It’s easy to slap a name onto your business and call it a brand. But that alone won’t cut it these days – especially not online. It needs constant nourishment and attention in order to position it into something that will be successful. The great thing about promoting your brand online is that there are plenty of tools available out there for you to use. Like websites and blogs. Social media and local business listings. Online maps and directories. E-newsletters and RSS feeds. Of course, by building a brand online, you can also reach and influence more people than ever before – and at a much quicker pace than through traditional means like radio, TV, or print. Before you throw your brand onto the World Wide Web, however, it’s best to follow some of the online brand management tips which you’ll find below. Develop an Online Marketing Strategy You may have a lot of high-quality valuable information on your website, – Read the full article
As a small business owner you may be on a job that is usually reserved for two people or more – and you may be running around more than you ought to. (Doesn’t everyone feel that way?) If only you can split yourself in two! Well, spare yourself with these helpful apps. If you have a mobile smartphone like the iPhone or the Android, you can make use of the tools and applications to improve your workflow. After all, these phones are made for more than checking your E-mail, you know. To-Do Lists Outlook Mobile has a nice, task-syncing feature for your smartphone that lets you send meeting requests, track attendance, received detailed responses, and much more. If you’re using an iPhone, there’s the very flexible Toodledo, which synchronizes your tasks without requiring Internet connection. For Android users, use Astrid, a simple task recording dashboard for mobile that lists and tracks your To-Do list. Like the two previous tools, it’s – Read the full article
Lakeshore Branding is offering an unheard of special that is first of it’s kind for a web design company. We are offering a 20% Black Friday Discount on our web design, social media or online marketing service for new clients that contact us today through cyber Monday. Our office is only open for a few hours today, but you can email us, submit a request, give us a call on Monday at (312) 299-0038 or even send us a tweet on twitter to take advantage of this blowout sale! The Details for this HOT Deal Valid only for new clients who submit a request for a proposal today to Monday, November 30th by Midnight. Once proposal is received you will have up to 14 days to approve the agreement to take advantage of this special price. Not valid for existing clients, discount can not be applied to existing proposal or agreements. New client is defined as someone who has not – Read the full article
So you’re thinking of implementing an E-mail campaign. The challenge is obvious: what can you really do to make sure that those E-mails get opened and read before they’re sent to trash? Cool, sleek graphics? A hard-to-resist subject line? Persuasive copy? Below we explore more tips and strategies for creating a successful E-mail campaign. Of course, these extend beyond hiring the best graphic artist in the world, or waxing poetic on the sales pitch contained in your E-mail. Use A/B split testing Success often comes after lots of trial and error. Better, of course, if it’s trial instead of error. So try A/B split tests. These entail experimenting with E-mail campaigns by using different headlines and content. Find out from these tests the answers to questions like: Which subject line gets me better open rates? What time and what day works best for my E-mail campaign? Are times and dates even factors in my click rate? There’s lots of A/B – Read the full article
The holiday season is right around the corner – and with it, shopping galore. Are you ready for Christmas? Is your E-commerce site optimized for maximum sales? People will certainly be looking up holiday items and ideas on the Internet, and – to help you gain greater visibility and maximize search traffic – we’ve come up with a list of 7 SEO tips for your retail website. 1. Refresh your content. Don’t just copy and paste from your manufacturer’s website. Be creative. Yes, it takes a lot of effort, but it is worth it to have unique product descriptions, catalog and category descriptions, case studies, industry news, and shopping tips that not only make your E-commerce site a lot more interesting for visitors, but also improve your sales through better search engine visibility. 2. Create a blog. Why not? The fact that holiday season is forthcoming should give you enough things to write about. A blog not only enhances the – Read the full article
This week we received an email from a DePaul student (Go Blue Demons!), who was looking to interview a web design company about usability. I spent some time thinking about it and developing some answers and I thought I would share it on our blog- Enjoy! (1) Describe the company. Briefly describe the products they build and/or the services they provide Here are some quotes from our website but basically we are a web design company that focuses on Search Engine Optimization and Conversions by using the latest W3C complaint coding (xHTML and CSS) and also using the latest usability compliance. “Web design is more than just creativity, it’s usability. Understanding your visitors and how they use your website will lead to increased conversions. For each new website, our team of graphic designers, SEO consultants and marketing specialists work together on strategy, design, usability, and goals.” Lakeshore Branding, what started as a small marketing firm in 2007 has evolved into – Read the full article
The keywords people search for the most on search engines in your niche or industry are not always the most profitable keywords to focus on for your business. This is at the heart of Chris Anderson’s concept of ”the Long Tail” from his groundbreaking 2004 Wired article and his book of the same title released in 2006. The Long Tail was originally meant to discuss an emerging trend where online retailers like Amazon, Netflix & Rhapsody found success increasing the depth of their inventory and selling less of more in an internet driven environment but it has had implications far beyond its initial insight. Nowhere was this more apparent than with Search Engine Marketing. Understanding “the long tail” and applying strategies to leverage it for SEO has proven time and again over the last few years to be one of the highest value activities in search marketing. To many this is not something new, but it is surely worth revisiting. – Read the full article
Lakeshore Branding is proud to host these five FREE hands-on small business marketing sessions in November that will offer practical advice, direct instruction, and application tips for free online and social media solutions to help small businesses and entrepreneurs in Chicago. “The ‘hands-on’ sessions started as things often do, with neighbors and friends asking each other for help and advice on something new,” said Gabrielle Blair, one of the founders of Kirtsy. “Women often get together to compare notes. And there are a lot of us who want to talk right now about how social media and online applications can simplify our lives and enhance our small business pursuits.” After Kirtsy hosted 10 Hands-On Social Media sessions with Microsoft Office Live in June, they received a fleet of requests to host more of these informal, intimate gatherings across the US and Canada. At the events, attendees cover popular platforms and get hands-on direction setting up accounts and applying them to – Read the full article
