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Tag: iManila PH

Three Tips on Keeping our Website Fresh

 

To most businesses, websites could be considered as part of gaining competitive advantages. It is mainly used for widening your market reach not just nationwide but worldwide, in increasing the accessibility of your potential customers to your products and services, and showcasing what your brand is fully capable of. It is like having your own identity in the virtual world. Although the idea itself is not really a “Eureka!” moment, for anyone now can actually have their own website given the advent of technology and that everyone could be tech-savvy with just a few clicks away. In addition, in this era of social media, people tend to use it more often which could also be very effective for businesses in their promotion and exposure. But that is exactly why there is a greater need now more than ever to keep such websites fresh, relevant and most importantly, worth visiting. So, here are some tips on keeping your websites stick to its A game:

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Tip # 1: Aim High, Rank High.
Unlike a good bottle of wine which gets better as it ages sitting in the cellar, websites cannot be just left alone and let it stagnate with its contents. With its fast pacing trends, lots of businesses couldn’t really manage to cope up, which is never a good thing. This is why you should make sure you continuously update your contents and maintain its relevance. Here at iManila, one of the country’s premier companies in fields of web design and development, we are more than willing to provide you quality contents for your websites up to five main pages for free. This will give you a better shot at being top-of-mind brand in your industry. How’s that for starters?

 

Tip # 2: Let your website do the talking.
Anyone might agree if we say that everything now could be very aesthetical. People can easily give their attention to things that are visually appealing. We can somehow bid our goodbyes to Traditional Marketing strategies which rely on simple and conservative styles. The trend nowadays is inclining more on contents with good graphics or what we call infographics where you are not just discussing your contents with mere words, you are showing what would your products or services would actually look like. Informative yet entertaining thus could pull more traffic on your website.

With our competent website developers and their freshest ideas in UI and UX design, we can assure you of an interest-tickling website which could result to more visits and may lead to more sales for your company. Now who wouldn’t want that?

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Tip # 3: Being mobile-friendly.
Here in the Philippines, you could actually name quite a handful of smartphone brands. From the cheapest to the ones with the most prestige. Nevertheless, it only shows how Filipinos prefer their information, transactions and communications be all compacted in one gadget which fits in their pockets. Its ease of use and it being handy are really vital factors. As a result, the emergence of digital marketing; promotion of your products and services online and actually conducting the entire business virtually. The strong WordPress development and E-commerce background of our company which is at par with the industry standards would give you assurance that your websites will defy its limitations and be mobile-friendly so that anywhere, anytime, and anyone could easily connect with your business. Just one touch away eh?

 

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Change is inevitable, but that doesn’t mean that we cannot do something about it. Remember that it is innate to every human being to adapt to change. For some, the process might be a challenge, but this challenge adds meaning on every success we accomplish. With its excellent track record in maintaining websites with our own hosting servers, iManila would be honored to help you on weaving your success. Give us a call and let’s see what we can achieve together. Oh, it’s in the middle of the night? No worries, our 24/7 phone and email support team are very much willing to be of help. Hear from you soon!

#Achieve: The road towards a successful SEM campaign

 

On an average, Google processes over 40,000 search queries every second. If you do the math, this means that 3.5 billion searches are made per day and more than 1.2 trillion searches per year worldwide. Given these numbers, how do you think can your business manage to compete online? How can you make your business be seen on search engine results? The answer is simple: Use search engine marketing.

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Search engine marketing is an internet marketing strategy that is utilized to improve the position of a website in search engine results through online paid advertising. It’s a big competition. You cannot just shoot and pay Google to get your online ads visible on search engine results. It needs precise planning like any other marketing strategy. In case you are planning to give SEM a go for your business, we laid out a few things you can contemplate on before launching your online campaign.

  • Know what your campaign goals are
    There are many reasons why you want to put up an ad campaign. You might want to increase brand awareness, increase web traffic, or increase your sales. Each goal requires different approach that leads to different directions. So, for you to prevent the incident of mismanaging your campaign specifically your budget, you must deliberate your campaign’s objectives.
  • Use the best and the right keywords
    In SEM, keywords are your bread and butter. It is important to select the most relevant keywords for your campaign. When this step fails, all else will. It is also important for you to think like a client searching for your business. Think what keywords and terms they might be using in the possibility of looking for your products or services. You can use Google AdWords’ Keyword Planner tool to have an idea and an estimate if the keywords you have selected fit perfectly for your campaign.
  • Optimize your landing page
    Another crucial facet of creating an SEM campaign is the optimization of your landing page. Google’s algorithm also considers the landing page of your ad. The relevance and coherence of your ad to your landing page is one factor that Ad Rank takes into account. Start with putting up informative website copy that viewers can view and visible call to action buttons that will lead the web visitors to your contact page outright.
  • Set the right bid for your campaign
    Of course in any marketing campaign, budget is significant. You should determine the period of your campaign and allocate budget for how long you planned it to last. You have to bid strategically with your desired keywords to stand the pace with your competitors.

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  • Evaluate results
    One of the advantages of online ads is its capability of showing immediate results. You can monitor your campaign on a regular basis to know its performance. See if you are really meeting your goals or ensure that you are gaining high ROI from it, because it’s what this is all about. Moreover, since you have the full control with your campaign, you can also make certain adjustments if necessary.

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These are but basic factors in achieving success with your SEM campaign. There are many other strategies you can experiment with. But if you experience trouble in making your own campaign, better opt hiring a professional help. For more than two decades, iManila have helped many businesses reach their marketing and business goals through its experienced and knowledgeable digital marketing team. Want to know more about SEM? Contact iManila now, give us a call and we’ll be happy to accommodate your concerns.

 

Reference: SVM E-Marketing Solutions

Social media trends that you should follow this 2017

As of January 2017, there have been over 3.77 billion active social media users around the world. This rate increases day by day and there’s no way we could stop it. Why douse a blazing fire when we could add more fuel to it?

More than being a virtual billboard of events, photos, promos, and updates, social media creates online connections that our business needs – connections that can eventually create engagement. These are the small gestures we do online such as liking, commenting, retweeting, responding to comments and messages. Not only do these actions create engagement but also pave the way for lifetime brand loyalty, as luck would have it.

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As social media continues to establish itself as a great avenue in achieving our online marketing goals, it is our duty to adapt with the constant changes it confers. Here, we have three of the most anticipated social media trends for us to consider applying this year.

  • Chatbots, talkbots, and chatterboxes

Social messaging is not new to us but in recent years, it has been repurposed to as a virtual customer care application for businesses. Often called as a chatbot, talkbot, or a chatterbox, this additional function of online chat is used by many netizens. And we can’t blame them. It works as if they are just sending a private message to one of their friends. It’s the easiest and quickest way for them to ask questions and raise their concerns without them going to a physical store or calling customer service only to be answered by a voice operator.

One prominent social messaging application today is Facebook Messenger. An instant, free, user-friendly and has distinct features that fit perfectly to be an online social messaging tool for every business. Through this, netizens exert less effort but get more prompt resolutions. Just imagine how the 1.15 billion daily active Facebook users will love your brand once you start utilizing this new social media trend.

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  • Virtual reality

Virtual reality (VR) hyped the public when it was re-invented in 2014. From its first onset during the 1800s, VR has come a long way. Today, when you are using VR, you think and act as if you are on the very location of what you see. This developed technology offers an extraordinary medium for us, marketers. It pushes our marketing strategies to its limits. Making us think how could we use such technology that is hardly used by other brands. Moreover, it carries a lot of advantages that we shall consider it to give people a new and best experience they can’t get anywhere else.

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  • Videos and more videos

All things video will continue to take over the social media sphere this year. If almost everyone can watch a video and even capture one using our fingertips, our brand shall, too. You see, social media is more about psychology and sociology more than technology. It lets us show that our businesses have a personality, just like anybody. In this case, we better express how collaborative we are with our audience through the use of 360-degree videos, snaps, stories, live streams, and even the recorded videos. People love to see our human side through authentic content and we shall give it to them. We can use videos for live events, holidays, behind-the-scenes, interviews, contests, and a lot more. It offers a diverse opportunity and diverse business results either.

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Let’s not deny it, social media is proven to be the most powerful online medium more than anything else. The more inventive it gets, the more our brands should get by it. However, the main concern here is to provide the more personal interaction our market wants and needs in an instant. In case you’re having trouble crafting your marketing plan for your business, iManila is here to help you out. Contact us now and let’s catch on these trends together.

 

Reference: Forbes

Office Stories: What Makes a Good Boss?

 

One of the unforgettable things I’ve experienced before embracing the life of a salary man was when I was a marketing intern in an appliance distribution company.

I can vividly remember when I was asked by my OJT supervisor to bring a pile of approval sheets to the Marketing Manager, who apparently was her boss.

As what other interns did, I gleefully took the files, walked down the aisle, and passed by several cubicles before reaching a secluded office at the other end of the aisle. There was no signage on the door. So before I knocked, I asked some employees nearby if that was the office of the marketing manager. The three of them momentarily swallowed their nonexistent saliva before they answered “YES”.

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At that moment, I got the slightest hint that this man behind the door wasn’t the type of boss who had a sunny personality. So with much caution, I knocked twice, opened the door and greeted him.

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No response.

I looked at him. He was so engrossed looking at his computer screen with his eyeglasses on.

He was neither a grumpy old man nor a monster that would eat you alive.

Actually, he was a bit young – in his late thirties perhaps. He looked at me and raised his palm in the air as if telling me: Where are the sheets?

I immediately moved forward to his table and placed the files on his desk. He asked, “Are you a new employee?”.  I immediately told him that I was just an intern. He nodded back and then told me that I can leave.

As you can infer, he could be a typical boss who sat on his desk all afternoon, secluded himself from his subordinates most of the time, and was terrified of him.

You could be right and wrong at the same time.

THE bosses

Bosses are chosen to lead. They are highly capable individuals who are tenured and can speak with authority.

But bosses are human beings too. They are prone to errors and mistakes. And in some cases, they also lose their cool and become temperamental at times. Okay, fine, I get you – probably most of the time.

Being in charge as a head, as a manager or as a boss entails a great responsibility of managing a team. More so, it is an endless challenge to prove their competencies and worth in the organization. That is why people like them are potentially vulnerable to any and all work-related stress you can think of.

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What do Good Bosses do?

Most of us will agree that an effective leader not only helps manage conflict but also supports team members to grow professionally, which can take a lot of time. Some would even argue that a good boss is transparent and owns up to his or her mistakes like what everyone should do. But the most important thing a good manager does is to also regular assess themselves and constantly improve his or her leadership skills.

Below is a helpful infographic from the Headway Capital on how to assess yourself as a leader:

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You may get mad at your subordinates or makes a little questionable decision once in your life. But just like what every employee needs to do, evaluating one’s self is the best way to reset yourself to make a fresh start.

Is a website revamp or digital marketing part of your marketing plan for the year? Let iManila help you achieve the website that works for your company and achievable digital marketing activities to pumped-up your year marketing direction. Call us at (02) 490-0000 or send your inquiry at [email protected].

 

Source:

  • marketingprofs.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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.