PSPINC Official Company Blog

The Difference Between B2B and B2C Marketing

Dec

6

When marketing a business successfully, a lot of research, strategy, and execution goes into it. But what works for one company won’t necessarily work for another. Even if both companies are relatively the same size and sell similar products. This is because their audiences and end goals can be completely different. One company could be selling computer software to everyday customers to use at home, while another could be selling something similar for other small businesses to use on a wide scale. Think of it this way: a customer buying a computer to use at home is very different from a customer buying computers for their entire office to use.

Therefore, a company’s marketing strategy towards one customer buying a computer is going to be completely different from one trying to sell to a business. And that’s why B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer) marketing exist. B2B marketing refers to marketing to professional buyers, who are looking to purchase products or services that will benefit the company they work for. B2C marketing, however, refers to marketing toward individual customers.

B2C Marketing Strategies

A Woman in White Long Sleeves Tapping Her Phone on a Payment Terminal at the Counter

When marketing to individual customers, messaging is the most important aspect of your advertising efforts. With the right message, you can create loyal customers, confirm your credibility, and emotionally connect with your customers. And it will help in achieving the ultimate goal: motivating them to purchase from you. An effective way of delivering the right message is to evoke emotion in your ad copy.

The relationship between the brand and customer in B2B marketing is transactional in the sense that it’s quick and easy when done right. And the audience is much larger and broader compared to B2B businesses. So, it only makes it that much more important that your ad copy is effective. Because of how short the experience is between the customer and company, making sure it’s memorable will better ensure they’ll not only remember you but come back to purchase from you again.

B2B Marketing Strategies

Man in a Suit Talking with a Couple in an Office

Unlike B2C marketing, B2B focuses more on establishing a long-term relationship with customers. And your audience is much smaller compared to B2C. While there is some overlap between B2C and B2B marketing, B2B ad copy will usually consist more of establishing your positioning in the market and showcasing your expertise.

The best way to do that is by constantly creating educational content and keeping a line of communication open. B2B customers take much longer to make purchasing decisions compared to B2C. It’s because it’s not just a personal purchase, it’s one that they’re hoping will benefit their business, employees, and colleagues. So, it’s important to B2B customers that the products or services come from a reputable company. If the company provides plenty of content that shows off their expert knowledge, it makes B2B customers much more likely to purchase from 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.

#b2b #b2bmarketing #b2c #b2cmarketing #blog #branding #business #businesstips #businesstools #customerjourney #digitalmarketing #ecommerce #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #officetips #onlinemarketing #smallbusiness #web

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 144 “Advertising on Google”

Dec

1

For a small company, it can be hard to justify spending money on marketing. Especially when there are ways to promote your business for free through social media, email, and your own website. But there’s a reason why most small businesses use Google Ads. Organic posts will only get you so far. The biggest benefit that Google has to offer is brand awareness and reach. Sure, you can tell your family and friends all about your business. And share your website on social media. But it’s not enough.

There are billions of internet users out there, millions of which could be potential customers looking for what you have to offer. But they can’t purchase from you if you don’t know you exist. The best way to make sure that doesn’t happen is by advertising on Google. And it’s great for small businesses because it’s not super expensive like some other advertising avenues. So, even though you can market your business for free, it doesn’t mean you should.

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 #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #facebook #google #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #newsletter #pacificsoftwarepublishing #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #socialmedia #tech #technology #web #websites

PSPINC is #17 on Puget Sound Business Journal’s Asian-Owned Business List of 2022

Nov

30

We’re so excited to announce that we’ve made it onto the Puget Sound Business Journal’s list of Asian-Owned Businesses of 2022 at #17! For 35 years, Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. (PSPINC) has been helping small businesses everywhere grow their business online with digital products and services. And we couldn’t be prouder of the work we’ve done so far.

To see how we can help your business with your online needs, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

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.

#asianownedbusiness #award #b2b #blog #branding #business #businesstools #digitalmarketing #diversity #ecommerce #marketing #marketingdigital #pacificsoftwarepublishing #psbj #pspinc #pugetsoundbusinessjournal #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web

The Benefits of Authenticator Apps

Nov

29

For many online accounts, users can add an extra layer of security with two-factor authentication via authenticator apps. To do this, authenticator apps generate a six to eight-digit code every 30 seconds, which users will enter whenever they log into their accounts. According to Embroker, the pandemic has only accelerated cybercrime, as it’s increased by 600%. And it hasn’t only affected individuals, but small businesses as well. Therefore, multiple-factor authentication (MFA) methods have become more popular over the past few years. And some may argue they may become a norm in the next few years.

To use an authenticator app:

Sign up and install an authenticator app on your mobile device.

Go to any of your online accounts that support two-factor authentication (2FA).

Choose the option to use an authenticator app.

Tap on Add Account in your authenticator app.

Tap on Scan QR Code in your authenticator app and scan the code the website shows you.

Your authenticator app will add your account, giving your account a name and icon.

The next time you sign into your account, you will need to open your authenticator app to enter an access code, which will only last for about 60 seconds before a new code generates.

How Authenticator Apps Work

Authenticator apps use a time-based one-time password (TOTP), a standardized method that generates a routinely changing code based on a shared secret. When setting up 2FA with an authentication app, the server of whatever online account you’re using creates a secret key made up of random numbers and letters. Then, users can save this key by either scanning a QR code or manually entering the longer code into their authenticator app. Doing this then shares the secret key between the server and the user’s phone.

When logging into their account next time, the server asks for proof of this key by prompting users with an access code. Users will then have to open their authenticator app (be it Google, Microsoft, etc.) and enter a six to eight-digit access code to log in. This code, however, isn’t the secret key. Instead, the authenticator app uses a secure-hash function to mix the secret key with the current time to produce a temporary access code. To make it even more secure, the access code is only valid for about 60 seconds, making the code that much more unique.

Why Authenticator Apps Are More Secure Than Text-Based Verification

Another way to protect your online accounts can be through a text message or SMS verification. But SMS verification ties directly to a user’s phone number and SIM card. Ultimately, this means that anyone with access to a user’s phone and/or SIM card can log in with SMS verification. A cybercriminal can attain a user’s SIM card by convincing a mobile provider to send them a SIM card with your number. Or they can intercept your text messages, also known as a “man-in-the-middle” attack.

An authenticator app makes it harder for cybercrime to occur by constantly changing access codes after about 60 seconds. So, if thieves do manage to intercept both the access code and a user’s password, they have a very limited time to use it. And while there are still ways for criminals to hack your account, having 2FA in place for online accounts is still better than not having one at all. And it’s why our password manager, Pass Wizard, gives users the option to add 2FA to their account, either through SMS or one-time password (OTP) via an authenticator app.

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.

The term "QR Code" is a registered trademark of DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED.

#app #authenticatorapps #blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #cybersecurity #digitalmarketing #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #mobile #security #smallbusiness #softwaredevelopment #tech #technology #web #webdevelopment #webtools

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 143 “Press Releases”

Nov

24

In business, we still consider press releases as a fundamental part of the communication cycle when marketing new product launches and events. It is, after all, a direct link to local media publications. But it’s hard to know how much it helps and if it’s worth the effort. After all, people’s attention spans have gotten smaller and press releases generally aren’t very short. Additionally, there’s so much media for people to consume, it’s hard to get through all the noise. From a journalist’s point of view, it’s a necessity. For a company, it can feel more like a throwaway tactic if it doesn’t result in increased sales, user engagement, or even web traffic.

But it’s a business standard for a reason. At the very least, it helps to establish credibility and gives companies the chance to control the narrative. For a smaller company, credibility is vital to success. If customers decide they don’t want to purchase from a larger company, they need to know they won’t regret buying from a smaller company. Seeing educational content on the company blog is a great start, but seeing press releases about the company from other sources is better. Companies are still able to control the messaging, but the fact that it comes from a different source adds to its overall credibility. So, while press releases are no longer useful in the same way they used to be, there is still a benefit to using 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 #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #journalism #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #presserelease #pressreleases #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #sales #smallbusiness

How Personalized Marketing Can Benefit Your Business

Nov

22

With so many small businesses out there, it’s hard to convince customers to choose yours. Not only that, but you want those customers to stay with you long term. Customers want to feel special rather than just another customer. One way to do that is to personalize marketing messages to customers. Personalized marketing is when a business tailors marketing efforts based on collected customer data such as purchase history, interests, and demographic data.

According to Slideshare, 90% of customers find personalization very or somewhat appealing. And 80% of customers are more inclined to buy from companies that offer personalized experiences. Personalized marketing is, however, more than simply addressing customers by name in marketing emails. It can also include product recommendations based on purchase history, cart abandonment emails, birthday emails, and even personalized web pages or pop-ups for first-time or returning customers.

Benefits of Personalized Marketing

With so much content and advertisements out there, businesses won’t attract customers with irrelevant marketing messages. Personalized messages, however, will help retain customers and bring them back repeatedly. With personalized marketing messages, potential customers are more likely to convert into actual customers and purchase from you. It results in a better customer experience, one that may even be good enough to share online or with close friends. In turn, it simplifies the lead nurturing process, as personalizing improves the overall experience, increasing the likelihood that users will convert. And it’ll result in more customer engagement and feedback in the end.

As a business, you can also get valuable insight into your customers. By personalizing marketing efforts, you can see how customers shop, what they like, and what they don’t like. You can then use all this additional knowledge to see how effective your efforts are. More importantly, you can also improve in areas that could use an upgrade. With all this combined, it will ultimately lead to increased revenue.

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 #customerfeedback #digitalmarketing #ecommerce #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #sales #seo #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #web #webdesign #websites

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 142 “Social Issues”

Nov

17

Over the last decade, some companies have announced their support for or opposition to a social issue. And it’s happened much more in the past few years as there’s been more evidence of customers purchasing based on where brands stand on certain issues. But as a small business, it can be a risky move to do so. Even though there are many successful examples of brands achieving this, there are also many who have failed. If you decide to take a stance as a small business, extensive research and testing are necessary before you announce it publicly. But it’s also important to point out that even after all of that, it can still fail.

That’s why many companies, especially small businesses, opt to completely stay out of it. Sometimes, companies don’t realize just how smart customers are. If it seems like your company is just supporting or opposing something just to say something, your customers will pick up on it. And they won’t be happy about it. For any company, regardless of size, having something like this backfire on you can be catastrophic. So, sometimes it’s better to just stay out of social issues.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

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

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

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

#blog #brand #branding #business #businesstips #digitalmarketing #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #newsletter #politicalissues #politics #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #sales #smallbusiness #socialissues

Why Your Company Website Might Need a Redesign

Nov

15

The end goal of every company website is to drive conversions, increase website traffic, and grow sales. So, it’s important for every company, regardless of industry or niche, to update its website regularly. But your business website could also use a complete redesign every two or three years to stay up to date with everyone else. If you don’t, you risk keeping website elements that not only fail to convert users but also cause your visitors to leave before exploring the rest of what your site has to offer.

Before you go about the redesign process, consider what goals you want to achieve. Some examples include:

Being more visually aligned with your brand

Improving navigation on your site

Keeping users from bouncing off your pages so quickly

What Goes Into a Company Website Redesign?

Blue Pen Beside Black Smartphone on White Paper

When looking at your current site, what works, and what doesn’t? To better determine this, take a closer look at your target audience and your competitor sites. The content on your site should cater to your target audience and highlight what you offer. And the design should revolve around that, making sure it’s easy for your users to navigate. Looking at competitor sites will give you a better idea of industry standards. Plus, they’ll likely have a similar target audience, so their designs influencing some of your design decisions isn’t such a bad idea.

After that, it’s much easier to create a list of requirements. Some will involve the basic elements of a website like a simple navigation bar. But others will include industry-specific or even niche-specific features or add-ons. The clearer you are on your overall vision for your business site, the easier it will be to redesign. Once you have all those, you can implement those changes. But it also comes with a certain amount of risk. To help reduce the risk, try testing those new features to see what helps your site’s website traffic and what hinders it.

Outsource Your Website Redesign

Woman Wearing Red Top Holding Silver Macbook

Unless you’re like us, website development and design are probably not in your wheelhouse. Luckily, there are professionals who can easily take on the task of redesigning. People like us here at PSPINC. We specialize in helping small businesses grow online as a software design and development company. And redesigning your entire business site is a big overhaul. Outsourcing to a company like ours gives you more time to focus on other efforts in growing your business.

If you're looking to update or redesign your website, let us know! We're experts at helping small businesses grow online. And that starts with having a great website for 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.

#b2b #blog #business #businesstips #design #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #pspinc #redesign #smallbusiness #tech #technology #update #webdesign #webdesigner #webdevelopment #website #websitebuilder #websitedesign #webtools

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 141 “Product Development”

Nov

10

When developing products for your business, it’s important to remember your audience. Regardless of what industry you’re in, customers regard you as experts. And you wouldn’t be running a small business if you didn’t have at least some kind of expertise. The product or service you create shouldn’t just serve you, but also your industry and your audience. Customers are smart, but don’t assume they know the same things you do. Because they don’t. So, don’t design your product in a way that requires them to know more than they do.

To make sure this doesn’t happen, it’s always a good idea to test your new product with someone who isn’t well-versed in your industry. As a tech company, we get our sales and marketing team to try out our new products. And it’s not only because they’re the ones who are trying to sell it. It’s also to see if there are areas where we could improve because if they don’t know how to use it, how can we expect our customers to know?

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 #customerservice #digitalmarketing #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #newsletter #officetips #pacificsoftwarepublishing #pspinc #sales #smallbusiness #softwaredevelopment #tech #technology #webdevelopment

What is Inbound Marketing?

Nov

8

Outbound marketing encompasses more of the promotional aspects of marketing; cold calling, TV ads, print ads, and even social media ads. Inbound marketing, however, follows a different approach. Instead of blatantly promoting products, it’s much more interactive, as it establishes a relationship between brands and customers. All by providing them with valuable content. Think of outbound marketing as pushing products while inbound marketing pulls customers in.

While outbound marketing is the more traditional way of doing things, inbound marketing aims to nurture relationships with potential customers and build credibility and loyalty. Inbound marketing strategies include social media, paid ads, email marketing, blogs, conversational chatbots, video, etc. To do this, inbound marketing has three stages: attract, engage, and delight.

1. Attract

A Couple Wearing Face Masks while Ordering at the Counter

At this stage, people aren’t ready to buy, but they will be interested in the content you provide, given that it’s valuable to them. To figure out what kind of content that should be, creating customer personas is a great way to start to give you a better idea of what the buyer's journey and progression look like. From there, you can create content that will best align with them as people, which will lead to more overall awareness and engagement.

2. Engage

a man getting recorded by someone else with their phone

With the knowledge learned about potential customers in the first stage, you can use that to your advantage now. From the customer journey and personas, determine what their pain points and goals are. With that, the content you create will be much more valuable to them, especially if you address the problems they initially had. Plus, it’ll keep your business at the top of mind when they are ready to purchase later on.

3. Delight

Person in Black Pants and Black Shoes Sitting on Brown Wooden Chair

In the last stage of the inbound marketing process, your business should not only understand what problems your potential customers are having, but also how to solve them. While inbound marketing can include advertising tactics like pay-per-click (PPC) and social media ads, they shouldn’t be interruptive. Instead, they should be relevant, helpful, and targeted, with specific keywords and phrases your buyer uses.

Inbound marketing isn’t a short overall process, but it’s well worth it for businesses in the end. While it can be time-consuming, customers appreciate content like this because it’s educational, entertaining, and most importantly, it doesn’t feel like they’re being sold to. Especially since it’s done in a nonintrusive way that invites customers to engage if they want to, unlike outbound marketing strategies. While it won’t result in a quick sale, it will, however, have a stronger influence on potential customers and result in more qualitative rather than quantitative leads. And in the long run, those customers are more likely to become loyal customers.

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.