May 2015

42 Things You Should Know About Your Customers

May 18th, 2015|

Let’s take a break from marketing for a second….

You can do a lot to push your business with sales and marketing, but what really helps your business succeed is not local marketing, SEO, paid search, or even your powerful copywriting.  It’s certainly not your awesome sales guy.
It’s the relationship you create and maintain with your customers.
It doesn’t matter what kind of customer you have (from patients to contributors of non-profits) each of us has less-than-ideal characteristics that come to […]

Mistakes that Kill Traffic on Your Landing Pages

May 4th, 2015|

Having a site in the top of the search results, or getting loads of targeted traffic through paid ads is great… but what happens if that traffic falls off your website as soon as it gets there?  Your landing page is a lead capture or conversion page where its sole existence is to act as a marketing tool that prompts a specific action or result.

If you don’t set the landing page up correctly you cripple yourself with one of […]

April 2015

Fighting the Block : How to generate ideas for Business Blogging

April 22nd, 2015|

Blogs are a powerful tool to have on your website’s arsenal. They aren’t there just to repeat the same story in different words. People look to blogs for how-to’s, opinion, other users experiences and insight to certain products and services. They are also a great way to increase your visibility, but there is little point if they are not useful and full of relevant and sharable content.

To many, the idea of business blogging is groan inducing. It’s extra work […]

Trimming and Controlling Costs for Live Events and Expos

April 9th, 2015|

Make your boss happy by knowing your budget before you start planning your business meeting or event, and then stick to it. Events and expos can get out of hand quickly when spending on small items begins to add up.  Here are some tips to help you trim the cost of live events for your organization:

Avoid surprises – When renting a facility or working with vendors make sure you get all agreements in writing, and understand the full scope […]

March 2015

Tips to Get More Local Business with Online Marketing

March 30th, 2015|

As a small business owner, you might think that large companies have an easier time marketing themselves. After all, they have a huge budget and an entire department to develop and implement marketing campaigns.

What they don’t have is the same local advantage that your business has.  As a local business you know your customers and you know the local market better than anyone else.  Especially better than those bix bog competitors.

If you’re looking for some ideas about online local […]

How Social Media Impacts Your Search Engine Rank

March 16th, 2015|

Google wants you to know that they care about what your customers think of your business.  So much so that they’re putting a lot of emphasis on using social media signals to rank your website.
But what’s a social signal?

A social signal is anything people do socially that involves your business.  That means sharing links to your site on blogs, video shares and thumbs up (as well as dislikes), comment likes, retweets, general engagement on sites like Facebook and even […]

11 Tips to Step Up Tradeshow Engagement for Better Results

March 4th, 2015|

The quality and interactive nature of your trade show display will make or break the experience for attendees visiting your booth.  One of the biggest mistakes a new exhibitor can make is trying to draw in crowds with extravagant displays.  Displays that are flashy might help get the attention of big crowds, but just getting a big crowd isn’t the point.

It’s not the number of people you get to your booth, it’s whether or not you’re able to engage […]

February 2015

Stay Encrypted – Why an SSL Certificate is Critical to Your Online Business’ Success

February 17th, 2015|

Most business owners interested in getting SSL certificates are typically doing so as part of an ecommerce setup on their website.  If you work with a payment gateway then encrypting data via SSL is a must.

To understand why an SSL certificate is beneficial you really need to understand the basics of it all.  Have you noticed that some sites display a tiny lock at the top of the browser bar – such as when you’re on Facebook?  With sites […]

Is your Website Secure with Shared Hosting?

February 3rd, 2015|

A business owner has a lot of hats and an unlimited number of issues to manage.  Among them, having a website hacked is somewhere at the very bottom of the list of worries.

It’s no surprise that the typical business owner doesn’t learn a site has been hacked until notified by a customer – sometimes hours or days after it occurs.  When it does happen, they are often frantic and have no process in place to easily restore the damage.
It’s […]

January 2015

How to Photograph Your Business During the Winter

January 27th, 2015|

If you want to photograph your business or get some new images of the exterior of your organization for your website and marketing materials, the weather can post a bit of a challenge.

Here in Michigan you’ve got a few great months where everything is green and colorful, then there’s the barrage of several months filled with ugly dreariness.  Most business owners avoid shooting photos during this time – especially in real estate related businesses – because they feel the […]