Open Source Web Design & Online Business Marketing

With the potential growth for any business through online Marketing the ability to manage your customers as become much more critical irrespective of business size.  A professional, up-to-date, complete and well managed website, the right products and services, good use of SEO to draw traffic to your site, focussed sales and customer service staff, well-functioning accounts staff all allow any business to compete with major players in the market.

Selling your products and/or services can take many forms, i.e.; to wholesalers, retailers, franchisees, overseas representatives, telesales, through a frontline sales force, direct to customers, mail order, social media Marketing, viral marketing and/or on-line through your own website – or any combination of these.

The purpose of this blog is to show you how to use free open source e-mail Marketing, that should have basic marketing principles applied to it, so that it fits in with your overall marketing strategy.  You also need to ensure that your e-mail campaigns operate within the law so that you avoid spam complaints from consumers.

We live in an online world now – where you can buy anything and everything through a website.  It allows small to medium size businesses to add another sales stream to their business, without all the hassles of hiring additional sales staff.

We often hear our prospective clients ask for a ‘nice looking’ website that they can then use as a part of their Marketing strategy.

Do you and your staff regard your business as having one or more products or services that you sell – or that you are a brand? You may have competitors that are selling almost identical, or very similar products or services, however it is what your potential customers think about what you do, produce, sell and serve that is your brand. A brand is your unique identity.

People worldwide are potential customers if you demonstrate sensitivity to their cultures and in meeting their special needs.  In addition, it’s important to bear in mind that the demographic mix in any country such as ours is changing – so even the way in which we market and sell to our local customer’s needs to reflect these changes just to maintain market share.

There are numerous search engines operating such as Yahoo, Bing, Ask, Alexa, Google, MSN, etc.  For the purpose of this blog we are going to talk about Google and why getting your website noticed there can determine how successful your online business can be.

Let’s face it the internet is a huge place and no matter how cool you think your website is if potential customers can’t find your site then it may as well not exist.  Making sure your site is Google friendly should be your number one priority.  It’s that difference between having a website and having one that works.

The Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y, and Generation Z – the terms are bandied about daily, but what does it all mean to you and your business.  Basically, the above groups cover the majority of the current living population – so the wants, needs, expectations of each group (and they are different) are what we all have to cater for in how we market our business and in the range of products and services we have to sell.

“My business already has a website that we think does an OK job. There is so much hype about Social Media Marketing through applications such as Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Vlogs, Podcasts etc. Although I know what they all are, I am puzzled and sceptical as to how they are relevant or could affect my bottom line”.

Every year the media and social media sites are abuzz with comments on Easter Buns being on sale straight after New Year - but have you ever wondered why?

There are 2 very simple reasons really:
•    Business Planning
•    Maximizing sales.
The rights and wrongs and personal likes and dislikes don't really come into it. The simple fact is everyone running a business needs to plan for all of those events that impact on your business so that you can do your utmost to maximize sales - throughout the year.

How many of us take (or have) the time to sit down and have an objective look at our Marketing strategies and spend? Often we work such long hours, get caught up in the crisis of the moment, have to juggle the work/home life balance among other things just to try and keep our heads above water - particularly in these tough times.

Some people freak the moment they read or hear a word like 'Analytics' - fearing that they have to be some kind of mathematical genius or top notch sales analyst. This isn't the case at all because Web Analytics tools can not only be easy to follow but provide your business with an absolute treasure trove of real data - vital for both day-to-day operational management and long term strategic management decision making.

In many cases when developing a Magento website you will need to create a staging server to work from to make changes and modifications. From this you can then transfer the changes to your live website, which does not get effected during your development stages.

These instructions if followed correctly will duplicate your current Magento store without harming it in any way. However failure to follow these instructions correctly could result in significant harm to your live install. If you are not confident following these instructions then you should not undertake this HowTo.

As a web developer / designer and SEO guy, I have created many what you could call hobby or interest websites in which I promote and test out SEO / SEM on and manage. Some have turned out very well while some lay in the dust and get forgotten about. In reality you can only really focus on 2 - 3 external personal websites yourself, as you just don't have the time to manage them all.

When it comes to being a somewhat prominent figure on the internet in terms of Web Design, SEO, SEM, SMM, CPC, CPA, CPM and the list will go on forever....

There will always be one major core factor supporting your opinion or core theories, experience!

If you choose to be a web designer with a focus on CMS systems, you will need to work out the best CMS systems to propose to your clients based on the required work, lets look at the best CMS systems for the client.

Wordpress - When should i use this CMS system

• When you are looking to build a content rich website
• Easy to update
• Easy to setup with drag and drop widgets
• The best CMS system in terms of SEO and organic rankings, no other CMS system will come close this is the reason all the high ranking blogs run on wordpress

Joomla

• Achieves areas that wordpress can't in terms of ease of use and setup
• Intergrates with the majority of other CMS systems based of the great plugin system API
• Has probably the biggest list of extensions and templates available
• Provides the templates that lead the industry in terms of functionality, coding, design, jquery, ajax, colour changes and the list continues
• If you wan't a website with all of the bells and whistles which is easy to setup, this is the CMS for you.
• Downfall - Your organic rankings wont perform as well as other CMS systems

Magento

• The best open source e-commerce system on the market
• If you wan't a stable system which can easily turn over $200,000 worth of sales and customer traffic without compromising the system you can't go past this
• Supports all international countries in terms of currency, Shopping portals, tax, postage and language translation
• Downfall - You will need coding experience along with a good knowledge of how to run a professional e-commerce store like you would as a retail store you walk past in the street.

For opensource these 3 Systems will cover what you need to complete your website. Wordpress for SEO rankings, Joomla for a website with every integrated feature you have dreamed of and Magento for the best e-commerce website you could ever implement.

Also check out our link partners - Sydney Plumbers

Exhibiting and speaking on topics at cebit which start in exactly 8 hours in Sydney Australia. I will be updating this blog often with my opinion, information and tutorials for online development on open source content management systems. Feel free to say hello at cebit booth k5. See you there!