September 2016 – ACS Reduc 2022

Catching the Elusive Typo Red-Handed

September 29, 2016

When we blasted a message to our list of subscribers last week in an effort to distribute information on the benefits of social media, we learned a little about ourselves, too. Namely, that typos happen to everyone. Our subject line: “Don’t Loose Money by Not Using Social Media” popped up in inboxes with a big fat extra “o”. Not because our English teachers never regaled us on the difference between “lose” and “loose”. Not because we didn’t proofread several times before clicking send. The typo happened because our brains are designed to take shortcuts, and one of those shortcuts is filling in letters and changing spelling automatically in our heads. That is why writers have editors. When you type something and proofread it afterwards, your brain often sees what you think you wrote, rather than what you actually typed. To err is human, and to autocorrect those errors is human, too.

The key is eyes, eyes, eyes

One strategy for catching errors is to have multiple proofreaders, especially ones who have had nothing to do with the writing of the piece. You want people who have never seen the writing in question so that they can look at it with fresh eyes. Because they have no idea what it says, they are less likely to gloss over an error. As mentioned above, the writer of the piece is least likely to note even glaring errors. Find people in different departments. Establish a quid pro quo where various departments proof materials for each other. This will increase the likelihood of achieving that ever elusive perfection.

Read backwards

Sometimes it’s you and only you writing and proofing and distributing. If that is the case, start proofing at the end of the piece. Take each word individually from bottom to top. This will help you catch more spelling errors. Also read each sentence individually from bottom to top to review for grammatical errors. This will feel strange, but it’s that strangeness that will keep your eyes on alert for errors. The same thing goes for reading out loud. You would be amazed at what you find when you vocalize your material.

Time is your best friend

If you proof a piece the minute you finish writing it, you are more likely to see what’s in your head rather than what you put on the page. If deadlines allow, let the material rest for a day or two. Give your brain some time to forget what you wrote. The mistakes will pop when you return to it. If deadlines don’t allow, then take a few minutes to read something else in between writing and proofing—much like you might cleanse your palate with a sip of water when wine or food tasting. You want your brain to forget what’s there so your eyes can spot the errors.

Punctuation matters

Often we get so caught up in searching for spelling errors that we forget to check periods, commas and colons. Proper punctuation is critical to effective communication. Imagine writing “This is wonderful honey.” versus “This is wonderful, honey.” Not quite the same meaning, and all it took was a missing comma to send that sentence off track.

Common Culprits

There are the mistakes that happen all the time. Things like using their instead of there. Or your instead of you’re. It’s rather than its. And in our case, loose in place of lose. These pesky errors invade our perfect marketing materials all the time. You want to keep a special eye out for them, and check each and every one when you proof read to ensure you’ve chosen the right homonym. There are people who live to point out homonym fails—and some of them may be your customers. Prevent the snickering before if happens.

When typos happen to you

Unfortunately, you, too, will at some point fall victim to typos despite your best intentions and the following all these tips. If that happens, own up to the error. Let your customers know you saw it, too. Maybe even be the first to point the mistake out. Because most consumers will accept a little imperfection. It may even make them more loyal to your brand if you handle the error well. And really, building strong brand loyalty is the true end goal. Not perfection.

Any Business Can Build a Social Media Marketing Strategy

September 23, 2016

Let Fans Help Enhance Sales, Leads, Branding and SEO- The Basics of an Effective Social Media Marketing Strategy

At this point, nearly every business has at least some presence on social media. But many of these pages are one-way streets where the company simply posts content and expects viewers to read it passively. This is simply wasting a tremendous opportunity, no matter what type of business you’re in.

To build a stronger fan base, you must offer ways for them to interact with you. Doing so creates a deeper investment of time and emotion in your users, which both facilitates their progress in the sales funnel and encourages them to share your content, thus extending your reach to new prospects.

If you’re a business-to-business operation, you may believe this arena is not relevant because most of the fan engagement campaigns seen on social media target consumers. Why, you may wonder, would a “vote for your favorite flavor” type of contest be of interest to an audience of busy executives? However, there are other methods of community building that are proven to work with professional users.

Showcase Current Customers

People love to be in the spotlight … and get their own business some free publicity at the same time. You’ll be surprised at how many of your satisfied clients would be happy to give you permission to share their experiences with your product and service. These customers can become a loyal group of fans who will forward your content about them to their own customer bases.

Case studies.

You may already have these on your website. If so, it’s a snap to convert them to Facebook posts. If not, consider adding this critical sales tool in both places. The basic format of a case study is:

Problem (that the customer had)
Solution (your product or service)
Outcome (proof of how well the product or service worked)

There are many online sources you can tap for writing a great case study.

Interviews.

This informal version of a case study comes across as more authentic because it’s in the customer’s own words. You may even want to video it for posting on YouTube and, of course, a link to it on your Facebook page.

Quotes.

The interview is also a gold mine of testimonial quotes which support your marketing claims not only on social media but in every channel you use: website, brochures, sales letters, etc. Also, check any letters of appreciation you’ve received for usable quotes.

Solicited reviews.

Your very best, most enthusiastic customers may enjoy writing about you on their own social media pages or website blog (perhaps as part of a reciprocal post deal). Ask them to submit their content under a unique hashtag; this will make it easy for you to track and collect their submissions. Of course, you will link to these reviews on your own social media page.

Social media screenshots.

Your customers may already be talking about you without you even asking. Keep an eye on their Facebook, Twitter and other social media pages. When you see a nice comment about your product or service, grab a screenshot of it and post it on your own social media. Presto: a testimonial with just a couple of clicks!

Invite R&D Input

People love to give opinions. Whether you’ve got a new idea already in the works or you are looking for one, social media is an ideal – and free – way to gauge its viability and uncover problems and possibilities you may not have thought of. Plus, you’ll kill two birds with one stone by inspiring deeply engaged conversations on your social media pages.

Existing customers.

As with the above social media marketing strategy, your first line of opinion givers will be existing customers. Solicit their suggestions through email or direct mail as well as on social media so they’ll be sure to see it, and ask for responses to be posted on your social media page.

Prospective customers.

With the optimal keywords included, a request for input on your social media page can also attract a pool of prospects who never heard of you before. They’ll love feeling that they’re part of the product development process. And they’ll be half way to sold before the product even hits the marketplace!

Start Product Usage Discussions

People love to give advice. Provide your customers with a forum for sharing their creative uses of your product or bugs they’ve solved, and the conversation will never stop. Enabling customers to engage with each other as well as you build lasting relationships and lets you decide how much time you want to put into it. This user generated content is also perfect for both your SEO and your customer service team.

User tips.

For tangible products, YouTube instructional videos are the way to go. In fact, you may find some customer videos there already, an immediate source of useful links for your social media community.

Also, consider starting a YouTube channel for product demo videos. Viewers who comment here can form their own valuable community as well as joining your Facebook community. These demo videos are also highly effective in landing pages and sales presentations.

Online seminars.

The value of educational podcasts and seminars that have to be signed up for is in the relevance of the audience. So, even though the headcount is probably smaller than for a YouTube video, it’s virtually 100% seriously interested in your products and services.

Discussion forums.

One in five Americans use forums to discuss or recommend products. Register at your industry’s most popular online forums and make sure you’re getting your fair share of attention. Give as much as you get: contribute original content, not just marketing messages, to achieve maximum credibility. And be sure to respond to complaints or criticism immediately.

For an ultimate solution, start a forum on your own website. This will involve you in a lot more administration, but you’ll know it’s all about you, all the time.

Conclusion

It’s clear that social media marketing strategies do have a place in B2B marketing. In fact, because B2B customer decisions are more likely to be influenced by brand reputation and word of mouth, it may be one of your most important marketing channels. Build an active social media community by encouraging higher levels of interaction, creating thought leadership content and turning customers into brand advocates.

Is Your Digital Marketing Agency a Good Fit?

September 14, 2016

Must-Haves for a Successful Partnership

Thinking about hiring or changing your digital marketing agency? You’re not alone. Last year the total value of new accounts in the ad industry was more than the previous three years combined, according to a Morgan Stanley study. Analysts said two trends contributed significantly to this increase:

1. Existing customers moving away from large, less agile, more expensive online marketing agency to smaller ones

2. Customers who didn’t previously use an agency needing help with digital media marketing

For businesses in one of these two boats, we’ve put together this checklist of what to look for when hiring your new, or first, marketing agency.

Digital Marketing Agency Credentials

Reputation.

You may be in a hurry to get the ball rolling, but that’s not a good reason for skipping your due diligence. Search online and in ad industry publications for what’s being said about the agency. Check their website for awards, testimonials, etc. Ask other business owners in your network which agencies they use and why.

Of course, you will also check the obvious resources, such as the Better Business Bureau, for warning signs. And, though we hate to sound biased, think long and hard before hiring an overseas agency. If anything goes wrong, you have little or no recourse. Even if they’re reputable, there are often problems with communication, due either to language barriers or time zone differences, or both.

Team.

If the digital marketing agency is a relatively new start-up, you may not find much about them. In that case, check the backgrounds of their team, starting with the bios which should be proudly displayed on their own website and moving on to LinkedIn if you need a more in-depth picture. They may have big-time experience which they are now offering direct to you … probably at a fraction of what their former employers with the high overhead would charge.

Proof.

As you narrow down your list of candidates, begin analyzing the results they’ve delivered to other clients. Ask for customer references and case studies.

The most important question to ask is whether the agency solved the problem it was presented with. If the challenge was to increase sales, then the case study should provide results in terms of dollars, not website hits. If the goal was to increase the brand’s social media following, the results should show the number of followers or “likes”, not number of blog articles or videos posted.

Also, what does their own website look like? Is it well designed and easy to navigate? Is it consistently updated with new content (such as this blog)? Is it easy to find on Google if you search for “web marketing companies” + your geographical area? Does it offer easy conversion routes with calls to action, links to the contact page, etc. These are all signs that the agency knows what it’s doing.

Red flags.

Beware of a digital marketing agency who promise instant results. It just doesn’t work that way in online marketing. It’s a game of attrition as your brand populates through the internet; the pattern for almost all aspects of digital marketing is slow but steady growth for the first 6 to 12 months, then a big leap. Quick fixes are usually the result of dodgy tactics such as black hat link building. Once the search engines discover and impose penalties on your website for these tactics, you’ll spend more time and money recovering than you did on the original campaign.

Relevance

Clients.

You need an agency who understands your business and your needs. The best way to get that with minimal time wasted on a learning curve is to see if they’ve already worked with other clients in your industry or similar fields. Also, how does the size of their clients’ business compare to yours: approximately the same, bigger or smaller?

Culture.

Never overlook the intangibles in choosing what will hopefully be a long-term partnership. How do they present themselves, both on their website and in person? Will you feel comfortable with their communication and work style? Are they transparent about their processes and fee structure? Do they listen as well as talk? If you’re not on the same page, it might not be a great fit.

Expertise

People.

Your agency should offer a diverse team of experts who contribute a full spectrum of skills and talents to the process of creating successful online marketing: design, brand development, SEO strategy, website building, etc.

Tools.

The online marketing agency environment is evolving at lightning speed; it’s critical to utilize the most recent technologies and strategies in order to stay on top of the game (and your competition). We’re not just talking about the tools needed to research and execute an effective online marketing plan. The agency should also have the ability to measure its marketing effectiveness, including website and social media analytics, SEO rankings, e-blast performance and online reputation tracking.

Process.

How does the agency go about getting your message out into the digital world? The first step for them should be learning what your message is, not just dreaming up one for you. Before they even begin to plan a strategy, there should be an in-depth discussion of your business, customers, market and goals.

Is there a procedure in place for timely production: setting deadlines, obtaining approvals, implementing decisions? Otherwise, your project could drag on indefinitely.

Price

Not too high.

This is one of the most frequently cited reasons for clients migrating from large to smaller agencies. You certainly should expect more reasonable pricing from an organization that has less operating costs than a Madison Avenue giant.

Not too low.

On the other hand, extremely low pricing is almost always a sign of poor quality. Spending less money up front but getting bad results will turn out to be more expensive than hiring good quality expertise to do the job right.

ACS Creative Revs Up 13 Year Old Speed Prodigy’s Website

September 12, 2016

Kaylen Frederick, known as K-Rex, races open wheel, Formula F1600 cars down a straight away, as fast as he can. He’s also only 13, and the youngest open wheel, pro race driver in the United States. Not too shabby for a middle schooler. He dreams big: winning the Indy Car and the Indy 500 among other famous car races. And those big dreams require extreme dedication, natural talent and a responsive racing websites design that lures sponsors so K-Rex can keep training at the sport he loves. His dad rolled into our office and asked us to create an impactful online presence. So we, with our toolbox of expert graphic design skills and slick code, rolled up our sleeves and joined K-Rex’s crew.

Full-throttle on the cool factor.

A lot of clients will come in asking for a cool looking website, and while we often try to get more specific on direction, with K-Rex there was no denying that this website had to look and feel as sleek as the car he drives. So what’s cool? Black with bold yellow type, much like the suit K-Rex wears. We used a combination of white and yellow type the over dark imagery to highlight his name and attributes. We also chose a thick, strong font to further convey the sleek message. Lastly, the hero shot is of K-Rex standing with his arms crossed while staring down the camera. If you read nothing else on the page, you’ll still understand one thing: this kid kicks some you know what. And that’s exactly the message the K-Rex team wants to deliver to potential sponsors. A nice win for us.

Put the wins front and center.

Since the whole purpose of our racing websites design is to position K-Rex as a winner, we created a prominent bold banner above the fold on the homepage where he can announce every achievement. Right below that announcement is a box pointing visitors to his 2016 Campaign and schedule. The Learn More link then leads to a calendar we created using race track graphics that delineate the separate events. We are especially fond of those graphics. And on every page there’s a bold box encouraging folks to subscribe to K-Rex’s news and events updates. We like to think of this website design as one slick, fan-creating machine.

Keeping in touch with those fans.

K-Rex is a little too busy behind the wheel, and his parents are a little too busy being K-Rex’s parents to struggle with updating the site’s content. That’s where our content management system comes into play. We made it super easy for the K-Rex crew to post wins, add events, and automatically email subscribers important updates. Long gone are the days when people had to hire developers to make changes to their website. Content management systems like the one we built allow even the least tech savvy user to quickly make web content changes–almost as fast as K-Rex himself gets down that track.

Who is this kid?

Sure the site looks slick. Sure the wins look impressive. But sponsors and fans will want more juicy details on this racing kid wonder. So we put the question: Who isKaylen Frederick right on the homepage. Then added a link to an about section that explains when he got started racing, lets us know he’s also an awesome skier, and reminds us that K-Rex is still a kid—albeit a very talented one you should keep an eye on.

Getting his brand up to speed.

Of course, we couldn’t very well launch K-Rex’s new cool website design without also ensuring that his logo was up to brand snuff. So we updated his logo to match the look and feel of his website. It turned out pretty rad. Wish we had one when we were in middle school.

Getting to the finish line.

As we mentioned earlier, the point of the new responsive website is to attract and persuade sponsors for K-Rex. Thing is, the website is only the lure. K-Rex’s dad also needed the hook. So we designed a pitch presentation template so he could make his presentations to potential sponsors. Winning races is only half the battle. The other half is creating a professional brand that companies will want to invest in. We may not know a whole lot about open wheel, formula car racing, but in the world of professional branding, we are true champs.

Why aren’t My PPC Landing Pages Getting Results?

September 9, 2016

Content That Kills Conversions

Imagine a PPC management company has your ads getting great click-through rates. But visitors only get as far as the landing page, and then leave. What’s happening? In this article, we’ll leave aside all the technical possibilities, such as slow page load and poor formatting for mobile devices (although you should certainly investigate them), and focus on the words and pictures that make up the content of the landing page. ACS Creative offers a dedicated team for our landing page design services, Below are some tips that we compiled, that might help your struggling landing page.

The Message

The disconnect between the ad and landing page messaging.
A surefire way to cause instant distrust is to promise something in the banner ad and not deliver it on the landing page. An example of this is a Consumer Reports PPC ad that offered a free downloadable report, but there was no way for visitors to obtain it on the landing page.

Using the same keywords in both places will ensure that your messaging is consistent and relevant. In fact, a MecLabs Institute study found increases in conversion rates of up to 144% when this was done. Added bonus: keyword consistency will also improve your SEO/SEM quality scores.

Too long or too short.
There’s conflicting opinion as to whether a landing page should be long or short. The conversion numbers support the short side of the argument; one expert says landing page copy shouldn’t exceed 200 words. But sometimes you just need more words to make your point, especially with big ticket items.

So the best advice we can give you is to make sure every word on there is really necessary. Which brings us to the next potential problem with your landing page content.

Excessive copy.
Attention spans are short; you have at best three seconds to convince your reader to take the next step. Verbose copy with lots of generic adjectives (“incredible!” “beautiful!” “delicious!”) won’t help sell your product or impress anybody. It will only cause them to lose patience and wander off.

Go back over your copy and remove anything that doesn’t directly support your selling points or promotional offer. Then weed out any repetitious sentences that make the same point in different words. (“This beautiful home is situated right on the lakefront. With its prime location, it enjoys magnificent lake views.”)

Too many messages.
The landing page is not the place to cram in every aspect of your business. Cluttering it up with multiple messages has the same effect as a room full of people all shouting to get your attention: you don’t hear any of them.

The purpose of a landing page is to get visitors to click over to your website (or whatever action you want them to take). One to three strong messages will accomplish this far better than a confusing mishmash.

Copy focuses on features, not benefits.
Face it, your prospective customers don’t care how great you are. They only care what benefit they’ll get out of doing business with you. In an often-cited Macy’s split test, two ads were identical in every way except for the headlines: one said “25% Off Boys’ Coats” and the other “25% Off Boys’ Coats to Keep Them Cozy & Warm.” The “Cozy & Warm” ad outpolled by 40%.

Go through your list of product/service features, imagine your customer saying “what’s in it for me?”, and put down your answer. Now you’re in a good position to persuade your readers, not just inform them.

The Visuals

Generic photos.
Do they really support your unique selling proposition? Or do visitors see an image of two businessmen shaking hands that you bought from a stock photography site? If a photo is going to take up valuable real estate on your landing page, it should do more than just look pretty. On the other hand, a generic image is better than no image!

Visuals compete with the message.
Even if your product is sold primarily on the basis of its appearance, the image should not be so big or so placed that it pushes your selling copy and call-to-action into a subordinate position. Remember, what you want from your landing page visitors is action, not admiration.

Also, be careful about the type and/or page colors. Nothing is more headache-inducing than trying to decipher purple text on a black background. Keep it clear and simple for your readers by making sure the text is high contrast and easy to read.

Grey text.
Studies of reader behavior have shown that long paragraphs of plain (“grey”) copy are frequently avoided. Maybe it reminds people of school textbooks! Make it easy for readers to scan quickly through your copy by breaking it up with headlines, subheads, and bullet lists. In particular, your customer benefits should really stand out, either in boldface type or bullets.

Call-to-action doesn’t stand out.
This is the single most important element of the landing page. It’s where you tell the visitor what to do next (go to your website, sign up, call you, visit your physical location). In other words, it’s the conversion. Your visitors need to see it within three seconds of arriving at your landing page.

Here are some ways to make your call-to-action stand out:

Move it above the fold
Repeat it if the page is long enough to require scrolling down
Make it bigger
Differentiate its colors and fonts from the other landing page elements
Make it more motivating, i.e. “free consultation” instead of “visit us”

The Visitors

Too wide an audience.
As a PPC management company we know when you try to appeal to everybody, you convince nobody. Increase conversions by targeting your best prospects: those who actually need your products and services and aren’t just there for the free incentive. Design and write your landing page so that those time- and money-wasters screen themselves out, and you’ll have more resources to devote to high-quality leads.

This is why you might want to think twice about offering a free giveaway in your PPC ad just to get click-throughs. Some companies are even experimenting with asking leads to pay a little something to start the conversion process, perhaps a small fee for a personal consultation. Landing page conversions may be lower, but sales results might be higher.

The offer is too complicated.
Making people do math to figure out how good a deal they’ll get is essentially demotivating. Amazon makes it easy for its customers: on every product page, you not only see the percentage of the discount, but also how many dollars you save and what your final cost will be.

Rather than a discount, you might offer something like a gift with purchase or free shipping. “Free” is historically the most powerful word in advertising and will outperform any discount or rebate offer.

Newly-Branded Innovative Insurance has a Website to Match with InsuraLease

September 6, 2016

In the broad industry that is auto insurance, there are endless niche companies. ACS was approached by an outfit with a new service: auto insurance that specifically targets lease here, pay here auto dealers and offers them a more convenient and economical way to ensure that their customers carry the required car insurance. These dealers spend a lot of money tracking their lease customers’ insurance premiums. Insuralease offers a way to virtually eliminate that. Now came the hard part: designing a user-friendly website that explained this new kind of insurance and encouraged adoption by the targeted dealers.

First, you need a name.

Unfortunately, the company’s initial name was protected by common law trademark and could not be used. So we put on our identity hat and went to work. Our creative director closely collaborated with the client to develop a name that reflected the mission—and had an available URL. Not so easy these days. But we landed on a winner: Insuralease. Note the two main components, insurance and lease, are right in the name—which makes it easy to remember. We then developed a logo and color palette that promoted trust and looked as modern as this new insurance idea. Onto the website design.

Explain and convince.

In general, website design has two main goals: 1. explain a product or service, and 2. convince people to use that product or service. With a new service like Insuralease, we had a lot of explaining to do. However, nobody wants to read long paragraphs on the web. That’s where good web design comes in. We created “The Process” tab and broke the information down into “8 Easy Steps.” Each step went into a separate blue box with a lime green icon. This graphic visual allows potential customers to quickly digest the information. It barely feels like reading. Plus the ease of the site helps convince auto dealers that engaging the service will be just as hassle-free.

Answering The Who

Part of explaining a product or service is clearly indicating who the product/service is for. We did that right on the home page in the sub-head: “For lease here, pay here dealers and their customers.” The message is quite clear. The home page also drills in the brand promise: that Insuralease is an instant and easy insurance solution that is a win win for everyone. Making sure this website prominently delivered that message was definitely a win for us.

Customers always have questions.

Our web designers recommend FAQ pages to many of our clients, and Insuralease was no different. With a new service, you want to make sure you don’t leave a zillion questions hanging out there. That bounces customers. The FAQ page we created for Insuralease has lime green questions to help them stand out, and large font answers to make them easy to read. We also added a sidebar with contact information for specific, real people and encouraged potential clients to ask questions.

Responsive leads to responses.

Lastly, we made sure that our web design works across all platforms by using responsive web technology. Though this best practice has been around for a couple of years, many don’t realize the importance of responsive web design. Responsive web design basically means that a website’s content will automatically adjust to the width of a browser. So when you view a responsive site on your phone, you’ll notice that the menu suddenly becomes a drop down and content is aligned vertically. This way you don’t have to shrink and enlarge content to get around the site. With an increasing majority of people surfing the web on tablets and phones, it is critical that companies have a responsive website. We made sure that Insuralease does.
Overall, the project was a huge success for us. ACS is proud to have one more happy customer under our belt.