In both my work and personal life I am very active in the digital world. Digital advertising can be a very powerful tool if managed properly and there are many benefits that a properly managed digital advertising program can yield. Like it or not, potential customers are using the internet and making decisions based on digital advertising. Yes, even the ones that already know you are shopping online and checking to see if you have a website. Below I've outlined some great digital marketing...

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon a link to TIME Magazine's 50 Best Websites 2013. The websites that made the list were separated in categories. After looking at some of the sites under the "Social" and "Web Tools," I noticed a few helpful sites for small businesses that you might not be familiar with.

First, from the Social section, we have RebelMouse. 

If you've ever wanted to combine all your businesses social content in one place, RebelMouse is a great option.

RebelMouse is a service that...

Small businesses have always had to struggle with maintaining a good name in their marketplace. If someone has a bad experience with your company, they’ll tell 10 people but will only tell two of the great interactions. 

In our connected world, people hide behind screens and keyboards to blast your company with a horrible review, telling hundreds in an instant how awful you are. There is no accountability either, no authority checking to see if the review is accurate or mean-spirited. Oftentimes,...

According to Twitter, there are 400 million Tweets a day and 200 million active users. But to those not utilizing it, the question is often how or why would it help a business. As Twitter continues to be a main platform for social media, the objective of today’s blog is to educate you about some of the compelling small business uses of Twitter. To get started with an account, I would recommend spending some time on Twitter’s support page to learn how to use it and the important terms and policies...

If you've ever voted on American Idol or received special offers from Redbox on your mobile phone, then you're already familiar with short codes. Short codes are special telephone numbers that can be used to address SMS (text) and MMS (multimedia) messages. Often times you are instructed a to text a command word to the short code which is then handled by an automated program. This program can do things like record your votes, sign you up for special deals, or collect your donation to a charity.

N...

YP.com publishes a great Local Insights digital report each quarter that is full of valuable stats on how consumers are searching for small businesses across the YP.com network. The report is focused on identifying emerging trends in local advertising by analyzing YP.com's vast search database.

The quarterly report highlights the performance of the YP.com ad network, top search categories, top growth categories, local search by U.S. geography and detailed search data for featured...

We’ve come to expect that just as soon as we get used to Facebook’s newest features and layout that there will be changes coming. This has been a busy year so far for Facebook as they’ve announced several changes that are in the works. We want to make sure you stay in the loop, so here’s a summary of the changes and what they mean for your small business marketing plans.

News Feed Gets a Makeover

Facebook’s biggest announcement this month was the new look for its news feed that it plans to begin...

There is no more enduring or powerful source of new business than referral. Let me say it again. As a business you simply cannot have a more motivated prospect arrive at your doorstep than someone sent there by a raving fan. Business people know this, but it’s surprising how inconsistently they act in deliberate ways to nurture and develop referrals. I’ll get to the basic things all businesses should do to promote referrals in a bit. With all this talk about reviews though, it probably makes...

Bee, bee bumble bee, I see something you don’t see and the image is ... all about your business. 

In today’s culture consumers expect visual communication and therefore small- and medium-sized businesses must follow suit. With the announcement last week of the release of the new look for Facebook Timeline, users will have the option to filter and see only photos from friends and pages they like. Visual marketing is more important now than ever before.

Wikipedia refers to the concept of “visual...

As social beings, we like to talk. As a small business owner, you would like to stay in business, and to do so, you'll need to make our chatty nature work to your advantage. You want your customers talking for you, and one of the best places to do that is on the internet. Below are some ways you can get people talking.

What's Your Story? - People love a good story, and you should be telling yours. You probably won't get much traction from telling people how you started your business, as...

It has become popular to refer to the Yellow Pages as a relic of the past, but do you know the facts? In this three part series we’ll de-bunk three commons myths about the Yellow Pages.

Myth #1 – Consumers Only Use the Internet to Find Local Businesses

Times have certainly changed since the first Yellow Pages directory was printed in the late 1800s. For many years phone books were the only available source for finding local business information. In the last decade the search engines, social...

As you entered the new year you probably put together a marketing and advertising plan for your business based on what you've had success with in the past. You may have even decided that this was the year to mix things up a little bit and test out some new ways to promote your products and services. As you thought about your advertising plans did you ever wonder what other small businesses were planning to do with their advertising budgets this year? 

While every business is unique it can be...

By now you’ve probably heard of the hottest new social media network – Pinterest. Pinterest showed up in a big way in 2012 when it made the comScore list of the top 50 websites with 25.3 million unique visitors.

In case you aren’t familiar with Pinterest, the site is essentially one big online cork board. It allows users to “pin” images that they find online, which then link back to the original website. Pins are really just visual bookmarks, which are organized by “pinboards” that typically have...

What is Facebook Nearby?

Have you ever traveled to a new city and wondered where you could go, near your hotel, to get a good cup of coffee? Or maybe you’ve been at work and when it was time for lunch you wanted to try something other than your usual sandwich shop? There are a lot of great mobile apps – including Yelp, FourSquare, and TripAdvisor – that could help you find the perfect local business, but up until recently Facebook did not have much to offer. That all changed when Facebook rolled...

By Shayla Rammel

Do you want 2013 to be a breakout year for your business? If so, you need to get a jump start on the New Year, so our holiday gift to you is some hot Internet Marketing tips to get your new year started with a bang.  

Growing a small business takes time. It’s not an overnight success. It takes a long-term, comprehensive marketing approach to build your leads, your sales, and ultimately, your bottom line.

Most small business can’t afford a highly specialized marketing staff to run...

It has been a busy year at Berry as we focused on becoming a one-stop provider of digital advertising solutions. Our Berry Blog launched this year as a means to share our knowledge on small business marketing. In case you missed them, here are our top posts of 2012.

1. The Power of Pinterest Part I: Have You Gotten Hooked Yet? and The Power of Pinterest Part II: Drive Leads to Your Business

Pinterest has exploded this year and the interest in it is evident by the views of our blog posts. Did you...

After the amount of holiday shopping that took place via mobile devices in 2011, nearly half of businesses have attempted to keep up this year by increasing mobile budgets, ramping up website optimization activity, and developing apps. For businesses yet to be convinced about the need for a mobile presence, this holiday shopping season may prove to be the tipping point. 

As expected for 2012, mobile is becoming an increasing;y important cog in the consumer buying process that is a blend between...

If you're locked out of your house, chances are you won't have your laptop with you to search for a locksmith, but you probably will have the key to your house right in your pocket - your smartphone. And instead of surfing the web for fun this time, you'll need to get right down to business, find the closest locksmith and get in touch with them, by phone, NOW! No looking for the best price, best reviewed, best website - you just need to get inside your house and as quickly as possible. THAT'S...

In my 11 years in advertising I have never met a small business owner that has had enough time or resources to dedicate to online marketing. Most agree that marketing in this day and age can be complex and time consuming for small businesses so anything that simplifies the approach is embraced with open arms (and sometimes a hug).   

In 2012 you have to choose from an overwhelming number of options from traditional media like television, radio and yellow pages to online media like SEM, online...

Most of us are familiar with the term outsourcing which involves using a workforce outside of your company. Usually people associate outsourcing with overseas manual labor or call centers, but it can also mean bringing in local contractors or assigning particular tasks to companies that specialize in them. Well, sometimes the job can't be done inhouse, but it's not exactly cost effective to try to outsouce it either. That's where crowdsourcing comes in.

First, let's define crowdsourcing (not to...