President and CEO of Prime Concepts, Ford Saeks, recently spoke at the Entrepreneurs’ Organization Kansas City Chapter, presenting the topic “Business Growth Acceleration™: Improving Your Find-ability, Unique-ability and Profitability.”

         The E.O. audience discovered:

• Seven business-growth techniques to turbo-charge their results.
• Secrets to attract referrals and new customers like a magnet.
• Methods to help them shorten their sales cycles and improve conversions.
• The non-technical approach to leveraging their online and traditional marketing efforts.
• How to communicate a congruent brand through their website and social media, along with traditional mediums that give them top-of-mind awareness, more sales and increased profits.

Ford has presented at the E.O. Global Leadership conferences and has received high ratings from other E.O. Chapter presentation events.  He regularly presents business growth and Internet marketing speaking presentations with impact, interactivity and idea-oriented action steps to organizations and audiences in a wide variety of industries.

Audiences love Ford’s interactive approach, fun style and action-oriented focus that allows participants to leave with ideas and action steps that they can implement to produce immediate results.  He customizes presentations for general sessions, breakout sessions or full-day programs to match the theme and outcome of your event.

Check out Ford in action or view his most requested keynote and presentation topics.

Located in the beautiful Reflection Ridge Office Park on the West side of Wichita, Prime Concepts Group has been in the Wichita area since 1987.

Founded by nationally-recognized business growth specialist, Ford Saeks, Prime Concepts is an integrated marketing company specializing in helping Wichita businesses, as well as businesses throughout the country, to increase their number of customers, increase their average transaction sale, increase the frequency of purchase and lower their expenses.

What we’ve noticed over the years is that while many graphic design, website design and website development companies in Wichita may know how to make a pretty design or website, most of them don’t know the strategies and tactics of effective website design, search engine optimization (SEO) and Internet marketing.  In other words, they don’t truly know how to help you find, attract and keep customers.

Unlike those guys, our integrated marketing team actually specializes in getting you targeted traffic, top search engine rankings, monetized social media marketing efforts and an advantage over your competition.

Please check out our Prime Concepts Group Portfolio for samples of our Internet marketing, website design, website development, search engine optimization, social media marketing and video development services by our talented Wichita integrated marketing team.

Also feel free to check out some of our raving local Wichita and national clients, including:

If you’d like a free critique of your website or marketing materials, feel free to stop by Prime Concepts anytime– our team would love to meet you and discuss how we can help you find, attract and keep more customers!

To learn more about Ford Saeks, the President and CEO of Prime Concepts, please visit his website at www.ProfitRichResults.com.

interest is the hottest thing happening in social media, which is why you should be using Pinterest to market your business.

The “virtual pinboard” social media site has actually been around since 2008, but just between November and December of 2011, the site’s unique visitor count increased a staggering 55%!  Then in January of 2012, it crossed the 10 million mark, which was faster than any standalone site in history!

If you don’t know what Pinterest is already, imagine a large cork board on your kitchen wall where you’ve pinned photos, ideas, notes, thoughts, etc.  Now imagine that you have a large cork board for each of your interests and you have the ability to share those images and collaborate with as many people as you want, anywhere in the world.  That’s the power of Pinterest.

According to Pinterest: “Pinterest allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. You can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.”

So now that you know what Pinterest is, let’s talk about who’s using the site.  Right now, 80% of users are women who use the site to share and collaborate anything from shoes, to recipes, to home decor.  But we think that’s going to shift as more and more men start to share their interests on Pinterest.

But how can you use Pinterest to market your business?

1. Ask someone you know who has a Pinterest (it’s faster that way) to send you an invitation, or head on over and request an invitation.
2. Poke around the site and keep an open mind.  At first glance, it may seem like you’re browsing someone’s recipe book or wedding album, but Pinterest has a lot more to offer– you just have to dig for it.
3. Make a couple boards, pin some images and explore the categories just to get your feet wet.
4. Connect to Facebook within Pinterest and follow your friends; following others will gain you followers back.
5. Think of ways you can use images to market your business, because remember– Pinterest is nearly entirely visual with the exception of comments.
6. Check out ways other businesses are using Pinterest to market their company to get ideas for your own business.
7. Add pins everyday, add new categories regularly and follow others and their pins.

Some points to know that will keep you ahead of the game:

• Pinterest already sends more referrals to retail sites than Google Plus, Reddit and YouTube combined.  Just think of how your business could leverage that power!
• Pinterest allows affiliate ID embed on pins– another way you could leverage Pinterest to build your business!

What do you think about Pinterest?  Is your business already leveraging its power?

Whether you like it or not, your website and marketing materials represent who you are and what you offer.  That means when people see your “brand” for the first time, they’re thinking:

• Is this person/ business credible?
• Is this person/ business trustworthy?
• Is this a professional person or company?
• Is this person or company stable?
• Do I feel welcome?
• Am I in the right place?

When critiquing or planning the design of your website and marketing materials, you need to ask yourself all of these questions.  Obviously, the design is not the only important factor, but it does play an important role.  According to a study from Stanford University and Consumer Web Watch, visitors evaluate a site’s overall design first, including its use of multimedia.  In other words, first impressions count!

One of our recent clients, Gretchen Neels, is the president and founder of Neels & Company.  Gretchen helps her clients succeed through personal branding and professional development.  Basically, Gretchen does for people what we do for websites!  Check out Gretchen’s beautiful new website as you review four tips we’ve put together to help you get noticed, be remembered and get the results you want!

Four Tips to an Effective Website Design:

1.)  Proper use of colors:  Our design team recommends picking two to four colors for your website and marketing materials, using the right colors for your audience and drawing attention to select elements.  Look at Gretchen’s website and notice the elegant design with the tasteful choice of grey and turquoise on a white background.

2.)  Animations, gadgets and media: Media, such as videos, and animations should be used to help support content and information.  Gretchen’s website incorporates several videos on main landing pages to support the content on the page, although putting videos on every page would be distracting.

3.)  Layout: 76% of users say that the most important element in website design is ease in finding information.  That means having clear navigation (as shown below) and organized pages is vital.

4.)  Typography:  Use fonts, font sizes and font colors that are readable and cater to both readers and scanners by using short paragraphs, lists, bolding and section headers.

In conclusion, remember that you never get a second chance to make a first impression.  A well-designed website can help give visitors the impression you and your business are credible, trustworthy, professional and stable.  An effective design will also help visitors feel welcome and know they’re in the right place.

What do you think about the tips above?  Leave us a comment or question below!

Legal Website Design and Development: Lance Drury Law
www.LanceDruryLaw.com

Dental Website Design and Development: Walden Dentistry
www.WaldenDentristy.com

Whatever your business or specific niche, we can help you:

• Design and develop a new customized website or modify your existing website.
• Increase organic and targeted website traffic to your website.
• Improve conversions, capture more leads and increase sales.

If you’re interested in any of the above, please contact us directly at (316) 942-1111 to schedule your free consultation.

Add Value, Make a Profit.

That concept sounds simple, I know. But you’d be surprised at how many people overlook it. The more value you add, the more customers will keep coming back to do business with you… and the more profit your business will generate.

By the way, I don’t apologize for that last part about profit. If a business doesn’t generate a profit, then it won’t be in business very long… at least, not in a free market economy. Seems like in the news lately, Profit is a dirty word.  The profit I’m referring to is value-for-value exchange.

Adding value is really the name of the game when it comes to customer loyalty. When you add more value, customers buy more frequently, and in larger quantities… and they tell more of their friends about the benefits of your products and services.

During the recent recession, when many businesses failed or downsized, we were able to grow and help other businesses grow … while having record-setting years! One of the big factors in our success was our commitment to deliver value and keep things as simple as possible for our customers. Now, simple doesn’t always mean easy! I think many organizations have too much waste in unrefined or overcomplicated processes, inadequately trained staff, or inconsistent branding and marketing efforts. None of that adds value from the customer’s point of view, and all of it hurts customer loyalty.

Adding more value is what sets my soul on fire. It’s what gets me excited and makes me want to jump out of bed every day. The joy and rewards that come from this type of focus allow me to tap into innovation and creativity and provide an almost unlimited feeling of energy.

Tapping into my innovation superpower allows me to solve problems and give birth to new ideas. It’s the foundation for developing business growth strategies, improving team performance, inventing new product and service offerings, and transforming business revenues. It can do all that for you and your organization, too.

Imagine how implementing the concept of adding more value can affect your life and the lives of those around you. Customers and prospective customers will be more informed and have instant access to web sites that allow customer reviews, product ratings, and price comparisons, and by adding more value, you’ll gain a competitive edge, capture market share, and grow your business.

If you are in business or responsible for helping to generate sales, then creating compelling value propositions and communicating them effectively should be a primary goal for you. Adding value translates into solving problems and delivering the state-of-mind feeling that connect to those benefits and those solutions.

These days, it’s also wise to develop and implement a plan for communicating how you add more value throughout your website, social media, and all your traditional marketing methods.

I like this quote by Zig Ziglar, “You can have everything in life that you want… if you just give enough other people what they want.”

This philosophy of adding value should carry over into literally every aspect of your personal and professional life. That’s why I say that knowing the value you have to offer is a superpower. Learning how to clearly state exactly what that value is – so that clients and potential customers can experience it for themselves emotionally and make good decisions – will help you achieve success, help you boost sales, and build up your customer loyalty.

How do you define…”Adding Value?”  Let me, post a comment below.

So what, specifically, should your news and media center contain?

Well, let’s use one of our recent clients, Will Bowen, as an example.  Will is perfect to use because as a nationally acclaimed speaker and founder of A Complaint Free World, Will has been interviewed on The Oprah Show, Today and ABC World News, and he has been featured in publications such as People, Newsweek and the Wall Street Journal.

Not only does Will’s news and media page provide the “Who,” “What,” “Why,” “How,” “When” and “So What?” content that journalists need to know quickly, it also has:

• Possible story angles/topics
• “Will in the News” logos
• Photos of Will with Dr. Oz, Maya Angelou and Matt Lauer
• Videos of Will on Today, ABC News and Fox & Friends

In addition to the content directly on the news and media page, the side navigation we created on that page also contains direct links to:

• Will’s speaker demo video
• Information about his speaking
• Information about his coaching and consulting
• His biography
• Will’s one sheet
• Testimonials and a partial client list
• High resolution photos of Will for download
• Will’s downloadable introduction
• Will’s downloadable biography
• A form to contact Will

Other clients have chosen to also include their byline for articles and a media archive of articles they’ve authored or been featured within.

For more Internet marketing tips, subscribe to our blog so you can keep reading all our latest posts!

Have you ever looked through a brochure or browsed a website that’s overloaded with stock photography?  You know the images I’m talking about– those photos of beautiful, thin, 20-something, ethnically diverse “professionals” in neutral-colored, designer business suits grinning like they don’t have a care in the world?

Don’t get us wrong– there are some excellent photos and illustrations available on stock photography websites that can be purchased and used quickly, easily and affordably.  But, there are a couple problems with the overuse of stock photography in your marketing materials and website.

For one thing, your competition could very well be using the same or very similar images.  Not to mention that most people can pretty readily discern the difference between a “real” photo and a stock photo.  Which means, if you’ve taken the time to develop original, fresh content based on the unique value you offer, you should go the extra mile to ensure your visuals are just as original and fresh.

When we start a website or marketing project, we request as many “original” photos from our client as possible.  Why?  Because we’ve found that prospects respond best to “real” images.  One of our recent website projects for longtime client, Bill Bachrach of Bachrach & Associates, Inc., included many original images.  In fact, every photo used on Bill’s new website was obtained from Bill’s team (as you can see from this screenshot of their homepage).

The result?  A compelling website with images just as original and fresh as Bill’s value proposition.

Unfortunately, many of our clients don’t already have a library of suitable photos when we begin their project and they may not have the time or budget for a professional photo shoot.  Remember, you don’t necessarily need a professional photographer to add some fresh images to your arsenal.  Sometimes snapshots taken by friends or family are just as effective.

Whether you choose to use all original photos or you use a mix of original and stock photos in your marketing materials and website, the key is to be fresh, original and above all– to portray the value you offer prospective customers or clients.

Maybe the paper is cheap, flimsy or dogeared while the design is outdated or just downright awful.  You know you shouldn’t allow something so simple to completely change your first impression of them, but you can’t help it.

Ford often speaks to clients and audiences about “sales prevention tools.”  It’s a clever term he uses to describe “tools” that are actually getting in the way of attracting and converting prospects into long-term clients and customers.  That’s what happens when your marketing materials, website or social media are old, outdated, confusing, lack style, have poor marketing messages and simply don’t communicate the quality or value your business offers.  In other words, they don’t match your brand’s promise.

That was exactly the case with one of our recent clients, Donna Strickland.  Donna is a nationally acclaimed speaker and organizational development consultant with a list of credentials you wouldn’t believe– but you’d never know it from her 1980s-esque marketing materials, ancient website and complete lack of social media presence.  Of course, we helped Donna to completely revamp her website and social media presence, but we certainly didn’t overlook her marketing materials, including her business cards and letterhead.

Donna’s business cards and letterhead are now aligned with her website and social media profiles, and each of these is now congruent with the quality and value Donna offers.  Let us know what you think of Donna’s new business cards and letterhead, and don’t forget to check out her revamped website– www.DonnaStrickland.com.

Remember– Prime Concepts offers complimentary critiques, so contact us directly if you’d like us to evaluate your marketing materials, website or social media presence.

Are you living in lack or abundance? Are you part of the scarcity herd, or are you in that tiny 2 percent or so of the population that knows how important prosperity consciousness is for success?

Being prosperity-minded is definitely a superpower. I first heard the term “prosperity consciousness” from my friend and business partner Randy Gage. I credit Randy with introducing me to the tools, teachings, and tactics I needed to replace lack consciousness with the power of prosperity consciousness.

You may have heard the saying “What you focus on, you attract.” A few years ago, there was a popular book and DVD movie titled The Secret. It was an inspirational teaching to the general public introducing time-tested strategies for success and repackaging them to be more current. The basic concept with the book centered around the concept of the law of attraction.

The Secret received lots of publicity and sold in many languages around the world. So I’m not so sure it really was a secret . . . but it certainly was to the masses. It’s very similar to the quote by Henry Ford, “If you think you can . . . you can. And if you think you can’t . . . you can’t.” But the concept of just thinking and focusing on what you want to attract alone is not enough to create true prosperity in your life.

You must put “legs” on the Law of attraction by taking conscious action. That includes conscious self-talk, positive behaviors, and massive action steps.

Prosperity is much more than creating monetary wealth.  For some people, it’s creating wealth and measuring that prosperity by collecting material things; for others, it’s peace of mind, happiness, and spirituality. I believe that prosperity is how you look at the world and everything around you. It manifests itself in your mind and in your thoughts. It’s not something external.

You can experience prosperity at any level of income, at any time, specifically including now.

I certainly don’t consider myself a prosperity guru. I’m just a person wanting to improve my life and create wealth and abundance for myself and for as many people and organizations as I can help. I help people through my books, blogs, keynote presentations, and consultations. You help people however you choose to help them.

Most people think life forces them to make choices. I have a different view: I think your choices make your life. Your wealth, health, and outlook—all the different forms of prosperity you are living or not living today—are the result of the choices you’ve made up to this point. Every day is a new day, and even every minute is a new minute. You can make a choice to change at any time. Choose prosperity – then take action. You’re worth it.

Here’s my favorite reminder for choosing prosperity and taking action on that choice.  “There is no such thing as a money problem … there is only a lack of ideas.”
It will show you how you can begin to take control of what you focus on, believe, and attract  – and help you design a belief system that supports you and moves you toward actions that support prosperity consciousness.

I get asked a lot about the best ways to overcome the problem of procrastination. If this is an issue for you, it’s time to get down to business and talk about your B.S.

Yep . . . that’s right . . . I’m talking about your BELIEF SYSTEM (BS).

What you believe about yourself and your world — how you think about yourself — has a powerful effect on what you are able to achieve and accomplish. In fact, what you believe about yourself not only determines what you do . . . it also determines what you talk yourself into NOT doing. If procrastination has becomes a problem for you, then I can guarantee you that the problem lies with a negative belief system.

So let me ask you.

Do you see yourself as a creative and innovative thinker?

Do you like yourself?

Are you proud of the things you’ve accomplished in life so far?

Do you have a can-do attitude?

Or do your beliefs create roadblocks and limitations that prevent you from accessing your superpowers … and keep you from taking the steps you need to take in order to move forward in your life?

All the great techniques in the world for overcoming procrastination won’t work if you don’t have the right mindset on!

I was at a business growth meeting a while ago with my friend Nido Qubein, and one of the presenters was  Bonnie McElveen-Hunter. She was the ambassador for the United States to Finland; she’s also president and CEO of Pace Communications and chairman of the American Red Cross. Talk about a superhero! Now let me ask you: How big a problem do you think someone like that has with procrastination, with putting off the actions that she KNOWS she needs to take?

My sense is that procrastination isn’t a big issue for her. This amazing lady has made a commitment to take action and USE her superpowers … both for business success and to make a positive impact on the planet.

And she is all about the “I CAN” mindset.

During that meeting, I remember her saying, “When I was a child, my mother made me write the words ‘I can’t’ on a piece of paper, put it in a shoebox, and bury it in the backyard. The words ‘I can’t’ have never been a part of my vocabulary. My only option is ‘I can’ . . . then I just have to figure out a way to make it happen.”

Wow! How fabulous to have a parent insightful enough to help a child learn to believe that she can do anything!

Personally, I wasn’t so lucky in my upbringing, but I still received the gift of developing a success mind-set to overcome procrastination through my own efforts and the help of my mentors. Who are your mentors?  Who do you take advice and guidance from to improve your life, your relationships, your career, your business?

Post your Superpower mentors in the comments sections below…

Prime Concepts worked with Art during his integrated marketing project to identify the best keyword and SEO strategies for his business with the goal of getting Clean Rite top search engine rankings on his business’ targeted keyword phrases.

Check out the impressive results below, displaying some of Art’s top keyword phrases and the positions they’re all currently holding on the first page of Google’s searches: 

1. pressure washing wichita: 1st

   

   Needless to say, Art is pleased!

2. power washing wichita: 1st
3. day porting wichita: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th
   
4. professional sweeping wichita: 2nd, 3rd, 4th
5. hot water pressure cleaning wichita: 2nd, 3rd
6. parking garage sweeping wichita: 2nd, 3rd
   
7. property maintenance wichita: 2nd
8. graffiti removal wichita: 2nd
9. parking lot striping wichita: 2nd
10. property services wichita: 3rd

In addition to incorporating a large amount of relevant website content about Art’s services and solutions, we also made sure Art’s new site had an effective SEO website design.

SEO involves many factors, however, and isn’t a set-and-forget, one-time tactic.  To maintain such high rankings, Art will need to blog regularly, adding “fresh” content to his website, as well as utilize the social media marketing training we provided, keeping his company “relevant” in the search engines.

Since there are many different types of businesses and specific needs, Prime Concepts offers a range of SEO services, including SEO training, SEO consulting, SEO-friendly website design modifications, keyword effectiveness training and website critiques.

Have you found an SEO tactic or strategy that’s been especially effective?  What are your suggestions for getting top rankings in the search engines?

For the fourth year, Prime Concepts Group competed in the prestigious MarCom Awards competition, which recognizes outstanding creative achievement by marketing and communication professionals.  Chosen from more than 5,000 entries, PCG President and CEO, Ford Saeks, and our integrated marketing team were honored again this year with two awards.

Website Design Overall: Platinum Award

In the category of “Website Design Overall,” the MarCom organization bestowed their highest honor, their platinum award, on PCG for the Boring Meetings Suck website.  This custom book website for author Jon Petz was designed by our lead graphic designer, Laura Stow, who has been with Prime Concepts for nearly three years.

Mobile Website: Gold Award

In the category of “Mobile Website,” the MarCom organization bestowed their gold award on PCG for the Boring Meetings Suck mobile website.  This smartphone-version website was custom designed and developed by our lead web developer, Paul Badke, who has been with Prime Concepts for more than five years.

Our entire integrated marketing team is honored and proud to have received a total of 11 MarCom awards since 2004.  Ford responded to the 2011 wins by saying, “While we are honored to win and be recognized for these awards in marketing excellence, our real reward comes from producing results for our clients.”

Prime Concepts Group has helped hundreds of clients improve their websites through Internet marketing, custom website design, online marketing, graphic design and interactive design.

Doug Carter of Carter International Training & Development, Inc. is one of those rare people that pretty much everyone he comes in contact with walks away thinking, “Wow!  That guy’s the real deal.”  In fact, he’s known as one of the most powerful interactive trainers around, with corporations such as Allstate, Fidelity and Americomm, and powerful entities such as Tony Robbins, Bill Bachrach and Michael Gerber raving about him.

So why did Doug come to Prime Concepts Group?  Well, his marketing brand  – particularly his website — wasn’t aligned with his high level of expertise.  In fact, there was no way anyone visiting his website would have any idea that Doug has so much to offer individuals and corporations looking to increase sales, efficiency and profitability.

That’s where we came in.

The first step was restructuring the navigation of Doug’s website for better usability, including creating several funnels to the most important information.  Next, we revamped Doug’s content (the written portions of his website), which was accomplished through a few conversations with Doug (he pretty much wrote all the content himself!)

Third, our creative design team gave Doug’s website a completely new look, capturing the profound impact Doug makes on his clients through powerful imagery.  Finally, our web development team put it all together, resulting in what you now see at www.DougCarter.com.

Check out Doug’s website and let us know what you think!  Is there something you could do to better align your marketing brand with your level of expertise?  If you’d like a complimentary critique, give us a call directly at (316) 942-1111 and mention this blog post.

Below are five simple tips for protecting yourself online against identity theft, costly data breaches and legal liabilities:

1. Use a Unique Password for Everything

Chances are you’ve done some online shopping recently, which means your personal information is now in more online databases than before. It also means your personal information is at more of a risk of falling into the hands of people you’d rather it not. When you’re shopping online, most retailers ask you to create a free account that you can use when you return to shop again. The problem is, most people use the same passwords for all of their online accounts – whether it is sites they shop on, community sites, social media sites, email, etc. Hackers know this, and they love it. If your personal information is leaked anywhere, they can match your email address and password everywhere online – not just the place it was leaked from.

2. Change Your Passwords for 2012

Make it a point to change your passwords before the end of the year. You should have a different password for everything you use – but definitely your email, online banking, mobile service providers, blog, social media. If you use a unique password for all of your online accounts, you can limit the risk you face if (and when) your personal information is leaked online.

3. Make Your Passwords Longer

When you create an account online, you’re probably assuming that the password you’re entering is being kept secure by the company you’re giving it to. Most likely it is (or they think it is), but even encrypted passwords can be cracked using a rainbow table. Words from the dictionary can easily be cracked, and even using passwords with punctuation isn’t that secure.

But if you use a unique passphrase instead of a common word, then the chance of the password being cracked is much more unlikely. An example of this would be “remember to clean up list of to-dos by end of day Friday.” I could put that phrase on a sticky note on my computer or in a Word document so I’d know what my password is, but to somebody else it just looks like a reminder I’ve made for myself.

4. Make Sure Your Webite is Updated

If you have a website or blog, you need to be sure it’s updated. There are thousands of websites using old scripts that have huge security vulnerabilities in them. Hackers will go from site to site quickly testing vulnerabilities with scripts (like SQL injection), and Google makes it easy to find them.

If your website is using an old script, check to see if there is an update available. WordPress is an incredibly popular tool for running blogs and websites, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve logged into a WordPress installation only to find it’s been over a year (sometimes years) since it was updated. WordPress and other scripts release updates for a reason – usually because there are security flaws that have been fixed! If you’re not sure what you’re dealing with, shoot us an email and we can take a look.

If you do end up in a situation when your site has been hacked, make sure you find out how it happened and fix it immediately. Actually, we had a situation where a website had been hacked and we found out who did it – so we reached out to the hacker and worked with him to resolve the vulnerability.

5. Use Terms of Use & Privacy Policy

If you’re collecting information from visitors to your website, it’s important to have these documents available. In the event a hacker is able to steal personal information you’re storing, your Terms of Use and Privacy Policy documents can save you from too much liability. The bottom line, though, is to protect yourself by making sure information is collected in a secure manner.

Do you have any tips or suggestions for staying safe online? Have you ever had your personal information stolen or been a victim of identity theft? Share your comments below, and please pass this information along. Suggest to your relatives and friends over the holidays that they should spend a few minutes updating their passwords heading into 2012 and why.

Here are a couple of other resources to help prevent identity theft and your business network.  We’ve worked with both of them and they are the best. John Silo, Identity Theft Expert www.ThinkLikeaSpy.com and Mike Foster, Network Security Specialist www.FosterInstitute.com

I’m referring to the dark side force of social media that keeps you up at night worrying about growing your business and leveraging the superpower of social media sites, like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

Are you listening, responding and engaging your target market?

What are people saying about your brand, your products and services?   Are you paying attention? Have you claimed your business listings on Yelp.com?  What about the other opinion and ratings websites?  Do you have filters set up using www.Hootsuite.com to monitor keyword topics from Twitter?  You can use social media websites to listen to the buzz in the market place as it relates to your industry, the competition, your prospects wants, needs & desires, and your products and services.

Social Media offers so many benefits, but it can be a huge waste of time without the right plan and actions steps.

Understand that your website and social media websites are just communication tools. The purpose of communication is the response it elicits. Are your social media efforts eliciting the responses needed to connect and engage your prospects?

If not, we can help.  Prime Concepts offers social media networking action plans and a host of other social media marketing services, including customized branded backgrounds for YouTube, and Twitter, integrated Facebook Pages that capture “likes” and encourage interaction.  We can help you transform your LinkedIn Profile and LinkedIn company branded pages too.  LinkedIn is often overlooked, but it’s designed for business networking. It’s amazing for research, connecting to people you don’t know through those that you do know, and much, much more.

Get the inside scoop on LinkedIn at one of our other websites… www.LinkedStrategies.com   It has a free LinkedIn Quickstart Guide and a few other resources. Check it out.

Be cautious of those so-called social media experts who claim they know everything. 

No one does and those mediums are changing all of the time. It’s crazy how many people have jumped on the bandwagon to offer social media advice, how-to products, and services. Many don’t have a clue about customer engagement, value propositions, and using these sites for business.  Make sure you do your research first, check their testimonials and case studies to ensure they know what they’re doing or hire a company like Prime Concepts that understands how to find, attract and keep your customers.

To help us stay current on the every-changing world of social media and inbound marketing we’ve partnered with Hubspot.  Now we’re providing our clients with the exact systems to leverage and monetize all of their inbound marketing efforts.   This is a “done-for-you” type system that will produce amazing results for you and your business.  Remember, each social media website has specific advantages and not all of them may be applicable for your particular business.

Don’t make it harder than it has to be. 

Make a spreadsheet of all of your websites and social media websites, including user names, emails used for the accounts and the passwords associated with each login. Do I really need to tell you to keep this file password protected or encrypted and in a safe place?  Keeping it organized and in one place makes it easy for you to manage and helps you when you’re ready to integrated modules, add-ins, programs and plugins, from site to site.

Have you established the performance benchmarks for your social media efforts?  It’s not about the quantity, it’s about the quality.  For social proof, having thousands of fans looks good, but who cares if they aren’t engaged or helping you grow your business.   Are you just tossing crap up against the social media wall to see what sticks or do you have a plan?   Sure, by now you’ve most likely set up a few profiles, but can you trace any leads or new business from social media websites?  We certainly can… and not because we’re so special, but because we understand how to match the right marketing message with the specific medium.  The better the match… the better the results. It really is that simple.

In summary, social media has a ton to offer your business and doesn’t have to be nightmare.

Use it to monitor your brand, get top search engine rankings, lead generation, customer service, damage control, inbound marketing, connect with new prospects, engage your customer base, and generate sales. 

What’s your biggest question related to social media? Post your question below and we’ll respond here and on future posts.

You should also consider your keyword placement and keyword density on the body of your web pages.  Think specific keyword phrases– not “keywords.”  Why?  Due to the extreme amount of competition for general terms in the search engines, you stand a far better chance to rank well for specific phrases where there is less competition.

Check out some of these tips for using keyword phrases:

1.)  Work Through Elements

Search engines completely ignore elements like punctuation and line breaks, so you can too.  If you have a three word key-phrase, there’s no reason you can’t end one sentence with the first two keywords and then start the following sentence with the last keyword.  Work through elements and get noticed by the search engines.

2.)  Form Quotes from “Personal” Key-Phrases

Incorporate quotes in the first person into your content since many people search in the first person.  For example, if you offer leadership training like our recent client, Greg Schinkel of Unique Training and Development, you could say something like, “Many managers wonder, ‘How can I engage and motivate my employees?’”  When someone types this question into a search engine, you have a good shot at getting them to your site!

3.)  Include Opposite Key-Phrases

So what if a really good key-phrase you’ve found doesn’t apply to your business?  How can you incorporate these into your content?  Find a legitimate way to use the key-phrase—even if it’s a page telling a client why the key-phrase is a bad idea or doesn’t apply to your business.

4.)  Add Other Words

So maybe you’ve tried to incorporate key-phrases into your content but it just ended up sounding clunky and uncomfortable.  The solution is to add other words to the beginning or end of the key-phrase.

For example, one of our recent clients, Agadia, offers “prior authorization software” for healthcare management.  Using “prior authorization software” repeatedly is no good.  Instead, they can incorporate other words before the phrase, like “web-based” and “feature-rich.” Or, they can incorporate other words after their phrase, like “solution.”

5.)  Consider “Stop” Words in Choppy Phrases

If the key-phrase you need to use isn’t complete or wouldn’t make sense in a sentence, consider adding “stop” words.  “Stop” words are words like “of,” “the,” “a,” and “for” that the search engines weed out anyway.

But what if your website has already been built and you don’t have a new website planned anytime soon?  You can still incorporate keywords and keyword phrases into articles, newsletters and blog posts you put on the web.

For more Internet marketing techniques to help you increase search engine rankings and generate more traffic to your site, check out the “Internet Profit Kit for Information Marketers: 101 Proven Tactics & Tools You Can Use to Build Your Business.” Visit http://www.internetprofitkit.com for details.

Do Your Marketing Materials, Website and Social Media Match Your Brand’s Promise?

I was talking to a prospect today raving about how he’s built his business through mainly referrals… but now his business has slowed and he wants help.

One look at his website and social media profiles and it was clear why referrals are what has driven his business… because his other promotional efforts lack his brand’s promise.

By that, I mean., they are old, outdated, confusing, lack style, have poor marketing messages and simply don’t communicate the quality or value that his business truly offers.

In short, they are “sales prevention tools” getting in the way of attracting and converting prospects into long-term clients and customers.  They are certainly costing him thousands of dollars in lost sales.

Does that scenario sound familiar? Want to know how to solve these problems?

Here’s your action step:

1. Go look at your website through the eyes of your prospects and ask yourself, “Would I do business with this company?”  Can you easily understand what problems your organization helps to solve or what desires your business fulfills?

2. Next, look at your social media profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube and see if there is a communication disconnect.  Do you have keyword-rich, benefit-driven descriptions that will engage your target prospects to connect with you?  Here is a link to a free replay of webinar on Social Influence. Watch the Video now.

3. Finally, look at your other promotional and sales efforts to ensure that they are congruent with the quality and value you offer. They should be in alignment and be tools that help you find, attract and keep your customers.  If you would like a critique or hot seat to evaluate and improve your results, just let us know…

4. Enter your biggest marketing challenge in the comments below for a chance to win an IPAD.  Answers and winners will show up in future posts.

And motivate them to take action!

Imagine yourself standing in a long checkout line at the grocery store.  You’re surrounded by sleazy tabloids and “fluffy” gossip magazines, but there’s no way you’d let anyone catch you looking at them.  Yet… you’re curious.  You just can’t help using your peripheral vision to take a peek.

As your eyes scan all the headlines, you see one that intrigues you.  That can’t be true… could it?  Before you know it, you’re throwing the magazine in the cart hoping no one will notice your lapse in judgment.

So what happened?  The headline stopped you in your tracks.  What’s more, the headline intrigued you enough to buy the story.

Now, I’m not here to talk to you about impulse magazine buys in the checkout line, but what this scenario does do is illustrate the importance of a headline that motivates a prospect to take action.

When it comes to marketing your business, headlines are arguably the most important element of your copy– whether it be for your website, a print promotion, an email blast or any other marketing piece.  The reason?  Because the headline is what attracts your prospect.  And, if your headline doesn’t blow their socks off, it could be the last thing they read.

In addition to grabbing the attention of your prospects and directing them to your offer(s), an effective headline sets the tone for the rest of your marketing message and prepares the prospect for what’s coming.  In other words, it pre-frames them for your offer better than any other element could.

So where should you get started? We suggest brainstorming headlines before you start the copy, writing the copy while brainstorming more headlines, brainstorming more when you finish and then selecting the winner.

Although there are almost too many types of headlines to count, we usually group them into six main categories.  Check out all six below along with popular examples:

The Question Headline

This headline gets the prospect curious about the answer and you can even pull them through the copy by not revealing the answer until the end.
Ex:  Do You Make These Mistakes in English?

The News Headline

This headline is very effective in conveying a sense of urgency and importance when you’re offering something new or breakthrough.
Ex:  Amazing New Medical Breakthrough for Fat Loss

The Benefit Headline

This type of headline is classic.  Better yet, if the benefit of your offer is desirable, you have the prospect’s attention immediately.
Ex:  Make Enough Money to Buy a New Car!

The Scare or Fear of Loss Headline

For many people, the fear of losing something is greater than the desire for gain, which will make it hard for them to resist checking out your offer.
Ex:  Just How Much Money Are You Losing?

The Intrigue Headline

This headline is ideal for arousing interest and intriguing the reader enough that they want to keep reading the copy.
Ex:  Can You Pass the Prosperity Test?

The Testimonial Headline

This type of headline is good for establishing credibility, whether the testimonial is by a celebrity or simply at satisfied client.
Ex: “My Hair Started Growing Back in Two Weeks!”

It probably goes without saying that the way to learn headline writing is to write them.  So, what are you waiting for?  Have fun brainstorming and being creative!  And don’t forget to test your efforts.  If you send out an email blast, send 500 with one headline and 500 with another (as an A/B Test) to track the response. Once you sent the control, change only one element, like the headline, and test again.  Before long, you’ll be writing headlines like a pro and motivating your prospects to take action!

What’s your favorite type of headline or headline style?  Do you have an example of an effective or ineffective headline?  Leave us a comment below.

What I’m talking about is a different kind of NAP– Name, Address and Phone Number– and how these directly relate to driving targeted traffic to your website.

Let me ask you a question… Are your company name, address and phone number all easily visible on your website, social media accounts and local business directories like Google Places, Bing Local, Yelp and Yahoo Local? Better yet, can you access all of these listings, websites and accounts and tell me that your company name, address and phone number are all the exact same?

If not, you’re actually driving traffic away from your website.  Let me explain why.

Essentially, when search engines like Bing, Google and Yahoo create these business listings that you can claim and update for FREE, they use searched information on the web to determine the correct address for your company. If, for some reason, they have an old address from before you moved or a missing suite or building number, you can be missing out on all the traffic that should be pointing to your current address and phone number.

These listing are so simple to claim, access and update and they’re a great starting point to drive targeted, ready-to-take-action traffic to you. So, first things first, make sure the NAP information on your website is accurate and how you want it displayed on all mediums– from social media accounts to your Yelp Local Business Listing.

Next, review your social media accounts, profiles and admin areas and make sure the contact information, business name and address are all the exact same as your website. From there, simply login to your local business listings (if you don’t have one, go to the major sites mentioned above and search for your company name and then claim your business for free) and make sure the same NAP information is accurate and consistent with the other mediums.

This seems so redundant and simple, I know, but you would be surprised with the number of clients we have who are either naive or unaware of the effects that NAPs have on their business. The key is that it’s not too late to claim your listing, update your accounts, profiles and website. By taking a few minutes and checking these areas, you will ensure you’re not making the mistake of continually driving traffic to your competitors.

If you have any questions on how to make these updates or how to claim your listings, please call us today at (316) 942-1111 or comment on this post.

Many business owners know their website could benefit from a website facelift, yet they don’t want to make the same investment a complete website overhaul would entail.  That’s how Prime Concepts can help.

We’ve created a customizable solution designed to give certain clients who qualify the facelift their website needs for a reasonable investment.  A recent example is accountability expert and leadership speaker, Sam Silverstein’s, website.  Sam helps organizations make accountability their competitive edge, creating more effective leaders, selling more, providing greater service and increasing revenue.

The customized solution we provided for Sam included improvements to his website copy, visual design and graphics, navigation and search engine optimization.  As you can tell from www.SamSilverstein.com, the end result speaks for itself!  If you’re interested in getting more targeted traffic, higher search engine rankings and improved conversions, check out Sam’s “refreshed” site, view the rest of our website design portfolio and learn more about our website development solutions.

Along with video, mobile devices make up one of the fastest growing segments of the internet. Mobile phones have become like a remote control for nearly all aspects of our lives, and Cisco predicts that there will be 7.1 billion internet-connected mobile devices just four years from now.  So how can you capitalize on the popularity of mobile phones?  One way is by having a mobile website.

Mobile websites can be developed for just about all mobile devices, including iPhones, iPads, Android phones and tablets, Blackberries and Windows devices.

Would you believe, more than half of our clients are requesting mobile websites now.  The reason?  Because they realize the need to make their brand as mobile as their customers and one of our clients has actually reported significantly more traffic on their mobile site than their regular site!

If you’re a company or organization that wants to get targeted traffic, improved conversions and cater to your website visitor, then you need to make your brand as mobile as your customer.  Your website should be designed with today’s multifaceted Internet user in mind.

So go look at your website using an iPhone, iPad or any other mobile device. If you have Flash on your website or if you have a website totally built in Flash, then the millions of iPhone and iPad users can’t see your content. And while your regular website may show up on a mobile phone, the text will be tiny, some elements just won’t work on mobile devices, and the user has to constantly scroll up, down, left right, in and out.

You should definitely consider getting your website’s content produced in a mobile website format.  This means that the navigation, font size, content layout, and graphics are optimized for mobile devices, and more importantly, mobile customers.

For examples of mobile websites, check out our mobile website design portfolio and learn more about our mobile website design solutions.

That’s why I put together some time-tested and proven tips and strategies designed to give you a big boost in growing your business.  I think you’ll find a lot of value from the quick-read ideas presented in “Profit-Rich Marketing: Proven Strategies to Help You Grow Your Business,” which are designed for easy implementation.

The practical marketing approach and proven strategies will help you to:

• Create the Marketing Mindset
• Create Explosive Growth in Your Business
• Utilize Marketing Secrets of the Masters
• Measure Marketing Success
• Design Profit-Rich Marketing Materials
• Write Copy Like the Pros
• Build Your Online Money Machine
• Drive Targeted Traffic
• Use Blog Marketing to Build Your Business
• Monetize Your Social Media Marketing Efforts

Get more details on my “Profit-Rich Marketing: Proven Strategies to Help You Grow Your Business” and leave us a comment to let us know some of the ways you’d like to improve your business.

When you have a complicated product or service, usually the best direction to take with the message and design of your website is clear, simple and modern.

That was our advice to one of our recent web development clients, Agadia.

Agadia is a company that offers Prior Authorization and ePrescribing solutions to healthcare management.  We’ll admit– this was a newer area for us, but the problem with their old website is that it didn’t give us a clear idea of all the great solutions Agadia offers.  Which meant that prospective clients weren’t getting a clear idea either.

As you can tell from their dynamic new website, www.Agadia.com, they put their full trust in our Prime Concepts Group team and the end result speaks for itself!  Check out their new site and tell us what you think before you view the rest of our website design portfolio and learn more about our website development solutions.

Well, Jon Petz’s new book website is anything but boring; in fact, it might just be one of the coolest book websites we’ve ever developed!

But don’t take our word for it– check out www.BoringMeetingsSuck.com and learn more about Jon’s new book, “Boring Meetings Suck” because let’s face it– most meetings suck about as much as most book sites.

And remember, we offer customized website development solutions for everything from simple micro-websites, mobile websites, sales letter (micro) websites and WordPress blog-type websites to fully functional, secure membership websites, social media websites, large scale database websites and eCommerce websites… just to name a few.

The key is to remember that it’s not about making a creative or even a “pretty” website… it’s about communication. Communication of value that builds buyer confidence, improves conversions and results.

So check out our website design portfolio and website development solutions after you leave a comment and tell us how awesome Jon’s site is.