The Fairy Godmother of Marketing

Where’s the marketing magic?

It would be great if there were a fairy godmother of marketing who could point us in the right direction, and maybe wave a little magic our way while she’s at it.

Just think of the possibilities!

She could conjure up the perfect marketing strategy
Or sprinkle magic dust over large groups of strangers, transforming them into our ideal target market
One wave of her wand and Poof! There would be useful and excellent content for everyone who comes across our websites and social channels

Unfortunately the above scenario is a fairytale.

And that’s because the catch with fairy godmothers is that while their powers are impressive, they come with strings attached.

You typically have to learn some valuable lessons, or even their best spells have little power.

For example, one thing that you might need to realize in order for any magic to work for you is that you need a system.

Creating a marketing strategy and a marketing plan are only the beginning.

These elements then need to become part of an ongoing process that’s manageable and sustainable, and which can be tested and optimized for growth.

Fear not! And be not overwhelmed with where to begin. Giant Arrow is here to help.

We may not be fairy godpeople, but we’ve got three simple points to put you on the path to marketing glory.

1. Start where you are and set smart quarterly goals

Don’t put the cart before the horse!

For example, if you don’t know who your ideal target audience is, or if you haven’t considered their current needs, you will be wasting time by attempting to promote content.

It’s hard to be patient when you’re excited about an initiative, but just like with diet and exercise, if you’re hoping for a low-cost magic pill that will you get you massive results right now, you’ll be very susceptible to offers which are too good to be true.

The reason quarterly goals are good is that three months isn’t too long, but it’s typically long enough to create something, test it, and see some initial results.

You’ll then be able to optimize your approach by making data-driven business decisions based on info that’s highly relevant to your goals.

2. Depend on roles you define, not on individuals

The word “marketing” is very general, and there are many people with specialized knowledge out there who can help you.

It’s really challenging to know who to hire because everyone wants to present themselves as the one-stop-shop marketing-guru solution.

If you set up a documented system that has specific roles and responsibilities, you’ll be able to avoid getting locked into working with particular firms or contractors. You’ll be able to take part or all of your marketing efforts in house if and when you wish to do so.

This is critical because your needs will change over time. A system that requires the involvement of particular employees, shareholders, vendors or any individual in order to work is not a system for long-term success.

3. Create a marketing manual

What should you do with your defined goals and roles? You need a marketing manual.

It can be a massive and detailed document, or a very simple one. At a minimum it needs to define your target market, your goals, a strategy, a timeframe, and a plan detailing exactly who’s responsible for carrying out various tasks and making decisions.

Documenting these items means they can then be measured, tested and systematically improved. The world is in a state of rapidly evolving communication technologies, and a marketing manual should be a living document that’s open to change and revision.

On the other hand, you and everyone you hire must closely follow the plan defined in your manual if you want it to actually work for you.

If all interested parties are consistently on the same page, it’s much easier to see what’s working, and to move forward with confidence.

There’s freedom in the rules

The paradox of any great system is that while it’s made up of rules, it actually frees you.

So if what you’re looking for is the ability to focus on product or service development, and you’d like to be able to hire employees, contractors or agencies to successfully help you with marketing, then the answer is your very own marketing system.

Creating a sensible system will definitely please your fairy godmother of marketing, and the best part is you just might find a little marketing magic after all.

Giant Arrow points the way by creating custom marketing systems for all kinds of initiatives, services and products.

Why not make your fairy godmother of marketing proud by getting in touch with Giant Arrow?

Posted: March 4, 2019 by alta@giantarrow.com

Meet the warehouse director for Shelter Partnership of Los Angeles

By Rob Kuznia for Giant Arrow

Sometimes, instead of finding our calling, our calling finds us.
This is how it happened with Jerry Ayala.

Jerry is the director of a gargantuan warehouse in South Los Angeles for Shelter Partnership, an organization serving hundreds of nonprofit agencies that attend to the multitudes of L.A.’s homeless.

Most days you can find him zipping about on his forklift, which is adorned with a tiny American flag that flaps in the airstream.

His rock-steady presence in the Shelter Partnership warehouse located in the industrial city of Bell has helped provide tens of thousands of homeless people with clothing, Christmas presents and shelter for 27 years and counting.

Jerry is quick to say he feels grateful to be a part of this nonprofits’ nonprofit.

As warehouse director, Jerry has always been behind-the-scenes. But that changed somewhat a couple years ago when Shelter Partnership started a program where groups can come to the warehouse and fold and box clothes for shelters.

“I love this place, it’s my second home,” he said on a recent morning, standing inside the cavernous 108,000-square-foot space, as a group of students from UCLA boxed clothes nearby.

The warehouse, whose interior is larger than two football fields end to end, houses neatly organized rows of pallets straining under the weight of donated toys, clothing, appliances and toiletries. “I like putting my mind to work – it’s a challenge.”

Shelter Partnership was founded in 1985, as the issue of homelessness was gaining visibility in Los Angeles County.

One of its primary missions is to solicit large-scale donations of merchandise from donors such as Ross Dress for Less, Mattel and other big businesses, and to ensure that the items are delivered to the people and agencies most in need.

To effectively do this, Shelter Partnership needs a warehouse, and to effectively run a warehouse, it needs a warehouse director. But Executive Director Ruth Schwartz, who founded the organization, says Jerry is more like the organization’s co-founder.

Jerry’s path to Shelter Partnership was circuitous. In 1989, he was four years into a job as a valet attendant for a network of parking structures in downtown Los Angeles when a woman whose car he parked every day asked if he’d like a new job.

Jerry at the warehouse — Jerry Ayala outside the Shelter Partnership warehouse in South Los Angeles.

The woman was Ruth Schwartz, and at the time Shelter Partnership was less than four years old. Jerry was taken aback.

“I didn’t know anything about warehouses,” he said, though he suspects Ruth noticed his dependability and friendly (if shy) nature.

Learning how to run the warehouse was a sink-or-swim experience for Jerry.

“They dropped me off, and I said, ‘What am I going to do here?’” he remembers. “I got really nervous.”

His first item of business was to break in his horse – the forklift. It was an intimidating prospect, as he’d never operated such a machine.

To learn, Jerry observed. He went to another warehouse, and – trying to be inconspicuous – stood in the parking lot, watching workers as they darted about on their forklifts.

Back at his warehouse, when he finally mustered the courage to fire up his own forklift, he promptly drove it into the trailer of a semi-truck and got stuck between some pallets. But he maneuvered it free, and soon enough, he was forklifting like a pro.

A native of Guatemala, Jerry came to the United States as a refugee in 1984, during the violent peak of that country’s horrific civil war. At the time he was about 19, but he doesn’t care to discuss it.

“That’s very hard to talk about,” he said. “Bad memories.”

Jerry first lived with relatives on a ranch near Houston, Texas. He enjoyed the bucolic setting, replete with horses and turkeys.

“In the countryside, you can see the stars.”

Homeless encampment near downtown Los Angeles.

But Jerry was restless. He traveled by train all over the US – New York, San Francisco, Vegas. He came to Los Angeles around 1985. He decided to stay.

In search of a job, he initiated conversations with strangers who might help. One day, he stepped into a liquor store in downtown Los Angeles to purchase a soda when he struck up a conversation with a man from Nicaragua. The man was in the parking-lot business, and asked Jerry if he’d be interested in working as an attendant.

The next thing Jerry knew, he was parking cars as a valet in uniform.

“I didn’t know how to drive a stick,” he said. “I had to learn.”

He enjoyed the job, but the work came with certain dangers. Once, a man in a snazzy suit and tie flashed a gun and demanded the keys to a Ford Escort. When the car’s owner came to pick it up, Jerry was apologetic.

“I had to tell her I had to hand the keys over to this guy,” Jerry remembers. “She said, ‘Jerry you did the right thing. You’re not going to die for my car — I have insurance.’”

Another time, he witnessed a man break into a UPS truck with a crowbar in broad daylight.

“An hour, two hours later I was sitting. He came, showed me a gun: ‘You didn’t see anything right?’ I said, ‘No I didn’t.’”

But these occasional occupational hazards aren’t why he decided to take the new job. It wasn’t even about money: When Jerry’s parking-lot boss learned of his job opportunity at the warehouse, he offered a pay hike.

“I said it’s not about the money — it’s the challenge.”

After learning how to operate the forklift, Jerry had to spearhead the process of converting the building into a functional warehouse for Shelter Partnership.

Decades before, in 1939, the warehouse had gone up as part of a military base established to hasten production of weapons and tanks in the run-up to World War II.

The base closed in 1963, but the FBI and DEA later began using the warehouse as a storage facility. (More recently, in 2015, it was a filming location for a goofball zombie flick called “Freaks of Nature.”)

When Jerry first laid eyes on the vast interior, it was filled with makeshift partitions made of chain-link fencing and plywood. He tore it all down with his forklift, and gave the materials away to scrap collectors.

These are the kinds of challenges he loves.

High school students working at Shelter Partnership — Jeff Diaz and Adrian Diezmo were looking for volunteer opportunities online and came across Shelter Partnership.

Once, he and a couple of volunteers were faced with a mega challenge: a shipment of 100,000 pairs of Guess jeans had arrived, but the triangular label needed to be torn off all of the back pockets. (To ensure they would not be returned or resold.)

“We tried everything, we tried a knife – everything,” he said.

On a whim, Jerry took a pair of nearby pliers and gripped a label in the pincers. It peeled like a banana. He went to Home Depot and bought a bunch more – problem solved.

Jerry is grateful because he has two homes – one in Universal City he shares with his wife of 22 years, Nora, and the warehouse.

Not long ago, a woman who’d once been homeless – and who occasionally helped out in the warehouse – returned to tell Jerry she’d turned her life around.

“She got off the street,” he said. “That was a good experience.”

When he’s not working, Jerry likes to “chill out,” and tend to his garden. But even then, “my mind is here.”

For more information about Shelter Partnership, or to make a donation visit www.shelterpartnership.org.

Jerry's forklift at the Shelter Partnership warehouse

Posted: October 4, 2017 by alta@giantarrow.com

Request for proposal guidelines: 7 essential elements

There are many ways to approach writing a request for proposal. Below you will find Giant Arrow’s super simple, yet flexible and fabulous RFP guidelines.

This post is intended as a guide for any project requiring that you gather and evaluate proposals.

Before putting your RFP together, check out Writing a request for proposal: 3 hot tips to get you started.

Lookout below!! There’s a link to a our RFP Guidelines Downloadable And Printable Chart at the bottom of this post.

Giant Arrow provides Internet marketing, UX design, web/app development and content creation services.

Get in touch and ask any preliminary questions. Allow Giant Arrow to point the way in the digital age.

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A complex project could end up having a lot of sub-sections. But in our opinion, a successful and focused RFP starts with these seven components. That’s the case for almost any project.

1. Company Info
2. Project Description and Objectives
3. Project Background and Challenges
4. Scope and Specs
5. Qualifications
6. Timeline
7. Response Format

Let’s dive in!

RFP guidelines

Request for proposal guidelines; Section 1

Company Info

There’s no need to provide a full list of your services and offerings
Do not paste in the full bios of your principals
Avoid the urge to copy the entire “about” section from your company’s website

A couple sentences profiling your company is perfect for your RFP. If you have a mission statement, include that as well as any unique or unexpected aspects of your business.

Important: Describe your current and desired customers or clients in this section if that is applicable to your project’s goals.

Request for proposal guidelines; Section 2

Project Description and Objectives
This section should be a short overview of the project, followed by a detailed bullet list of objectives. It’s important to indicate what is mandatory as opposed to items that would be ideal but are not strictly needed, or could be added later.

Don’t just list the attributes the product or service should have, describe what you are trying to accomplish overall.

If you have a predetermined budget and payment schedule, include that here.

hitting the water

Request for proposal guidelines; Section 3

Project Background and Challenges
Next we have a very important, and sometimes overlooked RFP component.
List out all of the problems you are currently having. What led to your decision to look for outside expertise?

Are there known challenges that are unusual? Are there any unknown factors that could present additional challenges?

Have you already attempted to find a solution? It’s a good idea to share that information here to ensure the same mistakes aren’t repeated.

Next indicate how the success of the project will be judged. This helps set correct expectations. You can refer back to this in order to keep the project on track.

stickman in the water

Request for proposal guidelines; Section 4

Scope and Specs
Here is where you list all the specific tasks involved with your project.

This is also a good place for technical details, feature requirements, specific deliverables, functionality, quantities, dimensions, and any specific brands or products you would like used for your project.

The purpose is to determine:

The number of individuals needed
How much it will cost
How long it will take

You’ll need to pick from multiple proposed solutions. Listing the scope and specs to the best of your ability will help you find a firm who’s the right fit.

swimming

Request for proposal guidelines; Section 5

Qualifications

Here you will list any criteria you have for your candidates.

What type of, and how much experience do they need to have?
Will they need to be able to easily travel to your location?
Do you already know the size of the firm you seek, the specific expertise they need to have, or the equipment they need to own?

It is time consuming to read proposals. You only want responses from the most qualified vendors.

swimming

Request for proposal guidelines; Section 6

Timeline
You want a service provider who can give you their full attention. Vendors will need to know up front when the project is to start, when it will conclude and any important deadlines or milestones in between.

In addition, spell out (or ask) whether the project — after completion — will require any ongoing maintenance or work that is outside of the stated scope of the proposal. This is important!

This section should also include the deadline for responding, and the timeframe of the evaluation and award process.

If an initial in-person interview is required before the final decision is made, that can be specified here too.

swimming

Request for proposal guidelines; Section 7

Response format
This is another essential element that is sometimes omitted from RFPs. It’s very helpful to be able to do a side-by-side comparison of proposals. Therefore, having them all in a similar format, with the information in the same order is quite useful indeed.

You can make this easy by referring back to other sections of your RFP:

Ask for a list of their qualifications based on the Firm Qualifications section
Request a description of how they plan to execute the project based on the Project Description and Objectives, and the Project Background and Challenges sections

You can also request a short bio of everyone involved in providing the service or product.

If asking candidates to provide a budget and fee schedule, include that request here.

Lastly, don’t forget to provide contact info as to where the proposal should be sent, and what format (Word, pdf, etc) you would like used.

arrived at destination

_____________________________

Finding innovative, smart and cost-effective solutions is an ongoing challenge for every business.

We hope these Giant Arrow RFP Guidelines help you to define your projects, and find the best possible service providers.

Enter your name and email and click below for your own Giant Arrow Request For Proposal Guidelines as a handy downloadable and printable chart.*

Why not give it to all your friends? After all, at some point practically everyone needs to create a fabulous RFP.

*We may send you an email in the future, but you won’t be added to any lists, and your name and email won’t be shared with anyone. Baby not included.

[gravityform id=”4″ title=”false” description=”true”]

baby with an RFP

Posted: June 27, 2017 by alta@giantarrow.com

Writing a request for proposal: 3 Hot Tips to get you started

The prospect of writing a request for proposal can be fairly daunting.

Where does one even begin?

Allow Giant Arrow to point the way with these 3 hot tips for you to consider when getting started with your RFP.

Need help writing and formatting your request for proposal? If you’re looking for an experienced consultant to help establish your project’s requirements, answer all your questions and save you a huge amount of time, get in touch with Giant Arrow today.

Writing a request for proposal: Hot Tip #1 – Choose a shortlist

Instead of publicly posting your RFP, or sending it out to as many firms as possible, consider providing it exclusively to a small group of pre-selected firms.

It may seem like the best candidates will be found with a wide search. But it’s going to take you a lot of time to read over proposals you receive, and to respond to unqualified firms.

Writing a request for proposal: tall stack of proposals

Often you can get a sense of who might be a good fit just by researching potential candidates online. You can also ask friends and colleagues for referrals.

Choose four or five companies that advertise an approach you find appealing, or come highly recommended. Plan on sending your RFP only to them. You can always send it to more candidates if you don’t find the right fit with the first round.

This approach also helps keep your info private. Chances are you don’t want the specifics of your project getting into the hands of your direct competitors.

If your request for proposal contains proprietary information, consider asking recipients to sign a nondisclosure agreement.

Writing a request for proposal: Hot Tip #2 – Keep it on point

“I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.” – Blaise Pascal

Stay focused in order to make responding to your request for proposal more appealing for service providers. Take the time to figure out what you truly need. Make mandatory objectives very clear.

Pascal thinks Writing a request for proposal is a good idea

Some businesses approach the RFP process as way to harvest clever ideas about how to solve as many of the company’s problems as possible.

However, a concise and focused RFP demonstrates that you’re the kind of company someone would want to work for in the first place.

Writing proposals, and responding to RFPs is not a billable service. Therefore, if the firms that you have in mind as potential vendors are in demand, and your RFP is twice as long with four times as many questions to answer as another RFP for a project of a similar scope, it will make more sense for candidates to go after the other project.

The best companies in any industry get a lot of requests, so if you’re looking for top talent, that’s something to keep in mind.

Or course you also want to make sure you’re not forgetting anything.

Writing a request for proposal: Hot Tip #3 – The 5 W’s.. Don’t forget the why!

As with many writing projects, you can cover your bases by making sure that you’ve included the “5 W’s:

the 5 Ws

Who are you?
What do you need?
When do you need it?
Where are you located?
Why do you need this service?

Seemingly obvious perhaps.

But even in lengthy and complex RFP’s, why is often overlooked.

Answering the question why will go a long way in helping candidates understand how to help you. You can explain why what you’re doing now isn’t working. You can explain why the project is important.

Clarifying the reasons why you’re in need of a new service or product will result in the information necessary to solve your most critical problems, and will help ensure the success of your project.

The way that candidates respond to why you’re seeking outside services will tell you a great deal about who will care about doing the best job possible for you.

Giant Arrow provides Internet marketing, UX design, web and app development and content creation services. We can write and format your RFP. We can also provide a discovery phase to help determine all important considerations for your project, and answer your preliminary questions. Get in touch.

Stay tuned for our next post: Giant Arrow’s 7 essential elements of a request for proposal! 😀

Posted: May 16, 2017 by alta@giantarrow.com

Should you use Google AdWords for business?

Perhaps as a CEO, shareholder or manager you’re wondering…
Should I use Google AdWords for business?

In a word, yes. And you don’t even have to pay anything at all. : O

AdWords is a pay-per-click or ‘PPC’ service. You can use it to:

run ads for your business
set up landing pages for those ads
use those landing pages to gather contact info
and show ads to people who have already visited your site, which is called remarketing …

By the way… reminding someone of your existence, especially if they have already demonstrated an interest in your company/service/product by visiting your site or app, typically provides a much better return on investment for your marketing efforts, as opposed to say:

trying to drive as much traffic or clicks as possible without providing a good experience for the visitor

dropping brochures out of an airplane

While remarketing does indeed provide a better bang for your buck, that’s not what we are here to talk about today. You may have noticed that we uttered the words “don’t even have to pay.”

Google AdWords for business: Cost considerations

Did someone say free?

Google will make a deal with you. Hand over your credit card number and email address, and in return you get an AdWords account. You don’t have to buy any ads ever.

Perhaps having a free account with a large corporation does not sound that exciting.

And it’s safe to assume that Google is hoping you will eventually loosen those purse strings and buy some ads.

But the thing to know about in any AdWords account, including a free one, is the Keyword Planner. It’s a main reason you should use Google AdWords for your business, regardless of whether or not you intend to pay Google for ads.

The Keyword Planner is the best free tool available for:

understanding what content to create
structuring your website for SEO
getting a clue as to how to improve your online marketing strategy

It allows you to do keyword research based on a page on your own website, a competitor’s website, a word or a phrase. You can find:

what people are actually searching for in relation to your product or service
which words and phrases bring so much traffic that competitors are willing to pay top dollar for them
overlooked (and therefore cheaper) words and phrases that could be leveraged

This is incredibly valuable information; it’s not a good thing if the competition has it and you don’t. A main consideration when asking should you use Google AdWords for business is whether others in your industry already are. If not, it’s likely they will be soon.

Should you use Google AdWords for business? If you don't the result could be shocking.

Google AdWords for business: Keyword considerations

Keywords are um.. KEY!

Once you start to understand the words and phrases that are valuable to your business, as opposed to either having no concept of the importance of keywords, or assuming you know what the right keywords are, then you can structure your website, content, campaigns and online strategies around those words and phrases.

This will then improve your rankings in organic search results for .. wait for it .. those same very valuable words and phrases !!

Organic search results are unpaid.

So using a free AdWords account is an excellent way to learn how to get more free traffic.

Oftentimes the catch with something that’s free is that you have to invest some time and effort. That is most certainly the case here.

The tradeoff is you can stay in control of costs over the long run by avoiding getting locked into having to pay a lot for clicks. This is quite important as paying for attention online becomes a bigger consideration for every business.

So should you use Google AdWords for business?

The fundamental way the Internet works is very straightforward. It’s important as a business owner to understand the basics of pay-per-click advertising. Then you can go beyond just controlling costs, and put your web or app presence to work helping you get on top and stay there. Adwords provides one of the most popular and flexible resources for doing just that.

Hopefully if you’ve been wondering should you use Google AdWords for business, you now know there’s a good chance the answer is yes, and that you can dive in without even having to pay out for clicks.

Giant Arrow can set up an AdWords account for you. We can teach you how to use the Keyword Planner, or we can manage campaigns ongoing for your company and provide the information necessary for making informed business decisions.

Should you use Google AdWords for business? If you want to get to the top of the mountain, the answer is yes.

Get in touch

Posted: May 6, 2017 by alta@giantarrow.com

Can folding clothes make a difference?

There’s a lot to love about living and working in Los Angeles.

It’s expensive and competitive, but it’s also a place of almost endless opportunity, with a sense that one can dream big, and that great things may be just around the corner.

You can see incredible art for free, and you can take a train to the beach.

But it’s not a land of limitless possibilities for everyone. L.A. is also a place of extreme disparity of circumstance. Opulence alongside desperation. And on any given day there are 47,000 – 50,000 individuals struggling with homelessness here in our county.

To put it in perspective, that many people could fill every seat at Hollywood Bowl almost three times, or Dodger Stadium nearly to capacity.

stadium-los-angeles

Enter Shelter Partnership, Inc.

Shelter Partnership doesn’t work directly with the homeless population, rather they provide vital support to the organizations who do.

They are a non-profit who serves other non-profits, hundreds of them in fact. And they really make the rubber hit the road.

They are experts in public and housing policy, helping organizations navigate the labyrinthian world of technical regulations and legislation involved with transitioning people into permanent housing.

This is incredibly important because if it’s impossible for people to transition out of shelters, and into stable housing, then shelters can’t take any new people in.

Families and individuals who might just experience a temporary rough patch are then in danger of becoming chronically homeless.

The longer you’re down, the harder it is to get back up.

Shelter Partnership has also conducted dozens of public policy studies to help secure funding for organizations working on the front lines of homelessness in Los Angeles.

And they provide new clothing and other necessities directly to shelters completely free of charge. It’s a win for corporate donors as well who receive tax breaks, and are able to shed excess inventory.

See what we mean about making the rubber hit the road?

Giant Arrow recently had the pleasure of spending a Friday morning at Shelter Partnership’s warehouse, where we folded and boxed clothes to be distributed to shelters all over Los Angeles.

folding clothes — Photo by warehouse director Jerry Ayala.

It was an eye-opening experience. Basic things that we take for granted are a day-to-day struggle for people without any resources.

For example it’s often harder for homeless people to find socks than it is to find food. A good pair of socks is extremely important for anyone living without shelter.

Imagine spending a week hiking without decent socks, and then having no way to wash or otherwise deal with the resulting sores. It would quickly lead to painful infection, and infection can lead to amputation or worse without medical care.

Any company or person can organize their own sock drive for Shelter Partnership, and individuals or groups are always needed to fold and box clothes at the huge Shelter Partnership warehouse in South Los Angeles.

folded and boxed clothes

What difference can spending a few hours folding clothes make?

Once you’re at the bottom of society, the system seems to work against you at every turn.

Not everyone has family, friends, associates and colleagues who are willing and able to help smooth out the bumps on the road, and no one gets through life on their own.

Basic support given to a homeless individual or family can be just what they need to turn around an otherwise hopeless situation.

Oftentimes when we are able to move forward in our lives, it’s because someone gives us a little help. So for someone with nothing, the difference it can make is very large indeed!

Get in touch with Shelter Partnership, Inc. for more information.

Shelter Partnership warehouse

Posted: July 11, 2016 by alta@giantarrow.com

Understand UX and UI in 629 words or less

Since the days of yore, marketing and technical people have attempted to dazzle with their knowledge of en vogue technology and terminology.

Everyone wants to rise above competitors by having cutting-edge skills, and the latest ‘secret sauce.’

Nonsense jargon - Understand UX and UI

In recent times, the terms UX and UI have come to dominate the digital realm.

These concepts are routinely confused with each other, hotly debated and constantly evolving, so if you’re a lay person perplexed about it all — don’t blame yourself.

These ideas may be somewhat new to many, but they have been around a long time. They are not fundamentally hard to understand.

The truth however is that there’s real work and thinking involved with their implementation. Egads!

UX stands for User Experience.

It refers to the overall experience of someone using your site, app, product or service.

Its focus is on the emotions a person has during or after using what you make or offer. 😍

arrowsdown1

This is important because a person’s User Experience determines if they will buy your product, sign up for your service or — perhaps most importantly — recommend you to others.

Understand Ux and UI

User Experience is applicable to many industries, and UX techniques are spreading faster than a grumpy cat gif on Facebook.

Creating a positive User Experience matters a lot for your bottom line.

And great UX will help you accomplish your goals.

UI stands for User Interface.

It refers to the point or space where humans and machines interact, or the “front-facing” part of a machine-based product, such as the navigation, visual design and layout of elements on a webpage.

The User Interface is often a large and important part of the overall User Experience.

So UX is a much broader concept, and UI is a component of UX.

UI is a term specific to machines, computing or control panels, but if we take a guitar as an example, the strings, the fret board and the tension in the strings based on adjustments made could be thought of as the User Interface.

Some guitars are a lot easier to play than others. But the User Experience also includes the history you have with that particular instrument, the perception you have of yourself as its owner and the feeling you get when you play it.

jamming on guitar, having a good user experience

Emotion is so large a factor that some products can get away with poor usability if they have a well established brand with a strong emotional appeal. Harley Davidson is sometimes said to be an example of this. Harleys can be difficult to fix and maintain, and are not the most comfortable to ride, yet their following is massive and extremely loyal.

A digital example would be an app with a compelling design that’s difficult to use or figure out.

Success without attention to usability, more and more, is the exception rather than the rule.

UX and UI are highly concerned with making things that have good usability.

That’s because through thirty-plus years of research we know that the most important thing by far that impacts a person’s User Experience, especially of something new or unfamiliar, is its ease-of-use, its learnability, its user friendliness.

The creation of apps and websites often includes shareholders, project managers, designers, developers, writers and marketing people.

That’s a lot of competing and deeply held beliefs, world views, opinions and interests.

Watch Mobile Usability Futures with OG usability expert Jakob Nielsen.

A UX/UI approach keeps the focus squarely on the wants and needs of users.

Users can also be called customers, site or app visitors, clients or members.

These are the people whose opinions actually matter to your bottom line.

Now, tell us how you feel about this article. And please … use as much detail as possible!

Posted: May 15, 2016 by alta@giantarrow.com

How to get links from other websites

Having a popular website means learning how to get links from other websites.

Sometimes the whole web can feel like a big, digital popularity contest. But let’s face it, popularity can get you far in life.

A very effective way to appear more popular to a search engine is to have a website with lots of inbound links. This makes the search engine want to hang out with you, brag about you and show you off.

After all, if the search engine doesn’t provide popular results, then it won’t be popular either. So really it’s kind of a two-way street.

Popularity in the eyes of search engines is an extremely powerful way to build your business over the long run.

A big part of your website’s social currency, if you will, is determined by how many inbound links your site has, especially from sites already well-established as popular.

What Are Inbound Links

Inbound links are simply links from other sites to your site. So how does one get links from other websites?

There’s about a billion and three ways to get other sites to link to you. Just like with many marketing efforts, the key is find a unique message, and to promote it with consistency.

This is easier said than done of course. But it doesn’t need to be unmanageable. Just schedule an hour or two each week for link building, and go from there.

Here’s a few simple ideas to get you started on your quest to win the popularity contest, and succeed at online marketing.

How To Get Links From Other Websites

Find What Works For Others

Look at your own list of browser bookmarks, pins, tweets or Facebook shares. Make note of the kind of articles and posts you find worthy of bookmarking and sharing. How can you emulate them? What makes them interesting and engaging?

Write Posts

The advice has been out there for years that every business should maintain some kind of blog, calendar or events or continuously published content of some kind. This is more the case than ever. Think of your website as your company’s main publishing platform, and use it as such. Having content means that there will be something for other websites to link to in the first place.

Google Your Company Name

You may come across favorable mentions of your company already out there on the web. In some cases, you may be able to contact the site owner to thank them for the mention, and to request a link. You could also offer to reciprocate with a link, which brings us to the next tip.

Link To Other Sites

More and more marketing-savvy businesses are paying attention to their inbound links, and wondering how to get links from other websites themselves. If you link to a company’s site, it’s likely they will notice, and they may link to you in return.

Industry Directories

Directories exist on the web for just about every industry. Many of them are free or low cost. Often you can have a brief company profile, or explanation of services, along with a link to your website.

Buy Yourself Some Popularity

Web traffic begets web traffic, and popularity online begets popularity online. Pay-Per-Click (“PPC”) advertising with a service such as Google AdWords does not take the place of publishing quality content. But it can be a great way to get some eyeballs on your site. It’s also really helpful in understanding the keywords and searches that bring traffic your way.

Good luck with the quest for online popularity.

For customized, online popularity-enhancing services, get in touch with Giant Arrow today. > > >

Posted: March 13, 2016 by alta@giantarrow.com