Most businesses start a Facebook page, but aren’t sure how to properly utilize it.  Does this sound like you?  Large consumer brands often use Facebook fan pages as the hub of their customer communications. A Facebook fan page the easiest (and most entertaining) way to build a relationship and directly connect with your customers!  If you need some tips on how to run a better Facebook page, read on to see what we’ve done with our client Carol’s Cookies!

1.  Use Images

Communities love images.  Rather than just posting status updates that require reading, post a picture to generate conversations.  Images are also much more likely to be shared than text based posts.

2.  Have fun with Holidays

Holidays are a great way to connect with fans and can make a page much more fun and enjoyable.  There is an infinite number of holidays to post about, so find the ones that best fit your brand, page, and community.  Carol’s Cookies took advantage of March Madness, and turned it into something directly related to the product – the cookies.

3.  Get Your Fans Involved

Contests are a great way to get your fans involved on your Facebook page.  Most people are much more willing to participate and comment if there is an incentive for them to do so.  Carol’s Cookies asked fans to post a picture of a dessert they baked for a chance to win a Carol’s Cookies apron.  Giveaways drive an audience, so use these to your advantage.

This was the winning post!

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Have you ever considered running a blogger outreach campaign? If not it might be time to consider adding this effective tactic into your marketing mix.  Many of the world’s leading brands are moving their budgets to blogger outreach (and away from advertising) for good reason.

Today many consumers are more loyal to their favorite blogs than they are to their favorite magazines. People choose the blogs they read based on the topics discussed and the tone of the content.  Popular bloggers are doing a great job of sharing their personal experiences, creating enticing visuals and inspiring their readers’ purchases in the process.  If a blog features a product or service, readers see it as valuable information.

If blogger outreach sounds like something that would benefit your brand, your next question should be, “how the heck do I get started?”

We’ve simplified the blogger outreach process as much as possible for you in the eight steps below. Just remember that running a blogger outreach campaign is no simple task. Regardless, it can be a great way to organically earn credibility and attention for your product.

1.  Establish Goals

Your goals set the stage for your blogger outreach program.  Are you hoping for brand awareness?  An increase in website traffic? Clicks? Conversions? People to join your newsletter or sign up for a free trial?  Are you looking to earn awareness for your product in a new target market? These goals must be carefully established before moving forward as they will shape the strategy and approach of your blogger outreach program.

2.  Create a Strategy

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Building a perfect, profit-generating, customer-pleasing, visually beautiful website requires a variety of skills. One of those skills is writing, which is easier said than done.

But luckily there are several tricks that dramatically improve anyone’s web writing.

Think about what’s important

When someone lands on your site, what do you want them to instantly know? Your answer is limited to 10 words. (Cue Jeopardy music)

A mind can only process so much. First impressions need to be easily digestible. If you hit the nail on the head, the user will peruse your site further. If they get confused, they’ll just hit the Back button.

Mark Twain never saw a website that he didn’t like. Do him proud.

Edit, edit, edit

“I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead”

-       Mark Twain

Some writing rules are timeless and this one’s a biggie – writing less takes more time.

Stay focused on your core 10-words-or-less message. Remove anything that deviates. Rewrite everything with brevity in mind. Then edit again and again.

Take your time between edits

After you write something, sleep on it, literally. Press save, go home, and take another crack at it in the morning.

Many great writers commit grievous writing sins in their first draft, so you’re in good company. The heat of writing forces your brain to multitask to a fault. You may not see a grammatical error even though you know the rule.

Even a one-hour break helps your mind relax. The errors will pop right off the page.

Got other web writing tips? We’d love to hear them! Comment below!

I know, I know. You’ve heard it a thousand times: “you should blog!” Yet somehow you still have NO clue what to write about nor do you ever seem to find the time (let alone the desire) to get started.   Believe me, I understand.  We hear it all the time and it’s a common problem.  Let us give you an edge with some fresh new ideas.  No more excuses!

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25 things you can write about on your company blog

1. Feature your customers via real pictures, quotes and stories
2. Make people laugh with videos - Share a collection of hilarious YouTube videos within a relevant theme.  For example, if you are a retailer trying to drive traffic to your site around the holidays, you could post great “Christmas Gone Wrong” videos.
3. Pose a question- If you’re looking to engage your audience, this is the way to do it.  Who said you have to know all the answers in order to blog?
4. Introduce your employees
5.  Do a photo blog post  - Use an app like GramGrab to make your Instagram and Pinterest photos into content your audience will love.  Remember to give proper photo credit when due if you’re not using your own images.
6. Give your opinion on industry news - And remember: an opinion that not everyone agrees with is OK. In fact, sometimes it’s a good thing.
7. Show a visual evolution of your website - Make people smile by using Way Back Machine to take screenshots of your site over time.
8. Share a personal story - the most viral content on the web is content that people react to emotionally.  Share a struggle, triumph or endearing story that will make any reader want to share it.
9. Upload a video from your smartphone - When it comes to your blog, an occasional amateur video is acceptable.

A few weeks ago I sent an email to the agency asking for thoughts on what made digital marketing in 2012.  I wasn’t surprised to get some really thoughtful answers back.

I suppose digital marketing today is all about your perspective, right?  Ask our developers, and they may say 2012 was the year of mobile-responsive design.  Our paid media gals immediately brought up remarketing.  As the social media person on the team, my first thoughts were Pinterest, social analytics and content marketing.

Our Senior Analyst, Vlad, brought up something that touches every part of our agency, though: mobile. Regardless of what business you’re in or what type of marketing campaign you’re running, its official: you can no longer ignore the power of mobile.  Mobile devices have changed the way people interact, do business and make purchasing decisions.

Think about your life for a minute…

What do you do while sitting on a train? Waiting in a long line? During TV commercials?  I play on my smartphone.

What did you get for Christmas this year?  I got an iPad.  And I’m apparently part of the 33%+ of Americans that own a tablet or e-reader device.

Where did you find that new recipe?  Where do you look up an address as you get into a cab?  If I had to venture a guess, almost all of these answers would involve a smart phone, tablet or some type of app.

Vlad reminded me that in 2012, Google Analytics rolled out tablet reports as a compliment to their existing mobile reports.  ”One of our clients saw a 10% increase in mobile website traffic in 2012.  Of that mobile traffic, about half of it came from tablets,” he said.  Most companies aren’t thinking about screen resolution or device type, but they should be. “If your mobile site doesn’t load correctly – or load fast enough – people are likely to bounce and not come back,” said Vlad.

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Why?

What to test?

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I’m going to do some discipline-crossing here to talk about one simple concept: asking for what you want. In digital marketing, as in all situations, this doesn’t mean demanding anything, nor does it mean you’re guaranteed to get what you wanted.

And in digital marketing, specifically, it doesn’t mean using offensively overt calls-to-action, ie…

What it does mean is that your brand’s audience isn’t filled with mind readers and your network isn’t sitting around thinking about ways they can promote your brand. But if you ask them for help, you certainly increase the odds of getting it.

What can you ask for?

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• Links to your website. No matter what happens with Google’s algorithm updates, relevant, quality links are good for your site. So don’t be afraid to ask people for them. This is a whole post in itself, but if you’ve identified a quality site that’s relevant to your business, brainstorm clever ways to ask nicely for a link!
• Reviews. Whether it’s a review on Yelp or Google, a testimonial on your site, or a full-blown review on a popular blog, reviews are golden. Ask for them! Include messaging at smart touchpoints expressing your appreciation for your customers’ business and how much a review would mean to them; connect with relevant bloggers, build a rapport, and ask them for a review.
• Website Actions. Asking site visitors to do what you want them to doesn’t have to mean virtually blurting, “Click here!!” Depending on who your brand is, you can find more elegant or clever ways to lead your users/fans/customers down a desired path. Be sure you’re doing that wherever possible; make your webpages and social properties work harder for you.

Hello, my name is Graham, and I’m a Millennial. I’m very unique, and your company is struggling to reach my peers. We’ve never known life without an overabundance of technology, and it shows. We are extremely good at multitasking and are too busy texting one another, tweeting about that new celebrity, watching that awesome cat video on Youtube, posting our new favorite band on our Facebook, and browsing Pinterest for the latest styles to hear what you have to say.

So how do you get our attention?

Show us that you WANT to engage with us

Make the move to social media. Since we are already there, it’s a good place to engage with us. Traditional advertising doesn’t work as effectively with my generation because we don’t engage with it. Showing a willingness to talk with us makes us more trusting of your brand.

Keep in mind that we are very needy…

We have the attention spans of  two year olds (on a good day) — so content needs to be concise, relevant and engaging. Promises, sales gimmicks, and jingles will no longer get the sale.

Heed our distrust of corporate America

There is a distrust of big corporations among my generation. Companies can overcome this by supporting a cause that is a concern to us. Cause-based initiatives give companies a human quality, which we appreciate.

Make us laugh

We love that funny clip, and we love sharing it with all our friends. Making a funny video or other content can be a great way to get our attention. It is important to note, however, that there is a very fine line between funny and irrelevant (I told you, we are needy!).

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It’s a holiday week so I thought I’d keep us focused today with a little simplicity. Please enjoy my short, sweet guide to digital marketing:

1. Know your goal
2. Be realistic about your goal
3. Stay true to your goal

For a little more guidance, let’s consider an example scenario.

Situation: I have a “young” company/product. I need to educate the public about it and get as much exposure as possible to begin to build my following and ultimately grow my customer base and sales.

Know your goal Brand awareness.

Be realistic You won’t make much of a splash with a pebble, and you won’t gain much exposure by telling one person about your business. Gaining the desired exposure will take time and budget. Open yourself up to a mix of digital marketing tactics speaking to a wide (but, of course, targeted) audience—think paid display advertising, PR pushes, new content on your website for search engine users, etc. Leverage your existing following through email and social media, consider contests, referral incentives, etc.

Stay true This isn’t easy when it comes to your own business, but when the sales don’t necessarily come flooding in, remind yourself of the goal. Right now you’re proving your offering and credibility in order to build a future loyal fan base. You can’t measure your success against sales or cost per acquisition; that wasn’t what this was about. Be fair to yourself and take the time early on to establish a reasonable measurement for success, and then stick to it. If it’s web traffic and on-site engagement metrics, allow time to achieve those goals. Soon enough, you’ll have gained your desired attention AND have the valuable data and insights to be able to start optimizing your marketing tactics. Then you efficiently turn those engaged web visitors into the ultimate customers–buying ones.

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The following is a blog post originally published by EIM Senior Copywriter Mike Phillips, on his own blog. We loved his email marketing tips and now share them with you, our Envisoinit community.

“How do I increase my email open rates and click rates?” That’s a common question of marketers and business owners. As a professional copywriter and marketer, I have some ideas I can share that might help.

I’m also the owner and writer of Windy City Weekly, a weekly email newsletter with Chicago news, restaurant recommendations, things to do for the week, and a few other weekly highlights. To date, my open rate hovers around 42%, and my click rate is about 58%—far above the media/publishing industry standards of about 19% and 22%, according to Constant Contact.

How do I do it?

Outside of standard advice (write compelling headlines and content, and provide value), here are five ways I’m getting big open and click rates with email:

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1. Write clearly, and concisely. It’s a privilege to be invited to the user’s inbox. Everyone is busy and distracted online, so it’s important to be direct and clear, and to not waste the user’s time. Get the message across that you need to, while removing everything that’s not absolutely necessary. Over time, your subscribers will be conditioned to know that they can open, read, and click within your email without a big time commitment.
2. Remove distractions. It’s a fairly simple formula. The less distractions, the more likely a recipient will click on what you want them to click. Images are a good way to draw attention to a particular link but too many of them, and the recipient will lose focus. Gaudy banners? Forget about it. Varying fonts and type sizes are distracting, too. Keep your content as clean, simple, and consistent as you can so that users can quickly hone in on what you want them to click.