Standing out constantly reminds me of high school, where off-the-wall fashion and a boldness to be something that was controversial gave them the ability to constantly be watched and noticed.

But “standing out” doesn’t always mean being revered or criticized for being different. And when it comes to being online, there is nothing so common as to do something different or innovative.

So what does it mean to stand out online?

When it comes to the internet we aren’t talking about a high school class of 200 + students. We are talking about 500 million people who are actively using Facebook or searching Google daily. So to understand this concept we first have to narrow down our target market and define our niche.

What people group are you trying to appeal to? Who is your niche? Where can you find them?
When it comes to the internet, stick with the concept of “quality over quantity.” For example, it isn’t HOW many twitter followers you have, it is WHO you have following you.

“I want to stand out online among Virginia small business owners who are trying to embrace technology to better their online marketing.”

Ok, it’s your turn: I want to stand out online among: ____________________________________

What does it mean to stand out online to your target niche?

Again, unlike high school, standing out doesn’t necessarily mean that you are constantly being revered or criticized for your actions or fashion sense. For small businesses we are just trying to grow. It means you are noticed, acknowledged and recognized for the work you do or product you sell. You aren’t in the limelight all day long, but instead people keep you top of mind in your field of expertise. You are the go-to expert in your niche!

So what is your online goal? What kind of attention do you want to receive? How many regular blog readers do you want gain?

“I want to stay top of mind to Virginia business owners who are looking for advice on their online marketing and websites.”

Your turn. I want to stay top of mind for: _______________________________________

So that’s it. Standing out online means being considered and recognized by your target market for your specific area of expertise. And remember that after you know what standing out online means for you, define some goals and strategies on how you can get there.

For help on defining your “stand out action plan” register for tomorrow’s workshop. Or email me for coaching.

I’ve received multiple requests as of late to design websites that are in the “F” Shape – and for good reason. According to Heatmap eye movement studies:

“…eye movements move in the shape of an F. First users read in a horizontal movement across the header. Then they read in another horizontal movement across, but this time only about two thirds of the way across and a little further down. Finally users scan down the left rail.” From idwebdesign

Valid, I would say, if the studies were not based on old web design standards and offered a variety of website layouts in the eye map study.

As you can see, the first website used in this study automatically draw the eyes into an F shape, first with a main header, then with a secondary header down the page, and finally with a left hand navigation menu. The second Google results page is more of a blob, heavy on the top left. Which frankly doesn’t tell us anything, since the Google results page is content heavy, and doesn’t offer the eyes anything specific to draw to.

If the “F-Factor” is not all true, then why does the first website in the study look like an F?

Because the elements on the page draw the eyes where they need to go. This is the most important principle used in any good design. That’s why we use large headers, contrast, different colors and white space to create ads, brochures and … websites. It is up to the designer to create whatever alphabetically pleasing design he or she chooses, so long as it draws the eyes to the most important elements on the page.

Why do I see so many websites designed like an F?

You may see, or used to see, lots of websites with this format. The websites had a long navigation menu on the left hand side and the rest of the site was content heavy. Can I be the first to say… ew? These early 2000’s style websites are mostly used in free turn-key websites or web designers who aren’t also graphic designers.

Today, backwards F shaped websites are popular, as well as websites with colorful backgrounds that separate their content with floating boxes, like this website

When designing a website, I defer to the 4 basic principles of good design. It seems to keep me out of trouble:

1. Alignment
2. Proximity
3. Contrast
4. Repetition

After a biased review of all of the most prominent email marketing memberships out there, I had hoped that MailChimp would win the battle.

MailChimp is a fairly new email list manager that integrates with the best website building software out there (Expression Engine) and the best invoicing software out there (Freshbooks).

Unfortunately, MailChimp lost – not only the battle – but also my support. Although MailChimp rated among the top 10 best email management services out there, it was still missing some of the most basic and important features, like Plain Text emails and Auto Responders.

But enough about MailChimp, let’s talk about what DOES work.

According to Email Marketing Services Review 2010, iContact was rated #1 all around, for feature set, ease of use, campaign creation & reporting, and help and support.

Some of the runner ups were Benchmark, and one we all have heard of, Constant Contact.

Since my review I have gone gung-ho for iContact and am now helping them to give away free trials. Get yours today!

Email Communication Experts – Email Marketing, RSS, Surveys, and Autoresponders. Free Trial of iContact

In response to “Re: Stop Adding Me to Your Email List”

Justin Owen is director of The Good & The Brave, a digital consultancy company in Bath that creates online solutions to engage, win and retain customers.

“I think that the whole ‘permission email’ area is pretty grey and if it’s not policed properly by us, the implementers / guardians of online marketing, then the whole industry could end up with some serious problems.

“We were recently approached by an award winning PR/Marketing agency to do some email marketing work. Their client had a database of 20K+ contacts but they couldn’t tell us exactly how they’d acquired their details. Some had used their services (and in their admission, often over 2 years ago), some had left business cards at exhibitions / with members of their staff and some had been purchased. We said that LEGALLY they could send to these people, but ETHICALLY we couldn’t / wouldn’t send out to these contacts, as they had not specifically asked to receive email communication from them. We stressed to the agency that:

A) The response rates would undoubtedly be low
B) Unsubscribe rates high
C) Reports of the email as spam – possibly high
D) Damage to the brand likely to occur
E) A majority of email marketing platforms wouldn’t let them send out due to the integrity of the list

The result: The MD stamped her feet (no seriously!) and said that she just wanted the campaigns to be sent to these people. We declined the business and went on our way. They haven’t called back, but that’s the price we were willing to pay.

This isn’t the first time this has happened and it won’t be the last I’m sure. In the past, I’ve had a client blacklisted by Spamhaus because they were perceived to be spamming by repeatedly sending to contacts that weren’t opening their emails (av. 15% response from 15K database). In the end, so many people reported them for spamming that Spamhaus ordered all our servers be shut down. Our advice had been to properly manage and reduce their list to only openers and permission subscribers to increase response rates and effectiveness – they ignored us but continued to ask us for ways of increasing the open rates. They were so afraid of losing numbers off their database rather than increasing conversions from the people that actually wanted their information. In the end, it bit them on the ass if you’ll excuse my language.

Anyway, I reckon that sums up a fair few of the reasons why I would never ever recommend that people just add people to their newsletters without them asking specifically first.”

Thank you Justin for your honesty and integrity!

We had a huge discussion at Friday 2.0 this morning (a social media networking group) about Chris Brogan’s recent article “Stop Adding Me to Your Email Newsletter.”

In sum, Chris defines SPAM not just as “email that illegally comes from people you have never met or done business with before” but also “people you know who add your name to their email list without permission.”

OK, point taken. It can be annoying to get unsolicited emails – even from people you know – trying to sell you their product.

But are there situations when it is OK to send people unsolicited emails?

After discussing Chris’ post, reading some of the comments, and sharing our own stories, this is the conclusion we came to:

• Trust and Relationships are what matter. Period. So whatever decision you make should be based on this.
• There are many different types of businesses, targets, geographies and goals. So there may be some cases or businesses when it is perfectly legitimate to add people to your email mailing list. I live in a small city, for example, and everyone pretty much knows everyone… so in this case it might be OK to add people to your newsletter list.
• Getting email newsletters or email marketing is no different than getting a piece of junk in the mail… sometimes you read it, sometimes you don’t. Either way, you have the opportunity to throw it out.
• The kind of people who don’t want your information might be the kind of people you don’t need to know, anyway!
• If you aren’t sure, it doesn’t hurt to just ASK PERMISSION! Most email programs allow you to “double” opt in people, meaning that once someone subscribes, they have to confirm their subscription. SO, if you subscribe someone from a business card they gave you, they will have the opportunity to confirm their subscription.

Some other tips we came up with:

1. Make it easy to unsubscribe
2. Put a disclaimer on the top
3. Put the words “save money by_______” to catch someone’s attention

Thoughts?

All of the retail world uses the holidays to heavily push their products and specials. So… why can’t small businesses?

Using social media, here are some things you can do to get some attention:

1. Write a blog article or Facebook note titled, “5 Great Gift Ideas”
2. Elf Yourself and send it out via e-newsletter or Facebook
3. Create a Holiday card through one of Facebook’s holiday apps
4. Create a holiday special or promotion
5. Create a YouTube video and use it as a Christmas e-card

What are YOUR ideas?

Everyone should have their own policy on boundaries and creating space between our personal and professional lives. Absolutely. But I think we can all agree that there are some lines that intercept and bleed together in our worlds. 

Its natural to add the “personal” to the “professional.” 

It pays to be yourself! The truth is that if we are wise, we are going to be the same person at home as we are at work. People are drawn to who we are as human beings. On the contrary ff we don’t have personalities people are going to notice. 

Share experiences. People want to know we are human. Humans relate! We share experiences about our families at home or a funny things we have done… even mistakes that we have made.

Here are a few things that we can do to bring the personal into the professional:

• Talk about your passions. Your passions SHOULD flow into your work… and if they don’t, hmmm maybe its time to look for another job?
• Engage your readers to telling them stories they can relate to. Maybe you saw an old friend and it made you reminiscent. Or maybe you ate at a good restaurant or had an experience with a bad driver…
• Don’t try too hard. Speaks for itself. 

Search Engine Optimization, that is. If you own or update a blog or website, then you need to know the basics of optimizing a page for search engines to find. 

Most people think that the index (or home) page of your website is the most important. Well, I won’t argue with that completely – but when it comes to using your website as a marketing piece, it needs to be more than a business card. By optimizing each article or page on your website individually, you will help Google list your website in organic search results when people are looking for YOU. 

Here are a few tips to help Google find your website: 

1. Your website or blog is built with clean code. Pretend YOU are a search engine spider. What do you look for on a website? Do you want the content to be easy to find and easy to read? So do search spiders! Search engines want your website code to be clean enough that they can find the content within the jargon. 

2. Do your search engine research. Without giving away all the goods, I would say start with Google Suggest and Google Insight, and see what some popular trends and topics are. Then go into your search engine key word tool and find the exact phrases that will key Google to display your website. 

3. Use your keywords in the correct formula to get Google to notice you. Its easy. Use the key phrase in the title of your page, in the first paragraph, and the last paragraph. There are lots of other rules that will help you out, but that will get you started.

For the Central Virginia blog owners who are submitting a blog to Friday 2.0’s first ever “Blog-Off” Competition (to win a great prize OR to get free feedback) – here is our next set of criteria:

Our judge for Blog Sexiness (Look and Feel) will be Andrew Potter of ShoutOut Marketing.

Andrew will be judging on a combination of your blog’s aesthetics and also it’s content, asking the question: is your site “sticky” (does it make people stay?).

1. Does your blog have a good color combination?

Following conventional rules of good design, your colors should be both complimentary but also contrasting. If you don’t know what good color combinations are, look it up in Google!

2. Does your blog use attractive and complimentary fonts?

Beginners should start with 1 font, playing with the sizes and the different font styles like Bold and Italics. Ideally, however, you should have two font types: one serif font and one sans serif font (look em up if you don’t know what they mean). Again,they should compliment but also contrast. 

3. Does your blog have bells and whistles? 

In other words, does it use nice pictures, videos and other forms of media?

4. Does your blog have good content?

Make sure your blog’s content is separated in a hierarchy of important information, using bolds and font sizes to break up the text. Also your text should be relevant to your target market. Is your content properly edited? 

5. Is your blog sticky?

Does it make people want to stay? Does it make people want to come back? 

—-

Our judge for Blog Usability will be Jennifer Bailey of Marketing-Helper.com (that’s me!).

I will be judging on the visitor’s ability to understand, comprehend and interact with the website without frustration or anxiety.

1. User’s ability to find the site’s main purpose upon first glance

Most websites only have 3 seconds to introduce themselves to a visitor before they click the “back” button. Is your logo is visible, usually upper left hand corner at all times? Do you have a slogan or website title that is visible with a short and to the point description of the site’s purpose? Do you have a description of purpose or services on home page and easily visible on the navigation bar? 

2. Does the information flows in such a way that you can find what you are looking for without having to think about it?

Do you use H1 to H3 tags, bold, different color contrast, etc? 

3. Is the navigation consistent, simple and visible?

Is it conventional? (Across the top of the site). Does it go more than 3 levels deep?
Does it stay the same on every page? Can you click on the logo to get back to the homepage?

4. Website accomplishes functional goals

What is your end goal for the user? What information do you want to take away, what action do you want them to take at the end? Do the applications work?

5. Newsletter Signup, contact, or other Convergence method

Do they work and are they easy to find and use?

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You can enter the Blog-Off competition here >

I just finished putting up a site for speaker and coach David W. Mills.

Goals: 

1. Gain site traffic from churches who want to grow

2. Sell some Needs Assessment Kits

3. Get speaking and coaching engagements

How to Designed the Site to Meet our Goals:

• Got professional photos and put them on the homepage
• Created a logo and a brand
• Made his bio visible
• Highlighted his speaking topics in featured articles on the homepage
• Used key word research to target users
• Created a press page for speaking and coaching topics as well as a press contact
• Created an easy convergence method (a way for people to buy products)