Topics, Trends and Techniques from Brooks Bell Interactive
Month: May, 2010
Personalization: It’s a Beautiful Thing
I recently began the Mary Kay skin care product line and I’ll be honest: it’s amazing. My skin is healthier and softer than it’s ever been and my make-up looks great and lasts all day. I believe in these products so much that I feel as though Mary Kay and I are friends, and why not? Let me tell you how our friendship has grown.
It all began with a click of a button, a gorgeous newsletter sign-up button to be exact. This Beaut-e-News newsletter promised savings, sneak peaks and tips all things any normal newsletter would provide. But I would come to find out it was so much more than I expected.
When I opened the newsletter it’s images we’re blocked and it looked a little haphazard, but we’re friends so who am I to judge. I’m not one to read newsletters with images blocked…does anyone really read emails with images blocked? Anyway, I clicked display images and that’s when the magic happened.
Leveling Up: Promoting Your Brand Through Online Games
You have your banner ads and micro-sites built, and you are ready to implement your media plan and push your campaign out to world. But are you missing a rich opportunity to promote your brand in another way…through online games.
Online games are no longer just played by the stereotypical single twenty-something video game geek. Recent research has shown some interesting stats about online gamers:
- The average age of gamers is 35 and has been playing computer games for 13 years.
- 67% of heads of household in the U.S. play computer games
- 43% of PC gamers are women
Don’t take my word for it, see more facts and figures.
So how can you take advantage of these opportunities?
Give Your Site Some Google Juice
Google Juice [goo'gel joos] noun
the magical and mysterious value Google gives to your site, based on links from good sites, unique content, and the age of your site; the more juice, the higher your site’s ranking in Google searches.
So how do you get some? Here are some tips:
- Get a really great domain name. It’s best if your top targeted keyword is also in your domain name.
- If you are on WordPress, install the All in One SEO Pack. If you’re a beginner, it even works right out of the box, easy as pie.
- Write a great summary. Your website (even if you’re not on WordPress using the All in One SEO pack) probably has a place for you to put in a summary. Write a great, to-the-point, 145-155 character summary of your site, using the keywords you really want to target.
Code for Art’s Sake
As developers, we spend an awful lot of time making someone else’s vision come to life. Very rarely are developers given any creative license. While it’s satisfying to see something you’ve created working properly, sometimes, we want to create something from scratch. Just to create it.
There are many free programming platforms out there that exist for the sole purpose of experimentation. Here are some of my favorites:
Scriptographer is a plugin for Adobe Illustrator that allows you to create art with javascript. The documentation is a little lacking but it is very fun to play with. You can easily create something with code that would take you hours to do by hand.
10 Things LOST Can Teach You About Email Marketing
I am a fan of the television series LOST. And with the series coming to an end this weekend it is a great time to reflect on all the things LOST has shown us and taught us. You may be thinking I’m talking about subjects like destiny, redemption, and faith but did you know that LOST can teach you everything you need to know about email marketing? Follow these teachings and you will be bigger than an Oceanic settlement check.
