10 Website Marketing Strategies to Help Your Business Grow

10 Website Strategies to Help Your Business Grow

Your business website is, by far, the most valuable tool in your marketing arsenal. Not only does it establish an online presence for your business, but it also serves as the basis around which all your other marketing takes place. Your website allows you to communicate your brand, culture, and – perhaps, most importantly – your story to existing and prospective customers.

As a website is often the first point of contact with a business for many potential customers, you want to ensure that yours makes a great first impression. Based on the layout, content, and ease of navigation of your website, prospective customers will decide if they want to interact with your company further – whether by opting in to receive regular content from your brand, picking up the phone and calling you, or making a purchase.

In today’s highly competitive online market, any business that wants to succeed must have a clearly defined website marketing strategy. If your site isn’t generating enough traffic – either because it’s unappealing or it’s difficult to find in search engine results pages (SERPs) – or it isn’t succeeding at attracting new leads or keeping existing customers engaged, it’s time to take a new approach to your marketing strategy.

 

What Is Website Marketing?

Simply put, website marketing is the strategic process of promoting a business’s website on the internet. The primary goal of website marketing is to drive more qualified traffic (visitors who may be interested in your products or services) and increase your site’s rankings in SERPs by applying search engine optimization (SEO) tactics and other digital marketing techniques.

In this article, we’ll look at 10 essential strategies that you can use to generate leads, increase conversions, boost sales, and grow your business through website marketing.

 

 

Perform a Review of Your Website Design

Take the time to thoroughly evaluate your website design. You want to make sure that your site not only looks attractive but is user-friendly and fully functional. Several aspects come into play when it comes to effective website design:

  1. Visual Elements:  Keep design styles and shapes simple. Font sizes and colors should be easy to read. Flashy elements not related to your message or the end user’s experience should be kept at a minimum.

  2. Ease of Navigation:  Having a clear navigation structure will keep users moving effortlessly through your web pages. Ideally, every page on your website should be accessible from the homepage in three clicks or less. An easy-to-navigate sitemap helps Google crawl and index your site more easily, discover new pages faster, and determine which pages to prioritize.

  3. User Experience (UX):  Evaluate your website’s user-friendliness and eliminate any design elements that add complexity or aren’t needed. Make sure your web pages are well-organized and that the site layout isn’t overly complicated. If visitors can’t quickly and easily find what they’re looking for, most will simply give up and leave.

  4. Mobile Responsiveness:  These days, most consumers use mobile devices to access the internet. So, you need to ensure that your site provides the best possible experience for mobile users. A mobile-responsive website will automatically adapt the content on your pages to display properly on a smartphone or tablet – meaning that visitors can spend less time squinting or sighing and more time clicking and buying. Optimizing your site for mobile devices results in higher rankings in search engine results and faster page loading times, both of which contribute positively to your SEO efforts.

  5. Clear Communication:  The second a visitor arrives on your website, they should be able to recognize who you are and what makes your brand different. Your content should clearly communicate how buying your products or enlisting your services can make customers’ lives easier or more pleasurable. Ensure that all the pertinent information on your site – such as your business address, phone number, and product pricing – is always up to date. Regularly update your site with valuable content like customer testimonials, company news, upcoming events, and engaging videos.

  6. Security and Trustworthiness:  Visitors want to feel as secure on your website as if they were buying something from a well-known physical store. They need to know whether there are return policies in place if a product doesn’t perform as it should and that their data will be protected. If consumers don’t feel that you’re trustworthy, it’s unlikely that they’ll sign up for your mailing list, purchase your products, or enlist your services.

  7. Calls to Action (CTAs):  A call to action is a prompt on a web page that encourages visitors to take a desired action, such as signing up for an email newsletter, calling to request a consultation, or purchasing a product. To increase clicks and conversions, make sure your CTAs are prominently placed on each page of your website, and that they’re presented as direct commands or action phrases (such as “Sign Up,” “Buy Now,” “Contact Us,” “Call Today,” or “Learn More), and that you offer something of value in return for users surrendering their personal information.

 

Implement Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Most visitors will initially arrive at your website via Google and other search engines. Having a well-defined SEO strategy is essential to ensuring that your site is easily discoverable by search engines and potential customers alike. By increasing online visibility and improving your rankings in organic search results, SEO helps drive a steady flow of relevant traffic to your website. SEO is a long-term, often complicated process involving several key techniques:

  • Technical SEO:  Checking your site for errors or issues that may prevent search engines from “crawling” and indexing your site.

  • On-Page SEO:  Making your content easy to read for both users and search engines.

  • Off-Page SEO:  Building backlinks (links from other websites that point back to your site) from well-known websites within or directly related to your niche or industry.

  • Keyword Research:  Accumulating a list of words and phrases that your target audience searches for most frequently.

  • Content Optimization:  Incorporating your target keywords into various elements of your content such as titles, subheadings, paragraphs, meta tags, meta descriptions, and URLs. Including links to other pages on your website and other reputable sites in your field.

  • Image Optimization:  Adding alt text and descriptions containing your target keywords to every image (or video) on your site.

  • Local SEO:  Optimizing your site for location-based searches to increase both website visits and foot traffic to brick-and-mortar stores.

 

Create a Content Marketing Strategy

Content marketing involves creating engaging, highly readable, and well-structured content that directly addresses the needs of your target audience and shows how your products or services can solve their problems. Effective content marketing can help establish your business as an authority in your niche or industry, build trust and relationships with your target audience, and inform and educate potential customers about your products, services, and other industry-related topics.

 

With content marketing, you can generate continuous traffic to your business website –  whether you’re sending an email, posting on social media, or creating a YouTube video, always include a link back to your website. If you’re publishing a blog on your website, promote it on your other marketing channels and include a link that points back to your blog.

 

In developing your content marketing strategy, you must first identify which keywords to target with your content by performing keyword research. Conduct a competitor analysis to find out what’s working (or isn’t) for your competitors. Evaluate Google search results to determine what type of content Google wants for your target keywords. Promote the content you create across all marketing channels (social media, email, online communities, etc.).

 

In addition to regularly publishing new content, you should also periodically review your existing content to see if anything has changed. Pinpoint any pages with outdated information, “thin” content, low search rankings, no backlinks, or very little traffic. Determine whether to update or republish these pages, remove them from your site, redirect the URL to other related pages, or combine them with other web pages.

 

Promote Your Website on Social Media

Publishing high-quality, engaging content – such as blog articles, short videos, creative images, memes, or polls – to your social media pages regularly is an excellent way to interact with your target audience directly, build relationships with current and prospective customers, increase traffic to your website, generate new leads, improve conversion rates, build brand awareness and customer loyalty, and get instant feedback about your business, products, or services from actual consumers.

 

Before marketing your website on social media, you need to determine which social networks make the most sense for your business. Create a business page on each platform your target audience uses regularly so you can interact with them easily. Use your company logo as your profile photo and create accounts with the same username (consisting of your brand name or your website) across all your social media profiles. Keeping your brand identity consistent helps improve brand recognition for your business.

 

Fill out all the relevant information on your profile or bio, including your physical address (if you have one), email address, phone number, website URL, and store hours (if applicable). Your “About” section should effectively communicate your brand’s value proposition while establishing your overall tone and style. Include a call to action with a link to your homepage or a dedicated landing page. Having a distinct and memorable bio increases the chances that you’ll capture your target audience’s attention and that your message will resonate with them.

 

Social media users are more than willing to share your content to their news feeds if they believe their friends, family, and colleagues will enjoy it, too. Provide links to all your social media profiles in prominent locations on your website – such as your homepage or blog – and include “Share” buttons on any web page with content visitors might want to share. On each of your social media profiles or bios, include your website’s URL so users can easily navigate to your site to learn more about your business, book an appointment, or make a purchase.

 

Target Your Ideal Customers with Paid Advertising

Improving your search rankings using SEO tactics and gaining a decent number of social media followers organically can take time. For faster results, paid advertising is a great alternative. Pay-per-click advertising (PPC) and social media ads are among the most popular types of paid advertising.

 

PPC advertising platforms like Google Ads allow you to create and run ads centered around the words and phrases you’ve identified through keyword research to get your website to appear at or near the top of search results when users search for businesses like yours. Pay-per-click ads can be a cost-effective way to drive targeted traffic to your website quickly, increase brand awareness, and generate fresh interest in your products or services. With PPC ads, your business only pays when someone clicks on your ad. Each ad links to a landing page that’s customized to your specific offer.

 

Paid social media advertising platforms such as Facebook Ads let you target the users that best match your customer personas. Through highly sophisticated and advanced targeting methods, paid social media helps generate the right kind of traffic to your site – in other words, the people who are most likely to buy your products or enlist your services. When users click on the link in your ad, they’re taken to a dedicated landing page where they have the opportunity to take a variety of specific actions, such as learning more about your business, subscribing to your email newsletter, reaching out to a sales representative, or making a purchase.

 

Keep Your Audience Engaged with Email Marketing

With an average return rate of $44 for every $1 spent, email marketing remains a powerful, cost-effective way to communicate directly with existing and potential customers and keep them up to date about your business, products, services, special promotions, company news, and more. Since email list subscribers have already demonstrated an interest in your business, regularly dropping engaging content into their email inboxes will keep you on their radar. Provide links to your website or blog at multiple points throughout your email communications (including in your call to action) to keep subscribers returning to your site.

 

Of course, before you can start sending out emails, you have to build a solid contact list. While the list-building process can be difficult and time-consuming, coming up with new and innovative ways to encourage visitors to give you their email addresses can help fast-track the process. Depending on your specific business and its audience, there are several different tactics you can use to incentivize people to surrender their contact information, such as:

Make it easy for users to subscribe to your email list by adding signup forms in highly conspicuous places throughout your website. Once you’ve gained new subscribers, continually send them great content to keep them engaged and dissuade them from unsubscribing. Encourage subscribers to return to your website frequently by showing them what they might have missed since their last visit – new product launches, recent blog posts, videos, or other interactive content.

 

Encourage Returning Website Visitors Using Remarketing & Retargeting

There’s an old marketing rule, known as the “Rule of 7,” which states that a potential customer must see or hear an advertisement or marketing message at least seven times before deciding to buy a product or service. Internet marketing is no different. Most people will need to revisit your website several times before taking the next step in the path to purchase.

 

That’s where remarketing and retargeting come in. While the two techniques are similar, there are also a few distinct differences. Both involve reaching out to consumers who have already expressed an interest in your business, products, or services – whether by visiting your website, clicking on one of your ads, searching for your business on Google, or following you on social media – and encouraging them to reconnect with you and take a specific action (such as signing up for email updates, booking a consultation, or making a purchase).

 

Remarketing is focused on engaging current or previous customers via email in order to recapture their attention and encourage them to return to your website when they’re ready to buy. Retargeting involves serving targeted ads to prospective customers who have previously visited your website or a specific web page and have (or have not) taken a specific action. With retargeting, cookies (text files containing small pieces of data) are used in conjunction with certain advertising platforms like Google Ads or Facebook to track your website visitors’ actions after they leave your site and continue browsing the internet. The ads are displayed on subsequent websites the user visits, reminding them to return to your site.

 

Implementing one or both of these techniques will help drive more targeted traffic to your website, boost brand awareness, improve engagement, reduce shopping cart abandonment, increase conversions and sales, and lower advertising costs.

 

Measure and Analyze User Activity & Website Traffic

With traditional marketing methods, results can be difficult to accurately monitor and analyze. Do you really know how many people took the time to read your flyer, and how many simply threw it away? But with digital marketing – and your website, in particular – everything is measurable and can be analyzed. Along with providing a better understanding of who your ideal customers are, so you can effectively market to them, web analytics platforms can also help:

Since most of the data you need can be obtained from Google Analytics, installing this valuable tool on your website and ensuring that it’s properly configured is critical. Tags – small pieces of code inserted into a page’s source code – are used to facilitate the collection and sharing of data between your website and Google Analytics. Using tags the right way – and in the right places – helps you identify what’s working and what isn’t so that you can improve your website content and drive even more potential customers to your site.

 

Collecting and interpreting the metrics you wish to track and adjusting your marketing strategy accordingly can help elevate your business to the next level of success. Your website will only generate the desired results you want if you’re analyzing it routinely.

 

Launch Contests & Giveaways to Drive Traffic to Your Website

People love getting free stuff, especially if it’s relevant or useful to them. So, why not use this to your advantage? When you offer something of value to existing or potential customers, it makes them more likely to purchase from your company in the future. It also makes people more willing to share your content with their friends, especially on social media. Getting something for nothing from a brand they love and respect inspires loyalty in your customers.

 

While contests and giveaways are sometimes regarded as tacky marketing techniques, they’re actually quite effective at driving high-volume traffic to your website, generating interest in your products and services, building rapport with your customers, and even making connections within your industry.

 

Create a compelling contest or giveaway on the social media platforms where your target audience is most active, and your followers will flock to your website. Develop a dedicated landing page and post a direct link to it on your social media pages. The lure of “free stuff” will be irresistible to participants. From the landing page, you can easily direct visitors to your full website.

 

Generating useful content centered around your brand, products, or services, and then offering visitors free access to that content is another great way to keep your company top of mind with consumers when they’re ready to purchase something that you offer. If you sell products on your website, offer a free e-book detailing key features that potential customers should look out for. If your business is primarily service-based, create a checklist of action items that prospects can take prior to reaching out to you. When you focus on adding value for your audience, it’s a win-win.

 

List Your Business in Online Directories

Online business directories are the modern-day version of phone books. In previous decades, printed directories like the Yellow Pages featured comprehensive listings of local businesses, organized by categories like business type or location. Now that searching for products and services has primarily shifted to the internet, today’s businesses must make their presence known in online directories in much the same way as they would have done in printed books in the past.

 

Online directories help point users to the specific organizations they’re looking for and enable them to click through to a business’s website directly from the listing. Most listings provide basic information about the business such as the website’s URL, a brief description, hours of operation, contact details, products/services provided, customer reviews, etc. Listing your business in online directories gives customers the chance to post reviews of your business, products, and services, and allows you to respond to these reviews personally and publicly.

 

Given that 88% of users will call or visit a business within 24 hours of their initial search, it’s essential that your business be listed in the most popular and relevant online directories – otherwise, you could be missing out on a lot of potential customers. Adding your business listing to online directories helps drive targeted traffic to your website and through your business’s doors, makes your site more easily discoverable in search engine results, and creates high-quality backlinks (which, in turn, helps improve your SEO rankings).

 

Creating or claiming your Google Business Profile is a great place to start. Setting up your profile is fairly straightforward (and free). Ensuring that your profile is fully optimized makes it eligible to show up in Google’s Local 3-Pack (a set of three business listings appearing prominently on SERPs when users conduct searches for local businesses), as well as on Google Maps.

 

For over a century, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) has been helping customers connect with local businesses. Today, the BBB is not only an expansive online directory – it’s also a trusted resource for consumers seeking to discover more about an organization’s credibility, ethics, and business practices. Getting accredited by the BBB and being able to reference that accreditation on your own website remains a major trust signal to modern consumers.

 

Once serving as the premier offline business directory, the Yellow Pages has been able to successfully and smoothly transition into the digital age. Over 70 million people annually use the Yellow Pages website and app to find local businesses.

 

Listing your business on Yelp, a trusted online directory for everything local is an easy way to get your name in the public eye, especially for food and retail establishments.

 

Angi (formerly Angie’s List) is a popular local business directory that consumers can use to find residential services like plumbers, lawn care companies, and roofers.

 

In addition to these popular sites, there are hundreds of industry-specific online directories in which to list your business. Adding your listing is free, in most cases, but many platforms also offer paid advertising options to make it even easier to reach your target audience.

 

Final Thoughts

More than just digital signage for your brand or a virtual storefront for your company, your website is your online home base – and as such, it should be at the center of your digital marketing strategy. Whether you’re sending a tweet, publishing a blog post, running a newspaper ad, or adding a link at the bottom of your business card, the ultimate goal of all your marketing efforts – online and offline – should be to drive traffic back to your website.

 

The success or failure of your overall marketing strategy hinges on the design, effectiveness, and intuitiveness of the website you’re drawing people towards. If you aren’t utilizing your website as the valuable marketing tool it is, you may be missing out on a lot of potential business. If you don’t make a concentrated effort to meet your customers where they are, you can bet that your competitors will reach them before you do.

 

By heeding the recommendations outlined above and incorporating them into your marketing strategy, you’ll be well on your way to achieving positive results for your business!

 

If you need help developing your website marketing strategy, or if you’re looking to update your existing website or build a new one from scratch, HighClick Media can help! Call us today at 252.814.2150 or drop us a line here!

Improve Your Website & Drive Sales Despite Uncertain Economic Times

Improve Your Website & Drive Sales Despite Uncertain Economic Times

The current economy is unpredictable, and savvy business owners are looking for ways to stay afloat and sustain their success. One way you can do this is by taking a close look at your business website and making some updates.

If you’re looking to drive sales amidst an uncertain economic climate, consider these strategies for improving your website:

Improve Website Navigation

Improve Website Navigation

A well-designed navigation menu makes it easy for customers to find what they need quickly. As a result, visitors are likely to remain on your site longer to discover more information about your company.

When evaluating your navigation menu, be sure that all links are clearly labeled, organized logically, and easily navigable. If people can’t find what they’re looking for on your website, they will likely leave without making a purchase or taking any further action.

Add Testimonial Pages to Your Website

Add Testimonial Pages

Testimonials demonstrate to potential customers that you have satisfied customers who have had positive, successful experiences with your company. This helps build consumer trust and encourages more people to buy from your business. 

You can include testimonials on your homepage or on product pages; you can even create an entire page dedicated to showcasing customer reviews and feedback.

SSH Secure Shell Protocol

Enhance Website Security with PDFs & Encryption

In precarious economic times such as these, it’s particularly critical to make sure your website is secure. One way to enhance website security is through the use of PDFs and encryption. Here’s how it works…

By combining PDF technology with secure encryption algorithms and a secure shell (SSH) protocol, you can safeguard the data stored on your website from online fraud or theft. Furthermore, you can use a secure connection such as SSH when sharing large files and rotating PDFs, regardless of size or format.

Providing a secure portal for visitors to upload, share, and save their sensitive data on your website is an innovative way to keep your customers’ information safe and secure.

Search Engine Optimization - SEO

Implement SEO Best Practices

Search engine optimization (SEO) is vital for increasing your business’s online visibility and driving traffic to your website. The higher up your site appears in search engine results, the more likely people will be to see – and hopefully purchase – your products and services.

Using keywords effectively throughout your content, optimizing title tags and meta descriptions, linking internally between relevant pages of content, and creating high-quality backlinks are all crucial tactics to implement if you want to boost your website’s rankings.

Keep Content Fresh and Improve Page Speed

Keep Content Fresh & Improve Page Speed

It’s important to update your website content regularly so that visitors know they’re getting current information from a reliable source whenever they visit your site.

Additionally, focus on improving page-loading speed by optimizing your images and partnering with a dependable hosting provider. Many visitors won’t hesitate to leave your site if they have to wait too long for pages to load.

Make Sure Your Website Is Mobile-Friendly

Make Sure Your Website Is Mobile-Friendly

Finally, since the overwhelming majority of internet users now access websites exclusively through their phones or tablets, it’s absolutely essential that your site is designed to be mobile-friendly. Users expect websites to look and function just as well on their mobile devices as they do on a laptop or desktop.

Final Thoughts on Improving Your Website to Drive Sales in Uncertain Economic Times

Final Thoughts

While making key improvements to keep your website up to date might sound like an insurmountable task, it doesn’t have to be! The web design and digital marketing professionals at HighClick Media can help! 

Whether you need to freshen up your current website or you’re looking to build your business website from scratch, we’re ready, willing, and able to partner with you to help your business succeed in the digital age, even in uncertain economic conditions.

Call 252.814.2150 today or email us at yeswecandothat@highclickmedia.com to see how we can help elevate your brand!

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This article was written and contributed by guest blogger Poppy Williams of TechBizGuide.com.

What the Emergence of 5G Wireless Means For Marketing

5G Wireless & Its Implications for Marketing
5G Wireless & Its Implications for Marketing

What the Emergence of 5G Wireless Means For Marketing

It’s been a decade since 4G – the last generation of mobile network technology – was introduced. With its arrival, the landscape of digital media and mobile communication was forever altered.

Smartphones and other devices designed to fully utilize 4G wireless technology gave consumers the power of supercomputers in the palms of their hands, enabling them to quickly and easily search the internet for products, services, reviews, and media, as well as find answers to nearly any question imaginable.

In a short period of time, we’ve come to take 4G’s capabilities for granted. It’s worth bearing in mind, however, that many of today’s mobile apps – with their capacity for streaming video and audio and in-app advertising and purchases – could not have existed on 3G.

No previous generation of mobile technology has had the wherewithal to drive economic growth to the extent that 5G promises. Much like the advent of 4G made it possible for services like Uber and Lyft to launch, 5G is likely to spark a brand-new wave of tech titans.

5G also gives every indication of opening up more opportunities for the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT), connecting everything from your house lights to your garage door and even your toaster to the internet. This translates into more people and more devices spending more time connected to the internet, increasingly consuming more content.

While it could take as long as a decade to realize the full potential of the technology, 5G is projected to cover up to 65% of the global population by the end of 2025, fielding as much as 45% of global mobile data traffic. When 5G wireless networks and devices finally start to take root, they will fundamentally change customer behavior and open up new marketing opportunities for organizations.

 

What Is 5G Wireless?

5G, the fifth-generation cellular wireless network, is a cloud-based network that connects people on mobile devices to the internet remarkably faster than previous networks. While 4G requires cables and infrastructure to operate smoothly in a neighborhood, 5G’s cellular towers enhance cloud-based signals, eliminating many cable-related needs.

Whereas preceding wireless networks were only truly capable of powering mobile devices up to the size of a tablet, 5G will be strong enough and fast enough to effortlessly power computers, televisions, and even smart devices.

5G technology carries with it the potential for download speeds up to 100 times faster than 4G; very low latency (the time it takes for a network to send a data packet after it’s requested from a receiving device); higher network capacity (the ability to connect far more devices to a network simultaneously); and faster message transmission, due to supercharged connectivity.

The possibilities of 5G are limitless and could transform the digital marketing landscape in more ways than we can conceive of.

 

How 5G Wireless Will Change Consumer Behavior

The expansion of 5G will be powered by the introduction of 5G-compatible iPhones and Android phones in the near future. This will likely spawn a huge wave of smartphone upgrades. Along with being on a faster network, these devices will feature better-quality screens, faster processors, higher-resolution cameras, and other improved components.

Once customers have acquired these compatible devices, wireless carriers will begin vying for these customers by building out their respective networks. This build-out will take some time, but 5G should be an everyday experience for the majority of Americans within the next 3 to 5 years.

Faster internet speeds on 5G-supported devices will make surfing the internet, watching videos, and online shopping much more attractive on mobile. This will likely motivate consumers to use their mobile devices even more often than before. Already, 37% of web traffic and 56% of revenue is from mobile devices, according to Smart Insights. As 5G expands to more communities, these numbers will certainly escalate even further.

With better and faster data exchanges, 5G will also lead to enhanced location accuracy. Having relevant data in hand to increase targeting accuracy for any ad, search page, or web page experience means improved results for both consumers and brands. Consumers will enjoy a better experience and marketers will reach a more targeted audience. While this won’t necessarily change the tactics that local marketers use to connect to their audience, it will increase the chances that the consumers they reach are the right ones.

What 5G Wireless Means for Marketing

 

A Solid Online Presence Is Essential

With higher loading speeds and dependable, super-fast connections, people will be able to consume more online content, faster. In fact, early users of the 5G network have reported using four times more data than they did previously. Consumers are likely going to be spending more time browsing, scrolling, and swiping on the internet and less time viewing traditional content like cable TV, newspapers, and magazines. More screen time translates into more opportunities to reach your target audience.

If your brand doesn’t currently exist on all the relevant platforms, now’s the time to establish and develop a solid online presence. If you haven’t already launched a website, this is a crucial first step. Set up and optimize your business profiles on all the major social media networks, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Consider creating marketing videos aimed at increasing brand awareness. Starting a company blog is an excellent way to build a community and provoke conversations among industry peers.

Digital Ads Will Be on More Screens & Surfaces

With 5G and advancing Wi-Fi technologies, wireless internet is going to be noticeably faster and more widespread, even in rural locations. Due to the higher network speeds, visual and media in digital ads could be much more advanced.

Currently, digital ads can be seen on smartphones, websites, and occasionally on screens at shopping centers and airports. Super-fast wireless connectivity means high-end screens could be located anywhere an internet connection exists. Quite literally, any surface has the potential to become an interactive digital marketing ad platform. Faster speeds could even open the door for functional holographic ads. 

Super-fast wireless connectivity means that high-end screens could be located anywhere an internet connection exists. Faster speeds could even open the door for functioning holographic ads. In a world where literally any surface has the potential to become an interactive digital marketing ad platform, advertisers can dramatically increase the number of locations and methods by which they can reach potential customers.

Augmented Reality (AR) & Virtual Reality (VR)

For years, marketers have deemed immersive technologies like virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) to be rife with potential for paid advertising. While some major brands have played around with VR and AR for some time, opportunities in these areas have been constrained based on Wi-Fi access.

One of the chief reasons why VR, AR, and other forms of extended reality (XR) haven’t yet become widespread in popularity is because these technologies demand significant bandwidth, less latency, and greater speed than 4G is capable of providing. The expansion of 5G networks will allow advertisers to utilize this format with more reliability and less lag.

Augmented reality inherently relies on immersion. A lag or stutter can shatter the illusion. In order to maintain the suspension of disbelief, the AR experience needs to be utterly convincing, real-time, and executed seamlessly. As internet speeds accelerate, delivering on these requirements is becoming progressively easier.

Low latency and high system capacity will improve overall consistency, helping to bring smooth, immersive experiences into mainstream reality, and offering a wealth of opportunities for marketers.

In the near future, we can reasonably expect to see brands launching innovative and compelling messaging using high-quality, interactive creative imagery overlaid on practically every surface imaginable. This innovative marketing content will likely be viewable not just when wearing standard AR-enhanced glasses, but also in store windows, on walls, in car dashboards, and on next-generation mobile devices that also function as projectors.

Internet of Things (IoT) Will Reach Its Full Potential

The Internet of Things (IoT) describes the concept of connecting any possible device to the internet. This goes beyond the obvious connected “things” like computers, cell phones, smart TVs, cameras, home security systems, and wearable devices (Apple Watches and FitBits, for example), and extends to more commonplace items like thermostats, lighting fixtures, household appliances, doorbells, and even barbecue grills. All of these and more can be controlled through devices such as smartphones or smart speakers.

While many IoT devices are capable of functioning on 4G networks, connections between devices generally can’t rely on transferring large amounts of data because there simply isn’t enough bandwidth. With the increased bandwidth that 5G networks will bring, the number of connected items will skyrocket, and the connection between these items will become more efficient and seamless.

As adoption of 5G continues to increase, the amount of data generated by IoT devices will also grow exponentially. Marketers will have to learn to separate the valuable data from the “junk,” but once they’re able to reliably pinpoint the good data to use on a large scale, the possibilities are endless.

What benefits can marketers derive from this treasure trove of data?

  • Understand audiences more deeply in order to better personalize their messaging
  • Generate contextual and location-based ads that are hyper-targeted to reach their ideal audience
  • Create timely, relevant content for prospective customers at each stage in the buying journey
  • Listen to the needs of their customers based on their behavior
  • Make real-time adjustments to marketing campaigns based on ongoing data analysis

Going forward, advertisers should be ready to interface with users across a variety of different devices using a vast array of ad formats.

More Interactive Advertising

Up to this point, buffering and other technological limitations have impaired the accessibility of interactive ads.

At present, advertisers are tasked with finding a happy medium between producing compelling creative content and minimizing webpage load times. High-definition or interactive digital display ads lengthen the amount of time it takes for a page to load, which can cause some website visitors to skedaddle before they even see the ad.

5G download speeds will be fast enough that marketers will no longer be limited with regard to the quality of creative features on a webpage. 4K and live videos will be commonplace across the internet, even on mobile.

Since interactive ads won’t negatively impact a website’s performance, the sites will be significantly easier to navigate. Improved website performance could potentially boost click-through rates and decrease bounce rates as well.

Marketing Processes Will Be Improved

Reporting and data mining that once took hours or days for marketers to complete might only take a few minutes or seconds with 5G. Analytics, applied to every phase of the marketing process, can help predict where demand will be for particular products, optimize pricing to gain a competitive edge, and identify consumer purchasing patterns and behaviors.

With faster data communication between devices, marketers will finally have access to real-time analytics. This opens up the possibility to maximize and modify marketing campaigns in real time using artificial intelligence (AI) and other marketing automation tools.

Greater Personalization & Hyper-Localized Targeting

As internet speeds increase and mobile connectivity reaches deeper into more rural and remote areas, the number of internet users is likely to grow at an even faster rate than before. With the proliferation of users, marketers will also see a noticeable increase in the amount of valuable data they are able to collect. With more detailed information in hand, marketers will be able to deliver hyper-localized content and multifaceted campaign strategies. Hyper-localization makes personalization and targeting increasingly important. With this data, marketers will be better able to:

  • Tailor ads by demographics, consumer behavior, and specific device usage
  • Improve segmentation, customer experience (CX), and customer journey
  • Generate customized calls to action, personalized emails, and location-based homepages
  • Build meaningful relationships between the brand and the consumer

 

Expansion of Mobile Marketing

Over the past decade, screen time on mobile devices has significantly increased. With users’ eyes glued to their cell phone screens, mobile marketing is more vital than ever. 

Marketers understand that there’s a discernible difference between how people use a computer and a smartphone. Desktop search inquiries can be more complex, whereas smartphone queries are generally simpler and more direct. Bearing this in mind, marketers will need to fashion content that’s more appropriate for mobile devices.

This content will likely be centered around screenless searches – voice search and digital assistants, for example – as well as micro-moments (when people reflexively consult a device, typically a smartphone, to act upon a need to learn, do, discover, watch, or buy something). Consequently, this content will be more conversational in tone and framed to answer frequently asked questions to aid users in acquiring information on the go.

Mobile ecommerce sales in the U.S. represented nearly 40% of total retail ecommerce sales as recently as 2018 – and it’s anticipated that these numbers will keep climbing. Despite this unprecedented growth, U.S. consumers are nonetheless encountering considerable difficulties while shopping online.

Consumers’ greatest frustration emanates from latency – in a recent survey, 42% of users referenced low-performing websites or apps as their biggest inconvenience. As network speeds accelerate with 5G, zero latency will essentially eliminate the number-one problem for mobile shopping.

Now is the time for companies – and marketers – to gear up for the progression of 5G by streamlining shopping apps and enriching the customer experience.

Video Advertising Will Increase

Video is already the most consumed content on the internet, as well as a fast-growing segment of digital marketing. While 4G networks are relatively fast, lag issues still creep up when streaming videos. Due to limited bandwidth, pages load slowly, preventing many marketers from doubling down on video as a central focus of their efforts.

With heightened connectivity and accelerated internet speeds, the use of video content, streaming, and mobile video consumption is expected to skyrocket. Page load times will dramatically decrease and buffering time will be reduced to virtually nil, creating a nearly seamless streaming experience for users.

5G networks will allow users to stream high-quality videos faster than ever before, contribute to better overall quality (such as 4K video), easily support longer-form and data-rich videos, and enhance live video capabilities.

Consequently, video advertising will become more prevalent online. Marketers will focus on producing unique, high-quality video content as a primary component of their advertising strategies. Consumers should expect that the quantity of video ads they see will rise; however, these same users may be more open to video content if they find it to be particularly relevant.

As recently as 2018, users reported having viewed a combined 1 billion hours’ worth of YouTube content each day, substantially more than the next leading platforms combined. Rival social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat have all rolled out emergent video platforms in an attempt to seize a portion of YouTube’s viewership for their platforms. As the breadth of video-streaming networks continues to expand, marketers will work on diversifying and gearing their efforts toward each specific platform.

Decreasing Use of Ad Blockers

Currently, an estimated 47% of consumers routinely use ad blockers. One of the biggest reasons for this is that ads can significantly slow down a page’s load time.

With the higher speeds and lower latency that 5G will bring, the use of ad blockers is likely to decline. This means that marketers will be able to serve more ads to more people, much faster than before.

Faster load times and a better user experience (UX) will ultimately lead to more positive relationships between brands and consumers as well.

Richer Content for Websites & Emails

More mobile bandwidth would seriously diminish concerns about website load times, allowing businesses to use more images, animation, and video. Just because they can, though, doesn’t mean that they should – busy and frenetic web designs can be confusing to visitors. However, 5G does allow for richer content with fewer worries.

5G technology would decrease concerns about email load times as well. Marketers could be more confident about using retina and 4K images in emails, and could even use larger-sized animated gifs with more frames.

Voice Assistants Will Be The Norm

Whether scheduling activities or creating lists, people are now using voice assistants for anything and everything they please. Sales of smart speakers, such as Amazon’s Alexa, have also boomed in recent years.

Smart speakers and voice assistants demand rapid access to vast amounts of data in order to accurately encrypt a verbal command and return a useful response. 5G technology will allow these tools to function even faster and be more helpful. In addition, the data transfer speeds available from 5G networks will enable you to take your smart speaker with you wherever you go for even greater versatility.

One of the biggest marketing impacts of 5G will be that consumers can have actual voice conversations with mobile devices, instead of merely issuing a few voice commands and interacting at other times by thumb-typing or screen-touching.

As voice assistants become more omnipresent, marketers will look for new ways to leverage this developing technology. Mobile advertising could eventually become entirely slanted towards voice conversations.

How to Keep Up in a 5G World

It’s understandable if your company isn’t quite ready to explore the possibilities of interactive advertising, augmented reality, or virtual reality. However, you should still keep tabs on the latest marketing technologies in order to be “in the know” about what the bigger brands are doing. This can help you identify which opportunities might be more accessible to you in the future, or come up with similar strategies that you might be able to recreate without the high-priced technologies.

If you haven’t already, you should also work on building up your digital and online marketing tactics. The ongoing improvements of Wi-Fi and the expectations of 5G have demonstrated that there’s a business case for being hyperconnected. If the majority of your customers weren’t online frequently already, they certainly will be in the coming years.

Make sure you’re actively engaging with consumers on the most popular social media channels for your industry. Build a robust website awash with digital content such as blog posts, marketing videos, and other relevant information.

If you’ve already got an amazing online presence, consider exploring newer mobile platforms that could thrive in the 5G era. You might not be able to afford to create an AR advertisement, but you could experiment with creating content that utilizes AR or new-media filters on apps such as Snapchat, TikTok, or Instagram.

In a 5G world, marketing will be distinctly data-driven with messaging served to individuals, not the general public. At every micro-moment of decision, you’ll be seeking to gain influence. Thus, you will need solid marketing technology in order to capture and analyze data and respond in real time. Accomplishing this goal will demand investment and meticulous planning. Utilizing a customer data platform is a great place to start

FINAL THOUGHTS

While the move to widespread 5G coverage will be a gradual progression, the latest generation of wireless technology stands as a colossal creative and strategic opportunity for marketers. Integrating technology into the marketing realm was already bound to happen; but with the realization of 5G on a massive scale, digital will indeed begin to dominate.

Amidst this rapidly changing landscape, marketers must work to establish closer relationships between consumers and brands through more relevant and compelling communications and experiences. 5G will allow marketers to find new and innovative ways to communicate with their existing customers, based on better location accuracy and other techniques. 

Marketing professionals would also be wise to invest in new skills and strategic planning in order to fully leverage the new technology and its infrastructure. By keeping an eye on key digital marketing metrics and monitoring customer behaviors closely, marketers can quickly identify major shifts and adapt accordingly. 

As with any new technology, unexpected pitfalls may arise, such as data breaches and identity theft. Marketers must ensure that comprehensive security and privacy procedures are in place to safeguard their own assets and those of their clients.

Overall, the addition of 5G and even improved Wi-Fi networks will be great for businesses with an online or digital presence – and marketers who run many of their daily processes online.

There’s definitely a lot to unpack, but as 5G takes shape and becomes part of our collective reality, we’ll continue to discover new ways to harness the technology and enhance the consumer’s experience.

If you’re looking for a digital marketing and creative services team to deliver precise marketing solutions to help grow your business, look no further than HighClick Media. We provide comprehensive digital media and online marketing solutions for businesses of all sizes. Our talented team of creative thinkers, innovators, and digital marketers bring skill above and beyond the ordinary to every project, resulting in explosive business success. Call us today at 252.814.2150 to see how we can help elevate your brand!

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Can Blogging Help My Business?

Can Blogging Help My Business?
Can Blogging Help My Business?

Can Blogging Help My Business?

If you think your business will flourish without blogging, think again. Incorporating a blog on your website is a powerful way to drive business success.

Before I dive into the reasons you should start a blog, here are a few of my favorite statistics that will get you pumped up about blogging!

  • Over 409 million people view more than 21 billion blog pages monthly.
  • Small businesses with blogs receive 126% more lead growth than small businesses that do not blog. (Source: ThinkCreative)
  • 6 out of 10 US consumers have made a purchase based on recommendations from a blog.

I could keep going, but you get the idea. Unfortunately, the statistics alone aren’t always enough to encourage a business owner to start blogging. If you don’t have a blog for your brand yet, the reasons why probably sound a little something like this:

  • I wouldn’t know where to begin!
  • I don’t have anything business-related to blog about!
  • I don’t have time!

If these reasons resonate with you, take a deep breath and hear me out. Starting a blog is not that difficult, and once you take that first step, the benefits of brand blogging will make your hard work totally worth it!

Here are five ways blogging can help your business…

 

1. Increase Website Traffic

One obvious way blogging can drive traffic to your site is through SEO (search engine optimization), which is the process of crafting content so that it improves your Google search ranking. With a business blog, you can regularly strengthen your SEO success through the effective use of keywords and frequent updates (which prompt search engine bots to crawl and index your site more frequently).

Ranking higher than your competitors in Google means that your target audience will see your business first! When someone performs a Google search and lands on a web page, they’re expecting the said page to provide useful and compelling content. Whether your blog provides tutorials, entertaining stories, or product and service information, the users that search for solutions and land on your blog will set aside time to read it.

So, with blogging, not only does your website traffic increase but so does the average time users spend on your site.

 

2. Establish Credibility

Any smart business owner knows you can’t just talk the talk, you’ve got to walk the walk. You can claim to be an industry expert all day long, but does your website actively prove that you really know what you’re doing? By sharing valuable info about products and services in your niche, you’re strengthening your brand. When you shed light on solutions to customers’ pain points, you earn their trust.

One company blog that oozes credibility is the Whole Foods blog, Whole Story. This blog enhances the company’s brand identity, addressing its target customer base that’s interested in healthy, organic options. Whole Story is a powerful example of a brand using a blog to provide value while promoting their own products.

 

3. Humanize Your Brand

A brand is the promise, the big idea, the expectations that reside in each customer’s mind about a product, service, or company. Branding is about making an emotional connection. ~ Alina Wheeler

In many of my blog posts, I touch on consumers’ desire for a personal relationship and human connection with their favorite brands. From social media to email marketing, multiple forms of digital marketing allow space to humanize your brand.

However, blogging gives you a bigger opportunity to add a personal touch. Social media platforms are great for short, quick bursts of ideas, information, and entertainment. But blogging gives you the opportunity to dive deep into a subject and really show readers your enthusiasm!

A blog can make a business more transparent and further express a brand’s personality in ways that might not be as obvious on other platforms.

The more “human” you’re perceived by your customers, the more loyal they will be to your brand.

 

4. Results That Last

So, you write a blog post, make it live, and share it on social media. Your post gets your brand a little bit of audience engagement, and soon you’re on to writing your next post. Is your old post still relevant? Sure is! Does it still serve a purpose? Absolutely!

You see, months or even years after a blog post is published, it can continue to attract new leads to convert.

Hubspot says that more than 90% of their blog’s leads came from old posts. Why would older posts perform better than new posts? It’s simple. Gradually, new posts become old posts that grow in search ranking through views and shares.

Here’s an example. I searched “how to pitch a business idea” on Google.

The top 4 results are from 2013, 2018, 2009, and 2017, and you don’t make it to the top of Google by not being relevant.

Blogging is a gift that keeps on giving!

 

Start Blogging Now to Elevate Your Brand’s Success!

Clearly, blogging has awesome benefits. If you’ve realized you need to start blogging but don’t know where to begin, our seasoned and versatile content creators are happy to help!

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Emoji Marketing: 3 Brands That Did it Right

Emoji Marketing - 3 Brands That Did It Right
Emoji Marketing - 3 Brands That Did It Right

Emoji Marketing: 3 Brands That Did it Right

Happy World Emoji Day!

Yep, you read that right. Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’re already aware of today’s “holiday.” It’s a day to celebrate the tiny cartoon images on our devices that most of us use every day! Emojis have been in our lives for a long time. Beginning as components of chatroom conversations in the ’90s as emoticons, emojis have reshaped the way we communicate.

“Yes, they are cute and fun and kind of addictive, but they also improve our capacity to make our intended meaning known.”  ~  Psychology Today

Whether or not you’re a fan of these little digital icons, there’s no denying that more and more successful brands are jumping on board with emoji marketing. And the brands that are doing it right present their emojis in ways that are both impressive and memorable.

If your business hasn’t jumped on the emoji marketing bandwagon yet, keep reading for examples of brands that pulled it off flawlessly.

Emoji Marketing - Deadpool Emoji Billboard Campaign

Deadpool’s Emoji Billboard

Hilarious + Creative = Genius! Capturing the attention of fans, three simple emojis were used to spell out “Deadpool” to promote the new movie. This marketing campaign reportedly played a role in Deadpool breaking box office records for an R-rated movie. An emoji that appears to be smiling poo is not something you see on a billboard every day. This campaign is proof that doing the unexpected can totally pay off!

Emoji Marketing - WWF Endangered Emoji Campaign

WWF’s #EndangeredEmoji Twitter Campaign

In 2015, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) developed the #EndangeredEmoji campaign with the goal to save animals from extinction. Targeting Millennials by using a social media platform and alternative communication methods proved to be a great idea. A fresh audience flocked to this emoji campaign, leading to 559,000 mentions and 59,000 sign-ups during the first month of the launch.

Emoji Marketing - McDonald's Good Times Emoji Campaign

McDonald’s “Good Times” Emoji Marketing Campaign

McDonald’s produced a simple and lighthearted campaign to tell a short story using only emojis. They start by acknowledging a potentially bad day and showing empathy. They follow up with humor and the suggestion that visiting their business will turn your bad day around.

Final Thoughts on Emoji Marketing

Final Thoughts

As businesses evolve alongside their customers, using these new technologies is vital for connecting emotionally with their target audiences.

However, for every successful emoji marketing campaign, there have been other, less-than-successful attempts made. So, before you decide to incorporate emojis into your marketing campaigns, make sure they flow with your overall marketing strategy.

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4 Essential Digital Marketing Elements Your Business Needs

4 Essential Digital Marketing Elements Your Business Needs

This is so important because it shows your customers how you’re going to accommodate them. Your brand is your business name, logo, tagline, personality, and more! Most popular brands evolve by adjusting to the times. This allows them to meet the ever-changing needs and expectations of the clients and customers. If nothing else, you need a brand name, a target audience, and an idea of how your brand personality is going to connect with your target audience.

Starbucks Logo 1971 - 4 Essential Digital Marketing Elements Your Business Needs

(1971)

Starbucks Logo 2022 - 4 Essential Digital Marketing Elements Your Business Needs

(2022)

This is a good example of brand evolution. Starbucks is continuously updating their brand and services, presenting a fresh take on a company we’ve known for decades.

If you’re a newbie, you probably don’t have a huge website budget yet, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have an awesome website. Ideally, your site should be simple and easy to navigate. Fast load times are also vital, or you might be losing people before they even see your site!

You will also want to make sure that your website is mobile-optimized, meaning that if someone wants to visit your site from a phone or tablet, they’ll still get a great browsing experience.

Content covers all the things. Anything that educates your customers about your business is content. Potential clients are going to visit your website to see if and how your content is relates to them and their needs. The best content should be non-intrusive and inspire your customers to come to you.

A strategically planned-out ad can help your business grow substantially. And the best part? You don’t need a ton of money to get started! Advertising is key – don’t forget it!

If you’re just getting started, my suggestion to you is remarketing to people who have already visited your website. They’ve already shown interest, and all you need to do is seal the deal! Digital advertising is a great way to drive traffic to your site and convert prospects into customers.

There you have it! Four essential digital marketing elements that every business needs to have in order to set you up for success!

If you wish to have more traffic, leads or sales, then it’s time we talk!

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10 Tips to Remember When Launching a Website

Launching a Website - 10 Tips to Remember

10 Tips to Remember When Launching a Website

Launching a website is a big decision. If you make the wrong choice, it can cost you thousands of dollars and years to correct. Before launching your website, there are a few things you should remember so that you can achieve the desired success.
 

Ensure That Your Logo Represents Your Brand

Creating your logo design for a website should be simple yet creative and unique so that it can be easily recognized by customers. 

Your logo should also represent your brand in a way that’s straightforward for users to understand. The best logos usually include text, illustrations, or designs with the company name included in them.

 

Research Your Competitors Carefully

In any niche market or industry today, it pays to know what your competitors are doing at all times. This will help you come up with better ways of getting ahead of them, by offering something they don’t have or targeting their audiences effectively without being noticed. You can do this through various means, such as social media monitoring tools and third-party trackers among others.

 

Publish Great Content That’s Unique & Informative

Having great content definitely plays a role when trying to attract users to visit your site from time to time. However, this doesn’t mean you should plagiarize others’ work! Just make sure that the content you have is unique in its own way and provides genuine information to your users.

 

Develop an Effective SEO Strategy

If you want your site to succeed, you cannot overlook the importance of having an effective SEO strategy. This is one of the most important aspects you will need to consider before launching your website so that it ranks high on all major search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

There are many elements that can be used in developing a good SEO plan, but what matters the most is making sure that these strategies stay updated as much as possible. Some of the best SEO practices to include in your strategy include practicing link building, proper keyword research, using meta tags, and much more.

 

Don’t Ignore the Mobile Market

It’s no longer news that mobile internet usage has overtaken desktop usage worldwide. With this in mind, you should not ignore the importance of having a responsive website that’s compatible with all devices, including tablets and smartphones. Therefore, test your site for mobile compatibility before taking it live.

 

Be Consistent with Your Content

When it comes to having a successful website, consistency definitely plays an important role as well. You need to make sure that you post new blog posts on a regular basis. This includes updating existing ones from time to time so that they remain fresh for visitors who might be checking out your site after some months of not visiting it. This will also help Google know what topics or categories are most relevant to yours, therefore giving you more chances of ranking high when people search for those keywords online.

 

Build a Strong Relationship with Users & Readers

Building strong relationships with readers doesn’t only mean posting engaging content, it also means having the patience to reply to their concerns or questions as much as possible. This will help you establish a strong connection with your audience and give them reasons to come back for more. By building a relationship with your audience, you will, without a doubt, gain an edge over your competition.

 

Focus on Your Users’ Needs and Goals

When launching your website, never forget that users are the ones who matter most! Their needs and goals must be put first before anything else. Meeting their goals determines whether your site will be successful enough in attracting more customers through referrals and retaining existing ones. When you provide value and do everything right, then people might get curious about what products or services you offer and find themselves visiting the site more often.

 

Remember to Prioritize Content Sharing On Social Media Platforms

Social media marketing plays a very important role when trying to get the word out about your website or its services. In fact, some of the best ways you can use social media for free include promoting blog posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, sharing content with friends and followers on these platforms, and joining groups that share similar interests like Pinterest boards and LinkedIn groups, and more. Just make sure not to spam people’s feeds by oversharing!

 

Have an Email Newsletter Ready for Subscribers

Having an email newsletter ready means that you are taking advantage of one of the most effective ways to interact with visitors on a regular basis without being noticed by Google as “spammy” links which will affect your site’s rankings!

An email list allows you to send updates about new posts or products anytime while staying at the top of your mind without appearing pushy whatsoever. This method has been proven successful time and again when done right.

Final Thoughts

Your website is an invaluable tool for your business. It not only helps you attract more users but also provides information that can help consumers make better decisions about the products and services they’re interested in buying. Therefore, increasing your chances of making a sale that will eventually lead to generating revenue should be your first priority. Use this article as a guide before launching your site, and you will achieve optimal success in no time.

Keep in mind that building a professional website for your business is no easy task. But it’s not in which you have to “go it alone.” HighClick Media is here to help! Our talented team of professional website designers and developers can customize your site to your exact specifications.

Maybe you already have a business website, but it’s time for an update or a total facelift. We can help with that as well! Call us today at 252.814.2150 or drop us a line to see how we can help you elevate your brand!

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16 Critical Elements of Great Website Design

16 Critical Elements of Great Website Design

16 Critical Elements of Great Website Design

Thanks to advanced technology, building a website today can be extremely simple. However, a website design that pairs impeccable functionality with stunning visuals is still challenging. It goes without saying that websites are now a fundamental part of a business’s online identity.

No business can hope to survive, let alone thrive, in today’s cutthroat market without an attractive, easy-to-navigate website. Far too many businesses fail at building a substantial online presence for their brand due to subpar website design.

So, why do some websites fail to attract and hold traffic where others succeed?

Certain elements of website design contribute the most to building visitors’ interest in a site. Including these elements on your website gives it a beautiful visual appeal along with flawless functionality and authority. These are also the components that are most often botched during development.

Let’s take a closer look at 16 critical elements for building a great website:

 

Color Schemes

The color scheme of a website is seldom paid attention to when developing a website. However, you should know how important a role it plays in influencing a visitor’s behavior. Therefore, it’s important to use a color scheme that will best appeal to your visitors while also representing your brand well.

For instance, if you visit the fast-food giant McDonald’s website, you’ll be greeted with a color scheme that combines red, white, and yellow. These colors have been synonymous with the brand for ages.

We suggest first choosing the dominant color that best represents your brand. You can then choose an analogous color scheme that complements your dominant color choice to highlight certain sections of your site, like call-to-action (CTA) buttons.

 

White Space

Open any website today and you’ll find that a majority of these websites possess white space that divides certain sections of the web pages. These spaces lend an immaculate and accessible design to your site. They make the content or CTA buttons on your site easy to identify and read for visitors.

Some websites also use white space to give certain aspects of the site more emphasis than others. For instance, white space can be used to make certain “special deals” the focal point of a page.

Make sure you’re consistent in spacing the gaps between sections of your site. We recommend beginning with the navigation and then moving your attention to the content of your site. A grid-based layout can help you design a clean interface that maintains consistency across the entire page.

 

Easy Navigation

Sites that make it complicated for their visitors to navigate normally experience higher bounce rates.

As such, it’s imperative to facilitate simple navigation by giving users an easy-to-use and intuitive website. The website should offer users simple routes to navigate to certain fundamental aspects of a site, and recommended pages, along with a way back to the original page.

We suggest using parallax scrolling as a navigation system, which includes arrows that make a website’s user interface (UI) easy to interact with. Therefore, you must place a strong emphasis on simple navigation if you want visitors to spend more time on your site.

 

Distinct Typography

Using unique typography to present content on your site is an ideal way to distinguish yourself from other similar sites online. The fonts you ultimately choose should complement your brand while communicating its message to visitors. It’s also important to consider a font that makes your site look professional without appearing bland.

We suggest using a font size of at least 16 pixels to make your site’s content readable on mobile and desktop devices. You can use different but complementary fonts to highlight the headings and subheadings on the site. Finally, use contrasting color schemes to match your text with the background perfectly. Pairing darker tones with lighter colors will do the trick just fine.

 

Outstanding Visuals

This goes without saying, but certain visual cues on your site will give any website a distinct edge over similar websites online. Populating a webpage with high-resolution images and beautiful illustrations can make your site more compelling to visitors.

Of course, you can’t use just any random visuals on your site. They should align with what your brand stands for.

Use stunning banner images. You can populate your page with custom-made images, which can also be used to highlight certain key focal points of your site. Try to avoid using too many stock photos on your pages.

 

Site Usability

Aside from beautiful design, you also need to create a site that provides users with a satisfying user experience (UX). Most developers make the critical mistake of compromising a site’s usability in favor of its overall visual design. It’s imperative to optimize a site in order to facilitate smooth interaction between the site’s elements and visitors. A subpar UX design could result in your website’s bounce rate blowing through the roof.

You can enhance the user experience by using animations, readable and engaging content, simple navigation, and more interactive elements.

 

High-Quality Content

Having high-quality content is integral to optimizing search engine rankings for your site and thus generating more traffic to your site. It’s also absolutely essential to populate your site with quality content in order to keep your visitors engaged. Top-notch content that’s relevant to your brand can persuade visitors to spend more time on your site, explore other areas, or make a purchase.

We recommend dividing your content based on its relevance. Always keep relevant information about your website, product, or service at the top. Follow it up with content that explains your services or highlights features that set you apart from competitors.

Finally, use an FAQ section to answer questions that a visitor may have about your service.

 

Compelling Calls to Action

A website exists to persuade a visitor to take certain actions on it. CTA buttons on a site trigger this response from visitors.

As such, you need to place CTA buttons strategically throughout your site to persuade visitors to perform desirable actions on the webpage.

The call-to-action messages themselves must be persuasive. They should explain what you want visitors to do in a few words.

“Buy Now,” “Sign up Free,” “Contact Us,” etc. are all examples of CTA buttons commonly used by most websites.

Make sure your landing page leads users to all the CTA buttons present on the page. You can utilize contrasting color schemes, content, and white spaces to highlight a CTA button.

If you have a variety of CTA buttons on your page, determine which type is more important and use it more prominently.

 

Mobile-Friendly Design

It is a well-known fact that the majority of websites receive most of their traffic from mobile users. With over 7 billion active smartphone users around the world today, not optimizing your site for mobile devices means losing out on such a massive audience. Suffice it to say, mobile optimization is one of the first things you need to do when building a website.

You need to utilize a custom web design that responds and adapts to various mobile screen sizes automatically.

We recommend using Google Search Console or other free tools like Pingdom or BrowserStack to check whether your site is mobile-friendly.

 

SEO-Friendly Elements

As you may know by now, search engines like Google take many aspects of a site’s user experience into consideration when ranking a site. As such, a developer needs to consider search engine optimization from the very beginning of a website’s design process. Elements like simple navigation, scannable text, loading speed, and mobile friendliness contribute to the overall user experience.

A problem with any of the above elements will result in a user having a poor experience with your site, eventually increasing its bounce rate. Google will take this high bounce as a sign of bad UX and ultimately plummet your site in search engine rankings.

It’s important to consider how each element will contribute to your site’s SEO. We suggest working with an SEO expert, who will monitor and assess all crucial elements of your site while it is in development.

 

Right Usage of Ads

You’ll find many websites online that have successfully monetized their websites by displaying ads on them. If used appropriately, display ads can be a great way to earn some revenue from your website. However, such advertisements – if used incorrectly – can aggravate your visitor’s user experience. In short, advertisements have the power to make or break your site.

As such, we discourage using too many ads on websites as it can harm the user experience. You don’t want your website to look unprofessional, which is exactly what will happen if your webpage is littered with ads.

The most effective way to advertise on a site, in our opinion, would be combining banner ads with affiliate marketing. Make sure your ads integrate organically with your site. They shouldn’t feel out of place and interfere with the content on your site.

 

Website Security

Online security should be an integral part of any website. Security and privacy have often been major causes of concern for individuals surfing the web. Security alerts popping up when someone tries to open your site is a surefire way of turning potential website visitors away forever.

Internet security should be given as much focus as the design and overall functionality of your site. It should be mandatory for your website to implement an HTTPS protocol. This will help protect a user’s information, lend some much-needed credibility, and build trust among prospects. 

We suggest buying SSL certificates from reliable hosting service providers. These are cheap to acquire and can be integrated seamlessly with your site.

 

Integrating Social Media

Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have billions of active users from all around the world. So it only makes sense to integrate social media into your site’s design plan. You should have social media buttons that instantly redirect your users to your site’s official social media channel. You can also have buttons that allow users to directly share certain content or products from your website on their private channels. 

Having social media buttons strategically placed on your website is a great way of indirectly marketing your site, opening doors for people to leap directly onto your site from their respective social media profiles online.

 

Adding Internal & External Links

A proper link-building strategy can prove to be a great way of enhancing the brand authority of your website. It is important to learn how to build internal and external links to help boost your website’s performance. For instance, you can direct users to certain content on your site and improve its SEO performance by using appropriate internal links.

Proper link-building research requires a good strategy. We suggest finding out how your competitor’s websites are employing their link-building strategy. Draw inspiration for sites that are using the strategy with productive results.

 

Comments Section

We’ve already stressed how important it is to make your site as interactive and engaging as possible. Aside from content, you can add a comments section to your site, which allows users to leave their two cents below a particular content or product information. This can be a great way to receive feedback, which can be used to improve your service.

If you’re running an ecommerce store, we recommend adding a review section similar to what is found on sites like Amazon and eBay. A dedicated comments and review section will make your site more interactive and improve brand loyalty.

 

Achievements & Endorsements

This is perhaps the most effective and widely adopted way of building trust among customers. It is in your business’s best interest to flaunt your past achievements on your website for all to see. Displaying your achievements can go a long way toward building a solid reputation for your business and brand.

We recommend having a dedicated section for testimonials, displaying positive comments from at least 4 to 5 past clients.

We also suggest highlighting the names of all the popular brands you’ve served. If you’ve received endorsements from authoritative brands, add them to your site as well.

Final Thoughts

While these 16 elements can seem a bit overwhelming, they’re essential to building a website that not only looks fantastic but functions flawlessly as well.

Are you ready for the good news? You don’t have to do it on your own!

HighClick Media is a full-service digital marketing agency that specializes in professional website design. Our talented web designers will craft your business website with lots of TLC and plenty of technical prowess! We can build you a brand new website from scratch or spruce up your existing site.

Interested? Reach out to HighClick Media at 252.814.2150 or drop us a line today to see how we can help elevate your brand with a world-class website for your business.

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Guest blogger Joseph Schneider is the Director of Marketing at Haitna, a digital marketing firm based in Texas.

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How Can I Use Instagram to Drive Website Traffic?

How Can I Use Instagram to Drive Website Traffic?

All the Cool Kids Use Instagram!

Instagram is a social media networking app that allows you to share content in the form of photos and videos. In recent years, the mobile photography craze has made Instagram highly successful, with the platform reaching 1 billion active monthly users in June.

And to the mystery business owner reading my blog: If you don’t even have a business Insta yet, you’re seriously missing out!

With a smart strategy in place, social media platforms can assist you in building a dedicated following, strengthening your brand, and, YES, driving tons of new traffic to your website! Take a look at my 4 proven ways to use Instagram to drive website traffic.

 

1. Create the Perfect Bio & Include a Call to Action

Who are you and what do you do for your audience? This is the question your bio should answer. Your words should be powerful and compelling. The goal is to attract your audience and what your brand is and how it your product or service benefits them.

One of my favorite business bios belongs to Airbnb:

Their bio quickly explains their services in a playful way, and the brand encourages audience participation by inviting followers to share their photos.

Most importantly, there is a Call to Action. “Book from our feed: abnb.co/instagram” links visitors to their website to take the next step. You’ll definitely want to link your website to your bio because this particular social platform prevents links in photo captions from being clickable.

 

2. Be Consistent

“How often should I be posting to my Instagram?” It’s such a common question, but there is no right or wrong answer. As long as you’re being consistent, you’re doing it right. Don’t post ten times on Monday, zero Tuesday and Wednesday, once on Thursday, and then nothing for a week! Find your balance. Don’t flood your followers’ news feeds. Space your content out without falling off the map. Having a consistent presence builds trust and keeps your brand fresh in your followers’ minds.

 

3. Incorporate Hashtags & Location Tags

Posts with at least one hashtag attain 12.6% more engagement, while posts with a location tag gain 79% more engagement. On the flip side, overusing hashtags and using irrelevant hashtags are subject to penalties. Three to five hashtags is a solid range to use. Make sure your hashtags are relevant to your brand and don’t use the same hashtags for every post.

 

4. Share Useful Content

At first glance, Instagram is a place for pretty pictures, but let’s not forget how important compelling content is for every component of your digital strategy.

Showcase your products and services. If you’re a boutique owner, give your audience styling tips based on your clothing and accessories. Or let’s say you’re a chef. Share pictures of your beautiful meals and direct visitors to your website for recipes.

The best thing you can do on Instagram is to provide value to your followers so they’ll be compelled to visit your website. What makes your business stand out?

How to Use Instagram to Drive Website Traffic

If you’re looking for more Instagram marketing tips, our experts can help you strategically grow your account. Contact us today so that we can produce the results that you need to drastically increase your website traffic.

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5 Marketing Lessons We Learned from the Fyre Festival Fiasco

5 Marketing Lessons We Learned from the Fyre Festival Fiasco

5 Marketing Lessons We Learned from the Fyre Festival Fiasco

If you’ve paid any attention to social media or your favorite streaming apps within the last month, you’ve probably heard about 2017’s now-infamous Fyre Festival. The story of Fyre, the “festival” that never actually happened, is so fascinating that it became the subject of recent Netflix and Hulu documentaries, released within just days of one another. If you’re part of the tiny percentage of people who aren’t aware of this twisted tale, here’s the rundown:

 

The Fyre Festival Fraud

The festival, founded by Billy MacFarland and Ja Rule, was shamelessly promoted across social media by A-list supermodels and Instagram influencers (including Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, and Emily Ratajowski), as an exclusive, luxurious experience spanning multiple days on a private Bahamian island. The promos and Instagram ads were mesmerizing and suspiciously vague, using the brand hashtag #fyrefestival. Ticket prices ranged from $1,500 to over $100,000 for the “cultural experience of the decade,” and included airfare, gourmet meals, and luxury accommodations.

Upon arriving, festival-goers were disappointed to discover that the “luxury villas” were actually disaster relief tents, the “culinary experience” was actually cold cheese sandwiches, the “branded jet experience” was actually a commercial 747, and the artists scheduled to perform were actually… nowhere to be found. Fyre Festival organizers, who were unreachable for help or clarity, released a vague statement that the festival had been canceled, and a plethora of lawsuits was filed against the organizers and other parties involved. The chaos was chronicled by furious attendees, whose videos and photos spread like wildfire across social media platforms, making national news. Talk about trouble in paradise.

 

5 Digital Marketing Lessons We Learned from the Fyre Festival Fiasco

From a digital marketing standpoint, Fyre Festival demonstrates how powerful, and ultimately, detrimental, digital marketing (social media marketing and Instagram influencer marketing in particular) can be without a proper strategy in place. Although the festival was a disaster, it serves as an important lesson to brands and marketers alike, and we’re discussing what we learned below.

 

1. Never Underestimate the Power of Experiential Marketing.

Millennials prefer to spend their money on experiences over material things – and they are willing to pay extra for it. In fact, many brands already recognize this and are turning to experiential marketing to try to connect. Basically, this encompasses setting up opportunities for interaction, but with the brand and with other consumers, often through special events.

Understanding the Research on Millennial Shopping Behaviors | Angela Woo

Tickets to Fyre Festival promised more than a live music event. Promos for the festival heavily focused on providing an experience, implying that, if only for three days, attendees would live the same lifestyle as the celebrities in the SMM promos. From traveling to an exclusive destination on a private jet to partying on a yacht with supermodels to having the chance to win an actual buried treasure, Fyre Festival marketed the event as an organic, magical experience for its target audience.

 

2. If You Make Big Promises, You Have to Hold Up Your End of the Deal.

Rule of thumb: don’t overpromise and underdeliver, or you risk ruining your brand’s reputation. Organizers of the event regularly referred to the Fyre Festival as “an experience that exceeds all expectations.” Fyre’s audience consumed these promises for months on end, truly believing that the event would exceed their already high expectations. We already know what happened when Fyre failed to deliver, to say the least. Now, everyone associates the Fyre brand with fear, dishonesty, and chaos. RIP Fyre.

 

3. Influencer Marketing Comes with a Price.

Festival organizers launched an influencer marketing campaign featuring over 400 widely-known social media brands and influencers, aka “Fyre Starters,” to share photos or videos to spark discussion about the event. Within the first 2 days of their Instagram marketing campaign, the promoted Instagram posts attained 300 million impressions. Impressive, right? But let’s not get carried away. This marketing strategy was anything but strategic, and here are the cold, hard facts:

  • Kendall Jenner snagged a sweet $250K for a single post promoting the event.
  • Billy MacFarland spent millions on marketing and endorsements from famous celebrities and Instagram users, using up a majority of the budget.
  • This careless spending left little to no budget for proper infrastructure, staff, and artists.

Now, this is not to say that influencer marketing isn’t effective – it obviously is. But successful influencer marketing all boils down to implementing a specific digital marketing strategy and doing what you say you’re going to do.

 

4. Don’t Play the Blame Game.

Once the crap hit the fan, Ja Rule took to Twitter to apologize for the frenzy. Claiming that he was working to refund everyone’s money, he still had to emphasize that the failure of a festival was “NOT MY FAULT.”

 

Meanwhile, Billy McFarland issued an apology of his own to Rolling Stone:

We launched this festival marketing campaign. Our festival became a real thing and took [on] a life of it’s own. Our next step was to book the talent and actually make the music festival, and that’s when a lot of reality and roadblocks hit. We were a little naive in thinking for the first time we could do this ourselves.

One surefire way to destroy brand trust and loyalty is to deny responsibility for an issue that’s clearly your fault. Successful brands are accountable for their actions, acknowledge their shortcomings, and don’t rest until they make things right.

 

5. Just Be Honest.

Transparency has been a popular term in marketing lately, and for good reason. Customers only want to cultivate relationships with brands they can trust; Brands that are honest, transparent, and authentic. Every brand makes mistakes, and accidents happen. However, deliberately misleading your target audience to make a quick buck will ultimately leave you broke as a joke – because if consumers can’t trust you, they’re not going to support your brand.

McFarland admitted to launching Fyre’s multimillion-dollar marketing campaign before the actual event organization was even a thought. Fyre organizers knew that they were in too deep long before the scheduled date of the event, but they made no effort to warn their ticket holders.

Final Thoughts

Fyre Festival’s marketing campaign was, albeit short-lived, a massive success. It was the product, not the marketing, that didn’t deliver. As of right now, the only influencer who has made an apology is Bella Hadid, Ja Rule is still desperately trying to defend himself on social media, thousands of Bahamian festival workers remain unpaid, and Billy MacFarland is in jail.

The Fyre Festival turned out to be a total trainwreck, built on fraudulent activity and lies, but one truth remains – social media is a powerful component of the digital marketing game.

Curious as to how you can utilize social media marketing (SMM) to elevate your brand? Our expert team creates honest, authentic, and transparent campaign strategies to make your brand the best it can be! To set up a free consultation, reach out to us today!

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