There are many methods to promote businesses online and with the advance of web 2.0 or the social Internet, further opportunities have developed for the business looking to get ahead in their marketing efforts. Social networking enables business owners to leverage the powerful social networking websites such as Facebook, MySpace, Squidoo, Twitter, and more in order to build a reputation, generate more leads, and keep in regular contact with those leads. …read more

SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, is widely heralded as being one of the least inexpensive, most effective, and highly targeted methods of generating traffic for a website but what exactly is it and can anybody do it? …read more

Selling products or services online, usually referred to as e-commerce, has become the way to go for many small businesses. It can turn a small local enterprise into a global, world leading brand although this obviously takes a lot of time and effort but it also reduces overheads, minimises workload, and offers you greater potential to access new and potentially profitable sources of customers. So, what’s needed to sell your products or services online?

A Plan

The planning stage of e-commerce is the most important. You first need to outline your goal by setting up online. Will the Internet be your sole source of sales? Will you be using the web to promote your physical stores or shops? You need to be able to answer these questions before you even consider contacting a developer, although a good developer will certainly be able to help you work through many of the steps and answer a lot of your questions.

The Website

Whether you’re intending to manage a simple brochure page that gives details of how to find your physical store or you will be managing hundreds of different products in your own e-commerce store you’re going to need a website. There are tools to help you build your own but if you don’t have any experience in design, development, and to a degree, marketing, then it is best left to the professionals. A poorly designed site can instantly turn visitors away and, worse still, send them to your direct competitors as a result.

Shopping Cart

If you intend to sell products directly on your website then you will need some form of shopping cart software. This software enables you to add and display products, categorise them, and add price and postage details. More advanced options can include cross product promotion, gallery pictures, and even detailed sales and traffic reports. There are many shopping cart options available to you and your best option is to discuss your needs and wants with your developer, because they will be responsible for installing the software.

Payment Processor

To sell items online you need to be able to accept payments online. Service providers may be able to get away with requesting bank transfers or BACS payments to a large degree but offering the option of credit and debit card payments will almost certainly enable you to reap greater rewards. Services like PayPal, Moneybookers, and NoChex can be integrated into your website without the need for a merchant account.

Traffic

The best designed site with the most intuitive interface, the most competitive prices, and the most appealing products will still not yield results until you generate traffic for your website. The Internet is literally awash with methods to promote a site and help you sell your products or services.

No matter which industry and which niche your website or your business operates in you will have to face competition. The more competition you face the greater the challenge you have to become the go-to company that potential customers choose. Regardless of the number and quality of competitors you have, though, part of the challenge that you face is standing out from the crowd. …read more

We have added a great new package and service to our arsenal… complete self-manage e-mail marketing.

Our fantastic new system empowers you with the tools you need to create and manage your own successful e-mail marketing campaigns. You can create individual e-mail lists, import e-mail data from a variety of sources, schedule sending, manage subscribe and unsubscribe requests and a lot more!

Now, to the important bit, the price!

You can use a selection of ’standard’ templates that can be customised or you can have a fully custom design created for you by Lukerative. Custom e-mail templates cost £200.

As the service is pay as you go, you only pay for what you use. To send a mailout, you pay just £10 per batch plus 1p per message. If you are therefore sending a message to 1,000 customers, you pay just £20!

There will be more information on this service coming along very soon.

If you are chomping at the bit to use this great service already, why not get in touch with us. Remember that if you use the standard included templates there is NO SETUP FEE! You can start using it straight away for FREE!