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Internet Marketing Posts by Monique Alvarez

About Monique Alvarez

As a third generation entrepreneur, I was born with a love for sales and leadership. A couple of years ago I realized internet marketing is the where it's at. I get a high off helping established business owners increase their sales by utilizing leading-edge strategies such as Facebook Marketing, Text Message Marketing and Email Marketing.

Marketing in a Society of Distrust

07/21/2011 By 1 Comment

Marketing in a Society of DistrustHave you noticed that people are less and less trusting?

This really struck me while watching HGTV’s hit show Yard Crashers this past weekend.  The host Ahmed Hassan wanders through home improvement stores looking for someone he can help with a little yard work.  Little do they know they will get an AMAZING yard makeover for free!

Ahmed is not intimidating in any way.  He’s the kind of guy that can kick up a conversation with anyone.  He flashes his smile and tries to find one person who is willing to say yes to his help.  He even has a camera crew with him so you’d think people would put two and two together but they don’t.

Not only do most people say NO, many are rude about it! [Read more...]

Filed Under: Marketing

The Number One Way Businesses Can Keep Up

07/12/2011 By Leave a Comment

The Number One Way Businesses Can Keep UpIt seems that the only way to win these days is to move faster and faster.

I’m going to warn you right now, you’re either going to love or hate this blog post.  And you might outwardly hate me for writing it but inwardly envy my ideas.

This question of how do businesses keep up in a world that feels like it gets faster every day was brought to my attention by a post I saw on LinkedIn a few weeks ago.  I had to let it marinate a while to decide how I felt about it.  More importantly how I would respond to it.

The post listed out a few ways business owners could keep up and take great care of their clients.  One of the tips was this:

Return phone calls and emails in two hours or less.

I kept reading and then returned to this wonderful sounding sentence.  Give your clients immediate help, immediate attention, immediate answers.  But then it dawned on me that I don’t expect this from the people who I do business with.  I don’t expect them to be “on call” for me.  In fact it’s kind of repulsing to think that they might interrupt dinner to reply to my email that just buzz them on their smart phone.

Just because emails, voicemails, texts, faxes and social media alerts can be delivered into our hot little hand 24/7 doesn’t mean we have to be a slave to them.

Are you really more “professional” if you are texting during networking events….

Taking phone calls during appointments…

Or sending emails when someone is trying to talk to you?

The real test of what we believe is worked out in what we do.  Derek and I had to decide what our policy would be.  Would we sleep with our iphones and never miss a call?  Would we be sending emails over a nice dinner out?  Would we be on call for our clients?  We decided against it.  In fact we decided to not even take our phones with us when we take Charlie on a walk or go down to 5th for a frozen yogurt.

Nothing bugs me more than when I’m with someone (either in person or on the phone) and they aren’t really there with me.

We may take 24-48 hours to call a client back.  We might not be able to fit in an appointment for two weeks but I can tell you this…

When we are with our clients we are really with them.  We are listening, taking notes and actively participating.

We like to give our best to our clients.  Our clients aren’t a number to us.  They aren’t even a business to us.  They are human beings, individuals, people with families and school plays and pets.  They have plenty on their plate and the way we feel like we can best serve them is by being present every single time we interact.

So, no we won’t be going faster to keep up – we’ll be going slower.

Filed Under: Thoughts on Business

Celebrating Risk Takers

07/09/2011 By Leave a Comment

Celebrating Risk TakersDerek and I celebrated our anniversary this week…

We recently started a couple of new projects so we nixed our trip to Seattle and decided we’d have a staycation.  As it turns out San Diego is a great place to have a staycation!

We started off with lunch in Solana Beach at Claire’s on Cedros.  Thanks to a “wrong” turn Derek spotted this adorable restaurant.  Actually it felt more like going over to a friends house than a restaurant.  The staff acted like they’ve known us for years and the food was perfect.  Unique, healthy and fresh!

We parked and hiked our way through a neighborhood searching for just the right place to dump our towels and go swimming.  We realized we hadn’t been swimming in the ocean since our honeymoon in Hawaii and San Diego hadn’t been warm enough to tempt us back in. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Downtown San Diego Musings

The Fastest Way To Kill Your Marketing Campaign

06/28/2011 By 3 Comments

The Fastest Way To Kill Your Marketing CampaignThis is a true story of how a bad attitude affects business…

About a month ago I was walking down 5th St. in Gaslamp when I spotted a brand new, sparkling nail spa.  The sign in the window showed that they offered shelac manicures, which is exactly what I wanted to hear.

I had been looking for a place that was close to home and reasonably priced so I was thrilled! I walked in and was quickly greeted by the friendly owner.  I was loving my experience until about half way through the treatment she desperately tells me, “Please tell your friends about me, we are very slow.”

As soon as I heard her say business was slow, I stopped enjoying myself and I didn’t want to be there anymore… [Read more...]

Filed Under: Thoughts on Business

How to use Facebook as Your Business Page

06/22/2011 By 4 Comments

Today’s blog post is inspired by a question we received from Erin in Tucson, Arizona…

How to use Facebook as Your Business Page“I have categorized people into lists. Is there anyway to send messages just to a certain group? My latest group is Tucson Dog Trainers, I want to market dog doors to them.

On my Garvin’s Pet Door page, I can’t seem to be able to like other pages (like yours).  I follow the directions but the option is still grey and it won’t let me select it.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Facebook Fan Page

What’s The Secret To Your Success?

06/17/2011 By 2 Comments

Whats The Secret To Your Success?Don’t you just love it when someone really “gets” your business?

Well, that happened to me today…  I had an appointment with a franchise owner who had been referred to us. She wanted to utilize some creative methods to do what all business owners want, get more paying customers.

On thing that is sometimes difficult for us to do is communicate how internet marketing works, especially if the person sitting across from us has never got a single customer through pay per click, social media, email marketing etc.

Many business owners want to know if internet marketing is just a mythical tale or the real deal… [Read more...]

Filed Under: Internet Marketing

The Importance Of A USP In Social Media

06/14/2011 By Leave a Comment

The Importance Of A USP In Social MediaA company must be able to effectively communicate their Unique Selling Proposition and social media is just another place to share their story…

As you know, Derek and I work with companies to create social media campaigns that do three main things:

  1. Brand their business.
  2. Educate and entertain their target market.
  3. Generate leads and sales.

Whether a company is managing their own social media site or they’ve hired someone like us to handle it for them, it’s important to be crystal clear on the USP… [Read more...]

Filed Under: Social Media Marketing

3 Ways Internet Marketing Changes Your Business

06/08/2011 By 2 Comments

3 Ways Internet Marketing Changes Your BusinessIf you’ve ever watched the show “What Not To Wear,” you know know that even good change is terrifying…

Hosts Clinton and Stacy give a $5000 makeover to one lucky winner who has been nominated by their friends, family and co-workers.  Every nominee is clearly in need of a new look, but they are almost always afraid that they will be forced to be someone they aren’t.

However, by the end of the show they are more of who they really are.

Derek and I often joke that we are the Clinton and Stacy of internet marketing!

Many business owners are terrified of using internet marketing to grow their business because it’s outside of their comfort zone…  And we can’t blame them, social media, blogs and SEO is a long way from The Better Business Bureau, Yellow Page ads and handing out fliers.

Change is never easy… but in the case of “What Not To Wear” and On Top Internet Marketing, it’s worth it!

Here are 3 ways internet marketing has changed our clients’ businesses: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Internet Marketing

Social Media Exceeds Business Owners’ Expectations

06/01/2011 By Leave a Comment

Social Media Exceeds Business Owners ExpectationsA recent study by Webs.com shows that approximately 2/3 of small business owners have a presence on Facebook…

Over three quarters of the survey respondents plan to increase their use of social media this year, while almost one in five plan to maintain the same amount of effort they did in 2010.

We see this as great news not just because we are in the internet marketing business but because it shows that small business owners are more aware of the importance of having social media as part of their marketing plans.

A couple of days ago we arrived home to find a brand new Yellow Pages at our door.  Both of us groaned because we knew we were just going to recycle it.  Of course all of our neighbors had received one too and there is now a stack of Yellow Pages at one end of the hall.  Conclusion: The Yellow Pages, The Red Pages, Dex etc. are no longer “the one that gets used.”

The internet is the one that gets used these days… [Read more...]

Filed Under: Internet Marketing Examples

Happy Memorial Day!

05/27/2011 By 2 Comments

Happy Memorial Day!Memorial Day is often considered the beginning of summer…

And we are thrilled about that!  Even though the weather in San Diego is nice year-round, there are just certain activities that lend themselves to summer…

For example, grilling on the patio, laying on the beach and making the rounds at local fairs.

This year is extra special because we get to spend Memorial Weekend with my friend, Libby Pruitt, who has served for 15 years in the Coast Guard. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Downtown San Diego Musings
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