Don’t worry … I do too.

And according to David Zinman, CEO of Infolinks, we are hardly alone. Zinman says 86% of consumers suffer from “banner blindness.”

So what is "banner blindness" anyways?

Before delving  deeper into Infolinks‘s study findings and the meaning behind the survey’s results, let’s first define “banner blindness.”

Banner blindness is Zinman‘s term used to describe, essentially, how we are online content consumers are — for all intents and purposes — completely oblivious to the banner ads surrounding the content we are consuming or interacting with. In summary, most of us ignore online banner advertising.

Now back to the banner blindness study findings...

Infolinks‘s banner blindness study results show that only 14% of respondents recalled the last display ad they saw and the company or product it promoted.

Even with today’s sophisticated targeting technology, relevance remains a key challenge with only 2.8% of respondents stating that they thought the ad they saw was relevant to them.

• Half of the users never click on online ads while 35% click on less than 5 ads a month
• Among online ad viewers, 75% saw the ad on their computer while the remaining 25% saw the ad on their phone or tablet

“The industry needs to take steps to make online advertising more impactful while not interrupting the user experience,” says Zinman. “It’s well known that banner ads do not perform well and too much money is wasted on impressions that no one notices. Why are we satisfied with .1% clickthrough rates? No other industry would settle for that benchmark. We need to collaborate on a widespread solution.”

Is native advertising really the answer?

Native advertising, that is … online advertising that is made to look like natural part of the publisher’s content (but still clearly identified as ads) … seems to be, according to Zinman, the way to go. Zinman cites examples of native advertising such as Sponsored Tweets on Twitter, Sponsored Posts on Facebook and Google AdWords. “Native advertising tends to be unobtrusive and often helpful — or at least, entertaining or intriguing,” says Zinman. “This is where advertiser and publisher heads should be, even if they can’t technically go native. Not everyone has resources to create their own platform, but it’s the right path — ads that don’t attempt to disrupt, but fit naturally into the flow of the user experience.”

Simple recommendations for reducing banner blindness

If you can’t implement your own publishing platform with native advertising capabilities (unless you are a substantial online publisher, most businesses — especially small businesses — in general are not able to implement their own publishing platforms), then here are some simple tips and ideas to help you reduce banner blindness:

• Try fewer ads per page. Don’t inundate the user with endless banner ad choices. Stick to a handful which will increase the likelihood for consumer engagement.
• Try different placement. Think beyond traditional banner ad placement options  (aka The Golden Triangle) and flirt with unique placement ideas.
• Increased relevance. Banner ads should be as highly relevant as possible to the publisher’s content that will be surrounding it.

For those of you wanting to keep up with banner blindness trends as well as tips and strategies for combating this ‘ailment’ … you may want to check out Infolinks‘s newly launched Facebook community which will share a repository of the research that has been done to understand the impact of banner blindness on consumers, advertisers and publishers.

Infolinks has also produced an infographic about the banner blindness phenomenon which impacts everyone from website publishers to advertisers and brands.

What do you think about banner blindness and do you agree with Infolinks‘s study findings? I welcome any feedback, thoughts or input on this very interesting topic…

The post Online Advertising: Do You Suffer From Banner Blindness? appeared first on .

Well sort of.

I should better clarify: This coming June will mark seven years in RMC business.

Prior to RMC, I owned a retail store (I know, crazy isn’t it?) for a year. Actually, it was less than a year. That is a looooooong and hard story which actually is one I don’t mind sharing with you but at a later date.

For now, my point is that an almost-year of my life prior to RMC was spent owning a store. And prior to that, I was moonlighting on marketing projects off and on since 2001. PRIOR to 2001, I was moonlighting on graphic design and marketing projects off and on since 1996. And PRIOR to 1996, I spent two years decorating homes, painting murals and providing desktop publishing services full time, on my own. So with the exception of a handful of times where I was actually someone’s employee and living life comfortably getting paid every two weeks, I believe – looking back – I’ve spent the majority of my adult life living as an entrepreneur.

Reflecting back, I recall many a time where I sat at some desk at some company staring at my pay stub and wondered WHY on earth would I want to leave the security of receiving a paycheck every two weeks?

Was I nuts??? Possibly!

Many of my friends or family didn’t get it. They surely thought I was nuts.

Many of them would say the comfort and security of that paycheck coming in every two weeks would be extremely hard to give up.

Other folks tried their very best to discourage me. Some tried to instill their best fear tactics:

• “What if you go out there and fail?”
• “What if you can’t make enough to pay your bills?”
• “What if someone sues you, then what are you going to do?”
• “You are a single mom. Don’t you have a responsibility to provide security for your daughter?”
• “You are married now. If you own your own business, you won’t have much time for your marriage or your children…and that won’t be fair to them.”

Should I continue? I think you get the point.

In the end, I’m typing this post from a desk I purchased on a computer I bought in an office space I’m leasing … all paid for by “me,” “myself” and let me not forget “I.”

Well, sort of.

While yes, I have been extremely fortunate to be in a position to pay for the desk, the computer and the office in question, in the end, the payments for these things come from our family of clients; clients who believed in my vision or entrusted my team and I with their mission-critical marketing plans and digital assets.

So while I don’t have anyone cutting me a regular check every two weeks (man, I admit there are times I totally do miss those days LOL, especially during tax season!), when an invoice is paid by a client and those monies arrive, every single penny being paid our way is – to me – very personal, extremely humbling and very, very much appreciated.

It’s an honor. One we work hard every single day to earn time and again.

That all being said, this entrepreneurial lifestyle isn’t easy and it’s not for everyone. Despite its challenges, the experience can be highly rewarding.

As I look back on the past seven years, there’s no way I could have made it this far without the love and support of my immediate circle of family and friends. And along the way, I’ve had the opportunity to connect with some amazing and wonderful people.

In the end, we would not exist today without our clients, most of which stay with us year after year. I’d like to think our clients wouldn’t stay with us long term if we weren’t providing them with a quality service. So, to that end, I am thankful to our team members who often work long hours and who regularly bend over backwards AND sideways to ensure clients feel not good but great about the service they receive from us.

Here’s to the next seven years …

The post Our Web Strategy and Interactive Marketing Practice Nears Its 7th Birthday! appeared first on .

Not sure about you but this is a bit of depressing news just because IE tends to be buggy and the browser is not the easiest to design and develop for. That said, however, the Forrester report, entitled Navigating Diversity In Operating Systems And Browsers, cites that due to different device types infiltrating the enterprise, IE’s influence has shrunk over time. Smartphones, tablets, and Mac computers are now common among enterprise employees and some employees simply ignore the default and install other browsers if they can.

Report findings like these are helpful to monitor browser trends, however, the best source for what browsers to best design or develop for will always be gleaned from your web analytics reporting. So before you embark on absolutely ANY web project, no matter how big or small, it’s best to identify which browsers — AND which browser versions — to cater your web project to.

So promise me that, Forrester report findings aside, you will check out your web analytics reporting for the last 6-12 months and derive a list of top 5 desktop and top 5 mobile browsers to best target. And remember…unless you have infinite budget and funds, and most people don’t, you won’t be able to tailor your web application or mobile site or app to all browsers so it’s best to rely on your web site analytics reporting to define your browser niche.

The post Forrester: “Internet Explorer Browser Still Dominates the Workplace” appeared first on .

Social Media Trends: Marketing Tools & Strategies for Your Business

Seminar Overview:
Digital outreach and investment in social media are important for the success of your businesses! However, it can sometimes present a Marketing challenge in terms of resources, time, and budget. This seminar will provide insightful tips, guidance, and practical advice to yield maximum benefit from social media marketing innovation and engagement.

Topics to be covered include:

• Trends! Learn about the latest small business trends in social media and how they apply to your business.
• Tools & Strategies! Heighten your brand’s engagement and maximize efforts on social media.
• Outsourcing! Discover how vendors can support your in-house social media programs.

Date:
May 14, 2013

Time:
11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.

Location:
The National Conference Center
18980 Upper Belmont Place, Leesburg, VA 20176

Registration:
Click here

Special thanks go to Tina R. Johnson, President & CEO of JP Events & Consulting and Jill Friedrich. SVP, Commercial Lending at Summit Community Bank for their support as well as to Amber Davidson and Tony Howard of the Loudoun Chamber for approving the topic, promoting the event and more!

I’m excited to share this topic and presentation with seminar attendees and look forward to delivering  highly insightful and practical information for all.

See you then!

The post Upcoming Event: Social Media Trends – Marketing Tools & Strategies for Your Business appeared first on .

Small business owner and brand journalist Mayra Ruiz-McPherson, founder of marketing ingenuity service Ruiz McPherson Communications in Herndon, Virginia, has retained portrait couture and filmmaking expert Karina Djijo of Djijo Studios to launch a new internet-based marketing show entitled BizWork. Upcoming BizWork episodes will have a strong focus on marketing and PR topics impacting small business, however, other topics will also be covered including information technology, accounting and more.

“The idea behind BizWork has a few years behind it,” shares Ruiz-McPherson, who first came up with the concept in 2010. “My ideas had no name to them and were rough and undefined. In fact, I actually gave the basic concept to a close colleague who was seeking ideas on behalf of his corporate employer who sought to launch a blog catering to small businesses. At the time, my friend had asked me for my ideas. It was then I suggested a strong focus on small businesses highlighting their behind-the-scenes activities rather than publish the typical, predictable and fluffy interview(s). I had also suggested the blog’s posts could have an ‘in-the-trenches’ style of reporting.” Ultimately, however, the blog launched by the employer did not incorporate the in-depth reporting Ruiz-McPherson had so passionately envisioned.

“That was more than okay,” states Ruiz-McPherson. “It wasn’t my blog, after all, and my ideas were just that, ideas. In the end, my friend’s employer rounded up several guest bloggers, many who were small business owners themselves and yes, even I was roped in for guest blogging as well.”

Over time, Ruiz-McPherson realized the direction of the employer’s blog could be more. In her mind, she kept going back to her original concept: in-depth reporting from the small business trenches. “I wanted very much to interview small business owners and proprietors on-site at their locations to showcase the vitality and the challenges in their everyday,” Ruiz-McPherson explains. “It was then I realized I should revisit my original ideas since they had remained unused.”

Fast forwarding to present day, Ruiz-McPherson finds she is now in a position to bring her small business reporting and interviews to life via her up and coming, new internet-based show, BizWork. “BizWork was born long ago but it’s only now that the timing feels right and where I can dedicate the time and resources to breathe life and put motion into the whole concept,” says the longtime marketing & PR consultant. “As a small business myself, and as someone who works with other small businesses regularly, I feel very fluent in the topics and subjects that matter to small businesses most.”

In combining her storytelling and reporting strengths with the filmmaking, creative talents of Karina Djijo of Djijo Studios, Ruiz-McPherson believes their collaborative expertise will yield targeted, compelling programming. “After listening to Mayra share her ideas and vision for BizWork, my mind began racing with endless creative and production possibilities,” shares Djijo. “I am excited to partner with Mayra as we aim to highlight the successes and many innovative endeavors of small business.”

BizWork episodes will be published bi-monthly and will commence airing Fall 2013. Small businesses wishing to be interviewed or considered for future shows should submit their requests using this online form. To learn more about BizWork, the internet show focused on celebrating the entrepreneurial spirit, please visit www.bizwork.tv.

The post BizWork.tv to Launch Fall 2013; Internet-Based Show Will Celebrate the Entrepreneurial Spririt appeared first on .

The purpose behind our efforts to connect was driven by a profile piece Sarah will be featured on in an upcoming edition of I AM Modern Magazine. Yours truly was assigned as the writer for this piece.

I must say that out of all interviews I’ve done for I AM Modern Magazine so far spanning the last year or so, this interview with Sarah was one of my all time favorites.

Why??

Well, it’s not to say that the other folks I’ve interviewed for this publication haven’t been wonderful because they truly have. But I felt a kindred spirit with Sarah because she and I are both women in technology, specifically working with web technologies, and I could relate to her professional journey and challenges very much.

I am excited about this young woman and her rising career path in the world of male-dominated technology startups. I am definitely a fan now and will be rooting for her all the way … and then some!

Once Sarah’s profile on I AM Modern Magazine is published, I will update this post with the link. Until then, follow Sarah on Twitter and learn more about Markerly here.

Photo credit: Aurora Christie

The post Interview with Markerly CEO Sarah Ware appeared first on .

If you are a local bride-to-be who relied heavily on social media, web sites, blogs, Pinterest, software and/or mobile apps to plan your wedding, please say “I do” to an interview (via phone or email) with me for an upcoming article I will be authoring for Brides & Weddings of Northern Virginia  (to be published in an upcoming edition).

Interested in sharing the latest 411 on all things wedding-tech with other area brides?

Then please shoot over an email to yours truly (that would be me) at mayra at ruizmcpherson.com and use “Techie Bride Interview” as the subject line. Please include a good contact number in addition to your email address.

Brides in the local Northern Virginia and Washington DC metro area are preferred but all brides with a strong tech angle will be considered for an interview.

Thanks in advance!

Mayra

The post Calling All Techie Brides: Be Interviewed for Upcoming Magazine Article appeared first on .

Our Dear Mayra column answers questions from clients, peers, collegues and Better Social Business Blog readers. Each answer is provided by our company founder, digital PR and social strategist Mayra Ruiz-McPherson.

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Dear Mayra:

We want to make our email designs more aesthetic and have stopped using the default or generic templates offered by our email service provider (ESP). Given email design best practices, what do you recommend should be the width of our custom new email design? Any other custom design tips for email you can share are also welcome.

Thanks for your help!

Tired of Using Email Templates

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Dear Tired of Using Email Templates:

You pose a very good question. For the longest time prior to the mobile browsing craze, email design best practices capped email design widths between 500-600 pixels. However, I have seen custom email designs as wide as up to 700 pixels in width. And to complicate the subject with more granular detail, there are countless of websites which argue the pros and cons of using fixed widths in email design.

I did a quick search of Google for the keyword string “how wide should email design be” and most of the first 10 results were all for blog posts, articles or content authored as far back as 2008. Only two results were recent; one in October 2012 and the last result on the page, which was for a January 24, 2013 post written by Tim Slavin entitled How To Code HTML Email Newsletters (Updated Version) (which is definitely a worthwhile read for anyone seeking in depth detail on constructing HTML email designs). Otherwise, most of the info on the subject seems rather dated.

Why are the dates of these resources worth noting? Because obviously a lot has happened to web design and user interaction since 2008. And today, many people access their inboxes and email through mobile or handheld devices, thus impacting email design and strategy to some degree.

Perhaps “some degree” is not a strong enough description. According to Knotice’s Mobile Email Opens Report for the 1st Half of 2012, “…for many email marketers the mobile tipping point is close (when email engagement from mobile users will outpace that from traditional desktop/PC user), and will likely occur in six to 12 months.”

The Knotice report, which indicates the mobile email open rate is a measurement of email opens occurring on mobile devices (including phones and tablets) compared to the opens occurring on desktop computers (including laptops), cites that during the first half of 2012, 36.01% of all emails were opened on a mobile device (phones and/or tablets). This is an increase of 32% from late 2011 numbers of 27.39%.

So getting back to your question, should you go the custom email design route as you have indicated, the decision regarding your email width will, at the very least, need to consider a mobile audience. This has far more implications than mere email width but specifically with regard to email width, since that is the nature of your question, you have some basic choices:

1. Use a pre-built responsive email design template (assuming your ESP has one available; if not there are other ESPs that do have responsive email design templates such as Campaign Monitor and MailChimp, for starters).
2. Forgo using a pre-built responsive email design template and create a custom responsive email design from scratch.
3. Cater to both desktop and mobile email opens by creating a desktop email design version with a “click here for mobile version” option.

Depending on which direction you choose, the email design width question you posed will have a different answer. Option 1 email design width is defined by the ESP since those are their templates and, as a result, they have defined that variable so you as their customer don’t have to worry about it. Option 2 will depend on how you approach the responsive email design as a whole which will in large part be impacted by the volume of content you plan to publish and distribute. And Option 3 will certainly require some email design strategy as well.

In summary, alas, there is no simple answer to this question because often, content will drive design … and without me knowing or being familiar with your content strategy for email, it’s hard to give you a finite email design width number, per se.

Still, if you are working with a vendor or email designer familiar with email design best practices or with responsive email design dos and don’ts, I think the detail of email design width then becomes something you and your vendor can derive at together. And if you are not working with a vendor and attempting this on your own, I hope that at the very least I have pointed you in the right direction.

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Has there been a digital PR, social, marketing or web-related question on your mind?Want Mayra to answer it? Please send it to mayra[@]ruizmcpherson.com.

The post Dear Mayra: What Should Be the Width of Our New Email Design? appeared first on .

I, on the other hand, couldn’t help but find some unexpected marketing inspiration in the “brand differentiation” department as I walked by my local grocery’s fine and imported cheese section.

I was in search for Goat cheese and, in the process of trying to select my Goat cheese choice, I became distracted by the many beautiful packages of Feta which I love love LOVE on my salad(s) and ohhhh yeah the Edam cheese which my mom and I use to create these to-die-for-awesome corn-cheese fritters … but I digress.

Q: Am I a sucker for fine cheese?
A: Yes I am.

Q: Am I an imported cheese foodie and aficionado?
A: Ummm, hardly.

As far as I can tell, when I go to the grocery store, I just know I need a certain type of cheese … which depends highly on what I’m cooking for any given week.

But how do I choose *THE* Feta cheese or *THE* Goat cheese that will ultimately make it to the conveyer belt for check out?

Because I am NOT a master cheese craftsman of any kind, I rely heavily on three simple factors:

1. Packaging (Branding … which reflects, to some level. perceived quality)
2. Quantity
3. Pricing

I think most regular, every day shoppers who are faced with a random and very casual purchase decision they have not yet researched ahead of time (such as my imported cheese selection example shared above) will rely heavily on their perceived value of the goods or service being considered.

And in these cases, branding and packaging play a huge role in exuding value and differentiation amongst similar goods or services.

Let’s get back to my imported cheese scenario as an example. My initial motivation for buying the Goat cheese was a random craving for using it as a topping on my home-made pizzas. But when I got to the imported cheese section, there were numerous Goat cheeses available for purchase. Since this was a casual purchasing opportunity that I had not researched extensively before walking into my local Food Lion, I therefore let myself be seduced, informed and swayed by the many different Goat cheese packagings. What labels caught my eye? What different shapes of packaging called my attention more than others? How did one Goat cheese brand price itself in comparison to the rest? And why?

If you look at the cheese shots I snapped and posted above, you can see all the different ways each cheese importer has differentiated their cheeses. We see the use of bright colors, beautiful labels and elegant typography, odd and peculiar shapes and, as seen in the second cheese photo above, pricing.

And, in fact, brand differentiation is a continuous theme all throughout the grocery store aisles and shelves beyond the imported cheese section. The cheaper, store-brand cereals — as one of many examples — are positioned on the lower shelves; the more upscale, expensive cereals are placed at eye level and so on. Pick any food product and you will be bombarded with choices and brands. For the casual shopper who is unfamiliar with a particular brand, he or she must rely heavily on brand differentiation to help them come to their ultimate purchase decision.

You know, most of us do already know these things to some extent. There is nothing too magical, revolutionary or “new” being shared here. However, I’m blogging about this topic because on several occasions, I have noted that some organizations do not truly understand or value the power of their own brand differentiation strengths. Perhaps this post can serve as a mini reminder that every product, good or service has the ability to distinguish itself uniquely from the pack through its positioning, branding, pricing and perceived value. Some brands (big and small brands included) differentiate themselves exceptionally well; other brands fall short.

In the end. each of us are surrounded … day in and day out … by brand differentiation messaging and positioning all day long. No matter where you go or look, you can’t escape it. And if you are a marketer or are into the whole branding thing, like me, then you can’t help but notice such details more profoundly than others would. The jury’s still out if noticing these things at such a granular level is something I consider a gift or a curse LOL but one thing’s for sure: perhaps I’ll suppress branding inspirations influenced by perusing through imported cheese sections. Clearly, the perusing and inspiration set me back a good hour or two as I sat down to author this blog post.

The post Marketing 101: Brand Differentiation Inspired By the Imported Cheese Aisle appeared first on .

And so is the case with the recent request to produce a personalized, custom-designed, black and white wedding invitation for a local couple tying the knot in the next few months.

The wedding invitations, which showcase the happy couple in various black and white poses and shots placed in imperfect “film strip” style, are to be printed on 5×7 card stock by a local printer based in Reston, Virginia.

(Wedding invitation design cover shown above.)

When the request for this wedding-specific project came in, the soon-to-be-bride wrote in the following about  what she envisioned for the RSVP card:

For this, the dimensions are 4 x 6, like a post card. This card will need to be horizontal, with the “yes” and “no” pictures all the way to the left, on top of each other (yes being on top). On the right hand side, we wanted the word “Name(s)” written out kinda big, underneath that in parantheses write in small letters (please list any dietary restrictions on this card) and then below, just draw several lines, maybe 3 or so, whatever you think looks good for them to be able to hand write names.

From those basic instructions, the following RSVP card was born:

Similar basic instructions were provided for the information card:

There will also be an information card included with our wedding invitation. The dimensions for this card are  3.5″ x 2″ and will only say: “For more information on the happy couple, accommodations, venue address and directions and all other information, please visit: http://www.sadafandjoshua.ourwedding.com/”

Here’s how the information card turned out:

Again, this kind of project is not the norm for us but when such a project presents itself, it often provides us with a refreshing, different pace than we are typically accustomed to.

We are very happy to have been able to, after producing the above designs, make the bride-to-be one very, very happy woman!

The post Print Design: Wedding Invitation, RSVP & Info Card Design appeared first on .