Small businesses are a true economic driver of Alberta. Businesses with 50 employees or less make up a whopping 95% of all the economic activity in this province, according to an article published by AlbertaVenture.com in October 2018. The revenue generated comprises close to 30% of the province’s GDP. Small businesses are creative and nimble,…
As owners of a service-based small business, one of the hardest learning curves for us was to figure out what to charge for services. We want to provide great value for what we do, but we also don’t want to find ourselves overworked and underpaid. This just leads to frustration and hurried work, and the…
Website updates happen all the time, but it’s usually stuff you don’t see. Meticulous care of the sites we build means consistently keeping up with security fixes to avoid hackers, maintaining the version and theme, and constantly downloading new plugins to stay up to date. All of this must be done to ensure the functionality…
At Emphasize we are very lucky to have had several clients over the years who have become friends. Because our online marketing philosophy is collaboration combined with creativity, we work very closely with our clients … in fact, we have been told that our thoughtfulness and approachability are what people like best about working with…
The question most new site owners ask me is, “How do I get people to my website if they have never heard of me before?” The first answer is build your website thoughtfully, with relevant content development, ethical SEO practises and consistent analysis of analytics and data to keep improving on the honest results earned.…
I don’t think of myself as the boss of the Emphasize Design team, but my background is in business and management and my role involves a lot of the same types of principles. I see my main responsibility as motivation, and I am always doing my best to keep pushing us forward so that we…
A few years ago it was all about Yelp reviews being the most influential on your business’s reputation. But it’s now it’s the almighty Google review. Not only do they trump Yelp reviews for searches, they can also greatly improve your SEO. A good Google review not only reflects well on your business, it’s also…
Since the first version of the Penguin update went live in 2012, Google has been especially focused on weeding out Black Hat SEO and rewarding sites that offer valuable content. Google’s penalty algorithms will tag sites using unscrupulous methods of gaining visitors to their sites. One of the elements they have focused on is inbound…
Embarking on an online marketing campaign or website development project for your Calgary business without a solid understanding of your target audience is basically a lot of wasted effort. To maximize your marketing investment, you not only need to know where you want to sell your product. You want to know who wants to buy…
At Emphasize we take pride in treating our clients with the respect they deserve. Customer relationship management is first on our list of priorities, and we take advantage of all the tools at our disposal. Customer relationship management (CRM) programs are super helpful for keeping your lead generation details, contact information and customer preferences together…
I manage the social media accounts for many of our clients, so I am always looking for ways to increase their profile. But in an ethical way, always. Thankfully, in partnership with my my fellow content producers at Emphasize, I am able to easily provide relevant content with value, essentially practicing good social media behaviour…
As an online marketing specialist I rely a lot on the expertise of reputable names in the business. Among those I turn to often are the Neilson Norman Group and Hubspot. The Neilson Norman Group (aka NN/g) has been around since 1998, and have thoroughly established themselves as the website usability gurus. They have been…
We’re about to head into a new year, and all of us at Emphasize want to say thanks for trusting us with your business and wish you a safe, happy and healthy holiday. I am personally looking forward to seeing what another year will bring! I like to take advantage of the turning of a…
I meet a lot of new clients every year. My first job is to convince them that Emphasize Design is the Calgary website design company they should hire to create their online marketing campaigns. With nearly ten years in the business and tons of good stuff in our portfolio to show off, I’m proud to…
Even though my specialty is inbound marketing and bringing you the best ROI for your Calgary business’s promotion, even I can admit that it is far more difficult to earn a new customer than to keep an old one. That’s why building and retaining customer loyalty is one of the most important parts of owning…
Before I go into the benefits of inbound marketing for getting the most out of your return on investment (ROI), first here’s a reminder of what outbound marketing is. The most classic example is the old-fashioned vacuum cleaner salesperson. At one time it wasn’t so weird to have your doorbell rang by a stranger selling…