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An Effective Website – For Visitors!

August 30th, 2010 | Author: actsmartweb

David and I just got back from a much needed vacation. We spent a week on Lake St Catherine in Vermont where David kayaked and fished (No good fish tales here, we’re sorry to say! David said that he didn’t “fish” he “cast all week.”) and I worked on my new hobby – wool rug hooking.

We had no cell phone service to speak of and I didn’t even check email every day.Our son Matt and his wife Natalie joined us for the first 4 days and I think that we will consider this one of our best vacations ever!

Before I left for vacation, I redesigned a website in WordPress for my High School Alumni association. Because I haven’t had the time, I asked for help and Karen, a younger member of our committee, graciously volunteered to learn WordPress and add the content from the old site to the new. She emailed me to look at the site and I was taken aback. HER way wasn’t the way that I would have done it and her way was BETTER! She made it more “bloggy” than I would have and that’s why it was so superior to what I would have done. I get so wrapped up in websites that promote business that I would have done just the same – promoted the Association rather than Karen’s way of INTERACTION – what fellow alumnus really want from each other. Thanks, Karen, for reminding me that an effective website is designed for the VISITORS!

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Moving Forward

July 12th, 2010 | Author: actsmartweb

The summer is supposed to be quiet but we’ve already gotten 3 new web clients this month with appointments with 3 more in the next 2 weeks! I KNOW it’s because we do not let up on our marketing! Believe me; you can be getting new customers, too, with a little more marketing.

Yes, it is a commitment and it takes extra time, energy and maybe a little money but it is worth it!

We’re offering more services to our clients so we are moving forward rather than standing still in value. Take a look around; what new products or services could you be adding to your mix? To make room, what old one could you drop?

Several years ago, we had to make the really tough decision to stop servicing homeowners and to focus on small to medium businesses. This was such a hard decision because many of these folks had become friends and had been great customers who helped us build our business. Times had changes, though, and computers were becoming “disposable.” If we spent hours repairing a system, the service cost could be close to the cost of replacing the computer. Realizing this allowed us to make the growth decision to concentrate on business clients.

Is there a service or product that takes up time that you could use elsewhere? Yes, it’s a heard decision but many right decisions are.

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Change Is ….

July 5th, 2010 | Author: actsmartweb

Change can be good, it can be bad, it is almost alway’s hard! We’re going through a change here in the office; my web tech George gave his notice and Friday was his last day. This has been a week of trying to learn everything that I had

released to George’s responsibility over the past 3 years – that’s the bad part and the hard part!

The good part is that we have hired Yana Lambert, a dynamic and enthusiastic web designer with lots of marketing and editing experience. She’s already made great suggestions and changes to our printed newsletter. She is also a stickler for text continuity and spelling!

The other good part – although we will miss George, he is off to a bigger company where he will be the webmaster for their 3 sites. We know that all our clients wish him well along with us!

Change is an opportunity to grow – Yana’s strengths will be very different than George’s and we are excited about the benefits that she will be bringing to our clients and our team.

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Do Your MVAs

June 28th, 2010 | Author: actsmartweb

This week has been stressful for several reasons. Among them, we have been pushing hard to finish a HUGE website that I had hoped to have finished weeks ago.

I just finished reading “Invaluable,”a book by Dave Crenshaw. You’ll remember that we saw him at Boot Camp in Nashville in April. Of all the speakers, he made the biggest impression and change in us when he spoke about “The Myth of Multitasking: How “Doing It All” Gets Nothing Done.” (If you missed that MMM and want to take the quiz that we took, email me and I’ll send you his eye-opening example.)

Back to his new book. It’s about how employees can become invaluable to their company and companies can become invaluable to their customers. It’s a short, easy to read story with a lesson; focus on your MVAs (Most Valuable Activities) and delegate or relegate your LVAs (Least Valuable Activities). Funny thing; LVAs are the activities that you are most likely to do because they are usually easy, mindless and quickly accomplished. They are also TIME STEALERS! When we looked at the tasks that we had on our list, we rearranged our time to work on our BIG PROJECT first and fill in with the LVAs right before lunch and before quitting time. This way, we didn’t use any more time than necessary on them (who wants to linger over an LVA when it’s time to go?) and we really worked our MVA for this week.

The outcome was that we finished the BIG PROJECT and now we are left with the finishing touches and final checking. I don’t think it would be done if we hadn’t made it our MVA!

One other thought from the book: “Invest in yourself to improve your market value.” We are doing that continually with the books that we read and the courses we take to increase our value to our company and especially to our clients. It doesn’t have to be at monetary expense, either. An hour or two of your time watching an internet marketing video or reading a marketing book from the library can greatly increase your value and your business’ value too!

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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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Monday’s Marketing Minute

May 14th, 2010 | Author: admin

As an entrepreneur, you have to keep working toward your goal of a successful business.

When it comes right down to it, no matter how good or bad the economy is, in the end, we make our own business. You can’t count on economic stimulus, you just have to work harder and create your own business – keep building relationships with your customers and potential customers. Find “business partners” to refer to and to promote you. Use social networking. This isn’t the first economic downturn and it won’t be the last. Keep your goals in sight – we’ll help you achieve them!

At Monday’s Marketing Minute, we are working hard to help our clients be successful and, in doing so, be sucessful ourselves. As we find new ways to help our clients, we will share them here. Since the first Monday’s Marketing Minute newsletter, we have seen our web business grow. I feel it’s because our clients know that we are not being complacent and taking them for granted; we are looking for new and better ways to help them.

Below are a few comments we have received.

The first email that I read on Monday morning is Monday’s Marketing Minute. It starts me thinking about marketing for the whole week!

~Liz F.

Pam, My website looks great. Thank you for your help. You went beyond being just a great website designer, you are an imaginative and inspiring business “coach”.

Thanks, Again, for going beyond the expected.

Best , Steve Pineault,

~Steve Pineault, Solar Fan Man
Solar Attic Fans

Hi Pam:
Your “Monday Marketing Minute” is fantastic! Not only does ACTSmart provide Miller’s Country Store with an outstanding Website but now we get “fresh ideas” weekly from You to continue to build our business!

Thank You, so very much for all the services you provide and please keep these great tips coming!!!

Best regards,

Bob Stone
Miller’s Country Store

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