We are excited to announce the launch of the brand new Knight Hawk microsite! Near the end of 2011, we were approached by Smart Targets LLC (a federally licensed dealer of professional tactical supplies and training materials) to create a visually stunning, informational, and educational new microsite showcasing their exclusive product: The Knight Hawk Portable Pop-up Target. When developing this microsite, we wanted to make sure that the visitor was able to quickly view the product and all of its great features- all while using SEO best practices.
The Knight Hawk Target is a “smarter target” than the simple pulley system or knock-down targets that are currently used in the industry, and far less expensive (not to mention hundreds of pounds lighter) than the hydraulic pop-up targets sometimes used. This target is perfect for Military and Law enforcement training professionals, allowing them to seamlessly set up multiple targets in multiple areas of the training facility with its portability feature. It also has a programmable remote and instant feedback feature that is perfect for setting up training facilities, or for any shooting enthusiast. The instant feedback system will stand up in 50 mph winds, yet can be knocked down with something as light as an air-soft gun (we even tested it with Nerf guns at the office and it worked).
The Knight Hawk Target has received support from Top Shot Season 2 Winner Chris Reed, as well as various board members of the NTOA, MTOA, and various law enforcement departments across the country. This product really is one that is going to change the future of Military and Law enforcement training as we know it.
Party Like a Copywriter fact: Writers always love to talk about writing. Or write about writing.
The great Lee Clow’s Beard Twitter stream aside, Advice to Writers on Twitter has been a great source of writing advice. Some of the bits I’ve enjoyed:
Always carry around a notebook. If you don’t write it down, it’s gone. STEWART O’NAN #amwriting#writing#writetip
We are excited to announce the second piece of an interactive program for Fibre-Craft Materials Corporation’s Springfield Dolls line. Following the launch of the SF Style Club interactive microsite, we’ve just launched the second part of the piece, an ecommerce sister site for Springfield Dolls, where you can buy all your favorite dolls, fashionable clothing, accessories, and furniture!
The online store features easy-to-navigate product categories, a searchable catalog of all the fashionable doll products, and a wishlist to save all your outfits for safekeeping or online shopping on a rainy day.
We made sure the ecommerce system syncs to an existing inventory management and shipping component. This ensures that the inventory numbers within the store and the warehouse correspond at all times.
If you have a website that requires users to register or login to take action, it’s time to consider implementing a social login option. That is, the ability to login to a website via your existing Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or other account. A recent social identity study reveals a few compelling stats supporting this:
90% of consumers will leave a website if they forget their user name and password
86% are bothered by being asked to create a new account on a website, and most will then leave the site or not return
41% of users would prefer social login over having to create a new account (35%) or even using a guest account (24%) (the same question in a study 1 year prior returned the reverse results in terms of order of preference)
What’s more, 78% of social login fans share site content with their social network. So not only does the social login option increase the likelihood that visitors will interact with your site and prevent them from leaving, it can also help encourage your customers to promote your site.
Think about every opportunity you might have for this, even in regards to content that doesn’t exist yet. Can people leave comments or write reviews on your website, and if not, can you find a way to integrate that kind of feature? Giving users opportunities to interact with your site and engage with your brand is important itself, and social login would be the cherry on top to help get them to participate.
And can visitors purchase products from your site? If they see an option to login through, say, Facebook, eliminating their need to even think about a password, they’ll be more likely to jump into their account and buy. Beyond that, once they’re logged in, you have opportunities to allow them to easily share what they purchase or what they want with their social network. Tack on an incentive to them to share with friends for even better response.
We were so excited to meet Vlad, and even more excited that he decided to come join the team! Without further ado, ladies and gentleman, our new Senior Analyst—who would be happy to brave the crowds of Wrigley with you at the next Cubs game.
Vlad Chaykovsky
Where are you from?
Originally from Kiev, Ukraine, but lived in Columbus, Ohio for most of my life.
What do you do at envisionit?
Senior Analyst.
Tell us something you’ve enjoyed about working here so far.
The atmosphere here is really nice, everyone is so supportive and relaxed.
What did you want to be when you grew up?
A veterinarian.
Fill in the blank: My favorite thing about Chicago is …
Yesterday, January 12, after an unusually mild start to winter, we finally had our first major Chicago snowfall of 2012! Some people celebrated. Some moaned (must be new to Chicago). But envisonit intern Ben set up his camera in the front window of our office to capture timelapse coverage of the snow accumulation on Ohio St in Chicago.
Good copywriting tells the facts, supports a brand, and speaks to an audience. Great copywriting becomes something bigger—part of our memories, part of an era.
William Bernbach, David Ogilvy, and Lee Clow are just three who have created campaigns that have become just that, cultural references. Take a look
Known for: The “At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls Royce comes from the electric clock” headline, tasting blood through direct advertising*
Once said: “Don’t bunt. Aim out of the ball park. Aim for the company of immortals.”
Lee Clow
Known for: Apple’s 1984 commercial, the Energizer Bunny, Taco Bell Chihuahua.
Once said: “Great brands have a story, our job is to tell them.” (Lee Clow, or more specifically, @leeclowsbeard, has more to say about advertising, creativity, and ideas on Twitter.)
Known for: Pitching ideas and doing whatever he pleases as a partner at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce
Once said: “Just think about it deeply, then forget it…then an idea will jump in your face.”
Who else do you think has contributed to part of our culture through good copywriting? Tell us in the comments!
*Ogilvy took on a client who had $500 to spend on the promotion of his new hotel. Ogilvy bought as many postcards as $500 would purchase and mailed invites to people listed in the phone book. The hotel was packed at opening. “I had tasted blood,” he later said of the experience.
With their new “Search Plus Your World” feature, Google’s search results are undergoing a transformation that will drastically change the way search results appear to users. The feature is now live on the Google Network, and will be fully rolled out to all users that are logged in to Google and searching in the English language.
What does the “Search Plus Your World” feature do?
The new “Search Plus Your world” combines Public, Personal, Social (Google+ only), and Private search all into one algorithm. Public results are just regular Google searches, while the new Personal feature compiles results based both on your past search behavior and social connections. The feature will also feed in relevant content that his been shared within your circles on Google+.
Here’s an image provided by Google that shows an example of the Personal Results feature. (Note: if you select the globe icon on the right it will hide personal results, and when the person icon is selected, personal results will be turned on.)
The left arrow above points to the section that states there are 50 personal results out of the 419,000 found for the search. Some of these 50 personal results will be blended into the first page of your search results.
Personal Results are compiled from these existing areas:
Regular Web Listings
Regular Web Listings (boosted because of social behavior and social connections)
Public & Private Google+ posts, photos, and Google Picasa Photos
In the image below (again provided by Google) we see more of the results for a search for “Chikoo,” the name of a Google developer’s dog. Chikoo is also the name of a fruit, and before the “Search Plus Your World” feature was implemented nothing related to his dog would have ever shown up in the search results. But with the new feature…
Google says that there are 151,000,000 searches a month for the word “car.” Question…Is it more important to therefore try to rank organically for the word “car,” to try and capture traffic from those hundreds of millions of searches and compete against every other website going after “car” searches? Or should you focus your efforts on other more specific keywords that are more relevant to your brand and you have greater potential to rank for?
Below are some thoughts and questions you should ask yourself about keywords when you are building a site, adding a page, or even naming a product:
Just because you call your product something, doesn’t mean that a consumer is searching for your product that way
A car can be searched for many different ways: sedan, coupe, Ferrari, sports car, two door sedan, red car, best sports car, which car is better, Ferrari that was in Ferris Bueller’s Day off
When trying to find keywords for your site, make sure that the keywords make sense for your brand and what the product actually is; this will help them rank better in the long run.
Make sure to check out how competitive the search landscape is
If you are a smaller website, it might be better to focus less on the broad, very high traffic keyword “cars” and put more effort into the “red four-door sedan” keyword which doesn’t have big companies competing for that space.
Just because consumers conduct 1,000,000 searches a month for a specific keyword, doesn’t mean you will get any traffic from it, if you are not ranking on the first page or second page of the results. So do your competitive landscape analysis and find the right keyword.
Map Your Keywords across your site
Why cannibalize your own keywords? Find unique keywords per page that you can optimize and have the possibility of ranking for all of them
Make sure to focus each page to two or three specific keywords and use each keyword two to three times in the content.
New kinds of social media are popping up like wildfire, but which ones are catching the eyes of consumers?
We all know the social media big timers—Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn—but a new wave of alternative social media sites are worth looking into. Some have been around a while, but they can still help your business’ visibility and discoverability.
Relatively new to the social media mix: Pinterest.com
YouTube has been around since 2005 as a video sharing website. Recently, companies have been using this online tool to promote their services and advertise themselves. YouTube videos work because they are easily accessible and can be shared easily. Not to mention they help with Google Optimization.
StumbleUpon was created to let users “stumble” through sites related to their interests. All companies have to do to become a part of StumbleUpon is submit their website and associated categories. From here, whenever a person clicks “stumble,” their website has a chance to pop up on the site. On StumbleUpon, a link to a company’s blog or specific product pages would be most effective.
Pinterest (pictured above) is a different kind of social media site. A mix between StumbleUpon, Twitter, and Facebook, users can see images other users have “pinned,” or uploaded. You can “re-pin” an image someone else has already pinned onto your own boards. Users create boards and categorize them however they want, such as fitness, food, crafts, or weddings. Business can get into it, too. A bakery could utilize this site by uploading pictures of their wedding cakes and linking the pin on their website. Just one re-pin can reach hundreds of people. Uses of this site can be limitless to a company.
