Marketing insights by one of Internet Marketing's top guru.
Small Biz TrendsJust started following this blog - the name says it all.
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Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik"If you can't measure it - you can't manage it." (Drucker). Avinash tells you how to measure everything on your website.
aimClear BlogAimed at people doing their SEO and online PR 'in house' - there is a wealth of information on all aspects of promoting your site.
MashableTHE blog to read for current information and trends in Social Medai.
Copy BloggerREAD THIS if you ever get stuck writing copy
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You may not familiar with, it was only introduced on Jan 10th, it is the addition, some say bias, of Google+ information into the search results. In less than a week, and so far, only in the US, it has turned search engine marketing on its ear. For those who weren’t prepared it could be a disaster, for the early adpters it could be a real boon.
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I have just started reading Jay Abraham’s book “Getting Everything You Can Out Of All You’ve Got”. Near the beginning of the book he makes the distinction between ‘client’ and ‘customer’. In the first chapter he quotes Webster’s Dictionary:
It was time to buy a new computer. My old no-name white box wasn’t able to keep up with all the demands of web development. I like to keep a number of programs open three browsers, a virtual box loaded with XP, email, ftp, and eclipse are the minimum. Also, there are Apache, ssh and mySQL servers running in the background. Not a particularly heavy load but it was starting to bog down my old system.
I got a comment from Lucien at Pinbud.com. He pointed out a spelling error in one of my posts. Spelling mistakes happen, even when you are using a spell checker. In this case the mistake was in the title, which I hadn’t run through the spell checker.
I hadn’t heard of PinBud before – so I checked out the site. It is a search engine for finding trades people within your geographic area. And, it is REALLY good.
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Let me state this right up front.
I hate Power Point presentations. I hate doing them – I hate viewing them.
Unfortunately, every now and then I have to do one. More often I have to view them – which is why God gave us iPods and laptops with WiFi access.
While I can’t always stick to it – I like Guy Kawasaki’s 10 – 20 – 30 rule – 10 Slides; 20 minutes; 30 point font. The rule was designed for presentations to venture capitalist. These poor souls must sit through hundreds — maybe even thousands of presentations that, for the main, say the same thing, “Our product will change the world and all you have to do is give us truck loads full of money.”
You may not be asking for “truck loads of money”, but some times you have to give a presentation. Besides keeping in mind Guy’s rule, here are five things to do before you make the presentation:
Is it just me – or is the concept of a ‘Home Page’ becoming passé?
Back in the old days, the last century for those of us using Linux, browsers only had one window. And, when you started your browser it opened up your ‘Home Page’. Fast forward to 2010 and even Internet Explorer has tabs and can restore a session.
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American’s are patriotic. All things being equal they will ‘Buy American’. One of the challenges to international business selling in the United States is to over come the ‘Buy American’ instinct.
There are three distinct strategies a company can employ. The first is deliver a product that is either a unique, superior or cheaper, second be seen to be American, and third pretend to be American.
Restroom sign in Braille
While coming back from a trip this spring my wife and I stopped at the Tim Horton’s in Merrit BC. For those of you south of the 49th parallel, Tim Horton’s is the Dunkin Donuts of the north. They are in most, if not all, cities accross Canada. While IMHO, they will never win any awards for great coffee – they are clean, friendly, and you always know what you are getting.
Don’t Fail the Truth Test
This week my wife and I had a short get-away. There are so many great spots to visit on Vancouver Island, and most are within a two or three hour drive of where we live. For this get-away we chose to go to Port Hardy at the north end of Vancouver Island. And, based largely on their website, we chose to stay at the the Glen Lyon Inn.
Unfortunately, we didn’t book ahead, and they were full by the time we got there.
We May Have Dodged A Bullet
We went back to the Glen Lyon Inn for dinner. The photo of their restaurant http://www.glenlyoninn.com/dining.html) on the website showed a relatively ‘up scale’ restaurant, with fine china and men in suites and women in dresses. We were concerned there may have been a dress code, but it was our anniversary and we wanted something a little special, so we decided to try it. We needn’t have worried!!
The restaurant was nothing like the picture
No table cloths, no high back chairs, no fine china, and nothing on the menu that came close to the meal depicted in their picture. Certainly, no dress code. In fact, the image is from Getty Images and appears on a number of websites. ( I wonder if they paid to use the image? )
Marketing Take Away
While it is OK to show your business in its best light on your website. Don’t be misleading.
In the age of Yelp, TriAdvisor and Facebook you will be found out. By trying to deceive me with there restaurant picture, they have gotten a bad review on Yelp (one of two bad reviews), Google and Trip Advisor, plus this blog post.
Show your business in its best light – but don’t cross the line and try and deceive your potential customers.
Never piss off a web designer – especially on his anniversary
BTW: A “shout out” to Tiny Eye for finding the copies of the image online.