PSPINC Official Company Blog

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 183 “Free Social Media Marketing Tool”

Aug

31

Social media is one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways for small businesses to market themselves. But for those who aren’t trained or experienced in design, creating visually appealing posts isn’t always easy. And we’ve probably all seen our fair share of less-than-ideal graphics floating around the internet. That’s why Canva, an online graphic design tool, is so helpful to even experienced marketers.

With Canva, marketers can pick from hundreds of templates and royalty-free graphics, images, and even video. We know our marketing team here at PSPINC loves using it to their advantage. With Canva, people can drag and drop elements using their editor to make the design phase simpler so marketers can focus on marketing your business in other ways. To learn more, check out our YouTube video that breaks down all the ways Canva can help market your business. And if you’re looking to outsource your marketing work, reach out to our marketing team.

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 #facebook #instagram #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #technology #twitter #web #webdesign #website #websites #webtools

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 182 “What is a CRM?”

Aug

24

CRM stands for customer relationship management and refers to the overall process and system companies used to manage and analyze customer interactions with the goal of improving customer service relationships. With effective CRM software, it’s easier to track your business’s overall growth, efficiency, revenue, and profit. It gives you a good overview look at your clients as well as your employees. In addition to keeping track of communications with your customers, you can also assign and manage tasks to your employees.

However, CRMs can get pricey and are made up of complicated systems that even require taking certification courses to figure out how to use them properly. But luckily for you, PSP Pilot is completely free to sign up and easy to use! Organize client data, manage tasks and schedules, and create an employee portal with PSP Pilot for free, or upgrade to paid plans to add more than 20 employee profiles with PSP Pilot. Sign up for free 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.

#b2b #blog #businesstips #crm #customerfeedback #customerrelationshipmanagement #customerservice #digitalmarketing #marketing #newsletter #officetips #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #relationshipmarketing #tech #technology #web #webtools

The Story Behind Apple’s Success

Aug

22

When people think of Apple, they think of its breakthrough products like the iPhone, the iPod, the iPad, and the Apple Watch. Apple is a multi-trillion-dollar company, as it surpassed the $3 trillion mark last year and was the first company to pass the $1 trillion mark back in 2018. But the brand’s success comes from more than just incredible products. It also comes from their organizational structure, which founder Steve Jobs brought back to the company in 1997.

Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne started the company in 1976 before Wayne left three months later, selling his shares of the company for just $800. Today, it’s one of the most valuable companies in the world. The Apple II, released in 1984, was the company’s second product and introduced a modern graphical user interface to the public. And the rest is history.

Apple's Organizational Structure

an ipad and iphone on wooden table beside a cacti in white pot

Even though Steve Jobs passed in 2011, he’s well-known for his vision for Apple’s products and software. Jobs left Apple in 1982 due to conflict with boardroom member, John Sculley, but returned in 1997 and hired Tim Cook, the brand’s current CEO, to help repair the company’s broken supply chain. While he was gone, Apple had the traditional business structure, with different business departments, each with its own profit and loss (P&L) responsibilities. But Jobs switched it up by putting the entire company under one P&L and combining all departments under one functional organization, aligning expertise with key decision rights. And Apple still retains the same structure today, even though it’s grown dramatically since they adopted this structure in 1998.

Rather than having conventional managers, an overarching P&L statement judges those in control over the product development and sales process. The fact that this structure has brought them so much success and continues to over the years is unique because history shows it’s best to divide the company into multiple divisions as it grows and becomes more complex. But for Apple, operating under one P&L and focusing on expertise works. And it’s why many have followed their example. By focusing on functional expertise, Apple’s been able to flourish, with innovation at the forefront. So, while unconventional, it’s been the key to Apple’s continued success, which is why the company still follows it to this day.

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.

#apple #appleii #applewatch #blog #business #businesstips #digitalmarketing #ipad #iphone #ipod #mac #marketing #ronaldwayne #sales #stevejobs #stevewozniak #tech #technology #web

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 181 “The Difference Between Localization and Translation”

Aug

17

Expanding your business to a foreign country is about more than just translating content. Language is complex, so even though the terms might be similar, they might not mean the same thing. Localization takes translation a step further by putting the foreign country’s culture into consideration. And sometimes, it can cause you to change your mind about expanding your business there if it doesn’t fit. For example, Procter & Gamble (P&G) introduced Pampers diapers to Japan in 1976 by showing an ad with a flying stork delivering Pampers to a Japanese family. But people in Japan were confused; Japanese folklore told of a story of giant peaches floating down the river gently delivering the babies.

So, when they showed this ad in Japan, it failed miserably. P&G didn’t know about this peach story until after the incident. They then changed the imagery to a peach, and it fixed the problem. But problems like this are why localization is about more than just language. It’s about culture, too. Our localization experts not only translate content from English to Japanese, but also review it to avoid any misconstrued information. And it helps avoid problems like this. 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 #blog #branding #business #businesstips #digitalmarketing #english #japan #japanese #localization #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #pampers #procterandgamble #sales #smallbusiness #translation

Data Collection: Privacy Concerns and Regulation

Aug

15

Collecting data has become standard today as marketers use it to better promote their products. Efforts to better personalize ads have proven to be immensely successful, to the point of it becoming an expectation. But many aren’t fully aware of how much data companies collect on users, or how much gets passed around between third parties. And there isn’t much regulation on how much they can collect or what they can or can’t do with that data, which is how we got to where we are today.

With cybercrime only increasing in recent years, users want to make sure their data is safe. Generally, the more data you collect, the more personalized the ads will be. For marketers, more data collection makes up for better ads. But the increase in hacks has been too much for people to ignore. And it’s only revealed how easy it has become for criminals to hack people and how vulnerable their information can be. So, it only makes sense that many are asking for lawmakers to add more regulations when it comes to data collection and consumer privacy.

Current State of Data Collection

Advertisers everywhere have been digitally collecting data from customers for years now. But there are two major concerns over the amount of data companies collect: privacy and potential leaks. Most users don’t know how much of their data gets collected, nor do they know what they’ll do with it. That’s for a reason; companies prefer keeping their data practices discreet, especially for data they have no immediate use for. While this data they’re not immediately using may not be valuable today, companies argue it could be someday. At the federal level, there is no specific legislation that protects users’ data. But the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has the power to protect customers from unfair or deceptive data collection practices. And they do so by enforcing federal privacy and data protection regulations.

The lack of regulations at the national level hasn’t stopped individual states from enacting some privacy laws of their own. Specifically, California, Nevada, and Maine have more comprehensive laws compared to those from other states. These privacy laws include the right of consent for their personal information, the right to request companies and third parties to delete their information, and the right to opt out of companies collecting or selling their data to third parties. On the other side of things, companies have stricter guidelines because of these laws, which include disclosing the kinds of information they’re collecting, what they intend to use that data for, and publicizing the identity of third parties, among other restrictions.

What This Means Now

Data collection practices have improved over the years as people learn more about how to keep their information safe from cybercrime. And with users demanding more transparency, more companies are complying by sharing more about their data collection practice. But it hasn’t reached the point of creating federal privacy laws; they are still only at the state level. Because of that, companies can still use, share, or sell any data they collect from customers without notifying them in most states. There also aren’t any national laws about notifying users about breached data due to leaks or other data exposures, nor are there any about third parties further selling users’ data.

In the last few years, people have realized that they aren’t as protected online as they thought. And it has just strengthened the need and desire for privacy laws at the federal level. This is a growing attitude businesses should be aware of, and the hope is, is that it will inspire more companies to be more transparent about how they collect and use customer data.

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 #cybersecurity #digitalmarketing #ecommerce #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #security #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #technology #web

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 180 “Free Online Business Tools”

Aug

10

Getting a formal education is important, and it’s a belief many people hold. But would it surprise you to learn that 33% of entrepreneurs listed high school as their highest level of education? According to the National Business Capital and Services, over half of small business owners in 2020 believe hands-on experience is more important than formal education. But with the amount of content out there today teaching people about how to run and market a business, it isn’t that surprising.

In addition to educational content, there are also numerous online tools that are free for users everywhere to use. Even college-educated professionals use them because as great as having a formal education is, the reality is is that business is constantly evolving. Some of our favorite free online business tools include Google Analytics, Pexels, and Canva. Google Analytics tells us how our website is performing, Pexels is a great source for royalty-free photos to use, and Canva makes it easier to design marketing materials like social media posts and more.

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 #business #businesstips #canva #design #digitalmarketing #google #googleanalytics #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #newsletter #pexels #pspinc #sales #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #technology #web #webdesign #webtools

Sell Directly on Social Media with Social Shopping

Aug

1

The world of shopping online changed drastically when Instagram implemented a buy button in 2015. The next year, brands could tag products with a price tag in their images. Then, Facebook followed shortly afterward by launching Marketplace in 2018. And TikTok started testing TikTok Shop in November of last year.

However, reports are that TikTok is gearing up to launch TikTok Shop Shopping Center, which will become their e-commerce platform, taking TikTok Shop a step further. Rather than just buying directly from videos, lives, and creator profile bios, TikTok Shop Shopping Center won’t just be a marketplace for other retailers to sell merchandise, but a retailer itself. The details are still not entirely clear, but if successful, it could shake up social shopping as we know it.

Benefits of Social Shopping

friends standing with shopping bags on street and looking at phone

Not only are there billions of active social media users, but they’re also spending more and more time on social media. As of 2022, users spend an average of 151 minutes a day on social media, which is up from 147 from the previous year. And social commerce generated about $724 billion USD in 2022. Both according to Statista. Directly selling on social media just further expands your overall reach to more potential customers. And since social shopping makes so much in revenue, we know how successful businesses can be on it.

Social media, as a whole, is great for obtaining social proof. Especially since many customers look at things like reviews and use those to base their decisions on whether they’ll buy something. Making your products available to users on social media just makes it possible for more feedback, reviews, and recommendations for your business. It also makes it easier for users to convert to paying customers because they don’t have to leave the app to purchase. So, regardless of how TikTok’s upcoming TikTok Shop Shopping Center changes things, it’s safe to say social shopping is here to stay.

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 #app #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #ecommerce #facebook #facebookmarketplace #instagram #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #mobile #sales #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #technology #tiktok #twitter #web

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 178 “Create Temporary Menus with ImaMenu”

Jul

27

Recently, we noticed more website traffic for our free menu builder, ImaMenu, and saw it was going toward a customer’s menu site. Except it wasn’t what we expected; the menu wasn’t just your average restaurant menu, but it was instead the restaurant’s secret menu, which generally includes dishes restaurants can make but chose not to advertise. And it just reminded us how incredibly creative people can be.

ImaMenu can be used for much more than we ever intended it to. It doesn’t have to just stop at just a secret menu; you can create seasonal or other types of temporary menus, perfect for restaurants that love to take advantage of seasonal products. Or you can use it to use up a limited supply of a certain ingredient or create a menu for an event. ImaMenu makes it easy and free to create a temporary online menu. You can even add pictures to better entice your customers! Just sign up for free to get started.

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 #digitalmarketing #food #imamenu #marketing #menu #mobile #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #restaurant #searchengineoptimization #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web #webtools

Everything You Need to Know About Press Releases

Jul

25

A press release is an official statement an organization sends out to news media. Then, the hope is that the media will report on that statement to spread the word about a new product or big change in your organization, be it a new product or new CEO. And it'll also generate more buzz and excitement for your company and new product. You should follow a specific format for press releases. They are not written in the same way as blog posts, which are usually more casual. After assembling a press release, organizations send it out to the media to publish. Namely publications, blogs, and press release distributors. The more it’s distributed and the bigger the media publication, the more exposure your company gets.

Even though it’s easy to dismiss them when there are multitudes of easier and cheaper ways to spread the word, press releases are still necessary. You can and should still post about your company news in blog and social media posts. But press releases provide an added layer of credibility and professionalism among customers and other business professionals. It’s not enough to just post about your company. You want other publications, especially those that are well respected in the business industry, to post about it, too.

How to Write a Press Release

With press releases, the general idea when writing one is to put all the important information first and then everything else afterward. In other words, you use what’s called the inverted pyramid technique. In the first paragraph, make sure to answer the five W’s and one H: who, what, where, when, why, and how. The first paragraph of a press release is also generally short, only consisting of the first two sentences. And it should include all the important factual information that goes right at the beginning. After that comes the rest of the information, starting with the most important information and ending with any additional but not necessary facts about the overall news. But, in addition to the order of how it’s written, press releases also have one very important characteristic; they are factual.

In a blog post and/or social media post, you can add as much of your opinion as you’d like. You can’t do the same in a press release. Therefore, you can’t call your company or product the “best” or add any other opinionated description. The only times you can add an opinion is if someone you’re quoting uses it. But when adding quotes, you want them to either come from someone high up in your organization or from a customer. If you want to include both, the company quote should always come first, and the customer quote can come later. Lastly, it’s also standard to add a company bio that tells readers more about who your company is and who they should contact for any additional questions.

Spreading the Word

man holding microphone while talking to another man

After writing a press release, it can’t just go on your website or your blog. So, it begs the question of where it should go if not your website. The answer is that there are a few different ways to go about distributing your press release to the appropriate audiences. First, the easiest way is to send it through a press release distributor like PR Newswire or eReleases. From there, using their connections, press release distributors issue it to their contacts and connections. And it ranges from various blogs to online publications. But another approach would be to do a media pitch.

A media pitch consists of reaching out to a reporter directly to gain exposure to your company and its news. If you have a relationship with a reporter, a media pitch is where you can use that to your advantage because the content is more aimed toward the reporter. For example, if your company’s switching to more sustainable packaging, you’ll want to find a reporter that typically writes about similar topics like climate change, sustainable practices in business, and more. But regardless, press releases are still relevant, but it follows a very specific format. While sharing a blog post or social post is much easier and cheaper, it doesn’t replace the publicity and credibility a press release does. And that’s exactly why companies, both big and small, still create 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.

#blog #branding #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #journalism #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #media #mediapitch #news #pressrelease #pressreleases #reporter #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #technology

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 177 “Marketing Your Website”

Jul

20

Creating a beautifully designed website can be great for business, but marketing your business shouldn’t stop there. You also need to make sure people know it exists. To do that, you can market your site by updating your site content and sharing the link to social media. Just because you have a great site, it doesn’t mean it always will be. There are plenty of obviously outdated websites still up online because the site owner never updated their site.

Other than updating antiquated website designs, the site’s content also needs to be updated. Not just to display relevant and correct information, but also to help with search engine optimization (SEO). In addition to that, marketing your site with social media can be a great way to spread the word. But promoting your business and site effectively is not always an easy feat. For more help with marketing your business, reach out to our expert marketing team.

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.