7 Social Media Trends That Matter in 2013

There has been a single pink folder on my desk since January 15th of this year. That day matters to me for two reasons – first because its my birthday, and second because it’s the day when I start an empty folder with the intention of collecting ideas for my year end trend report. Then throughout the year, I steadily add information that I find about products, services, apps, marketing campaigns, new businesses, and any other idea to it.

Some are scribbled on a memo pad from a hotel room. Others are torn out of magazines or newspapers. There are printouts of pages from the web with handwritten notes and items circled. If it is an idea I think is important, I find a way to create a physical archive of it. Sometimes bookmarking an idea in a browser just isn’t enough.

Then at the end of the year, I look through that folder usually filled with hundreds of small ideas, and start to filter them. I group similar concepts together and think about how they will matter for the new year. My philosophy when looking at trends is pretty simple – I focus on three things:  

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A Basic Guide to SEM

If someone were looking for a product or service, wouldn’t you want your business’s name to appear in front of them right at that moment?   Search engine marketing can make that happen. In fact, 41% of U.S. customers find products and services through online searches. It’s one of the most efficient and cost-effective ways to expose buyers to your business. Click here for a better understanding of SEM basics.  http://marketingmatters.dexone.com/1217/basic-guide-sem/

What's SEO and How Do You Make It Work For You?

What is SEO exactly? Search Engine Optimization.  So why should it be important to you?  In the 21st Century, most businesses, big and small have a website.  But how do you make sure your website is getting noticed?  That's where Search Engine Optimazation comes into play.   Search engines, such as Google, display the results of websites, photos, blogs, Twitter feeds, etc. based on the keywords in your content.   The more optimized your site is, the better chance you have of getting top billing when a potential customer searches for your product/speciality.  Click on the link below for more information and great tips on SEO!
http://marketingmatters.dexone.com/50/a-super-simple-guide-to-seo/

Increase the Effectiveness and Visibility of Your Advertising

Is your advertising working for you. What's right for one business may be completely wrong for your business. Click on the link to learn more about capturing your target audience. Contact The Lewis Agency to make your marketing work for you!

http://marketingmatters.dexone.com/3554/increase-effectiveness-visibility-advertising-2/

Top Do’s and Don’ts of Mobile Marketing
Nowadays, marketers are constantly looking at ways to implement mobile into their efforts to increase engagement and brand awareness. However, many times companies miss the mark by not taking the necessary precautions to ensure their campaign is executed effectively. Mobile presents marketers with an array of opportunities. Companies who use mobile can drive in-store traffic, increase revenue and reach consumers on a deeper level.
Click here for the top do’s and don’ts of mobile marketing. http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/strategy/13367.html

5 Rules for Marketing in the Age of Discovery

5 Rules for Marketing in the Age of Discovery
Marketing has entered a new age: Information is no longer programmed into consumers' minds.
Since its inception, advertising has been dedicated to the creation of programmed messaging. For nearly 300 years, those who could create the best message and deliver it in a memorable way across as wide an audience as possible won. In less than a decade, the types of content and ways we consume it have completely changed. Marketers have hardly caught up.
Success is much harder to achieve than it was a decade ago. Beginning in the early 2000s, marketers were challenged by the diversification of media choices available to consumers. As Internet usage increased, it also created a new advertising channel and additional competition for eyeballs. But today, the marketplace has become even more crowded. As information has become delivered and consumed in entirely new ways, everything and everyone are competing for attention.
This is the Age of Discovery. But before we examine this new age of marketing, let's take a quick look at the period that preceded it.   Click on the link below to read the entire article:
http://www.fastcompany.com/1842821/5-rules-for-marketing-in-the-age-of-discovery

6 Ways to Improve Your Online Presence and Visibility

According to Nielsen, roughly 274 million people in the U.S. now have Internet access. In another study by TMP Directional Marketing, 80 percent of US adults under 35 consider the Internet their main source for local information. A third study shows 97 percent of all consumers use online media to shop locally.¹ The point is, if your business still isn't online yet, you're missing a wealth of new, qualified and highly motivated leads.

Getting found. Considering online is primarily where you'll find most of today's local shoppers, having a strong online presence is extremely important for promoting visibility. Even 58 percent of those buying offline will research products and services online before buying. That number rises to 87 percent among college graduates and those earning over $75,000.² If your visibility is low, so are the chances of consumers finding you when they're ready to buy. Here are six ways to increase your online presence and increase your visibility.

Have a website. In today's world, many would say your business may as well not even exist if it doesn't have a website. And given how consumers are searching for information these days, it may not exist through the eyes of potential customers if you don't have one. A website is a basic building block of an online presence and, for many consumers, essentially validates your business. It is the place your business will ultimately be found and chosen. But as many entrepreneurs have discovered, just because you have a website doesn't mean you'll get found. A website is an essential tool that should be part of any integrated marketing solution. And since Google reports that 1 in every 3 searches from mobile devices are now local, having a mobile version of your website can only help increase your findability.

Pay for search engine marketing (SEM). This type of marketing improves a business's online and mobile visibility through paid ad placement. SEM uses a pay-per- click (PPC) or cost-per-click (CPC) model, where businesses select key phrases relevant to their line of work. The business will appear in a search result ad when users search for that key phrase. If they click through to the business's website using the ad or sponsored link, then the business pays for that lead. SEM offers businesses many benefits including the ability to:

• Maximize online exposure by placing you in the paid search results near the top of the page
• Tailor your ad message and keywords to suit your needs
• Track results with greater precision
• Establish a monthly spending cap
• Pay only to reach consumers who show an interest in your product or service

Use search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is all about figuring out key search phrases customers would use to find your business and incorporating them into your site. The more your website content matches up with the specific searches people do, the more relevant your site will be considered by search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. As a result, your business page will rank higher than others and you'll appear closer to the top of a search results page. SEO allows you to:

• Improve the rank of your website in the free search results
• Raise your position on the page
• Increase your visibility for free
• Grow the traffic to your site

Add custom videos. A video link found online is 52 percent more likely to be clicked than a standard text link.¹ In the U.S., we are the number one video consumers in the world. In fact, Alexa ranks YouTube as the third most visited site on the Internet behind Facebook and Google. Consumers like to be able to see your business, your store or office, your staff, and your products in living color and full motion. Plus, videos are 53 times more likely than text pages to show up on the first page of search results.⁴ Some of the many other benefits of using video on your site include the ability to:

• Tell your story visually
• Increase chances of your content going viral
• Differentiate your site from competitors
• Get 18 percent more viewer attention than TV commercials³

Use online banner advertising. Most Internet users have probably seen plenty of banner advertising while surfing online. Typically, they're the small, rectangular ads seen across the top, bottom or along the side of a page. If you click on one, it immediately takes you to the advertiser's website or their landing page. Just a few years ago, banner ads looked to be fading in popularity. But, thanks to technology centered on how they are bought, sold and targeted, banner ads are making a big comeback. Today's banner ads get exposed to the most relevant target audience by strategically advertising on websites that would appeal to the site's users. Targeted banner ads reduce wasted coverage and bring in more qualified leads for less. Some of the other benefits of banner advertising include the ability to:

• Guide prospects along the purchase path
• Provide up to a 27 percent lift in online sales⁵
• Offer up to a 17 percent lift in offline sales⁵
• Increase brand awareness
• Easily measure results
• Compete with national brands
• Build credibility with future customers

Reputation management. In the world of reputation management, knowledge is power. You can't manage what you don't know about. Reputation management is the process of tracking what is being said about your business. It provides an omnipresent electronic ear to the ground so you know what information is being said about your business and allows you to check for accuracy, share the good stuff, and respond-if needed. Reputation management benefits businesses by:

• Ensuring consumers find only the best version of your business
• Allowing you to keep tabs on what is being said about your business
• Providing the opportunity to address any damaging information in a timely manner
• Listening to social buzz about your business
• Helping to keep an eye on the competition

More visibility, more business. Increasing your online presence is one of the best ways to increase your visibility for customers trying to find you. Local businesses need to develop a coordinated offline and online marketing program to reach across the myriad of ways today's digitally savvy and mobile buyers search and shop. Test your business's visibility right now for free. Take a few minutes to get your Findability Score by answering five simple questions about your business.

1 - Source: Kelsey Group, Mobile Market Research, 2010 
2 - Source: Pew Research Center
3 - Source: YuMe and IPG Media Lab, April 2012
4 - Source: GigaOM 2009
5 - Source: comScore 2008