Last week’s blog post was about designing your website for a
mobile user. (Remember, that means your website usable on mobile devices NOT a
separate website for mobile devices!) This week we decided to tackle another
mobile device topic and that’s emails. Let’s face it, up to 30% of emails may
be read OR quickly deleted on a mobile device without ever being accessed on a
desktop. So, it’s important that your company have a mobile email strategy.

The basics are really basic! The first thing to always keep
in mind is that you will have a very limited amount of space on your recipient’s
mobile device. This means that you must keep the name of the email account you
are sending from as short and recognizable as possible. Think the name of your
brand or the person in your company who has a name your recipients will
immediately recognize. For example, if it’s your company’s weekly newsletter,
dump the word newsletter and just use your company’s name. Make it impossible
for your recipient to be confused as to who is the sender.

The next challenge in the limited character environment of
mobile emails is the subject line. Again, you have limited space on your
recipient’s mobile device screen so do not have an elaborate and wordy subject
text. This is where you use your buzz words and choose them well or your email
will never get opened on the recipient’s mobile device and may well never even
make it to the desktop for reading.

The natural extension of the subject line is what’s called
the “pre-header” or even better, the opening of the first sentence of your
email. This is very important because mobile devices do not offer “previews” of
the email as is common on a desktop so you must make the first words of your
email matter. Grab your recipient’s attention now so that she will want to read
the email and not just scan it and move on. Please, please, please (yes, 3
times for please because it is this important) do not have the first words of
your email read: click here for online version! That is absolute death for your
email on a mobile device.

These are just a few tips to help you create a mobile email
strategy for your company. As is true of virtually all the topics we tackle,
there will be more to come on this subject as well. Share with us your tips and
tricks for design and marketing for mobile devices. We love to hear from our
readers!

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Who doesn’t love a “Best of” list? There are so many of them– Best Restaurants, Best Hotels, Best Schools, Best Places to Live – so people must love them, right? Well, we love them so we’ve started our first “Best of” list. We do intend to add to it with our own and readers’ picks! So, here’s the first three of our “Best of List of Web Resources.”*

The Best of Web Hosting award goes to…..HostGator! Hands down the most reliable hosting company out there with their 12,000 servers.

The Best of Web Blog Software award goes to…..WordPress! Constantly improving and with loads of widgets, analytics, and customizable features.

The Best of Web Keywords Research Tool goes to…..Are you really waiting? It’s Google, of course! Google AdWords Keywords Idea tool is what you need to help you SEO.

Ok, that’s it for today. What are your “Best of” web resources?

*We reserve the right to at any time and for any reason amend this list, change it, delete it, bronze it or take it out for ice cream. You get it, it’s just a list so don’t get upset if your company isn’t on it!

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Technology moves rapidly and web designers have to stay up
to date in a continuously changing field. One of the fastest growing segments
of web design is for mobile devices – thank you Apple! We are talking about
making your website compatible for mobile devices and not designing a mobile
version of your website. There is a difference! So we thought it a good time to
catch up on a few best practices for mobile design.

First, remember that you are designing for a smaller screen.
Not only do mobile devices have smaller screens than laptops and desktops but
they also vary in size from device to device. Manufacturers of smartphones have
all decided that their size screen is the best and better than the competitor
and these sizes are all different. Even genius Steve Jobs is constantly arguing
that the iPad needs all the screen real estate it can get. So what might look
good on an iPhone may look awful on a Blackberry. Please always keep screen
size in mind.

Second, mobile designs require white space and easy
navigation! If the mobile user hits your site and it’s cluttered and difficult
to navigate, that will be an immediate negative and you may kiss that user
goodbye forever. It’s likely you do not need to offer the mobile user all of the
navigation of a full website – it’s a discussion to have with your client. But
always remember to keep it simple and clean.

Third, dump most of the images. Not only do they eat up
bandwidth but they are also slow to load and cumbersome to navigate around.
Yes, web designs for desktops scream for images but mobile designs do not. Also
see above about white space and screen size.

Fourth, test your mobile design and test it again! Remember,
you will quickly (and forever) lose the mobile user if your site is slow to
load, cluttered and difficult to navigate, and impossible to view on a small
screen. Did we mention test and test it again? A quick hint – use the Opera
browser to test. Its small screen function will help you see what your intended
mobile user will see. Put yourself in the user’s seat.

Finally, this is not over. Sure, these are some of the best
practices for mobile web design but there are so many more. What say you
readers? We want to know what your best practices for mobile web design are and
what you’ve learned from actually designing them. Here are some good examples
of mobile websites.
Share with us your favorites.

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Let’s get right to the point – with a show of hands please, yes that means mouse in the air waving – who has a Google+ circle? Ok – now that we’ve established you can follow all things Google as easily as you do directions, put your mouse down and read the rest of this blog post!

Twitter has followers, Facebook has friends, LinkedIn has, well, links, and Google+ has circles. If you are one of the bazillion people with a Gmail account, you probably have been invited to a Google+ circle. But, what we want to know is did you accept the invite with glee and excitement? Or, did you groan and mutter, oh great, one more thing to keep track of?

If you Google “Google+” there are more articles, reviews, comments, tweets, posts (you get the picture) than can be read by any human eyes. (Here’s a funny blog post about Google+ but NSFW or minors!) The world of geeks went crazy and early adopters rushed to create their circles. Google+ does have a very clean and intuitive interface just as Gmail did oh so many years ago (they are cluttering it up now!) It is an easy way to share information with your friends, family, and countrymen. But how is it different from other social networking sites (Facebook) or microblogs (Twitter)?

Perhaps an important difference is the one feature that isn’t exactly original but is so so important and that is the “semi-sharing”. This allows you to choose which circle(s) your post goes to and prevents your mother or your future boss from reading about the insane party last Saturday or the annoying creditor calls from the Bloomingdale’s account collections. It’s an important feature that’s easy to use and intuitive (unlike the Facebook groups post function).

Another feature is the vanity url – though you don’t get it from Google you can get one here. Google+ does require that you use your real identity and will suspend your account if you don’t. Google+ is still in beta but they are vigorously policing this policy. In fact, Captain Kirk (aka William Shatner) had his Google+ account suspended immediately and he said it was just for saying “hi”! (It has since been reinstated.)

So, what say you about Google+? Yay it’s the best thing since, well, Twitter? Or, nay – no more time-wasting web stuff?

BTW – here’s a link to the Google+ app

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Much has been written about designing websites. In fact, since the mid-1990s, an old-fashioned encyclopedia could be filled with information about website design. However, very little has been written about designing websites for a child user. Let’s face it, especially now with the easy availability of iPads, the Internet user is starting earlier and earlier so we should take special care with understanding our young audience. So, what’s so special about website design for kids? Let’s start with the rules first.

There are two main sets of guidelines to understand and follow when your audience is children (under the age of 13). First, the rules from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are called the COPPA – Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act . Then there is the Better Business Bureau’s self-regulatory rules. Both contain the obvious content specific warnings about suitability for children, and the necessity for vigilant monitoring to ensure no improper users attain access. But it’s important to know these rules if you design websites for kids.

Now for the fun stuff! Be creative because that’s what kids respond to! How many times have you organized a birthday party for your child and you racked your brain to come up with a novel theme or activity? It’s the same concept with the web design. Kids like new things so turn up your creative powers to full blast! Remember, though, that parents need to understand the site too, so make sure it’s easily accessible to all age groups.

Right now there’s a trend to using comic-type characters. Create a personality character who can guide the user through the site. A good way to represent directions to explain how to use or do something is via infographics. Make useable buttons big and blocky so they are easy to find and click on. There are so many ways to use design to make a website suitable and fun for kids. What are your best practice ideas? Share with us what sites you’ve designed for kids – we want to see them!

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Every company wants to market itself via business cards, brochures, a website, or even a billboard or two.  By having a professional graphic designer create your corporate identity, your marketing efforts will be greatly rewarded.

For example, if you had your logo displayed on your website and not your business card, prospective customers would be confused.  They’d wonder if they had the right website and you’d miss out on another important marketing tactic: setting the vibe for your company.

If you are a tech company and have a sleek, modern logo and color scheme, people will likely perceive you to be sleek and modern.  Additionally, this is further enhanced when the invoices, emails, website, business cards, and even billboards all have a similar design.  The cumulative effects on prospects are incredibly powerful and should definitely drive the need for leveraging a graphic designer.

With all that said, here are some tips for hiring a graphic designer:

• Make sure they’re located in the country of your target market–the designer needs to understand what preferences are held by your target market
• Don’t be cheap!–as with all things, you get what you pay for, and the last thing you want is a logo created in MS Paint
• Get lots of revisions–it’s hard to change a logo once it has been used, make sure you’re happy with the logo now
• Work with a full-service design firm–this is a personal preference, but it can be easier to hold a company accountable for work than some guy working in his basement on weekends

Good luck, happy marketing!

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Since it’s important to figure out to whom you’d like to market your goods/services, a bit of research before pulling the trigger on your email blast is a good idea. And I’m sure you’re thinking (or soon will be) that finding contact information, strategic plans, and other relevant information about your target demographic is going to be
expensive. And you’re right–unless you take advantage of your local neighborhood library.

Subscriptions to business data services can be prohibitively expensive (try $10,000 per year, per service); however, your library receives grants (and your tax dollars) to provide this type of service to the public. The only caveat is that their subscription may be restricted to a certain number of downloads or certain types of records.

So the next time you want to compile a list of mailing addresses for potential customers, save some money, and visit the library.

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I’m sure you’ve heard of a press release before; some guy sitting in a 1950′s press room gets a telegram and shouts “Golly, get this to press right away!”  Well, while that is a press release, it isn’t the most modern–nor effective-means to convey news to the masses.

If you’re reading this, you probably have a website of your own–or want one (call me)–and are wondering what press releases have to do with your search engine optimization (SEO).  Well I’ll tell you: one of the many variables that search engines use to calculate your organic search result ranking is the number (and relevance) of the links to your website.  Since electronic press releases (basically a page that is posted online and is distributed to a list of recipients) are indexed, like every other page on the Internet, they contribute to your overall SEO.

So, perhaps you should consider telling the world about that shiny new widget you’ve created.  Your search results will thank you.

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Allow me to ask you a question: suppose your business has a great year and profits are in excess of $15,000 beyond expectations.  Meaning, you (well, your business really) have an extra $15,000 to spend.  Sure, you could take a vacation to the Caribbean or buy that shiny new toy to replace your hand-me-down file server.  However, without a plan before difficult decisions arise, your business may not fully benefit from unexpected opportunity.

Determining the goals of your organization is critical, especially when you’re newly established. With that said, nobody can predict the future and you will have some totally unexpected events.  At that point, your plan will–hopefully–provide guidance and assist you in making a sound decision.  So the next time you have a spare moment (lol) think about what your business is about and if you truly understand your goals.

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Being that this is my first attempt at having a blog, I’m just going to share my thoughts and figure out a process later.  With that said, I think its appropriate to discuss [briefly] why so many people fail when they start their own business.

Sure, you have a great idea, wrote your marketing plan, and even printed your spiffy new business cards.  But, if you don’t have anyone giving you money, you’re not going to make it.  That’s right, I mean the dreaded four letter (well five really) word — sales.

Yes, sales does suck.  Nobody likes to ask for something and be frequently rejected.  Well, maybe masochists and professional sales folk and both of them make lots of money plying their trade — albeit for varying reasons.  However, trying different tactics and properly defining who you want to sell to can dramatically improve your results.  For example, if you are an IT consultant who performs remote management for small to mid-size businesses, you could develop a lead list of relevant companies in your target area (geographic, revenue range, years in business, really anything can define a ‘target’ area) and just reach out to a few per day via phone, email, or any other way you see fit.  The bottom line is to put yourself out there and get your company into the mix with prospects.

I have met a lot of entrepreneurs who want to make their ventures pan out–and I’ve heard crazy gimmicks for obtaining customers.  Twittering to increase your clientele via followers, leveraging Facebook groups, and even trying to use SEO tactics.  Unfortunately, while these marketing tactics do work in an established business with existing cash flow (I use them regularly for both myself and clients) you need to get your first few clients to build a foundation of income to fund further growth.

So, the next time you’re planning to corner the market on used Beanie Babies, make sure that you figure out who is going to buy what you’re selling and go sell it!

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