Financial and environmental pressures are mounting up on today’s businesses, regardless of size. That probably explains why we’re all moving toward a paperless economy, where nothing that isn’t necessary is printed. (Hey, ink is quite expensive, too!) Not only is this movement a friendly way to reduce our impact on the environment; it’s also a way of streamlining business processes and maximizing the efficiency of our resources. In keeping up with these trends, we here at Lakeshore Branding have been reviewing products, tools, and technologies that are designed to enhance our productivity – online and beyond. In this post we’ll check out DocuSign, which takes paperless technology to another level. DocuSign is an electronic signature service that enables you to send, receive, sign, and manage all kinds of documents electronically – contacts, sales agreements, letters, invoices, financial records, etc. – so that you waste no time or paper getting things done. According to the company’s official website, DocuSign caters mainly – Read the full article
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
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
When I come across articles like the one posted on TheStreet.com last week, I can’t help but get excited. Titled “Business Owners Question Social Networking” the article quotes some research that finds that a majority of small business owners haven’t seen value from social media, and that most don’t even use it themselves. A key section of the article reads: Among the 500 small-business executives surveyed, 76% said social networking hasn’t help them generate leads or expand their companies in the past year. And 86% said they don’t turn to these Web sites for business advice or other information. The majority, 61%, depend on big search engines, such as Google and Yahoo!, for business advice and information. Only 13% use social networking sites and only 10% rely on expert blogs. So why on earth would I be excited that small businesses don’t use social media and haven’t seen value from it yet? Opportunity. Plain and simple. For me, there is – Read the full article
Video marketing initiatives have changed the way websites and businesses are promoted. An evident reason for this would be the fact that videos are very entertaining and different from run-of-the-mill business promotion projects. Here, we are going to discuss the steps through which you can promote your software business using video production. The three main stages of producing video of any kind are pre-production, production and post-production. In pre-production, the tasks would be predominantly to plan the production. Budget, equipments required, expert consultation, location, etc are decided at this stage. In production, the planning done in the first stage is executed. Once the video production is on the flow, the video director shoots and is ready to transfer the same to the post-production department. When it comes to video production and marketing, it’s important to understand the kind of audience you would be targeting and what they think of or how they would respond to business videos. In the post-production – Read the full article
Internet marketing is a combination of the technical and the creative side of the Internet. It includes the designing of a marketing strategy for a product, including its development and advertising up to its sales. Internet marketing ties with placement of product in the virtual spheres of customer engagement and streams online. Social Media The growth of social media has given birth to new dynamics of marketing. These websites provide the vital interface between businesses and their target audiences. No longer is representation on all the major outlets a superfluous positive; it has now become essential: a necessity. Garnering a presence in the social media circles – such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest – is an effective marketing strategy as millions of users and potential clients log in daily into these channels of virtual interface. All that businesses have to do is maintain a regular, updated presence on such streams and make use of a free, resourceful – Read the full article
Like it or not, Instagram is pretty big right now. It’s cool. It’s cross-platform (available for Apple and Android devices). It has a lot of users (about 30 million – and growing). It takes beautiful pictures no matter what your level or experience in photography is. Let’s not forget, too, the fact that the photo sharing app was acquired recently by social networking giant Facebook for approximately $1 billion in cash. If you’re managing or marketing a business, it makes perfect sense to use Instagram as a marketing channel of sorts. The only question is: how? To answer that, Lakeshore Branding came up with this quick guide on how to use Instagram for your business – and enhance your visibility on the Web. If you’ve only gotten started with the app, we hope you find these tips useful; if you’ve been at it for awhile now, let us know in the comment section below how you think Instagram supports your – Read the full article
A lot of entrepreneurs depend on available Internet-based innovations to promote their business, attract clients, and, of course, earn more profit. Previously there were only TV, radio, newspapers, and magazines: traditional media which had limited coverage. Now, thanks to the Web, advertising and marketing now have the potential to reach people in other countries around the world. Social media in particular has made a mark, not only changing people’s method of communication, but also revolutionizing the ways people advertise (and socialize). Facebook, for example, has supported the marketing goals of many businesses and individuals, even going so far as to allow users to buy targeted Facebook fans. After all, almost everyone in the world has a Facebook account – and it is for this reason entrepreneurs are banking on the site as a social media marketing platform. The big idea here is not only the fact that it is free but also that your target audience can be easily reached. Every company has – Read the full article
