April 2016 – ACS Reduc 2022

5 Ways to Market Your Business with Your Website

April 22, 2016

Like every other sales effort, it’s a means, not an end

Great, your website has gone live. But if you think your job is done, you’re missing out on huge marketing opportunities. Check out this list of proven strategies to keep your website working for you every day.

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Make your site more visible to search engines like Google, so when people search for businesses like yours the site will appear in the first page or two of Google’s results. The phrase SEO typically refers to unpaid efforts (as opposed to paid ads) to drive traffic to your site, including:

Adding commonly searched words and phrases (“keywords”) to the site’s text and meta data
Ensuring that all coding is accessible and acceptable to search indexes
Increasing inbound links from other websites (more about this below) and cross-linking between pages within the website

2. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
This means paying someone to promote your site on the Internet.

Banner ads on search engine and social media sites, which are chosen according to the demographic you want to reach (age, profession, geographic area, etc.) and paid for in various ways such as pay-per-click or flat fee.
Bloggers and reviewers. You send them free samples of your product in the hope that they’ll spread the good word about you to their following.

3. Retarget
Once someone visits your site, you can have your ad appear wherever he goes on the Internet (at least, until he deletes the cookie your site placed on his computer). Since 98% of site visitors are not converted on the first visit, reminding them to come back is a great way to increase your conversion rate.

4. Place your content on other websites
This is the most controllable and effective way to populate the web with inbound links to your website. Create articles, videos, reviews, discussions, contests or whatever else you want on high traffic sites such as:

Social media (FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn)
Self publishers (Pinterest, YouTube, FlickR)
Industry-specific forums and blogs
News / press release distributors

5. Get your site in others’ content
This means promoting and managing public opinion so that people mention and link to your site without you paying them to do it.

Blogs
Review sites (Yelp, Trip Advisor, epinions, Amazon)
Social media pages of your associates and customers

Your Website Design: a Keeper or a Loser?

April 19, 2016

How to keep visitors on your site or lose them in 50 milliseconds flat

That’s right, it takes just 50 milliseconds or less for a viewer to decide whether to stay on your website or hit the back button. And the biggest factor in that decision isn’t the content: it’s the design.

• Compare: the average eye blink takes 100 to 400 milliseconds

Image is everything and everybody
Now if you’re thinking this doesn’t apply to your type of business, product or service, guess again. It’s an inescapable fact of human nature that appearance dictates our first impression, no matter what walk of life or business we’re in. Studies show that:

• 75% assess a company’s credibility based on its website design

• 89% search the web before making a purchase decision

• 94% of first impressions are visual-related

“Keeper” design according to Google Research
When Google studied user behavior, it found that two design factors make the difference in whether a website is judged positively or negatively.

• Complexity: Simpler is better. The more elements (images, colors and type styles) that are crammed in, the more repelling the design is to the eye and brain.

• Prototypicality: Familiar is better. Designs that were too far outside the expected box for that industry were perceived as confusing, unsatisfying and unprofessional.

How to follow the Google rules
DIY website creators often believe that all of their important messages must fit into the first screen of the home page (or any other page), and the result is like 20 people all shouting for your attention at once. But you don’t have to eliminate your messages; just make them easier to digest.

• Guide the viewer’s eye with a dominant main message

• Let them scroll: 66% of viewer attention goes to content below the fold

Mobilize it
Another ignore-at-your-peril aspect of successful website design is its accessibility from mobile devices. Here’s what users say about it:

• 67% are more likely to purchase a product or service

• 62% of companies reported increased sales after mobile optimizing their site

• 48% who encountered a non-optimized site thought the business didn’t care

Does your website meet the criteria to be a “keeper”?
Well, one way to find out is by analyzing your visitor metrics. Another is to give us a call. We’ll be happy to provide a FREE, NO OBLIGATION professional assessment.

ACS Creative Wins Addy Awards Again in 2016

April 12, 2016

And That Means Our Clients Win Too!

We’re starting to sound like a broken record … but in a good way! After taking home three medals last year from the annual American Advertising Federation Addy Awards (our industry’s Oscars), and we’re thrilled to announce that ACS Creative has won two more for our work in 2015. We’d like to thank each of our clients for giving us the opportunity to partner with them in achieving these outstanding results.

Here are their stories.

Guotai Spirits
guotaispirits.com

How does one of Asia’s most distinguished and popular liquor brands break into the U.S. market which is unfamiliar not only with their label, but with the entire category? With an elegantly designed website that establishes brand identity while educating the consumer on all levels.

Painkiller Tattoo
painkillertattoo.com

How does a new start-up make an impression in a crowded market? With a logo and website that conveys its brand identity of top-end artistry and professionalism, yet is relatable to the target customer. Much as we enjoy receiving Addy Awards, we believe they are more about success for our clients than ego boosts for us. Our goal is always first and foremost to solve a critical marketing challenge for our clients, as each of these websites did. The Addy is just the recognition of that achievement.

5 Reasons Why Self-Branded Websites Fail

April 8, 2016

If you’re thinking about DIYing your website, read on.

It’s no longer enough just to have a presence on the internet. It’s a big playing field now, and the only way to get a return on your investment is to make sure your website fully expresses your company brand.

First, What are Branded Websites?

When we refer to ‘self branding’ or ‘branded website’ we mean the color scheme, logo, page layout etc. The branded aspect of the website becomes the feeling visitors get when they interact with your site and the consistency throughout your materials. So many businesses try to create branded sites themselves without considering all the graphic aspects.

Here are the top 5 mistakes we see DIYers make:

1. They didn’t understand what branding is.
Branding is not about designing a logo or picking a web page template. All such activities should come AFTER you’ve established your brand identity. Brand is what your customers think and feel about you, your products and service. If you don’t have that clear, you won’t be able to communicate it in your advertising and marketing, either visually or verbally.

2. They listened only to internal opinions.
Nobody knows your company better than the insiders: yourself and your key staff. But nobody can tell you how your company is truly perceived like an outsider: a pro who can do the research, analyze the results and give you an objective picture of your advantages and disadvantages in the minds of your audience.

3. They copied some other company’s brand strategy.
Maybe they Googled “most successful branding campaigns ever.” Or maybe they even had someone on staff with experience marketing to their industry. But what succeeded for another company, or in previous years, probably won’t for this company, now. To get current, deep branding expertise, you really need to go to a company that specializes in it.

4. They didn’t spend enough time on it.
There are many claims on a business owner’s time and attention, from production to sales. Throwing together a website in a couple of hours is a recipe for disaster, both in terms of functionality and visitor impression.

5. They didn’t consider the long-term effects.
Failing to attract or convert new customers on a daily basis is bad enough. But what about how you’re perceived by potential investors or lenders? If your website comes across as amateurish or off-brand, it could raise doubts about the wisdom of doing business with you. Having a cookie cutter website that’s not consistent with the company’s brand can have far-reaching consequences. It — and you — deserve better.

Contact ACS Creative about your future graphic project, web design or marketing needs!

Marketing vs. Branding: What’s the Difference?

April 6, 2016

Honestly, have you ever sat down and thought about what separates Marketing vs Branding?

Hint: you can’t effectively do one without first doing the other.

These two words are used interchangeably so often, it’s no wonder most people think they mean pretty much the same thing. But there’s a fundamental difference that every organization operating in a free market economy should know.

Branding is who you are.

Your brand is how you are perceived: by customers, potential customers and even your own employees.

Your company mission and values
Your products and/or services
Your target customers
And most importantly, your competitive edge in the marketplace

All these characteristics combined make up your brand: the strong, unique identity that produces recognizability, confidence and loyalty in your audience.

Marketing is how you sell it.

If the brand is strategy, marketing is tactics. Using your brand identity as a guide, you can make high-return, cost-efficient decisions on how best to reach — and sell — your audience.

Say your company is a high end clothing boutique known for giving customers a luxury shopping experience. To reinforce this selling point, you send out elegant invitations to a private VIP wine & shopping night. The customer experience is your brand. The invitation is your marketing.

Branding is the horse. Marketing is the cart.

You might think your brand is self-evident and doesn’t need to be spelled out. But without having such a platform in place, it’s easy to react to a passing fad or market condition and sabotage your brand without realizing it.

What if your clothing boutique, instead of promoting luxury goods and service, sent out a Black Friday flyer offering “50% discount to the first 50 customers”? Yeah, you might get some extra traffic from people outside your defined customer base. But you’ve weakened your original reputation … and probably the customer loyalty you had because of it.

Marketing wins the day. Branding wins the lifetime.

Branding is an investment that pays for itself the more — and the longer — you do it. That’s a difference you can take to the bank.

To have a chat with us about either or find out more information, access our service pages or contact us about your next project!