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.
There’s absolutely nothing worse than having to search through hundreds of words just to find the answer that you’re looking for. Much like us, readers will quickly turn away from your page if the answer they’re looking for is not readily available. For this exact reason, paying attention to the typographic hierarchy of your paper is super important to keeping readers engaged. Continue…
When it comes to the digital marketing world, SEO is one of the best (and free!) ways to gain more traffic to your website. While paying for posts is great, more and more consumers are getting skeptical about posts that are flagged “sponsored.”For those who aren’t quite sure what the term SEO is all about, it stands for Search Engine Optimization. This basically translates to the organic way of getting your content to show up closer to the top of certain search engines like Google. Continue…
Typography is more than the font you picked for the last blog you wrote. When done right, typography will set a tone for your brand. It can be light and fun or serious and formal. Simply stated, typography is defined as the style or appearance of your writing.
Whether you’re writing a proposal, newsletter, or even a blog, the top thing on your mind is probably not changing the alignment of your document from its default setting. However, sometimes it’s not the best idea to stay on the ever-so-safe left-justified setting. Consider this: the way in which your page is justified and even the width of your paragraph can have a huge impact not only on the appearance of your writing but also on its readability. Rather than leaving it up to Microsoft or Google to choose the best setting, here’s a quick rundown on how to align your writing documents to make sure people aren’t simply skimming through your valuable content:
As experienced web developers, we know that the heart of a great website is found in the user experience– the satisfaction that your visitors receive when navigating through the pages on your website. One of the major parts of fulfilling a holistic user experience is the readability of the content on each webpage. It is crucial that the language and visual appearance of the content is easily digestible. If a user cannot comprehend what your organization is trying to communicate, it is not as effective, which can decrease traffic and in the end, lead to a loss in revenue. If you are unsure if your website’s content is readable or not, here are three easy tips to use:
A quick trip to the mall this morning revealed that stores are already gearing up for Thanksgiving and—yikes!—Christmas shopping. 10 percent of retailers have already sent a Christmas email to their subscriber list, but don’t feel bad if you haven’t yet. There’s still plenty of time to get your jingle on. Check out what worked and what didn’t during the 2011 holiday season:
What Worked: Sending Emails During the Week of Black Friday
While email opens were average on Black Friday itself, the week leading up to it was a good week for email marketers. Nearly 16 percent of email subscribers made a purchase in response to an email that was sent during the week of Black Friday.
What Didn’t: Relying on Gimmicks to Earn Better Open Rates (like certain words in the subject line)
Popular subject line word choices for 2011 included “free,” “sale,” and “shipping.” Surprisingly, these words did not result in higher open rates. However, the word “coupon” did entice more people to open an email, although it wasn’t used as often.
Take away: Tried and true subject line methods of stating clearly what your email contains, piquing interest, and promising value earn more opens than gimmicks.
What Worked: Sending Emails to Subscribers on Christmas Day
Surprisingly, 6 percent of the emails sent on Christmas Day were opened, despite the many festivities of Christmas morning and dinner with the in-laws. That’s just 3 percent less than average. Also, people spent over 170 percent more on their mobile devices this year than they did on Christmas Day 2010.
What Didn’t: Expecting Better Response Leading Up to Christmas But Ignoring Christmas Day
Actual customer behavior showed that click-throughs increased on Christmas Day, meaning that the savvy marketers who sent a Christmas Day email were rewarded for their efforts with a spike in sales.
Takeaway: People are already looking for sales and after-Christmas deals even before the wrapping paper has made it into the trash can, so give them plenty of shopping options.
What Worked: Using Social Media to Promote Specials and Sales
Promoting sales and specials on Facebook and Twitter creates buzz as your fans share with their friends, giving you a much broader reach than just your subscriber list.
What Didn’t: Failing to Link Social Media Campaigns With Other Marketing Efforts
Of course, Facebook and Twitter can be limiting in their own way, so don’t expect them to do all your marketing for you. People need commonality across marketing venues to keep them oriented.
Takeaway: Coordinate your social media marketing plans with other marketing campaigns to create a unified strategy that reaches as many people as possible.
The 2012 holiday season is upon us. By reflecting on what did and did not drive sales last year, you can create an effective marketing strategy that will keep shoppers merrily clicking away, even when the weather outside is frightful.
Statistics Source: Epsilon 2012 Holiday Trend Report
Certain businesses have become overnight starlets in the world of social media. Somehow, things just clicked right from the start, and they “get it.” As it turns out, these social media divas all have some essential practices in common. With just a little effort, you too can enter the social media stratosphere.
Proactively building your fan list, providing great content and incentives, encouraging interaction, and capitalizing on the strengths of your various social media endeavors will give you all the know-how, popularity, and success you need to catapult you to rock star status.
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.
