Internet Marketing & Strategic Planning for Businesses

Summary

Boxcar Marketing offers full and half-day internet marketing strategy sessions. We typically look at your business’ current online activities, offer a review of best practices and help you create a strategic plan for driving traffic, increasing visibility and engaging with your keystakeholders.

Client Quote

Monique’s session was informative and inspiring. We were left with a great action list that we have since used to optimize our website. E-commerce is up, site navigation has been improved and we have come away with lots of great ideas for improving our online presence and making our website a powerful - and profitable - part of our business. Monique is a delightful presenter with a huge amount of current knowledge.
—Andrew Wooldridge, Orca Book Publishers

Annick Press wanted to create a stronger internet marketing strategy, including broadening our knowledge base and creating an arsenal of tools we can draw upon, in particular strategies specific to book publishing. In a half-day session, Monique gave us tailored tips and suggestions invaluable to the success of our venture. Staff commended her on her infectious enthusiasm, her broad knowledge base, her professionalism, and her ability to help us understand and apply relevant concepts and strategies.
—Rick Wilks, Annick Press

I just wanted to pass on everyone’s thanks. The office is unanimously in agreement that you provided excellent information and communicated it very effectively.
—Heather Nicholas, New Society Publishers

Thanks very much—we really enjoyed our session with you. It has helped to clarify our thinking and planning what to do next.
—Donna Livingstone, University of Calgary Press

Thanks again for a great session! You gave us more than I thought possible in such a short time. We’ve got lots to do and thanks to you some clear ways to start. You’re the best!
—Robert Ballantyne, Associate Publisher, Arsenal Pulp Press

It was a great pleasure to meet you—you really are a delightful person and put across your information effortlessly. From the viewpoint of someone who is not very Web-savvy, your workshop couldn’t have been more helpful or easier to understand. Your information is so useful and applicable.
—Ginny Miller, Marketing Coordinator, New Society Publishers

Challenge

Most businesses know they are doing some things well and other things poorly. Our goal is to identify what’s working, what’s not working, and what can be changed in the short term and long term to meet the business’ objectives.

Approach

Most sessions require a week of preparation where Boxcar Marketing undertakes a review of the business’ current website, traffic analytics, email newsletters, blog, twitter feed and other online activities.

During the session we look at the following:

1. Website Purpose and Goals
• Assess whether the website meets the overall business goals and objectives
• Identify key audience members online and offline
• Review of the practicalities of site maintenance and updates
• Review how staff currently interact with customers online now, and they would like to interact with customers in the future
• Discuss how to build and sustain online traffic
2. Website Assessment
• Site optimization
• Quality of Content
• Effectiveness
• Site elements that work, elements that don’t
3. Search Marketing and Online Advertising
4. Email Marketing and Online Publicity
5. Podcast, Video, Social Networking and Community Development
6. Strategic Direction, Recommendations and Future Planning

At the end of the session, participants will have a prioritized list of recommendations and an action plan for site improvements.

The session helps answer questions specific to each individual business. Common questions include:

• What can we do to make our websites and newsletters more interactive or engaging?
• How can we better engage with our customers and generate online conversation?
• What should we be looking at in our web stats, how do we measure success?

Results

Clients have consistently reported improvements to internal workflow, site traffic, conversions, email newsletter sign-ups and online visibility, engagement and interaction.

Completed on January 2009
Internet Marketing Strategy | Strategic Planning Session | Publishing & Media