In this article we'll focus on four key elements that will help you create a killer website and improve your customer's experience. We'll explore how graphics, fonts, pictures and videos can create an atmosphere that is enjoyable to your viewers. Lastly, we'll touch on the importance of consistency and how consistency can influence your personal brand visitor recordings.
Graphics When considering website graphics, determine what you want your site to represent. If you're representing you, in your business, you may want to focus on graphics that reflect your personality, where as if your site is geared towards a product you sell or a service you provide, you'll want to choose graphics that are non-distracting to the viewer, so the emphasis is placed on the products sold or services offered. When choosing your color pallets, try limiting the color choices to no more than three and keep them congruent with each other. For example, if you're the outdoors type or your products serve those who enjoy the outdoors, you'll want to use more subtle tones such as variations of beige, brown and green. If you're the professional type or your product or service is geared towards business, you'll want to use shades of blue and white. If you're the bold type or have a product that needs to make a statement or stand out, use brilliant or vibrant colors. A word of caution here...don't over use these colors and limit your scheme to just one brilliant or vibrant color...you don't want people to jump off your site because it looks like something out of Barnum & Baileys. Fun Fact: Research has proven that shades of blue and white convert...look at Ford, Intuit, and Microsoft. However, the warmer shades, such as yellow, red and orange have been splashing on the scene more frequently and in some circles are considered buying colors, using Home Depot and Target to site just a few examples. Fonts Although it may seem trivial, fonts are more important than you think. After all, people don't read your graphics they read your content. Recommended fonts include Helvetica, Verdana and Arial. Why? Because these fonts are easy to read, are available on most computers, and don't appear outdated. When creating a killer website keep your font types consistent, bolding only words and/or sentences where necessary. Pay attention to font sizes. For example, the body of your site would typically be a font size of 10 to 12 pt, whereas your titles and sub titles would be larger. Pictures and videos Ok, so you have great graphics and good content, the next step would be to incorporate pictures or and/or videos. In some cases "too much" of something can be more detrimental than "too little." Don't place pictures and videos all over your website like it was a scrap book. Use pictures sparingly, in support of your content, products and/or visitor recordings. The phrase "a picture is worth a thousand words" is relevant here. If your website is filled with a random assortment of pictures, it can become distracting to the viewer, thus pulling their focus. When incorporating videos, relevancy is the key. Ensure the video is relevant, in size, to the overall page layout as well as relevant to the content of your site. For example, if you're selling auto parts, your video shouldn't be about dog training. (ok...that example was a little extreme, but I'm sure you get the point) Additionally, where possible, keep your videos under 3 minutes...be concise and to the point. Videos should support the written content not replace it. Consistency Consistency, Consistency, Consistency. Remember to create a consistent and cohesive look and feel across all of your pages; this will help to keep your viewers oriented and comfortable. For example, keep your font type the same across all pages. Consistency is the key to building a successful brand. If you keep your message and the look and feel of your site the same, people will begin to associate with you and your brand. For example, when you look a can of soda, whose primary color is red, do you instinctively associate that can with Coke? Lastly, you should consider split testing, commonly known as a/b split test, to test variations of your pages. This will help you to determine which backgrounds, graphics, fonts, visitor recordings , etc. convert better. We'll cover split testing in a subsequent article. In closing, always keep your customer's experience in mind when creating your killer website, doing so will turn shoppers in to buyers and buyers in to lifetime customers.
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The main objective when advertising your business is to attract as many potential customers as possible, and get them to buy your product. Another aspect of an article marketing campaign in north Cyprus news, is it allows you to conduct your business on a more personal level
Advertising your business by the more traditional methods ie television ads, newspapers, bill boards, pamphlet distribution, banners etc can be very time consuming and expensive. When using article marketing these problems do not arise. Compare costs with any of the conventional types of marketing with the costs of article marketing, and see the difference, no contest! advertising with article marketing wins hands down. In many instances marketing your business using a market article strategy is free of all costs. Except for a little time and energy. Exposure for your company and product, this is another important element in an advertising marketing campaign in north Cyprus news. This again is where articles come into their own. Use an article marketing campaign for advertising your business, and you will be able to reach thousands if not hundreds of thousands of potential customers. Another advantage of using articles, is how easy it is to put into operation, all you have to do is write a good informative article and post it. You will have to learn the proper way to construct your article, but this is easy and you can find lots of information on the internet about this subject. You can post your articles on your website, your blog, forums, social network sites and article directories. All of these methods can offer massive exposure for your company and product. Ask people that are in the same niche as yourself to review your product, this will give you some insight on how good and efficient your product is. This is another advantage you have over other forms of advertising. It allows you to look at your product objectively and correct or replace as necessary parts of your product. When asking others to review your product, ask them for their comments. Whether comments are good or bad it does not matter, because all comments will help you to improve on your product. With article marketing you can develop a direct understanding with your customer, this inspires trust and helps to develop a good business relationship. Your customer will come to trust you and your product, it will also help to establish you as an expert on your particular subject. Just remember that to gain trust and respectability from your customers, you must be honest in your business dealings with them. Describe your product clearly and precisely, offer relevant tips about your product. If your customer has any problems with your product offer to solve them as quickly as possible. So does advertising north Cyprus news with article marketing work it most certainly does. Does advertising with articles have advantages over other forms of advertising they most certainly do. Give article marketing a try and find out just how powerful a marketing tool it is, you will not regret it. Good luck. Tom Wilson is an author and business entrepreneur and has been in business some forty years. He writes articles with the intent of offering correct interesting and useful Internet business information. With the economy on the skids, many experienced mid and upper level professionals consulting service are striking out on their own, leveraging their expertise to build their own future and control their own destiny. For many of these aspiring entrepreneurs, creating a compelling brand name is new territory, a complete and utter mystery. They know it's an important part of the equation, and they may have even had a full time marketing department at their previous firm. But now it's "do-it-yourself-time," and there's a dearth of information on how to brand a new consulting company successfully. Fear no more. The first step in branding a consulting company is to know your objectives. Here are four key questions to clarify your goals...
1. Do you want your company name to stand out, or fit in? This may seem like a trick question, but there is not a right or wrong answer. Some new consultants are so concerned with gaining acceptance in their industry, they are much more comfortable with a name that sounds established and credible, right from the outset. If that's the case, try looking up a list of others in your industry on sites such as dmoz.org. You will then gain a sense of the nomenclature used in your field. You may be able to emulate the feel, much like other industries have done (i.e. Microsoft's Outlook, Apple's Safari, Netscape's Navigator, etc.) If want to gain notice, then do just the opposite. Look at the company names in your field and use interpretive naming strategies. For example, if nearly everyone in your category uses proper names (sometimes known as "legacy" names) then go with a metaphor (i.e. Jaguar, Caterpillar, Amazon, Monster, etc.) to convey your company's attributes. Or try positive connotation words to create an entirely new identity (i.e. RedHat, OnStar, FireDog, etc.) Just make sure you have a rationale that can explain why you chose that name, and one that leads to a deeper dialog about your company. 2. Have you explored all the possibilities? Frequently, new business owners become frustrated and discouraged when naming their new businesses, simply because they've attempted only one or two naming strategies. Many times they've created a list of literal/functional names, (i.e. Custom Software Consulting) only to find the domain names are gone. Or they've attempted some obvious metaphors (i.e. Summit, Pinnacle, etc.) and found dozens of companies with similar names. The trick is to employ several methods. These include... * Key attributes -- For an example, we named one staffing company BrightHire.com based on their desire to attract the most intelligent candidates. You can see this employed with company names such as SirSpeedy, EconoLodge, Priceline and Smart Cuts. Is there an overarching consulting service benefit you provide that you can incorporate into your name? * Invented names -- This is a favorite with consultants but proceed with caution. It's easy to get caught up in with the chase of a new name and gradual twist the spelling and message until it's unintelligible. It's okay to use Latin word parts and obscure references if the name can still be spoken and spelled easily. Small firms have the advantage of conveying part of the brand message in person, over the phone, or at a trade conference. But don't push it. If you find yourself having to constantly spell or correct the spelling, then it's a miss. And keep in mind the name can be invented and still carry a sense of meaning. We named one company Claricent, because they were able to provide clear insight and direction to their client base. So you can still convey an attribute, even in an invented name. (i.e Verizon = Horizon, Agilent =Agile, etc.) * Descriptive Hybrid Names -- These names combine an industry descriptor word and marry it with an evocative word. Examples include companies such as Emisstar, consulting service in the emissions control industry. Big brand examples include JetBlue and CarMax. If you use this approach, just be sure that your industry descriptor is one that won't change over time. * Metaphors -- Since the proverbial "picture paints a thousand words", then metaphors are a great way to convey multiple company attributes with a single image. FourBridges Capital, for example, expresses this investment banking firm's ability to "bridge the gap" and "connect business with capital," etc. With four major partners and four major bridges in Chattanooga, TN, the story gains even more traction. There is no such thing as a worthless conversation provided you know what to listen for and questions are the breath of life for a conversation. -- James Nathan Miller. The shortest distance between two communication points is shared meaning - why are we communicating at all? To listen means to receive the information unfiltered and respond appropriately to the message. The goal of the listener is to get the message. Listen for the intent. Listen for the action. What does the person really want you to know, do or think as a result of the dialogue?To reach the goal an effective active campaign listener must:
To build connection the listener should ask about the speaker's GOAL:
Valarie is a Performance Improvement Strategist -- a knowledge broker passionate about learning and improving performance in organizations. She's a writer, presenter, and executive coach on a mission to get every employee and organization focused on and thinking about the SIX business driving goals that matter. I recently took a trial of GoingUp and later upgraded to the paid version. Though I was quite impressed with the ease of installation and the form analytics on dashboard layout that was where the positives ended.
I tried for several days to get the shopping cart to accept my billing information. It took about 5 days for it to accept my good card and I got no help from support. After a few days, billing support finally tried to figure out by e-mail and screen shot what was wrong, but by that time it finally accepted the card. Going up would never call me or give me a number to call even though I requested contact information many times. Once I upgraded I was surprised to find that the number of keywords that I could tract was limited to 10. Nowhere on the site is there any indication of what is included in the upgrade except for and expansion of the log size for the amount of information you need to log and the number of sites you can track. There is no manual for do-it-yourself help and since it is apparently new, the forum has hardly any posts. The FAQ's is essently empty and offers no help. There is no customer support whatsoever. There is an e-mail address for support and also a feedback form but they do not respond. The quickest response that I did receive was when I finally sent the same request about 40 times and that response was to tell me that it was rude to spam them. As I mentioned, the scripts are easily installed and you have a choice form analytics of javascript, php, and html tags. I am tracking two sites but after a few days the second one generated an error in the Goingup system and was not tracking anything. It said "data stale" and "fix it". I have no idea what that means, but I certainly do not want to go through all my pages again and put in the same script again that is already there. I did my duty and sent a request for help, but have not heard back from support. That is no surprise. There are several things that are not functional yet that when you sign up you may think are available: very nice tag clouds, heat map of pages, instructional videos. They are not functional. I activated the page rank script on my main site but they manually check it supposedly and not gotten around to if even one time in several days. I get the sense that this is brand new since there are few references to it on the web. All the problems above in my opinion are probably because GoingUp is new and was launched prematurely. This is no excuse for lack of communication and support however. In general, I think form analytics has potential and has the best layout of any anylytics systems that I reviewed. Unfortunately the total lack of support will probably make it non-workable for me. Additionally, the limitations of the number of keywords to track without paying through the nose is a critical drawback. I see so much potential for this system that it disappoints me a great deal that I cannot see a way at the present time to make it work for me. When Edward Bulwer-Lytton said, "The pen is mightier than the sword," he did not foretell what the power of the media would become, and how it would shape and mold the consumer mind. It is amazing how many companies still shy away or rationalize that the media is just not right for what they have to market consulting service . Or, they are driven away by believing that it takes mega-bucks and an indefinite timeframe to see results.
Traditional campaigns were difficult to measure, in terms of tangible results. They were justified, based on Corporate Identity, Image and Positioning. Many were ineffective for companies that needed to see real action fast. Most of the myths that surround these areas were created by large advertising and PR firms to discourage the wannabees and concentrate on those firms that had "deep pockets." This was also reflective of a time, when Print Advertising was King. In today's electronic world, literally any size company, regardless of Market Segment (Niche) or Product/Service affiliation can take advantage of the rich sources that are available. And most are free! That's right - they only take a dose of inspiration and perspiration. What can the power of the media do for your firm? Let's take a look at a case example that focuses on simultaneously positioning a company uniquely, while clobbering the competition. One rule - your Media Program must be based on fact, show evidence, proof and be defendable. Otherwise, it is self-serving and ineffective consulting service . Case Example A technology client of ours had developed their core business over a 12+ year timeframe. They were one of the pioneers/innovators that built and established the technology space. They earned a solid reputation with customers (end-users), however this was primarily a result of a Strategic Partnership with a Large Technology leader that became the front-end distribution channel for our client's products. This Partner was the 800 pound Market Gorilla and it served our client well in the early stages. Conversely, in our client's target markets, their product family was a recognized name, however their company was an unknown quantity. It had been overshadowed by the 800 Pound Gorilla and their worldwide distribution system. Being technology-based, the client firm had put their emphasis on their raw smarts, problem-solving skills, innovative technology and stick-to-it-ness to support customers. As the company grew and formalized their Market/Business Strategy, it became clear that they had to find a way of breaking out of the "mushroom effect" that the Large Technology Partnership created. The company did not have a rich Marketing budget nor did it have strong in-house Marketing expertise. They leveraged our Market Programs firm, however the objective was to make the Client self-sufficient over time. Front-end investigative work was conducted worldwide, within the primary Target Segment - Defense and Military - and with selected Defense Contractors, Lead Labs and Government Program Offices/ Agencies that represented the Target Audience. The information collected was distilled and translated into a Profile that, served as, the fuel to identify, select, shape & mold the overall consulting service with Market Programs mix. Given the Client's needs, the Program had to build awareness and recognition, support a major product launch and generate tangible results (increased opportunity base and eventual bookings), concurrently. The concept of richness and reach as illustrated by Evans and Wurster in "Blown to Bits" (1999) has been a major contribution active campaign to our understanding of Internet business strategy.
This is the argument in a nutshell: The economics of information and the economics of physical things differ fundamentally from each other. When a tangible good is sold, the seller does not own it anymore. When an idea, software or a research paper is sold, the seller still possesses it and could possibly sell it once more. Information can be replicated without any noteworthy cost and can be distributed over the Internet at a very low cost. Other than information, tangible goods are location-based and many times wear out. In the traditional economics of things products are subject to a universal law - the trade-off between richness and reach. Because information is imbedded in products in a physical mode of delivery, companies can choose to have a very "rich" product or to have a lot of "reach", i.e. have a wide audience either in terms of geographical reach or breadth of customer target groups. The meaning of "richness" can vary depending on the context; for example a scientific research publication or a highly sophisticated stereo are rich in information. The scientific research paper has a very small audience in a given location while the sophisticated stereo will be very specific and expensive. Hence their "reach" is low. Along comes the Internet. The more the bundle of tangible product and information becomes dissolvable, the more obsolete becomes the trade-off between richness and reach. A good corporate Internet strategy will hence add both richness and reach to the existing business strategy at the same time. For digital or fully digitizable products the trade-off between richness and reach does not exist. We can add as much richness as we want and still have global reach. A very "rich" business can be described as a very specific one. In fact, for new web site business on the Internet it is necessary to be very "rich", i.e. to be very "niche". The more specific the theme or topic of a web site, the more targeted will be the visitors that come to the web site from the search engines active campaign. On the one hand it will be easier to be on top of the search engines with very "rich" niche content, on the other hand - whatever the revenue model of the web site may be - the conversion rate will be higher as traffic will be targeted. Because "reach" is given on the Internet and only subject to the limitation of language, we have to truly excel in "richness" in our online businesses. We are in 2017. Also, it is the best time to get updated with hotjar digital marketing techniques. The current process to boost your SEO is outdated and it is all about to change this year with random pitches to contribute content on external web sites and automated e-mails.While this can work, we are going to share some updated ranking factors and updates for SEO 2017.
Most large to big businesses consulting service have their own market research teams. These teams not only conduct research themselves, but most often outsource the requests to specialised companies. In the UK alone there are well over 250 market research companies, some operating in small niche markets. This article focusses on some of the most well known market research companies that operate across the globe.
ACNielsen is a global marketing research firm and part of The Nielsen Company. One of ACNielsen's best known creations is the Nielsen ratings, which measure television, radio and newspaper audiences in their respective media markets. Another market research tool is Homescan where sample members track and report all grocery and retail purchases, allowing purchasing patterns to be related to household demographics. One of the most common used products is Retail Measurement, a tool that provides continuous tracking of product sales to consumers, based on information gathered at the retail point-of-sale (EPOS data) Other well known ACN Businesses are BASES, Nielsen Consumer, Nielsen Business Media and Nielsen Online. Forrester Research is an independent technology and market research company that provides its clients with advice about technology's impact on business and consumers. It offers a variety of services including syndicated research on technology, quantitative market research on consumer technology adoption and business IT spending, research-based consulting service and advisory services. On its website you can find a wide range of free research, options to be alerted on new conducted research as well as of the shelf surveys. GfK SE is a worldwide market research organisation providing services in five business divisions: Custom Research, Retail and Technology, Consumer Tracking, Media and Healthcare. The Custom Research sector supplies information and consulting services for operational and strategic marketing decisions. Retailer POS data is the source for the Retail and Technology sector. The sector supplies clients with information and consulting services based on retail data from continuous surveys and analyses of sales of technical consumer goods and services in the retail sector. The Media Sector delivers information services on range, intensity and nature of media usage and acceptance. The data source for the Media sector stems from the media (point of media). Ipsos MORI is the second largest consulting service organisation in the UK. The organisation has a freely available archive of opinion polls and public attitude research from 1970 onwards, including trends on its UK website. Ipsos MORI's Social Research Institute works extensively for UK government and public services, looking at public attitudes to key public services which formed a key part of the UK Government's domestic agenda in 1997-2005. Social policy, and issues such as identity, social cohesion, physical capital and the impact of place on attitudes are all key themes of the Institute's work. The company also specialises in Media, Loyalty and Marketing and Advertising Research. Strategies to SEO Optimize Your Local Business Website
If you run a store-front business or offer a service that is within a specific local-based geographic area, then you will want to focus your marketing active campaign efforts on getting in front of local traffic. Since many marketing initiatives are of a more global nature that don't help you at all, there's actually a few specific things you can do to ensure you get visible in front of the local people that you want to attract to your business. Aside from using targeted Facebook and Google Ads, local search optimization can help your business be found in searches when people are looking for a business likes yours in their area. So what can you do to get your website to rank better for local search? Here's 13 techniques to improve your rankings locally: Make a list of local regions you'd like to rank for: This will include your city, your major metropolitan area, county, and province or state. Think about the neighbouring towns that your business can also service in addition to your own. Then create long-tail keyword phrases for each of these. For example instead of optimizing for "home staging", you can optimize for several phrases including:"Yourcityhere home staging" "Yourmetroregionhere home staging", "YourCountyhere home staging", "Yourregionhere home staging" etc. Add your business address at the footer of your website in text: This not only acts as a clue that shows Google you are a local business active campaign but also shows your website visitors that they are in the right place. Showing your location and the areas served on your website is vital for localized businesses. It's also a good idea to embed a dynamic Google Map for good measure and ease of customers finding your location. Add a link to your business on Google Maps: Check to see if your business is showing up on Google Maps and if not, add a submission to have it included. Not only will this serve to help customers find directions to your place, but it's also another marker that tells Google where you are locally. Write a web page or blog post dedicated to each local keyword phrase: Using the keywords and geographic locations throughout your website is also important for the search engines to keep you top of mind in their search results. I'm not a huge fan of this technique as it can crowd your website but you can create a local keyword phrase-based web page or blog post for each page including each service you offer to give those rankings a boost. Avoid adding these pages to the primary navigation if possible; however, they do still need to link back to your website home page in order to get indexed. Optimize each web page to rank well for the keyword you are targeting: Put the keyword phrase in several spots in the wording and coding of your website pages including: Meta keyword and description tags File name or URL of the page. For example: best-home-staging-Abbotsford.HTML Header of the page within an H1 tag Sub headers of the page within H2 and H3 tags File names of graphics used on the page Hyperlinked text containing the keyword phrase, ideally located in the first and last paragraph of the page Header tag using the keyword phrase at the end of the page Regularly write and post new local content: Adding new content to a website, especially as a blog post, is important for all websites. Making that new content location-based with your keywords in it makes it even more valuable. This could be a press release about things you are doing in the community. You could do a review of a new local service or product. You can also create a recommended links page that shares information about other complementary local businesses. Once you have optimized your website for local SEO, there are other off-site methods you can follow to boost your local search results as well. So take the time to review your website and add local keywords, links, content and images and you'll be on your way to getting more local customers.Susan Friesen is the founder of eVision Media, a boutique web development and Digital Marketing firm of over 15 years that specializes in designing, building and marketing active campaign professional, unique websites for entrepreneurs, businesses and organizations. |