Category Archives: One Minute Tips

Optimize your Marketing Strategy with this Free Web Tool

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marketing strategyAlthough the entry barrier to online businesses such as e-commerce is lower than for their offline equivalents, making a success of your enterprise is far from guaranteed.

Fortunately, there are countless web tools that you can use to help you get your business where you want it to be. Not all of these tools come cheap though, which can be off-putting for a fledgling project unsure of how much they can afford to spend on something that might prove unnecessary.

Thanks to the people behind our favourite search engine however, one of the most powerful tools available to help you optimize your marketing strategy is completely free.

Google Analytics is available to everyone, easy to set up, and gives you insights into where your traffic is coming from and what they are doing once they arrive, helping you to study the following data and make the tweaks that will improve your conversion rates.

Preferable referrals

Google Analytics allows you to see where your traffic is coming from, including those being sent there by way of referrals. This category tells you which websites are directing traffic back to your website, how much they are sending, and what it’s doing when it’s there.

If you’re paying for any online advertising as part of your marketing strategy, perhaps from the big yellow book company or other directory sites, this data can help you decide if this is money well spent or not.

If after analyzing your referral traffic you feel the amount is too low, or that the bounce rate is too high, you may want to consider dropping some of the referral services you are currently not getting value for money from and concentrating on the ones that you are.

Social engagements

Getting the most out of social media is a key part of any good marketing strategy, and Google Analytics can help you see how well your own efforts are faring.

By looking at the statistics in the Social tab, you will find exactly which of the various platforms you’re posting on are performing well, and which aren’t.

Are you getting more traffic from Twitter than from Facebook? Does your traffic from Instagram stick around longer than those who came from Pinterest? Do those coming from Google+ or LinkedIn look at more pages? Who makes the most comments? Who bounces?

And now that you know, what are you going to do with the information? Will you concentrate more on those who already perform well, or try to bring the others up to speed too?

The choice is yours, but at least now you have the data to help you decide.

Content with your content?

If you’re regularly paying for or writing your own blog posts, producing videos, creating infographics, or any other type of content as part of your marketing strategy, it needs to be hitting its intended mark if you’re to be successful.

Another way of using Google Analytics to help optimize your marketing strategy is to learn what type of content really resonates with your visitors and what leaves them unimpressed.

By measuring what content people like, by noting how long they’re spending on the different types and how often people bounce from them, you can get an idea of what topics people are interested in, whether videos are adding value to your marketing strategy, or if the time spent creating infographics is worth it.

As a free tool, Google Analytics provides priceless insights into the behaviour of your web traffic, helping you to optimize your marketing strategy by understanding where your audience is coming from, how effective your social media is, and what type of content you should concentrate on going forward.

To learn more about Google Analytics, watch our Youtube channel here:

3 Simple Ways to Help your Blog be Found and Read

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digital marketing blogThe societal shift towards instant gratification in our media has completely altered the way we think about producing and digesting the written word, with online blogs in particular being a major force in the changing habits of both writers and readers.

When people say they want to read an epic blog post, they’re no longer talking about the length. As sad as it might sound to those with dreams of grandeur, unless you are a specially talented wordsmith or raconteur, the 2000 word wall of text you wrote for your digital marketing blog is unlikely to engage many people.

People want quick fixes of pleasure to get them through the gruelling fifteen minute bus commute to work, lists of easily digestible facts that go well with a coffee, and bite-sized nuggets of information they can devour with their fries on their lunch break.

If you’re regularly producing content for your digital marketing blog but finding the amount of either traffic or interaction is lower than you’d hoped, it might be time to rethink what you thought you knew about your desired audience.

Plan for the scan

The first thing to understand when producing content for your digital marketing blog is that even those who read it probably don’t really read it. When digesting web content, people scan, and the way your blog posts are formatted will be a bigger factor in people reading and interacting with them than even the content itself.

Because your digital marketing blog may live or die by the format, it has to be clear. We all know the importance of a good headline, but subheadings are just as vital in breaking up your topics into easier to swallow chunks, and even helping the reader to decide if they can skip to the next paragraph.

Using keywords in the subheadings is a very good idea too. Not only does it help with SEO, but it will also reinforce the relevance of the article to your reader’s interest if they have found it through an organic search.

To boldly go

To help the reader of your digital marketing blog pick out the information they are looking for, making bold the key points will cause them to jump out from the page.

Using this technique benefits yourself as much as it does your audience. While you may like to think they care about every line in your posts as much as you do, and want to spend time taking everything in, they probably don’t.

So while guiding them to the parts they want to see and showing them what to skip over by making bold the important points might sound counterintuitive for those wanting all of their content to be read, your reader is actually more likely to read more of your other digital marketing blog posts if you’re making it easier for them to find and digest the information.

Words and pictures

Whether images or video, using multimedia in your blog posts is vital to stimulating your reader into taking the action you want them to take.

As well as providing a break from the words, and being another effective way of breaking up the wall of text, images and video can get across messages in a way plain text never can.

The important thing to remember is to keyword your multimedia, usually by renaming the file before uploading, to give your digital marketing blog another chance to be found on Google.

People are increasingly going straight to Image searches to find what they are looking for, but your multimedia will not show in the results if it still has a generic, alphanumeric title.

Because most people scan articles on the internet rather than reading them, making your digital marketing blog easier to digest by breaking up the wall of text with key worded multimedia, subheadings, and with the important points made bold is vital in allowing your audience to find you, and in keeping them coming back.

 

For a look at our One Minute Tips and more on this topic, check out our Youtube page here:

Tweet like a Rock Star – 3 tips for easy Twitter Marketing

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marketing campaignSince its genesis in 2006, Twitter has become a global stage that anyone can step onto, grab the mic, and sing to their own audience. Thanks to the potential for easily reaching such a wide array of fans, it has become an integral part of most small business marketing campaigns today.

The only problem is, with so many voices vying to be heard, how can you make sure you don’t become just another brick in the wall?

Being middle-of-the-road means getting drowned in sound, your voice left unheard along with anyone else who only seems to sing for themselves. If you want to get noticed, you have to leave the world of MOR, and concentrate on leaving people wanting MOAR.

This means escaping the road to nowhere and learning how to tweet like a rock star. By following these three simple tips for your Twitter marketing campaign, you’ll soon be well on the way to headlining your own gigs.

Plan your setlist

The best rock concerts are the ones where it seems anything can happen. Of course though, the band do know exactly which songs to play and in what order to hold the show together.

In much the same way, the tweets you send out as part of your marketing campaign can be prepared, put down into a list, and scheduled to automatically go out in sequence and at specific times.

By using a service such as Buffer or Hootsuite, you can easily schedule a whole list of tweets that will be sent out whenever you choose. The benefits of this are twofold, giving you more free time by allowing you to schedule all of your tweets for the week ahead in one session, while also ensuring they are sent out at optimal times, when more people will see them.

Collaborate with your peers

Going solo is a career move that has worked for many rock stars, but doing so on Twitter is one of the worst strategies for your marketing campaign.

Giving a shout out to people, be they your fans or people in the same industry, will make them like you a whole lot more as they appreciate the effort you put into acknowledging or promoting their content too.

Every time you mention somebody or re-tweet their post, they’ll receive a notification, which gives you a chance of being mentioned or re-tweeted in return, with the latter being a big deal if they are a bigger influencer or have a wider audience than yourself.

Perhaps more importantly than receiving reciprocal Twitter activity however is the fact that by appearing in their notifications, you are keeping yourself at the forefront of their minds, which is the best place to be for your marketing campaign.

Hold live shows

As recently as a few weeks ago, Twitter acquired and launched Periscope, a live streaming video app that is looking to add a major string to the social media giant’s already impressive bow.

Downloading and installing the app will allow users to stream and view live videos on their Twitter profiles, increasing the options for creative new ways to bring your marketing campaign to your growing audience.

The live streams also take up more screen real estate than text-only tweets and engage the user for longer than a single image will, helping your content and name to stick in the mind for longer.

For a marketing campaign to have the desired results, standing out from the crowd on Twitter is a must. By following these three tips, you’ll open the doors to tweeting like the rock star you’ve always wanted to be.

3 Pro Tips for Choosing your Business Domain Name

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internet marketing strategyWhatever your business or industry, choosing the right domain name for your online presence can have a big effect on your future success. While the wealth of options available to you mean there might not be one single best choice for your needs, making a bad decision can certainly hinder your efforts; your internet marketing strategy, your lead capturing, and ultimately your sales.

A good domain name should be unmistakeable and represent accurately what your company is all about, and there are certain ways to help ensure your chosen domain achieves these aims.

Once you’ve settled on what you decide to be the best domain for your business, you can even think about which others might work in your internet marketing strategy too.

Read on to find out how all this can be done.

Ease of use

Crafting the perfect internet marketing strategy, only to have it undermined by an awkward domain name, would be almost criminal in the modern business world. If you want people to remember your domain name and ensure it will always be typed in correctly, it has to be as catchy and simple as possible.

This means anything overly long should be avoided, as are aspects that can be commonly mistyped. These include double ‘L’s or ‘T’s, unnecessary points, dashes, underscores, or numerical figures.

Company initials are good for shortening long company names, easy to remember, and are very difficult to misspell. If your company’s initials are already taken, anything else you choose should be short, sweet and to the point.

Pros and .coms

For companies based in the United States, the .com domain is still the most desirable suffix for those wanting to be seen as an authority figure in their industry. Luckily, here in Canada, the .ca domain is just as recognized, and can actually be of benefit to your company image if you’re looking to serve mainly local customers.

Depending on the nature of your business, the recently released batch of new gTLDs (generic top level domains) can also help you to project the right image from the extension on your domain name. Although .gov has long been used by government sites, .edu by educational facilities and .org often used by non-profits, the options now include such evocative terms as .guru, .consulting, .world, and .ninja, extensions that are regularly played with in the world of the modern internet marketing strategy.

Smart use of any of these can result in a more memorable domain name for your business than .com ever could, meaning a little time and research before deciding on yours is highly recommended.

Domain event

If you are planning different campaigns, either as part of your internet marketing strategy or offline marketing, another tip is to create multiple domain names that include different keywords related to your business. These could be your location, your product or service, the benefit your product or service gives to your customers, or a combination of any of the above.

By registering bestpizzaincalgary.com or imhungrynow.ca, you can use them as a split test to see which yields the better results, both as part of your internet marketing strategy and on print material like flyers or distributed menus.

We’re often asked ‘what’s in a name?’ When it comes to domains, with all the options out there and the pitfalls inherent in choosing a bad one, there’s actually quite a lot. Take the time to make sure you get yours right.

To watch one of our one minute tips on this same subject, follow us on Youtube!

3 Signs Your Email Habits Are Ruining Your Business.

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Today I want to talk about how email could be ruining your life as a small business owner and more importantly, what you can do about it!

A symptom of having an improper relationship with your email is the frequency and amount of time you spend checking it, and not getting other things in your business done.

We use MailChimp for our email marketing software and I’m shocked to see that sometimes people are checking emails and opening our email 21 different times!
That shows a sort of paralysis when it comes to decision-making, “Should I reply? Should I delete it? Should I respond?” and being tied to your email with all these technology devices like our phones and iPads and our laptops mean that a lot of people – myself included – feel very much tied to our email so we are constantly checking it and not getting a lot of other important things done.
So here are three tips to manage your email instead of having it take over your life.
So the first thing you can do is set a timer so you are checking your email say, for example three times a day for 30 minutes. When that timer goes off you stop.
The second thing to do is actually make a little tick using a pen or a pencil on a piece of paper noting how many times a day you are actually opening your email and maybe not responding but just leaving emails sitting there.
The third tip and what I really love is this thing called the email game. So, it’s a game that actually helps you get through your backlog in a fun way- perfect if you have a bunch of emails in your box that you just haven’t acted on and get that all cleaned out for you.
That’s your one minute tip! If you liked this please share and don’t forget to subscribe to my channel!

The One Marketing Tactic That Has 2x The Return On Investment

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Today we are going to talk about the 1 marketing tactic that has 2x the return on investment when it comes to increasing your sales.

Images courtesy of https://twitter.com/buzzbuilder

Images courtesy of https://twitter.com/buzzbuilder

So I am going to give you 5 ways to implement this tactic. So if you were looking to boost your sales in 2015, keep reading!

Surprisingly, the one tactic is actually email marketing. 2x more effective than most other marketing tactics!

So here is how you can implement this and still stay within the Canada anti-spam legislation.

The first thing to email marketing is building your list-gather email addresses from your prospects.

One way you can do is have a free promo on your website like “Get a Free Report Just by Entering in your email address”. Once you have your prospect’s email address you can do a couple different things with it.

The second step to successful email marketing is follow up:

One of the most effective ways to follow up is set up an automatic drip campaign which is a series of automated emails that go out 3, 5, 7 and 9 days after your prospect has signed up for more information.

A targeted email drip campaign like this can produce tremendous results when it comes to converting those qualified prospects to actual sales.

Three ways to make email marketing easier:

Another thing you can do if you are very brave is cold email your prospects. Simply email them directly from a personal email account and craft a sales letter as to why you can solve their problem or ease their pain better than your competition.

Another thing you can do is use a CRM software which is a relationship management software.

It will notify you that you need to follow up with your prospects, peers, coworkers, colleagues etc. Make sure you don’t leave it too long before you talk to them.

There is a famous saying, “If you haven’t spoken to your customers or been in touch with them within the last 90 days, they are no longer your customers.”

Automate your email marketing:

So a really great way to do this that is super easy, is to send out a monthly email newsletter You can let people know what is going on in your company, any new tips or tricks you have to offer them that are of value and simply send that out to your prospects, clients or any one else in your community you would like to stay in touch with.

Another thing you can do is email folks directly through LinkedIn.

You may have to sign up for their premium service but instead of a cold email it is a little bit more of a warmer connection because folks can see who you are directly linked to.

That is your one minute tip! If you liked this, please share and subscribe to our YouTube channel!

 

The One Simple Trick To Closing 9x More Sales Leads

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Today we are going to talk about the one simple tool you can employ in 2015 to increase your sales close ratio by 9x what it was in the past.

Images courtesy of https://twitter.com/buzzbuilder

Images courtesy of https://twitter.com/buzzbuilder

Now that sounds great for all of us who are looking to boost our sales leads as well as convert more people from just leads to actual sales right?

So the one and only thing you need to do to boost your conversion rates is to get back to your web leads within 5 minutes of them contacting you.

Very very simple but also very complicated. How do you do that in such a busy society? You can’t always be sitting in front of your computer!

There are a couple different ways you can do this:

The first thing you can do is, If you have an assistant or receptionist, you can ask them to ping you immediately, as soon as you get a web lead and you can then call or email them back right away and close that time gap between inquiry and response.

The second thing you can do is set up an auto responder. So if someone is contacting you through your website and they’ve sent in their email address, you can have an automatic email reply go out including some information that they are inquiring about.

It might not be as specific as you would have liked but as long as you are delivering some value that is certainly going to increase your odds of converting that lead into a sale.

The third thing you can do is have your emails go to your smart phone and turn your email notifications on audibly so you get a noise every time somebody emails you and you can get back to them right away.

Another thing you can do is actually have an SMS or text notification. Some mobile marketing services offer the ability to actually text you whenever you have a brand new web lead and that way you can get back to them right away!

That is your one minute tip! If you like this, please share, and don’t forget to subscribe to my channel!

Images courtesy of https://twitter.com/buzzbuilder

Images courtesy of https://twitter.com/buzzbuilder

 

Outsourcing Your Web Marketing? Should You Hire An Employee or A Company?

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Today we are going to talk about whether your business should hire a brand new employee or a web marketing firm to handle your business’ web marketing.

If you are thinking about making a decision as big as this, you definitely want to keep reading as we address three critical components to making the best decision for your business.

Outsource or Hire For Your Web Marketing: Point One- Your Time

If you are thinking of delegating your web marketing, odds are, you don’t have a lot of time.

When it comes to hiring a new employee, you have to create a job description, have to screen applicants, spend time interviewing; and when you finally hire someone you have to train them! So it is a significant time commitment on your part for hiring a new employee.

In terms of hiring a web marketing company, they are often good to go when you are and require a much smaller time commitment on your part to get them up and running and working hard for your business.

Outsource or Hire For Your Web Marketing: Point Two- Your Money

Now let’s talk about money!

In terms of the investment that you are making, sometimes people think, “hey, I can hire this person and they can do all kinds of other things including my web marketing and it will be a great return on investment!”.

Yes, that’s true, but employees, at least in Canada, cost quite a bit, so you need to be paying out CPP, EI, stat holidays as well as sick pay. That is a lot of time that adds up to not a lot of productivity in terms of what you are paying for.

Web marketing firms obviously don’t need to be paid CPP, so there is a lot of cost savings there.

running and working hard for your business.

Outsource or Hire For Your Web Marketing: Point Three- Results

The third component you should consider is expertise and results.

A web marketing firm will often have case studies, proven methodologies and have already made their mistakes as they have been years in the business.

Where as your new hire may not have that level of experience and as a result they are making those mistakes with your brand online for the world to see.

In conclusion, as the old saying goes, if you think hiring an expert is expensive, try hiring an amateur!

 

Now it’s your turn! Let us know in the comments below what you think!

Have you hired or outsourced your web marketing? What has been your experience?

And- if you like this tip, don’t forget to subscribe to our You Tube channel and never miss a tip.

Consumer Alert! 5 Regrets You’ll Have Web Marketing With The Yellow Book Co.

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Today we are going to talk about the 5 regrets you’ll have if you buy web marketing with the big yellow book company.

So if you are thinking about it, you definitely want to watch this video as it will give you some tips on how to avoid buyers remorse.

The number one reason you  don’t want to do your web marketing with the big yellow book company is it doesn’t make very much sense.

If I’m looking for a provider, I go to Google and type in what I’m looking for, for example, pizza, and then I select from the providers that are shown from Google;  I don’t then go and click on yellowpages.ca just to begin my search all over again.

So number one, it doesn’t make very much sense, you need to be in front of the people who are looking for what you offer, and yellowpages.ca simply just doesn’t do that.

Number two, they don’t really have that much experience do they?

NO! Up until a few years ago they were selling big yellow books, and now they’re doing web marketing? They don’t have years and years of technical experience to back their offer. They are simply capitalizing on increased demand for web marketing and consulting services.

Number three! No service!

If you’ve ever tried to get ahold of your numbered representative, you know its very difficult. Getting quality service from someone who actually cares at a large corporation is never easy.

Plus, numbered representatives tend to leave and work elsewhere so it is very difficult for this company to be accountable to you and the dollars that you are spending with them.

Number Four-No ownership!

You may not know this, but if you are getting a website from the big yellow book company, you don’t actually own it, you are leasing it.

What that means is, in order to keep that website up and your domain name up, you need to continue to pay them year after year and you cannot switch providers and keep your website or your domain name.

Number Five- No accountability!

Say you get zero results and you are angry.

Well, you can rant and rave and you can complain and you know they will not give you your money back.

Also, no matter of negative reviews online is going to impact their business in anyway.

They are not a local, small business owner that cares about their community and cares about maintaining a positive reputation.

Like this tip? Subscribe to our You Tube channel and never miss a tip!

Your turn! Tell us in the comments below what your opinion is.

Have you tried marketing with the big yellow book company? What was your experience?

 

 

What Is Search Engine Optimization?

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Today let’s talk about Search Engine Optimization and how to do it!

If you’ve ever wondered how some businesses are on page one of google search, and you’d like to be there yourself…keep reading!

Search Engine Optimization is the process by which you optimize your website to rank highly on the search engines, like Google.

To get high rankings on search engines, I’ve outlined a three step process below!

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Step One- Keyword Analysis:

The first thing that you want to do is go to the Google Keyword Planning tool (sign up if you don’t have an account already) and type in what you think that your future clients might be typing into Google.

They will generate a whole bunch of keywords for you and tell you how many people are actually searching for what you think they are searching for.

Search Engine Optimization Step Two: Optimize Your Website Text

Next make sure you have the right keywords and you start using them on your website- this is called On-Site Search Engine Optimization.

Once you identify what keywords your target market is actually searching for, then you can go ahead and start using those words in your website text.

Make sure you have a frequently asked questions page that addresses questions that people may be typing into Google and make sure your services pages have those words in the actual text there.

Search Engine Optimization Step Three: Update Your Website Frequently

The second thing you want to do is absolutely make sure you are updating your website on a frequent basis, the more frequent the better.

For best SEO results, I recommend updating your website once a week if you can.

Post a blog post, talking about those keywords; addressing the questions your future clients may have and  are actually typing into Google.

Search Engine Optimization Step Three: Integrate with Social Media

Thirdly, make sure your website is engaging and actually addressing things people care about and is integrated into social media.

Statistics are showing the more engagement you are getting on social actually on your website, contributes to where you rank on Google, more specifically use of Google+.

OK, I’ve followed these 3 steps, Now What?

If you’re serious about getting on google or optimizing your website so it shows up higher on the search rankings, you need to get a Google Analytics account.

Your web developer can set one up for you as well- but once you’re logged in, on the left hand site you will see a section for Social which shows how socially integrated your site is, where your social traffic is coming from.

Google Analytics will also show you where your site is ranking, what terms people use to get to your website and lots of other great information about how your website is performing.

That is your one minute tip! If you liked it, please share and don’t forget to subscribe to our Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCurxTLa0XxIvJowi6HuhpUw