The Plum Tree Group has been committed to provide best-in-class e-commerce solutions and social platforms to its valued customer base. Several platforms and tools fall into the social or new media realm.
2009 mass-produced two huge social media buzz words – Facebook and Twitter. Over the year they accumulated $200 million and established a registered user base of 20 billion. Businesses have been able to find huge potential through these social networks.
They have been able to capture newer customers and market products and services online in a much better way. The social platforms also provide businesses timely feedback, both positive and negative.
The Plum Tree Group believes that such platforms can be utilized for custom social campaigns.
Our team of highly skilled and professional staff ensures custom and specialized campaigns for all of our clients. Participating in and using social media not only builds your online reputation, identity and brand, but is a terrific SEO tool as well.
So while you can concentrate on other important aspects of business, The Plum Tree Group will help you in managing the online identity. Our service does not end with the delivery of social platforms. We will ensure continuous marketing and maintenance of your social media tools.
How To: Use Social Media for your Business
March 5th, 2010 by admin
Intangible Metrics of ROI
January 25th, 2010 by adminROI is a huge industry “buzzword,” or acronym to be exact. Return on Investment applies across all industries and sectors, and can be quantified or qualified, with tangible or intangible resulting metrics.
There are multiple ways to measure ROI, but we’re going to focus on methods of measuring social media participation ROI: Are we a part of the industry conversation? Have we built relationships with our key audiences? Do we have meaningful customer dialogue?
Examples of quantitative ROI measurement are monitoring blog site traffic, click-through rate and unique monthly visitors. There are other metrics to choose from, but whatever method(s) you choose, having a benchmark or success metric identified is vital.
Without having initial metrics to cross-reference to your end-product results, your efforts are nullified. And we definitely don’t want to see this happen!
Eyes on the (Strategic) Prize
January 15th, 2010 by admin
Client meetings, strategy sessions, tactical implementation, sales outreach, industry research.
There is never a dry moment at The Plum Tree Group. Our clients are our number one focus, and we strive to achieve their goals every single day.
But producing quality outputs are not the only derivative for keeping our partners happy: We have to ensure our own brand and communications are constantly and consistently at top-notch level.
But, in an effort not to talk us up too much, I’ve decided to go back to what makes a successful campaign, both internally and externally: Research and Strategy.
You simply cannot plan an effective campaign without adequate research. Researching the industry, client, competitors, outside political and environmental factors, strengths and weaknesses (remember SWOT?), capabilities.
Adequate research will drive effective campaign strategy (or strategies). Strategies will then drive tactics, goals and objectives.
We understand and take full responsibility of these requirements. Because without a strong, branded focus, you might as well say “sayonara” to the ultimate end-product: ROI.
You can read more about developing strategies here, on our agency’s interactive marketing MarketPointe blog.
Client Spotlight: My Pet My Part
January 7th, 2010 by adminThe Plum Tree Group worked with Sue Pierce, animal lover, on an e-commerce Web site inspired by her rat terrier, My Pet My Part. A successful marketing professional, Pierce came to us with a project that gives consumers the ability to purchase pet supplies and donate a portion of your purchase to you favorite animal charity. Sue also went the extra mile to ensure her Web site was a certified “green” site.
This project was unique because we were able to try out unorthodox extensions. And now, as an official Magento partner, The Plum Tree Group utilizes the robust Magento platform because it has the ability to fulfill the e-commerce needs of any size business. For instance, we implemented a charity extension that automatically deducts 10% from each sale and also allows users to donate an additional amount to the charity of their choice. We also built a donation report in which the admin can monitor the total donation amount received for each charity.
Additionally, we built an extension to manage testimonials, called Happy Tails. Every animal lover loves to see, hear, and tell stories about their animal experiences. The testimonial extension allows the admin to review and approve the testimonials prior to being published.
Finally, the fun part was the integration with a dropship vendor, BCI, which included product import, recurring inventory updates and integration with vendor’s order fulfillment process. Experience My Pet My Part and explore the site.
Our team of project managers, developers, marketers, and designers ensure projects with complex integration are completed with accuracy and success. You can read about more our Magento projects.
What is The Plum Tree Group?
December 18th, 2009 by adminIn Economic Drought, The Plum Tree Group Grows New Branches
This is an exciting time for The Plum Tree Group: New Web site, recently unveiled subsidiary brands and services, official Magento Enterprise partnership, amazing new clients, etc. That being said, we wanted to take a minute to provide a brief history and explanation of The Plum Tree Group and our brands: MagentoCommercePros, MarketPointe, RIAChicago, eIntelli, and SharePoint Hub.
Since our inception in 2003, the Plum Tree Group has been a force for business innovations and solutions. Throughout that time, we’ve adapted to an ever-changing marketplace by offering timely, useful products for small- and mid-size companies.
That’s why today, even amidst years of volatile economic conditions, the Plum Tree Group has continued to thrive. In fact, we are currently expanding the selection of online marketing, design, commerce, proposal, and collaboration tools and services that we offer.
By way of example, here are five of our hottest projects that are being launched right now:
MagentoCommercePros
Open-source and scalable, Magento is an e-commerce solution that has won over high-profile companies like 3M and Lenovo since its launch in 2008. In response, the Plum Tree Group has created a team of experts called MagentoCommercePros to harness the power of Magento for small businesses.
When you look at some of the clients who have already trusted us to tailor Magento to their needs, you’ll notice our ability to customize every detail of the e-commerce experience. What you can’t see is the unprecedented software support and marketing assistance that we offer in addition to our outstanding design and interface expertise.
MarketPointe
The online market is a moving target, and MarketPointe is here to help you hit the bull’s eye every time. Armed with well-informed analysis of your industry and your company, our marketing professionals will deliver your message to e-mail inboxes, search engines, and social media outlets.
And these aren’t prepackaged marketing campaigns. Our MarketPointe staff takes the time to become familiar with your company and your clients. With our dedication to personalization and our comprehensive online presence strategies, it’s like having a large business-marketing department on a small business budget.
RIAChicago
Formerly Flexperts Chicago, this recently re-branded team of Rich Internet Application developers is now called RIAChicago.
Originally created to assist Chicago-area businesses with the design, deployment, and maintenance of the Flex framework, its new name represents this brand’s move to encompass a wider range of Rich Internet Applications.
In expanding its offerings, RIAChicago has lost none of its characteristic expertise, personalized attention, or up-to-the minute rich internet knowledge. And Chicago has gained an even more robust resource for cutting-edge Web applications.
eIntelli
eIntelli is an online business proposal tool that is as dynamic as your company.
With eIntelli, you get fully customizable proposal-building templates, real time collaboration, instant feedback, and intuitive reports– all wrapped in an impressive multimedia package that exudes professionalism and credibility.
Not only do these integrated features save you time and money throughout the proposal process, the eIntelli software has been proven to win more proposals than traditional proposals. In fact, 91 percent of eIntelli users have increased their sales conversion by 10 percent or more.
That’s why if your company depends on business proposals, you should depend on eIntelli.
SharePoint Hub
Microsoft SharePoint is an expansive collection of products, and SharePoint Hub is where we reign all of it in. Expert advice. Job listings. Projects bidding. Web parts. We’ve got it all in one place.
SharePoint professionals will enjoy our job search tools that will keep your career running at full speed. And for those of you with SharePoint projects that need to be completed, The Hub allows you to post projects and receive competitive bids from multiple SharePoint gurus.
We also offer an array of web parts that give you more control over the look and function of you web pages. In addition, any web part that you purchase comes with setup, provisioning and maintenance.
As the SharePoint universe grows, SharePoint Hub will expand to encompass it.
We hope this has shed more light on The Plum Tree Group and our suite of products and services. We’re looking forward to hearing from you!
Officially a Magento Professional Partner
December 16th, 2009 by adminRead all about it! We have exciting news here at Plum Tree Group regarding our Magento partnership:
Last week we meet with the Vice President of Sales for Magento to discuss becoming a professional Magento partner. We’ve been waiting for this interview for some time in anxious anticipation. We first became interested in being listed on the MagentoCommerce Web site about 7 months ago after completing our tenth Magento project.
Magento provides a great open source platform and is easy for our clients to use. We contacted Magento and demonstrated our expertise with the product by submitting our growing Magento portfolio, seen here. Two weeks later we received a call letting us know that they would be flying out one of their team members to meet with us the following week. As luck would have it the weather was horrible all week and flights into O’Hare were limited to say the least. After weeks of coordinating schedules, we happily met with the Vice President of Sales.
I am proud to say on behalf of the sales department and our development team efforts that starting in 2010, The Plum Tree Group’s MagentoCommercePros will now be listed as a professional partner on the Magento Web site.
Client Spotlight: Dena’s Healthy U
May 1st, 2009 by adminThe Plum Tree Group’s core focus is helping emerging businesses succeed. The arsenal we utilize to achieve our goals includes software development, marketing, IT support, business process outsourcing, and many others. In a few cases, The Plum Tree Group will package all of our core skills to bring a product to market or spearhead a new initiative for a client.
The Plum Tree Group has recently partnered with an emerging team ready to bring their ideas to market. Dena’s Healthy U is spearheaded by Dena Mendes, an energetic and vivacious entrepreneur, charity organizer, and cancer survivor. She attributes beating cancer twice with a holistic approach to optimizing the body through diet, exercise, motivation, and spirituality.
The Plum Tree Group has integrated with the DHU team to bring to market a variety of products that include: Dena’s personal consultations, a state of the art website (currently in beta), charity contributions, and corporate speaking engagements. Just recently PTG even helped to coordinate an interactive cooking and heath exposition for 50 guests.
The Plum Tree Group’s next milestone is the public launch of Dena’s Healthy U.com as a central educational resource for individuals looking to become healthier in mind, body, and spirit. Dena’s Healthy U.com will use Plum Tree innovation and cutting edge technology that includes
· Video Interaction including Webinars hosted by Dena
· Interactive eCookbook
· Healthy Products and Services
· Exclusive member benefits
Be sure to sign up to be notified of the launch in Spring 2009 here!
To read more about Dena and her journey from cancer patient to survivor click here.
Client Spotlight
May 1st, 2009 by admin
Plum Tree helps emerging businesses of all stages of growth, from conception to market leaders. The Plum Tree Group had the recent privilege to meet a fledgling MBA entrepreneur who wanted to create an online community to showcase business opportunities to potential investors.
Thus eSposure was created and has seen modest success from its launch a few weeks ago.
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