Buyers looking for the latest products for the upcoming season know exactly where to find them — at ASR. Twice a year the Surf/Skate Lifestyle and Fashion industries invade San Diego to conduct business and preview lines for the upcoming seasons. ASR tradeshow provides an authentic and efficient forum for buyers, sellers, media, and the investment community to conduct business and move the action sports industry forward. It’s the platform that unites brands of all sizes with an unmatched national and international buying audience.

Mike Duncan, Sage Island’s CEO, will be presenting three different seminars during the show.

The Board Retailers Association (BRA) hosts Survival of the Fittest – BRA Retail Certification Programs August 12th, 2010. Retailers are encouraged to take advantage of the trip to the trade shows by attending a full-day of certified retail education focused on current market issues facing specialty retailers.

Strengthening Your Website’s Presence through an Integrated Marketing Plan
Presented by: Mike Duncan, Sage Island Marketing Agency
10:00 am on August 12th

Your website is a critical component of your business. At a time when online competition has never been so fierce, it’s crucial to have a marketing plan for your website that drives results. This seminar, presented my Mike Duncan, CEO of Sage Island addresses the necessity of a well designed, innovative site, and how to properly market it through a hands on  approach of planning, analysis, and optimization. Mike speaks to the art of  SEO and PPC tactics and how to  expand your brand on the web to drive results.

Ten Ways for Retailers to Improve Website Presence
Presented by: Mike Duncan, Sage Island Marketing Agency
Saturday, August 14th at 11:00 am

In the ever changing world of retail, competition has never been more fierce. Your website is a critical component of your business. This seminar teaches a fully integrated marketing approach leading you through the basics of a well designed, innovative site, and how to properly utilize e-commerce solutions. Learn how to build and expand your presence on the web to drive sales and maximize your bottom line.

Leveraging the Power of Social Media
Presented by: Mike Duncan, Sage Island Marketing Agency and Danny Keith, Santa Cruz Skate and Surf Shop
Saturday, August 14th at 2:00 pm

Over the last few years, social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have gone from college networking sites to marketing powerhouses. Businesses today tap into Facebook to reach their audience in more targeted, local, and efficient ways than ever before.  This seminar, presented by Danny Keith, owner of the Santa Cruz Skate and Surf Shop, and Mike Duncan CEO of Sage Island, teaches the latest tactics and applications that elevate social media from self promotion sites to professional lead generating tools.

Twitter is a great way to reach out to your target audience for conversation, marketing, and customer service. But social media outlets require a big time investment, and with ROI still not certain, many businesses choose to invest their time elsewhere.

Here are some of the key points for business owners who want to use Twitter to their advantage but are short on time:

Determine a strategy.

Twitter allows users to follow information in real time. That means instant access to your customers to listen to what they’re saying about your brand, share information with them, and offer instant customer service. Decide which of these objectives you want to accomplish, and develop a strategy to achieve it.

Choose your audience.

Build a network of customers, competitors, strategic partners, experts, colleagues, and other people within your industry circle. Start following them to get their attention, and maintain constant conversation.

Choose your tone.

While traditional marketing is formal, Twitter allows you to converse with your network casually and personally. Don’t just focus on marketing and PR, and don’t automate your conversation. Automated direct messages and tweets make followers think you’re a robot. Social media works best when it involves people connecting with people. Talk to your customers, listen closely to what they’re saying, and keep it casual.

Decide who will represent your brand online.

Twitter and all social media is an online representation of your brand. Be careful when choosing who will represent your business and how. Whether it’s the CEO, an employee, or an in-house community manager, be sure they’re putting the right face on your company.

Start talking.

Initiate conversation about your brand, listen to what people are saying, and be proactive in responding to @ replies and direct messages. Offer information that customers and other people in your network will find interesting — not just marketing and PR messages. Don’t toot your own horn too much, and don’t bombard users with links or repetitive marketing messages. Just like any conversation, these common mistakes will make you boring or annoying to followers.

Twitter tools

Build your network:

Twitter Search (search.twitter.com) – Search for your brand name and key phrases associated with your industry to find users who are interested in you and your products.

We Follow (wefollow.com) – User powered Twitter directory helps you find users that may fit in your network.

Just Tweet It (justtweetit.com) – Another Twitter directory where you can find followers.

Mr. Tweet (mrtweet.net) – A Twitter networking client that helps you discover new people in your industry, find relevant followers, and track usage stats.

Use Twitter:

Tinyurl.com, bit.ly, is.gd and countless other URL shortening services shrink long URLs to Twitter-friendly sizes.

Monitor your conversation & brand:

TweetDeck (tweetdeck.com) – The Twitter client of choice for many busy users, this free program allows you to track your feed, specific searches, and replies in one window.

TweetScan (tweetscan.com) – Alerts you when users mention your brand and related keywords.

TweetBeep (tweetbeep.com) – Google alerts for Twitter. Set it up to tell you when people are talking about your brand or industry.

Twollow (twollow.com) – Auto-follow users who mention your brand or products to build your network.

Qwitter (useqwitter.com) – Notifies you of the last tweet you sent before losing followers. Great tool to find out what you could be doing to turn off followers.

Twitterless (twitterless.com) – Graphs your followers and tells you who stops following you.

Engage your users:

TwtQpon (twtqpon.com) – Create coupons for Twitter to give users incentive to follow you.

StrawPoll (strawpollnow.com) – Poll your followers to find out what they think about your brand and pertinent questions related to your industry.

TwitPic (twitpic.com) – Share photos of new products, office antics, and other cool stuff they may find interesting.

I posted this debate on Facebook and got several good responses. “What comes after Facebook and Twitter?” A funny response of “If I knew that I would be a bazillionare” was made, as well as a smart response from a smart guy who said Foursquare was the answer. Foursquare is indeed what’s hot right now: it takes the cake for hyper local interactions, and is spreading faster than you can say go. So yes, there’s always something newer and hotter, and in this instance I believe he’s right. More Foursquare-ish things are on the horizon.  And when my friend jumps on the bandwagon with the next new venue, I am sure the fresh interactions will be invigorating, and even lead generating. But the question for me is, how do you maintain your presence on any or all of these venues? How do you avoid falling flat or letting the well dry?

My answer to this question is the same as many real-life media experts: establish your own voice and personality, and don’t just try to sell to friends or followers. That gets old pretty fast, but your own persona will never go out of style.  If my friend has stopped getting social media leads, maybe it’s not the platform that’s the problem, but what she’s saying. Sure, the leads may have come much easier in the beginning, but now is when the real work must kick in. Start sharing relevant information, and not just about yourself. Teach people something, make them laugh, respond to others—in short, be a friend.  No matter what the next platform is, no one wants to run a business of hot and cold. So before you jump ship to the next new thing ask yourself: Are all the leads really gone, or did you just stop trying?

As a product transfers from one medium or evolutionary stage to another, it’s normal to try to adapt its legacy nomenclature to fit the new version—all that promotional good will built upon the old product name in the past can be leveraged to promote the new version of the product.

In some cases the product name will continue to be used into the future. However in other cases, the marketplace’s devotion to the legacy name begins to disconnect, and eventually the legacy name becomes obsolete.

I think there’s reason to believe this has been happening with the Yellow Pages.”

Read more at Search Engine Land

A lot has changed in the world of Web design since the company was founded in 1997, but our commitment to innovation and finding the ultimate design for each of our clients hasn’t changed.

We can’t wait to see what’s to come in the next 13 years of Web development.

Photo by brimstone

1/13 All Day
Multichannel Marketing for Retailing
Today’s retail operations include more venues than ever before. As websites compete with brick and mortar stores and catalogs, new media marketing channels such as blogs, Facebook, and Twitter are rapidly growing to compete with traditional advertising. In this seminar, you’ll learn to utilize all of these marketing channels to drive traffic to your retail store. You’ll learn new ways to grow your retail business and reach new customers now. From the basics of driving web traffic through search engine marketing to landing page optimization, this seminar will prepare you to navigate the new retail marketing landscape to maximize your reach.

1/14 11am
Navigating the Social Web
Presented by: Mike Duncan, Sage Island CEO
This seminar will give you tips to improve your website’s promotional strategy through blogging, social marketing, and Web 2.0 results. Learn to utilize the social web to connect with your client base, improve customer service, and generate sales leads. Streamline your blogging and social media marketing methods with the latest tools, techniques, and innovation. You will leave the seminar with actionable tactics you can use to make money NOW.

1/16 2pm
Learning the World of Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Presented by: Mike Duncan, Sage Island CEO
PPC Advertising isn’t just about sponsored search listings anymore. In this seminar, you’ll learn about emerging pay-per-click methods, including product feeds for shopping search engines like Google Base, affiliate marketing techniques, and more. You’ll also learn tried and true methods for getting your business at the top of the search results in Google, Yahoo, and Bing instantly with sponsored listings. Get instant visibility and measurable results for your business with these tips and tricks.

SIA

Fri, 1/29 – 8am
Get started in the world of Ecommerce: Ecommerce for Beginners
Presented by: Mike Duncan, Sage Island CEO
In this seminar, you’ll learn tips and tricks for beginners in ecommerce. From using a Yahoo shopping cart to building a custom ecommerce website with an integrated POS system, this seminar offers simple step-by-step instructions for how to sell and market your products online and where to take your online business next. Utilize the top tools and techniques for ecommerce success along with analytics to track your conversion rate and maximize your selling power. You’ll learn the techniques that make ecommerce giants like Amazon and Endless successful to turn your mom and pop store into an online selling machine.

Fri, 1/29 – 11:30am
Tricks to Improve E-Commerce Website Traffic
Presented by: Mike Duncan, Sage Island CEO
This seminar will outline best practices for analyzing and refining your ecommerce website to maximize your online sales power. Turn your website into a selling machine with optimized graphics and landing pages that convert. We explore how to analyze web data to determine if your category pages, detail pages and checkout process are performing up to par, and discuss best practices to help improve performance and increase revenue.

ASR

Wed. 2/3 at 11:00
Pay-Per-Click Advertising the basics and beyond
Presented by: Mike Duncan, Sage Island CEO
In this seminar, you’ll learn the ins and outs of paid search engine listings as well as emerging pay-per-click methods, including product feeds for shopping search engines like Google Base, affiliate marketing techniques, and more. Learn how to get your website to the top of the search results in Google, Yahoo, and Bing instantly with sponsored listings. PPC offers instant visibility and measurable results for your business. Master it with these tips and tricks!

ECOMMERCE STRATEGIES FOR MULTI-CHANNEL SUCCESS
In this seminar you will learn everything from the state of retailing online to driving web traffic, search engine marketing and POS integration. The digital channel is retail’s new growth engine and you must master this domain in order to be a successful retailer. Learn ten things that you can do to improve your ecommerce website.

The commercial can be seen below and includes iconic American imagery and an honesty that they are hoping will resonate with all Americans.  It is the great American dream in a 1-minute commercial spot.  There is the element of defeat, the one-in-a-million odds for success, to illustrate how GM can no longer continue with their past business practices of many weak brands and an inferior cost structure.

The message of hope provides solutions on how GM plans to give rebirth to the American car. Clearly and concisely GM states how it will change for the future of their company.  By focusing on few stronger brands and models, increasing efficiency, striving for better fuel economy and developing new technology, GM hopes that they can re-emerge as a strong contender in the automobile industry.

The conclusion of the advertisement encourages a focus on success, reinvention and Chapter 1.  For GM, this is a great opportunity to streamline their business to reinstate themselves as a powerhouse in the American automobile industry.  While many Americans and news channels focus on Chapter 11, GM is focusing on Chapter 1, the beginning of a new era of innovation for General Motors.

Feel free to browse the new GM micro-site for their Reinvention of GM campaign to further explore how GM is connecting with their customers.  They are reaching out to answer customer questions and begin a conversation about the reinvention and recent court filing.  While we all hope the best for this American company, it will be interesting to follow how this positioning and conversation will affect American and world-wide consumers.