Websites – ACS Reduc 2022

Landing Pages That Convert — Yes, You Need Them

December 29, 2020

Landing pages should be a valuable part of your organization’s online marketing efforts. If you’re not already using them, you may be wondering what they are and what purpose they serve. They’re standalone web pages created for a specific campaign and are designed to encourage the user to take a single, specific action after clicking through from an email, ad or other online location. Whether you’re interested in lead generation or encouraging visitors to complete a call to action (CTA), landing pages can help you get the conversion results you want.

But my organization already has a homepage, do I really need a landing page?
The answer is simple — yes, you do.

Your homepage usually provides an overview of your business and probably offers visitors a variety of different options. A good landing page, on the other hand, encourages visitors to take one action — an action that you’ve selected and designed for conversion — with very specific content and links.

There are different types of landing pages, but the most commonly used ones are designed for lead generation. When done well, these targeted pages can be a valuable asset in your marketing toolkit. They provide upfront value to a visitor and allow you to collect information about your customers, or potential customers, usually through a form. Visitors complete a form that captures contact information and other details that will help you learn more about them and segment them for future campaigns. In return, they receive some type of branded content, product, or service — an e-book, newsletters, whitepapers, etc.

Other landing pages that convert tend to focus on a specific CTA button, redirecting visitors to a page where they can complete your desired action. The CTA could be to schedule a demo, click to call, order this product now — the possibilities are endless. You should use this type of landing page when you’re more focused on a visitor taking a specific action rather than collecting information.

Even if you’re not interested in lead generation or getting website visitors to complete a CTA, landing pages can be integral to your email marketing efforts. Using data collected from landing pages allows you to segment your audience and deliver the most appropriate content at the right time. No one wants to receive marketing materials that aren’t important to them or don’t line up with their interests. When you deliver clear, simple messaging explaining the value of what you’re offering, it shows your visitors or customers that you have their best interests in mind and aren’t sending them irrelevant content.

Using good landing pages in your email marketing efforts is not only effective but allows you to get creative — you’re able to test out various designs and text to determine what works best with your target audience. Once you know what works with your audience it should ultimately lead to higher conversion rates. Plus, landing pages are also highly measurable, giving you the ability to understand exactly how visitors arrived at your landing page. It’s also an opportunity to tie those metrics directly into your business goals.

If you want to expand your contact lists, improve and enhance your email marketing, and make your business more successful — it’s time to start using landing pages.

Best Practices of Building a Startup Website

June 10, 2020

Introducing a new product or service to the world? A startup website can be your most powerful marketing tool. While brochures, sales sheets, direct mailings, and social media can be effective supplemental materials, a website offers unrestricted freedom to tell your story and educate your potential customers. You are in complete control of the user journey and visual experience. With that said, the perfect startup website should adhere to a common set of best practices to ensure its effectiveness.

What is a Startup Business?

Although your mind might naturally skew toward Silicon Valley tech companies when you hear the word startup, the concept is much broader. Whether you are launching the next biggest fitness app or a local landscaping company, any business in its infancy is considered a startup. This phase is your chance to set the stage and establish the future of your venture. Sure, you’re likely focused on customer acquisition and operations, but marketing is equally important. That’s where your startup website comes in!

Startup Website Best Practices

Attention spans are shrinking. You have a visitor’s attention for mere seconds—in which you must convince them to stay and learn more. This is actually advantageous for startup websites because your new business doesn’t have a whole lot to say just yet! We’ve compiled some best practices our team uses in site development for emerging brands:

Capture Their Interest
Use one big, impactful statement on your homepage telling visitors how you are shaking up the status quo. What are you doing differently than the others? Why should they care?

Less is More
As cliché as it may seem, a startup website is one instance where less really is more. Too much content can actually work against you. Your overall design and content strategy should be simple and straightforward. This approach will pique curiosity and push users to dive deeper.

Give Them Something
Find your perfect balance between less is more and informative. It may be more art than science but we’ve seen plenty of startup websites that skew too far on the side of mysterious and abstract. We’re not trying to make our customers work for it here—but instead give them only what they need to see in that moment.

Connect with Your Audience
Your company may be brand new, but using familiar lingo and keywords can help them feel connected to your product or service right away.

Plan for Growth
A good startup website will help your company get to the next level. From day one, be sure you’re using a domain name, logo, color scheme, sitemap structure, and content management system that can grow with your business. You may want to add a blog in the future or several static pages. Don’t paint yourself into a corner with a temporary site and brand elements that will need to be scrapped entirely as you progress.

Visual Stimulation
You’re the new guy (or gal) on the block and ready to disrupt your entire industry. Unfortunately, the overused handshake clip art on your homepage tells a different story. Elevate trust with your visitors by including original videos and photography whenever possible. This is especially true if you are selling a product, but just as important for any type of business. People want to see that you are real and legitimate. Utilizing stock photos that they’ve seen on a hundred other startup websites adds nothing to your story. Stock imagery certainly has its place if used tastefully, but don’t be afraid to let people in with authentic visuals.

Stand Up to the Competition
We’re seeing a big upswing in “competitor vs us” pages lately and they are wildly effective. Sure, your competitors might not be thrilled to go toe-to-toe with your business, but it’s a no-nonsense means of conveying your advantage to customers. Shopify is one of the major players doing this really well. Did we mention it has incredible SEO benefits and acts as a great landing page for paid advertising?

Follow the Trends
When it comes to the overall look and feel of your startup website, take cues from the latest trends in the design world. By implementing modern elements into your user interface, you give your company a hip and connected vibe—which improves the overall sentiment of your brand.

Be Directive
This point is paramount for all the launches we do at ACS, but even more so for startup websites. Whether you want your visitors to call, email, subscribe, or buy, presenting a clear call-to-action is essential for success. Don’t allow them to get lost. Formulate your content to always direct them to a common endpoint. Optimizing conversions is what this is all about!

Provide Social Proof
Display social proof prominently on your site to increase user confidence. This includes reviews, testimonials, social media comments, publicity, etc. Even early adopters don’t want to be first—so give them proof that prior clients, customers, and tastemakers are pleased with what you offer. Once you’ve collected enough social proof to add to your startup website, it will absolutely become one of your most effective sales tools.

Top 10 Web Design Trends for 2020

March 23, 2020

In the world of web design, trends come and go. The websites of the early 2000s are as outdated as dad jeans. Something that was a must-wear just five years ago is a distant memory. As we move forward into this new decade, we share with you our top 10 web design trends for 2020 that we think will dress up your website.

1. Put it in Dark Mode

This is 2020’s hot topic, for sure. Light text on dark backgrounds was frowned upon and considered a somewhat “amateur” design choice for the past decade. Now, as people pay more attention to the long-term impacts of constant glaring light from their various devices, dark is making a case for itself.

2. Overlap Those Elements

Another trend that started to pique our interests in 2019 has a major foothold in the web design world this year. Throw out the rule book — break free of the stuffy grid and let your text, images and video battle it out on the screen.

3. Add More White Space

This trend has made our list before, but it’s not going anywhere. In fact, visitors are demanding more “breathing room” than ever in the content they consume. More empty space and easier to consume content is crucial in effective web design right now.

4. Have Some Fun

The world is having a bit of a dumpster fire moment in 2020 so far. Websites that offer a fun, colorful, light-hearted design will provide a welcome breath of fresh air for visitors.

5. Keep it in Motion

There are plenty of ways to make things move on a web page. This year, visitors are demanding more visual action in their browsing experiences. With the increase in internet speed and the introduction of 5k we are more likely to see video leveraged in web design and marketing moving forward.

6. Freshen it up with Illustrations

We’re on borrowed time with stock photos. Visitors are growing tired of seeing the same image of high fives and handshakes on every single website they visit. What began as a trend in the software and app space, custom (or at least somewhat original) illustrations are creating unique experiences on sites across all verticals.

7. Data Drives Marketing

Data-driven marketing is on the rise. People are paying attention to data more now than ever before. Data and statistics can not only augment marketing but can often drive results that traditional methods don’t. An infographic is a great way to present this information — and add that fresh illustration we just talked about.

8. Provide a Personalized Touch

Did you know that 80 percent of consumers are more likely to purchase when presented a personalized experience? And, 90 percent indicate that they find personalization appealing. Those stats speak for themselves — and would make a great infographic, too!

9. Retain Loyal Customers

Putting an effort into keeping customers happy may seem obvious but is often overlooked. This can translate into creating better user experiences and showing a willingness to cater to the customers’ needs.

10. Add Chatbots

People are becoming more comfortable with online support systems. Chatbots will power 85 percent of customer service by 2020. The takeaway here is to not lose sight of the human experience as your company moves toward automated technologies.

If you’re in the market for a website redesign or rebuild, feel free to contact us here or learn more about our web design agency.

Website Redesign vs Website Refresh

March 10, 2020

Although arriving at this number was not an exact science, our 3 decades in business have demonstrated the average lifespan of a website design to be about 2.5 years. That’s around the time our current clients start getting antsy for something new and exciting. It’s also when prospects tend to put feelers out for a new web marketing partner such as ACS to handle their website redesign. For our purposes here today, let’s refer to this phenomenon as the 30-month itch. Whether the project on the table is for a long-time client or brand new contact, we are not in the business letting you spend more than you have to on more than you need to. Learn below the slight difference between refresh, rebuild, and website redesign.

If your website’s visual vibe is growing a bit stagnant, it may be time to consider the options – we can help!

The Difference between a Website Refresh and Website Redesign / Rebuild

To better understand the difference between redesigning and refreshing a website, we’ll use the metaphor of a house. Let’s say you own a home or have invested in a property that could use a little work. Much like avocado-colored refrigerators and bright orange Formica countertops, the design trends that were dominant when you first launched your site may not have stood the test of time quite as expected. In real estate, we examine the “bones” of a home first and foremost. Does it have a solid foundation? Are the floors even? Are the support beams straight? Is the overall layout within the exterior walls structurally sound? If so, there is unlikely a need to bring the bulldozer in to start from scratch. The same is true for digital properties. In this scenario, a fresh coat of paint and updated appliances can have stunning, transformative results—without breaking the bank. Modernizing your existing site to improve the overall user experience and further integrate your brand is considered a website refresh.

A website refresh is a lighter lift, just taking the existing structure, design, and bones of the site and sprucing it up. Recommending some SEO aspects, conversion rate optimizing the pages to maximize path to convert, and incorporating design elements that make the website pop.

A website redesign, however, is much more involved. Back to our home renovation analogy; it’s the equivalent of smashing a wrecking ball through your fixer-upper and starting over from square one with completely new blueprints. This is a major overhaul and, while often necessary, there are sometimes less dramatic options.

How do you know when to refresh your website?

Certain situations will arise where you’ll know it’s a great time to refresh your website. Things like:

Additions to your business that deserves a new portion of your website
Updates to search engine’s algorithms that warrant a specific change
Seeing conversion rates below 1% – may need to look at your path to conversion
Been a year or more since you’ve last made any changes and it has become stagnant
Tech Stack additions – adding any CRM, lead gen, nurture programs, or chatbots warrant a small refresh
New Marketing efforts that require polished new landing pages used for a specific purpose

How Often Should You Refresh Your Website?

If your company has the time, funding, and patience for it, we recommend a site should be refreshed each year. Refreshing content and code of your site frequently also can send signals to the search engines signaling you’re taking the time to invest in user experience.

We commonly see four scenarios in which a company feels it may be time for a total website redesign:

They are inspired by (or envious of) the sparkly new websites they’ve seen and are ready to scratch their 30-month itch.
They have lost touch with their previous web designer and are in panic mode about the fate of their online presence.
There’s a huge Google Algorithm update and site speed needs to be addressed, or images need to be compressed.
They are going through a major rebrand, shifting their business focus, or changing their offerings.

There is usually a disconnect between a client’s assumption that their site needs a total overhaul and the reality of our options. For instance, changing the button colors from blue to green does not warrant a new website. However, discovering that years of bad code, a messy hodgepodge of untrustworthy plugins, countless bugs, and dysfunctional features are impeding the effectiveness of your website often does mean it’s time for a fresh start. You may be asking yourself, as a business owner, is this simply one of life’s unfair certainties we need to accept? Going through an epic online site launch every few years is just par for the course? We say no.

Your website may not be on the most solid footing currently—and that’s okay. At ACS, we aim to shift the online world’s mindset around the website redesign vs refresh debate with one bold statement: Your next website design should be your last website. What does that mean exactly? Glad you asked! By focusing on constructing a solid, future-proof foundation for your site build, we are setting the stage for a flexible, adaptable online presence that will evolve right along with your business. Obsessing over the behind-the-scenes details, ensuring every nail, bolt, and beam is perfectly aligned now, creates a digital property fit for long-term change.

Building Websites for Longevity

It’s easy to preach your next website will be your last website, but how can we guarantee that? Well, we can’t… BUT we can stack the odds in our favor by establishing a strong, stable foundation. The finer points of which will vary based on which platform your site utilizes as a CMS. Using WordPress, for instance, we would absolutely pay extra close attention to the following in the early stages of our construction project:

Utilize a premium hosting service with a stellar track record that includes SSL, backup management, Php updates, malware protection, bank-grade security encryption, and fanatical customer support.
Work on a child theme! Using a parent theme by default is one of the most critical mistakes you can make when building your WP website. Once you go down the wrong road at this stage, it can be difficult (or impossible) to backtrack later. This practice offers a much-needed layer of protection between your awesome customizations and the platform’s semi-frequent updates.
Only employ reputable plug-ins and extensions (and keep them to a bare minimum). With every new plugin installed, you are opening up your site to potential security risks and versioning conflicts in the future. Aim for fewer than 15 plugins total and select only ones that have great ratings, plenty of current users, and updates often.
Hacks can hurt you. Whether you yourself dabble in web development or you’ve hired a hotshot coder who gets a thrill from manipulating code, be weary! WordPress relies on an intricate universe of database tables, dependent files, dynamic loops, and included scripts. Hacking your way to a desired functionality may work for today—but opens you up to an epic site crash every time you update anything for the remainder of that site’s life. The more you tinker with core code, the more risk and uncertainty you inherit.
Long-term SEO: when planning out your website design strategy, setting your site up for the long haul in organic rankings is the most ideal path for growth. A lot of people think SEO is a set it and forget it medium, but you have to keep developing content, updating pages and tweaking the page for algorithm updates. If you optimize the page up front for maximum visibility, then your page should grow as you add new fresh content to it!
Take ownership of your site! You’d be surprised to learn how many companies we talk to who have zero access to their domain registrar, hosting provider, or CMS back-end. We get it. It was probably a whirlwind to get the website launched and you had your full faith and trust in the company or individual who was handling that for you. What happens when that budding pimple-faced web designer with all the promise in the world decides to become a dune buggy mechanic and stops responding to emails? You’re left with a web property that belongs to you—that you can’t touch. Be involved in the setup of your site. Make sure you have super-administrator privileges for all accounts related to your business. After your big launch, consider downgrading the account access of those involved in the build process.

READ: Cheap Web Design Will Cost You

Sometimes starting with a blank canvas is a good thing. Chances are if your current site wasn’t built with longevity in mind, a redesign or small refresh is our best course of action. As your company moves into the future, start to shift your mindset around the full website redesign every the and a half years. Wouldn’t it be nice to just make a few site-wide updates whenever you felt the 30-month itch come along? We’re entering an exciting time in the history of online marketing. We now have the tools and resources to build applications that last longer, hold up to change, and withstand the evolution of business.

Local Marketing 2020 Series: Search Engine Optimization and Local SEO

February 10, 2020

Right after the Big Game and all the hype around the national campaigns, we promised you we’d delve into local marketing and strategies you can use. We start with search engine optimization and how to use it to your advantage in your local market.

This isn’t the time nor place for a crash course in SEO. However, this post is the perfect forum to discuss the astounding potential of organic local traffic. The truth is, the small business world is a bit behind on the digital revolution. You still see a good portion of coffee shops and dry cleaners with non-responsive websites, no social media presence and the list of offenses goes on. Use this to your advantage! You can make a big impact on your business online with relatively low effort and basic search engine optimization practices.

Start with a blog and maybe consider some keyword-rich landing pages as well. Make sure your site adapts to all devices, includes enticing META descriptions, has the proper title and heading formats, and plenty of unique, valuable content.

One important trend to watch in SEO is the emergence of high volume “near me” terms. If your business supplies services or products in a certain area, begin optimizing your site around [geo+service] keywords. This strategy will lessen the competitiveness of the market. So instead of optimizing your site around “Chinese Restaurant” that will compete nationally, optimize it around “Top Charleston Chinese Restaurant” and watch it rank well over time.

Local SEO will help your business go even further. When the search engines look at your business name, address, phone number and URL across the web, the more consistent it is, the more authority is given. Make sure you not only claim but optimize as many directory and business profile listings as you can find. At minimum, open accounts on the following top business profile sites.

Many business owners allow their preconceived notions about sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Foursquare to prevent them from taking advantage of what they have to offer. Whether it’s a few nasty reviews, unflattering photos, unsolicited feedback or just a general lack of understanding, your reasons for complicity are not worth the negative impact. It’s time to adjust your perspective.

These aggregate sites can also be your best friend — if you embrace their local marketing power. Play the game. Claim your listing, update your details, correct your categories, upload some images, double-check your hours and address. If they ask you to pay for a premium service, do it. Your customers are going to these third-party services before (or in lieu of) your own website. Take advantage of what little control you are given and ensure the best representation of your business. Platforms such as Yext and Moz Local provide an efficient means of managing the growing number of directories people use to discover products and services in your city.

Be sure to check out our next Local Marketing Series blog where we look at how to use social media to its fullest.

3 Key Web Design Elements that Improve User Experience

January 6, 2020

All business owners want their website to look good. But what does that mean for the site’s visitors? A good user experience means that they will be engaged on your site and ultimately supply their email address, sign up for your newsletter, pick up the phone to call you, or whatever outcome you are hoping for. And, there are some key web design elements that will help improve user experience.

First is typography. This includes all facets of the words on a page, not just the primary font. It also includes the font family usage, sizes of letters and words, line spacing, color of the text and the contrast on the page. All of these factors need to work together on the webpage — while staying on brand — to make your information easy to read or consume.

How the text is displayed is critical. If someone is trying to learn about your business, your message has to be clear, and clearly readable. Most web users today are quite savvy. They know when the content is well-done, but they also know that when it’s bad, it’s bad. If the content doesn’t look good, the user will most likely click away.

The second key web design element is consistent use of a call to action (CTA). Like I’ve already mentioned, you want your website to encourage potential customers or clients to perform a certain action. How are they going to sign up for your seminar, order a product or reserve a table? The CTA buttons need to be obvious and consistent from page to page to move visitors through the intended journey you want them to take.

Calls to action do vary from site to site and business to business. The point is to make sure that whatever your CTA is, it needs to be apparent on each webpage and have clear direction.

Lastly, the third is video. You may not think of it as a design element, but video is important to the overall look of your web page. A video that’s not well-placed on a site or a page or is hard to find probably won’t make the impact you’d like.

And, visitors like videos because they are easy to digest. They can entertain or be informative, but no matter the tone, videos will engage and keep a user’s attention. This captured attention is marketing gold.

Incorporating these three web design elements is sure to improve the user experience for people visiting your website — and keep them coming back.

How Does SEO Benefit Web Design?

November 13, 2019

SEO and web design have a thought-provoking relationship. Depending on who you talk to, you could hear a good argument on why one is more important than the other. But, when it comes down to it, SEO and web design are equally essential. It’s the balancing act of giving them both their fair share that leads to a successful web site.

Yet, with the goal of not sacrificing one over the other, your creative agency has gotta start somewhere. For our purposes, we’ll start with web design as it relates to SEO.

A designer must create a user-friendly, well-branded experience when creating a website. It needs to reflect design trends and best practices while following modern SEO standards. A solid web design takes a holistic view of all of the page elements around the content as well as the text as its own entity. That’s a driving factor for SEO — content. Without meaningful content on a web page, SEO will not be as effective. The site has to be sound from a design, content and user experience standpoint before it’s launched.

Now, let’s flip the script. How does SEO benefit web design?

Interestingly, Search Engine Optimization can steer web design. We’ve already touched on content, which is what most people think of when SEO comes up. But, with relation to design, SEO also involves user experience. Search engines are getting more sophisticated, and are looking beyond keywords and code to assess value. They’re now watching indicators like bounce rate and time on a site, which can affect SEO. Those factors are inherently design-driven. Basically, the more your users like your website, the more the search engines will.

Adding to the functionality of your web design, search engines will favor things like low load times, mobile page speeds, compressed design elements and image files, and simplification. When a crawler looks over your site, it will take all these things into consideration. When working through a web design project, make sure your chosen agency is aware or the impacts specific to SEO efforts.

Diving further into some technical SEO items that could be associated with a web design projects, make sure the following items are addressed that will heavily affect your organic rankings:

Canonical Tag
XML Sitemaps are operational and submitted to Google Console
URL Hierarchy is as simple as possible (tiered system)
Schema Markups (luxury to have, but not applicable to all sites)

A website that serves both the user and the search engines is all about balance. Those can be achieved by a blend of effective web design matched with SEO.

Recipe for the Ideal Website

September 23, 2019

Every website has its purpose. And, whether that’s to sell a product or enhance a brand, it needs to have the right mix of components to create the ideal website. These ingredients, when combined, create a perfectly blended website. It’s much like baking a cake. If you forget the baking soda, your cake won’t rise. And nobody likes a flat cake.

So, what does it take to create those individual web pages to reach and engage your target audience? It comes down to five main ingredients that, when measured, blended and assembled just right, create an ideal website.

Ingredient #1: Engaging Design

Design of the user interface is the prime opportunity to grab the viewer’s attention. And you only have an instant to do so. On average, most people leave a web page in less than a second. Engaging design, especially above the fold, needs to capture their attention. Remember, in this one window, in that one second, the web page needs to interest users in your business, product or purpose and entice them to continue scrolling.

Ingredient #2: Meaningful Messaging

Because a visitor’s time is limited, your message needs to be front and center on the page. It needs to get to the point quickly and clearly. This is your chance to speak to visitors about their problem and get them to care about your business. Once they know you understand their pain points, you’ll have their attention. An effective way to do this is in the hero section. Your message can be within a prominent image, slider or illustration that attracts them, then encourages them to read more, scroll or click through.

Ingredient #3: Ideal Websites with a Purpose

Every page should have a purpose and the content to back it up. If not, think about opportunities to consolidate and combine with other content on your site. The average visitor will only view two to three pages on your site before leaving. So, you want robust and engaging content to make each click count.

Ingredient #4: Call to Action

Now that viewers have engaged on the website, don’t leave them hanging. Each page should have a call to action — even if it’s simply a link to your contact page for more information. An ideal website gives readers options when they reach the bottom. A call to action will help guide their journey to your desired action.

Ingredient #5: Technical Capability

The technical side of your web page is much like the oven used to bake your cake. You don’t need to know how the oven works. You just know that if it doesn’t, there will be problems. It’s the web developer’s job to ensure functionality. He or she makes sure that each web page is optimized for things such as W3C standards and page load speed. Optimization is especially important with a mobile site, now that visits are almost equally split between desktop and mobile devices.

These five ingredients make up the basic recipe for the ideal website. From there, extra spice and zest can be added to create a unique flavor that will make your organization stand out.

Looks Aren’t Everything

October 10, 2018

ACS Creative is (you guessed it) a creative agency. All of our team members are, for lack of a better term, artists in their own right. We have a trained eye for what looks good and constantly strive to stay at the forefront of the latest web and graphic design trends. From color theory to typography and everything in between, the work we put out there is creatively engineered to be beautiful down to the last pixel—but that’s only half the story.

A Website Needs to Work

Whether it be informational, transactional, or measured by leads and inquiries, every website has an objective. You might have the most stunning layout and site design in the world; the pride of your brand and envy of your competitors—but if it doesn’t accomplish its basic purpose, none of that matters. A website needs to work. See beyond the pretty colors, animated icons, video backdrops and ask yourself, “Is this serving my audience in the most functional, efficient, and effective way possible?”

Take it from Craig

There’s no denying the power of elegant design. A gorgeous, flashy website can make even the most trivial products seem like the next big thing. However, design without function is merely a pretty billboard. Nothing should come before making sure your site behaves, performs, and operates the way it should to drive conversions. This sentiment has never held more true than it does on Craigslist.org. A wildly popular classifieds platform that has clearly rejected any tendencies toward fancy aesthetics—all while placing in the top 15 highest traffic sites in the U.S. year after year.

Of course, Craigslist is an extreme case. I don’t recommend launching a website with all black text, white background, blue links, and zero visual stimuli whatsoever. Although, you can’t deny its ease of use! There is no shame in having a beautiful site full of bells and whistles, as long as the design elements don’t hinder your visitors’ ability to do what you want them to do (buy a product, submit a form, subscribe to a newsletter, etc.)

Every Business is Different

We hear “make my site look like apple.com” quite often from new clients, and for good reason. It’s a handsome, million-dollar website—that is for sure. However, if you look closely at Apple’s homepage, you’ll notice there really isn’t much web design involved at all. They rely on a collage of exquisite photos of their ingenious devices to draw customers in. Unless Tim Cook is reading this blog post (Hey, Tim), you are not Apple. No, you are a law firm, a landscaping company, a jewelry store, a catering business, a fitness instructor… the point is, you need to find YOUR own balance between fashion and function when it comes to your website. Every industry is different; every business is different; and every visitor is different. There is no one-size-fits-all formula. It often takes some trial and error before you get it right. Be patient, listen to your customers, and try to remember; looks aren’t everything.

So Your New Website is Live. Now What?

March 15, 2018

You’ve had a whirlwind few months – going back and forth with designers, developers, writers, and project managers to ensure your new website is beautiful and functional. Every last icon, image, letter, and pixel has been double-checked for absolute perfection. You devoted extra attention to user experience, workflow efficiency, and information architecture to ensure your online goals are not only met, but exceeded. Today, your brand new website launched, the floodgates are wide open, and new business has poured in like never before – right? Probably not.

How could this be? You did everything right. You hired talented people. You did the research. You invested your time, money, and resources into building a well-oiled digital machine engineered to sell. Don’t panic – these efforts aren’t in vain. It’s important to keep in mind, your pursuit of online success doesn’t end with a new website; it begins with one. Now is the time to get to work! Here are a few actionable items that should help inspire your next steps…

Content Marketing

Of course your new website is search engine-friendly, but that doesn’t mean it has the content to appear in search results. To put your business in front of potential customers online, you have to offer valuable content (blogs, videos, podcasts, infographics, white papers, etc.) that they might be looking for. The more you publish on a particular topic, the more authority you build within your industry and in Google’s very complex algorithm. Posting “evergreen” content that stays forever relevant will continue to work for you over time and cumulatively increase organic traffic to your site. Be sure to supplement your content marketing efforts outside of your own domain with social media, guest posting, and public relations as well. Everything ties into (and funnels back to) your website’s primary call-to-action.

Paid Advertising

Surely, you’re financially exhausted from building this aforementioned beautiful and functional new website. Now is not the time to close the purse strings, though. Trust that your improved design works as it’s intended to and begin sending large volumes of target traffic its way. Spend some money on Google AdWords and Facebook. Create specific landing pages to further increase visitor confidence and goal efficiency. Finding the perfect balance between ad spend and ROI is by far the most effective means of online growth.

Email Marketing

Does your reimagined website entice visitors to join your email list, complete a form, or contact you? Without a doubt, email marketing is still one of the best ways to reach a captive audience of past, present, and future customers. Remember, these individuals have opted to hear from you! Collecting new subscribers every day should be a top priority. Delivering relevant content to those subscribers’ inboxes is a close second. There is a lot that can be done with an email address these days, from responsive promotional templates to automated drip campaigns and even behavioral segmentation. An effective email marketing strategy keeps people engaged with your brand and coming back to your site!

Mind you, the items above are just a handful of directions to go after a website launch. Although independent efforts, they work in symphonic harmony together, when executed properly. Remember, a shiny new site may be an essential first step to growing your business online, but it’s just that – a first step. There is no such thing as “set it and forget it” in the highly-competitive digital marketing world. Passionate persistence and strategic action will surely garner measurable, positive, ongoing results for your business.