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Glide Interactive Signs Eight New Clients
Sarasota-based web development and marketing firm Glide Interactive experienced a successful start to the second quarter with the signing of eight new clients. The new clients are local and national and are engaging Glide Interactive for web design and development, graphic design, marketing and public relations, and mobile site development.
The new clients include: As Good As It Gets, Sarasota, FL; Degree of Excellence Realty, Lakewood Ranch, FL; Irish Sells Sarasota, Sarasota, FL; Prosure Group, Tampa, FL; Launch Central, Las Vegas, NV; East Coast Associates, Roseland, NJ; Dungeon of Doom, Zion, IL; Horizon Realty, Sarasota, FL.
With the recent acquisition of local web development firm StrongHouse, Glide Interactive increased capacity, and expanded their focus to develop an online presence for both large and small businesses.
“Our portfolio continues to expand, and we are pleased to do business with a diverse set of clients, both locally and nationally based,” says Glide Interactive CEO John Carlson. “We hope to maintain this strong growth all year.”
About Glide Interactive
Glide Interactive is an innovative agency providing digital strategy, product development, branding, and graphic design. Specializing in positioning brands to be digital leaders in their industry, Glide Interactive’s core offerings include web design & development, marketing, logo design, mobile app design & development, packaging design, print design, and custom QR codes. For more information, visit www.glideinteractive.com.
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Glide Interactive in the News
The above press release received coverage in the following publications:
Biz(941) Daily
Posted By: Glide Interactive
Do’s and Don’t's of Email Marketing
Email marketing is a great way to build a relationship with your target market, stay top of mind, offer promotions, and get consumers to behave in a way that affects your bottom line. In today’s smartphone-dependent society, it’s safe to assume that people are receiving (and checking) emails all day. That also means that competition for attention is at an all-time high. Here are some Do’s and Don’t's to apply to your email marketing strategy to ensure your emails get noticed.
Do – Use a good, clean list.
The key to a good list is making sure that the email addresses opted in to your email list. When asking people to opt in to your list, be honest about your purpose for emailing them and how often you plan on sending emails. Being upfront about your intentions will greatly decrease the number of of people who unsubscribe or mark you as spam.
Keep your list maintained and up to date by continuously removing bad email addresses (unsubscribes, bouncebacks, etc.) or email addresses that are simply not engaging with your emails over a period of time.
Don’t – Buy a list or use an old list with outdated email addresses
Buying a list is a bad practice for several reasons. Put yourself in the consumer’s shoes. How annoying is it to receive emails you never signed up for, from companies you’ve never heard of, selling products or services you’d never be interested in? Not only does this negatively affect engagement with your emails, but this “don’t” could land you on a blacklist for spam.
Do – Write a subject line that lets people know what they are about to open
A subject line is essentially a call to action, the action being to open your email. You want your subject line to be catchy, concise and indicative of what your email contains.
There are a million online articles about writing a successful subject line. Our personal favorites include: Hubspot and Marketing Profs.
Don’t – Write a generic subject line
The goal of a subject line is to have your email stand out among the rest, so it’s crucial that you avoid generic sales language like “50% off product!” Instead, focus on what the reader hopes to gain from opening your email.
Do – Segment your list and target your message
Like most of your marketing efforts, your message should always be tailored to your audience at various stages of the sales cycle. Most email clients offer segmenting options to ensure you are sending the right message to the right people. Not only do your open and click through rates increase with targeted messages, but your chances of converting increase as well.
Don’t – Send the same email message to everyone on your list
Today’s consumer is much more cognizant of marketing than in the past. Sending the same message to everyone on your list is a good way to get users to stop engaging with your emails.
Do – Test your campaigns
What is the best time to send an email? What is a surefire subject line formula to increase open rates? How can we phrase our call to action to get the most clicks? Answers to these questions vary depending on industry, company, product, audience, etc. It’s important to run A/B tests to determine what works for you.
Don’t – Rely on “best time” “best subject line” “best practice” data
While this information is a useful base to start your campaign, you shouldn’t solely rely on published data to determine how to run all of your campaigns. Best practices are simply a guide, but ultimately you will discover what works best for you by testing your campaigns.
Glide Interactive can help you develop an effective email marketing campaign. Call us at (888) 426-8282.
Posted By: Glide Interactive
Social Media Copy-Cats
Earlier this month, the social media world got turned on its head with announcements like Facebook testing #hashtag capabilities and LinkedIn testing Facebook-style mentions. This leads us to wonder, will all social media outlets soon become one in the same?
Many people already use hashtags on Facebook, whether from habit of posting hashtags on other social media accounts or because it’s trendy. The Facebook hashtag will work the same way as it does on Twitter – users will click on a hashtag to view discussions pertaining to that topic. This will give Facebook the ability to better display trending topics in real-time, and will give business pages and advertisers the opportunity to take advantage of spikes in traffic.
LinkedIn mentions have rolled out to English-speaking accounts, but not all accounts have mentioning capabilities yet. If your account is one of the lucky ones, you will see a tutorial pop-up when you start to post a status update. The tutorial shows that, like Facebook, when you start typing someone’s name, a drop down menu will appear so you can click on the connection you want to mention. Your connection will be notified of your mention. This is a great way to stumble upon interesting connections that you otherwise wouldn’t have. Users will also be able to mention businesses, which means more exposure.
Social media companies seem to always copy-cat each other, essentially allowing them to compete more directly. Businesses should keep a close eye on these changes because social media is ever-evolving.
Glide Interactive can help you stay on top of social media trends. Contact us at (888) 426-8282 for a social media strategy.
Posted By: Glide Interactive
Enhance Your Brand with Custom QR Codes
QR codes are little barcodes that people can scan from their mobile phones and get taken directly to the URL attached to the code. Businesses primarily use a QR code on printed materials so their customers are easily directed to specific landing pages or social media pages. You’ve probably seen them on collateral of big and small businesses alike, and most of them look the same:
Glide Interactive can take your QR code to the next level by creating a Custom QR Code that complements your overall branding strategy. A custom QR code allows your company to stand out from the rest, which is essentially the definition of branding. In a sea of QR codes comprised of boring black and white pixels, companies who use custom QR’s shine in multi-colors, with interesting and vivid graphics that depict their brand image.
Branding is also about creating a lasting impression. People are more likely to remember something unique, and a custom QR code is just that. Branding is not just about creating a lasting memory, but also instilling trust in your audience. Looking at it from a consumer’s perspective, are you likely to trust something that looks the same as everyone else? Are you likely to use your smartphone to scan something you don’t trust?
Custom QR codes also give you creative flexibility in how you use them because unlike a regular black and white QR codes, they have the ability to stand alone without much surrounding context.
Here are some examples of Glide Interactive’s Custom QR codes. To get yours, call (888) 426-8282.
Posted By: Glide Interactive
Top Apps for Business Owners
Here are a few apps that Glide Interactive deems “must-haves” for business owners. These handy apps make doing business a breeze!
1. Evernote: Have a great idea you don’t want to forget? Need to type a document that you later need access to on other devices? Find a great website that you want to save? Evernote is your answer. Compatible with your tablet, desktop, and mobile phone, Evernote syncs your “notes” across all devices so you can access anytime, even through your online account.
2. Mint: This super convenient app allows you to monitor all of your financial data on one user-friendly, streamlined interface. You can monitor your checking and savings accounts, credit cards, investments and loans. You can also set monthly budgets and goals, like paying off credit cards. Mint is easy to use and accessible through the Internet, desktop application and portable devices.
3. Flipboard: If you’re a Google Reader fan, you were probably devastated by the recent announcement that Google has decided to shut it down. Flipboard is a great alternative (although it is only accessible through portable devices). Subscribe to your favorite publications and share stories to all social media networks straight from the app!
4. Dropbox: In a nutshell, Dropbox is file storing and sharing made easy. True to its name, Dropbox allows you to store files by dragging and dropping them in the app. You can select to share an entire folder or file either by sending a link or, if the person has Dropbox, you can invite them to the folder. Dropbox provides a decent amount of space with the free membership, and they also offer clever ways to earn more space (i.e. telling your social networks about Dropbox).
5. Square: Square changes the way we transact. Compatible with iOS and Android devices, Square offers a free Reader for you to plug in your device so you can start accepting credit card payments straight to your phone or tablet. They do charge 2.75% per swipe, but this app is great for people who take their business on the road! Square also recently launched “Square Wallet.” Geared toward consumers, Square Wallet allows you to store credit card info and pay directly from your phone, so you never have to fumble around your wallet anymore.
6. Expensify: Track your expenses on the go with Expensify. Business owners on the go can easily import bank or credit card transactions, capture mileage, time and other billable expenses, and organize expenses with custom categories, tags and comments – all from their mobile device. Expensify partners with Evernote, so you can import information easily.
7. TripIt: They have an awesome video that tells you all about this app and how it works!
8. Cardmunch: Never hassle with business cards again! Cardmunch lets you take a picture of business cards and imports the contact information straight to the app. It also shows your new contact’s LinkedIn profile, so you can connect easily.
Posted By: Glide Interactive
How Big Brands do April Fool’s
Happy April Fool’s Day from Glide Interactive. Even top brands have a sense of humor. Here are a few examples of hilarious April Fool’s jokes by some of our favorite companies.
1. Taco Liberty Bell – Back in 1996, Taco Bell took out full-page ads in seven leading U.S. newspapers announcing that they had purchased the Liberty Bell to reduce the national debt and renamed the historic American icon “Taco Liberty Bell.” The ad sparked major uproar and protests across the country (and this was even before social media was in the media mix!). Considered one of the most successful marketing stunts, the ad campaign cost Taco Bell $300,000 and generated more than $25 million in publicity. For the first two days of April, Taco Bell sales were up by $1 million.
2. American Eagle Outfitters “Skinny Skinny” Jeans – For this year’s April Fool’s stunt (although it made a public appearance a couple of weeks prior to April 1), American Eagle aired a commercial showcasing “Skinny Skinny” spray-on jeans. The hilarious spot was a parody on AE’s own commercials using models, scenes and dialogue that resemble a typical AE campaign. As you can see from the YouTube comments, the hoax was so successful that people thought it was the real deal!
3. Sony World’s Smallest Ultrabook – Sony joined in on the April Fool’s fun last year when they announced the release of the VAIO Q, also known as the World’s Smallest Ultrabook. With a 2″ screen and a specially created i9 processor, the Q is about the size of a quarter and fits into your pocket. It also comes with a handy magnifying device so you can actually see the screen. The VAIO Q is a practical joke, but might not be a long shot from what we will see in future technology.
4. Google – Google is known for constantly upping the innovation game when it comes to products. In fact, a lot of their products seem far-fetched until they become a reality and then, eventually, a way of life. They definitely use this to their advantage when they prank the world during April Fool’s Day. Here is a quick list of some of Google’s best jokes:
- Google Teleport – When people click on a search ad, Google will teleport them through time and space, directly to the business location.
- Really Advanced Search – Sometimes Advanced Search isn’t enough. Really Advanced Search covers: rhyming slang for; the exact word or phrase, whose sum of unicode code points is a mersenne prime; font; content that is true; will have been modified; embarrassing grammatical faux pas; looping midi music in the genre of
- Google Nose – Scratch and sniff your searches
- Chrome Multitask Mode – Lets you browse the web with multiple mice for an “ambinavigation” experience.
5. Groupon Tickets to Royal Wedding – Two years ago, the online coupon giant Groupon offered two tickets to the Royal Wedding plus the after party (includes a glass of house wine each!) for £8 (excludes cake). Unfortunately, no news on how many hopefuls actually clicked to purchase, but it’s good for a laugh!
Posted By: Glide Interactive
5 Traits of a Successful Website
In today’s technology-driven society, businesses cannot underestimate the importance of one major marketing tool: their website. A website has the power to make or break your business, to convert leads or to send potential customers looking elsewhere.
At Glide Interactive, we understand that a website must do more than look pretty in order to attract your target audience and turn them into paying customers. Here are five key things every website must have in order to be successful:
1. Consistent Brand Identity – A great website has a consistent look and feel as the overall branding of a company. Everything from the color scheme to the font choice to the special effects or features should exude what your brand represents as well as what you can offer your clients.
2. User-friendly Interface - Most people leave a web page in under 10 – 20 seconds. Your website should be eye-catching enough to grab attention, but it should also clearly (and concisely) convey what your business does and your overall marketing message. Text should be easy to read, but more importantly, easy to skim. Breaking up text with headlines and bullet points helps a reader digest the content on your website more easily.
Navigation is a key element in a website and plays an important role in how your site performs. A difficult or confusing navigation could discourage a reader and force them to look elsewhere for the information they need.
3. Good SEO - In addition to traditional means of promotion such as advertising and print collateral, your website should incorporate SEO (search engine optimization). Good SEO increases your website’s ranking in organic search results. In general, the higher a page is ranked, the more traffic your website will receive.
4. Fresh Content – Keep your customers coming back for more. Updating content regularly is a good practice so that your audience is not looking at outdated information about your company. You could also publish a blog to your website, which is a great way to keep your customers informed and to position yourself as an expert in your industry.
5. Easy Way to Contact You - Because your website is essentially a tool to generate a call to action, you want that process to be as smooth as possible for your customer. There are a couple of ways to go about having a customer contact you, and not all of those ways include giving out your personal contact information. You could opt for a contact form that gets forward to an email address, or you could set up an institutional email, such as info@ or contact@yourcompany.com.
Glide Interactive’s expert team of web developers and SEO copywriters can help give your website the boost it needs to attract your target audience and assure they are finding what they need. Call today for a consultation at (888) 426-8282.
Posted By: Glide Interactive
Glide Interactive Acquires Sarasota Web Development Firm StrongHouse
Glide Interactive is very pleased to announce the recent acquisition of StrongHouse, a Sarasota-based website design and Internet marketing company. StrongHouse will now serve as a division of Glide Interactive and focus on building an online presence for small businesses.
StrongHouse was founded in 2011 by Connor Van Elswyk with the help of Creative Director Gregory Kaufman and has completed more than 250 web projects to date and currently manages more than 50 websites. StrongHouse also created proprietary marketing strategies for reputation management on Google and organic search engine growth.
Van Elswyk and Kaufman will join the Glide Interactive team while also continuing to be an integral part of the StrongHouse brand.
“We’re very excited about our acquisition of StrongHouse,” says Glide Interactive CEO John Carlson. “The talent and expertise they bring to Glide Interactive makes us a stronger company and increases our capacity as we continue to offer our clients state-of-the-art web design and marketing services. This is an important part of Glide Interactive’s expanding portfolio and exemplifies our continuing growth.”
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About Glide Interactive
Glide Interactive is an innovative agency providing digital strategy, product development, branding, and graphic design. Specializing in positioning brands to be digital leaders in their industry, Glide Interactive’s core offerings include web design & development, marketing, logo design, mobile app design & development, packaging design, print design, and custom QR codes. For more information, visit www.glideinteractive.com.
About StrongHouse
StrongHouse is dedicated to building an online presence for small businesses. As part of the Glide Interactive team, StrongHouse offers quality expertise in web design and development, hosting and email management, digital design, and Internet marketing. For more information, please visit www.stronghousefirm.com.
Glide Interactive in the News
The above press release appeared in the following local publications:
Posted By: Glide Interactive
Pinterest Rolls Out Free Analytics Tool for Business Accounts
If you were excited when Pinterest launched business pages a few months ago, you’ll be overjoyed to know that they are now offering business accounts free analytics within the Pinterest site. That’s right, marketers no longer have to pay for third-party analytics (however, those can be slightly more comprehensive than what the free Pinterest tool offers).
Verified business accounts will now have access to daily averages of the following:
* Number of pins and the number of people who pin from your website
* Number of times pins from your website were repinned on Pinterest and the number of people who repinned your pins
* Number of times your pins appeared on Pinterest in the main feed, in search results, or on boards
* Number of people who saw your pins on Pinterest
* Number of clicks to your website that came from Pinterest
* Number of people who visited your website from Pinterest
You can also see which of your pins generate the most repins and clicks. You can select a timeframe to view and export to a .csv file.
So, what does this mean for your business?
No matter how big or how small your business is, you should always be looking at data. Data helps steer marketing efforts in the right direction because we can easily measure what’s working and what isn’t, the type of content our audience responds to and what they don’t really care about. We can target our audience more effectively and tailor our messages to them. When you have data of past and present marketing choices, it helps you develop more informed strategies for the future.
As much as we love data and could talk about it for hours, this new feature may have other implications as well. The Pinterest analytics tool might just be a sign that we’ll see an Pinterest advertising platform in the near future. Advertisers love analytics and are more likely to spend money on ad space if data is available to back it up. We’ll see what Pinterest has in store for us in the coming months.
Don’t have a Pinterest account for your business? You’d be surprised at the number of diverse industries are successfully using Pinterest. Glide Interactive can help you start a business Pinterest, develop a strategy, maintain your account and (now) provide you with insightful analytics to help boost your business’s social media presence, and ultimately, your bottom line.
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Google Glass Showcases Apps at SXSW
This past weekend at internationally renowned music, film and interactive conference South by Southwest (SXSW), Google touted one of its newest products to hit the tech scene. After its debut demo at Google I/O developer’s conference in 2012, Google Glass has been one of the most anticipated innovations to get released to the public market.
At SXSW, Google Glass showcased how some of the most popular apps (The New York Times, Evernote, Skitch, Path, and of course, Gmail) would perform through its lens.
Google Glass works with voice commands, and the above four apps have adapted to that feature. Wearers can tell Google Glass to open received emails so that they can see the message on the screen. They can even tell the glasses what to reply.
The New York Times app will push articles to the lens in the form of an image, headline and byline. The user can tap on Google Glass to open the article and have the glasses actually read the article.
Google Glass is already available to select developers, but will become available to the general public later this year. They are speculated to be priced just under $1500.
How Google Glass will change the world of app development remains to be seen by many. Glide Interactive is staying plugged in to the latest updates so that we can continue to offer our clients smooth transitions in advancing technology.
Posted By: Glide Interactive
