ClearEdge Marketing may seem like a young team if you were to examine our company timeline (founded in 2006) or become distracted by our youthful good looks. In truth, most of us at ClearEdge have been marketing together for well over a decade.

In the 1990s, the ClearEdge team was deep in the corridors and offices of corporate America. We were building and managing large-scale marketing, advertising, PR and branding programs for professional services, technology and healthcare companies.  We  worked with large publicly traded companies as well as small start-up firms. Today, we are still together doing what we love—marketing, advertising, PR and branding. The difference is our approach. Embracing the outsourcing models we long helped clients to market, ClearEdge now serves as a flexible and scaleable outsourced marketing team to a diverse range of national and multinational companies.

Why does this model work for ClearEdge? First of all, there is a great need in the marketplace. When our founder, Leslie Vickrey, decided to build her own marketing firm, she knew there were copious small and mid-size professional services, staffing and IT services companies nationwide without the budget for full-time marketing resources. They needed on-demand, highly effective marketing support that allowed them to compete with larger, widely established firms while staying within the bounds of modest marketing budgets.

Professional services companies—experts in the consulting and outsourcing model—were quick to see value and cost efficiency of outsourced marketing resources. In just a few years, ClearEdge has become the go-to marketing support firm for the IT professional services industry and continues to deepen its reach into finance, healthcare and legal.

Our outsourced model has also brought ClearEdge back to our roots of big, global corporate marketing. Changing business models coupled with recent economic difficulties have made outsourced marketing support a very useful tool for large companies and global enterprises as well. Today ClearEdge supports internal teams and runs marketing projects for Fortune 1000 firms, demonstrating that outsourcing is as much a part of the Chief Marketing Officer’s toolkit as it is for today’s CIOs, COOs and CFOs.

The amazing part for us—the ClearEdge staff—is that we get the best of all worlds. We still get to work on the dynamic, creative and deliberate marketing programs we love. Some are small and targeted, some are expansive. All are strategic and measured.

We get to work on local and regional projects as well as global initiatives. We get to be part of large, corporate marketing teams, we get to lead marketing teams and sometimes we ARE the marketing team.

Our work is rich in learning and diversity. Marketers are hungry for knowledge, new market research, industry news, new technologies, new ways to share information, new imagery, new words, new ways of thinking. At ClearEdge, learning is our constant working mode as we study and build strategies and tools for taking on the unique and challenging marketing needs of our diverse clientele. The reservoir of knowledge we are continually building has allowed us to bring new and intriguing ideas to our clients time and again.

Best of all, the ClearEdge outsourced model allows us to work with talented, hardworking and passionate colleagues who live and work in locations across the country and in a few cases across the globe. ClearEdge prides itself on being a small team of committed marketers who achieve big success. A close-knit, happy team with big goals and bold resolve. That’s how we see our work at ClearEdge Marketing—the best of all worlds.

Jessica Castaneda
Marketing Director
ClearEdge Marketing

So what’s all the buzz over social media? Speak to anyone in marketing these days and chances are that you’ve heard the term “social media.” But what exactly is it? Wikipedia defines social media as “primarily Internet- and mobile-based tools for sharing and discussing information among human beings.” The tools range from social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, social bookmarking sites like Digg and StumbleUpon to targeted blogs, communities and user forums. What makes these tools different is that the actual content created on them is often user-generated content (UGC) or consumer-generated media (CGM).

Social Media Observances
In speaking with several clients from different industries, we’re seeing more and more companies interested in harnessing the power of social media – specifically Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.  Social media is rapidly becoming the new marketing communications tool for companies to reach and build relationships with candidates, job seekers and clients alike. It’s a way to differentiate themselves and stand out in today’s saturated online marketplace where everyone has a Web site.

Companies have successfully leveraged social media to increase their brand awareness, and ultimately sales, by generating interest and gaining constant attention to their brand. One such way a company capitalized upon this fast and growing free marketing tool was to promote its first annual tradeshow via Facebook. The results: tripled the expected attendance! Upon analyzing clients’ Web analytics, I’ve also seen social media sites generate referring traffic for a company’s Web site.

Facebook: The Most Popular Social Networking Tool
Many of our clients get their first taste of social media by creating a profile page on the popular social networking site Facebook. It is rapidly becoming the most popular social networking site, with 600,000 new users being added each day. With minimal associated costs, Facebook serves as a great stepping stone that allows each client to express their brand in an edgier, more targeted approach. It enables companies to speak directly to job seekers and candidates, as well as provide their targeted audience the opportunity to provide feedback or input on a specific topic/item. Facebook also allows the opportunity for our clients to expand and build upon their page as the page gains more traction or as more tools/resources become available – in essence creating a microsite.

Get On Board
So what are you waiting for? Jump into the social media world with a Facebook profile page for your company and start forging those online relationships. But before jumping in, make sure that you understand your target audience’s needs and interests so you can feature the right information that resonates with them. Already launched a Facebook profile page for your company? Share your story with us.

Elizabeth Smith
Director of Social Media Marketing
ClearEdge Marketing

With the current economic turmoil, many companies are turning inward and holding on to their cash reserves. While it’s always wise to be shrewd with your money—regardless of how the economy is fairing—the old adage “you need to spend money to make money” still holds true.

The good news is that there are tactics you can employ that will have a minimal cost associated with them—but will produce great returns, build your brand and increase your lead generation efforts. In fact, if done right, the ROI from employing all of these tactics will only continue to improve over time. So just what are these tactics?

1. Incorporate search engine optimization (SEO) best practices
Today, more than ever, we’re inundated with so many messages that when people need to search for something, they just Google it. Making sure your company ranks high in organic search results doesn’t happen magically—nor does it happen overnight. But it can happen. The outcome—a flood of new, and possibly returning, visitors to your site—and therefore, more revenue.

These best practices range from keyword research and incorporating the keywords that resonate with your audience across all mediums to confirming your site structure is search-engine friendly and using correct programming code to draw the right attention to keywords on your page.

2. Improve your Web site
Amidst some speculation out there, content is STILL king. Review your site’s content. Does it resonate with your target audience? Is it up to date? Is it Web-friendly? Does it have a call to action on each page? Beef up and revise content as needed, making sure that you incorporate applicable keywords as part of your SEO strategy.

Also, understand the behavior of your Web site visitor by analyzing your site’s traffic. Once you see a trend or a pattern, take steps to remedy any glaring problems so that your visitors will stay on your site longer.

3. Create a blog
Remembering that content is king, producing a blog with targeted posts focused on key industry topics is a guaranteed win-win-win. Your target audience will gain insight and be able to share their comments about that posting.

At the same time, you will be able to leverage its content across multiple marketing mediums. These mediums can range from e-newsletters as part of a Target Account Program (TAP), Facebook and Twitter, to providing you the option of sending clients/prospects a link to a blog posting highlighting the sales point you’re addressing. Your company will also be able to demonstrate its expertise on select topics and, when done right, it will also help you to become a recognized industry resource. The days of long white papers have been replaced with informative blog posts and shorter articles focusing on key business-related topics.

Lastly, the search engines will associate this relevant content to your company when people are searching for topics related to your post—thus helping you increase in the search engine rankings (in other words, appear higher on the list).

4. Implement a linking strategy
People are short on time and new products and information are rolled out every hour. Unless you’re Microsoft or Coca-Cola, not everyone knows about who you are and what you have to offer. Implementing a linking strategy helps dwindle that percentage down—one comment at a time.

This is done by posting comments on various blogs and forums that ultimately directs others back to your site and/or blog. For example, you’re in IT staffing and are looking to recruit potential SAP developers. Locate and join any user groups and communities focused on SAP. Once a member, post comments and reply to other people’s comments (a.k.a. threads). Continue to do this for a couple of posts, and then start to mention in future posts that your company specializes in IT staffing and is in need of SAP developers. Provide a link to your site and/or job posting. Repeat this process across multiple mediums and sites.

5. Invest in social media
People have been connecting to friends, family and colleagues on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter for some time and businesses have discovered how powerful these social networking and social messaging sites are for reaching their target audience.

Like businesses, consumers are also turning inward during this economic situation. They are making more and more purchasing decisions based upon recommendations from friends and colleagues in their network. This trend is expected to only continue—thus promoting the need to not only have a company presence on these social networking and social messaging sites, but also actively post and comment on them.

As with anything online, these tactics should complement each other. This creates a synergy that enables you to maximize your efforts and build your brand, while generating additional revenue. Another benefit to having an online presence is that it enables you to modify your messaging and/or approach at a moment’s notice—helping you stay current with the latest trends and hot topics.

So what are you waiting for? Get out there and get online! Start experiencing firsthand the benefits of implementing these five key methods to help you to generate additional revenue.

Elizabeth Smith
Director of Social Media Marketing
ClearEdge Marketing