Posts Tagged ‘Tips’

Posted on January 22, 2011 - by Wayne Sutton

Four landing page resources to increase website traffic and visitor signups

Did you hear about the “stealth” startup called Hipster that got 10,000 signups in two days? Yes, that’s right 10,000 signups. While that is impressive you would think on the website there was a lot of marketing text but no. The only text on the website reads “Something cool is coming to “city location”. and “Enter your email and we’ll put you on our invite list.” The text was simple, inviting users to signup and receive exclusive access to a site that no one really knew what Hipster was or did. The marketing behind the Hipster is what really makes a successful landing page along with some Silicon Valley bubble hype.

Landing pages are essential to a startup’s success or any website that is promoting/selling a product and trying to get users to signup. While working on TriOut and Cover Tech News, I found a few landing pages resources. Here are four landing page resources to help you increase visitor engagement.

1. Landing Page Templates from Unbounce.

2. 5 Truly Awful Landing Pages You Won’t Believe are from Well-Known Companies from KISSMetrics

3. The Anatomy of a perfect landing page infographic from formstack

4. The 12-Step Landing Page Rehab Program [Infographic]

Posted on July 14, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

9 offline lead generation tips for businesses exploring location based marketing

From TriOut to @Foursquare to @Whrrl to @Brightkite and Yelp, some businesses are struggling finding ways to promote their check-in specials and other location-based promotions. Even with the recent news of @Loopt reaching 4 million users, myTown with 2 million users and Foursquare just passing the 2 million user mark last week the main stream adoption of location based services still has a long way to go. Currently more businesses are using Facebook and Twitter for social media marketing but for businesses looking to cash in on the location check-in wave businesses may have to put a bigger investment in offline marketing to show a return on investment (ROI). To help here are 9 offline lead generation tips for business exploring location based marketing.

1. Cash register signs

At @themorningtimes cafe downtown Raleigh, you’ll find stickers that read follow us on Twitter on the cash register. This could easily read, check-in here or join our society. It’s a simple way to reach every customer that purchases items from your store.

2. Check-in here Window clings

Window clings have been around for a while with both @Google & @Yelp mailing out free window clings to businesses years ago. Now both @TriOut and @Foursquare are sending window clings to help promote not only their platforms but to help users see that businesses have a check-in special at their locations.

3. Signs and posters

Signs and posters are extremely valuable for marketing especially if your business is near a high traffic area. If the signs include the right words like free or coupons it may be enough for your potential customers to walk-in or check-in or subscribe to your mobile SMS geo fence promotion.

4. Receipt promotions/feedback/survey forms
Printing urls to feedback forms/surveys on receipts is a great way to collect information about your customers. But you have to make the incentive valuable enough where your customers would fill out the survey form and give you their information. Suggestions are 15% off the next order or enter to win a free trip, etc. @BananaRepublic have great receipt promotions. After collecting the data you can find your customers on social networking sites and other location-based platforms.

5.Zip code submissions
This is important especially if you’re a national chain. By asking for your customers zip codes you can find areas of your frequent shoppers and focus on location-based promotion based off the data you collect.

6. Email newsletter sign-ups

There are a few ways for businesses to ask for your email address. The most common is during the check out process. The other is by having a clip board or sign-up from near the cash register. By increasing your email list and sending out monthly newsletters it provides more opportunities to let your costumers know about new or upcoming location promotions.

7. QRCodes & Barcodes

With startups such as @stickybits and neogence both QRCodes & Barcodes will play a big roll in how business use location-based services. You can attach almost any type of content to either one. Currently you can use both to check-in with Foursquare and and by placing QRCodes or Barcodes on printed materials you can simplify the check-in process.

8. Billboards
Photo by: dennis crowley
Yes Billboards, have seen the @Foursquare billboard in Las Vegas? Again billboards are great for highly traffic / visible areas. But purchasing a billboard with your check-in spacial or sms mobile subscriptions short codes can increase the awareness of your location promotion faster than any yellow page ad and you’re almost guarantee that your local community will see the promotion.

9. Table tents

Table tents are a no brainier especially for coffee shops and restaurants. No matter if it’s your sms mobile subscription promotion or posting what location-based apps your customers can check-in too, table tents can lead to instant check-ins.

Have you seen other creative ways businesses are promoting location-based specials? If so let me know in the comments.

Posted on November 10, 2008 - by Wayne Sutton

Talk Social News Episode 13: Politics4All with Thomas Cook, find out how to help a reporter out along with twitip & everything twitter, while Linkedin started planning events

By now I’m sure you’re aware of how social media played a role in electing our new president and the online community is a buzz about the future of social media in government and politics. This week on Talk Social News, we explore the future of social media and politics as we talk with Thomas Cook, cofounder of Politics4All. Politics4All is a socially-networked platform that allows citizens, candidates, citizens, and groups to connect and collaborate on every level of the political spectrum. (from http://politics4all.com)

Take a listen as we discuss how President-Elect Barack Obama won the election using social media, the future of Change.gov and Politics4all.com, and what’s it’s like to be a TechCrunch50 demo company working on a business plan and raising capital. We also talked about the roll of citizen journalism reporting the news and the cool Politics4All t-shirts. For more about Politics4All you can read their blog or follow them on twitter at @Politics4All but first listen to the podcast.

The interview: Talk Social News Episode 13 – length 34:53 download or click to play:[audio:TalkSocialNews0013-Politics4All.mp3] Subscribe to podcast in iTunes:

Other topic discussed this week are:

What the blog:

The fail of the week:
John McCain and Sarah Palin, not that they lost the election but the nasty back and forth, finger pointing they are doing now.

Tech news of the week:

Linkedin gets events

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