eGrowth Marketing

Good Riddance to the '00's...

2009-12-22T17:45:00.002-06:00

Good Riddance to the ’00s. History Suggests Things Will Be Better Over Next Ten Years

Worst 10 years in a row on the stock market.... Long term is a different picture.

Track Competitors Hits in Bit.ly

2009-12-19T10:46:00.003-06:00

Quick trick - copy a Bit.ly link. Paste in your address bar. Add a "+". Hit enter.

For example, http://bit.ly/5eGW7n+

Returns:

Thanks to Brent for the tip.

Pierce Technologies Receives 2009 Best of Business Awar

2009-12-15T12:22:00.002-06:00

Small Business Commerce Association’s Award Honors the Achievement

SAN FRANSICO, November 7, 2009, Nicholas E Pierce Technologies has been selected for the 2009 Best of Business Award in the Computer software and accessories category by the Small Business Commerce Association (SBCA)

The Small Business Commerce Association (SBCA) is pleased to announce that Nicholas E Pierce Technologies has been selected for the 2009 Best of Business Award in the Computer software and accessories category.

The SBCA 2009 Award Program recognizes the top 5% of small businesses throughout the country. Using consumer feedback, the SBCA identifies companies that we believe have demonstrated what makes small businesses a vital part of the American economy. The selection committee chooses the award winners from nominees based off information taken from monthly surveys administered by the SBCA, a review of consumer rankings, and other consumer reports. Award winners are a valuable asset to their community and exemplify what makes small businesses great.

About Small Business Commerce Association (SBCA)

Small Business Commerce Association (SBCA) is a San Francisco based organization. The SBCA is a private sector entity that aims to provide tactical guidance with many day to day issues that small business owners face. In addition to our main goal of providing a central repository of small business operational advice; we use consumer feedback to identify companies that exemplify what makes small business a vital part of the American economy.

SOURCE: Small Business Commerce Association

CONTACT:
Small Business Commerce Association
Email: Press@SBCAAwards.org
URL: http://www.SBCAAwards.org

Online Christmas 2009

2009-12-07T13:49:00.002-06:00

Working with online retailers is part of our marketing agency's practice. This year - 2009 - has been really interesting.

But the good news is in comparison to last year beginning of November - early December, the sales trends are much stronger.

We are seeing multiple items purchased in a sale return.
We see more impulse buying.
Average order size is on the rise.
Increase in one visit to purchase has increased.

While we are not rejoicing yet, the last 4 weeks have been strong. With continued activities on the website traffic from social media efforts, advertising and customer promotions, we predict a solid end to 2009.

Tips: What makes a great tag line....

2009-10-27T08:10:00.004-06:00

Naming a business is, to me, the second most difficult task for a business. Yes, you have to live with the business name daily for the life of the business. Yes, if you make a mistake it drives you crazy as your business changes. Yes, it is extremely difficult to change once you decide.

But - the tag line permeates everything else in your business. This makes the tag line actually more important. Tag lines -

Set the tone.
Answers the most nagging question of why you do what you do.
The "hook" for your prospects.
Employees react to that message.
Face front on all marketing pieces.
A conversation starter.
Makes a memorable marketing campaign or jingle.

Don't take this lightly. It is also the shortest piece of marketing verbage you own. Effective tag lines are 3 to 6 words. Reminder - you can trademark your tag line.

A few memorable examples:

You're in good hands... Allstate
Just do it... Nike
Snap, Crackle, Pop... Kellogg Rice Crispies
We try harder... Avis
We bring good things to life... GE
Don't leave home without it... AMEX

Don't go in to this process lightly. Make it a priority. This is a few things we do in our creative process for our clients:

Talk it out.
Mock up several tag lines with your logo.
Mock up various campaigns around the tag line.
Test it out on your website or other electronic media for comment.
Photoshop your tag line on a billboard.

Our tag line - "What did you sell today?" 5 words, short, engaging, and what my mother asks me every time I talk to her. Seriously, she is tougher than any sales manager I've ever had.

After all our creative conversation, mock ups and versions - this is the ultimate question-

Did your tag line work for you, or against you?

How to Import Your Blog To Facebook | eHow.com

2009-10-26T17:07:00.001-06:00

Twitter, no problem. Anything else, you name the platform, no problem. Facebook?????? Have to look at each time. Maybe keeping the information will help....

How to Import Your Blog To Facebook | eHow.com

Import Your Blog

Step 1

Head to the "My Notes" page once you have logged in to Facebook from the home page (see Resources below).
Step 2

Click on "Import a Blog" in the Notes Setting box.
Step 3

Enter the URL or RSS feed of your blog in the form provided. Be sure to select the box confirming your ownership rights and click the "Start Importing" link.
Step 4

Confirm that Facebook found the correct blog and choose to "Continue" or "Cancel" depending on the results. You can't edit external blog posts from within Facebook.
Step 5

Keep blogging! Facebook will automatically add your new blog posts as notes on your profile.

Success: Customer Success Story

2009-10-19T15:18:00.004-06:00

Just the facts, ma'm:

Our customer contracted on 7/21/2009.
The website relaunched on 9/24/2009.
Ready for Christmas sales.....

New Tool To Try: Share In

2009-10-13T12:23:00.002-06:00

Share In The blending of email and social media answer? Going to try and see...

Support and Contact Info: Google, Bing and Yahoo!

2009-10-10T11:01:00.007-06:00

Why is it company contact info is sometimes the hardest to find? Understand that answering the phone is a major business expense - but isn't that how you help prospects/customers/bring in money? Why else is it called "Customer Service"?

At least bookmark these - current (for now). Not sure how accurate all of these are, we'll be doing trouble shooting on Monday for a client...

Google's Support Page

Yahoo! Company Contact Us

Yahoo! Customer Service Numbers (as of 4 months ago)

Bing Customer Service

Gather and Use Twitter Metrics - wikiHow

2009-10-09T10:47:00.001-06:00

Gather and Use Twitter Metrics - wikiHow

How to Gather and Use Twitter Metrics

[hide]

Are you using Twitter to gain more visitors to your site? If so, do you know how effective your efforts are in achieving this goal? Twitter metrics are numbers related to Twitter that can help a person evaluate their standing in the social media community, or determine the effectiveness of campaigns on Twitter. There are a number of different tools for getting data regarding your twitter activity.

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[edit] Steps

Follower Count

Follower count is a metric that you will need to when looking at other metric data as you may want to divide this number by other numbers.

Go to Twitter.com and the profile of the account you want to get a followers total for.
Look for the box in the upper right hand corner. It should should say Name, Location, Web, Bio. Below that are the number of followers and the number of people the person is following.
Record those numbers as you will need them for other metrics described later in the article.
- As metric data, the general thinking is that for a company, the more followers the better. The ideal number for a company would to have over 2,000 followers. It shows interest in the general public of the company. A large number of followers also tends to demonstrate a degree of consumer awareness.
- If there is a huge difference between followers and following where the following far exceeds followers, then this metric generally indicates that the account belongs to a spammer.

Twitterholic

Twitterholic is a site which shows the growth of a Twitter account over time in relation to the number of new followers and follows. It also compares Twitter account follows based on region by ranking them.

Go to http://twitterholic.com/ .
In the box, type the name of the Twitter account you want to check the metrics for.
After you finish typing, hit the Go button. You will be taken to another page. The page will tell you, based on number of followers, what the account is ranked compared to all people on Twitter and in the region the person lists in their profile's location field. It will also show you a graph which shows the number of followers over time. Below that, a table will appear which also shows the same information as found in the graph.
- This metric can be useful in terms of identifying celebrities on Twitter as they will frequently be ranked highly in their geographic location and will have a graphs with steep incline because they will get a lot of followers in a short period of time as people find them.
- The rank for a region may be a helpful number in terms of identifying if your account has the right amount of recognition for the size of the geographic location it represents. Example: If you run a candy store in a small town in South Dakota, 300 followers may put you in the top of your region and you might have good recognition in your market area.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a common metric tool. This section presupposes that you have Google Analytics installed on a site and that you have access to it. This section looks at this metric to help you determine how effective Twitter is at driving traffic.

Login to Google Analytics.
Select the site you wish to measure how effective Twitter is. For example, let's say you want to see how much traffic your Twitter updates drive to your blog. Select your blog in Google Analytics.
Click on Traffic Sources on the left sidebar.
Click on Referring Sites.
In the Find Source box below the table, enter Twitter and click go. (If you see Twitter in the table, do not click on it as you will not get a clear picture as Twitter.com does not include mobile Twitter and Twitter search.)A new chart and table will appear. Below is an example of such a box from Fan History Wiki at fanhistory.com.
Look for the number of visits in the period. In the case of our sample, the Twitter account (fanhistorywiki) sent 157 visitors per month to the website in question. The Twitter account, as of this writing, has 2901 followers.
Calculate visits per follower. In the FanHistory example above, the site only receives a disappointing 0.05 visits per follower in a month period. Some higher benchmarks include wikiHow at 1.98 visits per follower or TechCrunch at .6 visits/follower. ^[1]). If your number is above 1.0 visits per follower per month, you are probably delivering compelling information for your followers. If your number is well below that, you are not doing so well and you may want to consider changing your Twitter strategy.

Site	Visits	Followers	Visits/Follower
wikiHow, 4/29/09	4427	2206	1.98
TechCrunch, 3/09^[1]	150,000	250,000 (estimated)	0.6
Fanhistory, 3/15/09	157	2901	0.05
EncyclopediaDramatica, 5/11/09	21,971	579	37.9

Tracking Retweets

Do a Twitter search for the name of your Twitter account and "RT". Then repeat with your Twitter name and "retweet" (because some people spell out the word when they retweet). The results will show which of your posts were retweeted, which means that your followers found them interesting enough to share with their followers. The higher percentage of your updates that get retweeted, the better.
Go to Retweetrank.com and enter your Twitter name into the text box. This will tell you how many retweets you're getting in relation to other Twitter users. Seek to raise your percentile.

Tracking Links

Create custom links for Twitter. Let's say you're tweeting about a particular blog post. Create a short URL under your domain that redirects to the actual blog post. Then see how much traffic that intermediate URL gets.
Use bit.ly to shorten and track links. To see how many clicks a link is getting through Twitter, add a plus sign (+) to the end of the bit.ly URL. For example, http://bit.ly/J5JCZ links to How to Unclog a Toilet. If you go to http://bit.ly/J5JCZ+ (note the plus sign) you will see traffic stats for that link. If you create an account with bit.ly, you can create your own custom link and track its performance separately from other bit.ly links pointing to the same page.

Twitalyzer

Go to Twitalyzer.com and type in the name of your account, or any account that you would like to research.
Read the results. The account is analyzed in five ways: influence, signal-to-noise ratio, generosity, velocity, and clout. See How to Understand Your Twitalyzer Analysis.

Sales Slump? You May Be Suffering from Disconnected Usage Disorder (DUD).

2009-10-07T14:33:00.004-06:00

Disconnected Usage Disorder (DUD) is a debilitating corporate dysfunction similar to multiple personality disorder in individuals. It’s the corporate version of Sybil or, more recently, Tara on the United States of Tara, Showtime’s comedic drama. For business, symptoms include weak sales and non-productive employees.

Recently, we were exposed to a case of DUD while attending a sales seminar conducted by two business consultants. The two pitched their consulting services to a group of senior executives from several different companies. The salesmen were articulate, engaging and presented a compelling story of increased revenues and profits. In general, they were the embodiment of the success aspired to by all the attendees. At the conclusion of the presentation, their pitch became a DUD.

The flimsy business cards they presented to the attendees could be found in any office supply store, ten blank cards to a sheet. The brochures didn’t match their presentation, in quality or content. And – when we pulled up their website – another DUD appeared. Tara was off her meds when she built this website.

Inconsistency is one of the quickest ways to raise doubts in the mind of your prospects. They need re-assurance, not conflicting messages.

Integrated communication does not change its message depending upon the media or audience. An integrated marketing approach addresses all prospect touch points, consistently. The impressions you make must be uniform across:

Print and electronic advertising or promotion, both online and offline;
Out-of-home advertising (e.g., outdoor and transit);
Trade shows and corporate events;
Corporate websites;
Prospect and client communication by customer service;
Sales presentations and proposals;
Collateral material including stationery, business cards and brochures;
Public relations.

One of the best ways to ensure communication consistency and avoid a DUD is to have a single internal individual or an external agency responsible for message development and delivery. As communications steward, this individual or agency should play a major role in supervising all communication programs. In addition to ensuring a more consistent message, having a single party responsible reduces the likelihood of nonproductive turf battles thereby increasing the efficiency (and efficacy) of the total effort.

In developing your integrated communications strategy, the first step is to know thyself. What is your corporate personality? What promises, implicit and explicit, are you making to your prospects? Then, eliminate the DUDs.

Elimination of inconsistent or conflicting messages increases corporate credibility, strengthens your market position and increases the likelihood of a sale. It also helps ensure that all your employees are “marching to the same tune” and that their efforts are more coordinated and productive.

eGrowth Marketing is an integrated marketing agency with a demonstrated expertise in strategic planning; sales training; message development and delivery; production supervision and program assessment.

twtpoll :: Do you use Google Adwords? (via @emarketgirl)

2009-09-15T07:36:00.001-06:00

twtpoll :: Do you use Google Adwords? (via @emarketgirl)

Posted using ShareThis

Halloween is Coming! Ready Retailers, Set, Go!

2009-09-15T06:17:00.005-06:00

On the web, we are putting this Halloween retail up there with Christmas.

There is a lot more buying of Halloween online than in year's past - already. Some of the buying can be attributed to pent up consumer demand. Some of the buying is the pure conversion of buying online vs store front. And we project the buying trend to continue in to Christmas.

Online sales give consumers multiple advantages - no sales tax directly charged, great convenience, and more choices. All good news for online retailers. And - the final piece of the puzzle - the credit card processors have made great inroads in consumer confidence to buy online.

The other trend we see with this Halloween going in to Christmas - is we project this is the last, great year to jump online with a merchant store. As a full line retailer (we see manufacturer's as a separate entity), the window of opportunity for a small retailer is almost closed. The big stores are in full force now. The advertising machine is almost totally cranked up - there is still "free" SEM out there but it will be mostly gone by Xmas 2010. And the sheer cost of putting up a 200+ SKU's as a practical matter from a cold start up with all the detail, photos, and functionality is almost impossible. That is what it takes. Plus you need to find a market space that is not crowded out by Amazon, Walmart and Target.

This fall shopping season - online - is set up to be monstrous for those that are set up and ready.

One of our clients has great fun with Halloween. Check out The Afternoon's selection of fun decor.

twtpoll :: Where are you getting your best prospecting leads? (via @emarketgirl)

2009-09-09T10:37:00.001-06:00

twtpoll :: Where are you getting your best prospecting leads? (via @emarketgirl)

Posted using ShareThis

Social Media: Short Movie

2009-09-08T17:39:00.002-06:00

Social Media Revolution:

Twitter Interesting Links of the Day

2009-09-02T11:19:00.003-06:00

Rather than blog separately today, there is a nice run of articles about Twitter.

100 Creative Twitter Backgrounds.

20 Crazy Things We Have Seen on Twitter

How to use Twitter to be more interactive.

Cabbie's Retweet Reunites Lost Blackberry.

Google adds languages to growing list.

2009-08-31T11:34:00.002-06:00

Google now translates in 51 languages.

Check out Google Toolbox as well.

Zoho Launches Sign-In Integration With Google Apps

2009-08-26T08:02:00.003-06:00

Zoho has come a long way. Major battle ahead with the giants - Microsoft and Google. Bet one will buy Zoho to get the full suit of apps they offer. Probably Google.

I like Zoho CRM. Easy, free for small users, all the apps are there. We have a few clients that use it and love it.

CRM is only as good as everyone using it every day.

Bing: New Collaberation with Wolfram | Alpha

2009-08-21T07:01:00.003-06:00

Interesting article out today on Wolfram | Alpha. They are selling their science and math results to Bing.

Top level results - data on your city, currency conversion, chemistry answers - all the math and science we hated in high school - is all there in masterful form.

But when we tested other statistical queries - like "demographics of internet users" and "internet users by age" no results.

Could get quick, clean IP information, hosting information, and geolocation information on any IP or domain. Plus great tools on the "Web and Internet" section.

There is still a tremendous amount of statistical data on the Internet. The race is on between the Bing /Wolfram Alpha team and Google....

Blogging to Improve Customer Relations

2009-08-06T15:40:00.004-06:00

Blogging is a great way to communicate with customers. This is a short vide o we did for the Nx Biz Success website.

Send blog and social marketing questions to Sally!

Twitter DDoS Attack - Layman's Explaination

2009-08-06T13:53:00.003-06:00

Twitter suffered a major denial of service attack today. (Below is the technical definition).

Think of it this way - an attacker puts code into your computer. Your computer could have been infected by lack of security software, no firewall or expired anti virus software. Then your computer is used as a dumb terminal to pound the target with requests. These requests take the target down by sheer volume of hits. And you may never know your computer was used as part of the scheme.

Another way to see this - think of a huge store sale. People wait outside for the doors to open. Everyone rushes in through the doors, crushing people through the small opening. That is what the attacker is doing - crushing the opening.

Denial of Service Attach Definition
- On the Internet, a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is one in which a multitude of compromised systems attack a single target, thereby causing denial of service for users of the targeted system. The flood of incoming messages to the target system essentially forces it to shut down, thereby denying service to the system to legitimate users.
A hacker (or, if you prefer, cracker) begins a DDoS attack by exploiting a vulnerability in one computer system and making it the DDoS "master." It is from the master system that the intruder identifies and communicates with other systems that can be compromised. The intruder loads cracking tools available on the Internet on multiple -- sometimes thousands of -- compromised systems. With a single command, the intruder instructs the controlled machines to launch one of many flood attacks against a specified target. The inundation of packets to the target causes a denial of service.
While the press tends to focus on the target of DDoS attacks as the victim, in reality there are many victims in a DDoS attack -- the final target and as well the systems controlled by the intruder.

LAST UPDATED: 10 Jul 2009

Apple's Rejection of Google Voice Points to Just One Thing

2009-08-04T14:31:00.007-06:00

Why would Apple deny customers the Google Voice functionality and risk the ire of the FCC?

We agree with eWeek. The clash of the business titans is coming. This is just another example of positioning for the fight ahead.

Cloud Computing: IT Delivery Model

2009-08-04T14:19:00.004-06:00

From eWeek July 20, a great article on cloud computing. Not to get as technical as they did but to make an easy point -

Cloud computing is a delivery model, not a technology. It represents the combination of some now mature technologies (taken from prior intitiatives such as grid computing, utility computing, SAAS and online storage) to create a paradigm shift in how IT is delivered.

Reminder - cloud computing used correctly is a great IT tool. There are pieces for everyone from enterprise level to the smallest business. Choose wisely.

Top 10 Pro Business States for 2009

2009-08-04T13:05:00.000-06:00

The study, “Pollina Corporate Top 10 Pro-Business States for 2009: Rebuilding American’s Economic Power,” evaluates and ranks states based on 33 factors, including taxes, human resources, right-to-work legislation, energy costs, infrastructure spending, workers’ compensation laws, economic incentive programs and state economic development efforts.

According to the study, the top 10 most business-friendly states are:

1. Virginia

2. Utah

3. North Carolina (2008 winner)

4. Wyoming

5. South Carolina

6. South Dakota

7. Kansas

8. Georgia

9. Florida

10. Nebraska

For the sixth consecutive year, California ranked last in the study.

Pollina Corporate Real Estate is a Park Ridge, Ill.-based brokerage and consulting firm, representing corporations in real estate matters on a national and international basis.

Quote of the Day: Thomas Jefferson

2009-08-03T07:19:00.001-06:00

A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have. - Thomas Jefferson

eGrowth Marketing

Good Riddance to the '00's...

Track Competitors Hits in Bit.ly

Pierce Technologies Receives 2009 Best of Business Awar

Online Christmas 2009

Tips: What makes a great tag line....

How to Import Your Blog To Facebook | eHow.com

Import Your Blog

Success: Customer Success Story

New Tool To Try: Share In

Support and Contact Info: Google, Bing and Yahoo!

Gather and Use Twitter Metrics - wikiHow

How to Gather and Use Twitter Metrics

Contents

[edit] Steps

Follower Count

Twitterholic

Google Analytics

Tracking Retweets

Tracking Links

Twitalyzer

Sales Slump? You May Be Suffering from Disconnected Usage Disorder (DUD).

twtpoll :: Do you use Google Adwords? (via @emarketgirl)

Halloween is Coming! Ready Retailers, Set, Go!

twtpoll :: Where are you getting your best prospecting leads? (via @emarketgirl)

Social Media: Short Movie

Twitter Interesting Links of the Day

Google adds languages to growing list.

Zoho Launches Sign-In Integration With Google Apps

Bing: New Collaberation with Wolfram | Alpha

Blogging to Improve Customer Relations

Twitter DDoS Attack - Layman's Explaination

Apple's Rejection of Google Voice Points to Just One Thing

Cloud Computing: IT Delivery Model

Top 10 Pro Business States for 2009

Quote of the Day: Thomas Jefferson