The biggest problem in the creative process for email marketing and design may be the way you manage the creative process itself. For most people, the creative cycle takes far too long and crowds out other important processes. When producing email pieces for internet marketing, the success comes in how efficiently each can be turned around and followed up. Eliminating repetitive steps in the creative process, including re-testing and re-checking elements, can be done by investing some up-front time in designing basic mailer templates. 

More time is spent on design than on content

Sometimes people devote more time to the email marketing and design of a mailer than on the copy content of the information they need to convey. Even though getting the next email effort ready seems to be done in a mad rush, that rush is most often caused by spending too much time in the designing process. Delays in the creative process, caused by experimentation and reworking elements, crowd other time demanded by message specifics, assembly of elements, proper linking, and final execution. Rework wastes time. That time also takes away chances to review, optimize, and refine in the final steps. In short, life gets progressively more rushed and frantic in each following stage of the entire development process. Examining what parts of the creative process should be standardized helps. Little by little, time spent re-inventing the same old wheel can begin to go away.

Designing proven modules

Reusable modules can help you reduce the amount of time in design, assembly, and execution. That increases the time for optimizing and refinement. These two areas are often short-changed by the rush to keep to the schedule. Invest some time planning what the big picture needs to be for your overall mail campaign. One of the first things an email marketing and design agency could do for you is help you develop a “look” for your campaigns. There are reasons for this. A standardized header with consistent placement of elements and dynamic insertion of messages and/or graphics not only raises recognition but simplifies future layout development. Here are some items to consider in putting together templates and a pre-development plan.

1) Stabilize the Top Areas

Develop a logo/header module. Standardize the use of logos, banners, click points, and headlines for the opening part of the email. In that way, changing elements can be easily dropped in or dynamically fed.

2) Consider a leading copy block

Whether you call them teasers, eyebrow copy, pre-header copy, or something else, create a module for that. Include in that key click-throughs and options critical to keeping your reader engaged. Yes, this will move your banners and headers down a bit, but it can help in a couple of big ways. First, it gives a text-only pocket of information that will appear in ANY browser or mail client (even Outlook 2007) where you can place important links to landing pages, and what your company, products or services are all about. Second, it gives a place to guide the reader into the rest of the copy. Your message will still get across even if graphics are blocked. Internet readers are scanners, but this area is the most likely to be read thoroughly.

3) Provide all primary selling in the first screen

Sometimes referred to as “above the fold” which is a carryover from print media, the area of the first 600 pixels in width and breadth is the hottest real estate in your mailer. The reason is that it seems to be difficult for many readers to actually scroll down the mailer. This means you have one shot at impressing the reader with reasons to stay while providing your call to action, selling opportunities and click-through to where you want them to end up.

4) Include “quick engagement” opportunities

Early on in the copy, include links to social media contact points such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. You can even that that in the pre-header copy. These are important parts of providing your customers with all opportunities to stay engaged with your company.

5) Use standard best practices in creating layouts

For whatever reason, when Microsoft introduced Office 2007, they included significant changes to it that reached for new lows in email clients. Microsoft has created the newest, lowest common denominator for email clients. Outlook 2007 has a lot of users and you will have to deal with that. Think about what you want include in your email presentation as it may not work in this commonly used channel. Many ways of presenting that work in Outlook 2003 and other mail clients will not work in Outlook 2007.  Therefore, you must use Outlook 2007 as a benchmark in designing your emails.

6) Getting back lost time

Reclaiming early development and creative time for later use in optimizing and refining is something anyone can do with pre-planning and template development. It need not be one template; in fact, there should be a template for each purpose in your campaign. Build the templates in modular fashion and you will find it much easier to turn around the mailers as well as take a lot of stress and rush out of your life. Templates are worth the investment in time and expense and will produce great returns on future projects.

If you need help developing templates, and you are not sure what to do first, call someone who does it for a living. Thrive Marketing would be happy to help you with all your internet promotional and planning needs. Call us at our toll-free number, (866) 521-0827.

The adage “less is more” has been proven with a study by the Journal of Consumer Research.

The study demonstrated that ads containing lots of white space lead customers to perceive the brand as:

• More prestigious
• More sophisticated
• Trustworthy
• Higher in product quality and leadership
• Lower in risk than the same ad without white space

Researchers noted that these associations go back to the 1960’s minimalist movement when people were moving away from artwork they felt was deception or full of illusion. The removal of excessive imagery and language makes the information in the ad appear more truthful, and makes the advertiser appear more truthful.

A note about white space: If you want to create a sophisticated and trustworthy brand, say less – not more – in the ads you create. Also, “white space” doesn’t necessarily mean the absence of color.  It just “simplified” — remove the unnecessary and enjoy the simplicity of the message (see Apple’s ad).

Source: “How Nothing Became Something: White Space, Rhetoric, History, and Meaning“ John W. Pracejus, G. Douglas Olsen, and Thomas C. O’Guinn. Journal of Consumer Research, 2006. Click here for a PDF of the report.

• communicate with customers
• increase brand exposure
• boost website traffic
• increase SEO effectiveness

For more information about how Thrive Marketing can help you leverage Social Media, call us at 1-866-521-0827 or Request a Proposal.

Your website may actually have several landing pages.  It will only have one home page, but there are advantages in having landing pages and even testing alternative versions of those landing pages.  A landing page is a webpage that link from any marketing campaign, like an advertisement, email, Pay-per-click campaign or a web page listed naturally in the search engines.  For example, when you click from an email, you should be directed to a page that is specific to the offer or product addressed in the email.

The hazard of linking to a “catch-all” homepage is that the customer has to do too much work to find what was advertised in an email — or worse, they get lost. Every time you make someone click, you lose 50% of your visitors.  The point is to have prospective customers taken directly to where you want them to be without having to depend on the customer to carry out another step on their own unattended.  Either way, you lose the prospect along the way.  It is important not to let that happen.  A web designer such as Thrive Marketing can show you how.

Tip #1

Keep the copy on the landing page short and to the point.  This page is designed to be a specific payback for the email from which the transfer is made.  The payback needs to be quick and to the point.  Be clear about what conversion activity you want to have happen (for example, is it a contact form submission, a sale, email newsletter subscription, membership?) through the landing page and write the copy accordingly.

Tip #2

Don’t expect your prospect to do too much.  It isn’t their job to weed their way through your website to your goal; it is your job to serve them as directly as possible, in two clicks or fewer.  Ask for only the information you need from them with the objective of conversion in mind.  If you ask them to do too much at the outset, you run the risk of turning off a customer who will then seek out your competitor to complete their purchase.  No one will ever complain that your website is too easy to navigation or utilize.  Also, warm them up with finesse; don’t be pushy.

Tip #3

If you are testing different offers, or even different versions of a product, use separate landing pages to measure the effectiveness of the items being tested and compared.  Landing pages are not usually used as a testing medium for marketing nearly as often as it could be.  You can measure and learn a lot from checking the click-through rates of different versions of the landing pages using A/B split testing or multi-variate testing.

Tip #4

Remember to follow-up those leads.  The entire point of generating leads is to achieve a sales conversion or new customer.  You are missing the manna falling from the sky if you fail to follow-up with leads.  Prepare in advance follow-up emails and be ready to respond automatically from a leads data base.  Infusionsoft is a wonderful tool for doing that and you can customize the letters any way you want and self-manage the mailing criteria.  We can tell you a lot more about automating Infusionsoft follow-up but, in a nutshell, it is not unusual to double your catch through automated lead follow-up mailing programs.

Tip #5

Conversion is the name of the game.  Typically, conversion rates are extremely low ranging from about 6% for catalog shopping down to about 1% for electronics.  Most conversion rates for most ecommerce website range from 1% to 2%.  In other words, for every 100 potential customers (on average) you will make only one or two sales.  Can that be improved?  You bet it can!  If you know what you are doing and plan your process well, you should be able to do two to four times those averages.  It is fairly easy to attract the traffic to your site but converting a portion of that traffic takes planning and expertise on what turns a buyer on and what turns a buyer off.  You do not have a successful site until the site provides you with the desired customer action.

It is great to know which of your marketing efforts are the most productive, but the real payback to intelligent use of landing pages is in the rate of conversions for your product or service sales.  Just as with your home page, it takes good planning, knowledge of how the customer’s eyes track the page, and making it easy to bring your customer through the process to complete a sale.  Give your selling efforts a new home on a specially designed landing page.

We Do Headlines!

An Arizona internet marketing firm can make a lot of difference to the effectiveness of your web message to your Arizona audience.  With creativity, combined with knowledgeable purpose, an Arizona internet marketing firm such as ThriveMarketing can show you ways to convey your message more effectively and lead your potential customers to a sale.  Of first and foremost importance to your message, the use of effective headlines is one area that can change the effectiveness of your website investment.

Headlines must reflect and make interesting the story

The old story of “Dog Bites Man” is that a headline like that will not attract attention; however, the headline, “Man Bites Dog” will.  The reason?  It is unusual and interesting.  It doesn’t matter what services or goods you are providing and promoting, effective headlines are one of the most important parts of your written message.  Without an effective headline, the chance a potential customer will proceed into your message is greatly diminished.

Internet headlines have more structure

Headlines on the internet take multiple forms.  Think of your headline not only as the first prominent line of copy on your landing page, but also the meta description tag, the meta title tag, and the subheads that introduce the body copy in your web page.  Even the subject line of your email is a headline opportunity, You only have about 50 characters to make your first impression.  (The headline on this article, by the way, was 49 characters.)  Why only 50?  That is roughly the maximum number of characters in a subject line and it is also the attention limit of a webpage headline.  That can make subject lines and headlines a challenging to write.  You need to make the best impression you can, including the most interesting invitation to your copy as you can, and do it in about a half a line of copy.

On websites, you get 3 headline opportunities

Three places you can take advantage of the power of strong headlines.  First, the webpage the header (H1) is the most important.  Not only is it the first thing the reader’s eye falls on, it is specifically searched for by the search engines in classifying the site as the one most favored to show first in the search results.  Not only is this your big chance to invite the reader into your site for further influence and persuasion, but it is a huge Search Engine Optimization opportunity that many forget. To be effective, the header should be short and to the point, probably not more than about six to eight words.  If your objective is to introduce your reader to the fact that you write headlines, for example, then perhaps your most direct headline would be: “We Do Headlines!”

The Forgotten Headline Opportunity

Second is the often forgotten metatitle.  What ever is written in the HTML metatitle is what will appear in the browser tab or border.  Your message in the metatitle can only be about eight words and should lead with your search keyword(s).  What message do you want in this prominent message space?  Not only is this a billboard to the reader, it, too, is searched for by the search engines when deciding what to list first.  The metatitle increases the search word density of your website. It is surprising how many web builders and web page writers forget this important spot as a promotional message or headline.  The metatitle should be written with the relevant keyword(s) and the closer to the beginning of the title as this gives the keyword the greatest density on the webpage.  The metatile should not be the same for all pages of your site and the keyword should not be repeated more than twice.

Your First Contact with your Customer

Third, the HTML meta description is a great opportunity for first selling efforts.  Again, this spot is often forgotten because it never appears on the web page; it appears as the description presented by the search engine.  Even more importantly, it is also examined by the search engines in determining best sites to list first in the search results.  You have a maximum of just 155 characters, including spaces, to compose the message your potential customers will see in the search listing under your company’s link. Google, and other search engines, will cut off anything over the maximum number of characters (155).  Try to limit your meta description to not more than 25 to 30 words in no more than two sentences.

Email Subject lines are headline opportunities, too!

The point of promotional email is clickthrough.  If you do not get clickthrough, you do not win a conversion (sale).  The maximum limit of a subject line is 50 characters.  You have only that long to move your reader to open the email.  Then, it is up to the content of the email to prompt a clickthrough.  This is a multistep process and your first step has to be a strong one.   

5 Tips to More Effective Headlines

If you would like some intellectual practice on sharpening your skills in identifying what makes effective headlines, pay more attention to what you read in newspaper headlines, on billboards and even on matchbook covers.  People in advertising will tell you that some of the most challenging copywriting is that done on matchbook covers, billboards and in newspaper headlines.  It will not take you very long to begin to recognize what makes an effective headline and what does not.

• First, meet your primary objective; in other words, put your meat upon the table, first!  What is the objective of your website or email?  Can you write it into 50 characters?  Is your objective to get people to buy something the simply must have?  Analyze your website and see what triggers the greatest number of conversions.  That is the item on which you want to focus.

• Second, identify what your key focus is and convey that first; using the header and subheads, construct a path for your readers to follow—from persuasion to sale.  If you do not think that attention spans have not shrunk, try engaging a teenager in a lengthy, thoughtful conversation!  The way our culture has evolved, your audience demands you to “get to the point” and do it quickly.  If you can figure out a faster, shorter way of saying what you want to say, that is your new edit.

• Third, wherever you can, personalize; speak as if you are talking directly to your reader.  What do you want to say to him or her in a couple of seconds?

• Fourth, construct sentences in active voice; nothing gets more tedious and uninteresting to read through than passive voice.  The difference in passive and active voices is the difference between: “It has been decided . . .” and “We decided . . .”  or “It is necessary to buy our product” and “Buy our product.” The subject of the sentence should be what is doing the action.

• Fifth, lead your reader to your service or sale, but do not mislead; it is fine to say things that are attention getting, but if it is unbelievable or untrue, you have lost your reader.

A skilled and creative Arizona intenet marketing firm such as ThriveMarketing can prepare your message so it is more enticing to your audience.  We also know how to influence your website’s rankings so your audience is more likely to see your message first.  Headlines are not the only thing we do; we have many other ways we can help you make your website shine and your business Thrive!

Protect Your Investment

Because you are spending money each time someone clicks on your PPC ad, you want to make sure you are attracting the right traffic with each click– and not throwing away money.

Your ranking for PPC is not only determined by how much your bid is, but also how “good” your ads are. If you have a great ad, you should have a high Click-Through-Rate. It’s completely possible to be paying less for the #1 spot than for the #2 spot, merely because your ad is better than #2’s.

Not only that, Google Adwords, is looking at your ad quality, keyword quality and landing page quality.  That means you have to conduct ongoing testing, measuring and tweaking of your ad copy, keywords, and landing pages.

8 Things You or Your Interactive Agency Must Do

#1:  Keyword Research and Selection

Both with the initial set-up of a PPC campaign and on a regular basis, you need to conduct ongoing keyword research to make sure the campaigns are  employing the appropriate keywords. With the help of reporting software, you can track which keywords are contributing to leads and sales and make adjustments.

#2: Creative Development

By writing custom and unique creative (titles and descriptions), you can maximize click-through and conversion rates. Ads can be tailored to each keyword set to ensure maximum click-through rates (like including the keyword in the ad variations and having a great call-to-action or offer).

#3: Creative Testing

Perform periodic testing of new creative (Titles and Descriptions). The ads can be tested through A/B split testing, so that you can tell which ad copy is performing and make adjustments. By creating additional ad tests that will attempt to beat the winner, you can constantly improve click-through rates, thereby minimizing per-click costs.

#4: Landing Page Identification & Testing

When setting up and maintaining a PPC campaign, you’ll want to identify the best existing destination for the ad, and constantly improve that landing page to improve website conversions (leads and sales).  Read more about the importance of a good landing page. You can also conduct A/B split testing on landing pages to identify the best landing page. Using eye-tracking heat maps, you can tell where visitors hover and click their mouse. “Spy” tools like these help you make significant improvements with your landing pages.

#5: Implement Campaign Tracking

By implementing tracking codes into your website like Google Analytics, you can watch visitor behavior, track conversions straight down to the keyword and ad copy and make adjustments on your website to improve conversion.

#6: PPC Account Settings

You will need to constantly monitor the numerous Account Settings (daily maximum spend, match type like phrase match or exact match, countries, etc.) to maximize business goals.

#7: PPC Bid Management

You or your interactive agency will also have to perform PPC bid management tasks like bid gap monitoring, bid price changes and bid position maintenance. This will maintain your position (ranking) and minimize the cost for being in the desired position.

#8: PPC Analysis

At the end of each month, an interactive agency can prepare a report of individual keyword costs, conversions, and performance trends. This is a written document that is discussed by conference call to discuss previous month activities and next steps.

The Key to Success is in the Campaign Improvements

As you can see, the key to a successful PPC campaign is not all in the set-up, it’s in the ongoing improvement of site conversion through the tweaking of keywords, ad copy (changes to Title/Description), bid adjustments and landing pages. Depending on the size of your campaign, these activities can be done on a daily or weekly basis.

Who is Available to Give the PPC Campaign Attention?

The fact remains, your Pay-Per-Click campaign needs attention to protect and maximize your investment. Otherwise, you are throwing money away. The key question to ask yourself is, are your prepared and equipped to handle the efforts needed to make your campaign a success?  If not, an interactive agency like Thrive Marketing would be happy to give you a quote for setting up and/or managing your PPC campaign.

AZ Marketing Companies Have 3 Areas of Concern

AZ marketing companies should know three major areas that need scrutiny:  first, the overall usability of your site is of paramount importance; second, the landing page is probably the single most important page to motivate visitors to become your customers; and third, search engine optimization puts you in front of the customer.

#1: Website Usability

It is essential to redesign based on usability because website design success requires an understanding of customer behavior and makes customers take action—the action you want them to take.

• Research suggests that fully, one-third of all online transactions may be aborted due to usability problems.

• According to website usability expert, Dr. Jakob Nielsen, website redesign based on a usability analysis, on average increases traffic (hits) by 150% and increases online sales by 100%.

• Consequently, an investment in usability typically provides a return on investment between a 10-fold and 100-fold return in sales.

#2: Landing Pages

The landing page is your one-time, first-impression opportunity.  The landing page acts as the doorway to your website business and it can either be inviting or inhibiting.  Thrive Marketing, one of many AZ marketing companies, has done a lot of study on what makes landing pages successful.  In a recent article about landing page optimization, we published what we have seen (“Boost Your Website Conversions: Landing Pages”).

The landing page must convince the visitor to stay in the first two or three seconds before he or she quickly moves on.  A landing page should be designed not only for first impression, but specifically for lead generation, branding and education and, ultimately, to generate sales for your company.  The landing page must focus on the benefits to the reader, not the features of the presenter.  This often-forgotten element is necessary to accommodate the point of view of the customer who is seeking to fulfill a need.  That is a pretty tall order to communicate in just those few seconds, but that is what must be done.

#3: Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is the art and science of taking your company directly into the view of your potential customer.  SEO allows you to leverage the search engines, such as Google, for the benefit of your marketing efforts by raising your company name higher in the search results list—optimally to the number one position.  This practice is called search engine optimization.  Without the SEO efforts, all the great work done on your website may be invisible to the very person you need to present it to.  A rather complicated process briefly described, SEO efforts concentrate on the search terms your potential customer is likely to use and optimizes your site for those terms.  Strong SEO skills require good creativity coupled with high attention to detail.  It is an area of web marketing that Thrive Marketing has developed into a specialty.

In The Company of Creative Expertise

Thrive Marketing is staffed with people who are award-winning in their fields and have decades of experience in all facets of web management, web design, copy development, and SEO enhancements.  Learn more about Thrive Marketing We strive to make our clients’ businesses thrive.  We would love a chance to sit with you, show you the results of our web design and marketing efforts, and give you specifics on just how we can do that for you.

To request a proposal or even to talk over what you would like to do with your website and marketing efforts, fill out the information on the request a proposal page and we will contact you as quickly as we can.

Website Review and/or Interview Us for Your Project

ThriveMarketing would like an opportunity to do an analysis of your website design and show you what can be done to make it a more effective selling tool.  You can request a proposal online.  We would love to show you how we can make your online efforts at marketing thrive!

• Call Toll-Free: 1 (866) 521-0827
• Call Locally:    1 (480) 704-4563

Arizona marketing companies number almost like the stars in the sky.  However, not all those Arizona marketing companies are really all about marketing.  Good marketing is something everyone thinks they can do but for you, it is not too long before new ideas can run out.  What do you do when your promotion efforts start to get a little stale?  Arizona marketing companies like ThriveMarketing, LLC know what to do.

Keeping a Website Fresh is a Necessity

Arizona marketing companies like ThriveMarketing know how important it is to conduct an occasional website analysis and makeover for several reasons:

• First, internet search engines, such as Google, recognize websites that become stale and unchanging, and they move them down the results list and away from any hard-earned SEO work you have accomplished in the past.
• Second, websites become visibly dated.  Dancing babies and waving flags were the cutting edge ten years ago, but today, they simply date a website.  Maybe that isn’t as obvious as putting classic Roman architecture next to art deco, but the astute marketer or any business that keeps up-to-date notices things like that.  You can train your eye to notice them too as you look through websites.
• Third, particularly now, it is important to keep up-to-date with an occasional website makeover to demonstrate the strength and innovation of your company in uncertain times.

All Arizona Marketing Companies Are Not Alike

When you are looking for a company to help you with your website marketing, you will find that a good online marketing company can make adjustments to your website that can dramatically increase its effectiveness as a selling tool and make your website significantly easier to locate.  There are a few basic rules we have identified that will help you make sure you are getting everything you want out of your website

Getting Bids: Is the lowest bid the right choice?

Instinctively, you will want to do some shopping around, as you should, and then possibly ask for bids to see who can work on your website with the least investment.  The results are often surprising because there is such a surprising range of costs.  You have to remember that in internet marketing, creativity is the key product and the level of creativity is not synonymous with cost.  In effective internet marketing, cheaper is not better.  In fact, sacrificing quality can be very expensive to your bottom line. Learn all you can about what you are asking to do if you are thinking of making modifications and improvements to your website business.

So, how do you tell the difference between marketing companies?

The differences become more evident as you meet with the people leading the marketing companies.  Simple tweaks and simple solutions are sometimes enough, but not usually.  Crossing the threshold from spending a little for a little, to spending a little more for a lot, can mean the difference in your website producing great results.

In the next article, we will discuss the three most important areas for focus when redesigning a website.

Website Review and/or Interview Us for Your Project

ThriveMarketing would like an opportunity to do an analysis of your website design and show you what can be done to make it a more effective selling tool.  You can request a proposal online.  We would love to show you how we can make your online efforts at marketing thrive!

• Call Toll-Free: 1 (866) 521-0827
• Call Locally:    1 (480) 704-4563