Fast Tip Friday: Don't Talk Geek (but talking like a pirate is OK...just for today)

Most of us can throw out every piece of computer/web jargon in book...but that doesn't mean we should.  A few years back I forced myself into the habit of explaining all but the most well-known concepts in plain English to my colleagues at all times.  When I used jargon, most of them didn't understand what I was saying and it was creating far too many channels of mis-communication.  It was my job to know the technical end and as long as my colleagues understood the concept, that was sufficient. 

If you're going to do an integrated e-marketing strategy, that inherently involves working with people who work with computers as a matter of function, but don't know them or the web like you do.  To many people, the web is still the unknown and can be a scary thing and if you talk to them in jargon they don't understand, that's just going to freak them out.  Coming down to their level in this area is an easy way to increase their comfort level so that they will be more receptive to your ideas and strategies.

On a separate note, today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day!  In honor of it, I give you this video that was making its way around my office yesterday.  Happy Friday!

Fast Tip Friday: Having a schedule gives you MORE flexibility

So I had a whole different topic for today's post...and then I had my quarterly job review this morning.  We were talking about creating a master email calendar and the challenges that might arise in meeting that goal, the key one being that people will think that having a schedule will inhibit flexibility.  Meg (my boss) offered that the way to go would be to argue that having a schedule actually gives you MORE flexibility.  If you need to change something, you can easily look and see if or how it would affect everything else going on.  

Flexibility is important - but when you work in an environment were multiple offices are communicating with the same audience, so is coordination.  Ultimately a coordinated effort will produce a better user experience, which will lead to you meeting more of your marketing goals. 

Fast Tip Friday: Google Analytics URL Builder

If you are using Google Analytics on your website, it's also helpful to instrument outside links with campaign URLs to better track referrals and purchases.  We use these campaign URLs on all of our email campaigns as a secondary form of tracking since they allow us to know which customers made gifts after clicking on a link in the email and how much their gift was for.  We also use them for unique URLs in print pieces, by creating a short URL and redirecting it through the GA tracking code.  Use their handy URL builder to create your links: 

Then, you can go into Google Analytics and find your results under Traffic Sources => Campaigns.  In this case, we are looking at the e-commerce screen. 

Using this method will give you much more data to work with when you do your eventual ROI calculations. 

Fast Tip Friday: Exclamation points do not make things more exciting.

I've decided to add a new weekly feature.  Since we all have the attention span of 5-year-olds on Fridays in anticipation of the weekend, I've decided use it as a time to write short posts about a topic that can be digested in a minute or less.

The first topic: Exclamation points

You can always tell when a person is inexperienced in writing marketing copy based on the amount of exclamations points they use.  They rely on them, instead of words, to make boring copy more exciting.

Repeat after me: An exclamation point at the end of a sentence does not make that sentence exciting if the copy is boring.  Two or three exclamation points just make you look silly.  To avoid the appearance of being an immature writer, follow these simple rules: 

1. Limit your copy to one exclamation point per page
   
2. NEVER use multiple exclamation points
   
3. Proofread, proofread, proofread - really ask yourself why you selected the exclamation point in the first place and what you're trying to convey.
   

Happy Friday!