Keeping up with the changes of the internet is an ongoing challenge for most people, especially business owners with an online presence. Google’s recent announcement about a new change to its ranking algorithm will not make it any easier. The search engine giant has announced that its new ranking algorithm will now take “freshness” into account when displaying results for queries. So what exactly does that mean? With the emergence of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, information spreads within seconds, making day-old or week-old results a thing of the past. Google’s new algorithm will now also display news results, ...

Direct mail campaigns are a powerful tool in your marketing arsenal. Using them wisely can bring in new business, build customer loyalty and expand your brand awareness beyond other types of advertising. While they are one of the oldest marketing tools, direct mail campaigns require more than just sending out a postcard to a mailing list. Here are five pitfalls to avoid. Using a Bad Mailing List Today’s data hygiene services have advanced data tracking tools to ensure that mailing lists are up to date.  While reputable companies may charge you a chunk for a quality mailing list, it’s worth the extra dollars ...

Your website is a gold mine of information. Taking the time to understand visitor behavior is monumental in helping you improve your website to offer exactly what your visitors want. Google Analytics, a free tool from Google, allows you to see what led visitors to your website and what they did on your website. Following are seven important pieces of information Google Analytics provides you with that can help you maximize the potential of your website and overall online presence. If you don’t currently have Google Analytics installed, make sure to do it today. Nature of Traffic Your website is an important piece ...

Just like cars, there are a variety of tests you can run to evaluate your site’s performance.  Although they may seem simple, they can provide a lot of useful information that may help you discover and fix problems with your website. Here are five crucial performance tests your website should pass. 1. Loading Speed Test High-speed internet connections and overall demand for faster connections make a fast loading speed a must.  If your website takes too long to load, visitors may abandon your site all together.  Don’t know your website’s loading time?  There are a variety of free web tools, such as pingdom.com, ...

Direct mail campaigns are one of the oldest methods of marketing. However, old doesn’t equal ineffective. The way we market our businesses has changed radically in the past five years. If you recently sent out a direct mail campaign and had little success, it’s probably because you are still using old tactics. Create a successful direct mail campaign by following some of these tips. They are sure to increase response rates! Customize and Personalize We all receive dozens of pieces of mail in our mailboxes each and everyday. How does your direct mail piece stand out from everything else? To avoid a ...

    Sure, the digital age is upon us. We read our newspapers online, pay our bills online and create online photo albums. So why bother printing, especially if you are a business? Because print drives your business. Regardless of your particular niche, print materials are necessary to build brand awareness, attract new customers and create a polished and professional image of your business. Here are a five ways print drives your business. Signage If no one can find you because you lack signage, it’s a problem.  A prominent sign on your door or windows is the number one way to attract passersby. Window cling ...

Most business owners assume that their work is done when their marketing campaign is out the door. Wrong! Successful businesses know that unleashing marketing campaigns are only one step in the process to increasing web traffic and sales. The next step is analyzing how your campaign is doing against your expected outcome. Keeping constant track of your marketing campaigns helps you to refine and maintain high output for lead generation. So how does Google Analytics fit in? Google Analytics is a free online tool designed to help you keep track of the traffic that comes in, and out, of your website. You ...

These days it’s pretty easy to get overly focused on implementing your pay-per-click campaigns and completely forget about doing the search strategy and planning. However it’s critical to keep an eye on the big picture and all the steps involved to it. Planning cannot be understated especially when it’s so easy to go astray. Here are a few key points to help you reassess your PPC campaign and get it back on track. • Target Market – Be sure you understand what your target markets interests and preferences are and how your search program is going to reach them. It’s ...

Having a corporate website is an essential part of extending the reach of your business. But having a website is only half of the equation. Getting people to visit your website is the other half of the equation for online success. This, however, can be a daunting task, especially if you have just recently launched your website. So how do you drive traffic to your corporate website? While there is no simple recipe for increasing traffic to your website, there are many different things that you can do to slowly, and surely, boost the number of unique visitors ...

Evaluating your website with a critical eye is one of the best things a small business owner can do. Your website is one of the most powerful assets you have so it’s important to make sure it’s working with you instead of against you. Take the time to look over your website, or better yet have an unbiased friend do so, and ask yourself these 10 questions. An honest answer will help evaluate your website and put you on the track to making it even better. 1. What do you see first? – The first impression is the most critical. Are you ...

As the digital age advances, it’s hard to believe that print media is still a worthwhile endeavor. Between PPC ads, corporate blogs and social media strategies, it may be easy to think that online marketing alone is sufficient to grow a business. As effective as online marketing campaigns can be, no business should dismiss print media as part of their overall marketing strategy. Print media is still an important piece of the marketing puzzle. Here is why: •Print is Portable – Even with laptops and smart phones, print media still retains the ultimate portability. It’s available everywhere and to everyone, ...

Staying connected with old customers and reaching out to new customers is key to building strong relationships and brand loyalty.  The crucial task is to find a cost-effective way to do it.  E-mail marketing is a powerful marketing tool that is pocketbook friendly and highly effective.  Below are ten reasons that have turned e-mail marketing into the powerful marketing tool it is. Cost Effective Forget about envelopes or postage fees.  A key benefit of using e-mail marketing as part of your marketing strategy is its low cost.  With monthly fees starting at $20 or less, sending an e-mail newsletter to ...