Have You Defined Your Target Market?

Image by jronaldlee
Image by jronaldlee

Do you find yourself saying any of the following statements?

“I want to sell to everybody.”

“Everybody can benefit from my product/service.”

“I want to cast a wide net – everyone should know about us.”

If so, I want to give you a high five for your enthusiasm – but I also want you to read the rest of this article so you understand why your marketing consultant looks really uncomfortable when you say any of the above.

The world would be a wonderful place if everyone was the perfect candidate for your product or service. But the truth of the matter is, we’re all different. We all have different wants, needs, tolerances, and preferences. We’re all drawn to different things and we’re all trying to solve different problems. Which is why when you try to sell to everyone, you end up wasting a lot of time, energy, and money on people that are never going to spend money on you.

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The Best Office In The World

We’re moving! Tomorrow we’ll be saying goodbye to our legendary office of the last two years, and joining our friends at MeZine Inc. (our parent company). It’s been a magical time, and as this is my last day with CityMax.com, I thought a little retrospective of our highlights in our Gastown office would be fitting.

From having two office dogs, to street hockey and yoga, to hosting 300+ entrepreneurs and City Council for Spirit Day, to even having an Alaskan king crab run around – it’s been an amazing place. Check out the videos/pics if you don’t believe me.

Shaw TV Feature

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5 Tips for the Newbie CityMax.com User

So, it’s my first week here at CityMax.com, and as a dedicated web coach one of my first assignments was to dive right into the easy business website builder. After getting used to making my way around the application and understanding how to take advantage of all the tools available, I’ve found five helpful tips for the newbie CityMax.com user!

1. The “Edit Site” tab will always be your go-to button.

When you sign up for your free 10 day trial, or if you’ve just made your website active, the “Edit Site” tab when you login on the top left beside the “Dashboard” tab is the most important tab for navigating your website. This tab will have five helpful sub-tabs: View Site, My Pages, Add Page, Design, and Domain & E-mail. You will be able to access all your pages here (under “My Pages”), as well as change and customize your template (Under “Design”). This is the best place to keep your website organized.

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How To Choose The Right Tools To Streamline Your Business

natalie-sissonIs there a steep learning curve?

As an entrepreneur, you wear many hats and juggle many different roles: so the last thing you need is to figure out how to use a tool. If you can’t get set up within minutes and understand intuitively it’s features on offer, then it is not the right tool for you.

A great example of a tool that is `oh so easy’ to set up and use: Rescue Time, a personal productivity tool that tracks the way you spend time online, showing you where you’re wasting time and how you can be more effective.

Simply download their software, and it installs within minutes on your computer. During the first 24 hours, it asks you a series of questions via pop up prompts to gauge how you work, then quietly works in the background to discover what you’re wasting time on.

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Small Business Books to Help You Get Ahead

Image by Arria Belli
Image by Arria Belli

Inspiration comes from a lot of places, and one of the best sources is from the words of experts. At CityMax.com, we’ve got a library of books on all sorts of topics, including design, programming, money management, sales, and marketing. More often than not, I’ve walked away from these books with at least one great idea.

If you’re looking for a little insight, here are some of the books our team has found helpful!

The Dream Manager – Matthew Kelly
If you have employees and want to avoid high turnover and low morale, this book will help you create a workplace that fosters teamwork and loyalty.

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Creating a Great Place to Work

This week CityMax.com had the great honor of being named a runner-up finalist for Best Employer at Small Business BC’s Successful You Awards. While we’re not one to toot our own horn (really!), the best part of the process was finding out what really makes a great workplace.

As I was putting together our presentation, I thought about all the cool stuff we have in the office and all the fun things we do, but then it came to me. It all begins with the people I work with every day.

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SEO for Dummies

Search engine optimization.

You’ve heard about it from friends and all the experts say you should do it, but do you know why? According to Wikipedia, SEO is “the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results.”

In plain English: how will anyone ever buy from your business if they can’t find your website in the first place?

A good chunk of customer questions we receive at CityMax.com revolve around improving website search rankings, so we thought we’d point you towards some helpful resources to get started. Keep in mind many people devote their entire lives to SEO so this is just the tip of the iceberg!

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Weekly Roundup: 5 Tips for Your Small Business

In this week’s Small Business Roundup, we picked out our favorite small business articles from the week covering topics such as: how marketers can channel their inner Charlie Sheen, a couple of useful accounting tools to help you find those hidden dollars, and a look at how Google’s changes to advertising affects your small business.

1) While millions are wondering how a man can be powered solely by #tigerblood and illicit substances, Sean Platt and David Wright dig deeper to unearth several keen business insights in The Charlie Sheen Guide to Winning! at Online Marketing.

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5 Tips for Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Most business owners know about word of mouth marketing. “How do I get people to talk about my product/brand/company?” is a common question we hear. Today we’ll look at five ways you can start and see some instant results in your marketing efforts.

1) Ask Your Customers the Hard Questions

These aren’t difficult questions, but sometimes the answers might be tough to hear.

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5 Tips for Naming Your Small Business

Starting a small business website is stressful enough – you have to worry about a business plan, funding, suppliers, your market, marketing and all the rest. But unless you have a great name that fits what you are doing, it won’t matter how large your margins are.

Your business name is the core of your brand. Is it memorable? Does it have personality? Does it explain the service/product you are providing?

Entrepreneurs not only have to worry about having a catchy name, but its search engine optimizability, potential misspellings, and embarrassing alternate meanings. (You probably don’t want to make our list of the 50 Worst and Most Embarrassing Domain Names Ever Purchased!)

Here are five basic guiding principles as you start to figure out how to make this all-important decision:

1) Do a search for the name you have in mind – is it available or already being used? Can you legally use this name in your state/province?

2) Is it unique, short and/or easy to remember? Does it describe or indicate what your business does?

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