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Top 6 Social Media No-Nos to Avoid

VerticalResponse Marketing Blog - Fri, 05/17/2013 - 10:59

Everyone makes mistakes, but committing a major social media no-no has the potential of hindering your business’s hared-earned reputation. A good rule of thumb is, “when in doubt, don’t.” But, if you’re wondering about specifics, here are the top 6 social media mistakes to avoid, especially in the wake of some serious social media faux pas:

1. Don’t lash out: Sometimes it’s hard to deal with constructive and/or blatantly harsh criticism from others, especially on such an open public space or forum like Facebook. However, as we learned from the recent and epic social media meltdown that Amy’s Baking Company Bakery Boutique & Bistro had on Facebook, it’s an excellent example of what no to do. Owners, Amy & Samy Bouzaglo lashed out on Facebook in response to some not-so-nice criticism after airing on Gordon Ramsay’s, Kitchen Nigtmares. Instead of say, swearing, ranting for hours, “yelling” in all caps, calling customers “stupid,” and then trying to cover it all up, responding quickly and calmly to a customer’s complaint, and trying to resolve it as soon as possible is simply the best thing you can do.

2. Don’t buy followers or fans: It may be tempting to make social media a numbers game. The more followers or “Likes” you have, the cooler, more trusted, desirable brand you must be, right? However, the point of social media isn’t to acquire a mass following, but to build relationships with legitimate potential and current customers. It’s all about quality over quantity – You may have 1 million followers, but if half of them don’t exist or don’t actually give a hoot about your brand, you may as well have none. Focus on increasing the quality of your content rather than increasing your numbers, and you’ll build a solid strategy and fan base.

3. Don’t create fakes comments: Who doesn’t want engagement and comments on posts, as well as a few good reviews on various sites? The problem is, they just can’t come from you – It boils down to dishonesty, and customers can easily see through it. Instead, include calls-to-actions in your social posts like, “Like this post if you agree,” and ask questions that’ll entice customers to respond. Need more reviews on your Yelp page? Encourage customers, and/or even give rewards or discounts to those who do write reviews, but honest ones!

4. Don’t be “Sir Spam-a-Lot”: Commenting on other social media or blog posts purely for the purpose of getting your own brand out there screams “spammer.” If you think your content is relevant, contact the owner of the post and propose a real linking or collaboration strategy. If you offer value with your content, you may develop a meaningful relationship – Win-win. Check out our post, How to Connect with Online Influencers – Dos & Don’ts for more advice on how to approach these relationships.

5. Don’t plagiarize: Simple and true, “stealing content” aka plagiarism, isn’t cool. Content marketing is all the rage these days, however, creating your own quality content is of the utmost importance. It’s A-okay to use other posts, websites, articles and studies as a source as reference in your own content, but they absolutely must be cited and attributed – no ifs, ands or buts about it. If you’re sharing third party content on social media, or in blog post, (even if you’re paraphrasing), the source must be cited, including a link. Not sure how to go about this correctly? Check out our post, Journalism 101 – What Bloggers Need to Know for all the details.

6. Don’t embellish: Whether it’s a promotion, a contest, the specifics of what your service or product can offer, or a reaction to a mistake, exaggerating or embellishing can be incredibly obvious to a large audience. In our Amy’s Baking Company example above, the Bouzaglos later tried to cover up their major social media meltdown by posting, “Obviously our Facebook, YELP, Twitter and Website have been hacked. We are working with the local authorities as well as the FBI computer crimes unit to ensure this does not happen again. We did not post those horrible things. Thank You Amy &Samy[.]” Lying to backpedal instead of apologizing and owning up to a mistake will only backfire. Honesty is the best policy.

Have a craving for more social media “what-not-to-dos”? Check out our post, Scary Social Media Faux Pas – Don’t Be That Guy. Have any other tips or scary faux pas that you’ve witnessed on social media lately? Spill it!

The post Top 6 Social Media No-Nos to Avoid appeared first on VR Marketing Blog.

Snag Interest with the Perfect Elevator Pitch

Skadeedle - Fri, 05/17/2013 - 08:15

“What does your company do?”

Whether you own your biz or just work at one, you’ve probably been asked this a bajillion times. It’s a simple question, but that doesn’t mean there’s a simple answer. In fact, this is an awesome opportunity to say something that’ll get that person interested in what you do, or your company – or, alternatively, slam the brakes on the conversation altogether. As a businessperson (or, let’s be honest, any person in a social situation), which would you prefer?

When it comes to your “elevator pitch,” there’s no one-size-fits-all response. Jabber on too much about what you do, and you risk coming off as self-centered or sales-y. Be boring, and you risk not giving the person enough details to ask a follow-up question. Use too many industry terms, and you might just get a deer-in-the-headlights stare.

The key is to know how to adapt your elevator pitch to the situation you’re in. Adjust it to the person who’s listening. Is he familiar with your industry? If there’s a strong chance he doesn’t know anything about your space, how do you explain it in terms that he can understand?

Answer the Initial Question

Take Joe, who works at an online marketing agency.

At a trade show among colleagues and peers, he might start his pitch with: “We work with Fortune 500 companies like ABC and XYZ to develop search engine marketing and display campaigns.”

Since most people at the show are familiar with industry terms and acronyms, Steve can afford to be a little more specific and technical.

But if he’s at a family barbecue and talking to Steve, his cousin who’s a dentist, he might answer: “We help companies with their online marketing, including getting their ads placed on search engines like Google – y’know, those ads that appear on the top and right side of the page when you search for something.”

Cousin Steve might not know the first thing about search engine marketing (SEM) or display advertising, but he probably uses Google. By calling out something that Steve is familiar with, Joe can then further explain what his company does without alienating or confusing his non-marketing cousin from the get-go.

Follow Up with Why You’re Cool

Once you’ve established what your company does, you can go into a little more detail about why it’s cool and how you’re different from your competitors. Again, how you explain it depends on how knowledgeable the person is about your industry.

At the trade show, our bud Joe might follow up with, “We drive more than $50 billion in revenue for our clients and we’ve got some of the best media management, attribution and ROI measurement technology around, all wrapped up in a single dashboard. Our clients love having an integrated solution.”

At the barbecue, Joe might take a more educational approach and say something like, “Say you’re doing a Google search for new dental equipment. If I have a client who sells dental equipment, I make sure that their ads appear after you type in your search, whether it’s on Google or on another website you go to.”

Crafting an Online Elevator Pitch

The same approach applies if you need to introduce your company to someone via email or social media. Keep it to just a few words; this is no time for an essay, especially when you’re communicating via a tweet or Facebook post. The key is to include a link to your company website; that way, they can hop on over if they want to learn more.

For example, Joe might write, “We’re an online marketing agency specializing in paid search and display advertising” or, even more simply, “We’re an online marketing agency with Fortune 500 clients.”

No one knows your biz better than you, but be careful not to over – or – underwhelm the person asking about it.

How will you use these tips to deliver an elevator pitch that’s memorable?

The post Snag Interest with the Perfect Elevator Pitch appeared first on Skadeedle.

The Dog Days of Skadeedle Style

Skadeedle - Thu, 05/16/2013 - 16:48

Today’s Skadeedle style features stylish pup, Chance Yehuda from Portland, OR. Chance enjoys organic doggie ice cream and loathes baths. This summer he hopes to work on his tan and stare at the neighbor’s fence.

Want to score some Skadeedle swag for yourself or your furry friend? Just join over 11,000 in-the-know businesses and get our Daily Scoop. Just sign up and we’ll enter you for a chance to get some cool Skadeedle swag.

The post The Dog Days of Skadeedle Style appeared first on Skadeedle.

Don’t Ever Do This on Social Media… A Story of Social Media Gone Very Wrong

Skadeedle - Thu, 05/16/2013 - 10:15

As business owners we’ve all had bad days. Really bad days… but no bad day you’ve had can compare to the epic meltdown that occurred with Amy’s Baking Company Bakery Boutique and Bistro on Facebook after recently appearing on the popular Gordon Ramsey show, Kitchen Nightmares. The couple, Amy and Samy Bouzaglo, of Scottsdale, AZ seem to have gone on a social media bender shortly after their episode aired taking to their Facebook page in a curse-word laden (not for the faint of heart and definitely R-rated) rant which ran the course of several hours.

As the hours went by, and more people fired back comments, the posts grew more and more angry and laced with four letter words.

From there the couple attempted to Photoshop a comment thread from Reddit claiming police were contacting commenters. Savvy users called them out on the fakery and ignited the couple into a fury. Today, only 24 hours after their social media meltdown they are claiming their Facebook, Yelp page and website were all hacked and have deleted all the posts. Then a new “clean” page was created with another post in the same angry, all-cap style. It only takes watching the episode to realize the posts on Facebook were in the same voice and tone.

So what lessons can we learn from this kerfuffle that go beyond the obvious – don’t use profanity and scream at your customers in social media? We’d inject a few tips to help keep your calm when sh*& hits the fan on social media:

Listen first. Respond second - Amy and Samy participated in a mud slinging back-and-forth unlike one we’ve ever seen outside of the Jerry Springer show. To avoid this, don’t immediately respond. Take a few moments to see what is being said and if it’s just a few people or many. Then calmly respond in a non-defensive and non-judgmental way. Social media is for building relationships, not alienating people. Amy and Samy kick people out of their restaurant and have fired over 100 servers, so they may have some issues with this one.

Be honest – Connie Moyle, PR Manager advises, “These days, no one cares or believes in ‘official statements’ full of corporate-speak and canned talking points. It’s all about the one-on-one communication that happens with those they trust, and you need to regain that trust. How? By letting them know 1) that you understand why they’re upset, and 2) what you’re doing to resolve the issue. If your company made a mistake, a heartfelt, straightforward apology can go a long way. Don’t over-promise, but do let them know what you’re doing to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

What other tips would you add to our list?

The post Don’t Ever Do This on Social Media… A Story of Social Media Gone Very Wrong appeared first on Skadeedle.

Use Social Media to Get More Customers for Your Biz

Skadeedle - Thu, 05/16/2013 - 08:15

Social media is a fantastic tool for generating leads and can be a great complement to a strong email marketing presence. Strategist Annetta Powell recently wrote an article on Business2community.com identifying best practices for generating leads through social media. Powell wrote, “In social media marketing, businesses try to send messages about their products to people and encourage them to share it with other people in their social circle. This way the message of the company is sent to a larger network of people on its own without the company having to do anything.”

“The driving force behind a social media marketing campaign is one customer’s recommendation to the other through word-of-mouth,” continued Powell, “This is the reason why the traffic coming to your website due to social media marketing is called earned traffic rather being called paid traffic.”

Powell separated social media into three different categories, each of which have different lead generating strategies:

Social Networks
Microblogging
Media Sharing

1. Social Networks

Powell described social networks as, “websites that allow people having similar interests or backgrounds to connect with each other and share photos, videos and other content. These networks are ideal for social media marketing campaigns as they provide the perfect space for the companies to interact with their targeted audiences.” Platforms such as a Facebook and Google+ would be prime examples of a social network. To generate leads on a social network, Powell suggests using content marketing to produce valuable content that viewers want to read, engage with and share. Each share acts as a free marketing service, allowing your marketing efforts to grow exponentially.

2. Microblogging

Microblogging sites are, “services that offer people the chance to share short and concise messages or updates with their followers. These websites are also vital for a social media marketing campaign as they offer you a chance to share news snippets about your new products and releases with your fans very quickly and easily.” Microblogging sites are a great way to increase your reach to find new leads interested in keeping up to date on news and trends about your business. The most popular microblogging site is Twitter.

3. Media Sharing

Media sharing social media sites focus primarily on sharing videos or pictures. Instagram and YouTube are the most popular examples of this format. Leads can be generated through media sharing channels by displaying video demos on YouTube, product illustrations on Instagram or any number of devices. Finding innovative ways to use these channels, like video blogging, is the best way to increase subscribers and get the biggest return on your investment.

Finally, social media is also starting to affect a company’s overall search rankings, which can have a big impact on lead generation. Powell explained, “Moreover, the search engines that are the main source of increasing traffic coming to a website have also started giving attention to social signals and rank those websites more highly that have a good social media presence. Effective social media marketing campaigns can get your website rank higher on the search engines and thus increase your lead generation.” You can learn more about social signals and search engine optimization in this guide from SEOMoz.

What are you doing to generate leads through social media?

The post Use Social Media to Get More Customers for Your Biz appeared first on Skadeedle.

Make Your Website Rock: 3 Cool Tools

VerticalResponse Marketing Blog - Thu, 05/16/2013 - 06:00

One of the core ingredients to any online business is a solid website. If you’ve been in business for very long, you may be able to relate to the fact that you’ll never, ever be done optimizing and improving your site. We’ll always be striving for more subscribers, better engagement, more useful content, better converting calls-to-action and so much more. Lucky for us, there are some really useful, and wait for it… FREE tools out there to help us on our quest.

Here’s a breakdown of three I’m really into right now:

1. LaunchRock

Launchrock is probably the quickest, easiest way to set up a website intended to start building an audience. The site builder is simple and intuitive–you describe your idea, upload a nice image and point your domain name to the site. Launchrock then provides a simple form asking potential customers to sign up to be notified of the pending launch of your product. In less than an hour, you can have a great site that helps you build a list of potential customers and prospects.

We’ve been working on a major change at VerticalResponse, and we’ve been using LaunchRock to collect e-mail addresses for folks that want to get the scoop, or be a part of a beta. We’re loving it.

Cost: Free with no limits to how many e-mail addresses you can collect.

2. FiveSecondTest

We regularly use tools like Optimizely to test our landing pages and homepage of our site, but when I discovered FiveSecondTest, I was intrigued. The site is a crowd sourced usability test for your home page, landing page, e-mail marketing, or your app. Here’s how it works:

You upload a screenshot or mockup of your page, app, etc.
You pre-load a few questions for testers to answer.
Then the fun begins. Testers have five seconds to view your image and must then answer the questions you have set.
FiveSecondTest collects all of the responses for you, extracts the frequent keywords and then presents the data with easy-to-understand graphs.

You can also participate by taking a minute to serve as a tester and get free testing points for doing it. It’s pretty eye-opening to see how sites are presented and just how much there is to digest in five short seconds. It can make you think about your own site through a different filter.

Cost: Free and paid options.

3. Conduit

Conduit enables you to create a mobile website and mobile apps in a snap. With so much web browsing being done on mobile devices, it’s a no brainer to get on the mobile site bus now, and thanks to the Conduit folks, you can do it by simply copying an auto-generated code into your regular site. Anyone who visits your site on a mobile device will be redirected to your mobile site–just like that. Conduit’s mobile app maker is equally as friendly with a nice selection of designs and templates, you can customize your app to complement your company look and feel and you’re good to go. Where was this when we built our mobile app?

Cost: Free and paid options.

Have any other cool website tools to add to my list? Share away in the comments, I’m always game to try something new!

This article by VerticalResponse CEO and founder Janine Popick originally appeared on Inc.com.

The post Make Your Website Rock: 3 Cool Tools appeared first on VR Marketing Blog.

Live from Google I/O 2013

Skadeedle - Wed, 05/15/2013 - 15:40

The 6th annual Google I/O conference for developers opened today in our hometown of San Francisco (immediately noticeable by the throngs wearing Google Glass). We sent Rob to scout out the scene and report from the trenches. Here are his live streaming notes…

It’s clear this is a different Google I/O than last year. There’s no major new hardware announcements, few major version upgrades and far less fanfare overall. No one skydived to Moscone Center or rode their BMX bike onstage, and the most exciting thing Larry Page did was answer questions.

But one thing is clear – this show is for developers. The biggest announcements were around enhancements to the Play Store and added functionality for game developers.

So far, I’ve been most impressed by Google voice recognition in Google Now and search, Google Play for Education and the enhancements to Chrome and Android for developers.

Google+

The Google+ photo enhancements are incredible. Upload your photos to Google+, and they’ll automatically enhance the photo’s contrast, color and more. They’ll combine photos to animate them or make them more “awesome”, and they’ll use their machine learning algorithms to identify the best pictures from the bunch by identifying attractive compositions, important places and the people most important to you.

Google Hotwords

Johanna Wright, VP Search & Assist, Mobile, showed off Google Hotwords. By asking a question as simple as “When does my flight leave?” Google was able to search her Gmail to find confirmation for a flight leaving soon, assumed that was it, looked up the schedule and told her the answer in seconds. She followed it up by asking for “seafood restaurants in Santa Cruz”. It showed her the restaurants on a map alongside their contact info, public ratings, Zagat ratings and reservation link.

Google Local

It has never been more important to get set up on Google Local. Go claim your Google+ business page now. You want to be part of this new world of search. Also, get your site’s search engine optimization in order. It’s going beyond keyword search into hot word search. More to come on that…

The resounding theme today is using technology to get out of the way to let people live their lives. Thanks Google!

Stay tuned for more of Rob’s experiences from Google I/O 2013. And, you can follow the conference live here.

The post Live from Google I/O 2013 appeared first on Skadeedle.

Facebook’s New Cover Photo Rules Equal Opportunity

Skadeedle - Wed, 05/15/2013 - 08:15

It’s been well over a year since Facebook rolled out Timeline in February 2012 and there have been quite a few announcements since then. The latest being Facebook’s new cover photo guidelines which for all effective purposes have been relaxed allowing businesses some new found opportunity in the land of Facebook marketing. This includes being able to use calls-to-action, websites and address info. So what can you do to maximize your timeline cover photo? Let’s look at a few real-life examples:

Opportunity = Calls-to-Action and Contests

Business Page: Pet Camp

A local San Francisco pet daycare and staycare, PetCamp is running a contest to find their Star Camper. They’ve promoted it on their website, in their email marketing and now they can utilize their timeline cover photo which you can see they’re doing to lead fans to the contest details. They also use a clear call-to-action to tell visitors to their Facebook page what they want them to do. In this example, “Star Camper Casting Call – Your camper could be here.” They also use a nice graphic arrow to draw your attention and intention to click on the cover photo and get the details.

Opportunity = Calls-to-Action and Contests

Business Page: Best Foods

Best Foods does a great job with their call-to-action to “Click Tab Below” to enter their contest with Mario Batali – who wouldn’t want to do that? As you can see on Best Foods page, you can view four apps at a time and click to view up to twelve at a time. According to Facebook, “You can choose which of your apps appear and adjust the order they appear in, with the exception of the photos view, which always appears first.”

Text to Image Rule – Watch Out for This

The biggest challenge for businesses may still lie in the rule that your cover photo may not include more than 20 percent text. We read comments from businesses having their photo declined by Facebook because it was a picture of a cake with writing on top so it was more than 20 percent text. This 20 percent rule applies to Facebook ads, as well. In an effort to help puzzled Page admins, Facebook created this resource to guide you though balancing the text in your images.

How will you use your business timeline cover photo to maximize your Facebook marketing opportunities? Share with us in the comments.

The post Facebook’s New Cover Photo Rules Equal Opportunity appeared first on Skadeedle.

Unlock Pro Tips to Creating a Successful Webinar

VerticalResponse Marketing Blog - Wed, 05/15/2013 - 06:00

Webinars are not only fun to host and conduct, but they’re also an excellent tool for generating leads and sales for your business. In fact, according to ClickMeeting.com, 77% of webinars are conducted specifically for lead generation (aka getting more customers). For some people, hosting a webinar may feel overwhelming (similar to those pesky, nervous public speaking feelings), but it doesn’t have to. We have lots of webinar experience here at VerticalResponse, and in this post, we’re unlocking our pro tips that’re sure to to make your first, or next webinar absolutely awesome.

image courtesy of ClickMeeting.com

Consider webinar content – The first thing you need to focus on when planning a webinar is your content, as it’s your most important aspect and something you should consider thoughtfully to ensure it’s appealing. Although this may seem challenging, you’d be surprised by what people are interested in learning. Think about what your attendees should know, or want to know about your business, products or service.  Here are some starting points to consider for your content:

What do people need to know in order to get started with your product or service?
What can you do to help people get past any obstacles they may have?
 What advice or tips can you offer?
What are some frequently asked questions?
Provide a demo of your services or programs.
Create awareness for your business or organization.

If you’ve never hosted a webinar, pick a topic you’re comfortable with, as it’ll help you feel confident about your presentation. Also, consider having live questions and answers at the end of your webinar. Your attendees will appreciate the chance to ask questions and have them answered right away. Questions add value to any topic you pick, plus, they give great insight into how people interact with your products or services. And, you can pick and choose the questions that will be most helpful to your attendees.

Create a presentation – For most webinars, you’ll need to create an interesting and compelling presentation. We use PowerPoint at VerticalResponse to create ours, but there are a variety of options including, Google Docs, Prezi and Sliderocket. Most tools have an array of styles for the slides.

You obviously want your webinar presentation to be visually appealing, but try not to overwhelm viewers with too many images. A good rule of thumb is to use one image per slide with text, two-three if you’re showing something specific or making a point. If your presentation offers images for slide backgrounds, use them sparingly.

Also, as tempting as it is may be to add a lot of details to a slide, don’t. Add a couple of lines of text or use bullets to make your points. Speak about a topic or slide as much as you need to, but adding more text to a slide makes it harder for viewers to concentrate – They get caught up in reading everything you’ve added to the slides and miss what you’re actually saying. Let the bullet points show your main speaking points and then you can elaborate as you need to.

After your presentation is complete, you’ll want to do a few practice runs so you know how it flows, what your viewers will see, and what points you’ll need to say. It also helps to get someone else to proofread for typos and any errors.

Get the party started – Before you’re ready to get the webinar party started, keep in mind how it’ll be perceived by your attendees. All the prep work you’ve done will be for nothing if they can’t hear or view what’s going on:

Log in early, (at least 15 minutes prior), to set up, trouble shoot any problems, and to let your attendees know you’re there.
Find a quiet place to conduct your webinar. You don’t have to set up a sound booth, but find somewhere that has little outside noise, or people who could interrupt or distract from your presentation.
Whether you use a microphone or phone, remember that every sound in the room will be picked up and become part of the webinar. So don’t rustle papers or do other loud things.
Ask questions or do a survey during your webinar. Many webinar programs have this feature built in so that your viewers can interact and give feedback live, and you can share the results on the screen automatically.
Have something to drink on hand; a glass of water, coffee, tea or even wine, whatever you prefer. Webinars are a talky business and you’ll want something to sip on to keep you hydrated.

Follow-up – Once you reach the end of your webinar, it’s not all over. Send out a follow-up email to close the circle. Some webinar hosting services will automatically send follow-up emails, which is handy, but you’ll want to edit the message to give it your own voice and include any important info including a link to the recorded version of the webinar, if there is one. You may want to create separate emails for attendees and non-attendees, offer different content and links and check your stats to see if you get different engagement.

Consider sending out a few emails to encourage sales from your customers, or help convert the leads you generated by hosting the webinar. If your webinar service doesn’t send out a follow up email, you can easily create one yourself (and VerticalResponse can certainly help you with that). Simply download a list of all attendees and registrants from the hosting service, then upload to your email service provider and send out a follow up.

Now that we’ve unlocked these 4 tips, your webinar will be a success! Knowing your topic and practicing your webinar beforehand will give you the confidence you need if you’re feeling a little nervous. And, if that doesn’t help, remember it’s just you in the room talking – You can’t see your audience, and they can’t see you, just pretend they aren’t even there and relax. For more webinar tips, check out our post, Be the Webinar Host with the Most.

Do you use webinars for your business? What tips would you add to this list?

The post Unlock Pro Tips to Creating a Successful Webinar appeared first on VR Marketing Blog.

Where to Find Kickin’ Online Images for Your Content

Skadeedle - Tue, 05/14/2013 - 08:15

We’ve been writing a lot lately about including video in your marketing content and it got us thinking about how important it is to have compelling images in your blog posts, on your website and in your social media posts to Facebook, Instagram and of course, Pinterest. Sure, most of us are armed with smartphone these days so an image is just a click away, but if you need a on-going source of professional quality images that you have the right to use, there are some great resources out there to take advantage of. Let’s dive in and cover four of our go-to sources for images:

iStockphoto.com – We create 8+ blog posts a week, plus guides and other useful content for our readers so we are always in need of good images. We’ve used iStockphoto for a while now. iStockphoto has been around since 2000 and according to their site, “All iStock files are royalty-free, which means you only have to pay once to use the file multiple times. We even offer a Legal Guarantee - our promise that content used within the terms of the license agreement will not infringe on any copyright, moral right, trademark or other intellectual property right, or violate any right of privacy or publicity.”

When purchasing images you can pick one of three choices: credits, subscription or corporate plan. When searching for images you can sort by category, price, image size, etc.

My one wish list for istockphoto is to carry more images that feature more casual office environments that suit (no pun intended) the modern workplace. It can be challenging to find images of people working without someone in a woven shirt and tie.

Getty Images- Getty is the grandaddy of online images having been around since 1995. They are known for being high-end and having superior quality images. Their site explains, “Our extensive image and stock illustration offering spans everything from conceptual rights-managed and royalty-free creative images to up-to-the-minute editorial coverage – including news, sport and celebrity photos – and timeless vintage photography.” They also offer video clips and original music tracks

Prices for images on Getty are determined by if they are royalty-free or rights-managed. The site states, “Prices for royalty-free licensing are based on size, and are available right when you select an image. Rights-managed licensing requires a few extra clicks to define usage specifications and establish pricing.”

Getty has such an extensive collection of images that they even have a search tips section of their site and a blog.

ThinkStock - We just signed up for ThinkStock which promises, “Access to millions of royalty-free images selected from Getty Images, iStockphoto and Jupiterimages.” They offer multiple purchasing options, and are are great for teams (like ours) that need many images on a daily basis.

When we signed up we selected their 1-year Pro Subscription which allows you 25 downloads a day. They also offer image packs and monthly subscriptions. We’ve loved being able to choose whatever image we want and not having to worry about pricing or blowing our budget. This seems to be a mission of ThinkStock’s as they say, “We want you to stop worrying about whether the images you love for your projects have the correct licence or worrying about making sure invoices get paid, or about tracking an image or staying within budget and on time.”

Fotolia – Fotolia has been around since 2005 and became the first worldwide microstock organization to offer both crowdsourced and professional images on one site. According to their site, “Our crowdsourced library includes millions of royalty-free images, vectors, illustrations and video footage clips. Buyers access over 22 million images, vectors and videos at great prices, while contributing artists receive the highest commission rate on the market. Fotolia’s trusted business platform and technology helps facilitate millions of downloads every year. All images offered on Fotolia are royalty-free, and can be used for any design project or document, with no time limits or restrictions on the number of printed copies.”

Fotolia has two purchasing options: Credits and subscription.

What other online image sources do you use for your content marketing efforts? Share away in the comments.

The post Where to Find Kickin’ Online Images for Your Content appeared first on Skadeedle.

Ecology Center of San Francisco Sustains the Environment with Email Marketing

Case Studies - Mon, 05/13/2013 - 12:43

Download PDF Background

Founded in 2006 by Davin Wentworth Thrasher, Tori Jacobs and Sam Hartman, the Ecology Center of San Francisco (ECO-SF) was developed to educate the community about ecological and sustainable ways of living on this planet. “We were college students learning about terrible problems and horrible things going on with the environment,” says Sam. “We weren’t content with learning about doom, so we said let’s do something about it!”

None of them came from a business background, but they wanted to start a non-profit to give back to the community and promote environmental education. They began by working with schools to grow gardens, and saw how successful their efforts were at unifying multigenerational communities that came together to help out. Word of mouth quickly spread and seven other schools in the area reached out to ECO-SF to create more gardens. Over time, they were able to get paid contracts setting up gardens, educational programs and natural building projects like cob benches and ovens made out of clay.

In addition to establishing and maintaining community- and school-based gardens and farms, ECO-SF offers workshops that cultivate sustainable living skills and practices, like natural building, organic gardening, raising chickens, soap making, solar cooking, gray water use, food preservation such as canning and fermentation, cheese making, and more.

Problem

Like all 501(c)3 organizations, budget is always an issue when considering marketing costs. As a small group, all the ECO-SF co-founders do a little bit of everything. Whenever they attended community events or hosted volunteer activities, they would use a sign-up sheet to acquire email addresses because staying connected with volunteers is extremely important. But, keeping their lists updated on an Excel spreadsheet proved to be tedious.

“Every time we had new emails, they were pretty much their own list,” says Sam. “We had different lists of 10 or 20 contacts. We labeled the different lists because there wasn’t an option to segment.”

Before long, they knew they needed to find a cost-effective email marketing system where they could keep track of their subscribers and communicate with their database of about 1,000 contacts at once.

Discovery

“We wanted to use an email marketer who’s involved with the community,” says Sam. “VerticalResponse is locally owned, locally run and exhibits social responsibility. Being owned by a woman is also a plus because it’s nice to have the female population represented in the corporate world.”

Supporting a local business was the main attraction for ECO-SF, but the extra perk was VerticalResponse’s non-profit email marketing discount. Non-profits receive 10,000 free email credits a month to communicate with their subscribers. They also receive a 15 percent discount on event, postcard and survey subscriptions, as well as a 50 percent discount on the social media marketing tool, which ECO-SF plans to use very soon.

“ECO-SF depends on email as their primary form of outreach, but we’re getting more involved with SF Funcheap and Facebook,” says Sam. An email marketing platform with social media sharing and tracking capabilities appealed to them for future marketing opportunities.

Solution

ECO-SF’s email newsletters feature sustainable energy topics or content related to the work they do on the farm. When ECO-SF first started email marketing, they were sending long newsletters with lots of content. They’ve since learned to scale back a bit on their content so that recipients could read their emails from beginning to end more quickly and easily. The tactic worked; their open rate now averages 20 percent.

The organization quickly found that using VerticalResponse saves time and is easy even for those without a lot of technical or HTML expertise.

“Sending emails without an email marketing program was pretty impossible,” says Sam. “We use VerticalResponse to send newsletters and event invitations. People love that stuff! We get a lot of great responses from people saying it was informational and they love that we put a bunch of links to other Web resources, our website and Facebook page in the body of the email.”

These days, ECO-SF is able to effectively communicate with their network of volunteers and schools, while being able to spend most of their time doing what they love: creating communities that are ecologically, socially and culturally diverse, and in balance.

UP CLOSE & PERSONAL

Biggest challenge being a small business owner:
It takes a lot of organization and learning about what it means to run a business: accounting, marketing and keeping up with connections. That was hard because none of us came from a business background and we had to teach ourselves with the few resources we had.

Biggest lesson you’ve learned as a small business owner:
A little bit of planning up-front makes a lot of difference down the road. It takes a lot of organization to grow a financially sustainable business. But, if you have a vision and the determination to go into the unknown, then you can go a lot of places. We’ve been able to build something and have come a long way.

What do you like best about your work? What keeps you going?
It’s amazing to see what we’ve been able to work on and put together. Even though we may not be that big or have a lot of funding, we’re still positioned as one of just a handful of organizations in the Bay Area that does this kind of work. You can do a whole lot with people power. We’re located at a beautiful space at the base of Twin Peaks. We offer a productive model for growing food locally and learning through hands-on education, and our headquarters offer a great demonstration and workshop space. Design/build services, workshops and school tours are available for booking on our website at http://www.eco-sf.org/home.

Category: Email Marketing Case Studies

VerticalResponse Presents Two Marketing Workshops During San Francisco Small Business Week, May 15, 2013

Press Releases - Mon, 05/13/2013 - 11:23

Free Classes Help Entrepreneurs Get Up and Running With Email and Social Media

SAN FRANCISCO – May 13, 2013 – VerticalResponse, a leading provider of self-service marketing tools for small businesses and non-profits including email marketing, social media marketing and online event marketing, presents two free email marketing and social media educational workshops during San Francisco Small Business Week.

San Francisco Small Business Week, held May 13-18 this year, honors the vital contributions that more than 85,000 local small businesses have made to the city and their communities. VerticalResponse, which was launched in San Francisco in 2001 and is currently headquartered downtown, has been a proud sponsor of San Francisco Small Business Week for several years.

As part of Small Business Week, VerticalResponse will offer the following free workshops:

May 15, 9 a.m.: “Get Started With Email Marketing in the Social Age”: Get the basics on how to unite your social media and email marketing efforts. Topics include email marketing best practices; a basic overview of social media; how to integrate email marketing with social media; and ideas to get started immediately. Location: San Francisco State University’s Downtown Campus, 835 Market St., San Francisco, 94103. Cost: Free.
May 15, 3:20 p.m.: “Create a Quick and Easy Marketing Plan Using Email and Social Media”: Learn actionable email marketing and social media tactics that nearly any small business, regardless of level of marketing or tech knowledge, can implement immediately. Topics include how to use the content you already have; increase reach on Twitter and Facebook; build email, Twitter and Facebook lists through cross-promotion; determine which metrics matter for your business; and free/low-cost tools to measure engagement and growth. Location: San Francisco State University’s Downtown Campus, 835 Market St., San Francisco, 94103. Cost: Free.

Jill Bastian, training and education manager at VerticalResponse, will lead both workshops. Jill has spent the last eight years at VerticalResponse arming small businesses and non-profits with the knowledge and confidence to succeed with online marketing.

“Small Business Week here in San Francisco is always a special time because we get to celebrate and connect with thousands of local entrepreneurs who make this city such an awesome place to call home,” said Janine Popick, CEO/founder, VerticalResponse. “With the workshops, we’re excited to show busy small businesses just how powerful email marketing and social media can be.”

Both workshops are free and open to the public; however, space is limited. For more information and to register, visit http://sanfranciscosmallbusinesswe2013.sched.org/speaker/jillbastian.

About VerticalResponse

VerticalResponse Inc. provides a full suite of self-service marketing solutions for small businesses including email marketing, social media marketing, event marketing, direct mail marketing and online surveys. Its mission is to empower small businesses and non-profit organizations to easily and affordably create, manage and analyze their own marketing campaigns. Users can benefit from a wide variety of features including more than 700 free email marketing templates; tools to create, schedule and publish content over social media networks; and robust reporting so that they can understand overall marketing success. VerticalResponse is headquartered in San Francisco, Calif. For more information visit www.verticalresponse.com, and connect on Twitter at @VR4SmallBiz and Facebook at www.facebook.com/verticalresponse.

Category: Press Releases

Write Headlines that Grab Attention

Skadeedle - Mon, 05/13/2013 - 08:15

Headlines are written with a purpose. To grab reader’s attention and draw them in for more. If you’re reading this, then the headline of this post did its job. Headlines have a profound ability to draw visitors in to read more, or the do the opposite… drive them away.

Think about this; on average, 8 out of 10 people will read headline copy, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest of the text on a page. This is why headlines are so vital to the success of your website, blog posts and email and social media marketing.

Our friends at Boostsuite wrote this helpful post to demonstrate how to write, format, test and measure headlines to get more new customers for your business:

How to Write Effective Headlines
First of all, you need to spend some time thinking about your headline. Don’t just blurt out the first thing that comes to mind. That’s never a good idea. Consider the 50/50 Rule of Headlines: you should spend half of the time it takes to write a piece of persuasive content on the headline.

Jot down a couple variations. Think about what you’re trying to tell your readers. What do they want to hear about? What’s trending in your industry right now? How can you draw them in to read the rest of your content and get them to perform the desired action? The key is providing the reader with a reward for reading your body copy. Don’t just sell, sell, sell. You’re writing for people, not machines.

The copywriting experts at American Writers & Artists share the Four U’s approach to writing headlines:

Headlines, subheads and bullets should:
1. Be USEFUL to the reader,
2. Provide a sense of URGENCY,
3. Convey the idea that the main benefit is UNIQUE; and
4. Do all of the above in an ULTRA-SPECIFIC way.

How to Format Your Headlines
Your headline should include keywords relevant to the content in the body. Let’s look at a few examples of headlines. Let’s say you’re a craft beer store owner and you’re writing an article about a new, exclusive beer you have on tap, Rare Beer #5. Your goal is to get people to register for a tasting event by filling out a simple registration form.

Your headlines might look something like this:
1. Direct Headline – “Rare Beer #5 Tasting Event – Register Now”
2. Indirect Headline – “You’ve Been Waiting All Year For This”
3. News Headline – “Introducing Rare Beer #5 Tasting Event”
4. Question Headline – “Are You Ready To Experience The Wonders of Rare Beer #5?”
5. Command Headline – “Register Today to Try Rare Beer #5″
6. Reason Why Headline – “10 Reasons Why You Need To Taste Rare Beer #5″
7. Testimonial Headline (if you can get one) – “‘You Need To Taste Rare Beer #5′ says Alton Brown”

As you can see in the examples above, we’ve included action verbs, keywords, and questions to follow the 4 U’s. These headline variations will pique the interest of readers and urge them to read more.

Test Your Headlines

Now that you have multiple headline variations, you have a decision to make. Do you simply choose one headline, blindly post it, and call it a day? No! You need to test each of these headlines and see which one(s) are most effective at driving your end goal.

Measure Headline Effectiveness

The purpose of writing, formatting, and testing headlines is to achieve a specific end goal. Think to yourself when you go to write your next article or email newsletter, “What is the end goal of this piece of content?” Do I want people to read, comment, and share it via social media? Do I want them to register for an event like in our example? Do I want them to sign up for my newsletter? Do I want them to fill out a lead form? Do I want them to purchase something from my online store?

Think about crafting your headlines to grab attention and accomplish goals. You may be surprised at how your headlines change when you begin creating them with this sense of purpose.

How will you use these tips to create more compelling headlines for your business? Share in the comments.

Source: Boostsuite

The post Write Headlines that Grab Attention appeared first on Skadeedle.

Don’t Waste Your Dough! 5 Secrets to Maximizing Google AdWords

VerticalResponse Marketing Blog - Mon, 05/13/2013 - 06:00

Did you know that when managing your Google Adwords pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, it’s pretty easy to waste big bucks without even knowing it? That dough down the drain could be put to good use, especially for a small business. So what’s the secret to eliminating this wasted spend? Being as efficient as possible is key to getting the most bang for your PPC bucks, so we’ve spilled the beans in the 5 top areas to maximize that’ll get your dollars to deliver:

Choosing the Right Keywords

When selecting keyword or phrases, adding any word or phrase that’s relevant to your business may sound like a good idea. Wouldn’t you want to receive the most traffic possible to your site? In theory, yes, but none of us have an infinite amount of marketing dollars to spend. Keyword selection is a critical process that requires you to look at the keywords that will ultimately result in sales, or conversions. By focusing on keywords that are too general, or broad can result in increased PPC costs.

For example, using keywords that are too general may target potential customers who aren’t ready to buy yet. Say you’re a small car dealership bidding on a keyword like, “used car information.” Although the phrase is relevant, it may actually target people who’re still in the “research or information” stage, while a customer searching for “used Hondas for sale,” is closer to a buying stage than just searching for information. When you focus on keywords that target users at the right stage, you should have a greater return on investment on your PPC campaigns.

Understanding and Using Match Types

Not fully understanding or using targeted match types, can cause you to waste money by inadvertently targeting irrelevant search queries, and may cause you to pay more than you need to for certain keywords. In short, each match type gives you more granularity into targeting.

Broad Match – Broach match is called “broad” for a reason. Broad match allows your ad to show for searches on similar phrases and variations. This includes misspellings, synonyms, and other relevant variations. For example, if you were to bid on “running shoes” on a broad match, you’ll also show up for results for “running sneakers,” which is generally a good thing. The problem lies in that you would also show up for “running shoe cleaner.” If you don’t sell shoe cleaner, this would be an example of a phrase that could be wasting your money. If you were to bid on “green sneakers” and “green shoes” separately on an exact match instead, you could actually end up paying a less expensive CPC (cost-per-click) for each of those keywords, as well as limit the amount of irrelevant traffic.

Phrase Match – Phrase match will show your ads only for searches that include the exact keyword phrase you’ve selected, as well as some close variations. If we use the same example, “running shoes” but in a phrase match, your ad would also show for “cheap running shoes” because that phrase is contained within the search. If the search was for “running orthopedic shoes” your ad wouldn’t show.

Exact Match – Exact match allows you to show only for searches that match exactly the keyword or phrase you’re bidding on. Using the same example, your ad would show only when “running shoes” is the search. This limits the amount of traffic, but is also the most targeted and is generally less expensive than bidding on broad and phrase matches.

Negative keywords

Negative keywords are a great way to reduce the amount of unqualified traffic. By automatically ruling out words like “jobs, contacts, etc.” it’ll cut down on people who aren’t looking to make a purchase. Ruling out words that may be used in conjunction with your keyword, but aren’t relevant to your offering are also good keywords to add as negative keywords. Combined with proper match types and keyword choices; this can really help maximize your PPC spend.

Geo/Day/Device Targeting

Google Adwords allows you to target and segment your target audience in multiple ways including, Geographical, Day, and Device Targeting. Geographical targeting allows you to target specific locations, regions, cities, states, countries, etc. Device targeting allows you focus more on specific devices, which may be worth more to your business. Lastly, Day Parting allows you to adjust keyword bids between different days or hours of the days in order to spend your marketing dollars when you are most profitable. For a more in- depth look at these targeting options, check out our previous blog post, 5 Google Adwords Tips for a Small Budget. Also, with Google Adwords newest changes around Enhanced Campaigns, maximizing these different targeting options will be even easier.

Making Good Use of Google Reporting

Google Adwords offers a variety of insightful reports to help you determine where problems may lie in your account and provide you with valuable information into where efficiencies can be made. For example, a Search Terms Report provides you with a list of all the search queries that resulted in your ad being shown. This report is helpful determining irrelevant keywords as well as opportunities for new keywords. After you determine which keywords or phrases you do and don’t want triggering your ads, you can add them as new or negative keywords.

Another essential report is the Campaign Report. This report can be sliced and diced in different ways and can provide great insight into where you should be focusing your PPC efforts. If you break it down by day or hour of the day, it can help you to determine when most of your conversions are occurring so that you can shift your budget to those most profitable times. If you look at it on a geographical basis, you can see where most of your conversions are coming from and exclude certain areas that aren’t your target audience or simply don’t perform well. These are only a few of the many reports Google Adwords offers.

By maximizing these five areas, you can make the most of your PPC mula. Pay-Per-Click PC world also offers more insight into other PPC mistakes you might be making.

How will you use these tips to make the most of your marketing bucks? Share away?

The post Don’t Waste Your Dough! 5 Secrets to Maximizing Google AdWords appeared first on VR Marketing Blog.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Skadeedle - Sun, 05/12/2013 - 08:00

To all the moms out there we wish you a very happy and relaxing Mother’s Day!

We also love this feel-good video from the folks at Google paying tribute to moms everywhere! Enjoy.

The post Happy Mother’s Day! appeared first on Skadeedle.

Yikes! When Mistakes Happen in Your Email Marketing…

Skadeedle - Fri, 05/10/2013 - 08:15

Mistakes happen. We’ve all been there, we’re only human right? When it comes to email marketing everyone, including the big guys, has a slip up every now and then. When this happens don’t panic!

Here are 4 steps to help your biz minimize the damage of an email mistake:

1. Assess – Before you do anything take a moment to see what the impact of the email mistake is. Ask yourself these questions before you act:

How many people received the email? What is the open/click-through rate? - It’s possible that you caught the error early and can send out a follow-up with minimal impact.

How big is the mistake? And how will it impact your business? – A minor typo, misspelling or coding error probably won’t impact you much, other than some embarrassment and a few people pointing out the error. In this case, sending out a follow-up could irritate your readers. On the other hand, a pricing error or the wrong date for an event could have a major impact on your biz so sending out a follow-up email is a must.

2. Response – Once you’ve assessed the situation it’s time to figure out how to respond.
Keep these tips in mind if you need to send a follow-up email:

Be Quick – A quick follow-up can catch people before they see the first email
Be Clear – Subject/pre-header should be clear about the purpose
Apologize – Own up to the mistake, say you’re sorry for any error
Voice – Use an appropriate voice in the apology, but humor can be good thing, if applicable
Use Social Media – Consider acknowledging the error on social media to be transparent and help alleviate customer support issues.

You can also try to correct the email mistake, depending on where it occured in your email. If you’ve made an error in the subject line, in a link or in the content, these tips can help you correct it, even if you’ve already sent the email.

Subject Line – In follow-ups use the words Correction, Oops, or We Apologize in the subject line so your recipients know why they received another email. Also think about using the pre-header for the correction information
Link – Links can often be corrected if you use an ESP (email service provider). If you have a URL spelled incorrectly in the copy, it can’t be changed, but the underlying link can. Then those who click will go to the right page. Since your reporting will tell you how many clicks you have, and which links were clicked, consider mailing only to those who clicked the bad link, rather than your whole list.
Content – Images can be refreshed in most ESPs. If you’ve made a typo, or the mistake is not business impacting, you may be able to let sleeping dogs lie. If you’ve mailed to the wrong list, or have the wrong offer in the email, send an apology email with the correct info like in the example below from stella&dot.
Stella & Dot’s awesome email correction.

3. Measure the Impact – Once you’ve mapped out your plan and taken action, or not, check out how things went. The reporting from your emails will give you insight into how your readers responded to the mistake:

Track your opens and clicks – Do you have a normal open rate for your emails? Did it change due to the error? Oops emails can often receive very high open rates.
Check the unsubscribe rate – Hopefully everything you’ve done has kept it low, but keep an eye on it.
Compare original and follow-up emails and see how the stats compare.

4. The Future – How can you avoid this in the future? Proofread, proofread, proofread. If you’re the only one looking at your emails, enlist help from someone else. Always send a test email and most importantly, look at it. Read it to make sure the copy makes sense, that you see the right images, and click all your links.
Try some of these content tactics:

Use auto-correct and spell check to discover grammar issues, but nothing beats a good old fashion proofread
Print out your emails and check for errors
Read each word out loud
For more ideas, check out Grammar Girls’ 10 Tips to Banish Typos

Everyone makes mistakes; the important thing is to learn from them. And you never know, a typo could be a boon to your biz! As Joan Collins once said “Show me a person who has never made a mistake and I’ll show you someone who has never achieved much.”

Have you accidentally sent out an email with a mistake? What did you do to fix it?

The post Yikes! When Mistakes Happen in Your Email Marketing… appeared first on Skadeedle.

Do You Know Your Target Market? How to Find Out…

VerticalResponse Marketing Blog - Fri, 05/10/2013 - 06:00

Do you know who your target market is? We mean, really know? And, we’re not talking about, “I sell dresses, so my target market is women.” We mean, “I own a dress shop on Sacramento Street, my customers are female, ages 35-45, live in a 10 block radius and make more than $45,000 per year.”

When you first started your business, you may not have spelled out your target market in much detail, but spending some time to hone in on it now could reap some major benefits for your business. Knowing your target market allows you to spend your marketing time and resources more effectively. You might also discover potential new customers you hadn’t considered before.

So, how do you figure out who your target market is? Here are a few things to think about:

Getting to Know You

You not only need a solid understanding of your customers and their needs and desires, but you also need to know yourself pretty well too. What products or services do you offer? How do they benefit your customers? Do they benefit different customers in different ways?

Let’s say you’re a tax accountant who offers tax preparation services. The benefit seems pretty obvious – Customers don’t have to do taxes themselves (phew!). But think a little deeper. Are your services more suited to high-income people with complex tax situations who want to avoid an audit, busy people who could do their own taxes but are willing to pay to have you take care of it, or someone who needs tax planning help? Once you know who your target is, you laser focus your marketing efforts to the folks who are most likely to buy your product or service.

Here are some helpful tools and resources that’ll help you determine who your target market is:

U.S. Census Bureau has a plethora of information by state, city, age, business, geographic and much more. They’ve also got data from the 2012 Economic Census, which is the U.S. Government’s official five-year measure of American business and the economy.

Google Analytics provides a depth of knowledge about who’s visiting your website, how they got there (by keyword, referring site, etc), how much time they spend and so much more.

Facebook Insights - If you’ve got a Facebook Page for your business and it has over 30 Likes, you can access Facebook Insights. Insights provides data about who’s interacting with your Facebook Page including total page Likes, or number of fans, daily active users, new Likes/Unlikes, Like sources, demographics, page views and unique page views, tab views, external referrers, media consumption. Mashable offers a great Beginner’s Guide to Facebook Insights here.

Surveys – Asking your customers a few simple questions via a survey can uncover some really valuable information that’ll help you hone in on who your customers are and their overall satisfaction. You can also learn about other services or products customers want.

Think Outside the Box

Defining your target market isn’t all about whittling it down to very specific groups; you may actually find your market is larger than you thought (That’s opportunity knocking!)

Ask yourself these questions:

Does my product have other uses?
Maybe you sell organic shampoo. Can it also be used as body wash or laundry detergent? Is it particularly good for babies or those with sensitive skin?
Can I create new products or services my current customers would buy?
If I run a yoga studio, would my customers also be interested in other types of exercise classes?
Are there services I can offer along with my product?
Customers of a plant nursery may need landscape design help. What other services are they getting elsewhere that you can provide?

Find a Common Thread

Is there something many of your current customers have in common? By determining a few characteristics many of them share, you can target similar people.

This is an especially useful strategy for non-profits seeking donations. Who are your current donors? Do they have similar jobs, hobbies or interests? An organization raising money for the environment may find it has a number of donors who are teachers that participate in outdoor sports or lawyers who drive hybrid vehicles. If you can identify some common traits, you can target similar people.

Remember the Obvious

This may go without saying, but we’re going say it anyway… How did you get your current customers? Did they find you? How? Yellow page ad? Word of mouth? Website? Did you find them through an event or trade show? Do you convert more people with a special offer or free sample? Figure out what works for you, and keep refining your tactics.

So there you have it, a few things to think about to expand your target market. How do you identify your target market?

The post Do You Know Your Target Market? How to Find Out… appeared first on VR Marketing Blog.

YouTube Announces Paid Channels

Skadeedle - Thu, 05/09/2013 - 15:07

YouTube announced that starting today, the company is introducing paid channels for more flexibility in monetizing and distributing content. According to the YouTube blog, “ We’re launching a pilot program for a small group of partners that will offer paid channels on YouTube with subscription fees starting at $0.99 per month. Every channel has a 14-day free trial, and many offer discounted yearly rates.”

Examples of the paid programming include: Sesame Street who will offer full episodes on their paid channel. And UFC will offer classic fights from their new channel. You can get a listing here of the pilot channels.

Image courtesy of YouTube blog

The blog goes on to explain, ”We’ll be rolling paid channels out more broadly in the coming weeks as a self-service feature for qualifying partners. And as new channels appear, we’ll be making sure you can discover them, just as we’ve been helping you find and subscribe to all the channels you love across YouTube.” And “once you subscribe from a computer, you’ll be able to watch paid channels on your computer, phone, tablet and TV, and soon you’ll be able to subscribe to them from more devices.”

If you are interested in creating your own paid channel you can get more information from YouTube here.

Will you watch paid channels on YouTube or create your own? Share in the comments.

The post YouTube Announces Paid Channels appeared first on Skadeedle.

VerticalResponse Named Finalist in 2013 American Business Awards

Press Releases - Thu, 05/09/2013 - 12:37

VerticalResponse Advances in 8 Categories, Including Company of the Year

SAN FRANCISCO – May 9, 2013 – VerticalResponse, a leading provider of self-service marketing tools for small businesses and non-profits including email marketing software, social media marketing and online event marketing, was named a finalist in eight categories in the 2013 American Business Awards, and will ultimately be a gold, silver or bronze Stevie Award winner in the program.

The American Business Awards are the nation’s premier business awards program. More than 3,200 nominations from organizations of all sizes were submitted this year for consideration.

The American Business Awards will be presented at two awards events: the ABA's traditional banquet on Monday, June 17, in Chicago for the first time after 10 years in New York; and the new product and technology awards event on Monday, September 16, in San Francisco.

VerticalResponse is a finalist in the following eight categories:

Company of the Year (Advertising, Marketing & Public Relations)
Company of the Year (Internet/New Media)
Executive of the Year (Advertising, Marketing & Public Relations) – David Shiba, Chief Operating Officer
Executive of the Year (Internet/New Media) – David Shiba, Chief Operating Officer
New Product or Service of the Year (Software, Marketing/Public Relations Solution) – InstaEmail Email Template Machine
Customer Service Department of the Year
Communications or PR Campaign of the Year (Under $10,000) – Next Teen Tycoon Video Contest
Best Writing/Content – VerticalResponse Marketing Blog

“We couldn’t have done this without our amazing teams who come to work every day with a genuine desire to help our small business and non-profit customers succeed,” said Janine Popick, VerticalResponse CEO/founder. “I’m incredibly proud of every single person at VerticalResponse and can’t wait to accomplish even more great things together.”

Finalists were chosen by more than 140 business professionals nationwide during preliminary judging in April and May. More than 150 members of nine specialized judging committees will determine Stevie Award placements from among the finalists during final judging, to take place May 13-24.

Details about The American Business Awards and the list of finalists in all categories are available at www.StevieAwards.com/ABA.

About VerticalResponse

About The Stevie Awards

Stevie Awards are conferred in four programs: The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. A fifth program, the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, will debut this year. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at www.StevieAwards.com.

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Category: Press Releases

Two Alternatives to Google Reader

Skadeedle - Thu, 05/09/2013 - 08:42

The collective groans heard around the office along with sighs of “this sucks” to the news that Google Reader is being retired on July 1, led us to search for a few alternatives that may make Reader a distant memory.

image courtesy of Google

Topping our list as the contender most likely to take Google Reader’s place is Feedly, which is growing in popularity by the minute. Feedly’s blog announces that over 3 million people have already made the switch from Google Reader. According to Lifehacker, “ They’re building a new syncing engine so Feedly users can seamlessly continue using the service long after Google Reader turns off the lights.” Stay tuned for that.

Lifehacker goes on to report, “In addition to having a rich news suggestion algorithm that makes it easy to surface articles that you’ll find interesting, it’s a rich social tool that lets you share stories with your friends and post them to your favorite social networks. Saving stories for future reading is easy, and Feedly offers layout choices that let you read the news in the manner you choose—whether it’s straight headlines from top to bottom, full articles, neatly arranged tiles, or pretty images all laid out on a page. Best of all, Feedly has said that while right now they connect to Google Reader and sync with it.”

Many of the Skadeedle crew have already made the switch and dig Feedly’s iPhone app, the integration with Buffer and the sharing functionality.

Next in line is Flipboard. Flipboard collects the content of social media and other sites and presents it in magazine format and allows users to “flip” through their social-networking feeds and feeds from websites that have partnered with the company. Its slick format has attracted people in droves to the tune of over 56 million users! Flipboard offers an informative basics guide to anyone new to using it here. There’s also a helpful overview video on YouTube here to learn more about it.

What other Google Reader alternatives would you add to this list? Share in the comments.

The post Two Alternatives to Google Reader appeared first on Skadeedle.

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Don’t Ever Do This on Social Media… A Story of Social Media Gone Very Wrong

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Unlock Pro Tips to Creating a Successful Webinar

Where to Find Kickin’ Online Images for Your Content

Ecology Center of San Francisco Sustains the Environment with Email Marketing

VerticalResponse Presents Two Marketing Workshops During San Francisco Small Business Week, May 15, 2013

Write Headlines that Grab Attention

Don’t Waste Your Dough! 5 Secrets to Maximizing Google AdWords

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