We all have this nagging feeling in the back of our heads. Is what we’re doing working? How would we know? It’s a fair question. As a (very) small business with two partners, no employees and several freelancers, the question whether digital advertising works is a resounding yes. In fact, I can’t imagine advertising anyway else. Online advertising is very friendly on the small-micro business budgets and it is immediately measurable. However, if you are a long time brick-mortar business or mid-sized business. I can understand the question. Here are 8 reasons why online advertising works, backed by research data. As much a…

You know the saying. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Planning however doesn’t come easily for some. Not sure about you, but I was never taught how to plan in when I was in school, which is rather unfortunate, but no fear. One way to start is with a good planner. Now we all have our favorites so it’s OK to continue using that. I use BlogEnergizer’s planner because content marketing is an integral part of our business and the planner is geared towards that. It also has useful information how to make the planner work best…

This is the million dollar question isnt’ it? We all want need people to buy or our businesses will die. Although we know more or less why and what triggers a sale, especially when we know our customers well, but understanding general trends can help us too. This infographic gives you some pretty interesting snapshots based on a shopper survey. One of the things I find really interesting is the percentage of people who won’t share about their purchase on social media. Just because social media is hot and you can doesn’t mean that it works. That reflects my own online shopping…

Earlier this year, Google announced that it will give websites with ssl certificates extra brownie points. Though it is only a small ranking factor, it is one nonetheless. Overall, this news has been well received. However, many small sites have worried about the cost of the certificates and the cost of implementation. The good news is, the cost of these certificates aren’t exactly prohibitive, they start from $10 but they can go up to thousands of dollars. $0 is of course much better. This week, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has announced a new initiative to transfer the web from HTTP to…

I’m at the WebCamp Live event this weekend by Armand Morin, and each morning, Jim Howard opens the event. Jim and his wife Chris used to run a printing company and has helped many businesses with their branding. Their story is so very inspiring and Jim is a fabulous speaker. Today, he mentioned something that I’ve heard him say before. I’m so very glad to be reminded again. This is what he says…   Did you get that? “It’s never about how you start. It’s how you finish.” Right now, the end of the year is around the corner. Will you spend…

I don’t tire of quote images. Even collect them on Pinterest. I’m likely not the only one. Perhaps that is why images are the most shared posts on social media. Creating them is also simple and I’ve usually stuck with quotes but sometimes it can get a bit boring. Especially when all you post are the same old quotes others have created before. That’s why I like these quote image ideas by Kristi Hines. Love #1. That’s a bit like a mini infographic except it’s a whole lot easier, cheaper and faster to create. I know friends who use #2…

What do you do when you put up a landing page and find it doesn’t convert so well? Do you throw your hands up and say, I tried, but it didn’t work? I hope not. The right answer is to tweak it. Maybe the offer isn’t right – that’s of course a big one but there are other things besides the offer. Maybe people just feel lost, confused, or they don’t believe you. Oli Gardner of Unbounce outlines 6 things you can do to fix an underperforming landing page. I agree 100% with #1. #2 is what I struggle with…

I’ve heard it many times especially during webinars and interviews with successful people. They would sometimes say that there’s nothing different about them. That they too put on their pants one leg at a time like you do. They say there isn’t anything really special about them and that means whatever they achieve you can too. While that is very motivating and I do buy that… up to a certain point. It is true they aren’t super men or women. However, there are certain things successful people do that others don’t. There are habits, mindsets and outlooks they hold that…

Came across this presentation today on Slideshare. Essentially, it’s about Brand Democracy where the heart of it is letting your customers become the story behind your brand. Check it out. [slideshare id=41029717&doc=branddemocracyhowtotellstoriesinthesocialera-141102190829-conversion-gate02] What do you think? Do you agree? Are you already practicing this and how? Show us what you’ve done.

It may have been mentioned before, but my husband always comments on how quickly I can fly through small tasks on my computer and be done before he even starts typing. Overall the two key areas that let me do that are: Getting better at touch typing. I began learning to type on a typewriter (yeah – those) since I was oh maybe 12 or 13. My mother had a book on typewriting dating from the 50’s. Every year during school vacation, I’d learn bit by bit. I’m still not as good as mom though, sometimes I stumble over my finger placement badly…