External hard drive space and cloud storage have become so inexpensive we no longer have any excuse not to have multiple backups of our digital content to protect all of our devices—computers, smartphones, tablets, etc. Think of the many hours you invest at your company in gathering client data, developing amazing creative solutions, conducting online research, finalizing that perfect proposal or even just preserving your photos from a family vacation. Now, imagine all of that work is gone in an instant due to a computer crash. Think of the hours of billable time that would be lost in trying to recreate what was lost.
I recently had one of my computer hard drives fail. I had backed it up onto external storage drive—but that one failed too. Thankfully, I had a third backup in the cloud and all of my data was saved. It’s not as simple as just connecting your computer to an external hard drive, or with Apple, turning on Time Machine, and initiating a backup. You also need to periodically check your backups and the integrity of the drives you are using. Another great, cost-effective and convenient solution is to subscribe to a cloud computing backup service.
Now is the time to start working on your holiday promotional campaigns and taking advantage of the power of of online resources – especially e-blast emails – to help spread the word. Whether you are a seasoned pro e-mail marketing pro or a novice, here are some tips you should keep in mind to increase the effectiveness of your campaign. It’s important to have a clean and modern e-blast design, and even at our ad agency we sometimes find this challenging.
During the Holiday season, time is especially short for your customers and potential customers and they will spend only about 4.8 seconds scanning your email before they decide to read further. So, designing an elegant and simple e-blast that clearly states your key messages is essential in getting their attention – fast! Resist the temptation to cram tons of text in your promotions to ensure the message elicits action.
How do you decide what design will work for your business? At Nuevo, we’ve conducted countless focus groups to determine what is most appealing to consumers. We’ve found consumers are most interested in discounts, special sales and coupons this time of year. Sounds obvious, right? The “prime real estate” in your e-blasts is from the headline down to the first two or 3 inches of that email. Here is where you must convey your message clearly and concisely and without room for interpretation.
Every business should take extra steps to safeguard its customers’ information and protect business technologies from hackers. It is always a good practice to change passwords at least 3 times a year. Make your password hard to crack. Good passwords should include both uppercase and lower case characters, special characters (like #$%! etc.) and be at least 21 characters long. You can find a few good online password generators (https://lastpass.com/generatepassword.php). If you use a password generator, make sure the passwords are generated on your local device such as your laptop or desktop instead of your handheld, and to be extra safe, change a few of the characters in the auto generated password before you use the new pas sword. A strong password would look like this: “g8T06^P4h&Jw@5X*8Aa79We.” Using a phrase with numbers replacing some key text characters is also a great idea.
A strong password is important to protect personal information and business assets online. Using a different password for each unique web site login that is long and has multiple types of characters (numbers, letter and symbols) will help protect you and your business from someone hacking into your accounts.
What is messaging and why does it matter to you and your business? Well, if you have a website, it’s assumed you are using it to provide valuable information to your current and potential customers. So it may surprise you that major search engines like Google, MSN, Bing, etc. don’t actually have human beings visiting your site. Due to the sheer magnitude of websites that exist, search engines use BOTs (short for “Robot”) – automated software that spiders or indexes your web site. These BOTs take many factors into consideration when placing a ranking on your site.
Messaging refers to the overall subject matter of any given page on your website and the content within it. In the eyes of a search engine BOT, the subject matter, content and Focus Keywords on your site combine like a mathematical equation to “score” your page and provide a numerical ranking. By default, the effectiveness of your entire website is translated into an index “number.”
According to Lynn La at CNET: “AT&T has finally rolled out its native Wi-Fi calling feature on certain smartphones, after the Federal Communications Commission granted the wireless carrier’s waiver request for the feature. Starting Oct. 8, AT&T customers with the latest phones, the Apple iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, as well last year’s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, can make and receive calls using a Wi-Fi network as long as the handsets are also running Apple’s latest mobile operating system, iOS 9.
Wi-Fi calling can be useful whenever users find themselves in an area with weak or no carrier coverage. By using a local Wi-Fi network, such as the one set up at your house or available in a public space like a cafe or library, you can still make calls without a cellular connection. And because the feature is baked into the devices themselves, you and the person you are calling won’t have to download a third-party app or service.
Out of the four major U.S. carriers, AT&T is now the third to roll out Wi-Fi calling, following T-Mobile and Sprint. AT&T hoped to launch the Wi-Fi calling feature last month when Apple first released iOS 9. Last week, the carrier accused the FCC of dragging its feet on approving the waiver it needed to offer the feature. The FCC, which denies the claim it was slow to OK the request, granted the waiver Tuesday.
Last week, Facebook announced a pilot of “Reactions,” a new response mechanism that allows users to respond to posts on its network in more ways than just clicking “Like” or adding a comment. The new feature, (currently being tested in Spain and Ireland), is a reaction bar that grew from users’ expressed interest to having a “dislike” button. Besides “like,” uses can now choose emoji (expressive ideograms/smileys) symbols to express several other sentiments by hovering over or pressing down on the reaction bar. Available emotions are: Like, Love, HaHa, Yay, Sad and Angry.
An added benefit to the “Reactions” feature may allow Facebook to help detect Internet bullying before it escalates. Theoretically, Facebook is able to monitor reactions to posts and can step in if they notice a sharp uptick in negative reactions to a particular user’s posts.
– A Win for Online Advertisers –
With the addition of “Reactions,” Facebook’s ad platform is becoming an even more useful online marketing tool.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Oct 6, 2015 (Sarasota, FL) – Nuevo Advertising Group today announced the launch of its new web site showcasing client case studies at nuevoadvertising.com and the launch of a dedicated bilingual account team.
The full-service marketing and advertising agency was founded in 2004 by Ringling College of Art and Design alumni Pedro Perez and Roseanne Avella-Perez. “To better serve our clients, Nuevo focuses on a comprehensive ‘whole brand appearance’ approach with sharp attention to the customer experience,” explained Co-Founder and VP of Sales Pedro Perez. “The new web site illustrates diverse case studies our clients’ faced and clearly explains how Nuevo created strategic campaigns to solve these issues,” said Perez.
Cybersecurity: Did you know that simply downloading your email or clicking on web site advertisements may add/download tracking software to your device? Advances in technology now enable advertisers and marketers to track your online habits through the collection of this usage data. Have you ever clicked on an ad on a website for something that interests you, and then found either the ad or a similar ad popping up on other websites, seemingly following you around? This is due to the new trend called “Behavioral Marketing” or “Target Marketing.” When you perform a certain task online, your browser is flagged for that particular interest by all sites using Google search engine tools. And today, most websites you visit will preempt advertisements with those best suited to your interests, favorite products, or brands, based on your past online use.
For marketers, your behavior is essential for them to know so they can design advertising and promotional messages that resonate with you, the user, thus maximizing the advertisement’s impact.
Email works in a similar way. When you download an email and its images to your computer, you are acknowledging you have received that email. Email marketers are able to track how many times you open that email, what you click on, and if you forward that email to someone. They can even tell if you chose not to open the email.