Localism: Providence County, RI

My daughter's gym class in Pawtucket--one thing good about the city

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 19:41:39 -0600

I said in my posts that I really do not like cities. But I love the city for one thing, all the programs for kids. In the city,because the density of the population, it is possible to run many programs as per the rule of economy of scale.

Below is a picture of my daughter's gymnastic program. It is sponsored by the city of Pawtucket. The city runs four sessions a year. This session runs from Sept to Nov. My daughter just loves it.

The picture was taken right after the week of Halloween.

New comers to Pawtucket, RI, please asks me for all the activities in the city.

What is Your Agency’s Internet Marketing Strategy for 2009?

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:51:55 -0500

As we close out 2008, now is the time to plan for 2009. Most successful insurance agents agree that the Internet will play a major role in how customers research and select an insurance provider in 2009. According to a recent study by the Association of Independent Insurance Agents, 85% of all new insurance customers will start their search on the Internet. The question is: how will you maximize this opportunity?

Historically, insurance companies have relied primarily on word of mouth and limited advertising to grow their business. Some insurance companies have tried but failed to take advantage of the opportunity offered by the Internet. This is due to a lack of a clearly defined Internet marketing strategy. At Astonish Results, we’ve found several key components must be present in order for the modern insurance agency to be truly successful in this lucrative market.

* A simple-to-use, highly interactive website that highlights your products and builds value in your brand rather than selling price, converting unique visitors into leads.

* A clear vision and commitment which is communicated from top management.

* FOCUS. If 85% of customers are searching on the web, are you committing 85% of your focus on capturing them?

* The right marketing to drive traffic to the site online and offline, including the use of search engines, email marketing, and placement of your URL.

* Promote all your products and generate more leads for the phone and Internet departments.

* The right process to turn leads into applications and sales. The key to the process is how well people use the phone and email to sell the application and follow-up.

* The right people having great sales, phone, and follow-up skills. It’s easier to teach good salespeople technology than to teach technology people to be good salespeople.

* The right metrics. The best insurance companies measure their peoples’ performance daily and weekly rather than at the end of the month, when it’s 29 days too late to change the results.

* The right tools. Tools are available that can automate a large part of the process which allows an insurance company time to advise more customers and grow their book of business without increasing personnel costs. These tools also automatically send reports to management to alert them when certain tasks are not completed.

* Execution. The fact is that most people do not fail because of a deficiency of knowledge; it’s typically because of a deficiency of execution.

2009 is just around the corner. Shifting consumer behavior will require the best agencies to adjust their marketing strategy to meet the growing demand of Internet customers. Will your competitors meet this demand head-on, will you spend another year talking about how the Internet has adversely affected your business?

Hope is not a strategy, and thinking about a problem is not an effective plan.

Call Astonish Results today and learn how you can become one of the growing number of modern e-agencies who have adjusted their strategy and dominated their market. 2009 could be a very big year for your agency!

meeting with 37signals.com CEO Jason Fried

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:01:15 -0500

Last Tuesday (Oct 15), I was attending the seminar by Jason Fried who founded the 37signals.com. The event was sponsored by RI Nexus. I want to share a few things with fellow ActivRainers here.

1, Simple is king.

Jason started a web design firm before he founded 37signals. He mentioned that initially, he used a rather long contract form. Later, he found that he can sign a contract that is only 2 pages and still got the job done. Finally, he reduced the contract to only ONE PAGE and still got the job done and everybody is happy.

Same thing for his company. His company tried to focus on some key features and had them done nicely. He tried to keep the interface simple as well.

His employees work at simple environment. No fancy mansions. Just a quiet place that people can work.

2, Different people can work together from all over the places.

His firm got less than 20 people. They are all over the places. Actually, even employees in the same city work at different places.

They got the job done very efficiently.

3, Everybody only works 4 days a week. How do they got the job done? Go figure.

4, The company pays employees' hobbies.

This is very interesting. The company encourage employees to pursue hobbies and actually for it.

5, No non-competition clause.

I specifically asked this question as most high tech firms require people to sign a non-competition contract. He said it is a stupid clause and it is hard to enforce it and play not use at all.

He said he tries to make every employee happy rather than force them to work there and make it difficult to leave.

I raised this question because I recently left a company that I worked for and they have a non-competition clause which I hate it. Also, I want to know how to keep employees as in the US, people change jobs in 5 years on average.

Anyway, that is all I have now. I will add more if I recall more things.

This is intersting: For sale: 2 East Side (Providence, RI) houses, for $10 each

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 09:25:22 -0500

For those non-Rhode Islanders, this news might be interesting. Two houses that are for sale for $10 each.

For sale: 2 East Side (Providence, RI) houses, for $10 each

I am not sure if I can re-post their article. So I would just post a partial screen capture here.

For those marketing-savvy people, this might be a good thing because your purchase will surely gain lots of publicity.

If you are out of RI and need to tap the RI market (not only real estate.) I think you might to buy these two property. Even if for marketing purposes.

I am interested in making this into a marketing event as well.

I want to mark today's Gas price:$2.61 (Oct 21,2008)

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 22:43:38 -0500

Today on my way to work, I try to record gas prices whenever I have to stop for traffic. Below are today's gas prices in Providence area.

One Hess also shows a price of 2.61 but I missed the opportunity to take a picture. This Sunoco is pretty cheap. I do not why. In Providence area, usually Hess offers the lowest price.

Well, with gas prices continue dropping steadily, I guess we realtors and business brokers can hit the road again. I have been scheduling my appoints together so that to save gas. I even cancelled some unimportant appointments. Now, I feel I need to be more active.

What is your local gas price?