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Would you hire a Website designer in St. John’s?

December 20, 2012 By 2 Comments

'Signal Hill, St. John's NL' photo (c) 2012, US Mission Canada - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/Depending upon where you are as you read that question — and of course whether or not you even want a Website designer — your first response could be pretty much anything…

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m looking for; someone right here!”

“No, I want a Website designer in PEI.” (or wherever you happen to be)

“I’d consider it if I had to, but I’d rather have someone closer to home.”

All legitimate answers. The reality though is that advances like SEO, social media, eCommerce, Skype, and overnight couriers have obliterated borders. Whereas all but the most ambitious small businesses were once confined to their local markets, now even a one-person home business has the ability to establish itself internationally. No matter what products or services you sell, there is a world of opportunities waiting to be explored. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Export marketing, Featured, Newfoundland and Labrador, Search engine optimization - SEO, Small business, Website design

7 Of the Best SEO Tools [Guest post]

July 20, 2012 By 8 Comments

'Tools Check' photo (c) 2011, Ktow - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/Author Bio: Stuart McHenry is the President of McKremie an Internet Marketing Company that focuses on attorney marketing.

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Search Engine Optimization is basically how you’re going to get most of your traffic. Without any efficient or proper search engine optimization, then your website will just collect virtual dust and no one will ever see your company or services. While the dream of just making a website and the money flowing in is fun to think about, this isn’t anywhere close to reality. The reality is if you want your website to make it on the web and you want your website to get a ton of visitors without spending a ton of money, you’re going to have to apply proper search engine optimization techniques.

Tools are the best way to do this. Why work hard when you can work smart and achieve the same results? There are tools out there to help automate keyword research, link building and site improvements overall. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Search engine optimization - SEO, Small business, Software Tagged With: , , ,

Top 40 questions to help optimize your Website design

March 21, 2012 By 3 Comments

'Question the Answers' photo (c) 2009, walknboston - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/You’re planning or maybe redesigning your Website, and you want it to be great. Not just look great, but be great at bringing in new business, or raising awareness of your big issue, or helping you accomplish whatever your primary objective is.

Ummm… you do know what your Website’s primary objective is, right?

Here are 40 questions to help you create a Website that will indeed be effective, no matter what your ultimate goals may be. And remember that it can be easy to pop out quick answers, but that won’t always give you the insights and direction you really need. So the more time you take to really think through your answers as you ask yourself these questions, the more effective your Website will be. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blogging, Featured, Marketing strategy, Search engine optimization - SEO, Small business, Social media, Technology, Website design Tagged With: , , , , ,

Do you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur?

March 19, 2012 By 7 Comments

'explorer_2006_0055.jpg' photo (c) 2006, Will Brown - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/EDIT: Within a few minutes of publishing this post, I received some great input from contacts on LinkedIn and Google+, as well as by Skype, email and the comments below. Thanks to each of you! I have now updated this post to reflect your suggestions, rather than have two versions floating around. So while you will now actually be reading my second draft, please still feel free to add any suggestions; I’m more than happy to write a third!

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I have been asked to speak at a local high school tomorrow for their Career Day. My topic… being an entrepreneur. Looking forward to it; I always enjoy giving a presentation, and the realities of being an entrepreneur definitely hit home for me, since I’ve been one since 1989.

As I’ve been getting ready, the following just kind of fell into place. This is obviously not meant to be all-inclusive; I’m just trying to give them a more rounded understanding of things to consider about being an entrepreneur.

Knowing me, I’ll change this 300 times between now and tomorrow morning, but here’s my first second draft, spelling crimes and all. I’d love your thoughts on this, especially if you’ve been down the entrepreneurial path… [Read more...]

Filed Under: Self-improvement, Small business Tagged With: , ,

Five ways to market with blogging and social media.

January 20, 2012 By 2 Comments

'handshake' photo (c) 2003, buddawiggi - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/Sales are built on trust and relationships. If we believe something does what we want and the price is right, we’ll buy it. On the other hand, if we don’t think the ingredients are safe or we just don’t believe it’s going to work, we won’t buy. And if we don’t like or trust the person selling it or representing it in a commercial, we almost certainly won’t buy. Trust is big.

To address this reality, companies often rely on trusted celebrities or word of mouth to increase sales. If we hear someone we trust say they like a product, we transfer our trust from that person to the product. A big company might be lying just to increase sales. But would Mom? The guy next door who knows cars inside out? Beyonce? No way they’d lie. We believe them, and we therefore believe in the products they recommend.

That’s where blogging and social media can come into play.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Blogging, Facebook, Featured, Marketing strategy, Small business, Social media, Twitter Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

SEO for Newfoundland and Labrador companies

January 11, 2012 By 5 Comments

'Sunset on St John's harbour' photo (c) 2011, Emmanuel Milou - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/Somewhere in St. John’s, a management team is wondering about search engine optimization. As they consider the coming year and their forays into new markets, some important questions rise up:

  • Can SEO help them take their Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) company into global markets?
  • Can their company that has until now only played on the local stage suddenly start showing up on search engine result pages in the United States or England, or wherever their new market is?
  • Is SEO really a strategic marketing direction to pursue, or should they focus in other areas?
  • If they do decide to trust SEO, exactly what should they do to make it as work as well as possible?

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Blogging, Export marketing, Featured, Marketing strategy, Newfoundland and Labrador, Search engine optimization - SEO, Small business, Social media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

5 ways to make your New Year’s Resolutions stick!

January 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment

'Fireworks' photo (c) 2006, Chris - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/I’m a fan of New Year’s Resolutions, whether for marketing a small business or being a Dad or just staying healthy. I like the idea of trying to be better. So it’s always a bit disappointing when the topic comes up, and 90% of the people in the room say they don’t even bother making resolutions any more.

Whether you make resolutions or not, it’s never too late to try, and to revisit ones that have drifted and get them back on track. Here are five ways to make New Year’s Resolutions, and make ‘em stick! [Read more...]

Filed Under: General, Self-improvement, Small business Tagged With: , , , , ,

Your marketing sucks? Make sure it’s all your fault.

January 4, 2012 By 3 Comments

'Point!' photo (c) 2007, a2gemma - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/Like the rest of us, you probably hate to be blamed. For anything. If something goes wrong, you’re thinking “I didn’t do that!” That’s normal. But what’s easy to miss when there’s trouble is that it’s often best when it is your fault.

Whether in business or at home, being at fault for big failures is of course no fun. Investors have nothing nice to say. Your kids pretend they don’t know you. For Sale signs appear on your neighbors’ lawn. Or yours. But if you really want to fix your problems rather than just avoid some blame, there’s nothing better than knowing that you’re the one at fault, because then you can figure out precisely what went wrong, and can better make the changes you need.

Let’s face some facts: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Marketing strategy, Self-improvement, Small business Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Why you haven’t gone viral. And why you won’t.

December 28, 2011 By 4 Comments

Viral marketing may be fun to watch, but using it for your marketing is another story.“We’ve got a viral marketing strategy. We’ll get our message out there in the marketplace and make it go viral, and then we’ll build on that.”

I don’t like to shoot down client’s “strategies,” but I wouldn’t be much of a social media consultant if I let comments like those go unchallenged. For most companies, trying to create something that will go viral is far more time consuming than generating a valid and targeted “conventional” social media marketing strategy, and unless extremely well planned, is much less likely to generate any sales at all. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Marketing strategy, Small business, Social media, YouTube Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Social media for Newfoundland and Labrador companies

December 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment

'Queen's Battery 4' photo (c) 2007, miguelb - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/Social media can give Newfoundland and Labrador companies a world of new opportunity.

Marketing strategies have stated for as far back as any of us can remember that the key to long-term success is the building of stable relationships. People like to buy from people they like. Companies like to buy from companies that not only deliver the products and service they need, but also reduce their risks. The more peace of mind a supplier can deliver, the greater piece of market share they can expect to win.

Social media helps NL companies build relationships

This importance of relationships has always been a great challenge to any small business trying to enter new markets. Imagine a company from Newfoundland showing up in a new city or country, bringing with it no known reputation, no local customers, and no local established presence. From that starting point it would try to convince potential clients to trust them over local suppliers that had been earning their trust for years. Many of those suppliers would have sales reps who would be on a first-name basis with their buyers and who would regularly be seen at the baseball park or in a grocery store or church. While it can be done, it’s hard to work against competitors with that level of relationship to build trust and confidence with prospects who have never heard of you. Happily, social media makes it possible to start building relationships and reputations in markets anywhere in the world. even while still sitting at a computer in Newfoundland and Labrador. [Read more...]

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Filed Under: Blogging, Facebook, Featured, LinkedIn, Marketing strategy, Newfoundland and Labrador, Search engine marketing - SEM, Search engine optimization - SEO, Small business, Social media, Twitter Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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