One-Page Website Design Ideas

One-page website design trends depend on the type of message you want to send to the world with your simple, yet very informative and clean one-page layout. Whatever it is you want it to focus on, single page solution can incorporate content, full-screen photography, video clips, and animated elements in a smart and beautiful way, to make user experience more stunning. This type of website often have the scroll bar incorporated at the side so that you can drag the page up and down and see the entire page at once.

With the multitude of websites that make their way into the online realm that it is hard to keep track of, web designers are faced with the challenge to create experience that will be remembered and that will stand out from the crowd. Nowadays, it seems that simplicity is the element that is sought after by many large brands and companies, who put accent on catering to people’s short-lasting attention span.

You should however, remember that single page website design doesn’t meet all purposes. This type of design should be thoroughly considered before engaging in such a project.

Here are some ideas to make your next one-page website design adventure easier:

Changing content box at the top of the page

This feature can save you the need to create a multi-page website. This way you are able to incorporate the important content in the most eye-catching spot of the layout.

Vertical, horizontal or 2D scroll

Another thing you should consider is the way the user will scroll through your one-page design. Is it from top to bottom, from bottom to top or all over the page? There is also the parallax effect, which often is the means to engage visitors and to draw their attention to a certain topic. Whatever you choose, you need to take into account the experience you want to make available to your users.

Stunning photograph

One-page website design is often focused on awesome full-screen photography. Choose the image that best identifies with the site’s purpose and idea.

Color choice

Color is important in this type of web design as well. You don’t have too much time to keep the user interested in the story you want to tell with your single page site. Therefore, the choice of color is imperative. Make sure you associate the color with other elements, such as photography, video and even typography, to ensure that they all fit well in the website layout.

Strong call to action feature

Make sure you incorporate a CTA (Call-to-action) that will make users take action, without giving a second thought to it. The CTA feature, whether for email signup, order placement, app download and etc. does half of the job for the site.

Conclusion

When it comes to designing an one-page website,trends tend to focus on minimal and simple features and elements, but encourage further user interaction. They are mobile friendly, due to the fact that there is only one single page that needs to be loaded to see a concise, but well-structured and informative content.

Whether you are a startup, or a business with years on the market, it is up to you to decide what suits your business goals best: one-page or multi-page website design.

What other single-page website design ideas do you know? Write them in the comments section below.

Ecommerce Website Design: The Biggest Problems to Fix

Lately, e-commerce website businesses have registered huge revenue and success. It is predicted that this trend will continue and even get bigger in the following years. Therefore, it is no surprise that such types of businesses pop up at the speed of sound. But, when putting your thought into developing e-commerce websites you need to consider that there are several problems that you need to approach to make your website effective, functional and reachable.

Showcasing a wide range of products is not enough to make your ecommerce boost. A lot of problems can be avoided with more careful consideration, research and planning.

Here are some of the biggest problems that every ecommerce development company may encounter:

Lack of shipping and return information

As your customer, I want to know what my options are in case I am not satisfied with the product I have bought from you. Therefore, adding shipping and return information can make me decide whether to proceed with my purchase, if the information is detailed and clear enough, or simply go find another platform that offers the same products, in case your website doesn’t give the information I am looking for.

Short product description

When shopping in a store, you have the chance to feel the product, to examine it from all sides, to read the label and other information that is written on the packages, if the product comes in a package. Online shopping doesn’t give you such opportunity.

Therefore, you need to make sure that all customers’ questions about every product showcased on your ecommerce site are answered. Such information as sizes, material, weight, dimensions is important for product description.

Few product images

If you are managing an online clothing or footwear store, this problem is what makes your customers leave the page before making any purchase. It is known that people tend to pay more attention to the visual elements, feeling more comfortable in making a shopping decision. That is why include more than one picture of the same item from different angles and even add shots of some special features of the product.

Few payment options

With the ecommerce business expanding so quickly, it is essential to make this option available to as many customers as possible. Don’t concentrate on adding payment options with PayPal account or credit card, such as Visa and Master Card only.

Think broader. There are people who don’t hold a credit card, but who are willing to buy a product from your website. Come with an option that will satisfy these customers’ needs too and make-shopping experience reachable to as many people as you can.

Lack of shipping rates

As your customer, I want to go to checkout, complete it and think that I will soon be holding the product I dreamt of for so long. If you say that for my territory, or for a certain product, special shipping rates apply and that they will be sent in a separate email, I will definitely lose interest in completing my purchase. There is no reason why shipping rates can’t be included on the website.

Confusing navigation

If the website doesn’t provide categories and subcategories of products, then site navigation is not effective. Think of a solution for this if you want to convert visitors into buyers and make navigation enjoyable and user-friendly for them to move around the site.

Shopping cart design problems

The shopping cart that your ecommerce website has must allow users to add more than one item, to revise the products they want to buy before checkout and make changes, if required. A preview of total amount to be paid, including shipping fees, will give them the feeling of security.

Conclusion

Ecommerce website design has come a long way. Now, there are thousands of such websites, with interactive design, using different approaches and tricks to convert visitors into customers. If you take into consideration these basic problems that you can deal with when creating your own ecommerce platform, your business will avoid the unnecessary trouble of getting through multiple functionality fixing procedures.

What are other problems of ecommerce design that you know of? Share them with us in the comments section below.

Print Design Tips for Begginers

Print design, as web design, is a field that requires creativity and attention to details and different features you want to use in your materials. Whether it is about newspaper, manuals, prints, posters, restaurant menus, and business cards and so on, correcting an error on a print material calls for additional expenses.

There are certain things that need to be done first, before embarking on a new graphic design project. You need to identify all requirements and the purpose of the project. Also, you need to decide whether your project will concentrate on images or whether will include text. Another important thing is to determine whether the project will be single-filed or a brochure with more pages.

Before starting working on the project, ask your client the following questions:

• What is the size of the final print document?
• What color does his/her project associate with?

These two answers will provide you with a starting point and will set some limits in terms of usability of color palette and final file size.

It is known that every print designer has his own working approach, but there are several basic tricks and tips which, once mastered, will make the entire work a piece of cake.

Here are most important printing design tips every beginner have to stick with:

Paper size

Although the good old A4 size of the print material is standard in printing, don’t let yourself be caught in the standardized threads. You can always play with sizes, namely that smaller A5 paper size is much more comfortable to handle and take with you.

Content matters

If you are dealing with a text-based print design remember to concentrate on content. And make sure that the text you incorporate in the graphic design is readable.

Remember the bleed

Bleed is the element that allows the printable file to be cropped according to its correct size. This element gives the cropping some room for error. Usually, a 3mm bleed is a safe standard to work with.

Typography

Don’t just jump and use the first font you like. Take time to analyze the message and voice you want to send with the font you use. Think about the best way to communicate it to your target audience. You can also mix and match several fonts, but in this case you need to be extremely careful to make sure that several mixed fonts go hand in hand.

Color, color, color

We’ve already said that you need to check the color palette with your client. But, if you think that the color he chooses doesn’t suit the print design project you are working on, don’t be afraid to let him know and bring strong arguments to stand your ground.

Related: Designing a Brand Identity in Few Steps

Photographic content

High quality image makes a big deal in printing. If you have good resolution photography to work with your final result will be outstanding. Therefore, tell the client that high resolution and quality of the photograph will mirror the print design output.

Conclusion

Print graphic design might seem tricky, but it is something that will always be on demand. Printed material is a more personal approach of the companies that they use for marketing campaigns, and not only. People usually are keener to trust information that they can physically touch, rather than just read on a screen.

Do you want to share other tips that you make use of when creating your own design for print? Leave a message in the comments section below.

10 SEO Copywriting Tips to Get Found on Google Search

SEO Copywriting is an important tool in ranking your copy in search engines and boosting your website traffic. And with a little experience, this can become a child’s play.

But it is not only about optimization and ranking we’re talking about here. You want your web copy to be consistent, to engage people and to sell.

We compiled 10 important tips about SEO copywriting techniques. Read through and share.

Know your reader

You want to write copy that appeals and sells to a particular group of consumers. Before starting writing your content, you want to know their social background, age, sex and education level to identify the best approach and writing style to use. Research your audience before you plunge into writing your copy.

Write alluring headlines

Sometimes, good headlines worth a thousand words. You want your headline to attract readers and get that web copy read. The headline is the first thing people read and make an impression about the entire content. Use keywords in it and make your content rank.

Use subheadings

Subheadings make your copy scannable and keep readers engaged in the content. They make the text look well-structured and also describe your content to search engines.

Short paragraphs

Use of paragraphs is important for a good content writing. Every time you have a new idea, start it with a new paragraph. Keep paragraphs short. 2 to 4 sentences are enough to give you the required space to put down and develop your main idea.

Use active voice

When you use active voice in your copywriting, the sentences are easier to understand, direct and shorter. Active voice gives you the option of avoiding unnecessary words in a sentence.

Avoid keyword density

One problem the copywriters deal with when writing engaging web copy is the risk of optimizing too much for search engines and forgetting about the purpose of their copy in the first place. Although optimization ranks your content and attracts more clicks, the content is the instrument that sells your products. So, you want to avoid keyword stuffing.

Speak your audience’s language

Speaking your audience’s language means you are from its league. Try using words and phrases that people you’re writing for use often and your content will look more persuasive. Matt Cutts made a video on top SEO mistakes, check it out!

Add links

Links to relevant resources will make your content look more trustworthy. It will mean that you have done your homework and researched the topic to be able to include the most accurate information out there.

Keep content fresh

Web content gets out of date as well. You want to make sure that your audience gets to read only fresh information. Search engines are known to give preference to web copy written on the same topic and which is more recent than the other content that is one or even two years obsolete.

Read this: SEO and UX: How to Optimize Your Website for Both

Promote your content

Writing a well-structured and information-abounding content doesn’t mean that the work ends there. Now you need to promote your content. It will not do the job by itself. Share it with your social media friends. Make people comment on it. Once the activity on your web page will increase, the search engines will notice it and will rank your content higher. This means – you will get more sales.

Bottom line

These SEO copywriting tips are the most basic and relevant ones to make your content rank higher. They are easy to implement and follow and can bring great value to your website. If you want to get returning customers just make sure that the content you write is very good.

Your turn now. Do you find these tips helpful? What other search engine optimization tips, that we overlooked, can you add to the list? Sound them in the comments section below.

Content Management System (CMS): 5 Features to Look For

So you’ve been putting some thought into building a blog or online store and don’t know where to start? First thing first, you need to identify the complexity and functionality of your website to be able to choose the best CMS solution that will respond to your needs.

A Content Management System (CMS), as Wikipedia says, is a type of computer app that allows publishing, editing, modifying, organizing, deleting and maintaining content from a central interface.

We know that choosing the right solution can be tricky. Falling in the trap of picking a solution with lots of features that you will never use is quite high.

Here are 5 features to look for when selecting your CMS software

Functionality

If you envision designing a website with online chat, logins, databases and more you will certainly need a CMS that will be able to provide all these functionalities. It is more expensive, but it will be able to cater to your business requirements. However, if you intend to make a simple website, without fancy user interaction, you will be better off with a less expensive solution.

Security

The best way to make your research concerning the security level of a CMS platform is to read online reviews. User reviews are always accurate; they tend to share their true experience with other potential users. Also, ask your web developer whether the platform you intend to use has security features that will enable you to solve security issues effortlessly or even avoid them, if possible.

SEO-friendliness of the platform

As SEO is a big deal for your website, this is another issue you should be considering. Find out whether the CMS platform you are about to use integrates with SEO tools and how it generates new page addresses. You want your links to look organized, pretty even, and avoid links that are dull.

Easy content editing

You need to know how easy it is to update, upload text, pictures and documents. There is the CMS WYSIWYG editor that enables users to work with content. You need to identify what features the CMS platform offers you to manage your content and whether these features are user-friendly both for tech-savvy and less tech-savvy users.

Multilingual support

You will probably think that this tip has little relevance with the fact that you intend concentrating your business on the local market only. However, do think twice. This functionality can help you boost your business. Living in a multi-cultural society, the multilingual support feature can come in handy and give you significant advantage over the competition. It will allow you to respond to more people’s needs. There is, however, a downside to this. You will have to think of the way you will make content available in multiple languages, which can involve additional costs.

Conclusion

Web CMS features are an important issue in choosing the solution that will cater to your company’s requirements, even though specific features might involve additional expenses. Do your research to ensure that your business has made the best choice that will ensure current and future success.

What other tips, related to choosing the best CMS software, do you want to share with us? Write them in the comments section below.

Designing a Brand Identity in Few Steps

So, you have decided to launch a business, a new product or service and you need to come up with a “how to make it appealing and attract more customers” strategy. And although it might seem difficult, with relevant tips you can take on the task of designing a brand identity that will set you apart from the competition.

Set the strategy.Creating a new identity is important in making your business kick off hugely successful.

Identify the mission and values that you want your brand to address and make them your priority for the strategy.

Know who you are branding for.Before even starting drawing a faint line on paper, ask yourself who you are trying to reach with your brand design. Make a thorough research of what people’s expectations are related to businesses, products and services you want to offer. Social background, education, marital status and age are factors to consider if you want your branding question to be answered. You can also check out your competitors’ targeted audience reaction through their feedback and testimonials.

You may be interested in the following related posts:

• Responsive Website Design: 6 Lessons To Learn From Your Competitors
• Button Design Techniques to Improve User Experience (UX)
• 5 Mobile App Design Trends of 2016 You Need To Know

Identify visual elements that will communicate with your customers.The visual elements you use, such as words,colors, and even fonts will speak on your behalf. Choose the words carefully. They will explain who you are, what you are doing and what your goals are.

Color is the visual element with deep psychological connotations. If you don't which color to use for you logo design, click teh text to find teh answer. And typography is a graphic design trick that makes your business look polished and visually attractive. Once you’ve identified all these elements, use them consistently in your marketing materials.

Examine other brand identity designs

Cast a glimpse at your competition. Look at your competition, see what message ther are trying to convey, check what colors and other visual features they are using and the effect they have on their customers. Once you have a big picture, all you want to do is find the personal direction that will make you easily identifiable and memorable.

Get the“special” in your brand business or product. If the special element is not identified from the beginning, you risk misconnecting with the people you are developing the brand identity for. Don’t miss on getting this thing right, and you will always have an ace up your sleeve.

Conclusion

Follow these tips for designing a brand identity that will be identifiable with your mission and values and that will make you recognizable from the multitude of businesses, products and services that emerge on the market every day.

Let us know in the comments below, what you think about these brand identiy designing tips and whether you have one that can be added to the list.

Why you should carefully choose your logo color design?

Did you know that people are very picky when it comes to logo color and visual appearance of a brand? They also tend to make purchasing decisions based on these two features.

Therefore, if you are one of those businesses that is making its way up to the top through the multitude of other companies providing similar services and products, you better pay more attention to your branding visuals.

Choosing a color for your logo design that will identify with your company has psychological aspect as well.

Have you ever wondered why one particular hue is more favored than the other? Did you know that colors evoke feeling, emotions and certain meanings? Well, if you are still in doubt whether to make a more thorough research concerning your choice in color logo designing, then here is your chance to consider it.

Meaning of each logo color design:

Red is a powerful, energizing color. It motivates us to take action. It is also aggressive and bold. It attracts attention. It stimulates appetite.That’s why you will see many restaurants using it in their branding strategy. Using red color in your logo will definitely mean that you are a strong competitor and you are here to be victorious. Also, red is a good contrasting color for interfaces that create pleasant user experiences.

Pink is a color that evokes romance, innocence and femininity. It is sweet and it is usually used by companies promoting women products and services: fashion, beauty, cosmetics. It is also associated with compassion, that’s why you will see many charities use it in their online marketing and traditionalmarketing strategies.

Orange evokes warmness and fun. It is a flamboyant color. Use it to convey adventure, fun and optimism. Because of its juiciness, orange is used in drink logo designs. It can also be seen in hotels and leisure resorts logo branding.

Yellow evokes sunshine, warmness, and playfulness. It stimulates creativity. You can see yellow used in children products. However, keep in mind that as warm as this color is in certain countries, in other parts of the world it is related to illness and jealousy. So, if you want to use yellow, you need to know exactly what you want to communicate to your customers through it.

Green is usually associated with environmental-friendly trends, and bio products. You will see green used by companies specializingl in agricultural products and natural foods.

Blue inspires tranquility. Think of the deep blue ocean and the clear blue sky and you will understand why. Blue evokes security. That’s why you will see blue being used by banks and other financial institutions in their logos.

Purple. If your brand wants to communicate sophistication and nobility, purple is the color. It also means imagination and creativity.

Brown is the color associated with outdoor activities and will be seen in products designed for men. It also associates with agricultural products as well.

Black is a strong, bold, classic color. It evokes mystery and sophistication. It is often used with white, which on the contrary, evokes purity and cleanliness. When grouped together, these colors balance each other in the best way.

Conclusion
The color that you choose to identify your logo must fit the brand. It must speak to the customers and convince them of the message it is sending. Considering the emotions and feelings it sends, choosing the right color can make or break the deal. Choose the color for the logo design that will make it memorable and identifiable.

Do you agree with opinions about colors in logo design sounded in this article? Write your own in the comments section below.

Responsive Website Design: 6 Lessons To Learn From Your Competitors

It is already a known fact that people tend to brows internet from their mobile devices more than ever. It is thought that by 2017 there will be more than 5 billion mobile users. So, how do we make their browsing experience enjoyable?

This is where responsive website design comes up. Imagine you have a solution for all types of screen sizes and you no longer need to develop a separate mobile website to adjust it for these users.

But it is important to ensure your webpage loads and reformats itself for any specific device, be it a tablet, mobile phone or desktop.

Here is a list of tips you could learn from your competition related to designing responsive websites:

1. User experience

Responsive sites can be accessed from any screen size. Thus, when a user shares the link to your website with other user, the other user will easily access it and open it on a tablet or laptop. Since your website performs well on different platforms, users will be keener to share it with their friends.

2. Loading time

Responsiveness ensures fast loading time for your website. So you will be able to keep users engaged in your content, avoiding their possibility to access another webpage.

3. SEO-boosting

Probably one of the biggest tips that can be shared is that Google favors mobile-friendly websites. The most popular search engine prefers responsive designs and ranks it at the top of its search results. Google even offers free testing tool to analyze your pages, and receive suggestions on how to improve the mobile responsiveness of your website. Therefore, if you are a small business you definitely need to consider this option.

4. Time saving

Responsive web pages are time saving. You no longer need to develop a stand-alone mobile website, but rather configure the existing one to perform excellently on all devices. You can spend this time creating new products and services that will increase your reachability. It also saves management costs. It is cheaper to manage and maintain a single site, with less content.

5. Generate leads

We already mentioned that responsive layouts boosts SEO. Enhanced SEO generates more traffic which converts leads into users.

6. Long-term relevance

Investing in responsive design is, in the long run, a smart decision. Internet traffic coming from mobile devices is constantly increasing. So you want to make sure that your website is optimized to perform well on all devices, even those that haven’t appeared yet.

Related Post: The Advantages of Responsive Web Design

Conclusion

Responsive website design allows you to be ahead of all trends and gain and attract more traffic that ultimately converts into users. If users are happy with the way the content of your site displays on their mobile devices they will eagerly and smoothly migrate from one page to another, enjoying the same user experience provided by traditional sites.

What other tips one can learn from competition in matter of responsive design? Make your thoughts heard in the comments section below.

9 Reasons You Should Invest in Content Marketing

Content marketing has become an indispensable tool for smaller businesses to promote their products and services in the online world.

Although it requires special skills and ability to use words in a way to convince customers to turn their attention to and become loyal customers of your services, it's cheaper than any other means of marketing persuasion.

Good and clever content writing can make you stand out from the crowd and become noticeable.

Therefore, if you are still thinking whether your writing imagination is not enough to enhance the traffic on your website, you should give it a try and see what happens.

Here are 9 reasons you should invest in web content marketing that we have identified and want to share them with you.

Your business is at its inception

Small businesses need much more than just traditional advertising marketing campaigns to raise awareness to their products and services. Today, consumers are looking for fresh and engaging ideas, and what can be better than a well-written, information-trustworthy piece of content? You should make your presence noticeable by sharing information on platforms that your costumers are spending time.

You need to become trustworthy

Businesses that are not afraid to share fresh, innovative information with their consumers are those who have only to gain. Digital marketing allows you building a trustworthy relationship with customers and potential customers with fewer costs. This will not happen over the night, but if you are willing to educate and give away valuable piece of content, you will increase your credibility.

SEO

Although marketers are obsessed with social media marketing, you should not forget about search engine optimization. This internet marketing drive will push your content on top of Google search results, as long as it is fresh and custom-made.

Boosting traffic to your website

Nowadays every business has a website. But how to attract new customers and boost traffic, when there are so many options to choose from? Your website is your marketing tool. Hire a website content writer to create content that is intuitive and helps drive traffic to your website.

Lead generation

There is no other better-proven means of generating leads than intelligent writing. No more cold-calling to promote your services and products. You can control your leads by simply creating intuitive content.

Engaged customer base

Engaged customers mean buzzing business. Great piece of content will make this easier to achieve.

Cover global market

Creating high-quality content makes your online presence noticeable and set you as an authority in your domain. You can interact, discuss with everyone who is online, and nowadays their number is outstanding.

Great ROI

Valuable content enables you to measure the ROI, which, often, is much higher than the ROI yielded by traditional marketing means. Thus, you can get long-term effects from good content with little investment.

Minimize crisis

It is no secret that, at some point or another, businesses might face crisis of trust deficit. However, a strong writing strategy can minimize this crisis and you can play the card in such a way as to turn the discussion into the direction you want.

Do check you website content from time to time to observe whether it's still relevant for your business. Your services are evolving, so that make sure update your business information according to you actual situation. This procedure is called "content audit". Click the link to find out why and how you should do it.

Related post:How to Unlock your Creativity and Wake up from a Creative Slumber?

Conclusion

Content marketing is exploited by many businesses in the net environment. You should know that an intelligent, engaging way of acquiring costumers through your content can drive profitable action to your business. Readers are more likely to respond to fresh ideas and pieces of content. Therefore, with great content be sure you will be alive on the net for a long time.

What are other reasons, according to you, that address the need to develop a strong content marketing? Let us know your opinions in the comments below.

5 Mobile App Design Trends of 2016 You Need To Know

Mobile devices are invading our life and their enormous popularity has challenged apps designers to come up with attractive and exquisite ideas for the consumers. They have to keep up with the ever-changing design trends so that their final products be enjoyable and not obsolete.

Here are 5 mobile app design trends of 2016 that you should consider when laying another app for mobile devices on the consumption table.

Gestures

Gestures are those tapping, flicking, dragging, pressing, zooming, rotating and other magical tricks that activate the app. They are comfortable for app users and are easy to use on devices of various sizes and shapes. One thing that mobile app designers should keep in mind is that most people tend to hold their smartphones in one hand and deliver these gestures with their thumb. Therefore, they must take into account the space they need to work with to make the app and gesture sync.

Pastel colors

Pastel hues are making their way into the mobile app trends. What makes this trend a good one is that the pastel-colored background allows for the application’s important features stand out and not take the user’s attention away from them.

Typography

Typography is the backbone of mobile app design. It is known that our main means of communication is through text. Therefore, the proper use of typography is essential in improving UX. Text must stand out on the app’s interface and black text on a white background is the best choice in matter of readability for app users.

Animation

Previous mobile applications were more static than they are today. With continuous development of smartphones and their more powerful capacity to support heavy-animated applications, designers are using this opportunity to make the application design more dynamic. Animation is also the element that improves the user’s visual experience.

Playful

The above trends relate to the more technical part of the mobile app design. One thing that makes users come back to your application after their first encounter is the degree they have enjoyed the application. Playfulness of an application is the key for your app design to engage users in the interactive aspect of the application experience. This trend gives mobile designers green light to their imagination and creativity.

Related: Popular Web Design Trends for 2016

Conclusion

If you want your apps design to be distinguishable and catchy don’t neglect these design trends. Whenever you are designing a mobile application you should always think about the user experience and user interaction with the product that you will make available for their consumption. Therefore, in order to be able to gain as many users as you can, your mobile app design must be unique, but at the same time in line with the users’ expectations.

7 Common Misconceptions about Mobile Web Development

We live in times when most of web-active people are in possession of a smartphone which gives them the possibility to surf the net whenever they find a minute to spare to indulge in the online world. Mobile web development is a suitable solution that will enable website owners reach more and more users across the large spectrum of Internet-connected devices.

However, many of the website owners still don’t understand the importance of a mobile web presence for their business. Mobile websites are completely different now from what they used to be several years ago.

Nonetheless, there are still some common misconceptions related to field, that we will address here.

Mobile websites are expensive

This is probably the most common misconception that website owners have before deciding to board on the mobile user-friendly quest. This, however, doesn’t have to be this way. If the web page has a responsive design and has been optimized and customized from the start so that it can be easily accessed by mobile users, then the price is not a problem. The prices are higher when the developer has to design it from scratch.

Responsive or adaptive web platform for mobile shoppers?

When it comes to this topic, one will hear often the terms “responsive” and “adaptive”. It is assumed that responsive design is associated with mobile design and that an adaptive site cannot be responsive. From technical viewpoint, responsive is an approach in creating sites with optimal navigation and interaction experience, while adaptive is an approach that adapts to the detected device.

In order to avoid such confusion, the website owner should ask several questions related to the strategy and goal of developing a mobile friendly platform:

• What is the mobile site’s purpose?
• What experience do you want to convey to your users?
• How much control do you want to have over that experience?

Mobile friendliness of a website is not important

This is not the case. Surveys have identified that mobile users are taking control over traditional PC users. This is also due to the large range of mobile devices available on the market. Young people, devouring new technologies and tech trends are the main consumer segment of mobile browsing.



While this group of mobile users increases, it is pertinent to make their browsing experience intuitive and responsive. Plus, search engines are ranking mobile friendly websites higher in their search results. You should bear this in mind when considering your web development for mobile devices decision, as this may cost you customers and make you lose money.

Mobile web designing is a simple process

This is not quite true. When the web designer is challenged with the task of designing a mobile page for your website he has to ensure that the end user will enjoy the same interactive experience as the one present on the traditional online web page.

Features, content, layout and other mobile web development elements must be catered for the users’ needs and expectations and the business’s objectives. Conceptualization of a high-quality mobile website calls for time and expertise.

A small business does not need a mobile presence

This is another largely spread misconception. If your business is at its inception and you want to make yourself heard and seen by many potential customers, you should definitely consider expanding your online presence so that it can be accessed from as many devices as possible.

Too much white space on the screen

White space on a mobile friendly website is even better. It makes the content more readable and does not fatigue the user’s eyes with crowded text. Ensure that you include only the most relevant information that relates to your business’s goals and objectives.

Once the mobile website is developed, the game is over

As with all websites, it requires ongoing maintenance. Trends are changing and improving at the speed of light and your mobile website must keep the pace. Users are always attracted to modern features and functionality and to keep them engaged and coming back for more you should give them what they are looking for.

Conclusion

The era when mobile web development was one more option to be considered by website owners is gone. Now, businesses can make a bigger statement in the online realm if they put on the tray all that is attractive to people, who prefer the convenience of a mobile device. And if you disregard what your customers need, they will simply go somewhere else to find it.

What other mistakes regarding mobile development would you add to our list? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Basic Website Usability Tips to Keep Customers Returning

In simple words, usability is what makes your website’s design pleasant and convenient for visitors. The more you know about how to improve this aspect, the higher chances to build a website that visitors will love. We put together a list of website usability tips meant to help you build an outstanding user experience, that will turn into higher conversion. How wouldn't want it?

You might know that your website has only 5-7 seconds to capture the attention of the visitors. During this frame time you have to make them stay longer and convince them that they came to the right place in order to find product or service they were looking for.

So how can you ensure that? It’s not that hard, you just need to arrange the content of your page in such way that all the vital information is at hand and the navigation is intuitive.

5 Website Usability Tips to Follow

Keep the most important information at the top of the home page

Since your website opens on homepage, it’s the first thing your visitors see. First of all, it must contain company’s name and logo. If you want your brand to obtain visibility in the digital environment – make sure you have a magnificent logo and clearly seen company’s name.

Content of the page must correspond its title

The last thing you want to do is to confuse your clients. If they came to buy mobile phones – make sure they will find what they are looking for right on the homepage.
Your company’s phone number must be right on top of the page. Thus, in case your potential client sees that you provide services he requires, he can easily find your phone number and call you.

Any promotions, seasonal, weekly, monthly discounts, sales and announcements of the same nature, must be on top of the home page or below the left menu. People like promotions and free things in general, which is why they will be more likely to browse other pages of your website in case they see promotions.

High contrast and pleasant color palette

Smart color scheme using is one of that website usability tips you really have to stick around. There exists an entire field, dedicated to studying color and its effects on human psychology.We perceive green as calming color, red as aggressive and alarming and so on. Combination of the right colors can attract target audience to your website and convince people that your company is the obvious choice. For example, in case your website deals with real estate or finances – it will be unwise to use an entire palette colors. Grey, white, black and dark blue will be more appropriate choices.

Contrast also plays a huge role in improving customer's’ perception of your website. And is one of those site elements that is going to affect your website usability if neglected. Black text on white background is considered ideal. Nevertheless, there can be various situations, where you want to play with the colors. In such case, when in doubt – open Word, write something and apply the colors you want to use. If you find the result irritating for the eye – don’t use it.

Call-to-action buttons must be easily accessible and visible
These elements people need to notice right away. You can use colors to stress them or make their outline brighter than the filling color.

Use familiar shapes

It’s not a secret that people love everything new, exciting and shining, however, some things need to be familiar for users, otherwise they will get irritated and simply leave your website.

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. If you want to create interesting buttons – use the same shape and assign them the usual purpose, but change their color and font of the inscription. Thus, people will not be disappointed, as clicking such buttons will get them where they want to go.

In general, you need to design your website keeping in mind what you would like to see on home page of any website you browse. It will be of great help in estimation of the overall website usability.

Related post:Button Design Techniques to Improve User Experience (UX)

Bottom line

Use these website usability tips to create a use-centered site that invite visitors stay longer and even buy from your website. Make sure all important information is properly displayed and there’s nothing that cause your visitors quitting. Placing vital info on the top, using pleasant color pallet, making call-to-action buttons visible and using familiar shapes are the basics of creating a great web usability.

Let us know if you have other website usability tips you implement to increase user experience in the comments section below.

Improving User Experience, based on Motif

Motif is a cornerstone of success in every IT company, although it is undoubtedly hard to see for someone, unrelated to any field of IT. Due to its big impact on improving user experience we will look into the root of the problem to get the full grasp of idea.

Nowadays, every project accomplishment requires collaboration between people of various professions that work together to create something complex and productive. This task is quite challenging, especially in terms of determining who gets the upper hand in deciding the direction the project must take.

When it comes to improving user experience we need to identify what makes the product/service great. People of every part of the team can come up with an answer. Problem is – every team will have its own opinion, based on the deep knowledge of their own field and inability to fully grasp other's point of view.

But what can a team do to find the unique equation that’ll work for all? It’s simple, really – all they have to do is find motif. A motif is a unique element that unifies all the conflicting sides. It can be something as simple as color or style that everyone perceives the same with little to no difference.

The importance of motif cannot be underestimated in terms of quality, as well as in sense of uniting multidiscipline team. If everyone is on the same page and work towards the same direction, there is a greater chance that people will be discovering something useful and meaningful, adding value and complexity to the project, as well increasing its functionality.

Use motif as a powerful way of improving user experience and delivering amazing product

Motif can also be used to create a unique and unusual digital experience to the point where people are thinking about the feature and associating it or something similar to it with your brand. For example, swiping on iPhones. When iPhones haven’t been available yet, the overwhelming majority of devices required tapping or pressing. Making swipe the first interaction became a genius motif, introduced by Apple that distinguished it from the rest.

So how do you find the motif of your product/service? In order to do that, you need to outline its feature that is so exclusive that customer will be able to find it only in your product/service. Improving this feature and putting some time and effort in its development will unite the team and allow reach common ground and understanding between all team members.

Bottom line

Consider improving user experience by integrating motif into the first-use of the product/service. If you do that, you will be able to naturally make users dependable on this feature, without making them feel like they are being forced to like or appreciate something. Make sure your unique feature is in its best shape and will require little to no tweaking in future. Remember that motif is really a basis for your marketing campaign, so choose wisely what feature to make your motif and how qualitative it must be.

What you do for improving user experience? Have you found what differentiate your website from others? Please share your opinions with us in the comment section.

SEO and UX: How to Optimize Your Website for Both

At the moment the world of digital marketing and web design are colliding, as there has arisen a tremendous necessity of combining ever-changing white SEO tactics of achieving high organic page rankings and positive user experience. However, there is no need to be overwhelmed – there exist strategies of achieving a golden mean between SEO and UX.

In order to be useful, pleasing, popular among users and engines your website must include the following features:

Safety and Speed

You need to install security plugins, because if you don’t – you might end up penalized for the lack of security on your website. Remember that users like to browse safe and fast websites. If yours is not safe of quick enough – you’re risking to lose visitors and ultimately your conversion rate will drastically drop.

In order to avoid that regularly update your plugins and versions of your CMS. Websites with near 0 downtime and congestions are the most popular ones. Moreover, your organic rate will drastically drop in case users will be closing your website almost right away. Quick loading time is tremendously important for both SEO and UX, so work on it to catch two birds with one stone.

Check your website speed

Intuitive Navigation

Despite of what many website owners currently think, search engine bots are not only measuring relevance and quality of content, but also estimate the value of the website from a human perspective.

New algorithms set forth in Google Panda and Google Penguin prevent improvement of organic traffic, obtained by grey hat or black hat SEO techniques. At the moment Google aims at appreciating quality over quantity, which is why navigation must be pleasant, helpful and intuitive. Websites that are hard to navigate are ranked lower. Use intuitive navigation techniques proved to deliver great results from SEO and UX perspectives.

Cool Outlook

We all love with our eyes and it’s not hard to imagine why. Pretty things sell much better than average-looking ones. Users spend just a couple of seconds on your website and you must grab their attention while they are wandering through the pages. Your website design must be shockingly good and multifunctional with all the scripts, deeply hidden beneath the gorgeous outlook.

Responsiveness

The website must be responsive, if it’s not - you are depriving yourself of the influx of mobile users, who are considered to be an exponentially growing minority. Nowadays, responsiveness is not a question of trend – it’s a must. You want your website to be available from all the possible devices, which is why its adaptability must be a given.

Conclusion

Considering the impact a good SEO and UX optimization has on your website, it definitely worth to spend time and resources on making them better. They are almost indispensable and regardless of how much effort you put in developing one of them, you will always be one step back to your competitors. Only making them work together you will achieve both usable and high performing website that drive huge traffic from organic search.

Keep in mind that you can have your website optimized for Google and your visitors simultaneously- all you have to do is to implement SEO and UX optimization tactics that we already shared here.

Facebook Marketing Mistakes to Avoid when Promoting Your Business

It’s not a secret that every well-established company or startup tries to promote itself on Facebook – the biggest social network in the world. It’s quite understandable, since every marketing strategy relies at least a bit on social media. We acknowledge its power, that's why today we want to focus on Facebook marketing mistakes social managers have to avoid.

The content, posted in Facebook posts of such companies can be extremely different, starting with press-releases and brand news and concluding with useful tips, professional pieces of information regarding industry, guides and so on.

Everyone tries to capture the attention of the audience, but methods of doing so can be various – suitable and acceptable or tacky and utterly irritating for the general public or your target audience. When making your post you must be extremely attentive to its every detail. A simple typo can snowball into a huge misunderstanding and significant loss in conversion.

Below we’ll describe seven widespread Facebook marketing mistakes that are most frequently committed by the companies of various size, advertising themselves on this platform.

• Automatic replies to user’s comments

Currently, when it’s all about humanized interaction, using robots on Facebook is very bad for business. By doing so you can run into extremely unpleasant situations, for example if someone praises your service, product, but you’ve set your automatic replies to be apologetic, saying: “We’re awfully sorry for inconvenience. Would you be so kind to provide more info on the problem, by contacting us …” Such approach is going to cost you many followers or potential clients. It’s good and productive to be prepared for negative reviews (it’s inevitable), however, you need to put a real person to this job.

Attentive and soft-spoken customer support representative will write a stellar gratitude message and will be able to deal with negative review in the most productive way, turning bad review into the good publicity.

• Removing comments/posts

Do you want to lose followers and clients? Because that’s how you do it. Removing negative posts or comments from your page is one of the Facebook marketing mistakes that scare your fans. You need to deal with situation instead а closing your eyes and pretending that it never happened.

Such behavior will cause outrage and irritation among your followers and clients. Nevertheless, bad situation can be turned to golden publicity if you choose to approach the problem creatively and positively.

Sure, answering the uncomfortable questions is no picnic, but if you offer a compensation or considerable discount on your services – you will gain more followers and customers, instead of loosing them.

Companies, tested by difficult situations seem to be more reliable than those, who never had any issues. It happens because if your potential clients know that you take good care of your customers – they will be much more likely to convert.

• Importunity is not a good choice

While planning your Facebook content strategy, you need to make sure that the content you're posting is not boring or too pushy. Always place yourself in the shoes of your followers and potential clients – would you like to receive a notification every day or even several times per day? Probably not. Companies that send this many, get unsubscribed from. Don't say you haven't been warned about this Facebook marketing mistake!

Your content must be useful in some way and relevant to the targeted audience. Simple news about the awesomeness of your brand get deleted right away. Be useful and relative – don't be pushy and boastful in the content you're sending to your followers.

• Thoughtfulness is obligatory

Remember that the content you’re sending can be seen by any group of people worldwide.Therefore, be extremely careful and cautious with the things you write. It must not offend people of any race, age, sex, ethnicity and so on.

Even if the target audience is located in one country and you wish to promote your business by posting funny jokes, don’t make them at the expense of other ethnicities or people of different race. It will not reflect well on you. Despite the fact that you will most certainly get a couple of likes from inconsiderate people, the majority will find it repulsive.

• #Hashtag Overuse

The option of using hashtags has appeared on Facebook only recently, but many companies have already exploited this new and exciting opportunity and even went crazy with it.

Don’t do it. Research shows that the best amount of hashtags per post is 1 or 2. Any number of hashtags above that will only decrease user’s interaction with your post. Great number of hashtags will make you look needy and desperate for attention. Who likes desperate? No one – that’s for sure. Use hashtags, but don’t overdo it.

• Making bad jokes

Humor is great when it’s subtle and original, otherwise it can turn into one of the biggest Facebook marketing mistakes. Your brand will be associated with something positive and more users will deem it “cool” or up-to-date. That will be the case if your humor is funny and considerate.

Subtlety must be a priority, because if you’re not subtle somebody will get offended. Getting a mass outrage is not something that you would want to deal with. Bad rep travels with the speed of light across multiple social media.

Last in our Facebook marketing mistakes list, but not last in importance

• Begging for likes

In digital world, begging is even more pathetic than in the real one. If you choose to go this way, consider your business doomed. You might as well stay near the imaginary digital road with a sign “Please, please, please – Like me”.

Earn your likes with strong content, effective marketing strategy, useful information, don’t just ask for it. The last thing you want is for your brand to be considered pathetic and hashtagged #youdoingitwrong

Now that you know all these Facebook marketing mistakes, why not tell us which of these errors you have admitted till now? Or if there are others you have noticed while using Facebook for business, please share with us!

Why and How to Do a Content Audit?

Perhaps you’ve already heard and read on several resources that Content matters and that from time to time you have to do a content audit.

You’ve also must have heard that content must be qualitative. Due to the recently appeared Google Panda and Penguin, black hat and grey hat SEO practices are obsolete now and will yield only penalties for you.

Another topic that is currently hot is the responsiveness of your website. Earlier it was only a trend, but now it’s a must– how else will you reach your audience that uses mobile devices to browse your website?

Making your website responsive is much easier than making a separate mobile version. You won’t have to pay as much for responsiveness and the content of your website will have only one URL, which facilitates sharing and discussing the content.

While all of it is true, no word was mentioned on what to do with the heaps of content that already is on the websites, especially if we are talking about websites of well-established businesses. You may redesign your website for it to be squeaky clean and new, but old and obsolete content may show its ugly head through incompatibility with the new design or in any other way.

That’s the main reason why it’s essential to do a content audit before uploading it to the redesigned website. Thus, you’ll get the chance to get rid of the outdated and unnecessary content, leaving more place for a new one. This problem may appear unexpectedly while designing a mobile version of your website. If you don’t get rid of the old and obsolete content, it may appear on the pages that were never meant for it.

Thus, it may clog the access to your multi-layered content, leaving only 2 out of 4 or 5 layers accessible. Due to this, other layers of content will be accessible only through search and you definitely don’t need that.

Conducting a Website Content Audit is a MUST

There is no way around it – it has to be done, despite the fact that no one is willing to do it because raking through piles of obsolete content is no fun. However, content is the what people interact with on your website, which is why it must correspond to modern trends and be absolutely relevant.

Every company can conduct this content audit for different reason. Some browse through it to find outdated information and remove it. Others want to restructure it and present in a way that is better for understanding.

In any case, managing the content you already have can set realistic expectations of the new website design, as well as help you choose the right direction for it.

How to do a content audit?

The best way to conduct a website content audit is to take every single page separately and review all the elements that it includes. Start with the text, see if it's relevant, contains useful, concise and up-to-date information.

Define its purpose – is it a story, a guide, a featured article or simply a block of information with instructions on using certain sections of your website. Delete and modify it to correspond to the recent changes if such changes took place.

Further on you might want to look on the banners, promotions and button inscriptions. Perhaps you’ll have a great idea for updating it – go ahead, because any new element is more exciting than the one your visitors saw a thousand times already.

Besides, you’ll have a better structure of your page in general if you take time to learn how the type of text that you defined information on your page to be, must look like professionally.

What content audit tools to use?

The very process of reviewing your website’s content has been around for a long time. However, recently there has appeared a wide row of tools that you can use to help you analyze the content. One of the best this Content Analysis Tool (CAT).

This content audit software costs just a couple of dollars, but will provide you with detailed reviews of each page of your website. This is extremely useful, considering that in such way you’ll be able to notice and weed out bad content.

Tough Decisions

Remember that there is no way around it and there is no right way to conduct the content audit. Your purpose is to find what is called a “golden mean” – a structure and meaning of the content that will be convenient and appealing both to users as well as for designers, who’ll be working on updating your website to make it a responsive one with positive UX.

Try to make the content on your website brief and concise – straight to the point. People don’t like to work hard to obtain something and they will definitely won’t be doing any additional reading.

If your website has many pages, overloaded with info – it just won’t be supported in the responsive version. Make it short, interesting and scalable.

Have you recently done a content audit on your website or you are planning one? What you think is the toughest part in the whole content audit process?

Increase Click-Through Homepage Carousel by Avoiding these Usability Mistakes

In compliance with the recent research– only 1% of 3 million visits to the website’s home page results in clicks on homepage carousel.

The majority of clicks are made on the first slide and after that the click rate drastically drops with every following slide.

It’s quite surprising,considering the fact that it’s an important widget, found on many websites.

Apart from that, it’s a colorful and engaging graphic element, which must attract a lot of attention.

So why users tend not to engage homepage carousels? The problem is not the beauty of the carousel itself, but in its navigation and several other structural mistakes that designers unknowingly commit.

1. Replace navigation arrows with label navigation

After a couple of clicks without finding what they are looking for, customers look at the right navigation arrow that shows if any more slides are available. If they are, customer simply looses interest as he gets tired of endless line of slides and thinks that he will not find what he is looking for on your website. Thus, customer never gets to see the other slides of the carousel.

However, this situation drastically changes when navigation labels are used instead of small and hardly visible arrows. The results improve even further, when you add clear and comprehensive inscription on labels.

Thus, customer immediately sees if the product he’s looking for is on the website. Besides, you can place navigation buttons in a clearly visible area, increasing the engagement rate and amount of clicks on all the slides.

2. Remove auto-sliding, when user has already taken control 

Auto-sliding is a very frequently used technique on the majority of websites that have homepage carousels. It helps users to engage with the most important content.

However, users will loose interest if auto-sliding doesn’t stop when they’ve taken manual control and are trying to get to the slide that's the most interesting for them or stay and read the slide.

Stop the auto-sliding as soon as they engage and you’ll see the considerable improvement.

3. Show new additions by rows, not one by one

Researches show that people like to browse new items in batches, because this way they can see multiple items at once. Despite of this, some website owners tweak their carousels in such way that allows items to be shown one at a time.

It’s very inconvenient and irritating and is fully capable of considerably reducing the engagement with the carousel. People don’t like to work more than they have to, which is why they will more likely convert if they will be able to see all the new items in several clicks.

What else can be done to improve homepage carousel?

Make items progression clear and compressive

People like to be in control - knowledge of how many items are there to see gives a feeling of confidence and control. If your carousel shows this progression in a non-intuitive way visitors on your website will get irritated.

Such situation occurs when a certain number of items is shown out of the entire number. Much better option is to show how many rows of items are there and which row the visitor is on.

Click targets must be bigger

When you design homepage carousel, you need to take into account that your visitors come from various age groups. Some people have better vision than others, which is why click targets on your carousel must be bigger.

Sometimes the size of the arrows is smaller than the cursor and this is unacceptable, because your visitors will get irritated and will quit your website, begin unable to find what they are looking for.

What's you experience with homepage carousel? We would like to hear your opinion from both points of view - user and business owner.

Button Design Techniques to Improve User Experience (UX)

Principels of successful button design

It’s not a secret that currently one can create a button via multitude of ways. The majority of these methods are quite similar, nevertheless in rare cases you see a button that is very different from the rest of them.

These unique buttons were simply created with a little more time, attention and effort.
Was it worth it to spend time on button design? Definitely, otherwise, no one would have paid any attention to them.

The most widespread methods of buttons creation are CSS3 and special tools. But before you get down to creating a magnificent button that everyone will like – you need to take a minute and think about the purpose you’re designing this button for and how it will fit the overall look of your website.

If you’re creating a button just for the sake of it – why would you take a trouble of creating something unique? You can just download a free button set that somebody uploaded and be done with it. However, if your goal is to deliver an award-worthy design, it’s worth to consider several button design aspects that are outlined below:

Consistency with the brand

Your button design must be consistent with the context you’re creating them for. What does this mean? It means that your should pick corresponding color scheme and graphic style, maybe even use the brand logo or borrow its form if possible.

You are not limited by anything: play with fonts, colors, pattern and shapes. Let your creativity run wild. If you see that website design is flat – create buttons in the same style.
It won’t be wise to use shiny gibbose buttons – just make sure that your button will blend seamlessly into the overall design of the website.

Ask yourself: Is my button contrast enough?

Considering that at the moment people want simple, yet visually pleasing website designs, web designers are forced to include lots of eye-candies. This means that the page will have a lot of vivid and attention-grabbing elements.

Use different colors, size and shapes for button design

However, you need to make sure that the button design is clearly visible and can be easily found. The higher the contrast, the better. You can outline it with different colors, shades and fonts, just remember to make it stand out without sacrificing overall UX.

Is your button design compatible with the content?

You need to keep in mind that buttons must match not only the logo of the company, but also the overall UI. For example, buttons can be buttons on the mobile version of the website, but on the desktop website they can be replaced with something unusual and interesting.

Use shades with caution

Remember that any shades look much better, when they are darker than the element itself. Which is why, when your element is darker than surrounding, you need to be very cautious.

Conceal secondary elements

You should always keep in mind that secondary elements, such as menu elements, controllers and bars can be similar (same corners, shape), but with different shades, borders and gradients.

Shape of the buttons

Round vs square button

In case the interface of your website includes too many buttons of the same shape – it’s definitely time to change that.

You need to make at least the most essential buttons stand out. You can change their shape from square to round. It will definitely attract the attention of users.

Outline of the buttons

Always remember: under no circumstances can the button’s outline be lighter than the button itself. Moreover, the outline of the button must be darker than the background – it’s a golden rule that needs to be followed.

Make use of icons

When working on action button design, icons can be your best friends. For instance, in case you’re designing a “Next Page” button and don’t know how to go about the buttons inscription – just use an arrow, pointing to the right and users will understand that this button is for going to the next page. Such button will look better than overused “Next” or “Next page” buttons.

Indicate the importance of the buttons with color saturation

In case your website has lots of functions and options it’s recommended to focus the attention of the user on the most important ones from the very start. For this exact purpose, you can make the most important buttons the most color saturated.

Apart from that, you can use association. For example, if a set of buttons is related – make the most important one – deep blue and the less important ones blue and then light blue.

You can also make use of the buttons’ size and make the most important buttons big and clearly visible.

The last, but not the least button design technique

Indicate button’s state

Design professionals can easily distinguish the state of the button, however, that is not the case for the rest of us. User will try to click the button whether it’s active or not and will get frustrated if it’s inactive.

To avoid the unpleasant situations like that – you can simply use CSS instruments, such as shades, gradients and borders to show that the button isn’t active yet.

Conclusion

As a web designer, you have you own approach to button design. It's nothing bad in re-using predesigned elements or UI styles, as they are a great way to save time and money. But if you want to add a dose of uniqueness to your website, crafting you own web buttons is the path to go.

Market Research Methods for Developing Successful Marketing Campaigns

Marketing campaign cannot be properly organized without conducting a detailed market research. It’s like stepping in bathtub, without knowing the temperature of the water.

Besides, you don’t need a big funding to conduct market analysis – you can always use some market research methods always at hand. Be it human or financial.

Below are a few market research methods, vital for the success of your marketing plan.

E-mail Surveys

You can always use the old and secure method – conducting research via e-mail.
The only thing you need to keep in mind is that no one likes and no one will read and participate in a survey if it’s going to be long and tiresome. Try immediately getting to the point.

In addition, you can use a lot of online tools for surveys, such as Smart Survey, Survey Gizmo, SurveyPlanet and so on.

Personal meeting with the top clients

Words cannot describe what we can feel and see in person, which is why nothing beats actual conversation with your best clients over lunch. Invite them to join you for a lunch in a respectable establishment and ask them what they do and don’t like about your company.

Make them say what they would like to see as additional features, what aspects they consider better than yours in regards to your competitors. You can also find out what is their favorite thing about your company and make a point of stressing this feature in your future marketing campaign.

Your aim is to make them feel unique and valued. Treat their ideas like they are the best they ever had.

Social Media

Where can you find and discuss the latest news of your industry?

On social media of course! Forums and chats are used by users to discuss the best and the worst features of this or that company.

Register as a user and try to discuss your company. You will get a lot of valuable information on the subject. You’ll find out what customers value in your company and what needs to improve.

Social media will provide a better scope on the image of your company in the wide row of companies from your industry. Use this as one of the basic market research methods to get precious feedback on your company.

Google Alerts

If you want to hear the real opinions about your business, you should definitely make use of Google Alerts. Using it will give you a chance to receive updates anytime someone mentions the name of your company online.

Just imagine how much you’ll learn of what the competition and customers think about you.

Personal Attention to Your Customers

In case your business is dealing with corporations or some major companies – take time to visit them in person. Nothing beats the pleasure of personal attention. Not even phone calls.

Visiting clients will help you create an image of caring and attentive to its customers company. This is how you win a positive reputation and build long-lasting relationships.

The oldest of market research methods still being used - Ask for Feedback

Asking your clients for feedback is a sort of personal interaction. It creates the impression that you truly care about their opinions, suggestions and wishes.

Ask your clients to leave feedback for services and/or products on your website. If you receive one and the same advice over and over again – you’ll know for sure what you need to improve.

It’s also important to keep in mind that issues aren’t a bad thing (that is if they are small and can be easily solved). Research shows that customers are more satisfied with those companies that handled their small issues with products or services quickly and efficiently, than with those, where they had no issues at all.

This happens because in case there is no issue– there is a doubt in competence of the company to handle it quickly and efficiently if there appears one.

That's our list of market research methods which proved their effectiveness in designing successful marketing campaigns. Do you know other techniques? Let's discuss them in the comment section below!