The process of establishing and enhancing your presence on the Web takes a lot of time – time that you, as a startup or small business owner, may not have. It also requires a full range of skills: content writing, online networking, search marketing, project management, web design, programming, etc. – things that you also might not have a lot of experience with. Sure, it’s convenient to hire dedicated full-time staff members to perform a bunch of Internet marketing jobs for you – but is it really always worth it? Wouldn’t that deplete your resources, as well as the money and the infrastructure you need to run your business? We’re still in the midst of recovering from the recession, after all. Surely, there must be a better and more cost-effective alternative. Like outsourcing. If you think that outsourcing – online – might be a worthwhile option for you, there’s a marketplace where you can find freelancers and hire them on – Read the full article
Establishing – or enhancing – the presence of your business online will require a lot of text. Let’s see: website copy (with multiple pages), product and service descriptions, blog entries, tweets, Facebook wall posts, E-mail newsletters, pay-per-click ads, etc. So who’s going to do all that writing? Hire a web content writer. That’s the simplest solution, right? It’s also one of the most efficient. You hire the writer for a specific content creation project, maybe even an outsourced writer from offshore. It’s cost-effective, and you’re also able to free up a lot of time for yourself – time that you can spend focusing on running and growing your business, as opposed to playing the role of a copywriter or communication agency. Before you handpick a writer, though, you have to make sure that he or she is your best candidate. An interview may even be necessary. The most important thing, of course, is that the writer has what it takes – Read the full article
As the search engine marketing industry grows, there continues to crop up various web-based apps and tools for rank monitoring. But the simplest – and perhaps most talked-about – of these is a service called AuthorityLabs, developed in Phoenix, AZ, by a developer named Chase Granberry. “Rank monitoring should be effortless,” so goes a line on the AuthorityLabs website, and it’s one echoed by small businesses, enterprises, Internet marketers, and agencies everywhere. Indeed, there’s a great deal of demand for a simple, easy-to-use, and affordable solution that allows customers to track and analyze their ranking performance on search engines (Google, Yahoo!, and Bing) without wallowing in confusion on how to use the tool, or squandering their resources just to pay for a premium service. It’s to no surprise, then, that AuthorityLabs positions itself as a service for “rank monitoring made easy”. The question is, does it deliver on its promise? Pricing: AuthorityLabs readily admits that its service is more expensive – Read the full article
There is a multitude of ways that a company can catch the attention of their target audience. More and more, companies are turning to social media outlets to gain the attention that they need for their brands to increase in popularity. These programs can be taken even a step further through the use of mobile marketing as well. The first thing to know about marketing through mobile services is that there are laws which surround this. You are not allowed to use leads which have been purchased as you have to have permission to send messages to clients. If you do not have permission, you face legal difficulties due to the FCC anti-mobile telemarketing laws. There are ways that you can make sure to have a lucrative marketing through the mobile market and a lot of it has to deal with social media marketing. This is because when there is a good social media marketing plan, you can reach new – Read the full article
Something big is going to happen this October 14 to 16 in Las Vegas. It’s called the BlogWorld & New Media Expo, the first and only tradeshow, conference, and media event created for the rapidly growing industry of blogging and new media. We here at Lakeshore Branding are going to attend the event, but if that’s not enough to convince you to come and join us (it should be more than enough to convince you, though!) then here are the top six reasons why BlogWorld & New Media Expo is a can’t-miss. Money? Influence? Or both?: If you’re a small business owner, Internet marketer, e-Commerce store owner, corporate executive, online journalist, podcaster, broadcaster, or personal or professional blogger who has some form of stake in the web, then surely you’ll have plenty to gain by attending the event and learning more about the top strategies, tools, and technologies used in developing content for the web today. BlogWorld 2010 is where – Read the full article
Do you know that Lady Gaga has the most viewed YouTube video of all time? Yup – her “Bad Romance” music video is right on top of the list, beating hugely successful viral clips like “Charlie Bit My Finger” and Justin Bieber’s “Baby”. One can only dream of getting half as much as – or even a quarter of – the 212 million views that she has so far notched. And why not? Companies, brands, retailers, aspiring artists, ad agencies, and Internet marketers know very well how viral marketing – and YouTube – can spell instant success and bring new opportunities to their business. So let’s take a look at what Lady Gaga is doing right. Her barely three-months-old video, “Telephone”, already has close to 50 million views, so it might be a good idea to break that down a little bit and see for ourselves how we can make our own online video content more viral. Use the power – Read the full article
Social media marketing is an essential part of many businesses and organizations today – regardless of size. The Internet has grown so much more community-focused, so much more social, that if one were to truly establish and enhance the online presence of a company or brand, there’d be no way of doing it without social media marketing. Sure, to some people, sites like Facebook and Twitter are just a complete waste of time, but without social media sites like these it would be next to impossible to keep up with everything that’s happening online. This is why companies are beginning to recognize the importance of hiring social media managers, social media agencies, social media consultants and strategists. The titles vary, but one thing is clear: if – as a small business owner or an Internet marketer – you want to be able to engage the right way with an online audience and steer the conversation about your brand to the – Read the full article
Lakeshore Branding is a team designed to build companies. We’ve come together around a belief that we can help companies do a better job of marketing online to drive more sales, leads and conversions. We’re experienced, opinionated and driven. Our team members have worked for big brands, agencies and start ups. They have been the creative directors, strategists of marketing campaigns and the creative force behind some exciting marketing campaigns. But our strongest characteristic is a dedication to ensuring entrepreneurial success for each of our clients. Each of us is addicted to helping companies grow and Lakeshore Branding, as an organization, gives us our fix. Chris Campbell Principal Yes, that is a picture of Chris with a baby tiger. Chris is a highly entrepreneurial person who is creative, resourceful and motivated to help his clients achieve their business objectives. Chris loves working with innovative businesses that are looking for new ways to sell their products or services online, he approaches – Read the full article
