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Hot Tips On Email Marketing Campaign Content

October 15, 2012 By OG Editor Leave a Comment

Email Marketing

Have you thought about how much time you are willing to spend sifting through your own Email? If you have, you know that you have a very short window of opportunity to capture your reader’s interest.

Keep your subject line to about 60 characters. Short and sweet! Include topic and possibly the issue if it’s a series.
Consider that the key calls to action should be present in the top 2 to 4 inches or top 300 pixels of the email (above the fold) — that is the average size of preview panes in email clients.
Personalize the emails — your email service provider should allow you tools to do this easily.
Keep your content clear, concise and well written (always proofread!)
Use a strong call to action.
Use lots of white space — eyes tire faster reading from a computer monitor than a printed piece.
Use a standard font size — going smaller to fit more content is not a good idea if it dissuades the subscriber from reading the article.
Use links strategically and make them one click that goes straight to the intended destination.
Always perform quality assurance on your HTML before sending the campaign.

As mentioned in a previous article, “What You Should Know About Boosting Your Brand with Email Marketing”, not every email client deciphers HTML design in the same way. Email clients are much more sensitive about rendering HTML than web browsers are for rendering web pages. Your email campaign may look great when you open it in your Outlook account but that doesn’t mean it looks the same for someone using GMail. That is why it’s important to go with an Email Service Provider who will allow you to test it BEFORE sending! At Original Ginger we have professional designers who can take this worry from your shoulders……. we design your branded templates, and you are able to test not only design but also check your content against spam filters.

This is just one article in a series on Email Marketing and small business. At Original Ginger, Email Marketing is part of what we do. We’re happy to provide these services for you. Give us a call at 778.298.1966.

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Original Ginger is a Digital Agency located in the heart of historic Fort Langley, a hip and artistic suburb of Vancouver BC.

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Filed Under: Email Marketing Tips Tagged With: content, marketing, networked blogs, newsletters

Blog Posts – An Easy Way to Boost Your SEO!

September 10, 2012 By OG Editor 1 Comment

A blog allows you to share information with your readers in a more informal way. With our ‘Fresh Ginger’ blog we provide tips, tools and resources we think will be of value to our readers. Information covered in your blog will depend on who is writing it, what type of business you own and your brand personality.

There are many benefits for businesses to have a blog as follows:

Blogging can help create brand awareness and demonstrate your areas of expertise
Blogging offers a network opportunity with relevant complimentary businesses when you invite them to participate as guest writers. Reciprocal links between you can ultimately boost Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Blogging is a great way to engage potential clients by allowing a place for comment
Consistent blogging means fresh content for SEO
Fresh blog articles give visitors a reason to return to your website at a later date, reminding them of your services or products.

How Blogs Work

A blog is typically set up to list articles (referred to as posts) in ascending order — the freshest, newest posts at the top and the oldest moving down the page. Since most of the other pages on your website are fairly static information, a blog is a way to attract the search engines, given that content is updated frequently and consistently.

Get The Word Out

There are many ways to get the word out about your blog, and subsequently your website:

Provide links to interested parties in forums. Make sure that the information is relevant and useful to the audience — it’s about informing and sharing information.
Set up your blog to automatically stream through to your social media profiles;
Provide share buttons on your blog to make it easier for others to share your information via social media and email;
Network with other bloggers and reciprocate links.
Include blog links in your newsletter. Share specific post topics to segmented subscriber lists based on their interests.

Blogs Boost Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Encourage people to share your blog posts everywhere — the more links you have out there in cyberspace the more the search engines will recognize and find you.
Write blog articles including links that track to other related articles you’ve written — search engines like this!
When someone searches for a specific topic using keywords contained in your blog content, the search engines will find it.

The time and energy it takes to write blog articles is time well spent in the long term. It’s about sharing information and building a rapport with your audience. If you don’t have the time to write the articles yourselves there are many agencies like ours who can provide copy writing expertise — so don’t let that stop you.

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Original Ginger is a Digital Agency located in the heart of historic Fort Langley, a hip and artistic suburb of Vancouver BC.

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Filed Under: Blogs, SEO Tagged With: blog applications, blog topics, bloggers, boosting SEO, content, digital media solutions, do blogs boost SEO, links, marketing, networked blogs, pingbacks, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, share buttons, small business, trackbacks, web log, why create a blog, WordPress, writing in a blog

Why WordPress – Do It Yourself Website Design?

July 16, 2012 By OG Editor 1 Comment

Why WordPress?

People often ask if WordPress is an easy solution that they could use to build their own website AND maintain it all by themselves. Honestly, that is a loaded question. One of the reasons that we love WordPress is that it makes it possible for developers to deliver a website to our clients that is user friendly from a content management perspective. For the first time in history non-techie business owners can access the back end of their website and update things like text content, blog posts, featured image areas and contact information — they don’t have to pay a website administrator to do it for them unless time is a factor and they have money in their budget for it. This can turn into a huge cost saving.

There is a Technical Side to Consider

Having said that, when it comes to actually building a site there IS a technical side – like understanding CSS, HTML, and potentially PHP that can be factors during development. At some point you will want to brand a colour or element on the site that will require this technical expertise. Also, there is cross browser functionality and mobile devices to consider. Even if you find a template that appears to make things a “no-brainer” you still need to make sure it is fully supported, in English, and that support will be available for the life of your site.

How many times have we received calls from people who used a free template only to discover that it stopped working after a WordPress or plugin update?! One such call involved a WordPress update that prevented the user from posting anything! As it turned out, the theme developer was Ukrainian and all the online support materials were in Ukrainian. He had also moved on to other projects and was no longer providing current support. Uh oh. Now what?!

Of course, there are “do-it-yourself” platforms out there (most of them proprietary in nature). BUT be careful what you’re getting yourself into. You may want to refer to our previous article entitled “The Pitfalls of Building Your Own Website?” for those pros and cons.

What You Can Expect From a WordPress Maintenance Perspective

Once your WordPress website is up and running, the wonderful folks at WordPress will send occasional Emails notifying you of updates, usually in response to changes made by major browsers, new security features, or because they’ve added new functionality.

It’s important to make the update. BUT, once you do, you need to check to make sure that your website is still running smoothly afterwards. Changes in the WordPress version can sometimes affect plugins and theme code. Always make sure you perform a backup of your site before carrying out updates of any kind. Also, it probably goes without saying that YOU need to know how to recover your website from the backup if anything goes awry. Largely popular platforms like WordPress can be targets for spammers so you’ll need to do your research on how to prepare against website comment and forms spam. These are all areas where it can come in handy to opt for professional website development and maintenance.

What to Expect from Plugin Updates

We mentioned that updates to WordPress can affect plugins and theme code. With a WordPress website, plugins are a vital part of how your website functions and how certain areas interact with others. Occasionally, you will see that an update is available for specific plugins you are using. Once you ascertain what the plugin update is all about you may choose to go ahead with it. Check afterwards that it has not adversely affected your website. If it has, you may want to either revert back to the previous version of the plugin or deactivate it alltogether until you can troubleshoot the issue. Finding an alternative plugin may become necessary. If you used a theme template, hopefully it is supported and they can offer you suggestions. Again, a really great reason to hire a professional for development and maintenance.

So your question again — is WordPress an easy solution that will allow you to build your own website AND maintain it all by yourself?

From a content management perspective; ABSOLUTELY! You can still save money by managing content yourself on a daily basis. Just be smart about your cost saving measures when it comes to designing and building the site. What is a successful online presence worth to your business?! Only you know how tech savvy your online capabilities are. AFTER you run into trouble may be too late to avoid learning costly mistakes!

This is the second article in a series about Websites for Small Business Owners.

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Original Ginger is a Digital Agency located in the heart of historic Fort Langley, a hip and artistic suburb of Vancouver BC.

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Filed Under: Web Design Tagged With: abbotsford, content, copywriter, fonts in web design, Fort Langley, fraser valley, graphic designer, Langley, logo refresh, marketing, newsletters, plugins, resources, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, seo optimization, small business, surrey, tools, training, updating plugins, vancouver, website design, website development, website maintenance plans, websites, WordPress

Twitter – How to Get Started

June 25, 2012 By OG Editor Leave a Comment

How To Get Started With Twitter

Twitter is a FREE promotional and networking opportunity for your business. If you want to engage new customers YOU need to be where they are. So if you haven’t already — set up a Twitter account. But then what?! What do you do once you’ve got your account, added your logo, and chosen your branded url?

We highly recommend that you add a short bio to your Twitter profile. You’ll need to keep it short but with enough information that people know exactly what your service offerings are. List your official website address. If you don’t include a bio, there are people on Twitter who will not follow you back. Remember this is social media — people interact with people who have similar interests and who are interested in actively participating. This is your chance to show your brand personality and have a little fun while you’re at it!

Before you start tweeting, we’ve listed a few KEY points and KEY commands you’ll need to know:

Since Twitter limits all of your tweets to only 140 characters you will need to be creative about typing messages. For some tweets you may want to leave a little room for others to add a word or two and retweet your message.
Use the RT (retweet) function to re-share tweets by others with your own followers. The original person who tweeted will see the RT and they are likely to do the same for you.
When you want to send a personal message to someone in private, go to their profile and click on the message button.
@username plus your message directs your tweet to a specific person and displays on the @Mentions Tab in their profile. It singles out that the message was directed specifically to them. All of your other followers will still see the message on their wall as well. They may even decide to join the conversation.
On Fridays Twitter has a tradition where users can give a “shout out” on behalf of their favourite twitter followers. How do you get involved? Create a list of @username’s for people you already know on Twitter. Preface the list with the #FollowFriday or #FF hashtag, and a short message recommending them to others.

The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. It was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages and link common interests. You’ll see hashtags listed under Trends right on your profile. Clicking on a hashtagged word in any message shows you all other Tweets in that category.

Helpful Tools to Use With Twitter

Twilert = a free web app that enables you to receive updates via Email on tweets containing your brand, name, product, or specific keywords specified by you.
ManageFlitter.com = a free web app that cleans up and manages who you follow, who follows you back, which accounts are now inactive, and links google+ to your Twitter account.
Buffer = an app for sharing interesting content with your followers but staggering the release of information throughout the day.
Twable separates into lists: people you follow who DON’T follow you back; people you follow who ALSO follow you back; AND people who follow you, but who you DON’T follow back.
Refollow = a web app that allows you to manage your followers, establish relationships, block users, sort by importance and much more.
Tweetdeck = an app to view and manage your tweets in a personalized user-friendly dashboard. It allows you to arrange and schedule tweets and much more.
TweetLevel = An app you can use to search and analyze hashtags or order topics by popularity, engagement, and trust.
Schmap.it = is a tool that helps you share Places, Events and Photos on Twitter for FREE. In addition to posting it on your own profile, it also adds your event listing to regional event listing profiles.

This is by no means a complete list of all of the tools available for use with managing your Twitter account; but, it’s a great place to start. Have fun, and happy online networking!!

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Original Ginger is a Digital Agency located in the heart of historic Fort Langley, a hip and artistic suburb of Vancouver BC.

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Filed Under: Twitter Tips Tagged With: #followfriday, @Mentions Tab, @username, content, followers, hashtags, how to find new twitter followers, networking, retweet, retweets, schmap it, schmapit, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, sharing events on twitter, sharing photos on twitter, small business, social media profiles, TBS, TBS Virtual Assistance, tips, tools, training, twable, tweets, twilert, twitpic, twitter conversations, twitter followers, twitter profile, twitter tags, Twitter trending, twitterkeys, Virtual Assistance

Your Business Without A Facebook Page. That’s lost opportunity…

April 9, 2012 By OG Editor Leave a Comment

If you are a business and you are not yet on Facebook — shame on you. Facebook is a FREE opportunity knocking — answer the door! You are missing the opportunity to create brand awareness, gain SEO for your website, show off your brand’s personality, establish your expertise, and gain referrals. The world of marketing is changing and even traditional retail storefronts are seeing a boost in revenue via online social media efforts.

What You Need to Know

Most people don’t realize that it is against Facebook’s policies to represent your business via your personal profile so it is wise to learn about how to create a business page for yourself. You wouldn’t want to build your following only to have Facebook “shut you down”. We recommend you set up a business page, or have a professional set one up for you.

How do Business Pages Work?

Similar to profiles, pages can use applications to communicate and engage with your audience, or capture a new audience virally through friend recommendations, newsfeed stories, Facebook events, etc. Just keep in mind that you can only add a page if you are the official representative of an organization or business.

We recommend you choose and reserve a unique username that is easy to remember and to find. Visit the Facebook section on choosing a Username here.

Now, to begin creating your page visit www.facebook.com/pages/create.php and simply follow the steps through the process.

Once you have completed all the steps, you need to populate content into the various areas of the Facebook Page. When you are satisfied, you can “publish” it so it’s visible to all of your visitors.

How Do I know if My Page is Published or Not?

If your Facebook Page is “unpublished,” you will see a dialog at the top of your Facebook Page indicating that it is not currently visible to users. There is a link there to publish your page. This will instantly set your Facebook Page to published and make it visible to all users. You can also set your Page to “published” from the Edit Page while editing your Facebook Page.

Setting your Facebook Page to “unpublished” will hide it from all users, including your supporters. Your Facebook Page will only be visible to the administrators of the Page while it in unpublished. Don’t forget to “publish” it when you’re finished making any changes.

This is the second in a series of posts written about Facebook and how you can use it for your business. Future posts will include pointers on how to manage your Facebook profiles as well as how to “spice” up your Facebook page and increase visitor engagement.

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Original Ginger is a Digital Agency located in the heart of historic Fort Langley, a hip and artistic suburb of Vancouver BC.

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Filed Under: Facebook Tips Tagged With: brand, business page, business pages, content, facebook business pages, facebook categories, facebook for business, facebook usernames, management, marketing, pages versus groups, publishing a facebook page, Search Engine Optimization, training

Social Media Domino Effect For Business

April 2, 2012 By OG Editor Leave a Comment

Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | LinkedIn

One thing is certain in the world of social media – tools will change. Right now, the tools listed above are hot, hot, hot! But don’t get too hooked into counting on any one. Does this mean you shouldn’t use any of these tools to grow your business – nope. Does it mean you shouldn’t put in the time to learn how to use them effectively – nope. It just means, that you need to adapt your business tools to your marketing plan as quickly as technology adapts to marketplace trends. You need to reach your audience wherever they may be as effectively as possible!

Social Media Goals

There are many reasons why YOU as a business owner SHOULD be using the hottest social media tools:

To create awareness of your products/services
To engage and connect with potential clients
To inform and empower your current clients
To demonstrate confidence in your services/products
To provide an avenue for past and current clients to be advocates of your products/services, making it easy for them to refer you to their friends and business associates
To find strong resources for your business by connecting with like-minded business owners
To network with other business owners who offer complimentary services to your own
To show your support for other business services and products you believe in (perhaps, you can cross link to one another’s websites or blogs) and retweet each other’s promotions
To share info about upcoming events of interest to your followers
To direct traffic to your website and create SEO (search engine optimization) opportunities.

Using Social Media Collectively

Use the tools available to you in tandem with one another.

For example, once this post is ‘ready for publishing’ we use Twitter to post it to our followers, and our Twitter profile is automatically set up to post to our Facebook profile. Voila – in one click! Now, our followers can ‘retweet’ or ‘repost’ to all of their friends and business associates if they find our post interesting and informative.

List all of your social media accounts on your official website and vice versa. We do it because we want to engage potential clients in conversations about how we can help their business. We feel confident in the services we offer and we want to shout it out to the world – don’t you?!
Set up Networked Blogs, RSS Graffiti or something similar so that your blog articles stream to your Linkedin profile automatically.
Use plug-ins and bookmarks on your blog and/or website to make it easy for readers to ‘share’, ‘tweet’, and ‘post’, your latest information to their own profiles with one click.
Consistent tweeting and blogging is an easy, quick, and affordable way to always have fresh new information on your website that gives people a reason to return there again and again.

This article only scratches the surface of what social media can do for you if it is used strategically. We recommend that you have a digital marketing plan in place first, complete with goals, timelines, tactics, recommended vehicles (digital tools including social media) and delegated service providers where necessary. Having a schedule in place identifies specific checkpoints where you are able to measure progress and adjust your plan as you go. Your success depends on it!

This is the first in a series of articles about social media. Interested in other articles from ‘Fresh Ginger’? Subscribe now so topics are delivered straight to your inbox.

Original Ginger is a Digital Agency located in the heart of historic Fort Langley, a hip and artistic suburb of Vancouver BC.

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Filed Under: Social Media Tips Tagged With: blogging, bloglink, bookmarks, brand, business page, content, Linked in, LinkedIn, marketing, networked blogs, networking, plug-ins, posting, retweet, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, sharing, small business, training, tweets, WordPress

Hot Tips On Email Marketing Campaign Content