5 Simple & Effective Instagram Marketing Tips for Businesses

/in , /by

Michael Bird | May 28th, 2014 | Business2Community

If your business already has Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, you may wonder why you should also invest your time in promoting your business via Instagram. Instagram is a great platform for grabbing the attention of users who are drawn to visual messaging and sharing. It has more of a personal touch than Twitter and Facebook, but it has similar features such as “likes,” shares and hashtags for putting your content in the same category as others. The main difference lies in that your content is contained within one square image.

So what’s so special about sharing images? For one thing, users are more likely to be drawn to visuals than to text. In addition, people are 40% more likely to have a better response to visual content as opposed to plain text. The bottom line here is that people love pictures (just look at the success of Pinterest). So if you’re looking to enhance your business promotions via Instagram, here are the expert tips that can get you started:

Read more

Marketing Experts Dan Gartlan and Nicole Wagner to Speak at the LeadingAge Missouri 2014 Annual Conference

/in /by

LOMBARD, ILL., August 25, 2014 – Stevens & Tate Marketing continues to share its expertise within the senior living and aging care services industry across the country. After being asked to speak at numerous LeadingAge conferences nationwide, Stevens & Tate President Dan Gartlan and Internet Marketing Director Nicole Wagner have announced the addition of LeadingAge Missouri 2014 Annual Conference & Exposition this fall. As experts in the senior living/aging care industry, Gartlan and Wagner have established notable credibility with the targeted audience groups, and look forward to the new speaking engagement.

The 45th annual event (themed “[re]defining age”) is being held on September 10-12, 2014 at the Renaissance Airport Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri. On the first day of the three-day conference, Dan Gartlan and Nicole Wagner will present their customized presentations to help senior living/aging care professionals learn how to successfully engage and attract new prospects to increase occupancy at their facilities. Read more

Top 4 tips for creating a successful targeted Facebook ad campaign

/in , /by

Sonja Hegman Andras | August 20, 2014 | Inside Facebook

It’s no secret that Facebook’s organic reach for pages has plummeted over the last year — or that the free ride is essentially over — but forking over a little cash for ads could do some good. The most efficient way to do this? Through creating a targeted campaign.

Social ads are a great way for businesses to foster consumer engagement and expand their reach, according to Phil Penton, president of Social Integration.

U.S. companies spent a combined $5.1 billion on social media advertising last year, and that number is expected to increase to $15 billion by the end of 2018, according to BIA/Kelsey.

Penton told Inside Facebook:

This is the hottest topic out there. Everyone was out there growing their fans [on Facebook], and spent a lot of time growing their Likes with the thought that they were going to be able to post content for free and their fans would be able to see it. The reality is that if you had 100,000 Likes on your Page, only 10 percent were seeing your posts anyway, which isn’t great to begin with.

Read more

Why Your Web Copy Is Missing the Mark (and How You Can Fix It)

/in , , /by

Tara Chila | July 30, 2014 | MarketingProfs

Writing for a website is different from other kinds of writing. You have to make it short, sweet, and explanatory—and focus on communicating benefits, benefits, benefits. Oh, and also make sure you nail down relevant keywords and scatter them enough (but not too much) in the text.

Writers who are new to writing copy for the Web have to learn what works and what doesn’t, and they have to learn fast. To make all that a bit easier, I’m going to discuss a few cardinal rules of business writing and effective online copy.

Titles and search results snippets are king

You’re probably aware of how important a webpage title is, particularly since that’s what searchers will see in search engine results. But, do you fully comprehend how much a bad page title can hurt you? A poor title will not only skew your search engine results (keywords in page titles help search engine bots recognize and rank your page) but also fail to capture your visitors’ attention.

Make sure page titles are concise, yet explanatory and focus on the benefits of your services or products. For instance, one of our old page titles and search results snippet were as follows:

Reliable cross country shipping & moving takes experience—TSI has been a leader since 1989
You get low rates and expert handling for small moves and shipments nationwide. Call for a price quote or click to request a quote online now.

Read more