Happy Veterans Day!

En route to work this morning I was listening to my usual radio station and they were discussing how many Americans have no clue about the history of Veterans Day. Callers were given trivia questions  that they couldn’t answer! One question was “What was Veterans Day originally known as? A. Armistice Day B. Flag Day C. Remembrance Day or D. Soldiers Day.” The most common answer given by callers was D. Soldiers Day.

Not one person got the answer right.  When asked why they chose D as the answer, they all pretty much said because “it sounded right.”

Are we forgetting whats important in our culture? Since when has Jennifer Aniston’s new bikini been considered breaking news over NASA’s last launch? Or what Beyonce wore to her doctors appointment more important than our countries economic crisis? So to perhaps refresh your memory or feed your brain for the day, below are some facts about the history of Veterans Day. Check them out, add your own, or even share them!

•  In November 1919, President Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day
• November 11, 1918, is generally regarded as the end of “the war to end all wars.”
• World War I – known at the time as “The Great War” – officially ended when the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, in the Palace of Versailles outside the town of Versailles, France
•  Congress passed a resolution in 1926 for an annual observance, and Nov. 11 became a national holiday beginning in 1938.
• Veterans Day is not to be confused with Memorial Day- Memorial Day honors American service members who died in service to their country or as a result of injuries incurred during battle, while Veterans Day pays tribute to all American veterans – alive or dead.
• 9.2 million veterans are over the age of 65.
• 1.9 million veterans are under the age of 35.
• 1.8 million veterans are women.

 Have a wonderful weekend!

Rosa Luciano is the Marketing Coordinator and blogger extraordinaire for Interactive Financial Marketing Group. Follow her on Twitter @RozaLuciano

So this week was pretty much spent trying to get Silverpop certified and I am about one test away from getting there! With that being said, it left little time to get my blog juices flowing to bring you something new. So thankfully, there have been some interesting blogs posted this week pertaining to all things social media/email related. Check them out below and post your own!

How LinkedIn brought $72k in sales for PostcardMania: Yet for PostcardMania, a fast-growing, Florida-based postcard marketing company, unlocking LinkedIn has been a bottom-line booster. It’s not just for job searchers anymore. Sure it worked for them, but I’d like to see other success stories…

4 Ways to address privacy concerns in your marketing: Thanks to Banjo, a social discovery service, a mobile application is now available that will alert you when a friend is nearby… Umm not sure about you but this sounds way to invasive and a little creepy. I’d rather you not know my every move at all times.

Get marketing content on the go: Listen to this blog!: You’re no longer limited to text. Now you can use the handy dandy Vocalyze widget in this blog’s sidebar to listen to our latest blog posts, hands and eyes free! How’s that for multimedia accessibility? Since I am very expressive… I could definitely see myself reading my blogs as opposed to writing them! Than you could hear the passion (or lack thereof) in my voice. Great idea!

SEO for B2B: Old school flavor with a new school twist: If you’re looking for a throw-back to the good old days of marketing, look no further than the business-to-business world. Trade shows, trade publications, feet on the street, and word of mouth are the driving force behind many B2B marketing campaigns. How are you adding old school marketing tactics to your new school campaigns?

Have a wonderful weekend!

Rosa Luciano is the Marketing Coordinator and blogger extraordinaire for Interactive Financial Marketing Group. Follow her on Twitter @RozaLuciano

So today the office is dressed up for Halloween and there are some interesting characters in the building! Check them out below!

Are you having any Halloween activities today? What do they include? Share them below and vote for your best costume!

Team IFMG!

Sales team: Mark, Nikki, Vieve, Brian, , and Chris!

Group photo.

IFMG Developers Bob and Brian.

Our finance team Dorothy, Zenaida and Scott!

Happy Halloween from us to you!

Rosa Luciano is the Marketing Coordinator and blogger extraordinaire for Interactive Financial Marketing Group. Follow her on Twitter @RozaLuciano

In marketing and in your general life, appearance means everything!

People typically base their first impressions of you, right away, off of appearance. That usually will determine if they want to hear what you have to say. If you go into an interview with wrinkled slacks or scuffed shoes, you may lose your interviewers attention, and no matter how intelligent you are, their focus will remain on something other than your ‘content’ (like the huge coffee stain down the front of your shirt or the hot pink streak in your hair).

When interviewing, like marketing, you must always impress with your presence and your articulation. You must be confident, engaging, clean, and easy to understand. Here are 3 interview ‘musts’ that you can apply to your email marketing efforts.

1. Clean nails and face: is your database clean? Make sure you have current emails to avoid high bounce rates. Is the html in your template clean? This also is important so that the template is viewable in all browsers. As with a clean face, make sure your template’s appearance matches your branding standards. If blue hues are your company’s colors, keep it consistent. You wouldn’t show up to a formal interview in clown makeup would you?

2. Basic suit and minimal jewelry: Like a basic suit your template should also be basic. With a basic suit, you are assured that they are paying more attention to the ‘content’ you speak as opposed to the bright orange suit jacket you decided to wear. Jewelry should be basic and kept to a minimum, similar to your images. A basic call to action button, logo, and image may suffice depending on the type of email being sent. Your audience will lose sight of the content if your images (like the 30 bangles on your wrist) are too flashy.

3. Confidence and knowledge: Like practicing for an interview you should ‘practice’ for an email send. Send tests to different email URL’s to make sure the template looks the same in all of them.  And like researching the company you are interviewing for, you should also know your audience and cater your content to that demographic.

These are just a few of the many ways you can relate an interview to an email piece. Do you have any interesting ones you’d like to share? Post them below!

Rosa Luciano is the Marketing Coordinator and blogger extraordinaire for Interactive Financial Marketing Group. Follow her on Twitter @RozaLuciano

Most of you may not know, but National Boss Day  fell on October 16th, and since that happened to be on a Sunday, we decided to surprise our General Manager, Tom Feary, with a tribute to one of his favorite things. Swine. And what better way to show your boss appreciation on Boss Day than to order him his very own singing pig! It was quite comical as the below video and pictures will show! Check them out and share your own crazy surprises!

Rosa Luciano is the Marketing Coordinator and blogger extraordinaire for Interactive Financial Marketing Group. Follow her on Twitter @RozaLuciano