PSPINC Official Company Blog

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 164 “Marketing with Audio”

Apr

20

Using audio in marketing has only gotten popular over the past few years. Catchy jingles, sponsored podcasts, audiobooks, and other audio advertising methods. And there’s a good reason for this: people are more likely to remember something with audio, especially music. So, when you use audio in your marketing plan, it’s that much more effective.

The goal of marketing isn’t just to get people to buy your product, but it’s also to keep your products and your brand in the back of customers’ minds. That way, the next time they think of something related to what you’re selling, they’ll think of your brand, making it more likely they’ll buy from you. That’s why we created Click It Audio, which gives businesses an easy way to add audio to their marketing efforts. Embed an audio file onto your site or add an audio QR code on your product packaging and business cards. Get started for free or upgrade to our Standard plan at just $9.91/month.

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 #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #ecommerce #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web #webdevelopment #webtools

AI-Generated Search Engines: Bing Chat vs. Google Bard

Apr

18

After Bing announced they’d integrate the AI-generated chatbot, ChatGPT, Google announced their own rival chatbot, Bard. Since then, Google opened access to Bard via a waitlist (much like Bing) in late March. Unsurprisingly, now that users have access to both, it begs the question of which one is better. In the search engine game, Google has always been the clear winner, with about 93% of the global search-engine market compared to Bing’s meager 3%, according to Statcounter.

Now that Bing’s leveraging Bing Chat (their AI-powered assistant), Google may lose some of its longstanding power over the search engine market. Since releasing Bing Chat, there are now 100 million daily active Bing users, one-third of whom are using Bing Chat daily, according to Microsoft Bing Blogs as of early March. With that is also over 100 million recorded chats, according to Search Engine Journal. Both still insist they’re in their learning phase as Bing and Google figure out any major bugs and as they optimize each system. So, while both have their fair share of limitations and bugs, we’ll see that change as OpenAI (the company behind ChatGPT), Bing, and Google all work to improve their respective chatbots.

Differences Between Bing Chat and Google Bard

black samsung tablet display google browser on screen

While Bing Chat and Google Bard are both AI-generated, they’re distinctly different because while Bing uses the popular chatbot, ChatGPT, Google uses a LaMDA model, which results in less text-heavy responses. But it’s important to point out that Bing Chat and ChatGPT are not the same; Bing just uses the GPT-4 technology. The biggest difference between Bing Chat and ChatGPT is the fact that Bing Chat can generate images and offer sources that their AI is generating data from.

But so far, users who have tried both prefer Bing Chat over Google Bard. Google, however, hasn’t been out for nearly as long, so Bard is still in the early phases of optimizing the overall experience of the AI chatbot. Bing Chat, however, has the advantage of ChatGPT’s GPT-4 technology, which users have already proven to like, which we’ve seen from ChatGPT’s overall popularity. But regardless, one thing is clear: AI chatbots are here to stay. And we can only assume the technology will continue to grow as experts learn more about how to better optimize them.

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 #aichatbot #bing #bingchat #blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #chatbot #chatgpt #google #googlebard #microsoft #search #searchengine #smallbusiness #softwaredevelopment #tech #technology #web #website #webtools

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 162 “Localizing Content”

Apr

6

For businesses today, you want as many customers as you can get to buy from you. The problem is, when you try to market to everyone, your efforts end up sounding vague and uninspired. When you determine a focus for your campaign, however, you won’t only share better marketing content, but you’ll also end up with customers who are even more interested in what you offer. One way to narrow down your audience is by language; our products and services aren’t just for our U.S. customers, but also for our customers in Japan.

That’s why we work hard to help other small businesses do the same. We started localizing software between the U.S. and Japan in the 90s and it’s only gotten better since then. Today, we do more than just localize software; we also offer translation services so other businesses can feature both English and Japanese languages on their website and other marketing efforts. Doing so helps optimize your customers’ experience, especially for non-English speakers. And on the business side, it helps expand your potential customer base. Start localizing your content with us 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.

#blog #businesstips #businesstools #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #pacificsoftwarepublishing #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #sales #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #technology #webdevelopment

Create an Effective Marketing Strategy with a SWOT Analysis

Apr

4

The key to a successful marketing campaign is an effective marketing strategy. But it’s hard to put one together if you don’t assess where the company currently stands. One of the most important parts of marketing is research. After all, you can’t market for a company without knowing anything about what the company does, how it operates, what it sells, and how it compares to others on the market. The best way to start the research process is with a SWOT analysis.

A SWOT analysis also referred to as a situation analysis, stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It looks at what the company excels at, where it could improve, and where they stand amongst the competition while helping identify ways it could improve. It gives marketers a basic outline of the company, which will lead them to conduct further research on not only the company but also its competitors and their industry.

How to Create a SWOT Analysis

a woman standing in front of a white board with a swot analysis drawn on the board

Research should always be at the start of every marketing process. A SWOT analysis just makes it easier to organize that research. There’s basic information like a company’s name, history, among others. Then, you can look into identifying what makes this company different than others. What are the best parts of this company and where can they improve? It’s through this research that you’ll get a better idea of what the industry looks like as a whole and where this company fits in.

Creating the SWOT analysis after that is simple; instead of writing it all out in a report, draw out a two-by-two table, labeling each quadrant with Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Then, as your research progresses, fill them out with the appropriate data. It’s that easy. While this won’t be everything you need to know before creating an effective marketing plan, it will, at the very least, give you a good start. A SWOT analysis tells you what issues you should address and how the business can grow, all of which will only strengthen your overall marketing strategy and plan moving forward.

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 #businesstools #digitalmarketing #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingonline #marketingresearch #marketingtips #research #sales #smallbusiness #socialmedia #swot #swotanalysis #tech #technology

PSP Pilot: Company Search Results Update

Mar

23

1 Enhanced Company Search

Before:
Whenever a user searched, “PSP Pilot”, the only result that appeared was “PSP Pilot”.

After:
Now, when a user searches for “PSP Pilot”, the results page would show “PSP Pilot”, “PSP-Pilot”, “PSP&Pilot” etc.
※ The search results will now include partial matches rather than only showing exact matches.

2 New City Filter Added

• In addition to searching the company name, you can now search by city for companies that register a particular city name in their company address.
• Please note that this will only work if you check the “Location” filter box. Otherwise, it’ll grey out.
• This search box includes the same enhancement as the company search
• New autocomplete feature: when typing in the search box, it’ll suggest terms in the dropdown menu and allow you to automatically choose an option.

※You must type more than three letters to see the drop-down menu.
※Please make sure there is no blank space before the letters. It may cause the wrong result.
※This feature also isn’t sensitive to capitalization, so if you were to search for “san diego”, “san diego” and “SAN diego” would both display in the drop-down menu.

https://www.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.

#PSPPilot #blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #clientdatabase #employeeportal #smallbusiness #taskmanagement #tech #technology #web

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 160 “Email Marketing Compared to Other Marketing Tactics”

Mar

23

One of the most effective marketing tactics today is email. With so many advancements in technology today, email still delivers the highest return on investment (ROI) compared to other marketing tactics. According to Omnisend, the average return per dollar spent on email marketing is $40. While social media and paid search are popular efforts, email marketing still delivers the best results. Why? Because everyone uses email. So, if anything, it makes it much more likely people will at least see your content whereas being seen on paid search and social media is determined by many other factors that are mostly out of your control.

The best way to ensure your email marketing campaign is successful is by having a definitive goal set in mind, testing email broadcasts, making emails visually appealing, tracking how well it performs and adjusting over time. And that’s exactly why we built NewsMAIL, our email marketing tool that makes it easy for businesses to easily create effective email marketing campaigns. Get started at just $20/month or take a look at some of our prepaid plans.

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 #businesstools #digitalmarketing #email #google #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #newsmail #pspinc #seo #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #technology #web

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 159 “2 More Weeks to Get 50% Off Pass Wizard Pro”

Mar

16

In case you missed it, the Pro version of our password manager, Pass Wizard, is currently on sale for 50% off your first year. And it has been for a few months now. But that time is slowly coming to end on Thursday, March 30. That gives you two weeks to claim this offer!

With Pass Wizard Pro, in addition to a secure password storage and password generator, you gain access to multi-factor authentication (MFA) options via either SMS or an authenticator app, as well as group sharing features. To get 50% off, sign up for Pass Wizard for free (if you haven’t already) and upgrade to Pro. While checking out, enter the promo code, PRO50, to get 50% off. Then, you’re all set!

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 #cybersecurity #newsletter #pacificsoftwarepublishing #passwizard #passwordmanager #passwords #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #security #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web #webdevelopment #webtools

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 158 “Company Blogs”

Mar

9

It may be more work, but there’s a reason why many companies have a blog; they allow businesses to demonstrate their expertise and establish credibility. Customers aren’t just looking at the price and quality of products anymore; they want to know who they’re buying from and compare it to others before deciding who to purchase from.

For blog posts, businesses should look to create informational content about their company, industry, and customers. Businesses can feature their blog on their website, which will help increase the company site’s overall website traffic. Or they can use a separate blogging platform like Bloguru, which is what we use for PSPINC. If you need more help setting up a company blog or brainstorming content ideas, we have experts who would be more than happy to help.

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 #bloguru #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #newsletter #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #searchengineoptimization #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web #webdesign #website

What is Web Development?

Mar

7

Web development refers to all actions required to build, maintain, and manage a website. There are three types of web development: front-end, back-end, and full-stack. Front-end development is the clint-facing side of the website, app, or digital product, and refers to everything users will see and interact with. This usually entails designing the site and developers use their knowledge of HTML, CSS, and sometimes JavaScript to do so.

Back-end development refers to everything that happens behind the scenes, ensuring a site works the way it’s supposed to. This usually includes creating a site’s basic framework, like database interactions, server, network, and hosting configuration, and business logic. To do so, back-end developers use their knowledge of server-side programming languages, which include PHP, Ruby, and Python. Lastly, full-stack development combines knowledge and tasks from front-end and back-end development, so full-stack developers usually take on more leadership roles on projects.

Steps in the Web Development Process

1. Acquire a domain name

Domain names are the unique URLs users will type into their browser windows to get to a website. Good domain names can be hard to come by, so doing this step first helps lower the chances someone else will snatch the one you want first. But the name of your domain will also heavily influence the overall design of the site.

2. Form a plan

If you’re building a website for a client, the planning steps include meeting with said client and figuring out what they need. Even if they’re not entirely sure what they’ll need, as the developer, you’ll need to determine the site’s overall purpose and goals. That will then help inform the kinds of content that will be on the site and how it’ll be arranged.

3. Create a mockup

To give you and your client a better representation of what the site will look like, create a mockup. This will generally start with a wireframe, which is a two-dimensional skeletal outline of a webpage or app. And it’ll also involve creating a sitemap, which lists files on your site to help search engines like Google crawl and index your site’s context. In addition, you may also need to create a prototype that takes the mockup a step further to show how the site will function.

4. Research your client’s target audience

Learning more about who the website’s meant for will give you a better idea of what content will be on the page. And that will then help inform how the site should look. Again, the site’s overall design should appeal to the client’s audience, encouraging them to take action like purchasing a product or staying on the site longer.

5. Build the back-end

Back-end developers will start by building the back-end of the homepage first and move on to the other pages by creating a “shell”, which front-end developers will later fill with content. During this step, developers will add functional elements like contact forms and shopping carts and make sure they work properly.

6. Build the front-end

Working on the front end of the website will focus more on the design aspect of the site and will include some basic coding using HTML and CSS, as well as JavaScript, if needed.

desktop and mobile view of pass wizard's website

desktop and mobile view of pass wizard's website

7. Test your site features

To ensure everything works the way it’s supposed to on your site, test your site features. This will prevent users from coming to your site and clicking on a broken link or encountering other issues. Another thing to look out for is seeing how different the site may look on different devices and different browsers.

8. Launch your site

After finishing the development phases, it’s time to launch your site!

9. Promote your site

While having a site is a great first step, no one will come to your site if no one knows it exists. That’s where promotion comes in, which you or the client could do in-house or outsource marketing work to an outside agency like PSPINC. Web development work doesn’t always involve a lot of marketing, but it’s important to remember that the site you’ve built and the marketing work it’ll take to promote that site directly correlate; the site needs to stand up on its own once the marketing team leads users to the site. A good marketing strategy will bring users to the site, but the site and its offering will determine if users stay and convert.

10. Monitor your site

Lastly, your web development duties may also involve monitoring the site, which includes checking website traffic, adjusting content to better optimize the site, and updating content as needed as time goes on.

If you’re looking for custom development, custom design, or even marketing services for your business, reach out for a free consultation on our website so we can work together to find the right solution for you and 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 #businesstools #digitalmarketing #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #mobile #seo #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #technology #web #webdesign #webdeveloper #webdevelopment #website #websites

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 157 “Pass Wizard Giveaway”

Mar

2

If you’re a customer of our password manager, Pass Wizard, you could win one year of Pass Wizard for free! With Pass Wizard Pro, not only can you store your passwords securely, but you can also share them securely with family members, friends, and even trusted employees. To further secure your account, you can even add multi-factor authentication (MFA).

Just fill out this survey to enter the contest. We’ll be using this survey to determine what features we should prioritize in our next development phase, so we’d love to get your feedback on how you’re liking Pass Wizard so far. This contest ends at 11:59 pm PST on Thursday 3/9.

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.