When creating a web site for a business, it is necessary to make sure that the site will display correctly in any browser that people decide to use. One great tool to help with this is Adobe Browser Lab (https://browserlab.adobe.com/). I wrote a paper on this, and was quite surprised with the results. The link is below:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9FpCKtOPZ85aWo4QVBEVzFvamM
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Mashup (re-post)
I have received a number of emails from people telling me how they liked my post about Mashups (web applications that combine two or more services together to create a new web service). Because of this, I have decided to re-post the original blog entry here. Enjoy!
Originally posted September 25, 2012:
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A Mashup is a web application that two or more services together to create a new service.
I have found a Mashup called Visitor Map Gadget. It uses Clicky Web Analytics to gather information on the users that visit your site. It then displays your visitors' location(s) on a Google Map with various information about their location and surrounding area, including images and the date/time of their visit.
I feel that this would be a neat addition to company's website for visitors to view, and also a good tool for the company to use to see where geographically visitors are from. Marketing campaigns can then be created for specific areas with higher visitor rates.
Here is a link to the Mashup:
http://bonstio.net/google-gadgets/clicky-visitor-map.html
Originally posted September 25, 2012:
---------------------------------------
A Mashup is a web application that two or more services together to create a new service.
I have found a Mashup called Visitor Map Gadget. It uses Clicky Web Analytics to gather information on the users that visit your site. It then displays your visitors' location(s) on a Google Map with various information about their location and surrounding area, including images and the date/time of their visit.
I feel that this would be a neat addition to company's website for visitors to view, and also a good tool for the company to use to see where geographically visitors are from. Marketing campaigns can then be created for specific areas with higher visitor rates.
Here is a link to the Mashup:
http://bonstio.net/google-gadgets/clicky-visitor-map.html
Rapid Prototyping Tool
A Rapid Prototyping Tool is software that allows you to quickly and easily create a user interface for use in designing a web site or application, without any programming knowledge. Below is a link to a presentation I created about using Adobe Fireworks CS6 as a Rapid Prototyping Tool. Being an Adobe product, Fireworks puts a heavy emphasis on graphic design and layouts in the user interfaces you design.
Adobe Fireworks CS6 - Rapid Prototyping Tool Presentation:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Hvs6vDqZcKQuvsCd3zXpKxI14obhIlxogYk9Sht-9X0/edit
Adobe Fireworks CS6 - Rapid Prototyping Tool Presentation:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Hvs6vDqZcKQuvsCd3zXpKxI14obhIlxogYk9Sht-9X0/edit
Email Marketing
Introduction
Email Marketing is a fast and easy way to get information
about your company and its products out to many people at the same time. It allows for minimal effort with maximum
results. ConstantContact has a great
service to create Email Marketing messages and send them to various lists
depending on the content of the email.
Overview of the problem
Campbell’s Custom Computers does not currently incorporate
Email Marketing into their marketing campaigns.
This severely limits the reach to customers that Campbell’s Custom
Computers needs to be successful
Description of implementing tool to solve problem
ConstantContact has a service that I have used before for
Email Marketing campaigns. It is easy
and fast to use, and is very reliable, too.
It also allows recipients to easily unsubscribe at any time, and this
helps to keep your company’s name clear of Spamming. By using the Email Marketing from
ConstantContact, Campbell’s Custom Computers can reach a whole new audience in
a very easy way.
Summary
I believe that an Email Marketing campaign can greatly
improve sales for Campbell’s Custom Computers.
Not only will it allow for more people to become informed about the
company, it also allows for information about products and services to be
easily communicated with everyone signed up to the list.
CRM Software
CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, software is software that allows you to keep track of your customers. This is especially important when dealing with sales and marketing. Most CRM software does more than just track information, it allows you to communicate with the custom in an effective way. I have included a link to a paper I wrote on the subject below:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9FpCKtOPZ85TU0wLThkSjRHdTA
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9FpCKtOPZ85TU0wLThkSjRHdTA
Animoto
Animoto is an example of a way to easily create professional animated advertisements for use in a Web Marketing Campaign. I have included a link below to an example animation I created for the Firefox addon LightShot. Again, this is but one example of what services are out there to help with the creating of media for a marketing campaign.
http://animoto.com/play/dAJXEuwHtrmE7Ft7zTjLOg
http://animoto.com/play/dAJXEuwHtrmE7Ft7zTjLOg
Software As A Service (SAAS)
Software As A Service (SAAS) is the newest iteration of software. Instead of installing the software on your computer, and accessing it only on that computer, the software is run through a web browser from any computer with a connection to the Internet. This has some very noticeable advantages, including: accessing the software from any computer with Internet access, not having to worry about system requirements and prerequisite software, and the ability to link directly to your files on a website. This is especially helpful when designing a Web Marketing Campaign because you can easily share files with your client, and there is no need to physically take the files when you travel because they are available online from any computer. Below are some examples of SAAS that are available right now:
Google Drive
Google Docs has recently merged with Google Drive, so this gives more options to use it for a marketing campaign. First off, you can use the various tools in Google Docs such as creating Documents for internal and external letters and memos. You can create a Spreadsheet to track expenditures and incomes. You can also use Presentation to create a presentation to pitch ideas to the appropriate people. The very nice thing about using Google Drive is that you can share any documents with whoever in your team (or outside) that you want. This also allows other members of your team to collaborate on a single document together, and in real time.
Not only does Google Drive allow you to create and edit documents, but is also now allows you to upload any files (PDF, Zip, etc.) and share them with others as well. This extra functionality makes it very easy to host an entire project on Google Drive.
Google Drive is also cross-platform, meaning that all you need to use it is a web browser (IE, FireFox, Chrome, Konqueror, etc.), and nothing needs to be installed on your computer. Although, Google Drive does also have a couple shortcomings that should be addressed, though they are minor in my opinion. One is that the tools for creating documents and spreadsheets are pretty basic and don’t have the functionality that Microsoft Word and Excel do. Another is that sometimes there is a slight lag when working in the system because it is web based running from another server. Although, I believe that this is very minimal and doesn’t affect performance overall much.
Adzerk
Another SaaS I have found is Adzerk. It is an ad server for serving ads on your website. Instead of you managing the ads and serving them on your server (more load), they do it for you on their servers, which they tout to be very fast. Since Adzerk has an online management site, you and any other team members can log in and make changes to the ad campaign you are running, or set up new ones. Using this service would take a lot of load off of your web servers because they would not have to serve the ads as well. The only downfall I can see is that you would not have ultimate control over the actual serving of the ads, which is usually a good thing (one less thing to worry about), but I suppose could be viewed as it not being in your control.
Really Simple Systems Cloud CRM
Really Simple Systems has a service for Customer Relations Management. You will want to keep track of your customers and prospects in a CRM software, and this will do just that. The main difference is that it’s a SaaS, so it is available through any web browser at any time. This is in contrast to installing it on a computer and only having access during business hours. You can also create mailing lists for advertisement of new products the customers might be interested in. It also has the ability to forecast various things (revenue, sales, etc.), which can help you to see where your campaign is heading. This is a very important service to use as it helps to keep track of your customer base and also has other various, more powerful options as well.
Product Tour. (n.d.). In Adzerk. Retrieved August 21, 2012, from http://www.adzerk.com/for-doers/
Tour. (n.d.). In Really Simple Systems. Retrieved August 21, 2012, from http://www.reallysimplesystems.com/tour
Google Drive
Google Docs has recently merged with Google Drive, so this gives more options to use it for a marketing campaign. First off, you can use the various tools in Google Docs such as creating Documents for internal and external letters and memos. You can create a Spreadsheet to track expenditures and incomes. You can also use Presentation to create a presentation to pitch ideas to the appropriate people. The very nice thing about using Google Drive is that you can share any documents with whoever in your team (or outside) that you want. This also allows other members of your team to collaborate on a single document together, and in real time.
Not only does Google Drive allow you to create and edit documents, but is also now allows you to upload any files (PDF, Zip, etc.) and share them with others as well. This extra functionality makes it very easy to host an entire project on Google Drive.
Google Drive is also cross-platform, meaning that all you need to use it is a web browser (IE, FireFox, Chrome, Konqueror, etc.), and nothing needs to be installed on your computer. Although, Google Drive does also have a couple shortcomings that should be addressed, though they are minor in my opinion. One is that the tools for creating documents and spreadsheets are pretty basic and don’t have the functionality that Microsoft Word and Excel do. Another is that sometimes there is a slight lag when working in the system because it is web based running from another server. Although, I believe that this is very minimal and doesn’t affect performance overall much.
Adzerk
Another SaaS I have found is Adzerk. It is an ad server for serving ads on your website. Instead of you managing the ads and serving them on your server (more load), they do it for you on their servers, which they tout to be very fast. Since Adzerk has an online management site, you and any other team members can log in and make changes to the ad campaign you are running, or set up new ones. Using this service would take a lot of load off of your web servers because they would not have to serve the ads as well. The only downfall I can see is that you would not have ultimate control over the actual serving of the ads, which is usually a good thing (one less thing to worry about), but I suppose could be viewed as it not being in your control.
Really Simple Systems Cloud CRM
Really Simple Systems has a service for Customer Relations Management. You will want to keep track of your customers and prospects in a CRM software, and this will do just that. The main difference is that it’s a SaaS, so it is available through any web browser at any time. This is in contrast to installing it on a computer and only having access during business hours. You can also create mailing lists for advertisement of new products the customers might be interested in. It also has the ability to forecast various things (revenue, sales, etc.), which can help you to see where your campaign is heading. This is a very important service to use as it helps to keep track of your customer base and also has other various, more powerful options as well.
References
Pichai, S. (2012, April 24). Introducing Google Drive. yes, really. In Google Official Blog. Retrieved August 21, 2012, from http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/introducing-google-drive-yes-really.htmlProduct Tour. (n.d.). In Adzerk. Retrieved August 21, 2012, from http://www.adzerk.com/for-doers/
Tour. (n.d.). In Really Simple Systems. Retrieved August 21, 2012, from http://www.reallysimplesystems.com/tour
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