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LKCS Web Services: Get the Puck in the Net

By on January 27th, 2016 in Marketing

LKCS is renowned for website design and development. As we continue to design and host more and more websites, we continue to bolster our other web-based solutions to offer a complete package of web services and electronic marketing options. Let our web services be your goal!

Video Webinar

In today’s Webinar Wednesday episode, Sid Haas discusses ways LKCS can assist your company through a variety of web services.

Video Transcript (Highlights)

Web Design & Development

Not the purpose of today’s webinar. But, we’re really good at it!
Maintaining Your Web Site: Also, not the focus of today’s webinar. But maintaining your web site is critically important to your online success.

Content Management

Make just about all of the changes to your web site on your own. Even create new pages. LKCS recommends Sitefinity. Be wary of open source options.

LKCS Web Site Tool Suite

  • Integrate into any existing web site. – Easy to manage banner ads, rates, announcements, form submissions/leads, users, etc.
  • Constantly updated with enhancements and new functionality.

E-Mail Hosting

We all take e-mail for granted until it goes down. LKCS offers two tremendous e-mail hosting solutions.

  • Secure POP/IMAP Hosting Exchange Hosting
  • LARGE 25 GB Mailboxes, 50 MB Attachments
  • Premium Anti-Spam & Anti-Virus
  • SSL Encryption
  • Full Desktop/Outlook Compatibility & Webmail
  • User Aliases (set up as many e-mail addresses as you’d like for each user)
  • Mobile Sync Available (real-time e-mail push, calendar, and contact syncing)
  • HUGE 100 GB Mailboxes, 50 MB Attachments
  • Premium Anti-Spam & Anti-Virus
  • SSL Encryption
  • ActiveSync for iPhone, iPad, Android and Windows Phones (Blackberry available)
  • Full Desktop/Outlook Compatibility & Outlook Web Access
  • Shared Contacts
  • Shared Calendars (including resource mailboxes)
  • Active Directory Synchronization
  • Skype for Business

E-Mail Marketing

If you’re not sending e-mail blasts regularly, you should be! E-mail marketing has an ROI of 4300%! That’s why marketers send over 838 BILLION emails annually. (sources: Direct Marketing Association, Forrester)
E-Mail Marketing Statistics A few additional e-mail marketing stats: 51% of all e-mail is opened on mobile devices. Use responsive design templates. 80% of people are only scanning your e-mail. Use a bold image and strong headline. 58% of adults check e-mail first thing in the morning. Try sending your e-mails early. People check their smartphone up to 150X a day. Use e-mail and social together to reinforce your message. iPhones will cut off a subject line over 32 characters. Put the most important words of your subject line first. Surrounding text with a significant amount of white space improves comprehension by 20%. Don’t pack your content too tightly.

LKCS’ E-Mail Marketing Platform

Custom message template – LKCS will custom design a mobile-responsive e-mail template that coordinates with your branding standards. – Then use our easy-to-use WYSIWYG editor to create your e-mails. Or have our designers build them for you.

  • Flexible delivery – Select your lists (or one or more segments within those lists), and decide when you want your message delivered. Send it immediately or schedule ahead.
  • Measurable results – Marketing results can be beautiful. Our reporting is easy on the eyes and clear as a bell.
  • Marketing Automation – Follow up with intelligence. Set up e-mails to be triggered by actions such as when your recipients click on a link, sign up for your e-mail list, or even celebrate a birthday.
  • Unlimited Messages – Send unlimited messages to your e-mail contacts each month at a fixed cost. Easy budgeting. Unbelievable ROI.

Search Engine Optimization

Majority of search engine users are most likely to choose one of the top 5 suggestions on the results page you need to rank as high as possible. SEO can put you ahead of your competitors. Good SEO practices improve the usability of your entire web site.

On-Page SEO: Title tags, meta tags, body content, web site architecture, internal links. Off-Page SEO: External links to your content, social media links, security certificates (SSL), responsive design
14. Search Engine Optimization (continued)
And the search engine algorithms are always changing! Google alone makes hundreds of changes per year to their ranking algorithm

How LKCS can help:

SEO Strategy: LKCS will design a unique SEO strategy based on your needs. The strategy will include all targets and milestones for both the short & long term. On Page SEO: We will ensure that your website is optimized for on-page SEO so that you get maximum exposure in Google and other search engines. Local SEO: We will optimize your website for Local SEO so that you gain more account holders than your local competitors. Keyword Research: We will conduct thorough research to identify the specific keywords that can get you more traffic and business. SEO Reports: We will prepare reports on how your web site ranks on major search engines and provide status updates that indicate the progress of your SEO campaign.

Online Advertising

Your #1 Source for Information: The Internet

Your #1 Advertising Medium: Not the Internet?

See the disconnect? Your members/customers are researching and shopping online. So that’s where you should be advertising. And, online ads are actionable people can click on them and go directly to the landing page to “buy”.

Search Engine Advertising

Social Media Advertising Options

Search Engine Usage Sept. 2015 – Nov. 2015:

  • Facebook 89%
  • YouTube 36%
  • Twitter 39%
  • LinkedIn 21%
  • Other 18%

Two Advertising Options

Cost per click (CPC)

  • You pay each time your ad is clicked
  • Many people see your ad without clicking on it
  • Known cost per click (it’s an auction)
  • Set a budget for the campaign, for each day, etc.

Use Cost Per Click if:

  • You want to accurately track the number of clicks your ad gets.
  • You are a disciplined advertiser who sticks to your budget and doesn’t get into bidding wars – You want to advertise on high traffic sites and get the benefit of both clicks and exposure

Pay Per Impression

  • You pay each time your ad is displayed on a web page
  • Pricing is generally established per 1,000 impressions
  • You know exactly how many times your ad will appear for your budget.

Use Cost Per Impression if:

  • You can realistically expect a high click- through rate on your ad
  • You are executing a launch for a new product or service – You are trying to build brand recognition

How It Works

  • Ad Targeting Google / Search Engines
  • Keyword Targeting
  • Location Targeting
  • Device Targeting
  • Retargeting/Remarketing
  • NEW Customer Match
  • Facebook / Social Media
  • Age and Gender
  • Interests
  • Behaviors
  • Education
  • Custom Audiences

Ad Types

  • Search Ads: Text based ads that appear with search results
  • Display Ads: Graphical ads that appear on other sites within each search network
  • Boosted Social Media Posts: Surprise! Only a fraction of social media users will see your posts.

Online Advertising How LKCS can help:

  • Online Ad Strategy: LKCS will design a unique online advertising strategy to maximize your conversions and minimize your costs.
  • Keyword Research: We will ensure you’re targeting the most appropriate keywords and not wasting spend.
  • Online Ad Targeting: The ad strategy will outline all targeting techniques. We will continually optimize your campaign targeting to push the performance boundaries.
  • Implementation: LKCS will build out and launch your campaigns and make sure ad tracking is setup properly.
  • Reporting: We will prepare monthly reports with meaningful insights into your online ad campaigns, how they are performing, what they are costing, and recommendations to continue to tweak and improve them in the future.

Social Media Marketing Benefits

  • Increase brand awareness and exposure
  • Strengthen relationships and expand account service opportunities
  • Build a loyal community of loyal and active followers
  • Boost traffic to your web site and improve SEO
  • Enhance company trustworthiness
  • Cut marketing costs
  • Monitor your brand’s online reputation
  • Account acquisition and sales
  • opportunities

Why Facebook?

  • 1.55 BILLION MONTHLY active users
  • 1.01 BILLION DAILY active users on average (September 2015)
  • 894 million mobile daily active users
  • 148 million daily users in U.S. and Canada
  • 30% of Americans get their NEWS on Facebook
  • Average of over 20 minutes spent per day; Average of 8.3 hours per month
  • 34% of 18-29 year-olds are Facebook users
  • 45% of internet users 65+ use Facebook

Why Twitter?

  • 320 million monthly active users (over 89 million in the U.S.)
  • 500 million Tweets are sent per day; over 5,700 per second
  • Average Twitter user follows five or more businesses
  • 37% of Twitter users will buy from a brand they a follow
  • 74% of people follow SMBs to get product updates

Why LinkedIn?

  • 400 million total users (over 122 million in the U.S.)
  • 100 million unique monthly visitors
  • 28% of online U.S. adults use LinkedIn; 13% of online U.S. adults use it daily
  • 13% of millennials (16-35 year olds) use LinkedIn
  • CEOs average 930 LinkedIn connections
  • 13% of LinkedIn users don’t have a Facebook account; 59% don’t visit Twitter
  • 90% of LinkedIn users make household decisions
  • 41% of millionaires use LinkedIn

Why Google Plus?

If you are not using Google+, you should be. Claim your pages! Over 1 billion accounts; only 20 million active monthly users. It’s easy: Start by posting your Facebook content to Google+ The #1 reason to use Google+: SEO Every post to Google+ get its own unique URL. Your posts will be indexed IMMEDIATELY and listed in search results. Google also owns YouTube. YouTube videos are also predominantly featured on Google+.

Be Social

Post & Respond Often. Your financial institution will need to post quality content often, and continually monitor your page for social interactions. How often should you post? Post 3-5 times per week. You can Tweet multiple times per day. QUALITY OVER QUANTITY

Post new updates during business hours. Highest traffic occurs mid-week between 1 to 3 pm. On Thursdays and Fridays, engagement is 18% higher.

What Makes Good Content

Post photos and videos. High definition photos and videos in graphic detail and vivid color provide engagement levels that far exceed plain and simple text.

Links: Don’t limit your links to your products. Link to interesting websites, related news articles, and even funny tidbits.

Mix it up. – Use the 80/20 rule: 80% of status updates should give value to the fans first, 20% of status updates can be promotional, or brand first. Post like a friend, not a brand. Informal, personal language gets a better response. Stay away from complex terms. Reply to fans when they comment on status updates. This encourages fans to interact more.

Social Media Challenges

Negative Comments / Brand Reputation. Control Your Brand: establish your social media sites to own the conversation. Answer questions and solve issues you uncover.

Demands on Your Time: Review and Respond to Posts and Comments. Report on Social Media Activity and Results. Constant Growth and Change. Monitor and Consolidate all social media sites for mentions and reviews. Continue to build your online communities of loyal followers

Compliance: Same rules and regulations apply as all other advertising. Keep written policies and procedures regarding the use and monitoring of social media. Keep management and board informed of your use of social media. Train employees on proper use of social media.

Social Media Can Be Managed Efficiently and Affordably!

Our Favorite Tools

  • HootSuite: Good reporting and monitoring, so-so publishing, gets very expensive
  • TweetDeck: Great for monitoring Twitter feeds, but nothing else
  • Buffer: Great publishing, but no monitoring
  • Sprout Social: A great tool, limited number profiles, costly to add users
  • AND, of course, LKCS’ Social Media Management platform

Social Media Monitoring

Social Media Monitoring Subscriptions – Lots of choices with new ones every day – Starting at $150/month on the lower end; over $1,500/month on the upper end – Monitor just about any sites, RSS feeds, blogs, etc. for keywords, brand names, product names, competitors – Can be agency managed (see us for more info) – YOU NEED A GOOD PLATFORM

Social Media Platform Functions

Publishing: Post and schedule content across numerous social media sites at once. Include text, photos, links, etc. Monitoring: Unified inbox with all posts and comments. Respond to posts/comments directly. Even privately. Keyword searches across social media (not just your profiles), review sites, and web for mentions. Reporting: Build and schedule custom reports.
Track metrics most important to you from each of your social media profiles.

Social Media: How LKCS can help

  • Account Setup
  • Profile Design
  • Daily Management
  • Social Media Training
  • Social Media Monitoring
  • Community Building Strategies
  • Social Media Advertising
  • Content Development

Why Do You Need Vulnerability Scanning?

When organizations and IT people think of hackers and external security threats, they immediately focus on firewalls, access rules, and intrusion detection. However, defense at this network security level will provide no protection against web application attacks. Cyber criminals are focusing their efforts on exploiting weaknesses in web applications such as forms, blogs, content management systems, login pages, and other dynamic content. Insecure web applications and web services provide attackers access to critical back-end databases that often store confidential data AND also allow them to perform illegal activities using compromised sites.

What’s Involved?

Since hackers are attacking websites over HTTP and HTTPS, the best website vulnerability scanners do the same thing. As such, these scans can take place while your website is running as usual, without downtime. Website vulnerability scanners use sophisticated engines to interact with even the most complicated web technologies to identify over 500 types of vulnerabilities. They can even test areas of your web sites that require secure logins. The best solutions take great pains to reduce false positives, saving valuable time and money for your IT and web development teams.

What Happens After Each Scan?

Reporting: LKCS will prepare detailed reports to share the findings internally with developers and management. The developer reports provides scan details, server details, alert details, external links, etc. together with remediation examples and best practice recommendations for fixing the vulnerabilities. We’ll even provide reports for compliance purposes. Remediation: You can choose to have your developers or our web team correct any vulnerabilities. LKCS can then re-scan the site to verify the issues have been resolved.

FFIEC Cybersecurity Assessment

Financial institutions must now scrutinize their exposure and ability to manage cybersecurity risks through the FFIEC Cybersecurity Assessment. LKCS’ web site vulnerability scanning solution will demonstrate your institution is able to detect threats and vulnerabilities. Specifically, LKCS will help you comply with the following assessment guidelines: Conduct independent testing and vulnerability scanning of critical Web-facing applications. Perform these tests routinely to identify security control gaps. Execute tests on internet-facing applications or systems before they are launched or undergo significant change

Vulnerability Scanning Subscriptions

LKCS offers different subscription levels for Web Site Vulnerability Scanning. Quarterly Subscription: LKCS will scan your web site for vulnerabilities every 3 months and provide detailed reporting of the test results. Semi-Annual Subscription: We will scan your web site for vulnerabilities every 6 months and provide detailed reporting of the test results. As-Needed Web Site Scanning: Schedule a web site vulnerability assessment whenever you need it. Be prepared for annual IT audits or regulatory exams.

Online Surveys

  • Survey Says… Traditional Surveys Survey writing & design
  • Printing & mailing/postage
  • Tabulation
  • Reporting
  • Further analysis requires re-tabulating = Time Consuming & Expensive Online Surveys
  • Survey writing & design. Real Time
  • Simplified electronic analysis = Less Time, Less Cost
  • Online Surveys Also Offer
  • Higher response rates – Especially with sweepstakes drawings
  • Ability to adjust/change
  • Branching/skipping: Quickly lead a participant through a survey based on how they answer certain questions.
  • Opportunity for shorter, more frequent surveys
  • Easy integration of sweepstakes/drawings
  • Flexible Formatting
  • Multiple question formats: radio buttons, text entry, drop-down choices, ranking styles
  • Integration of Your Branding
  • Survey pages customized with your logo and colors
  • Real-Time Reporting
  • Access your own control panel or have results e-mailed to you
  • View cumulative results or individual responses
  • Filter results based on answers to other questions
  • Export your results into an Excel spreadsheet