Outsourcing Your Web Marketing? Should You Hire An Employee or A Company?

Today we are going to talk about whether your business should hire a brand new employee or a web marketing firm to handle your business’ web marketing.

If you are thinking about making a decision as big as this, you definitely want to keep reading as we address three critical components to making the best decision for your business.

Outsource or Hire For Your Web Marketing: Point One- Your Time

If you are thinking of delegating your web marketing, odds are, you don’t have a lot of time.

When it comes to hiring a new employee, you have to create a job description, have to screen applicants, spend time interviewing; and when you finally hire someone you have to train them! So it is a significant time commitment on your part for hiring a new employee.

In terms of hiring a web marketing company, they are often good to go when you are and require a much smaller time commitment on your part to get them up and running and working hard for your business.

Outsource or Hire For Your Web Marketing: Point Two- Your Money

Now let’s talk about money!

In terms of the investment that you are making, sometimes people think, “hey, I can hire this person and they can do all kinds of other things including my web marketing and it will be a great return on investment!”.

Yes, that’s true, but employees, at least in Canada, cost quite a bit, so you need to be paying out CPP, EI, stat holidays as well as sick pay. That is a lot of time that adds up to not a lot of productivity in terms of what you are paying for.

Web marketing firms obviously don’t need to be paid CPP, so there is a lot of cost savings there.

running and working hard for your business.

Outsource or Hire For Your Web Marketing: Point Three- Results

The third component you should consider is expertise and results.

A web marketing firm will often have case studies, proven methodologies and have already made their mistakes as they have been years in the business.

Where as your new hire may not have that level of experience and as a result they are making those mistakes with your brand online for the world to see.

In conclusion, as the old saying goes, if you think hiring an expert is expensive, try hiring an amateur!

 

Now it’s your turn! Let us know in the comments below what you think!

Have you hired or outsourced your web marketing? What has been your experience?

And- if you like this tip, don’t forget to subscribe to our You Tube channel and never miss a tip.

Consumer Alert! 5 Regrets You’ll Have Web Marketing With The Yellow Book Co.

Today we are going to talk about the 5 regrets you’ll have if you buy web marketing with the big yellow book company.

So if you are thinking about it, you definitely want to watch this video as it will give you some tips on how to avoid buyers remorse.

The number one reason you  don’t want to do your web marketing with the big yellow book company is it doesn’t make very much sense.

If I’m looking for a provider, I go to Google and type in what I’m looking for, for example, pizza, and then I select from the providers that are shown from Google;  I don’t then go and click on yellowpages.ca just to begin my search all over again.

So number one, it doesn’t make very much sense, you need to be in front of the people who are looking for what you offer, and yellowpages.ca simply just doesn’t do that.

Number two, they don’t really have that much experience do they?

NO! Up until a few years ago they were selling big yellow books, and now they’re doing web marketing? They don’t have years and years of technical experience to back their offer. They are simply capitalizing on increased demand for web marketing and consulting services.

Number three! No service!

If you’ve ever tried to get ahold of your numbered representative, you know its very difficult. Getting quality service from someone who actually cares at a large corporation is never easy.

Plus, numbered representatives tend to leave and work elsewhere so it is very difficult for this company to be accountable to you and the dollars that you are spending with them.

Number Four-No ownership!

You may not know this, but if you are getting a website from the big yellow book company, you don’t actually own it, you are leasing it.

What that means is, in order to keep that website up and your domain name up, you need to continue to pay them year after year and you cannot switch providers and keep your website or your domain name.

Number Five- No accountability!

Say you get zero results and you are angry.

Well, you can rant and rave and you can complain and you know they will not give you your money back.

Also, no matter of negative reviews online is going to impact their business in anyway.

They are not a local, small business owner that cares about their community and cares about maintaining a positive reputation.

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Your turn! Tell us in the comments below what your opinion is.

Have you tried marketing with the big yellow book company? What was your experience?

 

 

Happy Holidays

Please note our holiday hours are as follows:

We’re closed from December 24-28, Open December the 29, 30, Closed January 31-2.

All ongoing marketing services will continue throughout the holiday, but we will be unavailable for emails and appointments when we’re closed.

 

How “Busy” Can Ruin Your Business

busy-ruins-businessWhen running your own business it is easy to get caught up in the day-to-day management, operation, and tedious tasks. Entrepreneurs generally love to create. This is why they are drawn to creating and running their own business in the first place. Unfortunately, far too often they find themselves working “in” the business instead of working “on” the business.

This is an easy trap to fall into. When starting up one’s own business, entrepreneurs take on a sink or swim mentality. They have to go from zero to sixty in no time flat so that the bills are paid and food is on the table. Unfortunately, this is how the trap begins. Entrepreneurs take on more and more work so that they swim and not sink, but eventually the tide turns and all of a sudden they are drowning. This is where a lot of entrepreneurs find themselves, if they’re lucky, in that they have too much business and not enough time.

Now, this may sound like a great problem to have. They’re making money and doing well. However, eventually something will begin to nag at them. It’s that old feeling of wanting to create, wanting to improve, that they will find missing again. Busy-ness robs them of their creative time and energy, which is why they started their own business in the first place. And this is exactly why it needs to be avoided.

Here are four additional reasons why we need to avoid busy:

No Time for Reflection

Sometimes we need to take a step back and ask ourselves what has been working and what hasn’t? What tasks in your business have you grown to love, and which ones do you avoid at all costs? Are there areas in your business to improve or change?

If you don’t take the time to reflect you can’t answer these questions, and you can’t adjust your path accordingly. Time for reflection is necessary to ensure you and your business stay successful.

No Time for Experimentation

Have you ever taken the time to ask yourself what you can do to be more efficient? What skills do you want to expand on? What one thing could you do to add value to your company?

Making time to adjust, experiment, and record results is imperative to innovation and growth. Without it you and your business become stale. Give yourself time to experiment with new ideas and exercise that creativity.

No Time for Learning

When was the last time you were able to sit down and read that latest news on your industry? Or read the latest book or publication by someone in the business that you admire? What about taking an online or in-person course to expand your skills? Or even reaching out to a mentor to meet for a coffee?

Taking time to learn is critical for all human beings, not just entrepreneurs. It expands our world, allowing new thoughts, new ideas, new skills to enter our atmosphere. This, in turn, leads to innovation and experimentation. Both of which have already been mentioned for their importance to our business.

No Time for Implementing New Efficiencies

Have you ever wanted to improve your internal processes? What about offering new products and services to your client base? Or even keeping time open for yourself so that you can learn, experiment, create, go to the gym, or spend time with your family?

If we’re so caught up in the day-to-day operation of our business we forget about making time for these things. We forget about the importance of continuous improvement and quality of life. Shouldn’t these two things hold priority in our lives? It’s a good question to ask yourself.

Being too busy is a problem. It drains your energy and takes you back to a place of surviving the grind instead of creating your life. All entrepreneurs and business owners need to make sure they are creating space for themselves. This is how their business will grow and improve.

Crafting a Practical SEO Strategy

Every business owner should know something about search engine optimization (SEO), even if it’s just the name.

internet marketing how to

But not everybody knows where to start when it comes to crafting a practical and effective SEO strategy.

Any SEO strategy hoping to succeed begins way before the website design has even started and never really ends.

Here are 3 practical steps to crafting an SEO strategy:

SEO Strategy Step 1: Know your objectives, know your audience

Before you begin planning your SEO strategy, you need to really define what you’re trying to achieve with your website.

What is the real objective of your site? What do you want your website visitors to do once you have them there?

Once you know this, you need to identify who your audience is going to be in order to know how to entice them. What do they do? What do they like? What don’t they like? How old are they? Where are they located? Where do they hang out online?

With this information gathered, you can combine it with your primary objective to come up with a secondary one: getting these people to visit your site.

SEO Strategy Step 2: On and off-site SEO

The single most important part of your on-site SEO is going to be the quality of your content, and you will live or die by the keywords used in that.

They are going to have to be relevant to how your target audience will find you, relevant to your site itself, and with a high enough search volume to make it worthwhile to use the keywords.

Much of the rest of your on-site SEO strategy is going to follow the same formula that everyone does: making sure every title, page, image, URL, text snippet, and anything else is optimized for your target audience to find you.

Where you will need to get a little creative is with the off-site SEO strategy.

This is all about getting the word out and earning the links back.

Contacting and building relationships with peers, commenting on relevant blog posts and forums, offering guest blogs on authority sites in return for links back to your own, and having a high quality social media presence are all ways to improve your off-site SEO.

The fun part is identifying what is likely to work and what isn’t. Which authority sites are receptive to guest bloggers? Which have the more open-minded audience, willing to give somewhere new a minute or two of their time?

Is the older, recipe and interior decoration Pinterest crowd better for your niche or the younger coffee shop hipsters on Instagram?

SEO Strategy Step 3: Monitoring and tracking your engagement

So having made sure all of the above has been carried out to the absolute best it could have been, you’ve now got traffic coming out of your ears.

Or maybe just a steady trickle.

Either way, you need to know where your traffic is coming from and what it’s doing on your site. Using Google Analytics lets you monitor all of this information, providing great insight into where you can still improve. And you can always improve.

Monitoring how changes affect your site, utilizing split testing techniques, and keeping an eye on what the more successful of your competitors are doing right is all part of an ongoing SEO strategy too.

From before the beginning to the end that never comes

A great SEO strategy treats a website like a mother does a baby.

Really.

The planning begins well before the birth, and the care and attention never ends.

What Is Search Engine Optimization?

Today let’s talk about Search Engine Optimization and how to do it!

If you’ve ever wondered how some businesses are on page one of google search, and you’d like to be there yourself…keep reading!

Search Engine Optimization is the process by which you optimize your website to rank highly on the search engines, like Google.

To get high rankings on search engines, I’ve outlined a three step process below!

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Step One- Keyword Analysis:

The first thing that you want to do is go to the Google Keyword Planning tool (sign up if you don’t have an account already) and type in what you think that your future clients might be typing into Google.

They will generate a whole bunch of keywords for you and tell you how many people are actually searching for what you think they are searching for.

Search Engine Optimization Step Two: Optimize Your Website Text

Next make sure you have the right keywords and you start using them on your website- this is called On-Site Search Engine Optimization.

Once you identify what keywords your target market is actually searching for, then you can go ahead and start using those words in your website text.

Make sure you have a frequently asked questions page that addresses questions that people may be typing into Google and make sure your services pages have those words in the actual text there.

Search Engine Optimization Step Three: Update Your Website Frequently

The second thing you want to do is absolutely make sure you are updating your website on a frequent basis, the more frequent the better.

For best SEO results, I recommend updating your website once a week if you can.

Post a blog post, talking about those keywords; addressing the questions your future clients may have and  are actually typing into Google.

Search Engine Optimization Step Three: Integrate with Social Media

Thirdly, make sure your website is engaging and actually addressing things people care about and is integrated into social media.

Statistics are showing the more engagement you are getting on social actually on your website, contributes to where you rank on Google, more specifically use of Google+.

OK, I’ve followed these 3 steps, Now What?

If you’re serious about getting on google or optimizing your website so it shows up higher on the search rankings, you need to get a Google Analytics account.

Your web developer can set one up for you as well- but once you’re logged in, on the left hand site you will see a section for Social which shows how socially integrated your site is, where your social traffic is coming from.

Google Analytics will also show you where your site is ranking, what terms people use to get to your website and lots of other great information about how your website is performing.

That is your one minute tip! If you liked it, please share and don’t forget to subscribe to our Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCurxTLa0XxIvJowi6HuhpUw

 

New! Mobile Marketing Services

It’s with great excitement we’re announcing the launch of our Mobile Marketing Service!

Mobile, or SMS Marketing is powerful as a standalone or combined with any other digital marketing service.

photoWhy use mobile marketing?

  • 98% of text messages are opened.
  • 90% of text messages are read within 3 minutes of being delivered.
  • 70% of people would like to receive text coupons from their favourite businesses

Those are powerful indicators of customer engagement. Especially when you consider email open rates are about 22%.

Imagine having hundreds if not thousands of people who want to get SMS messages from you!

Uses for Mobile Marketing:

  • Send Coupons, Promotions & Special Offers
  • Use Mobile Punch Cards For Loyalty Programs
  • Run Contests
  • Conduct Surveys
  • Send Listing Info for Properties or Vehicles For Sale.
  • Appointment Reminder Service

 

Try mobile marketing for yourself and save!
text “webme” to 71441 to get a coupon from us for 50% off website updates. *limited time offer expires Jan 15th 2015.

Common Questions About Mobile Marketing For Business:

How does mobile marketing with you work?

Contact us to set you up. There are no yearly contracts- just month to month! You get your own online mobile marketing dashboard where you can manage your campaigns yourself, or we’ll do it for you for no extra cost!

Mobile marketing set up:

First, pick a keyword you would like to use ie: pizza” which will be what people message you to opt in. In this case: “text pizza to 71441 for 2 free toppings”

The people who opt in can then receive coupons or promotions from you via text.

Mobile marketing integration:

Or, you can offer people to opt in to your lists through several different methods- a QR code, an opt in form like the one below that you can use on your website, or the text keyword mode described above.

*Mobile Number:
First Name:
Email:
Standard Message and Data Rates Apply.
Customer Support: info@thenewmediagroup.ca
At anytime you can text to 71441 the word ‘HELP‘ to
get more information or ‘STOP‘ to cancel your account.
Message frequency depends on account settings
Terms of Service | Privacy Policy

Mobile marketing ongoing campaigns:

Each package comes with a set number of keywords and messages you can send each month- it’s works a lot like your package with your phone company, but there is a mobile marketing package for every business budget.

It’s recommended to send out one message per week in the beginning until you get a feel for what’s working and if you should increase or decrease the frequency of your messages.

What if someone wants to opt out of getting mobile messages from my business?

We are fully compliant with FTC and Canada spam legislation. If someone doesn’t want to get mobile marketing messages from you they can simply text Stop and will be opted out immediately.

How much does it cost to start mobile marketing for my business?

It’s really affordable- basic packages start at under $69 a month.

Contact Us Today to Get Started!

Can I try Mobile Marketing first and see if I like it?

Sure you can!

Text “webme” to 71441 to get opted-in to our list- you can see for yourself how easy it is PLUS what a mobile coupon looks like, and how you find the experience.

Or, you can scan this QR code below to get a different coupon off your first mobile marketinQRCodeg package:

You can also opt in with the web form below- these can be added to any website or even Facebook!

 

*Mobile Number:
First Name:
Email:
Standard Message and Data Rates Apply.
Customer Support: info@thenewmediagroup.ca
At anytime you can text to 71441 the word ‘HELP‘ to
get more information or ‘STOP‘ to cancel your account.
Message frequency depends on account settings
Terms of Service | Privacy Policy

 

The 7 Things Your New Web Design MUST Do To Be Worth Your Money

Today we are going to make sure your brand new web site design is going to be effective!

…before you sign on the dotted line and commit to spending a whole bunch of money!

The very first thing you want to verify is that your new website is going to be mobile compatible– that your new web design is resizing and easy to use on mobile devices like smart phones and tablets.

Secondly, you want to ensure that your website is going to be integrated with social media.

So even if you don’t use social media yourself, you want to enable the people on your website to share your website amongst their peers across the social networks; this just gets you more visibility.

Make sure your website is professionally written for a number of reasons The first to make sure it actually resonates with your target audience and best explains why you are the best choice to solve your customers problem.

Also, you want to make sure that text is search optimized. If it is written for a search engine, you will increase the odds that you get ranking on search engines like Google and show up when people are searching for what you sell.

You want to also make sure your brand new website has the ability to blog which allows you to update your website on a constant basis, making sure that people who are visiting your site are getting a great experience and again, increasing your odds of the search engines ranking you highly.

You want to make sure you have some sort of uptime guarantee. You don’t want your website to be “not found” or broken when people type it in so its very important to check that out.

Also make sure your website is actually going to be owned by your business. That the intellectual property is transferred to your company as soon as you make your final payment.

Last but not least, make sure your website has a lead capture form so people can contact you and you can get their information if they are interested in your products and services. And then continue to nurture that relationship!