Lumpy EmailWant to get your email marketing message opened? Make it lumpy!

A few years ago I was at a marketing meeting and had the privilege of listening to a promotional marketing guru discuss how to get your direct mail piece opened. The basic point of his whole presentation was that if your mailing piece looks like junk mail people will just throw it away. His number one suggestion was to put something in the envelope that makes it "lumpy". A pen or something like that stuffed in your direct piece has been proven to get your direct mail piece opened. When I think about this in my own office we throw away allot of mail but i always open the mail that feels like it has something in it. Since you can't put lumps in your actual email how do you make your email lumpy?

1. The From Address

• Always send your email marketing message from a personal email address- If your email marketing piece comes from an address like sales@yourcompanyname.com it looks like junk. When sent from yourname@yourcomapnyname.com it has much better odds of getting opened.
  

2. Subject Line Basics-

• Keep It Short - Short and to the point subject lines have been proven to have better open rates then long subject lines and most email clients wont display subject lines longer than 50 characters.


• Write a Very Specific Subject Line - Let them know exactly what the email is about. Don't waste valuable real estate on vague subject lines


• Make It Personal - Talk directly to the recipient. "You can save money on your next toner purchase"


• Write Like A Real Person - Avoid subject lines with all caps, exclamation points, and words like "free" and "sale.
  

For more information on email marketing services from Foremost Media please visit our email marketing services page

Read More

Get Listed in 48 hours Guaranteed

So today I got another one of those spam emails from a company called wpromote (email address seo@seo-news.com). It was a nice looking email and they are claiming that they can get my site listed on Google, Yahoo, AOL and Ask Jeeves in 48 hours all for the bargain price of only $99.95.

Not only that but they will re-submit every 30 days there after, then I get a detailed report on which search engines they submitted my site to. WOW! All that for only $99?????

So What's The Catch? First of all, if you read the fine print they are using PPC marketing to get your site listed on the search engines. Anyone can do this. Just go to the search engine you want to run PPC adds on and set up your account for free. Save your $99 for running add words and you will be much further ahead.

Next- "resubmit every 30 days" What a waste of time. Every quality SEO professional will tell you that it is not necessary to resubmit your site to the search engines on a regular basis. Think about it, search engines like Google and yahoo have a huge interest in serving up the freshest content and best results for their surfers. How long would you continue to use Google if every time you did a search the results it served up linked to pages that have been removed or updated and the content didn't match the search results any longer.

The top search engines will revisit your site on their own on a regular basis once your site has been indexed. Don't waste your time or money having a company resubmit your site every 30 days.

The last point I wanted to bring up is the Testimonials on this email marketing piece. Like this one "I just wanted to tell you how happy I am with the service." Bradley, Utopian Universe" Let's do a Google search for Utopian Universe and see what comes up- I don't see anything even closely related to Utopian Universe pop up.

So right now you are thinking does Jon think pay per click is bad? and Do I need to resubmit my site every 30 days? The answer is no and no. Pay per click is a great form of advertising. I guess what I would say in response to this company's ad is, "What are they doing for me for the $99." Pay Per Click accounts are free to set up and can be running in less then 48 hours. Point 2, why pay to resubmit my site every 30 days when the search engines do that automatically. I guess the whole offer just seems a bit shady to me. I'll take your $99 if you are just going to throw it away any way. I could even give you an hour of search engine marketing consulting for that $99.

By the way, Here is the ad:

Until next time!

Read More

Why Janesville Wisconsin

People ask me all the time, why is your website design company based in Janesville Wisconsin?

Great question. Janesville is not known as a hot bed of internet technology but we aim to change that. So why is Foremost Media located in Janesville, WI?

Reason #1- Janesville is close to everywhere!
Janesville is close to Madison, Wisconsin as well as Rockford, Illinois and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In fact, most of these larger WI and IL hot spots are within a 1 hour drive of downtown Janesville.

Reason #2 - Low Cost Of Living
Janesville has a relatively low cost of living when compared to other major cities in the area and that allows us to attract great Web design talent at a much more reasonable rate. In other words, a website designer in Janesville makes about 25% less then a web designer in Chicago and we pass that savings on to you. Wages are just the beginning. Office space is much cheaper in Janesville than downtown Chicago and not all Web designers and programmers want to live in the big city. Are you seeing a theme here?

Reason #3 - UW Whitewater has a great MCS Program
UW Whitewater (about a 15 minute drive from our offices in Janesville) has one of the best Management Computer Systems programs in the country. Out of our 6 full time web designers 3 of them are UW Whitewater MCS program Alums. Whitewater also has a great graphic design program as well.

Reason #4- Janesville is a great place to raise a family
Janesville offers great schools, and a safe and friendly place to raise a family. A real plus for young talented website designers to raise a family.

So do you only build websites for businesses in Janesville?
No, although many of the top Janesville businesses trust us with their online marketing, we work for businesses all over the country, from small family businesses to a fortune 200 company, Foremost Media can design a website for your business that will accomplish your online goals and fit within your budget.

Give us a call today- 608-758-4841

Or if you are in Janesville Stop in:

1339 Excalibur Dr. Janesville, WI 53546

Read More