Why now is the best time to market your business

When the powers that be decided to nuke the economy a few years back, the advice I gave to clients was “step up your marketing and you’ll do fine.” Many did not take that advice and they are no longer in business. One even called me BEFORE the collapse of the markets and said “The economy is going to get bad, so we are just going to shut down.”

What I have been saying has now been supported by an an analysis of advertising effectiveness published in Ad Age. It reported: “ADVERTISING IS MORE EFFECTIVE IN RECESSIONS THAN IN EXPANSIONS: The reason for this effect could be that advertising during the recession is less noisy. Thus, consumers are more likely to notice and respond during a recession than in an expansion. More generally, a contrarian perspective may be worth testing — advertise when the market does not and cut back when the market does.”

This also supports another message I have been pushing: If everyone else is doing it, do the opposite.

So right now, everyone else is cutting back on their advertising and marketing thinking there are no customers.  This is your golden opportunity.  No matter what the headlines report, people still have no choice but to consume the goods and services provided by others.  Now that others have cut back on marketing, it is that much easier for you to be heard and get the business they are wasting.

Think about it.  Your competitors are leaving this business on the table.  Isn’t it time you claim it for yourself?

SEO Saturation

To obtain the first position in the search engine results returned by google is a highly desirable goal. But to obtain the first 3 or 4 position on three different critical keyword phrases is what is called SEO Saturation.

That is what we just accomplished for our client Denver Tech Advisors, a company that specializes in Enterprise Resource Planning. We redesigned their site to give it a more professional look paying close attention to search engine optimization as we created it.  They then signed up for our SEO maintenance plan and we are pleased to show the results below in less than a month’s time.

If you would like to improve your websites visibility, please visit See Beyond Multimedia and contact us for an estimate.

SEO Results: top 3 positions of 330,000 results

Search Engine Optimization Results: top 4 results out of 650,000

SEO Results - Top 4 positions of over 1 million results

 

Are You Courting a Social Media Lawsuit?

Social Media is different things to different people.  Terms that describe it range from an addiction, to a time sapper, to a necessary evil, to a great marketing tool.  All of those descriptions are appropriate depending on how you choose to interact with it.  I have seen marketing strategies executed on Social Media that are absolutely brilliant.  I have also seen mistakes made that could easily result in a lawsuit that could cost you your business.

The basic problem here seems to be with the internet itself.  In the early days, the promise was that it was the “great equalizer” and the mom and pop grocery store would be able to compete on the same level playing field as a Fortune 500 company.  While this is far from true, the large number of free applications, blogs, etc have made it possible for anyone to gain an online presence, and even call themselves experts.

Therein lies the problem.  As more and more people set up shop who may have the talent to do the work but not the professional background to know the ropes of an industry, trouble can occur.  One of the most prevalent of these issues comes under the heading of Copyright and Trademark law.

In the print era copyright was a little more respected. But somehow the ease of right clicking an image, or copying and pasting someone else’s copy was just too easy to resist.  And Social Media has been bending the traditional rules of marketing where one could feel that a large designer such as Abercrombie, or Guess Jeans may be thrilled to have their advertising images plastered on every blog and Facebook page they can get.  Afterall, it’s free advertising, right?

Don’t count on it.  It could be the invitation to the lawsuit that you can’t afford.  While it is free advertising, they also have their branding to consider and may not appreciate having their corporate image used outside of their control.  There is also the very real probability that the photographer is the copyright holder of the images and will take action when his/her images are used by those who have not paid to license them.

Social Media seems to have changed all the rules where many believe that everyone wants their intellectual property to be stolen, reposted and linked to.  Many so called “professionals” are now even claiming that they are doing people a favor by stealing and reposting their content.    Many blogs even offer little widgets/buttons that will allow you to completely copy and repost someone else’s post.  That doesn’t make it legal.  It hasn’t changed the law, and hopefully it never will.  One cannot long create content without payment for doing so… and many are beginning to take the necessary legal actions to protect their earning power.

Granted, you are not likely to use an Abercrombie or Guess Jeans marketing image for your company (though there are numerous blogs that do nothing other than repost such work in the hope it will draw enough visitors to make a killing off affiliate and pay per click ads) but the same concerns apply.

Do you have the rights to use the images you have on your website, blog or social media?  Or do you just assume no one will mind?  The same goes for copy.  Another point too consider is do you, or does the photographer have model releases from the people in the photos?  That photo of customers in your store could cost a pretty penny if used in a marketing campaign without the express written permission of those in the picture.

The internet changed the game for sure.  But copyright laws apply regardless of the medium.  According to the United States Copyright Office, copyright is “a form of protection grounded in the US Constitution and granted by law for original works of authorship fixed in a tangible medium of expression.”  Just because content is online does not mean it can be reposted or used in other materials.  A copyright violation opens you to a $150,000 violation plus other damages.

The best solution is to create your own content.  When using somone else’s content, take the time to get written permission first.  Be certain anyone you may outsource your Social Media to or employees who may be updating your Social Media are aware of the rules of the game and don’t expose you to potential liabilities.  For more information, visit the Copyright Alliance.

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Selling Real Estate for Food

Gotta love this picture, and no, Pete Doty is not broke but he has decided to do his part to help those who may be having difficulties.  He is currently donating $100 to the Food Bank for every home he sells. Want to help out too?  You can join Pete and also make a pledge for each house he sells in whatever amount you choose.  Click here to contribute.

Real Estate Website gets a Facelift

Denver Relocation has been a successful website as a resource for people looking to relocate in Colorado, or simply move across town.  In time however, it began to take on a cluttered look that limited its effectiveness.  We worked  to give the site a facelift.  Care was used to keep any search engine optimization that was working in place and improve on that which was not.  We also worked to to create a design that would migrate seamlessly into the large existing website and maintain a look that would blend well with his other web properties.

Screen shot of the Denver Relocation website redesign.

Coming through for the client

We had no sooner inked the deal to redesign the Denver Tech Advisors website to give it a more professional look and utilize some of the more up-to-date technologies than an opportunity presented itself to the client through which the site was going to be seen by thousands of their ideal clients.  The website HAD to look good when that occurred.

The problem?  It was the close of the business day on Friday.  The webinar that would have the eyes of the world on the client was to happen the following Monday morning.  As the old site was a template that came with their hosting plan, there was nothing we could do to improve it short of starting new… which was the plan.  Just not overnight.  Literally.

At first, the only answer to the question what can you do to have the site looking professional by Monday morning appeared to be “Nothing”.  But the importance of the situation was clear and our basic belief is that we are only as valuable to our clients as we can help them… perhaps especially in situations where no one else would.

So we showed the client some existing sites that had designs similar to what we had discussed, verbally discussed what changes we would make to what we were looking at and told the client he was going to have to “trust us” and we would have something online by Monday morning that would be light years ahead of what he currently had.  This would be a temporary site to help them not lose any of the potential new business and then sit down to work on the “real” site once the more pressing urgency had been handled.

What we hoped to do fast turned into an all-nighter, but by Saturday morning we had the new site up allowing plenty of time for the client to review it before the Monday webinar.  The client loved it and we loved being able to come through in a crisis by doing the “impossible.”

By the way, if you are looking for Enterprise Resource Planning, we highly recommend Denver Tech Advisors.  If we didn’t believe in them as well, we wouldn’t have done it.  And for Denver Website Design or Search Engine Optimization, we would like to see what we can do to help you as well.

Before and after screenshots of a website design for a client

The Colorado Creative Community

Ask anyone involved in the visual arts in Colorado and they will tell you they believe Colorado is a magnet for artists.  And why not.  Where else is the geography more inspiring and versatile.

A recent study by the Colorado Creative Industries released statistics proving this is true.  Colorado ranks fifth in the nation for concentration of artists.  It is surpassed only by New York, California, Massachusetts and Vermont.

The creative community in Colorado is also responsible for providing 3.9% of the state’s jobs, employing more people than defense an security, agribusiness, and food processing and technology.

Read the study here.  If you are looking for the best in creative talent, your photographer, videographer, web designers and ad agencies are to be found right here.

Visual Artist Networking Event

If you are working within the visual arts industry in Colorado, please take a moment to drop in to the American Photographic Artists Resolve to Connect mixer at Breckenridge Brewery Wed Jan 19th 6 – 9 PM.  Free Admission, $2.50 beers.   4th and Kalamath Streets.

Is your website gathering dust?

In the 12 years that I have been developing web sites, I still find myself surprised at the number of people who have put up and site and then never done anything with it after that point.

It’s a bit like printing brochures and putting the box in the closet after the printer delivers them.

One of the beautiful things about a web site is how easy it is to keep information about your company and services up to date.  That is one of the reasons it has become the central hub of your marketing efforts.  People know they can go to it to find the most current information about you, ranging from your hours and location, to any updates in the services you are offering.

Not only do your prospects and clients expect to find up-to-date information on your site, so does Google and the other major search engines.  It has recently come to my attention that google takes into consideration how up to date your site is in determining your placement.  Let six months or a year go by without making some updates to your content and you will start seeing your page rankings drop.

It’s also one of the reasons search engine optimization isn’t a one shot deal.  Devote a little time and energy to keeping the content of your website fresh and it will return the results to you ten-fold.  And, of course, we are always happy to help you with any of your website design needs.

Sharing a good laugh

I thought you might enjoy the fun we had taping the Ask Wy, Cooking with Tea series.  As you will see in the video, the most difficult part about the recipes in these cooking demonstrations is saying the name.

So if your day is getting a bit too serious, sit back and enjoy a laugh.  Be sure to check out Ask Wy, Cooking with Tea for some dinner time drinks and meals.