Instagram is a terrific social platform, and Instagram marketing is a great way to promote a brand and showcase visual aesthetic. Compared to Facebook and Twitter, Instagram ranks highest in generating brand engagement. However, simply posting images without much planning will not generate engagement beyond your current followers. Strategically utilizing Instagram and taking time to formulate your marketing approach will increase your brand’s exposure—and revenue. Below are five best practices for promoting your brand on Instagram.

Post high-quality photos

Instagram’s reach is growing, and it’s become much more than just a social network. Instagram marketing takes advantage of this photography portfolio. It also provides you a platform to exhibit your very best shots. Photos taken on DSLRs are of much higher quality than those taken on smartphones, and the difference is noticeable on the app. Since users are naturally attracted to images that look professional, take the time to edit your images. Photos edited on a computer appear different on a phone, so export the original or color-corrected photograph to your phone, then use a mobile app like VSCO or Afterlight to edit further before posting on Instagram. Interesting photo compositions are also key. How do you arrange the objects in the photograph? How do you crop it? How much saturation or filtering do you use? Doing all of this well will make the photos stand out! When thinking of composition, you must take into consideration that this platform is meant for mobile.

Consider a theme

Many professional accounts post pictures based on a color palette. Make a conscious decision to post or not to post around a theme. Again, users like accounts that look current and professional. When the posts are too different from one another, users may interpret this inconsistency as a lack of professionalism or aesthetic. A tasteful color theme or photo style reinforces your brand’s image. This will also push your brand to stand out from the crowd and be more memorable.

Use hashtags & keywords

Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags on a single photo. If you go over the limit, your entire caption will be deleted. Still, 30 hashtag slots are sufficient for you to vary your choices. Check out any combination of choices: general hashtags that are popular across genres; keywords that are specific to your industry; or hashtags that your brand creates. Most importantly, think about who you are trying to attract and what hashtags they are searching. The more hashtags you include, the more likely it is for your post to be discovered by a potential follower. However, be deliberate about the way you use hashtags. Overusing them might seem desperate and hurt your audience’s engagement.

Interact through Instagram marketing

To attract enthusiastic followers on social media, make them feel personally connected to your brand. But first, take some time to find them. What hashtags would people among your target audience use? Search for those hashtags, find their accounts, and then like and comment on their pictures. Users will appreciate your attention, and curiously check out your brand’s account.

There is no penalty or limit for liking posts. Like posts that use hashtags that you use, hashtags you’ve thought about using, and hashtags that are related to your brand—and then like several other pictures on that account that are relevant to your brand. When users like or comment on your posts, reply to them to enforce the personal connection.

Finally, don’t forget to show love to those who already follow. Continue to interact with your current following by liking and commenting on their photos.

Follow accounts

It’s always a good idea to see what your competition is doing and to compare it with your own practices. How many followers does a competitor have? How often are images posted? What content is getting shared? What type of language is used for captions? What strategy is in use for Instagram marketing? How can you learn from all of this and create an effective strategy that meets your objectives?

Think about these points when considering Instagram marketing. Then, take it a step further by actually following the brand on Instagram. Increasing their following by one can mean increasing yours by a lot more. When users look at an account’s followers and spot an interesting account, they will check it out. If your photos are visually striking, your following will grow. It also doesn’t hurt to follow those with large audiences or what we like to refer to as social media influencers. These are the accounts that can really move the needle when it comes to growing brand exposure.

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There is quite a bit more to website design than meets the eye. Ever been to a meeting only to find your guests distracted, averting eye contact or oblivious to your attempts at meaningful conversation? Whether they knew it or not, they were sending you psychological cues screaming “Don’t talk to me!” and you were probably less likely to reach out to them in the future because of that. Well, your website design works in much the same way.

The right psychological cues can lead customers to interact and engage with your brand in meaningful ways. The wrong ones can send them exiting faster than a slow loading page.

Everything from choosing the right colors to striking the right language can make or break your brand experience. Let’s take a look at how the psychology of your website design, layout and tone can help strengthen your brand’s appeal.

Set the Tone – Psychology and Persuasion

Aristotle, famous for establishing the fundamentals of persuasive language, gave us a few great guidelines to frame content for maximum impact:

• Be logical – Use information to educate.
• Be emotional – Elicit feeling.
• Be ethical – Appeal to morals.

Every brand should have a well-structured sales pitch to generate interest. Priming embeds critical associations to help customers see the value in your offering. Priming can be logical, emotional or ethical. A shoe retailer geared towards young women might use words like “Most Loved” and “Hot New Style” with images of striking products or a lifestyle photo to influence key user groups. Women see these associations and think, “yeah, that’s how I want to look.” Then the brand becomes associated with that outcome.

Emphasizing the exclusivity of your offering will help make your brand more appealing. Scarcity techniques give your customers the understanding that your offering is in high demand, so there’s a smaller window of time to make a purchase. A customer, afraid that they could miss out on a good thing, may be more inclined to see the value of your offering under these circumstances and take action.

The influence of friends, family and peers is another big factor in what people purchase. With 65% of American adults using social networking websites, people like to see and hear what others have to say about a brand. Display positive testimonials, comments, social shares, likes and re-tweets on your website to add incentive for customers to trust your brand.

Look & Feel – Persuasive Website Design

The Gestalt Principles and Color Theory may be pretty well known to web designers, but are you aware of how these visual approaches can impact your website’s psychology?

The Gestalt Principles are a way of visually perceiving elements as a whole. Applying these Principles make your website more cohesive, easier to navigate and user friendly. Based on ideas around symmetry, spacial placement and how our brains interpret figures and colors, The Gestalt Principles help customers gain a clearer idea of what you’re offering, why it benefits them and how to acquire it.

The psychology of Color Theory makes it easier for customers to read your website’s pages as well. You can use varying shades of color to signify transition or apply the 60-30-10 rule to distribute primary, secondary and accent colors in ways that will unify, create interest and refine your overall website design. Studies across the web also examine how color can appeal to different genders and human emotions. For example, people associate the color blue with trust; yellow with joy and happiness; and red with intensity.

Persuade with Value

The psychology of your website design can be a boon to its overall performance. Experienced website designers will have a grasp of the visual concepts that appeal to customers, but it’s helpful to plan your website with an understanding of what psychological cues will enhance brand messaging. This approach is by no means about manipulating customers into buying something they don’t want. Instead, it’s about showcasing the benefits of your brand in a way that can truly identify a solution to customer wants and needs.

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Why has minimalism and minimalist web design become such a fixture within today’s digital solutions? Driven largely by consumer experience, technology and design trends, minimalist web design has been embraced by several influential companies including Apple, Google and Microsoft. The less is more approach has become an aesthetically pleasing and functional way for businesses to communicate value proposition, products, services and even culture across web, print and mobile.

With so many other businesses vying for your customers’ attention and all the distraction of email, web and social, a minimalist website can be quite refreshing for a consumer that’s accustomed to or even immune to an over saturated digital approach.

Why Minimalism Works

Minimalism is a visual aesthetic characterized by its simplicity. Popularized in the mid-20th century by American artists like Frank Stella and Kenneth Noland, minimalism has become a staple of modern design. Since the early-2000s it has been an important part of graphic and digital design, often discussed in tandem with flat design.

Works of art at the Kenneth Noland exhibition

A minimalist web design focuses on what the consumer actually needs then clearly communicates solutions to those needs. By guiding consumers to pertinent information like what benefits your business can offer, its mission and goals and specific calls to action, you save your consumer valuable time which in turn makes it easier for them to  form a relationship with your brand.

Minimalist web design can benefit your SEO too. Google has offered businesses advice after releasing its Google Panda algorithm update in 2011. The advice is still valuable, since “Panda” is now a fixture of its search functionality. Basically Google’s algorithms are aimed at helping people find “high-quality” websites by reducing rankings of low quality content. So removing low quality pages, merging or improving the content of individual shallow pages could eventually help the rankings of your higher quality content.

Minimalist web designs have great benefits and are also functional because they can:

• Optimize page load times, so consumers access content faster
• Function well across desktop and mobile channels—increasingly important as more consumers access online content through smartphones and wearables
• Streamline website updates and maintenance

What Does Minimalist Web Design Look Like?

Nielsen Norman Group, a market research firm specializing in user experience, conducted a study that evaluated more than 100 minimalist websites. This is what they had in common:

• Functionality and design stripped to its bare necessities
• Less emphasis on skeuomorphic design techniques like raised, sunken or hollow textures
• Limited or purely monochromatic color palettes
• More white (negative) space
• Marked use of typography or images

Minimalist Web Design Tips

While minimalist web design offers a lot of advantages to today’s consumers, there can be challenges if not implemented correctly. Minimalist web design and interfaces are more likely to eschew common cues like blue underlined text normally associated with clickable hyperlinks, in favor of other creative aesthetics. You can offset potential confusion by aiding consumers with features that help them understand how to use your website. Strategic use of color or interactive functionality that responds to cursor or mouse movement can show there is more content to access.

Your website needs to function well and provide value. Spend time learning what people want from your business, whether that means pouring over website analytics or surveying the market. Use that insight as a guiding point to develop a website that simplifies brand messaging and focuses on content that matters most to consumers. With nearly 30% of smartphone users switching to another website or mobile app if it doesn’t satisfy their needs, a minimalist approach to your web design may in fact help you craft a more successful customer-focused approach to branding and your most critical marketing tool.

The post Minimalist Web Design: Say More With Less appeared first on Isadora Digital Agency.

In our short video on incorporating a strong brand identity into your website, we cover a few key topics that will help your brand stay ahead of the curve and exceeding customers’ expectations every step of the way.

In this video:

1. It’s essential to incorporate a strong brand identity into your business website to engage and connect with your target audience. Brand identity should encompasses your entire online presence. Below are some key areas to consider:
2. Visitors can encounter your brand in many ways, so make a strong first impression, no matter the medium.
   Get to know your customers and make your website memorable. This will distinguish your brand from all others and keep the focus on your company.
3. Customize the website experience when appropriate – use geolocation to serve up personalized content and engage your users online
4. Don’t forget the details – branded accents such as handcrafted illustrations, icon work or interactive features help form your brand’s image in consumers’ minds.
5. And most importantly, make an emotional connection – whether it’s by sharing your company philosophy or terrific copywriting, you always want to create a stronger link between your brand and your legions of customers.
6. So, why spend the extra effort to do all of this comprehensive work? Because strong brands influence consumer behavior and induce loyalty! And the power of your brand lies in what consumers have seen, learned and feel about your brand.

The post Reinforce Brand Identity Through Your Website appeared first on Isadora Digital Agency.

In fact, your target audience requires that you have terrific and meaningful copywriting to keep them engaged. How else are you going to connect with customers on an emotional level? And how else are you going to captivate readers and create a powerful connection?

Sure web design and seamless development is what customers will notice and experience first, but when great copywriting is absent, it’s noticeable.

When scrolling down the pages of a website there must be substance within the content that encourages your visitors to continue reading. The expectation is that the copywriting is interesting, educates and eventually drives that individual to act. And when it comes to expectations consumers are full of them!

Determine brand voice

The brand voice should be decided upon early so that your company is represented correctly. You’ll need to decide upon factors such as your tone and personality. Are you looking to be professional and corporate or are you looking to be quirky and fun? The tone of your brand will vary dramatically depending on your brand personality and target audience. But here is where you’ll have an opportunity to really connect with your customers and facilitate strong and positive affiliations with your brand.

Engage your target audience

Knowing what your target audience wants to read about is a must and should be incorporated within the copywriting. And truly understanding your customers will play an important role. You are going to write differently when targeting millennials than you are when targeting healthcare providers. So understanding as much as possible about your different user groups is essential for that website copy to be both engaging and effective.

Even going as far as devising a detailed primary and secondary persona to represent key user groups is quite helpful.

Are you targeting busy executives looking for powerful solutions or are you targeting young, tech savvy males extremely comfortable with online shopping. Whatever your user group, you must consider social and demographic information in order to resonate and make a meaningful connection.

Incorporate value propositions

Your brand’s value propositions need to be clear and described both creatively and intelligently. Simply spelling out what you do is no longer enough. In order to truly differentiate your copywriting must be enjoyable to read. It should educate and even empower whenever possible. This type of copywriting is much more interesting to read and will give your brand an advantage over other businesses that stick with the dry and mundane approach.

Captivate and compel action

Great copywriting captivates and even compels action from your reader. Have you ever finished reading an article and felt so moved and so inspired that you wanted to go out and do something? Well the same concept applies here. The words that you use to articulate your ideas are the difference between someone contacting you to learn more or simply moving on to a competitor’s offering.

Marketers are always looking for ways to communicate with the right people at the right time. Consumers are often short on time and bombarded with thousands of advertisements and messages daily.

So when they land on your business website it’s important that what they are reading makes a deep connection and that they feel as if you are speaking directly to them.

Your copy should be clean, concise and meaningful. Having a strong command of the English language is a must for any great copywriter. But great copy captivates and leaves a lasting impression. It should inspire the reader in some way, whether it’s to get up and start a marathon or click on that purchase button and buy a product. Website copy that compels a reader to act is the best kind of copy in the land!

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Who says a resort website design can’t be engaging and effective? When crafted with the user experience in mind, hotel web design can be quite effective at driving guests to take action. That action can be picking up the phone and calling in for a room or actually making a room reservation online. Such conversion metrics are critical in the hotel industry where travelers are looking to quickly book rooms online. A hotel’s website should be the property’s most important booking channel. Hotels are always looking for ways to increase online bookings and since not all hotel web design is created equal this is a perfect place to start looking. So prepare yourself for a visual vacation that will make you want to book your next getaway for real! When it comes to designing a website for a luxury hotel or a tropical resort, it’s all about visuals and smooth functionality. Guests want to catch more than just a brief glimpse of where they’ll be staying. They want to see the resort’s views and accommodations offered. If fine dining is available they want to salivate over the delicious cuisine and cocktail photos. Potential guests want lifestyle photography that allows them to really picture themselves at the resort before making a reservation.

We’ve spent some time reviewing several dozen resort and hotel websites from all around the world and wanted to share some of the essentials for creating impactful hotel web design. To be effective, the website must be beautiful and functional. Simple navigation menus, easy-to-find reservation buttons, and stunning – yes, stunning photography must be present. In addition, a touch of creativity regarding how the reservation process functions is also necessary. Here you want to focus on the user experience and make sure that selecting a room and paying for that room is quick and easy. Once again, the combination of web design and functionality are what ultimately sets a website apart from the rest.

Our resort website design review considered the following websites (from around the globe) to be very effective. They also provide excellent examples of web design and smooth functionality that provide visitors with strong visuals of the property and a great user experience. So pack your bags and prepare yourself for a visual vacation to some of the best resort websites and hotel web design on the Internet.

1. Terranea Resort
Terranea, LA’s oceanfront resort, seeks to transport you out of the city and off to its rocky and luxurious cliffs – and so does its website. From the informative yet gorgeous carousel images to the easily accessible reservations system and buttons, this beautiful website creates an air of sophistication and class that only an oceanfront resort in Los Angeles can offer.

2. Palacio Nazarenas
Utilizing parallax scrolling and animation, Palacio Nazarenas’ website design does a great job of helping guests visualize themselves at the property! As you scroll, the doors of the resort open to reveal the suite they’ve reserved for you. The rich colors, mixed typography, and vibrant resort photos all add to the effectiveness of this website design.

3. Haramara Retreat
Haramara Retreat’s website features spectacular visual tours of the resort – so spectacular that you can collapse the left-hand navigation menu for a full-screen resort tour. Each image is unique and takes you to a completely different view, showcasing the variety of vistas available to guests. When exposed, the navigation takes you deeper into the resort, revealing even more amenities and activities offered.

4. Villa Campuhan
Villa Campuhan’s simple navigation and custom fonts – not to mention its spectacular showcasing of the resort’s grounds, are what make this website design a favorite (yes we also did the web design and development)! The white typography blends seamlessly with the rotating hero images, creating an easily understood navigation menu that doesn’t distract from the full-browser images. The homepage features stunning professional photography of one of the villas and the view is absolutely breathtaking. You can’t help but to imagine the incredible possibilities of an exotic and luxurious escape in East Bali. There is also no scrolling involved on this resort website design and the footer rises upon clicking to reveal the reservation form.

5. The Phoenix Belize
The Phoenix Belize’s website is comprised almost entirely of full-browser images for a truly visual user experience. The left-hand navigation window integrates in and out of view at the visitor’s discretion and the left and right navigation arrows on the right-hand side of the screen are easily accessible for viewing even more images. But perhaps it’s the use of simple white text with phrases like “Relax” and “Enjoy” that help potential guests believe that just by loading the page they are one step closer to a tropical weekend vacation.

The post Resort Website Design appeared first on Isadora Digital Agency.

So what are the benefits of hiring a professional web design company? While it may seem obvious to many it’s not a bad idea to post a little refresher. Sometimes pointing out the obvious and explaining it in detail helps clarify things even further. For starters, most established web design companies have several years of expertise under their belt. This concentration of know-how is a huge positive as your company will benefit from this over the life of the project and for years afterwards – sometimes without even realizing it! A web design company should guide you through the technical issues and steer your business in the right direction. They are an invaluable resource that you can tap into with business questions as it pertains to your website. Offering a bit of business guidance is not uncommon. Think of how many different companies a web design company has the privilege of working with. A talented web design company can easily have dozens of active clients and have worked with hundreds of companies from various industries.You’ll want to take full advantage of that knowledge base as it will help you make the best decisions.

High quality web design cuts through all industries. Not so with many other services as a lack of industry expertise is usually a detriment when it comes to other types of services where comprehensive industry knowledge is crucial. Who better to ask about what customers want or look for in a website? Or what the right look and feel should be or all about the best user experience? There are several benefits to hiring a professional website design company. Below are the TOP 9 Benefits that come to mind.

Increase Conversion more people submitting your contact form means more qualified leads!	Boost eCommerce Sales through a convenient, smooth and seamless shopping experience	Provide Instant Credibility great design leaves a lasting impression and impacts a customer’s perception of your brand
Online Presence Dramatically improve your company’s	Improved Online Marketing (new customers, brand loyalty) = Operational Success – check out our blog on how website design impacts marketing success!	Convenience nowadays consumers want to discover, shop and even learn all about your business without ever leaving the office!
Expertise & Specialization let’s face it, web designers, illustrators, branding designers, and developers are true experts of a highly technical art form	Business Consultant work with hundreds of clients across numerous industries	Partnership lot’s of questions answered and often invaluable insight.

Wow – is it any wonder why website design continues to receive so much attention? Just look at the various different areas it impacts. Having built hundreds of websites we can speak from experience. Business is tough enough as it is – the least you can do is make sure you have an online store front that best represents your brand, engages your customers and increases conversion!

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