If when reading the title your first thought is "I don't have one?" or "Why would I need one?" then you are ripe for an improvement. A digital marketing strategy today is more critical than ever. Between your website and the social media outlets that you have decided to go with (and most of us should not go with every social media channel). The first thing that many people do is create their website, create their social media page(s) and then do an ad hoc method of updating them. Going this route will not only hurt your business in the long run but make you look unprofessional to potential clients. If you already have started don't fear this can be improved upon as you do need this step but need a strategy to achieve success.

We believe in an initial four-step process when it comes to digital marketing and your business. These being to decide what your business objectives are, research your competition and implement a strategy to achieve your objectives.

As the Internet changes and evolves into ever more important part of your daily business and the methods of connecting to the Internet continues to evolve it should come as no surprise that at a minimum of every three years your website should be updated. If your website has not been updated and maintained you are probably in need of some improvements. With an outdated website your customers can feel as if you are not in touch with the times and don't care. To be found by the search engines, considered an authority in your field, and being there for your customers having an updated website is crucial.

Does your website look professionally done or does it appear thrown together, piecemeal and an afterthought of your business?

There are plenty of "free" website builders out there that can get anyone online in a short period of time. These sites won't help you setup and configure an optimal user experience. You will start with a stock template that will get you online, looking like everyone else that uses that template, and be fairly static in design without a lot of work on your part. Personally we feel every business is truly unique and that your website should show your culture. Even if you are part of a national chain you can differentiate yourself from those that are similar to you.

When working with Facebook images the images may upload in a way that you don’t like and need to be rotated, they may need to be removed as after uploading you don’t realize the image is the image you want, etc. Below we will outline the steps for handling the most common image options that we see users needing to do.

1. For all of the options below you will go to either your personal page or a page you are an administrator on.
2. Once you are on the page click on Photos
3. Navigate to the photo if it is not in an album, click on photo album and then click on the photo you wish to edit
4. As you hover (no clicking) over the image you will see options at the bottom of the image appear. We are going to focus on the Options part for this post. Click on Options and then choose one of the options beneath the image for complete details on what each item does.

How do I and how should I market on social media?

Social media is unlike other advertising that is designed to provide information about a product or service. Social media is designed to establish a conversational dialog with your customers. We find that companies that have been in business a few years or longer already have marketing plans for their print, radio or television already and are clearly defined. Your social media plan should be similar for consistency but take into account the bidirectional communication you will have with your customers.

Your social media plan should take many aspects of your current marketing plan. Your current marketing plan will have logos, images and how content is to be presented clearly defined and standardized. Consistency in your branding and message is key to any successful campaign. Please do remember though that social media has the word social in it and communicating with your customers should be a key part of your strategy.

Business leadership acknowledging, accepting and setting a budget based on how you wish to market your company socially needs to be thought of, discussed, and be expected to be revised as you continue to grow and learn more about social media.

This Fall, two lucky Purdue University North Central students in the Computer & Information Technology program can earn $1,000 scholarships. The JM2 Webdesigners JumpStart scholarship is open to all incoming and existing full-time PNC students in the C&IT program with a minimum GPA of 3.0. Interested students must write an essay that will be due September 30, 2014.

This scholarship was created in 2013 by JM2 Webdesigners, a technology company located in Michigan City, IN that was founded in 2012. JM2 Webdesigners specializes in custom application and website development for small to mid-size businesses in the Northwest Indiana area. Owners Jon Meyers and John Marx are both incredibly proud of the service they provide to businesses in the Northwest Indiana area. Their passion of providing excellent service goes beyond their business. Marx and Meyers annually give a scholarship for Purdue North Central Computer & Information Technology students to assist the recipients in pursuing their passion in computer systems. There are many reasons why the JM2 Webdesigners scholarship was developed, but one of the catalysts creating this generous gift was because of both men’s diverse educational backgrounds.

Our philosophy is that your website is your 24x7 sales person and is an employee of your organization. Only by treating your website as an employee will you be able to benefit from the expertise that they bring to the table. Your website should obviously explain what your services are. Your website should not just “sit there” and collect what proverbial paycheck. Would you hire an employee, explain to them everything your business does and then let them sit there and do nothing to better your business? If the answer is yes, then stop now, as this post is not for you! If on the other hand you feel that to earn a paycheck that, your employee must provide a level of effort to promote your business than this article is for you.

We have been working with a lot of new clients recently that have wanted to improve their search results and update their marketing of their business. One recent client went from page 3 to page 1 in only 5 months (your results may vary) by proper planning and working to make a site that showcases what she wanted her business to show.

Below is what we provided to her for her existing site to achieve the search engine results she is getting today as well as getting qualified referrals from her website. With the proper graphic designer, web designer and the proper team at your company (which may be just you!) you can achieve some great results that help improve your overall brand image.

You have to think about your users as they are the most important aspect of your website. The second piece is that of the computer; search engines to be specific. You need to make certain your site is friendly and that a computer can understand it clearly without sacrificing the readability of your users. The speed and capacity planning of your site is critical in providing a great end user experience (think the government's health care site that didn't get good planning on the perception users had).

When we perform a site review for clients, we look at all aspects of the site. When tasked to look at a website for a customer, we will look at it from multiple angles. We look at the end user or customer on how the website works for them when not logged into the site. We then look at how the website acts and performs to customize to the users experience when logged into the website. We will look at the administrative interface as well. Although having your customers being able to gain access to your site, navigate efficiently and purchase your products and services having an administrative side that is not efficient for your employees can also cost your organization. We look at each role administrators can play so that we can provide as comprehensive review as possible.

A small subset of the areas that we look at are below and with the list, growing based on type of audit the client desires. As we go through each item for each page of a website, we list all deficiencies found. Along with the deficiencies we will also presented some recommended solutions along with the anticipated effort to remediate the item.

Do we have your attention now? There is no guarantee with search engine optimization (SEO) success. We all wish we could guarantee results for our clients but we can't and those that do don’t walk, run from. We do promise that we will use the best current techniques that the search engines state should be done for success. That we will not use any "black hat" SEO techniques as they may work for a week or two but they will hurt your site long term. This still doesn't guarantee success as much as we wish we could. When it comes to the push and shove of an SEO success strategy the only way it can be guaranteed is with the client themselves! That’s right for SEO success with the search engines and a SEO company is determined by you; our customers. You are the experts in your field and can provide us with the information that you want your business to be known for. We are the experts in regard to the latest search engine technologies, techniques, recommendations and optimizations as this is what we focus on daily for you.

This month we have helped over a half dozen companies polish their website appearances. We evaluated their website and found the content to be exactly what they wanted to convey. The design of their company pages were dated and unappealing to their customers. The engagement on the sites were not bringing the results that they wanted.

We always talk about how your website should be treated as employee of your business. Businesses want their employees to present the company in a clean, positive, polished and professional manner whenever they are working for the company as well as when they are off duty. A person trying to sell a professional service and shows up in t-shirt and shorts may be appropriate if you are selling surf boards but not when you want to sell your products and services to another professional. They always say dress to impress. Your website should always be dressed for the success of your business.

A site that was first rate and top notch five or ten years ago is definitely no longer wearing or showing the best appearance. A site built a year or two ago may also be showing signs of wear as technology changes on a monthly basis. A website that may be showing its best foot forward to the people visiting the site may not be showing a good view for the search engines. A site filled with spammy words, black hat techniques or other malicious techniques to show on the search engines can not only tarnish your reputation to the search engines but make you fall off the first page of the results.