Signs are marketing communication vehicles for identifying a business and promoting products and services. Added to an integrated marketing campaign, they help widen your message. But a sign is only effective if it can be seen. Sounds obvious, right? But the proper placement of signs is as much as an art, as is the design of the sign itself.

In an article on signcraft.com, sign analyst, Dan Mika explains that placing a sign in the right place so people can easily see and read it requires an understanding of “sight-lines”—regions of maximum visibility. He explains that signs are best viewed at a 90-degree angle to the viewer. So, although a sign on the front of a building might be placed above a shop doorway for long-range visibility from many angles, to attract sidewalk pedestrians nearer to the business, the best sign would be placed at eye level, 90 degrees, such as a freestanding banner, A-frame sign, or flag pole style coming off the building. Even the side of an awning can carry a message that would be considered within sight-line.

The above isn’t meant to imply that all flat signs on buildings are wrong. In fact, sides of buildings can be great places for signs if traffic patterns around the building make it a sight-line for drivers.

As Mika states, once a sign is planned for just the right place, all the principles of effective sign design can then be applied to the layout. To ensure your sign investment is a solid one, be sure to work with a sign provider that can help you with both placement consultation and good graphic design.

When Facebook claimed the title as the biggest IPO in Internet history, social media officially segued from a consumer fad to a business fact. Although the abundance of Internet cat memes could make anyone wonder if social media has business validity, the emergence of the concept of social business has tangible value for any integrated marketing program.

Research firm Altimeter Group defines social business as the deep integration of social media and social methodologies into an organization to drive business impact. In a recent study, Altimeter pinpointed the two most important criteria for a successful social business strategy. First, you have to align it with the strategic goals of your organization. Second, you have to put the resources in place to execute the strategy.

What Social Business Can Do

Knowing what you want to accomplish with social business can help you make it a viable part of your integrated marketing strategy. Consider these benefits; by using social business effectively, you can:

• Share your expertise and knowledge by populating a blog, like this one
• Tap into the wisdom of your dealers, resellers and end users by creating private groups on LinkedIn
• Enable customers to help other customers by sharing personal experiences through online support built with applications like Zendesk
• Engage prospects through customer evangelism on peer-review sites like Yelp
• Show your innovations visually with services, such as Pinterest

The Art of Conversation: How to Build a Social Business Strategy

Most experts recommend you think of your social business strategy in seven stages. This process stresses brand alignment and continual feedback.

First: Align Your Efforts. 

Before beginning any social business activities, your first step will be to review your company’s integrated marketing activities and assess how these other methods are working. If you haven’t done so yet, define your company’s brand personality, sales channels and target audiences. Also, document how your target audience typically engages with your organization.

Second: Refine Your Listening Skills. 

Companies engaged in social business marketing should listen to their online communities more than 50 percent of the time. That means asking questions, responding to their answers and prompting conversation.

Third: Define Community Expectations. 

During this stage, try to outline your program by asking your target demographics what they want to experience in a social business program.

Fourth: Determine Assets. 

A common misconception is that social media tools are free. Although many do not charge for service, they really aren’t free because they cost a lot of time to maintain as a part of your integrated marketing efforts.

Fifth: Measure Your Methods. 

The goals of a social business program should evolve over time. During your initial program, track goals and metrics against your overall integrated marketing and business plans.

Sixth: Select Your Channels. 

It’s tempting to try out every social network available, but that isn’t strategic. Go where your customers spend time. A pin on Pinterest might buy you more than a tweet on Twitter, depending on your target audience’s activities.

Seventh: Engage in Conversations. 

​Online conversations must mirror real-life conversations to be effective for company branding, sales, customer satisfaction and even employee recruitment. Be transparent and authentic. Focus on your industry and always observe any industry standards or regulations. When appropriate, tie your efforts to pop culture or “news of the day.” Thank your community profusely and, most importantly, have fun with it.

You’ve invested in a business plan, scouted for a prime location and honed your target market. Don’t settle for an ineffective, lackluster name. Here are quick tips for selecting a memorable brand name for your business. You also can follow these tips to name a product or service and create an integrated marketing naming system.

A Is Better than Z

Web search engines use an alphabetically driven organizational structure, so be sure your name ranks at the top of the list by choosing a name that falls early in the alphabet. For more on create a search-friendly site, read “SEO Made Simple: Understanding Keywords.”

Tell ’Em What You Do

Using a name that fits your industry can strengthen your brand and deepen the understanding of what your company does, offers or sells. “Just Tires,” “Toys R Us” and “Microsoft” all are examples.

Pick a Name that Reverberates

Can you activate the name? Companies such as Google, Kleenex and Xerox hit brand bonanza as their names have slipped into our vernacular as verbs.

The New Speak Easy

If your name is easy to spell and say, your name will be easier for people to remember. Be clever with other areas of your integrated marketing.

Don’t Be Counted Out

Numbers can cause confusion and spelling problems when someone is trying to find your company, service or product. Is it one or 1; two or 2; three or 3?

One of These Is Not Like the Others

Sounding too similar to an existing company can cause confusion and make it more difficult to differentiate your company, product or service from the competition.

Forget the Fads

​Be aware of trends in names (e.g. dot coms or the letter “e” before any name) that could be short-lived fads. Understand the future of your products, services and industry and how it might affect the name.

One of your earliest childhood memories probably involves playing games. From hopscotch to dodge ball to tag, you learned how to validate your performance by keeping score.

As an adult, you probably traded in that bouncing rubber ball for a rubberized case on your smart phone, but your love of competition hasn’t dwindled. And that’s what integrated marketers are betting on when they introduce game mechanics into campaigns to convince consumers to buy their products, endorse their brands and tout their achievements to their social networks.

Nothing but Blue Skies Reported for Gamification

The concept of “gamification” as an integrated marketing vehicle isn’t new. If you’re a business traveler, you probably belong to a frequent-flyer program. Airlines “gamified” flying in the 1980s by logging miles flown and awarding status levels to their customers. According to Jonah Berger, author of “Contagious: Why Things Catch On,” frequent-flyer programs provide consumers with social currency. They get a reason to talk about their achievements, and brands gain credible buzz they can’t buy.

Flash forward to today and the ubiquitous prevalence of smart phones. We use our smart phones to run businesses, manage family schedules and find recommendations for the best “anything” in town. Brands are gamifying integrated marketing content by turning it into interactive games and apps. This trend of gamification is expected to increase by 90 percent by Mind Commerce reports.

Spur On Your Customers to Market Your Brand

One of the easiest ways to jump into the gamification trend is to launch a contest. If you’re looking for inspiration, visit the iconic brand Burberry and its “Art of the Trench” website. Burberry posted content from its archives — a montage of vintage photos as well as contemporary images — and invited its customers to submit photos of them wearing their own Burberry trench coats. Those selected bragged about their accomplishments. Burberry reported millions of website hits and a boost in sales of 50 percent during the campaign period.

“Instead of marketing itself directly, a company like Burberry uses the contest to get people who want to win to do the marketing themselves,” Berger explained.

Even Fun and Games Must Be Measured

Think back to those fierce games of Red Rover you played as a kid and counting your victories on the playground. Remember that feeling and inject it into any gamification initiative you launch. The most successful programs are based on simple game mechanics, and let customers publicize their victories and feel like brand insiders.

Here are three rules for the gamification of your integrated marketing:

1. Play fast and hard. Let your customers get into the game quickly and earn an immediate reward.
2. Reward for participation. Once the initial thrill of the game wears off, you need to give customers frequent rewards to keep them interested and note their achievements.
3. Benchmark performance. People like to compete. Include in your game ways for participants to show off their achievements, such as earning badges or recognition on Facebook.

​Since 2005, social technologies have swept through popular culture. Today, more than 1.5 billion people worldwide have an account on a social networking site, and nearly one in five online hours is spent on social networks.

Businesses, however, are still missing the boat, according to a McKinsey Global Institute study that analyzes how social technologies stimulate business growth and generate added value. Researchers say that by not embracing and implementing social technologies to their fullest, businesses aren’t tapping even a tiny fraction of the $1+ trillion of annual value that’s there for the taking.

• “Social technologies can generate rich new forms of consumer insights—faster and at lower cost than conventional methods.” – McKinsey Global Institute study

Social Technologies Defined

McKinsey defines social technologies as “products and services that enable social interactions in the digital realm, and thus allow people (consumers and enterprises) to connect and interact virtually.”

Among many others, the study’s list of technologies includes:

• Social networks—for staying connected through personal and business profiles (familiar examples today include Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter)
• Social commerce—social group-purchasing platforms, such as Groupon and LivingSocial
• Ratings and reviews—where users rate and evaluate products customer service or brand experience
• Discussion forums—open communities, in which users help solve one another’s problems by exchanging specialized knowledge and expertise

Key Findings

An abridged summary of the 13-page study’s business upside for integrating social technologies includes:

• Deeper insights, better products and marketing. Companies that rely on consumer insights for developing product and marketing strategies can greatly increase business value by monitoring consumer’s social media conversations and/or engaging them directly via social media.
• Greater opportunities for growth. The study lists ten ways social technologies can add extraordinary value to common organizational functions, including:
  • Product development: deriving customer insights and helping interdisciplinary teams co-create new products
  • Operations and distribution: leveraging social technologies to better forecast, monitor and distribute critical business processes
  • Marketing and sales: more fruitful customer interactions; better lead generation and nurturing
  • Customer service: using social technologies to enhance the depth, quality and responsiveness of support operations, and reduce CRM and call center expenses
  
  
  
• Benefits outweigh risks. The risk/reward potential favors businesses in the long term. Transformation in strategy and structure notwithstanding, organizations that fail to invest time and effort in understanding social technologies are at greater risk of being disrupted by them.

​Already integrating social technologies or tactics? Our prior social media posts may provide some actionable new ideas.

Is direct mail a part of your integrated marketing strategy? If so, do you maintain your own mailing lists and mail your direct mail pieces yourself thinking you’re saving your company big money?

Well, think again.

According to the USPS, over 40 million Americans change their addresses annually, which makes maintaining a high-quality mailing list a near impossibility. In fact, the Mailers Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC) reports that Undeliverable-as-Addressed (UAA) mail costs the United States Postal Service approximately $2 billion each year.

Too many small businesses shy away from data management practices, usually because they don’t think they’re big enough and/or they don’t know how to get started. The truth is, small companies can benefit greatly from keeping their customer data clean. Implementing some simple controls¾like checking addresses against the National Change of Address database (NCOA) and making sure there are no errors in content or address formatting¾can ensure ongoing data quality.

If these activities sound daunting to you, consider outsourcing this task to a mailing services provider to maintain your lists. Oftentimes, mailing services can actually save you more money than if you tried to do it all yourself. Not only can a mailing provider ensure the data you are working with is as clean as possible, they can save you money by improving deliverability and maximizing postal discounts to help you mail at the lowest possible rates with the fewest possible UAA mail pieces. This not only saves you money, it protects the environment by reducing paper waste.

​So the next time you’re getting ready for a big mailing, give outsourcing a try. You might just be pleasantly surprised.

As email spammers become more and more creative in their approach, spam filters become more and more sophisticated in their approach. If you engage in email marketing, you’re already aware of how hard it can be to get your message past your audiences’ junk mail filters and into their in-boxes. The following tips, courtesy of ePly Online Event Registration, can help keep your emails from being flagged as spam:

1. DON’T USE ALL CAPS. Besides looking aggressive and LIKE YOU’RE YELLING AT YOUR AUDIENCE, it’s one of the least sophisticated and most common attention-getters that a spammer could use.
2. Avoid certain words and characters, especially in the subject line of the email. Junk email filters tend to hone in on several tried-and-true key words, phrases, and characters. Try to keep your subject line free of overtly “sales-ey” terms (“Satisfaction Guaranteed!”, “Free fill in the blank!”, etc.). Under no circumstances put a dollar sign ($) in your subject line.
3. Make the “Unsubscribe” link prominent on the email. Although you ideally want a large list of potential contacts, if your unsubscribe link is difficult to find, your recipient might find it easier to lodge a complaint regarding your broadcast, which will hurt your online reputation. The more complaints received regarding the emails you send, the higher the likelihood that the email service provider will blacklist you altogether.
4. Avoid overusing images. With all of the assets your marketing department might have on hand, it’d be hard not to be tempted to include five or six powerful images in your email broadcast. The problem is, if you do go overboard with the graphics, the probability that your email will be flagged as spam will skyrocket.
5. Avoid red fonts. As a color that relays a sense of urgency, red fonts have been used extensively in the spamming world.

Free Spam Testing Tool

There are a number of free tools online, such as http://spamscore.me/, that will take a sample email, process it, and assess its likelihood of getting caught in a junk mail folder. A 100% delivery rate for your email campaign might be pie-in-the-sky, but with a few easy steps, avoiding getting flagged as spam can be as easy as cake and ice cream!

“Awesome” is one of those words that teenagers overuse and abuse. So it’s a little odd to hear it so regularly from a respected business speaker and author who has guided companies such as PepsiCo, Adobe, Red Cross and Saks Fifth Avenue. But Scott Stratten has made it his business to help other businesses be awesome.

The man who brought you “UnMarketing” has followed it up with The Book of Business Awesome. But it’s really two short books in one, with opposite-sided front covers, so that when you finish one side, you flip it over and read from the other side.

From Awesome to UnAwesome

Scott is best known for being one of the top 5 most influential business people on Twitter. But rather than another social media book, Awesome/UnAwesome focuses on key business concepts and how they relate to integrated marketing, branding, human resources, public relations, and customer service. The Book of Business Awesome showcases different examples of successful businesses that have benefitted from being awesome and effective. In one humorous case, it shows how the Red Cross used social media to turn a mistake into an opportunity for awesomeness.

The opposite side, The Book of Business UnAwesome, is filled with cautionary tales of business train-wrecks illustrating what not to do, or how not to do it.

Marketing Is A Verb

What comes through in nearly every example in book is the importance of hiring good people and training them to uphold your brand’s values, because marketing is more than a logo or commercial; it’s every experience a customer has with your company. Scott emphasizes that “marketing is a verb” because it’s something that everyone in the company does (or should be doing), all the time.

The Awesome Extended Vacation

During a speaking appearance in Irvine, California, Scott began his awesome talk by recounting how a friend had recently spent a family weekend at a Ritz Carlton hotel. When the family returned home, they discovered that their seven-year-old son’s precious stuffed giraffe, Joshie, had been left behind at the hotel. In a moment of weakness, the boy’s dad fibbed that Joshie was just on an “extended vacation,” then called the hotel in a panic. Fortunately, the hotel found Joshie. Not only did the hotel staff ship Joshie back home, overnight, and at no charge, but they also included snapshots of the giraffe relaxing poolside on a lounge chair, nightclubbing it with other stuffed animals, and generally enjoying his extended vacation.

​So now when Scott sees the Ritz Carlton logo, it might as well be Joshie, because that’s what the hotel reminds him of. Pretty awesome, eh?

Sound like a familiar song? The Five Man Electrical Band may have thought there are too many signs, but the fact is, signs are a way of life. Wayfaring signs help guide us to where we want to go. Billboards inform us about products and services we may need, as well as telling us where to get off the road to eat, drink and rest! Traffic signs prevent us from getting into accidents and from getting tickets. Yes, signs are good. And they are an excellent addition to an integrated marketing campaign.

Signage is among the least expensive, most effective forms of advertising for millions of retail and independent businesses. High-quality, well-designed signs help support integrated marketing through brand recognition, lead generation, and customer acquisition. Over time, signs also remind the local community that your company is alive and well, and “open for business.”

Visual communications are all around us. Posters and banners are used often in retail environments, and more companies are trending toward wall graphics, floor graphics, and even window graphics. And signs are going mobile with the addition of QR codes to drive today’s mobile customer to a sale, coupon or other event even without going into the store.

​So the next time you develop a marketing campaign, consider signage as another channel for delivering your message to a wider audience at, often, an affordable price.

Google’s new swipeable tablet ad formats use special templates that make it easy for advertisers to easily deploy highly interactive videos and ad galleries across mobile (and other) platforms. Formats are aimed at helping companies better engage (and sell to) today’s skyrocketing number of tablet users, 65% of whom Google says spend at least one hour per day using the devices.

The Chongqing Connection

In its recent foray into swipeable tablet advertising, boutique Nordic airline, Finnair, sought to entice travelers with its new Chongqing, China route launch. Their challenge was promoting a virtually unknown destination, to highly particular customers, on a limited marketing budget. The upside for Finnair? Chongqing is actually a very desirable destination, and Finnair is the first to operate non-stop flights between that city and Europe.

Campaign Goals

Knowing its prospects well, Finnair’s first goal was to create a highly visual, educational and interactive user experience. It also sought to drive visitors to check fares and/or purchase tickets on the company website, and register for a special contest.

Solution & Results

Finnair chose Google’s swipeable gallery to tempt prospective passengers with a compelling range of browseable Chongqing imagery, including: modern cityscapes, ancient architecture and sculptures, sumptuous local cuisine and stunning nature photos. Results revealed that:

• Nearly 5% of all impressions led to some user interaction
• 12% of those interacting clicked to view fares on the company’s website
• 60% of all interactions resulted in a conversion (registering to enter the contest)

Finnair marketing manager, Emmi Teräs’s conclusion about advertising on tablets? “No other tool enables you to engage with targeted users with so much ‘wow’ factor…”

What You Can Take Away

• Small screens equal huge potential. Mobile Internet users have exceed desktop Internet users since 2014. So start “thinking mobile” and integrate tablet- and smartphone-friendly content into your mix ASAP.
• People want novelty. Identify something you have, do or offer that rivals don’t. If you’re the “first, best or only,” build a campaign that touts and proves the claim.
• Knowing customers counts. Finnair understood travelers’ high standards and delivered a campaign (and destination) that successfully satisfied both.

​Learn how to get a swipeable tablet campaign off the ground by reading Google’s complete Finnair case study.

Do you know what kind of marketing leader you are? Wanna find out? The Chief Marketing Officer Council(CMOC) can help.

As part of its Succeed by the Way You Lead professional development program, the CMOC is offering a free online assessment called the 4P Leadership Footprint Audit. Developed by marketing leadership expert Thomas Barta, the online questionnaire takes less than 15 minutes to complete and provides immediate feedback via email in the form of an individualized report.

The test is based on proven models for leadership success and the advice of over 100 board-level executives. Assuming you answer all the questions honestly, the test will assess your marketing leadership skills and inherent abilities in four key categories:

• Purpose:Having a clear purpose and constantly refreshing it by fully understanding yourself, your customers, your own products and your industry.
• Pull:Being able to attract and mobilize people around a common goal.
• Power:Being able to achieve the implementation of your ideas within an organization, with support from top management and very strong teams.
• Productivity: Managing for strong results in order to achieve your goals, including outstanding team leadership and marketing skills.

Customer relationship management (CRM) tools are designed to make marketing, sales and support teams more efficient and effective, but CRM’s focus remains fixated on what you want customers to do.

Customer experience management (CEM), by contrast, is focused on what drives customers to do business with you. Tapping CEM insights allows you to tailor your product, sales, marketing, web and service campaigns to what customers really want and need.

Survey Says…Satmetrix, a provider of customer experience software, conducted its annual Customer Experience Industry Survey earlier this year. Over 1,000 companies around the world participated. Here are the key findings:

• The most prevalent business priority is to acquire new customers, followed by focusing on existing client bases.
• Almost half of companies have a customer experience initiative in place; one in five small companies have no initiative running.
• 66% of initiatives are built in-house and therefore may not have best practice links to financial KPIs.
• 40% of companies feel their customer experience initiatives have an unproven level of ROI.
• Closing the loop with customers and tracking across multiple channels are considered the biggest challenges.
• Over half of companies are already using Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin.

​Customers build their perceptions about brands based on their experiences across all touch points or channels. It’s the sum total of every interaction. So, an effective CEM strategy needs to be built around a company’s ability to deliver on the wants and needs of its customers. A CEM program is definitely a worthwhile investment that pays off with increased traffic, stronger brand loyalty, and positive word-of-mouth sentiments.

During the Tournament of Roses Parade on New Year’s Day, with fifty-something million viewers and parade-goers watching, the winning couple from the Farmers Insurance “Love Float” contest will exchange wedding vows on live TV, consummating a thoughtful and creative integrated campaign from which marketers in all categories can learn.

First Class Accommodations

For winners Gerald and Nicole from Virginia, Farmers and its “Official Dream Wedding” sponsors will furnish the bride’s hair styling, make-up and gown; the groom’s tux; wedding rings; Rose Bowl game tickets, and the kicker—an advertisement opportunity for the lovebirds featuring a photo from their nationally televised ceremony.

“… social media allows us to reach out across the entire country and let anybody who wants to participate, participate.” — Michael L. Linton, Farmers enterprise chief marketing officer

A Lot to Love

As integrated marketing, the Love Float campaign exemplifies:

• Strategic brand alignment. By featuring newlyweds starting a new life together, the concept aligns nicely with Farmers’ insurance products, as well as the Parade’s forward-looking (and Seussical) “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” theme.
• Tight social media integration. Including Facebook “voting,” where the public chose the winning couple (from among four), and a social-enabled web page where well-wishers could:
  • “Tweet Toast” the couple with canned Twitter congrats messages (also shows intelligent brand management, as Farmers controls Tweets’ tone and content).
  • Share news of the event and proceedings on Facebook.
  • View YouTube videos and still photos of Gerald and Nicole (and of the contest’s three runner-up couples).
• Personalized email. Customers from Farmers’ email database received local agent-branded “Save the Date”  invitations to view the wedding (and float), and to help the couple “plan their big day” via an event-specific Facebook page.

One Little Niggle

​Of course, materials should be branded. But by packing in so many logos, product links and agent quotes, Farmers made the campaign home page feel a little too promotional, especially given the intimate nature of nuptials. Still, after 53 Rose Parade appearances, Farmers’ blending of online and social media demonstrates fresh new thinking, and an innovative approach to an old creative challenge. Could your small business benefit by following Farmers’ lead? - LET US KNOW!!!

Are advertising specialties (aka promotional products) the Rodney Dangerfield of integrated marketing? Not really. But with so many disparaging nicknames, it’s easy to forget just how much impact, value, cheer and goodwill promotional products can add to a campaign or event.

The fact is that advertising specialties is a multi-billion industry, trusted and relied upon by the world’s most successful brands and agencies. When a campaign calls for a memorable and tactile execution, offering great value and affordable cost-per impression, promotional products usually top the list.

Versatile, Flexible, Cost Effective

But for many integrated marketers the real appeal of advertising specialty products is their creative flexibility and versatility. An experienced promotional products consultant can help you develop a virtually unlimited number of ideas and executions to support external and internal marketing programs, such as:
​

• Brand building and awareness
• Lead generation
• Account acquisition and retention
• Goodwill and “thank you” programs
• New product/service introductions
• Employee appreciation
• Service awards
• Internal promotions
• Sales recognition

What to Look For

As with most service companies, quality, selection, support and experience can vary widely among ad specialty providers. Whether you choose an established, nationally known provider or a small boutique, remember that their job is to help you select promotional products that:
​

• Fit your strategy and creative concept
• Work within your budget
• Appeal to your target audience
• Strategically align with your company image
• Offer strong “half-life” usability long after the campaign or event

For more advice and tips on developing better promotional products campaigns, use this handy checklist.

Advertising specialties, by any other name, remain essential tools in the integrated marketer’s toolbox. A well-conceived campaign, supported by an experienced consultant or provider, can help you generate leads, drive traffic, create goodwill, and leave an impression that lasts for years.  Remember that the next time you’re tempted to call it “geegaw.”

You may have a physical address, but is your business really on the map?

For old-school, brick-and-mortar businesses, it used to be that a quality sign, a Yellow Pages listing, and a targeted direct mail campaign was all it took to bring in traffic. Nowadays you need a well-planned integrated marketing program that includes a presence on a variety of location based services to ensure your business is found.

Here’s an overview of the five most popular location-based sites and apps that will help you get discovered by customers, all at no charge.

Five Ways to Get Your Business on The Map
​

1. Yelp Users can find local businesses, write reviews, share photos and connect with friends. Yelp offers businesses a great way to discover and resolve customer complaints and operational issues that would otherwise go unnoticed.
2. FourSquare For small businesses, large chains, and any other physical location, Foursquare offers a free set of tools to help attract new visitors and keep them coming back. Claim your venue and reach customers with local updates, and create specials to increase business. The location-based game allows users to find out what’s nearby, see where their friends are, and share their location by “checking in”. You can share photos, tips and broadcast your check on Facebook and Twitter, or stay “off the grid.” Check in often enough and you become the “mayor.”
3.  Facebook Places Users can add a location to their Facebook posts to let people know where they’ve been, where they’re headed, and they’re at.
4. Google+ Local Your business may already be listed without your even knowing it, so claim your listing to ensure it’s accurate. Add your website, photos, video link, and other details. You’ll be more likely to come up in search results when your listing is complete. Users can also see and post reviews.
5. Yahoo Local Users can find business reviews, top-rated services, local events, interactive maps, and driving directions. Claim your business, add a photo, and complete your business listing to ensure you’re found.

Ensure your customers can find you when they’re in the vicinity. Fill out your free listings completely (with photos as appropriate), and take advantage of tools that allow you to offer customer incentives to grow your business.

​What’s your favorite location based service? Share it and tell us how you’ve discovered new places.

Pitney Bowes recently commissioned a study to identify factors that could influence when and whether recipients would open their direct mail marketing piece and read it. The survey of 1,500 U.S. adults, conducted by Leflein Associates, examined preferences, attitudes, and behaviors about mail as received at home.

Overall, the consumers surveyed showed a strong preference for physical direct mail, with 66% of respondents saying they prefer to receive catalogs by physical mail, 61% preferring to receive bills and invoices by physical mail, and 59% preferring to receive financial/bank statements by physical mail.

To determine what might influence open rates, participants examined an average of 16 screens, each containing four randomized envelope images, to test for variables including the presence of text, graphics, and color on envelope fronts and backs.

Color Reigns Supreme

​What’s printed on the front of the envelope strongly influences when and whether it gets opened.

And, recipients are 69% more likely to open a mail piece with color text and graphics on the front, before opening pieces with no headline or graphic. Given a choice of color graphics or black-and-white text, mail recipients are 2.5 times more likely to open envelopes with color graphics first.

What’s printed on the back of the envelope is less influential. Six out of 10 (57%) hardly ever notice what is printed on the back of an envelope when sorting through or opening their mail. However, as with the front of the envelope, the study indicates the presence of color text and graphics on the envelope’s back is significantly more likely to influence the decision to open, rather than black-and-white only.

​The bottom line is 1) based on consumers’ preference you should absolutely invest in printed mail communication; 2) you should absolutely NOT leave the envelope blank; and 3) text and graphics should DEFINITELY be in color.

In an age of e-this and social-that, it’s easy to forget that many businesses still rely on traditional printed materials to market their products and services.

True, websites have become today’s de-facto marketing medium. And flashy new pad-style computers can invigorate even the most pedestrian sales presentation.

But in the trenches, today’s sales pros still use brochures, sell sheets, direct mail and other key marketing and sales support materials to land, close and nurture new accounts.
Of course, those who routinely use printed materials continually seek ways to create and produce them better, faster and more efficiently—which may explain why companies large and small are leveraging the benefits of online storefronts.

Web to Print 

An online storefront (aka Web to Print) is a browser-based Web application that links digital, print-ready versions of company marketing collateral to a pre-determined print-production and delivery environment. Typically, your team (or your printer’s) will design and upload material templates, which can then be accessed, edited and output on-demand by authorized users to a nearby printing facility. The technology even allows for personalized variable output.

Coming into its Own…Again

When online storefronts came onto the scene a few years ago, print buyers and marketers were all atwitter, knowing that it was the all-in-one printing-marketing-personalization solution they’d been waiting for. And, more recently enthusiasm has spiked, largely because more and more vendors and businesses are clearer on the technology’s considerable upside, which includes:

• Lower costs—through reduced print waste, material inventory and storage costs
• Strategic flexibility—companies can print the quantities they want and accurately track costs, ordering and usage through a convenient online dashboard
• Greater convenience—materials are managed and produced via a secure web portal, so marketing teams can order materials anytime, 24/7
• Rapid delivery and deployment—W2P can cost-efficiently equip geographically dispersed teams for fast-emerging marketplace changes or opportunities
• Brand integrity and stewardship—pre-defined templates ensure visual consistent, and keep remote offices or individuals from playing fast-and-loose with corporate branding standards

An experienced print-service provider can help you tailor a customized, cost-effective online storefront for a range of printed/integrated marketing materials, such as:

• Brochures
• Direct mailers
• Sell sheets / fliers
• Business cards / stationery
• Posters
• Catalogs

​Have you ever used an online storefront for your business?

Every integrated marketer knows the world is going mobile. What’s surprising is just how much time people spend using mobile platforms.

​eMarketer reports that this year, U.S. users will spend 23 billion minutes monthly surfing the mobile web. (If you’re wondering, a billion minutes roughly equals 1900 years, give or take a century.) By all indications, this number will only grow.

This increasingly mobile lifestyle, also fueled by meteoric mobile-app adoption, is driving demand for a more mobile-friendly experience in both B2C and B2B markets.

What Mobile Users Really Want

A recent study* of nearly 1,100 smartphone user revealed that nearly three-quarters want mobile-friendly websites when browsing and shopping. Sixty-seven percent said they were more likely to purchase on mobile-optimized sites versus non-optimized.

Lest you think B2B companies are immune to the rising demand, think again.

One Google survey finds that 28% of U.S. B2B C-level executives used a mobile phone to research business purchases, while 21% searched similarly on tablet-style devices.

Bottom line: The time for creating a mobile-friendly site is now. If you agree, first get some ideas from the Web Marketing Association’s best mobile websites. Then, work with a reliable company to implement the following best practices:
​

• Make it quick. Mobile page-loads should take only seconds. Eighty-one percent of users from the smartphone study above identified page-load speed as their most desirable mobile-site feature (followed by easily accessible directions, store hours and contact info).
• Make it simple. Simple images. Simple navigation. Simple forms. And of course, big simple buttons. Nothing’s more frustrating to a hurried user than “fat-fingering” the wrong tiny icon and being whisked off in the opposite direction.
• Make it fit. Not the “duh” you might think. Many mobile sites struggle to accommodate today’s burgeoning number of mobile-device screen sizes. Sometimes, site architecture is formatted for variable device widths, but individual page elements aren’t.

Free “Go Mobile” Website Checker

Google’s “Ready to Go Mo” website offers a “GoMoMeter” that shows how your current site looks on a smartphone—and provides best practices for creating a more mobile-friendly site.

Mobile technology and integrated marketing are officially inseparable. Check back with us often for more actionable integrated marketing tips.

*Sterling Commerce and SmithGeiger

​Toyota introduced the Prius c with an integrated marketing campaign aimed specifically at first-time car buyers—who also happen to be city-dwelling millennials. Taking into consideration the youthful, fun spirit of the Prius c, Toyota partnered with Hasbro to create “The Game of Life with Prius c.”

As stated by Bill Fay, group vice president marketing, in Toyota’s news release, “The Prius c campaign acknowledges the fact that buying a car is a big decision, as well as a new experience for many in this demographic. We wanted to give our customers something entertaining and engaging, yet familiar, they could identify with while introducing a vehicle to help them navigate this exciting new chapter in their lives.”

“Entertaining and engaging, yet familiar” is an interesting assumption. For baby boomers, the Game of Life was a fixture in their living rooms—and now in their memories. Do millennials have the same connection to this game?

Hitting All the Highlights

Toyota’s integrated marketing campaign certainly contains all the bells and whistles that typically engage millennials. For instance, digital programs, including those in partnership with YouTube, Facebook, Hype Machine, Pandora and Hulu, will leverage all digital screens—Web, mobile and tablet—to support the target audience’s media behavior. Additional partner collaborations will feature first-of-their-kind executions, such as a mobile spinwheel integration with Urbanspoon, custom Prius c badges on BuzzFeed, and sponsored free apps available on Amazon.com for the Kindle Fire.

The Prius c YouTube landing page greets visitors with a virtual game board where they interact with a series of videos on tips and tricks for navigating some of life’s more daunting tasks, such as “Car Buying 101,” “Wallet Wisdom” and “Tech Talk.” Likewise the Prius c section of the Toyota.com website features the bright colors and imagery of “The Game of Life” game board.

Similarly designed print ads are now appearing in major lifestyle publications, such as Time, People, InStyle andSports Illustrated. Billboards are being displayed in several markets. In addition, Toyota is running two TV commercials, “Malti-poo” and “Dolphin Tattoo,” that support the Game of Life campaign.

Toyota is certainly hitting all the highlights with the “The Game of Life with Prius c” campaign. But will millennials respond to this whimsical approach? Only time will tell.

“Color provokes a psychic vibration. It hides a power, still unknown but real, which acts on every part of the human body.” — Russian painter and art theorist, Wassily Kandinsky

In a previous post we (dutifully) acknowledged that on the web, content (actually, good, relevant content) is king, and wondered aloud if his highness could spare some love for another key element of the user experience, color.

We summarized a semantic color meaning-and-context framework from Usabilla founder and CEO, Paul Veugen, and promised to share, at a later date, Veugen’s top color-use best practices for maximizing web success. That date has now arrived.

Applying the Power of Color

Here’s how we’ve paraphrased Veugen’s best practices for using color on the web:
​

1. Define your main target audience and research the meaning of different colors based on symbolic, cultural and political considerations.
2. Use colors consistently and avoid applying too many shades or variations of your palette. Too much visual variety may confuse users, sidetrack their navigation, or diminish their on-site experience.
3. Ensure that your chosen colors display correctly online. What looks vivid on one form of media may not appear so on another.
4. Avoid getting all Peter Max (60’s counter-culture/psychedelic movement artist) with it.
   Too many wild colors or overly vibrant shades will distract or overstimulate your users.
   You want to catch their eye, not melt it.
5. Color thyself. Your own choice of color has a big impact on the image you present to customers and prospects. Choose a palette that most appropriately represents your company and brand personality.

​Can calculated color use really provoke ‘psychic vibrations’?

Maybe, if you’re lucky. At the very least, you’ll gain greater control over users’ emotions, behaviors and personal, online experience. And when credit cards are at the ready, isn’t that what it’s all about?

“Color provokes a psychic vibration. It hides a power, still unknown but real, which acts on every part of the human body.” — Russian painter and art theorist, Wassily Kandinsky

In a previous post we (dutifully) acknowledged that on the web, content (actually, good, relevant content) is king, and wondered aloud if his highness could spare some love for another key element of the user experience, color.

We summarized a semantic color meaning-and-context framework from Usabilla founder and CEO, Paul Veugen, and promised to share, at a later date, Veugen’s top color-use best practices for maximizing web success. That date has now arrived.

Applying the Power of Color

Here’s how we’ve paraphrased Veugen’s best practices for using color on the web:
​

1. Define your main target audience and research the meaning of different colors based on symbolic, cultural and political considerations.
2. Use colors consistently and avoid applying too many shades or variations of your palette. Too much visual variety may confuse users, sidetrack their navigation, or diminish their on-site experience.
3. Ensure that your chosen colors display correctly online. What looks vivid on one form of media may not appear so on another.
4. Avoid getting all Peter Max (60’s counter-culture/psychedelic movement artist) with it.
   Too many wild colors or overly vibrant shades will distract or overstimulate your users.
   You want to catch their eye, not melt it.
5. Color thyself. Your own choice of color has a big impact on the image you present to customers and prospects. Choose a palette that most appropriately represents your company and brand personality.

Can calculated color use really provoke ‘psychic vibrations’?

​Maybe, if you’re lucky. At the very least, you’ll gain greater control over users’ emotions, behaviors and personal, online experience. And when credit cards are at the ready, isn’t that what it’s all about?

Even in our digital age, direct mail and email play important roles in an integrated marketing campaign. Direct mail is a perfect partner to email communications; it conveys a quick message that either prepares a recipient for an email to come, or reminds them of an email they’ve recently received.

Using both can be more effective than using one alone, because emails are easily ignored— and just as easily deleted. Use them together and watch your responses soar! Here are eight tips for making the most of your direct mail:
​

1. Design for elegance, not flash. The right design draws the reader’s attention to important information, an offer and a call to action.
2. Personalize the communication, through variable printing, content, imagery, and offers tailored toward the individual to gain a higher response.
3. Shorten headlines. Get your message across with few words. Think impact and engagement.
4. Don’t hard sell your product or service. Rather, offer a solution to your prospect’s problems.
5. Avoid hype or wild claims. Instead, outline the real benefits customers gain if they buy your products or use your services.
6. Include an offer if your focus is on direct response. Some mailers can be purely focused on brand building.
7. Match your email template to complement the messaging in your direct mail.
8. Test, test, test various offers, incentives, and calls to action. Learn from your direct marketing activity.