Social Media and Advertising in Plain Language

Whether you’re a small business, large company, sole proprietor or other business owner chances are you’re familiar with the world of email newsletters or at least receive some in your own inbox.  Many business leaders have mixed feelings about email newsletters and often struggle to cobble up content let alone feel confident that their efforts are really worth it.  Whether your company has been utilizing email newsletters since the dawn of time or is just getting started make sure you are taking advantage of this powerful medium and making every newsletter count.  Below is a list of some secrets, tips and tricks to maximize the impact of your organization’s email newsletter service.

• Start with a real-life story or engaging piece of content that will captivate your reader’s attention immediately.  You have less than fifteen seconds to capture your reader’s eye and what’s in the viewable top third of your newsletter is of prime value.

• Include several images of faces and close-up images of people’s eyes.  Readers engage with content more often when there is a human component and establish a deeper emotional connection through eye contact.

• Make it personal! Share stories, testimonials, examples and real content from your actual clients, employees and friends.

• Insert links and things to click everywhere. Remember, every click is trackable so you can see what your readers are really interested in.  You might be surprised to learn what parts of your newsletter people actually care about.

• Communicate a deliberate and clear next step for the reader.  What do you want them to do after reading?  What’s the action item required from them?  Know what you want your audience to do before you ever start assembling your newsletter.

• Make sure your contact information is easy to find within the newsletter; phone, email, mailing address and social media links.

• Make sure you have branded your newsletter with a good design keeping it fresh, uncluttered and with just the right amount of images.  Also be sure to use the logo, colors and design cues of your business.

• Insert links to your social networking sites and use the logos and icons of Facebook, Twitter, etc…

• Find the sweet spot of quantity.  Make sure you don’t have too much or too little content.  Imagine yourself in the shoes of your average reader.  Where are they?  What time of day is it?   What kind of mood are they in?  Write for your readers as if you are one of them.

• Create clear and rewarding incentives for your readers to forward your newsletter on to friends.  Get your readers in the habit of forwarding your newsletter to others.

• Make every reader feel like they are part of an elite inner circle.  Each reader should feel special, unique and exclusive.  Create a “VIP” culture within your newsletter.

• Invent deals and incentives that expire.  Create a positive sense of pressure to motivate your readers to action.  Have an amazing deal but only for the first ten people.  Have a great discount but only for three weeks.  Get creative!

• Write immediately useful content. Provide information that a reader can apply right away; not necessarily related to your business but just helpful information that’s fun and easy to understand.

• Create a positive sense of stress; the type of exciting pressure you feel when there is an amazing sale at your favorite department store but only for one day or “while supplies last.”

• Use simple and catchy headlines like:

“The Biggest Secret of…”

“The Top Five Reasons You Should…”

“Three Things You Can Do Right Now to…”

• Get in the habit of creating limited incentive deals like:

Free X for the first 50 people

Buy two X’s and get Y for free

Bring 3 friends and you’ll get X for half off

Refer a friend and you both get X

Get X for 50% off for 24 hours only

Get X for 50% this Saturday only 9am – 9pm

• Send your newsletter out on a Tuesday or Wednesday morning.  Statistics show that this is the best time of the week to send your newsletter.

Remember that most email newsletter services allow you to track metrics after you send your newsletters so that you can quickly see what your subscribers are reading, clicking or ignoring.  Take advantage of this feature and over time you’ll know what kind of content to create for your audience to connect, engage and motivate your readers to action.

Although it’s a little late for April Fools Day please enjoy this chart we came up with to illustrate how social media will NOT make you or your business fabulously wealthy!

[Click image to see large size]

The Munich Group is pleased to announce our sponsorship of the BAAM (Bike Across America) team who is riding across the country this summer to raise money for clean water wells in Zambia. We recently designed and installed their pace car vehicle wrap as well as a BAAM logo and other design work. For more information or to donate to the clean water wells project please visit their Facebook group or Youtube channel

Here’s a video of the pace car and the group somewhere in Nevada.

Here is a sample of some of the vinyl installation:

As a fun project a while back we launched this how-to video about how to paint your car .  Over the months it has increased viewership and visibility and is now a first position first page Google hit.  How did we do this?  Check out the tips and tricks below that you can apply to your own content for getting found online.

Google Ranking Case Study:  What We Did

First we had an opportunity to video a once-in-a-lifetime art project. We got the footage and turned it into a 10 minute DVD which we promptly chopped up into 4 smaller youtube videos.  The content was hands-on demonstration material that you don’t really see everyday.

Next we uploaded it to Youtube making sure to tag the video correctly for Search Engine Optimization.  That means using the search words in the title of the video (How To Paint Your Ride), using tags like “paint, cars, how to, spray paint, mural, etc..” and making sure to give a good description with backlink to the website.

Once we uploaded it we made noticed that people were asking a few specific questions as the months went by.  They were asking about sanding and priming as well as clear coat and the type of paint.  We added video annotations to add some more info to the video.  (click here to learn about annotations)

As people posted comments and other questions we made sure to reply to them promptly.  Many people began subscribing to our Youtube channel.  We made it a point to subscribe back to them and thank them for following us.

Finally we launched additional videos to cover some of the questions that kept popping up and made sure to promote this main video wherever possible.

Youtube promoted the video as a featured video, more people viewed it and passed it along and now it holds the first position Google rank.

Want to see the video?  Just Google it.

If you’re currently in middle school, high school or your late teens and are thinking about a career in digital advertising, web, graphics, video or media here is a list of some tips, advice and resources to help you in your quest!

Try Everything: Get experience in all different kinds of art forms and media.  Don’t get locked into one particular form like making logos, doing video or designing one thing.  Try everything and get experience.

Get Connected:  Participate in forums and networks where you can share your work, get advice, have your work evaluated and get inspired.  Make sure you take advantage of programs and offerings within your school system as well as extra curricular activities.

Get Mentored:  Find someone who’s doing what you want to do one day.  Talk to them, see where they work, how they do things.  A little hands-on experience and job shadowing can go a long long way.

Be Diverse: Start collecting your best work in all different kinds of art forms and media.  Put together a portfolio that shows you are diverse and able to appreciate and work in many different types of design.  Make sure you have a digital presence online even it’s something as simple as a Facebook photo album.

Save Your Work: Get organized and make sure you are saving all your work.  Get in the habit of self-critiquing your work, constantly asking, “How could this be even better?”  If you give away work to a friend or relative make sure you take good pictures of it before you give it away.  Document all your work and keep a standing list of places your work has been used or displayed.

Take Some Risks: Opportunities come to those with skill and initiative, not just people with talent.  Just because you’re good doesn’t mean you’ll get anywhere.  You have to have a marketable skill set as well as the confidence and initiative to go chase down what you want and pursue your goals.  Talent is not enough.

Be Artsy, Be Organized:  You’ve got to constantly grow and develop your skills as a designer, that’s a fact.  But you also have to be a self-starter who is in control of your time and goals and able to organize your life, not just make amazing designs.  There’s nothing more frustrating than a great designer who is sloppy, late and a horrible communicator.  Be responsive, on-time and polite and your designs will be going places before you even show anyone your work.

Show Off: Take advantage of any opportunity to show your work; in school shows, at the local Mall, in your house, in your relative’s houses, community centers, anywhere.  All exposure is good but you have to be the one to initiate getting your work out there.

Explore and Inspire: Search the web for other artists and designers who are doing amazing work.  Check out local shows and displays for inspiration.  Get ideas and motivation from everywhere and everyone and always be analyzing and considering high quality design work.