Running promotions is part and parcel of any good marketing campaign.  An offer, discount or price reduction helps generate interest and coupons are a proven method of bringing customers in through the door.  But you need to be careful about what you offer.  The whole point of promoting a business through social coupons is to generate repeat customers but you don’t want to bankrupt yourself in the process!

Recently a smoothie shop owner in New York began a campaign with Groupon Inc. to promote discounted smoothies via email.  Although it seemed to be a success with over 1300 online coupons sold and around 900 actually redeemed in the shop, very few turned into regular customers.  Unfortunately, many who redeemed coupons were not from the neighborhood and the owner had allowed each of them to purchase up to 10 coupons at a time rather limiting them to a much smaller number.  She was fortunate that not all the coupons where redeemed or she would have lost a thousands of dollars.

Email marketing to subscribers is an age old internet marketing technique especially as it hits target audiences who have said they want to receive such mailings.  In recent years social coupon websites have become very popular not only with potential customers but also with small businesses who have a found a good route to generating income and new customers.  Social coupon websites will advertise offers and in return retain around one third to half of the offer value.

Groupon itself reports that it has a waiting list of 35,000 businesses wanting to be featured on their website and is approached by over 700 new businesses each day.  Alongside this they have around 13 million registered email subscribers.

With all great things, there is a downside.  Many businesses have said they receive far too many customers looking for a discount and that many of these never come back.  Groupon has carried out some research in to this and concluded that around 22% of customers will become repeat patrons.  Consequently, Groupon has said it will look into improving its promotional pitches and have implemented new software to six of its markets to filter offers to subscribers based on gender, buying habits, interests and other criteria.  This has helped to ensure deals are rotated around subscribers meaning fewer customers turn up at a business at the same time.

Social coupons are a great way of bringing people through the door but businesses will need to work out deals carefully not only to ensure they don’t loose money, but also to try to reach local customers who are more likely to return in the future.

But the Internet allows businesses to take this one step further.

Features such as reviews, ratings and comments are a common sight on many websites.  These websites, such as Google Local and Yelp, offer simple ads to full page profiles, complete with invitations for visitors to leave reviews, star ratings and comments about your business.  All in all a good marketing tool and for most these websites work well, returning a healthy amount of customers.

However, there are a growing number of businesses finding themselves being targeted by malicious postings both on their own websites and on third party sites.  Sometimes these postings can be traced to rival businesses, disgruntled employees or past clients.  In other cases it is simply malicious spam.  But what can you do if you find yourself victim to these unkind words?

First, if you use third party websites to promote your business where comments, reviews and ratings are all features, ensure that not only does the host site monitor what is posted, but that you check the sites yourself on a regular basis.  Many third party sites will only have filters in place to wheedle out spam and to flag up suspicious postings, so they are unlikely to pick up on everything.  Carry out your own checks on websites you are thinking of advertising on – if you notice a high level of spam-like comments or lots of postings with a less than complimentary tone, you should perhaps go elsewhere.

If you are running your own website with comment features (or a blog) have them set to a review status so only you can publish comments once you have read and approved them.  Don’t be so quick to delete postings that may include negative comments though.  A website that only contains hundreds of glowing reports may lead potential customers to be a little suspicious and even to conclude you are writing the comments yourself!

Spam postings and particularly malicious spam have become a real problem in recent years particularly with the growth of online forums and social networking.  If someone has posted a bad comment about you on one site, chances are they will have posted to many others as well.  Protecting your online reputation means spending time monitoring sites you know your business is advertised on and performing regular searches for anything that may include your business name or reference to you.

Unfortunately, many third party websites do not go far enough to stop spam comments or malicious postings meaning you will need to contact them yourself to get postings removed.  Some sites do have a ‘flag’ function on all postings, where visitors can flag up something which they feel is not right, but then how many of us bother to do this?  If you are being specifically targeted another option is to pursue matters through the courts, but this could be a lengthy and expensive process.

Ultimately, protecting your online reputation and that of your business will rely on your own vigilance.

Over the coming days, all Gmail users with individual accounts will be able to access it.  If you use Gmail as part of Google Apps availability to Priority Inbox may depend on whether your domain administrator has allowed you access to ‘pre-release’ features.

Priority Inbox has been developed by Google in response to Google’s conviction that email overload is a problem that is increasing and which is forcing people in to spending far too much time and energy in organizing their inboxes for both personal and work related emails.  It will work as an optional view of inbox messages and users can toggle between other views such as listing messages by timestamp or in alphabetical order according to senders’ names or subjects.

When you activate Priority Inbox, the inbox is divided in to three sections, important and unread emails will appear at the top; flagged messages will appear in the middle and everything else will be in the last section.  Google’s director of product management in its enterprise unit, Matthew Glotzbach, has promoted this new feature as a kind of inverted spam filter allowing emails to be prioritized instead of blocked or set aside as unsolicited and which allows users to instantly see the most important messages first.

Glotzbach said, “If you’re in meetings and you come back to your email and you have five minutes between appointments and you have 50 emails, which five messages do you spend your time on in that window of time? Priority Inbox aims to automate that and simplify that decision”.

Google’s own in house tests showed that users of Priority Inbox were typically spending around 6% less time managing their email or for an employee who would usually spend 13 hours per week on email, an entire working week per year could be saved.

For more information, check out Google Priority Inbox.

Paypal launched an app for smartphone transactions only last year and as the uptake of smartphones have increased so has the growth in mobile transactions.  This year alone Paypal has predicted a turnover of more than $500 million in mobile payments and that more than 5 million of its members will be actively using Paypal via their mobiles.  Now they have made it even easier to pay for goods through smartphones with the release of the new Mobile Express Checkout app.

Up until now checkout procedures could be time consuming so this new app aims to streamline the process with a one-click buying option.  If you have regularly bought goods from Amazon you will already be familiar with this type of service, which stores consumer’s shipping and payment details for the next time they place an order.  All a customer will need to do is login with their Paypal account details.

Of course, making payments through smartphones have been met with some concern over fraud, identity theft and the like.  Paypal however says the new app has been optimized specifically for smartphones and features strong fraud detection.

Initially the app has been released to users of the iPhone and Android 2.0 or higher and is only available to customers of a select few retailers like Nike and Buy.com.  Paypal are working to make the app available to more retailers over the coming months.

The launch of this app means that Paypal’s 85 million users will now be able to purchase goods via their smartphones faster than before and unlike other mobile payment apps, users will not have to input their credit card details each and everytime.  Users of smartphones are sure to welcome this as inputting shipping and billing details on a phone is an arduous task at the best of times!  So it would seem that Paypal gets a jump on the competition once again and is leading the way when it comes to the future of automated mobile payments and mobile ecommerce.  I don’t doubt though that Mastercard et al will soon be following suit!

The Google Voice service which launched last year in Beta, has since undergone a metamorphosis and has emerged as a brilliant solution to online phone and voicemail management.  The SMS service works better and there is a Chrome extension which makes it easier to manage.  An account is still free if you have a Google log-in and you have a choice of keeping your existing number and upgrading it with voicemail.  If that doesn’t suit then you can set a new main number which will ring your cell, home and office phones, as well as your desktop VoIP. Gmail integration also gives users the ability to turn voicemail into emails.  International calls are cheap and future additions include number portability and no set-up web calling.

As a communications solution, especially where small businesses are concerned, it is simply brilliant and we have been using it for sometime now along with over 1 million others – a figure you can now expect to balloon thanks to this latest release.  Google themselves are delighted with the results particularly after the now infamous rejection by Apple of its Google Voice app (an episode that led Google to design their own mobile based web app).

Google have described the service as ‘the pinnacle of modern human communication’ and given all that it has to offer – I think they may be right!

Basecamp allows us to track and organize every aspect of a project online making it easier to manage jobs and stay on schedule.  The reason we love to use Basecamp is the numerous advantages it offers us to keep a project running smoothly from beginning to end.  This project management software allows us to set up project tasks, assign members of our team to each one and set project milestones.  From one location we can upload and review files, update our clients on progress and handle every task quickly and efficiently.

Email is a vital aspect of our project management and Basecamp helps to ensure we always deliver messages when and where intended.  The software allows us to send emails without even having to be logged into the service.  Basecamp gives each project its own unique email address so we always know who sent the message and which project it is intended for, any messages sent are also flagged up to every user on that account letting them know a new message is available. Better than that, Mailmanagr can now be integrated with Basecamp allowing users to set up email addresses, create milestones, to-do lists and messages just by sending an email.

In our opinion Basecamp gives us everything we need to manage our projects and deliver to our clients on time.  The Mailmanagr integration is a great addition too, ensuring our emails and communications do not go astray!  While it may not suit everyone, I would strongly encourage everyone to take advantage of the free one project plan they offer.  Give it a whirl, it’s a product that I swear by and couldn’t live without…let me know what you think.

Email marketing can be a great tool for promoting your business, if you get it right that is.  Many companies will adopt it because it offers the potential to instantly increase sales and allows business owners to adopt a marketing strategy which is easily measurable.  There are a number of factors which will govern the success of an email marketing campaign, but one of the most important factors is the email marketing vendor that you chose.

The market for this type of service is huge and in our opinion over saturated.  This means that when it comes to choosing a company to launch your email marketing campaign you will need to pick wisely and according to your needs and business type.  Here are our top four email marketing solutions to help get you started:

1. Mail Chimp: This is our personal favorite and the one solution we frequently recommend to our clients, especially small businesses.  Designed with a bright and cheerful interface, Mail Chimp offers plenty of features which are designed with simplicity in mind.  While it may lack some advanced reporting features, it makes up with a robust feature set.  Mail Chimp also offers a free service to those businesses that have under 500 subscribers.  This is a pricing advantage that no others can match!
2. Constant Contact: Constant Contact is a household name for many businesses.  They have done a great job with their corporate branding and advertisements but don’t let this play into your decision.  Pricing starts from just $15 per month and subscribers will find a comprehensive feature set, easy to use wizards and excellent help and support.   Where it does fall short is in the number of reporting features available and free tools on offer such as conversion tracking.
3. Vertical Response: If you are looking for a solution which does not require a contract or minimum term commitment then give Vertical Response a try.  From just $10 per month you will find plenty of features which will rival those of any of their competitors.   Personally, the best part about Vertical Response is their “pay as you go” pricing option.  Maybe you send quarterly newsletters.  If you know that your business will not be sending emails monthly, why enter into a monthly contract?    Unfortunately, Vertical Response is not the easiest of the bunch to navigate.
4. iContact: Considered among the best in the business, iContact offers a simple to use solution.   Packed with features, including a custom survey option which allows users to create and send their own surveys, it is easy to use and with subscriptions starting from $14 per month.  Its only flaw is the lack of reporting features available and it doesn’t include conversion tracking or Google Analytics integration.

Businesses of all sizes, give each of these four vendors a look.   Personally, if you’re a small business with under 500 subscribers (email recipients), I’d definitely suggest going with Mail Chimp.  (Mail Chimp is also good for companies of all sizes, see their full pricing options).  If you have more than 500 subscribers and know that you won’t need a vendor each month, I’d suggest either Mail Chimp’s prepaid “pay as you go” plan or Vertical Response’s “pay as you go” plan.

Social bookmarking sites are plentiful and are a good way of applying SEO to your website without doing very much.  By submitting your articles to sites such as Digg, StumbleUpon and Deli.icio.us on a daily basis, you may see an increase in website traffic.  Sure, submitting every blog article or page of content to all of the social bookmarking sites can be very time consuming, although this process can be done in thirty minutes a day once you have created your accounts.

In addition to social bookmarking, RSS feeds are also popular.  Unfortunately, many businesses fail to realize their potential and how they can utilize them in terms of marketing their business.  Essentially, an RSS feed will notify subscribers each time you post something new to your site, making it the perfect way of keeping people up to date with what is happening within your business or on your website without having to check back every day wondering if new content has been published.

So what is the point to all this?  Both social bookmarking sites and RSS feeds increase exposure to your content as well as creating more venues for new users to stumble upon your content.  By simply integrating a standard social bookmarking set of icons, you can invite your readers to spread the word for you.

Link building used to be an easy process.  Many websites offered to “exchange links” with you, by which you would enter their web address on your site someplace and they would do likewise.  It was quite common to visit a website and see a page titled “Links” which would list any number of other websites for you to click on and visit.  Typically, websites were exchanging links with anyone who asked, whether or not their site was related to their own.  The effectiveness of this did really rely on you being able to exchange links with higher ranking sites.

Today, things are done differently.  “Links” pages are no longer viewed in a positive light by search engines.  Link building has become a weapon of mass marketing in Internet terms, leading to many SEO firms offering to take on a link building strategy for you and propel your site in search rankings.

Unfortunately, while there are many good SEO firms out there that will carry this out in an SEO legal manner, known as “white hat” techniques; there are also many more that will engage in so called “black hat” (the firms that I mentioned above) techniques when it comes to link building.  It’s not just me, many business owners are finding numerous emails landing in their inboxes each day from sites offering thousands of links for just a few dollars and the guarantee that their website will be top ranking in a matter of weeks (or days in some cases).  The old saying “if it sounds too good to be true…” comes to mind, purely because link building takes time, it takes good research and it requires a targeted plan.  Also, remember no one other than the executives of Google knows Google’s search algorithm.  Beware of any company that guarantees rankings.

Why is link building so vital to SEO? Search engines love links! It makes them think your website is uber popular and as a result they will place you higher in the rankings – think of it as a popularity competition!  Unlike what most so-called SEO professionals will tell you (the “black hats” I mentioned a couple of times above), quantity IS NOT everything.  It’s important; however, the quality and relevance of links needs to be your first consideration.  If the search engine deems for your links to be non-relevant to your business, the links will be rejected and your site can even be removed from the search engine!

Black hat link building however, is simply another form of spamming, posting links to your website on pages that bear no relation to your site or business.  Unfortunately, it is your site that will get penalized not the company that posted the links in the first place.  Hence why you should be careful when selecting a link building partner – “black hat” link building may appear to be a great value but they will not only fall short on their promises but will increase your business’s potential for getting caught and banned from the search engines.  After all, you get what you pay for.

Simply, having a website is not enough; you need to know how to use it for best results. Websites need to be informative, and by that I mean going much further than simply providing a business address and contact details.  As a marketing tool for your business the internet provides a wealth of opportunities, many of which can be far more cost effective for a small and growing business than many other traditional marketing methods.

Here are 5 reasons why you need to grab yourself a piece of cyberspace and get a good website up and running today:

1. Increase business awareness: most of us will turn to the internet when we need information, so having a website for your business is vital if you are to catch potential customers ahead of your competition
2. Improve branding: every business, no matter what sector you are in can be marketed as a brand.  A good name, good logo and matching web graphics will all help to place your business in the minds of potential customers
3. Showcase products and services: so many businesses fail to see the potential websites have to offer in promoting the core of their business.  Whether you go for ecommerce or simple photo galleries showing your latest products, allowing customers an insight into what you do or what you sell is an open invitation to buy
4. Open the global marketplace: you may or may not be in a position to offer your products or services on a global scale, but placing your business in front of a global audience could open up new opportunities for you and can help you to expand at a rate which is often unachievable via more traditional marketing routes
5. Conduct cost efficient marketing: many companies, particularly those who used to spend vast sums of money on printed materials, are now using their websites as catalogs/promotional tools and are now saving money on printed marketing materials.  Offering e-catalogs/leaflets/brochures etc. which can be downloaded will decrease mailing costs and has become a big trend, particularly in light of increased environmental pressure to reduce paper consumption.

Achieving a good website does not need to be expensive, you simply need to plan it right and know how you want to use it for the benefit of your business.  Today’s potential customers will assume you have a website.  If you don’t, then you are about to get left behind.