Process of a website

Sometimes we wish we could just wave a magical wand and *poof* - we have a finished product. But where’s the fun in that? Doing a project from start to finish requires a lot of thought, discussion and carefully planned out time. Let’s talk about the process of doing a project:

Talk to the client.

Before any design project can begin, it’s always best to talk to the client beforehand. It’s always a good idea to speak to them about the project at hand, find out their likes and dislikes, learn and understand what their vision is. Not having this sort of information can lead you into multiple barriers, and most likely will end up with the client asking “What the heck is this?” The number one thing you want to avoid is having a client tell you “Well… I had something completely different in mind.” Thoroughly talking to your client at the beginning of a project, as well as during, helps eliminate misunderstandings and miscommunications.

Get inspired.

Not to say that designers have nothing going on in our minds (trust me – there’s a lot going on up there…), but sometimes we can just use that extra little push to get the creative juices flowing. There are over a billion designs out there, from all different types of designers, meant for all sorts of different audiences, each with their own unique flair to them. Look at them. Take the time to really look at them and think about “what makes this one different?” Try to use what you see and discover to build your own unique design. Put elements together and make it yours. When you think you have enough inspiration, you’re ready to start. But hang on… don’t start if you don’t have a plan!

Plan it out.

Just like every great final product out there, you need a plan. Can you imagine if engineers dove into building that new bridge without a definite plan? Total. Major. Disaster. I’m not saying your project is bound to completely fall apart, but planning it out in steps leads to efficiency, and making sure you are doing everything that needs to be done without forgetting simple tasks that take a backseat to the more major parts of the project. It’s always best to do the planning with the whole team that will be involved in working on the project. Divide the work into sections and assign it to the appropriate team member(s).  You’ve done that? Good. Then I think you’re ready to start!

Ready. Set. GO!

If the whole team is comfortable with the steps mentioned above, and everyone is clear what needs to be done, you’re on your way to a successful project! Here comes the fun part, and don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty! Build your mockup. Use the information you got directly from the client, and use the design knowledge you got while getting inspiration. I know sometimes it’s horrifying, that empty, white canvas staring back at you. But hey guess what? It’s just a computer! It won’t bite. Get all your ideas out there and start building from that. No thought is a wasted one. You definitely will have some ideas where you think to yourself “what on earth are you thinking?!” But sometimes it’s the craziest ideas the produce an awesomely epic final product. (And who doesn’t want that, ammarite??) Show your stuff to your team and get their feedback. Most importantly, don’t take any  criticism negatively.

I wish I could talk about the programming aspects, but I’ll leave that to the professionals.

Test, test and more testing!

Now that the fun part is over, it’s time to move along into the nitty gritty, but probably the most important part of any project. Test your stuff. You don’t want to hand over your finished product on a silver platter (well, at least you think it’s on a silver platter…) without having tested it first. “But what’s gonna happen?” you innocently ask. The client will come back with the not-so-shiny-anymore silver platter. And client will not be happy. We want happy clients, yes? YES! So to all designers, coders, programmers out there, test your stuff! (Do I really have to tell you though?) Get all hands on deck and literally try to break your stuff. That’s the best and only way to see if your final product is up to par.

Eh voila, with dialogue, inspiration and careful planning, you can do anything you set your mind to! (Within human capabilities. Please do not attempt to fly.)

Until next time!

Responsive design in. Static design out.

The world of the web is forever changing, and you need to keep up with the times. In this day and age, people are glued to their smartphones. Fact: 84% of people who own a smartphone use it for browsing the internet on a daily basis.

Remember that website you had made back in 2005? Guess what? Someone just landed on your homepage! Except, oh... your site isn't responsive for mobile devices. Chances are that person didn't even bother taking a look around your site. They found it too confusing having to swipe right, then down, then back to the left, then down again...

Google has realized the rapidly growing use of smartphones, and as of April 21st, 2015, they made it their rightful duty to internet browsers to pick out those websites that are optimized and designed for mobile devices. Since that date, Google now has new rules if you want to keep your website on the front page of their search engine. And you want to follow those rules if you don't want to find yourself on page 2 or 3. (Who even goes there anymore?)

Google's new requirements for optimal responsive design:
1. Text should be legible without tapping or zooming into the screen.
2. Buttons are large enough to be clicked.
3. Pages must have a high load speed.
4. Pages must avoid horizontal scrolling.
5. No unplayable content like Flash.

Let us help you. With advanced SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and pay per click campaigns, and great responsive design, we can keep your website on the first page where it belongs!

Pay per Click

I have to admit, I have historically not been a huge fan of pay per click (PPC) advertising. I knew that most campaigns would be considered a success with a 2% click through rate (2 out of every 100 people that see it actually click onto the ad) while having the top spot on the natural search results would yield you results 15 times that. I was a proponent of using PPC sparingly.

Recently, we have done some PPC campaigns for clients that were tied into some pretty awesome promotions. The results have been spectacular. We enjoyed higher than expected click through rates and a pretty high conversion rate of clicks to clients.

What this prompted us to do was to begin exploring the medium in greater depth and using the medium for clients in two different situations. The first is for clients that have never done any Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and are not visible through the natural search results.

We have used PPC campaigns successfully to get their online presence kick-started while waiting for their SEO efforts to produce results. The second situation in which we have used PPC campaigns successfully is when we have a pretty neat offer that we can promote. In those cases, we use PPC to gain visibility and attract clients that find the deal to be worthwhile.

Fueled by some great results, we have been using PPC with our clients on a more regular basis. The medium is easy to track with respect to Return On Investment (ROI) so we have been tweaking the ads and offers frequently to ensure that we get the best ROI possible.

The tool is a neat one and if it is something that would be of interest, let us know. We can schedule a time to see if PPC campaigns could fit your space.

Measuring Results

Some clients come to us and complain that they really don’t like how the marketing of their company seems to be a game of chance. They are “throwing” money at marketing, but they don’t know what impact it is having on their bottom line.

There is good news and bad news about measurement in marketing. First, the bad news. Sometimes, you will not get perfect information. If you are using a medium such as radio to increase brand awareness (i.e. you are not making a special offer to promote a quick sell but rather trying to get people to know about your company), there will inevitably be a good chunk of that budget that will yield intangible benefits only some time down the road.

What that means is that if you have been playing radio spots for the last three months talking about your company, ABC windows, and not offering a very specific promotion, it may be difficult to track the exact value that you are getting out of your spots. The goal of that campaign is not to create direct traffic for your company but rather to give your company an advantage when the listener does need a window company and searches for companies to use online.

So that is the bad news – in some cases, it can be difficult to get an exact reading on the effectiveness of your campaign. Now, for the good news. The good news is that most of your campaign dollars can be tracked very effectively through the use of dedicated numbers, unique landing pages or unique promotional offers.

With redirecting numbers being as inexpensive as they are today, we urge our clients to use a different number for each initiative to understand how their campaigns are performing. The beauty of these numbers is that they offer statistics on call volume, distribution, length and even offer the option of recording the calls for quality assurance purposes. If we can invest in marketing, we should be able to invest a fraction of that cost into measuring tools.

Unique landing pages and promotional offers is another way in which you can gauge the results of your campaigns. If your campaign is designed to increase traffic to your site, create a specific landing page and track those results through Google Analytics. If you are doing a pay-per-click campaign and want to test how effective it is at generating new business, create a unique offer that is only visible to people that fall onto your site as a result of your pay per click campaign.

Ultimately, the lesson here is don’t spend time only on the development of your marketing initiatives. Make sure that you spend some time on figuring out if your efforts are paying off.

The Trouble with Time

We see this with our clients often – they start a marketing project with all sorts of vim, vigor and vitality and then, as real life starts to creep back in, they put their marketing efforts on the backburner. Of course we warn our clients about this trend and how it can have a negative impact on their project timelines. And of course they tell themselves that they won’t fall victim to that pattern. And of course they often do.

In fact, a lack of time available to dedicate to a project is one of the most common reasons that small businesses cave in and seek out “professional” help. We hear it quite often.... “I really enjoyed trying to learn how to build an adwords campaign. Then I got another project on my plate and I let it go for a couple of months. I now realize, I don’t have the time for it.”

In light of the fact that we as a Marketing Agency know that this happens all of the time, we should never fall victim to the same situation. Right? Wrong. In spite of this being what we do, like others, we find projects that fall onto our own plate and the first thing that we take off of our plate is the marketing of our own company. And ultimately, you can’t do that for very long.

A steady marketing effort ensures that the funnel of prospective new projects keeps filling up. And, in the same way as if you were filling up a pool of water, a slow steady stream of prospective projects is a much more efficient way of filling up that pool than trying to fill up all of a sudden in one shot and having most of the new “water” splash over.

So when it comes to your own marketing initiatives, try to avoid having those projects slip by scheduling regular team meetings to follow up on progress. As well, break the project up into smaller, measurable milestones. Make sure that you hit these milestones and you will avoid missing a longer project timeline. Finally, before tackling a project, be honest with yourself. Is this something that you are trying to squeeze on top of everything else or have you actually designated time out of your schedule to work on your marketing initiative?

AOV (Average order value)

Convincing members to buy a multitude of items and spend more on each order is an ideal way to increase sales and revenue. There are 5 easy strategies you can use to entice customers to spend more in your online store.

First let's start by defining what AoV means. Average order Value is essentially the average amount any customer will spend when visitng your online store. The straight forward calculation (revenue / total orders = AOV) can reveal a lot of information about how your store is doing within a given time frame.

One example is if you spend money trying to market your site AOV can help tell you if your efforts were actually profitable or if you should shift focus in a different direction. AOV can also show you how much revenue you should expect to see from a certain amount of visits to your site. It is also very useful in helping to determine your most valuable customers when looking at it based on different customer segments.

Attempting to increase your AOV can be one of the most inexpensive ways to go about increasing the overall profits of your online store. The other option would be to spend time putting together complex marketing campaigns to try to attract new customers and thus increase overall site traffic. Increasing the overall site traffic can include significant costs whereas increasing your AOV can be as straight forward as making your cart system a smoother and more simplified process.

Having a very high AOV can also help out when your overall site traffic goes through a general dip. The reality is that if you are increasing your AOV, then even with less traffic you might still see an increase in the store's revenue. So even if you don't know why people are not visiting your site as much as they used to, you will be in a stronger position than if you had not bothered studying and improving your AOV at all.

The main question you probably have is how can you go about increasing your AOV? Well I will tell you of the 5 simple strategies that you can use to do just that.

Strategy 1) Product bundles are a very good way to start the process off. What this means is that you are giving your user the ability to buy multiple items in one transaction. What this entails is selling an item along with a multitude of accessories that would complement the primary product. Some stores will put bundles up along with a discount to help entice a customer to purchase, though, the discount isn't always required. The convenience of being able to purchase all the items in one simple step can be sufficient motivation to make the customer purchase them. Testing different types of bundles and pricing will help you figure out the most profitable format.

Strategy 2) Often customers browsing your site are prepared to make a purchase - thus suggesting them complementary products that could be of interest to them can help you increase your AOV. For example if a customer is looking at tubs, perhaps suggest that they purchase a matching sink, vanity, or toilet.

Another example of strategies that you can use to increase your AOV would be to offer larger, more expensive versions of what they are looking at. If they were looking at a 23' computer screen, perhaps suggest the 27' one instead while highlighting the benefits.

Strategy 3) Giving your customers an incentive to spend more money on your site can also be a push in the right direction for increasing your AOV. Offering discounts for spending a certain amount or for buying a certain amount of items at in a single sitting can make customers want to buy more. Another great system in the same vein is to offer points based on how much money the customer spends which can later be traded in for free products.

Strategy 4) Personalizing your site towards your customers can also make them want to spend more. Recommending specific offers and products that suit their needs (based on past consumption patterns) can lead to an increase in sales. Even the simple addition of having a welcome message when a returning customer comes back to your site can make them feel significant and thus want to spend money on your site rather than somewhere else. You can even get more sophisticated and offer very personalized discounts based on their past purchases.

Strategy 5) One common deterrent to having customers purchase a lot on any site is if the return policy is not easy and reassuring. If the customers feel it will be difficult and costly to return an item, this perceived elevated risk will make them far less likely to purchase items on your site. Making a return policy that is easy and cost effective for the customer will actually increase your AOV. An easy return policy will have the customer feeling secure in purchasing from your site knowing that returning or exchanging will be hassle free.

On a last note, we recommend simplifying and personalizing your site for the customer wherever it can be done. Customers will buy a lot more from you if you make the whole shopping experience easy and tuned towards them.

The five strategies we went over above are a few of the many that we at Marketing Blendz incorporate into our own Ecommerce platform. If you feel that these can work for your online store or would like to understand more about our platform feel free to get in touch with us at: info@marketingblendz.com or by calling us at 514-667-8675.

Best Regards,
Jason Mackey (a.k.a. Ifking)
Head Programmer

Your Websites Age is Showing

To start off and ease our minds, here’s a picture I drew of a dog. You’ll understand why this is necessary soon enough.

Now, everything ages at a different rate. We understand and describe age in years, months, weeks, hours… you get the point. The rate we age at differs from being to being. Dogs, like my example shown above, are described to age at seven “dog years” for every one year actually lived. 

The internet ages as well, and websites at a different rate than the internet.

Saying this might confuse people, because some understand that websites ARE the internet, but such isn’t the case. The internet is basically a bunch of networks that connect to each other – and while it’s been around since the 60’s, I believe it’s still in its teens – it has a lot of growing to do. 

Remember being a teenager? That was an awkward time for a lot of people. Still learning, growing and trying to understand how to fit into an ever-evolving atmosphere. That’s what your website is. It’s like a 14 year old trying to fit in. He might be cool and popular now, but in five years if he has the same attitude and maturity, he won’t be as appealing.

Your website is a marketing tool: as the world around it ages and it stays the same, it becomes a weaker device that can eventually be more of a handicap than something useful. Ultimately, there comes a point in every websites life when it needs to be updated. This is where we come in.

It’s our job to keep ourselves up to date with trends, languages, techniques and more – we’re a part of an industry whose saga is just beginning, and it’s incredibly important to keep learning and developing, lest we get left behind. If we were to use dated coding or design, it would feel dated, and we don’t want that! We love beautiful sites with beautiful code.

Continually being that awkward teenager,
Cody