Design Shard

Wrike for Designers and Creatives

Collaborating on an online project management software for marketing is a huge part of being a designer or a creative, and more often than not you are juggling more than one task or project at a time.

This makes managing a creative project online for creatives particularly difficult and what’s more, the line managers or bosses that approve the creative work usually have nothing to do with the design suites that creatives are working in.

Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator and other marketing project management tools have been used as the primary design platforms for professionals for many years, but the lack of integration with other platforms has made it difficult to complete tasks.

Comments in Adobe, instant messaging, emails and doodling are the most frequent ways that marketing teams have been working with creatives in order to give their feedback and try and get their ideas across, however this is not just ineffective but incredibly time consuming too.

In order to streamline these administrative necessities in the creative process Wrike integrated with Adobe Creative Cloud. This allows whole teams to work and collaborate within the Adobe Apps and Wrike in the respective silos without having to communicate through dozens of different task workflows management software.

This integration allows creative teams to:

Ideate and Plan

Creative processes all start with an idea or a request from a client that is turned into a brief and then translated into a creative idea. The Wrike integration makes it easier to assign, schedule and balance the ideas, suggestions and workflows of creative teams.

Create and Perfect

Your whole team can read, reply, add comments and suggestions and upload files right within your tools, without having to leave your workspace.

Review and Approve

Proofing and feedback on both mobile and desktop means that you can work anywhere you want. The actions are all clear and it makes it easy to follow the approval trails and feedback.

Launch and Report

The custom workflows in Wrike means that project tasks are scheduled, assigned and delivered according to the deadlines and timelines.

Having a team scheduling software where you can have full visibility on all projects is the biggest advantage that the Adobe Creative Cloud’s integration with Wrike has for creative teams and the other departments that work alongside them to get their projects out to clients.

Assists in Quality Communication

No matter what line of work you are in, high-quality communication is the key to a successful project. Collaboration is only possible through open lines of communication and this is especially true for creative and design teams.

People in these roles continually get new ideas as they go along with their projects, and they need to discuss these with the rest of the team and their managers. These discussions around their ideas could change or improve the final project, and as such it’s essential that they are made possible.

The great thing about Wrike’s new integration is that it makes it possible to give feedback, request meetings and discuss ideas all within one workspace. The platform can import appointments from Google Calendar, attach files from Drive, and allows direct feedback and input into mock-ups and wireframes without the designers having to export their work or leave their workspace.

Allows Theme Setting and Clear Creative Goals

Wrike’s dashboard allows for the creation of customised workflows per project that can be shared with all the people involved across the company. Briefs can be attached through Drive, reference images will be on hand, tasks are tracked and goals are clearly set.

This all means that everyone working on the creative asset of ideation will be able to clearly see the timeline, theme and goals of the creative project and will be more likely to deliver it on time with the quality that was required.

Flexible Timelines

Not every creative project can be rushed into a timeline, good things do take time. That being said, having an open timeline isn’t an option as nothing would ever get done. Wrike allows you to give flexible due dates and buffer time into your projects that may not be able to flow exactly to a deadline.

You can meet with all the people that are involved with the project, and rather set key milestones that show how what stages of the project need to be done by certain times, this will help the creative keep on track with the project timeline.

These are just some of the important aspects that Wrike’s integration with Adobe Creative Cloud that will have a great impact on the way that designers and creatives are able to manage their projects, and share their ideas with people around the company.

Top Tips for Developing a Creative Flyer

Flyers are a fantastic way to promote your business, especially considering how easily they can be distributed among members of the public. Since you’re likely to be spending your hard-earned cash on this very effective marketing tool, it is essential to take the right steps when designing your flyer, ensuring you display your skill set effectively to get the attention of readers through stylish design. Below are some top tips to design an effective flyer, and ultimately help boost the chance of your business campaign being a success.

Focus on Visual Aspects

It is usually human nature to see images before we read the text in front of us, and this is a very important consideration when designing a flyer. It is important to use eye catching colors and intriguing designs to engage viewers as best possible, and regardless of your creative ability there is always the option of using ready-made templates such as a free online flyer maker, which allows you to customize your details effectively.

Promote the Benefits of Using Your Service Over Competitors

Though it is tempting to simply reel off the features of the products or services you offer, it is important to mention the benefits of your company over others, suggesting evidence as to why individuals should choose you over other businesses. It is important to answer the ‘what’s in it for me’ question that will be posted by the individual reading the flyer when they look past the initially attractive imagery on display.

Keep It Brief

One of the most important features of flyers is the use of short and snappy text that gets straight to the point, otherwise users can easily become bored and dismiss your flyer. To achieve this, short sentences should be used incorporating lists and bullet points which keep the attention of the individual. This has become increasingly important in a world where people’s attention spans are diminishing, and if people are keen to find out more they can do so by contacting you at your address, phone number or website.

Organize Your Information

Text boxes and infographics can be used effectively to organize your information into easily digestible portions, ensuring a concise read that gets your point across.

Use A Catchy Headline

Though visual imagery is arguably the most important factor in terms of captivating audience attention, another critical and often first observed aspect of your flyer is the heading. This should be something which is interesting and perfectly sums up your business, giving consumers a good idea of exactly what you do in just one or two lines of text.

Proofread Your Writing

A critical mistake made by users is their inability to check and double check what has been written, where misspelled words or incorrect contact information suggests unprofessionalism and results in individuals failing to trust the service you’re adveritisng.

Utilizing these tips above will give you the best chance of success when using flyers as a method of advertisement.

Best WordPress Plugins for Boosting your Email Marketing Efforts

Being a modern business owner, you can’t overlook the effectiveness of an email marketing, especially when it comes to generating quality leads and higher ROI. It is one of the most easy ways to reach a large number of targeted web audience. It doesn’t matter how big or small your marketing campaign is, email marketing has always played a crucial factor in driving potential customers.

However, there are many business owners who think that this form of marketing is either obsolete or ineffective. But, according to the fact, most of the B2B companies have generated an average ROI of $38 for each $1 spent via email marketing. In fact, email is three times more effective than Facebook, Twitter or any other social media to acquire new customers.

There is also a strong prediction that more than 3 million of the population will become active email users by the end of 2020. It means you will need to take this marketing method very seriously – no matter what you are promoting or selling.

And the best part is that WordPress comes with some of the worthy email marketing tools and plugins to make your work easier. So, if you are a WordPress user, you can automate your email marketing campaign by integrating the best WordPress plugins. These plugins will help you achieve your targeted business goals with ease.

In this blog post, we bring you the top 7 WordPress plugins that will boost your email marketing and help you generate more revenues for your business.

1. MailChimp For WordPress

MailChimp is one of the leading email marketing tools, with over 15 million active customers ranging from small businesses to giant organizations.

With MailChimp, you can automate your email marketing campaign, design and send email newsletters using beautiful ready-made templates in a matter of few minutes.

And the best thing is that MailChimp also offers a free yet robust plugin for WordPress site owners. MailChimp for WordPress is a great plugin that lets you tie in with your existing MailChimp account on the fly.

With this plugin, you can create beautiful and custom-ready opt-in forms, sign up forms to let visitors convert into potential subscribers on the fly.

Apart from this, you can send and track emails, view insights, manage subscribers, and craft beautiful email templates using MailChimp for WordPress.

Even, it integrates well with other powerful plugins such as Contact Form 7 and WooCommerce to let you take your marketing campaign to the next level.

[button url=”https://wordpress.org/plugins/mailchimp-for-wp/” postid=”” style=”btn-primary” size=”btn-default” target=”_blank” fullwidth=”false”]Download[/button]

2. SendinBlue Subscribe Form and WP SMTP

This is SendinBlue’s official plugin for WordPress that encourages you to leverage your email marketing strategy to inform, connect and grow your customer base in an affordable way.

The plugin helps you create engaging and customized subscription forms that you can add to your posts and pages, without any heavy lifting, You can even track emails via the wp_mail() function, divide your contact lists to generate higher revenues for your business.

Boost your marketing campaign by creating and sending professionally-robust newsletters using its simple and intuitive drag and drop builder.

You can also choose the design layout from its official template library. Plus, you have full access to performance analytics, such as clicks, opens, bounce rates, and conversion rates – this will definitely improve your marketing campaign via emails.

[button url=”https://wordpress.org/plugins/mailin/” postid=”” style=”btn-primary” size=”btn-default” target=”_blank” fullwidth=”false”]Download[/button]

3. Contact Form 7

Contact Form 7 is another spectacular email marketing plugin for WordPress, with over 3 million active installs. It’s user-friendly, accessible and flexible features make it super easy for WordPress beginners to take off their email marketing campaign, without any third party tool.

Creating multiple contact forms become easier with the introduction of this powerful plugin. Even, you can tweak your form and the mail content using simple markup.

The plugin comes with a ton of exciting features including Ajax- powered submitting, Akismet spam filtering and CAPTCHA to let you increase your chances of growing subscriber’s list. Plus, it supports MailChimp to help you get the most of your email marketing efforts.

[button url=”https://wordpress.org/plugins/contact-form-7/” postid=”” style=”btn-primary” size=”btn-default” target=”_blank” fullwidth=”false”]Download[/button]

4. SumoMe’s List Builder

Convert your real-time visitors into potential customers and subscribers using this prevailing WordPress plugin. It helps you build beautiful pop-up forms that appear on timers, clicks or before a visitor tends to leave a web page.

From the massive pool of the WordPress plugins, SumeMe’s List Builder has come up as one of the powerful and most advanced email capture tools on the web.

The plugin helps you catch your visitors just before they leave your site with a lightbox that occurs to let people submit their email address – all thanks to its smart mode technology.

Apart from converting web visitors, you can also have a full control over your pop-up design. You can change the text color, background color, font size, button color and a lot more to merge the design of your pop-ups with your WordPress site.

The plugin also supports popular marketing services such Aweber, MailChimp, GetResponse, Active Campaign, etc.

[button url=”https://sumo.com/app/list-builder” postid=”” style=”btn-primary” size=”btn-default” target=”_blank” fullwidth=”false”]Download[/button]

5. SendPress Newsletters

Boost your email marketing campaign by integrating SendPress Newsletter plugin into your WordPress site. It is a simple, intuitive and user-friendly plugin that allows you to create customized newsletter templates for your next email marketing campaign.

The plugin makes it super-easy for you to import post content from your site to the newsletter so that your subscribers get all the updated information about your site on the go.

Since the plugin is built on WP UI, it makes is easy for you to collect and manage your subscribers. Also, you can add unlimited subscribers to your email list.

[button url=”https://wordpress.org/plugins/sendpress/” postid=”” style=”btn-primary” size=”btn-default” target=”_blank” fullwidth=”false”]Download[/button]

6. MailPoet Newsletters

Build beautiful and professional-looking newsletters and send them to your potential web customers and subscribers to generate more revenues using MailPoet Newsletters plugin.

It is a great WordPress plugin that gives a robust platform to create automated emails, autoresponders and post notifications to accelerate your email marketing campaign. With its signup widget, you can convert web visitors into potential subscribers within a few clicks.

In fact, adding blog posts, images and popular social icons in a newsletter becomes extremely easy with this plugin. You can even tweak the colors and fonts of your newsletter to make it more attractive and personalized.

[button url=”https://wordpress.org/plugins/wysija-newsletters/” postid=”” style=”btn-primary” size=”btn-default” target=”_blank” fullwidth=”false”]Download[/button]

7. OptinMonster

OptinMonster gives an easy way to convert web visitors into potential customers and subscribers. If you want to expand your email list, then this plugin is for you. It helps you create eye-grabbing capture forms, without generating a single piece of coding.

The plugin comes with an advanced Exit Intent Technology that captures user behavior and display him a pop-up just before he leaves your site. There is also a simple and intuitive drag and drop builder that helps you create visually appealing optin forms that are developed to generate higher conversions.

Plus, you can access to the insights to see which form converting visitors into subscribers and how many of them need modification in terms of design and functionality. Overall, OptinMonster is an incredible tool that can take your email marketing efforts close to your targeted goals.

[button url=”http://optinmonster.com/” postid=”” style=”btn-primary” size=”btn-default” target=”_blank” fullwidth=”false”]Download[/button]

Conclusion

These are the seven most compelling WordPress plugins that will help you market your brand, grow your customer base and increase your subscriber’s list via your email marketing campaign. These plugins will make it easy for you to achieve your ultimate business goals effectively and efficiently.

9 Social Media Marketing Tips to Deliver Better Results

Social media has quickly morphed into one of the most important marketing channels. Within a few short years, it has moved from being a mere fad into the most powerful marketing tool on the planet. Facebook, for example, is just over a decade old but no business can afford not to have a Facebook marketing strategy.

But, social media marketing has now moved beyond being simply about likes and followers.To succeed, there is a lot to learn.

The following are nine social media tips guaranteed to deliver better results.

1. Focus on Specific Social Media Networks

A few years ago, conventional wisdom dictated that you should be on as many social media networks as possible. Now, we know better. The wisdom this time around is quite to the contrary. Experience has shown that various demographics are active in different social media sites. With the exception of Facebook, that seems to transcend all demographics, other social networks have shown affinity to particular demographics. For example, teenagers hang out on Snapchat and millenials under 30 love Instagram. So, the strategy should be to identify the favorite social networks of your target audience and only focus on those. This is critical for success because social media marketing has become expensive. Focusing only on the social sites frequented by your audience ensures you use marketing resources in the most effective way.

2. Tailor Your Content for Each Platform

If you are posting to more than one platform, do not make the mistake of posting the same content on all platforms. Posts that are good for Facebook don’t always deliver results on Twitter. Users on social networks like Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat are into visual content. You must tailor your content appropriately.

3. Don’t Sell Stuff

This is the biggest mistake you can make. The fact is that you want to turn your audience into a lead eventually but you can’t turn a social profile into an online store. Instead, you should post content that increases engagement to the point that your audience feels compelled to check out your product offering. Before you start pushing products, remember that people go to social media to find interesting content, catch up with friends and socialize.

4. Get Visual

Everyone loves eye candy. When print media was dominant, magazines went out of their way to design striking cover images to whet the appetite’s of their readers. Visual content is the way to go. If you want success, have a strong visual content strategy. In particular, live video is doing very well on social media and this is a trend that will continue into the future.

5. Run Contests and Promotions

Contests and promotions are a great way to increase engagement on social media. Contests and promotions have a high likelihood of being shared. Be creative, see what other companies have done and create contests that go viral.

6. Lead with Educational Content

According to a HubSpot study, 100 of the top non-celebrity Twitter accounts have built large audiences by posting educational content. Educational content is much more effective at building audiences than social media conversations. Providing readers with content that they find useful is a great way to build trust.

7. Give Away Free Stuff

Who doesn’t love free stuff? Reel in audiences by giving away something of value. It doesn’t have to be your main product. It could be stuff like free videos, ebooks, webinars, non-premium content or anything else of value that you could reasonably give away.

8. Respond Promptly and Helpfully to Audience Communication

We live in an era when anyone can screenshot a conversation and share it on social media. This is a customer service nightmare for companies. Even a small company must invest thousands of dollars on training it’s frontline staff to avoid gaffes that can end up as PR disasters. You must respond in a timely, respectful and helpful manner to all social media comments, inquiries, complaints and suggestions.

9. Invest in Social Listening Tools

To drive the narrative and avoid other people writing the narrative for you, you must practice social listening. You must keep a close watch over your brand’s mentions, competitor mentions and other keywords that are relevant to your industry. There are a number of nifty tools that you can use for social listening. Data gathered from social listening will provide you with valuable insights that will inform your social media strategy.

Conclusion

We started off by stating that social media has quickly evolved to become one of the most important marketing channels. In conclusion, we also need to add that social media marketing is also changing rapidly. What is true today is old stuff tomorrow. So, while these nine tips are relevant today, to continuously deliver better results, you must keep a close watch on developments in the social media industry.

Top 50 Design Blog Articles and Sites

This integration allows creative teams to:

Ideate and Plan

Create and Perfect

Review and Approve

Launch and Report

Assists in Quality Communication

Allows Theme Setting and Clear Creative Goals

Flexible Timelines

Focus on Visual Aspects

Promote the Benefits of Using Your Service Over Competitors

Keep It Brief

Organize Your Information

Use A Catchy Headline

Proofread Your Writing

1. MailChimp For WordPress

2. SendinBlue Subscribe Form and WP SMTP

3. Contact Form 7

4. SumoMe’s List Builder

5. SendPress Newsletters

6. MailPoet Newsletters

7. OptinMonster

Conclusion

1. Focus on Specific Social Media Networks

2. Tailor Your Content for Each Platform

3. Don’t Sell Stuff

4. Get Visual

5. Run Contests and Promotions

6. Lead with Educational Content

7. Give Away Free Stuff

8. Respond Promptly and Helpfully to Audience Communication

9. Invest in Social Listening Tools

Conclusion