With a potential audience of over a billion users, many brands have found success by adding Facebook advertising to their online marketing efforts. In recent months, Facebook has focused on providing more advertising options and tools for companies to use to grow their customer base and increase engagement and loyalty. But with so many options available, it may be hard to keep the options straight – and to know which ones meet your needs. To help clear things up, we’ve created summaries of each of the current major Facebook advertising options along with a chart for at-a-glance comparison.   Facebook Ads Facebook Ads are simple and straightforward: Businesses purchase ad space, and their ads show up on the right side of most Facebook pages. These ads can promote a brand Page, Facebook app, Facebook event, or even an external website. Facebook Ads generally contain ad-specific copy (content created specifically for… read more

A mobile-friendly site may be what you need to turn visitors into customers. In a world where people are constantly on the go and the average consumer is splitting their attention between information found online and in person, most people have come to expect to find the resources that they want on a variety of different platforms and available to them whenever they want it.  This could be the simple task of Googling information on their laptop, all the way to the very modern act of purchasing a brand new laptop right from their mobile device. However, just because mobile-sites are becoming more and more readily available for the average consumer, does this mean that mobile users are actively seeking out these sites to use on a day-to-day basis? For many researchers and marketers who have been exploring the importance of mobile-friendly sites for consumers within the last few years,… read more

At The Marketing Zen Group, we’re passionate about everything we do. But our passion isn’t just limited to helping our clients – it’s also about helping make our world and community a better place to live. That’s why when we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to participate in Blog Action Day 2012. Blog Action Day was founded in 2007 with the goal of uniting bloggers from around the world to dedicate the same designated day to discussing and spreading awareness of a single important topic. Each year’s topic has tackled an issue that impacts all of us in significant ways; past topics have included climate change, poverty, hunger, and clean water. This year’s topic is one that speaks to all of us, in every sense: “The Power of We”. What is The Power of We? Blog Action Day explains: “The Power of We is a celebration of people working together… read more

Blurring the lines between business life and personal life with social media. Back before the immense growth of the internet and social media, it was never too difficult to keep your business life separated from your professional one. Intense sport and political talk was reserved for passing moments around the water cooler, and live commentary of your favorite television sitcoms were reserved specifically for whoever was in the room with you at the moment. However, as we saw just last night following the first presidential debate, more and more people are turning to Facebook, Twitter or Google + in order to share their thoughts and opinions on everything from politics to pop culture references. And while this may a great platform to banter back and forth with friends or dive deep into the thoughts of your favorite celebrities, where should you draw the line when your business and personal social… read more

When Facebook launched Offers – its replacement for its failed Deals service – earlier this year, companies gained access to a powerful social media marketing tool. Offers provided a way for brands to create coupons and deals, and then share these offers with their followers. Best of all, the entire process was free – until recently. Last month, Facebook rolled out some major changes to their Offers platform. These changes present a new revenue opportunity for Facebook, but also a more powerful and promotional tool for brands to promote their products, gain traffic, and drive sales. First, the bad news: Offers are no longer free. Previously, businesses had the option of simply sharing their Offer with their current Facebook followers at no charge, or paying to promote the offer with an ad. Though there are still no fees associated with claiming or redeeming an Offer, and users will still see in… read more

Guest Post by Aaron Houghton, co-founder and CEO of BoostSuite.com You want more visitors and more customers from your website. You’re heard that Search Engine Optimization (or SEO) is the most cost effective way to promote your business online. But you’re a small business owner, not a web marketer, how should you get started? I have good news. These days the term SEO refers to a large list of marketing techniques. Some are quite complex and for these you’ll benefit greatly from the assistance of a web marketing expert. Other techniques are simple and allow you to make a lot of progress on your own – even if you know absolutely nothing about web marketing. In this article we’ll show you how you can get started doing SEO on your website using only what you already know about your business. Here’s the trick. Stay in your comfort zone. You know your… read more

With a user base that includes hundreds of millions of active and highly engaged members, Facebook has established itself as an excellent way for brands to reach out to and connect with potential customers through either establishing Facebook communities on brand pages or purchasing in Facebook Ads. The problem for some, however, was that the two options for Facebook marketing often seemed to exist on opposite ends of the spectrum of “social media” and “marketing”. Facebook’s recently released Custom Audience advertising builds a bridge across that divide by giving brands the opportunity to include relationships built outside of Facebook in their targeting process. What is a “Custom Audience”? Facebook advertisers have long had the ability to target a specific audience segment through using some basic and fairly broad filters. These included general demographic information, such as age, gender, relationship status and location, as well as targeting options based on users’… read more

A few fun facts that you may have known about social media marketing. All week long, we here at The Marketing Zen Group have been celebrating one of our favorite weeks out  of the entire year―Social Media Week. Given our teams passion for social media marketing and the web, it should come as no surprise that we jump at the chance to celebrate the power of Facebook, Twitter, Google +, etc. on marketing in our current society. But other than being a chance for us to geek out about our love for social media, what exactly is Social Media Week? This worldwide event was held for the first time in February 2009 and has since become a global platform that connects people, content and conversation around the many growing trends in the worlds of social and mobile media. It is predicted that over the next 10 years, 3 billion new… read more

In order to succeed, a business must make smart financial decisions. Often, this means saving money by cutting out unnecessary costs and finding solutions that have the least impact on their budgets.  There are some instances, however, in which the cheapest solution may wind up costing the most in the long-run. To the uninitiated, both search engine optimization and content creation can seem deceptively simple. After all, how hard can it be to write some website content describing your company, add some links, and throw some keywords in for good measure? Yes, doing those things is simple: doing them right, however, is an entirely different story. Quite simply, good results require experience, expertise in the latest industry changes, and dedication to producing the best possible results. Quality SEO and online content don’t have to cost an arm and a leg, but if it sounds too good – or too cheap… read more

Many dream of taking control of their careers: setting their own hours, choosing their own projects, and calling all the shots. But, according to a new report, an increasing number of people are making their dreams of independence a reality. The 2012 State of Independence in America report was recently released by MBO Partners, a client of The Marketing Zen Group, as a follow up to their inaugural 2011 report. This hot new study takes a look at the demographics, attitudes and trends of independent workers in the United States. Below are some of the report’s significant highlights. The number of independent workers is growing. This year, there are nearly 17 million independent workers in America, up from 16 million just one year ago. Why is there such a gain in popularity? For some – particularly younger, “Generation Y” workers – the shifting economy the country has faced over the… read more