http://guavagraphics.com Simple, Beautiful and Effective Results. Mon, 23 Apr 2012 22:44:26 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://guavagraphics.com/business-email-signature-etiquette/ http://guavagraphics.com/business-email-signature-etiquette/#comments Thu, 12 May 2011 19:51:44 +0000 Susan Venancio http://guavagraphics.com/?p=459 Create a long email signature: To do this, a good rule of thumb is to try staying within 4-6 lines of text with 70-80 characters or less in each line for your fundamental default signature, which should include sufficient contact details for your recipient to view on a new email conversation. For example your long email signature should include:

• Closing sentiment, like “Sincerely” or “Best Regards”
• Your name
• Title/Department
• Company name
• Best phone number(s) – office direct line/mobile are best, not more
• Company website link, which will provide any additional details, such as business        address, etc. Make sure it is easy to find on your website!
• Optional business appropriate signature add-ons could also include your business motto, current promotable marketing and social media links to your blog, Facebook, and/or Twitter

2.     Create a short email signature: Following similar rules, try staying within 2-3 lines, which will be used as a closing signature for any of your ongoing conversations. For example your short email signature should include:

• Closing sentiment, like “Thank you”
• Your name
• Best phone number(s) – office direct line/mobile
• Company website link

3.     Create an internal email signature: Again following similar rules as the short email signature. Keeping in mind your coworkers do not need any of your contact information. To sign your internal company conversations try using:

• Closing sentiment, like “Take care”
• Your name
• If you work for a large company, you may want to consider using your title/department / direct extention

Other general rules to follow when creating an email signature is to maintain the same font, bolding the font is acceptable, but changing the size and color is widely found to be obnoxious. No fancy creative formatting, please! When using social media buttons keep the pixel size to approximately 50×50, not larger. Also, when typing your website address you will need to include the “http://” to make sure the URL is recognized as a clickable link regardless of the recipients software or platform. The key is to make your signature simple, drive the recipient to your website where all the marketing and additional information can be found. After all, you want your website to do the selling and bragging, not your email signature. Cheers!]]> http://guavagraphics.com/business-email-signature-etiquette/feed/ 0 http://guavagraphics.com/online-incentive-marketing-strategies/ http://guavagraphics.com/online-incentive-marketing-strategies/#comments Mon, 05 Jul 2010 23:06:16 +0000 Susan Venancio http://guavagraphics.com/?p=417

Find future new customers

Increase website traffic

Build your marketing prospect list

Strengthen your loyalty with existing customer relationships

Immediate sales increases

Company gets exposure

Increases new/existing product or service exposure

Increase marketing research survey response rates

Improve product/services using contestant ideas

Testimonial responses

This is a great tactic to generate an online buzz for whatever you decide to promote. As said before: People love to win FREE stuff! This should be a win/win. To be sure of a win/win measure your efforts. You want your efforts to get the attention it deserves. Creating a landing page or a micro site will make it easy to track your measurable desired data. Best wishes for a successful online incentive marketing campaign. Cheers!]]> http://guavagraphics.com/online-incentive-marketing-strategies/feed/ 0 http://guavagraphics.com/online-reviews/ http://guavagraphics.com/online-reviews/#comments Mon, 28 Jun 2010 21:42:49 +0000 Susan Venancio http://guavagraphics.com/?p=410 http://www.yelp.com/business?country=US. This is another great tool to add to your marketing portfolio.  It provides a great opportunity to listen and nurture your customer relationships. To get started, offer your customers an incentive to write a review. With their receipt or invoice, produce an invitation with the information needed to write the review, plus an incentive on the spot, like a freebie of some sort or coupon (Who does that? You just exceeded their expectations – that’s excellent!) And in your next e-newsletter or marketing e-mail invite your customer to write a review, give them a coupon incentive upfront too. Let everyone know that another special offer will be waiting on your Yelp profile. To make it an even better marketing experience, make it a habit of responding to all your reviews. Set time aside each day or week, depending on your review volume. Customers love to know that their review was noticed, even if the review was negative. Negative reviews are opportunities to improve what you do and often result in a more loyal customer. Word of mouth marketing is powerful. An online review forum makes it even more powerful. I hope you like this marketing tip and take advantage of it. Cheers!]]> http://guavagraphics.com/online-reviews/feed/ 0 http://guavagraphics.com/online-customer-survey/ http://guavagraphics.com/online-customer-survey/#comments Mon, 21 Jun 2010 21:36:46 +0000 Susan Venancio http://guavagraphics.com/?p=404

Start with your objectives. Clearly define what you want to accomplish. Do you want to; spot trends, know your customer satisfaction rate, or improve your product/service.

Have clear concise questions and answer options. Use specific close-ended questions with 6 or less radio button answers to make the process fast and easy on the customer.

Introduce your survey. In a polite tone, tell you customer why you are asking the questions; how long it will take, and explain what you’ll be doing with the results. For a high response rate allow your survey to take 5 minutes or less to complete and offer incentives. Incentives can generally increase responses by 50%.

Test you survey. You can send the survey to a select employee group first, make changes as necessary, and then send to a sample test group before announcing or sending the survey to your full marketing list of customers.

Share the results. Once all of the survey data has been collected and analyzed, post your findings and the action your company will be taking. Customers will be more responsive in the future. People love knowing their opinion makes a difference.

Additionally, the best days to send out surveys are Tuesdays, Wednesday, and Thursday. Test it; you will see what day of the week works best for the responses you would like to have. Also, depending on your response timeline, using a reminder can boost the number of responses. If you are looking for an out of the box online survey analytics company, try: http://www.surveymonkey.com/, http://www.zoomerang.com/, or http://www.questionpro.com/. 3 Cheers for an Online Customer Survey! Hip, Hip, Hooray! Hip, Hip, Hooray! Hip, Hip, Hooray to Online Customer Surveys!]]> http://guavagraphics.com/online-customer-survey/feed/ 0 http://guavagraphics.com/writing-designing-email-newsletter/ http://guavagraphics.com/writing-designing-email-newsletter/#comments Mon, 14 Jun 2010 22:56:33 +0000 Susan Venancio http://guavagraphics.com/?p=395

Make it simple, easy to read, and quickly scan-able with easy navigation. Format with a 12 pt. size font (I like Arial typestyle) in dark font color on a light background, publish only 3-5 articles, using a few compelling pictures and add a clickable table of contents with article titles at the top. For articles that have over 200-300 words, add a “read more” link to take your reader to your website for the full details.

Set your standards. Keeping the same colors, article and promotional placement, and number of articles; sets a predictable standard that customers love.

Establish a publishing schedule. Decide and commit to sending your newsletter at regular intervals. For example, if you were to publish a monthly newsletter, email it on the first Monday of each month. This too, helps establish a predictable standard that customers love.

Format for the preview pane. Most people view their emails through the preview pane, so format the top 200-300 pixels with the most engaging and irresistible material.

The 80/20 content rule. 80% of the newsletter content should be engagingly useful tip oriented articles and 20% promotional sales content.

Subscriber access on the homepage. Put a subscribe box at the top of the homepage, only asking for the subscriber’s email address. Give the subscriber an opportunity to view current and previous issues. Also, offer a share button. And make your privacy policy easily accessible.

Check it out. Send your newsletter to email clients, such as, Outlook, Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail to ensure quality viewing results in these various environments.

Measure the results. Analyze what works and what does not work after each newsletter. Find out the: delivery rate, open rate, click-through rate, sales rate and sign-up growth rate.

An email newsletter is another opportunity to showcase your company’s personality. Also use your target audience, competition and newsletters you receive to help guide you towards writing and designing a great newsletter. If you are looking for material inspiration to cover in your newsletter try: a main editorial, “From the President” article, testimonials, special featured products/services, upcoming events, promotions, coupon, other industry expert interviews with tips/best practices, FAQ section where you answer customer submitted questions, customer feedback, surveys, or enter a contest. I hope these tips help you write and design an irresistible newsletter. Get creative and have fun! Cheers!]]> http://guavagraphics.com/writing-designing-email-newsletter/feed/ 0 http://guavagraphics.com/mobile-app-vs-mobile-website/ http://guavagraphics.com/mobile-app-vs-mobile-website/#comments Mon, 07 Jun 2010 23:04:43 +0000 Susan Venancio http://guavagraphics.com/?p=391

Is developed for a specific mobile device, download and installation required.

Updates, download and installation required.

Development required for each mobile device platform.

Your business will need a very large budget with a well-defined strategy to get top rankings to be found with the search engines.

App store approvals may be required.

Ability to use all GPS, camera, voice, RFID, address book, calendar capabilities.

There can be publishing/certifications fees.

Costs more to develop/maintain. Consider your businesses updates, plus updates as devices change.

Sales revenues are shared with app store.

User has full control and is seamlessly integrated with the mobile device.

Mobile Website

• Is developed specifically for mobile devices, no downloads or installation required.
• Updates automatically available.
• Runs on all web enabled mobile devices.
• A good SEO marketing strategy will increase your traffic volume.
• Anyone can access your mobile website.
• For security and privacy concerns access to address books/calendars are limited.
• No publishing/certification fees.
• Costs less to develop/maintain. Your developer has complete access for updates when requested.
• Sales revenues are the businesses.
• User experience depends on your mobile website design.

Understanding the who, what, and where of your user base will also be of great benefit to you. Even though mobile apps are all the rage in popularity and lots of fun, look at all your options to pick the best solution for your business to go mobile style. Please choose your mobile style wisely. And remember to be a responsible mobile device user. Cheers!]]> http://guavagraphics.com/mobile-app-vs-mobile-website/feed/ 0 http://guavagraphics.com/your-homepage/ http://guavagraphics.com/your-homepage/#comments Tue, 01 Jun 2010 22:00:58 +0000 Susan Venancio http://guavagraphics.com/?p=387

An effective tagline: make it memorable and clear with 3-7 words that reflects the personality of your company.

A visible title tag: Using 65-70 characters or less; starting with your company name followed by the use of relevant keywords and/or phrases relevant to homepage searches.

An “About” section: Provide a place to give more details about your company.

5 Items: List the top 5 most important things your users will gain from your web site.

An easy to find and use search box.

Show your best articles, products, and promotions, etc. on your homepage.

Links need to be listed by relevant words to be visitor friendly.

Archive: Provide an archive of featured homepage articles, product, and promotions, etc.

Keep it simple: Avoid elaborate illustrations, boxes, and colors.

Meaningful images: Your homepage images should create a lasting impression that best reflects your company.

Add value to your business by enhancing your web site’s homepage by utilizing these suggestions. It is well worth the investment. Make your visitor’s happy today! Cheers!]]> http://guavagraphics.com/your-homepage/feed/ 0 http://guavagraphics.com/thank-you-has-power/ http://guavagraphics.com/thank-you-has-power/#comments Mon, 17 May 2010 20:18:41 +0000 Susan Venancio http://guavagraphics.com/?p=375

Sales calls, presentations, demos

New customers

Existing customers’ loyalty

Job well done by an employee, vender, or peer, etc.

Business referrals

Did someone give you good advice?

Did someone do you a favor?

Did someone show you kindness?

Send out compliments, testimonials

Complaints. Complaints come from people who want to do business, so, fix the problem, and thank the person for bringing it to your attention. Make sure to tell them what you did to fix the problem.

Thank you! These are two magical words that you can easily add to your marketing strategy that will not let you down. You will find that it creates more business opportunities, opens more doors, and attracts more people to you. It makes others feel good and most people do not make the effort. So, go get some plain quality stationary to get started today. That’s a powerful marketing tool and a customer service WOW! Remember, sincere goodwill creates opportunity. Cheers!]]> http://guavagraphics.com/thank-you-has-power/feed/ 0 http://guavagraphics.com/%e2%80%9cwow%e2%80%9d-customer-service/ http://guavagraphics.com/%e2%80%9cwow%e2%80%9d-customer-service/#comments Mon, 10 May 2010 19:34:33 +0000 Susan Venancio http://guavagraphics.com/?p=370

Always pleasantly greet your customer with a warm sincere smile, even on the phone. Face-to-face you want to immediately acknowledge your customer with your pleasant greeting; making eye contact and shaking hands when appropriate.

Handle your customer’s request. Understand your customer; listen for the problem, have a true sincere goal of finding out their wants and needs, then do your best to find a solution. Ask who, what, when, where and how questions; maintaining eye contact. This helps build rapport. Customers like that!

Use your customer’s name. Figure out a way to obtain your customer’s name and work it into your customer service routine. People love to hear it. It gives them a feeling of family and belonging. The more you use the name; the easier it is to remember, too.

Once you think you have handled the request, ask, “Is there anything else?”. Taking the time to ask this question, even if you were handling a complaint, results in a happy customer.

In the end always say “thank you” with the same warm sincere smile and wish your customer a good day, remembering to use their name. Your customer will love it.

Hire great people, train your team, go the extra mile and treat your employees well. In the end it is your company’s bottom line, which is your responsibility. Have a fantastic day and thank you for reading. Cheers!]]> http://guavagraphics.com/%e2%80%9cwow%e2%80%9d-customer-service/feed/ 0 http://guavagraphics.com/whats-a-landing-page/ http://guavagraphics.com/whats-a-landing-page/#comments Mon, 01 Mar 2010 10:44:43 +0000 Susan Venancio http://guavagraphics.com/?p=274 A Landing page is a single page dedicated to one product or service. It provides your visitor everything they need to know in order make a decision to buy. A Landing page is where your visitor is converted to a customer, which plays a big role in your online marketing strategy. Below are some tips for your Landing page design.

1. Use the F-Pattern Eye Tracking Principle: Format your page in an F-Pattern, Jakob Nielsen’s research shows a visitor’s reading pattern follows the shape of the letter F. So put your important information and images along the top and down the left side of the page.
2. Important elements: Give your visitor all the information on the first page. Get right to the point without having your visitor scroll for additional information.
3. Colors/visual images: Use the same marketing colors and images on the web as you use in print. This will reassure your visitor that they have “landed” on the correct page.
4. Keep it simple: Use one column with lots white space, having 5 lines per paragraph. Your visitor’s reading comprehension will be faster using this format.
5. Use standardized form: Your links should be clearly identifiable by using the underline and your description short and specific.

Something else to consider, is your competition. Visit your competitor’s site, discover what their Landing pages are like. Take notes regarding where you found the process to be difficult, even in the slightest way. Their weakness can become your strength. I see a happy visitor becoming a happy customer in your future. And like I’ve said before, a happy customer means repeat business. Are we all happy now?!?]]> http://guavagraphics.com/whats-a-landing-page/feed/ 0