tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21819854568955750402024-03-13T08:12:16.330-07:00THE FREELANCE SPECIALISTLive the Life You Deserve, TODAY! Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181985456895575040.post-85205594418378605012013-08-15T11:49:00.000-07:002013-08-15T11:50:31.426-07:00How You Can Build the Links that Really Matter As businesses of all sizes utilize digital marketing, building links becomes increasingly important for growth purposes. Back in the day there was no such thing as building links - marketing was mostly geared towards cold calling, direct mail and print advertising. Today, though, links are <i>imperative. </i>So much so that links can hit businesses' bottom line and link acquisition can help build the businesses bottom line, bring in some serious conversions and profits, and maximum results.<br />
<br />
The article below talks about ten different types of links that <b>really matter</b> and how you can get them:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Notable advantages of having been featured on other publications/blogs’ content are:<br />
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Calibri, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 1.467em 1.467em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">It can send qualified traffic, since the link is highly perceptible to readers.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Calibri, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 1.467em 1.467em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Passes higher amount of link value and helps improve domain authority, which in turn can influence the site’s overall search rankings.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Calibri, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 1.467em 1.467em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Brand impression, which also affect or help increase conversions, especially if your brand has been cited by trusted content publishers.</li>
</ul>
<b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">How to get them:</span></b> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<ul style="list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1.467em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Creating useful content is just the start (whether its text, interactive or tools), as the process of getting natural in-content links relies on your <a href="http://www.searchbrat.com/how-to-promote-and-build-links-to-your-great-content/" style="color: #2361a1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">content promotion strategies</a> (using <a href="http://kaiserthesage.com/linker-outreach/" style="color: #2361a1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">outreach</a>, <a href="http://kaiserthesage.com/viral-marketing-strategies/" style="color: #2361a1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">social media</a> and <a href="http://raventools.com/blog/8-link-marketing-techniques-for-smbs/" style="color: #2361a1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">link marketing</a>).</li>
</ul>
<ul style="list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1.467em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Invest on <a href="http://kaiserthesage.com/evergreen-content/" style="color: #2361a1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">developing evergreen content assets</a> that are specifically tailored for researchers and customers. This type of content often performs well in search results, especially for competitive terms, which allows the content to continuously attract more possible linkers to it.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1.467em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Branding through providing exceptional products/services and exemplifying expertise through the brand’s content marketing efforts to <a href="http://kaiserthesage.com/link-building-mindshare/" style="color: #2361a1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">build mind share</a>.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1.467em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.seomoz.org/blog/building-awesome-relationships-for-links-likes-and-love" style="color: #2361a1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">Build relationships</a> with your readers and with other content publishers in your online space. This can extremely help improve the sharing process of your content and in attracting more linkers to your site.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1.467em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Bring more traffic to your content. The more visitors you get, the higher chances of getting potential linkers to your content. Check out these <a href="http://inform.ly/50-traffic-tips-for-content-marketers/" style="color: #2361a1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">50 traffic tips for content from Informly</a>.</li>
</ul>
<a href="http://inform.ly/50-traffic-tips-for-content-marketers/" style="color: #2361a1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" title="50 Traffic Tips for Content Marketers"><img align="center" alt="" border="0" src="http://inform.ly/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/50_traffic_tips_screenshot_600.png" style="border: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" title="50 Traffic Tips for Content Marketers" /></a>Courtesy of: <a href="http://inform.ly/" style="color: #2361a1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Informly</a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Links from Ranking Webpages</span>Getting links from pages that are already ranking on search results for both short and long tail queries matter a lot for so many reasons. But the first reason that really comes into mind is because, in a way, they are already considered as trusted sources by Google.<br />
<b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Why these linking pages matter?:</span></b><br />
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Calibri, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 1.467em 1.467em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">They are able to get constant traffic (through search), which means it will also continuously send traffic to the pages they are linking to.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Calibri, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 1.467em 1.467em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The topical relevance of the content, based on the keywords they are ranking for, adds more value to the link. And thus may help in improving the linked pages’ search ranking.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Calibri, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 1.467em 1.467em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Content relevance will also be a key factor in attracting potential leads to the link’s destination, which means the link can help drive conversions as well.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Calibri, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 1.467em 1.467em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Scalable branding, given that you’re getting continuous brand impressions from the new visitors that the page is constantly generating.</li>
</ul>
<b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">How to get them:</span></b><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Join popular discussions</strong> in your online space (popular blog posts, forum threads, discussions on Q&A sites like Quora and/or online communities like News Hacker, Reddit and Inbound.org).<br />
Popular discussions are more apt to be more visible on search results (especially for long-tails), since they contain most of the signals that search engines look for when ranking pages.<br />
Adding value to these discussions and making sure that your contribution will standout will help you entice more of their incoming visitors to check out your site.<em id="__mceDel" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em id="__mceDel" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://kaiserthesage.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/comments.png" style="color: #2361a1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><img alt="comments" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-2833" height="621" src="http://kaiserthesage.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/comments.png" style="border: none; clear: both; display: block; float: none; margin: 0px auto 1.467em; padding: 0px;" width="576" /></a></em></em><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Seed content</strong> on high authority UGC and document sharing sites (like Slideshare, Youtube, Pinterest, etc…). These sites have strong search share, which means your content hosted on these sites have better chances of ranking for your targeted industry terms.<br />
You’ll be able to absorb continual traffic and build brand awareness, as your content on these sites get search-driven traffic.<br />
<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Guest blog on authority sites</strong> in your field. Use some of your targeted keywords when contributing content on other publications in your industry, to get long-term value from your guest posts.<br />
<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Get links from resources and/links pages</strong> that are already ranking for industry terms using the <a href="http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-broken-link-building-bible" style="color: #2361a1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">broken link building technique</a>.<a href="http://kaiserthesage.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/brokenlinksample.png" style="color: #2361a1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><img alt="brokenlinksample" class="aligncenter wp-image-2834" height="350" src="http://kaiserthesage.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/brokenlinksample.png" style="border: none; clear: both; display: block; float: none; margin: 0px auto 1.467em; padding: 0px;" width="620" /></a>Basically, there are 2 ways to get links from pages that have good search rankings:<br />
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Calibri, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 1.467em 1.467em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Add value to already existing pages with high potentials of ranking better (or sustaining its rankings) on search results.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Calibri, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 1.467em 1.467em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Create pages on other authoritative domains with links to your site that will gain its own search rankings.</li>
</ul>
<span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Links from Authentic Reviews</span>Links from positive online reviews are definitely one of the most sought after marketing opportunities by any business that offers products/services.<br />
<b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Why does it matter?</span></b><br />
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Calibri, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 1.467em 1.467em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Online reviews can send new customers.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Calibri, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 1.467em 1.467em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Authentic reviews from users/consumers help strengthen a business’ brand. It can also help maintain the site’s reputation on its branded search results.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Calibri, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 1.467em 1.467em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">They can help improve the site’s overall search rankings, based on the sentiments and volume of positive feedbacks that the site/brand is receiving from other websites/blogs.</li>
</ul>
<a href="http://kaiserthesage.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/reviews.png" style="color: #2361a1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><img alt="reviews" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-2843" height="304" src="http://kaiserthesage.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/reviews.png" style="border: none; clear: both; display: block; float: none; margin: 0px auto 1.467em; padding: 0px;" width="619" /></a><b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">How to get them:</span></b><br />
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Calibri, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 1.467em 1.467em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Blogger outreach on a personal level – to actually get experiential reviews. Dan Cristo wrote an excellent post on <a href="http://dancristo.com/2011/06/15/experience-reviews-a-new-way-to-build-links-advanced-seo/" style="color: #2361a1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">how to get more reviews of your products</a> 2 years ago, and you might want to check that one out.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Calibri, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 1.467em 1.467em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Create an affiliate program or a referral commission system to attract more bloggers in reviewing your product or services. Offer this as a value proposition when reaching out to bloggers (give higher commission rates to authority bloggers in your industry).</li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Calibri, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 1.467em 1.467em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Provide great products and services, or be exceptionally great with customer service (think Zappos). This can extremely help you get voluntary online reviews of your products/services. You can also offer freebies (promo codes, discounts, etc…) to customers who own blogs or have strong following on social networks. That might also increase the chances of getting links from them.</li>
</ul>
<span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Links from Strong Social Brand Pages</span>Integrating content strategy with social media is a very effective approach in link building. Many people discover great content through social sharing, and that’s why it’s very vital to have strong social brand pages on social platforms where your target audience is.<br />
<b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Why does it matter?</span></b><br />
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Calibri, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 1.467em 1.467em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Brand pages on social platforms – like Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest and many more –allow you to generate traffic every time you promote both new and old content from your site.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Calibri, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 1.467em 1.467em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">It’s an efficient channel where you can build relationships with your audience/followers, which can also result to more link opportunities, social shares and traffic.</li>
</ul>
<iframe allowtransparency="true" class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" frameborder="0" height="210" id="twitter-widget-3" scrolling="no" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-left-radius: 5px; border-bottom-right-radius: 5px; border-color: rgb(238, 238, 238) rgb(221, 221, 221) rgb(187, 187, 187); border-style: solid; border-top-left-radius: 5px; border-top-right-radius: 5px; border-width: 1px; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.14902) 0px 1px 3px; color: #111111; display: block; font-family: Calibri, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; margin: 10px 0px; max-width: 99%; min-width: 220px; padding: 0px;" title="Embedded Tweet" width="500"></iframe><iframe allowtransparency="true" class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" frameborder="0" height="210" id="twitter-widget-3" scrolling="no" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-left-radius: 5px; border-bottom-right-radius: 5px; border-color: rgb(238, 238, 238) rgb(221, 221, 221) rgb(187, 187, 187); border-style: solid; border-top-left-radius: 5px; border-top-right-radius: 5px; border-width: 1px; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.14902) 0px 1px 3px; color: #111111; display: block; font-family: Calibri, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; margin: 10px 0px; max-width: 99%; min-width: 220px; padding: 0px;" title="Embedded Tweet" width="500"></iframe><br />
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Calibri, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 1.467em 1.467em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Sends out massive brand signals to both users and search engines – through the amount of followers, activity and interactions.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Calibri, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 1.467em 1.467em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Search engines use these external brand pages as signals to determine authority, which may also add weight to your site’s search rankings.</li>
</ul>
<a href="http://kaiserthesage.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/brand-pages.png" style="color: #2361a1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><img alt="brand pages" class="aligncenter wp-image-2847" height="250" src="http://kaiserthesage.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/brand-pages.png" style="border: none; clear: both; display: block; float: none; margin: 0px auto 1.467em; padding: 0px;" width="620" /></a><b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">How to build a strong following base for your social brand pages:</span></b><br />
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Calibri, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 1.467em 1.467em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Let content drive your social media campaigns, by pushing out useful content on a regular basis and promoting them on social networks.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Calibri, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 1.467em 1.467em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Interact with the people who are sharing your content to get them to follow you.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Calibri, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 1.467em 1.467em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Share other influencers’ works to engage as well as to attract them in seeing your own works. Sharing useful stuff created by other brands/blogs is also a great way to nurture your followers.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Calibri, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 1.467em 1.467em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Make your social sharing buttons very visible on your site’s content to enhance their sharing rate.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Calibri, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 1.467em 1.467em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Promote your social media profiles on your site to encourage your visitors/readers to follow you. You can also cross promote your brand pages using the social networks where you already have built a strong following base.</li>
</ul>
<span style="color: #111111; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">You can read the rest of the article <a href="http://kaiserthesage.com/types-of-links/">here</a>. </span></span></blockquote>
Aside from the tips mentioned in the article above, there are plenty of <a href="http://www.classicimage.com/">affordable marketing companies</a> that will work within your budget to create a solid SEO and social media campaign. The great thing about utilizing companies is that they will manage the campaigns in their entirety, so you just sit back and focus on what matters most--growing your business.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181985456895575040.post-22653635126216670872013-08-15T11:16:00.005-07:002013-08-15T11:18:04.202-07:00Exciting Advanced SEO Strategies for 2013If you're a small or medium sized business it is very important for you to utilize search engine optimization or SEO as part of your marketing campaign because it will help to ensure that your business is searchable and that it will grow as you want it to. The key to profit, growth and wealth is a successful marketing campaign that incorporates search engine optimization, social media marketing and traditional marketing tactics such as direct mailing, email marketing and so on.<br />
<br />
The slide show below is from an SEO trend presentation in June 2013. This presentation is very helpful for small to medium sized businesses that are looking to launch an SEO campaign as it includes some of the most important factors used in the realm of search today such as on-site technology, link development, online branding and so on:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="356" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" mozallowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/23987024" style="border-width: 1px 1px 0; border: 1px solid #CCC; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 427px;" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="100%"> </iframe> </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 5px;">
<strong> <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/kaiserthesage/advanced-seo-in-2013-semtrends-iloilo-2013" target="_blank" title="Advanced SEO in 2013 - SEMTrends Iloilo 2013">Advanced SEO in 2013 - SEMTrends Iloilo 2013</a> </strong> from <strong><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/kaiserthesage" target="_blank">kaiserthesage</a></strong> <br />
<br />
Aside from the tips mentioned in the article above, there are plenty of <a href="http://www.classicimage.com/">affordable marketing companies</a> that will work within your budget to create a solid SEO and social media campaign. The great thing about utilizing companies is that they will manage the campaigns in their entirety, so you just sit back and focus on what matters most--growing your business.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181985456895575040.post-50058296155634046422013-08-11T06:00:00.000-07:002013-08-11T06:00:01.290-07:00DIY SEO Tactics for StartUps<div class="tr_bq">
Many small businesses owners would probably run from the phrase SEO or Search Engine Optimization if they could. Why? Well, for many small businesses SEO campaigns can be pricey and too sophisticated to invest in. The downside to this is that Search Engine Optimization plays a major role in boosting your web presence and your entire business for that matter. Successful SEO campaigns could bring flocks of customers running your way...and in a reasonable amount of time. It's not a process that takes years if you know what you're doing. </div>
<br />
For small businesses who are on a shoestring budget there are various DIY SEO tactics that you can take advantage of. The article below discusses ten of these tactics--and all for little to no money:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
<h2>
Bootstrap SEO: An Affordable Solution</h2>
Bootstrapping, or do-it-yourself SEO, suits most small players who’d prefer to attempt SEO all by themselves instead of spending a large chunk of money. After all, SEO is not rocket science, and many website owners have amplified their traffic to spectacular numbers without having to become SEO specialists. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
Bootstrap SEO doesn’t guarantee success — and it’s not “free,” because you have to invest a ton of time. If you’re facing a tight budget where you can’t afford SEO services but want to optimize your website right away, however, this is the way to go. And if you’re already familiar with SEO ideas and concepts, the DIY method can be enormously beneficial. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<h3>
The Catch</h3>
<strong>#1:</strong> I’ll let you in on a little secret: DIY SEO is fun, interesting, simple, and straightforward… but it’s not easy. A consistent and prolonged effort is required if you want to see good results or returns.<br /><strong>#2:</strong> You’ll need basic on-page optimization knowledge. Check out this wonderful <a href="http://www.vudumarketing.com/on-site-seo-guide/" style="color: rgb(0, 51, 153) !important; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">resource for on-page SEO</a>. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
1. Write For Your Blog<br /><strong><i>Action:</i></strong><i> </i><em>Write highly valuable and unique content and post it on your blog.</em><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jayson-demers/content-strategy_b_2296212.html" style="color: rgb(0, 51, 153) !important; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Constantly updated content</a> is the key to establishing value and making Google notice your website/blog. And in an increasingly competitive world, producing content that is unique and valuable (actionable) is mandatory. This helps you build keyword-rich and relevant content, which can then be used to generate traffic and drive business. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
2. Build Relationships & Publish Guest Blogs<br /><strong><i>Action:</i></strong><i> </i><em>Connect with other businesses, websites, and blogs by emailing the authors personally.</em>Somewhere along the line, you’ll figure out that interaction is a key factor in establishing brand reputation and authority. Guest posts are particularly useful for driving establishing credibility and authority, and <a href="http://www.quicksprout.com/2012/04/02/how-to-build-links-through-guest-blogging/" style="color: rgb(0, 51, 153) !important; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">generating powerful inbound links</a> from established websites and blogs.<br />To reach that level, first you’ll need to build relationships with fellow bloggers in your field, get to know their work, and pitch them for <a href="http://www.audiencebloom.com/services/guest-blogging-services/" style="color: rgb(0, 51, 153) !important; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">guest posting opportunities</a>. Along the way, you might even pick up a few ideas straight from the other horses’ mouths. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
3. Follow People/Businesses In Your Industry<br /><strong><i>Action:</i></strong><i> </i><em>Follow relevant people/businesses on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook</em>Nothing gets instant visibility like following the right people on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites. After you create a social profile (on Twitter, Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.), you should start following relevant businesses and people.<br />There are usually hundreds, if not thousands. You can start by following 10 people every day. Pretty soon, you’ll get followed back by folks. You can use tools like <a href="http://followerwonk.com/" style="color: rgb(0, 51, 153) !important; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">FollowerWonk</a> or <a href="http://wefollow.com/" style="color: rgb(0, 51, 153) !important; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">WeFollow.com</a> to find relevant users and businesses in your niche.<br />The benefit here is that you’ll align your business and your brand with industry movers and shakers. Engaging and interacting with these folks will result in exposure to other industry-related folks, driving inbound links, referral traffic, and credibility.</blockquote>
Read the rest of the article <a href="http://under30ceo.com/10-no-cost-diy-seo-tactics-for-startups/">here</a>.<br />
<br />
Aside from the tips mentioned in the article above, there are plenty of <a href="http://www.classicimage.com/"><b>affordable</b> marketing companies</a> that will work within your budget to create a solid SEO and social media campaign. The great thing about utilizing companies is that they will manage the campaigns in their entirety, so you just sit back and focus on what matters most--growing your business.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181985456895575040.post-78802894816896958382013-08-10T06:00:00.001-07:002013-08-09T13:06:57.778-07:00Best Advertising Tips for the Small to Medium Sized Business Marketing and advertising tactics have changed a lot over the last decade due to the rapid technological growth and social media. If you are a small business or company who has tried marketing the same way you did even just a few years ago it's likely that you're wasting <i>a lot</i> of money. The truth of the matter is that a wise business owner changes with the times and gets the most from both their advertising and marketing budgets.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAp77gwNFixCMVJVH1aM-20zSUymZsKCp5BsuZllUC3DDlzDKRroIRr4Me6dmjVyBupsvEKxe2BL-dx9Bn5iuGC3iK8BsTO75RT8kFzKqlXYduQ4_GqdhyphenhyphenoBcvTTpPs7QyIbTqpIAGC5lo/s1600/ID-10019201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAp77gwNFixCMVJVH1aM-20zSUymZsKCp5BsuZllUC3DDlzDKRroIRr4Me6dmjVyBupsvEKxe2BL-dx9Bn5iuGC3iK8BsTO75RT8kFzKqlXYduQ4_GqdhyphenhyphenoBcvTTpPs7QyIbTqpIAGC5lo/s320/ID-10019201.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Today there are a wide variety of tactics that can boost your conversions quite fast by utilizing inbound and outbound marketing tactics including, but not limited to:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Social Media Marketing</li>
<li>Search Engine Optimization</li>
<li>Link Building</li>
<li>PPC Advertising</li>
<li>Backlinks</li>
<li>Content Marketing</li>
</ul>
<div>
And so on...</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
There are many <a href="http://www.classicimage.com/">marketing companies</a> that will provide all of the above for a reasonable monthly rate and in many cases, they will provide discounts or specials rates. However, if you're a business who is looking for the best solutions that you can handle on your own, the article below talks about the top ten low cost advertising techniques: </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white;"></span><br />
<ul><span style="background-color: white;">
<li><strong style="background-color: transparent; color: #4b5d67; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.4em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Create partnerships and cross promotions.</strong><span style="color: #4b5d67; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.4em;"> </span><span style="color: #4b5d67; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.4em;">Find other companies that hit your same target audience and are complementary to what you offer. Come up with a win-win barter proposal of how to steer clients to each other. Or, offer bundled promotions using the products/services of each to boost interest in both of your companies. Or, pool your marketing dollars together and create a campaign you could not afford on your own. It can be as small as one or two partners you barter with individually or a group, similar to the wedding industry where florists, hairstylists, veil makers, dress makers, bakers, and printers work together to help each other out.</span></li>
<li><strong style="background-color: transparent; color: #4b5d67; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.4em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Find place-based advertising opportunities that are creative and free.</strong><span style="color: #4b5d67; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.4em;">Example: an author coming out with a book about parenting had post-it notes printed about it and they were posted above diaper changing tables in the area. A financial consultant had bookmarks created promoting his business and put them in financial books at local bookstores (very creative, however it may not have gone over well with the bookstore!). Think of how you could use your partnerships as mentioned in #1 for more place-based opportunities.</span></li>
<li><strong style="background-color: transparent; color: #4b5d67; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.4em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Have an effective website.</strong><span style="color: #4b5d67; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.4em;"> </span><span style="color: #4b5d67; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.4em;">An old study says 70% of people will research online before walking into a store to purchase. That percentage is probably much higher now. A website is a must. There are free services you can use like joomla.org, etc. Or, you can use a blog format like WordPress.com. Having a custom made website with your domain and email is not cost prohibitive as some might imagine. Be sure to use search engine optimization (SEO) to bring people to your site, write articles and place them in free ezines to push people to your site; and use social networking to push people to your site (MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.). Of course, it may require that you invest a little time in learning new technology that you may not be familiar with, but the reward is well worth the time invested.</span></li>
<li><strong style="background-color: transparent; color: #4b5d67; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.4em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Teleseminars and webinars</strong><span style="color: #4b5d67; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.4em;"> </span><span style="color: #4b5d67; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.4em;">(webex.com) are cheaper than doing in-person seminars. This is good for businesses that have a long purchase process or a complicated product that is best sold as a demonstration, etc. You can also film a demonstration/presentation and place it on YouTube.com and your website.</span></li>
<li><strong style="background-color: transparent; color: #4b5d67; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.4em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Leverage your workforce</strong><span style="color: #4b5d67; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.4em;"> </span><span style="color: #4b5d67; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.4em;">to spread the word. This can be accomplished through inexpensive flyers or coupons and/or magnetic signs on their automobiles. This can also be accomplished through word of mouth but it is far more difficult to control the message.</span></li>
</span></ul>
<span style="background-color: white;">
</span></blockquote>
<br />
You can read the rest of the article <a href="http://bestbizpractices.org/top-10-advertising-tips-for-small-business/">here</a>.<br />
<br />
If you're a small to medium sized business that has yet to implement a successful marketing campaign, it's due time. Both inbound and outbound marketing is a way for you to build relationships with your current or prospective clients and grow your business -- faster than many of your competitors. Today there are many companies that you can hire -- and for a reasonable price -- to manage your marketing campaigns, like <a href="http://www.classicimage.com/">Classic Image</a>. These companies will handle the day-to-day marketing needs of your campaigns while you can focus on what matters most... growing your business. In many cases you can get a reasonable quote to jump start your campaign, ensuring that you don't break your bank.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="postmeta" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #555555; font-family: 'Open Sans', Arial, 'Century gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
</div>
<br />
<div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181985456895575040.post-13050244202696451352013-08-09T09:11:00.000-07:002013-08-09T13:07:33.564-07:00Top 10 Marketing & Advertising Ideas of 2013 (So Far) <div class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
When it comes to marketing and advertising a business it's important to try to think outside the box. There is unlimited potential when it comes to marketing and the more creative you are with your tactics, the more your business will stand out (in most cases). There are many <a href="http://www.classicimage.com/">companies</a> out there that will manage your marketing or advertising campaign entirely for a reasonable price, but how you go about launching the marketing campaign for your small to medium sized business is entirely up to you. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Marketing and advertising your business can be a lot of fun, so why not let loose and think outside the box. The article below is from a recent article at <a href="http://www.springwise.com/top-10-marketing-advertising-ideas-2013/">SpringWise</a>, in regards to the top 10 marketing and advertising ideas as of June 2013. These creative, fun ideas have made various companies and products stand out from the crowd: </div>
<blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<a href="http://www.springwise.com/magazine-ad-offers-free-wifi-readers/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgb(130, 187, 139); -webkit-transition: all 200ms ease-in-out; border: 0px; color: #773a7f; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 200ms ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">1. Magazine ad offers free wifi to readers</a> <a href="http://www.springwise.com/magazine-ad-offers-free-wifi-readers/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgb(130, 187, 139); -webkit-transition: all 200ms ease-in-out; border: 0px; color: #773a7f; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding-bottom: 20px !important; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 200ms ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-26573" src="http://www.springwise.com/img/uploads/2013/06/toptenmarketingforbes.png" style="border: 0px; float: left; margin: 0px 20px 20px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Americhip" /></a> </blockquote>
<blockquote style="text-align: justify;">
Smartphones are everywhere these days, but finding that elusive free wifi connection to use them can be much more difficult. To advertise its Office 365 software, Microsoft teamed up with Forbes magazine and T-mobile to insert a miniature hotspot into selected copies of its May 6 2013 issue. The campaign, created with advertising tech firm <a class="unbold" href="http://www.americhip.com/Product-Showroom/Magazine-Inserts/-160-NEW-Microsoft-Wifi-Hotspot-Featured-in-Forbes-Magazine" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgb(130, 187, 139); -webkit-transition: all 200ms ease-in-out; border: 0px; color: #773a7f; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 200ms ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">Americhip</a>, simultaneously promoted the validity of Microsoft’s cloud-based program and gave Forbes’ readership another reason to carry the publication with them – killing two birds with one stone.</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<blockquote>
<a href="http://www.springwise.com/magazine-ad-offers-free-wifi-readers/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgb(130, 187, 139); -webkit-transition: all 200ms ease-in-out; border: 0px; color: #773a7f; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 200ms ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;"></a><a href="http://www.springwise.com/south-africa-drones-repurposed-deliver-beer-festivalgoers/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgb(130, 187, 139); -webkit-transition: all 200ms ease-in-out; border: 0px; color: #773a7f; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 200ms ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">2. In South Africa, drones repurposed to deliver beer to festivalgoers</a><a href="http://www.springwise.com/south-africa-drones-repurposed-deliver-beer-festivalgoers/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgb(130, 187, 139); -webkit-transition: all 200ms ease-in-out; border: 0px; color: #773a7f; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 200ms ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-26573" src="http://www.springwise.com/img/uploads/2013/06/toptenmarketingoppikoppi.png" style="border: 0px; float: left; margin: 0px 20px 20px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="OppiKoppi" /></a> </blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Brand sponsorships at popular music festivals can be great for businesses, but often limit product choice for attendees. Looking to go that bit further to create brand engagement, Windhoek developed a system whereby revelers at the OppiKoppi festival – taking place in South Africa in August – can order a free beer through their GPS-enabled smartphone and promptly receive a can to their approximate location, delivered through the air via specially-repurposed flying robots.</div>
<blockquote>
<a href="http://www.springwise.com/shopping-cart-mounted-tablet-detects-nearby-items-offers-recipes-real-time/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgb(130, 187, 139); -webkit-transition: all 200ms ease-in-out; border: 0px; color: #773a7f; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 200ms ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">3. Shopping cart-mounted tablet detects nearby items and offers recipes in real tim</a> </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<a href="http://www.springwise.com/shopping-cart-mounted-tablet-detects-nearby-items-offers-recipes-real-time/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgb(130, 187, 139); -webkit-transition: all 200ms ease-in-out; border: 0px; color: #773a7f; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 200ms ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-26573" src="http://www.springwise.com/img/uploads/2013/06/toptenmarketinghellmanns.png" style="border: 0px; float: left; margin: 0px 20px 20px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Hellmann's" /></a><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Having made our <a class="unbold" href="http://www.springwise.com/top-10-ideas-food-beverage-12-months/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgb(130, 187, 139); -webkit-transition: all 200ms ease-in-out; border: 0px; color: #773a7f; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 200ms ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">Top 10 Food & Beverage Ideas</a> list last year for its innovative Recipe Receipt campaign, Hellmann’s returned to provide another unique way to experience the supermarket. Trialled in Brazil, the initiative saw shopping carts fitted with NFC-enabled tablets. When users placed a Hellmann’s product in their trolley, the display showed potential meal ideas they could make with the other items on the shelves next to them. According to the company, sales rose by 70 percent. This is a marketing campaign with serious potential as a future option for in-store advertising.</div>
<a href="http://www.springwise.com/shopping-cart-mounted-tablet-detects-nearby-items-offers-recipes-real-time/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgb(130, 187, 139); -webkit-transition: all 200ms ease-in-out; border: 0px; color: #773a7f; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 200ms ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></a><a href="http://www.springwise.com/thailand-billboards-build-homes/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgb(130, 187, 139); -webkit-transition: all 200ms ease-in-out; border: 0px; color: #773a7f; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 200ms ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">4. Thailand billboards can be used to build homes when they’re not in use</a> </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<a href="http://www.springwise.com/thailand-billboards-build-homes/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgb(130, 187, 139); -webkit-transition: all 200ms ease-in-out; border: 0px; color: #773a7f; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 200ms ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-26573" src="http://www.springwise.com/img/uploads/2013/06/toptenmarketinghomepro.png" style="border: 0px; float: left; margin: 0px 20px 20px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Homepro" /></a><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It’s clear that in the age of internet, consumers know a lot more about brands and how they act on their social responsibility. In order to present itself as a people-centered business, Thailand’s HomePro DIY store collaborated with BBDO Bangkok to create The Other Side campaign. Since the country’s homeless population often reappropriate road-side billboards in order to create makeshift shelters, the company decorated the reverse of their advertisements with wallpaper and fitted them with practical shelves and hangers. When they’d served their use as marketing tools for HomePro, they could then be used to brighten up the lives of those less fortunate.</div>
<a href="http://www.springwise.com/thailand-billboards-build-homes/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgb(130, 187, 139); -webkit-transition: all 200ms ease-in-out; border: 0px; color: #773a7f; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 200ms ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></a><a href="http://www.springwise.com/concept-store-enables-customers-share-digital-look-book/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgb(130, 187, 139); -webkit-transition: all 200ms ease-in-out; border: 0px; color: #773a7f; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 200ms ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">5. Concept store enables customers to make and share their own digital ‘look book’</a><a href="http://www.springwise.com/concept-store-enables-customers-share-digital-look-book/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgb(130, 187, 139); -webkit-transition: all 200ms ease-in-out; border: 0px; color: #773a7f; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 200ms ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-26573" src="http://www.springwise.com/img/uploads/2013/06/toptenmarketinglagerfeld.png" style="border: 0px; float: left; margin: 0px 20px 20px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Karl Lagerfeld Store" /></a> </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Social media has arguably become an integral element to any business’s marketing strategy, although there are different ideas on how it can best be used. For the launch of the new Karl Lagerfeld Store in Amsterdam in April, the fashion label tapped into consumer desire to share purchases with friends and family by placing iPads in changing rooms, loaded with an app that enables shoppers to take photos of their look, apply a filter and post online. The store also enables visitors to leave their comments on the Karl Lagerfeld Facebook page via tablets located around the space. A great example of combining the online and offline worlds.</div>
</blockquote>
You may read the rest of the article<a href="http://1.%20magazine%20ad%20offers%20free%20wifi%20to%20readers%20%20%20smartphones%20are%20everywhere%20these%20days%2C%20but%20finding%20that%20elusive%20free%20wifi%20connection%20to%20use%20them%20can%20be%20much%20more%20difficult.%20to%20advertise%20its%20office%20365%20software%2C%20microsoft%20teamed%20up%20with%20forbes%20magazine%20and%20t-mobile%20to%20insert%20a%20miniature%20hotspot%20into%20selected%20copies%20of%20its%20may%206%202013%20issue.%20the%20campaign%2C%20created%20with%20advertising%20tech%20firm%20americhip%2C%20simultaneously%20promoted%20the%20validity%20of%20microsoft%E2%80%99s%20cloud-based%20program%20and%20gave%20forbes%E2%80%99%20readership%20another%20reason%20to%20carry%20the%20publication%20with%20them%20%E2%80%93%20killing%20two%20birds%20with%20one%20stone.%20%20read%20more%20about%20the%20americhip%20campaign%20%C2%BB%20%202.%20in%20south%20africa%2C%20drones%20repurposed%20to%20deliver%20beer%20to%20festivalgoers%20%20%20brand%20sponsorships%20at%20popular%20music%20festivals%20can%20be%20great%20for%20businesses%2C%20but%20often%20limit%20product%20choice%20for%20attendees.%20looking%20to%20go%20that%20bit%20further%20to%20create%20brand%20engagement%2C%20windhoek%20developed%20a%20system%20whereby%20revelers%20at%20the%20oppikoppi%20festival%20%E2%80%93%20taking%20place%20in%20south%20africa%20in%20august%20%E2%80%93%20can%20order%20a%20free%20beer%20through%20their%20gps-enabled%20smartphone%20and%20promptly%20receive%20a%20can%20to%20their%20approximate%20location%2C%20delivered%20through%20the%20air%20via%20specially-repurposed%20flying%20robots.%20%20read%20more%20about%20oppikoppi%20%C2%BB%20%203.%20shopping%20cart-mounted%20tablet%20detects%20nearby%20items%20and%20offers%20recipes%20in%20real%20time%20%20%20having%20made%20our%20top%2010%20food%20%26%20beverage%20ideas%20list%20last%20year%20for%20its%20innovative%20recipe%20receipt%20campaign%2C%20hellmann%E2%80%99s%20returned%20to%20provide%20another%20unique%20way%20to%20experience%20the%20supermarket.%20trialled%20in%20brazil%2C%20the%20initiative%20saw%20shopping%20carts%20fitted%20with%20nfc-enabled%20tablets.%20when%20users%20placed%20a%20hellmann%E2%80%99s%20product%20in%20their%20trolley%2C%20the%20display%20showed%20potential%20meal%20ideas%20they%20could%20make%20with%20the%20other%20items%20on%20the%20shelves%20next%20to%20them.%20according%20to%20the%20company%2C%20sales%20rose%20by%2070%20percent.%20this%20is%20a%20marketing%20campaign%20with%20serious%20potential%20as%20a%20future%20option%20for%20in-store%20advertising.%20%20read%20more%20about%20hellmann%E2%80%99s%20recipe%20cart%20%C2%BB%20%204.%20thailand%20billboards%20can%20be%20used%20to%20build%20homes%20when%20they%E2%80%99re%20not%20in%20use%20%20%20it%E2%80%99s%20clear%20that%20in%20the%20age%20of%20internet%2C%20consumers%20know%20a%20lot%20more%20about%20brands%20and%20how%20they%20act%20on%20their%20social%20responsibility.%20in%20order%20to%20present%20itself%20as%20a%20people-centered%20business%2C%20thailand%E2%80%99s%20homepro%20diy%20store%20collaborated%20with%20bbdo%20bangkok%20to%20create%20the%20other%20side%20campaign.%20since%20the%20country%E2%80%99s%20homeless%20population%20often%20reappropriate%20road-side%20billboards%20in%20order%20to%20create%20makeshift%20shelters%2C%20the%20company%20decorated%20the%20reverse%20of%20their%20advertisements%20with%20wallpaper%20and%20fitted%20them%20with%20practical%20shelves%20and%20hangers.%20when%20they%E2%80%99d%20served%20their%20use%20as%20marketing%20tools%20for%20homepro%2C%20they%20could%20then%20be%20used%20to%20brighten%20up%20the%20lives%20of%20those%20less%20fortunate.%20%20read%20more%20about%20the%20other%20side%20camapaign%20%C2%BB%20%205.%20concept%20store%20enables%20customers%20to%20make%20and%20share%20their%20own%20digital%20%E2%80%98look%20book%E2%80%99%20%20%20social%20media%20has%20arguably%20become%20an%20integral%20element%20to%20any%20business%E2%80%99s%20marketing%20strategy%2C%20although%20there%20are%20different%20ideas%20on%20how%20it%20can%20best%20be%20used.%20for%20the%20launch%20of%20the%20new%20karl%20lagerfeld%20store%20in%20amsterdam%20in%20april%2C%20the%20fashion%20label%20tapped%20into%20consumer%20desire%20to%20share%20purchases%20with%20friends%20and%20family%20by%20placing%20ipads%20in%20changing%20rooms%2C%20loaded%20with%20an%20app%20that%20enables%20shoppers%20to%20take%20photos%20of%20their%20look%2C%20apply%20a%20filter%20and%20post%20online.%20the%20store%20also%20enables%20visitors%20to%20leave%20their%20comments%20on%20the%20karl%20lagerfeld%20facebook%20page%20via%20tablets%20located%20around%20the%20space.%20a%20great%20example%20of%20combining%20the%20online%20and%20offline%20worlds.%20%20read%20more%20about%20the%20karl%20lagerfeld%20store%20%C2%BB/"> here</a>. <br />
<br />
If you're a small to medium sized business that has yet to implement a successful marketing campaign, it's due time. Both inbound and outbound marketing is a way for you to build relationships with your current or prospective clients and grow your business -- faster than many of your competitors. Today there are many companies that you can hire -- and for a reasonable price -- to manage your marketing campaigns, like <a href="http://www.classicimage.com/">Classic Image</a>.<br />
<div>
<br />
These companies will handle the day-to-day marketing needs of your campaigns while you can focus on what matters most... growing your business. In many cases you can get a reasonable quote to jump start your campaign, ensuring that you don't break your bank.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181985456895575040.post-80973571602584785112013-08-09T09:00:00.000-07:002013-08-09T13:06:19.955-07:00The Necessity of Integrating SEO and Social Media <div class="separator tr_bq" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8uFFsnx0fI0VD8zFyAXRNNuvnYPiavVNIbBUkzi8g9wjRuP5j_aJg5VGe9ANNj8BFCQ7lxijQEyA52x-SyRG8qTge1YqLeHSfns1dCaGN6Wa3kyO6vq-oijig0IN4kQvOApTw1gdI2aM1/s1600/ID-100174854.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="351" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8uFFsnx0fI0VD8zFyAXRNNuvnYPiavVNIbBUkzi8g9wjRuP5j_aJg5VGe9ANNj8BFCQ7lxijQEyA52x-SyRG8qTge1YqLeHSfns1dCaGN6Wa3kyO6vq-oijig0IN4kQvOApTw1gdI2aM1/s400/ID-100174854.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a marketing tactic that is imperative to the success of small to medium sized businesses today, along with a strong web presence and advertising campaign. A successful SEO strategy can provide a business with the profit, growth and wealth it deserves even if it doesn't utilize social media, <i>but </i>integrating social media is a growing need for SEO campaigns, merging the two worlds as one and delivering a SEO campaign like no other. In fact, integrating social media and SEO can provide a faster success rate in your marketing campaign. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
While this is true, though, 50% of companies that struggle with SEO are not integrating social media, according to a recent survey. A research agency surveyed almost 600 business and marketing professionals in June 2013 and found that 15% of these professionals were "very successful" with SEO while 18% said they were not. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
According to the article below, the biggest difference between the very successful and not successful is their use of social media within their SEO campaigns: </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<blockquote>
The biggest difference between the “very successful” and “not successful” companies is their use of social media as part of the SEO strategy. As the chart below shows, 38 percent of those “very successful” with SEO are doing extensive integration of social media, compared to only two percent of the companies that aren’t succeeding with SEO.<br />And a full 50 percent of the latter group — the ones not succeeding at SEO — aren’t integrating social media at all.<br /><img alt="seo-social-1" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-166314" height="370" src="http://searchengineland.com/figz/wp-content/seloads/2013/07/seo-social-1.png" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="583" /><br />That chart only compares the successful and not-successful companies. Elsewhere in the study is a chart using the whole group of respondents, which shows that almost one-quarter of the group aren’t integrating social media at all into their SEO strategies.<br /><img alt="seo-social-2" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-166315" height="487" src="http://searchengineland.com/figz/wp-content/seloads/2013/07/seo-social-2.png" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="488" /><br />Our columnist Trond Lyngbø just wrote about this last week, in fact. In his article, <a href="http://searchengineland.com/youre-dead-if-you-dont-integrate-social-media-pr-into-your-seo-strategy-164754" style="color: #555555; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">You’re Dead… If You Don’t Integrate Social Media & PR Into Your Local SEO Strategy</a>, Trond said<br />A couple other interesting notes from the Ascend2 survey:<ul style="background-color: white; color: #515151; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 10px 5px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 15px;">
<li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 2px;">48 percent of all respondents said “creating original content” is the most effective SEO tactic — the top answer</li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #515151; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 10px 5px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 15px;">
<li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 2px;">only 19 percent said “external link building” is the most effective, but that may be due to difficulty — 45 percent said it’s the most difficult tactic, more than all the other tactics they could choose from</li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #515151; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 10px 5px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 15px;">
<li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 2px;">at 48 percent, “lack of budget and/or headcount” was listed as the most challenging obstacle to SEO success</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin: 10px 20px; padding: 0px;">
<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Social content ranks well on search engines. What happens on TripAdvisor (a social review site) and Yelp (a business directory) stays on Google (a search engine). What people say about your business — their feedback, the ratings they leave — everything — is publicly accessible to your prospective buyers. And this, of course, <a href="http://marketingland.com/survey-customers-more-frustrated-by-how-long-it-takes-to-resolve-a-customer-service-issue-than-the-resolution-38756" style="color: #555555; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">impacts the research/purchase cycle</a>.</em></blockquote>
<br />
You can read the rest of the article <a href="http://searchengineland.com/50-percent-of-companies-struggling-with-seo-arent-integrating-social-media-survey-166311">here</a>. <br />
<br />As a small to medium sized business it is important for you to implement a social SEO campaign so that your company can experience the growth it deserves. Both inbound and outbound marketing is a way for you to build relationships with your current or prospective clients and grow your business -- faster than many of your competitors. Today there are many companies that you can hire -- and for a reasonable price -- to manage your marketing campaigns, like <a href="http://www.classicimage.com/">Classic Image</a>. These companies will handle the day-to-day marketing needs of your campaigns while you can focus on what matters most... growing your business. In many cases you can get a reasonable quote to jump start your campaign, ensuring that you don't break your bank.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181985456895575040.post-39190671981897320812013-08-01T10:04:00.002-07:002013-08-01T10:04:43.667-07:00Marketing Your Business on a Tight Budget <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwtbX9N2C3s4DdRi-682pB-yqc9pm7NePg634eeEOwxT8G6NQpf-CzKdluz_eYNhyNNg8uNNUFJGe2QcfY8OwpvtaOoQULv7I0wMIPW-dr4sKD-NS4Ph-6tcUp7qffukrdeVyRae4hDvwg/s1600/ID-10098505.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwtbX9N2C3s4DdRi-682pB-yqc9pm7NePg634eeEOwxT8G6NQpf-CzKdluz_eYNhyNNg8uNNUFJGe2QcfY8OwpvtaOoQULv7I0wMIPW-dr4sKD-NS4Ph-6tcUp7qffukrdeVyRae4hDvwg/s320/ID-10098505.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
There's no way around it, marketing your business is essential for its success. In fact, successful marketing can provide your business with a significant return in a very short period of time -- even on a tight budget. In the past the only choice a business had to market their business effectively were outbound marketing tactics such as advertising, direct mailing, cold calling and so on. Outbound marketing can still be a bit expensive, but there are so many over avenues that you can take today that are much more affordable.<br />
<br />
The article below discusses some ideas for marketing on a shoestring budget:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<ol>
<li><b>Start small. </b>Set aside a small budget to begin with. Re-invest some of the dividends from these campaigns into further marketing.</li>
<li><b>Leverage free tools.</b> Social media tools and many free online tools can help you do marketing well. Build a following on free social sites, create profiles on professional business sites. Submit your business to local online business directories.</li>
<li><b>Shop for discounts and coupons.</b> Many marketing tools and programs will offer you a free trial. This can translate to profit before you spend any money. Google Adwords is a good example of this as Google will often give people a $50 or $100 Adwords coupon to start their paid search engine advertising campaign with. (Tip: Do some extensive research about effective Adwords campaign before using your free coupon so you can increase the chances of getting good results with it)</li>
<li><b>Try tier two advertising programs.</b> If you think a search engine marketing advertising campaign sounds too expensive, consider doing an ad campaign on a specific site, instead. Facebook advertising for instance, can be less expensive than many other online marketing campaigns and can provide you with laser targeted focus to geographic areas, age groups, gender, interest levels, and so on.</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
You can read the rest of the article <a href="http://www.futuresimple.com/blog/9-ideas-for-small-business-marketing-on-a-shoestring-budget/">here</a>. <br />
<br />
If you're a small to medium sized business that has yet to implement a successful marketing campaign, it's due time. Both inbound and outbound marketing is a way for you to build relationships with your current or prospective clients and grow your business -- faster than many of your competitors. Today there are many companies that you can hire -- and for a reasonable price -- to manage your marketing campaigns, like <a href="http://www.classicimage.com/">Classic Image</a>. <br /><br />These companies will handle the day-to-day marketing needs of your campaigns while you can focus on what matters most... growing your business. In many cases you can get a reasonable quote to jump start your campaign, ensuring that you don't break your bank.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181985456895575040.post-23672029642335807142013-07-26T13:11:00.000-07:002013-07-26T13:12:09.951-07:00Hashtags and Social Media Marketing Power <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEB9hIGdS1xjsZTrZ0mQtOhoxv4IaIaW3dx3UeKZxbZAqxP3k3SMTIp_gZD-Cxh1h9s-KAdg9cD3eOqmLazDgHXlpdCcRdUjfcv79bnfUls3XAoEXfKYBytYF9tJNqzOMMCi6qW4SNWdrT/s1600/ID-10040650.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEB9hIGdS1xjsZTrZ0mQtOhoxv4IaIaW3dx3UeKZxbZAqxP3k3SMTIp_gZD-Cxh1h9s-KAdg9cD3eOqmLazDgHXlpdCcRdUjfcv79bnfUls3XAoEXfKYBytYF9tJNqzOMMCi6qW4SNWdrT/s320/ID-10040650.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
As an online business or even a small to medium-sized business, social media marketing is a serious way to market your business. Now, while most business owners know this [or at least have an idea], it is still likely that they don't know just <b>how much social media marketing </b>can grow their business, helping them surpass their competitors. This is equally true of online businesses and small to medium sized businesses. <br />
<br />
For those of you who are familiar with social media, I'm sure you know about hastags - you know, the # symbol that everyone puts in front of a word or phrase they want/need to stand out. While this hashtag frenzy can be a bit over the top with <i>everyone</i> over using hashtags, they are imperative for social media marketing.<br />
<br />
The article below is about the use of hastags and how they can "pack serious media marketing power":<br />
<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
<strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Q: I’m operating my fledgling company without a budget for advertising and marketing. Can I use social media hashtags to drive sales and build my business? If so, can you offer tips so I get the best results for my efforts?</strong> </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><strong>A: </strong>For the uninitiated, hashtags—the # sign before phrases in social media—have changed how small businesses connect with customers. First used by Twitter in 2007, hashtags have been adopted by Pinterest, Instagram and other platforms. The symbol packs serious power.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Search #SparkandHustle (that’s my company) on these sites, and you’ll see what people are saying about my conferences for entrepreneurs. I’ve connected via hashtags with thousands of people to promote my business. Joining the ongoing conversation is an effective way to target audiences, serve them better and compete with rivals. In doing so, you should focus on two areas:</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">1. Incorporating hashtags in your social media posts to attract new fans and followers.</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">2. Searching hashtags to find people interested in what you have to offer.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Here are some ways to achieve objective No. 1. First, whenever you share content, include a relevant hashtag so your post can be found when your target audience searches for related help.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">You should also piggyback on hashtags that are popular and tweet them, suggests Lena West of Influence Expansion Academy, an online business growth school. “If you work with small businesses, the <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23SMB&src=typd" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Search - #SMB | Twitter.com">#SMB</a> hashtag is often used in tweets related to small-business concerns. If you use it, those tweets will come up on searches for that hashtag, leading to more visibility for your company.”</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And you should create your own custom hashtag to enable anyone interested in your area of expertise to join the conversation, says Dana Lynch, whose Amplify-Mobile develops apps for small businesses. “Use it across platforms—a hashtag is useful only if followers know about it—so promote it everywhere users can find your brand,” she says.</span></blockquote>
<div>
If you're a small to medium sized business that has yet to implement a successful social media marketing campaign, it's due time. Social media marketing is a way for you to build relationships with your current or prospective clients and grow your business -- faster than many of your competitors. Today there are many companies that you can hire -- and for a reasonable price -- to manage your social media marketing campaigns, like <a href="http://www.classicimage.com/">Classic Image</a>. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
These companies will handle the day-to-day marketing needs of your campaigns while you can focus on what matters most... growing your business.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181985456895575040.post-1621131549268630342013-07-17T07:37:00.000-07:002013-08-01T09:34:28.636-07:00Innovative Ways To Market Your Start-Up Business (and Successfully) Through Social Media Marketing <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKzpQoCTJgU3Ad3dTy2wFee3GbT4BqW3g3s7CXE22S1rRGVz3GWxZBKY3sq0tFkSjZeoEWI9nqIR7kcg6gIU9-oosGxgpkVM_Tsk_K9l6NA_-91bRBRrbzykNM1DU8BagoLK6IQT0YmB8o/s1600/ID-10040650.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKzpQoCTJgU3Ad3dTy2wFee3GbT4BqW3g3s7CXE22S1rRGVz3GWxZBKY3sq0tFkSjZeoEWI9nqIR7kcg6gIU9-oosGxgpkVM_Tsk_K9l6NA_-91bRBRrbzykNM1DU8BagoLK6IQT0YmB8o/s400/ID-10040650.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
Over the last ten years technology has advanced quite a bit, including the way that <a href="http://www.classicimage.com/online/social-media/">social media</a> is used. First generation social media platforms like Myspace were basically used by people to connect with other like-minded individuals. It was used to share your life and everything about <i>you</i>, including your up and coming band, short films, etc. Today, however, social media is so much more than that -- especially for <a href="http://www.classicimage.com/">small to medium sized businesses</a> and start-up businesses around the globe. In all essence, <a href="http://www.classicimage.com/online/social-media/">social media</a> is something that can help you make your brand go viral.<br />
<br />
As a start-up business it is very important to understand just how important social media is when it comes to marketing your business and the growth of your company. The article below talks about three different ways that start-ups are driving results through social media:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br />
<span style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">1. Warby Parker</strong></span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<strong style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Social strategy:</strong> Encouraging user-generated content that drives brand awareness. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Warby Parker, a New York City-based online seller of vintage-inspired eyeglasses and sunglasses, is using social media to reinvent how people shop for and purchase eyewear. It does this by shipping customers five pairs of frames that they select from <a href="http://www.warbyparker.com/" style="color: #365977; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Warby Parker's website</a> in packaging that encourages them to take pictures of themselves wearing the glasses and then post the shots on their Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts. Customers can take five full days to test the glasses before shipping them back and, the company hopes, placing an order.<br />
The strategy behind the <a href="http://www.warbyparker.com/home-try-on" style="color: #365977; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Home Try-On</a> campaign is for shoppers to get feedback from their social-media friends and contacts on which pair fits them best, while generating a positive, social buzz around Warby Parker's brand "in a natural, organic way," says co-founder and co-CEO David Gilboa. Customers who post photos of themselves in frames are buying at twice the rate as those who don't, he says. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Shoppers seeking opinions outside of their own social-media circles can submit pictures to Warby Parker's Facebook page for additional feedback. Home Try-On participants have posted some 25,000 images on the company's Facebook Timeline and more than 40,000 on Instagram since the promotion was started in February 2010. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Don't view social media as just another way to push your marketing messaging," Gilboa advises. "Think of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter as critical customer service gateways and take the time to respond to each and every customer who reaches out to you there. Each comment, photo and tweet gives you an opening to directly communicate with them on a meaningful, personalized basis that encourages brand loyalty."<br />
<br />
<img src="http://www.entrepreneur.com/dbimages/article/3-innovative-startups.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" /><br />
<br />
<img alt="3 Innovative Ways Startups Are Driving Results Over Social Media" max-width="300" src="http://www.entrepreneur.com/dbimages/article/3-innovative-ways-social.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin: 5px 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: 300px;" /><br />
The founders of Pork Barrel BBQ created their own social-media platform for BBQ fanatics. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">2. Pork Barrel BBQ </strong></span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<strong style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Social strategy: </strong>Creating its own social community. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Who needs Facebook when you can invent your own social-media network specifically tailored to your target demographic? That's what Heath Hall and Brett Thompson did in February 2011, creating <a href="http://www.bbqbackyard.com/" style="color: #365977; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Backyard BBQ</a>, a social-media network for barbeque enthusiasts.<br />
The co-founders of <a href="http://www.porkbarrelbbq.com/" style="color: #365977; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Pork Barrel BBQ</a>, an Alexandria, Va.-based barbeque sauce, restaurant and catering company, noticed that barbeque fans from around the world were interacting on internet message boards and forums that didn't allow them to share, comment on or like photos and videos. In response, the company developed a free online social space for grillers of all skill levels, from backyard beginners to competitive pit masters, so they can swap recipes, cook-off stories and pictures and videos from the pit. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Hall and Thompson invited legendary pit masters, such as Johnny Trigg, Pat Burke, Rod Gray and Melissa Cookston, to join the social network and help spread the word in their own social networks and grilling circles. Backyard BBQ has grown to 4,312 members from in the U.S. and in more than 20 different countries, Hall says, and it is driving "a significant amount of traffic" to the company's main website where people can buy sauces and rubs. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
From concept to launch, it took about six months for Hall and his Pork Barrel BBQ co-founder Brett Thompson to develop BBQ Backyard. They developed the platform using <a href="https://www.ning.com/" style="color: #365977; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Ning</a>, an online service that lets individuals and businesses quickly, relatively easily design, create and host their own custom social networks. Ning offers a 14-day free trial and basic monthly prices range between $25 and $99. Hall says it cost about $500 in all to get BBQ Backyard off the ground. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Pork Barrel BBQ has its own member profile on Backyard BBQ, of course, featuring blog posts, how-to cooking videos, recipes and promotional event photos. Hall encourages fellow small-business owners to launch their own specialized social networks "if there is a void in their particular market." Hall says the benefits "can be enormous in terms of networking, spreading your brand message, learning about new opportunities and giving back to the community."</blockquote>
<br />
You can read the rest of the article <a href="http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/227399">here</a>.<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br />If you're a start-up business that is looking to grow your company there are a various ways that the use of social media can make that happen. Classic Image is a creatively driven marketing and design company that thrives on helping businesses grow; a company that has helped hundreds of start-up businesses with their marketing and social media campaign, providing excellent results for a reasonable price. The company is insanely creative, coming up with innovative ways to grow your business, regardless of your niche. <a href="http://www.classicimage.com/">Give them a ring</a>! </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181985456895575040.post-91215858354771651662013-07-12T09:00:00.000-07:002013-07-12T09:00:03.513-07:00Content Marketing: How to Grow Your Business With Content <h2 class="tr_bq">
Content is King...it's Just the Way It Is</h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3EToDBjTZXIaky2PazWGbyMjjyGdYCWPu_lTKevDtZbRqG8KgJ6jf7HVKjKJAVJX0cRShduyYLrqx_4z6QYYSNbFfoy-8faQ7F1Pt4akdOShA-nZ19rr5HcUBj8hRLBz57Mm7NdDaxMyN/s1600/ID-10098505.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3EToDBjTZXIaky2PazWGbyMjjyGdYCWPu_lTKevDtZbRqG8KgJ6jf7HVKjKJAVJX0cRShduyYLrqx_4z6QYYSNbFfoy-8faQ7F1Pt4akdOShA-nZ19rr5HcUBj8hRLBz57Mm7NdDaxMyN/s1600/ID-10098505.jpg" /></a></div>
<div>
As a small to medium sized business you might have heard the phrase "content is king" somewhere along the line. It might seem crazy, but the truth of the matter is that <b>content IS king</b> and content marketing is something that small to medium sized businesses will need to take advantage of at some point or another, especially if they are looking to grow their <a href="http://www.classicimage.com/">business</a>. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
We have worked with hundreds of clients who have been working on building their business for <i>years</i> only to find that their marketing campaigns have lacked a few major key factors that are simply imperative if you're looking for profit, growth and wealth. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
As a small to medium sized business it is very important that you include these factors within your marketing campaign: </div>
<div>
<ol>
<li>Strong Brand (one that will stand out from your competitors) </li>
<li>Marketing Campaign that includes Social Media Marketing and SEO</li>
<li>Content Marketing</li>
</ol>
<div>
With these three key factors incorporated into your marketing campaign you will see that the growth you're seeking will hit home. You might want to consider looking for a <a href="http://www.classicimage.com/">company</a> to help you with your marketing needs so that they can focus on <a href="http://www.classicimage.com/">marketing your business</a> while you can focus on what matters most -- growing your business.</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Content marketing is extremely important and it isn't something that just anyone can succeed in. It takes time and skill, and yes, a little bit of strategy. In a recent article (below), Joe Pulizzi talks about the top ten content marketing strategies from the last 15 years: </div>
<blockquote>
<br />
<b>1. There is no silver bullet</b><br />
Regardless of what anyone says, there is no silver bullet when it comes to <a href="http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2013/04/building-blocks-content-marketing-strategy/" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; border: 0px; color: #f7931e; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">content marketing strategy</a>. So many marketers are looking for the perfect dashboard, system, process, and distribution <a href="http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/plan/" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; border: 0px; color: #f7931e; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">plan</a> for their content marketing. It simply doesn’t exist. We’ve worked with hundreds of small and large brands around the world, and only one thing has been consistent: <a href="http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2013/04/organizing-department-content-marketing-strategic-requirements/" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; border: 0px; color: #f7931e; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">Every plan we developed was different</a>. Why? It’s simple: The mixture of communicating what your business offers, delivering on your customers’ informational needs, and sharing your own corporate story is impossible to duplicate — the output from your particular blend of attributes and goals should always be different and unique. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
As <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_E._Schultz" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; border: 0px; color: #f7931e; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Don Schultz</a>, the father of integrated marketing, has always professed, competitors can copy everything about what you do… your pricing, your product, where you promote it… but they can’t copy exactly how you will communicate. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<b>2. You can play offense or defense </b></blockquote>
<blockquote>
One of my favorite basketball players of all time is Julius “Dr. J” Erving. I’ve heard many interviews in which Dr. J talks about two ways to look at basketball offense: You can impose your will on the defense, or you can take what the defense gives you. Dr. J always chose to exert his own will, and that worked for him (quite well, in fact). LeBron James, on the other hand, usually takes what the defense gives him, which is why he racks up so many assists.<br />
Both strategies can be effective. At CMI, we decided to exert our will with the term “content marketing.” In 2007, we popped onto the scene and started using the term like it had been around for years. Through lots of planning, strategy, and luck, it worked, and now content marketing is the defacto term for our industry. (Incidentally, <a href="http://www.hubspot.com/" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; border: 0px; color: #f7931e; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">HubSpot</a> did the same thing with “inbound marketing.”) </blockquote>
<blockquote>
But imposing your will is just one way to do it. You could also choose to ride the waves of others and pick your sweet spot. A great example of this is <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; border: 0px; color: #f7931e; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Social Media Examiner</a>. When it launched in 2009, many thought it was late to the party… but it rode the social media wave and executed a content marketing strategy second to none, growing into one of the most-trafficked <a href="http://www.classicimage.com/"><span style="color: #f7931e;"><span style="-webkit-transition: 0.1s ease-in-out; transition: 0.1s ease-in-out;">B2B marketing</span></span> </a>sites on the planet. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<b>3. Content marketing is the great equalizer </b></blockquote>
<blockquote>
“David vs. Goliath” is alive and well in content marketing. Large budgets don’t always win; actually, the smaller players usually come out on top because they are equipped to move more agilely and quickly than their larger competition. For instance, CMI had a smaller budget than almost every marketing media company on the planet, yet we came out on top through focus and hard work. I’ve never seen a bigger company move faster than a smaller organization. <a href="http://openviewpartners.com/" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; border: 0px; color: #f7931e; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">OpenView Venture Partners</a> is, relatively speaking, a small VC company compared to its peers. On the web, though, it dominates. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<b>4. You don’t <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">have</em> to be on all platforms </b></blockquote>
<blockquote>
In many cases, it’s smart to weave your story onto multiple platforms. It’s entirely possible to have a killer webinar series, amazing blog, outstanding video program, and cutting-edge digital magazine all at the same time.<br />
But there is another way. You may decide to focus and work to dominate one platform. How about a killer podcast series? What about an amazing print newsletter? Maybe a <a href="http://www.contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/CMI_Ultimate-Blogging-final.pdf" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; border: 0px; color: #f7931e; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">blog</a> is just the platform for you. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
Yes, you construct your strategy before choosing your channels, but don’t feel obligated to be active on <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">every</em> channel that your customer uses. The international travel magazine, Monocle, <a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/business/media/monocles-tyler-brl-i-dont-care-about-social-media-and-ipads-8567111.html?origin=internalSearch" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; border: 0px; color: #f7931e; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">has just a print magazine</a>. No iPad version. No Facebook page. It works for the magazine and its readers. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
Sometimes simple and focused is better. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<b>5. Subscribers rule</b> </blockquote>
<blockquote>
If I have one regret as a content marketer, it’s that I didn’t focus early enough on generating subscribers. It took us years of experimenting, but we finally found our “Moneyball number:” the subscriber. We’ve found that once someone is a subscriber, they do different things than non-subscribers that lead to more revenue for us. Instead of converting from content to an immediate sales opportunity, we’ve found that converting from content to more content is the best way (for us). (For more on subscribers, please check out these <a href="http://pages.exacttarget.com/sff" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; border: 0px; color: #f7931e; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">outstanding reports from ExactTarget</a> — a great example of content marketing, as well.)</blockquote>
<div>
You can read the rest of the article <a href="http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2013/05/top-10-content-marketing-strategy-lessons-15-years/">here</a>.<br />
<br /></div>
If you or your business is in need of content marketing or general marketing assistance, <a href="http://www.classicimage.com/">Classic Image</a> is a premier marketing and design agency that has helped hundreds of companies over the last decade. They are affordable, too, so you don't have to spend an arm and a leg while you're trying to bring your business to the top. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0New York, NY, USA40.7143528 -74.005973140.3291643 -74.65142010000001 41.0995413 -73.3605261tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181985456895575040.post-39164556730214314802013-07-12T06:00:00.000-07:002013-07-12T06:00:02.899-07:00Great Innovative Marketing Campaigns of 2013 (So Far) <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDE2kSIuSqAW2hkQ5R72iYqVxr4zb2gXIpeAOPHk_Y3fyE231ASaLIhL4XnxZi8oBi2R0g7cAaIRoKCt9gD173we7-LG1biUcgIEUFB7ww63EFvtupYx5JpebDLLDBfT0Nq_WOqRN0mjmX/s1600/ID-100169524.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDE2kSIuSqAW2hkQ5R72iYqVxr4zb2gXIpeAOPHk_Y3fyE231ASaLIhL4XnxZi8oBi2R0g7cAaIRoKCt9gD173we7-LG1biUcgIEUFB7ww63EFvtupYx5JpebDLLDBfT0Nq_WOqRN0mjmX/s320/ID-100169524.jpg" width="284" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo Courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Regardless of whether you and your business are working on an inbound or outbound marketing campaign, what makes a marketing campaign effective is an <b>emotional connection</b> - an emotional connection with your readers, your audience, your customers and your <i><b>potential</b></i> customers. It used to be that the only way to make that emotional connection was through outbound marketing techniques such as cold calling, door to door marketing or direct mailings. Today, thanks to the growth of technology, there are a million different opportunities for a business to truly achieve that emotional connection and obtain long-term customers, making an affinity between your customers, the messages and your product or service.<br />
<br />
Because there are so many ways to reach your customers in this complex digital world, marketing professionals have a million and one different ways to promote their business, their services and their products.<br />
<br />
The article below talks about five of the most innovative marketing campaigns of 2013 -- so far. These marketing campaigns have made their mark and that is only the beginning:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br />
<b>1) Coca-Cola Sharing Can</b><br />
Coca-Cola has really hit it out of the park recently with their campaigns. They have done an incredible job at connecting with their audience through understanding their motivations and the nostalgic feelings behind craving a can of Coke. Another impressive aspect of recent campaigns is the attention that Coke puts into making each message global. Coke has smartly positioned themselves as a brand that connects millions of people across the world.<br />
Recently, Coke has upped their game with how they get people to not only emotionally engage with their brand, but also with each other. They created a vending machine that enabled people in India and Pakistan to communicate. And in Europe Coke is offering customers a chance to customize their own Coke bottles with their names. The most recent iteration is the idea of having a can of Coke that twists apart into two smaller cans so you can share! I immediately resonated with this. I love Coca-Cola, but I often can’t finish a full can, so having two small cans that I can share with a loved one is genius. Currently, the cans are only available in limited quantities during a trial through their “Happiness Truck”. So that is a bummer, but I have high hopes the concept will make it to the mainstream.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>2) Senador Volstead Beer</b><br />
This is a truly innovative campaign. Senador Volstead is a beer company based in Spain named after Senator Volstead, who decreed the start of prohibition in 1920. So how do you promote a beer that is themed after 1920s prohibition? Why not make it hidden on your own website? I have never seen anything like this, which immediately makes it memorable.When you go onto the <a href="http://www.senadorvolstead.com/eng/#/home" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #5a54a4; font-weight: bold; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;">Senador Volstead website </a>you might be confused at first because it appears to be a website selling teddy bears. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>3) Game of Thrones Season 3</b><br />
OK, truth be told, I love Game of Thrones. I also love HBO and I think their marketing is genius. I mean, True Blood? That first campaign truly set a precedent. But what I am really into right now is Game of Thrones, and their marketing campaign for Season 3 was clean, consistent, mysterious, and of course cool.<br />
The big theme for the season premiere this year was a subtle, yet mysterious shadow of a dragon. The beauty behind this campaign was that it was extremely consistent and its subtlety did a lot to build momentum to the premiere. First came the poster and magazine covers:<a href="http://blog.marketo.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/GOT.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #5a54a4; font-weight: bold; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="GOT" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-38050" height="573" src="http://blog.marketo.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/GOT.jpg" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="387" /></a></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b> 4) ORPHEA Billboard Fly Trap</b><br />
This example appeals to emotions in a different way. Instead of focusing on the warm and fuzzy feelings of nostalgia or excitement over looking forward to something in the future, ORPHEA relies on the relatable pain point of bug hating to bring their customers together. And they used an extremely unique marketing technique to get their message across.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
They rented a billboard in Milan and created a giant insect trap using transparent glue that was placed on the billboard in the shape of an aerosol spray. Over time, insects naturally got trapped in the glue and created a huge, and very visible insect trap. Gross? Maybe. Shocking? Probably. Memorable? Definitely! It certainly attracted millions of people’s attention. The lesson here is never be afraid to try something different.</blockquote>
You can read the rest of the article <a href="http://blog.marketo.com/blog/2013/05/5-of-the-most-innovative-and-unique-marketing-campaigns-so-far-in-2013.html">here</a>.<br />
<br />
<div>
For B2B businesses or small to medium sized businesses who would like some tips on successful marketing and social media marketing tactics, please contact us at <a href="http://www.classicimage.com/">Classic Image</a> today to see how we can help your business with all of your marketing campaigns from social media marketing to direct marketing. We strongly believe that combining inbound and outbound marketing tactics is a great way to help any business flourish<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181985456895575040.post-75687323624779719442013-07-11T09:00:00.000-07:002013-07-11T09:00:03.411-07:00The Best Advertising Campaigns of All Time An advertising or marketing campaign is something that stands out and a <b>good advertising</b> campaign should be something that will stick with you, something you will remember. Slogan's are also something that people tend to remember, such as Nike's <i>Just Do It</i> campaign or <i>Got Milk? </i>so they are just as important as a solid marketing or advertising campaign. <div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Any business - including small to medium sized businesses - should make sure that they have a solid advertising or marketing campaign that will make them stand out. A campaign that will still with potential customers or current customers for years to come, solidifying your place within the marketplace. In order to do this properly you will need the expertise of a <a href="http://www.classicimage.com/">company</a> who's main focus and goal is to help a business like yours ride to the top through marketing or advertising efforts, just to ensure your efforts are effective and your hard earned money isn't wasted. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The infographic below shows the best campaigns of all time. These are campaigns that probably everyone remembers, which means they are also effective campaigns. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwFD9CebJqqYkr_qwUsBdvjZQf_39RkuwXy9FctrgakuLO9l8ZRg8Dt63GSVf7YSALWJpHGDse5IrNtPJnyqyWh7a5anrWjcS14o4whqMbIr9pQuvXlaPWMVpJG9dhYtT3SRL2v6gpWlUn/s1600/best-ad-campaigns-slogans-infographic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwFD9CebJqqYkr_qwUsBdvjZQf_39RkuwXy9FctrgakuLO9l8ZRg8Dt63GSVf7YSALWJpHGDse5IrNtPJnyqyWh7a5anrWjcS14o4whqMbIr9pQuvXlaPWMVpJG9dhYtT3SRL2v6gpWlUn/s1600/best-ad-campaigns-slogans-infographic.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Are there any advertising campaigns that you remember that are not included on this infographic? </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181985456895575040.post-78559350991303720002013-07-11T06:00:00.000-07:002013-07-11T06:00:08.242-07:00Revamping Your Brand <h2>
Revamping Your Brand is Imperative for Continual Business Growth</h2>
<div>
While it might seem like a lot of work, all businesses large and small should consider revamping their brand, depending on the following factors:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><b>Age</b>. How many years has your company had the same look and feel? How long have you had the same logo design where things are measured in weeks and days today? It's imperative for continual business growth to keep your brand fresh...</li>
<li><b>Introduction of a New Product or Service. </b>If your company is about to roll out a new project, property or product it might be a good idea to update your brand or logo, keeping your business fresh. </li>
<li><b>A merger</b>. If there is a change in leadership within your company then you might want to consider making a change. </li>
</ul>
<div>
If your company is experiencing any of the above you might want to assess your business and where it stands as a brand. Even with that said, however, it's important that you don't just change for change's sake or because you're tired of your brand. You shouldn't make a change until you fully understand just how much it's going to cost, both dollar-wise and emotionally. A change in your brand isn't just another marketing campaign, it's more than that so you want to ensure that you choose the <a href="http://www.classicimage.com/">best company</a> to help you with all of your branding needs---at an affordable and reasonable price. </div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
There are major companies that have recently decided to revamp their brand, such as Apple. Google, Inc and Android based devices are rising to the forefront so Apple has decided to boost their brand, offer more features and other enticing product offerings. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
According to this video, released in June 2013, Apple is looking to revamp their brand and stand out from the new Operating System rave Windows 8. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/1aqsW7EFNkw?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
In addition to the new operating system, Apple has decided to revamp their advertising campaign -- a wise choice, in my opinion. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<object width="320" height="266" class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://img.youtube.com/vi/Zr1s_B0zqX0/0.jpg"><param name="movie" value="http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/Zr1s_B0zqX0&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/Zr1s_B0zqX0&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
What are your thoughts on Apple's revamp? A good or bad idea? </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
If you would like help with revamping your business' brand, <a href="http://http%3B//www.classicimage.com">contact us</a> today to discuss your needs and the world of possibilities that a brand revamp will bring to your company. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181985456895575040.post-26504241933291046762013-07-10T10:51:00.001-07:002013-07-10T10:51:25.547-07:00Video Marketing: A Few Video Marketing Ideas That Stand Out<h2>
Interesting Video Marketing Campaigns of Summer 2013</h2>
<div>
Video marketing is becoming increasingly important in today's day and age. Social media marketing and video marketing often go hand in hand, and with the right techniques they could really help a small to medium sized business grow and flourish -- faster than businesses who do not utilize social media or video marketing tactics. Today it is possible for a small to medium sized business to take advantage of video marketing and for an <a href="http://www.classicimage.com/">affordable price</a>. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Throughout this blog I have included a few very interesting video marketing campaigns that have recently shown some success -- or who have at least brought awareness to a company's products or services. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h3>
Samsung's New Ad Campaign</h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/5E-ntGyUJAE?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i>Buddy the Dog</i> has somehow managed to get the attention of customers worldwide. What do you think of this video campaign? Do you think it's effective? </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
What about this other ad campaign below? </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/u9HMhSvnbmk?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
For businesses that would like to take advantage of what video marketing or advertising has to offer there are a wide variety of companies out there that will fully manage your video marketing campaigns as well as search engine optimization and tactics. I've worked with quite a few and I've found that my business has grown quite a bit by combining video marketing and social media with traditional marketing tactics like direct mailings and so on. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
If you or your business is in need of some marketing assistance, <a href="http://www.classicimage.com/">Classic Image</a> is a premier marketing and design agency that has helped hundreds of companies over the last decade. They are affordable, too, so you don't have to spend an arm and a leg while you're trying to bring your business to the top. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181985456895575040.post-20313595361811365632013-07-10T10:23:00.000-07:002013-07-10T10:23:24.293-07:00Cost-Effective Social Media Marketing Strategies for the Small to Medium Sized Business<h2>
Ten Ways to Develop Cost-Effective Social Media Strategies</h2>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAFp-aXNZ3wjqKR35YqwRGjJbd4juSdDxNNUgBWM9Kar8mRvlGasDeuHpuzwVk-ZLaluJ1oQ0Jmq20UVfhk78ohS8y1kTp-XnP3rEDhlYCP_TZ1m83x1tQ3HE_raKwu_WK65BF2ki8_rWn/s1600/ID-10094594.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAFp-aXNZ3wjqKR35YqwRGjJbd4juSdDxNNUgBWM9Kar8mRvlGasDeuHpuzwVk-ZLaluJ1oQ0Jmq20UVfhk78ohS8y1kTp-XnP3rEDhlYCP_TZ1m83x1tQ3HE_raKwu_WK65BF2ki8_rWn/s320/ID-10094594.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo Courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
Many small to medium sized business owners find themselves too busy to develop solid social media marketing strategies that will do what they are supposed to...grow their business. Instead, business owners are working <b>in their business</b>, 50 to 60 hours or more per week, not having any time to focus on what matters most. Social media marketing is a way that business owners can expand their reach, but there are certain strategies that business owners should follow to make their campaign as successful as it should be. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Social media marketing allows you to grow relationships with your potential customers and current consumer-base. If you don't have the time to focus on social media efforts alone, you might want to consider utilizing a <a href="http://www.classicimage.com/online/engine-optimization/">company</a> that is known for growing businesses and their <a href="http://www.classicimage.com/online/engine-optimization/">social media efforts</a>. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The article below discusses ten ways that you can develop your social media strategy to ensure that it provides you with the results you need:</div>
<div>
<strong style="border: 0px; color: #620020; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></strong></div>
<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<ul>
<li><strong style="border: 0px; color: #620020; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Does your business lend itself to</strong><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"> </span><strong style="border: 0px; color: #620020; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">showing off its work?</strong><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">Strutting your stuff brings to mind visual portrayals, like photographs and video, although it can include other presentation formats. Social media is very useful for businesses where prospects perceive there are high risks. Many </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">bridal photographers use blogs to highlight their work while many bakers use Flickr to show off their masterpieces. Show real patrons using your services with before and after photographs. Don’t forget to get patron’s permission to use their likeness.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong style="border: 0px; color: #620020; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Can you give prospects information they find useful?</strong><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">Think in terms of small bite-size chunks of content. Twitter is great for providing a tip of the day whether you’re an accountant or a massage therapist. Clothing stores could provide an outfit of the day. Think outside of the box when it comes to information. How about food recipes or scrap-booking.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong style="border: 0px; color: #620020; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">How do you solve people’s problems? </strong><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">At the core of most marketing is fulfilling prospects’ needs. Therefore, create content that helps people with their problems. For example, if you’re a financial advisor, why not give out tips on budgeting so that prospects have money to invest. Here’s some advice to </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">create a professional blog.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong style="border: 0px; color: #620020; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Does your product lend itself to some form of education? </strong><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">This is a great way to win prospects over. Teach them! Not the old-fashioned school marm but the fun stuff. Think: how to add memory to your computer or how to apply makeup. You can use videos, webinars or ebooks.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong style="border: 0px; color: #620020; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Can your business disseminate entertaining content?</strong><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">This information doesn’t need to be your business’s main focus.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">Orabrush</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">built its brand with the use of entertaining videos. Is there something funny or engaging about your product?</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong style="border: 0px; color: #620020; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Are there targeted or niche communities where your prospects and customers naturally congregate?</strong><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">While this doesn’t apply to all businesses, where it exists, it’s a useful way to participate in the community. You can participate in the social media community and advertise to targeted prospects. For example, yarn shops participate and socialize on</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">Ravelry</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">, a knitting community.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong style="border: 0px; color: #620020; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Does your business tap into people’s passions and/or hobbies?</strong><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">When it comes hobbies and special interests, participants often make different spending tradeoffs. The strength of these interests is great since your customers want to share their share their hobbies and special interests using photographs, videos and blogs. This can apply to fishing as well as it can to quilting.</span></li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<br />
You can read the rest of the article <a href="http://heidicohen.com/social-media-marketing-for-small-and-medium-sized-businesses/">here</a>. <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br />
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
For B2B businesses or small to medium sized businesses who would like some tips on successful marketing and social media marketing tactics, please contact us at <a href="http://www.classicimage.com/">Classic Image</a> today to see how we can help your business with all of your marketing campaigns from social media marketing to direct marketing. We strongly believe that combining inbound and outbound marketing tactics is a great way to help any business flourish.</div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181985456895575040.post-79333173707263276162013-07-04T07:00:00.000-07:002013-07-04T07:00:02.767-07:00B2B Marketing Selling Strategies<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMwYcXOeB0I2NrkKDUP9Xql2eT67S60kpuLiq2FN62MjX2i_Egvy4M8Hdf3_33zjxqs3CwqobPEcuUQmhVdfJ-MTnJcF0b4YqmELPEpztb8N9F2bp9Lvh9NXRPzsetQeSCBNYZn0Mob-vH/s400/ID-100144354.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMwYcXOeB0I2NrkKDUP9Xql2eT67S60kpuLiq2FN62MjX2i_Egvy4M8Hdf3_33zjxqs3CwqobPEcuUQmhVdfJ-MTnJcF0b4YqmELPEpztb8N9F2bp9Lvh9NXRPzsetQeSCBNYZn0Mob-vH/s320/ID-100144354.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">B2B marketing is one of the best ways to help your business<br />
flourish.<br />
Photo Courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
While economic times are still a
bit tighter than we would all like to admit, it’s important for business owners
to try their best not to skimp on promotion—especially with b2b marketing or
marketing to other businesses. A lot of business owners will simply put up a
website and run an occasional ad in an industry trade journal. Sure, this
advertisement might bring in some new customers and help in some respects,
however, successful B2B marketing needs to provide a steady stream of
consistent messages across a wide variety of platforms. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Putting up a well thought out and
designed website is a start for reaching other business owners who are also
potential customers, but it’s also important that you do not think of your
website as a “once and done” type of thing. B2B marketing and social media
tactics are extremely important for you to work on because you will receive
much better results—results that can make a world of difference in your
business. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The article snippet below is from
a recent article posted on <a href="http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/1228-best-business-to-business-selling-strategies.html">Business
News Daily</a>, about how B2B businesses can market their business—successfully—from
day one. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Be engaging</b></blockquote>
<blockquote>
Just having an online presence isn't enough, though. Your B2B customers are
still consumers and they need to detect coherence in your overall marketing
strategy.<br />
"Start with an Internet
strategy that maps your overall business strategy." Rigano said. "How
much do you want to grow, what markets will be most important to your growth,
and what will constitute success in each of these markets? </blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote>
Set up your website
to support your achieving these goals, with content that makes your company
easy to find online, and helps convert prospects into buyers. Hold your website
accountable for sales, and use analytics to continually measure results and
refine your strategies. </blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote>
Email and social media also are essential and fit into almost any budget, but
they require effort and monitoring. </blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote>
"I'd suggest tools like e-mail and social networking because not only do
they come at little to no cost, but they are often user-friendly and allow you
the ability to get very, very targeted who receives your message, when they
receive it, how they receive it and why," said Jeremiah Sullivan, co-owner
and operator of Woodbridge, N.J.-based Framework Media Strategies, a marketing
and public relations firm. "Even better, these tools also allow for
consistent and immediate communication between you and the business you've
reached out to and also records a written history of everything shared." </blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote>
<b>
Tracking results</b></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote>
<b></b>Whatever approach a business
owner takes, tracking the results and making adjustments is the key to success. </blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote>
"The United States Postal Service's intelligent mail bar code tracking,
which makes it possible to receive notifications that let you know when a direct
mail piece will reach a recipient," said David Henkel, president of
Niles, Ill.-based Johnson & Quin, a provider of integrated marketing
services. "An email can then be sent or a call can be made to a prospect
informing them that their mail piece is about to come."</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote>
It is also important to consider the types of businesses you are trying to
reach when determining whether email, direct mail, banner ads or other vehicles
are the best way to reach customers.</blockquote>
</blockquote>
You can read the rest of the article <a href="http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/1228-best-business-to-business-selling-strategies.html">here</a>.<br />
<br />
For B2B businesses or small to medium sized businesses who would like some tips on successful marketing and social media marketing tactics, please contact us at <a href="http://www.classicimage.com/">Classic Image</a> today to see how we can help your business with all of your marketing campaigns from social media marketing to direct marketing. We strongly believe that combining inbound and outbound marketing tactics is a great way to help any business flourish. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote>
<br /></blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181985456895575040.post-71781521955175253922013-07-03T12:55:00.000-07:002013-07-03T12:55:10.820-07:00Social Media Marketing Tips That Will Help Grow Your Business <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In today’s technological world it
is almost unmanageable for a small to medium sized business to flourish without
utilizing social media marketing. Marketing tactics change regularly, so keeping
up the rest of the world is essential. With that said, regardless of what kind
of business you run, it is very important to continuously look at other avenues
that will grow your business. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmPbK5PMkFoS8zrrxOFiNpG2yStEKHjFfwaJHgZa-BYA9oQsZer3SBZC18xYDGtP0Qdk6U8vQWq2AmF4Hjf400CXyoKSHEPRFCjnwhlBEwpWg3Rp_yiJ0jYP89sMLzcM6EDKSnwSZZHiUI/s400/ID-10079116.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmPbK5PMkFoS8zrrxOFiNpG2yStEKHjFfwaJHgZa-BYA9oQsZer3SBZC18xYDGtP0Qdk6U8vQWq2AmF4Hjf400CXyoKSHEPRFCjnwhlBEwpWg3Rp_yiJ0jYP89sMLzcM6EDKSnwSZZHiUI/s320/ID-10079116.jpg" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Social media marketing or SMM is imperative<br />
for the success of small to medium sized<br />
businesses.<br />
Photo Courtesy of <a href="http://freedigitalphotos.net./">FreeDigitalPhotos.net.</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Now, while there are a million
different methods that you can utilize it’s also equally important that you
find ways that will not require you to spend hours upon hours working <i>in </i>your business, rather than <i>on </i>your business. Social media marketing
can do just that, if managed properly and efficiently. Facebook, Twitter,
Google+ and other platforms are increasingly becoming a well-known—and
successful—marketing tool. These platforms can assist your business in
obtaining a healthy and growing fan base that will generate leads,
word-of-mouth <i>and </i>conversions.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
At <a href="http://www.classicimage.com/">Classic Image</a> we have managed
hundreds of social media marketing campaigns over the last five years. We
understand that the concept of a small to medium sized business handling their
own social media marketing campaign can be overwhelming, but there are many tips
that you can consider utilizing to make your life easier—and to help your
business grow. The last thing you want to do is spend hundreds of hours on
social media efforts only to find out that your approach will not bring in the
results that you desire. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Throughout this blog I’m going to
mention a handful of tips that you can use to help strengthen your social media
efforts and growing your business:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>Get More Leads with a Call To Action. </b>There is no question about it—a
social media call to action is an integral and often </span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">overlooked </b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">element of a social media strategy. Social media gets
prospects, customers and the public primed to want to find out more about what
your business is offering or to engage with you further. You can use any
platform to achieve this, too, such as a blog, Facebook, Twitter or a landing
page. If you strengthen your call to action you will receive a better success
rate, compared to ones without them.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px;">
<b style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px;">
<b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Optimizing
Your Business’ Facebook Posts. </b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Many people don’t even think about adding a
call to action to their Facebook page. However, sometimes just the act of
inviting someone to share your post will be the encouragement a fan or follower
needs to take your suggestions. And this works with any niche. For instance,
you can post a link to your blog or another piece of useful information
(something that you are offering) and ask your fan base to SHARE the
information with their followers or colleagues. It can really be as simple as
that. Take the image below, for example.</span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px;">
<b style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px;">
<b style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-weight: normal;"> </span></b><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Experimentation.
</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">As you continue with your social media efforts it’s always a good idea to
experiment with different call-to-action’s. Take Twitter, for example—it’s a
fast moving stream of content and because of that updates can quickly flow by
readers. While they are deciding on whether to read your full update, a call to
action can practically seize the moment. AND if that reader likes what you have
to offer they will be more inclined to follow you, retweet your message and
visit your page.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px;">
<b style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px;">
<b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Content
is KING. </b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">So give it the significance it deserves.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Many small to medium sized businesses do not
take into account just how imperative content is when it comes to all of their
marketing campaigns—but especially social media marketing. Fresh, frequent and
quality content is necessary to bring in new clients and customers. In the same
respect, though, even the BEST content in the world won’t do a lick of good if
people are not engaged. </span><i style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Make all of your
content engagement-friendly.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px;">
<i style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
There are many more tricks to the
trade when it comes to social media marketing and how to utilize it to truly
benefit your small to medium sized business, but the best bet is to
test…test…and test again. You will need to test your results and see what works
for your individual business because what might work for your competitor might
not do any good for your business. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
If you are someone who is
interested in learning more about how <a href="http://www.classicimage.com/">Classic Image</a> can help benefit your
business, we are here to discuss your needs seven days a week. We are home to
some of the top marketing professionals in the business, but at the same time we
are a group of creative professionals that use all tactics to help push
businesses to the top. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181985456895575040.post-25951999731469570052013-07-03T12:28:00.002-07:002013-07-03T12:54:07.001-07:00B2B Marketing & Social Media In today’s world, technology and social media is ever-changing. In fact, 2013 is marked as a year that will bring B2B marketing and B2B social media marketing to the top. One main reason for this is because daily social media usage includes B2B customers and prospective customers. Many B2B companies and small to medium sized businesses complain that their customers and prospects do not use social media, but according to a recent report 40% of the world uses a social media website every day.<br />
<br />
According to the infographic below, created by Saxum, people are using social media each and every day. So as a B2B business, once you begin to identify where your customers and prospects are in regards to social networks, the next step will be to determine what kind of useful content you need to create to connect with them.<br />
<br />
The statistics below show just how important it is for B2B companies and for small to medium sized businesses to use B2B social media marketing:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li> 1 out of every 7 minutes spent online is spent on Facebook. </li>
<li>23% of Facebook users check their newsfeed more than 5 times per day. </li>
<li>2.1 billion search queries are conducted on Twitter every day. That’s almost half as many as performed on Google. </li>
<li>1,370 company pages are added to LinkedIn every day. </li>
<li>Facebook and Twitter traffic peaks in the afternoon. </li>
<li>LinkedIn traffic peaks in the morning. </li>
<li>200 million hours of video are watched on YouTube every day. </li>
<li>10 million presentations have been uploaded to Slideshare. </li>
</ul>
There are a wide variety of tactics that businesses can use that will really boost their social media presence. Once this happens you will find that your business will begin to cultivate and flourish. While no one can expect this to happen overnight, you will notice a difference within one to two months of continuous effort.<br />
<br />
The infographic below reveals “Social Media in a Day” for B2B social media marketing and small to medium sized businesses.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQGTsVcham-6RPz90A3x97-X7G9BhsOh0j8Rz4iK0WvrlDG70_Terke-ZVyFp5Wmz9xJa3fvwVH4H-SXpy6xFGKPL5oJwMG3DOKpMf9U2kU4DyVSlkpf_xBf-7937uKnWWaulTdyGDmQN7/s1600/b2b-social-media-day.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQGTsVcham-6RPz90A3x97-X7G9BhsOh0j8Rz4iK0WvrlDG70_Terke-ZVyFp5Wmz9xJa3fvwVH4H-SXpy6xFGKPL5oJwMG3DOKpMf9U2kU4DyVSlkpf_xBf-7937uKnWWaulTdyGDmQN7/s1600/b2b-social-media-day.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://www.classicimage.com/">Classic Image</a> is a creative marketing firm based in Brooklyn, New York, dedicated to helping businesses<b><i> just like yours</i></b> move to the top. They have worked with hundreds of small to medium sized businesses in the Brooklyn area--and nationwide--with social media campaigns, content management and all marketing essentials. </blockquote>
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0