Designing for email is different than designing a print ad and coding an email is very different than coding a standard web page. I have compiled a list of resources to check out while you are producing, designing or coding your newsletter.
The importance of news feed optimization
April 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Can marketing get any more complex? In short answer, yes. With the advent of all of the social tools available and the web’s amazing ability to track usage, clicks and interactions–it is only going to get worse. The answer lies in news feed optimization.
Bill’s Personal brand
March 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Bill Powell, Inspiration Specialist
First thing to know about me is that I don’t take myself too seriously, but I do take the work I do seriously. I am by nature a people person who enjoys having a 10 minute conversation in about 5 minutes.
My strength is in the details, but that is also where my weakness lies. I love solving problems and getting to the bottom of challenges. Like most creative people, I am distracted easily, which is a superior strength in the brainstorming process, but can hinder you when writing code.
To avoid this detail dilemma, I surround myself with a talented team of people.
What I do
I choreograph creative solutions, which often are technical issues in what I’m working on at the moment. So, in essence, I am a problem solver–which is what I love. When I first started out of college as a designer and production artist I was THE creative person and technical expert. People came to me for the creative or technical solution. Cutting my teeth on this allowed me to be a better ‘art director’ and I occasionally will still pick up the pencil (or mouse) to design, but more often than not I am working with a team of people to solve the problem.
Why I do what I do
I think I’m good at what I do because I am a tough sell. I consider every purchase I make with utmost care and try to avoid one of the few terms that stick out to me from marketing class: “cognitive dissonance.” Cognitive dissonance is when you have that second thought that it might have been better to ‘not buy’ something. Sometimes the rush of buying something creates an artificial euphoria that wears off–and when it does, will create regret for the purchase.
This over-analysis of my personal buying decisions allows me to come up with well-crafted, non-manipulative messaging that works–and that I love.
Favorite service offered
Learning and teaching. Sounds corny and cliché, but I really like helping people. I feel that with the sophistication of the tools available, if I can help one of my clients learn how to use and maximize that tool, then I have been successful. Then my job is to learn about how all the new tools can make things better for my clients. And that is what I spend my time doing–learning.
Words to describe me
Problem solver. Goof-off. Great father. Good husband. Out-going. Talkative. Passionate.
My weakness
Like Christina, I also procrastinate. I feel that I do my best work under pressure, so for some reason I am always waiting ’til the last hour to come through.
On a personal note
I grew up in Louisville, Kentucky and left there when I came to Lexington to attend the University of Kentucky. I graduated from UK in 1996 with a BS in Journalism, which is ironic because I would rather do anything than write. If pictures are worth a thousand words, then designers can craft thousands of words with their design.
My favorite quote (of the moment)
“Success seems connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.” -Conrad Hilton
Time for new customers
February 17, 2012 by Leave a Comment
We are all marketing experts. Aren’t we? We are pitched and sold to in almost every way possible. [Read more...]
Pixel Parsing
November 29, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Like everyone else, I have a collection of sites I visit on a daily basis. One of those sites is Apple’s movie trailers. I’m not a movie nut, but I do enjoy certain movies and I’ll often go see a film by myself whenever it is most convenient.
There are many movies I want to see, but movies are anywhere from 1:30-2:30 hours, so I can’t and don’t invest the time to see all of them. I already selectively choose what I’m gonna see and when, as most people do.
Movie trailers are often two and a half minutes long. It’s supposed to be a quick little pitch about why I should see the movie.
But I caught myself parsing summaries of movies–sizing up the movie graphic, looking at the synopsis and then maybe investing my valuable time in watching a preview.
I’m sure the hundreds, if not thousands of people who worked on each movie consider their movie to be worth the time it takes me to watch the short trailer, and from there, hopefully the entire movie. But as an outsider, I have to find something of value in an instant or I’m moving on.
From birth, as humans, we are programmed to prioritize information according to its level of importance. That’s why the flashing lights and little buzzers of a baby toy no longer keep our attention when we get older.
The same can be said with marketing messages. We are so overwhelmed by marketing that most of us are consumption marketing experts just from the volume of messages we consume. It makes sense then that we use certain conscious and unconscious criteria to filter out the messages we don’t need or want.
The key, as marketers, is to maximize engagement through content and visuals to ensure that OUR message is one that does not get parsed.
I know you care about your company’s message and have invested a lot of time crafting it. Make your customers care about your message. Talk with them, not at them.
Facebook is not going places
August 26, 2010 by 2 Comments
Facebook rolled out ‘Places’ to users last week and so far, mark me down as not very impressed. I’m not sure what I expected, but Facebook Places leaves a lot to be desired. I’m not sure I get why they added it, when it doesn’t really add any value to the user experience–if anything–it adds to the noise in my news feed.
I have used, some more than others, location-based services (LBS) by Yelp, Facebook, Gowalla, Whrrl, Foursquare, BrightKite, and Rally Up. SCVNGR and Loopt have found a way on to my phone, but I have not used them.
With that being said, what makes a good LBS experience?
- I like the ability to check-in easily. (Partly because I am a freak when it comes to these LBS apps – using at least 4 of them for a while) After launching the app I don’t want to touch 5 screens to let people know where I am. I also would prefer not to “add’ a place, but as an early adopter I understand that comes with the territory. In my opinion, Whrrl has this down.
- I want to be able to take a picture and post a comment easily. That’s truly sharing an experience, why else would I post my ‘check-in’ to Facebook or Twitter? Maybe this is the marketer in me coming out and not the end-user. Whrrl also has this down, making it more of a way to scrapbook your experience.
- I want my other social friends to be using the platform. Foursquare almost has this down, but this is the only edge I give to Facebook in the LBS space. Unless they improve their other features quickly, most of the general public won’t see the point of why anyone would want to check-in anywhere.
- As much as I cringe to see myself typing this–I want some sort of scoring system. I kinda like how Foursquare has the points thing going. I also love the idea of badges. It makes much more sense to me than Gowalla’s items. And the mayors? That’s fun. Even my two kids get into the mayor thing. Asking me “hey daddy, are you the mayor of this place?” when the see me checking in on my phone.
If you can’t tell already, I love Whrrl. If you haven’t tried it, please do. Foursquare will likely win out, since it has a lead with user adoption. But let’s hope Facebook starts going places with it’s attempt at a LBS, because if it doesn’t it may just kill the public confidence in why one can be helpful for both social consumers and social marketers.
Jump start your social media efforts for business
January 25, 2010 by 13 Comments
With a background and a passion for graphic design, I often share in the joke with other designers that knowing how to use the software doesn’t make you a designer. Sometimes you can pass as a designer because you pleased the person who hired you, but your design may not have worked effectively.
What’s a designer to do? Nothing, really. All we can do is educate our clients and the public on the value of good, professional graphic design. Although your customers may not ask for it, they react to it. And if done with good commercial sense, your business will benefit from it.
When it comes to social media, many of the arguments are similar. Using Twitter, Facebook and YouTube for business does make you a social media marketer—but it doesn’t necessarily make you an effective one. Knowing the tools will help you be an effective social media marketer.
And while knowing the tools is an important aspect of social media marketing, using good engagement practices and solid marketing principles will go much further than knowing how to upload a link to your Facebook page. Fortune 500 companies and small mom-and-pop corner stores alike are using these social platforms to reach new and existing prospects. But are they doing it effectively?
Sales Pitch
So I had to be going somewhere with this, right? Yes, I admit this is a sales pitch, but my pitch won’t be for everyone. After all, my personalized session for social media consulting is an on-site session—here in Lexington. For those reading this who aren’t willing to travel in for the on-site session, I encourage you to look for a marketing agency in your area that can help you navigate the tools of social media, and educate you on the best practices. Or, contact me and we can organize a Skype session.
And for those of you who live here or are coming to Lexington, Kentucky in the near future I hope you would consider scheduling a time I can advise you on using the social media tools effectively and introduce you to best practices. Find out more information about my social media jumpstart session.
5 Quick and Sweet Email Tips to Kick Off the Season
November 24, 2009 by 9 Comments
1. Make it personal.
Start with a person’s name and add it within the email where applicable.
2. Email early and consistently.
Create a schedule but be mindful to follow your subscribers preferences. Your unsubscribe and open rate will let you know if you are sending too much.
3. Add an incentive.
For example, “Purchase by Friday and shipping is on us.” However, be careful to avoid words that may get caught in spam filters such as “free” or text in ALL CAPS.
4. Include a clear call to action.
Direct on how to take the next step. For example, “Order Now” or “go here for more information.”
5. Send a holiday greeting.
A non-threatening, simple email thanking your subscriber goes a long way and saves money on postage.
Facebook pages keep on giving
September 17, 2009 by 3 Comments
A day or two after writing my previous post about the upload trick for a Facebook page, Facebook’s recently updated iPhone app’s newest feature gives page admins the ability to update from their iPhone and even post pictures. I had been investigating that problem for a few days and had no success finding any other blog or forum that had an answer.
I consider myself a novice blogger, a little too ADD to concentrate long enough to establish my point in writing. Combine my creative randomness with my perfectionist nature, and it’s nearly impossible to write. With practice, I can only get better.
Facebook pages are like nesting dolls. Everytime I think I figured it out, there is something new. My latest interests are polls, the new @ mentions in updates and SMS (texting) with Facebook.
SMS with Facebook
Did you know that someone on Facebook can become a fan of your page without internet access? I didn’t until I started investigating the page’s customization features. To become a fan of my company’s Facebook page just text ‘fan serifgroup’ to FBOOK (32665) – standard text rates apply, but the service via Facebook is free. Status updates from our ‘serifgroup’ page will then come to your phone as SMS messages. Of course you can always opt out of this feature, but you will still be a fan until you reply ‘unsub’ to FBOOK.
I find this extremely appealing for companies who want to capture a younger crowd who use text as a key communication platform. Build your fan base and nurture those fans into another channel whether it be email or an existing text campaign.
I noticed that you need to have activated the mobile feature on your Facebook preferences to have it reconcile who wants to ‘fan’ a page, but if someone is in the ‘texting’ target, they have probably already done this.
Polls
As a design and marketing firm, we like to do a little informal research on what people think about projects we’re working on. Since we have a handful of fans on our Serif Group Facebook page we thought we would ask their opinion. We looked into a few polling apps for our page and found two different apps that had what we wanted, but only if we could combine them. We want to be able to add a Poll tab or even a url link to a poll that has the ability to use images in the questions. The one we found has the ability to use images, but it is only available as a box in the boxes tab. The other one is limited to text only, but integrates well into a page. If I could develop a poll app that could combine the two, it would be a great tool for any fan page.
Facebook @ mentions
There has been a lot of talk about how Facebook has copied Twitter by using the @ feature to mention people. I don’t get it. Although Facebook did use the Twitter @ symbol, does Twitter own exclusive rights to that symbol? Didn’t email own that first? The most common element of the new feature is the ability to reference others and have it appear in their stream. Although this was an inevitable maturation of the product, I’m not convinced the Facebook developers got this idea from Twitter–but that’s just my opinion.
