Don't Want To Build Your Own Website? We'll Do It!

So just as we announce that we're starting a blog to help people build their own websites using the online web builder at OnlineWeb4u.com, we would also like let everyone know about our web design services at LRS Consulting.

If you want a website done quickly, professionally, and for a relatively low price, our web design services are for you. Watch the video embeded below to get a better sense of what our web design services entail (if you watch the video you'll realize that we put the emphasis on getting your website listed in the search engines to get you results rather than primarily on the design aspect).

New Design for LRS Consulting Website

Hey all, just wanted to drop a note to say we just finished a redesign of the LRS Consulting website. We really tried to overdo it with video because really, who likes reading a bunch of text anymore? Anyway, the intro video for the site is embeded below. Head over to http://www.lrsconsulting.ca/ to check out the rest.

On Using Online Video for Small Business

Online Videos can be used to help small businesses in basically four ways:

1. Online videos are an effective way to bring your website and entire web presence to life
2. Online videos are useful to help boost the search engine rankings for our client's websites.
3. Producing online videos can go a long way to positioning your business as an authority in the industry
4. You can use online videos virally to drive traffic to your website

Blogs and RSS Feeds for Small Business

A few thoughts on using blogs and RSS feeds for small business:

Blogs and RSS Feeds can be valuable promotional tools for small business. Sean Stefan of LRS Consulting (http://www.lrsconsulting.ca) offers this quick and simple explanation of small business blogging, and distributing it using Feedburner.com.

Promote Your Small Business Using Social Networks

A note on promoting small business using social networks:

Social networking and communities can have a big impact on your business. LRS Consulting (http://www.lrsconsulting.ca/ and http://www.reginabusinessblog.com)/ provides this analogy: People are always looking for answers online. So if you want to be known as the authority in your industry, you need to be the one providing those answers to your prospective customers. In order to do that, you need to go where your customers are and more and more we're finding that that means places like Google, YouTube, and Facebook.

Search Engine Optimization for Small Businesses

Quick chat about search engine optimization in this video for the LRS Consulting website re-design:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an important aspect of small business internet marketing. LRS Consulting (http://www.lrsconsulting.ca) incorporates SEO strategies into all the projects we handle implementing their LRS Small Business Internet Marketing System.

Email Marketing - Our Services vs. Outlook

This video was shot as part of a series of videos that will be included in our LRS Consulting website re-design. The video description we wrote for YouTube is below, but it's only two minutes so why not just watch it instead?

Email marketing for small businesses is often done using a personal tool like Microsoft Outlook. At LRS Consulting (http://www.lrsconsulting.ca) we use Infusion CRM software with all of our clients to ensure maximum deliverability, no data entry, and tangible results through click through and open rate reports. You'll know exactly who opened your emails and who clicked on your links. Make sure you check out our Regina Business Blog (http://www.reginabusinessblog.com) for our small business marketing tips.

First Page Google Results in Days - Not Months!

The online conversation lately has revolved around Rich Schefren's Attention Age Doctrine 2. As you know if you've been to this blog lately, I've been trying to borrow the attention of Rich's audience to promote our free e-book, Changing the Way You Market Your Small Business.

Well, we've turned up on the first page of Google for the search term "Attention Age Doctrine 2" for one of our videos. I got this Google ranking in a couple of days, not the months that it usually takes to get highly competitive search engine listings. Check out the results in the video below.

Rich Schefren's Attention Age Doctrine 2 Video Promotion

Rich Schefren's Attention Age Doctrine 2 is a free report out just a few weeks ago and is receiving huge attention in the online marketing community. Rich Schefren is the guy internet marketers turn to when they need advice. He has built his business Strategic Profits into a multi million dollar company in a few short years by distributing great free online content.

To promote The Attention Age Doctrine 2, Rich and his team have put together a video contest asking his subscribers to create a 66 second video talking about the things they took away from reading Doctrine 2, and what they are going to do with the information. The video is also intended to get others to download The Attention Age Doctrine 2.

I thought this was a great idea on a number of different levels. First, Strategic Profits really gets how valuable viral video can be for publicity and to gain links to their website. Second, I thought it was a great idea to put to use what Rich was talking about in the Doctrine 2 - borrowing attention from people that have it. So that's exactly what I'm doing.

I created a video to enter the contest. Of course I'll try to get tons of votes to win this thing because it's -30 degrees celcius here today and one of the prizes is the chance to attend an amazing marketing seminar in Florida. But I'm also using the attention this video will generate to promote my own free products at our website www.lrsconsulting.ca. I have a ton of ideas that I think are great, but unless others get to hear them those ideas are useless.

So I'm doing what Rich said, find out who has the attention and leverage it to help your own ventures. Well, right now Rich Schefren has everyone's attention online so I'm going to borrow some. I'll have more to say in the coming days about this whole experience. It's been a lot of fun.

The video I submitted appears below. Please visit it at YouTube and leave your comments, or simply comment on this blog post.

A la Carte Services from LRS Consulting

Have you looked through our marketing packages and like our ideas but aren't sure if any of them are quite right for your situation? As this video demonstrates, we just love helping small businesses. So if you have a marketing problem, let us be the solution.

Visit www.lrsconsulting.ca to get in contact with us. We want to help you.

Hire a Marketing Department For Your Small Business

Chances are if you're a small business owner, you are the marketing department. You respond to the ad salesmen and let them write your ads with a little creative direction from yourself. Wouldn't it be easier if you had a team of marketing professionals working for you to create and implement your marketing plan for you?

That's what LRS Consulting is all about. We can be your marketing department. Let us work with you to create a marketing plan for your small business.

Because marketing is so much more than just running ads, we'll coordinate your referral programs, customer communications, customer databases, copywriting, internet marketing, search engine optimization, online video, and so much more. We won't leave a single stone unturned when developing a plan to help grow your small business.

Check out our small business marketing packages here.

Email Marketing PLUS Package from LRS Consulting

This video outlines our more advanced email marketing package. If your business is looking at tracking the results of advertising campaigns, running contests, and communicating with customers when you're running a sale, promotion, or special event, this package is for you.

For $349/month, we can help you use your small business website as the hub of your marketing activities. Check out the LRS Consulting Marketing Packages here.

Targeted Email Marketing Services from LRS Consulting

This is the first in a series of videos we created to promote some of our consulting packages. Unlike a lot of consulting firms that will just make recommendations, we actually help small businesses implement systems that get results.

This video talks about our email marketing services. If your business wants to start collecting a list of customers to communicate to directly through email and direct mail, this package is for you. And for the first few clients we sign on, we've got a special rate of $149/month.

For more information, visit the LRS Consulting website.

Saskatchewan born entrepreneur stars in internet reality show

The first thing noted on her bio is that she was born in Saskatchewan. Some of you may even know her. Her name is Jaime Luchuck, and she is Saskatchewan's connection to the first internet reality show - The Next Internet Millionaire.


The Next Internet Millionaire is the creation of Joel Comm, an internet marketing guru who has written a NY Times Best Seller called The Adsense Code. The show, which is currently airing it's fifth episode, is basically an online version of The Apprentice for internet marketers. Contestants are competing for a $25,000 first prize and an opportunity to participate in a joint venture with Joel Comm, who made $750,000 with his last joint venture partner.


The production of the show is pretty amazing considering the quality we have gotten used to with online video. The only downfall I find is that people are still getting used to the idea of watching 30 minute to one hour videos on the internet. That being said, this show could be the start of big things for online programming.


Online content is changing the way people make money and the revenue model for the show is extremely clever. In a thirty to sixty minute video, they only incorporate a few blatant commercials into each episode. They get around commercials by using in-program sponsors, and have a special guest mentor for the competitors each episode. Not coincidentally, each of these guest mentors has an online business with something to sell. There are ads placed below the video player that click through to a sales pages for info and software products as well as options to opt-in to email lists.

Online marketing is changing business. Watching this show and learning about the business model has really got my mind going about the opportunities that exist on the internet. We've already started on a few projects with our own business and with our client's businesses to really take advantage of the internet. We're also looking to put these ideas into action for more businesses. Are you interested?

Sean Stefan is a marketing consultant with LRS Consulting focusing on using the internet to help small businesses take off.

P.S. My favourite to win the show is Charles Trippy, the video marketing dude that is way smarter than his uninterested appearance would show. Pretty funny too.

You can watch the trailer to The Next Internet Millionaire below.

Tracking visitor information on your small business website

If you have a website for your small business, you should have a traffic analytics program to monitor how well it is performing. While you won't know the identity of your visitors, you will be able to gather some key statistics to evaluate how your search engine optimization (SEO) and marketing campaigns.

When small business owners spend money on advertising and marketing, they want to know the results they are getting in return but very rarely are able to. So if you use your website as a call to action in your marketing campaigns, you can use website analytics to monitor the success of the campaigns.

Tracking visitor information is more than just having a hit counter on your website. You can find out where your traffic is coming from, what keywords people are searching for, monitor your search engine rankings, and find out what pages are being visited.

For more information about how to implement analytics into your website, email me at sean@lrsconsulting.ca or visit us online at http://www.lrsconsulting.ca/.

Regina, Saskatchewan Booming!

This just in, Regina is the place to be. The economy is growing and more people are migrating into the province than out of it for the first time in a long time. It was front page news in this morning's Regina Leader-Post, with multiple stories talking about the positive outlook for Regina and the rest of Saskatchewan.

A Conference Board of Canada Study has Saskatoon's GDP growth targeted for 4.7%, overtaking Calgary for biggest growth in the country. Regina is forcasted at 3.5% growth, the fastest in a decade. The attitude in Saskatchewan is decidedly positive, making now the perfect time for entrepreneurs, businesses, skilled labourers, and home owners to position themselves for success.

LRS Consulting team member Sean Stefan and his wife Katlyn have been active in the quest to change attitudes about Regina and the province of Saskatchewan. As members of the RREDA Future Leader's Group they helped put on the "Think Regina" event in Calgary this past May. In today's front page Leader-Post feature, Jill Welke of RREDA reports that there have been 20 confirmed hires by Regina companies that can be directly traced back to the Think Regina event.

Sean has also been pictured in a recent billboard campaign (seen below) running throughout Alberta. The campaign is an initiative of the Saskatchewan Government's Advanced Education and Employment, advertising the Saskjobs.ca website.
His name was passed along after having the chance to tell his and Katlyn's story about choosing to settle down in Saskatchewan after spending time in Alberta. The two met working in Alberta, where Katlyn had spent nearly her whole life. Katlyn made the decision to move to Saskatchewan to finish her business degree, but after the school year the two moved back to Alberta to work for another summer. Coming to the end of their degrees, they had to make a choice about where to settle down and Regina turned out to be the only real choice. It was a place where the two could make an impact in their careers while balancing that with an enjoyable personal life. They now own a home in Regina, recently got married, and have great career potential (Sean with LRS Consulting and Katlyn with Meyers Norris Penny). That being said, they still have plenty of time to spend with their beagle puppy Finn, play some golf, ride horses, and spend plenty of time out and about in the community.

Sean has told this story when he had the opportunity to speak alongside Mayor Pat Fiacco and outgoing ISC President and CEO Mark MacLeod at the Think Regina event as well as others with a passion for Saskatchewan at the most recent I Love Regina Day festivities in Victoria Park in June.

It's just one story, but for every one you hear there are plenty more out there. Saskatchewan is becoming the place to be in Canada, and in Regina business is set to take off. Are you on board?

Why does a business need to blog?

A backyard BBQ at a friend’s place this weekend sparked an interesting question that I’m not sure I had a very good answer for initially. But after giving it some thought, I think I’ve come up with an answer to the question; why does a business need to blog?

The question was actually about why we have this blog for LRS Consulting. Directly it makes us little to no money. We’re experimenting with Google AdSense but until we build up a much bigger following, it will be a while before we see our first cheque from Google. So why do we allocate time to writing blog posts that don’t generate revenue? Why should any small business allocate time to writing blog posts that don’t generate revenue? Here are a few reasons:

1. To add personality to your online presence.

There are so many websites out there that it’s hard to know which ones are from legit people and which ones aren’t. Everybody is hesitant of being scammed, especially online, so the more trust you can build with people the better.

Even if your business has established a trustworthy, recognizable brand, you still need to show your personality. Everything else being equal, people like doing business with friends. By communicating with your customers through your blog, people can get to know you and your business and in the process start to feel more comfortable about doing business with you.

2. To build your credibility.

Everybody and their dog claims to be an expert at something. But in order to prove that you know what you’re talking about, you need to provide some evidence. Writing a blog gives readers a peak into the knowledge base that you possess.

3. To improve your search engine rankings

Search engines love sites that have regularly updated content. The definition of a blog – a site that allows content to be updated regularly. A properly optimized blog gets great rankings from the search engines. By linking to your main site from your blog, you’ll also start to generate some traffic to your website as well. If your website is any good that should generate some leads for you and eventually turn into a few sales.

It’s also helpful to write regularly for your own good. Writing should be a learning process in itself. A blog helps you create a journal of things that you know and can help you document information that you can use to create a sales pitch, marketing materials, or employee manuals.

Another question that I got this weekend was “How many hits are you getting on your blog”. I could answer that question in quite a bit of detail, but most website owners can’t. I’ve got a video in the works right now explaining how we use website analytics to evaluate our web presence. I’ll post it in the next few days to give you a peak at what information your website could and should be providing you.

Sean Stefan is a marketing consultant with LRS Consulting Inc. His focus is on helping small businesses integrate the internet and all it’s tools into their marketing programs to achieve measurable growth.

Can your customers find your small business website in the search engines?

Can people find your business in the yellow pages? Most Likely. Can people find your business in the search engines? Maybe, maybe not.

Search engines are becoming the new yellow pages. Google and the like have made it so easy to search for the information you need, there is less of a need to use the yellow pages. But while many businesses spend hundreds and thousands of dollars to be found in the yellow pages, very few businesses are doing anything to be found in the search engines.

It doesn't happen by accident. Contrary to what some web designers will tell you, just submitting your website to the search engines will not get you listed. It might actually hurt your chances of being listed. Search engines have programs they call spiders that crawl the net looking for websites. Those spiders need a way to find your website through links on other sites, and your site needs a way to tell those spiders what your page is all about.

This video about the LRS Consulting search engine optimization services demonstrates how important it is to be found in the search engines and how it hurts you if you aren't. If you are interested in finding out how to get your business listed near the top of the search engines, get in touch with us at info@lrsconsulting.ca. We'll provide a free evaluation of your website, if you have one, and identify how you could be getting more out of your internet presence for your small business.

Big Rider Labour Day Win Offers a Business Lesson

There was a football game on the weekend, did you hear about it?

Of course you did, and a good portion of the Saskatchewan population did too. It’s amazing how the Saskatchewan Roughriders have created such a buzz in this town. The buzz is exaggerated when they are off to the best start to a season since 1970, but that buzz is there even when the team is losing. People just love to talk Roughriders.

The annual Labour Day game on Sunday demonstrated how Rider fans have created a feeling inside Mosaic Stadium at Taylor Field that is tough to match. My wife Katlyn and I have season tickets and love going to the games. It’s not just because we enjoy football and the Riders, but because it’s fun to get behind something that so many other people are passionate about as well. The Riders have created a brand that nearly everyone in Regina and all across Saskatchewan is behind. They have created that brand by working hard on the inside reality of their organization and making sure that reality is portrayed to the fans.

So why aren’t you trying to create that feeling for your customers with your small business?

It’s the experience that people buy, it’s not the product. That’s why the Riders have a stronger fan base than the Toronto Argonauts even though we have a fraction of the population. It’s still a football game, but the experience is different.

There’s endless examples of teams and businesses that provide a better experience than others. The Red Deer Rebels seem to sell way more tickets to much more enthusiastic fans than the Regina Pats even though Red Deer is half the size of Regina. For some reason Pat’s fans seem to be the most subdued in the WHL, and this is in the same market as the Rider’s thrive in. The Pat’s just haven’t been able to create a product that people can get as passionate about (with the exception of the 2001 Memorial Cup).

But enough sports analogies. If you have a special occasion restaurant, people don’t pay for the food, they pay for the experience. If you sell insurance people don’t buy a policy, they buy piece of mind and security.

Your job as a small business owner is to find out what people are really buying from you. Then figure out how you can shatter their expectations and provide them with that thing that they’ve been searching for.

Sean Stefan is a marketing consultant with LRS Consulting Inc. and is a regular contributor to the Regina Business Blog. Send your comments to sean@lrsconsulting.ca.

LRS Consulting Website Design Services

A screen capture video providing a brief introduction of the website design services offered by LRS Consulting. We use the online web builder at www.onlineweb4u.com as one of the tools to help us build and host websites for small businesses. In addition to the web builder, we use other tools to help create customized headers and page layouts, add video, and incorporate online sign up forms to help create and manage your customer list.

Some of the websites we've built include our own LRS Consulting website at www.lrsconsulting.ca, our Restaurant Marketing.ca website at www.restaurantmarketing.ca, The Diplomat Steakhouse website at www.thediplomatsteakhouse.com, and our newest project with Saskatchewan based mortgage brokers The Mortgage Group Prairies Division at www.saskhomebuyer.com.

If you are interested in having us build a website for your small business, send an email to sean@lrsconsulting.ca.