As more and more businesses establish their presence on social media, it becomes harder and harder to stand out from the crowd and make your message heard. One way to connect with users in your target audience is to use hashtags so that your posts and updates show up when users search for content in your niche.

Hashtags became very popular on Twitter, but they can also be used on Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn. Learning how to use hashtags appropriately can help you to get more followers and more exposure for your brand, leading to more traffic and more sales and conversions. Here are 5 tips for how you can use hashtags more effectively to promote your business:

Use the Right Keywords

Whatever words you use in your hashtags are what people are going to use to find your content. You need to be sure they are the keywords that your target audience is going to use, not just the keywords that might be popular at the moment.

You should already have done your keyword research for your blog and your website. Use these same keywords in your hashtags to attract the audience you want to follow you.

Be Specific

It is tempting to use general and all-inclusive hashtags to attract a wide audience to your posts. However, using these types of tags will only include your posts in a sea of disparate and unrelated content that your target audience may not find interesting and that will make it harder for them to find your content.

Instead of using tags like #car, use #vintagecar or #mercedes. Instead of using tags like #socialmedia, use #socialmediamarketing or #twittertips. Always choose to be specific to set yourself apart from your competition and to attract your target audience.

Use Capitals to Separate Words

Some hashtags can become very long. Tags like #youonlyliveonce or #firstworldproblems that have become so popular are also very long and may be hard to read. When you use long tags like this or those that you have made up, use capital letters to separate the words so that users can read them more clearly.

Instead of writing #bigbusinesssolutionsforsmallbusiness, you would write #BigBusinessSolutionsForSmallBusiness. This is especially useful if you want the tag to catch on and encourage others to use it.

Explore How Others Use a Tag

When you start using a hashtag, check out how other users in your niche are also using it. You may find that there are variations or related hashtags that your audience is also using that can get you more traffic. For example, if you use #SEO or #searchengineoptimization, you will find that others are also using #SEM or #searchenginemarketing.

Using these additional tags can get your more notice with your target audience by using terms that they might also be searching for in posts.

Create Your Own Hashtags

Hashtags are a great way to start a conversation with followers. If you create your own hashtag and promote it, you can hold an online Twitter party or discussion by asking everyone who joins to use the hashtag so that users can follow along on the conversation. A participant only has to click on the hashtag to pull up all the posts associated with it.

Creating your own hashtag like this is great for a promotional campaign, contest, discussion or poll with your readers. When everyone starts using it, it becomes free publicity for you as the host.

Using hashtags is useful for more than looking cool and plugged in on social media. If you use hashtags the right way, you can get more followers on your social media and more exposure for your brand. Use these tips to use hashtags effectively and start getting more out of your social media marketing campaign.

What other ways do you use hashtags on your social media? Share your tips in the comments!

About the Author

Chloe Trogden is a researcher focusing on free grants for college who writes on specific opportunities such as nursing student grants. Her leisure activities include camping, swimming and playing her guitar.

It’s a harsh reality: When it comes to email marketing, customers hold all the cards.

If they develop distrust in your “from” line, there’s nothing you can do to get them to open.

Worse yet, if they ignore your messages over the long haul or label your email as spam, it’ll hurt your future deliverability to other customers.

Here are the top 7 email sins that will tick customers off:

Forgetfulness

You can’t let the thought creep into customers’ heads that your company has forgotten who they are or what they like.

You’ve got to create a great customer experience, and that requires including some personalized info in emails. That doesn’t just mean using customers’ names. They need to see that you remember what they like and that you tailor messages to their preferences.

It’s also critical you not stray from what you originally promised when your customer signed up. You must be consistent, but not unoriginal, about the type and frequency of content your customer signed up for in the first place.

Greed

Has your send frequency increased over time? If so, is that in keeping with what customers originally signed on for?

Resist the temptation to go overboard. It’s only natural to want to expand your email program once it starts delivering results.

But don’t get greedy.

When customers first opted in, you may have promised delivery once a week or to only send them important updates. It’s quite a breach of the agreement to suddenly increase your frequency.

It’s therefore crucial that you do not ramp up your send frequency significantly and without warning.

At the very least, if you decide to expand your email program, send out a preliminary email explaining what customers will receive moving forward – and when. Also, be sure to include an option allowing them to adjust their email preferences.

Selfishness

The business emails that get marked “spam” most often are those that start out promising educational information but end up delivering hard sell after hard sell.

If you write your email in the “always be closing” sales mindset, customers will drop off of your list.

Each of your messages should contain some type of useful content for the recipient.

Irrelevance

It’s easy to fall into the trap of sticking to a merchandising or editorial calendar so vigorously that you end up ignoring what customers’ preferences actually are.

When in the trap, you may forget that a customer’s already purchased the product you’re touting or that they have no interest in it.

A recent study by ExactTarget revealed that of customers who’ve unsubscribed from permission-based emails, 25% did so because the content wasn’t relevant to them, making it one of the top reasons customers unsubscribe (behind frequency and repetitive/boring content).

Uncleanliness

Dirty email lists lead to deliverability problems. If you’re not removing inactive subscribers or processing opt-outs, it’s hurting your Sender Score.

Mail servers will look at your Sender Score before determining what to do with your email. If yours is low, mail servers won’t deliver your email to the inbox.

Of course, processing opt-outs should be a given. But deciding what to do with inactive subscribers is a different animal altogether.

There may be people on that list who could still turn into paying customers, so it’s understandable that you don’t want to just throw those addresses away.

So what should you do? Scrub them from your primary list and create a secondary email database to which you send a reactivation campaign. During that campaign, spell out reasons why they should reengage with your email.

If they still fail to become active, it’s time to let them go.

Laziness

When your email program is finally chugging along, making a decent ROI, that means you’ve found the right formula for your list and for writing good email copy. Now you should just ride the wave until it comes to a stop, right? Wrong.

You need to  willing to constantly reinvent yourself. If you keep doing the same things over and over, customers will eventually get bored and either become inactive or unsubscribe.

Keep testing, researching and trying new things – even if you’re just experimenting with a small sampling of your email database.

Ugliness

Here’s an important hint that can save you unnecessary email “turnoffs.” Always test your images and formatting to see that they render correctly before hitting “send.” You should test your email on something other than a PC as well, making sure that it works properly on every kind of device from Macs to smartphones and tablets. It’s worth the step.

Generally speaking, the same content will not work well on every device. You may need to be alter your content, images or layout in some fashion for it to read easily on every type of device.

With email viewing now spread so evenly across all three kinds of devices, it may be time to adopt a responsive email design strategy, which requires the layout/content of your email to adapt to the size of the screen it’s being viewed on.

Christian Schappel writes for Progressive Business as Editor-in-Chief of Customer Experience Insight, a new resource for sales, marketing, and service professionals to optimize the customer experience.

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”   -Stephen King

To be a good writer is to be a good reader. I am amazed at the number of people I meet who have no education or writing background – let alone reading experience — who think they can write a book! Most talented writers are talented even without an education, but I have never met a good writer who wasn’t also educated about (addicted to) the written word.  Are you an aspiring writer with no major reading behind you? Here is your primer. With that being said, there are hundreds — even thousands — of other books you can read to expand your vocabulary, mind, and general knowledge.

Pride and Prejudice

Nothing irks me more than when men scoff at the idea of reading this revered piece of English literature. Yes, it’s about a rich aristocrat and a young woman from a mouthy lower middle class family. Yes, there is a very famous BBC series that tells the story of Mr. Darcy and Miss Elizabeth Bennet, and yes, it features Colin Firth in a very wet, very 18th century button-down shirt after a quick dip in the lake. Sigh. The story is also about — not surprisingly — pride and prejudice. It manages to include themes that relate to social standing, vanity, love, conflict, family, and First Impressions — which was actually its original title. Like a good movie (for those of you who watch more than read), you notice new details and conjure new emotions each time you revisit it. That’s the truth; a truly good book changes each time your reread it. You didn’t know that? Now you do. That Jane Austen knew what she was doing.

Cool word of interest:  solicitude (Look these up!)

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Like several great novels, this one begins with an orphan. He also happens to have a scar. A pretty freaky power-hungry nemesis. A ginger BFF and a bucktoothed gal pal (Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, respectively). This is the first novel of a series that taught children (and adults, for that matter) to fall in love with books again, even in the age of video games and virtual insanity. It made a couple of bucks at the box office, true, but before the films, it taught millions of voracious readers about the power of friendship, family, politics, oppression, life, death, sacrifice and, most of all, the power of choice. You go, J. K. Rowling! The fact that I have a Harry Potter-themed bathroom is probably better off unmentioned, but that shows the power of the written word.

Cool word of interest:  wizened

The Stranger

Get your dose of philosophy! I was assigned this novel in my sophomore year of high school, and once I read it, I never looked at life quite the same way again. I wrote my honors English paper on the themes in this novel (by Albert Camus) and again explored it in college undergrad. Some of the topics may not appeal to all, but they are intriguing to explore, from the meaningless of human life to themes of death, Christianity, observation, and the absurd. I will never forget the first line or the last. But I’ll save those for you to enjoy, particularly the last, which I wouldn’t want to ruin for you. It still hits me hard every time I read it. Point blank? Camus was brilliant, and you will feel your world opening wider when you read his work. Also see: The Plague, The Rebel, The Fall and the philosophical essay The Myth of Sisyphus.

Cool word of interest:  gesticulate

The Great Gatsby

“Who is this Gatsby?” The decadence of the Roaring Twenties seeps out of this superbly-executed novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald in such a way that you feel like you have entered his fictional world. Class, greed, the past, and the future are all in play in this crazy ride of booze, babes, and unrequited feelings gone bad. Get the tissues ready and be prepared to think about your first love when you crack open this bad boy. Shake up a gin martini or a touch of champagne while you’re at it, because tragedy is imminent. If absinthe is available, try that. The green fairy makes an appearance in this color-heavy text, as do plenty of opulent references to summer partying and expensive shirts. Indulge in the Jazz Age and read one of the best modernist novels ever written. But don’t let the eyes of eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg linger on you for too long…

Cool word of interest: somnambulatory

The Rum Diary

Most writers would choose the more obvious Slaughterhouse-Five or Catch-22 as novels that defined the 1950′s and 1960′s, but I chose this for its beautiful simplicity. By gonzo author and Playboy and Rolling Stone contributor Hunter S. Thompson, more famously known for the insanity and debauchery of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, this second novel from HST wasn’t published until 1998 and is most certainly pre-gonzo. Partially autobiographical, the story follows a writer who is looking for work at a lousy newspaper in Puerto Rico and encounters a wide variety of characters, mostly fueled on booze as opposed to ether, coke and the other drugs of choice in Thompson’s later novels. This one is more pure, honest and simple. It’s a modern novel that conjures the world of greats like Ernest Hemingway and the imagery of Fitzgerald (in this case, crappy hotels, beautiful beaches and ramshackle bars). In fact, it is said that HST actually typed up the entirety of The Great Gatsby to get a feel for the words of a master. The Rum Diary serves as a splashy option for the curious reading novice. Don’t miss the party dance scene; it’s definitely a powerful trigger for anyone with a visual imagination. Simplicity in text allows a reader to create their own imagery, and that is an important lesson for any would-be writer.

Cool word of interest: slovenly

Great Expectations

Like Harry Potter after him, Pip is a boy who finds himself going from an unappreciated ‘nobody’ to a character everyone knows. Once again, social standing and class are prevalent themes, as are ambition, crime, love – and its damaging qualities – wealth, and the loss of innocence. At once a love story (with a cold-hearted temptress), a detective story (Who is providing the dough?) and a descriptive jewel (Miss Havisham’s house alone will have your mind disturbed and enchanted), this novel brings London and the natural beauty of the marshes of Kent to miraculous life in one’s imagination. Remember: Appearances are deceiving. 

Cool word of interest:  ignominiously

Lord of the Flies

Civilized young boys turn savage when they are stranded on an island and forced to fight for food, friends and survival in this allegorical work from author William Golding. Themes include the power struggle towards leadership and –once again!– the loss of innocence. Conflict is explored deeply in this text, forcing a reader to look at their personal beliefs and motivations. The young men in this novel have to grow up too quickly — resulting in some disastrous consequences. Lord of the Flies illustrates the ability of any person to turn to evil, conjuring emotions and experiences of World War II and the true nature of humankind.

Cool word of interest:  ebullient

Spoiler alert regarding the word above: It doesn’t last!

What novel do you think every writer should read? Let me know in the comments!

In a short amount of time, websites have come quite a long way.  At one point in time, websites were thought to be just a small business or corporation enhancement. Currently, websites have become a vital part to the host’s success. This has come to such a point where websites could actually affect sales and even make or break the companies behind it. With this in mind, businesses by the thousands are armed with tools for search engine optimization, engaging in a battle that is no-holds barred in order to score the spot which is much-coveted: the top of a search engine’s list of results. With competition at this level, search engine optimization can be boosted and increasing your website’s traffic can be accomplished by following these 4 awesome traffic building strategies.

Get a Great SEO Strategy

You will need a great strategy for getting the correct keywords to increase your site’s traffic. Unlike owners of small businesses that do not make considerations of which keywords they need to use until later on, you will most likely rank higher if you have a better defined, keyword-rich site full of phrases that your customers are looking for. Making a decision about what audience you are attempting to attract and actually using words they search for is the first step. You will be able to find out how effective your keywords are through the use of online tools that you can find online. These tools tell you how frequently phrases and words are used in searches.

Use Keywords Sparingly

You will also be able to gain more traffic when you moderately rather than profusely use keywords. At one time, saturating your site with phrases and keywords guaranteed higher ranking. These days however, oversaturated sites with no quality content are not recommended. This is why using keywords in the appropriate fashion and not too often is important. Using synonyms which are considered to be good matches for researched keywords will be something that search engines will like.  You can use keywords liberally in photo captions and link titles as well, as these won’t count in the search engine.

Do Frequent Updates

Frequently updating your website is another method of driving heavy traffic your way. It is of course important that new visitors are attracted to your site. More importantly, however, it is much more worthwhile to create a website that keeps people coming back for more of what you have to offer. Featuring an events calendar, a news feature or a blog that is updated frequently is important. Updating content continuously adds points and you will score high with engines for searching. This is mainly due to the fact that websites that have been updated recently are up closer to the higher ranking results of your search. Getting a logging program from the web and finding out who the guests of your site is as well as where they are located geographically will give you great clues on the next steps to take.

Be Search Engine Friendly

To increase traffic, you need to keep your site search engine-friendly. Before they include your website to the results, typically search engines will do a data collection analysis that web ‘spiders’ will collect. These check the internet through policing websites and when they find hard-to-navigate infrastructure, outdated information or broken links, websites get a lower rating and because of this you will poorly rank in the search results. Through creating a spider-friendly website, you will become more visible as a result, rank highly and increase traffic. Ensure that links are included in each page to all other website pages including site maps to ensure ease for spiders of search engines to catalogue and explore the content of your website.

Use these easy strategies to help attract traffic to your website.

About the Author

This post was contributed by Mark Jones of OSI Affiliate Software. Another great way to increase traffic is by getting an affiliate program. You can learn more about the best affiliate tracking software by visiting OSI Affiliate Software.

Understanding the differences between B2B and B2C marketing strategies often helps make sure you’re following the correct route, and copywriting is no exception. It can be tough to differentiate the two when you’re focusing on a million different aspects of your company, but making sure that you write in a way that benefits your audience most is incredibly crucial to your success. To go back to the basics, below are two rough definitions of the two types of businesses:

• Business to Consumer/Community (B2C). These customers are completely in control of what they are going to buy, so it’s simple: learn about the product or service, make a decision, and buy.
• Business to Business (B2B). These customers are typically buying on behalf of a business or for a business, which means more than one person may be involved. These customers usually take longer to make a decision, and what they buy is typically a bigger, more long-term purchase than that of a B2C customer.

Regardless of how wonderful your copywriting may be, it won’t matter much if it’s written to the wrong audience. Once you determine on which type of business your company needs to focus its marketing efforts, you have to ask the questions: How do I cater my copywriting to that specific audience, and what difference does it make?

The Differences Between B2C and B2C Copywriting 

Understanding the differences in copywriting for these two types of businesses means understanding your audience and understanding their buying needs and decision process. After you know what type of business your company is targeting, ask these questions about your copywriting:

• What should the tone of my article or articles be?

B2C: A lighter and usually shorter tone works great for B2C customers. They are going to act on impulse or based on their emotions, so keep them engaged and interested through a light-hearted tone.

B2B: A professional tone that focuses on the growth of a business works best with this type. These customers put a lot of thought into a purchase, so they take what you say very seriously.

• How many people am I writing to in the article?

B2C: This is usually a one-person operation. Write to one person and know that if you capture that one person, you’re probably set.

B2B: You’re almost always writing to more than one person. Many B2B decisions are made as a group, so make sure you appeal to people in all different departments, in all different points of the buying cycle.

• What emotions should I try to appeal to most?

B2C: Create something engaging and interesting for your B2C customers. If you craft a piece of copywriting that pulls at the heart strings or makes someone laugh, he or she may be more inclined to just go for it.

B2B: You want to focus on the logical. A B2B audience makes a decision based on factors such as increasing productivity, profitability, and how to reduce costs. It’s not necessary to write something overly witty and creative—just get to the facts.

• Where should I send out my message?

B2C: Social media is great for B2C. It’s quick, easy, and used by most on a personal level, as opposed to just for professional purposes.

B2B: In general, you want to get your message to the eyes of a department head as opposed to whoever is manning the social media accounts. You may want to send a direct message or focus on email marketing as a way to get ahold of those in charge.

It’s also important to understand that a company may need to appeal to both a B2B and a B2C audience. However, this does not mean that you need only one copywriting strategy. You need to have two different approaches and usually work twice as hard if you want to be successful.

So What Difference Does It Make?

How you write an article makes a difference because both types of companies rely on a customer reading and learning about a product or service. One of the most important things that the two have in common is that people who need to make a decision are reading them. Content is one of the only things that a company has when it comes to keeping someone involved, so the content should be exactly the type of content that person needs. You have the tools to analyze and understand your audience, so why wouldn’t you want to make your copywriting perfect?

Do you have any more tips regarding B2B and B2C copywriting? Do you have a story about mixing up the methods for your company? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

About the Author

Amanda DiSilvestro gives small business and entrepreneurs SEO advice ranging from keyword density to recovering from algorithm updates. She writes for HigherVisibility, a nationally recognized SEO firm that offers national and local SEO service to a wide range of companies across the country.

Do Business Well and Prosper.

We all want to do better business, and sometimes inspiration comes from unlikely sources. Children (and even pets) inspire some bloggers to identify the simple do’s and don’ts in life that relate to good business, but as I personally don’t have children or pets, I’d like to explore the world of Star Trek. It’s certainly less of a mess than a toddler or a puppy!

Simply said, anyone who says TV “rots your brains” has obviously been watching the wrong shows the past 40+ years. Keep reading to find out how Star Trek lessons can inspire a business’s leadership, strategy, ethics, and other positive forces for the greater good to…

…go boldly where no man (or woman) has gone before.

Leadership.

Focus on the mission at hand by working effectively as a team. One of the biggest problems in any professional relationship is lack of communication. If team members aren’t aware of their exact roles and expectations — basically, on the same page — disaster may be looming, especially for a small business operation. Keep the enterprise at its best by leading the way without squandering talent. Mind-meld, i.e., have a deep understanding of the people who work with and for you to make great things happen for your valuable business… and your valuable employees.

Ethics.

Ethics is not a throwaway term. Be aware of your behavior at all times, because people are taking cues from you. Star Trek crews were brave, principled, and self-sacrificing groups of unique individuals who had true moral compasses and didn’t throw each other under the bus. Simply put, they had each other’s backs. Set the example and watch your valued team members follow in your footsteps. If you set a positive example, you never know who will follow — but it will probably be the right people. Don’t miss this important opportunity to build and mold your team, and thus your business.

Diversity.

Black, white, blind, android, Klingon? You’re all welcome here, so to speak (though I highly doubt you’re hiring any green aliens at this time). Leading a business with people of different ages, races, genders, and backgrounds makes for an interesting dynamic that allows everyone to learn from one another. Ensure that every team member brings something to the table, and consider diversity training to emphasize each employee’s value to the company. Diversity also promotes other positive workplace attributes, such as inclusion and respect for co-workers.

Energize and Engage.

Motivate others and practice thought leadership whenever and wherever possible. Employees don’t come to work energized unless they are working on projects that matter and projects they care about. Socialize with the team outside of work. Ask for a second opinion. These may seem like minor details, but they make all the difference between a happy employee and a disgruntled employee. Engage your team and make every day better than the last, creating an office environment that everyone is excited to walk into every day.

Do What You Love!

If your business isn’t bringing you joy and causes you nothing but heartache, why are you doing it? Once in a while, you have to sacrifice the ensign to save the ship. If you really want to get ahead, you have to take chances and be passionate about moving forward, or you just end up falling behind. View the video below, where Picard is forced to dig (and look) a little deeper:

Have you learned any lessons from film or television that you can implement in your business? Any Trekkies who can add their two cents to this post? Let me know in the comments!

Google Analytics is a vast and powerful tool that allows you to track the effectiveness of your website in a range of invaluable ways. You can see where web-users enter and exit, what paths they follow, and where they come from in the first place. Information garnered via Google Analytics allows you to break your site into specific components, establishing which are most effective and which need work. If your business relies on the Internet – whether for making sales, providing clients with information or as a marketing tool – then Google Analytics is for you.

Initially introduced to developers, Google Analytics is now an indispensable tool for anyone engaged with the web as a marketing tool. You have specific goals for your site – whether it’s sales, data entry or subscription. Google Analytics can help you meet those goals. Once you have a clear understanding of how web users navigate your site, you can help to steer them in the right direction. Effective internet marketing is about providing an online service in the most intuitive way. Whether this means organizing your website to provide information quickly or simply providing clearer directions from product to checkout depends on your marketing goals.

Getting Started

Anyone can set up a Google Analytics account. It’s free, easy to use and there is plenty of great information to help you take your first steps. Check out this analytics guide for small businesses for a thorough Analytics run through, but in the meantime, read on to get started.

What To Track

One of the more intimidating aspects of setting up a GA account is the sheer amount of information analytics can provide. It’s a vast and sprawling application and the key to putting it to good use is to know which statistics are most important to you and your site. Here are a few great places to start, particularly for those with marketing strategies in mind.

• Bounce Rates

Each page of your site will have a ‘bounce rate:’ the percentage of visitors who leave without clicking on any further links. There are a number of reasons for this.

Firstly, they were misdirected and yours was not the site they were looking for, in which case you might want to investigate which search terms most frequently lead users to your site and adjust your content to include more relevant keywords—analytics can also provide helpful statistics on keywords.

Secondly, the site does not provide clear direction. Information is received too slowly or pathways to further pages/products are not effectively signposted. If this is your diagnosis, you should begin to look for creative ways to enhance the intuitive usability of each page.

• Conversions

A conversion rate is the percentage of visitors to complete a goal for a particular site or page. For example, a user signs up for your newsletter if that’s the goal of your particular page. A conversion doesn’t have to be a sale. With Google Analytics you can set the terms for your own goals and monitor the success of your site accordingly. See this beginners’ guide to conversion rates for more information.

• Social Media Links

GA also allows you to see where your traffic comes from, whether it’s search engines, links on other sites or through social media channels. Social media is a powerful resource when it comes to directing more users to your site. Most businesses will have within their marketing plans a strategy targeting social media specifically. Google Analytics allows you to see how effective your current strategies are and make amends, accordingly.

Moving Forward With Customizations

Once you have the basics down, you’ll soon discover the vast potential of analytics for receiving customized data about your website, allowing you to develop a made-to-measure marketing strategy.

About the Author

Rob Toledo is a common Seattle stereotype, with a love of rain, coffee and high tech gadgets. He works at Distilled as a marketing coordinator. He can be reached on Twitter @stentontoledo or on Google+.

Responsive web design is one of the hottest topics in Internet marketing — and for once, the reality lives up to the hype.

In brief, responsive web design allows your website to recognize what type of device is being used to access it, and then displays your site in a format best suited to the device being used.

The huge benefit of responsive design is enhancing the user experience: mobile phone and tablet users will be able to view your site with less horizontal scrolling, less need of resizing and greater ease of navigation. This adds up to:

• More visits to your site
• Longer visits to your site
• More positive experiences on your site

How important is mobile user experience? By 2015, the mobile web will be bigger than the desktop web. No business can afford to neglect mobile users.

Example of Responsive Web Design

Here’s a site we did recently for Adjustable Forms, a concrete contractor. This is how the site’s home page looks on my desktop:

Responsive Design - Desktop View

And this is how the home page looks on my iPhone:

Responsive Design - iPhone View

Notice how the mobile layout fits perfectly on my narrower iPhone screen, and how horizontally compact the navigation is. If you’ve ever used your mobile phone to navigate around a site without responsive design, you’ll appreciate how easy Adjustable Forms is making your life.

The Need for Responsive Web Design Is Everywhere

Some firms we talk to — particularly in B2B — are reluctant to bother with responsive design, based on the assumption that their customers work exclusively or almost exclusively from desktops.

This can be a dangerous assumption. Adjustable Forms, as industrial and old-school as a business can be, recognized that its customers need to access its site from a building site or a vehicle.

Similarly, when I attended one of the world’s largest packaging industry shows last fall, I was struck by how many conventioneers were using tablets and mobile phones to share information on their websites.

If manufacturers of concrete and packaging equipment see the need for responsive design, don’t underestimate your own situation. Today’s web users behave a lot differently than they did even a year ago.

How Much Does Responsive Design Cost?

Responsive design requires additional work at both the design and programming stages of a website development project; the amount of additional time varies depending on the complexity and size of the site. However, whether the cost increase is moderate or more than double, it’s money well spent if it attracts sizable new traffic and enables your existing users to continue having a positive experience as they transition to mobile web access.

In some cases, firms believe so strongly in the mobile web that they invest in a separate mobile-specific site. This can be a smart option, especially for restaurants and similar consumer businesses, but in general, a mobile-specific site will be much more costly and is probably overkill.

Questions?
If you’d like more information about responsive design, shoot us an email or contact us via phone to talk to one of our specialists.

What have you heard about viral email?

Was it that it is obnoxious?

Similar to an actual virus?

The most horrific means of communication in known history?

Save the drama for your mama, folks.

We aren’t talking about an ex, we’re talking about a means to an end. Traditional pass-along emails don’t have to be an outdated and scary thing of the past. The truth is, viral emails are a very effective way to engage potential consumers and to promote a product or service, whether it is through a captivating video or an infographic with statistics that actually mean a lot to a variety of people.

Erm…..what is a viral email?

A viral email is a message that gets sent along in a very word-of-mouth manner when people forward it on to friends and family. Viral marketing benefits from emails that “go viral”, meaning that they are circulated, sometimes even enjoying international success.

Not every email is created equal, but a successful viral email is one that is memorable. Can you recall each and every one of the chain letter emails you’ve received over the past 10 years? You know, those emails you were told to send on to 10 friends … we hope you did that. You don’t want 7 years of bad luck now, do you?

Let’s be serious… Is there one viral email that stands out in the pack? One you truly remember with complete clarity? And how exactly does an email truly “go viral”?

Research.

What kind of email would benefit your cause or company the most? Are you a fun company that is motivated enough to attempt to create a video that will go viral overnight, or do you simply want to share a video that will encourage others to pass it along? Perhaps your company has a short-term deal that needs to be circulated. That requires a simple call to action and an attractive graphic to garner the attention of customers. Know your audience, then get to work.

Give the people what they want.

Don’t create unnecessary content or wordy text that potential customers will have to struggle to decipher. Give the people what they need instead of what you think they want. Provide a way for the people to connect with your company, whether it is a phone number at the foot of the email, an email address with an arrow (again, make everything as clear and easy as possible) or links to your social media pages. A call to action that says ‘Do Business with Us!’ or ‘Ask a Question’ will facilitate discussion.

Timing is Everything

Conduct time tests to see what time of the day/day of the week is the best for sending out your email. Every industry is different in terms of how and when business is done, so testing is vital. How frequently you send out information is another important consideration; too many emails can potentially annoy the recipient and lead to someone hitting the UNSUBSCRIBE button. Consider the information and how you can provide it most effectively, whether it is once a week on a specific day at 9AM or twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Is your info time-sensitive? Consider all details before pulling the trigger on your viral email plan.

Still skeptical? What questions do you have about viral email marketing campaigns? Let me know in the comments!

When I started at buuteeq back in December of 2010, I was a successful video editor. I didn’t know a lick about SEO. Three years later, I’m now the technical marketing manager for the company, in charge of our SEO, SEM and anything else that vaguely falls under ‘technical’. It’s has been an amazing adventure to learn what I have over these few years, and to see my efforts pay off.

Part of my strategy has been guest blogging. Yes, I know, old hat, but I’m frustrated, because so many people do it wrong. You see, I manage our company’s blog, and I am inundated with requests from SEOs who want to post guest blogs. Almost all of them are so feeble that I get offended. It’s the sheer laziness of some SEOs that ruffle my feathers. Do they not think I’m a real person? Am I not worth their infinitely more valuable time that they take such little care when mailing me? Balderdash. Guest blogging is an effective SEO strategy, but only when you treat blog owners with respect, and their readers with enough respect that you actually craft something worth reading.

If you want to pitch someone your awesome guest post, follow these five rules. Or else.

Be Personable and Genuine

Internet savvy people can smell a BSer from a mile away. Have you ever gotten an email from a long lost acquaintance you don’t remember who’s stranded in Nigeria and desperately needs you to send them $500 via Western Union so that they can escape the greedy custom agents who are holding them for ransom, written in terrible English? That’s exactly what you sound like when you send someone an email that looks like this:

“Hello <insert name of blog here>, I really enjoy the rich content your blog has. I find it very actionable. I really enjoyed <insert title of latest blog post here>. By the way, I’m interested in posting an article on your blog on how awesome keyword stuffing is. Will you post it for me? Thanks!

-Random Jack”

Don’t be that guy. Just be yourself.

• Actually read some of the posts on the blog, from start to finish. This will give you a feel for the blog and the kind of content they are looking for.
• Don’t sugar-coat the reason for contacting them. We all know you want backlinks. I know it, the blog owner knows it, and the readers know it. And that’s ok. As long as you provide genuine, high quality content, no one cares.
• Greet the person by first name, if you can find it. It usually isn’t that hard. Scroll down to the ‘about’ or ‘contact’ sections of the website, or find the author profile of the primary contributor. If you don’t have the time to find out the person’s first name, why should they bother with you?
• Tell them how you found them. Explain why you think your article would be a good fit. Don’t just go straight to the pitch with your clammy hands, do some flirting first, bub.

Write Something Worth Reading

Don’t just rewrite a “10 things that have changed since Penguin” post or, “The ultimate guide to SEO”. Write something you have never written before, something that comes from personal experience. You’ll find that this will actually make your job easier. It’s easier and much more fun to write about something you’re passionate and knowledgeable about, rather than something that is vaguely related to the blog’s topic. If what you wright wouldn’t hold your own attention, don’t pitch it.

Don’t Fret Word Lengths

If you’re continuously scanning the word counter in Word, then you’re doing it wrong. The point is not to reach the 5-700 word limit for the guest post, and if that’s you’re aim, then it’s going to be a long, frustrating job writing the article. Instead, ignore the word limit, if any guidance is given, and write as much as you feel like. You’ll probably meet or exceed the word limit in no time, if you know your topic. If you can’t find enough to say that meets the word limit, then you probably shouldn’t be writing about it.

Don’t Force a Backlink

Look, this isn’t your grandpa’s SEO anymore. The hard and fast rules of guest blogging for SEO aren’t hard and fast anymore. Don’t worry about the anchor text for your backlinks. If all your anchor text looks the same, Google will sniff you out and catch you. Just include a link back to your website using you brand name, or simply the word ‘here’. True, it’s safe to have a few keyword optimized anchor text backlinks within the link profile of your domain, and true, they can help, but if you get too many in there, webmaster tools might start shouting at you. And no one wants that. Just link to your website where it makes sense in the article, or even in the author bio, and you’re good to go.

Don’t You Dare Half-Ass It

Look, I know it can be tempting to write one kick-ass article, send it off to a blog, and then just rewrite the same article with a few words changed here and there enough to pass a Copyscape scan before sending it off to a slew of other blogs. But Google is more advanced than Copyscape—they can always tell when you’re just writing for the backlink. Just sit down, write something new and do the work.

Don’t Be Lazy

If I had to sum-up this guide in one phrase it would be, ‘Don’t be lazy’. It’s within our nature to find the path of least resistance, to find the easiest way out, and to make less work for ourselves. But we have to resist this urge. Not only will we produce better content, achieve greater success, and establish a stronger reputation, but it’s good for our characters. There are few things in life worth having that are easy to get. If we train ourselves to work hard now when we don’t always have to, we won’t bat an eye when we do have to, when our careers depend on working hard, or when our family depends on it.

About the Author

Brandon is the Technical Marketing Manager at buuteeq, the digital marketing system for hotels. He manages buuteeq’s SEO, paid media channels, social outreach, and the company blog. You can connect with him on Twitter @buuteeq.

Brandon is a gentleman and a scholar: