The xMarketing Newsletter from NeoNexus
December 11,2007

In This Issue

Company News
Marketing Tip
Tech Tip
Customer Spotlight

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Company News

President of NeoNexus, Kent Milholland, left the balmy beach climate for 8 inches of snow in Indianapolis to do environmental software training last week…. now this definitely shows he is willing to do anything to please a customer,even if he had to scrape off the snow with a piece of paper! While in Indianapolis, he trained 7 people in person and two attended remotely by web meeting, so costs were reduced.

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Marketing Tip

Target Market
 
The most successful small businesses know that only a limited number of people will buy their products or services. These companies become successful because they target the group of people that will buy their products and services and focus their marketing dollars towards them. There are many important points to remember when marketing to your target market.
 
-stay alert to trends that could impact your target market, product, or promotion strategy
 
-collect competitor’s ads and literature; study their information about strategy, products, features and benefits
 
-ask clients why they hired you and have them give you suggestions for improvements
 
-join an email list related to your profession
 
-subscribe to an internet newsgroup that serves your target market
 
-read market research studies about your profession, industry, product and target market groups
 
These are just a few tips that you can keep in mind when marketing towards your target market. As long as you focus your advertising and marketing dollars towards the groups that are purchasing your products and services, your business can be successful!
 

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Tech Tip- Supplied by Category Five Networks

Search Engine Tips

Search engines have gotten so good that they offer enormously useful syntax for more specific results. I’ll point these out from time to time, but here are the top three most useful Google search modifiers that use a colon:
 

site:URL and search term. As in, site:www.categoryfivenetworks.com “wireless router.” To also point out, this modifier is even stronger if you drop the www. You can also drop the domain name entirely and search, for example, only .gov sites.
 

define:word. This brings up definitions, related phrases, and offers to translate the word.
 

filetype:file extension and search term. It may be obvious, but this lets you search for files with a certain extension, such as PPT for a PowerPoint presentation on your topic.
 

These are just a few of the great things you can do with the Google search engine.  These will help sort through the clutter.  If you know you found something on a site, just search it with the colon syntax and off you go!  No more sifting through a large website just to find the tiny bit of information you were looking for!
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Customer Spotlight

Contractor Services is an oil and gas driller and environmental construction contractor. CSi wanted a complete redesign of their website. NeoNexus integrated a blog so they could post their own news, added TONS of flash to showcase their large photo collection, and added a special touch with the “A Day in the Life of” story at the bottom of the home page. If you want to learn how to personalize a website for your web customers, this is it. You can check out the site at www.csiofwv.com.
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Don’t forget about NeoNexus’ referral awards program. For every successful referral you send to NeoNexus, you get a $50 gift certificate to one of your favorites restaurants, such as Cracker Barrel, Chili’s, or Macaroni Grill. Also, existing customers can save up their referrals and cash them in for free website options instead of dining out. Website options include free hosting, 15 second flash animation, and free contact form added to your website. So, get those referrals coming, and let’s all share in the fun!

Sincerely,

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Kim Kuzan
Marketing Director, NeoNexus

NeoNexus Corporation

This error occurs during a COC update.  It is caused when a connection between the software and the database gets closed prematurely.  It appears to be a problem with the application server (Tomcat).  We are publishing some new code tonight (Dec 6) that will reduce (not eliminate, but reduce) the number of times it happens.  Technically, its not a problem with NeoNexus code, but a problem with the Tomcat connection pool manager (sort of like a bug in Microsoft Access software straight out of the box from Microsoft).  We are searching for a way to deal with it.

In the meantime, when that happens, you have to click on the COC item in the left menu, search for the COC you were just working on, and go back to it again.   The good news is that the updates seem to occur; you just have to go back to the COC to view the changes.

Sorry for your pain. IF you can figure out a sequence of events that triggers this error consistently, please let me know (I’ll send you a bonus gift!).  The frustrating part so far is it seems to happen randomly, so it is harder to track down.

The xMarketing Newsletter from NeoNexus
December 4,2007

In This Issue

Company News
Marketing Tip
Tech Tip
Customer Spotlight

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Company News

SEO Webinar

NeoNexus will be hosting an online SEO seminar December 10,2007 from 6pm-8pm. Some of what you will hear includes: the top 3 things that helps improve your SEO ranking, the truth about meta tags, “Black Hat SEO” techniques that, while once legendary, Google and Yahoo now identify and actually PENALIZE you for using on your website, and free and low cost tools for you to start using the MINUTE you get out of the webinar. The first 10 subscribers will get an online review of their website during the webinar, absolutely free! The cost is only $39.00 and you can register at www.webinexus.com.
The last webinar was a huge success! Below is a testimony from a webinar attendee:
 
“Thank you Kent for the FABULOUS webinar presentation. Being in the industry, I thought I knew a fair amount about SEO. After attending your Webinar I realized I didn’t know as much as I needed to know. (I guess that’s why YOU are the expert!) Within the first 15 minutes I felt I had received a full return on my investment. Thank you for sharing your vast knowledge, answering individual questions beyond the time frame established, and for helping small businesses get the most out of their web sites!It’s easy to recommend this presentation to all my customers; and you can be sure I will!”

Susan Kadar
Friendly Computers

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Marketing Tip

Staying in Touch with Clients
 
A very easy way to retain happier customers who will send you referrals is to stay in touch with them! Don’t give them the opportunity to forget your name! After doing business with a customer, it is always a friendly gesture to send a hand written Thank You card. This gives a personal feel, and shows them that you truly appreciate their business.
 
Follow up phone calls are also a great thing. Phone calls give you the opportunity to check in with the customer to see if everything is going well with their new product or service and if there is anything you can do to help them. You can also find out their feelings on the process of the purchase and if there were anything you could have done to make their buying experience better. This is also the perfect time to ask for testimonials.
 
Sending out cards during the holidays and for special occasions are a great way to keep reminding the customer that you are there for them! Once again it displays the personal feel that you put in your work which makes the customer happy and more likely to refer friends to your business.
 
Emails and newsletters are perhaps the most least personable way that you can keep in touch with customers but is often the easiest way to reach out to a very large client base. A weekly newsletter can be sent out keeping the customers up  to date on what is going on and any new services that may be offered.
 
These are just a few of the many ways that you can keep in touch with customers. The important thing to remember is that you don’t want the customer to forget your name! Stay in contact with them and they will constantly be reminded that they are dealing with a company that they will want to do repeat business with, as well as refer their friends to.

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Tech Tip- Supplied by Vickiblackwell.com

When Your Computer is Frozen Solid
Every once in a while, Windows wanders off somewhere to sit under a tree. You’re left looking at a computer that does nothing. None of the computer’s lights blink. Panicked clicks don’t do anything. Pressing every key on the keyboard doesn’t do anything, or worse yet, the computer starts to beep at every key press.

When nothing on-screen moves (except sometimes the mouse pointer), the computer is frozen up solid. Try the following approaches, in the following order, to correct the problem:
Press Esc twice. This action usually doesn’t work but give it a shot anyway.

Press Ctrl, Alt, and Delete all at the same time. If you’re lucky, the Task Manager appears with the message that you discovered an unresponsive application. The Task Manager lists the names of currently running programs, including the one that’s not responding. Click the name of the program that’s causing the mess and then click the End Process button. You lose any unsaved work in that program, but you should be used to that. If that still doesn’t do the trick, click the Task Manager’s Shut Down menu and choose Restart.

If the preceding approaches don’t work, push the computer’s reset button. When the Turn Off Computer box appears, choose Restart.

If not even the reset button works (and some computers don’t even have reset buttons anymore), turn the computer off by pushing its power button. (If that merely brings up the Turn Off the Computer menu, choose Restart, and your computer should restart.)

When nothing else works, if you press in the computer’s off button long enough, it will eventually stop resisting and turn off.
www.vickiblackwell.com
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Customer Spotlight

NeoNexus recently completed a website for a Wilmington Referral Group, Excellence in Business. Modeled after national networking and referral groups, XNB provides a weekly forum for businesses to give qualified referrals. The group is very thankful for the website, which makes it easier for new members to get information on the group and provides an easy forum to find contact names and numbers. You can check out the site at www.xnbwilmington.com/.
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Don’t forget about NeoNexus’ referral awards program. For every successful referral you send to NeoNexus, you get a $50 gift certificate to one of your favorites restaurants, such as Cracker Barrel, Chili’s, or Macaroni Grill. Also, existing customers can save up their referrals and cash them in for free website options instead of dining out. Website options include free hosting, 15 second flash animation, and free contact form added to your website. So, get those referrals coming, and let’s all share in the fun!

Sincerely,

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Kim Kuzan
Marketing Director, NeoNexus

NeoNexus Corporation