Stevens & Tate Profile Stevens & Tate Expertise Stevens & Tate Work Stevens & Tate Buzz Stevens & Tate Contact Us

All posts in the category


Chicago advertising consultants

Mark Beebe

Typically when you start a new business, you have no idea what you are getting into or the curves along the way. Being in this position today and having survived 20 years, I feel this list will help any new business start-up.

1. The manager is incompetent

Most small businesses fail because the owner does not have the knowledge to run a business properly.

Solution: Go to a business class before you open your doors.

2. Finances are not in place

Solution: Write a business plan or get an accountant to assist you. Cash is king and without proper funding even the best idea will fail.

Read the rest of this entry »

Share

LOMBARD, IL JAN. 9, 2012–Nicole Wagner, Internet marketing director at Stevens & Tate Marketing, will be speaking at the Chicago Southland Convention & Visitors Bureau’s 2012 Social Media Summit.

Being held on February 23, the summit is designed to assist local businesses break into the world of social media and learn how to use the medium most effectively. At the event, Wagner will present “Capitalizing on Search Engine Marketing to Website Optimization Techniques” and cover topics such as how to get a business found online and drive Internet leads.

“Every busines should understand how search engine marketing works,” said Wagner. “This seminar will show how having the right strategies and media mix can get a company found more quickly and efficiently in today’s online world.”

Her presentation also will illustrate how social media plays into the overall search engine marketing strategy.

The Chicago Southland Convention & Visitors Bureau was founded in 1986 as a subsidiary of the Regional Economic Development Corporation, now known as the Chicago Southland Development, Inc. In 1993, the Bureau separated from its parent organization and became an independent 501(c)6 organization. As a regional cooperative, the Chicago Southland Convention & Visitors Bureau represents 62 south and southwest municipalities, approximately 35 miles south of downtown Chicago.

The Social Media Summit will be held at the DoubleTree by Hilton Chicago in Alsip, Ill. on Thursday, February 23, 2012. Registration for the all-day event begins at 7:30 a.m. Cost is $95 before Janury 31st; $110 after February 1st. For questions regarding the conference and registration, contact  elizabeth@visitchicagosouthland.com 708-895-8200.

Nicole Wagner, Internet marketing director at Stevens & Tate Marketing (www.stevens-tate.com), leads an enthusiastic team in strategic planning, web development, social media and search engine marketing as well as internet and mobile marketing. She can be reached directly by calling 630/627-5200 or through email at nwagner@stevens-tate.com.

Share

The process has already started, and as a publisher you need to make sure you are adapting your marketing strategy to line up, or get left behind.

Google made the link building algorithm popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It was a revolution in its time because it provided search engines with a method for identifying the most important web pages for a given topic. However, as has been well documented, spammers have assaulted the algorithm with a wide variety of methods for buying links or creating them in other ways that don’t work for the algorithms.

Even if you generate all your links in a pure white hat way, through reaching out to site owners and requesting them without compensation, or are doing high quality guest posts, you aren’t necessarily generating the best possible signal for search engines. Certainly this type of link building done properly would not be a violation of the Webmaster Guidelines, but from the perspective of the search engines it also doesn’t represent a groundswell of opinion raving about your product. It still means something, but it is brute force driven through your efforts, rather than resulting from the enthusiasm of your audience.

I don’t believe that search engines will penalize people who link build this way, but I think they will value the link profile that is manually built less than one that obtains unsolicited endorsements from the web.

Author: Eric Enge

Read More:

http://www.linkedin.com/news?actionBar=&articleID=5564347457074110468&ids=0UdzgMcj4QdP0TdjgTd3cQdzkRb3oSe30UcPsRczkRcP8UdzgSdjkId30VczcUdz8Sdj8Sdz0Td3oRdiMRcjcPe3cVcj8TejwMcjkOdzkRb3wPdPwPc3ATcP8Ocj8OcPgSdjkIejgOc34QczwTdP8SczAQd3oRdiMNczsQd3kVc3wSdz8MejgOdzkR&aag=true&freq=weekly&trk=eml-tod2-b-ttl-6&ut=2m5VGEJQELrl41

Share

Before they arrive, visitors to the Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts are enticed by a slew of virtual and real experiences. There are wine tastings on Twitter, the mobile hot-chocolate bar in Chicago and the opportunity to release floating lanterns at a Thai property’s tropical festival of lights.

“We create personal experiences,” said Susan Helstab, a 25-year veteran of Four Seasons. Named VP-marketing three years ago, she oversees global sales and marketing from the company’s Toronto headquarters.

Ms. Helstab spends two-thirds of her time visiting the 35 countries where Four Seasons operates. Traveling to exotic destinations like Bora Bora is simply part of the job.

With half of Four Seasons’ marketing budget devoted to digital channels, its launch of a revamped website this month is a milestone. It will incorporate user-generated reviews — still somewhat unusual for luxury brands. Marketers in the category have historically guarded their brands and trademarks closely.

“We’ve taken a leading position in creating different kinds of engagement opportunities,” Ms. Helstab said.

One example is the Twitter wine tastings. Introduced two years ago, the event attracted 14 of Four Seasons’ 86 hotels last year. “You can get the wine yourself, and taste it and listen to the description and evaluations [on Twitter], or you can go to the participating hotels,” Ms. Helstab explained.

By:

Read More: http://adage.com/article/cmo-interviews/seasons-embraces-digital-marketing-virtual-experiences/232055/?utm_source=digital_email&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=adage <http://adage.com/article/cmo-interviews/seasons-embraces-digital-marketing-virtual-experiences/232055/?utm_source=digital_email&amp;utm_medium=newsletter&amp;utm_campaign=adage>

Share

Dan Gartlan, president of Lombard, Ill.-based Stevens & Tate Marketing will be speaking at the Western DuPage Women in Business “Women With Vision” committee meeting on Janaury 25, 2012. He will introduce the concept of Attraction Marketing (www.AttractiveMarketingUS.com) to members.

According to Gartlan, Attraction Marketing is the process of making a company, its products, services and culture more attractive to prospects by driving specific marketing initiatives with people and resources already in place. In short, it means improving a company’s attractiveness to both prospects and to the marketplace. The strategies presented demystify marketing, speaking about its themes, objectives and tactics in human terms.

“Personally, everyone wants to be seen as attractive. They want to be respected, admired, relevant,” he explained. “Similarly, Attraction Marketing addresses topics that can help create these perceptions for businesses.”

As president of Stevens & Tate, Gartlan has fine tuned Attraction Marketing to respond to the challenges businesses are facing due to the economic downturn. He already is implementing the process at his own agency, and consulting with other companies on how to apply the strategies in their organizations.
Gartlan will speak specifically to chamber members on how a company can “Stay Top Of Mind” by leveraging its database to regularly communicate with prospects via email and mail. The thinking behind this strategy is simple: keep in touch with prospects beyond the salesperson’s reach and promote the business’ unique competitive advantages on a consistent basis.

“Stay Top Of Mind” is one of six key strategies of Attraction Marketing, which although independent of each other in scope and tactics, all work together toward the same objective – to drive a company’s “attractiveness” to potential clients.

The “Women With Vision” committee meeting is open to all Western DuPage Chamber of Commerce members. It is being held on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m at the Country Inn & Suites by Carlson, 1837 Centre Point Circle in Naperville Ill. Registration is $25 for Western DuPage Women in Business members; $35 for non-members.
Western DuPage Women in Business is a collaborative group of women from the Warrenville, West Chicago, Wheaton, and Winfield Chambers of Commerce dedicated to empowering the women in these communities and surrounding areas.
For questions regarding the “Women With Vision” event and registration, contact team@westerndupagechamber.com, or call (630) 231-3003 no later than January 18, 2012.

Dan Gartlan, president of Stevens & Tate Marketing (www.stevens-tate.com), counsels businesses on improving their marketing results and speaks on the topic of Attraction Marketing to businesses, groups and associations. He can be reached directly by calling 630/627-5200 or through email at gartlan@stevens-tate.com.

# # #

Share
Stevens &amp; Tate

Building a Strategy

Whether you’re a traditional publisher with corporate money at your disposal or a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants blogger, you should already have a solid strategy in place that guides the content you offer on your website. For most publishers, no matter their size, that strategy involves the kind of content that your site visitors read. Attention-grabbing headlines and search engine optimization (SEO) are no doubt at the top of your priority list, but with the popularity of websites such as YouTube, easy-to-use digital video equipment, and computer monitors that can double as television screens, content providers are beginning to recognize the importance and value of having a video content strategy as well. It’s becoming increasingly necessary to appeal to site visitors who want to view, not just read, your content.

“Content development extending toward video is, in many ways, an organic process,” says Seth Kenvin, CEO at Market7, Inc., which helps organizations better manage the video editing processes. “Over time, companies have been retiring their print materials, and video is becoming an increasingly important component.”

Publishers are finding very innovative ways to use video as part of their content repertoire and are noticing that it can lead to increases in the number of site visitors as well as boost engagement on sites. As exciting as the addition of video to a site can be, content providers must remember to maintain focus on the end goal. Read the rest of this entry »

Share

There are three things you need to be thinking about as a marketer on Facebook:

1. Building for connections

Gokul made a very elegant point. You don’t want to just build connections. It’s not about the number of fans you have. It’s about what you offer them and it’s clear that the company’s focus has shifted from growth to engagement.
You need to publish content and experiences that people care about. Don’t build around your business. Build around your customers’ interests. If you sell cameras, focus on pictures and not your products. If you sell stoves, focus on the food and not your steel products.
Put content out there that becomes a part of users’ identity. The question you need to ask is: how can you build experiences and publish content that consumers will put into their Timelines and make their own? Focus on stuff that adds meaning to people’s lives and not distract their lives.
Think lighter versions of the Nike+ running application. The app focuses on running and not shoes but Nike gets the credit for adding value.
The key metric going forward will be closer to how many people added your content or application to their timeline than how many connections you have. This is a radical shift to actions and engagement and away from reach and impressions, though they are tightly aligned. Read the rest of this entry »

Share



What is the Daily Twitch?

Twitch is your source for creative happenings from all around the advertising industry. Brought to you by Stevens & Tate Marketing and Endora Digital Solutions. Find news, updates and insight on everything from print, interactive and web and social, to viral and search engine marketing. If it's happening, it's Twitch!



Join The Conversation!

Subscribe today to receive industry insights and updates from us.





  • Erik: I don't think it's so much of an outpouring of support for the old logo, but rather a great disdain [...]
  • Erik: Working with the right vendors that can help develop high-profile, creative packaging solutions at a [...]
  • Erik: I need a clarification. It appears that you're saying that visual design of a web page will indirect [...]
  • Erik: These are all great suggestions. Like any successful marketing campaign, using Facebook requires a c [...]
  • JassiMostru: Hi Very nice and intrestingss story. [...]

Search by Post Date

May 2013
M T W T F S S
« Apr    
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031