Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of working on a promotional sweepstakes campaign for one of our clients, Sun Tan City. We wanted to create a digital marketing campaign that rewarded one of the Sun Tan City Facebook fans, and we thought something one of their fans would want is a year of free tanning. So that’s where we started.

This company already has a large set of brand loyalists, and their social media fans are very active. Their social properties have turned into a go-to for all things tanning. Users go to the properties for customer service, but also to interact with each other on how to get the best tan, their favorite tanning products, and to learn about indoor tanning specials Sun Tan City is currently offering.

Through feedback from the fans, we determined they would love the chance to win a year of free tanning, and boy were we right. 

In the first night, we had over 500 entries and they kept rolling in.

This campaign was a coordination of several of our LeapFrog Interactive teams. The Media + Marketing team helped drive the campaign concept, the Creative team created visually appealing advertisements and the customized Facebook application, and the Architect + Build team developed a Facebook application that was both easy-to-use and efficient. Through the integration, we created a product that not only drove a 42% increase in the number of Sun Tan City Facebook fans, but also captured over 2,000 new email addresses.

All in all, it was a successful campaign, but it was also a blast to execute. My favorite part, by far, was the day I got to make the announcement on who won the free year of tanning. It truly is better to give than to receive!

Every time I open one of my nine email accounts (overkill, yes, I know), I am reminded that email marketing campaigns are one part logic, one part magic — and sometimes completely misunderstood.

Contrary to popular belief, email marketing isn’t dying. According to eMarketer, small and medium-sized business owners feel email marketing is the easiest, most cost-effective, and efficient use of marketing time and dollars.

Whether you’re B2C or B2B, email marketing educates your audience so they know which products/services your business offers, as well as understanding your business’s strategy to solving their unique issues.

With such a powerful tool, though, comes much responsibility. There is a science to creating and executing a successful strategy. Here are six tips to remember and utilize when revisiting your email marketing campaign:

1. Be purposeful: Know what purpose your email communication serves in the plethora of e-correspondence that consumers get every single day. Are you offering specials or new product promotions? Or are you just giving general updates about the company and its successes? If it’s the latter, consider whether your audience truly cares. Typically, your subject line will tell a user if they care what else is in your email — don’t get deleted without even so much as an open.

2. Write it down and revisit: Believe it or not, clients make the mistake of coming up with an insanely brilliant marketing strategy with tactical-level elements, but it is garbled on notepads drenched in coffee stains or random middle-of-the-night epiphany notes to “Staff.” Conversely, some who manage to get it all out in a beautifully formatted document seem to lose it in the clutter of their office desks. Try revisiting the document with every new email you send out … just to make sure you’re on track.

3. Treasure and respect your lists: A list of qualified people who might be interested in buying from your company is something for which you should be thankful. Upkeep on your list is vital to preserving the quality of it as a marketing tool. Segment your audience to fit their needs and, where possible, your business model. Ensure that your list continues to grow by asking for emails on your social pages, on your website, and other digital applications (i.e., digital-out-of-home, mobile marketing, display advertising).

4. Integrate your content: Many organizations spend a ridiculous amount of time writing blogs, industry publications, press releases (LeapFrog Interactive, included) and other useful content pages for their website or digital distribution methods. Why not use these assets in your email marketing campaign? And don’t forget to link out to articles written about your company or services.

5. Look beyond “open rate” and “click-through rate”: Analytics programs, even the free ones, are continuously improving and allowing marketers to do more with their campaigns. Yes, the fact that someone opened your email is great — though, with mobile devices and some email clients, an email might be triggered as an open without ever having been seen (bummer). On the other hand, did that person engage in the content? Fantastic, they clicked through to your landing page — accidental clicks do happen, though. Can you tell how much time they spent reading your blogs? How about filling in your lead gen form? What about your sales funnel? Did they get to the payment page and then exit? These are all questions that can be answered with tools like Google Analytics or Omniture SiteCatalyst.

6. Never stop learning: The phrase “best practices” can get muddled and lose its flavor when people throw it at you day after day. There are definitely RIGHT ways and WRONG ways to use email marketing — make sure you’re staying up-to-date with what distinctions are being made in the email marketing (and holistically, the digital marketing) industry. Don’t think that a successful email campaign can be created overnight because there are a number of elements you have to consider, including spam compliance, subject lines, calls-to-action, opt-out policies, landing pages, analytics changes, and design challenges.

Not sure which resources can help you do that? Well, Merry Christmas …

eMarketing Association

Email Experience Council

Exact Target

Federal Trade Commission

Interactive Advertising Bureau

If you have others to add, please do so in the comments!

[Post contributed by Emily Carroll]

Isis, a joint venture between AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, is gaining momentum with the announcement this week that Visa, MasterCard and American Express have joined as partners. This makes Isis the only virtual wallet to offer all four major credit card networks. Discover has been supported since the start.

While Isis is not scheduled for launch until 2012 — with trials in Salt Lake City, UT and Austin, TX — partnering with these four major networks gives them a competitive edge against Google Wallet. Google Wallet — currently with limited availability in New York City and San Francisco — supports payments from Citi, MasterCard and First Data on a platform supported by Sprint.

With the new announcement of partners, Isis’ virtual wallet puts mobile technology one step closer to offering mobile wallets and making mobile commerce a reality for millions of consumers and merchants. “By working with the nation’s payment networks — Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express — we significantly advance the vision of an open and secure platform that provides banks and merchants with a new and highly relevant way to connect with consumers,” says Michael Abbott, chief executive officer for Isis.

Partnering with credit cards is a step in the right direction, but there are many additional hurdles faced by Isis in setting up a functioning, mobile e-commerce system. Additional hurdles for virtual wallets, Isis and otherwise, include mobile phones enabled with NFC technology, merchants, payment terminals and consumers to buy into the idea.

As Smartphone users continue to increase, the idea of having a virtual wallet is intriguing and a great possibility for the future. Personally, I would be delighted to be able to walk out my door without a wallet or purse — just my phone and keys. Now, if only my driver’s license could be digital.

Nate joins our Creative Team in our Cincinnati office as the Senior Writer. Everybody wish him a warm welcome!

When did you start at LeapFrog Interactive: I started at LFI in April of 2011

Where did you work before: Before LFI i was a freelancer working from home.

What is your title: Senior Writer

Agency experience: My agency experience comes in at just around 8 years.

Advertising experience:I have just under 10 years of advertising experience under my belt.

Degree: I have my Bachelor's Degree from the University of Kentucky in the Integrated Strategic Communications Program.

Have you won any awards for your work: I have won several local Addy awards, a regional Addy and have been highlighted in Print Magazine

What organizations do you have a membership with: I'm currently a member of the Cincy Ad Club

What other cool things would you like to add: I'm the proud father of two awesome 4-year old twin girls of whom i Tweet and Blog about regularly (Twicethefunny). I'm apparently also very injury prone and have been forced to retire from organized sports (Broken Collar Bone, Broken Wrist x2, Dislocated Elbow, Torn ACL x2)

We're happy to announce a new addition to our Creative team. Alex is working out of our Cincinnati office to

Where did you work before: Pop Design Works, Designed Solutions Group, and the Dayton Daily News

What is your title: Senior Designer

How many years have you worked for an agency: 4

How many years have you worked in advertising: 5

Degree: Associates degree, School of Advertising Art

Have you won any awards for your work: Columbus Society of Communicating Arts Creative Best Winner | 2006, two Awards of Excellence as a student, Greater Dayton Advertising Association Addy Awards | 2006-07, and Awarded multiple Dayton Addy Awards as a student, creative design lead for best of show winner 2007

What other cool things would you like to add: I'm an Advisory board member for the commercial art class at Miami Valley Career Technology Center

What attracted you to LFI: After a long talk with Alan Gilleo, Chief Creative + Experience Officer, I saw LeapFrog Interactive as a perfect opportunity to simultaneously apply my skills while growing and learning with a team of creative professionals who seek to aggressively compete and be recognized in the interactive and design fields.

Establishing a successful online brand starts with a great digital marketing plan and strategy. If you jump right in, you are liable to miss something you need to know — or, down the road, wish you had known.

First things first: create goals for your digital brand and online presence. Generate more sales, generate buzz about your company, or create more awareness for your business and/or products. Once you know what you want to achieve, you will have a better opportunity to select the interactive marketing tools to make your online customer experience a success.

In general, I see four key elements to establishing a successful online presence. These are only generalities and it is highly recommended to discuss all your options with your interactive marketing account manager to see which innovative marketing tools are right for your business and products.

#1: Develop a content-rich, engaging and interactive website. This will encourage users to come to your site to look for relevant information, and it will also establish a standard for your company’s online presence. All other elements to a successful online presence build on your user-friendly, informative and engaging website.

#2: Regularly produce and post relevant, updated content. This could be a blog or company press release, new product information or business event information. Whatever content you choose to update, try to add new content at least once a week to keep your site fresh and interesting to your consumers, as well as the search engines.

#3: Pursue natural link building. Work with other companies to create partnerships, or build on those partnerships that already exist, to help create links from their sites to your site; comment on blogs and forums related to your business sector and if you have expert information about a topic, direct users to that URL.

#4: Build online relationships with customers and business partners. Launch a social marketing campaign to help spread the word about your business and products. Remember to interact and engage with your fans and followers to help them feel like they are part of your business. Develop a social media community, which helps customers understand your brand and makes them feel comfortable sharing information with and about your brand. Share industry news and interesting stories from your city to connect to your fans and followers on a personal level; not every post needs to be, or should be, about your business or product.

These four elements, among many others, will help you and your company establish a positive and successful branded online presence. When establishing your online presence, remember to integrate your offline branding and marketing messages with your new digital marketing. Creating a consistent, integrated marketing strategy will help engage your loyal customers and broaden your new customer base. Does this sound like too much to do? Hire an incredible interactive marketing agency to help you sort out all your digital marketing woes.

Mobile eCommerce is an emerging application available on mobile phones. Mobile eCommerce exists in a couple of formats. The first is the ability to purchase items on your phone. Much like the ability to purchase on the desktop, you can purchase items over the phone. Many companies have used their existing desktop platforms in allowing consumers to purchase over the phone. Some of the implementations work well. However, in many cases the eCommerce systems have been slow, break or are not user friendly.

The second format is utilizing a mobilized site or mobile app to make a purchase. The mechanism is the same as the first: the consumer is purchasing via a shopping cart with a credit card number attached. However, the shopping and purchasing is tailored for the mobile user. Larger buttons, quick checkouts and synchronization with an online account make mobilized site/app purchases a much more appealing format than the former one.

The most exciting format in this space is the digital wallet. Your phone is tied to a credit card provider (MasterCard) and a mobile phone provider (Sprint). The phones are embedded with Near Field Technology (NCF) technology, which allows phones to make transactions and exchange content between devices and systems. The technology turns your mobile phone into a credit card where you can purchase items using your phone and then are billed via your credit card, which is tied to your phone. Many companies are advancing this technology, including Google.

As mobile phones tack on more and more function, there will come a time when you will not need a wallet when you walk out your door.

Recently, the Marketing team became practically obsessed with our Klout scores. Always up for a challenge, it's now a game, of sorts, to see who can maintain and continue to improve their Klout scores.

As avid digital marketers, we know there is value in having active social media properties. While other thought leaders debate 'yes, Klout matters' or 'no, Klout doesn't matter,' in this industry it's simply good practice to be engaged with the rest of the world on local, national, and global topics.

One of my first questions when I heard about Klout was, "When are they going to add LinkedIN and Foursquare to the mix?" Surely, where you went and the depth of your professional outreach could affect your overall social footprint. Well, folks, in June, Klout added the ability to sync with LinkedIN.

Today, I bring you even better news as Klout announced the ability to link with Foursquare earlier this week.

What does this mean for you? I can tell you that after I linked both of those to my account, my Klout score did slightly increase but I also became influential in the topics of "sushi," "dancing," and "Louisville."

Whether or not you believe Klout truly matters in the grand scheme of your digital footprint, be advised that it is a fantastic indicator of how engaged you are with the social world.

[Post contributed by Emily Carroll]

With the introduction of Google+, the Internet is exploding with excitement (and some skepticism, of course) about how it’s going to change the face of digital consumerism and marketing. As a media planner and buyer for a digital marketing agency, I, too, am quite curious to know.

Google is slowly but surely activating invites and doubling its Google+ population, and industry thought leaders are putting their rumor circuits in the seas. Google+ will change it all — social gaming and networking, Facebook’s popularity, and online marketing, as a whole.

Interestingly, the effect of Google+ on display marketing has yet to be a focus of conversation, which is strange considering the fact that it widens the network of potential ad impressions. Facebook wanted no part in a data-sharing partnership with Google, so Google asked itself how it could make its own.

Keep a close eye on Google, the FCC, and the Digital Advertising Alliance as Google+ grows exponentially. As businesses get involved later this year, more questions will arise about consumer privacy and display targeting technologies. Google makes its environment comfortable to share very specific demographic, psychographic, and personal information on a technologically public website — which means once people start seeing ads that are eerily relevant, you can bet there is going to be uproar.

I’m eager to see how all industry organizations respond, both preemptively and reactively.

[Contributed by Emily Carroll]

We have some great news! We received an email from Sitefinity at the end of last month saying we were being highlighted as the Sitefinity Partner of the Month!

Sitefinity is a web content management system that we use to create clients on behalf of our clients, and we also used this system to create our company website. This system allows us to create cutting-edge websites that are both visually appealing and have all of the information the users want and need.

When I talked to Scott Million, our Vice President of Technology + Analytics, he said "the key benefit of Sitefinity is its ease of use. The system is easy to learn and is also very intuitive, which makes it convenient for our clients to implement website changes themselves."

So Sitefinity took a task that used to only be able to be done by web developers, and now pretty much anybody can make updates to the website. The user just has to go through a tiny bit of training, and then they are set to go because the system is so intuitive. This makes it easy for a website to get continual updates, which search engines love for SEO purposes.

If you'd like to take a look at the websites we have created using Sitefinity, please take a look. And feel free to review the sites, as well.

My wife and I recently inherited some beautiful leather sofas for our living room. It just made sense to replace a faded love seat and an aging sofa — upon which our dog had spent one too many days sleeping — with something a little nicer. After making the switch, however, the room still felt clunky and unfinished. We soon realized it would take a little more than an upgrade to the focal point of the room to make it complete.

In many cases, companies make the same mistake with what is quite possibly their most important asset to bring in new customers — their website. The static, brochure website built over a decade ago might be gone but the new interactive site doesn't quite hit the mark either. Sure, it has improved design but is it SEO-friendly so that potential customers can find it? Is it easy to navigate? Does it appropriately represent the look, feel and character of the company? Does it speak to potential customers and allow for any meaningful conversions, or is it cluttered with jargon that is hard to understand?

Sometimes the tendency is to take shortcuts, especially as it relates to your digital marketing budget. But, why replace only the couch when the drapes are still shabby and the walls need a fresh coat of paint? Although it may cost a little more, finish the job with attention to detail. Your website needs to be a resource for potential customers. Because your website can leave a lasting first impression, make sure to speak the customer's language and make it easy to find and request additional information. Keep it simple and avoid using excessive images. An organized site with relevant content improves the sites SEO and gives you the best chance to connect with your customer.

After a little more work, I must say the living room is in order. The dog, however, still sleeps on the couch!

Time and time again, my friends who have been tasked with running their company’s Twitter account have asked me to give them pointers.

“Emily, how do I get followers on Twitter? What exactly is a tweet? How often should I tweet? Why do people stop following me? Is my head going to explode?”

Since I work for a digital marketing agency, I’m supposed to have a million answers on the subject. Luckily, I DO! For the sake of this blog, though, I’m just going to tell you 10 that I adhere to with my Twitter account.

Here are my top 10 reasons I will or won’t follow someone on Twitter.

10. I won’t follow someone who tweets incessantly — unless there’s an event going on, a wildly trending topic, or a Twitter party … quality over quantity, people!

9. I will follow someone who seems to always be in the know, and thus, tweets with an above average frequency. Give me content I want and I’ll stay!

8. I won’t follow someone who has substantially less followers than people whom they follow — it screams SPAM.

7. I will follow someone who has obviously just started tweeting and has valuable information to share.

6. I won’t follow someone who uses their personal Twitter frequently for professional promotion, or vice versa. If I’m following you because you’re a digital marketing savant, I don’t want to read about your aging mother’s digestive habits (unless it’s really funny and not gross).

5. I will follow someone who tweets ironic, sarcastic, or satirical commentary about his or her professional and personal life.

4. I won’t follow someone who sends seemingly “spammy” direct messages with any frequency. For those of us who get an email every time we get a DM, this is a real turn off.

3. I will follow someone who sends special offers or sale notices via direct message.

2. I won’t follow someone who aggressively bashes a person, group, or organization. This is a personal preference that might not be shared by all. Frankly, I don’t want repeated negativity coming through my Twitter feed.

1. I will follow someone who actively engages in dialogue with people, groups, or organizations about topics that may be controversial. After all, public communication and debate can be a healthy way to resolve issues (or at least get them acknowledged).

[Post contributed by Emily Carroll]

Deals and online coupons are everywhere — from Groupon and LivingSocial, what I consider the originators, to Facebook Deals and company social promotions. Domino’s Pizza recently launched a mobile promotion via Facebook Deals in Great Britain. Their integrated mobile campaign features receiving free garlic bread when you check into any Domino’s Pizza and order a stuffed crust pizza, in conjunction with the Domino’s Stuffed Crust Quest Facebook app. Domino’s overall goal is not just to sell more pizza, but to engage in different ways with consumers and have consumers share information via their personal news-feed.

Domino’s isn’t the only one integrating social and mobile media for brand promotions. Digital media allows companies quick, timely access to consumers via digital marketing channels including mobile marketing, email marketing and social media. According to media advisory firm BIA/Kelsey U.S., mobile advertising is expected to expand to $4 billion by 2015 with particular growth in local mobile marketing campaigns. A predicted 70% of mobile ad spending will be local by 2015.

So what does this mean for marketers? Mobile marketing is here to stay. Integrating marketing campaigns moving forward will include using mobile promotions — whether it’s engaging with an exclusive offer for brand fans or followers or offering a special via a company specific app. Any way you slice the marketing pie, mobile marketing’s piece is becoming larger every day.

If you have been on vacation, Google has announced several updates to their search program in June. Many of the items are browser dependent — meaning they are only available via Google Chrome. The changes are still worth noting, though.

• Voice Search: The feature that has been available on Android phones where you can speak in search, such as a restaurant or business location, has now made its way to the desktop via Google Chrome. So you can keep typing your blog and find the article you want to reference by speaking the article title into the mic.
• Search by Image: Another browser dependent search feature is their Search by Image. The feature allows a user to upload a picture and search on the features of the picture. For example, if I uploaded a picture of the Twin Spires, it would give me a description of Churchill Downs, the location and other pictures relevant to the post.
• Instant Preview for Mobile: Instant Preview on the desktop allows users to click a magnifying glass to view the website before clicking on the link. The goal is better relevancy cues for the end user. The feature is now available on mobile devices.
• Panda 2.2: Panda 2.2 is an upgrade to the original Panda update in February. The Panda update created a new rank, or criteria, in which to value websites. The Panda update hopes to point out low-quality websites. If you have too much low-quality content on your website, it will be impacted negatively by Google

 I am sure I am missing some of the updates. If you have any more to note, post on the LFI Facebook page and I will make an update to this post.

Content. Management. System.

Separately, these three nouns don’t mean much, but when combined, they can mean cost-, time-, and sanity savings for you and your business.

Admittedly, as a digital marketer with a media buying and planning background, I don’t get to manipulate the website design and maintenance side of marketing campaigns very often … okay, not at all. That was until I came to work for LeapFrog Interactive, where, upon the implementation of content management systems, they turned little ol’ me into a content management system queen!

To be clear, the type of content management system I’m referring to is an application or set of applications that simplifies the process of publishing content to websites and mobile devices. The best part is you don’t have to spend countless hours learning code and banging your head against the wall in order to manage it.

My introduction to these systems made three things very clear: a CMS saves time, it saves energy, and it saves money. As one of my astute colleagues points out, a CMS is most beneficial to companies who want complete control and who don't have time to mess around with coding every time changes need to be made to their website.

When there are multiple authors located in different places, publishing massive amounts of content on a regular basis is still extremely straightforward and quick. Other perks include quality assurance controls that allow you to control who creates, modifies, and publishes content so you don’t have a publishing free-for-all on your hands. In addition, a CMS can be set up so there is a template format for each entry (i.e., meta data, content, classifications, navigation), making it more efficient to post content.

[Contributed by Emily Carroll]

Today marks the 12-year anniversary of LeapFrog Interactive as a digital marketing agency. LeapFrog Interactive remains committed to bringing big ideas to the table and working to develop individualized interactive marketing strategies. Team LFI continues to stay up-to-date on all things digital marketing and provide the best services and opportunities to all our clients.

Team LFI celebrated today’s anniversary with cake and champagne. Here’s to many more successful digital marketing years!

I’ve read two articles this week focused on adCenter. In the SEM world, it is a big deal when adCenter is mentioned. Most of the paid search news centers around Google AdWords. Although I have had issues with adCenter, I still find it a viable search marketing tool, and it should be used as part of an SEM campaign. Here is what has been in the news.

AdCenter has made their Quality Score ranking system available to advertisers. The move is counter to the strategy Google AdWords employs in keeping the Quality Score proprietary. The detail provided in the adCenter Quality Score is extremely insightful. Implementing changes in improving the Quality Score in adCenter should lead to improvement in AdWords.

AdCenter released the June 2011 updates. Notable changes are the addition of radius geo-targeting for ads, improvements to the Business Locations page, and targeting settings available on the Campaigns tab. Additionally, you now have the ability to view account alerts anytime in the top left corner of the page.

Updating adCenter is a must. A better tool will only help drive further adoption by search marketers.