“Boring!”  It’s the nemesis of all content writers and it threatens to creep into your newsletters.  As soon as boring content shows its face, you can kiss the inbox goodbye and start staking out real estate in the recycle bin.  What to do?  Follow these eleven tips to keep your subscribers engaged from the headline all the way to the fine print.

1.     Tantalize with a fabulous headline.
Ask a question, promise a list of tips, or offer free industry-related advice. If your headline is a lemon, your readers won’t take the time to read further.

2.     Write about what you know.
Fill your newsletter content with the things you consider yourself to be an expert on rather than falling back on someone else’s content.

3.     Choose current hot topics from your industry.
Follow blogs and stay up to date on new product releases, industry changes, and questions people are currently asking. Position yourself as an expert on current topics through your newsletter.

4.     Let your personality shine through.
Be conversational, humorous, witty, and even sarcastic if it comes naturally to you, all with the goal of building a relationship with your readers.

5.     Include lifestyle content that relates to what you do.
Show your subscribers how to apply your information to their daily lives. For instance, if you sell dog training videos, write a newsletter with tips on house training a new puppy.

6.     Narrow your focus.
Choose a goal for your newsletter and stick with it. Are you promoting your blog, sending industry updates, or offering tips? Let your subscribers know what to expect up front.

7.     Match your writing style to the personality of your company.
Is your company trendy and upbeat or do you present a more reserved, professional face to your audience? A law firm newsletter should sound different from a newsletter for a trendy salon and spa.

8.     Encourage subscribers to respond.
Include a feedback form or email address in each newsletter and make a point of replying to any feedback you receive.

9.     Include relevant images and graphics.
Well-chosen images and graphics can pique interest before the subscriber has started reading. Images should relate in a substantive way to your content rather than being generic stock photos.

10.  Break content into manageable chunks.
Bullet points, subheadings, numbers, and space between paragraphs can all make your content look less intimidating by making it easier to skim. Lengthy paragraphs tend to turn people away.

11.  Include customer feedback in your content.
Testimonials, customer Q&As, and stories are all great ways to bring your subscribers into the conversation.

By incorporating these 11 tips as you write newsletter content, you can banish droopy eyelids from your subscribers. Keep your content concise, informative, and interesting, and you’ll guarantee an engaged audience.

We’ve all gotten those receipts from big box stores encouraging us to fill out an online survey for a chance to win a $5,000 gift card. But how many of us have actually taken the time to fill one out? I’m guessing not many. The chances of winning are too slim to have much motivational power. But the fault isn’t with the survey idea itself. You can use surveys to find out what makes your target audience tick and you don’t have to give away $5,000 to do it. Here’s how:

Re-Think Your Incentives
Nobody sits around looking for surveys to fill out; you’ve got to make it worth their while. And while a huge prize for one lucky winner sounds cool, the truth is that smaller incentives offered to every respondent can generate more survey completions. If you own a restaurant, give away a free milkshake for every survey turned in. If you own a retail store or online business, offer a 10% discount, a free consultation, or a coupon code.

Ask the Right Questions
It’s easy to gather information about demographics and shopping behavior. But getting a look inside the heads of your customers can be a little trickier. The key is in asking questions that require more than a yes or no answer. Some potentially revealing questions include:

• Who would you shop with if our company didn’t exist?
  This is a great way to find out who your competitors are. You may be surprised at the answers you receive.
• How did you hear about us first?
  Find out which marketing methods generate the most business—Facebook, email, print advertising, direct mail or something else. Then use that information to determine where additional efforts should be concentrated.
• How have we made your life easier or better?
  Find out if you are accomplishing your business goals and if your UVP is actually impacting your target audience the way you intend it to.
• Why did you decide to buy from us?
  This question can help you dig a little deeper into the factors that motivate your target audience, even more so than asking how they heard about you.

Promote Your Survey
Once you have designed a survey that asks the right questions and offers the right incentives, promote it everywhere you can. Use your Facebook page, blog, Twitter account, email subscriber list, website, and any other online marketing avenues like Circulo Marketing available to you. The more responses you receive, the better you’ll understand what motivates the majority of your customers.

Surveys provide an excellent avenue for looking into the minds of your best customers. By offering the right incentives, asking the right questions, and promoting your survey as much as possible, you’ll gain valuable information that can help you take your business to the next level.

The Holidays bring a lot of people to the shopping cart both virtually and through retail stores. There is no time like December to ramp up social media marketing and attract new subscribers and well… “Likes!”  So let’s unwrap Eight tips on attracting more Facebook Likes to your company’s page for Christmas!

1.  Leverage the store-front advantage! Incentivize your customers to check-in for discounts; if they’re willing to drive to your store, they’re willing to check-in!

2.  Post exclusive information or offers that will spark excitement and encourage subscribers to share the offerings.

3.  Words are great; however fans and prospective fans are twice as likely to engage with pictures, links and video content over text.

4.  Everyone likes cheap and free however, people like one thing a little bit more, competition! If the radio station can do it, so can your business. Create unique and engaging competitions every once in a while to attract new customers and more importantly, generate repeat visits to your page and website.

5.  Respond to posts and feedback though sentences that sound like they actually came from a real person, not a robot. Remember, there should always be time to communicate with your followers and clients, they are the first priority.

6.  Use links and keywords to help optimize your content so it’s seen by more friends of existing subscribers.

7.  Don’t just post, sponsor and promote the message.  Organic Facebook page visits are only a measurement of the contact with existing followers, so go viral and make money with videos!  About 80 percent of consumers say they are more likely to try a new product or service based on a suggestion from a friend through social media.

8.  Witty, funny and fresh content wins!  Don’t be shy when posting; get those creative juices flowing to maintain existing subscribers and draw new fan interest.

So just remember to engage, promote and respond to your fans quickly and your business will see the the “Likes” a-flowing this Holiday season!

Twitter and Facebook have been well-established as the twin pillars of social media for what amounts to eons in the rapidly evolving technological world. Now, after an epic Google Buzz fail, Google has launched their newest attempt to run with the big dogs: Google+. The questions being asked by many businesses include “Do I really need a third networking site? Will it be a good investment in the long term? Does anybody actually use Google+?” Let’s address these questions one at a time.

Do I Really Need a Third Networking Site?

“Need” is a relevant term, but Google+ does offer some unique features that Facebook and Twitter don’t:

• Circles—Circles allow you to categorize all your contacts into groups. You can share posts with all your contacts or you can cater your content to those within a particular circle.
• Hangouts—Hangouts are like video chat on steroids. They allow you to chat with up to nine other Google+ users, even those who aren’t currently connected to you (a great feature for brand exposure). Hangouts are ideal for webinars, group discussions, and question/answer sessions.
• Google Indexing Benefits—Google is the search engine king, and you can bet they will integrate Google+ into their indexing algorithms. For the best exposure, you have to play the game their way.
• Saved Searches—Type a keyword into the search feature and find all content relevant to your brand or another topic of interest. These searches can be saved and displayed in your sidebar to keep you up-to-date on all the latest conversations.

Will Google+ Be a Good Investment in the Long Term?

To date, Google+ remains significantly smaller than Facebook. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. On Facebook, you’re competing with a huge conglomeration of events, photos, updates, and more; Google+ tends to be more informational, meaning that you can get your message out to the people who really want to hear what you have to say. It’s also a good bet that Google+ will eventually be integrated with all of Google’s other offerings: Google Places, search, images, and more. All of which makes it a good investment for businesses.

Does Anybody Actually Use Google+?

So far, 90 million users have accounts with Google+. And because every gmail user automatically gets an account, you can expect that number to grow. Sixty percent of those users log in every single day (compared to just 50% who log into Twitter every day), and eighty percent log in once a week.

Google+ is a growing network whose ultimate reach has yet to be established. Its unique features make it a good investment for businesses as social media becomes increasingly integrated into the daily lives of average people. Should you invest? You bet.

In nature, “nurturing” anti inflammatory supplements always implies a particular relationship between the nurturer and the nuturee: the party with more knowledge/experience/information/power shares those qualities with the party possessing less, with the goal of bringing about positive change. Appropriately, “lead nurturing” in the email marketing world refers to the educational relationship you create with subscribers, with the goal of persuading them to act. When you get it right, you’ll not only get more customers to say yes, you’ll also build a core of loyal clients who throw their business your way again and again.

Basics of Lead Nurturing

Lead nurturing isn’t just sending emails once a week. It involves providing relevant, useful information to the subscriber about the offer you want him to accept. And it requires planning.

• Create a target audience persona. Your email list includes a variety of personality and customer types, but in order to create the most effective email campaign, you’ll need to choose one target persona to focus on. Create each email with that personality in mind. What motivates them? What information do they need? What questions do they want answered? Focus on building a relationship with your target audience in order to earn their loyalty.
• Determine a consistent email frequency and sequence. Every new lead on your list should receive the same emails in the same order and at the same frequency. Each new message should have a specific goal and call to action. Frequency should be no less than once a week; every five to six days works well in most cases.
• Create content. Each email should contain helpful, actionable, and educational content. Be creative. Try videos, FAQs, surveys, special reports and other formats to get the most important information about your company and your offer into the hands of your subscribers. Emails should build on each other, creating forward momentum and culminating with your ultimate call to action.
• Use offer-based opt-ins. Provide an incentive for opting in to your email list that is related to your ultimate offer. If you’re selling a weight loss e-book, for instance, your opt-in offer could be a free report detailing seven secrets to reducing the risk of Type II diabetes.
• Use autorepsonders. Autoresponders ensure that each new lead gets the same emails at the same frequency. It’s the smartest way to keep your email campaign ducks in a row.

Securing Action With Lead Nurturing

Once your campaign is up and running, keep a close eye on your analytics and your banner stands. Monitor which links are being clicked, how many subscribers convert, how many new leads you get, and where those leads are coming from. Tweak your campaign based on subscriber behavior.

Persuading your target audience to say yes begins with a strong lead nurturing campaign designed to educate and build relationships. Strong content, effective planning, and a solid approach to email creation and distribution will create a loyal audience that wants what you have to offer.

HMG Creative is excited to announce Stacey Donelan as our first-ever Social Media and Marketing Intern and another amazing talent to add to the Austin team. Stacey is a product of The University of Texas at Austin, completing her senior year to receive B.S. in Public Relations next spring. Even though she has yet to graduate from the great 40 Acres, Stacey is packing some serious communications experience including previous internships at Southwest Airlines in Dallas, TX and local public relations firm Hahn, Texas Communications. From writing newsletters, to managing digital marketing efforts and working with clients like Livestrong Austin Marathon and Whataburger, Stacey is more than well-versed in the industry. If you weren’t impressed yet, she additionally serves as the Public Relations chair for her sorority, Delta Delta Delta and is a member of the Public Relations Society of America Student Chapter at UT.

Stacey will be bringing her A-game to HMG Creative for the fall semester and will head up online Social Media and Marketing tactics for our growing company. So send her a tweet, Facebook “like” or welcome her personally at stacey@hmgcreative.com. Do it.

Luxury fashion brands are utilizing the digital world to attract, connect and build better relationships with customers. Premier fashion news resources like the JustLuxe.com Fashion Blog have taken notice of the shift among luxury retailers. Leaders in the industry like Macy’s with her free Macys coupon code know their affluent audience has high expectations and these insightful brands are leveraging like-minded bloggers, social media channels, email marketing and the latest trend of high-fashion videos to push out valuable content and new products to engage with and “wow” their clientele.

Who is leading in the digital revolution as of late? Louis Vuitton, GUESS, Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana 14k signet ring.

Fashion Goes Digital:

Louis Vuitton and the Traveling Photog: To promote a Shanghai fashion show the French luxury label launched an all-digital initiative following an LV photographer from the brand’s home base in Paris all the way to the show’s set. The brand built buzz tracking the photographer on his travels and posting pictures and short clips along the journey.

GUESS Adopts its First Blogger: GUESS by Marciano makes history this week with the announcement of collaborating with renowned Swedish fashion blogger Elin Kling. The synergetic fashion partnership marks a “first” for the luxury brand, bringing best fragrances for women reviews
Kling on as the inaugural collaborator and blogger. GUESS identified Kling as an ideal partner not only for her writing style and engagement among followers, but for her character and fashion tastes highlighted in the HerBraveTaste posts. Kling represents the target market for the high-end brand and appeals to GUESS’ customer demographic with perfection.

Gucci’s Double G Spot: “Follow the Double G” is Gucci’s tagline for its new Fall/Winter 2012 interactive video highlighting men and women’s luxury accessories like belts, bags and shoes. The genius behind the clip is that consumers can shop and access product information by clicking the highly-identifiable Gucci brand icons throughout the film.

The Gabbana Boy: Dolce & Gabbana lets customers peak behind the curtain with their new slice-of-life storytelling campaign which highlights blogger Bryan Boy, now a new face and voice of the luxury brand. The viral videos were 30-second snippets of Boy which provided insight into a “day-in-the-life” and revealed the identity of the new voice for the brand.

Every industry is learning to adopt and revolutionize digital marketing in a way that appeals to their target audience. All the above campaigns and others have succeeded at creating engaging content, and pushing it out where their customers reside: on social media and in their email inboxes for a personal touch with their customers. Social media alone cannot create an effective ROI, but when all these tactics are integrated brands can see a true impact.

What can opportunities in the digital revolution do for your company?

You have probably heard the overused term: “content is king.” But what does that mean, really?

Search, Social and Strategy

It started when relevant, fresh content became a key factor for search engine optimization, which also plays a huge role to position your company as an industry resource and expert.  Then social media emerged as a viable channel, increasing the need to push consistent communication to your (hopefully) engaged community.

Search and social initiatives are a necessity. You have to be seen and heard by your potential and current customers. If you aren’t driving your brand or company to compete with the thought-leaders or become one yourself, you will be obsolete in the marketplace. After all, if you aren’t talking to your customers, you can be sure someone else is.

What are the thought-leaders practicing? Content marketing strategy.

Content Marketing and PB&J

So what exactly is content marketing? Entrepreneur Magazine’s concise definition is: “The creation and publication of original content — including blog posts, case studies, white papers, videos and photos — for the purpose of generating leads, enhancing a brand’s visibility, and putting the company’s subject matter expertise on display.”

Simply, it is the way brands gain trust, credibility and ultimate loyalty from customers by communicating messages that represent something they care and want to know more about.

One online expert recently described content marketing by using the symbolism of my favorite childhood sandwich: PB&J.  (Stick with this, it’s good.) Imagine that search and social is peanut butter and jelly and content is the bread that holds it all together. So the content, the foundation of the strategy, must be something customers deem it valuable, want to consume and then want to pass on to family, friends and anyone in their social or off-line network.

There is No “I” in Content

Now, with the internet becoming increasingly personalized in our multi-polarized world, content marketing is more important than ever. Budgets are increasing to develop deeper, thought-provoking messaging and strategy (evolving from, “Look at us” and “Wow, our product and services are fantastic,” to a storytelling technique that taps into the customer experience).

So how do you go from, “What’s in it for us?” to “What’s in it for our audience?” Simply, tell a story and stop talking about yourself.  (Sales reps, gasp here. Remember, there is no “I” in content marketing – well there is, but it’s a little guy.)

Stop Informing and Start Storytelling

How do you do content marketing and storytelling well? Tell a story that is personable, approachable, tangible and memorable. For more info please visit homeinsurance-companies.com .

For example, The Hartford sponsors the Paralympics every year, and after following the online advice of Facebook marketing companies, the company decided to tell this story last year. They launched a media and video campaign through the medium of Facebook highlighting the athletes themselves. The result was a successful and emotional story connecting with people on an individual and very personal level.

Check out the introduction video here: http://goo.gl/e0XPA

Say What You Know, Not What You Sell

Customers are not looking to read your blog or micro-site to see what you sell, they can view that in a catalog or on the products and services tab on your site. They are interested in what you know and what you stand for. It’s time to start communicating as a trusted and relevant source and not as a sales script. Storytelling is the new content marketing.

See where your expertise and your customer’s interests overlap to tap into your niche. Tell a unique story and communicate in a way that no other competition can touch.

I recently came across this infographic by John Lanigan in which he highlights the shift to a more visual social experience across many of our favorite social networks. You see (no pun intended), since the beginning of time we have been forming pictures and drawings to tell stories and express our ideas; it’s as innate as blinking. Before a written language our ancestors would carve hieroglyphs into cave walls, we created visual maps to guide us across uncharted land and children today draw pictures before they can even utter a word.

“Brands that can rock visual media will find themselves market leaders.” -Ekaterina Walter

Presently in social media, we have witnessed the shift from 400-word blog posts to Facebook posts (roughly 200-300 characters) to 140-character tweets to the advent of Instagram, which hosts only pictures. This transition is proof that we are in a visual age and one of immediacy. We expect to get the information we seek as quickly, and as efficiently, as possible. There’s no better way to achieve this than through visuals that allow the audience to create their own unique caption, further resonating with each viewer. Not only is this a more captivating approach but also one that will remain in the viewer’s memory much longer.

Try introducing a few eye-catching visuals into your online marketing plan. You won’t regret it!

Most would agree that looking at streams of pictures is far more enjoyable than reading lines of text.  When Instagram launched in October 2010, the new app was perceived to be just another product whose popularity would quickly fade.  But little did they know, Instagram would become one of the most admired social media platforms and acquire over 100 million active users in the short two years the program has been active.

So, what is Instagram exactly?

As stated on their website, “Instagram is a fun and quirky way to share your life with friends through a series of pictures.”  The app is very similar to Twitter in the sense that the pictures posted by your followers are displayed in “feeds.”  But it also provides its users with the capability to “like” and comment on your favorite pics, a similar characteristic of Facebook.  BUT, not only can you post pictures in an instant, you also have the ability to choose from a variety of 17 different filters to make each photograph unique and eye-catching.

Can Instagram be used as a marketing tool for your Company?

Of course!  Instagram is one of the leading social media platforms today and is a perfect way to market your company. With the ability to link your photos to Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter or Pinterest, you are able to create a vast amount of reach without a whole lot of effort.  Instagram allows a company to display their culture, highlight their employees and advertise their work.  About 40% of the world’s top brands like MTV and Starbucks are dominating the app and about 25% of those brands are posting at least once a week.  In a study conducted by Facebook, it was found that photo posts received 50% more “likes” from viewers than text posts, so by using Instagram you are bound to gain more interest from customers.

Anything else you should know about Instagram?

Not only is Instagram enjoyable, but it provides an opportunity for your company to increase SEO.  But how, you ask?  By using alt tags, keywords and geo-tagging gives followers and those surfing the app an opportunity to come across your photos.  Are you interested in joining the Instagram phase?  All you have to do is download the app (which is free I might add), create an account, and start posting pictures.  With that said, start snappin’ some pics and join in the fun. But first, make sure to follow us on Instagram @hmgcreative!