By: Sue Sutcliffe Social media: what a great marketing tool. It’s inexpensive, it’s customizable – but is it working? In last month’s column, you learned how to plan and launch a social media campaign, but now you need to figure out how well it performs. Who are you attracting? What’s engaging them? What’s bringing in business? What’s floating like a lead balloon? Examining the success of your campaign allows you to … [Read more...]
By: Sue Sutcliffe Are the phone books dead? If so, long live geolocational media. Today, your fingers do their walking on a computer or Smartphone to locate businesses and services. Why? You can find far more than a bare-bones Yellow Pages listing or a static ad. According to Google, 22 per cent of all searches contain a geographic search term. Bump that up to 40 per cent for searches made from mobiles. And that means business. Google Place … [Read more...]
Being in business for over nine years, we’ve learned what works and what doesn’t when it comes to effective websites. Here are some practical tips to help you get more out of your business website. 1. Find out where the traffic is before you build a website When you build a gas station or a coffee shop, you build on a busy road. Stunning architecture on a quiet street won’t drive traffic to your storefront any more than a pretty … [Read more...]
By: Sue Sutcliffe Google’s challenge to Facebook and Twitter hit the social media stage at the end of June. Within two weeks, Google+ (Google Plus) had notched 10 million users. This “overnight success” has the potential to be a blockbuster hit. So what’s all the excitement about? Circles: A place for everyone Google+ subdivides your contacts with a visually-pleasing drag-and-drop sorting tool that creates customizable … [Read more...]
If you handed $1 to someone and they returned you $4, would you consider that a good deal? What if they threw in some cost reductions off your bottom line? If your a business owner like me, you might say “that sounds too good to be true, what’s the catch?” There is no catch. It’s called a properly constructed website coordinated with an online strategy. But many companies simply aren’t taking advantage of this incredible money … [Read more...]
By: Sue Sutcliffe They’re everywhere—buttons asking you to “Share” this and “Like” that. The Internet is atwitter with ways to endorse your favourite businesses, posts, products and services. Half of the world’s top 10,000 websites link to Facebook or Twitter on their homepage. Does yours? Why let people push your buttons? Because they’re delivering a call to action. Read this post. Buy this product. Shop here. Trust this … [Read more...]
Every prospective client lately seems to ask me the same question “should we do social media?” When businesses speak of social media, they typically mean Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. Social media for business is fairly new, so I can only speak of our personal and client experience gained over the last few years of building business and social media websites. Early indications reveal that more business-to-consumer (B2C) clients than … [Read more...]
By: Sue Sutcliffe Think YouTube is only about goofy stunts and music videos? Think again. Video marketing is on the rise. According to an April 2011 social media marketing industry report, three-quarters of those surveyed intend to increase their use of YouTube and video marketing, making it the top area in which marketers will invest in 2011. Can your business harness this popular marketing tool? Why not? Every business or … [Read more...]
By Tom Kaufmann The mere mention of cold calling strikes fear into the hearts of even the most seasoned sales professional, let alone the small susiness owner trying to grow their business. Why do I need to cold call? How do I get over the fear of cold calling? How can I cold call successfully? These are the most commonly asked questions by small & large business owners alike. Everyone knows that sales are the lifeline of … [Read more...]