Looking to the future – where we’re headed in 2014
PS: in answer to the title of this article – good things!
Welcome to the team!
We’d like to start this year off by welcoming Chris London to the Xanthos team. Chris is our new Business Development Manager and will be responsible for bringing in new business and for working with the team to pinpoint potential opportunities for Xanthos and clients’ continued growth. Chris brings to the team 20 years’ experience in business development, sales and management.
Digital marketing services
Last year Xanthos rolled out a few new services, namely content marketing services and social media marketing services. These were a great success and as such, we are continuing to research and develop within these areas to create new offerings that will help our clients draw in fresh business. If you have suggestions of your own or feel that we’re missing something important, get in touch.
AspDotNetStorefront and DotFeed
Another great feature that we’ve been helping our clients to implement is AspDotNetStorefront’s DotFeed which allows our clients to feed products directly from their Storefront account to those places where they can best attract sales (and vice-versa). This includes Google Shopping, Bing, Amazon.com Product Ads, Shopping.com, Shopzilla and more.
If you’re interested in setting up DotFeed on your website, we can do as much and walk you through the process, ultimately saving you time.
Content marketing
As mentioned above, content marketing is now a core part of an inbound marketing strategy and of any company’s SEO strategy. As such, we’re continuing to ramp up our content-related service offerings. Whether you’re new to the game or you’ve done it before, we can help create or recreate your content strategy as well as produce the necessary visual assets to aid it.
A year in review – 2013 achievements
For Xanthos and for most of our clients, 2013 was a good year. Below we’ve summarised some of the highlights, not including the launch of our new website at the beginning of the year!
We’re RAR+ Recommended
Last year, thanks to reviews from our clients, we became an RAR+ agency – a recommended supplier of digital services including digital marketing, ecommerce, web design and website development. Stay tuned for the ‘seal of approval’ soon to be added to our website. If you’d like to leave a review yourself you can do so on the Recommended Agencies website.
AspDotNetStorefront Developer Conference
Last November, Xanthos flew out to the DotNet Developer Conference in Oregon. This was a unique opportunity for us to learn more about AspDotNetStorefront’s up-and-coming features as well as more about current features. It was also a great chance for us to get to know some of the core players behind Storefront’s success. If you’d like to find out more about what happened at the conference, take a look at our review.
Predictive site search
2013 was also the year we perfected our own powerful on-site search feature, easily integrated into your AspDotNetStorefront website. This isn’t an ordinary search engine but rather, a search feature we’ve developed specifically for ecommerce websites.
As a user searches, ‘instant search results’ presents images of products that match the searcher’s query. As the user continues to type, the search results change (just as they do on Google). Our search functionality also includes ‘predictive search’, ‘full text search as well as product search’, ‘search refinement and product filtering’ and the ability to search multiple fields and categories.
Our search has already been integrated on the Normans Musical Instruments website as well as on IT Governance’s website.
If you’re interested in finding out more, get in touch with Xanthos.
New digital services
In line with industry trends and demands, last year we launched a few new services including infographic and graphic creation to aid content marketing strategies, content marketing plans, social media branding and strategy, on-site search for ecommerce websites and DotFeed integration for AspDotNetStorefront stores.
If you’d like to review some of the top digital trends from 2013, we compiled a neat infographic to sum it up.
Responsive web design
With the growth of mobile device usage, it’s become increasingly important to have a website that works as well on a mobile device as it does on desktop computers. It’s worth noting that Google recommends webmasters use responsive design. They also announced that websites misconfigured for smartphone users, or sites without a mobile-friend option, would likely see a drop in rankings. In order to combat this, site owners are expected to serve sites that are compliant with Google’s mobile optimisation guidelines.
Have your say
What do you think we should be focusing on this year? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think? If you’re already a Xanthos client, what more can we do to make your experience better?
