The Trusted team are absolutely invested in the Trusted Partners across Saskatchewan. We do what we can to give as much value and to help them as much as possible,  as their success is linked absolutely to Trusted's long term success!

We have hosted Trusted 4 hour lunch and learns followed by networking events  in both markets recently,  to educate the Trusted businesses about the importance of a good online presence, social media and how to mange and build a solid online reputation. Sara the Trusted founder believes that local businesses need to know WHY online is important and she shares her knowledge as an expert in local SEO and marketing with the Trusted partners, so they keep ahead of the curve and their competition in todays rapidly changing marketing landscape!

We had well over 100 attendees from over 70 Trusted Businesses across the province attend ..and the events were catered by Trusted partners and held in Trusted venues! Great food, Great company, Great music  & invaluable education.  

Here we share just some of the many messages of appreciation, testimonials and words of support that the partners have taken the time to send us after attending the sessions.  These business owners and managers took the time out of their busy schedules, as they understand it is just as important to work ON your business as it is to work IN your business if you want to have the most success!

THIS IS WHY WE LOVE WHAT WE DO AT TRUSTED HQ!!

" Thanks for the luncheon on Monday; met some new people and ran into some old faces. I know the SEO and social media work we’ve done with YOU GUYS and Trio has really done a lot to keep us on track with (if not slightly ahead of) the big fitness franchises moving into the city in recent years (gone from a 6-8th place Google rank to 1st-2nd place). Having learning what I’ve learned over the past few years, these days I actually enjoy spending time on all the different areas of our internet marketing, be it Instagram, FB, Blogging etc. I know events like this will help all the other Trusted Partners see the value in it and does for them what it has for Fitness Focus. Hope to see you guys again soon, thanks again " GARRET BLACKWELL , FITNESS FOCUS HEALTH & ATHLETIC CENTRE Trusted Saskatoon Gym & Fitness Experts -Dedicated to improving wellness in Saskatoon.

 "So.. you really DO know what your talking about!! ;) Had an hour long conference call today with guy doing our on line marketing stuff. He said same stuff about things you did. Actually I know you know your stuff it was good to verify that this guy is on same page and not just some guy taking my money! Let me know what you think or any suggestions. Between what he does and what you do I want to dominate my categories on line locally! Thanks again for yesterday too. I am ridiculously busy right now and would have been ticked had it been a waste of my time! now I am edumacated. " Rick Griffith - PRESIDENT / GENERAL MANAGER Premium Home Leisure - Trusted Saskatoon Outdoor Living & Hot Tub experts.

"Trusted ,you are amazing ! Want to set ups meeting with you an our tech guy next week. Thanx so much for everything," Laddie- Hairstyle Inn - Trusted Saskatoon Salon

" Fantastic information! I can't wait to put some of this into use! I need to jump in with both feet! Look out world!!! Thank you for the Lunch & Learn! Learned so much! " Imagery Photography, Trusted Saskatoon Photographers

" Morning Sara  Im having trouble deciding who in my company NOT to help understand social media. If I  paid extra for lunches etc, could I get more than 2 people there? You offer so much value to the Trusted partners I cant understand why www.trustedregina.com isn't full.... but we all heard the story about leading horses to water..!! " Duane, Halcyon Spas - Trusted Regina hot tub and Outdoor Living Experts

" Great presentations on Social Media Marketing by Sara and Trusted Team A great perk for Trusted members! " Virgil Reed, Reed Security - Trusted Saskatoon and Trusted Regina Alarm & Security experts

" Good morning , Truly enjoyed the presentation yesterday, a lot of information to sift through and to put into practical application. Thanks again for hosting a wonderful and educational event. Best Regards " John Cave www.jandspicture.com - Trusted Saskatoon Framers

"Thank you Sara and staff for a wealth of useful information and insight on social media. I realize that we have a lot of work to do on Google business. The presentations were very organized and easy to follow. As usual - a real class act! Thanks to all involved. Action creates Action! We sold the show home. Thank you so much for your help once again!I " Lorena Sawchyn , Emerald Park Homes. Trusted Regina Home Builders

" Enjoyed the day and hospitality. Thanks and take care! " Mike Armstrong , Armstrong Wealth Management Group part of Richardson GMP Trusted Saskatoon Financial Experts

" SUCH a great job Trusted team!!! Thanks so much for the great food, drinks, networking and social media education! I can't wait to put it all into ACTION! " Michele Strawford, Fotobella - Trusted Regina Photographer

" Thank you so much to you and your amazing staff for all the great information and tips!!! I have learned so much from you already and am grateful to have learned that much more. I am looking forward to the future session! " CNG Stone team , Trusted Regina Countertop experts

" Very good seminar, hopefully we can take advantage of knowledge imparted to us in the very near future! " Shane Foster , Accurate Construction - Trusted Regina Window & Door and Renovation Experts

SMP Saskatoon ‏@smpchev · tweeted " Had a great time with all our trusted partners at the social media luncheon put on by #trustedsaskatoon! :) @Trustedcanada " Trusted Saskatoon Auto Dealer

The networking events are fun ..but they bring leads and business too!!

"  Good day. Thanks to the trusted team conference help, . because of that conference I met the wonderful business people like Mr. Duane of Halcyon Spas. He asked me to do the stripping and waxing their vinyl floors last night and I did my part now they will try our cleaning services for weekly cleaning to their office. I greatly appreciate your idea founding the great directory. All the best and God bless u. " Nick , RSC Commercial Cleaning- Trusted Saskatoon Commercial Cleaners

Check out the amazing ' Trusted and social media themed' cake from PickNics Catering - Trusted Saskatoon caterers 

Trusted offers the best investment for your marketing dollars- more than any other medium...and more importantly we are well positioned in this new marketing landscape- if you are interested in finding out more, to see if it's a fit for your business contact us today by clicking here !!! 

We received a wonderful email from a happy Trusted Regina Partner today ....we love our job and we love that we are able to help such wonderful local businesses in so many ways, it really shows how our commitment to ADDING VALUE INCREASES TRUST & LOYALTY with our clients  !!

" Thanks for the great seminar last week and thank you for taking the time to meet with Brian and I this morning. Now to put this knowledge to work !! We know slow and steady is going to win this online race. Could we pick your brain at tiny bit more, just name a time , and we will met you here. Thanks again, it certainly was our pleasure spending time with you. Have a great afternoon and Many Thanks again. "

How Much Does Marketing with an ad agency, marketing company , social media company and video companies really cost?

At times Trusted partners and prospective partners don't know how to measure their online marketing success , and they may not realize the full VALUE of the many extras only Trusted offers our clients...

...You might want to grab your fainting chair — The industry average marketing rates will give you a case of the vapors. Not your Trusted Marketing Services in Saskatoon, SK though.

Blogging

Custom design and template creation most Charge – $1,000-$3,000 /month

Writing/Editing Content for the blog plus ongoing training – (Assume 1-2 posts a week at this rate) Most Charge – $1,000-$3,000 / month

Ghostwriting blog posts – Most Charge – $75-$200 per blog

Cost to Trusted partners- FREE

Twitter

Set up Twitter account and personalise Most Charge – $500-$1,000 one time fee 

Ongoing Account Management and Training – (For this service, the more content you need provided for you, the higher the fees) Most Charge – $500-$1,500 a month

Cost to Trusted partners- FREE

Facebook , Google Plus, Linkedin and You Tube

Initial Setup Most Charge – $500-$1,500 one time fee Trusted does it for FREE

Monthly Content Management and Creation –Most Charge – $1,000-$2,000 a month Facebook Promotion Creation- Short-Term (1-3 months) Contest, including branding for the app, limited promotion on other channels such as Facebook and Twitter to promote the contest. Fee doesn’t include prize and Facebook Ads to promote – Most charge $1,500-$20,000

WE PROMOTE TRUSTED PARTNERS INFO ON FACEBOOK to 1000's of local consumers FOR FREE and actually invest in Facebook ads for individual partners for no additional cost!

How Much Does an Audit of your social media cost?

What if you just want an audit of your current strategy with an expert consultant, with a few pointers on how to improve? Better bust out the AmEx, because it's going to cost you anywhere from $2,000-$10,000.

Trusted does it for FREE

Cost of videos ( comparable quality to Trusted videos )

Average cost for 2min video - $500-$750 

Cost for creation of 25min ‘ slideshow’ Talk to Experts style video with audio bed - $500 -$800

Cost for 2-3 Minute ‘tour’ Video with music bed - $1,000 - $3,000.

Cost of a Talk to the Expert RADIO Show with 21 x 30sec radio ads running week of show to promote

$2000

Trusted invites partners on the show for FREE and pays to promote the partners via Facebook for a week before 

SEO Consultation

- $200 - $500hr plus travelling expenses

Trusted does it for FREE

The average Trusted partner invests just $4000 a year in Trusted ..and we offer all this as additional value, along with dispute resolution, mystery shopping, free catered networking events, a coop rebate program, a Trusted gift certificate program, online reputation management consulting, free booth time and individual promotion at local trade shows and a category specific local Google Adword campaign.

The Trusted team are confident that we offer more value and a better service than anyone in the advertising world...  so the question has to be WHAT do your Yellow Pages, Radio, TV, Magazine, Newspaper reps and other media companies do for their money ....

Contact us if you want to find out more - Sara@trustedcanada.com 

Sources - 

http://www.mackcollier.com/cost-of-social-media-in-2012/ 

http://www.contentfac.com/how-much-does-social-media-marketing-cost/

So does your marketing work? How do YOU measure the effectiveness of the medium and the company that you choose to advertise with ?

Many business owners expect their customers or the public to tell them where they got their names from and how they ended up calling/ visiting them .

The hard fact is, is that it is simply NOT THE CUSTOMERS JOB to remember or even care where they found you or heard about you....so if this is the main way you measure,  you need to re think your position!

Of course we understand the need to know what works and what doesn't work, especially for the small- medium businesses with limited marketing $'s to invest, local businesses  like the ones we promote and partner with on www.trustedsaskatoon.com  and www.trustedregina.com directories.  

Sara the Trusted Online Directories founder sold advertising in the past, everything from Yellow Pages to Radio and was frequently asked about measurability from clients. She always said if you get busier and the only difference is that you have bought something new, chances are that is why you are busier! This was true especially of long term consistent branding radio campaigns ,  as lets face it, customers rarely walk into a retail store and say " Hi, I heard your ad on the radio on Wed morning and decided to come in and see what you had " .

Yellow Pages was a different beast,  as much of time customers were calling businesses like plumbers etc..with the book in front of them, so when asked on the phone where they got the companies number from they said immediately Yellow Pages , even though lots of times they were searching specifically for that business because they had heard their ad on the radio, or they had seen their van at a neighbors house and that company was ' top of mind' in that category for them at that moment- which should be what every company strives to be!      

Now lets talk about the internet - the ultimate tool of measurability we are told, yet many businesses still don't have a website, nor do they understand how measurable,  measurable really is and most don't know what to do with the data, or what it means.  

The Trusted websites are local directories with local resource libraries attached and as such people go there for a SPECIFIC NEED not just a read like other local websites that carry news, weather , traffic reports and other entertainment.

When we sell the product we make sure to explain to the partners that we do not sell CLICK through's, as it is not an accurate measurement of the Trusted product. You see our directories have very comprehensive listings with a lot of information to help the consumer to make their decision, and the consumer can contact the business right there- we make it easy and this mostly means the consumer doesn't click through to the businesses site unless they are super interested and want even more info than what has been provided. We would expect other online directories that just list the basic details- name, number, www, category  and a sentence or 2 about the business to have a much higher ' CTR ' ( Click Through Rate) as people look for more info to base their decision on. You see people in Canada spend 75% of their total shopping time online these days- research is key ( and if you can't be found you will LOSE the chance of getting the sale completely !!)  

So we were pretty interested ( and a wee bit surprised) to see the analytic data from 2 of our partners on www.trustedsaskatoon.com. We are sharing the source traffic data - that shows how visitors to their website actually got there and I think you will agree we have just proved our worth...

Case Number 1- company listed in Kitchen and Renovation Categories on the Saskatoon directory 

• www.trustedsaskatoon.com is the 1st referring source after Google.
• The most time spent on the website is from visitors from www.trustedsaskatoon.com( this indicates quality and engagement)
• Trusted team helped this company set up their Facebook page and help them manage the content to get the best results from social - clearly it had helped.

Case Number 2- company listed in Auto Repair and Tire Categories on the Saskatoon directory 

• Number 1 referring source after Google
• Way ahead of any other online directory ( this company advertises in Yellow Pages)
• Great level of engagement 
• Currently doesn't do much with Facebook and what has been done has not been that effective - we are helping them to implement a new plan and expect to see this have an immediate effect on the numbers. 

So absolute proof of the valuer of Trusted - analytics don't lie :) 

If you want to meet with us to chat please contact us by emailing sara@trustedcanada.com

The Trusted team strives to keep up with the innovations in marketing and advertising as they happen.. we 'WALK the WALK and TALK the TALK' . Trusted is super active ( and effective) on our many (SM's) social media platforms, we blog consistently and we have a fantastic new Trusted App.

' New media ' is constantly changing and it is important as a business owner and / or marketing person to take the time to keep yourself informed (and on track) with new developments, so you can see how they may influence and affect your businesses bottom line now and in the future. When we find great information we share it with our partners and friends here on the Trusted Canada blog and in person, after all, that's what being social is all about.

Have you Googled your category locally lately? If not you should,  as like many others you may be wondering why your search engine rankings have dipped suddenly? Watch out! You may still be unaware of the latest version of a Google update named “Penguin” & “Panda” Series update!

So, each year, Google changes its search algorithms innumerable times. While most of these changes are minor, every few months Google runs out a ‘major’ algorithmic update that affects search results in significant ways...if your rankings have dipped significantly then you need to make some changes to your current website. Whether that be yourself, the ' web expert' in your business or the web designer or outside consultant that you turn to for web help don't delay!     

In short: Old SEO strategies are passé. To stay ahead in the game, you need to be in tune with these ever changing prerequisites. If you thought your website could get away with:

• Links from pages having no content

• Poor quality links from irrelevant sites or links from site JUST crammed with ads

• A static site that isn't updated

• Not having a blog or blogging the same content for multiple submissions or providing poor quality content 

• Absence of Social Media strategy in the overall SEO plan

 Your rankings will suffer!

At Trusted we keep a track of all these unpredictable Google updates for our Trusted partners  and we don't just explain why and how but we  also help them  tackle these changes before they start to hit their rankings and organic website traffic.

Firstly just BEING part of Trusted really helps their SEO!!

Here we share our SEO strategies that are attuned to the latest Google Panda update:

• We link ONLY to sites that make logical sense and we steer clear of deceptive, ad-heavy sites.

• We use mostly unique and always top quality, relative content, every single time we blog...and we blog ALOT ( up to 52 times a month)  

• We incorporate Social Media in the best possible way and that generates a lot of quality  traffic

• We focusing on local search and that is what GOOGLE focuses on when it comes to the kind of businesses we partner with.

But most importantly we don't try to cheat Google rankings or cut corners- we work hard to provide everything that Google values and considers when doing these updates and in the end that is what will win out - It's ALWAYS better to be good than to be slick ...!    

Doesn’t Let the Panda Devour Your Rankings! 

If you are interested in applying for Trusted Regina directory  or Trusted Saskatoon Directory and benefiting from our expertise contact us today!