A lot of factors contribute to the failure or success of an online business. A well planned and constructed website is paramount to your business success both on and offline. The design and development philosophy at Mystique Creative is based on four principles: attract, engage, convert and support.

Attract - Your site needs to project an image of credibility while compelling visitors to take a desired action. Design and develop a user-interface that it is easy to navigate through and search engine friendly (traffic is key to success for any site). Make it easy for them to find the information they are looking for and to act on that information.

Engage - Engage your visitors through effective messaging, site architecture, tools etc. Keep the site customer- centric maintaining a focus on their needs. If they can't quickly figure out what's in it for them a competitor is only a click away.

Convert - Plan how you will convert visitors into customers. Develop your conversion funnel based on the attributes that distinguish your business and the products and services you offer.

Support - Remember - it's all about the customer. They should be provided, online, the tools and information they need both before and after the online transaction.

Websites are meant to evolve and stay up to date with changes in your users' tastes. Be ready to adapt and add features such as blog's etc based on your customers and prospects feedback.

Paul Bies

President,
Mystique Creative

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Paul Bies
President,
Mystique Creative

This has got to be one of the most asked questions of marketing agencies and consultants. Proof… If you google the phrase, you'll find about 29 million results.

Understand that marketing is an essential investment in the future of your business. And while tempting, cutting your marketing budget during tough times like these could have potentially fatal consequences.

So, should you spend more or less? The answer depends on a number of factors. But the exact amount doesn't matter as much as the fact that you have dedicated funds for marketing. As long as you have and track a marketing budget you can always adjust the numbers based on results.

Back to the question… How much should I spend on marketing? While there isn't a magic formula - rest assured if you're trying to grow your business fast - spend more on marketing! The following methods are all effective ways to set a budget:


1. Percentage of gross sales/revenue:

This is probably the simplest method. Most experts recommend somewhere in the range of 2-8% of gross sales but, in most cases, small businesses (less than $5 million gross revenue) should aim to dedicate something at the high end of this range. In fact, we recommend that you use projected sales figures rather than base your marketing spend on historical sales figures. You are dealing with future spending and its impact on future business performance. The actual percentage will depend on the gross profit percentage you are able to achieve.

Keep in mind that many industries have their own standard. For example:

• Industrial B-to-B: 1-2% of gross sales
• Hospitals: 1-2% of net revenues
• Law firms: 1-5% of gross revenues
• Retail: 3-10% of net revenues
• Banks/Credit Unions: 2-6% of assets
• Pharmaceuticals: 10-20% of net sales

2. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV):

A somewhat simple concept as long as your numbers are accurate. Identify how much profit (on average) you stand to make during the lifetime of a customer relationship and determine how much you are willing to invest per customer acquisition.

Customer Lifetime Value is defined as the present value of all current and future profits generated from a customer.

Here's a formula to work from:

CLV = M x R/(1+I-R)

M = margin or profit from a customer in a certain period
R = your retention rate (most companies are between 60-90%)
I = discount rate (your company's cost of capital, usually a rate of 8-16%)

For example: if your profit from a customer in a year is $1,000, you retain 80% of your customers, and your discount rate is 12%, multiply $1,000 x 2.5 to get $2,500 as that customer's lifetime value. But remember, your CLV will change as your retention rate changes. Still, your CLV could have a big impact on profit even at small percentage retention increases.

Here's a link to a great Customer Lifetime Value Tool developed by the Harvard Business School: http://www.harvardbusinessonline.com/fl ... _value.swf

3. Goals/Plan driven:

Identify measurable goals (for example: Number of new clients, Percentage of revenue increase) and then determine your sales equation. Again, this method requires accurate numbers based on your track record to make the equations viable.

For example: For every 100 prospects approached, you get 20 initial meetings. From those 20 meetings, you can expect to get 8 invitations to present a proposal. From 8 proposals, you will score 3 new clients. If your goal is 20 new clients, you now know that you need to approach 500 qualified prospects. You build your marketing plan to accomplish that and assign the costs accordingly.

Three different methods - pick the one that you're most comfortable with to help you prepare your new marketing budget.

Keep in mind that you can have the right amount allocated to marketing and be spending it on the wrong mix. The money you choose to spend on marketing should generate additional revenue for your company. So if you are spending more on marketing than you are making in return for your efforts, then the marketing mix needs to be re-evaluated.

In another blog we'll look at where you spend your budget once you've established it.

Paul Bies
President,
Mystique Creative

Ever wondered about how to find that site you're looking for? Ever wondered how your customers find you?

Search Engine Tips
If you have a general subject in mind (like "cars"), type the word or words in the Search box and click the Search button. Results are usually listed in order of relevancy based on keywords and other factors.

Advanced Search Features
If you know exactly what you want, you can get better results by entering very specific information into the Search box. Despite differences in each search engine's tools, there are tools that many search engines have in common.

Searching for an Exact Phrase
To require that an entire phrase be found in a search, enter quotes (" ") around the terms. For example, "vintage cars" returns listings where the words "vintage" and "cars" appear together and in that order, either in the title, the URL of the Web site, the description, the keywords, or the document. If no sites are found that contain both terms, sites that contain either term will be displayed.

Searching For Required Words
You can type the plus sign (+) or the word AND before a word to require that it be found in all of the search results. For example, vintage +cars (include a space between the first word and the + symbol) or cars AND vintage returns all listings that contain "vintage" and "cars" but not necessarily together.

Searching For Excluded Words
Use the minus sign (-) before a word or the word NOT to require that it not be found in the search results. For example, vintage -cars (include a space between the first word and the - symbol) or vintage NOT cars lists sites containing "vintage" but not "cars." Some engines like AND NOT (two words) or ANDNOT (one word) better than just NOT.

Searching For Multiple Words
Use the word OR to require that one or the other term be found in the search results. For example, vintage OR cars (include a space on each side of the OR) lists sites containing "vintage" or "cars." You can combine AND, OR, AND NOT by using parentheses. For example, to find documents that contain the word vintage but not either the word cars or trucks type vintage NOT (cars OR trucks). You could also type this vintage -(cars OR trucks). Note: You cannot begin a search with a "-" term. You must put some other search term first.

Using Wildcards
You can use the asterisk (*) character to indicate a wildcard search. This is useful when you are trying to match a term that may or may not be plural or might use one of several verb tenses. For example chemi* will find results containing words that begin with 'chemi' (e.g. chemical, chemistry, chemist). You must have at least four non-wildcard characters in a word before you introduce a wildcard. This is not necessary for plurals because a search on cat will also return results containing the word cats, and a search on cats will return results containing the word cat.

Location, location, location
One other addition searchers forget to include is looking for a web site by its location. A search for vintage cars typically shows about 2 million results. Search engines have enormous databases due to the rampant frequency of newly added sites to their directories and because of this have changed the searching experience by offering local searches. Targeting your search weeds out the competition so that when looking for local businesses, only those pertinent to your search show up in the top pages. By doing this a search for "vintage" "cars" "Toronto" will result in the top relevant sites showing up with these keywords (about 25% less sites).

Now by habitually using these techniques, including the location, you waste less time by focusing your search on only those that you wish to visit. The drawback for non-optimized web sites is that even though they may have the offering you are looking for: unless they "play" the search engine "game", no one will find them.

Is your web site optimized? Are you tracking how many hits your site gets?

Frank Beecham
Webguy
Mystique Creative

Today I met a prestigious businessman while I was out at lunch. His overall appearance seemed to demand respect and authority. We ended up sitting together, and began talking. He told me about how he owns a significant amount of buildings, businesses, real estate here, travels there, loads of money, blah blah blah, etc. This man really seemed to be put together. Then he passes me his business card. I have to look at his logo four times before discovering that the blue goat sitting on top of the "L" was just the designers' way of uniquely dotting the "i". The kerning was poor, which made one word look like two. If that wasn't bad enough, the entire image was surrounded by a dreadful, dark drop shadow. Everything that this man represented was supposed to be displayed on this card, and all I could see was this badly designed piece of paper.

It is very important to start your business off on the right foot with a SIMPLE, UNIQUE, and RECOGNIZABLE logo. Many people do their own marketing materials or get inexperienced friends or relatives to do it for them. The unfortunate outcome is that even though your business may be the best in town and you truly have something unique about it, people will never know it. Many people these days take one look at a logo, business card, or website and make an assumption of what the company is like. A badly designed logo can make your company look cheap, unpolished, and inexperienced.

A logo is a part of something bigger. It is part of a brand and represents what your company stands for. It is an extremely important first step in promoting your business that many people overlook. It is best to choose a design firm or an individual experienced in logo design to create one for you, but only after viewing their portfolio to get an idea of the kind of work that you are paying for. Always remember that a good logo creates a long lasting impression in your customers and may be the difference between success and failure for your business.

Renee Richards,
Graphic Designer
Mystique Creative