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Hype or Benefits with Service: Where is the ROI?

 

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One of the most common statements used when selling Internet Marketing is “We can drive traffic to your website!”. This is a true statement – if all you want is traffic. Is it qualified traffic though? It would be like dropping off a bus load of kids under the age of 16 at a car dealership. The dealership would have a lot of people (traffic) in it; but really not quite qualified to buy any cars. If all you are getting is traffic, then there is no real ROI – just a bunch of traffic. Continue reading

The Game – It’s Always Changing

Marketing. It has become a “game changer” that is causing businesses to either embrace it or run from it.

Back before the internet era, it was so much easier to market your stuff. You placed your ad in the newspaper and sales were made; you created a jiggle for the local radio station  and you ruled; you went way out and used the local TV networks to run ad campaigns – you became the king, and the yellow pages – a must!  All this worked over the years, and worked very well. Why did it work? Simply because nothing ever really changed in the way you communicated through these venues.

Today marketing can tend to be a bit chaotic. There is so much chatter going on about internet marketing. There are people making statements like -  “this is all you need” or “we can put you on the first page of a search” or “for a 1000 plus links and you will rise to the top”. These statements all fall under what I call “Truisms”.  What’s a truism? Well, these statements are are kind of right and kind of wrong at the same time.  The reason I say this?  Internet marketing changes almost daily; search engines are notorious for making changes in how they do things; and the social media platforms – they move, change, rename or delete things just because they can. With these continual changes you may be on top today, then at the bottom in the blink of an eye.
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Backlinks: Good or Bad?

You have probably gotten an email or two, or phone calls telling you how you can be on the first page of Google! Get your 1000+ backlinks for only “X amount of dollars” and watch your website climb to the top of the search.

This statement used to be somewhat true until Google made changes a few months ago. Penguin. Penguin is a change in Google’s algorithm, not a penalty. When it’s a change in the algorithm, it affects ALL websites, not a singled out site. This update has pretty much killed buying links as a strategy to get your website ranked high in a Google search. Don’t get me wrong, backlinks are good AND necessary in your Internet Marketing Strategy. Continue reading

Branded… Are you?


Internet Marketing Branded

Have you ever ask yourself, “Is my company branded?” If you’re not you need to be, and pretty darn quick.

Here are a couple quick and simple things you can do to find out if you are branded or to find out how effective your branding is.

  •  You’re at a networking event… it’s time for the door prize drawings – and your business card is pulled – do you hear the crowd say you name or company name before they call your name out?
  •   When you go out to a business event and introduce yourself to a stranger – do they say, I have heard about you?  If either of these have happened to you, then you know that you are successfully branding yourself and your company. Congratulations! If not, you need to start fine tuning your branding efforts.

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Social Media Policy – Is Your’s in Place?

As Social Media is more and more becoming an important tool in your Internet Marketing and SEO strategy – you need to wrap your arms around not only how it can benefit your brand awareness, but also on how it can hurt.

While this isn’t a new issue, it IS an important one!

Do you know what your employees are saying about you or your company on the different Social Media Platforms? Is there a way to protect yourself?

Even if your company hasn’t embraced Social Media yet, chances are your employees are there. It’s imperative that you have some sort of Social Media Policy in place with guidelines to protect your company reputation. Continue reading

Lost and Found? Where are you?

Where does your website reside in Google, Yahoo and Bing’s vast databases?  When people search for your services or products, are you one of the lucky few that show up on the first few pages of the search engines?

When people go to the web to find services or products, more so than not – they will only look at the first few pages and contact one or two of the companies they find in those first few pages. So…if you are not on the first few pages in a search, you are considered lost – you may never be found.

Your website competition is at an all time high. There are always those top companies that play king of the hill with the search engines always showing up in the top 10 positions.

We decided to do a quick study – to show you what you are up against. We have compiled a list of keywords people use when searching locally. You may be surprised with the numbers of websites using the same keywords.  Do a generic search on your industry?  How many other websites are you competing against? I know we were shocked to see that “website design Tampa” has 34,100 results and just “website design” has 119,000,000 results.

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Facebook…Are You Engaging?


Out of curiousity… are the Social Media platforms helping your business?  Are your “peeps” that like your Facebook business page, engaging with you?

I have been browsing around quite a few Facebook business pages, only to see so many small businesses putting a lot of effort into their posting – however, with very little response from those following them. We find this sometimes with ours as well…so trust me, you’re not alone.

I asked myself why?

What can we (you and I) do differently, that will open our pages up to make others want to engage / comment?  I set off to do some research and experimenting.  What I have found is that those who have posted on our business FaceBook page are the ones that I have built some type of relationship with – ones that I have engaged on their business page – both as myself and as CF Webs. The pages that I just “lurk” around, do the same to me.

hmmmm…… got me to thinking what if you and I: Continue reading

Nip & Tuck

Several days ago, I attended a “girlie glam party” with a couple of my friends. It had been years since the last time I allowed myself to just let go, and let someone else be the creator of my image.  I went to this thing, not because I thought I needed a makeover but I did it because a friend’s daughter was in town, and needed subjects to practice on.

Boy – was I ever wrong! I DID need that makeover. I was treated to a new haircut and color as well as a new “today” look for my makeup. I feel like a million dollars – and my confidence level soared!

I know, you’re asking me – and you’re telling me this because??

Let me explain. As I reflected about the change it made in how I felt I presented myself in front of others, it made me think about one’s website – and how a few minor or subtle changes, can make a difference in how you present your business to the world.

Far fetch?  Not at all!

As creatures of habit, we allow ourselves to become stagnant – just like we allow our websites to do the same thing. We don’t invest in making the changes needed in order to keep current with the times. As visitors come to visit our websites, they see the same old outdated look with nothing new to read. They may come back a time or 2 to see if anything has changed – then stop coming all together. Once they stop coming, you’ve lost that potential client. Continue reading

Authenticity in the Workplace

In order for CF Web Professionals to “grow”, I found it was necessary for me to embark on some of my own growth through personal development . Nothing worse than your company growing and expanding around you while you are sitting stagnant with the same “small thoughts”.

Time to take action…

I decided it was time for me to call “Coach Maggie” of Called to Action, and go to a workshop she was presenting called The Path. This was a full day “boot-camp” with other like minded women.  One of our goals was to create a personal mission statement for ourselves. (I highly recommend this workshop to ALL business owners, as well as their employees – I got so much out of it).

My mission statement is:

“Embrace, Demonstrate & Inspire Authenticity in the Marketplace”.
Now the challenge is, how do I live out and accomplish my mission? Continue reading