SmallBusinessNewz

This week, WebProNews has been in San Diego at the Online Marketing Summit, reporting on strategies and advice covered there by experts on the subject. Obviously, a great deal of what has been discussed at this event can be applied to small businesses.

Branding Sometimes Means Being Human

One thing discussed at the event was the importance of bringing the human element into online marketing. This is of course done much more easily than it once was with all of the social media tools available now. Federated Media CEO John Battelle talked about how the tools around now allow more and more people to join the conversation, and encouraging people to join the conversation about the brand is key. The most important thing to a brand, he says, is using the tools and leveraging opportunities for more people and employees to create and grow a conversation about the brand.

Moving Forward With Email Marketing

The Director of eMarketing Education at ExactTarget said that 40 percent of the cell phones in use will be smart phones by 2014, and that all marketers need to test their emails for compatibility with mobile formats, and retail marketers should think about issuing mobile coupons.

He also talked about creating and cultivating brand advocates using email, saying that 50 percent of all shared content is shared via email, and that social sharing can be a great way of attracting new subscribers.

Why Even Local Search is Becoming More Real-Time

WebProNews had an interesting discussion with RateItAll President Lawrence Coburn on consumer location-sharing, and how it kind of presents a new kind of search query. People are getting local business information from a wider variety of online sources these days, including mobile apps like Foursquare and Gowalla.

Watch this interview for more on that.

Most Businesses Still Only "Experiment" with Social Media

A new study from E-Consultancy in association with the Online Marketing Summit found that most businesses are still only "experimenting" with social media. Companies are continuing to struggle with their social media strategies and finding a way to measure ROI, but that's not stopping them from increasing time, and resources trying to improve their strategies.

Track How Effective Your Online Marketing Efforts are Offline

Businesses continue to struggle with ways to track where their offline conversions are coming from. WebProNews had another interesting discussion with Salesforce's Global Head of Search, Lauren Vaccarello about how to track offline conversions that result from online marketing campaigns.