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1. Peer-to-Peer: Creating marketing buzz on the cheap

How do I make my niche business more visible? I don't have the budget to hire a public relations person or a marketing firm. What should I do to gain the attention of the public?

Uploaded: Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Question
"How do I make my niche business more visible? I don't have the budget to hire a public relations person or a marketing firm. What should I do to gain the attention of the public? (I am averse to dressing up in a chicken suit.)"

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2. Great Ideas: Five trade show don'ts

Buying a booth at a trade show can be a powerful marketing tool - when it's done right.

Uploaded: Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Buying a booth at a trade show can be a powerful marketing tool - when it's done right. Done wrong, it can be a terrible waste of time and money. In his new book Powerful Exhibit Marketing, Canada's trade show guru Barry Siskind describes the five biggest mistakes a company can make at a trade show.

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3. Tech for tough times: Google Grabbers 2.0

PROFIT's story on one entrepreneur's search-engine optimization techniques drew so many kudos that we just had to publish another one. So, here are five more killer ways to boost your Google rankings.

Uploaded: Wednesday, October 20, 2010

By Jim McElgunn

PROFIT's story on one entrepreneur's search-engine optimization techniques drew so many kudos that we just had to publish another one. So, here are five more killer ways to boost your Google rankings.

It's easy to dream up a tactic designed to land your company's website among Google's top few matches for your preferred search term. But how do you know whether the tactic will work?

Scott Wilson can answer that question. That's because the Burlington, Ont.-based video-production firm he co-founded with his brother, Cameron, runs controlled scientific experiments to test hundreds of propositions about what will land a site a top-30 Google ranking for a given search term.

Wilson's team of math, science and programming specialists has identified scores of search-engine optimization (SEO) tactics that work. Wilson has used these to keep the site for his own firm, eMotionPictureStudios, No. 1 on Google for the keywords "trade show video" since 2007. He has also established a thriving SEO consulting division called RankHigher.ca, whose revenue has tripled in the past year as its client base has burgeoned from eight to 35.

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4. Online marketing: Google grabbers

Five proven secrets to ranking high on Google from an entrepreneur who took search- engine optimization into his own hands.

Uploaded: Wednesday, October 20, 2010

By Jim McElgunn

Five proven secrets to ranking high on Google from an entrepreneur who took search- engine optimization into his own hands.

His first experience of search-engine optimization left a bitter taste for Scott Wilson. He was shocked to find that the advice he had paid an SEO consultant $16,000 for did nothing to boost the Google rankings of his video-production company's website.

The trouble was that the consultant had theories about the best SEO tactics, but no proof that they worked. That gave Wilson, president of Burlington, Ont.-based eMotionPictureStudios, an idea: to start his own SEO service that would recommend only those tactics proven effective by scientific experiments.

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5. The biggest lie in business

Most entrepreneurs deceive themselves by claiming to know their competitive advantage. Discover the truth about your company, and you can send your sales soaring. [Honestly!]

Uploaded: Wednesday, October 20, 2010

By Jim McElgunn

Most entrepreneurs deceive themselves by claiming to know their competitive advantage. Discover the truth about your company, and you can send your sales soaring. [Honestly!]

The trap never fails. Jaynie Smith invites the roomful of CEOs at her workshop on competitive advantage to write the answer to this question: "What's the No. 1 reason I should do business with you rather than your competitors?" Then she asks those who wrote "Good customer service" to stand up. Next are those who wrote "quality," then "reputation," then "knowledgeable staff." By now, half the CEOs are on their feet.

When Smith gets to the tenth advantage on her list, virtually every CEO is standing. They're starting to look sheepish as the point of the exercise dawns on them: how can you claim a competitive advantage that's the same as everyone else's?

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6. Find and retain customers

Success in business boils down to sales. Sell lots, and you at least have a chance to profit. Sell nothing, and you die.

Uploaded: Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Success in business boils down to sales. Sell lots, and you at least have a chance to profit. Sell nothing, and you die. But selling has never been easy for most companies, and such trends as globalization and customer empowerment (Thanks, Internet!) are making it harder to attract new customers and tougher to hold onto the ones you have.

To land more prospects and pry open the wallets of your current customers, adopt these proven sales and marketing strategies, which include helpful tips for making it happen.

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