PSPINC Official Company Blog

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 135 “Encourage Creativity”

Sep

29

One of the most difficult parts of owning and running a small business is standing out from the competition. But the great thing about having a small business is the space to be creative and try new things. In a bigger company, it’s hard to make big changes because it has to go through so many people before it gets approved. At a smaller company, we can achieve things much quicker and take more risks in hopes of watching them succeed.

For example, Hasbro is one of the largest toy companies in the world today. But it originally started as a textile company in 1923. Throughout the years, Hasbro transformed into a school supply company before settling and excelling as a toy company in 1942. Their claim to fame, however, didn’t come until ten years later when they introduced Mr. Potato Head to the public on TV. Companies like Hasbro remind us that the opportunities are endless. And creativity is something we should celebrate. While the switch from a school supply company to a toy company must’ve been massive, it also paid off exponentially. So, don’t be afraid to step out of the box with your 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 #business #businesstips #creativity #example #hasbro #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #mattel #mrpotatohead #pacificsoftwarepublishing #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #sales #smallbusiness #toycompany #whatsnewnewsletter

5 Ad Campaigns Every Business Can Learn From

Sep

27

Creating successful ad campaigns can be tricky. It consists of striking the perfect balance between targeting the right people, producing creative content, and ensuring it’ll resonate with your audience. But a big part of marketing consists of trying new things and learning from other businesses’ successes. So, here are five successful ad campaigns that every business can learn from.

Nike: Just Do It

In 1988, Nike aired its first commercial that used the now-iconic tagline, “Just Do It, which came from Dan Wieden, the founder of ad agency, Wieden + Kennedy. Everyone else, including the people at Nike, didn’t think they needed a tagline. But eventually, they let Wieden try out his idea. After the commercial aired, the success was conclusive and immediate: people loved it. In the years following it, Nike focused the tagline on female empowerment ad campaigns, where it thrived even more. Today, “Just Do It” is a staple in Nike’s marketing efforts and the brand continues to focus on inclusivity. While that wasn’t the original idea, “Just Do It” applies to all athletes, regardless of age, ethnicity, or gender. So, focusing on inclusivity helped Nike thrive off this slogan.

California Milk Processor Board: Got Milk?

The idea behind the “Got Milk?” campaign revolved around the inconvenience and frustration that came with running out of milk. Previously, the milk industry marketed itself as the healthier drink option, promoting the calcium and protein benefits. But in 1993, Jeff Manning, California Milk Processor Board’s new executive director, realized consumers knew milk was good for them. The problem was that they didn’t care. So, he tried a different approach: this campaign focused on what people lost rather than what they could gain. And it’s something you can try for your next marketing campaign.

Skittles: Taste the Rainbow

Whether you like it or not, you’ve probably seen at least one of these Skittles commercials. People remember these ads because they’re too weird not to remember them. And the imagery they use of placing Skittles in unlikely or impossible scenarios sticks out. The “Taste the Rainbow” commercials are untraditional, to say the least. But it works for them. And at the time, it was a very risky move to show Skittles in strange or even disgusting situations. But if there’s one thing that this overall campaign has taught us, it’s that creative ads work. Even if they are unconventional, they’ll, at the very least, will be memorable.

Old Spice: The Man Your Man Could Smell Like

The Old Spice ads are ones everyone recognizes. The commercials portray a sense of humor that proves to their audience that they’re not afraid to make fun of themselves. Plus, they targeted their ads toward women, even though they’re selling men’s body wash. In 2010, ad agency Procter & Gamble pitched this concept to Old Spice after discovering women made up 60% of men’s body-wash purchases. If they hadn’t done any marketing research, they would’ve never thought to market a men’s product to women. While it’s fun to be creative in the marketing industry, it also has to be backed up by research for it to work effectively.

Always: #LikeAGirl

For a long time, the brand, Always, led the feminine-hygiene sector. But around 2010, they realized they were losing out on the 16–24-year age group. Unfortunately, it’s also the time when women exhibit more brand loyalty over ones they like, according to their research. So, while they knew their products were great, it wasn’t enough anymore. When conducting research, they discovered that girls’ self-esteem drops twice as much as boys’ during puberty. They just had to figure out why. When they did, Always used that to their advantage by connecting it back to the brand’s core values, which consisted of self-confidence. And it worked in inspiring and encouraging a conversation online about what it means to do something “like a girl”. A lesson we can learn from Always is to double down on brand equity. Especially if you can inspire a conversation the way Always did.

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 #always #blog #branding #business #businesstips #digitalmarketing #gotmilk #justdoit #likeagirl #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #nike #oldspice #sales #skittles #smallbusiness #tastetherainbow #tech #themanyourmancouldsmelllike

PSPINC What’s New Newsletter Vol. 134 “Listening to Others”

Sep

22

Communication is one of the most important aspects of running a business. But communication goes both ways. You can’t just speak; you have to listen too. Here at PSPINC, we encourage everyone to speak up, even if it’s about something small. But most problems generally start small, so it’s our chance to tackle them before they get too big. But listening is about more than just trying to prevent disasters, it also inspires trust and loyalty in your employees.

With more trust comes new ideas. An open line of communication among workers makes them feel more valued at the company. Therefore, they’re more likely to share their ideas, through a casual conversation or a formal pitch. If the person at the top encourages these behaviors, it’ll establish a culture of interactive listening. As a result, people will work better together, and they’ll also be happier working for you overall.

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 #business #businesstips #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #newsletter #officetips #pacificsoftwarepublishing #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #smallbusiness

PSPINC What’s New Newsletter Vol. 133 “Serving Your Customers”

Sep

15

As a business that sells to other businesses, it’s hard to sell and retain those customers sometimes. But what we’ve found very helpful is taking the focus of our company. Instead, we put the focus on our customers. It’s not about trying to get what we need from them; it’s about giving them what they need. When asking them how we can help them, it shows how much we care about them rather than just trying to push our products on them. While we do still want to make money, customers don’t like feeling like that’s the end goal.

If what you’re selling fits with what they want and need for their business, that’s great. But if it doesn’t, the relationship with them doesn’t have to end there. The customer’s best interests should still be at the forefront of how your sales team deals with customers, even if it means they won’t buy from you right now. In turn, they won’t only remember your business, but they also might recommend you to other people just based on their friendly interaction with you. This overall effort will, at the very least, give customers a great perspective on your business. They’ll see your business as one that genuinely cares about the well-being of their customers, even if it doesn’t result in a purchase.

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 #brandperspective #business #businesstips #customers #customerservice #customersupport #marketing #marketingtips #newsletter #officetips #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #retention #sales #selling #service #smallbusiness

5 Post-Purchase Marketing Tactics to Increase Retention

Sep

13

For any business, growing through monetary means is the end goal. What that entails is generating sales and making a profit, year after year. But for sales and marketing teams, it’s not just about putting all their efforts into getting new customers and selling to them. It’s also about nurturing relationships with customers, even after they’ve already purchased the product. This is what’s called post-purchase marketing. While making the sale is great, continuing that relationship with the customer is how businesses can turn a one-time customer into a repeat customer. That correspondence makes customers feel like the company truly cares about them, and that they aren’t just a sales number.

The sale is just the beginning of the relationship between the customer and the company. The customer journey isn’t linear, it’s a loop. It doesn’t end once the customer purchases. If brands have an effective post-purchase plan in place, it can send customers back around towards the acquisition stage or straight to the purchase stage again. Post-purchase marketing, when done well, encourages repeat purchases and can even create brand advocates. Here are five post-purchase marketing tactics you can employ to increase retention:

1. Customer Support

Just because a customer purchased from you, it doesn’t mean they’re satisfied with the product. To better support your customer after a sale, keep communication lines open. The customer support team can create valuable content for customers like user-friendly guides on how to best navigate your product, or they can do it over the phone. Because the last thing you want is a disgruntled customer. Especially one that will rant on social media about their unpleasant experience.

2. Email Marketing

person using a laptop open to gmail next to an open notebook with a color swatch, pencil bag, and an open marker

Despite the popularity of other digital platforms like social media, email continues to be one of the most effective marketing tactics. Everyone has an email, and most people check it regularly. This is even more true for those working in business. To make it easier, automate email marketing campaigns. Whenever a customer takes a specific action, be it signing up for something or purchasing a product, it should trigger an email response. Just make sure the content is personalized enough so customers don’t feel like they’re just receiving a generic templated email.

3. Customer Feedback

black and white typewriter on table with a piece of paper sticking out that says review

One of the biggest benefits your business can get from post-purchase marketing is positive reviews. Asking customers for reviews gives you more insight into your products, services, and the overall customer experience. After all, knowing that there’s a problem is the first step in figuring out how to fix it. For those glowing reviews, your business can reuse those testimonials in future marketing efforts, which will help bring in more customers.

4. Refund Policy/Returns Process

While it seems counterintuitive, making your refund and returns policy clear helps both your customers and your business. When customers purchase something, there’s a level of anxiety attached to it. They want the money they spent to be well worth it in the end. Similarly, returning products can be a stressful process, so giving customers a quick but informative guide is helpful. Making both your refund and returns policy not only eases their anxiety but also lessens the chance they’ll get buyer’s remorse.

5. Social Media and User Generated Content (UGC)

selective focus photography of person using iPhone x

Lastly, businesses can use social media to connect with their customers. In a follow-up email post-sale, you can encourage people to engage with you on relevant social channels. You can create a unique hashtag to promote your business and encourage other users to share content with the hashtag, thus creating user-generated content (UGC). Or you can even run a competition on social media to increase engagement. UGC not only engages customers but also creates authentic content that you can repurpose in future marketing campaigns.

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.

#businesstips #customerfeedback #customerjourney #customersupport #digitalmarketing #email #emailmarketing #marketing #marketingonline #postpurchasemarketing #refunds #returns #reviews #sales #smallbusiness #socialmedia #usergeneratedcontent

PSPINC What’s New Newsletter Vol. 132 "Perseverance"

Sep

8

Every business, big or small, fluctuates. There are years where we’ve excelled, but there are other years where we could’ve done better. But we’re still standing. And it’s largely because we didn’t quit. Thousands of businesses fail every year because their company founders gave up too easily. Fighting through the hard times isn’t easy. And the worldwide pandemic has been challenging for everyone, not just business owners. But the key to making it in business is perseverance.

Think of it like an athlete. Regardless of what sport it is, when you see someone fall, you also watch them get back up. I’ve seen athletes with serious injuries still push away paramedics because they wanted to finish the game. Even if it meant they lost the game, they persisted regardless. It’s easy to let your self-belief waver. Failure is part of the journey. But if you truly want to be an entrepreneur and believe in what you’re doing, you need to shake off the self-doubt. Otherwise, you’ll just be another one of those thousands of inspiring entrepreneurs that quit too soon.

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 #business #businessowner #businesstips #entrepreneur #entrepreneurs #marketing #marketingtips #perserverance #pspinc #sales #smallbusiness

What is Experiential Marketing?

Sep

6

Experiential marketing is, in essence, marketing your product, service, or brand through an experience. In today’s digital age, many consumers hate ads. They disrupt their overall experience and keep them from the content they wanted to see. There’s a reason why ad blockers have gained so much popularity in recent years. Experiential marketing counteracts that by promoting your brand in a non-intrusive way. The perfect example is Coca-Cola’s Happiness Machine campaign from 2010. The overarching idea behind it was that happiness is contagious. And they proved their point when people shared their various items with people from the otherwise ordinary Coca-Cola vending machine.

Framing your brand’s marketing strategy with an experience is a completely different approach from traditional advertising. Many marketing tactics aim to get the most amount of viewership. But experiential marketing focuses more on customer engagement. To do that, brands need to focus on evoking an emotional response from people and using technology to make that experience memorable. The best way to do that is by telling a captivating story while incorporating relevant brand elements. And around that story, the visual details need to reflect the brand’s overall vision and deliver a stimulating customer experience.

Benefits of Experiential Marketing

two coca cola vending machines placed next to each other

For businesses, experiential marketing differentiates them from their competitors. And for truly great experiences, customers will not only remember your brand, they’ll perceive your brand in a positive light. And customers feel special about experiencing something unique that many people haven’t experienced before. If they enjoy the event, they’ll recommend your brand to others, essentially creating brand advocates. And even with all the different marketing avenues out there today, word-of-mouth is still one of the most effective marketing tactics. Additionally, the customer engagement that experiential marketing provides leads to increased return on investment (ROI), customers, and sales.

With so many distractions out there today, experiential marketing breaks the traditional marketing mold of disrupting customers’ experience. Instead, it elicits an emotional response through engaging visual storytelling. And while traditional methods strive for increased reach and awareness, experiential marketing aims to grow engagement and maintain interest memorably. In the end, customers are happier throughout the entire customer journey, and it results in higher retention rates. For small businesses looking for more long-term marketing success, experiential marketing is worth a try.

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 #brand #brandadvocates #branding #brandperception #business #businesstips #cocacola #customerengagement #digitalmarketing #engagement #experience #experientialmarketing #marketing #marketingdigital #smallbusiness #tech #technology

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 131 “Inexperience Does Not Equal Incompetence”

Sep

1

There’s nothing you can’t learn. So, you shouldn’t be afraid to ask for help when you don’t understand something. Yet, it happens all the time in business. Not knowing something doesn’t mean you’re incompetent. But many make that assumption when it just isn’t true. All it means is that you’re inexperienced in this area. Just because you don’t currently know how to do something, it doesn’t mean it has to stay that way.

You can figure it out on the way. And there will always be someone else who can teach you. Even if it’s from an online article or YouTube tutorial. So-called experts are just people with more experience than you. And even then, just because they’re experts, it doesn’t make them infallible. They can make mistakes too, and they don’t always have the answers. So, don’t be afraid of not knowing something. And remember to always keep learning.

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 #business #businessadvice #businessowner #businesstips #company #entrepreneur #marketing #officetips #pacificsoftwarepublishing #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #smallbusiness

Dreamersi UI Update

Aug

31

We’re pleased to announce that we’ve now updated the user interface (UI) user panel for the non-admin users of our web hosting service, Dreamersi.

screenshot of the new user panel in dreamersi that shows the offers and services section and the online tools section

In this update, we've:

Organized and updated the "Offers and Services" section

Added "Web Design"

Added "Custom Development"

Dreamersi is our premiere hosting service that we’ve designed in-house that is perfect for your web and email hosting needs. If you need help setting up your site with our hosting services, we have an incredible support team who'd be happy to help. To contact our support team, you can call us at 800-232-3989 or email us at support@pspinc.com.

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 #business #businesstips #businesstools #customerservice #dreamersi #email #emailhosting #hosting #pspinc #smallbusiness #softwaredevelopment #tech #technology #update #web #webdesign #webdevelopment #webhosting #website #websites #webtools

What is Machine Learning?

Aug

30

People commonly use the terms machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) interchangeably. But they aren’t technically the same. Machine learning (ML) is just a subset of AI that refers to computers learning and adapting to new data without humans assisting them. Over the last ten years, ML has become one of the most critical parts of how AI works. And it’s only become more popular as Deloitte predicts the cloud ML market will reach $13 billion by 2025

Simply put, ML uses gathered and prepared data, be it numbers, photos, or text, and finds patterns and/or makes predictions. The more data human programmers provide, the better the program will be. After programmers supply the data, they then choose which ML model they want to use, and the computer trains itself. Then, programmers can also encourage more accurate results by altering the model and changing its parameters if needed.

There are three types of ML:

1. Supervised ML

Supervised ML uses past data to make predictions. As the most common type of ML, it uses labeled data sets and will become more accurate as the model learns over time. A widely used example is an email spam filter. It uses algorithms to predict which emails are spam and which aren’t after looking at data like past received emails. Email services that use ML for their spam filters include Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook.

2. Unsupervised ML

Unsupervised ML finds hidden patterns in unlabeled data. An example of this would be Facebook’s facial recognition. When users post a new image, Facebook will predict who’s in this photo by looking at their friends’ profile pages, available images, and other available data. Then, users can tag those people in the image, if they want to.

3. Reinforcement ML

a man watching a youtube video on a tablet

Reinforcement ML goes through trial and error to make the best decision by training machines. This type of ML is generally used to increase overall efficiency. An example of reinforcement ML in practice is the recommendations a user gets after finishing a video on YouTube. Just like other ML types, the more data it receives, the more accurate it is. If users click on the recommended video but don’t finish it until the end, the machine understands that it wasn’t a great match.

While the benefits vary across industries, businesses can gain an overall increase in efficiency when investing in ML. And many ML tools are relatively inexpensive as well as easy to use. For businesses, both big and small, investing in ML can help save valuable time and money. So, it’s no wonder why so many businesses are already taking advantage of everything ML has to offer.

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 #artificialintelligence #benefits #business #businessideas #businesstips #data #email #facebook #labeleddata #machinelearning #ml #programming #smallbusiness #spam #spamfilters #tech #technology #unlabeleddata #youtube #youtuberecommendations

PSPINC Official Company Blog

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What’s New Newsletter Vol. 135 “Encourage Creativity”

5 Ad Campaigns Every Business Can Learn From

Nike: Just Do It

California Milk Processor Board: Got Milk?

Skittles: Taste the Rainbow

Old Spice: The Man Your Man Could Smell Like

Always: #LikeAGirl

PSPINC What’s New Newsletter Vol. 134 “Listening to Others”

PSPINC What’s New Newsletter Vol. 133 “Serving Your Customers”

5 Post-Purchase Marketing Tactics to Increase Retention

1. Customer Support

2. Email Marketing

3. Customer Feedback

4. Refund Policy/Returns Process

5. Social Media and User Generated Content (UGC)

PSPINC What’s New Newsletter Vol. 132 "Perseverance"

What is Experiential Marketing?

Benefits of Experiential Marketing

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 131 “Inexperience Does Not Equal Incompetence”

Dreamersi UI Update

What is Machine Learning?

1. Supervised ML

2. Unsupervised ML

3. Reinforcement ML

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