Our philosophy is to measure twice and cut once. You’ll benefit from our decade’s worth of hands-on experience in every facet of the web and social communities so that you and your business can get it right the first time; saving you both time and money (and making you look like a rock star!).

Our Services

• E-mail Newsletter Marketing
• Social Media Training/Marketing/Implementation
• Website and Store Development
• Online Ad Management
• Online Campaign Management
• Website Analysis

We’re good, we’re fast, and we’ll save you time and money!

We offer a variety of services to meet any need and budget. Whether you’re in need of a social media marketing campaign, a copywriter, or a brand new website, we’re your web team.

Our philosophy is to measure twice and cut once. You’ll benefit from our decade’s worth of hands-on experience in every facet of the web and social communities so that you and your business can get it right the first time; saving you both time and money (and making you look like a rock star!).

E-Mail Newsletter Marketing

Often lost in the hoopla that is “social media” is the tried and true e-mail newsletter. We believe that this is still the most effective way to reach out to the customers who matter the most and convert sales.

From template design to service provider (Constant Contact, Vertical Response, YMLP, etc.) to copy writing to promotion planning to analysis, we’ll take care of everything. We’ve been doing this for years for a variety of clients and they’ve all been very pleased with the results. Oh, and if we hear you calling it an “e-blast” we’ll drop you as a client. Just kidding.

We consistently bring in tens of thousands of dollars for our clients via e-mail newsletters. Would you like to generate a little extra cash flow?

Social Media

Social media is all the rage right now, and for good reason. There are huge opportunities to not only reach out to your current customers, but make new ones. We can help you chart a course through the social media landscape. Our social media services include:

• Social Media Account Management – Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, Tumblr, Word Press, Blog
• Custom Facebook Pages and Apps
• Social Media Training – For just you or your entire staff
• Social Media Marketing – Custom marketing plans, including viral and guerrilla tactics
• Facebook Ad Management
• Social Media Implementation – Implement SM into your current web presence
• Social Media Policy – Craft a custom policy for your business and employees

We work with PR and Marketing people all the time. If your business needs some help translating those skills and ideas to the web, we’re your people…well, we’re Your Web Team!

Website and Store Development

We love building websites that can be easily updated by our clients. After all, we believe your site is your site. While we are happy to support you on an as-needed basis or customize a monthly plan, our goal is to provide you with a website that can easily be updated by you or a staff member. That’s where WordPress comes in. WordPress allows us to create a uniquely designed website for each of our clients while providing you an empowering content management system (CMS) that allows you to easily make changes to your own website.

We also build online stores using Volusion’s technology which are PCI compliant and custom designed. We’ll get you set up with a credit card processor, merchant account, and SSL certificate so your customers have full faith in the security of your store. What’s more, our stores include an easy-to-use CMS with a variety of marketing tools built in.

We’re not just geeky web developers, we’re idea people. We have over 10 years experience in web marketing and customer relations. We can think creatively to generate awareness of your brand and product.

Web Consulting

Over 10 years of experience with web sites and marketing lets us tell you what’s right or wrong with your current web site or marketing campaigns. We don’t just leave you out in the cold, either. We’ll customize a plan to fix your issues and implement them ourselves. If you already have your own people who can implement the changes, that’s fine, too. We’ll work with them to make sure the changes are done right.

When things are done right the first time, they don’t need to be redone.

Mobile Web and QR Codes

As more and more of us get smart phones into our hands, more and more of us are surfing the web while on the go. We can help you to capture some of that traffic, making customized mobile web pages that your customers can easily view.

If you want to implement some snaz into your mobile web efforts, we can help you generate and manage QR (Quick Response) codes which, when scanned by a camera phone, can open a web page, call a phone number, send a text message, or even go to Google Maps. It makes the brain hurt just thinking about all of the fun opportunities.

It is yet to be determined if QR codes are a fad, but the mobile web isn’t going anywhere.

Other Web Services

The truth is, we do it all. Whether you need Facebook set up and training, your website updated, or a full-blown online marketing campaign, we’ve seen it all and we’ve done it all.

Not only have we seen it all, we’ve been through it all, both the good and the bad. Our experience can make your ideas more effective and can save you time and money.

Website and Online Store Analysis

Your website and online store could be performing better. We’re here to make that happen.

With the Website and Online Store Analysis, we will give your site a once-over and provide you with a list of suggested improvements. If you, a staff member, or your web designer have the ability to make the changes, we’re happy to help in an as needed support role. If you need us to make the changes, we’re happy to do that, too.

WordPress Site Creation

Many web designers work using the printer and ink cartridge business model. Sell the printer (web site) for a low price, then charge an arm and a leg for the ink cartridges (updates and changes to the site). What’s worse, you’re often subject to the time constraints of your designer to get a simple change done on your site. Many customers have come to us after feeling like their designers have held their site hostage.

Our business model is different. We believe your site is your site. While we are happy to support you on an as-needed basis, our goal is to provide you with a website that can easily be updated by you or a staff member. That’s where WordPress comes in. WordPress allows us to create a uniquely designed website for each of our clients while providing you an empowering content management system that allows you to make changes to your own website.

Customization of Web Campaigns

Every business can benefit from a targeted campaign, be it a branding effort or a huge sale. The problem is most businesses don’t have the staff, expertise, or resources to do it well.

We work with you to craft an effective campaign and then execute it in the most efficient and cost-effective manner. Having us take care of everything saves you time and earns you money!

Social Media Training – “Boot Camp”

We will provide you and/or your staff with our social media training. You will leave with an understanding of how to leverage the power of social media, the tools necessary to monitor your brand (tap into conversations), Facebook and Twitter skills that will impress even your 15 year old (including knowledge of how to run a Facebook Ad campaign), and the ability to get your product and/or your business in front of your friends, and their friends, and their friends…

Cost of one-on-one training: $100/hour (est. 2 – 4 hours)
Cost of staff training: Please contact us for estimate.

Social Media Training – “Teach a Man to Fish”

Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.

We take over your entire social media program for six months. For the first three months we work closely with you to publish content and set the correct tone while we do all of the dirty work (OK, it’s fun for us) of community and relationship building. During this time, you can watch and observe how we do things, learning best practices and online conversation skills.

For the last three months you’ll transition into doing the Tweeting, Facebooking, etc. yourself (we’ll still do some, too). We’ll be there to hold your hand, offer suggestions, and “fix” what you have done so that you can learn by doing.

At the end of the six months you’ll have a complete understanding of how social media can fit into and benefit your business AND you’ll have a large base of Fans and Followers. At this time, you can also determine if you’d like to handle the social media yourself or contract it out to us for a set period of time.

Note, there are several add-ons which you may opt for including software-based social media monitoring with customizable reports and special event/marketing campaign implementaion.

Cost of six month program: Varies (avg. $1,000/month)

Social Media and Web 2.0 Implementation

Do you have a blog? If so, does it talk to your Facebook page? Does your Facebook page talk to Twitter? The power of social media is, well, being social. That goes for the applications that you’re using, too.

Our Social Media and Web 2.0 services range from setting up your social media outlets (initialization, application installation, cross platform interaction), to creating blogs and message boards for your site. What’s more, we’ll make sure that all of these outlets are talking to each other, meaning that you only have to update one to broadcast it to the others. Now that’s efficiency!

Cost of Social Media implementation: $100/hour

Social Media Marketing Plan Customization

We will meet with you, listen carefully to what you want to accomplish, and ask incisive questions to learn more about your business and its goals. We will then use our unique skill set to craft a customized social media marketing plan which will utilize those services that we think will best help your business. We will also define goals and metrics so that you can better measure success. Finally, we will draft a detailed step-by-step action plan so that you can implement the strategy in-house.

If you’d like us to implement the plan for you, well, you’re in luck because we do that, too (see below).

Cost of Social Media Marketing Plan: Varies. Please contact us for estimate.

Social Media Analysis

Are you tweeting without success? Having a hard time finding Facebook fans? Blogging your heart out without comments (or even reads)? Just aren’t having any fun?

We will analyze your current social media strategies, tell you what you are doing wrong, and put you on a path that will get you the online attention you deserve.

Cost of Social Media Analysis: $100/hour (est. 2 -4 hours)

Web Coaching

We like to explain web coaching using the analogy of a personal trainer. Anybody can exercise on their own. They may run a little, do some yoga, and hit the weights at the gym. However, if they’re not getting the results they want, they hire a personal trainer who has the knowledge and expertise to focus their efforts on what’s important to them (your arms look great, btw), resulting in a more fit body that is firing on all cylinders.

Think of us as your personal web trainers. Many of our clients have basic web skills. They have their social media accounts set up. They have blogs. They have e-mail newsletters. They have everything from Zing-Dings to photo streams, but they don’t know how to focus their efforts. In other words, they are all over the place, a bit overwhelmed, and feel like they’re spinning their wheels.

We will analyze your online tactics and tell you where to best focus your energy in order to obtain your desired results. We can meet once for a general assessment, or we can meet regularly, so we’re sure you’re staying on the right track. Protein shakes are extra.

Cost of Web Coaching: $100/hour

Other Web Services

In addition to all of the above, we are also able to help you strategize and implement other web services. After all, we’ve probably already done it for our sites, so why not help you do it for yours? Some things we can help you with:

• eCommerce – Implement an eCommerce solution for your business (we like Volusion as it’s PCI compliant).
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – We can analyze what’s holding back your site and offer solutions to fix it.
• Email Marketing Campaigns – Do you have a list of emails but don’t know how to use it effectively? We can craft a customized email marketing campaign for you which would, of course, mesh with your social media marketing.
• Blog and Message Board Installation – If you want a blog or message board installed and set up properly, we’re the folks to do it. Having installed, customized, secured, administered, and upgraded so many blogs and message boards that it’s hard to count, there is nobody better to help you with this task.
• Anything Else – If there is anything else that you want done, please feel free to contact us. In the rare case that we can’t help you we’ll be happy to point you in the right direction.

1. Pepsi Chooses Social Media Over Super Bowl (Media Bullseyse) – If you’re only going to read one article about social media this week, make it this one. Just as the title suggests, Pepsi is redirecting its Super Bowl fund to a Super Social Media campaign. In other words, “It’s been decided that they would rather be talked about in a positive light by millions than have their ad seen by millions of people, even it is the Super Bowl”. Cool move, Pepsi Co.

2. Why Social Media is Still a Red-headed Stepchild (Web Worker Daily) – So true, it’s almost painful to read. Highlights reasons why there is so much resistance from PR and marketing departments regarding social media.

3. How to Say Stupid Things About Social Media (The Guardian) – “Why do people care what I ate for breakfast?”, is a common comment we’ll hear from Twitter skeptics. This article explains why…and they don’t care what you ate for breakfast, so there.

4. 91% of Companies Used Social Media in 2009 (Simply Zesty) – Nice analysis of stats released by the Center of Marketing Research at UMass.

5. 3 Helpful Social Media Marketing Predictions for 2010 (Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide) – Jeremy liked this one so much, he wrote a full analysis of it here, that is equally important to read.

6. Breaking Up in a Digital Fish Bowl (NY Times) – This one doesn’t have anything to do with social media and business, but it is a fascinating read about dating (and breaking up) in the age of Facebook. So happy I’m married. So happy.

WordPress for iPhone
WordPress – Blog Tool and Publishing Platform

Here’s an interesting video pointing out a new feature of Google searches, namely that if not signed in to a Google account, Google will look at your IP to shove in some local search results.

This is great for local businesses and points out the importance of making sure your site’s code and content has a good number of references to the city that you are in.

Hat Tip