Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Make a Weekly Plan

Most businesses can benefit by setting aside time to plan out their work week. The simple exercise of establishing goals to be accomplished each week can make a tremendous difference. Success comes from having a strategic plan that is broken down into weekly tactical plans. Think of it as a roadmap to get you where you want to go.

If you have employees, holding a Monday morning staff meeting is an excellent opportunity to review the past week’s events and progress while establishing objectives and deciding priorities for the current week.

I’ve always found that taking time at the end of each week to document accomplishments provides an opportunity to assess what works and what doesn’t. While things are still fresh in your mind, you can gain insights and brainstorm ideas and priorities. Then set it aside for the weekend (schedule permitting) and use this material for the Monday morning staff meeting. Often you will find that it percolates in your mind over the weekend and reflection brings refinement which helps you on the road to success.

Friday, April 14, 2006

Why Employ a Marketing Consultant?

Most people are good at one or two things. Successful people learn to focus on areas where they can be most effective and to acquire talent to address their remaining needs. This is where a marketing consultant can help.

A good marketing consultant is someone who has been in the trenches him (or her) self. With his (her) experience and skills, they should be able to quickly identify what needs to be accomplished to satisfy your objectives. Moreover, he (she) should be able to prepare a comprehensive plan and implement it for you at a reasonable cost.

At Pacifica Endeavors, our clients can expect to receive a many-fold return on their investment in marketing. Our fees are recovered many times over through increased sales resulting from leads generated through innovative marketing programs.

Monday, April 10, 2006

You Gotta Love Press Releases!

Press releases are a wonderful vehicle for getting your message to the marketplace. They create visibility, enhance credibility and, when placed online, live on forever.

Using inexpensive services like PRWeb to distribute a press release online is an excellent means of garnering widespread coverage of a product announcement, big sales win or an upcoming event. The beauty is that you can embed links so that your press release drives interested traffic back to your Website! And since online press releases float around the Internet forever and get picked up by press sites and newsletters, they provide a plethora of one-way links to your site, thus driving up your search engine ranking.

Don't just send out your press release online. Local newspapers and industry periodicals are always eager to get "filler' materials. If you mail or fax your press release to them with a cover letter, they will likely print it.

So, one simple document gets a lot of attention. Try accomplishing one press release monthly with embedded links. It's a cheap way to boost your Website traffic and capture more sales leads.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Credibility in Today's Business World

I'm amazed whenever I come across a small business that still doesn't have a Website. Even in this day and age when Website hosting is dirt cheap, some businesses lag behind. It is essential to your credibility to have a Website...and not just any Website, but a good one that presents the image of your business that you want to communicate to your target market.

A well-planned Website ultimately translates to more customers and more money in your pocket. It doesn't have to be a huge Website, nor are e-commerce and other "bells and Whistles" required. It just has to be pleasing to the eye, easy to navigate and contain useful information for clients and prospective customers. Oh yes, be sure to let interested visitors know how to contact (or locate) you.

The final step is to at least complete the meta tags before submitting the site to search engines and relevant Internet directories. These include the Title, Description and Keyword tags. If you really want to get a lot of traffic from your Website, get a professional to optimize it for the search engines. And once your Website is active, promote the heck out of it!