Posts Tagged ‘online marketing’

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Guest Blogger CQI Associates Thanks Adventure Web Productions for their New Website www.cqiassociates.com

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011

Wow!  We wanted to say thank you so much and let you know how pleased we are with the new CQIAssociates.com website that you recently completed for us.  We’ve received numerous comments about the layout, design, and how easy it is to navigate.

Traffic is up, and our organic rankings with Google are increasing.  We’re getting some great exposure that is bringing in new
business for us in both the residential and commercial sectors of our business. In fact, visits to our commercial energy  consulting page are up 225%!

Your team has been very easy to work with and always responds quickly when we send in updates for the site.  Adventure Web Productions has been a true joy to work with and I would highly recommend your services to anyone looking for web design, internet marketing, and website support.

Sincerely,

Chris Swope

Marketing Associate

CQI Associates, LLC

443-545-4034

http://CQIAssociates.com

CQI Associates is a leader in energy and environmental consulting.

Our goal is to provide energy and environmental management services that allow our clients to increase profitability by minimizing operating costs. From small businesses to national accounts such as Northrop Grumman, Fuji, and AutoNation, we custom-tailor our services to suit each company’s unique needs. CQI Associates has saved our public and private commercial clients well over $1,500,000,000 based on our energy and environmental program and project saving recommendations.

We provide energy and environmental consulting expertise in the following areas:

• Comprehensive Energy Management Programs & Project Management

• Energy Assessments & Audits

• Energy Procurement Services

• Facility Management Consulting Services

• Greenhouse Gas Emissions Assessments & Plans

• LEED® Certification & Green Building Certification Project Management

• Renewable Energy Assessments & Project Management

• Sustainable & Environmental Planning

• Transportation Fleet Evaluations & Planning

• Solar, Wind, and Renewable Energy Project Development and Operation

CQI Associates is one of the first consulting firm’s in the Baltimore-Washington region to offer both commercial and residential energy purchasing cooperatives.

As a leader in the business and residential energy market, CQI Associates manages Commercial and Residential Energy Cooperatives in MD, DC, DE, and IL – where we save the average customer 8-15% on an annual basis.

If you have any questions, contact CQI by calling 410-740-0667 or click here today!

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Social Media Marketing and the Small Business Owner

Friday, April 22nd, 2011
"Is Social Media Marketing important to your business?"

"Is Social Media Marketing important to your business?"

If you are a small business owner, one thing is more than likely always on your mind; “how can I expand my business?” Well the answer might be simpler than you may have thought – Social Media Marketing.

Before you go condemning the idea of marketing with the help of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and all of the other sites the young kids are using, just look at the statistics. This article from the Social Media Examiner outlines the proven benefits of Social Media Marketing.

In the last three years alone, marketing through social media outlets – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs – has moved from an unproven and controversial strategy to a primary tool in most successful marketers’ repertoires.  When combined with more traditional marketing strategies – like email marketing, press releases, event marketing and webinars/teleseminars – Social Media Marketing can greatly increase the chances a small business owner has to compete with industry giants.

The numbers speak for themselves. About 88% of all marketers found social media helped get them increased exposure and 72% saw increased traffic to their site as a result of social media. While other notable results include:

•     The self-employed and small business owners were more likely to report new partnerships, with at least 59% noting a benefit.

•     Small businesses were twice as likely to find qualified leads than other types of businesses.

•     Forty-eight percent of self-employed and small business owners saw improved sales as a direct result of their social media efforts.

•     The self-employed (59%) and small business owners (58%) were more likely than others to see reductions in marketing costs when using social media marketing.

Additionally, Social Media Marketing allows small business owners to best manage their time. These entrepreneurs play many roles in their companies and marketing is just one aspect of what they do. So it is important for the small business owner to maximize his/her time.

Social Media Marketing allows them to do this.

By spending as little as six hours a week with Social Media Marketing, you can see increased traffic to your site.  Likewise, those who spend at least 6 hours per week, which appears to be the magic number, are almost twice as likely to see leads generated as those who spend 5 or fewer hours.

The time you spend on Social Media Marketing is up to you, but one thing is for certain – if you are not utilizing these proven marketing methods, you will quickly fall behind your competition.

If you would like more information on Social Media Marketing, please contact Adventure Web Productions by calling 866.488.8644 or click here today!

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SMBs still not going online

Monday, January 10th, 2011

We came across this article on the online marketing efforts by small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and wanted to comment on it.  The bottom line is that SMBs and the online marketing industry are still missing each other.  The article makes some good points but we wanted to make an additional observation.

It’s ironic that the two sides are still not connecting because they’re set in their respective ways.  SMBs continue to rely on tried-and-true methods of networking and referrals and do not see the value in online marketing.  Online marketers discount the value of traditional marketing and aren’t reaching the SMBs who aren’t online.

That’s why we try to get out in the community to meet business owners in person.   We don’t try to tell them traditional marketing methods don’t work.  We know they work.  We use those methods ourselves.  However, we’ve also seen how well online marketing can compliment traditional efforts.

Online marketing extends an SMB’s reach by delivering the business’s message to another segment of its target audience.  Best of all, it’s a relatively effortless way of marketing.  After creating an online presence, it’s working 24/7 to inform and attract potential customers without any effort by the business owner.

It all starts with a solid Website.  The site doesn’t need to be flashy to get the message across, just clear and attractive.  Rather than trying relate all of a company’s selling points during face-to-face encounters, a business owner can deliver a simple elevator speech and let the Website do the heavy lifting of supplying the details.  To learn more about how online marketing can help your company, contact us.

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How effective is your e-mail marketing campaign?

Monday, April 26th, 2010

We think it’s safe to say that in 2010, very few businesses don’t include e-mail marketing into their overall marketing campaign. It is overtly clear and has been statistically proven that e-mail is a solid modern medium, with the ability to reach a mass market in the most cost-efficient manner possible; nearly for free. But much like sales and business in general, marketing is highly dependent upon the art of building lasting relationships with customers, with even more of an emphasis on this when considering an e-mail marketing campaign.

email

Any company who incorporates e-mail marketing into their campaign runs the high-stake risk of being considered “SPAM” by their recipients. No one wants that. You don’t want people seeing your e-mail, rolling their eyes and clicking delete before even opening it. This is why a thought-out, researched database received from a reputable data provider is so vital to the success of your campaign.

When creating a database for your company’s e-mail marketing segment of your overall marketing campaign, you want to know exactly who you are e-mailing. Why e-mail a 60-year-old retired man about your new line of diapers? It makes very little sense to e-mail anyone other than your target audience or the specific demographics that would directly benefit from your product or service. Having a relationship with the customers you’re contacting on a regular basis through this medium and a solid database is the first step. These people could be present customers, past customers or customers you have researched and you think would be interested in what your company has to offer. We all know how time consuming, and frankly sometimes annoying, marketing e-mails can be. You want to make sure your recipients are at least open to them, or even better, want them.

We’re saying all of this to help any of our readers avoid the dangerous game of “random” database marketing. Not only do you run the risk of being reported as SPAM, but it just isn’t the most effective way to execute an e-mail marketing campaign. You could potentially have a great deal of unhappy people who don’t appreciate constantly being contacted against their permission, in addition to an abundance of bounces because the names you were randomly given were not deliverable or legitimate.

However, the worst that could happen would be considered action taken by the Federal Trade Commission based on non-compliance of the CAN-SPAM act. Each separate e-mail in violation of the law is subject to penalties of up to $16,000 and more than one person may be held responsible for violations. So for example, if my company of ABC hires company RST to create a e-mail marketing piece for us using a database bought from company XYZ; all three companies could be held equally responsible and fined the maximum amount. The Federal Trade Commission is nothing to play with.

In order to avoid being fined or penalized, here are some compliance tips you’ll want to make sure your company abides by:

Unsubscribe Compliance:

- A visible and operable unsubscribe mechanism is present in all e-mails

- Consumer opt-out requests are honored within 10 days

- Opt-out lists are only used for compliance purposes

Content Compliance:

- Accurate “from” lines (saying it’s from who you really are)

- Relevant subject lines (the subject in the title matches that of the e-mail)

- Legitimate physical address of the publisher or advertiser is present and visible

- A label is present if the content is adult

Sending Compliance:

- A message cannot be sent through an open relay

- A message cannot be sent to a harvested e-mail address

- A message cannot contain a false header (very serious violation)

For more information on custom website design or Adventure Web Productions, please visit our website at www.advp.com!

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Social Media Integration in 2010…The New Marketing Key.

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

Is Social Media Here to Stay? Absolutely.

Social media is not necessarily a known term of the past, but undoubtedly a driving force of the future. Companies are quickly learning that if they intend on reaching their internet-savvy audience in as many ways as possible, integrating a social media marketing campaign into their existing communication strategy isn’t just necessary, it’s imperative.

Social media marketing is the fastest and most efficient way to communicate with your current customers, target audience and potential consumers. It has changed the way marketers communicate and engage with their audiences indefinitely. As a company, you are able to gain instant feedback through social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook that is valuable for increasing your customer’s satisfaction, as well as the future success of your business.

It is highly important to integrate social media into your company’s overall marketing campaign, and refrain from treating it as its own separate entity. According to the Alterian “Annual Survey 2009” report, the maturity of digital and social media requires integration of marketing strategies. Of all respondents surveyed on the level of importance marketing professionals worldwide place on social media for overall marketing success, 14% considered it critical for success while 54% considered it increasingly important. If your company desires to create an impression on your target audience from all directions of their online media intake, it needs to engage with them and their opinions through social media.

Word-of-mouth marketing from satisfied customers has just taken an entirely new turn in its process; right through the tunnel of their computer. A satisfied customer who enjoyed the performance of your product five years ago might tell his or her friend, sister, co-worker and possibly a few other people in his or her daily life. In 2010, a satisfied customer simply needs to Tweet once, create one Facebook status and write one blog post possibly reaching thousands of people in a matter of just seconds.

According to the “Small Business Marketing Forecast 2010” from Ad-ology, 50% of respondents claimed that lead generation is the biggest benefit of social networking for U.S. small businesses. Other benefits reported included 45% of respondents saying it assisted them in keeping up with the industry, 44% said it helped them monitor online conversations and 38% found it helpful in finding vendors or supplies.

A recent study from PostRelease showed how online forum users are enthusiastic brand advocates and are taking their online activities to the streets, telling others about products and services they recommend. These users are not just tweeting about your product or posting a Facebook status about it, but they are much more likely to publish blogs on it and organize meet-ups finding such joy in the online interaction.  Today’s online users are yearning for interaction and feedback with their favorite brands, letting these users know that the brands are listening. The overall focus of marketers is consistently shifting from siloed campaigns and placing much more of an emphasis on listening to and communicating with consumers across channels, on and off of the Internet. Is your company making the effort? Please visit us at www.advp.com to learn more!

 

 

 

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