Here We Grow Again…

February 28th, 2011

PRLog (Press Release) – Feb 28, 2011 – Dave Ramsay joins eKzact in the role of business development. Dave joins eKzact with 20+ years in the telecommunications industry working with mid-sized enterprises to improve internal and external communications.  Dave’s primary focus has been on business development and customer service. Dave’s career includes working with companies including Telus, Telsat (a Bell Company), and he was principal in a private interconnect company.  Dave’s role with eKzact will be to develop new business relationships and work with existing clients.

Arlene Cadger joins our team as the Project Coordinator. Arlene’s focus is on the management of new design and programming tasks and ensuring that the technical team is managed efficiently.

“As eKzact continues to grow into a full service Internet marketing agency, new roles evolve to meet the business needs and to ensure that our customers continue to get top quality products and services”, said David West, founding partner of eKzact. West also comments, “it is a testament to our processes that Arlene who started as a website design client has now become an integral part of our team.”

As businesses grow to recognize the value of  having a professional Internet Marketing firm on their team, eKzact has grown to meet those needs. Post web design marketing support, search engine optimization and social media community management have all become integral to our clients success.

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eKzact is a full service internet consultancy. Our mantra is that “If you market to the World, the World will be your Market”(r). Our growing team of internet consultants, designers and programmers provide services to clients spanning North America.

 

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Web Design and the Bottom Line: Does it Pay to Spring for the Extras? (Part Four)

October 27th, 2010

Throughout the first three posts in this series, we’ve been careful to point out that more often than not, it’s worth it for business owners to think ahead spend a little bit more on the “extras” that can make their websites more competitive.

But that doesn’t mean you should go spending like a sailor on shore leave.

For one thing, there are still immediate bottom-line considerations to take into account. In other words, you don’t want to go overboard if the short-term expense is going to mean you have to cut back on other important parts of your budget. While websites tend to pay for themselves pretty quickly, for example, they probably won’t render your off-line advertising obsolete on the first day, so it wouldn’t make sense for most businesses to spend so much that they can’t market themselves anymore.

At the same time, you don’t want to overwhelm visitors to your site. At a certain point, adding more features – and especially aesthetic ones – goes from being interesting and artistic to just more “noise.” Always make decisions with your customer in mind. If you get the feeling that it’s “too much,” listen to that gut feeling.

A third reason not to go crazy is that a website is only the first step towards a complete online marketing plan. You’ll want to save some in your budget for other things, too, like: search engine optimization, pay per click advertising, social media marketing, and so on. Skipping on these is like building a new facility and then not having electricity installed.

And finally, you don’t have to get every single feature possible on your next website because there’s probably going to be another website after that… and another, and another, etc. Because the design and online marketing industries are constantly evolving, as is your company, you can be sure that what you want in a year or two isn’t going to match up exactly with what you want today. That’s all right. Just get what you need now, along with some things that can help you make more money, and then come back to the other things later.

To sum things up, it’s not always easy to decide what you should spring for when you’re having someone do a website for you. But a good rule of thumb is to pay a little extra for the features that can probably help you boost your bottom line in the short and long-term, and then save the much larger investments for later down the road, when your new site is already bringing you tons of new revenue.

Want to work with Calgary’s best web design and online marketing team? Contact eKzact today to see how we turn Internet dreams into bottom line realities.

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Web Design and the Bottom Line: Does it Pay to Spring for the Extras? (Part Three)

October 22nd, 2010

It’s pretty likely that, at some point in your journey as a business owner and entrepreneur, you’ve spent a late night hunched over a calculator or spreadsheet. Learning to understand the numbers – and occasionally beat them until they give up their secrets – is a critical skill for anyone who wants to remain profitable.

Guess what? That’s part of the web design process, too.

Of course, this is contradictory to what most people think of when they envision designers and creative firms. They prefer to think of offices where people wear jeans and T-shirts, sipping lattes and playing video games until that moment of inspiration comes. There certainly is some of that in this field, but the hard reality is that unless your website is making money, it doesn’t matter how creative your team is or isn’t.

For that reason, here are a few things to consider and calculate as you figure out what to include in your next web design:

What would a small percentage increase in sales mean to you? Rather than thinking of “pie-in-the-sky” possibilities, get conservative and decide what a 1 or 2% increase in sales would mean to your bottom line. If it would be a big deal, and if you are reasonably sure that adding to your site could help get you that, then it’s probably a good investment. If it takes something a lot bigger for the future to be worth it, move forward very carefully.

Could this part of the site help you save money? A lot of bottom-line improvements are not immediately evident because they don’t add to revenue or new accounts. But anything that helps you save time and money – especially with customer service, billing, etc. – is still helping you keep more profits.

What about the long-term? There are millions of ways that small improvements to your site can help you make more money in the months and years ahead, but don’t fall into “every day” categories. Recruiting is a good example: having the ability to post jobs on your site and get the right kinds of candidates could save you tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars over the next few years, but it isn’t something that a lot of business owners would think of right away.

When it comes to figuring out whether or not a part of your new website is going to be worth the investment, take a careful look at the numbers… and the numbers behind the numbers. A lot of costs are a lot more justified than they seem at first glance.

And then again, some of them aren’t. That’s what we are going to look at in the fourth and final post in this series.

Want to work with Calgary’s best web design and online marketing team? Contact eKzact today to see how we turn Internet dreams into bottom line realities.

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Web Design and the Bottom Line: Does it Pay to Spring for the Extras? (Part Two)

October 18th, 2010

In this series of posts, we’re taking a look at whether it makes sense for business owners to go “beyond the basics” when it comes to having their websites designed or upgraded. We know that there are a lot of factors that go into decisions, and that the answers aren’t always clear.

In the first post, we made the point that, all things being equal, it usually makes sense to go a little bit “bigger” with your site then it does to cut back on it and wish you had more functionality later. This is especially true when you consider that most markets are competitive enough online that you have other companies you are trying to keep up with.

But that point isn’t written in stone.

Before you even hire a website designer, it’s a good idea to take a look around and see what your competitors are doing – or even what other companies in the industry, even though they might not be directly in competition with you, are doing as well. You’re not only looking to see what works, or what you think looks good and could be profitable in your site, but also a sense of where everyone else is going on the web.

If the newer sites you’re seeing all have video, secure client account access areas, highly search-optimized pages, and so on, then you know that at least some of these are probably going to be a necessity for you, too – if not now, then at some point in the not so distant future.

On the other hand, however, if other companies haven’t considered it worth the money to go farther than posting some simple HTML pages, or setting up their sites from a template, then you know two things: first, that you have a good chance to get a leg up on them; and second, that the road from a cutting-edge website to new customers might not be that clear…or at least wasn’t to them.

This can be important, especially if you have larger competitors with advertising firms and market research companies at their disposal. By figuring out which pieces of the online marketing puzzle were important enough for them to incorporate, you can make some educated guesses about what sort of figures they came up with, and what kind of advice they got.

In the next post, we’ll take a closer look at your numbers – some quick ideas on figuring out the return on investment for any new website or future. In the meantime, get out there and study your competitors.
Want to work with Calgary’s best web design and online marketing team? Contact eKzact today to see how we turn Internet dreams into bottom line realities.

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Web Design and the Bottom Line: Does it Pay to Spring for the Extras? (Part One)

October 15th, 2010

One of the first questions that a business owner has to answer, once they decide to upgrade or redesign their website, is how far to go. Web design, not to mention online marketing, is a constantly-changing field; every new turn of the calendar brings a new set of features and ideas that could possibly be implemented into a commercial site. But how many of them can actually help you make more money? And which ones are worth the cost?

When you aren’t working in the industry, these can be difficult questions to answer. Beyond a nice looking layout, a lot of owners don’t have a great idea of what it is they really want… or what kinds of things they should even ask for. And so, out of fear and a desire to save a little money, their first instinct is often to go with the bare basics, lest they should rack up an enormous bill for what started as a basic design.

Obviously, there are definite limits to what you should spend on a new site, and we will be exploring some of those in the rest of this series. But for the moment, let me just point out that the “just the basics” approach to web design usually isn’t a winning one.

The biggest reason is that websites aren’t launched or created in a vacuum; they are thrown out into the cold, harsh reality of cyberspace, where your business has to compete head-to-head with dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of competitors. If yours doesn’t look state-of-the-art, or lacks features that other competitors boast, then you can be sure customers are going to get the impression your business is behind the ball.

Most of us have figured out the hard way that trying to “keep up with the Jones” isn’t a great way to run your life or business, but when it comes to some of the basic “extras” that can be involved in the web design process, it usually pays to have them included. In the next post, we are going to take a closer look at that dynamic, but be aware that, like anywhere else in life, there aren’t many shortcuts when it comes to quality web design – better usually costs a little bit more, but pays you back in the long-run.

Want to work with Calgary’s best web design and online marketing team? Contact eKzact today to see how we turn Internet dreams into bottom line realities.

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How to Make Your YouTube Video a Viral Hit

October 12th, 2010

As anyone who’s ever been around any form of entertainment can tell you, producing hits is hard. Most bands never once come up with the top 40 single, and of those that do, only a small fraction ever repeat the act. Plenty of high-profile box office movies bomb, and a full 95% of all books published fail to earn back their advance.

And yet, the search for blockbusters goes on. Why? Because, amongst other things, the financial rewards are enormous. Record producers, movie studios, and book publishers although that finding even one breakout hit more than makes up for the losses on the other failed attempts.

It’s the same way your YouTube marketing. We’re not going to lie and say it’s easy to come up with the video that has a great chance of going viral, spreading your message around the globe, and bringing UN millions of new customers. But, as they say, you can’t win if you don’t play.

With that in mind, here are a few pointers on how to come up with a viral YouTube hit for your company. We can guarantee any of them work for you, but hopefully they’ll get you started the right direction:

Spoof something popular. Humor in general is always a good idea, but anything that pokes fun of the well-known is a good candidate to be passed on to friends and colleagues.

Invent a song. In the same way, people like jingles. Come up with one that’s fun, catchy, or even strange, and you might gain a following.
Take the other side of an argument. Contrary viewpoints always gather attention, so if you have an opinion that’s different enough to be interesting – without being outright offensive – then by all means, post your thoughts and video.

Share an industry secret. People love to feel like they’re getting an inside look, especially if it has to do with pricing, negotiation, or some other “secret” detail.

Appealing to people’s curiosity is a great way to go viral.

Answer a common question. Maybe the easiest way to produce a video that’s going to be passed along is to answer some question that a lot of your potential customers would share. Give them an explanation that’s clear and easy-to-understand, and you’ll win a guaranteed bloc of attention.

If you are looking for support with your Social Media marketing or Website Video Production, please feel free to contact us.

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Four Big Mistakes in YouTube Marketing

September 23rd, 2010

We’ve already written about how easy and important it is to use YouTube as a marketing tool. Simply put, it’s something that nearly every business should be trying, given that more than 1 billion people a day are checking in to see video clips of all sorts.

What we haven’t told you, however, is how easy it is to mess up.

That’s because, as simple as it looks, video marketing on YouTube isn’t a simple and simply uploading a few clips asking people to buy. After you’ve checked out our other piece on the three things every YouTube video needs, be sure you avoid these for common YouTube marketing mistakes:

Posting commercials. There’s a reason people change the channel in between sitcom segments. Posting your commercials online — or videos that seem like commercials, rather than something interesting or informative — virtually guarantees that people will stop paying attention to you quickly.

Failing to win attention. While there might be billions of visitors to YouTube everyday, there are also millions of other videos they can watch. Remember that, and come up with a topic and tone that make people want to stick around. Orrin videos are the deaths of your YouTube marketing campaign.

Not investing in quality. Grainy footage is cute when it’s a reminder of your sixth birthday or that time you saw Bigfoot in the backwoods of West Virginia; when your YouTube videos are low quality, however, customers just think you don’t have your act together.

Forgetting to include contact information. Supposing you’ve done the right thing and made your video understanding and engaging, be sure people can follow up by actually getting in touch with your company and buying from you. You’d be amazed at how many marketing videos miss the simple, but crucial step.

If you are interested in learning how to produce your own website video’s, reach out to us at our Calgary Website Design service site, we would be pleased to help you. We can teach you how to produce your video in your own micro studio or produce them for you!

Posted in Video, YouTube Web Video | No Comments »

How to Make Your YouTube Video a Viral Hit

September 23rd, 2010

As anyone who’s ever been around any form of entertainment can tell you, producing hits is hard. Most bands never once come up with the top 40 single, and of those that do, only a small fraction ever repeat the act. Plenty of high-profile box office movies bomb, and a full 95% of all books published fail to earn back their advance.

And yet, the search for blockbusters goes on. Why? Because, amongst other things, the financial rewards are enormous. Record producers, movie studios, and book publishers although that finding even one breakout hit more than makes up for the losses on the other failed attempts.

It’s the same way your YouTube marketing. We’re not going to lie and say it’s easy to come up with the video that has a great chance of going viral, spreading your message around the globe, and bringing UN millions of new customers. But, as they say, you can’t win if you don’t play.
With that in mind, here are a few pointers on how to come up with a viral YouTube hit for your company. We can guarantee any of them work for you, but hopefully they’ll get you started the right direction:

Spoof something popular. Humor in general is always a good idea, but anything that pokes fun of the well-known is a good candidate to be passed on to friends and colleagues.

Invent a song. In the same way, people like jingles. Come up with one that’s fun, catchy, or even strange, and you might gain a following.

Take the other side of an argument. Contrary viewpoints always gather attention, so if you have an opinion that’s different enough to be interesting – without being outright offensive – then by all means, post your thoughts and video.

Share an industry secret. People love to feel like they’re getting an inside look, especially if it has to do with pricing, negotiation, or some other “secret” detail. Appealing to people’s curiosity is a great way to go viral.

Answer a common question. Maybe the easiest way to produce a video that’s going to be passed along is to answer some question that a lot of your potential customers would share. Give them an explanation that’s clear and easy-to-understand, and you’ll win a guaranteed bloc of attention.

Here’s a great video produced by a Calgary Marketing Company, for Red Moon Pet Foods, meet Rex the Talking Dog;

Posted in YouTube Web Video | 1 Comment »

Some Clouds on the Horizon – Are You Ready?

September 13th, 2009

On September 9, it was reported by “the Channel Insider”, that Heartland Tech Groups (HTG), “the leading collaborative peer group of solution and service providers, and Channel Insider are partnering to develop community-driven guidance for VARs and MSPs on how to capitalize on emerging opportunities in cloud computing.”

It is apparent that many SMB’s are turning to cloud based solutions (a term applied to software as a service over the internet).  Big players like Amazon, Google and now even Microsoft are releasing innovative cloud based solutions at extremely economic rates or in some cases completely free. Microsoft’s recent introduction of their popular office suite as an internet service as well as hosted Exchange servers as opposed to ‘in-house’ solutions, may have some VAR’s wondering what to do next.  Amazon’s cloud based services “Amazon Web Services” recently launched their “Elastic Cloud” on top of their already popular Simple Storage Service and other cloud front products. Google also recently announced the “New Google Wave” that promises to change the way that people communicate using the internet.

New Players Entering the Service Market

In the past IT services closely linked operating systems, software and hardware that resides in the client offices. The trend towards minimal hardware in the office and cloud based solutions will undoubtedly bring more competition into the market place as non-traditional service providers start supporting cloud based services. I joked recently, on Twitter, that in the not too distant future a client will simply plug a monitor, keyboard and mouse into a wall jack and be instantly connected to the services that they subscribe to.  Fortunately professional IT service providers like our partners over at Bulletproof Info Tech are ahead of the learning curve.

Channel Insider Reported that;

“…cloud computing is changing the way technology is delivered to businesses. Solution providers are struggling to find their place in the cloud computing world where hosting companies, telecommunications carriers and technology suppliers are competing for the same cloud-based business.”

North American companies are innovative and it seems that HTG & The Channel insider partnership to develop guidelines for the IT industry is a great initiative.

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Ten Things you Should Do to Succeed Online

September 9th, 2009

If the difference between a web design and a web developer eludes you or if the terms SEO or search engine optimization doesn’t mean anything to you… you should attend this session. David West will introduce you to 10 things every business owner can do to acheive better lead generation online. During this session David will share 10 proven concepts that you can start to employ the next day. Increased traffic to your website is great – but the right traffic will generate new leads!

One person recently commented after hearing David speak, she said,

“I thought I would send you a quick e-mail to tell you how much I enjoyed your presentation today. It was very interesting and extremely informative despite scaring the hell out of me because I know how much work we need to do on our website. Again, great job! I also really appreciated the “no B.S.” way that you speak in layman’s terms that we non I.T. people can understand.”

Cost is $30.00 for this luncheon event. Buffet Lunch included.

Register here - http://www.meetup.com/calgaryentrepreneurs/calendar/11164788/

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