Our eNEWS Starter Package is a great way to open the door to online marketing. We think this is great stuff, so we decided to launch a contest. The first 5 people to comment on this post (see the pink comments link below) will receive our $250 eNEWS Starter Package for FREE, and the next 10 people after that will get a 50% discount ($125 for the package). All you have to do is tell us your favorite piece of work in the Pica Portfolio, and why it’s your choice.

Don’t forget to leave us your (real) email address when you post your comment, so that we can get in touch and set up your first eNEWS letter. Thanks for listening!

Fine print: Contest entries accepted through May 31, 2009. Pica Design to set up an eNEWS account, set up one mailing list of email contacts, and design and develop an eNEWS template that the customer can edit and re-use indefinitely. Email contacts must be supplied by the customer in xls or csv (digital) format. Customer must have permission to use the email addresses on their contact list. Free eNEWS Starter Package winners pay the sending fee of $10 plus 1 cent for every email contact per campaign. Questions? Contact us!

Remember the Connect the Dots newsletter we sent out recently announcing the launch of our new website? We want to share with you some compelling results from that news blast.

Graph charting open and click times for the first 12 hours after sending

The Best Part about Instant Communication is Instant Results!

• Connect the Dots was opened by 48% of recipients (this is called the ‘open rate’, and 48% is high; usual range is 10% – 50%)
• visits to our website increased by 727% on the day we sent out our newsletter, and since then, our daily visits have doubled
• the link to our blog was the most commonly clicked link in the email
• 28 emails on our subscriber list produced ‘bounces’ – these are often email accounts that no longer exist. Didn’t get Connect the Dots but think you should have? Maybe your email was on that list! Subscribe through the form in the sidebar to get back in-the-know on all things Pica.
  

The Nitty Gritty

• We sent the email to 284 subscribers
• The total cost to send the campaign was $12.84 – $10 plus 1 cent for every email contact

The system we use is amazing: it helps us to keep track of multiple lists of subscribers, it can schedule sending the email at a specific time–so you don’t have to be awake to hit the ‘send’ button, and it’ll provide an interactive chart of who opened the email when and which links they clicked (yes, you do occasionally feel like a marketing spy).

We’re definitely inspired to start communicating with our clients more through email, to share new site launches, logo designs, and all around good branding sense. We’ve also created a new email blast just for those of you interested in receiving special offers and marketing tips – if you want to be on that list sign up here! Inspired like we are, and want to start an eNews campaign of your own? Check back Tuesday for details on the new Pica Design eNews Starter Package, and enter a contest to win one!

Pica POINTS™ is our new email blast to promote special offers and events and share cost-saving tools and tips with our clients. To sign up for Pica POINTS™ today, click here. Look for Pica POINTS™ in your inbox soon!

Announcing an all-new Pica Design website: www.picadesign.com

Pica Portfolio Tapestry

Featuring
• A new and expanded Pica Portfolio presentation
• Debating the Dots, our new company blog
• Before and After Case Studies
• Much more!

WebSmart Seminar
Where: Unity College Center for Performing Arts
When: Thursday, June 25, 2009 from 4-5:30pm
Why: To learn what a website can do for your business
How: Registration & more info forthcoming

Most people want to be innovative, unique, interesting (main-stream is so not cool). But, how can it be more than just a statement and actually help you?; help you succeed, help you communicate and help you stay fresh? Creativity has to have a purpose. There must be a concept, an end-goal that matters. Jonathan Ive said it so well when he defined design as a process of “stripping away” what is not needed, a simplifying of content and the display of information. It’s not, then, so much about thinking up something cool as it is thinking of the best way to solve a problem to communicate a specific idea. Not to reveal a bias or anything, but someone asked Apple CEO Steve Jobs how they ended up creating the ipod as such a hip device. Jobs replied that  creating a cool device was never the intent, only something that would be simple and easy to use, and that’s cool! Because there is so much “creativity” in culture today, stating the obvious is a refreshing alternative. So creatively simplify your content (whether written or visual). Your audience will thank you.

Pica Design, a graphic design company located in Belfast, won the highest Award for the Integrated Marketing Campaign category at an awards ceremony Thursday evening, November 1st at the Marriott Sable Oaks in South Portland. The award was given to commend the design of the Jetboil POP, Package and Catalog, a series of designs highlighting Jetboil’s innovative engineering and cutting edge outdoor products. Pica Design was selected by Jetboil in 2005 to create and manage the rebranding of their award-winning line of outdoor gear.

The Broderson Awards honor creative excellence in Maine advertising and graphic design, and encourage higher creative standards. Judges are selected from around the U.S. and Canada by the Broderson Awards committee. For more information about the awards, please visit www.brodersons.com.