Archive for the ‘What We Do’ Category
Question: Hi Sally. Thanks so much for allowing people to write in with questions – I have a doozy! Everyone told me that I should have a website because it would bring me more business. Well I now have a website but I don’t seem to be getting any hits and it has not increased my business. Am I doing something wrong?
Answer: Hi back and thanks for writing. I wouldn’t say that you were doing anything wrong, per say. What I would say is that you probably haven’t done enough - yet. If you think about your website, it’s much like a business card or a flyer that is advertising your business. The only difference is that flyers and business cards are on paper whereas a web site is in an electronic format, on the internet. So let’s look at a flyer as an example of an advertising marketing tool.
Flyers are used by many companies to advertise and can bring in new customers. You get them in the mail, you see them posted on shop windows, inserted in newspapers, so you decide to spend the time and money to get some printed for your business. But just having those flyers made and sitting on your dining room table will not bring you more business. You can even hang one on your front door but unless people just happen to walk by or you give them your address, they won’t even know it’s there so chances are, it will not be seen by many and probably won’t bring you any new business. Your next step would be to market those flyers – get them into people’s hands; you could post them on hydro poles, in supermarkets, send them out via mail, and where ever you think prospects might see them. You could also pay one of those services to market them for you, by including your flyer in with all the other flyers they stuff into envelopes and deliver directly to people’s homes. The point is, people won’t come to the flyers – you have to take the flyers to the people. Your website is very much like that. You can build a website and it can be the best website in the world but if people don’t know how or where to find it, then they won’t find you. So your question really becomes, how do people find my website?
As explained in the example above with the flyer, simply building a website is not enough to bring you new business. There are literally millions of websites out there in the world wide web, all competing for the same customers. If you want your website to act like a static business card, then simply build it and tell your friends, family and existing customers the URL (that’s the WWW web address) so they can find it. But if you want your website to actually work FOR you, to draw people to you and bring you new business, then you need to market it. This is what’s commonly known as “Internet Marketing”.
Unfortunately, there is no 1 true way to bring more customers to you. There are many strategies for marketing a website and most successful companies use a variety of these strategies to drive more traffic (people) to their site. There is a ton of both FREE and paid information available if you want to learn to do-it-yourself, or you can pay a company (much like the company who stuffs your flyer into envelopes with all the other flyers and delivers them house to house), who will market your site for you. Launch Now! is unique in that we specialize in developing strategic marketing strategy plans that you can either:
- take and implement yourself (simply follow the plan and do all the work yourself, saving you money) or
- contract us to implement the plan for you (we’ll do the work)
Either way, Lauch Now! works with small and mid-sized businesses -most with modest budgets, to help them get the most out of their internet presence and make the site work for them by driving new business (sales!) to them.
In the near future, I and a colleague will be teaching Strategic Internet Marketing and Internet Marketing for Beginners Courses, both on-line and in person at the Sweet Spot Training Centre in Pickering. If you live within driving distance to Pickering, I strongly encourage you to take a few hours out of your day to attend one of these sessions in person. The information you will learn will be of great value to you and your buiness. You cannot afford NOT to attend!
In the meantime, something you can do right now (and for free) is get your URL out there! Here are some examples of what you can do right now to increase your website traffic:
- Comment on people’s blogs (be sincere
and include your URL - join social networking groups like Facebook, My Space, Digg, Twitter, and others, and include your URL
- post your web address in any emails you send out (create a signature that includes your url, so you won’t forget to include it in your outgoing messages)
- Keep track of where you post it, so you can include those pages with the links back on to your site.
For example, I placed a link to http://launchnow.ca on my Twitter account. I then added my Twitter link http://twitter.com/iamzelda to my website. This is what’s known as a *link back* (because it goes both ways) and is a good marketing strategy you can start with.
* One word of caution with link backs, be sure that the sites you are linking to and the sites that are linking back to you are respectable websites. Being linked to spamming sites can actually harm you!
Good luck with your site and let me know if I can be of any further assistance.
Question: I’m currently a national sales agent for “Excellence Rewards” and looking for an additional product to offer my corporate accounts in the HR and sales departments. I used to teach and train corp sales from commercial to Fortune 500 type of accounts. I’m currently looking for national program that I could offer my accounts.
Do you know any top end sales programs that you would recommend?
Ron Davidson
PS…great web site!
Answer: Hi Ron, and thanks for the compliment on the site! I don’t know of any brand name sales programs off hand that I can recommend; we are developing all of our own training materials for Sweet Spot Training, based on our years of study and experience. Nor do I know your clients or their specific needs so I’m not sure whether our programs at Sweet Spot would accommodate or not. You are welcome to visit the site to see what we offer.
My recommendation would be to do a formal RFI (Request for information) pitch to the top 20 companies you are considering. To develop this list, try doing a search on Google for ”Corporate Sales Program” and see which ones rank highest. RFI’s are (or should be) common practise when tacking any new major project. You can then narrow it down to the top 5, at which time you will reply back to them with an RFP (Request to Purchase). The key differences between an RFI and an RFP are the level of detail you are requesting and the level of product detail and personal contact you receive back from the prospective company. (If you are working with a smaller scale project, sometimes you can skip the RFI and go directly to the RFP. However in your case, since you do not have any products in mind and plan to use the program extensively across North America, I would suggest including both steps.)
One of the many benefits of submitting an RFI and RFP is that it takes a great bulk of the workload off your hands and into the hands of the prospective sales training company. If they understand it’s something you will be rolling out and promoting nationally, most companies will bend over backwards to show you demos and all the benefits of their program, to try to gain your business saving you hours upon hours of research time. So while this may appear cumbersome, the process can be fully executed in only a few short weeks and you’ll be left knowing that due dillegence was done with a program on hand that best suits you clients’ needs. Many Training companies offer the flexibility of both on-site and training centre classroom locations so if this applies to you, this may be something you’ll want to include in your requirements. Whether this is a program you purchase or one your clients will attend, don’t forget to negotiate a corporate rate for the bulk buisness you’ll be bringing them. (I’ve negotiated as much as 20% off listed class fees.)
Launch Now! does produce these types of documents, ie: RFI, RFP, Marketing Plans (specializing in on-line with off-line support), Business Cases, Project Plans, Proposals, etc. A formalized RFI would cost approximately $300-500.
Good luck! Feel free to write back if you have any questions.
PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
LOCAL JUNIOR KARAOKE CONTEST BENEFITS BABIES WITH SKULL DEFORMITY
Think You Can Sing? Karaoke Contest Reshapes the Lives and Heads of Babies Suffering from Plagiocephaly.
Release date: June 5, 2009, Pickering-Ajax, ON
The Fairytale Palace has partnered with Launch NOW! to deliver a Karaoke Singing Competition for children in Durham this summer to benefit babies suffering from Plagiocephaly; a skull deformity.
The Competition will run from June 12th to July 17th using an elimination process, and is open to children 17 years and younger, who will perform one song on the Palace stage in front of a panel of judges. Thanks to sponsors Soundhouse Studios and BGMP Music Studio, two Grand Prize Winners will each have the opportunity to sing in a professional sound studio with a live band, PLUS they’ll receive 10 copies of their song on CD, to share with family and friends. Other sponsors have stepped forward to provide the printing, videoing, cd replication, judging, promoting, and photography for the event. The team is still in need of other prizes, door prizes, draws, and promotional *swag* for the 200 loot bags that will be handed out to each child who participates. Sponsors may also make cash contributions towards purchasing these items.
A minimum 20% of the proceeds raised will go towards helping families in need, whose children suffer from Plagiocephaly; a skull deformity requiring a custom-made corrective helmet at a cost of over $1500 which is not currently covered by the Ontario Health Plan.
“The number of positional Plagiocephaly cases increased sixfold from 1992 to 1994, occurring in approximately 33 out of every 10,000 births” (American Academy of Pediatrics). The National Center for Biotechnology Information also reported that the number of cases is increasing at an alarmingly expeditious rate, “In 1998, Plagiocephaly and Torticollis accounted for 11% of the total number of referrals to the CWHP physiotherapy service. In 2003, the number had escalated to approximately 25%” (www.nlhba.nl.ca). If left untreated, the child may suffer other effects including weakening or loss of eye sight, jaw misalignment, hearing difficulties, and emotional trauma due to the physical deformity.
A website has been set up at: http://www.ThinkYouCanSing.ca which contains detailed information on the event itself, sponsorship, and the cause it serves. Anyone wanting to take advantage of this fantastic advertising opportunity aimed at reshaping the heads and lives of babies in our community, should contact the event organizers via the official website.
The Fairytale Palace: Proprietor Patti O’Connor 905-424-9300 www.FairytalePalace.com
The Fairytale Palace is located in the Pickering Courtyard, Ajax. The Palace specializes in novelty and one-of-a-kind gifts and keepsakes, theme birthday parties and special events for children of all ages.
Launch Now! Proprietor: Sally O’Connor 416-471-4710 www.LaunchNow.Ca
Launch Now! is a local, home-based business operating out of Pickering that specializing in providing strategic online and offline marketing and promotional plans for small to mid-sized businesses. Launch Now helps businesses to maximize their advertising dollar by developing plans that focus on target niche marketing, website development and optimization, and search engine optimization techniques.
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For more information, please contact: Sally O’Connor at 416-471-4710
http://LaunchNow.ca http://thinkyoucansing.ca
I am getting a lot of questions about what exactly I do and then I’m being asked to build websites! To clarify, I am not a web developer – it’s what comes after you have the website that is really my area of exertise because “a website is only good if people can find it.” Correct?-
designed according to best practices and internet standards which users have come to expect from a website
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tasteful and pleasing on the eyes
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easy to read and simple to use
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unique and custom-made (right down to the textures in the article boxes)
My Key Areas of focus include:
- Helping you build a Strategic Marketing Plan (primarily on-line with off line support)
- Promoting New Launches (products, services, websites, new company, etc.)
- Marketing Coach & Trainer (for training schedule, please visit: http://sweetspottraining.com )
So why use Launch NOW!? that’s ECE! (Experience, Commitment & Expertise)
- Experience! 20 years as a Communications & Project Management Consultant
- Commitment! My promise to all customers: if you don’t see positive results, I’ll refund your money back. GUARANTEED! You have nothing to lose and the WWWorld to gain!
- Expertise! 100% Success Rate on all Buisness Cases & Proposals Written!
- 10+ years of Internet Marketing + E-Marketing Certification with Canadian Marketing Assoc. (a Certified Business Professional)
- FREE Brainstorming Session - Send us your dilemma/situation and we will provide you with 1 FREE online consult that includes customized strategic marketing strategies to get you off and running!
Be sure to bookmark this site and visit often! You’ll want to keep a watchful eye out for these amazing, business building and life enhancing topics, coming soon:
- Communication Techniques for Video
- Communication Techniques for Live Presentations
- Social Media Strategies (Twitter, Facebook, My Space, Digg, Etc.)
- AND MANY MORE!
So until next time, dream BIG; for it is our dreams of today that shape our realities of tomorrow.
Got a New Product? New Website? New Service to offer the world? Don’t delay - Launch NOW!
Whether you’re looking to craft a winning Proposal, build a Business Case, develop an on-line Marketing Plan, or are simply looking for someone to write some interesting copy for your website or Blog, I can help.
- Launch a Blog!
- Launch a Project!
- Launch a New Program!
- Launch a Business or Idea!
- Launch an Internet Marketing Campaign!
Launch Now! specializes in writing those winning Proposals, Blogs and Web copy, building Business Cases, and developing on-line Marketing Campaigns. With over 20 years experience, I can help you acquire those funds, realize higher sales revenues, increase your customer base, improve web traffic and more - GUARANTEED!
For more information, please contact me.
In the coming months, I’ll be offering FREE templates, tips, and marketing strategies, so please stay tuned and be sure to visit often.
