04 Apr

Posted at 06:43h in Advertising, Digital Marketing

 

If you only just realised the importance of having a creative team to help you with communicating your brand message, then you have an interesting task ahead of you. Choosing the right agency for the job can be both nerve wrecking and exciting at the same time.

 

You’re probably looking for an agency that can strike a balance between industry experience and amazing ideas, not forgetting sufficient resources. Before you make the final decision on the agency to go with, there are a few factors which you need to take into consideration. Below are factors you need to look out for when shopping around.

 

Agency Core Strength

 

 

This is where you consider the saying “Jack of all trades, master of none” As much as it’s good being represented by an agency that can assist you with all your marketing requirements, it is very important to identify where the agency excels. This allows you to rest assured that you’re dealing with experts in the field.

 

An agency that knows it’s strengths is highly likely to deliver good results because they have more insight on how things generally work, most importantly they know when to consult fellow experts. In simpler terms, every business has its core function, find out what that agency’s core function is before bringing them on board.

 

Location

 

 

You probably want to partner with an agency that will be within close proximity to you, for convenience. As much as most correspondence is done via email and telephonically, it is sometimes crucial to have face to face interactions. You do get exceptional cases. In these instances, it’s best for both parties involved to take advantage of technological advancements and make use of tools such as Skype & Facetime.

 

It is still possible to meet virtually but in order to make this work, these means of communication would have to be discussed and agreed upon at the very early stages of the partnership. Working with an agency that’s located closer to you makes the relationship a lot easier to manage.

 

Experience

 

The last thing you want is to recruit an agency with no experience, it is a risky exercise which could potentially cost you a lot of money. Take time to look up the agency. Request credentials because those will give you an idea of what the agency is capable of. Experience suggests that an agency has existed long enough to have made all the mistakes, grown from them and acquired the necessary skills to qualify as experts in the field.

 

An established agency will most likely have an existing online trail. Be on the lookout for basic information such as an office address, landline as well as the leadership experience. This information should inform you whether the agency you’re considering is well established and experienced enough.

 

Effective Website

 

The best way to tell how a company carries out marketing activities is by looking at their own website and social media. This makes a good starting point because you’re able to evaluate the effectiveness of their strategy and marketing efforts. Surely if the company is able to maintain their own website, they would have no problem implementing the same effective strategy for their clients.

 

Have a look at the agency’s blog, see if their solutions speak to your challenges. Is the blog well maintained? how often are updates made on the website? It’s good to pay close attention to this, as it will reveal to you which agency is serious about results.

 

Creative Flair

 

 

In the fast-paced world, we live in, you need to partner with an agency that will be able to understand that trends are constantly changing and the world is evolving. It is, therefore, crucial to recruit an agency that knows innovation is key. With rife competition and demanding customers, you need to ensure that you maintain your level of greatness.

 

Is the agency capable of coming up with fresh ideas? What’s the agency’s understanding of your value proposition? Can they come up with innovative ways of spreading your brand message across? You will find that these questions are relevant in relation to your upcoming marketing campaigns.

 

Portfolio: Client List

 

 

Seeing is believing. It is no secret that some agencies may oversell experience. A portfolio, however, gives you ease because you can see the actual evidence. The portfolio will certainly reveal the clients the agency has worked with. You’re also able to evaluate the quality of work produced for these clients. This should help you determine whether or not the agency meets the standard you’re looking for.

 

You probably would even like to see the agency’s list of references, get in touch with a few, just to gauge what kind of working relationship they have. If their clients are happy, then you would have nothing to worry about.

 

Communicating Results

 

It’s one thing for an agency to know that they are good at what they do. It’s another to communicate those results in a manner which makes sense to all stakeholders and potential clients. Businesses understand numbers. The agency needs to have substantial figures which speak to revenue increases.

 

This is one language that will always be crystal clear, solely because growth is always the ultimate goal. You’re searching for transparency to determine whether or not the marketing activities have been fruitful. A reputable agency should be able to back up their recommendations with data, that is crucial.

 

Price

 

 

The question of affordability is one that you have to answer with a bold YES before you bring the agency on board. Understanding the cost of the services you require allows you to allocate some sort of value to the end result. This means you need to know the price tag attached to the agency. You need to ask questions relating to the billing process and payment plans.

 

Understand the period for contracts and what you’ll be committing to. Are you looking for something once-off, short term or long term? This helps both parties involved in deciding the possibilities of a fruitful partnership.

 

Awards and Accolades

 

 

This has the same function as icing on the cake. You generally want to acquaint yourself with an agency that delivers quality work but be careful not to get too excited about the awards, such that you lose sight of other important things. It’s interesting to know that the agency is recognised for its excellence in the field and across the board but look into those awards, what was the judging criteria and when was this attained.

 

These awards are not the only form of acknowledgment and validation but they certainly do count for something. Ideally, you want to partner with an agency that will help make you stand out from your competitors, this requires quality work that stands out.

 

Performance and Culture

 

 

These two work hand in hand. Through understanding how an agency works, you’re able to determine whether or not your values are aligned. Do not be afraid to ask about how things are done. Understanding the process is key. How quick is the agency’s turnaround time? Do they meet deadlines? This is specifically important because performance is everything.

 

Do not hesitate to ask who will be involved in the execution of your projects. Enquire about staff so that you’re certain the agency has enough resources to handle your project or account with ease.

 

Shopping around may seem like a tedious, frustrating process but it’s one exercise you have to go through when looking to partner with a reputable agency. Remember not to rush the process, do all your checks before you commit. If you know someone who’s on the search for an agency to work with, do not hesitate to send them our way. BWD Advertising would be delighted to meet them.

 

 

 

28 Mar

Posted at 14:18h in Content Marketing, Digital Marketing, Video Marketing

 

Image result for What is a conversion funnel clipart

 

Some background

Your consumers are empowered. And with an unprecedented scale of global collaboration pushing for an even more connected society; as a business, your most immediate threat may not even share the same country or continent with you. We have digital platforms to thank for this shifting business field. Let’s see how you can compete for survival.

 

 

What is a funnel and how does it benefits you? 

A funnel is the process of transforming your website visitors (traffic) into customers.

Here’s how a funnel typically works:

 

 

 

 

  • TOFU : Top of funnel
  • MOFU: Middle of funnel
  • BOFU : Bottom of funnel

TOFU: Awareness stage : The user realises a need that requires a solution. She looks for options and discovers plenty of information relation to her needs.    

 

Some pointers on the TOFU experience:

 

  • The content is generalised, engaging and is mainly used for the purpose of guiding the prospect into the deeper and richer part of the funnel.

 

  • The landing page must demonstrate its relationship to the user’s search intent ( it must show the promise to supply relevant information).

 

  • Appealing to the buyer persona you have identified for your products/ services.

 

Including the above listed; there are many more methods to use. These collective processes are known as Landing page optimisation; and these are absolutely crucial if you want to find online success.  Contact us if you want to optimise your landing page in a way that converts.

 

MOFU:  Consideration Stage: The content found here must highlight benefits of using the service; the lead is weighting her options at this stage and you must demonstrate why your product is the solution to her problem.

  • Testimonial videos
  • Case studies ( animated )

Using videos and other motion graphics to communicate information at this stage is crucial because the user wants to find out more about your product or service. You can’t write out detailed copy to do this. Your lead will lose interest if you do this and bounce away.

 

 

 

Here is an example of a video explaining what you just read:

https://youtu.be/5lnl40kpZJc

 

Where words reach their limit, animations and other visual elements can carry your message in a much more engaging and effective way. To increase your conversion rates, it is important to create content that does this.

 

Some pointers on the MOFU experience:

 

  • Content is rich and targeted.
  • Content points the user to her goal.
  • Content is engaging and informative.

 

 

In 2015, we helped one of our clients to optimise their MOFU content. And we continue to help optimise conversion funnels. Get in touch with us at here to start engaging your prospects.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h49YaEOl3Xo

 

BOFU: Decision stage: The last stage of the funnel. The lead that makes it here is almost your customer; you have demonstrated that you are capable of solving their problems and are now looking for another reason to buy from you. 

  • The simplicity of content.
  • Extremely specific content ( If you are selling a product, this would be the check-out stage).
  • Fewer distractions (from the visual perspective).
  • Fewer out links to other pages.

 

In our case; this is the part where we show you why you should go with us for all your visual needs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6rulAfU7uc

 

A funnel is, therefore, the process of guiding consumers in decision-making, regarding your products and services and videos and animation are gaining favour within the market to achieve greater. It converges onto the product that the consumer was searching for when they discovered your site. If your funnels are inefficient or ineffective, then your website will not produce business results.

 

BWD

We grow when you grow.

 

 

26 Mar

Posted at 07:55h in Graphics Design, Public Relations, Thought Leadership

Corporate Identity, Business Profile

 

One of our clients moved offices and asked us to update their corporate identity with a new address. About 2 years ago we had created logo, business card, email signature, business profile and other stationery items for the client. The impression is that the process takes around 15 minutes to do the update. They were not happy when I notified them that we’re going to charge them for the update. That’s when I realized that they don’t understant the process that goes into making this ‘small’ change.

On this blog I’ll quickly outline who is involved and the activities that they have to do so that you can decide for your self on how long it takes to make a ‘small’ change.

 

People Involved From BWD
Project Manager – Emails, phone calls, scheduling and follow up.
Designer – Person that actually implements the small chang.

 

Here’s How The Process Works.

  1. Project manager receives request by email or phone from client.
  2. Project manager opens a job bag and writes a brief the design studio. A job bag is basically a folder and a brief is clear instructions on client name, what needs to be done, where to find the content that need to be updated, the new and correct that needst to be loaded,etc.
  3. Project manager check other projects that are running and chooses the best person for the work and puts the job on our production schedule.
  4. Project manager has a quick chat with the designer around what needs to be done regarding the project a day or 2 before the work needs to be done.
  5. On the day of the project, the designer finds the correct version of the files from our storage server and downloads them.
  6. Designer opens the files in a design program like Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Phototoshop or Adoble Indesign, he would then double check that he has all the required fonts on his computer before making the changes.
  7. If the fonts are not avaible then he would have to download and install them from our storage server.
  8. After making the change, the designer exports the files in a usable format such as jpg.
  9. Designer sends files to project manager for review.
  10. Project manager sends the files to client for review.
  11. Both the Designer and Project Manager would then need to fill out their timesheets at the end of the day.

 

 

Letterhead

If we’re dealing with a letterhead then after exporting the jpg file then we need to install it in the MS Word document and do a test print before the project manager can share it with you.

 

 

Email Signature

If we’re dealing with a letterhead then after exporting the jpg file the designer would need to check that the file size is not bigger than 500mb and also the width is not bigger than 800px. Keep in mind that if the company has 10 employees then we would need to do this for each individual employee.

 

 

Business cards

If we’re dealing with a business card then the the change is done for each person that has business cards.

 

23 Mar

Posted at 13:04h in Content Marketing

Content pillars are a must-have for marketers who want their companies to stand out from the crowd. There are so many things to think about when developing pillar content – research, planning, content creation, sharing and of course engaging with your audience. That’s why I’ve broken it down to 5 key areas – to help you to build a strong foundation for your content.

And if you are still in doubt as to whether it’s worth getting into social media for the business there’s no need. Social media is no longer the poor relative of marketing channels and has now matured into a fully fledged part of all effective digital marketing strategies.

In the content pillar process, we define a thorough, intensive content asset (such as a blog article, video, or podcast) that can effectively answer and solve the problem, then create relevant, assets for multiple platforms.

This project I am currently working on for HR Ignite requires me to create great content for them to be able to post it on their different social media platforms.  And this approach takes some work, and requires a fair bit of content, but will spread your image across a larger audience that if you simply use one of these social media.

Here are the four content pillars for HR Ignite and their subcategories :

Advisor and consultant

    • Ensure Fairness & Consistency
    • Interpret Policies/Laws
    • Employee Advocate; Management Resource
  • Monitor for Harassment, and Discrimination

HR core competencies

    • Recruiting
    • Training
    • Benefits
    • Compensation
    • Safety
    • Employee Relations
    • Employment Law  
  • Policies

Ensure Compliance

    • Required Internal Documentation e.g, company-specific required training, safety, policies, tracking” systems.
    • State Licensing Requirements,(Security Licenses)
  • State and Federal Laws (employers required to abide by and, employment decisions must consider

Human Connection

    • Help navigate “HR” world; HR questions.
    • Serious personal issues
  • Provide resources (legal, housing, training..)

   

    1. Understand Your Audience

Before you begin to create your content, you need to understand for whom you are writing for, are your business to business or Business to a customer? below are few questions to help you answer this question

    • Who is your current customer?
    • Who is your potential customer?
  • Who would find your content useful?

To answer this, You need to understand the types of pressing needs your audience has.

Once you have the personas in place, use them to create content and solve problems. The key to your content is to help your customers help themselves, and the only way to do that is to understand your audience. If you do not understand your audience, your content will fail.

     2. Identify Your Readers’ Most Pressing Needs

 Need to create content to meet the needs of your prospects at each stage to help them move to the next stage of the funnel.

HR Ignite target Audience

Target Audience (Start Up)

Company – new, recently created. To differentiate from the competition, startups need to be very innovative.

Growth – startups need to grow quickly, the company’s activities occur around a single product/services. In startups, economic resources, human and physical are usually extremely limited. Generally, need financial resources from investors

Startups deal with many uncertainties from a different view. Due to innovation and the various uncertainties involved, the failure rate is high. Startups often are very dynamic and able to react quickly to market changes, new technologies, and competitive products

Target Audience ( HR Director)

  • Have strong time management skills, Highly organized
  • Good Communicator – have strong communication skills 
  • Problem Solver
  • Must exhibit leadership skills, be assertive and optimistic. Should also have exceptional organizational skills

Target Audience ( Small companies)

  • Personal Character/ owner management
  • Limited Investment
  • Unorganized labor
  •  Labour intensives

This is the most pressing needs these audiences are facing

    • Faulty planning
    • Lack of trained personnel
    • Workforce Training and Development
    • Understanding Benefits Packages
  • Compensation

 

    3. Create Good Content

Having a quality content calendar is very useful in helping to spread your content daily and drive traffic towards your site and boost overall awareness of your brand. However, it is the content that keeps a visitor interested.

Your article/post is about and summing each section up with a catchy phrase as a caption. Website visitors are liable to scanning a text for key information before they fully commit to reading it, so in many ways, headings are just as important as the text underneath them.

One of the most important elements of creating good content is ensuring that it is as original as possible. The aim of content should always be to entice readers and engage them, whilst also being able to promote your message/service/product. You need to think about the different types of people who will be visiting your site and tailor your content based on this.

Here is an example of content created for HR Ignite to help with daily post promotion about the services they offer and more info about the company.

 

    4. Promote Your Content Regularly

HR Ignite promotes their content daily using different social media platforms. But the first platform that they distribute content on, is their website and have the content live there since that is the place they want people to come and find out more about their company and services offered.

They always promote their content daily on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn.

Twitter

is always a good platform to drive engagement with your content so people can be able to engage with you about your content and the company. 

Facebook

has a big number of people that interact with, you can be able to reach a piece of that market.

Feel free to promote the same series of posts over and over again. And if you’ve carried out your research and content creation processes correctly, these articles should continue to have enduring value to your audience.

Check out other social media platforms you can use to promote your content like:

LinkedIn

Linkedin is that social media platform that focuses on professionals and what they do. It seems to be a platform that most people associate with getting jobs and engaging with their networks and building the network, but it can be more than just that since It’s a good platform to educate your prospects about your product or service.

Tumblr

Is a very easy platform that you can put whatever you want on it, blogs, stories, photos, GIFs, TV shows and links. Tumblr is one of the famous blogging platforms, but it is more than just a blogging platform since you have a profile that you can use to share content and engage with other users. 

Quora

Quora is a question-and-answer site where questions are asked, answered, edited and organized by its community of users. Content is generally created to solve a problem thus Quora is a good platform to distribute content to people who have a question that your content is answering.

5. Measure And Analyse

It’s easy to click “publish” and forget about content, but that’s where a lot of content marketers go wrong. Did the content perform well? Did the content perform as you expected? You need to measure how well your content performs and analyze its progress.

To measure the content marketing success metrics, ask yourself these questions:

    • How many page views does the content receive?
    • What type of content is shared the most?
    • What type of content is read the most?
  • What keywords do people search for to find my content?

Once you can answer those questions, you will have much more data to analyze and use for the next time you create content.

Conclusion

The tips in this post will save you the months of guesswork and continuous optimization that I had to undergo. Use these five pillars as a guide to help you create valuable content for your audience and continue to measure and analyze performance.

Successfully managing a social media platform is a matter of following the 5 Pillars on a regular basis. The good news is you are able to tackle the power of social media has to change your business. The bad news is that it will require much commitment and focus.

Like many things in life, the outcome is primarily determined by you. By your ability to take action on each of the five Pillars. By your ability to grow, post, engage, report, and repeat.

As I mentioned, most content marketing efforts fail. But when done right, they can transform your business and turn your website into a traffic and lead-generation machine. By implementing a successful content marketing strategy.

By building solid content pillars and then distributing portions of them through social media, businesses can begin to see real, indicate results from their content marketing efforts.

22 Mar

Posted at 09:01h in Copywriting

Every day, search engines process billions of search queries. These search queries, in marketing terms, are called keywords. These keywords can either by short or long tail keywords. Usually, when a keyword has more than three words in it, it is seen as a long tail keyword.

When looking at keywords, the short tail keywords will most likely be more popular and have a higher number of searches per month, although this should not be a reason for you to think that long tail keywords are less valuable than short tail keywords.

Despite being less popular in terms of search volumes, the long tail keywords have a better conversion rate than shorter keywords. For example, instead of optimising your copy for “marketing company”, you will look at making it more specific such as “digital marketing companies in Johannesburg”. By making it a long tail keyword, you are honing the search but the chances that you will come up organically, is higher – so is that the right people will find you.

Here are some tips on how to choose and incorporate long tail keywords into your copy:

 

  • Take a look at Google

 

It might sound almost too easy but utilise Google’s search box to find long tail keywords. While it is a simple solution, it still works. Go to Google and start a search for a term that is related to the copy that are you trying to write. Google will automatically suggest some search terms and those terms are ones that can work well as your long tail keywords.

For example, if you type in “ladies clothing”, long tail keywords Google might suggest “ladies clothing stores South Africa”.

 

  • Think like your user

 

With long tail keywords, it is necessary to think about your user and specifically what they will type in when it comes to local context. Long tail keywords are great for local SEO; so is having your website come up in the local search results. This is especially important when you are focusing on getting local customers.

Take some time to think about what the locals in the area might be searching for and how they would type this into the search engines. It is likely that the locals will use searches with their location added to the search bar. Although these might have lower search volumes compared to other keywords (because they are specific), and the chances that you are reaching the right user is higher, these keywords can make the world of a difference.

 

  • Be careful with keywords

 

There are also a few things that you need to be considerate about when it comes to keywords. It might be tempting to use keywords that are very popular but not relevant to your business. Don’t ever do this. This technique will most likely end up doing more damage than good.

And alongside this, it is also good to remember that the keywords should never be forced. If you want to utilise long tail keywords, it has to be integrated naturally into your copy. When you force 

long tail keywords into your copy, it doesn’t look and sound right. The chances are also high that your reader will notice.

  • Go for consistency and quality

When it comes to SEO as well as long tail keywords, it is always recommendable to go back to the fundamentals and focus on creating quality content. A few things to keep in mind for SEO are that the copy length and the keyword density needs to be optimal for the best results. With SEO, longer content is sometimes better for SEO purposes.

Along with the quality of your content comes consistency. It is a good idea to post content on your blogs and to keep your content updated.

 

  • The other side of SEO

 

While SEO and keywords go hand in hand, it is important to realise that SEO is about so much more than just getting the keywords right. There are many technical off-site and on-site factors that also need to be optimised in order to get the most out of your SEO efforts.

That is also why getting experts in on the subject of SEO is never a bad idea. But with some effort, a great copy and a bit of determination, great SEO is something that is within reach of every business.

22 Mar

Posted at 07:35h in Thought Leadership

Friends, entrepreneurs, [inaudible 00:00:21], lend me your ears. So, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but almost everyone today is talking about something strategic. I noticed the other day I was sitting in a meeting and somebody kept saying, “The strategic, the strategic.” And then the things they would say afterwards were not strategic. Somebody says, “We need to do something strategic.” Like what? “Let’s take a break.” How’s taking a break strategic, [inaudible 00:00:44]?” So, for the entrepreneurs, I just wanted to have a quick conversation about what do we mean when we say something is strategic versus it being tactical versus it being operational? Because these are very three different layers of management and leadership. There’s operational, tactical, strategic.

Operational are the things you’re doing every day. It’s the mundane stuff. The sending of email. It’s the delivery of product to client. It’s the manufacture of a product. It’s that…the sales process. That stuff is operational. You are operationalizing it every single day. Executing it every single day and every minute of every day.

When things become tactical, it means you’ve taken a step back. You’ve thought about what your competitors are doing and how to position yourself better, but listen to this, in the short term. More importantly, typically tactical interventions have a 3X multiplier. That means you gonna take time out and for every effort you put in, it must give you three in multiple of the effort. I’m gonna put in a [inaudible 00:01:48] worth of effort, it must give me three in result. That’s something tactical.

When something is strategic, it’s a 10X. Now, strategic things take a long time to do, a long time to conceptualize, and a long time to implement, that’s why they’re strategic. So, we talk about 10X, anytime we do something strategic. So, let’s test this. I’ve got a new product I wanna take to market, and to take my new product to market I need to engage new customers, I need to get a bit of customer insight, a bit of customer research, and know how I can reach the customers. What are the operational bits, tactical bits, and strategic bits?

The operational bits would be designing the website. That might be something operational. I’m gonna design a simple WordPress website. It might be coming up with a logo.That’s something operational. The tactical bits would be asking questions like, “How am I gonna reach my customers? So, what’s my distribution channel? Where am I gonna find my customers? Am I gonna use partners or am I gonna distribute myself?” The strategic bits would be, how’s the product gonna look? And how’s the look of the product going to affect the pricing of the product? And how’s the pricing and the product going to affect how I position it in the market? And if I understand all of my competitors and where they’re positioned, where’s my specific product going to be positioned on price, packaging, etc., etc.? That’s a strategic conversation because once you get it right, typically you’re going to commit resources to it for a very long time to come. Make sense?

So, this is just a quick musing. Don’t call tactical things strategic, don’t call strategic things tactical, and whatever you do, do not ever call operational things strategic. And the reason it’s important not to call it that because you’ll fool yourself. You don’t know what you should be doing. And this is just the final bit in our conversation. So, you’re a business leader, you’re an entrepreneur, you’re building your business, you’re on your way. One of the things I’ve battled with as I’ve been building businesses is, where do I focus my time and attention? So, when do I know when it’s time to go and look at a comment on Twitter? When do I know when it’s time to go and reply to an email versus when do I know when it’s time to relook at my pricing model, relook at my product architecture, relook at my delivery model?

Unless you build a business, you know that there are certain things you just have no time doing. In fact, you have no business doing them. Why? Because they’re tactical and operational and you put in place very capable people who will do those things, and who will do those things much better than you, so that you can focus your attention on doing more strategic things.

Remember, as you grow your business, you also have to outgrow you.You have to outgrow the things you used to do so that you can start doing the things you should be doing. Strategic versus tactical, [inaudible 00:04:41]. Get the focus right. That’s this week’s musing, I look forward to hear from you guys.

So, remember, friends, if you wanna follow us, follow us on social media at MyGrowthFund on all the platforms: Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, or just visit our website, mygrowthfund.co.za, it’s the home of the entrepreneur. And for corporates who wanna partner with us, you know exactly where to find us. Cheers, friends.

26 Feb

Posted at 08:31h in Copywriting, Website Design

 

Writing good copy for a website’s landing page is more challenging than most think.

Besides having limited time to communicate the value of your business to a new visitor on the website, the copy also has to keep their attention, be relevant, and encourage them to become a customer. This is besides all the SEO requirements one is bombarded with to ensure good optimisation and the fact that copy has to balance with the structure and the flow of the design.

Many people – and even experienced writers – at first think writing website copy for a homepage is simple. That is until you delve deeper and discover more and more requirements that have to be balanced to ensure effective yet brand-friendly copy. Together, these elements pose a tremendous challenge.

Fortunately, there are a few principles you can follow when writing copy for your website’s landing page:

Put emphasis on the benefits

It has become clear that because we live in a world where information is at our fingertips, selling solutions doesn’t always cut it. Most customers know what the solution to their problem is; this is why you need to speak to them about the unique benefit you’re offering them that others don’t. Today, there is definitely a movement towards focusing on the benefits brands provide. While you can still focus on the solution, it’s key to communicate to customers why your business stands out in terms of its benefits.

A great start to getting your landing page right is looking at this informative article on successful landing page trends for 2018. This article is all about looking at your value proposition and seeing what other factors are becoming prominent in the world of website design for landing pages.

Keep it simple

One thing is becoming clearer and clearer: simplicity sells. Simplicity in terms of copy means that the writing should be short and to the point. Your website landing page statements must be clear and concise. But bear in mind: simplicity doesn’t mean boring, so copy still has to be creative.

One important thing to look out for as well is to stay away from buzzwords, jargon or industry acronyms that are overused in your industry. These types of terms don’t really convey any true meaning and affect the tone and personality of the copy immediately – usually not in a good way. Steer clear of clichés by really thinking about the way you can communicate your business’s uniqueness.

Making headlines

A lot of your landing page copy will be irrelevant if your headline doesn’t grab the reader’s attention. Most visitors won’t read past the headline if it doesn’t entice them to discover more. While it may seem like a small part of your landing page, it may very well be one of the most important aspects. This is why many copywriters spend more time brainstorming the headings of their adverts than on the body copy.

The headline of your landing page needs to attract readers, retain their attention and then encourage them to stay on the page. This is why keeping their interest piqued is a key principle of high quality copy.

Synergy between copy and design

Even the best copy can’t carry a website on its own. People are visual creatures, so if the design isn’t up to scratch, the chances are very slim that they won’t spend a lot of time reading what you have to say – what they say will speak a thousand words about your business.

Visuals matter. Copy does too. So, create a good balance by combining the best of both worlds. For some inspiration from those who got it right, look at these amazing website redesign concepts.

Winning with landing pages

Nobody can be the best at everything. If you want to ensure you achieve success with your website and it hits home with your customers, secure the services of a specialist writer. It’s always better to use the knowledge and expertise of a professional instead of winging it with a do-it-yourself approach.

15 Feb

Posted at 14:59h in Website Design

Let’s avoid being part of the masses. We all understand how important it is to differentiate your brand from others because there are many other companies that offer the same products or services as you. Avoid design fads and go for a timeless clean and simple design. Simple has been shown to be more effective in terms of conversions for a number of reasons.

Keep: http://www.falve.co.nz/ in mind when considering the reasons below.

Some of them being:

1.  Timelessness

Im sure that you don’t want your website to be outdated as soon as the next website design fad moves in. Design in general can lose its alluring feature if it is too cluttered. A timeless design would be the Nike logo and this is due to the simplicity behind it. Along with basic and/or bold typography and a simple colour scheme, one will be able to achieve and maintain a fresh and new look regardless of future trends.

2. Efficiency

Users, generally, are always on the move and do not necessarily have the time to read everything on your website. So keeping your layout clean will help users to get through your content faster. Populate the website with a purpose of sharing what is important to your users. Stick to the basic essentials.

Use white space to achieve this. Especially if your website has a lot of copy. You can highlight the most relevant information by using various sized fonts. Don’t use many fonts, just vary the size and the weight. A great example of a website that understands the needs for efficiency: http://www.latimes.com/

3. Receptivity

If you care for your users’ experience and conversion rate, you will ensure your audience doesn’t feel like your website is an entire sales advertisement. Overly complicated website with a lot of flash and pah’zaz, will make your audience hit the back space button.

When they enter your space, they should want to explore. If they feel like they are being sold something, the likelihood of the user exploring goes down dramatically. You should always consider people who are just browsing, people don’t always know what they want. So give them a chance to look around. No-one wants sales pamphlets thrown at them.

Remember, you still need clear calls to action. At least one and then return your attention to the aesthetics of the Home page. Visuals generally work better. Check out this site: http://rtastudio.co.nz/

4. Speed

It is common knowledge that the general user will not stick around long for a website to load. One would rather move on. Now, if you keep your design simple and clean, the site will load faster. Speed isn’t everything but it means a lot. Especially when it comes to your SEO.

5. Usability

Don’t give your users too many options. Keep it simple and lead them into rest of the site from the landing page design. Your call to action should encourage one course of action for the user. You also have to the navigation menu in mind. Remove all tabs that people would not regularly use. You do not want the user to wonder aimlessly through your site.

6. Conversion Rate

You cannot neglect your website. The user will definitely notice if your site is outdated; particularly regarding the design. This is a clear indication that the owner is not conscious of their conversation rate and boosting their sales.

A minimalist approach to the design of your website will give the user the impression that you care for your brand. This professional look will result in increased clicks throughout the site because the website isn’t confusing and cluttered.

Check out this site and what rebranding did for conversion rate.

Old website: https://web.archive.org/web/20110202232321/http://www.skinnyties.com/

Rebranded website: https://skinnyties.com/

Results

Revenue Growth for All Devices: 42.4%
Conversion Rate increased by: 13.6%
Bounce Rate lowered by: 23.2%
Visit duration increased by: 44.6%

[Take a look: http://gravitydept.com/blog/skinny-ties-and-responsive-ecommerce]

If you have an E-commerce website, this is crucial. Focus on your products and make it easier for your user to buy these products.

7. Maintenance

Creating a website its easy, but building a simple clean website will make it easier. This means the content management process won’t be lengthy as well as frustrating. Do yourself and anyone else who may have to work on your website a favour and keep it simple. Coding can be quite time consuming if everything isn’t organised and easy to navigate.

8. Trustworthiness

If you want to loyal clients and ultimately advocating clients, then it’s imperative to build trust between your brand and the consumer. As an E-commerce website, you want the focus to be on your products so be sure to make use of white space.

9. Costs

Simplified websites are also cheaper to host. Keep it clean and give your wallet a chance to recover after paying someone to design it for you.

Check out the numbers: https://www.cybersmart.co.za/hosting.cg

10. Professionalism

When people open your website, they need to feel the professionalism oozing from your design. The professional look is achieved by keeping the design clean and simple. Make use of large lettering, introducing the user to your brand and what you and keep the colour scheme simple.

Here is a great example. Knoed has made use of a simple design with predominantly charcoal, white and yellow as a subtle accent colour.
http://www.knoed.com/

11. First Impressions

Your user will be making judgements about your websites within seconds of it loading. Its best to wow them from the get go. Focus on one main point and use graphics, copy and large lettering to support what your brand is about.

12. Google

If you care for your SEO, pay attention. Having a simple design will ensure that Google will be able to decipher your website which will have a positive effect on the site’s Google Ranking.

13. Menu

Keep your menu simple – Only what’s necessary. If you have many pages, then use a sub menu that has been organised neatly, making it much easier for your users to explore your website. The Nike website has pulled this off really well.

https://www.nike.com/za/en_gb/

14. Content

Regarding your landing page, keep your buttons few and focus on one call to action depending on the industry you belong to. Any additional content should be supporting the call to action. By using a simple design, you will be able to draw the user’s attention to your main purpose.

15. Memorable

One thing you definitely want is for your website to be memorable. The user may not visit your site again but if you’re able to achieve a positive lasting impression on the user then you are on your way to winning. A simple design plus appropriate colour choice can be the difference between your website design being remembered for a few mins and a couple of months.

When in doubt about your website design, remember these reasons as to why a clean and simple design will work best for you. The timelessness and professionalism that comes with a minimalist design are just bonuses when considering all the reasons to opt for a simple design.

02 Feb

Posted at 09:08h in Website Design

Businesses continue to invest in content marketing on the internet. A website is a 24/7 salesman who works tirelessly for 365 days a year, always selling the objectives of your business and the associated products or service; even when you’re asleep. And like a good salesman, your website’s first job is to capture the attention of your target customers.

 

Single Objective Focused

It has been declared! The average human attention span is short. Very short, and it just keeps getting shorter. According to Kevin Mcspaddenas, It had decreased from an average of 10 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds in 2015. In those 8 seconds, your landing page should tell your website visitors why they should stay on your site, why they shouldn’t go to your competitors’ site or check out what’s happening on other social platforms. We learn from the top interesting landing pages on how to keep the attention of prospective customers and what key factors that make the best of the best catalogued landing pages. Let’s start with Call-To-Actions (CTA) and how this technique can help improve the 8 seconds of viewing on your website.

 

#1. Powerful Call-To-Actions

CTA function as a tool to prompt the viewers to take a certain action on a visiting website. There are multiple ways that are currently gaining good ratings in proving a successful landing page. The experience-orientated CTA is currently popular for its user experience and is typically action-oriented on a whole phrase (even shorter ones). On the contrary, phrases command the user to activate their curiosity to feed into their customer needs and rids outdated commands such as ‘submit’, ‘sign-up’, ‘register’ and ‘click here’.

Here is what Tomorrowsleep does:

 

Two CTAs are better than one. This trend counteracts the best practice of having one single goal per landing page, though if done properly, the two CTAs can have a tortoise and hare effect – one being slow and steady, the other competitive and economical. Each CTA is represented as if it’s addressing a different step. The first CTA is for the exploring visitor that’s still researching options. The second CTA is for the visitor ready to engage.

Here’s an example from Patroens’s Landing page:

Ghost CTA Buttons are usable with the above two-CTA trends where a landing page can have a ready-for-action CTA as the dominant button and the exploratory CTA as the ghost button. The ghost button is reserved for the conversion that’s passive and detached from the sale, as it were.

This is what Mastodon does:

#2. Quick and Easy Value Propositioning

 A value proposition is a promise to the target customer who holds the same value as stated through the marketing on your landing page. It tells them what you uniquely have to offer, why you’re different from your competition and how you plan to deliver. A value proposition communicates the problem you solve, the benefits of your product or business and why you are better than your competition. It includes a message of your positioning in the market.

Your value proposition should answer these questions about your product or service:

  • What are you selling?
  • Who is it for?
  • What do they get out of your product or service at the end?
  • What makes your offer unique from everyone else?

Below is a diagram of how a landing page should look to better understand the purpose of value propositioning.

The best way to learn is by looking over the shoulder of the greats to better understand how you would use your value proposition for your website. Here are two examples of successful value propositions:

 

  1. Zipcar

http://www.zipcar.com/

Zipcar instantly communicates what they are about and who they are for. The first value proposition is aimed at getting the customer to rent out their cars for travel/transport purposes. The end result is stated simply in the headline, “own the trip, not the car” speaking to the desires of the average person.

Zipcar then eases into a second value proposition which follows as a paragraph explaining the sort of services they provide aimed at entrepreneurial drivers and other potential customers.

 

  1. Hermès

https://www.hermes.com/us/en/

Hermès positions itself as the luxury leather and clothing brand platform for online e-commerce users and potential customers who are serious about high-end fashion. The Hermès brand is ever-changing with different objectives relative to their brand values to display on their website page. In the example above, Hermès celebrates the winners of the ninth year of the international CSI 5* show jumping competition at the Grand Palais.

The first value proposition shows a headline ‘The jump of victory”, where the brand instantaneously infuses an event with the proposed lifestyle or the brand culture brought forward to elevate the brand values Hermès has. The second value proposition is the call to action. The call-to-action, “Celebrate them” is a suggestive invite for the viewer to feel involved and part of the brand.

Hermès takes home top prize for exclusivity, which measures the consistent quality of goods, the brand’s prestige, the valuation of the brand’s customers and its ability to justify a high price point.

 

3. Moz

https://moz.com/

Moz is recognised as a prime search engine optimisation company that also front strategises content marketing online for their customers. In the example above, Moz uses their headline “Take the guesswork Out of Your Content Marketing Strategy”, and the following subheading “Quicky audit, measure and discover engaging content” as one strong value proposition. The bright colour draws attention on the on the call-to-action button to motivate the viewer for one-click action.

The image on the left showcases an inside look into what using the product is actually like in real-time. The footer is minimalistic and doesn’t distract the viewer from converting with links to other pages or social accounts. Social accounts place at the bottom of the page proves to boost protect trust from the viewer for legalisation. Additionally, all seen examples above have a hyperlinked logo that allows prospect viewers to escape back to the homepage.

Lastly, Clarity is key to having a great value proposition. Do not overlook website layout. What was also key is what isn’t there. Links, news articles, and the lines of hyperlinks that were the norm back then. Now the use of negative space and user interface design entice your customer to your main website and they become capable to search for what they want (the idea you sold them) and, nothing more. The following pointers mark other strategic ways to build a successful landing page.

 

#3. Free Tools

This next trend taps into your visitor’s sense of reciprocity and has proven to be beneficial, as businesses catch onto this trend of offering free tools. Free tools are rewarding if you can afford the development cost.

By offering something for free with no strings attached, visiting users will feel the need to return that favour. What free tools does for our psyche, is to allow consumers to use their natural urge to reciprocate the kindness. In terms of offering free tools on landing pages, your visitors will naturally feel like they owe you the ‘sign-up’ since they took advantage of your free tools.

Here is what Captico does:

 

Here’s an example from Sumo‘s Landing page:

#4. A/B Testing

Webpage testing is second nature to building a website and creating a phenomenal landing page, however, there are series of testing methods that determine the functionality of the opening site and how the structure of your landing page will be visually perceived on screen and other alternative mobile devices. On testing, the most frequently A/B testing occurs for web pages that have testimonials, reviews & ratings, and social media proof functions to determine the conversion rate increase.

 

#5. Average Word Count For Website

The average word count for a landing page is two thousand and six words. Landing pages increasingly encompass a lot of content; with sixty percent of content consisting of more than a thousand words used. By word count, landing pages differ between five marginal calculations.

The first being nineteen percent of landing pages use more or less than five hundred words as their word count for content. The second is twenty percent of landing pages use a word count between five-hundred and one to one thousand words. The third estimation is twenty-six percent of landing pages that use one thousand and one to two thousand words as their word count for content. The fourth calculation is twenty-six percent of landing pages that use two thousand and one to five thousand words as their word count for content. And lastly, the fifth estimation is eight percent of landing pages use more than five thousand and one words as the word count for content.

The HOOK agency had proposed a question, ‘what length gives SEOs and content marketers’ content the best odds of reaching the top of the organic search results?’.

This was the truthful response:

 

#6. Sign-up page on web

Surprisingly, website landing pages have a subset of sign up pages where the word count is kept short and sweet. Forty-five percent of landing pages find the use of fewer than five hundred words on their signup page as a favourable feature. Uber is the best example of a landing and a sign-up page fused onto one website page.

#7. Multimedia and Colour Variations

In the wide stream of competition within the industry, companies are starting to experiment with multimedia. Only fourteen percent of landing pages included a video as a platform to share content. The most popular video platform used was YouTube. Our agency is a prime example of how we display YouTube videos designed by our creative animators on our landing page.

Here is an example of our own agency, BWD Advertising, have incorporated multimedia elements on a landing page:

 

Here is what Super real estate brand makes use of Vimeo:

Undoubtedly, there is still a lot more room for bold experiments, such as colour collaboration for corporate identities looking to compete against other companies. The colour blue and green are the most used primary colours for landing pages at thirty-five percent. The colour grey comes second best at twenty-five percent, black and white hues are on par with the orange and brown at sixteen percent. Additionally, nine percent of landing pages use other colour combinations.

One can naturally make the assumption that companies tend to stick to neutral colours, with forty-one percent primarily using black or grey. Interestingly, only one percent of companies make the use of the colour red. In 2017, most pages stayed static throughout the year, while eleven percent of successful landing pages were redesigned.