When it comes to doing business online, especially e-commerce, Amazon is a safe bet to admire. Since the site’s inception in 1994, Amazon has single-handedly changed the internet’s entire landscape. They’ve had a few flops and plenty of successes over the years, but one fact remains true: There is no better company to gather marketing inspiration from in today’s online marketplace.
Amazon’s annual Prime Day promotion got off to a rocky start in 2015. With a combination of public confusion and lackluster product selection, many considered the event somewhat of a failure. Amazon was determined to redeem themselves over the next couple of years, and they did so in epic fashion.
With its third annual Prime Day subscription promotion this past summer, the shopping giant boosted global orders by 60% during Prime Day in July of 2017. Amazon’s U.S. orders rose by more than 50% and Prime membership sign-up experienced its highest day ever. Even more surprising: Amazon Prime Day sales beat out 2016’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday numbers combined! It was the company’s biggest day ever—and that’s saying a lot. They also earned these sales in mid-July—a notoriously slow retail month. Needless to say, Amazon Prime Day is a brilliant promotional success. Some say they got lucky. We say they got savvy.
Hidden Objective, Clear Results
Major brands like Amazon routinely take advantage of promotional strategies to achieve their own desired objectives. This is in addition to any ongoing advertising initiatives.
Amazon Prime Day is just one of those promotions. This theoretical holiday allows Prime members to enjoy exclusive deals on a wide range of merchandise. Amazon’s goal is to increase Prime memberships. The added sales are a mere bonus.
Why is Prime subscription the goal? Because prime members are more likely to buy from Amazon all year long with the promise of free, two-day shipping. So a specific consumer goal yielded a bunch more loyal Prime customers plus a jaw-dropping increase in sales. And that’s the key to a successful promotion: driving a clear, measurable action.
The Difference between Advertising and Promoting
If you go looking through a thesaurus ($11.95 on Amazon.com) “Promoting” and “Advertising” come up as synonyms. To most people, they mean the same thing: hawking your wares and/or services to consumers. However, to a keen marketing maven, promoting and advertising are more like fraternal twins. Sure they come from the same place, but they can look (and be) vastly different.
By nature, advertising is an ongoing, brand-building effort. It’s a marathon without a finish line designed to keep your company top of mind, recognizable and ahead of the competition. In contrast, promoting is a sprint. It’s an intense effort with a specific goal in mind. When executed properly, the two can work together in beautiful harmony!
Promo Strategy 101
To make the most out of your promotions toolbox, you first want to hone in on the goal you want to achieve. Is the objective to introduce a new product to the market? Boost subscriptions to your service?
As mentioned earlier, promos work best when you have a specific action you want consumers to take. Once you know your desired outcome, you can then use your advertising campaign metrics to decide the best way to achieve that goal. What kind of advertising do your consumers tend to respond to best? Use your long-term advertising findings to dictate your promotional strategy. Your promotion will be more successful if you fish where the fish are.
Brainstorm
Promos are catchy, memorable, and encourage prompt action. Ideally, you want your promo to spread wide and fast among your targeted audience. So set your creative team to work dreaming up various promos to achieve the goal you set. Then choose the most strategically sound one. Heck, even make up your own holiday. It worked out pretty well for Amazon!
Plan and Launch with Purpose
The timing of your promo is critical. For example, launching a gift-wrapping service the day after Christmas might lead to an epic promo fail. Now this is an exaggerated scenario, but you get the picture. Consider both consumer behavior and seasonal influencers to determine the right time to launch, and then launch your promotion with everything you’ve got.
Spread the word on social media. Create digital campaigns. Buy some billboards and ads. In general, push your promotion through whatever medium will best reach your target audience. Again, fish where the fish are.
Why this Matters
You would be hard pressed to think of a company that needs to offer a special promotion less than Amazon. Their advertising is everywhere (including people’s doorsteps). They follow customers around the internet with highly-targeted remarketing campaigns until a purchase is complete. Financial experts say Amazon is the only company that could ever feasibly buy Google someday. Their stock market position is consistently healthy and nearly all of their sub-products (streaming, hosting, music, fresh delivery, home services, etc.) make a huge impact to the bottom line. The question is WHY? Why would a global giant with more revenue than they know what to do with host a one-day promotional sale? The answer is simple: because it works.
The lesson here is that promotions should be an integral component of all your marketing efforts. A good one can have lasting effects on your bottom line. So get brainstorming. Your customers will love you for it, and you’ll surely love them back!
Measuring Print Advertisements Success
Digital marketing has been a game-changer for the world of commerce. Companies large and small can spend however much they want promoting products and services to whomever they wish. In this era of a la carte online advertising, it’s easy to forget about the enormous power of print. After all, a campaign should not be limited to just one medium—but instead diversified to appear anywhere and everywhere customers might be looking. Advertising began with ink and paper and, although it has evolved, print is still a highly-effective means of conveying a message to your intended audience. But the real question is, how do you measure print advertising metrics?
The Print Media Advertisement Challenge
Business owners and marketers have come to expect more than just convenience and control in advertising—but data as well. Pay per click platforms such as AdWords and Facebook not only deliver your ads, but also provide detailed, real-time performance reporting. This data can be used to make smarter budget decisions and better measure return on investment. Being online, it’s incredibly simple to track impressions, engagements, visits, and conversions. The problem with print advertising has been such since day one: how do you measure a campaign’s success?
Let’s assume you keep a close eye on your website’s Analytics. You observe where traffic is coming from and what visitors do once they arrive. This is a wonderful way to see which referral sites are driving the most business for you. Arguably, the least helpful of all sources is Direct. These are individuals who manually typed your URL to arrive at your site. Maybe you assume it’s from any number of the local newspaper or magazine ads you bought last month. Perhaps it’s your bus stop ads or television commercial paying off. Unfortunately, when it comes to Analytics, it’s all Direct traffic. Offline marketing is essentially a Hail Mary. How do you justify spending if you don’t know if it’s working?
Print Media Metrics Solutions
No measurement of print media advertising is ever going to provide truly complete data. However, there are tactics you can employ to get a better metrics of what’s working (and what’s not).
Customer Survey
Whether at point of sale, in a meeting, or on the phone, it’s always a good idea to ask people how they discovered your company or promotion. Be sure to log the responses in an organized manner and, over time, you’ll have extremely useful data. Along with this point, it may be useful for your sales team to have a list of all marketing efforts in market. So they know whether direct mail, magazine insert, or anything else may be communicated and can keep clean data.
Unique URL
A brilliant way to measure offline advertising is to print a unique URL for each source. Your base domain will remain the same, of course, but the directory can reflect the medium. For instance, an ACS ad in Golf Digest could include the vanity URL “acscreative.com/putt” which will help us track its success via Analytics. This strategy also works with phone numbers and email addresses! You can even put unique phone numbers on this landing page with special content. Let the user know exactly what they need to know and how it relates to that audience segment.
Mark Your Calendar
Make better sense of sales and Direct traffic spikes by maintaining a calendar of print advertising efforts such as publication release dates, air times, etc. This seems simplistic, but in 6-12 months when you’re reviewing the previous year wrap up, you won’t remember the print you put into market at what date that may have caused in increase in branded traffic, assisted conversions or phone call volume in a specific time period.
Special Offers
Offering a special coupon, promo code, or offer in your print ads is a great way to track the effectiveness of each source. In this case, website traffic may remain a bit ambiguous, but the conversions will speak for themselves. Also feel free to combine the special offer with any of the above tactics. The more attention you pay to each channel in market, the more actionable the trends become.
There is no denying the awesome power of self-serve online advertising. It provides everything a marketer could ever want and then some. However, promoting to the real world is just as important as ever. Being everywhere doesn’t just mean banners on hundreds of sites or links in all search results. When advertising anywhere, measurement is the key to success. Get creative; capture all the data you can, and make informed marketing decisions moving forward!
Work with ACS Creative to put together a print advertising, call us, fill a contact form, or email us today!
The Journey to Great Logo Design
We can spend an entire blog talking about what makes a great logo (and we have). However, we think most logo design stories tend to focus more on the end result and less on the process. Often, getting to a worthy final logo takes many steps along a winding journey filled with trial, error, experimentation, collaboration, and strategy. So today we’d like to talk about how we develop great logos (and great design for that matter) by focusing on the journey to our latest Addy Award winner: the Britepaths logo.
It takes a village
At ACS Creative, we believe our best work is the result of friendly and thoughtful collaboration between agency and client. This was especially true of our efforts for Britepaths. In this case, all stakeholders were on-board with not just a logo design, but a total rebranding. The nonprofit’s original name, Our Daily Bread, did not adequately convey their mission to help those in need with temporary assistance while also imparting financial counselors to teach solvency skills. Understanding this core mission was the first step in developing a new brand—and not something we could have accomplished without the initial meetings and interviews that helped us better delineate our client’s needs.
What’s in a name?
We would beg to differ with Shakespeare’s Juliet that a rose by any other name would still be a rose. In our marketing world, names are everything. Company names help convey what that company is about, including its purpose and values. Developing a moniker is an intensive and delicate process. Throw in the factor of domain availability and the task is seemingly impossible. Good thing we like impossible tasks here at ACS! To develop a successful name, we take a methodological approach:
For this project, we whittled several possible names down to just three potential candidates:
When everyone agrees, you know it’s good
Achieving consensus with a large group is pretty rare, but in this case, the Britepaths name and logo design were unanimously agreed upon by all involved. We got the buy-in. The reason for the landslide victory? The Britepaths logo, name and overarching brand spoke to several key attributes that perfectly conveyed the nonprofit’s new vision:
We couldn’t be happier with the work we accomplished for Britepaths. Not because we won an award, but because we successfully met our client’s challenge—and that’s why we come to work every day. At ACS Creative, we always strive to provide excellent marketing services to the clients who trust us with their brands.
Website Management Made Easy
When we design a website, there are always two important people in mind: the person who visits the website and the person who manages the website. Of course, the site has to appeal to customers. But it also has to make life easier for the website manager.
Every website we build has a user-friendly content management system (CMS). So staff members can add website content, without needing advanced technical skills.
We recently launched a website for the Washington Metro Chapter of Community Associations Institute (WMCCAI). They help community associations through advocacy, education, networking events and other services. Their new site provides a great experience for website visitors and WMCCAI staff.
Courting New Members
Members are the heart and soul of any association. Without them, these organizations wouldn’t exist. Appealing to new members was a top priority for the website, but it’s a challenge we had to approach carefully.
For example, you can’t expect someone who walks into a clothing store to buy the first sweater they see. They want to shop around a little. Try on a few different outfits. In that same way, new website visitors won’t want to take action right away. They need time to click around to a few pages. Read more about the association. Feel comfortable before they commit.
We needed to convince potential members to sign up, without expecting too much from them too soon. To build the case for WMCCAI, we developed a custom Membership page. It answers the question, “Why should I join this group?”.
The eye-catching page shows visitors the benefits of membership. It doesn’t expect users to sign up on the spot; it just gives them enough information to spark their curiosity.
Read All About It
One central membership benefit is access to the the monthly magazine, Quorum. The publication offers best practices, strategies and trends for associations. We needed to bring this print publication into the digital world.
The pages are colorful and easy to navigate for website visitors. They also save time for WMCCAI staff. On the backend, we designed a simple content management tool staff members. They don’t need to understand complicated code. They simply need to drag and drop content into this system. That way, they can upload articles on a monthly basis, without needing hours and hours of time for the task.
Signature Content for Signature Events
Members can also learn about upcoming events on the website using a virtual calendar. Visitors can explore different educational, networking and chapter meetings throughout the year.
Every event also has its own webpage. You can learn important details, export the event to your calendar, or contact the event organizer through these helpful pages.
Some of WMCCAI’s events needed a little more attention. Signature events happen every year, building on member memories and momentum. With that in mind, we created these custom pages as templates. These are easy to update, so anyone can switch out the information. Year after year, WMCCAI staff will recreate these event pages, without using HTML code.
We’re happy WMCCAI members and staff will have no hassles or hurdles as they use the new website.
Lessons Learned from Amazon Prime Day
When it comes to doing business online, especially e-commerce, Amazon is a safe bet to admire. Since the site’s inception in 1994, Amazon has single-handedly changed the internet’s entire landscape. They’ve had a few flops and plenty of successes over the years, but one fact remains true: There is no better company to gather marketing inspiration from in today’s online marketplace.
Amazon’s annual Prime Day promotion got off to a rocky start in 2015. With a combination of public confusion and lackluster product selection, many considered the event somewhat of a failure. Amazon was determined to redeem themselves over the next couple of years, and they did so in epic fashion.
With its third annual Prime Day subscription promotion this past summer, the shopping giant boosted global orders by 60% during Prime Day in July of 2017. Amazon’s U.S. orders rose by more than 50% and Prime membership sign-up experienced its highest day ever. Even more surprising: Amazon Prime Day sales beat out 2016’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday numbers combined! It was the company’s biggest day ever—and that’s saying a lot. They also earned these sales in mid-July—a notoriously slow retail month. Needless to say, Amazon Prime Day is a brilliant promotional success. Some say they got lucky. We say they got savvy.
Hidden Objective, Clear Results
Major brands like Amazon routinely take advantage of promotional strategies to achieve their own desired objectives. This is in addition to any ongoing advertising initiatives.
Amazon Prime Day is just one of those promotions. This theoretical holiday allows Prime members to enjoy exclusive deals on a wide range of merchandise. Amazon’s goal is to increase Prime memberships. The added sales are a mere bonus.
Why is Prime subscription the goal? Because prime members are more likely to buy from Amazon all year long with the promise of free, two-day shipping. So a specific consumer goal yielded a bunch more loyal Prime customers plus a jaw-dropping increase in sales. And that’s the key to a successful promotion: driving a clear, measurable action.
The Difference between Advertising and Promoting
If you go looking through a thesaurus ($11.95 on Amazon.com) “Promoting” and “Advertising” come up as synonyms. To most people, they mean the same thing: hawking your wares and/or services to consumers. However, to a keen marketing maven, promoting and advertising are more like fraternal twins. Sure they come from the same place, but they can look (and be) vastly different.
By nature, advertising is an ongoing, brand-building effort. It’s a marathon without a finish line designed to keep your company top of mind, recognizable and ahead of the competition. In contrast, promoting is a sprint. It’s an intense effort with a specific goal in mind. When executed properly, the two can work together in beautiful harmony!
Promo Strategy 101
To make the most out of your promotions toolbox, you first want to hone in on the goal you want to achieve. Is the objective to introduce a new product to the market? Boost subscriptions to your service?
As mentioned earlier, promos work best when you have a specific action you want consumers to take. Once you know your desired outcome, you can then use your advertising campaign metrics to decide the best way to achieve that goal. What kind of advertising do your consumers tend to respond to best? Use your long-term advertising findings to dictate your promotional strategy. Your promotion will be more successful if you fish where the fish are.
Brainstorm
Promos are catchy, memorable, and encourage prompt action. Ideally, you want your promo to spread wide and fast among your targeted audience. So set your creative team to work dreaming up various promos to achieve the goal you set. Then choose the most strategically sound one. Heck, even make up your own holiday. It worked out pretty well for Amazon!
Plan and Launch with Purpose
The timing of your promo is critical. For example, launching a gift-wrapping service the day after Christmas might lead to an epic promo fail. Now this is an exaggerated scenario, but you get the picture. Consider both consumer behavior and seasonal influencers to determine the right time to launch, and then launch your promotion with everything you’ve got.
Spread the word on social media. Create digital campaigns. Buy some billboards and ads. In general, push your promotion through whatever medium will best reach your target audience. Again, fish where the fish are.
Why this Matters
You would be hard pressed to think of a company that needs to offer a special promotion less than Amazon. Their advertising is everywhere (including people’s doorsteps). They follow customers around the internet with highly-targeted remarketing campaigns until a purchase is complete. Financial experts say Amazon is the only company that could ever feasibly buy Google someday. Their stock market position is consistently healthy and nearly all of their sub-products (streaming, hosting, music, fresh delivery, home services, etc.) make a huge impact to the bottom line. The question is WHY? Why would a global giant with more revenue than they know what to do with host a one-day promotional sale? The answer is simple: because it works.
The lesson here is that promotions should be an integral component of all your marketing efforts. A good one can have lasting effects on your bottom line. So get brainstorming. Your customers will love you for it, and you’ll surely love them back!
Redesign with Purpose
Since our experience at An Event Apart (AEA) in Washington DC this past July, we’ve been inspired to write about Image Optimization, Website Accessibility, and much more. This final installment of our AEA blog series focuses on takeaways from Jeffrey Zeldman’s “From Research to Redesign” presentation.
Let’s set the stage for those of you who couldn’t be there in person… Beautiful ballroom packed with hundreds of like-minded geeks—MacBooks EVERYWHERE. Jeffrey Zeldman takes the stage as opening speaker. The excitement was palpable. Jeff is well-known and highly respected among this crowd as founder of A List Apart Magazine and the man behind the magic at AEA. With a three-day schedule of various experts speaking on a wide array of topics, it was only fitting that his presentation be relevant and applicable to all digital professionals. In essence, his message was clear… Do your homework.
Whether we’re creating a brilliant new website or designing holiday postcards for a client, research is the key to success. Learning, planning and preparation determine the foundational trajectory of any project or campaign. For businesses, it’s about understanding your market—more so than your competitors. They say the best ideas solve a problem. Find your industry’s pain points and create a plan for becoming the solution! These steps are simple, and they provide a proven blueprint for website redesign success.
Know Your People
Interview, focus group and survey relevant stakeholders to build consensus. Utilize applications such as Hotjar and Google Analytics to see beyond assumptions and get REAL, priceless user data.
Listen and Ask Questions
The challenge at hand is abandoning any personal notions to make room for valuable insights from both stakeholders and customers. As Zeldman says, “You don’t have to be an expert to have a conversation.”
Define Goals
What’s really the desired result here? This is an opportunity to get granular (and realistic) about your expectations for this project. Equally as important as the objectives themselves, you must determine exactly how you intend to measure their success.
Clear Direction
You’ve collected the data, and now you need to tell your story in a strong, efficient way. We know what we need to do, but exactly HOW do we do it?
Measurement
You’re not entirely off the hook after launch. Consider each campaign or project a living, breathing entity. With your clearly defined metrics of measurement, the ongoing mission will be to react and adapt over time.
How do these fundamentals apply to website design, for instance? Layout, language, and user interface are all crucial elements that can be fine-tuned to better serve visitors and thus, grow your business. With such a highly subjective landscape, one must rely on facts and research to make informed design decisions. Redesigning with purpose encompasses the work you put in before a single pixel is drawn or line of code is written. The more effort up front, the more effective the end result.
We would like to thank Jeffrey Zeldman (@zeldman)—not only for the enlightening presentation, but his passion and vision for An Event Apart. This three-day conference features 18 brilliant speakers and travels to several major cities throughout the country each year. If you’ve enjoyed our perspectives from the event in July, imagine what you’d gain from being there yourself! Thanks for reading.
Halloween Just Got Spookier
Being in the creative world, Halloween is one of our favorite holidays here at ACS. It’s the one day a year we get a free pass to express our inner spirits to the world. We’ve always had fun dressing up in ghoulish costumes around the office but, this year, we wanted to offer a special treat to our loyal followers…
Introducing Spooky Escape – a haunting game of skill, patience and timing. Help the little black cat find his way out of the scary cemetery using your computer, tablet, or smartphone. The controls are simple and the addictiveness is real. Our best score so far is 13. Can you do better?
We hope you enjoy this fun little escape from your workday. Please share with your friends and co-workers and have a very happy Halloween from all of us at ACS Creative!
When the Feds Need You, You Need Us
Federal agencies and other government organizations are just like other businesses. They turn to vendors for various products and services. If you’re in the business of providing those services, then we should be in business with YOU! We’ve helped many companies market themselves to government entities. We understand the language and visuals they respond to. By designing your company a strong B to G website, we can help you procure those coveted government contracts.
You may have seen us on the GSA schedule.
For a long time, ACS Creative was on the GSA schedule as an official vendor capable of delivering government marketing orders. Today, we are often asked to partner with larger companies to fulfill a facet of an extensive contract—and we are happy to do so. We’ve lent our expertise to many federal, state and municipal web projects. These contracts often consist of detailed technical requirements, which we are accustomed to meticulously meeting. Our long history of working with the government is a boon to our dozens of clients who seek to work with government agencies as well.
Let us lend you our expertise.
Our agency has a great deal of experience in the government vendor space. Many lessons learned and goals accomplished inspire how we approach new B to G website projects. Here are a few simple ways you can make your website design stand out to government agencies.
Be clear and concise.
When marketing to federal agencies, you want to address the services and benefits your company provides right up front. Splashy landing pages and other visual gimmicks are better left to other industries. This is a time for straightforward information. For example, check out this site we designed and built for Arena Technologies. The tabs on the homepage clearly state the info behind each tab, making it easy for visitors to understand the specific services provided and to learn more. Similarly, this website for ECS offers a slider that lists the company’s specialty areas. Below that are two prominent links: “What we do” and “Where we operate.” Again, these layouts are designed with clarity in mind.
Show off those federal logos.
If your business has been awarded government contracts in the past, you should definitely list the agencies’ logos right on the homepage. This instantly communicates to other agencies that you understand and fulfill government requirements. We’ve followed this rule for many of our B to Gov clients. Note how we highlighted them on the ECS and Arena Technologies websites we mentioned previously, and also on the Loch Harbour website we designed. Those logos serve as stamps of approval—and for companies pitching services to federal, state and municipal sectors, they are marketing gold.
If you work on contracts, list them.
If you are able to do so, it’s important to list the government contracts you currently fulfill on your website. This is not only helpful to other government agencies seeking work under those contracts, but it also shows off your expertise, qualifications and track record. On the Loch Harbour site, we included a tab on the primary navigation bar for “Contract Vehicles.” When visitors click on this menu option, they are taken to a page that lists both primary and sub contracts held by the company. They can further click on each contract to get more information. Furthermore, this tactic proves you’ve been vetted, which increases trust from potential new customers. All details are presented in a clear manner with points of contact designated for each.
Similarly, we listed “Contracts” in the nav bar for Spin Sys, a cyber security company. Here we also called them out in the Footer. This is especially helpful for those scrolling on tablets. If they never click on the Contracts tab, they still see the opportunity again at the bottom of the page.
For any business, a government contract can mean steady, long-term work. No matter which sector you serve, the competition among vendors is intense. A professional B to G website that speaks to those you’re targeting can significantly tip the needle in your favor.
Silicon Valley Start-Up Launches New Website
We all know the lore around Silicon Valley. The ambition, the technology, the ultra successful start-ups. But we don’t always think about how companies start in Silicon Valley, before they make it big as household names.
We are fortunate enough to work with one of these emerging start-ups, Eridan Communications. The company is developing transmitter technology to enhance 5G wireless networks. (It’s all pretty complicated, for people like us outside of the industry.)
Getting an inside look at a Silicon Valley tech company, we were excited to help Eridan launch their new website. The site includes miles of information. It guides potential investors through different products and technology, encouraging them to get on the ground floor of Eridan’s journey.
Seeing Double
Eridan’s founders have been in the start-up game for a long time. In fact, their company InnerProduct Partners (IPP) helps new start-up companies raise funds. We developed the IPP website, and we were eager to design Eridan’s website too.
Whereas IPP had a fairly straightforward website, Eridan’s site needed to show the depth of their technology to potential investors. That means there was a lot of information to show off. Unfortunately, website navigation bars only stretch so long.
It would be impossible to cram all of the sections and topics into one, easy-to-read navigation menu. To solve this problem, we decided to add a second navigation bar. Two navigation menus is a little outside of the box. It’s also a great solution to information overload.
The top horizontal bar has standard information about the company. A second navigation bar runs down the left side of the page, and it links to detailed information about Eridan’s products, markets and technology.
There Be Dragons
Once we had the navigation menus set up, we had to organize the rest of Eridan’s detailed information. We applied the strategy we use for most websites — glance, scan, read, study. People absorb information differently and at different times. Some people just want to skim past pages (glance, scan). Others want to dive in deep (read, study).
We structured information on Eridan’s website to accommodate all types of information seekers, the scanners and the studiers alike. For each of the sidebar sections, we started with an initial summary page. People can scan these pages for a quick overview of what’s in store, before diving into specific markets or technology details. These smaller chunks of information help prevent visitors from feeling overwhelmed by walls of text.
Some technicians or investors will want more information, of course. They have the option to click through to more detailed internal pages on the website. For the most technically minded visitors, they can even read in-depth reports on physics and amplification. As the site notes, this content is complicated. The page even warns, “there be dragons in there.”
Customer Connections
With the information neatly organized, we also had to focus on how customers can connect with the company. These connections are important for any website. We especially wanted to make sure interested buyers and investors had a way to get in touch with Eridan.
Throughout the website, customers have opportunities to contact Eridan. In the site’s footer, there is a “Contact” button, so interested investors can easily connect with company representatives.
We also developed a custom contact form for each of Eridan’s core products. This way, Eridan can collect key customer data, including email addresses, company names, and phone numbers. All of this information can be used later for marketing messages.
Overall, we’re proud of how Eridan’s website turned out. We can’t wait to see what’s next for the Silicon Valley start-up!
The App is Dead
Our team attended DC’s An Event Apart this summer, a conference about the latest web design and development trends. We’ve been writing about our takeaways, including accessibility, measuring engagement, and image optimization. In this post, we dive into the world of progressive web apps.
Apps, as we know them, may be dead. The mobile landscape is changing, and traditional apps are being replaced by better, faster, slicker mobile websites known as progressive web apps.
Jason Grigsby filled us in on the rise of this technology during his presentation, “The Case for Progressive Web Apps,” at An Event Apart. Our Creative Director Rob Smelik also wrote about this topic on his website. Here’s an introductory look at this emerging trend.
Why are native apps going away?
Whenever you download a game like Candy Crush from the app store, you are adding a native app to your smartphone. These apps are developed by specialists who know the ins and outs of Apple and other native app hosts.
The time, effort and costs of native app development are some of the reasons progressive web apps are becoming more popular. As Rob puts it, “With the growing number of mobile OS platforms and the cost associated with developing apps for each, it comes as no surprise that mainstream companies are jumping ship to more cost effective web-based alternatives that rely on the flexibility of responsive website design.”
Responsive websites have improved over the last few years. In 2015, Google changed its infamous algorithm to favor responsive websites, which perform well on any desktop, mobile or tablet device.
Rob explained that Google’s change led to many companies to invest in mobile-friendly sites, rather than native apps. “Why pour money into the development of multiple apps for iOS, Android and even Google’s newest platform Fuchsia, when you can develop one web app to cover all bases?” he wrote.
What are Progressive Web Apps (PWAs)?
You may be asking, “So are these really apps, or just regular mobile websites?” According to Jason Grigsby, it doesn’t really matter. Whether you call them progressive web apps or responsive websites or any other name, the technology is changing the way many companies operate online.
Like native apps, PWAs also deliver push notifications. You can add a PWA to your smartphone home screen, which is not a feature of typical mobile websites. Then, you can opt in to receive regular updates from the site, the way you would from a weather or news app. It’s important to note that this PWA option isn’t available on iPhones. In fact, iOS doesn’t support many PWA features, at least not yet.
Based on Jason’s presentation, here are some other reasons PWAs stand out from other websites.
According to Jason (@grigs), PWAs are showing promising results, even in their early stages. Companies are seeing improved SEO, website traffic, and engagement from their progressive web apps.
What should I do?
As PWAs become more popular, you may want to consider how this affects your digital strategy. For instance, maybe developing a native app doesn’t make sense for your company. As Jason pointed out, almost half of U.S. smartphone users don’t download any new native apps on a regular basis.
You may also want to upgrade your website to include PWA features. However, you don’t have to make a lot of changes all at once. You can take small steps to move your site into the new age of progressive web apps.
First and foremost, you can make sure your website is responsive. That way, it will look great on any desktop or mobile device, even if you don’t leverage all of the tools PWAs have to offer just yet.
Why Every Business Needs a Blog
The modern “weblog” began its life as a virtual corkboard for topical connections—mostly between coders, tech enthusiasts and geeks in general. Coinciding with the advent of web publishing tools, its evolution took shape quickly. Open Diary launched in 1998, followed by LiveJournal and Blogger in 1999. Until 2009, blogs were primarily utilized for personal publishing, offering commentary on a wide range of topics from sports to politics and everything in between. Today, nearly 30% of all websites run on WordPress—which, at its core, is a blogging platform. Aside from a mildly-interesting history lesson, why is this relevant to you? Glad you asked!
Benefits of a Blog
The modern blog in the age of Web 2.0 has become so much more than a digital journal. Businesses, large and small, are realizing the benefits of utilizing a blog in their marketing game plan. If you already have a website that serves its purpose, why would you take on the extra labor and effort of adding a blog? Let’s have a look at some of the many benefits…
Search Engine Optimization
SEO is perhaps the most important (and measurable) benefit of hosting a blog. As a company, your website displays the information necessary to inform, educate and convert visitors into customers. This isn’t always enough for search engines to grasp onto. A blog offers the opportunity to introduce secondary keywords and topics into the repertoire of your domain.
People aren’t always searching for products and services the way you expect them to. Blog posts allow you to expand your reach into more specific search terms with relevant content. The more you discuss a particular topic, the more authority you build in the search engine’s results. We’ve all heard the popular adage Content is King—which is one cliché that will always be true. By limiting your crawl-able content to the static pages of your website, you are missing a tremendous opportunity.
Although search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo don’t divulge the finer details of their results algorithm, it is apparent that they all favor fresh content. There is no better way to accomplish this than by publishing blog posts often.
Audience Engagement
Any business that puts effort into their social media presence understands the importance of engagement. Likes, clicks, views, and shares are primary objectives across the major social networks. However, those precious actions don’t belong to you. They exist within an entity outside of your control. By allowing comments, reactions and discussion on your blog posts, you are inviting the conversation to your home turf. Now, visitors are engaged with your BRAND—not Facebook or Twitter. In conjunction with the (ever important) social signals mentioned above, audience engagement on your own website will also benefit your SEO tremendously.
Lead Capture & List-Building
Launching a blog creates a whole new dimension of capturing leads and email subscribers. If executed properly, many new organic visitors will arrive on your site via a blog post. With quality content, relevant to your business and industry, it just makes sense for people to engage with any forms attached to your blog. For this reason, your blog becomes somewhat of a landing page library—optimized to attract and capture potential customers.
Demonstrating Authority
We discussed building authority briefly above from a search engine perspective. However, conveying expertise on a given topic or field can also increase trust and boost brand association among your visitors. A blog is the ideal place to offer your unique insights and vast knowledge to the world. Blog posts that truly speak to and educate your audience will only help close the customer acquisition loop.
Ways to Use a Blog
Again, the diary-themed origin of blogs has evolved drastically over the past decade. They can now be used in a multitude of ways and serve many purposes. Whether you run a local pizzeria or a global e-commerce store, your blog is a stage and the world is your audience. It’s a flexible yet powerful tool in nearly all of the major CMS platforms. Remember, you don’t necessarily have to refer to your blog section as a “blog.” Many popular sites around the web have had great success in branding their blog as a standalone industry resource—subtly funneling readers to their own products and services. Below are just a few of the seemingly endless functions a blog can serve.
We would be hard-pressed to conceive of a business that couldn’t benefit from a blog feature on their website. This is an opportunity to get creative, supplement your cornerstone content, and expand your message. Those who take advantage will only benefit from the fruits of this labor. What makes for a good blog post? Well, that’s a conversation for another day—but remember: content is king and quality rules.