Ann Siegle

WordPress is one of the most accessible web site development platforms out there. And it has some impressive credentials – it powers more than 25% of the sites on the internet. That’s truly amazing! Even software development companies use WordPress for their own web sites (and they’re software development firms!) Why? Because it puts the power of a great web platform in the hands of the marketing teams, and gets it out of the busy development and IT departments. WordPress…

SEO is an integral strategy for a successful website, and by following certain guidelines when optimizing your web pages for search, you can make your web page more easily findable to those who are looking for solutions your business offers. Although SEO is just one factor contributing to website (and business) success, by carefully and properly optimizing your web pages, you can make your site more visible to your target audience. A lot of different things go into optimizing web pages,…

Search Engine Optimization.  It’s the daunting three words you see splashed across every blog post promising to drive more traffic to your page and magically create a larger, more organic consumer base. While the potential to reach more people and consequently sell more products is certainly enticing, you might have found yourself wondering what SEO can really do for your business, how much time you’ll have to invest in it, and whether or not you’ll see a positive return on investment.  If…

Over the last decade, social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram have been one of the fastest growing forms of media and communication in the new digital era. For businesses, using social media for lead generation has become a very effective way to market and advertise their products and companies, and also communicate with customers and other companies in a widespread way. If your are in a company which focuses on developing sales leads and nurturing relationships with…

The other day, during a blogging boot camp session with a client, we were working with some top web tools for small e-commerce businesses when first her phone, and then my phone both erupted with ‘cha-ching!’ noises. After the third ‘cha-ching!’ we both laughed and our discussion turned to top web tools for small e-commerce businesses that make that whole ‘cha-ching’ thing work. Our client was utilizing SquareSpace.com for her commerce web site, and upon notification of both a sale from SquareSpace…

Designing Your Life (Bill Burnett and Dave Evans) is focused on applying design thinking to build a well-lived, joyful life. Since so much of our work life is a part of our whole life, it makes sense to apply this to our entrepreneurial pursuits as well. What is design thinking? Design thinking encompasses four basic tenets: Curiosity Bias to action Reframing Radical collaboration Let’s explore how you can apply design thinking to your small business (and in turn, your life.) First, the theory…

How do successful associations convert visitors to prospective members to members? A good follow-up e-mail is key for converting a prospective member to a paying member. Once you’ve gotten your prospective member to opt in / sign up on your marketing list – whether by an offer conversion, a subscription conversion or some other method – you should work on converting them to a member, whether paid or unpaid, depending upon your structure.) What goes into an e-mail that converts…

What’s preventing small businesses from getting social media marketing done (right)?  Entrepreneurs are tight on time and are usually in the practice of whatever their business is, not marketing. They know social media marketing is an important tool in their marketing toolbox, but they’re just not getting their social media marketing done. If this sounds like a familiar scenario, you’ll be happy to know there are really only three big things that hold entrepreneurs back from achieving social media success…

Taking photos for your new or upgraded web site or social media marketing sites is one of the most common questions clients ask us. Where do we get photos? Stock photos seem so, well, stock. Our business is not very photogenic. No one wants to be shown in the photos, we’d have to get model releases signed. These are all common objections to leaving a web site devoid of life. If your site doesn’t have photos, it’s not lively. And if…