Small Business Spotlight: CBG Benefits

March 21st, 2013

cbg benefits marketingHappy Thursday, everybody! Now that we’ve been back from SXSW for about a week, we’re thinking it may be time to slow down the SXSW posts and go back to our normal posts, including our Small Business Spotlight series!

For this week’s Q&A with a small business, we’re talking to Jason Pinto, Director of Marketing at CGB Benefits. As we’ve touched upon before, some industries aren’t as big of fans of social media as others.

According to Jason, some HR professionals are skeptical about it’s application to business. Regardless, CGB has been able to build a thriving community through social media and content marketing. Here’s what Jason had to say:

Tell us about your business, including the products/services you offer, your target customer, and overall marketing strategy.

CBG Benefits is a boutique employee benefits brokerage firm that boasts an objective-driven and personalized approach to group insurance coverage.  We typically can reduce an employer’s overall benefit costs by 12-15% while providing more choices for employees as well. We truly act as an extension of a company’s Human Resources (HR) department. Our core services include Employee Benefits, HR Communications, and HRIS Technology Solutions.

Primarily, we are trying to reach HR professionals and Chief Financial Officers. Our overall marketing strategy is centered on helping prospects and clients truly view CBG Benefits as a partner. We provide content, tools, and other resources that will help our prospects and clients achieve their goals in terms of HR and employee benefits. We want them to trust us – and to recognize that the services we offer will truly deliver results to them.

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Our Favorite SXSW Trade Show Booths – Part 2

March 20th, 2013

sxsw logoHey everyone! Thanks for returning for part 2 of our favorite booths at SXSW! We find that going through pictures of the show is a great way to relive the experience and deal with the fact that we’re not still in Austin.

As we mentioned yesterday, the SXSW trade show is unlike any other. Companies go all out, and a table, banner, and some flyers won’t cut it there. Companies even need to up their game from the usual free t-shirts to things like caffeinated chocolate bars and coffee (we’re seeing a theme here…).

But lots of companies rise to the challenge, going above and beyond with their event marketing for SXSW. Choosing only ten companies for this series was difficult, since there were so many amazing company presences. There were even companies that managed to be buzzed about without an official exhibit, relying on free stuff and events. But, as we said before, we have a weakness for awesome trade show booths that probably comes from how much effort we put into our own.

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Our Favorite SXSW Trade Show Booths – Part 1

March 19th, 2013

sxsw logoIt’s not easy to stand out in a crowd , especially when that crowd is made up of 65,000 attendees and 583 exhibitors at the popular SXSW Interactive trade show.  If you’ve ever seen us at a trade show, you know we take them seriously, especially our booth! Because we care about our booth so much, we always notice other companies that put effort into theirs.

First impressions are everything, so it’s important to go beyond the table, chair and sign that you see at most networking events. Your booth design should make people stop, ask about your company, and be remembered after they leave. This year was our first “South by”, as the regulars would say, and it surpassed our expectations. You can see all of the pictures we took on our Facebook page.

There is so much going on; it’s easy for a company to get lost in the shuffle. Among the free food, live music, and stylish swag, there were a few noteworthy booths that stood out above the rest. Today, we’re going to share five of our favorite booths. Tomorrow, we’ll be posting another five! Update: Here is part 2!

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Where eBay Went Wrong With SEM and Dynamic Keyword Insertion

March 18th, 2013

The talk of the online marketing industry recently has been that eBay has claimed that SEM is ineffective, at least for them. After discontinuing paid search ads containing brand (eBay) and non-brand keywords, they claimed to have seen little to no impact on sales and traffic as a result of ending SEM campaigns. Google and their revenue baby, AdWords, beg to differ with eBay’s claims.

Many in the search engine marketing industry (who obviously disagree with eBay) are calling eBay out, claiming that they just weren’t using SEM best practices and are guilty of dynamic keyword insertion abuse.

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The Demise of Google Reader

March 15th, 2013

rip google readerWhere do you get your news these days? Before social media exploded, most people found online reading material by dutifully checking their favorite websites or importing their feeds into an RSS reader.

Now, people can find news, information, and entertainment on social media. They see what’s trending on Twitter, look at what their friends are sharing on Facebook, browse Reddit, etc. And this change causes casualties.

Google has announced that they will be killing off Google Reader, probably the most popular and widely used RSS reader. The company has set a closure to be scheduled for July, 1st, 2013, in order to further implement their “spring cleaning,” which also includes shutting down 7 other services.

The official Google Blog explained, “we need to focus—otherwise we spread ourselves too thin and lack impact. So today we’re announcing some more closures, bringing the total to 70 features or services closed since our spring cleaning began in 2011.”

Google Reader users are bummed, to say the least. Just hours after the announcement, Google Reader quickly rose to the top worldwide trending topics, and has remained a nearly constant trending topic since the news broke on Wednesday.

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Small Business Spotlight: StorkGifts

March 14th, 2013

StorkGifts.com logoHello, everyone! Today we’re continuing our Small Business Spotlight series by talking to Melissa Chelist, of StorkGifts. We also want to remind you that your small business could be here! We want to give the best small business marketers their spot to shine. If you think your business deserves a spotlight, fill out this form and we will contact you as soon as we can!

Tell us about your business and overall marketing strategy.

StorkGifts is an online retailer of personalized baby and personalized children’s gifts. We offer over 75 different items that can be customized with the customer’s choice of color, design and personalization. We have three main target customer groups. We offer upscale, high quality gifts, so we are searching for boutique shoppers.

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5 Changes You Need to Make to Your Visual Content on Facebook

March 13th, 2013

new Facebook News FeedLast week, Facebook unveiled a completely redesigned News Feed that has a new focus on images. Sure, from the user’s standpoint, the focus was already there. Both people and brands were sharing visual content more and more. At the News Feed announcement, they mentioned that almost 50% of News Feed stories already contain photos. Now, the News Feed’s design will reflect that focus.

In case you’ve missed any of the Facebook news over the past week, here’s a brief summary of the major changes that will be in the new News Feed, which is slowly being rolled out to users:

  • Mobile-first. - The new News Feed was built with mobile in mind, and will be consistent across all devices.
  • More feeds. - Instead of just choosing between “Top Stories” and “Most Recent,” there are now seven feeds to choose from, including a photos-only feed and a “following” feed.
  • Image-focused. - Stories are now more image-focused, with bigger and brighter pictures in the feeds.

That last bullet point is what we’ll be focusing on today. Savvy social marketers have already been implementing a visual content strategy for Facebook, but even the most image-based strategies will need a few changes along with the News Feed changes. Here are a few tweaks to consider:

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App Review: The Good Kind of Stereotypes

March 11th, 2013

stereotypes appOlder music applications such as Shazam, Spotify, and iTunes have seemingly set the stage for the newest golden child, Stereotypes. Stereotypes, normally frowned upon in society, now take on a more fun role in the world of music apps. Creating groups and sharing music videos at any time connects you with your friends, giving you that feeling of hanging out even if they are not around.

About the App

Formerly a social music website seeking to connect people through music taste and similarities, the Stereotypes app allows users to congregate in one place to discover, recommend and share music with people who share the same tastes.

Within the past month, Stereotypes has furthered their mission of bringing people together through music with the unveiling of their iPhone app. Users are able to create groups with their friends to share music. Why should you use it? Some reasons include a sense of belonging with endless interaction, discovery of new music, and unlimited groups with unlimited free music.

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Taking Our Safari to SXSW

March 8th, 2013

eZanga at SXSWIn case you didn’t gather as much from our several SXSW blog posts over the past month, we’re heading to Austin, TX for the SXSW Trade Show tomorrow! We could not be more excited to be attending this show for the first time. It’s arguably the biggest and most important trade show for our industry, and also attracts professionals from a lot of other industries, as well.

We’ll be exhibiting among familiar faces, like Blekko, Onward Search, and Getty Images. But what we’re really looking forward to is being surrounded by different companies from other industries, including household names like Chevrolet, The New York Times, and Post-it.

We recognize that it’s important to have a network comprised of different types of people, and also recognize that opposites attract! Sometimes the most beneficial networking happens when you feel out of your element. We think we’ll fit in well, but the point still fits!

As always, we will be bringing Jimmy Hoppa’s safari to our trade show booth at the Austin Convention Center, and collecting business cards for a raffle on the last day of the trade show. This time, we’ll be giving away and iPad Mini.

We’ll be there from Sunday, March 10, through Tuesday, March 12 from 11 a.m. – 6 pm. and on Wednesday, March 13 from 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. When you enter the raffle, be sure to ask our team when the giveaway will be taking place on Wednesday.

Stop by booth #444 to introduce yourself, meet the team, grab some freebies, and experience the jungle! Tune in to our Twitter feed and Facebook page for updates and photos from the festival.

More SXSW posts:

By Brittany Berger

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Small Business Spotlight: Console & Hollawell

March 7th, 2013

console and hollawellWelcome to our new weekly series, Small Business Spotlight. Here at eZanga, we are committed to small business. We are one, and we want to support others, whether it’s through helping them advertise or any other way we can.

Since we obviously love small businesses and online marketing, we decided that small businesses who rock at online marketing deserve more attention.

So for the next few months, once a week we’re going to feature a Q&A with a small business that has a great online presence. It may be social media or PPC, but all of these small businesses are doing at least one thing right!

This week, we’re talking to Rick Console, of Console & Hollawell. This one is going to be especially interesting, since the legal industry is a highly regulated one. Read on to to see how Console & Hollawell manages to innovate and succeed in spite of the regulations.

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