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Technology is Changing Marketing

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Marketing Your Business Online – It’s More Important Than Ever

I just bought a new TV recently and I need to start by saying I love it. It’s a bright, shiny new Sony Bravia LED TV that’s incredibly thin, has a brilliant picture and has become a bit of an eye opener for me. Anyone who knows me will quickly pick up on the fact that I am pretty technically inclined (read this as I a a gadget guy), but this new TV caught me completely off guard and it was only this morning that my mind really started to grasp the significance. Especially when it comes to marketing and business!

You see, the last TV I bought was over four years ago and my how things have changed in four short years. This previous TV was near the end of the cycle for that particular technology, so I was able to get a great deal, but this new TV is cutting edge, far superior and for significantly less. It’s already got my mind wandering as to what will be available in four years, but that’s for another post.

Right now, I need to get you up to speed on my revelation. [Read more…]

Is Your Business On YouTube? It Better Be!

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Are You on YouTube?YouTube


Recently I wrote an article about how Facebook has become a force and why it’s important for a company to get their Facebook Fanpage set up. Well, YouTube can be just as valuable to business as Facebook if a well designed marketing plan is created.

If you thought the Facebook Facts were interesting, look at these tidbits about YouTube.

  • Over 2,000,000,000 (yep that’s billion!) video views per day
  • 24 hours of video are uploaded every minute
  • YouTube is the second largest search engine, after Google
  • Video results are showing up more often in Google search results

What exactly does this mean to business? Opportunity! Some of the most popular videos on YouTube are informative how to style videos and this is mostly why YouTube has moved up to second place as a choice for a search engine.

Do you have a business with a product or service that could benefit from being explained via video? Often people want to be shown how something works or how to do a certain task with a product. One area I have found this to be beneficial is when I undertake a home renovation project.

There is no shortage of videos helping homeowners learn the process of repairing toilets, installing electrical devices or even fixing garage doors. More often than not, these videos are provided by people in that particular industry as a “public service”. Really though they are planting their product or service in the mind of consumers as a go to person or company for information, advise and potentially new sales.

Why You Want A Youtube Channel

Could your business benefit from a little extra exposure, a few more calls and some additional sales? I’m pretty sure we both know your answer to this question, otherwise you wouldn’t still be reading, would you?

This is where having your own YouTube channel can help give you an edge over the competition. Much like having a Facebook Fanpage, having a YouTube channel can set you and your business apart and provide you with one additional place to be found by potential customers.

A YouTube channel doesn’t have to be something elaborate and doesn’t have to contain an extensive collection of videos. It can be as simple as one video in your channel like this one,

Plaka Greek Restaurant YouTube Channel

The important aspect is that it is complete with plenty of information about your company, how to contact you and your services. In my example, note how the video contains information about what they offer, where they can be found and how to contact them. This is further reinforced on the channel itself as under their profile explains what they offer “Fine Greek Food”, their web address, their physical address and even a phone number for reservations and take-out orders. It’s simply another billboard out on the internet, which directs people back to your business. Which is really what marketing is really all about.

Now, much like almost everything on the internet, these channels can be highly customized to best position your business. This customization should be taken advantage of to help promote your product or service and to make it easier for potential clients to find out more. Here’s an example of an even more decked out channel with a very clear message.

Organizing Clutter Video Channel

From the channel name to the extensive number of videos it serves to promote the product and cater to people specifically looking for information on organizing and decluttering their home. This has helped to contribute to the success and growth of the channel and as this was written, to having over 500 subscribers and over 5,000 friends of the channel. Hopefully that number is even higher now as it’s my wife’s channel!

So How Can You Leverage YouTube?

Hopefully you understand the benefits of having a YouTube channel, but now it comes down to how you can use it to leverage your business on the internet. Let’s look at some quick ideas that worked for other businesses.

FAQ’s

Does your business have a list of Frequently Asked Questions by your clients? Why not create a series of videos that answer these questions and place them on your channel? This works two fold, the questions may turn up in search results when other people are inquiring about similar products and attract new clients and it may result in new business

What’s In the Box?

Do customers often wonder what all is included with a product you sell or a service you provide? If it’s a product in a box, video tape someone opening the box and explaining each item in the box. This would work incredibly well if you have a product like a video camera that includes additional cables for plugging into TV’s etc. The person explaining the items could explain what the “mystery cables” are used with.

If you are a furnace cleaning service, why not make a video detailing the areas of the furnace you inspect and explain how it benefits the client? What do you believe your clients want to know about your product or service? Tell them the answers in a video!

Compare Products

Do you have multiple products that are similar but have slightly different uses? For a drycleaner, perhaps you explain the difference between your cleaning process and the industry standard cleaning process (if yours is different of course, no fibbing!). If your company provides free onsite service, how does this benefit the client versus what the competition does?

Helping You Market Online

Really, there is no limit to the ideas available to help increase your marketing, for your particular business, the only limit is your creativity. If you are absolutely stymied, send me a quick email with info about your product and I will send you some ideas back.

Now I’m not sure what type of feedback I will get from people. I may have a thousand people read this and only one emails me, or I could have 50 people read this and all 50 can see the value and request some ideas. It’s kind of a shot in the dark, so I’ll start this off by putting an imaginary cap of a maximum of five emails of these a month, but perhaps I can feature them in a post every month or two that will also help provide your product or service with extra exposure. It’s free to you, so what do you have to lose?

So don’t wait, send me an email with your questions! Or just as good, send me an email to tell us how you market your business or service online!

Facebook Fanpages – Why They Matter

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Facebook is a Force

If you haven’t noticed, Facebook has quietly become a dominant force online. In the last year, it’s had some very notable achievements, not the least of which is an entire movie called The Social Network!

Here are some quick facts about Facebook.

  • Over 500 million users worldwide
  • 50% of users login to Facebook any given day
  • 700 billion minutes are spent on Facebook, each month

The implications of this to a business owner are huge. Over 500 million users all in one place is exciting enough, but knowing how often people log in to the site and how much time they spend online with Facebook just make it that much more enticing.

You Need a FaceBook Fanpage

Now you have to understand that you are not the only person or company that has noticed this. Facebook has become such a huge enterprise that it has led to a multitude of different businesses processes being built to complement it and even to profit from it and there is no reason you cannot be one of them. If you are currently on the outside looking in, one of the most important steps a business can make to start becoming involved, is to claim your own Facebook Fanpage .

Your Facebook Fanpage will allow your business to have that first step into the world of Facebook and Social Media. If you believe that this doesn’t make a difference you might want to be aware that over 80 of the top 100 websites based out of the US have integrated with Facebook and over 2 millions websites worldwide have integrated themselves with Facebook, usually directly via Fanpages.

Of course, there is more to just having a Fanpage, but getting that page started is the crucial step that is needed to move forward and getting their company noticed. Once it is up and running it provides you with the beginning platform to promote your business, to grow a tribe of raving fans and to allow you to become seen by a much broader audience.

Most importantly, this potential audience has an average of 130 friends linked to them in Facebook, many of whom are just like them and are likely to be influenced by their decisions. If you have a product or service that benefits from people talking about you in a positive way can you see where this can lead?

The question at this point isn’t whether you need a Facebook Fanpage, really, it’s how quickly you can get it up and running and start using it as a platform. So what are you waiting for? Shouldn’t you be out there starting your own Fanpage?

Well, this is where the wheels tend to fall off and good intent often gets overwhelmed by sheer confusion. While it’s important to get a Fanpage set up, it can be a rather confusing process. But don’t give up, you still have options! If you absolutely positively have to get something up now, this is just one of the services we can provide, or you can find someone else to hire to get the work completed. However, if you can hang on for a week or two and want to tackle this yourself, I am in the process of putting together a guide that will take you through the process.

Decision Time

So you have some decisions to make, but let me give you your options.

If you have plenty of time and don’t mind leisurely getting around to it, there are plenty of free and paid resources out on the internet as to how to set up a Fanpage. With a little searching around and some time spent with Google, you should be able to find some information on how to get started. Just be careful you have the current information. Facebook has made a couple of huge changes just in the last few months and older guides may be more confusing now than helpful as the process has changed a bit.

If you have some time, understand you need to get on this, but can wait a bit longer, I recommend you scroll up to the top of the page and fill out the form near the top right of the page and grab your Free Social Media Report. By filling out the form, I will provide you with some great additional information about what is happening with Social Media as a marketing tool and how it is affecting business right now. Plus when the guide is available, you will be the first to know as I will update people on that list immediately!

Finally, if this is time sensitive  and need a Fanpage ASAP away email me at bill@billbiko.com and we can get started moving forward almost immediately and getting you set up. I’ll need some information from you, a bit of understanding about your business, what your aspirations are and how I can help you get there to start. Once we have that we’ll get you set up quickly and correctly, so you are off to the right start immediately.

Just to conclude this, I would love to know your thoughts about Facebook and Fanpages, so if you have one already please tell us about it. Just leave us a comment below. Or if you have a favourite Fanpage from another business you like, why don’t you tell us about it too!

Web Video – How to Market Your Business with Web video

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Ironically, I create web video promotions for other local businesses, but when it comes time for my site, I’m the last person in line. Well, hopefully I can change that over the next week.

I’ve scheduled some time to do some quick videos, so watch for them to appear shortly, along with some other changes for the site as well. In the meantime, I’ll use some of the videos I have recently put together to help explain web video marketing for local businesses a bit better.

If you aren’t aware of some of the recent headlines, more and more people are moving away from regular TV and watching all their shows and movies online. Companies like Apple with iTunes and Netflix with their service are making it easier and easier to accomplish this.

This is all leading to an entire marketing shift, at least for those paying attention. Effectiveness of Yellow Pages ads has dropped drastically (yet prices continue to go up) as people search online rather than leafing through big phone books, commercials on regular television have become costlier, yet less effective and with PVR’s saturating the market the majority get fast forwarded through anyway. Even local radio ads are losing effectiveness as more people switch to satellite radio services.

So how can companies get their products and services in front of consumer’s eyes? One huge area of potential is Facebook. If you are on Facebook, who hasn’t seen a video marketing a product on their wall or an ad down the side of their profile page? Combine this with the explosion of Facebook Fanpages (which ironically even show up at the end of TV commercials that are fast forwarded anyway) and you can understand why  Facebook is poised to become a major player for companies advertising online.

As an example, just last week our Realtor took my wife and I out for lunch to a fabulous little Greek restaurant here in Calgary, Plaka Greek Taverna. We had such a great time there we are looking forward to going back. Now while I was there, I managed to take some pictures, capture a little video and then when I had some time, I put the following video together, and then I added it to my Facebook stream to show to people and help promote Yianni’s business

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After seeing the video, wouldn’t you like to go for lunch there? If you do, tell them you came after seeing the video Bill did!!! This is a simple example of how you can market your business online by using web video.

The important aspects of the video, which are often missed by people creating their own promotional videos, are the following;

  1. The name of the business is listed several times
  2. The phone number and address are included for people to write down
  3. Music adds to the experience
  4. It’s short, but effective

If you are interested in creating some web videos to help promote your business online, be sure to include the above information in them. Alternatively if you would be interested in having me come in and talk about creating some promotional videos for you, I can be reached via email at bill(at)bill.biko.com, just replace the (at) with @, or you can reach me via phone at 403-870-4663.

Internet Marketing in Calgary – Marketing Without a Net Part 9

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So here we are 45 days since I started and it’s time for a recap. My original goal was to capture at least one spot on page one of the Google search for one of the various keywords, granite countertop companies Calgary, granite countertop installers Calgary, granite countertops calgary, granite installers calgary and granite countertop Calgary.

I have no experience in the granite industry, yet I put together a report on “How to Choose a Granite Countertop Installer in Calgary” by spending a day researching and writing. I also created an additional report on how to clean granite countertops as a bonus.

From there I created a set of four videos covering “the Myths About Granite” and a couple other quick versions for my lead capture page and one to push out to various video sites. I also put together one article talking about Granite versus Marble Countertops. Then finally about a week ago, I put together a blog site to help expand the info.

So what are the results after 45 days? Overall I am pretty disappointed, but I did learn quite a bit. With some of Google’s new updates to their search algorithms I realized that a Lead Capture Page isn’t enough. Future campaigns will have more complete launches as part of the package.

Next, five videos simply isn’t enough. It’s getting tougher to get the backlinks to the pages recognized and longer for them to appear. For real traction it appears I need at least ten videos out there if not more.

So back to the results. The best I did was two keywords on page 1 for just under a week, Granite Countertop companies Calgary made it to 7 and Granite Countertop Installers Calgary made it to 9. Granite countertops Calgary and Granite Installers Calgary both made it into the low teens, but didn’t crack page one.

Now I do have a lot of spots on page two and three for various videos and the article and there is potential over time for them to slip forward, but it will require more dedicated time for it. Overall I had roughly 60 visits to the site and zero leads captured. Was it the reports? Was it the titles? Still a bit early to tell.

It’s most interesting when I compare it to another campaign I am running for someone where we have 11 videos out already and more coming. This client is currently operating with 10% of his visitors clicking through for his report. So good news is the Granite test which is an experiment and unpaid isn’t performing, but the  work I am getting paid for is doing gangbusters.

Just to provide an idea of how gangbusters, here’s a couple screenshots of two searches, the yellow highlighted areas are the videos we put together;

5 spots on page 1 of Google out of 428,000 results makes me pretty happy, but…

8 spots on page 1 of Google out of 274,000 results isn’t too shabby either. Plus we have other keywords also working for us.

In the end, I understand I need more content to push out. Ideally when I contact some of the Granite companies next week, I find one or two who understand the opportunity that this presents. If I can work with them and can get into their shops and/or a couple of their job sites to create some branded videos for them, I can bring them some new business, which this is really all about.

If you have a small business and would like to inquire about us creating a web video campaign for you simply email us directly or leave us a comment below.

Internet Marketing in Calgary – Internet Marketing Without a Net Part 8

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OK, I admit it, I have been slacking! I haven’t really done anything in almost two weeks on this project as I was too busy launching another site for a client. It went live last week and I already have more videos and articles out than my granite countertop promotion.

Guess the difference is one I am getting paid for, while the other I may or may not eventually get paid for. My intent was to start a blog as well, but just hasn’t been in the schedule yet. Still the results aren’t bad!

Right now I am sitting as follows;

Granite countertop installers Calgary …..8th spot in Google

Granite countertop companies Calgary …8th spot in Google

Granite installers Calgary …………………9th spot in Google

Granite countertops Calgary………………..12th spot in Google

Granite countertop Calgary…………………..34th spot in Google

The links from other sites are slowly starting to build and it’s really a matter of me adding more videos and/or articles and some time. My deadline to get back to all the granite companies I emailed is coming up fast, so by the end of this week I will email them again to see if there are any takers.

From my perspective, the real value for these companies is the groundwork is already done. At this point I could come into their offices or shops, easily create another ten videos and brand everything with their company information. It could even include pictures or video of some of their best installs.

Over time it would help push them up the rankings even more, provide them with potentially two first page rankings (if it was someone from page one who went with me that is!) and create another steady stream of potential clients. Of course we have to wait and see what happens now won’t we!

Internet Marketing in Calgary – Marketing Without a Net Part 7

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Our little experiment with local internet marketing is still slowly moving forward, but it looks like I am going to have to throw some more tools into the fray. Currently for a local search of granite countertops in Calgary I am stuck at spot number 13. I’m also still holding ninth with “granite countertops companies Calgary”

I’ve managed to get some nice quality backlinks lined up, but obviously not enough to help me move up a few notches. Interestingly, if I use some special search tools to get results as if I was searching from some other city or country for granite countertops Calgary, I show up in the 7th position. This just goes to show how much more relevance Google is placing on local search results as I drop five spots.

One of the sticking points I currently have is the lack of what is called deep links. Deep links are links to pages other than the front page of a site and they can go a long way to helping establish relevance on a site. This relates back to why content is king for a site, the more pages of content, the more potential links back to you from other sources.

Since I only have the lead capture page in place currently, there really isn’t anywhere else to link, so my next step will be to put a quick and dirty WordPress blog in place. In a traditional campaign for a local small business in Calgary, this would include information about hours, locations, contact information along with several informative articles about the business’s services or products. It would also be a source to see more of the small business’s videos.

This is the tact I will take here as well. I have a couple other blog sites I need to finalize first and get some more updates and videos on and then I will be able to donate some time back to this venture. So in the meantime watch for more updates, or if you are interested in talking to me about helping you market your small business online locally in Calgary please contact us for a free consultation.

Internet Marketing in Calgary – Marketing Without a Net Part 6

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At this point we’ve kind of reached a wall. It’s still fairly early in the process and as of this evening I now have four different videos pushed out there and I submitted one article. In a perfect world we would be sitting around 250 different sources having our little bit of info, but as of earlier this evening we only had two backlinks showing up.

So it will take some time for these articles to start appearing and the videos, which used to rank within hours, have definitely slowed down in the speed of them appearing. Yet they are showing up, so now it’s just a matter of patience and seeing what next week brings.

Internet Marketing in Calgary – Marketing Without a Net Part 5

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Good News and Bad News

OK, perhaps it really isn’t bad news, but it sounded better than good news and OK news! So first the “bad news”, we climbed up a bit higher in the rankings, but only one spot! We have crawled up to lucky 13 spot.

We have two videos out presently and another should go out in the next few days. Since this is sort of  “test” project, I am only donating spare time to it and it is taking off slower than it should. In the perfect campaign world, we would launch four or five videos within the first week to get immediate traction. By submitting less and on a slower pace, we of course are getting results slower.

Now for the good news! For one of the other search terms “granite countertop companies calgary”, one of our videos is showing up on page one already and is sitting in ninth spot! We are also showing up in #32 with a video as well.

We’re still not high enough to get any steady traffic, just a couple hits here and there, but it’s moving forward. I will be making one small change to the main landing page, http://www.granitecountertopscalgary.com. I currently ask for name, email and phone. I’m going to take phone out and just leave it as name and email.

I’d been thinking about this for a few days now and people will tend to be a bit more reluctant about releasing their phone number to get access to the Free granite countertop installer report. So initially this will help draw leads, at least on paper!