With the holiday shopping season reaching a feverish pitch, consumer attention deficit will be at an all time high. Finishing up last minute shopping, checking their list twice and thrice more to make sure they didn’t forget anyone, and even traveling at this time of year can quickly result in feeling scattered and overwhelmed. It doesn’t help that everywhere consumers look there will be an ad for a sale here, savings there, free shipping, buy-one-get-one, and so forth and so on. All these offers––which are intended to capture consumers’ attention and dollars––ironically become “noise” as the ..read more

It’s easy to deliver a positive customer service experience when things are going smoothly and customers are easy to please. But what do you and your sales team do when you’re backed into a proverbial-corner with an unpleasant, demanding or even infuriated customer?   If you’ve worked with customers directly, then you know you face fresh challenges every day. However, it’s important to have some rules when it comes to dealing with those challenges, no matter what form they may take. The key is to appropriately respond instead of spontaneously react.   That’s why you and you ..read more

In Part 1 of How to Optimize Your Social Media Marketing Profiles, we walked you through setting up the look and feel of your profiles. Now it’s time to cover the final 7 steps to take in setting up a professional-calibre profile on each of the social media platforms you choose to promote your business on.   #7 Write Your Bio and Fill in Every Profile Field  Almost every social media platform has a field for your bio and this is what visitors will at least skim when they visit your profile for the first time. Write your bio very carefully but also try not to over-write it. Think ..read more

In the wide and highly competitive world of social media marketing, it’s all too easy to get caught up in chasing the latest social media marketing trends and the busywork of posting content and maintaining your social media presence on numerous platforms. Ideally, you aren’t spreading yourself too thin for the sake of participating on each. After all, it’s better to commit to building an excellent presence on one platform than having inactive profiles on every platform. While embracing trends and engaging on each platform are important tactics in your social media marketing strategy, make sur ..read more

Whether you’re attempting to manage your own SEO or working with an expert, it helps to know what the most commonly used SEO jargon means and how it pertains to your website and online marketing strategy. Understanding the basics, such as your website’s domain authority, and how to earn it, will arm you with the information you need to forge ahead and communicate your business’s online marketing goals with your SEO professional.   Domain Authority and Page Authority  Domain authority and page authority refer to actual scores that the Google search engine automatically assigns to ..read more

Throughout the year, both online and bricks and mortar businesses decide to run a promotion in efforts to attract more customers and move more inventory. And if the deal is good and well-advertised, the tactic can be a very successful one–because, let’s admit it, everyone loves a good deal. But how many of us have been drawn in by an offer too-good–to–refuse, only to experience this?  If You’re Going to Run a Promotion, No Matter What, Don’t be a Dick!   Dick wants more customers. Dick decides to run a promotion to get more traffic. He advertises his promotion with a coupon that ..read more

Where in The World Is My Website on Google’s Search Results?  If you remember the 90’s, (or have been unable to forget those years), you might also remember a kids’ game show called Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Basically, three 5th-graders would compete with each other to find this mysterious criminal mastermind; and in order to track her down, they had to jump through hoops (mostly mental and geographical, but there was physical activity involved too). Fast forward to the end of 2018 and the start of 2019, and you may be able to empathize with those harried children; because yo ..read more

Mistake #1: Seeing Inbound and Outbound Marketing as Separate   Most business owners are familiar with traditional, outbound marketing tactics: television, radio, print and outdoor advertising, for example, and are still including some forms of it in their marketing mix with much success. Being as Inbound marketing may be a new concept to many businesses, they see it as different and separate. They see inbound marketing as a way to involve their potential customer base, to educate them, interest them, and, to collect “likes” and “followers” on social media. They get caught up targeti ..read more

Twitter as part of your social media marketing strategy can help you connect and develop relationships with your customers, drive traffic to your website content, and tell your story in a way that few other platforms can do. But most businesses aren’t seeing any of those benefits. Why?  They don’t know how to use Twitter effectively.   If this sounds like you, don’t worry. In her book, Everybody Writes, Ann Handley shows us exactly how we can take our failing Twitter strategy and turn it into one of our most valuable assets. And it starts with a simple writing change:   ..read more

If your business growth has stalled or started to falter, the natural reaction of many business owners is to rebrand their company and offer a new, exciting take on the products and services that they provide. This often pays off extremely well for businesses of all sizes, but there are also often times when the re-branding effort actually backfires and has a negative effect on the business. A rebranding effort should be conducted carefully and with great planning in order to ensure that it is received well by your current customer base while still allowing you to reach out to new prospects th ..read more