Magnolia Media is excited to announce today that we have officially launched the new website for the locally-owned and operated drywall company, Mobile Wall Works. Our two companies have worked together over the past month and a half to develop a new logo and website for the company that has been providing individual customers and respected homebuilders and remodelers, with superior drywall services for over 10 years.
This is the first website that Mobile Wall Works has pursued in their years of service to the Gulf Coast. They hired us to design a new custom logo for them that would provide an updated image for their new marketing ventures. The main purposes of the site Magnolia Media designed were to provide an initial online presence, provide a very professional image, and to showcase photos of past jobs and the quality of work provided by Chuck Green and his crews.
If you aren’t familiar with Mobile Wall Works, once you meet or talk with Chuck Green, you will know that your home or company project is in good hands. This company was established years ago with the goal to supersede the existing services providing by local drywall companies. Mobile Wall Works still stands by the same principles; and timely, high-quality service is a commitment they stand behind. The new website has testimonials from customers such as Timber Ridge Services, WC Construction Services, and Chuck Dixon Home Improvements, among others.
We would love it if you would check out the new Mobile Wall Works website, and keep Chuck in mind for any commercial or residential projects he might could help you with, including drywall installation and repair, ceiling installation or repair, painting, and insulation. Find out more about them at www.mobilewallworks.com, and contact Chuck at Chuck@mobilewallworks.com. I’m sure he’d love to hear from you!
Friday, April 30, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
In Honor of the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day
In honor of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, we wanted to suggest some eco-friendly marketing concepts that you may or may not have considered for your company.
Many companies around the world are implementing environmentally-friendly business practices for several different reasons. Many times it saves money (less printing costs), provides a healthier environment for workers and customers, is more energy-efficient, along with many other perks to the new green living trend.
Today our focus is on marketing in a more economically-friendly way. Of course, the majority of Magnolia Media’s services are internet-related, so we are very familiar with the marketing avenues we’ll be discussing on our blog today.
E-Newsletters –
Email newsletters are a great way to get the word out about specials, new products, industry news, or specifically just your company news. Have customers sign up for your e-newsletters when they check out at your store register, when they’re browsing your website, or encourage your Facebook or Twitter friends to sign up for your newsletter.
E-Newsletters provide you a way to send out information to a large number of customers or prospects on a small budget. It eliminates the cost of printing postcards or flyers in order to notify past customers of specials or upcoming events, and is a more environmentally-friendly marketing avenue. You also can receive detailed statistics on each email and see how many bounces, opens, forwards, etc. your emails are getting.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) –
Optimizing your website for search engines can have a huge impact on website traffic without even spending a dime on traditional methods of advertising. Investing in one-time optimization or recurring services, will both enhance your rankings on Google, Yahoo, Bing and more. This reduces the need for magazine advertising, phone book advertising, and newspaper ads. We know these are traditional marketing techniques, and many people still swear by them…but online marketing is more environmentally friendly, and is also more profitable for most industries!
E-Business Cards / Email Signatures –
If you’re emailing someone anyway, why not reinforce your company’s name and brand at the bottom of the email? Graphical signatures are more eye-catching and memorable. And functional ones, with links to your website or other helpful links, are interactive for your email contact. Provide helpful information to your friends, customers, prospects, and give them something nice to look at in your email.
While you’re at it, why not show them what’s new with your company or what specials you’re running. Use this necessary email as an opportunity to go ahead and put more information in front of them that they may not otherwise know of. The more you can advertise your brand online for a low cost, the less negative impact you’re making on the environment.
Online Quotes or Brochures –
When an interested person calls and needs a quote for your products or services, do you send them a lengthy quote through the mail? If so, why not eliminate the unnecessary printing and envelopes by simply emailing the quote or brochure to your prospect. It will also get to them sooner, and you may make a sale sooner!
Social Media Marketing –
Marketing your company through Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, etc. may be a great way to gain exposure through the online market. Many companies are utilizing this free or low-cost (if maintained through an agency) marketing in order to reach the general public through friends, fan pages, and targeted advertising. It’s all online, so it’s a limited effect on the environment!
Text Messaging Campaigns –
More and more companies are using cell phones as a marketing tool to their customers. Text messaging campaigns utilize the internet and wireless phone service to provide your customers with live updates or news. This is a great tool for marketing without effecting the environment!
Promotional Products –
If your company hands out promotional products at trade shows, sales, or events, think about recycled, or “green” promotional products. They can make just as good of a first impression as some others, and some prospects or customers may even be happier to receive a product they know is made from recycled paper or plastic.
Other Green Marketing Ideas:
HAPPY EARTH DAY!
Many companies around the world are implementing environmentally-friendly business practices for several different reasons. Many times it saves money (less printing costs), provides a healthier environment for workers and customers, is more energy-efficient, along with many other perks to the new green living trend.
Today our focus is on marketing in a more economically-friendly way. Of course, the majority of Magnolia Media’s services are internet-related, so we are very familiar with the marketing avenues we’ll be discussing on our blog today.
E-Newsletters –
Email newsletters are a great way to get the word out about specials, new products, industry news, or specifically just your company news. Have customers sign up for your e-newsletters when they check out at your store register, when they’re browsing your website, or encourage your Facebook or Twitter friends to sign up for your newsletter.
E-Newsletters provide you a way to send out information to a large number of customers or prospects on a small budget. It eliminates the cost of printing postcards or flyers in order to notify past customers of specials or upcoming events, and is a more environmentally-friendly marketing avenue. You also can receive detailed statistics on each email and see how many bounces, opens, forwards, etc. your emails are getting.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) –
Optimizing your website for search engines can have a huge impact on website traffic without even spending a dime on traditional methods of advertising. Investing in one-time optimization or recurring services, will both enhance your rankings on Google, Yahoo, Bing and more. This reduces the need for magazine advertising, phone book advertising, and newspaper ads. We know these are traditional marketing techniques, and many people still swear by them…but online marketing is more environmentally friendly, and is also more profitable for most industries!
E-Business Cards / Email Signatures –
If you’re emailing someone anyway, why not reinforce your company’s name and brand at the bottom of the email? Graphical signatures are more eye-catching and memorable. And functional ones, with links to your website or other helpful links, are interactive for your email contact. Provide helpful information to your friends, customers, prospects, and give them something nice to look at in your email.
While you’re at it, why not show them what’s new with your company or what specials you’re running. Use this necessary email as an opportunity to go ahead and put more information in front of them that they may not otherwise know of. The more you can advertise your brand online for a low cost, the less negative impact you’re making on the environment.
Online Quotes or Brochures –
When an interested person calls and needs a quote for your products or services, do you send them a lengthy quote through the mail? If so, why not eliminate the unnecessary printing and envelopes by simply emailing the quote or brochure to your prospect. It will also get to them sooner, and you may make a sale sooner!
Social Media Marketing –
Marketing your company through Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, etc. may be a great way to gain exposure through the online market. Many companies are utilizing this free or low-cost (if maintained through an agency) marketing in order to reach the general public through friends, fan pages, and targeted advertising. It’s all online, so it’s a limited effect on the environment!
Text Messaging Campaigns –
More and more companies are using cell phones as a marketing tool to their customers. Text messaging campaigns utilize the internet and wireless phone service to provide your customers with live updates or news. This is a great tool for marketing without effecting the environment!
Promotional Products –
If your company hands out promotional products at trade shows, sales, or events, think about recycled, or “green” promotional products. They can make just as good of a first impression as some others, and some prospects or customers may even be happier to receive a product they know is made from recycled paper or plastic.
Other Green Marketing Ideas:
- Avoid printing large quantities of marketing collateral that go out of date relatively soon.
- With direct mail, use strategically chosen markets instead of general mass mailing, to reduce printing and mailing.
- Save on paper, printing, and postage by sending self-mailers or postcards instead of letters or brochures in envelopes.
HAPPY EARTH DAY!
Monday, April 19, 2010
AMA Lighting of Mobile - Screenshot
A new customer of ours is a local lighting manufacturer’s representative company. You may or may not have ever heard of AMA Lighting located on Downtowner Blvd. here in Mobile. The company has some wonderful people in place that we’ve been dealing with, and it’s already been a pleasure working with them.
Here is a brief profile of AMA Lighting, as we want you to be familiar with our customers and what they may be able to do for you, if you’re in need of their products or services:
AMA Lighting (specifically Associated Manufactures Agents of Mobile, Inc.), founded in 1989, has been providing lighting services to the professional specification community in the Southern Mississippi, Southern Alabama and Northwest Florida area for over 20 years. They service many industries, some of which include commercial, architectural, theatrical, educational, healthcare, landscape, security, worship facilities, military, and many more. Their staff includes NCQLP certified lighting consultants along with fifteen other staff members so they can provide their customers with complete design assistance, budget pricing, presentation packages and project service…before and after design.
AMA Lighting has had no website previously, and Magnolia Media is proud to display the initial screenshot of their first website!
http://clients.magnolia-media.com/ama/
Here is a brief profile of AMA Lighting, as we want you to be familiar with our customers and what they may be able to do for you, if you’re in need of their products or services:
AMA Lighting (specifically Associated Manufactures Agents of Mobile, Inc.), founded in 1989, has been providing lighting services to the professional specification community in the Southern Mississippi, Southern Alabama and Northwest Florida area for over 20 years. They service many industries, some of which include commercial, architectural, theatrical, educational, healthcare, landscape, security, worship facilities, military, and many more. Their staff includes NCQLP certified lighting consultants along with fifteen other staff members so they can provide their customers with complete design assistance, budget pricing, presentation packages and project service…before and after design.
“We provide the best value and service available and continually strive to be the most respected company in the lighting market.” – AMA Lighting of Mobile
http://clients.magnolia-media.com/ama/
Friday, April 9, 2010
Do I Really Need A Mobile Website?
To be quite honest, we recommend mobile-friendly websites to virtually any business. The reason for that is because most people, including your customers of course, have a mobile phone. If you want to control how your website looks when they pull it up on their mobile device, then a mobile website is your opportunity to do just that.
Consider your customer base, and let’s say 20% of them will conduct a mobile search for your company to find a phone number, map, menu, or list of services. If your website can’t be easily accessed and viewed through a mobile device, then you risk these customers becoming frustrated at the difficulty of viewing a desktop-sized website, on a tiny mobile screen. At that point, your website is only 80% effective and limits you to the viewers who are on their home, office or laptop computers.
One Goal In Mind
The Mobile Marketing Association says “Your web site is your Supermarket, and your mobile site is your 7-Eleven.” What a great concept, and it hits the nail on the head. Don’t you go to the supermarket and the 7-Eleven with two different goals and attitudes? When you head to the supermarket, you expect to spend a longer period of time shopping, and find many products to buy. When you head to the 7-Eleven, or a “convenience store”, you’re looking for a few things in a fraction of the time.
That’s how it is with mobile search. Your customers are looking for you on their mobile device, usually with some specific question in mind which could be your phone number, location, current specials, or menu. They don’t want to see a photo gallery of past events, or a list of affiliated companies. People spend hours surfing the web on their computer, but most spend 5-10 minutes on a mobile device, because they usually aren’t just “surfing the web”. Provide them with necessary information, and suggest they visit your full website if they are interested in more information.
Content Arrangement
Because of the short timeframe of the mobile search, your site needs to quickly and easily project the information that is most important to the on-the-go visitor. Your site content could be similar to your full site, but it should be arranged in the order that is relevant to the mobile user. Your contact information should be easily accessible. Specials and directions should be noticeable. These are the usual needs mobile users have, and if you cater to that, then they will be so fond of your company simply because you made their mobile search that much easier than your competitor might have!
Design Aspects
To the mobile surfer, design is not the main focus. It can actually hinder their viewing experience because graphics increase the load time, or Flash and JavaScript aren’t even compatible with mobile devices. A desktop site viewed on a mobile device, requires zooming in, zooming out, side scrolling, etc. A mobile site should be designed to have the content as the main focus, and provide helpful information immediately. Design is just an added bonus to make the site more attractive and coordinated with your existing branding. We certainly suggest that you have it customized and branded for your company, but keep the graphics to a minimum compared to a desktop site.
Ready or Not?
If you’re ready for a mobile website for your company, let us know and we can quickly develop a user-friendly mobile version to have your customers easily finding the information they’re searching for.
If you’re not ready just yet, we suggest you spend some time looking around for information about the use of mobile devices for internet searches, and maybe the importance will jump out at you after seeing some statistics. It isn’t always easy for someone to search on a computer, but most people have access to a mobile phone at all times. The world is turning mobile, and before long, who knows? Maybe mobile websites will overtake conventional websites!
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