For many years I would walk down Fifth Avenue and get stopped in my tracks by the remarkable characters dressed or undressed in the windows at Saks Fifth Avenue, the stunning juxtaposition of jewelry displays in Tiffany’s windows, the luxe shadow box displays of antique Faberge eggs at A La Vielle Russie.
Window dressing, like web design, does not require a degree. It is “part production, part fantasy, part art, part fashion” as described by Erin Cunningham in her quite fascinating Daily Beast article -> Tales of a Bergdorf Goodman Window Dresser.
But, for those of us in the web design business, there is something to learn from this little known, quasi show biz medium.
Reaching your target audience
“You have to do all sorts of things to make a stream of pedestrians into an audience. It’s extremely ephemeral. It’s very of the moment, ” notes Bergdorf’s resident window dresser.
How well we know about such things when it comes to designing a homepage that is a victim of instant technology and impatient behaviors. How little time we have to put on a show to grab people’s attention. But showtime we must have …
In our case, it must be design elements like fonts, colors, photos that tell a story or paint a concept. Our homepage show also must look bigger than it is even though we lack beautiful mannequins and real-time texture, fabric and objects.
Enter social media widgets such as a Twitter feed that can provide content from a respected source, an Instagram widget that can constantly be updated with whatever highlights your product and services in people’s lives, and a newsletter subscription box so that visitors know you’re an expert with a lot to say.
Remember the element of surprise
The magic of getting something for nothing keeps the attention span. Do this with a CTA button and a free download of inside information for your audience.
And tell a story.
Now even your content can have the WOW factor because of the latest web design trend called parallax scrolling. This involves the background moving at a slower rate to the foreground, creating a 3D effect as you scroll down the page and giving you a simple vertical design for easy visual eye movement and flow.
Check out the new Parallax Pro Theme by Studio Press to see what I mean.
– By Marcia Coffey
Find Marcia on Google+
Call Marcia, Genesis WordPress Web Designer, at 561.906.3436.
Follow @jmgroupdesign
The New Marketing
Here’s what marketing looks like today:
You determine your ideal customer.
You create a message that will resonate with him or her.
You build visual marketing that communicates your message.
You use content — blog posts, ebooks, guest posting, interviews, podcasts — to get your message out.
You drive everyone who finds you back to your website, which is your marketing hub.
You’re in control. It’s called Inbound Marketing.
Did you know?
62% of marketers have a blog.
The average company that blogs generates 55% more website visitors.
43% of marketers generate customers from their blog.
Companies that blog generate 126% more leads than those that don’t.
Inbound marketing delivers 54% more leads into the marketing funnel than traditional outbound leads.
61% of U.S. consumers have made a purchase based on a blog post.
81% of consumers trust information and advice from blogs.
70% of consumers prefer getting to know a company via articles (not ads).
84% of B2B marketers use social media in some form.
Facebook is the top social channel for generating leads.
43% of all marketers found a customer via LinkedIn in 2013.
Source: Hubspot
Ten Tips To Getting Noticed Online
Tip 1. Do you know your target market? Who are they?
It all starts with defining your audience.
Who are they?
What is their most pressing issue, problem, or desire?
What benefit of your product solves their problem?
Who do they trust?
Tip 2. What am I offering?
A digital download?
Are you selling a physical product?
Do you provide a service? Training? Education?
Are you a retail business with a physical location?
Tip 3. Remember how to use your keywords
Embed relevant keywords in your content. This is an easy way to make it more visible to the search engines. At the very least, your site’s <title> tag should include those keywords that best describe your skills . Work them into your categories, URLs, post titles and subheadings where appropriate.
Tip 4. Create unique content
Having content that no other site has is the first step to drawing a crowd. Strive to be original. By writing original content (something that’s useful, informative, funny, free, beneficial or helpful, for instance), you’ll encourage people to link to what you’ve created. All SEO techniques start with good content creation.
Tip 5. Use images creatively
Images have the potential to make or break a site’s effectiveness.
Websites that use images well can sell a lifestyle, an ideal, an idea of whatever the product needs to sell more. They can sell the features in an instant and provide clear and accurate information on the product. Replace iStock photos with original photos from your smartphone and sites with free high resolution downloads such as unsplash.com.
Tip 6. How does your site look on your smartphone?
You need a responsive design website that has been constructed so that all of the content, images and structure of the site remains the same on any device.
Reason? Users get a better experience, they don’t have to fool around with zooming and shrinking the text or images on screen. Instead, all of the content automatically adjusts to the screen of the device. Plus you get an edge over your competition!
Tip 7. Revisit your About page
Your About page is a primary connection point for customers. It’s a place where they can find out more about what makes you, your business, or product tick and, most important, what you can do for them. Use your About page copy to tell visitors how your product or service will be able to benefit them.
Tip 8. Do you have to squint to read your copy?
Maybe you’re using a lot of fonts, colors and sizes. Keep it simple – two fonts and 2-3 sizes.
Make it easy for your user to read your copy and make the font large enough that people can read it. Keep your font styles consistent.
Tip 9. Are you using a slider on your homepage?
Sliders can be interesting, but also problematic. Mostly they are distracting.
It all comes down to focus. Basically, what you’re saying with a slider is: “I really don’t know which product or picture I should put on display on my homepage, so I’ll just grab 10 of them!” Consider killing your slider.
Tip 10. Do you have a call-to-action button?
Drive customers to become leads with a button or link so visitors can download a free ebook, start a free trial, make an appointment, get a free consultation.
Add a CTA button to your homepage.
– By Marcia Coffey
Find Marcia on Google+
Call Marcia at 561.906.3436.
The Twitter Rises
Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you know that Twitter is not what it used to be. Or, what we thought it was.
It is now ESSENTIAL, an appendage of your smartphone. Yesterday’s telegram. Today’s library. Global news on the fly in realtime. Niche news you can’t live without wherever you are. Live tennis matches while you sit you in your car. The last word from your favorite celebrities. Finally a window into the world of important people you care about. A sales tool and PR microphone gigantic. The targeted search tool on the web.
The list goes on and it includes revolutions of the political kind.
Now it also includes visuals. For many of you, at least for me today, you will need to set up a new profile (1500 x 500) which you will want to sync with your background as I did here: https://twitter.com/jmgroupdesign
For more information on what this new design change portends for business, get the perspective from Hubspot.
No, it is not Facebook. Forgetaboutit.
– By Marcia Coffey
Find Marcia on Google+
Call Marcia, Genesis WordPress Web Designer, at 561.906.3436.
Follow @jmgroupdesign
The Surprising Reputation Builder
It’s not overwhelming. We just think it is. You can build an online personna as good as gold like the big guys, if you want to.
Here’s a rough outline of what you, the small business person, needs to do to get started.
1) Build a simple WordPress blog/website. Choose a StudioPress theme. They are the best. I know because I am biased and experienced 🙂
2) Define your target market, niched and narrowed … the one you are singing to, not the one that needs to be sold. List appropriate keywords (Google Keyword Planner).
3) Set up Facebook OR Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn business accounts. Pinterest is an optional candidate if you have a business that lends itself to the visual, i.e. travel, fashion, design, food, restaurant, real estate, architecture, cabinetry, many of you out there.
(4) Set up Twitterfeed to automagically stream all your posts to these platforms. Bingo. Automatic content achieved.
(5) Write one post per week. Don’t agonize about frequency! Varying lengths, 3 paragraphs certainly. Content is more important than size.
(6) What to write about? Clients’/customers’ questions you’ve answered, news about your product or service, events of interest, people you know, experiences and stories. Use keywords in your list.
(7) Build influence, improve your Klout score. Hit Share buttons whenever you find articles of interest on other sites and platforms. What is Klout?
(8) Reciprocate. Leave comments on other people’s blogs, share their content on Twitter and Facebook. If someone engages with you on your blog, Twitter, Facebook or another social web destination, be sure to respond.
Set yourself apart. Be an expert in your industry. Build your business. This you can only do for the long haul by establishing your social reputation. The above steps will get you on the right road.
Now … Nike tells you what to do.
Resources for this article:
Big Picture Marketing for Small Business – My Pinterest Account
Google Keyword Planner
Klout
StudioPress.com
Twitterfeed
How To Use Twitterfeed (video)
– By Marcia Coffey
Find Marcia on Google+
Call Marcia, Genesis WordPress Web Designer, at 561.906.3436.
Follow @jmgroupdesign