As an interactive marketing agency, we are always trying to find new ways to save time, provide better quality, or to check in on the ‘Jonses’ and see what they are offering their customers

Widgets

This first tool is a customer service dream. It’s called ‘Jing‘ and essentially, it allows you to take quick pics and videos of your screen and then share it with other people. If you’ve created an image, Jing will allow you to use some general tools to make the image more lively, such as an arrow or text box.

What’s even cooler, is that this tool comes with a very useful feature, a free account at Screencast.com when you give Jing a try. Once you have uploaded your image or video to Screencast, it auto-generates a link for you to send to someone else who can now view your newly created image or video. Screencast even auto-generates embed code…WOW!

Check out this image I created.

And here is a video I created.

For more info, go to techsmith.com, a great company with great ideas.

Lets move onto some real fun. I play a little game here at the office. It’s called, ‘Copy-Mac.’ The rules of the game are simple:
1. Listen to the cool features Mac users say they have that PCs do not.
2. Find a PC tool that copies those features exactly.
3. Show them…

One feature many Mac users love, is the tile-window feature. I have recently come across a tool that lets me continue to play this game. The tool is called ‘Admiral’ created by Mexircus and it’s not only useful, it’s fun to use, especially if you are like me and have tons of windows open at any given time.

Compare: here is the PC view with Admiral; and below that is the Mac version,

PC View:

Mac View:

These are just a couple of tools that I have found to be fun and useful.

Photo Sharing

Flickr – almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world – has two main goals:
1. We want to help people make their content available to the people who matter to them.

Flickr is the WD-40 that makes it easy to get photos or video from one person to another in whatever way they want.

2. We want to enable new ways of organizing photos and video.

Once you make the switch to digital, it is all too easy to get overwhelmed with the sheer number of photos you take or videos you shoot with that itchy trigger finger. Albums, the principal way people go about organizing things today, are great — until you get to 20 or 30 or 50 of them. They worked in the days of getting rolls of film developed, but the “album” metaphor is in desperate need of a Florida condo and full retirement.

In Flickr, you can give your friends, family, and other contacts permission to organize your stuff – not just to add comments, but also notes and tags. People like to ooh and ahh, laugh and cry, make wisecracks when sharing photos and videos. Why not give them the ability to do this when they look at them over the internet? And as all this info accretes as metadata, you can find things so much easier later on, since all this info is also searchable.

Others:

Webshots
Share your pictures through photo messages, online photo albums, custom prints and gifts. |

Snappages
Fully flash built interface with 3D slideshows and an image editor.

Fotki
Free unlimited photo hosting for blogs, 9 cent prints, and photo contests.

Shutterfly
Free unlimited storage, 12 cent prints, as well as calendars and photo books.

Contacts/Business Network

Linkedin – Your professional relationships are key to your professional success. Our mission is to help you be more effective in your daily work and open doors to opportunities using the professional relationships you already have.

LinkedIn is an online network of more than 25 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries.

Others:

BNI International Web Site
BNI – International Website … BNI is the largest business networking organization in the world. We offer members the opportunity to share ideas, …

Ryze business networking
Ryze Business Networking, make business connections, make new contacts and … The prospects of social networking sites that focus on business-oriented …

Project Management

Basecamp takes a fresh, novel approach to project collaboration. Projects don’t fail from a lack of charts, graphs, stats, or reports, they fail from a lack of clear communication. Basecamp solves this problem by providing tools tailored to improve the communication between people working together on a project.

Others:

AceProject.com
Ace Project PM Software website. Commercial.

EasyProjects.net
EasyProjects PM Software website. Commercial.

ProjectInsight.net
ProjectInsight PM software website. Commercial.

People Search

Spock is “Google,” but for people. I use Spock to find out more about other companies or people I interact with. If i know more about them, I can probably help them more effectively. Of course the most relevant use is to find old friends, collegues, or even your boss…

Others:

Wink
Search using the world’s largest people search engine. Find people by name and get their phone number, address, Websites, photos, work, school, more.

PeekYou
PeekYou’s free people search engine allows you to find, contact, and track anyone online. Find photos, links, work, school and family info and much more.

Video Sharing

YouTube
Hosts user-generated videos. Includes network and professional content.

Break.com
Hosts user-generated videos. Includes network and professional content.

Viddler
You need to be logged in to use this feature. If you don’t have a Viddler account, you can join Viddler right now. It’s easy and free! …

5min
Find the best how to, instructional and DIY videos.

The list could go on forever…

What are your Favorite online tools?

As a designer with years of experience under my belt, working with and integrating color schemes into both print and web pages has always been a bit of a challenge, and it’s not something I take lightly. Color plays such a vital role in anything designed — it sets the mood and tone of the work, targets market appeal, brand and market position and even implication of the work (which identical Mercedes Benz ‘looks’ more expensive — a black one or a green one? I’ll quote Wesley Snipes: “Always bet on black”).

Enter ColorSchemer Studio. I used to use color theory books galore, and still rely on my own sense and experience with color, but ColorSchemer Studio ($49.99) is now officially in my arsenal. It’s a powerful little app that isn’t overly complicated, and does the job very, very well. And that is — speeds up the process of color selection, down to the nuances, and gives you a nice, simpatico color palette to work with. You can even work ‘backward’ by taking an image, picking a few key colors letting the ColorSchemer generate a palette from those.

When finished, export your palette in a number of compatible file types for the development program you’re working in. For casual users ColorSchemer offers less expensive version that retains the core application but without some of the bells and whistles.

I highly recommend this app for designers — web, print or other. It makes what could be a frustrating and painful job a whole lot easier. Enjoy!

Your web site’s home page design should be insightful and creative. It should engage your clients and guide them through your site, compelling them to take action in the places you specify. Your home page is also your client and future clients’ first impression of you as a person, company, brand, product and/or service. And at the hyper-speed with which everything technological moves these days, you want your home page to do it all and say it all – all in a few minutes.

Eye Contact

A visually appealing design will draw your clients into your site, but placing your important messaging and calls to action in prime locations encourages them to stay and participate. By structuring your home page effectively, you’ll create a visual hierarchy that provides users with an intuitive path through your home page.

Understanding how users’ eyes typically move on a web page will help give some logic to getting the most from your home page’s real estate. Most users’ eyes begin either in the upper left corner of the page or in the middle of the page and then move to the upper left corner. So, placing your company logo and possibly your brand messaging in the upper left corner is a great start.

Your clients’ eyes may then scan across the top of the page to the upper right corner. This path is logical based on Western readers reading from left to right and generally follows your main navigation bar. The users’ eyes may then zig back left and down, so putting calls to action or action items in a left side bar (buy now, join now, learn more) tells your users how to participate.

Typically, your users’ eye movement zags the rest of the page ending in the lower right corner of the page. So, this gives you another chance to make an impact on your client.

Remember, these are general eye movement theories*. There are many other synergistic factors that draw your clients into the site and compel them to move through the page and stay on your site.

This Company Speaks to Me

Establish your credibility immediately on your home page with accurate and compelling content. Your home page introduction should not be a dissertation because users “scan” and “skim” more than read. Convey what you do or are offering to your audience and why you do it better than your competition. Get this message across in the first minute of their visit.

Make your headlines inspiring and informative. “Welcome to my home page” misses the boat…think Ferris Bueller’s econ teacher, “anyone…anyone.” Establishing what you do or what you want your clients to know in your headline is much more interesting. For example, we want our clients and our future clients to know that we “Know why. Know how.” We know why our clients need our products and services and we know how to implement solutions to achieve our client’s goals.

Your content should be relevant to your target audience and make clients say, “this company speaks to me.” Educating your customers with information they want and need gives them a reason to visit, stay, and return, again and again.

Are We There Yet?

Easy and intuitive navigation is a must for your home page and web site. Web sites that use breadcrumbs help their clients navigate backward. This is especially helpful if your site is large. Also, limiting the amount of levels your users need to “drill down” into to find the info they want is good user-friendly design. Making your clients and users work to find information is a great tool to drive them away. Users equate a poorly organized site with the quality of your company, product or service.

• ~ Place important page links in several place on the page (main navigation, side bars, call to action buttons)
• ~ Offer different ways to get there. Use both text links and graphic buttons for site navigation.
• ~ Organize content on your page so it’s logical. Place the most important message pieces in prime spots “above the fold.”

Less is More

Graphical elements can add elegance to your home page. But, if your design is not thoughtful, your site can look and feel like a three-ring circus. Your graphics should fit your company’s messaging and branding. Flash might be snazzy, but it can also be distracting to search engine spiders and eat up valuable user time. Automated slide shows are a nice alternative. Used wisely, slide shows dynamically feature multiple images in one place. If your business requires other images on the same page, give careful attention to the number of other images and their sizes relative to your main image area.

Interactivity

Calls to action such as joining your e-newsletter, signing up for a monthly email, donating online or buying your product offer your users direct interaction with you in a click of a button…well, a click and then some data entry. These links or graphic button links should be clearly labeled and strategically placed. Putting an important call to action or two in various places on your home page gives your clients several opportunities to participate.

Keyword Relevancy and Density

Search engines are looking for relevant keywords within your content. This doesn’t mean just repeating your keywords over and over; they need to be written logically into the text. A good rule of thumb is between 150-250 keyword rich content. You can write more, but keep in mind that scrolling can sometimes be an issue for users. Keep your main messaging “above the fold” for good measure.

Double-Check and Check Again

Links that go back home, nowhere or contain 404 errors are frustrating for your clients. Typos and grammatical errors are a big no-no. Invest in the time to make sure your message is proofread and spelled correctly. With spelling and grammar check programs, there is no excuse for these errors on your home page. It destroys your clients’ confidence in you and creates the impression that you are not competent, therefore whatever your offering is of poor quality.

Make your page visually stimulating and easy to navigate. Optimize your branding and calls to action by placing these messages in strategically smart locations. Make your sparkling content accurate and error-free. Remember, your home page is your first impression and sometimes, you only get one chance to make it a lasting one.

*We will discuss eye movement and web site design more in-depth soon!

Our good friends at Systems & Marketing Solutions (SMS) have published a wonderful article on landing page design: Ten Ideas to Improve Landing Page Design.

Bob and the team at SMS are experts in results-driven search engine marketing (SEM).

Thank you to Bob and his team at SMS for these SEM and landing page tips.

Online marketing is all that it’s cracked up to be and isn’t as difficult as it’s cracked up to be.

It doesn’t even need to be a wazoo marketing campaign. In fact, it’s already on every page of your website. It’s your copy. If crafted thoughtfully and clearly, your entire website is the Marketing Manager who sells your company, your brand, your product or your service 24/7/365 (or 366 depending).

Great website content is the foundation for driving great qualified leads to your site. But what makes the content great? Snappy writing? Tech-speak and pop culture buzzwords? Lots of it? Not really…and it’s much simpler than finding your inner-copywriter.

GET IN THE 10-RING…KNOW YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE

Who are you speaking to? What is your niche market? What does your target audience want and need? Define these users and tailor your copy to them. Your copy should address their specific wants, needs, questions or “yeah, but…” hurdles, just like an in-person sales pitch would do.

Take some time to figure out your users’ behavior and habits on your site. Your website host, Google Analytics reports or other web stat program can tell you a lot about things such as:

• ~ What page gets the most user time?
• ~ What time do you get the most visitors?
• ~ From which page do users most often bail from your site?

PUT OUT A CREATIVE WELCOME MAT

Here’s where the snappy writing does help.

Your site headlines are quick snippets of information. Your users often decide whether they are interested in your site and/or page right here. So easy-to-understand, attention-grabbing headlines will help make users want to hang on your door step and then delve deeper into your website.

Choose your words wisely and keep them relevant to what your users want to know.

THE SCAN ARTIST

A copy-heavy page is not well-received or read in full. But don’t distract your user with a ton of images, flash, slideshows, automatic videos or intro music either.
Users tend to skim through websites and scan pages, so large paragraphs are not useful, even if you think it will help with key word relevancy. Your user will skip out before you know it.

• ~ Write short 4-5 line paragraphs. Even a one-liner, now and then, adds good je ne sais quoi.
• ~ Use bullet-point lists.
• ~ Mix the above two to break up the page.
• ~ Use subheads to divide longer chunks of copy.
• ~ Use easy-to-read, web-friendly fonts like Verdana or Arial.
• ~ Avoid dark, patternend backgrounds; a light-colored plain background gives the most readability.
• ~ Less is more – choose your images and graphics carefully and make them applicable to the copy.

Hot Chillys does this really well …

HOW’S YOUR STREET CRED?…OK, WEB CRED?

How is what you have to say more credible than the rest of oh, say, every other company in your industry that has a website? Yep, those hundreds, maybe even thousands of sites?

People want to know and trust that what you’re offering has credibility, integrity, quality…you need to establish this quickly and early on in your users’ visit.

• ~ Your About Us section – what about you? Talk about your credentials and what separates you from the rest of the herd. Show your users you are solid.
• ~ Who are you? Not your company, product or service as a business or commercial entity, but as a person. Make your offering relevant as a person, not as an object. Your users want to relate to the total package and the way to do that is tell them who you are, what’s your story?
• ~ Use testimonials to build trust. Testimonials from your happy clients or customers pack a powerful punch to your credibility. Engage past clients to write about their expectations and results they received by partnering with you. Make sure to include your client’s name, business name and their website URL…it helps the user know the bandwagon is real.

GOOD TO GREAT

Features are good, but get to the real great thing: what benefits do you offer? How do you fill a need and make your future client’s life easy, painless and stress-free? Anticipate that your client will want to know “what do I get out of this?” and show them how you can solve their problems.

• ~ Good: ElementsLocal offers Franchise companies a website platform that provides a local website for each of their Franchisees.
• ~ Great: ElementsLocal provides each Franchisee with a customizable local website in one-third the cost AND capitalizes on the strength and power of national branding and established online presence.

CALLS TO ACTION

Now that your user must absolutely have your product or service, you need to let them know how to get it. Make your calls to action clear and easy to find. Include them in several places (tastefully) on each page, for example as a side bar button.

• ~ Use the online wizard to purchase your site in 4 easy steps. (inline copy)
• ~ Purchase your site now! (button copy)
• ~ Click here to receive your sprocket, risk-free! (inline copy)
• ~ Order your sprocket! (button copy)

Your website copy, especially that on your home page, is your 15 seconds for a great first impression—that awesome smile and pleasantly firm handshake. Your clients need to be crystal clear about why you are the person they should partner with.

You don’t need to embark on a site overhaul and rewrite all your content. Employing some of these techniques will help you build your website into an effective marketing tool. Employ all of them and you’ll produce an outstanding online marketing manager who will sell your product or service 8760 (or 8784 depending).