Creative Marketing Ideas for Halloween!

This year Halloween is expected to be on of the biggest Halloweens for business in a long time according to the National Retail Foundation.  With approximately 70% of consumers indicating they plan to celebrate Halloween this year. Halloween is quickly becoming one of the most popular holidays in the US, second only to the jolly fat man who comes around once a year on the 25th of December.  So don’t miss out on this great opportunity to market your business this Halloween. Here are a couple of great Halloween marketing ideas from small businesses which are gaining huge success.

1. Hold a Halloween-Themed Contest-

Maybe this year you should think about hosting a Online Halloween-Themed contest. Themed contests have been increasing in popularity through out the years and there’s no end to the possibilities online.  For example one company had the idea of having hidden monsters throughout the Internet and their system for users to find. The prize they received came from each monster a person would find.  Their purpose of this contest was to drive brand recognition, as well as membership subscriptions/renewals.

2. Sell Halloween-Themed Products-

We thought this was hilarious but at the same time brilliant in some way. One company took it upon themselves to really think outside the box this year for Halloween. They took the theme to the extreme this year by selling products to help consumers “zombie-proof” their homes. But that’s not all, they went even further as to set up a  “Zombie Preparedness Center” on their company website. Which has created such a buzz in the media giving them a lot of attention this year for Halloween.

3. Charity Photo Costume Event-

A professional Photography company has been giving people free photos of their child in their Halloween costume in exchange for a food donation.

4.Turn Your Business into  a Trick-or-Treat Stop or even a Haunted House-

Looking to build your email database for newsletters? Many small businesses that can invite the public to visit on Halloween should offer special “treats” and even have employees dress up in costumes to take pictures with the customer. Then send them the photos via e-mail, which will help you build your email database to send them newsletters throughout the year.

5. Have a “Green” Halloween Event-

Instead of giving away the usual candy, why not offer healthy treats and invite people to trick or treat at your place of business? Show some support towards all the healthy nuts out there this Halloween with a “Green” event.

6. Hold a Contest for best Pumpkin Online!-

We took this idea from a company who took it upon themselves to purchase pumpkins in bulk from a local market and host their very own pumpkin festival for best pumpkin.  Sounds expensive, but if you don’t have a retail location for a good venue, then why not have a virtual pumpkin festival online straight from the company site or on Twitter or Facebook? Everyone can post their best pumpkin online and compete against each other for prizes. Plus, with the help of social media you’ll definitely gain a lot of attention this year for Halloween.

7. Give Away Halloween-Related Freebies-

Looking to gain a lot more traffic this year for your business website? Halloween themed freebies are a great way to gain attention. Spooky Halloween Design Templates for visitors to download, costume ideas or party planning tips are good examples of freebies to give out to the public.  Companies like Disney even host 31 days of Halloween, which provide free craft ideas, recipes and pumpkin carving stencils and more on one of their websites. As long as your freebies are appropriate for your target audience and it’s Halloween related of course then your business would benefit from it. Doesn’t even have to stop at Halloween, acquire emails from your visitors so they can receive more newsletters after for more valuable freebies.

Miami web design pro knows the value of good customer relations and thinking outside the box like them when it comes to marketing. This year for Halloween be sure to focus on new creative ideas to increase sales for your business by doing something fun & different. Who knows? Maybe you’ll have huge success this year. Happy Halloween!

Measuring ROI for your Social Media Campaign

Here at Miami Web Design Pro many clients that walk through our doors are uneducated on the idea that Social Media is beneficial to their business. They sit down and complain that all the time and money they invested led up to a spiraling downfall for their marketing campaign. Well today we will give you some tips on how you can strategically measure your return of investment and analyze certain factors like participation, involvement, engagement, customer loyalty and satisfaction that will increase your marketing efforts on social media networks. Social media endeavors are directly related to your business’s performance. So understanding the gain your business profits from when you suddenly have an increase in followers, subscribers, fans and traffic is key to a successful Social Media Marketing Campaign.

Each year social media platforms are used by countless of small and medium sized businesses as a great marketing tool to advertise and promote to a wider audience. But many businesses find it more difficult to analyze and track there rate of investment from their social media efforts then tracking PPC advertising. Its a little bit more complicated then tracking PPC campaigns. For starters as a business owner you should try and define certain goals you would like to achieve from using social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Google +. Keeping tabs on number of comments your receive or the number of followers you have on Facebook/Twitter and tracking whether they visit your site or product pages after are important. Did your sales increase because of the increase in traffic to your site? Tracking all this data is imperative, with out it you wouldn’t be able to calculate the ROI from your social media campaign. Set goals to increase communication with customers or potential ones. Engaging in conversation by replying to comments on Facebook or tweet’ing back to them on Twitter will go a long way for your social media campaign.

Keeping track of the data and your business goals with the help of some online solutions will help you optimize and maximize your marketing campaign. Using Google Analytics will allow you to track incoming links to your site and the activities of visitors on your site. Tracking Social Media Metrics using tools like PostRank, Omniture and Hootsuite will help you measure your rate of investment. You can then analyze all this data to see if your goals are met and you can easily see if the traffic to your website increased after you advertised using a social media platform like Facebook. Looking for trends and tracing their origin will help you track your ROI a lot easier as well.

If your rate of investment is small from using social media site then this means you need to evaluate your campaign to see what you did wrong and how you can do it differently. Since you kept track of all your data and social media metrics it will be less of a headache to see what exactly is doing well and what isn’t working for your marketing campaign and improve on it. Evaluate the impact of social media on your business and you can fine-tune your strategy to engage with a wider audience to increase brand awareness with Social Media!

Social Media Archetypes

Most of us have heard about the famous psychoanalyst Carl Jung and his theory of archetypes, and if you haven’t, here it is in a nutshell: an archetype is a person or symbol that is universally understood to possess the same things, no matter what culture you are in. Examples are The Virgin and the Bag Guy. Well there are social media archetypes as well, and they make up the different people you may encounter online. Miami Web Design Pro is about to to run a crash course on how to spot them.
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About Us Page and Optimization

Although we are a web design company, we also handle optimization, as well as online marketing. Miami Web Design believes that optimization can truly make or break your company. That is why knowing all the possible ins and outs is one of the most important things a business owner could possess.
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How to write a Quick Article…

Many people believe that it takes hours upon hours to write a good article, but this isn’t the case. Some of the best articles can be written in 20 short minutes. The bloggers at Miami Web Design Pro know a great deal about this.

1) Know what you want to write. Having a plan in regards to your concepts and the message you want to get across are vital to writing any article.

2) You may find that coming back to the article is helpful. I begin with a general idea, and as time passes new ideas come to me, and eventually a wonderful article is the finished product.

3) Stick to the point. Keep it clear and concise, do not digress.

4) Always use your best ideas when they’re freshest. Don’t store or recycle ideas because it will not flow as well.

5) Do not let writer’s block get you down. Learn strategies and way to conquer it that best fit you and your schedule.

6) If something isn’t feeling right, or you just can’t seem to flow then do it in sessions. Some times people do not work best in one sitting, you can split you article time in 5-7 minutes sessions.

7) Don’t constrict yourself to just one article. If the ideas are flowing continue to write as many articles as you can, and split them into the 5-7 minutes sessions.

8) Find out what way writing articles flows best with you. If you work best when writing lists then write lists, but if you work best in paragraph form then stick to that.

As long as you have an idea, and know what you want to say, you’re already almost there. Writing should be the least of your worries.

The Overestimated Power of Web Design

Although a beautifully designed website does help in propelling your business to new heights, it will not do it all. It is not a magical key, hard work and other strategies are needed to promote you and your company. Miami Web Design Pro can help you accomplish the following goals.

Design cannot be your only plan.
You need to have a plan in place. Marketing and advertising plans are needed to make your business successful. You need to remember what you’re selling, and whom exactly you’re selling to. You need to gear your website towards those potential customers.

Design cannot make up for your lack of message.
No matter how gorgeous a design is you need to first think of what you want to say. You have to make your customers want to stay with intriguing and engrossing content. It needs to be informative as well as persuasive. Knowledge is power when it comes to web sites.

Design is about your company
Never focus on what you want or what you would like, focus on what your customers want to see and read. So who cares if you despise the color purple? If the market you’re trying to sell to bleeds purple then your website better look like Barney threw up all over it.

Although an appealing and lovely website are needed to attract customers, because who are we kidding no one wants to surf a bland and hideous page, web design cannot be your only tool. You need to know what you’re selling, whom you are selling to, and how you’re going to make them pick you over your competitors. Web Design Miami can teach you how.

What are your clients looking for in your website

If you’re a small business owner, you’re in luck. Experts say that customers prefer small business to large corporations because they appreciate the intimate atmosphere as well as the attentiveness. This small Miami Web Design Firm is also in luck because we are a small Miami Web Design Company. “People want character; it has meaning,” adds Kelly Cutler, chief executive of Marcel Media, a Chicago-based Web advisory firm. You need to offer a window into yourself and your personality as well as business for your customers to see.

Customers want to know:

Are you unique, and what makes you that way?
Be honest, be intriguing, and be interesting when describing your company and who you are, as well as your team. Keep it simple, and short.

K.I.S.
Keep It Simple, make sure your customers know your services and products. Do not beat around the bush. Be clear and concise, especially on your homepage. But you also need to keep a balance, keeping your customers wanting more so that they will contact you.

An address and phone number are necessary.
A concrete phone number and a genuine location help build credibility.

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Commit these mistakes and your business is sure to fail…

1. “An increase in volume is the solution”
No matter how much you believe it and hope for it you won’t make it up in volume. Volume schemes may appear attractive at the beginning because it helps absorb fixed costs, but the truth is a low margin is a low margin. Well, no, you won’t. Volume helps absorb fixed costs, but low margin is low margin. The reason volume increases do not compensate is because high marketing budgets continue to increase.In an effort to fix a bad situation, P&G threw in more cost. It reformulated, restaged, and tried to convince consumers that good value meant spending more for better performance. Your business will be saved by lower-volume, high-margin brands; you need to fix more essential cost-structure problems before looking for a quick fix.

2. “Here we go again…
We here at Miami Web Design Pro always say to expect the unexpected. You need to be prepared for all the curve balls your competitors may throw at you and your business. There are many things you can do to try and out-compete your rivals. You may chose to go toe to a toe with an evenly match competitor, but if luck and chance aren’t on your side your business may fail and become second best. You have to pay attention and know when you improve when your competitors have the upper hand, be it a larger budget, a better product, or better connections. Take advantage when you’re in the lead. And when all else fails change the game, it leaves the competitors attempting to reach your level. Raising prices to match your competitors or make customers believe that a higher price tag is needed to achieve luxury, or you can lower your prices to reach other markets and consumers can do this. You can offer the best of both worlds with commodities that your competitors do not offer. You can raise prices on what product while lowering them in another targeting both the segment willing to pay more for higher performance and the segment willing to accept less performance at a lower price. Find allies and friends in distributors, suppliers, etc.

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How to Get Your Marketing Message Across and Seize Market Opportunities

Christensen, one of the authors of Marketing Malpractice: The Cause and the Cure,” and his coauthors point out that product developers and marketers often set themselves up for failure right from the start by defining target segments in terms of customer types (contractors, homeowners, small businesses, large corporations) instead of customer needs.

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5 ways the internet can help you survive the economy

The past year or so has been difficult for all, especially us business owners. For those lucky enough to dodge this recession all there is left is confusion and sad looking bank accounts. But now is no time to bring your guard down boys and girls.

The Internet offers many cost effective opportunities to not only survive but also thrive in this economy.

1) Network – Use social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to connect with other business owners and clients. There is a lot you can learn from others – even your competition. Have an event planning company? Why not network with a party supply business.

2) Increase your knowledge - Is business slow for you? Take advantage of your extra time and the infinite learning opportunities the Internet has to offer. Learn everything about your industry and more. Take online courses and get certifications. Knowledge will add value to yourself and your business.

3) Start a blog - Starting a blog is great way to bring exposure to your business, and establish yourself as a trusted source and leader in your industry. The key is writing compelling content that your readers want to read and can benefit from.

4) Expand your reach – The web has made it a lot easier to reach a global audience. Take advantage of the Internets global reach and start looking for new clients in new markets.

5) Sell online – Did you know online sales are expected to hit 211 billion dollars this year? Open up an ecommerce store and sell your products 24 hours a day 365 days a year anywhere in the world.

Miami Web Design Pro is small Miami Web Design Firm that will help you survive in today’s Internet economy.

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