Wednesday’s – Interview with Senior Manger of Enmax

Published on 13 Jun 2007 at 4:08 pm. No Comments.
Filed under Ideas, Tracy Rambling.

Good Morning Mr. Perri,

I am the author of the website/blog “Calgary Business Marketing”, I would like to ask you a few questions in regards to the 2007 awards gala dinner you attended last Tuesday at the Telus convention centre? Who was the key speaker and what was some of the highlights of their speech?

Tana Goertz.

Tana’s 5tips to be unforgetable1. Be you

2.Be persistent

3.Be straightforward/to the pointBe decisive, say what you mean and mean what you say

4.Be a mover on’er – leave the negativity behind

5.Be a problem solver – are you a hero or a zero Heytana.com

Fake it til you make it!

This was a slogan she was using to tell you that if you do not exhibit the 5 things above that you can fake that you are until you train yourself to actually do them.

Did you find the event to be valuable to the Calgary business community?

The keynote speaker was a finalist on the Apprentice 3 and as such had some valuable marketing insights for entrepeneurs in the the Calgary Business community.In terms of the this event, she was more valuable in terms of selling her positive attitude concept to the audience of primarily project managers.

Did you find that there were a lot of Calgary business attendees or was it more the larger companies?

It was primarily attended by larger corporations who have completed large projects in the Calgary area. There were also many project consulting companies represented.

What were some of the awards that were presented?

Project of the year

Project manager of the year

Distinguished individual contribution to project management

Distinguished company contribution to project management

Did your company receive any awards?

We were nominated in the project of the year category and were a finalist in the Distinguished company contribution category but did not win either of these.However, the person who won project manager of the year was the project manager for our nominated project so we were very excited for her win.

Back to the key speaker, is there any further information that I can get on her, or for that matter the rest of Calgary?

She has a website www.heytana.com

Would you attend an event held by the key speaker again?

I would not make my attendance decision based on whether she was speaking at the event. I thought she was an interesting speaker, with an abundance of confidence. I find that she was a bit too aggressive for the corporate crowd which this even was focused on, however I think she would really appeal to an entrepreneurial audience.

Thank you for you time and I look forward to talking with you in the future.

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Idea of the week – Is my website working for me??

Published on 6 Jun 2007 at 5:11 pm. No Comments.
Filed under Ideas.

Wednesdays Idea of the week – Is my website working for me!

Alrighty, last week I talked about getting a website. This week I am going to talk about the usability of your site and the tracking of useage.

Websites are a great tool, or a unopened envelope – just waiting to be read!

Everytime that your website is viewed it can be tracked via a stats counter (much like at the good ol stampede entrance clickers!). This is very handy to determine if your site is getting out to the world wide web. Are you being placed on to search engines? Do you have the right key words that people are looking for to get to your site. Key words are basic words that define your site and words that people will use to get to your site. When placing key words in your site for engines to pick up you need to sit down and think of the ways people will look you up. Think of ZedBiz for example, they are a Internet Marketing Company, people will be looking for Internet, Marketing, Advertising, Branding, Website, Affiliate Marketing, Calgary, Coaching, E-Commerce, Domain ect. You really need to get into your visitors head, what do they want?

Next, how easy is your website to get around in? Are your titles in a standard area (top border, left side border)? Being in a standard placement is not necessarily the only way, just the easiest for the user. If you are breaking the mold (good for you!) then your job is harder. Now you need to make sure that your vision is what your viewers vision will be, will they see what you see? Its harder but definitely do able!

Do your links all work? Do you have a date – very handy seems small but it is one of those things that make your site user friendly. What about your colors, are they vibrant, easy to read?? How about the font – is it too big, too small, too funky???

Now, there are programs offered to “map” your website and its usability, there is also companies that will provide this service for you. What happens is your website is shown to a group of people that are in your target audience (hopefully you already know this!). They then have a specific spec sheet that they will use to go over the items discussed earlier, as well as extras to determine just how easy your site is. Is it to wordy? Are you link crazy (one link after another to finally get where you are trying to go!). Personally, I think this is an invaluable tool to use, one that every website should go through at least once in its lifespan, ideally you would like to do this possibly every few years to go with the changing times (not to mention to keep up with the changing links!).

Alright so that’s it for today, next week I will be interviewing a senior manager from Enmax power that attended last nights session with Tana Goertz : The Art of being Unforgettable, the TV show’s Apprentice candidate!

Until then, Happy Business

Tracy 

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Monday’s – Week in review!(June 4th)

Published on 4 Jun 2007 at 7:26 pm. No Comments.
Filed under Week in Review.

Mondays Week in Review!

Wow check out the Canadian dollar! Great for us Canadians that are planning on shopping in the states in the near future or planning on doing business in the states!

So what happened last week in Calgary – …….. with the switch over of months panic is setting in to get the right amount of staff for the summer season. Not only to cover the extra people that will be visiting calgary but also to cover holidays! Good luck out there! Stampede is starting to show its face, reminder that now is the time to plan a stampede event. For Calgarians this is an important time, one that we feel truly connected to our city and therefore are willing to spend to support our local business’s. Tip – catch the wave! Really how hard and expensive is it to throw a quick barbecue, offer promotional freebies, hot dogs, pop – your good to go.

Whats happening in Calgary this week – Today there is a presentation by Mr. Preston Manning that sounds very interesting “Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Environmentalism”. This is being held at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce from 11:30 to 1:15. If anyone out there has attended this, please respond back as to what you thought.

again, as previously mentioned, stampeded events are starting to arise. Now would be the time to book those parties and make sure you are at the ones that are noticed.

Alright, thats it for now. Will check in again on Wednesday with “How do you know your website is working for you!”

Sincerely

Tracy

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Do you have a website?

Published on 30 May 2007 at 10:36 pm. No Comments.
Filed under Ideas, Tracy Rambling.

Well today, I was figuring that we could start out with the basics of Internet Marketing, that would be the all important website. Hopefully at this stage you have one, and that you know that it works for you. If not then I suggest that you get one or figure out if the one you have is working for you.A website has become the new way for customers to get to know who and what you are, I personally do all my shopping via the website investigation first. An example of this is my husband and I were going out to purchase a motorhome, before we headed out for our venture I checked out the leading RV sales stores by viewing their websites.The most advertised RV place had the worst website! I had gone to this site first because of the active radio and paper advertising that they had paid for, the one I heard or saw the most. Was I ever let down when half of the links on their site did not work, nor was the website easy to navigate, that from a person that worked in the website industry!

We ended up purchasing from a company that was not well heard of or paper viewed but their website was amazing. In their website I found prices, specials, different items that they offered as well as perks for being their customer. I found their website extremely easy and informative.

Does this not prove the point of how in todays electronic centered world,  how well a website can work for you or against you.

Websites are our first stop in our investigation of what is a good deal and what do you have to offer?

Yellow pages no longer work s for the majority of budget savvy consumers, its their website. Alot of companies provide economical websites, such as www.ZedBiz.com, that offer the key ingredients, which are:

Contact us – address, phone, hours

Who we are – explanation of what you provide

Prices and or a link page – show a trust, you are not afraid to show your cost or your competitors. Basically help me out and I will trust you with my business.

Once you have your site, the next piece of business is to know if it works for you. Do you know if anyone is visiting your site? How are you tracking what is searched? What people want? Better yet, do they like your page and its layout?! mmmmm maybe next week I will go over what your site should look like according to what a consumer is looking for.

Until then, talk to you on Friday!

Tracy

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Monday’s – Week in review!(May 28th)

Published on 28 May 2007 at 11:52 pm. No Comments.
Filed under Tracy Rambling, Week in Review.

Welcome to the Calgary Business Marketing Blog! I am hoping that with this blog that you and your fellow business members will be able to get some useful information, ideas on how to market for business needs and every week I will list what is going on in

Calgary for Marketing Events or events that you should keep your eye on.

But first you ask who am I? Well my name is

Tracy and I have been involved in the Marketing field for over 7 years now. I started off doing sales at a Web development company, ZedBiz, and progressed into the Marketing side of the business. I have worked in many aspects of the sales world both on the inside and out, so I feel I know what you as business members need to attract more business and to attract and retain employees. Is anyone out there having problems with staff retention??

The plan for my blog is to assist you in planning your week, discussing an idea that is either submitted by you or one of my own, and then to cover the upcoming events of the next week.

So for today’s blog, Monday, I would normally cover the week in review. However, since this is my first entry not much to cover. So……. My next entry will be on Wednesday which will be “Idea of the Week”, then on Friday I will cover upcoming events for the next week.

Let me know what you want to discuss, ideas, comments or just vent!

Signing off

Tracy

Tracywork@zedbiz.com

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