catalyst playbook from travis allison

Evaluating your Online PresenceCompany Name

Travis is an online marketing strategy advisor who specializes in the private school and small business industries. His work with focusses on using inexpensive online tools to reach out to potential clients who are looking for unique business experiences for their clients. Putting one of Travis' programs in place means that you will end up with more of the RIGHT clients.

Travis produces the Principals on Principles podcast and other multimedia content for our clients.

Travis is an international speaker and trainer who helps businesses, schools and non-profit organizations simplify the use of online social tools. He believes that a good strategy is more important chasing after the new, shiny internet bauble. His motto: Consume Less and Create More. He firmly believes that LEGO is an essential youth development tool. He hopes you'll forgive him writing this all in the third person.

AUTHOR:Travis Allison

Results OverviewYour Score at a Glance

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Element EOP Average Your Score

Website Homepage 0/9 0/9

Website Usability 0/14 0/14

Blog 0/10 0/10

Search Engine Optimization 0/6 0/6

Contact & About Us Pages 0/17 0/17

Mobile and Domains 0/10 0/10

Selling Your Product 0/9 0/9

Email Marketing 0/11 0/11

Facebook 0/10 0/10

YouTube 0/13 0/13

Location-Based Services 0/10 0/10

Twitter 0/8 0/8

Google Plus 0/11 0/11

LinkedIn 0/8 0/8

Total 0/146 0/146

The purpose of a good website home page is for a user to:

✓ give text and design clues to the type of business you are✓ allow users to self-select - “We are already clients” or “We are interested in becoming clients”✓ allow quick access to the most important information, such as your phone number

Key Catalyst:Website Homepage

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Evaluating Your Online Presence

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Element Present?1. Design style gives clues to your business’ specialty

2. Logo links to Home Page

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GRADE 0/9

Catalyze YOUR BUSINESS MARKETING

✓ general ideas to improve your online marketing✓ concepts to help you understand the theory behind these suggestions✓ industry specific suggestions

Website Homepage

Good website design so often only focuses on the look of the webpage and undervalues the way people will use that site.

Key Catalyst:Website Usability

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Evaluating Your Online Presence

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Element Present?1. Website compatible with all browsers

2. Quick load time

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GRADE: 0/14

Catalyze YOUR BUSINESS MARKETING

Website Usability

A blog is an easily updated section of your website where people check for regular news. You may choose to call it whatever fits your business culture.

A blog is essential because Google ranks websites the highest that update often.

Key Catalyst:Blog

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Evaluating Your Online Presence

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Element Present?1. Content management system that is easy to use

2. Regular posts (at least weekly)

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GRADE: 0/10

Catalyze YOUR BUSINESS MARKETING

Blog

The trick to great search engine optimization for a busy business is to focus on 2 or 3 keyword phrases and implement the 20% of strategies that will bring you 80% of the possible results.

Key Catalyst:Search Engine Optimization

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Evaluating Your Online Presence

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Element Present?1. Page titles properly formatted: Keyword Content - Business

2. Pages begin with subtitle inside a <H1> tag

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0/6

Catalyze YOUR BUSINESS MARKETING

SEO

There are several important elements to your Contact Us page. The purpose of this page is to provide quick administrative access, in multiple formats, to your business information.

About Us is where you show parents your WHY - what makes the business, and it’s people, special.

Key Catalyst:Contact & About Us Pages

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Element Present?1. Link is labeled as “Contact Us”

2. Business’s physical location

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GRADE: 0/8

Contact Us Page

Element Present?1. Welcome Video (60-90 seconds long)

2. Professional Photo of Senior Staff Members

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GRADE: 0/9

About Us Page

Mobile access to your website (and social media properties) is only going to grow in importance. At present almost 1/3 of all internet traffic is from a mobile device.

Domains are important branding elements for modern organizations and businesses.

Key Catalyst:Mobile and Domains

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Element Present?1. Website is based on “responsive design”

2. Email marketing design is based on “responsive design”

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GRADE: 0/5

Mobile Marketing

Element Present?1. .com version of whole name

2. .net, .co and .org versions of whole name

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GRADE: 0/5

Domains

Catalyze YOUR BUSINESS MARKETING

There are many aspects to a great website that is focussed on marketing a product - the highlights of which we have covered in this EOP.

Selling business on the web has some unique requirements - potential clients must know, like and trust your organization in order to be confident in their choice.

Key Catalyst:Selling Your Product

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Evaluating Your Online Presence

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Element Present?

1. Photos and/or video of the products or services

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GRADE: 0/9

Catalyze YOUR BUSINESS MARKETING

Selling YourProduct

“

When you say to yourselves ‘we couldn’t be any weirder’... then you are starting to be remarkable.”

-author Seth Godin

Evaluating Your Online Presence

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Probably the single most effective (and incredibly under-utilized) marketing tool for a business is a newsletter that focusses on making potential clients comfortable with choosing your business product.

Key Catalyst:Email Marketing (newsletter)

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Evaluating Your Online Presence

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Email NewsletterElement Present?

1. Email newsletter available to read on website

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GRADE: 0/11

Catalyze YOUR BUSINESS MARKETING

Facebook is a natural avenue for businesses to reach out to current and past clients and staff.

How can businesses use this as a tool to convert “Like-rs” in to purchasers?

Key Catalyst:Facebook

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Evaluating Your Online Presence

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Element Present?

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GRADE: 0/10

Catalyze YOUR BUSINESS MARKETING

FacebookMarketing

Video sites, and in particular, YouTube is a strong tool for marketing because it is so popular internet users.

A full video channel can help your business reach people across the spectrum of your ideal clients.

Key Catalyst:YouTube

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Evaluating Your Online Presence

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Catalyze YOUR BUSINESS MARKETING

YouTubeMarketingElement Present?1

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GRADE: 0/13

“

It’s getting easier and easier to DIFFERENTIATE yourself - no permission needed.”

- photographer Chase Jarvis

Evaluating Your Online Presence

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Google has openly declared that location based search (people type in “thai restaurant” and Google displays restaurants close to their current location) is a huge focus for the search engine giant.

Business organizations need to include location references throughout their material to take advantage of this fact.

Key Catalyst:Location-Based Services

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Evaluating Your Online Presence

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Element Present?

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GRADE: 0/10

Catalyze YOUR BUSINESS MARKETING

LocationMarketing

Twitter is often the social network that is hardest to understand the return on investment, in both time and energy.

Depending on your ideal client it may be less important to be on Twitter than another platform such as Google Plus or Facebook.

Key Catalyst:Twitter

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Evaluating Your Online Presence

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Element Present?

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GRADE: 0/8

Catalyze YOUR BUSINESS MARKETING

TwitterMarketing

Google Plus is an essential part of any business marketing strategy.

Because Google puts so much value on the content and links posted to Plus, it is becoming a vital strategy to any organization that hopes for good search engine placement.

Key Catalyst:Google Plus

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Evaluating Your Online Presence

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Element Present?1

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GRADE: 0/11

Catalyze YOUR BUSINESS MARKETING

Google PlusMarketing

LinkedIn can be a surprisingly effective place to market businesses because the users have high household income (average salary is $109,000) and the members are often responsible for the purchasing decisions in their families.

Key Catalyst:LinkedIn

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Evaluating Your Online Presence

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Element Present?

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GRADE: 0/10

Catalyze YOUR BUSINESS MARKETING

LinkedInMarketing

WHERE VOLUNTEER?: children’s schoolLIKES TO EAT: fine diningBRINGS HIM JOY: career and family, children being successfulWHAT WORRIES HIM: his children and the state of the worldWHAT DOES HE HOPE TO GAIN FROM US?: Safe, fun and

rewarding summerCHALLENGES: timeWHAT ARE HIS GOALS?: happy daughtersWHO DOES HE TRUST MOST?: spouse, close friendsWHERE DOES HE GET HER INFORMATION?: Local Radio, Local

Newspaper, Regional Newspaper - State or Province wide, National Newspaper, Web News, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

WHAT OTHER IDEAS COME TO MIND?: They pay on time, feel their daughter is special, don’t mind sharing the place with friends or family

Evaluating Your Online Presence

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Your Ideal Client

GENDER: maleAGE: 36-45EMPLOYMENT: full-time employedEDUCATION: post graduate

degreeLIVING SPACE: home owner VOLUNTEER?: yes

Call Social Catalyst 519.532.7366travis@socialcatalyst.caor fill in your info here: http://socialcatalyst.ca/eop

Do you want an experienced social marketer to help implement these changes?