Knowmad Blog

Google+ is gaining traction and, with the release of Search+, has become more relevant to businesses because Google+ company pages are now showing in search results. Setting up a page on this growing social network gives potential customers one more way to find your business.

You might notice as you setup your business page on Google+  that you don’t have to verify you’re the business owner. Google Places requires telephone verification to ensure ownership of the business but this wasn’t included in Google+.

Why? Great question. I think we’d all like to know.

This means that ‘name squatting’ is entirely possible on Google+ unless you’re a global brand (and Google likes you). The only recourse at this time is to go ahead and create an ‘official’ presence for your business on Google+ by creating a company page.

Google has made it easy to create a business page by giving us a wizard style tool. Even though there are a few screens, it’s really just a two-step process asking for very basic information. Creating your business page on Google+ will only take you about 5 minutes. Read the rest of this entry →

January is the perfect time to review your online marketing plan to ensure it still matches up with your company’s sales plan for the upcoming year. What has changed in your company’s planning or marketplace since you last reviewed your online marketing plan? Reviewing the performance of your website and the competitive landscape online will inform your planning.

Do you know the top 3 metrics to measure?

For most companies, the website’s highest purpose is to bring sales leads. If it’s not performing on this task, take a look at the following top three metrics for success.

• Total number of website visitors vs. visitors that become leads or buyers
• Close rate of sales leads
• Average order value

The number of metrics available for a website is daunting and trying to track all those numbers will distract you from real success. Instead, narrow your focus to metrics that will drive the business forward.

Is your website bringing more customers to your door?

By using the metrics mentioned, you can easily track the performance of your website and overall Web presence. If your metrics are trending downward, what is driving the change?

If traffic is at expected norms but interactions are down, you may want to review and update the product descriptions or offers on your website. If traffic has decreased, where are your previous visitors going? You may find you have a new competitor, visitors are finding more relevant content somewhere else online or your online market space has changed.

Are You Falling Behind?

When was the last time you reviewed your online competitors? The online marketplace changes quickly. It’s smart to complete this every 4 to 6 months or when your metrics significantly change. One way to do a competitive review is to search on your most valuable keywords and review both the search results and advertisements. You may discover new competitors or that existing competitors are gaining ground.

Due to the dramatic growth in the mobile market and the variety of devices available, our industry is experiencing a dramatic shift to support mobile devices in a maintainable way. In the past, servers pushed content to users based on what platform they were using- mobile, tablet or desktop. While this approach worked, it also had it’s share of challenges.

Simply put, it was expensive and hard to justify.

Device detection wasn’t 100% reliable. When a new device came to market, code had to be updated to support the new device. In years past, browsers on mobile devices were so different that there was no reliable way of creating a consistent user experience. Mobile was cost-prohibitive to most businesses because of it’s complexity and maintenance costs.

Now, things have changed.

Read the rest of this entry →

We submitted three websites to the Marcom 2011 awards this year and all three won a placement! Congratulations to our clients!

The Marcom awards competition recognizes outstanding creative achievement by marketing and communication professionals. There were over 6,000 entries from throughout the United States, Canada and several other countries in the 2011 competition.

Here are the results.

Mallard Creek Polymers
Award: Platinum
Category: Website/Corporation

Johnson C. Smith University
Award: Gold
Category: Website/Educational Institution

Gantrade Corporation
Award: Honorable Mention
Category: Website/Corporation

Knowmad is featured in the November issue of Greater Charlotte Biz magazine in an article called “Advancing Online“. Greater Charlotte Biz did a great job capturing the essence of our company and we’re very pleased with the coverage.

Online plagiarism is a tough and frustrating problem; each plagiarism situation is different and the overall problem isn’t going away. The content in need of protection could be copy, images, sounds, videos or other varied types of content. It becomes a little easier to address when you know where to start.

In our industry, we most often see content theft in e-commerce, blogging and publisher websites but it can happen to any website. This isn’t intended to scare you, just to let you know that it’s a common issue and there are a few routes available to protect your investment in online content. In addition to qualified legal advice, other web publishers are a great source for ideas on how to protect your content by learning about their methods.

We’ve also observed that, in our business, the issue of plagiarism is best handled by providing our clients with options so they can find a method that works best for them. Recommending a specific solution would expose us to certain undesirable liabilities. Ergo…

Our Important Legal Disclaimer

We can’t give legal advice; we’re not attorneys, laws change and each situation differs. You should consult a qualified attorney and the US Copyright Office if you have questions about copyright protection and to review any process created for plagiarism or copyright infringement protection.  We are providing information about common industry practices and not information about applying the law to a specific set of facts.

Now, let’s discuss the issue at hand.

Read the rest of this entry →

Many business owners researching Internet marketing have likely stumbled across web tracking software that claims to report contact information for every single person who visits your website. Sounds great, right?

Unfortunately, it isn’t currently possible to legally collect this information using any web tracking software. Worse still, the anonymous data that can be legally collected about your web visitors does not reveal much in the way of identification.

This is because most web tracking software uses an IP address to look up contact information for prospective leads. An IP address is a number that identifies the network a visitor is coming from. It is legal in the United States to track IP addresses because they do not provide personal information. Because many computers can connect into one network, and many people can use the same computer, it is impossible to know who specifically is visiting your site.

The company name can sometimes be found based on the IP address for large corporations, but for smaller companies, visitors browsing from home, or mobile visitors, the IP address will most likely be associated with an Internet Service Provider, like AT&T or Time Warner.

In the small likelihood a company name owns the IP, these marketing tools just send you the CEO or business owner’s name—or no contact information at all.

So how can you know if your website is reaching the right audience? Opt-in marketing, in which visitors freely give you their information through a contact form, newsletter sign-up, or another special offer is the best way to know exactly who is visiting your site. To get the best results, don’t ask for too much information up front—start with just an email address, and ask for more information later.

If you’re still dying to know which companies are browsing your site, you can find that information for free, using Google Analytics online tracking software, by looking at the Network Service Providers information for Visitors. This report will tell you the name of the company that is associated with the IP (if available).

Today’s edition of the Charlotte Business Journal features a ‘Largest Area Web Design Companies’ and Knowmad is on the list. We’re listed in slot #25 which is perfect because our focus is on long-term relationships.

Thanks CBJ! We’re excited to be recognized for our work!

Congratulations to the other winners as well. We’re honored to be recognized with you.

Tessa just introduced me to a new easy-to-use screen sharing tool called join.me.

Screen sharing is efficient

Screen sharing helps conversations go faster because we can both view the same thing simultaneously. This afternoon Tessa shared her screen to show me a few design options for a new banner campaign. Inside of five minutes, we had the new banner chosen and were ready to move forward. Email would have required more back-and-forth communication.

You don’t have to be a technologist to gain the benefits of screen sharing. You can use it anytime you want to show or see something on someone else’s desktop to make a conversation more effective.

How else can you use screen sharing?

We’ve used screen sharing to collaborate on documents instead of Google Docs, delivering designs to our clients, collaborating with team members and sales presentations. There’s no limit to use. For us, the key is that it has to make the exchange more efficient and not get in the way of discussion.

Join.me

Join.me is free up to 250 viewers and is compatible to mobile devices as well as to traditional desktop/laptops. The paid version supports meeting scheduling and international conference lines.

We’ve used a few screen sharing tools from Skype to webinar softwares. Which tool is your favorite and why?

Knowmad has been working on the rebrand of our business.

We need your input to pick our new tagline.

As a business owner, savvy marketer, sales expert, follower or friend, you’re just the person we need to help us and it will only take a minute of your time!

Here’s the survey…(will open in a new window)

Seriously, I timed the survey. It takes just 1 minute.

It’s a gut test. Don’t over think it. I’ve included our purpose to help frame it for you.

Rank the ideas for our new tagline. If you really dislike an idea, don’t rank it. If you have an idea we didn’t think of, add it in the comment box.

Thanks in advance for your help and expertise!

Diona