Put Some Serious Stock In Slack

Are you on Slack? Over 10 million people log on to the messaging App every day. People in all sorts of industries are deciding if it’s a helpful tool or a nagging reminder (that there are unread messages waiting for you to act on). The answers to these questions will vary depending on how your […]

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Nine Founders Rock BMW’s Hot Seat

Startup founders think big and act fast. BMW and their ad agency, KBS, understand the mindset, and chose to appeal directly to entrepreneurs with BMW Hot Lap Pitch, a high-speed spin on the classic elevator pitch. An elevator ride can be frightening for some, but these brave entrepreneurs pitched their business ideas to VCs from […]

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Rova’s Joe Olsen Turned His Agency Into A SaaS Provider for Agencies

A decade ago many “digital agencies” were primarily production shops sub-contracting out to the big agencies in big cities. It was a profitable business for several years, but many clients were not fully satisfied. Something was missing. According to Joe Olsen, CEO of Rova, that something was the strategy that would wed digital production to […]

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Content Studios Increasingly Borne of the Agency’s Rib

Content marketing has been around since John Deere started a magazine for farmers in the late 19th century. For the past 10 to 12 years, the discipline has come back with a furry, as digital reawakened the opportunity in long-form brand and multi-platform storytelling. The changes have been disruptive, and many clients and agencies continue […]

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Wolf & Wilhelmine’s #WolfHowl Reverberates Coast-to-Coast

Heidi Hackemer, founder and director of strategy for Wolf & Wilhelmine, has the right idea—either rebuild the agency of the future around her own human needs or get the hell out of dodge. Hackemer is a Wisconsin-bred New Yorker who believes in good ideas, a good run and good hair. She also eloquently states several […]

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Start Selling Online for Your New Company with Sales Techniques that Actually Work

shoppingcartIf you’re starting a new business, there is no way you can ignore the potential selling online provides. You can set up a store and sell all the same products you would in a normal store as you would online. In fact, many businesses do not even have a physical location. They only have a website to sell products. The main thing you need to learn if you want to join in the action is how you can create a website to sell without looking like an advertisement. It’s okay to use “salesy” language in advertising campaigns, but that language has no place in the typical website as most people turn to the web more for information, not sales tactics.

Competing with the Other Websites

The first thing you need to know when you’re producing a website is you’re not alone. Not even close. As of March 2012, there were 644,275,754 websites active on the Internet. This number has only grown since then and is expected to keep growing to over a billion sites. With so many websites out there, it may seem unattainable to compete, but the trick is to stop thinking about all the websites in the world and to start thinking about the businesses that are actually your competition on the Internet. Suddenly the numbers take a severe drop from hundreds of millions to a few hundred or as many as a few thousand. You only need to make sure you’re more attractive and appealing than those sites.

Consider how you’re going to set up the website, so it will have the appearance your users will appreciate. Ideally people hire designers to design their websites from scratch, this is often time-consuming and costly; however, companies like Shopify have emerged as a viable and credible alternative to this, as they often have hundreds of themes and designs to choose and give your business its very own unique identity without the exorbitant and time it requires if you hire a designer to do the job.

Present Yourself in a Better Light

Some sites make the decision to present themselves as the best in the industry. While this is a good idea when done properly what you don’t want to do is present your company arrogantly as the best. Showing pictures of the head of the company in a flashy suit in front of a large yacht will make your customers feel as .if you’re doing just fine on your own and likely, they will want not want to buy from you. The right way to present your new company as one that is the best in the industry is to prove it. Show your authority with better content. Show that you know your industry and your products. Your About Us page and the content on product pages are the best way you can present your company in the right light. If you do have a picture of the head of the company for a store, you should have him behind your sleek and modern iPad cash register station. The more you present your company as people, who are at the same station in life as your customers, the more likely it is they will want to do business with you.

Stop Trying to Sell and Just Sell

Some of the most successful salespeople are those who don’t focus on making the sale. While your tendency might be to include a lot of language directing the user to buy, you should instead focus on helping the user. Present your company, your products or your services as the best solution to the problem customers are having. This is the most logical solution, because everyone looking to buy something is looking to solve a problem. Whether the problem is not having enough clothes, or that their house needs an update, they’re looking for a solution. Show that you have the solution by describing your products or services as a way to solve specific problems. This will work a lot better if you talk with your customers about why they buy from you first.

Maintain Focus on One Product or Service at a Time

Even if your company offers many products or services, you should never lump them all into one page. According to Entrepreneur, offering fewer products in one place while including more information about each of the product or services always converts to more sales. One suggestion is to separate out your products or services into categories. You can also provide very short descriptions as teasers on the main page. Make it possible for the user to click on the product or the short description to get a longer description on a pop­up screen or in a new window. By having as much information as possible about the products or services you’re selling, people can get a true idea about what it is they’re thinking about buying. Making the decision to make the purchase will become their idea and they won’t be distracted by the rest of the products or services on the page.

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Milq Aims to Separate Wheat From Social Media Chaff

Milq, which makes its debut on Monday, lets users organize bits of media around common themes, resulting in something like collaborative mixtapes.



Media Decoder: Start-Up Ozy Media Adds Axel Springer as a Backer

Axel Springer of Germany is poised to announce an investment in Ozy Media, an online news site whose target audience is what it calls “the change generation.”

    



A Website Asks Readers to Finance Independent Journalists

Beacon will be supporting writers with a $5-a-month fee, similar to a Netflix model.

    



Bits Blog: With Medium, Evan Williams Is Tackling the Future of Writing Online

Medium, which will introduce a mobile app next week, is an effort by a founder of Twitter and Blogger to strike a balance between the old world, where professional editors were gatekeepers, and the new one, where anyone can post anything online.

    



Start-Up Site Hires Critic of Wall St.

Matt Taibbi will start his own publication focusing on financial and political corruption at First Look Media, which is financed by the eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.

    



Wireless System Could Offer a Private Fast Lane

The technology, called pCell, is one of many techniques that companies are looking at to address the rising public appetite for mobile data, especially video.

    



Disney Plans to Encourage Digital Start-Ups

As part of its search for new digital growth, the company is partnering with TechStars and will pair its executives with entrepreneurs for three months.

    



Gabriel Snyder, Former Editor of The Wire, Joins Mobile News Start-Up

Mr. Snyder has joined Inside.com, a start-up founded by the web entrepreneur Jason Calacanis.

    



The Media Equation: Tech Wealth and Ideas Are Heading Into News

The technology industry and its various power brokers are suddenly investing significant sums of money in preserving news capacity and quality.

    



Advertising: Longtime Innovator Has Seed Money for New Ones

The agency, Humanaut, will help clients invent and innovate, using tools to change how people experience a product or business, one of its founders said.

    



Advertising: A Small Upstart to Oversee Ad Agencies

The Water Cooler Group is being formed to serve as the parent of four agencies that specialize in tasks like media planning and buying, social media, creative and content development and interactive television.

    



Advertising: A Silicon Valley for Ad Agencies, Only in the Mountains

Project WorldWide is opening an agency in Boulder, Colo., which is developing a reputation as a home for advertising start-ups.

    



Boy, 15, Quits Board Tied to Booker Start-Up

Andrew Zucker, the son of Jeff Zucker, president of CNN, resigned from a board that advises the Newark mayor’s Internet venture.

    

Advertising: Eye on Emerging Markets, Firm Invests in Start-Up

The $15 million investment in Jana is the first by the Publicis Groupe in a mobile technology start-up.