February 4th marks the beginning of the Lunar New Year. 2014 is the year of the horse, and there are many defining characteristics that accompany this zodiac. People born in the year of the horse are considered leaders, with superior communication skills and are social butterflies that enjoy being in the limelight. They are hardworking,…

  These days the web is full of sites using beautiful typography. Services such as Google Web fonts, Typekit and Fontdeck make it easy to display thousands of fonts on any site. But the problem comes when you can want to carry over your brand’s typeface to e-mail.

In 2014, Social media will continue to grow while becoming more optimized to meet users and businesses’ needs. Currently social media represents 5.5% of marketing budgets nationally. This number is expected to increase to 15.8% by 2018. That is a 3x increase in the next 4 years. With more ad dollars being put on the…

  The New Year is a great time to set upcoming business goals and focus on the future of your company.  However, it is also worthwhile to reflect on any avenues you did not take advantage of in 2013.  With the rapid growth of digital marketing opportunities, it is important to take stock of where…

Please enjoy our top 10 items for Small Business marketing success. 1st – Put the Customer First Successful marketing starts with putting the customer first. Understand what they want and expect from your business, then achieve this by using marketing strategies to enhance the customer’s experience. Great promotional and advertising ideas fall flat if a…

The fast-paced world of digital marketing, means that every year you have to evaluate your marketing strategies. Customer personalization across all marketing channels is the key to be competitive in the new year. Here are some of our predictions of how the market will be changing in 2014, and how your business can implement these…

  For most businesses the holidays can be the most wonderful time of the year for sales. According to Google, over half of holiday gifts will be purchased online this year. Even if your website not set up for e-commerce, it is important to make it optimized before the holiday season. Approximately 65% of holiday…

  Investing time in content for a website adds incredible marketing value to a small business’s marketing plan, and the best type of content is a regularly updated blog. One of the most valuable aspects of including updated written content within a website is the appreciation from visitors for “free” content or information. Additionally, websites…

Everyone says, “just create great content and you will ultimately be rewarded with more customers.” Wait, I know how you feel.  I felt the same way.  Writing something great sounds difficult. I wondered, how do I create content that people will take the time to read and then like so much they share it with…

In business, your reputation affects your sales.  According to Dimensional Research, 86 percent of consumers said buying decisions were influenced by negative online reviews. We all know that a satisfied customer tells 1 person and a dissatisfied customer tells 10, that’s powerful! Build trust and grow your business with current and prospective customers by protecting…

More and more people are relying on cell phones or other mobile devices for their everyday needs. Consumers are moving away from the traditional computer for their personal web browsing. A reported 77% of mobile searches are done in a location where a computer is readily available. Furthermore, by the end of 2015 there will…

  Small Business Saturday is a designated shopping day started by American Express, it helps to encourage shoppers to buy from local merchants in their community. Squeezed between Black Friday and Cyber Monday on November 30th, Small Business Saturday is on the biggest shopping weekend of the year in the U.S. The popularity of this…

There’s more to e-commerce than setting up a website and letting people purchase your products. A good setup includes plenty of options for e-commerce reporting. How many sales do you make in a given time? More importantly, who is buying? Conversion rates, demographics, payment options, purchase methods; all of this information is available to savvy…

Branding is a powerful service that businesses put into use to grow awareness of who they are and what they do. Advertising, marketing and sales are all part of branding, but there’s more to it than just direct advertisement. Branding is about having a recognizable logo and website design. Branding is about recognizing your audience; who…

If you’re a new business without a website, or if you have a website but want to upgrade, you need to invest in professional web development. There are many reasons to make this decision. First, no business owner has the time to invest in creating a website in-house. It requires a heavy investment in staff…

Content marketing is the heart of modern SEO and website optimization. It’s essential for any modern business to compete online. What is content marketing? Every piece of content that your site creates is a part of an ongoing content marketing plan. Each piece targets a specific subject, a specific keyword, with the goal of ranking…

  If you own a business and use the internet for marketing, you probably know that being on the first page, preferably the first few hits, of the search results is important if you want people to notice you. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the art of putting web sites at the top of search…

Every site selling something over the Internet needs to have an e-commerce system in place. Some sites attempt to make their own via comment submission forms and Paypal integration. This may work for a small-scale shop, but on a larger scale, such an e-commerce system will quickly be overrun with spam. It’s also not very…