Skip to main content

Tag: web design

Online Marketing: The Definitive Guide to Internet Visibility

Online marketing moves at the speed of light. To keep up, you need a strong foundation to think critically, and be more creative. There are plenty of guides to marketing from textbooks to online video tutorials, and even guides you can find through Google. But the news is, online marketing is an ever-changing industry, and it can be tough to keep up with the latest trends and techniques. With so many different platforms and options available to try your digital marketing strategy, at the end of the day, marketers need to decide which strategies are best for their online businesses.

In this online marketing blog, we’ll look at some of the most important tips to consider for your digital marketing strategy.

Be Focused on Your Customers

Your customers, prospects, and partners are like the oxygen of your business. You need to build your social media marketing strategy with them always in mind.  Before conducting  your online marketing strategy, have a conversation with your existing customers or audiences.

How did they find out about your product or service? What do your customers value or care about? How are their feedback and suggestions?

Build A Marketing Framework

Marketing should command the same amount of attention and respect in order to properly function. You just need to structure your programs around your goals, which are always centered around profits and revenue. 

With this, build a strategy that positions your business marketing initiatives.

Here’s what you need to do to prove your marketing program’s return on investment or ROI:

  1. Examine your campaign costs
  2. List down the revenues that resulted directly from your campaign
  3. State the number of leads and sales generated and come up with a detailed way on how you track the incoming leads from your campaign
  4. State the maximum profitable cost-per-lead (maxCPL) or cost per acquisition (maxCPA)
  5. Establish a group to benchmark the success of your campaigns and ads

Showcase Your Business

Storytelling is one of the most powerful tools that your company or business can do in order to build customer connections and relationships. Write about the benefits of purchasing from or working with your business. Tell a story about how you got to where you are today, your successes and failures, the challenges and the journey. Include photos of all your products and services and even photos of your team at work.

Similarly, allow your customers to write feedback and submit reviews to gain more trust from other users. 

Build Customer Connections

It is important to connect with your audience in the digital world. Build a digital marketing strategy circling around the objective to build more relationships with your audience. 

Communicate with your customers through follow-ups or through personal emails. Collaborating with influencers may also help reach new audiences. 

Get Found with SEO

Search engines are a powerful channel for connecting with new audiences or targeted customers. SEO is really important because it makes your website more visible, and that means more traffic and more opportunities to convert prospects into customers. 

The success of your digital marketing campaign depends heavily on your ability to develop great quality content.

With so many mediums and platforms to choose from, you can certainly build a digital marketing strategy that will most effectively meet the needs of your target audience. Focus on your customers, build a marketing framework, showcase your business, build customer connections, and get found with SEO.  Set some goals and plans, decide where you’ll put your content such as through your website or social media platforms, and begin integrating your plans.

With 26 years of experience in the industry and an IT company at its core, iManila – a digital marketing agency, having been one of the first Internet Service Providers in the Philippines, is committed to providing our clients with innovative online marketing services in the Philippines that can help convert your website visitors into quality leads or potential customers. 

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, web hosting provider, email hosting, technical support, and digital marketing service’s needs. Work together with top advertising companies in the Philippines like iManila and make your brand goals become reality. Talk to us!

Google Ads Vs. Facebook Ads: Which One Should You Be Using?

Google Ads and Facebook Ads are two of the leading pay-per-click platforms and are often pitted against each other. But what some businesses don’t know is that In fact, these two platforms are complementary to each other and offer unique benefits to marketers and users. You can target prospects by location, gender, and age across both platforms. Many businesses are utilizing the strengths of each to achieve maximum visibility, increase leads in sales, and gather a wider reach of audiences, all for a remarkable return of investments. 

These two advertising platforms serve different business objectives making it way harder for brand owners to identify which one is best for them. In this blog, we have summarized the things that should be considered to help you determine whether you should be utilizing Google Ads or Facebook Ads. 

When To Use

Facebook ads are best for businesses that are looking for an increased awareness of the products and services it sells, especially among new audiences. Facebook allows brands to reach out to their target audience by means of text, image, and video ads. In addition to its large audience base, the platform offers granular targeting capabilities, allowing marketers to reach users based on demographics, behaviors, life events and interests.

On the other hand, Google ads are best for businesses with products or services that people are actively searching for. In order for your ads to succeed, and since your target users are looking for something, your content should be clear, concise, and easy to access. With Google Ads, it’s much more detailed in who you’re able to target for your ads.

Functionality

With billions of users worldwide, Facebook provides businesses the capability to advertise using pay-per-click ads. These ads were created using the Facebook Ads manager platform and are being shown to a targeted audience according to demographics, interests, behavior and engagement patterns. Ad creation process includes selecting an ad budget, ad placement, and run time. However, conversions in Facebook usually take more time since customers are not actually seeking your product or services. 

Google, on the other hand, gives businesses the ability to advertise with just keywords. The intention of the audience is what sets Google apart from Facebook Ads. With Google, users are actually searching for a particular product or service, or an answer for their specific question in mind. Providing them the information they need could boost their engagement with your brand. 

Pricing and Performance Data

Facebook Ads cost lower than Google Ads. However, the conversion rate in Facebook has a lower average compared to Google. When considering cost-efficiency, price needs to be considered in relation to click-through and conversion rates. Google Ads have a higher average cost-per-click and a higher click-through rate giving you a higher return of investment than Facebook Ads. 

Campaign Features

Campaigns in Facebook Ads and Google ads only vary on how audiences are targeted. Facebook Ads offer more all-inclusive targeting options, but offer little to no search or buying intent. Facebook Ads have a broader offering of campaign features and options from ad platforms such as Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram, with ad placement such as feeds, stories, and chat. While google ads give fewer options on audience targeting, its users are actively looking for a particular product or service. In addition, Google Ads give advertisers the choice to make their own content that appears in the same format as organic search results with just keyword searches and basic targeting options.

Ease of Use

Both Facebook Ads and Google ads can be frustrating to use and setup at first glance. While Facebook Ads are easier to navigate especially for beginners, Google Ads offers a more data-focused interface. Facebook has a lot more ad types, ad placements, and advanced audience targeting options than Google Ad Manager. The Google Ads interface may seem more complex to use at first as it is a text and data-heavy platform, but once users become familiar with Google Ads, it becomes easier to use than Facebook Ads.

It may sound easy to begin with a simple ad with these platforms but it also involves in-depth expertise to build effective ads that drive clicks and conversions. Get the most out of your ad investment by leaving it to the experts at iManila. iManila is a certified Google Partner and Facebook Managed Agency. 

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, is committed to providing our clients with innovative online marketing services in the Philippines that can help convert your website visitors into quality leads or potential customers. 

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, web hosting provider, email hosting, technical support, and digital marketing services needs. Work together with top digital marketing companies in the Philippines like iManila and make your brand goals become reality.

Work together with top advertising companies in the Philippines like iManila and make your brand goals become reality. Talk to us!

Shared Hosting Benefits: Is It Right for You?

A website hosting service that divides server resources between multiple domains is called Shared Hosting.  With this, your website lives alongside others, which are neighboring users utilizing the same server.  Shared Hosting is best recommended for small websites, brands, and other digital platforms that do not require high bandwidth. It provides minimum features and support, making it the perfect hosting for budget-conscious website owners. 

For starters, choosing between different web hosting services could be a very tough job. Different hosting offers different features and services. One could offer something that the others could not. It is indeed frustrating to determine whether a shared hosting is the right one for you. To simplify things, we have gathered the benefits of shared hosting to give you insights on how these fit you and your business website. 

Cost-Effective

A huge factor why first-time website owners go for shared hosting is its low cost. A single server’s maintenance costs can be distributed amongst its many users. Since it is shared across multiple website owners, individual costing may be driven down to a smaller cost, making it more cost-effective. In addition, shared hosting gives you the option to eventually upgrade to hosting services that allows you to get more traffic, and greater online presence – of course bigger resources come with higher costs. 

Flexibility

Many business websites first launch their digital platforms with shared hosting because it doesn’t require too much complexity in skills and knowledge to operate. Shared hosting offers plans that provide control panels that are easy to navigate for website management and other pre-installed programs. Server uptime, availability and settings are handled by the hosting provider making it easier for the owner to manage and easily install updates and patches. 

Professionally Managed

Utilizing shared hosting services gives you insurance that your server is well taken care of by the hosting provider, thus ensuring that administrative tasks are functioning accordingly. Aside from being low maintenance, shared hosting provides you professional technical support for network outages, server malfunctions and maintenance, if needed.

Easy Email Hosting

Providing an email associated with your domain is very significant in the web development process. With shared hosting and its built-in cPanel, adding and setting up your email are now easier. You can now run a secure, spam-filtered mail server for your personal or small-business use. This way, you can set up your own disk drive and fully control how your emails are accessed, managed and stored. Aside from emails, you now have control over databases, add-on domains, and more.

Choosing the right web hosting plan can save you lots of time and money. If you don’t need immense bandwidth, memory, computing power, or control, then save your money by going with a shared hosting service.

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, is committed to providing our clients with innovative online marketing services in the Philippines that can help convert your website visitors into quality leads or potential customers. 

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, web hosting provider, email hosting, technical support, and digital marketing services needs. Work together with top digital marketing companies in the Philippines like iManila and make your brand goals become reality.

Work together with top advertising companies in the Philippines like iManila and make your brand goals become reality. Talk to us!

5 Things Businesses can do Online while on Community Quarantine

Business as usual? Just because the rest of the community is under quarantine due to the pandemic, doesn’t mean that your business online has to be idle.

 

Despite all of the negative things happening around us, there’s always a positive. Think of this time as a great opportunity to revamp your business online, especially if this is something that you somehow never found the time to do before. With a lot of people stuck at home and relying on the Internet to cover for their boredom – chances are your potential customers are out there searching the web or scrolling through social media! So on the positive side of things, there’s no better time to leave your mark online than right now!

 

Here are five things you can do for your business online while on community quarantine.

 

Update your website’s images and content

For businesses already with a fully-functional website, now is the perfect time to revamp and freshen up your site. Whether it’s changing the landing images or updating the captions to be more eye-catching, having an aesthetically pleasing website is vital in keeping your site visitors engaged enough to check out what you have to offer.

 

Write content for your website’s blog page etc.

Again, if you have a fully functional website, maybe now is the perfect time to produce relevant content to give potential customers reason to stay on your website longer. Writing content for your website’s blog is one way to do this. How can this help your website? The more relevant the blogs are to your possible customers, the bigger the chances they are to visit and constantly return to your website and to learn more about what your company has to offer. This is a way for you to soft sell your website. Remember that most people search for answers on the Internet, so having the right articles that answer their questions just might mean another customer for you.

 

Get a website

If you’re a business owner who has never had the time or the opportunity to create a website, then what better way to spend all your time at home than by conceptualizing the kind of website you want for your company? There are many reasons why having a website has been proven to be valuable to businesses. Credibility is definitely one of those reasons. For a startup business who wants to leave a good impression on their potential customers, having a website is the best place to start. If you own a business that allows customers to purchase your products or services online, then your own website can become a one-stop-shop for all of your customer’s needs.

 

Start a Facebook fan page for your business

In the Philippines, Facebook is undoubtedly the most used and subscribed social media site. This makes it a lucrative option especially when most of your potential customers are frequent users of the site. While a website is used by customers who actively search something on the web, having social media presence on Facebook is a way to reach out to them when they’re just passing the time scrolling through their feeds. Facebook fan pages can provide an easy way to communicate with your customers with just a single click of a button.

 

Explore other social media channels

While almost everyone uses Facebook nowadays, it’s not rare to see people using other forms of social media such as Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and even LinkedIn. Chances are your potential customers also use them. Knowing who you are targeting as a customer is important in deciding what other social media sites to branch out to. Each social media site differs in their approach to reaching out to their users. If you want to promote videos of your business, then maybe getting a YouTube Ad is for you. If you like to present the products beautifully, or if you’re trying to get influencers on board then maybe Instagram is your best bet. Remember that the more present you are online, the easier it is for your customer to find your brand.

 

While normal business operations may be down for the meantime due to the quarantine, digital marketing never stops. This is one of the biggest advantages of going digital – that it can bridge communication and information online without needing to be physically present. This works the same for businesses too. If you are just thinking of expanding your business online then there is no better time.

 

We know that doing this alone might seem intimidating, so getting an expert’s help can be a great way to get started. Let a partner agency guide you through the digital landscape to help you reach your business goals online. iManila is here to help you despite the pandemic. Our lines continue to remain open as we continue to help businesses stay online no matter the economic situation. Reach us through our website, and drop us a question. iManila: Improving Lives Through Technology. #iManila #DigitalAgency

iManila Lunar New Year 2020 Promo

Gong Xi Fa Cai! iManila, one of the country’s leading website development and digital marketing agencies, presents our Lunar New Year 2020 Promo! 

Get a 5-page WordPress Website for only P 38,888.00 (exclusive of VAT) plus the following inclusions:

  • One Year Free Web and Email Hosting
  • One Year Free US Domain
  • Choose from a variety of available website templates
  • Free use of up to 25 Stock Photos
  • Free One Page Content Writing up to 200 words
  • Free WordPress Training

This promo is perfect for businesses who need a catalog or informative type of website to showcase their products and services. These types of websites are also ideal for companies who are rushing to start their Digital Marketing campaigns by launching Google and Facebook Ads.

Boost your online presence and provide relevant content to your target market through a fully functional and well-designed website! If you’re ready, we can have your website up and running in 30 days!

Promo runs from January 24 to February 29, 2020. 

CONTACT US now to get this LIMITED TIME OFFER! 

 

Poor Web Design Can Cost Your Business

Most of you are probably planning next year’s marketing strategies by now. But you might be forgetting about one important and mostly overlooked platform–your company’s website. Yes, a website may not be as interactive and as cost-efficient as social media but what businesses tend to overlook is that – websites are quite important! If you utilize it right, it might even bring you more revenue. How?

For starters, you already know that a well-designed and curated website is good for Search Engine Optimization, or in layman’s term, for ranking higher on search engines’ results pages. Nowadays, it’s not so hard to build your own website, but doing so may risk your business to have an unclear brand message and an unprofessional website. If you visit a company’s website with unruly information on its page or barely has information on it at all. Would you see that as a credible company? Probably not, right?

 

You Can Lose Potential Customers with an Unorganized Website

If your web design is all over the place, then the user will have a hard time finding what they’re looking for, making them exit your site unhappy. If you notice you have a high bounce rate, or that users leave your site after only visiting two pages, then check if they are having problems navigating from point A to point B. You may want to consult with UI/UX expert to see how else you can improve your user experience. A user-friendly website invites users to freely and easily move from one page to another – giving visitors the ease of finding what they’re looking for, while getting them more interested in the products and services that you offer. 

 

 

You Can Lose Brand Credibility With a Crappy Website

If your web design and overall aesthetic don’t have a coherent theme, it can hurt your brand perception. A well-put-together website that matches your print collaterals will help consumers connect your brand with references they’ll see later on. If you have an icon for your brand, and that icon is present on your website, visitors who may have seen your icon offline will now think, “I’ve seen this…” when they visit your site. Make sure you have a company background or an FAQ page for your website as this is useful for visitors that are interested in your business!

Search Engine Optimization is Important!

When you built your website, did you consider good SEO? Because you definitely should have! Good design and aesthetic can come and go. But a website with a good SEO ranking ranks higher on search engines’ results pages and makes it easier for consumers to find. You should also check if your website is compatible across all devices and loads fast. There are still a dozen other factors to consider for Search Engine Optimization. (You can read our related blog: SEO and SEM: The Perfect Online Marketing Tandem)

Colors Affect Purchasing Behavior

“Color is 85% of the reason you purchased a specific product,” says Neil Patel.

Research from QuickSprout indicated that 90% of all product assessments have something to do with colors. Although colors are subjective, at least use the right ones. Research states that big fonts, red colors in bold are good for headlines in your web design. On the other hand, the color blue generates a feeling of trust. “The Internet is a colorful place, and there is a lot that can be accomplished by using color in the right way, at the right time, with the right audience, and for the right purpose.”

 

All in all, don’t lose possible consumers because of a terribly designed website. Drop us a message to request for a free website audit from one of our dedicated Account Executives. We can help identify areas of your website that can be improved on! Email us at [email protected] or talk to us here. #iManila #WebsiteDevelopment #WebDesign #SEO 

 

 

 

Getting to Know More About WordPress

Developing a website can be intimidating for people who are unfamiliar with the world of web development. There’s a common notion that web development is complex, hard to understand, and only for computer geeks. That might be true in the olden days, but as we progressed further in technology, people have developed easier ways to create things on the internet. And this is what the team behind WordPress has done –they’ve created a pro website builder that allows for a more convenient and less complicated way to build a website.

Introduced in 2003, WordPress has become the most popular website builder or Content Management System (CMS), if you want to get technical. WordPress comprises about 30% of the websites on the internet.

So what exactly makes WordPress so popular and why do most web developers prefer this platform above others? 

It’s free and available for everyone

Yup, you read it right. You can create your own website for FREE on WordPress. For anyone who is just starting to create their digital presence, this should be a helpful factor. You can create your free websites at wordpress.com where you can enjoy a limited number of free templates and plug-ins. For beginners, this is the best way to practice your web development skills. Take note that if you’re using the free version, you don’t entirely own your website meaning, your URL will look something like this: yourwebsitename.wordpress.com. However, if you are looking to explore more, then the best option is to create your own website through wordpress.org. Here you can have your own domain, enjoy 11,000+ templates and plug-ins. 

It’s user-friendly

No need to be intimidated! With WordPress, you don’t have to be a web developer to create your own website. All you have to do is be familiar with the tools and you’re good to go. Plus, WordPress has a ton of plug-ins that need not require coding. Some would prefer to initially have their websites done by a developer then have that developer train them to do future updates on their website. 

It’s SEO-friendly

SEO is essential to any website as this is a factor for driving organic traffic to your website. WordPress is one of the best platforms to apply a well-thought-out SEO campaign. 

It’s not just for blogging

There’s a notion that WordPress websites are only for blogging. While some websites are for personal use amongst others, businesses now have also expanded their channels to digital, specifically through websites. For brands, a website’s purpose is to build and strengthen its brand awareness. While an e-commerce website is the core of any e-commerce business. 

With all the digital advancements nowadays, everything that used to be complex and difficult is now reduced to a simple drag and drop. This is what WordPress websites can give you an easy-to-manage website that can help your business grow. 

If you’re looking into creating a website of your own, but find yourself needing some help, iManila houses the best web developers in the market who can help you create, manage, and launch your website in the digital space. Don’t hesitate to contact us at [email protected] or call us at 490-0000 so we can talk about how we can help you. 

Visit www.imanila.ph for more information.

What Makes a Good Website Design?

Good website design will never go out of trend. It’s not just about using beautiful graphics and a good color palette that matches your brand – a properly designed website should most importantly be functional. 

Form + Function

Structure, graphics, and layout are all essential parts of a website’s design. These things make up the website’s “form”, and what a visitor usually sees upon first glance of a website.  

Elements of the  “form” aspect of a website are always made with a purpose. The main purpose should always be about considering the user. The first few things that a good website designer should look into is how to make your website user-friendly, and make it easier for users to navigate around your website. This means that all graphics, photos, contents and the overall layout of the website should appeal to your consumer’s online behavior and preferences. 

Function, on the other hand, is how the elements of the form operate. When the form operates according to its predetermined function, only then can we truly say that we have a great design!

Why does this all matter?

Good website design will always make you win customers online. Why? Users, consumers, buyers, customers just simply benefit from it. Having a greatly designed website not only allows visitors to get the information they need, but it also allows them to easily find what they’re looking for. Websites with a great design and user interface attract online visitors to keep coming back for more. Not only does a great website increase a company’s reputation online but it also sustains a good user base, which increases your website’s visibility and ranking on search engines. In short, having a great website can not only change a consumer’s mind about your brand, but it also pumps up your online visibility organically in search engines. 

As a final note – a new and well-designed website is not just something your company can be proud of, but especially in this day and age filled with so many distractions – now more than ever you need a website that will be able to catch AND keep your consumers’ attention! 

Need help? iManila has delivered more than 5,000 web and digital marketing projects since its inception back in 1996. Drop us a message at [email protected]!

How much is your peace of mind?

It was a hectic Monday, and your office is in chaos preparing for the weekly management meeting– when suddenly a noisy commotion grows in a corner as your employees are starting to break in panic.

“No inbound leads have come in!” an assistant, cried in.

Everyone’s on their toes trying to find out why, only to realize that the culprit is your server, as it crashed and failed to load your website, thus making it inaccessible for a couple of hours now, and still counting.

The sad thing is, this is the third time that this has happened just this month alone, and it’s starting to take a toll on your revenue.

What to do?

This scenario is probably one of the main stressors for most companies relying on their online channels to generate business.

The one-million-dollar question here is, “is it worth it to get stressed over this kind of issue time and time again?”

Our answer is NO.

You can always rely on reputable companies who can do it for you.

As one of the most trusted full-service digital marketing agencies in the country, iManila is the go-to provider of brands and companies here and abroad for the following services:

Hosting

Our hosting solutions are engineered for powerful and reliable performance online. From shared and dedicated hosting to SSL certificates and web security and backup, you can count on our solutions to provide 99.5% uptime and availability.

Web Design and Development

Our mission is to turn beautiful designs into useful and functional websites that represent your business in the best way possible. With a pool of expert designers and developers, we are very much capable of producing well-designed and functional websites from informational websites, to e-commerce sites with various functionalities.

Web System and Applications Development

A website is not just the only thing that businesses need these days. Reach your market through web and mobile applications by transforming your business to carry out automated processes and operations to improve productivity and profit.

Digital Marketing

Today’s online information age is unstoppable and is accelerating faster than anyone can anticipate. With social media networks and search engines rising as key getaways of the information highway, marketers are rapidly shifting from offline to online to reach their customers.

With the combination of both organic effort and paid advertising, you can surely interact with your audience in real-time. To add, digital marketing provides measurable results which can surely empower you to make wise business decisions when it comes to optimizing your campaigns and achieving your company’s goals.

Tech Support Services  

Get 24/7 support from our fully-equipped, highly-knowledgeable technical staff! With over a million man-hours of experience, our technical support specialists can solve and troubleshoot all hardware and software issues of your business.

***

Let iManila give you the peace of mind that you need. To know more about our services, call us at +632 4900000 or send us an email at [email protected].