Alexa provides the generally accepted global rankings for websites.

Whether it is accurate or not, the point is mute, the fact is that it is the generally accepted web site ranking.

Did You Know

That in July 2008, Google announced that it had just indexed over 1,000,000,000,000 (USA one trillion) unique web pages (url’s). Impressed well you should be because ten years earlier it was only 26 million (which is only 0.0026% of one trillion).

What are Alexa Rankings?

Alexa ranks sites based on the information gathered from Internet users who use the Alexa tool bar on their browser.

OK, yes not every one has Alexa tool bar so the traffic rankings are estimates only.  Hence the criticism levelled at Alexa from some quarters.

But then again what’s the difference between these estimates and television ratings, they are only estimates as well
The primary users of the data are advertisers.  Trying to determine which show (web site) to advertise on to reach their target market.

But Alexa actually offers more than that!

The Only Advertising on Our Site is Our Own – So Why Bother About Rankings?

Great question!

Yes, you can actually have a very low ranked site, yet be effective in generating traffic your website from good keyword usage.  Evidence that you have a good SEO practise in place.

Under Rated Benefits of Alexa

Alexa is a under rated marketing tool:

1. Enhance Your Credibility. One aspect of the sales process, particularly on-line marketing and sales is proving that you are credible.  Basically you can deliver what you say.  Customer testimonials on your site as well as other proofs.  Having a good Alexa traffic ranking can form part of the credibility proof set.  Why because it implies to on-line customers that other people value your site.
2. Market Research. Alexa is an excellent market research tool to support your competitor and market analysis.  In areas like your performance relative to them, keywords, reach etc.
3. Guide to Social Media Marketing Performance. Ok out on a limb here, but we found that when we were really active on social media marketing our Alexa ranking went North with a bullet!!!  So arguments about methodology etc of Alexa aside it was a useful tool we think in measuring our performance.

About Us

HireEzy is the complete business management solution for hire and rental companies. Not only does it include digital marketing, web integration it also includes social media marketing tool integration. For more information email us sales@makinglifeezy.com.au

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Blogs can be a excellent tool for the vast majority of hire and rental businesses. 

Specifically party, audio visual and general equipment type hire and rental businesses.

Did you know?

Companies that blog have 55% more visitors

source: hubspot industry survey

Increasingly as other posts have discussed the primary lead source for most successful hire and rental businesses is the web.  Hence the marketing objective becomes how to increase web site traffic.

Janet Meiners Thaeler in an excellent article for Small Business Trends shows that companies with blogs generate 55% more web traffic than those who dont.  The full article is a must read, on the upside it is also short and easy to understand.  Link to the article is below.

Blogging: The Best SEO Tool for Small Businesses

Remember that in HireEzy 2.1 we provide you with desktop integration to your blog, and even help you set one up. 

Making it so much easy for you to get started and maintaining your blog.

Not sure how to write a blog article, then read this -How to Write a Blog Post .

About Us

HireEzy is the complete business management solution for hire and rental companies. Not only does it include digital marketing, web integration it also includes social media marketing tool integration. For more information email us sales@makinglifeezy.com.au

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The current generation of managers (C Levels) are the barrier to Social Media.

And the problem is not social media that has just brought it to a head

There has been lots of traffic over recent months how junior staff are struggling to convince older managers of the benefits of Social Media.

The are stuggle has to come to a head because of Social Media

The C Level Managers today were junior staff in the 1980′s.  A time when the whole western world got so wrapped up in down-sizing, right sizing – productivity improvements.

They think, and I should know I went through it too, all about lean and mean – minimum staff to do a job – its all about the productivity per person.  To most of them Social Media is idle chatter in fact all chatter is idle.

All Customer Conversations are Idle Chatter

To the C Level Managers today whose careers started in the late 1970′s and 1980′s – any customer conversation is idle chatter.  Think about it, have you heard things like this.

Telephone Calls:  You spent too long on the customer account call! And by the way what were you talking to them about their kids playing basketball for?

Counter Service:  Stop talking to the customers just serve them and move on, time is money.

Now Bring on Social Media

Social media is about engaging with people, actually chatting to them.  That is most definitely not going to fly with a productivity mindset manager, especially when the results are hard to prove.

So as BenYoskovitz puts it

Unfortunately, too many mid-level and junior-level employees are forced to spend a disproportionate amount of their time figuring out how to justify things to their bosses ….

Marketing Will Tell Customers

Its not up to YOU  to create a relationship with customers – marketing will TELL our customers we want a relationship with them.

Probably a bit harsh that line, but I spent twenty years in Corporate life before joining the excellent world of a Small to Medium business.

But there is an element of truth to it.  Corporate marketing departments “control” the public message, including defining the companies relationship with clients.  Depending on the value of the client that is.

Measurement is the Key

The 1980′s crop of managers are not dumb, ( well I hope I am not) our careers have been built around measurement.  Measuring results is needed to justify decisions. That is just the way we were taught to think.   However we all struggle to measure the intangible value of customer conversations (relationship building conversations).

Social media will in time develop the metrics to prove it works.  Once it proves it and allowing for some time to change mindsets it will be adopted.  And it does work, for example

We dumped google adwords and just use Social Media and our leads went up 83%.

True Customer Relation Building May Become in Vogue

And this may even flow on to the broader area of customer conversations.  May be Dale Carnegie‘s principals for enhancing relationships may become in vogue again.

• Become Genuinely Interested In Other People.
• Be A Good Listener. Encourage Others To Talk About Themselves.
• Talk In Terms Of The Other Person’s Interests.
• Make The Other Person Feel Important — And Do It Sincerely.

Ultimately we will get back to talking to customers either on the phone, in the aisle, at the counter or on facebook etc.  Because the proof will emerge that it pays to do so.

For example more companies like us will be able to show themselves and others that Social Media infact time anytime spent on customer conversations works.

Please add your comments!

About Us

HireEzy is the complete business management solution for hire and rental companies. Not only does it include digital marketing, web integration it also includes social media marketing tool integration. For more information email us sales@makinglifeezy.com.au

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Why because they need to manage:

Equipment inventory, availability and maintenance

Staff talent and availability

Customers and prospects contact details, business inquiries and communications

Sites and location details and restrictions etc

The business financials and accounting

On top of this they need to market their business.  Increasingly most of this marketing is web, digital and/or social media based.

Problem Solved

Camera Equipment rental or camera equipment hire, depending on where in the English speaking world you come from now have a single business software solution to manage all of these requirements – HireEzy.

About Us

HireEzy is the complete business management solution for hire and rental companies. Not only does it include digital marketing, web integration it also includes social media marketing tool integration. For more information email us sales@makinglifeezy.com.au

We recently completed a two month market research project and found that the vast majority of Party Rental and Party Hire companies are not using Social Media.

This is really odd – given that Social Media is a Natural Fit for Party hire and Party Rental companies.

Social Media is how we now increasingly conceive and plan events and parties….

Well Social Media is how people connect with people socially in a digital world!

Its how they communicate and even plan get together’s, events, parties and even weddings!

AND its not just Gen Y, that use Social Media!

The fastest growing segments are primarily middle aged people and businesses.

Baby Boomers and Seniors are flocking to social media – Stats to Prove it

Primary Marketing Demographic of Party Rental and Party Hire companies is…

And who is the primary market demographic for Party hire and Party Rental companies – Middle Aged people (disposable income, children to be married off, home based entertainers etc) and Businesses (corporate events, client events etc)!  The very segment flocking to social media!

Hence why it is so strange!!!

Party and Event rental companies supply equipment and services to people holding events or parties.

As such they want and need to connect with people planning to hold such events or parties.

A primary segment that buys these services and hence they wish to connect to is the middle aged demographic.  Why because they are the a major purchasing of such services!

Missing A Golden Marketing Opportunity

Fundamentally Party hire and Party rental companies are missing a golden marketing opportunity.

To take the lead in connecting to these market segments.

So Why is it Not Used?

The research identified that the primary reasons for the failing to use Social Media was not understanding how to use it.

In the next article we explain how to use Social Media at each stage of the buying process of your customers.

Or for more information please contact us Email Us

HireEzy party hire software and party rental software for growing businesses

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In the previous article we discussed how companies are missing out out a golden opportunity in using Social Media to create sales leads.

In this article we will explain how to align Social Media to the customer buying process.

The example used is a party or event rental company.

Understanding the Customer Buying Process

Lets go back to marketing basics. People or businesses when they are considering a party or event generally go through the following process before buying:

1. Look For Ideas
2. Look for suppliers of equipment or services for those ideas
3. Contact the supplier
4. Start of normal sales process

Now Align To Social Media

[table id=7 /]

We are happy to provide advise to you if you are a hire or rental company.  No charge its a service we provide.  Why because our hire and rental management software comes with embedded social media marketing tools and we want people to appreciate the value of using them.

Please contact us Email Us

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The tough times create the business circumstances that foster necessity. Businesses are forced to be both more creative and at the same time more brutal in their decision making. Innovative ideas whether:

• market solutions,
• business models or
• technology will be created.

Whilst many of the ideas in this post are applicable across all business sectors, the focus of this article is on the Equipment Hire and Rental market.

Social Media as Basis of Innovation Ideas

The range of ideas that may be implemented can not be predicted. However it can be confidently predicted social media will form the basis of many innovations, around areas such as:

• Revenue Improvement: Marketing areas such as lead generation, customer service, customer retention;
• Cost Reduction: In marketing budgets by reducing expenditure on traditional marketing methods
• Mitigation of Risk: Such as in areas like Product Damages and Safety through use of YouTube, see post.

At the end of this post is a series of examples of how to use each of the major Social marketing tools.

Where to Look for the Innovative Ideas?

Where will the innovation emerge from, large corporations or small rental or hire business?

Let’s look to what has happened over the last thirty years as an indicator of what may happen. Consider this, that since 1980, Corporations have completely lost their monopoly on new ideas. This change in innovation sources ended the era of IP monopolization.  We are no longer in the era when “feudal lords” (i.e., a small handful of large “old economy” companies) controlled all the (intellectual) property and those who were without property had no rights. [1]

In 1980, Corporations accounted for 80% of all innovation (research and development outcome), they now account for under 20%. The beneficiaries have been small to medium sized companies who now account for 80% of innovations.

A key trend emerging in the knowledge economy is the change in the sources innovation. Prior to the 1980’s, large corporations dominated US research and development, with over 80% being undertaken by companies with more than 5000 employees. However since 1980, this has completely inverted, with small companies accounting for almost all the growth in R&D. [2]

Hire Rental Industry Innovation

The discussion above may not sound applicable to the Rental and Hire Industry but it is. For example in the 1980’s only the large Corporations could afford the innovation R & D expense of developing computing based management systems. Such rental software or hire software management systems are now powerful and affordable to businesses of all sizes.

Importantly though even more powerful tools such as Social Media are available (in may cases freely) to any business.

Innovation in the use of these tools is not constrained by not having financial resources but more by the extent of the will and imagination of companies.

It is in the area of will that the true constraint may appear. Major Brands have demonstrated in some instances a reluctance to engage in social media for fear of losing control of their brand. This is understandable as the brand is an asset that could well appear on the balance sheet. Hence taking avoiding perceived risks with the brand is understandable. Numerous articles in this subject.

Smaller hire and rental businesses whether though the pressure of necessity or less attachment to a brand are therefore more likely to undertake innovative social marketing ideas.

So if you are looking for new innovative ideas in the equipment hire and rental industry look to the Small business sector rather than corporations – the results may surprise you.   Below is a list of how equipment hire and rental  can use of each of the main social marketing tools.

About Us

HireEzy is the complete business management solution for hire and rental companies.  Not only does it include digital marketing, web integration it also includes social media marketing tool integration.

How to Use Social Media Tools

Marketing Problem

Hire Rental Advertising Considerations
Why Traditional Marketing Fails
Yellow Pages Versus SEO

Creating a Digital Marketing Platform

Creating a Digital Marketing Foundation
Hire Rental Web Lead Statistics

Marketing via Twitter

How Rental Hire Company can use Twitter
Business Reason to Use Twitter

Marketing via Facebook

Using Facebook for Business
They worried about Social Media in the 1930′s

Marketing via YouTube

How Rental and Hire Companies can use YouTube
Big List on How to Use Social Media

Marketing via WordPress

Why Blogs are Effective for Small Business
Why Small Businesses Should blog

The question many ask is – Well what should we post on our blog?

The answer is to provide useful information that appeals to your target market.

For example, many hire and rental companies, provide wedding solutions.

So why not make posts that are useful to people interested in planning a wedding.

For example Mashable, created a post on how to plan a wedding using social media.

HOW TO: Plan a DIY Wedding Using Social Media

This post is really useful to prospective couples in finding out information about planning their wedding.

Create your own posts that help prospective couples in your target market.  Helpful and engaging information is the key to winning business in a social media world, not in your face sales.  Blogs can fulfil this role and provide an excellent tool in your digital marketing strategy.

For example, we sell rental and hire business management software, this post has nothing to do with that.  Rather we are providing useful information to our clients and prospective clients.  Which is the way marketing now works in the social world.

Hire and Rental companies have been in the main relatively slow to adopt to social media as a marketing tool.

This is despite the sector probably being one that could benefit most from using Social Media as a marketing tool.

Those Hire and Rental Companies who have adopted social media as a marketing tool have realized the benefits, particularly in lead generation.

The benefit of social media marketing is now becoming apparent to most business sectors, as evidenced in the article link below.

Hiring strategies shift toward social media – Mass High Tech Business News

Posted using ShareThis

HireEzy 2.1, business management software for hire and rental companies, makes social marketing easy for you – with its inbuilt and easy to use tools

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Many already question whether it is a fad? And if these risks are not addressed then it could well be perceived as a fad?

The hype that presently surrounds Social Media marketing has many of the hallmarks of the late 1990′s and its hype regarding integrated business systems.

The Chasm

Social Media Marketing has its basis in technology arguably web 2.0 tools. Therefore it is considered that some aspects of Geoffrey Moore’s, Crossing the Chasm (1991) could be applied to Social Media Marketing.  (note image source wikipedia)

Early Adopter Stage

In life cycle terms Social Media Marketing for business is very much in its early adopter stage.

Early adopters, like us, are the enthusiasts who see the business potential. To businesses like us, we see the potential of Social Media marketing as a way to achieve our business goals. We are driven by dreams and aspirations for improving our business marketing using Social Media marketing without the need for definitive proof that it will work before we start.

However this is the stage at which results must begin to match dreams.

visionaries are easy to sell but very hard to please… because they are buying a dream…

This is where the real risk for Social Media lies!

It must be seen to deliver the results expected. And it is this expectation that it at the very heart of the risk facing Social Media marketing’s future.

Hype Setting Unrealistic Expectations

Social Media Marketing has certainly been hyped up in some many quarters as the new marketing approach for the new age. Whether deliberate or not, expectations are being set that Social Media marketing will deliver above average returns on marketing effort.

If visionaries can only achieve average results or arguably even slightly above average results, their perception may be that their Social Media marketing experiment has failed. Based on the concept that satisfaction is achieved when perception exceeds expectations. For example if you have really high expectations but perceive only above average results then you will be dissatisfied.

Metric’s Needed to Moderate Expectations

The second problem is the absence of benchmarks or metrics to moderate or help define a reasonable set of expectations. Moderation of expectations may be needed by Social Media, given the hype especially by those who advocating the wonderful benefits of “going viral”.

However there is an understandable paucity of metrics to gauge the success of social media marketing due to its infancy. Some research is being to emerge to help guide and even moderate expectation thinking. However such research is still limited, effectively meaning that a real risk exists of visionaries having unrealistic expectations of success hence being disappointed when those expectations are not met.

Risk of Focusing on Applications (Tools) Not Strategy

The next risk element facing Social Media marketing is the focus on tools (applications), ie Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, Linked in etc rather than a coherent strategy. Twitter and Facebook’s dominance in the mainstream media may lead to some visionaries building business dreams on the basis of just using one or two of these applications. Such an approach to those of us who are beginning to understand Social Media marketing is fatally flawed.

Social Media marketing requires a coherent strategy with a defined purpose, such as increasing web traffic, increasing sales leads, improving brand awareness or customer retention. Flowing from the purpose objectives can be set. Knowing both the purpose and objectives means that the appropriate applications and resources can be determined. Whilst the absence of metrics (as discussed above) may limit the hardness of objectives this should not be used as an excuse not to create a strategy.

Pressure is On Social Media Marketing

Finally the pressure is mounting on Social Media marketing and with it the risk of perceived failure in the broader business community. In addition to the risks discussed above is the pressure coming from the volume of companies who are planning to undertake Social Media marketing. The Center for Media Research found that…

After surveying more than 1,000 people with media buying or planning responsibilities, the center found that “having a presence on social networks” is one of the top priorities for media plans in 2010.

As Sean Carlton (former Dean of Philadelphia University’s School of Design + Media) from Clickz.com puts it many of these companies are creating a presence with out a strategy.

Bad Publicity will Create a Bigger Chasm

It will take time for Social Media marketing advocates to develop case studies proving the benefits, plus defining the metrics as well as providing the infra-structure of education, consultants, resources etc to teach the “how to’s”.

The clock is ticking though as the high volume of “newbies” entering the social media marketing space creates a real risk of bad publicity. Newbies who fail will be quick to tell the world, “oh we tried that and it didn’t work.” Bad news always travels faster and wider than good news, its human nature.

To cross the chasm, ie to start to become part of the main stream marketing, Social Media marketing needs third party referencing. The early majority, that segment on the other side of the chasm, look to others in their industry for proof that something works:

Pragamatists tend to be ‘vertically’ oriented, meaning that they communicate more with others like themselves within their own industry than do technology

If some in the industry have been early adopters who have failed to be successful then word will spread. This will have the impact of slowing the adoption of Social Media marketing in that industry. Effectively deepening or widening the chasm depending upon your perspective.

Social Media Marketing is at a Cross Roads

Social Media Marketing has a future and it will in time become a standard component of marketing strategy. However it does face risks to its short term future from over hyped expectations and the focus on tools not strategy.

Greater emphasis needs to be placed on developing strategic frameworks/ guides and as well as metrics, case studies and other reference material to help support the successful use of Social Media marketing.

If you believe in Social Media, and we do, then we need to focus less on hype and more on the tools to help support its growth!

About Us

Making Life Ezy provide business management solutions with integrated web and social media solutions to the Hire/ Rental Industry.  For more information email us at sales@makinglifeezy.com.au or visit our web site www.makinglifeezy.com.au

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