BMull Consulting

I am a huge believer in search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising for delivering quality traffic to a website. SEO and PPC are foreign acronyms to many of the business owners I come in contact with. Because of this, I am constantly on a mission to educate my clients and colleagues on the benefits of SEO and PPC.

Recently I came across a webcast that provided a down-to-earth explanation of search engine optimization and how it effects a website.

Feel free to download a copy.

Interested if your website could benefit from search engine optimization or pay-per-click advertising? Contact me today for a free consultation.

Reading is the new up and coming town? When you drive through Penn Street in Reading, Pennsylvania, you can’t help but see the contstruction and expansion. The new Imax theater and buildings along Penn Street show that Reading is trying… and trying hard.

Here is a link to a great video I came across. The good stuff is at 1:30 into the video.

http://www.gobep.com/video/flash/corcoran_today_show.htm

The services I provide through BMull Consulting are primarily focused on internet marketing and website design. More often than not, discussions about internet marketing lead into talks about traditional marketing efforts and how then can be better enhanced.

I live in the Reading Pennsylvania area and I work with local businesses. One of the first initiatives a new (or existing) business does when they want to ramp up marketing is join the Greater Reading Berks Chamber of Commerce. Joining the local chamber of commerce shows that you care about the status of your business and want to be part of the local business community.

Joining (or re-joining) the chamber comes with a few perks that a lot of local members often overlook. Here are my top ten ways to utilize your Greater Berks Chamber of Commerce membership benefits when joining.

1.) Free radio spot on WEEU
WEEU is offers free 15-second spots of radio advertising to new chamber members.

2.) Free print ad in Reading Eagle
Pennsylvania law requires new business owners to run at least one print ad in a business publication. Your free Reading Eagle ad counts as your first official print advertisement in a business publication. Plus it’s free. Why not use it?

3.) Free print ad in Berks Mont
Berks Chamber members also receive one free ad in Berks Mont, La Voz, or other related publications. You have to act quickly on this offer since it expires within a few months of joining the chamber. 

4.) Ribbon cutting ceremony
This is a great way to kick off a new office or retail location. The chamber will visit your location and take a photo of you with a large ribbon ready to be cut. They place the photo in the chamber newsletter to announce your new business. 

5.) Mention in chamber newsletter
As I mentioned above, your ribbon cutting ceremony photo is placed in the chamber newsletter. From what I recall, the chamber places a text listing of your business when you first join. Once the ribbon cutting ceremony is complete, they they mention your business again when they print the photo.

6.) Free gift certificate for learning seminar
Each new chamber member receives a $50 gift certificate to attend one of the ongoing educational seminars hosted by the Greater Berks Chamber of Commerce. The seminars cover a variety of topics and are held on a regular basis. The schedule can be found on the Berks Chamber website.

7.) Access to the PRP program
In addition to a free learning seminar, the Reading Berks Chamber allows members to take advantage of their Professional Resource Program (PRP). The program provides a free consultation with another member of the chamber that has expertise in the area you are looking for. I myself have met with two companies to answer their questions about redesigning their website so I know there are good consultants available through the program.

8.) Listing on chamber website
The Berks Chamber has an online membership directory that allows members to list their business name and contact information. Every new chamber member should take advantage of this free online listing.

9.) Deals on advertising specials
WEEU, Reading Eagle, and Berks County Living will offer you a deal on advertising when you join the Reading Chamber. This can result in big savings if you planning on doing a local advertising campaign.

10.) Attend networking events
I left this one for last because it’s usually the first benefit people see from joining the chamber. Networking can be a great way to meet new business colleagues. I would definitely recommend attending a minimum  of three chamber networking events each year. 

If you have any of your own tips for using your Reading Chamber benefit, feel free to post them in the comments section.

All I can say is Wow. This event was as dually incredible as it was inspiring. Wow to Gary Mengel (GL Financial Services) for being gracious enough to host this event at his residence. Wow to Jaime Perez (GRYP events committee) for making the event happen in the first place. And wow to Heather DeTurck of Test Kitchen 101 for making scrumptious food. Bravo!

Not all GRYP events are like this one. Most are held on a Thursday evening at a local restaurant or business office. This works out great because one of the goals of GRYP is to promote local businesses. I’ve been part of GRYP for about two years now and this is the first time I can recall a pool party event hosted at a private residence.

Needless to say, the event was spectacular. Many of the core GRYP members were in attendance but it was wonderful to see so many new members showing their faces. I honestly did not expect to network as much as I did. By the end of the night I met new GRYP members and had a blast. Yet another successful GRYP event in my opinion!

A big thanks goes Robyn and Kristen for arriving early and handling the event setup. Everyone was thanking All Star Distributing for providing liquid refreshments. We also need to thank Berks Packing and Van Bennett Inc for providing food supplies.

Thanks again to everyone who helped put on the event. Information on future GRYP events can be found at http://www.greaterreadingyp.org

I’ve been a member of the Greater Reading Young Professionals for over a year. This is definatley the first time they are holding a pool part event a mansion. Here is the official event description from GRYP

—————— - ———————— - ——————

“Hi all - Here are the details you’ve been waiting for …. for the GRYP MEMBERS ONLY Pool Party THIS SATURDAY! You definitely won’t want to miss it, once you see the details & photos below!

GRYP Members… please sign up online! GRYP not-yet members must join, in order to attend this fantastic party… you may sign up online on our website www.GreaterReadingYP.org & pay for your membership online.

You will pay the $10 attendance fee at the party, upon arrival.

Here you go! Hope you can make it!

I’ve gotten a lot of emails back asking… who’s house is this?! And how are we so lucky to attend?! So I thought I would let you all know…. we really are so fortunate!!

Jaime Perez, a GRYP member and a GRYP membership committee member, spearheaded this event and has done a wonderful job! The owner of the home is Gary Mengel, another young professional, who owns GL Financial Services in Reading. Jaime wanted to let us know that he has personally known Gary for years and for Gary to reach out to GRYP in the manor he has is really special! Jaime says Gary is the kind of guy we should all know as he embodies what a young professional is…at 21 years old he started what in just six years would become a multi-million dollar company which came from absolutely nothing but a dream. His customers would tell you that they are loyal to GL Financial Services because a customer of theirs is “treated like family.” Gary stresses the importance of GREAT SERVICE at all levels and in treating everyone equally. It was that state of mind that helped his business grow and hasn’t stopped it from growing regardless of the economy.

If you’d like to know more, then come & meet Gary Mengel and GRYP members at his house on July 26, 2008, 4PM or so… there will be some food, some drinks, some music… and hopefully you!

“User conversion” and “conversion rate” are popluar buzzwords with internet marketing. What does this mean? Simply put, user conversion is having someone visit your website and do something you want them to do. Conversion rate is a ratio of how many people visited your site divided by how many people did something you wanted them to do.

If you have an e-commerce store, your user primary user conversion goal would be to have people order from your site. If you have a corporate website, user conversions could be sign up for a newsletter, downloading a report, or asking for more information.

User conversion is very important because it defines the goals of your website.

Ask to See the Designers Portfolio
Do not hire a logo designer until AFTER you have seen their previous work. Here are a few things to look for. First off… do they have a formal printed portfolio? Every serious designer should have a portfolio that they can show in person, without the help of a laptop or screen display. Another thing to be aware of is the logos in the portfolio. Do they all look the same? Some designers have one style and that’s it. Most importantly, do you like what you see? If the designer has logos in their portfolio that you find pleasing, chances are they can design a logo for your company that you like.

Communicate Your Expectations
If possible, show your designer examples of logos that you feel are professional. This will help them get an idea of what you like in terms of style, lettering, and colors. Take the time to explain how and where the new logo will be used. If you have ideas for the logo design, tell this to your designer in the beginning so they can incorporate your ideas.

Inquire About Their Creative Process
Ask the designer about their design process. Do they provide multiple ideas? Or just one concept? Do they show sketches first or do they show finished designs? Any seasoned logo designer should be able to walk you through their design process.

Demand an EPS File
Rookie logo designers often cut corners by using Adobe Photoshop to create their logo designs. While a Photoshop file might work most of the time, a true logo file should be created in an vector artwork program such as Adobe Illustrator and saved as an EPS. Photoshop files will lose clarity when resized. An EPS file can resize infinitely without losing clarity.

Ask for a Black & White Version
Make sure your designer creates a black and white version of the logo design. There will be times when you will not be able to use color. Any good logo design should be able to reproduce in black and white.

Request a Master CD
When the logo is completed and approved, ask you designer to provide a CD with the logo in the following file types:
EPS (master source file)
RGB (screen and website use)
CMYK (4-color printing)
Pantone (spot color printing)
Grayscale (black & white)

Here a great quick read on good logo design.

 A domain name is the “name” of your website. The website you are viewing right now uses the domain name “bmullconsulting”. The complete URL for this website is http://www.bmullconsulting.com.

Choosing a proper domain name is an important decision that every business owner will ultimately face. In fact, many entrepreneurs are choosing their company name based on the availability of a related domain name.

The domain name you choose for your business will stay with you for a long time. I know if quite a few businesses that have had their domain names registered since 1996 (or earlier) and are still using the same domain name today.

So how to you go about selecting a domain name? The first step is to find out if the name has been previously registered. My personal favorite website for domain research is www.godaddy.com. The GoDaddy website provides search tool that lets you know if a domain is available. If it’s not available, you can see you who registered it and when it’s up for renewal.

Sometimes selecting a domain name is as easy as using your business name. If you had a business called “Special Treats”, it would be make sense to register the domain “www.specialtreats.com”.

Sometimes it’s not that easy. What do you do if someone already registered “www.specialtreats.com”? Here are a few tips for selecting a domain name.

Keep it short - A lot of marketers will tell you to keep the domain name as short as possible. My suggestion is to choose a domain name that is memorable and easy to say out loud. “www.specialtreatsbakery.com” is a much better choice than “www.stb.com”.

Use a “.com” extension – There are a lot of domain extensions available when registering a new domain name. The “.com” is the most popular along with “.net” and “.org”. Other extensions such as “.biz”, “.tv” are available as well. Try to choose a domain name that is available in a “.com”. Most people can’t remember if you tell them anything different than “.com”. Thus the reason why I suggest that clients try their best to choose a “.com” domain name.

No dashes – Stay away from domain names that use dashes. For example, our company Special Treats would want to stay away from registering “www.special-treats.com”. It’s hard to say out loud and once again, people forget to put in the dash or end up putting in a different character.

Don’t use letter or number abbreviations – Using numbers as abbreviations is a bad idea. “www.specialtreats4u.com” might look cool on paper but when you say it out loud, you have some explaining to do. This all leads to confusion which ultimately has the end user not remembering your site.

Here are a few tips in regards to the process of registering and purchasing your domain name.

Use a reputable domain registrar – Network Solutions and GoDaddy Software are the two most popular domain registration providers. I personally use GoDaddy because of their reasonable prices and domain name management tools.

Don’t pay a lot – I know that you can register a domain with GoDaddy for under $10 a year. Some domain registrars will charge you $25 for the same service.

Register it yourself –I am a big advocate of suggest self registration because it puts you in control of renewing and managing your domain. If you ever ordered something online, you should be able to handle registering a domain name. I have heard one too many stories about a business allowing a third party provider to register their domain, only to have problems years later because the provider went out of business and never renewed the domain account.

Use proper contact information – When you register your domain, keep in mind that they are going to contact you when the domain is ready to expire. If you register the domain for five years, they are going to contact you in five years to renew. Make sure you keep you contact information updated.

No need for extras – When you do register with Network Solutions or GoDaddy, they will offer you everything under the sun during the ordering process. All you need to do is register your domain for at least one year. That’s it.

One last tip. If you think of a good domain name and it’s available, register it now. People are snapping up great domain names all the time.

 
“GRYP” (short for Greater Reading Young Professionals), is a popular networking affinity that businesses professionals ages 21-45 attend on a regular basis.

This Thursday, we were fortunate enough to have the event hosted at Toscani Bar & Grill located in Wyomissing, PA. The event was entitled “Inspired Leadership Now” and was sponsored by Gage Personnel.

I arrived a bit late but still ended up catching the last few minutes of the Gage Personnel presentation. The room was setup theater style almost all of the seats were filled making for a strong Third Thursday attendance. Next up was Scott Blessing, President and CEO of Inspired Leadership.

Scott started by asking the audience two questions. Why are you here? And… What matters to you in leadership? Scott’s business helps people “wake up” and become more effective leaders. One of the points that were stressed throughout the presentation was that authentic leadership takes practice and commitment. Information does not change behavior, practice does. What are the traits of effective leaders? Intelligence, technical knowledge, and ability to communicate.

To become an “expert” at something, you need to practice. Your ability to become an expert is NOT dependent on your intelligence; it’s dependent on your commitment to practice. I also appreciated Scott’s viewpoints on time management. As busy business professionals, we can’t manage our time; we can only manage our commitments. Over commitment causes stress which breaks down to all areas of life, especially leadership. This is very true and I myself am going to think differently about my task list and schedule.

The second half of Scott’s presentation had the audience members pairing up and performing various “centering” exercises that help in everyday situations. The most memorable was a mantra that you speak to yourself when in stressful situations. “I have legs and feet, arms and hands, I have a head and spine, and I breathe.” You repeat this to yourself four times to help center yourself and think clearly.

The other exercise I found interesting was to site on the edge of your seat with your feet flat on the floor. Your spine is straight and your head is looking forward. Put your hands on your lap facing upwards. Now try to feel angry or depressed. Amazingly enough, it does not work when you sit is such a position.

There were other exercises that Scott had the crowd work through to experience specific feelings when dealing with others. It was an interesting evening and I am glad that I attended. Much thanks goes to Angie from American Male for participating with me in the various exercises.

E-mail marketing refers to the use of e-mail to communicate messages to an audience. One of the most popular forms of email marketing is HTML based email newsletters. Email newsletters can be used to announce product/service promotions and often play a major role in customer retention efforts.

E-mails newsletters can be simple text based messages or can include HTML code to allow for graphics and text positioning. If you ever received an e-mail that had the same look and feel of the company website, chances are you were reading an HTML based newsletter.

An e-mail newsletter system provides a set of tools that manage your e-mail marketing activities. Most systems include e-mail address management and the ability for website visitors to sign up for the mailing list. Delivery confirmation and tracking tools are usually part of the package. A proper email newsletter system will have stringent standards to insure that e-mails get past spam and junk mail filters.

So what does it take to produce an email newsletter? Let’s take a look at the basic steps.

Step 1 – Select Delivery Method

Before you write your newsletter and gather your list of email addresses, you need to figure out how you are going to send the email. Are you using a webmail service such as Hotmail or Gmail? Does your company use a CRM system? Do you use Microsoft Outlook? There are many different ways to send emails. Choosing the right system is extremely important if you want your email to get to the people you are sending too.

Step 2 – Create Email template

Once you decide on your method of delivery, it’s time to think about the format of the email. What is your email going to look like? Will it include photos or images? Most email newsletters are based around a standard template that includes images and text that are reused each time an email is sent. Someone will need to be responsible for creating the email template.

Step 3 – Decide on Content

This is often the largest hurdle businesses face when embarking on an email newsletter campaign. What content is going to be featured in the newsletter? More importantly… who will be providing the content? This is an important question to answer because the content of your newsletter will ultimately be the deciding factor on whether or not anyone reads it.

Step 4 –Update Website

It’s wise to have a copy of your newsletter on your company website. This means creating a new page and linking it to your website.

Interested in learning more about email marketing? Contact us today for a free consultation.