Rachel – Page 6 – Meta Pixel Solutions

CLOTHING BOUTIQUE PHOTO SHOOTS

Stardate: April 12, 2016 by Rachel - Photography

Thank you to Susan Graf and her fabulous team for hosting two successful photo shoots – one in Healdsburg, one in Palo Alto. Their hard work in preparing the boutiques made the projects look great. And their personalities made it a really fun time for me.

One highlight for me was twilight in the Healdsburg Plaza as I took shots of the store windows growing brighter as the daylight faded. I discovered if you ever wish to chat with strangers, set up a tripod, stare intently at a subject, and start taking photos. So many people approached to ask me what I was doing. Some offered tips. Several also had curious dogs.

If you are ever in Palo Alto or Healdsburg on the plaza, don’t miss Susan Graf Limited – the clothing is fabulous – men’s and women’s. Check back soon as she’s got a new web site under development. Below is one of the graphics we’ve pulled together for the men’s department. And here’s some of my favorite shots…

HOW TO VIDEO

Stardate: April 11, 2016 by Rachel - Getting It Done, Search Engine Optimization

Yes, getting video on your site can help search engine optimization (SEO) and visitor experience, but done wrong, it can hurt SEO and the impression you give to visitors. This post will hopefully answer frequently asked questions about using video on a website.

You may also be interested in our post on creating your own YouTube Channel – a must. As soon as you have a video for your site, also post it to your YouTube Channel.

(See the videos in our header graphic at: http://www.hayesvalleymed.com/coolsculpting-body-contouring.)

CODE OPTIONS

The best code to use to play the video on your site is your own. But this requires development time and money.

Many developers save time and money by using YouTube’s free embed code. It’s very fast to copy and paste this into your site, but there’s a big downside. Once the video finishes playing, recommendations on other related videos hosted on YouTube will be displayed. This can drive visitors away from your site, and even worse, it can recommend video by your competitors, driving visitors to them.

As you can see, we recommend avoiding YouTube’s embed code for a good reason. But we know that budget also has to be taken into account. One idea, if budget is an issue, is to use the YouTube embed code and then as soon as the budget allows, switch to your own site’s code.

WAYS TO USE VIDEO ON YOUR SITE

We’ve ranked five main ways video can be used on a website – number one is the optimal and most beneficial – to number five, the anti-SEO, bad, bad way.

ONE – OPTIMAL

Develop your own, original, and unique videos, upload them to your server, and place them on your site using either of the code options mentioned above.

Unique content reigns as the king of SEO due to the high ranking search engines (including YouTube) give it. It’s also going to provide your visitors with a true idea of your business and add credibility. Of course, the downside is the high cost of video production, although with an iPhone/Pad and basic video editing software, just about anyone can produce their own video content.

TWO – GOOD

Use video with permission, upload them to your server, and place them on your site using either of the code options mentioned above.

An example of this is using the video created by a vendor and downloaded to your possession with permission – say with granted access to their brand box. Since the content is not unique, the SEO value is slim.* But it is still valuable for user experience and adds credibility and caché to your site.

THREE – NOT SO GOOD

Use YouTube video without permission. Using YouTube’s “embed” feature, grab the video code and place it on your website. (Note that some video content producers turn off the embed feature completely so this might not even be possible.)

This opens you to lawsuits – or at least a cease and desist letter. YouTube does actually seek out and punish copyright infringement. Since the content is not unique, the SEO value is slim.* You’d have to feel strongly that the content will have great user value before following this path.

FOUR – NOT SO GOOD, AND COMPLICATED

Use non-YouTube video without permission. It is possible to “lift” video off of other websites, but it usually is not easy and requires advanced HTML and video skills.

Again, this opens you to lawsuits – or at least a cease and desist letter. You’d have to feel really strongly that the content will have great user value before following this path.

FIVE – DON’T DO IT!

Linking to the video on another site, including YouTube.

By doing this, you are driving visitors off your site. Who knows what they may be distracted by on this other site – including your competition. You also have no control over the page containing the video. If the video’s URL is changed, you’d have a dead link on your site. If the video is moved, you could lose the content. Out-going links have no SEO value.

Did we miss something? Still confused? Ask John.

*One way to help SEO if you go this route is to put the video on a separate web page, rather than putting it in-line with other content. At the least, that additional page will increase the size of your site which can help SEO.

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO PHOTO SHOOT

Stardate: March 16, 2016 by Rachel - Photography, Web Sites

We enjoyed a trip to South San Francisco last week to photograph a property for our home-owners association management client, Tri-State Enterprises. Some of the apartments had this view, which even in the rain, looked amazing.

These photos will be used on a new website, currently in production. Thank you Tri-State!

One of the highlights of this property is the fabulous succulent garden:

PARTNERSHIP MARKETING

Stardate: February 25, 2016 by Rachel - Client Support, Marketing

First of all, credit where it’s due. This fabulous corporate head shot was produced by Lisa DeNeffe Photography – a business we are lucky to work with from time to time. The model is one of our long-time and favorite clients, Rosemary Camposano of Halo Blow Dry Bars and G3 Strategy.

Lisa and Halo have put together their services in such a great way. Halo is offering a discount to Lisa’s clients on hair and/or makeup styling before their photo session. And Lisa is offering Halo clients a discount on a corporate head shot package.

Both Halo and Lisa will send an e-mail campaign to their clients, so Halo will be introduced to potential new clients and vice-versa. There will also be printed collateral for display and hand-outs and the web page version of the Halo e-mail campaign can be linked to from blogs and social media. At the least, each business is generating new in-coming links from credible sites to their own web site for a nice search engine optimization boost. A few such links are below – you’re welcome!

Partnership marketing is a win-win situation. Your business’ clients win as they get an introduction to a new service or business and they get a nice deal. Your business wins with exposure, added brand recognition, and SEO.

MPS wins too! We have the opportunity to work with these great businesses and we developed the e-mail campaign Halo will send. Here’s the landing page version: Professional hair and makeup + professional photographer = best headshot ever!

And my Facebook post for Halo that reached eighty Facebookers in the hour after being posted.

TIPS! Think about the types of services that would compliment your business and would be of benefit to your clients. This is such an excellent sample – what could be better than hair and makeup right before a photoshoot? Find a partner:

with an over-lapping target market to your business,
with a nice-sized e-mail list and/or blog following,
with the ability or contractor able to bring about a quality e-mail campaign and print collateral,
and with your level of energy and commitment to work to maximize all possible marketing pathways to make the partnership a success.

Be sure to check out:

Lisa DeNeffe Photography • Town & Country Village • Palo Alto • http://lisadeneffe.com/

Halo Blow Dry Bar • Burlingame, Los Altos, Menlo Park, Palo Alto • https://www.haloblowdrybar.com/

Thanks for reading – Rachel

GRAPHIC DESIGN DONATION

Stardate: February 14, 2016 by Rachel - Photography, Print Marketing

We are pleased to support the Montalvo Arts Center by donating graphic design and printing costs to the Montalvo Service Group. It’s the most local of the non-profits we support. Each time we visit, we feel good knowing we’ve contributed to the preservation of this beautiful villa and grounds.

This year, we’ve produced two designs for the mothers’ day brunch fundraising event. Wonder which they will choose?

If you would like to treat your mum to brunch this May 8th, you can call the box office at 408 961-5858 or keep an eye on their website’s calendar.

LOGO RE-DESIGN AND PRINT COLLATERAL

Stardate: January 27, 2016 by Rachel - Getting It Done, Marketing

MPS is lucky to be working with Vintage Affaire – one of the Bay Area’s premiere wine auctions which benefits Vista Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

First project, redesign the logo and craft the save the date postcard.

E-MAIL CAMPAIGN DESIGN , MANAGEMENT, AND COST

Stardate: January 11, 2016 by Rachel - Uncategorized

The bottom line: there’s lots of detail in this article, but we know you are mostly interested in the cost, so an up to date price quote is at the end of this page, and here’s a link to our e-mail campaign portfolio where you can see samples of some launched campaigns. We also have a blog post explaining the three types of campaigns that are working currently for our clients.

The initial set up and design takes some time and thought, but once up and running, e–mail campaigns are a great way to keep your brand in front of your customers, drive people to your web site, promote your business and events, and as well as attract new customers.

E–mail campaign designs should:

be designed and coded in such as way as to not get caught in spam filters,
be coded so they render cleanly in any e–mail client, on any system, including tablets and smartphones,
be concise,
drive people to your web site, on-line store, or appointment forms with links,
use graphics intelligently so they don’t hinder load time, readability on all devices, and deliverability,
carry your branding throughout,
contain calls to action, and
be designed so you may use the same template for each launch, making simple edits to text, colors, and photos without re-coding each time.

The initial steps in the process are:

deciding upon your e-mailer design,
how to manage your e–mail list,
designing and coding your email template (this same template will be used from e–mail to e–mail, making updates easy and providing your recipients with consistency),
collection of e–mail addresses, and
the account set up.

These above steps are discussed in our initial meeting and are not repeated after the first e–mail campaign.

Costs

One time set-up costs:

Design drafts, half an hour to two hours depending upon type of e-mailer.
E–mail template coding, one hour to three hours depending upon type of e-mailer. The simpler the template design, the faster the code is written.
Set up of e-mail campaign service provider account, half an hour including collection of your contact information.
Cost of initial e–mail address list set up depends upon how much training is needed. A good estimate is one hour for someone computer savvy, but needing a little support with their e–mail client and with Excel.

Here are the steps which are repeated with each following campaign:

Entering content to the template, half to one hour. This assumes a few graphics and several paragraphs of text copy, and also that the content provided is publish-ready and fits to the e–mail template already coded.
Entering html to e-mail campaign platform and sending you a test e–mail, half an hour.
Formatting the address list and uploading to e-mail campaign platform, fifteen minutes.
Launching e-mailer, fifteen minutes.
Reporting, FREE! A few days after the e-mail is sent to your address list, we will e–mail you a report with information which can be helpful to your future marketing. Report will include how many clicks the e–mail generated to a linked web pages, who has opted off of your mailing list, your open rate, which e–mail addresses are not valid, and if any of your e–mails were forwarded and if these recipients added their address to your mailing list.
Also no charge, lot of tips along the way on how to produce an effective e–mail campaign, and how e–mail campaigns can help your web site’s search engine optimization.

The final summary is that the first campaign will take 4.5 to 8.5 hours to produce, and that following e–mails will take 1.5 to 2 hours of work. Our rate is $130/hour. The charge from the e-mail campaign platform will depend upon the size of your mailing list. Please contact John with any questions.

These prices do not include a “post to Facebook” sharer link. Cost for this vary. If interested, let us know.

SIGNAGE FOR NUEVA SCHOOL’S INTERSESSION

Stardate: January 7, 2016 by Rachel - Getting It Done

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been working with Hope Patricia Daly Public Relations on a class catalog and signage for Nueva School’s annual Intersession. Intersession is a two week “experimental and intellectual feast” which engages the students in an interactive way on topics not found in typical high schools. I’ve pasted a capture of one of the posters we made so you can see some of the amazing seminars and activities offered.

Thanks, Hope, for bringing us into this eye-opening project.