A business owner recently asked to see some examples of websites we’ve worked on so that they could get a feel for our ‘style’. It’s a great question and most companies that create sites for clients do have a distinct style.
At Out-Smarts though, it’s not about us it’s all about capturing our clients’ style (or brand!). We work hard during our discovery process to truly understand our client’s style and goals and to make sure that this shines through in the sites we build.
Here’s an example from a site we launched recently. The client is Port Moody Integrated Health, a clinic that provides Naturopathy, Chiropractic and Massage Therapy services.
When we started working together they had a vision of a site that is uncluttered and easy for people to navigate on any device, one that contained exactly the information that their clients required and, most importantly, conveyed tranquility and natural balance (this is how people feel when they leave the clinic). The site also had to have a west coast feel.
We created a scrolling parallax site that is responsive to major devices. The background image on the main page is the rainforest of BC. Clients can easily click on the navigation to book and appointment, find forms or locate their clinic. It’s also integrated to their online booking app so that clients can easily schedule their appointments online.
Whether it’s websites, social media or search for us it’s not about our style, it’s about finding our client’s style and we work hard to make surer we do that.
With the Canadian Anti Spam Legislation just days away from becoming the law, here are 12 tips to help you get opt ins and to remain email compliant. If in any doubt or you have any questions, consult a lawyer.
1. Sort your lists – if you already have an opt in process then those contacts on the list that have opted in (either on your website or through filling out a form) don’t need to re opt in. Remember to keep track of them. The rest do, so get ready to send out a communication to those you have implied consent from to get them to give you express consent.
2. There are several exemptions rules such as family members who don’t not need to opt in. Read this post. If your business is as a political party or charity then you are exempt from the rules too.
3. Make sure that your opt in email and all further communications include:
clear unsubscribe links so that people can remove themselves from the list easily and at any time
your name, company name and address
an outline of why they are receiving your communication
4. After you have send out your opt-in email, you have to remove the people from your list that don’t opt in so make sure you have accounted for this in your email process and that you are easily able to track. Most newsletter tools like MailChimp facilitate this although there are varying degrees of easiness in doing so. Delete those that don’t opt in so that you never, ever contact them again.
5. Put in place processes to help you track future subscribers both online and off. This should include having a double opt in when people subscribe via your website (this is not mandatory but more of a safety net just in case). In person you should create a template that states clearly what people are signing up for then have them fill out their contact info to be added.
6. You can’t collect email addresses at trade shows any more and simply add them to your newsletter and you shouldn’t anyway because it’s rather a slimy tactic. Instead have people fill out a form that states clearly that they are subscribing. There are also apps like Chimpedeedo that facilitate this. We haven’t use these so if you have please share your take.
7. If you have a subscription opt widget in on your website make sure it is worded right so that peope know exactly what they are subscribing to. Remember the double opt in for this too.
8. Each newsletter or communication you send should state clearly why you are sending and have an easy to unsuscribe link preferably right at the top. Again most newsletter providers make this easy for you to do.
9. Get consent from people in real life – you can’t just add someone to your list because you met them at a networking event. Verbal consent is okay but it is hard to prove so a good idea might be to get new contacts to write newsletter subscribe on the back of their cards. Make sure and keep them in a file though just in case.
10. Never harvest or buy email email addresses. EVER. This is cheap and tacky and says exactly that about your brand. Who wants to do business with someone or some company they can’t trust from the get go?
11. Add value rather than overtly selling. No one likes to be inundated with emails that have the sole purpose of selling your products or services in a cheap and nasty way so instead why not find creative ways to add value for your recipients and tell them something valuable that they don’t already know. Get creative.
Canadian Anti Spam Legislation comes into force on July 1st. After this date you will no longer be able to send electronic communication via Email, SMS, Social Media or IMS (basically any electronic communication means) and could face hefty fines if you do so unless they fall under the following:
CASL Recipient Exemptions
you are sending to people you have personal relationships with such as a close friend, family member (not everyone who likes you on Facebook though!)
you are sending to employees or contractors
recipients are business partners or service providers
they are current clients who have ongoing business with you
if a customer has contacted you in the last 6 months – then it is okay to reply
they are someone you have a legal issue with
if the recipient is out with Canada – there are 116 exempted countries
charities and not surprisingly, political parties are exempt (some of the worst offenders in my mind!)
if your communication is about a safety issue, warranty or recall pertaining to your products and services
if your communication is providing information about an account, product use, subscription or ongoing business relationship
if you are a digital firm providing updates or patches to users then you are good to contact them
if you have been referred – but remember to make it clear who you are, why you are contacting them and who referred you
Link building is the process of getting external sites to link back to your site. The more of these links you have from high-quality sites the more this positively impacts your position in the search engine results pages.
Here at Out-Smarts, we often get asked to assess company websites from a search engine perspective, to ascertain why their page isn’t appearing higher on Google. One reason is that they don’t have enough backlinks to their website or they have the wrong kind of backlinks – links from other websites tracking back to their site.
Despite Google’s algorithm changes, links are still valuable online, the more your website has the better its ranking will be but you have to be really careful how you go about building links. Link building can be extremely time consuming, can seem like a fruitless task and if you do it wrong can be damaging.
Here are 9 ways that you can build links back to your site:
Link Building Techniques
1. Social Networks– use your social networking presence to link back to your site or blog posts. This will drive traffic to your site and traffic is one of Google’s rank factors (double whammy!). The links to your website in your social bios and about sections are really important to so make sure you’ve included those and updated them to https.
2. Directories and Citation Sites – beware the directories – there are gazillions of websites that simply list the URL’s of other websites (rather like the Yellow pages but online). Submit a link to your site only on directories that have a good page rank, are relevant to your target audience and locality but avoid the ones that ask for payment or reciprolinks and absolutely ignore sites that simply link farms – linking in those does more damage than good.
3. List Your Business on Google My Business and Bing Local – these are really high-value citation sites, if you are not listed on Google My Business, get on it!
4. Content – make sure that the content on your website or blog is great, it should answer the questions your buyers ask when researching and evaluating a purchase. The higher quality your content is the more likely people will find it and link back to it. Link to other key players in your industry, your suppliers and sources as this gives you a reason to reach out and ask for a link and to tag them on social to encourage shares (and traffic!).
5. Widgets – add widgets that allow visitors to easily share your content on the network of their choice. These links are not high value from an SEO perspective but they do drive traffic (which is important for SEO).
6. Relationships – ask partners, clients and organisations you are a member of to place a link on their site back to yours but only on sites that are relevant and appropriate within your area or industry. If you are already a member of an association make sure that your listing in these directories includes a link to your website.
6. Advertising – consider advertising online: Google Ads can be a valuable way to drive traffic to your site.
7. Influencer marketing – many influencers are happy to link back to your site, although many of them will charge you for it. It’s worth considering though as this can help you in a number of ways including extending your reach to there audience.
8. Outreach– make a list of sites that have a high domain authority or page rank and reach out to them asking for a link – you can do this by email or phone. One we got recently offered us a lifetime subscription to their software which caught our eye and made their communication stand out from others.
9. Blog Comments – we had written this technique off ages ago but a recent blog post from Neil Patel has us revisiting this. If you use blog commenting though you have to think your comments through and make sure they are valuable and related to the post so that it isn’t perceived as spam and deleted.
A recent study by Fidelity Investments found that 34% of younger investors (those aged of 21 – 47) stated that it was important that that their advisors have a social media presence. Consider also that 46% of investors using social media do not have a financial advisor. Sounds like the proverbial pot of gold at the end of an advisor’s rainbow doesn’t it? Sadly this is not the case. In a recent US study, 19% of advisors surveyed stated that they see social media as having to value at all.
The barriers to social media for advisors include lack of knowledge, time restraints and the big one: compliance. The good news is that these are not insurmountable.
Lack of Knowledge
If you are brand new to social media then it can all seem quite overwhelming: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs, YouTube – the list is endless. If you approach social media in a manageable way, it will seem less daunting. Don’t start by building your presence, start by listening. Check out your competitors on Facebook or LinkedIn, look for people you know in your industry who are using Twitter and listen to what they have to say: what they are posting, how often and what they are posting about. Doing so will give you a good feel for how people use these tools and will no doubt give you ideas. Once you have put social media in perspective, using it will begin to seem less daunting.
Out-Smarts provides coaching and educational services designed to help you get started online. Check out our regular sessions at Small Business BC for starters or contact us if you would like some one on one coaching.
No Time
It’s busy season for advisors with the RRSP deadline just passed. Many advisors simply don’t have time to spend on social media (or are using this as an excuse not to!). The fact of the matter is that, once you have your channels set up, social media needn’t be a big time suck. You can effectively manage your presence in as little as 15 minutes per day as long as you are focused: on your target audience, your goals and you don’t try to use every social media tool out there. Social media can be distracting and a big time suck if you let it so treat social media with the respect you would give to any other marketing activity, schedule it into your week and don’t get distracted by the noise thats out there.
Tools like Hootsuite allow you to schedule your updates and create bulk postings so it is possible to set aside time that is dedicated to social media at the start of the week or day and manage it really efficiently.
Compliance
Compliance is the biggest reason why advisors shirk social media and it can seem daunting.
“IIROC and the MFDA have been clear that all methods used to communicate for business purposes are subject to IIROC and MFDA rules and policies and record retention requirements remain unaltered regardless of the medium through which a firm or its Advisors communicate.”
However, there are technologies and techniques to get around compliance too. There are a slew of different tools coming on the market aimed at smoothing and streamlining the process of getting instant compliance authorization for posts. Tools like Protegent are helping advisors establish and enforce social media policies, reduce risks and grow their businesses. In the meantime, one simple way to mitigate the risk is to make sure you never offer advice, opinions or commentary that is misleading or risky in any way – keep your posts very generic and stay on topic.
If done right, the benefits of social media for advisors can be huge. This could be your opportunity to establish yourself in these forums and get ahead of the pack. Out-Smarts focus is on working with professional services firms including financial advisors. We’ve recently been endorsed by DundeeWealth to provide social media services to their advisors across Canada. If you are considering how social media fits in your advisor practice, contact us today, we would love to help guide you.
We’re excited to announce that Out-Smarts Marketing has been endorsed by HollisWealth Management, the wealth management company owned by Scotiabank, to provide social media and digital marketing services for its advisor teams across Canada.
This is part of a leading edge social media initiative that includes a social media resource portal and the roll out of a social media management tool to ensure compliance for advisors using these tools.
Out-Smarts can support advisor teams in a number of different areas (in fact, we like to tailor our services to the exact needs of our clients). We’ve been working with advisor teams like HPC Wealth Management and Allan Financial for almost two years to build, implement and manage effective social media campaigns so we’re excited to get the chance to work with more DundeeWealth affiliates. Our social media services for advisors cover:
Strategy development – defining Internet strategies based in the advisors team’s needs, goals and audience)
Creation – building a branded on-line presence through search optimized websites and the right social media tools
Management – managing the on-line presence so that advisors can get on with building business
Measuring – determining whether the on-line marketing is working to grow reputation and reach new, younger clients
Education and coaching – showing advisors how to effectively build their Internet marketing in house.
The financial sector has been a laggard when it comes to social media and on-line marketing so it’s great to see DundeeWealth take the lead. It’s even better to be involved in the project.
If you are a DundeeWealth advisor looking to the Internet to grow your book, please contact us, we’d love to explore how we can help.
For those of us who manage Facebook pages, coming up with fresh ideas for content that will engage your audience can be a challenge. Rather than posting content adhoc, it is a really good practice to get into the habit of creating a content schedule for Facebook. Similar to an editorial schedule for a magazine, a Facebook content schedule outlines what you will post about at specific times throughout the week.
The infographic below from contains a great example of content creation strategies that will help you stay on track and engage your audience.
Note that how often post updates to your Facebook page will vary by audience. If your target audience is younger ( under 35) then posting several times a day is expected but if your target audience is older then once a day might suffice and more often will be a put off. Finding your own secret sauce will depend on trial and error.
When you are posting content to your Facebook business page, remember that text such as inspirational quotes, anecdotes and updates, is likely to garner more interactions than posting links and that photos and videos get even better response rates.
Having a schedule like this can really help you stay on track and will improve your productivity in this social network.