Web Savvy Marketers

Conan’s Blimp and Foursquare

Conan O’Brian is coming back to late night TV!   In a blimp!  During the month of October Conan’s orange blimp is flying around the east coast.  If you spot his blimp you can check in at foursquare.com and get a badge. Or follow Team Coco and the blimp on Twitter, Facebook or Youtube.  That Conan…he’s a web savvy marketer.

Now I know most of you can’t afford to fly a blimp around the east coast to generate interest in your business.  But you can use the same tools he’s using to generate a following for your business.  Foursquare is a proximity based social network that allows friends to check in and “find each other”.  But it also creates opportunities for local businesses like bars, restaurants and retail establishments by providing consumers incentive to check-in at their location to earn special status and discounts.   Check out http://foursquare.com/businesses/ for more information on how you can use Foursquare for your business.

Welcome back to late night Conan!

Watch for the blimp over Hartford on Oct. 22.

Effective email marketing uses smart click-through links

No Click Here!A couple weeks ago, I wrote about designing an effective email marketing campaign on my cgwebhelp blog.  One of the things I mentioned was not to use unnecessary click-throughs.  I was being subjected to emails with obscure headlines, excessive images and the words “Click here”.  That design strategy offers no incentive to click through to the main offer.   Just the use of the words “CLICK HERE” sends me into a professional frenzy.  The words, while directing the user what to do, fail to give a clue as to why they should do it.   The better strategy is to choose contextual links that describe to the reader what reward awaits upon their click-through.   “See our product selection”, “order now” or “view event details” are better links than “click here” as they tell readers where their click will lead them.

Smart contextual links will improve click-through rates and trackability.But today, I came across an email promotion with the opposite but equally annoying problem.  It had no click-through’s at all.  It was a sales promotion that was offering a  deal on signs.  I just happen to be in the market for some new signs, so I wandered my mouse around the page looking for the click-through to the website.  After all they were offering 50% off!   Not a single click-through to the website selling the signs.   Obviously this is a major oversight.  Without a single click-through, the reader is forced to type the web address into her browser.  Not only does it make it less likely that people will actually go to the website being promoted, but the sender of the email loses all tracking capability for his email campaign.

As you probably know, if you’ve used a commercial email marketing program, links within an email marketing piece are coded so the sender can track who has clicked through on a particular link.  This gives the sender useful information. First, it tells the sender what text or promo generated the most interest.  But more importantly, it tells the sender who clicked through on a link, so if they’re running a smart promotion, they can follow up with the people who clicked through and perhaps close the sale, or at least continue to send the reader information that is targeted to their interests.

Make sure you use smart click-through links and good email design strategies to get the most value from your email marketing campaigns.

The 30-day blog challenge!

Today, I committed to the ultimate blog challenge – blogging every day for 30 days.   This will be a challenge!  And I came late to the game, it started October 1, so I’m not sure how that works.  Do I have to double up on posts in order to complete the challenge?  Or does my 3o days start now?  I’ll deal with that later, for now, it’s time to start blogging.

My friend D’vorah Lansky invited me to participate in this 30-day challenge.  D’vorah is an active blogger and recently wrote the book , Connect, Communicate and Profit.  The book is all about building successful relationships online and I highly recommend it to anyone with questions about using social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, or about blogging.

I’m always on the lookout for materials that inspire me with new ideas and one of the perks of signing up for the challenge, is that you get a free booklet, 7 Ways to Get Your Blog In Motion.   In the booklet, the first thing they suggest to fend off the fear that you won’t have anything to write about is to make a list of things you know about–just a quick list of things that pop into your head.  So here’s my quick list:

  • web design
  • image editing
  • SEO
  • E-commerce templates
  • WordPress
  • Google Checkout
  • Google Analytics
  • Website traffic statistics
  • Dad’s 93rd birthday today.  Happy Birthday Dad!
  • 30 day challenges
  • Facebook movie – I gotta see it.
  • Homeaway.com
  • web hosting
  • e-mail marketing
  • the 10 pounds I can’t lose (another 30-day challenge?)

So in the next 30 days I’ll be writing about some of these things and some other things that pop up in my world of web design and internet marketing. I’ll also try to answer any questions that come my way.

My hope is that in the next 3o days, I’ll become more efficient in my blogging practice, and that I’ll provide a valuable resource for readers in the process.

Resources:

Five free things you can do to promote your small business

Times are tough.  Marketing budgets are tight.  Here are five free things you can do to bring traffic to your website and to your business.

  1. Google Places – (used to be called Google Local) it’s a free listing that you can enter by going to www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter.   You enter your web address, physical address, a description of your business, your contact information, hours– you can even enter photos. Your listing will show up on a Google Maps when someone searches for your business type in your area.
  2. Bing Local – Same concept as on Google Places only it’s on Bing.
  3. Facebook and other social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter.  If you’re not there you should be — it’s word of mouth advertising. I’ve seen small business really benefit from communicating with their network (friends, fans…whatever you want to call them).  It’s a great place to promote your business events, specials promotions and communicate with your clients (friends, fans, etc).  Just remember like all networking activities you’ll benefit more from giving then selling.  Provide  information, tips, advice, and special deals, spread good will and your friends and fans will remember you and spread the word about your business.
  4. Update your website regularly.  Install a content management system like WordPress so you can update your website on a regular basis.   Set up a blog that feeds through to your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts so you reach out to all neighborhoods of your virtual network.
  5. Google Analytics – You don’t really know if anything is working unless you have a way to track your traffic.  Google analytics provides lots of statistics about traffic to your website.

Best Design Practices for Effective Email Marketing

When I read email, I typically have one finger on the delete key.   Like most people, I get a lot of e-mail.  And like most people, I don’t have time for games.  So when designing an email marketing piece I’d advise you to avoid techniques that may slow down the email scanning processes of your readers.

Avoid over-reliance on images

More and more often I see email marketing in my inbox that is made up entirely of images.  Since my e-mail client is set not to download images until I tell it to, I see a blank white screen with some red x’s where the images should be, until (or unless) I click the “download images” button.  Unfortunately for the email marketer, I’m more likely to click the delete key than the “download images” link.  And once I hit the delete key, the message is gone.  All the effort that was put into choosing the right images to portray the message is lost forever.

Instead of concentrating on “wowing” the reader with the beautiful design that they’ll likely never see, think about using a clever phrase to wow them.  Or just use clear, straightforward language that the reader can quickly scan and comprehend without having to click the download images link.

Avoid unnecessary click through links

If you expect me to click through to something, you had better give me a compelling reason to move my finger from the delete key to the click through link.  Sending an email that is an image with a click here link isn’t very compelling.

However if you provide an interesting sentence or two, with a link to more information, you might get me to  click. If you offer an enticing discount on a product I might click through. If you give me some interesting details to an event you’re promoting, I might click through.

Keep the design simple

Remember that people are using email clients to read your piece.  Not only are there countless email clients that may be in use by your readers, but many people read their email on their phones. What renders well for one reader may unreadable for the next.  Current techniques used to design websites or print pieces simply won’t work consistently for email.   Keep it simple if you want it to get read.

Social Networking – Resistance is Futile

I frequently encounter professionals who are resistant to online social networking. It’s puzzling to me.  They’re often very social in “real life”.

I don’t get it.  Is it really that scary to tap into the network of friends from around the globe? Has the separation between friends, family and business become too blurred?  Is the technology too frightening?  Is it the changing paradigm of communication that freaks them out?

Are they afraid of  becoming the Borg?

Will we all eventually be assimilated into the massive social brain of Facebook?  Controlled by our smartphones as they alert us to tweets and texts?  Well I suppose if you let it control you, but used wisely it allows you to communicate and stay in touch with more people with less effort than ever before. Resistance is futile.

Web Designer Seeking Instant Gratification

I’ve always liked building and making things. I like taking the parts and putting them together to make a nice package. I like crafts, cooking and puzzles. Completing a Sudoku puzzle on a Sunday morning is oddly satisfying.

But I’m not real patient. I like projects that can be completed quickly. That’s why I love building small business websites. It’s fun to take the pieces, the bits of text and graphics, and create a unique, functional and beautiful website for a small business.

In my perfect world, web design projects turn around quickly. Clients give me content, ideas and graphics. I create a draft website. They review and approve. And I press the button to make it live. Everybody’s happy!

Admittedly, it’s not always that easy. There is usually a little more give and take during the review process. I don’t always nail it on the first try. But even when the review process seems to drag on…eventually, finally, it’s oddly satisfying to press the button to make the site live. At that moment…there is instant gratification.

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