more than 8% of the total page content, and 2-5% is the optimum range.

Window-shopping is fun to the customer, but worthless to the seller. Hit-and-run visitors do not result in sales; it’s the shopaholics that make budgets. Good keywords make good customers.

Fifteen Digital can give advice and keyword ideas for your site. Contact us today to see how we can help you.

Main article by Steve Duval

Posted in Ecommerce Development, Pay Per Click, Search Engine Optimisation | Leave a comment

Better PageRank Is Down To Content

Posted on February 16, 2011 by John Borthwick

Getting your website to rank high in Google searches is a daunting task to say the least. There are hundreds of different factors that will determine how well your site ranks. In this article we discover the most important factors in SEO (search engine optimisation) to help you reach the number one spot!

Before we begin, please note that SEO takes a long time! Anything you do today, wont actually be visible for up to 6 months depending on how much work is needed. This is why the techniques in this article are so important; you want the best results at the end.

On Page Optimisation

On Page optimisations include everything and anything that involves changing the layout and code of your site. Generally speaking, the layout and coding of your site has little effect on how Google decides to rank your site’s position, but it does however effect how Google will determine what your site is all about. A properly formatted and coded site makes it easier for the search giant to determine the importance rating of any content on your site. So lets start with the basics.

Tags: I’m including both meta tags, as well as other HTML tags such as title and heading tags, and even bold or italics. I’m not going to go over meta tags here as that topic has been beaten to death by every SEO article ever written!

View your site as a report or textbook. I’m sure your website is beautiful and full of artsy design and cutting edge CSS, but that’s NOT how Google sees it. Google only sees the text. So how does it determine which text is the important text? Heading tags!

Just like a school textbook, the most important information is ‘coded’ with clues. The title of the textbook gives the reader the first and most important clue on what is inside. Each chapter or unit of the book has it’s own heading (h1 tag), with subheadings (h2, h3, h4). The most important key terms of the chapter are almost always in bold. Your site should follow this format! To follow through with my textbook analogy, the table of contents would be your sitemap.xml file.

Link Building

Now for what really matters in SEO. If it was as simple as optimising some meta tags and formatting the site properly, then everyone would be on the first page. For the short story, Link Popularity is what determines how well your site will rank for your chosen keywords. This means that the more sites linking to you, the more awesome you seem in the eyes of Google.

Now for the long story. Google ranks every page on every website with a rating from 0 to 10. This rating is called a PR rating, or Page Rank. To put things in perspective, Google has a PR of 10, Digg has 8, and Zakk Wylde has a PR of 4. 4 is considered a respectable PR rating, with only power houses reaching 6+.

So why’s this important? Well no one knows the actual maths as Google keeps it’s secrets well, but ultimately, if a site with a PR of 4 or 5 links to you, that one link is worth more that a hundred links from PR 0 sites.

There are also many other factors that change a link’s worth. The two most important are site relevance, and the anchor text in the link. That’s right, each independent link to your site is also assigned its own value. Generally speaking, links in the footer of a site are worth far less than one in the content. The site’s relevance is important as well. If you have a site about dentistry, and a guitar store links to you, then Google will assign it less importance. However, if it was Colgate linking to your site!

The anchor text is what the text of the link actually says. If someone links to your site like this “click here to read more” then Google doesn’t have any content to determine what the link is about. If the link read more like this “Dentistry Information” then Google can better determine it’s relevance.

Getting Links

So how do you get people to link to you? This is where the real life value of your site matters. You need to have content that people want to link to!

You can also comment on blogs and forums, but this isn’t very effective and can be time consuming. You can write articles and submit them to differing sites on the web. Also time consuming. What about social media? Facebook and twitter are huge right? Depending on your site, this might be a great way to get your link out there, but your site has to be ‘buzz’ worthy. I don’t see people re-tweeting or Facebooking a site on dentistry. Unless you have the best friends ever who are willing to take the hit. Lastly you can contact webmasters of other websites in your category and ask them to place a link to you on their site.

Ultimately, you need to have valuable content on your site that people will want to link to by themselves.

Fifteen Digital can assist you in determining a strategy to develop a better PR for your website. Contact us today to see what we can do for your business.

Main Article by  Design By Pixel
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Facebook More Effective Than Twitter For Sales

Posted on February 8, 2011 by John Borthwick

Strapped for time and cash, small local businesses are increasingly turning to free and low-cost social media tools for their marketing efforts. Not surprisingly, the world’s biggest social networking site tops of the list of preferred tools.

Seventy percent of local businesses use Facebook for marketing, according to a new report. This represents a 20% increase over the previous year.

The report notes that for the first time, Facebook is being used more than Google by local businesses for online marketing.

Facebook also seems to have an advantage in the location check-in space, with 32% of small businesses saying they use the feature, compared with just 9% who have tried Foursquare.

This new data comes just as ChompOn, a group buying site, revealed its own data showing thatFacebook updates are three times more effective than tweets when it comes to getting consumers to make purchases online.

Nearly 40% of respondents in the Merchant Circle survey said they used Twitter for marketing, putting the microblogging site behind Facebook and Google.

The increased use of social marketing by small businesses should come as no surprise, considering the massive popular adoption of social networks and the low – often nonexistent – costs of using them. Web marketing companies in general have also been courting local businesses, about 51% of whom say that they’re cold-called about online marketing services at least once per week.

Original article from ReadWriteWeb
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Online help for clothing store

Posted on January 17, 2011 by John Borthwick

Fifteen Digital in Staffordshire’s local Sentinel newspaper, see http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/news/Online-help-clothing-store/article-3106436-detail/article.html

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