Ralph's Marketing Insights

About Ralph M. Rivera

Ralph M. Rivera is a web developer and co-founder of Rahvalor Interactive, a creative marketing services company based in Holmdel, New Jersey. Ralph began his career in visual effects for feature films and corporate media and has been in the business of marketing, media, and technology for over two decades.

As Lead Developer at Rahvalor Interactive, he oversees Rahvalor's team of programmers and developers. As TechnoGeek-In-Chief at {Web.Search.Social}, an online marketing magazine, Ralph oversees all of the day-to-day technology matters as well as contributing regular articles on his experience in the marketing world.

Ralph also teaches Web Development at Manhattan College in New York City and acts as advisor and trainer to the faculty of the Communication Department at Manhattan College on emerging technologies.

Ralph is married with two cats and spends his spare time trying to build a real life Flux Capacitor.

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When Building Your Website, Call In Your MVP; And I Don’t Mean Your Most Valuable Player.

engineering diagrams

If you are running a business chances are you either have a presence on the web or will in the future. For many businesses, especially those just starting out, a simple out-of-the-box website solution may be all that you need to meet business and marketing goals. But for other businesses looking to capitalize on the strengths of the internet and emerging technologies, a custom website or application can be far more worthwhile. Making the transition to a web-based app is easy for some and difficult for others, but there are ways to avoid spending loads of cash on specialized labor to end up with a web product that does not yield a return on your investment. The solution is to let the MVP drive the process. No, not the Most Valuable Player; the Minimal Viable Product. Find out how this iterative approach can save you a ton of time and money and keep you from wasting any.

Does Twitter Engagement Fail When It’s Automated?

Does Twitter engagement fail when it's automated?

What makes social media different from other marketing is its potential for robust engagement. Therein lies the greatest strength and the greatest weakness of social media. Once upon a time we’d converse with or respond to customers and prospects on the occasion that they specifically contacted us with a question, comment or complaint. But social [...]

100 Mojitos will help your marketing and sales

mojito

Businesses often fail at establishing goals. This is a serious mistake because setting goals is critical for knowing if a process, product or service is succeeding. Enter the 100 mojitos. My favorite restaurant is Victor’s Cafe in New York City. Needless to say, they make a mean mojito. But how many mojitos does it take to make a successful day? As it turns out, 100.

The five things the Beretta 92FS taught me about online marketing

pistol range

Marketing folks are always thinking about marketing. I’m no different. Like many of my colleagues, I’m always looking for life lessons that can be applied to marketing businesses, products and services. I was at the firing range the other day after a busy week, letting off some stress from the business end of my Beretta 92FS 9mm pistol, when I realized that even it had some marketing lessons to teach me.

Should you use a captcha? (Spoiler: No.)

frustrated man at computer

You know those annoying widgets at the end of many web forms that make you fill in a code of numbers and letters before you can submit the form?I hate those things. And if you don’t; by the end of this blog you will. Captcha stands for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart”.

Three ways to make your email marketing campaigns more effective

Three ways to make your email marketing campaigns more effective

Many companies focus the bulk of their marketing resources on email campaigns, and why not? It’s still the most cost effective channel and still provides one of the highest, if not the highest, return on investment. But often times, organizations do not use the valuable information that their email campaigns yield in order to strengthen their email marketing.

You’re Fired: When to call it quits with a client.

axe on stump

Several weeks ago, I made a decision to fire a client. This is rarely done by creative services companies and I argue that while a matter of last resort, firing a client can be a healthy business move. Creative services companies can only exist, grow and become profitable with a mix of money and happiness.

Is your website over the hill? How to know when it’s time for a makeover.

house being remodeled

Your website may not be sprouting gray hair but it could very well be showing its age in other obvious and not-so-obvious ways. It’s common for businesses to immerse themselves in building a website then “finish” the project and move onto other things.

Do you want your project team to communicate effectively? Then don’t use email.

Buddha on desk

As web developers and marketers one of the most important things we do, however large or small the job, is project management. All the brilliant ideas and forward thinking strategies in the world will fall apart without a well-prepared plan. And even a well-prepared plan will fall apart without effective communication between team members.

Three things to consider when hiring in-house staff for your marketing (or anything else)

business meeting

As a web marketing agency we are called upon by our clients to create and execute ideas, but many times, we work alongside the marketing departments of those companies and are called on to offer our opinion on who would be a good hire for their internal staffing needs. Here are three of our suggestions based on our experience.