Magento is, perhaps, today’s most evolved e-Commerce platform. If you’ve been reading this blog, then you’ll know by now how much we here at Lakeshore Branding love the solution. Magento e-Commerce’s flexibility, rich feature set, SEO-friendly capabilities, and comprehensive merchandising and marketing features make it an ideal platform of online stores and sellers (regardless of size) as well as for shoppers (regardless of demographic or budget). Looking to design, develop, implement, or fully customize your own Magento-powered store? Don’t worry yourself sick trying to figure it out by yourself. (Newbie-ness doesn’t have to be so awful.) There’s a bunch of Magento e-Commerce books – by Varien, the official developer, and by independent programmers and designers – that should help you every step of the way, no matter your level of skill and expertise in Magento. Yes, books: these are still as good an educational tool as any. We’ve compiled a list of the best of them. Take a look: Magento – Read the full article
Marketing research isn’t what it used to be. It has expanded to include the world of websites, blogs, social media, online advertising, and other web-based media. The great thing about this all is that there are lots of tools you can use conduct market research and gather competitive intelligence. Our top posts on Lakeshore Branding have been about social media monitoring and competitive intelligence. So I thought we would share some our favorite tools and this list turned into a description of 29 tools for competitive intelligence. So check out the list and please let us know if we are missing any. 1. SpyFu: Spyfu is a tool that lets you find out what keywords your competitors are targeting in the search engines. Not just keywords, mind you, but AdWords, too. All you have to do is type your competitor’s site in SpyFu’s search bar, and voila! Immediate results that show you the keyword and AdWords landscape for that domain. – Read the full article
I will be the first to admit that working in a social media department sometimes feels like a workout. You’re responsible for liking and tweeting and connecting and sharing and friending and +ing and stumbling and running and running and running. Did I say running? By the time the day is over, it feels like you were moving a mile a minute and you need a break. Whether you work in a social media department or are simply a company trying to keep up with the social media, enough is enough. What is Pinterest? However, even I will make an exception for the latest social network, Pinterest. Once you get over the groaning, you will find that this new social network is actually quite interesting. Basically, the site is a virtual board where you can “pin” visuals that interest you. Be it an infographic, video, picture, or just a color scheme you like, you can pin it onto your board for – Read the full article
There is a multitude of WordPress plugins that can make your site more SEO friendly and the same ones are repeatedly recommended with little variation. If you have not installed WordPress’s All-in-One SEO Pack, W3 Total Cache, Google XML Sitemaps, SEO Slugs, Trackable Social Share, or similar SEO plugins, go do that right now. If you have already addressed your SEO needs with these handy dandy helpers, then you might want to think about installing these less frequently lauded but still awesome plugins. After all, good SEO is about solid, engaging content, and these plugins will provide the opportunity to connect with your users in different ways. BuddyPress BuddyPress elevates your site by enabling you to construct your own social network on your WordPress site. When installed, it will make your site more interactive and encourage users to build upon what you have started. This powerful plugin provides a whole host of social networking components including activity streams, fully editable extended profiles, and extensible groups – Read the full article
If you’re going to ask us here at Lakeshore Branding which e-commerce platform we would recommend, there’s one answer: Magento. Why? Because it’s loaded with powerful features to help you drive sales: features like product browsing, analytics and reporting, catalog and order management, secure checkout, international support, and an array of marketing promotions and tools. (You can find out more about the platform here.) We’ll understand, though, if you choose to go with something else. Hey, to each his own, right? And there are loads of e-commerce solutions and shopping cart systems to choose from. One of these is OpenCart, an open-source e-commerce platform that’s as feature-rich, easy-to-use, and search-engine-friendly as Magento. Frankly, you won’t go wrong with either. We’ll even help you out developing your online store if you like. Anyway, like Magento, OpenCart also enables you to customize the way your online store looks and works. Because it’s an “out-of-the-box” solution, you can just install it, choose your – Read the full article
If you are the proud owner of a new website, then you know how confusing and downright difficult the process of designing and building a website can be. It’s not uncommon to go through the trouble of finding a hosting service and choosing a domain name, only to get stuck when it comes to actually putting a site together and making it presentable for viewers. Fortunately, there are some very basic things, even for newbies, that can make the process much easier. Here are some simple web design tips for new website owners: Templates. One of the fastest and easiest ways to design an effective website is to choose a customizable template. Customizable templates are easy to find. Simply search online, load them to your site, and make whatever changes you want to make the design your own. If you use a blog hosting service like WordPress to build your website, you will be pleased to find that you automatically have – Read the full article
For the travel industry, at least, social media is seen as more valuable than pay-per-click advertising. The World Travel Market 2011 report says that travel professionals see social media as one of the key revenue-generating channels over the next five years. As proof of this, the study found that eight out of ten travel-related businesses use some form of social media. Not only that: the World Travel Market 2011 also expects that in five years, half of all travel-related companies would be generating income and bookings on social media, rising from the current 22%. Out of those using social media marketing, around 50% do not even invest in PPC advertising, while 1 out of 5 of those who do use PPC aim to stop or reduce their spending in the next few years. It is very apparent that the travel industry loves social media. So if you are in the travel business, it is time to amp up your social media activities. Blogs – Read the full article
In order to create a successful sales page, you have to make sure not to include things that will turn off your potential buyers. Most sales pages that have the things that shouldn’t belong there will face the bad consequence of low sales, or no sales at all. That’s why you should carefully examine your sales page before you decide to publish it. Here are things that should not be there: Wrong focus Your entire sales page should focus on addressing your potential customers’ problem — without hard-selling the product. No matter how great your product, don’t boast about it until the last line. You have to educate and give information about how to solve the problem of your potential customers first. Let them know about the product once you’ve done this. And don’t forget to let them know about how to get the product. Criticism and insult You know that your product can solve people’s problems. Now, for example, – Read the full article
