PSPINC Official Company Blog

PSPINC What’s New Newsletter Vol. 127 “Boosting Employee Morale”

Aug

4

One of the secrets of building a productive team at work is focusing on boosting employee morale and encouraging employee advocacy. People like to feel appreciated, and the same applies when they’re at work. When working in a team, members want to know they’re heard and that they’re on the right track. Conversely, constantly criticizing your team for not doing things your way will lower overall morale. But more importantly, it’ll also result in lower overall performance.

When employees feel valued, they’re not only happier, but they're also more willing to hit company goals. It can also help in future marketing endeavors. If your employees like working for you, it’ll make it easier to encourage them to check and engage with your company’s social posts. Or they may even seek it on their own outside of work hours. Employees interacting with your company’s social posts will not only help increase your brand’s overall exposure, however. It’ll also show how great it is to work for your company.

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 #digitalmarketing #employee #employeeadvocacy #employeemorale #marketing #marketingtips #newsletter #officetips #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #smallbusiness #technology

How to Create a Brand

Aug

2

A brand and a company, while used interchangeably, are not the same. A company is the name of an organization that engages in business activities, like producing and selling products. A brand, however, is about how people perceive your company through identifying brand attributes like your logo, name, and products. To remember the difference, think of it this way: a business owner, founder, and/or CEO owns a company whereas the people own a brand. While there’s significant influence coming from whoever’s in charge, the people are the ones who derive meaning from what you have to offer.

Starting a company can be as easy as setting up a great e-commerce website and selling products. However, creating a great brand isn’t quite as easy to do. Setting up your company website is a great first step because it forces you to figure out the essentials needed to run a business. If you’re just creating a business, it’s easy to go on from there by designing your website, adding your products, and advertising said products. A brand, however, also requires a vision and mission statement. A mission statement tells people where your company currently stands and what it does. A vision statement is more aspirational and tells people where you want to see the company go in the future.

After creating your mission and vision statements, it’s time to determine your brand’s values. This is what you want your business to stand for. More importantly, this is what you want your business to be known for. Truly successful brands keep all of those in mind in every experience a customer has with them. Look at Coca-Cola, one of the world’s most successful brands. But it isn’t based on the product alone. Coca-Cola’s brand is about refreshing the world in a way that makes a difference. While their drink is known to be refreshing worldwide, Coca-Cola also actively works toward its commitment to making the world a better place. And this can be seen through multiple sustainability efforts by the brand.

Lastly, with so many other small businesses out there, it’s important to consider who your competitors are and what makes your business different. To succeed, your business needs to be different in a way that’s attractive to your target market. And creating customer persona to figure that out will help immensely. After figuring all that out, then come all the recognizable elements of a brand like designing a logo and determining a color palette. While developing a brand can be a lengthy process, it’s not impossible. And great brands tend to change and evolve, so just remember that when trying to create your own.

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 #brandidentity #branding #brands #business #businesstips #businesstools #cocacola #digitalmarketing #logo #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingonline #marketingstrategy #marketingtips #smallbusiness #success #tech #technology

PSPINC What's New Newsletter Vol. 126 "Business Competition"

Jul

28

Making it today in business can be difficult. And one of the reasons why is because of how competitive the small business world can be. The best way to combat that is to always be aware of what your competitors are doing. While trends in your industry will come and go, seeing which ones perform well will help you stay ahead of the game. When looking at your competitors, you’ll want to look at what products they offer, how much they cost, and how they market them. Then, you’ll want to compare them to your business.

Through this, you can figure out what your weaknesses may be and what competitive advantage you have by comparison. Generally, the most important purchasing considerations are price and product quality. If your offering is cheaper than your competitor, market that. If it’s more expensive, maybe it’s because the quality's better than your competitor's. Make sure your customers know that. But don’t obsess over your competitors. In the end, the focus should still be serving your customers’ needs and desires.

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 #businesscompetition #businesscompetitors #businesstips #competition #digitalmarketing #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #newsletter #pacificsoftwarepublishing #price #quality #smallbusiness #technology

PSPINC What's New Newsletter Vol. 125 "Starting a Business"

Jul

21

Starting and building a business isn’t always the easiest thing to do. But it’s easier if you start with one thing first. For example, Pacific Software Publishing Inc. (PSPINC) got its start introducing already-established U.S. software to Japan. Since then, we’ve expanded to create our own proprietary software. And now, PSPINC sells products and services all to help small businesses grow online. And that initial focus has also given us a specialty in localizing software for our customers in Japan. And we’re not the only company that’s done this.

Take Amazon for example. Customers can find almost anything on Amazon nowadays. But did you know it actually started as a small bookstore? Slowly, over time, Amazon started selling other products until it became what it is today. Focusing on one thing allows your business to build up a loyal audience, which will make your future marketing efforts easier in the long run.

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 #digitalmarketing #dreamersi #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #products #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #services #smallbusiness #tech #technology

What is “Big Data”?

Jul

19

Big data is exactly what it sounds like: an enormous, exponentially growing amount of data. Data versus big data really comes down to three factors known as the three V's: volume, velocity, and variety. Volume refers to the sheer amount of data. Velocity, however, looks at how fast it generates. Lastly, variety includes structured (numerical data), semi-structured (machine-generated documents and data in a no-SQL database), and unstructured data (text and image files). But over the last few years, two more V's have emerged: value and veracity. They involve determining how accurate your data is, how much you can rely on it, and what kind of value you can gather from it.

The Benefits of Big Data

a business woman pumping her fist int the air while holding a piece of paper sitting in front of a laptop

Big data is, like the name suggests, big. But it means nothing if you can’t derive value from it. Cleaning, curating, and preparing data for clients takes up a significant amount of time. But in the end, valuable data remains prime for companies to use to their advantage. So, it’s no surprise that data is behind some of the world's biggest companies' success. Those companies have figured out how to use their data to develop products better, improve customer experiences, and drive innovation.

For example, Spotify and Netflix look at what their customers listen to or watch and use that data to determine what else they might like. Then, they can recommend content based on predictive models created from collected data. Businesses can also gather an immense amount of data from social media, website visits, call logs, and other customer actions to analyze how they interact with the company. Then, they can use it to see where they can improve. And that includes enhancing their overall efficiency and identifying new ways to drive innovation.

How Big Data is Changing

a finger pointing at a dark screen with a bunch of numbers

As great as big data is, the real challenge comes in keeping up with it. Year after year, newly developed technologies emerge to help store all that data. But data volumes continue to increase exponentially. Because of that, organizations struggle keeping up with the accelerating pace. And it doesn't look to be slowing down anytime soon. But when businesses can find relevant meaning behind all that data, that can lead to true success.

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.

#bigdata #blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #customerfeedback #customerservice #data #innovation #marketing #netflix #smallbusiness #socialmedia #softwaredevelopment #spotify #tech #technology #update #web #webdevelopment #websites #webtools

PSPINC What’s New Newsletter Vol. 124 “Simplifying Sales Cycles”

Jul

14

When selling products, it’s essential to always think about the sales cycle from the customer’s point of view. Many content management systems (CMS) have built-in or additional features that make it easy to set up a payment portal. But you can still inadvertently make the purchasing experience complicated or too invasive. For example, if users have to get through too many pages before they get to the end, they’ll likely bail midway. Or if you’re asking for personal information that customers don’t think is necessary, they won’t be willing to share it. Instead, they'll shop elsewhere.

While the purchasing stage of the overall customer journey may seem simple to you as the business owner or developer, it doesn’t mean it’s easy for the customer. If you’re unsure how easy it is to purchase something from your site, try it out! Act like a customer by going to your website. Then try purchasing your product. If there are too many steps in the process, get rid of some. If the questions are too personal, take them out because, odds are, you probably won’t need them. So, when selling a product on your website, pay special attention to how the customer will go through the sales cycle. Then, eliminate everything that could cause a customer to abandon the process and simplify it everywhere you can.

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 #businesstools #digitalmarketing #ecommerce #marketing #marketingdigital #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #smallbusiness #tech #technology #webdesign #webdevelopment #website #websitebuilder

PSPINC What’s New Newsletter Vol. 123 “Turning Frustration Into a Successful Business”

Jul

7

When marketing your business, a lot of business advice tells you to stand out among your competitors. After all, you want to give potential customers a good reason to choose your product over another. Especially if there are numerous like-products already out there. One thing entrepreneurs might want to consider when developing products is finding a solution to something frustrating.

For example, have you ever tried to attach a file to an email only for it to say that your file’s too big? Every email provider has a file size limit. But for users who need to send over large files, it’s a frustrating experience. It’s why PSPINC created MegaMail, which allows us and users alike to send or transfer large files to anyone. If you’re frustrated about something, odds are other people feel the same way. If you can create a product that does it better than anything else on the market, you’ve got yourself a successful 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.

#b2b #blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #marketing #marketingdigital #newsletter #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web

How to Market Your E-Commerce Site

Jul

5

If your business sells online, a great e-commerce site isn’t the only thing you need to be successful. Like every sold offering, you also need to market your e-commerce site. After all, what good is an e-commerce site if no one knows about it? According to DataReportal, about 58.4% of internet users buy something online every week. And that figure will only continue rising. To reach those users, they need to know that you offer what they want or need. To do that, you’ll need to market your site effectively.

Optimize for Search Engines

a laptop open to google with a travel mug on the table

Search engine optimization, or SEO for short, is a process that will help your site and your products come up on relevant searches. This process involves finding and optimizing your site for keywords related to your business and what you’re selling. And throughout the process, you’ll want to focus on making sure your site is mobile-friendly and doesn’t take too long to load. All this combined will give users a better overall shopping experience, encouraging them to purchase from you.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising

letter tiles spelling out pay per click on a desk with a computer keyboard in the top left corner and an iphone in the bottom right corner

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising refers to a paid marketing strategy that helps increase your site’s overall exposure. Specifically to people actively interested or looking for what you have to offer. As the name suggests, you pay every time someone clicks on your ad. These ads refer to paid search, display, or shopping ads, all run on Google’s display network. And because of how popular Google is, you’re almost guaranteed brand awareness. However, you’ll need to use relevant keywords to reach the right people.

Email Marketing

the google, mail, and phone apps close up on an iphone

Another great tactic to promote your e-commerce site is email marketing. On your e-commerce site, you can add a pop-up form where visitors can opt-in with their emails. With this, you can send personalized emails to your customers and/or potential customers about upcoming sales and overall company news. And with email marketing tools like NewsMAIL, creating an effective email marketing campaign is easy. People who sign up for these emails send the message that they’re interested in what you have to offer, increasing the likelihood that they’ll convert into paying customers. You can also use this tactic to personalize offers depending on their interests, send surveys to learn more about your customers, and even recapture those who abandoned their cart.

Social Media Marketing

Then, there’s social media marketing, which can be helpful for all things business-related. Like all the other marketing tactics on this list, it will help increase your brand’s awareness. Plus, it'll encourage people to engage with your content. To better market your e-commerce website, your social media content should not only promote special deals but also spark conversation. And when users engage with your posts, reply to them to build that relationship with them. Over time, they'll convert them from social media spectators to potential customers.

Optimize for Conversions

The focus of an e-commerce business is to generate sales and earn conversions. But sometimes, you might not be converting as much as you’d like to. This is where conversion rate optimization (CRO) comes in. What this entails is making sure that the checkout process is as seamless as possible. The checkout process should be streamlined, with clear and actionable call-to-action (CTA) buttons and attractive visuals of your offerings.

Overall, an e-commerce business needs a good marketing strategy to be successful. But before you can do that, your e-commerce site needs to be in the best shape possible. Luckily, PSPINC has a stellar e-commerce hosting solution, YourHost. And our ShopSite plans are currently on sale for new customers. For the first two years, you can start your e-commerce site starting at just $15/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.

#blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #conversions #digitalmarketing #ecommerce #emailmarketing #google #internet #marketing #marketingdigital #newsmail #ppc #seo #shopsite #smallbusiness #socialmediamarketing #technology #websites #yourhost

PSPINC What’s New Newsletter Vol. 122 “Flexibility in Business”

Jun

30

Product ideas don’t come easy. But it’s important to remember that whatever idea you have will change as time goes on. And the same goes for your business plans. You may create something with a specific purpose, but customers could find an entirely different purpose. For example, did you know that bubble wrap was initially supposed to be intended as wallpaper? And when that didn’t work, engineer Al Fielding, and inventor Marc Chavannes tried to make it work as insulation for greenhouses. But that didn’t work either.

It was only until a marketer at Sealed Air, Frederick W. Bowers, found the perfect use for it three years later in 1959. At the time, IBM came out with a new computer. Bowers thought bubble wrap would keep it safe during transit. And he was right. If you’re unwilling to budge on your original idea, your product won’t be successful. As an entrepreneur, you need to listen to your customers to see where to improve. With a business, you don't need to plan everything. Innovation is messy. But perfection is overrated. As long as you’re constantly testing, learning, and improving, that’s all anyone can ask for.

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 #bubblewrap #business #businesstips #marketing #newsletter #pacificsoftwarepublishing #packaging #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #sealedair #smallbusiness #wallpaper

Employee Spotlight: Meet Toko

Jun

28

We pride ourselves on our fantastic sales team and have an amazing and supportive staff. In this series, we will highlight and showcase a number of those friendly faces who are standing by to take your call or email, help with your IT problems, and assist with your online solutions. This time, we’re shining a spotlight on our sales team member, Toko Oiwa.

Meet Toko

Toko is in charge of Sales and Marketing at our San Diego office! We sat down with Toko and asked her a series of questions to get to know her better.

What do you do at PSPINC?
I consult with customers to help with their business website as well as marketing needs.

What does a typical day on the job look like for you?
It depends on the day. I usually have one or two meetings a day with either existing or potential customers. If I’m working on a website creation project, I’m usually working closely with the client to do so.

How did you first learn about PSPINC?
From San Diego Town!

How long have you been working at PSPINC?
I started working here last July, so about 11 months now.

What's your favorite part about working here?
Meeting new people and learning more about their business so that we can tell them what we can provide to help them grow their business online.

What's the most challenging part of your job?
A lot of what Yume and I do involves building up our knowledge of sales from scratch, which can be difficult sometimes. The good thing is that we both enjoy the challenge!

Before working for PSPINC, what was the most unusual or interesting job you’ve ever had?
In Japan, I worked at a Tully’s coffee shop. I think that’s where I realized I love to talk to people.

What have you learned about sales/marketing since working here?
It changed the way I think about sales. I’ve also learned effective communication and consulting skills.

What kinds of skills do you think a salesperson needs to succeed?
Being open minded and smiling! 😀

What has been your favorite project at PSPINC?
We held an open house in San Diego, which we planned from scratch. We were all able to connect with each other during the event and the people who came had a great time.

What has been your proudest moment at PSPINC?
I introduced local sake maker to a local Japanese restaurant and they decided to carry the Sake! I believe building network is important so those moment makes me very happy and proud.

What do you like to do for fun?
Recently, I’ve liked doing my nails! Also, I love going to breweries on the weekend and grabbing some local beers!

What is your favorite movie?
All the James Bond movies, The Notebook, and Friends. I know Friends isn't a movie, I'm just a huge Friends fan!

What’s your favorite food?
Noodles. Especially ramen, pho, and udon.

Tell us about your family.
My dad, mom, younger sister, and French bulldog, Anne, are back in Japan and I miss them. We even have an Instagram page for our dog you can check out!

Where would you want to go on your ideal vacation?
Italy.

What have you been most passionate about?
Before coming to the U.S., I did ballet for over 13 years, and I miss my flexibility! I’m thinking of restarting ballet soon, so if you know of any good ballet studios in the San Diego area, please let me know!

Anything else you want to mention?
I’d love to visit Seattle one day. Let me know what restaurant recommendations you have for me!

We hope you enjoyed getting to know Toko today! If you’re a business in the San Diego or Los Angeles area that wants to grow their business online, don’t hesitate to call Toko at 619-539-6432. She and her team are experts dedicated to helping you!

Do you like what you heard about PSPINC? Check our open positions, we are always looking for talented individuals looking to fast track their career in technology!

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.

#business #employee #employees #employeespotlight #friends #jamesbond #losangeles #losangelestown #marketing #pacificsoftwarepublishinginc #pspinc #sales #salespeople #salesperson #sandiego #sandiegotown #seattle #smallbusiness #thenotebook #tullys

PSPINC Official Company Blog

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PSPINC What’s New Newsletter Vol. 127 “Boosting Employee Morale”

How to Create a Brand

PSPINC What's New Newsletter Vol. 126 "Business Competition"

PSPINC What's New Newsletter Vol. 125 "Starting a Business"

What is “Big Data”?

The Benefits of Big Data

How Big Data is Changing

PSPINC What’s New Newsletter Vol. 124 “Simplifying Sales Cycles”

PSPINC What’s New Newsletter Vol. 123 “Turning Frustration Into a Successful Business”

How to Market Your E-Commerce Site

Optimize for Search Engines

Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Email Marketing

Social Media Marketing

Optimize for Conversions

PSPINC What’s New Newsletter Vol. 122 “Flexibility in Business”

Employee Spotlight: Meet Toko

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