Using QR Codes in B2B Marketing Collateral

When deciding whether or not to include a QR code in B2B collateral, always keep your audience in mind. For some of our technology clients whose customers are more tech-savvy, QR codes can be a good fit. For other clients, customers may be confused by the code or even ignore it altogether.

If you choose to utilize the QR code technology, make sure to take full advantage of the link to drive your current and prospective customers to the appropriate landing page, which should correspond to the customer’s position in the sales funnel. Depending on what you want customers to do next, the landing page could be your corporate website, LinkedIn page, or submission form. Whatever you choose, make sure the landing page is simple and the call-to-action is very clear. Also keep in mind that users are searching on mobile devices, so you are best served by developing a mobile site.

Consider creating a customized QR code that visually appeals to your consumers and attracts more interest. Here is a great tool for creating custom QR codes.

QR codes are also a great way to track engagement. By including a QR code on trade show collateral, catalogs, business cards, or direct mail, you can track how many people visit your landing page or respond to your designated call-to-action.

If you think your clientele would respond positively to QR codes on your B2B collateral, give it a try! Gauge the interest and response to this technology and decide if it is a good tactic for your business to utilize moving forward.

For more innovative ideas and marketing strategy, contact a CT Marketing agency today! Visit our blog, or contact Clarity Quest at 877-887-7611. Request a quote.

Assigning a Trust Manager Over a Corporate Trustee

Trustee managers oversee the corporation's handling of the deceased's estate.

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Establishing a trust for your estate in the event of your death is one of the best ways to protect your assets and pass them on to your family. When establishing a trust, you must determine the person or entity that will serve as the trustee in charge of protecting the assets of your estate for the beneficiaries you have designated. The choice of a trustee is an important decision and one that should not be made lightly. If choosing a corporation to serve as trustee, you also need to assign someone within the corporation to serve as manager over the corporation when it acts as trustee.

When choosing a trust manager, one of the considerations you have to make is how much and what kind of powers you will give to the trustee and the manager in handling your estate. A paper posted by the American Bar Association recommends giving those involved in overseeing your estate a wide degree of latitude. Restricting the trustee or the trustee manager can be detrimental to the growth of your estate since the law is constantly changing, and the powers of the manager and trustee are spelled out specifically in the trust agreement.

Jared Lewis is a professor of history, philosophy and the humanities. He has taught various courses in these fields since 2001. A former licensed financial adviser, he now works as a writer and has published numerous articles on education and business. He holds a bachelor's degree in history, a master's degree in theology and has completed doctoral work in American history.

Study Shows Importance of First Link

According to a new report by Compete.com, 53% of clicks on organic search results pages go to the top organic listing. If this statistic doesn’t convince you of the importance of being the top search result for your keywords, compare this 53% of clicks going to the first organic search result listing to the mere 15% of clicks on the second listing.

This research shows that being in the top 3 or top 5 of the SERPs is no longer sufficient if you want to drive traffic to your site. The third listing on an organic search results page has been shown to gather just 9% of the clicks, and the fifth listing accrues an abysmal 4%.

If your company is also running a pay-per-click marketing campaign, make sure your campaigns are optimized to perform well and rank highly for your target key phrases. While only 24% of ads on a search results page appear in the top bar, an overwhelming 85% of consumers click on theses ads, making the online advertising space increasingly competitive.

To learn more about search engine optimization services from a Michigan marketing company, contact Clarity Quest today at 877-887-7611. Request a quote.

Value of Employee Communication Sessions

Effective communication encourages a two-way exchange of information.

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Despite the many ways to pass information in the workplace -- email, social media, phone, text or via the company intranet -- inadequate communication between managers and employees exists. Employees need guidance from their supervisors, and management needs input from the entire team in order for the company to succeed. To help foster an open and honest culture, many companies host communication sessions that can provide measurable benefits to all employees.

An employee communication session is a give-and-take opportunity where employees can air their concerns and where management can share what's happening in the company. Hewlett Packard, for example, holds upward of 22 communication sessions with more than 10,000 employees in attendance at sites around the world. Many companies also encourage employees to complete surveys to voice their concerns regarding management or the company in general.

When a company is multifaceted, one department might not be aware of the strategic goals of another part of the business, -- or information trickles upward, but not downward. Companies such as Flextronics and Emerson Process Management use employee communication sessions. These scheduled meetings positively reinforce the objectives between management and employees, according to Alan Miu, managing director of TNT Express Worldwide. When an employee can communicate with management at its highest levels, it improves the transparency and openness in employee dialogue.

Employee communications programs help give the employees the perception that they are greatly involved in the company's objectives and goals. A 2001 study by the Hay Group revealed that employees who are engaged in the direction and decisions of the organization are more productive and will stay with the company longer. The employee communication session tells the employee at all levels: "You and your opinion matters to us." When employees take this message to heart, they tend to feel more inspired and are motivated to support company goals, according to a 2008 study published in the journal of the Public Relations Society of America.

Employee communication programs can be a tool to build a trust level that encourages employees to speak freely about their work, according to Evan Reineking of HR Tools.com. When an employee feels heard and is kept well-informed, he feels respected by his employer. While a company might not be able to disclose all the details about management decisions, keeping employees in the loop with accurate and complete information makes them more likely to trust what is shared.

Gossip is prevalent in many workplaces, especially where communication is nonexistent and where employees are left to speculate about conditions or the company's health. When employees don't receive necessary details from their supervisors, rumors are likely to be spread, which can damage morale and cause uncertainty among employees, according to Robert Hosking, executive director of OfficeTeam. Keeping employees abreast of the current climate in the workplace can alleviate the need to speculate.

Jay Delahousay has been a broadcast television advertising creative for more than 25 years. Her work for ABC, CBS and Sony Pictures Television has appeared on radio, on air, in print and outdoors. In addition, Delahousay has more than 30 years experience in marketing, graphic arts production, commercial photography and design. Delahousay attended University of California, Los Angeles and Los Angeles City College.

How to Build a Photo eCommerce Website With Individual Accounts

E-commerce photo websites offer convenience to customers.

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An e-commerce website sells products online, and many smaller sites utilize an e-commerce platform that stores their data on the network's servers. Although the data resides on the provider's network, the website owner maintains ownership of the content and can edit the information through a Web-based interface. Photo e-commerce websites with individual accounts include mini-pages within the site that deliver static and dynamic content, e-commerce widgets to facilitate ordering and payment, and applications to promote interaction with the target audience.

Navigate to the website of a photo-publishing platform that offers templates, widgets and other Web elements geared to e-commerce websites. Create a new account. Typically, this requires entering information such as your business name and tax ID number. Most photo-publishing platforms offer Flash media templates and galleries to display content.

Create mini-pages within your e-commerce site. Mini-pages divide static and dynamic content. Static content refers to media provided directly from the server, while dynamic content refers to media created “on the fly” by an application such as Flash. Use mini-pages to create dedicated pages for a gallery, a description, a title and other information relevant to your photos but separate from the static content stored in HTML pages on the server.

Add your photos. Upload images stored on your computer or media drive, or import them from your photo website using your browser. E-commerce photo sites offer several options for displaying photos, such as galleries, splash pages and clip art pages. Many of these sites also allow you to edit the photos after you've uploaded them.

Set up an e-commerce shopping widget. Shopping widgets allow you to design a virtual shopping cart and customize it with skins and other graphic overlays. Some widgets allow you to manage labels, pricing, descriptions and images displayed to the customer.

Install widgets that encourage interaction between customers and your website. Widgets commonly offered on e-commerce photo sites include RSS feeds, visitor counters, payment options and contact forms. You can also mix music players and comment boxes with your photos.

Add static and dynamic effects to photos on your e-commerce website. Static effects include color, opacity, watermarks and transparency overlays; dynamic effects include blurring, image warping and image movement, such as expansion, rotation and pixilation.

Add text to your Web pages to improve search engine optimization. SEO can improve your website’s visibility in search engines. Adding strategically placed keywords within your e-commerce website increases its search engine rankings, which means increased traffic to your site. Effective keywords include the terms a potential customer might type in a search query when looking for the type of photos you sell. Make sure your keywords are relevant to the content of your site. Your photo e-commerce site should have at least 400 words on the homepage, keywords integrated in the headers of each page, and links to Web pages that showcase your photos.

Jkalal Assar's work has appeared in magazines such as "Food & Wine," "Gourmet" and "Wine Spectator." He is a graduate of the Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts and has cooked professionally in Paris, New York and Las Vegas. Assar also holds an Associate of Science in information technology from Marshall University.