Logo Design

Unless you have the talent, there is no substitute for professional-quality design. You get what you pay for. Otherwise and any other solution will say "unprofessional".

Look at the big boys: Microsoft, Dell, IBM, Amazon, etc. Clean, professional logos that stand out and are instantly recognizable.

Skimp out on a good, high-quality logo, skimp out on a good first impression and serious bank. (ie: sales)

Facebook vs. MySpace

While most marketers are gaga over Facebook these days, you may not want to rule out MySpace just yet. While the Web media didn't miss a beat on Facebook matching MySpace in terms of unique traffic last week, MySpace was touting its own achievement - namely, "significant spikes in time spent and page views," according to January Comscore numbers.

These user engagement metrics include all time highs in the "minutes per visitor" and "total minutes" categories. Page views also jumped to the highest level the company has recorded in more than one year. Those are important metrics and should not be ignored.

The average MySpace user spends 266 minutes (4.4 hours) on the site every month—a +15% increase over last month and a +31% increase year over year. January is the highest level of minutes-per-visitor MySpace has ever seen. Page views on MySpace have reached an all time high of 44 billion—more than double that of the company’s nearest competitor.

Email Segmentation for Higher ROI

Many Web marketers and digital merchants are content sending bulk emails to their entire list simultaneously, hoping they hit the mark with a portion of their audience. But implementing even a little bit of segmenting provides — in no uncertain terms — a higher return on investment (ROI.)

Forrester Research and the National Retail Foundation’s Shop.org found the average cost per order from an email marketing campaign was $6.85, compared with $12.27 for affiliate marketing and $19.32 for paid search. This lower cost, resulting in a higher ROI, is what drives merchants to email marketing. But while 92 percent of retailers use email marketing, only 58 percent of Internet retailers segment based on customer purchase history and stated customer preferences — in spite of 67 percent considering the practice “very effective.”

Even in light of higher open rates, order values, click-through rates and conversions, email marketers are still not tapping the full potential of segmentation and list filtering. The reason might be because of the complexity of the task, and rightfully so. Behavior-based segmentation, trigger based segmentation and lifecycle segmentation are all time-consuming and financial and resource intensive projects. Even the mere concepts of these practices can scare away many merchants. But the reward of using even the most basic segmentation is very high.

How Social Media Can Benefit Your Firm

While you have undoubtedly heard the names (Facebook, Linkedin, Plaxo, YouTube, Twitter, etc.) you may not understand what social media really is or how to leverage its marketing capacity.

Basically, social media is permission-based, interactive online conversations between individuals who share common interests. While countless folks have leveraged platforms such as mySpace to promote their favorite films, books, movies, politics, etc., companies can tap the medium's unfiltered environs to promote their organizations.

Unlike more traditional media (websites, print material, advertising, etc.) the messaging cannot be overtly promotional. It must be personal, engaging and provide value.

The Marketing Executives Networking Group has identified the top 10 advantages of social media:
1. Customer engagement
2. Direct customer communication
3. Speed of feedback/results
4. Learning customer preferences
5. Low cost
6. Brand building
7. Market research
8. Credibility of the "crowd"
9. Reach
10. Great lead generation
If your firm is looking for help in tapping social media or you're looking for a speaker on the subject, we can help.