Do you master the art of building anticipation?
Or maybe you still overlook its “power” and you usually go straight to launching your website, confident enough that it will “blow their minds”. That all that “fuss” about generating buzz and enticing potential customers, while your site is still under construction, is nothing but a waste of resources.
Or maybe you're one of those website owners or developers in Toronto who sees it as a “step” to be checked off a list: you simply stick to the “standard procedure”. You go for the conventional textline (“Coming Soon” or “Under Construction”), followed by “...” , opting for the “same old same old” font, same background color as the one appearing on thousands of other websites?
Instead, if you're one of those “detail-oriented” developers/business owners who'd love to learn to “master” the art of anticipation, you're on the right blog!
If you'd like to find out how you could build your loyal audience, one that would be “present” at the “big launch” event before you've added the very last touches to your product/services, if you'd like to build that aura of “high expectations” around your website before it's even ready to be launched, this is the right “tips and tricks” blog post for you. Keep reading:
1. Keep Them “In the Loop” With a Countdown Timer
It might look like such a “worn-out” tactic to you.
And yet: mind you don't underestimate the power of a countdown timer! It's a more- than-useful tool for building anticipation: let them know, don't keep them in the dark, how much days there are left till “the big moment”.
From a user experience perspective it's definitely a “go for” strategy to subtly “guide” your visitors. To gradually deliver them “clues” they need for reaching their journey's destination: in this case, when's the launch date and how much days they still have to count till they “get there”.
2. Go For an Email Sign-Up Form
Now don't think that people will keep counting days till launch time and that precisely on that day they'll rush in to visit your website!
Instead of “slacking off” and to genuinely expect users to “flood onto” your site the day you'll release it “into the wild”, send them remainder emails!
For this, you'll need their email addresses and what more convenient way of collecting them than by placing an email sign-up form on your “under construction” website page?
Your “crop” of contact email addresses will turn out to be a “gold mine” at your disposal, one that will jump start the whole success of your website/business.
A simple, email-reminder, before launch day, will set the difference between a “newly” resealed website, with barely any visitors, and one witnessing a significant wave of traffic, from the very first day.
3. Consider a “Limited Pre-Sell” Tactic
This strategy works best once you've set up a particular context beforehand:
first of all, it works best if you're actually selling something on your website (online courses, various products)
secondly, you should build an “community” loyal to your brand during the “launch tease” period and to convey trust.
In order to strengthen this particular audience's trust in your product, preselling your it (or offering early adoption discounts, especially if we're talking about online courses), even if you haven't yet finished it, it's an effective two-purpose strategy:
you increase anticipation for your product's final version, build trust and entice them to come back to your website, once it's launched
you get to collect valuable reviews, which could instantly be turned into “last minute warnings” that you should improve certain features of your products/services before launch day
Not to mention that you could use the gains resulting from pre-sell for actually investing them in the “last touches” that you'll apply to your products!
4. Generate Buzz on Social Media, Too!
Your company's social media accounts make the perfect “environment” for generating buzz on and for spreading it to lots of potential website visitors/customers.
Therefore, don't rely strictly on that “database of priceless email addresses” that you'll collect, but on all the followers that you'll manage to attract on your social media acounts, as well.
This way, you'll have visitors “flooding onto” your website, on launch day, coming from two sources instead of just one.
“How do I increase social engagement on my social media accounts”, you say? By getting creative!
Gather your team of Toronto developers and come up with a “hard to resist to” giveaway/major discounts scenario. Make your incentive truly effective!
Next, come up with a condition: use social promotion as a means for them to gain access to the items that you'll giving away or selling at an incredibly low price! Make them Like your page, to post something related to your website's upcoming launch, on their accounts and link to your company's social media page, you name it.
“Give before you ask!” Remember?
5. Keep Your Text Effectively Concise
You want to give away “clues” about your products/services, you want to “seduce” potential customers with words, to reveal to them why they should sign up for the email remainder, but you definitely don't want to give away too much through a too long, “hard to digest” block of text!
It's a “launch tease”, you know! So, you should give away enough information for them to get a short insight, not to “reveal” everything and “bore” them with an entire “history” of your product! Keep it conveniently short, keep them “in suspense”!
6. Engage Them With a Video
Is there any need to stress the “power” of video content once more? It's the type of content that captivates instead of merely “deliver infos” about a soon to be launched product/service/course.
Therefore, consider “turbocharging” your coming soon page with “the power” of video!
It's up to you how you decide to showcase your products in this video. A possible option is that of a “collage” of short interviews with members of your team. It will build trust and it will help your visitors to “put a face” on your brand even before your company website “steps into the spotlight”! It will “humanize” it and it will ease interaction!
7. Come Up With an Irresistible Incentive for Launch Day
The “Give before you ask” tactic shouldn't be limited to “presells”.
Exploit this strategy till the very end: which, for a coming soon page is the website's launch itself. Give away something on launch day, too!
A possible scenario would be this one: you already have a “collection” of emails coming from your sign-up form, so you use them to send out an alluringly designed email letting your potential customers know what they'll get if the revisit your recently launched site.
Not only that you'll let them know that “the waiting is over”, but you'll also give them a reason why they should visit it precisely on launch day: since your giveaway is limited to launch day!
This is, in our opinion, the “anatomy” of an effective coming soon page. What other elements do you think it should include? Feel free to share if you have any other suggestions or to disagree with our suggestions, in the comments below!
Adrian Ababei / Feb 02'2017
Could your enterprise-size brand, with a strong presence in the online world, ever “rival” the familiar, always-ready-to-help, “born and raised there” salesperson that everyone in the community knows and esteems? Could your national chain of restaurants ever compete with a small, family resto in your attempt to “lure” tourists into your local restaurant, promising them “authentic local flavors”?
Our answer is: yes, you can! But not if you continue to “broadcast” the same “one size fits all” type of message. Not if you continue to tell your brand's story in a monotonous, corporate-like tone!
Your national brand can still build its own loyal narrow audience, within that local market, if you decide to mingle with key “locals”, who can lend you a hand for producing hyperlocal, authentic content. Content that your local targeted audience will “digest” far better.
Your whole “local” content marketing strategy should, therefore, rely on collaborations with these particular “creative locals”!
They're the ones who'll help you find an answer to your dilemma:
“Should I “exploit” my team to collect content with a “local flavor”, from each and every market that I'm striving to send my brand's story to, a “mission impossible”, from the very start, due to the huge resources involved and amount time required? Or should I appeal to my local partners, even if I know that they might lack writing talent and storytelling skills?”
Local creatives and local influencers are, in fact, the answer to your dilemma! They're the ones that will boost your local content marketing efforts!
Hyperlocal, authentic content “that works” will help you boost your SEO and your improve your social media engagement, too! 2 major benefits that no national brand could afford to underestimate, right?
More about how your company could benefit from strategic collaborations with these “key” locals and how to “identify” them, in each one the local markets that you're targeting:
1. Sponsor Local Journalists
Local journalists, especially those that are truly gifted with the talent of storytelling, will always be a “gold” resource for your local content strategy!
That “neighborhood flavor” that journalists working for small local news sites can provide, will always weight a lot, a lot more than the generic content delivered by larger, nationwide daily news.
It's a win-win-situation if you come to think of it: nonprofit local news sites get a new source of revenue and your company gets its brand story told in a local “dialect”.
Your gifted local collaborator will invest some of his/her talent and local knowledge into a piece of content promoting your brand (for your brand's commercials, content to be published on your company website or other branded media) or in a sponsored post.
Either way, he'll be the intermediary you need for “winning over” that specific local market and he'll be the “advocate“ of your brand. He/she will portray it as one striving to discover and then to incorporate the targeted local audience's own “brand story” in its message.
But How Do You “Recruit” These Talented Local Journalists?
First of all, you should internalize this: creative local writers and publishers need revenue diversification!
See it as an opportunity: it's in these local creatives own interest (or at least in the interest of the local news sites they work for), too, not just your company's, to lend you a helping hand to tell your brand's story.
Also, be prepared for “rejection”, too: not all of them will want to “help” you, not even if we're talking about commissioned writing.
Not all these gifted local journalists will want to help an “enterprise brand” “invade” their local market and “outshine” the small local businesses.
But some of them will want to “help” you: so seize those opportunities, in particular, for getting your otherwise standardized brand's message “infused” with valuable topic knowledge!
2. “Lure” Local Influencers: Your Brand Story's Advocates
Whether they're local vloggers, bloggers, Youtube or Instagram “personalities”, you “want” to approach these “local VIPs”.
They'll be your brand's advocates, the ones with the biggest impact on that narrow, targeted audience that you wish to “seduce”.
Moreover: they already have the content writing know-how and the needed local knowledge, too. So, it's already a an “ideal combo of qualities” that you can't afford to overlook!
But how do you “lure” them? How do you convince local influencers to turn into your brand's dedicated promoters?
We, at our web design company in Toronto, do favor the “Give before you ask” strategy!
In way too many cases it's not even physical stuff that you can “tempt” local influencers with.
You could “reward” them, in advance, for the time and effort they'll invest, with an invitation (or more) to some of your company's spectacular, glamorous events, attracting lots of personalities in your field.
Tip 1: for many of these bloggers, getting the link to their blogs on a national brand's website and social media accounts already is a significant boost for their own SEO efforts and social media strategy.
Tip 2: “think outside the box!”. When most of your competitors are reaching out to bloggers with the highest no. of followers, you should focus rather on those key bloggers whose “narrative voices” “fit” your brand. Who could add value to your brand's story and not merely “convey your message” it to their local followers!
How Do You “Track Down” These Local Influencers?
It's quite unexpected that even now enterprise-level brands haven't yet exploited the “local marketing resource” of partnering with local influencers to its full potential!
How about turning this context into a business opportunity for you?
In addition to his experience as a writer and his valuable knowledge as a local (that local journalists provide, too), an influencer would also help you “get your brand's story told to a wide audience” from that local market that you're targeting.
“How do I find local influencers?”, you say?
Here are some tactics you could employ:
think what terms/phrases are more likely to be found on a local influencer's blog: "here in Toronto" intitle:"blog"
consider, also, that some bloggers might not include the word “blog” itself, too, on their blogs and try out different combos such as: "here in Toronto" intitle: "restaurant"
3. Collect Local Data: “Get Under Their Skin!”
It won't be easy, we won't hide it from you! It will take your team of developers in Toronto a while for “doing their hocus pocus” and make city pages generate local data.
But it's worth the effort!
Dig up as much “local” information about the cities/communities that your company's tying to reach out to: Which are the most popular cafes there? What pizza places do most of them prefer to order from? What rent a car companies are most popular in those communities?
“Equipped” with such priceless local data, your team could then use it for crafting blog posts or landing pages with a local touch.
These will be the right means for you to resonate with that targeted local audience: you'll show them that you're full aware that they're unique and that your brand “cherishes” their uniqueness!
You'll thus win their trust and consolidate your local presence.
In Conclusion:
Face it: you need hyperlocal content if you want to boost your raking in SERPs and local publications.
Face it: your team, no matter how large or efficient it might be, won't ever manage to “grasp” that “neighborhood know-how”.
You need to team up with local people, to “recruit” new partners from all those local creatives and influencers, if you really want to add an authentic “local flavor” to your brand's message and to efficiently resonate with your narrow local audiences!
Now your turn: what tactics does your company rely on for producing quality local content that works? How do you collect your “local data” and efficiently “spread the news” about your brand in the targeted local communities?
Adrian Ababei / Feb 01'2017
It's a trap: don't fall for it! Don't trade website usability for innovative UI design! Don't strive to impress and thus undermine your site's main goal: making it super easy for your visitors to navigate through!
Instead of dazzling them away you might just... drive them away! Instead of impressing your visitors with your Drupal site's stunning design and beautiful graphics you'll be getting too demanding.
You'll demand too much effort and time, since users will need to invest way too many resources for “untangling” your innovative and therefore unfamiliar interface, instead of focusing on its high quality content.
So, what should it be? Do you want a “avant-garde”, visually-spectacular website that only you and your team would “feast” your eyes on whenever you want, for boosting your self-confidences?
Or rather an inviting website that welcomes in lots of users, making them come back for more?
If you've chosen the second answer, then here are some pieces of advice, “collected” from our team of web developers in Toronto, on how you can boost your website's usability! They're just common sense tactics that everyone knows but many ignore, you know:
1. "Bid on" Standard, Familiar Navigation
Remember: you're reaching out to users with an attention span shorter than that of a goldfish, according to the latest studies.
Therefore, you'd better use those 5 (or less) seconds wisely!
An optimized navigation menu, in terms of usability, should be:
familiar: do not let yourself seduced by the urge to “reinvent the wheel”. Your users are already used to find the main navigation menu on top of the page, displaying links to key pages on your website, featuring concise titles. “Familiar” means “less time invested in recovering from the “surprise” of a new type of layout and less effort (leading to frustration and confusion) for figuring out how the new layout works. So, less time and effort from your users and more pleased users for you: it's a win-win situation after all!
effective: don't fall for the trap of pulling off a multi-level navigation bar and a side bar “combo”! You risk to tire your visitor! Our advice to you is to trimline your navigation bar (stick to maximum 7 fields) instead of turning its layout into a true “maze” for your users to solve.
accessible: making your menu quick to find you'll be enhancing accessibility throughout your entire website. Your visitors will then know where they are and where they can go next. No need to get them “stuck in wondering”: light their path with simple, straightforward navigation!
Tip: a great tool for improving your website's organizational schema is Crazy Egg. It will provide you with a heat map “enlightening” you on what sections on your page users engage with more frequently. Empowered with such a map, you'll get to effectively display and organize elements on each one of your site's pages!
2. Lead Them Through With Visual Hierarchy
Pulling off a truly effective informational hierarchy is an “art”, but one that you can master following these key principles:
wisely “exploit” that section on your homepage that users' eyes fall on first once they land on it (the center of the page, underneath your navigation menu, or the top left corner): place your most important piece of content there, one that should provide a lower level of detail!
use larger font size for drawing attention to high priority pieces of content
go for visually-arresting images for signaling a higher level of importance given to a particular piece of content
It's no rocket science, it's just helping your users to easily digest your content. By pointing out to them what content is more important and which blocks of content fall on a lower level of the visual hierarchy, you'll be subtly guiding them along your homepage's content.
You'll be taking them on an enjoyable tour instead of confusing them and “bombarding” them with equally “flashy”, equally important information that they can't possibly “digest” all at once.
Tip: strive to keep each content section concise and you'll be “encouraging” your visitors to keep navigating, in a quest for some more “small dosages” of details.
3. Make Your Call to Action Stand Out
We couldn't be talking about a “usable” website lacking a straightforward “call to action”, right? It's what makes your site “usable”.
Therefore, make sure your call/s to action is well visible on your front page and on every other page: “Buy Now”, “Start Your Free Trial”, “Learn More” etc.
They will turn users' visit from just an “aimless wander about” into a journey with a clear destination!
4. Loading Time: Optimize, Optimize, then Optimize Some More
No “frustratingly” slow loading website could pass the 5 second test, right? It will just put users' patience to a test!
So, what can you do for improving your web pages' load time? Here are some optimization tips for you:
optimize your CSS files
optimize your images and scale down their sizes
remove duplicate scripts
optimize browser catching
Tip: heavy scripts, such as JavaScript, are one of the main “culprits” for slow loading pages. Instead, consider opting for minimal scrips if you want to deliver your users a far more agreeable, faster experience on your website! No need to take our advice, take Google's instead: its whole AMP initiative revolves around boosting web pages' load time on smaller screens, too!
5. The Power of Imagery: Handle It With Great Care
Stunning images are a great power which, once triggered, can help you get your users “hooked” to your site, to break up huge blocks of content, to enhance readability and even to add an extra layer of meaning to it, too. A text upgraded with images will always have a much more powerful effect on the reader.
Where do you add that beautiful and highly suggestive images will always be far more easily to digest than big chunks of text alone.
Still, make sure you handle this power with care!
For it you're overcrowding your web pages with outstanding images and even, worse, if you overload it with poorly optimized ones, the result will be: confusing, tiring the user's eye and making him lose his patience, too!
In a nutshell: use imagery to impress, capture attention and “tell a visual story”, but mind you don't overdo it!
6. When in Doubt: Use White Space
It will always “come to your website's rescue”, keeping it from looking discouragingly crowded. Any web designer in Toronto “worth his salt” would confirm you this!
Use white space for keeping your content airy and easy to navigate through and to be digested.
It's pretty much like you'd be inviting your visitors in a light and airy living room instead of a dark, boxes-stuffed basement.
Don't underestimate the impact of white space on your website's usability!
7. Break It Up With Headings and Subheadings
Instead of “serving” users “hard to digest”, big chunks of text, how about breaking it up with headings and subheadings?
Now only that it will increase readability tremendously, making your written content easier to scan, but it will also boost your SEO: H1 still remains a major ranking factor!
In order words: use heading and subheadings for improving user experience and you'll implicitly improve your “relationship” with the search engines, as well!
8. “Consistency Is Key” Is More Than Just Another Motto
Consistency goes hand in hand with “familiarity”!
Keeping the same layout, same fonts and color on every page, will reassure your visitors that they're “on the right path, that they haven't deviated from it.
Keep a consistent theme throughout your website and you'll make your website easy to use: just think about it, now only that you'll instill a sense of familiarity, but you'll be saving your users' time and effort otherwise “wasted” for “deciphering” the new theme, for understanding the new layout's organizational schema etc.
Now to boil down usability to the essentials, we've seen that it relies on 5 main principles:
Consistency
Simplicity
Familiarity
Relevancy
Accessibility of a site
How about your Drupal website? Would it pass the 5 second test? What other usability-enhancing tactics have you used so far? What's your opinion: what role does usability play in the “making of a website?”
Adrian Ababei / Jan 30'2017
Most of the time it is “Do Not” type of information that you find online when you're trying to find out what types of links Google appreciates. Those types of links that will boost your site's ranking and help it avoid the risk of being put on Google's “nasty” list.
It's far more rarely that you come upon “It's OK to” type of content, right? Articles that clearly point out to you the link types that Google would really love to see on your Drupal site and how precisely you can gain them.
This is why for today's post on our blog we've decided to highlight the “good natural” link types that you should strive to generate for your site.
We'll be focusing on what you should do, not on what you must stay away from. On what link types, precisely, you should gain.
This being said, here's our list of 10 types of links that comply with Google's guidelines:
1. Ask People for Links
And yes, this would still be a “natural” link, even if you ask for it.
Which ones of your friends, family or bloggers in your company would gladly (with no incentive included in the equation) put your brand's link on their blogs/websites or mention your company in one of the pieces of content they'll write?
If they genuinely vouch for your company, showcasing their “vote of trust” in the form of a link, Google will appreciate it.
You'd better set up your list of potential “link hosts” right now!
2. Appeal to Your Industry Connections
How does your own “network” of industry connections look like? Maybe it includes most of the developers in Toronto, food suppliers or maybe real estate agencies instead.
Is your company listed on all your collaborators' “Our Partners” pages?
A good practice, for gaining more links that Google approves of, is to check what business lists your competitors are listed on. Then, to do what it takes to get your own business, as well, listed among those websites relevant for the niche that you operate in.
3. Recover Broken Links
But first: how do you get a pertinent report of all your broken links?
Simple! Your go to Google Search Console and search for crawl errors!
Next, once you've identified them all, you have two options:
you contact the admins/content editors of the websites on which the link to your company seems to have been misspelled and you kindly ask them to correct the misspelling (after you've politely thanked them for adding it in the first place, obviously)
you create a redirect, enabling the broken link to link to your website. It won't “weight” as much as a clean, correctly spelled one, but it sure is worthier than one opening up a 404 page.
4. Focus On Niche Business Directories
"EXCLUSIVELY on niche business directories”, we should have added!
And this is to set a difference between those spammy directories where pretty much anyone could create a link and the niche, harder-to-get-access-to ones, truly relevant for your own type of business!
These and only these are the type of directories that, once your business gets listed, will send good signals to Google!
Run your own “investigations” online, and find out where your competitors have got their businesses listed and try to get your company Drupal website's link published on those “members-only” type of directories, too!
5. Be a Journalist's Source
Familiar with HARO? The online service that practically brings together journalists and valuable sources? These sources are professionals in their fields, who can provide the former with the relevant, expert information they need for wiring their pieces of content?
Well, what would you say about “enrolling” in this program?
You might step into the shoes of a truly valuable source for a future “viral” article, one including a link to your company's site, too!
6. Plan a Newsworthy Event/Campaign
Think of a publicity-attracting event or a campaign: a “run for charity” event or one encouraging young talents to compete and to show off their potential and win a role in your company, an environmental awareness activity, you name it, one that would get you media attention.
Give journalists something to write about! “Something” that has your link in it!
Tip: Do a “research” on the latest news, those relevant in your niche and find out what journalists would write about. Use the results as a source of inspiration, but make sure you challenge your creativity and come up with something that would get even more press attention!
7. Make Your Content Stand Out
Content is, indeed, king, but “sticky”, viral content is... emperor!
But how do you produce content that people would share and talk about, content that stands out from the “sea of potentially viral content” online?
One good old “trick” is to go to Yahoo Answers and filter the information by your business type/products you sell or services you offer!
Find out what are people's genuine questions related to your type of services/products and turn that information into “VIP” content.
Articles that will, subsequently, answer precisely the questions that your potential customers are asking themselves, will “hit their target right away!
You'll then be much more confident to reach out and ask for links when your initiative is “backed up” by viral content that people love, don't you think?
8. Get More Links With Your Already “Linkable” Content
Do you know what pages on your Drupal website are currently “stealing all the spotlights”?
The right way to get your own “top” of the most “linkable” pages on your website is the following:
access Google Search Console
go to “Links to Your Site”
then go to “More linked content”
There, once you click on “More”, you'll get an accurate report on what URLs fron your website are most popular.
Put together a list and then use precisely this linkable content on your website for promoting it to your future “link hosts”! These URLs will act as your “trust signals” supporting your efforts for attracting more links from those that you'll contact.
Tip: you could, as well, contact those who've already put your link on their websites, for thanking them them, in the fist place, and for asking for content suggestions, secondly. What other type of content would be relevant, interesting enough for for their audiences?
9. Reclaim Your Company Name's Mentions
Let's assume that you've set up Google Alerts and that now you know that there are cases where your brand name's got mentioned, but not linked to, as well.
Select those particular brand mentions from your report and get ready to reach out to those people and to kindly ask them to “reward” you with a link, as well (after, of course, you've expressed your gratitude for already having mentioned your brand's name).
Piece of advice: it's a good practice to go over this data and to contact those who've mentioned you, but haven't linked to your website, on a monthly basis.
10. Exploit The Media Attention That You're Getting
That's right! Another “natural” way for getting more links that Google would approve of is to get the most out of the media attention that you're already getting.
Is your company currently in the spotlight? Then think of strategies for getting even more publicity, for getting the media write even more about your brand!
This, implicitly, means more good, natural links for you!
Do you know any other strategies for gaining good links? Feel free to share in the comments below!
Adrian Ababei / Jan 27'2017
Your company's story already has loads of potential to captivate and keep your users engaged: it's unique, it's your brand's identity. There aren't two of a kind!
Now that we've got this straight, let us pop up THE question: how are you going to benefit from your story's uniqueness for drawing people in? How are you going to tell it so that you captivate them first, build trust around your brand secondly and then: boost your conversion rates, too?
How about using your About Us page to “tell this unique story of yours”, to tell it your own way and not in a stiff, impersonal manner that would only make it blend with the masses?
How about breaking the mold and turning this section on your Drupal website into a “storyteller” instead of a “boring” facts and stats-showcasing “board”?
How do you tell your story on your About page in a way that engages, builds trust and sparks emotions (not to mention “leads”)?
Here's how:
1. Tell Them Your Story
Remember that we've already talked, in one of our older posts, about the importance of incorporating your brand's story into your website's design?
Well, you should stick to this good practice if you truly want to be part of the exception, to make your site “stand out from the masses of websites”.
Therefore, engage in brand storytelling on your About page and make your readers... engage with your brand. It's they very first step that our web design team in Toronto takes when starting to create About pages: listening to our clients' stories!
What makes your brand different? Which was the “vision” you had when you “drafted” the first prototypes of your products/services? How did you imagine they would impact people's lives, make a difference and “change the world”?
Maybe you have a funny story about the “birth” of your company instead, or a daring projection of its future “mission” in the real/digital world. Tell it to them!
Run an analysis of your brand's identity, track that “something” that easily sets it apart from the crowd, then go ahead and “exploit” it: put together both descriptive and emotive copy, along with visually-absorbing graphics and “tell” them your story instead of just “delivering” it to them.
A good story will instantly “inject” meaning into your products/services, it will put them in a context and where do you add that good stories are “sticky”, too: they go viral!
2. Humanize Your Brand
It's human beings that you're reaching out to! Not “bots”, not just generic “users”, not just a faceless “audience”.
So, a little empathy, from the human beings in your company to the human beings “paying you a visit” on your website, will just come to strengthen your communication.
In other words: put a human face on your brand, showcase its personality on your About page.
Tip: how about adding some smiling faces there? Natural, genuine smiles (not the corporate-like, “fake” ones), are “scientifically proven” to help people connect and to boost conversions.
Step out from the mass of “stiff” jargon-using companies! It will just make your brand speak “the monotonous robots' language” to your users!
Instead, tell them about your brand, tell them your story with simple words, using short sentences infused with your brand's authentic voice. Whether this means adding the fun factor here and there, some “punchy sentences” or even “on the spot” made up words (easy to “decipher”).
Go for “friendly and empathetic” language and stay away from “rigid” and patronizing language.
3. Trigger The Power of Video Content
… and you'll keep your visitors “hooked” to your About page way longer!
Not to mention that you'll portrait your brand as an innovative one, ahead of the curve, interested in delivering interactive, engaging user experiences.
So, why shouldn't you “unleash” the power of video on this special section on your Drupal website? Tell your story in a video!
Or, even better: put together the power of video with the power of audio and trigger the “force” of multimedia on your About Page! It will be a multi-leveled experience for your website's visitors. Your story's certain to remain carved in their minds for a longer period of time than conventional “harder to digest” chunks of text!
4. Make It Visually Attractive
No matter how extraordinary your brand's story might be, it will impress and fascinate no one if you present it like a list of paragraphs conventionally entitled: Our Team, Or Mission, Our Values, Our Achievements etc.
Your story needs to stand out, visually, on your About page, if you really want to draw visitors in, if you expect it to captivate them and to make it “stick” to their memory!
Your visitors are “highly visual human beings”, so, once you've accepted this, see how you can adapt your whole content strategy around this principle!
No matter what web design team in Toronto you might collaborate with, suggest them to focus on your About page's visual attractiveness (a page which is way too often overlooked)!
Challenge your creativity, get bold, have fun and come up with a clean and fun design, create graphics to liven up your text and to infuse it with visual personality! Think of all the means of making your Abut page look “visually atypical”!
Once you've caught their eye, you'll instantly increase your chance to “lure them in” and to get them into the right mood for “listening” to your story!
5. Use Testimonials as Trust Builders
Your About page is all about building trust, about creating that aura of “authenticity” and “trustworthiness” around your brand. Not just about luring users in and “wowing” them with your unique story.
Trust leads to better conversion!
So, could you think of more efficient trust signals than testimonials? No matter how well you tell your story, visitors will always trust other humans rather than “the voice of your brand”, no matter how authentic and friendly it might sound to them.
Therefore, display testimonials on your About page! Those certifying your products/services could be either regular people or authorities in your niche!
Consider letting others tell your company's story! They'll always be far more convincing than you!
Tip: consider, also, associating your testimonials with “real faces”! Add the pictures of these “witnesses” willing to tell “chapters” of your story! Your testimonials will instantly look far more authentic: visitors will then be able to put a face on each one of the names testifying for your brand!
6. Rely on Words Alone To Make Your Story “Sticky”
You don't even need to ruin your budget for crafting an outstanding About page that draws visitors in and engages.
You could rely on copy alone, for instance! But on creative copy that's compelling, has humor in it and it's “injected” with personality (not corporate-talk).
It takes practice and it takes writing skills for turning your copy into an efficient “one man show” on your About page. For making it it rival other About pages featuring parallax scrolling, visually-absorbing graphics, video content and other types of “juicy” content.
But it is “doable”! Give it a try: carefully chose the words that will tell your story and let them cast their spell and compel!
7. Seize the Chance to Throw in A Web Form
Your About page is, after all, one of the pages with the highest-traffic on your Drupal website. So, why not taking advantage of such a “massive” audience by putting a lead-capture form into the spotlight?
You're not “just” building trust on your About Us Page, you're actually trying to build trust for better conversion, right?
Well, once you've reached your first goal, with the help of your good story told in a highly engaged manner, how about turning it into an opportunity for boosting conversion on your site?
Put a web form for your visitors to complete right after they've “listened” to you story, when they're still under its “spell”?
The better your story will be and the better you say it, the more contact info and signups will your strategically-placed web form bring you!
Ponder on this “shrewd” strategy for a while!
Your turn now! What other tactics do you use for designing “About Us” pages that stand out? Let's discuss them in the comments section below!
Adrian Ababei / Jan 26'2017
Do already vizualize the confidence-boosting number of subscribers that you'll “hook” after just one week? And even the one scored on the first month after the launch?
Are you secretly fantasizing about the profits closely related to these “alluring” numbers?
Mind you don't plunge too far into the future and get “intoxicated” by your predictions. Mind you don't overlook the “closer to the present” key phases of your business: its pre-launch and its launch!
It's in these preliminary steps that lies your business's striking long-term success or maybe its “premature failure”.
Now that you've (hopefully) shifted your attention from the final results to the two-step preparation process itself (way too often underestimated), keep reading on how to actually get these 2 steps right.
On how to make them “turbocharge” your subscription eCommerce business from its very launch.
Pre-launch: Turn It Into a Strategically Structured “Teaser”
You're about to write history: your own subscription business' history!
It's during pre-launch that you determine, through all the major and minor decisions that you'll make, your business' longevity.
Now if it's a story about success that you want to write, make sure to structure your eCommerce business's pre-launch phase as following:
1. First, Craft Your "Teaser Page" for Success
It's crucial for you to get some sort of early feedback from your prospective subscribers.
In this respect, a teaser page is the perfect “means” for you to create “feedback-generating buzz”. Which you can, later on, turn into “pure gold”: use it for fine-tuning your launch!
But what is, in fact, a “teaser page”?
A truly basic definition would be: it's the much simpler “equivalent” of a standard landing page! It's a definition that our team of developers in Toronto has come up with!
What will you accomplish with a teaser page (“with a well-design one”, we need to add)?
Several goals, in fact:
you collect valuable email addresses
you get early feedback
you build credibility around your soon to be launched business
What makes the difference between “just” a teaser page and an efficient one?
A whole set of key elements to be included in your teaser page:
a professional logo: needless to add that your logo will enhance your existing brand's credibility and recognition and establish trust in your unknown business
a catchy tagline: keep it short (one line will do), make it encapsulate the “luring essence” of what you're offering to your prospective subscribers
suggestive imagery: think it as the first “influencer” that your potential future customers, who know nothing, yet, about your new business, will get in contact with. Turn it into a highly suggestive and nonetheless highly influencing “sneak peek” into your business: carefully choose the right mood-inducing color scheme and the “leading actor” of you image itself. Will you be showcasing an “hypothetical” customer expressing precisely the mood/emotions that you'd like your future subscribers to associate with your products or rather... a “tantalizing” image of a your subscription box itself?
a brief description: which should include straightforward answers to all the “why” and “how” questions your future subscribers might ask themselves; keep it succinct: tell them why they should subscribe
an email call-to-action: be straightforward, let your readers know exactly what “they're supposed to do” after they've read your “teaser page”. So, go for a clear, more-than-obvious “email call to action” section, instead of a subtle, ambiguous “empty form” whose purpose they should guess instead.
an email sign up incentive: why should anyone disclose his/her email to an unknown company? Well, come up with a reason why they should, come up with a “temptation”: free subscription, a special discount, you name it. Also, consider rendering your incentive attention-grabbing: “play” with typography, bold colors, with eye-catching boxes that you could place them in, till you've found your “winning formula”.
social sharing options: give your subscribers the chance to turn into your businesses' promoters. They might feel like sharing your teaser page so, why saying “No” to some free promotion?
Note: consider a pre-launch video, too! Since “video content is king now” (and, even more: about to turn “emperor” sooner than you think) why not turning it into a booster for your own pre-launch strategy. It will help you put a face on your new subscription business and this is huge for building a sense of authenticity around it!
2. Next, Optimize It To Perfection
Be always ready to tweak, to revise, to replace, to experiment, to test and then to test some more!
At this point you can and you're greatly advised to!
Get to the point where you cast away all your doubts and where you “know for sure” what business strategy works best for your teaser page.
Depending on the early feedback that you'll get put together your A/B testing email campaigns:
should you lower your price or this decision doesn't influence your prospective subscribers much?
should you you go for a once or twice a month shipping instead?
Fine tune your teaser page through constant testing and experimentation till you've built the desired level of attention around your business launch!
3. Build Some Buzz Around Your Upcoming Launch
And here you are: 100% sure of your business strategy's efficiency (after all the testing and experimentation steps you've taken). What next?
Well, now it's about time you built some buzz around your upcoming launch!
How? By co-opting influencers from your niche!
And here is how you do it:
1. you first sit down and put together a list of 100, 200, 300 (the no. is up to you) of influencers in your niche: reviewers, social media experts, bloggers...
2. next, you send them, each, emails explaining what your new business is all about. A straightforward approach works best: let them know what you're actually kindly asking them to do for promoting your business. Also, promise them a compensation of some kind, quick after the launch. Thus, you'll show your gratitude for their cooperation!
3. you build and constantly update your own social media channels: make a habit of posting topics relevant in your niche; it will gradually help you build your community of followers, a way too valuable “audience” to appeal to on launch day!
4. Craft, Schedule and Send Out Your Email Campaigns
Make sure you don't “neglect” your existing subscribers on your “hunt” for potential ones!
Get them “teased” and increasingly curious about your launch with periodic email updates: update emails, thank you emails, reminder emails, call to action emails.
Note: mind you don't “annoy” them! Keep your emails to “one per week” increasing frequency to 2-3 times a week, in the weeks just before the launch!
Launch: Break the Suspense and Head Straight to Success
Enough with the teasing, with the buzz building, overall: with the strategically prolonged suspense!
It's time you launched your subscription-based eCommerce business!
Just a piece of advice: make sure not to rush it, though. Experts with a far richer experience than the one gained by our team of Toronto developers, would advise you to go ahead with the launch only after you've collected at least 2000-5000 of email addresses!
And here's how we advise you to structure your launch strategy if you want to aim for success instead of adopting a “spray and pray” method:
5. Upgrade Your Teaser Page to a “Legitimate” Landing Page:
What does this “upgrade” evolve?
Here are some key improvements you could apply to your teaser page for leveling it up to a “standard” eCommerce page:
add more incentives: make your offer even “harder to resit to”. Go for an additional giveaway, for “early birds” discounts: raise the stakes
highlight the retail value: make it really clear for your potential subscribers how much they'll actually save: let the numbers do the "recruiting work" for you!
include more descriptions: speed up their decision making, reveal even more luring details about your offer
switch from email-call-to-action to sales call-to-action: level up from collecting emails to closing sales. Think through the most efficient techniques for crafting and placing your call-to-action button on your landing page
6. Reward Your Early Subscribers
Handle these early-adopters with extra care!
They've taken some risks subscribing to an unknown service, so consider shattering some of their doubts or post subscription regrets with some discounts/additional compensations!
They've been the first to “reward” your brand with trust from an early start. So, it's common sense that you should find a way of showing your gratitude and turning their “curiosity” into loyalty to your brand.
Note: make sure you make your “early subscribers” discounts' terms and conditions visible on your landing page, lest you should face an “avalanche” of complaints from “regular” subscribers claiming their own “early bird” discounts, as well!
7. Plan Your Your First and Second Shipment Strategies
Important reminder: keep in mind, when you're sending out your first shipment, to include, in addition to those “special early-adopter boxes”, the free of charge ones to all the influencers who will have supported you in the pre-launch phase!
As for the second shipment, consider it as “exceptional”, too, and try these strategies for boosting your new subscription business and ensuring its early success:
carry out a new round of “influencers wooing”
try a new “discount” method for “early birds”, but make sure it's not as tempting as the first one, lest you should lose your early-subscribers' trust, who will legitimately feel “cheated”.
This is our step-by-step guide to a “success-oriented” launch of a subscription eCommerce business!
How about you? Do you have any tips and tricks to share from your own experience as a subscription-based business owner?
Adrian Ababei / Jan 23'2017
How much time and effort do the web forms on your Drupal site demand from your users?
No matter what your estimations might be: there's always room for optimization, don't you think?
There is an optimal length that you should consider when building your web forms, a certain format that converts better, as well. Any web design and development team will confirm you this.
Moreover, there's a better way of crafting the messages that you deliver to your users and a certain level of anticipation involved, too. Meaning, of course, that you need to be able to predict the common errors that your users will be making during the “ fields filling in process”.
Oh, and you'd better not leave out this key aspect, either: the whole “information typing in” process should run equally fluidly on all devices. No “discrimination” whatsoever!
Put your user first!
On how you can ease your his/her navigation and ask for as little of his time and effort as possible during this part of his journey (on your Drupal site).
Then you'll implicitly be “working your magic” on your conversion rates, as well!
And here is our list of best practices for creating web forms that convert:
Let The Data Determine Your Web Form's Structure
Let's assume that you're optimizing an existing checkout: your analytics is relevant enough for determining your next structure-related moves.
Which are the elements you should prioritize?
Which are the most popular payment options on your site? The answer is in your analytics: do some research and then push forward those key payment methods in your web forms.
Do you visitors order seasonally or infrequently on your Drupal website? It's all there, in the data! The analytics will let you know whether you should go for a guest checkout or not!
Make a habit of turning analytics into the most valuable resource for optimizing your web forms!
Use The “One Question Per Page” Method
OK, not “literally” one question/field for each page, but one “topic” for each page (or at least for each “section”).
For instance, you could have once separate page for shipping options, one for address details, another one for payment details.
This segmentation will streamline the user's navigation (especially on mobile), will ease understanding and improve error recovery, too.
No need to just bundle up all the fields one on top of the other and make your web form look just like a “questions-packed survey”. It will only confuse the user and imagine how discouraging it would look be on a mobile device's screen!
In a nutshell: the multi-page web form design converts better!
Focus On The Most Common Situations First
No need to stick in the mud, to complicate your whole web form optimization process from an early stage.
Instead, focus on the common scenarios first:
in most cases the user filling in the web form is the same one that the item/s will get delivered to
in most cases he/she is using his/her card and, surprise, surprise: same shipping and billing address
and so on
Handle the exceptions, the less common scenarios, later!
Indicate Progression
This is a significant UX booster!
An progress indicator will help you discreetly guide your user through the whole process (whether he's singing up or completing a purchase). Our team of Toronto developers couldn't imagine building in a web form lacking this feature anymore!
Here are ways of incorporating progress indicators into your web forms:
you integrate a progress bar, in case of a multi-page web form; it will let users know how many more pages they'll need to fill in (keep in mind to add brief descriptive headings indicating the topic of each page/section)
you integrate a scroll-length, in case of a single-page web form
Implement Field Type Indicators
Here's another great way for reducing the time and effort required from your users: suggesting browsers the type of information that the user is required to type in.
Here's a great example: use field type indicators for “programming” browsers to display a numeric keyboard when the user has to fill in his card numbers.
Provide Field Hints To Help Users
Any user will appreciate a little guidance, instead of being left to handle the whole process, to figure out the “less intuitive” steps, all alone.
So, why not streamlining his operations with various hints, such as hints suggesting him the information he needs to type in various fields of your web form?
Your “hints” could be annotations, graphics or text placeholders.
Anticipate Uncommon Scenarios, too
Since not all the “user filling in the web form” scenarios will be common and easily predictable, you should prepare yourself for the unexpected, too!
“Uncommon” cases could be those where your users need to go back in the form and change certain information.
Monitor your analytics and consider whether you should apply some changes to your web form, yourself, in case certain “uncommon” scenarios turn into “way too frequent scenarios to be ignored”.
Implement Auto-Formatting
At some point, during the web form filling in process, your users might get “unsure” of the correctness of the information the will have typed in.
So, why not streamlining their whole auto-formatting operation: use dash or space after one set of digits from their the card numbers, so that they can effortlessly correct the wrong ones?
And this is just one example!
Check for Errors And Get Them Fixed in Due Time
Keep a close eye on your web form's performance!
You never know what errors you might track down and, you know what they say: the sooner the better. Get them fixed and then look out for new ones!
Use them as “pretexts” for some more optimization!
What's your own “recipe” for web forms that convert? Are there any other “best practices” that you could add to the list?
Adrian Ababei / Jan 21'2017
So, you've put your brand's name on a shiny new app!
It's visually enticing and it works “as smooth as butter”, too. And where do you add that its navigation is more than intuitive, as well.
It sure looks like you've checked all the major “must-haves” off your app's list. And yet...
It takes just a “Hello there!” or recommending to your app visitors products with absolutely no connection, whatsoever, to their previously bought items, and your “visually-arresting”, smoothly functioning app itself will risk to “become history”.
Personalization is key in mobile marketing!
A tailor-made customer approach is what makes the difference between “just another” great-looking, fast-loading app and a great-looking, fast-loading app that keeps users hooked on and wanting to come back for more. We, too, the team in this web development company in Toronto, are great fans of this approach.
Now, don't rush in to “recycle” your previous targeting experience, either! It may be still relevant for your desktop marketing strategy, but not for mobile.
A new medium comes with a different user behavior and requires a different type of strategy, as well.
Without further ado, let us highlight for you some things to keep in mind when you put together your personalized mobile marketing plan:
Get To Know Your Users
You couldn't possibly personalize your users' journeys inside your app if you continue to see them as “audience”.
Start perceiving them as “individuals” first, then individualize their experiences.
Especially since nowadays you have valuable analytics at your fingertip practically: this gives you an accurate (real-time) insight into your users':
demoraphics
age
sex
on what sections from your app they visit more often
when was the last time they used it
even what they're doing in your app RIGHT NOW
And this is gold information!
Why not use all this data about your “guests” for crafting contextual offers for them, for boosting your app with tailor-made engagement features (instead of the “one-size-fits-all” type of in-app messages): coupons, video tutorials, notifications, you name it?
“Say Their Names” As You Welcome Them On Board
Yes, you've got it right: this means so much more than just going for a “Hello + Your User' First Name” greeting formula.
This is just basic personalization, but it's a start.
Still, take a few steps further: use the details that your users provide you with, as they sign up into your app, for customizing their experiences right from the start.
For ensuring your app will leave the very best first impression on your users!
By the time they start exploring your app, you'll have their names, their dates of birth, you will then know something about their preferences, so you can come up with your first tailor-made product suggestions for them.
Why not trying to guide them towards the exact pages of your app that they're interested in?
Instead of letting them “without any guidance whatsoever”, wandering about your app?
Tailor Your Content To Your Users' Behaviors
Once you've made them feel welcomed and “handled as individuals” in your app, go ahead and tailor all your content to your guests' click behavior.
Recommend them products/services similar to those that they've already shown interest for!
Moreover, if you want to collect data for personalizing their next visits, make sure to implement in your app features such as “auto suggest” and “product recommendations”.
This way, they'll feel that you truly care about the experience they had using your products/services. Not that you're collecting information in order to “prepare” your content for their future visits in your app!
Your users will "tell" you how to personalize the content you deliver them in your app. You just need to invest some time in “listening to them”, then some more in turning the “clues” they'll give you into “mobile marketing gold”. It's “well invested time”, and we, the team of developers in this digital agency in Toronto, can confirm it from experience.
Personalize Your Push Notifications
This is not a matter of “just” reaching out to your users and “closing a sale”, but a matter of infusing your push notifications with personalization. Of focusing on the wrapping, as well, not just on the message within!
Offer something to those customers who will have abandoned the cart, but make sure that “something” is perfectly tailored to their preferences, to their action history!
Implement In-App Features To Boost Interaction
Browsing through piles of pictures, watching videos, “digesting” plenty of text, keeping up with all the notifications, scanning through all the fields of your menu can get quite overwhelming for your app users after a while.
You are aware of this, aren't you?
Now, for easing their exploration and for enhancing interaction, consider boosting your app with some personalized in-app features.
Here are just two examples:
personalized in-app referrals: give your users reasons to “pay you another visit”
in-app chat: your users can get over the “paradox of choice” if they can stay connected with their family and friends and thus ask for their opinions on the purchases they indent to make
Engage in Ongoing Conversation With Your App Users
… instead of simply popping up “messages”, whether they're general or personalized in-app messages.
The approach to success is the one of “individualized feedback”!
Depending on what screens from your app your users has accessed, on what actions they did or did not perform, you can adapt your in-app messages and level them up to “ongoing conversations”.
Here are 2 possible scenarios for you:
a user has given you a good review, he/she's just filled in your customer satisfaction survey: you could then invite him/her to rate your app in the app store
another user has given you a negative feedback: you could then ask him/her for more info so that you can fix the signaled issue(s) and improve his/her future experience in your app or you could tempt him/her with a tailor-made offer.
Final Thoughts
Your app users expect not to just to enjoy some “memorable experiences” while in your app: they demand “personalized experiences”.
So, instead of investing all your resources in functionality, it's time to focus on implementing those elements of personalization which drive users to convert into shoppers and to come back for more.
Also, another final thought for you: test it once, test it twice and experiment som more! Test different visuals, content, layouts, you name it. Look for ways to constantly improve your users' journey in your app, to constantly add new levels of personalization to their experience.
What are your thoughts about personalized mobile marketing? To what extent do you personalize your mobile apps? Use the comments section below to drop in a few words about your own experiences as an app developer!
Adrian Ababei / Jan 20'2017
The power of a business’ website is not to be underestimated; it is the storefront to ecommerce companies, the credibility for professional services, a first impression regarding branding and marketing for website visitors and it’s the epicenter of the decision making process for consumers. A great website can drive the visitor to research more about your product or services and find confidence that your company is head and shoulders above the competition. At OPTASY, we put our expertise, creativity and talent into the outstanding websites that we design for our customers and are excited to learn that we have been chosen as one of Canada’s top web development companies by technology research company Clutch.
Based in Washington, D.C., Clutch creates a reputable business directory that exceeds most technology review lists that you may have come across. With intricate questionnaires and verified client reviews, Clutch ensures that only the best of the best make it to their prestigious reviews index. In this competitive industry of technology and web development, it is a high honour to be acknowledged on this list of exceptional companies.
There were many factors which brought OPTASY to the top of the list; great communication, increased customer traffic and revenue being some of the most common qualities listed. According to a client in the medical field in which OPTASY upgraded their website, "I’ve had to have discussions with OPTASY during the last part of our project, making sure that the website was SEO-ready. Our traffic increased after the upgrade, as well as our revenues… OPTASY was very responsive, fast, and offered great communication."
What is equally impressive is that many clients of OPTASY have been with us for years and plan on using us for updates to their Drupal web services. One development agency commented, "OPTASY has provided development services for our company, mainly Drupal, JavaScript, and PHP-related. We rely on OPTASY’s principal for both development and architecture in certain cases … We have an ongoing relationship with OPTASY and started working together in 2012."
We are extremely proud of our team and the amazing work that they do which has earned us recognition among our peers and others in the technological industry. Our mission involves having the best experts who strive towards designing premiere Drupal web services while creating incomparable customer experience. We are fortunate to have clients that acknowledge and appreciate our dedication and we look forward to the future as we continue to provide the tools for great online business.
Adrian Ababei / Jan 19'2017