http://www.peoriamagazines.com/ibi/2010/jul/how-poor-web-design-will-hurt-your-business

Remember the days when businesses relied on brochures? The brochure represented their brand and served as an essential sales tool. But when that brochure had huge chunks of text and coffee stains all over it, the brochure went from sales tool to sales repellent.

Consider a Website the modern day version of that brochure. A site with clever design and simple navigation allows a customer to find what they need and BUY. But when a visitor lands on a cluttered site with amateur design the same thing happens as happened with that beat up brochure—brand damaged, sale lost.

Businesses must recognize the importance of Web design in order to succeed online. The following web design tactics play into that formula for success.

Emphasize the Most Important Information First

Most Website visitors don’t read a Website word for word. It’s been proven that a typical user scans a Web page by looking at the top of the page, down the left hand side, and then across the middle (called an F-Shaped Pattern). This means Web design just might be more important than the content you write.

In March, Usability.gov (run by The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) published the article “Eye Tracking and Web site Design” that stated the most important information of a site should always be mentioned at the top of the page. Keep this in mind when choosing a design format for your site.

A Bell and a Whistle (Singular)

A business should have a site design that shows ingenuity. Simplicity has its place, but in online marketing you want to differentiate yourself from the pack by adding a creative bell or whistle. Design elements such as video, flash images, and social media feeds will enhance the user experience as long as the technology does not slow the load time of your site. A site that loads slow will not keep the attention of its visitors. They will leave!

Navigate Logically or Lose the Visitor

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3) publishes standards on Web design and usability that cover everything from font size to HTML code specifics to site navigation. In the latest version of its Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, it’s stated that each Web page should be titled to describe the topic of the page and that the purpose of each link be evident by the link text and/or surrounding text.

These are two very specific examples of how navigation plays into good Web design, but the message is clear. Every Website should have a simple navigation that starts with link anchor text and ends with an attractive navigation bar at the top of each page. Without all this factored into your Web design, your customers may forget where they were going or why they came.

Invest in Proper Web Design

InfoCom Marketing

There are many free or inexpensive templates you can purchase and implement, which makes it simple for the lay person to create a Website. However, if you don’t have the creative skills or the Web 2.0 know-how, it is recommended you invest in a professional Web design firm. Just as it was mentioned above, a poorly designed site means you’ll lose the sale and the trust you need to grow your business.

Are you willing to take that risk?

To learn how InfoCom Marketing can help with your company’s complete Web Media solutions contact us at 800-609-7985 or by email at info@InfoComMarketing.com.

You can also visit our Website at www.InfoComMarketing.com.

InfoCom Marketing (ICM) is a division of Ferotech Solution Services Inc., a software development company in Peoria, Illinois.

It’s a fact; there are 4.3 billion mobile subscribers today. According to mobiThinking.com, this number will increase to 5.8 billion by 2013 and close to 30% of that number will include users of smart phones.

What does this mean to you?

It means that today there are millions of people who read emails and web content from their phones, and by 2013 that number will be as high as 1.7 billion. Considering the sheer mass of people who rely on their phones, it makes sense to produce marketing emails with mobile phone subscribers in mind. Here are five simple tips to get you started.

1. When writing for mobile, succinct copy is critical. If an article needs to be more than a paragraph or two, include subheadings, bullet lists, and bold text making the article easy to scan.
2. Include a call to action in your headline. Since you only have a small space to work with, include the most important information right off the bat. Make your headlines brief and tell the reader exactly what to do next. For example, a great headline for mobile content would not be something like this:
   • Read How XYZ, Co. Improved the World’s Hunger Crisis with Just a Few Easy Steps
   • Instead, a good headline for mobile content would be something like this:
   • XYZ, Co. Fights Hunger, You Can Too
3. Increase your click-through rates by promising the reader something, i.e., a free download, music, information they have to have.  
4. If you want to use images, make them small and remember that many mobile users opt not to view images at all.
5. Remember that video, flash, and frames should not be included in your mobile friendly email.

Have more questions on mobile emails? Contact ICM to find out more.

What good is an email marketing campaign if there is no one on the other end to read your messages?

Before you begin creating your emails, you should build your email contact list and establish methods to continuously grow your list. This will offset the number of unsubscribes and expand your client base too.

Here are five examples of how you can build your email marketing list including a few ways Inside Channel Marketing can help you. Contact us to get started.

1. Attend a convention as a trade show exhibitor or as a participant in several networking events. Collect business cards with email address and after returning to the office, send your new contacts an email asking them to opt-in to receive your marketing emails.

2. Hold your own seminar. Provide a free one-hour seminar and promote that seminar through your website, local media, and your local chamber of commerce. Everyone who attends or shows an interest in the seminar should be sent an email asking them to opt-in for your future mailings.

3. Post a newsletter sign-up widget on your home page. Make sure the text you use to promote your enewsletter is compelling and promises the reader very specific benefits.

4. Produce a white paper or ebook and offer it for free or for a small fee through your website. In order to download the document, the visitor will need to enter an email address, which you can use to send an email opt-in message.

5. Each email from Inside Channel Marketing includes a forward to a friend link. Bring attention to this link within the content of your email. This allows you to use your current customer base to promote your business through referrals and word of mouth marketing.

An enewsletter is the most effective way to “capture” your audience, but, as an added bonus, an archived enewsletter on your site is an effective method for increasing web traffic and for capturing even more readers.
Search engine optimization is a technique used to increase quality web traffic through search engines. There are several tactics you can implement that will put your site high in a search engine’s favor, one of which is creating new website content regularly. Your emails are excellent sources of new content.

Create an “archives” page on your site where you can post an HTML version of your newsletter. If you are concerned that publishing the enewsletter diminishes its email value, publish an abbreviated version of the newsletter and then ask visitors to create an account to view the entire text.

Here are few SEO techniques you should incorporate to get the biggest bang from your enewsletter.

• Search engines notice links
  • Link to other pages within your website from your newsletter
  • Write high-quality content that will encourage other website owners to link to your site and/or enewsletter
• Determine which keyword phrases for your industry are highly searched on the web
  • Incorporate keywords into your enewsletters without overdoing it. Frequency of keywords is less important than placement. Instead of stuffing your content with keywords, add emphasis to a few keywords with bold and italic text.
  • Include keywords within headings and subheadings as well as within link anchor text
• Use keyword rich title tags for each page on your website, including your newsletter pages. While the company name and date of the newsletter is informative, it won’t help you with SEO.

For more email marketing tips, sign up for the Inside Channel Marketing enewsletter. We’ll send tips like these straight to your inbox.

On their own, email newsletters and Facebook provide a means for telling your story and for pulling customers into your digital world. Since both work so well individually, imagine the possibilities they hold when used together.

Take the opportunity to unite these two marketing methods to expand the reach of your marketing message. Here are a few tips to get you started.

Make sign up easy

Facebook allows you to link to websites (a/k/a your newsletter sign-up page) and it also allows you to create newsletter sign up forms. This is an excellent method for acquiring email addresses for your contact list.

Likewise, all of your emails should include hyperlinked images that take readers to your Facebook page. Again, your newsletter is an excellent method for building your Facebook fan base.

Complement one another

Talk about your Facebook page in your e-newsletter and talk about your e-newsletter on Facebook. Newsletters should include articles that summarize Facebook activity and Facebook Wall Posts and Discussions should include teasers of newsletter articles.

Here’s a fun idea: Think about how to incorporate contests, trivia, games, or a series of long articles between the two formats.

Always produce excellent content

Be sure to put your best face forward in all content you produce. If a reader likes what you produce on Facebook, then they will want to know what you say in your newsletter, and vice versa. In every piece of content you write, always be relevant and always be informative or entertaining.

Learn more about email marketing and social media, by signing up for the Inside Channel Marketing monthly newsletter.

There is no hard or fast rule on proper email length, but here are two things to consider when deciding on email length.

Community building or the hard sell?

What is the purpose of your email? Are you sending a regularly scheduled newsletter to stakeholders or are you sending a one-time email to sell a product or service?

Community building newsletters can be long. In fact, they can be very long (up to 5,000 words). The reason is because people like to read about themselves and the group they are a member of – whether it’s an organization, a job, or club.

Short email length (hard sell, drive to landing page)
150 to 500 words / 1 to 3 articles

Medium email length (community building, hard sell)
300 words to 1,000 words / 3 to 5 articles

Long email length (community building, selling, informative)
1,000 to 2,000 words / 5 to 8 articles

Very long email length (community building, informative)
2,000 to 5,000 words / 8 to 12 articles

On the other hand, if an email is overtly promotional, then your contacts won’t have patience for a long message. When selling, tell your story in less than 500 words.

It’s possible that you are doing both community building and the hard sell within an email. If that’s the case, then opt for a medium-length email (300 – 1,000 words)

What is the call to action?

Before you begin writing an email, think about what you want the reader to do. Should they simply read the email for information sake or should they call you, visit a landing page, or buy your product right then and there?

If it’s only an informative email, then the longer the better! If you want the reader to call you or buy something, then you need a medium-length email to provide all the necessary information and to convince them to act. If it’s a landing page you want them to see, then a short email will suffice, since the bulk of your content will rest on the landing page.

We will continue to post more email marketing tips and advice here on the ICM blog. Check back frequently for more ideas on how to improve your email tactics.