Insideout Solutions can help you with your mobile needs

Mobile Advertising will expand into a billion dollar a year industry in 2011. eMarketer calculated that U.S. smartphone users reached 60.2 million at the end of 2010, nearly doubling user rates from 2009. With smartphones projected to grow to 73 million users by year’s end, this market should not be ignored. There is a fundamental shift in the way consumers are finding, shopping and interacting with your business and your focus should be on how to maximize the effectiveness of your efforts in this new landscape. Look at every mobile customer’s contact with you as a potential sale, since they have the convenience of making a purchase in the palm of their hand.

The increasing use of mobile devices for web browsing has resulted in an explosion of websites optimized to display on their web browsers. The “Click to Call” feature allows mobile device users to click on your website’s phone number and call you directly. This Feature is a must in this new mobile market and tracking results is just as important as the feature itself. By having a mobile website, and allowing customers to “Click to Call” you have substantially increased your chances of customer interaction. Remember that mobile users are out and about and often times looking for reviews, product information and they are often looking to purchase.

Customer Relations Management (CRM)

Integrating mobile into your CRM program will add value to your loyal customers and improve your customer service. Along with sending out information to customers via email or by traditional phone, you can relay that same information through mobile devices and deliver it to users anytime, anywhere.

Short Message Service (SMS)

The text message market has seen huge jumps in popularity over the last year. Statistics are showing that 97% of SMS marketing messages are opened, and are usually opened within a few hours. SMS is a great way to communicate with returning customers or people who sign up to receive deals or offers from you. Being able to create a conversation with customers is priceless and the SMS marketing is a great tool to stay in touch with your mobile clients.

Mobile Coupons

Now that we have explored CRM and SMS strategies, you may be asking “what will I send to my customers?” Mobile coupons are a great way to offer discounts to both new customers and returning customers. Many mobile coupons highlight loyalty programs or are used to up sell extra services or products to your customers. Offering a static coupon on your mobile site that customers can mention after they “click to call” you is a great way to drive business. Online coupons have been hot for a while now and I believe that this trend isn’t going to go away anytime soon.

Location Based Marketing (LBM)

This type of marketing delivers content to mobile customers if they are near your business. This is going to become a growing part of effective marketing programs in the years to come.  There are many sites that are involved with LBM marketing (Gowalla, foursquare, yelp and brightkite to name a few). Google also launched a GPS based search feature for mobile a few months back. Location Based Marketing is something to keep your eyes on and make sure to stay up to date on the progression.

Insideout Solutions can help if you need a mobile site or need any information on mobile marketing. With these new marketing strategies poised to grow aggressively, the time is now to get your mobile site active and learn how to tap into that billion dollar a year market.

The finished packaging with dark maroon capsule.

Captain’s Walk Winery in Green Bay, Wisconsin wanted a wine label for a rosé to be heavily promoted during the annual Tall Ships Festival. The wine, called ’7 Seas’, needed a look that was eye-catching but in a muted palette that would work with established branding and the wine’s color. The final design is the result of a fruitful collaboration with the InsideOut design staff, the winery’s team and the printer, WS Packaging.

Click here to see a closeup of the finished front and back label.

InsideOut Solutions, the B&B web site development and marketing leader, will be offering free educational Webinars in January 2010.  You are invited to attend so you can learn new strategies on how to improve your online marketing.

Webinars are easy and fun to attend. To see how the process works please follow this link http://screencast.com/t/MTVkNTJkN2

All of our Webinars are held on Wednesday with a new Webinar in the morning hours and a repeat of a past Webinar is the late afternoon.

Facebook Front to Back
Wednesday January 20th at 11am PST
Learn more or sign up at https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/579084034

Checking your web site for SEO Basics
Wednesday January 20th at 4pm PST
Learn more or sign up at https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/115838722

Finding Good Links
Wednesday January 27th at 11am PST
Learn more or sign up at https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/950935387

Blogging for Success
Wednesday January 27th at 4pm PST
Learn more or sign up at https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/627608514

Please see our post of Webinars we will be having in February.

If you don’t want to spend anything on postage, use your email instead. If you choose a pdf card, then it can be emailed now with a later option to have it professionally printed. Or send a card using a professional program which also allows you to track open rates, bounces and collect statistics at the same time you’re saying Merry Christmas!

Right now, InsideOut is offering great deals on postcards, pdf cards and e-cards:

6″ x 4.25″ Postcard
Custom design and printing with full color on both sides ~
500 for $125.00*
1000 for $133.00*

PDF Card
Branded to match the look of your business ~ $100

E-Card
Custom designed to match your branding ~ $70

Contact print@insideout.com or call 1-800-500-8401 ext 304. Just mention “Holiday Special” and get those holiday greetings done!

*Plus shipping and tax.

Some prospective guests prefer going online while others are looking for printed materials. Maine Stay has the complete set to suit both groups.

Maine Stay Inn and Cottages recently had InsideOut design their rack card. They now have the complete set of essential online and print marketing pieces: a search engine-friendly website, a rack card & business card, a blog and an e-newsletter. All the pieces have consistent branding and they work together to target the full range of prospective guests.

Click here to see the case study for Maine Stay’s marketing materials.

Dunleith Inn, a historic Natchez Bed and Breakfast

Our very own Steven Dunston took a solo flight into the deep South for the Mississippi/Louisiana Bed and Breakfast Association Conference last week. After a quick visit to New Orleans over the weekend, he headed upriver to Natchez Mississippi where the function was being held at the Natchez Conference Center. The conference included a tour of the area’s extraordinary historical sites and antebellum mansions, many of which are bed and breakfasts.

Steven gave a presentation on Facebook Marketing, where he shared some of the insights and techniques for developing an effective marketing scheme on the ever popular social networking site Facebook. Many of the innkeepers Steven met expressed that their main sources for reservations were international clientele and word of mouth. Interestingly enough, these are the same qualities that make Facebook advertising so appealing.

Facebook is an international site, functioning in 60 different languages. It is designed to be a place for friends, coworkers and associates to keep in touch with each other. With this in mind, using Facebook to connect with your prior guests is like a form digital word of mouth. Many of the innkeepers that attended Steven’s presentation already had personal Facebook accounts, but were interested in learning about adding a business page.

He was also pleased to meet again with industry colleagues including Peter Scherman and Rick Wolf of The B&B team and Jay Karen, CEO of Professional Association of Innkeepers International (PAII). Jay presented some fascinating statistics from PAII’s latest innkeeper survey, showing that despite the economic tumult, the bed and breakfast industry remains strong.

The next conference we attend will be in Granbury, Texas for the Texas Bed and Breakfast Association (TBBA) next month. We will also be presenting about Facebook there.

Consistent branding looks professional, saves on design time and helps guests and prospects remember you.

Starting with the logo
Maine Stay Inn and Cottages (Kennebunkport, ME) offers modern comforts in their historic home and guest cottages. Innkeepers Judi and Walter Hauer knew their web site needed an update and chose InsideOut for the redesign. But they had no logo or established branding.

After exchanging ideas with Judi, InsideOut designer Jim McCauley created a logo that conveys the accommodations’ traditional yet contemporary appeal. The logo is legible at both large and small sizes. And because it’s a vector-based* electronic file, graphic designers can quickly and easily work with this logo. Beth Logan had no trouble incorporating the new logo into her web site design.

Business cards
With the look and feel established by the logo and web site, designing the business card was a snap. Maine Stay decided to list all the staff with a check box next to each name. In this way, they saved the cost of printing a set of cards for each person. InsideOut created the design and took care of the print management for fuss-free printing and quick delivery.

E-newsletter
The logo and branding also transferred seamlessly to the e-newsletter designed by InsideOut. Now anyone on the Maine Stay team can publish e-newsletters with an easy-to-use template that also provides email list maintenance tools and statistics on open rates, bounce rates, etc. Their branded e-newsletter gives them an excellent way to reach out to guests in a targeted, low-cost way.

Consistent branding counts
By establishing a branded look first, Maine Stay has saved hours of design time. Their marketing materials also express the quality of their accommodations in a consistent way. This consistency makes the brand more memorable and avoids jarring discontinuities: e.g., the web site makes the place look great, but the rack card makes it look so-so. In Maine Stay’s case, prospective guests see the same experience as they go from business card to e-newsletter to web site to blog. A good first impression is backed up by repeating that impression, instilling the brand into viewers’ memories.

*Vector-based logos can be enlarged endlessly with no loss in image quality. Non-vector logos have strict limitations on how much they can be enlarged. Designers also use up valuable time cutting them out from their backgrounds since non-vector logos usually do not have transparent backgrounds.

Online promotion and print marketing for Olympic Peninsula, WA

Local tourism group takes action during bridge closure

Washington state’s Olympic Peninsula is a major tourist destination in the Pacific Northwest. Many visitors arrive from Seattle and other eastern locations via the Hood Canal bridge. This year, the bridge is undergoing a much needed retrofit to improve safety and reduce traffic congestion. The five- to six-week closure from May to June occurs during the start of the Peninsula’s tourist season.

The Department of Transportation and local news organizations have communicated alternate routes and other important information. However, the Olympic Peninsula Tourism Commission (OPTC) wanted something more to promote local businesses during the closure. OPTC came to InsideOut to implement a program offering incentives for visitors and locals alike.

Step by step

1) Marketing to local business – The first step was promoting the idea to OPTC members. InsideOut created flyers with images and text targeting each major sub-area of the Peninsula. Flyers were were then distributed by each area’s OPTC representative. Participation is easy and FREE. Businesses wanting to offer a coupon or other incentive just contact InsideOut by email or phone.

2) Create web site and brochure – Next, InsideOut created a print brochure which directs potential visitors to an easy-to-use website, www.NoBridgeNoProblem.com. The look was kept simple and straightforward since we were also going for something that had an “official” feel. The site makes it easy to find the businesses’ offers as well as information on useful routes, maps and links to chambers of commerce.

3) Promotion in local/regional media – 10,000 brochures were printed and distributed via local ferries and Certified Folder. Local newspapers also picked up the story, providing free promotion of the web site. Participation by businesses has been very good. At this time, InsideOut has managed the coupon program and over 200 offers are currently available.

Branching out beyond lavender
Jardin du Soleil is one of the premier lavender farms in Sequim, WA–the Lavender Capitol of North America. The 10-acre farm produces organic lavender oil used in a variety of products. The gorgeous gardens and purple rows of lavender also make Jardin a popular tourist destination. After nearly 10 years of focusing on lavender, the owners wanted to expand to new products. They needed a sophisticated new look with greater flexibility–something that would work with their current lavender products, as well as new spa products, housewares and beyond…

From design to implementation–fast!
InsideOut’s print marketing department spent some time talking with Jardin’s owners, Pam & Randy Nicholson, before developing the initial designs. The new brand would need to work well in product displays, print ads, signage–both large and small sizes. The owners wanted a timeless logo that could stand changes of fashion. We informally tested the designs on the target market: women ages 30 and above. Based on their feedback, we decided a black & white logo using classic typefaces would be just the thing.

We also established fonts, colors and patterns to go with Jardin’s new logo. Creating a consistent, branded look was well worth the effort. With these standards in mind, it was quick work re-designing and re-printing all the labels for their wide array of products.
With only two months before the start of the tourist season, we were able to get everything ready just in time. Pam & Randy’s quick decision-making and clear direction were also critical to getting so much done on a tight deadline.

The update continues
Pam & Randy are very happy with the results of the re-branding. In addition to printing thousands of new product labels, InsideOut has used the new branding in the creation of full page color ads, a rack card and business card. Because the look is consistent, their products and marketing pieces coordinate well together. As a result, customers will have a much easier time remembering the brand.

The update will continue with a redesign of the website at www.jardindusoleil.com and more labels as Jardin du Soleil expands its product lines.