Ad Blocking Hysteria in Digital Advertising

Publishers are frustrated and taking action. Readers with ad blockers are increasing in number. Advertisers are questioning paid ads. The online advertising industry is going bonkers over ad blockers.

Surprisingly, ad blockers have just started to take off in the last couple of months. Personally, I've been using one for a couple of years now. Yes, I am part of that group that chooses which ads I see and which I block. However, recent publishers have been blocking readers with ad blockers. You may have seen a message similar to the ones below:

Telegraph (British News Website)

NARCITY Toronto

Funny text and emoticon to encourage turning the ad blocker off, but if you notice in the right hand side...they already have a pop up active before the user even had a chance to access the article!

I, myself am not a big fan of invasive pop-ups. While I understand that they can drive results, they can also annoy certain users. If the goal of your landing page is to have someone subscribe to the content via email, a form or field in the right column another area of the page suffices. In the end, it is the quality of the content that will determine the best subscribers.

So, why the recent rise in the use of ad blockers?

My gut feeling tells me two reasons for the recent rise. The growth of mobile and free downloadable apps has shown a HUGE increase in invasive ads. I recall downloading a couple of productivity and exercise apps that were free, and every part of the app had some sort of advertisement. Not only that, but I would have to wait for a while to get from one part of the app to the other due to load time of the ads.

As you have probably experienced, accidentally clicking on the app ads happens all the time with touch devices (maybe it's just my lack of accuracy). This drove me crazy and I eventually uninstalled all the apps that were extremely heavy with their in-app advertisements.

Second reason would be that some advertisers and platforms are just far too invasive or overloaded with ads. Have you ever gone on a "reasons to do so and so to get better so and so" article only to find that its bombarded with ads? Ads are usually found:

• between paragraphs
• in left and/or right columns
• before and after comment section
• pops ups come after a certain level of scrolling

This usually results in long load times (on mobiles devices specifically), data consumption, overloading of information which results in lost attention from reader, and most importantly..some of the ads are far too click-bait oriented or in some cases, not even relevant to the actual topic.

Let's look at an online sports blog, Hypun and one of their recent blog posts overloaded with ads:

Top (just loaded) part of blog post

Far too many ads at the initial loading screen of the post.

Middle of page (article content):

As if the first loaded ads were not enough, another three are loaded while reading body of post.

Bottom of page (usually comment section):

Some ads are repeated from the top while others are not even basketball related at all.

Publishers rely on ads to provide free content

And always have, you don't have to look for to find commonalities. Especially in traditional media that we consume in our daily lives: radio, television, newspapers, magazines, etc. I fully agree with this concept and support free articles and music if they are supplemented with advertising messages.

Now, with that being said both sides (viewer and publisher) have to find a common ground as to what is an acceptable amount of advertising. But what about publishers such as Hypun mentioned above, who don't earn as much money as say Telegraph (newspaper mentioned above as well) and therefore try to run an excessive amount of ads to make money? Well, to be frank with you I am not a 100% sold that displaying a higher volume of irrelevant ads is the way to increase ad revenue. Regardless of publisher size, popularity or topic. Why?

This blog post is the reason why, the huge rise of ad block users is why; people get fed up waiting for ads to load and looking at click-bait articles that eventually leads to getting distracted. Users will either resort to ad blockers or not go back to the website, both of which will result in loss of ad revenue.

Click on image to view Google Play Music ad.

On a personal note - I have started using ad blocker on YouTube a long time ago. And I was recently reminded of why I did so. I do not have an ad blocker on my phone. While I was listening to some music on the device during common household chores, I think every-single-song in the YouTube playlist was preceded by the exact same ad: the Google Play Music service. Sorry Google, but I have to voice the concern of the amount of times that ad was aired during the playlist. I believe the words "sunburn synths" will forever be embedded in my brain! Either tone down the volume or have better targeting.

What can publishers do to make things better?

Create better content of course. If you provide unmatched value that will result in valued users, then there won't virtually be any issues when it comes to ads. The use of "virtually" there is also dependent on the type of, and volume of ads. Obviously ads are needed to make things run as they do - but overloading the page with irrelevant messages and making it difficult to actually read what the article is about will deter users. Carefully reviewing proposed ads and advertisers can also eliminate any irrelevancy issues or click-bait material.

Secondly, if the advertising model isn't able to meet publisher's revenue goals perhaps they should consider having a subscription based service. Whereas interested users can pay to access ad-free, well created content while the free articles or previews are only limited overviews of a topic. Ads aren't the only way to attain revenue, and instead of increasing ad volume to meet those goals perhaps other means of revenue generation should be considered.

What can advertisers do to make things better?

Create better ads. Do not fall into the click-bait trap of creating over-the-top article headlines, poor blog posts or offers. If you genuinely put effort into your ads, they will yield better results compared to trying to find the quickest shortcut to making a quick buck.

Secondly, and just as important is where you place your ads. Targeting not only helps generate better results and return on your investment, but it simultaneously helps eliminate the problem of seeing an ad that is completely irrelevant to that publisher's content. 

What can users do to make things better?

Understand that the advertising model allows everyone access to free and unlimited content on the web (and some of that content is very, very good). While one website may abuse their advertising placement does not mean that every digital space will do so. I willingly turn off my ad blocker on certain websites, as a matter of fact I actually clicked on some of the ads that drew my interest. There is nothing wrong with ads when they are done right.

Another option is if you truly are bothered by ads; don't visit the website or look for a subscription-based model that is ad-free. Both you as the user and the publisher/advertiser would be better off. We as consumers of all this information have the ability to channel our attention to the right areas, much like our hard earned dollars are channeled to the brands that we trust. Attention is the digital currency.

So where do we go from here?

As you can see from the above points, each party can do a little more to improve the other's experience or goals. Taking these steps will help rid the web of inefficient web pages, ads and everything that has led to users relying on ad blockers. Obviously we can't eliminate every single spam site, and that is the same reason we can never eliminate the use of ad blockers. We can just encourage where they are used.

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Unknown Thursday, February 11, 2016  

Emerging Marketing Concepts You Should Know About

Marketing (particularly digital) is constantly evolving. It can be hard to keep up with ongoing changes. That is why I thought that putting a list of the latest chatter in what is happening would be helpful for the start of the new year. Some of these trends have been around for a couple of years, while others are just breaking into the spotlight. Take a look below:

Adaptive Content

It is no secret that personalized content and messaging drives most results. It is also no secret that we are beyond Dear [Insert name here] point of email (among other mediums) personalization. That is where the concept of adaptive content comes in: provide the right messaging, catered to the person, in the right format to the right device.

If that sounds challenging, well...to be honest, it is. Most small businesses struggle with producing regular, engaging content. Now they have to make it personalized for each individual?

Yes and no. Writing a blog post for EVERY single person would mean that you have an entire editorial and publishing team. Which, as you already know is far too big of an investment. However, there is a way for a small business to cater to individuals based on personas. Personas are basically profiles of your target audience (not demographic, but audience) based on how they consume media, your product, their personalities, etc. Creating the right personas takes research, time and careful consideration. If done right, it can be the critical point of guiding adaptive content so that it is personalized for exactly who your targeted audience members are, as opposed to the "general" online community that encompasses everyone.

Sample persona from http://fakecrow.com/

A great guide to personas (and free persona template) can be found on HubSpot's resource blog.

Influencer Marketing

This might be a HUGE part of reaching out to audiences in the future. What is it? Basically using a person (or collaborating with them) who is respected within the target market (can be a buyer themselves) and having them write a blog post, review a product or any other means of having them connect with the customers by using your brand in some way, shape or form.
While this sounds fairly simple, not every influencer will want to work with every brand. And your brand has to have worth-while content that the influencer would consider using under their own influence. Lots of examples of this can be found on Instagram as it seems to be a great place for influencer marketing. Particularly in the fashion or fitness industry where profiles (or people) with a lot of followers use company products in their photos and increase the reach of the brand in question to the thousands, if not millions, of followers.

Internet of Things

I did a more detailed cover of Internet of Things for small business (or IoT) last year so I will go over the high-level summary here. IoT basically automates certain tasks or experiences in life and combines that automation with technology for contextual messaging, improvements or maintenance.

Imagine having a "smart fridge" that knows when you've run out of milk; it automatically sends a reminder to your smart watch while you're doing your daily 5KM run so that you can grab some on your way back. Connected, timely and integrated. It will demand business to be present into those micro-moments where a certain brand can be suggested while the person is on their way to make a purchase.

Native Advertising

Example of a BuzzFeed native advertising article featuring Captain Morgan.

Native advertising may be hard to distinguish from regular articles or news stories (most common, but applies to videos or any other medium), but it has been prevalent recently. And consumers are gaining more awareness regarding it. As an example similar to influencer marketing above, you can see how Captain Morgan has put together a fun article on BuzzFeed focusing on non-dancers showing off their club moves. Why is this relevant? Captain Morgan is a great mix for rum & coke at parties or clubs, and it seems that the article is about a fun dancing experience as opposed to Captain Morgan itself.

Native ads usually have an objective feel: meaning that its really hard to tell its an advertisement or sponsored content, but a genuine piece of content from the author. In the example above, there may be nothing wrong with Captain Morgan putting a sponsored article together on  BuzzFeed since it does show a "Brand Publisher" as the author, and the article is generic to dancing. Alternatively, if a brand pushes a narrative just for promotion-sake, say an alternate title such as "Why Captain Morgan is the Best Spiced Rum for a Rum & Coke to Get you Moving" the effort could backfire and cause negative engagement with audiences.

As a matter of fact, South Park recently created a series of episodes mocking native advertising, ad blockers and digital journalism that has been picked up by many news outlets, including Business Insider. Audiences are getting smarter, and any overly promotional native advertising could backfire.

South Park mocks native advertising and digital journalism.

Programmatic Advertising

Much like everything else, programmatic advertising is the rise of automation in online ad buying. Not only buying, but programmatic ads allow for better segmentation and target of audiences. This is huge because advertising dollars can now be funneled into more precise targeting and (hopefully) better results for the advertiser. Below you will find a great video explaining the concept:

Virtual Reality

Probably the hottest thing for 2016 even outside of marketing, virtual reality has been dubbed to reshape the experience aspect of interacting with brands, services and products. While this may look like something out a "futuristic, technology rules over humankind" science fiction flick, it could lead to better experiences for customers that prefer more hands on interaction.

How you ask? Well what if you could test drive a vehicle that has yet to hit the market? This would be a huge step in helping customers get the full research experience prior to making a big investment. As a matter of fact Audi and Samsung have already partnered to create these experiences:

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If you read my piece on my small business branding is like a rock concert, it won't come as a surprise that I am a fan of rock and metal music. Hence why I wanted to share another example with you, particularly music lovers. This is legendary band Megadeth promoting their new album and improving user experience using virtual reality (you can read more about it on LinkedIn Business):

Wearable Technology

More than likely you, or someone you know, has received a Fitbit or similar sort of wearable fitness tracker as a Christmas present. The rise of wearable technology into our daily lives has exploded in 2015 and looks to continue for 2016 and beyond. Similarly to the IoT point above: having location-based information and contextual preferences could help increase results as marketing moves to a "real-time" messaging period. Meaning - when someone indicates a need on wearable technology, an organization should be able to provide that in real time. Hitting both the need and timeliness of the messaging.

Image source: http://vistablog.co.uk/

Example? I have booked a flight recently using my gmail account. Google sends me direct updates via "Google Now Cards" as to the flight status, when I should leave to arrive at the airport on time, duration of flight, etc. While this may be on my mobile device, if I had a smart-watch or any other wearable associated with messaging it would be sending the updates there.

Another feature, which was introduced by Twitter a while ago, will be the conciseness of messages. With Smart watches inability to present long-winded messages, content creators will be forced to be even more concise and the point.

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These are just some of the ways in which marketing will evolve for 2016 and beyond. As always we are interested in hearing about your experience with any of these efforts. Do you plan to use them? If you already do, do they provide positive results?

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Unknown Tuesday, February 02, 2016  

What is Your Small Business Story? Learn How to Establish Brand Personality

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Brand Personality, What Is It?

We often hear the phrase "Brand Personality" thrown around by marketing gurus - but what really is it? Is it meant for big brands using agencies? How can small business create one? All great questions.

Simply put, brand personality is how your business and the associated products or services, are perceived, consumed and engaged with by the general public. Notice that I did not just say "customers"? Because your brand personality spans beyond customers and becomes a reality of all audience members aware of it, whether they use it or not.

The way you build your brand personality can influence the type of customers your small business attracts. With the advancement of technology for business purposes, brand personalities have shifted more towards emotional connections, personal interactions and deep engagement between the brand (business) and user (customer).

Remember the PC vs. Mac personality commercials?

According to one of the biggest "rockstars" of branding in our day and age, Seth Godin, every brand is a story. It cues emotions, expectations, social situations and induces our own inner memories with the brand/product in question. Below is a great two sentence summary which illustrates brand personality:

More than ever, we express ourselves with what we buy and how we use what we buy. Extensions of our personality, totems of our selves, reminders of who we are or would like to be. - Seth Godin

 

Our Own Brand Personality Prelude

I will share with you a brief background story on NR Digital Branding itself - somewhat of an intro (not meant to be self boasting) into this blog post. If you've browsed around our social media profiles and links you may have noticed the term "nemki" come up quite a bit. As a matter of fact my Twitter handle is @nemki, one of my more recognizable nicknames to those that do know me (interestingly, nemki also refers to a mythological thunder-bird creature in the Anishinaabe native language). It was the first ever email I used for gaming, forums, chat services, Yahoo GeoCities website builder (first ever web design dabbling!), and it marks the spark of my "digital" life from the late 90s/early 2000s.

But why is it being used for business purposes?
Well I believe this to be the start of my digital passion and everything that has happened since, including the inception of NR Digital Branding. It is the personality that has developed over years that led to this career path and personal/professional involvement in the digital landscape. Additionally the story associates the level of commitment NRDB has to always providing the best digital experience for all customers, local audience and online community due to that passion. The same way that many Canadian small business have a story of their own; stories of passion, dedication and branding. What makes your business unique and how that uniqueness weaves into the service and/or product you provide as well as the customers that make it all worth-while.

Brand personality is a way for the customer to resonate with your business, to make a full emotional connection.

 

Why Tell Your Story?

Canada (more-so than other countries) is strongly established by small businesses. Imagine that within your local area you have a pizza store, down the street from the store is another local pizzeria store. Both of you sell gourmet pizzas, wings, bread-sticks, dipping sauces, provide a delivery service, etc.

Well, which one should a newcomer chose? Why would a customer come back?

Sure special promotions, deals and holiday specials can help you meet short-term goals, but they can do the same for the pizza shop down the road. What about the loyal customer who wants to keep coming back?

This is where your story or small business uniqueness (the personality) can play a crucial role.

What makes a pizzeria gourmet? Usually some sort of "secret" or "home-made" sauce. Maybe your pizzeria bakes using a stone oven, or uses an old family recipe from Italy. Perhaps it has an unmatched dinning experience in the pizzeria itself which draws a regular nightly crowd. It is something that differentiates you from ALL other pizzerias (regardless of location). While they too can have a specialty sauce or unique toppings, it does not taste quite the same as yours. The same would apply to their loyal customers: they would prefer that sauce over yours and that is what allows your business to differentiate itself.

Think of grandma's home-made pie; you can buy a pre-cooked one and bake it until its ready but it just doesn't have the same aroma, taste and goodness to it. Why can't your home-made gourmet pizzeria live up to that name? Especially if it has a special secret sauce that makes it delicious! Maybe even elicit a similar response to the one in the image below (we do not recommend you try this at home!):

I reference a pizzeria as an example but this applies to all industries and types of small business organizations. If your small business has a great story to tell and can make the customer a part of that story, it will create a foundation for long-term relationship between brand, perception and customer.

How To Tell Your Story

There was an article published on Forbes a couple of years ago, right at the "rise" of content marketing that brought a point which is very important to this practice to this day:

Brand stories are not marketing materials. They are not ads, and they are not sales pitches. Brand stories should be told with the brand persona and the writer’s personality at center stage. Boring stories won’t attract and retain readers, but stories brimming with personality can. - Susan Gunelius, Forbes

The first thing that comes to mind of storytelling is the traditional list of sequential milestones. For example:

• established in 1977
• incorporated 1980
• introduced new menu 1989

Not that there is anything wrong with a historical timeline of the company but there has to be a little more oomph to it than that. Here are a couple of things you should keep in mind:

1. Make it Customer-Centric

Stories always involve characters, and what better way to resonate with your customers than to make them the main character of your story? While this sounds hard, it is not impossible. Think about some of the most recent "big brand" campaigns that were centered around the customer:

• Lays chips flavour challenge where users submit flavour ideas and the company sells the most popular selections for a limited time
• Coca-Cola putting names on soda cans/bottles to make coke buying about the person, not necessarily the drink itself

Does your business have to go as far as that? Of course not, it would be great if it did or could but there are plenty of other ways to incorporate customers into the brand. Do you have customer testimonials framed all over the store space? Challenges that result in publicly celebrated certificates or rewards for customers if they accomplish such feats (who can handle the pizzeria's legendary slice challenge)? Is part of the menu a result of customer suggestions? How did it solve a problem for the customer (solving plan-less dinner nights for a long, long time)? Is the topping selection fully based on customer input? Etc.

2. Participate Locally

Majority of small businesses are tied to a location (or more than one). Whether you have a storefront or work from an office (or from home), all businesses have somewhere they belong. It is imperative to be involved in your community to some extent.

Having collaborated with dozens of small business thus far, it is evident that majority of them are involved in their community. From local hockey team sponsorships, food drives to having a group of team members run a charity marathon. In all instances the organization and it's employees were doing this to help those in need or support their community.

However, few had actually mentioned their involvement anywhere. This type of local engagement can have a huge part in building up your brand's DNA both internally (employees) and externally (customers). You do not need to have fancy press releases or news stories written in the local newspaper (although it wouldn't hurt) each and every time. You simply need to snap a photo, share it with others, include it in your messaging and get your employees to participate in the share culture. You will be amazed at how engaged your brand will become.

Interestingly, according to a blog published on American Express small business blog the more local small business prosper the more they give back:

It’s not just about the economy: Research shows that vibrant local business communities lead to more charitable giving in a community and more walkable neighborhoods with unique character, according to Michael H. Shuman, an economist and author who specializes in community economics. - Kelly Spors

3. Be Genuine

"Corporate speak" as I refer to it is better left off the web and anything facing the customer really. In order to establish any sort of personality your brand has to establish a voice of it's own. Some brands have experimented with using slang terminology to resonate with their community, others simply tell it as is. Other use fun, interactive storyboards to guide the reader on a journey. Remember us mentioning the corporate timeline above? We'll take a look at Moz's timeline and how they made it fun, interactive and personal (use of their mascot and employee photos - see screenshot below).

One of my personal favourites is a local brewery here in Ontario: Steam Whistle Brewing. They cover everything about the brand: from the founder's original dreams long before the brewery became what it is today to the reason they chose that specific name, check it out here. Nothing fancy, but it gives meaning to the beer for all lovers of local brews.

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So, now that we've covered the basics of brand storytelling do you know what is your business' brand personality? If you're not sure, are you going to work on one?

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Unknown Monday, January 04, 2016  

Local Resources for Startup Support in Kitchener-Waterloo Region

Kitchener-Waterloo has become somewhat of a high tech startup hotbed, and for us long-time residents it is no surprise. With a number of exceptional schools for both the humanities, technology, science and business, the KW area was bound to reap the benefits eventually.

With both local post-secondary talent and external entrepreneurs; the local scene is full of epic startups and business influencers. Which, consequently, has lead to the emergence of local support organizations aiming to help all aspiring business dreams. If you're one of those dreamers, below are some fantastic resources you can tap into to help increase your startup's chances to become a long-tenured, thriving organization:

Accelerator Centre

The (AC) Accelerator Centre is your one-stop shop for all things growth with respect to launching a startup. From attracting funding to growing your customer base; you can find a program that is perfect for any stage of your startup in virtually any industry. The AC provides in-house mentors that can provide crucial guidance at the right times.

Miovision, Clearpath Robotics, Kik and Axonify are just some of the examples of successful organizations that tapped into AC's resources.

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Communitech

Communitech originated back in 1997 in an attempt to raise the region's profile with high tech companies. Boy, did they succeed! Today Communitech can help tech companies attract talent, acquire customers, provide a workspace among many other services.

Plus being located the Tannery building at the heart of Kitchener downtown startup core, it is a great place to get started and run into fellow techies along the way!

Waterloo Region Small Business Centre

With three locations (Waterloo, Kitchener, Cambridge), the Waterloo region Small Business Centre is a great place for all small businesses to get started. From the basics to mentors providing the right guidance your startup.

There are plenty of learning modules/classes available for all sorts of functions (who doesn't like coding, am I right?!) as well.

Velocity (University of Waterloo)

Velocity is located in UofW and has a number of programs that help entrepreneurs in various aspects of getting started:

• Velocity Residence: a dorm for University of Waterloo students who wish to learn more about building a startup or work on their current companies.
• Velocity Alpha: a series of workshops, panels and sessions that runs each term to help educate people about building a successful business.
• Velocity Science: a partnership with the Faculty of Science to provide a discovery lab, mentoring and coaching for any student with a life or materials science startup.
• Velocity Fund: created to provide seed funding and pitch experience to companies.
• Velocity Garage: a 7,000 square feet of free workspace and a peer community for more than 30 software startups.
• Velocity Foundry: a 11,000 feet of free workspace and a peer community for more than 30 hardware startups

Innovation + Entrepreneurship (Wilfrid Laurier University)

Laurier's Innovation + Entrepreneurship program provides courses, classes, mentorship and other resources to help great business ideas take off. As a WLU graduate myself I recall being thrown into the ring of entrepreneurship during my first year of studies; there were mandatory entrepreneurship competitions for all Business & Economics students.

The innovation + Entrepreneurship program partners with the Accelerator Centre and Communitech organizations in order to provide free workspaces and events to it's members. A neat thing about this is that school Alumni are used as mentors of exemplary entrepreneurship. It is no surprise since some of them have founded well-recognized companies of today:  Steam Whistle Brewery, Challenger, Auvik Networks and Plasticity Labs.

Centre for Entrepreneurship (Conestoga College)

Similar to the above mentioned universities, Conestoga College provides similar resources to it's students looking to build on their entrepreneurial dreams. Start-up funding, mentorship and a number of useful resources are all available through this program.

The Centre for Entrepreneurship partenrs with RBC, BMO, Scotiabank and Great West Life to provide external resources of information to ensure a comprehensive offering to any aspiring entrepreneur!

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There you have it! I hope this list can help you narrow down the right resources right for your business. As always let me know if there is something I missed. The more resources we can provide to each other the more likely a startup is to make it long-term.

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Unknown Wednesday, November 25, 2015  

Top Business Idea Influencers in Kitchener-Waterloo Region

In celebration of small business month in Canada I thought it would be great to highlight some of the local influencers making a difference within the Kitchener-Waterloo region. All small businesses, startups or entrepreneurs need some sort of mentor to guide them in the right direction, and where better to find inspiration than within our own local community!

 Please note that the images were mostly gathered from Twitter (and other online sources) and that these are brief overviews of each individual. I am sure they are involved in much more and have in-depth descriptions on their own web pages or social media profiles. I am aware of the fact that there may be more influencers around the area which were not mentioned. If you do have any suggestions perhaps I can add them in for next year's small business month (just contact me directly or share your mentor in the comment section below).

Anyhow, check out these local business influencers and make sure that at the very least you follow each one on Twitter (if you have not already done so) as they share awesome ideas:

Alan Quarry

Focus: Entrepreneurship Mentor, Branding Guru, University Professor, Chief Enthusiasm Officer at Quarry Integrated Communications

Twitter: @aquarry

Brief Overview: 
I was fortunate enough to have Alan as one of my final year professors at Wilfrid Laurier University. The way he got us engaged on early Friday mornings (a tough feat to get students to focus that early prior to a weekend!) during his Integrated Marketing Communications seminar was astonishing. I myself have been directly influenced by his "shift happens" and look beyond the norm approach to branding. As a matter of fact, NR Digital Branding was partially a result of his inspirational lectures and ideas.

Aside from growing Quarry Integrated Communications into an amazing agency, Alan is also involved with Communitech and other local organizations that help monitor up and coming startups. He was also part of AQ's Blog & Grill where he interviews industry leaders such as Guy Kawasaki & Ann Handley (just to name a couple) about best practices, tips, etc. If you're looking for groundbreaking marketing ideas or entrepreneurship motivation make sure you follow Alan!

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Ginny Dybenko

Focus: Business Educator, Diversity Advocate, Canada's Top 100 Most Powerful Women, Executive Director - University of Waterloo Stratford Campus

Twitter: @dybenko

Brief Description: 
Ginny has done a fantastic job of leading the two local universities (Laurier & Waterloo) in becoming one of the leaders in the field of Business, Economics and Digital media. She has held a number of executive positions over her career in the high tech startup environment. Similar to Alan Quarry, Ginny is a huge advocate of entrepreneurship and shares fantastic ideas on how tech startups can take their organizations to the next level!

Ginny is also social services advocate. She supports gender equality and is part of a number of councils and boards which aim to standardize diversity in corporate culture. She is currently the Executive Director at the new Centre of Digital Media in the Stratford Campus of the University of Waterloo (previously Dean at the School of Business & Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University). Worth a follow for any entrepreneur looking for inspiration!

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Jennifer Moss

Focus: Employee Engagement, Writer, International Female Entrepreneur Award, Co-Founder of Plasticity Labs

Twitter: @JenLeighMoss

Brief Description: 
Jennifer is the co-founder and CMO of Plasticity Labs, a local company focusing on workplace happiness and engagement! Leading the way in the "love where you work" mentality - Plasticity is a revolutionary system for determining what makes employees tick or happy at work. Helping organizations bring the best out of their employees while maintaining productive teams.

Aside from Plasticity Labs, Jennifer is a regular contributor of ideas to the Harvard Business Review and Huffington Post Canada publications. Sharing her ideas on what makes people happy, how to create awesome tech startup cultures and much more. Make sure you give her a follow if you're interested in building a better, happier workforce!

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John Stix

Focus: Workplace Engagement, Business Culture Speaker, Founder of Fibernetics

Twitter: @John_Stix

Brief Description: 
John is a true entrepreneur at heart: starting a telecommunications company in what was already considered a saturated market. I had the pleasure of being interview by John for a marketing position at Fibernetics, unfortunately for me I was fresh out of university and was not fully prepared for what Fibernetics needed at the time.

In addition to starting Fibernetics John Stix is a big "Workplace Culture Warrior" and regularly works with companies of all sorts to help them build a better, more engaged workforce. His passion to workplace culture engagement is unbelievable. Anyone looking to get tips on workplace culture, marketing or startups needs to be following him!

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Michael Litt

Focus: Video Marketing, Startup Culture, Founder of Vidyard

Twitter: @michaellitt

Brief Description: 
Michael Litt founded Vidyard, a video marketing company, while he was finalizing his studies at the University of Waterloo. Vidyard now employs over 50 people and has some revolutionary features that tradition video marketing platforms do not (as they relate to business purposes). Michael was able to muster up big funding investments with his vision in order to turn Vidyard into the company it is today.

The culture present at Vidyard speaks for itself: free lunches, gaming, career development and much more. A great entrepreneur giving back to the community that helped him get to where he is now. If you're looking for awesome marketing tips, video best practices or just tech startup information make sure you give him a follow!

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Mike Lazaridis

Focus: Educator, High Tech Business Advocate, Founder of BlackBerry (Formerly Research in Motion)

Twitter: N/A

Brief Description: 
Unfortunately for majority of us, Mike Lazaridis does NOT have any official social media profiles. Seen as an inspiration to everyone in the region; Mike was one of the first pioneers in the smart phone industry as a co-founder of Research in Motion (RIM) now known as BlackBerry. BlackBerry introduced emailing into mobile devices and the rest is history!

Outside of BlackBerry Mike spends a lot of time being involved and donating into the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (a big physics think-tank which he himself was involved in creating), founded Institute for Quantum Computing (ICQ) at the University of Waterloo and most recently made a large donation to the new Lazaridis School of Business & Economics building at Wilfrid Laurier University. Serving as an inspiration to both the corporate and scientific community.

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There you have it! A list of local influencers that could potentially help with mentoring your business as it evolves from a small startup into a long-term organization. And the best thing is that they are all local to Waterloo Region.

Happy Small Business Month Kitchener-Waterloo!!

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Unknown Thursday, October 01, 2015  

Busting Unrealistic SEO Expectations

I have to admit: this may be a bit of a rant write-up more-so than anything else. It won't be my first (and probably not the last) rant as I went on to discuss why SEO is NOT dead early in 2014 after plenty of bloggers/companies came out disregarding the practice,

Surprise, surprise! We are entering the last few months of 2015 and we are still focusing on SEO (and if you're not, get focusing).


This rant comes from recent interactions with (some potential) clients whose expectations of SEO have been greatly exaggerated either by the online marketing community which uses cliche click-bait articles such as "3 simple ways to triple your traffic in NOW" or by over glorification of the internet as the "answer to all business problems". There is nothing wrong with not being familiar with search engine optimization or asking questions (no such thing as stupid questions), but demanding extreme results is borderline ridiculous.

Let's bust some silly expectations:

1. We don't have a budget for marketing but need to expand our business online.

Budgets for any sort of branding are hard to come by in a small business, I fully understand that. But as another small business to another I can't provide free service to you as much as it might hurt me. Referrals and case studies are great, but we can't do work only for referrals.

You don't grow your own business by constantly handing out free products/services, do you?

In case you really are struggling with your marketing budget and can find some extra time to dedicate to the growth of your business you can use our list of free online marketing tools. There is a little bit of everything for everyone to get started.

2. We want to be ranked 1st for these keywords in 3 months time.

And all of us would love to get you ranked for every single keyword, on the top of Google immediately - but it is nearly impossible to do in a white-hat approach. You don't expect to tell a graphic designer "we want to get 1000 calls in the first 2 weeks from this poster you are designing for us".

Search engine optimization is a long-term, on-going effort that takes close consideration. It is not a one-and-done thing where words on a page are magically changed and turned into an website traffic gold mine. Speaking of page changes...

3. You optimized our pages with targeted keywords, why aren't we ranked 1st yet?

We'll you see, there are a number of other web pages that have already been doing a great job at optimizing their content for the exact same keywords. They have also spent a good deal of time building links, interacting with their social media community and utilizing their structured data.

If you really don't understand the concept: what if there are 10 web pages, and all of them are focusing on the keyword "SEO". Each page includes it in all the important spots that influence rankings, which page comes up first? HINT: There are other forces at work!

4. We got an email offer from another company: for $99/month they are promising us X amount of links & 1st page rankings. Can we expect that from you?

This one is far too frustrating to even begin ranting on but there is one thing to always keep in mind: if there is ever a company promising you a certain amount of links or guaranteeing 1st page rankings without even knowing what keywords are suitable for your web page/area....RUN!

It is a scam or they will get your pages ranked by performing unethical tactics which can get your website penalized & removed from Google altogether. Organizations offering white-hat SEO usually layout a plan with goals in mind, explaining how those goals are going to be achieved while measuring the progress during the work. No promises are made, nor should they be.

If you need help telling the difference from good vs. bad service offers we have a blog post for that as well.

5. Great job on getting us to the top page for keyword X. We will call if we need anything else.

Just because we were able to get you to the 1st page that does not mean that the job is done. While being ranked for a crucial keyword on the 1st page is fantastic - it does not guarantee that your page will remain in that position.

Constant link building, tweaking and updating is necessary to keep that positioning. Don't assume competitors are idle, sooner or later they will catch up if you remain complacent.

6. We are getting more traffic but have not seen an incrase in sales.

What your landing page (the first page people see when they click on your link) looks like is just as important as your position on search engine rankings. If you don't have clear call to action (CTA) buttons or call-outs that encourage visitors to perform a certain action; no amount of good rankings will increase sales.

Come up with an offer your visitors will find attractive, make it worth while and most importantly make it easy for them to take advantage of it. This will ensure that the traffic coming to your website is not going to waste.

If you prefer cliche sayings, this one best explains this concept: you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

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/END OF RANT

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Unknown Tuesday, September 01, 2015  

Helpful Small Business Phone Apps: Security

You may recall our previous small business phone apps post was about communication applications - this time around we are focusing on security. With the high number of hacker breaches making the news lately, make sure you keep your mobile device safe using one of the options below:

AVG Security

Device Availability: Android, Windows, iPhone (AVG PrivacyFix)
Cost: FREE (with premium option)
Download Size: 14.18MB
Rating: 4.4/5

AVG needs no introductions as far as digital security goes - and it's no different for mobile devices. They offer a fantastic option of services at a permium rate, but their FREE version keeps you safe from the most standard threats. Each app (and each app update) is scanned before installation to ensure security regarding privacy, viruses, theft, etc.

AVG even offers device performance diagnostics & optimization which can help in improving functionality of your phone or tablet, or on the other hand, help improve battery life.

McAfee Mobile Security

Device Availability: Android, Windows, iPhone, BlackBerry
Cost: FREE (with premium option)
Download Size: 10.25MB
Rating: 4.3/5

Similar to AVG, McAfee is well know in the PC industry for it's security services. Now that same security has been translated into mobile devices; providing quality malware protection across multiple platforms (more device availability than AVG).

Some people have complained about buggy functionalities with existing phone apps (what isn't nowadays) but overall it seems to work just fine for majority of users. Premium options are available in addition to the free version of the app.

360 Mobile Security

Device Availability: Android, iPhone
Cost: FREE
Download Size: 11.72MB
Rating: 4.6/5

While this app is only available for Android & iPhone devices it is very highly rated by it's users - and it is an app I use on my own device. All of the features which more establish security brands offer at a premium rate are offered for FREE by 360 Mobile Security.

Security scans all files and applications on the phone much like it's more known competitors. The user interface for phone battery improvement and device performance optimization is easy to understand, making it extremely easy to customize features based on your own personal use.

Avira

Device Availability: Android, iPhone
Cost: FREE (with premium option)
Download Size: 9.55MB
Rating: 4.4/5

Quiet similar to AVG and McAfee this app comes free of cost with an option to upgrade to premium via in-app purchases. This one does seem to include slightly more free features than the previous too and provides all of the basics you might need.

If you want extra secure browsing and faster updates - make sure to upgrade to get the full version. For most basic security needs you can rely on the free version.

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Winner?

Personally I like the 360 Mobile Security app: full features are free, has great optimization and file maintenance functions. Give each a try and see what works best for you. However, for the other 3 options be prepared to upgrade to a full version if you want the "whole package".

Have any apps not listed here?

Let us know in the comment section & help your fellow small business professionals.

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Unknown Tuesday, August 04, 2015