Ann Siegle

Tonight, I’m blogging from an ice arena. I’ve blogged from dance studios, by the beach, from the pool, from a bar. I’ve crafted social media posts from my front porch, from the pool, from the living room, from my basement, even. I’ve filmed videos for clients using props in my bedroom, I’ve filmed them at a 4-star resort. I’ve photographed them in client offices, conference rooms, training centers, manufacturing facilities. Crafting blogs and social media content is more about perception…

Today, we tried using Lumen5 to automatically convert blog posts to videos An e-mail floated across our desks this morning from Social Media Examiner exploring the beta Lumen5 blog-to-video creation tool. So we signed up for it and gave it a whirl. In less than a half hour, we had a respectable first version video. Here are our observations: It’s very easy to use, requires little in the way of tutorial, unlike most other content creation tools. You specify the…

How to increase lead generation by using video blogs Everyone knows that in order to make money and generate revenue, a business needs to acquire customers and convince people to purchase their product or services. At some point in time every customer in every business begins as a lead, meaning that they were at one point: considering a purchase, or have shown interest in purchasing your product or services. The process of actively attracting and gathering leads for your business…

There are so many wonderful open source tools that help clients do a better job on their own marketing: from collaboration (Google Drive, custom calendars shared with clients on Google Calendar) and project management to content management on web sites, to photo creation and editing, to communication and sharing that help you do more of your own marketing. First, let’s define open source: open source derived from a concept that the source code was available for developers to modify. Some…

What is content marketing success? It’s creating great content that inspires, educates and motivates your customers to take action. Whether you’d like them to try a new product, learn how to use the products they have already purchased, or be inspired to use them, content marketing is the way by which customers find – and come to love – your business. Create your content marketing mission statement with the following elements: Produce content around your unique niche in your industry…

A blog should provide the right answers to buyer’s questions. Pictures and videos are a great way to visually express what you are writing about. When deciding on what pictures or videos to use in your blog, the most important thing is to keep it simple but unique. You want people visiting your page to be able to relate and easily grasp the content but also eager to come back and read more. Standing out from others can be difficult, that’s why having…

Lead generation is arguably one of the most important, and frustrating, components of an e-commerce business.  You know the target audience is there, but how do you reach them? Where are they looking for your product or service? And how do you better reach them to develop lifelong, loyal relationships with your customers?  There are so many ways you can generate leads for your e-commerce business, but below are the top 5 stepping stones to optimizing your lead generation strategies. You need…

WordPress is one of the most accessible web site development platforms out there. And it has some impressive credentials – it powers more than 25% of the sites on the internet. That’s truly amazing! Even software development companies use WordPress for their own web sites (and they’re software development firms!) Why? Because it puts the power of a great web platform in the hands of the marketing teams, and gets it out of the busy development and IT departments. WordPress…

SEO is an integral strategy for a successful website, and by following certain guidelines when optimizing your web pages for search, you can make your web page more easily findable to those who are looking for solutions your business offers. Although SEO is just one factor contributing to website (and business) success, by carefully and properly optimizing your web pages, you can make your site more visible to your target audience. A lot of different things go into optimizing web pages,…