KS2 is proud to be an active member in many of the best business groups in Calgary.

Look for us at the upcoming meetings listed below.

Calgary Chamber of Commerce

- Aug 25, Contact Club Luncheon-Sponsored by the Geek Patrol

- September 15th – Business After Hours & President’s Cup Kickoff @ the Calgary Soccer centre

Airways Business Association
- August Golf Fun Day

Better Business Bureau
- no upcoming meetings

Calgary Executive Association
- August 25th, September 1st – Regular Meetings

Business Builders Calgary
-- August 25th – Regular Meeting

Beware the latest scam

In circumstances eerily reminiscent of previous scams, a group calling themselves Yellow Business US or Yellow Pages United States has been targeting the Edmonton area of late. Calgary cannot be far behind, if customers here aren’t already getting the calls.

The callers associate themselves with the name Yellow Pages and then ask for credit card information.

For our YellowPages.ca clients, do not provide any credit card information to callers who are not directly with KS2.

In rare circumstances where the Montreal based billing department from the Yellow Pages Group is calling, they will clearly identify themselves as being with YellowPages.ca and identify that you are a KS2 client. If in doubt, call us before you provide any credit card information.

These scams are unfortunately not uncommon, and many of our own clients have lost money to the Internet Registry of Canada scam and the Yellowbusiness.ca scam.

You can read the Competition Bureau’s news releases about these incidents here.

Internet Registry director fined for bogus invoice scam

Competition Bureau Investigation Results in Sentencing for Phoney Invoice Scam

If you think you may already have been contacted by one of these groups please call your KS2 representative at 403.228.1800.

Report: Local Business Web Presence Grows, Marketing Lags

Local business owners increasingly see the Internet as key to connecting with customers, yet rarely use it for marketing, according to new research.

The Kelsey Group released results of a poll it commissioned of 300 small businesses whose customers and suppliers are mostly within 50 miles to gauge their use of the Internet. The Princeton, NJ, consulting firm found that the majority said the Internet is an important factor in their businesses succeeding. Two years earlier, just 35 percent said the Web was important.

Read the full article ...

Creative Ways to Grow Your Business

KS2 is always working hard to find cost-effective ways to market that turn into real ROI for our clients.

Today’s Tip: Build your website for your clients

Story: Seems obvious right? Yet most of the re-design projects we get involved with started with a website that was not built for the end user. Here are some classic traps to avoid:

• Rinkydink.com – the website built to be as cheap as possible instead of as cost effective as possible. There is a difference. Ask yourself what your clients expect, what they will use the site for, and what kind of investment is appropriate. There are design options to suit every budget and you need not spend a lot of money. But if your budget doesn’t match your clients expectations, you are better of with nothing than becoming known as rinkydink.com
• The Glitzy Design Firm – Other clients spend thousands more than they need to and as a result will never generate a return on their investment. We call them websites built for your design firm, not your clients. Match your website to your clients and your budget to your business model, and you can never go wrong.
• Search Engine traps – We’ve all seen them: websites that rank highly in Google or Yahoo but once you get there they are cluttered, unattractive, and do nothing for you as a client. The result? You go elsewhere. These are sites built to make search engines happy, not your clients happy – or your bottom line. If you spend more time worrying about alt tags then about what your clients want, chances are your site is built for the wrong goal.
• Vanity Sites – you are no doubt the key to your own business, the reason your clients come back, and an expert in your field. Unfortunately if that is all your website talks about then you had better be your own best customer as well, because your users want to know what is in it for them.
• Intrusive sites – Contact forms and information requests are good ways to get to know your clients and qualify who is serious and who is not. But if you ask for information before your clients are ready, or before you’ve given them enough value, they’ll simply go elsewhere.

What does this mean to your business? If you’re wondering why your website is not making you money it is most likely because it’s not designed for your clients. And if you are not making money, why have a website anyway?

If you know your site is one of the above, we encourage you to take action. If you think it might be and want a professional opinion, call KS2 at 228.1800.