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5 Ways to Spring Clean Your Website Just like your home, your business website also needs a spring-cleaning. It’s easy to let things slide, and the consequence of that would be a decline in traffic, reputation and ultimately sales. This is a relatively insidious way to lose traction with your website, as you don’t immediately see it happening. But it’s quite real, and will have very real results. So in the spirit of prevention, listed below are 5 ways for you to make a positive change in the way your sites appear, operate and prosper. Are your pages loading quickly?  – It’s been said you’ve got less than 10 seconds to load your page or most people will abandon and head for faster, greener pastures. If your website is image heavy, and full of flash, you may well want to optimize for faster performance. Remember, Google will punish your site in the search rankings when your pages load too slowly. Old products, programs, links lurking  – Make sure you remove any ol...

It’s tough enough ensuring your email marketing messages get through without making the task even more onerous. Making sure you are optimizing your marketing emails could be the difference in success or failure in your campaigns, especially as mobile email open rates are increasing rapidly. Mobile email opens are exploding! Mobile email is now the most opened email, surpassing desktop with a robust 36%, according to Knotice.com. Combine that with the reality that email is the favored online communication mode of 74% of all adults, and you’ll see why it’s so important. It’s not just phones either. Tablets are beginning to take a major share also. ReturnPath documents that iPhones make up 59%; iPads 26%; Androids 14%; and Windows phones bringing up the rear at less than 1%. Some tips for optimizing your marketing emails So not to leave you without a plan for perfecting your marketing emails, here are some actionable tips that can help ensure your marketing messages appear...

7 quick and easy ways to get more client referrals Everyone is searching for ways to get more client referrals for their small business, especially in competitive markets like New York City. Surprisingly enough, nearly 60% of us don’t even ask for them! Customer referrals do not appear just by wishing it so, but rather as a result of a clear, focused and persistently applied strategy. Listed below are seven ways we’ve found to increase client referrals, and they’re quicker and easier than you might imagine! Ask your best clients  – They can be your best business evangelists. People who are already in love with what you do won’t need much cajoling to sing your praises. Offer practical incentives  – Offering product discounts, select offers, or other bonuses which make sense for your business are a fantastic way of getting people to send you new clients. Over-deliver on first-time customers  – Whenever you get a new customer, a terrific way to get them talking ...

Get Some Laughs and Some Sales at the Same Time! Plain and simple – humor sells. It puts people in a good frame of mind and essentially disarms them to the point where they forget you’re actually trying to sell them something. Art Linkletter wasn’t joking when he opined that laughter is the best medicine, and it might be exactly the prescription your business is looking for! 4 great ways to use humor in your marketing! Take advantage of pop culture  – This is a generation that has largely left the evening news behind, favoring the likes of Jon Stewart, Steven Colbert and the other late night mavens that have built careers around the daily misfortunes of celebrities, sports stars and politicians. It’s all fair game, so don’t hesitate to use your share if you can find ways to make it humorous. Getting your audience smiling and in good spirits from the very beginning can go a long way toward helping build rapport with them. Make a funny video  – Portraying your produ...

Imagine how cool it would be to be invisible…You could sneak into the cinema and watch films for free (providing no-one sits on you) while pinching popcorn from the person next to you, think of all the major events you could get up close to, the conversations you could listen in to…you would be able to observe life from a totally different perspective But what about the downside? How lonely would it be if you couldn’t interact with people? After all, who would be able to listen to a bodiless voice without thinking they are going mad? You would get injured by people walking into you. How would you get a sales person or waitress to sell you clothes or food? After the novelty had worn off, the negative effect of being invisible would start to outweigh the initial fun. So when would it definitely NOT be a bonus to be invisible? If you were a TV actor, perhaps? Or a safety steward? In these situations, it is impossible to be successful unless you can be seen. Why Being Invisible...

How do you decide whether or not to develop a mobile app for your business? Mobile site or mobile app? That’s the real question. Do you need one or the other, or both? Knowing your businesses’ needs, not to mention your customers’ behavior, goes a long way toward helping you decide whether or not to invest the time and money necessary to develop and implement a mobile app for your small business. Does a mobile app make sense for your company? What are the costs, both in building one and in maintaining one? Have you got anyone capable of updating it? You’ll need the answers to these and several other questions in order to really come up with a smart choice. Let’s have a look at some of the pros and cons. Developing a Mobile App: Pros and Cons Pros : More than 50% of adult Americans use smartphone technology Enables you to brand your products and services easier Increases customer retention and loyalty, as the app is always in front of them Users spend more time on...

Small business owners, not sure what google+ is and why you need to be there? Google+ has thus far not been taken overly serious by businesses trying to market their products and services. This is swiftly changing! Google+ has now positioned itself nicely to challenge Facebook as a major social network for business. Websites using the +1 Button increase page traffic by 350%, and more than 925,000 people join Google+ each day! Combine all the functionality of your Google account, and massive search engine benefits, you have something we can get serious about. Seven Strategies for Utilizing Your Google+ Page Confused on how to use Google+ ? No worries – use these to get started! Complete your Google+ profile – Give this a bit of thought as you do it. Use compelling photos and images, and make sure you link out to your other social media accounts. List your key information – In particular business hours, contact information, along with maps and directions. Link to you...