ZDNet has published an article on managed email services, featuring our product TPP Hosted Exchange 2007.

“Vegas Nights plays its vCards right

One of the often-mentioned benefits of hosted e-mail is the fact that it gives even the smallest company access to a full-featured suite of messaging applications. For two-man operation Vegas Nights, this promise has turned into a business-changing advantage after recently adopting a managed Microsoft Exchange service from TPP Internet.”

Read complete article here…

A profile of TPP’s managing director, Peter Shilling, has been published in the ARN Magazine, Issue October 24, 2007.

“TPP Internet has gone through some twists and turns since its launch as Two Purple Plums over 10 years ago. Co-founder and managing director, Peter Shilling, talks to ARN about the company’s roots and what’s in store this year.”

Read the complete ARN article here…

TPP launches free trials for Web and Email Hosting products* - test our hosting for $0! All features of each product are fully operational during the trial. That’s all it takes:

1. Simply enter your details HERE and select “Free Trial Hosting” (existing customers: please log in here) - all you need is a domain name. You can either use an existing domain name, or purchase a domain name here. Please note that your domain does not need to be registered with TPP Internet.
2. You will then receive an email, confirming that the order has been provisioned.
3. Log into your newly created account in our Online Management System (OMS) to configure the service.
4. Start using your hosting account straight away!

If you wish to continue the service, simply renew it after your 30 day free trial. You will receive a renewal notice during the 1 month trial, but your trial will automatically be disabled if you don’t renew it – you don’t need to cancel the service.

We believe that our hosting services are outstanding. But don’t just take our word for it – try it yourself!

*does not include TPP Hosted Exchange and Dedicated Hosting

We have updated our hosting services - you can now buy and manage hosting services for domain names that are not registered with TPP!

From inside the Online Management System (OMS), choose the “My Hosting” section, and enter any valid domain name there. Proceed to choose the specific hosting product.

Enter the domain name to apply the hosting to:

Confirm that the domain name is correct:

Select the hosting product to order:

Or are you divorced from Google? You might be engaged to Google or even married to Google. What am I talking about? Well, all online business sites in Australia fall into 4 categories:

1. Never used Google AdWords (Virgins)
2. Have tried AdWords and failed (Divorced)
3. Currently using AdWords, probably self managed, but not convinced it is working (Engaged) or
4. Client of a good PPC Management Company and constantly improving sales with Google AdWords (Married).

I would like to discuss briefly the pros and cons of each level of commitment you make to your online sales presence. Let us presume that, just like in life, it is best to be married to a good partner. I think the vast majority of us agree with this. It is no different in the world of online commerce. If you are not doing well on Google, then you are simply loosing sales to your competitors. That’s a fact.

Married? Those that are happily married have got the advantage. They already know what they have done and how it is performed, and what they need to do to continue to prosper. A good Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign, a well researched web site that sells at good conversion rates, and a competent expert running the operation.

Divorced? Those that are divorced have suffered from poor AdWords campaigns with little or no knowledge of what they had to do. Plus, their web site, product, performance, perception and price did not match the market. Many divorce Google blaming Google for their own shortcomings. Sounds much like many marriage break-ups in real life! However, many of us (me included) go round a second time, and learn from our mistakes. You can do this online with AdWords a second time. Just get some expert advice in the first instance before you buy another ring for another try.

Virgins? Don’t worry, its not impossible. You don’t have to be alone all your life. With the right advice and coaching, you can find the perfect partner. They are out there and all you have to do is meet them under the right circumstances. We know where to find your perfect match to get you on the path to a great life. In fact, you will love them when you first meet them. All you need is a match making service. Go to Google and type in AdWords Professionals (Search Australia) and look for a company to match you up with the search campaign of your dreams for your web site business.

Currently engaged? Are you making the right long term commitment? Do you really know that you are doing the right thing? Will a better offer come your way.? Are there doubts in your mind? Are there some bad habits that your beloved has that you think you can change, given enough time? Before you decide on a wedding date, get a second opinion. Now I don’t use pre-nuptial agreements, but I think a wise person should get a health check on their relationship and compare what they have. It’s never too late to change your mind. Find the best partner you can.

Google Search and how well your business does online is just like life. Those that have a fantastic partner, who cares about them and works with them to ensure the marriage works, always come out on top. It’s a happy, transparent relationship based on mutual trust and respect.

Who are you going to trust with your online life? The choice is simple, you know Google is going to be your partner. You only have to work out who is going to walk you up the aisle.

If you already have a Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign, you know how important it is to convert those paid clicks into sales. Every time a customer clicks on your advert only to hit the ‘back’ button straight away, it negatively impacts on your return on investment. The secret to reducing this problem is through a post click strategy of landing pages, and TPP can help.

One of the most common reasons for customers to hit that pesky ‘back’ button, and become a costly one click visitor, is if the product or service they were looking for isn’t immediately reflected on the page they visit. It has happened to all of us at some point. We’ve clicked on a sponsored or an algorithmic link only to be taken to a business home page containing no mention of the product promised by the advert. This experience adds to customer (searchers) perception about sponsored links, affecting their likelihood of clicking on them in future. That is the worst impression to generate with your advertising campaign.

“But I want it NOW!”

When designing a campaign STRATEGY, it is important to remember that the internet is about instant results. This gratification level is new to the world of advertising and marketing. If the link promised ‘cheap Melbourne hotels’, you want to see prices and booking details for a cheap Melbourne hotel when you click on it, and not a Travel Agent home page that requires more effort to find the offer.

A pay per click campaign is a controlled way that we can effectively filter your site visitors in very specific ways; we know the purchasing intentions of these customers because of the particular advert they responded to – because of the keyword we show the ad against. Doesn’t it therefore make sense to capitalise on this extra knowledge and direct them straight to the product we know they will respond to?

“This Landing Page is Talking to Me!”

The most successful pay per click campaigns support specific landing pages tailored to each sponsored link ad. This process allows you to lead your visitors by the hand towards the part of the website you want them to reach with the fewest clicks and distractions. Current studies show that if you cant sell them in 2 clicks, you loose them.

For example, if we were formulating a pay per click campaign for a new health tonic to be sold through a fitness website, we would initially point the ads to the most relevant page on the site. After tracking the first 100 visitors from PPC we then would look at the conversion rate (number of visitors / sales or leads completed). We can build a very focused page that highlights the tonic. With more detail on the benefits, prices and testimonials, this page will become the landing page for the pay per click campaign. Invariably there are several funnels on this page designed to capture date (generate leads) or direct sales (phone, cart, click call, voucher etc). The pages leading off this special page are all related to this one product, maintaining the desired focus and creating the impression that your website is responsive to the customer’s needs. A customer clicking on your ‘health tonic’ advert will immediately be rewarded with information directly relevant to why they chose to click on the link in the first place. Also, all extraneous distractions on the website are removed, focussing the customer’s attention exactly where you want it to be – on buying.

Focussed and Qualified Traffic

This strategy can mean additional work in creating extra pages for the website. TPP can help you in designing an effective landing page strategy to complement your online advertising campaign.

Careful analysis of customer behaviour flowing from the campaign will then reveal how best to tweak and refine the landing page design. With careful attention, it is possible to capitalise on the increased traffic, improving the conversion rate and return on investment. Average web sites convert around 1.8% of traffic to sales or leads, specific landing pages convert at around 10% or more.

For more information on Pay Per Click and landing page strategies call TPP Internet on 1300 665 491 or click HERE.

In these days of pay per click, pay per impression, blogs, social networking sites and more, the humble email has become the maligned and underestimated marketing tool, employed as an afterthought or out of habit rather than with careful strategy and planning. But, with planning, email can become a central part of your online marketing strategy.

Permission Email Marketing

Because of the negative aspects of email use we have come to know and hate over the last ten years – spam, imperfect filtering, viruses and phishing to name just four – the perception of email as unwanted ‘noise’ instead of focussed and instant information has grown.

But the reality is actually quite different. Permission email marketing – where customers have allowed or requested subscription to a newsletter or product information – now makes up 27% of a users inbox. This illustrates a spectacular difference between our online communication behaviour and our real world experiences. Most people would complain viciously if 27% of the post at the front door each day consisted of junk mail, but the same people feel more receptive to receiving such material in electronic form. After all, isn’t this exactly how you came to be reading this article?

This may be due to the quick and easy processing and disposal offered by email. We can flick through emails reasonably quickly, deleting as we go, only clicking a link should something particularly grab us. Alternatively, printed junk mail finds its way straight into the bin, often without even opening the envelope if the company logo tips us off in advance (sorry, Time Magazine).

So if the average internet user is willing to receive such a high amount of marketing material on a regular basis, doesn’t it make sense to analyse ways of improving the performance and click through of this marketing?

Email Marketing Mistakes

Recent surveys of online businesses reveal an inconsistent and unfocussed approach to email marketing. Companies with different departments often make the mistake of not centralising their email strategy, resulting in inconsistent branding and messages across subsequent emails. Newsletters are often produced quickly and without a clear focus on a message designed to draw readers through to the site.

Often, links from newsletters are not attached to specific landing pages, allowing a visitor to become distracted or disinterested before following through on the focus of the email.

Because email marketing is seen as a minor strategy, another common mistake is the minimisation of resources dedicated to it. Surveys show that email is given only a tiny fraction of the marketing budget when compared to pay per click or other more popular methods. The email infrastructure utilised is also often incapable of fully exploiting the potential that is on offer.

Only one third of businesses are outsourcing their email marketing to fully-equipped professionals, with the remainder attempting to run their campaigns in-house on systems ill-equipped to cope and with staff drafting articles in competition with other competing priorities.

Email Marketing Means Repeat Business

Email marketing should not be an afterthought to your online marketing campaign. It can become the jewel in your business crown as you build strong repeat business and powerful brand recognition for a much clearer ROI than other more popular areas of online marketing.

Writing effective website copy is a hugely misunderstood occupation. When looking to reduce costs on a project, one of the first expenses to be cut – if it was even considered in the first place - is often the copywriter. After all, if you run a business, you should know how to string a sentence together, right? Everyone knows how to read and write when we leave school, so many assume they are suitably skilled to write the copy for their websites without having to pay someone else.

You may know how to hold a paintbrush and open a tin of paint, but you still open the Yellow Pages and pay for the services of someone in reassuringly splattered overalls when the front of your house starts to flake off in the sun.

Copywriting as a Skill

The problem is many people do not see effective copywriting as a skill in the same way they may see house painting, or car maintenance, or even chainsaw juggling. This results in poorly written websites with bad spelling and worse grammar and, most importantly of all, the ability to turn off potential customers. Nothing says ‘unprofessional’ like a misspelt product catalogue.

If grammar doesn’t seem that important to you, and you’ve never felt the urge to punch someone for putting an apostrophe in the wrong spot, then you need someone else to write your copy.

Copywriting as an Art

But it is about more than just the correct usage of the tools of the trade. Leonardo Da Vinci used many of the same tools as the aforementioned house painter, but no one will be talking about Bill’s Decorating Service in centuries to come. Remember, the copy on a website is more than just filler for search engines to read; it is the main communication between you and your potential customer as you attempt to sell your product. It is about engaging your customer’s interest, exciting their desires, helping their imaginations to soar. Well, that may be overstating it just slightly, but the point is that strong writing is not only spelt correctly and grammatically laid out, but also informative and pleasurable to read. And a pleasurable experience is more likely to encourage the customer to take a positive action.

Know Your Limitations and Strengths, and Those of Your Staff

Before you embark on building a website, it is wise to know your own limitations when it comes to writing. This becomes doubly true if your website is going to rely on regularly changing content in order to attract a high search engine position – what is often called ‘link-bait’ content. You may already have someone within your business who can write extremely well – there are lots of frustrated writers working in other industries. It could be beneficial to discover the literary abilities of your staff when it comes to planning how you are going to achieve the best copy.

If you aren’t lucky enough to have the skills and experience yourself, and don’t already employ a budding Hemingway, it may be worth discussing the issue with your web designer. Usually they have contacts within the copywriting world who are experienced in exactly this process.

What’s that? You were hoping to build the website in-house as well with that copy of HTML For Dummies your wife bought you for Christmas? Web design is a skill just like any other. You may know how to hold a paintbrush but…ah, never mind.

For the majority of small businesses taking their first plunge into online marketing, the process of building a website can seem complicated and expensive. After all, computer programming and fancy graphics can’t come cheap, can they? Yet, more and more small businesses are launching professional looking websites onto the internet by using cheap and easy to use Website Builders.

If you are putting you toe in the water for the first time, you might be hesitant about paying large fees for a complex website that will take some time before it starts to return on its investment. So is using a cheaper Website Builder a viable option for the new internet entrepreneur?

Designing Your Own Website with TPP’s Website Builder

Let’s assume for one moment that you don’t want to learn HTML (the most commonly used web page coding language). Let’s also assume you have a reasonable level of computer knowledge (you are familiar with Microsoft Office, know how to click a mouse, arrange files on your hard drive, drag and drop, etc).

Then TPP’s Website Builder is perfect for your needs.

Website Builder requires you to already have a domain name (the web address) and a web hosting plan (the server where your website will live online) for your website.

Website Builder allows you to select, drag and drop, and insert the content you want for your web page whilst producing all that complicated looking code behind the scenes for you. You only ever need to look at a real web page and can produce your complete website without once seeing a dash of HTML.

Planning the Content for Your Website

Before diving in to Website Builder, it’s important to understand some fundamentals. Remember, all the flashy graphics, pretty pictures and bright colours in the world won’t attract customers or visitors to your site if the actual content you are asking them to read is boring, irrelevant or poorly written.

Therefore, step one of any website design process is planning out what you want the website to achieve. Once you have decided on the pages to be included – contact page, home page, product page, etc – you then need to write the copy they will contain.

Once you have a plan for your website and you have assembled the text and collected the images and photos, it is time to start using Website Builder.

Selecting Templates in Website Builder

Website Builder comes with a range of templates to choose from. It is important to choose a website template that reflects the impression you hope to make. For example, if yours is to be a professional business website, it is prudent to steer clear of jazzy, fancy and trendy fonts and layouts. As with most things in life, it’s all a matter of taste, but the taste of your visitors is more important than yours when it comes to building a successful website, and professional sites have traditional layouts. You wouldn’t use a bank that dressed itself up like a circus, would you?

Once you have selected the most appropriate template, you can begin adding your content.

Drag and Drop to Build Your Website

Website Builder is pretty instinctive when it comes to adding content. A wizard application will ask you to select the images and text you want, and entering them into the template is as easy as clicking the space where you want them to sit. With complete flexibility, your choices can be edited and changed as easily as you would edit a document in Microsoft Word.

Launching Your Own Website

Once you have a website that you are happy to unleash upon the world, the final step is to hit the ‘launch’ button. The website goes ‘live’ and can immediately be accessed through typing your chosen domain name into your browser. Congratulations! You’ve entered the online world!

Updating Your Website

Of course, most websites evolve and change over time. With Website Builder, you will be able to log in and edit your website at any time. Whether the changes are small; such as changing a piece of text or an image, or large; such as adding a completely new template, Website Builder can help you make these changes whilst the original website remains open for business online. The new updated website only replaces the old one when you hit the ‘launch’ button.

Further Information

Of course, TPP can assist you with all of your needs as you build your website. For further information on TPP’s Website Builder, call us on 1300 665 491.