In today’s busy online market, good branding is vital. Having a logo that is clean, eye-catching, and compelling can mean the difference between good business and no business. After all, when it comes to online marketing, your logo is the face of your business. Choosing the right logo, however, can prove difficult. A recent article by Matt Silverman on Mashable.com provides four things that should be considered when considering a new logo.

One thing to remember is that your logo is a first impression. Before consumers know anything about your company, the first thing they notice is your identity. Instantly, consumers know if they want to continue or click away. As Silverman states, “Like the clothes you’d wear to a business meeting, your logo has to say, “I’m smart, I’m savvy, and I can compete,” at first glance.”

This is especially important for small businesses because they have to compete with large, multi-national corporations. This is a great opportunity, however, for small business owners because they can adapt to an ever-changing online market much easier than a large corporation. That’s why it is so important for small businesses to stay up-to-date on current market trends.

Another thing to know when it comes to your logo is what makes a logo “sticky.”  This means that your logo will “stick” in the consumers’ minds. When they see your logo they automatically associate with your brand. Making your logo memorable can be tricky, but thinking outside of the box can help. Try to be unique. Avoid what has been done countless times, and try to create something that is specific to your business.

Read the full article for more tips on creating the perfect logo for your company.

Thousands of new products are launched each year; and surprisingly, most of them fail. What is it exactly that causes them to fail though? Is the marketing research not good enough? Is the advertising not creative enough? Are consumers just too difficult to understand? According to a report by the Harvard Business Review, the answer is no. They believe that the problem lies in the market segmentation.

An article by Kathryn Roy on MarketingProfs discusses this report and provides a few tips for getting your message heard in such a crowded market. Roy points out that many businesses are setting themselves up for failure right from the start by defining target segments by consumer types and not by consumer needs. As Harvard Business School marketing Professor Ted Levitt says: “People don’t want a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.”

Figuring out what consumers want your product to do is the first step in building brand equity. Instead of focusing on a specific consumer segment, focus on what that segment wants your product to do for them. What job do they need done, and how can your product achieve that goal? By marketing the unique job that your product supplies, you will have a better chance of standing out in such a crowded market. By address the specific needs of a target segment before your competitors do, you can increase company revenues and morale.

Read the full article for more on how you can be heard in today’s crowded market.

Many businesses today are joining the social media movement, and without a doubt the largest online social market is Facebook. Businesses can use Facebook to create “fan pages” designed to let them connect with consumers and prospects on a wide scale and keep them up-to-date on company news and products. By creating a “fan page”, businesses have access to over 500 million subscribers. But how do you manage such a large market?

Many experts believe that in today’s technology driven market, “old-school” marketing techniques are out dated and will not work on newer markets such as Facebook. Dean Rieck, writer and direct-marketing consultant, thinks otherwise. In a recent article published on MarketingProfs, Dean lists 13 “old-school” marketing techniques that he believes will take your Facebook fan page from “wimpy to wow.”

Dean’s first technique is to advertise your page. He believes that if you want people to come to your site, you must drive them there. At a minimum, link your Facebook page to your website. Increase your advertising by using Facebook ads, blogs, banners, and any other advertising to get your fan page noticed.

He also adds that to beef up your Facebook fan page, you need to research both your fan base and your competition. Using Facebook’s Insight feature, you can view metrics on your fans, such as how many active fans you have and how many comments and interactions are taking place. You can also access your competitions fan pages to see how their pages compare to yours.

Check out the full article for the complete list of Dean Rieck’s “old-school” marketing techniques and see how you can turn your Facebook page from wimpy to wow.

If your company is utilizing social media, odds are you have dealt with sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn. You are also probably aware that managing social media can be difficult due to how many different types of social media sites exist. To avoid this challenge, many companies use their various social media sites as direct channels to reach their customers. The problem with this, however, is that you can not build a marketing strategy on the idea that people will follow you around the Internet going to every one of your sites.

According to an article on Media Post, companies need to think of social media as an interconnected web. By making your Twitter feed visible on your website, your online stores accessible through Facebook, and placing your YouTube videos everywhere, your customers will easily be able to access and navigate your business regardless of the channel.

The trick here, however, is to make sure you can maintain your authenticity. When integrating social media into your various sites, it is easy to simply automate your responses. You can have your Facebook updates post to your Twitter, your Twitter feed to your LinkedIn, and so forth. This may seem like a great idea to save time and effort, but this can get annoying for the customer.

If your followers are constantly receiving updates from your social media sites, they are more likely to simply “hide” you rather than being bombarded by messages. Media Post suggests that whenever you are tempted to automate your social media, as yourself, “What will this do to the customer experience?” Try to find a balance between automated responses and personal ones.

Check out the full article to see how you might can achieve that perfect balance.

One of the best ways for a business to capture leads is with a landing page. Done properly, a landing page can get a high number of website visitors to provide their contact information for future lead generation. Knowing how to create a successful landing page, however, can prove difficult. A recent article on Hubspot provides three tips on creating an effective landing page.

According to the article, before you create a landing page, you need to understand the idea of “call-to-action buttons.” In order to convince people to navigate to your landing page, you need a call to action message that will motivate them to learn more about your business. Once you have a compelling message to drive people to your landing page, there are a few easy things you can do to improve your page.

First, make sure your landing page matches your “call-to-action message.” People follow a link expecting to immediately find information of the topic. If they don’t recognize the information on the landing page right away, they are likely to leave.

Second, keep the required information fields to a minimum. Four essential fields exist for starting lead generation: Name, Phone Number, E-mail, and Company. If any additional information is needed, consider making it “optional.”

Third, make your landing page flexible, so it can prove useful later down the road. Keeping your landing page easy-to-change will save you valuable time and resources.

These are just a few quick tips to help you build a successful landing page. Read the full article for more information.

This past year, Microsoft announced the launch of Outlook social connector, a new feature for Outlook 2010 that will link social network feeds directly to your Outlook inbox. The first to partner with this new feature was LinkedIn, but Microsoft promised other social networking sites would soon follow. Microsoft recently fulfilled that promise by announcing that Facebook and Windows Live Messenger have now been integrated into Outlook. Right now, this integration is only for Outlook 2010 beta, but Microsoft plans to release the plug-in for Outlook 2003 and 2007.

This new feature will not only will pull Facebook profile photos, but will also pull the latest newsfeeds of your contacts directly to your inbox. While you are reading your e-mails, you will be able to see photos, latest feeds, wall posts, and various other content. Microsoft also announced that this info will work on a live feed so there will be no need to refresh anything. Microsoft did say that Outlook social connector does have it limits though. Outlook will only be able to pull data fromFacebook. The ability to “Like” posts or update statuses will not be available…for now.

Microsoft is hoping this new feature will be useful in the business world by making e-mail more sociable. Being able to know exactly what your clients are thinking will be a major asset in the marketing world.

Read the full article to learn more about the announcement.

While social media may be the center of attention in today’s online market, the real leader in generating traffic to websites is still the search engine. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a complex topic that focuses on Search Engine Optimization (SEO), but also includes paid advertising and contextual advertisements. A recent article on Open Forum provides some key tips that might help you make your website more search-optimized.

One of the first steps is to familiarize yourself with SEO. In this ever expanding online world, it is essential to stay up-to-date on what makes a website easily searchable. Another step is to grade your website. Several sites, such as Hubspot, provide website graders where you can easily see the strengths and weakness of your site.

Search engine marketing is a constant process that often requires trial-by-error and self-education. Having great content on your website is important, but making sure people can find that information is key. Read the full article for more tips on how you can make your website more SEM ready.

If you have ever used Facebook, you are well aware of the “Like” buttons. This simple feature allows users to “Like” something they read and post it directly to their Facebook page. In fact, nearly 65 million users are “Liking” things daily. This feature is incredibly popular among content creators and online marketers, and soon they will have another way to access “Likes.”

A recent article explains how MailChimp, an e-mail marketing service, will be releasing a new version of its application that will integrate “Likes” into e-mail campaigns. This means that marketers will be able to add a “Like” button directly to their e-mails. These like buttons will work exactly like they do on the web. When a subscriber clicks the “Like” button the campaign will be posted directly to their Facebook page. All the “Like” behaviors will be tracked by MailChimp and be accessible through a campaign social stats section.

This new “Like” feature will require e-mail recipients take a more social and long-lasting roll, rather than simply following a link. MailChimp is hoping this new feature will greatly enhance user engagement, especially with e-mail marketers. Read the full article for more info and a video walkthrough.

Whether it’s the Star Wars Kid, Leave Brittany Alone, or any other number of videos online, almost everyone has come in contact with a viral video. As soon as these videos hit the Internet, they amass millions of views in a very short time. While most of these videos are meant to simply make you laugh, marketers are trying to figure out how to use viral videos as a way to boost business. With sites such as YouTube, businesses have access to millions of viewers; but what is it about viral videos that make them different than all the other videos out there, and how can you make sure your video stands out?

An article by Mirna Bard offers 5 suggestions as to why some videos go viral and others don’t. She believes the key to a successful video is making sure your video is funny, uses some type of gimmick, has useful content, has an exciting title, and is no longer than 30-60 seconds.

Now these 5 elements will not guarantee that your video will go viral, but knowing what makes a video spread will help you create better content that will be shared across the Internet. Read the full article to see how video marketing might work for you.

In today’s market, you should no longer be asking yourself whether or not your business should join the social media community. The question today is: how involved does my business get in social media? Do you be conservative with your involvement, or do you let it all hang out? Knowing how open your business should be in online communities can be a real challenge, but luckily there is an answer.

A recent article provides a few pointers on deciding how open you need to be with your business. The main thing to remember is that openness in social media can vary. Just like a relationship, the key is to start out slow, and open up over time. The Community Roundtable has created a 4-stage chart that can help you decide where your company is in terms of openness in social media.

Remember, think of social media like a relationship. Put too much out there at once and you may drive business away; don’t put enough and people may be slow to notice you.