We recently helped out the home automation specialists, Savant Systems, build a brand new website! Check out this blurb from our case study below, or click here to read the full account!

In under four months, Savant Systems increased their website visits by 400%.  On average, Google linked 13,179 more visitors a week to the Savant pages, and pages viewed by visitors increased measurably.  These statistics seem as rapid and revolutionary as the introduction of the iPod to the music market.

Savant’s secret to Internet success is just as probable and accessible—they contracted Single Throw Internet Marketing, a talented and proficient group of Internet marketing consultants with a plethora of services the size of your mp3 library.

Savant Systems provides the height of technological chic by offering a luxury home automation system that works with Apple technology bringing your home into the future.  Savant provides services for individual homeowners and corporations.  Single Throw Internet Marketing unified this image of Savant with its web presence.

While the Internet is an indisputably powerful—some might even say marvelous—tool, it is also an unwieldy thing to manage.  Many businesses’ experience with the Internet is akin to the proverbial child laying a hand on the hot stove—they get burned, so they don’t try it again. As such, their websites are old fashioned and out of date; they do a poor job of reflecting their product or service.  They target the wrong clientele, and they don’t show up in a typical Google search.

If the Internet is a hot stove, the experts at Single Throw are wearing flame retardant suits.  They build websites from years of experience and research, and they’re quite eager to share their suits with you.  They did with Savant.

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I have a Nikon SLR digital camera with 10 megapixels of power to capture the finest detail digitally and reproduce analog printed masterpieces that I hang in my home and office. Instead I opted for the camera my Blackberry Curve to capture a rare, low-the-sky double rainbow in the Adirondacks, leaving me only the opportunity to share it’s miniature likeness here or on Facebook, or use it as the home screen on a display that’s smaller than a business card.

We have no less than 4 working computers in our home, each with brilliant wide screen displays, yet I sit outside typing away on the small keyboard screen of my iPad, battling the harsh glare of the summer sun.

Why? Convenience. As technology “miniaturizes” it becomes more convenient. It enables us to jump online even though we are a couple hundred feet from our homes. It enables us to capture a moment in time - at our convenience - and share it with our friends, and the rest of the world, just as it happens.

This convenience comes with a cost, of course. The quality of my photos isn’t always what it should be, although I am able to capture memories I might have otherwise missed.

While I type away now on my iPad I might be able to get this done much more quickly on my larger laptop or desktop computer - and with far less eye strain - however the compact nature and ease of use makes the tradeoff worthwhile. I can site comfortably and catch a few rays, while at the same time, write this post.

The same goes for our messaging. Twitter has enabled the world to share information in 140 character sprites - quickly and easily from anywhere you can get online.

Our conversations are miniaturizing, yet we are communicating with one another like never before. The question remains, is the tradeoff quality? The answer: not necessarily.

The access to information and the speed of which we are able to share it allows us a far greater platform for communication. Combining a better understanding of the principles and techniques of Internet marketing, with the same for social marketing, you are now wildly enabled to provide relevant messages of extremely high quality. The tools are transparent yet the thoughts remain complete. I can ensure you hear the latest news about our company with a quick tweet and elaborate later in a longer blog post. I can do either of these tasks while on the road, in my backyard, or in my office - from my laptop, my cellphone, or any device I choose - and you’d never know the difference.

The portability and choice provided by technology has empowered us in ways most of us have never imagined. The challenge remains to ensure that these choices do not interfere with a quality outcome. Enjoy the freedom that “small” provides but strive to keep the ideas and messages BIG.

Attracting Customers the New Old Fashioned Way.

As I sit here preparing to write another article outlining the fall of the local Yellow Page directory, a call comes into my office and is routed to one of our Internet marketing consultants. The caller is interested in learning more about our Internet marketing services. Potential leads calling my office is a fairly common occurrence, what’s uncommon about this particular caller is the way in which he found us - the local Yellow Pages. Talk about timing, I didn’t even realize we were in the Yellow Pages!

So, does this change my opinion of the big yellow lug? No.

The Yellow Page directory is a paper dinosaur and not long for this world. Yes, we did get a lead from it today, one lead, not a very good one and the first lead from the yellow book in seven years!

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Last week we explored how search trends recorded by Google may be a good predictor of our next US President. And Google’s trends were correct: Barack Obama was the winner.

Taken from the “I saw it on the news at 5:00 this morning over coffee” category, Google’s user’s search habits are being used as a predictor of flu outbreaks. Google touts the following on their Outbreak page…

We’ve found that certain search terms are good indicators of flu activity. Google Flu Trends uses aggregated Google search data to estimate flu activity in your state up to two weeks faster than traditional systems.

People are increasingly jumping on the web with symptoms before contacting their doctor. So what’s up with this aching, runny nose, stuffy head feeling I have coming on? Let’s check Google and see…to the tune of 75% of Internet users polled between October and December of 2007 according to the Pew Internet Project.

With trends, it’s all about timing. A rise in search terms indicates an increased interest. A fall would indicate decreasing interest. There wouldn’t be mass numbers of people searching for flu-related terms in the middle of summer, for instance, as that’s not a typical time for the flu. Watching trends on a regular basis will help you to see where the rises are and prepare accordingly.

Trends are a huge factor in seasonal topics. If your business is trend-oriented, you should keep an eye on what Google’s data shows.

Paging Doctor Google…it hurts when I do this…

Talk about a 180. Yahoo’s CEO Jerry Yang spoke at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco; he and his company are tired, battered and bruised. But his message is now - suddenly, and amazingly - clear: Yahoo wants to be bought by Microsoft.

His exact words?

“To this day, I have to say that the best thing for Microsoft to do is to buy Yahoo. I don’t think that is a bad idea at all…at the right price, whatever the price is, we are willing to sell the company. We were ready to negotiate, we wanted to negotiate a deal, and we felt that we weren’t that far apart. But at the end of the day, they withdrew and they since have been very clear about not wanting to buy the company.”  

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