| Thursday, October 08, 2009 - Affinigent - Website news and notes |
 |
|
|
In this Issue:
-
-
Site Spotlight - Yakes Travel is making the transition from brick and mortar to brick and clicks
-
Affinigent is 10 years and still going strong
 Almost everything about Affinigent has changed since we started the company 10 years ago. The main thing that has not changed, however, is the fundamental value of effective business communications as the foundation of the websites we work on. At it core, our business is to help craft and deliver effective messages. The technology changes, the audiences change and the messages change but the necessity for clear, concise and comprehensive messages continues.
Site Spotlight
Yakes Travel is a family owned travel agency specializing in leisure travel, especially all-inclusive resort vacations with Sandals, Beaches and Royal Plantation. Affinigent has worked with Yakes Travel for at least 3 years on a very limited basis supporting their very simple one page website with basic information only. When Buzz and John Yake decided that they wanted to focus more attention on their website, it was natural for them to come to Affinigent for the upgrade.
The new site has 3 main objectives:
-
Position Yakes Travel as a leader in Resort Vacations
-
Communicate that it is a family business where clients communicate with real people and not just with a call center
-
Get direct leads or link into the Sandals and Beaches booking system
We are really pleased with the way the site looks and the results it has generated has been great so far.
Google Analytics has everything for the site owner - pretty pictures, great metrics and lots of insight when you dig into it
One of the best things about the web as a communication tool is the amazing information we can get about how people are using the information we put out there. Web servers easily record lots of information about what pages people view, how long they stay and lots of other information. These website stats can be an invaluable tool in fine tuning the messages we present on a website.
We continue to be impressed by the great tools available as part of Google Analytics. The stats, charts and graphs are really valuable once you get a handle on how to use them. If you want to know more about how we use Google Analytics, contact Don Bishop at 717.600.0033 x101.
|
Talk to us!
Our team specializes in bringing together skills in web design, web programming and web marketing to address real business needs. Contact Don Bishop for a free consultation.
Email Now or call
717.600.0033 x101
Check out some of our favorite new websites
|
|
|
| 4 Kent Rd. | York, PA 17402 |
|
|
|
| | Tuesday, March 10, 2009 - Better Websites Now - News from Affinigent, Inc. |
 |
 |
In This Issue:
If you still depend on Yellow Pages advertising, cold calling or wishful thinking to get business you should probably get to know more about Internet Marketing. Customers are finding (or not finding) companies to do business with on the Internet every day. Search engines, social media and other web tools are rapidly becoming the most common way that customers and prospects get information about companies.
Affinigent has created a customized approach to helping businesses take advantage of the right opportunities on the Internet. Not every business needs a blog or a Pay per Click (PPC) campaign. We can cut through the clutter and develop a plan that addresses your unique needs.
Thursday 3/26/09 - 11:00 AM Eastern
Internet Marketing Overview for managers
It's a whole new world in terms of promoting your business and using Internet Technologies. We will answer questions like, “How do you get to the top of the page in Google?” and “Is it safe to send mass emails to prospects?” This overview will include the basics of ‘how’ and ‘when’ to use:
- Search Engine Optimization
- Search Engine Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Directories, Blogs, PR and Social Networking sites
Thursday 4/23/09 - 11:00 AM Eastern
Search Engine Optimization for your website
|
Affinigent, Inc.
4 Kent Rd Ste. 200
York, PA 17402
717-600-0033
717-600-2341 (Fax)
info@affinigent.com
Get Directions to our offices
Talk to us!
Our team specializes in bringing together skills in web design, web programming and web marketing to address real business needs. Contact Don Bishop for a free consultation. Email Now or call
717.600.0033 x101
Check out some of our favorite new websites
Yarn-Love.com
Yarn Love is a great new Yarn Shop in Hummelstown, Pa.
TheRacingMom.com
The Racing Mom focuses on families who love NASCAR racing.
YakesTravel.com
Yakes Travel specializes in leisure travel especially Sandals and Beaches Resorts.
ChexMostPopularDriver.com
Chex Most Popular Driver lets NASCAR fans vote for their favorite driver.
CBRDSpeedfactory.com
CBRD Speedfactory is the Chad Block Racing Development site for their business in York.
|
$(Tracking)
| | Sunday, February 18, 2007 - Affinigent Newsletter for February 2007 |
| Upcoming Events
Marketing Your Small Business through the Internet
Affinigent CEO to speak on this hot topic
President and CEO of Affinigent, Inc., Don Bishop, is scheduled to speak at the York County Chamber of Commerce Small Business Seminar Series this February. The Lunch Plus will be held at the York Expo Center in the Pennsylvania Room on Thursday February 22, 2007 at 12:00 p.m. The Lunch Plus is open to both Chamber Member and Non Chamber Member businesses. To register for this event, contact Sean Kenny at Kenny@yorkchamber.com or at 771.4582. Don’t miss out on this event tailored for your small business!
Affinigent Webinars
Visit our website for more details about our seminars and webinars at www.affinigent.com/seminars
Marketing Strategy – Why it’s necessary
Many business executives question the value of developing a marketing strategy especially if business objectives have been established. They just want to execute a marketing plan. It’s important to spend the upfront time to be sure that your marketing programs are on a solid foundation. Packaging, or look and feel, can be an example of how skipping strategy can cause disconnect in your marketing deliverables. Placing on-target messages in a plain wrapper or distracting package can detract from the message. Similarly, creating attractive packaging without creating well thought out content can have similar results – pretty but empty.
Read More...
Search Engine Optimization: What is it and why is it important?
Search engine optimization, or SEO, allows for the creation of a higher search engine ranking and is a key to a successful internet marketing strategy. SEO can be defined as strategic analysis and placement of keywords in the text of a website to enable search engines to read and rank them accordingly. Search engines connect customers with suppliers at the very moment of interest. They help people get what they want, when they want it. Understanding what elements search engines look for is crucial to successfully implementing SEO.
Read More...
The Managed Service Approach – Begins with Monitoring
If you purchased a new car recently, you may take it to the dealer for regular maintenance intervals. You may be reminded of these service intervals by the dealer or the vehicle itself. You may also have road side assistance for breakdowns. During the service check, problems may be uncovered and corrected, but wouldn’t you rather know before the vehicle breaks down? Do you have the same type of service for your Network? Does someone remind you to have it checked at regular intervals? Or do you only have it worked on when problems occur – when your hard drive fills up or email goes down?
Read More...
Website Launches
Affinigent is pleased to announce the launch of the following websites this month. See for yourself how great they look!
Affinigent will offer a series of three webinars during the course of three weeks. The webinars will be FREE of charge, and will run on Thursday March 22, 29, and April 5 from 11:00a.m. to 12:00p.m. Topics will include eCommerce beyond the shopping cart, Basics of Internet marketing, and technology competencies for senior level executives. As well as running this presentation as a webinar, Affinigent will also offer live seminars at the indicated times to a limited number of seats. |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
Upcoming Events
Marketing Your Small Business through the Internet.
Affinigent webinars.
|
Website Launches
Affinigent is pleased to announce the launch of the following websites in the month of February. |
Case Study
American Home Bank moves to #1 in Google Search |
|
|
|
|
|
Case Study
American Home Bank was a relatively new mortgage bank that needed to expand rapidly in a number of niche markets. One of the first markets that was identified was Log Mortgages. The basic website for AmericanLogMortgage.com was created early in the business process, and traffic to the site was not meeting the company’s expectations.
American Home Bank came to Affinigent with their problem, where it was discovered that their Google ranking was not up to par. Competitors were ranking much better than AHB and were getting all the website hits, as well as business because of it.
An analysis of keyword popularity and searching patterns helped to determine the strategy for search engine optimization. This program resulted in a solid #1 ranking in Google and a number of other search engines. Affinigent’s website statistics show a steady growth of traffic to the American Home Bank’s websites, and for AHB, business is booming.
Click here to see the Google results
|
Affinigent, Inc.
4 Kent Rd Ste. 200
York, PA 17402
717-600-0033
717-600-2341 (Fax)
info@affinigent.com
|
|
| | Friday, November 17, 2006 - Affinigent Newsletter for November 2006 |
Open House that Supports Our Troops
Join us at the first Affinigent-Hainey Business Systems Open House on Tuesday November 21, 2006. Come meet our staff and learn about what we can do to enhance your business. Food and drinks will be provided from 3:30-6:30p.m. Two seminars will be featured at the open house. A new website will be unveiled in support of American troops overseas. The site will focus on what to send in a care package. We encourage all guests to bring a gift to donate to a care package that we will send to soldier’s in Iraq. See the schedule below for the open house.
2:00-3:30 p.m. - Business Continuity, Mike Silvers
3:30-6:30 p.m. - Meet our Team, Food and drinks provided
4:00-5:30 p.m. - Affinigent’s Strategic Approach to Website Evolution, Don Bishop & Mike Kipp
6:00 p.m. - Unveiling of website for troops
Sign up now to attend our open house!
Visit our website for more details about our seminars www.affinigent.com/seminars
Affinigent’s Commitment to Providing Excellence in IT Solutions for Business Performance
 I spend much of my time talking with clients and I’ve been hearing one main message: “Help me make sure my technology works right.” This is a request that I know we can fulfill for our clients. As you may know, Hainey Business Systems recently became a division of Affiningent, Inc. The goal of this combination is to provide clients the IT solutions they need to improve their business performance. Both Affiningent, Inc. and Hainey Business Systems have firm foundations established as reliable technology partners with their clients. We intend to combine these foundations into one solid company that provides clients with IT solutions for business performance.
Sincerely,
Don Bishop
dbishop@affinigent.com
What can we do for your network?
Whether your goal is to develop a new network or to build upon your current one, we can help you. Our team of experts not only provides network design and support, but also network security. We work closely with you to design, document, and optimize your technological infrastructure to promote reliability and scalability. Our highly skilled system engineers design networks to effectively mange the implementation of new information technologies and systems. This “network backbone” is the foundation of a company’s ability to take advantage of new market opportunities in a timely manner. Call Affinigent today to learn how we can help enhance your network.
Website Performance Analysis
Interested in learning where your website is underperforming? A Website Performance Analysis can boost your business goals by determining the next steps for your Internet strategy. Sign up today for more details on how your website can improve your business.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Case Study
PC Technology Support for Wellspring Gifts |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Case Study
“Help, my network is out of whack and I don’t know how to get it back”.
Does this sound like a problem your business is experiencing? It was for Wellspring when they came to Affinigent, Inc. for network support. After sending our expert networking consultants to their aid, Wellspring has no more complaints.
Our consultants worked with Wellspring to get their network organized. We documented what the company currently has and what the future could possess a need for.
“We are now more organized, and have a focus to make sure we prioritize what needs be accomplished in terms of back end support”, says Wellspring.
Our consultants made sure the organization and structure of the network was running well and even helped with Wellspring’s B2B website. Wellspring was immediately able to start getting business from this site.
Don’t let your network get away from you, contact Affinigent, Inc. today to see how we can help. www.affinigent.com.
|
Affinigent, Inc.
4 Kent Rd Ste. 200
York, PA 17402
717-600-0033
717-600-2341 (Fax)
info@affinigent.com
|
|
|
| | Friday, October 27, 2006 - 10/27/2006 - Convergence of Media |
|
10/27/2006 12:11:03 PM
|
|
The Convergence of Media
|
| How the convergence of media is changing business on the web. |
|
The Convergence of Media
Within the past few years, a major shift has occurred in the distribution of information through different media. Television programs used to be delivered solely by cable, voice conversations occurred over telephone lines, and music arrived via the radio. Today the Internet has created a convergence of media which is reshaping the way business is done.
Mixed Media Communication
With this convergence of media, businesses on the web can use all different media formats to make the sale, build the brand, or market a product. Rather than just displaying tedious text and dull graphics, business websites now provide mixed media communication that interacts with the website visitor and more powerfully communicates with them.
Here are some ways your business can take advantage of mixed media communication:
- Deliver
free podcasts about your products, services, or industry to entice sales or generate leads.
- Stream live or recorded seminars across the web to paying subscribers.
- Provide online chat for customer support (even if you aren't a software company).
- Keep important stakeholders posted on new developments through frequently updated
text content.
- Hold a webinar which uses voice, video, and text to train employees or clients.
As the convergence of media takes place over the web, businesses have an opportunity to strategically
implement these Internet technologies and outpace the competition. To learn how easy it is to get started, contact Don Bishop (717-600-0033 x101) to set up a free consultation.
Affinigent News
Don Bishop purchases Hainey Business Systems
Affinigent's owner makes strategic acquisition to enhance capabilities and customer base. Hainey Business Systems offers network infrastructure, IT consulting, AS/400-based internet integration and a complete range of services to support
users of IBM i Series platforms. Hainey also offers web and application development.
Conquering Internet Marketing
Learn a variety of Internet marketing techniques at this free seminar. During the seminar, you'll learn what marketing options are available
to your business on a local and national level.
Topics include: search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, email marketing, blogs, and podcasts. Sign up today, space is limited.
Date:
Tuesday May 18th
Time: 3:30pm – 4:30pm (Seminar)
4:30 – 5:30 ("Meet the Affinigent Team")
Where: Our offices (directions)
Cost: FREE
Register
for this Seminar Now...
Website
Performance Analysis
Interested in learning where your website is underperforming? A Website Performance
Analysis can boost your business goals by determining the next steps for your
Internet strategy. Sign up today for more details on how your website can improve your business.
|
| | Friday, May 12, 2006 - Affinigent Newsletter for May 2006 |
| The Convergence of Media
Within the past few years, a major shift has occurred in the distribution of information through different media. Television programs used to be delivered solely by cable, voice conversations occurred over telephone lines, and music arrived via the radio. Today the Internet has created a convergence of media which is reshaping the way business is done.
Mixed Media Communication
With this convergence of media, businesses on the web can use all different media formats to make the sale, build the brand, or market a product. Rather than just displaying tedious text and dull graphics, business websites now provide mixed media communication that interacts with the website visitor and more powerfully communicates with them.
Here are some ways your business can take advantage of mixed media communication:
- Deliver free podcasts about your products, services, or industry to entice sales or generate leads.
- Stream live or recorded seminars across the web to paying subscribers.
- Provide online chat for customer support (even if you aren't a software company).
- Keep important stakeholders posted on new developments through frequently updated text content.
- Hold a webinar which uses voice, video, and text to train employees or clients.
As the convergence of media takes place over the web, businesses have an opportunity to strategically implement these Internet technologies and outpace the competition. To learn how easy it is to get started, contact Don Bishop (717-600-0033 x101) to set up a free consultation.
Affinigent News
Don Bishop purchases Hainey Business Systems
Affinigent's owner makes strategic acquisition to enhance capabilities and customer base. Hainey Business Systems offers network infrastructure, IT consulting, AS/400-based internet integration and a complete range of services to support users of IBM i Series platforms. Hainey also offers web and application development.
- Press Release
- Don Bishop's Statement
Conquering Internet Marketing
Learn a variety of Internet marketing techniques at this free seminar. During the seminar, you'll learn what marketing options are available to your business on a local and national level.
Topics include: search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, email marketing, blogs, and podcasts. Sign up today, space is limited.
Date: Tuesday May 18th
Time: 3:30pm – 4:30pm (Seminar)
4:30 – 5:30 ("Meet the Affinigent Team")
Where: Our offices (directions)
Cost: FREE
Register for this Seminar Now...
Website Performance Analysis
Interested in learning where your website is underperforming? A Website Performance Analysis can boost your business goals by determining the next steps for your Internet strategy. Sign up today for more details on how your website can improve your business.
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
Affinigent News & Tips
- Don Bishop acquires Hainey
Business Systems
- Conquering Internet
Marketing seminar on May 18th
- Learn how your website can
change your business |
Featured Project
The Voice of Pennsylvania site makes voices heard through a convergence of media. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Featured Project
In connection with the Susquehanna Valley Center for Public Policy, Affinigent has developed a website, thevoiceofpa.net, where people can access radio broadcasts, television, and more from a personal computer or other Internet-enabled device.
The website is designed to be an archive where people can retrieve media about important issues such as politics, government, and culture in the state of Pennsylvania.
The site helps get voices heard. The website offers many formats for viewers to hear these voices such as audio broadcasts, video broadcasts, Windows and Mac capabilities, podcasts, transcripts, blogs, and live streaming radio. Currently, the AM radio station WHP 580 is streaming live from the site.
The site encourages the public to voice their opinions as well. Many radio stations, and or companies already have plans to be heard through the site. Check out thevoiceofpa.net today and see how Affinigent has developed this incredibly innovative site.
For more information on how you can capitalize on the convergence of media, call Don Bishop at 717-600-0033 x101 or visit our website at www.affinigent.com.
|
Affinigent, Inc.
4 Kent Rd Ste. 200
York, PA 17402
717-600-0033
717-600-2341 (Fax)
info@affinigent.com
|
|
|
| | Saturday, March 04, 2006 - Affinigent Newsletter for March 2006 |
|
Key Internet Developments for Business
|
| Learn about 3 key Internet developements to help your business succeed. |
|
| Key Internet Developments for Businesses
Doing business on the Internet means constantly adjusting your strategy to meet the changing demands of Internet customers. As each day goes by, new technologies change how business operates on the web. Here are some new developments to consider implementing into your Internet strategy.
Search Advertising
How does Google make all that money? Primarily through search advertising. For each search a user performs, ads appear on the search results page related to their search. Although the search advertising space is becoming more and more competitive, businesses can still capitalize on this powerful new marketing medium.
Some developments to look for in the future:
- Target ads by gender or demographic groups using new features in Google and MSN
- Display ads to searchers in your geographic location only
- Choose sites other than the search results page to display your ads
Email Marketing
Email marketing is one of the oldest forms of online marketing and still one of the most productive. A recent survey of marketing approaches found email marketing have the highest ROI.
Make yourself stick out in the crowd through some new techniques:
- Create landing pages specifically targeted to an individual recipient
- Segment your mailing list based on a recipient's past purchasing habits
- Test new email layouts based on the latest user interface surveys and tests
Blogs and feeds
Blogs and feeds are big buzz terms. They may be slightly over hyped but one lesson for businesses is that constantly updated content and simple user interaction are keys to retaining customers. Read our Featured Project case study to learn one approach to doing blogs and feeds right.
We'd love to help your business implement these new technologies in a strategic manner. To learn how easy it is to get started, contact Don Bishop (717-600-0033 x101) to set up a free consultation.
|
|
| | Wednesday, October 19, 2005 - Affinigent Newsletter for October 2005 |
| Safe and Secure Hosting
As critical applications and processes (CRM, ecommerce, customer self-service, etc.) begin to migrate to a connected, web environment, the safe and secure storage of that data becomes a key business factor. If your website stores, displays, or manages vital organization information, your hosting environment should meet some basic criteria.
Safe Hosting
A safe hosting environment includes features to protect your data from being lost in cyberspace. Some of the important features your hosting should include:
- Data backups run on a daily basis
- 99.9% server availability
- Strategic server and data recovery plans
- Redundant network connections to prevent data loss during transmission
Secure Hosting
In addition to safe hosting, secure hosting prevents others from accessing your private and important business information. Key components of a secure hosting environment include:
- Firewall protection preventing unwanted entry
- File transfers prevent anonymous file uploads
- Password-protected website administration
- Encryption of private information in database storage & data transfer
- Routine updates to the operating system
Best of both worlds
In an era of privacy concerns and unbelievable information access, protecting your crucial information while making it available to key stakeholders is of the utmost importance. Make sure your hosting company is providing you with the safe and secure environment your organization needs and deserves.
Affinigent meets and exceeds these basic requirements for all our websites. To learn how to protect your data, contact Don Bishop (717-600-0033 x101) to set up a free consultation.
Affinigent News and Tips
Check your website
Interested in learning where your website is underperforming? Our website audit helps you understand where your website can improve. To get more details and to sign up today, visit www.affinigent.com/audit/.
Fun and useful links
|
|
|
|
|
|
Featured Project
Marketing and the Internet;
a powerful combination for
local organizations. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Featured Project
Countryside America, in coordination with the York County Convention and Visitors Bureau, supports southern York County, PA organizations with marketing opportunities. The coordination of efforts between businesses increases exposure for each member organization.
In the past, most of the marketing involved a brochure placed at key venues. Countryside America wanted to expand their reach and realized a website is a great way to accomplish that goal.
Affinigent designed and developed CountrysideAmerica.org to promote these organization, track the results, and provide a way to keep the marketing materials up-to-date and relevant.
Each organization has an opportunity to present their story and visitors can get basic information about the facility. They can also request the standard printed brochure to be delivered to them via snail mail.
To track the impact of the website, Affinigent provided capabilities to see how many people view the site, request brochures, and contact the group. This valuable information will be used to tweak the site and the marketing approach.
When it's time to adjust the site's marketing, the staff at CountrysideAmerica.org has full content management capabilities. Pages and content can be added, edited, and removed by anyone with basic computer skills.
Mixing powerful marketing strategies with Internet technologies. It's what we do best. We'd like to help your business make the most of the web too. For more information contact Don Bishop (717-600-0033 x101) or visit our website at www.affinigent.com.
|
Affinigent, Inc.
4 Kent Rd Ste. 200
York, PA 17402
717-600-0033
717-600-2341 (Fax)
info@affinigent.com
|
|
|
| | Saturday, August 06, 2005 - Affinigent Newsletter for August 2005 |
| 4 Signs Your Website Needs a Redesign
1) "We are the champions" begins playing when anyone
visits the home page.
2) Your web page has blinking text that reads
"Click me!" "Click me!" "Click me!"
3) Orders from your ecommerce site are delivered to your
8-year old son's email address.
4) The first page of your website is a fancy animation
that visitors can not skip over.
Benefits of a Website Redesign
Now we're having a little fun at the expense of real websites you've probably seen, but we hope you get the message. Your website should be continually evaluated to determine if it is really adding value to your organization.
Improving your website through a redesign can positively affect your business. Here are just a couple of the possible benefits from updating your website:
1) Increase the number of visitors
from search engines
Search engines continually change their ranking algorithms. Your website may be doing things to prevent it from being listed. A redesign that keeps search engines in mind could bring in a large number of new visitors.
2) Improve your branding
If your brand message has changed, your website probably needs to be updated. Customers are more comfortable seeing one consistent brand message from your organization. A redesign could bring your overall branding into alignment and provide the consistency that customers appreciate.
3) Integrate your website into your
business processes
The opportunities for business processes to mesh with your website are much greater than they were just 5 years ago. If your website isn't making your business more effective, it's time for an upgrade.
4) Generate more activity
Ecommerce in some form is an option for any organization. Take advantage of the almost universal access to the web to interact with customers, employees, and partners.
How to move forward with a redesign
- Contact us or your web development company to begin the process.
- Understand the newest technologies available for your organization's website.
- Determine your unique goals for the website (your organization may need something that no other website has).
Free redesign consultations available
Can't decide if you need a website redesign? For free, we'll meet with you to evaluate your website. No cost and no obligations. Contact Don Bishop (717-600-0033) to set up an appointment.
Internet Marketing Tips
Tips to Generate More Visitors From Search Engines
- Create articles that other sites can borrow. The articles link back to your site which helps your search engine rank.
- Consider pay-per-click advertising as a viable marketing strategy.
- Regularly add content to your website. More content encourages repeat visitors & helps with search engine rankings.
- Take advantage of new search engine options like Google Site Maps, local search advertising, and shopping comparison sites.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Featured Project
J.V. Heidler Co., a top roofing company in PA, had a website for several years. Although this previous site gave them a presence on the web, it didn't portray the company the way President Joe Heidler wanted it to.
J.V. Heidler contacted Affinigent to do a simple but effective redesign of their website. With two basic goals, update the look of the site and add basic content management, Affinigent created a high quality website.
The colors, layout, and content were updated and improved upon with the redesign. This provides the brand consistency needed to portray quality workmanship.
The basic content management functionality made it simple for J.V. Heidler to update their website. Employees can update the projects listed on the website as each project is completed. There's no need for a web design company to intercede.
They also have the capability to upload important documents for customers to download. This practical addition to the website means less emailing of files to customers.
Simple redesigns, or complex redesigns, can improve your business, improve your marketing efforts, and portray your company in a better light.
We'd like to update your website and improve your business. For more information call Don Bishop at 717-600-0033 x101 or visit our website at www.affinigent.com.
|
Affinigent, Inc.
4 Kent Rd Ste. 200
York, PA 17402
717-600-0033
717-600-2341 (Fax)
info@affinigent.com
|
|
| | Saturday, June 11, 2005 - Affinigent Newsletter for June 2005 |
| 4 Practical Uses of Internet Technology
At Affinigent, we often discuss the evolution of websites as they move through typical stages. These stages range from a simple home page, to brochureware, to a synergistic business model. When businesses integrate Internet technologies into their business strategy some amazing things can happen for the business. Here are some results we've seen with our clients.
1) Reduced labor costs
The Pennsylvania Motorcycle Safety Program registers students for a free motorcycle training course. This was previously handled exclusively through a call center requiring a large number of employees to answer phone eight hours a day.
After implementing an online registration website, they have reduced the number of employees by over half and only take calls for 5 hours a day. 60% or more of their registrations now come through the website.
2) Empowered employees
Like most growing companies, American Home Bank needed a way to keep employees informed about company happenings.
After implementing an employee website (also known as an intranet), all employees now have one location where they can find company news, view employee pictures, and retrieve crucial information. Stephane Futty, Human Resources Manager, says, "Easily and efficiently providing information to all our employees is a key advantage of our employee website."
3) 24/7 access
Roosevelt Tavern, a local restaurant favorite, wanted to eliminate the hassle of the reservation process. To do this, Affinigent added an online reservation system to their website.
After implementing the system, patrons can now make reservations day or night. Patrons have found the system very practical as Roosevelt Tavern receives several online reservations every day.
4) Efficient communication with stakeholders
Aarrow Mortgage Group provides valuable resources to realtors and builders as a means to generate business. Each week the company was sending an email with an attached PDF to their growing list but were running into common email marketing problems. Some of these problems included not knowing how many people read the email and having to handle bad email addresses.
Affinigent provided them with an email marketing application to manage the entire process. Now this one program delivers the email, manages the email list, tracks results, and handles all those bad email addresses.
Moving your company forward
Moving your company along the typical website evolutionary process doesn't have to be painful. With an effective Internet strategy, your business can turn its every day problems into long forgotten annoyances. Affinigent has helped these businesses meet their goals, now we'd like to help you meet yours. Contact us today to get started.
Internet Marketing Tips
5 Top Tips for Better Email Marketing Results
- Write content geared toward the specific interests of your target audience.
- Include links with calls to action like “Shop today for 50% off your order” or “Learn more about our products”.
- Track key statistics. Look for any drastic changes as they may indicate a trouble spot with your email promotion.
- Test new strategies and ideas to find the best way to reach your market.
- Avoid "spammy" language in the subject line. Use language that encourages opening the email.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Affinigent, Inc.
4 Kent Rd Ste. 200
York, PA 17402
717-600-0033
717-600-2341 (Fax)
info@affinigent.com
|
|
|
|
|
Featured Project
In a previous newsletter, we discussed how American Log Mortgage was able to generate more business through a comprehensive Internet marketing strategy. Even with this initial success, there is always room to improve.
To apply for a log mortgage, applicants complete a pre-qualification form. This form needs to get as much information as possible about the applicant to find a mortgage to best meet their needs.
However, after reviewing the website statistics, it was clear that many applicants would simply quit partway through completing the form. Some prospects were lost forever.
Rather than continue to lose customers, they contacted Affinigent to improve this process.
To capture as much information as possible, Affinigent implemented a multi-step application form. This broke the form into mini-steps and made it more convenient to complete.
At each step along the form, the applicants information is stored to a database for later review by the sales team.
Because it stores information along the way, no matter what stage of the process the applicant stops at, the sales team is able to follow up with the applicant and continue the relationship.
As a result, Doug Groff of American Log Mortgage says, "We've increased the number of leads we receive each month and have been able to continue our growth."
A multi-step form worked for American Log Mortgage and it may work for your website too. After a free consultation with us, we will create and execute an Internet strategy to solve your unique business problem.
For more information call Don Bishop at 717-600-0033 x101 or visit our website at www.affinigent.com.
|
|
|
| | Wednesday, May 11, 2005 - Affinigent Newsletter for May 2005 |
| Meaningful Website Statistics
Website statistics provide a seemingly unending amount of information about your website visitors. Making sense of the statistics can be tough, especially when trying to understand how they really affect your business.
To help make website statistics a bit clearer, here are some main objectives for businesses on the web and what statistics could influence your business.
Goal: Increasing traffic to your website
Focus on the referrals section of your stats. Referrals are the websites that bring traffic to your site. From the referrals report you'll learn which websites send you traffic, how many are coming from search engines, and probably even what search terms the person used. If you are expecting traffic from a website, but you aren't receiving any visits from them, you may want to look into other linking partners. (For a great case study of the importance of links, read the Featured Project to the right.)
Goal: Getting visitors to visit more of your site
Examine the exit page report. Exit pages show the last page a visitor viewed before moving to another website. If a high percentage of people are leaving from a page, look into what's causing the exodus and correct it. This is especially important for key pages of your website like the home page, checkout pages, and lead generating pages.
Goal: Generating more leads and sales
The path a visitor takes through your website is crucial to getting more leads and sales. If your stats package has a function for showing the site path, then you can determine how well your website sales flow is working. If you think they should go from page 1 -> page 2 -> page 3, but instead they are going from page 1 -> page 5 -> page 3 -> page 2, you've got a problem.
Goal: Making your website viewable by all visitors
Each Internet browser (Internet Explorer, FireFox, Safari) interprets a website differently. Often these differences can make a website unreadable. Using the browser report, look at which browsers commonly view your website. Then test your website in those browsers to see how they appear. If they don't look right, you may want to make some adjustments.
Websites and web server software generate thousands and thousands of pieces of data about your website every day. Turning this data into information that is meaningful to your business can be a real challenge. Affinigent can help you with this daunting task. Give us a call.
Affinigent News
$200 off a website audit
Interested in learning where your website is underperforming? Our website audit helps you understand where your website can improve. In recognition of the York Business Expo (and just because we're nice people), we're offering $200 off a website audit (normally $750). To get more details and to sign up today, visit www.affinigent.com/audit/.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Featured Project
Website statistics help show a dramatic change to this business. |
Affinigent, Inc.
4 Kent Rd Ste. 200
York, PA 17402
717-600-0033
717-600-2341 (Fax)
info@affinigent.com
|
|
|
|
|
Featured Project
American Home Bank wanted to expand rapidly into a number of niche markets. One quickly identified market was log mortgages and thus the creation of American Log Mortgage.
Along with the development of the website, they recognized the need to attract more traffic to the website.
Affinigent implemented a two-prong solution to generate more traffic; search engine optimization and link building.
Affinigent's implementation of a search engine marketing program resulted in great exposure for the site. American Log Mortgage is number one in Google and many other search engines for its chosen keywords.
For the second part of the program, Affinigent created banners that can be used by other websites to link back to the website. Linking to American Log Mortgage is encouraged on their home page and has affected their business more dramatically than even search engines.
An analysis of their website statistics shows the impact of this link building program. Links from other websites generate 10x more traffic than the search engines.
There is no 'magic bullet' one-time approach to achieving your business objectives on the Internet. Virtually every situation is unique and requires a unique application of the tools at our disposal.
We'd like to help your business get more out of the Internet.
For more information call Don Bishop at 717-600-0033 x101 or visit our website at www.affinigent.com.
|
|
| | Saturday, April 16, 2005 - Affinigent Newsletter for April 2005 |
| Domain Names
Domain names like google.com or ebay.com are a common part of our world. Some companies even use a domain name as their company name. Here's a brief summary to help you understand domain names and their relationship to your business.
What is a domain name?
For humans a domain name is an easily remembered name to access a website. In the Internet world, a domain name tells networked computers where and how to connect to each other. They are the front door to websites, email, and other technologies.
Who owns a domain name?
Anyone can own a domain name. To obtain a domain name, an individual must "register" the domain name with a "registrar." A registrar is a company with the ability to create domain names. There are many registrars and each offers different fees. Individuals must be selective when choosing to register a domain name with a registrar as all registrars are not equal.
Are there domain name scams out there?
Yes, and we've seen many of them. Individuals listed in domain registration records often receive emails claiming they need to renew their domain name or it will be turned off. Or you may receive an email that your domain name needs to be transferred. Beware of these emails!
How does Affinigent simplify the domain name ownership for my organization?
Affinigent takes several steps to ensure you have the right domain name and are protected from these scams. These include...
- Finding an appropriate and memorable
domain name
- Registering the domain name with a
reputable registrar
- Properly setting up the domain so the website and email continue to work
- Protecting your domain name from scams
and fraud.
Domain names, registrars, and the many other details of using Internet technologies can be overwhelming. It's vital to partner with a knowledgeable Internet company that understands how to use the Internet as part of your business strategy. Affinigent can be your partner, call Don Bishop at 717-600-0033 to learn how.
Affinigent News
See you at the York Business Expo
Stop by the Affinigent booth at the York Business Expo on Wednesday, May 4th between 10 a.m. & 7 p.m. At the booth you can enter your business into a drawing for a free website audit. Or just contact us today and we'll assist you in making Internet technologies a vital part of your business strategy.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Domain Names
Choosing a domain name is only half the battle.
|
Affinigent, Inc.
4 Kent Rd Ste. 200
York, PA 17402
717-600-0033
717-600-2341 (Fax)
info@affinigent.com
|
|
|
|
|
Featured Project
John Stevens, a professional painter of Pennsylvania and Maryland watercolor landscapes, wanted to reach out to his core customers and new customers.
To do this, Affinigent helped
him implement an email marketing program to make a personal connection with his target audience.
For a personalized look, Affinigent developed a custom email format that coincides with John's artistic style. This email 'template' is used for each mailing for a consistent look.
In order to grow the list, John collects email addresses at the many shows he attends.
Affinigent also modified his website to collect email addresses directly into the email marketing system. There's no need to reenter email addresses when someone registers on the website.
On a regular basis, Affinigent manages the creation and delivery of an email newsletter with John's personal message. The newsletter contains a note about the inspiration for his latest painting, what shows he'll attend in the coming months, and how to contact him.
The frequent, personal touch of the newsletter can be seen by the results. Over 50% of people who receive the email open and read it. Nearly 35% of those who read it then visit his website.
Email marketing is working for John Stevens. We'd like it to work for your organization too.
To learn how Internet marketing can help your business, call Don Bishop at 717-600-0033 x101 or visit our website at www.affinigent.com.
|
|
| | Tuesday, March 01, 2005 - Affinigent Newsletter for March 2005 |
| How To Buy A Website
60 million websites (at least) are now on the Internet. We've stressed the importance of having a website many times and hope this enewsletter offers practical ways to take advantage of the Internet. But there is one part of creating a website that no one seems to know how to do...how to actually buy a website!
Different companies offer different ways to buy a website. The different approaches outlined below have unique pros and cons. However, we recommend what we've called the "Web Partner" approach.
Website Buying Options
By the page
How it works
Websites are sold by the page in a package deal. The designer usually offers a collection of templates to choose a design for the content that you provide them.
Pros
- You know exactly what you're getting
- It's simple to get started
Cons
- Generic templates not suited for unique businesses
- Limited functions to do more than just display content
Do it yourself
How it works
You sign up on a website and build a website through a step-by-step wizard. You can then edit the website using the wizard at anytime.
Pros
- Generally inexpensive
- Quick website development time
- Do it yourself capabilities
Cons
- You get what you pay for
- No Internet experts along the way
Web Partner
How it works
You work closely with a web development company to develop a unique website. The company then develops the website with your continued input.
Pros
- Unique website design and approach
- Partner generally has a large amount of experience
Cons
- Longer development cycle
- Pricing models very by developer
Your business is unique and valuable. Your website should be too. We recommend the "Web Partner" approach because it provides your business with an Internet strategy to meet your unique needs. If your website doesn't meet your needs, you may want to find a Web Partner to help, we can be that partner.
Affinigent News
A Successful Seminar
19 local business professionals learned the basics of marketing their business on the web in January. If you missed that opportunity, we're offering the Basics of Internet Marketing seminar again on Thursday, March 10th from 9 - 10:30 a.m. To make sure we save you a seat, pre-register on our website. We look forward to seeing you there.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Affinigent News
Attend our successful Basics of Internet Marketing seminar. |
Affinigent, Inc.
4 Kent Rd Ste. 200
York, PA 17402
717-600-0033
717-600-2341 (Fax)
info@affinigent.com
|
|
|
|
|
Featured Project
The Pennsylvania Motorcycle Safety Program administers over 2,000 courses for more than 20,000 students a year who are working to get their motorcycle license. We profiled their plans in our May 2004 enewsletter, but new developments warrant another look.
In phase 1, Affinigent developed a database-driven web application for their call center in 1 month. An impressive accomplishment given the scope of the project.
In phase 2, PAMSP exposed this backend application to the Internet for online student registration. PAMSP and Affinigent recently rolled out this portion of the website at www.pamsp.com with impressive results.
On a typical day, the website receives over 1,500 visits and nearly 200 online registrations.
Students get many benefits from this including avoiding phone system queues and registering at any hour of the day. Additionally, course listings are up-to-date whenever they check.
For PAMSP, they benefit from having a unified system of managing registrations. And as the number of online registrations increases, their operating expenses decrease. The website is working for them.
If you'd like your website to handle more of your work, we can help. For more information, call Don Bishop at 717-600-0033 x101 or visit our website at www.affinigent.com.
|
|
|
| | Monday, February 21, 2005 - Affinigent Newsletter for February 2005 |
| 5 Features Your Website Should Have
With so many different types of businesses and industries, one would think that each website is very unique. However, there are basic parts to a website that add immense value to you and your website visitors. Is your website missing these 5 things?
What's New (Company News)
Every business wants customers, employees, and the press to know what's going on with their company. Our blog-like What's New function makes providing fresh news a painless process.
Tell a friend
Everyone would like more people to visit their website. This simple form (usually shown on the home page) allows website visitors to send their friends an email encouraging them to visit a website. Combine this with an incentive and your website becomes a powerful magnet.
Mailing List Sign-up
One of the basic steps to continuing a relationship with a website visitor is to gather their email address whenever possible. A simple way to do this is through an mailing list signup form. Prominently displayed on the website, businesses can grow their email list with little effort.
File Downloads
Nearly every business requires the ability to quickly and simply exchange documents and files. Email works sometimes, but it isn't the most efficient or secure method to accomplish this. Our File Downloads web function helps eliminate this common problem.
Contact form
And, perhaps more important than all of those, website visitors need the ability to contact you. Adding an online contact form allows visitors to quickly contact you. While we're thinking about, why don't you use our contact form to begin discussing your website?
These 5 basic web functions are just the beginning of what your website can do for your business. The Internet is becoming central to succeeding in business. Don't let the Internet pass your business by.
Affinigent News
A Successful Seminar
19 local business professionals learned the basics of marketing their business on the web in January. If you missed that opportunity, we're offering the Basics of Internet Marketing seminar again on Thursday, February 10th from 8 - 9:30 a.m. Come at 8 a.m. for muffins and registration. To make sure we save you a seat, pre-register on our website. We look forward to seeing you there.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Affinigent News
Attend our successful Basics of Internet Marketing seminar. |
Affinigent, Inc.
4 Kent Rd Ste. 200
York, PA 17402
717-600-0033
717-600-2341 (Fax)
info@affinigent.com
|
|
|
|
|
Featured Project
Jack Giambalvo Motor Company wanted more out of their website. With 4 out of 5 car buyers shopping online before buying offline, Jack Giambalvo needed their website to work hard for their business.
To make that happen, they contacted Affinigent. Affinigent's crew of designers and programmers created a website that both looks good and is extremely functional.
To see just how good it looks, visit their website at www.giambalvo.com. A visually appealing and easy to navigate website greets the car buyer.
The functionality on the site is obvious to see also. Some of the advanced functionality includes:
- Building a new vehicle
- Scheduling a test drive
- Making a service appointment
- Browse for a pre-owned car
- Learn about their sales tea
- Apply for a loan
Advanced functionality is not for the car buyer alone. Jack Giambalvo's staff can modify, remove, and download much of the website content.
That's not all, they also have an employee only section with company specific capabilities. We could talk all day about that, but we'll leave that for another issue.
We'd love to help you get more out of your website. For more information on how we can help, call Don Bishop at 717-600-0033 x101 or visit our website at www.affinigent.com.
|
|
| | Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - Affinigent Newsletter for January 2005 |
Combating Malware
(Safe computing tips for 2005)
Last year's evil Internet technology, spam, has been controlled to some degree with the CAN-SPAM act and recent litigation. But other malicious technologies are now costing businesses and individuals thousands of dollars.
Collectively called "malware," the term refers to a number of Internet technologies such as spyware, viruses, worms, spam, and phishing. Dell reported in November that an average of 20% of all help desk calls relate to spyware. In addition, a study by the Internet Education Foundation found that more than 90 percent of computers in the US have some form of spyware on their computer.
All of us at Affinigent have had to deal with this problem at home, at work, and from our relatives. Here are some resources to help you combat 2005's evil Internet technologies.
Spyware
Symptoms
- Slow Internet connection
- Random pop-up windows
- Browser home page is changed
- Mysterious toolbars appear in your browser
- More information about spyware
Combat gear
- Ad-Aware - Free program to find and remove spyware
- Spybot Search and Destroy - Free download
- Yahoo! Toolbar - Free & provides search features too
Viruses, worms, & Trojan horses
Symptoms
- You're receive email messages from unknown people
- Your computer does not function as expected
- Your friends don't speak to you anymore
- More info about viruses, worms, & Trojan horse
Combat gear
- The latest versions of Microsoft Outlook block file types that sometimes carry viruses.
- Norton Antivirus - Scans files and email for viruses
- McAfee - Similar to Norton Antivirus
- AVG - Free for home use. Business licenses available.
Spam
Symptoms
- Tens, hundreds, and thousands of unwanted commercial email in your Inbox
- More information about spam
Combat Gear
- Microsoft Outlook 2003 - provides a Junk Mail folder to handle spam
- Yahoo! Email or Hotmail - Create a free email account to only use when registering on websites. Then cancel the email account when you begin receiving too much spam.
- Spam Assassin - a program that reads email content to determine likelihood that it's spam. Provided by some Internet and email providers.
- Other spam programs - This list from PC World reviews and recommends other programs to protect your system.
Phishing
Symptoms
Phishing attacks are emails attempting to get your personal information. They usually come in the form of requesting a password or changing your bank account information.
Combat Gear
- Delete any email from an unknown sender.
- If you doubt an emails validity, contact the company
making the request by phone.
- Other great suggestions
Other ways to protect yourself
- Regularly update your operating system. Microsoft's Service Pack 2 provides an internal firewall to prevent your computer from being used to propogate viruses, spam, and other malware.
- Install a firewall. If MS Service Pack 2 isn't for you, other firewall providers include ZoneAlarm, Norton, McAfee.
- Install and use Mozilla's FireFox. This new browser does not currently have many of the security and malware problems Microsoft Internet Explorer has. Several of the Affinigent staff highly recommend converting.
The costs to businesses because of malware is staggering. These few simple tips provide some help to lower your costs and improve your experience with the Internet.
Affinigent News
Affinigent Open House and Free Seminar
You are invited to join us for our Open House on Thursday, January 13th between 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. In addition to our Open House, we are offering a FREE seminar on the Basics of Internet Marketing from 3:30 - 4:30 p.m. Reply to this email to register. We look forward to seeing you there.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Featured Project
Two groups get the most out of the Internet; the customer and the business. |
Affinigent, Inc.
4 Kent Rd Ste. 200
York, PA 17402
717-600-0033
717-600-2341 (Fax)
info@affinigent.com
|
|
|
|
|
Featured Project
A local restaurant favorite, Roosvelt Tavern, has had a website for several years. Originally designed and maintained by the owner, Roosevelt Tavern now wanted the website to become central to their business.
Roosevelt Tavern contacted Affinigent to help them make this change.
One central component of the restaurant experience is making a reservation. Roosevelt Tavern wanted to make this process both customer-friendly and automated for the staff.
To accomplish this goal, Affinigent developed a simple form to make reservations from the website. These reservations are then sent to the restaurant. After receiving the notification, Roosevelt Tavern makes a personal call to confirm the reservation.
Simple in concept, but powerful in practice, this little form benefits two groups of people; the customer and the restaurant.
When Internet technology is used like this, we know we've improved a client's business.
We'd love to help you get more out of your website. For more information on how we can help, call Don Bishop at 717-600-0033 x101 or visit our website at www.affinigent.com.
|
|
| | Thursday, December 16, 2004 - Affinigent Newsletter for December 2004 - Vol. I |
| Practical Knowledge on the Web
For any business with more than one person, there is often a wealth of hidden and underutilized knowledge from each employee's unique experience, insight, and learning. In the past, gathering this knowledge into one place was difficult, time-consuming, and clumsy. However, the Internet's ability to make knowledge available to many people in many locations makes practical knowledge management so much easier. Commonly used Internet technologies for centralizing knowledge include:
Knowledge Base Systems
Microsoft Support may be the premier example of this type of knowledge management. This system provides answers to common bugs and problems in a simple format. Each support article explains the problem, outlines the cause, and offers step-by-step solutions. This approach works great for product-oriented businesses (software, electronics, machinery).
Wikis
An unusual term for a simple and practical knowledge management system. In a wiki, all website content is editable by any user. Wikipedia is a huge resource based on this technology. Businesses with significant collaboration needs may find this technology very beneficial.
Blogs
These easily updatable interfaces allow employees to make quick notes and inciteful comments about any topic. Others in the organization read and use their knowledge for similar situations. NetworkWorldFusion has other reasons why blogs are legitimate business tools.
Forums
Forums (also great for customer support, see McAfee help) are a community based support system. Employees post questions or comments to create a thread. Others in the business reply creating a unique dialog that can be used by others.
Search (the key to the knowledge store room)
The key to making this knowledge available is search. Strong search capabilities produce fast delivery of the knowledge the moment needed.
Knowledge management may be complex at first, but practical ways to open up the knowledge inside your business are not. Utilizing these (and many other) tools can improve efficiency, build employee cooperation, and ultimately make more profits. Practical knowledge management, just another real use of Internet technology.
Affinigent News
Affinigent Open House and Free Seminar
You are invited to join us for our Open House on January 13th between 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. In addition to our Open House, we are offering a FREE seminar on Internet Marketing Basics at 3:30 p.m. Reply to this email to register. We look forward to seeing you there.
How is your website performing?
Are you comfortable with your website? Is it meeting the goals you set? If not, your business could benefit from a website audit. During a website audit, we compare how your website is performing compared to your real business goals. At the end, you'll get our recommendations on where to improve. Contact Jared Frank or Don Bishop to learn how a website audit can change your business.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Affinigent News
- Affinigent Open House and free
Internet marketing seminar
- How is your website performing? |
Affinigent, Inc.
4 Kent Rd Ste. 200
York, PA 17402
717-600-0033
717-600-2341 (Fax)
info@affinigent.com
|
|
|
|
|
Featured Project
Affinigent has been working with PAIFA (Pennsylvania Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors) on their website for many years. Their newest redesign (www.paifa.org) easily surpasses everything done in the past.
So what makes this website better than all the rest? Simple. ALL the website content is changeable; whenever and however PAIFA wants. All that's needed to update the website is a browser, an Internet connection, and a secure account.
In addition to the ability to update the content, the website has the clean design PAIFA was looking for. Many content management systems require uninspiring template designs, not PAIFA's. Affinigent customized the website design to exactly PAIFA what wanted.
A good looking website and completely customizable content...an unbeatable combination.
Want to learn how this technology can improve your business? We can help you accomplish great things on the Internet. For more information, call Don Bishop at 717-600-0033 x101.
|
|
|
| | Saturday, December 11, 2004 - Affinigent Newsletter for December 2004 - Vol. II |
| Affinigent Ecommerce Gift Ideas
With the holidays upon us, gift buying is on everyone's mind. Online gift buying this year is hot, hotter than ever in fact. On Black Friday, online purchases increased 28% compared to last year (offline purchases only increased 15%). In another survey, nearly 9 out of 10 people claimed they would be buying something online this holiday season.
With all this online buying on the mind, we'd like to suggest some ecommerce websites you might be interested in.
Mike's Nut Shop
Mike's Nut Shop (www.mikesnuts.com) sells gift baskets, gift boxes, gift tins, and just plain nuts. Order online or stop by their store in York, PA.
Roosevelt Tavern
Or you may be interested in taking your loved ones out to a great local restaurant. The Roosevelt Tavern (www.roosevelttavern.com) in York, PA offers fine dining in a casual atmosphere. Make your reservations online for that special date.
Lebo Skin Care
Another great option is to order gift certificates from Lebo Skin Care (www.leboskincare.com). You can order your gift certificate online 24 hours a day. You may want to take advantage of one of their specials this month by ordering your gift certificate on December 17th to receive 10% off. To be notified about their monthly specials sign up for their newsletter.
American Home Bank
If you're looking to make a bigger purchase next year, American Home Bank (www.bankahb.com) may be right for you. Pre-qualify for your loan online, find the perfect loan originator, or use their mortgage calculators to help you with your decision.
The ecommerce arena is getting very competitive as large and small businesses make major pushes into this new business environment. These local businesses have successfully made the transition and your company can too. We would love to help you with that.
Your Input Desired
We'd love to hear from you about how to make our newsletter more valuable to you. What would you like to learn about? Are there Internet technologies about which you'd like to be informed? Take our less-than 5 minute online survey now.
Affinigent News
Affinigent Open House and Free Seminar
You are invited to join us for our Open House on January 13th between 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. In addition to our Open House, we are offering a FREE seminar on Internet Marketing Basics from 3:30 - 4:30 p.m. Reply to this email to register. We look forward to seeing you there.
Affinigent and CyberGrad hold webinar
Don Bishop, President of Affinigent, recently gave a webinar to a national audience of corporate trainers. Using CyberGrad's web meeting software, the webinar taught non-technical trainers how to use web meeting software for effective training.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Affinigent News
- Affinigent Open House and free
Internet marketing seminar
- Affinigent Webinar |
Affinigent, Inc.
4 Kent Rd Ste. 200
York, PA 17402
717-600-0033
717-600-2341 (Fax)
info@affinigent.com
|
|
|
|
|
Featured Project
No, our client is not Google (although, they could be). This month's featured project shows how one simple change can significantly impact a businesses Internet presence.
A real estate company contacted us recently to increase their website traffic through Internet marketing. Over the past several months, we've taken several steps to increase their traffic and ultimately their sales.
Part of our Internet Marketing Process involves recommending website changes to increase search engine ranking. While analyzing their website, we noticed that a little file was providing the wrong information to search engines.
This little file, called robots.txt, was telling the search engines to ignore the entire website! Obviously detrimental to their business, we recommended they take immediate action.
Since making this simple change, they've drastically increased their ranking in search engines. For several important keywords in Google, they went from not being listed at all to being up to number 2 in non-paid search rankings.
Many times, it is the simple, consistent steps that make all the difference in promoting a website. We can help your business achieve similar results too.
For more information, call Don Bishop at 717-600-0033 x101.
|
|
| | Thursday, October 14, 2004 - Affinigent Newsletter for October 2004 |
| Real Uses for Internet Technology
Great websites are more than just fancy brochures. In fact, websites have evolved into real 'web applications;' complex (or simple) systems used to manage and improve business. For example, an ecommerce website may include a complex web application controlling inventory and managing customer relationships.
Here are some examples of success on the web. This is our sampling of real world success stories -- real companies making intelligent use of Internet technologies to transform their business. You'll find some world famous examples and a few of our personal favorites. (Pardon us if we throw in a few of our own clients.)
- Knowledge management - Archiving and providing information to employees, customers, etc.)
- News and announcements - Providing news and announcements to stakeholders
- File sharing - Centralized, easily accessible location for business critical documents and files
- Ecommerce - Selling and managing products and services online
- Content management - Keeping website content up-to-date, relevant, and fresh
- Event Calendar - Keeping all stakeholders involved with important dates
- Support and documentation - Answer questions online to save on costly telephone support calls
Websites have grown up. With advanced programming and database technology, fast Internet connection speeds, and powerful servers, a business can transform through the use of web applications. The possibilities are endless; dynamic document creation, inventory management, global file sharing. You dream it; it's possible.
Affinigent News
FREE Internet marketing evaluation
Want more out of your website? We'll provide a FREE Internet marketing evaluation. Here's how it works:
- We meet with you to determine your goals and business strategy
- We evaluate your current website and Internet marketing strategy
- We present written recommendations on areas of improvement to maximize your Internet investment
For your free Internet marketing evaluation contact Don Bishop or Jared Frank.
Streaming media is here
Affinigent is in the process of completing an Internet radio station for a client. We'll let you know when it's available but in the meantime, consider if this new technology is right for your business. Possible uses include online training videos, audio presentations, or complete radio stations with playlists and advertising content. Contact Don Bishop if you'd like to learn how to use this Internet technology for your business.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Affinigent News
- FREE Internet
marketing evaluation
- Streaming media is here |
Affinigent, Inc.
4 Kent Rd Ste. 200
York, PA 17402
717-600-0033
717-600-2341 (Fax)
info@affinigent.com
|
|
|
|
|
Featured Project
York Catholic High School needed a website and they needed a powerful website. Schools have many complex needs from a website including the need for:
- Maintaining school and athletics calendars
- Announcing events to parents, alumnus, and the community
- Providing downloadable forms for field trips, fundraisers, etc.
- Allowing people to contact the school and the right person getting that information
- Adding, editing, and removing content on a continual basis
For assistance in taking these complex needs and making a valuable website, York Catholic HS turned to Affinigent. The result is www.yorkcatholic.org.
One of the primary features is the use of calendars. The calendars have a unique roll up functionality that allows one calendar to show events from another calendar.
For example, each sport has a calendar. Then that calendar rolls up into the master calendar. So if you want to see all events on a given day you can, or you can narrow the calendar to events for one sport.
Want to get that functionality for your business? We can help you accomplish great things on the Internet. For more information, call Don Bishop at 717-600-0033 x101.
|
|
| | Monday, September 13, 2004 - Affinigent Newsletter for September 2004 |
| Spams, scams, and viruses
For most of us this topic sends a chill down our spine. Over the years we've seen many different spam, scam, and virus attacks. It's always good to be reminded how to protect yourself from Internet bad guys. (You may find the phishing advice very helpful).
Protect against spam
- Turn on spam filters. We've found Microsoft Outlook 2003's spam protection to be quite good.
- Don't open email unless you know the sender. Even opening the email may notify the spammer that your email address is active.
- Unsubscribe from legit newsletters. The CAN-SPAM Act requires all email marketers to quickly remove you from their lists. Legitimate marketers actually follow this law.
- Don't click links in unknown emails, even to unsubscribe. If the email is from an illegitimate source, don't click any links if you open the email. You'll only invite more.
Protect against phishing
Phishing attacks are the latest email scam. These emails appear to come from real businesses (banks, retailers, etc.) but are really sent from scammers. Often they ask you to "update" credit card, account, or personal information via a form. However, when you do this, they use your information for many nefarious purposes. Here's how the FTC recommends protecting yourself.
- If you get an email or pop-up message that asks for personal or financial information, do not reply or click the link in the message. Legitimate companies don't ask for this information via email.
- Never email personal or financial information. Email is not a secure method of transmitting such information.
- Review credit card and bank account statements as soon as you receive them to determine whether any unauthorized charges appear.
- Use anti-virus software and keep it up to date. Some emails contain software that can harm your computer or track your activities on the Internet without your knowledge.
- Be cautious about opening any attachment or downloading any files from emails you receive, regardless of who appears to have sent them.
- Report suspicious activity to the FTC. If you believe you've been scammed, file your complaint at www.ftc.gov.
Protect against viruses
- Use anti-virus software and keep it up to date.
- Install the latest security updates if you use Microsoft Windows. Windows XP Service Pack 2 offers many new security features.
- Install a software firewall. These help prevent viruses from using your computer to propagate themselves.
- Don't open suspicious email attachments even if they appear to be from a known sender.
Protecting yourself against spams, scams, and viruses doesn't require much, just your time and energy. We hope these pointers protect you and your business and make your experience with Internet technologies even better.
Recommended reading:
How Not to Get Hooked by a ‘Phishing’ Scam
FTC recommendations to prevent phishing scams.
Security and privacy 101: how to prevent spam
HP provides some handly advice on spam prevention.
Virus Detection and Prevention Tips
McAfee's advice to protect against viruses.
Affinigent Newss
5 Year Anniversary
Affinigent celebrates its 5th anniversary year starting in September of 2004! In a time when technology companies come and go, we're continuing to grow as we move into our 5th year. We've seen many changes over the years and the future is looking even brighter as we use new Internet technologies like advanced content management systems, custom business applications, and Internet marketing to improve your business.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Affinigent, Inc.
4 Kent Rd Ste. 200
York, PA 17402
717-600-0033
717-600-2341 (Fax)
info@affinigent.com
|
|
|
|
|
Featured Project
Ameribanq Mortgage Group (www.ameribanq.com) is a residential mortgage lender with nearly 200 employees and offices in 5 states.
Because of the wide area covered by employees and loan originators, they needed email that would be strong enough to use at the office and on the road.
They asked Affinigent for help. We quickly set up email access for the employees within a couple hours and provided the tools to meet their needs.
For stable email access at the office, each employee could use the email application of their choice, often it is Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express.
An alternative tool, well suited for home or traveling users, is Affinigent's custom webmail. Secure and easily accessible, this solution provides all the basic email functions (folders, new mail notifications, address book) Ameribanq employees need in or out of the office.
For better customer support, each employee's email address is available on the company website so customers can easily contact them.
Email is vital for Ameribanq. Now they have reliable access from anywhere so customers can contact them
If you would like to learn more about how email and Internet marketing can change your business, call Don Bishop at 717-600-0033 x101.
|
|
| | Monday, August 09, 2004 - Affinigent Newsletter for August 2004 |
Successful email marketing
Does this sound like you? You've heard about the importance of being in constant communication with your customers. You've taken this wisdom to heart and begun to implement email marketing. However, you just don't feel like it's impacting your business. May we offer a few pointers on how to move your email marketing from normal to successful.
- Provide something of value with each email. Who wants more junk email? Don't waste people's time, give them something of value from what you do and are passionate about.
- Make joining your list an important part of the relationship with your client. Add a sign up on your website and mention it to all your customers.
- Send a welcome message every time someone joins your list. A quick reply provides a great customer experience. (Why not send them your most recent newsletter with the welcome?)
- Make people feel secure. Have your privacy policy easily accessible on your website and email.
- Send your mailings regularly. People love consistency, it's why they'll sit in the same seat at a conference even if it's not assigned.
- Allow people to easily remove themselves from your list. It's the law and people like it.
A very common question about email marketing is when to send a newsletter and how often. Although there are some standard days recommended by email marketers, these questions can only be answered by you and your customers. Experiment to find the right day when your recipients are most likely to be receptive and responsive. When you have determined a good time to send, remember to send it consistently.
Successful email marketing begins and ends with your customers. When you put them first, you'll see the difference in your bottom line.
Recommended reading:
12 Tips for Successful Opt-in Email Newsletters
Raj Khera of MarketingProfs.com provides a great collection of tips to move your email newsletter from normal to successful.
Affinigent News
5 Year Anniversary
Affinigent celebrates its 5th anniversary in September! In a time when technology companies come and go, we're continuing to grow as we move into our 5th year. We've seen many changes over the years and the future is looking even brighter as we use new Internet technologies like advanced content management systems, custom business applications, and Internet marketing to improve your business.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Affinigent, Inc.
4 Kent Rd Ste. 200
York, PA 17402
717-600-0033
717-600-2341 (Fax)
info@affinigent.com
|
|
|
|
|
Featured Project
Lebo Skin Care, a local leader in non-invasive skin care procedures, needed to promote their monthly specials to as many potential and current customers as possible.
They had a collection of email addresses from their website and billing system. However, these weren't being used to their fullest potential.
Affinigent partnered with them in creating content, managing the email list, and delivering the email each month.
After nearly a year of consistent promotion, they have seen their list double in size. Customers consistently open and respond to the email by clicking links, replying by email, and visiting the website. In fact, their website traffic usually triples the day of each email.
They've taken what was a good email list and turned it into something that is consistently benefiting their business. We're glad to be a part of successes like this.
If you would like to learn more about how email and Internet marketing can change your business, call Don Bishop at 717-600-0033 x101.
|
|
| | Sunday, July 18, 2004 - Affinigent Newsletter for July 2004 - Vol. II |
How well do you know your customers?
|
|
The Internet has revolutionized what you can know about your target market. Each part of your Internet strategy (website, email marketing, etc.) tells you more about your customers, often right as it happens.
For example, did you know you can track this information about your website visitors?
The pages they view as they navigate your site
Search engine keywords they used to find your site
The pages most frequently entered and exited from
Time spent by visitors on your site
Or, if you send email newsletters, did you know you can see these results as they happen?
Which customers receive and open your email
What links they click
How many people unsubscribe from your list
All these pieces work together to give you an understanding of your customers' behavior, their likes and dislikes, and their attitude toward your products and services.
Use this to your advantage. Determine what your customers want. Adapt to exceed their expectations. Beat the competition. Do it quickly and efficiently, and you've capitalized on Internet technology.
Recommended reading:
Affinigent Email Marketing Report
Our Internet marketing services provide feedback on email marketing campaigns. Take a look at what our clients can know about their customers.
Affinigent News
Website Checkup
Is your website where you want it to be? If you're not sure, we can help. Our Website Checkup package analyzes your website to determine if you are meeting your Internet goals.
We carefully analyze various aspects of your site including search engine rankings, "link popularity", and website usability. A detailed report provides recommendations on how to improve your site to meet your goals.
Sign up for a website checkup in June and receive 25% off. Reply to this email to get started, or contact Don Bishop or Jared Frank at 717-600-0033.
Affinigent Telephone Extensions
Please note, our telephone extensions have changed.
| Don Bishop x101 |
Mary Bishop x102 |
| Jared Frank x103 |
James Keagy x110 |
| Jess Karns x111 |
Chris Miller x120 |
| Bob Hoke x121 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Affinigent, Inc.
4 Kent Rd Ste. 200
York, PA 17402
717-600-0033
717-600-2341 (Fax)
info@affinigent.com
|
|
|
|
|
Featured Project
York County Convention and Visitor's Bureau Email Marketing
The York County Convention and Visitors Bureau's goal is to promote everything York County. To do this they asked us to manage the delivery of InGear, a monthly email promoting York County.
Each month, this regular contact with nearly 3,000 recipients (40% of them opening the email) gets the word out about York County to people who don't regularly visit their website.
But there's more than just getting the word out. They also use this to adapt to their market.
For example, they record every linked clicked in the email. With this information, they understand people's interests. Future issues are then adapted to what people are interested in.
Using Internet technology, we can provide even more information than that. To see examples of the data available through email marketing, check out the email marketing report we provide to our clients.
Want to learn more about how Internet marketing can affect your business, visit our website, or call Don Bishop or Jared Frank at 717-600-0033 for more information.
|
|
| | Saturday, July 17, 2004 - Affinigent Newsletter for July 2004 - Vol. III |
Take Control Of Your Website
Keeping your website up-to-date. We've all had difficulty with this task. Yet keeping fresh content on your site has many advantages. Here are a few:
- Visitors appreciate the fact that you keep your site current. After all, this is the one marketing avenue that's available every minute of every day.
- Sites that are updated frequently tend to be listed higher in search engines.
- Each piece of content added over the years makes your site more authoritative to visitors, search engines, and your industry.
To make this task simpler, one of the major revolutions on the web has been "content management systems." This fancy term basically refers to systems that help you keep your site content up-to-date.
One of our clients has used a content management system to provide important information (HR, benefits, news, etc.) to their employees. One of the simple, yet most powerful functions has been the ability to upload Human Resources documents for employees to download. Employees know where to get the documents, printing expenses are lowered, and everyone can do their jobs more efficiently.
We're sure you can think of many more situations where you would like to control the content of your website...and control your bottom line.
Recommended reading:
Why you need content management
About.com takes a closer look at content management systems and how they can benefit any company.
Affinigent News
EmployeeCenter released
Affinigent is pleased to announce the release of EmployeeCenter, a web-based system for communicating effectively and securely with employees. EmployeeCenter is customized for each organization to provide the right tools needed to get crucial information to employees.
For more information about EmployeeCenter read about it in this newsletter's Featured Project or visit http://www.employeecenter.com/.
Affinigent Telephone Extensions
Please note, our telephone extensions have changed.
| Don Bishop x101 |
Mary Bishop x102 |
| Jared Frank x103 |
James Keagy x110 |
| Chris Miller x120 |
Bob Hoke x121 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Affinigent News
- EmployeeCenter released
- Affinigent telephone extensions |
Affinigent, Inc.
4 Kent Rd Ste. 200
York, PA 17402
717-600-0033
717-600-2341 (Fax)
info@affinigent.com
|
|
|
|
|
Featured Project
EmployeeCenter is a web-based system to communicate easily, effectively, and securely with employees.
Based on the principle of giving the users control over content, each installation of EmployeeCenter is customized using a collection of web tools. All content on EmployeeCenter can be updated through simple forms or Word-like editors.
A brief list of the web tools available include:
- File download
- Company News
- Company Calendar
- ReserveIt
- FAQ
- Leave time scheduler
- Survey
- Company newsletter
If you would like to take a tour of EmployeeCenter, we've given our newsletter subscribers special access to try out this content management system on your own.
Here's how:
- Go to: http://demo.employeecenter.com
- Enter username: demo
- Enter password: demo
To change the content on the site, move your mouse over any of the pencils to see available options.
If you would like to learn more about EmployeeCenter, go to http://www.employeecenter.com.
If you would like a guided tour of EmployeeCenter, call Don Bishop or Jared Frank at 717-600-0033.
|
|
| | Thursday, July 08, 2004 - Affinigent Newsletter for July 2004 |
| How link quality affects your website
Web marketing and search engine placement seems to be on everyone’s mind today. One vital component of web marketing is the number of high quality links to and from your website. All the major search engines (i.e. Google) calculate the links going to and from your site and the link quality when determining your search engine placement. The more, higher quality links you have, the higher your chances of being listed first in a search engine search. Plus, it just makes sense that you get more traffic to (and more business from) your site when it is linked with other quality websites.
Do you know who is linking to your website? If you want to find out, Google has made it simple. Go to Google (www.google.com), enter “link:www.yourdomainname.com,” and you’ll be given a list of some of the sites that link to you.
By utilizing paid and unpaid links, one of our clients accounts for nearly 20% of its website traffic from its top five links. In addition, these high quality links have allowed its website to remain at the top of search engine rankings for months. When people visit their site, our superb design helps our client close the deal. Contact us anytime to see how we can make your website do more with design and web marketing!
Recommended reading:
Building Link Popularity Effectively and For Free
SEO Chat offers some important advice to create a sound and simple linking strategy.
Affinigent News
December Open House Follow-up
Our December Open House was a great success! Our friends and clients enjoyed a wonderful evening of great food, conversation, and learning a little about what we do at Affinigent. Two people also walked away as winners. We want to congratulate Bill Diskin and Scott Wagner on winning door prizes. We hope you can make it to our next Open House. We'll let you know the date soon.
Want to learn more about the Internet for businesses
The Internet, and the way businesses use it, is constantly changing. Affinigent plans to follow up our successful Open House with a combination of Open House and 1 or 2 seminars late this spring. We are developing the content right now and if you have any topics that you would like to see addressed, please email Don Bishop (dbishop@affinigent.com) with your suggestions. Thanks!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Affinigent News
-Open house follow-up!
-Want to learn about the Internet
for businesses? |
Featured Project
Squeezing a huge database into a simple Windows app isn't easy, but we did it and what a difference it made. |
Affinigent, Inc.
4 Kent Rd Ste. 200
York, PA 17402
717-600-0033
717-600-2341 (Fax)
Info@affinigent.com
|
Featured Project
PAIFA CD-ROM
The Pennsylvania Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors needed to distribute a large database of insurance agent contact information to its members. To meet their need, Affinigent created a simple Windows application (distributed on CD) that allowed PAIFA members to quickly and easily access, search, and sort through 75 megabytes of information. To learn more about our capabilities, visit affinigent.com.
|
|
| | Sunday, April 18, 2004 - Affinigent Newsletter for April 2004 |
| Websites That Do Stuff
Websites impact your business. In today's business world having a website is a fundamental reality. However, many websites don't impact the website owner's business (at least, not positively). This doesn't have to happen for your business.
Here are some ideas to make your website do stuff for your business:
- Get leads by offering a free article or whitepaper after a visitor registers on your website.
- Provide updated information to customers, employees, or investors.
- Support customers with up-to-date online FAQs and support documentation.
- Demo your product through a free trial subscription or Flash demo.
- Better manage business processes by updating a legacy system with a web application.
- Use email auto responders to quickly build relationships with website visitors.
With many innovative approaches, our clients continue to utilize the web to their advantage.
- One client markets their products and services through monthly enewsletters.
- Another automates complex business processes and is expanding to the Internet (see the Featured Project).
- Still another distributes employee information through a corporate employee website.
All these clients do different things for their particular business, but they have one thing in common; they all have websites that positively impact their business.
Affinigent News
Affinigent Office Expansion
Affinigent is growing! We have doubled our office facilities. This expansion gives us more room to hold seminars and conferences right here at our facilities.
Want to learn more about the Internet for businesses?
The Internet, and the way businesses use it, is constantly changing. Affinigent plans to follow up our successful Open House with a combination of Open House and 1 or 2 seminars late this spring. We are developing the content right now. If you have any topics that you would like to see addressed, please email Don Bishop (dbishop@affinigent.comcom) with your suggestions. Thanks!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Affinigent News
- Affinigent office expansion
- Want to learn about the
Internet for businesses? |
Featured Project
Multiple websites link to a single data source to streamline complex business processes. |
Affinigent, Inc.
4 Kent Rd Ste. 200
York, PA 17402
717-600-0033
717-600-2341 (Fax)
Info@affinigent.com
|
Featured Project
PA Motorcycle Safety Program
The Pennsylvania Motorcycle Safety Program administers over 2,000 courses for more than 20,000 students per year. They wanted us to:
Phase 1:
Create a customized, database-driven Internet application to handle call center registration and internal business processes.
Phase 2:
Expose the same data on the Internet for online student registration.
We rolled out Phase 1 in one month, quite an accomplishment considering the scope of the project.
More information about this project will be available in a case study on our website soon.
To learn about how your website can impact your business, visit us at affinigent.com.
|
|
| | Sunday, December 21, 2003 - Affinigent Newsletter for December 2003 |
Website Health
What impact did your Internet strategy have on your business this year? Are you getting the results you expected? As the year winds down and you consider your Internet strategy for 2004, ask yourself these questions about your website and Internet strategy.
1. Is my website generating the business I'd hoped for?
2. Is my website content fresh and new?
3. Do search engines rank my sites high enough?
4. Is the layout and navigation of my website causing potential customers to leave without making a transaction?
5. Does my website enhance my marketing and branding plan?
6. Do I know where my visitors are coming from, how they got to my site, and what caused them to leave?
7. Am I using email marketing effectively?
8. Have I been driving customers to my website through traditional marketing methods? If you haven't, see our promotion checklist to guide you. |
If these questions raise flags in your mind about your website's performance, perhaps we can help. See how we have helped our clients in the past. For more Case Studies, go to www.affinigent.com.
Building Website Traffic - Putting it all together
Everybody knows something about search engines and we all know they are important. We have been pretty proud of some of our successes with search engines. Our website has pointed out our #1 Google rating for www.AmericanLogMortgage.com when someone 'googles' the term 'log mortgage'. Now that #1 rating on Google has been duplicated on Yahoo, MSN, and AOL. But that is only part of the story.
This site has seen a dramatic increase in traffic. During the first 2 weeks of November 2003, only about 15% of the referrals to the site come from search engines. Roughly 85% of the referrals came from other websites that link into AmericanLogMortgage.com. When we analyzed this data it became clear that the most effective referral sites were using banner ads provided to them by AmericanLogMortgage.com.
When we built the site, we included a page just for people who want to link to the site. This page (http://www.americanlogmortgage.com/banners.asp) has 5 banners in different sizes, shapes and styles to make it easy to provide a helpful, attractive link from any site.
Putting it all together to build traffic isn't accomplished with just one approach. It takes the right combination of marketing approaches to build the right kind of traffic for your site.
Enewsletter Follow Up
Note: After mailing our last enewsletter which focused on email marketing, we discovered this news article. We found it interesting and thought you might as well.
According to Harris Interactive, 26% of consumers prefer to reach their retailer through email while another 15% preferred to contact retailers through websites. Amazingly, on average, consumers consider a 7-minute waiting time acceptable for an email or website inquiry.
Of this study, Greg Gianforte, CEO/Founder of RightNow (the company to sponsor the survey), said "Companies need to be more smart about using the Internet to handle repetitive customer service inquiries in order to free up their contact center staff to handle more-expensive, complex service issues." Online communications are cheaper, he adds. A human-assisted phone call costs $7 on average, while an e-mail transaction costs $2.25.
Affinigent can make your website and Internet technologies work harder so your staff doesn't have to. For more information on this new article visit DIRECT.
Affinigent News
Affinigent Open House
You are invited to stop by our offices tomorrow (Wednesday December 3rd) between 4:30 p.m. and
6:30 p.m. for our Open House. We will be showcasing our current and past work, giving away prizes, and generally having a great time. Directions to our offices can be found on our website. |
|
 |
|
|
|
Affinigent, Inc.
4 Kent Rd Ste. 200
York, PA 17402
717-600-0033
717-600-2341 (Fax)
Info@affinigent.com
|
|
| | Monday, November 24, 2003 - Affinigent Newsletter for November 2003 |
Business Value of email
Everyone knows that email is important in business today but it takes something like the interruptions caused by the latest round of internet worms to bring home just how much we rely on email every day. Businesses have accepted email in part because it is provides a simple means of communication. In addition to its simplicity, email adds great value to your business relationships and provides your company with valuable corporate knowledge.
Email provides a fast and low cost communication medium between you and your customers, coworkers, and suppliers. Quickly becoming accepted and preferred, you can use email to provide timely, valuable bits of information to your customers. In fact, Doubleclick reports that in 2002, 57% of respondents to its survey prefer email when communicating with a merchant (an increase of 7% over the previous year). With a growing customer preference for email, you can finally begin to throw off the high cost of call centers and begin to build on those customer relationships.
Email also benefits business in a new way, as a location for corporate knowledge. Within the email system, according to DSstar, “35 percent of the business information used in day-to-day business is stored in email messaging systems.” Enabling the ability to gather that information at the right time and getting it to the right people can be invaluable for a modern business.
At Affinigent, we can provide your business with this valuable service of email. You can access your email anywhere and anytime through our custom webmail interface so you have the right information at the right time. Visit our website (www.affinigent.com) to learn more about our services, email, and how we can execute your Internet strategy with execution excellence.
Permission-based email marketing
 |
 |
No one likes spam and we don’t encourage it. However, with the use of permission-based email marketing, our clients have created new customers and strengthened current customer relationships. Permission-based email marketing means customers want your correspondence and can end the correspondence at any time. When customers desire your email, they have a greater tendency to purchase or continue your business relationship. A 2002 DoubleClick survey found that “78% of online shoppers have purchased as the result of clicking on an email link.” Providing your customers with pertinent information in a pleasing format with the ability to interact through the email has become an effective way to get more business.
We want to enhance your business with this ability to reach out to your customers. With our bulk mailer function, you control your contacts and your email marketing campaign. With a direct link to your website, customers can subscribe and unsubscribe when they choose. Our designers can also help you with creating an eye-catching and appealing e-newsletter to better market your product or service. For more information visit us online at www.affinigent.com.
Affinigent News
|
|
Open House
Your are invited to visit our offices on December 3rd between 4:30pm and 6:30pm for our open house! There will be tours, food, and good time! Our office is located at 4 Kent Road, Suite 200 in York Pa. Go to Affinigent.com to get a map and directions to our offices.
Redesigned website
Affinigent, Inc. is pleased to announce the redesign of our corporate website. Our new features include extensive case studies, explanations of our web functions, and an in-development client services website. The Central Pennsylvania Business Journal has recognized our improved design by making us finalists in the "Best of the Web" competition. Visit www.affinigent.com to see the exciting new changes.
Best of the Web
Affinigent, Inc. has been chosen as a finalist in the Central Pennsylvania Business Journal’s Best of the Web competition for our corporate website (www.affinigent.com) in the High Tech category. The honor is given to 36 locally based companies that have excelled in creating dynamic, easy to use, and functional web sites.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Affinigent, Inc.
4 Kent Rd Ste. 200
York, PA 17402
717-600-0033
717-600-2341 (Fax)
Info@affinigent.com
|
|
|
|
|