Skip to main content

Author: iManila Dev

The long haul: How to be in the business for years

 

Telephones, pagers, personal computers, CDs, and the internet. Among these nineties, technology innovations are the birth of iManila. From being one of the internet pioneers, iManila has progressed to be the most trusted and reliable web and digital service provider in the country. Bona fide to deliver the best service to its clients.

As iManila celebrates its 21st anniversary this year, it shares its company secrets in making your business stay for years. Browse, read, and bring your company to the long haul.

Live by your company principles

Every company has its own reasons for existence. As for iManila, living up to its mantra of improving the lives of people through technology has bettered every facet of the organization to provide quality services. Company principles keep the righteous presence in and out of the organization. Thus, producing right processes and right outcomes.

iManila-Click-here-to-know-more-CTA

Always have a plan and direction

The main reason why businesses should always have a plan is simple: to ensure that the business is on track. By on track means, going nowhere but to the company’s direction; meeting its sales targets, and achieving its business goals. Not only a plan can bring you to your company objectives but it can also give you a competitive advantage in your craft.

Choose the right people

Our CEO believes that his choice of getting the right people in iManila was a huge influence in our accomplishments. Many individuals can be more knowledgeable and more intelligent than the rest, however, only a few embody the right attitude and commitment that the organization needs to step up from being a good company to a great company. Remember, a team that consists of passionate individuals never fail to deliver the best services.

Don’t be afraid to try and fail

Failing is normal. Trying is normal. But, not failing and not trying is not how any business works. If you won’t try and experience failures, you won’t grow. It’s a way of life for business as much as it is for ourselves. Lack of challenges makes it hard for you to be successful. Go and inhale every mistake. Learn from it and never forget about it. Those failures will soon be a story to tell when the time comes.

iManila-Talk-To-Us-CTA

***

Lasting for more than two decades in the industry is beyond what our stakeholders have imagined. A five-year success was expected then, but, a 21-year stay was a combination of luck, blessing, and pure determination. If iManila can make it for decades, sure enough, your business can, as well. Why not give iManila a call? Let’s see how can we be of help with you.

 

Reference: Entrepreneur

MOBILE FRIENDLINESS RANKING FACTOR: Why You Need to be Mobile-Responsive

 

MOBILE FRIENDLINESS IS NOW A THING — It is common knowledge to most marketers that Last April 2015, Google search has expanded its mobile friendliness algorithm known as “Mobilegeddon”. This update from Google has marked the beginning of a shift of focus from desktop to mobile searches and has affected a lot of websites that are not mobile-responsive. Some of the affected may have experienced a decline in their Google SERP ranking or even to the volume of their monthly traffic.

What is Mobile Friendliness?

There are 75.4 million unique mobile users in the Philippines, comprising 74% of the nation’s population. Almost everyone these days considers themselves to be “tech-savvy” with the advent of the internet allowing even the simplest devices to do an amazing amount of tasks.

iManila-Click-here-to-know-more-CTA

Let’s face it, with a market as large as that, you probably want your brand to be etched on the consciousness of these users.  This is exactly why it’s time for your website to go mobile.

Opting for a mobile-responsive website or the mobile friendliness of your website enables it to be sent instantly dynamic as it fits symmetrically on any screen size, minimizing usability issues such as links that are not clickable, images taking forever to appear, scrolling problems and lagging issues.

Simply put – a mobile-responsive website enhances user experience.

Want to know how to make your website friendly? Say hi to one of our account executives, or leave us a message on our contact form.

Mobile version vs Mobile-Responsive

On the off-chance that you live under a rock, you might probably be more familiar with the term “mobile version”.

Mobile version is different from mobile-responsive. The former means developing a version of your website customized for mobile users and uses a separate URL commonly beginning with “m” (such as m.facebook.com). It’s like having two unique websites with one dedicated to desktops and another for mobile devices.

The latter, on the other hand, automatically resizes the content of your website based on user device allowing for optimum user experience.

iManila-Talk-To-Us-CTA

Post-Mobilegeddon Updates

Aside from the ‘mobilegeddon’ released on 2015, other updates released were Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), which launched in February 2016, and ‘mobile­first indexing’, which Google has been working on for quite a while now.
The AMP or the Accelerated Mobile Page Project is an open source initiative of Google launched in October 2015. This update works towards increasing the performance of the mobile web, loading web pages instantly, even with rich content or ads.

 

AMP is not a mobile ranking factor, however, its objective is to improve the functions of mobile websites with stripped-down versions of web pages. This enables users to read and scan your content with ease, improving your website’s traffic and in time, improving your SERP ranking. Google AMP lets publishers focus on great content while depending on other components like image carousels and social plug­ins for high performance and great user experience.

 

Another recent update is mobile­first indexing. Google has been adjusting their algorithms to primarily use mobile versions of website content to rank pages, understand its structured data, and show snippets from those pages on their SERPs. Here are some of the recommendations of google about dealing with the mobile­first indexing update:

  • Stay on your responsive site or dynamic serving site on desktop and mobile version;
  • If the two versions of your website’s primary content are different, you should make your structured data uniform, make your mobile website crawlable, and maintain canonical links unchanged;
  • Verify your desktop and mobile website versions against Google Search Console;
  • Launch new mobile sites only when they’re ready, to avoid any unwanted effects on your desktop sites that may arise from faulty mobile ones.

What is for business online?

Businesses that rely heavily on traffic and leads coming from online sources should prepare to change extensively, otherwise, their potential sales will be flushed down the drain. Below are the advantages of making your website mobile-responsive:

Know more about the benefits of a mobile-responsive website or its mobile friendliness by calling our sales executives or by sending us a message through this LINK.

It strengthens your website’s optimization.

With Google recently releasing an algorithm specifically targeting websites that aren’t mobile-responsive yet, now would be the best time to do so. Having a mobile-responsive site brings more traffic to your website which then opens doors to increase sales and revenue. A great search rank on desktop and mobile would be beneficial for your business because that’s brand awareness reaching your market through multiple channels.

It saves you time and money.

With a mobile-responsive website, you can focus your resources instead in building and creating new campaigns and content instead of developing a separate website for mobile devices.

It keeps you ahead of your competition.

There are a lot of businesses who have yet to invest in this new kind of technology because, well, it’s new; and new is a mystery few have the courage to explore.

Going mobile-responsive automatically puts you ahead of the curve because you’re already building your rank up while others are still flirting with the idea.

It provides an optimum user experience for your consumers.

With smartphones and tablets continuously increasing in terms of usage, giving your market the ability to browse through your site with ease is one step to earning their trust. Because everything is organized and made faster, potential clients are more likely to explore your website than leave it the moment they see the home page. Your site will have perfectly scaled images and readable texts so there’s no reason to not give it a chance.

iManila-Talk-To-Us-CTA

Sources:

  1. Straightarrow.com.ph
  2. Webmaster.googleblog.com

Web Design Crystal Ball for 2017

 

Since the Chinese New Year is nearly approaching, it is the best time to rub the 2017 crystal ball for web design.  Know what design trends to follow and what to leave behind the past year. Here are some web design guides and predictions to consider this 2017.

So long, stock photos!

Stock photos are the heroine of web design — a few clicks away ready to save websites from looking all dull. However, designers are starting to give unique visualization to each website now, emphasizing the individual characters through personalized website photos. The result? Lesser use of online professional curated images. This is a great way to drift brands away from its competitors’ branding direction, defying web design resemblances.

Voluptuous fonts call for a revival

Web designers are expected to use bigger and bolder typography fonts this year. Aesthetically speaking, bigger font size balances the minimalist web design trend that is continuously rising in the design circle. Doing so also gives users a not-so-much and a not-so-less perspective. In the digital marketing scene, bolder font style instantly catches the eyes of website visitors. This leads visitors to the information that brands intend. Double-purpose, yes.

 One vibrant color palette, to-go!

Bid goodbye to the basic colors the web visitors have been seeing for a couple of years. Defy color blandness. Go for the extremes. 2017 demands braver designs that keep the minimalist look buzzing. Website elements with vibrant colors equalize the UI’s unfussy layout. Perfect combo, ha!

Think motion pictures

Animations and videos will seem to reign this year. With more and more tech trends rising online such as live streaming, boomerangs, GIFs and VRs, 2017 is going to be a very interactive year for web designers and web developers. More than being interactive, videos and animations are indeed more appealing to users. These media narrate. These provide stories that make the users enjoy and stay longer on websites.

***

Design is subjective. What may look pleasing to one may not look pleasing to others. However, web designs are not just created for the satisfaction of the brand owner, but for the eyes of its market, of its website visitors, above all. And like crystal ball results, these up and coming web design trends may or may not work on a specific brand. Some of it may be of help yet some may overkill the UI. That’s why iManila has been here for more than two decades – to guide the brands what elements to integrate in their websites. Expect it strategically done without compromising the design. Learn from the best, reach iManila now for a free consultation.

B2B Blogging Best Practices

 

For some marketers, maintaining top quality blogs are a chore. The process of coming up with a content calendar, finding the right resources, and figuring out the right angle to make the blog much interesting, is such a tough feat.

But no matter how hard it is to maintain a decent and effective blogging tactic, it is still an indispensable method in bringing traffic to your website and to improve your website’s SERP (search engine results page) ranking. Here are some pointers to help you optimize your website’s blog.

iManila-Click-here-to-know-more-CTA

Word Length Performances

Truth be told, B2B blogs should be 500 to 1,000 words. Anything that goes beyond 1000 words is draggy, while anything less than 500 isn’t authoritative. In coming up with blogs for the audience whom you treat as potential clients, below are the following details to take note:

The topic should be beneficial to in terms of:

  • Their function at work,
  • Their output at work
  • Image to maintain at work
  • Image to maintain in their social sphere

Frequency of Posts

According to one of the leading marketing software provider – Hubspot, companies who published more than 16 posts per month saw traffic increase by 3.5x more than those who only published up to 4 posts per month.

This insight was put into test by an Internet consulting firm – Strategic and below are the findings:

  • The number of blog posts on our site grows 6 to 181
  • A 1271% increase in traffic
  • Organic traffic grows from 143 sessions per month at the outset, to1817 sessions per month in March 2016.

However, the bottom-line that marketers should always keep in mind to make this work is that all blog content should be well written and well mapped to resonate with specific buyers persona challenges of their respective companies. And, should be posted to target and relevant social media channels.

Key Takeaways For Effective B2B Blogs

These statistics show that for B2B blogs to produce best measurable benefit within Inbound marketing campaigns, they should:

Be regular: you should produce close to 16+ per month if possible.

Generally stay around 500-800 words long (though variation is fine!).

Your posts should also be written to address your persona’s common business challenges and be regularly promoted via your own company social media channels.

Quality, persona-targeted blog content can enhance search rank, boost traffic, attract higher quality leads and establish your brand as trusted niche expert.

iManila-Talk-To-Us-CTA

***

To get started with your blogging strategy this 2017, you need to list all the challenges your target personas have and link them to the services or products that your company provides. The end goal ALWAYS is that your offerings (be it a service or product) is the answer to put an end to those business challenges.

If you find it a little rough to get started with blogging, reach out to us. iManila, provides content marketing solutions such as website copywriting, blogging, email newsletters and content writing to pumped-up your content marketing. Call us at (02) 490-0000 or send us an email at [email protected]. You can also visit our website at https://imanila.ph for more information on our services.

 

Sources:

(1) Hubspot

(2) Strategic Internet Consulting

Why every brand should be using Snapchat right now

 

You would think that something so “24 hours” as Snapchat doesn’t and wouldn’t make a good platform to promote your business, but right now, we’re about to shove that assumption out of the door. As in, shoo, off you go.

Snapchat has been one of the fastest growing social media platforms garnering over 300 million monthly active users as of January 2017. If that statistic doesn’t want to make you go nuts, you’re going nowhere. With such a number, you, as a business should be seizing the opportunity to promote your brand in this ever-germinating social media app.

If you’re still not convinced, sit down, grab a popcorn and read on.

  1. The chance to get to a younger following

Snapchat is a highly millennial app. Most of its users belong to the younger generation. If this is your business’ target market, then you should be utilizing this app’s capabilities to reach out to that particular audience. You have no idea how many snaps are taken and viewed each day, unless you yourself try Snapchat.

  1. The ability to engage mano y mano

Snapchat has its way of making your followers feel special. Its features allow you to directly send content to them, individually, just as long as they follow you. With that, you can send them anything: fun facts about your products, perks of your services; hell, you can even send them personalized videos. These simple acts can quickly turn a follower into a loyal customer, since face to face and direct engagements are sure-fire ways of creating a powerful bond between a brand and a customer.

  1. The idea of taking followers inside for a peek

People are naturally curious. They will be thrilled with the thought of getting an inside look at what a certain brand’s snap would look like, especially if it’s something in the middle of the day or night. Or just generally, what happens inside the company on a day to day basis. Show them the culture of your brand and company. Let them know that you are full of energy and that you know when to have fun despite the stressful work that you do. Happy hours, birthday parties, company events – all of these make up a fun snap to share to your increasing following.

  1. The chance to be cool

Even if your brand is already cool as it is, it can only get more fabulous if you’re on Snapchat. Followers rave at the idea that a certain brand is taking time to do snaps. And besides, Snapchat is such a cool app that using it automatically makes your business ten times cooler on the books of anyone. And you’re crazy if you don’t want any of that.

With everything around us becoming easier and easier to grasp, all thanks to digital growth, why wouldn’t we take something that we can use for our own growth? It’s easy to start a business but it’s hard to stay in it. This cutthroat industry only has spots for those who can survive. And with the right tools and strategies, a brand and business can survive all it can. If you got a tool like Snapchat, why then wouldn’t you use it? Because we sure do.

Follow us on Snapchat: imanila.ph, and we might follow you too. *winks*

 

Sources:

forbes.com

socialmediaexaminer.com

 

Gmail Phishing Scam on the Rise!

 

For most of us, email is a way of life. From work to personal communications to smartphone applications downloads, our email is our virtual online address where most of important documents and updates are sent. That being said, email is an indispensable online asset. Modern life isn’t just the same without it. Unfortunately, it’s the one thing that most of us tend to neglect, especially when it comes to security.

In the past weeks, a phishing scam over Gmail has circulated and propagated in the World Wide Web, escaping the scrutiny of both experts and new users of this email platforms.

Wordfence  (security team behind WordPress) revealed how the phishing scam worked using its account to send unsolicited emails that contained that same malicious strings that pretended to be an authentic Gmail log-in page.

After the victim is fooled to logging in at the fake Gmail login page,  the attacker gains access to the victim’s account. This cycle continues as the attacker uses the compromised account to send malicious emails to other people in the email’s contact list.

That’s why this phishing method “gained popularity” among hackers in the past year: as it effectively tricked people into thinking that they’re opening content from a trusted contact. Furthermore, the hackers behind this method makes it much deceitful as they emulated the way the victim user sends his/her emails from the subject down to email body.

How to detect this?

The phishing technique is deceiving even experienced, technical users – the kind who are already aware of attacks designed to extract valuable information through online.

What makes this recent uncovered technique so much more dangerous is that the location bar shows the text string “accounts.google.com” – a legitimate Google page. However, in this phishing attack, there’s a text string (“data:text/html”) preceding “accounts.google.com.”

There’s also another large chunk of text appearing on the far side of the location bar, which is the file that ultimately sends one’s credentials to the attacker.

These hard-to-spot text strings differentiate the phishing log-in page from the legitimate sign-in page. Most will see “accounts.google.com”, believe it’s the real thing and continue with the log-in.

Prevention

Wordfence provided advice on how to avoid being victimized by this phishing attack:

“Make sure there is nothing before the hostname ‘accounts.google.com’ other than ‘https://’ and the lock symbol. You should also be keen about the of the green color and lock symbol that appears on the left. If you can’t verify the protocol and verify the host-name, stop and consider what you just clicked on to get to that sign-in page.”

The use of 2-step authentication is highly advised. This method uses a secondary verification mechanism for users, and to regularly change passwords.

Wordfence also received word from Google regarding the attack. The tech giant acknowledged it and said that they’re strengthening their defenses against it.

“We help protect users from phishing attacks in a variety of ways, including: machine learning based detection of phishing messages, Safe Browsing warnings that notify users of dangerous links in emails and browsers, preventing suspicious account sign-ins, and more,” said one of the Google representative.

Wordfence suggested that Google should incorporate a design that allows users to easily identify the malicious, hidden text strings seen in these attacks which is similar to the way that the Google Chrome browser labels insecure “https” pages in red and secure, trusted ones in green.

***

To know more about how to make your website secured and safe for your users, you can check iManila’s hosting page and check how our secured  hosting  packages and safety features such as the SSL certification can help you secure your business online.

 

Source: Wordfence.com

Rappler.com

 

Selling Sharks: What it really takes to be great in sales

 

Months have gone since I last passed by the memory lane. Harking back seven months ago to the day I got hired here at iManila, I remember clearly the day I got the text message from our HR officer saying that I’m shortlisted for the Account Executive position I’ve applied for. Yup, I was supposed to be a salesperson then but got abruptly reassigned to the digital marketing department. NO REGRETS – it was an honor.

Questions have been asked. Answers were uttered. Then my nerves wracked even more when iManila’s CEO Mr. Bobet Deluria entered the interview room. More questions have been asked and more answers were uttered. He talked about iManila’s history; what it does, how it became a pioneer in its industry, and such. After that we talked about the ideas of being an Account Executive. And I cannot forget the lines he said seconds later, “Our sales team are like sharks. They are predators. Whenever they smell blood, they attack that bloody prospect.” Why sharks? Why not tigers or lions? Or flamingos? The questions ran through my mind.

By definition, sharks are carnivorous fishes in the class Chondrichthyes (that I have no idea of) that are active predators sometimes dangerous to humans. Briefly, it’s a slang for persons who are experts in a specific activity. The next question that popped into my head is, “how can one be a shark”? A great and successful shark? Upon searching and reading, here’s how:

Successful Salespeople are Both Born and Made

Great salespeople are born to be great at their craft — if this is your mindset, better stop selling. This thinking is just another reason that lazy salespeople who do not hit their quotas for a long time use. Okay, let’s set a scenario. Let’s say that Sam (obviously that’s me) hits her monthly quota and gets her commission consistently. Is that because she was born to sell? NO. It’s because Sam works hard. She calls each company on her list. She manages her accounts well. She doesn’t sit and wait for the inbound inquiries. She gets the job done before anyone else does. Being a great salesperson takes a lot of learning, strategy-making, and effort. If Sam was a true-blooded shark the second she entered this world, it’s her choice if she is going to be the lazy one or the great one. So, if you are not born to be a seller, then make yourself one.

Successful Salespeople Don’t Always Hit the Jugular

People say, be a shark, target the jugular! NO. Great salespeople attack opportunities but they don’t bring their prospects down just to acquire sale. Rather, great salespeople sniff the blood first. They listen to their clients well and ask questions to understand the problem. And then they attack. They propose solutions which are technically the services that great salespeople offer. If the client resists, great salespeople provide reasons why it’s worth investing to solve it. You see, sharks don’t always hit the jugular, they sometimes target the jugular veins – strategically but surely. If you know what I mean.

***

Sales is a cut-throat yet rewarding arena for any profession. It spares no one, hence the comparison to sharks. To be triumphant in this job requires one to step-up to its role as a salesperson. And stepping-up means improving day by day no matter how little the improvements are. Sharks or not, a salesperson is still defined by his or her last sale. And in order to exceed that last sale, a progress is necessary. After all, being successful (not just in becoming a great salesperson) requires hard work to be better and the will to become one.

Yahoo Renames as Altaba and its CEO Marissa Mayer Resigns. Hello 2017!

 

Altaba. This six-letter word is yet to be the new name of our childhood-favorite search engine tool, Yahoo. People rendered speechless upon hearing the news as six Yahoo board of directors will soon resign from their positions, including its CEO Marissa Mayer and its founder David Filo. The board’s resignation is “not due to any disagreement with the Company on any matter relating to the Company’s operations, policies or practices,” Yahoo states on its SEC filing on Monday.

These huge changes will be put to effect after the $4.8 billion merger with the telecom company Verizon is finalized. The deal only comprises the procurement of Yahoo’s consumer web business, Yahoo Mail and Sports. Not the entire Yahoo enterprise.

The remaining sectors of the company after the said deal will be named Altaba. Those sectors of Yahoo are still of great significance to other investors since these have shares from the Chinese e-Commerce kingpin Alibaba, hence the new name Altaba.

Big changes are bound to happen with Yahoo this year, with new set of board members, a new CEO, new regularities, new challenges, AND new chances. That is possibly the best part of this realignment – a new line of chances awaits. But at the end of it all, we will definitely miss the old Yahoo.

If you want to know more about what happened, visit Investopedia and click here.

Why You Should Have a Website Revamp This 2017

 

Change is inescapable and life fads transform before we actually know it. Yet, the choices we have are… Uhm, no. We have no choices but to cope.  To cope for our own sake.  Like how we choose to cope up with that one powerful thing that consumes our lives – technology. Those technology-based techniques we used three to four years ago are now considered vintage, and as humans who couldn’t afford to be left out of the trends, we should always be on our feet to keep up with the coming changes.

Alright, let’s get to the point. We here at iManila deem to give you an eye-opening tip for your business, and specifically, your website. To cut to the chase, we highly recommend a website revamp for your business this 2017, and here are the reasons why you should definitely do it.

iManila-Click-here-to-know-more-CTA

Your website design is so ancient it could pass as an artifact in the National Museum.

The first time you launched your website ages ago, yeah, you were the cool one. The vivid color scheme, screaming bold typographies, text-heavy first fold, and pop-ups. You certainly lead the game. But not today. Not in this period of minimalism and simplicity. Web visitors prefer seeing clutter-free websites. They need information. You must provide it to them in the easiest way that their eyes could see and their mind could understand. You know the old saying that simplicity is beauty? It applies. So, a website revamp will definitely be ideal.

Your website lacks conversions like an unrequited love.

One of the reasons why websites are created is to be a profitable online medium for businesses. Why spend money if it won’t deliver results, right? So, if you want conversions, think if your website really deserves any. Does it contain high-quality photos? Does it have compelling content? Is it easy to navigate? Whether it’s for brand awareness or leads generation, you have to determine what your website goals are for you to measure conversions.

Your website has to move-on from the desktop era.

Mobile usage increases each day. Even ten-year-olds and people in their sixties are part of the increasing statistics, causing the unstoppable growth of mobile browsing. Given this, you have to go with the trend and make your website mobile-friendly. Getting a website revamp to have a mobile-responsive web design automatically adjusts your website interface from desktop to mobile, viz. Meaning, whatever device you are using, you can still view the site as it is. No need to zoom it in or out just to read the text properly.

iManila-Talk-To-Us-CTA

Your website couldn’t even get awards or nominations for the SEO-friendly website of the year.

You have probably encountered the term Search Engine Optimization once in your life. But, have you considered applying this modern marketing tactic for your business? If not yet, you better do so. You can start by redesigning your website first. Good ranking in search engines is a result of a good integration of meta tags, title headers, compelling content, AND great website design. These strategies always work BEST together.

***

Revamping your website is not just a luxurious gesture, but more of a necessity. A need. A must. Whatever term you use, you just got to do it for your business, for your market, for you – as it mirrors the quality of your service and products digitally.