In business, we often focus on reaching more customers and selling them on our products or services. But unless we have a business that no one else has, or it is so much better than all others, it may be tough to make a big impact. Not to fear! There are myriad ways to get your company out there and get noticed by new contacts that won’t break the bank.

Here is a short list of things you can do to help promote your company:

Email Marketing – Bing works with small to medium businesses to help them reach out to current and new clients, creating awareness for their product and services. We take advantage of various online services that offer pre-made templates to simplify the process and keep it affordable. We’ve also found that creating customized HTML emails is a way to get attention and promote what you might be up to or have to offer. Costs for the various services are based on your recipient list. Costs for customizing HTML and graphics for your brand is determined by your goals.

Social Media – Many people now have their own account on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google+, or other popular social media sites. Why? Some like to have personal access to friends, co-workers, or staff, others just like to share with the world. Here at Bing, we know there is a real benefit to having a social media presence for your business. One, you are out there in a very public space and accessible. Two, you can use that space to attract old and new customers. Just note, social media outlets are very keen to businesses fishing for new business. Be real, be honest, join in conversations and you’ll find leads. With many sites, you can also have a small page for your business. Just be cautious about depending on these sites for all your web presence, they still own the space, not you. Most sites are free to join. Costs for strategically establishing your brand and goals is determined by your situation.

Web Site – The days of starting a small business site out with a very expensive platform and hosting package are gone. These days, reliable hosting is extremely affordable and we can help you establish a CMS site with all the contemporary bells and whistles. Bing works with clients daily to establish hosting, select and purchase a domain name(s), map out a site, and build content that is good for SEO, relevant to users, and easy for clients to edit and modify if needed. We often work with clients on monthly maintenance such as copy revisions, new content, and special offers relevant to individual branding and marketing needs.

The economy seems to be slowly progressing and growing. If you can position your company well now, you’ll be in a better place to manage new work, with less struggle to bring it in.

HTML5 is still going through standardization as there are so many browsers and devices, the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium – the group who helps make standard for the internet) is still tweaking HTML5 definitions. For now, HTML4 remains the current standard of internet pages, standardized in 1997. HTML5 has been in the works since 2004, and the W3C hopes to have it released in 2012. There is a lot to this to be sure!

The goal for HTML5 is to pull current web technologies into one standard, including HTML4, XHTML1 (HTML with XML), DOM2HTML (document object model HTML), and some JavaScript. Just don’t forget that most users don’t have HTML5-ready browsers, so there is a very good chance that you’ll have to make your content work for both (doubling your work) if HTML5 is what you want.

First, let’s look at some of the key benefits of HTML5 compared to HTML4. Since most of the inner-workings of HTML code is just Greek to most folks, we won’t delve into the specifics of each of the new elements added to HTML5, but here is the list some of them:

article, aside, audio, bdo, canvas, command, datalist, details, embed, figcaption, figure, footer, header, hgroup, keygen, mark, meter, nav, output, progress, rp, rt, ruby, section, source, summary, time, video, and wbr

If you have ever worked with a blog such as WordPress or Blogger, you may recognize some of the page elements above that you are familiar with.

Of all the new elements that are listed above, some of the most talked about are these:

• article – an independent piece of content in a document
• audio and video are less dependent, sometimes not dependent, on plug-ins to play multi-media content in HTML5
• canvas – probably one of the most talked-about element in HTML5, it is used to render dynamic bitmap graphics on the fly in graphs or games through the use of JavaScript and other dynamic content tools
• footer, header, and nav – all the regions of a page typically coded in most sites, but especially in blog sites

There are also many new APIs for HTML5 that were not part of HTML4 making using, playing, watching, and interacting with web content a little easier for web servers, computers, and users alike.

Many new mobile devices such as the Apple iPad are using HTML5, as are other desktop browsers, but none fully utilize HTML5 – yet. Currently the top contenders for the use of HTML5 according to HTML 5 Test website are the following (scores indicated out of a possible of 400 points each):

1. Google Chrome v10.0.648 – 288 points
2. Opera v11.10 – 258 points
3. Mozilla Firefox v4.0 – 255 points
4. Apple Safari v5.0.3 – 228 points
5. Microsoft Internet Explorer v9 – 130 points

Browsers are working hard to adopt these new standards, and often standards change as challenges for global implementation arise.

While HTML5 offers some great ways to use JavaScript and built-in processes to provide content a bit faster and with less reliance on plug-ins and add-ons, the changes to CSS3 are substantial too! While changes to how a page displays has been controlled by CSS (cascading style sheets) for over a decade, the slow adoption in consistent support of CSS styles has made it tough on users and developers alike.

While you have been able to add rounded corners, drop-shadows, and gradients to pages with CSS for some time, some of the most prominent browsers (cough, cough, IE) have not provided support for many ‘standard’ CSS rules. So developers often have to write separate style rules for specific browsers. Been there, done that, don’t want more of it!

In addition to rounded corners on an HTML page, CSS can now rotate content, it can change the opacity of a page element with RGBA (RGB for colors: RED, GREEN, and BLUE, and A for “alpha” or transparency). So you don’t have to use a semi-opaque PNG file to fill a DIV, but you can just say ‘make this DIV 50% transparent’. SO much easier!

Below is a screen capture from CSS3PIE. They offer tools to allow Internet Explorer to support standards-based applications of CSS. Normally getting IE to render CSS consistent with other browsers is a wash.

The sample below shows some cool CSS3 style examples you might like using on your own site! Note the redundancies in the CSS code below the sample. You’ll see how browsers ‘see’ the styles are NOT the same (click image for a larger view)…

• BORDER-RADIUS: is the new CSS3 definition for HTML5 documents to display rounded corners on DIVs.
• WEBKIT-BORDER-RADIUS: is now Apple’s Safari browser and Google Chrome recognize rounded corners.
• MOZ-BORDER-RADIUS: tells Mozilla and Gecko how to display rounded corners

So as you see, making all browsers play the same game with HTML and CSS styles could really improve our lives, both in time saved making pages online, and time reduced viewing content. But it may not save the world…

In the Mac-centric business of marketing and advertising at Bing Design, we typically use the tools of Apple’s Macintosh computers to create and publish content for print and online distribution every day. We know what PC (Microsoft) users typically need for e-communication and we have solutions in place to take care of those needs.

But what happens when some of those normal processes need to be provided to a customer who has a Mac in a PC world? Recently we found ourselves in that situation.

One of our clients typically sends out e-mail invitations and e-greetings from PC. That process is rather simple:

• Create the e-mail as HTML with images and formatted text in Dreamweaver (or similar app)
• Post HTML online and choose to send page using IE > Send Page through Outlook, or create Stationery for Outlook, to send from user’s PC
• Check recipients to ensure they can get messages in format/style intended
• Test, test, test

However, the recent need was to create an e-mail with an animated image that the client could send from their Mac so it would keep its animation for recipients on PCs. These days, with so many e-mail applications and accounts, there are a LOT of considerations one needs to keep in mind:

Does the user have Hotmail or Gmail? If so, forget about background images, they will be removed. Same goes for using CSS in the page. In fact, even if your CSS style sheet is posted online with a hard URL link to the HTML message being sent, some e-mail clients will not see things the way you want them to. Odd as it is, this process has taken a step back to the ‘old days’ in using span styles over CSS. This makes it even more important to work with a designer who can style text into HTML without using pre-defined styles. While you can use those styles, your message will be at the mercy of the end-user’s own e-mail preferences which can replace font, size, style, and color with their own recipe.

All that aside, sending out an HTML e-newsletter, e-card, or e-invitation is pretty easy once the page is designed, content is added, and the formatting is designed to accommodate the variety of e-mail applications out there.

With Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, you can browse to the HTML page you want to send, go to File, select Send then choose Page by Email and IE will take that web page, and pass the code to Outlook (or similar e-mail application on your computer) and send the web page as it is coded. This is an easy way to share pages or content with other users, but is reliant on the page not changing on the site it is currently hosted on. If the page is changed or goes away, your recipients will see/not see what was changed.

A second way to do this is to build an HTML page, make sure the images are all loaded online (to an FTP site), link to the images on the remote site from the HTML page (using full URL not just to an “images” folder locally), then use the HTML as Stationery in Outlook on PC.

The Stationery folder is located on your PC:

• C: (hard drive)
• Program Files
• Common Files
• Microsoft Shared
• Stationery

Then you can go into your Outlook settings, and go to:

• Tools
• Options
• Stationery Picker

Browse for the new HTML file you have just added, choose it. Make sure you have the Mail Format set to HTML. Hit OK and you can now create new messages with the format (and edit page content on an HTML page to send!).

• You will need to change your settings back to what they were before using this method, or all messages will be sent with the template.

Okay, you say, sending HTML formatted content from PC is pretty easy, but what about sending from a Mac?

Well, if you are looking for a Stationery folder in Microsoft’s Entourage for Mac, you won’t find it. If you go to Safari or Firefox to find Send Page (at least with Entourage), you won’t find that either. So what can you do?

If you have Microsoft Office for Mac, you need not fear. While Microsoft has earned a reputation for heavy styling and attribute code being attached to content for web use (ever copy and pasted Word text into a web page only to see the page/side break? You can blame that on Microsoft’s use of DIVs, SPAN, and other styling attributes in HTML), in the case of sending formatted HTML from a Mac, this embedded code is actually an asset. Here, the extra styling code helps to preserve the images, text, and styles in a way that Outlook can discern.

If you have Microsoft Word, and can build (or copy) a simple page of copy, styles, and images in a document, just save that file to your desktop. Open the file in Word, then go to your File menu, and go to the second to last option called Send To (mail recipient as HTML)… and Word will take that document and pass it off to Entourage. Just note, how the two applications see the page is not always as you would want. So some testing is strongly encouraged.

Once you get the page in Entourage to look as it does in Word, you can send the page to yourself for testing. Then on to the world as you see fit.

So you CAN send formatted HTML to users from a Mac using Microsoft Word and Entourage (or Safari and Mac Mail) with animated and static images.

Each Tasty comes with a flavored, edible strip inside the card. The flavors include cupcakes, doughnuts and margaritas. Dissolvable flavor strips for the recipient to eat.

The possibilities of this could become a trend for many commercial printers. We have worked with a few that already use scented inks, and its only a matter of time until a printer near you applies this technology of taste!

With news that postage rates are going to increase once again. The print industry will need to contiune to look for new ways to entice design firms and others to continue printing their mailing pieces.

We have seen some pretty amazing innovations in the print industry already. A few of which that are combining print and digital media. Augmented Reality and RFID are a couple modernizations creating new experiences for consumers. However, those still appeal to the same senses, this innovation by American Greetings has added the sense of taste to the printing world.

My question to you is, will you try it?

Check out the newest sensory experience in the card aisle and get that cupcake taste without all that cupcake and calories!

One of the most painful inabilities to the Apple iPhone, is the lack of Adobe Flash support online.

As a Flash developer and animator, this has really been a personal peeve. I read recently that some are convinced that Apple is trying to push out Adobe! That bothers me more. No other industry has lent to the success of Apple more than we creatives in agencies, studios, and production houses around the globe.

When everyone was jumping on the PC/Windows bandwagon for so many years (which most still do), it was the companies who did print collateral, desktop production, illustration, graphic design, and television/movie production who were Apple through and through.

Now that the rest of the planet is now keen to what the Apple computer is good for (most everything including avoiding viruses), we see an ally turn against the very core of our business: Adobe and its Creative Suite of products.

While the conflict may be limited to Flash Shockwave files specifically, the entire suite suffers for the fact that the iPhone and iPad will not allow SWF files to work on their Safari browser! And rumor has it that Adobe may take this to the court system.

I’m no dummy! I know that a lot of abuse of Flash files online has been wrought by banner ads bouncing, moving, re-sizing on pages. As a web developer, I understand that user overload of Flash ads can occur. But looking at how efficient they are, and how clear they look, how smoothly they behave, it is hard to not like them. No one likes a slow-loading page, and Flash made ads and websites run more efficiently. A lot of talk about Web 2.0 is in regard to AJAX. AJAX is just a mix of JavaScript, HTML, Flash, and XML. Take Flash out of that and the very power and quality of modern web usage is hindered.

Use a computer, and the world is normal. Even use most mobile devices with web access, and Flash is fine. But take the trendy and popular Apple iPhone/iPad and try to see anything with a Flash backbone, and you might be looking at nothing.

When so much is dependent on Flash these days for efficiency, and quality, I am stunned that Apple has not incorporated Flash at the launch of either product. Odd, it seems that the iPhone’s own function is built on very similar technology as Flash and SWF files. Have they adopted the benefits and then put a big X on Flash because they didn’t make it different enough to protect the system software? I wonder….

Meanwhile, something that brings life to the web, and makes getting information and entertainment easy, and is very efficient (usually) is being blocked by my career-long partner: Apple. STOP IT!

Got gripes about iProducts vs. Flash too? The comment line is open!

Bing's Apple iPad

We have been doing some extensive “hands-on” research with our own Kindle and Nick’s recent acquisition of an Apple iPad. Angela has learned how to convert basic HTML with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) into ebook format. She has been formatting documents ranging from a few-hundred-page paperback books to magazine articles to white papers and PowerPoint presentations with complex content, which may consist of images, tables, and graphs.

For the consumers there are many benefits for converting or using ebook readers. Here we highlight a few below:

1. Ebooks are portable. You can carry an entire library on your device!
2. The user can get instant access to scores of ebooks just by downloading it from the internet without waiting days and days for delivery of the book.
3. The price of ebooks is much less than any of the paper books as the costs of printing, shipping and distribution is almost eliminated.
4. The feature of hyperlinks gives the user the ability to shift to any section of ebook they want.
5. The user has the ability to choose the font that they like. From adjusting the font size to margin size to line spacing.
6. Ebooks are searchable. You can quickly find anything inside the book. Ebooks are globally searchable.
7. Ebooks make reading accessible to persons with disabilities. Text can be re-sized for the visually impaired. And for the hearing impaired, ebooks are capable of a text-to-speech option.

From Angela’s perspective, there is a lot on the back end to get familiar with. Since an intuitive workflow for converting layout files into ebook format has not yet been developed, much of the process involves trial and error and researching methods from many different sources online. A working knowledge of HTML programming also goes a long way. Although a rudimentary ebook can be created without too much effort, a well-designed ebook takes quite a bit more programming know-how, time and patience.

It is having said that, ebook readers will have a larger need for a market that has seen the closing of several library branches across America. For the future of the publication industry, there will be a need for design agencies to create and optimize formats for the affluent readers.

In the earliest forms of advertising, copy was king. Strong use of words and typefaces would be effective in your marketing piece, but not everyone understands concepts and information at the same rate. Some people can understand messages quickly while others need help to grasp what is being said. Visual aids are a way of further explanation. Nowadays, we’re able to relay much of what we once had to explain through the written word with the use of images.

Consumers have seen themselves moving away from wordy messaging and finding that most engaging piece of advertising in a graphic or photograph. You might recall a spoof we posted about how Microsoft would redesign Apple’s iPod packaging.

The very best visuals take a complex idea or series of connected ideas and make them instantly understandable. Just the right visuals make those ideas even more memorable. Use of visual tools led to longer retention of information. Visual aids allow a speaker to use verbal and nonverbal communication to solidify the message and provide a point of reference for the mind.

Visual representations of information, or infographics, are often used to support information, strengthen it and present it while leaving the amount of explanation required to a minimum. Using appropriate visual aids are the essential ingredients. Here’s a good reference to infographics to see how effective they can be without an explanation.

So when you have an advertisement that you want to convey to your consumers, give serious thought to using accompanying illustrations that will complement what you are trying to convey.

Here’s a video from the 2008 TED Conference of Chris Jordan on how he takes raw data and depicts it in his art in a more visual language. Notice how using visuals that integrate just enough to clarify his presentation. This makes for a powerful communications combination.

Map Illustration Software

Anyone who has ever had to produce a location map knows how much time can be used up on the simplest things! MapDiva sounds like it will give Adobe Illustrator, the current software of choice, some competition! Touted as simple to use and priced low, with the emphasis on map creation, Ortelius not only allows designers to use their own geographic information, but includes fully editable, royalty-free vector outline maps of regions, countries, continents, and the world, to get you off to a quick start.

Thanks to the program’s 20 tools, designers have open options of choice of colors, fills, strokes, and adornments that allow them to assemble unlimited style and symbol combinations. Ortelius also includes WYSIWYG drawing and editing; layers and layer groups; and automatic junctions and style transitions.

Read all about it, and try out a free trial of the Ortelius Standard Edition for the MAC.

The release of the new Web & Mobile image products featuring very small file sizes designed specifically for online and mobile use. As an extension of the firm’s $49 web-resolution offering, the new product features very small sizes – 170 pixels and 280 pixels. The huge selection of high-quality imagery and illustrations are appropriately priced – starting around $5 – and in ready-to-use formats that are ideal for use in mobile, website, email marketing, banner ads, widgets and other web application environments.

Pantone Color of the Year

Pantone gives out a yearly award to one of its 3,000+ colors in their product line. While we’re not sure what other colors were nominated, we do have a winner. The envelope please…

… and the award goes to 14-0848 Mimosa! (hooray, cheering, fist pumping!)

The Color of the Year award was first given out in 1999, when Pantone announced cerulean blue as the Color of the Millennium. Then, in 2007, they turned it into a regular feature, naming chili pepper the winner, and in 2008, blue iris.

In a time of economic uncertainty and political change, optimism is paramount and no other color expresses hope and reassurance more than yellow. Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute states:

“The color yellow exemplifies the warmth and nurturing quality of the sun, properties we as humans are naturally drawn to for reassurance. Mimosa also speaks to enlightenment, as it is a hue that sparks imagination and innovation.”

Read more from the official Pantone press release and raise your glasses! A Toast to you Mimosa!