Twenty-five is a number with a lot of significance in our world. It is the atomic number of manganese, it is the number reserved for the player deemed the best “slugger” on a baseball team, and it is the name of the national board game of India. To the hardworking men and women of the Beasley Direct and Online Marketing agency, however, twenty-five carries a much higher level of significance.

A Walk through History

The Beasley Direct and Online Marketing agency was founded in 1990 by Laurie Beasley after a successful career as a marketing manager for Borland International. After leaving Borland, Laurie began to consult for other software and hardware companies who all recognized the need for an upgraded revenue model. This was rewarding consulting work; however, Laurie began to recognize that companies were having trouble executing the plans. Direct marketing is both science and art, and companies were struggling with both aspects. Eventually, Laurie decided to switch from just being the consultant who built models, to a full-service agency that built the model and executed it using database marketing.

In 2001-2002 the U.S. experienced the dot-com crash. Many agencies went out of business then, but Beasley Direct and Online Marketing thrived by adding a full set of services to help companies get their digital marketing programs up and running, including websites, email programs, and online advertising.

In 2008 the world experienced the Great Recession. Many more agencies went out of business during that year and the years which followed. The members of Beasley Direct jumped in and helped companies shift a heavy proportion of their marketing budgets to online, including search and social media.

Beasley Directs Growth along with Marketing Advances

Despite the challenges of the past, technology moves ever forward. With the arrival of the Internet, a huge shift occurred in marketing. To stay ahead of the curve, Beasley Direct added creative and technical services for developing websites and online advertising. As Internet marketing has progressed, Beasley Direct fought to stay ahead with the addition of sophisticated email and search marketing services, and more recently content marketing and social media services.

“Marketing managers must understand and use a wide array of tools…. We help clients avoid letting the tools replace or hinder good strategy, and to the relief of most of our clients, we help in the day-to-day optimal use of the tools.”–Laurie Beasley, President of Beasley Direct and Online Marketing

With all these advances in marketing technology, a huge need grew in the industry for training marketers to keep up and stay ahead of changes. To meet this growing need, Laurie Beasley created and managed a Certificate in Direct and Online Marketing at San Jose State Professional Studies, and then cloned this program at UCLA Extension, UC Santa Cruz Extension, UC Berkley Extension, and the Online Marketing Institute. Many of the Beasley Direct consulting staff members now teach in these programs.

What Does the Future Hold for Beasley Direct and Online Marketing?

“I believe the future of marketing will evolve with social media and the internet. Mobile marketing will continue to force innovation on marketers to keep their websites, search and social media effective for the mobile user. The introduction of mobile apps, kiosks, and third screen interactivity will provide many more avenues for marketing messaging and lead generation.”–Laurie Beasley

A Message to Other Marketers

“Marketing never stands still, and you need an agency that will keep you ahead of the curve. Beasley Direct has stayed far ahead of the learning curve, adding technical and creative skills to an ever-growing list of media channels.”–Laurie Beasley

With a future that includes wearable technology and a technologically desensitized population, the fight to stay ahead of marketing curves will never be over. However, you can bet that Beasley Direct and Online Marketing will be at the front lines, ready to provide absolute top notch services.

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Elizabeth Beasley, Account Manager, Beasley Direct Marketing

This post was authored by Elizabeth A. Beasley, Account Manager, Beasley Direct Marketing, Inc.

Elizabeth Beasley serves as an account manager at Beasley Direct Marketing, Inc www.BeasleyDirect.com   Elizabeth manages new client onboarding and accounts, social media, corporate presentations, corporate website, and database maintenance. She also serves as an account manager for the Direct Marketing Association of Northern California www.DMAnc.org, managing event logistics, registration and promotion. She holds a B.A. in Communications from National University.

The post Beasley Direct & Online Marketing Agency Celebrates Twenty-Five Years of Great Service appeared first on Beasley Direct and Online Marketing.

By John Thyfault, Vice President of Search & Social Strategy, Beasley Direct Marketing

It can be a disappointing experience to set up a PPC (pay-per-click) account on Google AdWords or Bing! and see initial success—but then when you try to grow the program You see no improvement (or even a reduction) in the results. Sometimes there seems to be an invisible barrier that allows you to achieve early, easier successes. But, it won’t let you through to the big returns.

When this happens, you need to perform a PPC Optimization Audit on your PPC account. This is to analyze the setup and tune it for maximum performance. But don’t rush to a PPC audit too soon. You need to have your account up and running for at least three months. Six months is even better—or there won’t be enough data to be meaningful.

That being said, it is important to perform a PPC Optimization Audit before you get desperate. You don’t want to wait until things aren’t working to look at how to improve overall account performance to grow your business.

The person who set up the account should not be the person who audits the account. Fresh eyes are needed to catch some of the things you might be missing, question assumptions, and revisit decisions.

Day-to-Day Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

First, revisit the larger issues. Such as, where are your ads are serving, how they are set up, and your goals for the account (and have these goals been achieved?). This will allow you to judge whether or not the account is performing according to expectations. Additionally, it will indicate where the account needs to be tweaked if expectations have not been met.

The big three KPIs are click-through rate, cost per click and cost per lead or sale. All three are important, with cost per sale being the top concern. This is a good place to start, and where a lot of people put their focus.

Click-Through Rate:

Do an in-depth analysis to improve your overall click-through rate on the account. First, start to look at click-through on a keyword-by-keyword level. Often you may have keywords that are high volume but low click-through, dragging down the entire campaign. Identifying these high volume/low performance keywords and segregating them into separate ad groups and campaigns will allow you to focus on the top-performing click-through keywords to maximize potential. Because high volume/low performing keywords generate so many impressions, they can steal funds from more productive, lower volume keywords. There are times to outright kill these high volume keywords, and times to sequester them in different AdGroups where you can control how much you spend on them.

The higher the click-through rate you are able to achieve by doing this, particularly on the most valuable keywords, the higher your Quality Score will be, driving down cost per click and improving your average position.

While driven primarily by click-through rate, there are other factors involving Quality Score (which we will discuss in a future post). Quality Score is important because it determines where you appear on a search page. A high Quality Score results in higher page position and usually lower cost per click. We will be discussing Quality Score in depth during an upcoming post.

Cost per Click:

While it appears attractive and simple as a KPI, it isn’t necessarily the most accurate way to measure your account’s performance. Cost per click is often viewed in the aggregate, whether at the ad group, campaign or account level. Again, cost per click is most valuable when analyzing it on a keyword-by-keyword basis. Cost per click needs to be viewed as part of the larger cost per sale/lead equation. It’s important to know how valuable your keywords are on a keyword-by-keyword basis and how that relates to the eventual cost per sale/lead. Some high CPC keywords will attract more qualified customers, while lower CPC may attract more clicks, but convert fewer prospects. The average cost per click of the keywords reflect this; high-frequency/low CPC keywords can sometimes be more expensive than the lower frequency, higher CPC keywords with a stronger conversion rate. Focusing strictly on cost per click doesn’t tell you the whole story about how keywords are actually performing.

Cost per Sale or Lead:

We view this as one of our core metrics. Understanding cost per sale is vital to running an effective campaign over the long term. However, not all sales or leads are equal. As you are performing the account audit, look at the various units in your account—AdGroups, keywords, the ads—and map keywords to your cost per sale metric. Also consider the value of the sale. Is it a one-off or does it have higher value over time? Even if it is a one-off, is it a low revenue sale or high revenue sale? Figure out how to restructure your account to get good, smart, easy-to-use units that you can aggregate into one AdGroup. Give it a budget that will reward that value and form other groups with lesser-value keywords where you can control the costs.

Other Factors To Consider

Overall Impression Share:

Looking at all impressions for a single keyword, what percentage of these are you getting? Having a low Quality Score for the keyword can impact this. Quality Score reflects how relevant a given keyword is, based on its click-through rate, its relevance to the language of your ads and the final landing page(s).

Conversion Rate:

This is the conversion rate once people get to the website. Many people look only at the wide end of the funnel metrics (CTR, CPC, etc.), where the traffic starts, but forget to look at the narrow end—how the individual landing pages perform once a prospect gets to the site. There may be landing page elements that are causing drop-offs in conversions, which you can observe as partially completed forms and abandoned shopping carts. A good, hard look at landing page performance will often allow you to dramatically improve conversion rates and make your marketing dollars work more effectively.

Network Settings, Overall Account Settings:

Some of the elements you should examine include:

• The default setting for new campaigns is “Display Select.” This means that your ads will be displayed next to content on a publisher site along with being shown next to search results on Google. This generates a lot of traffic, but can drive down click-through rates overall because content ads are by nature interruptive; they requires diversion of the user’s attention from the content users are interested in. When your ads appear on the “search” network, they will be more productive because they appear in front of a person who is actively looking for what you are offering.
• If you want to be on the Display Network, examine where your ads are actually appearing and assure that the sites are relevant to your offer. This may curtail reach (and therefore traffic), but this is likely to result in lesser reach with better results, which is desirable.
• When using the display network, some graphic/display ads will work better than text results alone. Focus on immediately attractive offers. You need attention-grabbing graphics and copy to be effective here.

Are You Taking Advantage of Different Device Types?

If your ad is designed for the generous real estate of a desktop computer screen, it will probably not do as well on a mobile pad or smartphone. If you are targeting mobile devices, be sure to include location-specific ads, click-to-call and other techniques designed to optimize mobile ads.

Timing and Seasonality:

Analyze your account performance through the lens of whether your business is 24/7, or if there are days of the week and hours in the day that achieve better results. If the latter is the case, you may be paying for ads appearing on days or at times that don’t produce results. Adjust the timing, save money, and get more out of your investment.

If you have a nationwide business, you need to assure that your ads are set to run at appropriate times in each time zone. Remember that Google sets up the time zone on your account at its inception and this cannot be changed. Every ad you run under a schedule will be served based on this original time zone. You have to consciously set ad timing for other zones so that they are serving when your customers are looking for your products.

Localization:

Google rewards advertisers who go the extra mile by localizing their ads. For example, if you are advertising in France, Google will prioritize French language ads first. Your English language ad will trail far behind. This is a natural reflection of Google’s focus on delivering the best user experience possible—because that is what makes the most money for Google. Make sure that your landing pages are in the local language as well.

Using Ad Extensions on Google AdWords:

Ad Extensions will allow you to add a number of features to your ads, including click-to-call and location-based extensions that tie into a retail store. You can also set up ads so that online reviews show up next your ad. Site Links Extension can allow for additional pages from your site to appear with your ad if it is in the top two ads on the search results page. These often get double-digit click-through rates.

Using Google’s Upgraded URL Structure:

You can apply a template tracking tag set across the entire account that automatically appends to all URLs. This feature is very new, having rolled out on July 1, 2015.

A periodic PPC Optimization Audit of your PPC account will be highly beneficial. You can trim the deadwood activities, focus your dollars on the most productive areas, and lower your cost per lead or sale. More important, you can gain greater insight into what is driving your business and how best to approach it.

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This post was authored by John Thyfault, Vice President of Search & Social Strategy, of Beasley Direct Marketing. Contact John at jthyfault@beasleydirect.com.

John has more than 19 years of marketing, sales and product development experience, and he brings a proven track record of successful campaign, program and product development expertise. His knowledge of search engine optimization and marketing, combined with an in-depth understanding of customer identification, market analysis and segmentation, allows him to deliver high returns on our client’s marketing investment for both business-to-consumer and business-to-business markets.

Prior to working with Beasley Direct, John was Senior Client Services Project Director at ThirdAge.com, a first wave baby boomer lifestyle and community website. At ThirdAge he successfully led major client sponsorships for Fortune 100 companies in healthcare (Tylenol), financial services (American Century), technology (Intel & IBM) and consumer products areas (Revlon & Viactive). He was responsible for strategic and tactical goal setting, project management, new product creation and web site production. John previously worked in Channel Marketing and National Account Sales for IDG Books Worldwide, the publishers of the immensely popular “…For Dummies” book series. Additionally, he managed the wholesale distributor sales channel for Tor/Forge Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press.

John is active in local marketing associations, including the Direct Marketing Association, the Business Marketing Association and is currently serving on the board of directors for the Silicon Valley American Marketing Association.

John has taught search engine marketing fundamentals extensively. He has led workshops for the Silicon Valley American Marketing Association, Northern California Direct Marketing Association (DMAnc.org) and the Business Marketing Association. He also teaches Search Engine Marketing at UCSC’s Extension in Silicon Valley.

The post How To Do a PPC Optimization Audit on Your Account appeared first on Beasley Direct and Online Marketing.

By John Thyfault, Vice President of Search & Social Strategy, Beasley Direct Marketing

 Local & Mobile SEO Go Hand-in-Hand

One of the great advantages of the Internet is global reach. For the first time in human history, anyone can send a message that potentially will be seen in every corner of the earth. It was only after we came down from this global high that we realized that most business is transacted locally, and we needed a way to make Internet searching effective at the local level. After all, 30% of all searches have local intent, and most of these searches are also commercially related—that is, the searcher intends to spend money.

This brings mobile SEO into play. Fifty-nine percent of all local-intent searches are performed on a mobile device, usually while the searcher is on the go, and often when the searcher is ready to purchase. So optimizing local search marketing also means optimizing mobile search.

In late 2014, Google began sending notices via Webmaster’s Tools, identifying issues for mobile search. In late February of this year, Google announced it will be incorporating mobile SEO ranking factors into mobile phone searches—meaning that if your site isn’t mobile, your site will not rank well on mobile searches and your traffic will suffer. (See our blog posting, “Get Your Mobile Site Ready: Google Making Changes to Mobile Algorithm.”)

Google noted the following common errors in the way mobile sites are set up. All of them make mobile searching more difficult and frustrating:

• Blocked JavaScript
• Unplayable content
• Faulty redirects
• Mobile-only 404 error notices
• App download interstitials
• Irrelevant cross-links
• Slow mobile pages

Most B2C local searches have a strong geographical component because the searcher is usually looking for the nearest location where they get can the product or service that you are offering. They do not want to wait for shipping of products and are looking for local help that can be accessed in person.

On the other hand, most B2B local searches are for professional services and products, so the geographical components are often focused on a service area instead of a store. For example, the searcher seeking “Bay Area copier repair” would be seeking a site that promises to have their local copier technicians arrive in a timely manner.

Best Practices in Local SEO

Google’s local search algorithm, known as Pigeon, brought more traditional factors into the local mix such as links and on-page content, and gives more importance to directories.

Google My Business (AKA “Google Places for Business” or “Google + for Business”)

Google My Business is the current incarnation of Google+/Google Places business focused pages. This has been a constantly shifting interface for the business owner to use over the last four years. It requires regular attention to build your visibility and assure its shelf life. Google My Business is the ideal place to add content so that Google can see it immediately. Business information, product and service offerings, and physical address need to stay current on your Google My Business page. The reviews that your customers post and the +1’s that they click will all help to drive your site up in the search results. You can also use Google My Business to post local news and events for your business that Google will instantly see and work into their search results.

To help your site appear on Google’s map thumbnail in the search results add a Google map page to your Google My Business page. Once that is done, copy the link from the Google My Business map and embed it as the map on your main website.

Remember not to use reviews or +1’s on your site from Google My Business. Google frowns on this practice as creating “duplicate content” and will treat the copying of the +1s and reviews from your Google My Business page to your site as a form of plagiarism, discounting the value of them on both your Google My Business page and your website.

Directories

Getting listed on directories thus becomes even more important. While directories assume greater importance and value under the new changes, it is still important to assure that the directories are curated and subject-specific. Google discounts directories that are a mishmash of unrelated business and services, or full of broken links and no-longer-extant businesses. However, even very locally focused directories are useful—neighborhood associations, local charities or a directory of businesses specific to a particular neighborhood, for example.

Once you’re in a directory, do everything you can to rank well within the directory. Local directories can get listed high in the Google search results when they are quality, relevant directories. Analyze the sites that are ranking well, learn from what they are doing successfully in the directory’s eyes, and use this data to drive your site to the top of the directories—and in turn, to the top of Google search results. This is called “Barnacle SEO,” with your directory listing being the barnacle on the much bigger “ship” that is the directory. Your listing “lives” on the ship and travels with it to the bigger Google search results. You can find some great best practices on barnacle SEO at Moz’s WhiteBoard Friday webcast.

Reviews

Reviews are extremely important in helping to boost your ranking locally and on mobile. Get reviews on your social media, such as Google My Business, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Third-party reviews on sites such as Yelp! are key drivers in the Apple (iOS) Maps app. There are tools out there to help you maximize the impact of reviews. Look into BazaarVoice and similar services.

Be sure not to duplicate content from one review site to another, as this makes it appear that the reviews are not from genuine consumers. Also, never engage a service that promises hundreds of great reviews. Search engines are smart enough to detect fake reviews through similar language patterns, and this will work against you, not for you.

Claim Your Social Media Territory and Work It

Social media is a hungry beast. You have to feed it all the time for it to be successful. Obviously, you can’t participate in every social media platform out there—nor should you. Pick the ones that are most likely to reach your audience. In B2B, these would likely be Facebook, Google my Business, LinkedIn and Twitter. For B2C, you might add others such as Pinterest or Tumblr.

Social media (if properly cultivated) is also a great, no-cost way to send out announcements and invitations to local events.

Consistency Is Key to Local & Mobile SEO

Google rewards sites that show local events, items that will interest the intended audience, and consistent new content. Work at refreshing site content frequently (and remember, it’s not all about you; it’s about your customers).

If your site is set up to generate sales or leads, that is a promise to your customers that you will respond quickly. Make sure you don’t break your promise.

Interact with your customers every chance you get. This demonstrates commitment to customer service and builds preference and loyalty.

For more information on local search marketing, read our guide Optimizing Local Search Marketing.

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This post was authored by John Thyfault, Vice President of Search & Social Strategy, of Beasley Direct Marketing. Contact John at jthyfault@beasleydirect.com.

John Thyfault, VP Search and Social Marketing, Beasley Direct Marketing

John has more than 18 years of marketing, sales and product development experience, and he brings a proven track record of successful campaign, program and product development expertise. His knowledge of search engine optimization and marketing, combined with an in-depth understanding of customer identification, market analysis and segmentation, allows him to deliver high returns on our client’s marketing investment for both business-to-consumer and business-to-business markets.

Prior to working with Beasley Direct, John was Senior Client Services Project Director at ThirdAge.com, a first wave baby boomer lifestyle and community website. At ThirdAge he successfully led major client sponsorships for Fortune 100 companies in healthcare (Tylenol), financial services (American Century), technology (Intel & IBM) and consumer products areas (Revlon & Viactive). He was responsible for strategic and tactical goal setting, project management, new product creation and web site production. John previously worked in Channel Marketing and National Account Sales for IDG Books Worldwide, the publishers of the immensely popular “…For Dummies” book series. Additionally, he managed the wholesale distributor sales channel for Tor/Forge Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press.

John is active in local marketing associations, including the Direct Marketing Association, the Business Marketing Association and is currently serving on the board of directors for the Silicon Valley American Marketing Association.

John has taught search engine marketing fundamentals extensively. He has led workshops for the Silicon Valley American Marketing Association, Northern California Direct Marketing Association (DMAnc.org) and the Business Marketing Association. He also teaches Search Engine Marketing at (UCSC’s Silicon Valley Extension).

The post Why Local & Mobile SEO Matters appeared first on Beasley Direct and Online Marketing.

By John Thyfault, Vice President of Search & Social Strategy, Beasley Direct Marketing

Client:        A law firm specializing in family practice.

Issue:        The client wanted to reduce cost per lead, which was more than $220.

Solution:    Segmented marketplace to reveal which segments were most productive; refined keywords used in online advertising; reworded ads; analyzed lead history to optimize ad placement.

Results:     Within six months, reduced cost per lead by about 50%; increased conversion rate by about 15%.

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A law firm specializing in family practice in New Jersey asked Beasley Direct Marketing to reduce its cost per lead and acquisition. The practice handled a broad range of issues, including divorce, marriage, child custody, naturalization, immigration and pre-nuptial agreements. When we started with the firm, cost per lead was more than $220. The law firm advertised both online and in print in local publications.

Our first step was to determine if the client wanted to target all types of business that it handled, or only specific segments. We discovered that, historically, the types of clients providing the most revenue at the lowest cost per acquisition were divorce, child custody arrangements and pre-nuptial agreements. Further analysis showed that the quality of pre-nuptial leads was poor (lots of people were voyeuristically searching for celebrity “pre-nups”), and this was dropped from the ad program. In the case of divorce and child custody, we were able to identify clients, segment by male versus female, and target those who were in the process or just thinking about it.

The overall quality of the leads coming in from the firm’s advertising program was poor. Quality scores tend to vary by market; similar click-through rates in two different markets may yield very different levels of quality. We did geographical targeting, aiming at commuters in the bridges and tunnels in the tri-state area, and we also developed localized ads to support the firm’s different offices, getting the ads in front of people who worked or lived in proximity to those offices. So instead of bidding on “New Jersey family law firm,” we bid on specific towns and regions. This was especially effective on the New Jersey turnpike corridor, where towns tend to run into one another. (Geographical targeting alone yielded a 10% decrease in cost per lead.)

We analyzed the language of the online ads and refined them with cleaner, less cluttered language (keeping in mind at all times the restrictions on lawyer advertising by the New Jersey Bar Association). We also looked at the list of keywords to identify those that had historically converted well, winnowing out the less-productive ones. We continue to do this on an ongoing basis.

We also looked at timing considerations. When we first started with the firm, it was running all the ads at the same price 24 hours a day and seven days a week, all year long. Examining their Google Analytics data, we were able to identify where they derived their most leads by time of day, week and year. For example, Sunday evenings from 10 pm to 1 am were highly productive times; apparently, the end of the weekend is a time when many people begin considering divorce. Another spike occurred just after lunch during weekdays. We also noticed that suppertime on any day and mid-morning and mid-afternoon during weekdays were not productive. This allowed us to pare about 30% off the cost of acquisition, simply by running ads only during the times of greatest productivity. The remaining cost reductions came about through keyword expansion and refinement and constant ad testing, which allowed us to drop losing ads and retain or develop ads that were proven winners.

The client wanted to try remarketing—the practice of identifying a searcher’s interests and targeting ads that follow that individual around the web. We were not in favor of this because the client sells services with many privacy concerns. For example, if a man has been searching for divorce lawyers and his wife uses the same computer, she may be able to discern from the ads she sees that her husband is contemplating divorce—information that, if true, should come from her husband, not the Internet. But we did a limited test, and actually saw a decrease in click-throughs and conversions, so the downside was greater than even we had anticipated.

In addition to abiding by the advertising regulations of the New Jersey Bar Association, the client also wanted to stay within the bounds of good taste and a genuine concern for clients’ privacy and wellbeing. This concern extended to which keywords we selected, as well as the wording of ads. Despite these restrictions, we were able to slash cost per lead by about 50%, while increasing ad productivity by about 15%.

Of course, this kind of process is never “done.” We continue to keep track of keyword productivity, ad scheduling and other data to assure the client’s promotional program is cost-effective and productive.

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This post was authored by John Thyfault, Vice President of Search & Social Strategy, of Beasley Direct Marketing. Contact John at jthyfault@beasleydirect.com.

John has more than 18 years of marketing, sales and product development experience, and he brings a proven track record of successful campaign, program and product development expertise. His knowledge of search engine optimization and marketing, combined with an in-depth understanding of customer identification, market analysis and segmentation, allows him to deliver high returns on our client’s marketing investment for both business-to-consumer and business-to-business markets.

Prior to working with Beasley Direct, John was Senior Client Services Project Director at ThirdAge.com, a first wave baby boomer lifestyle and community website. At ThirdAge he successfully led major client sponsorships for Fortune 100 companies in healthcare (Tylenol), financial services (American Century), technology (Intel & IBM) and consumer products areas (Revlon & Viactive). He was responsible for strategic and tactical goal setting, project management, new product creation and web site production. John previously worked in Channel Marketing and National Account Sales for IDG Books Worldwide, the publishers of the immensely popular “…For Dummies” book series. Additionally, he managed the wholesale distributor sales channel for Tor/Forge Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press.

 John is active in local marketing associations, including the Direct Marketing Association, the Business Marketing Association and is currently serving on the board of directors for the Silicon Valley American Marketing Association.

John has taught search engine marketing fundamentals extensively. He has led workshops for the Silicon Valley American Marketing Association, Northern California Direct Marketing Association (DMAnc) and the Business Marketing Association. He also teaches Search Engine Marketing at UCSC Extension (Silicon Valley).

The post Case Study: Lowering Cost Per Lead/Acquisition with Data Analysis appeared first on Beasley Direct and Online Marketing.

News Facts:

John Thyfault, Vice President of Search and Social Marketing for Beasley Direct Marketing, Inc. will be a featured speaker at the Silicon Valley Association of Health Underwriters Sales Expo in Sunnyvale, CA on January 29, 2015. The session will cover how health insurance professionals can build their customer base by using social media and local search engine marketing with insurance marketing. To find out more about the event, go here.

About us:
Beasley Direct Marketing, Inc. (www.BeasleyDirect.com) is known for bringing the latest marketing strategies to online and direct marketing. Beasley Direct provides services in email marketing, search engine optimization, print advertising, social media, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, website design, media planning, direct mail marketing, lead generation and nurture campaigns, and database management. Beasley Direct Marketing, Inc. helps clients in both B2B and B2C marketing and is privately held and headquartered in the Silicon Valley suburb, Morgan Hill, California. For more information, go to www.BeasleyDirect.com or call Laurie Beasley, President, at 408-782-0046 x21 or email lbeasley@beasleydirect.com.
The DMA2014 Annual Conference & Exhibition: The Global Event for Data-Driven Marketers is the world’s largest gathering of data-driven marketing professionals.  At DMA2014, which will be held October 25-30 in San Diego, the focus will be on igniting customer engagement.  We’ll help you discover innovative ways to engage 1:1 with customers via relevant, responsible, and real-time messaging — and drive response. We do this through leading-edge case studies from global brands; more than 70 conference sessions designed for team development; premier networking events; the 2014 Exhibit Hall featuring hundreds of the world’s top companies; and much more.  With strategic partnerships with top marketing organizations, DMA2014 delivers the most cutting-edge content to all areas of focus and interest.  For additional information, or to register for the six-day data-driven marketing event of the year, please visit https://thedma.org/ .For information about DMA2014 exhibition and sponsorship opportunities, please contact Wilson Vargas at 212.790.1468 or wvaras@the-dma.org.

About the Silicon Valley Association of Health Underwriters (https://svahu.org/home)
The Silicon Valley Association of Health Underwriters, California’s Benefit Specialists, is an organization of insurance professionals committed to promoting the ethical interest of our industry.  We do this by providing continuing education for our members and their clients and act as consumer advocates with legislative leaders at both the Federal and State Level.
Contact:
Laurie B. Beasley
 Ph: 408-782-0046 x21
 Fx: 408-782-9604 Email: 
lbeasley@beasleydirect.com

The post Insurance Marketing: John Thyfault to Speak on Social Media and New Marketing Technology at Silicon Valley Assn. of Health Underwriters Sales Expo appeared first on Beasley Direct and Online Marketing.

Drive Ecommerce and In-Store Sales Using Local Search and Mobile Search Marketing

John Thyfault, Vice President of Search & Social Media Marketing for Beasley Direct Marketing, delivered the following presentation at the CohereOne Executive Summit in San Francisco earlier this month. John covers the reach of local mobile marketing and local search online and best practices for mobile organic search and pay-per-click (PPC). He also discusses how businesses can deploy local search marketing to drive traffic to brick-and-mortar stores.

To view the presentation, please click the following link: Mobile Local eCommerce CohereOne 090414

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John Thyfault, VP Search and Social Marketing, Beasley Direct Marketing

This post was authored by John Thyfault, Vice President of Search & Social Strategy, of Beasley Direct Marketing. Contact John at jthyfault@beasleydirect.com.

John has more than 18 years of marketing, sales and product development experience, and he brings a proven track record of successful campaign, program and product development expertise. His knowledge of search engine optimization and marketing, combined with an in-depth understanding of customer identification, market analysis and segmentation, allows him to deliver high returns on our client’s marketing investment for both business-to-consumer and business-to-business markets.

Prior to working with Beasley Direct, John was Senior Client Services Project Director at ThirdAge.com, a first wave baby boomer lifestyle and community website. At ThirdAge he successfully led major client sponsorships for Fortune 100 companies in healthcare (Tylenol), financial services (American Century), technology (Intel & IBM) and consumer products areas (Revlon & Viactive). He was responsible for strategic and tactical goal setting, project management, new product creation and web site production. John previously worked in Channel Marketing and National Account Sales for IDG Books Worldwide, the publishers of the immensely popular “…For Dummies” book series. Additionally, he managed the wholesale distributor sales channel for Tor/Forge Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press.

John is active in local marketing associations, including the Direct Marketing Association, the Business Marketing Association and is currently serving on the board of directors for the Silicon Valley American Marketing Association.

John has taught search engine marketing fundamentals extensively. He has led workshops for the Silicon Valley American Marketing Association, Northern California Direct Marketing Association (DMAnc.org) and the Business Marketing Association. He also teaches Search Engine Marketing at (UCSC Extension, Silicon Valley).

The post Using Local Search Marketing & Mobile Search Marketing To Drive Ecommerce & In-Store Sales appeared first on Beasley Direct and Online Marketing.

Poster of the Mars Curiosity Rover created by Beasley Direct Marketing for Anritsu’s VectorStar Campaign

by Laurie B. Beasley, president, Beasley Direct Marketing

Here is a successful multi-channel B2B direct marketing campaign case study that followed many of the guidelines we’ve been talking about, including an appeal to emotions, multiple touches, and a carefully designed offer. The audience was engineers—always a tough sell because of their skepticism—and we sought to persuade them to consider replacing a tried-and-true instrument with something they may not even have heard of. We did this not by leading with product features but with a pull on the heartstrings—reliving a recent event in which engineers were heroes because of the quality of their instruments and their work.

Background

Anritsu’s VectorStar Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) is used to measure microwave and mm-wave frequencies in design, testing and manufacture of electronic components where extreme accuracy is required. A new model leapfrogged the competition in features and performance, providing the opportunity to generate sales leads through a multi-channel marketing campaign. The primary audience for this campaign is electrical engineers (EEs). They think in a methodical way and demand proof of product claims. They require detailed specs and technical information to make a buying decision. They are not at all impressed by marketing copy and claims unsubstantiated by statistics.

The Challenge:

Anritsu’s predecessor company, Wiltron, invented the modern VNA tester in the late 1950s. While Anritsu continued to improve VNA high-performance technology, several well-funded companies have entered the market and developed similar versions of Anritsu’s products, taking the lead in sheer sales order volume. We needed to get Anritsu back on our buyer’s “short list”. Electrical engineers are process-oriented. If they are comfortable with a tool and that tool satisfies their requirements, it’s difficult to get them to switch. VNA testers start at $100K and have a long sales cycle because they are considered a capital equipment investment.

The B2B Direct Marketing Campaign Objective

Our goal with the campaign was to bring Anritsu to the table with new customers that the sales force had not yet penetrated, creating awareness of the Anritsu VectorStar solution and ultimately generating face-to-face consultation meetings with qualified firms. A consultation requester who met key budget, purchase authority, need and timeframe-to-purchase criteria was considered an “A” category sales lead. In addition, the “B”-rated leads are prospect contacts with proven interest that opted in to future communications, but were not yet qualified.

Creative and Multi Channel Direct Marketing Strategy

The creative focused on the Mars Curiosity Rover, which had made a spectacularly successful landing on Mars about the time this project began. Engineers are inherently interested in the accomplishments of other engineers and how they solved tough problems. The Mars Curiosity Rover landing was one of the toughest, with thousands of measurements and calculations that had to be coded into the landing and could not be altered during the “seven minutes of terror” during which the Curiosity Rover descended to the planet’s surface. To quote from our letter to prospects:

“As it descended through the atmosphere of Mars, the spacecraft carrying the Curiosity Rover fired its rockets 79 times, went through five configuration changes, and slowed from 13,000 mph to a standstill. In the final operation, a “sky crane” was used to gently deposit the Curiosity on the surface since retro rockets would stir up too much dust.”

We pointed out the extreme precision this required, and then made the transition to the reader: we think of the NASA and JPL engineers as heroes, but you are required to make equally exacting measurements every day. That’s why you deserve an instrument like the VectorStar.

Letter to prospects linking the precision of the Mars Curiosity Rover with the precision of engineers’ every-day problem-solving.

The centerpiece of the multi channel direct marketing campaign was a direct mailing in a transparent tube containing a poster with an artist’s rendering of the Curiosity Rover’s descent sequence on one side (NASA has done renderings but the client did not want to violate any potential copyrights so we commissioned our own) with Anritsu product specs at the bottom. Our hopes were that engineers would mount these in their cubicles, thus providing a constant reminder of the VectorStar, complete with a call-to-action. We followed this up with an email on the same theme, and then began the telemarketing campaign.

Twenty-four to forty-eight hours after the email delivery, the calling team began to engage email and direct mail recipients. This multi-touch process had the effect of increasing the number of contact presentations and shortening the lead generation cycle. Most contacts recalled receiving the direct mail piece or email. Many were familiar with the offering and willing to engage. Program metrics are indicative of the effectiveness of this process with the high volume of completed call scripts as partial evidence.

The call-to-action was a free gift when a prospect completed a VectorStar sales presentation. We tested two offers: an Anritsu-branded backpack (appealing because our target likes to carry lots of gadgets around) versus a VNA technical manual valued at $50. Because of concerns about accepting gifts, government and government contractors were offered only the book.

Additionally, all prospects that registered their contact information were immediately provided a free download link for a relevant white paper.

Because the price of the VectorStar VNA is $51,000 and up, we knew that repeated contacts—and often multiple contacts—within the same company would be necessary to close the sale. The goal of the multi-touch approach was to start the process by gathering as much information as possible while gaining initial commitment to enter the lead pipeline.

Results

Overall, the campaign was highly successful. Based on the sales CRM reports, the program generated over $2.8 million dollars in the sales pipeline during the three-month campaign window, and many high sales potential leads are still being nurtured.

The campaign had a specific goal of developing 69 “A” leads that were considered opportunities in the CRM system. Through direct response and follow-up calling we developed 115 leads, which put us at 167% of the goal. In addition, the Calling Team gathered 426 opt-in contacts for continued nurturing and development.

The VectorStar campaign shows best practices for an effective multi-part B-to-B nurturing campaign: start with a memorable contact sequence, then follow up with multiple touches that develop the prospect into a sales-ready lead. Because so many recipients remembered and engaged with the mailing and follow-up email, it was easier to get them on the phone and easier to complete an initial sales conversation. Because of this effective warm-up approach, calls were completed faster, allowing more contacts to be made within the allotted time and budget. The result: more leads and sales opportunities.

Appendix

A brief look at benchmarked targets versus actual productivity metrics in several key areas clarifies why the program was so successful:

The most telling metric from this group is Total Scripts per Hour, because it quantifies the calling team’s ability to engage prospects with the Anritsu VectorStar offering. This ability to engage prospects and their receptivity to Anritsu’s offer of a technical consultation was the basis for the substantial number of lead conversions.

Over the life of the initiative, 2,094 scripts were completed during 540 calling hours. This number exceeded program goal by 260%. To look at it from another perspective, when the program launched, the expectation was set that 810 Anritsu VectorStar dialogues would take place. In fact, 2,094 Anritsu VectorStar dialogues occurred. The additional 1,284 Anritsu VectorStar dialogues over the course of the campaign celebrate its success.

For more information on this topic and other, request our free Case Studies.

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Laurie Beasley, President, Beasley Direct Marketing

Laurie B. Beasley is co-founder and president Beasley Direct Marketing, Inc., a Silicon Valley direct marketing agency that has managed search, email, online, direct mail, and demand generation campaigns for over a hundred companies. Ms. Beasley serves as president of the Direct Marketing Association of Northern California. She manages the Online Roundtable for the BMA Northern California www.NorCalBMA.org. She is an instructor of online marketing at UC Berkeley Extension and teaches in the Level 2 Certification program for the Online Marketing Institute. She frequently speaks on online marketing and demand generation topics for marketing organizations, including the Online Marketing Summit, Interactive Marketing Week, DMA Annual Conference, and the Marketing Executive Networking Group.

The post Case Study: B2B Direct Marketing Multichannel Campaign appeared first on Beasley Direct and Online Marketing.

News Facts:

• Beasley Direct Marketing, Inc. of Northern California has become an email marketing agency for Nomadic Display. Work will focus on email strategy, copy and design. The emails will be optimized for deliverability and mobile compatibility. The campaigns will showcase Nomadic Display’s innovative and economical design solutions with case studies and solutions guides, and they will be timed to help marketing and design departments searching for solutions for major trade shows.

About us: 

Beasley Direct Marketing, Inc. is known for bringing the latest marketing strategies to online and direct marketing. Beasley Direct provides services in email marketing, search engine optimization, social media, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, website design, media planning, direct mail marketing, lead generation and nurture campaigns, and database management. Beasley Direct Marketing, Inc. helps clients in both B2B and B2C marketing. Beasley Direct Marketing is privately held and headquartered in the Silicon Valley suburb, Morgan Hill, California. For more information, go to www.BeasleyDirect.com or call Laurie Beasley, President, at 408-782-0046 x21 or email lbeasley@beasleydirect.com. 

Nomadic Display  is a leading producer of custom modular and portable display solutions for purchase or rent. Our high quality, lightweight display environments help companies cost-effectively build business at trade shows, corporate events, road shows, airports, shopping malls, and showrooms. Nomadic systems integrate with one another to grow and adapt to changing business needs. We stand behind our products with the industry’s best lifetime warranties and a global 24/7 toll-free service LifeLine. We use eco-friendly practices in the design, fabrication, and delivery of our displays and graphics; most of our product components are sustainable and recyclable. Our award-winning displays can be seen in 200 showrooms in over 34 countries and online. To learn more, visit www.nomadicdisplay.com. 

Press Contact:
Laurie B. Beasley
Ph: 408-782-0046 x21
Fx: 408-782-9604
lbeasley@beasleydirect.com

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In Part 1 of this series, we focused on local SEO (search engine optimization) and how to use it to improve your listings for local searches. Part 2 explored using PPC (pay-per-click) to boost local results. In this final installment, we cover the other ways you can optimize local search results for your business through citations, reviews, social media and local advertising. Please note that none of these are game-changers in themselves; they fill in the gaps and heighten the probability that your local customer will be able to find you more easily.

NAP Data Is Critical

We’ve mentioned the importance of NAP (name, address, telephone number) consistency before, but it bears repeating.

You must have a local number for best local results with search engines. An 800 number screams “national.” Using third-party tracking phone numbers to track how callers found you can be useful, but not in the context of local search. Search engines confronted by different phone numbers in different places for your business will discount your locality—that is to say, your business may not be perceived as truly local, and may appear lower down on the list of results.

Ensure that all your NAP data is consistent, no matter where it appears. This will help search engines to determine your physical location.

Citations

A citation is when your business is listed as a resource, but there may not be a recommendation or review. There might not even be a link back to your website.

Google gives citations a fair amount of importance in its algorithm for figuring out who’s important in a given business. There are many different kinds of citations:

• Sponsorships. When you sponsor a local charity, fundraiser, sports team, school program, etc., your business appears as a sponsor on the organization’s website (as well as in other materials). Think twice about sponsoring an organization that doesn’t have a website, because you don’t get the online magic of having links back to your site or at least a search engine ready to hand for customers.
• Current Relationships. Your customers, business partners or clients may list your business online.
• Social Citations. These overlap with sponsorships, and include local seminars, networking events, and so forth. If, for instance, one of your real estate agents is participating in a seminar for first-time home-buyers, but the seminar is sponsored by a bank, the mention of your business in the speaker lineup will be considered a citation by search engines.
• Job Board Listings. Listing your company on job boards falls into the citation category. For the purpose of local search, obviously local job boards are best for this.
• Directory Citations. The best directories are those with a list of specific services in your area—and they are also the most difficult. Some sites try to fool Google by creating a list of unrelated services but exercising no editorial review over it. They might be trying to boost their Page Rank, or they might be hosting advertising, but they’re not the best place to get listed because search engines (especially Google) rate directories according to their relevance and usefulness. The best directories are those with lists of related services where the directory is curated, with good links and—the best—reviews.

 Reviews

Getting a review on a legitimate site is helpful because Google and other search engines give a lot of weight to reviews—most sites that accept reviews make it hard to game the system with fake reviews. For Google, the most valuable place to get a review is on Google+. Even a “+1” counts. A +1 ranking is akin to “Liking” a Facebook page. The more +1’s you get, the more visible you are to Google. The relevancy of who gave you the review or the +1 is important; if you are a shoe store in Minneapolis and you got a +1 from a person in California, that won’t count as such as a +1 from a resident of Lake Elmo, MN. However, national review sites such as Yelp! or Angie’s List are location-sensitive and have local reviews.

Remember, reviews must be real reviews from real people. Google is extremely good at sniffing out fake reviewers; they tend to use the same language all the time, and review services or products that aren’t relevant to them. Don’t even think about signing up a service that promises hundreds of positive reviews: it’s a great way to get Google to downgrade your relevance.

Amazon scrutinizes purchase histories associated with reviewers. It doesn’t bar reviews from people who haven’t bought the product on Amazon, but these are given less weight. Amazon also doesn’t take down negative reviews—there’s too great a risk of being accused of pushing positive reviews and ditching the negatives, which would impugn the reputation of Amazon itself.

Solicit reviews from your happy customers. They’re by far the best source of good reviews. And don’t attempt to game the system, because it will come back to haunt you. A few years ago, we worked with a restaurant in San Francisco. The restaurant had been advised by a consultant to place reviews on a large, national review site and a leading national reservation service site. After three months of placing fake reviews on these sites, the sites figured it out. The review site banished them to a mention at the bottom of the results listing. The reservation service banned them completely. So don’t try to trick the system.

Social Networking Sites

Claim your listings for your company on Facebook, Foursquare, Yelp! and other social networking sites.  Depending on the site, search engines may not be able to crawl and give you “credit” in their results, but you can still increase your sales as a result of people finding your company page on the social network site.

Make sure these listings have the key information about your location, hours, services offered and contact information. Again, make sure your NAP is consistent across all of the social networking sites. These sites give you an opportunity to speak in a more informal, conversational way with your customers. They establish a community for customers and are another way your customers can contact you.

Social media sites are also a great place to post promotional and seasonal offers. If you are looking to drive people into a physical store, tie these offers to the actual visit. Try to post on a regular basis, even if it is just a brief paragraph about a local news item or a quick promotion. This regular posting will encourage repeat traffic from both customers and search engines.

Local Advertising

Do local online advertising if it makes sense in the context of your business. If the cost of advertising outweighs the potential benefit, rely on citations and reviews. But if advertising does make sense (and some services like Google AdWords are pretty cost-effective and allow you to control expenditures), it’s another little building block in the task of building local presence online.  It often will not help in your organic search listings, but the end result is driving local traffic to your site that you can turn into sales.

The Final Analysis

Cast a wide net. Get listed (with legitimate sites) wherever you can. Get real reviews wherever you can. You probably can’t have too many citations or reviews, as long as they are genuine. Use cost-effective local ads online if they make sense for your business. But remember: this is a process, not an event. You can’t just get some citations and reviews going and then walk away thinking, “Mission accomplished.” Reviews get old, directories fall into disuse, sites come and go. You must work at it over time to be successful.

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This post was authored by John Thyfault, Vice President of Search & Social Strategy, of Beasley Direct Marketing. Contact John at jthyfault@beasleydirect.com.

John has more than 18 years of marketing, sales and product development experience, and he brings a proven track record of successful campaign, program and product development expertise. His knowledge of search engine optimization and marketing, combined with an in-depth understanding of customer identification, market analysis and segmentation, allows him to deliver high returns on our client’s marketing investment for both business-to-consumer and business-to-business markets.

Prior to working with Beasley Direct, John was Senior Client Services Project Director at ThirdAge.com, a first wave baby boomer lifestyle and community website. At ThirdAge he successfully led major client sponsorships for Fortune 100 companies in healthcare (Tylenol), financial services (American Century), technology (Intel & IBM) and consumer products areas (Revlon & Viactive). He was responsible for strategic and tactical goal setting, project management, new product creation and web site production. John previously worked in Channel Marketing and National Account Sales for IDG Books Worldwide, the publishers of the immensely popular “…For Dummies” book series. Additionally, he managed the wholesale distributor sales channel for Tor/Forge Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press.

John is active in local marketing associations, including the Direct Marketing Association, the Business Marketing Association and is currently serving on the board of directors for the Silicon Valley American Marketing Association.

John has taught search engine marketing fundamentals extensively. He has led workshops for the Silicon Valley American Marketing Association, Northern California Direct Marketing Association (DMAnc.org) and the Business Marketing Association. He also teaches Search Engine Marketing at (UCSC Extension, Silicon Valley.

The post Boost Your Regional Results through Local Search Marketing (Part 3): Local Online Marketing appeared first on Beasley Direct and Online Marketing.

By Carlos Perez, Associate Creative Director, Beasley Direct Marketing

Audiences today trade off fluidly between desktop, tablet and phone devices. It goes without saying that your direct response email might show up on any or all of these—and it must be effective no matter what the screen size. Designing email that is responsive to all screen sizes requires a somewhat different mindset than in the past, partly because of the way people deal with email on mobile devices.

1.         Design for the Smallest Mobile Size, Then Work Back Up to Desktop.

People reading mobile emails are in triage mode. They may be in a meeting, in the line at Starbuck’s, or checking email before starting the car, and they want to see only the important stuff, jettisoning anything that looks unimportant without a second thought. People scroll down through the headers (and on iPhones, the preheaders), immediately opening, deleting or saving as they go. Not surprisingly, if readers do open an email to read it, all they might see is the first window—that’s your best opportunity to get them to pay attention.

Consequently, this means you need engagement right at the top; relevant, striking graphics, a quick, clear, meaningful message and a compelling offer. Consider using shock or extreme relevance in your graphics and messaging to hook the reader. The graphics and message should be highly relevant to each other, and should show the reader in a single glance how she can expect to benefit.

When you design email, you can’t predict that a device’s screen size will be identified and adapted to by the email’s coding. Even with the best-written responsive code, you need to plan content carefully. Start by creating an uncluttered, attention-getting design of your larger-device layout. While still roughing in your design, plan how you can efficiently scale and gear the content to smaller mobile and tablet displays. At worst, your desktop format will still be meaningful and user-friendly, if not optimized, if seen on a mobile device.

2.         Use a Pencil and Paper for Your First Thoughts.

Computer graphics programs are awesome, but the ancient technology of pencil and paper allows you to work at scale, experiment and sketch without a huge investment of time. Outline your content before it is written. If you can’t outline it, you have too much content. Pare it down to the barest essentials.

3.         Design for the Reality of Sidebar Repositioning.

On a mobile device, use of a sidebar is a recipe for disaster when it comes to readability. A non-responsive email either cuts off anything on the right, or scales the entire email so that its total width fits the screen. Design the email such that the sidebar appears below your main content. (For an example, see Figure 1, below.)

4.         Design Graphics for Impact and Readability at Small Sizes.

You know from your own experience that you will skip any chart on your phone screen that can’t be read. The same goes for images; if they are complex and small, you’ll skip on to the next email. Although images for mobile viewing are small, they still must be impactful—but don’t let images detract from your message areas. It’s a delicate balancing act.

5.         Text Must Be Big Enough/Clear Enough To Read.

Small type with lots of leading is already something to be avoided in emails that are read on the desktop. The smaller the screen, the worse the problem. Keep the age of your audience in mind as well. The customer for walk-in bathtubs probably will not be able to read small text. And muted-color or too-subtle low-contrast (grey) text may look stylish, but suffers loss of readability and response.

6.         Use Fat Buttons to Tap (Not Click)

How often have you had someone send you a strange text, followed by an apologetic, “Sorry—fat fingers”? That’s the result of virtual keys or buttons that are too small for accurate fingertip tapping. That clickable button is your gateway to success, so make sure people can easily tap on it. With today’s mobile devices, the minimum button height that the average fingertip can successfully tap is about 47 pixels tall, which has the advantage of scaling well to email viewed on a larger device. (Of course, this will change as newer, higher-resolution screens are introduced.)

7.         Design for One-Handed Subway Ergonomics.

Envision your customer riding on a subway. Now envision that customer with a mobile phone in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. When your email comes up on the screen, will he be able to respond the way you desire? As a consequence, keep interaction processes simple, and actions that can be accomplished with one hand. This applies to your landing page as well.

8.         Plan Content Flow in an Inverted Pyramid.

In other words, the most important content comes first in the email, with successively less vital content following. If the content doesn’t fit, cut it. Ruthlessly.

You need clear links and ways to take action in the first window so that once a reader’s attention is captured, he can move on from the email to your landing page. The action is all in the top window—buttons, images, and links.

9.         Don’t Drag on; Link on.

In the past, some styles of direct mail took up page after page of text. This does not work in email viewed on a mobile device. Use short thoughts and links to capture the reader’s interest and move her to the desired destination. Remember: email doesn’t make the sale. Email gets the person to the website where the sale is completed or the prospect information is gathered.

10.      Finally, Share and Test as You Go.

Share designs with your programmer or developer early and continue to do so throughout the process. The input and guidance from an experienced developer can be priceless. Tell the developer how you want prospects to respond and learn what will/will not work from a technical standpoint. Find out what elements you can make disappear in mobile sizes but reappear on tablet and desktop-sized screens, so when your audience revisits your email on their computer, they get a chance to engage further.

Remember that responsive email design is not the same as responsive web design. Therefore, some of the tricks that work well in responsive web design won’t work in responsive email because your email may be viewed on up to 20 different email-viewing devices, depending on your audience. Your developer can help you here, too.

Since it’s likely that you’re working with a mass-emailing system, be sure to test your responsive design within that system. If there’s a problem, the developer can fix it in the prototype stage.

For Example

I have included a sample responsive email below (Figure 1), which Beasley Direct and Online Marketing put together for Nike Sports Camps.

Figure 1: (Left) Sample of Responsive Email Layout for Mobile Device Screens; (Right) Sample of Responsive Email Design for Tablet/Desktop. 

Source: Beasley Direct and Online Marketing

In Figure 1, the light blue bars indicate where the top window begins and ends, depending on the device. The most important information, including a clickable phone number and a button that takes the user directly to the main website, is all in the top window. The second window gives the user clickable buttons that link to pages for the different sports camps. Readers can click through to a video on the third window, and paid ads take up the bottom. In the email designed for mobile phones, some information is left out or stretched out to accommodate the small screen, while the desktop/tablet version allows for more visuals. Headers for both ads grab the readers’ attention with “Top quality sports camps with America’s finest coaches,” intended to draw in parents eager to hone their kids’ sports skills.

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Carlos Perez is an associate art director for Beasley Direct Marketing, Inc. and has 28 years experience as an advertising art and creative director, with more than a decade concentrating on direct marketing and branding. Carlos Perez enjoys working on both general and direct creative projects, and he frequently acts as a consultant on the marketing strategy development team. His clients have ranged from automotive and financial to high tech and travel, including Bank of America, BMW, CitiFinancial, eHealthInsurance.com, Intuit, Microsoft, Network Associates, Southern California Edison, United Airlines, and CBS Television. Carlos has worked for major general and direct response advertising agencies with U.S. and International clients.

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