Freshpoint Media

September results have been released and, as expected, Google are still firmly at the top with an estimated 54 percent of the market share. But the surprising news was the impressive growth of Microsoft Live.

According to Nielsen Online, Microsoft's MSN/Windows Live Search achieved 71.5 percent growth in just one year, with an estimated 890.7 million search queries in September alone.

While Live Search is still ranked third - and they are a long way from Google's impressive command of the market - it seems that the improvements Live Search have implemented in the last year have made a difference to searchers.

Yahoo! retains its spot as the second most popular search engine, but it's a distant second with a 19.5% share in Nielsen Online's rankings. Microsoft Corp.'s MSN/Windows Live Search came in third with a 12% share and AOL (6%) and Ask.com (2.2%) rounded out the top five search engines. The battle for supremacy amongst search engines is fierce as sites fight to provide the best services - and the main winners are the consumers.

While Yahoo remains Google's closest competitor, it seems that Microsoft Live is determined to catch up. Whether their improvements, such as Auto Spell Correction and Stemming as announced on 24th of October, are strong enough to provide a credible threat to search-giants Google remains to be seen.

Since the launch of The Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) in 2002 regarding digital communications, many companies have struggled to find a way of legally sending marketing emails in the UK. Spam is a hot topic and many companies ignore the rules of email marketing and hope that high volume will mean high sales. However, with Send Media you can email customers legally, at an affordable cost and with full access to the campaign reports. Using some common sense and careful planning, email marketing campaigns can be an invaluable tool for modern businesses.

So why send email newsletters? Typically the answer to this question will be one or more of the following:

• Convert prospects to customers
• Retain existing customers
• Cross-sell and sell more to existing customers
• Position your company as the authoritative voice in your sector 

Many SMEs without dedicated marketing departments or marketing managers struggle to find both the time and skills to setup and run email newsletter campaigns. It's not an exact science and can be very much hit and miss. Even so there are a number of ways to maximise the chances of a successful campaign. There are a number of dos and don'ts and unwritten laws that need to be abided by and that's before even thinking about campaign content. 

In response to this the Freshpoint Media team has developed Send Media, an affordable and effective way to distribute email newsletters and manage opt-in email subscriber lists. This all inclusive service is designed to aid businesses who do not have the time or in-house skills to create and send campaigns. Each newsletter has a bespoke design which can match a client's brand image, website style or product style and is carried out by Send Media's top designers ensuring maximum impact. Each design undergoes rigorous pre-deployment testing. Send Media uses its own state-of-the-art web based software to send and monitor each campaign. The real-time reporting allows clients to accurately measure the effectiveness of every campaign sent. This includes;

• Opens Over Time Report which shows exactly who is opening the email
• Link Activity Report which enables clients to gauge what their subscribers are interested in
• Forward to a Friend link in a campaign shoes which subscribers are forwarding the email
• Bounces and unsubscribes are processed enabling clients to see exactly who, when and why a subscriber left their list

This information is displayed in the form of interactive tables, graphs and lists enabling clients to fully understand the data. Fully designed and managed campaigns start from £400, depending on the size of the contacts list, the frequency of the campaign and how much (and what type) of content is required. 

For further information visit the Send Media website www.send-media.com or talk to our team info@send-media.com

Providing a newsletter for your internet marketing opt-in list subscribers provides many benefits in terms of driving traffic into your site as well as boosting the online money making sales and profits of your site and company. This is a marketing ploy that will not hugely dent your marketing budget.

With a newsletter, you can inform the public about your company and products as well as services. You can keep them posted and updated about what's going-on with your company as well as many of your promotions and offerings. With these, you keep on reminding your subscribers that you are still here and is willing to offer them good deals and services.

Newsletters also allow you to impress your email marketing subscribers. It can show your expertise and knowledge about the topic at hand and the many benefits you can offer them. When you impress people, they will become potential customers and another great thing is that they can recommend you to their friends, colleagues and family. All of them could very well be customers in the future.

If you do not have a newsletter or publishing one for your site, then you should contact Send Media to discuss your requirements www.send-media.com

Article source: www.articleshop.co.uk

What is web usability & why is it important?

Web usability is about making your website in such a way that your site users can find what they're looking for quickly and efficiently. A usable website can reap huge benefits on to your website and your business.

• Every £1 invested in improving your website's usability returns £10 to £100 (source: IBM)
• A web usability redesign can increase the sales/conversion rate by 100% (source: Jakob Nielson)

Your website has to be easy to navigate

Users have gradually become accustomed to particular layouts and phrases on the Internet, for example:

• Organisation logo is in the top-left corner and links back to the homepage
• The term 'About us' is used for organisation information
• Navigation is in the same place on each page and adjacent to the content
• Anything flashing or placed above the top logo is often an advertisement
• The term 'Shopping cart' is used for items you might wish to purchase

There are numerous other conventions like these that enhance your website's usability.

Don't underestimate the importance of these conventions - as the Internet matures we're getting more and more used to things being a certain way. Break these conventions and you may be left with nothing but a website with poor usability and a handful of dissatisfied site visitors.

Trenton Moss www.webcredible.co.uk

A logo is a design or image that represents a company, brand or product. Its aim is to help people identify the company with a positive customer experience. It is the basis of all future branding, advertising and communication strategies. Therefore considerable attention should be paid by the brand owners to develop and create an image that besides being unique will stand the test of time – Remember a logo will outlive people, products and services and exist as long as a company continues to operate.

A well designed logo can raise the image of a company it represents. It establishes the credibility of the company. Potential customers form an opinion of a business within seconds and the logo plays a significant part in determining this. Each aspect of the logo’s design should be carefully analysed in order to ensure that the right message is being communicated.

Logos leave remarkable impressions that have a lasting and a deep impact on the hearts and minds of the viewers

Call Freshpoint Media to discuss your logo and brand requirements.

Source: www.articleshop.co.uk

Have you ever wondered over the striking commonalities among some of the tremendously functional sites of our time? Just spare some thoughts on the features of sites like Cisco, Marshall , Dell, Amazon, etc., and the answer would not elude you.

Yeah. You have got it. Plain and simple. Friendly and functional. No cosmetics. No facelifts. No fuss.

Simplicity matters in web design as it does in other spheres of life.

Web design is not a medium to show off your technical prowess. Nor, you are supposed to demonstrate your superb graphic acumen. These are necessary but only in moderation; let them not dominate over your site friendliness and usability.

We have completed the development of Fresh Recruit, our latest member of the Freshpoint Network. Fresh Recruit is a specialist service providing specific web solutions for recruitment companies.

Fresh Recruit comes as a response to requests for affordable and quality website soltuons for SME recruiters.

Read more about Fresh Recruit in our press release.

www.fresh-recruit.co.uk

Send Media is an affordable and effective way to distribute your email newsletters and manage your opt-in email subscriber lists.

Send Media offers a completely managed opt-in service which is completely web-based with no need for software. Send Media's live reporting area you can compare and analyse your email campaigns in depth, giving you a clear picture of your campaign performance.

Send Media's design service and email set-up provides a simple method to regularly contact and update your customers. View the Pricing for delivery costs and Contact us to start sending email newsletters today!

www.send-media.com

I think every website should have a Content Management System (CMS). Fortunately website owners are starting to think so too, but I still occasionally encounter a customer who doesn’t see the need or benefit of having a CMS. Here are 10 reasons every website needs a Content Management System

1. Fresh content = happy visitors. Who wants to read stale information?

2. A CMS can minimise broken links. A good CMS will manage website navigation for you and reduce the likelihood of Page Not Found errors.

3. Consistency improves usability. A CMS can enforce navigational or style consistencies that improve the user experience.

4. Global changes are more easily made. Try manually changing an image on every page of a 300 page site and it’ll be obvious why a CMS is great.

5. Content collaboration is easier. Allow subject matter experts to all contribute to the site’s content directly through the CMS.

6. Most sites are a work-in-progress. A CMS facilitates the frequent “tweaks” or revisions that are inevitable with any large amount of content.

7. Multi-lingual sites are becoming more important. Creating and managing multiple language versions of a website without a CMS is extremely inefficient.

8. Alternative maintenance methods require too much expertise. Managing a website from a web browser is far easier than hand-coding and FTPing files.

9. A new website design shouldn’t mean all of the content is irrelevant. A CMS allows you to “reskin” a website without rewriting all of the content.

10. Website management can be expensive without a CMS. Paying a programmer by the hour for website revisions can cost £50-100/hr.

www.agencybyte.com

Google have lauched thier new Google Chekcout service to UK customers.

Google say: "The Google Checkout service offers an easy and trusted payment option that enables shoppers to purchase from participating stores with a single Google™ login. It also works with Google's search advertising program, AdWords™, to help retailers acquire new customers and process all or a portion of their Checkout sales for free."

We will looking at the service and features with great interest over the next few months.

http://checkout.google.co.uk