PROSAR Inbound Blog

WordPress! They started out as a blogging platform and have evolved strongly in content management, making it soar in popularity among users. Today, this CMS platform is used by 52% of the top 100 blogs websites. They have a very strong brand position amongst web developers.

In our fast-paced world, time is always of the essence. We always seem to be running to catch-up  and trying to get things done. With this mindset comes a strong aversion to wasting time, it’s too precious a commodity to be frittered away. True enough, but when are we actually wasting our time? I noticed a few incidents recently that made me question what is “being productive” and what is “wasting time.”

If you are thinking of getting a new website, one thing that that is often misconstrued with users is how their SEO will work after the site is live. To the average person, most believe that search engine optimization gets injected into the website’s construction during its build, and they no longer need to worry about SEO; it can be scratched off the checklist and forgotten about. This is wrong.

Infinite scrolling is a cool technique that is starting to emerge more across the web and seen on social media sites like Pinterest. When implemented properly, infinite scrolling allows for greater content exposure and a simple way to navigate through a site – overall enhancing the user experience. It doesn’t baffle users by forcing them to hop around between various pages. It is also quicker to load one long page than it is to load many pages.

Most C-suite executives are familiar with the terms Online Presence/Brand, Search Engine Optimization/Marketing (SEO or SEM), and Content Marketing. They may not be intimate with the specific tactics employed under these headings, but they have no doubt read of their importance and want them included in the corporate marketing strategy. However, once the executives learn more about the lengthy process and gradual build on return, they sometimes shy away.

Recently, several PROSAR Inbound staff had the opportunity to attend a SEMPO event held in Ottawa.  What’s SEMPO?  No, you don’t wash your hair with it. It’s the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization – a well-structured group that fosters the sharing of information among SEO experts from around the world.  This event brought together Ottawa’s SEO community to listen to a talk on the “10 SEO Metrics Every Company Should Be Able to Report On.”  The talk was great and it sparked a lively group discussion afterwards about the various SEO metrics everyone in the room is using to not only report on success, but to constantly tweak programs and drive improvements over time.

Last week I talked about 5 Tools to Help with Social Media Management. Today, I would like to continue with the same theme and talk about social media tools that can improve your sales processes. Are you struggling with gaining new leads with your current sales process? Through social media you have the potential to keep growing your network base and have the ability to connect with an endless pool of prospects, BUT there is likely to be a smaller group of important people that you would want to connect with who can be potential customers.

For over 25 years I’ve been consulting with SMB owners, participating on boards, running businesses, and reading a whole lot. I’ve found that success rarely comes down to one thing or even one person. That elusive “success” (less than 7% of all start-ups attain sustained success) is the result of several factors working in synergy. Leaving external factors out of the mix — competition, timing, luck and things beyond a business owners direct control — I believe there are four critical criteria that will propel a company forward.

If you were shown just the colors of your favorite brand would you be able to recognize them? It's very likely you would be able to recognize more than just a few. Other than recognition, how else do colors affect us? Is there a science of color in marketing?

What tools do you use to track and monitor your social media networks? Everyone knows that if you want to see results – hard work, time and dedication is required in order to interact properly with your audience. Measuring your social media performance is important to getting great results.