Do you let tradeshows eat up your online marketing budget?

Maybe it’s the laser light shows, the instant presentations, the knife-throwing jugglers and other gimmicks put on by the larger companies …or just the general din in the hall.  No doubt about it, tradeshows are exciting …for both the attendees and the exhibitors.  They’re the casinos of corporate marketing.

Perhaps that’s what explains why [Read more...]

Using LinkedIn for business: best practices – I

This is the first of a four-part series aimed at helping our readers understand how best to use LinkedIn for their companies’ benefit. It assumes some beginning familiarity with LinkedIn, but nothing approaching proficiency. The second part will appear here within 2 weeks.

LinkedIn Company Search

LinkedIn has a powerful feature that allows you to discover connections in your network, and then filter them by the companies they work for. Why is this important? [Read more...]

Google’s “Panda” down-ranks sites for poor design/usability

Most of the various learned analyses of Google’s Panda search-algorithm update of last spring (and ongoing via numerous micro-updates) focused on its effect on so-called “content farms” …and on those legitimate sites that had the misfortune to be confused with such farms by the new algorithm, and thus were unceremoniously dropped many pages in Google’s results pages.  So if your site was not a content farm – and didn’t resemble one – you probably breathed a sigh of relief and [Read more...]

Yes, you must generate content …but not at random

“Content is king.”  We’ve heard it – in fact, said it, written it – so many times, it’s become a cliche’.  We’d like to stop …but the problem is, it’s just so true. It’s the key to bringing traffic (and hence leads) to your website, to educating prospects once there, to building credibility with them, and to nurturing them through those long B2B sales cycles.  In fact, at an extreme, some say that it’s the most effective and efficient means of building a business today.

We don’t go quite that far, but there’s just no doubt that [Read more...]

eMagine adds Eric Lander for search, social marketing services

We have kept this blog scrupulously free of eMagine’s organizational news so far, but in this case I felt we should make an exception …for a couple of reasons:

  • the convergence and rapid evolution of search marketing and social media
  • the increasingly important role that both of these now play in our B2B clients’ online marketing strategies, and their increasing desire for our support in those areas

Such sweeping trends require a strong response.  Accordingly, we’ve decided [Read more...]

How to leverage Facebook for business – III

This is the last of a three-part series aimed at helping our readers understand how best to use Facebook for their companies’ benefit.  It assumes some casual familiarity with Facebook, but nothing approaching wizard level.

In the second installment of this mini-series, I discussed utilizing mobile check-ins;  employing Facebook Ads;  directing your offline “networks” to your Facebook presence;  and driving fan expansion by Liking other businesses.  Let’s take a look at our final [Read more...]

Finding and leveraging your market’s key influencers

OK, you were intrigued by my title, but now I hear you wondering, “Why is this important?”  Well, the short answer is that it’s not just important… it’s vital. In his post on Junta42’s Content Marketing Revolution blog, Joe Pulizzi ticks off a few reasons…

  • It can help drive your social media execution.
  • It can be a core part of the search engine optimization (SEO) strategy for your site.
  • Ultimately, if done correctly, it will drive sales and position your firm as one of the leading experts in the field.

And who wouldn’t like a piece of that?!  So you’ll be glad to find that [Read more...]