3 Reasons You Need To Update Your Website

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One of the most cost-effective and best ways to advertise your business is through your own website. When done correctly, your website makes your business easily accessible to anyone. There are many decisions that go into creating and updating your current design. Below I have broken down these key reasons into 3 different categories that can help you while updating your website.

  • Design
  • Marketing
  • Usability

Let’s talk about Design first! There are three subcategories to always look for when updating your website.

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A good website will show visiting people a reflection of your business who you are. If your site looks professional and has content that is useful to your readers, you come out looking like an expert in your industry. The same goes for one that is poorly designed and structured. A website that is out of date and hard to find what you are looking for lets consumers start bad assumptions about your business. Your website should highlight the service or product and the layout should be consistent and cohesive.

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This should be no surprise to you, a website that is not responsive or mobile friendly always falls short in the consumer’s eyes and in Google’s ranking. Google announced that in 2018 there will be an updated algorithm for mobile-friendly sites in its search rankings. Research shows that consumers are spending twice as long on their mobile devices then they are on their laptops and PCs.

 

Having a responsive website design allows for your users to see your site on any device in a readable format. Have you ever been to a website on your phone, only to have to zoom in to press a link or even to read about who they are? This is why thinking “mobile first” has become a common practice in the business world.

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When updating, it is important to select content related to your objectives. Photography plays a big role on your site, and most businesses rely heavily on stock images. You need a good balance of photos that are truly yours (your product or service) and ones that are stock. This helps the consumer know that your website is not a fraud and you are selling real products.

 

Now let’s move onto another category, marketing. Marketing is broken down into four subcategories for you to keep in mind.

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Most websites have them now a day. Whether you are using a “call now” or “free estimate” call to action (CTA), remember that you need to place these on your website to drive prospective customers to become leads. Always think, as important as they are, are they interesting enough to persuade your visitor to complete the action?

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Are your measuring how effective your website is? A good example is heat mapping, conversion tracking, and analytics. You can use multiple tools like Google analytics to see how many people visit your site, and where they spend their time. You can also see where most people drop off. With an updated website, these tools are easy to implement. When your website is outdated, it may be hard to integrate these great tracking tools.

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Besides the overall layout, content is useful to the reader who visited. The reader is interested in the useful information that is on your website. A site redesign can also give you the opportunity to rewrite the copy that is on your website and simplify the information and effectiveness. Remember, you have 2-4 seconds to engage with new visitors on your website.

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With content comes your SEO. Updating your content can help you bring new keywords on to your site. You can refine your keywords, update them, and make them more relevant to the consumers you are trying to attract. The way people search and how they search is always changing and updating your website to help this ever-changing digital age can benefit how consumers find you.

 

Usability is our next category for your website. How easy is your website to use?

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When looking at user experience, you want to look at the experience your visitor is having with your website. Look into how fast your site loads, how easy it is to find information, and does your content load fast. Making sure your website is easy for a visitor to navigate ill help them stay on your page for longer.

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Is your website so slow that even you don’t even want to go on to it? Well then, that’s a problem! Your website should load in 5 seconds or less to keep your visitor interested. Consumers will easily go on to the next website if yours does not load fast enough. To see if your website loads fast enough, you can use sites like Google Page Speed Insights

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Updating your website is definitely easier and cheaper than a full redesign. By utilizing some of the points above, you can help improve your user experience and visitor presence. If you need any advice on your website today, please feel free to contact Revel In Design. We can help you with updating, maintenance, and redesigning your website. We fit every budget and can help you provide your customers with an experience they will never forget!

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Branding Your Presentation

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From corporate profiles to sale pitches, presentations are key visual assets to your company’s brand experience. Your brand identity can be brought to life through presentations. By resonating it through your presentation, you can educate your audience on who you are and what your company stands for.

Branding your internal presentations is always a good idea. Having a template that your company can use for customers, investors and marketing, help your brand be more recognizable to your audience. Corporate branded PowerPoints rank high for all industries. Promote your brand through your presentation with these 4 key rules.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][argenta_sc_heading module_type_layout=”on_left” subtitle_type_layout=”without_subtitle” title=”Logo”][vc_column_text]Your company’s logo is always the first step in getting your brand across to your audience. It is the first part of your company your audience will remember and see. This rule is the same with your presentation. You want your logo to be visible on the cover page. The cover page is the start of your story and will tell your audience who you are straight from the beginning.

 

You can either choose to keep your logo on the cover page, or you can place it on every page as well.  This depends on what type of presentation you are going for.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”6454″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][argenta_sc_heading module_type_layout=”on_left” subtitle_type_layout=”without_subtitle” title=”Color”][vc_column_text]Your brand uses specific colors on every marketing material you create. This should be the same for your presentation. Using your brand colors throughout your presentation helps keep your brand identity apparent. If you don’t have brand-specific colors, look to use the colors in your logo. Those colors will help you keep your presentation uniform and give your presentation some creative elements to work with.

 

Colors help keep your presentation visually appealing and will help move your audience throughout your slide. This also helps create different and unique slides for each topic you are covering.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”6456″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][argenta_sc_heading module_type_layout=”on_left” subtitle_type_layout=”without_subtitle” title=”Font”][vc_column_text]Your brand might already have font family you use on other material’s. Using these same fonts in your presentation helps tie your band altogether.  This also helps with creative elements as well. Playing with font size, weight, and color, help tell your story to your audience. It will show your audience what your topic is, your key points are and any statements that are important to you.

 

Using more than one font family in a presentation I normally not recommended. Using one font, but different variations of that font will help you stay more consistent on every slide.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”6457″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][argenta_sc_heading module_type_layout=”on_left” subtitle_type_layout=”without_subtitle” title=”Consistency “][vc_column_text]This covers everything we just touched upon above. Consistency throughout your presentation will help you look more professional and will tie your brand altogether. From your logo, colors and fonts you use, having them all consistent throughout each page will help your audience understand your story better.

 

Making sure each slide is consistent is easy. When you’re done with your presentation, go through each slide and make sure your title on every page is the same size, color, and weight. Do the same thing for each part of your presentation pages. Bullet points should all be the same on each slide, and so should each of your paragraphs. This may seem like a lot of work, but it helps keep your presentation in check.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”6458″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][vc_single_image image=”6459″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][vc_single_image image=”6460″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

With all of this in mind, now it’s time for you to brand your presentation. Remember, take it one slide at a time!

 

If you’re looking to incorporate more graphical elements into a presentation, hiring a graphic designer may be the way to go. They can create unique elements just for your industry and PowerPoint. They can help you make creative graphs like the ones above and help bring your presentation to the next level.

 

Need a freelance graphic designer? Contact me today at jennifer.fetterly@revelindesign.com for a free quote on your project.

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Going Digital? Know what to use and why

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Digital marketing has been taking the world by storm in the last couple of years. Every year there seem to be new and improved ways to optimize your site, change your position on Google, and to advertise your business to new consumers. Digital marketing comes in multiple forms. You have SEO, SEM, PPC and more, but do you know what they do and why they are staples in your digital marketing campaign?

Let me help you understand what Digital Marketing is and what each product does for your business![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Search engine optimization (SEO)

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Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a great tool to use for your website and blog posts. Google, Bing, and Yahoo all have search results, where web pages, videos and other content like local listings are shown. These search results are ranked based on what the search engine (ex: google) considers relevant to the user. SEO is strictly organic, which means you do not have to pay for it. SEO uses words from your website, meta descriptions and other site links to drive traffic, improve search engine ranking, and increase brand awareness. This is a great tool to use and it is completely free.

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Search engine marketing (SEM)

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Not to be confused with SEO, Search engine marketing (SEM) is a process of increasing website traffic and visibility from search engines through paid marketing efforts. You may have heard of Google AdWords, which is the most popular SEM platform marketers use. SEM includes paid search advertisements (display ads) and pay-per-click. This leads to our next product, pay-per-click.

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Pay-per-click advertising (PPC)

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Pay-per-click is where advertisers pay a fee each time their ad is clicked. This can be in a form of text advertisement or a display advertisement. This is basically a way of buying visits to your website, rather than earning those visits organically. Advertisers can bid for placement in the sponsored links when someone searches a keyword related to their business. Below are two example the types of PPC ads you can see on a search engine, like google.

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Social Media Marketing (SMM)

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Did you know about 2 billion people use social media? Social media marketing is a great form of paid and unpaid advertising. By creating content that showcases your brand, products, and services, you can create a strategy that helps you achieve brand awareness nationally and globally. Through social media, you can target your audience, boost a post, and even get leads from your advertisements. With the right message and the right targeting strategy, you can become very successful in advertising through social media. Platforms that you should consider using our Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest.

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Audience Targeting

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Audience targeting helps you deliver your ad to a specific audience. Simple enough right? With audience targeting, you can target specific locations and business’s, specific states, specific behaviors, and even specific website searches. Kind of creepy, I know, but the great thing about this tool is consumers will see your ad for up to 30 days, which means your consumer will not forget why and who they searched for. This helps you tailor your message to specific audiences, at specific times to make sure you stay in their mind when they are ready to purchase.

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Local Listings on Search Engines

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Consistent branding on the web is a powerful tool. The more your consistent in your location, the better. Claiming your business on Google, Yelp or yellow pages helps your business be found and contacted.  This will also help your visibility on search engines and can improve your search ranking.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with the ever-changing digital world. Partnering with someone who can help you stay on track with your digital strategy can go a long way. Whether they are in-house or a remote worker, hiring a specialist can help you conquer this digital age.

Need help? Feel free to call 732-814-5033 or email jennifer.fetterly@revelindesign.com with any questions you may have! I would love to help you strategize your digital campaign.

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Brand Building Through Social Media

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Social Media has become a great platform for business’s, small and large, to create brand awareness. Billions of people are on social media, almost 2.1 billion in fact, which makes sense why marketers believe that social media is critical in building your brand.
So where do you begin? Here are some steps you can take to start building your brand on all social media platforms.
Social MediaBeing consistent on all social media platforms is important

Branding never happens overnight but being consistent can happen right away. Making sure all of your platforms have the same bio, logos, and are verified are small steps you can take when gearingup your social media platforms. From there make sure your brand style guide and essence also appear the same on each of your social media profiles.

Being consistent in posts also goes a long way with consumers. From style, colors, graphics, templates and posting routine help your followers to know what to expect.

 

 Make sure your logo is consistent throughout and fits properly
social media

Your logo is the anchor of your brand. It is the first thing consumers look at, so why would you put 3 different variations of your logo on 3 different social media platforms? Having the same variation of your logo on each platform helps your consumer know they are following the right brand.

Your logo should fit properly on each platform. Your logo should not be stretched out or squeezed so tight that not even your CEO can recognize it. Your audience should be able to read your logo clearly.

Use your brand colors

You have brand colors for a reason! Use those colors to make a statement. Each color can show impact and meaning in your post. Using your brand colors help you look consistent and professional. They should be consistent with your website, marketing materials, and product packaging.

Know the voice and style of your business

Knowing the voice of your business helps when you are creating social media posts. You should know your target audience, so your social media can speak to them. Look into the tone, language, and purpose of your social media posts.

  • Tone – Be clear to your followers with the tone you use. Is your brand’s voice serious, formal, cheeky, or spontaneous?
  • Language – Know what type of language you should be using. Are you a young and hip brand that can get away with talking in some slang or are you the type of brand that can us acronyms and industry specific terminology?
  • Purpose – What is the purpose if your brand on social media? Are you there to educate your followers or are you there just to entertain them?

Once you figure this out, you can put together a social media style guide that can help you stay on track when posting. You can create this style guide like a brand guideline book.

Answer your consumers back like a human 

Whether good or bad, make sure to take the time to really answer your followers back. When answering them, make sure to actually sound like a human and find that emotional connection. Your followers believe in your brand and products, so why not take the time to answer their questions as if you were a friend? Taking the time to answer your follower’s comments with a genuine answer only takes a couple of seconds to do.

Be transparent

Transparency is the key to any long-lasting relationship. Publishing information that will help your followers understand the mechanics of your company goes a long way. Ever see those ads that have 50 comments but only 5 comments show? I am not sure how that looks to you, but I do know that to me, trusting that company sounds risky.

Whether you are answering back some bad comments or reviews, or letting your followers know there might be a delay in their order, you should always be transparent to you follower’s, so they know they can trust you.

Post relevant content

As easy as this sounds, sometimes this could be the hard part. Posting for the sake of posting doesn’t help your business gain new likes, followers or page views.  Make sure your posts are relevant to your business.

The main reasons why most people unfollow a page is because of how much it posts and the content that is posted.

Social mediaMake it visual

Social media is all about being visual. Consumers engage more with videos and photos that are posted over posts that don’t include a visual. Adding photos, videos, gifs, and infographics help your posts to be viewed and shared more.

Social Media is a great tool for any type of business looking to increase their brand awareness and online presence. Even though these platforms can be very cluttered with numerous companies, these platforms are great to get your brand out to a larger audience and to keep your customers engaged and interested.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Simplify your information through infographics

Infographics help simplify the information you are trying to convey to your viewers. They are 30 times more likely to be read then just plain text. Using basic design principles to support the information presented can help you target a larger audience. They are used for social media posts, flyers, and email marketing. Here are some things to keep in mind when creating your infographic.

processFind a topic

This might seem like a no brainer to most, but it is easy to forget. Find the topic you are going to use and write down the information that will be shown in the infographic. Laying this out makes it easy for you to double-check your work as you begin to create your infographic. Find the data you want to use, and figure out the perspective you want your audience to see this in. It also helps you see how much room you will need for the next step. Planning out your infographic will be much easier when your topic is right in front of you.

Plan your infographic design

Now that you have your topic, let’s move to the next step. As a designer, it is always a great idea to plan and sketch out your ideas. This allows you to see your design in minutes and helps you come up with a concept. You can sketch out the process you want to convey to your audience and make sure it is easy to understand. This will show you if the perspective you are looking to show will show through to the viewers.layout

Layout

Wireframes and grids are a part of this stage. You should be able to come up with 2-3 wireframes that layout how you want your information to be shown. You can choose to do a horizontal layout, vertical layout or both. With a wireframe, you can start to piece together where you want certain elements of your design to be shown. For instance, you can layout where your titles and icons will be placed.

Balance

Once you figure out the layout you would like to use, you should double-check to make sure everything is balanced properly. By balancing out your layout, your design will not be to “top heavy” with information and be empty at the bottom of your design. Finding the right balance for your infographic is important. Think about the negative space you have, the colors you are using, and the icons or photography you choose to use. Each design element should balance one another out so your audience can follow your design.

iconography

Consistency

Consistency is key for infographics and all other marketing materials you have as assets. Making sure you are consistent in your font choice, colors, and iconography or photography, will help your audience move between each section of your infographic.

Infographics are a great tool for small and large business’s. They capture a large audience on multiple platforms and used over and over. When done properly, if infographics are paired with relevant information, viewers are likely to retain 65% of the information for longer. If you are not sure if you are ready to create your own infographic yet, you can easily find a graphic designer who can help you out.

 

Need help? Drop me a line and I would be more than happy to help you out!

New Year, New Branding?

That’s right, it’s the start of the new year, and you know what that means right? It’s the time to look back at last year and see what improvements your business can make. Your business’s brand is key, so why not continue to improve your branding every year to reach new customers? Rebranding is usually driven by the sluggish performance of your past material. In many cases, the focus is external, rebranding to create maximum impact on existing customers, prospects and partnerships. Rebranding doesn’t always mean a total makes over of your business’s assets though. So, what can you do you improve your brand for the new year?

Social Media

Social Media Review

Reviewing all of your marketing channels can help show were the inconstancies are. Facebook to Twitter, your brand should have the same consistent look and feel throughout. Little changes can do wonders for keeping your brand consistent. One thing I love to implement when managing a social media platform is creating brand templates for social media platforms. Having 5-7 template’s that you can utilize for your posts will help your social media platforms convey your brand.

Marketing Material Review

Depending on the number of flyers, brochures or catalogs you have, this might take some time, but it is worth it. Looking through your marketing materials to make sure everything has the same color scheme, flow and message can help you see where your inconstancies are. Reviewing your materials is a great way to see where you can improve on logo placement, color usage and brand message to your consumer. When it comes to brand awareness, consistency something you want to think about. When a consumer looks at your brand, will they know it is you?

Website Audit

Updating your website is a must. You should always have current products, services, discounts, and projects up. Taking the time to update your website assets can help you stay relevant and competitive in this very digital world. With consumers taking to computers and mobile phones for almost everything, your website is likely to be the first impression a consumer will get about your business. When a website is not up to date with blogs, projects, case studies or services, a bad first impression can turn a consumer away.

Messaging

Have you looked at your brands messaging yet? Have you checked on how your messaging has been performing? Your brand messaging should be looked at every year to evaluate how it has been performing with your consumers, prospects, and partnerships. The consumer is constantly changing, so why isn’t your messaging? Every year the digital world changes to help the consumer have a different perspective of what they want and how they want it. Review your messaging every year can help you stay current with the consumer and their ever-changing needs.

Keeping your brand up to date with the ever-changing consumer persona can be tough for any business. Making sure you review your branding every year will help your business stay relevant in the consumers’ minds.

Advantages of Hiring a Freelance Graphic Designer over Full Time Employees

The workforce is progressively shifting away from the standard 9 to 5 work day. Embracing a labor force that is adaptable to your every need helps companies get the upper hand. If your business needs experts in the field but lacks the required resources, the answers lie in hiring a freelancer.

Below are the top reasons why hiring a freelancer makes great business sense.

Affordability

Hiring a freelancer helps with reducing the overhead cost it takes to hire a full-time employee. From internal to external costs, trying to hire the right employee takes time and extensive recruiting efforts. Instead of focusing on salary, benefits and career development, you could be focusing on finding the right freelancer to meet your needs. Freelancers generally cover their own benefits, career development and other internal costs a company would have to face.

Flexibility

Flexibility in hours benefits both the company and the freelancer. Because the freelancer has flexible hours, they can help deliver the materials you need on time. Your freelancer will be able to handle your social media posting, writing blogs and posting them, and even delivering marketing materials beyond business hours.

Delivery

Motivation is something that freelancers have a lot of. They want to perform well and do an excellent job for your business, because it helps them stay in business. They fully understand that being reliable and an extension of your business is key to keeping a client. The lack of meetings and politics helps the freelancer deliver your materials in the fastest turnaround they can provide.

Independence

One of the biggest challenges for a company when hiring is training an employee to become independent with their work flow. Extensive training and guidance is usually needed for this. Freelancers on the other hand understand and are accustomed to working independently. Of course, the freelancer will have open and transparent communication between the both of you, but not having to train a person puts less pressure and time out of your day.

More Innovative

Freelancers are always up to date with the best practices of everything digital. Whether you are looking for Search engine optimization, graphic design, or social media content, freelancers are always up today with the industry standards and best practices. Their jobs depend on being the most innovative and up to date employees you could have.

Experience

Experience is key! Freelancers bring experience in a lot of different markets and industries. Instead of specializing themselves, they have the opportunity to dip their hands in a range of different industries and with this helps them find the best possible strategy to use for your business.

Expertise

If a special task is needed and the timeframe to get it done is not achievable by your team, hiring a freelancer can help ease that tension. They can help take the burden of getting a tradeshow graphic done in a week or even getting that last-minute catalog done to go to print. With their flexibility and expertise, freelancers are there to help you through those tough moments of needs.

Future Availability

Your business can always depend on freelancers for future improvements and upgrades in design.  They can be used for a project or be used on a retainer. Either way, your freelancer is there for you 24 /7. When you find a freelancer you work well with, that professional relationship will be long lasting.