5 Easy Ways to Know if Your Brand is "Open" for Business

Long gone are the days where you can hang an open sign, and expect people to beat a path to your door.  This is just as true with your online presence as it is with a brick and mortar location. The following are 5 Easy Ways to know if your business can be found by potential customers.

#1 - Can customers view your website whenever, wherever?

It's not just important to have a website anymore, but that customers can view your site whenever and wherever they bring it up. This means that your site has to be viewable and functionable whether they are viewing it on there desktop, laptop, mobile phone or tablet device.

There are a couple of options you have here. One is to have a site that is mobile frienldy, meaning that your site's content is still viewable and functions correctly even if your customers aren't viewing your site on your desktop. The other option is to have a site that has a "responsive" design meaning that it will change the design of the site to match whichever device a customer is viewing it on.

So, is your website mobile friendly or "responsive"?


#2 - Can customers find you on a Google Map?

There was a day, not that long ago, where if a customer was looking to find out where your were located they would open the phone book or give you a call. While I'm sure there a still some people that keep phone books in their home, business, or car that's not the method that most customers are using to try and find you. Either they are checking your website for a map link, or more likely typing in the address on their mobile device on the way to your office.

If you haven't claimed your place on Google then your customers may not be "your" customers much longer.

So, can your customers find you on a Google map?


#3 - Can customers find you when they are searching?

I'm sure that I'm not the first one to tell you that if your website isn't listed on the first page of Google, then it isn't being found. Here's some statitics from "10 Facts Reveal The Importance of Ranking High In Google" just to make my point.

The first ranking position in the search results receives 42.25% - of all click-through traffic
The second position receives 11.94%
Third position on the first page obtains 8.47%
The fourth placed position on page one receives 6.05%
The others on the first page are under 5% of click through traffic
The first ten results (page one ) received 89.71% of all click-through traffic
The next 10 results (normally listed on the second page of results) received 4.37%
Third page receives a total  of 2.42%

So, can your customers find you on Yahoo!, Google, or Bing?


#4 - Can customers find you when they are being entertained?

If I asked you what the #1 search engine was, most of you would be correct in guessing Google, but if I asked you what the #2 search engine was, what would your guess be? Yahoo? Bing? How many of you would guess YouTube?

For a number of years now YouTube has been recognized as the #2 search engine that your customers are going to when they want to find out information about a topic. And next to every video that plays on YouTube is a list of other related videos for your customers to view.  Not having videos in the mix on topics that relate to your business means that your customers are finding other answers to their product and service needs when they are in a buying mood.

So, can your customers find you on YouTube?

#5 - Can customers find you when they are being social?

Wondering if your customers actually use social media in their buying decisions and whether you should even bother with social media at all? Take a look at these statistics...

• Consumers are 71% more likely to make a purchase based on social media referrals (Hubspot)

• 15,100,000 consumers go to social media channels before making purchase decisions (Knowledge Networks)

• 74% of consumers rely on social networks to guide purchase decisions (SproutSocial)

So, can your customers find you on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Pinterest?


If you've answered no to more than #2 of these five questions, or if you would just like to find out more about how your business can be accessed by prospective customers just email us at info@pardimanproductions.com.

Making Your Marketing Move

When I was in college years ago, I had the opportunity to take some classes in Animation.  Now I say "opportunity," because I had hoped to take a different course of classes but had to settle that year for some other "related" classes.  What I didn't realize at the time was how valuable and enjoyable understanding the fundamentals of Animation would be.

Recently, we had the opportunity to animate some promotional images for the Olympia Film Festival and create a couple of promotional videos.  Check out the video, and then look below for some tips on things to consider when looking to create an animated video from 2D images.



Tips for 2D Aminated Videos -

1. Think of your materials in layers. Is there a background image, foreground image, and character image(s) that can be animated?

2. Sound sells the motion. Make sure to use music and sound effects to add reality to the motion.

3. Animation works on a scientific principal called persistence of vision. You are tricking the eye and the brain by moving objects just a small bit per frame, and letting your brain fill in the gaps. So like Ellie's dad says in Contact "Small moves".

4. HD video is created at 72dpi (dpi is a graphics term) and varies from 1280x720 to 1920x1080 frame size. You will need rather large images to move things around on an HD animated screen.

5. Don't feel like you are married to the constraints of the originally marketing piece. As long as you honor the style and theme of the print materials you should be able to create a creative video that your clients and viewers will enjoy.

If you would like some help producing your next animated video, call Pardiman Productions at 360-259-6672 or email us at info@pardimanproductions.com to set up a free consultation.

Using Content Marketing

Mark Brent has been talking about this for a while, but it looks like others are finally starting to catch on.

Check out this interview from Social Media Examiner on Content Marketing.


sme_cc_chapman_v1 from Michael A. Stelzner on Vimeo. 

For more marketing ideas and advice contact Pardiman Productions at 360.259.6672 or info@pardimanproductions.com.

6 Ways to Measure Your Social Media Results

Spending time on Social Media, but not sure it's worth it?

Check out this article from Social Media Examiner.

6 Ways to Measure Your Social Media Results

For more marketing ideas and advice contact Pardiman Productions at 360.259.6672 or info@pardimanproductions.com.

What is Your Mom Doing on the Internet?

Check out this article and find out.

Moms Continue Flocking to Facebook - eMarketer

Myths of Social Media

Check out this interview from Social Media Examiner

Attacking the Myths of Social Media: An Interview With Jason Falls

For more marketing ideas and advice contact Pardiman Productions at 360.259.6672 or info@pardimanproductions.com.

Owner to Speak at Small Business Conference

Pardiman Productions owner Corey Lopardi will be speaking on the Marketing Panel at the South Sound Success Small Business Conference. 

The topic is "Comprehensive Marketing Plan: Take the Guess Work out of Marketing"

For more marketing ideas and advice contact Pardiman Productions at 360.259.6672 or info@pardimanproductions.com.

How Twitter is Empowering Businesses from Social Media Examiner

In this video Laura Fitton, founder of Oneforty, inbound marketing evangelist at HubSpot and co-author of Twitter for Dummies.



from Michael A. Stelzner on Vimeo.

For more marketing ideas and advice contact Pardiman Productions at 360.259.6672 or info@pardimanproductions.com.

Determining Social Media ROI

Check out this article from Social Media Examiner.

How to Estimate Your Social Media Return on Investment

For more marketing ideas and advice contact Pardiman Productions at 360.259.6672 or info@pardimanproductions.com.

Perfecting the Landing Page

Looking for a good lead generating tool?  Landing pages are just the trick.

Check out this website for The Anatomy of a Perfect Landing Page.

For more marketing ideas and advice contact Pardiman Productions at 360.259.6672 or info@pardimanproductions.com.

Confirmation | Facebook shows how to monetize the like button | Tiffany Chang Black | Facebook

Check out this article about how you can increase business with your Facebook page.

Facebook shows how to monetize the like button | Tiffany Chang Black | Facebook

For more marketing ideas and advice contact Pardiman Productions at 360.259.6672 or info@pardimanproductions.com.

Google Offers in Seattle

Google now has Google Offers in Seattle.



For more marketing ideas and advice contact Pardiman Productions at 360.259.6672 or info@pardimanproductions.com.

Using Facebook Geotargeting

Here's an interesting article from Social Media Examiner - Facebook Geotargeting Draws 500,000 Fans for Small Biz

For more marketing ideas and advice contact Pardiman Productions at 360.259.6672 or info@pardimanproductions.com.

Facebook's new education resource for businesses

Facebook has a new resource - Facebook for Business.