Freshbooks is a web based invoicing service that helps you stay organized, track invoices, record billable time, and collect payments from your customers. The more we use it, the more we like it. Being completely web based means that we don’t have worry about a computer virus killing our billing system and database – It’s all protected off site on the Freshbooks servers. This is a big plus to anyone that has had to deal with hardware crashes.

Over the next few weeks we will be transitioning all of our clients over to this system, and for most it will be completely seamless, but some may notice a few nice changes.

Paperless Billing

We are moving toward complete paperless billing. Your invoice will arrive via email to speed up delivery, reduce any post office mishaps, and to save a few trees. Most of our customers are already receiving their invoices in this manner and it is working very well. This means less clutter on your desk and we’ll be able to track who has read their invoice and who has not. It should really help speed up the whole process and help keep our cash flow more consistent.

Due Dates

Until now, we have never printed a due date on our invoices, or felt that we had to enforce any set terms, but as our client list (and overhead) grows, it becomes a strain on your business when a several clients get 30 to 60+ days behind on payment. Our new invoices will be due net 15 in order to alleviate these problems.

Online Bill Pay

We are currently setting up the online bill pay feature of Freshbooks. On your future invoices you’ll have the option to paying your invoice immediately with a credit or debit card. We feel that these changes will not only provide more convenience to our clients, but also help maintain our cash flow so that our business can grow and provide better services for you.

We are also considering implementing recurring monthly billing via credit/debit card for our clients that are a flat rate monthly retainer or website hosting fees. Stay tuned for more updates.

Businesses are jumping on the social media bandwagon in droves, but are they doing it correctly? The corporate world has used broadcast media to get their message out for decades, but treating social media like broadcast is the biggest mistake many businesses will make with thier SMM (social media marketing) campaigns.

Today’s social media audience doesn’t care about your sales and product announcements. They want to interact – They want useful information – And they want to know that they are communicating with a real HUMAN.

Tone down the sales pitch and start asking questions and interacting. Show that you are interested in what other people have to offer, and consider giving away some useful information for free in return. Social media marketing is not a spectator sport – You have to dive in and contribute to the information superhighway if you want anyone to notice you.

What does your social media campaign contribute?

The school’s partner in the experiment was Dessert Gallery, a bakery and café chain in Houston that had no previous social media presence. Before launching the store’s Facebook page, the school surveyed nearly 700 of the chain’s regular customers. Those same customers were invited to become fans of Dessert Gallery on Facebook once the page was created. Seventy-five of those respondents accepted.

Dessert Gallery wasn’t shy about using its fan page once it was launched. The store updated the page several times a week with everything from pictures of its baked goods to contests to playful promotions.

After three months, the school once again surveyed the respondents. It turned out that Facebook did have an appreciable impact on their behavior. Dessert Gallery’s Facebook fans visited the stores 20 percent more often than non-fans and spent 33 percent more overall. They didn’t spend more money per visit than non-fans, but they did spend 45 percent more of their dining-out budgets at Dessert Gallery.

The fan page seemed to yield intangible benefits, too. Dessert Gallery fans reported a greater emotional attachment to the brand: 3.4 on a four-point scale, compared with 3.0 for non-fans.

Read the rest of these amazing social media marketing results written by Douglas Quenqua over on ClickZ….

I love working with local marketing talent right here in Kingwood. The amazing Kerry O’Malley, El Presidente of Marketects Incorporated, called me in to assist on the development of a website for SalesXpress.

SalesXpress is a specialized manufacturers’ sales representative group, based in Texas and primarily servicing Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Mexico. They have years of experience in the plastics industry and a wealth of knowledge in technical product procurement, material recommendations, and the latest product technology.

Kerry is an expert in industrial marketing, both online and off, and it was a joy working with her on this project. We were able to produce a clean, professional, and accessible corporate website (including a content management system that allows the client to perform their own updates) in only 2 weeks.

Exciting things are happening at World Class Horses in Tomball Texas. A massive 32 stall mare management and foaling facility was recently raised. A fully equipped in-house lab which includes the most innovative equipment in the equestrian breeding industry has been expanded. Computer systems you’ll only find at veterinary universities are being used in their new laboratory to provide the most successful equestrian breeding results possible, and they’ve hired Apache Advertising and Design as their marketing consultant.

At the core of this operation is David M. Riddle. Mr Riddle specializes in stallion reproduction with a focus in cooling and freezing semen for all horse breeds.  A true horseman; David has in his past earned the title of High Point in the Nation overall in 1996, and has achieved 14 World Championships.

The image shown above is a sneak peek at the new World Class Horses website, which is the first project undertaken by Apache. Magazine advertising, e-mail marketing and print collateral are all on the drawing board at this very moment. Look for these items to appear in our portfolio early this year.

The Broadband Summit was an excellent opportunity for me to speak about the importance of online reputation management, and to unveil a proposal I wrote that would offer affordable website, email marketing / fundraising, and online reputation management services to every member of the NFWL.

What is online reputation management?

Anything that you publish online, or someone else publishes about you online, becomes your online reputation.

With all of the wonderful conveniences the Internet has brought us, it also has a dark side.

It used to be that the only media was print, television and radio, and the great majority of those outlets were professional. These media outlets researched their stories and made sure the facts were straight before publishing their news

We live an a time where anyone can pull out a camera phone, record you, publish the video online out of context and damage your online reputation in minutes, and it doesn’t even have to be true.

With the advent of faster paced social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, which allow users to spread information almost instantaneously, false allegations and rumours can now travel at a speed never before seen. I’ve heard it described as “word of mouth on steroids”, and that sounds about right to me.

How can online reputation management help?

Online reputation management involves monitoring all online content that is published about you, evaluating if that content is positive or negative, and then deciding if any response or strategy is needed in order to remove or push negative results down in the search engine results. Many of the same skills used for search engine optimization can be utilized to help control your online reputation.

Online reputation management will become more important in the coming years for elected officials and businesses alike. For more information on how Apache Advertising and Design can help elected officials and businesses control their online reputation, please give us a call at 832.971.4905 for a free consultation.

- Matt Hoffpauir