All posts in Marketing

Yahoo’s Tumblr Purchase: What Does it Mean for Small Businesses?

By | May 22, 2013 | Micro Business Issues, Small Business Marketing 101, Social Media | No comments
Tumblr Yahoo

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

On Monday, May 20, Yahoo issued a press release stating their purchase of Tumblr, the popular social network and microblogging platform. This has several important effects on small business marketing, which we outline below. But first, here is a breakdown of what you need to know about Tumblr:

What is Tumblr?

Tumblr is a combination blogging platform and social network. Users log in and can upload content to their personal blog page. They can also follow other Tumblr pages, and can reblog posts from other Tumblr pages to their own. As a result, many pages contain multiple forms of media, including pictures, text, videos, GIFs, and music. To give you an example, here is the official Tumblr page of the Tumblr staff.

How Does Yahoo’s Takeover Affect Small Business?

  1. Tumblr is poised to gain users, exposure, and influence thanks to its partnership with Yahoo. “With more than 300 million monthly unique visitors and 120,000 signups every day, Tumblr is one of the fastest-growing media networks in the world,” says Yahoo’s press release. And that was before the Yahoo takeover. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said on a phone call: “We can bring some of the exciting [Tumblr] content to Yahoo or we can bring some Yahoo users to Tumblr.” Suffice it to say, Tumblr will continue to grow, in both popularity and influence.
  2. With the addition of Yahoo, Tumblr’s content will be much more easily searchable. From Mayer’s post: “Tumblr can deploy Yahoo’s personalization technology and search infrastructure to help its users discover creators, bloggers, and content they’ll love.” This will allow both Tumblr users and Internet searchers to discover relevant Tumblr content more easily.
  3. Tumblr will no doubt begin to incorporate more advertising into their user interface. Tumblr as an advertising vehicle has been summed up nicely as: “…a place to promote particularly creative campaigns to an audience whose attention is worth paying for.” Promoted posts have appeared on users’ Tumblr dashboards since summer 2012, and Yahoo said in their press release regarding the purchase: “The two companies will work together to create advertising opportunities that are seamless and enhance the user experience.” Between Tumblr’s enormous network of dedicated creators and Yahoo’s ad-targeting technology, this could be a huge benefit for businesses.

Tumblr’s CEO David Karp has said time and again that he is not out to compete with other social networks. However, after this acquisition, Tumblr may be poised to take on Twitter, Google+, and Instagram as a platform that allows audiences to create, discover, and share information.

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Opening The Black Box Of SEO Keywords

By | May 20, 2013 | Advanced Small Business Marketing, How To, Marketing, Online Marketing | No comments

This blog post was written by Bobby Gaglini, who works on the external marketing team at Vistaprint, and specializes in search marketing.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) keywords. They can drive any website owner crazy. But, with some research and solid writing skills, conquering your keywords will be easy instead of exhausting.

Read more…

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.

Read more…

The Socially Savvy Customer

By | May 15, 2013 | Facebook, Marketing, Retaining Customers, Social Media, Twitter | No comments

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

Social media networks have completely revolutionized the way in which we communicate with one another. They enable us to engage with friends, extended relatives, A-List celebrities, big name brands, and even high-powered industry or political figures. Which means that businesses must be cognizant of the power that social media now plays in driving consumer opinion and buying decisions. Read more…

Take Your Small Business With You On Summer Vacation

By | May 14, 2013 | Micro Business Issues, Micro Business Tips, Small Business Marketing 101, Tips | No comments

This post is written by Megan Totka, Chief Editor for ChamberofCommerce.com. She writes on small business news and small business tips and resources. ChamberofCommerce.com helps small businesses grow their business on the web and helps them find their local Chamber of Commerce.

As the weather heats up, the time for summer vacations draws near. It is estimated that nearly half the American population, or 140,000,000 people, will travel this summer.

If you own a small business, you need a vacation just as much as traditional employees but may not feel comfortable totally unplugging and disappearing for the length of your time off. After all, there is really no one who can completely fill in for you during the time you are away from your office, store or computer. There are some ways to find a happy medium, however, and still enjoy your summer plans to the fullest.

Here are some easy ways to make the most of your vacation, and keep your business going strong, this summer. Read more…

4 Unexpected Ways To Market Your Business

By | May 8, 2013 | Acquiring New Customers, Marketing, Micro Business Issues, Offline Marketing, Tips | No comments

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.

There are a number of ways beyond email and direct mail to market your business. Some of the most effective methods can happen without people even realizing it! Try some of these less-obvious ways to spread the word about your business. Read more…

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…

6 Networking Tips For Home-Based Businesses

By | May 2, 2013 | Acquiring New Customers, Marketing, Micro Business Issues, Social Media, Tips | 1 Comment

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

We wrote a post a while ago outlining three tips for establishing good work habits at home. This is an important set of guidelines, as it encourages the separation of your “business” self from your “home” self. However, it doesn’t touch on one of the most important parts of home-based business: networking. When working from home, it can be difficult to network, and find new customers. Here are six quick tips you might find useful: Read more…

7 Ways To Win New Customers

By | April 30, 2013 | Acquiring New Customers, Marketing, Offline Marketing, Retaining Customers, Social Media | No comments

This is a post by 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.

Part of growing your small business is growing your customer base. But how, exactly, can you do that? Here are seven ways to win new customers…it’s up to you to keep them! Read more…

50 Days Of Business Card Design: Designer Picks

By | April 19, 2013 | Marketing, Tips | 1 Comment
10-2

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

We are sad to say that this week marks the 1oth and final week of 50 Days of Design; our 10-week long Facebook campaign. Every day for the past 50 weekdays, we have been showcasing new business card designs along with a helpful tip. In honor of our last week, we have featured creative new card designs hand-picked by our very own Vistaprint designers! Thanks to everyone who followed along with us. For those that missed out, you can always revisit the amazing designs and useful tips through Facebook.

Here is the roundup of our last week of 50 Days of Designs: Designer Picks! Read more…

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