All posts in Digital Marketing

Pinterest for Small Businesses

By | May 16, 2013 | Digital Marketing, Online Marketing, Small Business Tips, Social Media | 1 Comment

This post is written by Kristen Johnson, a member of Vistaprint’s social media team who focuses on content marketing.

Pinterest has taken the social media world by storm by quickly moving up the charts as one of the most active and engaging platforms around. We first mentioned Pinterest on our blog about a year ago when the network was just starting to generate buzz. Since then, the network has exploded in popularity. In fact, a recent infographic published by Wishpond revealed that the total number of unique visitors to Pinterest increased by 2,702.2% since May 2011.

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Twitter Expanding Its Self-Service Ad Platform To All U.S. Users

By | May 6, 2013 | Acquiring New Customers, Digital Marketing, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter | No comments

This post is written by Robbie Vogel, a writer/editor with Vistaprint. Robbie has worked for microbusinesses in both PR and advertising.

Twitter, the world’s 10th most-visited website, introduced advertising options in 2010, and rolled out its select self-service ad platform in March of 2012. As of April 30th of this year, Twitter has officially opened up this self-service platform to all Twitter accounts in the United States. If you’re on Twitter, you’ve no doubt seen the yellow “Promoted Tweet” arrow at the bottom of a post on your feed, or the “Promoted Account” featured prominently in your suggested followers sidebar. Now, with some careful investing and targeting, you can get your name into these slots. Small businesses stand to benefit in a few different ways from this change. Read more…

Seven Simple Steps For A Super Call To Action

By | February 7, 2013 | Digital Marketing, Marketing, Micro Business Issues, Offline Marketing, Retaining Customers | No comments
Seven Simple Steps For A Super Call To Action

This blog post was written by Rob Zodda, who works in creative services at Vistaprint and also has digital marketing experience.

A call to action (CTA) is the message on your website or marketing materials that tells customers what to do next. It usually precedes a phone number, URL or takes the form of a clickable button. CTAs are one of the most effective ways to move customers through your flow, all the way to check out.

Here are a few quick tips about creating authentic and effective CTAs. Read more…

How Much Are Facebook Fans Worth To Small Businesses?

By | October 22, 2012 | Digital Marketing, Facebook, Micro Business Issues, Online Marketing, Social Media | 1 Comment
How Much Are Facebook Fans Worth To Small Businesses?

This story was originally published on Boston.com’s Small Business Blog.

One of the questions that I often get from small business owners is, “how much is a Facebook fan actually worth to my business.” My answer is almost always the same. “Zero, unless…”

Depending on what methodology you believe, a Facebook fan could be worth upwards of $100 or as little as $1.00. Some have speculated that fans are worth $10, based on brands advertising on Facebook and the number of impressions they get with actions taken. But until (and unless) Facebook becomes a standalone marketing channel for a small business, it’s going to be nearly impossible to determine what a fan base is worth. In other words, if a business has 100,000 engaged fans but can’t equate what they drive in terms of dollars, they’re worth very little. Read more…

[INFOGRAPHIC] Online Behavior And Small Business

By | October 16, 2012 | Digital Marketing, Online Marketing, Social Media | 4 Comments
[INFOGRAPHIC] Online Behavior And Small Business

When it comes to small businesses, the online world is becoming increasingly significant. Not only for small business owners — 90% of whom say having an online presence is important — but also for their customers, who are using the Internet to perform key actions such as search for local businesses, and (hopefully) purchase. In fact, of Internet users, 97% say they search for local businesses online, with 61% of local searches resulting in phone calls. And nine out of 10 people call or visit a business when found via local search.

And when it comes to online searches, something to keep your eye on is mobile. It’s another area of growing interest, with 90% of mobile searches leading to action, and over half leading to purchase.

What about you? If you’re a small business owner, where do you spend the most time online? How does local search impact your sales? Check out the numbers below, and see how you fit in.

Read more…

6 Tips to Boost The Effectiveness Of Your Facebook Page

By | October 11, 2012 | Digital Marketing, Facebook, Marketing, Micro Business Tips, Online Marketing, Small Business Tips, Social Media, Tips | No comments
6 Tips to Boost The Effectiveness Of Your Facebook Page

This guest post is by Jeff Esposito, Vistaprint’s Social Media Manager.

If Facebook were a color, it would be this season’s black. It has over 900 million users with the oldest Facebook user being 101-years young. This large user base makes it a no-brainer for businesses of all sizes to build up a presence to connect with their customers (if you don’t have a Facebook page yet, don’t worry click here for a quick how to on that). Read more…

6 Easy Ways To Spice Up Your Website

By | September 27, 2012 | Design Tips, Digital Marketing, Marketing, Online Marketing, Site design, Tips | No comments
6 Easy Ways To Spice Up Your Website

This is a post from Sara Nash; Sara earned her degree in Public Relations from Penn State University. From there, she worked a PR agency in Boston before joining the PR and Social Media team at Vistaprint.

We’ve mentioned how important it is to keep your content fresh, and earlier in the week, we provided you with a few places to look in your every day life for content inspiration. Now, we give you six MORE examples of how to make your website a bit more interesting, from using images to updating your design:

Images Are Key
When visitors first reach your page, great images are the perfect way to catch their eye. If you are a local restaurant, for instance, take some pictures of your most popular dishes that will get people rushing out their door and into yours. Tip: It’s very obvious when a picture is outdated, so update your pictures regularly. And if you own a storefront, pictures of the outside of your building will help new visitors find you on the street. Read more…

A Week of Website Tips for Business Owners

By | September 24, 2012 | Design Tips, Digital Marketing, How To, Micro Business Issues, Online Marketing | No comments
A Week of Website Tips for Business Owners

This blog post was written by Rob Zodda, who works in creative services at Vistaprint and also has digital marketing experience.

Have a website for your small business? Thinking about getting one? Over the next few days, we’ll be taking a look at website creation – from copy tips to site design and much more.

A great way to envision your website is to start by thinking about it like you would your home. You want it to be structurally sound, have a good flow, a little personality and undergo some occasional maintenance, right? The same goes for your website. Here are a few tips to start the week off! Read more…

Websites We Love: A Reflection

By | September 19, 2012 | Digital Marketing, Online Marketing, Site design, Websites We Love | No comments

This week’s edition of Websites We Love is all about just that–love. Specifically, we wondered what our Internet Marketing community on Facebook loves about their Websites.

As usual, our team had a tough decision selecting a winner, as we received a number of great submissions. But we had to choose one! This week, our winning site comes from Anne Thietje-Pantoja, who says that she loves her website because it’s a clear representation of her business.”It’s a great reflection of who we are as a business,” she says. “[It's] quirky, fun, and stylish!” And she makes a great point: One thing that really makes a website shine is when it’s a true extension of a business.

We were especially impressed with the site’s Custom Products page, which showcases unique picture designs customers can order, as well as the site’s Events/Specials page, which features not only upcoming events, but also a coupon for customers visiting the site, which is a great incentive! The About Us page was also impressive, as it gives visitors a behind-the-scenes story of The Laurel Tree, and insight into the personalities behind the business.

Congrats on a great site, Anne!

Are Your Small Business Customers Pinterested?

By | September 18, 2012 | Digital Marketing, Marketing, Micro Business Issues, Micro Business Tips, Online Marketing, Small Business Tips, Social Media | No comments
pinterest

This post was written by Maya Tarabishy, a member of Vistaprint’s Social Media team.

You’ve heard it everywhere–in these economic downtimes, save on traditional advertising methods and invest more heavily in internet and social media marketing. As an increasing number of businesses link out to Pinterest, perhaps you’ve been considering creating a profile yourself. Whether you’ve already been pinning away or have yet to sign up, today we re-explore Pinterest from the perspective of small business leverage and provide tips on how the site can best be used to market your brand. Read more…

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