The year that started in severe economic turmoil is now half over. Now you have to ask this question: “What do you have to do the rest of this year to reach your profit goals?”

If you don’t have profit goals, your company has nothing to strive for. Establish your profit goals now and make the appropriate plans to achieve them.

How The Battle For Smartphone Supremacy Will Affect Your Marketing

While the Blackberry, iPhone, Windows Mobile and an array of other smartphones battle for market supremacy, the fact is that smartphone usage overall will continue to increase dramatically over the next few years. How does this affect your marketing?

With more people using their smartphones to surf the Internet and visit Web sites, you need to have a version of your site that’s “mobile-friendly.”

Your Mobile Web Site: Design Tips 101

The larger screens and enhanced resolution of iPhones and other smartphones make it possible for you to have a great-looking Web site designed specifically for mobile users.

Here are some design tips to consider:

• Keep your design as simple and clean as possible; avoid large photos and logos. Use a single-column format.
• Provide only the information that your clients deem most important to your product and service — address, phone number and hours.
• Do not use JavaScript or Flash. Do not link to other sites.

We’ve launched a basic mobile site for AXIA at http://axia.net/mobi.

The 60 Second Close: Mobilizing To Stay Ahead Of The Curve

As marketing consultants, it’s our job to keep you well ahead of the curve and prepare you for what’s next. We urge you to consider mobile users as a potential customer base that is growing rapidly.

Consequently, now is the time to start “mobilizing” your Web site. Not sure where to start? Call us. We can get you there … faster than ever.

Over 60 percent of all the videos watched online originate from YouTube’s servers. Last month, YouTube reached a milestone with 20 hours of video being uploaded every single minute of the day. YouTube offers a number of marketing opportunities to promote your business to its millions of online users worldwide.

Developing Your Company’s Branded YouTube Channel

One of YouTube’s best opportunities is their branded channel program. One of the most impressive branded channels belongs to the New York City Ballet. Click on www.youtube.com/user/newyorkcityballet to see it and then imagine how we could brand a channel for your company.

How to Optimize Your YouTube Videos to Maximize Your Online Visibility

Much like Google, when one does a search on YouTube, you want your company’s video to show up on the first page of the search results.

So how do you optimize your video to enhance your chances of having a great position on YouTube and on Google?

• Keep your video less than three minutes in length.
• Your keywords should be part of the title of your video.
• Optimize the description of your video with the same keyword phrases.
• Use the same keyword phrases as part of the tags.
• Provide a link on your Web site to your video on YouTube.

The 60 Second Close: Is YouTube Part of Your Online Marketing Plan?

YouTube should be an integral part of your company’s sales-building plan with videos about your company’s product, testimonials and awards.

Are you effectively leveraging the power of YouTube to enhance your company’s online exposure? If not, call us. We can get you there … faster than ever.

As companies recoil from this tough economy, it’s time to re-think and re-innovate your public relations.Whether you’re in the business-to-business or business-to-consumer sectors, “personal connection-oriented marketing” still works.

Make sure you add “human touch points” to your sales-building plan. These include the genuine smile and honest conversation, the thank-you note and the post-sale phone call.

Make “personal connection-oriented marketing” your competitive edge. Very few companies take this approach, believing that shaking a hand and having a conversation takes too much time and is simply old-fashioned.

After all these years, it still works for Nordstrom. Regardless of what business sector you’re in, it will work for you.

Want A Better Ranking On Google? A Blog Can Help

Having a difficult time securing a strong ranking on Google for your prime search phrases? Getting your company’s Web site to the top of search results is a difficult and daunting task, especially if having a strong Internet presence is a critical part of your or your competitors’ marketing plan.

One of the best solution to this problem is a company blog. A blog can enhance your search engine rankings simply because Google looks at blogs differently than it looks at Web sites. Google views blogs as being extremely relevant in terms of the content.

In addition, Google likes frequent copy changes. Thus, a blog with frequent postings gets spidered more often than a static Web site.

Surprise! Media Is Not Dead

Contrary to the pundits have been spouting for the past decade, advertising is not dead. In fact, it is more alive and popular than ever. And for those who preached that TV was a goner, well, TV viewing has actually increased. And newspapers? Well, that’s a different story, but you must realize that the problem with newspapers is mainly that their financial numbers haven’t been in order.

While there have been changes and course corrections in some of the more traditional outlets. The popularity of media is evident on countless new mediums. Notice messages on the different transit systems, billboards, escalators, grocery carts, gasoline pumps, T-shirts, pizza boxes, grocery receipts, bus shelters, park benches, buildings, movie theaters, airline boarding passes, washrooms, baseball stadiums and of course, everything related to the Internet.

So, is the media dead? Certainly not. It’s just that the venues to reach different targeted groups – your customers -have changed and multiplied.

The 60 Second Close: When Did Marketing A Business Get So Complex?

There’s no doubt that your “daddy’s same old marketing plan” won’t grow today’s business. The Internet and an influx of new and nontraditional mediums have made life a little more complex and much more interesting.

Need help determining what will work best to reach your target customer? Let us know. We can help you get there … faster than ever.