Online Marketing Tool to be Launched for EU Farmers

Oryza.com – 

A new online marketing tool called “Farm Inc” is to be launched shortly to help farmers to better market and brand their products independently and thereby face global competitions in a better manner.

The project is supported and co-funded by the European Union (EU) and was carried out by seven partner institutions, including universities, agricultural associations, VET providers and consulting firms from five EU countries of Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Latvia. Copa-Cogeca, the federation of European farmers unions and agri cooperatives, Italian Coldiretti and Latvian Farmers Parliament have been involved in promoting the product.

They showcased during a series of roundtable discussions and info days across Europe, in Belgium, Greece, Italy and Latvia in September. About 304 stakeholders, including farmers, representatives of farmer associations, agricultural entrepreneurs, VET trainers and policy makers, participated in 21 pilot events in the targeted countries. While 46% of the participants rated the material as “excellent”, 47% rated as “very good” and 100% said they would recommend this course to others.

The project involves a customized training tool and  an interactive e-book, which contains basic marketing principles for the agricultural sector as well as practical experiences (case studies, field visits etc). The book is divided into six modules – What is marketing?, A good marketing plan, Farmers markets, Quality, The strength of a Rural Brand, Selling Abroad – and primarily focuses on marketing, branding and internationalisation of agricultural products.

“There is a great potential for regional and local products in the market, but, there is a lack of marketing strategies to enable European agricultural entrepreneurs to compete with the international network and structures of multinational companies,” said the Secretary-General of Copa-Cogeca.

Online Marketing Tool to be Launched for EU Farmers

Kiwi online marketing tool First Table smashes expectations

Tuesday, 15 September 2015, 12:04 pm Press Release: Scope Media

Kiwi online marketing tool First Table smashes growth expectations in 12 months

An online start-up business that acts as a marketing platform for restaurants has exceeded expectations in the first year of operating.

First Table – which offers customers early bird dining deals at participating eateries – has signed up 120 restaurants throughout New Zealand since launching on September 20 last year.

Starting out in Queenstown, the concept has been picked up by restaurants in Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington, Bay of Plenty, Rotorua, Taupo, Hamilton, Manawatu, Nelson and Dunedin.

It’s also been well-received across the Tasman, with Sydney restaurants joining in and Australia’s Gold Coast eateries expected to follow shortly. First Table’s Australian website went live at the weekend, launching in Sydney’s Manly.

First Table is the brainchild of Queenstown tech entrepreneur Mat Weir. He had hoped to get 100 restaurants on board within the first 12 months and is blown away by how successful it’s been so far.

“The vision is for First Table to be a key marketing platform used by restaurants across the world,” Weir explains.

“Restaurants are able to leverage quiet times of the night to their marketing benefit. Diners are using First Table to try out new restaurants. Restaurants are ensuring that their First Table diners are treated to an amazing experience and the customers are then coming back at later times and happily paying full price.”

Diners search firsttable.co.nz for participating restaurants in their town or city of choice. To secure the booking, they pay the website $10 and then dine at the restaurant for 50% less than the actual dinner menu price. The deal covers up to four diners and does not include discount on drinks.

The idea for First Table was sparked when Weir noticed a rise in restaurants offering early bird specials.

“I saw an opportunity to offer those specials on a scale that only the web can offer, and in a way that provides marketing benefits to restaurants and incentives, savings and new experiences to customers.”

Since starting out, 85,000 people have visited the website and 10,000 people have signed up.

Weir has also employed one business development manager in Auckland, one in Wellington, two in Sydney and one account manager in Queenstown. He is also looking at raising capital overseas and taking the venture to the United States.

Takapuna restaurant The Commons has embraced First Table and is thrilled with the results, functions manager Deahla Stockman says.

“First Table has helped to open our doors to customers that might not have thought there was classic European food available in the North Shore. Through the deals provided by First Table, guests feel more relaxed to explore our menu and try dishes they wouldn’t normally eat. From this, we have seen an influx in repeat diners who want to bring their friends and family in to discover the same quality experience they had at The Commons. We are excited to see guests enjoying the quality experience we strive to provide and look forward to continuing our association with First Table.”

Popular Queenstown restaurant The Jervois Steakhouse jumped at the chance to sign up to First Table in February and hasn’t looked back, general manager Hayden Davison says.

“It has definitely been a great marketing tool for us. It’s a brilliant way for our local market to try us for a nice dinner out without breaking the bank,” Davison says.

“Early dining is always a quiet time of night in Queenstown so it’s great being able to create some real atmosphere in the restaurant at an early stage of the evening. It’s also a great opportunity for our staff to show the First Table diners what we do here and add a personal touch to their experience. We get a lot of return customers as a result.”

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Kiwi online marketing tool First Table smashes expectations

Apple Pay: A new digital marketing tool

Launched this summer, Apple Pay has been an advanced step in ridding the traditional wallet. And not only will it have consumer benefits, and is a big plus for the retail sector – this new technology is also bringing a fresh tool for digital marketers to play with.

Here, Ben Sebborn, technical director at events and ticketing agent, Skiddle, which has adopted Apple Pay into its latest app, gives his advice on how digital marketers can use it to their advantage.

About Apple Pay

The popularity of contactless payments since its launch has been apparent; transactions for the first half of 2015came in at £2.5 billion, which is already beating the £2.32 billion spent in 2014.

It was no surprise to anyone, then, when the limit of spending on this technology was recently pushed to £30 from £20. The new Apple Pay technology takes the contactless payment industry one step further – by allowing customers to spend easily and fast in-store and online using just their iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air 2, iPad mini 3, or iWatch.

Research has found that due to a strong sales increase with the launch of the iPhone 6, Apple has boosted its share of the UK smartphone market to 42.5 per cent. And this is on the rise – so it’s time for digital marketers to get clued up about what Apple Pay could mean for their strategies.

Apple Pay and customer data

Although an obvious bonus for retailers in terms of easing the spending process for customers, this isn’t the only advantage of Apple Pay. A new way of collecting customer data is something that all brands with a digital marketing strategy can, and should, benefit from.

Apple has announced that it won’t be collecting any data itself through the new technology – even though this offers immense insight into its customers’ spending habits and could have been extremely useful for digital marketing purposes. Instead, the data will be shared between the customer, merchant, and bank.

So digital marketers will be able to build a profile on a customer based on data about their purchasing habits, and across different platforms offline and online, which is something that is renowned in the industry as a tricky task.

A new digital marketing tool

Collecting customer data is one element that digital marketers will obviously find incredibly useful, but there are other things that Apple Pay brings to the table, especially in terms of new ways of reaching consumers with marketing messages:

Building loyal relationships

Those that are using Apple Pay are much more likely to be open to e-receipts. And this is an ideal way for digital marketers to engage with customers after the first interaction or purchase, as up to 20 per cent of the space on the receipt can be used for promotional content. Here brands can plug offers, and push social media channels, amongst other things, to consumers that are already engaged with them.

The mobile wallet

The ‘Passbook’ app (soon to be renamed Wallet), where Apple Pay will be available to customers, allows users to input all of their credit and debit card details, keeping their methods of payment in one place. And with consumers constantly having their phones on them – this can only be good news for brands who are trying to reach them. Something as simple as including a clickable ‘Add to Passbook’ button in marketing campaigns, when promoting a voucher or offer, for example, could work well.

Plus, the app will soon give brands the chance to build loyal relationships with consumers. Customers will no longer need to carry around multiple loyalty cards, and points and rewards will be available to them at a click of a button on their device, rather than having to collect receipts to see where they are up to – which provides a brilliant opportunity for brands.

The in-app purchasing process

For apps that have adopted Apple Pay, iOS developers have already witnessed the checkout rates more than double. Apple has created a smoother and simpler in-app buying process and consumers can now spend with the touch of their finger with the new technology. Not only does this improve the user experience (UX) on mobile, but customers might be more likely to download an app in the first place if they know how easy and quick they can buy items or services. Once downloaded, the app provides another channel through which digital marketers can reach consumers with their messages.

Apple Pay is a big step for the contactless payment industry, and as other brands begin to create competitor technologies, the future of the industry is looking bright.

As these new technologies are introduced, they may provide more ways for digital marketers to reach their target audiences, and it’s therefore important that brands embrace them as soon as possible to keep up with the evolving landscape of digital marketing.

For more information, please visit www.skiddle.com

Image credit: Shutterstock/Bloomua

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Apple Pay: A new digital marketing tool

A new digital marketing tool

Melon Studios’ first product ‘Page for Promotion’ (PFP) aims to help small businesses scale up through Facebook fan pages.

There is no denying the fact that we live in a digital world. From that perspective, the sheer magnitude of number of users on Facebook has made it a very important marketing medium. Consider this: Facebook today has 1.44 billion users, of which 50 per cent (0.72 billion) users login daily. Doesn’t that make it a very attractive medium for businesses, large and small, to reach out to potential customers?

It was with this idea to create a digital marketing tool for small and medium businesses on social networking sites such as Facebook that Melon Studios was formed. Founded by two young software engineers Sai Mohini and Sai Prakash, Melon Studios is now all set to roll out its first product called ‘Page for Promotion’ (PFP) aimed to boost businesses by targeting potential customers on the social networking site.

How ‘Page for Promotion’ works

The PFP product works in coordination with Facebook fan page owners and various enterprises who want to advertise their business on the fan pages to reach out to potential clients in any of the 55 million FB fan pages under several categories.

Anyone who owns a fan page can register with ‘Page for Promotion’ through their website pageforpromotion.com.

Now if any business wants to promote itself, it can contact the fan pages listed in the PFP website under their category. The fan page owners will be sent a request to post about their business on the page.

Once the advertisement is posted, the post reaches higher number of people compared to other advertising tools and also there is an increased probability of the business growing as it reaches people who are interested in the particular category. So a seller who has a store in a remote corner of the country can reach out to buyers across the world through this medium.

“It is a new way of advertising and a win-win concept for businesses, fan page owners as well as customers,” says Mohini. Explaining about the PFP product, she says: “For instance, if you are a watch lover and have liked a fan page relating to watches on Facebook, a watch maker can drive maximum conversions by posting about his business on that fan page to draw your attention.”

The businesses have to pay to post an ad on the fan page through Page For Promotion. Once that is done, the team of Melon Studios does the promotion of the product on the fan page.

In return, a major part of the revenue generated through ads will be given to fan page owners based on the compensation model.

Melon Studios’ first product ‘Page for Promotion’ will be launched on July 20 through the website and a mobile app that will be available in Android, Windows and iOS platforms.

“Our target is to provide a platform to connect several small and medium businesses with potential customers, empowering a small business to scale up.

Most of the small and medium businesses lack digital presence or get cornered by big brands in other online marketplaces like Snapdeal or eBay.

But through PFP, the businesses will be able to directly reach the target customers without battling any direct competition for other players since the ad will appear on the user’s Facebook home page as a post rather than an ad,” says Mohini.

Once the ‘Page for Promotion’ product picks up on Facebook, the team of Melon Studios want to extend it to the Twitter platform as well. Incubated in the Sunrise Startup Village, the founders of Melon Studios – Mohini and Prakash – have presented their product to Angel Investors and have received positive reviews.

A new digital marketing tool

ProMax Unlimited Introduces New Email Marketing Tool

ProMax Unlimited upgrades its award-winning CRM with Email Campaigns, a robust email marketing tool

Davenport, Iowa (PRWEB) June 19, 2015

Fresh off of winning its fourth straight Dealers’ Choice Award for CRM excellence, ProMax Unlimited made another big addition to its software suite with the release of Email Campaigns. ProMax Unlimited, an industry-leading full front end solution, is used in over 2,000 automotive dealerships nationwide. The release of this new email marketing tool is just the latest addition ProMax has made to its core product.

“The pinnacle of our year-long effort into completely reworking our email support in ProMax has now been achieved with the release of Email Campaigns” said ProMax CTO Darian Miller. In addition to robust reporting of all the traditional email marketing metrics like Click-Through Rate, Open Rate, and Bounce Rate, ProMax Email Campaigns also boast advanced drilldown reporting as well as A/B testing. “We went above and beyond our initial expectations with this release by offering features that most others don’t” continued Miller. “The A/B testing in particular is a very powerful tool that most solutions can’t match, and all of the reporting is available from any device, anywhere.”

The ability to send compelling email messages to customers is essential to any CRM tool. “Email remains the go-to form of communication, and dealerships rely on it to market to their customers” said ProMax COO Shane Born. ProMax Email Campaigns give users the ability to create professional-looking campaigns with ease and also comes with a selection of effective email templates that are designed to display equally well on desktop computers as well as mobile phones and devices. “The responsive templates we offer are a big plus for dealers” said Born.

Email marketing is an indispensable tool for dealers, and ProMax Email Campaigns enable users to orchestrate large campaigns with ease. “This is a fantastic addition for our dealers, and it is loaded with bells and whistles” said ProMax CEO John Palmer, “but what makes our Email Campaigns so essential is the ROI reporting. Our dealers can see exactly what is working and what isn’t, and how it is affecting sales. All of the features are great but the bottom line, ultimately, is the top line- how much gross am I getting from my email marketing? With Email Campaigns, our dealers can answer that very important question.”

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2015/06/prweb12796210.htm

ProMax Unlimited Introduces New Email Marketing Tool

Webinar Hero SaaS — A Modern Marketing Tool at a Fraction of the Cost

Webinar Hero SaaS — A Modern Marketing Tool at a Fraction of the Cost

Landing page tool Postaprop is conceptually sound, visually flat

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The pitch

Marketing online is one part tradition, one part tech.

To craft an effective net to home buyers and sellers, you need to have a compelling product supported by a strong message (traditional); and, you need to have the technical capability to deftly capture a website visitor’s information (tech).

This is why you have “contact us” forms and give away free housing market reports. It’s also why some of you block visitors from seeing listings unless they provide their contact information. (No wonder they go to Zillow.)

In short, winning a site browser’s personal information is critical. However, some ways of getting it are better than others.

Maybe Postaprop.com is one of the better ways.

Or, maybe not.

The sale

Postaprop.com provides an extremely simple way for you to create landing pages for your website. However, the folks behind the site like the term “squeeze pages.”

On the other hand, I despise the term “squeeze page,” which stems from the fact that it squeezes the site user into giving you their email address. The term gives marketing a black eye; it sounds shady.

I can’t help but relate the idea of squeeze pages to a shakedown, as if I’m in a noir film being gently pushed up against a wall by a guy in a low fedora with too many rings on his fingers.

“So a … you want this free book on how to sell ya’ home? We’re gonna need a lil’ sumpin’ first.”

You shouldn’t have to squeeze anyone to want to do business with you.

Postaprop pages can be standalone or subdomains of your site (howtosell.johnsonteamrealtors.com), and they offer free e-books or video content as the trade-off for the user’s information.

Conceptually, the pages are sound. They have all the elements you need: a few quick bullet points, clear calls to action, and a promise to deliver on its promise. In other words, they aren’t clickbait.

But man, do they look like clickbait.

Postaprop’s design acumen leaves me questioning its respect for Web design. I’m surprised there isn’t a hit counter on the bottom of the pages it builds for you. I can’t help but wonder if someone at the company has the title of “webmaster.”

Postaprop videos use a series of stock animations, floating text and stock soundtracks. There’s nothing original or creative about them.

Nevertheless, Postaprop makes the creation of these pages as simple as possible. All the content is in place and provided for you. After a person submits their information, you can decide to which page of your website they are subsequently directed.

It takes only a few clicks to roll out a Postaprop landing page. Users are not asked to download anything or attend training, just click a design and go. Postaprop has templates to pull in the email addresses of first-time buyers, people who want your new listing alerts, or maybe a guide on “How to Sell for More.”

There’s no doubt that the product delivers on its ease of use promise.

Bear with me: the concept of landing pages is proven, but Postaprop’s visual execution of it leaves a great deal to be desired.

I shouldn’t have to be told by an online marketing product that I get “2015 Content on Every Page” for my $19.97 per month. Plus, what does that even mean? Is it just an attempt to appear chronologically relevant? Will it incessantly misuse “literally?”

Moreover, in an age of real estate marketing that includes aerial drone footage and Matterport visuals, I would expect a “3-D Image” on my landing page to be more than a slightly shaded version of the non-3-D image.

People today are highly wary of flashing boxes and absurd headlines used to seize clicks on content-heavy sites.

Content that dramatically stands out from the visual cues around it is going to — rightly or not — fall victim to the snap-click judgements we make as time-pressed online consumers.

If your website was designed by a professional, developed around compelling visual trends and supported by the latest metrics in online engagement, you don’t need an abrupt shift in graphic appeal to grab an email address.

Good, original content and the promise to be an effective real estate agent should be all you need to earn a new lead.

A landing page has to reflect your current site’s visual themes and tone to be considered an authentic extension of your product promise. I have a hard time seeing where Postaprop offers such design functionality.

Postaprop allows you to upload and offer your own content on its pages. I highly encourage all agents to be creating their own content for purposes just like this.

The close

Postaprop also includes in its accounts a one-page property website tool, property flyer creation, and email marketing services. The one page property sites look good, and may alone be worth looking into Postaprop.

The ancillary services are included in your monthly fee, which is what scares me. From a development standpoint, I’d be wary of how much marketing can be offered at such a small price. Is true customization possible?

It bears repeating: landing pages with free content in exchange for personal information is a proven marketing tactic to accompany banner and paid search advertising.

Just make sure that if you’re going to use them, they don’t make users question your credibility as a real estate agent.

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Landing page tool Postaprop is conceptually sound, visually flat

Can a New LinkedIn Tool Accelerate Your Social Media Marketing?

Earlier this year, LinkedIn announced the launch of a new, full suite of tools to improve social media marketing efforts on its platform. Highlighting a particular tool within this portfolio called “Lead Accelerator,” LinkedIn claims it had found a way to turn its platform into a whole-funnel solution for marketers looking to promote their companies, start new conversations, and land new business.

To demonstrate the efficacy of Lead Accelerator, the company launched a pilot program with around 100 brands—including heavy hitters such as Lenovo, Samsung, and Salesforce—to see how they could benefit from using their new tools. The results were wildly successful, with brands such as eCornell reporting two times as many landing page conversions and a cost per lead three times lower than normal.

So how does it work, and what does it mean for other marketers now being given access to these tools? The simple answer: data.

Prior to this launch, the primary means of promoting a brand on LinkedIn was through sponsored updates and sponsored content. These tools work much like Facebook’s content marketing promotion model, where marketers can pay to have their pages and articles appear in the news feeds of targeted audiences. In fact, Facebook also launched its own tools to provide new data for content marketers. While useful, this method isn’t without its limitations: Promotions were limited to LinkedIn, data on interactions and efficacy was sparse, and targeting was largely left up to individual marketers to determine (usually based on data gathered from other platforms).

Lead Accelerator fixes most of these issues. Now, marketers who opt into the service receive detailed analytics about audiences who interact with their content and similar content, both on and off the LinkedIn platform. Promotions are no longer confined to news feeds, but can also appear over large networks of “display” sites that return data regarding audience interactions. But perhaps the most attractive social media marketing tool comes into play after running promotions, when Lead Accelerator will make suggestions about how to turn your new, promoted reach into actionable conversions.

Currently, the service is available for quarterly and annual subscriptions purchased through a conversation with a LinkedIn sales rep. This means the cost may be scaled nicely to fit your business, but for some marketers this may only mean that the price tag for these tools is subject to change. Only time will tell how LinkedIn manages this, but in the meantime, this is a huge step for empowering marketers to reach professional audiences.

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Can a New LinkedIn Tool Accelerate Your Social Media Marketing?

ChannelAdvisor plans to discontinue an eBay management tool

The vendor’s MarketplaceAdvisor Standard mainly served merchants who only sell on eBay.

Online marketplaces are like stocks, which means retailers should diversify the channels they sell on, says Scot Wingo, CEO of ChannelAdvisor Corp., which helps retailers sell via web marketplaces like those operated by eBay Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.

“Today eBay is lagging and Amazon is doing well,” he says. “But chances are that won’t last, so you need to broaden your portfolio to reduce your risk.”

The vendor has adopted that approach over the last few years, which is why it plans to eliminate one of its older products, MarketplaceAdvisor Standard, which was mainly used by merchants who only sell on eBay.

ChannelAdvisor acquired MarketplaceAdvisor Standard, then known as Marketworks, in 2007. Even at the time of the acquisition, Wingo emphasized the difference between the two companies—Marketworks’ business was primarily serving eBay sellers, while ChannelAdvisor focused on helping larger retailers sell across a number of channels. Roughly eight years later, ChannelAdvisor decided it no longer made sense to support sellers who just focus on eBay, says a ChannelAdvisor spokesman. “This single-channel solution is no longer a fit for our platform,” he says.

The move comes amid growing evidence that eBay consistently is trailing the growth rate in online retailing.

ChannelAdvisor Corp. last week reported that e-commerce sales for its clients via eBay’s marketplace grew 7.3% in March, up from February’s 5.1% growth rate. That growth was far below Amazon’s 24.6% growth rate for ChannelAdvisor clients selling on the Amazon Marketplace, which jumped from 22.7% in February. EBay’s growth rate was also just over half of e-commerce’s roughly 15% growth rate during the past year. And another report, by Robert W. Baird and Co., found that eBay’s marketplace sales grew 2% to 3% in March, slightly below its February growth levels.

ChannelAdvisor says that as of July 15, eBay sellers will be unable to list items via MarketplaceAdvisor and that it plans to disable storefronts on Aug. 17. It will shutter all access to data on Sept. 14.

ChannelAdvisor plans to discontinue an eBay management tool

#TheDress meme of a different color becomes a marketing tool near and far

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Vistaprint Launches “Social Postcards,” New Tool for Easier Facebook Ad Design and Effective ...

Vistaprint, a leading online provider of professional marketing products and services to micro business owners, today announced the launch of “Social Postcards,” an online tool that makes it easy for small businesses to turn their print materials into Facebook^(R) ads, target the right audience, and analyze campaign results. This omnichannel marketing tool enables small businesses to streamline and boost their print and online marketing efforts. Vistaprint and its digital services business, Webs, worked with Facebook to create this small business-focused tool for its customers.

The “2014 Webs Small Business Digital Trends Survey” shows 63 percent of small business owners use digital products as part or all of their marketing strategy, most combining digital and print. As a leading web-to-print destination for micro businesses, Vistaprint answered the demand for an omnichannel platform that integrates print and digital marketing in order to grow the business, increase sales, and build brand awareness across multiple channels.

The survey also shows 65 percent of small businesses are currently using or are willing to pay for Facebook ads. However, most don’t have the tools or resources to design highly impactful and professional-looking social media ads. Facebook research further shows that ads on the platform can drive more in-store revenue, with one-third more people purchasing the products or services, and two-thirds of people increasing their order value. In addition, Facebook is more than twice as accurate as other ad networks in reaching a business’ target audience – enabling marketers to get their ads in front of the right people.

This new tool from Webs simplifies the task of creating and managing Facebook ads. Users who design a postcard on Vistaprint have the option to turn it into a Facebook ad, choose the target audience, publish it, and view the ad campaign’s results – all in one easy-to-use dashboard.

“As a real estate agent, I’m responsible for doing all of my own marketing and have to leave a lasting impression in someone’s mind when they turn to social media for their home-buying needs,” said Emilee Sinclair, broker/agent at Coldwell Banker Sea Cost Advantage. “Having the option to turn the materials I’m already creating on Vistaprint.com into a Facebook ad made it really easy and affordable to reach a large number of potential customers I typically would not be able to reach by myself.”

The new Social Postcards tool features:

• Simple, user-friendly interface


• Step-by-step Facebook ad creation that’s powerful yet simple


• Proprietary technology that enables matching print and online branded content


• Library of ad templates to highlight sales, events, promotions and more


• Extensive library of royalty-free images for ad usage


• Adherence to Facebook’s text guidelines


• Simplified ad targeting based on demographics, interests, connections and more


• Compatibility with Facebook desktop and mobile


• Low one-time fee that enables testing with limited investment


• Ad analytics to help optimize strategy

“Small businesses spend more on social media than any other media category to promote their businesses, and Facebook clearly dominates the market,” said Rick Ducey, managing director of BIA/Kelsey. “There is a significant opportunity in the marketplace for tools that help small businesses automate digital marketing, especially to local audiences. Social media is transforming how small businesses are promoting and growing their businesses and digital ads will be key in achieving results.”

“Vistaprint, along with Webs, is committed to helping business owners succeed, and with this new Social Postcards offering, we are empowering small businesses to combine traditional marketing methods with progressive social media advertising tactics in an affordable and easy-to-use way,” said Scott Bowen, VP and general manager of digital services, Vistaprint. “Online marketing is an untapped resource for many small businesses, and this tool makes it possible for small business owners to level the field against larger competitors, engage their customers in more modern ways, and ultimately grow their business. We are excited to offer this tool and will continue to deliver value to our customers across print and digital.”

For more information or to use Social Postcards, visit: www.vistaprint.com/lpt/social-postcards.aspx.

Survey Methodology:

Webs Small Business Digital Usage Survey is based on a nationally representative sample of 2,292 small business owners of companies with fewer than 10 employees. The anonymous survey was conducted online by Insight By Design between March 10-15, 2014 as part of Vistaprint’s 2014 Digital Usage Study. The poll has a margin of error of approximately +/- 2-7 percent depending on the question.

About Vistaprint

Vistaprint is a global e-commerce brand empowering more than 16 million micro business owners to professionally promote their business with quality printed and digital marketing products at an affordable price. Our world-class online design studio allows customers to easily customize their products including business cards, marketing materials, signage, promotional products, apparel, websites, digital marketing, cards and stationery at www.vistaprint.com. Our patented printing technique allows us to maximize efficiency and consistently deliver quality and value to customers. This innovative process is supported by 25 localized websites serving various global markets; world-class manufacturing facilities around the globe, including North America, Western Europe, Australia and India; and thousands of employees in offices worldwide. Vistaprint is a Cimpress (Nasdaq:CMPR) brand.

Vistaprint and the Vistaprint logo are trademarks of Cimpress N.V. or its subsidiaries. All other brand and product names appearing on this announcement may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

About Webs

Founded in 2001, Webs is the digital services business of Vistaprint. Webs provides an easy-to-use, reliable and cost-effective marketing platform specifically designed for the small business. The Webs platform powers the online marketing of millions of small businesses around the globe with its complete suite of website, social media, email, and other digital identity and marketing products. Webs enables small businesses to launch online, get noticed, engage customers and grow. For more information, please visit www.webs.com.

Facebook(R) is a registered trademark of Facebook, Inc.

Vistaprint Launches “Social Postcards,” New Tool for Easier Facebook Ad Design and Effective ...

Facebook At Work: Marketing Tool, Not Firing Offense

A Dilbert strip once followed Catbert, the head of human resources as he called a person into his office and noted that the person had done nothing for six months but update a Facebook page. Catbert went on to note that the company had an opening for a marketing manager in social networks, and that the person in question was completely qualified. The end result was not a firing, but a big raise and a promotion. The value of Facebook marketing is almost as hard to understate as it is to quantify, but even Facebook looks to make it a little simpler with a new tool called Facebook At Work.

Facebook At Work is available for iOS and Android, as well as a Web-based version available directly at Facebook itself, and at last report, all involved were available as part of a limited pilot mode. With this system, employers can either establish separate links for employees to use, or employes can link the profiles together to access both work and personal Facebook all from one point. With Facebook At Work, companies essentially can create a social network that’s specifically for work. There’s a central News Feed mechanism for company events, as well as the ability to stage both individual and group chat. Groups can be set up within the larger overall framework, and events can even be staged where the whole company can be invited to participate.

Facebook isn’t alone in the market here, as companies like Microsoft have been involved in the so-called “enterprise social network” space for some time now, and several other products are on hand to make this a bigger part of the everyday workday ranging from Convo to Slack to Socialcast, and reports suggest even LinkedIn has a plan to get in on the action, minus the chatting aspect.

Privacy is naturally a concern here, as whatever’s posted to a feed can be seen by the entire company. Plus, those who manage the Facebook At Work system are able to access whatever is shared from a work account. But despite these concerns—which likely don’t much prove concerns at all for astute users—there’s still quite a bit of value here, especially if it’s put to work the right way.

What Facebook At Work really has the potential to do is put a face on an otherwise faceless company. While admittedly, there will be a certain amount of skepticism involved—the idea of developing two Facebook profiles, one for personal use and one for carefully-curated employer-friendly use, has been common practice for some time now by some reports—there’s also the potential to help humanize a company and make it seem friendlier by comparison. A company that, for example, recently suffered a data breach is more likely to recover customers if the company is perceived as a company who was attacked rather than a company who just didn’t care who took what information. Putting a friendlier face on the organization with something like a clearly work-focused Facebook could be a help there. So too could internal dialogue, regardless of where the worker physically is; a purely work-based social network could allow the mobile workforce a means to get more face time at work, and thus improve the likelihood for promotion down the line, as well as the always-valuable sharing and refinement of ideas. Plenty of possibilities follow in this new development, and so it will bear watching over the weeks to come as we see just which possibilities become realities.

Edited by Stefania Viscusi

Facebook At Work: Marketing Tool, Not Firing Offense

WebMall unravels digital marketing as tool for expansion

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The internet is a major tool that is capable of boosting business growth in Nigeria, WebMall has said.
The company made the disclosure at the 2014 edition of ‘Site Builders Forum’, organised by WebMall.ng.
The event which had presentations on issues and challenges around digital marketing brought together participants from all spheres of the Nigerian economy.
Participants were afforded the opportunity to share their experiences in online marketing as well as the general business environment.
Wale Faroun of WebMall.ng in a presentation stressed the need for small and medium entrepreneurs to tap into potentials of internet and digital tools in growing their business.

WebMall unravels digital marketing as tool for expansion