Month: January 2021

The Benefits of Hiring a Web Design Company

An impressive, eye-catching website can make a big difference to your overall business success. In fact, about 50% of customers say a website’s design is the main factor they use to determine a company’s credibility. Another 38% will leave a website if it’s unattractive. With more people staying home in light of COVID, you need to reach customers online. Hiring a professional website company can help you stand out and expand your reach. Otherwise, you could risk falling behind the competition. Still on the fence about spending money on web design services?

Here are nine amazing benefits you can experience by hiring a team of web designers right away. Discover how web design can boost your business with this guide today!

1. Strengthen Your Digital Marketing Strategy

What do you have in store for your digital marketing strategy this year? Are you trying to reach more search engine users using search engine optimization (SEO)? Perhaps you’re using pay-per-click (PPC) advertising instead.

Either way, your website is an essential part of your overall marketing strategy.

Consumers won’t choose a business they know nothing about. They want to learn about what you have to offer. Many will explore your website to determine who you are and what you do.

Remember, your web design can have a big impact on your company’s credibility. A messy, confusing website could scare off potential customers.

If people leave without clicking around, it could impact your bounce rate, clickthrough rate, and dwell time. These metrics can impact your search engine ranking.

You could waste valuable time and money on SEO and PPC if your website is old and out of date.

SEO and PPC both help you reach more online consumers. The higher you rank, the more often shoppers will see your brand. With these digital marketing strategies, you can:

Build brand awareness
Become a thought leader in your industry
Outrank the competition
Attract more website traffic
Build brand trust and loyalty

People will see you as a credible resource.

If your website is old, slow, or insecure, however, you’ll miss your chance!

By choosing web design services, you can build a website that accomplishes your digital marketing goals instead of hinders them.

2. Appeal to Your Audience

Who are your customers? What issues are they experiencing each day? How can your business help solve those problems?

An experienced web design company will understand that it’s essential to create a website with your distinct target audience in mind. Otherwise, a generic website could fail to appeal to their needs and interests.

Working with a web design agency can help you reach customers, draw them in, and generate more leads. They’ll research customer demographics like age, gender, and location. Then, they’ll build your website with those customers in mind.

Instead of struggling to attract relevant leads, you can reel them in!

3. Support Your SEO Efforts

Remember, your digital marketing strategy could suffer if you’re using an old, outdated website. Google considers your entire website when determining your search engine ranking.

Unfortunately for some, Google updates its algorithm numerous times throughout the year. If you’re not up-to-date with the latest SEO trends, your ranking could suffer.

Over 90% of all online activity begins on a search engine. Meanwhile, over 70% of searchers never look beyond the first page of a search. You need to reach that first page to draw in fresh web traffic.

A talented web designer can help you achieve your SEO goals.

For example, Google now uses mobile-first indexing to determine rankings. They can update your website to ensure it’s mobile optimized. Then, you can reach mobile users (instead of losing a chance at fresh leads).

4. Remain Competitive

What are your competitors doing to improve their own web design this year? Are you falling behind?

Your web design company can help you remain competitive. If you’re a small business, a stunning website could even help you look like a big corporation. They can help you wow customers and draw them in before competitors can.

If your website looks old and outdated, however, your competitors will take the lead. Consumers will choose bigger, more successful businesses over ones that look like they’re failing.

Remember, your website’s design can help support your SEO efforts. You can improve your ranking to appear ahead of big corporations. Positioning yourself ahead of these businesses can help you look like a big business, too.

Then, you can attract those customers before your competitors get the chance!

5. Keep the Lights On

It’s likely your business doesn’t run 24/7. That’s okay. With a stunning website, you can bring in fresh leads and sales whether your store is open or not.

Your website design agency can help you market your business, even when the doors are closed for the night. For example, they can make sure you have plenty of lead opportunities on each page.

Website visitors can fill out a form or subscribe to your newsletter. Without a functional website, however, you’ve missed out on these leads!

You can also ask your design team to add a chat function to your website. Visitors will see that you’re eager to help and answer their questions.

If they don’t have a way to communicate with you, however, they’ll leave and take their business elsewhere.

In fact, your website could help you draw more traffic into your brick and mortar store, too. Nearly 90% of consumers use the internet to find local businesses. Once they review your website, they’ll realize you have exactly what they’re looking for!

Are you trying to boost e-commerce sales this year? Your website can either help you or hinder you.

About 70% of online users abandon their shopping carts because of proof web design. Some people struggle to use your website because it’s not mobile-optimized, too. Since mobile conversions are 64% higher than desktop, you need a mobile strategy.

Working with a talented web design agency can help you get those sales!

6. Improve the User Experience

Considering user experience (UX) is essential if you want to keep people on your website. In fact, UX can influence your SEO success as well.

Think about how people interact with your website. Can they find everything they need easily? Do your pages load quickly?

A messy, cluttered, confusing website page design can confuse your customers. They’ll leave without clicking around. Your SEO ranking will take a hit as a result.

Improving the user experience will keep people on your website. They’ll explore, find what they need, and convert.

Ask the web design agency you choose if they have UX design experience. They can improve your website with the users in mind.

For example, it’s important to make sure your website loads quickly. Old plugins, heavy images, and clunky pages can slow the site down. In fact, a website that takes 10 seconds increases the probability of a bounce by 123%.

Adjusting your website’s page design can improve your content’s readability. You can use shorter sentences and paragraphs to make your content easier to skim. Headings and subheadings can better organize your content as well.

What about your page navigation? Is it easy to explore your pages? Does the navigation make sense?

Considering these design elements can help you keep people on your site.

7. Keep Up With Trends

Web design trends change every few months. If your website is behind the times, consumers will take notice. They’ll think of your company as old and outdated as well.

For example, you can add:

Big, bold headlines
Motion and animation
Personalized pages
Dark mode
3D and visualized data
Chatbots and assistants

Consumers will start expecting these features across every website. By working with an experienced web design company, you can keep up with these trends.

They’ll make sure you never fall behind.

8. Build Trust and Loyalty

Remember, your website page design can speak to your company’s credibility. What message do you want to convey to your target audience?

For example, you might have a fun, playful brand. You can use an array of colors, fun animations, and cute doodles across your site.

Do you want to look professional instead?

Either way, your web design company can help you achieve these goals.

Using a DIY website builder, on the other hand, can make your company look small and cheap. Conveying the right message will help you build brand trust. Ensuring visitors find what they need with ease can encourage consumers to trust you as well.

In time, that trust will turn into loyalty, allowing you to retain long-time customers.

9. Improve Your ROI

How can people convert on your website? Do you have a form or chat option? Is the button big, eye-catching, and easy to click on?

Think about your links, too. Broken links could cost you conversions.

Your web design team will improve your website with lead generation in mind. They’ll make sure you capitalize on every opportunity to gain a conversion.

With their help, you can boost leads and conversions, improving your company’s ROI.

Design It Right: 9 Reasons You Need a Professional Web Design Agency

Don’t fall behind the times! Instead, update your website with help from an experienced web design agency. With their experience and expertise, you can stand out from the crowd and boost sales.

Without them, however, your website could fall flat.

Ready to get started? Discover the website you’ve always wanted. Get a quote from a team of talented web designers today!

Why Video Production Makes for Powerful Marketing in 2021

Wondering if you should add video production to your marketing strategy?

Our modernizing world brought about new possibilities for the business landscape. Many companies have moved on to digital means to promote their products. One of the most popular forms of marketing is video production.

Since people process visuals faster than text, videos have become effective marketing tools. However, not many know the benefits of video marketing. Are you looking to try producing videos?

This article covers why you should use video marketing in 2021. Videos are a great tool for all types of businesses. Read on to discover the benefits of video marketing for your business.

More Attractive and Memorable

Videos help you capture a browser’s attention faster than images or text can. Colorful images and creative infographics are still effective. However, they’re not as strong as videos.

Videos are more attractive because they combine your visual and auditory senses. You can also leverage videos to create a story about your brand. This allows users to retain information better.

A video is a great way to tell your story as a brand without overwhelming a user with too much. You can incorporate things like a voice-over that matches how you want your users to feel. If you look for a “green screen studio near me”, you can add compelling visuals in the editing process.

Boost Website SEO

If you own a website, you may already be familiar with SEO or Search Engine Optimization. Most search engines like Google use keywords to rank websites for their browsers. However, other factors can help boost your SEO.

Google’s goal is to provide their browsers with relevant information. This means that content must have a clear purpose, more link shares, and a low bounce rate. This is why Google prefers websites with video content.

Videos are capable of holding a viewer’s attention longer than reading text. This means that videos can give you a lower bounce rate. Videos are also more likely to bring traffic to your website. This gives you a higher SEO ranking.

Increase in Sales

Reports show that you’ll see an increase in conversion rates when you add a video to your landing page. A video gives your users a better understanding of your product or service. This tends to influence their purchasing decisions.

People are more likely to buy a product or service after seeing others use it. Most people also search for videos if they want to learn more about a product or service. Buyers want to see how your products and services can enhance their quality of life.

This also means that video production can bring you a high ROI. Many marketers may avoid producing videos due to their limited budget. However, many also found that video marketing is with it.

Build Customer Trust

Videos are the most powerful tool you have if you want to build a foundation of trust. There are various things you can do with video production. This can range from webinars to explainer videos.

This visual format allows your buyer to see a real person. This evokes a feeling of empathy and emotion. These feelings can have a great impact on customer decisions.

One of the best types of videos that can foster trust is promotional videos. When introduced to a new brand, many first-time buyers may feel skeptical. However, videos allow you to connect with users and create a conversation.

More Informative

Videos allow you to disclose more information than an infographic or image can. Cramming details about your brand and products can overwhelm your users. However, you still want to capture their attention and share valuable information.

Video production allows you to explain everything you need to about a new product or service. You may place an explainer video on your landing page to draw in more visitors. You’re not limited to real-life shoots either!

If you want to explain a complex concept, you can opt for animated videos instead. Animated videos are often more attractive and cost-effective. You don’t have to waste time planning filming schedules or to get the right actors.

Animated videos can entertain your viewers and evoke a feeling of nostalgia. Whichever video format you choose, you’re sure to provide valuable help to your users.

Rise in Demand

As the popularity of videos increases, so does the demand. More people are spending their time watching videos instead of reading articles. The average American internet browser spends at least six hours watching videos.

This means that internet browsers are likely to look for more videos. In the fast-paced digital world, images and blog posts are no longer enough to grow a loyal customer base. If you want to keep gaining customers and keep them around, you need videos.

Most of the global internet traffic comes from videos. Producing videos relevant to your brand’s image will allow you to get more web traffic.

Caters to Mobile Users

If you’re looking to optimize your SEO for 2021, you may want to prioritize mobile users. Experts estimate that by 2025, most of the web traffic will come from mobile phones. This means that your website and content must be responsive to mobile design.

Most people prefer to watch videos on the go. If you want your content to hit your target audience, opt to create video content. Publishing videos on YouTube gives your brand more potential to grow.

Social media marketing is crucial to success for online businesses. Everyone is on social media nowadays. So if you want to reach your target audience, you need to have a social media marketing strategy.

One way to build your presence on social media is by posting videos relevant to your brand. Reports show that videos get more social shares than any other type of digital content. An entertaining or emotional video is more likely to influence a user’s actions.

Many social media platforms are beginning to incorporate video content. Some platforms like Instagram and TikTok base their content on videos.

Videos are shareable not only because they’re entertaining. Videos offer practical value by sharing information and providing tips.

Tips for Marketing With Videos

Looking to incorporate videos into your marketing strategy? Here are some tips for creating a strong video marketing strategy.

Create an Upload Schedule

No matter what type of content you deliver, your viewers expect regular updates. Refer to your marketing videos as a campaign instead of single random posts. Regular uploads create a foundation of trust between you and your customers.

It encourages your current following to come back for more content. You may also leverage your upload schedule to create momentum for a new product launch.

A consistent upload schedule allows your audience to stay engaged. Consistency also helps you establish yourself as an authoritative figure of your brand.

Optimize Videos With SEO

Uploading videos can boost your website’s SEO. However, you can take this further by optimizing your videos with SEO. Google indexes their YouTube videos.

This means your brand is more likely to show up when people search for your brand or a certain keyword. Define a primary keyword that’s relevant to your brand or product.

Optimize your videos by incorporating these keywords and phrases in your descriptions. You may also add these to your video titles.

Involve Your Customers

When your customers see themselves in your videos, they feel more involved. It allows them to think that you care for them and have a genuine desire to deliver to their needs. Customer testimonials are great ways to start.

Testimonials also serve as social proof, meaning you can attract more people. Aside from testimonial videos, you may also try Q&As about your product and brand. Encourage your customers to work with you by filming themselves using your products.

Show Your Personality

Use your videos to show off your culture as a company. People are more attracted to videos that are entertaining and full of personality. Show your customers what sets your business apart from your competitors.

You may also show off your values as a company. This humanizes your business and allows people to connect with you. People are more attracted to brands that share their values and morals.

It allows them to attach themselves to an authoritative figure. You may also tell stories about your company and your products.

Track Your Progress

Tracking your progress to crucial to any business endeavor. If you’re trying out a new strategy, ensure to track its analytics. This gives you a hint on how well your videos are performing.

Use your analytics to manage and improve your content. You may use this to improve your strategy and get the most out of your video productions.

Video Production for a Powerful Marketing Strategy

Are you looking to boost your brand’s relevance in 2021? Here are some reasons why your brand needs video production in the coming year. Videos are powerful tools, allowing you to build trust and increase sales.

Thanks for reading our article! Looking for a video production team? Contact us today and discover more of our services!

Accessible Web Design – 7 Tips to Get Started

Asian young blind woman with headphone using computer with refreshable braille display or braille terminal a technology device for persons with visual disabilities.

“Accessibility” is an umbrella term that is used to describe aspects which influence a person’s ability to function within an environment. In web design, this translates to how easily your site can be navigated by someone of differing ability.

It may be a legal requirement for your business’ website to be accessible. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), businesses that fall under two different distinctions (Title I and Title III) must have accessible websites.

Title I businesses are defined as businesses that have 15 or more employees and operate 20 or more weeks per year. Title III businesses are categorized as “public accommodations” such as banks, public transport, or hotels.

The ADA does not have specific guidelines for web accessibility, but there are many ways you can ensure your website is accessible to all users. These 7 tips below will get you started:

1. Add Alt Text to Images

Images on your website help to visually break up text and add meaning to your content, but what about users who are visually impaired? Any important images or graphics used on your website should have alt text embedded into the code, so people who use screen reading software can have a meaningful description of the image. This is especially important for infographics; make sure your alt text includes not only a description of the visuals of the infographic, but a transcription of any words contained in the infographic, as well.

If an image used is purely decorative, you can leave the alt text empty. This will allow a screen reader to ignore the image entirely.

2. Add Captions or Provide Transcripts with Video or Audio

Any video or audio that appears on your site should contain text captions. Many online platforms offer the ability to generate captions automatically, but adding captions to your produced videos is the best way to display an accurate script for your audio. This ensures users with hearing impairments (or even people who prefer to watch video without sound) are able to understand your video content. If you cannot add captions or your content is audio-only, you can provide a transcript of the audio the user can download to understand the meaning of your content.

3. Use Proper Headings for Organization

Screen readers can pick up on headings and subheadings to better organize website text. Marking sections with <h1>, <h2>, <h3>, etc is a simple way to ensure visually impaired users will be able to hear your content as intended. Don’t skip around in numerical order, however. Going from <h1> to <h3> might look nice visually, but it can confuse someone using a screen reader and make them think there is content missing. Keeping content in a logical sequence makes it easier for screen readers to follow; skipping numbered heading formats may be disorienting or confusing.

4. Simplify Navigation

Organize your menu options to be the same on every page. This makes your site predictable and easier to navigate. Some users are not able to use a mouse due to movement difficulties. Including the ability to navigate your website by keyboard could make navigation easier for them. Users should be able to follow internal and external links with ease, and be able to go forwards and backwards through content without getting stuck. Test your web page by trying to navigate without using your mouse to check that navigation is intuitive and simple.

5. Be Mindful of Color

Using color to distinguish parts of your text may give your website a polished look, but solely using color can run you into trouble for accessibility. Approximately 8% of men and .4% of women around the world have some form of color blindness; red-green color blindness is the most common deficiency. Add other design elements, such as patterns or different fonts to better visually distinguish different parts of your content. You can also utilize borders or whitespace to separate out sections. And be sure to use enough contrast between the background of your page or image and your text; there are many tools available, like this color analyzer, that will test contrast levels to make sure they are within accessibility guidelines.

6. Use Readable Font

Set your default font size to something reasonably large. Users can use their browser’s settings to increase or decrease as needed. However, your design should ensure that enlarging fonts won’t interfere with readability or functionality. Choose a typeface that is simple with distinct letters and wide enough space between letters. Users with dyslexia will have an easier time tracking text that is spaced further apart. Use plenty of space between paragraphs, as well.

Avoid using images of text instead of text for headers or other text assets. Screen readers won’t be able to read them without a well-written caption, and it makes editing content more difficult.

7. Make Links Descriptive

A simple “click here!” might be catchy clickbait for some links, but it can be confusing to screen reading software. Make your links descriptive with phrasing such as “check out our about page to learn more” or “contact us here”. A little bit of description goes a long way, as screen readers typically don’t read links within the context of the rest of the page. If you’re using an image as a link, include a description of the destination page as the image’s alt text.

What More Can I Do?

Many content management systems, such as WordPress, have accessibility settings built-in to themes and templates. This can help get you started, along with the previous tips above. In addition, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has created a system of guidelines to better help developers with accessibility. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, or WCAG, are a detailed list of actions you can take within your web design to make your website fully accessible to users with disabilities. There is even a quick reference guide with examples you can use to get a better idea of the types of accommodations that can take your website to the next level of accessibility.

Of course, if you need assistance, you can always contact us for help! We can be there with you every step of the way while you build a website that is sure to wow and be accessible to everyone.

7 Strategies to Build Brand Awareness in 2021

Did you know that it takes 5 to 7 impressions for a brand to be remembered and become recognizable? Building a brand is an ongoing, evolving process that requires adaptation and hard work.

Brand awareness is a foundation to building a brand successfully, it lays the groundwork for brand recognition and brand recall.

So how do small businesses or enterprises ensure that their strategies are promoting brand awareness into and throughout 2021? Keep reading to find out the 7 best ideas for better brand awareness.

Brand Awareness And Conversions

Focusing on brand awareness can bring a myriad of advantages and benefits to your brand and business. One of these advantages is the fact that by deciding to increase brand awareness, you’re likely to see an increase in conversions and sales.

The two are strongly tied together.

Why is that?

Having a strong brand awareness means that people will remember your brand, and will be able to recall your products and services easier. The key to brand awareness is that potential customers will begin to relate your specific product with your brand, and remember it in their time of need.

Brand awareness creates trust with your audience, and by doing so, eventually converts them to customers. Which is how brand awareness will increase your conversions over time.

There are three key things that brand awareness can do your business:

It can drive traffic to your website
It can increase lead generation and conversions
It can increase referrals and word-of-mouth marketing

The one way to ensure that your brand awareness efforts are working for you is by using different strategies.

1. Begin With a Plan

Brand awareness should never be done on a whim with no strategic goals in place. This is why the first strategy you should have, is to have a strategy.

Sounds a bit counterintuitive, doesn’t it?

But marketing efforts should never be implemented without a solid plan as its foundation. This means you need to be able to measure brand awareness success.

You need a plan for your brand awareness campaign. Ask yourself, what do you want to achieve with your marketing? What do you want to achieve with your brand awareness?

Are you looking for more subscribers? Are you looking for more followers or a higher engagement rate?

The absolute fundamental part to creating a successful brand awareness campaign is to know your audience. This is all forms part of the plan that you’ll create. So, start with your audience, what is their demographic? Where will you find them? Who are they?

Once you’ve nailed that down, you’ll want to have measurable goals in place for the duration of your plan. How else are you going to know if you’re improving or if your strategies are working?

2. Develop Your Brand Persona

Some brands don’t see the importance of a cohesive brand persona across their platforms, and this is a mistake.

You should develop a brand personality and voice that’s going to be the rule for how your brand is presented online, and offline. Part of this strategy is how you plan to make your brand relatable to your audience.

If your brand evokes emotional reactions in people, it will be more memorable, and that’s how brand awareness and brand recall work. Work on your brand’s personality.

How are you going to get people to relate to it on an emotional level?

3. Content Is Key

One strategy you should focus on is your content marketing. Through content, you can achieve many things.

Focusing on your content marketing means that you need to have an understanding of the type of content you’ll be creating and publishing, and how this content is relevant and relatable to your audience. Content marketing is usually the heart of your brand’s digital marketing tactics.

There’s no point in creating a brand awareness campaign if there isn’t relevant content to interest your audience. Having content that solves a problem or issue for your audience or your customers, is ultimately what will drive conversions.

In-depth information within your content will be valuable to the performance of your brand awareness efforts.

4. Consider Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing has grown exponentially over the past few years, and there’s good reasons why.

Your strategy for influencer marketing is once again built upon the foundation of knowing your audience and knowing them well. Partnering with an influencer who is talking to your ideal target audience is how the system works.

There are two things to consider though:

If you’re looking simply for increased brand awareness, then you’ll want to search for influencers who have a large following and that’s all
If you’re looking to increase sales, then you’ll be looking for an influencer who is niched in your industry and can help convince their following to buy your product or service

Did you know that 89% of marketers say that their ROI (Return on investment) is higher with influencer marketing than with other channels?

5. Mobile Optimization

You may read ‘Mobile Optimization’ and think wait, that’s just a tactic for digital marketing, how will it help with brand awareness?

Well, did you know that there are 3.5 billion mobile users globally? And these users spend about 2 hours per day on their mobile.

This means one thing, if your online brand awareness is not optimized for mobile viewing, then you’ll be losing out on a large potential audience. You need to make sure that your website and all your content is suitable for viewing on any device. If your content is mobile-friendly, it makes for content consumption easily. And thus, puts your brand in front of more eyes, and increases your brand awareness.

6. Promote Brand Loyalty

One strategy that you absolutely have to implement is the promotion of brand loyalty. The idea behind brand loyalty is that you should be building long-term, sustainable relationships with your audience and your customers.

One surefire way to promote brand loyalty is by creating membership scenarios for your audience and customers. This can be achieved by using the idea of exclusivity to sell the concept to your subscribers.

What do we mean?

Well, imagine subscribers get a monthly coupon for a small discount on your products or services, it makes them feel in a way that they belong to an ‘exclusive’ club and gives them a sense of belonging.

Through brand loyalty, you can build communities that interact and engage with your brand continuously online, and in turn, these brand-loyal audience members will increase your brand awareness to people in their digital environment.

7. SEO Is Still Important

We’re all familiar with the term SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and what it can do for our websites, but what can it do for our brand awareness efforts?

Through SEO we look to achieve one thing, and that is increased traffic to our website. Through many different SEO tactics, our websites and our brands land in front of many, many more eyes.

SEO tactics such as the use of social media marketing, keyword research, and local SEO efforts will all work together to give your brand more online presence and thereby create higher brand recognition.

By focusing on your SEO, you’ll be killing two birds with one stone, you’ll be driving traffic to your website and promoting lead generation and you’ll be increasing brand awareness. Here are some of the SEO tactics you can include in your strategy:

Perform an audience audit and ensure that you understand who you’re targeting and how you plan to do this
Through your audience audit, you’ll discover the foundation for your keyword research and this is a fundamental part to creating a successful SEO strategy
Focus on link-building, if your brand is present on other reputable websites of other well-known brands, you’ll drive both traffic and brand presence
Focus on local SEO efforts and make sure that you’re front of mind when it comes to local search engine results

Through SEO you can place your brand in many more ‘places’ online and thereby increase your brand awareness. Ensure that your SEO efforts are measurable though, as you’re going to want to be able to measure how successful your SEO has been in contributing to your overall brand awareness efforts.

You can use Google Analytics as a way to measure this and analyze your traffic.

The Beauty Of Brand Awareness

The thing about building brand awareness is that nothing is going to be an overnight success. You need to be willing to put in the groundwork and build a solid foundation for each of these brand awareness strategies.

Measure your progress and performance periodically to ensure that you’re getting the results that you want, and to decide if your strategy needs to be adapted.

Partnering with a reputable agency on your brand efforts can be advantageous in the long run, as they come with vast experience. Contact us if you’d like to start building brand awareness right now.