Alberta Business Marketing

Greetings from Toronto and the floor of SES 2010 Toronto.

During the next couple of days the members of Ulistic are wearing our “press and PR” hats.  David and I have been invited to cover in our blogs, all the great things going on at this years Search Engine Strategies Toronto conference.  This is my first time ever at this event and I am very excited to be back in my hometown.  It is truly an honour to be working in this industry and very excited to be reporting on all the great things happening in and around this two-day conference.

I was shocked to hear that this year’s SES 2010 Toronto event is the 7th annual event.  It only seems like yesterday that search engine optimization became such a big deal.  But it is for many Canadian small businesses?  I believe that effective SEO strategies are a big deal and it is now a very crucial component to any marketing and sales plan.  It is time for Canadian business to execute on creating vibrant SEO campaigns to help market their business in the highly competitive online world we live in.  I am not going to start my rant about planning again today, however if you are not thinking about your search positioning on the major search engine engines you maybe missing out on opportunities out in the market.

SEO is especially important since I just learned that the Yellow Pages Residential directories are going to stopped in seven cities across Canada.  They are urging people to go online and search for information.  Wait a second, they are encouraging you to do what?  Yes, search for information online.  Now do you get the importance of SEO.

Ulistic is a Calgary-based Search Engine Optimization firm specializing in helping your business gain exposure online and David and I are here in Toronto attending and covering the SES 2010 event.  Need some help to figure out SEO for your Canadian Small Business…give me a ring at 403.775.2205.

Tags: 403.775.2205, Business, Business/Finance, Calgary, canada, Internet Marketing, online world, Organization of Search Engine Optimization Professionals, search engine, search engine engines, search engine optimization, Search Engine Strategies, search positioning, toronto, ulistic, World Wide Web, Yellow Pages
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The Internet and social media is definitely the Wild West.  Actually it is worse than the wild west.

You know what it reminds me of?

If I reflect back around 2004/2005 when I first started to attend Harry Brelsford’s SMB Nation at the Microsoft Campus in Redmond, WA.  There was a buzz back then in the early talks about Managed IT Services that continues on today.  Should I be focused on managed services?  How do I do it?

Now for my friends outside the IT industry, managed services was a way to charge a business a flat rate for providing IT tech services instead of billing by the hour or selling a small business a retainer type of service and drawing down on that retainer.  Managed Services introduced new concepts and spun a whole new industry of companies selling products and services to those of us who provided the actually service.  Some did well, while some lost focus and actually suffered and if they just kept their original business plan instead of buying into the hype…perhaps would have done well.

The introduction of Managed Services caused a tremendous amount of chaos in the technology industry that continues today. Almost five years later there are still discussions on,  what tool do you use?  How do you do this? How do you do that?  These questions were the norm and my team at IT Matters, back in the day didn’t have everything nailed down tight (nor did we really care) with regards to managed services and we actually did a pretty poor job at it compared to others…but you know something, compared to others where it mattered the most, we were profitable and continued to inch closer to that $5M in sales number before my departure in late 2008.

Is Social Media and Internet Consulting going that way and should I take what I learned with IT Matters and apply it again?

I read a thread recently on the Social Media Today LinkedIn group that brought back the nightmares or memories of 2004/2005 SMB Nation events, depending on the way you look at things.  There is an ongoing debate on how much to charge (seen this with managed services) organizations for your services.  Discussions about tools to measure success (see them as well) and how to charge clients (been there, done that).  Plus, there are new organizations out there spinning up to sell tools, products and coach social media consultants on how to do their jobs better.

What are we doing at Ulistic?  What I have always done…focus on our clients and their needs first.

True, you can fix what you don’t measure.  But don’t we have tools already to measure success online.  I read an article by my friend Denise Deveau on Google Analytics and a flower shop in Toronto where this retail store in the GTA is using something as simple as a Google tool to measure the success of their business.  What can I share with my colleagues in the social media business…focus on the needs of your clients first (they are your oxygen mask) and then put on the mask of the person beside you (your business).  Use the tools out there but don’t get hung up on them and when you decide on one, stick with it.  The other big thing about Managed IT services is how easy people changed tools and services and dropped 50K.

Tags: Business/Finance, companies selling products, Computing, Denise Deveau, google, Google Inc., Harry Brelsford, Human-computer interaction, Hypertext, I T MATTERS, Internet Consulting going, media, media consultants, Microsoft Campus, Microsoft Corporation, Mobile Payment, redmond, retail store, social media, Social Media Ventures Inc, tech services, technology industry, Technology/Internet, toronto, USD, Washington, World Wide Web
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Over the past few weeks on my blog and also on the Ulistic Opinion Blog we have shared some of our discussions with a number of the excellent speakers and panelists lined up for the upcoming Search Engine Strategies conference on June 9 through to the 11th in Toronto.

I caught up with one of the speakers this week, Bryan Eisenberg who will be speaking on “21 Secrets to Top Converting Websites“. I caught up with this NYTimes Best Selling Author and discussed topics that he will be sharing at the Toronto Search Engine Optimization event.

You don’t want to miss seeing Bryan and all the great speakers lined up for this Toronto Web Marketing event.  You can follow Bryan on Twitter @thegrok.

1.  Ulistic understands the importance of conversions with a marketing website, business today are leveraging many different types of web services, all hungry to convert or attract qualified prospects.  Can you share an example of trying to hard to convert? What are some of the pitfalls?

I have seen many instances of this occur, but the one that really stands out is when in was doing some research on Eloqua, and I came across an ad for one of their competitors Marketo. They committed one of the biggest blunders on their landing page, by not understanding the searchers buying stage. They only thing I was able to do on the landing page was complete a form to view a demo. I was researching their competitor and was committed to understand anything about one of their competitors. They should have taken then time to explain how they differ from their competitor not just to try to convert me into a lead and give me only one option of filling out a lead form. Meet your visitors with your sales or lead process and align it with their buying process if you want to succeed online.

2. What would you recommend to a small business owner looking to roll out an online marketing strategy?

• Take the time to understand your buyers purchase process, needs, fears and concerns.
• Make sure you can explain your value over your competitors. Why should I buy from you?
• Align your marketing messages, ads, etc across channels and experiences so that they all feel integrated and seamless.
• Make it obvious for visitors to your website what action they should take and build their confidence in order to take that action.

3. What are some of the key factors associated with success on converting visitors to potential clients?

The number one secret is to developing your corporate metabolism to the point you can execute on a drop of a dime. You need to rely on data driven decisions and foster creativity in testing. The poster child is Amazon.com, who processed around 25% of all Ecommerce transactions in the U.S. last year. Why? At any given time they have around 200 tests running on their website, they execute quickly and intelligently ( within two hours of Michael Jackson’s death they completely reconfigured their who Mp3 store), and they leverage the voice of customer to enable social commerce and move beyond usability to persuadibility ( want to know what I mean then come see my session at SES Toronto)!

Tags: Amazon.com Inc., Bryan Eisenberg, Business, Business/Finance, e - commerce, Internet Marketing, Landing page, michael jackson, Mp3 store, online marketing strategy, sales, search engine, Selling Author, Technology/Internet, toronto, United States, web marketing, web services
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Stop the presses…I recently read a very interesting article in today’s Calgary Herald from Canwest News Service journalist Misty Harris on the flood of “Social Media Guru’s” in today’s economy.   I few weeks I wrote a post on this blog about these self-proclaimed social media gurus and my good friend Joe from MSPMentor.net followed up with his article on “Seven Signs Your Social Media Coach is a Fraud“.

Instead of focusing on the negative like I have in the past this time I am going to try really hard to focus on the positives about having a professional who really understands small business challenges, marketing in general and how social media can play a part in your overall marketing efforts.

Here is question one to ask them.  What is marketing and how does it differ from sales?  Email me for the answer, not going to give away all my knowledge on my blog.  However, here are some differences on professionals vs..the others.

1.  Real Professionals never call themselves gurus, ninjas, experts and the list goes on.  Some of us may call ourselves consultants, professionals and maybe a strategist.  But many of don’t carry numb chucks so we are not ninjas or preach from the altar and therefore the evangelist wording is out.

2. Real business professionals have a proven track record.  We may talk about some of our success stories, but normally we are under a NDA (Non-disclosure agreement) and rarely have the opportunity to share some of our success stories.  However, like in some of the comments on Joe’s blog, we come recommended by our loyal clients to others and more often than not, engage with people the old fashioned way – we meet them face-to-face or talk to them in person.

3. Real professionals also run successful businesses or at least part of a successful business venture. Does your social media consultant under EBITDA or profit/loss?  How about the measurement of ROI and success indicators?  Here is a tip, ask your social media guru about the importance of the number of followers on Twitter and then call me or email me for my answer.  Want to see if we are different?

I love what Kemp Edwards from BCIT said in Misty’s article when talking about social media gurus “It’s sort of like declaring yourself the champion before you’ve hoisted the cup” or even what Dee Tremendous from the Toronto-based blog “Tremendous News” says “Social Media is a fertile land for douche bags”.

What I would caution Canadian small business owners is this…do your homework.  Check out your social media guru’s website, is it professional?  Is it just some free template and has all the free WordPress junk on it?  Your business needs to have a resource who can help you understand what makes sense for your business…not that you need a Facebook page or a Twitter account – just because.

Tags: blog, Business/Finance, Calgary Herald, Canwest News Service, Coach, Facebook Inc, Guru, Guru Granth Sahib, Joe, journalist, media guru, media gurus, Misty Harris, MSPMentor.net, Online social networking, Sikh terms, Sikhism, social media, social media consultant, Social Media Ventures Inc, strategist, toronto, Twitter, Twitter Inc, Vajrayana Buddhism, World Wide Web
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Two Calgary boys heading to Hogtown for an industry leading conference on SEO.

David and I will be heading to the Ontario Capital this June for a great Search Engine Optimization event.  We are planning to play a vital role with our blogging from this year’s Toronto Search Engine Strategies Conference, it should a wonderful three days of learning and networking with leaders in the Canadian SEO market.  This will be my first time at this event and from what I understand from reading blogs from the previous years, it is going to be an awesome time.  Will be different from the IT conferences I have attended?

During some discussions in our office recently about who should represent Ulistic at this event, we basically figured out that we all need to be there.  That is right, the majority of our Ulistic team is investing the time to learn from the best in our industry and how we can serve our Calgary and Information Technology clients with practical SEO advice which will enhance their online marketing efforts.  You may ask yourself why does a Calgary SEO firm need to send a good portion of their team to a conference on the other side of the country?  Well, to learn and to share our learnings with our community.  If you are leader, you must continue to sharpen your saw…something I learned once.

The world of online marketing and Internet marketing is constantly changing.  Just ask our first batch of graduates coming out of our Ulistic Calgary Online Marketing Mentoring program.  Change is already occurring and they are just finishing their programs with Ulistic. So yes, we all must continue to learn the new things in the world of Internet Marketing.

Over the next few weeks, David and I will be blogging about the Toronto Search Engine Strategies Conference and sharing who will be there and what will be happening. Also keep an eye on the Ulistic Facebook page and our Twitter account for up to the minute news.

SES Toronto typically attracts Canada’s and U.S.’s leading search engine marketing (SEM) professionals – from the very experienced to the novice. Marketers can take advantage of the special early-bird registration and save up to $200 by registering by May 21. Click here to review SES Toronto rates and registration details.

The SES Toronto 2010 conference, which will be held on June 9-11 at the Hyatt Regency Toronto, 370 King Street.

Tags: Calgary, canada, Hogtown, information technology, Internet Marketing, online marketing efforts, Online Marketing Mentoring program, search engine, Search engine marketing, search engine optimization, Search Engine Strategies, Technology/Internet, toronto, Twitter Inc, United States, USD
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