Inbound Internet Marketing Characteristics

1.  Verifying the target demographic.  This may sound like a “given”, but it is easy to stray from a target when we use something as open as the Internet.  The headlines, topics and content strategy will be consistent and focused to help control any stray.

2.  Don’t blur quality and quantity with high frequency.  It is true that targeted inbound marketing campaigns need a higher marketplace frequency.  But quality of frequency is key, rather than just pushing a large quantity on the target demographic.  The focus on message is always important with respect to frequency.

3.  Keep the focus on generating targeted leads.  Successful inbound Internet marketing needs direct, strong calls to action.  Nothing should be watered down.  Ask the target audience to take a specific action.  Inbound marketing’s goal is to bring the target demographic to your content for a specific call to action.

4.  Focus on consistency and ROI accountability.  Now we have to accurately account for the traffic and desired results that our Inbound marketing is generating.  What is our success rate?  Which pieces of content are driving more traffic?  Which pieces of content deliver better conversions toward the ROI?  What is our ROI?  Inbound marketing requires a commitment for consistency, week in and week out.  Otherwise, it strays and creeps out of control with no tracking, no accountability, and no return on investment.

5.  Types of Inbound marketing.  The most common Inbound marketing tools are content-driven Blogs, social media campaigns, website optimization, specialized landing page optimization, white-hat link building, video content marketing, infographic distribution, press release websites, targeted forums and discussion boards, and opt-in email messaging.

“Inbound Internet marketing brings together various marketing channels in a concentric strategy that builds upon itself as time passes,” adds Joyce.  “The Dealmed inbound Internet marketing campaign will build a funnel of targeted prospects that are not yet familiar with the Dealmed brand but are in the marketplace for their products and services.”

To learn more about inbound Internet marketing and content marketing, please contact Jay Joyce with The Idea People at 704-398-4437 or email jay@theideapeople.com.  Healthcare marketing, medical supply marketing and healthcare content marketing are highly-specialized services that The Idea People offer under our full-service brand.

The most significant healthcare trend witnessed recently is the shift of treatment from hospitals to home in order to gain a cost advantage and reduce hospital expenditure. “The move from treatment to proactive monitoring is also opening up new opportunities for the home healthcare market,” said Tomeka Bostic, CEO of Diversitas Medical Supply Company.  “Patients prefer home healthcare over hospitals mainly for the convenience and cost-effectiveness it offers.”

E-commerce Website Trends in Home Health Medical Supplies

• Digitized patient information.  More hospitals and medical practices are turning to digitized patient records.  The digital prescription then offers patients multiple opportunities to “shop” online for the best prices and deals on prescribed treatments, therapies and medications.
• Total solution selling.  E-commerce websites are empowering patients to purchase medication, medical equipment, home health remedies, and all types of diagnostic and treatment options from the comfort of their home via desktop, tablet and smartphone.  Patients can purchase everything to form a “total solution” approach to home health patient care via e-commerce websites.
• Early diagnosis and monitoring.  E-commerce website purchases enable home health care patients to monitor blood sugar levels, blood pressure, cholesterol, certain cancer screenings, and other diagnostic kits from the security of their home.  The test results can easily be recorded and transferred to the doctor.

“We hired The Idea People for their full-scale approach to branding, marketplace positioning, web design and e-commerce application development,” added Bostic.  “We told them that we needed a turnkey web solution to mirror the technological pace of the home health marketplace.  The initial results are absolutely fantastic and we could not be any happier with everything that The Idea People developed for us.”

Home health care medical supply experts forecast that the aging population, coupled with advancing and simplistic e-commerce website developments, will fuel a dramatic increase in online sales through 2020 at an annual rate of at least 9.1%.  “We realize the incredible growth in the home health medical supply marketplace and we are ready to accommodate that growth through our e-commerce website program,” adds Bostic.  “Our next phase is expanding our e-commerce technology to tablet and smartphone with the same high-level security standards that our current e-commerce website is developed around.”

If your business would like to learn more about building e-commerce website applications to automate a customer segment or invent a vertical marketplace, please contact Jay Joyce with The Idea People at 704-398-4437 or email jay@theideapeople.com.  E-commerce website development with The Idea People will empower your customer marketplace with instant access to your brand’s products and services.

E-commerce Web Payment Processing – Offline and Online

EBA Processing is committed to being the most convenient and friendly, single source provider for all merchant processing and reporting needs, delivering superior customer service and the best products and services available in the Charlotte market. “One of our goals in growing our B2B marketplace here in Charlotte is to educate business owners and merchants of the expanding technologies available for accepting and processing payments from customers,” said Eric Bostic, president of EBA Processing.  “We all know that laptop, tablet, web and phone are the go-to technology platforms for processing electronic payments, and we are here to help our B2B customers implement these options.”

• The First Data Retail Solution replaces the cash register by helping retailers process payments, manage inventory, track sales, control costs, improve customer service and better guide business decisions
• Our full range of POS terminals, wireless solutions, peripherals and supplies, are designed to save both time and money while helping merchants make the most of consumer preferences
• Global Gateway – Our Global Gateway solution helps you build customized e-commerce capabilities for virtually any web ite and is best suited for larger merchants with programming expertise and resources

“Every year established businesses find ways to use the web to sell directly to consumers, and companies are created that need e-commerce capability,” adds Bostic. “More and more consumers are making online purchases a routine with e-commerce and electronic payment processing a necessity for any size business.”

E-commerce on the web is more than just a shopping cart.  “E-commerce on the web now includes any type of electronic payment processing that either passes through a traditional shopping cart or a custom-built API or direct payment solution,” says Joyce.  “The focus with our custom e-commerce application development is creating opportunities for users to securely and safely ‘touch’ and ‘connect’ their product and service purchases with their funding method, whatever that may be.”

To learn more about electronic payment solutions from EBA Processing, a First Data partner in Charlotte, please contact Eric Bostic at 704-548-9201 or email e.bostic@ebaprocessing.com.  EBA Processing provides every type of credit card processing, check processing, ACH processing, and purchase card processing payment.

To learn more about e-commerce web development and custom payment processing web applications, please contact Jay Joyce with The Idea People at 704-398-4437 or email jay@theideapeople.com.

Way back in 1994, web design was just taking ground as the drumbeat for web companies and web services grew louder.  “The big term in 1994 was ‘surfing the web’,” says Joyce.  “Do you remember how cool it was to launch your Netscape browser on dial-up to see if you had mail on AOL?”  The web domain licensing company InterNic was founded in 1994 and that is where everybody who wanted a domain name went to register.  We designed web pages with early tabular columns in HTML, which gave us more design options than just text.

Web Design History for The Idea People

• 1995-1997 – We were using web design programs like GoLive and Microsoft Front Page to design B2B websites. “At this stage in web design and web development, businesses were putting up ‘brochure-ware’ websites with general information,” says Joyce.
• 1998-2000 – Microsoft had launched Internet Explorer and AOL was growing exponentially.  People were accessing the web for entertainment and research for education and consumer decision-making.  “We were seeing the first stages of e-commerce websites,” says Joyce.  “We had a pet supply manufacturer as a client and they had us build this complex online database where people could search for dog beds and supplies, and then call the company to order something,” said Joyce.  “It was pretty cool for the time!”
• 2000-2002 – Flash was the dominating web design element that every business wanted on their website.  “Businesses were flocking to the Internet and I remember that our phones were ringing off the hook in Atlanta with people wanting a Version 2.0 website that had to have Flash on the opening page,” says Joyce.  “We became Flash design experts quickly as that particular wave hit the country.”
• 2003-2006 – E-commerce and web applications begin to dominate the web landscape.  “Now that everybody had a well-designed website, businesses wanted to allow clients and vendors to interact with e-commerce and online databases,” adds Joyce.  “The evolution of backend web development, content management systems, and scalable e-business solutions really skyrocketed.”
• 2007-2011 – As the economy slumped into a depression, the technology and web marketplace continued to evolve and introduce more affordable and powerful B2B and B2C solutions.  “We actually saw the web start to replace in-house jobs and manual processes with online automated processes,” said Joyce.  “The turn of businesses marketing online through well-written content and social media inclusion helped many businesses build new marketplaces and shore-up slumping sales.”
• 2012 – current – “The perfect storm of providing high-end web design, web development, mobile design, and Internet marketing arrived in early 2012,” said Joyce.  “Business clients need all four of these services on a consistent basis to maintain their competitive status, discover profitable vertical online marketplaces, and keep in step with their customer’s social media lifestyle.”

The Idea People are deeply experienced with all aspects of web design, web application development, mobile design and Internet content marketing.  “As we look forward to the next five years, we see that our clients will want to physically be on every technology surface available,” said Joyce.  “Desktop access to websites and web applications are paramount, but the shifting dynamic is to provide the same desktop experience on mobile and tablet devices.”

We can build a web and mobile environment for your business to facilitate transactions, discover new vertical marketplaces, increase qualified device traffic and conversions, and appear important in your customer’s social media lifestyle.  Call Jay Joyce with The Idea People at 704-398-4437 or email jay@theideapeople.com to get started now.

“The web has such a positive impact on business brands and everybody has an experienced or educated opinion to share,” said Jay Joyce, president of The Idea People in Charlotte.  “We have always believed that the web is such a level playing field for all business brands to compete, but you obviously need to know what to do to take advantage of the opportunities.”

5 Things the Web Can Do for Your Brand

1.  Establish a strong, positive presence for your company.  “We all agreed in our group discussion that a properly designed website, with correct content and user architecture, was the most important asset a brand in Charlotte can have,” says Joyce.

2.  Empower customers with web tools and decision-making capabilities.  “The most successful websites, regardless of the product or service, allow customers to form and maintain relationships at their own pace and discretion,” said Doug Grubba, director of technology with The Idea People.  “This includes web technology development applications for e-commerce processes, brochure and documentation downloads, e-newsletters and alerts, and social sharing opportunities.”

3.  Separate your brand from competitors.  “Today’s marketplace for every business is overly competitive,” says Joyce.  “A business website has no limits as to the creativity, the commerce capabilities, the social interactions, and the positioning opportunities to create a brand momentum that could be leaps ahead of your closest competitors.”

4.  Be in the right place at the right time.  “Our group agreed immediately and across the board that whenever anybody wants to buy something or find out more information about a product or service, the first thing they do is turn to the web,” says Joyce.  “How many times have we heard that ‘timing’ and ‘luck’ play into the role of new sales and customer relationships?”  A strong content marketing plan, coupled with a correctly-optimized website, will help ensure that your website is ranked high enough to be in the right place at the right time.

5.  Give me a desk and mobility.  “We all loudly agreed that having a website that displayed correctly on both desktops and smartphones dramatically boosted your brand image and presence,” added Joyce.  “So much of a business’ website traffic is now being tracked through mobile and smartphone devices.”  Having a properly-formatted website to fit the screen size and the device greatly increases the opportunities for the web to benefit your brand.

The Idea People in Charlotte design business and mobile websites to accomplish all five items listed in this post.  To find out how your business brand can embrace everything that the web can do for you, please contact Jay Joyce with The Idea People at 704-398-4437 or email jay@theideapeople.com.

“CMS Direct Hire is a product of Cirrus Holdings based here in Charlotte,” said Jay Joyce, president of The Idea People.  “We have been working with Cirrus Holdings on designing and developing several of their healthcare and staffing product and service marketplace offerings since last year.”  CMS Direct Hire has experienced healthcare job search consultants that bring a wealth of knowledge and dedication to help candidates find the perfect fit for their career goals with the top healthcare employers in the US.

“We developed the new web design to wrap around a powerful online job listing database where candidates can search for job openings by their practice specialty, license and desired location,” adds Joyce.  “We also wrote a custom web software program that allows users to upload their resume to apply directly to listed job openings.”

The healthcare placement and job assistance marketplace is a fast-growing and fast-paced environment, so designing and developing an interactive website that CMS Direct Hire job candidates could use quickly and efficiently was a key element in delivering a final web design product.  “Access to CMS Direct Hire’s nationwide presence and established client relationships that stretch from coast to coast, greater leverage in salary negotiations, and access to current market trends, interview coaching, and CV preparation were paramount as we developed the web application and web design,” added Joyce.

The new CMS Direct Hire web design allows job candidates to find the best healthcare provider they really want to work with.

• Certified Occupational Therapist Assistants
• Occupational Therapists
• Physical Therapists
• Physical Therapist Assistants
• Rehab Managers
• Respiratory Therapists
• Speech Language Pathologists

“The actual web design is clean, professional and easy for the user to select data points to search for career opportunities,” said Joyce.  “Beyond the web design, the web application and web software development is the real functionality of this particular website, and we are really excited to empower our clients with these online suite of tools.”

To learn more about web design and web software application development with The Idea People, please call Jay Joyce at 704-398-4437 or email jay@theideapeople.com.  We can show you the power of combining creative front-end web design with backend web application database development and tools.

What exactly is Internet marketing?

Internet marketing involves developing and managing all of the various Internet channels and marketplaces where a company’s target audience exists.  Internet marketing channels include search engines, social media outlets, message boards, specialty website communities, pay per click campaigns, online coupons, and any other outlet that can prove beneficial to delivering messages to a target audience.  A definite strategy is required bundled with an on-going effort of maintaining these online marketplaces.

What exactly is content marketing?

Content marketing involves the careful target and delivery of custom content into these Internet marketing channels.  You can see how closely content marketing ties in to Internet marketing.  Writing and delivering custom content, at a minimum of weekly, is an extremely large and daunting marketing task for most companies.  Who will write the content?  What will the content be?  Then we have to write new content again next week?

“We have always believed that content marketing is Internet marketing,” says Joyce.  “For each of our Internet marketing clients, we develop a strategy of which online marketplaces and outlets we need to target, what type of keyword phrases and focus will reach the intended audience, and how do we keep them engaged with new content every week.”

5 Keys to Successful Internet & Content Marketing

1.  Be in the right place.  Each client’s product and service marketplace obviously differs from each other.  One online social community may not be the best choice for Internet marketing for a different type of client.  Strategy and planning are vital to find the right place to begin sending messages.

2.  Craft the right message.  If we were to gather 5,000 of your customers and prospects in an arena for 2 hours each Wednesday, what would you want to tell them?  Message is everything.

3.  Be consistent.  Customers and prospects crave the freshest information about their needs and wants.  Every week, at a minimum, we develop custom, fresh content targeted to the way that a client’s customers are searching for them.  Week in and week out, the key is the consistent writing and delivering of targeted content.

4.  Be creative, helpful and insightful.  “We literally have written hundreds of custom content pieces for each of our Internet marketing clients,” says Joyce.  “Our content writing team writes content about products and services with new angles, new features, and new benefits every week so readers have varying perspectives about the same product.”

5.  Thinking, linking and sharing.  Links are so important in the success of an overall Internet marketing campaign.  “We want to create content that contains text links to related content, videos, images and websites that all link to a primary landing site,” adds Joyce.  “On top of that strategy, we want our client’s content to easily be shared across every social and marketing outlet.”

To learn more about Internet marketing and content marketing and how these ‘twins’ can energize your online presence, call Jay Joyce with The Idea People at 704-398-4437 or email jay@theideapeople.com.  Oh, did you notice that we did not mention SEO?  We have a definite method to the madness that we can share with you during our meeting.

The ideal content writing and content marketing candidate is a team player who will bring a solid ability to manage multiple projects at once. He or she will be someone who likes to have fun but is willing to role their sleeves up and do whatever is necessary to meet tight daily and weekly deadlines while contributing high-impact content for each of our clients. You must enjoy working!

Content Writer Responsibilities

• Researching content and using it effectively in relevant communications
• Research and writing of weekly blog posts for clients
• Distribute client content across various social media and content channels
• Manage and monitor social media accounts for all clients
• Manage and update content across various web properties
• Update and maintain website content for clients
• Collaborate with internal teams and firm clients
• Contribute to brainstorming and idea generating sessions
• Meet and communicate with clients
• Image procurement, management and collaboration

Content Writer Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Communications, Journalism, or related field
• Demonstrated experience writing and editing content for the web
• Experience using WordPress is a must
• Excellent organizational skills and ability to meet tight deadlines
• Able to successfully organize, prioritize and manage multiple projects in a deadline-driven environment
• Understanding of how users interact with digital content
• Excellent interpersonal skills including strong verbal, listening, and written communication
• Ability to work as part of a team
• Display a professional, detail-oriented and proactive approach to research and content organization
• Digital camera skills
• Desire to learn about client business lines ranging from medical to manufacturing to real estate to whatever is assigned
• Fast thinker, not afraid to contribute meaningful nuggets of wisdom and fresh perspectives
• Must enjoy the web and new web technologies

Other Position Items

• Full-time position, 8:25am – 5:35pm and as needed, Monday-Friday
• Work directly with agency management and clients
• Salary range mid-$20’s with performance raises
• Company-paid health insurance and agency perks
• Send your bio, experience, writing samples/links to lucas@theideapeople.com

“We believe in building successful teams for our client projects, and we’ve worked hard to assemble a team of creative professionals who make a difference in our client’s businesses,” said Weber.  “Content writing and content marketing are critical roles in competitive online positioning to help build quality inbound traffic to our client websites.”

Learn more about content writing and content marketing services from The Idea People and how your business can benefit from custom content writing, social media updates, and strategic content positioning by calling Jay Joyce with The Idea People at 704-398-4437 or email jay@theideapeople.com.

Smartphones and tablets have so many advanced media integrations than a traditional mobile phone every thought it could.  Smartphone standard features now include video uploading, downloading and streaming, face-to-face messaging, high-end photography and video, high-quality audio, GPS devices, and interactive games and work production tools.

So reaching the new smartphone user requires a different marketing approach than traditional mobile marketing.  Video will play an important role in delivering messages to smartphone users, along with customized product and service apps.

Evolving Mobile Marketing to Smartphone Marketing

• Google claims that every 1 million views that a new smartphone promotional video receives in the week ahead of its release can equate to an 11% increase in sales
• Smartphone users actually use their smartphones as PC’s, so a higher level of marketing sophistication is required to reach sophisticated users
• Apps for smartphones engage users for longer periods of time, lengthening the opportunity for marketing messages to be absorbed
• The Idea People design websites specifically for smartphone users, which results in longer times spent with smartphone websites
• Targeted content delivery with embedded video, multimedia, App links, and “press to purchase” features

“We can be bold and predict that desktops will eventually be replaced with the smartphone and tablet,” says Joyce.  “On the way to that transition, so much emphasis and development focus will be placed on developing custom smartphone Apps and software that can replace traditional desktops and empower users with more choices and interactivity on their smartphones.”

To learn more about smartphone and tablet marketing in a mobile environment, please contact Jay Joyce with The Idea People at 704-398-4437 or email jay@theideapeople.com.  We develop custom smartphone and mobile Apps and mobile environment-enabled websites that deliver software and web experiences to this growing population of users.

“Over the past three years, Internet marketing has been a hot topic of discussion among Charlotte businesses as owners and marketers try to sift through the mess and discover what really does work for marketing their business on the Internet,” says Jay Joyce, president with The Idea People in Charlotte.  “We do practice the best traditional SEO techniques, but we have always been focused on three elements that prove success time after time for Internet marketing.”

3 Keys to Successful Internet Marketing

1.  Always have the right message delivered to the right target audience.  “The marketing message that you deliver with your Internet marketing campaign must be focused and adjusted to the audience that you want to target,” adds Joyce.  “Just like everybody did in magazines, newspapers and traditional print media marketing, the message was always on target with the intended audience.  Otherwise, there was a disconnect that delivered lackluster results.”  Fifteen years later, the same audience is looking for the same messages in their targeted web environment.

2.  Have the right creative design and user experience on your website.  “When we build a website, we focus on including the right mix of web design, navigation functionality, and creating a positive user experience for the visitor,” adds Joyce.  “We don’t hide the navigation, or cause the user to jump through extra clicks, or build a creative environment with the web design that doesn’t keep pulling visitors toward a conversion point.”

3.  Put your marketing messages and website into the right marketing channels.   The web was tailor-made for Internet marketing.  “Companies can use naturally-evolving Internet marketplaces and websites to deliver targeted marketing messages to the right audience,” adds Joyce.  “Of course we include social media and a mix of pay-per-click campaigns, but writing and delivering custom web content is the real genius that has emerged with Internet marketing campaign success stories.”

Every week The Idea People writes, delivers and broadcasts custom content for our Internet marketing clients.  “This has been the real success story behind making a big difference with clients seeing consistent results,” adds Joyce.  “The beauty of writing and developing custom content every week is that it builds a magic snowballing effect where one week’s content helps the next week and so on.”

Call Jay Joyce with The Idea People in Charlotte at 704-398-4437 or email jay@theideapeople.com to schedule an appointment to learn more about how content marketing, creating target messages, and consistent message delivery will help you generate increased conversions and close more sales through proper, professional Internet marketing.