by Daniel Mangru on 12/28/2009
I just wanted to take the time to thank all of our clients, on behalf of myself and the rest of the 7 Intelligent team, for allowing us the privilege to help them increase their business profits and build a bigger and loyal customer base in 2009.
Throughout 2009 all we heard was that the economy was bad and financially things were bleak. That was not the case with our clients and those that believed that consumers were out there and were looking for somewhere to spend their money, however little it may be. Together with a sound business strategy coupled with hard work and the determination that it takes from business owners and entrepreneurs, we were able to see the profit margin for our clients increase at the years end. The mileage may vary, but everyone we worked with seen some percentage of an increase – one as much as 36%. That’s tremendous results and fantastic news considering 2009 was the year of bailouts, bankruptcy, debt restructuring and other bad industry news.
2009 was a great inaugural year for us, we have built some great partnerships that will bring your business some awesome opportunities to take the market advantage over your competitors.
Here are some of the things we’ve put in place to jump start your 2010:
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by Daniel Mangru on 11/05/2009
These past few years every print publication that charges for offline directory listings seems to be joining the online directory bandwagon and rightfully so, including private and local government organizations.
Directories are a big thing on the web for businesses because it gives them exposure in an area where they might have little to no exposure at all. This is akin to placing a billboard in an open desert as apposed to a bustling city where there is significantly more exposure to consumers who are looking for their products or services. A big plus to consumers is the ability to find business that otherwise may seemingly not have existed at all (on the web.)
Web directories are not like thier print media counterparts
There are paid models that charge for the simple things such as logo inclusion, additional categories, he addition few hundred additional words to a business description to the more feature rich and robust feature such as blogs, coupons, newsletters and more. The weight of the search engine result listings remain based on the quality of the directory and the information it provides. Google has it’s PageRank algorithm, Bing/Yahoo has it’s own. Either way, the results from some of these directories are seen on the front page of localized search results.
Where can a business find the most return on their investment? It’s tough to discern the hype from the facts at times and there’s a simple reason why some of these major directories don’t publish flat prices. They also don’t publish meaningful statistics other than their media and sales hype such as “Over 5.2 million hits daily.” Really? 5.2 million hits? How many hits are there for queries specifically related to Barbershops in AnyRuralTown Arkansas? Can you get me that specific data for daily, monthly and historical trending that may help me in my decision to upgrade my simple barber shop listing? – Nope, didn’t think so. Any knowledgeable SEO person/team will gather that info from the major search engine tools at hand to weed out fact from fiction rather swiftly, the average business owner will not and will simply sign over a check with hopes of “pie in the sky” returns.
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