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“Eating Our Own Dog Food”

June 21st, 2010 | Author: actsmartweb

We’re “eating our own dog food**” as a friend of mine says when she means that we are taking our own advice. I’m not only “teaching” this Summer School” course; I’m also looking at our websites and taking my own advice – especially on our GoAmerican.com website.

I evaluated our site to see if we passed the 3 questions that visitors ask themselves and we passed.

I then looked at the list of “keyword phrases” that I had made and we didn’t do so well. Since we use Google analytics, it was easy to see where we were getting our hits and, well, we weren’t getting them from any keyword phrases except “computer support.” Almost every hit that we get is a search for US so they know us or of us and are looking for us. This does not help us at all when we are trying to attract “strangers” to our business. I’m in the process of re-writing some of our text and renaming pages to search engine optimize us better. I’ll report back at the end of Summer School as to our success (or not).

This week, we are “studying” first impressions and “above the fold” information so go to the Summer School section to get your form and homework.

** Those who know us will get a chuckle out of the “eat our own dog food” comment because we actually could – ever since the first dog food scare years ago, we have been making Glenda’s dog food from cooked lean hamburger, brown rice and vegetables. We make it weekly and freeze it so it’s always fresh. If I added gravy, David would never know….

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Week 2 – Three Questions You MUST Answer

June 14th, 2010 | Author: actsmartweb

Last Monday, David & I went to dinner at Constantine’s, the new Mediterranean restaurant in Cohasset, and it was superb!

Ralph Constantine, owner of the Jamie’s chain of restaurants on the South Shore has long wanted to do a more upscale dining experience that focused on his Greek and Italian roots and he has succeeded greatly!

They are open 7 days for lunch and dinner – I recommend the moussaka and David loved the lamb shank and the roasted beet salad! Save room for dessert – the Italian or Greek dessert trios were “to die for!”

The Jamie’s websites that we have designed over the years use our older style updater programing; this new restaurant was designed using WordPress technology so Ralph and his staff can update almost everything on the website, not just his daily specials so he’ll no longer have to wait for us to update his seasonal menu changes. Once Ralph sees the ease of updating with this method, he’ll want the Jamie’s website updated to it for sure!

As I designed the site, you will see that I made sure to answer the “3 questions” that we talked about last week:

1. Am I on the right site? Photos show the style of the restaurant and the food, the text give the visitor more information and should include keyword phrases.

2. Can I trust you? Our testimonial is on the front page. They have been open less than a week so are just starting to gather than and will be posting them over the months and years to come. I’ll be talking to Ralph about video testimonials when we meet next! What better “trust builder” could there be?

3. How do I contact you? EVERY page has the address and phone number as well as the hours of operation so they’ll be easy to connect! I can’t tell you how many restaurants make a mistake and don’t make it easy for customers to call and especially to come in!

Take a look at your website and BE SURE that these 3 questions are answered on your site!

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Week 1 Marketing Summer School

June 7th, 2010 | Author: actsmartweb

David and I are recovering from another successful over-nighter with Marshfield’s Grad Nite Live. We simply show up at 11pm and run the casino’s bank until 5am and then head home to bed. The dedicated Grad Nite Live crew run by Bill Bowers, Beth Griffin and Suzanne Dailey had been up for almost 3 days straight along with their core of volunteers who make Marshfield Grads’ night a safe and really fun evening to remember. They are heroes to every parent who leaves their graduate off at the High School door at midnight!

This event takes months of planning and has been the example many other communities have used to start their own Graduation night festivities. Each year has a different theme – give me a few days and then check out the website – I’ll be posting photos sometime mid week when I get my energy back!

Today’s Monday’s Marketing Minute starts my 13 week “Marketing Summer School” where we’ll cover lots of ground to get your marketing up to peak performance by Labor Day. You can print out your free Summer School Marketing Calendar and homework from our Summer School page.

This week’s class is on the basics of good web information – even if you love your website, these are core basics that every website needs to be successful with visitors and search engines.

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Get Ready for Summer School!

May 28th, 2010 | Author: actsmartweb

Starting June 7th, we’ll be holding Summer School every Monday morning for 13 weeks. Over that time, you’ll have the opportunity to learn new and also established and effective marketing ideas that you can build on to enhance your marketing plan.

Click over to the Summer School page to download our free ACTSmart Web Marketing Summer School calendar. See you next Monday!

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