Linkedin Showcase Page Replaces Product Page Tabs

Linkedin has eliminate the ability for users to create product pages in their company profile. While they are still supporting your product tabs you cannot edit or add to them. So you may want to start by creating your products in a showcase format.  First, please review the requirements specifications for creating a Showcase Page below.

LInkedin Showcase page

Requirement and specifications:

You must be a Company Page administrator in order to create a Showcase Page. Other information you’ll need:

• Showcase Page name
• Showcase Page description (75-200 characters)
• Industry
• Name of at least 1 Showcase Page administrator
• Hero Image (recommended)

Learn more about the specifications for the elements of a Showcase Page.

If you’re an admin of the parent Company Page, here’s how you can create a child Showcase Page:

1. Click the down arrow next to the blue Edit button on the Company Page
2. Select Create a Showcase Page.
3. Enter a page name and assign administrators for the Showcase Page.
   • You must be a 1st degree connection in order to assign someone as a Showcase Page administrator.
4. Click Create.
   • The page exists and can be edited at this point, but won’t appear in search or in the linked pages shown for your Company Page yet.
5. Either you or the administrators you’ve assigned can finalize the page details, and then clickPublish to make it public.

To get back to your Showcase page, you can search for it from the top of any LinkedIn Page or go to your parent Company Page and select the Showcase page in the page tree along the right rail.

Note: You can create up to 10 Showcase Pages through your Company Page.

Liz Harsch, has been helping small and medium sized businesses make the most of their marketing investments since 1988. Her company, Tailor-Made Advertising is an Authorized SCORE workshop presenter and an awarded Constant Contact Email Marketer and Authorized Local Expert presenting Workshops for Constant Contact, SCORE, SBDC, Metropolitan Water District, multiple Chambers of Commerce, The City of Los Angeles and other Organizations. If you are interested in a quote or more information on a mobile website email us at tmade.mkt@verizon.net.  For more information about Liz or Tailor-Made Advertising, visit tailormadeadvertising.com. To schedule Liz Harsch as a speaker on Traditional and Online Marketing, Social Media, Analytics or Email Marketing for your organization, Email us at tmade.mkt@verizon.net or call us at 310-791-6300.

10 Tips to Mobile Website Design

Do you have a mobile website? Do you need one? Before you answer that, consider these questions for yourself or your target market (the folks you are trying to reach): Do you use your mobile to search for companies or services you need? Are you at home or on the run? How much time do you have when you do that search? How much patience do you have to navigate that website?

Today website traffic has changed and if you have been looking at your results you will have noticed that up to 60% of your audience (and more in some counties) are accessing your website with their mobile device. The younger the target market, the more this is true, but without exception every American demographic is using mobile sites to access more companies every day. So how do you design your mobile friendly website? With your mobile user in mind. Follow these 10 tips:

1. Simplify. Why create a mobile version of your website if you just copy your website? Create a more functional site.

2. At the top and bottom of your site, show a quick button or menu item to view the full site.

3. Keywords are still the key.  So don’t forget to use the 3 keywords you want to be ranked for within your mobile website.

4. Simplify your menu system into the action items that you want your customers or site visitors to use most.

5. Make sure your mobile site is not all graphics as that will not help you with Google search. At the same time, don’t overdo the content, as that will not be a site anyone wants to tackle while in line at the supermarket. The key is balance.

6. Make sure your call to action and any sales or specials are part of that mobile site. People are shopping on their phones and you don’t want to make them work hard to learn you are having a sale.

7. No matter what you sell or offer, it is key that the action you want your visitors to take is a menu item or button on your mobile website. Don’t assume they will click through to your full website to fill out a form without a button to do so.

8. Make sure you add a tag from google analytics to track your mobile website traffic and see how they are using your site.

9. If you have a store, make sure your link to your shopping cart works seamlessly. There are apps that can help so use them. The shopping experience needs to be simple.

10. Get help if you need it. Like your website, this is no place to go cheap. Doing it yourself may be okay but you need fantastic. If you use a service where you drop in your site, consider if that site is implementing these keys and if you need help defining or creating your mobile site, contact a company like mine to give you a quote. It can’t hurt to ask and I guarantee you, we will be providing helpful advice that will ensure you will get better results than non-custom sites offer. In example, these are only 10 items on our 100 item list to make a mobile website work best!

Liz Harsch, has been helping small and medium sized businesses make the most of their marketing investments since 1988. Her company, Tailor-Made Advertising is an Authorized SCORE workshop presenter and an awarded Constant Contact Email Marketer and Authorized Local Expert presenting Workshops for Constant Contact, SCORE, SBDC, Metropolitan Water District, multiple Chambers of Commerce, The City of Los Angeles and other Organizations. If you are interested in a quote or more information on a mobile website email us at tmade.mkt@verizon.net.  For more information about Liz or Tailor-Made Advertising, visit tailormadeadvertising.com. To schedule Liz Harsch as a speaker on Traditional and Online Marketing, Social Media, Analytics or Email Marketing for your organization, Email us at tmade.mkt@verizon.net or call us at 310-791-6300.

Can Gmail Tabs Affect Your Email Marketing Results?

Gmail has a new inbox and it may affect how your Emails get read even by your own opt in newsletter subscribers. So it is key that you take a look at your lists to see who your Gmail subscribers are (people who’s Emails end in gmail.com).  And if you have a lot, follow my suggestions below to ensure your Emails go in the right tab for easy reading.

The change that I am talking about is Gmail’s new inbox tabs where Gmail automatically sorts Emails into tabs and separates Emails sent one-to-many (any Email you are not sending one at a time) they are put into either the updates or the promotion tabs instead of the primary tab. That enables the recipient of the emails

GMail’s new tabs to sort Email

to only see Emails from their friends in the first Email General tab and puts everything else into the other tabs. In order for your Email to be in the first tab, you need to get your subscribers and clients to move your Emails into the first tab as soon as possible. Once they are moved one time, the rest of your communications to them will fall into the first tab instead of the updates and promotion tabs.

Although it’s still too early to tell what impact the new tabs will have on your email marketing, here are some steps you can take to make sure your Emails are well read by your Gmail subscribers.

1) The first thing you can do is to continue to send relevant, valuable content to your subscribers. This is content people will look for regardless of which tab Gmail sorts it into.  If your content is worth following, your subscribers will move it to a tab that is best for them.

NOTE: From what we can tell so far, it does look like Constant Contact emails will show up in either the Promotions or Updates tab at this time.

2) Next, you may consider sending an email to your Gmail subscribers showing them how to move your emails from the promotion or update tabs to the Primary tab.

Here’s a sample email that you can modify to match the voice of your company or copy and paste (just be sure to make changes where appropriate) and then send it to your Gmail subscribers. It explains the recent changes to Gmail’s inbox and what your customers should do to move your emails into their Primary tab in order to be sure to see them monthly.

Here’s the sample email you can use:

*Change the bold sections appropriately for your situation before sending

Subject line: Did Gmail put this email where you want it?

[Dear customer/first name],

As you may know, Gmail recently rolled out a newly designed inbox. If you’ve been using the new design, you also know your emails are now being sorted into three tabs — Primary, Social, and Promotions — with two additional tabs, Updates and Forums, available from the Configure inbox section of your Gmail Settings.

You may also have noticed that [my/our] emails, maybe even this one, now appear in your Promotions or Updates tab. If you’d rather the emails [I/we] send end up in your Primary tab it’s simple to tell Gmail where these emails should go.

Here’s how:

*Drag and drop my email into your Primary tab and click “yes” when Gmail asks if you’d like future messages from this email address to go to your Primary tab.

That’s it!

[I/We] hope this information helps. If you have any additional questions please let [me/us] know.

Thanks!
[Your name/Business Name]

That should do the trick!

Now here’s how to create a list of your Gmail subscribers

Go to the Contacts section of your Constant Contact or your Email account. Search for email addresses ending in “gmail.com” and save the search results as a new list which you can label “Gmail Subscribers.” Then you’ll be able to send this email to just your Gmail subscribers while your subscribers using other Email services are not confused.

Aside from teaching your customers about Gmail’s new inbox, it has never been more important to offer relevant, helpful content that your customers feel is helpful and relevant to their lives. Do not just send out coupons and or specials since you customers are not always in the market for buying. You still want to keep in touch in between sales with advice and tips to make their lives better. So consider including the type of information that is helpful so that your customers and leads will be motivated into moving your monthly or bimonthly communications into their primary tab.

3) Remember that Gmail is also sorting social media in a tab, so be sure to share your newsletter on your social media using social share on top of your Email. It helps your Emails get read by non-subscribers and friends of your fans, as well as allowing them to share your newsletters with their friends using their social network. And make sure you have a “sign up for your newsletter” in your newsletters so anyone seeing it in a friend’s social newsfeed can sign up to get your tips and specials. And always remember to put your phone number so they can reach you for your services any way they like to communicate.

If you do get sorted into the promotion or update tabs, remember that readers will still be looking there when they want to purchase or if they are looking for an Email but it will not default to their primary tab unless you take some action.

Liz Harsch, has been helping small and medium sized businesses make the most of their marketing investments since 1988. Her company, Tailor-Made Advertising is an Authorized SCORE workshop presenter and an awarded Constant Contact Email Marketer and Authorized Local Expert presenting Workshops for Constant Contact, SCORE, SBDC, Metropolitan Water District, multiple Chambers of Commerce, The City of Los Angeles and other Organizations. For more information on how best to help your Emails get read and grow your list, contact us at tmade.mkt@verizon.net or call us at 310-791-6300.  Let us know if you are interested in getting a FREE 60 Day trial of Constant Contact or if you are interested in a Webmatch Template to help your company be more successful with your EMail Marketing starting today.For more information about her company, visit tailormadeadvertsing.com.

Content & 5 Tips on Copywriting in a Social Media World

When you are ready to create content for an online project or even for a traditional media outlet, there are several tips you may want to consider to save you time and be more effective:

Copywriting and content in a social media world

1. Keep your target market in mind. When you write, consider who you are writing to and what their concerns are in getting information about their interests. If you have people sign up for a monthly newsletter, make sure you are providing monthly news and not just an online ad for your services or products. it needs elements to make the recipient happy they subscribed or they will unsubscribe and you will lose that contact and their respect.

2. You do not always need to provide original content. Consider re-purposing content from a blog or previous article you created and link back to that source. Make sure that if you link an article or information from a news service you subscribe to, that you credit them for the information. It is enough for you save your recipients time in providing the information, it does not have to be your content but it is best for you to let them know the source.

3. Keywords are the key for any writer today. Make sure you have agreement with your management as to the keywords you want to be associated with and then make sure your content is tagged with those keywords so you can be easily associated with that conversation.  Make sure that even if you are writing a brochure you include the keywords in simple conversational English (or whatever language your target market speaks) so it is clear what service or product you provide and how that relates to the topic.

4. Indirect is better. Don’t think your company or you always need to be the title story of your content. In fact some of the best read stories are focused on someone else and that makes you great by association. Companies that compliment and credit employees for being their strengths have a higher reputation of trust and that is a hurdle any business needs to overcome in order to do business with someone.

5. Cross pollinate your content and re-purpose it everywhere. These days you need content for every social media platform as well as communication within your company and externally with public. So when you write a blog with 5 tips for some topic, use each tip as a post on your social media with a link to the full blog which I hope you will link to your website. It is your bricks and motor store online so make sure fans visit it to learn all they can about your organization.

For more information on content and copywriting, contact us at tmade.mkt@verizon.net or call us at 310-791-6300.

How Can My Email Marketing Perform Better Than My Competition?

The average opt-in email gets a 15-20% open rate.  Again these are email programs where the subscribers have agreed to accept your newsletter or regular communication

Measure your results!

with specials or offers.  So how do you know that your emails are performing as well as can be expected?  One way is to compare your results to the open average (percentage of people on your sent list who opened the email) and then compare your results to that of your industry.  In fact, a competent email marketing service provider will have an option to compare your industry with your average email results to provide you with a valuable evaluation tool.  Are you averaging more than 20%? If so, are you happy with that result? Have you compared it to your market’s results? And have you mixed up your messages in order to beat that average?

In reality, you can greatly improve your email marketing results by segmenting your list into the areas of their interest and then over time addressing those interests in a methodical fashion.  Like any advertising form, if you make a general claim to the entire population, you may connect with some of that group but if you make a specific claim to a specific segment of that population you will reach a higher open rate since you are speaking to the needs of that smaller group and that is when recipients take the most action.

So start with your list. First separate current clients and past clients out from the rest.  Then with your potential customers, separating those interested in one facet or product/service your company provides versus another or separate them geographically. It all depends on your business and answering the question what segments are there in my target market.

Once you have separated your list, create an email that addresses the specific interests of each list identifying the common goal of the recipients of your list and what subjects they are most likely to benefit from learning about. Remember a subscriber is someone who values your message and wants to learn about what you are an expert on.

In example create a frequent buyer card email for past customers that provide a benefit to them when they purchase more of your product or service. Make sure you take the time in the beginning of the email to thank them for their business before you ask them for more business.

Then create a second email for your potential customers. In this one, offer them a short term reduced fee to try one of your services (like a trial offer).  Within your email make sure that you offer the readers an opportunity to interact with your content, by providing an article about your industry and what is the latest information. Include a link to the services you provide or a link to your website that goes directly to the products or services that the recipient is most likely to be interested in learning about.

Finally, after you send out the two different emails targeted to a specific group, measure your results. It is likely that your results will be increased  to 25-50% open rates. That is because you are specifically addressing the recipient’s interest. If you see an improvement, challenge yourself to further segment the market and further define your list for future mailings. Also keep in mind that over time you want to keep track of the offers and email content you have sent to each group so you are not  repeating yourself but planning each content to teach the market about your entire services over time.

Liz Harsch is an Award Winning All Star Email Marketer who is also an Authorized Local Expert with Constant Contact.  For more information on improving your email results, contact Liz at Tailor-Made Advertising in Torrance, CA at 310-791-6300.  You can also email Liz with your questions or a request for a proposal or to have her speak at your next association event.  Attend her next FREE Email Marketing and Social Media Workshops by checking her upcoming training schedule.

See how a professionally branded monthly newsletter can help grow your business. Try a FREE 60 day trial for email marketing, social media or event planning and grow your business starting today.

Website Content, Is your Content Making the Cut?

The truth is that you don’t just need content on your website. You need the right content. So it is important to know what content your visitors are looking for and relate to the most. That is why you need to start with your own research into what content is bringing you traffic and what is not.

When it comes to your product or service, it is key that you understand what today’s buyers are searching for and the concerns or sales hurdles that keep them from making a decision to buy. Then you can target those consumers by having the content they need on your website or blog.

You can learn a lot about that by looking at the traffic anaytics and your website’s page performance statistics and seeing how often certain pages on your site are visited. Once you have determined the content and see what you think is the draw, you can duplicate that success or in the case that there is none, experiment by changing the content. Consider what you can do to make the other pages of your site become more popular with content that matters.

Remember your site is searchable so if you are getting referral links to a particular page in your website, chances are that people are looking for that information and related topics. Look for those trends and provide more. If you are not sure how to get started, start with your own website reporting information or tag your site with Google Analytics so you can track its performance over time. If you don’t have the time to do this yourself, forward us your specific questions.

Where is the Most Important Information on Your Website?

Getting your company’s website to the top of the search engines is one thing, but it’s actually more important to make sure that your website is useful. Is it actually what people are looking for?

People are busy. They’ve already taken the time to open their web browser, type in “google.com”, and type in their search query. How much time will they spend on your site?

About 6.8 seconds. That’s right: you have 6.8 seconds to give users enough of what they want so that they stick around on your site long enough learn more about what your company offers.

Most people are looking for a phone number or address. These crucial bits of information should be right at the top of your site, and on every page. Depending on what users searched for, they may not end up on your home page, so it is critical that you include your phone number and address on every single page of your website. Even if the user did not get to your site just for a phone number, if your site’s content is compelling enough, they might want it by the time they’re done browsing – so make sure it’s on whatever their exit page might be.

Websites are not much different than newspapers in a sense that readers focus mostly on content above the fold, a fundamental concept of marketing and journalism. The most important information needs to be available without users having to scroll down. And make the information that you deem most relevant to your business easily accessible. Paragraphs are less effective on the internet, while bullet points make reading online easier. Whatever you say, always be sure to include your keywords in that copy.

The internet is a near-infinite information source which makes competition fierce. In fact, it is huge. If a user doesn’t find what they’re looking for on your site, there are literally thousands offering similar, if not the same, information. So, don’t let your competition get the edge by making your information harder to find.

For help improving your website results, identifying ways to improve your website inquiries and/or enhancing your keyword results, contact Tailor-Made Advertising in Torrance at 310-791-6300 or by email at tmade.mkt@verizon.net. Do you need a website designed? Review some of our past web design projects or email us to help you create an effective website and Search Engine Optimization plan for 2011.