PSPINC Official Company Blog

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 128 “Delegating as a Small Business Owner”

Aug

11

As a small business owner, it’s hard not to want to be involved in everything. After all, it’s your company. So, it’s not surprising to learn that many entrepreneurs try to do it all on their own in the beginning. But no one can be good at everything. Running a startup involves many tasks that one person alone cannot tackle on their own. So, being able to delegate is an important skill business owners need to learn.

The easiest way to do this is by focusing on what you’re best at. Then, you can hire experienced and talented people to do the rest. If you don’t know where to start, write down everything that needs to get done for your business on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis. Then, sort through which tasks you can pass off to someone else. If you try to do it all yourself all the time, it won’t be long before you feel burnt out. For someone investing so much of their time, money, and hard work into a company, it’s hard to give up control. But it’s a necessary skill for businesses to thrive.

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 #businessowner #businesstips #delegating #entrepreneur #marketing #marketingtips #newsletter #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #smallbusiness #smallbusinessowner #startup #tasks

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

PSPINC What's New Newsletter Vol. 121"An Elevator Pitch"

Jun

23

Have you heard of an elevator pitch? It’s the idea that if you got into an elevator with an investor, what would you say to try to sell to them? It should be short, concise, but still compelling enough to introduce yourself and showcase your expertise in a way that will convince the other person to invest in you. Like marketing yourself or whatever you’re trying to sell in a short amount of time. But what components do you need to make a good elevator pitch into a great one? You want to sell effectively, but you also want to stand out amongst others who are also trying to sell to this investor.

While every elevator pitch will undoubtedly be different, there are components you want to ensure you include. For example, say you’re trying to sell a specific product. The first and obvious thing you need is the name of that product. Then, informing them about what market category it fits in and who the target customer would be is also an important detail to add.

After that, the investor needs to know why a potential customer would need this product, at least one key benefit, what similar products already exist on the market and what makes it different than everything that's already on the market. While it seems like a lot to fit in a 90-second window, if you know your product well and truly believe in it, it’s easy. Making an elevator pitch go successfully can be tricky, but it relies on making sure you include the most crucial details. The rest is up to you.

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 #business #businesstips #digitalmarketing #elevatorpitch #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #newsletter #pitch #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #sales #salespitch #smallbusiness #tech #technology

PSPINC What’s New Newsletter Vol. 114 “Being Proactive in Business”

May

5

It’s important to be proactive in business. Rather than waiting for problems to arise, businesses should anticipate them and have a plan in place to solve them. Otherwise, you’ll be left scrambling to fix the problem. And in the process, you may lose customers as a result because they might lose trust in you as a company. To ensure this doesn’t happen, you’ll have to do your research to find potential problems. The best way to accomplish this is by testing everything constantly to make sure your new product and/or service works correctly. It’s exactly why PSPINC has a quality assurance (QA) department. And even if you think it’s great, you should still seek feedback from your employees. Especially because they too represent potential customers.

Additionally, you should test every part of the purchase funnel to identify places that could cause friction. For example, if your payment portal on your website isn’t working properly, customers will likely abandon the process altogether. Instead, they’ll look to your competitors to find a similar product. Today’s customers are smart and hold a lot of influence over the marketplace. If a potential customer tries to buy your product and finds the product problematic or the process too troublesome, they won’t hesitate to tell you. Or worse, they’ll tell others on social media. So, avoid this problem by being proactive before releasing a new product or service.

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 #customerservice #customersupport #digitalmarketing #entrepreneur #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #newsletter #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #qa #qualityassurance #tech #technology #testing #web

What Content Monetization Looks Like Today

Feb

1

With the explosion of content creators over the past ten years, give or take, content monetization has changed the way people make money online. To start, content monetization is the process of making money off of the content you produce. This content could virtually be almost anything: videos, images, audio, text, or a combination of these formats. The most obvious examples consist of influencers on social media (YouTubers, TikTokers, Instagram models) and large publisher sites (like Buzzfeed).

The History of Content Monetization

someone recording a musician playing guitar and singing from a phone

But for a long time, content creators essentially created content for free, for either entertainment or educational purposes. When the concept of YouTubers exploded, people who made it big on the platform didn’t start making videos to make money. They started filming themselves to have fun or to educate others on what they thought more people should know. But once YouTube realized the potential they had on their hands, they dove into content monetization. And other major content-heavy platforms consequently followed. For written content, bloggers and publisher sites mainly generated money through advertising revenues. But when those started to drop, they too looked into content monetization models.

The simplest approach was simply placing ads around the content or before, during, or after the content (for video and audio content). Then, website traffic would mostly determine how much money the creator would make. It sounds simple enough but now there are multiple monetization models people can use to get paid online. But in reality, content creators experiment and adopt multiple content monetization models to find the ones that work for them.

Types of Content Monetization Strategies

1. Selling exclusive rights

someone signing their name on a legal document

This method is by far the fastest way to convert your content into revenue. But it comes with a catch. You’d have to relinquish all rights to the work, which includes any copyright or royalties. Simply put, this is like a work-for-hire type of method where you create and sell the content you create. This process could happen in one of two ways. You can create the content and sell it after you’ve already finished. Or you can find a buyer and he/she will tell you what to include in that content, much like ghostwriting or freelancing.

2. Affiliate sales

someone holding a credit card in one hand while her other hand rests on her laptop keyboard that's open in front of her on a desk

Affiliate marketing simply put is promoting third-party products and earning a percentage of those sales. This could be through referral links that you’d put somewhere in your blog post or the description for your YouTube video. Or they can be through referral codes that you can shout out in your podcast or the actual video. However, it’s not always as easy as it sounds. It’s one thing to promote the product or insert the link into your blog post. It’s a whole other struggle to get the user to not only click on the link but also purchase that product. Regardless, content creators who use this method work within an affiliate program, much like PSPINC's YourHost Affiliate Program. Within those programs, a unique referral links gets created and creators can then promote that product or service to get people to purchase it. It's not always easy, but if your content performs well on a regular basis, affiliate marketing could be the right content monetization model.

3. Subscriptions/memberships

computer graphic with log in to continue written on the screen with an insert email text box and a continue button. Underneath, there's also a see subscription options written.

If you’ve ever tried to visit select sites like the New York Times and you click on an article to read, a pop-up appears for you to create an account. Most of these sites consist of larger brands that have a consistent readership so they can get users to sign up for a membership and/or subscribe to get access to their content. But it’s more than just getting a reader’s name and email address. It also requires them to pay to view that content. To gain access to exclusive content, whether it’s news articles, blog posts, images, and/or videos, users have to pay to get it. And that is the subscription model at play when it comes to content monetization.

4. Donations

someone holding a box that says donations

Have you ever seen a pop-up that asks you to donate? For example, Wikipedia does this now from time to time. That’s content monetization at work. Publishers will directly ask for money to help keep their site running in the form of donations. But even if users don’t donate anything, they can still read, view, and/or watch whatever the content is for free. Unlike the subscription/membership model where users are forced to pay to view it.

5. Sponsored content

If you’ve ever seen a post on social media with the hashtag, #sponsored, that’s content monetization. Or for YouTube videos, if you’ve ever seen the tag, “Includes paid promotion” in the bottom left corner, that’s also sponsored content. What this usually entails is a brand seeking out an influencer, another brand, or a publisher that has the right blend of three things. A good number of followers, viewership, and/or website traffic, and someone (whether it’s another brand/publisher or an influencer) whose personality matches their brand and what it stands for.

How much it costs and how much return you’ll get for that sponsored content depends on how big the influencer is, how much exposure the post gets, and how much that influencer is charging. Regardless, sponsored content helps increase a brand’s overall reach and engagement and ultimately, sales.

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.

#audio #blog #business #buzzfeed #content #contentcreation #contentmonetization #digitalmarketing #images #influencermarketing #influencers #instagram #marketing #marketingtips #memberships #publisher #smallbusiness #subscriptions #tiktok #videos #youtube

4 Marketing Tips That DON’T Work

Jul

23

1. Posting as Frequently as Possible

This is a common marketing tip – “post often and consistently so your followers are constantly seeing your content.” At one point, this was a legitimate marketing tactic that worked for the most part. But now, users and social media platforms are more sophisticated – they promote and engage with QUALITY content, not quantity.

Instead, focus on creating quality content with a purpose and focus less on the quantity of posts.

2. Posting the Same Content Across Platforms

It’s SO easy to link your social media platforms with services like Hootsuite that it seems wrong not to. But, posting the same content on all your platforms can be repetitive and can bore your audience. And many people follow social media platforms for different reasons, so what works for one may not be the right message for another.

Try to think of the types of content that people like to see on each platform and create content to geared toward that audience. For example, users might follow your Twitter for quick updates, so posting long content on Twitter might have a negative effect.

3. Hashtagging Everything

How will users find my content if I don’t #hashtag everything? Yes, hashtags are a great way to organize similar content and find similar posts, but it can also be harmful. Users tend to find content with minimal or no hashtags.

Instead of trying to figure out the perfect hashtags to boost your posts, focus on creating content that answers a question, solves a problem, or brings value to end users. If you create content that is good enough to be shared by users and therefore reaches more people, you know you’re doing it right.

4. Optimizing for SEO

SEO is still very important, and so are long-tail keywords.

But, writing a blog post or creating a new page on your website that is ONLY optimized for SEO is a mistake. Stuffing your text with keywords will only make your content less relevant and ultimately rank lower.

Instead, focus on creating good quality content that again answers a question, solves a problem, or brings value to its readers. Quality content will naturally rank higher on search and social platforms.

#Blog #BusinessTips #ENnews #Marketing #MarketingTips #PSPinc #SEO #SmallBusiness #SocialMedia #Technology