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Let’s play a game called Word Associations. I’ll say a word, and you name the first brands or companies that come to mind. Ready? Here we go:

Coffee
Shoes
Potato chips

Think about your answers for a minute. The brands that came to mind first  have high “top of mind awareness” – they were at the top of your mind when you thought of that product category.

So why is this important?

If you want people to buy your product or service, they need to think of you first! As soon as someone has a need for your services, you want them to think of YOU before the competition – making them more likely to purchase your product, rather than theirs. People are also more likely to trust a brand that they are familiar with, again increasing the likelihood that they will purchase that brand.

So how do you create top of mind awareness?

Building top of mind awareness requires a long term strategy. People need to be exposed to your brand repeatedly over time.

This long term strategy is especially important for bigger purchases, such as repairing your marble floor or installing a new furnace. People don’t need to buy these items every day, but when they do need it, you want them to think of you first. Video advertising and social media are great strategies for building top of mind awareness.

Whatever the method you choose, be consistent and choose a long term strategy, and you’re well on your way to being the first brand people think of when they need your product!

You CAN build your own e-commerce website. But is a cheap website worth the hit to your bottom line? Read about the advantages of a professionally designed website here.

Print advertising is collapsing – read why it struggles to compete with online forms of advertising.

Over the past 7 years, Mashable.com has established itself as one of the top social media, business, and technology resources. If you’re looking for the latest rumours about the iPad 3, trying to get a Pinterest invitation, or interested in learning more about the latest and greatest ways to optimize your website for Google, Mashable has it all.

Posted via email from Intrigue Media Canada

At Intrigue Media, we believe local businesses deserved to get noticed. But in today’s world it is tough to stand out of the crowd and get noticed in your community.

This article is about how to get noticed in your community. First of all, we should distinguish the three forms of getting noticed.

1. Promotional Advertising – This includes print, radio, video advertising (that’s us!), billboards, or anything that is being placed in front of people.
2. Search Advertising – This includes Google search rankings, paid search rankings, Yellow Pages, or anything else that shows up when people are looking for something to purchase.
3. Word of Mouth – this includes friends telling friends about you, people writing recommendations about you, or people sharing your content online through social media.

The key to successful marketing is finding an effective and affordable mix of these three types of advertising. The first method, promotional, is necessary to let people know you exist. If no one knows about you, how can they buy from you? Finding media sources that can offer repetitive impressions on the same viewer is critical in order to build familiarity (Click here to read more about creating familiarity in your marketplace). Here is a breakdown of the investment that can be associated with different promotional advertising media:

The second method, search, is critical in order to be found when someone is ready to buy and they do not know where to buy from. Knowing where to be is easy, just ask your customers. If 9 out of 10 use Google to find local businesses, and 1 out of 10 use Yellow Pages, 411, or Goldbook, then make sure your budget reflects this. This typically requires shifting dollars from print or directories to Search Engine Optimization (We can help!) or Paid Search (Yep, we can also help with that!) rather than growing your current marketing budget. So, ask yourself, have you asked your customers how they find information and have you shifted your budget to match their response?

The third method, word of mouth, is a major part of any successful business and needs to be looked at today differently than even 5 years ago. Doing a great job and satisfying your customers is the easiest way to spread the word about your business. They like the experience, then tell their friends, and their friends come to your business, and so on. The difference today is that we can encourage this type of behaviour through different channels. Social Media like Facebook, Twitter, and now Google+ give consumers a chance to spread the word to hundreds, even thousands of people instantly. By using these tools and giving people a chance to connect with you through these channels, you give them a chance to spread your message effortlessly through their social and professional networks. Using customer oriented contests like photo contests, video submission contests, or trivia contests, to name a few, you can increase engagement with your customers and their friends, helping you spread the word to new people.

In the end, we all need to be proactive in order to create visibility and engagement with our existing and potential customers so that we can increase loyalty and sales in our business. Whether you use promotional, search, or word of mouth advertising, the idea is the same- grow your bottom line. So, what are you doing differently this year versus last year to create visibility for your business?

At Intrigue Media, we believe local businesses deserve to get noticed. Visit Intrigue Media’s Facebook Page, check out the Intrigue Media Blog, follow Intrigue Media on Twitter and visit the new Intrigue Media website and watch our videos to see what we are doing to make this happen. If you like what you experience, give us a call so we can begin the conversation to see how we can help you get noticed!

Posted via email from Intrigue Media Canada

Last night I dreamed that I had to move from my small but cute basement apartment into a dank, dirty little place…my window had a view of a brick wall…and any guests would have to pass through the bathroom on their way in…

But then, somewhere in the throes of my unconsciousness, I realized that I was dreaming. I didn’t have to move out of my cute little apartment.

Waking up with this kind of gratitude was a fabulous start to the day!

Apparently, taking time to be grateful can also make you more productive, as illustrated in this TED talk. It’s also a great defense against depression.

So I challenge all of you to recount 3 things that you are grateful for, right now.

What are you grateful for?

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We think so.

Social media is a crucial component of marketing strategies for small businesses. Nick Stamoulis hit the nail on the head in his article about why social media is great for inbound marketing.

One of the best points Nick makes about social media is that it is a great tool to target people who are already looking for the services your business offers. This is much more effective than interupting masses of people as they go about their day to day lives, as the old school of marketing thought would dictate.

In addition to using social media to target a captivated audience, there are many other great benefits of having a social media presence.

Social media can:

• Be used to funnel leads to your website
• Let customers have a direct line to the heart of your business
• Establish you as an industry expert by allowing you to share your knowledge
• Create a means to connect with your customers on a personal level

These are just a few of the benefits of having a social media presence online, however, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Interested in learning more?

Visit our website to learn about how social media can help your business.

Posted via email from Intrigue Media Canada

We use a ton of keyboard shortcuts to maximize our prodcutivity at Intrigue Media, so we thought we’d share them with you. They’re not always easy to memorize, so we recommend trying a new shortcut every day to integrate it into your workflow.

What are some of your favorite shortcuts? Let us know in the comments.

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As more and more deals are available online in Canada, where will you choose to do your shopping this Boxing Day?

Of course, there is the option to miss sleep and line up at 1am to wait in line for stores to open. Here’s a video from a Montreal Futureshop’s door-opening on Boxing Day several years ago.

Are the sales in-store really that good that you’ll forgo some or all your sleep to line up in the cold, followed, of course, by a rampage to get to the item you want when the doors finally open?

Or, will you choose to stay in the warmth of your home and browse sites like Amazon.ca, BestBuy.ca, and Futureshop.ca to snag deals without dehumanizing yourself?

Let us know what your thoughts are, and don’t forget to let us know which deals you get!

Happy shopping!

Posted via email from Intrigue Media Canada