Not everyone does online marketing? That’s not what I’ve been taught in marketing class, and communications class and every other business class that has groomed me for the world ahead. Students take today’s techniques for granted because we’re taught them in university like they’re common practices in every business. Imagine our surprise when we learn businesses must adapt to new techniques and may not have them incorporated into their strategies by the time our marketing professor plans them in a lecture.  Read more... (240 words, 1 image, estimated 58 secs reading time)

I had an interesting meeting with a prospect last week and they were describing to me they used to deal with a full service advertising agency but they felt that it was difficult for this agency to satisfy all their needs.  The company was going through a re-branding, wanted to move more from traditional advertising to online but understood they still needed to advertise in traditional media and could not abandon this area.  It was refreshing to hear an executive from the company mention that he thought it was hard for an advertising firm to be able to offer strategic branding, advertising and online marketing services.  Mentioning that he wanted to deal with a local company he certainly hit the mark with that comment.  Companies have to understand that the days of being able to offer these 3 expertises is over.  I mentioned the only perceived negative is that you have to deal with 3 different contacts and he replied actually in most cases these companies are outsourcing their branding and online marketing implementation so he would rather deal direct with all three companies and have control of the process.  I mentioned that the most important factor was for the three companies to work together towards the common marketing goal.  I said that we work with branding companies and we work with traditional advertising agencies and I feel the end product is far superior than an agency trying to do all the work themselves.  Read more... (405 words, 1 image, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

It surprises me when I see email addresses that are not domain specific.  Personally it makes your business look like you are working in the dinosaur age (exaggeration obviously, no email addresses back then but if there were, those smart dinosaurs would have figured it out faster than some companies).  Example of non-domain specific email addresses: john@gmail.com, john@mts.net etc.  Domain specific email addresses are extremely easy to setup.  Most Internet Service providers (ISPs) offer a certain number of free domain specific email addresses with standard business Internet access.  In our province MTS and Shaw are examples of ISPs that offer 10 free domain specific email addresses.  Another option is to setup domain specific email with Google email.  You can setup up to 50 free domain specific email addresses with Google.  Read more... (218 words, 1 image, estimated 52 secs reading time)

Everyone knows how powerful word of mouth advertising is right?  I don’t understand how some companies treat their potential suppliers unlike they treat their customers.  Do they not realize that we are potential customers and not only potential suppliers.  Every time I deal with a potential supplier I do everything in my power to respond to them, be polite and I respect their efforts and their company.  The reason I do this is I find it very disrespectful when potential clients do this to me.  It seems silly as it takes a second to reply to an email and let me know that you have chosen another supplier.  Recently I have been trying to follow up with a prominent client in the city.  With no word back, I have a negative feeling about this company and do not feel positive about their brand and I am likely not to refer them to others.  Read more... (336 words, 1 image, estimated 1:21 mins reading time)

We just finished our operational business plan for our next fiscal year.  Our philosophy is lets create a business plan that actually has strategies and tasks that we want to check off and complete and if we do these tasks we will be moving closer to achieving our main strategies.  Certainly “Money Raising” business plans have a use when you are trying to raise money but if you are using a business plan for internal improvements I suggest using an operating business plan.  The key is to stick to the tasks that you have laid out in the business plan and try not to get distracted by ideas that come up during the year.  Ideally each employee in your company should receive a task document that should be completed by the end of the fiscal year.  If everyone does their best to complete these tasks and this is monitored throughout the year the company should be getting closer to acheiving their main strategies.   Read more... (341 words, 1 image, estimated 1:22 mins reading time)

John and I recently attended WebmasterWorld’s PubCon conference in Las Vegas, where I was also a speaker.

Conferences are often expensive – not only does it cost money to travel to the conference (hotel, flights, meals, conference registration, etc.) but there’s the even bigger cost of being out of the office. In a case like PubCon, a four-day conference with seven days of networking events, it’s very easy to let a week slip by without getting a lot of work done.

With this in mind, it’s important find ways to gain value, making up for the expenses and lost time of attending the conference.  Read more... (768 words, 5 images, estimated 3:04 mins reading time)

Ideally a company should hire when they are not pressured to find someone.  In my opinion the best time to search for a new staff member is when you require new labour but you have time to bring that employee on to your team.  In the past we have used a recruitment company and this has worked out especially well if you are not pressured to hire.  Recruitment agencies are excellent at weeding out the bad candidates and allowing the good candidates to rise to the top.  Our last few hires have been done this way and we have been able to be patient and bring on excellent candidates that exactly fit our needs and our culture.  For  small to mid-size businesses I feel hiring staff that are consistent with your culture is extremely important.  One employee that does not fit your culture can upset the apple cart, we are very conscious of this aspect in our hiring.   Read more... (293 words, 1 image, estimated 1:10 mins reading time)

October 5th will be a date that sticks out in my mind for a long time.  Ten years ago in 1999 we formed Canada’s Web Shop.  In looking back it has been a long road to build this business and there have been many lessons learned along the way.  One thing for sure is the only people that think running a business is easy are the people who have never done it before.  Its tough but rewarding at the same time.  Here is a list of the top 10 lessons learned on our 10 year business journey:  Read more... (481 words, 1 image, estimated 1:55 mins reading time)

Our company is hiring a sales person this year and I have read several articles from sales experts talking about a connection between sales drive and sports.  Currently we are looking at a candidate that has a long history with sports and coaching.  So does that mean he can sell?  Well the jury is out on that one.  Personally I played sports, and I feel I have sales drive.  I think that sports definitely teaches you how to want to win and work as a team or as an individual to win.  I do hate to lose, is that because of sports, maybe.   Read more... (333 words, 1 image, estimated 1:20 mins reading time)