By Hailley Griffis 
Happy Friday everyone. This week, as usual, we have our favourite articles of the week lined up for you. Since we’ve been talking about startups and entrepreneurship in Ottawa in a few posts on the blog this week (look to Leo and Francis’ duelling posts), our first article talks about why startups should opt for digital marketing. Next we take a look at the latest change to Facebook and what that means for B2B marketers. Finally, the last two articles we’ve rounded up talk about how to combine your customer service and marketing efforts by making your marketing useful and avoiding silly mistakes on social media. We pulled this week’s content from Nashville Business Journal, Convince and Convert, Social Media B2B and Memeburn. Let us know what you think!
4 reasons startups should invest in digital marketing
Samantha Owns Pyle, Owner of Green Apple Strategy, looks into some excellent reasons why entrepreneurs should consider beginning their marketing efforts with digital marketing, as opposed to jumping into traditional mass marketing. Cost effectiveness is a big one for startups, as is setting up early-stage personal branding.
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By Hailley Griffis
Last month’s lineup featured great posts that shattered common myths about how your brain functionality affects sales and marketing and whether or not your software demo may be killing your sales. We looked at worst practices in the world of social media marketing (and how to avoid them), as well as how to pitch an investor slide by slide. Most notably, our website was redesigned and we are happy to present to you the new and improved layout. Let us know what you think!
In case you missed any of it, here is a handy recap of our posts, as ranked by the enthusiasm of our readers:
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By Hailley Griffis
We’ve rounded up some of the best posts we came across this week. Today we’re looking at the justification for online marketing and some tips for implementing a real-time marketing strategy. One of our favourite topics is customer service, and we’ll take a look at four excellent examples of using Twitter for that purpose. Finally, we’re finishing up today by looking at Gmail’s new Promotions tabs and how that affects e-mail marketing. We grabbed this week’s articles from Bdaily, 1to1Media, SocialMediaExaminer and Time Business.
Is online marketing just a waste of time?
There are many things that a business should consider before jumping into online marketing. Vicki Stone outlines some of the questions that should be asked beforehand. The most sound advice requires a business to look at their customers’ current habits to figure out whether or not online marketing raises the right kind of awareness they are seeking. Though most of the time, when it’s done correctly and there are clear goals for your online marketing efforts, it’s absolutely worth the effort.
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By Hailley Griffis
The great article roundup this week focuses on excellent content marketing posts, as well as a hint of what the future will bring. Forbes, ClickThrough and Search Engine Watch touch on content marketing, some intriguing case studies, the importance of storytelling, and the quantity vs. quality debate. Finally, a futuristic piece on SocialMediaExaminer looks at six of the biggest marketing trends to watch for in 2013 and why they are so important.
Content marketing: A playbook
Christa Carone offers takeaways from big brands that are really succeeding with content marketing. Some of the key elements she writes about are knowing the purpose of your content marketing, as well as making sure that the content is relevant. She stresses the importance of setting expectations and changing your angle if you aren’t reaching them.
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By Hailley Griffis
This week’s great article roundup is all about our bread and butter — marketing. From LinkedIn marketing and marketing strategy, to email marketing and content creation. Business Insider, Forbes, Entrepreneur.com and Social Media Today all give excellent tips and tricks. Enjoy.
How to use LinkedIn to boost marketing and increase sales
Business Insider explains just how powerful LinkedIn can be. With more than 225 million professionals worldwide using it, it is the hub for professionals to network and share online. Business Insider states that 24 per cent of salespeople increase their sales when they start using social media. Organizations can show off their expertise on LinkedIn and use company profiles and groups to build an influential presence.
Creating a successful marketing strategy
Andrew Klausner talks about the importance of a robust marketing strategy. Although many companies operate off of referrals, if ever the referrals slow down, they need to have a strategy in place to pick up sales. But you cannot simply decide to market one day, and stop the next. Klausner points out some key elements to a successful strategy, including being realistic and consistent over time.
10 questions to ask when choosing an email marketing service
Email marketing is still in full swing, having grown exponentially since 2009. It is now responsible for 7.5 per cent of new customers, according to recent stats. There are so many email marketing services out there, Kim Lachance Shandrow outlines some important things to first look over before deciding on one. She highlights setting goals, determining costs, picking a design and deciding on platforms, among others.
5 key elements of viral content
Mark Smiciklas knows that every marketer dreams of having their content shared like wildfire. He shares an infographic that reveals the secret sauce for making content viral. The infographic looks at elements like scarcity, share buttons, skim-ability, practical utility and consistency. One interesting fact is that the average user consumes only about 20 per cent of the content on a web page.
