The small details of any piece of your life can make a big difference. Whether it’s a stranger picking up something you dropped for you, or your child bringing you a “special” rock, the little things can have overwhelming effects on our day, our perspective, even our lives.
The same is true for marketing plans.
Image choices
The first in your choices to improve the little marketing things are images. You’ll likely be choosing images from stock photo websites at some point for your marketing if you haven’t already. However, it would be wise to be aware of some images that are overused (i.e. happy guy with post-it note on forehead), oddly fitting images for the context or content, cut off, or blurry (once inserted).
While a few of these stock photo choices can actually work quite well, it depends upon the usage, but the commentary is my favorite in this article on bad stock photos.
If you’re using your own photos, be aware of details as well. Little things such as the background, clarity, or what setting the camera is on can all contribute to better quality photos.
Higher resolution photos will be more versatile depending upon what you need them for. In this same respect, landscape (horizontal) should nearly always be your choice of direction versus portrait (vertical).
Alt Text
In most software platforms (including WordPress and MailChimp) these days, the “alt text” field is provided to insert a short description of an image – primarily in emails and websites.
While this may seem trivial to some, it’s actually extremely beneficial in several ways such as:
- Boosting SEO in web searches
- Providing a description for when images do not show (especially for new email subscribers who do not allow images until they add the sender)
- Benefiting the visually impaired users with screen readers. It will read an alt attribute to better understand an on-page image (check out Moz to learn more about best practices for improving accessibility)
Don’t be in so much of a hurry to send out an email or upload that image that you neglect to fill in this field. It will benefit your company in multiple ways as well as your users providing more insight into your image’s meanings.
Or if you have a cheeky brand, you can always place a witty description in place of a real one so that people will get a kick out of it even if they accidentally hover over it!
Email Pre-Headers
This is another often overlooked section of an email blast that is actually detrimental to your campaigns. Not writing a general description of the email for the reader to see before they open it, can cause much lower open rates than you deserve.
Most email clients will automatically insert the pre-header based upon the initial text in the email. However, if the first “sentence” of your email is “Having trouble viewing this email?”, it will not help a new(er) subscriber to know what the email contains.
You may have the best email in the world, but if people don’t see a reason to open it – especially if they’re using Gmail as it looks similar to the above image – then they won’t be seen in the first place. It’s especially helpful to know that it can also reduce spam complaints according to a Campaign Monitor source.
Give Credit
Giving credit where credit is due is not only a respectable practice but it is also mutually beneficial. It’s one way to attract desired attention, to both you for sharing an article or piece of information as well as them because people can view their page from your link.
The most useful and easy way to do this is via social media by tagging the creator of the image. This way, their work does not go unnoticed or unappreciated and your post gets viewed by their followers as well. Especially if they decide to share your post to their audience.
Put the Shoe On the Other Foot
Probably the most important little Marketing things to focus on is empathy.
What exactly do your customers want to see? Don’t just send or post something because you feel like you have to, but consider what exactly your customers need. Having a purpose will also convey your message much more clearly. This applies to anything you write.
When you have one specific purpose for an email for example, you can determine exactly what it will say, what images you should use and where they should link, and even what time they need to be sent. Having the end purpose in mind provides the additional little things you need to speak directly to the people who want and need your product or services.
Get Started With Your Little Marketing Things
As they say, “When in doubt, try it out”…sounds a bit silly but it really can be true. If you want to try something new with your marketing and don’t know if it will work, but have the bandwidth to try, go for it!
Experimenting is half the fun of making marketing work for you and your business. If I can help with your big OR little Marketing things, just shoot me an email.