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Marketing

4 Mobile Marketing Stats you Need to Know

4 Mobile Marketing Stats You Need To Know

By | Marketing, Web Design | No Comments

If you are interested in keeping up with consumer impact on mobile marketing (which you should be), then check out these important stats. Keep them in mind as you develop your digital strategy for 2017!

1.  The time users spend on mobile media is up over 51% compared to 42% desktop use.

This stat should help you consider switching your focus on how to better reach your audience. If you don’t have a mobile strategy or your website optimized for mobile, you are missing out on big opportunities.

2.  Over 36% of mobile subscribers use mobile devices to view email.

Take the time to make sure your emails look as professional as possible and can be viewed correctly on mobile devices. If they aren’t easy to view and read, you could run into some trouble with over one-third of your subscribers.

3.  Over 50% of smartphone users start their day by using their smartphone.

Find ways to insure that you are keeping your target audience engaged with your business. Send out emails at specific times and use subject lines that are time appropriate, such as “Good Morning”.

4.  88% of consumers will visit or call a local business with in 24 hours if they searched for it on a mobile device.

First impressions always count! The majority of people use their mobile devices then they are ready to make a purchase or need a specific service. Be sure that your mobile site stands out and makes a positive impact on your users.

For more tip & statistics, follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook & Pinterest!

10 Brands to Follow on Pinterest for Marketing Inspo

10 Brands to Follow on Pinterest for Marketing Inspo

By | Consulting, Graphic Design, Marketing, Social Media | No Comments

Pinterest is a great platform for gaining inspiration & organizing ideas, but is it a place for digital marketers? If you are looking for tips, content and infographics, check out 10 brands to follow on Pinterest for marketing inspo. After following these accounts, you will have tons of useful content to read, repin & post on other social platforms.

1. Social media Examiner

Social Media Examiner

Social Media Examiner shares a lot of tips on how to engage with users on different social platforms. They post helpful blogs and infographics, covering everything from utilizing Pinterest and Snapchat for marketers to using Pokemon Go for business. This is a great account to follow, especially if your focus is social media marketing.

2. Buffer

Buffer

Buffer is all about sharing new technologies, social platforms and  trending stories on their Pinterest account. They pin great tips and infographics for social media managers and content creators. Buffer also covers general business topics like time management, tips for startups and analytics. Follow Buffer if you want to master content marketing and stay on top of all the latest trending topics.

3. Constant Contact

Constant Contact

Constant Contact has essentially mastered Pinterest. With almost 20,000 pinned posts and 66,000 followers, they have created an account that is truly a great resource for marketers.  Constant Contact has very detailed boards that are organized in an easy to dig through manner. You could spend hours sifting through their content to learn new tactics and find tons relevant resources to post to your business social media accounts. They have several boards dedicated solely email marketing. As the experts in their field, there is tons of strategies and original content on these boards. They are worth the follow for great info as well as inspiration on how to create an amazing business Pinterest account.

4. Canva


Canva

If you haven’t heard of Canva, check out their Pinterest account. Canva is a graphic design startup that strives to make design easier for marketers. Their account is a helpful resource to designers, photographers, social media marketers, content creators and small business owners.  The majority of the pins are inspo for design and marketing materials, as well as ideas for social media content. Canva has crafted a beautifully curated Pinterest account that focuses on the design side of marketing and education for the non-designer.

5. Peg Fitzpatrick


Peg Fitzpatrick

Peg Fitzpatrick is an author with social media know-how, who is using Pinterest to grow her brand & educate other social media marketers. The pins that she posts can help take your social media game to the next level. She covers all things social, with her boards featuring platform strategies, brand building and tips for successful blogging. What makes this account unique & successful, is that Peg balances her business content with other popular categories on Pinterest. Food, crafts, beauty tips, traveling…these are the topics that Pinterest users are searching for. This makes her page not only valuable to marketers, but also a great resource for the average Pinterest user.

6. HubSpot


Hubspot

HubSpot is a great resource for marketers and small businesses to get inspiration. If you are looking for expert advice and shareable content for your accounts, look no further. They tend to post more tips about the analytical side of things, such as ROI on social media, SEO and marketing strategies. What makes them stand out on Pinterest is the amount of content they are creating (so many amazing infographics), as well as sharing a behind-the-scenes look at their company culture, offices, conferences and employees. They even share specific plans for seasonal marketing campaigns, such as back to school. While your at it, check out their board Bad Marketing Kittens.

7. Post Planner

Post Planner

Post Planner is social media engagement app that can be really helpful to drive engagement to your website and social profiles. If you can’t take advantage of their paid app (starting at only $7 a month), do utilize all the FREE content and education they are distributing on Pinterest. Their boards are very organized & easy to navigate, with each platform having it’s own unique board. When it comes to social media questions, you can almost always find your answer within their pins.

8. Social Media Today


screen-Social Media Today-2016-09-15-at-3-38-02-pm

Social Media Today focuses on publishing and distributing posts from the best minds in the industry. It makes perfect sense that they would have a very active Pinterest page ( 8,000 pins and counting) to further their distribution. They tackle topics that some marketers tend to avoid, like mobile marketing, e-commerce, metrics and data. Social Media Today also pins trending up-to-the-minute topics; such as implementing Facebook Live, Pokemon GO and Snapchat for your business. Follow their page for endless shareable content to keep your social profiles fresh and relevant.

9. Rebekah Radice

Rebekah Radice

Rebekah Radice is an award winning content marketer with over 28,000 followers on Pinterest. Aside from the useful content she provides via pinning, she is also using Pinterest to help drive traffic to her blog. If you follow her account closely, you can get an idea her blogging strategies and tactics. She covers all things social with her boards; featuring social platform strategies, brand building and tips for successful blogging. Rebehkah strives to help small businesses and marketing professionals by offering tons of advice, focusing on blogging. Follow her account for everything from how to create and promote your blog, to blog SEO and monetization.

9. Digital Information World

Digital Information World

Digital Information World prides themselves in being a visual stream of social media, business and online marketing. This page is a helpful resource to marketers and designers alike, showcasing advice for blogging, branding, email marketing, social media and productivity. An interesting tool they are utilizing, is the use of community boards. The board Top Blogs – Pinterest Viral Board has almost 4,000 contributors pinning content and is a great way to discover new blogs, covering a variety of topics.

Is your brand on Pinterest? We are! Check out our Pinterest page! Follow our account for tips on social media, online marketing, branding, web design, practice and consulting and we will follow you back!

Is your Website Working for You?

Is Your Website Working For You?

By | Consulting, Graphic Design, Marketing, Web Design | No Comments

After investing time and money in your website, you might question if it is helping your business. The problem may not be your practice, it may be problems with your website. There are many steps to consider to build a useful website, so there is a chance you may have missed some key points. To make things a little easier, we compiled a list of what to look for in an effective website. These might just be the things that you are keeping your website from being successful. Try to use these ideas to get your website in the best shape to better fits your user’s needs.


Does your website have the look and appeal to attract and retain visitors?

Your site should reflect who you are and what you represent; whether its products, services or just a personal site. You need to have a base set of colors that go well together to set the appropriate settings for your visitors. Don’t over do it and try to stick with two to three main colors for your site. Make sure that your text is readable and the font size and color don’t make it disappear into the background of the site.

Keeping your site simple is also one of the best ways to send a clear message of what you are about. Try not to overload the viewers with too many images or images that could either clash or just not make sense to the overall theme of your site.

Your Message
Don’t overwhelm the user with text. You should be clear and to the point, but break it up so your users will not lose interest. You have try and retain your visitor, so don’t run them out with a page full of text that is hard to read or takes a while to give them the info that they are looking for. Make sure to change it up with updated content every once and a while, to keep users coming back. 

User Experience
When you bring visitors to your site, you should strive to make the experience as pleasant as possible. We have already addressed ideas like keeping text easy to read and not overwhelming, but you should also consider the simplicity of the overall experience.

You should have fast loading pages so that your user will not close out and try to find a new site. Also, keep page scrolling to a minimum. The easier it is to find the information a user is looking for, the more likely they are to keep using your site. Have important links up front and make them easy for the user to find.

Make sure your site flows properly. You should have easy to access navigation and content elements utilizing logical placement. If you have ever heard the phrase “above the fold” pertaining to a website, you might know that it means the space that will appear first without being cut off from the bottom of the screen. This is the space that a user first sees where there is no scrolling required. Any content you place below that should be either be secondary information or a follow up to the information that you provide above the fold, when the user first sees your page.

Finding Inspiration

Finding Inspiration

By | Graphic Design, Marketing, Web Design | No Comments

Let’s be honest….there are days when your creative juices are overflowing and you have a hundred great, new ideas, just bursting at the seams. Then there are other days, where you feel like you are wandering around a desert, hoping for just one idea to come along. During those dark and idealess days, I try and find inspiration to help spark something. There are thousands of different websites to get inspiration, these just happen to be my favorite places to go.

1. Google

This one might seem a little obvious, but whenever I need new ideas I start with Google. Now, google has a much more “business” approach to finding things. It doesn’t always give me great new marketing or design ideas, but it does show me what a lot of other brands are doing. It’s always a good idea to have a base line to start off from. Plus, searching on Google helps me to make sure that my product or design stands out among the rest of them.

2. Behance or Designspiration

The next place I like to search, is Behance or Designspiration. It is in the exact opposite direction of Google (which gives a more of a logical approach), and goes to the extreme artistic side of things. Most of the projects you will find on these sites are not campaigns or marketing materials. They are however, great places to check out different trends going on in the artistic world. This can help you figure out what direction you may want to take a project. I find myself seeing things done in ways I might not have thought. Seeing certain elements or textures that I really like, can give me inspiration to pull from.

3. The Design Blog

Another place I enjoy getting inspiration is from design blogs. One of my favorite blogs is The Design Blog. This is a great place to really focus in more on what you are specifically looking for, such as branding, advertising, print design and many more examples. You can also find a lot of freebies on blogs like this one, that might save you some time in the future.

4. How, Print & Communication Arts Magazines

A great place to get inspiration, especially if you are working on printed materials is by flipping through magazines. Things really are designed differently when they are printed, opposed to just seeing them online. It creates a different feel for the consumer. Personally, I love seeing what sort of ads a magazine has, how an article is laid out in a unique way and what kind of images are used. You can really find inspiration from any magazine, but my favorites are HOW, PRINT and Communication Arts.

5. Pinterest

My favorite place to go when I need inspiration is on Pinterest. I have come across so many people who have never thought to use Pinterest for marketing inspiration. They think it’s only great for DYI projects, but the truth is that they have some great marketing and design inspo. So many people pin items from their portfolios, or interesting facts and infographics they find. It’s a great place to see what types of things are trending and hopefully stir up some creativity.

There are so many different websites that are used to get inspired; share some of your favorite places with us!