|
|
Good morning [firstname,fallback=]
Such wonderful weather - maybe we could all do our office work in the garden like the fellow above!
In this issue we’re looking at some latest web design trends, what to expect from Social Media (the use of which soared by 20% in the 2012 year!) this year, including the rapid growth of Pinterest, and the future of email marketing.
And we’re recommending you give your website a health check.
Anna Hamilton
Social
media this year - Pinterest surges ahead
Oryx is relatively new to Pinterest. 
We
set up an account end of last year once Pinterest launched the business
accounts – both for us and our clients. Since then we’ve
set up accounts for two clients but things have moved on fast!
Once viewed as a niche player in the social space, Pinterest has become one of the fastest growing social networks ever and a considerable force in marketing - this echos the growing emphasis on visual and images.
Stats released February this year, show Pinterest is close to outstripping Twitter in user numbers and that 47% of U.S. online consumers have made a purchase based on recommendations from Pinterest – that’s huge! And it sends more traffic to other sites than Google+, Linkedin, and YouTube combined.
Read more here about how to maximise Pinterest and images for your marketing.
Dedicated
to making your social media involvement more relevant and effective?
Predictions abound about mobile, integration, information overload and
use of visual engagement.
Future
of email marketing – outlook sunny!
Email newsletters are the single biggest factor in driving people to your
>
website
aside from the search engines. Jacob
Nielsen reported recently that when people were asked why they were
visiting particular websites, the most common response was, "I was
reminded to do so because I received an email newsletter from the site."
Four key areas to consider
•
Emails need to be more targeted and segmented
•
Get through the clutter
•
Jazz up the info you want to share with links to photos and video
• Make sure your newsletter
programme can deliver. We love Campaign Monitor.
See
more here.
The four big trends for email newsletters generally for 2013 are
• Design
•
Social
•
Mobile
•
Videos
Website
Design Trends 2013
It’s not so easy to predict trends in an area where changes are
continuous and happen in a blink of the eye, but here are some which
should stand you in good stead. We've only included detail about the
first trend below -
click here to see more about the others.
•
Quality content matters. Yes, I know I’ve been harping on for years
about content being king (for website visitors and for search engines)
but quality content not going to be just a guideline any more - its going
to be essential.
Google really cracked down last year with the Penguin and Panda updates – which means any ploys for building first page ranking used by unethical SEOs are going to be penalized. Every business that wants to stay relevant on the web needs to invest in content. There’s absolutely no doubt about it.
• Responsive design • Multidevice design • Scalable design • Better page layout • More videos - a common theme • Design resource pooling |
• Fixed header/menu bars • Infinite scrolling. A great example of this is Pinterest • Backgrounds comprising large photos • Transparency on websites • Minimalist landing pages |
Your
website health
We suggest you take some time out and check out your website’s health
– it’s easy and simple to do – before we get too much
further through the year.
Make sure that prices listed on your website are current and any competitions or special offers you ran during the year have not expired. Check the product details, contact details, that your images are still relevant (new images are a great way to freshen your website), that all the links are working correctly and that you’re in Google Places.
And check that your most recent newsletters, media releases and articles are available.
Give us a call if you need some help.
Some interesting bits and bobs
- Brain feeling lazy?
Here are six ways to fool your brain into being productive Read more here. - Social media link building and benefits
Great article from a lead search engine company about building social media links. - Websites for small and medium businesses
If you've a friend or colleague just starting out in business who need a great website (or if you need a second website!) have a look here. - Generating leads with Linkedin
Learn more about using Linkedin to generate business.
|
|||||
| |
|||||
