E-MAILS WORKING FOR OUR CLIENTS

December 28, 2015 by

E-mail Campaign Design

(2025 review – funny how so much has changed since this 2015 post and how much remains the same.)

There are many ways to approach e-mail campaign development and production. We’ve narrowed it down to three options to cover all our clients’ budgets and all the devices out there.

We also include enhancements to our e-mail campaign services that our competitors skip. We usually do all the graphics and copywriting. For each campaign, we also produce a web page version which our clients use as landing pages for online ads or social media posts. A week after launch, we provide a free report on the campaign’s success.

And finally, because we don’t like to just do a one-off campaign with a short lifespan of value, we add the web page version to our client’s site on a news archive page so all that work put into making the e-mail campaign continues to pay off as a boost to site search engine optimization and additional information for site visitors to enjoy.

Reporting shows that around 55% of all our clients’ e-mail campaigns are being viewed on smartphones. This is a higher percentage for retail businesses and a lower percentage for B2B and service businesses. Because of this, the non-responsive e-mail campaign designs we were doing just a few years ago were dropped – a business’ e-mail must be readable and actionable on a smartphone.

Here’s what is working for our clients right now:

Mobile-friendly campaigns render cleanly, but not responsively, on all devices from smartphone (landscape and portrait) to desktop computer. These are the lowest priced options since they do not need complex responsive code or an e-mail campaign platform’s design interface.

They work well on all devices and on a smartphone do not require pinching or side-scrolling.

Here’s a mobile friendly e-mail campaign.

Mobile Friendly E-mail Campaign

Responsive e-mail campaigns render the same code/design on any device. For these, we use a template provided by an e-mail campaign service provider, but prevent them from looking “from a box” with custom graphics.

Different e-mail campaign providers vary in quality and services. We like Vertical Response the best for its same-time-zone customer support and list management features, which we find to be the most adaptable to split-list campaigns and the way our clients wish to manage lists. However we have been recently surprised and pleased with how Constant Contact has improved – no more phone-tree nightmares when calling for support and great reporting. Of the main providers, MailChimp is our least favorite as the list management is non-flexible and there’s no phone support.

Here’s a sample of one of our responsive e-mail campaigns, produced through Constant Contact.

Responsive E-mail Design

Custom, responsive e-mail campaigns require a lot of work. Two versions of each campaign are produced: a desktop version and a smartphone version. These are the best looking and performing types of e-mails as the design is specific to the device.

Our company campaigns are coded in this way.

Custom Responsive E-mail Design

We work closely with our clients to make sure we are providing the best fit for their needs, and their budgets.

Our e-mail campaign portfolio.

WHICH WEBSITE FOR ME?

December 20, 2015 by

Which Website?

(2025 Review – this post is not only interesting to anyone wondering about the time before responsive website code.)

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF WEBSITES AVAILABLE AT MPS?

Up until a few years ago, websites were static in that they displayed the same layout no matter the type of device upon which they were viewed. As you have all experienced, these sites do not work well on smartphones; the text is too small and screen pinching and side-scrolling is required.

Content Management Systems (CMS) sites allow for anyone with administration access to make basic edits. For example, putting in a new product photo or changing the business’ open hours. This always seems exciting to a business as they feel they will save money by managing the site internally, but all of our clients who have CMS sites pay us to work on them – work which costs more as edits are done in an interface, rather than using website coding software.

Mobile websites are coded completely differently from a business’ main site. It’s designed to render on smartphones in landscape or portrait modes and to feature information a mobile user is most likely to need. The main site continues to render on desktop and laptop computers and tablets. Mobile sites are “seen” as responsive by search engines.

A responsive website is designed to recognize the device the viewer is using and render the page’s content in the most attractive and readable manner by responding to the device’s screen size, platform, and orientation. This means the same website content will display at its best from desktop computer to laptop to tablet to smartphone.

 

WHICH IS BEST FOR MY BUSINESS?

We don’t push any particular type of site. We have experience and understanding of all types of website coding for businesses going back to 1999. As new technology is developed, we integrate it into our service offerings as soon as it is well–supported. (Many developers jump on selling new code too early, leading to websites that don’t function very well, have a short life, and cost too much.)

We clearly explain your options and by gaining an understanding of your needs, budget, and business goals, we can make a good recommendation. If we do code a responsive site for you, we use the well–supported codebase named Foundation, used by companies such as Yahoo! and National Geographic.

 

RESPONSIVE SITES SEEM THE BEST CHOICE. IS THERE A DOWNSIDE?

  • A user viewing a responsive site on a phone will see the exact same content as a user on a computer. Since phone users are generally visiting your site for different reasons than a user on a computer, you may wish to keep a separate mobile version of your site geared to smartphone users’ needs and behavior, instead of having a responsive site.
  • Responsive sites require more maintenance, testing, and security and Javascript upgrades since the technology and coding is newer and more complex. Whereas our non–responsive and mobile code can go months without needing attention.
  • Potentially slower page load time.
  • Generally a responsive web site is coded for smartphones first, so with computer users coming in second they may find the content over–simplified.
  • Coding and updating a responsive site is more expensive.

 

AND THE UPSIDE?

  • Users are now familiar with responsive websites and expect all businesses to have a site that functions well and looks attractive on all devices. Businesses with a responsive or mobile site are going to look current.
  • Search engines “grade” a site as being more worthy of higher organic search results if it is device-responsive.
  • Since the user will be viewing a site which performs perfectly on the device he is utilizing, they are more likely to move around your site, finding the information they are seeking.
  • We found the following info when we created a client’s website traffic report for October, 2015. It’s based upon visitors to one of their services pages, on a site without a mobile version. 67% of smartphone users — mostly iPhone and Android phones — bounced off the page without clicking a link to any other page versus a 43% bounce rate for visitors using a desktop computer, tablet, or laptop.
  • As of winter 2015, 30–35% of our clients’ website visitors are using a mobile device. Your numbers are probably similar. Since around one third of your site’s visitors are using a smartphone, a mobile version will give these visitors a better experience and therefore keep them on your site.
  • If you wish to link to a page and have a separate mobile website, you will need to note two links – one for mobile and one for regular.  For example, if you wish to link to your web page with your business hours, you’d need to call out the link for smartphone users and the link for non-smartphone device users.  With a responsive website, the same link will work for any device.

 

RESPONSIVE E-MAIL CAMPAIGN

November 10, 2015 by

Jewelery Responsive E-mail CampaignWe’ve just finished our first e-mail campaign for Gleim the Jeweler.

Our client has traced sales back to their store and their online store from this campaign, so hopefully we’ll be doing many more of these campaigns in the future.

A bonus with working with Gleim is the beautiful jewelry.

OWN YOUR NEWS – PDF VS. OUT-GOING LINK

October 31, 2015 by

PDF vs. Out-going Link

(2025 update! This info originally from 2015 is still relevant.)

Media mentions are great marketing! But if you simply link to the online version of the article, you are not getting the full benefit of the piece.

When you link to the article or post on the publishing website:

•  You are directing your visitor off of your site where you can lose them to the distractions of ads, other articles, post comments, or mentions of your competition.  (Look at all the distractions in the webpage capture of the article on the left side of our graphic above.)

•  The publisher may remove or change the link at any time.  Your article is lost and you have a dead link on your site.  (BTW, if you do go this route of simply linking to an article, put a reminder in your calendar for a few times a year to test all the links on your site so you can fix any that are broken.)

• Out-going links do not help search engine optimization (SEO) at all.

We recommend putting the content of the article to a PDF which is uploaded to your website’s server.  That way, you can control the content and remove ads, mentions of your competitors, and all distractions (see the clean article on the right side of the graphic above.)  You always have possession of the story.  And while PDFs may not be optimized for SEO the way a regular web page may be, they do help SEO.

Here’s an example We integrated press articles with items related to this event: postcard and poster (MPS designed and produced), photos, social media, blog posts, and the press release put out by our client, Hope Patricia Daly.

Send John a line for more information.

 

 

YOU’RE GOING TO NEED TO KNOW THIS TO UNDERSTAND NEW DOMAIN NAME STRUCTURES

August 29, 2015 by

(2025 Doing some housekeeping to remove any outdated info. This is mostly now just funny old info.)

Available domain extensions are no longer just .com, .net, .us, .org, etc. Some recently made available include: .movie, .coupons, .soccer, .catering, .fyi, .ski, .men, .miami — more each day. 

As an internet user, don’t be confused if you see a website address written with a full–word after the dot. That familiar three–letter extension or two–letter country code extension will prevail, but websites are no longer limited to just these. 

As a business owner, you have some choices to make. This is the time to review all available domains and extensions and be aware of what will soon become available so you can grab your perfect extension. 

For example, a catering client of ours purchased a .catering domain to use on print marketing. It will forward to their main website. 

Some reasons to consider specific extensions are to: 

• help with print marketing — easier to remember, more specific website addresses, 

• prevent your competition or other businesses from owning it (yes, they are doing it to you), 

• show you are current with the times, and 

• own your business’ perfect domain in case search engines change their algorithms in the future. 

If you wish to find out what domains extensions are soon becoming available, do a search engine search for “new domain watcher” and to find out what extensions are already available, do a search engine search for “domain availability”. There are many tools out there to help. 

Let John know if you’d like us to work on a domain plan for you. We’d review all your currently registered domains and give recommendations on what to keep and what to let lapse. We’d make sure that the correct redirection was put on your domains so you are not hurting your SEO. And we’d work on a plan for getting a new domain extension(s) which will best suit your business and goals.

HELLO FROM JOHN AND RACHEL!

August 21, 2015 by

Hello From John and Rachel

“HELLO!”

(2025 update! This is when it started.)

Things are moving quickly these days and to help you keep up on what we (as Meta Pixel Solutions) are up to, we’ve started this blog.

We often find ourselves repeating the same answers to questions from our clients via e-mail, so figured it was about time we started posting them to a blog (which will forward to our Facebook and Twitter pages too.)