Atomic has now been in business for more than a decade. Through the years, we've conducted countless web development consultations with marketing managers and business owners alike. One takeaway from this experience is, nearly 80% of our prospects have failed to invest the proper time into evaluating their search optimization needs and how it relates to the success of their new and improved web presence.

For starters, email has become one of the very few things which most all of us check and read on a daily basis, if not hourly. It can reach us at home, at work, or even on our mobile devices. In addition, most senders have been given permission, or encouraged to forward their electronic offerings on to us. Very few alternate forms of marketing offer the powerful solutions email provides. From conversion strategies which allow recipients to move forward in your process, to robust analytics tracking regarding the performance of your campaign and what actions recipients took next.

You may have heard people spout out website terms such as Joomla, Content Management System, Open Source, conversion strategy, site analytics, on-page optimization, SEO, social media integration, blogging, YouTube channels and wondered how they all correlate to your needs and more importantly your bottom line.

Social Media is obviously the most talked about online opportunity today. Leveraging information through various outlets and increasing organic search engine performance. Fortune 500 companies have spent millions of dollars on content creation. They’ve invested in creative and quality video production, customized Facebook pages, guest bloggers, and more. All in an effort to get their message out to their audience before the competition does. Hopefully generating an abundance of traffic and exposing new targets to their brand.

Where the rubber meets the road is “conversion”.

There's little a client respects and appreciates more, than setting a realistic and accurate expectation of the services you intend to deliver. Want to damage your reputation the easy way? Promise someone something you can't deliver on. Chances are, your client is going to keep an eye out for someone new to provide your services. The following is a few basic fundamentals to meeting your client's expectations.

TIMELINES:
When it comes to web design and development timelines, be sure to work within your project management schedule. Better to be conservative when quoting delivery dates, than run the risk of not meeting your deadline.

SCOPE OF PROJECT:
On deliverables, the more detail regarding the scope of the project you can put in writing, the more likely you are to have a satisfied client. When it comes to search engine optimization or a social media campaign, be certain you've communicated as much of the techniques and practices you intend to utilize as well as how you will measure your ROI and results. 

COMMUNICATION:
When handling revisions requests for your projects like web development and email marketing services, this could be an area of opportunity for you. The value and cost of communication is often overlooked. Designating a project manager, who "all" correspondence will be funneled through, increases efficiency and limits miscommunication, streamlines your process, eliminates confusion and increases profits.

A client who receives clear communication, the services delivered on time and as promised, is a client you keep. 

I spend a bulk of my days attempting to find companies who are interested in taking their social media efforts to the next level. Over the past few months, there have been some incredibly large opportunities for Fortune 500 organizations to effectively manage their reputation via social media. Consider the Toyota recall situation. Millions of Toyota owners wondering if their vehicle had the potential for unintended acceleration. The thousands and thousands of phone calls and customer visits that could have been avoided by addressing the situation on the heavily trafficked social media outlets. Putting those loyal customer’s minds at ease and reassuring them that their vehicle was safe. I personally own a Toyota Camry and was bombarded by opportunistic solicitations from a local Nissan dealership. I wonder how many people traded in their Toyota for another brand over the past few months?

 

This is intended to be an interactive blog. Your opinion matters! Which is your favorite? Or should I say, least favorite?

You’re driving down a common three lane road in Plano, or Allen, or just about any suburban city in the Metroplex. It’s posted with a speed limit of 40 or 45 mph. The cars in front of you are riding directly next to each other at the exact same speed of 38MPH. However, if one of them does speed up, the others follow suit. Like they’re sheep or something.  

By now, it’s no secret that social media is the latest marketing craze. Everywhere we turn, “Facebook this” and “Twitter that”. “Follow me here” and “forward this to a friend”. Many companies are now scrambling to meet the expectations of an ever expanding demographic of technology friendly consumers. Similar to real life social activity, many of us are not equipped with the skills necessary to successfully connect with our prospects on social media. The question isn’t “if” they should utilize social media. The question they’re asking themselves is “how to do it effectively”.