If you’re already ahead of the curve and have a company Facebook page, then it’s time to turn your attention to acquiring more fans so you can reach more people with your message and get that top of mind territory with your customers. We’ve come up with 5 ways to boost your Facebook fan base, feel free to add your suggestions to our list.

Make it Easy

Don’t sit back and wait for the fans to come to you, make it easy for them to find you. Add Facebook tabs to your website, your blog, your QR codes, emails and anywhere else you can to encourage people to become a fan and do so instantly without any more difficulty than a click of the mouse.

New Content

Even with your established fans you’ll quickly be forgotten if you’re not posting content regularly. By posting content that others respond to and want to share you’re reaching into their friend/fan base and touching people that you normally may not have access to.

Exclusive Deals

People aren’t likely to become Facebook fans of some businesses just because they do business with them unless they get something out of the deal. So why not offer them something. Exclusive deals advertised on Facebook are very common and it can dramatically boost a fan base.

Be Interactive

Remember the name of the game is social, and you’re looking to establish relationships. Respond to wall posts and comments. Ask your fans questions and then don’t ignore their answers. You want them to feel like they belong and that requires a give and take.

Tag Photos

If you have a company event, take loads of photos, post them to your Facebook page and tag a few select people, encourage them to tag others in the pictures, this posts on their wall so their friends see it in a newsfeed, which may encourage them to tag more people, view your pictures, and/or become a fan of your business.

Remember that Facebook users can only like up to 500 pages, so you have to give them something they want or like to be selected as one of their chosen 500.

Leave a comment if you have other suggestions for increasing a Facebook fan base.

Good Website Design

Having a website is almost a professional prerequisite in today’s computer driven world, but there’s a big difference between having a good website and just having a website. While some companies need a huge web presence, other companies don’t need a lot of bells and whistles; for them simple is better. No matter what category you fall into, or if you’re somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, there are three key components to every good website design.

Eye-Catching Design

Everyone has heard the clichés about first impressions, but let’s be honest, they’re very important and oftentimes your website is your first impression on a potential customer. You want that impression to be a good one, especially since you’re not personally on hand to tailor that initial introduction. This is why you really need to think about your audience and develop an eye-catching design that is appealing. Once you’ve caught a viewer’s eye, you need to have a site that is easy to understand and navigate while maintaining that original feel that appealed to them in the first place.

Good Keyword Rich Content

What you say matters and how you say it may matter even more. Websites are basically at the mercy of the three major search engines (Google, Bing and Yahoo). If these search engines like your website they’re going to rank you higher than your competition and you’re going to be discovered by more potential customers. Quality, search engine optimized content that is legitimately stacked with well-researched keywords is one of the BEST ways to design an informative, useful and search engine friendly website.

Conversion Strategies

Now that you’ve caught the eye of your audience and you’ve garnered the approval of the search engines, you’ve got to give those visitors to your website the information they’re after and prevent them from racing off to another website. What information do your customers ask for? What information do you want to give them? What information would they find helpful if they knew it existed? These are key questions to ask yourself, and then, make it easy for website visitors to find this information. Incorporate navigation buttons that bring you to videos, testimonials, case studies, a price sheet, FAQ, links to your social media, etc. Be their tour guide, taking them directly to what they want to see without confusing them with a lot of extras.

Basically, the goal of every website is to attract customers through eye-catching designs and a high search engine ranking, keep customers on that website by making it easy for them to get the information they want, then make them want to return again and again to soak up expert advice and information or to initiate contact for their business needs.

If you need a website or want to freshen your existing site up a bit, contact the design professionals at Tingalls Dzyn to get the most out of your web presence.

How to Use LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a social media website that helps professionals connect with each other and it provides a forum for people to find answers from experts in the field. It does seem a bit overwhelming and daunting at first, but people are using this site to find employees, new companies to work with, information and to network. If you want to take advantage of every opportunity available to your business then LinkedIn is a must.

Join Groups

If you join groups that are interested in the same areas you are or are based in the same field as your company, you’ve instantly got a professional base from which to find out about the latest industry news and updates and to share your own information and news. By joining groups that you have a connection with outside of your current company; such as university groups, previous employers, or groups established by business friends, you’ve suddenly opened up your future client base.

Watch the Competition

By watching what your competition is doing on LinkedIn you can get a little insight on ways to “out market” them or beat them to the punch. It can also give you an idea of things they might be doing wrong and that you can take advantage of. Similarly, make sure not to give away any trade secrets on your LinkedIn profile.

Tailor to Fit

Once you become proficient in LinkedIn you can tailor your page and information to reach out to the people who you are connected to. There are even analytics that can help you see who is following you, which can be very important information when you’re looking to reach out to your customers. LinkedIn is a fairly flexible environment that will give you back what you put into it.

Need to add a LinkedIn button to your website – Contact Tingalls Dzyn.

Repeat Contact Information

Having contact information on every page of your website might seem redundant, especially when you’ve got an entire contact page, but you want it to be as easy as possible for customers to reach you. But beyond this reason, there are some search engine specific reasons why you should include your contact information on every page of your website.

Location Searches

Local searches have become very important to search engines lately as they’re trying to tailor the user experience. You can contribute to the latest trend by including your address, making it easier for users to instantly know where you are located, no matter what page they land on.

*Boost your local appeal by registering your company website with Google Places.

Landing Page

As we hinted above, a potential customer doesn’t always land on your home page when they enter your site, they may somehow find a page deep in your directory and start their search there. Helping them reach out to you by including your contact information on every page is just smart business.

Keyword Repetition

If you’ve looked into SEO at all, you know that keywords are vital to a website being found, and while you may have optimized each and every page for your products and services, have you optimized them for your company name enough? By adding contact information to every page you give yourself one more time to list your company name in a totally legitimate way.

Remember, the web world is a bit different than the traditional print world and what might seem redundant in print is acceptable on the web. So list that contact information on every single page of your website.

Good Logo Design

If you’re considering replacing your company’s logo or you’re trying to come up with your first logo design, there are three key components to a good logo design that will help you find a logo that best suits your company image.

Simple Logos

In a very practical sense, a complicated logo isn’t easy to reproduce. What may look great on a sheet of paper becomes a bit more blurry when printed on a small business card and suddenly resembles a smudge when printed on a pen. A complicated logo is also more difficult for your customers, current and potential, to remember. Think of the most famous logos that instantly pop into your head; the Nike swoosh, Coca-Cola’s simple red script, McDonald’s golden M, Volkswagen’s VW in the blue circle, etc. All of these logos are simple, easy to recognize, and remember.

Appropriate Logos

A logo should be appropriate for the company it’s representing, this doesn’t necessarily mean it should be obviously tied to it though. Imagine the lettering used in the ToysRUs logo used by a law firm, not appropriate at all. And, although the ToysRUs logo doesn’t actually have any toys in it, it’s very appropriate for the company with its childlike script and bright colors. Examine your logo design to see if it conflicts with your company image or message in any way or if it’s complementary and appropriate.

Memorable Logos

And that obviously brings us to our next point. You want your logo to be remembered. You want people to see that logo and instantly know who you are. There is no question when you see the swoosh that it belongs to Nike or that the green mermaid is Starbucks. By sticking to the above keys of keeping your logo simple and appropriate you move much closer to achieving a memorable logo. After all, if your logo isn’t memorable then how will people ever associate it with your company and all that you have to offer?

Do you have a company logo? How about a logo guide? Tingalls Dzyn can help you come up with a unique logo designed specifically for your company and then we’ll provide you with a logo guide that you can always refer to so your logo never deviates.

Tingalls Dzyn 5 Day Turnaround

Have you ever considered outsourcing your marketing or design projects to a freelancer? Did you know it can actually increase your bottom line? By outsourcing, your business can continue marketing in tough economic times and avoid the expense and commitment of hiring additional staff.

Remember, the best outsourcing arrangements are partnerships. Ideally at Tingalls Dzyn, we work with you, not for you. It’s a win-win relationship for both of us.

As a business owner and/or decision-maker, consider the following benefits of outsourcing:

Controlled Costs
Cutting costs may not be the only reason to outsource, but it’s definitely a big one. By outsourcing, money is more readily available for use in other areas of your business. Often, small businesses don’t have the funds available for large expenditures or additional employees, yet the work needs to be done.

Increased Efficiency
When you hire outside professionals, you eliminate the need for employing regular staff to fulfill various roles including marketing, design, advertising, photography, and copywriting. At Tingalls Dzyn, we have the staff and/or resources in place to provide all the services your business needs.

Quick Turnaround Time
Outsourced professionals have the ability to complete projects in a relatively short amount of time. In fact, the experienced designers at Tingalls Dzyn usually turn around designs in five business days or less – Whoa! And, we also coordinate print quotes, proofing and delivery!

Variety in Creativity
When you have a basic idea, vision or message and just need someone to execute it, a freelance professional is the ideal solution. This is where Tingalls Dzyn shines the brightest! From creating a new logo to a tradeshow booth, businesses benefit from our fresh ideas and alternative perspectives.

Experience
Sometimes business owners have difficulty stepping back and being objective about their business. They aren’t able to easily see things from their customer’s perspective. At Tingalls Dzyn, we have the background and knowledge to ask important questions up front, such as: What is the goal of the project? Who is the target audience? How will the product be distributed? We use this information to effectively plan, create, and produce the perfect product to fit your needs.

In conclusion, take a step back and review the last year. Are you taking advantage of all the great benefits freelancer professionals can offer? If not, give Tingalls Dzyn a call and watch your bottom line grow!

Link Architecture

Link architecture is the way you link internally within your website.  If your goal is to create a website that is search engine friendly and easily found by people doing a search on Google, Yahoo, or Bing then your link architecture is important.

You may think the humans that visit your site would prefer a search box to navigate around your site, but the search spiders that crawl around your site do not stop to type in a search query. And ultimately you want those spiders to find your pages and rank them or you’ll never get human eyes at all. This means that your most important pages are either clickable right from the home page or very, very close.

It’s also easier for the search engine spiders to navigate through text links than some of the latest technologies. It may not be especially fancy or cutting edge, but your audience and the search engines understand what you’re trying to convey.

If you’re using text to embed links it’s important to do it in a way that is logical, informative and easy for humans and spiders to understand. Let’s say you’re selling lamps and you have eco-friendly ones you’d like to promote. You can say “Click here, to see our eco-friendly lamps.” and have the “click here” portion embedded with your link, but that’s not the best approach. A better way to embed that link would be to say something like, “We now carry eco-friendly lamps online and at our store.” In this bit of text you’d embed the link in the words “eco-friendly lamps”. And now your link is more informative, compact, and not repetitive, which the search spiders will love.

For all of your website design issues, contact Tingalls Dzyn.

1. Link building boosts your authority with the search engines.
2. Base keywords/keyphrases on viewer search terms, not technical jargon.
3. Don’t overlook your title tags – make every character count!
4. Do you have a flash website? Recode to be found by search engines
5. Images are invisible by search engines unless they are tagged.
6. Ask clients to review you on Google Places.
7. Add a blog to your website to continually refresh your content.
8. Don’t subscribe to “Link Farms.”
9. A good saturation level for important keywords is between 1-5%.
10. SEO trickery can actually harm your website and can even boot you off a search engine.
11. The bottom line in SEO is Text, Links, Popularity and Reputation.
12. Real SEO doesn’t happen overnight. It can take weeks to months to climb in search results.
13. No one can guarantee continuous 1st page placement.
14. Surround video content on your pages with keyword rich text.
15. Fresh content will help improve your rankings.
16. Be sure links within your site use your keyword phrase instead of “click here.”
17. The quickest way to get your site spidered is by having another quality site link to it.
18. When link building, think quality, not quantity.
19. Use keyword rich captions with all your images.
20. Understand social marketing. It will boost your website’s SEO.

Contact Tingalls Dzyn if you’d like to schedule an SEO Snapshot to review your site, see where you current sit with your SEO strategies and get site-specific suggestions that can help you grow on the internet.

Importance of Font Selection

You put a lot of thought into your company colors, the images or icons you’ll use to represent your company, the placement of elements on your website and print materials, but did you stop to consider the font style you’d use to convey your message? Font selection is just as important, if not more important, than all of the other elements combined. The wrong font and your company message (or even the name) could be confusing, even downright unreadable.

Sometimes the font choice is pretty obvious, a construction firm won’t be represented well by a font that looks like a calligraphy master created it. Likewise, a wedding planner probably won’t want to select a bold and boxy font. But, beyond that, selecting a font can be a little more complicated. This is where professional graphic designers are an important resource. They not only have professional experience that guides them in selecting a font, they also know, through experience, how certain fonts are perceived by a general audience.

Also, it’s important to note that you’re not tied to one font. If you are the wedding planner above, your name may be very embellished with curlicues all over the place, but you certainly don’t want that in your text, it’d be impossible to read. Although, you may want to consider using a font in your text that is more sweeping and graceful than say, Times New Roman. All of these fonts can work together to help establish your website’s feel and your company branding.

The entire field of graphology is based on the belief that your handwriting says a lot about your personality and character, now that the world has gone digital it’s only logical that your font says a lot about your company.

At Tingalls Dzyn we have a huge font library at our disposal with 1000’s of fonts to choose from. But probably most valuable is our experience with fonts and the perceptions that are tied to them.

Do You Need a Logo

A quick search on Google and you’ll find a number of graphic design and marketing companies give you lists of reasons why you need a company logo. BUT not everyone needs a logo. Having a little mark that symbolizes your company is sort of cool and a lot of people just simply want one, but how do you decide if you actually need one or not.

The first thing you need to do is ask yourself why do you need a logo. There are no set rules to determine if you need a logo but a basic review of your company, your customers, your competition and your market may help you determine if a logo is necessary.

Is your business in the game for the long haul, competing vigorously for return customers? If so you probably do need something that easily, quickly and visually makes you a standout in their minds. But if your projects are of the one-off variety and don’t rely on repeat business, then you probably don’t need a logo.

What is your market? Are you planning on going nationwide or even worldwide? Or is there a lot of competition in your area that does exactly what you do? If so you probably need a logo to distinguish yourself from the crowd. But on the other hand, if you’re the only hair salon in a small town then you probably don’t need a logo, people already know who you are.

Do you already have a logo? A company name or signature isn’t a logo per se, in most situations, but it sure can act as one. Campbell’s soup and Coca-Cola use their own font and signature as a logo, we instantly recognize the signature as the company’s “logo” or “wordmark”. If you consistently use the same company signature in your website, signage and all print materials you can turn your company name into your logo and create that desired instant recognition without having a logo.

Can a bad logo hurt you? Having a well designed logo won’t hurt a business, although it may not do a lot of good in some situations. On the other hand, having a bad logo can hurt any business, whether they need a logo or not. So if you decide you want/need a logo, make sure it’s a good one that will boost brand awareness for all the right reasons.

Contact Tingalls Dzyn for a professional opinion on logos or to develop your own company logo.