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Simple Ways to Make Your E-Commerce Site Festive

Author: Eleanor Hecks Website Facebook Instagram LinkedIn

Even if you sell the same products year-round, during the holiday season, you want your site to appear more festive than normal. You’ll attract site visitors doing Christmas shopping or buying something special for themselves. Decking the halls of your e-commerce store only makes sense.

McKinsey recently forecast a strong demand for consumer products this holiday season thanks to high confidence. Around 40% of survey respondents said they planned to shop earlier due to concerns with supply shortages and longer shipping times. Don’t wait until the last minute to change the look of your store. Focus on the holidays now, as most people are already checking off their shopping lists.

How can you make your e-commerce store look festive without drastic changes? There are several ways to embrace the season and send emotional signals to your users that it’s time to order gifts now.

1. Add a Header Message

A ticker at the top of your landing page grabs user attention and is the perfect way to add in some holiday vibe without too much interference with the overall aesthetic of your site. You can offer a special holiday discount, update folks on upcoming sales or share other holiday news. Just keep it short and to the point.

Glossier added a note to the very top of its website. The background is a different color than the rest of the page, and draws the user’s eye. The note lets visitors know they’re prepping for the Black Friday sale and invites them to sign up for a mailing list to get early access to the event.

2. Add Some Greenery

A touch of holiday whimsey goes a long way toward making your site more festive. Add some greenery or holly to the edge of an image. Tuck a red bow behind a product you’re featuring. Look for ways to add the holiday spirit here and there.

Your page doesn’t need to look like Santa’s workshop exploded on it, but a few elements or adding in red and green helps put people in a holiday shopping mood.

3. Highlight Seasonal Products

If your e-commerce store offers seasonal products, feature them in your hero image and featured products sections. People visiting your site during the holidays may not have considered your site for gifts, but will when they see you offer specific items geared to gift-giving.

Mary Maxim grabs a number of home decor items geared to the holidays and features them on its landing page. At the top of the page, they mention they have a wide selection of holiday craft items and offer a link to shop for those things very specifically.

As you scroll down, you see displays of decor on a mantel, a wreath and a present. They also highlight items such as winter puzzles.

4. Change Up Your Logo

You’ve likely noticed Google changes their logo frequently. They use the same wordmark but add a background, tuck an illustration between the letters or even make the logo actionable. Depending upon how complex your logo is, you can easily top it with a bow, have a cartoon reindeer peek from behind a letter or add some greenery.

Adding holiday elements to your logo is a small change that is easy to implement but adds a festive touch to your site. Users tend to look at your logo before other elements on the page, so it sets the entire tone.

5. Offer a Gift Guide

A gift guide helps show people you’re ready to join in the festivities without putting the entire focus on the holidays. You may have regular customers who order year-round and aren’t interested in gifts. However, those who are can click on the link and see what you have for different types of recipients.

West Elm features a holiday lookbook on its website. Rather than just collect all holiday items into a group, they choose six distinct looks and share how the products look in your home.

E-commerce store owners can also offer gift-giving guides by category, such as for women, men or children. You can separate gifts into monetary categories as well. Use filters and let your site visitors search for the exact right item for their needs.

6. Create Holiday-Themed Content

Another way you can deck out your site is by adding some holiday-themed content. Headlines with words such as “Christmas,” “Thanksgiving” and “Hanukkah” go a long way toward adding some holiday spirit to your site.

Additionally, you can use the content for social media posts and drive traffic to your site. Your regular visitors may be used to typical content and seeing a holiday guide helps them remember you for their gift giving needs.

You can even create a video and showcase some items people might be most interested in purchasing for the holidays.

7. Add Beautiful Images

There are some scenes that scream Norman Rockwell, even with a modern touch. Look for beautiful images you can add to your hero header and your product pages. A family scene, a wintry white coating and holiday-themed items say a lot without any words.

Petsmart utilizes its hero slider to showcase beautiful holiday shots of pets and their owners. Note how the setting features green and red and there are festive touches within the photograph, such as a Christmas tree, red collar on the dog, red headband on mom and even some presents tucked in the background.

Add Little Touches

You don’t have to do a complete theme redesign to get your site in holiday mode. Add small touches and ask for feedback from your visitors. Take a step back and look at your site through fresh eyes. If anything seems bland, you can dress it up with small graphics or snazzy headlines.

While it’s a good idea to add some festivity to the mix, you also don’t want to add so many items that it’s hard to revert your site back in the new year. Add a few things but don’t go overboard.

Eleanor Hecks is editor-in-chief at Designerly Magazine. Eleanor was the creative director and occasional blog writer at a prominent digital marketing agency before becoming her own boss in 2018. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and dog, Bear.

Tips for Creating a Great Website for Your Small Business

Author: Eva Benoit

Do you run a small business or want to start one? If so, you might be thinking about creating a website to help market your company and increase sales. But before you start building a website, it’s important to make sure you’re not wasting your time and money by creating a site that won’t help you achieve your goals. To create a great website for your business, check out these tips presented by Designweb Louisville.

Tips on Designing Your Site

Designing your website is important. Even if your site gets 10,000 hits per day — if people don’t like the design they won’t come back. A successful business website needs to be clean and uncluttered so visitors can find what they want quickly and easily. Here are some simple steps you can take to design your website successfully:

  • Have clear calls to action (CTA)
  • Use consistent styling and colors
  • Make navigating your website easy
  • Make forms clear and easy to fill in
  • Making it accessible to those with disabilities
  • Provide a search function

Optimizing for Search Engines

The most important secret of all is search engine optimization (SEO), particularly if you’re running an e-commerce site or your business depends on traffic via search engines. Optimizing involves spending some time working out what keywords people are typing into Google to find products like yours, and making sure those keywords are used within your website. Search engines look at these words as signals of relevance, so they’ll send more visitors your way if they pick up on them.

Tracking Your Progress With Analytics

Once you’ve created your website, make sure you’re tracking its progress with analytics. If people aren’t coming back to your site and you don’t know why, then it will be almost impossible to make improvements. Using analytics allows you to focus on results that matter rather than guessing at what those results might be.

User Experience and Customer-Focused Content

A website doesn’t need to be flashy or complicated. In fact, you’ll get more traffic and more conversions if your site is uncomplicated and easy to use. The best way to optimize for user experience is to create customer-focused content: short, powerful descriptions of what you do and how you can help customers. When possible, include examples of work you’ve done so prospects can see your creativity in action.

Different Professionals You Can Hire

The right web development company can develop or redesign a website with branding colors and styles consistent with your identity. They can also ensure your website is fast, secure, and optimized. Finding an expert is as easy as using a good job board. If you need help with marketing your business in Crestwood, KY, there are professionals who can handle everything from content creation to social media management. If you do a search for “average cost freelance web developer,” you’ll find that they cost between $15 and $30 per hour, but you can expect to pay more depending on their skills and experience.

Knowledge is Power

Knowledge is power when creating a great website, and knowing what steps have worked for other small businesses in your industry can help point you in the right direction. Be sure to visit Designweb Louisville for help with business website development.

Author Bio

Eva Benoit specializes in helping professionals with stress and anxiety but welcomes working with people from all walks of life. She works with her clients to discover and explore avenues that will bring them balance, peace, and improved overall well-being that can last a lifetime. 

Digital Marketing In 2022 – Top 3 Reasons Why Small Business Need It

Author: Motif Creatives

Digital Marketing in 2022 – Top 3 Reasons Why Small Business Need It

When starting a small business, the focus is often on how to reach your first customers. They can rely on traditional advertising methods, such as print ads, coupon posts, or large roadside signs. They can be trusted because they know they are offering a good product or service, and it will take time for customers to reach them.

While this strategy can lead to business growth, there is a better and simpler way. First, small businesses need to consider a large market for online customers. No small business, no matter how new, should be forgotten in this vast market.

Don’t postpone Digital Marketing anymore?

Why do you decide to put time and effort into digital marketing? Different small businesses may offer different reasons to avoid this type of market, but in the end, the delay is the delay.

Small businesses sometimes feel they don’t have the time or money to compete online. They think they can face many problems at once and are still learning all the intricacies of e-commerce. Most of them can choose to go slow and stick to one or two main types of advertising. Thus their business will grow over time.

They may think that the best strategy is to wait for customers to arrive. Because they have a small business, they may think they need few customers.

This is not a good practice. There is no guarantee your business will attract customers because it exists, and even then, you may not attract as many customers as you need to make your business successful. You have to implement new strategies like the countdown timer plugin to create a sense of urgency for people to make a purchase decision faster. Digital marketing involves both strategies for your online store as well as for social platforms.

Top 3 Reasons Why Small Business Need It

#1. Your Customers Are Online

If you’ve avoided digital marketing, is it because you think you’re not ready for it? Do you think you need time to calm down and then understand what digital marketing is?

The problem with this approach is that your customers and suppliers are online. This. Today. They seem to be looking for a company like yours, but if they can’t find you, they’ll probably choose another one.

This is how people trade today. So, for example, if someone is interested in your business or your public domain and wants to know about your trademark, the first thing they do is search the web and find out what works. After that, they’ll find out about you.

They hope to find you there with your website and social media ads. In addition, they can look for reviews to see what other people say about your company and whether it is an excellent place to do business.

If a customer can’t find you online, they may think your business doesn’t look right. It is very likely that many of these potential customers will decide not to value your business and will quickly switch to something else.

Once they have made that decision, they are unlikely to return.

#2. Reviews Matter

Online reviews can attract or enhance your business’s ability to attract new customers or businesses. While all businesses can share their products or services, other customers can provide accurate and unbiased information. If you get a lot of information from trusted sources, your business can stand out from the competition and build trust even if they don’t appear on your website.

The most helpful business search is through Google Business. They are the most trusted and visible resource, and your Google business listing allows people to visit or call your site. Facebook is another excellent source for web reviews, and you can use it to create a newsletter on your website, but Yelp is great for restaurants, hotels, and entertainment businesses.

To increase the number of reviews, link to Google’s list of companies to review for customers. Even if you get all five stars, the low -performing companies get more minor changes than the 100+ listed companies, even if some of them are low.

#3. The Rise of Voice Search

Voice research has come a long way in recent years. More Americans are using devices like Amazon Alexa and Google Home than ever before. By 2022, more Americans are expected to use in-depth research than ever before. Gartner predicts that the entire web-based investigation will begin with sound.

This means that it is vital to satisfy your voice requirement to find you, Siri, and Alexa. Let’s talk about how in a minute. But first, let’s discuss another small business model.

Small Business Marketing Strategies for 2022

Below are the marketing strategies for small businesses in 2022 that they can achieve, no matter how much money they invest in their market budget.

  • Respond to Customer Reviews

The majority of the online stores did not respond to the review. This is a big mistake. First, it helps build customer loyalty. A simple thank you can help make a good impression on your customers and encourage them to return. In addition, responding to reviews can improve the quality of your research business. Finally, Google has proven that responding to reviews will help your SEO.

  • Implement Webchat to Your Website

Webchat works for business. Because it’s much easier than other media: phone and email. Most people today try to avoid phone calls whenever possible, and emails are often ignored. Webchat offers the best of both worlds, customer friendliness and a great way to get answers to your questions.

  • Stay Active on Social Media

While you may already have a Facebook profile page, remember to stay active on social media. Consumers today expect to operate companies on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. While it’s true that Facebook has few opportunities for traditional advertising, these business customers are expecting to post on social media regularly.

Conclusion

Digital marketing will allow you to meet your customer’s expectations. You can gradually get to know them and what they hope to achieve. Do a little research or try to get to know them. Listen carefully to their comments or survey responses.

This is how you start building relationships with your customers. You can be more than just a business. You will become a reliable partner. People buy a lot more from companies they have already bought from.

Compared to advertising on TV, radio, or direct mail, digital marketing costs more while reaching a larger audience. . Using online marketing to promote your small business can help you have a better chance of success.

How to Grow Your Business with a Website

Author: David Anderson

Your website is your business’s online home. It can provide you with an incredible opportunity to grow your company, generate more revenue for the products and services you offer, and build a strong reputation with customers. But how do you make it happen?

Get a Good Domain Name

The first step to growing your business is getting a good domain name. This will be the address that visitors come in through and it should reflect what you do, but also put an emphasis on who you are as a brand. It’s important for this to not only look professional when potential customers visit it but also help with SEO so that search engines can easily recognize and rank your site higher than competitors. Once you have decided on which domain name best suits your company, go ahead and get started by registering or purchasing that URL before everybody else does! You don’t want to miss out on this key piece of your online presence.

Create a Detailed Plan for Your Website

Before you jump into developing or redesigning your website you should have some sort of plan in place that includes who the audience is, what they are looking for when visiting it, and how often they will be using it. To figure all this out, take time to conduct research with potential customers about their needs, problems, pain points, and questions so that when you create content for your site these can be answered immediately!

This also helps make sure everything is actually helpful and valuable which is crucial if you want visitors coming back again and again. Find ways to use web analytics tools like Google Analytics or Hubspot to see how people are using your site and to put together a plan for what changes need to be made in order for you to achieve the goals that have been set.

Display A Clear Description of Your Business on Your Site

There are a few different options for displaying information about what you do online. You can choose to have multiple pages that outline the products, services, and solutions you provide along with testimonials from previous customers who were happy with their results. Another option is creating one landing page where everything is laid out in an easy-to-read format that provides more details on each of these topics so visitors don’t have to go hunting around if they want specific answers or would rather not spend time scrolling through content looking for what interests them. Just make sure whatever path you take includes good quality images, enough text but isn’t overly wordy, and has links back to other areas within your too!

Don’t Forget to Make the Interface Simple and Easy to Navigate

Once you’ve created a comprehensive and informative site that tells visitors everything they need to know about your business it is important for them to be able to find what interests them quickly and easily. This means keeping the interface simple with easy-to-read menus, not too many advertisements getting in the way of content, and using menu bars within each section or page if there are multiple links available. You want people spending as much time on your website as possible so make sure its user friendly!

Create a Simple but Catchy Logo and Display it at the Top of Your Site

Since you’re going to be using your logo on all of your marketing materials it is important that it looks professional and communicates what you or your company does. Think about how the colors, fonts, and design overall will look on a business card, brochure, social media post, or even as an app icon for mobile users! The good news is, you don’t have to spend hundreds or thousands of bucks to create a good logo. You can use a free logo creator and achieve great results!

Offer Quality Content That Educates Visitors

Quality content can build trust with customers which leads them to become more familiar with who you are and why they should choose your products/services over someone else in the industry. It also helps answer any questions potential clients might have without having to actually pick up the phone and call. To make sure this information is valuable there are a few things to think about:

  • What are the biggest problems/issues in this industry? How can you help solve them and provide a better solution?
  • Who is your target audience? If everyone could benefit from what you have to offer then who needs it the most right now, or in six months time when they decide to look for a business like yours online.
  • What do people need that’s stopping them from doing their job well or making it more efficient? Make sure content on your site doesn’t just talk about how great things are but also gives examples of actual results customers have received when using your services. This way visitors know exactly why they should choose you over your competitors.

In conclusion, the only way to be successful online is by consistently growing your business. A website can help you achieve this goal and manage it all in one place, but make sure the website content is informative, easy-to-read, and includes links back to pages where visitors can learn more or get started! Use the tips above, and you will be on the path to growing your business exponentially.

Author Profile

David Anderson is a business graduate with a marketing major. He specializes in communication design and has helped many brands achieve their goals in marketing communication. Now he writes for freelance clients on topics related to brand design, visual communication, and marketing.

Big Branding Strategies to Utilize for Small Business Success

Author: David Dixon

As a small business owner, you likely have a million things on your to-do list. Revenue, employees, production, customer loyalty… amongst these critical elements, branding may not be top of mind for you. Perhaps you even think branding is best left to the big shots, who have the excess revenue to devote to marketing budgets. If you’re thinking along these lines, it’s time for a major strategic overhaul.

Businesses that go big on branding pack a punch and stand out. Grabbing customers’ attention (and keeping it) is the best way to plump up that bottom line. Want to learn about some easy branding best practices? Designweb Louisville breaks it down.

What Exactly Is Branding?

Let’s get one thing very clear. Branding is more than just slapping a logo onto your socials and calling it a day. Instead, it is indicative of your company as a brand and the values it stands for. Branding presents an overall image of your mission and customer services and gives customers insight into the products and services you offer.

Why is it important? Well, consumers want to shop at a cohesive and consistent brand that ups the quality of their buying experience. Most businesses today invest in branding, which means that you’ll need excellent graphics, text, and design to get a leg up on your competition and stand out.

How Can I Reach My Target Market Through Branding?

Well, the two are intrinsically linked. When brainstorming for your business, you likely honed in on a particular audience or demographic to cater your services to. This might be based on interest, age, occupation, income, or gender. Zenbusiness attests that you should think a little bit harder about your target audience and what they might be looking for in business branding. For example, a younger demographic might want to see consistent branding across socials, including TikTok integrations. A wine lover demographic might wish to see witty quotes and sassy visuals when shopping for their new favorite wine. By playing to these target use cases, you’ll be getting the most bang for your branding buck.

How Can I Get Started on Branding?

Start by deciding whether you want to go the DIY route or if you want to get the professionals in. When it comes to coding and web design, you’ll want to get pros in to do their magic. However, most small businesses don’t have the expendable budgets to get expert designers in to do the work – at least, not all of it. But there are many graphic elements that you can do yourself just as well (and shh… for much cheaper).

For example, creating an eye-catching banner for your socials or site is a great way to build brand awareness and can be achieved even by novice designers. Use an online banner maker to create a unique and personalized banner for your branding needs. All you need to do is find a banner that works with your more significant brand identity and then add in text, font, color, graphics, images, and even video. It really is that easy! Similarly, social media posts with your logo and consistent branding can be easily DIYed too. Getting smart about which elements to manage yourself will be critical for small businesses low on start-up funds.

In our increasingly digital world, consumers learn more about businesses online than through any other space. And according to this 2019 survey by Hubspot, 70% of reviewed shoppers said that graphics and cohesive design played a significant part in their buying decision. Thus, be sure to include branding in your next campaign strategy to take the business world by storm.

Designing and branding a website doesn’t need to be complicated. At least, that’s what we believe at Designweb Louisville. We offer competitively priced web design and development services to help you build your dream site with ease. Click here to check out our services, or contact us at hello@designweblouisville.com for more information today!

How to Set 2022 SMART Goals for Your E-commerce Business

Author: Eleanor Hecks Website Facebook Instagram LinkedIn

When you’re an e-commerce business owner, you know that you must set goals to achieve success. Many e-commerce brands, no matter their size, miss out on growth because they do not take the time to set goals moving forward.

If you expect to see your business thrive in 2022, here is an overview of how to build SMART goals. And, hopefully, this guide will give you more insight into how SMART goals can benefit you in your business venture.

Why You Need SMART Goals for Your E-commerce Business

As with all things in your business, marketing needs a strategy to obtain success, and it starts with establishing SMART goals. “SMART” is an acronym to help you clearly define your purpose.

SMART goals are crucial in your business. Studies show participants achieving a 33% higher success rate when writing down goals and making a plan of action. Essentially, SMART goals become a roadmap you need to drive toward your definition of success.

This acronym can be a powerful tool in e-commerce. But to create a definitive marketing plan, you must use your SMART goals as a framework to achieve the results you’re looking for in your online business.

What Is SMART?

SMART is defined as “Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely.” Here’s what that actually means in practice.

Specific

Think of what the goals are that you want to attain in your business. These goals should be specific enough to help guide you in the following steps you need to take to achieve them. But you should avoid setting unrealistic goals to ensure you obtain a positive ROI (return on investment) with your online store. Answer specific questions such as:

  • What do I want to achieve?
  • Why is this important?
  • Who is going to accomplish this?

Measurable

To remain successful as an e-commerce business owner, establish goals that are measurable and achievable. These indicators suggest how much time you’ll need to meet your deadlines. And it helps you stay on track while acknowledging where you are during the entire process of achieving your goals. With this goal, you should be able to answer questions including:

  • How many?
  • How much?
  • When can I achieve this accomplishment?

Attainable

When it comes to business prosperity, you need to establish reasonably attainable goals. Setting a goal should keep you from stretching yourself too thin but should allow enough room for growth during the process. Ask yourself the following questions to set an achievable goal:

  • How can I achieve this goal?
  • Is this goal realistic enough for me to accomplish?

Relevant

Relevant goals exist to reassure you they align with your other business goals. This step is to help you remain in control so you can look forward to having your team help achieve them. Questions you can answer to ensure you’re taking the proper steps include:

  • Is this worth my time?
  • Does it seem like the right moment to take action?
  • Does this goal align with my needs?

Timely

Target your goals with a set deadline. This method creates a sense of urgency and helps you to focus on working towards those goals. A time goal prevents daily operational tasks from becoming a higher priority and allows you to seek your long-term goals. When setting a time to reach your goal, ask yourself:

  • When can I achieve this?
  • What actions can I start taking today?
  • How can I accomplish this goal six months from now?

E-commerce Goal Examples

Here are a few marketing objectives you can look at as an example to assist you with establishing your SMART goals:

  • My business needs to attain 5,000 website visitors to increase our revenue to $100,000 through content marketing within the next six months.
  • We have to increase our brand awareness by the last quarter of 2022 by partnering with an additional eight to 10 influencers.
  • We need to increase our store’s conversion rate by 6% in the third quarter of 2022 by offering a limited-time discount on our best-selling products.

Steps for Setting Your SMART Goals in E-commerce

The first step to working through this acronym is simply setting a goal you would like to achieve in your business. For instance, your business can meet higher product demands by outsourcing packaging needs. By establishing this type of goal, you can start breaking it down by determining the steps you would take to achieve these results.

Before you establish these steps, you should understand why you need to reach these goals. Setting your “why” helps you know what your mission is all about when you move forward with the next steps.

After you establish your goal and understand your reasoning behind it, it’s time to commit. This step involves brainstorming how you are going to attain this goal. It’s best to create a plan for when your commitments fail to produce results.

Ask yourself how far you’re willing to execute your plan and when you should stop committing your resources. Once you hit a roadblock, this strategy will guide your team in knowing when to put a stop to reaching the goal.

After you establish a SMART goal, consider making a plan for how you are going to achieve results. You and your employees can accomplish better work performance results when creating a plan of action. Here are a few excellent questions you can ask yourself to create a system:

  • What costs are involved, and what resources will be required to fund these efforts?
  • What steps can I take to increase my profit margins?
  • Which adjustments should I make with my supplier to expand my margins?
  • What products can I develop to reach my goal?

Taking Action

SMART provides you with the ability to achieve your overall success. Use the SMART goal framework to build your focus and improve your strategies for growth. Only you can start taking action today by using this strategy to improve your e-commerce operations. What goals will you define in your business for 2022?

Eleanor Hecks is editor-in-chief at Designerly Magazine. Eleanor was the creative director and occasional blog writer at a prominent digital marketing agency before becoming her own boss in 2018. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and dog, Bear.

Theater Event Space Website Design

Author: Sean H. Website Facebook Instagram LinkedIn

New Albany Magic needed a new website for their local magic shop and intimate magic show theater. We were excited to work with Brent and his team to capture the fun they create at the theater and distill it into an exciting, inviting and unforgettable website experience and marketing tool for their retail magic shop.

About J & B Magic Shop and Theater at New Albany Magic: J & B Theater is a 30 seat immersive, close-up magic theater in New Albany, IN. It is 10 Minutes from downtown Louisville. The J&B Magic Theater gives the opportunity to see some of the best performers in the world up close for a night you will never forget.

Attorney Legal Services Website

Author: Sean H. Website Facebook Instagram LinkedIn

We worked with attorney Lora Holman to put together a great site that would work for her law office. The site includes a large list of services she offers, with a detail page to increase specific SEO on the site for those particular services and keyword phrases. We also created a back end of the site for easy editing, addition, and removal of posts, pages, and other content.

5 Tips on Online Marketing with Web Design for Small Businesses

Author: David Anderson

There are billions of searches that search engines like Google and Bing get on a daily basis from consumers across the world. According to research, around 97 percent of consumers research their required products or services online to find local options or to check reviews. As a small business owner, you should know that your website is likely one of the first things that most consumers will notice about it.

On the basis of its design and features, a lot of people will form opinions and decide whether to make a purchase or leave. Think of your web page as a promotional tool or platform through which you can create brand awareness and experience growth.

If you want to achieve the desired results with online marketing, you need to focus on the web design and invest in it. Here are some tips that could be useful for increasing the reach of your small business.

  1. Reduce Loading Time and Friction

When you are involved in the designing process of the website, it is important to keep in mind that visitors judge your brand through your website. Make sure you have your logo plastered on every page, which you can easily get from a professional logo design website.

Moreover, the loading speed of your website should be within seconds. Large image files, lots of videos or animations and flashy design elements can slow down the web page and take longer to appear. This could result in visitors closing it and moving away to a competitor.

Your website only needs to have relevant content and visuals which include your brand logo, portfolio of work or product images, and interactive call-to-actions. This way, there is minimal clutter and you can reduce any friction which can prevent consumers from navigating to another link or category. The audience today has many options and an attention span that lasts about 8 seconds.

In order to make sure that they remain on your page and market your products or services to them, you should optimize the website for less loading time. It is also crucial to get rid of elements which cause friction so it’s easier for people to interact and take the required action.

  1. Use Clear and Original Images

The product catalog and imagery on your website is one of the most critical factors in web design. As a small business owner, you need to attract the attention of the visitors with the images on your website. It’s how you can market what you have to offer effectively and convince people of your authenticity as well.

One of the best ways that you can make the most of your web page is by using clear and original pictures of products or your work. While there is nothing wrong with picking stock images and using them, original photos go a long way in online marketing. They can set your business apart from the others and highlight its unique factor to the audiences.

With stock pictures, you may end up appearing similar to the others as another website might have the same one. To avoid this, you can use a small part of your marketing budget to hire a professional photographer and use those images for the catalog or the main page.

  1. Add Home Page Scrolling

While you want to keep all the information compact and make it easier for the website to load faster, you can still create an interactive home page. Previously, WordPress expert designers and brand owners paid a lot of attention to engaging consumers above the fold. Now, it is actually considered good web design when people can easily scroll down and find relevant information and options beyond the first two folds of the web page.

By adding home page scrolling to your website, you can include more CTAs (call-to-actions), images and contact information to help visitors find what they want. There are a lot of websites of small businesses such as Birchbox which have an attractive home page design going below the fold.

  1. Incorporate Social Sharing Buttons

This is actually very important and can boost the credibility of a website and create awareness as well. Incorporating the share link or blog feature on social media networks such as Twitter, Instagram or Facebook is always a good idea for online marketing. This way, you can make it easier for people to post your blog or promote a particular product to their followers or friends.

If you take the example of Soko Glam, you will see how the Korean Skincare brand has used this to their advantage. In their web design, the company has included an option to share their blogs in ‘The Klog’ section and within their product listings as well.

  1. Have an FAQ Section

There are a number of people who go through the FAQ section of a website before sending in queries or contacting the company. By including the section in your web design, you can provide a good user experience to the consumers and give them the answer to the basic questions related to pricing, shipping or brands.

Nowadays, almost all big and small websites feature an FAQ section in the menu bar or within the footer. This helps people find it quickly and go through the relevant information.

To Sum Up

These are some of the tips for online marketing with web design that could help take your small business to the next level. If you apply them and make improvements in your website, you could generate higher traffic and boost conversions as well. While designing a web page, it is a good idea to keep a few of these in mind so that your website can compete with bigger brands in the digital world.

Author Profile

David Anderson is a business graduate with a marketing major. He specializes in communication design and has helped many brands achieve their goals in marketing communication. Now he writes for freelance clients on topics related to brand design, visual communication, and marketing.

Best Email Marketing Software for Small Businesses

Author: Sara Williams

As a small business, you have a lot of constraints. You have a limited budget but are in dire need of more staffing. Before making a small decision, you need to look at your budget to make sure that the decision you make will be profitable. And more importantly, you need to make smarter decisions when it comes to the software you implement. You are choosing software to do some of the vital tasks because you do not have the resources to do otherwise.

That said, email marketing tools are on the rise. There are nearly 450+ options for you to choose from. Hence, we have put together some of the best email marketing software available in the market. These tools not only enhance your marketing operations but also save the time you spend on sending emails.

1. PeppyBiz

PeppyBiz offers a wide variety of software solutions. Among which, is the powerful email marketing software solution. Our software is perfectly tailored to fit small businesses. Our experts have packed the software with plenty of optimised email templates for you to choose from. You can use themes that match your brand and customise all you want.

On the technical side, our software enables you to send targeted emails and triggered emails. You can create automation sequences to deploy personalised mails at the most opportune time. Our software also allows you to integrate with many other tools making it easy for the transfer of customer data. By opting for our software, you also get advanced features like A/B testing, real-time statistics, etc.

2. NotifyVisitors:

With NotifyVisitors, you get a software suite that combines the power of email marketing and marketing automation under one roof. You can also make use of the advanced analytics tool to arrive at better automation workflows.

It also boasts a sophisticated segmentation tool that saves a lot of time for your marketing employees. You also get intuitive extensions and integrations to make your email marketing venture smoother.

3. Sendinblue:

Sendinblue is one of the best email marketing software for transactional emails. With this software by your side, you can always be sure that you send GDPR-compliant emails every time.

For expert users, the software also offers developer tools. So you can customise the software to suit your business needs. The software also has automation tools that specialise in send-time optimisation. So you deliver the content at the right time.

4. Drip:

Drip is a popular name among e-commerce businesses. It has all the features of the above-mentioned best email marketing software. In addition, it also has numerous integration options with popular e-commerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce.

It has tools like revenue analytics and multi-platform communication as well. All these combined make it a powerful tool for e-commerce businesses. Plus, it also has an interactive visual automation builder to make things easier.

5. Autopilot:

Autopilot, as the name suggests, focuses entirely on email automation. It understands that personalization is the key and leverages the user data where necessary. Most businesses who use this software attest to them as the easiest and the most simple to use interface.

Their visual automation builder allows you to add emojis, stickers and descriptions for quick identification. Simply put, there’s no unnecessary clutter.

6. MailerLite:

MailerLite is the most affordable option for SMBs that do not have much capital to spend. But, it still manages to offer some of the latest features and tools. If you are a beginner who wants to experiment with email automation, then MailerLite should be your first choice.

You can create and manage multiple email campaigns with ease. And the creators of this software are constantly giving out quality updates. Moreover, you wouldn’t get to experience automation for a small price anywhere else.

7. Benchmark:

Talking about the affordable and best email marketing software, Benchmark offers you many powerful tools for free. It includes a drag and drop builder, simple automation and reporting tools in their free version. Their website claims to provide a reduced customisation time. According to many businesses that use this software, it is true that it offers a simple UI and an impactful UX.

It also has advanced features like an HTML email editor and RSS emails. Another exciting feature of this software is the inbuilt photo editor. You do not need to be an expert in manipulating photos using photoshop when you have image editing tools in your email editor. You can also view your emails in a different environment (say mobile devices) to check compatibility.

8. Mailchimp:

Mailchimp is a fairly popular tool among SMBs and enterprises alike. Many business owners accredit them as the best email marketing software. Initially, you can start using the software with basic features free of cost. But to have automation and other such tools, you need to upgrade to a higher package.

Now that Mailchimp has become an all-in-one tool, you can perform all marketing operations using the same software. It also comes with options to integrate with WordPress, Magneto and Shopify. However, you get customer support only through email. But for running a business, time is of the essence. So that is the only drawback of Mailchimp.

9. GetResponse:

GetResponse is another well-known software among marketers. Attracting customers to click on your emails is the primary objective of this software. It lets you create beautiful forms, templates and landing pages. Moreover, it also has A/B testing, user tracking and autoresponders, which make the work of a small business easier.

By choosing this software, you get a live support team ready to help you with any issues. Their website is full of learning materials and videos to help their customers with the software. So you do not need to invest in training sessions too.

10. Constant Contact:

Constant Contact is an emerging software with impressive tools to offer. It also has a small learning curve. Meaning, it will fit in well with a fast-paced small business. You can conduct drip campaigns, surveys and polls using this software.

Another interesting feature is the built-in social media sharing tool. So, you can also schedule your social media posts using this software. Just include in the automation sequences and your emails and social media ads are good to go.

Conclusion

Finally, it all comes down to your budget and how the software will impact your business. Hence, try to look for free trials of the software before fixing one as the best fit,

Guest Blog by PeppyBiz

PeppyBiz is a leading SaaS provider offering a wide variety of AI-powered business solutions that streamlines your business. Check out our products today!

Author Bio:

Sara Williams

Sara is a content writer at PeppyBiz, a platform that allows businesses to grow a list of email subscribers, design and build customized email templates through email marketing software.