Todays’ marketplace is a dynamic and fast-paced environment. Ycommunicate.com inc. is pleased to offer a selection of resources to help you make sense of the changes, trends and other key aspects of Business to Business communications and New Media/Next Media.

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Advertising
		10 Mistakes to Avoid When Placing an Ad Could you be making critical mistakes when you place an ad? Are you considering running an ad in the near future? We have created 10 simple guidelines to help you avoid the most common mistakes associated with advertising.
		An Introduction to Advertising Strategy Advertising is the most common method organizations use to direct communications to specific markets, yet it remains one of the least understood elements of a marketing mix. How strong is your advertising strategy?
Branding
		Choosing an Effective Name When naming a company or product, consider naming conventions and strategies as well as the importance of developing an effective marketing strategy to control the perceived meaning of the name or emotional attachment to the name.
		Your Image – What Is It Saying About You Everyone wants to make a lasting first impression. Find out what impression you may be leaving with potential clients.
Business Process Planning
		A Twist on Business Valuation What is your business worth? This is a question a lot of business owners want to know, whether they are actively looking to sell or not. Discover the three main approaches to valuing a company in this article.
		Competitive Intelligence Using the Web Information on specific industries or companies, understanding media exposure, insight into industry trends, how you can create a competitive edge using the web just by knowing where to look.
		Contact Management Software Compared A breakdown of the top five most popular applications for maintaining and managing your customer data in an efficient and effective manner.
		Hiring for Behavioural Fit – Instead of Firing How do you put the right people in place to get the work done? Analyzing how hiring decisions are usually made, and outlining the concepts behind how they should be made.
		Hiring the Right Person at the Right Price Hiring practices for small businesses that don’t have the luxury of having an experienced HR person on staff.
		Scanning for Deep Impacts A scan plan is an ongoing formalized process that allows businesses to gather information about the marketplace they work in. Read on to learn more.
		Securing Your E-Mail Does your business communicate confidential information using email? This guide introduces you to simple and cost-effective measures you can take to ensure that your email remains confidential.
		Six Keys to Effective Project Management Project management can be a very complex process, this brief guide unlocks the five keys to maintaining an effective leadership role while building consensus within the project.
E-Learning
		The Evolution of E-Learning Discover the newest generation of software that allows companies to develop web-enabled learning through the use of PowerPoint, which combines the business standard for presentations and the industry standard platform for communications, the web.
E-Marketing
		Drawing Traffic to Your Web Site You have built it, but will they come? We reveal some of the basic, but overlooked strategies you can use to draw traffic to your web site.
		Search Engine Optimization You have your web site and you know that marketing it on the top search engines is important, but how do you register and what search engines should you register with? This guide will help you understanding search engine optimization and its importance in the success of your web site.
		The Electronic Newsletter The "Electronic Newsletter" is a very misunderstood medium and completely underutilized in the business world of today. Read more on how Electronic Newsletters can play a significant role in your business strategy.
General Information
		NEW- Consensus: A Warped Perspective Consensus building is an important part of understanding the user’s needs for any given product or service, however there are advantages and disadvantages to focus groups. Read this article to learn how focus groups may distort the true benefits of a product.
		Colour Theory and Meaning Observing the effects colours have on each other is the starting point for understanding the relativity of colour and an important aspect of design.
		Creative Thinking – We Need More of It! Feel like you keep running into the same problems, and never find a lasting solution? Discover the importance of creativity in business, the effect on growth and ways to increase creativity in the workplace.
		The Art of Googling Ever try searching for a specific topic on the internet only to get thousands of results? This guide will provide you with a few important tips and practical suggestions for improving and refining your search technique to get the results you need in the first few pages.
Marketing & Sales
		NEW- 11 Marketing Tips
		NEW- Customer-Centric Marketing
		NEW- Marketing Leadership Part 1 - The Fundamentals The Fundamentals is an overview to the basic process of developing a sound marketing strategy for driving growth and sales of small to mid sized companies; how to champion the process against the push and pull of the marketplace and internal demands.
		NEW- Marketing Leadership Part 2 - The Intangibles The marketing leadership intangibles seek to provide insight into the intuitive aspect of the process that allows us to think laterally and incorporate influencing factors as we move through a well laid out marketing plan.
		NEW- Sales & Marketing for Small Business
		NEW- Understanding Web Sites as a Marketing Tool
		Building Good Marketing Habits Do you have good marketing habits? We review a few essential habits that businesses of all sizes can adopt and reap the benefits.
		Channel Marketing An introduction to Channel Marketing featuring overviews of horizontal, vertical and multi approaches for your marketing plans.
		Checklist: Marketing Assessment The essential marketing assessment checklist for designing your marketing plan.
		Choosing the Best Method for Listening to the Customer Gathering customer information, helping you understand timelines, types of data, cost, and the advantages and disadvantages of each data collection method.
		Clone Displays & Other Trade Show Don’ts Thought you had a handle on what you needed to do to for a successful Trade Show booth? Think again. Some of the most important strategies may not even be on your list.
		Designing a Great Survey By completing 12 basic steps of survey design, you can boost the odds of gathering useful, timely and accurate customer information.
		E-mail Marketing Do’s and Don’ts Understanding these simple rules will help increase your e-mail campaign’s effectiveness by creating a helpful service for your customers, rather than unsolicited bulk e-mail.
		Marketing Assessment Overview If your company is marginally successful in marketing your products and services; you have marketing materials and you’re attending trade shows, advertising and conducting market research, but the results are marginal, it is time for a marketing assessment overview.
		Marketing for the Professional Services Firm An overview of the underlying marketing concepts that need to be applied to your marketing efforts when using a professional marketing firm.
		Marketing Information System (MIS) Basics There are many ways to gather information, and even more information to be collected, find out what information to collect, how to collect it, and how to evaluate its effectiveness once you have it.
		Marketing Plan Checklist If you have a marketing plan, but fear it may not be as complete as it should be, review these general guidelines for developing a marketing plan, recommended communication practices, and assessing your communications needs.
		Staying In Touch With Customers We all know it is usually more beneficial to keep customers than to always bring in new ones, but what is the key to keeping in touch with your current customers?
		The Character of Sales & Selling A humourous look at the evolution of the saleman and craft of selling.
		Understanding the Sales & Marketing Function Do you know the difference between the sales and marketing functions? Each has its own unique role that is important to understand in order to improve the effectiveness of your company’s growth strategy.
Web Sites
		NEW- The Internet Onion - Part 2 The second in our ongoing series of articles about resources and sources on the internet. The topic this time around is Television.
		NEW- The Internet Onion - Part 3 The third in our ongoing series of articles about internet resources and sources for information above and beyond the usual. Topic is Sniffing Out Disinformation.
		Dot Com by Any Other Name Should Smell So Sweet We set out to uncover the meaning of the most common web domain extensions.
		Extranet & Intranet Explained If it is not clear to you what the difference is between the Internet, an Intranet or an Extranet then you should review this guide. It compares and explains the critical roles and benefits to your business.
		The ycommunicate.com Web Site Scale What are your web site development requirements? This simple guideline helps put the whole process in perspective.
		Understanding Visitors to Your Website There are probably, but definitely, four important factors that affect the quick clicking, fickle, time conscious, quality oriented, private - “Searcher”. Learn more about "Searchers" and what you should be doing to attract them.
		Web Site Ethics Guidelines Anyone can post a web site and claim to be an expert on anything. So how do you sort the credible sites from the non-credible? Follow these guidelines for creating and recognizing credible web sites.
		Your Web Site - Is It Ready for Prime Time Is your web site the best it can be? Learn how to make your web site user friendly and functional.

A more comprehensive selection of resources is available in our Client Resources members’ area. To inquire how you can gain access to this additional valuable resource contact us at info@ycommunicate.com.