One workaround is using special characters like • or ► or ♦ with un-bulleted text. You can find these symbols in the Special characters menus on the toolbars within the Swiftpage Basic and Advanced Editors. This allows for easy normal text formatting, yet defines each line.

► Your Bullet Here

This is a great start but how do you get the indent correct for more than one line of wrapped text? A better workaround is using a two-column table and adding/removing table rows for each bullet.

1. Add the table your email template with desired number of rows
2. Insert your preferred special character symbol into the left column cells
3. Insert your “bulleted” text into the right column
4. Format your cells’ properties so that the Horizontal Alignment is set to “Left” and so that the Vertical Alignment is set to “Top”
5. Format the table to  your liking with your custom spacing, colors, sizes, etc.

The End Result:

Here’s a little history on Memorial Day from the History Channel for your viewing pleasure:

If you haven’t browsed the Swiftpage template gallery lately, you need to take a look! We’ve added hundreds of new template designs for you to choose from. Simply browse the gallery and find the template(s) you like. Once you’ve found the template(s) you are interested, login to the template editor and go to the Global Library to locate your template. Then Copy to Local to edit and start to make it your own. (Check out this post if you need a little help with template dimensions and specs while you are personalizing your template.)

For those who want something different or who don’t have time to personalize their own template, we offer Bright Peak Creative Services. Bright Peak’s professional designers can design templates that meet your specific needs and requests starting at just $50. Below is a little video with a sampling of what Bright Peak can do. Contact them to find out more.

1. You are brave! “Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.” -Peter Drucker
2. You are entrepreneurial. That spirit is exciting and contagious!
3. You are community driven. The big players don’t get involved in the local community the way you do. You sponsor races, volunteer, give time and resources, and so much more to make our communities better.
4. You care about relationships. You don’t hide behind a board of directors or a big name CEO, you are the face of the business and you care about your customers.
5. You are unique. No two small business models are the same and you each stand out in your own awesome way.
6. You create jobs. Almost 99% of the jobs in the US are created by small businesses (source)!
7. You are invested. Every customer matters to you and you do what it takes to keep them happy and keep your business successful.
8. You love to learn. We all know you wouldn’t be where you are today without constantly listening and learning.
9. You are well-rounded. As a small business you wear many hats and as a result you become experts in all aspects of a successful business.
10. You take risks and occasionally stand alone. Well, hopefully not entirely alone, but you definitely have to be willing and able to maintain your decisions and risks on your own two feet.

We know it’s not easy being small, so we’ve prettied-up our top 10 reasons and created several free downloads for you. Go ahead, print it and post it at your desk or make it your computer’s wallpaper. Every time you look at it take a moment to remember why you’re awesome! Thank you for being you and doing what you do!

Download the print version >

Wallpaper Backgrounds

1024 x 768  |  1024 x 768 V2  | 1280 x 800  |  1280 x 800 V2  |  1280 x 1024  |  1280 x 1024 V2  |  1366 x 768  |  1366 x 768 V2  |  1440 x 900  |  1440 x 900 V2

iPad  |  iPhone  |  iPhone 4

Now tell us, why do you love small businesses?

Subject lines are often the last item on our email check  list; an afterthought or a last-minute entry to meet a deadline. As a result,  we often miss an opportunity to increase opens, prevent some spam filtering, and  get more clicks on our calls to action. Get out of the subject line slump and  turn your subject lines into winners with these 10 tip

1. Ditch the Jargon
   In your  industry you likely have common jargon and abbreviations that those in your  audience may not understand. When you are writing your subject line, beware of  jargon and acronyms; avoid any words or phrases that could go over your  recipients’ heads. Choose language that your audience will understand and  resonate with.
2. Start the Call
   The call  to action in your email should begin in the subject line. The call to action  tells your recipients what you want them to do with your email. For example,  ‘Sign up!’ ‘Purchase now!’ ‘Like us on Facebook.’ Tee your recipients up for  the call to action in the subject line. Use words and tones similar to the  content in your email to draw them in and hint at what you want them to do. For  newsletters, give an enticing overview of your content. For a promotional  email, be sure to include the promotion in the subject line (i.e. 20% Off the  Whole Store – Today Only!).
3. Do a Test Run
   Testing  is an important aspect of every part of the email marketing process. The  subject line is no exception. If you are getting ready to set up a Drip  Marketing campaign or send out a really important email, try experimenting with  various subject lines as Pay Per Click ads a few weeks before your send. See  which Pay Per Click ads generated the most clicks and try those as your email  subject lines.

Read More >

Say Good-Bye To House, Idol Crowns a Winner – Xfinity TV

• Gives a couple of options of what to watch tonight to reach different audiences
• Short and to the point

It’s a beautiful thing… – Fidelity National Home Warranty
To put it plainly… → – SiriusXM
Oh, the bags they’ll need to get there… – eBags

• All 3 of the above draw the recipient in with the use the growing trend of ellipses (…). The ellipses leave the reader hanging and wanting to know more.

Here Comes the Sun: Shop Our Hot New Arrivals – Dwell Studio

• “Subject line makes me think of the Beatles song and summer!” – Lindsey Weinig (You’re singing Here Comes the Sun now, aren’t you?)

Plan Ahead and Save a Few Bucks – Frontier Airlines

• Very short and to the point.
• Gives a clear idea of the call to action to come in the email.

Who’s missed? You are! Come back and save up to 40%. – Proflowers

• Nice subject line to reengage inactive subscribers. Makes them feel appreciated and needed.

Five Handy Things You Can Do with Google’s New Knowledge Graph Search – LifeHacker

• Good use of a number in the subject line. Would have been even more appealing if they had used 5 instead of Five.

Mind Tools Newsletter 239: It’s Not Your Job! – Mind Tools

• Branding at the front of the subject line is clear and concise.
• Smart to still include a descriptor of what is inside the newsletter with ‘It’s Not Your Job!’.

14ers.com iPhone App is Here! – 14ers.com

• Short and to the point
• Drive email subscribers to the call to action right away

Time is of the Essence! Discounts + New Classes at Lafayette Park + Marina! – Boot Camp SF

• Makes me think I am going to miss something if I don’t open the email
• Lots of info packed into a subject line.

92pt Sauvignon Blanc Sancerre Blanc Vieilles Vignes 2009 Roger et Didier Raimbault – WTSO.com

• All of the info besides the price is in the subject line.
• “I don’t even need to open the email to know whether/not I am interested.” – Missy Bergen

What subject lines have caught your eye lately?

ego·tism noun \ˈē-gə-ˌti-zəm also ˈe-\
1 a: excessive use of the first person singular personal pronoun b: the practice of talking about oneself too much
2 : an exaggerated sense of self-importance : conceit

Questions to ask yourself:

1. Are you ever guilty of having a bit too much ego?
2. If yes, how is your ego killing your talent?
3. How can you focus on the talent of your team rather than your own this week? Name 3 ways to build up your team.

Every time you send out an email it is coded in the magical language of HTML. It doesn’t matter if you created it in the Basic Editor or the Advanced Editor or if you ever looked at the code. HTML is the language of email and the web and it lies beneath the surface of every email.

Now, every email client (think Gmail, Hotmail, or Outlook) has developed their own way of reading the HTML. Think of it like a differences in the English language. We spell color and our British friends spell colour. I say soda and my friends in the South say Coke. Neither interpretation is right or wrong, just different. Same goes for our email client friends.

So, why does it matter? Generally the differences between email clients are small and hard to detect. HOWEVER, occasionally the differences are quite noticeable and drastically change the look of your email. Sometimes one client might even break your email completely.

Enter the fun of email testing. It can be tempting to just send away once your email is completed, but without testing in the major email clients you are at risk of a major email faux pas. We recommend that you test your emails on the major email clients such as Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, and Outlook. It is also important to test your email on mobile devices such as iPhones.

If you want to take the time and headache out of testing, check out Bright Peak’s email analysis service. They will test the email in all of the major email clients and mobile devices and give you a screen shot of the results to check for discrepancies.

View sample Rendering and Compatibility Analysis >

 Happy Emailing!

“While I really like the colors and graphics, using the word ‘BLING’ in the headline, copy, and promocode (total of 8 times) really confuses me. What’s science, beakers and the periodic table have to do with ‘bling’?

Perhaps they should think again before using a slang word that to most people means diamonds/gold/jewelry rather than some possible alternative meaning to designers. Especially when I’m a designer and am still unsure what message they are trying to get across. Unless their printer ink is made of diamonds and gold.”

I totally agree with Missy. When writing your marketing messages, it’s worth spending time — a lot of time, working on your copy and call to action and then matching your design with your copy to enhance the message. By using lingo that most are familiar with, ‘Bling,’ 48HourPrint.com had a great concept. But when they added another cool concept of science beakers, they lost their message. Taking 2 cool, but unrelated concepts and throwing them into together in the same message dilutes the message and results in a major loss of effectiveness.

So, how can you maximize what Facebook has given you to work with? Here are 3 tips to make your timeline shine.

1.       Cover the First Impression

The cover image is the large image that stretches across the top of your brand page. It is 851×315 pixels of awesome attention-grabbing real estate! Even though Facebook has laid down some strict guidelines such as no promos in the cover image, brands are getting creative with their cover images and getting noticed.

Create a cover image that says something about your brand’s personality to use as your standard cover image. Take a look at what The Brown Palace has done. As one of the oldest and most iconic hotels in Denver, they have captured their personality perfectly in their black and white cover image.

When promotions, new products, or events are announced, change up your cover image to reflect what is going on with your brand. New Belgium is releasing a new brew and have changed their cover image to reflect the release. The cover image is interesting and enticing, drawing the page visitor down to their custom tabs.

2.       Personalize Your Look

The Facebook Timeline has moved tabs/apps to the right below the cover image. They now look more like buttons than tabs. Photos will always be first, but the other 3 visible tabs can be reordered. Tabs outside of the 4 visible appear in a window when your visitors click to see more tabs. In the example above from New Belgium, custom tabs and tab images have been created to further highlight the release of the new brew, Shift.

We use TabSite to create custom tabs for the Swiftpage timeline like the one for our Monthly Surveys. There are plenty of other similar programs out there and all will help you set your timeline apart from your competition.

Even if you don’t create custom tabs, you should create custom tab images.  Tab images should be 111×74 pixels and reflect your branding. Bright Peak created tab images for us that we just love and give us a lot of flexibility when we change out our tabs.

3.       Draw Attention to the Big Stuff

Much like email design, you want to keep your most pertinent information on your timeline at the top. Posts gradually get pushed down and lost as time goes on. If you post something you really want to keep at the top, you can pin it there where it will sit for a week like Anberlin did when they announced their tour dates. The little orange flag at the top right indicates the post has been pinned.

Another option to draw attention is to highlight a post. Highlighting a post allows it to span across your whole page rather than just sit in one column.

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These 3 tips are just the tip (pun intended) of the Facebook Timeline iceberg. If you are looking for more, Mashable published an excellent guide for brands getting started on their timelines. For some additional inspiration and creative ideas, check out Social @ Blogging Tracker’s 15 Creative Tips to Rock Your Timeline Cover Photo for Facebook Pages. Whatever you do, don’t let your Facebook page just sit there, untouched. Facebook followers are engaging with brands more everyday and you want your brand to be one of them.