When it comes to email marketing, the warning my buddy’s mom would shout out to us when we were kids sprinting out the door for the evening plays in my head. “Remember,” we’d hear her shout out just before the screen door muffled her voice, “just because you can doesn’t mean you should!”

The same wisdom applies to email marketing. There are a few simple rules everyone should keep in mind that will not only be appreciated by the recipients, but just makes for good customer service. And we all know that good customer service translates into sales.

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Landing page design is to websites what AdWords is to an advertorial spread. It is all about focusing down to the bare essentials of what will convert a shopper into a buyer. To get the kind of focus you need to develop a high converting landing page, imagine that every single pixel on the screen costs $1,000 to use. Then you will have the right mindset for developing a successful landing page.

With so little space available—both on the screen and in your customer’s attention span—how do you maximize your Return on Pixels (ROP)?

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Yes, we’re well aware that there’s still plenty of snow on the ground BUT it’s spring and you know what that means?

SPRING CLEANING! Time to purge and toss out or recycle the outdated, the outgrown (sigh), and the clutter that seems to creep into your home or office taking over every corner and cranny.

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Our team at nine10 gets the opportunity to work with business of all types and sizes to develop strategies that will help them promote their brand. When we talk “branding” with our clients, it’s not unusual for people to think of their brand as an image and some colours wrapped up nicely in a brochure or on a website.

While those products are certainly key in helping shape a brand, we can’t design brands. Don’t get me wrong, a really great logo is very important in helping the public and your customers connect with your company. The very colours and design of your logo can evoke a whole lot of feelings in people.

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If you are a busy person whose idea of face-to-face networking is…

• Getting tagged in pictures
• Poking one of your “friends” or “fans”
• Doing coffee in 140 characters or less
• Condensing your emotions—“LOL”

…it may be time to rethink your networking strategy!

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Tinsel glitters, menorahs flicker, and Bing Crosby’s White Christmas fills the air. But when the festivities are over, the decorations have been boxed up, and Aunt Elma’s fruitcake is stored away in the freezer…right beside last year’s… it’s on to a new year. And with a new year, comes New Year’s resolutions.

Besides the promises to yourself for a brand new you, you should be making promises to your brand and how you can rejuvenate it in 2011. While it might seem like a daunting task, the following are five simple ideas that just might give your brand and your business the edge you need.

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If you’re starting a new business, or revitalizing an old one, think long and hard before cutting corners with the design of your brand identity.

Your brand identity is essentially the “look and feel” of your business. It includes things like your logo, colors, typefaces, and the style of images you use in your marketing. Virtually everything a customer can see in your business can be built on top of your brand identity: ads, marketing materials, signage, interior & exterior decore, vehicles, uniforms, and even little details like napkins and pens. In many ways your brand identity is like the foundation of a house: it provides a basic structure and shape for everything that is built on top of it.

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Difference between Marketing, Advertising, PR and Branding

This wonderful illustration explaining the difference between Marketing, Advertising, PR & Branding came from Ads of the World – a great site for advertising inspiration!