Get The Most Out Of Your Web Design Agency By Answering These Questions

Are you ready for a new website? Not straight away! Any good web design agency will want to discuss your website in considerable depth before they set to work creating it. You'll need to provide a brief that your web design agency can work from, so what questions should you ask and answer to make the process more efficient?

What do you want your website to do?

Your website isn't there just for show. It should be fulfilling your goals. For that to happen, your web designer needs to know what your goals actually are. Do you want people to make a purchase? Should people call you? Would you prefer for people to fill in a form so that you can contact them at a later date, or are you trying to get people to subscribe to your newsletter?

What do you want and need your website to include?

Some things on your website will be essentials, and some will not be necessary though you might like to have them. Your website can be as creative as you like if your budget stretches, but at the same time your chosen web design agency should be confident enough to tell you if you're sacrificing ease of use and making your website more confusing by trying to include too much. Likewise, if your budget isn't endless then you might want to think about what you can afford to leave out in order to keep costs lower.

If you have an existing website, look at what works and what doesn't?

Assuming that you already have a website, you should be aware of what's working and what isn't. Provide this information to your web design agency so that they can replicate the good parts on your new website. Anything that hasn't proven to be successful can be completely left out or modified and improved.

How much control do you want?

Do you want to be able to edit your website? What control features and content management system would you like to use? Some web design agencies specialise in certain content management systems, such as Joomla or Wordpress, whilst some can create a bespoke system to suit your specific needs if that's what you'd prefer.

Do you have other specialists that you'd like to involve?

Your web design agency might offer a full service product, or be able to recommend other professionals, but you're also able to find your own copywriters, graphic designers and other experts. Giving your web design agency the contact details of anyone else that's involved can help them to work together efficiently.

PPC Agency Best Practice - Is It Just About The Clicks?

A PPC agency is arguably the best place to come if you are seeking a top quality landing page. Though the name 'pay per click' suggests that these agencies' main job revolves around increasing the number of clicks on a Google ad, in reality it is more complex and process-oriented and strategically than that.

A good PPC agency will ensure that once a user clicks the link to reach your landing page, the landing page is of such great quality that they convert from casual site visitor to loyal paying customer. So PPC is not just about the click, it is also about optimising conversion rates. Here, we explain the key factors that make landing pages the lynch-pin of a successful ad campaign.

A good landing page will be honed to fit the tastes and aspirations of its target audience. There is no point in saying that a product you are selling goes great with wine if your target audience is mainly teetotal, or is a group of inveterate beer drinkers! 

Keeping the landing page relevant in this way will ensure that you do not just get a whole lot of people clicking on a tantalising link to reach your site, only to leave the site as soon as they see the landing page.

Another crucial way in which landing pages need to stay relevant is by being adapted to suit the copy of your online ads. When you use a good PPC agency London, their ads are the whole reason that many people come to your site in the first place. 

There must have been something engaging and interesting about the ad, or they would not have clicked on it, so make sure that your landing page reflects those things that were intriguing about the online ads whilst also satisfying your visitors' curiosity by telling them a little more. Integrating the referral content (the ad) with the landing page is so important.

Finally, keep everything clickable! The user has clicked on an ad to reach your site, and you want them to keep the momentum going to make further clicks and eventually make a purchase (or respond to your campaign in another way, like signing up to your charity). 

Give them some clear calls to action with clearly defined images and other buttons that they can click on to complete the actions you want them to do. Staying aware of the goals of your landing page will ensure that these calls to action are appropriate.

Why a Social Media Audit is Crucial to Your Success

Put simply, a social media audit is an MOT for your social media profiles and overall online presence. Taking a closer look at your current social media profiles and assessing which ones are working best for you, whether to add a new profile to your portfolio or if you’re achieving the aims and objectives of your social media/wider marketing strategy is an excellent habit to maintain.

A social media MOT or audit should be done every few months (if not more frequently) to ensure all profiles are on-brand and reaching their full potential. Simple things like rewording your Twitter bio or deleting old photo albums from your business Facebook profile instantly refreshes your profile and online presence. Potential customers who visit your social media profile for the first time don’t want to spend time browsing products in photo albums on Facebook only to discover these are from last year and no longer available.

Nor do they wish to engage with a brand whose online presence is limited to two tweets a month. Boosting your appeal to new visitors and giving loyal followers something to read or aspire to is just one way your business can gain a competitive edge using social media.

Taking an invested interest in who you follow and who follows you is another important part of a social media audit. Do members of the local press follow your business? Perhaps you can utilise these online connections to create organic PR connections. Are you following local hashtag hours on Twitter for example? If not, conducting research into effective, relevant networking hours (such as #weddinghour or #ukbizhour) could be the catalyst to increasing your online presence and number of followers.

Don’t forget blogs are part of your social media presence too. A simple social media audit of your blog will help you plan an effective strategy that achieves your goals of generating more views and/or comments per post, increasing the number of shares and ultimately traffic to your website. Take the time to record how previous posts have been received. Views, bounce rates and shares are all valuable indications of how well-read and widely your blog post has been shared. Often, social media audits involve a shift in perspective from the business owner or social media team. Thinking about your reader and their needs rather than the message you want to get across is essentially what a social media audit aims to achieve.

Conducting a social media audit is crucial to your social success because it demonstrates to customers (old and new) that you take pride in how your business is perceived online, but also portrays the business’ commitment to embracing digital media. Social media is not a phenomenon, but an important, invaluable and essential part of a business’ digital marketing strategy that gives even the smallest start-ups an opportunity to grow their business and compete with big brands for free.

The Route To Google PPC Management Success

Google Ads in their yellow boxes are something of a ubiquitous presence online nowadays and there is no doubting the value of a well thought out, successful pay per click management (PPC) campaign to any online business. In short, PPC brings in traffic. Once set up it has a proven track record in bringing users to your site within hours but this is only a small piece of the jigsaw, how can you ensure that you are making the most of your campaign?

There are several areas to cover; most important of all, when it comes to being able to measure the success or otherwise of a campaign, is tracking and analytics. It is vital that all traffic and conversion actions (the user doing what you want them to do i.e. make a purchase, sign up to a newsletter, or fill out an enquiry form) are correctly tracked so that you can see exactly what your PPC management budget is getting you.

This is achieved in two parts. 1. Registering for Google Analytics, linking it to your website and telling it what your goals are and 2. placing the Google Adwords conversion code on webpages that generate a conversion, for example the 'thank you for your purchase' page after a sale is completed. This gives Google the tools to tell you how many of your target actions are taking place in any given time period and, more importantly, what each one is costing you. By analysing this data you can see if your advertising is profitable or if not, what areas you need to improve.

It is also important to note that there are PPC platforms available other than Google, such as Yahoo! Bing Network or small PPC agencies. Google dominates the PPC market, and therefore usually brings in much more traffic, but other companies can have other advantages (for example, they may be cheaper). Also, if your account has been suspended by Google or your niche doesn't match their terms of service, you may have no other choice than to look elsewhere.

When it comes to successful PPC management, you must also ensure that you use the best possible landing page for your adverts. For example if you are a shop that sells clothes and you have a range of adverts for a specific jacket, you are far better off having these ads directing the user to the specific product or category page for the jacket, rather than the company homepage.

This is because Google analyses how relevant your advert content is to the landing page you direct the user to, in an effort to stop people manipulating the user experience with underhand tactics. The rating it gives you affects what is known as AdRank – the overall rating system that Google uses to determine what ads show at the top of each page. Google rates the landing page experience in the keywords tab for each campaign; anything below 'average' is hindering your advertising and could be causing Google to charge your more per click than a competitor with a better landing page rating. Always look to improve the relevance of your pages where possible and also ensure that they are optimised for SEO correctly, in order maximise your results.

Recently Google have launched and encouraged the use of what it calls 'Ad Extensions'. These are extra layers of detail that it believes offers the user a better experience and allows them to make a more informed decision about which ads they do and do not click on. These extensions include things like extra links under your text ad that go directly to a specific page on your site. This is great for multi-layered campaigns and also your company address and telephone number, ideal for local business to target their local area.

When brought together, these strands form the basis of cost effective, successful Google Advertising that brings in the customers. Can your business afford to be without it?

Why Choose An Online Marketing Agency

Effective marketing needs skill if you are to maximise the results. Knowing how to do this is not easy, which is why most businesses choose to work with a specialist online marketing agency? Such an agency can make all the difference to the way a client is perceived in the marketplace, especially when it comes to dealing with social media and SEO.

The benefits are enormous. An online marketing agency is cost effective - they can often gain special rates when it comes to advertising and can draw on the skills of many experienced employees. They have the contacts and the knowledge to be able to place stories and marketing material in the right hands to gain maximum publicity.

Using the services of an online marketing agency can be much cheaper than employing a specialist in house. The agency is able to share costs with other companies and possesses a much wider skill and knowledge base than any one person employed within a company, so it is much more cost effective to use an online marketing agency. You can pick and choose which services will be of most benefit to your business, be it a focus on effective social media, creation of SEO content, PPC or general web development.

An online marketing agency will have extensive knowledge of how to use SEO most effectively - after all, they are specialists in the subject and know how to use the web to the greatest benefit of their clients. Look for an agency that has a background in your business sector - they will already have the contacts that you need to develop your web based marketing strategy. Make sure that whichever online marketing agency you choose is either a member of the CIM or CIPR Institutes. Such membership guarantees professionalism at every stage and shows that the agency members are well trained and fully informed as to all the latest marketing developments.

Another key advantage to using an online marketing agency is the fact they are independent. They can look at your business from a new viewpoint. Because they have not previously been involved in your company, they can be objective and find new ways of looking at an issue. This helps to identify the best marketing techniques that will optimise your web based online Marketing strategy. 

Building Your Brand With A Social Media Agency

There are so many ways that you can use social media to really get your business or brand marketed, as you are doing it right.

While it is easy for any business or brand to jump on Twitter and Facebook and rack up a tonne of fans and followers, how do you know if you are using social media to promote your brand effectively?

The main purposes to businesses using social media include: having a personal voice, meaning your intended audience can communicate with you; upping your reputation, using social media to reflect your objectives and just how great your brand is; increasing your sales, as through social media you can generate loads of leads and sales; and improving customer care, as tweeting and replying to any concerns or queries your audience has is a great way of strengthening your brand. 

Whether you're frequently tweeting, updating your Facebook status or publishing blog posts, it's all about building a relationship with the guys who are going to bring you money in.

It's not just about creating relationships with these folk; each and every time you engage with one person, their followers or friends will be able to see that engagement, in turn your brand will grow and your social media tactics will create much needed awareness about your brand.

Using social media to raise awareness of your brand is a no brainer, and that is why more and more businesses are turning to social media agencies to manage and exploit social media on their behalf.

As experts, such agencies know what to tweet and when to tweet it; what to hashtag, what to like and what to share. They really know the ins and outs of every social media platform going.

They are able to be active when your business is not, for example at prime social media windows first thing in the morning and last thing at night. They are able to engage with your customers on your behalf while having an opinion and showing the individual personality of your business.

This is all without mentioning the way in which Social Media Agencies can save businesses the time it takes to manage their social media. It can be a time consuming feat monitoring all of your platforms.

Using an agency to manage your social media frees you up to manage your business, and what could be better than that?

Top 3 Social Media Mistakes

To exclude social media from your marketing activities is unthinkable, it’s a stage that’s simply too big to ignore. So to get you started, here is a quick guide to the most common social media mistakes that marketers make. For more in-depth advice and assistance on all social media marketing issues, you should seek out a good social media agency.

1. Not being active enough

Many who are unfamiliar with social media sites will set up an account and then post little or nothing on it because they don’t know what to say, how to say it, or they don’t see the point. This means they fail to build any relationship or dialogue with potential customers, and they don't sustain anyone's interest. Okay, you don’t want to be desperately hammering your fans and followers with message after message, but there’s a reasonable middle way here. The key is to know who your target audience is, and to make your posts interesting and relevant to them. Speak to your customers and show them what they would want to see.

2. Trying to stamp out anything negative

Trying to suppress anything you don’t like often has the unintended effect of drawing more attention to it – often a lot more. It’s the Streisand effect, named after singer Barbara who tried to sue someone who put a photo of her house online. You guessed it; this only led to more people visiting the website involved. So for the trolls, just ignore them, give them no response at all. For anything else negative, respond as if you were talking to the person face-to-face and, if appropriate, take it with a pinch of humour – being able to laugh at yourselves will earn you more admiration than reacting angrily ever will.

3. Poor reporting and measurability

In order to be properly integrated into your overall marketing strategy, your social media activities must be measurable and well reported. Of course it’s much easier to produce a good report if what you’re reporting on is measurable. If it isn't then you'll struggle to see the effects of your activity and campaigns.

Don't know where to start when it comes to creating a social media strategy? A good social media agency will be able to assist you in developing and implementing a strategy that’s tailored to your business.