Online Marketing

Either you do not want to pay for what you need because you are unclear about what you need or you are afraid that if you invest you, will not get the results you paid for. This is a common challenge for many people doing business or wanting to do business on the internet. They know that hiring an online marketing agency is often crucial, but either not sure why exactly, or whether or not it is truly worth the investment.

This simple guide will help you make the most of your money. This article will help educate you on how to ensure you get what you pay for when hiring an online marketing agency.

Okay, first let's assume that you narrowed your search down to three reputable companies. The second thing you want to do is a little background research on these companies and if possible find a testimonial that you can contact. To go a step further you it would be best if you can contact a previous client that had similar needs. Part of the second step is to send an inquiry to all three companies and test their response. Note that it helps to help them help you, so be clear in what you are looking for when you first contact them. From this data you can narrow your choices down to the best of the three.

The third step prior to taking action be sure to clarify exactly what steps and in what time frame they will handle your project. Make sure that you spend time on going over the details so that they are sure to adhere to your requirements. Ask yourself the following question:

What has to happen for me to feel that this was money well spent and that I received the most from my investment?

Write down every thought and do not give in when it matters to you. Perhaps part of the process is that you would really like to have solid communication during the course of the project - write it down and include it in your request. How exactly do you want to communicate? Do you prefer e-mail where you have statements in writing or do you prefer discussing the work over the phone where you can be sure that your needs are understood?

Once you have a very clear list of your needs be sure that the reply you get is very clearly meeting each and everyone one of your needs. To review, follow this simple process for Web Site success. First get clear about what you need and what you are doing. As with anything new, if you don't know that you don't know - how are you going to even get started? Once you know or are clear about what you need you can move on to consciously taking steps towards these changes. And the final goal is to have your Web site working for you while you sleep and this is where an online marketing agency can really help.

This can seem expensive, but if you simply hire a company that will do a great job and put your time and energy into another area, where you can make the money to pay for the web work - you can avoid the stress and still produce a positive result.

Online Newsletter

Many organizations are replacing their hard copy, dead-tree-edition newsletter with an email publication. Emailed newsletters have the benefit of requiring fewer resources, going out faster, reaching a wider audience with less effort and being easier to correct if a mistake slips in. However, many of them end up being ignored just as much as their physical counterpart.

Every interaction designed for a brand, whether print, online or face-to-face, should be something that advances the brand's purpose. If the audience's reaction to anything you send out is 'what was the point of that?' — or worse, no reaction at all — something has gone wrong. There are, thankfully, several tips available for making sure that even a newsletter can have the desired effect and reach audiences with the message you want them to get.

Tip #1 - Have a Clear Purpose, and Stick to it

Your organization has a purpose, and your brand has a purpose. It therefore follows that whatever you publish under the aegis of either should support that purpose. The most important thing to remember about your audience is that they are people. It is quite likely that they have jobs, interests and activities entirely unrelated to anything you wish to send them. In general, people are quite good at discerning what things are worthwhile and speak to their interests vs. things which are a waste of their time. The quickest way for your newsletter to enter the latter category is for it to be pointless.

When putting together a plan to launch or publish a newsletter, stop and ask yourself what purpose it needs to accomplish. If you can't answer in less than 10 seconds, it is time to re-evaluate. Make sure that the newsletter provides strong content related to your primary goal as a brand and understand exactly why the newsletter is needed to get this content to the audience.

Tip # 2 - Combine Sign-up With Registration

People are also creatures of habit, and will often keep on features simply because they're offered. Make sure that the signup form for your organization automatically includes the email newsletter as part of the package, so that registering signs the audience up for the newsletter as a matter of course. If they dislike it, they can choose to opt out later, of course, but having it in front of them from the beginning means it is more likely to get to them, and thus they are more likely to read it at least once.

Tip # 3 - Protect Yourself from the Spam Patrol

Spam protection is a huge deal on the web at the moment. It isn't just a matter of disliking clutter or being irritated at receiving the same mindless emails again and again, either. Many spam messages contain viruses, malware, adware, spyware (and probably other ‘wares' that haven't been named yet, but are sure to be). Spam filters protect against these threats, and are native to most email clients now. Actual security suites like AVG or Norton provide even more aggressive email monitoring, and many newsletters find themselves getting censored out in the mess.

Take some common sense steps to keep your newsletter from this fate. Make sure your title isn't too generic. Including words like "Free" or "As Seen On" are sure to trigger most filters. Put a dynamic, creative title in the subject line instead. Don't overuse HTML in the body of the email, as this can also trigger a spam filter. Avoid writing in all caps, and other mistakes. Common spam-triggering mistakes can be easily researched on the web, and a little research can go a long way in getting your email to its destination.

Tip #4 - Brand Yourself

Remember that integration is the key to all branding success. Put your brand or organization name at the beginning of your subject header. Always take the opportunity to cement your content with your brand, so that people associate the two instinctively.

This, of course, ties back strongly to having a clear and valuable purpose for your newsletter. People associate negative impressions even more strongly than they associate positive ones. Put out content you are proud to put your name on… or don't bother.

Tip #5 - Be Welcoming and Inviting

When someone signs up for your email newsletter, send them an email congratulating them for this. Let them know about the newsletter's purpose and schedule of delivery, and thank them for their interest in your product. This reinforces in the customer's mind that the newsletter is a feature they can look forward to, rather than surprising them with it sometime later, when the act of signing up has gone out of their head.

In the welcome letter, consider inviting them to sign up for a paid product. This could be an expanded service offered by your site, or it could be your signature product. Don't dominate the letter with it, because a sales pitch isn't always welcome. Simply make it a matter of mention, to further associate your brand with your product.

A Last Word

Always consider the option of not publishing a newsletter for a particular period. If nothing has happened that would warrant a newsletter, don't send one because you ‘have to.' Never send a letter out of habit or out of course, but always for a purpose. Forcing the issue is one of the surest ways to get your newsletter disregarded and trashed.

Tag, You're It

Taglines are difficult things to pin down. Some taglines have a certain force, a certain efficacy that makes us remember them years or even half a century later. The best ones even stick in our minds long after everyone has forgotten what they were originally for. "Reach out and touch someone" remains a well-known expression today, despite the fact that it originated as a slogan for AT&T back in 1979.

However, it's also all too easy to put out a tagline that ends up being derided as cliché. People cheerfully mock slogan-oriented culture and buzzwords with fervor, and they do have a point. This is a content-conscious society, and people are skeptical about outrageous claims or comments that they've seen a thousand times before. A good tagline must be both memorable and honest, focused on the brand and the truth about that brand. Remember the phrase "tag, you're it," with the stress on the you. Make the tagline about your brand, and nothing else.

Tag Tip #1 - Be Truthful

If you have to make up or exaggerate claims about your brand, then you have no confidence in it and people will be able to tell. Your brand must be able to stand on its own merits, period. Any other assumption is ridiculous, and while deception might profit in the short term, the damage done to reputations through falsifications lingers.

To that end, avoid making patently outrageous or unrealistic claims in your tagline. Don't claim, "It will change your life" if there's really no expectation it will. Take the example of a kitchen appliance brand range. Perhaps it will make life a little easier, or maybe more efficient for the purchaser. It is unlikely it's going to change their life as a whole.

Instead, focus on what your brand can do.

Tag Tip #2 - Be Bold

When developing a tagline, make a claim that illustrates your brand's capacity. Consider the Timex tagline back from 1956: "Timex takes a licking and keeps on ticking." Simple, direct and honest. Timex watches were built well, and thus could take a fair degree of abuse while still functioning. The statement was completely honest and compelling in its own choice of words. As an added bonus, this is another saying that's moved into the common vernacular as an expression for anything that's durable and reliable under duress.

Tag Tip #3 - Imply

Being honest and bold doesn't necessarily require being simple. There are strong, direct slogans such as the aforementioned Timex tagline, but this is by no means the only step to take. Taglines can imply. After all... "got milk?" That powerful slogan from the early 1990s still elicits a strong, positive response today. Notice that there's no direct claim in that tagline. It doesn't outright say that milk is good, or even that not having milk is bad. It just asks if you have any. It leaves the work of the matter up to you to answer yes or no. From there, you begin to think if you'd like milk... and with two little words, the tagline has gotten you to do most of the work. In terms of branding power, it's sublime.

Tag Tip #4 - Know Your Place

Don LaFontaine is legendary in the movie industry. He did the voiceovers for hundreds, if not thousands, of trailers in his lifetime. Sadly, he is no longer with us. He gave us the wonderful, iconic tagline, "in a world..."

You are not Don LaFontaine. If you're trying to brand a movie with an opening tagline, do not use his line. It's disrespectful of his memory, and disrespectful of your own brand, which deserves an original, creative effort.

This is an extreme example, but an important one. It can be tempting to refer to your product as "the next..." and fill in the noun. Or make a tagline that consciously apes another tagline. The problem is, unless you're going for satire, people will recognize the disingenuous nature of the effort and respond poorly. Draw inspiration from prior ideas, by all means, but make sure that what finally comes out is a new line, reflective of your brand in its own right.

Tag Tip #5 - Embrace Brevity

Keep the tagline short. The second part of tagline is "line," after all. It's not motto, creed, paragraph, mission statement, article of faith or essay. If you can't say the whole tagline in less than five seconds, it's not a tagline.

For example, consider these: "We make money the old fashioned way — we earn it." "There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's Mastercard." Both are fairly long by tagline standards, but they can still be said in three seconds without sounding rushed. They go on as long as needed to do the job, and no longer.

Tag Tip #6 - Be Flexible

Sometimes a tagline just does not work out. This is alright; it's neither a disaster nor the end of your reputation. Sometimes you'll put together some words that sound great to you, but that everyone else just finds humorous. Consider the case of Iain Duncan Smith, an English politician known for his soft voice. He tried to brand himself with the phrase, "Don't underestimate the resolve of a quiet man." This was a great line in and of itself; however, due to the quirks of British politics, it led to people teasing him with shushing noises. He accepted this, and moved on.

If your tagline doesn't work, move on to one that will. Just make sure you aren't simply jumping from one bad ship to the other. Treat every misstep as a learning opportunity, and try to refine instead of making the same mistake twice.