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Showing posts from 2015

5 Marketing Resolutions for 2016!

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The New Year is here and we can't believe 2015 is already over! Have you thought about any New Year's resolutions for your business? As we plunge into 2016, MSW Interactive Designs challenges you to make some resolutions for your marketing. Try to accomplish these 5 goals next year to push your marketing to the next level. 1. Be More Social.  Social media continues to be a big component in online marketing success. Not only does it help you spread the word about your business, create customer relationships and set you up as an expert in your industry, it also helps with your search engine rankings. Plus, if you're not active on social media, you're missing out on opportunities that your competition is most likely already taking advantage of. Make one of your New Year's resolutions to be more active on social media in 2016 and see where it takes you! 2. Update Your Website.  When ranking websites, Google looks for hundreds of different things, including

3 Ways to Get People to Sign Up for Your E-Newsletter

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E-newsletters are one of the best ways to stay in front of your customers on a regular basis. The good news is that e-newsletter marketing is relatively inexpensive.  In order to have a successful email marketing campaign, increasing the number of people that opt-in to your e-newsletter is critical. With the overwhelming amount of email flooding inboxes today, enticing people to sign up for your e-newsletter can be challenging. Here are 3 strategies for getting people to sign up for your e-newsletter. 1. Make it EASY for People– Add a Signup Form to Your Website.   Make sure people know that you have an e-newsletter they can subscribe to. The best way to do this is to place a signup form directly on your website. We recommend this signup form be placed prominently on your home page, with a clear call to action. Tell your website visitors what kind of content you will be offering in your newsletter, and reassure them their email address will only be used for the e-newsletter.

9 Ways to Engage Your Twitter Followers

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While Facebook is still king, more and more people are using Twitter each day. It's important that your business is using both when it comes to social media marketing . How, exactly though, do you engage people on Twitter? With only 140 characters available per post, it's important that you make your message stand out among the massive amount of tweets sent each day. Here are a few tips for not only tweeting effectively, but how to actually engage your followers with your Twitter activity: 1. Show Some Personality.  Use your Twitter bio to express your personality. Don't just be a boring business, show your followers that there is a person behind that business that cares about their customers. People want to engage with real people, who have their own thoughts and opinions. 2. Tweet Consistently, but Not All at Once.  You don't want to constantly bombard your followers with tweets, however be consistent. Post on a regular basis and space the tweets out so th

Mike Waggett Honored with 2016 Community Impact Award

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MSW Interactive Designs (MSW) is very active in our local community, and is proud to announce that co-owner Mike Waggett has been selected as one of five 2016 Community Impact Award recipients. Each of these recipients were nominated and chosen based on their leadership qualities, vision, and ethical & moral values, as well as their community involvement. Lake Lifestyles Magazine and Central Bank Lake of the Ozarks will he hosting a reception to honor these recipients at Tan-Tar-A Resort on Wednesday, January 6. Doors open and silent auction begins at 5:30 pm. The program will begin at 6:30 pm. Tickets are $10 at the door. We would like to invite all of our clients to come out and celebrate with us! Here is some information about Mike's involvement in the community: Mike moved to the lake in 2009 after retiring as a Colonel from the United States Air Force after 24 years of service.  He is my husband and now my business partner for MSW InteractiveDesigns , LLC (MSW). We move

Internet Marketing Trends for 2016

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Another year has passed and the team at MSW Interactive Designs has identified some trends you should keep an eye on for your business internet marketing . As we said in our previous blog, your website is no longer enough for you to stay on top and these trends seem to back up our thinking! 1) Mobile will dominate the market and your desktop.  Google is paying much more attention to mobile searches than it ever has. In fact, according to Google, a mobile version of your website is “perfectly acceptable” and an optimized desktop website may not be needed. We still think a great looking, properly optimized desktop website is needed, but you can’t ignore the direction Google is giving us. Get a mobile optimized site for 2016 if you don’t already have one. 2) Facebook is still the King of Social Media . According to Statista.com , Facebook users will rise to 161 MILLION in 2016 and continue to rise to 172 Million by 2019. That’s a lot of potential customers. Facebook

A Business Website is No Longer Enough

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Most businesses have invested in some sort of a website and understand the importance of a basic internet presence. However, with the growth of business social media, proliferation of smart devices (phones and tablets), as well as other internet marketing apps and tools, a basic business website is no longer enough. To have a truly effective online presence, your business should consider investing in the following for 2016. Business Social Media - Stay Top of Mind and Top of Search  While your website is center of your digital marketing efforts, you should build a circle of social media channels around your website and post often on all of these channels. Posting quality, relevant, interesting content will generate several good things for you: Drive traffic to your website Establish yourself as an expert in your business Improve your search engine rankings Find customers that you did not know existed Stay top of mind for potential customers when they are ready to buy Wa

Memorable Marketing

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How to Make Your Business Stand Out  Let's face it, competition is just part of business. You have to constantly compete for attention and respect, and ultimately for your consumer's dollars. In a sea of seemingly perfect apples, how can you position yourself as the best of the bunch? MSW Interactive Designs is here to help you make your business stand out through memorable marketing! 1. How are You "More Value" Think about your last vacation. Why did you pick a certain restaurant or attraction? I recently took my family to Destin, FL, which has a ton of restaurants. One stood above the rest as a really fun, family restaurant. It was no longer a restaurant, it was a can't miss attraction. this restaurant had bold advertising a great website that showed other families having a blast, and we made it a "must do" on our trip. 2. Be Memorable in Your Advertising Insurance Agency A has the typical ad with a happy family, a list of services and

3 Reasons Why You NEED a Facebook Ad Budget

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If you're using social media for your business, then you've already recognized the power of social media marketing .  However, with social media always changing, marketers have to stay on top of their game and find new ways to get their messages heard. You've probably noticed a recent decline in the number of people that are actually seeing your business page posts. A Facebook ad budget can give you that extra boost you need to help your business thrive. Here are 3 reasons you should invest in a Facebook ad budget for your business. 1. To Increase Fans. One of the easiest Facebook metrics to measure is the fans or followers. While it may not be the best indicator of success, it's definitely exciting to see that number of fans increase, especially when you hit that 1,000 mark! By running a page ad, you are able to dramatically increase your page likes in a short amount of time. Plus, the more fans you have, the more people you can reach organically. The grea

MSW Interactive Designs Makes $15,000 Donation

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Donation will Help Military Families of the Chattanooga, TN Shootings MSW Interactive Designs has donated $15,000 to the Marine Corps League of Chattanooga, TN to help local families and other military members recover from the recent tragic shooting of 5 military recruiters on July 16th of this year. The donation will help provide food, clothing, education and other necessities to members of the victims’ families and other military members who need help in the Chattanooga area. “MSW has strong roots in the Tennessee area, because our office was located in Knoxville, TN from 2001 – 2009,” said Mike Waggett, owner of MSW Interactive Designs and retired Air Force Colonel. “We have had a relationship with Tradebank of Knoxville (a company that manages bartering of services between businesses) since 2001. Over the years we have accrued a significant balance of trade dollars from clients in the Tennessee area. Since Tradebank does not operate in Missouri (where our company is current

12 Common Facebook Mistakes to Avoid

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Facebook offers a great way to promote your business, if you're doing it right. Are you doing things on social media that could jeopardize your business' credibility and professionalism? Like with any marketing, social media marketing needs strategy to be effective. Here are some common Facebook mistakes that businesses need to avoid: 1. Making Too Many "Salesy" Posts.   People turn to Facebook as a place to be part of a community and a place to find relevant, helpful content, not a place to be sold to. If you have too many sale posts, people will burn out quickly and could even unfollow your page. While an occasional sales post (maybe something about a promotion you're currently running) is fine, you want to post more than just sales pitches. You want to be a resource for your fans so that when it is time for them to buy, they're going to come to you. You won't even have to work to make the sale, as they already know you as someone they can trust

3 Free Online Photo Editing Tools

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You don't have to know how to use Photoshop to create great looking images for your social media campaign. Just do a Google search and you'll find tons of online photo editors, many of them very simple to use. Images are a vital aspect of internet marketing and branding them makes them even more effective. Take a look at some of our favorite online photo editing websites that are free to use! 1. Canva. Easily create beautiful designs with Canva. Using the drag-and-drop feature and professional layouts, you can design consistently stunning graphics. The great thing about Canva is that you can choose from pre-sized templates for each social media platform. The struggle of your image being to small or the wrong shape for Facebook, Twitter, etc. is no longer there. You can easily overlay text and logos or add a custom background. Plus, Canva will save your logos and images for use at a later time. The possibilities are endless and if you use all of your own images, it's c

Should My Business Be On Twitter?

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Many businesses now understand the power of Facebook as a marketing avenue. However, many still question why they would need to be on Twitter or any of the other social media channels for that matter. "I'm on Facebook; isn't that good enough?" We hear that all too often. The answer is no, it's not good enough. While being of Facebook is better than not doing social media at all, the combination of multiple social media channels is important. More and more people are starting to use Twitter, even more so than Facebook in some cases. While the majority of users represent a younger demographic, it's still important for your business to have a presence on Twitter. Here are a few reasons why: 1. Engage Your Customers.  While posting information about your business products and services is the obvious use for Twitter, the social media platform allows you to easily engage your followers. It gives you a channel for listening to and finding out about your custom