For some reason I was born with a hopelessly idealistic worldview attached to analytical brain - so for the last 10 years I've been trying to make peace out of many of the conflicts in the business world, political scene, and my own inner life.  Some days are better than others, and I often wonder how a person like Bill Gates sees the big questions in life.  Like anyone, a window into his mind is opened through his actions.... you know how loud actions speak.

The infographic below is so inspiring and seems such a thought provoking expression of my beliefs, that I wanted to share it with the local business community.

~ James Shaw, CEO/Creative Director, Twin Creek Media

Source: frugaldad.com

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Twin Creek Media team!  For hours of enjoyment, we've made a classic jigsaw puzzle to delight and entertain!  I wonder who can complete it the fastest?

So how does your Kelowna business get ranked in Google and the other search engines? There are no tricks to ranking in search engines.  The key is to generate keyword-rich content and the search engines will find (and love) you.  Having said that, Google loves fresh content and sites that have frequent updates tend to rank well.  One way to generate that frequent content is to have a company blog and this is an internet marketing tactic that our Kelowna-based marketing company recommends.

A company blog will result in more indexable web pages on your site as every blog post results in a new page being generated. These extra pages increase your “relevancy” (assuming you blog about relevant topics), resulting in more leads as there are more pages and therefore more possibility of showing in the search results.

The other added advantage to having a blog is that it draws inbound links as other sites refer to the blog post for reference.  This then goes full circle by boosting your ranking in Google as you become an “authority” on the blog post topic.

What does this mean to Kelowna businesses?

If Google can’t find you, neither will anyone else. Buying paid listings should only be considered a short term strategy until you rank organically as it is a more expensive way to purchase lower quality traffic.

Most often the purchase process begins with a search engine, specifically Google.

For your Kelowna business, the importance of your business and products appearing in search engine listings cannot be overstated.  It is critical that your site is optimized for search engines so that relevant pages are listed in the search results.  This is known as organic search engine optimization.

It is important to realize that you can’t buy your way to the top of these organic listings.  Instead, relevant results naturally “float” to the top based on the content on the web page. Many businesses around the world and here in Kelowna aren’t prepared to put in the time and effort to optimize their web sites and instead choose to spend more money on a quick fix, purchasing paid listings on the search engine results page.

These listings always end up costing more in the medium-long term and simply aren’t as effective as organic listings drawing only 30% of clicks between them and an average of only 2% per ad!  However, when our advertising agency works with our Kelowna clients, we recommend this as a short term strategy if the site doesn’t rank organically for important keywords.

In Part 2, we'll look at what this means to Kelowna businesses.

As a result, marketing budgets have shifted towards inbound marketing such as social media, organic search engine optimization (in response to a user driven query) and virtual events/meetings.

Noticeably social media budgets have almost doubled in the last two years.

The money spent on inbound marketing is more effective from both a cost per lead and revenue generation perspective costing only about 1/3 of what it costs to generate an outbound lead.

And these leads often generate revenue.

What does this mean to Kelowna businesses?

Kelowna businesses need to engage in inbound marketing. A cheaper way to generate leads that result in revenue, even small businesses can afford to compete.

In the U.S. over 3/4 of adults are online and these people are spending ever increasing amounts of time online.

The Internet has become pervasive to everything we do.  From communicating with each other, to researching what movies are on and where, to paying our bills and taking online classes.

All of this access to information means that the average person in Kelowna today is inundated with more than 2000 marketing interruptions per day. This has caused us to become more selective about what information we consume.  We have become more and more creative at blocking marketers efforts to get to us, whether it is called id, spam filtering or Personal Video Recorders. Instead consumers prefer to pull the information they need when and where they want it rather than waiting for it to arrive in a timely way.

These consumer habits have resulted in the reduced effectiveness of traditional marketing efforts aimed at marketing to the masses of people trying to block them (outbound marketing). Instead smart marketers and marketing agencies are looking at how they can engage consumers that are actually interested in the products they sell and who approach the organization or business in some way (inbound marketing).

In the second part of this article we'll look at what this means to Kelowna businesses.

Evidence suggests that most blog readers are morning people. This may be because blogs have taken the role of newspapers as a way for Internet users to obtain news and we are habitually seeking our news first thing in the morning to set us up for a day of sharing and discussing the news with others.

Link-sharing is one common way blog readers share interesting articles and new product information. For Kelowna businesses, this means ensuring your blog has an easy way to share the articles, such as a social media toolbar, to help your blog readers share the articles with other friends in Kelowna.

Commenting also peaks in the morning.  If you are the marketer in a Kelowna business, you should make time in your morning to read blog comments and respond to them.

What does this mean for Kelowna businesses?

Blog early and often (at least weekly) to maximize your exposure. Encourage users to share the messages and to leave comments.

Blog readers tend to read blogs more than once per day and read 5-10 blogs on a regular basis.

Blogs in Business

Nearly 40% of companies blog for marketing purposes and these companies have 55% more website visitors than those that don’t blog. These blog articles often influence purchases and generate more leads.

Blogging frequency is important.  If you are the marketing person in a Kelowna business, you should try to blog a minimum of once a week to maximize the effectiveness of the blog as a marketing tool. By blogging at this rate, you are generating lots of keyword-rich content which search engines will index frequently, as well as giving your readership a reason to subscribe so they don’t miss the latest post.

In the next post we'll talk about what this means for Kelowna businesses.

Businesses are noticing the benefits. In Kelowna, our internet marketing agency has noticed that businesses with a Facebook page are more likely to engage with their customers, offer promotions and respond to customer feedback. These activities are rewarded by more “Likes” to their page which generates more brand awareness.

Despite Facebook’s prevalence as a social networking site for individuals and not businesses, even B2B companies are acquiring customers through Facebook.

What does this mean for Kelowna businesses?

Don’t overlook Facebook as a tool for attracting customers whether your business is B2B or B2C. A Facebook Page is a necessity.  Make sure to reward your loyal fans with offers and promotions, as well as timely information and announcements.

Facebook is a phenomenon matched by no other website. It’s number of users are huge and they are highly engaged.

Around the world and in Kelowna, Facebook has replaced many other internet activities such as email, instant messaging, photo/video sharing, blogging, games and online shopping.  It has become a conduit for most social activities we perform online. It’s not wonder that we are spending huge amount of time on Facebook.

In the second part of this article, we'll discuss what this means for Kelowna businesses.