A Good Mind - Marketing & Business Development

01/19/2023

What's your dream domain name? Our clients are the best, and we love it when they write testimonials about their experience working with us. Here are three of the most recent of 49(!) LinkedIn recommendations about the domain brokering work we do at Name Ninja.

11/24/2022

Featured Case Study:
Big Rude Jake website

I was Jake’s first manager and agent when he was building his first band, The Gentleman Players, and the Big Rude Jake persona. We remained close friends until his death from Cancer in June.

His website had been lost in the chaos of an extended illness, but is needed to maintain the business and provide a legacy for his daughter Hope.

Above all, the goals were to provide a conduit to support for the family, and to give Jake peace of mind in what turned out to be his final days.

We worked quickly to have the site ready to promote the GoFundMe campaign to support him and his family throughout his illness (and we hoped, his recovery).
Jake left us on June 16, 2022, but his music remains a gift to enjoy.

We are honoured to have had the opportunity to provide this website, which ensures that the business of his music has a focal point.

On behalf of the family of Big Rude Jake/Jake Hiebert, it is with profound sadness that we share with you the news of his passing. Jake passed yesterday morning (June 16, 2022) at his home, with his wife Anna-Lisa and his daughter Hope by his side.

10/06/2022

We recently completed this website for Lisa Webster:
Candidate for Island Trustee for the Gabriola Local Trust Committee.

Lisa Webster, aka Altogether Lisa brings decades of relevant experience in planning, environmental management, and impact assessment within all levels of government to the position. Highly qualified for the position, she also brings with her a deep personal concern for the environment and the island she calls home.

Lisa Webster: Candidate for Island Trustee for the Gabriola Local Trust Committee She:kon / ‘uy’ kwunus ‘i lumnamu / Welcome

06/09/2022

The Big Rude Jake show is ON tonight at Lula Lounge.

Lisa Santonato will be video-taping the show as it happens!

Thanks to a lot of teamwork, and especially to Gisela McKay, it will be streaming tonight from this link!

Jakefest: Lula Lounge, Thursday, June 9, 8-10pm. A star-studded fundraiser to help Big Rude Jake fight Cancer. At the Lula Lounge, 1585 Dundas St. W, Toronto. Doors open: 7pm. Tickets: $20 advance, $30 at the door 416-588-0307

05/19/2022

I asked Tina Brooks of Peppermaster Shop for a brief testimonial.

We compromised on this wonderful interview. In it, Tina praises the marketing plan we prepared for her company, and how it helped them weather the pandemic.

I asked Tina Brooks of Peppermaster for a brief testimonial for the website. We compromised on this wonderful interview about her experience working with a good mind. She had many kind words to say about the marketing plan/framework I wrote for her company and its continuing value to her and Pepperm

05/13/2022

At A Good Mind, we feel it is important to give to the community and to present leadership within it.

When the pandemic struck, so did our founder, Gayle Hurmuses. She realized that the pandemic was causing panic and that her local community needed a reliable portal for Covid information and marketing personal responsibility.

On March 27, she established COVID Action Cowichan, a volunteer based information group vetting information about Covid and assuring that the region had the most accurate verifiable content.

The group grew so quickly that it was clear it needed to be part of a bigger group and brought its membership to Volunteer Cowichan. At this point, the group had gained sufficient information about mask construction and the value of masking to launch Mask The Valley, with the goal of generating sufficient masks to allow everyone to have at least one covid-safe mask. Our volunteers made and distributed 15,000 free masks before the supply chains were reactivated and the project was shut down.

Case Study Covid Action Cowichan and the Mask the Valley campaign Selling Covid Compliance Covid Action Cowichan launched as a Facebook group on March 27, 2020. Volunteer Cowichan was the sponsoring organization. Recognizing the severi

05/06/2022

An excellent article by catchword on choosing a company name wisely. Thanks to Name Ninja for sharing it.

My favourite point is #3 Think like a customer. Solid advice, no matter what you are doing.

Naming your new company is a huge opportunity. Get it right, and you’ll have a powerful tool to express your brand and engage your customers. Get it wrong, and you might render your company invisible, or call attention to it for all the wrong reasons. Take it from us, company naming is not for the...

05/06/2022

A Good Mind was approached to rebuild the Affinity Global website through a LinkedIn message, on the referral of an associate.It was a great experience working with Affinity Global's then CEO Scott McIlroy and his team.

The result was an excellent website update, built on a solid infrastructure. We filled it with fresh images that represented the company, their mission, their clients and their staff.

The story of that project is related in the linked case-study.

How can we help you?

Case Study Affinity Global A complete website refresh Affinity Global (AG), needed to refresh their website, affglo.com. They were happy with the content, but it was visually unappealing and unconvincing, with technical issues that were costing them traff

04/28/2022

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) seeds links to your website in selected search engines and websites. Like seeds, they need to be planted diligently, properly, and at the right times.

Living in farm country is a great place to ruminate on the importance of doing things when they need to be done, rather than when they are convenient.

Currently, a neighbour is having to commission new machined parts for a tractor after running it for two years with a bad oil pump. His mechanic kept on him to do the maintenance in the off seasons, but was put off "til later".

Money was not the issue. The money was there and it will be much more costly to have the parts machined than to have had them maintained.

In the first place, it already has added costs because of the lost oil. It now will cost more than the maintenance because the parts must be remade.

Much more important however, is losing the use of the tractor unexpectedly at a time of year when it is most needed, and lessened work productivity over the past two years

The problem here, was losing sight of the importance of the tractor working optimally, rather than "just fine" or "okay".

Like tractor repair, SEM is a maintenance function that is always worth doing continuously. Your sales pipeline requires constant refilling to irrigate the potential you have seeded.

SEM, SEO, and Social Media are all important business development tools that need to be constantly honed in order for your business to flourish.

Contact A Good Mind for your digital farming needs.

I'm not only a real farmer on the land, I also understand how it works in the digital space.

agoodmind.ca/our-services/search-engine-marketing/

Our Services: Search Engine Marketing (SEM). Illuminating your online presence. SEM helps ensure that your website is seen by the people you want as customers, clients, or supporters. At the same time, it prevents competitors from targeting your company’s native search traffic, hijacki

04/21/2022

Search Engine Optimization, AKA SEO is about more than simply using clear language, but it is an important part of the practice.

Imagine that your store is on a small side street and you want your customers to find you there.

Because you are a cheerful breakfast place, you have a bright, big, colourful sign standing out from the building. There are equally colourful tables visible outside of your door. The people who find you will be those who are looking for a place just like that, even if they aren't sure yet that they are hungry.

Or maybe you are a hardware store and your sign says "Wrenches, Hammers, and Hoists for home improvement". Either way, you are using the most basic principles of Search Engine Optimization. Your sign and decor are a targeted message, aimed at speaking to your ideal customer, reminding them to eat, or that they need to buy materials for a project.

The goal is not just avoiding jargon, or even ensuring that you are using jargon your potential clients use.

We help you discover the questions your customers have, what they are looking for, and are asking the internet to answer. We then help you answer these questions in terms that they are using and will understand.

We help make sure that your cheerful breakfast bistro, or your useful hardware store are each visible to the people passing your digital corner. We research to find out what brought them to your neighbourhood, and what will help them notice you there, and give them comfort in approaching you.

We ensure you are speaking to people in the language that helps them to hear you best. We help you answer the essential questions they have, so they will be comfortable hiring you.

Our Services: Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Plain language wins sales. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) doesn't only help people find what they are looking for.It reminds them of the tasks they may have forgotten, and helps them find solutions they didn't even know to ask about.If

04/15/2022

While commenting on updates to the A Good Mind website last week, Tom Vassos noticed something missing. He pointed out that we had not been detailing the marketing efforts made for art projects created by our founder, Gayle Hurmuses.

As today (or possibly yesterday, this is in dispute) is the anniversary of Ray Condo's passing, it was a timely reminder, so we prepared this page about the campaign for Ray Condo's Rock and Roll Party to be published today.

Thanks to the many supporters of and contributors to the book project, and to Gisela McKay for her excellent work on the website and getting this page ready for today.

Case Study Ray Condo's Rock'N'Roll Party! Marketing a Canadian Music Legend In the late 1980s and early 90's, Gayle Hurmuses was the manager and agent of Canadian Rockabilly legend Ray Condo's Montreal band, The Hardrock Goners. She pho