Let's start by imagining the “bad” scenario! The one where you don't implement modular content components in the creation/editing process on your website! It will only lead to a poor editorial experience, where editors/content authors:
depend on your technical team for every little tweak that they need to apply to content on your Drupal site; which will obviously slow down the processes of updating content and sending it to your various distribution partners
are forced to learn HTML and thus to focus less on creating and polishing content and rather on acquiring some sort of technical “expertise”
Granting your editorial team (even more) flexibility will benefit:
you, as an organization, since they'll be empowered to run all the necessary updates, in due time, with great ease
your site builders and Drupal developers who will then win more time to focus on their own tasks (no one wants to get interrupted from his/her work each time there's content to be added or to be edited on the website).
So, it's a sort of win-win-win type of situation ( where you, as an organization, your content authors, and your team of developers gets to win)!
And now let's detail the concept of “flexible modular content components”, and point out why they shape the future of content creation:
1. How Should The Content Creation Process “of The Future” Be Like?
First of all, it should definitely go beyond:
the "box body" concept
the content management framework that your Drupal development team can program to do anything by using just the proper custom site-building techniques
The future of content creation lies in a redefinition of content in CMS and in putting the spotlight on the creation experience itself! It's that improved creation experience that will easily lead to a unique, easy to personalize user experience.
And there's more:
content of the future should be a “cluster” of modular content components of rich media
creating and editing content should be a simple, few-steps process with no technical “burden” involved
content of the future should be exchangeable across platforms and to support multiple forms of media
content of the future should easily adjust to the requirements of a multi-channel publishing context
Needless to add that a weakened creation experience, where the content writer/editor/publisher is fully dependent on the technical team, will only lead to slow site updates. And you definitely don't want to fall behind with your updates!
2. The Content Creation Process of the Present
Now, before we highlight for you the benefits that you can reap from adopting a structured modular content on your Drupal site, let's take a look at the “current” issues that modular content components come to solve:
the “one and only WYSIWYG” standard
content writers aren't granted as much “independence” as they should in order to create/edit content without any technical support from the development team
leaving content creators no option but to put together layouts within the WYSIWYG editor and to learn HTML
3. But What Is Modular Content After All?
Making your content modular means switching from the practice where you edit a page, on your site, as a whole, to that where it gets automatically generated from other content items. For instance, an example of “content item” could be the “recipes” one on a farmers market website.
The key benefit of adopting modular content is that you're granted consistency across the content on your site and that the entire editing process gets automated.
For instance, once a piece of vendor information gets changed, all the pieces of content on your website that display that particular information gets instantly updated.
Step into the future of automated content updating and leave behind the irksome manual updating process!
Moreover, you get to leverage the power of modular content for putting together page sections and composite web pages, too!
4. What About Modular Content Components? What Are They?
You could see them as “tools” empowering your content creation and editing team to:
easily add new sections without the help of the technical department in your organization
send their pieces of content to several distribution channels (sending them, each, specifically those content formats that meet their requirements).
And all this in just one single step!
5. “Should I Be Integrating Modular Content Components in My Content Creation Process, too?”
It depends!
It depends on whether it's crucial for the whole workflow within your team that your content editors should be able to update content on the fly and to send it to your network of distribution partners “in the blink of an eye”.
If it's the case, then you should definitely leverage the modular content components' functionality on your Drupal site, too!
This way, you'll be empowering your editorial team with a simple, yet highly effective drag-and-top tool that they can use for adding new content components quick and easy.
The next step is to send it to your content distribution partners, whether it's Facebook, AOL, or Apple News, or none of these three.
6. Key Modular Content Functionalities Worth Your Attention
5.1. Consistency Across Your Website
And you can't underestimate the advantage of keeping a consistent branding throughout your Drupal site!
This is precisely what you can achieve using modular content components:
you'll eliminate those situations where your team uses inconsistent layouts when publishing content, taken from legacy website designs
re-branding your website will turn into a streamlined process with a solid and scalable architecture as its foundation; it will be a lot easier to “implement” the new look and feel across your website and to achieve a consistent branding
the current situations where content authors just drop “slices” of HTML into the WYSIWYG editor will become “history” on your new future platform, a highly maintainable and nicely structured one; a modular content components-powered one!
5.2. Easily Adjustable Content According to Your Distribution Partners' Restrictions
It will be far easier for your content editing team to tailor it to their specific restrictions! Since with modular content components they get to edit and update content with such ease!
Whether it's:
links that they need to remove in order to comply with your distribution channels' requirements
certain formats that they should stick to
any other special requests that they need to meet while creating or editing their articles
… with Modular Content components integrated into their article creation process, it all gets much more streamlined!
5.3. Marketing Power
And you surely can't afford to underestimate digital marketing-oriented tools that help you build targeted and ideally creative advertising campaigns:
you have the Double Click for Publishers module
you have flexible ad tags that you get to use for implementing your campaigns
you have built-in identifiers helping you achieve your “smart targeting” goals through your campaigns
Need we add any more reasons that modular content components make the future of content creation? Are you ready to embrace the future?
Adrian Ababei / Jun 15'2017
And we're back, as promised, with more types of highly effective types of video content that you should be using on your Drupal site and which work best at specific stages of your potential customer's journey.
3. “About Us” Videos
Or “culture captures” or “”culture videos”, whichever term prefer, this type of video content's role is not exclusively that of recruiting new people.
You'd be surprised of how many visitors, with no intention of getting themselves hired into your organization, are accessing your About page on you Drupal site right now! They want to know the team behind your website's front store, the team behind your products/services.
If, in the previous stage of your customers' journey you've managed to stir their curiosity and to win their trust, at this point it's vital that you... make them LIKE you.
And you can easily do this via an About Us video. It's, by far, one of the most effective types of video content.
One that showcases your brand's values, the culture and personalities of your team. If they manage to make themselves “likeable”, you'll succeed to speeding up the whole process of turning a visitor into a future customer. Remember what we've talked about it the first part of this blog post: “People don't buy “just” products/services. People buy the shared values that come along with a particular brand's services/products!”
In other words: make yourself LIKEABLE. And by “yourself”, we do mean both your brand and your team, as well!
4. Testimonial Videos (or “Case Studies”)
So, by now you've checked “trust” and “likeability” off your list. At this point in your customer's journey it's time to focus on conveying a sense of AUTHENTICITY, too!
You're at a one-step distance from turning your website visitor into a customer and this very last step should be tackled with great care!
It's the step where your potential customer looks for recommendations, for testimonials coming from real people, other than members of your team.
For “real stories” where your product/service plays a key part.
And even though your visitors might not personally know the “testifier”, he/she still remains a “real person” for them. This “detail”, combined with the video's capability, as a medium, to easily transmit human emotions, the impact that your product had on the speaker's life, make the surest “recipe” for building an aura of authenticity around your brand.
Here's a testimonial video example that we've hand picked for you:
Types of Video Content for The Decision-Making Stage of The Customer's Journey
This is the step of your website visitor's shopping experience where he/she has already identified what his problem/need is, has already selected the best solution for solving it and now's looking for the right “solutions provider”.
1. Personalized Videos (or One-to-One Messages)
We are living in the age of hyper-personalization, no doubt about that! Of personalized content! Now if to this “huge wave” of creating perfectly tailored user experiences you add the one of video content, the result can't be but a highly effective tool for you to use on your Drupal website!
Your potential customer will feel cared about and he/she'll experience pretty much the same feeling that we all experience (if we still have the chance) when we go to our favorite barber's shop or hair salon and the barber/hair stylist knows our names, our preferences and dislikes to the slightest details. We don't have to repeat them each and every time to go there.
Not to mention that a personalized piece of content, once transposed into a video, will instantly get much more “impactful”, it will feel much more... real.
2. Demo/Instructional Videos
It's time to “grow” those seeds of trust that you've (hopefully) started to plant, through multiple types of video content, from the very beginning of your customer's journey.
How? By using an instructional video!
It's the type of video content that not only that will emphasize your product's functionality, but will reassure them (your future customers) that you won't forget all about them once they've made their purchase.
That, whatever difficulties they may face when using your product/service, this instructional video, which is part of your whole reliable customer service strategy, will be at their full disposal.
In this respect, here's a demo video from IKEA “training” both the potential and the “already a” buyer how to assembly one of their products:
3. FAQ Videos
Instead of filling in your FAQ page with a whole list of possible questions-answers pairs, how about trying “filmed answers”?
There's no “mystery” around this type of video content's effectiveness, if you come to think about it. Your future customers will get that powerful feeling that the answers have been tailored especially for them. That the person showing up in those quick videos is addressing them and them only.
And you can't underestimate the power of “personal touch” that FAQ videos get enriched with:
Here's an example of one FAQ video taken from an entire “collection” of filmed answers to customers' anticipated questions:
Types of Video Content For The Retention Stage of Your Customer's Journey
In fact, it's just "one type" of video content that we've selected to talk to you about in this section: the "Thank You" video!
Congratulations! You've just succeeded to turn your potential customer into a... customer!
“Now what?” you might ask yourself! Well, now you focus on crafting another type of video content. One that will turn your (now a ) customer into... a customer loyal to you brand!
Thank You Videos
This is the true role of a “thank you” video content! It's your chance to convey positive energy.
To express your gratitude to your customer for having trusted you, your products/services and to ensure that he/she will remain loyal to your brand.
You could also see this type of video content as a “reminder”: it reminds your customers why they chose your brand in the first place. Why they LIKED you.
Here's an example:
THE END! This is our list including types of video content to use on your Drupal site (as well as in your emails, on social media etc.) suitable for each stage of your potential customer's journey.
Does your current content marketing strategy include any video content? Are there types that we haven't included in our two blog posts on this topic and which you've found to be of a tremendous help speeding up the whole process of turning website visitors into customers?
Adrian Ababei / May 31'2017
Content is no longer king: video content is! And getting ourselves engaged in a long chat around the importance of video content, about how it completely reshaped the digital landscape and companies' content marketing strategies is as relevant as chatting about the sun's vital role in our lives.These days the need for creating video content has evolved into a need for crafting the most suitable types of video content to integrate in each stage of your potential buyer's journey.
Effectively integrating this type of content into your digital marketing strategy and adapting it to each one of its key components, now this is the “puzzle” that you should strive to solve these days!
“Just” video content, with no deep thought about the context of your customers' journey won't get you too far.
And you should consider context-adaptability, if you give enough credit to all the digital marketing “gurus” talking about the future of content marketing. Judging by their content marketing predictions, it will get increasingly challenging “There’ll be fewer winners with much bigger jackpots” ( Larry Kim, Wordstream).
Now let's get to the “core” of today's post and reveal to you the types of video content that you should consider using on your site:
Types of Video Content for The Beginning of Your Customer's Journey
It's that step of your website visitors' journey where they have already experienced a problem, where they do “sense” a certain need, but they can't quite identify it yet. And it's your “job” to help them put a name on it.
1. Video Documentaries
This type of video content is a “newcomer” and you should consider being an early adopter since its potential in turning prospects into customers loyal to your brand is huge. Here's why:
its enhances its educational/informational role with its emotion-targeting, storytelling side
its highlights particular (otherwise banal) features of a product/service and with the help of storytelling (it's precisely the stories that these product/service features get “wrapped in” that make all the difference) and stunning imagery it succeeds to intrigue and captivate the watcher
its makes a wonderful “tool” for you to portray your brand as a leader in your market (carefully craft the story behind it!) and to reinforce the values of your brand
To exemplify this type of video content, here's a remarkably effective video documentary from Patagonia! They succeed to inform their audience about their products' top features through a highly compelling documentary-like story that sticks:
2. Brand Films
Branding plays a key role in 2017's digital marketing context, too. Successful brand stories continue to be the decisive factors that turn visitors into fans/followers (and ultimately into customers).
And what better medium to use for getting your engaging story across to your audience, for getting them familiarized with your brand's values and mission, than video, right?
And so, brand stories and videos “gave birth” to this type of highly effective promotional videos: brand films.
People don't buy “just” products/services. People buy the shared values that come along with a particular brand's services, products!
And if you manage to master the video's toolbox of visuals, storytelling and sound for portraying your brand as one that they can easily resonate with (while, of course, you're discreetly showcasing your services/products' top features and benefits), you'll manage to banish most of their doubts.
3. How To's and Whiteboards (or ChalkBoards)
Remember that we're still at the very first stage of your customers' journey! Therefore, it's only logical that from all the types of video content available you should go for one that helps you win their trust.
Illustrating your brand as a trustworthy one and, moreover, as an authority in its industry, is crucial for speeding things up. For giving your potential customer the right impulse to get to the next stage of his/her journey.
And what better way to win trust and to portray your company as an expert in its field than through an educational/how to video/whiteboard type of video content?
It delivers value they can leverage, expert advice free of charge, and it's a tremendous means for you to build trust.
Now here are 2 tips, coming from our team here, at our web development company in Toronto, to consider when making your chalkboard video:
make it short and simple, easy to “digest”
add an entertaining, personal touch (no need to go for a monotonous, academic tone in order to share your knowledge as an expert)
Now if you want to learn from the very best, those from MOZ, with their famous “Friday Whiteboard” series, definitely make THE best source of inspiration. They already are an authority in the “art” of educational video crafting:
4. Explainers or Explainer Animations
Explainer videos make such effective overviews of the key problems that your product/service comes to solve for your customers!
Whether you opt for an animated explainer or for a video explainer, it enables you to focus on presenting your product's features (rather than on your brand, like the other types of video content aforementioned), on putting them in the context of your customers' already identified needs and in relation to the solution that it delivers them.
Here are just a few reasons why explainers make such an effective and handy tool for ensuring that your potential customers move on to the next step of their journey:
they're centered around your website visitors' needs/problems that they need to solve
they're quick overviews, succinct presentations of your products'/service's features
they briefly present your product “in action”
they make a handy tool for you to present your solution to your customers' “problems”
they discreetly familiarize them with your brand's tone and values
Types of Video Content for The Middle of Your Customer's Journey
Your potential online shoppers have, by now, manged to put a name on their needs/problems. It's now that they move on to the next stage of their journey where they engage in research.
They now start to scan through the available solutions to their problem!
1. Videos in Email
It's such a handy, yet effective means for you to reinforce your brand. A large, eye-catching image and a “play” button might be the simplest way to engage with your potential customers.
If you:
add the surprise factor, too (since the “dull”, conventional emails are still the norm) to the equation
then the win-win nature of this type of video content (you'll be simultaneously ensuring your brand a “top place” in their minds and “luring” them to come visit your site and check out other products, too)
… you'll instantly get one of the most effective types of if video content that shouldn't miss from your content marketing strategy.
2. Product Videos
This is such a powerful type of video content! What it does (if it's masterfully created, if it manages to trigger the need for sensory feedback) is no just present your product/service while it's being used, but making the watchers imagine them using that particular product.
It's a “tool” that will help you “plant the seed of desire” in your video's watchers: visualizing themselves trying on your products will automatically make them want to turn this “vision” into reality.
To be continued, in our next post, with other types of video content you should use...
Adrian Ababei / May 31'2017
So you (your web development team) have done your optimization work right and now your ecommerce website looks great and works smoothly on all mobile devices, as well! Great for you! And yet: now it's time to move on to the next level if you want to remain competitive in this fierce “arena” which is ecommerce. And “upgrading to the next level” means: opting for an ecommerce mobile app.
“But do I really need a mobile app?” you might still ask yourself.
You sure do IF (and only “IF”):
you do see the true potential of social sharing in ecommerce
you aim at seeding and nourishing a sense of loyalty for your brand
you do see the true power of tailor-made, highly personalized shopping experiences
you do realize that convenience is a key driver in ecommerce
And now, let us support our statement that your ecommerce business does need a mobile app with 7 unbeatable (so we think) arguments:
1. Can't Fight Statistics: Mobile Shoppers Prefer Apps over Mobile Browsers
So, you either adapt to this “trend” or you witness your customers “flock” straight to your competition. Who does see a real potential in ecommerce mobile apps.
And it's no wonder why apps have rapidly gain so much popularity among mobile users: it's all about ease and convenience during shopping! This is the main reason why users prefer to access their favorite brand's online store via their corresponding apps rather than via their mobile browsers. No “shocking discovery” here!
Your users won't need to remember your website's URL or to log themselves in each and every time they want to check out what's now on your online store.
CONVENIENCE! This is a term you should adapt your whole ecommerce strategy to. It has the same “power” as the notion of “customization”!
2. Ecommerce Mobile Apps Encourage Social Sharing
You can't afford underestimating the “power” of social sharing! The need to set up the right context for your customers to turn into your own brand's advocates.
Apps make it even easier and faster for your users to “spread” the news to their friends on social media channels about your own promotions and special offers!
These days users could not even perceive mobile apps for ecommerce other way than as some “bundles” of social sharing features. Which, moreover, are easier to integrated into an app!
Free advertising for you and a bundle of convenience right in their own pockets on the mobile users' end!
3. Easy Payment, Easy Checkout
We couldn't be talking about a streamlined shopping experience without a simplified payment and checkout process, right? This is this aspect where your ecommerce mobile app “beats” your company's mobile website!
It will turn the whole payment process into a faster and more secure process.
A win-win situation after all: the fewer risks you take of turning this process into a true “ordeal”, with dozens of boxes to check or to uncheck, of personal data to enter and lots and lots of options to go through, the lower your cart abandonment rate will be.
Simplified payment process and fast checkout: the perfect formula for a great shopping experience!
Moreover: you get to easily turn your app into a whole bundle of functionalities, as well.
Your team of Toronto developers can easily incorporate secure payment options and (this is gold!) also to program it to remember the specific payment options that different users prefer. This way you'll get to customize and to streamline these users' future shopping experiences on your app!
4. Ecommerce Mobile Apps Load Faster
… and page loading time still is the name of the game in the digital landscape!
And app will always be lighter and therefore, will always “score” better page loading times than a website. No matter how much hard work you'd put in optimizing it for speed!
5. You Get to Integrate Push Notifications into Your Mobile App
And these are, no doubt, some really powerful marketing tools and sales boosters!
Basically, you get to send quick “alerts” to all your mobile users, informing them of new special sales, updates about their recent orders, tempting time-limited promotions and all kinds of key store events.
And there's more!
Since “personalization” is everything in modern ecommerce, you get to play your “customization card” via the push notification options that you'll include in your mobile app. You can make them location-based and, this way, send users quick “alerts” whenever they're close to one of your physical stores.
And, we're getting back to the CONVENIENCE factor: your mobile customers don't even need to be logged into your app or to access their mobile browsers for getting your offer/news notifications!
So, we have convenience, we have tailor-made shopping experience and we definitely can't ignore the advantage of brand consistency. By keeping your customers constantly connected to your brand's whole ecosystem of store events, sales, special offers, freshly added content, your app will help you build brand consistency.
6. You Get to Tailor The User Experience by Device
And this is another great advantage of ecommerce mobile apps over mobile website. Admit it: responsive design follows the “one size fits all types of devices, as long as they're mobile” rule.
Now when it comes to mobile apps, you gain much more control over their interfaces' design, over the whole user experience after all!
Since each platform comes with its own particularities and with its own users' expectations, your mobile app will enable you to adapt your app's interface to them. To tailor your customers' shopping experiences to their preferred platforms.
7. Mobile Ecommerce Apps Build and Increase Brand Loyalty
Take it this way: your mobile users will be virtually connected to your brand almost 24/7 via your app. It will be in their pockets, purses, on their desks at work, practically part of their lives.
Therefore, it will inevitably nurture a sense of familiarity (in the first place) towards your brand. Which will evolve into brand loyalty, if you're willing to put some effort, as well:
to keep them informed, through your push notifications, about your special offers or coupons designed exclusively for your brand's mobile shoppers... for them
to leverage the data analytics that your app will provide you with for tailoring some shopping experiences personalized to your users' different backgrounds, different preferences, in the slightest details
to make sure you deliver seamless shopping experiences to your mobile users, irrespective of the type of devices that they access your app from
And though the list of unbeatable arguments on why you need an ecommerce mobile app is almost endless (we could go on pointing out the advantage of using a mobile app in offline mode, as well, for instance), we shall end it here.
So: have we managed to help you find a straight answer to your “dilemma”: mobile app vs mobile ecommerce website?
Adrian Ababei / May 11'2017
Be honest: did you really anticipate that the search voice trend would turn into such a phenomenon? Statistics just come to confirm what we've been already suspecting for a while: already 40% of adults use voice interaction on a daily basis.
Are we witnessing the dusk of classic text-based search?
Can't forecast that, but what we can easily tell is that: the voice UI trend can't go anywhere else but UP! Face it, adapt to it or be left behind!
And once you've accepted this new reality shaping the digital landscape, it's time to take measures! To properly optimize your website for search voice.
How? Adopting these 5 key SEO tactics aimed at directing not just visitors using voice search, but qualified prospects to your own website.
Ready? Here they are, in no particular order:
1. Go for Natural, Conversational Language Instead
“Instead of” the typical language that you would have used for driving people using text-based search into your website.
Lose the “too” succinct, “too” precise type of language and admit that users don't write the same way as they talk. They're more inclined to type in “to-the-point”, brief search terms and to utter far more conversational search phrases.
See the difference? Try vizualizing these 2 scenarios:
A. You're at home, in the evening, getting cozy after a hard day at work. You surf online for a software/app that would help you better organize and prioritize your tasks at work, starting with the next day. Normally you would type in something like “best productivity apps”.
B. You're awfully late for work! You've already missed your first subway and you need to take your daughter to school first, then to stop by the dry cleaner, as well, before you head to the office. And, what's worse: you haven't even had the chance to have at least one sip of coffee this morning and you're stressed out about this deadline coming soon. There's a discouraging “pile” of tasks to be carried out, ASAP, awaiting for you at work.
In this case, normally you would utter, rapidly, something that sounds far more natural like “Get more things done in less time” or “Get more things done in a day”.
The trick is that: there's no surprise trick!
It's more than predictable if you come to think of it: if you want these users to land on your website instead of your competitors' once they've made their spoken search queries, you need to get content written in a conversational, “human” tone on your website!
2. Get Your Website Local Search-Friendly
Make sure your company website's listed on the right local listings!
Why bother? Well, because people using voice search aren't just looking for generic information to enrich their knowledge with or simply to fill in their free time with. They're looking for quick solutions to their pressing needs. And meeting their needs quickly, definitely means “meeting their needs locally”.
No user opting to make a voice search query would be interested to get his flat tire fixed in a different state or to find a good place to grab something to eat in another city. They won't utter “What's the best place to grab a pizza?”, but “What's the best place to grab a pizza in X city?”.
Now speaking of getting your site local search-friendly, here are our 3 optimization tips for you:
Properly handle your customer reviews. Meaning that you should kindly ask your happy customers to reward you with positive reviews and to promptly answer the negative feedback using the utmost diplomacy
Submit your website (only) to relevant local business listings (e.g. Google My Business). And make sure to constantly update your business' key details (e.g. phone number, opening hours, prices) as soon as you change any of them. Just go back to your older listings and make the right corrections...
Add schema markup to your website.The strategically structured data will help search engines quickly recognize the above-mentioned key information about your business (opening hours, address etc.) and to easily turn it into informative results for the users.
3. Go For Longer Keyword Phrases
And this is THE gold SEO tactic that you should put on top of your list when you start to optimize your site for voice search!
It's common sense if you think of it. Just try a little empathy and step into the shoes of these two generic users here:
A. User “X” uses the classic text-based search method. He's about to use his keyboard for typing in the search terms that would get him a list of auto repair shops.
Now you surely can imagine him/her, facing a “broken engine” situation, right as he was in a big rush to get to point B. He's impatient and engaged in other little activities simultaneously (searching for his map, trying to call his wife on the other phone, maybe even trying to ask another driver some key information etc), as well. As you must surely guess: he'll be typing in the fewest number of words that would get him the right solution to his problem quickly and effortlessly: “car repairs”.
B. User Y” is about to make make a voice request, so normally (imagine him all nervous and stressed out!), his search instinctively gets more wordy. He'll naturally add some more details to his request. He'd utter something like “Find me the auto repair shop nearest to... “ or “Where can I get my engine fixed for under xxx dollars and that it's open on Sunday evening at 22.00 p.m?”. Or at least something similar.
So, you do see what we're trying to point out here, don't you? As humans we all are a bit more concise when we write and a lot more wordy when we say our request/queries out loud.
To sum up: make sure to target longer-tail keywords on your site! Not only that you'll be driving in those customers using voice search, but you'll be driving precisely qualified prospects into your site! Users making voice requests are far more likely to convert into customers, they're facing with more pressing needs, than those using text-based searches.
4. Make Sure Your Content Answers Their Questions
Most likely the users will land on your website via searches with a question format rather than through brief search terms or phrases. So, what do you do? You adapt your content to this specific format! You craft it around those specific search questions.
“But how do I know what questions my potential website visitors will be uttering for making their searches?”, you might say.
Easy! You go to “life-saving” websites such as StoryBase or Answerthepublic and type in relevant keywords.
You'll then get your lists of possible questions your users might be using when they make their searches.The right prepositions here included!
“And what do I do next? Do I just “stuff” my website's content with questions, risking to make it sound fairly unnatural?”
Our answer is: make the most of your FAQ page! Turn it into a go-to page on your website, where your visitors will find all the questions they might be asking themselves, as well as their accurate and useful answers.
Now, speaking of questions, here are two other tips for you:
Direct the users asking “What's the difference between X and Y” type of questions to the informative pages on your website. These “researchers” aren't yet ready to commit, yet they need to be encouraged and convinced/assured by delivering them precisely the information they're searching for.
Direct the “What's the closest X in...?” or the “Where can I find the cheapest Y?” type of searchers right to your landing page.These are not just “qualified prospects”, they're the “ready to commit” type of visitors. So make sure you don't risk losing them by leaving them “astray” on your site, forced to make a whole detour before they can close the deal. Target these specific type of questions with your PPC ads!
5. Optimize It For Mobile, THEN Optimize Your Site for Voice Search
The balance between desktop users and mobile users making voice searches is tremendously disproportionate!
But we're quite sure that this is no surprise discovery for you!
So the right sequence of optimization processes is this: first you get your website mobile-friendly, you make sure that it looks and works well on mobile devices. And it's then that you start to optimize your site for voice search by applying all the above-mentioned SEO tactics!
And here are some mobile optimization tips and tricks from our team here, in our digital agency in Toronto, for you:
Aim high, really high when it comes to its performance! Even if you manage to welcome users on your website, they'll remain extremely exigent when it comes to page loading speed! You'll have no excuse for not carrying enough for their time by not getting your images properly compressed! Also, keep an eye on their number, as well, and avoid heavy weighting “clutter”!
Keep your content as succinct and as easy to “digest” as possible! Get it nicely portioned into smaller paragraphs and remember not to get excessively wordy, either! Invest your skills as a copywriter and digital marketer into the attention-grabbing heading, next keep your content brief, yet effectively informative.
Give your website a mobile usability scan! You can rely on a more-than-useful tools like Google's Mobile Friendly Tester for that. It will provide you with an “enlightening” screenshot of the mobile version of your website. Seeing how it looks on mobile devices and which are its weak points (e.g. small fonts, stretched out images or the use of Flash), you can... get to work and put together your list of improvements!
“LARGE”... everything! Go for large buttons, large links! You either make the content on your site highly visible for your digital visitors or you'll lose them!
Now, “armed” with this list of SEO best practices, get to work! Optimize your site for voice search and get the most out of this (not so) new source of traffic!
Adrian Ababei / May 03'2017
The web development world is going mobile-first, and many businesses take another step forward. In addition to a mobile-friendly website, you can develop a unique mobile app for users to enjoy.
The average user has as many as 36 applications installed on their mobile phone. Just nine of them are used on a regular basis however. This is no small number but not that big either..
This means that if you’re developing a mobile application, it better be good if you want it to see any use. All the best app developers in Toronto will tell you there is a list of “do”s and “don’t”s in any development project.
It’s extra important in Toronto mobile app development because mobile screens are very unforgiving to error. If your app is below expectation, it will be glaringly obvious and users will simply set it aside.
So how do you optimize your mobile app for the new user?
Here are a few tips.
1. Perfect the Usability
Your app should be a bit more complex than a tetris game interface, but that’s about it. A cab app should help you get a ride in a short series of simple-and-obvious steps. The same goes for ordering food, placing a shopping order, comparing products and so on. Long, tedious searches and endless steps will send any app into the wastebasket.
2. Call to Action Buttons
The user should know where to press and what to do. This is achieved by designing and positioning clear, easy to see and easy to read call to action buttons. Don’t overdo it by making them blink or jump around, but they should be impossible to miss even on the smallest mobile displays and in any lighting conditions.
3. Physical Ergonomics
You want everybody to feel comfortable using the app, correct? Some users have thicker fingers. For them, pressing a tiny link or button is excruciatingly hard. There will be only so many times they can’t hit the button before they give up and delete the application.
4. Easy on Battery and Bandwidth
Complex calculations, heavy media content, large downloads and other similar things drain batteries and consume bandwidth resources. This makes the app too heavy for users to enjoy. Keep a simple UX, design a short navigation, employ reusable graphic content and limit background services.
For more mobile app development Toronto trends, feel free to contact us directly.
Adrian Ababei / Apr 17'2017
Drupal is a new but extremely promising web development platform. This article explains why you need a Drupal agency to help with your Drupal project, especially with the release of Drupal 8 and all the added power and functionality it offers.
Websites like the Economist, Arizona University and even the New York Government are all based on this great CMS platform.
Drupal 8 is capable of creating and managing large websites that you can’t possibly generate with the same ease using more common but relatively modest CMS platforms like Wordpress. If you’re aiming for a stronger online presence, getting a Drupal agency is the best choice you can make.
There are many reasons to go for Drupal development services. Here are just a few of them:
Open Source Software
The core Drupal engine, most of its modules, and a lot of its themes are a 100% free. This means choosing Drupal development services will always cost less.
Customizability
Features, layout, design, and operations in Drupal are highly customizable. This allows your Drupal agency to take any template and turn it into a custom design. Wordpress and Joomla sites, for comparison, are much more rigid and hard to customize to the same extent.
Rapid Deployment
With Drupal, you can deploy core functionality and features quickly, and then work out the details, which can also be easily deployed on the fly. This is probably one of the strongest reasons why you'd want to have your website built by a Drupal 8 agency.
No more downtime for maintenance during which the website is N/A. Everything is live, all the time. Changes are done in the background and then published with a click of a button.
Full Enterprise Software
It’s flexible, scalable, adjustable and easily managed. Integrations with other applications are simple and its security is of the highest quality. Basic users get all of this with no need to pay for a “pro” version like in so many other CMS platforms.
SEO Friendly
Most businesses aim to boost their SEO. Drupal makes it easy. It is, in fact, one of the main features of the Drupal CMS. It displays the content in a way that search engines favour, and tells you when and what requires improvement.
Mobile First Development
In this new world of mobile marketing, Drupal is leading by a great margin. Its themes are not just mobile friendly, but mobile-first, a crucial factor for lead generation, especially for small businesses.
Get a Drupal Agency
If you wish to get your business to thrive online, getting a Drupal agency for it is the best choice you can make. Get in touch with us, one of Toronto’s most prominent Drupal CMS development companies, and see the results for yourself.
Adrian Ababei / Apr 15'2017
One of the main challenges all businesses face is getting clients.
Unlike most anything else, this one question is a constant struggle and requires innovation, perseverance and quite a bit of your time.
There are many approaches to generating leads to increase your client base, and quite frankly, there is no way a business owner can possibly cover all of them and have enough time left to actually run their own business.
That’s why hiring a Toronto marketing agency is the best, most cost-effective approach for generating leads and expanding their operation. Here are just a few of the things a Toronto digital marketing agency can do for you.
Simplify Processes
When your clients have a simple process to place an order, select an item or simply get their questions answered, everybody benefits. A Toronto digital agency can create an easy online solution for visitors to use. It can be a price calculator, color matching template, customizing tool and anything else you can think of for the line of business you’re in. Simplifying things for clients is always good, because it brings them closer to the selling point. Tools like these help convert traffic into real leads.
Set up on YouTube
A picture is worth a thousand words. If so, a video is worth a million. It’s a fact that businesses with YouTube channels get more traffic and higher quality leads. Answering your clients’ questions, giving extra information about your product or service - those are things people like and appreciate. A Toronto internet marketing agency has the expertise to research the market and help you set up a channel to address your audience, converting them to actual clients.
Social Media Boost
We all know how important social media is for business, but running a social media account takes time and effort. Moreover, it’s not enough to just generate a post a few times a day. You have to actually know what to do. There’s analytics to follow, lots of monitoring to do and audience responses to predict. The top advertising agencies in Toronto know that, and put a lot of effort into studying this segment of the market in order to increase productivity and bring you the best results.
Optimize and Repurpose Content
Old blog posts may be reused and revamped to fit new SEO guidelines, increasing their outreach. Crossposting high ranking posts on social media accounts is also a viable strategy. Adding new titles and keywords to existing posts is something that can and often should be done. You get the picture.
This is not mentioning the things that can be achieved by restructuring your website, getting more active keywords into your old content and much much more.
Call us now and get your game to a new level with one of the top advertising agencies in Toronto.
Adrian Ababei / Apr 14'2017
Here you are, facing a big challenge: which one of all the Drupal teams “seducing” you with their whole array of migrating services to go with? Which one is THE one to upgrade your site to Drupal 8?
Which are the key questions to ask them before you take your decision?
Your “questionnaire” should turn into a powerful tool during the selection process! Just think that it's more than a migration “marathon” that this company will undertake (migrating you site's content, all its modules etc.), but a whole website redesigning “marathon”, as well!
In other words: don't go for your most “seducing wooer”!
Now in order to streamline your selection process and to reduce the risk of taking a wrong decision to a minimum, we've put together a list of “clues” for you. “Clues” that will help you identify your future Drupal partner.
Ready? Here it goes:
1. Get Clear Evidence of Their Experience Before You Upgrade Your Site to Drupal 8
References from their previous customers here included!
It's a more than “clue”, we know that, but even so, we still felt like putting it on top of our advice list: make sure that the Drupal agency who'll be handling your migration project has enough experience working with Drupal! And not just with Drupal 6 or 7, but with Druipal 8, as well.
It's already been a while since November 2015, when Drupal 8 was released into the wild. So every Drupal agency worth its salt (and your attention), should have already added at least a few Drupal 8 projects to its portfolio.
Never accept that your company should be anyone's “guinea pig”!
Ask for clear evidence of their work with several versions of Drupal, as well as references from their clients. And this should be the very first step to take during your selection process!
2. You'll Want a Team Actively Involved in the Drupal Community
And it's this community involvement proof that might just be THE “tie breaker”! The one that will differentiate the Drupal agencies that you should keep on your list for further checking from the ones that you should... well... take off your list!
Just think about it: the more active a team is, as a contributor, the more up to date and familiarized with the latest projects of the Drupal's “ecosystem ” they are. The more reliable will their decisions be once they handle your migration project.
You won't risk “ending up” with a Drupal company wasting too much of your valuable time (and money!) on coding PHP instead of relying on the latest future proof approaches! And this is just an example!
In a nutshell: check whether the Drupal team that you're considering to hire to upgrade your site to Drupal 8 is active in the Drupal community!
Also, if you come to think of it: it's precisely the team behind Drupal 8, that group of developers working on its core and modules, seeing that the open source platform keeps up with the ever-growing digital needs of all companies operating in the online world that are the real “culprits” of its cutting-edge features.
Therefore, the more a Drupal agency stays connected to this community of Drupal developers and designers, the more reassured you can be that its team knows what it's doing. Simply put!
3. Make Sure Your Project Is Not Their Very First Drupal 8 Migration Project
Remember our previous advice: “Never accept that your company should be anyone's “guinea pig”!? No matter how temptingly cost-effective their estimate might be!
Therefore, make sure you don't skip this part where you ask for clear evidence of their experience not just of working in Drupal 8, but in migrating websites to Drupal 8, as well!
Get information about and analyze the reviewed company's previously Drupal 8 migration projects!
4. Ask Them How They'll Be Handling Each One of Your Crucial Current Modules
And this “chic chat” around the critical modules/features on your current website should no way miss from your selection process!
You're entitled to point out to each one of the interviewed agencies which are the modules/ functionalities/sections on your company's website that you “stubbornly” want to keep.
Ask for specific migration plans that they would develop for each one each one of these key features on your site!
When there's no correspondent module in Drupal 8, ask for alternatives!
Either way, have this open discussion with each one of the Drupal teams that you're interviewing, challenging them to come up with sustainable solutions to your requests. Leave no room for compromise risking to impact your website's functionality.
No room for surprises that you would be “forced” to accept once the migration project has been started!
5. Be Skeptical About Speedy Estimations
Time is money, no doubt about that! But when it comes to Drupal 8 migration project estimations, too little time spent in an in-depth analysis of your site will, on the contrary, be more harmful to your budget on the long run!
In other words: don't go with the hastiest, overly confident and overly “enthusiast” Drupal team! One that will immediately give you an estimate “on the go”, without feeling the “need” to dig in deep into your website.
If a company won't take a close look at the whole content architecture on your Drupal website, won't “delve” into its custom code or analyze its theme CSS& JS, you should instantly “turn on your alert”.
It means their estimation is riskily superficial and that you should jump straight to the next Drupal agency on your list.
No point in taking such a risk!
Tip: if an in-depth analysis of your website means a way too risky process for you, you can always go for a “temporary account” solution. Give the reviewed Drupal team this account, then, once they've completed their “digging”, just cancel it.
These are our 5 clues that will hopefully streamline the process during which you select the Drupal agency top upgrade your site to Drupal 8. Do you have other key criteria or key questions on your list, as well?
Adrian Ababei / Apr 10'2017