Online marketing can be daunting for small business owners. You know you need it. But where to begin? These few quick online marketing tasks can get you started and each could be done in about 30 minutes or less. They can be performed in-house or by your Web developer. You can tackle them one at a time or all at once. If you’re confused by any of this, you can always contact Vital Design.

1. Consistent branding

Present professional, consistent branding everywhere your brand appears online: your website, social media accounts, blogs, email marketing, email signatures, and more. Make sure you have the same logo in appropriate sizes and formats (a .jpeg of about 100 x 100 pixels is a good idea). Consider both thumbnail sizes and larger images. While you’re at it, this is a good time to create online advertising in standard size jpegs.

A little Photoshop knowledge is required but having these images saved and archived properly will be valuable as you create new social media accounts, sponsor events, or brand email marketing templates. If you don’t have Photoshop, other software is available. For PC users, you can probably use Microsoft’s photo editor in the Office tools. Mac users likely have iPhoto for simple photo editing.

A consistent company avatar can also be smart if employees represent the company online through individual accounts. They can be as simple as using the same lighting and background in headshots or styled to include logos and company colors, as we do with Vital Design’s online branding.

2. Email marketing

With cost-effective online email services such as Constant Contact or MailChimp, your small business can create email marketing pieces that are both professional-looking and easy to maintain. These services and others provide data on how your emails perform, who clicks them, and more. Here’s what your small business needs to start email marketing:

a. An email marketing service account and template.
Once you set up an account, you can use a free template or have a Web designer create a custom HTML template for you.

b. A list of client and/or prospect email addresses.
You probably already have this somewhere. If not, ask your Web developer to add a “sign-up for the latest news” box to your site to capture email addresses. You can export emails you collect as an Excel spreadsheet or send them directly to your email service provider account. You should also gather email addresses during your face-to-face or phone sales process.

c. A goal.
Do you want recipients to register for a seminar, click to your site, or simply remember how awesome you are? Define what action or emotion you want to inspire in your audience before you write copy or start design.

d. A plan to measure effectiveness.

Online email services such as MailChimp and Constant Contact provide stats to tell you which clients clicked the links in your email. Google Analytics can also measure site traffic from email pieces. Also, be sure to ask new customers how they heard about you and what inspired them to contact you.

3. Search engine optimization for your home page

Search engine optimization (SEO) should be your first step in online marketing. Without it, you are relying solely on word of mouth or new content to draw new site visitors. Optimizing an entire site can be overwhelming so start with your home page. You’ll need the help of a Web developer if you are not familiar with Web coding, but here are a few basic things you can look for to boost search engine optimization on your home page, which can be a tremendous asset for small businesses selling in a limited geographic area. See this classic post by search engine masters SEOmoz on SEO best practices to learn more.

a. Pick your keyword and include it in your home page title and copy.
Decide on a couple keyword terms you’d like to be found for. Include city and state names. Then look at the top of your browser, in the gray area. You’ll see a title there. If it isn’t close to what you want to be found for, rewrite it. For example, if your company called Frosted Bliss sells cupcakes in Boston, MA and most of your customers are within 25 miles, you might title your home page “Cupcakes, Bakery Boston, Quincy, Cambridge | Frosted Bliss.” Next, make sure your home page copy includes the term “Boston cupcakes” or a variation of that term two to three times. If possible, link your search term to another page on your site such as a portfolio or case study of your work.

b. Use an appropriate H1 tag and headline.
Ask your Web developer to use a headline with an H1 tag that includes your search term. In our Frosted Bliss example, it might be “The Best Cupcakes in Boston,” or “Homemade Cupcakes That Make Boston Smile.” Write for your readers first. Google second.

c. Use search terms when you save image files.
Save or rename your photo images with file names that include words for which you’d like to be found. Also, when you scroll over images on your page, you’ll see a yellow box with some text pop up. These are image title tags or ALT tags. Make sure these image title tags include your search term. If not, ask your Web developer to change them.

While each of these steps can be done by a professional creative agency like Vital, a lot of small businesses can also tackle these in-house. However you proceed, these few basics can make a big difference in how you present your company online and how people find you. As always, feel free to contact us if you have questions about online marketing.

To support the Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce Annual Golf Tournament, Vital Design is helping to facilitate the use of Twitter during the tourney. (If you’re not familiar with Twitter and want to get set up right away with an account or on your phone, click here.) If you’ll be tweeting from the tournament, include hashtag: #NHGolf in your tweets and register your Twitter name here so we know to follow you.

Golf and Twitter may seem at odds – people often turn off mobile phones on the course – but there are a lot of reasons Twitter is good for a community-oriented golf outing.

1. Real-time info

This is a scramble format and it’s mostly for fun, but teams are serious about winning. People remember your company or organization name more if you win. Having real-time scores from your competition will help you plot your strategy. (Do you go for the green in two on 17? Heck yeah, you’re three strokes back.) We also plan to display Tweets on a large screen at the clubhouse, so even if you’re not on Twitter, you’ll be able to see top scores and decide if it’s go time. Or Miller time.

Real-time info will also help tournament organizers respond quickly to any issues, such as if play is slow in a particular area or if people are confused about rules. Or if certain pasty members of the business community need sunblock stat. Anything like that.

2. Smack talk

Smack talk – good-natured ribbing of your opponents – is a part of golf, at least at our amateur level. Anytime you have a new way to poke fun at your your competition and business associates, life’s better. Feel free to use Twitter to bust on your friends, your competition, and your boss. We’re joking a bit, but these types of tweets can show a new side – for the better – of the real culture and relationships that exist in the Portsmouth business community.

2. Exposure

Tweeting about the tournament adds real-time communication to help folks who are stuck in the office to be involved in this event. Last year, Vital Design tweeted scores from the hole we sponsored and were surprised that so many people were paying attention online that they sent us direct messages days later on Twitter to find out who won. Also, each time someone tweets about the tournament, it’s like a little shout-out to the Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce. Each tweet helps spread the message that the Chamber is a fun way to stay connected with your local business community and friends and helps build the brand  and identity of the Chamber as well as the city of Portsmouth.

4. Building connections

The whole point of these types of events is to establish and strengthen our business relationships and networks. While there is limited time to mingle, Twitter offers another way to connect with other members of the business community throughout the event. Is there someone you want to meet but didn’t have time to catch up with at breakfast? Let them know on Twitter. Or search for the Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce hashtag: #NHGolf on Twitter to catch up with them after the event.

Get started with Twitter

By now, you’re probably either on Twitter or you’re never getting on Twitter. But if you’re still on the fence, here are a few simple ways to get started and a few apps you can use for your phone.

To set up your account, visit Twitter.com. Choose a username and password. You’ll want to use your real name if possible or something close to it. Be sure to fill out your bio and add a picture of yourself. If you’re having trouble, check out how to get started with Twitter.

To use Twitter with a smart phone:

If you have an Android, iPhone, BlackBerry or other smart phone, there are lots of free applications you can use. You probably have a Twitter app that comes with your phone. If not, here are a few that we suggest. You’ll want to visit the sites on your smartphone or go to iTunes or Android Market to download the apps.

iPhone: Tweetie or Seesmic

BlackBerry: UberTwitter

Android: Touiteur, Seesmic, or HootSuite

To use Twitter from a cell phone:

Twitter was created to be used via text messages. So if your phone can text, you can use it to send and receive tweets.

1. sign in to your twitter account
2. click Settings, then Devices, enter your cell phone number.
3. text the code/word that Twitter supplies to 40404.

You can choose which people to receive updates from if you like. Once you’ve set up your phone with the steps above, simply text your 140-character tweet to 40404 and you’ll be tweeting from your account.

Well, I have to give Vital’s Brian DeKoning credit. He has been pushing Foursquare for some time now and I resisted. Seeing the tremendous benefits for businesses, I was convinced it would become an annoying feature of some other social media powerhouse like Facebook before hitting the mainstream. Boy was I wrong. Friday 4.16.10, (get it, 4 squared is 16) was international Foursquare Day. With a little help from a few locals, Portsmouth Foursquare Day virtually exploded.

Here is a little background on what I have learned about Foursquare, Foursquare Day, and it’s effect on businesses in Portsmouth earlier this month.

What Is Foursquare?

Foursquare is a geo-location sharing application that mobile phone users can download for free. Users “check in” by sharing their location with friends. The check-ins can post to Twitter and other social networking sites and friends compete to get the most points by checking in.

Foursquare also allows it’s users to become the “Mayor” of locations they frequent and to earn points and badges for playing. Foursquare is also a promotional tool for businesses and business owners. Business have started offering discounts to foursquare users for checking in to their location, giving potential customers an incentive for stopping in.

What is Foursquare Day?

Foursquare Day is a international grass roots effort to get businesses to take part in Foursquare by offering special promotions to people “checking-in” to their businesses location.

The entire International Foursquare Day on April 16, 2010 was conceived in March by Tampa optometrist Nate Bonilla-Warford. His idea was that since four squared equals 16, it would be great to encourage people to use Foursquare on the fourth month and 16th day of the year. The concept quickly caught on and hundreds of cities around the world celebrated Foursquare Day on April 16th.

Portsmouth Foursquare Day Goes Viral

Here in Portsmouth we were a little late in adopting the idea and promoting it in our community, but we quickly made up ground. Getting the whole community involved in hyping up the event, we started to climb in the ranks on the international Foursquare Day website. This speaks to the both the quality and quantity of tech-minded, innovative people in and around Portsmouth. We were lucky to have so many people eager to help once the idea was floated.

So how do you promote an almost unknown social media event? Social media of course! Late in the day on Monday, 4.12.10 (I told you we got a late start) Vital Design launched a Facebook Fan page. Within 24 hours we had over 100 fans, by Friday 4.16.10 we had close to 300 fans. @walterelly and the crew at MicroArts jumped in, as well as Social Media Club NH, and local newspaper The Wire. Portsmouth Foursquare Day soon had a branded twitter page @Portsmouth4Sq, an ad in The Wire, and was quickly gaining followers to help spread the word. Soon enough, the Foursquare Day craze was newsworthy!

On Thursday, just a few days after Portsmouth Foursquare Day was announced, we were listed at #3 in the world over major cities like Atlanta, Beijing and Chicago on the international Foursquare Day website. With a few wall posts, tweets, phone calls, and emails, Portsmouth, NH Foursquare Day was the number #1.

In the words of the people at Foursquare, “Foursquare on your phone gives you & your friends new ways of exploring your city. Earn points & unlock badges for discovering new things.”

Next year’s Four square day should be interesting, after all we put this years together in four days. Here is a list of some of the local business that took part in this years event:

Bliss Boutique
Blue Mermaid
Celtic Crossing
Cafe Europa
Caffe Kilim
Corks and Curds
Fa La Lo Lower prices
Fast Eddie’s Dirty Laundry
Founders Lobby Lounge
Infinite Imaging
Joe’s New York Pizza
Le Club Boutique
Linda Taylor Boutique
Nahcotta
New Hampshire Film Festival
Old Stove Bakery
Papa Wheelie’s Bike Shop
PhilipCaseCohen.com
Port City Coffee Roasters
Portsmouth Library
Portsmouth Chamber
Portsmouth Gas Light Co.
Radici
Red Door
Redhook Brewery
River House
Runner’s Alley
Strawberry Banke Museum
Taste of Portsmouth
The Dolphin Striker
Three Graces Gallery
The Flower Kiosk
The Music Hall
The Page Restaurant & Bar
The Press Room
The Common Man
Three Graces Gallery
Tugboat Alley/Tug Alley Too
Vital Design
WireNH

To list ongoing Foursquare promotions, businesses should visit the Facebook Fan page, become a fan, and list their promo or special offer for Foursquare users.

Remember businesses, there is no reason you can’t offer a deal to Foursquare users every day!

When we created new web development for clients Wireless Analytics, we wanted to create a sleek, modern-looking site that shows them as the thought leader they really are for wireless and mobile expense management.
The new site is a clean, high tech design and easy to use. We think the web development showcases all of the services Wireless Analytics offers to help users manage wireless expenses more efficiently. The site also offers a user log in for companies to help manage accounts. From online visibility and reporting tools, cost analysis and insight to their CLEAN platform, Wireless Analytics works personally with each client to create efficient plans and strategies to save money and deliver expertise.

We had a lot of fun designing this site because we were able to incorporate different types of resources into one site. For instance, they offer a savings calculator which provides users with a snapshot of their annual savings. This feature is free and available to all users. Recognized for their money saving guarantee, Wireless Analytics has been providing companies with mobility management strategies and long term plans for over eight years. Let us know what you think!

When Southeast New Hampshire Habitat for Humanity needed a website redesign, we were psyched to be part of their solution. This local affiliate of the international non-profit does big work, partnering with corporations and families to try to eliminate poverty housing. They make people’s lives better and we were thrilled to be a part of that in our small way.

SENH Habitat Executive Director Cheryl Van Allen and her team knew they needed a more professional, current online image, but they also wanted to be able to update their site easily to share the work they do and let supporters and volunteers know where they could help. Top goals for their site were:

1. Be able to update the site and share news using available staff.

2. Offer an independent online store area for the Dover, NH ReStore to share new merchandise and news.

3. Create a site planned for search engine optimization.

4. Include social media integration and ability to sign up visitors for email news.

5. Offer a clearinghouse for the vast amount of info SENH Habitat has for potential partner families, volunteers, and supporters. (This is very important so SENH Habitat doesn’t have to spend as much time fielding phone calls.)

I think we accomplished all of these goals. Perhaps the most valuable to SENH Habitat is the ability to make updates internally, without having to contact a Web developer. We did this by using WordPress as a content management system (CMS) to empower SENH Habitat staff and volunteers to quickly create new posts and categorize them in a number of ways. There is a photo gallery, a news page, and a separate area for the ReStore site. The site’s Home page also automatically pulls RSS feeds from news posts to the Home page to show fresh content.

A few other things to note:

- There is an updateable WordPress calendar where SENH Habitat can list events, builds, deconstructions and other activities.

- The Dover ReStore section features photos and descriptions of recent inventory. It’s searchable, archived, and organized by category and keyword.

- There are now three RSS feeds visitors can subscribe to through a feed reader or email to receive automatic updates every time SENH Habitat posts new content.

If you have any feedback on the site, please let us know. We truly enjoyed working on it and getting the chance to support SENH Habitat for Humanity.

For the past 10 years, the gentlemen at Internet & Telephone, LLC of North Andover, MA have built a strong company on face-to-face business relationships.

I&T provides corporate IT support and phone, data and Internet service. They serve as an outsourced IT department to keep phones and computer networks working for clients such as hospitals, office buildings and colleges. Customers really like I&T because they provide great customer service. When clients call for help, they know the voice on the other end of the line. I&T has thrived with this approach.

But in all that time, I&T hadn’t generated many leads from the Internet. Their sales have been more traditional – handshakes, community networking, and referrals.

One reason they hadn’t used their website as a sales tool was that it had become dated. I&T’s sales people didn’t want to send leads there because the site didn’t present the professional, state-of-the-art company that I&T is – and it didn’t show the friendly faces that their customers know and respect.

To help Internet & Telephone reverse that trend, Vital Design provided a completely new website design and development that presents a professional image and clearly communicates I&T’s services. Because their site is now an attractive destination to refer sales prospects to, I&T has also launched email marketing and online marketing campaigns.

The new site provides a modern, professional online presence where I&T can showcase their services – ranging from IT managed services to conference room communications installs and T1 voice and data. The site also includes lots of photos of I&T’s actual employees shot by Photographer Ian Aldrich.

We feel like we’ve helped Internet & Telephone move forward as a company with this site. And we’re glad that it’s helping them because they really are nice guys. Check out the before and after:

We recently finished a new website design for Applecrest Farm, New Hampshire’s oldest and largest apple orchard. It’s an earthy, rustic design, a bit like the smooth scroll website we developed last spring.

The new web development showcases the tasty offerings of Applecrest (located in Hampton Falls, NH), such as pick-your-own schedules and festival dates and other info. The site also offers a registration form for private parties, allowing users to reserve dates online.

“This website design ties in four generations of the Wagner family. We are really excited about our new web design,” said Applecrest’s Todd Wagner. “Vital Design combined all of our attributes into one well-organized site to showcase everything our family has created throughout the years.”

We had a lot of fun designing this site because it brought together generations of hard work and development. (The Applecrest barn itself is more than 200 years old.) Applecrest Farm is a family fun day mecca, offering pick-your-own fruit and hay rides to their pumpkin patch. The new website also offers festival and event schedules.

Another cool feature of the Applecrest website is the ability to buy gift packages of apples online and have them shipped to a friend, business associate or family member. This would be great for a transplanted New Englander. They hand select each item for the gift basket. To top it off, they add a handwritten card to accompany the package. It’s sweet. Go pick some apples next fall and check out the site and let us know what you think!

It can be tough to come up with unique ideas for client holiday gifts. We’ve sent North Face fleece shirts, hosted parties, created custom designed posters, and even hand painted ornaments in years past. To thank our clients this year – and show them we appreciate working on their branding, websites, and other marketing projects – we tried to create a fun, memorable holiday gift.

We listen to music every day, so we shared some of our favorite songs with our clients on a mix cd. (Sounds kind of uh, frugal, we know.) But this project gave us a chance to stay within a budget, share our creativity, and give our clients something besides a jumbo tin of assorted flavored popcorn.

We settled on a theme of “A Vital Mixer” – a virtual cocktail party for our clients. We carried this “mixer” theme across the gift packages by compiling some of our favorite cocktail recipes from each team member, creating printed recipe cards for the cocktails, and developing a Web page where they could download drink recipes and share their own.

Here’s the CD cover:

We packaged the Vital Mixer CD with printed recipe cards. (It’s not too late to ring in 2010 and download all the cocktail recipe cards. Cheers!)

We then mailed out the packages, publicized the virtual cocktail party with social media by tweeting and Facebooking links to the online party. We also sent an email marketing piece. This type of multi-faceted marketing effort is genuinely fun and exciting for us. We love to bring several elements together under a single theme.

See what we just did there? We created a product, in this case the recipe card and music, that was packaged in real life and online. We were hoping this would do a few things for us:

1. Show our clients we appreciate them.

2. Build our brand as a creative, fun marketing company.

3. Create a community-oriented online destination to welcome our clients.

4. Drive traffic to our site.

5. Showcase a few of the services we offer in one marketing campaign – design, email marketing, web development, merchandising, social media.

The concept of the actual graphic design was to channel the glam of a ’60s cocktail party mixed – or perhaps shaken and strain over ice – with the charm of holidays spent fireside with Bing and Perry. Early in the process, we looked to Christmas albums of yore for inspiration:

There were no stock photos that met our standards, so we held our own photo shoot. I got a few curious looks as I walked down the hall with a martini shaker at 3 p.m., but we think the result was worth it. Take a look at the original photo before we adjusted the color and added texture.

We’ve received lots of positive responses from clients, who say it was a unique, fun package to receive in the mail. It makes us glad we didn’t send another tin of popcorn.

There’s nothing more frustrating than filling out an Adobe PDF form then realizing you can’t save it.

Recently, one of our clients had this problem on a PDF form we’d created for him. It seems like a hiccup that should have an easy fix. But the link that should explain it on Adobe’s site was broken. (They’ve since fixed it.) But you know when we find a good solution, we try to share it. (See posts like, “Creating a Facebook Page With Custom HTML” or a “How to Rotate Photoshop Brushes.” )

After testing the template several times internally, we delivered the branded, updateable document and our client tried it out too. He was psyched. But when it came time to save a new proposal, he couldn’t save a copy of the template with his new data entered. Here is how we were able to set up his document so he could save form data – complete with colorful, easy to follow graphics:

These few short steps will enable you to save an Adobe Acrobat form in Adobe Acrobat Pro so users fill out forms and save their entered data in Adobe Reader.

1. Open your doc in Adobe Acrobat Pro.

2. Under “Advanced” on the tool bar, click “Enable Usage Rights in Adobe Reader…”

3. Click “Save Now” and save your document with a different name.

4. Close the existing document and open the new one that you just saved.

Now you too can set up Adobe PDF forms in Adobe Acrobat Professional so people with Adobe Acrobat Reader will be able to actually save them!

As you all know, social media is exploding. Almost everyone has either a Facebook, Twitter (although my wife may think it’s stupid), and/or LinkedIn account, if not all three. YouTube is becoming an everyday resource for tutorials etc. If you still think this social media thing is just a fad, you may be surprised to learn that in January UNH will offer it’s first Social Media course.

Facebook is kind of a big deal, and surprisingly enough the fastest growing demographic of Facebook users is those 35 years old and older. What started as a platform for students to communicate, has evolved into a highly sophisticated marketing tool with more than 300 million users worldwide. Major companies are taking notice, and it’s showing up everywhere. The other night I noticed that Honda is using their Fan page url, facebook.com/honda, in commercials rather than www.honda.com. It’s an interesting concept. Honda is trying to get their customers to build strength in the Honda brand socially through, “The Experiment.” A project attempting to prove that, “Everybody knows somebody who loves a Honda.” Seeing if we can all be connected through Honda Love.

Other companies like Walgreens, Coca-Cola, and Red Bull are using it too. It makes sense, go to where your customers are rather than making them come to you. There are 128,940,004 daily users already familiar with the Facebook functionality, becoming a fan of your company is just a click away.

So you have a Facebook page, you picked a custom Facebook URL and have started to add content. But your page is still just a Facebook page with your content, and not nearly as impressive as Coca-Cola’s customized page.

How do you create a custom Facebook page?

Static FBML is a Facebook application that allows you to add custom HTML code to your Fan Page giving you the ability to brand the page or pages however you want. Ideally, a professional looking custom designed and developed landing page will make the viewer want to become a fan of your business.

In this tutorial you’ll learn how to add the Static FBML application to your page. How to set up your code so it works correctly. And how to set your new page as the default landing page for visitors, rather than your wall.

Here’s what you do…

Go to www.facebook.com and Login to your Facebook account.

At the bottom left of your screen click Applications.

Then click on Browse More Applications.

In the search box type in Static FBML.

Click on Static FBML.

Once on the Static FBML page, click Add to my Page select your page from the menu by clicking Add to Page.

Next, return to the Fan Page you are editing and go to the wall. Click Edit Page from the options under the logo/image box.

Scroll down to the FBML application, and select Edit.

This should bring you to a page that has two empty boxes. In the Box Title field, enter the name you want to display on your new tab. In the larger box, paste in your HTML code. When you are done click on Save Changes.

NOTE: The code should be from opening to closing div or table tag and contain no opening or closing body or HTML tags. Image/flash files etc. need to contain the full url and all styles need to be inline.

Setting Your New Page as the Default Landing Page

Go back to the Wall of the Fan page you are working on. Click Options, and then click Settings.

In the “Default Landing Tab for Everyone Else:” option, select the tab that you have just created.

That’s pretty much it. Log out of Facebook, go back to the Facebook Fan Page you just created to see how everyone else will view it. And remember, if all else fails… we can do it all for you! Contact us to learn more.