We all know how important it is to stay healthy, especially as we age. We are continually bombarded with articles, studies & reports on how exercise and a healthy diet can increase your life expectancy, help you maintain or reach a healthy weight, put off the onset of Alzheimer’s, help with balance thus decreasing falls, etc… (Do we really need to keep funding research to keep telling us how important exercise is?)

But most of us are busy people (especially in this industry), working, caring for family (young & old), & trying to keep some sort of social life, among many other things… How do you fit in the workout? How do you make it worth the time lost to other parts of your day?

Following in the footsteps of other companies like Google, Blue Cross/Blue Shield and local health systems, New LifeStyles made it a priority for their employees by entering the Texas Round-Up, a State sponsored event to raise awareness of the importance of exercise. Once a year the program kicks off and encourages employees of participating companies to exercise & log it on a website. If you reach the goal of  2.5 hours of exercise/week (30 min., 5 times a week), you get a certificate from the state. To sweeten the pot, New LifeStyles, and many other companies are offering other rewards to the employees who reach their goal. A nice gift certificate and a little competition between colleagues can really get things going!

 Is a fitness program something you could incorporate into your business/office? What would you have to do to get people to participate? Does your state have a similar program? Ask around and get some feedback. You may be surprised that people just need a bit of encouragement, as we all know what we should be doing.

Stay Fit!

JC

PS Congrats to New LifeStyles for winning the Silver medal in the Corporate challenge for companies with <100 employees!

New LifeStyles is currently finalizing arrangements to bring each of our area guides to our web site in an electronic format to give the user another way to access valuable information on senior housing and care.  The user will be able to virtual flip through the guide, just as if it is in their hands.  The links from ads to listings will be live, as will map index numbers and links to advertisers’ web sites.  It will be the same exact content as our senior area guides and will be an additional benefit to advertising with New LifeStyles, as there will be no additional cost to our clients.

While the demand for our print product continues to be strong, this gives us another way to reach the senior, family member or caregiver who wants to browse through the various options in one of the areas covered in print, without having to pinpoint a specific type of housing or level care.  When people come to our web site this will give them another option and increase the value of using NewLifeStyles.com.

We look forward to debuting our virtual guides in the coming weeks.  If all goes as planned, they will begin appearing on the site in early May and 1-3 will be added each week.  The digital guides will be updated every six months, close to the same time the new print guide for that area comes out.

If you have any questions on this new service provided FREE to all visiting our site, please contact your Sales Director.

Thanks!  Doug

New LifeStyles recently promoted David Moore to focus specifically on enhancing the distribution of our print guides.  While print is not “the wave of the future”, our guides are still very popular and in demand and we feel the investment is worthwhile.   Not only that, but we have thousands of clients that demand our best effort in all aspects of our business.

Budgets are tight, so it is not easy to fill every need your company might have.  That got me thinking ( a dangerous thing), if you did have unlimited resources what positions would you hire for your company?  While some of the duties these people would have might be the partial responsibility of current employees, if would be great to have someone to focus solely on some of the “pie in the sky” areas:

The Director of Common Sense – Many times we get so caught up in our daily duties and in the way things “have always” been, that we don’t sit back and think logically about ideas and plans.  We rely on outdated trends and somebody figures out a way to justify a project.  Before any major change in strategy, new product release or significant investment, the Director of Common Sense would descend from their lofty perch, dressed in late 1700’s costume and review to see if the decision passed the common sense test.   It’s amazing how many times you see a commercial, another new high-rise condo development or a “cutting edge” product and say, really?  Who thinks that will work?

Manager of Desk stacks inventory – We’re all busy, fewer people have assistants and most of us keep our calendars on some cool phone/garage door opener/GPS/music device.  We do a pretty good job of getting to the right place at the right time (sometimes on the right day, even).  But, important things seem to disappear into the abyss know as, “that stack on the left side of my desk”.  This person would inventory each stack on a daily basis, load it onto a computer and download that to the desk occupant.  Increase in organizational effectiveness, priceless.

Fridge Cleanout Engineer – It’s great to be able to save some money, know what you are eating and even control some kind of a diet.  The key is having a fridge in your office, along with a microwave or toaster oven.  But, how often do leftovers get left in the back, much like the treasures of King Tut?  Way too much.  The FCE would maintain constant watch over spoilage, establishing procedures and sweeping the back shelves for future biology experiments on a regular basis.  It’s almost Easter Fran, I think you can toss the Christmas goose!

The Fashion Cop – We all try to maintain some kind of dress code in our places of business.  For some, its business formal, no exceptions, maybe the rare casual Friday.  For most, this area has become a very gray, hazardous area.  Shorts?  How short?  Jeans?  How tight, how many holes and where are the holes permitted?  Sleeveless for women?  Well, a bikini is sleeveless.  Sandals?  But, what’s the difference between a sandal and a flip-flop?  Here’s where the Fashion Cop comes into play.  This person is anonymous, but all powerful.  They sit behind two-way glass and determine what is within policy and more importantly, in good taste!  Their compensation exceeds the CEO.  All e-mails from them are final and non-negotiable.

These are some of the hirings I would make.  You??

If your web site is more than five years old, you may want to consider a re-design. This doesn’t mean changing everything on your site, or even the flow, but giving your site a new look and feel.

New LifeStyles recently completed a re-design on our site including:

• A fresh look and feel to match our print guides for better branding
• Shorter forms to increase leads/orders
• Easier navigation to make it easier & faster for users to find what they want
• Change in flow so users see value before we request any personal information

These “minor” changes have resulted in a:

• 21% increase in time spent on our site
• 14% increase in page views
• 32% increase in users contacting clients
• Increase in orders

 Is it time to revisit your site design? Are the colors, logo & pictures up to date? What can you do to make the site easier to use? The more you put into your site, the more you will get out of it!

Let us know if we can help!

You have your own business and someone suggested that you get a website, because now-a-days a website is a must. So you had a website developed. Now what?

1. Make sure you have provided keywords/keyword phrases for your site.  Keywords are important because they tell search engines like Google, Yahoo and bing how to find you in the vast sea of existing sites. The web designer places keywords in the back of the site. What makes your business stand out? What words would someone type into a search engine to find your particular industry or type of service. Good keywords can help fish your site out from among the many others in a search.
2. Keep your site fresh. Just because the site is up and functional does not mean that your job is over. DON’T ABANDON YOUR SITE. If an article is written about your business, get a link to the article to post on your site. If you provide a newsletter or calendar, update it accordingly. Search engines frown on outdated information.
3. Try adding a Blog or Forum.  Blogs need to be maintained on your end and updated consistently. And they keep people coming back to your site to view the next posting. Forums invite viewers to participate in conversation on your site. These site enhancements may seem like more work, but the results can be beneficial. Blogs and Forums keep your site active and flowing with new information.
4. Remember Social Networking. Begin a page on Facebook, Twitter or Linked In. Starting pages and chats in the social networking arena can create a buzz. People may then look for more information from you, which can lead to more visits to your site.
5. Don’t get discouraged.  It can take a little time for a new site to move up  on those humongous search engines. Thousands of sites are vying to get on the first few pages. So do your part. Don’t just depend on Google, Yahoo and bing to do all of the work in bringing viewers to your site. Tell people about your site. Put your website address on all of your advertising. Let everyone know your site is there.

Your website can be a valuable tool for you, if you use it as such. To purchase it and then shove it into the toolbox is a mistake. Maintain it, sharpen it and keep it active. Then it can do the job that you need it to do.

By Vicki Fields, New LifeStyles Client Web Site Content Manager

What are you getting from your site? Are you tracking results, traffic, leads, calls, etc..? What are your goals for your site?

A web site should be treated like any other marketing & advertising campaign. You should be calculating your return on investment & tweaking it to reach your goals.

• Traffic – How many visits/unique users do you get monthly? All sites should include some type of reporting software so you can log-in anytime & check your traffic. If not, sign-up for Google Analytics. It’s free, and offers a tremendous amount of information. You will have to embed a Java script in the footer of your pages, but this is not a difficult thing to do.  Along with how many visitors your site is getting, you can also see where they are coming from. This will help you in tracking performance on online ads thus helping you decide where to spend your money online. You can also see which pages are looked at most, the time people are spending on the site, from which page they are leaving the site and more. All of this data should be compared monthly and changes made to better the # of visits, time spent on site, traffic to important pages, forms completed, and other goals.
• Leads – Do you have an email form on your site? If so, where are the emails going? Are they being followed-up on within 24 hours (hopefully less)? How many are being completed vs. how many times the page is viewed? If you have a high abandonment rate on a form, you may want to re-work the questions or cut down on the number, so you get more completions.  If you don’t have a form, make sure you have an email link & that you can tell it comes from your site (set-up a new email address or set the subject line when the email link is clicked). And again, track the number of emails coming in. What are they asking? Is it something that should be added to your site?  If the goal of your site is to get people to call you, how are you tracking the call referrals? Does someone ask, or do you have a number dedicated to the site? Do you offer services locally or regionally/nationally? If regional or national, do you offer a toll free number? Make sure calls are tracked so you can show leads coming from the site, again, paying attention to what the calls concern. Do you need to cut the call volume? If so, what can you add to your site that will help people?

If you haven’t already, set goals for your site These can be a specific number of visitors, completed forms & calls. Track them and make changes to your site & advertising campaigns to reach those goals.