Feeling Social (Media) Anxiety? Tips for Success. (Part One)

Social media may be the buzziest of all buzz phrases in marketing over the last 24 months, but the idea of diving headlong into the social media pool can inspire fear.  Why?  The vastness of social media, seemingly endlessness variety of tools and channels, 24×7 rapid-fire pace of communication…and the fact that everyone, yes everyone, has a microphone make it intimidating. If you’re considering exploring social media as a way to grow your company’s presence,…

Are You Sending Mixed Message? 8 Tips for a Better Email Campaign…

It has happened to all of us, right?  We’ve opened an email and wondered, “What the heck was this company thinking?  I just don’t get why they’d waste my time.” That type of email experience is a real turn-off for recipients and leads to disinterest in future emails and higher unsubscribe rates.  Let’s be honest – it’s also potentially embarrassing for your brand image and loyalty.  You only have, quite literally, seconds to convey your…

Wordpress Shopping Cart

Wordpress as a shopping cart? You might ask yourself “I thought this was a blogging system?”. Wordpress is known for its blogging capabilities but developers have been expanding on the open source software and turned Wordpress into more than just a blog.  With the ability to add and create plugins means that you can open your website up to a whole new world. We have built many websites using wordpress but when needing a shopping…

When Good Design Goes Bad

Have you ever seen a website that looked so awful, so repulsive that you had to look away?  It’s a hot mess of colors, competing designs, maybe even some flashing screens or (gasp) spinning logos. Chances are, this website didn’t start this way so don’t blame the site or even the developer.  If the website could talk, it’d probably share a really sad story of too many people controlling the design, unclear objectives, changing messaging,…

Minding Your Social Media Manners

Social media remains a hot topic and one that many Blue Riot Lab prospects and customers explore to build brand awareness, and ultimately, to drive qualified traffic to their website. There is no doubt that social media is awesome because it enables people to have one-to-one, personalized conversations with strangers and to communicate with prospects, clients and peers on an intimate level.  However the very premise of social media – giving everyone a microphone –…

How Is the Soap Network Relevant to Web Design?

Who knew the Soap Network could possibly provide important kernels of information?  As I sat on the couch on a lazy (and I mean lazy) Saturday morning, aimlessly flipping channels, I landed on a relatively new, old-school episode of Beverly Hills 90201.  Always a sucker for bad drama, I settled in for the long haul. The crisis du jour is whether or not Donna Martin should embrace this trendy new thing called the Internet and…

Landing Page Optimization

Businesses today are always on the look out for effective marketing strategies. Although modern means of mass communication are very promising channels to be used for marketing purposes, making use of promotional products still carries immense value. Business entities have long taken advantage of this simple marketing tactic due to the effective result that it has the potential to deliver. Employing this tactic today is far more cost effective than it has…