Preparing for the Fall: Ready for New Customers?

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The summer is a great time to reflect on your business and strategize new ways to meet your customer’s needs. But soon, Fall will be here. Are you ready to receive your customers and exceed their expectations?

Host an open house. If your business has an office, warehouse, factory, shop, or conference room consider hosting an open house. Such events bring customers into your space and invite them to see your operation from the inside. Open houses also provide an opportunity to connect with your customers in a more informal way, which can lead to a new understanding of your client’s needs.

Start a seasonal marketing campaign. Maybe it’s time to update your website or launch a Facebook page for your business. Perhaps you need to initiate an email campaign to reconnect with your customers. North Forty Road can assist your business to leverage the full marketing potential of the internet – so new customers find you and old ones stay in touch. As people return from the summer and settle in for the fall, now is a great time to reach out. To learn more about marketing packages we offer, click here.

Mobilize your site. Make sure your potential customers are finding you, wherever they may be. Already, a significant minority of web traffic is generated by mobile devices (cell phones, pads, etc.). In the next year or two, it is expected that the most web traffic will be done via mobile devices. Making your site accessible to customers on the go is a great way to expand your web site’s impact. Contact us to learn more about mobile options for your business.

Get Optimized. SEO is not a one-and-done affair. Make sure your site is getting ranked on search engines with regular attention to your site’s search optimization. Contact us to discuss simple and effective ways to improve your site’s “searchability.” Read about SEO here.

With the Fall comes Football, cooler weather, colorful leaves…and hopefully new customers for your business. Let us help you reach your goals this Fall and in every season. Contact us soon.

Are you using this hot summer to your best advantage?

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For some, Summer is a time to slow down the pace of work, to recharge the batteries, and to prepare to be better, more excited, and more productive once the busy Fall hits.  A great way to hit the ground running this Fall is to spend some time now focusing on your marketing.  Take a few moments to think about how you are reaching your customers, and use some of our tips below.

Do an e-newsletter, like this one. Email marketing continues to be an easy way to connect with your customers, and it works! (You’re reading this one, right?) Some studies have shown interesting facts, like:  Did you know that people are more likely to open and read an e-newsletter on a hot, sunny day?  Also remember: The more personal, the better – your customers will feel more connected to you if you simply converse with them. Contact us to talk about setting up your own e-newsletter campaign.

Update your website content: This is a great time to click through your own website. Maybe it is time to upgrade text and images and to add something new. Remember that your website is not like a printed brochure – the message should grow and change with your business. Contact us for advice on how to improve your website. 

Invest in internet marketing: Have you had a Search Engine upgrade on your website recently (or ever)? Have you checked the statistics of your site visits and how people are finding you online? A small amount of time on your part and some financial investment can truly make your website work for you. Contact us to discuss your own marketing situation, and how your website can be part of your sales team.

We look forward to hearing from you, and wish you a well-balanced summer: rest, relaxation, and readiness for the Fall!

New Site Release: Automated Alarm Processing

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http://www.automatedalarmprocessing.comBristol, CT, entrepreneur Brian Kirk’s message was simple: have better customer service at a better price than the competition.  He has achieved this with a new business: Automated Alarm Processing.

Our new site for AAP provides a place for people to learn more about home and commercial alarm monitoring, using the various technologies that are available to keep homes and businesses safe. AAP offers all of those services for a fraction of the cost of the big-name competitors, and Brian is a personable and dependable businessman.

Visit www.automatedalarmprocessing.com to learn more, and to see our latest custom WordPress installation.

Taming Your Inbox

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If you’re anything like me, you get too many emails each and every day. The flow of email can be overwhelming. More than that, sorting through all your email each day can be a major consumer of time. More than once I’ve sat down at my computer in the morning and begun my day churning through the inbox, only to look up and discover that hours have passed by.

Adopting some basic strategies towards email can help you tame your inbox. Here are just a few ideas:

  1. Set time for email. Don’t let email drive your day. Instead, set specific times of the day that you will address your email, and limit those times to whatever is reasonable for your work. I find a couple hours a day is generally sufficient to keep on top of my emails. Keeping that time limit in mind helps me focus through the fluff.
  2. Unsubscribe! Do you really need to read that email list? Get off as many email lists and marketing campaigns as you can. Think of your inbox as a sacred space for critical communications. If it isn’t really important, don’t let it in there!
  3. Discipline your inbox to be empty. Take time each week to clear out all of your emails. I know, it sounds crazy, but it can be truly liberating. When you know that you have managed all of your emails then you can really focus on what needs to be done. Keeping an email archive is a nice way to have a “safety net” should you need to find something later. Otherwise, respond to emails, assign them to a to do list or delegate them away.
  4. Filter the spam. Using a spam filter will really help you keep out the junk mail. Online services, like gMail, do a great job of filtering the email before it ever gets to you. But if you use a desktop client, there are several great spam filtering tools. Many email clients have them built in. Make sure they are on!
  5. Use the phone. Remember that email isn’t the best tool for all communications. Sometimes, picking up the phone or having a face-to-face meeting is the best way to go. In fact, sometimes a phone call is even faster than email. Don’t default to email just because it’s easier. If the message merits a phone call, make the call.

Taming your inbox isn’t easy, but it is possible. A few basic disciplines and some technology can really help you use email, instead of email using you. Contact us now for all of your email needs.

New Site Release: The MotivAct Group

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www.motivactgroup.org

Dreams are worth chasing! That is the wisdom from life coach and motivational speaker Tom Ingrassia. A long-time client of North Forty Road, we recently helped Tom’s MotivAct Group launch a new web site to showcase his unique brand of mentoring and coaching for success.

We are pleased to host the MotivAct Group at North Forty Road. Tom is able to share stories of the people he has touched, bits of wisdom and inspiration, and even videos of new talks and programs. His itinerary is maintained online so that people can come out and see him live and in person. The WordPress engine gives him the power to update his site on his terms, while our custom theme gives it a look all its own.

Check it out at www.motivactgroup.com.

New Website. New Partner.

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I am excited to share with you two big changes at North Forty Road.

First of all, allow me to introduce you to my new partner, Bryan Hooper. Bryan brings excellent technical skills to our firm as well as a commitment to great service. Bryan has a background in computer science and has been making web sites almost as long as there have been web sites. Recently, he was looking for a change, and our goals aligned perfectly. Bryan will be working to improve the quality and extend the capability of the sites we produce for all our clients. You can contact him here.

Along with this partnership, we have launched a new corporate image, complete with a new web site. This site is designed to be attractive and useful. I hope you will take a moment to visit the site and have a look around.

These changes signal a new era here at North Forty Road. We are a growing business. But many things will not change. You will still get great responsive service. You will still receive creative web site designs. You can still expect high-quality hosting for both your site and email. With the addition of Bryan to our team, we will expand our offerings while maintaining our standards.

Thank you for your continued business.

Peace,

Scott

Mobile Websites

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It’s a fact: the fastest-growing group of web-searchers are folks who browse on their mobile devices: iPhones, iPads, Androids are the biggest out there, but there are many others.

The images below show the differences between a standard site and its mobile counterpart. You can test drive this yourself at www.ctconstitution.com.

A mobile site displays completely differently in a phone or tablet, removing extraneous graphics, adding a simpler navigation menu, and above all, making the text larger and easier to read.

Easier to read translates to: more people will read, and learn about your business.

What can you do as a business owner to catch the attention of these people? Be sure your website works well in a mobile format. I invite you to contact us for more info on mobilizing your site. Let’s take your website into a new era of growth!

Peace,
Scott

Full Version

Mobile Homepage

Mobile Navigation

Mobile Store

Spam In & Spam Out

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“Where did I sign up to get mail about that drug??” What used to be the occasional annoyance has become a constant. The best way to handle spam is finding a way to manage it.

Have I been hijacked? Sometimes spam messages appear to come from your own email address. In most cases, you are safe; the automated spam “bots” have changed the headers in their outgoing mail to make it appear that the message is coming from you.payday loans Just ignore these; they are harmless.

However, if you get a complaint from a number of people that “you’ve been spamming me,” your email account may have been compromised. We have all received those messages from a good friend selling “enhancements” to their entire address book. These are cases of spam hijacking. If it happens to you, the first step is to change your passwords. Learn more about email hijacking and what you can do about it here.

What can I do about all the spam I receive? The first thing to do is Google your own email address, and try to have it removed from all sites on which it appears. The live email address is a magnet for spammers. Next, get a good spam filter or convert your mail to a Google Apps account that has built-in filtering.

We can help! Contact us for more info about managing your spam. We can advise you on the best way to keep your spam manageable and your email efficient.

New Site Release: Central CT Plumbing and Heating

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www.centralctplumbing.com

We’re proud to announce another new site release, for Tim Vergnetti at Central CT Plumbing & Heating, LLC, a Wallingford plumber. Tim is an honest, hardworking guy, and needed his site to present his business well, yet be designed within his tight budget.  Our new basic WordPress templates were just the ticket!

Using our NFR Basic Red Template, we customized with his logo, images, and content that he will be able to add to, change, and otherwise enhance over time.  An easy connection to his business Facebook page, setup of a Google Places page, and Google Apps business email rounded out the project, helping Tim to efficiently get the work out about his great work.

Check it out at www.centralctplumbing.com!

 

New Site Release – Hahn Interiors, LLC

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www.hahninteriors.com

Today we released another WordPress site for a local Bristol, CT business: Hahn Interiors, LLC. Helen Hahn is a talented interior decorator who provides a full range of interior services in the Farmington Valley of CT and beyond, including Interior Renovations, Space Planning, Furniture,
Lighting, Window Treatments, Re-upholstery, Accents, Custom Bedding, and Floor Covering.

Especially in the business of decor, a picture is worth a thousand words.  On this website, Helen has the ability to add and manage multiple photo galleries showing various aspects of her work in an effective visual way. As with all WordPress sites, she has control of all of this content through a simple-to-use back end interface. We also set up a Google Apps email account for ease of managing her business email.

Check it out at www.hahninteriors.com!