Posted by Suzanne on July 19th, 2010
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO for those “in the know,” didn’t just become a fancy buzzword. It became an industry almost overnight. Now most web savvy CEOs and entrepreneurs know getting a high Google ranking is paramount, especially for service-based businesses whose leads typically come from directory searches: “best marketing Toronto;” “cheap duct cleaners in Brampton;” “24 hour plumbers.”
Caffeine in your “Organic Coffee Suppliers.”
Here are the facts about Google’s “Caffeine” Index, released last month.
- Nearly 100 million gigabytes of storage in one database = Largest Index Ever
- Every second Caffeine processes hundreds of thousands of pages in parallel
- 50% fresher results compared with the old indexing system
So what does that mean to the searcher?
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Tags: Google, SEO, social media
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Posted by Suzanne on May 13th, 2010
Likening himself to everybody else, Christopher Walken (playing “famed producer Bruce Dickinson” in a now legendary SNL skit) tells Blue Oyster Cult he puts his pants on one leg at a time. The “only difference” is when his pants are on he makes gold records.
Be a Mac
In a series of earlier ads, Mac pitted itself universally against PC – positioning itself as the virus-free alternative computer. Two things were incredibly clever about this campaign. Firstly, Mac’s positioning strategy was actually one of re-positioning the competition (PC) – as a headache product that always breaks down. As a result Mac’s position became the computer that never breaks down. The second smart thing the campaign did Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: difference, differentiator, Mac, PC, positioning, repositioning, SNL
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Posted by Suzanne on April 26th, 2010
My mother used to tease me whenever I hurt myself. She said I was overly dramatic in my carrying on of “owws” and “ohhhs.” Maybe it was a tactic to make me laugh – to ease the pain. Most times it worked. Except when it really hurt. When it really hurt I didn’t think she was very funny at all. And I sure didn’t think it was up to her to measure how much pain I was really in anyway. I mean, how could she know?
Getting to the root of objection
When it comes to making a sale you have to sift through a lot of problems before you can get to the root: the pain. Perhaps you’re sifting through price oppositions or busy schedules? Indecision-makers or budgetary constraints? Whatever you’re selling, it’s a solution. The fact is you can’t provide solutions without really understanding the problem. And every problem is rooted in pain.
Why pain is important
It would be careless of a doctor to diagnose before giving a full exam. In sales it’s equally careless to focus on you/your product/your company when you should be focused on your prospect. In general it demonstrates a lack of concern, and without knowing the pain you can’t prescribe the remedy. Unlocking the pain creates a simple connection between your prospect’s problem and your benefit.
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Tags: benefit, missed opportunity, pain, problem, prospect, Sales, solution
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Posted by Suzanne on April 8th, 2010
When I say advertising, you all scatter.
In elementary school we played a game called Spud – someone would count to ten and the rest of us would run as far out as we could to avoid getting hit by a big rubber ball. The word Advertising has a scatter effect too. It sends our minds in far out directions. To the Superbowl and Coca-Cola; to dollar amounts with many zeroes and knee-jerk use of the “television” example. Or it sends us the other way to simpler, affordable methods like flyers, printed post cards and the beloved “Fabric, fabric” (30% off fabric) man at the corner of Toronto’s Queen St. and Spadina Ave. What’s left is the big space in the middle.
Are you caught somewhere in between here and there?
With so much distance between concepts it’s hard to know where you fit in. Have you developed a quality consumer product and a profitable business in a sector dominated by international players? Do you have a successful regional brand that’s come far on word of mouth alone? Are you looking to break into new markets and unsure how to go about it? If you’re asking these questions you may be ready for an agency.
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Tags: advertising, agency, facebook, marketing, new marketing, new markets, new media, widgets
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Posted by Suzanne on March 29th, 2010
As I downloaded the latest Radiohead song I was reminded how the Music industry fell asleep then fell apart. Then I thought of Television, who seems to have woken up just in time to make peace with advertisers and the Internet. Change is afoot and yet we seem to be dragging ours!
The times they are a changing
You see how our little new technology division has become the beacon of hope for the company? How even as we watch the numbers climb, slowly to be sure, elation evades us because those numbers are migrating from our own market share in other categories? You see how it has all come down to survival and still you won’t grant me a marketing budget?
How can you expect sales to increase by doing nothing?
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Tags: competition, marketing, position, Sales, technology, warfare
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