Color is fundamental to the way we view the Internet, or more to the point a website. It can influence your reaction and viewing experience and even your buying habits. Color selection often times is more intuitive than thoughtful. This article will discuss the use of color for business site development and offer a few guidelines:
1. Backgrounds:
A common mistake in web design is the use of black as a background. In the trade we call it a tombstone. People may think it looks classy, but more often it is hard on the eyes because you have to read white or yellow type. It is hard to get an overall perspective when one scans the page to get a quick sense of what you are promoting or selling. Yellow backgrounds are also hard on the eyeballs. If you use a background color it should be a pastel like baby blue or cream. White is always a safe alternative.
2. Number of Colors
It is recommended to stay within the 216 browser-safe color palette. We recommend using either 2 or 3 colors and tints of each. Too much color or too many colors are distracting and don’t show a uniformity of purpose. The colors can contrast each other, but must work in combination with one predominate and the other subordinate, for emphasis or highlights.
3. Emotional Palette
Color combinations evoke emotions: orange and blue (excitement); green and blue (harmony); single color with its shades can be effective for professional websites as single mindedness (unity).Red – aggressive, persuasive (use for highlighting, emphasis); Blue – success, serious, calm, trust, sales; Brown or Grey – earthiness, strength, confidence; Neutral Tones – suggest an older audience, soft-sell, mature.
4. Target Market
Consider your audience. If you are selling to mothers or women primarily, then pink, blue and purple will elicit more positive response. They are very nurturing colors, particularly in combo. If your business caters to the medical field, whether a professional, vendor or patient, then green or blue is familiar, comfortable and trustworthy. If your audience is youth oriented, then you can get loud and innovative, using strong colors and aggressive tones.
5. Selling
Blue is the most popular color by far and the first choice in selling. However there is always an exception to the rule and breaking them can be effective if you don’t wander too far from the norm. Remember, people are creatures of habit and you want them to feel comfortable, familiar, particularly when viewing or interacting with a website. For business websites, blues, grays, browns and burgundies are your colors of choice. They connote a seriousness and are more conservative in nature. Again the use of highlight color such as red or green, if used sparingly will grab a viewer’s attention and are effective call to action colors and buttons. Links are generally light blue and are recognized as such.
A Colorful Conclusion
These color guidelines should give you an insight into the psychology of color when branding your website’s color palette. Common sense is also a effective reference. View your competition and see your own reaction to the use and choice of color. Where does your eye go first, second, third? What is your first impression? We are all emotional creatures and business plays to those emotions. Using color to your advantage will put you in a better position to achieve web success.
The Web Success Team specializes in developing and marketing direct response websites that take full advantage of the latest developments on the Internet. The Team has an arsenal of effective web strategies, online marketing tools and proven customized social media techniques to promote your products and services. And we’ll show you ways to increase the amount of qualified traffic to your site.
For more tips, tools and articles of interest, become a fan of the WebSuccessTeam Facebook page and learn more about online marketing, SEO and social media. Visit us at http://www.facebook.com/WebSuccessTeam. Contact the Team today for a complimentary consultation to your web success!
By Bob Speyer and Kristin Tomlinson, Web Success Team
Internet marketing gossip is exploding — and the line between fact and fiction is blurring. If gossiping is a crime, then every blogger and Internet savvy professional needs to be incarcerated for this misdemeanor. What was once an indulgence is becoming a dependency as more and more individuals are turning to various social media outlets to extract their daily dose of breaking news and scandal. Today, people are simply taking a quick glance at their updates on Facebook and Twitter to squeeze out the latest juice. Social media marketing is the driving force behind this Internet sensation, and businesses everywhere are taking notice of its impact on consumers and using it to their advantage. They’re spending less on print ads and relying more on word of mouth through online marketing to establish their web success.
He Said… or Did He?
It’s no secret that a small whisper can turn into a loud buzz through emails, blogs and tweets. Like Michael Jackson’s tragic death or the shocking fabrication of the demise of actor Johnny Depp, gossip is an unstoppable force and it’s making a special guest appearance on every text, tweet, and chat room. Whether imported or formed domestically, hoaxes and factual stories alike are making the evening news. As Mark Twain once said, “The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” This was a giant wake up call for marketers who underestimated the power of the digital word to deliver their message. Companies are quickly fanning this fire by to turning their words into actions by using Internet medias to promote their brands, goods and services.
What Happens in Vegas, Goes on the Web
If you want to save a marriage before it’s even begun, do yourself a favor and delete last week’s bachelor party pictures from your camera. Today nothing is safe from the prying eyes of the Internet. When pictures and comments get posted on Facebook, they will go viral on other sites like Flickr, Twitter and YouTube. Even Google is jumping on the bandwagon by indexing Facebook Updates. You can bet your dirty laundry that friend and competitor will read it. With so many social media sites itching to be the first ones to deliver the breaking revelation of the day, nothing ever is kept hush or in the dark anymore. So it is a good practice to discriminate what you post — from a corporate or personal standpoint.
Rumor Control
With Internet gossip running rampant, things can spiral out of control. You may not be able to stop it but you are not helpless either. Managing your reputation is important, especially when your business relies heavily on online marketing to deliver your message. Good communication has always been effective and holds true in this digital era. Be honest, transparent and consistent. Address your detractors online and promote your brand.
There’s a new marketing tool in town you should know about. It’s in Beta testing but it is not only free but produces mountains of great marketing information to help you improve your website. It’s called “Heardable.com,” and quite simple it is the easiest and most efficient way to measure how your online brand is perceived, performs and stacks up against your competition.
Just enter your URL in the free tool and you get a Heardable Score in return. The six measurable sub-scores that will help you determine you brand’s success against your competition are:
1) Portable: Is your site optimized for mobile search? The better positioned you brand is to take advantage of mobile, the higher your ranking and site’s effectiveness. Portability is determined by detecting auto redirects for the four top mobile device platforms; iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Windows Mobile.
2) Shareable: Sharing is a reciprocal exchange, giving and getting. Heardable scans for RSS feeds with the more feeds the more you are likely to share content and thus more engaged in social activity. The more you share, the more you will be picked up and shared as well. Social media is all about engagement. 3) Measurable: Does your website have analytics that track, monitor and optimize site activity, including on-page performance, ecommerce and online advertising? A low score would indicate you need to set up more tracking indicators for your marketing efforts.
4) Actionable: Does your website interact with your visitors and connect with them using visitor focused words? A higher ranking is achieved if your website speaks in personal tones to customers, using ‘you’ or ‘your’ as ways to connect with them. A low ranking focuses more on brand information and corporate policy.
5) Sociable: Word of mouth marketing is becoming a major player in brand image and how consumers react through the power of the purse. Make sure you have a brand blog set up with at least a few employees making regular contributions. Set up social accounts on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg and YouTube immediately and participate on a daily basis.
6) Searchable: Ranking in this category depends on search engine visibility, number of inbound links, and local search determinants. Keywords, original content and linkage to your site will improve your site’s performance and searchability.
Facing Down the Competition
Business is all about competing and the goal is gaining market share and customers. Heardable can give you a powerful tool to find the answers about improving your business and achieve web success. It provides you with real time data that you can use to make better marketing decisions, and turn them into an action-based plan backed by indisputable metrics. Your boss wants proof, well show them the stats!
Brand Comparisons
Heardable’s extensive research of category brand leaders mirrors a Heardable Score. This means you can now get the statistical intelligence to help you dramatically improve your site’s performance and take the lead of your chosen category of business. Heardable Category Overviews factor in over one million URLs covering seven critical areas of analysis.
Learn from the Best Brands
The Heardable 100 is a sort of gold standard of online branding. They share with you the best of the best and what makes them tick. Heardable takes the features and functions that these 100 online brand leaders have in common. There are plenty of take-a-way lessons in this batch to give your site that needed marketing boost.
Make Your Website Heard!
In today’s competitive environment, online branding is critical to building your business online. Getting qualified visitors is a marketing imperative. Tools like Heardable are critical in understanding your site’s performance and visibility. The Web Success Team can analyze and optimize your website, increase your Heardable Score to make it ‘Heard’ throughout the Internet. Contact us today for an complimentary analysis of your website and the effectiveness of your online marketing efforts.
The Web Success Team specializes in developing and marketing direct response websites that take full advantage of the latest developments on the Internet. The Team has an arsenal of effective web strategies, online marketing tools and proven customized social media techniques to promote your products and services. And we’ll show you ways to increase the amount of qualified traffic to your site.
For more tips, tools and articles of interest, become a fan of the WebSuccessTeam Facebook page and learn more about online marketing, SEO and social media. Visit us at http://www.facebook.com/WebSuccessTeam. Contact the Team today for a complimentary consultation to your web success!
The human mind is a remarkable thing, but it can also be fooled. Everyday, whether we want to or not, we are bombarded by advertisements and marketing in magazines, on TV, radio, billboards, etc. Almost everywhere we look, we see ads and brands telling us what we need, adding to our own views and preferences even creating a placebo effect.
Perception Is in the Eye of the Beholder
Stan Reents, PharmD writes in his article “Don’t Underestimate the Power of Suggestion” about how placebos affect the human mind in various studies. One example was a taste test study on different types of vodka. The subjects were asked what their favorite vodka was before the test. However, the results showed that many rated their favorites poorly. Why did they insist that one brand of vodka was their favorite when their taste buds said differently? The answer can be said in two words: brand loyalty.
Brand loyalty is when a consumer buys and continues to buy a specific brand, because he or she believes the product’s features are better. This can be done either consciously or unconsciously. This explains why some people in the above study preferred certain brands of vodka over others despite their liking to them. Those brands favored must have had the right images, features and prices to create a higher perceived level of quality.
Establishing Your Own Online Identity
Creating an online brand will give consumers an image of your company and add interest to your products and/or services. The job of an online marketer is to try to break the habits of the consumers that buy your competitor’s products by offering something fresh, new and better. If you suggest that your product is better, it puts the possibility out there.
Now I’m not advocating lying to potential consumers or offering products and services that are of poor quality. The idea is to sell the best quality that you can offer and to market a specific image in order to attract potential clients.
You want to distinguish your brand from your competitors but in an interesting, positive, and memorable way in order to leave consumers wondering if they should give your products and/or services a chance. Once you have a clear and strong brand image, your products and/or services become something more, a brand. They stop being items and start being something better, different and not something that can be imitated.
Momentum Marketing
Having established a branding, you now need to deliver your message online and keep the momentum going. Obviously your website is “brand central” but you still need to actively promote your brand through direct response marketing and the various social media network marketing channels like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and YouTube. Also you need to support your brand by blogging and article marketing where you can write and post informative content that positions you as an expert in your field. Set a realistic budget for marketing and promotions. If done correctly, it will be well worth the return on investment and move you closer to web success.
The Web Success Team specializes in developing and marketing direct response websites that take full advantage of the latest developments on the Internet. The Team has an arsenal of effective web strategies, online marketing tools and proven customized social media techniques to promote your products and services. And we’ll show you ways to increase the amount of qualified traffic to your site.
For more tips, tools and articles of interest, become a fan of the WebSuccessTeam Facebook page and learn more about online marketing, SEO and social media. Visit us at http://www.facebook.com/WebSuccessTeam. Contact the Team today for a complimentary consultation to your web success!
With the Winter Olympics and Super Bowl just around the corner and with the World Cup taking center stage this summer, sponsors are taking a new and different approach to advertising their brands. They are scrambling to invest more in social media campaigns and less on expensive TV and print advertisements. Aside from the obvious cost savings, the big question is why social media? The answer is two-fold. Social media is personal and it builds relationships. Advertisers are fast recognizing that to build brand loyalty they need to connect with their consumers in new ways through online direct response marketing. What better way than through sports marketing where fans identify with athletes and their national teams.
Social media is playing a critical part in presenting brands and athletes in a manner that interacts with fans on a worldwide basis. It creates anticipation and excitement for fans that can communicate directly with their favorite athlete and connect with them on a more personal level. Social media is enabling brands to create lasting relationships with people around the globe that isn’t possible with television and print media.
The Crossover to the New Media
NBC, who has exclusive broadcast rights to air the Vancouver Olympics, is making a big play with online marketing as a major part of their promotions to achieve web success. It has partnered with the social media firm The Swarm Collective to produce Olympic Pulse, a place where visitors can look up tweets from athletes, Olympic blogs and top trending stories. The Super Bowl promotions have also been very active in social media on Twitter, Facebook and blogging. Athletes and teams are scrambling to hype the event and gain more followers.
In order to prep for the World Cup in the coming months, the corporate partners of FIFA, football’s world governing body, are moving away from the use of traditional TV and billboard campaigns. Instead they are trying out social networking sites to promote their brands, to sell their pitch and build their business online. Calum MacDougall, director of global marketing partnerships at Sony Ericsson, says 2010 will be the first “social networking World Cup.”
Changing the Way the Game Is Played
What makes social media so attractive to powerhouse companies is the realization that more and more people are resorting to popular social destinations like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to get their daily dose of their favorite brands and athletes. In addition to this, these sites come with major audiences and give brands a huge boost and a way to reach millions of consumers. As an added bonus, these sites give brands the viral, online hype that they’ve been searching for in their audiences and their markets. In addition to this, it’s cheaper than spending millions on TV, billboard and print campaigns, and they can get real-time results in relation to how many people are engaging in these sites and taking advantage of their promotional offers.
The consumer has changed and companies have finally recognized that they need to be where the consumers are most responsive. Is social media the advertising vehicle of the future, replacing more traditional media? Probably not, but it may run an effective second.
Ask yourself which is more powerful when you are deciding on a purchase: a referral from a friend or colleague; a printed advertisement; or a sales person.
Not to second guess you, but I bet overwhelmingly it is someone you have direct contact with, someone who has actually purchased the product or service, or has heard good things about it from a trusted friend. Recommendations are sales gold.
This senario falls into the realm of social media networking. It is powerful, it is convincing and it is proven. Companies have spend millions of dollars to promote their brand and to deliver the right message to consumers through traditional advertising. Now the statistics are in and they are moving more of their marketing dollars to the digital/social media arenas.
Here are a few social media facts and figures:
300,000+ businesses use Facebook
300 million people are active Facebook users
100 million viewers are on YouTube
14 million Twitter users
346 million people read blogs; 184 million bloggers
Your new and current business will depend more and more on social media marketing. That’s were the hearts and minds of your customers will be focused. They are relying more on input and personal experiences in decision making that having some Madison Avenue wag influence your decision where to spend your hard earned money.
The paradigm has shifted. Power to the people. As James Frley, CMO Ford stated, “You can’t just say it. You have to get the people to say it to each other.”
Here are just a few real life examples:
Naked Pizza set a one-day sales record using social media marketing. Using Twitter, they increased sales 67% of which 84% were new customers.
An organized tweet-up for Susan G. Komen for the Cure netted 11,000 visitors in 24 hours and countless donations.
Web host provider Moonfruit spent $15,000 on social media and increased their traffic by 300% — translation, a sales bump of 20%.
These stories are not uncommon. Creating and implementing an effective social media marketing plan is as essential to your business as your telephones. Implementing one is a must. There is no getting around that social media done correctly takes time and resources, but the return on investment is there for the taking.
The New Buying Reality
Buying habits have changed. Selling has to catch-up to this new reality. The better news is that it is affordable, considering its reach and appeal. You are building lasting relationships that will continue to pay dividends, or in business terms, profits. How’s that for a return on investment.
Get started today. The Web Success Team can tailor a social media marketing plan to fit your company and to promote your brand.
I recently came across an article in Advertising Age about re-branding Time Warner Cable.
In my very recent past Time Warner Cable was one of my accounts on the creative services side. Being tightly controlled by the large Madison Avenue Advertising Agency. Creativity was very limited.
In this day and age with all the social media avenues Time Warner Cable can find a viable avenue to re-brand the company and its services.
We are a client of Time Warner Cable and find that the company is “stuck” in the last century, as you can see by the comments on the Ad Age post.
They are competing with the Dish, Netflix and many other more “modern” avenues like watching TV online. Customers are their lifeblood and they need to do a better job taking care of them.
I would STRONGLY recommend that Time Warner get a Facebook page and a Twitter page and USE them for customer complaints and suggestions. That would be a start. Then follow what other strong customer oriented brands are doing. Starbucks, JetBlue and others are using Social Media to better communicate their services, offer discounts or specials, field and resolve complaints, and to gain valuable customer feedback. They gain loyalty and repeat business.
Here is one of many “Time Warner Sucks” pages that I found on Facebook. It has over 1,000 members.
A Lesson for Your Business
Throw a rock in a pond and watch it ripple. The bigger the stone, the bigger the consequences. But what does this mean for your business? Do not underestimate the value of social media. It is a unique way to reach out to current and new customers. Business is about building relationships and trust. Keeping open new and popular channels of communication will help grow your business online. And it is a good way to defuse negative press before it gains momentum.
James Cameron’s Avatar has touched a nerve in our collective psyche. Much in the same vein, Social Media has exploded into our digital world, changing the landscape on how we think, react and do business.
What does Avatar and Social Media have in common? They are both brave new worlds that have captured our imagination and have connected us to each other. In a world gone wild with war, natural disasters and the human condition, we all yearn for a place (real or digital) that will give us meaning and a way to express our individuality and our humanity.
Our Primal Need
One of the most striking comparisons of Avatar and Social Media was the interconnectivity of the Na’vi to their natural habitat and to each other. Their umbilicus was a synaptic nerve cord emanating from their head in the form of a long pony tail. When physically connected to another life form, they had pure communication of thoughts and emotions, and could have a symbiotic influence on each other. Social Media networking is fulfilling that primordial need to be connected, to make our presence felt and have the ability to influence and be influenced. In essence, make our voice or vote count. We are not living and breathing avatars, but our digital networking is connecting our avatar to yours.
A modern day analogy happened in the 1960s when the youth felt disenfranchised from our society and found meaning in the proverbial “love-ins.” As the beat poet of that generation, Jerry Rubin, so eloquently noted, “Don’t trust anyone over 30.” Those words resonated around the globe. The youth were connected through rock n roll, the Beatles, the Vietnam War, and flower power. They influenced generations and these baby boomers are still a force today.
The Bonds that Influence Us
Trust is another comparison worth noting between the Movie and Social Media. It is the glue that holds both systems together. The hero in Avatar, Jake Sully, needed to understand the rules, the customs and learn how to move in an alien world. He needed to gain the trust of the Na’vi, not just live amongst them as a intelligence gathering project. But something happened once he truly felt engaged with his mentor and love-interest, he changed and the world changed with him. Social Media has its rules of engagement and if you are to be successful you need to understand that the process takes time. Watch, learn and build trust. Be a part of an online community and actively participate.
The effectiveness of Social Media is in building relationships, making your presence felt in positive non-exploitative ways. Establish your brand of influence, offer content, suggestions, advice, reliability. In Avatar, the Sky People (aka humans) saw “gold” and wanted to mine it, regardless of the environmental impact. Bulldozing your way through the jungle with purely self-interest objectives is counter productive. Short term gains, long term angst.
Standing Ten Feet Tall and Blue
Social Media enhances your brand image and makes you stand out from your competition and be that 10 foot tall blue Avatar. Take the time to understand it, cultivate it and fall in love with it. Enjoy the experience.
What a success! The workshop hosted by the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and VPE Public Relations was packed with eager non profits and companies wanting to learn more about social media marketing and how to implement it for their organizations. The Web Success Team was fully represented with Team colleague and featured speaker, Marci Rosenblum.
1. Knowledge Is Power:
Social Media is a driving force in this new age of media marketing. Some eye-popping statistics: 300 million active Facebook users; 14 million Twitter users; 100 million YouTube viewers per month; 346 million blog readers. And it’s growing exponentially.
2. Your Competition:
Whether you are a non-profit, solopreneur, or small, medium, or large business, your competitors and customers are using social media. You can’t afford not to jump on board, but being a passive player doesn’t cut it. You must be active, aggressive and committed. The good news is that it’s not too late to “catch-up,” grab the opportunity and profit.
3. Benefits of Social Media:
Let’s be candid. You want the opportunity to grow your business. Social Media will help you achieve web success by connecting with people in target market, building relationships, advertising your brand, promoting your products and services, and going viral. You will increase your reach and turn contacts into “friends” and have them evangelize your brand.
4. Time, Management and ROI:
Perception — “We don’t have the resources to actively manage our social media profiles;” “It takes too much time to do social media.” “Where do we begin and how long does it take to see results.” “What is the Return on Investment.”
Reality — There is no instant gratification or magic bullet with social media. The best and most productive way to short cut time management and get results is to hire an authority on social media and have them develop a strategy to be implemented and to train your employees how to effectively manage and promote your brand online through social media marketing.
5. Get Social – A Turnkey Solution:
The Web Success Team can tailor a social media strategy for your business, implement it and train your employees how to effectively manage your social media campaigns. You will save time, money and valuable resources while maximizing your online effectiveness. Contact the Team today for a social media marketing consultation. The time is now to “Get Social!”
Join the Web Success Team for a FREE social media workshop hosted by the L.A. Chamber of Commerce. The workshop is called Latinos and Social Media Strategies for Nonprofits and is on Wednesday, December 16th from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m at Bank of America Room A, B & C on 350 S. Bixel St., Los Angeles 90017. The sponsor is the California Wellness Foundation. The workshop is promoted by VPE, a Hispanic Public Relations firm, whose social media practice area, commUNITY®, is geared to bringing online opportunities to Latinos.
During this one-day workshop, you will learn how to utilize the latest web technology for your organization’s advantage. Presenters will share outreach strategies and how to manage an online presence for your organization in support of your mission. You will get key insights and recommendations to harness the power of new media to maximize your dollars.
Marci Rosenblum – Featured Speaker
Throughout the day there will be guest speakers on a variety of social media topics. Kicking off the morning is Marci Rosenblum, co-founder of the Web Success Team, who will be talking about “Effective Branding in a Social Media World.” Marci will discuss the pros for carrying your brand forward in social networks; and the benefits that it creates for spreading your message to the right demographics.
Other topics include successful social media campaigns. You will learn from nonprofit organizations using social media. This session will focus on successful strategies and challenges in launching social media campaigns including online fundraising, community organizing and civic engagement. The afternoon session will delve into developing social media strategies. You will learn what steps to take before launching a social media effort and strategies to use to engage with your online community.
Take-Aways…
There will be a host of tips, techniques and strategies you will gleam from this one-day workshop. The focus may be on non-profits, but anyone can benefit from the content presented by these social media marketing experts. Some of the workshop take-aways include:
Learning about the most useful web tools for nonprofits.
Discovering the latest trends on how to use Social Media to communicate with constituents.
Conversing with experts on how to develop strategies and manage online presence.
Discussing with organizations that have successfully used social media for promotion, advocacy and fund raising.
Sign-up and join the team for this FREE.
For more information and a schedule of workshop activities and speakers, go to the link: Latinos and Social Media Strategies for Nonprofits. Join the Web Success Team for a day of learning and networking.
TeamWork Builds Web Success
The Web Success Team specializes in building and marketing direct response websites that take full advantage of the latest developments on the Internet. The Team has an arsenal of effective web strategies, online tools and proven techniques to promote your products and services. And we’ll show you ways to increase the amount of qualified traffic to your site through the expanding social media and online marketing strategies.
For more tips, tools and articles of interest, become a fan of the WebSuccessTeam Facebook Page and learn more about online marketing, SEO and social media.
Contact the Team today for a complimentary consultation to your web success!
Internet marketing gossip is exploding — and the line between fact and fiction is blurring. If gossiping is a crime, then every blogger and Internet savvy professional needs to be incarcerated for this misdemeanor. What was once an indulgence is becoming a dependency as more and more individuals are turning to various social media outlets to extract their daily dose of breaking news and scandal. Today, people are simply taking a quick glance at their updates on Facebook and Twitter to squeeze out the latest juice. Social media marketing is the driving force behind this Internet sensation, and businesses everywhere are taking notice of its impact on consumers and using it to their advantage. They’re spending less on print ads and relying more on word of mouth through online marketing to establish their web success.
