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February 23, 2016
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5 B2B Website Design Trends for 2016

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Website Design Practices

We know from research that nearly everyone considering doing business with you will first look at your website. And nothing deters a prospect faster than a website that looks outdated.

Thankfully, even small tweaks to your design can help you to keep pace with design trends can make a big difference. Let’s take a look at the latest trends.

1. Less Photography, More Illustration

In 2015, B2B websites were dominated by impersonal or un-inspired stock photography. In 2016, we will find friendly and relatable illustrations being used far more to help companies tell their story.

2. Bolder Use of Color

You have probably heard of flat design (minimalism that emphasizes usability) and its use in B2B websites. Unfortunately, flat designs often have equally flat color palettes. But in 2016, expect that to change. This year you will find many designers upping their color game.

3. More Creative Typography

All hail! The days of sticking to only a handful of “safe” typefaces, like Arial and Times New Roman, are over!

4. Material Design

Seen by some as the next step up from flat design, material design was developed at Google for use on Android devices. It’s principles have since been adopted across many mobile platforms, as well as in the design of desktop websites. Material design is an evolving standard with resources and best practices for designing for devices.

5. More Vertical Layouts and Scrolling

2015 saw the possible end to the debate of non-scrolling websites. We are finding more and more that is that it’s easer to scroll than to click.

Read more: 5 B2B Website Design Trends for 2016 

February 18, 2016
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6 Web Design Trends That Are Here To Stay

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Website Design Practices

Web design thrives on two things: innovation and imitation. Unfortunately, there’s often a lot more of the latter. We all like to seize upon the latest trends, use them until they’re ubiquitous, and then look desperately for the next big thing. Think about sliders. They were all the rage a couple years ago. Today, they feel dated. What to do? Stop chasing microtrends, and start looking at the big picture. Here, we’ve isolated six web design ideas that are here to stay.

1. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Context is everything. Where and when an interaction happens is now as important as how or why. Is it on a phone? A tablet? Indoors or outdoors? What is the user doing in that moment? Users interact with a product in all kinds of different situations.

2. DIVERSITY

One consistent complaint about the web design world is how often it engages in, shall we say, less than original practices.

3. RICH ILLUSTRATIONS

Traditionally, websites use stock photography and other photos for visuals. Moving forward, we will start to see more hand-drawn art.

4. MOBILE/WEARABLE FIRST

Mobile-first design is already well underway, but it will become even more pronounced as the wearables market, which is estimated to be worth $31 billion by 2020, heats up.

5. MICROINTERACTIONS

As information becomes platform-agnostic—available on our watches, our phones, our TVs, and everything in between—seamless user experiences will be more important than ever.

6. RICHER ANIMATIONS

Finally, we get to the good stuff. The whole point of design is to look good after all. And what looks better than rich animations? The web has never looked more dynamic than it does today, and it’s only going to get better.

Read more: 6 Web Design Trends That Are Here To Stay

February 11, 2016
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4 Common Mistakes With Your Email Marketing Campaign

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E-Marketing

An email campaign seems simple enough. You compile a list, slap together some content and tag it with a quick subject line and then blast away!! That’s how many businesses owners approach their email marketing campaign: the quicker the better.

Unfortunately, this isn’t going to produce a successful email marketing campaign. If anything, it’ll probably hurt your overall marketing efforts. So instead of showing you what to do, we’ve decided to compile a list of common errors when it comes to email marketing. Let’s take a look.

Not Getting Consent

Before you even begin thinking about content, subject lines and other strategies, you have to compile a list of email addresses. This list should consist of people who are genuinely interested in your product or service. But if you don’t get the proper permission, you’re getting off on the wrong foot, and that wrong foot is about to get broken.

You see, not only are you going to turn off people by sending them email without their permission — these people will view it as spam — but you’re going to find yourself looking for a lawyer real quick. If you’re adding people to your list without their permission, that’s probably going to break some anti-spam regulation. Not exactly the start you were probably looking for.

Read more: 4 Common Mistakes With Your Email Marketing Campaign

 

January 10, 2016
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5 crucial steps to win at SEO

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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) , ,

It’s impossible to overstate the importance of search engine optimization when it comes to online marketing. Google is many things, but it’s the company’s advertising business that pays for all of those moonshots. The fact remains that Google is the world’s largest advertising company, and if you’re looking to score high on its search engine results page (SERP), it’s worth listening to what Dan Clarke, founder and CEO of search agency Disruptient, has to say, noting that these 5 main principles are the guiding light behind all of TWP’s strategies.

  • Content is King
  • Quick Access
  • Unique url per content segment
  • External links are valuable
  • Do not try to fool Google

Dan was in Jakarta for the recently concluded Tech In Asia Jakarta 2015 conference, and shared advice, stories, and insights into how best to tackle SEO. Speaking to a packed room at the Marketing Stage, Dan summarized his entire advice with one golden rule: build websites for people, not for search engines.

“If you keep this rule at the forefront of your process, it automatically fulfills most of Google’s requirements for delivering quality results on their platform.” explains Dan. “Ranking first is not the sole factor, it’s about looking good as well. Google is now an ‘answers engine’ rather than a search engine.”

Read more: 5 crucial steps to win at SEO

January 5, 2016
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6 Principles That Must Be Applied to Social Media Marketing

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Social Media Marketing

In their book No B.S. Guide to Direct Response Social Media Marketing, business coach and consultant Dan S. Kennedy and marketing strategist Kim Walsh-Phillips show you how to use direct response marketing principles on a variety of social media platforms to drive real results and profit. In this edited excerpt, the authors offer some on-point advice about how to best use social media to create effective marketing campaigns.

Many direct response marketers think social media is complete fluff — and for a lot companies, it is. That’s because most marketers do not apply any direct marketing tactics to their strategic approach (if they are even strategic at all).

Anyone who either doesn’t know if their marketing is working and/or thinks the focus should be awareness building and not revenue generation could make some small but significant tweaks to their efforts and drive huge results.

Let’s cover a few key business principles as applied to social media:

Read more: 6 Principles That Must Be Applied to Social Media Marketing

December 28, 2015
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7 SEO Elements to Boost Your B2B Campaign

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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ,

In spite of ongoing search engine algorithm changes, few marketing experts would argue that the need for a keen understanding of SEO best practices has diminished over the years. If anything, the value of SEO knowledge and capabilities has increased.

At the same time, many non-experts mistakenly assume that there’s a one-size-fits-all approach to SEO. In fact, the practice varies in accordance with numerous factors, not all of which are obvious or intuitive.

Here’s the hard truth: B2B SEO campaigns are very different from B2C SEO campaigns.

If your company markets primarily to other businesses and their decision-makers, you need to follow a very different set of SEO best practices than companies marketing primarily to individual end-users.

These seven elements are critical to any B2B SEO campaign.

Read more: 7 SEO Elements to Boost Your B2B Campaign

December 22, 2015
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The 4 Easiest Ways to Supercharge Your Social-Media Marketing

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Social Media Marketing

When two out of three Internet users across the world is active on social media, you don’t need much of an introduction to how all pervasive this medium has become in the last decade. The average American spends 2.7 hours every day on social media. Need I go on?

Most businesses today have wised up to the power that social media has to influence and build one on one relationships with users. Which means most businesses have a presence on the social media networks that matter to their users. However, in spite of all the ballyhooing about the medium, social media marketing is still limited to posting an update or two every day and replying to customer comments as they roll in.

The fact is there’s so much more that you can do with this versatile medium with so little effort. Here’s a look at some of the things that you can accomplish through social media that you never could otherwise.

Read more: The 4 Easiest Ways to Supercharge Your Social-Media Marketing

December 3, 2015
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4 Ways to Incorporate Mobile Marketing into a Social Media Strategy

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Social Media Marketing ,

With approximately 7 billion mobile users at the end of 2014, mobile marketing presents a unique opportunity for small businesses to deliver unique brand experiences tailored to consumers on-the-go. As mobile usage continues to rise, companies need to recognize the importance of delivering social media messaging that caters to and targets mobile device users.

In her debut article posted to PR Newswire’s Small Business PR Toolkit, Kristen Gramigna, chief marketing officer for BluePay, provides three ways you can incorporate mobile marketing tactics into your current social media strategy. To reach new customers or to deepen the engagement with current customers:

Customize. Gramigna suggests that it’s critical to review how your social profiles look on all platforms (e.g., desktop, iPhone and Android devices). This research will allow you to customize your social profiles to ensure the best user experience possible.
Optimize. With mobile users checking social media to find suggestions for nearby businesses, it is key that your prospects and returning customers can quickly find you on social media. Optimize your social profiles so users can find you and confirm that all profiles include your correct business location, hours of service, price range and contact information.
Tailor. Gramigna recommends you tailor your social media posts to a mobile user’s day. With the majority of mobile search activity taking place from 3 p.m. until midnight, tailor your social activity to involve mobile users during these hours based on their search activity and location.

Read more: 4 Ways to Incorporate Mobile Marketing into a Social Media Strategy

 

December 1, 2015
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4 Key Things Entrepreneurs Should Know Before Planning a SEO Budget

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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ,

SEO is no magic bullet. You need to understand its key elements before entering into an SEO campaign.

The marketing industry is all about ideas and strategies. The options to promote brands are so diverse it can often overwhelm entrepreneurs. Moreover, each of these marketing platforms has its own advantages when it comes to helping your company to grow. That said, most startups can’t invest time and energy into all these marketing efforts due to budget constraints.

Businesses, large and small, should always plan and budget their marketing activities in advance to keep things under control. Yet, as a local search specialist, one area I continually see out-of-control expenses is SEO. One reason is that many find planning a marketing budget an elusive task. But this doesn’t need to be the case. All you need is a simple plan and budget that is easy to stick to.

Read more: 4 Key Things Entrepreneurs Should Know Before Planning a SEO Budget

 

November 27, 2015
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3 Steps To Integrate Video With Email Marketing Automation

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E-Marketing

Many marketers have found that adding video to their email programs drives increased engagement and customer loyalty. People love watching videos online (4 billion video views on Facebook alone in 2014), and they aren’t all cat videos and sport bloopers.

Emails with “video” in the subject line have a 65% higher click-through rate on average, according to Vidcaster. When video is a central part of your email campaign, the CTR can be 200% higher than a similar campaign without video.

Email Video Strategies: Two B2C Examples

Video can help you cut costs and increase customer satisfaction as well as identify prospects and move them closer to a purchase decision when you integrate your email video strategy with your marketing automation and ecommerce platforms.

Read more: 3 Steps To Integrate Video With Email Marketing Automation

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