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
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
Webinar – a neologism for “web-based seminar” – is a presentation, lecture, workshop, or seminar that is transmitted over the Web. It can be conducted for different purposes, like lead generation or marketing or training or product demonstration, but one key aspect of any webinar is that it’s interactive. As opposed to webcasts, which are pretty much a one-way thing, webinars usually let attendees comment, ask questions, and share their personal opinions to the host as well as to the other members of the audience. Webinars: who knew that technology would grow this fast and allow us to leverage these neat video conferencing tools today? Yes, it all sounds pretty remarkable. If you’re a small business owner and Internet marketer, we’ll certainly understand if you’re fascinated about what webinars can bring to the business. The question is: do webinars actually work? And will they work for any business or enterprise, regardless of size? Here are several thoughts on webinars as – Read the full article
Critics are quick to point out that the Apple iPad isn’t exactly a replacement for your laptop. More than a mobile business platform, it’s a sleek tablet device for consuming content on the Internet. This doesn’t mean, however, that the iPad can’t increase your productivity while on the go. As the Apple commercial goes, “There’s an app for that.” Below you’ll find a list of essential iPad apps for small business users of the device. GoodReader At 99 cents, GoodReader is an affordable app for viewing PDF files and important business documents in other formats – like Word, Excel, PNG, PPT, TXT, and JPEG. It also supports high-resolution images, and can even do audio and video – perfect for opening and viewing all kinds of files, regardless of size. Need to download a presentation or a report from Google Docs for offline reading? GoodReader can also do that, and can even unzip those files and folders for you. Memeo Connect – Read the full article
Social media is often used as a method for users and consumers to make public statements about products and services. While this gives the public more power to evaluate brands, businesses can also leverage social media to connect with customers. As social media becomes increasingly important in marketing campaigns, companies are turning to YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook to create personalized responses to individual users that captivate consumers in a way that traditional forms of mass media are incapable of reproducing. Wieden + Kennedy Portland, the ad agency that represents Old Spice, launched a campaign earlier this year featuring Isaiah Mustafa as a towel-clad macho man representing the brand as “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like,” or more familiarly, “The Old Spice Guy.” The first set of commercials was created for television but gained popularity on YouTube, acquiring over 13 million views. After its wild popularity online, the advertising team behind the campaign focused on social media to popularize the – Read the full article
As a small business owner, you may find yourself going crazy over the number of things you have to do for work. But don’t worry: if you own an Apple iPhone, you’ll at least have some apps at your disposal – apps which can truly help you stay connected to your business and hang on to a little bit of sanity. While the iPhone is a fun device, it can also make for a great business tool – especially if you’re always on the go. Here are several Apple iPhone apps with which you, as a small business owner, cannot go wrong. Money matters A number of apps let you keep track of your expenses and finances. These include BalanceDo, a productivity app through which you can send customer invoices, track receivables or billings, and manage payments through PayPal. If you want to perform credit card transactions with your iPhone, check out MerchantWare Mobile. (You’ll need a Merchant Warehouse account.) – Read the full article
All kinds and sizes of businesses can benefit from implementing an E-mail marketing campaign. Unfortunately, not everyone knows how to do it properly. While for some, it can become the cost-effective marketing and communications tool needed to boost their business, for the inexperienced others it can become a costly mistake that turns their prospects and customers off. So how exactly do you go about launching an effective E-mail marketing campaign? Here are a few important tips. Know who you’re trying to reach out to E-mail marketing is about targeting an audience composed of prospects and customers with whom you might want to engage with – and vice versa. That’s why it doesn’t work to just compile all the E-mail contacts you have and barrage them with unsolicited advertisements and newsletters. Think about what you have to offer (in terms of products and services), and then determine who among your contacts may find it relevant or interesting. If you don’t have – Read the full article
An Internet marketing summit featuring the best talent from the Chicago and Milwaukee areas, and which focuses particularly on search marketing and social media, is poised to become one of the most talked-about events in Wisconsin this February. Dubbed “Think Tank Live!”, the summit brings together several of the most dynamic and talented Internet marketers this side of America, as well as C-level executives, small and medium-size business owners, top branding and communications professionals, and IT and web design experts. “Think Tank Live” will be held February 23 at Country Springs Hotel, Waukesha, WI. Sponsored by Biz Times Media and Mashable and organized by I.M. Think Tank (a collective group of integrated marketing professionals in Chicago and Milwaukee areas), the summit will focus on educating people on utilizing today’s best Internet marketing and social media practices to strategically drive business results, increase profits, and lower costs. “Think Tank Live!” will have a track on Internet marketing strategies that align businesses – Read the full article
