Websites are essential for optimizing business in the current age of competitive digital advertising and marketing. Every company should have a website, and these days most do, even small startups. As such, the importance of creating one that is unique, memorable, and effective cannot be understated. To help you get a better idea of how to make your company’s website stand out, here are the top 7 web design trends to follow this year. 1. Focusing More on Video Content As discussed in a previous blog and video of ours, video content is booming. The advantages range from faster processing speeds, higher conversion rates, better social media engagement, and much more. Utilizing such a fun and beneficial tool is the perfect way to make your site memorable. 2. Storytelling With its unique ability to focus on enriching the user experience in a personal and engaging manner, incorporating storytelling elements keeps your site’s visitors entertained and more invested in your site’s messages, and therefore more likely to relate to and trust your brand. 3. Creating Brand-Specific Illustrations Relying on stock photography and video is still very much a staple of web design, but these days companies are going the extra mile to attach their brand and style to their site’s visual elements. Doing so not only makes your graphics stand out among a sea of stock photo-heavy sites, but it also draws as much attention to your brand as possible, leaving as big an impact on your site’s visitors as possible. 4. Utilizing Typography Professional, stylish font choices were once impossible to use without breaking the bank. That is, until companies like Google Fonts and Adobe Fonts made them more accessible, and some even free to use. So don’t settle for old seemingly-reliable fonts that everyone is sick of seeing, and opt for more high-quality ones to make your content pop. 5. Simplifying for Faster Load-Time Nobody likes waiting for anything, and in such a digital world, people won’t think twice about leaving a site rather than waiting a few extra seconds for it to load. By using a simple, clean, minimalist design on your site, you can optimize the load-time to keep your visitors engaged. 6. Mobile-First Designing It’s no secret that a lot of people rely heavily on their mobile devices for things like social media, but that reliance extends to all aspects of digital connection these days. Tailoring your site to not just accommodate that, but use it to your advantage is becoming more and more popular. 7. Prioritizing SEO Also as discussed in another one of our previous blogs, SEO (or search engine optimization) is a method of increasing the visibility of your website by making it more likely to show up in search results on sites like Google or Yahoo. Increasing that visibility leads to more traffic to your website, which means more opportunities for converting visitors into customers. The added value of a company’s website from making a few simple changes is incredible. For even more website tips and tricks, check out "5-Minute Marketing with Clairant." And remember, you don't have to navigate the world of online marketing alone. Call us and we can help you make your website the best it can be! Let's start building yours today!
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Branding is more than just a logo or color scheme for your business. It’s just as much about the value of your company as it is about the visual presentation of your company. Even with a small business or a small budget, branding can make a big impression. Here are five ways to make sure you leave the right impression with your branding.
Define your Brand Know what you’re working with before diving into how to do that work. Pinpoint your values, methods, and target market. The more you know about your brand, the easier it will be to make the most out of your branding. Think from a Singular Point of View Your business may be a conglomerate of dozens of workers and processes, so sometimes it can be tough to see the forest from the trees. But in order to properly market your company, you need to look at it from a singular perspective. Doing otherwise often leads to inconsistencies and mixed messages to your audiences. Keep your Goals in Mind Staying on track is essential to conveying a sense of purpose, stability, and reliability for your company. Keeping your objectives at the forefront of your marketing decisions is the best way to do so. Before you act, ask yourself (and your team, if need be) if what you’re doing is in the interest of achieving those goals. Stay Personable Nobody enjoys seeing ad after ad online, so do your best to stick to personable, authentic, less abrasive promotions. You can still roll out deals and promos, but remember that your brand is about your image above all else, and make sharing that your main priority. Build Customer Relationships Building a brand is about creating and strengthening a community with your customers to reinforce their trust in your company. Treating your customers and audience as if they are as essential to your business as the rest of your team increases the likelihood that they’ll choose to do business with you. Building a brand, refining a brand, and presenting a brand are the cornerstones of any business’s presentation and reputation. Doing all of that while following the guidelines above is a tricky and endless process. Luckily, your business is a few small steps away from perfecting your image, increasing your brand visibility, and raising the return of your marketing efforts. Take that first step today by giving Clairant’s busy bees a call. Together we’ll make the most of your image. The marketing arena keeps shifting every year, with new trends shaping the industry, and it's essential to watch out for these trends to avoid losing to competitors. Equally, a late uptake translates to lost revenue. Here's a breakdown of the top 5 marketing trends bringing in the most attention in 2021.
1. Video Sharing Consumers love interacting with videos, which is why video sharing is critical. A video generates a higher engagement in terms of likes, comments, and further shares from the audience. Marketers should therefore share videos more often via social platforms to boost the brand's reach. 2. Advertising With Authenticity Advertising with authenticity means you're genuine to who you are as a brand. It includes advertising without involving gimmicks that can break audience trust. In a nutshell, it requires building and maintaining trust with your customers and audience. 3. Direct Engagement on Social Media At least 80% of eligible internet users use social media, which presents a massive opportunity for brands. Brands should therefore look for ways to increase direct interaction with social media users in 2021. For instance, a company may engage a dedicated social media manager to monitor and react to comments or online discussions. 4. Real-Time Updates This refers to the ability to automatically respond to customers based on your knowledge of the customers. Marketers rely on big data to match customers' actions with targeted customer experience. However, real-time updates are only effective if the brand can react quickly, either on websites or social platforms. 5. Content Creation and Sharing Content creates a direct link between consumers and brands. Great content is also a foundation of stellar SEO, which brings more traffic. Therefore, brands should create innovative content like short videos or infographics and subsequently share it on social media platforms. Sharing your content on the LinkedIn platform can, for instance, boost reach among company executives. Try Clairant Digital Marketing Services Brands can stay ahead of the pack and enhance their value in the market by consistently embracing new marketing trends. That said, it's vital to partner with a marketing firm that offers social media management, web design, lead nurturing, and video marketing services - like Clairant! Make the first step and give us a call today. Clarity and focus in marketing is often overlooked for the sake of “covering all your bases,” and while it is important to establish a reputation as a versatile company, it is more important to identify, market, and profit from your business’s greatest strengths. In order to gain momentum in your field of business, you need to have a marketing strategy that emphasizes exactly how and where your business takes up space in your industry. Here are three important steps you can take towards unlocking the value of your greatest strengths.
Step 1: Identify your Biggest Strengths Your strengths are your competitive advantage in your field, so they shouldn’t be overlooked. They differentiate you from every other business doing similar work. Ask yourself a few simple questions if you’re having trouble identifying your strong points: What does my business have to offer? What skill/service/strategy do I rely on most? What makes my business stand out from the competition? Step 2: Invest in Those Strengths Figured out exactly what you want to focus on? Now it’s time to put that into action by investing in those strengths. Understanding the right way to improve upon and utilize your assets is the key to honing your talent. To get the most out of this, study the ins and outs of how these assets are applied to your work and how you can expand those applications. Now get familiar with and start utilizing the marketing language surrounding both the strength and how it is implemented in business. In doing so, your marketing efforts will better reach the target market most likely to benefit from your strengths. Step 3: Stay Consistent and Persistent Doubling down on what works best for you and your clientele is the secret to long-term success. Sticking with your skillset doesn’t box you in like some people assume; it gives you the opportunity to expand upon those skills. Rather than focusing your attention solely on how your competitors do business, get better and better at how you are doing business. Their strategies play to their own strengths, so copying those strategies puts you at a disadvantage because you’ll be trying to hone a skill that isn’t your best while also losing sight of the best qualities you have to offer. Your biggest advantage in business is your own identity, so use it. Staying authentic in your pursuits by emphasizing your strong points will yield the greatest results. On top of that, focusing on your pre-existing skills and assets rather than striving to build a whole new set of skills makes your job easier, so you can do more (and better) work. Play to your strengths and start marketing them today with Clairant. |
AuthorDesirae Haluk is passionate about marketing for startups and small businesses. For the last 15 years she has held marketing executive positions for organizations both large and small. She realizes that her true passion is helping establish, grow and evolve startups and small businesses to make them successful and help achieve their goals. Archives
December 2023
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