PSPINC Official Company Blog

How IP Targeting Works

Aug

15

image source: pixabay.com

By now, most of us realize we are the targets of geomarketing ads. When we search for something on our phones, or visit a website, you can bet you’ll see an ad for it (or something like it) the next time you log into Facebook or another social platform.

In all digitally-generated ads, businesses have an opportunity to target not only the type of users they want but also the regions they’re in. Choosing the right region and market will help you be more effective in bringing the right audience to you.

When creating digital ads, you can pinpoint the country, region, or city in which your ad will be shown. If you are techy, you might understand IP targeting (targeting an IP address) which is another way to target a specific customer base. Although it’s not quite the same as geomarketing, it targets the connectivity of people, so for example, you may have the same IP address for a mother and a daughter, or a friend who is connected at the same household.

An IP address remains in your device history and through IP targeting it may be used to remind you about a service or store you visited. For example, a car dealer may know you’ve been to their service department from IP targeting and therefore get an ad in front of you for the newest model of your car. You might see these types of paid ads in Google when you’re doing a search or on Facebook.

Regardless of your budget, you could take advantage of these features and spend your money more wisely. If you have questions about how to get started, contact us at PSP and we can guide your targeted marketing efforts.

#Blog #BusinessTips #ENnews #GeoMarketing #IPAddress #IPTargeting #LocalAds #PSPinc #SmallBusiness #Technology

Local SEO is Key in Geomarketing

Aug

13

image source: pixabay.com

We’ve been discussing how geomarketing and local SEO are critical to a company’s online success. Let’s review the key components of local SEO so you can strengthen your geomarketing efforts.

Local SEO is a way to optimize your online presence in a specific location (or multiple areas). There are a few critical components in local SEO:

Business Location

Your business loses credibility when location information isn’t obvious online. Everyone is cautious of fake sites these days; location information legitimizes your business. Search engines also try to provide end users more relevant information, therefore not having your business address or location weakens your online presence in search results. Search engines will look at who you are and where you are to provide accurate local search results to users. So be sure you list your address and the locations you serve within your web content.

Google My Business

One of the most important tools for local SEO is Google My Business. Those who have not yet claimed your business on Google, you really need to take immediate action and do so. Same is true for Yahoo or Bing if you care for them as well. Claiming your business is easy, just go to https://www.google.com/business/ and follow instructions on the screen.

For Geomarketing purposes, it’s important to make sure your business address is claimed and confirmed via a postcard with Google. Google does not like fake claims to business, therefore they use good old-fashioned means to verify your address by sending you a postcard with a code.

Other benefits include the ability to get customer reviews and get a pin on Google maps.

Citations

Aside from search engines, be sure to check any relevant business listings on Yelp and Facebook. You really need to be on top of these popular sites because you want to make sure your information is consistent and accurate across platforms (checking your hours and contact info too). If you don’t claim your business, you leave it open for someone else to hijack your business online.

Remember, search engines are trying to provide relevant information to end users. If you are not in control of your information online, you will lose the chance to earn that local publicity and the leads it could bring in.

#Blog #BusinessTips #ENnews #GeoMarketing #Google #LocalSEO #PSPinc #SmallBusiness #Technology

Tune up your Geomarketing Campaigns

Aug

8

image source: pexels.com

Geomarketing is a powerful tool where we business owners can use people’s smartphone location information to our advertising advantage. There are over 250 million smartphone users in the U.S., which means about 3 out of 4 people has a smartphone. It’s not too far off to state that just about everyone except babies and small kids have a device of their own!

Not everyone has location information enabled on their device, but it’s safe to say enough of us have it turned on. Many large SNS and online services capture this location information and we, as small business owners, can take advantage of such knowledge in order to be more effective and efficient in our efforts to reach our targeted audience.

Google likes to show “relevant” information by providing local search information near you. This means you have a better chance to get engaged with potential customers near you. In general, customers are more likely to choose companies near them. Which means if your business doesn’t have a local presence on the search engines, you’re missing a huge marketing opportunity.

But you must make sure your web content is also optimized for local marketing. What does that mean?

First, you need to make sure you insert local keywords into your content, such as cities and states. If you’re outside of a city limit, you really need to put some effort into using location names and service area zip code information within your content. Content is king but you have to add in keywords naturally. Overdoing it will make your content feel like a scam to both visitors of your site and search engine crawlers.

Consider creating a web page optimized for a specific city or area so people land on information that’s relevant to them. Or consider paid ad campaigns targeting people in a specific city, town or zip code. By limiting the areas in which you advertise online, you can control your campaign cost at the same time. You can use your geotargeted landing page in your paid ads to get better conversions.

There are many ways to use geomarketing for your business but have a goal in mind and a tracking method in place such as Google Analytics. There is more than one way to find success online, but it takes time and effort to tune up your campaigns.

#Blog #BusinessTips #ENnews #GeoMarketing #Google #LocalSEO #PSPinc #SmallBusiness #Technology

What is Geomarketing?

Aug

6

image source: pexels.com

“Geomarketing” is a relatively new term combining two words: geography and marketing. It’s the practice of using geographic location information in our marketing activities. With today’s technology, even companies that lack the large marketing budgets can find ways to access demographic information about their customers, allowing them to really target a specific audience when it comes to marketing.

Defining what “geo” means as it pertains to technology can help you understand the opportunities and limitations of geomarketing, so let’s dig deeper.

The word “geo” means “relating to the earth,” and when it comes to technology, “geo” means any form of location intelligence. For example, when your cell phone tracks your location to the point it knows what store you’re at, what map location you’re looking for, or it can reference the location tags in your social media posts.

The opposite end of geotargeting is geofencing, which acts as a boundary of sorts and limits the geographical area in which you can advertise. Companies that use geotargeting tools can really pinpoint the potential customers in their target area, helping them advertise more efficiently and effectively.

We will cover some examples in the following articles so you can take advantage of today’s geomarketing technology to better advertise your business online.

#Blog #BusinessTips #ENnews #GeoFencing #GeoMarketing #Google #LocalSEO #PSPinc #SmallBusiness #Technology

How to Backup Emails in Mozilla Thunderbird

Aug

1

image source: thunderbird.net

First, you’ll need to add on the Import and Export mail feature to Thunderbird.

1. Open your Thunderbird desktop app.
2. Click the drop-down menu in the top-right corner.
3. Find and select the “Add-ons” button from the right menu.
4. Click “Get Add-ons.”
5. In the search bar, type in “ImportExportTools.”
6. Add the “ImportExportTools” to Thunderbird.
7. When prompted, click the Install Now button
8. From the upper-right corner, select the “Restart Now” button.

Now, we can export your emails.

1. Open your Thunderbird desktop app and select the email folder you want to back up.
2. Right-click on the folder and select “ImportExportTools.”
3. Select Export all messages in the folder from the drop down menu.
4. Select a file type to save your emails. We suggest EML format or HTML.
5. Select a folder to save your emails to.

#Blog #BusinessTips #ENnews #Email #EmailBackup #Mozilla #MozillaThunderbird #PSPinc #SmallBusiness #Technology

How to Backup Emails in Outlook

Jul

30

image source: support.office.com

Follow these steps for backing up emails in Outlook for Office 365, Outlook 2019, Outlook 2016, and Outlook 2013:

Backup to a folder on your computer:

1. Go to File in the tool bar > Open & Export > Import / Export
2. Choose “Export to a file” from the list of actions. Then click next.
3. Select “Outlook Data File .pst from the list of file types.
4. Choose the mail folder that you want to back up.
5. Click browse and choose a destination folder you want to back up your emails to.
6. Select Finish.

Backup emails to external hard drive:

1. Follow the steps above 1-6.
2. Plug in your external hard drive to your computer.
3. Locate the file you backed up your emails to.
4. Drag and drop the file into your external hard drive.

#Blog #BusinessTips #ENnews #Email #EmailBackup #Office365 #Outlook #PSPinc #SmallBusiness #Technology

How to Backup Apple Email

Jul

25

Method 1

Use the export mailbox feature in Apple as a way to archive your emails. This method lets you remove messages from Apple Mail while still keeping a saved copy.

1. First, open up Apple Mail.
2. From the menu bar, click on Mailbox > New Mailbox.
3. Drag and drop the emails you want to backup into the new mailbox.
4. Right-click on the new mailbox and choose “Export Mailbox” in the sidebar.
5. Choose a destination you wish to save your .mbox file.

Method 2

Backup Apple mail using Time Machine, a built-in feature for Mac that lets you continually backup your files, apps, and operating system to an external hard drive.

1. Connect an external hard drive to you computer.
2. Click on the Apple icon in the menu bar and choose “System Preferences.”
3. Choose “Time Machine.”
4. Click on the “Select Backup” button and choose your external hard drive from the menu.
5. The “Time Machine” should be toggled to ON. The first Time Machine backup will begin after the countdown.

Method 3

Finally, you can use third-party Mac backup software. Some popular backup software applications include:

Carbonite
Acronis True Image
Norton 360
ChronoSync

#Apple #Blog #BusinessTips #ENnews #PSPinc #SmallBusiness #Technology

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

3 Business Trends to Follow in 2019

Jul

18

We are past the halfway mark for 2019 – so now is a good time to assess which trends are changing and what to follow.

1. Continued Distrust in Facebook

O.K. So this isn’t exactly a surprising trend. Facebook has consistently been in news headlines this year. But, even with all the bad press, Facebook still boast an impressive 1 billion active users.

Understanding users’ distrust while still using the platform to promote your business, organize events, and connect with users can be a fine line. We suggest that companies watch this trend and if you haven’t already – start expanding your online presence to other social platforms.

2. The Decline of “Experts”

Everywhere you look individuals and companies are all claiming to be “experts” in their fields. The title has become oversaturated and has lost most of its sparkle. If we are all experts then there is nothing to differentiate ourselves from each other.

Keep your eyes out for changes to the term “experts” as more companies expand their focus and vocabulary.

3. Customer Success

Look for this to become a new trend during the rest of the year. Customer success is the idea that companies can help customers get the most value from their products or services. Using digital media, companies can follow up with customers, beyond their purchases, to ensure that the customers are getting the most value from their product or service.

This can take several forms, including how-to videos, blogs with more detailed information or tips, teaching seminars for products/services and much more.

#Blog #BusinessTips #BusinessTrends #ENnews #Facebook #PSPinc #SmallBusiness #Technology

AI and Automation versus the Human Component

Jul

16

image source: pixabay.com

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation are critical components to the future of business. Some experts say, “AI will add nearly $16 trillion to the global economy by 2030.” (Source: Forbes.com) As our computing power gets stronger and faster, smart devices are reaching the speed of our brains, calculating the probabilities and possibilities of an outcome, creating more AI-like results. Automation is a similar technology on a simpler scale.

AI calculates the countless possibilities and outcomes in a matter of seconds, returning the results (of a process) back to you so you don’t have to do the actual “thinking.” But these calculations are based on the rules and computing commands humans create, so the rules and commands we provide (or teach) to AI limits its ability to get what we want from it. It’s kind of like raising a child: we teach them to think for themselves, according to what we know.

The AI that’s most difficult to refine is speech recognition and language generation. Have you tried your smart speakers or voice commands in your car? Have you ever asked Siri a question? I tried to start a phone call in the car with voice command and ended up turning on my radio instead.

The downside to AI and automation is the lack of human touch and compassion. Human sensibility, sensitivity and emotions can touch the heart of your customers, and neither automation nor AI may ever be able to deliver that.

The bottom line is: AI and automation are the wave of the future, but still a work in progress. There are automated systems that may benefit your business model and fill the gaps where needed – as long as you’re not sacrificing a critical human component your business and your customers need.

#AI #ArtificialIntelligence #Automation #Blog #BusinessTips #ENnews #PSPinc #SmallBusiness #Technology