Environicle

Why Now Is the Time to Rethink Your Internet Marketing Strategy

Tue, 07 Apr 2020 14:12:59 GMT

The first half of 2020 is proving to be challenging for almost everyone. For small business owners and entrepreneurs, the halt in economic activity and uncertainty around the depth and duration of the anticipated recession are sources of persistent anxiety and apprehension.

It's not an exaggeration to suggest that the decisions you make navigating these unsettling circumstances can make or break your already impacted business.

Understandably, your initial impulse in response to community-wide shelter-in-place and social distancing orders may be to suspend marketing activities to align your expenditures to evaporating revenue.

Opportunity is at the Horizon

However, just as some of the most significant historical stock market and real estate gains are birthed in the depths of market downturns, a similar opportunity could exist for your business in today's economic pull-back. Therefore, it's prudent to consider your options as you make cost-cutting decisions.

This down-time could be the best time for you to reset the internet marketing strategy for your business, so when the economy comes back, your company is well-positioned to compete in the "new normal" many experts believe we'll face.

Think Strategy First

As always, begin with a strategy. Do you have clarity on your ideal customer? If so, how are their needs evolving in the new environment? How are their priorities and behaviours changing? And what about your competitors? How are they transforming? Finally, how should you reposition your business in response?

The companies considering these strategic questions today, alongside cost-cutting tactics, are likely to be the enterprises that don't just survive today's turmoil but thrive in tomorrow's new world.

Fill In the Picture With Data and Analytics

So how do you go about answering these fundamental questions for your business? Of course, you know your business better than anyone. So your instinct, informed assumptions and educated guesses are core to getting the answers right. And, given the nature of the unchartered waters we're traversing, incorporating additional, data-driven perspective can ensure you reach correct conclusions at a time when there's little room for missteps.

Get an Advantage With an Internet Marketing Strategy Consultant

An internet marketing consultant can bring proven tools and approach for data collection, research, analysis and interpretation to develop needed insights about your customers, their behaviours, how to reach them, and how best to engage them when economic activity resumes.

Be Ready for the Recovery

If you were unprepared for the downturn associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, don't repeat that mistake for the upturn that will eventually follow. Make the tough call to invest a small fraction of your budget into a new marketing strategy today so that you're ready to capitalize when the opportunity arises.

Are You Ready to Win in the New Normal?

Call today for a free consultation.

416-574-2036

How to Improve Website Ranking on Google by Adding Schema Markup

Thu, 20 Jun 2019 01:44:04 GMT

Get higher Google search rankings for your Wix or Duda website by adding schema markup

Schema markup is an element of Sustainable Marketing

It is widely reported that Google looks at over 200 different factors to determine page ranking for search results. Website owners have complete control over some of those factors, partial influence over others, and little or no influence of still others. It is essential for startups and businesses with limited marketing budget to prioritize leveraging the controllable factors requiring minimal expense. The use of structured data, also known as schema markup, is one of those factors.

Schema markup is additional code that is added to a web page to help search engines understand what the page is all about. It was developed as a shared vocabulary through a collaboration of industry giants Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo with the larger Web community under a consortium called schema.org. Additional information can be found at https ://schema.org/

Schema markup increases click-through-rates

An added benefit of helping search engines like Google understand your page through schema markup is that your page can be represented in search results using rich results such as Google Knowledge Graphs, carousels, and snippets which help with click-through-rates and contribute additional boost to your SERP ranking. Two examples of rich results generated from schema markup are provided below:

Prioritize schema markup for objects with Google rich results

Given that Google represents over 90% of web search activity , it's worth paying attention to their guidance with respect to SEO recommendations - including schema markup. While schema.org defines a hierarchy of over 1000 different object types , Google specifically calls out 30 objects in the Search Gallery with rich results including:

Structured Data Markup Helper simplifies generating markup

When you are ready to generate schema markup for your site, Google provides a user-friendly Structured Data Markup Helper to simplify the process of generating the applicable markup code for 12 different objects.

Simply choose one of the 12 object types, enter the URL of the page of interest and then begin tagging properties of the object by highlighting content on the page and selecting the corresponding tag.

If any of the required or optional properties are not visible on the page to be highlighted, you can manually add the properties using the "Add missing tags" functionality.

Generate the markup code

After all of the tags are entered, create the markup using JSON-LD by tapping the "CREATE HTML" button, then copy all of the text into your buffer.

Add the markup to your page header

On Duda sites, add the markup code to your page header via the PAGES menu.

On Wix sites, add the markup code to the"Structured Data" section on the "Advanced SEO" tab of "Menus and Pages" button of the site editor.

Test page to validate markup

After the markup is added to your page header and the page is re-published, use Google's Structured Data Testing Tool to verify that the data is added correctly.

Local Business schema markup overlaps Google My Business

If you have already claimed and verified your business profile with Google My Business, you most likely have already entered many of the properties associated with the Local Business markup into your Google My Business profile. It is therefore unnecessary to duplicate the data in Google My Business with schema markup. According to Google:

Keep exploring Sustainable Marketing

How to Create a Sponsored Ad on Facebook

Sat, 15 Jun 2019 18:39:46 GMT

A step by step Facebook ads beginners guide.

If you've never published a Facebook advertisement beyond simply "boosting" a post, the thought of navigating the different layers of the Facebook ecosystem to create and publish an ad may seem daunting. But there's no need to be intimidated because in this post I'll walk you through the steps needed to create a carousel ad.

The carousel ad format is recommended by Facebook because it consistently delivers results for advertisers. Displaying between two to ten cards on rotation as a single ad unit, the carousel ad is versatile, supporting many different advertising purposes including:

Here are the 14 steps you can take to get your carousel advertisement up and running efficiently.

Step 1. Clarify your ad objective

The first step for any advertisement is to have clarity on the objective. Clarify how the ad will fit within your ideal customers' decision journey and how it will contribute to the messaging for your brand, product or service.

Step 2. Decide upon the call-to-action

After the ad's purpose is clear, determine what step you want your audience to take when they view the ad. It's useful to make this decision early so that content developed in later steps can be constructed to optimally support the call-to-action.

Facebook provides 15 different call-to-action choices for carousel ads including:

Step 3. Pinpoint your target audience

A powerful feature of Facebook advertising is the ability to narrowly select the right recipients for your ad based upon Location, Demographics, Interests, Behavior, and Connections. Use as many of the audience targeting parameters as needed to define the audience to receive the ad as well as to be excluded from receiving the ad.

A sample of just some of the characteristics include:

Audience setup in Facebook occurs in step 11 below. However, identifying the audience at this stage is helpful to ensure images, video, headlines, text and landing pages all all produced with the correct audience in mind.

Step 4. Stake out destination URLs

If a primary goal of your ad is to attract traffic to your website, gather the destination URLs where ad visitors are to be directed. Depending upon your intended call-to-action, existing web pages and existing landing pages, new dedicated landing pages corresponding to the ad may need to be created. Dedicated landing pages consistent with the ad in message, voice, and appearance will generally lead to better results.

Step 5. Acquire brilliant videos and/or images

Choose an image or video that captures attention and supports the ad objective for each card anticipated in the ad.

Depending upon your ad placement specification, Facebook will attempt to place your ad using different formats on both the Facebook and Instagram platforms. Therefore, care is needed to construct images and videos using formats that will render well across devices and platforms.
The media formats recommended by Facebook to provide the greatest versatility are:

Additional details on media format requirements are available in the Facebook Ad Guide .

Step 6. Develop engaging ad copy

According to Facebook , people spend on average 1.7 seconds with a piece of content on a phone compared to 2.5 seconds on a computer. Therefore, it's recommended to keep ad text short, clear and to the point to ensure your message gets across.

Fortunately, the structure and presentation of Facebook carousel ads encourage shorter ad copy with limited characters displayed.

The copy on carousel ads is composed of three main components -

Use a simple offline template such as the following Excel spreadsheet to simplify the process of preparing and fine-tuning ad copy within the recommended character lengths.

The template is available for download with no obligation here:

Step 7. Navigate to Ad Manager

Log in to your Business Manager account if it exists. If you don't already have a Business Manager account, you can find instructions for adding it here .

If an Ad Account exists for the Business Manager account, navigate to Ad Manage r.

If you don't already have a Facebook Ad Account associated with your Business Manager account, you can find instructions for adding an Ad Account account to your Business Manager account here .

Step 8. Create the Campaign

Facebook Ads are organized in a three-level hierarchy as depicted in the following figure:

From the Ads Manager, create a new campaign, give the campaign a name and select a campaign objective from the drop-down menu.

Step 9. Set a campaign budget

Set the Campaign Budget to $100 to cap the maximum amount you will spend. Initially, this is a helpful safety-net to limit the risk of receiving an expensive surprise invoice in the event the schedule or daily budgets are set up incorrectly or your campaign doesn't end as expected.

Step 10. Give the Ad Set a relevant name

Ad sets provide a convenient way to organize different aspects of a campaign including targeting different audiences, testing effectiveness of different ad content, defining different schedules or placements. Therefore, a good practice is to name each Ad Set according to the defining parameters, e.g. "Female Business Owners" or "Summer Offer With Long Description". These names come in handy when monitoring the results after your ad is activated.

Step 11. Edit and publish the Ad Set

Traffic - Choose "Website" as a destination for your traffic.

Budget and Schedule - It is a good practice to start with a small daily budget (~$2.00 /day) and an end date 30 days after the start date. The small daily budget allows you to run the ad and monitor initial results while limiting the expense. The inclusion of an end-date ensures your ad won't continue to run indefinitely if you forget or are unable to return to suspend it.

Audience - Create the audience defined in step 3.

Placement - Choose "Automatic Placements" for Placement.

Optimization & Delivery - Choose "Landing Page Views" for Optimization for Ad Delivery.

Publish the Ad set.

Step 12. Edit the Ad

On the "Create Ad" tab, choose the radio button next to "Ad with multiple images or videos in a carousel(recommended)"

Add the text, images, destination URLs, and Call To Action using the values developed in steps 4-6 above.

Step 13. Give the ad one final once-over

Preview the ad using each of the 18 different formats to ensure the images and copy render as expected on the various placements. Make adjustments as needed.

Step 14. Publish the ad

After you publish the ad, it may take Facebook a few hours to complete a review and activate the ad. Once your ad is activate, it's advisable at the beginning to monitor the ad in Ad Manager at least once per day to ensure it is running and yielding the expected results.

Keep exploring

Some other topics you may find helpful:

Improve Local Search Results Rank with Citations

michael.britton@protellus.ca (Michael Britton) — Wed, 29 May 2019 17:58:46 GMT

Improve search ranking performance and get found by new customers with accurate citations in online directories.

One frequent recommendation for improving your local search results ranking is to accrue several mentions of your business, known as citations, with accurate name, address, and phone number (NAP) across several relevant directories. This post provides an overview of 13 online directories where you can add entries for your Canadian business to help with SEO and help your business get found by new customers.

Use a template to maintain consistency of citation information

To help ensure your citations are identical across the different directory sites, it is good practice to complete a template with the relevant data before you submit the first citation. Without a completed template from which to copy, it is easy to make mistakes and cause variation in your business information that could be detrimental in how search engines interpret the data.

Your template should include the following details:

Use optimal image and logo dimensions

In addition to the template with your business information, I recommend you be prepared with good quality .png or .jpg image files for your business including:

With all of your citation information summarized in the template and the images ready to upload, you can now submit entries into the different directories while being careful to copy and paste from the template to avoid varying the data from one directory to the other.

13 directories for Canadian local businesses to build citations

Here are 13 directories that Canadian businesses can use to build local citations. Because sites with higher domain authority are interpreted to add greater trust to your site and thus improve your search ranking, prioritize higher authority sites over those with a lower authority. The Moz Domain Authority ranges from one to 100 with higher scores corresponding to a greater ability to rank.

Once your citations have been added and confirmed to be accurate and consistent across each directory, you can now be found by new customers browsing the respective directories. You are also strengthening the signal to Google and other search engines that your website is a trustworthy online property for your business which may improve your rank in search results.

Keep exploring

Develop Exceptional Content for Sustainable Marketing

michael.britton@protellus.ca (Michael Britton) — Fri, 29 Mar 2019 14:16:23 GMT

Use your writing skills to advance sustainability & expand economic inclusiveness one entrepreneur at a time.

Marketing is communication

Marketing is communication, and a fundamental component of exceptional marketing is content based on outstanding writing. Therefore our mission to effect social good through marketing is inextricably linked to producing great content.

We partner with a few select freelance writers to develop original content, including blog posts, web copy, social media posts, email campaigns, and e-commerce product descriptions.

So, if this sounds like you ...

and you enjoy ...

Then we should talk.

Helpful HTML and CSS Snippets for Duda Blog Posts

michael.britton@protellus.ca (Michael Britton) — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 12:06:45 GMT

Useful suggestions for adding additional formatting flexibility to Duda blog posts.

Duda is an excellent platform for creating your website. It is suitable for you do-it-yourselfers who have the time and inclination to attempt a website on their own. But just like any other tool, it takes a clear vision, creative design, rigorous implementation, application of best practices and great content to develop an outstanding end-product.

Extend the blogging capability with HTML editor widget

The blogging functionality in Duda is simple to use and includes basic formatting options. However, occasionally, you may be interested in formatting sections of content differently than the available options. Fortunately, Duda blogging also includes the ability to add HTML snippets to your page with the HTML editor widget. The following are examples of how to add additional formatting and flexibility to your Duda blog post using the HTML editor widget.

Some helpful references

If you are new to HTML and CSS, you may need additional examples or explanation to get the exact formatting and structure you desire. The following are free resources that you may find helpful:

w 3schools .com - Excellent reference site with tutorials, references and examples of HTML, CSS and more.

Example 1: Quotes & Citations

Final rendering

Code snippet added to HTML editor

Hint: If you have more than one quote within the same blog post, only include the <style> ... </style> block with the top most occurrence.

Example 2: Embedding a Video Using an iframe

Final Rendering

Code snippet added to HTML editor

Example 3: Limit videos suggestions to those in your channel

Like it or not, Google forces a"related videos" screen at the end of embedded YouTube videos. If you don't like that practice, there is a way to limit the suggested videos included on the related videos to those on your channel by adding a rel=0 parameter at the end of the src attribute in the iframe.

This is what the related end screen looks like by using the embed code copied directly from YouTube.

Although it is still not an ideal solution, you can limit the suggested videos on the end screen to those from your channel by appending the ?rel=0 parameter. The following is the result.

The original embed code from YouTube:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src=" https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z7418lDpnpo " ; frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Now, the modified embed code for the same video with the ?rel=0 parameter added:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src=" https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z7418lDpnpo?rel=0 " ; frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Example 4: Nested Numbered and Bulleted Lists

Final rendering of nested lists

Code snippet for nested numbered and bulleted lists added to HTML editor

<ol style="line-height:1.75">
<li>Business name</li>
<li>Address</li>
<li>City</li>
<li>Province/State</li>
<li>Postal/Zip </li>
<li>Telephone number</li>
<li>Hours of Operation</li>
<ul style="list-style-type:square; padding-left:3em;">
<li>Sunday</li>
<li>Monday</li>
<li>Tuesday</li>
<li>Wednesday</li>
<li>Thursday</li>
<li>Friday</li>
<li>Saturday</li>
</ul>
</ol>

Helpful resource :

https://www.w3schools.com/html/html_lists.asp

Optimize Your Website Homepage for Visitors

michael.britton@protellus.ca (Michael Britton) — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 22:45:10 GMT

Optimize your homepage for human visitors (aka customers)

Your website homepage must satisfy two important types of visitors - humans and web-crawlers. Getting your web site content and structure organized and presented in a way that ensures both types of visitors get the right information, reliably, easily and presented in the most effective manner is equivalent to table stakes for a successful website.

This blog post walks through practical considerations for optimizing your homepage for the human type visitors. Considerations for web-crawlers are covered in a separate post.

Psychological considerations for an effective home page design

There is an interesting Psychology Today post titled The Science of First Impressions that has notable relevance for the design of websites. Although the article was about the science of human-human interactions, it is not unreasonable nor difficult to extrapolate the findings and apply the conclusions to website first impressions.

Two instructive conclusions from the article are:

and

In other words, our brains are wired to begin leading us along the buyer's decision journey of "Know", "Like", "Trust" within the first few seconds of meeting someone, or in the case of websites, within the first few seconds of visiting. Furthermore, one of the most effective ways of applying that understanding is to give your new visitors a reason to value, i.e. know and like, and trust your website.

Functional considerations for an effective home page design

In addition to psychological factors, there are also functional questions to consider when creating your website homepage. If you imagine your home page as the digital entrance and online reception area for your business, the functional factors to consider become easier to identify. For example, in a physical business you would ensure your reception area -

These same principles can be directly translated to the content and structure of your home page.

Bounce rate as measure of home page effectiveness

One useful metric that gives an indication of well your home page is meeting the needs of your visitors, is your home page bounce rate. According to Google:

In other words, bounce rate is the percent of visitors that navigate to your home page but don't go any further into your website. Therefore, unless your website is a single page site such as a blog, having a high bounce rate is considered a bad thing. In our reception area analogy, bounced visitors are those folks that step in the door, glance around and then leave without speaking to any of your staff or exploring any of your products.

Make sure your online reception area is ready for business

If you aren't getting enough customers through your website and you have a high bounce rate or you are unsure of your bounce rate, it's possible that part of the issue could be your site doesn't adequately address all of the psychological or functional considerations of first time human visitors.

By addressing both the psychological and functional considerations you can be more confident that your online reception is open and ready to welcome your visitors.

Get a free, no-obligation homepage checkup

If you are uncertain whether you have all of the considerations covered, why not get a free, no-obligation evaluation of your website for factors addressing the needs of both human and web-crawler visitors. Again, it's free and there is no-obligation.

Watch an example of a homepage makeover.

Keep exploring

Get the Help You Need and Then Pay-it-Forward

michael.britton@protellus.ca (Michael Britton) — Mon, 04 Mar 2019 20:02:46 GMT

Exceptional digital marketing & consulting are closer than you think.

"Those who are the happiest are those who do the most for others."

-Booker T Washington, Founder of Tuskegee University

What is Pay-it-Forward

Pay-it-Forward is an innovative approach which enables you to receive exceptional digital marketing and consulting services significantly below market price for up to 12 months or until your marketing objectives are achieved and sustained for 3 months.

How does Pay-it-Forward work?

You get digital marketing and consulting support for your business at a fraction of the normal cost in exchange for a commitment to sponsor another eligible entrepreneur at a later time - when your marketing objectives have been met and you are in a better position to pay.

Who can benefit from Pay-it-Forward?

Pay-it-forward is for entrepreneurs who:

have a viable business offering;

want to grow their business and need marketing support;

Have annual revenues less than $750K CAD or $500K USD;

have a reasonable chance of achieving self-sustaining profitability within 12 months; and

predominantly target markets in Canada and/or United States

What is the commitment?

In exchange for receiving exceptional marketing and consulting support at a fraction of the going rates, you are requested to sponsor another qualified business under Pay-it-Forward for an amount equal to the discount received under the program.

How are marketing goals established for the engagement?

Objectively measurable goals and engagement duration are discussed and mutually agreed upon based upon your budget and the unique circumstances of your business or not-for-profit.

What if your engagement goals aren't reached?

If your marketing goals are not reached within the budget and time frame established at the onset, you are not requested to sponsor another eligible business.

3 Steps to Embed Google Drive Hosted Video on a Duda Website

Sat, 02 Mar 2019 17:42:41 GMT

The native Duda video widget is a quick and simple way to add a video from YouTube, Vimeo or DailyMotion to your Duda website. However, if you want to add a video hosted in a Google Drive folder, you'll need a different approach. This page describes how to add a video hosted in a Google Drive folder onto your website using an iFrame.

Using the Duda native video widget is simple

The Duda web-hosting platform allows you to easily incorporate videos onto web pages and blog posts using the native video widget. Add a video URL to the widget and, voilá, you've added a nicely formatted video to your page.

Native widget dependencies on third parties

Although simple to use, the video widget has one limitation that you may want to workaround. In particular, the widget only allows videos from YouTube, Vimeo or Daily Motion. In many cases, This constraint is not an issue and could even be considered advantageous.

Questionable desirability of YouTube end-screens

However, YouTube's practice of cueing a follow-on video or an end-screen at the end of the playing video may not be the desired behaviour for an independent website - especially when concerned with the aesthetic of the site. This practice is primarily an issue for videos less than 25 seconds in duration because you are permitted to change the end-screen for videos longer than 25 seconds.

Add Google Drive hosted video to website with an HTML iframe

One alternative to the video widget is to add a responsive iframe using the HTML editor and link it to a video stored in a Google Drive folder. This post explains this alternative.

Three advantages to hosting videos in a Google Drive folder

Hosting on Google Drive helps maintain visitors' focus upon your site's content compared to YouTube because there is no video-end screen suggesting other content
For existing GSUITE users, there's no added cost aside from incremental storage.
Digital media assets can be maintained together on a single platform.

Four disadvantages to hosting videos in a Google Drive folder

Videos held outside of the YouTube ecosystem don't benefit from YouTube features such as analytics.
There's limited control of the thumbnail image when the video isn't playing.
Black bars surround the thumbnail when the video isn't playing.
Initial page rendering may be slower, which could be sufficient reason to forgo this approach if you're considering placing the video above the fold. Page loading speed is an important signal used by Google to determine page ranking and can negatively impact the visitors' experience.

Three Steps to Embed A Google Drive Hosted Video

Step 1: Add the styling and create a div for responsive iframe

The following code can be copied and pasted into the HTML edit widget for your blog post or web page.

position: relative;

padding-bottom: 56.25%;

padding-top: 0px;

height: 0;

overflow: hidden;

}

.video-container iframe {

position: absolute;

top:0;

left: 0;

width: 100%;

height: 100%;

}
</style>

<div class="video-container">

***** Google Drive iframe embed code goes here ******

</div>

Step 2. Copy the iframe embed code for the video from Google drive folder onto your clipboard

The following video walks you through the steps to get the embed code from your Google Drive folder.

Step 3: Paste the Google Drive iframe embed code

Paste the iframe code from Step 2 into your HTML editor from Step 1, replacing the contents of the placeholder ( ***** Google Drive iframe embed code goes here ****** ) with the iframe code. The resulting code should look like this:

position: relative;

padding-bottom: 56.25%;

padding-top: 0px;

height: 0;

overflow: hidden;

}

.video-container iframe {

position: absolute;

top:0;

left: 0;

width: 100%;

height: 100%;

}
</style>

<div class="video-container">

<iframe frameborder="0" width="640" height="480" src=" https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QgYGZKk5UNFcwbW5lLhD91Kl2Vk5xxL1/preview" ; allowfullscreen="true" allow="autoplay"></iframe>

</div>

If things worked correctly, your embedded video should look something like this:

Conclusion

Adding Google Drive hosted videos to your website with the approach described above is relatively easy and has advantages but comes with trade-offs. It's essential to consider the potential negative consequence for user experience and SEO. Therefore, when adding video to your website using an iframe, consider positioning the video below the fold.

Creating a Mission Statement for Your Business or Not-for-Profit

michael.britton@protellus.ca (Michael Britton) — Sat, 02 Mar 2019 01:44:50 GMT

"What I try to tell young people is that if you come together with a mission, and its grounded with love and a sense of community, you can make the impossible possible."
- John Lewis, Politician & Civil Rights Leader

Mission statement definition

A mission statement is a concise summary statement describing what your company does, the problem you solve and for whom.

Difference between purpose and mission statements

There is an important distinction between purpose statements and mission statements. Purpose statements answer the question - why does your business exists? In other words, what is the motivation or inspiration?

On the other hand, mission statements answer the question - what does your business do, i.e. what is the primary activity and for whom?

Benefits of a mission statement

There are three core benefits derived from a well-considered mission statement. They are:

Communication: Efficiently introduce your business to customers, investors, team members and other stakeholders while attracting further interest.

Alignment: Coalesce resources and effort around shared goals and execution.

Focus: Clarity in scope provides helpful parameters for strategy, planning and execution.

Framework for drafting a mission statement

One favorite approach when drafting a mission statement is to consider it in four distinct parts that are then joined together -

What are your core activities?
Who is your ideal customer?
What problem is solved by your products or services?
How do you solve the problem?

Mission statement example

The following example demonstrates how the Protellus mission statement is constructed using the suggested framework.

Now pull the elements together and do some minor tweaks to get the mission statement -

"We provide digital marketing and consulting solutions to entrepreneurs motivated by purpose which removes their worry about marketing, frees up more time for them to focus on other aspects of their business and enables them to realize their growth objective.

We do it by implementing a sustainable marketing approach that attracts and converts more ideal customers, stimulates repeat purchases, recommendations and referrals."

If you have questions or need help, please don't hesitate to contact us using the green email or chat circle in the lower right.

Go to Guide

Start with Purpose to Build a Sustainable Business

michael.britton@protellus.ca (Michael Britton) — Thu, 28 Feb 2019 17:06:38 GMT

“ Those who have failed to work toward the truth have missed the purpose of living. ”

― Buddha Siddhartha Guatama Shakyamuni

One of the first things that every socialpreneur should do when starting their business is write purpose and mission statements. In fact, you might say this advice applies to every entrepreneur. Through the process of writing each of these statements, you'll consider and answer questions that will help you navigate many critical decisions that you'll make as your business grows.

What is a purpose statement?

A purpose statement answers the question - "Why does your business exist?".

When answering this question, think beyond the obvious need of generating wealth for yourself and your family. The need for wealth creation and financial security is a given for most of us. Instead, think about naming the larger benefit that your business delivers to your customers, your neighborhood, community or even the society at large.

Benefits of a purpose statement.

Clarifying why your business exists with a purpose statement helps you build a more successful enterprise by helping you sharpen your focus and -

prioritize where and how you invest time, attention, money and resources;

attract the right customers, partners, supplier and team members; and

is a great source of motivation and inoculation during inevitable setbacks.

At first glance, the benefits may seem soft. However, if you take a step back and ponder each bullet for a moment, you may recognize each benefit is an element for achieving excellence - having a clear goal with focus, surrounding yourself with the right people, and having passion for what you are doing. In other words, a purpose statement contributes to the foundation for achieving excellence.

Purpose statement examples.

Purpose statements for topics such as sustainability may be more apparent. However, entrepreneurs in most other fields can also look externally to find the purpose of their organization. Some great examples are :

"Create a society where everyone has access to affordable, highly qualified professional representation that leads to fair and equitable resolution of legal disputes."
- Paralegal service

"Inspiring clients to feel confident and express their individuality."
- Handmade & custom accessories

"Ensure immigrants find the perfect place to live where they can be happy, have a greater sense of being settled and realize the rewarding feeling of being at home."
- Real estate agency

"Helping young people to understand they have no limit to their options which allows them to dream and reach for their full potential."
- Youth focused not-for-profit

"Helping clients realize their dream of singing."
- Vocal coach

Checklist for drafting your purpose statement.

When you are ready to draft the purpose statement for you business or not-for-profit, use this checklist to help :

Is it succinct?
Is it inspirational?
Does it explain your motivation?
Does it point to a cause that is larger than you or your business?
Does it describe the impact your business has on the lives of your customers?

If you answer yes to each of the above items, you are likely on the right path to an excellent purpose statement.

Go to Guide

Audacious Benefits of Sustainable Marketing

michael.britton@protellus.ca (Michael Britton) — Fri, 22 Feb 2019 00:57:45 GMT

Sustainable Marketing can help your business grow.

When comes down to it, there are essentially two primary ways to grow any business - expand relationships with existing customers and establish relationships with new customers. Sustainable Marketing helps you do both.

The core of Sustainable Marketing is a well-tested marketing approach that is already helping over 1000 businesses around the world to grow by attracting, converting and retaining more new ideal customers and cultivating more repeat customers.

Sustainable Marketing can strengthen customer loyalty.

With Sustainable Marketing, the seeds of customer loyalty are sown with the very first interaction with your future customer. It is then cultivated by a structured marketing approach constructed to authentically address the needs of your ideal customers and deliver value as they proceed through each stage of the entire buyer's journey:

At each of the stages, Sustainable Marketing helps your customers -

Know - get to know about your product or service
Like - like your product or service
Trust - authentically develop trust for your brand
Try - engage your brand in a low-risk manner
Buy - purchase your brand
Repeat - want to buy your brand again
Refer - enthusiastically refer friends, family and acquaintances

Sustainable Marketing can reduce your worry.

Sustainable Marketing removes some of your worry by including a partner with shared purpose, invaluable business experience and marketing expertise on your extended team. It's like taking all of your marketing worries from your plate and giving them to a trusted Chief Marketing Officer for your business.

With the combination of shared purpose, business depth and marketing expertise, you can relax with the confidence that your Sustainable Marketing partner is advising and acting aligned to your interests and optimized for your objectives.

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The 5 Elements of Sustainable Marketing for Small Business

michael.britton@protellus.ca (Michael Britton) — Thu, 21 Feb 2019 19:29:58 GMT

Sustainable Marketing is a different way of doing business based upon a framework combining client segmentation, value-proposition, marketing methodology, and business practices in support of a larger sustainability purpose.

Elements of the Sustainable Marketing framework include:

Organizational purpose to promote a more sustainable society
Clients solving the challenges of environmental, economic, and social sustainability
Marketing methods and tools customized with clients to generate results over an extended period
Trustworthy marketing campaigns
Business practices that balance purpose and profits

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Introduction to Sustainable Marketing

michael.britton@protellus.ca (Michael Britton) — Fri, 11 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT

Proven Small Business Marketing Foundation

Sustainable Marketing combines the proven methodology, tools, and best-practices of Duct Tape Marketing Small Business Marketing with the purpose supporting environmental and social sustainability. The result is a unique marketing framework constructed to boost entrepreneurs who are solving sustainability.

Your business grows and so does your beneficial impact.

Small Business Marketing Dedicated to Entrepreneurs Motivated by Purpose

Sustainable Marketing is for you if you are an entrepreneur with a business or not-for-profit that solves environmental or social sustainability challenges and you are looking to grow your revenue or impact.

Some entrepreneurs address environmental sustainability by -

offering eco-friendly alternatives to traditional products;
suppling traditional products or services produced and distributed with less environmental impact; or
actively promoting or enabling adoption of sustainable practices.

Other entrepreneurs are addressing social sustainability by

helping prepare historically disadvantaged people to achieve professional of entrepreneurial success;
creating new entrepreneurial opportunity for individuals from disadvantaged groups;
forming entrepreneurial endeavors started by individuals from a disadvantaged group; or
actively promoting and adopting more inclusive practices.

Don't worry if your business or not-for-profit doesn't exactly match any of these examples. We're flexible and welcome a discussion about how Sustainable Marketing can help you achieve your growth objective.

Collaboration is the Natural Extension of Sustainability

The world is changing fast and we don't claim to have all of the answers. But we are committed to help promote solutions for climate change and addressing social inequalities by sharing, collaborating and learning from each other. So whether you are a potential partner, client or both, we look forward to stretching beyond traditional paradigms to find solutions for you to succeed while creating a more sustainable future.

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12 Days of Sustainability: Donate What You Don't Need

michael.britton@protellus.ca (Michael Britton) — Mon, 24 Dec 2018 12:43:27 GMT

12 Days of Sustainability is a series of tips to make your holidays more sustainable. If you follow our strategy, you can celebrate the holidays while keeping our future bright. You can find the rest on our sustainable marketing blog, Environicle .

It is the last day of our 12 Days of Sustainability, and we have one more tip left for you! Do you ever get gifts around the holidays that you just don’t need? Even if you return them to the retailer, they still might end up in a landfill. Annually, over 5 billion pounds of merchandise are returned after the holidays that get thrown away by the retailer. That’s a lot of waste!

If you get gifts this year that you can’t use, donate them instead! It’s not only environmentally responsible but socially as well. There are many shelters, charities, and people who would love those items you don’t planning on using. Shelters like Sistering and Na-Me-Res offer programs and supports to marginalized people living in poverty.

Those items that might just sit around and collect dust for you, might be life-changing for somebody else. These shelters often need things like new clothing, toiletries, art supplies, and sometimes toys. So that pyjama set or those body wash gift baskets would be perfect for donating. Anything helps!

This is our last holiday tip, but we’ll always be here for green marketing tips! If you’re a business or organization offering sustainable products and solutions, sign up for our mailing list to improve your digital strategy.

12 Days of Sustainability: Go Vintage

michael.britton@protellus.ca (Michael Britton) — Sat, 22 Dec 2018 10:39:06 GMT

12 Days of Sustainability is a series of tips to make your holidays more sustainable. If you follow our tips, you can celebrate the holidays while keeping our future bright. You can find the rest on our Environicle .

Many people like to get the newest shiny products as gifts for the holiday, but there’s a lot of good quality products out there right now that get forgotten about or thrown out. Instead, give those gently used items some love this holiday season and go vintage instead!

There are many resale and consignment stores around Toronto that buy second hand items—from brand name clothing to home decor—and resell them at a fraction of the cost of buying it new. All these items are still in great condition, they’re just looking for new homes!

If you’re looking for high-end fashion, there are consignment shops like Common Sort or My Dream Closet. If you’re having trouble finding trendy and quality men’s wear, then check out Off The Cuff. Not looking for fashion? You can find furniture, decor, and kitchenware at shops like Around the Block .

You can even get credit through a lot of these stores by bringing in your own lightly used clothing and keeping the cycle going. It’ll keep those items from becoming part of the millions of tonnes of usable products that are thrown out each year.

Looking for more holiday tips? Keep up with the 12 Days of Sustainability by signing up for our mailing list .

12 Days of Sustainability: Raise A Glass

michael.britton@protellus.ca (Michael Britton) — Fri, 21 Dec 2018 08:45:44 GMT

A popular tradition around the holidays is to never show up empty handed at a party. A bottle of wine is the usual go-to gift to bring to a family celebration. This year, make sure you’re bringing a bottle from a local Ontario winery.

Not only is it is economically sustainable to buy local wine, thanks to the Sustainable Winemaking Ontario Certified program from Ontario Craft Wineries, it’s environmentally sustainable too. Wineries like Cave Spring Cellars and Stratus Vineyard are certified sustainable.

If your host prefers beer to wine, then pick up a pack of local craft beer. There are breweries like Beau’s that are just as committed to sustainability. Beau’s has sustainable initiatives from their packaging to their water waste treatment.

If you’re looking for something non-alcoholic, there’s a Canadian brewery that makes non-alcoholic beer! Partake Brewing was meant to bring craft quality to non-alcoholic beer so that people who can’t drink due to illness or other reasons can still participate.

So celebrate the holidays sustainably and inclusively this year. Looking for more holiday tips? Catch the rest of the 12 Days of Sustainability by signing up for our mailing list !

Sustainability: What is it and why is it important?

michael.britton@protellus.ca (Michael Britton) — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 04:07:47 GMT

Three important concepts every business owner should keep in mind.

Some may consider sustainability to be a buzzword popularized as the effects of climate change become more apparent. For Protellus, it is more than a buzzword, it’s a core value. But what does sustainability mean exactly? What does it mean to be a sustainable business or to lead sustainable lives?

There are three major components to true sustainability, according to the Sustainable Development Agenda from the United Nations : environmental protections, economic growth, and social inclusion.

Environmental Protections

Due to the current state of environmental and ecological changes, environmental protections is what we often think of when discussing sustainability. This dimension emphasizes the conservation and restoration of the natural resources required to sustain life.

Environmental protections can include actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions , protect animals and their habitats, reduce water consumption, or reuse materials . These actions, whether taken by individuals, small businesses or corporations mean adopting practices and creating habits that can continue indefinitely without negatively impacting the environment.

Depending on where you are located, there are laws and regulations at multiple levels of government to define minimal standards of business and social practices to protect the environment. But there is usually much more that can be done beyond the requirements of the law.

Economic Growth

For a business to be considered sustainable in the sustainable development context, it also has to promote economic growth . That is, it has to increase the wealth that is available in the economy. This can be done by increasing the available jobs, providing livable wages, and investing in not only technology to improve productivity, but also into workers by providing education and training.

For example, it is not sustainable for businesses to produce and sell products and services if the workers involved in production are unable to meet their cost of living even if the products are produced in an environmentally sustainable manner. Workers unable to meet cost of living are more likely to become more indebted and less able to participate positively in the economy.

If new jobs are created, they are considered sustainable if those jobs stimulate the economies of the regions where they exist. In the above example, it would be more sustainable if the employees were given a living wage, provided with developmental opportunities, and have a reasonable level of job security.

Social Inclusion

Economic growth and social inclusion have similar end goals in mind. They are both about prosperity. Social development takes it a step further than economic growth. For something to be socially sustainable, it should not worsen income inequality or exacerbate disadvantages for vulnerable groups. Social inclusion is about broadening access to the increased wealth.

For a business or organization to be socially inclusive, it has to take steps to actively involve members of marginalized communities. This could mean investing in youths, women, racialized or disabled individuals. These groups are more likely to be low income , even when working.

To actively engage marginalized workers, policies should be established to break down barriers to stable, gainful employment. This can take the form of anti-oppression training to ensure a hospitable environment for minorities, offering programs to train young people in a skill that will help them find future employment, making accommodations for special circumstances, or any number of strategies to promote social inclusion.

Social inclusion is just as important as economic growth and environmental protections when it comes to sustainability. Social inclusion means that lives are being changed for the better.

Marketing Sustainability Solutions

Protellus provides marketing solutions that help businesses and organizations with sustainable solutions to grow, thrive and create positive change. If your organization provides solutions to at least one dimension of sustainability, we invite you to contact us to discuss how we can work together to expand your reach and impact.

Get Marketing Edge for Your Sustainability Business

michael.britton@protellus.ca (Michael Britton) — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Michael Britton is the founder of Protellus. He sat down to explain why he started this innovative business and the connection between sustainability and digital marketing.

Q: Can you elaborate on your professional background. What does your experience add to Protellus?

Michael Britton: I spent 30 years learning and growing as a leader in a complex global business, operating in a highly regulated industry and serving customers that literally depended upon our products and services to save people’s lives.

During that time, I grew revenue, increased profitability, developed great customer relationships, and solved tough business problems across multiple functions. I also made some mistakes and learned many valuable lessons that I think are relevant to Protellus and our clients.

One of the big lessons that I bring is understanding how to transform business teams to achieve the "business quad-fecta", i.e. simultaneous achievement of high levels of customer satisfaction, financial performance, quality and team engagement.

A second big lesson is the difficulty in affecting change when the affected participants are not fully bought into the need for change. I think this is one of the biggest obstacles we face with transition to a more sustainable environment. I don't yet have all of the answers to what works. But I certainly have enough experience to avoid tactics that don't work.

Q: Why did you start Protellus? Where did you get the idea for it?

MB: I founded Protellus because I am concerned about global warming. I want to raise awareness of sustainable options in our day-to-day lives so that it is easier for each person to find and voluntarily make choices that fit their lifestyle while also advancing along their individual paths to live more sustainably.

I also believe that we aren't destined for a devastating future if we each begin choosing to live more sustainably. That means we have to pay attention to our choices and be aware of the environmental implications of the options before us.

Also, when I look around, I don't see enough focus from businesses or marketers to inform and promote sustainable options to the public. So the idea for Protellus is to help raise the profile and performance of businesses that provide sustainable choices through marketing and consulting support.

Q: What does the name Protellus mean?

MB: Protellus actually comes from two Latin parts. The first part - "pro" means “in support of” and the second part - "tellus" means “Earth.” So it’s “In support of Earth.” It was actually a name that my older son suggested. So I have to give him the credit for it.

Q: So you’ve already touched on this a little, but why is climate change an urgent issue to you?

MB: Frankly, climate change should be an urgent issue for everyone. We are the last generation with the final opportunity to steer our species away from a future defined by global warming consequences - acidic oceans, dead coral and marine ecosystems, submerged coastlines, mass extinction of terrestrial and marine species, parched landscapes, increased food and water shortages, environmental refugees, and most likely violence as desperation spreads due to lack of access to the basic necessities of life.

Q: What does sustainability mean to you personally?

MB: Simply put, sustainability is demonstrating good stewardship over the resources that we employ for near term pursuits while simultaneously protecting our future.

Q: What do you hope that clients will gain from working with you?

MB: Ultimately, I want every client to achieve growth and have a greater beneficial environmental impact. I also want them to realize greater capacity to focus on other aspects of their business or personal goals with the confidence from knowing that their marketing is well under control with a trusted partner.

To find out more about Protellus and if we can help you, check out our services here !