In the News

[Jeffrey Reed]

Dare to Soar – with Syntric Design
3 reasons why business owners should consider an e-newsletter as part of their marketing plan.

Marketing, by definition, means announcing news about your products and services to the largest targeted audience possible. Consider the options: standing on a street corner with a megaphone - not practical, and you might get arrested; forwarding snail mail which may end up in the junk pile along with pizza flyers; or sending a welcomed message to clients and potential clients who truly value your unique skills and end-products.

It's a no-brainer: the most effective and efficient manner in which to bring folks up to speed on your company's latest and greatest is the creation of an e-newsletter. It's timely, easily read, and when produced with the help of a professional marketing team like Syntric Marketing & Design more likely to generate new business and keep current clients on board.

Here are 3 primary reasons why business owners should consider an e-newsletter as part of their marketing plan.

It's Affordable
If you’ve ever sent out a mailout by regular mail, you know how expensive printing, photocopying and postage can be. Switching to an electronic based HTML newsletter drastically reduces the costs associated with a typical hard copy newsletter or announcement.

It's Measurable
Most e-newsletter distribution services provide you with instantly trackable results such as how many recipients opened your email and what links they clicked on. This makes it easy for you to identify what topics your customers and prospects are interested in and provides you with the opportunity to deliver information accordingly in the future, thereby becoming a resource for your contacts. Such statistics also enable you to follow up on more qualified leads.

It's Effective
Email marketing is a great tool to help retain existing clients and to acquire new business leads. Such marketing provides business owners with an opportunity to proactively educate and communicate with their contacts thereby building client loyalty. And prospects are more likely to make a purchase when they can make an informed decision. Also, email marketing is a highly effective way of directing traffic to a business's website, with site visitation numbers typically jumping in the days following distribution of an e-newsletter.

Syntric Design (www.syntricdesign.com) is a Vancouver, BC based graphic and web design company, specializing in the development of high quality branding and marketing materials.

[Jeffrey Reed]

Dare to Soar – with Syntric Design
The Business Card – Do It Right! Part 1

There are many marketing tools which companies should have at their fingertips. One of the most important items every business owner should have is a fantastic business card.

Why is the design of a business card vital to getting the right message across?

Your business card is the first physical product representing your company that you hand out to others. It sends a message about who you are, what you do and why you are the best in your industry. Poorly designed business cards say that you are unprofessional and not established. Good business cards are often kept in a potential client's Rolodex simply because of how they look, or because of the impression they offer.

What questions should someone ask before drafting a card?

Some of the questions you might as yourself are:

> What information do I actually need on my card vs. what would be nice to have?

> How much do I want to pay for printing? This has design implications in terms of number of colours and types of techniques used.

> What are my company's colours and fonts? It is important to ensure your materials remain consistent in appearance.

> What information on the card is the most important? This is the information you want to have stand out the most when someone reads your card for the first time. What information do you need a potential customer/client to know in order for you to make a sale?

How do the concepts of corporate identity and branding factor into a business card design?

Branding often starts with a logo. From there, it is applied to stationery, including your business card, letterhead, envelopes, fax sheet, and so on. So, very often, the business card is the first step in the application of a new corporate identity.

You need to pay close attention to how you treat the layout, as all items after your business card should follow suit. For example, if you have a big blue bar at the top of your card, your other marketing materials should carry that look through, and should have the same blue bar. Another example: if you create a specially sized business card, then that special size should have meaning and should be carried into your other marketing pieces.

Consistency is key. Make sure you like your business card because you will be seeing it a lot, in various forms!

Part 2 of "The Business Card – Do It Right!" will be posted in September!

Syntric Design (www.syntricdesign.com) is a Vancouver, BC based graphic and web design company, specializing in the development of high quality branding and marketing materials.

[Jeffrey Reed]

Dare to Soar – with Syntric Design
Intro To AdWords

You've built your web site – it's beautiful, it's informative, it's just what prospective clients need to see in order to be convinced they need to work with you. But can they find your site?

Online marketing encompasses many internet-based advertising strategies and techniques. In this month's article, we are touching on the subject of AdWords, a terrific solution offered by Google that can help you to drive traffic to your website.

AdWords is a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising solution offered by Google, and it is a form of advertising that is likely familiar to most business owners, even if the name doesn't immediately ring a bell. If you have ever done a Google search and noticed the search engine results that pop up at the very top of the page or on the right side of the page, you've seen AdWords.

With PPC advertising, advertisers bid on keywords they believe their prospective clients would type in a search when seeking a product or service. When one of those users types in a keyword or phrase that matches a keyword the advertiser has bid on, the advertiser's ad may be shown. However, as an advertiser, you only pay money when a user actually clicks on your ad, which takes them to your web site.

Let's look at an example. Jane Smith is a marketing savvy chiropractor in Toronto who recently completed the development of her new web site. Jane has asked Syntric to help drive traffic to her web site by creating and monitoring an AdWords campaign. Syntric immediately bids on keywords and phrases, such as, “Toronto chiropractor,” “Toronto chiropractic” and “Toronto back pain.”

Additionally, since regional AdWord campaigns can be set (i.e. so that the ads only appear for users in a particular region such as Toronto), we will also purchase the keywords, “chiropractor,” “chiropractic” and “back pain,” so that Jane's ad is seen by users who type those words alone (without “Toronto”) into their Google search.

Syntric sets a cost-per-click (CPC – the amount the advertiser pays when a user clicks on their ad) of $1.00 for each keyword, an amount that we can adjust depending on the placement of Jane's ads. If her ad doesn't appear high enough, we will increase the CPC; if her ad consistently appears at the top of the list, we may decrease the CPC to see if the same result can be achieved for a lower cost.

Online marketing is not a solution only for the wealthy. Rather, a business owner with even a small marketing budget can take advantage of AdWords. And, since you have the ability to set a daily budget, you always have full control over the maximum amount you spend.

So now you've set up your first AdWords campaign, and users are clicking on your ads and being driven to your website. But are they reaching your “goal” web pages? How do you tell if your AdWords campaign is working, and specifically which keywords and ads are the most successful? Stay tuned for December’s article: Analytics.

Syntric Marketing & Design (www.syntricdesign.com) is a Vancouver, BC based graphic and web design company, specializing in the development of high quality branding and marketing materials.

[Jeffrey Reed]

Dare to Soar – with Syntric Design
Google Analytics

In our last article we talked about Google AdWords and how "pay-per-click" (PPC) advertising can help business owners, even those with a small marketing budget, to drive traffic to their web sites. But once your web site is set up and your PPC advertising campaign is running, how do you know whether your visitors are reaching your "goal" web pages? How do you tell if your AdWords campaign is working, and specifically which keywords and ads are the most successful?

This month's article focuses on Google Analytics, a program which helps web site owners learn about where their visitors are coming from and how those users are interacting with their web site, which keywords are most effective at attracting high quality traffic and which of a web site's landing pages are resulting in the greatest conversion rates. In general, it's a terrific way to make informed decisions about your online marketing budget in order to channel it in the most effective direction.

How can implementing an online analytics program help business owners to understand how their web sites are being used?

You will obtain all the interesting stats – number of unique visitors and repeat visitors, which search engines are sending the traffic, which keywords are most used in finding your site, how many users are finding you through organic or natural searches versus paid advertising, how long visitors are on your site, and so on.

You will also learn about the most frequently viewed content on your web site, how visitors found the site, and perhaps most importantly, what features on your site lead to a desired outcome (e.g. booking an appointment, purchasing a product, registering for an event, etc).

All of these are wonderful benefits of Analytics, however this information is nothing without action. Once you better understand who is visiting your website and how they are interacting with the content and features your site provides, you must translate this new found knowledge into a more effective online marketing strategy.

If you now know that "keyword a" is more effective than "keyword b" at drawing high quality traffic to your web site, adjust your content and online ads accordingly. Did you learn that people are especially interested in the "topic x" section of your web site? Highlight it on your homepage! Were you surprised to discover that 35 per cent of your traffic is from Quebec? Maybe it's time to consider adding a french language component. And so on.

In summary, want to get the most out of your analytics program? Observe, learn and act.

Observe what the data is telling you. Learn how to use this information to make your web site a more effective tool by speaking to an online marketing expert. And Act by having your marketing team implement changes to your web site and digital advertising strategies that create a more conversion driven and user friendly experience for your web site visitors.

Syntric Marketing & Design (www.syntricdesign.com) is a Vancouver, BC based graphic and web design company, specializing in the development of high quality branding and marketing materials.

[Jeffrey Reed]

Dare to Soar – with Syntric Design & Marketing
Facebook Advertising

Facebook became a big buzz word in 2007, and for good reason. Use of this social networking web site has grown to more than 58 million users world wide, with Canadian users comprising more than 7 million. This translates into a very large audience that businesses can use to strengthen their brand exposure and build client loyalty.

There are a couple of advertising options available to you on Facebook: Facebook Pages; and Facebook Ads.

Facebook Pages

With a Facebook Page, you are able to create a place on Facebook to communicate and distribute information about your company, and to engage and interact with your clients and other "fans" of your business.

Anytime a user interacts with your Page (e.g. by becoming a "fan" of your company, posting a comment on your page's discussion board, etc.), that activity will be displayed in the user's profile in the form of a mini-feed message. (A mini-feed or news feed on Facebook is essentially a history of actions taken by users, e.g. joining a page, posting a comment, etc.).

As a result, not only are you able to advertise through the content you post on your Page, but also other users will help give your company plugs on their own profiles (which in turn are seen by all of their contacts), every time they interact with your business presence on Facebook.

So, let's bottom line it! If your business has a web site, you should give some consideration to creating a Facebook Page as well. And the best part? It's *FREE* to set up!

Facebook Ads

Facebook Ads enable businesses to target advertising to very specific segments of the Facebook user population. For instance, you can target users by city, gender, age, and even parameters such as relationship status or interests.

Facebook enables you to set a maximum daily budget so that you never spend more than that amount. Additionally, if you choose to pay for your ads on a "per click" basis, you will only be billed for the actual clicks you receive on your ad, regardless of how many times your ad appears!

For information on these advertising options, check out Facebook at www.facebook.com. Or, if you're interested in advertising on Facebook and would like Syntric to lend a helping hand, please contact us!

A word of caution about advertising on Facebook: while it is a terrific opportunity to strengthen your brand's exposure, it is not always a good option for certain types of businesses who are seeking to drive high quality traffic to their websites. If your business isn’t online based (i.e. selling products online) and high quality website traffic is your primary objective in online marketing, we strongly recommend investing in a Google Adwords campaign as opposed to Facebook advertising.

Syntric Marketing & Design (www.syntricdesign.com) is a Vancouver, BC based graphic and web design company, specializing in the development of high quality branding and marketing materials.

[Jeffrey Reed]

Dare to Soar – with Syntric Design & Marketing
It’s Not About You – It’s Me

So, you want people to come to your web site. You want them to read it. You want them to buy your product or service, or submit a request for quote. You want… want… want!! Hrumph… well, what do your visitors want? Ever ask yourself that question?

We’ll let you in on a small secret. NO ONE wants to hear about you, your life or your business. They don’t give a damn about the patient you saw last week, the services you offer or how great you are. They care about themselves. People are selfish when it comes to information. They’re only interested in, “What’s in it for me?” Your web site is pretty much useless to them if it doesn’t contain the information they need.

So, how do you make content centered around them and not you? It’s sort of like when you want someone to like you. How do you do it? You ask them interesting questions about themselves and then talk about the topics that they seem to be the most interested in. You ask them lots of questions, nod your head knowingly and pretend to be equally interested in EXACTLY the same thing. If you can talk intelligently about the topic without dominating the conversation, all the better. Remember, you’re talking with – not at – the person.

The same applies to the web! Analytics helps you to ask the questions. The stats and figures provided by analytics tell you what your visitors want to know about. Then you create content focused on what appeals to THEM, not you! Change your web site so it caters to your visitors. (Companies like October 17 can help).

So how does it work? Give me an example.

You’re a chiropractor in ABC town. You have a new practice with a few regular patients. You want to attract more clients and encourage people to sign up for your newsletter. Some of the things you can do to start the process of getting to know your visitors are:

Put content on your web site that tells them how they can contact you, who your practitioners are and the latest news about your clinic.

Add an articles section to educate people.

Add a few videos and case studies about the services you offer.

Make sure your newsletter signup and contact information is prominent on every page.

Add Google Analytics or a similar program to start tracking statistics about your visitors and how they interact with your site.

Hunker down with your online marketing team (like ours) to review and strategize. Once you have achieved the above you can begin to examine what works best for your particular audience. Discover what who they are and what they need.

Yep, that’s right, currently you don’t know what your potential customers want. Analyzing the situation from a user standpoint will help.

So, think to yourself: Who are the people that ideally will visit my site?
For example, if you were a chiropractic clinic you might ask yourself, “Who are my ideal patients?” Are they:

Residents of ABC town who’ve never been to a chiropractor before.

Residents of ABC town who have a chiropractor but are looking for a new clinic.

Residents of ABC town who are looking to participate in another service your clinic offers (massage, naturopath, orthopedics, etc)

Residents of ABC town who have specific physical ailments and are looking into the available treatment options (e.g. physiotherapy, chiropractic, acupuncture, etc.)

Residents of ABC town who are already current patients, but who misplaced your address or phone number and need it quickly to get in contact with you.

Random people who just ‘find’ your site.

Once you have answers to questions like these you can begin to create web content that answers the questions your audience is asking, content that appeals to your users emotionally – copy that provides them with what they need at that given moment.

If you continue to talk about yourself, they won’t listen for long. The main reason your audience is searching the web is to obtain information that suits them, not you.

October17media is an initiative of Syntric Marketing & Design. Syntric (www.syntricdesign.com) is a Vancouver, BC based design and marketing company, specializing in online marketing services and the development of high quality branding and marketing materials.

[Jeffrey Reed]

Dare to Soar – with Syntric Design & Marketing
Treat Pay-Per-Click Like Pay-Per-Call

As one of Vancouver’s internet marketing wizards, we’ve decided to share with you just one of the many things we do to tweak pay-per-click campaigns in order to get results. Yes, we’ll share with you one of our tricks of the trade. We’re not in the habit of giving away our favourite tips and techniques but we figure a bit of insight might help explain why we get paid to professionally manage campaigns.

Okay, so here it is …

You see those Google ads on the right side of your search results page? The sponsored ones? Well, we buy those on behalf of our clients and part of managing online advertising is deciding what those ads say.

In Google ads there are four lines of text.
Title
First line of ad text.
Second line of ad text.
Web site address.

Argh. It’s that third line of ad text that does many people in. What to write? What to write? A small number of web surfers (approximately 5%) will click on the first ad in the list, no matter what it says, but it’s still possible to save click costs every year by making sure that you are proactively reaching the customers that matter to you most. Here is one of my favourite Pay Per Click tips; it’s simple to do and it’s a no-brainer.

Google lets you put a phone number in your AdWords Ad. So, if you have salespeople who answer the phone, you can save the cost of a click (for some advertisers, this may even be as much as $5!) with a well-placed phone number. It emphasizes local promotion and communicates that you are relevant to their local search results.

If you can, use a unique phone number to track the effectiveness and ROI of your ads. For example, you might try an ad like this:

Vancouver Dentist
Laser Dentistry! Where Technology
Meets Comfort. (604) 123-4567
www.domainname.com

Dr. Name Here
Voted Top Dentist Georgia Straight
New Patients: (604)123-4567
www.domainname.com

This simple tip is well worth testing to see if it benefits your campaign.
Love the idea? Don’t even know where to start? No problem. Give us a shout.

October17media is an initiative of Syntric Marketing & Design. Syntric (www.syntricdesign.com) is a Vancouver, BC based design and marketing company, specializing in online marketing services and the development of high quality branding and marketing materials.

[Jeffrey Reed]

Dare to Soar – with Syntric Marketing & Design
Pre-register a .Pro domain name for added SEO!

Are you a lawyer, dentist, accountant or engineer or other professional and looking to buy a domain name? Before you register one, consider the .pro extension. Here’s why.

What Are .pro Domains?

The pro-domains are exclusive domains that are available for pre-registration now. All licensed and credentialed professionals and professional entities are eligible to pre-register pro-domains. At this time, only members of the medical, legal, accounting and engineering professions, licensed in the United States, Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom are eligible to register a .Pro domain. However, a .Pro domain is not restrictive; any business can register once the pre-registration period is over. If you have a business license, you are likely to be eligible to register a .pro domain.

Why Buy A .pro Domain?

Professionals spend years of schooling, training and preparation to pass exams and finally achieve a license to practice in their field of specialty. Along with maintaining their image and credibility through work experience, a professional must earn the trust of his/her client. This is easy to establish in person, but difficult to convey over the Internet. In the physical world, professionals and their clients can have private and confidential discussions, face to face or telephonically. To ensure trust online and conduct business with propriety, communications and transactions must remain private and secure. RegistryPro offers a way to solve this challenge with the new Top Level Domain (TLD) extension.

Need help implementing and learning how to use your new .pro domain? Give us a shout! We provide services that help you utilize the new domain to its fullest from forwarding, blogs, to developing new custom web sites (Syntric Design, London Ontario Golf webmaster, does the most amazing web design).

Why Can .Pro Domains Improve Your Search Engine Rankings?

Seach engines like Google rank your listing higher if a keyword from a search is in your domain name. So, a good idea is to get these names with .pro, when they are not available in .com.
It’s well known that placing keywords in a domain name can give your site a major boost on search engines. Smart marketing pros often buy keyword-phrase domain names and use them as doorway to boost traffic to their sites.

Been thinking about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) lately? We do a lot of that and if you need an expert to give you suggestions, we’re here to help!

How to buy a .pro domain?

We can help you to choose a domain and find out what SEO terms would be best to buy. On September 8, the Registry officially opened up the registration period and any professional around the world can now register the domain you’ve been dying for. All .Prop domain names can be registered for only $49.95/year.

October17media is an initiative of Syntric Marketing & Design. Syntric (www.syntricdesign.com) is a Vancouver, BC based design and marketing company, specializing in online marketing services and the development of high quality branding and marketing materials.

[Jeffrey Reed]

Dare to Soar – with Syntric Marketing & Design
Ten Ways To Dream Up New Blog Posts



1. Comments:
Check your comments for ideas. Visitors often bring up topics you can expand upon, explain or even argue with. Try to choose comments that have sparked animated discussions or debates. This means that your visitors are already interested in the topic.


Interview:
Bring in the 'experts' and get their thoughts with an informative interview. It could be just five questions long and you could even interview them via e-mail!


Define:
Plenty of technical posts are laden with jargon and broad reviews. Pick something specific and explain it.


News:
Give your thoughts on recent news topics related to your blog.


React:
Get conversations going with other bloggers. Do you disagree with another blog's post? Think someone's blog is pretty nifty? Give it some link love. Starting conversations with other blogs often leads to interchanging traffic. Need a starting point? Check out Blogs.com


6. Best of:
Do a "best of" blogs post. Re-list your Top 10 blog posts. Bring back the "oldies-but-goodies" for those who haven't sifted through the archives.


Vote:
Start a vote! Get people involved and interacting by putting something to the test!


Tips and Top 10s:
You don't have to give away the farm to whet people's taste buds. Content is king and it's great to give away interesting tidbits that feed the thirst for knowledge.


Videos:
Quick and entertaining, you can create your own visual blog post. Most digital cameras take quick video clips.


Case Studies:
Doing a project? Post a photo progress report every day / week until the project is finished. Or, review with photos and explanations of the process and what's going on.


October17media is an initiative of Syntric Marketing & Design. Syntric (www.syntricdesign.com) is a Vancouver, BC based design and marketing company, specializing in online marketing services and the development of high quality branding and marketing materials.

[Jeffrey Reed]

Dare to Soar – with Syntric Marketing & Design
Adwords Tactics For Tough Times

With the current recession, many businesses are seeing an increase in their typical cost-per-action. Pay-per-click is an economic alternative to most traditional advertising media options but it's not immune to the tough, changing economic climate.

So ... dum-da-dum! This calls for "Tough Measures for Tough Times Adwords Tactics," and we've been employing a variety of methods on behalf of our clients to curb this annoying little economic reality.



Cut out the riff-raff.
If you're feeling a big hit in lead generation and it's not sustainable, you may want to consider buying the ads that you already know 'work.' Irrelevant clicks cost money. Concentrating your ad buy on keyword traffic that has a good conversion track record helps to ensure a return on investment. It's also time to beef up that negative keyword filter. Sell blue widgets, not red widgets? Add "red" to the negative keyword list!
It's coupon cutting time again!
People are always interested in a deal. Devise some price-sensitive ad campaigns that are aimed at the common mentality of finding the best 'deal' online. Emphasize your values and promotions in your new ad text and landing pages.
Make it easier for your clients!
We can't always make our prices cheaper or pay more for advertising but what we can do have control over is the page we lead them to. Send visitors directly from your ad to a web page that specifically describes the product or service in your ad. Keep it short and sweet with clear calls-to-action (i.e. buy this now or do this now). Try not to distract them with other bells and whistles. We want to show them what they came here for!
We've heard predictions that this downturn could last for 2-3 years. It's time to prepare a strategy but it's not time to pull back on advertising spend - after all, with no leads and no sales it's hard to grow a business! Instead, spend time looking for the best return on investment (ROI) and concentrate less on exposure related ad spend if you need to stretch your advertising budget.

October17media is an initiative of Syntric Marketing & Design. Syntric (www.syntricdesign.com) is a Vancouver, BC based design and marketing company, specializing in online marketing services and the development of high quality branding and marketing materials.

[Jeffrey Reed]

Dare to Soar – with Syntric Marketing & Design
Tweeting Like A Pro – Not Like A Twit – On Twitter



We get asked a lot of questions about Twitter. Before we get started, let’s do some shameless self-promotion:
Follow us on Twitter here: October 17 Media
Follow our leaning online marketers on Twitter: Tamara & Brenda
What we’re going to cover in this Twitterific blog post:
What the heck is Twitter?
Do I need to be on Twitter and how does it benefit me & my business?
How do I use Twitter?


Twitter Protocol
Twitter Ethics
Twitter Tips
How do you find the time to ‘Tweet’?

Our Twitter service

What the heck is Twitter?
Twitter is what’s known as “micro-blogging” or status updates through a social network. Twitter allows users to post 140 character long message (tweets) and read updates of other users.

Do I need to be on Twitter and how does it benefit me & my business?

Learn from others online, especially established online personalities. Ask opinions, for help and thoughts on topics that are important for you.
Interact with others on topics you know about. Establish yourself as an expert. Or, just help out your fellow Twit!
Promoting you, your business, valuable content to the world!
Monitor what’s being shared about you and your company.
Hear what others are talking about. This can come in the form of news, competitor profiles or your target demographic.

How do I use Twitter?

Twitter Protocol:

Replies are created by using the @ followed by a user name. IE: My Twitter ID is @tamarabrooks
Direct Messages - Also known as “DM’s” are private messages sent between users.
Re-tweet is repeating another user’s twitter message. This is communicated by using the abreiviation “RT: Message Here”. RT stands for re-tweet.
Hashtags represent a topic of conversation found via Twitter Search.
Twitter Ethics:

It’s okay to promote yourself, but not spam people! Considering promoting other folks too. Mix it up a little bit! (IE: Fridays on Twitter are known as “Follow Fridays” where you promote new or worthy people to watch)
Don’t tweet about what you ate for breakfast or that you just walked your dog. Save tweets for important items. If you don’t have much to say, it’s okay not to say it. People pay attention more when you talk less.
Requesting that your friends “retweet” your tweets on a regular basis is considered poor taste.
Interaction is part of Twitter. Don’t forget to read others’ tweets. Answer questions, provide insight and Retweet when something is worthy!
Twitter Tips:

Use an Avatar or Photo, not the generic Twitter icons. It lets the world know you’re human.
Customize your background with images or text. (But not too much text!)
Follow others. Actively find interesting and relevant people to follow and you’ll naturally get involved in the Twitter community.
Don’t be afraid to ask! Need to hire? Looking for an accountant? Need a product review? Someone on your network will know something!

How do you find the time to ‘Tweet’?
There’s no doubt about it, Twitter can be time consuming if you want it to be. However, Twitter can also be structured. We visit Twitter three times a day. Once in the morning, once in the afternoon and once before shutting down for the day. We rarely tweet on evenings and weekends because that’s not when we’re working. Is that wrong? Maybe, but that works for us. Find what works for you, but whatever you do, do it regularly! Consistency and quality tweets are key to success.

You want a professional to handle Twitter for you?
We offer Twitter account management marketing that includes:

1-on-1 learning session with our Tweeter and you.
A certain number of tweets per day.
Replies and questions compiled and forwarded to you in one email.
A certain amount of Community Interaction.

Email us about Twitter Account Management.
We also offer 1-2 hour Twitter consulting. Just getting started and want to get our two cents on what to post about? We can help. Email us about Twitter Consulting.

Shameless self-promotion:
Follow us on Twitter here: October 17 Media
Follow our leaning online marketers on Twitter :Tamara & Brenda



October17media is an initiative of Syntric Marketing & Design. Syntric (www.syntricdesign.com) is a Vancouver, BC based design and marketing company, specializing in online marketing services and the development of high quality branding and marketing materials.

[Jeffrey Reed]

Dare to Soar with October 17 Media
Inbox To Inbox: Email Marketing
Summer 2011

Gone are the days when marketing meant salesmen knocking on your door. These days, with everyone having email accounts, sales people are knocking on your inbox instead. So, do you have an email newsletter working for your company?

When e-mail was launched almost 40 years ago (yes, 40 years ago, check out the history of email on Wikipedia), it was a new and innovative way of communication. Then came the desktop, the laptop and then broadband, and email became the best way to reach someone instantaneously. Today we can't really imagine a life without it. We are addicted to it. We probably spend hundreds of our waking minutes in checking emails, sending hi's and hello's to friends and family who live across the globe.

Naturally, the marketing gurus figured that getting into your inbox would get more results than knocking on your door. Email marketing's major benefit is that it is cost effective. How much does it cost to create a marketing email? Next to nothing compared with traditional print media. (We can give you a real quote if you're interested.) Email newsletters can have a creative and truly stunning branded format. Neither will cost even a fraction of hiring sales representatives, printing flyers or promotional cards and distributing them.

As far online marketing goes, email marketing is definitely effective. However, if yours is not working then you may need to make a few adjustments. There are a few guidelines to follow in email marketing, starting with the content itself. It is after all an advertisement and should be made to sell.

Instead of being verbose, email marketing should lean towards short, sharp and simple. Make offers, keep them straight and lure buyers right from the first line. Keywords like FREE, DISCOUNT, VOUCHERS all trigger our curiosity and make us read the email. However, words like FREE can also trigger spam filters so be careful how you use them as they can be costly mistakes that earn you a spot in the trash folder. It is also important that email marketing maintain the same brand identity as offline marketing. Emails should carry the colors and logo of the company being marketed.

Email marketing should be targeted towards the right audience. There is no point in sending emails with offers on baby products to teenage boys, now is there? However, it is not easy to build mailing lists online. It is possible to start with affiliate programs with other websites and then retaining the visitors by offering a ÒsubscribeÓ option.

Additional features and discounts on the site can also be withheld from non-subscribers thus encouraging subscription, which will add to your mailer list. Some companies also rent out their mailer list but we don't promote this to our clients as it's heading down the road of non-permission based email which we don't approve of. These lists can be accessed through public libraries in the US, but again, be careful how you use them. You don't want people to associate your business with spam!

Be interactive. Make your emails more interactive, encourage customers to provide feedback and send personalized messages to returning customers. To do this you will need to track the activity of recipients in your subscriber list. Referral offers for long time clients can also generate more clients that are loyal.

There are of course many other tips and tricks of email marketing that you can learn from the industry leaders. Sometimes, a little bit of professional help can go a long way in producing results. If you'd like to know more, please do give us a call.

Shameless self-promotion:
Follow us on Twitter here: October 17 Media
Follow our leaning online marketers on Twitter: Tamara & Brenda

October17media is an initiative of Syntric Marketing & Design. Syntric (www.syntricdesign.com) is a Vancouver, BC based design and marketing company, specializing in online marketing services and the development of high quality branding and marketing materials.