Next Wave

What is Google Local?

Thu, 03 May 2012 15:10:06 -0400

Google Local pinpoints locations of business and offers people the chance to add details. As a business you will want to include the services offered, any specialty goods, payment methods accepted, and your store hours. As a consumer, you can recommend the business and give them a review. Business reviews on these local sites such as Google, Yelp, and Yahoo Local come highly trusted from other internet users. In fact, according to the below source 7 out of 10 online users trust opinions of unknown users on these review sites. It is the latest way for WOM (Word of Mouth) marketing.

Check out Google Local here: http://www.google.com/local

Found on: infographicjournal.com/the-importance-of-local-listings/

How Does Google Search Work?

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 15:30:35 -0400

How Does Google Search Work?

Google + Were you Invited?

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 15:30:06 -0400

A creative way to stimulate demand for your business is key.

When a company rolls out a new product they need a way to gauge demand. This way they can plan for appropriate budgeting and production reports. If a restuarant plans to start opening earlier for a breakfast menu then they need to plan to increase their staff and then decide who to market to. Is this going to be marketed to the same customers that they currently serve or new customers.

So what’s with the invite on Google +? We believe it is a way to gauge and stimulate to demand.

Exclusivity, discounts, promotions, giveaways. There are many ways to stimulate demand. Think about the right scenario for your business.

Social Media and Social Mention

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 15:33:06 -0400

Do you use social media in your business? It can be a great first step to communicating and building a relationship with your customers.

The # symbol, called a hashtag, can be used by someone on Twitter with your business name (#NextWaveServices) to mark keywords or topics (#webdesign) in a Tweet. This way you can do a search for Your Business name and see tweets posted. A person can choose to follow your tweets to find the latest upcoming news that you want to share.

On Facebook, the @ symbol is a great tool on facebook to “tag” someone or a business. A person can “like” your business and then can comment on your page. They can also tag your business by saying @YourBusiness has the best desserts in town!

However, if they don’t include a hash tag# with the name of your company on Twitter or tag you with a @Businessname on Facebook then your customers could be saying either good or bad things about your business and you not even realize it. Social Mention is a great tool to keep informed about different tweets/blogs/facebook posts about your business. Try it out, it’s free: http://www.socialmention.com/ Just plug in your business name or check in on your competitors by seeing what people are saying about them.

Take it another step: If you see a tweet ”I just had the best lunch ever at Yourbusiness” then Thank them and offer them a free beverage if they come in again within the week. Get them back in the door and talking about Your Business. There can be no better marketing, than Word of Mouth, or Word of Mouse!

Next Wave Backup Security & Encryption

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 15:33:05 -0400

Many have asked about the security and encryption of our online backup service, Next Wave Backup. We have answered many of our clients questions in this post.

The online backup is 100% safe & secure and we trust it with all of our personal and sensitive information. We have many clients using our backup service for both personal and professional locations. All our my closest family and friends use the service as well. We are partners with the company who store the backup data. There are strict internal procedures and systems in place to ensure that staff and others cannot access or view this digital content and the network is protected by enterprise-grade firewalls ensuring that once your data is on our servers only the people you want to access your data can.

Once you download the software there is an option to encrypt the data transfer between your computer and the backup servers. Whether you use encryption or not will depend on the kind of files that you store on the backup. It is very unlikely that anyone will intercept your data even if it is not encrypted, but when it comes to security it is always best to assume the worst – if someone else saw your files, would it cause problems? If (for example) you are storing public domain photos, an archive of freeware software or shopping lists on your backup then you probably don’t need to encrypt your data. If you are storing sensitive documents, company information or similar then you probably should. Encryption will make transfers between your PC and the backup servers a bit slower, so it’s best to use it only if you do need it.

In our opinion online backup is a must and keeps peace of mind. You never know what will happen to your laptop. Local backup on an external drive is good too but that can be stolen or lost in a fire or other natural disaster or if it simply falls off your desk.

Try Next Wave Backup FREE for 30days. Have a business? We have business volume discounts available.

Next Wave Services is proud to offer one on one crash courses in...

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 15:33:06 -0400

Next Wave Services is proud to offer one on one crash courses in Search Engine Optimization. Watch the video above, and if your ready for a more detailed look into what we can do to help your site get higher up in the rankings, contact us today.

Privacy Policy

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 15:30:05 -0400

One technical aspect to websites that is rarely talked about is the Privacy Policy. Any company that is going to sell products, or gather information from the end user needs to have a page on their website that states what it does with this information.

This helps customers feel more secure with ordering, or giving out their e-mail address, and is in general good website design practice.

A few tips to keep in mind when creating yours:

Make the policy easy to read, easy to understand and easy to find on your Web site.
Promote your policy internally in employee communications. Consumers are concerned about this issue, and your employees should know how your company responds to those concerns.
Promote your policy with key stakeholders, including customers, investors, contributors, and policymakers. Privacy policies put consumers in charge of their information.
Update your policy as needed to stay current with changes in your business.

For a completely easy way to create your Privacy Policy, visit the Direct Marketing Association’s Privacy Policy Generator.

Search Engine Optimization

Sun, 07 Aug 2011 15:31:05 -0400

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the new game in town. You probably in fact stopped by this website because of just that. You typed in “Rochester Website Design” or perhaps “Wooster Website Design”

SEO is simply optimizing your website to draw in the clients that you want based on keywords they use to search on Google, Yahoo, MSN, and others.

Both of our search terms mentioned above will bring up this very website, in the first, second, or third positions on Google. Why? Because that is our target market. We want to show you that our SEO techniques work, and we can prove it. That and also we want to solicit new clients.

I’ve personally been to several conventions where website design companies are giving presentations and touting their SEO techniques. I take their brochure to review the competition, when I apply the same search words, or various others, our company website, www.nextwaveservices.com, always comes up before theirs.

Be a smart consumer, a little research on the internet will help you shed some light on how good a potential web design company is.

Create competition

Sat, 06 Aug 2011 15:31:05 -0400

In the fourth installment in our series on how to increase website traffic, and in turn sales. We turn to a core value of democracy. Competition.

Of course there are other people out there selling the same products or services that you are. That is not the kind of competition that we’re talking about. We’re talking about your customers. Or people in general. They like to find a good deal. People like to find something that is special or one of a kind that they found.

A website that gets people coming back more often, makes more sales. Again I defer to on of our favorite websites,www.woot.com. They have perfected this model. Each day they have a new product, that is usually priced much lower than the competition. They only have so many of this product, whether it be 10, or 1000. In any case though, once they are sold out, that’s it. No more.

So some ideas for you and creating a competition on your website. Give something away for free. Pick a product or service everyone would love, and give one away, say once a week, or once a month, or how ever often we want people to come back. Let them enter their email address, and get a chance at winning. It helps to build your newsletter base up, and gets them to come back once per day. Or offer them a chance to email this offer to their friends, to help spread the word.

If giving something away for free is too much for your business model, then give something at a good discount. Why does the grocery store sell that gallon of milk at such a low price? Because they know everyone needs milk. They are hoping that you also grab those oreo cookies on the walk back to the dairy section in the back. Most people will add those complementary products to help make their purchase complete.

So pick the services, or products you can give away for free, or at a deep discount, and start watching people stop by more often.

What do you think about Next Wave offering a free website to a client? Would you stop back to enter your name into a hat? Let us know, we’re trying to figure out what our contest and competition can be.

Update your site regularly

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 15:30:06 -0400

In our continuing series on how to increase traffic and drive more business to your website, we are looking at keeping it fresh and updated.

Your website is not a business card, brochure, or yellow page ad. You decide what it looks like once a year, if that, and it manages itself. A website is a constantly evolving project that takes constant attention and updating to make the most of it.

One of the most important aspects of your website is keeping it up to date, and relative to what is going on in the world. For example a car dealership is constantly changing its signs, balloons out front, commercials, and many other aspects. Just to help catch your eye and get you to stop back into their dealership and check on that new model.

Your website should be doing the same. If I stop by your site today, what is going to get me to come back tomorrow, other than I lost your phone number, or need directions again? Nothing. Keeping it updated, and adding in dynamic features will not only get your customers visiting more often, but it will help Google, Yahoo, and the many other search engines realize that something is new and different. They will come back more, and it will lead to increased rankings in the search results.

If I stop back to your site, and see a new special deal, I may read it. If I see a new blog entry, I’ll read that too. If I see a different catchy graphic that is explaining a new procedure or how to, I may read that too. I mean I did come to your website at some point in time because I wanted to know something about it.

So keep in mind each time you change your store window layout, or update your answering machine message, or send out a new flyer in the mail, that you should also be doing the same thing to your website, if not sooner. It will really help in the end.

It doesn’t have to be anything fancy either, spend 30 minutes once a week on it. Slowly over time you’ll see it turn into the website you want and need it to be. Best of luck!

Topical Web Sites

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:31:06 -0400

In this second part of our series on how to increase traffic and drive more business through your website we need to look at another important aspect of the Internet. Knowledge.

More and more people are turning to the Internet for knowledge, information is power. From simple things like what is your companies phone number or email address, to more detailed things like how to make a superb soufflÃ©, or where can I buy a Venus fly trap.

In whatever your business, you know your customers best. Help them realize that your website is a wealth of knowledge, and they will keep coming back for more “free” information. This will lead to them trusting you more, showing that you know what they really need, and in turn they will not mind paying a few dollars more for your product versus someone else, or they will check out the product on your website first.

So gather up all the one off emails you’ve sent to customers over the years, create a Frequently Asked Questions page on your site. Provide full detailed articles in how to hang curtains, or the best way to irrigate their flower beds. Whatever your business is strive to become an expert in that area, and share that information with them.

As you can tell, that is exactly what we are trying to do here with this blog. Show you that Next Wave Services is more than just a website design company. We are here to make sure your Internet venture is a success.

Get customers coming back to your website

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 15:31:06 -0400

Over the next several weeks, we are going to look at the many ways we can get customers coming back to your website. From product based sites, to service ones, or even ad revenue based websites.

So you have just built your website, or maybe it has been up and running for years. Once you have attracted a new customer, how do we get them coming back over and over again?

Short term specials are one unique aspect to explore. There is a fine balance too, as you will know your clients and how hard you can push them to come back. If your product/service is a low cost item, but one they may need weekly, then a weekly special is probably best, if it is longer term, you still want them to come back say once a month just to see if you have anything new to offer.

www.woot.com is one of our favorite websites, if you haven’t seen it before, check it out. Their whole business model is based on the short term special. In fact it is a daily special. Each day they sell one product. From small headphones, to large plasma televisions. Each day is different though, and I find myself wandering back there at least once a day just to see what they may have.

Woot is much more than just what they have each day, it is the fact that they have it at an amazing price. It is usually well below the normal market value for the same product from other places like amazon.com or yahoo shopping. Then to top it all off, they offer 5 dollar shipping on everything. Even a 100lb plasma television.

So pick a product, make it a “loss leader” knowing that you’ll loose money on that product or servce today, in the hopes of getting them to come back again soon, or to get those few other things they need right now as well.

The internet is a place to find the bargains, help your clients out by showing them.

A picture is worth a thousand words. How many times have you...

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 15:31:05 -0400

A picture is worth a thousand words. How many times have you heard that phrase? How many times more do you need to hear it to let it sink in?

In the world wide web, anyone with Internet access can view your webpage. That includes everyplace around the globe. Although the more common language on the net is English. It should be said that very careful consideration should be given to each picture and photo on your site.
I know when I purchase something online, it gives me a sense of comfort seeing the picture next to it, knowing that is what I can expect. But it goes much further beyond product pictures.
Pictures can be used to represent a high level of quality that shows the service, not product, you are offering is neat, friendly, has great customer service. Photos can be used to provide more words than you can imagine.
Why are hollywood movie studios cutting out more dialog, and adding in more explosions? Because the explosion is universal, everyone can comprehend it right away.
So take a moment, review the images, and photos on your website. Minimize trying to describe an explosion, and put a photo of it in there instead.

Ted Talks: Rebecca MacKinnon: Let’s take back the...

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 15:31:05 -0400

Ted Talks: Rebecca MacKinnon: Let’s take back the Internet!

I see a growing trend that concerns me with websites. People are using them less and less. Your average person now visits one news website, and one social network, all of which are controlled by those large corporations.

We need to ensure anyone can be heard online.

Thank you pages

Sun, 31 Jul 2011 15:31:05 -0400

Almost every website today has a form on it, where customers can go and ask questions, post comments, etc. After the user has found your website, dug around a little bit, then said you know what, I have a question to ask, or a comment to post.

They navigate over to your form, spend a few minutes typing it in, and press send. Then what happens? Well besides the email getting sent to you.

The user see’s a confirmation or thank you page. Typically these need to contain a few important elements.

A thank you message, they did just spend a minute to tell you something, tell them thank you!
A response time, let them know how soon they can expect a reply
Urgency reminder, let them know that if it is important, they can call you! Or stop by. Perhaps they just couldnt find your phone number, here is how to remind them.

Those are the basic things, but really, you should take it one step further. We don’t want these thank you pages to be a dead end. A place where they are stumped and just go on to a competitors site, or someplace else.

We have an opportunity here, a rare one where a potential, current, or past customer just took a moment to inform you of something. They wouldnt do that unless they were happy or confident in your ability to meet their needs. Sieze that opportunity, enhance your contact page by doing something in addition to saying thank you! Things such as:

Giving them a discount for letting you know something
Tell them about another product or service they may not have even known about that you offer. Link them to that page.
Give them an opportunity to tell a friend about how great your X, Y, or Z is.
Directions, perhaps they just wanted to know where, give them a link to your location page.
Hours - restate your hours again.
Promote a great resource, you are probably an expert in your product, what is your favorite resource to learn more about this, either it is your own site, or an associates. Get them more involved, so they will buy or do more with you in the future.

The internet is amazing, it has everything you can think of on it, but it is also a great tool for communicating, building a community. Use your site to help build and foster a community, it will help set you apart from the competition.

So I encourage you to all take a few minutes today, and update your contact form, that part that a user see’s after they have sent you a message.

Have you ever lost anything important? Try TigerTag.com

Sat, 30 Jul 2011 15:31:05 -0400

Tiger Tag is a unique system that returns lost items to their owners. Tiger Tags system allows you to report items missing like a global lost and found. You’re probably thinking, how much does this cost? Tiger tag is a free lost and found service, except for a small shipping fee. When you lose your item and someone else finds it, they can enter the ID of that item on tigertag.com so you can get your item back. If someone finds and reports it to Tiger Tag, they immediately e-mail you to notify you that your item has been found. When your item is found you can contact the individual directly or have Tiger Tag retrieve the item for you and ship it to you directly. Shipping could be a small price for an expensive or important item.

Some questions you might be asking are:

How do I sign up for Tiger Tag?

Go to tigertag.com

Click sign up.

Follow the prompts on the screen to sign up.

How do you activate an item?

Apply the Tiger Tag to your item

Activate the tag by filling out the form at the Tiger Tag website.

Now you’re protected by Tiger Tag!

Found someone else’s item?

Go to Tigertag.com

On the bottom of the page the screen will ask you to enter the information on the tag.

Now you’re probably wondering, why is this important to you? Next Wave Services believes Tiger Tag is a helpful tool that can help recover items. Why not take advantage of a free service, except a small shipping price, that can help you find lost items like your phone, camera, computer or IPOD? 75% of Tiger Tag items are recovered. That free tag could help you save money by finding your missing item. Take a chance and try it out at tigertag.com

Ted Talks: Mikko Hypponen: Fighting viruses, defending the...

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 15:30:05 -0400

Ted Talks: Mikko Hypponen: Fighting viruses, defending the net.

The computer virus is now 25 years old. I do hope your computer has some anti virus software installed.

Know your customers

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 15:31:05 -0400

One of the most important aspects for all businesses is to know as much as you can about the people you are selling your products or services too. Big business has done this for years, they have shopper club cards, and online profiles for you to fill out, all helping them gauge how much they can charge for the new products that are coming out soon.

As a small business you need to connect and really KNOW what your customer is looking for from your business. Perfecting your online web presence through email and a great web design is key.

With a website you can target your customers better by knowing exactly how many times a product has been looked at, helping you know which are fading fads, and your new hot items. You can track customer satisfaction through online surveys. You can gather feedback and reviews on your products.

Email is the perfect tool for businesses to use to reach out to their customers. You ask for it when they are checking out. You then use it for sending them special offers, or a thank you for shopping with us note, or ask them for feedback. It is perfect in the sense that it wont cost nearly as much as a post card with printing and mailing costs, just to get tossed out with the other junk mail, it can be personalized to help ensure they respond, and it is not as bothersome as a phone call interrupting dinner or another important event. It quietly waits in their inbox until they are ready to take action.

All these great options can be a little overwhelming so if you are a business looking for help with your website take a minute, and contact Next Wave Services.

We would be glad to discuss our inexpensive and reliable ways to help you reach out to your customers more.

Join the community on the net

Sun, 24 Jul 2011 15:51:05 -0400

In the sixth installment of our ongoing series on how to increase traffic and sales to your website we are going to look into making you have a little bit of fun while promoting your website.

How can running your business be more fun? By contributing content back to the internet. My guess is that your passionate about your business, you want it to succeed. You love talking about it to almost anyone who will listen.

Take that passion, and pour it into the internet, there are a million ways to do so. We’ll look at a few of them.

Message boards and discussion group forums - There are people just as passionate about your products or area of service. Seek out these groups on Yahoo groups, Google groups, or specific message boards all over the internet. Create an account, and start contributing, post a question your having a hard time answering yourself, or help someone else learn about something you know all too well. The key to it all is to mention your business, either in the signature part of your message, or as part of the actual answer.

Next Wave Services’ goal is to build your website, help you promote your website, and help with marketing your website to clients. With that in mind, we constantly are finding we can help fellow web designers learn more about Search Engine Optimization, or HTML. And we use these same forums to learn things ourselves.

Blogs and Video Blogs - There again are other people in your line of work, they probably have a blog. Find them, and leave them a comment, encourage them on a great job, or help them learn something they didn’t know. Again the key is to leave your website link on the form, so they can come back and visit your blog or website as well.

The key to all of this contributing though is to be consistent. Again set aside 15-30 minutes once or twice a week, or less depending on your schedule, and find these places online, and check back, update a post, or add a new one. Slowly over time you’ll build up a massive collection of links on the internet all pointing back to your domain. All while helping others learn more about your products and services, and they didn’t even have to find your website directly.

We hope you’ve found this article useful, if you have any questions or suggestions, please let us know!

Email Newsletters - a key to good web design

Sat, 23 Jul 2011 15:32:05 -0400

In our continuing series on ways to get new customers, and get the old ones to come back to your website we are looking at email newsletters.

If people have purchased something from you before, there has been a certain level of trust between your business and them. They obviously like what you are selling or providing, so allow your customers to be added to some kind of list.

Email newsletter lists are one of the best and easiest ways to help, they have several great points to consider.

1) Extremely low cost - sending out an email newsletter only costs a small maintenance fee, usually included in your website hosting, and a little bit of your time. Any other communication method with your customers is going to cost exponentially more.
2) Be sure your customers know what they are signing up for. Some companies want to keep you informed about new products. Others want to give you tips and ideas to help you. Some want to have a monthly special or promotion, many companies do a combination of all of the above.
3) Use your newsletter email system wisely. Too many emails going out will seem like junk mail, and people will unsubscribe and be unhappy. Too few emails lets them forget how great your company is. You will know your clients best, but a good way to start is at once a month. This gives you a regular schedule to stick too without taking too much of your time initially to see how it works out.
4) Include links back to your website. Besides informing them of the specials, or giving them a quick tip. Invite them with teasers or links to more information back on your website. Remember our goal here is to get them to buy something, they need to visit your website, or contact you to do that. So don’t give away all the secrets right inside the email.
5) Make it easy to subscribe and unsubscribe, it should be in the footer of each email you send out, and be available online someplace on your website as well. Further more encourage people to forward your newsletter to friends and family as well.

There are many other great tips and things to consider when sending out an email newsletter, but either way Next Wave Services strongly encourages you to give them a try. If you have any questions or want information on the email marketing and newsletter services we offer, just contact us.