Category: Articles 🔎

With new sources of entertainment and information constantly competing for brainspace, it’s little wonder there are so many great companies lost in the roar. An integrated, consistent, seamless message stands out in the noise like a quiet pause.

Let’s say you’re the marketing officer at a luxury hotel, and you’ve been tasked with increasing the number of heads in the beds. We’ll walk you through the steps of an integrated campaign to help you reach that goal.

Define your goal

Wait, didn’t we just say our goal is to increase the number of heads in beds? We did, but that isn’t what we call a SMART goal. A smart goal is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. So, the SMART version of this goal would read something like:

Increase the number of heads in beds by 15 percent over the next year.

Know your audience

Once you’ve defined your goal, it’s time to define your audience. You have to understand your audience, sometimes called personas, to reach them with a message that resonates. This is called a human-centered approach. One way to do this is to review your past clientele and customers. You should be able to answer questions like:

• Gender breakdown
• Age
• Average income
• Location
• Occupations

A persona for a luxury hotel might be described as:

Luxury Larry is a 50-something business traveler. As an executive at a high-end tech company, he needs a quiet place that feels like home to rest and recharge between meetings and events. He often leads conferences and meetings, and needs a single venue that provides housing, meeting space and amenities, such as meals, for several dozen employees. Larry also likes to bring his wife and family along—and encourages others to follow suit. So, the ideal place has other amenities, such as pools and day spas, to entertain the family. He also likes hotels that are conveniently located near fine dining, shopping and other attractions.

Pick your channels

Now that you’ve defined your audience, think about what channels are best to reach them. An integrated campaign should resemble pieces of a puzzle, so it’s also important to consider how all pieces of marketing work together: digital, print, video, public relations, inbound and more. For example, the campaign might look like this:

• Ads running on Google and social media promoting a special deal
• A news story detailing renovations or offerings in the hotel
• Organic social media posts of guests enjoying themselves
• A blog post on your website about amenities
• Billboards and print ads

Tactics on all of these different channels will point back to one place: your website. Your website will serve as the information hub for booking, pricing and essential details travelers need to know.  

Create adaptable messaging

Integrating the advertising campaign doesn’t translate to stamping the same logo/image/tagline on every product or media available. Create a single message that can be adapted to best fit the platform.

Track and report

The only way to know if your campaign was successful is to track your results. Let’s go back to our SMART goal:

Increase the number of heads in beds by 15 percent over the next year.

Tracking doesn’t mean starting your campaign and not touching it again until the end. Monitor your results over time to ensure you’re on pace to meet your goal, and adjust if necessary. Remember to review stats like website visits, landing page conversions, and ask visitors how they heard about your hotel.

Integrated marketing is about more than just putting all your marketing eggs in one basket. It’s about coming up with an effective, actionable game plan, where the value of the whole is much greater than the sum of the parts. It’s about creating rich, engaging content to convey your message to the target audience. It’s about determining what your target audience cares about, and who they really are. It’s about leaving your assumptions behind and digging in to find out what’s really effective, and who’s actually paying attention.

Ready to get started? Contact us today!

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO for short, is comprised of dozens of factors —website age, structure, size, content, meta descriptions and more. All of these factors are at the mercy of Google Algorithm updates, so keeping up with your SEO may seem like a daunting task. The best way to keep up with your SEO is to stick to the basics: optimizing your site with specific keywords relevant to your business through on-page SEO. On-page SEO determines how your website “talks” to a search engine, so to speak, and nailing your on-page SEO will help you rank higher in search engine results. So, where should you start?

Choose Your Keywords

Let’s say you’re craving some pizza one night but unsure where the closest pizza place is. The first thing you’ll do is hop on your computer or smartphone to google something like “pizza delivery in knoxville tn.” Voila! Google gives you a robust list of pizza places in your proximity.

When developing a keyword strategy for your business, identify the products or services you offer, then think about what keywords people use to search for that product or service.

For example, if someone is searching for pizza delivery near them, they won’t simply search “pizza” or “pizza delivery.” The search will likely specify something like “pizza delivery in knoxville tennessee.”

Still not sure what keywords you should place on your site? Check out this blog.

Audit Your Site

Whether you’re optimizing a current site or a brand new site, the first step is to perform an SEO audit. Our friends at Hubspot put together a free video series to walk you through an SEO audit. Essentially, it will look something like this:

1. Arrange all your site pages in an Excel document
2. Categorize each page
3. Select specific, long-tail keywords based on the page content

(Naturally) Place Your Keywords

When you’re optimizing existing pages, ensure your keyword appears naturally—don’t force it! Search engine optimization is as much about human users as it is about crawl bots. Keep the humans and the bots happy by focusing each page around one, specific, long-tailed keyword.

This same rule applies when you’re creating new pages. Pick your keyword before you begin to write content around it.

Where Should I Place Keywords?

For your optimization efforts to be effective, place your keywords in the right places:

• In the meta description
• In the title tag
• As image alt text
• On the page, in the first paragraph of copy and in headings
• In the URL

Placing keywords in these specific locations will boost your SEO, as well as your click-through rate.

Ok. I’ve updated my site pages. What’s next?

To stay on top of your on-page SEO, always add metadata when you add new pages, and regularly update your blog with content optimized around your keywords. It may take some time before you see the fruits of your labor. There are many factors that contribute to SEO, and many take time to accumulate. We recommend checking in with your keyword rankings and other basic SEO stats around once per quarter.

Were my efforts successful?

If you start seeing your site moving up the search engine rankings, you are on the right track. Results-wise, aim to be on the first page—ideally, in the top five. If you’re not seeing movement, try researching better, more targeted keywords or increasing the amount of content you write around that keyword.

Need help optimizing your site for search? Contact us today!

Technical writing is often thought of as proposal writing or instructional writing. However, the principles taught for technical writing span across many industries, especially the creative. Here are just three “technical” lessons that you should consider when writing for a website or a quick ad.

1. Give Me Active, Or Give Me Death

Verbs can be expressed in active or passive voice. Active voice is a subject, verb, object formula. It’s more direct. And when we’re dealing with the need to reach audiences that are swamped by advertising daily, I would argue that being direct is the most important thing we can do as marketers. Passive voice, by contrast, is very often elusive and difficult to understand. By its nature, passive voice creates longer strings of words and gives you no responsible party for the action mentioned. Remember: clarity is key.

2. The Right Tone Zone

Many people confuse voice, tone and personas. So, let’s clear the air on what these things are, so we can accurately understand tone. Tone is more of an attitude about a subject, whereas persona is the voice a writer creates. And voice is often used interchangeably with tone. The only difference is voice, in a literary sense, refers to the truthfulness or authority of the author. Allow me to borrow this quote from my former professor, Dr. Hirst: “The best way to understand tone, I think, is to regard it as the servant of persona.”

So, why worry about tone? Because it links directly with everything. Tone will define your attitude, whether or not you use jargon, what words you use … everything! So—to make a short story long—find the right tone for clients.

3. Writing Ethically

In advertising, audiences vary greatly. With that variance comes the need to write ethically; meaning our words need to be true, helpful and inoffensive. That’s why we research before we start projects. It’s so important to not offend your audience in advertising, either intentionally or unintentionally. Do you say hearing impaired or deaf? That’s a very important conversation to those who are deaf. Being inclusive isn’t hard, but you have to know the difference between these words and what they mean in respect to the people who are inclusive of them. Gender-neutrality can spare you some time as well. Humankind, doctor, police officer, nurse, chair, home maker; not mankind, lady doctor, policeman, male nurse, chairman, housewife. For clarity on certain issues, refer to your stylebook—The Associated Press, for example.

There are so many more technical writing lessons on coherency, punctuation, word usage and more. But I’ll leave those for you to find. Just know that the advertising world is constantly adapting, so make sure your writing principles are up-to-date. Link up with professionals that have the cognizance you desire. And as always, Designsensory is here to help anyone with questions about advertising in any context. Go use those new skills!

If you’ve ever looked for a new content management system for your website, you know there are hundreds of choices out there to sift through. Which one is the best? There’s no easy answer, because each CMS holds unique features that work for different industries. To help cut through the clutter, we’ve outlined the pros and cons of three commonly used content management systems here at Designsensory.

WordPress

WordPress is a free platform (though it doesn’t provide hosting) that was initially developed for blogs. Nowadays, it’s a robust system that’s supported by thousands of mostly-free extensions,  suitable for a wide variety of needs such as blogs, marketing and eCommerce. The WordPress CMS is quick to set up and publish on the web. It’s also easy to use, whether you’re new to or experienced with content management systems. If you do need help, WordPress has an active community to support you.

Despite its theoretically limitless customizations, however, many of the ready-made themes look the same. If you wish to create a custom theme or extension, or tweak existing ones, advanced coding knowledge is required. Also, WordPress is known to have exploitable areas in its security. Luckily, WordPress frequently revises the CMS to circumvent this. The downside is that these frequent changes often break extensions and, subsequently, your website.

Squarespace

Squarespace is a paid platform, although hosting and a dedicated 24/7 support team is included. Unlike WordPress, where you install plugins as needed, Squarespace comes as an all-in-one package that covers most features of website building. Squarespace’s drag-and-drop design is both simplistic and user-friendly.

A consequence of this ready-made and simplistic package, Squarespace’s major drawback is it fits your website into a mold. For example, the templates, which have limited customization, rely on large, high quality image backgrounds, and third-party extensions are not supported. Also, while Squarespace boasts is eCommerce functionality, it’s not as robust as other systems. Finally, Squarespace reserves the right to remove your site at its discretion.

 

MODX

MODX is a free platform that provides hosting through MODX Cloud. It provides a clean interface, a high level of security and built-in search engine optimization. Like other content management systems, extensions add additional functionality and are easy to edit with code.

MODX’s biggest drawback is that it takes time to set up, and setting it up requires coding experience. Pre-made themes do not have built-in customization features, and the number of extensions are fewer than other content management systems. If you need help, MODX lacks support and documentation.

 

ExpressionEngine 

ExpressionEngine is a paid platform; although, it does have a feature-limited free version, and hosting is not provided. It’s suitable for a variety of uses, with its wide variety of extensions; people new to content management systems should find it easy to use. If you need help, ExpressionEngine provides both official and community support and documentation.

The biggest drawback to ExpressionEngine is the licensing is expensive up front. Furthermore, certain functionalities are separate charges, limited to three websites per purchase. And while the CMS is easy to use, the unique way of adding content will seem awkward at the beginning. Also, coding knowledge is required to set up the website, and adding extensions are unnecessarily complicated.

 

What’s the Real Difference?

Still can’t decide? Don’t worry. The good news is that content management systems are more similar than different. As developers learn from each other, the systems are likely to become more streamlined. If you feel like these four systems don’t suit your needs, there are plenty more to choose from, including Designsensory’s own DSX, which can be tailored to suit your website’s needs.

Whichever system you choose, keep upgrading. Content management systems will become more usable, more powerful and more familiar. Contact us to set up a web consultation!

Justin Gibson, Designsensory’s quality and support technical manager, was gracious enough to explain the ins and outs of Version Control Systems. Read on to find out what a VCS is, why you should care, and why it’s good for Designsensory and our clients.

Simply put, a Version Control System (VCS), also known as Source Code Management (SCM) or Revision Control System (RCS), is a way to track files over time and view who made the changes and what the changes were. The VCS helps developers make the behind-the-scenes magic happen without worry of losing their work or overwriting something that they may need back. There are a few VCS software options out there. DS uses one called “Git.”

So, how does it work? In Microsoft Word speak, it’s similar to hitting the “save as” button for every change in the project. The VCS constantly creates a new “save point” as coders work on it, without killing the old file. Think about a presentation you’ve worked on. You might have saved each new file with an altered, descriptive name. If you shared the file to be edited by others, you would hope they saved under a new name so you knew which was the most recent/relevant. And then the challenge arose: which file name ending with “final” or “latest” was really the final or latest? Or, heavens forbid, what if you needed to then add changes to that so-called “final” file? It’s a system that made liars of us all. 

Writing code doesn’t so much resemble a linear progression as a fractal phenomenon. Coding projects tend to be much, much larger and more complex than the average presentation or business proposal, so manually tracking each change becomes almost impossible. And managing this with multiple coders simultaneously working? Forget it. 

The VCS makes it simpler to do a long list of project-related tasks:

• Backup and Restore
• Synchronize
• Short-Term Undo
• Long-Term Undo
• Track Changes
• Track Ownership
• Sandboxing
• Branching/Merging

It’s a tool that simplifies the tracking part of a project. It’s the kind of thing that makes coders wonder how in the world they ever got along without it.

VCS also helps check you as you go. If two coders write conflicting changes in the project, the VCS will flag it, which prevents mistakes and glitches. There are other ways to tag and make coding notes in the project through VCS.

VCS is great for a team of coders, but it also works well for personal coding projects. It protects you against erasing hours (or days!) of work in one Mountain Dew-fueled session of coding madness.

There you have it! VCS demystified for the technical non-expert.

A strong social media presence is an important part of your business’s marketing strategy, whether you’re a new business or you’ve been around for years. Social media platforms are constantly evolving, and it’s tempting to join every platform and start posting. But the truth is, it’s best to choose the platforms most applicable to your business and manage them well. Here’s a guide to help you choose which social media platforms are right for you and how to best manage them.
 

Facebook

By far, Facebook has the most users, making it the obvious choice for promoting your business. Over 70 percent of adults have a Facebook account, with ages 25-34 being the most common demographic.

Do:

• Create a free business page and share the page on your website, through e-blasts, etc.
• Create a marketing calendar to determine what you’re going to post about and when you’re going to post it.
• Consider paying for ads to grab the attention of your targeted audience.

Don’t:

• Go in without a plan. Once you build a follower base, you don’t want to lose them. Creating an effective social media marketing plan will help you grow your followers and keep them following you.
• Neglect your page. You need to be sure your company is ready for social and staffed with someone who can manage it. If you don’t have a person in place who can manage your page(s), we can help.

Twitter

Twitter ranks right up there with Facebook when it comes to top social networks. It’s a great platform to address customer service issues, but because of this, it’s important to be active in replying to tweets. The average twitter user follows five businesses, so it’s a smart place to start a conversation with your audience.

Do:

• Create a free business page and share the page on your website, through emails, etc. and maintain a marketing calendar.
• Reply to tweets as quickly as possible.
• Consider adding GIFs and emojis into your posts, when appropriate. Gifs are commonly found on giphy.com.
• Activate Twitter analytics.

Don’t:

• Tweet only about yourself. Retweet others!
• Post long urls; they’re messy! Be sure to shorten like bit.ly.
• Hashtag everything. The hashtag is used to highlight relevant keywords or phrases. Stick to a short hashtag if your content relates to a popular keyword.

LinkedIn

Boasting 450 million active members, LinkedIn is the place to engage other businesses, their decision makers and other professionals, including potential employees and business partners. It’s one of the few social media sites that has more male users than female.

Do:

• Build a company page.
• Customize your content for the professional network.
• Post company updates.

Don’t:

• Just post job openings. Also consider posting your company’s blog entries, sharing industry-related news and celebrating company successes.
• Post like you would on other social media sites. It’s a business audience, so keep it uber professional.
• Remain silent. Connect with other businesses, comment on articles and build respect among your peers.

Instagram

With more than 400 million users, Instagram is a fun way to reach your customers through pictures. It has a younger demographic and even boasts a strong global audience, with 90 percent of its users being younger than 35.

Do:

• Use Instagram stories.
• Link your Instagram and Facebook accounts.
• Be sure you have enough visual content to maintain your page.

Don’t:

• Be mindless about your content. Tailor your content for the individual platform.
• Hashtag everything. Highlight relevant keywords or phrases within your post with hashtag; otherwise, don’t hashtag at all.
• Neglect advertising on Instagram.

Snapchat

Since 2011, Snapchat has grown to 150 million daily users. Did you catch that? Daily! It’s a fun platform to interact with your audience, if your audience uses it.

Do:

• Use other social media platforms to lead people to your Snapchat account.
• Consider creating On-Demand Geofilters for a company event.
• Show transparency. If showing your company’s true colors is important, consider Snapchat as the way to do it.

Don’t:

• Share the same old content. Snapchat is the place to be engaging and creative. You’ll grow a following with unique content.
• Overly polish your content; Snapchat is raw and fun.
• Just post pictures; use videos, too.

Pinterest

The digital scrapbooking start-up site Pinterest has over 100 million users, and those users spend nearly an hour and half using it each month on the site. Since nearly two thirds of its users are women, you’ll really need to know your audience and gage whether it’s the right platform for your business.

Do:

• Pin relevant industries’ pins.
• Create multiple boards and hundreds, if not thousands, of pins.
• Think outside the box and create boards that indirectly relate to your company.

Don’t:

• Exclusively pin your company’s stuff or overly promote yourself.
• Just pin; also optimize your pins with keywords.
• Forget about Promoted Pins, as a way to reach a larger audience.

YouTube

With nearly a third of the people on the Internet using YouTube, it’s definitely a platform you’ll want to consider adding to your social media repertoire. Behind Google, YouTube is considered the second largest search engine in the world.

Do:

• Invest in the right equipment.
• Optimize your content for search engines.
• Keep up with trends and post relevant content.

Don’t:

• Post only one type of video; post both company commercials and internal videos.
• Be afraid of posting longer content.
• Forget about embedding your YouTube links on your company’s website.

Considering any of these social media platforms? Let’s have a chat and discuss what’s right for your business.