Category Archives: Internet Marketing
Flyers Are Not Dead, but You Need to Make Them Count
There’s no doubt that Australia is going social. It explains why many businesses shift their marketing strategies to digital. The reality, however, more than 2.5 million Australians do not utilize the Internet. Over a million homes do not have an Internet connection. In other words, there are still thousands of people who can benefit from offline marketing strategies. These include flyer marketing.
Why Flyer Marketing Still Matters
According to Australia Post, at least 83% of household owners check their letterbox on a daily basis. Most of all, 42% of those who had gotten hold of these materials purchased something over the past year.
Catalogues and flyers beat other forms of marketing in terms of influence. More than 60% made their purchase decision because of them. Meanwhile, about 25% said email marketing attracted them to buy while 17% were influenced by social media.
Flyer marketing is especially effective for those who are into real estate. Around 3.1 million Australian renters read unaddressed mail weekly. These are also the individuals who are looking for a new home to stay.
Increase Your Conversions
Flyers are effective and cheap, but for businesses, the goal is to increase the conversion while lowering the costs. After all, these materials tend to have a conversion rate of about 1% to 2%. If a business made 2,000 flyers, it means only 20 people will become customers. Furthermore, in many cases, recipients keep them for just a few days. Some would immediately throw them into the bin.
Marketing studies have revealed flyers have more value when they’re customer-centric. They may come with coupons or discount cards. They also have strong visuals to allow them to stand out among the other flyers in the letterbox. Most of all, the message is short but precise and clear. Recipients usually allocate only a few seconds to process the information.
Current Trends in Graphic Design For Marketing
Your company website is one of your most powerful marketing tools. It is, therefore, important to be careful when designing it to ensure that it positively affects your marketing campaign.
Hiring a qualified and equipped graphic design company in Utah could be beneficial to your marketing efforts. But Red Rider Creative notes that graphic design is not a one-time venture. Redesigning your website continually is essential to keep up with changing trends and stay relevant to your clients.
Here are the current graphic design trends you should incorporate into your marketing strategies:
Flat Designs
These designs eliminate shadows and design features, which make your graphics appear three-dimensional. Flat designs require less complicated images and coding, as well as include larger buttons, clearer fonts, and expansive white spaces. These designs are faster to load across all devices; therefore improving the user experience.
Solid Light Backgrounds with Meticulous Cut-Out Images
This trend is made of detailed cutout illustrations on entirely solid color backgrounds. It is one of the most featured trends on top-rated modern websites. This design calls attention to your products and encourages customers to focus your product’s features. The graphics style mainly works for one-page sites and parallax scrolling.
Custom Icons and Illustrations
If you are still using stock photos on your site, then you are trailing far behind your competition. Custom animations are the central graphic design tactic in current marketing circles. They allow online users or your visitors to interact with your organization in a fun yet informative manner. The customization identifies your brand and makes your product stand out in a crowded market.
Web design is shifting from typical rectangles and squares toward unique geometric shapes. These give you room to add other trends without overpowering your online traffic. Consumers are visual and a good graphic design is your most powerful tool for communicating a visual message to your target customers.
Web Design Basics: Choosing the Right Typeface for Your Website
When building a website, many things need to be taken into consideration. User experience and interface are only some of the items that should be on your list. Aesthetics and functionality should meet halfway to make sure that your website will be a hit, as well.
When it comes to designing your website, the typeface is one of the things you should choose carefully if you want the mix of aesthetics and functionality to happen.
Choosing the right typeface should not be hard work. Here are some of the things to consider, as approved by C1 Partners and other providers of website design in Denver:
Your Brand’s Typeface
If you want to stick to your brand aesthetic, you should use the typeface of your logo or logotype. This will make sure that the look of your website will be consistent with your brand. In case that your logo’s typeface does not look good in text blocks, use it for headlines then look for a complementary typeface.
The Best of Both Worlds
Choosing a typeface is much like choosing your clothes — you have to mix and match and see which combo works. You will never go wrong with the classic mixing of serifs and non-serifs. Traditionally, serifs are used for headlines while non-serifs are for body copy.
On Legibility
As mentioned, the typeface is where the aesthetics and functionality meet. Better choose a typeface that looks good when applied to blocks of texts. This is something you should consider if your website is laden with a copy. You will never go wrong with the classics, like Helvetica and Arial.
These are only some of the things to consider when choosing a typeface. You can always consult a reliable web designer to choose the right typeface.
Positive Effects of Market Globalisation on Businesses
Businesses currently operate at a much faster pace compared with when they did ten years ago. While a lot of ways of how businesses handle operations can further improve, the fast-paced advancement of technology has made everything possible. In addition to secure online transactions, businesses thrive because of getting the right human resources for the best market price.
The App Team, a forward-thinking iPhone app development team in Australia, knows that with the right resources, software and people, businesses can run more smoothly even with the tight competition in the market today.
Effects of Market Globalisation
The evolution of computing has become the most powerful tool in doing business nowadays. It enabled businesses to reach far more clienteles and customers outside their localities market globalisation. In addition to selling products and services worldwide, market globalisation has also created countless jobs.
An overseas workforce has greatly helped in completing tasks locally or anywhere in the world. Developing the right software greatly helps in completing any transaction, checking out inventories, ads and promotions, as well as internal communication among workers. Establishing strategic points of service is one of the cornerstones of globalisation.
With competition becoming tougher by the day, businesses must become more aggressive, systematic yet and wise. The expansion covers not only the target market but also the medium on how to do business. So from being accessible only from desktop computers and laptops, software and apps can now be installed on mobile devices, enabling transactions even while on the go.
Getting the Right People
Establishing the right workforce from different corners of the globe enables businesses to provide support to customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This provides a faster turnaround for transactions, whether it is delivering goods or providing expertise over the phone among other services.
In addition, exploring different markets and restructuring will save businesses from spending too much when it comes to compensation and other stipends. With market globalisation, businesses can be closer to current and prospective customers while getting the benefit of having the right person do the same task at a lower cost.
Creating the Perfect Professional Look
First impressions mean a lot especially when it comes to business. Whether you are renting an office space or creating one in the comfort of your home, exuding a professional feel will give your clients the confidence that they chose the right person for the job.
Choosing Your Space
Consider what you will be doing in your office and how many people you expect to work there. This will help you determine how big a space you need to create or rent. If you are starting out, you may not have much room in your budget for renting a large space, so you need to keep your mind towards efficiency.
Refining Your Space
There are three main ways in which you can improve the space you occupy.
First, create a space that is conducive to working. In general, neutral colours are agreeable to a wider range of users. This does not, however, mean you are limited to colours like beige or cream. Muted colours can just as easily feel neutral to a space depending on the colour chosen and its size. You can then add punches of colour using furniture and other accents.
Second, choose furniture that assists in work efficiency. Aside from creating a comfortable, work-conducive ambience, furniture that can easily hold and store all your equipment and materials is important. Storage units for office spaces come in a wide range of options. You can buy pre-made pieces or, to give your office extra oomph, find a contractor that can create custom pieces for you.
Third, create separate areas for working and for resting. While breaks are necessary, these should be taken away from the work area so as not to distract others who are still completing their tasks.
When the Ads Aren’t Working: What Are You Doing Wrong?
Facebook ads have the power to stop people in their tracks, make them click, and use your services.
That is if you orchestrate it properly.
Many businesses can attest to the magic of Facebook ads. Careful execution of campaigns got them more than high ROIs and better traffic. While there are plenty of success stories, there are also those brands that failed to reach for the stars.
They tried their best, but it wasn’t good enough. Just ask General Motors – the company spent much on these ads but failed to connect with their customers. After all the time and resources spent, they just asked themselves, “What was the point?”
In this age, people are less responsive to advertising, which means generic ads will no longer work. For many social media and local SEO experts in Denver, businesses who wish to connect with their target audience should personalize their ads.
Facebook is the best platform for such work, but you have to do it right. If your ads do not work, you might be doing the following:
The Most Mundane Images
Ads with inviting images receive more engagement than those without. This proves that visual communication is powerful. Through vibrant colors (anything but Facebook’s trademark blue and white scheme), it’s easier to attract users to your services.
Boring stock photos, while easier to use, are not as captivating as you think. The same applies to overt images and disruptive ads. A combination of these images will definitely repel users.
The best ad images look organic within the news feed but also stand out and attract the target market. Sometimes, Facebook will surprise you; the images you never thought would convert actually do – that’s where split testing images comes in.
The Wrong Target
Most businesses think that targeting everyone guarantees a broader reach. Since everyone’s included in the targeted audience, it guarantees better results, right?
Wrong.
When it comes to ad targeting, specificity is always key. It’s easier to create an ad when you have a specific group of people in mind. Each campaign should have a buyer profile, which notes demographic attributes, such as age, marital status, and income. Using this information, you can create an ad that personally speaks to users, which results in better conversions.
Unclear Shipping Options
No user would say no to free shipping offers. You take an extra load off their back: all they have to do is pay for your product. It also serves as an additional value proposition for your Facebook ad. Once the consumers receive immediate information about the shipping, they need not worry about making a purchase.
If it’s not clear, however, they will move on to other options.
Jargon Overload
Marketers and product developers often use industry-related terms to describe their product. Sure, it makes their service appear well-thought-of, but the audience won’t get a full grasp – unless they are knowledgeable about the technical aspect.
If the consumer does not understand the ad, they won’t understand your product. To get their interest, make your ads more conversational.
Have you struggled with these mistakes before? It’s never too late to turn over a fresh leaf. Apply new strategies to your Facebook ads and see results.
Pantone Colour of the Year: How to Use Greenery This 2017 in Your Home
Pantone, the world’s colour authority has announced Greenery as the colour of the year. Leatrice Eiseman, Pantone’s executive director states that this colour offers reassurance and a semblance of calm amidst everything that’s going on in the world and represents the connection people are looking for with one another, nature, and the higher purpose.
Judging from the bold, yet calming nature of Greenery, many homeowners will be looking to incorporate this colour in home designs this 2017. The question is, how?
Below are some ideas:
- Artwork – You could opt for paintings or prints with subtle hints of greenery or bolder ones with greenery being the main attraction. You could even consider greenery frames for framing artwork.
- Wallpaper – Opt for an understated greenery effect on the wallpaper. You could then add some gold accents for a dressier and feminine approach or black accents for a more dramatic effect.
- Accessories – If you’re not too convinced with greenery yet, start small. Add small splashes of it to your table setting, some plants, and floral arrangements, and if you like it, go bolder — throws, rugs, curtains, bed sheets, and pillowcases.
- Furniture – Consider updating your dining room with greenery chairs or upholstery, perhaps in a brocade or silk fabric. An added bonus, sitting in greenery chairs would help you feel more relaxed and calm. Or you could also opt for a velvet couch in greenery.
- Lighting – Get that subtle greenery glow through tinted, hanging pendant lights, lamp shades, sconces, chandelier, or even candles.
- Paint – Paint an accent or a feature wall in greenery — maybe in the bathroom, dining room, bedroom or your walk-in closet. According to Gavin Chan Decorators Limited, painting is an easy approach to changing up your space without drastic renovations.
If you have been looking to use greenery in your home but don’t know how, remember these hacks. Just make sure that it doesn’t overpower your home’s overall design aesthetic, so that you could create stress-free, relaxing spaces in your home.
The Things You Need to Know About SEO and Marketing Now
SEO is an important tool you need to reach your goals of not just staying in business, but also thriving in the highly competitive market. So don’t forget these three facts about it that will keep your company on the right track.
Websites now have allies other than just Google.
Most people who need to research something often follow this relatively new saying: “Google this, Google that.” And even though it now has a total desktop market share of more than 80%, you shouldn’t treat it as your only option. This is particularly true with all the changes that it underwent (and will do in the future), resulting in paid searches dominating organic searches in the first of its SERP.
Content still wears the crown.
Content will remain the king of search engine optimization, so you should work with a provider of SEO services that haven’t thrown this belief away. Your new campaign shouldn’t just revolve around Google. It should also lean towards your other good search engine alternatives, including Bing and Baidu, the two that ranks below the giant.
The now even more apparent need for professionally-developed SEO campaign.
All organizations, whether big or small, will benefit from a properly developed and implemented SEO campaign. The success of any optimization-related project lies on building a stable framework, which means you have to put in a lot of time and effort. And even when you, as a business owner or leader, want to take responsibility for this, you have plenty of other things to attend to.
You can’t afford to do it haphazardly, or the competition will just your market share away. This is why you should invest in the services of SEO experts, whose main priority is to bring you closer to the top of SERPs.
3 Video Marketing Trends That Will Dominate in 2017
Like any other advertising arena, the social media marketing field is constantly changing. For you to stay on top of the competition, you have to be in-the-know on the latest trends in this sector. Video marketing, for instance, is one of the major shifts right now.
With one-third of online activities spent watching videos, it is no surprise that digital marketers are now investing in eye-catching video content. Industry experts share several video marketing trends that people should watch out for this year:
-
360-Degree Videos
According to BambrickMedia.com.au, video content plays a big role in swaying purchasing decisions. Real estate experts agree, especially now that the 360-degree videos are becoming popular. This video format is an effective way to bring the "in person" experience to the target audience as they view a property or product. This will enhance audience interest and help bring them closer to a purchase decision.
-
Livestreaming
Facebook Live has been making waves in recent months. Many people enjoy using this feature for fun, while popular brands use it to engage their target market. Facebook Live comes with a lot of possibilities, advertising and marketing-wise. You can use it to share behind-the-scenes in your business or deliver special, limited offers. Just remember that whatever you share on Live must be valuable to your target audience.
-
Video Email Marketing
With people's attention spans getting shorter, digital marketers must be creative in sending their messages. That’s why video email marketing is expected to rise this year. After all, emails with video links are refreshing — a convenient way to get information.
Don’t let your social media marketing efforts go to waste by sticking too much to traditional techniques. Remember, the trends in this industry are constantly changing. So for starters, spend a huge amount of time this year to create amazing videos!
Five Ways a Dog Prepares Millennials for Parenthood
It’s been a trend among millennial couples to own dogs as “replacement for children,” said Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University.
Caring for a dog can be good practice for parenthood because they help in these areas:
1. Developing a Sense of Responsibility
Both dogs and babies release the maternal and paternal instincts in all of us. Just like toddlers, puppies cannot be left alone at such a tender age. Nights out will be compromised, but going home to a furry friend is just as fun.
2. Learning About Budgeting
Even if a study shows that millennials are more likely to splurge on their pets, setting aside their salary for a sack of dog food, puppy shots, and the occasional chew toy can get very expensive. Because they have dogs, millennials learn how to provide for someone other than themselves – a sign of excellent parenthood.
3. Keeping the Daily Grind
Parents thrive on routines, and not just their own. A baby needs to wake up, eat, and sleep at predictable intervals. Dogs need just the same kind of treatment, which is perfect for the spontaneous and impulsive tendencies of millennials.
4. Developing Discipline
When you own a dog, you become a disciplinarian because of all the tricks you need them to learn before they start leaving poop all over the house. But it will take time. The Positive Impressions team knows that good pet behavior will come from even better training.
5. Expressing and Receiving Love
This last one comes naturally yet is the most fulfilling part of having a furry companion. It’s hard not to love your dogs when they give you the same amount of affection unconditionally. You’ll just wake up one day and realize that you love your dog just as you would your own child.
Dogs are absolute bundles of joy. A pet teaches a young American how to become the kind of parent they wish to be, all while getting sloppy kisses in return – worth it.
