At ebc, new 2012 Email Marketing Benchmark Report

The new  2012 Email Marketing Benchmark Report is available.

Research and insights for engaging email subscribers. 170 charts and tables. Survey results from 2,735 companies. Contact your Account Manager if you are interested in receiving a free copy of this product to review for your audience.

Please visit MEC LABS for more info.... Benchmark Report

Professional SEO - Local Markets

Time to play catch up, and of course, the biggest topic of the year, Organic SEO.
Every business is looking for it.
Every business needs it as more and more of the common forms of advertising are falling off the radar.
Here @ebc, we have SEO services available. But now we have structured our SEO services so we can help Small and Big Businesses alike!
A lot of Small businesses find it hard to compete with the Big Boys in the internet space. But most small businesses also are dependent upon their location, that is where Small Business has an edge.
Google has their local Maps feature. You don't even need a website(it helps!), but you can register your business location and contact info, and be seen on the Google Map.
And what is real nice is that when a viewer types in a keyword search with a location, it comes up in the natural listings area before common listings.
So it is a cheap way to get on the first page of Google, and @ebc can help set this up for you.
It is a strong beginning to help your business get on the web, and be seen in the search engines.
Contact us today, we can help!

Search Engine Optimization - Natural Tactics, better conversions

Organic, or Natural SEO Services will drive more targeted traffic to relevant content and landing pages within your website. Optimizing the most relevant keywords for each page will ensure that each page is properly indexed at each major search engine.

We have experts that will be able to increase overall site traffic and the conversion rates for your website.

SEO Services include:Keyword Market Intelligence, Meta-Data Optimization/Titles and Meta Tags, Keyword Optimization Campaigns, and Publishing Best Practices Integration (BPI).
Go to view our services in more detail here.
Feel free to contact us with any questions you may have. 888-792-5106, Our Natural SEO campaigns can work to decrease your PPC spend, while improving your Natural Listings, which provides an 85% click through, compared to 15% for PPC.

Let us know.

Self Development Links

Recently, I was asked to recommend some Self Development Tools, and links to them.
I stated that I actually signed up to one that offered a bunch of products.
The first one I purchased was The Absoulte Secret. A set of a bunch of motivating audios that really seemed to help improve my optimism about my business plans.

I can say with confidence that most of the products that I purchased so far are worth the purchase. Most were in the form of a CD or Subliminal audio selection.

I just uploaded them to my computer, and categorized them into itunes. From there I loaded them onto my ipod, so I could listen to them when I was relaxing on a flight, or in bed. One of my favorite times to listen is when I am at home on my deck smoking a nice cigar. By the time I burn my cigar, the audio selection is done, so it times out perfectly.

But I will list links that go directly to products I recommend.

Have fun, and don't feel threatened if you purchase any of these, everyone is using them now to improve themselves, and help to relax during this treacherous economy.

Subliminal Power Software
Change your life by displaying subliminal messages, while you work!

Subliminal-Audio CDs
Accelerate your self-development with these "4-part" subliminal CDs!

Subliminal CDs
Discover the Web's largest subliminal CD and MP3 store! I bought this!

The Five Rituals
Discover how to look 30 years younger in just 10 minutes a day! This one is awesome!

The NLP Secret
Enjoy confidence & cure anything, with this long-lost NLP secret!

The Quantum Cookbook
Discover the untold secrets of manifesting! This is the real deal, what "The Secret" didn't show you!

The Ten Minute Cure
Get rid of any fear or phobia - in just ten minutes flat! Try it!

That's a pretty good list. I will post more on our Banner Ad Network website, ShoppingforBusiness.com. We have categories dedicated to Self Development, and other resources are listed there as well.

So go Self Develop Yourself!

SEO - Proven Search Marketing Tactics

I know you have probably been approached by a lot of SEO Co’s in the past with all due respect I am sure you have been kind of inundated. But I don’t think you have been called by a company like ours before.
I would like to give you an example of who we are……..

We are #1 at the top of the natural listings
A Google authorized website optimizer (one of very few I might add)
A + rated by the better business bureau
We have just been awarded the designation of #112 in the Inc. 500 of the fastest growing companies in America
…..and there is a reason for that

We are quite unique in what we do….there are a lot of SEO companies out there…but none that quite compare to us….which is why we are at the pinnacle of what we do.

What makes us different is that we have no start up fees, no long term contracts, our clients are on a month to month basis, we maintain 95% of our clients because we perform, one big difference is we send out ranking reports every two weeks so you know exactly where you are regarding your campaign, we are pay per clicks biggest rival, we show clients how to dramatically reduce or eliminate their PPC expense altogether. We have saved our clients millions of dollars in advertising off of Pay Per Click fees. We have also generated millions of dollars in revenue for them through natural listings. (Organic)

I would love to be able to show you and prove it to you by giving you examples of ranking reports of what we have done for our clients. We also have substantial references and testimonials of what we do.

There are several other online marketing packages that are available to you, including, new Social Networking Services - These are hot!

If you have a few minutes set up a meeting with me Toll Free 888-792-5106 leave a message as I need to screen calls from all of the solicitations I get ….I just need about 10 minutes of your time. If this is not convenient, schedule something with me real soon so I can get together with you and do a presentation for you to show you how we dramatically reduce your pay per clicks spend…and get you to the left side of the page where 85% of the traffic flows and dramatically increase your business.

See more about @ebc Inc.,and these services at: @ebc SEO
And package this with the production of your website, which is @ebc Inc's main line of services, and you will be successful online.

Thanks,
Michael Shannon - @ebc Inc

Email Promotions

Attached I have listed the best email promotional programs out there. Many of my clients ask about email promotions and which ones are the best. So here you go!

The ones I have listed all are maintained off-site, so it does not interfere with your email client software, and you won't get a spam violation. And it helps because you should be sending out to a large email list.

Need to build that list...ask I and can help you with that. But more on the best email programs below.

Constant Contact®, Inc. helps small businesses, associations, and nonprofits connect with their customers, clients, and members. Launched in 1998, Constant Contact champions the needs of small organizations and provides them with an easy and affordable way to build successful, lasting customer relationships.

Constant Contact's leading email marketing and online survey tools—supported by its expert personal coaching and support—help all types of small businesses and organizations create professional-looking email newsletters and insightful online surveys and begin a dialogue with their customers. Today, more than 250,000 customers worldwide trust Constant Contact to help them connect with their audience.

With Constant Contact, small organizations have access to the latest industry information and education to help them learn email marketing and online survey best practices. Plus, they benefit from Constant Contact's high email deliverability rates due to strong partnerships with ISPs, a no-tolerance spam policy, and a leadership role in organizations such as the ESPC (Email Sender and Provider Coalition).

Vertical Response
There are two simple reasons why people have flocked to VerticalResponse to help them grow their businesses for over 5 years:

• A superior product that’s easy to use
• Superior customer support

From the very beginning we decided that if you actually pick up the phone when a customer calls, call them back, or send them a real live email (not one generated by a robot), you’ll have a customer for life. Well, we think we did it.

At VerticalResponse we work hard to offer online tools that enable anyone regardless of technical expertise to get up and running in minutes with their email and direct mail campaigns. Self-service isn’t just for the gas pump anymore, it’s the way businesses need to use the Internet to help them grow.

Upgrading to Content Management

This is meant to be a case study based on a real solution provided to an institution. @ebc Inc. has these resources available to implement for clients.

A Museum sought to redesign their web presence and invite a broader community to engage with the institution, without any restrictions on content.

Through a few web development companies, the museum evaluated several potential content management options, ultimately selecting Macromedia Contribute as their solution for adding and updating web content quickly and easily. With Contribute, the museum introduced a flexible review and approval process and enabled cross-functional departments to easily and safely add and update content on the website. An authoring tool for non-technical content providers, Contribute 3 requires no technical expertise and is powered by the same technology as Macromedia Dreamweaver.



The Benefits:
•Enabled cross-functional departments to easily and safely add and update content -- without knowing HTML.
•With consulting help from a web developer, the Museum created a flexible review and approval process, which accelerated website updates.
•Accessibility standards and usability maintained through transparent and invisible project workflow.
•Admin settings help ensure that website meets guidelines for accessibility support.
Content publishing process never degraded and ensures preservation of work and standards.

The museum boasts more than a million artifacts and approximately 28,000 works of art. The museum is also a broad, active, and community-based institution that includes exhibition spaces, a library, and archives. In fact, the archives contain the largest collection of photographs, drawings, memorabilia, and documents about their territory in the world.

Within the scope of a five-year New Media plan, developed to implement a new technology strategy for the delivery of museum content, the Museum sought to redesign and redevelop its web presence to reflect the welcoming, active, and dynamic nature of the institution.

To achieve this goal, the Museum selected an interactive technology and web design firm. Renowned for their work in the arts and culture space, the firm worked closely with the museum’s staff to create a new website that was intuitive, accessible, and highly usable for a broad range of users.

The Museum had three primary goals for the site: First, the site had to accommodate dynamic, compelling and up-to-date information on the museum’s exhibitions, collections, programs, and events. Second, the site had to be easy to maintain, which was no small feat considering the size of the institution and the number of departments involved in developing content for the website. And third, the site needed to adhere to new government standards for web accessibility.

In fact, Macromedia technology underpinned almost every facet of the new website redesign project. The web firm developed the site using the Macromedia Studio product suite, and deployed the site using Macromedia ColdFusion. The museum uses the Macromedia Web Publishing System, which includes Contribute, to enable content contributors to collaborate, manage, and publish to websites using templates within a centrally controlled, standards-based environment. Developers used Macromedia Flash to create multimedia content and interactive functionality. Finally, the museum’s web producers use Macromedia Studio for ongoing website production.

The ongoing success of the new website redesign is apparent, yet Contribute remains behind the scenes. It is approachable and easy to use for the broad range of departmental users in the museum. Additionally, site administrators like the flexibility of using Dreamweaver and Contribute together to maintain a centrally controlled and permissions-based environment for distributed web publishing. Furthermore, they leverage Contribute’s accessibility features to meet and exceed the W3C levels 1 and 2 accessibility standards (both at site launch and on an ongoing basis). Administrator options allow site developers to enforce accessibility markup (such as alt tags for images) and protect CSS layout standards (which help structure the hierarchy of content so that it is optimized for screen readers).

Finally, the Museum provides their comments on the website project.

“Contribute hits the mark because it takes advantage of and enforces an imbued intelligence that is integrated into the work-flow process, web templates and overall site design.” For the web firm and the museum, implementing Contribute into the Museum's site maintenance process means that the developer and the museum’s web producers can rest easy at night. They know that as content is added and published to the site that design, accessibility and usability standards will be maintained at all times. Best of all, for site producers, the enhanced publishing process means they are free to work on more challenging projects (other than updating text) and that accessibility has become transparent and invisible to the project work-flow.

For more information, feel free to contact us on how to implement the Adobe line of products for your next website project.