vital marketing

I was updating a client’s web site this morning and they asked me to name a pdf file: “Poster – Regional Disparities and Economic Outcomes Associated with Minimally Invasive and Conventional Surgeries of the Chest, Abdomen, and Pelvis.”

Here are a few best practices to keep in mind when you are naming files:
No spaces: use hypens or underscores to separate words. Why? Because some web browsers may not recognize the spaces. If you use spaces, they are frequently translated as “%20”. So if your file name is Hopkins Marketing.pdf, it would be read as Hopkins%20Marketing.pdf. The problem is that this can cause confusion in identifying the actual file name. Spaces in file names can also cause broken links, because popular software (like Microsoft Office) recognize spaces as an opportunity to move to another line. The spaces can also affect your search engine results. So drop the spaces.
Avoid special characters in a file name (eg %, #, $)
Be relevant to the content. The title is important for search engine optimization so get your key words in there.
Be brief: Err on the side of brevity. Depending on the application, you may be limited to 256 characters or fewer.
Generally about 25 character maxium is a sufficient length/goal.

With that last comment, I’m off to reduce this 148 character file name by 80%. I’ll start by removing the spaces!

Last post talked about interactive pdfs and one of the benefits being that you don’t have to print, mail, fax, scan, etc. In other words… save some trees by going electronic!

MarketingSherpa just published a case study that is a great follow-on: “SUMMARY: Marketers looking to save money on print costs can take advantage the growing trend toward “green” marketing by transitioning customers from a paper catalog to digital communications. In this Case Study from our archives, see how a marketer redesigned their email program to make it a green alternative to their printed catalogs. The test worked: They reduced their print run and lifted email conversions 19%.In this Case Study from our archives, see how a marketer redesigned their email program to make it a green alternative to their printed catalogs. The test worked: They reduced their print run and lifted email conversions 19%.”
Read the case study here: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=31300

Bottom line: customers are looking for, and responding to green offers.

PDF forms are great. Sort of. Everyone can universally open them (who doesn’t have Adobe Reader these days.) But when you have to print a form, fill it out and then mail it, scan it, fax it, or email it, it’s not so great anymore. It’s a pain.

Why not make it interactive and save a tree. The job applicant, for example, opens the form, and types his qualifications right into the form and hits submit. Or saves the document and then emails it back. Saves lots of steps, not to mention those trees. Plus, you receive readable and uniform responses.
You can create interactive forms in Adobe Professional and Indesign (I prefer Professional.) Or have some one do it for you for under $10/page (OK, this is a shameless plug… julie@hopkinsmarketing.com). But seriously, if your pdf’s are static, it’s time to go interactive.

Here’s a nice summary article of the top content sharing websites: http://tinyurl.com/m4axax
The only thing I question, is the email marketing recommendation for aWeber. In all fairness, I’m not familiar with this service. BUT, I am a huge fan of www.mailchimp.com. For my clients (HopkinsMarketing.com and Vital-Mktg.com) who may only blast emails sporadically, pay-as-you-go is the way to go. Plus, they just keep innovating in the mailchimp labs. Love it and highly recommend it.

Ning is one of the social media sites mentioned. I’m digging into this one and will report back…. looking at it as a private network for my ginormous extended family, as well as for my neighborhood association. I’ll report back with what I like/don’t like.

Happy 4th of July!