Luck Happens when Preparation Meets Opportunity!

1.  Business cards give people the ability to follow up

When you meet someone and develop that instant rapport you want to give them a chance to follow up with you instantly without having to reach for a pen or their phone.

If left with no other choice do not hesitate to hand over your phone to the other person and have him type in his contact details and vice versa.

Another option is to use phone apps that allow the gadgets to exchange contact information.

Although these options are available to many there will always be instances where you meet someone who may not have all of these technological things on them or isn’t comfortable using them.

This is why nothing can still replace the business card in encouraging people to follow up with you.

2.  Business cards show that you are a professional

The littlest things we do send out the biggest messages.

Something as simple as a business card is indicative that you took the time to actually put your information in a card. This immediately separates you from 99% of the other men out there who may be students like you or are out there seeking a job like yourself.

3.  Having a business card keeps one focused on the goal

In situations where one is trying to look for work it is not unusual to participate in a few networking events.

If you decide to go to events like these with a certain number of business cards on your person then you can immediately create a goal for yourself.

An example of a goal would be to make to distribute the 50 business cards that you brought along to the event. You can also create secondary goals such as collect at least 20 of others’ business cards or have at least 15 to 20 people express interest in following up with you.

If you decide to approach networking events in this manner then your business cards can serve as a reminder and keep you focused on the goal -which is to follow up with people regarding possible opportunities.

4.  Business cards can help make you referable

Business Card ExchangeA good business card will not only contain one’s name and contact details. It should also mention what that person’s skills are.

Having this extra detail can make all the difference because although the person that you initially give your business card may not know what to do with you and your skills, he may know someone in his network that has in need of someone like you.

It is good to remember that random encounters with different people happen all the time. And when they do, you always want to be prepared to take advantage of these meetings and the opportunities that could arise from them.

To me there is no such thing as luck.

Luck happens when preparation meets opportunity.

In saying that make sure that you always have your business cards with you so when opportunity comes you are already prepared and you too may get “lucky” and find success.

www.bouncemarketing.org | 386-734-9600 | plus.google.com/+BounceMarketingIncDeltona

Print Helps You Reach Your Target Market

Print is Tangible. Publications, brochures, posters and other types of printed materials are physical items. These items can stay in offices or homes for months or even years after they are received.
Print is Credible. Like the feeling you get when you see The New York Times or your favorite magazine on the rack, there is something to be said about the feeling of legitimacy that comes from print. You are able to put the printed piece down and comeback at any time to resume your reading. And print requires “real estate”. As marketers, we like this! A  printed piece placed on the corner of a desk will be there day after day until it is picked back up to be viewed.

Print Establishes Your Brand. Printed publications and other branded materials is an excellent way to establish your brand. It allows you to bring the aesthetic qualities of font, colors, images and texture that helps to establish brand recognition.

Print Helps You Reach Your Target Market.  The design and placement of your company ads in publications, newspapers and magazines can help you reach your target audience, whether it be a niche market or the general public. By leveraging the data of demographics, you are able to strategically place your brand in the right place at the right time, in front of the right audience.

Print Can Be More Engaging. When a customer or prospect reads a printed material, they are more engaged for a longer period of time. On average, a consumer spend 43 minutes reading a magazine.

Less Print, Is More For You. With more companies taking their marketing efforts online, the old has become new again as print becomes the new trend. But this isn’t your parents’ world of print communications! Marketers have more information and data to make calculated decisions about content, consumption, consumers, and collateral types. Customers’ and prospects’ email inboxes are overflowing with unsolicited ads and non-worthy news, most of which is largely ignored. With this in mind, designing and sharing a great printed marketing piece should be high on your list of strategic marketing initiatives.

Print and a website presence should go hand and hand. Let Bounce help you today!

www.bouncemarketing.org | 386-734-9600

Five Reasons Why the Old School Business Card Are Still Important

Here are five reasons why the old school business card are still important -- and why you should have a pocket full of them at all times.

1. Networking is about making genuine connections. Sending contact information via text or email on the spot is convenient but it is also extremely impersonal. Engaging in eye contact and actual conversation is how real relationships begin.

Two individuals with their heads buried in their phones typing away won’t create any kind of significant memory of the encounter. You can easily transfer the information from a business card to your mobile device after the conversation.

2. Email marketing, search engine optimization and paid media all do a great job of attracting leads and prospects, but they still aren’t as effective as an in-person meeting sealed with a handshake along with a business card exchange.

You can encounter a potential lead or contact at any time -- tradeshows, industry conferences, happy hour, airport lounges -- and arming yourself with business cards at all times will ensure that you never miss an opportunity to make a valuable business connection. Keep some in your pockets, wallet, money clip or laptop bag so the next time you encounter a prospect you are prepared.

3. When you meet someone that could potentially be a great prospect or connection, don’t you want him or her to walk away with a great first impression? A memorable business card does a lot more than just pass on an email address or phone number. Your goal is to make a memorable first impression.

Yes fancy cards, they cost more -- but think of how many unnecessary expenses you can cut to allocate funds for great business cards. Hold off on the ping pong table and espresso machine for the office and get some business cards that will make a great first impression.

4. A business card is a physical object that a potential prospect leaves the encounter with. Your brand stays with them.

If you meet a prospect and exchange email addresses and phone numbers you each walk away with another contact on your mobile phone -- it ends there. If you hand over a creative business card that makes a great impression that person is likely to show it to other people -- putting you and your brand in front of additional prospects.

5. Have you ever had someone write his or her contact information on a cocktail napkin and hand it over to you? How about someone that had a mobile phone with a dead battery? It isn’t the most professional approach.

If you met two individuals and one was scrambling to find a pen and something to write on and the other person simply pulled out a business card, who would you want to do business with? Showing that you are prepared at all times is a great indicator that you are professional.

www.bouncemarketing.org | 386-734-9600

Bounce Marketing Institute wants to help you get noticed!!

Create a 10 year plan which aligns with Your Vision...

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Web Design | Print Design | Computer Repair | Training

610 Deltona Blvd., Deltona, FL 32725

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Bounce Marketing, Institute provides training and free youth workshops. Plus our design studio offers printing, websites, and more.

We supply full service branding plans and products for our client's to ensure business, civic, or personal growth.We wish to give free consulting services to businesses, individuals, & community groups, plus to offer various affordable solutions to assist in the successful efforts of those in the community.

We offer to give free educational workshops for professionals and youth groups. This is made possible by designing (or re-designing) websites, creating business cards, logos, banners and other affordable advertising solutions. Please visit our blog webpage:http://bouncemarketinginstitute.blogspot.com/ OR our webpage: www.bouncemarketing.org

Bounce Marketing shares when to say 'no'

We are all busy.  Actually busy has become the new status symbol and that isn’t just at work.  We spend our time prioritizing – sorting out the urgent, important and the things that can be left for later.

As a business owner or manager, it would be wonderful if you could dedicate the time needed to all staff; however, this is often not the case.  It is necessary to prioritize competing demands.  It is important that you don’t get caught up and engrossed in the trivial just because it seems urgent at the time from the person making the demand be it a staff member or a customer.

There is an empowering word in our language that is not used enough and that is the word “no”.

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 Whether you are a manager or a parent, using the word ‘no’ allows you to:

• Set boundaries
• Have more control
• Improve your time management
• Have some free time
• Less stress and pressure
• Increased energy
• More clarity around what is important

When you can’t say no, you may feel:

• Overworked
• Stressed
• Not in control
• Resentful

There is an art to saying ‘no’ and not actually saying ‘no’.  Some examples include:

• Can I get back to you later today?
• I can’t see you now, how about 2 pm in your office?
• I wish I could help you but …
• I wish I could do that but …
• I know someone who would do a great job with that …

When as a business owner or manager you are using your time wisely, that means you can be focused on what you are meant to be focused on, which is usually building the business and achieving goals and objectives.

www.bouncemarketing.org

BounceMarketing.org talks about Mentoring and Coaching!!

Coaching and mentoring are two forms of training that provide employees with:

• Knowledge
• Skills
• Attitudes

This enables employees to perform their job to the best of their abilities.  The aim is to develop people for future jobs within the organisation.  Training was known as a long-term investment in human capital; however, in today’s work environment, continuous learning is imperative.

(Stop By at 610 Deltona Blvd., Deltona, FL to learn more)

Training has the following benefits:

• Improves quality
• Boots productivity
• Helps the organisation to be competitive
• Strengthens employee commitment
• Responds to customer needs
• Assisting in meeting individual and organisational goals

Training and mentoring are indispensable in your organisation; this can include:

• Informal
• On-the-job training
• Classroom training
• Electronic training
• Experiential training
• Mentoring
• Coaching

Needs Analysis

The first step in the process is to identify any training gaps or areas for improvement either for the individual or the organisation as a whole.

Once you have identified the training needs, it is about finding the training that suits the individual.

Just keep in mind, the more you invest in your staff and their training, the more they will reward you with improved work practices and generally getting more done in less time.  This, in turn, will impact on your bottom line.  That is one reason why it is well worth investing in training, coaching and mentoring.

Learn More about this subject at BounceMarketing.org

SEO Tipswhen it comes to Keywords!

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques related to keywords, and how they can help your business get found online.

Keywords are words and phrases people type into the search engine (i.e. Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.), to find what they’re looking for. This is the verbiage that drives the web; triggering advertising and marketing initiatives. Effective use of keywords means inserting them into appropriate website content, which search engines use to “find” content online and index it according to specific search terms.

This process works exactly the way traditional book indexing does, in that the system identifies the location of words of interest and enables users searching for the words to know where to go to find them. The only difference is that the medium is digital instead of print, and the words are accessed by clicking “search,” as opposed to looking them up in an alphabetical list

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Researching Keywords 

All this only works if the keywords used in your content are the right ones. There’s no point, for example, in using keywords relating to your brand, unless people are likely to use your brand name to search. For example, if users search for “facial tissues” and your keyword is “Kleenex,” they aren’t going to find you, so you need to know which specific terms they are using when they search. “Tissues,” “facial tissues” and even“soft facial tissues” might do it, but if what they are really searching for is “extra thick soft facial tissues,” some research using Google’s keyword tool will demonstrate this fact. 

Long-Tail Keywords

The more specific the keywords are that you use, the fewer the results will be and the better your chances of appearing in them. So, while millions of people search for “tissues,” only a small percentage may be looking for your product. However, if you sell only extra thick soft facial tissues in pink, you want to use keywords that say just that. This is called a long-tail keyword, and it’s far more targeted and specific, so only users who type in the full phrase will arrive at your search result. However, given that those who do are more likely to buy your product than, say – someone searching for green tissues, it’s a worthwhile effort to make. 

Keyword Density

Gone are the days when you could publish content jam-packed with keywords. At one time, a keyword density of 7 % was considered optimal. That means using the keyword seven times in every 100 words, and it was called keyword stuffing at one time.

Now, that might be doable if you’re using a generic term like “marketing,” but for a long-tail keyword like “extra thick pink facial tissues,” it’s a little more difficult.

When Google realized that too many websites contained text that read like gibberish, just for the sake of getting keywords in the text, and/or used a higher density than 2% or 3%, their Panda and Penguin algorithm updates of 2011 and 2012 penalized those sites. Now sites are also checked for quality grammar and spelling, as well as duplicate content. Today, keyword density is down to between 0.5% and 1.5% tops! 

Keyword Ranking

This is the effective use of keywords everyone wants to achieve – high keyword ranking on their main keywords. “High” ranking means your website is ranked in the top 100 sites for use of a specific keyword. After 100, they stop counting. The level of difficulty of the keyword, as determined by its competitiveness, also has bearing on this, because it helps to balance the equation. For example, the lower the number of searches on a keyword, the less competitive it is, and the more likely you are to be in the top 10 or 100 with that keyword. So it might be easy to rank highly for “extra thick soft pink facial tissues” because nobody else is using it, than it is for simply “tissues,” which might have 100,000 monthly searches, but is also being used on countless unrelated websites.

Understanding the effective use of keywords is a critical “get found” online marketing strategy. Using it to your advantage can be a difference maker in your online marketing success.

Are you ready to schedule an appointment for: web. print. training. IT or to learn more about one of our community improvement programs?  Call us at 386-734-9600 or visit at bouncemarketing.org.

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5 reasons why you need a responsive website design,

5 reasons why you need a responsive website design, including expanded reach, SEO benefits, reduced cost, content more readable, etc. 

At one time, all you needed was to have a single-platform website. Then along came mobile browsing, and the stats available indicated that you needed a mobile (.mobi) site. With the arrival of the iPad and other tablets, responsive website design is the go-to option to have. Responsive website design automatically adapts to the screen shape, size and other parameters of all web-enabled devices, and there are a number of reasons why you need this for your small business, church or ministry website. 

Reason #1: Mobile is Huge – and Getting Bigger

Between 2010 and 2012, the share of web traffic coming from mobile devices (smart phones and tablets) grew by 163%, and a mobile data forecast from Cisco predicts that by the end of 2013 there will be more mobile devices on earth than people. Mobile now accounts for 12% of U.S. users’ online content consumption, and the numbers are growing.

According to Google trainer, Ty Schlegel, “Google searches on mobile devices are on pace to overtake searches on desktop computers in the next 18 months.”

This means that if you want to reach people with your message, your website needs to be available on mobile devices without the typical problems associated with loading and viewing of regular web pages on a small screen. These include:

• Difficulty reading the text
• Image display issues, and
• Eternal scrolling to reach the navigation buttons 

Reason #2: Your Content is More Easily Readable

If you’ve ever tried to read a non-responsive blog post or web page on your smart phone, you’ll know how difficult it can be. If the page is static, you’re able to view a couple words at a time, and end up scrolling from side to side just to view a line of text. On the old .mobi sites, the text would typically display at what the device felt was a readable size, but you still had to scroll down forever to view it all, and images were often reduced to one or two to resolve loading issues.

With responsive website design, however, tapping the screen optimizes the content for the device, and you can “pinch” or “unpinch” a section of the view to zoom in or out. These options make the website eminently more readable than either the computer-based site, or the old mobile site was able to be. 

Reason #3: One Site Costs Less than Several

Few websites are designed for mobile only, which means you either have to forfeit the mobile traffic, or you need to design two (or more!) different sites. Sure, most web design platforms have offered auto-creation of mobile sites for some time, but they still require a fair bit of work to make them look right.

The biggest drawback to having separate sites is remembering (and finding the time) to update both every time you add content to the site. By having a single, responsive website design, you can:

• Create the site once
• Perform each update once only, and
• Don’t need to worry about the growing variety of devices used to access it 

Reason #4: There are SEO Benefits

You know from one of our former posts that search engine optimization (SEO) is an important outreach strategy, and that it’s critical for driving traffic to your site. Responsive website design helps improve your searchability for a variety of reasons:

• Search engines like Google want to send users to sites they want to view. Stats show that if the performance of a website on mobile devices frustrates users, 61% will return to search for another site. The engines will take note that there could be a usability problem and stop sending them to that site.
• Duplication of content, as you know by now, is a big no-no for search. Having one or more mobile sites, as well as your regular site, means either you publish the same content in more than one place, which lowers your ranking, or you change the content for each of the sites – which increases your costs and effort.
• Mobile ranking – Google has said that it gives sites that are optimized for mobile higher rankings in search.

Reason #5: You Reach More Users

See Reason #1 – as mobile usage continues to grow, without a site optimized for the plethora of devices in the market, you simply won’t have the same reach as you would if you have just one that’s optimized and uses a responsive website design. And this doesn’t only apply to a youthful target market, although three-quarters of Americans under the age of 43 use smartphones to access the web. Seniors are joining the ranks of mobile users in droves, with 69% of Americans over the age of 65 years now owning a mobile device, while 53% of them now use the Internet. These stats indicate that regardless of your target audience demographic characteristics, if you want to reach them you must be available on mobile.

Technology continues to change. Going forward, responsive website design is an important part of your online strategy. 

Learn More at: www.bouncemarketing.org 

Habits of High Performing People!

Here are some habits of High Performers.  Are you high performer?

• Tell people what you are doing and be willing accept help
• Ask people what they are doing and if they need any help
• In non-industry jargon way, share your achievements to your friends and family
• Communicate progress to staff and staff leaders regularly
• Learn and discuss failures - learn what you did and didn't do to recover
• Find a personal business / career coach
• Always ensure that your goals and objectives are S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound)
• First focus on the top priorities
• Focus on your performance objectives
• Attend company parties, activities, gatherings, and events
• Tell the truth
• Share solutions when reporting a problem
• Praise people regularly 
• Volunteer to be the spokesperson
• Be sponsor for youth programs, leagues, worthy causes, or professional events when possible
• Prepare for meetings ahead of time
• Learn professional skills and don't stop learning
• Share the positives not the negatives of your personal time
• Take predetermined risks
• Find fun things to do in your personal time and invite others to join you
• Have integrity
• Make decisions and stick to them
• Be loyal to others
• Be honest and upfront with people
• Be nice to everyone (retail workers and administrative assistants)
• Go to networking meetings regularly
• Be a people person
• Be creative and if your ideas are rejected - try again / don't give up
• Respond quickly and be available via email, phone, or in-person
• Always follow up
• Accept and ask for feedback regularly
• Focus on your strengths, know your weaknesses but don't worry about them
• Smile often
• Empower yourself and assume a leadership role until told otherwise
• Stay fit and healthy
• Dress for success but not for conformity
• Help other people and accept help from others
• Be a role model for others and get a few positive role models to look up to
• Read books regularly
• Be different and stand up for what is right
• Have your own thoughts and opinions
• Engage with upper management without fear
• Share knowledge and fruits of success
• Know when to sell and when to tell
• Never Stop Making New Friends and remember their names
• Just do it and get it done
• Arrive early
• Avoid excuses in any form
• Proof read what you write
• Ask questions especially when you are in doubt about something
• Take time to eat so you are not running on empty
• Know your goals 
• Organize your work space regularly
• Don't avoid conflict if it's necessary
• Be real to yourself and others
• Hold people accountable
• Take the blame - don't blame others
• Help make new ideas happen vs. being a barrier for them to happen
• Remember delegation is a form of empowerment
• Be a good listener
• Allow people to make mistakes but hold them accountable for repeating the same mistake continuously
• Protect the producers
• Be committed - use words like: do, will, yes, and no
• Know the deadline and conditions for success
• Don't Procrastinate
• Get to an agreement 
• Remember your time and other's time is precious

Learn more about Bounce Marketing's Managing Director at: www.bouncemarketing.org

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