Author: AJ

How Your Website’s Design Boosts Your Conversion Rates

If your website is underperforming in terms of conversion, take a close look at your website’s design. Factors including the usability and ease of navigation, the extent to which your call-to-action stands out on the page, and the responsive design of your site, can all affect your conversion rates.

1. First, take a look at your website’s overall usability.

Is the site easy to navigate? When a customer arrives at your site, is it clear which actions to take next in order get more information or dig into an area of interest? Making sure that pages are easy to read, headings are clearly labeled, and the site loads quickly is imperative. If a user needs to labor over your website navigation to get where he wants to go, his chance of seeing your call-to-action (CTA) is reduced.

2. Look at your CTA.

Is it distinguished from the rest of your content? Putting your CTA inside a container is an essential strategy that sets its content apart. But make sure to pay attention to font hierarchy, use of white space, and the content of the CTA. You want to design your CTA in a way that it is clear that your user must act on it in order to move forward. The language you use should be clear, informative, and inspiring.

3. Have you addressed responsive design with your web design team?

Responsive design is the ability of your website to adapt depending on screen size. A responsive site will be just as easy to navigate on a small screen, as when it’s on your computer. Surely, you’ve visited sites on your phone that present you with a pop-up window that either cannot be seen in its entirety, or which contains a CTA that is obscured. Did you do the labor necessary to act upon that CTA? Probably not. This is why responsive design is a must.

Speak with your web design firm and take conversion rates into consideration when you’re redesigning your site, or giving it a bit of a facelift. Your site is there to boost your customer base, so ensuring that it is designed with that intention is essential.

Posted on by AJ

B2B vs. B2C Content Marketing: What’s the Difference?

Understanding your customers is the key to great marketing.

One of the first steps a company must take when they are redesigning their website, launching a social media campaign, or exploring inbound marketing efforts. Is to identify what tactics work for a B2B versus a B2C company. In order to make sure that their customers are being reached using the proper channels and the right content.

What is B2B marketing?

B2B is short for business to business. Business to business marketing occurs when a company’s products and services are designed for other businesses instead of individual consumers. The company needs to market directly to other businesses, which means that their methods of marketing their business will differ from B2C content marketing.

What is B2C marketing?

B2C is short for business to consumer. Business to consumer marketing occurs when a business provides products and services to individual consumers. Such as grocery items, clothing and accessories, or dining experiences. In addition, services such as home organization, house repairs, or job search consultation. These businesses must communicate directly with end users, who might find their products and services online or in store.

Why is it important for your web design, social media, and inbound marketing experts to understand the unique needs of a B2B campaign versus a B2C campaign?

B2B and B2C websites will differ greatly from one another. B2B companies might provide comprehensive user guides and intensive product details on their websites. B2C companies may be communicating products to customers who may not need to understand the ins and outs of the industry and manufacturing. Or about a product’s specific applications.

On social media, approaches between the two types of companies may differ.

Giveaways, contests, and ads directed to the general public may work well for B2C companies. While targeted, industry-specific information may be more appropriate for B2B customers. Inbound marketing efforts will often look very different for a B2B versus a B2C company, their buyer personas vary greatly.

Ask the professionals working on your website, social media efforts, and inbound marketing campaign to discuss your unique needs as either a B2B or B2C company. An expert will be able to talk with you about how to best tailor your marketing efforts to your customer base.

Posted on by AJ

How an SEO Analysis Could Benefit Your Company

For many companies, the term “search engine optimization” (SEO) is a nagging reminder of the work they need to do to develop a more effective website. Hiring an SEO professional can simplify this process for you, as an expert can deliver an SEO analysis and create a strategy around SEO that will bring your site up to speed.

An SEO analysis is an assessment of your website’s SEO strategy. There are several platforms that can monitor traffic and decipher how your visitors are engaging and interacting with your site. Comprehensive SEO analysis will dig a bit more deeply into your site’s metrics. Taking a close look at your site’s backlink portfolio and code. This allows your SEO strategists to determine what is working on your site and what requires attention.

An SEO analysis can provide a variety of opportunities to boost your website’s performance. During an SEO analysis, you can:

  • Analyze keyword-driven content to see how it has impacted your traffic.
  • Zoom in on written content to determine its effect on your keyword rankings.
  • Take a closer look at load speed and decide whether adjustments must be made.
  • Do the important work of examining conversion rate optimization.
  • Examine your backlinks and how they’ve helped your website’s page authorities.

While you may be using analytics tools to look at the numbers for yourself, an SEO professional can take those numbers and interpret them in order to help you to devise an SEO strategy. This can be the most challenging part. Allow an expert to take you from analysis to strategy in order to begin building a more robust, effective site for your business.

Posted on by AJ

What is Responsive Design and What Can It Do For Your Website?

Have you ever visited a company’s website on your phone, and found that the graphics were off-center? Was the text was difficult to read, and the navigation was nearly impossible? What about your tablet? Do some websites simply look jarring on your iPad? Are they simply less functional? Responsive website design eliminates these issues. By producing websites which adapt, to the screen on which they are viewed, and are usable regardless of what device you use. Why does your business need responsive design?

1. Mobile usage is rising.

More than half of Americans own a smartphone. That means that a great deal of website views are occurring on peoples’ mobile devices. If you’re emailing newsletters to your customers, engaging with them on social media, or promoting your content on blogs, your users are likely linking to your websites from these channels on their phones, and you want them to be greeted by a simple, responsive experience when they get there.

2. Responsive sites garner better SEO rankings.

Google recommends that websites utilize responsive design. Responsive websites provide users with a better experience, causing them to spend more time on the website in question. And when users spend more time on a particular website, visiting several of its pages, that site’s ranking improves.

3. Your customers are more likely to go where you want them to go.

Every business website has a goal: to convert potential customers into existing customers, and to reap more business from existing customers. In order for their website to be effective, it needs to be easy to use, and your users must be able to intuitively get from the home page to a call to action page or a point of contact with your sales team. Responsive design allows you to do just that, on a variety of devices.

Is your web design firm talking with you about responsive design? Ask about their approach to making your website accessible on a multitude of different types of devices in order to build a more successful site.

Posted on by AJ

Developing Your Content Marketing Strategy: A How-to For the Business-to-Business Crowd

Do you have a lot to say to your potential customers? Blog posts, web content, and social media posts just waiting to be written? Before you begin putting your products or services into words, take a moment to strategize around the distribution and targeting of your content.

1. Define your target audiences.

Your goal is to convert visitors to your website, blog, or social media profiles into customers. You need to have a keen understanding of who those customers are before you begin to create content. Think of the industries you are selling to. Think of the people working in those industries who are likely to buy your product or services. Those are your targets. Write down the job title of each target, and imagine their goals, as well as their concerns and questions. Develop this into a written description of each target, called a buyer persona. Inbound marketing campaigns often make use of buyer personas to visualize each target specifically as they are creating content. This practice allows you to keep your targets and their interests in mind as you go along.

2. Be clear about your goal of converting visitors into customers.

With every line of content you create, remember to keep your ultimate goal in mind. You are engaging in an inbound marketing campaign in order to convert visitors in paying customers, and you must make sure that every blog post, landing page, content offer, or social media post is steering your visitors toward that conversion point. In a blog post or content offer, this may look like something as simple as a presentation of information with a call-to-action directing the reader to contact a sales representative. On social media, it may be more subtle, as you create social media posts that gently nudge your visitors toward the idea of engaging with your company on another level.

3. Focus on appropriate channels.

Take a look at the actions and movements of your target audience. Focus on their behavior. Do they participate on Facebook or Twitter? Are they clicking through emails to get to your site? Are they commenting on blog posts? If you see a trend that points to a preferred method of communication, use that method to get to your potential customers. If your customers do not have time to click on individual emails, but are active on Facebook, make social media your channel of choice.

Working with an expert in content creation and distribution will help you to get started and to produce quality content that is distributed successfully. A firm that specializes in inbound marketing can help you to kick off your campaign!

Posted on by AJ

Content Marketing and the Question of Quantity Versus Quality

Every time a business starts a new blog, creates a new social media profile, or begins to redesign their site, they ask themselves an age-old question. Do I focus on quantity or quality? When it comes to your online presence, you may not need to choose. In fact, we recommend that you incorporate quantity and quality into your strategy.

Why focus on quality?

  • These days, readers’ attention is difficult to grab. Producing quality content means targeting your potential customers’ specific questions and interests, and putting information out there which provides real value.
  • Google cares about quality. Google monitors what your users do when they visit your site. Are they reading content all the way to the end? If not, your page may rank lower.
  • A high-quality blog post can be an excellent way of boosting your social media marketing. Do you make several excellent points in one post? Are there a variety of pieces of quality information in this post? Then take each individual point and use it to create one great tweet, FB post, or update on LinkedIn.

Why focus on quantity?

  • Think about the blogs, websites, and social media profiles you frequent. What has caused you to prioritize those sites and profiles? If a business is putting out frequent, consistent material, their output is more likely to catch and sustain the attention of its readers.
  • Focusing on quantity allows you to experiment. If you use a small amount of resources to touch upon a certain topic without delving into it too deeply, you can easily determine how much interest that topic generates without spending too many resources. Then, use your resources to create quality posts on the topics that do generate interest.
  • Look at the numbers. Hubspot has found that there is a direct correlation between the frequency of material produced and the results seen as a result of one’s marketing efforts.

If you’re not sure how to incorporate both quantity and quality into your inbound marketing strategy, talk with an inbound marketing expert at your web design firm about maintaining a balance.

Posted on by AJ

Are You Using the Right Channels to Distribute Your Content?

Writing great content is a key strategy when you’re looking to attract visitors to your website. Making sure that your content gets to your customers, using the right channels of distribution, is just as important. What’s the use in creating valuable content if you’re not reaching your customers and targeting that content toward them?

Identify Buyer Personas

Your first step when deciding which channels to use, is to identify your buyer personas. If you’re selling manufacturing equipment, your target buyer personas might be facilities or operations managers, engineers, or procurement professionals. If you’re marketing a line of fitness apparel. Your buyer personas may include online retailers, health and fitness clubs, and consumers in the demographic who might be most interested in your product’s design, style, and function. Once you’ve identified your key buyer personas, you can speak with your web design firm. One, ideally, that specializes in inbound marketing, to determine which channels are likely to reach people your buyer personas.

Understand Distribution Channels

Next, you’ll want to understand the three different types of distribution channels, to make choices regarding which channels to use. Owned media is the media your brand is in control of, including your website, blog, and social media accounts. These media target your existing customers and followers. It should be a key part of your content distribution strategy. Paid media is promoted content on sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Paid media also includes pay per click and display ads on search engines and other websites. Earned media includes shares and mentions of your social media and blog posts, reviews, recommendations and content mentioned on 3rd party sites. In order to “earn” this type of media, you must create compelling content, build a stellar SEO strategy, and engage with your customers via social media.

Utilize Experts

Your web design firm can help to develop content and strategies necessary to distribute through the channels that make the most sense for your company. Analyzing your customer base, creating unique content, and targeting current and potential customers, should be the cornerstones of your plan to build your customer base.

Look for a web design firm with an understanding of SEO and inbound marketing. Hiring a creative team with expertise in building dynamic new content, you’ll be well on your way to developing your business online.

Posted on by AJ

How Scannable is Your Website?

Unless a reader is sitting down with their Kindle app or a piece of long form journalism, most web visitors are unlikely to spend more than a few minutes on a web page. Many of them scan content, picking out only key words and phrases. Making sure that your content is scannable will ensure that readers absorb the most important info, and click through your site to read further.

What are the most important elements of scannable content?

  • Brief sentences and paragraphs.
  • A short and informative headline that lets the reader know what to expect.
  • A piece that begins with your conclusion, and extrapolates from there.
  • Bold text for emphasis.
  • Bullet-pointed lists, like this one, when more than three points may be made on a topic.
  • Links to relevant content.
  • Clear understandable language.
  • One main idea per paragraph.
  • Use the active voice instead of the passive voice.
  • Use a casual, conversational style.

What do you need to avoid when assembling scannable content?

  • Distractions, like hard-to-dismiss pop-ups or crowded page graphics and content.
  • Long sentences and dense paragraphs.
  • Overly formal phrasing.
  • Unstructured content that is difficult to follow.

If you don’t have an experienced content writer on your team, speak with your web design company about creating content that is easily scannable and put forth your most important information. Great content turns visitors into customers!

Posted on by AJ

Should Your Company Outsource Your Social Media Efforts?

You’ve been sharing, liking, and commenting for years now on Facebook. You’ve seen your favorite brands advertise on social media, and you may even be trying out Twitter and Instagram. You’re social media savvy, and you’re thinking about expanding your company’s presence on social media as well. Even the most competent influencers may run up against struggles when it comes to effectively managing their company’s social media presence. Calling in experts will bring you the results you need, and will save your company resources in the long run.

Knowledge and expertise.

Calling in a social media expert will guarantee that your company will build its social media presence under the guidance of a team that has spent years analyzing the different channels and platforms available, the various approaches that are effective on each channel, and knows how to analyze your company and your target audience to determine what type of content and which channels are right for your organization.

Streamlined Processes.

A firm that has long-term expertise in social media knows precisely how to run a social media presence. So that every post, tweet, and share generates interest among you target audience. They know the times of day when customers are most responsive. They understand the algorithms that are used to create effective advertising and sponsored posts. And they have a strategy for creating content, distributing that content, and staying on schedule.

Consistency and reliability.

Think about your team’s daily activities. Your project managers, client service staff, and executives are busy meeting the needs of your existing customer base. Pulling them off their jobs to perform social media duties detracts from their performance. It is sure to result in a spotty social media strategy. An outside firm will stick to a pre-determined plan. Consistently creating content and posting to your target audience, in lockstep with your internal staff as they achieve their daily, weekly, and monthly goals.

Your company’s social media presence should be a priority, and just as you would hire an expert to handle a new company priority in any case, hiring a social media expert is key when developing your social media strategy. Discuss your plans with your web design firm, as they may have a team who can address your growing needs.

Posted on by AJ

Why Your Company Should Use Google Analytics

Analytics

Do you want to know more about your customers? Do you wish that you could track visitor activity on your website and see demographic info using easy to read reports? Google Analytics provides a streamlined service that delivers the information you need to direct your web presence toward your target audience.

It’s simple to use, and free

Consult with your web design firm about setting up Google Analytics for your site, and you’ll soon find yourself perusing Google’s breakdown of your visitors, their demographic info, and the pages they’ve spent time on. It’s a free tool that you’ll actually enjoy using.

You’ll learn about your customers

Google Analytics provides an essential look into the demographic information and behaviors of your customers. You’ll be able to pinpoint the city and state each visitor is viewing your site from. Where they linked from, and which pages they visited on your site. This will help you to analyze the customers you’re reaching.

Customized reports

Do you want to see all of the information available about your website visitors, or just a few key pieces of info? Google Analytics allows your team to choose custom reports that deliver exactly what you’re looking for.

Visitor tracking in real time

In addition to harnessing key demographic info about your visitors, you’ll also be able to see which pages visitors are looking at, when they’re visiting, and how long they’re staying on your site for easy integration. Your web design team can use Google Analytics to work with data from Google Adwords and Google Search Console. You’ll be able to access Analytics from an of your devices. Talk to your web design firm today about how it uses Google Analytics to analyze customer info and use it to improve your companies web presence.

Posted on by AJ