Cart abandonment is an important topic to consider when working on a new eCommerce web product. Often times clients have put a lot of time, effort, and resources into an existing eCommerce website, but consumers are still dropping off at checkout. This is something our digital agency has seen time and time again. Ecommerce research agency Baymard Institute estimates that the average online shopping cart abandonment rate is nearly 70 percent. As consumers increasingly shop online with their mobile devices, brands are struggling to find ways to meet their demand for convenience, immediacy and simplicity. The good news is that a flawless user experience can win them back.

Simplicity is key

Despite the rise of abandoned shopping carts, Business Insider reports that about 63 percent of merchandise can actually be recovered by online retailers. The key is to simplify the checkout process.

A traditional checkout funnel typically consists of at least five steps:

• Checkout
• Shipping
• Billing
• Payment
• Confirmation

With so many steps, it’s easy to see why mobile consumers are getting frustrated. Consumers aren’t abandoning their online shopping carts because of product cost. They just don’t want to fill out tedious and/or time consuming forms. Nearly 40 percent of online shopping cart abandonment is due to lengthy forms prompting consumers to enter shipping and payment information. In fact, four of the top five reasons consumers drop off at checkout are related to entering information.

“The importance of mobile isn’t news anymore. For most brands and marketers, more than half of site visitors are coming from mobile marketers,” said Anthony Nicalo the VP of Platform at Mobify during a recent web payment webinar hosted by Mobify and Google.

Mobile has fractured and fragmented consumer behavior into hundreds of short, fleeting mobile moments. Customer expectations for simplicity and convenience are growing exponentially.

Improve cart abandonment

To prevent online shopping cart abandonment, you need to optimize your checkout process. Make your consumer’s needs, and the devices they frequently use, the centerpiece of your checkout design. Here are a few tips to help you:

1. Enable autofill forms. Mobify surveys revealed that 46 percent of online shoppers site checkout speed as the number one factor in whether a consumer returns to a site. The longer a checkout page takes to process a transaction, the more consumers worry an error has occurred. One easy way to speed things up is to enable auto fill forms so consumers don’t have to manually fill in shipping and payment information. Go one step further and offer to save this information for future purchases.
2. Keep everything on the checkout page. Offering a discount code? Great. Make the code accessible directly on the checkout page. Consumers won’t need to abandon their cart in search of discount codes posted on the web. Many online retailers are starting to offer a “tap it” option where consumers tap a button at the start of their shopping journey to automatically apply the discount to their online shopping cart.
3. Pay attention to visual design. Pay close attention to how color and design affect your consumer. The color red typically flags warnings to consumers, so seeing this color on your checkout page could make them cautious about processing an order.
4. Automate follow up. In a study of more than 200 brands across the country, email marketing company SaleCycle reported 46 percent of all abandoned shopping cart emails (follow up emails to consumers who left items in their cart) were opened by recipients. More than a third of email clicks led shoppers back to purchases on the retailer’s website.

Mobile dominates, so can you

In today’s connected world, it’s no secret that mobile is playing a huge role in how consumers shop. The challenge for marketers is to take their online brand experience to the next level. Marketers now must predict the needs of consumers to make brands more compelling. Simplifying the checkout process is a step in the right direction.

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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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Market research is an area that some brands find much too easy to overlook. There are over half a million new business owners emerging each month (Fast Company) in the United States alone. So it’s imperative your brand develop a digital strategy that facilitates business success. And with so much competition, digital strategies should be backed by market research.

Market research helps focus marketing efforts to make informed business decisions while capitalizing on opportunities. When you conduct market research you examine a variety of information including industry trends and relevant competitors. You’ll also want to do a deep dive on the desires and needs of your specific target audience. Well executed strategies from market research help your company stand apart while moving your business forward profitably.

Market Research Sets Your Brand Apart

A study conducted by CB Insights revealed that 42% of failed startups identified the “lack of a market need for their product” as the single biggest reason for the failure.

One of the greatest benefits of conducting market research is that it helps you navigate the consumer buying process your customers are engaging in. By researching what consumers are looking for and where they are engaging, you can develop an intelligent marketing approach based on data rather than opinion.

For example, if your company is targeting millennials you might guess that they are easily reachable on social media. However, your market research might show that the age group you’re trying to attract is most active only on certain channels such as YouTube and Snapchat. Rather than wasting resources on ad campaigns across all social media, your market research should guide you to more targeted outreach campaigns that offer a higher ROI.

Market research also helps you determine where your products and services fit within the overall industry your brand belongs to. If your company specializes in pet products you need to know if there’s a way you can differentiate your pet products from other brands. Market research may help determine that there is a lack of eco-friendly or holistic pet products available in a certain area or among a targeted demographic. This insight may provide a great differentiator to utilize when selling products or in communicating a brand in a manner that is more useful and unique to consumers.

Do it Well and Do it Often

The best time to conduct business research is any time! Obviously before the launch of a new product or service or before any major marketing campaign or investment makes great sense. But research should be conducted often (at least twice a year) to ensure strategies remain beautifully aligned. For finely tuned digital strategies our digital agency will conduct research and reviews up to four times a year. Research can come from a number of sources, and both primary and secondary resources should be considered.

• Primary Data is original data collected directly from first-hand experience. It can be collected through surveys, questionnaires, interviews with experts, etc.
• Secondary Data is data previously collected by someone else. Common sources of secondary data include market studies, journals and government reports.

The steps to gather market data begin with identifying the right questions you want answered about your industry. Once you know what kind of insights you’re looking for you can:

• Research your competitors. Examine pricing, advertising budgets, product features, financial data, even retail displays to determine their strengths and weaknesses.
• Compare these insights to your company. How are  your products and services different or similar? Can you identify ways to make your brand stand out?
• Pull conclusions and insights from your primary and secondary data.
• Strategize how your company will benefit from your research by targeting advantages or foreseeing potential obstacles.

Your company’s digital solutions depend on messaging and marketing strategies that identify business opportunities within your industry.  A business plan or a website audit that includes comprehensive market research will help brands limit potential business risks, as well as prosper from data-driven strategies. Assessing consumer indicators will place a company in a better position to capitalize on opportunities.

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“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.” – Peter Drucker, business educator and expert

Really knowing your target audience is an essential component of any successful marketing strategy and for dramatically growing revenue.  According to Gartner Research, customers will manage 85% of their brand relationships without ever speaking to a human by 2020. That means your business website will be enormously influential and a powerful communication tool for potential consumers. Brands that fail to target specific people through a marketing message will spend valuable time and money on content that doesn’t speak to the people most interested in consuming it. A little customer research will minimize this loss and help you take your brand experience to the next level.

Understanding Your Target Audience

Your target audience is a specific set of consumers you are seeking to attract to your brand. They can be grouped into tiers based on similarities such as purchase history, job title, industry or needs. They are the ones who will find the most benefit from your product or service, and you’d be wise to focus on the ones that are buying up your brand’s products or services the most. Identifying the needs of your target audience will help your marketers, copywriters and sales team create tactical solutions that reach people most likely to engage and purchase from your brand.

So you understand the importance of reaching your target audience, but how do you figure out who they are? Who your target audience is takes some due diligence on your part. Obtaining consumer demographic information will help you shape your frame of reference for digital marketing solutions.

One way to gain insight is to form a profile or user persona to represent your most coveted customers. During a website audit for example, a brand’s digital agency may perform an extensive audit that includes research and analysis of target audience information, demographics, customer profiles,  value proposition and brand messaging to gain a deeper understanding of the customer base and specific needs.  A customer profile will help you gather information about a specific type of consumer so that you can add context to marketing messages. Learning more about your ideal consumer also gives brands more ways to create customer-centric solutions. A typical customer profile might include the following information:

• Age
• Gender
• Marital Status
• Occupation
• Hobbies
• Buying habits (i.e. brands they like, stores where they shop, etc.)
• Publications or reading material they subscribe to

With this information in hand, you can align your website and content to provide information customers find useful, fun and engaging—an important first step in building brand loyalty.

Another way to learn more about your target audience is to interview your current customer base through surveys or Q&As. Interviews will help you find out what attracted people to your brand. Was it a specific need you solved? Where did they learn about you? Asking questions like these will help you root out ways to streamline and tailor your offerings for increased ROI. You may also want to do a deeper dive and examine select demographic information for each of your top customers. Once you have demographics and answers to your customer questions you can begin to hone in on a strategy that resonates powerfully with your target audience.

Marketing Strategy

Having a firm grasp of who you are selling to helps you with strategic decisions and towards achieving very specific goals. Understanding your target audience helps you identify better platforms for outreach, smarter keywords and social media content as well as media that will actually resonate and attract attention from the people that really matter.

With an inbound marketing strategy for example, not only can brands double average website conversion rates, but also provide consumers with positive, authentic interactions with your brand. Addressing the real needs of your target audience will help you collect invaluable feedback, encourage consumer engagement and inspire your consumers to share your brand with family and friends. Which is not too bad when you’re looking for ways to drive brand awareness and growth.

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Online forms are a terrific way to funnel prospects through your online sales process. As part of your larger content strategy, online forms should always facilitate conversion by guiding visitors through a specific set of actions. They can take a variety of shapes (newsletter sign up, demo sign ups, configurators, and contact forms). More importantly, they should facilitate the interaction between a brand and a potential customer.

Develop online forms to transform your prospects from listeners to active participants in the conversation about your products and services.

The Consumer Journey

One way to help visitors move painlessly through the buyer’s journey is to incorporate online forms. By adopting form content, businesses gain the advantage of extending the experience customers have with their brand, while also providing value through the journey.

Customers once had little control over the sales funnel. They had a few brands to choose from and based on what they liked or didn’t like about each, they narrowed down the options for purchase. According to McKinsey & Company, that model has been displaced by the consumer decision journey, a path defined by the active evaluation of products and services (often in real time) by consumers. Today, a brand can not only react to customers as they make purchasing decisions, but also actively shape those decision journeys.

For Outward Hound, the maker of innovative dog toys, games, gear & bowls, an online form designed as a simple questionnaire about a visitor’s dog (age, size and characteristics) helps determine a curated list of dog products suitable to the dog’s personality. The form enhances and customizes the visitor’s experience by adding convenience, and fun, to a task that can easily be frustrating and mundane. Meanwhile, Outward Hound collects valuable data about the type of dogs and products potential customers are most interested in, helping to further refine and guide marketing strategy.

Metal and aluminum distributor Future Alloys uses a highly interactive online form to help customers get custom price quotes based on specific project needs. Unlike Outward Hound, which supported customers through the awareness stage, Future Alloys guides them through the product selection and customization stage. Aluminum plates or rods with specific dimensions from an extensive inventory may be purchased online. The dynamic online form considers metal type, shape, resistance, width, length and thickness and the entire process is simplified for easy online purchasing. The online form gives potential customers value by showcasing various product specifications necessary for making a purchase. Once a customer gets to the checkout, Future Alloys has secured the user’s contact information to grow the relationship further based on previous purchases.

Strategic Online Forms

The process of creating an effective online form for your brand begins with outlining specific objectives, a goal and an intuitive process to meet that goal. Use your understanding of the four capabilities to determine what kinds of forms will be useful throughout each stage of the buyer journey as it relates to your brand. Outward Hound’s online form illustrates an example of journey innovation through product curation based on a user’s pet personality. Future Alloys’ advanced online form allows for extensive interaction and automation to customize a product selection and specification. These two strategies are among the four outlined by Harvard Business Review to enhance the customer journey and make that journey more impactful. Understanding these strategies will help guide you towards creating online forms that serve customers in powerful ways. The four strategies are defined as:

• Automation – brands digitize and streamline steps to replace manual processes.
• Contextual Interaction – brands develop an understanding of the customer’s physical or virtual location to attract them to the next set of actions in the customer journey.
• Journey Innovation – brands identify new sources of value through experimentation and customer analysis.
• Proactive Personalization – brands analyze past interactions with a customer to customize their experience.

Be Efficient

Developing an effective online form requires an understanding of your target audience and how much they know about your brand at each stage of their journey. Simplicity in both design and content is important. Ideally you want to gather only what is necessary and avoid excessive options, data fields, menus and copy that can potentially distract customers from engaging with your content. The goal is to collect essential information that will support your sales and marketing strategies.

Below are some tips on making forms more efficient:

• Incorporate Conditional Logic – incorporate functionality that automatically shows or hides form fields, sections, or pages based on the customer’s previous selections.
• Use Field Labels – add static field labels so the customer stays focused on the information they’re supplying, unlike placeholders which can disappear as the customer begins typing.
• Give Hints – provide examples that help customers understand how data should be formatted, i.e. dates.

Online forms are a great way to facilitate the interaction between brand and potential customer. Some forms even go a bit further by providing value to the user throughout the process. But when it comes to lead generation, an online form can be a powerful tool that converts and qualifies leads quickly.  It’s also a great way for brands to learn more about engaged participants.

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Brands are seizing the opportunity to improve conversion with an interactive business grade website. Are current landing pages doing enough to capture and convert leads online? According to Statistic Brain, the average length of our attention span is just a paltry eight seconds — and it’s steadily decreasing. Developing interactive website pages is a great way to harness the fleeting attention of your visitors and drive them to complete a specific behavior. Interactive websites have the power to draw people in and work to improve critical online metrics. They can make those eight seconds turn a first-time visitor into a first time subscriber, or better yet a long-term partner.

Interactive Website Pages

The function of any website page is to drive visitors to a specific course of action – an objective. Whether you’re asking visitors to sign up for emails, follow you on LinkedIn or purchase a product online, your conversion rates improve when business websites feature interactive landing pages that are relevant, clear and engaging. Relevancy is key. Understanding what brought visitors to your landing page, how much they know about your business and how you can serve them is central to creating an interactive landing page that drives results. Users expect to see meaningful user experiences each time they interact with your brand online.

According to Forrester Research,

Digital touch points can drive revenue, lower costs, build brands and engender customer loyalty. But to achieve these potential benefits, companies must deliver digital interactions that meet customer needs in an easy and enjoyable way

Ideas for Interactivity

The typical structure of a landing page consists of a headline, sub-headline, copy and a call-to-action. With interactive websites, visitors expect much more. Here are a few ideas to take your landing page from basic to indispensable.

1. Use compelling media

Using videos on landing pages can increase conversions by 86%. Include custom videos that are more personable and interesting. Featuring messages from key employees or even your CEO is another great way to showcase brand culture and expertise. High quality photography is another strong suggestion for adding impact to landing pages. It breaks up the monotony of text and add visual interest. Professional grade photography (as opposed to simple stock images) connect better with people. Curating images that are relevant to your goal is extremely important, so don’t add images haphazardly. Think about what visitors need to see in their decision making process.

Other compelling media assets that should be utilized are customer testimonials, case studies, white papers or PDF downloads that serve specific visitor needs.

2. Experiment with Long Form Design

More than 68% of U.S. adults own smartphones and an increasing number of young people are accessing the internet exclusively through mobile devices. The use of smaller computer screens is actually encouraging long form design — longer web pages with more in-depth content. Long form design enables visitors to easily scroll up and down pages without clicking and to find more information with less navigation. Interactive websites also utilize engaging design features such as parallax scrolling to keep visitors on a relevant path through long content. Parallax plays with background & foreground content, where background images or content move slower than foreground images or content. The result is a creative and animated way to tell stories and keep visitors engaged with messaging. Parallax scrolling creates a truly unique user experience, and if done correctly can be quite effective.

3. Enhance conversion paths

Every landing page must have purpose, and a call-to-action such as a feature button like “buy now”, “learn more” or “download here” is a great way to go. But taking a closer look at your conversion paths and strengthening them with interactive features will boost engagement dramatically. Freshen up your landing page with surveys, quizzes, eBooks, or assessments that connect with your visitors and drive interaction. Transform what would normally be static content into meaningful touch points of interaction between brand and potential customers. We have found that a little creativity along conversion paths can go a long way. Whatever your call-to-action, sprinkle in an interactive feature along the way and watch both conversion and brand perception transform.

4. Implement dynamic contact forms

Interactive landing pages can boost your average click rates by 50% and increase conversion rates by 40%. Adding a dynamic contact form extends the interaction visitors have with your business at one of the most crucial stages of the decision making process. A dynamic form combines static input with dynamic values, and will actually auto populate the remaining questions and/or options based on a user’s prior selection. It’s a terrific way to customize the experience to that specific user’s needs. And the more customized and enjoyable the experience, the more we see conversion improve.

Landing pages play an important role within interactive websites. They support the creative features and functionality that incentivize your customers, improve your web search-ability and drive important online interaction. Adding dynamic and interactive elements to your landing pages can make that brief, but crucial, interaction last long-term.

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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.

The post The Psychology Behind Powerful Website Design appeared first on Digital Agency.

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 Digital Agency.

It’s only when you apply ongoing analysis and the structured implementation of actionable improvements, will you achieve the significant results reserved and coveted by industry leaders.

These brands understand the power behind analytics and the interpretation of the data.
Analytics is the central way of identifying whether your business website is achieving objectives and providing users with value. And executing on specific tactics is how you achieve record ROI for your brand’s web product.

User insight

Giving your customers what they want is a must for a business to succeed. So why not empower your website to do so? You may have a strong understanding of who your customers are, but what if you also knew how they prefer to navigate your website or what content they were most interested in? Imagine having a grasp on their preference for consuming information or the entry points they utilized to access landing pages. Now imagine using this information to improve things such as average session duration and other engagement metrics by 50%. Or increasing phone calls, emails, form submissions and other conversion metrics by 30%? What value would your business place on such a significant increase in qualified leads for example?

Interpreting a company’s web analytics provides essential insight regarding visitors, customers and behavior. All of which may lead to new improvement opportunities. Your web analytics may validate your assumptions about your customers, or they may not. The data might force you to challenge some assumptions, giving you the actual evidence needed to advocate for necessary changes. The evidence may also lead to having management revisit critical site objectives.

Want your users to take specific actions?  You can in fact direct users throughout a page and lead them to a certain area. You can also encourage a certain behavior that leads to an actionable item.

Measurable goals

If you want to make the most of your site and your business, measurable goals are required. Don’t fall into the trap of allowing your decisions to be purely subjective or ruled by gut feeling. Instead, decision making should be based on both qualitative and quantitative data.

While some decisions may be black and white there are often user experience decisions that must be made with a blend of hard data and creative inclination.

In addition to looking at the correct data points, you’ll also need to have the appropriate expertise and acumen to properly understand what to do with the information. Make no mistake, the data alone will not give you the answers, nor will they give you your next move.

Such tactical recommendations must be made from a deep foundation of expertise, user experience knowledge and years of results-driven application.

These days a full service digital agency will have SEO and online marketing experts that have been living and breathing these subject matters daily for several years. These individuals are able to provide optimal recommendations from the marriage of simple data and expertise. It’s this combination that leads to result producing solutions. And this is precisely the type of digital agency your brand will want in its corner when determining which tactics to implement.

For example, your company is operating an interactive B2B website and you cater to large and well-established brands with locations all over the world. You’ll want to understand the path of least resistance to that all important submission form. Or you’ll want to have clarity on the best place to have your white papers through A/B testing. Or how far down to put a call to action on a specific case study. These specific decisions make a big difference when it comes to conversion and are just a few of many ways you can enhance overall website effectiveness.

Implement ongoing enhancements

Never settle for flying blind with regards to how your business website is performing and meeting customer needs. Have the tools and the specialists ready to implement enhancements. Over time the benefits can be substantial. And it won’t take long before you start to achieve record ROI from your brand’s most important marketing tool.

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Mind The Habits

Understanding your customer’s buying habits is essential in successfully leveraging the sales power of a seasonal event. Knowing how those habits change in relation to a particular event is also a must – sales cycles and purchasing funnels expand and ebb significantly depending on the holiday or event in question. For example, Halloween and Valentine’s Day shoppers are more likely to make last-minute purchases than back-to-school shoppers, who tend to buy school supplies a few weeks ahead of time.

By understanding these sales windows and buying preferences, savvy marketers can begin planning a marketing campaign with enough lead time to be effective – and segment approaches to appeal to the customers who’ll be most interested.

Tailored Content and SEO

Once you’ve identified your key seasonal dates and the customers you want to reach, this data can be used to update your specific tactics accordingly. A PPC campaign with a seasonal focus is a simple, efficient way to direct users to your site. Make the most of click-through traffic by directing these users not to your standard home page, but to a specially tailored landing page with a seasonal focus. This page can be a simple  product page for a B2C company or even a detailed micro site for a B2B firm.

Given that much ad-driven click-through traffic will be new customers, aim to collect new customer details through campaigns such as giveaways, gift-themed newsletters or special discounts – doing so will allow you to undertake remarketing campaigns as a specific holiday or event grows nearer. Gearing blog posts or articles toward seasonally relevant topics also works well. For example, a tech site might prepare content relating to recommended purchases to take advantage of, or develop a shopping list of computer peripherals and accessories that would make affordable holiday season gift ideas. Similarly, update your store content categories or listings to reflect seasonal relevance – and don’t forget to rewrite your product listing information accordingly.

Formulate Strategy

Sales funnels used to be relatively streamlined and linear, allowing marketers to focus their efforts on pushing customers down a particular buying pathway. But in a multi-device world, there are a myriad of ways in which a customer might go from beginning their research about a product to making an eventual purchase.  Even with scores of analytics data at your fingertips, the very real limitations of time and resources mean that it’s difficult to anticipate a customer’s exact buying funnel. Address this uncertainty by ensuring your business website is strategized from the ground up, so that users are gently guided along an optimal user flow once on your website and regardless of landing page.

Ensure that your online store is as easy to use from a mobile device as from a desktop computer – responsive design is a requirement. Leverage social media channels to get the word out about your products and services, create a targeted email campaign to kick off well ahead of the event, and take advantage of in-app purchasing functionality, such as Twitter’s “in-tweet” purchases. In doing the above, however, it’s essential to take a cross-channel marketing approach.

Taking a cross-channel marketing approach means implementing a cohesive online marketing plan that also capitalizes on the nuances and strengths of each identified marketing channel.

Plan Ahead

Your sales uptick doesn’t need to end when a major calendar event does. Stretch out your seasonal event with a re-targeting program that will encourage shoppers to return to your store, or refocus your sights on the next event – because there’s always a next event. Strategies to entice customers back can be as simple as including a limited-time discount offer as part of your product offering. Or you can leverage a customer’s personal and purchasing data to offer individualized deals. A customer who has purchased jewelry as a Christmas gift may be a great candidate for a Valentine’s Day offer on a complementary item. And someone who has bought a new cell phone or electronic gadget, might be interested in the numerous accessories related to those purchases.

Planning ahead is at the heart of any successful online marketing strategy. And with a slew of major seasonal events quickly coming up on the annual calendar, it’s time to begin – or even finalize – your seasonal eCommerce marketing approach.

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You can have the most stylish web product around (be it a website or a mobile application), but those visuals remain limited if your customers can’t figure out how they’re supposed to engage with it. The reality is that your visitors shouldn’t have to think about how to use your website. That’s your UX designer’s responsibility. And believe us when we say that a lot of research, thought and planning goes into ensuring that your users have to think as little as possible and are instead guided effortlessly throughout each and every page.

User Experience is Strategy

User Experience is the foundation of any user-centric design, but it’s particularly important for complex or wide-ranging websites that pull together a range of different information and/or features.

Complex or advanced websites including social media websites, eCommerce sites and business grade websites are all excellent examples of web products that require UX strategy as a foundation.

From the customer side of things, a well-architected website will encourage longer visits, deepen engagement and have a direct impact of conversion metrics. From the business side such action increases conversion and impacts your company’s top line.  It’ll also reduce maintenance and support needs, as well as time and costs involved with administrative work, future development and/or expansion.

User Profiles

It sounds obvious, but good user experience is all about the user. And in order to design effectively for your customers, it’s essential to understand who they are and how they want to interact with your web product. This is where the concept of user profiles comes in handy. Developed through data-gathering processes and customer analysis, user profiles are used to represent the different types of user groups that your business caters to. By understanding demographic factors including backgrounds, habits, attributes and needs of these user groups, it’s possible to develop a relevant, highly targeted UX framework designed specifically with these user groups in mind.

User Flows

With a user profile in hand, it’s possible not only to understand who your customers are, but how they’re likely to engage with your web product. User flows are where you start to consider how your specific customers will want to move through your website pages. Business objectives will play a vital factor in determining how you want each user group to interact and ultimately where you want each group to end up. What specific actions you want completed for each page must be considered and the ideal flow for each page is also outlined. If this sounds like quite a bit of research and planning required by an expert – it’s because it is!

Keep in mind that there’s no requirement that you start at the beginning and work through to the end in linear fashion. Some users may arrive on your homepage and work their way through sequentially until they land on a specific call to action such as a “buy” button, trial of a demo, or “contact” page. Others may arrive on your newsletter sign-up page via a social media link. Others again may begin with your blog, having arrived there via a google search.

These different patterns of engaging with a website are known as user flows. By identifying the typical narratives your visitors follow when engaging with your web product, you can ensure that your individual page design provides a flow that not only makes sense but accommodates your specific users.

With this carefully developed understanding of user personas and user flows, the individual website page structuring process can begin.

The Schematics

Now that we’ve organized our site’s information at a structural level, it’s time to begin planning how the site will communicate key information and goals at the page level. The schematic or page blueprint is a visual guide that must consider hierarchy of information, the arrangement of design elements, functionality and the seamless flow from user behavior to call to action.

Wire-frames may not look very impressive as they are often stripped away of any design detail to ensure a focus on usability, navigability and coherence. The goal is to create a simple, intuitive experience for your identified users. Through the wire-framing process, UX designers can ensure that each page, and each element on the page, serves purpose and communicates the information a user needs in a logical, natural manner.

While there are many tools in a UX Designer’s tool box, the above are a few of the essentials worth highlighting. Great user experience design comes from a customer-first perspective and a deep understanding of that customer. By ensuring we know who we’re designing for, and for what purpose, it’s possible to develop a website or mobile app that’s seamless, effective, and drives results.

Of course, creating that simplicity isn’t quick or easy, but the result is a web product built not on assumptions or gut feeling, but on precise information and a deep understanding of the brand and objectives. This holistic and wholly necessary approach provides far superior outcomes.

The post User Experience IS Strategy appeared first on 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 Digital Agency.

Effective B2B marketing that connects with decision makers is no easy task. Splashy campaigns and in-your-face ubiquity can get your brand out there and even turn some heads. But when it comes to putting money on the table, even the best B2B marketing will not stop decision-makers to head straight to their existing networks first. And why wouldn’t they? It’s an intelligent way to reduce risk, slash the time involved in the vetting process, and to cement those all-important industry relationships already in place.

According to a recent International Data Corporation poll, although decision-makers peruse B2B marketing, industry publications and quality vendor content when gathering information, It’s the recommendations from industry peers and colleagues that strongly sway their final decision. After all, when you tap into your networks, you’re tapping into relationships built on common experiences, values, and goals – and that presumably have your best interests in mind.

These often large financial decisions have long-term implications.

And decision makers must show they’ve conducted their due diligence and that they’ve mitigated the overall risk. After all, this is their professional reputation at risk and potentially their job on the line. This phenomenon gets played up all the time in the B2C space, with companies frequently positioning themselves as a customer’s friend or confidante. But things are a bit different when it’s another business that your brand is trying to engage and transform into a partner.

Building trust in your business

To market successfully in the B2B space, your approach should leverage or complement a network-first system and its inherently trust-based nature. This framework of experienced professionals will help establish credibility and trust in your band and offerings.

There are a couple of ways a brand may go about doing this. Start by sharing your expertise. When possible, take on the role of an unbiased expert – an authoritative voice without vested interests. Depending on your business and industry, you can do this through individual experts, or as part of company-wide approach.

As a consultant you might prepare in-depth case studies that illustrate new ways of overcoming a problem and present these in person or online. A company might produce larger-scale research-based resources such as whitepapers or articles that contain primary research that offer thorough analysis and new insight – while remaining impartial. These resources can be disseminated online, or be presented at seminars, conferences or other industry events.

The Golden opportunity – Lead Nurturing

Another approach to communicating with key B2B players is in the lead nurturing process. Here a brand has the opportunity to gradually build trust with a potential client from the very beginning of the sales cycle, and to see the relationship through to the purchasing stage and beyond.

Email has traditionally been the cornerstone of these campaigns, but social media has become a key channel in lead nurturing – which shouldn’t be a surprise given that its ability to be shared around by colleagues and professionals gives it both high-trust and word-of-mouth cachet.

Make it easy for B2B decision-makers

The above approaches can help establish your business as a trusted leader with in-network status – and one with enough clout to help sway marketers and decision-makers. But don’t forget to keep in mind the typical profile of the people you’re trying to reach.

These directors and executive level professionals are busy, swamped with information, juggling personnel and budgets, and often trying to solve a series of problems that crop up on the fly.

These individuals will vary in their level of tech savviness, but are mostly educated, experienced and natural multi-taskers accustomed to consuming information in a range of short-burst formats. To connect with these professionals you’ll need to find a way to make their lives easier. Offer timely material that clearly identifies and solves the pain points that keep them up at night. Keep it short, but not superficial, and incorporate time-savers such as abstracts, executive summaries and even design work such as graphs and charts if appropriate.

High quality content will draw information-hungry decision-makers to your published material, and informative, engaging social media is a great way to highlight your content while building a community around your business. A presence on key industry organization websites, at industry events or in trade publications will further build trust and visibility while potentially developing key customer relationships.

By thinking in terms of trust and networks, you’ll be able to develop both around your brand, and over time your business will become the kind of industry leader that decision-makers look to for long-term partnerships.

The post With B2B marketing it’s all about trust appeared first on Digital Agency.

Millennials, or individuals born between 1980 and 2000, and have grown up side by side with quickly-evolving technology. They use it for work and play, as a tool, in school, and to stay connected with others across the globe.

Increasingly, members of this generation have leveraged the era of easy connectivity to create community where none had previously existed.

When hashtags go viral, millions of people can connect and communicate in a matter of seconds over a single issue, whether it’s the #thedress, #worldcup, or #jesuischarlie.

Brick & Mortar is so 90’s

According to an article by pewsocialtrends, Millennials have also taken the lead in seizing on the new platforms of the digital era—the internet, mobile technology and social media platforms, to construct personalized networks of friends, colleagues and affinity groups. About 81% of Millennials can be found on Facebook.

Millennials make up the first generation of consumers who may have never needed to visit a bank, an electronics store or a restaurant to secure their goods and services.

Just as important, this is a generation that also has the option of never handling cash! As banking and other financial transactions take place online, actual hard currency has become less important and almost unnecessary. Mobile payments is shaking up the world of finance and how we conduct business. Apple Pay is just one of many mobile payment services that millennials are most likely of any age group to enjoy using.

With so much information at their fingertips, this generation has heralded the arrival of the sharing economy, prioritizing ease of use, maximum efficiency and on-demand access over cumbersome solutions and direct ownership. This can be seen in the rise of ultra-simplified ride-sharing apps such as Uber and Lyft, cutting traditional TV cables in favor of Netflix and Hulu, and streaming music services like Spotify and Apple Music.

Get on top of your mobile game

It’s no secret that Millennials are attached to their smartphones and tablets.

According to an eMarketer study, almost half of all millennials in the United States spend 4 hours or more using mobile internet each weekday, with 28% logging on for over 5 hours each week on average.

In addition, individuals 18-24 years of age have the highest level of mobile phone penetrations at 96.5%. Clearly younger users spend a great deal of time consuming information online and via a mobile device.

Given all of the time they spend with mobile media, it makes sense that brands attracting this target audience must be on top of their mobile game. With so much time spent on mobile and communication tools, brands looking to target millennials need to adapt in order to reach them on their preferred mobile devices. Viewing on a tiny smartphone screen or tablet must be optimal without any fuss. And the user experience on these mobile devices must be just as easy and intuitive as their desktop counterparts.

Social Media & Shopping

Millennials in the United States are actually the group that put social media on the map!

Thanks in part to their heavy use of smartphones, they are the driving force behind consumers making social networking a largely mobile activity.

Millennials are not brand-conscious. Since social media has enabled so many people to connect and communicate, Millennials often rely on the wisdom of the crowd and peers, rather than traditional advertising, to inform purchasing decisions.

Millennials also enjoy using social platforms as a resource when shopping, or simply to express opinions on a brand or specific product. However most of the usage from social media websites are in fact to socialize with peers and friends.

These individuals are not looking to have brands reach out and solicit them directly.

This audience utilizes social media to conduct research on products and services and to compare and contrast possible options. They also learn about products and services through peer activity and sharing. This more general use helps advance learning and product knowledge. Actual transactions or online purchases by this group is in fact the exception.

Co Author – Michael Fruta

The post Millennials Driving Digital Trends appeared first on 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!

The post Copywriting Must Captivate & Compel Action appeared first on Digital Agency.

Susan Kare

An artist and pioneering graphic designer who created many of the interface elements for the Macintosh computer in the 1980s. Her icons helped define the graphical user interfaces we all know and love. She was also one of the original employees of NeXT (the company formed by Steve Jobs, working as the Creative Director. Kare designed her early icons on graph paper and it’s much of her work can still be viewed today, including at exhibitions. Great design is indeed universal and Kare’s success lands her on our list as one of many women we’d like to recognize.

Lynda Susan Weinman

A U.S. business owner, computer instructor, and author, who founded an online software training web site, Lynda.com with her husband, Bruce Heavin. If you’re in the industry and have not heard of Lynda.com you’ve likely been living under a rock! The website provides a treasure trove of online courses and video tutorials within a wide range of subjects including development, design, photography, business, 3D Animation and much more. The website is terrific educational resource for a variety of important subjects and offers monthly subscription plans for those seeking to enhance their education and know how. Lynda.com was acquired by online business network LinkedIn in April 2015 for $1.5 billion.

Weinman changed the way our industry professionals educate themselves. The website empowers the individual to learn new skills from the convenience of their home and at their own pace. Multiple skills can be learned, all in a similar and easy to use format. The concept and user experience for providing online tutorials has been used on countless other websites.

In fact, some of the tutorials were even used by our Founder Isadora Marlow-Morgan, when she was first starting her design and development career in Los Angeles back in 2001.

Carolyn Davidson

A graphic designer best known for designing the Nike “swoosh” logo. Easily one of the most recognizable and iconic logos in the world, Davidson designed the “swoosh” back in 1971. Talk about withstanding the test of time. Phil Knight settled on the “swoosh” after rejecting various other mockups. For Carolyn’s services Nike (or Blue Ribbon Sports, Inc as it was called at the time) paid her a mere $35. The rest as they say is history! The logo highlights the power behind minimalist design, A megatrend that still impacts the way designers create impactful work.

Paula Scher

An artist and graphic designer and the first female principal at Pentagram. She has been at the forefront of graphic design for several decades and started her career as an art director in the 1970s. Scher has taught at the School of Visual Arts for over two decades and has held teaching positions at Yale, and Tyler School of Art. She is a recipient of the National Design Award, AIGA Medal, and Type Directors Club Medal. She went to college thinking she was going to be a painter, but then she discovered graphic design. Through Pentagram her work expertise continues to influence graphic designers and the design created for wide range of global brands such as Tiffany & Co., Dell, Nike, Timex, Citibank, and United Airlines to name just a few.

These women in design may not have known that the dots would connect the way they did, in such a powerful and lasting manner. But that didn’t stop them from impacting the design world. Who will be the next woman to make a lasting impression in design? While we can’t say with certainty, something tells us the examples will be in abundance.
 

The post 4 Pioneering Women In Design appeared first on Digital Agency.

Common considerations for brand positioning

In general, a company should start by deciding to satisfy very specific customer needs or even a single need if possible. It should avoid attempting to satisfy too many things for everyone as this is often difficult to communicate and utterly confusing. In addition, a company should decide to satisfy just those specific needs it’s really good at and hopefully in a way that no other company can match. Here is where a company’s competitive advantage must come into play. You want to capitalize on this and communicate this advantage to the world. Maybe the company has a set of value propositions that satisfy a cluster of needs that is so unique, very few competitors can compete. You also want to consider your target audience (both primary and secondary).

Your target audience must be able to identify with your brand and recognize your unique offerings.

They should have a special place in their minds that they reserve just for your brand. So for example, when a customer is in need of Lemon Garlic Turkey Jerky made with 100% turkey breast, there should be only one brand that comes to mind!

Evaluate your offerings

Developing and establishing a brand positioning takes time and careful consideration. You need to look at your brand internally and also consider the competition. You’ll need to evaluate how your services stack up against the competition and it’s important that you are honest about what you discover. Because while you may think you offer a unique credit card service millennials will love or a luxurious and high quality bag women can’t wait to get a hold of, the reality is that consumers are well informed and rarely ever fooled. So check your ego at the door and be completely forthright with what your company is really good at (and not so good at).

Points of difference and points of parity

Surely there will be similarities between the various brands and offerings. But these points of parity are not where we recommend spending most of your time. Instead a company should know their points of difference and how those differences make them unique.

Identifying the point of difference – This is where our agency likes to spend some extra time in order to discover the benefits a customer associates with a brand. These attributes may be numerous but often times there are just a few (even one) that really make all the difference. With Apple it can be design and ease of use. With Coca Cola it can be classic taste. With All State Insurance it can be that you are in the best of hands. Whatever those associations may be, it’s important that they create strong and favorable associations between brand and consumer.

Top Competitors

A company should also be aware of top competitors, including the strategies and tactics utilized by competitors. This will help define the competitive frame of reference to guide positioning. And as for competitors it’s the direct and top competitors that you want to pay close attention to. Another great tool is the SWOT analysis that includes a competitive analysis. But we’ll save the SWOT analysis for another write-up.

Positioning should be clear

Remember, the goal is to place your brand firmly in the minds of consumers in a special place that maximizes the benefit to your firm.

Everyone in the company should be clear on the brand positioning so that they may use it as context for making decisions. Sometimes it helps to be able to condense the overall positioning into a single concise statement such as a tagline or mantra. Of course, that’s up to you to decide. However, ensuring employees are clear on positioning will go a long way towards effective customer-focused communication.

The post Brand Positioning is Essential appeared first on Digital Agency.

Keep content fresh

Most websites receive the majority of online traffic from new visitors, not returning visitors. To most of your site’s visitors the content looks and feels brand new. Still, there are areas that visitors expect to change frequently. Blogs, news, webinars, videos, press releases and other social media content must be updated frequently and on a consistent basis to keep from seeming abandoned.

But don’t embark on a content-creating crusade without having a content strategy in place. What specific types of content and visuals will be created and with what frequency? What specific groups within the target audience will receive this content. Or where in the purchase cycle will specific content be most meaningful? How will your brand capture important marketing and even demographic information from visitors through the unique content offered? Also make sure the content on your website is relevant and up-to-date. Combing through the static content on a regular basis to make updates ensures nothing is too old. If you discontinue any products or services, you don’t want any mentions of them leftover throughout the website.

Regularly checking through your site for broken links is also a good habit. Since you have no control over other website changes or even stay up or go down, any link pointing externally is at risk of breaking or no longer providing value. There are tools that can be used to crawl your website and output a report of broken links across your website.

Monitor website performance

Website maintenance and monitoring overall performance is an ongoing job. How can you tell if your website is providing visitors with a strong user experience? Digital strategists consider updating customer facing technology (such as a website) as very important. In addition the customer experience is a top factor CMO’s and marketing leaders consider when evaluating a website. Beyond tallying up the number of page views your website receives, their is a myriad of tools and analytics available to evaluate the true health of a business website. Key performance indicators must be established within your website’s audience, acquisition, behavior and conversion. And it’s equally important to be able to interpret the data in order to decide on the best course of action for improvement. What exactly does that specific visitor interaction tell us? For example, visitors who spend a long time on an interior page might be gaining valuable information, while those who spend too long on a contact form might feel confused or inconvenienced. Maybe you’d like to know where visitors are actually clicking on a page, or spending the most time? Some other high level areas to pay attention to includes:

• Bounce rate – The percentage of visitors who leave your site after viewing only one page. We want to make certain this figure remains low.
• Entrance page – The first page a visitor sees on your site during a session. This may be your home page, if they manually type in your URL, or an interior page, if they are referred (linked) by a different website.
• Exit page – The last page a visitor sees on your site before closing their browser or visiting a different website.
• Device and Browser – Indicates which browser (Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari, etc.) and device (Apple iPad, Samsung Galaxy, desktop, etc.) a visitor used to view your site.
• Conversion rate – The percentage of visitors who take a desired action, like buying a product, downloading a white paper, or submitting a contact form on your website.

Identify opportunities for improvement

Whether refreshing your home page with new photos, adding new features and functionality to improve the users’ experience, or embarking on an e-mail marketing campaign to attract new customers, there are always improvements that can be achieved to help optimize your website and drive results. These results can come in the form of improved engagement, stronger conversion, an increase in revenue or all of the above. And there are a variety of ways these primary objectives may be achieved.

SEO optimization is another critical area of website maintenance that provides enormous online benefits from consistent updates and improvements. Off-page optimization is an ongoing task and a great way to ensure specific website pages show up higher in search rankings. Your business website is dynamic and should evolve. Business grade websites work best when they benefit from regular website maintenance and optimization. Ongoing monthly support plans offered through ID Fuel are ideal for businesses looking for high-level service and peace of mind from the experts. In addition, ID Fuel may be enhanced so that it’s tailored to your brand’s specific website. With such a program you receive a robust range of ongoing professional solutions (such as search engine optimization, online marketing strategies, social media publishing, graphic design and even back-end development) that immediately address your company’s primary objectives.

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Branding your business in the digital world is more involved than ever. Have you ever visited a website that took you back in time to the days of dial-up Internet service, AOL Instant Messenger and Alta Vista internet searches? You marvel at the glacial page load speed times, stock looking graphic design, broken hyperlinks and overwhelming amount of text. Dig a little deeper, and you find antiquated menu structures, a shopping cart that doesn’t take you anywhere, and an extra-long contact form that seems never-ending. Within just a few seconds your perception has been completely ambushed! You’ve developed negative opinions about the website, the service, the quality, the company and even the brand. You will not soon forget this experience and about 90% of the time you’ll never re-visit such a website. You may even mention what you saw to a few of your friends as often consumers will share such a poor experience with an average of 11 other individuals.

But now the scary question for a business to consider: Do customers get that same feeling when they visit your business website? Just imagine how that could be impacting brand credibility and the ability to generate online revenue. In many cases, companies are not fully aware of the detriment an outdated website has on the brand. We have found that a disconnect between customer perception and a brand’s visual elements, often plays a pivotal role in the evaluation and decision making process. Even something as simple as not properly conveying a brand’s value propositions, may result in an unintended hindrance within the target audience. But it’s these simple and even subtle factors that make an enormous difference.

The bottom line is that a business often has one chance to make a positive impression and capture a potential customer online – a chance lasting only a few seconds.

Econsultancy for example, reports that 40% of people abandon a page if it takes more than three seconds for it to load.

As that load time increases, more and more customers simply decide to leave. So before you’ve even had a chance to get your message through to customers, they could be gone — simply because your site failed to load fast enough.

This online abandonment translates into real customers lost, often permanently.

These individuals have no incentive to come back to your website and often share their poor experience in vivid detail. This negative word of mouth works against a brand as people start to hear that your business is out of touch. The target audience you so desperately want to communicate with is unable to connect with your brand. And from there your brand’s credibility gradually plummets as people lose trust in your company.

And where are all these potential customers going? Straight to your competitors. And we assure you that your competitors could not be happier. Your competitors’ websites don’t have to be the slickest, or use the most advanced platform and functionality on the web. In the case of a bad user experience, a competitor website needs only to be incrementally better than yours. A threshold so low, few competitors will have difficulty achieving success. And if the visual appeal is stronger and user experience seamless, those competitors gain loyal customers that could have and should have been yours.

But this doesn’t have to be the case and branding your business doesn’t need to be overwhelming.

As a rule of thumb, a business should take a fresh look at it’s website every couple years.

This is even more critical if you are in the technology, education or professional services industry. Five years is a lifetime in the world of web design and development as the industry moves efficiently with improvements. The longer you wait to overhaul your outdated website, the more customers find a happy home with your competitors.

So if you are reviewing the overall branding of your business. Or if it’s been a while since your website was built, now may be the time to partner with a strategic web design agency. Avoid the risk of harming business reputation and losing customers daily. Create an engaging and effective website that effectively represents your brand and get the appropriate visual appeal in front of your target audience.

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Blogging and content strategy go hand in hand and one without the other may prove to be a fruitless experiment.

Content strategy is where you determine what types of content will be created and how such content will be used. Not only is subject matter a high priority, but also what types of assets such as photography if any will be incorporated. The content strategy will be unique to every business and should be tailored to the brand and business objectives. What content would be most influential and what type of content does your customer want to read about most? A professional writer will take a step back and dive deeper into understanding the target audience and specific needs. The businesses that take the time to study and analyze the demographic information of their customer base is definitely ahead of the game! This may sound complicated but it’s worth the investment in time.

There are a variety of tools available for performing such target audience analysis. In the B2B market you can even start preliminary work by creating a simple spreadsheet to track the demographic information of each and every client your business has acquired over the last 6 months. Other firms may choose to segment further and focus on a specific industry or review only the largest clients. Reviewing the data carefully and discovering what each client has in common may bring about some unexpected results. Consider where your company found these customers, or how these customers found your business. Take a deep dive into the data and look for patterns or similarities. Often times the similarities will jump right off the page and other times it takes a bit more work. Where the customer base is large it will take a more rigorous approach of going through the various data points with a fine tooth-comb. Regardless of complexity, the analysis is worth the extra work and will help determine key similarities that should be considered during the creation of content strategy. This strategy may then be blended with creativity to establish an effective strategy for communicating directly with potential customers.

It’s interesting to note that demographic information alone will not be sufficient to secure a deep understanding of your primary and secondary target audience. It’s important to understand your customer’s needs and intentions.

Understanding your customer’s frame of mind and where your customer is at in the purchase cycle will also impact content strategy.

Different customers are often at different stages within the purchase cycle. So when it comes to creating strong blog posts you really need to understand these various stages so that you are able to communicate effectively to each customer within each stage. It’s hard enough to pull a customer to your website, so when they arrive make certain your business takes full advantage of each and every opportunity. Because a lost opportunity, is one that will likely never return. Know what types of information your customers are looking for. More importantly, what types of information will influence customers to conversion or purchase. These are just a few of the basic questions an expert marketer will take the time to learn about. And such answers are required if you are looking to establish a content strategy that will lead to producing winning blog posts for your business.

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