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The Best Small Business Credit Cards For New Businesses

Andrew Greenspan — Tue, 05 Feb 2019 23:47:37 +0000

And Professional Tips On How To Use Credit Cards With QuickBooks Online

Why Use A Credit Card?

Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses alike should use Credit Cards for as many business transactions as possible. Unless the vendor is providing a cash discount or requires check / ACH withdrawal, then you should use a Credit Card.

The common advantages to using a Credit Card over a Debit Card are discussed here in our article on Invested Wallet (an awesome website for personal finance and investing articles).

Don’t have time to read the full article? The advantages of using a Credit Card over a Debit Card in a nutshell are:

Points!

Points are earned for every dollar spent that can be redeemed for Cash Back and other goodies.

Financial Security

Fraudulent activity on a Credit Card is normally refunded where as fraudulent activity on a Debit Card directly accesses your cash which may not be refunded by your bank.

Build and Maintain a Credit History

You may need loans, access to utilities, or other financial assistance that can be impacted by little to no Credit History.

Maintaining a good Credit Score is also incredibly important. Tips to a good Credit Score are also in the article.

Before We Get Started… REMEMBER THIS!

Pay off your balance every month. Do not use the Credit Card to buy things you cannot afford (unless you are specifically using the card as a short term financing vehicle).

Sole Proprietors and Credit Cards

Many Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses choose to file their business activities as a Sole Proprietor instead of an LLC. That’s fine even though we highly recommend registering as an LLC.

As a Sole Proprietor, do not blur the lines between your personal and business life. Putting business transactions on your personal credit card is completely legal. However this is entirely annoying for anyone, including yourself, keeping track of your books.

Spending extra time every month to separate out your business transactions from your personal transactions is an absolute waste of time. Take the extra second with every transaction you make to confirm you are using the appropriate Credit Card instead of spending hours going through transactions.

Get a checking account for your business. Get a credit card for your business.

Yes, getting a Credit Card for your business will “ping” your Credit Score. However this is incredibly negligible and should not negatively affect you in the slightest. Use a Debit Card if you know yourself to have terrible credit.

Using separate checking and credit card accounts for your business activities will help you save time processing transactions and provide a clearer snapshot into your business.

Also, god forbid you were to be audited, any cash back received from your business purchases is considered income for your business. You could theoretically owe taxes on this money should you ever be audited.

Getting A Credit Card

You may be wondering, “Can I get a business credit card for a new business?”

The answer is yes! As long as you have a good personal credit history, you can get a credit card for a business. You do not have to have business credit in order to get a business credit card.

Similarly if you’re wondering, “How do I build credit for my LLC?”, it is as simple as getting a business credit card.

Once you have a business credit card and are paying it off accordingly, you will be amazed at how many credit card offers you receive in the mail!

QuickBooks and Credit Cards

Syncing your Credit Card with QuickBooks allows for several advantages:

Automatically Downloaded Transactions

Syncing your Credit Card with QuickBooks allows for your transactions to be downloaded automatically into the bank feed. You no longer have to type in each transaction manually.

Each time you categorize and add a transaction, QuickBooks searches for similar transaction to auto-suggest they be categorized the same way. This is an incredibly useful tool that will help you save time and maintain accuracy over the long run.

Better Visibility for Bank Reconciliations

Separating out transactions onto your Credit Card gives you the added bonus of making your bank reconciliations go faster.

It is very important to reconcile your checking accounts and credit cards on a monthly basis. This means that you are confirming that every transaction in QuickBooks is accurate and the amount of money on your books is correct.

Debit Card transactions cause extra transactions in the bank register that could have otherwise been on the Credit Card. The bank register can be more difficult to reconcile as there are a number of other transactions that must be matched appropriately. These transactions, such as when an invoice was paid, can be off by a day or two and can throw off the reconciliation. Extra Debit Card transactions in the bank register just complicates this process.

Reconciling a Credit Card is typically more straight forward than the bank register as it is mostly just expenses put on the credit card that need to be reconciled.

Save yourself time by using a Credit Card instead of a Debit Card.

QuickBooks Pro Tips

Doing your own bookkeeping? Here are a few pro tips to help you account for credit card payments in QuickBooks Online.

Matching Credit Card Payments to Checking Account

One of the most complicated aspect of reviewing / approving downloaded transactions in the bank feed is properly adding Credit Card payments.

Why is there such an issue? Good Question!

The Credit Card payment is the only dollar amount that will be exactly the same as on the bank register. Think about it. Any purchase on your Credit Card never shows up on your bank statement. Only when you pay off your Credit Card do you see that amount withdrawn from your checking account and posted as a payment on your Credit Card statement.

Since QuickBooks is downloading all transactions from your checking account and your Credit Card, we have to tell it that these two transaction are related to one another.

Essentially we have to TRANSFER one of the transactions and MATCH the other.

Never “add” a Credit Card payment. Only TRANSFER and MATCH.

Steps to Transferring and Matching Credit Card Payments:

Go to “Banking” on the left hand navigation
Select your Checking Account
Under “For Review” find the payment to your Credit Card
Click in the middle of the transaction line so that it expands downward with more options
Select “Transfer”
Select your Credit Card Account
Click the green “Transfer” button
Scroll up and go to your Credit Card’s downloaded transactions
Find the Credit Card Payment. It should say “Match”
Click in the middle of the transaction so that it expands downwards showing more information.
Confirm the Credit Card payment is matched to the transfer from your checking account
Click “Match” on the right

This is one of the more complicated steps to bookkeeping. Please let us know if you need any help.

Categorizing Cash Back as Income

Getting Cash Back on your Credit Card is technically considered income. Dumb right? We Know. We hate it too.

Here’s how to Categorize Cash Back:

Go to “Banking” on the left hand navigation
Select your Credit Card
Under “For Review” find the cash back on your Credit Card
Click in the middle of the transaction line so that it expands downward with more options
Click on the drop-down menu to Select Category
Scroll up to the top of the options and click “+ Add new”
Account Type > “Other Income”
Detail Type > “Other Miscellaneous Income”
Name > “Cash Back from Credit Card”
Click “Save and Close”
Click “Add”

Separate Cards w/ Limits

Another benefit to using Credit Cards in your business is that you can get cards for your employees.

If you have employees that are making company purchases, this sure beats the heck out of having them submit receipts and then paying them back with cash. Not only do you get the points on all of those transactions, but you save the time and hassle from having to reimburse them.

Another huge benefit to giving your employees a Company Credit Card is that you give each card a Credit Limit. If you know that employees will only be spending a certain amount of money per month, give them an appropriate Credit Limit so that you do not have to worry about them making excess transactions. Any transactions over their designated Credit Limit will be reported.

One note on the Credit Limit is that you will have a bit of a balancing act with the Credit Limit. Let’s say the card has a $10,000 limit. Each employee cannot have a $10,000 limit. Assuming you have 4 employees, each employee could have a $2,500 limit. You could also break out the Credit Limits however you see fit to your employees as long as the total equals your account’s Credit Limit.

You can also setup Purchase Alerts and be alerted every time a purchase is made. This can give you excellent visibility into your company’s purchases and even timing of events.

Emergency Financing

Another benefit to having a Business Credit Card is that it can be used for emergency financing purposes.

If you are tight on cash, can’t get a loan, and need to pay bills, then you can use your credit card as long as you have not maxed it out.

This option is obviously for emergency situations since Credit Cards come with very high interest rates. Ideally you will have another line of credit that you can access instead of tapping into your Credit Card.

Worst case, the Credit Card is there for you to put purchases on.

Credit Cards We Recommend

If you are just starting out with Credit Cards, we always recommend having a Credit Card with no annual fee. Unless you plan on spending a boat load of money on your Credit Card, the extra points you’ll earn on a card with an annual fee may not outweigh the cost of the annual fee.

Note: review the credit card offers as offers may change or include certain exclusions.

The 2019 Top 3 Credit Cards We Recommend For Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs

Chase Ink

Our favorite Credit Card for starting a business.

Bonus

$500 bonus cash back after you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months after account opening.

Points

5% cash back on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases at office supply stores and on internet, cable and phone services each account anniversary year.*Same page link to Offer Details

2% cash back on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases at gas stations and restaurants each account anniversary year.*Same page link to Offer Details

1% cash back on all other purchases–with no limit to the amount you can earn.*

Spark Cash Select

A solid choice. Just not as solid as the Chase Ink.

Bonus

Earn a one-time $200 cash bonus once you spend $3,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account

Points

1.5% cash back and you could be putting thousands of dollars back into your business. Redeem at any time with no minimums.

Amazon

Great card if you have an Amazon Prime Membership.

Bonus

Get a $100 Amazon.com Gift Card† upon approval for the Card. Eligible Prime members get a $125 Amazon.com Gift Card† upon approval for the Card.

Points

5% back or 90 day terms on purchases at Amazon Business.

2% back at U.S. restaurants, U.S. gas stations, and on wireless telephone services purchased directly from U.S. service providers.

1% back on other purchases.

Want More Info?

Want More Info On The Benefits Of A Credit Card Over A Debit Card? Check out our article on Invested Wallet about the pros and cons of using Credit Cards and Debit Cards.

Good Luck!

Good luck on your Credit Card journey.

Remember the following:

Pay off your Credit Card balance monthly
Cash Back is considered income
Have a Business Credit Card that is separate from your Personal Credit Card

Have A Home Business? How To Verify Your Business On Google Without Showing The World Your Address

Andrew Greenspan — Tue, 26 Jun 2018 16:40:22 +0000

There is a misconception that you need to list your physical address on Google for all the world to see in order to verify your business. Not true!

What does it mean to have Google verify your business?

You google a business and Google shows the business information on the right side of the search results. The owner provides the information including photos, business hours, and information about the business. Users can then review your business. Google an established restaurant or business nearby and you will see this result.

Once you verify your business, only your city will show on the Google listing.

The image below is an example of a Verified Business on Google with only the city listed.

If you work out of your home, you may not want to list your home address on Google. It’s already bad enough that email campaigns, such as through MailChimp, must have a business address. At least with email campaigns you can use a P.O. Box. MailChimp is pretty awesome FYI… other than having to list a mailing address.

To verify your business on Google, it must be a physical mailing address. It cannot be a P.O. Box. However, you do not have to actually list your address on Google.

Steps to Verify Your Business on Google

Go to https://www.google.com/business/
Sign in if you use Gmail or click Start Now
Enter your business name

4. Enter your physical mailing address (not a P.O. box)

5. Check the following boxes:

“I deliver goods and services to my customers.”
“Hide my address (it’s not a store)”

6. Select Next and answer all the remaining questions

7. A postcard will be mailed to you within a week or two. Enter the code in the link they give you, finish setting up your profile, and your business will be verified on Google!

If you’re a part of the gig economy, work for yourself without an office for people to visit, or deliver your services to people, this is a great way to increase your brand awareness, SEO, and consumer trust without having to provide your home address to the masses.

Good luck out there and let us know if you have any questions!

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Implement Corporate Social Responsibility Like Domino's To Increase Your Bottom-line

Andrew Greenspan — Fri, 22 Jun 2018 16:46:38 +0000

CSR is PR (and can make you a lot of money!)

Corporate Social Responsibility is Public Relations. Is that a bad thing? No, it is simply a byproduct of implementing CSR initiatives.

In this day and age, all companies should participate in some form of CSR. Consumers have become normalized to socially conscious brands. This normalization means that it is pertinent for brands today to give back as to meet expectations of consumers.

Corporate Social Responsibility is the belief, and consequent actions, that companies should be conscious of their consumers and environments in order to conduct ethical, sustainable, and forward-thinking business practices.

The point of companies, especially publicly traded companies, is to provide increasing value back to its shareholders. Typically this is in the form of growing the stock price and providing competitive pay / benefits to its employees.

The traditional definition of a shareholder has morphed over the years when considering Corporate Social Responsibility. Instead of just being related to stockholders and employees of the company, shareholders are now considered to be all individuals, organizations, and physical resources impacted by the ongoing operations of a business.

Why does CSR matter?

A business uses resources in order to conduct business. Those resources are consumed, processed, and delivered in the form of a product or service in exchange for money. That money pays for the operations of the business, its employees, its investments, and finally its return to shareholders.

As businesses consume resources, a number of other people, organizations, and the environment are affected along the way. Think about a furniture manufacturer. They have a number of decisions to make for their business including sourcing material, disposal of their waste, which utilities to use to power their business, which channels and sources to select to sell their furniture, and many more choices.

Let’s say the furniture business has a choice to source wood produced in Country A with good labor laws or in Country Z where labor laws are not enforced with incredibly dangerous work environments. Heck, they might even use child labor. Let’s assume the quality of the wood is the same, however the wood from Country A is 20% more expensive than the wood from Country Z.

Saving 20% on wood for a furniture manufacturer, obviously a widely used input to make furniture, could really help provide value back to shareholders. Then so much money can be saved, invested, and distributed to shareholders!

Well, selecting the company in Country Z saves 20% on wood but makes the furniture company complicit in supporting inhumane labor practices and possibly even child labor.

This furniture manufacturer example proves the point the Corporate Social Responsibility matters regarding the ethics of business dealings. But now the company traded off supporting good business practices for morals. How does the company overcome that 20% deficit?

Companies Use CSR to Gain Market Share

The furniture company made an important decision to help protect workers worldwide by paying 20% more for the same input. Do you really think the company is going to take a loss on that 20%?

Companies have to provide value to shareholders. Opting to help workers worldwide by paying 20% more for an input from a company that supports good labor laws provides the company an opportunity to make public statement about their brand.

“We pay more for wood to support good labor practices. Our mission is to provide a quality product that helps workers worldwide.”

That statement, which discusses the tradeoff the business made, is Public Relations. The company’s CSR initiative is discussed in the company’s PR as a way to build brand recognition, show their commitment to good labor practices, and subtly explain why their product may be more expensive than their competitors.

Now as a consumer, you have a choice to make about which furniture to buy. Do you buy from a company that you know supports good labor practices or do you buy from a company that you know nothing about their labor practices? Assuming you can afford both products and you like the design of both products, you are more likely to buy from the company that supports good labor practices. Since they support good labor practices, you support good labor practices by purchasing their product.

Without the PR behind the CSR, the consumer may not have purchased the CSR product. Why should I spend 20% more on this chair? They look and feel the same. The brand doesn’t mean anything to me. But if the consumer was aware that the more expensive product supports good labor practices, they are more likely to purchase it.

Not only is a consumer now more likely to purchase the more expensive product that sources wood from Country A with good labor practices, they are also more likely to post about this on social media. People like being rewarded by their peers for making ethical decisions. Similarly they like sharing this news to influence others to support similar causes.

PR is essential to supporting CSR. Without consumers being aware of CSR decisions that a company makes, why would they be any more inclined to support their product? With an effective PR campaign, companies can now build brand awareness and create a loyal customer base that will not only buy their product but will also tell their friends about it. Some of the best new customers come from referrals, FYI!

The Internet Fully Enabled CSR

Without the internet, specifically social media, CSR would not be nearly as adopted by companies.

Companies need to make costly tradeoffs in order to implement CSR. In almost all cases, CSR comes as a cost to the company, which is a cost to the shareholder. Publicly traded companies have to provide financial due-diligence behind major initiatives in order to gain approval to undergo the CSR initiative.

Why would a company choose to implement a CSR initiative if it costs more money and reduces shareholder value?

Companies take on the expense of CSR and even the expense of a PR campaign in order to differentiate their brand, inform consumers about their CSR, and effectively grow their base of loyal customers. CSR is a means to increase their bottom-line. This may sound immoral, but it really is a win-win for the shareholders of the company and the outside shareholders affected by the company’s decisions.

So if CSR increases a company’s bottom-line, why is CSR a relatively new trend? Because the internet.

Without the internet, social media would not exist and CSR would not be nearly as adopted. Before the internet, companies would spend tremendous amounts on PR and receive fractions of the publicity that companies receive today from posting their PR on the internet. Social media allows influencers to gain positive reactions from their peers for supporting CSR. Brands receive the benefit of word-of-mouth, aka free publicity, once followers are influenced. And then if it becomes viral, jackpot!

Consumers could not be nearly as informed before the internet. Today, companies need to make good choices otherwise they will suffer the wrath of bad social media publicity that goes viral. Make choices against CSR, lose customers. Make good choices to support effective CSR, gain loyal customers.

Companies benefitting from CSR

There are two types of companies to consider, traditional firms and socially conscious brands. Established firms will implement CSR at different levels of their organization, specifically with the intent to differentiate their brand and gain loyal customers. Socially conscious brands have CSR in their DNA from day one.

Domino's is an example of a traditional firm implementing CSR and TOMS is an example of a socially conscious brand with CSR in its DNA.

Heard of TOMS? Buy a pair of their shoes and they donate a pair of their shoes to poor children in Latin America. Think about how powerful that makes their brand. Many shoe designers fail. Create a brand like TOMS and it’s hard not to get free PR. Now it’s hard for consumers to buy a different brand of shoes. It’s hard for consumers to not want to tell their friends about this specific pair of shoes they just bought.

Domino's existed well before the internet. They deliver pizza and other food. Over the years they have had advertisements about their store owners and how they’re rebranding to offer more food. Did anyone really care? Not really.

Now Domino's announced that they will fill in potholes that are in the delivery route from the Domino's store to the customer’s house. Think that’s going to cost them a pretty penny? You bet! Think customers will now think much more highly of Domino's? ABSOLUTELY.

Domino's implemented CSR in a way that makes sense for their brand, benefits the consumer, and helps out a lot of people that otherwise would not (and maybe never will) have bought pizza from Domino's. Did they keep this information disclosed? No way. They announced it. And what happened? It went viral.

The effect of Domino’s CSR? Yeah. Look at that stock price.

CSR is PR. There is no doubt about it. But CSR is also an effective mechanism to differentiate your brand, gain customer loyalty, and increase your bottom-line.

Increase your bottom line

Laugh your way to the bank by implementing CSR. And not a maniacal laugh, a jubilant laugh knowing that helping people can reward you financially.

Here at Wexford, we love thinking of new ideas. Let us help you ideate a CSR initiative to grow your brand. Contact us today for a free consultation.

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See Amazon Prime Video's Time Saving Tech that is Disrupting IMDB (The International Movie Database)

Andrew Greenspan — Fri, 15 Jun 2018 16:53:05 +0000

There are so many video streaming services available that you may not know which one to pick!

Fortunately Amazon Prime Video comes with your prime membership, so you truly get a good bang for your buck. If you haven’t experienced the joys of shopping on Amazon with a Prime Membership with free 2 day shipping… well you should most definitely try it.

With an Amazon Prime Membership, you get access to LOTS of content on Prime Video. It’s a Win-Win-Win, that also happens to come with some cool technology.

Cool Technology with Amazon Prime Video

It’s no wonder that a company that utilizes lean UX and deploys new code every 11.6 seconds has some cool technology (read about that and learn a lot more with the book Lean UX).

With all new technology and platforms that want to sell you things, there always seems to be a trade off from a good User Experience. Let’s uncover the cool technology first before providing our recommendation of an improvement to their UX.

Amazon Putting IMDB Out of Business

How many times have you watched a show and thought, “I know I’ve seen that actor in something else… what was it again? It’s on the tip of my tongue but I can’t think of it!” Then you cave and decide to look them up on IMDB.

But in order to look up an actor on IMDB, you have to figure out the season and episode you are watching. Pause the show. Find the season and episode number. Pull up IMDB, navigate to the show, find the season, find the show number, then scroll down to find the actor. And of course if it’s not the main actor then you have to scroll till you see what looks like them, remember their character name, and then confirm it’s actually the actor in question.

Wow, quite a bit of work just to find out the name of an actor and see their relevant work…

And if you’re lucky, you won’t get any spoiler alerts. Well we got decked with a spoiler the other day. While watching a comedy not on Prime Video, we wanted to look up some characters, so we paused the show to pull up IMDB, and SPOILER - we saw that two of the characters get married in a later episode. If Hulu had this cool Prime Video technology, we would not have had the show ruined due to that spoiler.

Anyway, on to this cool technology.

While watching content on Prime Video, whether on computer or Smart TV, just move the mouse or click an up/down arrow and guess what you’ll see? You’ll see a list of the actors that are in THAT scene!

List of actors in scene on left.

Honestly, this is pretty incredible. This is taking a User Experience to the next level. Not only can you stay within your content to find out who the actor is, but it provides you the actors in that scene. You don’t even have to scroll through a whole list of all the actors in that episode. Wow! That is surely next level.

On the business front, Amazon shows you other content that actor is in that is also available on Amazon. Very smart on their part. It shows the most popular content first, such as IMDB, but this allows users to stay within the Amazon ecosystem which increases their views and purchases on content. Wicked smart!

Amazon Screengrab Technology

If you noticed above, the background of our screengrab is black. The actual content was not black. This was not a shot of the night sky. There were clearly characters in the video, but Amazon made the content black when taking a screengrab.

Blacking out content may not be great for certain users wishing to record the videos and distribute them illegally, but overall you have to admit that the tech is pretty cool. Amazon is all like, “trying to screengrab our content? Not today, junior!”

While you may wish to have that content for free via illegal means, pirating is worse for you and everyone around. If everyone pirated and no one paid for their content, then we’d have less good content to watch. Why would people want to make good content if they don’t get paid for it? So for that, we can thank Amazon for helping keep the content market alive.

A User Experience Problem

Overall, Prime Video is great. It has definitely come a long way since first introduced. The User Experience of navigating shows and content has gotten much better.

However, some issues still exist with the UX. Our biggest gripe comes with wanting to watch content that we paid for… because we bought it and probably want to watch it.

Take a look at the screengrab below of Prime Video. Where do your eyes go?

Where do your eyes go first and second?

First, our eyes automatically go to the Hero content of Father's Day movies. Second, our eyes naturally go to the menu bar directly below. The gray background with the white / light gray font pops out at you, especially since it’s placed below the main content bar. A purely natural flow downwards to the menu, just as it was designed to do.

Then it seems you should click on “Your Videos” to see a list of the videos you purchased on Prime Video. ERRR - LOUD BUZZER NOISE - WRONG.

The “Your Videos” section shows you videos that are recommended for you to continue watching or to watch next. That all well and good, but… where are the videos I purchased?

To access videos you purchased, you have to go above the Hero content to the white bar with black text to the link that says “Your Video Library.” Really? Ok…

So to be clear: “Your Videos” are not really your videos. They are Videos to continue watching and videos that are recommended for you. “Your Video Library” is not a library of content to continue watching, it is a library of videos you purchased… word.

The U/X Solution

In “Your Videos” under the “Watch Next” selections, have “Your Video Library” with purchases made through Amazon. If users have not purchased videos, then keep “Your Videos” how it is now bye excluding “Your Video Library” and continuing with “prime Recommended TV” after “Watch Next.”

Separating out videos you purchased from the “Your Videos” page is confusing. While it is listed clear as day in “Your Video Library”, the eye is not naturally drawn to that spot. Confusion reigns when you are looking for videos you purchased, go to “Your Videos,” and are not shown videos you purchased. It’s not fun to think, “did Amazon delete my purchases?!”

Conclusion

Amazon Prime Video implements very cool technology that enhances the User Experience. It also makes pirating content more difficult by blacking out content that is screengrabbed. If more people have to pay to watch the content, then production companies get more money. If production companies have more money, they’ll spend more to make good content for us to enjoy in the future.

Pirating = less money for produced content = less good content in the future.

As with any product, the User Experience can be enhanced. Placing videos that users purchased on Prime Video in the “Your Videos” section will help alleviate confusion while also streamlining the User Experience. Afterall, users will probably want to watch content that they purchased again. Making it difficult to find can break trust with the brand and increase frustration, which may decrease customer loyalty. There are a number of platforms to purchase content. Keep your users you have by making the platform easy to use.

Interested in having Wexford constructively critique your products & services to help you build a better User Experience? We’d love to help! Schedule a Free Consultation today.

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Your Twitter Tactical Plan: A Strategic Guide to Gain Followers

Andrew Greenspan — Tue, 12 Jun 2018 17:58:29 +0000

The Psychology Behind Gaining Followers

Trying to grow your presence on social media? Good!

Read other articles on how to build a following? Good!

Having trouble gaining followers? Not good!

The standard advice works, so we’ll repeat it. But then keep reading for our take on how to grow followers. Gaining Twitter followers is like playing chess; to win you must use the winning strategies that were learned over time, but you must understand the psychology of your opponent to utilize the best strategy.

Standard Advice for Gaining Twitter Followers

Actively post at least 1-2 times per day
Research and use hashtags that make sense for your post
Look at trending topics and tailor some of your content around those hashtags
Make a solid profile with picture, banner, and information about yourself
Include images in your Tweets
Post on your other social media / upload your email contacts to get followers of people you already know
Mention influential people / Retweet your followers / Like & Comment / Engage on Twitter

The standard advice for gaining Twitter followers makes sense. More of that advice can be found on this Forbes article.

In order to gain a following, you have to be engaged. You have to have a standout appearance.

The combination of engaging on Twitter and having a solid appearance should make you have more followers, right? Not necessarily.

According to a June 2016 study, the average Twitter User has 707 followers. Unfortunately that is the most up-to-date statistic we could find. Vastly different from another January 2016 study claiming the average user has 208 followers. Hard to know which stat to believe as 68% of statistics are made up on the spot, so let’s go with 707 average followers per account.

Now we enter the realm of psychology to help us uncover why your follower growth may be stagnant.

Brand Awareness
Narcissistic Ego and/or Insecurity
Trust

Brand Awareness Builds a Following

Are you a celebrity or a well-recognized business? Do you have a verified Twitter account? If you answered no to these questions, then you are at a severe disadvantage for rapidly gaining Twitter followers.

Maybe you get lucky and one of your Tweets starts trending which will gain you a bunch of followers, but there are 500 million Tweets per day so good luck with that. Or maybe you have a boatload of cash to spend on paid advertisements, but you’d have to be in the 1% to have success with that.

Looks like you might be a Twitter pawn like the rest of us, having to build your brand and gain awareness one follower at a time.

Hindered by Narcissistic Egos or Insecurity

It appears that many Twitter users are hindered by what is either a narcissistic ego, insecurity, or both. Maybe you suffer from this without realizing it. In no way is this meant to diagnose you or put you down, but to help explain how Twitter users hurt their chances of rapidly gaining followers.

How can some Twitter users be deemed insecure or to have a narcissistic ego? Look at a variety of Twitter accounts and pay attention to when they created their account compared to their number of Tweets sent, accounts they follow, and number of people following them. The trend we see is that many active accounts that have been around for years follow about a third less of their total number of followers.

Real numbers for an active Twitter account: Joined February 2012, 672 Tweets, Following 10 accounts, 92 Followers, and near 0 engagements on their Tweets. This account has been steadily active since April. We do not want to provide the handle as we are speaking negatively about this account.

As a comparison, Wexford joined Twitter in April 2018 and has 191 Tweets, Following 2,143 accounts, 1,901 Followers, and 0.5% engagements on Tweets.

The difference between Wexford and the other account is the Following to Follower ratio. Unless you have more than 10K Followers, we recommend a follow-for-follow mentality.

The narcissistic ego or insecurity comes into play by feeling good about having more people follow you than people you follow. Gaining a follower provides a warm & fuzzy feeling because someone cares about you. This is similar to getting a Like on Facebook, as described by Sean Parker, the Founding President of Facebook. A.K.A. the guy that Justin Timberlake played in The Social Network.

Gaining a follower and not following them back might make you feel good, whether due to insecurity or a narcissistic ego or another psychological principle, but it will not help you to rapidly grow your following.

Trust is Key

Why would someone follow you on Twitter? Maybe you are posting captivating content. However with 500 Million Tweets per day, the chances of a lot of people seeing your Tweet is going to be slim. Similarly with so much content, how original is your content? Why follow your account and not another account?

Assuming you follow the standard advice, some people will see your Tweets. What do they see when they find your account and see that you follow significantly less people than follow you? A lack of trust in that you will follow them back.

Remember that other people like the warm & fuzzy feeling of gaining a new follower just as much as you. If you don’t have a lot of followers AND you show that you probably won’t follow them back, why would they want to follow you?

The moral is to follow people back to show other accounts that they can trust you will follow them back. They’ll scratch your back if you scratch theirs. Then once you gain over 10,000 followers, you may not have to follow this strategy. Why? Social conformity. Obviously if you have over 10K followers you must have something incredibly cool & important to Tweet!

A Follow for Follow Strategy

Need more advice on how to implement a better Follow for Follow strategy? Great! Download our free Twitter Tactical Plan: A Strategic Guide to Gain Followers. Just enter your email and check your inbox for a detailed guide on what type of accounts to follow, ratios to follow based on your number of followers, and metrics behind follower growth rates.

Credits: A quick shoutout to FreeVector.com for the Candy, Owls, Like Badge, little chalk board, and Calendar Icon. Good stuff!

@WexfordPartners Twitter Followers

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Solving a Pain in Your Phone's GPS

Andrew Greenspan — Wed, 30 May 2018 17:46:40 +0000

Product Idea for Waze, Apple Maps, and Google Maps

The User Experience Problem

Imagine you are driving while using your GPS. You need to make a pit stop, so you pull over. Now your phone starts telling you to make a U-turn and then yells at you to get back on the highway. You do not want to get back on the highway just yet, you want to make your pit stop. So the phone goes berserk and gives you directions while you’re walking into the rest area.

Your only options are:

Leave the phone in the car
Stop the navigation
Keep the navigation on and bring phone with you

Well, leaving your phone in the car is not an option. We need our phone on us 24/7, obviously.

Stopping the navigation is a pain. The best case scenario is that you just have to re-enter the destination when you’re ready to get back on the road. The worst case scenario is that you have bad service and the navigation won’t load your directions.

Keeping the navigation on is annoying because the phone is attempting to redirect you and provide you with instructions. Yes, you could turn down the volume on the phone to mute the directions. However, if you are talking on the phone, the navigation will still ding at you to direct you back on course. Quite annoying!

None of the options are ideal. Let’s do something about it.

The U/X Solution

Waze, Apple Maps, and Google Maps should enable a pause function. Currently on Waze, for example, if you push stop it brings up another option to actually stop the navigation. Either here or on the previous screen should be a pause button that allows the user to simply pause the navigation. Push go when ready to resume driving and the navigation resumes.

In short, add a pause button instead of just a stop / end button.

Conclusion

Only having the option to stop the navigation is annoying. The available options are not user friendly and can lead to frustration. Simply adding a pause button will allow users to continue listening to their music, talking on the phone, or enjoying some tranquility while making a pit stop.

This may also help avoid drivers from receiving improper navigation while making a pit stop and ultimately ending up in a lake like Michael Scott in The Office.

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Certain Turn Signals Cause More Accidents

Andrew Greenspan — Tue, 29 May 2018 17:17:36 +0000

Red Turn Signals Are Dangerous

Reduce Accidents by Regulating Color of Turn Signals

Car manufacturers compete on a regular basis for winning top safety awards. Their accomplishments are advertised vigorously to show you how much research and development was undergone to prove their deservedness of the coveted 5 star safety rating. Images of a crash dummy in a test vehicle slamming against a concrete wall come to mind.

Sarcastically we must say ‘thank you’ to all of the car manufacturers that create safe vehicles, but cut costs by using red turn signals instead of amber turn signals. Car manufacturers can actually cut costs by using red turn signals which is “likely due to the lower component cost of making an all red lamp housing” according to Cnet.com.

The User Experience Problem

Have you ever thought someone was just applying the brakes, only to realize that they’re turning? You might have been confused due to their vehicle’s red turn signal.

It is sometimes hard to differentiate if a car is braking, braking and turning, or just turning if the vehicle has a red turn signal. If the turn signal is the same color as the brake light, the pattern is more difficult for drivers to interpret than if the turn signal were amber colored.

Whether it be driver fatigue, boredom, day dreaming, or addiction to texting and driving, drivers will inevitably rear end other drivers. Using a red turn signal instead of an amber turn signal puts drivers at an increased risk to get into an accident.

According to a 2009 report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, “amber signals show a 5.3% effectiveness in reducing involvement in two-vehicle crashes where a lead vehicle is rear-struck in the act of turning left, turning right, merging into traffic, changing lanes, or entering/leaving a parking space. The advantage of amber rear turn signals is shown to be statistically significant.”

And what is done with that information? Car manufacturers still make vehicles with red turn signals...

The U/X Solution

Mandate all new vehicles be equipped with amber colored turn signals
Dock safety ratings of existing and newer vehicles with red turn signals

We very much are opposed to the over regulation of businesses, however some regulations are necessary. When it is statistically proven that something as simple as the color of a turn signal can reduce accidents, then we should do all that we can to reduce accidents by making car manufacturers use amber turn signals.

Similarly, vehicles with red turn signals should be docked in their safety ratings as that vehicle is more likely to be rear-ended than its amber counterpart.

To play devil’s advocate: if car manufacturers are required to have amber turn signals, shouldn’t they also be required to equip every vehicle with technology like blind spot monitoring?

There is a vast difference between requiring all vehicles to have blind spot monitoring and altering the color of their turn signals. The cost differential between the two is significant. The color of your turn signal is an after thought and is not advertised as a selling feature that promotes safety. The color of the turn signal, instead, is a way to protect consumers who are unwittingly purchasing a vehicle that could put them in more jeopardy.

Conclusion

Statistics show that amber colored turn signals are safer than red colored turn signals. Car manufacturers should be regulated to make this simple design change, or at least penalized in the safety ranking system. While it could be argued to force car companies to include other safety features on their vehicles, such as blind spot monitoring (BSM), the amber vs. red turn signal feature is often overlooked by consumers while features like BSM are prominently advertised.

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Honda: Low Fuel Indicator Causes Anxiety

Andrew Greenspan — Fri, 25 May 2018 14:04:52 +0000

Honda Low Fuel Indicator Replaces Estimated Miles Remaining

How to Cause Anxiety In Your Drivers

Overview

Honda updated their vehicle’s instrument panel in 2017 with a new Driver Information Interface on select models to include extra information such as estimated range of miles left to drive till empty. In general the new instrument panel is very nice, especially equipping the driver with useful information such as the estimate of how many miles are remaining in the tank.

Honda Instrument Panel with Driver Information Interface.

Honda Low Fuel information in manual.

Prior to the car estimating how many miles are remaining, drivers had to reset the trip odometer when filling up, record how many miles they drove till refueling, remember to reset the trip odometer again, then monitor how many miles they’ve driven as a gauge of when they need to refuel. Or drivers could simply wait till the low fuel light comes on. Either way worked, but the car providing that estimate for you

The User Experience Problem

The vehicle provides an estimate of how many miles are remaining till needing to refuel until the low fuel light comes on. When the low fuel icon illuminates, it replaces the estimated miles remaining to clearly indicate that your gas is low. The problem is that the estimated miles remaining disappears and does not return. The low fuel light indicator cannot be canceled out to be made smaller to reduce the size of the notification and similarly see how many miles are estimated till empty. Why? Why would Honda provide such great mileage remaining estimates and then take that away once the low fuel light comes on. If anything, wouldn’t you want to know how many miles you have remaining especially once the low fuel light is on?!

The UX Idea

After 5 seconds of the low fuel light coming on, reduce the size of the notification and show how many miles are estimated to remain till fuel is empty.

The UX Solution

It makes sense to have a large notification for the low fuel light to alert the driver that the fuel is low. It does not, however, make sense to take away the information of how many miles are estimated to remain. After 5 seconds of the initial notification of low fuel, reduce the size of the low fuel indicator to again show how many miles are estimated to remain.

Conclusion

Overall the new instrument panel is very good. Drivers will become used to seeing how many miles are estimated to remain till the fuel is empty. Prominently showing the low fuel indicator is good except that it completely replaces the estimated miles remaining. Taking away the estimated miles remaining can start to cause anxiety in drivers, especially since the low fuel indicator is on! How many miles can you drive now till empty?! Seems like that is exactly when you would want to know how many miles you have remaining?!

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Mark Phone Calls as Spam

Andrew Greenspan — Fri, 18 May 2018 13:02:20 +0000

Reduce Fraud by Marking Calls as Spam

Quick shout out to Key and Peele’s Telemarketer skit which is where the image is from. Not only is it hilarious, but it says a lot about human psychology and the Strip-Lining sales technique.

The User Experience Problem

Cell phones are great for communicating with people you want to hear from, they’re also great for Spammers and unsolicited Telemarketers to get ahold of you.

They’re also great to notify you of a tornado warning or Amber Alert, but not our idea to make an emergency call to a loved one with similar notifications as Amber Alerts. A few sentences in to this post and we already digressed…

ANYWAY! It is quite annoying to receive calls from random phone numbers that do not leave voicemails (because they just want you to pick up and do not want you to know their intention via a voicemail) or to receive calls that use very vague language to make you think you’re in trouble.

An example of a Spam call is below, and this time it wasn’t inheriting a Prince in Monaco’s fortune. The voicemail was delivered in a computer voice and reads:

“Get expired in next 24 working hours and once it get expired after that you will be taken under custody by the local cops as there are four serious allegations pressed on your name at this moment. We would request you to get back to us so that we can discuss about this case before taking any legal action against you. The number to reach us is 585-585-0817. I repeat 585-585-0817.”

— Robo Spammer Con Artist the 17th

our feedback to spammer

Kudos to you, Sir Spams A Lot, for your excellent grammar.
We can block this number, but why can’t we mark it as Spam?

The U/X Idea

Mark unsolicited phone calls as Spam to help filter these egregious attempts to con people.

In 2016, according to Market Watch, “An estimated one in every 10 American adults lost money in a phone scam in the past 12 months, according to a report released Wednesday. On average, each scam victim lost $430, totaling about $9.5 billion overall.”

The U/X Solution

Add an option to mark calls as Spam. These phone numbers are then tracked and shared between Telecom companies like Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile. Then, just like with email, calls like these are placed into a Spam folder on your phone when there is credible enough evidence that the number is actually Spam. Marking a number as Spam will automatically block the caller on your phone.

Conclusion

People today get a lot of unnecessary calls. You can add your number to the Do Not Call List. But let’s face it, Spammers and Con Artists do not care about that list. Their only goal is to con you out of your money and personal information.

Let’s come together as a team, like we do with emails, and mark unwanted phone calls as Spam. Those numbers will be monitored, and when confirmed that they are Spam oriented, will filter those numbers into a Spam folder.

Lastly, it will be necessary to communicate these numbers to all Telecom organizations such as the small Mom & Pop companies and VOIP like Google Voice. Once a number is marked as Spam, people will not want to sign-up for a new phone number and be given a “blacklisted” Spam number.

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Shutterfly: Enable Bulk Download

Andrew Greenspan — Thu, 17 May 2018 15:19:41 +0000

Shutterfly Photo Sharing Capabilities

Enable Bulk Download Like Dropbox, C'mon!

The User Experience Problem

Shutterfly is a very useful platform to store and print images. It is also quite easy to share images with friends and family. The issue, however, is that shared images cannot be downloaded in bulk by recipients. Those shared images must be downloaded individually instead. This is an utter waste of time when the functionality already exists for bulk downloads.

Shutterfly has bulk downloads available for photos stored in user accounts. Users can select their photos, click to download all selected photos, and then download those photos once Shutterfly emails a download link. Realistically this should mimic Dropbox and just begin downloading automatically in a zipped folder, but at least a bulk download option is somewhat available.

When a user shares photos with another person, those photos may not be downloaded or saved in bulk. The image below is a screenshot showing the existing interface for shared photos.

The U/X Solution

Add functionality to download all photos. Allow users to click a photo to select it which will then change the download all button to “Download (1) Selected.” Select another photo, and the button updates to “Download (2) Selected.” And so on.

And / Or, once the user signs into their Shutterfly account after clicking to view the shared photos, create a folder of the shared images in the user’s account when they click “Go to Photos.” Clicking “Go to Photos” currently just takes you to your Shutterfly account without any of the shared images present. If you could view the shared photos in your Shutterfly account, then you could bulk download the photos with the existing functionality.

Conclusion

Individually downloading photos is quite a pain. It is a major time drain to download each photo. It also results in not being sure if you downloaded all the images unless you double check the number of images downloaded and compare the count to the number of images shared with you that is listed in the email invite to view those images.

Adding a download all button, allowing users to download photos that are selected, or creating a folder of the images in the Shutterfly account when clicking “Go to Photos” will alleviate this unnecessary burden.

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Snapchat: Redesign Stories U/X

Andrew Greenspan — Tue, 15 May 2018 15:14:48 +0000

Another Update, Another Snapchat Fail

The new UX update to Snapchat is bad.

Dear Snapchat,

Yes, it is good that Stories were added back to the right screen and that users were notified. However, it is bad that Stories were taken off the left screen and that Stories were altered from a displaying in a vertical list to a horizontal feed.

The U/X Idea

Add Stories back to the left screen between “Chat” and “Groups” and add a “View All Stories in List” link after users viewed a Story.

The User Experience Problem

After drastically changing the UX in February, users will now be accustomed to Stories being on the left screen between “Chat” and “Groups”. It makes sense to have Stories, Chat, and Groups on the same page. But now Stories are separate from Chat. Not only were Stories separated, the Story feed was changed to a horizontal list.

Navigating Stories in a horizontal list is a nightmare. You cannot see the birds eye view of stories, making it feel very claustrophobic and cumbersome. It is also extremely difficult to selectively choose which Stories to watch - which was the beauty of the vertical Story feed!

The U/X Solution

Add Stories back on the left screen between Chat and Groups. Restore Story feed as a vertical list.
Keep Stories on right screen in a horizontal feed.
After viewing a Story from the right screen, show a link that reads “View All Stories” on the Next Story Preview Page. Or perform an A/B test with the next Stories in a vertical list below the Next Story Preview.

shoutout

Visit our friend Joe Swaggerty, he draws incredible puppy portraits.

Conclusion

The moving of Stories to the right page and placing the Stories in a horizontal feed is not user friendly. This UX update may cause another decrease in usage of the app since it is now even more difficult to view a friend’s Story.

Follow the aforementioned U/X solutions to provide an easy way to navigate Stories.

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Marketing Behind Photoshoot

Andrew Greenspan — Sun, 13 May 2018 13:43:26 +0000

Strategy Planning and Implementation

Absolutely loved the opportunity to work with Lynn Ashley Photo on developing the marketing and operational plan behind the Mommy + Me photoshoot. Side note: hire Lynn Ashley Photo for your family portraits, product styling need, or photo retouching!

Behind the scenes of Mommy + Me photoshoot.

Behind the scenes - backdrop styled by Mark Kintzel Design.

Behind the scenes - complimentary snacks, drinks, and wine!

Behind the scenes - promotional materials.

The Product Idea

Provide free photos for moms in a creative environment as a way to build brand recognition and test an on-location photoshoot that is styled, catered, and kid friendly.

The Rationale

Though a seasoned photographer, Lynn Ashley Photo had not yet tried back-to-back photoshoots with multiple families. The idea was to provide a classy, yet economical, photography experience. By offering a free session to moms and their kids, Lynn Ashley Photo was able to build portfolio experience for this session type, test marketing functions, confirm that the operational plan worked, and receive feedback from clients on their experience.

The pictures from the shoot should speak for themselves - the clients loved it!

Marketing Plan & Execution

We helped Lynn Ashley Photo organize and implement marketing activities to create a successful photoshoot. Wexford Entrepreneurial Partners assisted with the following:

Ideating a different type of photo session
Creating the operational plan to confirm key dates, required activities to facilitate the photoshoot, necessary promotional materials, hiring of key talent, and supplies needed for on-set production
Developing the calendar behind marketing activities
Mapping out the user experience of landing on Lynn Ashley Photo’s website, signing up for the photoshoot, being reminded of the shoot, the client’s on-set experience, and the end communication of receiving photos
Adjusting and testing Acuity Scheduling for appointment booking
Compiling marketing collateral and executing a targeted social media advertising campaign to fill spots
Altering the advertising campaign and eventually ending it in a timely manner to save advertising dollars

The photoshoot was a great success. We look forward to helping Lynn Ashley Photo with similar projects in the future.

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Apple & Android: Enable Urgent Calls to Family

Andrew Greenspan — Sat, 12 May 2018 15:14:07 +0000

Notify Family Like A Tornado Warning

... Or a hurricane. Rock them like a hurricane!

Dear Apple and Android,

People today are inundated with phone calls and text messages. So much so that people suffer from phantom vibrate, a condition when you do not actually have your phone on you yet you feel it vibrate so you go to check it but your phone is not actually there, and even establish a 2 call system to relay an urgent matter to the recipient.

Due to adulting and having to pay attention to life, some rely on a 2 call system or “blowing up” someone’s phone till they answer. The 2 call system is rather barbaric given the technology at our disposal. If you are unfamiliar with the 2 call system, it is exactly how it sounds. Call the person once that you need to get a hold of, but they do not answer. Call them a second time because it is urgent. Then typically this is followed up with a text message / blowing up their phone with calls and texts till they answer. It reminds us of the pager days when you would page someone 911 to let them know it was an emergency to call you.

Simply put, the notifications in-place to get ahold of someone in an urgent matter are insufficient given our technology. Ever get an amber alert? We are pretty sure you remember that if you have a smartphone.

As people are conditioned to ignore phone calls and text messages when it is inconvenient for them, such as a business meeting or sleeping, they will not be properly notified when there is actually an emergency. Similarly the new vibrate features reduce the total vibration of the phone, which is nice for everyday use, but leads to not feeling/hearing the phone go off in urgent situations.

The U/X Idea

Enable users to select an urgent option when calling a loved one that “blows their phone up” so they know it is an emergency.

The User Experience Problem

Alerting loved ones in an urgent matter is not sufficient enough with our current phone calling and texting options. The vibration on the iPhone has been significantly decreased which generally creates a better user experience. People today normally have their ringer turned off, especially at work and while they sleep. An urgent phone call or text message may be unnoticed if they cannot feel or hear their phone go off. For example, our iPhones used to wake us up at night from a random text message or notification. Now we sleep right through those texts / calls / notifications while we sleep due to the reduced vibrate.

While it is generally good to pay less attention to your phone and pay more attention to daily life, not having proper notification during an emergency is quite an issue. The only way to get someone’s attention today during an emergency is to repeatedly call and text them, or others who may be with them, till they answer.

Even with the ability to call and text the person till they answer, you may only have the opportunity for one phone call given the circumstance. Could be your battery is about to die, about to enter an area with no service, or you’re facing a dangerous threat to your life. Just calling a person and having them ignore your call because they’re adulting is a sad fact of life today, so let’s solve it!

The U/X Solution

Enable users to make urgent calls to family and loved ones. Users must approve and request the ability to make and receive these advanced call notifications from approved users so that unwanted persons like telemarketers do not take advantage of this safety feature.

Users should be alerted of this feature upgrade when their phone updates. To start, automatically enable contacts in the favorite list to make priority/urgent calls to you. If contacts have each other in their favorites, then a match is created so advanced notifications are enabled. If there is no match, then a request is sent to the other person not listed in the favorites asking to enable advanced notifications from that individual. Similarly you can edit individual contacts not in your favorites to send a request to enable advanced notifications between the parties. When a match is created, an icon appears next to the contacts name to symbolize the ability to make an urgent call. If only one of you accepted the request, that symbol is greyed out. If you click the greyed out symbol, it will instruct what the symbol is and to send or accept a request to enable priority notifications.

The priority status can be used in texting as well with a similar icon present for priority texting. When either a call or text is placed, the phone will vibrate aggressively similar to receiving an amber alert. If the user has their ringer turned on, the phone will vibrate aggressively and ring loudly.

An option is to create two separate categories of advanced notifications: priority and urgent. Priority may be for situations that could use increased attention while urgent is for matters that require the utmost attention.

Conclusion

Adulting, trying to focus more on real life, and lesser vibrations from phones can make it difficult to get in contact with a loved one during an emergency. Enabling a feature to allow for urgent, and possibly priority, calls and text messages will better the chance of getting ahold of someone when your communication to them is actually important.

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Squarespace Review: Elegantly Boxed In

Andrew Greenspan — Thu, 10 May 2018 21:25:23 +0000

4 Things to Love About Sqaurespace

Squarespace Review: Elegantly Boxed In.

Do not get the wrong impression from the title. We highly recommend Squarespace for Entrepreneurs and Small Business. With that said, there is room for improvement that Squarespace can implement to make your elegant website not feel so boxed in.

Squarespace is a simple to use, yet powerful, website building tool. The most notable competitors on the market are Wordpress and Wix. This review will list out comparisons to the competitors, highlight on useful Squarespace functionality, and recommend upgrades to the user experience that hopefully Squarespace will implement to make the product better and easier to use.

Squarespace, Wix, and Wordpress are all do-it-yourself tools that allow you to build your own website. Squarespace, to us, is the clear leader for a functional website with some advanced integrations. Wix and Wordpress reviews below:

Wix: stay away. Wix was a free website building tool that, over the past several years, began advertising heavily to compete with Squarespace. While Wix claims to offer a similar web building to Squarespace, our experience proves otherwise. The major difference between Wix and Squarespace is price and function. Wix is cheaper and thus does not work as well. For example, our tech savvy friend decided to use Wix since it was less expensive. He built a site that was supposed to be automatically mobile friendly, like Squarespace. Lo and behold, you can only access his homepage on mobile. On desktop, website works fine. On mobile, you cannot access any page beyond the homepage. Needless to say, we have never experienced this problem with Squarespace. Cheap is cheap. You get what you pay for. Use Wix at your own risk.

Wordpress: invest time and money for a more adaptable and powerful platform. Wordpress has been around for a long time and is not going anywhere. Almost 30% of all websites use Wordpress - quite impressive! Wordpress has a number of integrations into 3rd party plugins, some of which are free, that can help power your site. There are a number of templates to choose from, some of which are also free, to help get your website started. Wordpress is quite adaptable, which is why a number of businesses use it. Similarly a number of agencies make their clients’ websites in Wordpress for that reason. The main differences here from Squarespace are that Wordpress takes a while to learn and the plugins are not all secure. Wordpress, from our experience, can be quite confusing to put together. Squarespace is a more contained environment which makes it much simpler to use. Plus with all of these different 3rd party plugins, there is quite a learning curve to determine which plugins are best to use. So if you have time, are tech savvy, and want to invest in a platform that allows for more adaptability, then get Wordpress. If you want good functionality and ease-of-use, get Squarespace.

Overview of Wix / Wordpress / Squarespace:

Wix - cheap and does not work as well as Squarespace.

Wordpress - more adaptable but takes time to learn.

Squarespace - good mix of functionality and ease-of-use.

The 4 things we like about Squarespace:

Variety of Templates
Ease-of-Use
Mobile Responsive
3rd Party Integrations

Variety of Templates

Squarespace offers a wide range of templates. Many of the templates are truly quite elegant and make for an excellent modern looking website. Templates are also broken out by a number of different industries to help you finetune your search for a site comparable to your business. They also provide a number of client examples to help you visualize how different companies use the same template. This is truly phenomenal when going through the creative brainstorming phase of developing your site. Disclaimer: Squarespace is not paying us to say these nice things, though we totally think they should!

Ease-of-Use

Depending on your familiarity with websites, content creation, and branding / marketing, you might incur a slight learning curve while getting started with Squarespace. But do not fear! It really is simple once you get the hang of it. Squarespace has a great collection of support articles to walk you through the various steps of getting your website compiled. And if you are unable to find what you are looking for, just send them an email. Their customer support team is quite good about getting back to you in a timely manner with the right answer.

For the more advanced users, Squarespace makes it easy to embed / inject HTML and CSS code throughout the site. Figure out what special features you want to include, go the page, drop the code in the box, and click save. Boom. That easy. No an advanced user? Do not worry about it. Squarespace has so much functionality that you probably will not need to inject code anyway.

Mobile Responsiveness

Squarespace makes it “hella” easy to have your website designed for mobile and tablet. As you are designing your website for desktop, it is automatically altering your website for mobile and tablet. You literally do not have to do anything, it just does it for you. What is nice too is that you can change the view mode within Squarespace so that you can see what your website will look like on mobile and tablet. You can make changes and edit from there to confirm that all the visuals are to your liking. And unlike our friend with Wix, we have never had a usage problem with our sites in mobile or table. Simply put, Squarespace works.

3rd Party Integrations

A key differentiator from Squarespace to Wordpress is that Squarespace has less 3rd party integrations than Wordpress. However, all Squarespace integrations are thoroughly vetted and tested before being made available for you to use. This creates a much more secure and reliable network of 3rd party integrations that work and make sense. Further, Squarespace has numerous articles that walk you through what those integrations are, how you could use them on your site, and how to integrate them. Wordpress does not independently verify each integration, thus there are redundant third party integrations where some work better than others. Also Wordpress does not have a library of information to help you determine which integrations are best to use.

3 Party Integrations available range from advanced calendars with Acuity, credit card merchants like Stripe and Square, sending email sign-ups to Mailchimp, sending completed user forms to Google Drive, pulling in your Twitter feed, creating an email with your domain name using Gmail, and much more. Quite powerful tools. And Squarespace continues to add to their integrations as new and relevant technologies emerge, making sure you have the tools you need for a competitive and modern website.

With all that gloating about Squarespace, where do we feel Boxed In?

We feel “boxed in” because some templates offer some functionality while other templates offer other functionality. There seems to be too much picking and choosing of very little elements that could easily be integrated into all of the templates. Now, there are options to put your Squarespace site in the developer section in which you can really customize the code… but we do not pretend to be programmers. We can edit some HTML, CSS, and Javascript here and there, but that is not our specialty.

Template Functionality Examples

Content sidebars and navigation sidebars: These create pretty nice features for blogs and extra navigation on sites. The problem is that this functionality is only available on certain templates. Why? All templates have blogs. Why can’t all blogs have content sidebars? The blogs are all relatively structured the same… Our advice is to research if you want a content sidebar and then choose a blog accordingly.

Blog as Stacked vs Grid: Not all templates allow you to have your blog posts shown as a grid. Again, why? Most blogs are structured similarly. Squarespace has already programmed this option. Just allow us to make our blogs stacked on every template!

Parallax / 3D Scrolling: Parallax and 3D Scrolling are newer features, so it might make sense why they are not available on all templates. However if you want parallax scrolling, you cannot have a content sidebar. Why?!

Formatting Twitter Cards: for some reason Squarespace blogs do not automatically show the blog thumbnail image as the full width of the Tweet. Instead, it shows a small square image with text to the right. You have to find the appropriate code to inject into your page, which is not the easiest to do. Here Squarespace should have that code injected on all templates so that the image cards come through nicely. Example of images below:

External article we linked to did not format properly.

Our article linked properly since we injected the proper code.

Auto-sizing blog images: If you stack your blog posts, users have an option for the image to auto adjust. This option makes our images look perfect. If you opt to have your posts displayed on a grid, you no longer have the auto adjust option. Why?! Now our posts are cut off and we have to resize…

Navigation bar options: how you place items in the top navigation bar depends on the template. We like having our phone number prominently displayed in case someone wants to call us. Certain templates do not allow you to have 3 sections on the navigation bar. Why you cannot just rearrange and add different sections on the navigation bar is beyond us. There are ways to inject code that can add in a phone number / different information, but we try to avoid that when possible.

Conclusion

All-in-all Squarespace is a powerful tool with great integrations that just works. However, there are a few functionality issues that definitely make us feel boxed in. While we highly recommend Squarespace, we also highly recommend you choose some of the features you want to have before fully committing to a template. If you pick a template and you’re not happy with it, Squarespace makes it quite easy to test out new templates - but that’s just extra time out of your day.

Do your research, choose wisely, and enjoy Squarespace!

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Twitter: Incorrect Follower Data

Andrew Greenspan — Tue, 08 May 2018 12:16:43 +0000

Twitter Data is Flat for Past Several Days

Update: Twitter Data Adjusts After A Few Days

Twitter analytics currently show wrong numbers for daily follower totals. Since Friday May 4th, all dates from the 4th onward show the total number of current twitter followers instead of the total followers on the respective date. To note, the total number of followers is correct. However the total number of followers is listed as the total daily followers for every day since 5/4/18.

We manually record Twitter followers daily and created this graph to show the comparison. Twitter analytics shows a flat growth rate from the 4th onward while our chart shows the actual daily uptick of total followers.

Update

Twitter data will update after a few days, however the previous several days will still be flat. Twitter has a disclaimer not to trust their data. We recommend recording your followers on a daily or weekly basis if you want more accurate statistics.

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Google Analytics: Lost In A Sea of Blue

Andrew Greenspan — Mon, 07 May 2018 20:53:22 +0000

Blue Gradient in Google Analytics is Hard to Infer

There’s too much blue in Google Analytics reports.

From a high level glance, how are users supposed to be able to differentiate where the sources of traffic came from given that the bar charts use relatively similar shades of blue with no pattern differentiation? Then there is no clear way to change the colors, unless apparently you were to add custom code to define new colors.

The U/X Idea

Use more colors than different shades of blue for the charts in Google Analytics.

The User Experience Problem

The base charts blend together as they use similar shades of blue. In trying to determine which sources drove traffic to the website on a certain day, it’s hard to tell which source it actually is due to the fact that the blues are very similar.

Further, there is not an easy way, if any, to change the colors or even add in patterns to help differentiate between sources. Apparently users can add in code to create charts with colors, but this is not very clear as to a) how to do this and b) if it will change the charts on the main GA pages.

The U/X Solution

Either add patterns to the different shades of blue, generate different colors automatically, or provide an easy way for users to opt-in to using different colors for their charts.

Utilizing different colors will make the charts much easier to read and provide for quicker analysis of web traffic. Google Analytics is a very powerful and useful tool, but using similar shades of blue makes it quite frustrating at times to easily derive inferences from analyzing the charts.

Conclusion

Help a user out by differentiating colors/patterns away from the similar shades of blue. This will make an awesome Google Analytics tool even better.

Hope this article didn’t make you feel too blue, you’re doing a great job as is!

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Apple News: Previewing Stories May Cause Aneurysm

Andrew Greenspan — Mon, 07 May 2018 13:32:54 +0000

Difficulties Previewing Apple News

Previewing Stories in Apple News Did Not Work For Us

Why is it so incredibly difficult to preview a story on Apple News? Pre-written content uploads to Apple News via an RSS Feed just fine. The articles populate ready to preview, but you cannot just simply click on the article to preview how Apple News will display the story.

Instead of being able to preview the stories on a desktop browser, users have to go through a convoluted process that had us throwing our hands up in the air due to wasting valuable time. The worst part is, even after all the time spent, we were ultimately unable to preview our stories. Whereas with Medium, you simply copy & paste your story into the editor or insert the link to the story for Medium to pull your content right into the editor.

Medium makes previewing stories easy. Apple News makes it incredibly difficult. Straight up almost caused us an aneurysm.

The U/X Idea

Adopt a method like Medium's of previewing stories added to Apple News.

The User Experience Problem

Previewing how your stories appear in Apple News before submitting to Apple for review is incredibly difficult. At first, the process seems like it will work smoothly. Users can submit their stories via an RSS Feed and almost immediately the stories begin to populate in Apple News for preview.

It’s all downhill from there. In order to preview the story, users must view the story on an iOS9 device or later. Apple News provides a preview link. We emailed the link to ourselves and opened it in Safari on an iPhone 8 running iOS11. We were immediately prompted to open it in Apple News. Apple News then opens to show our Wexford news page with no articles for preview.

Apple News instructs users to search for their company in Apple News as an alternative to using the preview link. Since the preview link didn’t work, we attempted to find our company page in Apple News. After searching (and searching and searching) we could not find our company page to preview stories.

Tried the preview link again - no luck. Same issue. Company page opened with no stories to preview. We went back into Apple News in Safari on a Macbook and could see the stories listed there waiting to be previewed - but you can’t preview them on a desktop! Unless you download the News Preview app.

So we downloaded the News Preview app. No big deal, but we also had to download the 5 GB Xcode app too. With both apps installed, we opened the News Preview app and connected our ID number, but our information did not appear. Quit the app and restarted it. Then the app opened for half a second and quit immediately. Opened it again, News Preview again quit immediately. Restarted the computer. Opened News Preview again - surprise - it quit again immediately!

Then we opened up Xcode and it started to install and initiate. Then we opened up News Preview again and entered our ID again. Again our information did not appear. Restarted the computer again, opened News Preview, and our information still did not appear.

Ultimately we submitted the stories for Apple News to review without previewing how they would look because we could not preview the stories.

The U/X Solution

Allow users to preview stories similar to how Medium allows users to preview stories. It would be ideal if Apple News could keep the RSS Feed function. The stories ported over just fine, it’s just previewing them on a mobile device or via the app were near impossible. For us, it actually was impossible. Maybe there is a step we missed, but we read different support threads, tried different methods, and attempted multiple times. Regardless, it should not be this difficult to preview a story.

Apple News should allow users to preview the story on a desktop web browser. The stories obviously ported over just fine via RSS. Why then make users preview in Apple News? And if you could actually preview in Apple News and something needed to be changed, such as titles or images not being brought over correctly, can you make changes in the Apple News app? And if you can make changes, do you expect users to do this on their mobile device?

Conclusion

Previewing stories in Apple News was difficult and convoluted. And for us, we were unable to preview our stories even though they ported over fine via RSS.

Allow users to preview and edit their stories in the browser. Do not make people use the Apple News iPhone app to attempt to preview their stories. Instead, structure the ability to preview and edit stories off of Medium’s method.

Further, if you have to download the News Preview app to preview because it somehow is better than previewing in a desktop browser, write the News Preview app’s code so that it does not require a download of Xcode. And if it does somehow require a download of Xcode, have the News Preview app deliver an error that Xcode must first be opened instead of just quitting immediately.

Hoping our stories appear okay on Apple News and this issue gets fixed.

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Create a Custom Gmail Signature

Andrew Greenspan — Fri, 04 May 2018 16:55:16 +0000

14 Steps for a Gmail Signature with Logo

Gmail makes adding a custom signature unbelievably difficult

Gmail is a widely used email application and is quite powerful. However adding a custom signature at the bottom of your email is quite complicated. After perusing the internet and reading different blogs, not one single blog had a step-by-step direction that made sense. Here we’ll do our best to teach you how to add a Gmail custom signature with your company logo and social media icons that link through!

Disclaimer: This technique is moderately advanced and requires some basic knowledge of HTML and Photoshop. Unfortunately Google makes this more difficult than it needs to be…

Goal: Create a Gmail signature with your company logo on the left, your information on the right, and social media icons & other text that link through to their respective web domains.

Note: Some other blogs teach you how to create an image of your signature. So it looks customized but the text is not readable and individual components, such as the social media icons, cannot be linked. You can link the entire image to one destination, such as your webpage, but this method is considered “amateur hour.”

Standard vs. Custom Gmail Signature

As you can see the standard Gmail signature is boring. Adding a logo makes the signature look professional. Adding social icons that link through makes it look professional but more importantly provides you with a better marketing tool for email recipients to interact with your company online.

Step 1 - Open your Logo in Photoshop

*Give Instructions 1-5 to your designer or Wexford if you are not Photoshop savvy

Open the .psd file of your logo in Photoshop
Save As > Gmail Signature Logo

The logo needs to have extra blank space added to the bottom of it. This is because your text and social media icons will start to adjust to the left under the logo if the logo is not long enough to block the text from left-adjusting.

Step 2 - Remove any Text from Logo (if applicable)

We recommend using just the image portion of your logo. If your logo is only text, then obviously only use text. Below on the left is our logo with text. We used the image on the right of just our logo with no text.

Step 3 - Create Extra Space Below your Logo

Image > Canvas Size

Double whatever height is listed. Our height was 1.5 inches so we made it 3 inches. If your height is 500 Pixels, make it 1,000 pixels
“Relative” is unchecked
Do not touch Anchor
Click OK

Step 4 - Transparent Background (Optional)

You may not need to do this. Here our background was white, so it should be fine, but Transparent is better when available.

Uncheck background and any other Layer leaving only the layer with your logo checked
Save

Step 5 - Export as PNG

File > Export > Export As > Format - PNG > Transparent - Checked > Export All > Save (Just remember where you saved the image!)

Step 6 - Gather your Social Media Icons

Click here for a Free Download of icons. You can purchase the images or give credit to Vecteezy (info on how to give credit is in the download instructions).
Or you can use our images here.
- FYI we had to make our own RSS Feed logo. If you choose another style from Vecteezy, you’ll need to make/find a RSS Feed logo if you want one.

Step 7 - Upload Logo and Social Media Icons to Your Website

May require your Developer or upload to an image hosting site
Create a page that is not linked to any of your navigation
Upload the logo
Upload the social media icons separately (if you are not using ours)

Step 8 - Start Building Your Signature in HTML Editor

Go here to the this “What you see is what you get” HTML Editor
And go here Wexford’s Instructions on Google Doc
Delete the existing code in HTML Editor
- Select all code in right-hand box & delete
Copy and paste Wexford’s Code in HTML Editor
- Paste wexford code in right-hand box
Now you should see the Wexford signature in the left-hand box

Delete all of the code on right. All text/tables on left will now be blank.

Copy and paste this code in right-hand box of HTML Editor. Code located on Google Doc. Wexford signature will now appear in left-hand box of HTML Editor.

Step 9 - Add and Format your Logo

Go to the webpage that is hosting your Gmail Signature Logo
Right-click on the image and “Copy Image Address” or it might say “Copy URL Address”
Delete the web/image/URL address linking the Wexford logo and paste in your logo image/URL address
- This is the code in Red pictured above that was in the Wexford Google Doc
- Only delete the text between the quotation marks and paste your link in-between those quotation marks
Format Logo: as you can see, your logo is probably too big. This next part is very nice!
- In the left-hand window of HTML editor, select the logo
- Now you should see boxes in each corner
- Adjust to the proportions you need, and the code automatically adjusts
Our logo was 244 wide by 300 high
We reduced it by half to 122w by 150h to keep the proportions

Step 10 - Edit the Text

In the left-hand window of the HTML Editor, just add and subtract the text you see fit
Include all info you want, even a physical address if that’s your thing
The HTML updates automatically on the right - pretty cool!
We listed our Website, link to our UX-Ideas which you might call your Blog, and a link to our Email. Other people had links to their bios, etc. So many options!

Step 11 - Edit the Social Media Icons

The social media platforms we use are listed. From top to bottom in the code, the 1st link is Twitter, 2nd is LinkedIn, 3rd is Facebook, and 4th is the RSS
- Note: No action needed but an FYI in case you’re wondering, proportions for all Social Media Icons should be 32x32 except for RSS which is 33x33. This is because we had to create our own RSS icon and 33x33 matched the rest provided by vecteezy.
To reorder or change the icons: copy the image/URL address of the icon you want, delete the link between the quotations, paste the image address. You should see it appear in the left-hand window
To remove one or more icons: delete the code between and including .
- Deleting one of those deletes 1, deleting 2 of them deletes 2… and so on.
To add one or more icons: copy the code between and including and then paste it immediately after one of the ending image tags, a.k.a the />
Hopefully this is straightforward. Requires basic HTML knowledge.

Step 12 - Copy and Paste Visual HTML Info in Gmail Signature

Everything look good in the left-hand window of the HTML Editor? Good. Links will be added in the next section, so don’t worry about that. We didn’t forget.

Select and copy everything in the left-hand window of the HTML Editor
- Left-click once in the window
- Hold down the left-click and drag arrow to highlight all of the text, logo, and social media icons & copy it

Open up Gmail
Click the Gear Icon in the right hand corner and click settings
Scroll down about ¾ of the way to “Signature”
- Note: if anywhere in the signature area it says “Plain text” then compose a new email, cligh the down arrow in the bottom right hand corner of the email, and un-select “Plain text mode” Then reopen the Settings, go back to “Signature” section, and confirm that it no longer says “Plain text”

Gmail > Gear Icon > Settings

ONLY IF signature box says Plain text, then compose an email, click arrow in lower right, and uncheck "Plain text mode"

Click the Radio button immediately below “No signature”
Paste your visual html in the Signature box
- Right-click in the signature box & paste
Optional - we prefer to have the “--” line to separate our email from our signature. If you prefer that too. Uncheck the “Insert this signature before quoted text in replies and remove the ‘--’ line that precedes it.”
Scroll to bottom of page and click Save Changes
- You don’t have to save now, but better than losing any info!

In settings, scroll down to the signature box in Gmail. It will be blank. Paste in the visual HTML. Note - Plain Text is not selected, perfect!

Step 13 - Add Links to your Social Media Icons & Text

Go back to Settings and scroll down to signature
Link Social Media Icons
- Highlight 1 social media icon
- Click the link button in the toolbar in Signature box, to Right of the underlined A
- Select “Link to: Web address”
- Find your public social media domain, copy and paste it in the box under “To what URL should this link go?
  - Domain example: our Twitter is https://www.twitter.com/wexfordpartners
- Repeat for all Social Media Icons

Link Text
- Highlight all of the text to be included in 1 link
- Copy and paste the domain just like you did with Social Media Icons
  - Note: The text you select will be listed now in “Text to display” leave this alone.
- Repeat for all text links
Link an Email Address
- All steps are same for text link except select the radio for “Email address” not “Web address”
  - Because it’s an email… not a web address lol
Save changes once everything is linked

Step 14 - Test your Custom Gmail Signature

Compose a new email
Send to an email address outside of the company - either your personal email or someone you know, and preferably outside of Gmail like a personal Hotmail account - or whatever is free & hip these days
Test the following:
- Signature looks good before you send it
- Go to sent mail and make sure the Signature looks good.
  - Note: You might have to click the 3 horizontal dotted lines in order to see the signature because Gmail automatically does this to reduce info that is redundant to you
- Check the email in your inbox (or your friend’s inbox) on desktop and mobile
- Make sure the links click through and it’s formatted how you had it in the HTML Editor
Troubleshooting
- Did the Social Media Icons and/or some of your text drop below your icon? Then your logo is not long enough. Make the logo longer, reupload, and repeat the steps. This should fix that issue.

And that’s it! You should now have a cool, custom Gmail signature that will make your brand look professional and be functional with appropriate links. None of that signature as an image BS that doesn’t help you!!

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Google: G-Suite Circular Error

Andrew Greenspan — Thu, 03 May 2018 16:50:47 +0000

Google Profile Picture Upload Error

Google doesn't tell you the error is due to an admin setting...

Dear Google,

If a user receives the error, "Sorry! We could not save your profile photo. Please try again later" then describe how to fix the error.

In this case the error was due to G Suite not being setup properly to allow Users to customize their public profile photo and cover photo. Click here for a step by step guide to fix the issue.

It seems relatively obvious that there should be a link or an explanation as to why the user could not upload a photo. Even providing a suggestion to contact the site administrator would be fine. Instead we found ourselves double checking the acceptable file formats and file sizes for the profile photo...

Just an error to try again later? Well guess what! We'd be trying in perpetuity to fix something that was not due to the file size, file type, internet connection, or Google server issue. Wow.

Okay thanks!

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Delta: Convert More Credit Card Sign-ups

Andrew Greenspan — Thu, 03 May 2018 13:55:05 +0000

How Delta Can Make More Money and Make Customers Happier

Don't Interrupt The Flight at Inconvenient Times for Flyers

Overall flying with Delta is a good experience. Flight attendants are nice, flights are on-time, and prices are decent. Also carry-ons are not made into a big deal like with American Airlines, click here if you want to see what we mean.

BUT why did you have to interrupt the in-flight movie with an announcement to apply for a Delta credit card? Do you really get that many people to sign-up then and there?

This aircraft happened to have monitors in the back of every headrest (wish all flights had that!). The other connecting flights in this voyage did not have the monitors in the back of the headrest. However, every one of the four flights included a mid-flight announcement to promote signing up for the Delta credit card. Sure, Delta has a captive audience that is forced to listen to your announcements and Delta will inevitably have a portion of that audience sign-up for a credit card. But alternative exist that should yield more credit card sign-ups!

The U/X Idea

Alter when announcements for the credit card offer is made to increase conversions.

The User Experience Problem

Once you’re finally boarded, heard the safety instructions, and the plane has taken off, passengers really only care at this point when they can use their laptops and/or go to the bathroom. Other than that, passengers want peace and quiet. The only other expectations is to hear about bad weather or when we’re getting our snacks and drinks. Any other announcement is annoying!

From a sales standpoint, it is hard to believe that interrupting in-flight entertainment or making an additional announcement when passengers are trying to relax would be the most beneficial time to make an announcement to sign-up for a credit card.

The worst is finally getting to be on a plane with monitors in the headrest where passengers can watch cool movies (like Die Hard, the best “Christmas” movie of all time), and then Delta pauses the movie multiple times during the flight! This becomes frustrating and cannot benefit Delta in signing up more passengers for a credit card.

The U/X Solution

For all flights, make the the announcement to sign-up for the Delta credit card before, or immediately after, flight attendants review the aircraft safety features.

For flights with monitors in the back of every headrest, have a popup offer appear on the screen during the flight. The ad should not be full screen. It should be a bubble that arises from the bottom to fill between 1/6th and 1/5th of the screen with an obvious “x” in the top right corner to cancel it out. Showing this pop-up a second time throughout the flight is fine as well.

According to The Points Guy, Delta’s credit card segment is very profitable for the airline. If so, actually try and sell the credit card! Sales tips:

Announce the credit card offer when people are not trying to relax
Implement subtle pop-ups for in-flight entertainment that do not pause the movie
Create a “last ditch” best offer at the end of the flight to create urgency
- Show this on the 2nd and/or last pop-up for aircraft with in-flight entertainment
- Provide this announcement once the plane has landed so flight attendants can pass out applications to interested applicants while aircraft is enroute to jetway. Passengers can fill out paperwork as plane de-boards

Bullets one and two of the aforementioned sales tips were previously discussed.

The third bullet for a “last ditch” best offer is an option for Delta. Go in knowing that offering something extra to the passenger will create a sense of urgency to sign-up as well as the feeling that the passenger is getting rewarded. An example is “sign-up now for the Delta credit card and receive a $25 gift card after your first purchase of $100 or more.” Delta has to do what makes sense here financially, but the point is that offering something extra should convert more credit card sign-ups. If passengers signed-up with the first announcement, make sure to provide them with the incentive as well so no ill-will is created.

Conclusion

Passengers do not like having their flight interrupted unnecessarily, especially if watching a movie.

Make the announcement to sign-up for a Delta credit card before, or immediately after, flight attendants go over the aircrafts safety features.

On aircrafts with in-flight entertainment in the back of every headrest, enable pop-up ads for the credit card that take up a small portion of the screen and does not pause the entertainment.

As an option at the end of the flight, make another announcement once the plane has just landed with an additional credit card offer that creates a sense of urgency with a “last ditch” best effort by providing an extra incentive such as a gift card.

Hope this works for y'all!

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