If you create posts on social media, a personal website, or through any other media platform, you’ve undoubtedly witnessed the effect of quality written content on your audience. By building engagement and fostering trust in your expertise, producing effective copywriting is an excellent way to improve your online content strategy. Although writing effective content for your website or other media platforms can seem like a daunting task a first, it’s certainly a skill that becomes easier over time. Most effective copywriters adhere to a few basic, proven principles:

1. First Impression: Is it Worth Your Reader's Time?

Your title is your first impression, and it needs to instantly convey why your writing is worth your readers’ time. A great title typically promises to solve a problem, convey value, or otherwise confer a benefit to the reader. It should be to the point. Not too cute, clever, or otherwise difficult to understand at a glance.

2. Can Your Readers Grasp Your Message at a Glance?

Just as you want your title to be easy to grasp, effective content is clear and easy to follow. It’s often helpful to break chunks of text into lists, bullet points, or short paragraphs.

3. Don't Let the Action Stop When Your Writing Ends

By the end of your piece, your readers should come away with a sense of purpose. Whether you want them to buy your product, subscribe to your service, or visit your website, this should come across in your writing.

If you are looking to generate leads quickly on Facebook, one way to do so is through sweepstakes and prize giveaways. These are promotions that you go through to generate a huge amount of interest in your brand over a short period of time. This is a great way to attract a wide-range of Facebook users as well.

The best thing about sweepstakes and prize giveaways is that they are extremely simple to get started. Plus, if you are able to offer something really worthwhile, you will be surprised to see just how quickly excitement grows around your company and offer. You will even notice a renewed interest in your business from customers who have already loved you in the past.

When you are creating these types of programs, remember to make the prize something Facebook users will really want to win. This will encourage them to participate in your giveaway, which will help grow your leads. Also, giving them additional entries for sharing the posts is a great way to get the word around to other users.

Creating sweepstakes and prize giveaways is definitely something that can grow your business quickly. However, do consider how this program will affect your business if it is successful. Some companies have made the mistake of offering too much and then not being able to follow through after their giveaway became extremely popular. Instead of falling into this trap, make sure you offer something that is easily achievable if large numbers of people express interest in your offer.

Content marketing involves more than just driving leads and traffic. When done right, it should support prospects throughout the entire buying journey: from the moment they find you to the time that you close the deal. In fact, if you want them to come back as a repeat customer or refer you to their friends and family, it should even extend beyond the sale.

So what about sales enablement? What role does content play in sales?

Sales enablement content should to be very product- and customer-focused. These are things like product info sheets, buying guides, and case studies. There are three general areas you want to focus on: success stories such as client testimonials, interviews, and case studies; product content such as product sheets, demos, and overviews; and persona documents that show why your product is exactly the right for that prospective customer. For example, if you are a contractor and have been approached by a family rather than a business, you could provide content that shows how your company can help a family create their dream home.

One thing to remember: sales enablement content can only works if your sales team uses it! So make sure that marketing and sales are on the same track and communicating openly about what content is available, how to use it, and when.

When it comes right down to it, we have three good reasons to outsource PowerPoint design.

1. So you look like a pro

There's more to PowerPoint design than choosing a slide design and inserting animation effects. It doesn’t take a design procession to tell the difference between a professional design and an amateur design. They may not know why one looks better than the other, but they do notice the difference. You have to ask yourself how you want to appear when you present to clients, investors, and others. We know that appearance leaves a huge impression; you wouldn't walk into a meeting with a tank top and shorts, so why would you present something that doesn't look professional? PowerPoint design affects non-verbal communication, which carries most of your message.

2. So you can focus on your business

You will make far better use of your time focusing on the message you want to deliver, than sweating the details of getting the latest version of PowerPoint to do what you want. By leaving the design and implementation to the experts, you can stop worrying about the graphic design, image selection, typography, and animation. You can leave all of that behind and still have a killer deck on presentation day.

3. So you can save money

Some businesses hire an in-house team to build their presentations, but unless you have a great deal of PowerPointing to do, this can be much more expensive than outsourcing. Depending on the amount and type of presentations design needed, it may be more cost effective to rely on a marketing agency. That way, you can be confident and proud of your presentation when you walk into a meeting, and happy you didn’t have to pay an exorbitant price for it.

To talk more about this, or any of your marketing needs, please contact us. Thanks.

When you invest a considerable amount of resources into creating a new product, you do not want your efforts wasted because of a misguided introduction to the market. Instead of hoping that you can bring about your own success with your new product, you should consider content development services to give your new product the launch that it deserves and one that has the highest chance of success.

Introduce the Product on Social Media with High-Quality Posts

Whether you want to tease the product on social media or make a post about its release, aside from a quality product, the most important thing is to create high-quality posts to get people interested.

Get Fitting Content on Your Website

With any new product, there is valuable information that people will want to know to decide whether your product can satisfy their wants and needs and if it is worth purchasing. Your website is where the content must be exceptional as this is the main place where people will go for gathering information.

Create Effective Marketing Copy

If you plan on marketing the product with online ads, radio ads, magazine ads, or television ads, you want to make sure the content is engaging and finishes with a strong call-to-action to maximize success.

Sell the Product to Your Existing Customers

It is not uncommon for businesses to promote their new products to their existing customers, but this does not mean they will automatically want to purchase your new item. Ideally, you want to create unique ad copy for existing customers to make them feel appreciated and to advertise at the same time.

If you are interested in content development services for a new product launch, contact us.

Starting a business is an uphill climb made steeper by a lack of money, making it important to save on marketing costs whenever possible. The trick is to market cost-effectively as opposed to cheaply, because poor marketing can snuff a business out before it ever truly begins. Outsourcing the marketing function can save a startup’s money, while helping grow its clientele.

Lower Costs Per Lead

Generating quality leads requires effective campaign management and the right lead collection techniques. It’s also a process that takes real-world experience and technical competency, if it’s going to be done cost-effectively. Most startups do not have personnel with extensive marketing backgrounds, because entrepreneurs are typically technical gurus or innovators, not marketing experts. Marketing professionals can help drive down the cost per lead by leveraging their experience and knowhow.

Less Trial & Error

Marketing plans include a variety of online and offline marketing mediums, which in tandem are designed to attract the right types of clientele. However, it can take entrepreneurs a lot of trial and error to find the right mix of marketing programs to generate the right amount of interest in a new product or service. This trial and error period can lead to higher expenses, which in turn can make it harder to get a startup off the ground. Outsourced marketing services can make it easier to find the right marketing programs sooner, saving startup companies a lot of capital and effort.

Lower Overhead Costs

Maintaining a dedicated marketing workforce costs money in terms of salaries and benefits. In particular, benefits may be difficult for startups to pay given the limited funds they have to work with. Outsourcing to marketing professionals can lower overhead costs when capital is in short supply. The net result being a higher chance of success for startups, when they work with outsourced marketing professionals.

Marketing is something that many startups simply can’t do without, because it’s essential for bringing in new customers and enhancing brand awareness. Outsourced marketing professionals have the experience and knowhow to help startups fine-tune their marketing plans, helping them thrive during their first years in business. If you have a startup and need marketing, please contact us.

As markets evolve, marketers have had to up their game to be successful. One of the latest tools in the modern marketer's toolkit is Real-Time Marketing. This is marketing performed "on-the-fly" to deliver the right message to the right customer at the right time: NOW! Here are three tips to help you get started on your own Real-Time Marketing campaign.

Responsive

The goal of this type of marketing is to respond to consumers. If your trying to be something you are not or come off as fake than your marketing endeavors will surely fail.  Don’t sterilize and overly censure your content until it’s bland and uninteresting.  Consumers hate the smoke and mirrors.

Simplicity Rules the world

Keep marketing simple, hone in on the basics, such as age, gender, location interest you know the targeted markets and such.  Stay tapped into those target markets, you can make leaps and bounds this way it allows you to avoid the doldrums and shift when need be. For instance, let’s say your demographic is women between the ages of 18 and 35, last year they were crazy for low rise skinny jeans, but then trends change and now they love the skinny high waited jean. Make small adjustments to marketing to meet the current interest. When your focus is too broad you are unable to notice those subtle nuances and by the time you do it’s too late and you have hit the analysis doldrums.

Excitement

Let’s face it, consumers have short attentions spans. That being the case you have to keep the brand interesting.  Real-time marketing is just that Tweets and Facebook post lose their momentum within a few minutes, or a few hours, and then it fades into obscurity. Prevent this from happening by making awesome remarkable posts that have the propensity to be shared by your followers.

By following these basic tips, you can optimize and see incredible results from your Real-Time marketing strategy.

In the days when beepers and business cards were the main connectors between the sales force and future sales, beepers were hit and miss, and business cards were informational without adding much to your presentation resources.

Along came the smartphone and digitized business cards. Smartphones now have the computing capacity many thousands of times in excess of what NASA used to go to the Moon and back, and you can dispatch a personal and company business card at the speed of light via e-mail. You can also launch an online link to your professionally-designed PowerPoint presentation via Twitter, Linked-In and Facebook -- a business card on steroids.

Out with the clunky 

In fact, your business presentation tools -- a PowerPoint deck of professionally engineered slides, for example -- have matured from the clunky carousel projector to a totally portable, scalable and shareable resource.  

The connection between the seller and the customer

Your sales rep might have picked up on the customer’s good, neutral or negative vibes during a PowerPoint sales presentation. However, even the most experienced sales rep is no mind reader, all that smartphone and sales presentation technology notwithstanding. Badly designed presentations cluttered with too much of everything reflect poorly on you and your product and could be a tie-breaker when the customer has a tough choice between you and a competitor.

PowerPoint is still a player

PowerPoint may be the platform that people love to hate, but it remains an important and accessible tool in your marketing tactics. Visuals and content are key and can be the difference between a glassy-eyed, no-sale stare and a successful sale.

Contact us and we’ll show you how to leverage all your great marketing and sales presentation work into a PowerPoint presentation that will you and your customers will actually love.

Having a business blog is a great way to obtain “followers,” also known as customers. It allows a business to get their name out there, become known and follow with what the business has been doing and if anything has changed. The good news is it keeps customers up to date as well, and can make a stronger connection other than that of a business customer. It’s more personal. However, what do business bloggers write about?

Make it Personal

The best thing you can do for your business is to make it personal. Write about the challenges the business has faced, mistakes it’s made, obstacles it overcame, successes. These subjects make for compelling and unique stories because it’s personal and only this business will have these stories.

Include your Customers

Call your clients. Ask them what they’ve had trouble with; what do they like best? Have they recommended this business to anyone? Will they? Ask about the customer and their experience with your business. Use what they say to update your blog. Show your customers you care. If there’s a problem, write about it and tell people what you’re doing to fix it.

YouTube is Your Friend

Incorporate other tools to make your blog more interesting. Upload relevant content by using YouTube. People love watching videos. Make a tutorial of what your business does, if you can. Make a video of your satisfied customers. Grab people’s attention with more than just words, but by showing in a video.

By using these 3 tips, you can ensure that you are producing relevant and engaging content to grow and maintain your online business community.

Please contact us for more insider tips on enhancing your content strategy to fuel your business growth.

So you've got a content strategy, developed plenty of good content for your site, and you're ready to go. But wait. Have you considered how to intrigue your audience enough to click through to read your articles? There's one more thing you need to do to make sure your content gets exposed to as many eyeballs as it should be. Write great headlines!

A good headline will interest the reader enough to want to read more, without giving away your whole story. In his book, 25 Terrifying Reasons Your Content is Not Successful, Cyrus Kirkpatrick says this about headlines that reveal too much:

It’s ultimately an ineffective way to promote an article. It pretty much encompasses all the information in one short blurb, to the point where I don’t have any interest in seeking out more information—everything I need to know is already right there!

Headlines need to have a sense of mystery. People have very short attention spans when they are surfing the internet, and as result good copywriting is more than ever if you want your content marketing strategy to succeed. For instance, a headline that says, "Saving Important Documents on a USB Is Important For Your Business", is just not going to get as many clicks as it can. The headline gives away the article, and many people won't bother to click on the article once they read the headline. A better headline would be "The Best Way I Know to Back Up Business Documents". At least this title will make readers curious, prompting them to click on your article for more information about the subject being presented. 

Remember, your goal in writing a headline is to make your audience want to, "...read all about it!"

Contact us if you would like to learn more about content strategy and how it can help your business.

Successfully generating leads for your business is a vital part of the client acquisition process. Once you've generated leads, however, your job is far from done. Lead nurturing-- and ultimately converting those leads to customers-- is where many businesses fall short. In fact, it's estimated that nearly 80 percent of marketing leads are not converted into sales. How can your company close the gap between lead generation and client acquisition? Let's consider seven tips for converting your leads to customers:

Do your research. To determine how you can best fulfill a potential customer's needs, you must first do your homework. Understanding your prospect's company and industry helps establish credibility. Stay updated on the latest industry developments and keep track of company news.

Be responsive. If a prospect sends an inquiry email and has to wait several days for a response, conversion chances are slim. Your competitors are likely reaching out to your prospects too; thus, you can't afford to have a slow response time. Research shows that you're nine times more likely to convert a lead into a customer if you respond to inquiries within five minutes.

Make a connection. You want to avoid making your prospect feel like they're just another sale to you. Try to establish a personal connection based on common ground. Maybe you share an alma mater or root for the same football team. Use these commonalities as an ice breaker to get the prospect talking. Once rapport is established, he's more likely to share his challenges with you.

Increase social media presence. While meeting face-to-face is an important part of nurturing leads, so is maintaining an active presence online. A strong presence on social media demonstrates to prospects that your company is modern and relevant. Facebook leads the pack in both online orders and conversion rates. A regularly updated blog is also an excellent way to increase your presence online.

Incentives matter. Let's face it: people like to feel like they're getting a good deal. Consider offering a discount or special to a prospect to help encourage the conversion to customer. Make sure that the offer is valuable and available for a limited time only. This encourages a sense of urgency on the prospect's part.

Make the conversion process easy. If you're making your prospects jump through hoops to work with your company, they'll likely move on to a competitor. Make the conversion process-- and every interaction with your company-- as simple as possible for your prospects. This begins with a user-friendly, uncluttered, and easy to navigate website. Make sure your message is clear and your links are easy to click. You want each prospect to have a stress-free experience with you from the start so they're more likely to stick around for the long haul.

For more information on converting leads to long-term customers, please contact us today!

You have a brilliant idea, have filed for a provisional patent, found a manufacturer, worked with engineers, lined up your funding-ducks, dotted your legal-I's with a trademark, and crossed your graphic designer-T's with a logo, and then you realize getting the product from the idea and concept phase, and through the prototyping process was the easy part. Now, after months of hard-work and navigating uncharted territory, you're faced with hundreds of pivotal decisions on how to produce the product as efficiently as possible, where to sell it and how to sell it, how to distribute it and who to distribute it with, packaging, pricing, labeling, and more! If your head is starting to feel like Mount Vesuvius about to erupt, you're not alone. It's just too easy as a new entrepreneur to lose your way before your product even gets the chance to takeoff. In order to become the next American-household must-have, handle all of those devilish little details, move out of the land of lost-entrepreneurs, bring your product to market, and thrive once you get there, you'll need some powerful tools in your arsenal.

A product management agency will help build and improve your product, establish target consumers, deliver the product to the market, and develop a comprehensive marketing strategy to build your brand, and message.

First product managers will assess what type of product you have, and whether it is tangible or intangible. A paperweight is an example of a tangible product, while an auto insurance policy would be an example of an intangible product. Once the type of product is determined, a growth strategy will be developed to ensure that your product is built, branded, and marketed as efficiently and effectively as possible. Research will be provided as the marketing strategy is designed. Once the plans are established the strategy will be deployed.

How can a Product Management Agency help you strategically bring your ideas, products, and services to life?

A product-centric, success-driven approach will enable the agency to partner with you and get to the core of your vision, goals, and target market. Then a road-map and framework is designed to forecast the entire life-cycle of the product, and provide a step-by-step plan to turn your dreams and visions into reality.

Product Management Services Include:

• Product positioning, pricing, and distribution.
• Competitive Program Development and Execution, and
• Product Lifecycle Management.

Remember what Grandma used to say, "People don't plan to fail, they fail to plan." So, with a million little decisions to be made, necessary expertise at every turn, and markets more competitive than ever, product managers can help you develop a strategy to turn your big idea into that house-hold must have. Please contact us today and see how professionals with over 25 years of experience can help you take your product to market, build your brand, develop a robust marketing strategy, save you time, money, and resources by focusing on product fundamentals, and completely customize your product management program.

Is it worth it to try to personalize your content for your target audience? In this blog we'll look deeper into this question and explain why personalization is such an important quality of your company's content strategy.

Let's begin by putting this in the context of milliennials. This generation consumes more content than any other, and businesses are trying to figure out a way to tap into the market's potential. 

Personalizing content for millennials seems like an impossible task, but understand that it's not an all-or-nothing practice. If you can take a few steps to personalize content on social media and in marketing emails, the investment will pay itself off. 

According to a recent Entrepreneur article, the majority of millennials share personalized content on social media:

"Achieving content personalization at the scale of millennials’ content consumption is daunting. How can you possibly scale to give everyone a unique brand experience. Yet, if you take the time to deliver content that users can care about, 50 percent of the time the survey respondents said they would share it on social media. It’s worth it to invest the time in the content that will make a connection with millennials early and make it deep."

Try to get an idea of the big picture ROI here. You have to invest a lot in your content strategy, but many members of your target audience will share it as a result. 

So in the case of millennials, content personalization is an easy decision. But before you start practicing it, realize that this might not hold true for other demographics. We've already said that the ROI of personalizing content for millennials is positive, but we couldn't estimate that for earlier generations. Before you start planning your content strategy, you have to keep in mind who you're marketing to. 

To talk more about content strategy, or anything else, please contact us. Thanks. 

A dynamic speaker does not need a tool to get his point across. Yet, the right tool can engage his audience with images illustrated by stories that create a longer lasting impact.  

How do you make this happen? Build a strong, professional PowerPoint design that include personal tales as part of the message. PowerPoint is a device to illustrate and provoke thoughtful ideas. 

PowerPoint As A Story Teller

Taking a cue from the TED Talk expert, Carmine Gallo, in his Forbes article, Gallo advises speakers to use PowerPoint to tell stories with pictures and possibly even a small bit of animation. Facts go down easier with entertainment and humor. Unleash the inner Mark Twain when creating your PowerPoint design.

Ask Questions

Dynamic speakers engage the audience, not just by "speaking at them," but by bringing the audience into the presentation. To accomplish--or breach--the gap between the audience and speaker, reach out. Ask a question or two that will grab the audience.  Use PowerPoint slides to enlist participation. This will strengthen the relationship between the speaker and attendees. 

Create Alternative Conclusion Slide

Create a "What if?" slide.  The wonder of an unexpected conclusion is just too delicious to ignore. Elicit opinions from the audience. 

Make It Personal

Insert a personal story that relates to the subject matter. Nothing connects so well with an audience as an intimate anecdote. A slide from the speaker's home library brings the audience closer still. 

The power of a visual aide to illustrate a message is an excellent opportunity make an impact. Take advantage of the moment to reach into the hearts and minds of your audience. 

Be sure to contact us about how we can help you get your message across. 

The great thing about online marketing is that there are several different platforms, each of them having its own advantages and disadvantages. When it comes to lead generation, LinkedIn is king. In this blog we'll explain how you can generate leads with LinkedIn Groups. 

LinkedIn has a completely different atmosphere as opposed to other sites like Facebook and Twitter. It's definitely more professional, but there are also other elements present which are missing on other platforms. 

Users are more focused and motivated on LinkedIn. When they log into their accounts, they're not looking to waste time by reading status updates. They're looking to get things done. 

LinkedIn Groups helps your business segment your market based on users' interests, preferences, and wants. According to this CIO article, you can use this platform for effective lead generation: 

"LinkedIn Groups are another source of leads. Join Groups most relevant to your business, or where you are most likely to find people interested in your product, service or expertise. Then “participate in Group discussions by being a resource, sharing best practices and knowledge gained from experience,” says Lydia Sugarman, president, Venntive, which provides a digital marketing platform." 

The trick is to be informative rather than promotional when you're on LinkedIn Groups. People there are interested in learning more about certain topics and products. They don't want to read a disguised advertisement that only talks about your company's product. 

If you can find the balance where you inform people and get them excited about your product, however, then you'll be able to generate leads.  We recommend using LinkedIn in accordance with other social sites so you can maximize your lead generation. If you have the time to compare your sites, then see if you're more successful at generating leads on LinkedIn. 

To talk more about lead generation, or anything else, please contact us. Thanks. 

It's not at all surprising that content is the most important factor in your content strategy. The reason content has become more important in terms of marketing as of late is because it will always be an effective tool. 

Others disagree. Due to the undeniable buzz that content marketing has created, they see content as a trend. To them, content creation will be outdated in a few years just like the old SEO tactics. 

Out of all the qualities you can use to describe content, trendy definitely isn't one of them. According to this Forbes article, content is, and always will be important in a marketing context: 

"Some content experts moan that there is too much content out there. Or is there? Content, often referred to as “king” is so essential to digital marketing that it can’t be dismissed as a “trend.” While individual publishers may be overextending themselves by publishing too much, there will always be content. It will always be important."

First, you need to understand the purpose and function of content. What makes it such an important component of online marketing? Is it because it enhances your SEO and increases your page rank?

While these are certainly two possible outcomes of content creation, they're not the goal. The real reason you create and post content is to inform and engage prospective customers. 

In addition to keeping your website current, you also need to establish a brand identity and explain why your business is relevant to current events. Creating content is way more important than improving your technical marketing efforts. 

If you want your content strategy to be effective, you have to believe in content as a viable long-term component of your marketing efforts. Once you do that, you'll be able to engage your target audience. 

To talk more about your content strategy, or anything else, please contact us. Thanks. 

Having a strong communications strategy is the way to truly thrive in business. You have to know how to effectively communicate to the public to see results. This post will discuss four simple things you can do with communications for business growth.

Convey a Message through Design

You don’t always need words to get a message across. Working with a professional graphic designer is a wise investment as they are able to beautifully craft the design of your website and other marketing materials to say what you want your brand to say. If you want the company’s message to say that the image is daring, adventurous, and confident, then aim for bold colors and sharp designs. Have the image reflect your brand’s stance.

Be Personal

Through it all, cater to the needs and desires of each individual customer. Treat them the way a person and not just a customer deserves to be treated. Giving your company a personal side also helps establish a greater trust and likeability. Don’t be afraid to give your company the face of a person.

Make it Stick

When you communicate with the public, you don’t just want to advertise your products or services. Say things in between that. Use social media to post insightful quotes that are reflective of your company’s interests and share heart-felt stories of human kindness. Appeal to the emotional side of people. When you do this, they will be more likely to share it across their social media platforms.

Keep it Consistent

Everything from your graphic designs to your tagline needs to be consistent. Consistency helps people remember things better. It also makes it easier to create brand awareness. 

For more information, please contact us today.

Positioning your product isn't easy, but it's an essential step in your marketing process. In your marketing strategy, make sure you account for these three factors affecting your product positioning:

Emotions

How consumers connect to your brand emotionally can have a big impact on your product positioning. We recommend businesses to research the way consumers perceive their brand so they're aware of this factor. 

According to a recent MM&M Magazine article, businesses can use several market research methods to discover how consumers relate to their brand and product emotionally: 

"Uncover emotional connections to your brand. You can use various types of market research methods, such as personification, psychographic and ethnographic research among current and potential customers to uncover underlying emotional issues related to a brand and to gain insight into the subconscious perception of your product."

Competing products

Effective product positioning requires some amount of game theory. You have to analyze competing products in the industry and anticipate how your competitors will react to your strategy. 

Many businesses fail at this step. Since they don't take their competitors' reactions into account, they're left with no favorable options at the next step of the game. This can have a negative impact on your product positioning. 

Your target market's preferences 

Moreover, it's important to know your target market's preferences before you start planning your positioning strategy. In addition to their emotional connection to your brand, you should also be aware of common needs and wants among your target market. This will help you improve your positioning strategy and gain an edge over your competitors. 

Although other areas like product development are important, many businesses fail to give positioning its due credit. As a result, they don't always put themselves in the best position to market their product effectively. 

To talk more about product positioning, or anything else, please contact us. Thanks. 

The great thing about online marketing is that there are several different platforms, each of them having its own advantages and disadvantages. When it comes to lead generation, LinkedIn is king. In this blog we'll explain how you can generate leads with LinkedIn Groups. 

LinkedIn has a completely different atmosphere as opposed to other sites like Facebook and Twitter. It's definitely more professional, but there are also other elements present which are missing on other platforms. 

Users are more focused and motivated on LinkedIn. When they log into their accounts, they're not looking to waste time by reading status updates. They're looking to get things done. 

LinkedIn Groups helps your business segment your market based on users' interests, preferences, and wants. According to a recent CIO article, you can use this platform for effective lead generation: 

"LinkedIn Groups are another source of leads. Join Groups most relevant to your business, or where you are most likely to find people interested in your product, service or expertise. Then “participate in Group discussions by being a resource, sharing best practices and knowledge gained from experience,” says Lydia Sugarman, president, Venntive, which provides a digital marketing platform." 

The trick is to be informative rather than promotional when you're on LinkedIn Groups. People there are interested in learning more about certain topics and products. They don't want to read a disguised advertisement that only talks about your company's product. 

If you can find the balance where you inform people and get them excited about your product, however, then you'll be able to generate leads.  We recommend using LinkedIn in accordance with other social sites so you can maximize your lead generation. If you have the time to compare your sites, then see if you're more successful at generating leads on LinkedIn. 

To talk more about lead generation, or anything else, please contact us. Thanks.

The interesting thing about PowerPoint design is that there are no set rules or standards. Regardless, we've seen some practices be more effective than others and decided to write down some Do's and Don'ts of PowerPoint design. We'll start with the Do's:

Create continuity

Your PowerPoint shouldn't change its tone with every other slide. You should have one general theme that creates continuity in your presentation. A great way to do this is to choose an appropriate color scheme and stick with it. 

Include several elements

The great thing about PowerPoint is that you can add several different design elements. Consider adding videos and pictures to give your audience a break from written content. 

Aim for a minimalist design

We'll get to this point later with some of the Don'ts of PowerPoint design, but we really can't stress it enough: keep things simple and organized. A minimalist PowerPoint design helps keep your thoughts clear and understandable. 

Now, let's talk about some of the Don'ts of PowerPoint design:

(Don't) Go overboard on effects

There's nothing worse than ruining an otherwise great presentation by overloading your PowerPoint with bells and whistles. Not to sound rude, but nobody cares if your headlines and pictures spin or fade in. 

(Don't) Use a distracting color scheme

There's a reason why PowerPoint offers built-in color schemes. That doesn't mean you have to use them, but you should at least take a page out of their book. Don't use a color scheme that features an all black background with yellow text. 

(Don't) Do anything that takes away from your content

This point is a little more general, but it should always be present when you design your PowerPoint. You've got great information, so don't do anything that's going to take away from it. The only thing your PowerPoint design should do is help your audience understand your train of thought and argument. 

To talk more about PowerPoint design, or anything else, please contact us. Thanks.