Zero To Sixty Marketing

small business marketing

A Web Site Makeover for Sprue Brothers

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Here’s another example of the design process … Web site design, this time. We’ve just rolled out a new Web site home page design for Sprue Brothers Model LLC. Sprue Brothers is an online hobby retailer for scale model builders. The “sprue” in the business name is significant. All plastic scale modelling parts arrive on a frame called a sprue. The store’s logo reflects this and now so does the Web site.

Before and after screenshots are below:

Before Website Redesign

Before Website Redesign

New Website Screenshot

New Home Page Design

My husband (and team member), Gerald, came up with the idea of sprue borders. Our graphic artist, Scott, took the concept and ran with it. I put it together as a working Web site. Despite a few technical glitches, this was a fun project that came together quickly. It’s also one that will continue to improve over time. Gordon, we hope your new landing page serves you well.

Have you looked at your Web site lately?

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Advertising is Salesmanship

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No doubt, you’re being bombarded right now by every sales call imaginable, most of them trying to sell you either search engine optimization (SEO) services or advertising space. Since the second week of January, our phone has rung daily with someone selling one or the other.

Advertising is SalesmanshipSince, like most of us, you’re probably considering your next purchase of ad space, let’s focus on advertising today. Yes, it’s a HUGE topic, so we’re going to take it back to its most basic premise: Advertising is Salesmanship.

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Electrify Your Customer Responses

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(PT2) We want  relationships with our customers and readers to be actual relationships, and that requires two-way conversation. We want to encourage them to call, sign up, or click on a link. We want them to tell us what they thought of our products or services. If you read my earlier post on the value of influencing customer response, it’s time to start asking  questions and posing  statements that engage dialog.

Or you can just wait and see if your schedule fills up. (See pic for emotion that follows waiting for your schedule to fill up).

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What Are Words For, When No One Listens Anymore…

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When no one listens, there’s no use talking at all.

Do you hear me, do you care?

Remember the lyrics to the popular 80’s hit? I just got back from a dinner with a client and it’s all I hear in my head after the conversation we had tonight.  I’m really listening closely to what my clients understand about their message, and in a more ethereal sense, their words.

Keyword Relevancy More Important Than Flash / blue-hair girlIn my head, the lyrics are, “What are words worth, when no one listens anymore? No one notices, I think I’ll dye my hair blue.” As a chic, I get it. I don’t think that’s so different from a desperate small business point of view. When we’re young, like the song suggests, we’d do anything to get attention immediately, to be noticed – even bizarre to border line nuts.

Let me explain to you exactly why keyword research and word relevance are more important than flash and hype. [Read more…] about What Are Words For, When No One Listens Anymore…

Thank a Small Business Owner!

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Budding EntrepreneurSmall businesses are responsible for the majority of new jobs created in the United States. Small businesses, including micro-businesses, make a huge impact on our local economy. We hear much more about big business, but where would we be without the small business owner striving for excellence in our local community? So today’s post is dedicated to the small business owner … all of you, whether you’re the only employee or you employ many.

Thank you!

We (collectively) couldn’t do it without you! If you feel the same way, take a few minutes to encourage and thank a hard-working, small business owner this week!

Our team at Zero To Sixty Marketing is dedicated to helping you, the small to medium-size business get results from your marketing efforts. We’re not out to win the next “Addy” or any other award, for that matter. Our award is your success. It’s the RESULTS that we’re after. And we’re not afraid of taking an unconventional route to get there.   [Read more…] about Thank a Small Business Owner!

Downtown Revitalization: The Old is New Again

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As cities strive to improve, many are looking at the heart of their community. Towns, villages and cities were built on a core, the center of the community – their downtown. As the need for faster transit between points became necessary, downtown America was bypassed. Businesses who didn’t want to be forgotten moved from the core of the community to its fringes. For a time the core literally and physically shifted out to the expressway’s edge.

The old downtown seemingly died, and with it, many communities lost part of their soul. But now there has been a resurgence of redevelopment in downtowns across this country – partly because the center is being moved back to its original location. The heritage of the past is being given new birth with construction projects that bring the once forgotten back into vogue.    [Read more…] about Downtown Revitalization: The Old is New Again