Tips and Tricks

7 Tips for Online Friendly Video Marketing

As people spend more time online, the adage that every company is a media company is more true than ever. Simply put, creating media surrounding your business helps create interest and attention, which is good for business. We see this with corporate magazines, social media updates, blog posts, and late-night infomercials. Video, while often ignored by companies, is an excellent way to educate customers, increase site traffic, and drive sales. With two-thirds of American adults in 2010 being connected by broadband Internet, many people are able to seek out online videos to research products and services. More than 3 billion YouTube videos,…
Before You Open Up Shop: 5 Guidelines for a Functioning E-commerce Business

By now you’ve likely heard about how the Internet is transforming business, and at least a few e-commerce success stories. Whether you’re hoping to put your existing business on the Web or start a new online store, making the plunge into e-commerce can be rewarding. But it’s best to get your business started online properly. In this post, we’ll look at some things to consider before opening an online store. 1. Let them help themselves One of the major differences between traditional and online retail is that there is no physical person to go to for help. A potential customer…
6 ways to become unlikable: Is your Facebook Page alienating your friends?

Facebook Pages are great for keeping your company’s fans updated on the latest developments, promotions, and information about your company and industry. Visitors who click the “Like” button on your Page will be able to see posts from your Facebook Page when they access their Facebook timeline. “If you build it, they will come” doesn’t necessarily apply to a Facebook Page. Even if it does, your fans will grow tired of your Facebook Page if being a friend doesn’t benefit them. In this post, we explain some ways in which you could be ruining your Facebook Page, and weakening your friendships.…
Five reasons why your business should make a Facebook Page

Since Facebook introduced “Facebook Pages” in 2007, a wide array of organizations, businesses, celebrities, and brands have been using them to broadcast information to those “followers” or “fans” who choose to connect with them. Having a Facebook Page has garnered considerable buzz in the marketing world, but it does require some effort to have a successful Page. One of the cornerstones of our online marketing philosophy is that your reputation is built through all interactions you have with customers and potential clients. Facebook offers more opportunities to interact with them and expand your visibility. While negative interactions can harm your reputation, quality…
The 13 Real Rules of Social Media Engagement

This guest post by our friends at Toronto social media marketing company Spark Boutik lays down the rules to follow in order to truly engage your audience through social media. One of the biggest reasons brands struggle with social media is because they do not understand the need for engagement. Engagement means going beyond output and actually stimulating conversation. So, instead of blasting twenty tweets a day, you should be reaching out to your followers. Instead of asking for Facebook ‘Likes’, you should be building a sense of community. Now that you have an idea of what engagement is, you can…
Don’t lose your domain: Tips to keep your domain safe

Losing your domain is a big deal for any site owner. A client of ours recently had their domain expire because they didn’t renew their domain, leaving them without email or a working website. As anyone can imagine, this can have a devastating effect on your business and productivity. Usually, someone will notice that their website is down and figure out that they have to renew their domain name contract, and after it expires there’s usually a period when you can get it back. However, after this period, which typically lasts anywhere from two weeks to 30 days, your domain is up…
Carousels: Rotating your featured webpages to help turn heads

You cannot count on website visitors to scroll to find your content, so why not scroll your content for them? You can do this using what are known as “sliders” or “carousels”. Like their fairground counterparts, website carousels rotate — but rather than moving model horses and unicorns — they move images and links. Bell Canada is one of many major businesses that uses changing images to draw attention to its various initiatives. A carousel is actually a standard application that you’ve likely seen when visiting high-profile sites. For instance, telecom company Bell Canada features a carousel prominently on their…
The Path to Accessibility: Six AODA Questions to Ask Your Web Developer

With about 15 per cent of the world’s population living with some form of disability (pdf), accessibility is increasingly becoming an issue that cannot be ignored when, for instance, hosting an event or planning a building, yet it’s still often an afterthought for websites. (Updated January 2018) In an effort to simplify the process of making a website accessible, the W3 Consortium (W3C) set out to provide a set of recommendations to make Web content more usable by everyone in its Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. An accessible site should work with normal browsers and assistive software like screenreaders and talking…
Online Friendly Fonts: Six Web Typography Services

It used to be that Web designers were limited to a handful of “Web-safe” fonts, which made for predictable, if not boring, websites. Now, high-end typography is within reach of all website owners, making it possible to use nearly any font imaginable. Still, there are limits to how you can use fonts on your website. Fonts typically take hundreds of hours of work by skilled designers, and they can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars to buy. Luckily, there are several services available to put high-quality fonts within reach the budgets of most people and organizations. There are services…
Search Engine Optimized: the importance of meaningful internal links

Search engines use various methods for creating titles and descriptions (or snippits), and determining if your page is relevant to each search. They crawl for content contained within a web page’s meta tags including the “title” and “description” tags, but also page content that seems most relevant or useful. This means that various page elements are evaluated, including links from other pages on your website, known as internal links. Internal links, in fact, can play a large role in how your pages are perceived by search engines. A Google search for Kobayashi Online yields result pages with different, descriptive titles.…
Creating Website Content for Better User Experiences

Modeling and designing your website’s user experience means attempting to understand all aspects of the user’s online and offline interaction with your company, and how the site is perceived, learned, and used in order to make informed decisions that will improve your users’ experiences. Designing a great user experience or “UX” sounds like a tall order, but this post will provide you with some of the resources you’ll need to create content that will meet visitors’ expectations. Web writing, Web design, and blogging consultant Lorelle VanFossen said in a recent presentation, “Every user experience journey begins with the words ‘I want…’,…
What email marketing can offer your business

The idea of “email marketing” can seem intimidating, but it can be thought of as a form of direct marketing like traditional mail. Instead of using the postal service, however, it uses email to send your commercial or non-profit messages to an audience. Various marketing email types sent out include email newsletters, quick announcements (also known as postcard emails), catalog emails, and press releases. At its best, email marketing can engage your audience better than a passive website, and at its worst, it can annoy and alienate that same audience. In this post, we’ll go though the purposes of email…