It is estimated that by 2022, the number of email users will grow to 4.3 billion people – that’s half of the world population. *Cough, cough* that’s a lot of potential customers. If you aren’t using email marketing to reach your customers, then you are missing out on a multitude of benefits for your business.
Maintaining a brand identity is no easy feat. The biggest brands have had years to strengthen and build up how they present themselves. These brands have the reputation to change whenever they need to go in a new direction. Branding impacts nearly every facet of how you do business, such as how your business looks, how it communicates, and how it markets. That’s why it’s integral to build a brand that customers can easily connect with, and also why you should maintain a strong brand personality throughout all of your online activities. Continue…
Newsletters are potent in not only staying top-of-mind with existing customers to keep them returning, but also setting yourself on a prospective customer’s radar. Because of the ability to segment prospects and reach specific target audiences, email marketing is still one of the most profitable methods of marketing. Email marketing enables you to create newsletters that are optimized to appeal to specific audiences, and easily reach prospective customers. To optimize your newsletter you’ll want to focus on these five things:
Can an old dog learn new tricks? The answer is yes, and with all due respect, your business may be an old dog. Just because your business has stood the test of time and remained strong doesn’t mean there is not room for improvement. The business world does not stand still, and in order to keep up with its constant need to move and change, your business needs to adapt to it. Among other elements of business, methods for attracting clients seem to shift rapidly in line with cultural and market forces.
Google Analytics is a potent tool for leveraging data to gain insight into your current audience, as well as develop a deeper understanding of how to reach your target audience. Top marketing professionals analyze data obtained through Google Analytics to identify how, and from where, website visitors are arriving (we’ll dig into this in a little bit). If you aren’t already utilizing this incredibly powerful service, here’s an overview on how you can make smarter, data-driven decisions that better your chances for more conversions and higher return on investment (ROI). Oh, and it’s free.
Finding the right agency can be a difficult and stressful process, usually due to several factors simultaneously in motion. You may need help developing a branding strategy before it’s time to begin the web project, or you may need to coordinate ongoing marketing efforts, such as PPC or retargeting, within the scope of a much larger project that is already underway. It can also be tough to choose an agency that fully understands and harmonize your story, brand and culture consistently through every single project. However, the right fit is usually self-evident, meaning that you’ll know when you’ve found the right one.
With his strong work ethic and drive, he taught himself how to code and web design. He may be the newest member of our team, but he is jumping right in.
Jeremy Holland is an Austinite that went to The University of Texas at Austin for government. After working at the Capital, Jeremy felt it was time for a change and began working at HMG Creative early last week. He has taken on the role of HTML email design and development. His hobbies include BBQ-ing, swimming and relaxing at the beach. Continue…
Ahoy, matey! Pirate Energy, a cocktail-inspired line of energy drinks, has partnered alongside the HMG Creative team to create a highly custom ssh client , energetic and industry-disrupting web experience. A division of Blue Matrix Labs – the brainchild of Kendall Harter – Pirate Energy brings the party to your taste buds with five tasty, healthy and outright exciting energy shots.
In an effort to break into the market in a revolutionary way, we crafted a carefully formulated digital experience for Pirate and its customers. At the nucleus, a responsive, informative and user engaging site with custom animations and an easy-to-navigate user experience. But the site wouldn’t be as enthralling if it wasn’t for the compelling copy. Aligning ourselves with the party theme of the brand, we used a tongue-in-cheek approach to content creation. Using hilarious pirate innuendos, we created informative product-specific copy while portraying the quirky company culture and instilling it into the readers’ minds.
How long do you have to snag your reader’s attention before you lose them? Say it with me: ten seconds or less. We’ve had this drilled into our heads, and great designers know what keeps people reading and what doesn’t. But what hasn’t been learned nearly so well is that your customer’s online attention is not only short, but also very narrow.
Usability guru, Jack Nielson, explains in a recent Alertbox Column that most users focus only on what interests them or what they expect will give them the answers that they need while ignoring the other content. Known as “Tunnel Vision,” this phenomenon can make the difference between click-throughs and deleted messages.
Let’s consider an example. You design a newsletter advertising your website’s 20 percent off sale. You include a headline, an image, a block of text that includes a coupon code, and a call to action that says “Shop Now.” Nielson’s usability research suggests that if you haven’t stated the coupon code in the headline or included it as part of the call to action, many subscribers won’t see it. It’s a phenomenon similar to banner blindness, where readers ignore portions of the screen that they think aren’t essential to the overall message. If the coupon code is necessary in order to receive the savings, you’ll need to follow a few design tips in order to keep it within your subscribers’ field of vision.
Tunnel vision means that users often don’t see things that are right in front of them. By grouping important elements together and putting essential information where readers tend to look anyway, you can boost your click-through rates and ultimately, your conversions.
HMG Creative knows there are a lot of amazing writers and bloggers out there, and we want to find you. We are always looking for new ways to inform, educate and expand our clients and readers’ industry knowledge. So with that said, we are looking for some writers who can inject their knowledge, expertise and passion into our blog.
Sounds good to you? Great, email us! Introduce yourself and give us a quick rundown of who you are. Send us an article for review and we’ll place it in queue if we like your stuff. Don’t forget to mention the frequency of your posts (weekly, monthly, etc), or if you just want to be a one-time contributor (we’re cool with that too)! Don’t have an article to post yet? No worries, we’ll help you mull over some cool topics we think would be relative to our blog.
