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Agency vs. Freelancer: Choosing the Right Digital Partner

Having a strong online presence is non-negotiable in order to thrive in this digital age. And to achieve that, choosing the right digital partner is crucial – whether you need web design and development, web hosting, or digital marketing services. Oftentimes, the options boil down to two: hiring a freelancer or partnering with a digital agency.

Just like anything in this world, these two have their own strengths and weaknesses. As a business owner, it’s important to weigh these pros and cons before making a final decision. With that, let’s take a quick look at their attributes in the lens of things you must consider in choosing the right digital partner for your business.

Management

When hiring freelancers, the employers are usually the project managers. For this reason, if you have a large team of freelancers on your side, it will be a bit harder for you to manage. Some of the things that you need to do include facilitating collaboration, providing guidance, and authorizing freelancers throughout the project.

When it comes to an agency, you don’t need to be hands-on. You can depend on the team to strategize and assess your ads according to your targets and end goal. Not only that but you can be involved in the project to exactly the extent you want.

Cost

Freelancers set a rate according to their work, so you get to decide what fits your budget for your project. They have a choice to either have a fixed rate for the project or an hourly rate. Unlike agencies, it is easier to find a freelancer at almost any rate you want for any task.

Compared to freelancers, agencies are more expensive. With that said, however, they are more cost-effective in the long run since they have a team that can give you assurance. Here, you don’t need to give up your own time to the project as the payment since you can expect less back and forth with an agency, given that more hands are on deck when it comes to your project.

Skills

When hiring freelancers, it’s important to conduct thorough research to ensure they possess the specific skills required for your project. While beginners may offer limited services, experienced freelancers often specialize in niche areas, making the selection process more challenging. You need to carefully identify the exact skills you need for your specific project.

However, if you’re pressed for time and require a diverse range of skills to handle your project, a digital agency is the perfect solution. With an agency, you can easily access a wide array of services and find experts with the relevant expertise. Unlike freelancers, agencies offer a comprehensive skill set and have the capacity to tackle complex issues and optimize digital campaigns. Working with an agency means tapping into a pool of diverse talents and capabilities.

Communication

In terms of communication, working with a freelancer often means relying on a single point of contact. While this can offer a more personalized experience, this could also mean that if that person becomes unavailable, it can be challenging to find an immediate solution to address your concerns. This can cause delays and frustration in the project execution.

On the other hand, digital agencies have a structured communication approach. They often have dedicated account managers and project coordinators who act as your main points of contact. These professionals ensure smooth and consistent communication throughout the project. Also, they have a team of skilled individuals to address your specific needs and queries.

Choice of People to Work With

When hiring a freelancer, you have the advantage of handpicking the individual who best suits your project. This allows you to consider factors such as communication style, personality, and specific skills required.

On the other hand, when partnering with a digital agency, you may not have direct control over the specific specialist assigned to your project. However, you can rely on the agency’s extensive portfolio and experience to ensure high-quality work. If you find that the initially assigned account manager doesn’t meet your expectations, the agency can address your concerns. They can provide you a more suitable replacement.

In today’s digital realm, finding a reliable partner is key to unlocking success for your business. While freelancers bring specialized skills to the table, collaborating with a digital agency offers the added advantage of working with a reputable and established entity. With a proven track record of success, agencies have a talented team of professionals with diverse expertise. This enables them to provide comprehensive services and ensure the optimal use of your marketing budget. Have the peace of mind that your projects are entrusted to capable hands with a team like iManila!

With 27 years of experience in the industry and an IT company at its core, iManila, having been one of the first Internet Service Providers in the Philippines, is committed to providing our clients with innovative information technology, web, and digital solutions.

iManila is a full-service business web development company in the Philippines ready to help you with WordPress website creation or building an ecommerce website for your business. From web design and development and website update and maintenance, to web hosting, email hosting, and technical, desktop and remote support, we are your team. Aside from this, we are also a website and mobile applications development company specializing in customized web systems for businesses in different industries and a top digital marketing agency that provides a wide range of digital marketing services. Talk to us!

7 Roadblocks Every E-Commerce Business Faces and How to Get Around Them

E-commerce has transformed shopping by allowing users to buy and sell products from the convenience of their own homes. With this technological advancement and shifting consumer preferences, businesses are turning to online platforms to better reach their consumers. Forbes estimates that the e-commerce market will reach $8.1 trillion by 2026. This remarkable growth demonstrates the growing relevance of e-commerce to businesses worldwide.

However, with this rapid growth comes several challenges that must be overcome to succeed in a highly competitive marketplace. Businesses must adopt new trends and technologies to remain competitive. Read as we explore seven roadblocks that every e-commerce business faces. Anticipating these obstacles and taking steps to prepare for them can help ensure success down the line. Let’s start!

Targeting the Right Customer

Understanding the intended audience is beneficial for businesses and e-commerce stores in particular. However, as demographics, consumer demands, and market trends evolve, identifying the target audience has become more complex. Developing consumer personas could be helpful. These personas are fictional but should be based on actual data and depict ideal customer types. They should contain information regarding the customer’s preferences, social media usage, and primary sources of information. Businesses can incorporate these personas into their marketing strategies to create personalized and targeted campaigns that appeal to their ideal clients.

Cart Abandonment 

Cart abandonment is when customers add items to their online shopping cart but fail to complete the purchase. This results in loss of sales and revenue for businesses. Various factors contribute to this phenomenon, such as a confusing checkout process, unexpected shipping or tax cost, and limited payment options to name a few. With this, businesses must prioritize optimizing their ecommerce website checkout process for a user-friendly experience. Retargeting strategies, such as personalized email discounts, can also help by encouraging customers to return to complete their purchases.

Fraud and Cyber Security Threats

As the Internet evolves, new types of e-commerce fraud, such as affiliate, interception, and triangulation, are emerging. Facing these threats can be avoided by implementing a strong online verification system like biometrics, one-time passwords, and two-factor authentication. It is also necessary that your ecommerce website’s payment system adheres to the most current industry standards.

Creating Customer Loyalty

Content marketing is an effective strategy for building consumer engagement and loyalty. By consistently publishing relevant blog content, you can encourage customers to revisit your ecommerce website, increase the possibility of purchase, and provide them access to personalized discounts and promotions. Integrating content marketing with other forms of advertising can also boost your online store’s efforts to attract and retain consumers.

Prices and Shipping

Consumers expect fast and reliable shipping, and failing to meet those expectations can lead to lost sales and negative reviews. Businesses can remain competitive by optimizing their supply chain to reduce costs. Collaborating with a third-party logistics provider to offer quicker delivery is also great. Lastly, invest time in evaluating various shipping carriers and select one that has more affordable rates or offers free shipping.

Customer Service

Meeting customer expectations is crucial for businesses, and prompt responses to inquiries and complaints are essential to excellent customer service. Businesses should invest in a dedicated customer service team capable of efficiently handling inquiries and resolving issues. Multiple communication channels like email, telephone, and live chat can also help meet consumer expectations.

Tech Partner

Many e-commerce businesses fail due to selecting the wrong tech partner. Do thorough research before choosing any platform or tool to use, including CRM systems, inventory management software, email marketing tools, and shopping cart solutions. Collaborating with a web design and development company like iManila, who possesses a deep understanding of the industry’s challenges and emerging trends, can be your guide in attaining your goals.

With 27 years of experience in the industry and an IT company at its core, iManila, having been one of the first Internet Service Providers in the Philippines, is committed to providing our clients with innovative information technology, web, and digital solutions.

iManila is a full-service business web development company in the Philippines ready to help you with WordPress website creation or building an ecommerce website for your business. From web design and development and website update and maintenance, to web hosting, email hosting, and technical, desktop and remote support, we are your team. Aside from this, we are also an applications development company specializing in customized web systems for businesses in different industries and a top digital marketing agency that provides a wide range of digital marketing services. Talk to us!

Proven and Tested Ways to Improve Your Website Conversion Rates this 2023

Conversion rate is the core and one of the most important metrics to monitor in any digital marketing campaign. If you’re new to e-commerce, conversion rate is the number of conversions divided by the total number of web visitors. 

How does it work? Basically, you run a campaign to encourage people to do a desired action. Conversion rate reflects how well your strategy is. A good campaign gets people to take action and convert while ineffective ones won’t. 

If you have a low conversion rate, better to reassess your marketing plan. Study what makes users convert and where they bounce. Take this blog as a guide! 

Include social proof to your site

Your audience won’t always believe everything you say. So, if you make a claim, it would be best to provide evidence in the form of customer reviews to support it. In fact, according to Trust Pulse, 83% of people are more likely to trust a review than an advertisement. Similarly, 97% of consumers look at reviews before making a purchase. With this in mind, incorporating social proof would definitely help boost your conversion rate.

Shorten your forms

Imagine discovering an e-commerce site that sells high-quality goods at reasonable prices. But then it requires you to fill out lengthy forms to get more information or seal a transaction. What a bummer, right?

Long forms can help you know your audience but can also drive them away. It’s annoying to fill out so many fields before accessing information or buying a product so, consider reducing it. Take Marketo as an example – a conversion rate of 10% was observed with their 9-field form. Reducing the number of fields to 5 increased the conversion rate for the same form to 13.4%. Shorten your forms or drive your potential customers away.

Keep it simple

Aside from shortening your forms, make the buying process easier by simplifying the whole user experience. People’s attention spans are shorter than they were years ago which was proven in an experiment conducted by Etsy. The team added 160KB images to their pages to intentionally slow down their load speed. As a result, their bounce rate increased by 12%. 

Remember, people will abandon your site if it takes too much of their time navigating it. With that, make sure to have a straightforward UX design, clear instructions, obvious CTAs, and make it a point NOT to offer too many options.

Don’t require a login

People choose online shopping for convenience. However, if it requires extra effort to have access like registering or logging in, chances are they will dodge you. Just like in the study conducted by the Baymard Institute, 37% of customers completely abandoned their checkout process when they were required to create an account. In the same study, 38% of the e-commerce sites examined did not even provide customers with the option to create a temporary account prior to completing their purchase.

Don’t risk lowering your conversion rate. Make login or sign up fields optional. Let users browse your shop as a guest. And having a clickable “Checkout as Guest” button is a plus too! 

Make personalized content

As the cliché saying goes, “content is king” – and nothing could beat a personalized one! According to Accenture, 91% of consumers say that they are more likely to shop from a brand that offers deals and recommendations that are relevant to them. This only shows personalized content is something you shouldn’t sleep on. 

To get you started, here are some things you could try for a more personalized content:

  • Establish your target market’s persona then share content that connects with them. 
  • Give each customer a discount that is unique to them based on their location, customer behavior, or how they use your website.
  • If you want to reach more people in your area, make sure your website and content are optimized for local SEO.

While there’s no thing such as “one size fits all” when it comes to your website, these tips could be your starting point. And if you need help in implementing these, you could always hire an all-in-one team that specializes in web design and development, web maintenance, and content writing like iManila! 

With 27 years of experience in the industry and an IT company at its core, iManila, having been one of the first Internet Service Providers in the Philippines, a web development company and a top digital marketing company in the country, is committed to providing our clients with innovative information technology, web, and digital solutions. As one of the best web hosting providers in the Philippines, iManila is also a full-service business web development company and digital marketing agency in the Philippines ready to help you with your web design and development, website update and maintenance, web hosting, email hosting, dedicated server, technical, desktop and remote support, and digital marketing services needs.  Talk to us!

Ways to Catch Your Customers’ Hearts Through Brand Awareness

Brand awareness is a common term if you’ve been around the marketing space for some time. But, what does it exactly mean, and why are companies obsessing over the next brand awareness campaigns? 

In simple terms, brand awareness is how well people are able to recognize your brand. This cannot be measured by just one metric alone as it encompasses things from reach, traffic, engagements, and the like. 

The more aware your target market is of your brand, the more synonymous your products or services are when people consider the category they belong to. This is a requirement for any brand, especially new ones before they can properly build brand loyalty. Contrary to belief, brands do not have to be the most recognizable to everyone. It just has to be recognizable to your target audience. 

Here are some ways your company can use brand awareness:

Show the human behind the brand

People gravitate to brands that have unique personalities. However, this doesn’t mean that all brands can benefit from the witty social media personalities of other brands. It doesn’t mean though that you shouldn’t put a personality behind your brand voice and image. 

Customers can tell when a brand is more “human” than others. This shows not just in the posts but in how your brand engages with its audience. Remember that when it comes to social media marketing, communication is often a two-way street. 

You can interact with your audience by asking questions, polls, or simply by replying to their comments. By doing so, you’re letting them know there’s a person behind your company account. This goes the same way when it comes to posting things that may not entirely be related to the product or service, such as posting about current trending topics. Show your audience that you are updated with what’s happening around you, just like them!  

Make sure your brand tells a narrative 

Storytelling is one powerful tool as it gives the audience something to hold onto. Even if not properly articulated, every brand has to have a story whether it’s the story of the founder, how the product came about, or how the business was able to break through. The important part is to communicate this to your audience. The narrative can be about anything as long as it is authentic. 

Recognize the value beyond your product 

One way to deepen your brand awareness strategy is to go beyond the product and see what value you can offer. The point of this is not directly for sales. But, it can lead to relationship building that creates opportunities for your audiences to get to know your brand in a different way. 

This can come in many ways from educating, informing, or even entertaining through blogs, podcasts, newsletters, and social media posts. If the team or company has a pool of expertise, then it might be the best way to share it with others. 

Create shareable content 

Word-of-mouth marketing should not be underestimated as it is a surefire way to develop familiarity and build trust with customers. This is about seeing what impact you can create in your content to make it shareable to audiences. 

This may be a way of indirect marketing as you’re not directly selling the product. But, it can offer big returns on your overall awareness and impact in the long run if paired with a good strategy. 

Creating an effective brand awareness strategy could be a daunting task as it requires a lot of work from strategy to execution. But, don’t be discouraged, iManila can help! 

With 27 years of experience in the industry and an IT company at its core, iManila, having been one of the first Internet Service Providers in the Philippines, a web development company and a top digital marketing company in the country, is committed to providing our clients with innovative information technology, web, and digital solutions. 

As one of the best web hosting providers in the Philippines, iManila is also a full-service business web development company and digital marketing agency in the Philippines ready to help you with your web design and development, website update and maintenance, web hosting, email hosting, dedicated server, and technical, desktop and remote support. Talk to us!

Guaranteed Techniques to Boost SEO This Year

As we have witnessed, Google has rolled out a staggering number of updates over the course of the years. This ties into their pursuit to defeat black hat search engine optimization (SEO) tactics and improve the search engine results pages (SERPs). By this, they are in the effort to emphasize quality content, optimal page speed, and mobile SEO. So, what does this imply in terms of your 2023 SEO strategy? 

Keep up or be left in 2022. Follow these best practices that we have put together to get your site sailing through the SERPs this year.

Produce video content

Video is one of the most effective forms of content to engage your audience. In fact, it has made its way to dominate almost all social media platforms, giving the highest ROI among other media formats.

If you want to increase your visibility in SERPs, focus on creating video content that people actually want to see. Invest heavily in it to stand out among the sea of video content on the internet today.

Optimize content for voice search

The emergence and growing popularity of voice assistants globally has forced brands to adopt and capitalize from this innovative practice. With over 4 billion devices worldwide using voice search, not optimizing your content for this is a huge missed opportunity.

While there are a number of important aspects to voice search optimization, featured snippets are the most crucial SEO component. A featured snippet is a search result that Google specifically selects as the best response to a user’s query. It’s the one that appears at the top of the search results page. Optimize your content’s featured snippet for voice search to increase its chances to appear in Search Engine Results’ Pages (at the top even!)

Recycle and repurpose content for different platforms

Repurposing content entails recycling it for use across a variety of channels. For instance, shortening a lengthy Youtube video into a 15-second Tiktok clip as a teaser is one idea. It’s a creative way for brands to come up with new content and help reach a wide range of people who prefer different media formats.

Other ways of recycling content includes turning a blog post or article into a video, and transcribing a podcast into a blog post. It is up to your creativity, really. Just make sure that the style of your content is appropriate for the channel you want to use. 

Optimize your site and improve user experience

Let’s not forget that a successful SEO content strategy is built on the fundamentals of SEO. Therefore, optimizing your business website is crucial. Conduct a website maintenance and check your metadata, update canonicals, optimize page speed and load times, design mobile-friendly page layouts, and implement structured data. These are all important in SEO and constitute a positive user experience.

Also, making your website mobile-responsive is now a must! As 2022 data shows, mobile traffic made up almost 60% of all traffic worldwide. And for the foreseeable future, mobile is expected to be more popular than desktop. This 2023, aim to provide your website visitors a seamless mobile experience.

Keep an eye on Google’s algorithm

Google is always changing its algorithms to give the best results for every user’s search. These updates can greatly affect your SEO and content strategies. It would be better to be attentive and vigilant so you could maneuver your strategies as quickly as possible.

Google algorithm update is inevitable like some sort of force of nature. We cannot do anything but keep up with it.

With everything that has been said, we wish everyone good luck in boosting your SEO this year. If you need further assistance or are looking for help with your content marketing (to start), let the experts in iManila help!

With 26 years of experience in the industry and an IT company at its core, iManila, having been one of the first Internet Service Providers in the Philippines, a web development company and a top digital marketing company in the country, is committed to providing our clients with innovative information technology, web, and digital solutions. 

As one of the best web hosting providers in the Philippines, iManila is also a full-service business web development company and digital marketing agency in the Philippines ready to help you with your web design and development, website update and maintenance, web hosting, email hosting, dedicated server, technical, desktop and remote support, and digital marketing services needs.  Talk to us!

5 Reasons to Hire a Digital Marketing Agency This New Year

Juggling between your day-to-day business operations and carrying out marketing efforts is not an easy task. For sure, you would agree based on your past experiences in the previous years. Regardless of your company scale, it is best to have different people handle these two distinct business aspects. After all, it can’t all be done at once. This is one of the main reasons to hire a digital marketing agency this new year. 

A digital marketing agency is composed of an experienced team that can manage all of your online marketing needs in one place. From Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Email Marketing to Social Media Management and Advertising (SMM and SMA), and many more, they are your team. 

Aside from having the focus to run and grow your business, there are a lot of other reasons why a digital marketing agency is worth your money. Read further as we share the benefits that come with hiring a digital marketing agency for your business!

Have an expert do your digital marketing efforts

Off the bat, hiring a digital marketing agency means having experts do your online marketing efforts. Marketing isn’t as easy as it sounds. It takes a lot of time and experience to fully understand online marketing and plan a strategy that actually works. Sure, you can create a marketing team out of your people but do they have the skills of a pro? The clock is ticking, and this 2023, don’t settle for trial-and-error marketing strategies. Invest in an agency that can bring you marketing success.

Save money by cutting down marketing costs

Many businesses compare the cost of an in-house operation to the cost of an agency when deciding whether or not to hire a digital marketing agency. Hiring an agency is more cost efficient and will save you a lot of money in the long run.

One reason for this is that agencies are independent contractors. It doesn’t require payroll taxes. Plus, you reduce the ongoing expenses associated with full-time employees, such as salaries, health care costs, and benefits.

With an in-house operation, you will also be required to pay subscription fees to some digital marketing tools you need to run campaigns. On the other hand, you won’t have to spend a dime on tools when you hire an established firm. They already have all of it.

Acquire new and innovative ideas

Bored of repetitive and customary marketing ideas? Consider hiring a digital marketing agency. They offer fresh and out of the box ideas, incorporating a new perspective in your company’s online marketing plans. For instance, they can help you find ways to effectively reach your target audience. From platforms to use to media types to produce, they got you! 

See measurable results

Know and track the performance of your marketing campaigns with the help of a digital marketing agency. They can come up with an estimated Key Performance Indicator (KPIs) based on your budget. So it would be easier to determine your return on investment (ROI).

In addition, they will identify the crucial metrics that should be followed across the various channels in order to assess each campaign’s effectiveness. And you will be receiving a website audit and monthly or quarterly reports on your campaigns. Basically, a digital marketing agency assists you in making sound marketing decisions.

Enjoy free marketing tools

Digital marketing requires a lot of tools to optimize each campaign. Most of these tools are of premium services, with certain features or upgrades increasing the cost. To name a few, analytics, keyword research, competitive analysis, paid search management, and automation tools are some of the tools you will be needing.

For small and medium-sized businesses, the total cost of using these online marketing tools can be quite high. But with a digital marketing agency, you don’t have to worry about these tools as they already have it covered. 

With everything that has been said, if you’re planning to hire a digital marketing agency to help you with your online presence this year, let iManila help!

With 26 years of experience in the industry and an IT company at its core, iManila, having been one of the first Internet Service Providers in the Philippines, a web development company and a top digital marketing company in the country, is committed to providing our clients with innovative information technology, web, and digital solutions. 

As one of the best web hosting providers in the Philippines, iManila is also a full-service business web development company and digital marketing agency in the Philippines ready to help you with your web design and development, website update and maintenance, web hosting, email hosting, dedicated server, technical, desktop and remote support, and digital marketing services needs.  Talk to us!

New Year’s Resolutions for every E-Commerce Business

No matter how successful your business is today, there can always be room for improvement in the years to come. This is why we have made a few New Year’s resolutions to help improve your e-commerce business website. Take a look at some of the tips that your business might want to try to adapt for 2023:

Reply to customers within 24 hours

For this new year, commit to better customer service. By this, make it a habit to visit your inbox everyday and attend to your customers’ concerns. Remember, the buying process doesn’t just end at check out. Your team must understand the level of concern for each customer too. For instance, if one of them has a major concern or issue with your products, at least let them know when they can expect a reply.

Incorporate sustainability in your packaging materials

With climate change and global warming getting worse, consumers nowadays are doing their best to mitigate the causes that they can possibly contribute. Hence, they are patronizing businesses that incorporate sustainability in their operation. As an online business owner, you can incorporate sustainability through switching to eco-friendly packaging materials. There are a lot of available options right now in the market that are made from recyclable materials or are less harmful to the environment.

Give rewards to loyal customers

If you had a loyal customer for years, it would be nice to let them know that you are grateful for their support during this new year. You can offer them promos like free shipping, a freebie, or a discount. Remember, being thankful for your long-time clients won’t make you go bankrupt.

Make your customers’ lives easier

People opt to purchase online for convenience. Make sure to make every step of your customer’s buying process as easy and convenient as possible. Improve your company’s system this 2023. Accelerating your shipping process, implementing single-click payment, and simplifying your Terms of Service are some good points to start.

Use a new website layout

It’s always a good idea to create a new layout and web design for your site as the new year emerges. Whether you change the color of a sidebar or try a whole new look, it will definitely have an impact on the customers. Ensure that it looks equally good on all screen sizes by consulting a web development team.

Get serious with content

As cliche as it sounds, this 2023, content remains to be the king. Level up your content marketing. Produce more creative contents and commit to a posting schedule. It would be best too to identify the best medium to use for your brand – blogs, podcasts, videos, etc. Nothing beats great content in driving traffic and building relationships with your website visitors. It would also be best if you will invest in a digital marketing agency that can help you with your online marketing strategies like Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

A new year calls for a new beginning. Consider making some changes in your business’ web system and website for the better. Consider a website maintenance service for your business today! For website concerns, let the experts in iManila help you!

With 26 years of experience in the industry and an IT company at its core, iManila, having been one of the first Internet Service Providers in the Philippines, a web development company and a top digital marketing company in the country, is committed to providing our clients with innovative information technology, web, and digital solutions. 

As one of the best web hosting providers in the Philippines, iManila is also a full-service business web development company and digital marketing agency in the Philippines ready to help you with your web design and development, website update and maintenance, web hosting, email hosting, dedicated server, technical, desktop and remote support, and digital marketing services needs.  Talk to us!