Bloodhound: The Perfect All-In-One App For Your Next Conference
August 22, 2012 - Posted by Rilee Chastain
One of the hottest apps on the horizon! Trade shows and conferences are a great way to connect with a number of different people in your industry, while also providing you with the perfect avenue to promote your products and services to future customers. However, while these big conferences and events are supposed to be useful, inspiring and beneficial, they can often leave many exhibitors and attendees feeling flustered and overwhelmed once they finally arrive at the event. If you have ever attended a conference, as either an attendee or an exhibitor, than you may recognize some of these familiar occurrences―collecting hundreds of business cards that you either end up losing or never look at again, hectically walking across the trade show floor trying to locate a presentation that you don’t want to miss, or simply just fumbling around at the last minute trying to figure out the timeline of… read more
How to Optimize Your Pay-Per-Click Campaign in Five Simple Steps
August 7, 2012 - Posted by Amanda Norris
Whether you use Google’s AdWords, Facebook Ads, or any other platform, integrating a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaign as part of your overall online marketing strategy can help you supplement – or even replace – your traditional advertising strategy. Implemented correctly, PPC can be an extremely effective tool to help bring qualified, targeted traffic directly to your website. The problem, however, is that companies are often eager to jump onboard with PPC campaigns – but once they’re set up, they don’t know how to keep them running smoothly, efficiently and effectively. The following steps outline a cycle that can help you keep your PPC campaign running at peak performance. Following this cycle on a regular basis serves as a sort of maintenance plan for your PPC campaign, helping it to continue getting better and better results as time goes on. How often this cycle should take place depends on your budget,… read more
Important Social Media Lessons To Take From The Olympics
August 2, 2012 - Posted by Rilee Chastain
The 2012 Olympics can teach many businesses a thing or two about social media. It is no secret that the Olympics is one of the biggest sporting events―or simply one of the biggest events in general―across the entire world. Over the last week, billions of people from every place imaginable have been tuning in every night to watch their country compete for their chance to claim a gold medal and be awarded the title of best athlete in the world. However, apart from the intense sporting events and games that the Olympics are famous for, there is also no event that is more tailored to social networking and the internet than the 2012 games. In fact, many in the industry have dubbed the London 2012 Olympics as the “social Olympics,” simply because of the large role that social media is playing throughout the events. In fact, a recent USA Today… read more
The 4 Most Effective Ways of Utilizing YouTube For Your Business
July 18, 2012 - Posted by Rilee Chastain
Follow these tips for effective business marketing through YouTube. We have all heard about the staggering statistics that surround the popular online video site, YouTube: More than 100 million videos are viewed each day by people all over the world, 94 of AdAge’s top 100 advertisers have run campaigns through the site, and tens of millions of unique visitors check out YouTube each and every day. However, while it may be obvious as a casual viewer that YouTube may be the future of video in general, are you personally aware of how powerful of a tool online video can be for businesses of any size? Because of YouTube’s easy-to-use model, it’s mass market audience and the fact that it is free to use, this online video site has quickly become one of the greatest platforms for businesses looking to connect with their audience on a whole new level. However, like… read more
Does Yelp’s New Partnership Spell Trouble for Google’s Dominance?
June 27, 2012 - Posted by Amanda Norris
For most of recent tech history, Google has been king. It dominates U.S. search engine market share, with 66% as of January 2012. Its web browser, Google Chrome, recently overtook the ubiquitous Internet Explorer to take the lead with nearly 33% of the market share, and Google’s Android mobile OS leads all other smartphones. But with recent partnerships with companies such as Apple, Yelp may be on its way to topple Google from its throne – at least as far as local search and SEO are concerned. Since Apple released the iPhone 4S last year, Yelp has been providing much of the content for Siri, the phone’s much-hyped voice recognizing “personal assistant”. Though the local search experience with Siri is imperfect, and Yelp’s branding in the system was kept to a minimum, it seems that Apple and Yelp have bigger plans in the works: namely, teaming up to bring Yelp’s… read more
Seven Local Business Review Sites Influencing Your New Customers
June 20, 2012 - Posted by Shama Kabani
Every business – including dry cleaners, auto mechanics, accounting firms, moving companies, restaurants, doctors, law firms, and other brick (click) and mortar businesses – wins and loses new customers every day before the potential customer even sets foot out the door. This decision is often based solely on past and current customers’ opinions posted has online. With so many businesses to choose from, being number one on Google is almost never the only deciding credibility or trust factor. These days, you’re dealing with an educated customer who does their research and does not care what you have to say about your business: they care what others have to say. When friends and family aren’t readily available to ask for recommendations, where else can people turn but the local online community? Welcome to the new word-of-mouth (mouse) marketing. When faced with too many choices, others will rely on the “social proof”… read more
4 Crucial Elements of a Great Blog Post
May 24, 2012 - Posted by Amanda Norris
Blogging is rarely as easy as it sounds. The challenge lies in creating an effective post that people will read, love, and share, and it’s often hard to know where to begin. Your blog can be a key part of your online marketing plan, but only if it’s giving you the results you want. While there is no magic formula that will guarantee a successful blog post, these four crucial elements will give you a strong foundation from which to build. 1. The Attention Grabbing Title Your blog post’s title is your first chance at making an impression. In fact, studies show that while 8 out of 10 people will read a title, only 2 of those 10 will read the post. No matter how wonderful and groundbreaking your blog content may be, a bland and boring title will likely result in the post being glanced at and summarily… read more
Is Your Website Damaging Your Credibility?
April 27, 2012 - Posted by Shama Kabani
Your website reflects your brand and philosophy, and is the greatest online marketing tool you will ever have. Well, it can be the greatest online marketing tool you’ll ever have – if you’re doing it right. If you’re doing it wrong, you could be presenting an image of yourself or your company that differs greatly from how you’d like people to see you. What does that mean? If you have an awful website, you’re going to lose customers. How do you know if your website is awful? If one or more of the following applies to you, you may be in trouble: Your content is riddled with really obvious grammatical errors. Some English teachers out there may cringe to read this (cover your eyes if you must): a cornerstone of interesting blogging is writing in a conversational, relatable style – which may occasionally mean bending the rules of grammar a… read more
The Five Commandments of Mobile Marketing
April 24, 2012 - Posted by Shama Kabani
Even if you don’t own an iPhone, Android, or Blackberry, chances are at least one person in your home or office does – after all, 35 percent of American mobile phone owners possess one with smartphone capabilities. Beyond their normal calling and texting functions, most smartphone users consume data on a daily basis – through gaming, app downloads, and Internet browsing. If you haven’t started marketing to mobile users, you’re missing a major market segment. Following are five of our dos and don’ts of mobile marketing. Make your website mobile-friendly. You don’t want to make a smartphone user struggle to make your site appear in the right dimensions on their screen, especially when many other sites are already optimized for mobile viewing. Effective mobile sites take into consideration the average smartphone screen size, don’t overload the user with graphics and information, and don’t require horizontal scrolling or zooming. If your… read more
Four Useful Tools for the Busy Social Media Marketer
February 17, 2012 - Posted by Shama Kabani
When you’re trying to juggle all the aspects of your online marketing campaign, sometimes you can end up feeling downright swamped. Although we don’t yet live in a world where you can buy a person-sized robot to do all your work for you so you can take a well-deserved nap, there are applications and programs out there to help make your life a tiny bit easier. HootSuite HootSuite is most commonly associated with managing Twitter accounts, although the dashboard also supports posting to Facebook, Foursquare, Google+, LinkedIn, WordPress, Tumblr, Flickr, YouTube, and even MySpace. The application has both desktop and mobile versions. A noteworthy feature of this service is the ability to schedule future tweets. The basic version of the service is free, with limited functionality. Even the basic free version includes analytics to see your clicks and retweets. The paid version integrates with Google Analytics and Facebook Insights, as… read more