Category Archives: The State Of The Web Report

The 5 New Rules For Conducting Email Marketing in Canada

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Are you marketing to your Canadian customers and prospects via email ?

Did you know your business may be at risk of losing over 80% of your subscribers- or worse- get fined millions of dollars?

Since the AntiSpam Legislation in Canada was changed at the beginning of July, many business owners have found themselves unsure of how to protect their businesses from heavy fines, while ensuring their marketing efforts aren’t being crippled by the new law.

The 5 New Rules For Conducting Email Marketing in Canada:

The first thing to do is brush up on the changes:

1. Learn about what CASL or the new Canada Anti-Spam act allows and disallows.

The biggest takeaway from the legislation change is that any member of your email marketing list needs to give you explicit, rather than implicit consent to market to them.

This means each member of your list must take an action to give you permission to market to them. These actions could include replying to an email with the word yes, or clicking an “I consent” button.

You have 3 years to obtain explicit consent before you risk being fined.

2. Split your lists

Create a new list for “Antispam consent”- here’s where you want to add subscribers who have officially consented to be marketed to.

The goal is to convert as many people from your existing list, to your new Antispam list as possible.

3. Commit to your list

You have 3 years to gain the explicit consent needed to ensure your compliance with the Antispam act.

So, make use of the entirety of this this time!

Don’t lose the subscribers you’ve worked so hard to gain.

Keep asking your subscribers to confirm their consent.

4. Create multiple strategies to ask for consent.

In cases where we’re managing the email marketing for our clients, we’ve found asking subscribers to hit reply has a biggest success rate than asking people to click a button and confirm their consent .

Secondly, experiment with email subject headings to see which ones perform the best; get the best open rate and click through rate. Then, use this data to make improvements to your next campaign.

5.  Put your money where your mouth is

Email marketing is one of the most effective types of marketing because it builds solid relationships with new and existing customers; keeping you top of mind and positioned as an expert.

Your list possesses incredible value and potential for sales revenue- a value high enough to warrant dishing out some incentive to maintain your list of qualified prospects.

Incentivize email consent with a contest, giveaway or other gift.

Great Idea: Think of a simple contest- giveaway a coffee card and profile the winner in your next email newsletter.

Was this post helpful? Please share your email marketing questions, concerns and comments below!

 

Anti Spam Legislation Canada and what it REALLY means for your business.

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You may have heard about Canada’s new anti spam law, coming into effect this July 2014.

If you’re in business, you may be wondering what does this mean for my business? 

Many business owners communicate with their customers, prospects and peers via email newsletters.

Here’s what you need to know to ensure compliance.

  • The legislation comes into effect July 1 2013
  • It states that you will need to obtain explicit consent within 3 years of the law going into effect.
  • Explicit consent means the recipient needs to take some action to confirm they want to continue to get your emails.
  • Explicit consent is the opposite of implicit consent which is inferred or assumed by your business relationship.
  • An example of explicit consent would be asking the recipient to click to confirm they still want to get your emails.
  • You need an opt out button
  • You need your physical mailing address

 

After a 3 year roll out period, you could be fined for emailing those who have not given you express explicit consent.

Read more details on Canada’s Anti Spam Legislation here. 

Learn more about email marketing

Check out our email marketing services

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3 Solutions for Adapting to Mobile Web Design

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mobile web site design calgaryThese days when you’re looking to improve or overhaul your web design, factoring in how it will look to handheld device users may be a factor to consider.

Mobile devices include smart phones and all manner of tablets.

Mobile device usage on your website

According to w3 schools, mobile device usage still accounts for less than 2% of overall web traffic, however in North America and Web Savvy cities like Calgary, these numbers tend to be much higher.

Check out your Google analytics or web traffic statistics to determine what percentage of your audience is on a handheld device when they land on your site. More importantly though, how are they behaving once they get to your website? Do you have a high bounce rate from handheld device users? Are their page views dramatically less than those on laptop or desktop devices?

If your handheld device audience is clearly turned off by your existing website design, and they’re a large percentage of your website visitors, you may want to consider a mobile web design.

That being said, you have 3 different options, with three different prices to address the needs of mobile device users on your website.

Here are 3 different options of mobile web design:

A mobile friendly website: This essentially means your website isn’t offensive or broken to the user. It ensuring your website is scalable and simply displays as a smaller version of itself on devices such as android, iphone, ipad etc.

Addition of a mobile plugin: A great and cost effective option for WordPress websites is a plugin that, when configured correctly, can display a mobile specific version of the website to your visitors. Essentially appearing as a large menu to start, this provides a quick an easy way for your visitors to get to where they want to go on your website. A mobile web design plugin can be installed in a medium sized WordPress website in roughly 10 hours. So, the cost will vary depending on your web designers rates.

Creation of a specifically mobile web design: For businesses with a large stake in the market of mobile users. An option where we create a whole new web design that is geared specifically to the needs of the user. All non-essential content and navigation is stripped down, providing only the required navigation and content that a user will need.

About as expensive as a standard web design, a specifically mobile web design takes into consideration the reduced screen size, and hurried nature of today’s users.

Often, screens will be basically empty except for a link to call, get directions with Google maps or place their order online/sign up.

The mobile web design user experience

Converting casual browsers to sales is typically easier for the retail business and handheld device user, as often the user is en route to purchase the product or service and needs simply to identify what location is the closest and most appropriate for fulfilling the user’s needs.

In this case, often all that is needed is a large phone number or map.

By considering the visitor usage, the 3 different options and the user experience, you can determine the best mobile web design solution for your unique business.

Learn more about web design services.

 

Your Turn!

I’d love to hear your questions or challenges – Tell me in the comments below.

And, if you enjoyed this post, please share it!

Laurel LindsayLaurel Lindsay is a Calgary Internet Marking Consultant & President of The New Media Group Inc. She has over 8 years hands-on Internet Marketing experience.

Laurel is enthusiastic and passionate about helping people live better lives by leveraging the power of the internet.

 

This month’s featured website design: Duri Homes

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A behind the scenes look at how we launched a complete website design project in less than 30 days.

website-design-duri-homesWhen I walked into Duri Homes’ latest home in Aspen Wood Estates I was, in a word, impressed.

A long-time client, Dean Duri’s small home-building company had been steadily growing due to word of mouth and a steadfast commitment to quality.

In that moment I realized that Dean had arrived.  His new home was spacious, beautifully designed and absolutely luxurious. The calibre of homes Dean is now building has clearly come a long way since he started his company.

When we sat down to discuss revamping his website design, I knew we’d need to pull out all the stops to ensure it was an accurate reflection of the quality of this luxury home. To make sure we were on point, we reviewed a few Calgary website designs from competitors and colleagues and discussed his businesses goals.

A week or so later, I got a call from Dean asking if it would be possible to get the new site up in time for his Show Home opening on October 20th.

Typically our website design projects last about 3 months, so it was a tall order to complete the site within less than 3 weeks.

That being said, I knew how important it was to Dean that his old, outdated website design was replaced as soon as possible. I took a deep breath and told him we could hustle and get it done.

That week was spent in a flurry. Getting text written and approved, the images from the photographer and carefully reviewing my notes in order to ensure everything Dean needed for his new website design would be incorporated in the build.

On a Tuesday afternoon just 4 days before the show home opened, we got Dean’s approval on all the materials necessary to put his site together.

There was one huge problem though. Our website developer was going in for day surgery on the Friday, and the site was supposed to go live on Saturday.  Despite his impending surgery, our developer worked around the clock Wednesday and Thursday to get us a first draft of his site for Friday morning.

As I reviewed the first draft of the website design with Dean, I felt a sense of pride that we could pull through for a valued client in his time of need. Only a few quick revisions were needed, but couldn’t be completed until Shane had recovered from Friday’s surgery.

We agreed to meet online Saturday morning. I reviewed the changes and called Dean to confirm.

His new website design site went live 10 minutes ago, 15 minutes prior to his show home opening. It is gorgeous, and an accurate reflection indeed of what Dean is capable of creating for his customers.

As I sit back in my chair after a very early morning this sunny Saturday, I feel such a sense of gratitude.

I am grateful that our developer, despite his medical concerns was able to pull through for us. I am grateful that our designer put in extra effort to make sure the website design was “wow”, and I am grateful that we can be a part of Duri Homes’ success as they open a new chapter of their business.

Mostly though, I am grateful that I am part of such a fantastic team capable of pulling off huge accomplishments in support of our clients.

If you get a chance, visit Duri Homes new website design and check out their show home.

I think you too will be very impressed.

Don’t get caught with food on your face

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Is your online face losing you business?

Do you have figurative food on your face?

Several years ago, just before a sales presentation, I’d indulged in the delight of the pastry treat known as Passion Flaky.

Anyway, I had had neglected to do a quick mirror check before heading into my meeting and I found out later that I literally had food on my face the whole time.

Continue reading →

Google makes Social Media Participation Mandatory.

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It`s just like middle school all over again.

At least when it comes to the success of your internet marketing campaign.

It’s accepted knowledge that where your site displays in Google’s search results (search engine optimization) can heavily impact your business.

There is firm evidence to support the long suspected importance of social media engagement in where your site ranks in Google search results.

Google Analytics  is now tracking the Social Engagement of your website.

Not just for tracking Google +, the website performance tracking tool also tracks and reports on Facebook Comments, Likes, Twitter Tweets and more.

Notorious for keeping the exact formula for how your site ranks top secret, you can bet that if Google thinks it’s important enough to track, that it’s factored into their ranking algorithm somehow.

On-page social media engagement can be seen across the web especially on blog sites, where options to comment on, and share the article across social media platforms are available.

It’s already known that the popularity of your site is a factor in search engine ranking, so this latest development is a logical extension of that rationale.

That the popularity of various pages on your website, as determined by social media, are now for certain, a huge factor as to whether your site is on page one, or page 50 of Google’s search results.

Social media marketing has been received with skepticism by some Calgary businesses, as they struggle to understand the benefits of social media marketing in their internet marketing campaigns.

 It’s no longer a question of whether social media marketing can impact your business in a positive way.

At the very minimum, In order to gain or maintain any sort of ranking in Google, you need to enable your site’s visitors to engage via social media by installing a social media plugin like the one shown above.

What’s recommended however, is that small business owners take this very strong hint and create their social media plan.

In this internet marketing consultant’s opinion, it’s already a dent in your credibility if you don’t have account with the big 5: A Blog, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN and You Tube.

People spend their time on social media websites. It’s much more effective to have a presence where your future customers are, and it’s a great place to promote your website and your products and services.

Your Turn!

Leave your questions about Internet Marketing Services, Social Media Marketing, Google Analytics or Website Design / Search Engine Optimization– below and we`ll answer them.

And, if you enjoyed this post, please share it!

Laurel LindsayLaurel Lindsay is a Calgary Internet Marking Consultant & President of The New Media Group Inc. She has over 8 years hands-on Internet Marketing experience.

Laurel is enthusiastic and passionate about helping people live better lives by leveraging the power of the internet.