Salt Blog

You'd have to have been living under a rock for the last several years if you've never heard the term 'social media' or ventured onto the likes of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or Instagram yourself. People of all ages, everywhere are tweeting, liking, pinning and sharing content on social media platforms, around the clock and throughout the week. Social media has taken the world by storm, broken down barriers that once existed for technology, and is now a part of virtually every aspect of some people's everyday lives. Despite the fact that some people are now receiving their minister's sermons in bite-sized tweets or ordering dinner at their favourite restaurants via Facebook, many small business owners still aren't putting the power of social media marketing to work for their brands. If you're looking for new, cost-effective ways to drive quality leads and sales to your business, social media marketing is...

Attracting the attention of prospective customers and convincing them to buy your goods and services is a never-ending feat. Just think of all the off and online marketing you do to expand your customer base. Well, a great way to maintain a steady stream of business, especially during those times when it seems like new sales are few and far between, is to keep your existing customers informed and interested. Email marketing is the solution you need to keep up those touch points in a way that's efficient, affordable and effective. The Pros Highly Affordable Marketing Strategy Marketing Via a Targeted Channel Analytics Makes it Easy to Measure Email Marketing's Effectiveness Getting Started with Email Marketing If you're interested in using email marketing to reach out to your customers, you need to start by choosing an email marketing system. At Saltmedia, for instance, we're a solutions provider for Constant Contact,...

Several years ago, when blogging first became a buzz word, it mostly referred to online journals or diaries of sorts, used by individuals who were looking for a way to express themselves. Well, businesses of all shapes and sizes soon realized that a blog could be a great space for some free marketing, and it took off from there. For a business, a blog is a page on the website where you post company news, but more importantly, it's a space where you share articles that can give a powerful boost to your digital marketing strategy. Here are just some of the ways that regular blogging will benefit your business' online presence and your brand, overall: Allows you to demonstrate your expertise in the market, which helps build trust with prospective customers - a must, if you want to sell products or services online Google awards websites where quality content...

In today's world, where everyone from tweens to senior citizens use smartphones and other mobile devices to surf the web, it's vital for business owners to market their products and services effectively. This means that in addition to a mobile website design, businesses will benefit from adding mobile marketing to an online strategy that's tailored for bringing more leads and sales. Mobile Marketing at a Glance So what is mobile marketing and why should you care? Mobile marketing consists of placing ads on mobile devices. There are several mobile marketing platforms to choose from, each offering their own unique styles of advertising. Some of the channels include app-based marketing, ads that appear in games or text messages, and QR codes that users scan to be directed to a specific website. Google AdWords has also jumped on the mobile bandwagon, and offers mobile marketing options, as well. Adding Mobile Marketing to...

Business owners are often under the impression that the customers they need will magically find and flock to their website without having to do any form of digital marketing. If only it were that easy! Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of several forms of digital marketing that businesses can use to drive targeted traffic to their websites. SEO includes various tactics designed to bring 'organic' or 'natural' traffic to a website, versus SEM, where you pay a fee each time someone clicks one of your ads. But how do you attract the attention of the web surfers who are looking for the types of goods and services you sell? The goal is to move your website up the search engine rankings for major search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. When your business appears on the first page of the search results for carefully selected keyword terms, you're in...

In today's world, where people of all ages, worldwide, are online, a website is one of the best ways to advertise your business. As many people soon discover, however, the challenge is getting prospective customers to your site. One of the online marketing tactics businesses use to drive traffic to their websites is Pay-Per-Click or PPC Advertising. PPC Advertising at a Glance With PPC, you pay a fee each time a person clicks one of your ads that are positioned in places like search engine results pages, Facebook and many other channels. Google AdWords is the most popular platform for PPC, most likely because the ads are positioned in the Google search results, where people figure the largest number of prospective customers will see them. When a PPC campaign is executed well, the fee you pay for a click is small compared to the upside of delivering a paying customer...

Search Engine Marketing, or SEM, falls under the Search Marketing umbrella along with SEO. To put it simply, SEM is a way to buy traffic. You pay for ads that appear in the search engine's results, which puts your business in front of people who are searching for information, products and/or services that are in line with your ads' targeted terms. Sounds pretty great, doesn't it? Well, SEM can be awesome, if you know what you're doing. If you don't, it can be a pretty costly way to drive a whole lot of tire kickers - not paying customers - to your website. When it comes to digital marketing, whether you're doing SEM, SEO, email newsletters or any other type, the key to achieving the results you want and need is to either be an expert in the online marketing field, or to hire someone who is. But, first, here's...

Business owners often ask us which types of digital marketing are most important if they want to succeed online. The truth is, there isn't a one-size-fits-all online marketing solution that will work for every business. In fact, your industry, your business goals and budget will all play a role in determining which forms of marketing will produce the best results. Give us a call to discover the custom online marketing strategy that will take your business to the top, but first, check out the following to gain a better understanding of what the various forms of marketing entail. A Website: The ultimate form of online marketing and the best way to advertise your business, today! Marketing Automation: Streamline your marketing operations with revolutionary software that automates tasks like sending email newsletters, social media activity, and other website tasks. Search Engine Marketing (SEM): Improve your website's visibility in search engines and...

You've just had an awesome website built and you can't wait to show it off to the world - not to mention have the phone start ringing off the hook with calls from new customers! The thing is, when you Google the keywords that are important to your business, your website appears so far down in the search results it's as good as invisible. It'd be an understatement to say that this is frustrating, but it's a challenge many business owners face. If the saying, 'if you build it, they will come' worked for anyone or anything but Kevin Costner, a baseball field and a bunch of dead baseball players, the search engine optimization (SEO) and internet marketing industries wouldn't exist. Making Your Website Visible Online Ranking on page two won't cut it because very few people actually venture that far down in the search results. Page one is where...

We like to hit it outta the park for every client. Call us overachievers, but we're not happy until you are. No matter the types of solutions we're providing, our core values keep us focused on delivering the results our clients want and need. With online success as the end goal in every situation, we're looking for clients who are just as eager to succeed as we are to show them how to get there. It's true, Saltmedia might not be the right website development company for every business. But, if your business looks something like this, we're the team of experts you need for a wide range of web design services, online marketing and other solutions: a small to mid-sized business that's looking to build a strong online presence well organized and willing to work with us so that the business can start reaping the rewards as quickly as...

Last time, I talked about the core values that drive everything we do here at Saltmedia, from the solutions we offer to the ongoing support and quality customer service we provide. Today, I want to talk about the ways our core values are shaping the solutions we provide to small and mid-sized businesses across a wide range of industries, and how you, too, can reap the rewards of our Grande Prairie web design team's commitment to excellence. Let's take web and graphic design, as well as online marketing, as examples: Web and Graphic Design To effectively brand a business, you need a quality logo, website design and other graphics that are going to command attention and make an impression. Our core values ensure you receive the branded online presence you need to succeed: Honesty: designers start with an in-depth discovery meeting where they learn about your business we create a...

In business, first impressions are everything. You've got one shot to impress people or they'll move on, taking their money elsewhere. It's that whole instant gratification thing, where people want to see that you've got what they need - right away - or they're gone. On the internet, where your website is your business' online representative, the user experience you provide has the ability to turn those site visitors into your customers or leave them hitting the back button. User experience includes everything from how quickly your website pages load to the quality of the design and information you provide, or how easy it is to navigate. Invest in a Website that Delivers Results When you own a website (and you should!) with a great user experience, you're armed with a powerful tool for driving more leads and sales to your business. These are just some of the many things...

Yup, there's no getting around it, if your business still doesn't have a website, you're missing out on big opportunities. If growing your business by bringing in more leads and sales is your ultimate goal, getting your business online with effective web and graphic design should be priority number one. Why? Let me count the ways! A Website is Never Closed: With a website, you're open all day, every day. Even if you're not selling your products or services directly from your website, an effective web presence ensures existing and potential customers can always access your contact information, learn about what it is that you offer, and the ultimate goal, take one giant step further into your sales funnel. When you aren't available to give the sales pitch, a well designed and executed website will do it for you! Provides Credibility: Gone are the days when people flipped through the...

A slick looking website without search engine optimization (SEO) is, well, just a slick looking website. Now, I don't know many business owners who invest money into building a website just for the sake of having a placeholder on the internet, just in case a few random web surfers happen to land there. A website should be an effective marketing tool for your brand, a powerful driver of new leads and sales for your business. Sadly, many people miss out on incredible opportunities to grow their businesses because they aren't doing SEO and their websites aren't strategically set-up to rank well. Designing Sites for Ranking Success In addition to learning about our clients' businesses and creating a design that's a perfect representation of the brand, our web development company also performs deep market research to develop a blueprint from which we write keyword optimized website content, title tags and meta...

During the holidays, when everyone is checking off their Christmas lists, it's a great time to step up your marketing efforts and to reel in as much business as possible before the year's end. Whether a successful holiday season is crucial to your business' bottom line, or your company could use a little boost during the weeks and months after Christmas, when things tend to quiet down, promotional graphics are awesome ways to attract the attention of new customers, to remind existing customers of your brand and to convert more leads into sales. What better way to drive home your message than with quality graphics created by a graphic design company that also knows a thing or two about branding and how to build powerful web presences? Taking Your Promos to New Heights with Graphic Design Like the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, but when...

For those of you who are still coming down from Halloween candy sugar highs, I hate to break it to you, but Christmas is approaching - fast! For anyone with a business, this is a great time of year to kick your marketing efforts up a notch and to drive more leads and sales before the year's end. These are just a few of the many ways your friendly neighbourhood website design team, Saltmedia, can help: Graphics that Grab Attention In addition to building websites that are a cut above, Saltmedia is also a graphic design company with the skills to create quality, eye-catching promo graphics, perfect for the Christmas season. Whether you're hosting a Christmas sale, need to draw attention to a specific product or service via website or web ad graphics, or want to let customers know about your involvement in a holiday charity fundraiser, Saltmedia graphics can...

While the phrase 'content is king' has been used to death online, it's still a very accurate way to describe the importance of content marketing for any and every business, today. To put it simply, if you hope to be a major player in your industry, online, you've got to be producing and sharing quality content on a regular basis. Now, 'content' is much more than articles and can include everything from blog posts and videos to webinars and infographics. Share your expertise and add value to your website, generating more interest in your business and driving new customers to your door! These are just a few of the many ways content marketing will benefit your business: Improves Website Traffic Posting quality, keyword optimized content not only drives interested readers or viewers to your site, but also creates the opportunity for those site visitors to share your content with others...

Deciding where it is that you should devote time and money to market your business online? Every small business should consider email marketing. It doesn't matter if your business services the oil and gas industry, you're an artist or you make and sell custom key chains, email marketing is one of the most efficient, affordable and effective channels through which you can grow your business.   Why? While it's important to use online marketing tactics like SEO and social media to attract and convert new customers to your brand, the easiest way to generate more sales is by leveraging your pool of existing customers. You convinced them that yours was a product or service they wanted or needed once before, which is more than half the battle. Email marketing is the way to keep them coming back for more! Here are a few of the highlights: Easy Targets: Email marketing is...

In the last post, I gave the low-down on search engine optimization and why anyone who owns a website should consider investing in an SEO campaign of some shape or form. While 'SEO' describes the tactics that are used to drive traffic to a site organically, Pay Per Click, or PPC, is a form of advertising where you pay a fee each time your ad is clicked. When PPC is done well, it can be a highly effective form of internet marketing. If you pay a mere $2 when someone clicks your ad and it results in a $200 sale, it's a no-brainer. The problem is knowing how to use PPC so that you're driving the right traffic to your site and not wasting a fortune on advertising that doesn't yield any leads or sales. Adding Google AdWords to Your Internet Marketing Strategy Google AdWords is the most popular PPC...

If you own a website, you've probably heard of search engine optimization or SEO. You wouldn't, however, be the first person to admit that they have no idea what it is, or more importantly, why it might be something worthy of consideration. The definition of SEO is pretty straightforward: the process through which you drive organic traffic from the search results to your website. What's not so straightforward is all of the factors that make up the SEO pie - there are more than 200 factors - or staying up to date with what it is that the search engines are rewarding or penalizing today. Today's post is meant to give you a very basic understanding of what SEO is and why anyone who owns a website and who wants more than their closest relatives to know it exists, should consider investing in search engine optimization. How Search Engines Rank...