Alberta Business Marketing

There is a new book available that every entrepreneur and SoHo (Small office home office) owner should read.    It is called Marketing Right Now.

You should not confuse it with the book featured on the right.  That book may never be on the shelves of your local bookstore, although there is an undoubted need for such a book.  What we are talking about here is an e-book.

The correct title does not include that last For Winners phrase, but be assured that what is included can make your business a winner.  The e-book is available as a free download. 

Although it naturally deals with how to do business on the Internet, the most interesting sections deal with the important steps you should take before you get close to creating a Web page.  If you are to succeed, then you must have a clear strategy.

Some people treat the concept of strategy in a somewhat cavalier fashion. Perhaps without realizing it, you are one of these people.  You can easily check whether you have a clear strategy by answering the following three questions:

1. What marketing niche will my product or service target?  (What does a typical prospect of look like?)
2. Who are the strongest competitors going after these same prospects?
3. How will my product or service offer a superior experience to my target prospects?

Do not feel bad if any of these three questions stump you.  There are a significant number of businesses owners who would be similarly stumped.

As you may note, the concepts discussed here seem to be getting attention from some very important commentators.  Strategy is challenging because it defines what you will put efforts and resources into and what you will not allow yourself to be diverted by.  This single-minded focus is not easy to achieve and many people almost goof-off in doing whatever comes to mind as they try to grow their business.

This e-book puts the emphasis on this first step of strategy.  That starts with the potential customers you feel your business might serve.  You must be capable of creating a product or service that they will find superior to what the competition is offering.

You can of course sometimes make a reasonable living by having a me-too product or service.  However the Internet is a real threat to such merely adequate suppliers.  Buyers can explore what is available and they will undoubtedly go for the best they can find.

Two important operational details are also emphasized.  If you put Time as Job One, then this can give you an almost instant competitive advantage.  You must also have good communications with your prospects and clients on a continuing basis.  That implies an effective blog.  Without it your business will be hard pressed to grow as it should.

Since the e-book is a free download, it is almost a no-brainer to check it out for yourself.  The e-book itself is a one megabyte PDF file so please be patient when you get to that step.

We welcome feedback on the e-book since this would allow a revision of the contents at some time in the future.  Please add your comments here.  They will be most welcome.

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Marketing Right Now For Winners

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Tags: blog, Business, Competitive advantage, Entrepreneur, job one, Small Business, Time
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Thanks for the numerous emails asking if I am OK.  I am still here.

This week has been very busy with Ulistic, lots of great stuff happening with those we serve.  We are full swing into our Calgary Social Media training this week plus we are getting ready to announce our Calgary Search Engine Optimization training on March 18.

You can register if you are interested by visiting the Ulistic Calgary Search Engine Optimization Workshop page.  Learn how to do your own Search Engine Optimization.  David and I will share all of our tricks with you.

Tags: Business, Calgary, Computing, Internet Marketing, Optimization, Program optimization, search engine, search engine optimization, Stuart's ramblings, World Wide Web
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It is not very often you hear about a political party being willing to rethink all of its policies and principles. Somehow in the process of moulding themselves into representing what the majority of citizens want, these core ideals that formed the initial impetus for the creation of the party – sometimes decades old and potentially out of date or irrelevant – escape scrutiny. I believe in order to really affect change, we must all be willing to take a deep look inside ourselves to find what flaws may be holding us back. Without doing this, and examining our principles, we would really just be rearranging the deck chairs (policies) on an extremely poorly designed ship that runs the risk of sinking if it were to innocently graze an iceberg.

This is why I have to applaud the Alberta Party. After decades of near irrelevance, the party has lifted up its eyes and has publicly stated it is willing to temporarily suspend its policy document to entertain if there may be a better way.

In case you haven’t heard yet, the Alberta Party, which has been in existence since 1985, last month began having conversations with a group of political upstarts calling themselves Renew Alberta. The culmination of those discussions resulted in an announcement this past week of a “merger” between the two groups.

I know several of the Albertans involved in Renew Alberta. The one thing they share in common, is a passion to find a better path toward creating a better Alberta. While they, like the Liberals, Wildrose Alliance and Alberta NDP, believe we deserve a better government, what really sets them apart is their belief that there must be a more participatory form of democracy in our province. Their focus is not so much on what the other parties are doing, as it is on the 60% of Albertans that did not vote and those of the remaining 40% that felt their vote really didn’t matter. Engagement can be a powerful thing – and it something that the majority of Albertans obviously don’t feel.

The enthusiasm and work ethic of the Renew Alberta people is admirable. As is the vision of the Alberta Party to accept them into their fold to help determine if their policies really do connect with Albertans or if there is a way for them to course correct.

The Big Listen is what the Alberta Party is billing as the focus of this collaboration. And again, I think it is commendable that a political party is willing to let the public at large dictate what their policies should be, instead of a small group of members who may or may not represent the views of Albertans.

Will the Alberta Party be right wing or left wing at the end of The Big Listen? Who knows?! But that’s the thing that excites me. If done right and fair, the one thing we will know for sure, is that they represent the ‘average’ Albertan. If they can build a regular feedback loop into their governing structure, this could make them… well, dare I say it?, the perfect party. One that is not governed by petty politics or the whims of its caucus, leadership or members; but instead one that is directly governed by the average citizen.

Of course all this utopian talk is more than likely ‘pie in the sky’ dreaming. Let’s be realistic for a moment and not get too far ahead of ourselves. Many folks out there appear to be skipping over this step. Jane Morgan, the former executive director of the Wildrose Alliance has raised some very good questions about how this merger came to be within the structure of the Alberta Party’s constitution. Alberta Party board members have done a decent job of responding to her criticism, but at the end of the day it is the current Alberta Party membership who will have the final say. Either they will embrace this new way their party will operate in the future, or they re-trench and leave. I certainly hope it is the former, and that they, as well as their board, improve their governance structure down the road. They will have to to be able to control the beast they could potentially be releasing by putting policy decisions in the hands of the public.

A few people have also questioned the merger of these two groups: The Alberta Party previously dismissed as a ‘right-wing’ fringe party, and Renew Alberta as ‘lefties’. How could it be two groups of people, so different in make up, could come together so seamlessly to work for a better future? Well, if the ‘left’ and the ‘right’ can, in this instance, put aside their differences and come together in the ‘centre’ – which is by definition where the majority of Albertans reside on the political spectrum – then their may just be hope for intelligent discussion free of rhetoric after all.

(Another thing that excites me about this new party: the diversity. The Alberta Party stereotypically is seen as older and rural, while Renew Alberta, rightly or wrongly, is seen as younger and urban. How nice to see differing people getting along for once.)

I think the ground work for this partnership is laid out very well in the Alberta Party’s (now temporarily suspended) policy document entitled, “Reforming Alberta”.

From the introduction to the Alberta Party’s Policies and Procedures document we can see what the two groups may share in common when it says: “We demand accountability and responsibility from our elected officials and civil servants… [T]he Alberta Party has created a bottom up organization in which the power resides with the members…”

Even it’s mission statement could be seen as something the two groups might commonly share: “To protect and promote the freedoms and best interests of Albertans.” One of the tactics outlines for how the Alberta Party will fufill this mission is “increase citizen participation in democracy by improving the process.”

I for one, can’t wait to see where this new group may go with lofty goals such as these. Either way, it will certainly be a thrill to watch.

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Tags: Alberta Liberal Party, Alberta NDP Party, Alberta Party, Jane Morgan, Politics, Renew Alberta, Wildrose Alliance
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This post is part 2 in an ongoing series trying to define “what is a ‘progressive’?” in advance of Reboot Alberta 2. You may view part 1 here.

To define “what is a ‘progressive’” I would recomend we start with defining ‘progressive’. But where do you start when trying to define ‘progressive’? To get the ball rolling, we might as well start with the basics: the dictionary definition of the word ‘progressive’ courtesy Dictionary.com.

pro·gres·sive [pruh-gres-iv]

–adjective

1.      favouring or advocating progress, change, improvement, or reform, as opposed to wishing to maintain things as they are, esp. in political matters: a progressive mayor.
2.      making progress toward better conditions; employing or advocating more enlightened or liberal ideas, new or experimental methods, etc.: a progressive community.
3.      characterized by such progress, or by continuous improvement.
4.      (initial capital letter) of or pertaining to any of the Progressive parties in politics.
5.      going forward or onward; passing successively from one member of a series to the next; proceeding step by step.
6.      noting or pertaining to a form of taxation in which the rate increases with certain increases in taxable income.
7.      of or pertaining to progressive education: progressive schools.
8.      Grammar. noting a verb aspect or other verb category that indicates action or state going on at a temporal point of reference.
9.      Medicine/Medical. continuously increasing in extent or severity, as a disease.

–noun
10.   a person who is progressive or who favours progress or reform, esp. in political matters.
11.   (initial capital letter) a member of a Progressive party.
12.   Grammar.
a.     the progressive aspect.
b.     a verb form or construction in the progressive, as are thinking in They are thinking about it.

Of course if we are going to examine what ‘progressive’ means I  suggest we also must examine its root word: ‘progress’.

prog·ress [n. prog-res, -ruhs or, especially Brit., proh-gres; v. pruh-gres]

–noun

1.      a movement toward a goal or to a further or higher stage: the progress of a student toward a degree.
2.      developmental activity in science, technology, etc., esp. with reference to the commercial opportunities created thereby or to the promotion of the material well-being of the public through the goods, techniques, or facilities created.
3.      advancement in general.
4.      growth or development; continuous improvement: He shows progress in his muscular coordination.
5.      the development of an individual or society in a direction considered more beneficial than and superior to the previous level.
6.      Biology. increasing differentiation and perfection in the course of ontogeny or phylogeny.
7.      forward or onward movement: the progress of the planets.
8.      the forward course of action, events, time, etc.
9.      an official journey or tour, as by a sovereign or dignitary.

–verb (used without object) pro·gress

10.   to go forward or onward in space or time: The wagon train progressed through the valley. As the play progressed, the leading man grew more inaudible.
11.   to grow or develop, as in complexity, scope, or severity; advance: Are you progressing in your piano studies? The disease progressed slowly.

—Idiom

12.   in progress, going on; under way; being done; happening: The meeting was already in progress.

Perhaps just as importantly we should take a peek at the etomology of the word ‘progress’. It comes to us through the combination of two latin words: from progressus, pp. of progredi “go forward,” from pro-“forward” + gradi “to step, walk,” from gradus “step”.

What can we take from these dictionary definitions and the etymology? Well, setting aside the political definitions, it appears almost all the definitions revolve around “moving forward” or “improvement” or “advancement”. But is this all there really is to being a ‘progressive’? So long as you keep moving forward or improving things you are a progressive? If so, then almost everyone in politics can be defined as ‘progressive’ because they all are trying to improve their constituency.

On the flip side of things these definitions might prove to be very helpful in getting at what a progressive is, but they are not very helpful when trying to define what is progressive. Surely not all progress is good progress.

Take a look at the history of warfare as an example. We went from fighting with our hands, to sticks, to knives, to guns, to bombs, to the atomic bomb. Fighting with your hands, knives or even guns is one thing, they are all targeted at one individual or a small group, but once you get to the atomic bomb, we are talking about having the ability to destroy the entire planet in a matter of minutes. Is this progress? According to the preceding definitions of ‘progress’ and ‘progressive’, yes, having the ability to destroy the world is progressive.

The same can be said for technology. During the college bowl games, I remember seeing the “e-coin toss” and thinking, did we really need to make a coin flip electronic? Really? What’s wrong with a coin? It’s simple and effective; with little room for improvement. What a waste of time and resources. I’m sure you too can think of a half dozen examples in your own life where ‘progress’ was made seemingly only for progress’ sake.

Clearly there has to be more to being a ‘progressive’ than just progressing.

And clearly this is where we depart from the traditional political definition of ‘progressive’ as well.

I think this is where the three pillars of being a ‘progressive’ – interconnectedness, understanding and adaptability – my group at the first Reboot Alberta came up with, may come into play. Through using these these tools I believe we can find a better definition for ‘progressive thinking’, which, in my mind, will allow us to make decisions that are more wise than the traditional definition of ‘progressive’ allows for.

Tomorrow I will continue in this vein by beginning the exploration of the interconnectedness ‘pillar’.

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Tags: atomic bomb, coin toss, Politics, progress, progressive, Reboot Alberta, Uncategorized
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In my current role at a home and auto insurance company, we sell our products exclusively through independent brokers. That said, we are keenly interested in providing value add services to our broker partners to ensure they are both growing and retaining the right customers.

Like many businesses today, brokerages know they need to have an online presence but often lack the technical know-how. As a result, our marketing department has put together a series of marketing best practices for our brokerages to help them get started. To compliment Jim Estill’s blog post here late last month, SEO - Search Engine Optimization Basics , I thought I would share one such piece that attempts to demystify Search Engine Marketing. In our Introduction to Search Engine Marketing we tried to simplify SEM and provide some tangible tips for businesses trying to get started in the SEM space.

What SEM strategies and tactics have worked for your business, and which have not?

Martha Turner, AVP Marketing Services and Campaign Management, Aviva Canada Inc.
& member of CMA’s Direct Marketing Council

Tags: Digital, technology
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