Executive Suite: What Is Internet Marketing?

Business people today are overwhelmed by articles, webinars, books, solicitations and just general hype about the Internet. They are awash in information, swimming in an infinite sea. The difficult part of all this is determining how the Internet can become a marketing channel to be used for our business.

We all have two choices here: We can pull the covers over our heads and stay in the 20th Century, or we can exploit this fantastic new medium to improve our businesses.

If you are still reading you are interested in the second choice so, "What does it all mean?"

The process is complex but we will begin with a few fundamental elements. They are fairly simple to outline. Once you understand them you can start building your impact.

Goal

First, and above all, keep the goal in focus. It is to present attractively on the Internet so your company can be found easily and draw customers and prospects.

This is important for two reasons.

Customers will visit your website to get information about your company before they will call with a question. The basic information about location, products, service area, specialties, testimonials, geographic location and contact information is critical content for your website.

The Internet is the best place for potential new customers to find your business. So, creating a web presence that allows your company to be readily found when prospects are looking for new sources is critical to your success.

For services like printing that must have a reputation for service and quality, the Internet is the best place to tell your story and motivate people to choose your company. It can also help you retain existing customers.

Five Elements

There are five important elements in developing and maintaining a competitive Internet presence and they are: Take a good look at these and if you used the Internet, you can begin by grading yourself on this criteria.

Website

Establish credibility with high quality professional design. Catch attention.

Capture more leads with effective website landing pages. Landing pages are huge.

Search

Attract the best prospects using targeted paid online advertising.

Increase traffic by implementing a high quality search engine optimization program.

Social Media

Use social media sources that make sense for your business.

Ensure you are getting the right exposure with proven online reputation tactics.

Mobile Contact

Send a message to your customers when they are on the move and ready to act.

Stay connected with customers on tablets and smart phones with mobile friendly designs.

Freshness

Add new information to your website, blog and social sites to build your reputation as an expert in your field. Just adding the information will strengthen your image as an authority.

The printing industry runs mostly on quality, service, and reputation. That is all we have to sell. Tout your quality and service, and establish a reputation—an identity, one that differentiates you positively from the rest of the pack.

The Internet offers a perfect venue to tell your story and differentiate your business from competitors. Make that story attractive and compelling. Let the world know what you are all about, you're your mission is and how you are succeeding in living up to it.

When you Implement the above items, you can you can control your marketing message by telling your own story, not letting your competitors do that for you. You build your brand---your unique identity. People know who you are. Most important, you are attracting the prospects that are best suited to your specialty products and services.

Source: Executive Suite: What Is Internet Marketing?

Untangling Inbound: what should you look for an inbound marketing agency?

By Stuart Thomas: Senior Reporter on 31 August, 2015

Untangling Inbound is a four part series exploring the basics of inbound marketing. In this, the first article in the series, we explore what you need to know when looking for an inbound marketing agency.

Stuart Thomas joined the Burn Media team in 2011 while finishing off an MA in South African Literature. Eager to prove his geek credentials, he allowed himself... More

Most of us have a handle on how advertising in the conventional sense works. After all, we're bombarded by ads across a variety of media on a daily basis. That kind of advertising's great for letting people know you exist, but what happens when they want to find you? And how do you attract the kind of lucrative business that dealing with other businesses can bring?

That's where the inbound marketing agency comes in. Their job is to help potential customers find your business and, once that's done, turn that early awareness into brand preference and, ideally, revenue.

Those agencies generate, capture, and convert leads by bringing a number of digital channels — including SEO, blogging, email — together and working them in unison.

It's a form of marketing that's importance has only grown with the rise of digital, but what exactly should you be looking for in an inbound marketing agency?

Know what you need

First off, think about what aspects you might need an inbound marketing agency to take care of. Can you handle your own blogging? Or is your in-house community manager completely swamped? Do you have the time and resources to train someone up on SEO? And even if you do, will they have the necessary skills and time to close the leads they generate?

How you answer those questions will go a long way to helping you choose the right inbound marketing agency. In essence, what you're looking for is an agency that has the skills you need rather than one with the broadest possible offering.

Don't be fooled by BS promises

Once you've identified what you need, and the agencies that provide those services, you need to examine how they promise to deliver on them.

If all an agency promises to do is grow your company's Facebook Likes, Twitter follower numbers, and website visits, they're not doing inbound properly. Remember, an inbound marketing agency's job is to generate and deliver leads for you. Those are the metrics it should be measuring.

Before you even consider bringing an inbound agency on, ask how it measures those metrics, how frequently it measures them and how it would relay those measurements to your company. A good inbound marketing agency will be able to tell you what's working and help you repeat those successes.

Even more importantly, they need to give you a realistic idea of what they can do with the budget you've set out. In order to do that, they have to really know you and know your business. A good inbound marketing agency won't just throw a quote at you, it'll take it's time, probe, and help you figure out what you really need.

Proof perfect

Before you even get to that stage though, take a look the agency's portfolio. It should be able to back up its promises with case studies and testimonials and also show it's helped other customers with similar needs to your own in the past.

Don't just take those case studies at face value either. Take the time to call some of the agency's other clients. If they're happy with the service they're getting and talk about the business that's come in since signing with the inbound marketing agency, then you're on to a winner.

Individuality, within bounds

All of the above suggests that the hallmark of a good inbound marketing agency lies in its ability to tailor its products to individual needs. That said, there are a few things that every good inbound agency has in common. According to Hubspot, there are four factors in particular you should look out for:

The first core service of inbound marketing is an agency's ability to generate traffic to a website through SEO, blogging and social media sharing.

Second, agencies should be able to tell their clients they can develop the premium content needed to capitalize on that traffic by building landing pages and managing online lead generation efforts.

Third, agencies need to be able to construct targeted lead-nurturing campaigns aimed at converting those leads into customers.

Finally, in order to iterate and improve, analysis and measurement needs to be present at every step in the process.

Untangling Inbound is brought to you by Incite New Business. Over the last decade, Incite has delivered tens of thousands of real new business opportunities that its clients have converted and made many millions of rands in revenue.

Source: Untangling Inbound: what should you look for an inbound marketing agency?

Twitter close to hire chief marketing officer and has a TV commercial planned

By Lara O'Reilly

Twitter's CFO Anthony Noto has been in charge of the company's marketing for the past three months or so. But that's about to change.

In a detailed interview with AdAge, Noto reveals that the company - which still hasn't made an announcement about a permanent CEO, following the departure of Dick Costolo at the start of July - is close to hiring a chief marketing officer.

Candidates the company has met so far have come from industries including tech, CPG, and media.

Noto says Twitter is looking for "a proven leader," someone who is "really grounded in marketing strategy," someone who has taken a situation similar to Twitter's and used marketing to drive business results, and preferably someone who has worked for a global, digital, "quantitative-driven" company.

Many of the people Twitter has spoken to so far think the job is a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Noto said.

He didn't let on about a timeline for when an announcement will be made, but Noto said his "hope" is they will be on board when the company is in the "development phase and the creation phase" for a big marketing campaign penned for later this year.

Noto said the campaign will run across television and through to digital video. There will be a few different pieces of creative. At least one element will apply to Twitter's upcoming live events feature "Project Lightning." Some parts will rely on "direct-response" methods that encourage people to click through to the platform, while others will be more brand-focused.

Ultimately, Twitter wants its marketing campaign to help address its biggest problem among the majority of consumers - it wants to answer the question "why Twitter?"

Here's how Noto described the marketing brief:

We think we have the best aggregated real-time content in the world. And that allows individuals to see what's happening in the world right now, to have a conversation about what they find interesting, to find others that are having conversations about what they find interesting. So the value of Twitter is that we give people both the opportunity to find out what's happening right now, but also we give them a microphone to project globally what they find of interest and their points of view. And we're trying to encapsulate both of those value propositions into a marketing campaign that brings that message to the masses but also brings it to the individual use cases of why people should use Twitter and marry that value proposition, that unique point of difference, into every decision we make, from product choices to content choices to media choices.

As Noto has mentioned before, Twitter has a 90% aided brand awareness. People are familiar with the brand, but that hasn't translated into users because most people don't know how to use it. Twitter had 304 million monthly active users at the end of the second quarter. Meanwhile, Facebook was celebrating this week about the fact tha t 1 billion people had used its platform in a single day.

By the way, the upcoming campaign from Twitter won't be the first time the brand has ventured into TV advertising.

Way back in 2012, Twitter ran ads during a NASCAR race, promoting how brands could use its hashtag pages, which pool together all the tweets and accounts around a particular subject or event.

(This story is from Business Insider, a website that covers business, tech, politics & more)

Source: Twitter close to hire chief marketing officer and has a TV commercial planned

7 social media marketing mistakes that internet businesses must avoid

Social media marketing is a valuable and necessary marketing tool for all the websites and businesses nowadays. It is one of the best ways to connect with the audience and increase awareness. It can also be immensely beneficial when it comes to generating leads and growing your business, as long as it is done right. The problem is that when businesses are new to the social media marketing world, they tend to make mistakes, which can prove to be very costly in the long run and not just financially. Therefore, it is essential for businesses to be aware of some of the most common pitfalls that can ruin their chances of becoming successful in the tough competition. Some of these pitfalls are outlined below:

1- Not implementing a strategy.

Social media marketing should be regarded as just any other marketing initiative, which means beginning with strategy. Many businesses make the mistake of just jumping into this minefield without any game plan or strategy to help them. They are 'working' social media, but their overall efforts are lacking focus and direction and have become disjointed. The success of your social media marketing campaign is dependent on proper strategic planning and should be the foundation of your moves. A business's aim should be to align their social media marketing efforts with other marketing strategies and set key performance indicators and measurable goals for gauging success.

2- Being on all social media channels.

If a business tries to build a presence on every popular social media channel, they are ultimately spreading themselves too thin and are at the risk of being overwhelmed. Not all social media channels are suitable for every industry and business. It is best to stick to only a couple of social media channels that fit best for your business and target audience. Start with one channel and expand once you have become comfortable with your rhythm. It's best for you to attend some social media workshops to understand how fast you should expand your social media profiles.

3- Not being consistent.

One of the worst possible things that a business can do is make a social media account and then simply abandon it or leave it dormant for weeks or even months. One way you can prevent this is to hire a social media expert as an employee and tell them to be dedicated in being consistent on the business's social media profiles. It is preferred to make updates on a daily basis because you need to be in the minds of your audience. Out of sight, out of mind, remember? Staying active is the key to creating brand awareness and building your following.

4- Using social media as a sales platform.

Sure, social media platforms are helpful for your businesses, but it is not the place where you promote your products and services and indulge in persuasive advertising. If you are solely focused on selling, people are just going to unfollow you and stop commenting on your posts and interacting with you. You have to incorporate the elements of the content marketing strategy into your social media marketing campaign as well, which means providing relevant information and adding value to your customers. Social platforms are basically an informal space where you get to show off the thought leadership and company culture in the industry. You can provide your audience with value and keep them engaged by sharing blog posts and industry articles.

5- Getting an intern to do it all.

It is acceptable for a new business to use interns to help them in executing their social media marketing campaign. However, it is crucial for someone from the management to drive and plan the strategy and contribute in terms of content as well. If this is not done, your business can suffer because your campaign will no longer be aligned with your brand. Just like you wouldn't send an intern to a press conference or tradeshow, you cannot give them free reign in posting content on your social media profiles without proper strategic oversight and guidance.

6- Not interacting and engaging with the audience.

Bear in mind that social media is not supposed to be a one-way street. To build a following that matters and be successful, you also have to make an effort. You need to ask questions as well as answer them. Make it a habit to retweet and share others' posts and don't expect anything in return. These are just some of the ways that you can be involved on social media platforms. It is better for you to engage with customers and competitors alike. The whole point of social media is to be social.

7- Not keeping track of your campaigns.

Whey set measurable goals and key performance indicators when you aren't keeping track of the results? Social media is just like any other marketing initiative, which means that it has to be properly measured. It is a mistake to assume that simply keeping track of the number of followers or fans is a suitable indicator of your success.

Social media platforms have matured to a point where analytics play an important role. This means that you have to keep a close eye on social media analytics such as LinkedIn Page Statistics, Facebook Insights and Pinterest Analytics. Apart from these tools, there are many other third-party apps and tools that can be used for helping you in measuring your success. This allows you to make changes to your strategy if it isn't working.

While there are a large number of businesses and firms on social media, not every company is reaping the rewards and value of their efforts. You have to ensure that you aren't falling into these pitfalls so you can take advantage of the real value that social media can provide to your marketing strategy and business.

Source: 7 social media marketing mistakes that internet businesses must avoid

Spotlight: GMR Web Team Evolves With Client Needs

Digital marketing is an ever-changing field. Different marketing agencies have come and gone as the industry has evolved. But the ones that have stayed have done so by evolving along with the industry.

GMR Web Team is one of those agencies. The business started out as a marketing consulting firm, then evolved into a Web design business and eventually into digital marketing. The team has had to work hard to keep up with the trends in a changing industry.

Read more about GMR Web Team and its offerings in this week's Small Business Spotlight.

What the Business Does

Provides a variety of Web design and digital marketing services.

Specific services include search engine marketing, Internet strategy, social media marketing, reputation development, email marketing and Web design.

Business Niche

Starting with a strategy.

Michelle Kop, digital account manager for GMR Web Team told Small Business Trends:

"By starting with a strategy in place, it allows us to project when to expect results for our clients and essentially gives us a framework to follow."

How the Business Got Started

As a marketing consulting business.

Founder Ajay Prasad first started the company after leaving a corporate job. But after realizing some of the needs of his clients, the business shifted into more of a Web design company. And eventually, the team grew and began offering digital marketing services as well.

Biggest Win

Growing client relationships.

Kop shared one example of a successful client relationship, Ricardo Beverly Hills:

"Not only did they become a client, they became a strategic partner of ours. This is an international luggage company, and they came to us simply for a website redesign. They were actually missing out on website marketing so we made a good impact when we designed their website and they became a website marketing client. We have been able to exceed expectations and generate a return on investment within one month of website marketing."

Biggest Risk

Evolving into different industries.

Kop explains:

"Our business started as a marketing consulting company and switched to online marketing which was an entirely new thing at the time. Evolving involves acquiring a new kind of talent. Every time you offer something new, it is risky. If it fails, [the] customer will not be happy."

How They'd Spend an Extra $100,000

Developing more innovative products.

Kop says:

"We are on the cutting-edge and are always looking for new technologies and services to introduce to the market."

Employees

10.

Kop says:

"We are a spontaneous group that loves to have fun. It's a tradition for us to celebrate birthdays in the office with the staff."

Favorite Quote

"Life is like a game of Bridge, all your cards are dealt; you have to make the most out of it." – Radhakrishnan, Former President of India

* * * * *

Find out more about the Small Biz Spotlight program.

Images: GMR Web Team

More in: Small Business Growth
Source: Spotlight: GMR Web Team Evolves With Client Needs

Making space with SpaceBox: Marketing an e-commerce start-up in SA

Recently launched, SpaceBox is an online personal storage service and the first of its kind in South Africa. As such, the marketing is key to ensuring South Africans know what the on-demand service does, and how it works. Bettina Moss delivers the case study.

It was important for SpaceBox to be first to market. "I believe South Africans are loyal. Once they trust you to provide a service, you're more likely to build a lasting relationship." says Hjalmar Venter, SpaceBox founder.

Venter admits that all SpaceBox marketing activity has developed organically as opposed to following a strict set-down marketing strategy.

No newcomer to marketing, Venter took it as a major subject at university and was further exposed to excellent sales and marketing training and experience during his time spent working for a world-class corporate business.

"Marketing has always been a passion of mine. I believe it's one of the key fundamentals for the success of any business," said Venter.

"I believe that marketing is an art. It's not a science. With a new concept like SpaceBox, you don't have much of an idea what's going to work and what doesn't. We're trying out every avenue. We're testing everything. If it doesn't work – we try something else! The science comes once you've performed the art. The science is in the measurement. And we're still creating awareness right now. It's still early days. We've only been going for three months."

SpaceBox is part of the XtraSpace group of companies, and as such it's important that the brand design and ethos is aligned throughout the business.

The campaign around the launch started simply. Venter opted for a soft launch, which gave the company the opportunity to test the market. Originally it was nothing more than a splash web page and a Facebook page. The splash page let people know that the service was planning to launch in a few weeks time and how it worked, along with a call to action to sign up. While this was in place Venter developed the service and logistics behind it, put the launch strategy together and built the website.

Being part of the XtraSpace group meant that SpaceBox had access to a large existing customer database as well as the infrastructure in place to support the launch with an email campaign.

Venter believes that email marketing facilitates better engagement as a non-disruptive form of communication. "It allows people to look at what you're selling if they want to", he says.

The parent company, XtraSpace, has 30 branches around the country which meant that SpaceBox could make use of all of these as points-of-sale. Venter personally gave sales training to all the branch facility managers who are also given printed glossy brochures to distribute to potential customers.

SpaceBox poster

SpaceBox includes both digital and offline marketing in the mix.

The launch campaign is making use of Google AdWords and Google banner advertising is also being tested.

The launch campaign included print advertising in Die Burger newspaper which carried through on Die Burger's website. Pamphlets and flyer drops are also part of the SpaceBox direct marketing strategy.

SpaceBox flyer

Venter believes that a social media presence is crucial to building awareness and facilitating engagement with his consumers. "SpaceBox is an online service and we need to be where our customers are – online," said Venter. SpaceBox is actively building a community on social media through their Facebook page and more recently, on Twitter. Facebook advertising has also been effective in sending traffic to their website.

The digital PR campaign has worked effectively to produce content and backlinks for SEO and Google rankings.

SpaceBox is a premium service product and the company makes use of billboards and street pole ads to drive awareness in high-density areas where property prices are expensive.

Activations are an important element in the SpaceBox marketing mix. So far, this has included activations at several shopping malls as well as exhibiting at various expos. This allowed them to connect directly with potential customers and get helpful feedback.

"I had people coming over and asking me what I was doing there. There was a lot of curiosity and it was a great opportunity for us to talk to people and inform them of our service. People signed up for the service there and then," said Venter.

"We're open to new ideas and exploring new types of marketing. I believe it's absolutely crucial for any start-up to follow the guerrilla tactics of marketing," said Venter. He cites Jay Levinson's Guerrilla Marketing in 30 Days as a valuable resource and reference for start-ups or any company trying to establish itself and get ahead, while bootstrapping on a minimal budget.

"The priority of a start-up is to get customers quickly. You don't have time or money to work on brand-building. It's all about driving sales and revenue. You need to focus on where your customers are and tell them about your service," said Venter.

Venter believes it's important to stay flexible and to be able to change what's not working immediately. "I believe in 'failing fast'. You've got to be in the market, not worrying about getting everything 100% perfect before you launch, because you can't do that. There will be angles you've missed. There will be things you haven't explored and there will be a better way to do something. You have to stay curious and keep learning, keep researching and refining continuously. I'm constantly exploring different avenues, looking at new technologies and innovations to communicate with consumers. It's always a work in progress," he said.

A SpaceBox billboard

Source: Making space with SpaceBox: Marketing an e-commerce start-up in SA

Web.com Group Upgraded to “Buy” by Zacks (WWWW)

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Web.com Group (NASDAQ:WWWW) was upgraded by Zacks from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, AnalystRatings.Net reports. The brokerage currently has a $24.00 price target on the stock. Zacks's price objective indicates a potential upside of 12.36% from the company's current price.

According to Zacks, "WEB.COM GROUP, INC. is a leading provider of online marketing for small businesses. Web.com offers a full range of online services, including Internet marketing and advertising, local search, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, lead generation, home contractor specific leads, website design and publishing, logo and brand development, and eCommerce solutions, meeting the needs of small businesses anywhere along their lifecycle. "

Shares of Web.com Group (NASDAQ:WWWW) traded up 0.28% during trading on Tuesday, hitting $21.36. The stock had a trading volume of 418,970 shares. The company's market cap is $1.08 billion. Web.com Group has a 12 month low of $14.52 and a 12 month high of $25.85. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $23.67 and a 200 day moving average of $21.22.

Web.com Group (NASDAQ:WWWW) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, topping the Thomson Reuters consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.03. The firm earned $135.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $138.08 million. Equities analysts forecast that Web.com Group will post $2.40 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on WWWW. Piper Jaffray restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $25.00 price objective on shares of Web.com Group in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. B. Riley upgraded Web.com Group from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $20.00 to $30.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 25th. Roth Capital boosted their price objective on Web.com Group from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. FBR & Co. reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Web.com Group in a research note on Sunday, August 2nd. Finally, BWS Financial raised Web.com Group from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $33.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and eight have assi gned a buy rating to the stock. The company has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $27.27.

Web.com Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWWW) provides a range of Internet services to small businesses. The Company offers Domain Name Registration and Services, Do-It-For-Me Web Solutions, Do-It-Yourself Web Solutions and Internet Marketing Services. It gives Domain Name Services and Registration, such as domain name registration, transfers, renewals, expiration protection and privacy services. It offers Do-It-For-Me (DIFM) Web Solutions, for example custom Website, Ignite, Facebook Increase by Web.com and eCommerce. It offers Do-It-Yourself Web Solutions, like Website building and marketing solutions. It provides On-Line Marketing Services, like internet search engine Optimization (orSEO), search engine marketing, Leads by Web and renovation specialists. Web.com offers small businesses subscription-based alternatives, for example domains, hosting, Website design and management, internet search engine optimization, online marketing efforts, local sales leads, social networking, mobile produ cts and eCommerce solutions.

To get a free copy of the research report on Web.com Group (WWWW), click here. For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

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Source: Web.com Group Upgraded to "Buy" by Zacks (WWWW)

Web-Op, Inc. Teams Up With World Series of Fighting

Mesa/Az/United States – WEBWIRE – Monday, August 24, 2015

they will be able to fully realize their potential

Web-Op, Inc. has recently joined forces with World Series of Fighting (WSOF), and will be providing marketing services for the MMA promotion. Web-Op Inc.'s goal is to help increase web traffic, fan engagement, fan interaction, ticket sales and the overall online visibility of World Series of Fighting.  

David Bailey, Founder and CEO of Web-Op, Inc. stated,"I believe WSOF has a chance to be a leader in the MMA world but it will take a rethought approach to their online marketing. The foundation is there [including] a talented roster, a fantastic team behind the scenes, and a great partner in NBCSN. It all points to a bright future. When I was first introduced to the team at World Series of Fighting, I was impressed with their vision, and paired with our team they will be able to fully realize their potential."  

About World Series of Fighting, Inc.World Series of Fighting, is an American mixed martial arts promotion based in Las Vegas, Nevada. Its live events and competitions have been shown on the NBC Sports Network in the United States, TSN2 in Canada and on TV Esporte Interativo in Brazil. They are widely regarded as one of the top MMA promotions in the World.                

About Web-OpWeb-Op is a web development and internet marketing firm, located in Mesa, Arizona, founded by CEO David Bailey. Web-Op is currently one of the biggest internet marketing firms in the southwest, and has developed relationships with the most influential forces across a diverse set of industries.  Featuring a team built of experts in their fields of design, development, marketing and social media, Web-Op has transformed hundreds of national and international companies' online presence and performance by improving their internet marketing, web traffic, web design, PR and brand development. In regards to marketing performance, Web-Op ads reached over a billion impressions in the month of June alone, which delivered nearly 700 million unique visits across their clients' online assets.

( Press Release Image: http://photos.webwire.com/prmedia/50197/199694/199694-1.png )

Related Links Learn more about Web-Op's internet marketing, web design, PR and brand development Learn more about WSOF, fighters, upcoming events, and more.

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  Internet Marketing Mixed Martial Arts World Series of Fighting WSOF Social Media Contact Information Keith Strickland Project Manager/ Web-Op Web-Op Contact via E-mail

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Source: Web-Op, Inc. Teams Up With World Series of Fighting

Web marketing grants awarded

BLaST Intermediate Unit 17's eQUIP Academy Services has awarded Web marketing grants to three local school districts to support their eLearning programs. Danville Area School District, Loyalsock Township School District and Milton Area School District each will receive a $3,000 grant, which will provide them with Web marketing services for a period of three months.

The Web marketing services are designed to promote the school's local eLearning program through Google Web search. When a student or parent in those communities searches for select keywords related to online learning, the school's program will appear in the search results. The services are intended to advertise the availability of eLearning opportunities at the local school district as an alternative to cyber charter or other private, online learning programs.

"When parents begin to search for alternative cyber programs, they start with Google. If the Lancer Learning Institute is a key search result, parents will have access to all information pertaining to our program during the decision-making process," said Eric Gee, director of technology and manager of the Lancer Learning Institute at Loyalsock Township School District.

"This marketing allows us to have a better opportunity to reach our students and parents in their homes and on their smart phones, where the search begins," said Jennifer Gurski, principal of the Danville Area School District e-Learning Academy.

Brian Ulmer, director of secondary education at Milton Area School District and head of the Milton Cyber School, believes that the grant "not only benefits (the school district) as a marketing tool; it also benefits the students by directing them toward a high-quality program."

Students who attend an eLearning program through their home district are able to attend school events like homecoming and prom, participate in sports and clubs and earn a local diploma while benefitting from the flexibility and opportunities offered by online learning.

The grants are being provided through BLaST Intermediate Unit 17's eQUIP Academy Services and BLaST's partnership with Lin Digital, ABC27 WHTM.

For more information, visit www.equiplearning .iu17.org.

Source: Web marketing grants awarded

Marketing analytics forum coming to Missoula

The University of Montana will be hosting an innovative new forum on one of the hottest emerging business techniques – marketing analytics – on Sept. 17-18, featuring expert presenters from companies around the country. The inaugural QuestMT event will give managers and others who need insights from their marketing data the tools they can use to understand and develop the power of analytics.

"It's a forum that is designed to give professionals in the field cutting-edge training in this new area of marketing analytics," said Jakki Mohr, a Regents professor of marketing and a distinguished faculty fellow at the University of Montana's School of Business Administration.

A team of marketing faculty at UM, in conjunction with an external advisory board, has planned and organized the event.

The forum, which will be held all day on the UM campus on Friday, Sept. 18 and preceded by an evening reception at the Holiday Inn Downtown outdoor patio on Sept. 17, is open to anybody who wants to know how to use data the right way.

"This is even for people who graduated five or 10 years ago or who don't have a marketing degree," Mohr explained. "Everyone knows they have all this data in their company, whether from the company website or the Twitter feed or the customer database. You have metrics on who is visiting the website, things like that. The question is how do you link that data to the ways your company makes decisions on what to do? How do you use that to prioritize advertising spending or how do they innovate new products? All of those decisions should be based on the data the company has, but people don't have the skill set to make that leap."

The forum will feature talks and question-and-answer sessions from a variety of experts, including:

• Paul Roetzer, CEO of PR2020, a marketing agency that provides performance-driven marketing services and author of the "Marketing Performance Blueprint."

• Jane Crisan, chief operations officer and president of R2C Group, an agency specializing in the intersection of direct, sales-driven marketing and brand advertising.

• Young-Bean Song, principal at Analytics DNA, a Seattle-based strategy and analytics consultancy.

• John Chandler, clinical professor of marketing at UM and principal of Data Insights, a consultancy addressing hard business questions with data science to unearth actionable insights.

• Jason Hoffman, CEO of ARS Quanta, a company specializing in both the art and the science of quantitative modeling of business problems to drive growth, revenue and profit.

• Maziar Sattari, vice president of product development at Turn, a Silicon Valley-based software company providing a digital advertising hub that offers real-time insights for marketing decision making.

The last three presenters will conduct the afternoon training session called "Learning to Talk the Talk with your Data Scientist," where participants will learn the most important techniques that data scientists use to research business questions, how these tools fare when introduced into the organization and the most applicable algorithms used across multiple industries.

"Data scientists talk a totally different language than practicing managers," Mohr explained. "We will have a training session where a data scientist will come in with his client and say 'here's how I looked at their data.' They'll talk all about the lexicon in the field, things like 'distributed computing.' When you hire a data scientist, this is their world but the manager has no idea what they're doing. They get data back and know it's useful but don't know how to use it. How do you put it in a format that is comprehensible to a person who isn't technical? This will provide that link between the analysis and what the organization needs to do differently. It's something where people will say 'oh yeah, that makes sense.'"

Mohr said that the whole idea of the one-day forum structure is to create a fast-paced networking event where people can gain new insight and take away something useful.

"It's priced where companies can bring in teams," she added. "A lot of times companies send just one person, but it typically takes a team so you have a shared lexicon and shared values. The idea of a one-person army doesn't work. It needs to permeate across the company."

She said the group that planned the event researched similar national conferences and tailored the program based on the input they received.

"Compared to what we were doing in marketing 10 years ago, we are on the edge of what is best in class at the best universities now," Mohr said.

Early-bird registration ends Monday, Aug. 24. For more information on the schedule or to register, visit questmt.co.

Source: Marketing analytics forum coming to Missoula

XGATE Expands Its CRM Marketing Automation

HONG KONG, Aug. 21, 2015 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- XGATE today launches the DMS 3.0 Platform, an expansion to its existing marketing automation solution with advanced CRM campaign designer and analytics. The new enhancement enables brand marketers to more easily create, target, deliver, track, and manage integrated large-scale multimedia messaging camapigns. DMS 3.0 is an advanced CRM marketing solution for digital marketeres, consisting of four key components namely integrated digital channels (SMS, Email, Social & Web), marketing automation, campaign designer, real-time dashboards and CRM analytics. This means marketers not only can design and set up auto-triggered campaigns easily based on rules, time or events; but also choose cross-channelservices to support different marketing plays based on certain preferences or rules.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150821/260242

"DMS 3.0 is built with a customer lifecycle approach in mind. Hence, creating an exceptional digital experience before, during & after sale is central to our platform design philosophy," Andy Cho, Co-founder added, "When we build this platform, we want to take the guess work out of marketing. That's why we have included data-driven insights and present them in real-time dashboards and downloadable reports to enhance marketing efficiency for managers."

Today, about 15 percent of XGATE clients are already migrated to the new DMS 3.0 platform for their campaigns. With the growing interest for marketing automation and CRM analytics, this number is expected to reach over 50% percent by the end of next year.

"The future of digital marketing belongs to brands who can effectively use BI and automation to create different segment of leads, convert leads to customers and build customer loyalty to maxmise their lifetime value," Xen Chia, Strategic Marketing Director.

About XGATE

XGATE was founded in 2004, headquartered at the Science Park in Hong Kong with offices spaning into Guangzhou and Macau. It serves over 500 companies in CRM digital marketing services. Behind XGATE's award-winning Digital Marketing Services (DMS) platform is a team of talented young professionals covering senior marketing consultants, creative designers and technical experts.

In June 2015, XGATE was awarded CRM & Loyalty Agency of the Year and Direct Marketing Agency of the Year Top 5 Finalists in the Annual Marketing Magazine 2015 Hong Kong Awards. XGATE was also awarded by Mediazone Group as one of Hong Kong's Most Valuable Companies in 2015. These awards recognised XGATE achievements in the areas of commitment to continuous improvement, quality of service, devotion to customer satisfaction and innovation.

To find out more about XGATE services, visit www.xgate.com today.

Media Contact: Xen Chia, XGATE Corporation Limited, (852)82089980, xen@xgate.com

News distributed by PR Newswire iReach: https://ireach.prnewswire.com

SOURCE XGATE Corporation Limited

Copyright 2014 PR Newswire. All Rights Reserved

Related Keywords:Sales & Marketing, Internet, Business Issues, Hong Kong, Business, Marketing Services, Science, Email,

Source:PR Newswire. All Rights Reserved

Source: XGATE Expands Its CRM Marketing Automation

Rand Internet Marketing Announces Partnership With XPS Ship

August 20, 2015 -- Aug 20, 2015 - (Newswire.com)

Rand Internet Marketing, an internet marketing company specializing in professional website design and web development, has partnered with XPS Ship, a company that offers shipping solutions at discounted shipping rates.

XPS Shiphas a free web based shipping platform that functions with the cloud. Orders are also tracked from the moment they are received until delivery. XPS Shipalso offers arate comparison tool.

XPS Ship is very happy and excited to partner with Rand Internet Marketing, stated Erik Olafsson, COO at XPS Ship. Rands experience with Ecommerce websites such as Magento and Wordpress will greatly assist us and our clientele.

Rand Internet Marketing offers a large variety of services and is known for their highly effective internet marketing industry solutions. These services include responsive website design and development on Wordpress and Magento e-commerce platforms, graphic and logo design, online content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), online banner advertising, pay-per-click (PPC), social media setup and marketing.

We are very excited to be partnering with XPS Ship, said Seth Rand, Founder and CEO at Rand Internet Marketing. We believe our Ecommerce clients will benefit from the shopping cart integration feature as well as the cloud based shipping platform.

Visit XPSShip.com for more on shipping solutions. To learn more about Rand Marketing and its partnerships, visit http://randmarketing.com/who-we-are/partners-affiliates/.

About Rand Internet Marketing

Rand Internet Marketing, a division of Rand Business Services, based in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, offers a full line of design and marketing services including logo design, graphic design, website design, responsive web development, search engine marketing, and social media marketing. Rand specializes in professional responsive web design and development including WordPress websites andMagento eCommercewebsites, mobile site design and development, search engine optimization (SEO) and pay per click (PPC) marketing. Rand also offers video production, video marketing, full color printing, reviews and reputation management, product photography, merchant services and a variety of other professional business services.

If you are in the market for a new website, or looking to generate more leads and sales throughinternet marketing, let the Rand Internet Marketing team help you design an integrated strategy that will help your business succeed.

For more information, call 888-707-RAND or request a consultation online at http://randmarketing.com/request-consultation/.

About XPS Ship

XPS Ship offers a web-based multicarrier shipping solution that integrates with ecommerce shopping carts. They also offer discounted domestic and international shipping rates. Their application is free of user fees and they have offerings that are suited to companies large and small.

For more information, call 800-881-0288 or request a live demo online at www.xpsship.com.

Rand Marketing Newsroom

Original Source: http://www.newswire.com/press-release/rand-internet-marketing-announces-partnership-with-xps-ship 

Related Keywords:Graphics Designer, Web Designers, Internet/Web, Graphics, Business, Internet, Web, Social Media, Search, Design, Marketing, Graphics/Design, Video, Business, Business Services, Marketing Services, Shipping, Internet Technology, Business, Internet, Other,

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Source: Rand Internet Marketing Announces Partnership With XPS Ship

Web.com Group Lifted to “Buy” at Zacks (WWWW)

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Web.com Group (NASDAQ:WWWW) was upgraded by Zacks from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat reports. The firm currently has a $24.00 price target on the stock. Zacks's price target indicates a potential upside of 11.52% from the company's current price.

According to Zacks, "WEB.COM GROUP, INC. is a leading provider of online marketing for small businesses. Web.com offers a full range of online services, including Internet marketing and advertising, local search, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, lead generation, home contractor specific leads, website design and publishing, logo and brand development, and eCommerce solutions, meeting the needs of small businesses anywhere along their lifecycle. "

WWWW has been the subject of several other research reports. RBC Capital reiterated a "sector perform" rating and issued a $20.00 price objective on shares of Web.com Group in a report on Monday, July 27th. Deutsche Bank upgraded Web.com Group from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price target for the company from $18.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Piper Jaffray reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $32.00 price objective on shares of Web.com Group in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. Citigroup Inc. cut Web.com Group from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $24.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Finally, FBR & Co. set a $25.00 price objective on Web.com Group and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, June 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Web.com Group presently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $27.27.

Shares of Web.com Group (NASDAQ:WWWW) traded down 9.47% during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $21.52. 1,432,935 shares of the company's stock traded hands. Web.com Group has a 12 month low of $14.52 and a 12 month high of $25.85. The stock's market cap is $1.08 billion. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $23.93 and a 200-day moving average price of $21.02.

Web.com Group (NASDAQ:WWWW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $135.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $138.08 million. On average, analysts predict that Web.com Group will post $2.40 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Web.com Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWWW) supplies a range of Internet services to small businesses. The Company offers Domain Name Registration and Services, Do-It-For-Me Web Solutions, Do-It-Yourself Web Solutions and Online Marketing Services. It offers Domain Name Services and Registration, like privacy services and domain name registration, transfers, renewals, expiration protection. It offers Do-It-For-Me (DIFM) Web Solutions, for example custom Website, Ignite, Facebook Increase by Web.com and eCommerce. It offers Do-It-Yourself Web Solutions, for example marketing solutions and Website construction. It offers On-Line Advertising Services, such as search engine Optimization (orSEO), search engine marketing, Leads by Web and renovation specialists. Web.com offers small businesses subscription-based options, such as domains, hosting, Website design and management, internet search engine optimization, online advertising campaigns, local sales leads, social networking, cellular product s and eCommerce solutions.

To get a free copy of the research report on Web.com Group (WWWW), click here. For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

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Source: Web.com Group Lifted to "Buy" at Zacks (WWWW)

Bringing the Internet of Things to Buses in Beijing

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In public transport, you often see commuters hanging from the straps with one hand and checking smartphones with the other. There's clearly opportunity in that moment for marketers, especially in Asia, with its reliance on both subways and smartphones. But what exactly?

In China, the Cheil PengTai digital agency sensed an opening for local dairy giant Yili, whose Meiyitian yogurt drink brand was seeking to promote healthier lifestyles.

In Beijing buses, the straps became health monitoring systems for people to grip, measuring their heart rate, body mass index and balance during their daily commute. The gadgets instantly linked up to their smartphones through NFC interaction.

The brand put 6,000 monitors on 200 buses in May; 350,000 people used them and the topic was shared online 3 million times.

And those straps for commuters "become a form of media which wasn't there before," said Daphne Chen, Cheil PengTai's digital marketing business director.

Cutting through

Cheil Pengtai, which has 1,000 employees in China and is part of Cheil Worldwide, is launching a process to create more "Internet of Things" campaigns for clients; the Yili story is its star case study. At the heart of that effort is Ms. Chen, who says her job is to "dazzle clients" with work from the agency's innovation lab. (Ms. Chen is an Ad Age 2015 Women to Watch China honoree for drumming up business through creative technology.)

Daphne Chen

With so many new products launching in China every month, she said, successful brand ideas really have to cut through, especially in a competitive category like beverages.

"It's crazy -- consumers get lost, and they don't even want to try something new if there's nothing fun and original there," said Ms. Chen, who joined the company a year ago from Wunderman. "This is a way to arouse their curiosity, to give them a good reason to try something new."

Every month, teams from IT, accounts, creative, finance get together to brainstorm ideas that can be produced by Cheil PengTai's innovation lab.

For Georgia coffee, a Coca-Cola brand, Cheil PengTai did an earlier campaign based on public transport straps, creating a game that linked up with smartphones. Another example of the group's work is a kids' soap dispenser that sends data to parents' smartphones about how long they're washing their hands. That was a project for the China Children and Teenagers Fund.

Promoting the Internet of Things is a priority for the Chinese government, which has a new strategy called "Internet Plus" to power economic growth by linking traditional businesses, like manufacturing, with online technology. And that's something Chinese companies are thinking a lot about.

Guan Haitao, senior product manager of Yili's Meiyitian, noted that the bus project is in sync with the Internet Plus era, adding that also "focuses on human health from a higher level … and exactly matches Meiyitian's brand message of 'keeping health fun.'

The Women to Watch China Questionnaire

Home City: Taipei, Taiwan

Ever lived abroad: In Boston and New York for undergrad and graduate school. Also in Singapore, working for TBWA Tequila.

If you could have dinner with anyone living or dead: "My biggest personal idol is Shakira. I would want to have dinner with her and afterward go out together and 'shake our bon bons.' … For something more inspirational, I would like to have dinner with the author Paulo Coelho, who writes easy-to-understand stories but inspires millions of people around the world."

If I could do it all over again, I … "wouldn't change anything. All the mistakes I made contributed to this life I'm having now. I started to play piano when I was 4, and my scrapbook is always about a little girl playing piano onstage. I got a scholarship to Boston University to study music, and my parents never expected me to be a businessperson at all." But she chose another path. "Now my dad jokes that I'm the most expensive karaoke machine he ever acquired."

Source: Bringing the Internet of Things to Buses in Beijing

Digital marketing provides universities with new opportunities to recruit students

The higher education (HE) sector is undergoing a seismic transformation at present, and its marketing strategies and requirements are under great pressure to evolve rapidly.

One of the greatest challenges for HE recruitments teams within this context is the fragmentation of the traditional recruitment cycle. Increasing late demand signals a retreat from traditional deadlines, and in line with the increasing commercialisation of the sector exhibits a newly empowered consumer approach. Traditional, above-the-line advertising linked to the legacy cycles is therefore becoming increasingly redundant, as universities need to move to 'always-on', demand driven digital marketing strategies.

This brings new pressures for university recruitment teams and media agencies alike. Rather than annual planning, block bookings, and inflexible spending, Universities need to work with their media partners in new ways. To effectively implement this, new digital talent is needed in their corridors – whether agency or internal. And the shifting media paradigm both enables and pressures HE institutions to be alert to new globalised growth opportunities.

A more responsive model

In order to effectively understand and respond to the complex requirements of a large, multi-product organisation like a university, two things need to happen.

Firstly – agencies need to move to an on-site model – building effective relationships with the wide range of recruitment, marketing and faculty stakeholders involved in any given recruitment campaign. On-site presence enables digital media agencies to react quickly and effectively to a HE institutions' rapidly changing needs (eg. Early warning signal from an underperforming Faculty or Course programme), in a way that remote working cannot. It also ensures inclusive stakeholder requirement gathering, smoothening decision-making cycles that cut through a diverse set of audiences.

Secondly, and linked to the need for reactivity, is digital media's inherent flexibility lends itself to student recruitment objectives in the new media world. The annual planning cycles, block bookings, and inflexible spending linked to traditional above-the-line media have restricted marketing teams' ability to react effectively to a HE institutions' fast-changing requirements – and digital must be fully embraced to effectively support recruitment teams' objectives moving forward.

Lastly, combining digital activity and on-site working, agencies are able to ensure that if a tactic is underperforming we are able to optimise and re-commit spends efficiently and proactively – reducing the risk of lost opportunities, or wasted budgets across the campaign. This is a strategic opportunity that cannot be missed for HE institutions in an increasingly competitive landscape.

The importance of tracking

In order for universities to take advantage of digital, the importance of analytical integrity within higher education institutions cannot be overestimated, yet it is often sorely ignored.

Digital media has enabled a new culture of tracking, ROI reporting & metric-driven activity in marketing communities and beyond. However outdated web platforms, lack of internal digital resource and multi-stakeholder marketing teams has led to the analytical integrity of HE institutions suffering.

In this context media agencies must 'step up', and support their clients with auditing and maintaining analytical integrity within the organisation. Digital Media agencies need to take a pro-active approach to being "analytics guardians", working closely with internal web teams to ensure marketing efforts can be effectively evaluated and optimised. Long term, digital media agencies need to consult on the potential for 'joined-up' data (for example exploring CRM extension with their clients) to effectively track and add value to the multi-faceted university application experience of prospective students.

Seeking new Opportunities

Looking 'out and up', the new opportunities to UK higher education institutions abound in this new media world. A recent Google Trends research report showed that 40% of all global keyword searches for UK universities now come from outside the UK. This indicates a phenomenal international interest in UK higher education institutions – and one that international prospects are taking to the internet to research further.

This means it is critical that any university with International targets must carefully consider its international digital presence. Key areas to understand include:

What international interest can we gauge – across countries, faculties, courses?

What opportunities are there to advertise on local competitor searches – and raise awareness of our own organisation in the process?

What are the key information topics that international students are looking for – and how can we better answer those content requirements? (eg. Visa information, Funding & fees, Accommodation etc.)

The findings from this sort of investigation will not only inform International Faculty and Corporate course planning and targets, but will enable universities to spot new digital marketing opportunities and drive new International growth.

Source: Digital marketing provides universities with new opportunities to recruit students

Malaysian authorities call for more help from social networks to quash internet “rumours”

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) is set to engage internet and social media networks such as Facebook, Google and Twitter to handle "rumours and false information" on the Internet.

Minister Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak said that the issue of false information has recently taken "centre stage in the media, especially online news portals."

Hence, the MCMC has been instructed to meet social media platform providers – Facebook, Google and Twitter – to seek the cooperation of these to "stem the increasing tide of false information and rumours from spreading via their social media applications". He added that while these three social media platform providers have been cooperating with various Malaysian authorities, "the level of cooperation needs to be stepped up".

This was from a blog entry written by Salleh.

He also added that there are laws in the country to govern the spread of false information, and while it is possible for authorities to restrict these applications – at present this will not be done, as a majority of social media users are "using such applications positively". Read the whole post here.

Meanwhile, A+M has reached out to the three firms for comment.

Source: Malaysian authorities call for more help from social networks to quash internet "rumours"

OfficialEmailMarketing.com Software for the Next Generation of Email Marketers

Truly unique setup that provides each subscriber with their own dedicated IP address and additional domains.

Kelowna, Canada, August 15, 2015 --(PR.com)-- When it comes to effective email marketing, there's a fine line between great execution and spam. Serious business owners absolutely must have useful and creative ways of sharing content with savvy, well-informed audiences. Navigating the ever expanding web calls for ingenuity and well-appointed SEO integration. Now, young tech-based companies like the Official Internet Marketing Corporation, are leading the charge in providing the type of email marketing services they seek.

www.OfficialEmailMarketing.com is announcing a fresh creative email marketing software system with a truly unique setup that provides each subscriber with their own dedicated IP address and additional domains. Other incredible features such as spam checker, opener and clicker stats, full graph views and email templates, ensure that businesses can reach their entire network and get results. With features like Dedicated Servers, Rate Limiting, Spam Checker, Google A nalytics tracking, Statistics Tracking, Sending Thread Control, IP Rotation and much more it's no wonder this young company is quickly becoming an industry leader in high volume bulk email marketing services.

More information about OfficialEmailMarketing.com and e-marketing is available at: http://www.officialemailmarketing.com

Source: OfficialEmailMarketing.com Software for the Next Generation of Email Marketers

Straight Outta Compton’ Marketing Campaign Spawns Hilarious Internet Memes

Straight Outta Compton's genius internet marketing campaign has spawned some hilarious and creative internet memes over the past few days.

You may have seen the memes that say "Straight Outta ____" going viral on the internet. These viral memes have been spawned from the movie's internet marketing campaign, which has become a huge success. Not only is it drawing creativity from its fans, but it also has people wanting to go see Straight Outta Compton this upcoming weekend.

The memes feature a photo of the Straight Outta Compton logo with silly phrases like "Straight Outta Treats" or "Straight Outta Toilet Paper." Some even poked fun at notorious celebrities like Kylie Jenner, Rachel Dolezal, Bill Cosby, and Iggy Azalea.

The White House is the latest to join the "Straight Outta Somewhere" meme bandwagon. Some would say that both President Obama's administration or Straight Outta Compton's internet marketing campaign has officially jumped the shark!

The White House took the viral meme to a whole new level when it shared a photo from the @TheIranDeal handle, which is to promote the Iran deal. The meme says "Straight Outta Uranium."

.@BuzzFeed And thanks to the #IranDeal, Iran will be… pic.twitter.com/zEHN1EpEX7

— The Iran Deal (@TheIranDeal) August 13, 2015

Even if the Iran deal was set in place, the country wouldn't actually run out of uranium anytime soon. Under the agreement negotiated with the P5+1 international partners, Iran would continue to use uranium, but not for war.

Obama's administration admits that it was using the "Straight Outta Somewhere" meme to attract its younger followers. But some of their Twitter followers didn't find the meme too funny. Some thought that the Straight Outta Compton viral memes were funny until the White House had to jump on board. Some fans would say it's like having your grandfather or mother making a joke on Facebook to appear hip and cool.

So, how did the "Straight Outta Somewhere" viral meme campaign get its start? It was created by Beats by Dre, in partnership with Universal. Beats hired a Northern Kingdom agency to create the black-and-white meme generator, which allows fans to put their hometown on the logo.

Since the viral campaign took off on Aug. 5, it's had over 7 million visits and over 6 million downloads, as of Thursday, Aug. 13. As previously reported via the Inquisitr, the "Straight Outta Somewhere" meme had over 100,000 posts on Instagram, along with over 400,000 tweets mentioning the film since Aug. 6.

The "Straight Outta Somewhere" viral meme campaign has served the movie well since it hit $50 million at the U.S. box office, according to early reports. It's expected to continue to take over the box office, as movie goers flock to theaters this upcoming weekend.

Straight Outta Compton follows the rise and fall of the hip-hop group N.W.A. from Compton, Calif. The film borrows from its title of N.W.A.'s 1988 debut album of the same name.

[Image via Universal Pictures/Legendary Pictures, New Line Cinema via YouTube]

Source: Straight Outta Compton' Marketing Campaign Spawns Hilarious Internet Memes

20 Useful Content Marketing Tips You Might Not Be Using – But Should

Content marketing is an integral part of any business plan. But what do you do when you're just starting out—or perhaps encountering some areas you're not feeling like a "guru" in?

Don't worry. I'm here to help!

Go from content marketing schmo to content marketing pro in no time with these twenty simple-to-implement content marketing tips.

1) Look for Blog Topics Right in Your Email Inbox

You likely get a hefty stream of questions, comments, and inquiries about your business every day and, chances are, some of them keep popping up again and again. When you find yourself answering the same question from clients or buyers time after time, consider turning it into a blog post for your company's site. In addition to acting as a one-stop-shop FAQ, this also makes your company more relatable, provides the consumer with valuable information and shows them you are thinking about their needs and concerns.

2) Embed Your Videos

Repeated studies have shown blogs with videos are more likely to get additional hits and shares than those without videos. That said, consider taking all of the promotional or educational videos your company has made over time and integrating them into blog posts.

In addition to providing customers with additional ways to consume your content, videos are also highly linkable, which means there's a good chance your website will reach more people than just your existing customers.

3) If You Don't Have Any Videos — Make Some

What does your company do better than any other company out there? What can you teach people? Is there a chance you could take that expertise and excitement and turn it into a video?

A company that sells fly fishing equipment could put out a series of videos on fly tying, whereas a content creation company could put together a few videos on publishing great blogs. There is a huge demand for knowledge in the world and when you share yours, people are likely to pass it around, driving more traffic and additional customers your way.

4) Compile a "Who-to-Follow" List

You're an expert in your field and people know that, but people always want to learn more. Create a well thought-out "who to follow" list of other people who excel in your field to help them do just that. Doing this offers two distinct benefits: first, consumers will appreciate the fact that you've positioned yourself as a trusted source of information and, second, the people you link in the article will appreciate that you've directed traffic their way and are highly likely to return the favor.

A good portion of effective content marketing is developing a positive reputation. and there are few better ways to do this than by word-of-mouth and building relationships with other experts in the field.

5) Create a List of Facts that Supports Your Mission

People love learning new things and lists of facts are compelling and easily shared. To create a piece of content that has a high probability of being linked to, compile a list of facts that support your company's main goal or mission statement and then publish it in a blog or infographic.

In addition to fulfilling the customer's need for knowledge, this move also goes to show your company is thoughtful and has done its research.

6) Tell a Great Story

Anyone who has ever seen an Apple or a Subaru ad knows the power of those companies lies in their ability to tell a great story that moves their target audience. Take some time to consider what your company cares about and how that intersects with the company's mission — be that sales or conversions — and then find a way to weave that into your content marketing.

If you're selling a lifestyle product, tell a story about how the product provides happiness, comfort, or safety. By far the best way to gain customers is by tugging on their heartstrings and telling a compelling story.

7) Consider the Questions Your Customers Ask

When a buyer wants to purchase something, they almost always turn to the internet for advice and research purposes. When a person types a question into Google, they will be met with literally millions of answers and it matter whether or not your company's answer is among those they see.

Source: 20 Useful Content Marketing Tips You Might Not Be Using – But Should

MarTech Landscape: What Is Web Analytics Software?

Stay marketing-savvy and tech-savvy. Get the latest in Martech every Wednesday.

Note: This is part of our Martech Landscape series, which will look at various marketing technology platforms over the coming months.

For marketers, the term "analytics" now has many qualifiers, thanks to the rapid evolution of marketing technology. There are tools to measure social analytics, mobile analytics, descriptive analytics, Web analytics, call analytics, real-time analytics, predictive analytics and more. All of these are conveniently wrapped up into broader terms such as "digital analytics" or "marketing analytics."

But the foundation of any good digital marketing strategy still rests on collecting, analyzing and reporting on website data. Who's coming to your website? How did they find it? What are they doing when they get there? Are visitors doing what you want them to do — and if not, how can you improve the user experience?

How can you establish and collect the right metrics to improve the overall customer experience to drive more business? It all starts with Web analytics.

What Is Web Analytics Software?

In its early iteration, Web analytics software measured clickstream, providing basic information on website traffic. Often, this information had to be translated by the IT department for the marketing team, and it focused on basic metrics like page views, clicks, time on site and bounce rates. Today's Web analytics tools have become much more marketer-friendly, incorporating user-friendly dashboards and a wide array of data.

Virtually all comprehensive Web analytics platforms available today offer a core set of capabilities that focus on:

Individual-level website data collection and storage

Multichannel attribution and/or funnels

Integrated mobile and social metrics

Standard and customized reporting

The platforms begin to differentiate by offering more advanced capabilities, often requiring additional investment, that include but are not limited to:

Built-in tag management

Flexible APIs and/or cloud access

Testing (A/B and multivariate)

Role-based or customizable dashboards

Benchmarking or competitive intelligence

Why Do I Need Web Analytics Software? What Are The Benefits Of Using It?

Unless your business is primarily an offline business, it's pretty hard these days to manage a website without having some form of analytics software running in the background. Whether it's a free tool like Google Analytics or an enterprise-level suite, Web analytics software delivers the data to help you better understand your online visitors and deliver what they need.

The benefits of using Web analytics software are many, including the ability to:

Develop actionable insights that everyone in the organization can follow, thanks to software that is geared less toward the IT department and more towards multi-departmental users

Harness real-time analytics to be quicker to adapt and improve campaigns

Better understand user demographics (e.g., geographic, devices, social network)

Track on-site behavior to gain insight into which channels and navigation paths perform well

Better monitor site performance (load time, usability)

Measure marketing effectiveness via campaign and conversion tracking

What Questions Should You Ask Before Selecting A Web Analytics Software Tool?

OK, so you need a new tool or want to re-evaluate your current Web analytics software. Start with some questions for your own organization:

What website data do we need, and how will we use this data to improve our business?

Which capabilities are must-haves for us? What can we live without?

Who will use this software, and are they capable of taking on a new tool?

Do we have analysts on board who can correctly interpret the data?

Are we currently using other systems that need to integrate with our Web analytics software?

Or are we currently using several smaller tools that can be consolidated into a new platform? If so, what happens to that existing data?

How will we know that we've adopted the right software? How will we measure success?

The most important thing going into any new software evaluation is to understand what data you need, how the software will deliver that data and — most importantly — how you will use that data to drive your business. Additional bells and whistles might be tempting but can also be distracting and can easily drive up your overall budget.

Finally, when it comes time to interview vendors, the questions are the same as for most software adoptions. Your business' Web analytic needs will be specific to your company, but here are some more general questions not to be missed:

What makes your analytics tool technically unique from others?

What kind of training and support is included? Will we have a day-to-day contact?

Can you estimate our total cost of ownership?

Do you have other companies like ours who are already using your tool (and may we speak to them for a reference)?

Are there any types of companies that this software wouldn't be appropriate for?

What is on the product roadmap for the next year?

Like any other software adoption, make sure the vendor can show you the answers to questions about how the software works, not just tell you. A good demo is one that does just that — demonstrates how the tool works. Ideally, see if you can have a trial period or have access to a test version of the software.

Who Are Some Of The Companies That Provide Web Analytics Software?

There are a range of options when it comes to Web analytics software, from freeware to full-blown digital suites and platforms.

Scott Brinker's Marketing Technology Landscape 2015 lists more than 60 Web and mobile analytics companies.

MarketingLand's sister site, Digital Marketing Depot, has published a report, Enterprise Web Analytics Platforms: A Marketer's Guide, which includes profiles of the following companies: Adobe Analytics, AT Internet, comScore Digital Analytix, Google Analytics, IBM Digital Analytics Suite, Webtrekk, Webtrends.

Some opinions expressed in this article may be those of a guest author and not necessarily Marketing Land. Staff authors are listed here.

About The Author Claire Schoen is Vice President of Marketing Services for Third Door Media. She currently oversees the research series of Market Intelligence Reports that covers various marketing technology software categories. Previously she held senior marketing positions in publishing, where she worked for more than thirty years. (Some images used under license from Shutterstock.com.)
Source: MarTech Landscape: What Is Web Analytics Software?

Rand Internet Marketing Announces Partnership With SalesWarp

August 11, 2015 -- Aug 11, 2015 - (Newswire.com)

Rand Internet Marketing, a high-end website design and development internet marketing company, has partnered with SalesWarp, an advanced Ecommerce management software provider.

Rand Internet Marketing is known as an expert in the industry for their cutting edge, effective services and solutions for their varied clientele. Rands services include logo and graphic design, search engine optimization (SEO), online content marketing, pay-per-click (PPC), social media setup and marketing, online banner advertising, and responsive website design and development on Wordpress and Magento e-commerce platforms.

Rand Internet Marketing is very pleased to be partnering with SalesWarp, said Seth Rand, Founder and CEO at Rand Internet Marketing. We believe our expertise in Ecommerce aligns well with their omnichannel Ecommerce management functionalities.

SalesWarps cloud based software helps retailers of all sizes increase efficiencies by reducing the complexity of omnichannel Ecommerce. SalesWarp provides an integrated set of tools for retailers to better manage all operations, including merchandising, order fulfillment, inventory management, and customer service. Additionally, by consolidating systems and processes into one easy-to-use system, SalesWarp delivers the data visibility and performance retailers need to grow their business.

SalesWarp is excited to work with a leading design and internet marketing firm like Rand Marketing, states David Anderson of SalesWarp. Rands extensive knowledge and experience building and promoting Ecommerce sites will be of tremendous value to our clients.

Visit SalesWarp.com to help manage your Ecommerce site. To learn more about Rand Marketing and its partnerships, visit http://randmarketing.com/who-we-are/partners-affiliates/.

About Rand Internet Marketing

Rand Internet Marketing, a division of Rand Business Services, based in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, offers a full line of design and marketing services including logo design, graphic design, website design, responsive web development, search engine marketing, and social media marketing. Rand specializes in professional responsive web design and development including WordPress websites andMagento e-commercewebsites, mobile site design and development, search engine optimization (SEO) and pay per click (PPC) marketing. Rand also offers video production, video marketing, full color printing, reviews and reputation management, product photography, merchant services and a variety of other professional business services.

If you are in the market for a new website, or looking to generate more leads and sales throughinternet marketing, let the Rand Internet Marketing team help you design an integrated strategy that will help your business succeed.

For more information, call 888-707-RAND or request a consultation online at http://randmarketing.com/request-consultation/.

About SalesWarp

SALESWARP, developed by 6th Street Inc., is an Ecommerce management software solution that helps retailers accelerate top-line growth while improving bottom-line profitability. SalesWarp eliminates software silos so retailers can manage their operations more efficiently, get the intelligence to make better business decisions, and reach more customers through more channels. SalesWarp provides tools to manage orders, inventory, products, suppliers, customers and fulfillment across all channels and distribution outlets. SalesWarps cloud-based software is highly scalable and delivers unmatched performance to retailers at every level so you can sell more, make more and manage less.

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Rand Marketing Newsroom

Original Source: http://www.newswire.com/press-release/rand-internet-marketing-announces-partnership-with-saleswarp 

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Source: Rand Internet Marketing Announces Partnership With SalesWarp

5 Ways to Integrate Your Email Marketing App and Work Smarter

If you're not putting email at the center of your marketing efforts, then you're missing a trick.

In fact, even if you are embracing it as a promotional channel, if you aren't integrating all of your business applications within your email marketing tool, you're losing out on a huge opportunity to grow revenue for your business.

You only need to open your inbox to see that email marketing works. All those newsletters and special offers are stuffing your account because marketers understand the power of the medium. You'll find countless statistics that back this up.

But if you're going to do email marketing, you need to do it right. An important part of email marketing is about understanding exactly who your customers and prospects are in order to get the right message across at the right time.

One of the smartest ways to do this is by harvesting the stockpile of customer data that's strewn across all your business applications, and plugging it all into your email marketing tool. This will give you the extra intelligence needed to make sure that you're hitting the right customers with the right message.

Most of the top email marketing apps listed in GetApp's independent ranking system, GetRank, support integrations with popular business software across a range of categories, from customer service and CRM, to HR and social media marketing.

Here are some examples of email marketing integrations and how they can make your marketing app even smarter:

CRM

One of the most powerful types of email marketing integration is with CRM software, where you can harness the data you collect on clients and prospects, and use this to deliver targeted campaigns to them.

Most integrations allow you to sync contact data between the two applications, so that you can ensure that each contact or lead you update in your CRM is changed in the email marketing software too.

Most of the top CRMs for small businesses such as Insightly, Zoho CRM, and Pipedrive support integration with email marketing programs.

Customer Service

By plugging your email marketing application into your customer service software, your support agents can see details of exactly which email campaigns have been served to the customer and what actions were taken.

This helps customers get a more personalized experience when they are speaking with an agent.

For example, MailChimp allows you to integrate with Zendesk so that your team can see previous emails alongside a ticket in Zendesk.

Likewise, it's possible to integrate email marketing tools with your live chat software.

LiveChat, for example, integrates with MailChimp, Campaign Monitor, and others to allow customers to sign up for newsletters whenever they sign into live chat.

Analytics

Your email marketing solution can be rigged up to integrate with popular Web analytics tools so that you can better track your campaigns.

MailChimp, for instance, includes support for Google Analytics, automatically adding tracking codes to your email campaign URLs so that you can see precisely the impact your campaigns are having in terms of things like traffic and conversions.

Klipfolio is another business intelligence app that integrates with a range of email marketing tools, allowing you to use them as a data source.

This means that you can combine email marketing metrics with data from other areas of your business and create unique queries to discover patterns through your dashboards.

eCommerce

No matter how you dress it up, mailouts are ultimately about bringing in revenue in the long term. If you're using an email marketing application and have an online store, you'd better make sure that they're linked up.

Apps like ActiveCampaign, MailChimp, and Campaign Monitor include integrations with a bunch of eCommerce platforms such as Shopify, Magento, and WooCommerce, either directly through the app or by using their APIs.

By connecting these applications, you can do things like add customers as email contacts after they make a purchase, get marketing recommendations based on activity in your store, or pull items from your store directly into your email newsletters.

Social Media

Social media and email marketing are both valuable ways to connect with your customer, but they shouldn't be regarded as completely separate entities. After all, it's likely that you're talking to the same people through both mediums.

Generally, you'll find that your email marketing software can be very easily connected to Twitter, Facebook, and even Instagram, so you can sync your campaigns.

MailChimp's HootSuite integration is a good example of how to sync up your marketing channels. By using the 'MailChimp campaigns' stream, you can see reports and share links across social media, then assess how your followers have interacted with your campaign.

The 'Lists' stream lets you see the health of your campaigns by tracking open rates and unsubscribes, and when you put the streams together, you'll be able to conjure up creative social campaigns based around what's working in your email efforts.

It's worth exploring all of the supported integrations when choosing an email marketing tool, to make sure the other apps you're using in your business are complimentary. That way, you can be sure that things are synced and that data you're collecting on a daily basis goes towards delighting your customers and increasing your lead conversion.

Email photo via Shutterstock

Source: 5 Ways to Integrate Your Email Marketing App and Work Smarter