Considering the fast-moving environment businesses are faced with today, it’s only natural to assume that those who want to stay relevant in 2013 will have to adapt their online marketing strategies to the new market requirements. Here are 6 web design trends we are seeing in 2013:

Responsive Web Design

You don’t get to decide how your readers will get to your website; they do. And the technology is increasingly moving toward mobile devices enabling people to access the Internet via laptops, smartphones and tablets featuring smaller screens and touch-screen interactions. To avoid the frustrating experience of zooming or scrolling down the page you can have your web designer design your site into a responsive layout, which will eventually mean better experience for the user.

The responsive web design (RWD) allows websites to automatically adapt to the size of the screen, stacking on smaller screens and spreading on larger ones. This means you don’t need two separate versions of your website anymore (one for laptops and one for mobile phones); the same version can be communicated on absolutely any device or format. Some interesting examples for you to check are Mashable, Food Sense, Simple, and Virtual Wallet.

Food Sense website’s responsive web design

Food Sense website’s responsive web design

Full Screen Background Photos

The most recent redesigns of popular websites like Twitter, Spotify, and Square focus on improving users’ visual and emotional experience, trigger their curiosity to want to find out more, and also convey the main message of their products and services. A full-screen background photo on the launch page is a powerful way to spark interest in your readers in an instant, “speaking“ louder than what only words can say.

Full Screen Background Photo on Spotify’s website

The full-screen design is not exclusively for large global companies but small businesses can also utilize it for their websites to spread their marketing message to a wider audience and reach potential customers. By the end of the year more and more companies are expected to take their sites visual direction to a greater extreme with this web design implementation.

Infinite Scrolling and Advanced Page Navigation

Infinite scrolling and interactive navigation panels are also part of the the trends in web design noticed this year. Pinterest and Tumblr may be the most popular examples, but more and more other websites are also integrating these changes to make browsing and navigation more fluid and natural for their users. Some examples are: HTC One, Distance to Mars, and The 5th Wave.

Infinite Scrolling: Distance to Mars website

If your business website displays lots of products and images related to a single category, integrating infinite scrolling in your website design can be very effective. It will not only make browsing easier for your readers continuing to load more content pieces as they reach the bottom of the page, but this design feature will also improve your website SEO by cutting down the time spent waiting for new pages to load.

Parallax Design

Another growing trend for businesses with interactive websites is parallax design which incorporates special scrolling techniques where various background images move at different speeds, or change in size or at dimension to the site, to create an illusion of 3D depth. This effect is really unique and as you scroll down the page, the whole site changes, like layers. Some examples include Sullivan, Activate Drinks and Air Jordan 2012 website.

Parallax Design: Activate Drinks website

Big Buttons

The information overload around the Internet makes users busy, frazzled and distracted, but when you get them on your website you want them calmed – simplicity in the design is an incredibly effective way to improve your conversion when dealing with online customers. Large buttons with calls-to-action have been around for a while now, but the expectations are this concept will reach an entirely new level this year, helping readers to get even faster to what they are looking for.

Big buttons are also becoming popular due to the increased usage of smart phones and tablets where tapping the wrong buttons just because they are small can be very annoying and inconvenient for touch-screen users. Some websites to look to for inspiration with using big buttons include Skype, KISSmetrics, DeskTime, or Dashboard.

Big Buttons on the DeskTime website

Social Media Integration

Social media integration does not only refer to placing social media icons on your website that represent Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, or whatever network you mostly use for your business promotion. You can also add social media sharing buttons to your blog posts:

• Add Social Media Sharing Buttons to Blogger posts
• Add Social Media Sharing Buttons to WordPress posts
• Add Social Media Sharing Buttons to Typepad posts

Social Media Share Buttons

You can also go beyond asking readers to “Share This” by enabling greater real-time communication and engagement on the website. In terms of basic tools, the major social platforms offer webmasters a range of integration options to further deepen this connection between their sites and users, including Facebook’s social plugins, Twitter for Websites, or tools like Click To Tweet which enables sharing of certain pieces of information instead of entire pages.

Alice McLean is a writer at bestessays.com with background in history, sociology and internet marketing.  Now she is writing her first book on internet marketing.

The post Web Design as an Important Marketing Trend in 2013 appeared first on Digital K Blog.

Isaac A. Wardell, Phyllis Khare, Kelly Ward, Andrea Vahl, and Amy Porterfield

Here are a few of my favorite tips I learned from these four Facebook experts during the summit. (And make sure you scroll down to the end of this blog post to see some results I’ve gotten since implementing just a few of the things I learned!)

3 Facebook Tips from Phyllis Khare:

1. Check your Facebook page on your computer AND on mobile devices. On your mobile devices, check it using the official Facebook app, the phone’s browser view of Facebook, and the newly-released Facebook Home app. It will look different! If you have text on your cover image, make sure it is readable on all devices. For example, my business name in my cover image appears lined up perfectly on my computer; but it is cut off on my iphone.
   

   Digital K Facebook Page viewed on a Computer

   

   Digital K Facebook Page viewed on an iphone

2. Size your images in your posts 600 pixels x 600 pixels. This is the size used in the new Facebook newsfeed and currently on mobile devices.
3. On your Facebook posts, keep the text (and optional link) within the first 350 characters before Facebook adds the “See More” link. Even better: create “teaser” text under 90 characters. People are busy and most are just skimming through their newsfeeds.

3 Facebook Tips from Amy Porterfield:

1. On your Facebook (personal) profile, include a link in your About section to your Facebook (business) page.
   

   Link to your Facebook Page from your Profile

2. To create an active and engaged Facebook community, you need to know your audience really well. Do some research. For example, where do they shop? What do they like to do? What tools do they use? What are their favorite Facebook pages? If you don’t know – ASK! You can create a survey – or it can be as simple as asking a question in a Facebook post.
3. Every time you post on Facebook, make sure you are doing one of these things: Educate, Entertain, or Empower.

 3 Facebook Tips from Andrea Vahl:

1. When running a Facebook ad, use 5-10% of your budget (for that ad) on split tests. Spend the rest of the budget on the ad that performs the best.
2. When doing a split test, consider testing these 4 things – but only change one thing at a time:
   1. The ad title
   2. The body of the ad
   3. The image
   4. Your targeting
3. The ad’s click price goes up when you send people out of Facebook. Instead, have your opt-in as a Facebook tab instead of sending them to your website’s opt-in page.

3 Facebook Tips from Isaac A. Wardell:

1. Plan for negative engagement on your Facebook page. Always respond to negative comments in a positive way. Isaac says, “You may not be perfect; but you have to be listening.”
2. Don’t sell all the time. Avoid having more than 10-20% of your Facebook posts be sales posts.
3. Motivate your fans to create your marketing materials for you. Hold a contest to get testimonials, photos, and stories about your product or service.

Was it worth travelling to Dallas for this summit? Absolutely! The Social Results Summit was jam-packed with valuable Facebook tips. (These tips were just a few of my favorites.) When I returned from the summit, I started putting some of the tips to good use while managing one of my client’s Facebook pages.  Even though this particular business only has me post to their Facebook page a few times each week, we still saw a great improvement:

Facebook Insights

Facebook Insights: Reach

You can be sure that I will be keeping a close eye on whether they offer the Social Results Summit again next year! In the meantime, I will continue to take action on the things I’ve learned at the summit as well as continue to learn from these elite four Facebook strategists. Want to join me?

• You can find me on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/digitalkward
• You can find Phyllis Khare on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/TheSocialClassroom
• You can find Amy Porterfield on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/AmyPorterfield
• You can find Andrea Vahl on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/GrandmaMaryShow
• You can find Isaac A. Wardell on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/IsaacAWardell

I also have a few openings available for my Facebook Page Management services. Contact me today to discuss what you need help with – and receive a free, no-obligation quote on our social media services.

The post 12 Facebook Tips from Social Results Summit appeared first on Digital K Blog.

Sandy Poehnelt moved to Kaua’i, Hawaii in 2009. Soon she noticed a need for fresh specialty pies on the island – and in October of that year, she started her own pie-baking business: The Right Slice.

The Right Slice specializes in tropical pies. Mango Passionfruit, Tropical Banana, Chocolate Coconut Macaroon, and Macadamia Nut are just a few of their delicious flavors. They try to use local products whenever they can, working closely with several area farmers to get the freshest ingredients.

The Right Slice started out as a vendor at community events, while sharing a kitchen with another bakery. A year and a half later, they opened their first retail location in Lihue. Their pies were a hit with local residents and tourists. Before long The Right Slice was receiving requests for pies to be shipped. We got to work customizing their shopping cart to accept orders for pies to be picked up at various locations as well as pies to be shipped to the US mainland. Meanwhile Poehnelt was working with a local UPS Store to figure out the best way to safely ship her pies. Her story caught the attention of UPS – and The Right Slice was featured in a UPS Store national ad campaign! Check out the video:

Between orders received at local community events, orders from their retail location, and orders received through their website – The Right Slice is a delicious success. They are now planning on opening a second on-island location in the fall of 2013.

I applaud Sandy Poehnelt’s and The Right Slice’s success — and hope to continue working with them as they grow their business.

For more information:

• Visit the website we created for The Right Slice (and order yourself a pie!).
• Find The Right Slice on Facebook.
• Read our Case Study on the ecommerce solution we developed for The Right Slice.
• Read The UPS Store’s blog article on The Right Slice.

The post The Right Slice: A Delicious Small Business Success appeared first on Digital K Blog.

1. Given how the Web has empowered B2B buyers, is cold calling still relevant in the Internet Age — and are companies still generating a return on investment (ROI) on it?
2. With other lead generation activities on the rise, like paid search and content marketing, can cold calling help marketers stand out from the noise?
3. Can inbound marketing and analytics help us better decide who to cold call and when?

Here are the key takeaways from the discussion. (A video of the recorded debate is at the bottom of this article.)

To Be Effective – Cold Calling Needs to Shift to Warm Calling

Cold calling is decreasing significantly in effectiveness. Each panelist agreed that it is very rare to be able to call a business, get a hold of a buyer, and turn them into a lead. Even if you are able to succeed with gaining a lead using this approach, it’s a very inefficient way to generate leads.

With so many online options available for connecting with people (e.g. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+) it’s very easy to find out information about your prospect before you pick up a phone. Likewise, your prospect can learn a little about you before they commit to a call. The panel called this “warm calling” – calling only the people that have an interest in hearing from you and have been primed to receive your call.

Mike Volpe, CMO of HubSpot, recommends marketers call the prospects that express an interest in your product or service by first finding you on the Web. Volpe says, “I’ve gotten so annoyed with cold calling that I’ve turned that channel off. I’ll do webinars, hangouts, and scheduled calls. But it’s impossible to cold call me now because I don’t have a phone. [Cold calling is] an annoying medium for me because it’s about the seller and not the buyer.”

Try Other Methods of Contacting Prospects

Marketers have many more ways to connect with prospects other than picking up the phone and calling them. A marketer may initially send an email. If there’s no response, then they can try to connect via LinkedIn and send a message through there. After reaching out via other mediums, they may then escalate to a phone call.

Anneke Seley, Founder and CEO of Reality Works Group, says, “As a marketer, it’s our job to figure out how to best get in touch with someone.”

Marketing is Shifting Towards a Permission-Based Model

The more buyers are contacted in an unsolicited way, the more they will ignore marketers’ attempts to get in touch. Volpe says, “Sales and marketing professionals have to do everything they can to be as attractive and likeable as possible.” To generate leads in a permission-based model,  marketers will need do things such as creating original content that addresses potential buyers’  unique challenges and providing useful advice that’s easily accessible on the Web. The panelists agreed that marketing will need to evolve into demonstrating your value — and ultimately having buyers come to you. Otherwise buyers will increasingly dismiss your company and not engage with your marketing efforts.

Click on the video below to hear the recorded debate brought to you by Software Advice. You can also read a recap of the debate from the debate moderator, Derek Singleton.

The post Think Cold Calling Doesn’t Work? Try Warm Calling! appeared first on Digital K Blog.

Software Advice is hosting a Google+ debate to discuss that question. The debate, titled, “Does Cold Calling Still Work?” will focus on whether it’s better to go out and find your customers, or if it’s better to create great content that brings customers to you. While the debate will focus on the effectiveness of cold calling, panelists will also discuss how inbound marketing techniques like PPC and SEO fit into the modern sales/marketing arsenal.

The debate includes a panel of three inside sales and inbound marketing thought leaders:

• Mike Volpe, CMO at HubSpot
• Ken Krogue, President at InsideSales.com
• Anneke Seley, CEO at Reality Works Group.

Each expert will get a chance to answer three questions from the debate’s moderator, Derek Singleton, with time to offer a rebuttal. After all the scripted questions are answered, viewers will be able to ask their own questions by posting a comment to the Google+ event. The best questions will be picked for experts to answer.

To watch the debate – and participate – just visit Singleton’s Google+ page this Wednesday, January 30th at 1pm Central Standard Time. You can add the event to your Google Calendar here. For more information, visit the B2B Marketing Mentor blog.

The post Inbound Marketing vs Outbound Marketing Debate appeared first on Digital K Blog.

Text is informative but quick to bore. Clipart is even worse. This is why images pack such a punch in social media marketing. Original images have exponentially more power than do clipart and free stock photos. Because regular posting is essential to marketing in the social media universe, you’ll need to get creative.  Here are 8 ways to market your brand with images on social media and your blog.

1. Show off your products. If there’s one thing we love to do, it’s shop. Well, window-shop at least. And Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and blogs are full of said windows. Take a picture of a freshly-baked pastry if you’re a baker; single out a new car in the lot if you’re a dealer. Don’t repeat photos, though, as you’ll bore and even annoy followers.
2. Show off happy customers. If you’re a makeup artist, snap a pic of your model.  If a customer wrote you a thank you note on the personalized stationery you sold them, showcase it. The possibilities are endless.
3. Show off great employees. Give your company a human face by presenting a hardworking employee. Give a short bio and a tidbit about what makes that person integral to the company.
4. Host a contest. A photo contest can increase follower numbers and get them excited about your brand. For example, announce to your subscribers and followers that one of them will receive a free product (or a discount on a future purchase) for posting a picture of him- or herself sporting your product.
5. Take a picture of a promotional code. Make followers feel like they got the inside deal by posting pictures of a discount code or deal. Be sure to call attention to these special-offer photos with an appropriate tag!
6. Offer a peek into the office. It doesn’t matter if you or your employees work in a cubicle. Snap a picture of your office from a quirky angle or showcase one framed picture or coffee mug and briefly comment on the goings-on at the office. Give future customers a glimpse into an office moment. Better yet, have everyone in the office come in for a silly photo to show off (and build) office camaraderie.
7. Demonstrate your craft. Customers are curious how their products are made or how your services are provided. Fulfill their curiosity by taking a picture of yourself or an employee hard at work.
8. Hint at future innovations. Whether you’re coming out with a new product or are hosting an event, snap a picture of something that gives a hint to your followers. They’ll be abuzz with predictions and anticipation, and that means good things for your brand.

Kim Willington is a freelance writer and researcher for http://www.helpdesksoftware.org/, where she has recently been researching ITIL service desk software. In her spare time, she enjoys antiquing and taking long walks with her retriever, Spencer.

The post 8 Ways to Market Your Brand with Images appeared first on Digital K Blog.

Note: I have also updated the code listed in my previous blog post: “How to Add Social Media Sharing Buttons to your Blogger Posts” with this new fix. If you are using the code from that blog post, you can grab the full code (including the Facebook, Twitter and Google+ buttons) from that updated blog post.

Don’t want to tackle these updates yourself?  I can help!

Thanks to BloggerSentral for the updated code (found here):

<!-- Pinterest button Start by BloggerSentral.com -->
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == &quot;item&quot;'>
<div id='pin-wrapper' style='margin:10px 10px 10px 0; text-align: left;'>
<a data-pin-config='beside' data-pin-do='buttonPin' expr:href='&quot;http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=&quot; + data:post.url'><img src='//assets.pinterest.com/images/pidgets/pin_it_button.png'/></a>
<span style='margin-left:-44px;'><a data-pin-config='beside' data-pin-do='buttonBookmark' href='//pinterest.com/pin/create/button/' style='outline:none;border:none;'/></span>
</div> 
<script src='http://assets.pinterest.com/js/pinit.js' type='text/javascript'/> 
</b:if> 
<!-- Pinterest button End -->

This code should be placed ABOVE the first instance of this line in your template’s HTML code:
<data:post.body/>

(See “How to Add Social Media Sharing Buttons to your Blogger Posts” for step-by-step instructions on how to edit your Blogger template.)

The above code will place a “Pin It” button at the top of your blog posts. A counter will appear to the right of the button and it will display how many times your blog post has been pinned.

• If you prefer the counter appear above your “Pin It” button:
  Change data-pin-config=’beside’ to:
  data-pin-config=’above’
• If you prefer to not display a counter:
  Change data-pin-config=’beside’ to:
  data-pin-config=’none’

If you need to change the alignment of your “Pin It” button, you can adjust this line of code: text-align: left;
by changing “left” to “center” or “right”.

If you want to change the spacing before or after your “Pin It” button, try changing the value of the margin of the <div> of the button. If you have your button in a row with other social media buttons, you can also try increasing the margin value for the button that’s next to the “Pin It” button.

Don’t want to tackle this yourself?

I can help! Simply click the “Pay Now” button below to pay via PayPal – or contact me for other payment methods. The cost is only $29 – and you can optionally choose to include other social media buttons as shown in this article. After receiving your payment I will email you to get your blog login details.

Add Social Media Sharing Buttons to My Blogger Posts: $29

The post How to Fix the Pin It Button on Blogger Posts appeared first on Digital K Blog.

Let’s face it: With the big money to advertise and the manpower to stay consistently active, larger companies are in a far better position when it comes to leveraging social media sites like Facebook. However, that doesn’t mean small businesses are powerless. It’s not exactly an equal playing field, but when used correctly, you can tilt the odds back in your favor. Through proper use of Facebook tools and third-party apps and by learning more about marketing and the realm of social media in general, small businesses can use Facebook to grow their brand. Here are just a few of the many ways to leverage your position.

Best Ways for Small Businesses to Build their Brand through Facebook

Creating Intriguing Ads/Content

Are you one of the many advertisers out there treating advertisements like advertisements? Well, stop it! Sure, the idea is to advertise to people, but you cannot approach marketing with such a narrow, literal view. The idea behind Facebook advertising is to start a conversation. You’re asking something of your fans, not demanding it. A Facebook page isn’t a medium to push your information onto your audience, but rather to share it.

Highlight Your Fans

Why do you think so many people join social networks? It’s not necessarily to find out about other people; it’s more about a user sharing his or her life and experiences with others. People using Facebook want to be the center of attention while simultaneously participating in the group. It’s what makes social communities unique. To leverage this, you need to highlight your fans. Give your personal community an opportunity to shine by holding contests and highlighting the winners, asking for their input through polls and other methods, and through other means by which a fan can participate with your brand while receiving recognition for it.

Stay Active in Your Feed

As a small business, you can’t afford to have Facebook hide your posts from a user’s feed. What does it take to keep your conversation out front? Activity. You need to have engagement by way of user likes and comments. This obviously means posting engaging material. Aim for using more photos and video and audio in your page posts rather than sticking with text-based messages. Give people something to approve of through chatter and sharing.

Track Everything You Do

Learning the proper way to set up page post ads (shown in the infographic on the right) and how to attract an audience are important factors; but you also need to track everything that you do in social media. If you’re not tracking the results of your campaign and viewing your metrics and other data, you’re never going to find out what you’re doing right or wrong. You can’t simply rely on having more likes or fewer likes per post, nor can you settle on watching your bottom line to gauge the effectiveness of what you’re doing. Leveraging Facebook means actively seeking to improve, and this starts with checking data to improve your methods.

Being a small business doesn’t have to mean that your back’s against the wall when branding on Facebook. If you want to keep your company’s name on people’s tongues, it takes engagement. You have to offer something worthwhile to your audience. The question is: Can you compel people to engage with you?

Stan Johnson is an online writer for Qwaya, a Facebook campaign manager tool. She enjoys writing about the latest social media marketing trends and news.

The post How Small Businesses can use Facebook for Brand Building appeared first on Digital K Blog.

Notes:

• In order to add a custom signature in Typepad, you need to have the Unlimited or Premium account. The Plus account doesn’t let you add a signature.

• Typepad doesn’t let you add text or links in your signature on any of their accounts (for example, a text including a link to your company’s website).

Adding Your Signature Image

1. Create your signature image in a graphics program and save it as a GIF, JPG or PNG file. Make note of the height (in pixels) of the image.
2. Upload your image into your blog’s File Manager: In Typepad click Library > File Manager.
3. After you upload the image, click on the file name and the image will open in your browser. Copy or write down the URL of the image (or keep the browser window open so you can copy the URL later).
4. In the Typepad Admin area for your blog, click the Design tab.
5. Now click the “Custom CSS” link.
6. Add the following code to the text box, adjusting the code as indicated below:

   .entry-content {
   padding-bottom: 85px;
   background: transparent url(http://your-blog.typepad.com/your-images-folder/your-signature-image.png) bottom left no-repeat;
   margin-bottom: 15px;
   }

7. Click the “Save Changes” button.

Notes on the Code:

1. This number should be slightly larger than the height of your image. Start out by using a number 15-20 pixels larger than your image’s height. You can adjust this number if you find that you want more or less space between your post and your signature.
2. The URL of your image (from step #3 above)
3. “left” makes the image left-aligned. You can change this to “center” or “right” if you prefer different alignment.
4. This number adds some space between your signature and the post footer. Again, you can adjust this number to add more or less space.

Now view your blog posts to see if you like how your signature looks. You can always adjust your code to adjust the alignment or the spacing above and below your signature graphic.

The post How to Add a Signature Image to Typepad Blog Posts appeared first on Digital K Blog.

The first method uses a plugin. The second method involves editing your WordPress theme’s functions.php file. If the thought of editing a php file scares you, using a plugin is the easier way. However, if you prefer not to be dependent on a 3rd-party plugin and you’re up for doing some PHP code editing, that’s a second option! Here are instructions for both methods.

Adding a WordPress Signature through the use of a Plugin

The “Add Signature Plugin for WordPress” plugin from Dagon Design is easy to use and gives you plenty of options for adding a signature to both posts and pages. (Note: The developer has not updated this plugin since 2009; however I can confirm that this plugin still works on the latest version of WordPress: version 3.4.2).

1. Download the “Add Signature Plugin for WordPress” plugin
2. Change the file name of the plugin from dd-add-sig.txt to dd-add-sig.php
3. Upload the plugin file to your plugins directory: /wp-content/plugins/
4. In your WordPress Admin area, click on “Plugins” in the menu.
5. You will see a plugin called “Add Sig”. Click on the “Activate” link for that plugin.
   
6. Now click on Settings > DDAddSig in your WordPress Admin menu.
7. In the “Primary Signature” box, type in the text for your signature.
   (Note: the other Signature boxes are used if you want to manually insert a signature yourself.)
   
   You can also use HTML code to specify specifc formatting (fonts, colors, line breaks, etc.), to add an image, and to add links to other pages or websites.
   
8. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and check the boxes next to the places that you want your signature to automatically appear. Then click the “Update Options” button.
   

Adding a WordPress Signature by Editing the WordPress Functions File

If you don’t want to use a plugin, you can edit the functions.php file instead. This file is located within your WordPress theme’s directory: /wp-content/themes/yourtheme/

Download the file, open it in a text editor and insert the code found in this blog post found on wpmu.org. Replace the image location with the correct URL for where you signature image is located (see highlighted code):

Or you can use text instead of (or in addition to) an image:

Then upload the updated file back to your site.

If you need adjust the appearance of your signature you can add a CSS style to your theme’s stylesheet: /wp-content/themes/yourtheme/style.css. For example, to change the color or your text:

div.signature {
color: #000000;
}

And to add extra spacing around your signature image:

div.signature img {
padding: 5px;
}

The post How to Add a Signature to WordPress Blog Posts appeared first on Digital K Blog.