At this time of year we’re remembering those individuals who don’t have a safe, happy home this holiday season. TrueCourse has made a donation to Interval House of Ottawa which supports all persons who identify as women and their dependents fleeing abusive relationships. This fantastic organization runs a local emergency shelter for those who need to escape violence – the only local shelter to house residents’ pets. Interval House also operates a crisis line 24/7, as well as providing crisis intervention, counselling, advocacy and practical supports to facilitate transition, and community engagement programs to educate the public. They have served …

Whether you’re launching a new product, service or location, announcing an acquisition, or undertaking a complete rebrand, you have a fresh opportunity to engage your audience. But crafting effective brand messaging can be a challenge. It’s one thing to come up with a tagline the CEO likes, it’s another to get people to click on your ads, engage with your social media posts, or stay on your website. Often, your messaging falls down because it doesn’t get to the heart of how you help customers (your core benefit), what makes you different (your positioning), and why customers need you. The …

Six ways to boost your sales funnel   You’ve been in business for several years and you’ve built a pretty successful firm. You followed the steps of the business plan. You discovered a product or service people wanted, found customers to buy it, and built a team and internal processes to support your vision. Check, check, check! Now, like every other medium-sized business, what you need is more sales leads. If you don’t tell more people about your product or service, you won’t be able to support the organization you’ve established. So, you Google “how to get more sales leads” …

Retail stores are always updating their storefronts – from changing their window displays for each new season to promoting new product. The same philosophy should apply to your website. Instead of building a website and leaving it stagnant, make it a work in progress that is regularly updated to improve its content, grow its reach and maximize its conversions. Not sure where to start? Here are 8 areas to focus on for a successful and impactful website update. Be Mobile-Friendly In 2018, approximately 52% of website traffic came from mobile phones (and this number is steadily increasing each year). If …

Over 50 million businesses are on Facebook – is yours one of them? If not, it’s time to get social. Here are 10 reasons a social media presence is essential to help you connect with your customers and grow your business.   Your customers are on social media If you don’t think your customers are on social media, think again. Over 3 billion people are active on social media – that’s about 40% of the global population. Even more staggering? 74% of consumers use social media to guide purchasing decisions. Without a social media presence, your business is missing out …

The ways in which you can use social media is like a revolving door – it’s never ending. This is partially because of the teams responsible for developing and integrating new features on the various platforms, but it’s also because of those who use it. Facebook receives 1.86 billion monthly users, Twitter receives 313 million monthly users, and LinkedIn receives 106 million monthly users. If you ask us, that’s a whole lot of people using it for a whole lot of different purposes. While these streams of social media channels provide you and your company ample opportunities to connect with your …

Promote your LinkedIn Profile – Add LinkedIn custom URL to your email signature, business card and share to your other Social Media Pages. Download LinkedIn App – Access your LinkedIn anywhere by downloading the LinkedIn App to your mobile devices. Click here for iOS download. Click here for Android download. Join LinkedIn Groups – Groups on LinkedIn is a place for members to share and participate in a professional setting in a specific industry or area of interests. You can join up to 50 different groups, the groups you join will be displayed on your profile. Groups create a connection …

Connect at every opportunity – Send connection requests after meetings with prospective clients and whenever you have business interactions. Connect using a personalized approach – If you find someone on LinkedIn you would like to connect with, use a personalized approach and give context to the e-mail you send. Avoid sending the standard “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn” automated e-mail. Let them know who you are and why you would like to connect. Request an introduction to someone you’re not connected to – You can request an introduction to a 2nd-degree connection from a …

Follow these best practices to successfully use LinkedIn: Add enough connections – The more connections you have, the more LinkedIn search results you will appear in and more of a chance that your customers and partners will find your profile. Add keywords to your profile – Put yourself in the mind of people by whom you want to be found and think about what keyword searches they would perform to find you. Use words that describe your expertise and industry. Be responsible for what you write and share – Exercise good judgment and common sense before sharing or writing a …

When is a good time to revisit your marketing strategy?   With so many variables and evolving trends, it can be difficult to measure the success of your marketing strategy, which means in turn, diagnosing an area for update can seem even more unclear. Follow the questions below to discover which points in your marketing plan may need a refresh.