Browse published articles attributed to Susan Friesen, with full-archive search.
Simple Blogging Tips To Get You More Raving Fans Knowing how to make your blog engaging is one of the most important elements of any smart digital marketing strategy. I encourage all small business entrepreneurs to start blogging, because a blog can dramatically increase brand awareness and drive quality traffic to your website. In today’s digital landscape, using blogs to convert just makes sense.
When you’re trying to build a profitable business, branding is everything. No matter what products or services you’re trying to sell, without the right branding, it’s going to be hard to gain recognition, inspire trust, or communicate the right message to potential customers, and as a result, your business will be more likely to fail. If your branding looks like it was done by an amateur, it can turn people off and make them think twice about spending their hard-ea ed money on whatever it is you’re selling.
4 Essential Business Marketing Budget Tips I know, I know: we haven’t even reached Halloween yet, let alone the holidays. But stay with me. Because if you’re a fellow entrepreneur, now is the time to start thinking about your business goals for 2022. Business goals start with marketing. And marketing starts with a plan. Start planning early, and you set yourself up ahead of your competition, so you’re ready to hit the ground running in 2022.
New entrepreneurs have wonderfully enthusiastic energy about them; it’s an exhilarating time for sure. They’re ecstatic that their vision is coming to fruition, and thrilled to showcase the website they created. Naturally, they want to tell the world about what they do and have big hopes and dreams for being inundated with leads that will keep them joyfully busy. But then I come along and burst their bubble. Well, sort of.
Over the years I’ve seen a lot of business owners who haven’t taken the time to learn how to define brand identity. Some of them feel like they don’t have the time, others are intimidated because they don’t know the first thing about branding, and some don’t even think it’s important at all. But the fact of the matter is when businesses are inconsistent in their branding or have yet to define their brand, it dilutes their ability to connect with potential customers and diminishes the impact of all their marketing materials.
A Case Study on Rose Marie Swanson No matter what kind of business you own, if you want to ensure a successful rebrand, you’ve got to be perceived as trustworthy. Hopefully, once you’ve gotten to the point of wanting to refresh your brand, you’ll have already built up a considerable amount of trust. But if you don’t do what you can to preserve what you’ve already built, you could alienate your customers and quickly lose whatever trust you have. If you’re the owner of a well-established brand, regardless of how trustworthy it might seem, this becomes even more important.
The end of the year is a time for reflection, both personally and professionally. And if you deal with search engine optimization (SEO) on a daily basis like we do, then now is the perfect time to reflect on SEO trends for 2023 and consider what changes you should make to your SEO strategy to ensure you stay on top of the search results. But even if you don’t deal with SEO the way we do, if you own a business, this is something you’re going to want to think about.
Believe it or not, the holidays are just around the corner. Now is the time smart businesses are planning and rolling out their holiday marketing – especially since the pandemic is still affecting supply chains and local economies. No matter what type of small business you have, there’s no doubt the retail landscape has shifted. That means your holiday marketing plan should shift, too. Digital Plays A Major Role in 2021 Holiday Shoppingr Last year, people were shopping online like never before.
Love it or hate it, there’s no denying that social media has forever changed our lives. It’s made the world seem smaller than ever by allowing us to make friends from around the world, given us the ability to join thriving online communities of people who share similar interests and passions, and offered unique opportunities for employers and job seekers to connect and interact.
That being said, in keeping with my mission to help business owners and entrepreneurs achieve greater success, I thought it would be good to share some insight on this topic. After building websites for well over 20 years, I’ve learned a thing or two about what kind of website will work best for a particular business. So, if you’re asking yourself, “What kind of website does my business need?” then this article should give you a better idea of what will work best for you. What Kind of Website Does My Business Need?r
It’s not news that video is at the forefront of marketing these days. From creating videos for your website to hosting Facebook Live sessions, this marketing tool has transformed from a nice-to-have to a must-have if you want to effectively engage with your audience and build a loyal following who will be more likely to purchase from you. Video-based marketing is a great way to stand out from the multiple messages people get in their inboxes every day, not to mention how effective it is on social media.
How smart companies use images to boost their online presence You might think for an agency that does so much web design and blogging, we’re just writing and geeking out on code all day. And that’s partly true - we do do a lot of writing and custom coding (see why custom built websites are usually your best bet here). But part of being a good digital agency is understanding the role that visuals play, both in creating a website and fostering an online brand and presence. Forget the old saying. Online, a picture is worth way more than a thousand words.
Establishing values is an integral part of the creation of any successful brand. But why are brand values, something which can seem so insignificant, so vital to the success of your brand? Well, when you promote brand values, it allows you to establish an emotional connection with current customers and potential patrons, giving you the opportunity to build much-needed trust, loyalty, and familiarity.
See Why Now’s A Great Time To Update Your Website – And Howr Designing a website that drives conversions by giving potential customers what they want can be a long, difficult process. Among other things, it’s got to look great, the user interface has to be just right, and you have to find ways to say everything that needs to be said with as few words as possible. Believe it or not, even after two decades of designing websites, creating something that checks all those boxes still feels like no small feat.
See Why Now’s A Great Time To Update Your Website – And Howr Designing a website that drives conversions by giving potential customers what they want can be a long, difficult process. Among other things, it’s got to look great, the user interface has to be just right, and you have to find ways to say everything that needs to be said with as few words as possible. Believe it or not, even after two decades of designing websites, creating something that checks all those boxes still feels like no small feat.
The end of each year is a time for reflection, both personally and professionally. Nearing the end of 2021, one of the things I started to see – as I do every year – was expert predictions on the future of marketing, including everything from the SEO trends 2022 will be defined by to the social media strategies which are likely to shape the coming year.
If you want your brand to thrive, it has to inspire trust in the minds of consumers. This is of the utmost importance, regardless of the size or nature of your business, because in today’s trust economy, people are more conce ed than ever about whether a brand can be trusted, and whether its values are aligned with theirs.
When you’ve been helping business owners to build their brands for as long as I have, you learn a thing or two about brand consistency, and why it’s so important. But what is a brand anyway? The term gets thrown around a lot, but in my experience, a lot of people (business owners included) would be unable to define it. Many people think it’s just a logo or a website, but the truth is, it’s much more than that. A brand is not only what people see when your business is presented to them, but also what they feel.
Standing Out from the Crowd: A Case Study on TalkOnline Counsellingr When you’re a business owner, one of the biggest problems you’ll face is figuring out how to differentiate your business from the competition. It might not sound that tough, but the truth is, no matter what level of competition you’re dealing with, making a name for your business and building awareness of your brand can be incredibly difficult. And for businesses operating in oversaturated industries, it can feel like an impossible task.
When you’re building a brand, there are an overwhelming number of things to consider. Whether it’s your mission statement, company culture, logo, tagline, or something else entirely, there are a ton of things to figure out, and inevitably, something’s going to get overlooked. In my experience, one of the things that tend to get neglected the most is a brand’s values.
When you’re trying to sell products online, amidst a sea of competitors, things can get pretty difficult. It’s hard enough just getting people to your online store, let alone keeping them there, and convincing them to actually make a purchase. Online shoppers are notorious for abandoning their carts, mere seconds before they go through the checkout, so when it comes to eCommerce, many people are wary of the idea of cross-selling, for fear of annoying potential customers and scaring them away before they buy.
In today’s world, virtually every industry is oversaturated with competitors, and some of them are bound to fade into the background. That being said, if you don’t know how to get more traffic to your website, it can be practically impossible to stand out from that crowd and convince potential customers to choose you. But bringing in a consistent amount of website traffic can be challenging, to say the least. So, how can you actually get people to visit your website?
Building recognition and familiarity for your brand can be a lengthy and difficult process. Not only do you have to create your visual brand, including your logo, but you also have to ensure that you’re putting those various elements in the right places where your ideal customers will see them. Depending on what products or services you sell, how you sell them, where you’re located, or what industry you’re operating in, this can be much easier said than done.
As the days continue to get shorter and summer comes to an end, there’s no better time than now to do some much-needed planning and ensure you can get back to business this fall with renewed confidence. For many businesses, the summer months tend to be much slower, and this makes it easier to neglect the business planning process, when what we should be doing is kicking things into high gear in preparation for the upcoming holiday season.
I get asked to do website estimates a lot, and sometimes, it’s downright heartbreaking to hear from people who are struggling with how to choose a developer for their website. Whether they’re aspiring entrepreneurs or small business owners, I get contacted all the time by people who feel they were ripped off by their previous webmaster and are very reluctant to hire someone new for fear of the same thing happening again.
How to Choose a Marketing Company That’s Right fo When you’re building a business, effective marketing is key, but choosing the best digital marketing company for your business can be incredibly tough. Most companies specialize in one aspect of marketing or another, such as advertising, branding, search engine optimization (SEO), web design, or something else entirely.
As a therapist or clinical counsellor, it can be tough to make yourself stand out amongst the plurality of professionals with whom you’re competing. All things considered, marketing for therapists can actually be a pretty difficult endeavour, not least here in Canada, where therapists are forced to adhere to some pretty strict guidelines.
It’s been less than a year since ChatGPT was launched, and already it’s changed the business landscape in ways we can only begin to imagine. But even a few years ago, if you’d told me I’d soon be publishing an article on how to use AI for small business, I would have thought you were out of your mind. Up until recently, the idea of artificial intelligence seemed like something straight out of a science fiction flick, and the thought of it being readily available to anyone with an internet connection had never even seemed like a possibility.
As a business owner, your mailing list is one of your most valuable resources. This list of subscribers is essential to the success of your marketing efforts, as it offers a fast, affordable way to stay connected to your audience. But when you send a newsletter and see that several people have unsubscribed, it can be incredibly unsettling. When this happens, you’ll be wondering, “Why am I losing subscribers?” and you may even find yourself asking, “What’s wrong? Don’t they love me anymore?” But you really shouldn’t take this personally.
With winter just around the corner, and Christmas coming up fast, it really is hard to believe that 2023 is almost over. It seems like just a few weeks ago my team and I were meeting to discuss ChatGPT and decide how we’ll be using artificial intelligence moving forward. But then again, after using AI on practically a daily basis for nearly a year, it almost feels like these tools have been around forever, and it’s hard to think back to a time when we didn’t have them.
If you own a service-based business, dealing with difficult clients is something you will inevitably have to do. I wish I could say there was a way to avoid dealing with this, but unfortunately, that’s just not the case. Regardless of what industry you’re in, or the kind of business you own, eventually, you’re going to come across clients who are combative, rude, demanding, high-maintenance, or simply hard to please.
Without a doubt, content marketing offers one of the best ways to market your business online. But if you want your content to convert, and be able to compete with everything else that’s out there, you’ve got to keep track of the dominant content marketing trends. Otherwise, your content may end up being much less relevant, and you could miss out on some amazing techniques and tools to help you improve your content marketing strategy. Now, if you’re someone who doesn’t know much about content marketing, at this point, you may be wondering, “What is the point of all this?”
Now that your online store is finally up and running, you’re probably excited beyond belief. It may have taken months, if not years, to get to where you are today, and you’re likely anxious to start shipping orders to your customers. But regardless of how exciting this can be, if you’re struggling to stay afloat, and you need to increase eCommerce sales just to keep your head above water, it can be incredibly devastating.
With millions of blogs, social media posts, and YouTube videos being published every day, figuring out how to create content that stands out from the rest can be stressful, to say the least. And when you’re operating in a highly competitive industry, like the health sector, the process can get even more overwhelming. But with a better understanding of content marketing, and how potential clients can find you online, you’ll be able to create high-value content that will help you connect with clients, build credibility, and differentiate yourself from competitors.
Now that your online store is finally up and running, you’re probably excited beyond belief. It may have taken months, if not years, to get to where you are today, and you’re likely anxious to start shipping orders to your customers. But regardless of how exciting this can be, if you’re struggling to stay afloat, and you need to increase eCommerce sales just to keep your head above water, it can be incredibly devastating.
Now that your online store is finally up and running, you’re probably excited beyond belief. It may have taken months, if not years, to get to where you are today, and you’re likely anxious to start shipping orders to your customers. But regardless of how exciting this can be, if you’re struggling to stay afloat, and you need to increase eCommerce sales just to keep your head above water, it can be incredibly devastating.
Now that your online store is finally up and running, you’re probably excited beyond belief. It may have taken months, if not years, to get to where you are today, and you’re likely anxious to start shipping orders to your customers. But regardless of how exciting this can be, if you’re struggling to stay afloat, and you need to increase eCommerce sales just to keep your head above water, it can be incredibly devastating.
A Case Study on Lucid Paymentsr In late 2021, the founder and CEO of Lucid Payments, Surge Cumiskey, contacted us looking for help with her website. She was disappointed with the one she had at the time, and unimpressed with the lacklustre services she was receiving from the agency that built it. What’s more, she needed to create a brand that would be able to stand out amongst a massive crowd of giants, including the big banks, which dominate the payment processing industry.
Whether you’re making marketing materials, creating content, or something else entirely, building a successful brand requires a lot of design prowess. And no matter what it is you’re designing, if you want to ensure you’re making use of all the tools at your disposal, you’ve got to stay up to date on the latest graphic design trends. For this year, I think it’s safe to say that the dominant trend will be the use of AI in graphic design, and that will likely continue to be the leading trend for several years into the future.
If you don’t build brands for a living, you may be under the impression that there’s no difference between a tagline and a slogan. After all, they are somewhat similar, and the terms tagline and slogan tend to be used interchangeably. If you were to go back several years and ask me this question, even I might not have known how to explain the difference. But as I’ve found out over more than 20 years of helping business owners build their brands, there is a significant difference between a tagline and a slogan.
Social media offers numerous ways for businesses to promote their products and services, connect with customers, and gain the trust and loyalty of their followers. But despite these benefits and many others, it also provides numerous ways to instantly ruin your reputation, reminding us that you’ve got to be careful what you post on social media.
When you’ve been working in marketing for as long as I have, you tend to get asked the same questions over and over again. One thing people are always asking me is, “Is SEO still relevant?” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked this question, and I always answer with the same emphatic, “Yes!” For the purposes of this article, I’ll say it again: Yes, SEO is still relevant in 2024, and it will continue to maintain its relevance into the foreseeable future, as search engines like Google aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, if ever.
If you don’t build brands for a living, you may be under the impression that there’s no difference between a tagline and a slogan. After all, they are somewhat similar, and the terms tagline and slogan tend to be used interchangeably. If you were to go back several years and ask me this question, even I might not have known how to explain the difference. But as I’ve found out over more than 20 years of helping business owners build their brands, there is a significant difference between a tagline and a slogan.
Whether you’re making marketing materials, creating content, or something else entirely, building a successful brand requires a lot of design prowess. And no matter what it is you’re designing, if you want to ensure you’re making use of all the tools at your disposal, you’ve got to stay up to date on the latest graphic design trends. For this year, I think it’s safe to say that the dominant trend will be the use of AI in graphic design, and that will likely continue to be the leading trend for several years into the future.
If you don’t build brands for a living, you may be under the impression that there’s no difference between a tagline and a slogan. After all, they are somewhat similar, and the terms tagline and slogan tend to be used interchangeably. If you were to go back several years and ask me this question, even I might not have known how to explain the difference. But as I’ve found out over more than 20 years of helping business owners build their brands, there is a significant difference between a tagline and a slogan.
As someone who’s been in this business for more than two decades, I’ve worked with countless clients to help revamp their brands. And after all these years, one of the most common issues I’ve seen (and have had to rectify) is a lack of consistency in branding. Often, clients who come to us for a rebrand have been doing their own branding or had hired someone who didn’t dive deep enough to develop a strong brand position for them. Sadly, most of these clients aren’t even aware that there’s an issue with their brand consistency; all they know is that things just aren’t working.
Social media offers numerous ways for businesses to promote their products and services, connect with customers, and gain the trust and loyalty of their followers. But despite these benefits and many others, it also provides numerous ways to instantly ruin your reputation, reminding us that you’ve got to be careful what you post on social media.
When you think about how a charity or other non-profit promotes itself, content marketing is probably not the first thing that comes to mind. But the truth is, content marketing for non-profits shouldn’t be seen as any less important than it is for any other organization. Blogging and other forms of content should be considered key aspects of any charitable foundation’s marketing strategy, and the vast majority of marketers would agree.
If you own an online store, you’ve probably worked really hard to get everything up and running. But if you want to continue to reap the rewards of that hard work, and keep your store going long into the future, you have to create an online store people trust. Because regardless of how good your offerings are, if you’re not seen as trustworthy, it’s going to be difficult to convince anyone to do business with you. Luckily, there’s evidence to show that consumers already have a considerable amount of trust in eCommerce.
If you own an online store, you’ve probably worked really hard to get everything up and running. But if you want to continue to reap the rewards of that hard work, and keep your store going long into the future, you have to create an online store people trust. Because regardless of how good your offerings are, if you’re not seen as trustworthy, it’s going to be difficult to convince anyone to do business with you. Luckily, there’s evidence to show that consumers already have a considerable amount of trust in eCommerce.