2011 Web Trends Part 1

While Web design is always evolving, we're seeing these trends in 2011:

Simple Color Schemes—It's popular to use only two or three colors in your site design and then use a lot of shades or tints.

Mobile Ready—Forecasters are predicting that smartphones will outsell personal computers this year, so it's becoming increasingly important to design with mobile viewing in mind.

Design for Touch Screens, Not Mice—Now that more and more people are using smartphones or iPads for their browsing, traditional means of navigation such as drop-down menus may not work so well in these new mediums.

Depth Perception—Layer objects, drop shadows and other 3D effects to create dimension in your site.

Large Photographic Backgrounds—Large, high quality photos are becoming more popular. Arresting photos capture attention quickly and draw your viewer into your site.

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Mayo Clinic Leads the Way with Social Media Marketing

Ed Bennet, author of the Web site Found in Cache: Social Media resources for health care professionals from Ed Bennet, advises health care organizations not to get into social media because you think you’re going to get more patients, but because you’re helping be responsive (not responsible) to people reaching out looking for answers.

The Mayo Clinic, a front-runner for using social media in the health care industry, uses it in a variety of ways:

Facebook:

• Patient questions and comments are monitored and responded to by their experts
• Video contests
• Informational videos on various topics
• Patient testimonies
• Automatic blog posts
• Visit the Mayo Clinic's Facebook Page

Blogs:

• newsblog.mayoclinic.org—Features news updates from the Mayo Clinic
• sharing.mayoclinic.org—Features stories from patients, family, friends, and staff of the Mayo clinic

Twitter:

• Tweets about health tips, news updates and patient stories
• See their Twitter page

YouTube:

• Videos feature physicians, patient stories and news stories
• Visit their YouTube Channel

Marketers Continue to Increase Use of Video

Onemarketmedia.com reports that video will be ubiquitous on the Web—and is a top priority for marketers.  Here’s what they say:

According to a survey by Marketing Sherpa, for the second year in a row video marketing is the top priority for marketers surveyed, ahead of SEO, PPC, social media, email marketing and all other online marketing tactics. Turnhere has also released a study in the fall which revealed the same results —“When asked to rank various online marketing priorities for 2010, video was ranked as the top priority.”

In a recent post conference interview Jeremey Allaire, CEO of Brightcove, summarized the outlook for Web-based video this way:

“Video will become as ubiquitous as text on the web.... What weʼve seen happening over the last year is this incredible growth in the number of organizations and corporations, of all types, of all industries, of all sectors of societies, embracing video to enhance what they are doing on the web.”

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7 Ways to Get Your Message Out Without Costly Media Buys

Using video in your marketing strategy is no longer a luxury—in many cases, it’s now considered an essential part of any messaging strategy.

Once you’ve developed the video, make sure you’re maximizing your investment by taking advantage of the many free distribution methods.

1. Company Web site. Increase traffic and interaction by including video on your Web page.
2. Company lobbies. Many companies are using HD video screens in high traffic areas, making it an ideal place for key messages.
3. Mobile. Mobile is the media of the future, so repurposing video with mobile in mind can be a great idea for the right message.
4. Post on your company Facebook page.
5. Share it with your circle of influence by posting it on other social media sites, like Linked In.
6. Post on your company You Tube channel.  If you don’t have one, now’s the time to set it up.
7. Send an email link. Depending on the message, this can go to employees (remember, they’re a sales force too), stakeholders, donors, board members, volunteers and customers.

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Consumers Look for Video Content on Web Sites

Visitors to Web sites are now looking for video content first. Smart businesses can no longer ignore video as part of their marketing and communication strategy. A report on comscore.com states that 174 million US internet users watched online video content in March of 2011—for an average of 14.8 hours per viewer.

The use of video often increases your marketing results. Here are some facts from slingshotseo.com:

1. Video increases engagement, causing visitors to stay longer on your site—and making them more likely to buy.
2. 65 percent of visitors will watch a video to completion—compared with only 10 percent who will read an entire Web site.
3. 12 percent of users coming from a video are ready to buy—compared to only 1 percent for text-only users.

You Tube is the second largest search engine next to Google, and last year alone You Tube reportedly exceeded 2 billion views per day.

Are you where people are looking for you?

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Have you heard about Facebook's EdgeRank?

Have you noticed how only certain people's posts show up in your news feed? This is because Facebook uses something called EdgeRank to determine which status updates you will see in your top news feed. In order to do this, Facebook has developed an algorithm which takes into account affinity, weight and time decay.

• Affinity is determined by your interaction with another user or page. The more you view their page or content, the higher your affinity score will be for them.
• Weight is calculated by the ways you interact with other pages or users. For example, commenting on a picture will have a higher weight than simply liking it.
• Time is probably the easiest to understand, and simply means that the older a post, the lower a score it will have.

If you want to test your EdgeRank score, EdgeRankChecker.com  has developed an algorithm which allows you to do so. This score is closely related to how visible your status updates are on your fans' pages.

If you get a poor score, here are  some ways to improve it.

• Try to focus on posting content that encourages interaction such as photos, videos,  links or questions.  
• Ask for feedback from users. Encourage people to comment and to like your entries.
• Pose questions to your readers.
• Be a frequent user. The more you share, the higher your chance of interaction will be.

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Seven Ways to Use Video to Improve Your Marketing

The demand for receiving content by video continues to explode, making it by necessity an important part of your marketing mix. Video can be used in many ways for communicating the same things as traditional media has been used for, but its ability to convey through images, sound and motion makes it higher impact.

Here are some of the ways you can consider using video:

1. Communicate key messages. Putting a face to key company messages makes it more personal and memorable, and because it can be made available any time, any place, over time it allows you to reach a broader audience than live presentations can.
2. Recognize top employees or volunteers. Nothing inspires like hearing the story of another person who is passionate about his or her work. This kind of message helps to build a culture of excellence—reinforcing behaviors that fulfill your company’s goals.
3. Share news. When announcing a new product or service, video should be part of your roll-out campaign.
4. Offer testimonials. Feature clients talking about your brand to bring added credibility to your message.
5. Show—vs. tell. When you want to teach, use video. An ideal medium for orientation and training, it’s the next best thing to being there in person.
6. Go viral. Not every video is a candidate for going viral, but one that has entertainment value is more likely to do so. More and more companies are couching subtle product messages in viral-style videos to promote this kind of distribution.
7. Repurpose ads. By all means, make sure you’re posting TV ads—in addition to buying air time for them. It’s also possible to create a kinetic motion production (type animation) that restates a print ad—but adds the elements of sound and motion.
8. Communicate internally. Video can capture the soul of an organization, and fuel its core mission.

Once you’ve developed your video, make sure you’re maximizing your investment by taking advantage of every distribution method (many of which are free).

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Three Things Your Competitors Don't Want You to Know about Video

Adding video to your online marketing campaign can significantly improve your results. Here are some facts from onemarketmedia.com. 

Better ROI

In a study by Eyeblaster of online advertising campaigns, video increased dwell rate on ads by 20% and dwell time by 100%. Another study by Dynamic Logic also indicated significant improvements in brand favorability, aided brand awareness and purchase intent of rich media ads with video compared to traditional static display ads.

Higher engagement

Video is the best way to keep visitors to your site engaged and the best way to engage people with your brand. Time-on-page and time-on-site numbers increase when you add video. Images, podcasts, polls, charts and graphics are all great but nothing engages a website visitor more effectively than video. There are hundreds of blog posts and articles like this one where Patrick Moran explains how his sales team improved their close rates by 20% and online registrations by over 25% using web based video.

SEO

Type in ʻVideoʼ and ʻSEOʼ in Google and you will discover many articles explaining how video can improve your SEO results. With the launch of Universal Search from Google, you should expect to see more and more video results occupying the search engine results that are served up by Google. That means Google is prioritizing video in itʼs search algorithm. Not only will video help promote your products and services online it can also help those products and services get found online.

Smart businesses are responding to video with a resounding yes! Check to see if your competitors are doing the same.

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Hospital Anniversary Campaign Uses Video to Tell the Story

We produced a series of mini-videos for St. Anthony North Hospital's 40-Year Anniversary campaign—all of which are posted on their Web site, their You Tube channel and their Facebook pages. Each of the personal interviews tells a piece of their story—what the hospital means to its community, its distinctive mission and its vision for the future.

Quality videos are getting more cost-effective to produce. This, coupled with the the pervasive consumer  appetite for video, should make it a part of any significant campaign.

What are your reactions to this campaign? Do you think St. Anthony North's message was effectively communicated to the community? Leave us a comment and let us know what you think.

The Brand Nazi: Your Secret to Building a Better Web Site

Is your web site suffering from a bad case of the 90s look? Outdated information? A look that never did work? Confusing navigation? Or content that doesn’t speak to what readers care about?

You might find instructive this “best/worst” list of university web sites—admittedly one person’s opinion but insightful, nonetheless. You surely could give us some of your own good and bad examples (and please do!).

In reading his post, it reminded me that even an organization with exceptional talent will be led astray with web strategies if too many people get involved. A well-conceived, well-executed Web site requires the presence of a Brand Nazi who is vigilant about monitoring the brand message on the Web site, who has the authority to say no, who has the vision for a coherent message and who has the focus and resources to execute the vision.

Web sites inherently are organic. Even a great one eventually declines for lack of overall attention. Let’s face it: Many organizations don’t give the maintenance of their Web site the same attention they do for its launch.

Of course all of this requires us to make our own confession. When we moved to a blog format, our own Web site languished. This year, however, we have declared the Year of the New CMBell Web Site. So stay tuned. The Brand Nazi at CMBell has spoken.

The Power of a Story: Mayo Clinic Documents a Patient’s Journey Through Cancer to Hope

 
In the spirit of an on-going TV reality show, Mayo Clinic chronicles MaryEllen’s journey through cancer in a series of episodes posted on-line. With commentary by MaryEllen, the patient, as well as by her physician, the series gives perspectives from various vantage points. 

As the healthcare industry looks for ways to peel back the curtain on the patient experience, the power of personal stories—told in their own words—resonates with patients and their families.

While this application shows what can be done in healthcare, don’t dismiss its potential for other industries, as well.

Should you be using 2D barcodes in your ads?

In the past year or so, you may have started to notice some odd-looking box-shaped barcodes on advertisements. They come in a variety of formats and are usually accompanied by a line of text that asks the viewer to scan the image with their smartphone.

Welcome to the world of Matrix/2D Barcodes. When scanned, this code will open content on your phone's internet browser—and often this content comes in the form of video, editorial, coupons and such.

Matrix codes are relatively new to the scene here in the US. In a recent survey, nearly 57% of smartphone users have scanned at least one mobile barcode. They are rapidly becoming popular as a means of quick information access. Rather than waiting to get on a computer, consumers who have smartphones and the appropriate apps can have near-instant access to more information while their interest is still piqued.

In addition to providing an added service to consumers, they offer benefits to the marketer. In many cases, advertisers can track detailed demographic information about those who scanned the code and use this to better measure the success of a particular campaign.

Depending on what kind offer or content you have and who your target market is, these might be worth considering in your next campaign.

The Tribes We Lead

Blogger and entrepreneur Seth Godin presents a new perspective on mass marketing, arguing that the internet has launched a new era of leading and connecting people and ideas, thereby creating ideological tribes. While tribes have been around for a long time, today's tribes go beyond geography or shared culture. He asserts that people long for connections, and that today's marketing leader must move away fron the model of trying to persuade people they want something they don't have. Instead, they must connect people with similar yearnings who can become loyal fans of your idea, product or service--creating a sense of belonging or virtual tribe.

How to Drive More Traffic to Your Web Site

We all want our Web site to appear near the top of a search page—but how can we make this happen?

Start by understanding the basics of Search Engine Optimization, or SEO—the process of improving Web site visibility. Search engines aim to produce valuable results for users—and want to avoid sending users to sites that disappoint in content. We all know how frustrating it is to be referred to a site that doesn't have what it promises.

Web sites show up higher on the search results page based on their popularity, and while it does take time to build awareness, there are ways to improve your position.

Google uses proprietary algorithms to determine which sites are the most popular, and some industry experts devote their lives to trying to figure out how these can best be used to their advantage. This has resulted in an on-going competition between Web developers, who want the best possible rankings (and will sometimes push the envelope to achieve this), and Google, who is trying to revise its algorithms to prevent developers from gaming the system. As Web developers find ways to "get around" Google's algorithms, Google responds by changing it—and the cycle repeats.

While experts who devote their entire livelihoods to this can help with this, here are a few ways you can improve your site's rankings in a search result:

• Have fresh, relevant and desirable content that is easy to search.
• Cross-link both within your site and to other sites.
• Buy sponsored links (these appear at the top or along the side of the search results).
• Think like the consumer. If you have a pain management practice, for example, bear in mind that consumers will search for things like pain relief, back pain, neck pain, and pain doctors--but may not search under pain management clinic. Make sure common key words words appear in your site.
• Add a site map.
• Make your site friendly for search engines to crawl (gather information used to index sites). For example, don't put key information or links in graphics or Flash animations, as search engines cannot detect these.
• Avoid doing things that will be detected as spamming—like keyword stuffing.
• Create a blog.

Experts agree that the most important way to increase traffic is by having compelling content. It takes work, so be prepared to make the investment required to make your Web site a success.

Client Showcase—Launching a Pain Center That Offers Hope

We've recently worked with Avista Adventist Hospital to launch a pain management program. In developing their new logo, business package and Web site, we used bold, vital colors to promote a fresh look for their brand that suggests hope and optimism—a much-needed message for those suffering from chronic and acute pain. Using the letter D from their name, the icon creates a flower image that evokes vitality and life.

Client Showcase—Imaging Center Campaign

Los Angeles Advanced Imaging, L.A.’s newest diagnostic imaging center, pairs a spa-like environment with an array of advanced technology that enables physicians to provide more accurate diagnoses earlier, often resulting in better outcomes for patients.

We partnered with them to create a family of pieces that introduced the new facility, including invitations, a brochure and the design of a website. The carefully crafted language, combined with a design that reflects its spa-like environment, strikes the delicate balance of offering both a message of reassurance and a message of technical expertise.

This marketing campaign won a 2009 Aster Award Gold Award for Service Line Promotion, and the invitation won a Silver Award.