• Webmaster Tools in Google Analytics
• Google Analytics Intelligence Alerts
• The Google AdWords Offline Editor
• Google Chrome Incognito window
• Google
• Keyboard shortcuts
• Hootsuite
• Advanced Web Ranking software
• Cloud computing
• AdLuge enhancements
• Our sweet new T1 line phone system

Or take this food for thought from our Director of Internet Marketing Jon Dyer:

“Primarily, I am thankful for a healthy happy family both at TechWyse and at home. Let’s put things in perspective here… being able to experience and enjoy our lives and feel in harmony with our direction is what “it” is all about. The passing of Steve Jobs recently really highlighted what is possible when you combine action, intention and destiny and for the next year I hope that I can act as he did in life and business and make positive change for those around me.”

Jon’s sentiments are echoed throughout TechWyse – a very special thanks to all of our family and friends, we love you and thank you for supporting us in doing what we love.

Also, a big thank you to our CEO DJ Kennedy who wasn’t able to join us for our lunch today, hope you get a kick out of these pictures!

Lastly, a big thanks to Melissa, Britt and Michelle who prepared a Thanksgiving feast for the ages. Enjoy!

The unveiling:

The obligatory close-up:

Jon gets carving (looks scary if you block out the turkey):

The spread:

Brett about to gnaw down on a leg:

Eddy looking lively!

Good times in the Rise Lounge

The TechWyse Management Team (minus a few):

Get Involved In Our Heat Map Study!

  If you read about us regularly you know how much importance we place on improving the design of the pages that visitors go to maximize action and minimize bounce rates.  We have recently built a process which involves scanning website landing pages through a heat map. A heat map helps get a better understanding of what people are looking at when they first come to your website.  Powerful stuff!  We are encouraging you to participate in this experiment and are offering the following at half our usual price to the first 10 website owners:

• Heat Map Analysis
• Creative Adjustments
• Launch of creative
• Engagement in split testing

Talk to us for further information!

Have You Been To The Local Listings?

Have you done a search and noticed the local business listings showing you businesses close to you using local maps yet on the big search engines?  Have you typed in your company name but your site is not in the local map on Google?  We can help!  Talk to us and we can get your website added to all of the major players local business directories.  This can help drive more impressions and visits to your website.  If you are a company that can take on local business let us take care of this for you!

Recent Website Launches

Taheri Exchange

The team at TechWyse was originally employed for conversion services to build a new creative concept for the company.  Providing personal and foreign exchange services, we were quickly asked to not only design a conversion friendly concept but also implement the creative within the Joomla content management system.  The result is a rotating flash display in the top sales funnel which reviews services and two calls to action to direct traffic to relevant areas.  You can learn more about this project here.

Visit the website!

Access Glass

Access Glass specializes in the production and installation of custom glass solutions for commercial and residential applications.  Since this client is a full service SMART PLAN client the first component of this project was delivering a creative brand which quickly identified company services.  The site was built to be both conversion friendly and search engine friendly.  Attention was also put into building a product gallery that displayed the great work that the company does. You can learn more about this project here.

Visit the website!

Niagara Auto Auction

Niagara Auto Auction came to us to build an easy to manage website that would quickly show people living in the region when the latest auctions were.  The solution that we offered was a website built with a flash enabled sales funnel and build on the WordPress as a content management system.  We also needed to enable calendar and registration plug-in in order to satisfy some of the client requirements.  The end result is a beautiful, functional and well branded website!  You can learn more about this project here.

Visit the website!

Since our weekly update focuses on updating our readers on the latest internet marketing news and trends we decided that we will use our monthly ‘Rise To The Top Wrapup' to update you on many of the things going on at TechWyse and also some of the service trends that we are seeing in the industry.

This might be considered at times to be one of our more ‘salesy’ updates but our real aim is to let you know what we are up to at TechWyse and give you an idea of what is working for our clients.  In this industry education is key and if our clients are not educated we are not speaking the same language.

If you choose to do something with this information that can help your own company then we have done our job!  So without further adieu…

What’s Up At TechWyse?

Improving Conversion With Google Website Optimizer

TechWyse has now performed hundreds of Google Website Optimizer tests.  If you read many of our posts you will see that we love talking about how to improve website conversion. Simply put – there is nothing more cost effective that you can do for your company then ensure your creative concept speaks to your visitor.  Why spend money on pay per click campaigns if you are not split testing for results? 

In the last month we ran 23 experiments for customers using Google Website Optimizer.  With these 23 experiments we changed a creative element and sent half the traffic to 2 versions of a given page.  In 18 of 23 tests the new version that we built performed better. 

At TechWyse we offer a service called WyseLabs which introduces this testing environment to your website.  It is affordable and can impact your bottom line significantly.  To learn more about this service you can visit this page on our website.

Is Your Google Analytics Code Installed Properly?

We have built a nice little Google Analytics code scan tool which allows anyone in the world to enter a company URL and receive a free report which reviews your website for properly installed Google Analytics & Urchin code and also reports any broken links that your site may have.  Yet another tool that can ensure you are measuring and improving on a continuous basis.  Check out the Google Analytics and broken link scanner by visiting GPablo!

TechWyse On The Radio!

If you are interested in internet marketing in Toronto make sure to tune into your local radio station in April for a special tip from our very own CEO DJ Kennedy!  You can hear DJ on 98.1 CHFI, 590 THE FAN or 680 NEWS over the next 2 months! We love getting your feedback so if you here us make sure to drop us a line and give us your feedback.

Don’t Forget To Follow Us In The Social World!

You can find our updates regularly on Twitter, Facebook and Feedburner!  All you have to do is subscribe!

Recent Website Launches

Bedford Brooks Interior Design

One of the odd things about interior designers in general is that their websites are not always that attractive.  Peter Brooks, a talented interior designer in the Toronto area came to us because he wanted to change this observation.  His website features a clear call to action in his sales funnel, a clear statement of services performed and a dynamic gallery which he can update himself!  Check it out!

The Family Enhancement Centre

Our client came to us wanting to increase both search engine exposure and the visibility of service offerings by the company.  After going through our creative process it was determined that we needed to follow the corporate brand.  We also decided to use a rotating flash piece to clearly show the visitor services offered by the company.  The end result was a clean website with strong conversion principles. Visit the site live now!

That is it for this month.  Stay tuned next month when we begin reporting to you some shared Google Analytics metrics that we are classifying by niche to help you decide how you compare.

TechWyse News & Highlights

Understanding How A Conversion Friendly Website Helps Business

Many prospects come to us asking us to develop traffic building campaigns for them.  We always profess that the first thing to look at before building traffic is integrating conversion friendly principles into your website.  We urge anyone reading this to consider the importance of conversion either by way of a new conversion friendly website or integrating a sales funnel within your website.  Here are some valuable resources to consider in getting the process rolling:

• Great article explaining sales funnel development 
• Some of our latest conversion friendly website design projects 
• Request a Proposal

Email Marketing That Delivers

Do you have a volume of leads or names of people that have requested information in the past?  Do you have a loyal client base already?  The best thing you can do to keep prospects warm or an existing client base up to date on the latest information is by employing a safe email marketing campaign.  The best part is affordability! For as low as $20 /mth you can keep your prospects and clients engaged.  We recommend you review the WHICHABAM! email marketing system and let us know if you need help.

Conversion Friendly Website Development Launches

Speaking of conversion friendly website design, here is some of the latest launches for the month of December.

Wellness & Beyond

Providing services for the body, mind and spirit, Wellness & Beyond offers better health living for clients.  The direction we took with this site was to build a brand which exuded better living.  Soft colors were used along with a flash piece which illustrated the feeling of freedom.  The site includes a sales funnel and has received some wonderful feedback.

You can comment on this design in our web design portfolio!

Truckers Assist

Trucker’s Assist is a Brampton based company operating North America wide offering emergency onsite repair services for clients.  It was very important to the client to develop a site that clearly listed the services offered in the top sales banner along with a very clear way to contact the company for distress calls.  The result is a website that uses rotating flash to explain the services provided along with clear calls to action.  Contact forms and phone numbers are clearly listed on every page of the site.

You can comment on this design in our web design portfolio!

Franchise Law

Franchise Law is an umbrella website for London, Ontario based Siskinds Law Firm.  The website is built especially for conversion and website conversion.  The top sales funnel banner illustrates the core service areas while the quick contact form is used to measure lead conversions.

You can comment on this design in our web design portfolio!

To see all of the latest designs built for website conversion we urge you to view them and interact with us in our portfolio section.

Given that we have recently begun sending our subscribers a weekly internet marketing update the structure of our own monthly update is going to change slightly as well.  While our weekly edition will not cover much of the most recent and pressing news in the industry our monthly update will now focus more on high level business related news and will also show our subscriber some of the latest website launches from the month. 

We would like to remind anyone that is not receiving our weekly update to please email us (if you are a client) or sign up for our daily feedburner update here.

So without further adieu?

TechWyse Service News

Getting Great Feedback for WHICHABAM! Email Marketing

Another month completed and another long list of happy clients signed up for WHICHABAM! Email Marketing.  If you are looking to drip market a list of existing clients and/or sales prospects we encourage people to visit our email marketing website to learn how you can deliver email marketing safely, and measure the effectiveness of your campaigns.  If you know us at TechWyse, you know we like to measure everything!  WHICHABAM! is as good as it gets in terms of ease of use, features and reporting metrics.  Visit the website now to get started.

Holiday Hours

For those looking to get a hold of us over the holidays here is our holiday schedule.  The TechWyse management office located in Toronto, Canada will be away December 24, @ 1.30pm EST until January 4 @ 9am.  As a courtesy all management will be accessible throughout the holiday via email but we do ask that correspondence be kept to emergency level. Our production centre will remain open through the holiday season performing all web development and internet marketing activities.

Week At a Glance Blog

We have responded to the demand of our subscribers.  We now offer a greet deal of information in our ?Week At a Glance? email. If you are not receiving this in your email each week you should tell us and we will add you!

Conversion Friendly Web Development Launches

November proved to be our busiest site launch month in history.  Here is just a small sample of some of our conversion friendly website development launches.

Denim 101

If you live in the Toronto area you may have seen this retail clothing outlet.  This project was exclusively built to establish the Denim 101 brand and appeal to the visitor interested in trendy fashion.  The site goal is newsletter signups and features a cool flash enhancement at site load accenting the Denim 101 brand.  Have a look for the cool zipper!  To learn more about this project visit the TechWyse portfolio page.

WellPoint Health Services

Catering to executive health clients in both Toronto and Calgary the WellPoint project presented us with some unique strategic decisions.  Since the company has 2 locations that deliver very different services to their geographic region, we needed to develop a site which communicated the unique service offerings of each location but presented the visitor with  clean, united corporate appeal.  The result is a consistent website map highlighting the unique characteristics of each location.  Learn more the web project highlights here.  Congratulations to the team on a beautiful website development project.

Real Estate Talk Toronto

Danielle Demerino came to us with an interesting concept for a real estate agent website.  She wanted us to build her a website that was highly interactive, promoted discussion and allowed her to easily manage the content on the website.  We accomplished all of this by building her website with WordPress blog software.  The site features all necessary SEO plugins and social media interaction.  You can read more about this project on the TechWyse portfolio page.  Looks pretty good doesn?t it?

Camstar Services

Camstar is an information technology company.   The project presented us with some interesting strategic decisions.  The company offers different services for its commercial and residential client base and the site needed to quickly drive home this message in order to retain the visitors that come to the site.  Our decision was to use a fresh flash banner which clearly described these different service offerings.  We also integrated the site with osTicket software. We have seen a tremendous improvement in bounce rate and time on site since the site was launched. 

On behalf of everyone at TechWyse, I wish you a happy holiday and best wishes for the New Year!

Don?t forget that you can keep following our updates by adding us on Facebook or following our updates on Twitter.

In this industry, the more knowledgeable you are the more empowered you will be online!

TechWyse Service News

It’s Time To Get Social!

The theme of this months update is all about getting social! All of us at TechWyse are going to great efforts to keep our clients and the internet marketing world up to date with the latest industry and company news.  What better way to accomplish than through social media marketing.  If you feel you are in the dark on how social media marketing can help a business I urge you to read our article discussing this topic!

Social Media Marketing Service

For companies that are looking to develop a persona and following up to date on both industry news and company news we have a service that can make this happen.  Our social media marketing package includes:

• Setup of both Facebook and Twitter profiles.
• Regular content updates tailored to your company requirements.
• Development of a viewership of loyal followers to your company posts.
• Social logos added to public site.

We have several packages available.  While we complete the same tasks in all of them the packages all are associated to the time we spend on the social profile each month.  Ask your Account Manager for more details.

Get Following Us!

You can begin following our updates in the following areas:

• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Follow TechWyse on Twitter
• Receive Our Blog Updates Directly To Your Email

Psst…

In case you missed out on the latest news, TechWyse recently became accredited as part of the Yahoo! Web Analytics Consulting Network.  You can see us on the official YWACN site here!

Website Development Launches in October 2009

O’Hara Technologies

O’Hara Technologies designs and fabricates many product lines of pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and confectionary equipment. Being in a unique industry, the company asked TechWyse to develop a website which would improve bounce rates for new visitors.  This meant building a web site that clearly defined the unique products and services the client provided.  The client also wanted to encourage new visitors to engage the company by leaving contact information.  To accomplish the first goal, the TechWyse team developed a flash banner which demonstrated the product lines with a call to action which allowed visitors to learn more.  Quick contact forms we also placed throughout the website along with a product search which allows visitors to quickly find the information they are looking for.

Wynsum Homes

Wynsum Homes is a property development firm based in Toronto and surrounding areas.  They came to TechWyse with very specific creative and administrative goals.  The client wanted a tool which allowed for a self administered scalable tool which allowed for home searches and the ability to add inventory as their property portfolio grew.  The site features a top banner sales funnel, property search and full content management system.  To learn more about the details of this website development project visit our portfolio.  Good job team!

Animal Dermatology Clinic

The Animal Dermatology Clinic came to us with an existing website that was not converting visitors into qualified leads.  Our goal for the client was to develop a well organized site map and clear content which explained what the core business objectives of the clinic.  The result is a website with a clear top banner sales funnel, a clean core marketing message and a website that has shown huge improvements in website conversion.  The client continues to reap the benefits of a top internet marketing campaign.

TechWyse Service Announcements

As usual, there are many things going on that we want our existing clients to be aware of.

• Have you heard of our new email marketing service?  WHICHABAM! was launched last month and we can confirm that it offers the best email marketing experience in the industry.  Detailed statistics, 100′s of templates and an easy to use interface are all packed into this fantastic marketing piece.  To learn more you can visit the website or contact us to speak to someone  who can give you the information you need!

September 2009 Internet Marketing News

• Jon wrote a great article explaining how to create executive level reporting in Google Analytics.  If you need help setting up custom reporting, we can help!
• Many business owners are still somewhat confused about social media marketing and why business should be excited about it.  Read this article to understanding why your business should be doing social media marketing.
• Should I use SEO or PPC for my online advertising?  Lisa gives you answer!
• For those wondering about which search engines are gaining market share, here is our regular search engine market share report for the month of September.

Website Launches in September 2009

Ve’ahavta

Ve’ahavta came to us to redevelop the website brand of their corporate website.  The requirement was to deliver an attractive website which clearly displayed their business goals and deliver information in a clean, magazine style site.  They also needed to control all the content through a CMS and needed integration with their donation engine.  Our solution was to use WordPress software as the CMS.  This allowed for complete control of site content.  The result was a happy client and a site launched within our original 8 week project schedule.  Well done team!

Sprinting Local Couriers

Sprinting Local Couriers needed take their online brand to the next level.  The previous website was a one page brochure.  The local Toronto courier wanted to build a website that gave it more of an identity.  The result was a snappy logo, easy to understand sales funnel and a web site focused on converting sales leads.  The site was originally scheduled to launch in 8 weeks and was built to order within the specified timeframe. 

Some of our own improvements for the month include:

• an improvement in our campaign reporting systems and frequency.
• laser focus on meeting client review expectations.
• service improvements including lead source identification via phone tracking.
• an improvement in process to ensure all clients are receiving maximum online benefit for all marketing campaigns.

The internet marketing industry is as fast paced and ever changing as you are going to get these days.  Luckily we are all thrill seekers here.  Innovation and corporate strategy is a universal passion for TechWyse.

August 2009 Internet Marketing News

• Lots of stuff happening in the social marketing world.  For a full summary I urge you to visit our Social Marketing Roundup for August.
• Bing has been out for a few months now.  Enough time for us to give a good assessment of all the features being offered on Bing!
• For those interested in how Bing has effected search engine market share.  The short answer is – not much.  The full search engine market share article for August 2009 is here.
• TechWyse released its V2 Google Analytics code verification tool which includes many new features.  You can read more about how this tool can help you ensure your Google Analytics is setup properly and can check for broken links here.
• Google is set to launch its biggest search revision in quite some time.  The Google search update is called it ‘Caffeine’.  Probably due to the enormous amounts of coffee drunken by Googlers in getting this released!
• Speaking of Google, guess who came in first yet again in a yearly study completed by the American Customer Satisfaction Index, for search engine satisfaction.

Conversion Friendly Website Development

Launches in August 2009

August 2009 was an incredibly successful and busy month for the TechWyse web development team.  We cannot possibly list all of the sites we launched in this month but here were a few of our favorites.

AlarmForce

The last site built for AlarmForce was back in 2004.  Since this time a great deal has changed both online and with the company itself.  After going through the TechWyse ‘Power Branding’ exercise, we developed a website concept that would place AlarmForce at the top of the home security industry.  The site also uses a very usable flash interface to highlight core company messages on the homepage.  This site is packed with many features that can be controlled by the company itself.  Some of these features include, ability to manage the comparison chart, update of careers section and content management of many pages.  Visit our website porfolio to learn more about this project. 

Westland Giftware

We always like getting sites that are different for us and the Westland Giftware project was certainly one of those!  This web development project was similar to an earlier project we completed for another giftware company.  The core requirement was offering Westland visitors a full catalog of all the companies products.  The site also features an interactive photo gallery, and a dealer locator.  This website can be fully managed by the company administrator.

Tickets Etc

TicketsEtc is a Toronto area ticket broker.  The site features integration with a ticket inventory management system.  This allows for an up to the minute representation of tickets that are available.  The site creative features a top banner managed by the site admin that can feature different categories and promotions.  There is also video integrated into the concept to ensure higher visitor engagement.

Avacos

We like the environment and so does Avacos.  Avacos promotes the use of solar energy to help protect the environment and future sustainability.  The creative concept of this design project was important.  We wanted to make sure the core message was carried out in the top banner. This was achieved by building an effective sales funnel and implementing a powerful flash piece which helped accent the purpose for the web site.  This was a smaller project for us but a design that we all enjoyed building.

August 20, 2009 – Toronto, Canada – TechWyse Internet Marketing has just released V2 of its Google Analytics Code Scanning Tool for GPABLO. 

The tool was built to allow people that install Google Analytics on their website to verify that the code was installed properly on each page.  It also scans sites for any broken links.

With the enhancements in Version 2.0 features now include all of the following:

• GPABLO PRO users can now create their own login where they can store all of the sites that they want to frequently scan for properly installed code.  This is especially helpful for web developers, internet marketers and digital agencies.

• Ability for users to view scan history.
• Ability to test and retest in one easy step.
• Ability to send reports to other users.
• Enhanced reports show extra information such as Google PageRank for each page.
• For site owners that want to allow local website visitors to scan complete Google Analytics code scans from their own website there is a code scan widget tool which allows for custom color palette’s and cut/paste functionality to your website.

A complete list of GPablo features can be found here.

CEO DJ Kennedy announced the release today; “The goal of GPABLO is to help and encourage the proper use of measurement tools like Google Analytics to website owners, marketing teams and agencies everywhere.  With our latest enhancement we hope that we are making the installation of Google Analytics even more easy for those that use our tool.  We will continue to develop this tool and will respond to every piece of feedback that we get that aids us in the continual improvement of the Analytics community.”

Both the Lite and GPABLO PRO versions continue to be free to use.

Version 2.5 is already in development and even more features will be released in the coming months.

About TechWyse

TechWyse uses an integrated internet marketing approach that bases its foundation on Analytics to help with the continual improvement of website conversion and internet marketing plans.  With headquarters in Toronto, Canada, TechWyse is committed to the continual improvement of the online world via website conversion, traffic building and measurement aids.  Please direct any inquiries about this release or any other material to marketing@techwyse.com

July 2009 Internet Marketing News

• In perhaps one of the biggest announcements of the decade in terms of search engine market share impact, Microsoft and Yahoo! announced a ground breaking 10 year partnership agreement.  In the agreement Yahoo! has essentially thrown in the towel on developing their own Paid and Organic search engine and will instead use both Microsoft AdCenter and the new Bing search.

• To learn more about how current market share patterns are make sure to read the July 2009 Market Share article launched just a few days ago.
• Google announced that it will be launching their own operating system in late 2010 on simple Netbooks.  We would expect this would be only a starting point and it won’t be too long before Google begins threatening Microsoft for market share in the OS business too!  Why?  Google typically does things right.
• Speaking of Google, they officially launched their new Adwords interface in July.  Matt Hogan was not supportive of the decision to make the new Adwords interface live given many of the bugs in existence but over the course of the month they have quickly rolled out some fantastic usability improvements that we like.
• Jon wrote his initial monthly Analytics column for those interested in learning about our Google Analytics tip of the month.
• In Asha’s monthly Social Media market share column we learn that it is really a Facebook and Twitter world right now.

Fun Fact of the Month

Here is something quirky that we found.  Try typing in “Search Engine” into both Google and Bing and you will notice some weird stuff.

When typing “Search Engine” into Google there is no sign of the Google website organically on the first page.  Dogpile (who uses that?) and Bing are both in the top 3.  DOH!

When typing“Search Engine” into Bing we see no mention of Bing on the first page but once again a link to Dogpile is number 1. 

Hey at least the search engines arent being biased!

Conversion Friendly Website Launches in July 2009

Surgical Weight Loss Centre

This was a strategic project.  After launching a fantastic corporate website in December branded after the clinic, we did not want to lose any of the attention that the Surgical Weight Loss Centre’s informational website was getting.  As such we rebranded their informational domain to match the site found at www.swlc.ca.  The result is a more than acceptable carry over of the new SWLC online identity and an easy to read informational website on the lapband system.  Nice job!

New Haven Mortgage Corporation

As a leading mortgage broker in Ontario, the New Haven mortgage website was built to match an existing corporate identity package.  The goals of this site were to reorganize the previous site with a fresh look that would convert site visitors into leads.  The site was an educational process for the client and we are proud to finally get launch this site to the public.  Buying a house anyone?