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Category: Internet marketing Page 5 of 14

How To Get High Online Sales During Christmas Season

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On November 13, 2013

In Internet marketing

November 8, 2013

A large percentage of annual retail revenue is earned during the holiday shopping season, making it important for online retailers to up their game during this pivotal period. The process of getting high sales conversions involves short-term strategies, which can lead to an immediate boost of sales, as well as all-year round efforts that can help maximize conversions and boost revenue. Here’s a look at some efficient steps you can take to make the most of the online discount period.

  • Use real-time dynamic offers to prevent cart abandonment: With users making huge purchases during the discount period, cart abandonment is a highly common occurrence. This happens when a user selects items to add to their cart, but takes longer than usual to complete the purchase. Real-time dynamic offers like free shipping, an additional discount, or product scarcity could serve as the final nudge that they need to seal the deal.
  • Adopt active up-selling methods: Up-selling refers to the process of offering a customer to buy an additional product once they have completed adding items to their cart and are ready to complete the order. There are several ways to do this, such as cross selling, in which you can market related items to the ones purchased by the customer. You can also offer free shipping or a discount upon purchases of a certain value. Another method is volume pricing, which refers to offering a third item free upon the purchase of two similar items, or offering special prices for certain quantities.
  • Encourage visitors to subscribe: Being able to convert visitors into subscribers is half the battle won. Even though the visitor might not want to make a purchase the first time they visit your website, being able to establish a link of communication with them can help to boost revenues during the discount period. A few ways to encourage users to subscribe include offering them a special coupon code, newsletter, free e-book, etc. in exchange for their email address.
  • Test your smart offers: Begin a smart offer campaign well before Cyber Monday, starting off with two offers, say 10 percent off and free shipping, and analyzing user metrics to see which is more popular. Over the following week, pit the more popular of the two, say 10 percent off, against, another offer, like say, a free gift. Following this analysis will help you have a hierarchy of offer results just in time for the online discount period.

For Online Marketing of your store, call us at Centex Technologies – (855) 375-9654

How To Use Trending Data From Twitter To Promote Your Business

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On October 17, 2013

In Internet marketing, SEO Marketing

October 17, 2013

As a business owner with an online presence, you are probably aware of the impact that trending hashtags have on the online world. For the uninitiated, a hashtag is a phrase or a word following the symbol “#”, which gained immense popularity on Twitter, and have now spread to other social networking sites like Facebook and Google Plus. So how can you use these trending topics to promote your business? The first thing that you need to understand is that trending hashtags change in real time, which is why it is important to keep track of what is trending at a certain point, before using it to promote your business.

When you notice a trend that relates to your business, you can participate in it by using this tag. Having a trending tag in your content update helps you to spread your message to a wide audience, spreading beyond your fans and followers. While this is a great way to get your few invaluable seconds of fame on the web, you need to pay heed to social media etiquette while using trending tags to promotes your business. As a ground rule, you should never spam trending hashtags by over-posting trending tags, or posting tags that are not related to your business.

At present, Twitter and Google+ are the only social networks that allow you to view trending topics on their sites. However, the trends on these websites are easily transferable to Facebook, Instagram, and even Pinterest, making it possible to integrate this marketing strategy on all your social media networks. Apart from viewing trending topics directly on Twitter and Google+, you can also make use of other online resources to explore more in-depth trending tag opportunities. Some such websites include Trendsmap and Hashtags.org.

The effective use of trending data on Twitter and Google Trends for your business can help to gain followers on these sites. However, remember to stay away from political or news-related hashtags, as even though these might result in increased traffic for your website, they are sure to generate an equal amount of negative publicity, leading to the backfiring of your marketing strategy. Even if you must choose a trending tag that does not directly relate to your business, do so smartly.

Centex Technologies provide Internet Marketing Services to its clients. For more information on how to use Twitter in your marketing strategy, call us at – (855) 375-9654

Google’s Hummingbird Update

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On September 30, 2013

In Internet marketing, SEO Marketing

September 30, 2013

Along with a Google Doodle that had the world going crazy with their spacebars, Google also introduced an exciting new update to mark its fifteenth anniversary. Named “Hummingbird”, this update is centered on Google’s algorithm, aiming to refine search results, and help Google respond to complicated queries with more accurate answers. This is made possible by broadening the use of Google’s Knowledge Graph, which helps the search engine to decode the concepts behind user searches, instead of merely providing keyword-based results. Google Hummingbird update is believed to affect 90% of search queries.

Here is a look at how the update is expected to refine search results:

  • A search query that does not have a simple answer will now return a comprehensive set of relevant facts. An example of this is the results that show upon searching for “impressionist artists” on Google.
  • This update has a significant impact on voice searches, as Google will now try to decode the meaning behind the search, instead of simply focusing on the keywords. For example, if you are searching for “best place to buy pizza in New York”, Google will now show up results for pizza restaurants in New York even though “restaurant” was not a part of search term.
  • Google now links a subsequent search to the previous search. For instance, if you had searched about for “images of the leaning tower of Pisa”, and your next search is “When was it built”, Google will understand that your second query is in reference to the previous one.
  • An example of how search results after the update are superior to previous results is a search for “prescription for acid reflux”. While this previous turned up a list of drugs, the search results for this query are now more user friendly, even questioning the need of drugs for the treatment of this disorder.

The Hummingbird update is bigger and huger than Google’s previous updates like the Panda and Penguin updates. This is because while those were merely modifications in the existing algorithms, this is a complete replacement, structured to meet the search requirements of today- as opposed to those of ten years ago. While the Hummingbird update is expected to take the search engine experience a step ahead, there has been no major impact witnessed on website traffic so far, as was the case with Google’s past updates. The thumb rule remains- keep publishing high-quality content and Google will reward you.

To know how Google’s Hummingbird update will affect your online business, call us at – (855) 375-9654

What is Pay Per Gaze?

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On September 6, 2013

In Internet marketing, Tech Buzz

September 6, 2013

Google has recently been awarded the patent for its pay-per-gaze technology, which is capable of changing the face of technology in the years to come. This futuristic invention is designed to be used on a “head-mounted gaze tracking device”, which seems to be a perfectly fitting description for Google Glasses. Despite Google’s repeated assurances that users of Google Glasses will not have to worry about their experience being hampered by ads popping in their field of vision, the pay-per-gaze patent suggests otherwise. On the other hand, it is quite possible that the reason behind Google securing this patent could be to ensure that no other company tries to implement it on Google Glasses or similar devices.

In what is being described as “creepy” and “invasive”, this technology will be able to read people’s emotions through an image recognition algorithm, which shall track items viewed by creating a “gazing log”. This shall represent a goldmine of information for advertizers, who shall be able to know not just how long a user gazed at their advertizement, but also how he felt about it. The advertizers shall then be charged on a “pay-per-gaze” basis, depending on the number of people who gazed at their advertizement long enough. This system shall be applicable to advertizements across all mediums, including billboards, television advertizements, website banners, etc.

The patent shall be able to determine emotional responses to images viewed by tracking pupil dilation patterns of the users. Another feature covered in Google’s pay-per-gaze patent is the history search feature, through which the gazes of a particular user can be compared to their purchasing history. In other words, Google Glass shall be capable of tracking user purchases, including those made online as well as in the real world. This could be the Holy Grail of advertising, as it could track the influence of an advertizement, right through the final outcome of purchase.

Pay per gaze is being described as the next step in the ubiquitous pay-per-click advertizing system. Individual privacy in this gaze-tracking system will be protected by removing personal-identifying data from the information provided to advertizers. In addition to this, it is likely that users will be able to opt-out from having their gazes tracked. How this patent will change the face of advertizing, and whether at all, Google will choose to implement it in its augmented reality head-ware, remains to be seen.

What is Google Glass?

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On August 30, 2013

In Internet marketing, IT Support, SEO Marketing, Tech Buzz

August 30, 2013

In the beginning of 2012, when rumors of Google’s ambitious project of wearable technology began doing rounds, few could believe that this was such a close reality. The intuitive spectacles, which have been developed with a vision of becoming the ubiquitous device of the coming decade, are all set to hit the market, and are available for developers to test for just $1500. So what exactly is Google Glass, and how can we expect it to change the world in the years to come? Put simply, Google Glass is an attempt to make data completely hands-free, enabling users to access the internet and other apps through voice commands.

This coming-of-age device wears less than an average frame of sunglasses, and can be worn discreetly, just like a regular pair of eyeglasses.  Each such frame has a camera, display, touchpad, microphone, and battery built into its chassis, enabling you to view the display within your field of vision, and perform all sorts of functions through voice commands- including taking pictures, sharing live streaming of events, recording videos, translating, searching the web, using navigation, etc.

Here’s a look at some of the tasks that Google Glass will be able to accomplish:

  • The embedded camera will be able to click pictures of things as you can see them from a first person’s perspective, eliminating the need for a viewfinder.
  • The microphone and touchpad on one side of the frame will enable you to select the function that you want to be performed from the screen that will appear in front of you. Google Glass will be able to interpret your commands through a brief gesture or voice command.
  • The device will also be capable to provide sound through bone-induction technology, which will be a lot less cumbersome than normal headphones.
  • Google’s voice-to-text functionality will enable you to pair your headset to your Android phone, and then view text messages on the display, and respond to them through the microphone. This feature will also make it possible to dictate emails.
  • You shall also be able to access a variety of other Google features, such as Google Maps, Google Hangout, Google Translate, etc. through the device.
  • In addition to these in-built features, there are expected to be a wide range of apps that users will be able to access through the headset, including one that makes it possible to identify your friends in a crowd.

Centex Technologies is a leading IT support company in Dallas TX. For more information on latest technologies, computer networking, online marketing and SEO, call us at – (855) 375-9654

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