The online marketing landscape is changing, especially for small businesses.  The rise of “the millennials” is forcing businesses of all sizes to inspect their marketing efforts and realign them with the tendencies and beliefs of this generation.  As a website developer, social media marketing specialist AND a millennial, I would like to shed some light on this unique group, their tendencies and what this means for your local small business’ online presence.

My parents are Late Boomers/Generation X (depending on your resources), and I am a millennial.  Just the word itself annoys me, because of the negative stigma associated with it.  I have a degree in linguistics from U of T, and the fact holds true is that a word can convey prejudice meanings just by its sound.  Millennials are individuals born between 1980-2000.  Although not as catchy as “millennials”, they can also referred to as “Generation Y” or “Echo Boomers”. Read more

Online Presence word cloud concept

How to Get Found Online: Creating an Effective Online Presence

In the second part of my three-part series, How to Get Found Online, we’ll explore how to create an effective online presence.  If you missed my first blog on selecting your target market, you can find it here, as this will be critical to effectively marketing online.  Now that you’ve carefully selected your target market, it’s time to narrow down where to spend your marketing efforts (and budget).  In an ideal world where money is not an issue, you can simply push out your marketing to every single online directory, social media stream, building website upon website and hoping that a member of your target market stumbles upon you.  But, this is not that world, and unfortunately, money is always an issue, especially for small businesses and entrepreneurs.  That is why they need a plan to have their online strategies budget work in the most effective way possible. Read more

Business man drawing target with chalk

Part 1: Establish a Target Market, and Stick to It.

We sometimes don’t stop to appreciate the seeming simplicity of online search engines. Have a question?  Just type it into Google, Bing, or Yahoo and you’re rewarded with thousands of answers from sources around the world.  But how do you get found online? As a small business owner, you need to think about the questions your prospective clients will be asking these Search Engines that will lead them to your business.  In this 3 blog series, I will be giving away some tips that will help you increase your SEO, and in turn help you find the people that are trying to find you online! Read more