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By now you should be quite familiar with this topic. If you aren’t using email marketing, you probably are a subscriber to it in one form or another. If we look back, postage marketing was the most common form of business to customer marketing. Each day you would go out to your mailbox to receive your mail only to see that it is mixed with ads or flyers for services and goods within your neighborhood. Now fast forward to emails. Sure we get a lot at times, but more people opened and read emails from people that are familiar to them. This is where your email advantages are.
Here are some ways to get started. Look through your address book or Rolodex if you use one, and earmark or write down your most recent contacts that you’ve had communication with. Next write down a paragraph or two about your business’ recent accomplishments and goals for the near future. Maybe include an announcement about a recent new client. This way when people are reading your newsletter/email blast they see you’re progressing and showing tangible proof of that. People love to read about themselves and see mentions. This is one reason why Twitter is so popular. And also by doing this, that highlighted client will forward your email to everyone in their office, business colleagues, and friends.
You don’t have to do this every day obviously. This type of practice will most likely land your email address into many people’s spam folders and you don’t want that. Personally I would say maybe once or twice a month depending on your type of field and how relevant your content is. Once you get the hang of sending out your own email blasts for marketing, you should look to upgrading your execution. There are online services like Mail Chimp and Constant Contact that offer email marketing from free to very affordable premium services. They also provide some features that can really help gauge your level of effectiveness by tracking who opens, reads, and forwards your newsletters. One of the best things these services offer is contact management in the form of subscriptions and un-subscribers.
Of course if you would like personal assistance or have questions about how to get started, Design Theory is here for you. Contact us today and find out how to receive a free .HTML newsletter template.
Web Design
Every common website, whether it be a business owner, freelancer, writer, blogger, or non-profit has “space” on their website. And by “space” I mean those blank zones on various pages of a website with no content. These areas are ideal for affiliate links, banners, ads, newsletter sign-ups, and more. Why is this important for you? It is important because these types on content can help generate more traffic to your site while also improving your site’s SEO (search engine optimization) for better ranking.
Take our site for example. We have affiliate links on most of our pages with other businesses both local and abroad. There is a method to which links, ads, or banners we promote on our site. You never want to litter your lawn with junk mail or trash, and the same theory goes for your website.
I won’t say that it is easy to make a lot of money selling ad space, or easy to get ads from major named brands; but that would be a nice goal. If you’re just starting out, you may want to consider selling space to local businesses or existing clients you already have or know. This is a great way to build more traffic for each site with reciprocated links. When applying for CPC (cost per click) or CPM (cost per impression) programs be sure to fully understand the fine print and what you’re getting into. Google Adsense is a great start for newbies and after you reach the $100.00 threshold you are eligible for a check.
You also can just get creative with your extra space in various other ways like using search boxes, recent client images, award pictures and such. The one thing you want to try and do is be consistent with your ads and links. Like the text in each of your pages that describes the services or products your provide; your ads and links should be somewhat similar to your line of work or industry.
Social Media
Unless you’ve been diligently dodging the news of late, you are fully aware of the rants and complaints to online user privacy. Specifically from users and former users of Facebook. I’m not going to get into that too much because it isn’t necessary and I may post some links to articles you can read if you want.
Here’s the thing you really should be paying attention to; your digital profile. As a web designer and social media user, my information is all over the place. Most of which I knowingly posted and signed up to share. Some of which I did not particularly care to have shared about or past my set restrictions. As I Google my own name I find interesting websites that have farmed my information and added to their sites. Some relevant, and some not. What’s becoming a bit alarming to me is how my “digital profile” is starting to look like a social security number.
Why is this alarming? Well because if you’re one of the millions out of work and submitting your resume online to many different job forums, and career sites, your information isn’t always nested and secured within those sites. So yes, employers are searching for you by name and through Facebook, or Yahoo, and other social sites and engines. And yes they’re finding information. We all know banks check your credit history, but should they be allowed to follow your online history? What TV shows you “liked”? What web forums your signed up to (gun, porn, racial, gaming, etc). Even parents are getting into this by checking out their neighbors, or they’re children’s friends parents, or potential babysitter.
Remember cookies? Sure you do. Just as much of a pain that they were before, they are again now. Through these cookies websites like Facebook can see where you’ve been and associate that with your Facebook profile. They then use that to calculate the best advertisements you’d be interested in to try and pitch to you. Smart right? Haven’t you noticed the plethora of ads in the free apps on your smartphone? Those ads will be getting even smarter soon.
Moral of the story is to check out your online profile. There are sites that you can request to remove your personal information. Not all but there are some. For more details please feel free to contact us.
Web Design
Unless you’ve been diligently dodging the news of late, you are fully aware of the rants and complaints to online user privacy. Specifically from users and former users of Facebook. I’m not going to get into that too much because it isn’t necessary and I may post some links to articles you can read if you want.
Here’s the thing you really should be paying attention to; your digital profile. As a web designer and social media user, my information is all over the place. Most of which I knowingly posted and signed up to share. Some of which I did not particularly care to have shared about or past my set restrictions. As I Google my own name I find interesting websites that have farmed my information and added to their sites. Some relevant, and some not. What’s becoming a bit alarming to me is how my “digital profile” is starting to look like a social security number.
Why is this alarming? Well because if you’re one of the millions out of work and submitting your resume online to many different job forums, and career sites, your information isn’t always nested and secured within those sites. So yes, employers are searching for you by name and through Facebook, or Yahoo, and other social sites and engines. And yes they’re finding information. We all know banks check your credit history, but should they be allowed to follow your online history? What TV shows you “liked”? What web forums your signed up to (gun, porn, racial, gaming, etc). Even parents are getting into this by checking out their neighbors, or they’re children’s friends parents, or potential babysitter.
Remember cookies? Sure you do. Just as much of a pain that they were before, they are again now. Through these cookies websites like Facebook can see where you’ve been and associate that with your Facebook profile. They then use that to calculate the best advertisements you’d be interested in to try and pitch to you. Smart right? Haven’t you noticed the plethora of ads in the free apps on your smartphone? Those ads will be getting even smarter soon.
Moral of the story is to check out your online profile. There are sites that you can request to remove your
About Design Theory
I’m happy to announce our new platform for our blogs. Previously we were working up all the backend files and workings to mimic a typical blog, but with a lot more work. This was making things a bit tedious when posting new articles.
Now we’re using a self hosted WordPress platform, so expect weekly posts from the Design Theory labs with more great content about web design, graphics, social media, and everything in-between.
