PSPINC Official Company Blog

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 210 “Custom Web Development”

Mar

7

For decades now, we’ve worked with small businesses to develop custom websites to fit their unique business needs to help grow their business online. While many popular website builders work for others, it doesn’t mean it works for everyone. It can’t account for every customization a business may need, which is exactly where custom web development comes in. Website builders can only do so much for you when you need more customization over how you want your website to function and what you need to succeed online.

Custom features like robust reservation systems, the addition of multi-lingual content, and mobile app creation are just a few examples of the kinds of custom web development work we’ve done in the past for our customers. Every business is unique in what they offer and what they need to succeed. Get your website custom-designed by our experts at PSPINC to get a custom solution to your custom business needs.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#b2b #blog #branding #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #ecommerce #google #marketing #pspinc #searchengineoptimization #seo #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web #webdesign #webdevelopment #website #websitebuilder

Bluesky Opens Up to the Public: How It Could Change the Social Media Landscape

Feb

20

On February 7, social media platform, Bluesky opened to the public after previously being an invite-only platform for almost a full year. The invite-only strategy allowed Bluesky to grow slowly as its developers worked on building out the service. Bluesky was first announced in 2019 by none other than Jack Dorsey, as a side project to build a decentralized standard for social media when he was still the CEO of Twitter (now X).

What is Bluesky?

bluesky app opening on phone next to mug of coffee

Many are calling it Twitter 2.0, as it closely resembles the platform from before Musk took over. However, there’s one big difference: it’s decentralized. What that means is that instead of the company storing users’ data on their own servers, independent servers store user data, giving users more control over their overall feed. Instead of an all-encompassing algorithm, users can create their own servers and switch without losing their data, according to Bluesky’s CEO, Jay Graber.

However, decentralized social platforms already exist, with the most popular one being Mastodon, due to its focus on discussing various topics. While popular with over 8.7 million users by October 2023, it isn’t nearly as easy to use because of how tech-heavy it is, with multiple servers, making it hard to navigate. Much like Mastodon, Bluesky offers multiple different servers, but switching from one to the other is seamless, and the overall interface is very reminiscent of Twitter’s old interface.

How Bluesky is Different from Other Text-Based Alternatives

After opening the platform to the public, Bluesky announced users could follow the Super Bowl game without hearing about Taylor Swift, which accelerated its overall growth by 1.6 million new users, bringing Bluesky's total user list to 4.8 million users. Then there’s Threads, Meta’s text-based offering, which is arguably the largest of the alternatives currently out there. But while it has the largest user base thanks to how easy it is to move your account from Instagram to Threads, it hasn’t captured the discussion aspect that X (previously Twitter) is known for.

What Bluesky aims to do differently is bridge the gap between the decentralized network and focus on the discussion aspect of Mastadon while delivering a user-friendly experience that Threads offers. While Mastadon, Threads, and various other platforms seek to replace X, they have yet to succeed for a multitude of reasons. With Bluesky eliminating the invite-only aspect of the platform and focusing on the lacking factors in other platforms, it may just have the potential to be a legitimate replacement for X.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#blog #bluesky #business #businesstips #decentralization #digitalmarketing #elonmusk #facebook #instagram #jackdorsey #jaygraber #marketing #mastodon #smallbusiness #socialmedia #superbowl #taylorswift #tech #technology #threads #twitter #web #websites #x

WebdeXpress: New Text Style Feature Out Now!

Feb

19

We’re happy to announce a new text-style feature on WebdeXpress, our website builder that comes included with our Dreamersi web hosting. With this new Text Style feature, you have more control over your website’s website design by choosing your site’s font family, text size, heading alignment, text color, link color, and/or link hover color for different regions of your website.

To access this new feature:

Log into your Dreamersi account.
Click on the WebdeXpress icon or on WebdeXpress in the left navigation bar.
Log into your WebdeXpress account.
Click on Appearance on the left navigation bar and click on Themes once the drop-down menu appears.
Either select one of the first six themes or click on Customize Theme if you already have one of them selected for your website.
Click on Text Style, which will open a drop-down menu with your text styling options.
Click on Show Advanced Options (if not already showing) to see all text styling options. With this new feature, you can change the font family, text size, text color, heading alignment, link color, and/or link hover color for the following regions: Website Title, Website Subtitle, Page Title, and Content.
To view your changes, enter your site’s URL in another tab and refresh the site after selecting your changes and clicking on Save at the bottom.
To reset your changes, click on the Reset Text Style option on the bottom right.

With more control over your site's overall design, you'll have more opportunity to add more branding to your website. If you have any questions or need some additional help, please contact us at 1-800-232-3989 or email us at support@pspinc.com.

*WebdeXpress’s new Text Style feature only applies to the first six theme choices and is only available for English and Japanese sites.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#b2b #blog #branding #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #dreamersi #ecommerce #pspinc #searchengineoptimization #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web #webdevelopment #webdexpress #webhosting #website #websites #webtools

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 207 “Sprout Marketing Plan Now on Sale!”

Feb

15

For a limited time, our Sprout marketing plan is now on sale! For your first month with us, waive the monthly fee to get your first month of managed ads for free! Every business needs good marketing, but knowing what the industry’s best practices are and how to succeed on platforms like Google Ads can be tricky. So, get professional help setting up and running your paid search ads from our expert marketing team!

With the Sprout marketing plan, get:

One Google Ad
Campaign creation
Keyword and audience research
Conversion tracking setup
Performance analyzing and monitoring
Bi-weekly written reports
Competitor analysis
Ongoing optimization consultation
One weekly ad revision

With over 36 years of experience helping hundreds of customers grow their online business, our marketing team at PSPINC has the expertise you need. Get started by heading over to our digital marketing page and get $160 off our Sprout marketing plan now.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #b2b #blog #branding #business #businesstips #digitalmarketing #google #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #searchengineoptimization #seo #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #technology #web #website

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 205 “PSPINC /Apps Now Available!”

Feb

1

To better manage your PSPINC web apps, we're happy to announce that we've released PSPINC /Apps, an all-new multi-service login! With PPINC /Apps, you no longer need to remember every login to your multiple PSPINC accounts. Instead, they’ll all be in one place for you! All you have to do is sign up by clicking on Products on our website and clicking on the PSPINC /Apps banner on the right side. After signing up, you can connect your PSPINC web apps’ accounts, including:

Then you can log into any of these accounts with just one login with PSPINC /Apps. And to make your accounts even safer, add an extra layer of security with two-factor authentication (2FA) to your PSPINC /Apps account:

Log in to your PSPINC /Apps account
Click on My Account
Connect your account to your choice of authenticator app by either scanning the QR code or manually entering the key. Although PSPINC /Apps should support all authenticator apps, we recommend:

Enter the code displayed in your authenticator app to confirm the connection.

Get started today to make it easier to manage your PSPINC accounts all in one place with one login.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#app #b2b #blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #cybersecurity #data #digitalmarketing #newsletter #officetips #pspinc #pspincapps #security #smallbusiness #tech #technology #update #web #websites #webtools

Marketing Analytics: Key Metrics To Look Out For

Jan

9

Utilizing data analytics in marketing is vital to succeeding. With its ability to analyze and even predict data, it can do wonders in perfecting marketing strategies, saving time and money, developing a better understanding of your customers, creating better-performing content, and optimizing marketing channels. The challenging part of marketing analytics, however, consists of how marketing data has changed over the years. It’s also hard to figure out what marketers should look out for since there’s so much data easily available to you. Every platform has its own nuances, so there are different key metrics marketers should look out for.

Key Metrics on Google Platforms (Analytics/Ads)

Website Performance Metrics

Traffic (Page Views): a metric that measures how many times a single user views a page
Most visited pages: a metric that breaks down what the most visited pages are to website visitors
Search ranking: a metric that shows your website's position in the search engine results page (SERP) for a specific query
Unique visits: a metric that counts the number of visitors to a website, but only counts their first visit
Conversions: a metric that counts an important user action like making a purchase, filling out a form, signing up for a newsletter, etc.

(Paid) Digital Ad Metrics

Impressions: a metric that measures the number of times a user sees the ad.
Click-through rate (CTR): the percentage of people who click on the ad, determined by dividing the number of clicks by the number of times your ad is shown and multiplying that number by 100 (impressions). The higher this number is, the better.
Cost-per-click (CPC): a metric that measures how much it costs each time someone clicks on your ad. The lower this number is, the better.
Conversions: a metric that counts an important user action like making a purchase, filling out a form, signing up for a newsletter, etc.
Conversion rate: the percentage of people who convert (purchase, fill out a form, sign up for a newsletter, etc.), determined by dividing the number of users who convert by the overall size of the audience and multiplying that number by 100.
Engagement rate: the percentage of people who engage (click, like, share, comment, etc.) with your ad, determined by dividing the total number of engagements by the total number of followers and multiplying that number by 100.

Key Metrics on Other Marketing Platforms

person holding smartphone with apps shown: facebook, snapchat, instagram, twitter, chrome, gmail, spotify, messenger

Social Media Metrics

Total reach: the number of users that saw your content (also known as impressions).
Likes: the number of people who like your content.
Views: the number of people who view your content.
Comments: the number of people who comment on your content.
Shares: the number of people who share your content.
Followers: the number of people who follow your account.
Subscribers: the number of people who subscribe to your account.

Email Marketing Metrics

Open rate: the percentage of people who open your email, determined by dividing the number of people who open your email by the number of people who received the email and multiplying that number by 100.
Click rate: the percentage of people who click on links within your email, determined by dividing the number of people who clicked on links in your email by the number of people who received the email and multiplying that number by 100.

Aside from just the mass amount of marketing data there is to analyze, other challenges include the difficulty of reading through that analytical info. Just like all marketing, it continues to change and evolve over the years. That’s why we provide bi-weekly reports in all our marketing package plans, making it easier for small businesses everywhere to market their business.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #blog #branding #business #businesstips #digitalmarketing #email #facebook #google #instagram #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #officetips #seo #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #technology #twitter #web

What's New Newsletter Vol. 201 "Outsourcing Marketing Work”

Jan

4

Marketing is a constantly changing industry, which is why it's difficult to determine what works and what doesn't work for your business. What works for one company won't necessarily work for another, so marketing today consists of a lot of experimenting and testing, which can then take a lot of time and effort to get it right. So, with this in mind, it's not surprising that many businesses outsource their marketing work to a marketing agency or another company with the marketing expertise needed to succeed.

That's why we offer marketing packages that don't just break down the kind of work we do for our clients, but they're also affordable, so they'll fit your business needs and budget. After decades of helping small businesses grow online, we have the experience and expertise you need to thrive online. To learn more, head over to our Digital Marketing page on our website and check out our budget-friendly marketing plans, designed to fit your specific business needs.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #b2b #blog #branding #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #google #marketing #marketingtips #newsletter #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #sales #seo #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #technology #twitter #web #webdevelopment

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 200 “The Importance of Brand Design”

Dec

28

One of the most important parts of running a business involves developing and maintaining your brand. While there are multiple definitions of what a brand is, in its simplest form, a brand is an immediately recognizable identity that differentiates itself from others. Having a clear brand for your company is especially vital for small businesses because it helps you establish credibility and trust with your target audience. For a small business, credibility and trust are crucial to long-term success.

Larger businesses will probably already have credibility built in because they’ve spent years growing and perfecting their brand. So, as a small business, making your brand clear to your customers will give you a competitive edge over other small businesses. One way that’ll help establish your brand is through brand attributes like your company’s logo. Whether you’re just starting or looking for a design refresh, we’ve got you covered! Starting at just $200 a logo, you can get a professional brand logo at an affordable price. Get started by heading over to our Brand and Graphic Design page.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#blog #brand #branding #business #businesstips #design #digitalmarketing #graphicdesign #logo #logodesign #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #smallbusiness #technology #web #webdesign #website

The 5 Biggest Marketing Trends to Look Out For in 2024

Dec

26

As this year comes to a close, we’re reflecting on how marketing has evolved over the past year and how we can improve for next year, not only for our company but for our customers as well. When looking back, one thing’s for certain: advancements in technology are driving the trends that will only become even more popular next year. Here are five of the biggest marketing trends to look out for in 2024.

1. AI Marketing Automation

Artificial intelligence, or AI, has become an increasing trend over the past few years in multiple industries, but many marketers have also jumped on the bandwagon. Marketers have started using AI to create content and to take advantage of how AI integration analyzes data, personalizes customers’ experiences, and optimizes campaigns. Integrating AI into marketing strategies also helps hyper-personalize content, which has gained popularity over the past year.

But as helpful as AI technology has been to the marketing industry, it’s important not to employ a “set it and forget it” type of strategy. It’s still a largely developing technology, so there are still times when it’ll get things wrong, so it’s better to use AI integration in a more collaborative approach.

2. Video Marketing

person recording a video with their phone

As we’ve mentioned before, video marketing, especially short-form video marketing, has become more popular over the past few years. The rise of TikTok, Facebook/Instagram Stories, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts made this clear. Other video marketing tactics that have also shown great success include live streaming and interactive video content. For more tips, check out our blog post all about how to start marketing with short-form videos.

3. User-Generated Content (UGC)

a person presenting user-generated content results to a marketing team

One of the best ways to build credibility, increase user engagement, and foster a sense of community online is through user-generated content (UGC), which just refers to content your customers share about you online. This usually involves encouraging customers to share their experiences with your brand on social media through a specific hashtag or throwing contests where the best entry wins. But there are other ways to garner content from your customers.

Customer reviews, either on Google, Facebook, Yelp, or any other platform, also count as user-generated content. It just takes a little more work to share it on social media since it isn’t already on the same platform. You can either take a screenshot and resize it for social media, or you can add it into a template of sorts from a site like Canva to share with your social media followers.

4. Social Shopping

Over the past year especially, selling and shopping directly on social media has only become more accessible with Facebook Marketplace, Instagram’s buy button, and TikTok Shop. It’s pushed social shopping more toward social media, being an e-commerce ecosystem all on its own. With social shopping already gaining popularity, marketers expect this will significantly impact the online shopping landscape.

5. Privacy and Data Protection

One of the largest growing concerns among customers today consists of protecting their data, thanks to the uptick in cybercrimes over the past few years. Because of this, customers are much more informed and vigilant about how others handle their data and how they share their data. On the business side, it’s important to implement secure data collection and storage practices to protect your employees’ accounts, which is easy to do with a password manager like Pass Wizard. On the consumer-facing side, businesses should be very transparent about their data collection and storage practices and obtain explicit consent when collecting user data.

With how fast technology evolves today, there are bound to be many more marketing trends coming next year that we haven’t anticipated. However, our team here at PSPINC has the experience and expertise to help you grow your business by strengthening your marketing efforts. Whether it’s social media marketing, paid ads on Google, email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, or even blogging, we’ve got you covered. Get started today.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#ai #b2b #blog #branding #business #businesstips #data #digitalmarketing #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingonline #marketingtips #passwordmanager #sales #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #ugc #usergeneratedcontent #videomarketing #web #website

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 197 “Localize for English and Japanese-Speaking Customers”

Dec

7

For over 20 years now, we’ve been localizing content for small businesses looking to market toward both English-speaking customers and Japanese-speaking customers. Beyond just translating, we also build custom web applications, design and develop websites, and create digital marketing assets like social media posts using our localization expertise.

Our team at PSPINC knows it’s about more than just translating the words; it’s also about translating the meaning behind those words. That is the core of the localization work we’ve done for the past two decades, and what we continue to do even today. If you’re not quite sure of where to start, we always start with a consultation between you and our localization team before embarking on our project together. Learn more by heading over to our localization page on our website.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #b2b #blog #branding #business #businesstips #businesstools #content #design #development #digitalmarketing #localization #marketing #marketingtips #newsletter #pspinc #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web #webdevelopment #website #websites

PSPINC Official Company Blog

freespace

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 210 “Custom Web Development”

Bluesky Opens Up to the Public: How It Could Change the Social Media Landscape

What is Bluesky?

How Bluesky is Different from Other Text-Based Alternatives

WebdeXpress: New Text Style Feature Out Now!

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 207 “Sprout Marketing Plan Now on Sale!”

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 205 “PSPINC /Apps Now Available!”

Marketing Analytics: Key Metrics To Look Out For