E-MAIL MARKETING - BEST PRACTICES

1. Keep it Short

Limit text. Your subject line should grab your reader. Use bright, linked buttons or eye-catching text to help a reader navigate quickly to their point of interest.

2. Keep it Simple

Although HTML can create Web page-like e-mails, they still have to get by spam filters and have correct formatting to be read by the many different e-mail programs out there. Lumino Web Design uses tables to create blocks of content that will appear in a logical layout - even if the images are blocked. E-mail flyers should operate on the WYSIWYG principle —what you see is what you get — regardless of the customer’s e-mail set-up.

3. Stick to a Clean Design

Given the ability to use CSS and HTML to design our e-mails, it can be tempting to go wiggy on the jazzy with color and intricate graphics. Most often though, simple designs are the most effective and easiest to navigate. Many designs today have black backgrounds or a very neutral color palette with selective highlights. See your latest Apple advertisement if you don't believe me.

4. Try Using Texture

People miss the old fashioned "letter". Why not try using a background that looks more like a love letter from the 20s than an e-mail flyer...

5. Work Around Image Blockers

Many readers will not be able to view your e-flyer's HTML images unless they change the settings in their e-mail program. This happens with Microsoft Outlook, BlackBerrys and other handheld devices. Image blockers are designed to prohibit spam and viruses from messing up your computer, so they do have a role to play. We make sure not to imbed important text and links into an image that may not even appear to your audience. In addition, we ALWAYS create a specific web page or micro-site for your e-flyer where the message may be accessed with all buttons and images functional - as intended.

Search Engine Land recently featured an iPad (53 Paper) doodle series by marketer, Scott Brinker. This "funnel doodle" was first in the series on how to convert a visitor to your website into a paying customer. The author asks if a a sketch is worth a column's worth of words, and we would have to confirm, YES! When we design your website, we imagine we are your prospective customer seeing your product for the first time. These four funnel questions determine the design, the keywords, the color choice, the photo placement... in short, everything on your web page.  That's best practice web design in a nutshell. To be honest the really cool thing about his article was the intro to the iPad App by - 53 Paper. For any keyboardphobes or doodlers out there, this has to be the innovation of the century.

Lumino recently launched www.molinaripools.com. Molinari Pools has been servicing the Vero Beach area for over twenty years. They are incredibly busy, but even a well established local business needs to adapt to modern times and be available on the web. After all, that's where most people look when they go to hire a service nowadays. Their company offers just about every imaginable service related to swimming pools, so they were glad to finally have a website where they could explain the broad range of services they provide. Lumino worked with Molinari Pools to incorporate an existing logo and still present a new and stylish image.  "Looks awesome!! I'm very excited!  Thanks!!"   Joel Molinari

On his way to the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics Joe London sees a guy carrying a long pole. "Are you a pole vaulter?" he asks.              "No I'm German, and my name is Hans," answers the athlete.

Lumino Web Design E-COMMERCE solution now has even MORE FEATURES: Upsell - "Add-On" items appear directly under main product Add-To-Cart Product Description/Special - text appears under product photo Klarna Check Out - integration with KLARNA for European websites Larger Photos - product photos appear as large as 800x800 in lightbox  Deluxe Shopping Cart Solution with expert local support for as low as $39/mo!

Call LUMINO WEB DESIGN & SEO today and expand your business with web sales! See Two Way Radio Gear Web Shop  for a demo of LUMINO E-COMMERCE.

If you've logged onto your business Facebook page in the past few days, you may have noticed something different. The Facebook home page now has a new layout called FACEBOOK TIMELINE that provides a visual history of your business over the months and years. For private people this layout acts like a visual autobiography, or family album, with documentation of the years collected all on one page. The question for us is, "How can businesses make the most of this new format?" Well for one thing, the format is mandatory not optional, so if you have a business Facebook page you'll need to update it with a cover photo and scan through your posts to make sure they land in a logical sequence. It's a good time to check for any posts that should be hidden or deleted as well. Since the new Facebook Timeline layout sets precedence on photos, we advise businesses to choose high quality photos and include them whenever making a post. Contact Lumino Web Design & SEO (tel. 772-563-8255) to update your business Facebook page or have one created.

Lumino Web Design offers dual language platform websites. Our native Norwegian and American staff are skilled copywriters in these languages and can offer a dovetailed English and Norwegian version of your web design.

1. Does the web design firm offer comprehensive services?

A premium web design offering should include the following:

• Elegant, intuitive, fast-loading design – to appeal to users
• SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – to rank high on Google
• CMS (Content Management System) – to allow easy editing
• Custom in-house programming – for specialty forms, Intranet…
• Upgrades – to allow easy expansion to E-Commerce...
• Social Media Integration – links to Facebook, Twitter, RSS Feed…

2. Does the web design firm write error-free, interesting and succinct copy?

It is wise to study the web design firm’s portfolio. Click on some recent sites and check for spelling mistakes, organization of content and general interest to the reader. You may be surprised to find out that many web design companies do not actually write any web content for you. Professional copywriting can cost as much as $500 per page over and above the web design.


3. Does the web designer understand the needs and constraints of a business owner?

A web design company with staff who have experience building and marketing their own brand will be better able to guide and advise you on current Internet marketing, budget and usability issues.


4. What is included in the SEO service?

The basic tasks of optimizing a website for search engines are:

• Optimizing all pages for fast loading
• Writing clear, informative copy
• Researching keywords for global and local searches
• Using keyword and content matching to name menus, select headlines, write meta-titles, meta-tags and image tags
• Optimize links

A web design firm offering a value-added product will also:

• Offer suggestions for link building
• Create Facebook and Twitter pages for your business
• Register your site on Google/Bing maps and local directories
• Offer suggestions for Internet advertising campaigns
• Explain web marketing options such as Google Products, Google Author…

5. Does the web design firm offer a clear follow-up communication service?

Who will you go to if you have questions? It is optimal to speak to the designer or programmer directly. Intermediary communication is a waste of your precious time.

To sum up, if you’re lucky, you’ll find a web design company, like the one described above, that offers Web Design, Computer Programming, Graphic Design and Internet Marketing Advice - all in one package.

Lumino Web Design & SEO     We do all that.

If you have a Google account, and are logged into Google when you search, now you'll find it's not just keyword related public websites that come up, but also keyword related personal content from friends, family and contacts. If you are planning a vacation to the Grand Canyon say, your search might just bring up snap shots from your cousin's trip to Arizona last May. 

Some are already accusing Google of anti-trust violations while some feel the added personal content will enrich the Google search function.

Check out the official Google blog to get the full story and decide for yourself...

André Vold

Ironside Press - Vero Beach print and graphics expert  partners with Lumino Web Design for seamless integration of all your print and digital marketing material! After completing the new web design for Ironside Press (print, graphic design and direct mail expert in Vero Beach) Lumino has entered into a design partnership with this well known local print services provider. Now clients can come to one place for ALL their marketing needs - both tangible and digital. Give us a call and let us share how we combine our talents and resources to offer seamless integration of your business' print and Internet marketing materials. Lumino Web Design 772.563.8255

Lumino Web Design just finished SEO work (Search Engine Optimization) on www.PoolGuardPro.com. They came to us with their existing website and asked if we could improve their site's ranking on Google.

We'll be keeping a close eye on www.PoolGuardPro.com as it climbs from "page nowhere" to "In Your Face" on Google. 

Contact Lumino Web Design & SEO to find out how we use:

• Professional copy writing
• Keyword research
• Computer programming know-how
• Social media like Facebook and Twitter
• Internet Directories - local and nationwide - such as Yelp, Bing, YellowPages.com
• Bing and Google Maps

Once Lumino has created a FACEBOOK PAGE for your business there are several things you can do to keep your Facebook page updated and attract "LIKES".

Q - How often should I post items on Facebook? A - The same rule of thumb for e-mail flyers applies to Facebook posts. You don't want to irritate your audience by over-doing it and drive people to "UN-FRIEND" you, but you do want to keep your Facebook page fresh. Once a month is fine. Twice per week should be your maximum. Q - Are there any special rules about what I write? A - Be sure to include proven keywords in all your posts. If you cannot remember what they are, check back with a Lumino Web Design employee. Q - What kinds of things should I write? A - Link to reputable newspaper articles about your product or service. Vary your content by trying to write a humorous story now and then. Post photos of recent work or new products. Send Season's Greetings News about new employees Manufacturer tips Your company's community involvement Environmental angle if applicable Q - How can I make it easy for my contacts to LIKE my business on Facebook? A - Add a link to your BUSINESS FACEBOOK PAGE to your e-mail signature. Every time you send an e-mail to someone they will have the opportunity to click on "Like us on Facebook" directly underneath your sign-off.

NEW SERVICE! CUSTOM FACEBOOK PAGES FOR BUSINESS

Customize your business FACEBOOK PAGE with logo, slide show, video and other cool stuff. Lumino Web Design is now offering bespoke business Facebook pages. We create a customized Facebook Page, then integrate a Comments plugin and RSS Feed to provide customer service and enable conversations with friends and your overall client community. We add Like Buttons on your site to encourage people to share and surface their tastes, two ways that improve your ability to curate content. Hello grapevine! Call for quote 1-772-563-8255.

Lumino Web Design launched a new website and web store for Nordic Cab. The company uses almost all features of the Lumino system. They sell bike trailers in eight countries. Finland needed a bilingual platform, and Norway increased sales dramatically by selling directly over the web. Since Internet marketing and electronic billing are seemlessly integrated, the owners, who travel often, can work from anywhere and pay no “per user” fee.

Google has just launched a major update of its search engine algorithms. The changes are primarily directed at unethical search engine optimization techniques such as "link spamming" or "web farming". Some SEO operators use these techniques to generate traffic to their customers' website. The problem is - the traffic is not genuine, so any advances made on the search engine ladder have no connection whatsoever to increased quality or popularity of the website. We gave an example of this in a previous Lumino news article about J C Penney.

According to the New York Times article - "Seeking to Weed Out Drivel, Google Adjusts Search Engine" - the world's leading search engine has been inundated with complaints about poor quality search results due to "link spamming". Google is utterly dependent on its search results providing the most relevant results possible, otherwise they risk losing their customer base to competitors such as Microsoft Bing or Yahoo. It is extremely important that Google act quickly to disable such techniques as "link spamming" and "web farming".

Google still has 66% of the market share in the USA and even more in other countries, according to the web analysis firm comScore. However, they still face stiff competition from competitors. A company called HitWise measures how satisfied users are with search results by analysing the speed at which they leave a search result after clicking on it. They discovered a satisfaction rate of 86% with Bing users, but only 66% of Google searchers were satisfied with the search results provided. 

The algorithm changes announced by Google this week are expected to produce drastic consequences for low quality websites and unethical search engine optimizers. 

		In Sunday's edition of the New York Times David Segal exposes how even a big player like J C Penney can be brought to its knees when caught trying to pull a fast one on Google. ("The Dirty Little Secrets of Search" NYT February 13, 2011.) For a short period, which included the holiday season, J C Penney came up number one for searches on everything from "dresses" to "carry on luggage". The New York Times investigated and found there were links to J C Penney from thousands of obscure websites - many having nothing to do with the keyword in question. They reported the "link scheme" to Google and, within hours, J C Penney's number-one ratings plummeted to the depths of pages five, six and lower. J C Penney reacted by firing their SEO provider, SearchDex. This story reveals how tempting it is for a business to try to buy their way to the top spot on Google, and it exposes the swift punishment if you get caught. Schemes such as the one deployed by SearchDex are called "black hat" SEO methods and Google repeatedly warns us not to use them. "It takes years to gain a man's trust, and only seconds to lose it."

Sending e-mail flyers to customers is a great way to promote new products, flag an upcoming sale or educate customers on service or features. But how much is too much? Ask yourself how many times you have unsubscribed recently due to sheer annoyance over daily repetitive e-mails from company #$&%$&/!!.

Jay Goltz, who owns five businesses in Chicago, wrote recently on his concerns about over-doing e-mail marketing...

"I think there’s an issue when it comes to e-mail promotion, and I have taken to calling it e-nnoyance elasticity, which refers to how many people will unsubscribe to your e-mail list as you increase the number of e-mails you send out (if you can send out a lot without people unsubscribing, your e-mails are e-nnoyance inelastic)...

I feel that it is important to have an open understanding with our customers about what they should expect if they trust us with their e-mail addresses. But how much is too much? Is once a month too much? Or is that not enough to stay top of mind?...

No doubt, many other companies have experimented and found a frequency that works for them — although I have to say that, based on personal experience, there are still a lot of companies pushing the limits on e-nnoyance. Of course, even if I choose to opt out, these companies may still have found a number that works for them.

There are many variables including new offerings, seasonality of the product, and competition. We have decided to limit our e-mailings to, at the most, once a month."

Jay Goltz, New York Times Online Edition, January 27, 2011, 7:00 AM

PayPal reported a 300% increase in payments via cell phones for the period from November 15th to December 15th, according to Techcrunch. PayPal has recently updated its iPhone app with the ability to make donations to a number of charitíes - and has experienced a 67% increase in mobile donations this holiday season compared to last year.

Statistics like this - a 300% increase in mobile payments and a significant increase in "normal" e-commerce - show that e-commerce is continuing its strong growth. More and more people choose to do their Christmas shopping from the comfort of their couch instead of driving to a busy mall. Many are using an iPad or iPhone this year instead of the standard desktop computer or laptop.

Shouldn't you also be selling your products and services online? Don't miss out on this significant market opportunity!