Focus On Active White Space

http://www.mysitelite.com/

When designing a website, companies often work hard to get as much information above the fold... on the first screen... as they can. Too often however, the result is an overly-busy website that confuses and annoys. Websites must be designed with white space in mind in order to simply and effectively communicate a clear message. Think of white space as the space between graphics, margins, or lines of type in the page layout.

To go a step further, it is important to not only utilize white space (or negative space to some) to organize and simplify, it must be used to "guide the eyes" of your visitors to the important pieces of information on your page, in a logical order. This will help your company get your message across immediately, leading to your call to action and improving your company's ability to reach the customers that matter most.


To clarify, there is a difference between white space that happens as a byproduct of design (Passive White Space) and that which is actively used as part of the design (Active White Space). There are a host of simple solutions to help integrate white space in your copy alone:

•Paragraph breaks
•Numbered lists
•Bulleted lists
•Use of images

Website Templates Can Be Tough

A best practice to follow when designing your website is to do so on paper first. Define specific content areas or panes to organize your content and expressly note the areas designated for white space. Resist the urge to drop in copy or imagery until you have a website template that is simply effective and stick to it.

If you have a website that you love (perhaps it's your company's), please feel free to pass it along. These examples are great tools to help your organization in your website design and should be considered for small as well as substantial adjustments to your current site.

Thanks!
~ Jon | CMO | mSL

Seth Godin: The secret of the Roush effect

If you're involved with marketing today, then you are probably well aware of Seth Godin. While we would be happy to provide links to any of Seth's posts, we felt this one; The secret of the Roush effect was especially applicable.  The moral of the story for us: If you're able to establish and maintain a position of expertise and importance in a market that fits, then you're positioned to realize continued success while providing value for all those in the market at the same time.
To read Seth's blog click here:

Taking Advantage of Changing Status Symbols

As consumers continue to adapt, we're beginning to see a shift in what is recognized as a status symbol. While few will argue that a Ferrari has held its position at the front of the pack, other products and achievements are beginning to provide a solution for the consumer's need for status recognition.

The smart marketer will continue to follow these trends shifts and locate new and innovative opportunities to align with the next great status symbol.

Trendwatching.com recently released an article entitled "Statusphere". This article does a great job of discussing the changing ways that consumers are getting their "status fix". To read more click here!

Remeber The Basics With Email Marketing

Hello Everyone, I hope you all a nice relaxing weekend (if that's what you were after) and are ready to hit the ground running this Monday morning.

In running through my marketing feeds I came across this post by Anil Batra entitled 15 Things to Test in your Email Campaign. In reading through this article I am reminded that as we continue to find new and innovative avenues to reach our targeted audience with a powerful, accurate message, it is important to remember the "tried and true" methods (like email marketing) that are still effective, predictable and controllable.

Good Luck and Enjoy - mSL CMO
Email open rates and click through rate have both declined over recent month as reported by eMarketer (Avg. Open rate is 11.2% while Avg. CTR is 1.6%).

This seems like a bad news for emails. What is going on? Is Social Media responsible for this decline or are there other reasons?
Who knows what the future holds for email marketing but for now email is alive and marketers can improve both the open rates and click-through rates by just doing a little bit more than they are currently doing.
The key to email success is giving customer what they want and in a format that they want. Nothing revolutionary but something that’s often forgotten in email marketing.

All this boils down to

1.Segmentation and Personalization
2.Testing

To address the first point, read my blog post “ 7 Ways to Create Relevancy in Emails.

In this post I am addressing the 2nd point i.e. Testing. Below are 15 things that you should test in your email campaign.

Open Rate Improvement
Below are the 5 things to test to improve the open rate of your email newsletter.

1.From Email Address
2.From Name
3.Subject line
4.Day of delivery
5.Time of the day

Click through Rate Improvement
Below are the 10 things to test to improve the click-through rate of your email newsletters.

1.Layout of the newsletter e.g. 2 column v/s 3 column
2.Colors e.g. background color, side columns colors, colors of different sections and links
3.Fonts and formatting of titles, text etc.
4.Images – e.g. size, placement of hero image (main image)
5.Images along with stories v/s stories without image
6.Article length – how many words should you show in the newsletter article summary before you make the users click to your site
7.Above and below the fold content – test if moving content above and below the fold impacts the click-through rate
8.Left and right placement of the links, stores etc.
9.Anchor text length in links – Do people click on longer links more than shorter links?
10.Action words v/s non-action words in hyperlinks e.g. Does “Download Now” works better than “you can download the whitepaper”?

Keep in mind that if you don’t give customer what they want then it will first show up in dropping click-though rates, leading to lower open rate and finally resulting in unsubscribes and demise of your email marketing.

Why Do So Many Companies Suck at Social Media?

By Lee Odden of TopRank

Last night I had an enjoyable conversation with Scott Monty of Ford, Jeff Hayzlett (formerly CMO Kodak), Mike Monello from Campfire and our host Bob Knorpp of the famous BeanCast about a variety of topics including foursquare, Facebook, Hulu, social gaming and even small logos. One of the topics that emerged from that discussion was the astute observation of how many companies “suck” at social media.
The current iteration of what we all call social media has been around for at least 3-4 years but apparently brands are still irrelevant on Twitter and companies continue to blunder on Facebook and show a lack of understanding of what makes social media conversations succeed at reaching business goals.

Part of the problem is that most companies are not inherently “social” to begin with. It’s not in their DNA to understand what it means for individual employees to start having conversations with the social web at large as representatives of a company personality. Marketing is about many things including connecting audiences with products they want to buy.

Marketing on the social web is less about the tradition of packaging and distributing information and more about companies being able to connect with customers in ways that are both meaningful to those customers and to the goals of the business.

Cisco’s attempt to leverage their take on the Old Spice campaign didn’t work so well (6,900 views). However, Brigham Young University did a parody of the Old Spice campaign and nailed it (1.8 million views). Why was that? Was it in the execution? The production? The relevance to the audience? One could argue that there is probably more resonance between the Old Spice brand and students at a University than with a company that sells routers. Just because a campaign that used social media channels worked well in one situation does not mean it’s a universal formula.

That’s a big part of the problem. Companies that are trying to understand how the social web can work for them are looking for specific formulas like we’ve been able to do with Email, Direct Mail, Advertising and even Search Marketing. The idea that a particular promotion worked for one company, therefore it should work for us too, doesn’t hold water. Companies need to figure out what works best for the social channels, media and content that best resonates with their customers.

While it’s fun to brag about, getting a viral hit on YouTube does not define success on the social web. Creating trust, connections with a relevant community and ultimately an increase in business goals like revenue is what really matters. The Old Spice YouTube channel not only racked up 50+ million views, but the company reported sales doubling.

To me, the issue isn’t about sucking at social media, it’s about failing. Companies should not fear taking risks and trying new, creative ways to connect with their customers. Some of those efforts will succeed and many will suck. Failing at social media is more about choosing NOT to:

•Listen – Social media monitoring.
•Create – Content that customers actually want.
•Engage – There is no substitute for direct participation with customers in social communities.
•Be open – Stop deciding what’s best for your customer and be open to letting them show you how they’d like to engage.
•Be brave – Show leadership in your social participation.
•Test - Moving corporate mountains is tough, so try proof of concept campaigns, run business case examples and get your feet wet.
•Change – Organizations can only be social if leadership buys in and a commitment to change is made.
•Make money – Don’t be fooled into thinking social media is all about kumbaya with customers. It’s about creating opportunities to connect and influence sales: indirectly and in some cases, directly.

I consider blogs a big part of social media and we’ve been blogging for well over 6 years. While sites like Advertising Age and Technorati rank this blog pretty high as a marketing blog, it “sucked” for quite a while as content and “voice” were being tested. There’s nothing wrong with testing and failing. But do so after listening and participating with the channels you’ll be engaging. Learn from mistakes, be creative, be nimble, empower employees with knowledge and resources. Work to make your organization “be social” vs. “do social”.
Have you “sucked” at social media? What did you learn from it? How have you turned your social media failures into successes?

Is Your Business On the Road to Success?

Check out this article from Duct Tap Marketing and learn how your small and growing business can get a jumpstart! To read the origional article you can click here.


Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott is giving a boost to small business owners in the U.S. with the launch of the Small Business Road-to-Success Challenge.

10 small business owners will be awarded 15 free nights for the sole purpose of traveling around the country to build their business. After three months of working through their own set business challenges, one small business will be awarded a grand prize of $20,000 by a judging panel that includes me.

To read all the details for participation and nominate your small business (through August 20, 2010) visit www.fairfieldchallenge.com.


The top ten finalists will be announced on September 9, 2010 and will begin the Small Business Road-to-Success Challenge on September 13, 2010.

Over the course of three months, the finalists will share their journey by blogging, tweeting and posting photos as they travel the country. At the end of the Challenge, one winner, judged to have been most successful in achieving his or her business goals, will be selected to receive the $20,000 cash grand prize.

Should be fun to watch this unfold. I know I’ve got a few on the road stories I could tell.