Small businesses don't 'like' the new Facebook

Feb. 13, 2015 | by Ed Zimmerman

Facebook, which changed the way the world shares memories and keeps in touch with friends and family, wasn’t originally a marketing tool for businesses. However, businesses quickly figured out that they could also promote their sales events and publish PR news to “engage” with customers and increase sales. The key was to attract as many “likes” as possible to build a network of followers to market to on Facebook.

These free promotional announcements via social media were often the best advertising tool available to small businesses, but Facebook recently changed the game. In January, Facebook began filtering out unpaid sales and promotional posts on business news feeds. 

As a result, the only way for a business to reach its network of likes is to buy ads on the social network. Facebook said the change is based on customer feedback, as surveys indicated users were tired of seeing their news feeds splattered with posts pushing a product or service, an app or contest. Now, the news feeds will include only the relevant posts they desire, interrupted by just a few ads that are geo- and behavioral-targeted.

This is a huge blow to businesses, which have spent years building their followers on Facebook; it’s as if the social network deleted their database … whoosh, out with the recycle bin. Facebook finally adopted the publishing model of the old school media: If you want to publicize your business, you have to pay.

Now to be fair, Facebook’s advertising features have some advantages offering effective options for businesses to reach potential customers. But that dream of going viral with a cool post, is just a dream now, as a business will have to pay to promote the announcement or boost it.

Now What?

Small business owners and restaurateurs will have to quickly re-evaluate their marketing plans for 2015. It’s important to continue posting news on Facebook, using it as a customer service tool to communicate directly with customers and upload a menu (a new feature). 

The most important marketing investment should be on the company website, ensuring it’s optimized for search engines. Managing customer reviews is also critical to make sure customers are sharing their positive experiences, while minimizing damage from negative feedback.

Buying keywords on Google, Yahoo and Bing should also be a priority to capture potential customers who are in the market for a product or service. As far online advertising, the click-through rate for Facebook posts aren’t that much better than a targeted banner ad campaign. Don’t just throw around ad dollars; be strategic: measure, evaluate and constantly re-evaluate every ad you buy to maximize the return.  

 

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Topics: Marketing , Marketing / Branding / Promotion

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Small businesses don"t "like" the new Facebook

Custard Online Marketing Limited Named Third Best Link Building Firm in the United Kingdom by ...

SOURCE: topseos.com UK

February 14, 2015 03:00 ET

NAPLES, FL–(Marketwired – February 14, 2015) - The independent authority on online marketing, topseos.com UK, has named Custard Online Marketing Limited the 3rd best link building company in the UK for the month of February 2015. Custard Online Marketing Limited was chosen based on their impressive performance in an in-depth analysis of the solutions they offer. While there are thousands of services offering a variety of solutions, the rankings consist of the best highlighted based on the results of the in-depth evaluation process.

These companies are put through the topseos.com UK proprietary evaluation process in order to determine which companies produce the top overall solution. Companies are selected based on their performance in a benchmarking and analysis of their core services. This process consists of the use of a set of evaluation criteria, interacting with client referrals, and performing various market and industry research projects.

The ratings are adjusted each month based on the assumption that the search marketing industry changes over time. Agencies are evaluated based on the newest trends and developments most important to clients. Often times the research team at topseos.com UK spends time communicating with clients of competing agencies for a more thorough look.

Custard Online Marketing Limited has been named the third top link building service in the United Kingdom based on a rigorous analysis of their offered solutions. The independent research team has named them due to their continued performance and their history of successful online marketing solutions. Those looking for an effective link building solution to meet their specified needs should consider Custard Online Marketing Limited.

About topseos.com UK

topseos.com UK is an organizer of internet marketing research in the UK. The key purpose of topseos.com UK is to decide and publish those individuals or companies supplying best internet marketing solutions available. Link building companies are put through a thorough evaluation to ensure the recommendations contain the absolute best companies the internet marketing industry has to offer.

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Custard Online Marketing Limited Named Third Best Link Building Firm in the United Kingdom by ...

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Build A Site and Get Your Feet Damp In Member Advertising

If you wish to have a company online, you should build a site. A website assists to promote your products, in addition to, determines you online. When I created my internet site, I took place the premise of “intending to discover how to do it” as I experience the essence of developing my company. I understand now, that even though I learned a fair bit, it did reduce my development down. Read on, I’ll tell you want I indicate.

A Little Record First

After attempting to do typing on the net– you’re right– my very first beginner rip-off. It had not been a real scam, since I was paid. Nonetheless, I put in long hours for very, hardly any pay. Does that read environment-friendly, naive rookie across it? Yes, I’m afraid it does. Obviously, I considered that up as well as started seeking something that would certainly provide me a feasible income– member advertising was the response. Thus, my adventure began.

Acquiring a Host and also Domain

Well, after much reading, I understood I had to obtain a web host and also a domain name if I was searching for a long-haul attempt at making it in affiliate marketing. I found a respectable web host, spent for my domain name– And, now I was ready to develop my web site …

My first encourage right here is– If you are unskilled in web building as well as you want a fast visibility online, I would certainly opt for a webhosting that has web tools that includes Website Studio. It saves you time, money and also obtains you up and moving quickly.

Building My Web site

I determined to make use of FrontPage (regarding a dash of HTML) to produce my site– in my first effort. Well, my initial effort was past words– nobody wished to hurt my feelings– the site was past bad as well as the shade was what I call Medicine Yellow. However I was still in the radiance, and also I need to say, working

with blinders on. (This was my first error, my knowledge was limited– I ought to have utilized Site Workshop that was offered to me.).

Needless to say, my very first attempt did not stay up long. I returned to work, reorganizing my hideous site– my second effort. I altered the shade to a dark green regarding a base of grey. At the time it looked great, I believed. I really ended up, “you’re enhancing” from a close friend. Yet somehow, it looked, well– downtrodden.

Third restructuring came when– after a year, I bumped into a post that specified, “if you are utilizing Times Roman– even though it is very easy to review, it checks out amateur around it.” My initial internal thought was, “Crap, I’ve got to do my internet site over again.”.

So, again, I began restructuring my website. This time around, I decided to opt for a lighter environment-friendly for my internet site (just as well, I was visiting need to alter every little thing anyhow), revamped by Google Ads (4 times), and altered the lettering to “Arial”.

By the way, it has been stated that either “Georgia” or “Arial” are both font styles that will give your internet site an expert look. As well as you recognize– they were right. After changing from “Times Roman” to “Arial”– it gave my web site a cleaner and much more expert look.

Color as well, is very important to your internet site– it is part of your overall discussion of your website to potential site visitors. How important is shade– if they do not like it, they are merely a click away from eliminating your website from their vision.

After all the revamping and also tweaking of my internet site, I believe it is now nice, brighter and personalized to my site visitors. Nevertheless, I, and also you, should recognize that you are never done with your website. You need to constantly be checking out methods to improve the appearance, products, and also service available to your visitors.

Becoming An Associate.

You can not be an affiliate marketing professional without member products. With that said being said, you can begin your quest as a member marketer by checking out the adhering to websites for things that fit your motif as well as which you can make a commission.

ClickBank.

BeFree.

Now, do not be disappointed if several of the suppliers turn you down at first– after you have your internet site up for a while, you will locate that some suppliers will certainly be dropping you an e-mail and asking for that you offer their item for them. It’s lovely, nevertheless, make sure that you can blend it nicely right into your internet site motif.

Getting Your Feet Wet.

The water may be chilly, temperate, or very hot– it depends on your ability level when you begin your trip online (I believe my feet were in the cool phase when I began)– however you have to acquire your feet moist. Do your research, obtain all your ducks in a roll, and also begin your journey. If you sit on the fence too long, you will certainly never jump in.

Obtain what Web devices you can, read all that you can, as well as remain positive, even if it implies you need to tip far from your computer for a day or more to regroup your thoughts.

As you could see from my encounter, I jumped in, had some troubles, some disappoints, yet also some specific triumphs. One of the most important thing to remember is to close your mind to your own unfavorable ideas, and also the negative words of those around you. Why? They can paralyze you, as well as slow-moving or perhaps end your trip toward success.

If you recognize in your intestine, that exactly what you are doing will be successful– say nothing– simply go on going on. Soon, the cynics will be claiming something good.

Build A Site and Get Your Feet Damp In Member Advertising

Becoming A Successful Online Poker Affiliate

Summary:

Many people say you can’t get something from nothing, but in the world of affiliate marketing there lies an exception. Setting cliches and phraseology aside the realm of affiliate advertising has made the Internet a vibrant entrepreneurial playground. Like at no time before people are able to profit from virtual space and advertising. Requiring little or no effort or initial outlay the affiliate system has revolutionised website ownership.

But when an individual decides to…

This article from The Online Master is about: Becoming a Successful Online Poker Affiliate

Many people say you can’t get something from nothing, but in the world of affiliate marketing there lies an exception. Setting cliches and phraseology aside the realm of affiliate advertising has made the Internet a vibrant entrepreneurial playground. Like at no time before people are able to profit from virtual space and advertising. Requiring little or no effort or initial outlay the affiliate system has revolutionised website ownership.

But when an individual decides to become an affiliate, which website or sites should they advertise for. There is such a huge collection available on the Internet that the variety is truly staggering. Arguably the most important factor should be how popular or how likely is it that persons visiting a personal website are likely to follow the links to another. The bigger the industry the bigger the potential clientele. Very few industries these days can match the growth and the sustainability than that of the online poker business.

The virtual realm of the Internet has revolutionised the entire gambling and gaming industry. Making betting possible from the comfort of your own home and at any time of the day. The ease at which people can place bets or play games is staggering and has no doubt influenced the phenomenal rise of all gaming sites, but most notably that of online poker. For a long time poker had a very underground hushed up reputation even going to the extent of seediness. But now with online poker the barriers and the preconceptions have been blown away. The online poker revolution has changed the game forever, making it more popular and more accessible than at any point in it’s long history. The global village that is the Internet allows players from all over the world to lock horns in matches and tournaments, pitting their wits against professionals and amateurs alike.

Due to the surge in popularity of the online poker industry, there has been a huge boom in the revenue that these companies can turn over. As with any successful industry companies are desperate to cash in on the lucrative businesses. So the role of the advertising persons becomes all the more important as companies vie for new customers, to stay ahead or catch up with the leading sites. It is a dog eat dog billion dollar business so it is easy to understand why they might be willing to share some of the profits in order to maintain their reputation and expand the sites. This is where the average affiliate comes in. In exchange for a few advertisements on their personal site, they can receive money. All that the affiliate needs to do is attract visitors to the poker site and convince them to join up and they are off. For the lifetime of each player that joins through their site the affiliate will earn between 25 and 35% of the money they create. What could be simpler than that, all that is needed is the will power and the initiative to tempt visitors and an affiliate can make serious money for a very limited amount of work.

Becoming A Successful Online Poker Affiliate

Web.com reports growing revenues in 2014, but still a net loss

Revenues were up for Web.com in 2014, but the company still reported a net loss.

The Jacksonville-based online marketing company took in revenues of almost $544 million last year, up from $492 million in 2013, according to SEC filings posted Thursday evening.

Overall, the company had a net loss of $12.4 million, which was an improvement over the loss of $65.7 million in 2013.

Web.com hasn’t reported a net profit since 2009, when it made $2.6 million with $102 million in revenue. Its net income dove over the next several years until hitting a nadir with a loss of $122 million in 2012.

The company’s revenues have risen every year since it went public as Website Pros Inc. in 2005, except for a dip between 2008 and 2009, from $117 million to $102 million.

In a conference call Thursday afternoon, CEO David L. Brown said the company has put in place a new bundled pricing model in an effort to keep customers using the website.

“We believe the steps we have taken will ultimately return retention rates to their previous levels,” Brown said in the call.

The company had almost 3.3 million subscribers on its website at the end of last year, up from 3.1 million in 2013 and slightly more than 3 million in 2012, according to SEC filings.

Its average revenue per user was $14.07 in the fourth quarter of 2014, down from $14.71 during that quarter in 2013 and $14.33 in 2012.

On Monday, Web.com added two directors to its board as part of a deal with its largest shareholder, Okumus Fund Management Ltd. The deal places limits on the shareholder’s power, such as barring it from trying to remove directors and influencing other shareholders. The deal runs out before the company’s 2016 shareholder meeting.

Okumus bought 480,000 shares in the company in November. That same month, the company bought back 10.8 million of its shares, Brown said in the conference call.

Brown also said that the company plans to modify its website developing services to allow customers to get guidance from Web.com employees through email and phone calls.

“This is an area we’ve just begun exploring,” he said.

The company’s stock price rose following the release of its earnings report, from $15.93 a share Thursday afternoon to $18.43 Friday morning.

But its shares have been in decline over the past year, dropping from $36.61 in February 2014.

Richard Webner: 904-359-4370

Web.com reports growing revenues in 2014, but still a net loss

Email Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

Stephen is the CEO of The Rainmaker Institute, the nation’s largest law firm marketing company specializing in lead conversion for small to medium size law firms. Over 10,000 attorneys have benefited from learning and implementing the proven marketing and lead conversion strategies taught by The Rainmaker Institute. He works exclusively with attorneys to find new clients fast using online and offline legal marketing strategies and to convert more prospects into paying clients using automated marketing and by fixing their follow up systems.

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Email Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

How To Get a 74.8% Open Rate with Your Newsletter. Email Marketing Made Easy.

The right subject line makes all the difference when it comes to your email open rate.

By Maureen McCabe

Although I’ve never given birth physically… I feel that I have now done so virtually!

Imagine the thrill I felt when I sent my first email campaign through MailChimp on July 31st and achieved both great open rates (54.5–74.8%) and click-through rates which were through the roof by all measurements (5.3-10.1%). I received dozens of kind comments from readers — so many that I couldn’t respond to them all. However, I did find time to respond to the sales leads I received.

I was overwhelmed and humbled by the laudatory comments and advice to post the newsletter everywhere that I didn’t quite know where to start. To be honest…I was too busy attracting new clients. I closed two new ones on August 13th and one on August 15th!

I was unsure how to post the newsletter across my social media sites, but I did manage to post it on LinkedIn. If you’re not yet subscribed to my email list, or haven’t seen the newsletter yet and want to take a look at it, scroll to the end of this blog to read the special edition for my blog readers!

Interested in finding out how I put together my first email newsletter campaign? Read on!

Step 1: I Created 5 Email Lists

1. Friends/family (they’re always great to promote you)


2. Clients (active and previous)


3. Business colleagues (e.g., partners, networked business contacts, members of my networking group)


4. Medium-warm prospects (those I gave a free consultation and it wasn’t a fit or in their budget)


5. Prospects (those who had requested my FREE report — 8 Money-Burning Marketing Mistakes that Reduce Profits — and weren’t quite ready to step forward)

This actually took me months to do… like you, I’m a busy small business owner. Although I’m an established Marketing Consultant (over 20 years), I took months to pull the lists together. A special thanks to Aina who helped me upload/format the Excel sheets into MailChimp.

Step 2: Branding

I’ve spent a lot of time on my brand image…from the significant investment in my website, including the original sketching of the banners (not stock art), the four videos, PowerPoint template and more. I couldn’t use one of the many standard MailChimp email templates. Overdrive Design came to the rescue with a completely custom (read: many, many hours) designed email. Alex, Bryn and James… I love you guys. Thanks for making me look great!

Then of course I had to update my website to create a special form to sign up for my email newsletter. Next, I updated the free consultation form and free report form on my website to capture new emails for my subscriber list, asking site visitors for permission to send them marketing materials via email. The boxes were unchecked as I followed CASL (Canada’s Anti-Spam Law) that came into effect this past July.

Step 3: Reuse

Creating the content for my newsletter was actually very easy. I used my most read blog post, which turned out to be the first one that I wrote in December 2011. “Needs-based” selling (communications) skills – it’s not all about you! Homepage writing tips.

Essentially I wrote 2 things: The opening paragraphs and the end section called “Clients’ Corner,” which featured one of my favourite clients for whom I project managed a customer testimonial video.

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Lesson learned — In the next newsletter I’ll reference the featured client’s name in the opening paragraphs to keep readers scrolling down!

Step 4: Tech Support – It Makes or Breaks you

Unfortunately, I’m not the most technologically adept person. And my great IT support team at EasyTech Care weren’t MailChimp savvy either. So, along with Aina’s help, I learned first-hand how easy it was to use. (I’m now just itching to get my next newsletter set up. (Did I mention, if you .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) I’ll send you the link to read my first email blast?)

Once you’re INSIDE the newsletter, snuggling up with McCabe Marketing, you can request a free report, free consultation or better yet, why not sign up for the Profit-Boosting Marketing Tips Newsletter and get the next edition delivered right to your mailbox?

Here’s the custom subject line that I found worked really well, and achieved an excellent open rate:

Susan, I’m excited to share…

(Wouldn’t have you clicked as well?!)

Step 5: Metrics

As my home economics (e.g., sewing) teacher Mrs. Nesbitt used to say, measure twice, cut once. So I’ve now spent more time analyzing the results of my first email campaign, which seemed unbelievable to me!

You won’t believe the amount of data that’s revealed about my subscribers in these email reports. I can see when you opened the email, what you clicked to read and which links you visited. I’m now opening the kimono to share some of the results:

Step 6: Unsubscribers

My sister was my first unsubscribe. Margot is four years younger, and although still quite trying at times, I do love her. She was very kind to email me rather than just simply click the ‘unsubscribe’ button. As it would impact my newsletter’s metrics in MailChimp.

With any email list — even if all of your list members have given you their permission to send them email — you will have people unsubscribe or report your newsletter as spam from time to time. This is nothing to worry about, and MailChimp does an excellent job of managing your email list to ensure you don’t send any more emails to these individuals in the future.

That’s it! I now have to get back to tweaking the next edition of the newsletter. Stay tuned to my blog for more email marketing tips!

How To Get a 74.8% Open Rate with Your Newsletter. Email Marketing Made Easy.

How Style Bloggers Earn Sales Commissions, One Click at a Time

Updated Feb. 11, 2015 11:33 p.m. ET

Kat Tanita, a photogenic 26-year-old, regularly poses for pictures on the streets of New York, modeling her style of classic, feminine clothes and accessories. Three times a week, she uploads the professional-quality shots to her blog, With Love from Kat, where they generate almost half her annual income.

The money comes from the dozen or so links Ms. Tanita places at the bottom of each post that whisk readers to retail sites selling the products she is wearing, as well as similar-looking items often at lower prices. Every time a reader clicks and buys from a linked retailer, for the next month Ms. Tanita will get a cut of the sale, whether it’s an item featured on the blog or any product the retailer sells. And the typical reader is none the wiser.

Commission-generating links are the nuts and bolts of “affiliate marketing,” a mechanism that is one of the most common, least visible ways the Internet funnels blog readers onto retail sites. A $40 trench coat Ms. Tanita linked to last fall sold out, she says, and hundreds of people bought a romper she posted.

Ms. Tanita declined to disclose how much money she earns from her affiliate posts but says it is enough to support herself. “I couldn’t imagine four years ago that I could be making a living off of outfits that I’m wearing,” she says about the start of her blog. “It’s kind of crazy.”

For many of the personal-style bloggers flocking to New York Fashion Week, which starts Thursday, affiliate links are a major source of income. This fashion-forward crowd might buy the products they link to, and they also regularly get merchandise directly from brands and retailers. Some link to things they don’t actually own, on a “wish list” or “gift guide.”

Affiliate programs, used by many online retailers, blogs and media sites for a decade or more, are gaining new ground for bloggers as they expand to social media platforms like Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter .

Terms of the deals typically are based on how many readers a blog has, and how much interaction it gets. Commissions range from 3% to more than 20% of sales. For bloggers, also known as “influencers,” whose readers are loyal and eager to shop, there is real money to be made. Hundreds of bloggers earn tens of thousands of dollars a year from affiliate relationships, people familiar with the industry say. A few make that much in a month.

Affiliate links bring shoppers directly to the merchandise, unlike a print ad or editorial mention in a glossy magazine, where readers have to hunt the product down for themselves, says Bryan Galipeau, director of social media for Nordstrom . The department store’s affiliate program is run by a team of four full-time employees working with several thousand bloggers and social media personalities.

Another advantage: Shoppers see the advice that bloggers dispense as independent and unbiased. “There’s a level of credibility that bloggers bring,” Mr. Galipeau says. “It’s an unedited perspective.”

Julia Engel, a 24-year-old San Francisco resident with a style blog called Gal Meets Glam, says she thinks her readers understand how affiliate marketing works and don’t mind. “People are always going to ask me where something is from, and I’m always going to answer,” says Ms. Engel. “So if I can be credited for that purchase, it’s a win-win situation.”

Self-employed personal style bloggers have been embraced by the notoriously closed fashion industry, were the programs are a natural fit with the industry’s brand-centric, advice-heavy culture. Links are subtler than in-your-face display ads, and they are far simpler than the elaborate partnerships some brands have brokered with bloggers in exchange for sponsored posts, personal appearances and social-media mentions.

Acting as middlemen between retailers and bloggers, and helping attract more of each, are affiliate networks. In exchange for its own fee or percentage, a network provides the necessary technology to create links and track purchases, and writes commission checks. It verifies whether a blogger is worth doing business with, and brokers new relationships and deals.

A network gives bloggers access to “retailers that normally they might not be able to get in with,” says Adam Weiss, general manager at Rakuten Affiliate Network, formerly called LinkShare and a unit of Rakuten Marketing.

RewardStyle, a leading network based in Dallas, is among the easiest to use, many influencers say. It offers bloggers a widget of a scrolling gallery of linked product shots, which they may want to embed at the end of each post, making it even easier for readers to click and buy. When a linked item is sold at multiple retailers, RewardStyle tells the blogger how much commission each retailer is willing to pay.

The network accepts only about 10% of those who apply, says Amber Venz Box, RewardStyle’s co-founder and president. In all, it says it works with about 9,000 bloggers, magazines and other publishers and more than 4,000 retailers, including Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus and Net-a-Porter. RewardStyle affiliate links resulted in $282 million in sales for retail partners in 2014, the company says.

Last spring, RewardStyle introduced a way to shop from Instagram, which doesn’t allow clickable links in captions. Shoppers can sign up for a RewardStyle tool called LIKEtoKNOW.it: If they “like” a RewardStyle blogger’s linked photo on Instagram, RewardStyle will send them an email with affiliate links to help them buy the products. Although RewardStyle offers to collect links and send just one email a day or week, 95% of shoppers request the information immediately.

Email recipients “want the information and they want it now,” says Ms. Venz Box. They aren’t thinking about whether a blogger makes a commission like some store salespeople. In its first nine months of operation last year, LIKEtoKNOW.it led to $10 million in sales.

Data is a huge part of affiliate marketing’s success. Retailers can measure exactly how much they get in sales from affiliate links, and bloggers know where their readers want to shop and what they buy.

Kimberly Pesch, 31, learned the audience for her blog, Eat.Sleep.Wear, likes items they don’t have to try on, such as shoes and sunglasses. When she posts something expensive, like a Chanel handbag, she will typically also offer similar alternatives—“an affordable piece,” says Ms. Pesch, who lives in Los Angeles.

It sounds easy to make money in affiliate marketing, but Taylor Davies learned firsthand it isn’t. In 2012, Ms. Davies, a 29-year-old full-time editor at The Luxer, an e-commerce site, put a few of the links on her blog, Shut Up I Love That. She found it difficult to reach the $100 commission threshold required for RewardStyle to issue her first check. “You don’t automatically start making money,” she says. “If people aren’t interested in what you are saying, there isn’t going to be much of an impact.”

Ms. Davies decided to go with ShopSense, a network that pays based on clicks, not purchases, and says she now earns from five to 10 cents per click, or about $100 a month. “I learned my audience, much like me, they click on things because they want to see it and investigate it but they don’t buy it,” Ms. Davies says.

Write to Elizabeth Holmes at elizabeth.holmes@wsj.com

How Style Bloggers Earn Sales Commissions, One Click at a Time

8 Things Social Media Marketers Wish You Would Stop Saying

1. Can you make this go viral

We have no control over what goes viral.  It is the audience, the internet user, who makes something go viral.  If it is catchy and timely it may go viral.  If we could figure out the equation to what people are going to go nutty over we would be kings!

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2. Can you guarantee me $10,000 in sales each month

No, just because Social Media Marketing and Advertising is a new platform the rules don’t change.  It is still Advertising and Marketing – sales depend on if your product is in demand, if the consumer needs or wants your product – we can’t predict the needs and wants of the consumer (yet!)  It is no different than Target or Walmart being unable to predict if your product will fly off the shelves.  The only thing we can do, as in any campaign old or new, is put it out there creatively and entice people to make the purchase.

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3. My customers aren’t using Social Media.

Recommended for YouWebcast: Video Marketing: 3 Building Blocks to Get You Started

Are you sure about that?  77% of all American adults are active Facebook users. (Pew)

The fastest growing demographic on Facebook is the 45 to 54 age group.  Basically, the majority of people in all age groups and income brackets ARE using Social Media.

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4. I used a Social Media Marketer before and they promised 3 times my return on investment and it didn’t happen.

Again, no one can predict what consumers will purchase.  Products and services must be wanted or needed by the consumer.   Seasonally your products may increase in sales, but overall the best we can do is put your products out there as creatively as possible and entice people to purchase.  Social Media is the major avenue to advertise these days – if you want to be seen and considered you must be there.  If a marketer is “promising” you a specific ROI walk away.

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5. My business is too serious to post these silly pictures and stories.

Then your business is too boring to be acknowleged on Social Media.  Advertising and Marketing by selling directly to people is no longer how it is done. Providing your audience with interesting and relevant content that they will take notice of is how you will gain customers.  If you think you are too serious participate in Social Media then you are missing a valuable opportunity to grow your business.

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6. This is too expensive – all you do is post silly cartoons and stories.

With 71% of Consumers more likely to make a purchase based on Social Media Referrals and 74% of Social Media users encouraging their friends to try products (Forbes) it is a serious marketing tool that takes time, knowledge and experience.  Social Media Marketers (good ones) are not just slapping up a cartoon, they are curating content and posting strategically as well as monitoring your accounts for conversations and engagement.  It takes time.

Many business owners don’t blink twice at pending thousands on an ad that sits in a closed phone book that does not have much of an ROI yet freak when they see monthly marketing and advertising costs.  It is time to take Social Media seriously and shift that budget over to what works.

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7. My daughter/son/wife/niece/nephew spends a lot of time on Social Media, they can handle posting on my business page.

Just because someone uses Social Media a lot does not mean they know how to effectively market.  A successful Marketing and Advertising Campaign takes experience and knowledge.   Just because your niece spends a lot of time reading medical journals you wouldn’t let her operate on you. Spending a lot of time on Social Sites does not make someone an expert.

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8. Social Media is a fad for kids– it will all end soon.

If you still believe this then you are going to be hard pressed to find customers in the future.  While the actual Social Sites (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest) may not be around in 10 years (or will they) online marketing and advertising is how it is done these days.  Laptops, tablets, mobile phones – people are plugged in and getting their information via the internet.  You need to be there so that they get your information.

Author: Laura Donovan

Laura Donovan is the President of The Word Pro, a national digital marketing company. She is a graduate of North Central College with a degree in Organizational Communications, a discipline that has proved valuable in her Social Media endeavors. Laura been managing Facebook, Google+ and Twitter pages for small and… View full profile ›

8 Things Social Media Marketers Wish You Would Stop Saying

Vistaprint Launches “Social Postcards,” New Tool for Easier Facebook Ad Design and Effective ...

Vistaprint, a leading online provider of professional marketing products and services to micro business owners, today announced the launch of “Social Postcards,” an online tool that makes it easy for small businesses to turn their print materials into Facebook^(R) ads, target the right audience, and analyze campaign results. This omnichannel marketing tool enables small businesses to streamline and boost their print and online marketing efforts. Vistaprint and its digital services business, Webs, worked with Facebook to create this small business-focused tool for its customers.

The “2014 Webs Small Business Digital Trends Survey” shows 63 percent of small business owners use digital products as part or all of their marketing strategy, most combining digital and print. As a leading web-to-print destination for micro businesses, Vistaprint answered the demand for an omnichannel platform that integrates print and digital marketing in order to grow the business, increase sales, and build brand awareness across multiple channels.

The survey also shows 65 percent of small businesses are currently using or are willing to pay for Facebook ads. However, most don’t have the tools or resources to design highly impactful and professional-looking social media ads. Facebook research further shows that ads on the platform can drive more in-store revenue, with one-third more people purchasing the products or services, and two-thirds of people increasing their order value. In addition, Facebook is more than twice as accurate as other ad networks in reaching a business’ target audience – enabling marketers to get their ads in front of the right people.

This new tool from Webs simplifies the task of creating and managing Facebook ads. Users who design a postcard on Vistaprint have the option to turn it into a Facebook ad, choose the target audience, publish it, and view the ad campaign’s results – all in one easy-to-use dashboard.

“As a real estate agent, I’m responsible for doing all of my own marketing and have to leave a lasting impression in someone’s mind when they turn to social media for their home-buying needs,” said Emilee Sinclair, broker/agent at Coldwell Banker Sea Cost Advantage. “Having the option to turn the materials I’m already creating on Vistaprint.com into a Facebook ad made it really easy and affordable to reach a large number of potential customers I typically would not be able to reach by myself.”

The new Social Postcards tool features:

• Simple, user-friendly interface


• Step-by-step Facebook ad creation that’s powerful yet simple


• Proprietary technology that enables matching print and online branded content


• Library of ad templates to highlight sales, events, promotions and more


• Extensive library of royalty-free images for ad usage


• Adherence to Facebook’s text guidelines


• Simplified ad targeting based on demographics, interests, connections and more


• Compatibility with Facebook desktop and mobile


• Low one-time fee that enables testing with limited investment


• Ad analytics to help optimize strategy

“Small businesses spend more on social media than any other media category to promote their businesses, and Facebook clearly dominates the market,” said Rick Ducey, managing director of BIA/Kelsey. “There is a significant opportunity in the marketplace for tools that help small businesses automate digital marketing, especially to local audiences. Social media is transforming how small businesses are promoting and growing their businesses and digital ads will be key in achieving results.”

“Vistaprint, along with Webs, is committed to helping business owners succeed, and with this new Social Postcards offering, we are empowering small businesses to combine traditional marketing methods with progressive social media advertising tactics in an affordable and easy-to-use way,” said Scott Bowen, VP and general manager of digital services, Vistaprint. “Online marketing is an untapped resource for many small businesses, and this tool makes it possible for small business owners to level the field against larger competitors, engage their customers in more modern ways, and ultimately grow their business. We are excited to offer this tool and will continue to deliver value to our customers across print and digital.”

For more information or to use Social Postcards, visit: www.vistaprint.com/lpt/social-postcards.aspx.

Survey Methodology:

Webs Small Business Digital Usage Survey is based on a nationally representative sample of 2,292 small business owners of companies with fewer than 10 employees. The anonymous survey was conducted online by Insight By Design between March 10-15, 2014 as part of Vistaprint’s 2014 Digital Usage Study. The poll has a margin of error of approximately +/- 2-7 percent depending on the question.

About Vistaprint

Vistaprint is a global e-commerce brand empowering more than 16 million micro business owners to professionally promote their business with quality printed and digital marketing products at an affordable price. Our world-class online design studio allows customers to easily customize their products including business cards, marketing materials, signage, promotional products, apparel, websites, digital marketing, cards and stationery at www.vistaprint.com. Our patented printing technique allows us to maximize efficiency and consistently deliver quality and value to customers. This innovative process is supported by 25 localized websites serving various global markets; world-class manufacturing facilities around the globe, including North America, Western Europe, Australia and India; and thousands of employees in offices worldwide. Vistaprint is a Cimpress (Nasdaq:CMPR) brand.

Vistaprint and the Vistaprint logo are trademarks of Cimpress N.V. or its subsidiaries. All other brand and product names appearing on this announcement may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

About Webs

Founded in 2001, Webs is the digital services business of Vistaprint. Webs provides an easy-to-use, reliable and cost-effective marketing platform specifically designed for the small business. The Webs platform powers the online marketing of millions of small businesses around the globe with its complete suite of website, social media, email, and other digital identity and marketing products. Webs enables small businesses to launch online, get noticed, engage customers and grow. For more information, please visit www.webs.com.

Facebook(R) is a registered trademark of Facebook, Inc.

Vistaprint Launches “Social Postcards,” New Tool for Easier Facebook Ad Design and Effective ...

Become an Affiliate

Summary:

Are you looking for an online business that involves ZERO or minimal investment? If your answer is yes then read on.

This article from The Online Master is about: affiliate, affiliate programs

Are you looking for an online business that involves ZERO or minimal investment? If your answer is yes then read on.

Generally people think that to run a business they need to invest heavily. With the popularity of Internet increasing day by day you don’t have to invest even a single penny. Starting an online business can be one of the easiest ways to start a business and earn from home. You don’t even need an office. The only requirement is a computer with an Internet connection.

How to Start an Online Business with Minimal Investment

Now the question in your mind would be that if you don’t need an office, and you don’t need to invest then what do you need to do? You need to become an affiliate for a good company and start selling their products to earn commissions. For this you don’t need to have your own product but actually you are just promoting someone else’s product to get paid.

However, it should be made very clear that this does not mean you don’t have to work at all and by becoming an affiliate you can start getting money by merely sitting at home. After all, you need to promote the products through your web site or newsletter.

Get a Free Web Site

To have a web site you don’t need to be a web expert. Without knowing any web language you can create a web site which will be your virtual office. There are a lot of web sites offering free web space without any cost. Web sites such as www.angelfire.com provide an option where you can get a free web space. You just have to register yourself and you can easily develop your own web site by just clicking a few links. No need to have HTML knowledge as you can directly configure your site and choose different background colors for your web site. They even provide very useful tools like page hit counter to have a record of the number of visitors visiting your site.

Since free web site services almost always require you to show the advertisements of the company hosting your site, once you start earning money, it is often a good idea to pay a web hosting company to serve your web site.

Research Affiliate Companies

Don’t expect high returns from day one. Every business takes some time to establish and to earn profits. However, if you have spent time initially to set up your business right then it will have the potential to provide good returns over time. Do some research before you choose the right product to promote, that interests you and has good demand in the market. It is important to choose a product of your interest because you will be in a better position to convince people to buy the product if you have proper knowledge and interest regarding the product. Affiliate programs are not only related to products but also involve information sharing or offering some advice. Like advice on successful marriage, painting, learning a new language, woodworking, gardening, etc. You can offer your advice free of cost and use affiliate-marketing programs to earn money. Some of the sites where you can become an affiliate are www.amazon.com and www.clickbank.com. Once you choose a product from these web sites and promote those products then you can earn up to a very high commission on every product sold.

Promote Your Business

The success of an affiliate marketing business is promotion. If your site can draw people’s attention and then direct them to the affiliate company’s web site then your earning potential is limitless.

To be successful it helps to spend time doing initial research to choose the right affiliate program that can give you maximum profits. Then you will need to follow through with a good marketing plan. While choosing the affiliate program, give thought to the process you’ll be following to promote the sales of the product. Since you would be more involved in the pre-sales, your web site should have good content regarding the product. If the conversion rate of the prospects to actual buyers is high from your site then you can consider yourself a good affiliate. Initial time spent on deciding the right product to promote is key to fetching good dividends later on.

Become an Affiliate

Austin Search Engine Marketing Firm Develops New Social Media Strategies for Clients

FindMyCompany.com builds on website and mobile internet marketing methods by using intuitive, comprehensive social media platform strategies to build and maintain engagement

Austin, TX — (ReleaseWire) — 02/10/2015 — Austin search engine marketing firm and Inc. 500/5000 member FindMyCompany.com (FMC) is using advanced social media platform strategies to build on the foundation laid by in-house website optimization, mobile site development and organic content creation. FMC leverages a suite of products to increase engagement and conversion for local business clients by improving their search engine marketing game, or creating it where it doesn’t exist. To do this, many moving parts must work in concert, like an engine, to drive the internet audience to targeted websites where they can find the products, services and info they are looking for with efficiency, clarity and ease of use. In addition to these online marketing pillars, FMC is capable of creating a social media strategy that builds social engagement in the online arena, helping create a marketing ecosystem where customers find the products and services they’re looking for with a brand they trust, naturally complementing background development and content creation with the effective social media tools people are already using.

FMC builds social media strategies for each client, starting with properly designed and utilized Facebook business pages. Often, clients misrepresent or neglect their online image with improperly utilized Facebook pages. Poor layout, design and lack of information is costly, leading to swift dismissal by the social media audience who sees what it wants in seconds, and easily moves on to the next candidate if certain features aren’t in the right places. FindMyCompany.com President and CEO Greg Joseph says, “It isn’t enough to have an impressive website anymore. Credibility and professional polish need to be uniform across your whole online presence so browsing visitors feel secure in making that conversion to becoming a customer. This is true whether most of your business comes from online searches, print media or word-of-mouth.” This means that social media sites need to be a part of the same conversation, with the same comprehensive, straightforward and engaging approach found on websites and mobile sites.

FindMyCcompany.com’s Austin social media strategy team handles the full spectrum of design, implementation and maintenance, beginning with a custom Facebook page designed for each specific client, driven by an understanding of the brand, the message, and how to hook the audience-at-large. Facebook is constantly re-writing its own rules, and every 3 to 4 months a new policy, strategy and set of guidelines is rolled out that governs how marketers reach their audiences. Much like Google’s ever-changing algorithms, it’s a reality of the internet marketing filed, and FMC helps clients stay ahead of the curve with regular updates and postings. Their team provides unlimited photo and video uploads of client media, unlimited applications allowing the promotion of new specials, events and any other marketing events for any enterprise. To make things simple, FMC provides a proven Facebook marketing checklist that helps staff post and promote with the right techniques, topics and timing, so clients can get the whole office in on the guided effort. These strategies extend to custom LinkedIn and Twitter accounts, putting the FMC team in charge of their client’s most effective social media engagement tools.

About FindMyCompany.com
FindMyCompany.com is one of Austin’s oldest and most trusted Internet Marketing companies. FindMyCompany.com works on behalf of their clients to develop a solid, professional online presence and navigate the constant developments of search engine algorithms. Watch their recent video about the importance of online business reviews here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJCq_HRWEZI To learn more about the power of FMC’s social media strategies, visit them online at www.FindMyCompany.com.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-577135.htm

Austin Search Engine Marketing Firm Develops New Social Media Strategies for Clients

4 ways to take advantage of the new age of marketing

Maximise your company’s potential with these strategies

TV, print and billboard ads were once the gold standard for marketing. Basically, companies pushed their name in front of the masses in an attempt to build brand awareness.

But now customers want personalised, one-on-one interactions with brands, and marketers are beginning to see how a targetted approach can stretch their marketing dollars further and generate leads faster. This changes everything.

Print, radio and Super Bowl commercials — there’s only one reason companies spend money on these marketing methods: bragging rights. They have little to do with actual branding and lead generation.

Also Read: 5 ways to know if someone is your perfect co-founder

But you probably knew that. What you may not realise is that many startups still use techniques that seem hyper-personal and new, but actually don’t move the needle for their companies. Here are some conventional methods that are missing the mark

• Cold calls: Although the B2C world has long rejected this method, B2B companies are discovering the faults in this strategy too. Buyers want to establish their own solutions and work out their issues online. Marketers need to offer as much information as possible online, or potential clients will find a competitor that does.


• Blast emails: Many people still swear by email marketing. But a mass-delivered message just doesn’t work for most companies — even if it’s delivered by email. One message can never resonate with a general audience.

Join the new marketing era
Every successful marketing trend these days stems from knowing your customers, where they congregate, and how they form trust. Marketers no longer “think” of campaigns; they build them around buyer needs. Personalisation has become the key to generating RoI for your marketing efforts.

Knowing your buyer is the most effective marketing tool you can have. Start with customer profiles and dig deep into who your customers are to figure out how to reach them.

Once you understand your customers, consider these marketing tips to make your strategy work harder.

Also Read: 6 questions to ask during a startup job interview

Start with content marketing: Customer-driven content marketing can help your company address potential concerns and convert customers with more precision. Too often, companies blindly produce content, throw it out into the world, and hope it brings in leads. The content often centers on what the marketer thinks is important rather than what’s useful or relevant to customers. With few metrics to accurately measure content’s success, many marketers have difficulty gauging its effectiveness. Still, when done well, content marketing costs 62 per cent less than traditional marketing and generates three times as many leads.

Use marketing automation to help you scale: Marketing automation software helps companies market across multiple platforms. These services do everything from organise leads to create hubs that launch digital campaigns across many networks. This trend is still new though, and few companies have adopted it. But jumping on early will give your company a competitive edge in the next wave of marketing.

Use social media to extend the conversation: If content marketing starts the conversation and marketing automation scales it, then social media perpetuates it. Find out where your potential customers hang out, then speak their language. Don’t offer ebooks on Twitter, for example. Join the conversation on their terms.

Don’t forget the old ways: Personalisation doesn’t mean you should completely reject older methods. Instead, personalisation can transform those old techniques into efficient marketing tools.

Also Read: How to make high-quality SEO work for you

Direct mail is one example: Mailboxes were constantly stuffed with junk a few years ago, so no one noticed a good campaign. But many companies have stopped sending mail, and buyers are becoming much more receptive to good mail campaigns. This presents the perfect opportunity to create a targeted direct-mail message that potential customers will find refreshing.

Traditional marketing campaigns bring a single company message to a large pool of potential buyers, but that just isn’t cutting it anymore. Consumer trends are shifting toward personalisation and marketers need to take note. Buyers want results. When you tell a compelling story that directly relates to them, they’ll believe your company can deliver.

Content marketing, marketing automation, social media and even personalised traditional outlets can all reach potential customers effectively. But make sure your campaigns hone in on buyer personas and address their specific needs. Then you’ll have customers for life.

Justin Gray is the CEO and chief marketing evangelist of LeadMD. He founded the company in 2009 with the vision of transforming traditional grassroots marketing efforts through the use of cloud-based marketing solutions.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organisation comprising the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship programme that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

Echelon Asia Summit is now open for the Top 100 applications! Submit your startup now.

4 ways to take advantage of the new age of marketing

The Future of Marketing is Editorial Traffic – By Oliver Roup

The increasing uptake and adoption of cross-device web use is shaking up previously held assumptions about the most revenue-rewarding advertising streams available to merchants, publishers, and the affiliate landscape.

The most significant outcome has been the transposition of the banner ad from the standalone premier revenue position to a complementary method used alongside other innovative revenue strategies. Consider the growing number of mobile users who consume editorial content on small screens, which guides their purchasing behavior, and it becomes very clear that banner ads cannot remain the only advertising solution to speak to customers and drive revenue to publishers. There needs to be additional marketing strategies brought forward to effectively manage advertising efforts across multiple devices.

In the mobile heavy content consumption ecosystem, the advertiser’s landing page can actually serve as the ad, arrived at after being directed by links located within non-sponsored, unique, and informative online content. The “ad”, or lack thereof, should create a seamless channel from a publisher’s site to an advertiser via the publisher’s own content.

This positively reflects their brand and craftsmanship, rather than take away attention in an incommodious way. This marketing channel should equally reflect the advertiser’s brand and bring a seamless consumption experience to the audience.

It is not surprising to note that this style of content is increasingly created by enthusiast entrepreneurs on their editorial sites and mobile apps where their passion becomes the driving force of consumption. For example, PurseBlog, J23, and Audizine all epitomize this new phenomenon. The other positive outcomes of this approach range from the lack of additional overhead to content links being much more economical than search, display and native strategies.

The importance of this more mobile and cross-device world is repeatedly evident in mainstream news. Although mobile is yet to be most brands major revenue stream, they are seeing a sharp increase in both usage and influence.

Shockingly, even large traditional editorial houses have seen a turnaround in their dwindling readerships due to uptake of mobile and monetization strategies. The New York Times, for example, is growing due to programmatic and native marketing. Their EVP of advertising, Meredith Kopit Levien stated, “Only 10% of digital revenue comes from mobile. In the past year, though, mobile increased from one-third of user sessions to over half of user sessions”. Mark Thompson, Times CEO followed Levien’s claim stating, “Smartphone, tablet, and video, taken together, are now a significant reason why we turned what was a revenue stream that was in slight decline to a revenue stream that is growing healthily,” said Times CEO Mark Thompson.

Influential brands continue to tout their success with marketing strategies that rely on content created by online enthusiasts to drive consumers to their site or app. For them, marketing channels must be integrated across mobile devices where space is at a premium.

The future of marketing in our cross-device world relies on harnessing the power of enthusiast content, not simply relying on an ad unit.

Oliver Roup is Founder and CEO of VigLink
This article appeared in issue 29 of FeedFront Magazine, which was published in January 2015.http://issuu.com/affiliatesummit/docs/feedfront-29

Tagged as: affiliate marketing, Affiliate Summit, feedfront, oliver roup, viglink

The Future of Marketing is Editorial Traffic – By Oliver Roup

7 predictions for online marketing in 2015

More companies are expected to focus on mobile marketing in 2015.

Barely over a month into 2015 and it is already shaping to be an exciting year for online marketing. Some of the trends that dominated 2014 remain pervasive to this day, and there are a few surprising developments besides. Here are some of the more exciting new developments that we can expect to see in the coming months.

The continued growth of mobile optimization
More and more companies will focus their marketing efforts toward the mobile audience. More importantly, marketers will expand beyond the rudimentary app or responsive website, and actually develop content optimized for the mobile audience. Online marketers will also explore the social media marketing potential of the mobile community as well.

There are hints that suggest the continued growth of mobile-directed marketing in 2015. Google itself has frequently played up the importance of mobile usability with regard to search engine optimization. The company’s own Webmaster Tools suite now also includes a feature called Mobile Usability, further bolstering expectations of continued growth in the mobile marketing sphere.
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Social media marketing budgets takes a sharp upturn
As more companies get hip to the immense potential of social media marketing, budgets allotted into these online marketing platforms will increase dramatically. To be sure, there were signs hinting at this development as far back as the beginning of 2014. It was then that Facebook registered a 10% increase in ad revenue from the previous fiscal period.

The positive results that many businesses are now seeing will likely spur on increased focus on social media marketing. As more and more companies see their social media marketing investments begin to pay off, others will be keen to gain the benefits of increased traffic and wider spread exposure as well.

Content marketing takes on an increasingly larger role
One other aspect of online marketing that is expected to grow even bigger in 2015 is content marketing. As with social media marketing, the increased focus on content marketing will likely be driven by the success many companies have already realized with that particular strategy. Of the 93% of B2B marketers that employed content marketing in 2014, 42% reported favorable results as compared to 36% from the previous year.

Email marketing revisited
Over the past few years, email has largely fallen out of vogue as newer online marketing platforms became more prevalent. However, as social networks continue to restrict brand and business visibility and search engine algorithms become increasingly complex, the total control provided by a dedicated email list is becoming more appealing for a lot of businesses. More interestingly, email marketing efforts will become even more integrated with content marketing, resulting in a more effective online marketing thrust.

SEO, content marketing and social media become one
The trend toward integration is expected to encompass all forms of online marketing–search engine optimization, content marketing, and social media marketing included–blending them all into a single potent force. Content marketing itself is increasingly being referred to as the “new SEO”, a title that makes perfect sense when you consider the frequent integration of search engine optimization and content marketing.

That being said, it is important for online marketers to realize that content marketing will continue to play a significant role in influencing search engine visibility. SEO itself should be implemented in service of a solid content marketing strategy. Businesses would also benefit from bolstering their content promotion and distribution alongside the generation of quality content.

Humanizing becomes the primary thrust
Connecting with audiences on a deeper and more meaningful level has always been one of the driving aspects of online marketing. In 2015, more and more companies are expected to ‘humanize’ their marketing efforts even more, striving to develop audience rapport with the goal of increasing conversion, inspiring brand loyalty, and meeting cuts expectations.

Marketing shifts from promotional to relevant
Traditional ‘promotional’ marketing is old hat. What is needed now is a shift toward more relevant marketing that will actually deliver better and more easily calculable results than click-through and banner ads. As small- and medium-sized businesses realize the limited value of these traditional marketing vehicles, there will be increasing interest in online marketing channels that can provide a significant ROI. As things are shaping up in the online marketing world, all signs point toward the marketing potential of relevant and engaging content.

7 predictions for online marketing in 2015

Most Recommended Marketing Tools By Pro Bloggers [Part 1]

This is the first post for “Recommended Marketing Tools” series – where successful bloggers share the marketing tools they couldn’t live without. Co-authored by James Richman.

Most successful bloggers are not only great storytellers. They know the best and most effective tools of the trade too.

In collaboration with James Richman of 1stWebDesigner, we’ve asked some of the most influential bloggers as to what are their 3 most recommended tools for content creation and promotion.

Kristi Hines

Kristi is one of the most trusted freelance bloggers in the online space.

Her blog Kikolani covers blog marketing and blogging tips for personal, professional, and business bloggers.

Tools Kristi Can’t Live Without

I am a marketing tool addict. I love seeking out new tools that can simplify specific areas of my business. While I was only asked to share three tools that I couldn’t live without in my business, I couldn’t help but sharing five that I use on a daily basis.

Cyfe

One of the biggest challenges of being a soloprenuer is finding the time to manage my clients and my business. I use a lot of different platforms for advertising, email marketing, invoicing, publishing, SEO, social media, and web analytics.

Cyfe is an all-in-one dashboard software that allows me to see data from most of the platforms I use in one place. It saves me a LOT of time – without it, I would have to go to Facebook Insights, FreshBooks, Google Analytics, MailChimp, Moz, and several other websites to see my business data on a daily basis.

Rival IQ

Competitive research can be a great teacher when it comes to marketing strategies. I use Rival IQ to keep up with other freelancers in my space to analyze their website, search, and social media strategy. I also use it to help my clients identify areas in their online marketing that could use some improvement based on what their competitors are doing.

My favorite feature is the ability to quickly compare multiple business’s website titles, Twitter bios, Facebook descriptions, and other social taglines and get alerted when competitors make changes to any of these. It’s a great way to make sure your business is offering what your customers want.

Oktopost

As a freelance writer, one of the things I do for my clients is promote the content I create. This helps them accomplish their content marketing goals, including traffic generation, social engagement, and conversions. Oktopost allows me to promote content to all of my social channels in one platform and get social engagement and click through analytics.

My favorite feature is the ability to not only post to my social profiles, but also to Facebook and LinkedIn groups. Thanks to the analytics Oktopost provides, I can see which groups offer the most engagement for my content and keep up with comments that need replies within each group.

Danny Brown

While Danny blogs about marketing and social media and where we’re heading, he also blogs about what it means to us as humans.

How we can tell better stories; be better businesses; and live better lives. After all, business comes and goes; but we only get one shot at being good people, in life and in business. He’s the co-author of Influence Marketing: How to Create, Manage, and Measure Brand Influencers in Social Media Marketing.

3 Tools Danny Can’t Live Without

Sprout Social

It’s the only social media dashboard worth using if you’re serious about keeping tabs on engagement levels, topics that are important to you, and a mobile experience that replicates the desktop one perfectly.

It’s not as cheap as Hootsuite, but the features are more than worth the investment (besides, Hootsuite gets pretty expensive if you want the kind of reporting that comes with your Sprout Social license).

Buffer

It’s just perfection. Everyone is busy, and not always around when it comes to growing awareness of you or your brand.

Buffer makes it simple to schedule content delivery, and at a time when it makes sense for your audience. Their analytics are useful for seeing what type of content works, and they just make the web a better place.

MailPoet

This is a WordPress plugin that makes it easy to create email lists, forms, newsletters, and more.

Their features are excellent, they complement the most popular email services, support is awesome, and the metrics really help you understand how effective (or not) your email list is. Excellent, and the one I recommend every time.

Jacob Cass

Jacob Cass is a strategic, multi-disciplinary designer & Art Director who has worked with clients such as Disney, Jerry Seinfeld, Red Bull, Nike & VitaminWater.

Although his skill set is vast, his major skill sets lie in the world of art direction, visual design, brand identity design, brand strategy, UX, UI design, interactive design (mobile + web design) and print design.

Buffer

It allows me to find great content to share, across multiple platforms, as well as give key insights to each post.

Follow Up Then

Allows me to follow up with people I email.

DropBox

Allows me to easily share files while having peace of mind.

Michael Q. Todd

Michael is the author of The 7 Pillars Book – daily updating guide to your building your online presence. He connects and promotes great people who will make a bigger difference by collaborating than individually.

He continually studies social media tools and strategies especially Twitter and Google+ to better facilitate that. Michaels goals are eradication of poverty and a sustainable economy by 2015. Prevention of the death of as many species as possible

3 Tools Michael Can’t Live Without

As a content producer these tools/communities help me the most not only for getting content shared but also for building relationships by the networking that happens inside them.

As with all things these networks benefit you the most when you go for the premium version.The features built into these tools make it very easy to go in quickly and find great content to share and also add your content to get shared.

My 3 favorite marketing tools are:

Scoop.it

Empire Avenue

Triberr

Lewis Howes

Lewis Howes is a bestselling author, entrepreneur who has built several multi-million dollar online businesses, and former professional Arena League football player. He hosts The School of Greatness, a talk show distributed as a podcast.

Howes co-wrote the 2009 book, LinkedWorking: Generating Success on the World’s Largest Professional Networking Website. The book is a guide to using the business oriented social networking site LinkedIn.

3 Tools Lewis Can’t Live Without

GoToWebinar

Aweber

It allows me to promote my webinars via email marketing.

LewisHowes (WordPress)

My WordPress blog allows me to post useful content to generate more leads for my business

Maria Elena Duron

Maria Elena specializes in creating community, connection and commerce working with high performing entrepreneurs, executives and businesses on how to manage their personal brand, the conglomeration of personal brands in their company and their business brand.

3 Tools Maria Can’t Live Without

Twitter

As founder and moderator of #brandchat, Twitter has been the most useful and effective community building, connection and relationship building tool. It’s also a great tool to keep up-to-speed with what’s important in my industry and to our connections.

Constant Contact

A whole fleet of marketing tools (campaigns, newsletter, event marketing, email marketing, social campaigns, autoresponders and easy social sharing tools) that help the small business owner build their list. The quality of your list determines the quality of your business.

LeadPages
Provides the instant “lead page” creation to be able to quickly segment your list building. Again, your list is key to the success of your business.

Brian Honigman

Brian Honigman is a marketing consultant, freelance writer and professional speaker. He works with both startups and brands improving their content marketing, social media and search engine optimization efforts.

He’s spoken at NYU, UNICEF, Huffington Post Live, the American Advertising Federation and for other organizations and conferences.

He is also a contributing writer to Entrepreneur, Huffington Post, Forbes, the Next Web, Wall Street Journal and others.

3 Tools Brian Can’t Live Without

Buffer

Saves me time every day and allows me to quickly schedule social content for the weeks ahead while keeping in mind the unique nuances of each social channel I’m active on.

MailChimp

Allows me to quickly create a weekly newsletter that’s beautiful, simple and engaging. It’s a free way to build a healthy list of subscribers.

Contactually

Helps act as a mini-CRM to help me better manage the contacts in my greater network. Love using it on the go on mobile to help me better manage relationships with others when I have extra time.

Neal Rodriguez

Neal helps mid-sized businesses and enterprise level organizations meet and exceed the objectives for which their websites were developed.

He has a 10 year track record in generating exposure and revenue for companies from the search engines – SEO – major social media platforms, and everywhere else on the web.

4 Tools Neal Can’t Live Without

I’m not the typical marketer who solely uses tools developed specifically for marketing activities. As a content marketer, I help clients and myself develop content that has the best chance of securing viral exposure.

I use several tools for this, such as Google Trends, the Reddit Top section, and just recently I’ve found BuzzSumo to be key in finding content that has enjoyed viral or at least the most exposure among a given topic. From there I aim to tie it to a brand’s vertical and develop content ideas. I could also get ideas from random things that are occurring in my life at the moment.

Google Trends

BuzzSumo

Majestic

I also use some tools that are developed for marketing purposes. Such as Google’s Keyword Planner and Majestic. These are mostly SEO plays; they tell me how popular keywords are and the quantity and quality of links that are pointing to a website I may want get a link from.

Keyword Planner

Jeremy Goldman

Jeremy Goldman has been working with companies looking to take their operations online and inject “social” into their processes for over a decade.

Under Jeremy’s leadership, Kiehl’s won the 2009 WebAward for Outstanding Achievement in Web Development, achieved a Top 25 ranking in the L2 Digital IQ Index in the Beauty & Skincare category, and received a Top 50 Facebook IQ ranking amongst all luxury brands.

3 Tools Jeremy Can’t Live Without

Buffer

Such an easy to use interface that lets me send content to multiple social platforms at once. Plus, as someone always on the go, the ability to easily schedule content for the perfect time is a must.

Evernote
As a digital marketer, this is an no-brainer. Evernote lets me quickly and easily store random ideas for blog posts that pop into my head, wherever I am. If I find an article that inspires me, I can email that to Evernote, or use their easy Chrome extension to clip content. It’s the second brain I never knew I needed.

SocialBro

The most underrated platform out there for managing and parsing your Twitter following, SocialBro lets me surface interesting and unexpected relationships, create dynamic Twitter lists, target my content at the perfect time, and so much more.

Francisco Rosales

Francisco works with small and mid-size business on creating and implementing successful online strategies through social media, advertising, content and email marketing.

He is also author of the online courses “Likeable to Profitable” and “Email Marketing [not so] 101.” As well as he offers training and consulting and blogs at SocialMouths, an award-winning social media blog.

3 Tools Francisco Can’t Live Without

Mailchimp

Basically because I use email marketing as a lead generation tool, and there is nothing online that can compare to the effectiveness of email to drive conversions. Mailchimp simply because I consider it the best ESP in the market by far.

Facebook Power Editor

Just because Facebook practically killed organic reach doesn’t mean the platform no longer works to generate leads and drive business. The opportunities Power Editor offers to tap into different kinds of audiences of highly targeted prospects is not available anywhere else.

Insightly

I use Insightly as my CRM. Many of us focus too much on marketing and then drop the ball on sales. This gives me visibility of the opportunities and the relationships being established at the business level.

We hope these recommended tools by some of the influential bloggers help you better craft your content as well. Writing great articles is just half the battle. You need the most efficient tools as well to aid in your promotion and getting your content discovered by more and more people.

Watch out for the next Recommended Marketing Tools – Part 2 or share your own favorite marketing tools in the comments!

Most Recommended Marketing Tools By Pro Bloggers [Part 1]