Alberta Business Marketing

I ran across these disclaimers on an Internet Marketers website today.

Does these sort of statements make you want to do business with someone? Especially when they are all in capitals? Why is he shouting at us?

ANY EARNINGS OR INCOME STATEMENTS, OR EARNINGS OR INCOME EXAMPLES, ARE ONLY ESTIMATES OF WHAT WE THINK YOU COULD EARN. THERE IS NO ASSURANCE YOU’LL DO AS WELL. IF YOU RELY UPON OUR FIGURES, YOU MUST ACCEPT THE RISK OF NOT DOING AS WELL.

WHERE SPECIFIC INCOME FIGURES ARE USED, AND ATTRIBUTED TO AN INDIVIDUAL OR BUSINESS, THOSE PERSONS OR BUSINESSES HAVE EARNED THAT AMOUNT. THERE IS NO ASSURANCE YOU’LL DO AS WELL. IF YOU RELY UPON OUR FIGURES; YOU MUST ACCEPT THE RISK OF NOT DOING AS WELL.

ANY AND ALL CLAIMS OR REPRESENTATIONS, AS TO INCOME EARNINGS ON THIS WEB SITE, ARE NOT TO BE CONSIDERED AS AVERAGE EARNINGS. TESTIMONIALS ARE NOT REPRESENTATIVE.

THERE CAN BE NO ASSURANCE THAT ANY PRIOR SUCCESSES, OR PAST RESULTS, AS TO INCOME EARNINGS, CAN BE USED AS AN INDICATION OF YOUR FUTURE SUCCESS OR RESULTS.

or

ALL WEB SITES, PRODUCTS AND SERVICES ARE PROVIDED, AS IS, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. OUR COMPANY DOES NOT WARRANT, GUARANTEE, OR MAKE ANY REPRESENTATIONS REGARDING THE USE, OR THE RESULTS OF THE USE, OF THE WEB SITES, PRODUCTS, SERVICES OR WRITTEN MATERIALS IN THE TERMS OF CORRECTNESS, ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, CURRENTNESS OR OTHERWISE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE RESULTS AND PERFORMANCE OF THE WEB SITES, PRODUCTS AND SERVICES ARE ASSUMED BY YOU. IF THE WEB SITES, PRODUCTS, SERVICES OR WRITTEN MATERIALS ARE DEFECTIVE, YOU, AND NOT OUR COMPANY, ASSUME THE ENTIRE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.

THIS IS THE ONLY WARRANT OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, THAT IS MADE BY OUR COMPANY. NO ORAL OR WRITTEN INFORMATION OR ADVICE GIVEN BY OUR COMPANY SHALL CREATE A WARRANTY OR IN ANY WAY INCREASE THE SCOPE OF THIS WARRANTY, AND YOU MAY NOT RELY ON SUCH INFORMATION OR ADVICE TO DO SO.

Would your business work with a firm that has disclaimers like this?

Tells me that they have no proven results.

Tags: Business/Finance, Disclaimer, Stuart's ramblings, Tort law
Posted in Alberta Business | | Comments Off

Over the past couple of days I have been travelling throughout the city of Calgary meeting with many small business owners about online marketing and yesterday I ran across something while visiting with a respected mentor of mine here in the city.

He had a proposal from a social media consultant.  A social media consultant from here in the city of Calgary who I am aware of and ran across from time to time.

Here is excerpt from the proposal that my colleague shared with me.

“With social media you can abandon all other forms of marketing.  When your business focuses on social media a wealth of opportunities exist to reach new markets and new people.”

WTF!

What do you think?

I have my opinions but would love to hear from you.

Tags: Business/Finance, Calgary, Human Interest, social media, social media consultant
Posted in Online Marketing | | Comments Off

This post is written for Calgary Real Estate Professionals however it applies to every business model

Each week Ulistic, your local Calgary Internet Marketing and Search Engine Optimization team hosts a series of webinars to help Calgary business understand online marketing, social media, Internet Technologies and help debunk some of the myths associated with social media and general online marketing.

This week, our team at Ulistic hosted a webinar for a number of Calgary-based REALTORS® on the power of social media and Internet marketing to help them market their listings more efficiently online.  This was not a hyped up social media discussion and actually social media was just a sliver of what we discussed during the 60 minute REALTOR® webinar.

Here are some of the highlights and what you can do as a REALTOR® to help place your Real Estate business online.

Success online takes commitment, this is the first crucial step towards success in anything we do.  REALTORS® who demonstrate commitment in applying the principles of effective online marketing make great success stories versus those who pay it “lip service”.  This is not something you simply set and forget.  Online Marketing success takes effort, it takes commitment and it takes time. Set up a schedule and commit to keeping that schedule.  For those who were on the webinar, remember F + V = C.

Does your REALTOR® website welcome and convert visitors to potential qualified buyers and sellers?  You don’t need another virtual billboard on the Internet highway.  Personally, I would rather have 10 solid buyers and sellers visit my site each week versus having thousands of visitors who never engage with me.  Does this concept make sense? Your marketing online must attract qualified prospects to your business or why are you doing it?  Numbers don’t matter if no one engages with you.

Experiment with new ways of doing the old things.  We discussed services like Microsoft Tags and other new technologies can offer the same information to a new audience.  Consider attaching tags or bar codes for those interested in learning more about your listings.  With smart phones, a potential buyer can easily research your listings with a click of their camera.  Microsoft Tag is a great way for you to showcase your listings.  Almost everyone today has a smart phone, let’s leverage this for our benefit.

And finally, don’t forget about video.  If a picture says a thousand words, then video must say millions.  Start using video now in your business and use it for your advantage.

These are just a few of the items we covered during our REALTOR® webinar this week.  If you would like to learn more about Social Media for REALTORS® give me a shout at 403.775.2205 and our team at Ulistic would be more than happy to work with you or you can click here to contact me directly online.

Tags: 403.775.2205, Business/Finance, Calgary, Calgary Realtors, Internet hightway, Internet Marketing, Internet Technologies, media discussion, Microsoft Corporation, Microsoft Tags, National Association of Realtors, online marketing make great success stories, other new technologies, Real estate broker, Real Estate Calgary, realtors calgary, search engine, smart phone, smart phones, Social Media Ventures Inc, stuart crawford, Technology/Internet
Posted in Marketing, Online Marketing | | Comments Off

Is Social Media for Marketing an effective strategy for your Calgary business?

As your Calgary social media specialist I am often thinking about how social media communications impacts my peers and those Calgary business our team at Ulistic works with each day.

This weekend has been a weekend where I caught up on some blogs for my clients that needed a refresh on their design and also some quiet time to plan where the social media consultancy market is heading.

A quick review of the Google Keyword Research Tool shows that there isn’t as many folks searching for a social media consulting firm in Calgary and throughout Canada.

What does this mean?

Does this indicate that Social Media is really a passing fad?  This professional is beginning to wonder.  Are Calgary small business tired of all the so-called Social Media Guru’s out there?  Is business finally tired of all the social media hype?

The good thing is this, Ulistic focuses more on Internet Marketing as a whole.  Social Media does play an important piece of a complete online marketing strategy however it is just a piece of the pie and not the entire pie.

How does your outside signage enhance your online marketing?

Where is the market heading?  Is business finally saying enough?

I am not one to throw in the tool just yet but I fully believe the market is shifting just a bit and business executives are getting tired of all the social media hype and want real numbers based on real returns.

How about you?

Tags: Business, Business/Finance, Calgary, Calgary social media specialist, canada, Hype cycle, Internet Marketing, media communications, media consultancy market, media consulting, online marketing strategy, social media, Social Media Ventures Inc, technology, Technology/Internet
Posted in Marketing, Online Marketing | | Comments Off

Once again I get to work directly with my good buddy Erick Simpson and his team at MSP University.  This week Ulistic released this press release outlining how our team is expanding the reach of our Calgary Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Consulting services into the Managed Services community.

Ulistic and MSP University announce Strategic Partnership

IT VAR and Managed Services Providers win as two marketing leaders join forces to offer a comprehensive, effective online marketing solution to the channel

Ulistic, a leading Internet consulting firm based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and an organization focused on delivering valuable online marketing services and education within the IT VAR and Managed Services Community, today announced their strategic partnership with MSP University. MSP University is the largest consultancy and online resource dedicated to business transformation and improvement strategies for information technology (IT) professionals and managed services providers globally.

This strategic alliance will offer the IT VAR and Managed Services community a robust, complete and well-rounded marketing solution leveraging MSP University’s traditional and website marketing services with Ulistic’s Search Engine Optimization, Social Media and Internet Marketing and consulting programs.

Ulistic will offer in-depth search engine optimization services built on proven SEO best practices to MSP University’s channel of over 7,000 members. This will allow each member to leverage advanced web marketing and coaching services geared at positioning their businesses ahead of their competition in online search and provide a foundation to take their Internet Marketing to the next level.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for managed services providers and IT professionals globally to have a well-rounded marketing solution that balances traditional marketing techniques with today’s required and often overlooked search and social strategies,” states Ulistic Senior Partner and 15-year MSP veteran Stuart Crawford. “MSP University continues to lead the IT channel in business improvement education, strategy and fulfillment services for the technology community. It is wonderful to be part of the MSP University team going forward.”

MSP University provides IT business operations, sales and marketing and technical service delivery improvement education, training, fulfillment and consulting services to IT service organizations in over 100 countries worldwide, and trains thousands of attendees each year at its international IT Solutions and Managed Services Boot Camps.

“Adopting and integrating Ulistic’s proven approach into an IT solution or managed services provider’s marketing strategy greatly improves their results and ROI”, said Erick Simpson, Vice President, MSP University. “MSP University’s member channel looks to us to continually seek out and engage with strategic business partners whose products and services will add value to their businesses, and our alliance with Ulistic is yet another example of our meeting this expectation.”

About MSP University

MSP University (www.mspu.us) provides IT business operations, sales and marketing and technical service delivery improvement education, training, fulfillment and consulting services to Fortune 50 manufacturers, distributors, membership organizations, vendor channels, franchises and thousands of independent IT service organizations worldwide. MSP University is the ultimate resource for IT solution providers, whether preparing to transition to an annuity-based Managed Services delivery model, or who are already delivering Managed Services, and wish to increase their knowledge of IT and Managed Services vendors, services, solutions and business, technical and sales and marketing best practices to drive revenue and increase profitability. MSP University helps solution providers succeed…period.

Tags: About MSP University, Business, Business Partnership, Business/Finance, Calgary, canada, Erick Simpson, fulfillment services, in-depth search engine optimization services, information technology, International trade, Internet Marketing, IT channel, managed services, Management consulting, Master managed service provider, MSP Partners, MSP University, online marketing services, online marketing solution, online resource, online search, overlooked search, search engine, Senior Partner, social media consulting, stuart crawford, Stuart's ramblings, supply chain management, technology community, Technology/Internet, ulistic, Ulistic and MSP University, Vice President, web marketing, website marketing services, well-rounded marketing solution
Posted in Alberta Business, Marketing | | Comments Off