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Spice Up Your Facebook Page with FBML

March 29, 2010 in Business, Design, Facebook, LinkedIn, Technology, brand identity, graphic design, social media by gtaylor | 1 comment

You’ve probably read multiple blog posts, tweets and LinkedIn discussions praising the value of creating a Facebook page for your business.  You’re still in the dark as to how you can differentiate your Facebook page from the rest of the businesses in the world. An easy application called FBML can give your Facebook page a face-lift and attract some new fans.

What is FBML?  Facebook Markup Language, FBML for short, is simply HTML for Facebook.  FBML allows you to take HTML coding and insert it into the FBML application.  Facebook does its magic on the back end, and your fan page will never look the same.

Sound easy enough?

Unfortunately, you can’t just copy the coding on your website and paste it into Facebook.  You have to keep your coding within the Facebook wall size in order for your images to appear.

FBML allows your Facebook page to act as a landing page or microsite.  Using Facebook for a landing page or microsite saves you money because you don’t have to host the page on your server and don’t have to pay for a domain name.

Below are a few examples of fan pages using FBML:

Wendy’s ‘Get the Party’

SeaWorld’s Photo Adventure

Donato’s Pizza

Sunkist Soda

As you can see, your Facebook page can be customized to fit your business or product.  How will you spice up your Facebook page?

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Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your eBlasts

March 26, 2010 in B2B, Business, Communications, Design, Marketing, New Business, email, emarketing, internet marketing, prospecting by gtaylor | 1 comment

People still question the effectiveness of eBlasts even though they subscribe to receive coupons, blog and news updates via email. An eBlast may not be working for you because the design and content are simply missing the mark.

On a daily basis, my inbox is flooded with newsletters, webinar invites, LinkedIn invitations to connect and, of course, eBlasts. Some of the eBlasts look like they were thrown together in ten minutes or less, and nine times out of ten, they are deleted.

If you’re looking to get more out of your eBlasts, here are a few tips:

Don’t promote – provide value

The biggest mistake most companies make when sending an eBlast is too much promotion.  You should be more focused on providing information your target audience will find interesting, and hopefully, learn something from.  Open the door for questions and offer advice.  You can get a good idea of what people want to know from tweets and discussions on LinkedIn. Providing your recipients with value will keep them looking forward to receiving your eBlasts, and they’ll be more likely to share the information with others.

Include social media

In addition to having your social media profile links in your eBlast, include some notable tweets or discussion excerpts to show what you and others are saying about the topic at hand.

Link to other RELEVANT sources

Although you are sending the eBlast, it doesn’t have to be all about you. See “Don’t promote, provide value” above.  In case you haven’t realized it yet, you aren’t the only source of information. Post a link, and quick summary of some articles you’ve recently read.  It doesn’t hurt or cost any extra money.  Just make sure the links you are posting are relevant to the topic of the eBlast.

Frequency matters

I recently ran an eBlast campaign for a client that had a weekly internet radio show.  The eBlast went out the last Friday of the month.  The eBlast included all the episodes for the month, sound bites from highest rated shows and best comments from the audience chat room.  The eBlast acted as a monthly recap and informed the recipients of what was to come next month. Eighty percent of the emails were opened each month, and the traffic to the client’s website dramatically increased. If the eBlast would have been sent weekly, the audience response would have been completely different.

Hire help

Doctors aren’t marketing executives and marketing execs aren’t doctors.  Hiring a marketing agency to help create an eBlast campaign will get you the results you are looking for.  Determining how to get through the clutter and come up with a creative design and layout for your eBlast isn’t easy, so why not ask for an experts help?

Yes, social media is a great marketing tool to reach large and targeted audiences, but it isn’t the only option.  You still have to get your message to those prospects or customers who work at a company that blocks social media sites and eBlasts are a great way to do just that.

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2010 and Marketing

November 19, 2009 in Business, Design, Marketing, PR, emarketing, social media by gtaylor | No comments

2009 is on its way out the door and 2010 will be here before you know it. We saw marketing go a new direction in 2009 with social media, but what will 2010 have to offer?

2010 is the year for innovating concepts, creative visuals, and even more social networking. Social media has been a huge impact on a lot of companies this year. Some companies were just getting their feet wet with it, while others knee deep in the social media water. Social media has changed PR, marketing, and how businesses communicate with their customers.

Media is another advertising medium that’s going to go through some changes. With Hulu and networks like ABC, and NBC displaying more shows online, and American’s becoming more fond of the DVR technology, prime advertising spots will be online rather than television.

It’s safe to say, things are going to be different in 2010 in the world of marketing. Be ready to ride Google’s Wave and introduce the next great idea to the world!

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Attention To Detail…

September 3, 2009 in Design, Marketing by admin | No comments

From the beginning, designers are always taught to pay close attention to detail. As a student I can remember pulling all nighters to make a 10×10 subdivided grid with nothing else than paper, T-square, triangle, and a rapidograph pen, and having to re-draw it at least 30+ times until it’s perfect. At the time most of us could not understand why in the world we were being tortured to do this, this “dinosaur” of a project. I remember thinking “No one uses drafting tools anymore, this is ridiculous!” Looking back on it now, I am thankful that we were pushed to pay so much attention to detail.

Now that school is over, I am still using that same mantra when it comes to not only design, but working with clients. Since joining the creative team here at SH, I’ve had the chance to learn how detail oriented we really are. Not only do we provide great creative work, we also pay attention to the little things about each client. For example, noticing the pattern on a gas burner can give birth to graphic elements that stretch across a whole campaign. This was the case for one of our newest clients, Beckett Gas. Something as mundane and unexciting as a gas burner can spark our creativity and provide great results, which most importantly make for a happy client. That’s how good we really are.

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