–Real World Sales and Marketing Tactics, Harsh Motivation. No Excuses, Aggressive Business Advice–

A lot of business owners do not understand what a website really is well here goes.

A website is a 24 hour interactive business brochure. It displays your products to the entire world all the time.

A website is a targeted marketing tool. Once you have a website you need to build it to market customers. The nice thing is this form of marketing is much more targeted. For instance if you sell wicker furniture in Orland Park, Il you could send out a thousand postcards and hope to get to people who want Wicker Furniture, or you could optimize your website so when 400 people a month search for “Wicker Furniture” in Orland Park they find you on page one of the search engine. That is a lot of qualified traffic, and it cost less.

A website helps you build customer lists that you can market consistently. This is opt-in marketing from people who want to receive your specials.

These are a few points if you want to know more call me.

Dan O’Callaghan

Check out www.shareyoursoles.org It is a charity that was founded over a decade ago and has brought tons of shoes to people in need in over 40 countries including right here in the USA!

I am the President of Green Apple Sales, an internet marketing and web development firm based in New Lenox, Il.  I have been hunting for the last 6 months for a good solid charity to sponsor.  I looked at quite a few and spoke with the manager or director.  I did not feel personally or emotionally impacted by any of them.

Then I get an email from a friend Mary about Mona Purdy at Share Your Soles in Alsip, Il.  Mary explains that their website is never up to date and it is hard to find someone to do it consistently as they are all volunteers.

I told her I would give her a call.  We spoke and set up a day to meet.  I went to the warehouse to take a look at the operation and speak with Mona.  Wow!  That says it, huge, tons of volunteers, probably 200,000 pairs of shoes and everyone is working.  If you are in Chicago and you do not stop in to see this place you are really missing out.

Mona is a very real person and she is as genuine as they come.  I stayed for over 3 hours as she explained all about Share Your Soles while directing and talking to everyone else.  I left knowing exactly what they are about and I was overwhelmed by the first experience of being there and seeing so many people working together for a good cause.  I guess this proves the world ain’t all bad.

As you have probably figured out Green Apple Sales now proudly sponsors Share Your Soles, and we will be donating many of our services.  I suggest you go take a look for yourself.  After you do… I can almost guarantee you will be compelled to get involved in some way.

Even if you can not make it out there, or you are not near Chicago go to the Share Your Soles website and make a donation they have a ton of shoes and need more funds to clean and ship them.

Dan O’Callaghan

Many business owners have enough on their plate already and when things get tough it would be nice to have some help.

Give me 2 minutes to tell you how we can help you and your business.

Ok depending on what type of business you are in the solution varies.  Lets pick something like an automobile repair shop.  This will be good.

Now if there was say a small shop that did automotive repairs and has done well for 20 years.  Things are getting more competitive.  Some corporate chain opens down the street with a fancy facility and a huge sign.  They have a half a million dollar marketing budget annually.  Tough crowd huh?

Whatever.  Small business is still the closest to the people and personal service can not be replaced.  The key is finding a competitive edge, maybe you should do what they do?  Yeah right.  What you do is form a plan and use various cost-effective methods to market your business and bring it back to life.

It really is not as hard as you would think.  Sometimes people just ask themselves the wrong questions.  That is where we come in…  So back to the Garage.  John’s Auto Repair calls Green Apple Sales and explains that he is tired of Roman Noodles and business is slow.  He has all the situations I described above.

We begin by running a gorilla marketing campaign locally which costs very little and requires a little effort from the employees.  We come up with a creative approach to create a local “buzz” about the business.  Then a digital marketing launch.  You see one thing corporate America can never overcome is word of mouth advertising.  Well we now have the ability to do that through the internet and reach thousands of people with word of mouth.

The internet gives every business the ability to communicate directly with customers.  In the past you could only try to reach customers through advertising or media.  If you did not have tons of money for advertising or a connection that could get a reporter to write about you, you had no means.

The rules have changed, the web changed everything and we can show you how to harness this marketing tool PROPERLY to benefit give long term benefits to your business.

Call me if you have any questions…  We are here to help.  Small businesses are the blood that pumps through the heart of our communities.  We enjoy helping them prosper.

Cheers,

Dan O’Callaghan

If you have a business and no website it is probably because they never mention websites on your 8-track player!

Seriously how does a business expect to keep with the market and stay competitive if they are missing the fastest growing marketing in the world, the internet.  I recently spoke to a business owner who said “If my sales where up I would invest in a website”  I said “If you had a website your sales would be up”.

I really think a lot of people still underestimate how powerful the web is for all businesses.  To me not having a website in 2010 is like not having a sign on the front of a retail store and keeping the lights off all the time.

There is a ton of benefits a company gets through having a website.  It is often the first thing a prospective customer sees that brings them to your business.  Without one they never even see you.  However they do see your competitors who have websites and they win the business.

Having a website is as important as having customers, as a matter of fact it will bring you more of them.

Cheers,

Dan O’Callaghan

I would like to tell you how and why the business “game” has changed.

The marketing methods of today are changing fast all while becoming more effective. Some digital marketing sources like, social media, search engine optimization, and pay per click are a few powerful tools. Although there are many more methods.

We are not far from things like Facebook and Twitter virtually replacing news outlets, you can find out what is going on around the world directly from the people. That is pretty exciting as we all know money influences everything that comes through a television.

LinkedIn threatens to take over the business news sector as well, as there are thousands of articles on all industries added constantly. Not to mention you can get specific news on your industry everyday, not when the paper decides to cover it.

With social media we are all able to affect the news!

Some do not know what to make of the changes we face in todays business world. Those who embrace digital marketing are seeing the best R.O.I (Return On Investment) they have ever seen from any other form of marketing.

The internet is the most powerful marketing tool that has ever surfaced. You are able to drive more qualified traffic to your business locally and get world wide exposure if your business can benefit from this.

Social media is the new form of news, but you control it. You have the ability to keep your customers constantly informed about your business. This also keeps you in the back of their minds. That is the entire point of marketing, to make sure people remember you whenever a conversation brings up your profession.

Not only is digital marketing extremely effective it also gives you better metrics to track results than any other form of marketing. You can see how many look, inquire, and convert.

These are a few ways the “game” has changed. In a good way, giving you and every business owner an equal opportunity to market your business as aggressively as the largest companies out there. Digital Marketing is cost effective and if done properly will bring long-term growing success to your business.

Call 815-462-3476 for a free 30 minute brainstorming session on how you can increase sales through digital marketing.

or email us at: info@greenapplesales.com

Dan O’Callaghan

www.greenapplesales.com