1. User Interviews 

Go straight to the source. If you can have a one-on-one conversation with participants of your target market, then you find out directly what they want and need. While it is best to do this in person, this can also be done via virtual meeting or phone call. Pay attention to their attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and experiences. Start will simple questions, then based on their answer go deep into the subject. If needed, have a list of pre-planned question ready, but make sure you are not too focused those questions that you don’t listen to the client. 

2. Surveys

Sometimes you only need info on a specific topic, or you need reactions after the purchase and use of your product or service. This is when you send out a survey to a large amount of your customers’ email. Make sure your email subject is clean simple and avoid all caps, you don’t want clients making the mistake of thinking your survey is a scam or spam. Keep the survey short, users are less likely to complete a long survey. If you want to provide an extra incentive by offering a discount to your store if they complete the survey. 

3. Focus Groups 

Gather a small sample group of your target market to discuss your product, service, or experience. Let them share their perspectives amongst themselves in a guided setting. This allows you to gain insights into the nuances and different types of views as individuals. This is especially useful when tailoring products, services, and experiences for individual clients, not just a whole demographic. Include a moderator so that they stay on topic and that they don’t influence each other too much. 

4. A/B Testing 

If you have 2 designs for your project, you can test them against each other. You can use live users or use A/B testing tools that can analyze your design and determine which your target market will gravitate to more. This is useful for designs that are similar but have a minor difference or the information is presented in a different order. If results come back overwhelming to 1 version, you can scrap the other. If your results are nearly even, you can chalk it up to personal preference and merge the two or provide personalized settings for the end user to allow them more control. 

5. Card Sorting 

This method can help determine items like website architecture. You break your products or services into categories. Using virtual or physical cards, assign each card an individual product or service. Provide them to the user and ask them to sort the cards into groups. The groups can be based on criteria based on user preference for example color, size, etc. This helps you identify patterns in what user views, which indicates what a user will like search when looking for a product or service like yours. You can then organize your website based on the results leading to the exact user experience your target market wants. 

6. Tree Test

Findability and usability of website content can be tested with the tree test method. This can be used as a follow up from the card sorting method or it can be used when you have large amounts of content, have multiple navigation options, or are updating your existing website. The tree test method involves asking participants to find specific items starting from the home page to the contact page. You give no indication of what the internal navigation or call-to-action buttons are but are allowed a few hints. This helps understand how users find and interact with your web content. 

Start a user-researched web project today? Call 248.528.3600

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Logo

Your company logo is needed so that visitors know that it is your company website that they are on. Make sure your logo is visible at a small size and that the colors are in RGB (digital colors). If you have an old logo, it may be time for a re-design by a professional design agency. If you have an illustrative one or one with a lot of detail, you may need to simplify or have your logo visible embedded in your top image. Be aware that if you have it embedded in your top image it could mean for future images your logo must be visible or you will have to forgo sliders or videos where the logo isn’t there. Logos in the header are often hyperlinked to take the user back to the home page. 

Navigation Menu 

Whether you have individual links to each page, a mega menu, or a hamburger menu, you need to have a way for users to navigate your website. Usually access to a navigation menu is at the top. There are some exceptions to the rule like side menus, but those are usually reserved for apps where users will swipe to access the navigation. Before designing your website, it is ideal to have a sitemap where you can figure out how many pages you need and how they will be maneuvered. This will inform what type of navigation to use. 

Call To Action 

You want to encourage users to take the next step in the sale process. CTAs that are usually at the top-right of your webpage are:

• Company phone number
• Email Us Icon/Link
• Contact Us Page
• Request a Quote Page
• Support Link

Search Bar 

A search bar is needed if you have a large website with a lot of products, services, or information. Distributor websites will have a search bar at the top of their website so users can type in the brand they want, and it will directly pop up. The users will not have to go into layers of webpages to hunt down what they want. This will prevent clients from giving up on your website and bouncing out. A simple search bar can improve click-through-rates and improve the user experience of your website. 

Ecommerce Icons 

 If your business is ecommerce, then you need icons your user can use to complete the purchase and continue for future purchases. These icons are: 

• Login/My Account icon
• Add to Cart icon 
• Add to Wish List icon
• A Like/Favorite icon
• A Share icon 

Need help fixing your web design? Call 248.528.3600.

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Why Would My Website be Blacklisted? 

There are several reasons a website might get blacklisted. Here are the most common reasons a website is get put on this the list:

• SEO Spam

Hackers gain access to a website and fill it with spammy content to pages with the highest rankings and traffic. They will also tempt sell illicit, illegal, or counterfeit products using spammy keywords, injections, and pop-ups. 

• Phishing Schemes 

Host links that lead users to sketchy websites or duplications of popular websites are categorized as phishing schemes. Visitors of these unethical websites end up sharing their private info, often credit card numbers, usernames, passwords, social security numbers, and more. Which in turn is used to access their bank account and get scammed out of money. 

• Malware Code

This is the most common reason a website is blacklisted. Trojan horses are types of malicious software or code that looks harmless but deceives visitors into installing or loading the malware onto their computer. Once in place, the hacker can potentially take control of a device and perform various harmful actions.

How do I Prevent My Website from Being Blacklisted? 

You can prevent your company’s website from being a target for blacklisting by doing the following:

• Use a Reputable Web Hosting Provider

Use hosting services that provides safety monitoring, security features, and strong firewalls that can help detect potential attacks and security breaches while also helping you detect certain site vulnerabilities. These providers should also alert you when they detect suspicious activity on your site and help you get rid of any online infections. 

• Use Cybersecurity Services 

You want your website to be frequently scanned for different threats or infections. This dramatically decreases the chances of getting blacklisted. Acting as fast as possible is key in avoiding traffic and revenue loss. Implementing automated cybersecurity protocols can be highly effective, especially if your current hosting provider does not offer monitoring services.

• Keep Apps, Plugins, and Site Software Updated

The most common problem a company has is maintaining their website’s apps, plugins, and site software, especially if you use a CMS such as WordPress. Hackers usually attack insecure points of entry and insert malicious code, spammy content, trojan horses, suspicious links, and more. The backdoors are usually old, outdated apps, plugins, and software. It is imperative that you keep everything up-to-date and secure, from your third-party apps to the site’s core software. If you or your internal team are too busy, look for a digital marketing agency that provides web maintenance services. 

• Fix Broken Links 

Broken links occur when the website or page they have previously linked to has gone through reconstruction, and the redirect needs to be set up again. These links usually send both crawlers and users to 404 pages. This can have a negative effect both on site rankings and user experience. Also, broken links can be due to domain name changes. The new domain owner can redirect the visitors to phishing and/or malware sites, so make sure you own your domain name, or you will have to send a large amount of money to make sure you marketing material contains a new domain name. Regularly audit your site for link errors and replace broken ones. There are automated tools and digital marketing agencies that can do the job perfectly if you have a huge website that requires a thorough eye.

• Limit Login Attempts 

Hackers will attempt to enter your website using aggressive tactics called brute-force attacks. They use bots that run through billions of potential password and username combos and might enter the correct credentials. When website owners limit login attempts, they can safely avoid these problems by kicking out a user if they misuse a username or password more than three times. Hacker prefer to go after easy targets and this is one easy barrier to implement. 

• Use Strong Passwords 

This may seem like a commonsense answer, but many users use an easy password when starting off and forget to change the password later. Hackers try to access a site through logins as mentioned in the previous point, but they can also use dictionary attacks, where they list out common phrases and words to guess passwords to take over an account. Require your users to use strong passwords with a variety of lowercase and uppercase letters and symbols. You want to create a unique password that makes it difficult for malicious actors to enter your website through the administrator section of your website. 

• Delegate User Permissions & Roles

When you have several users who help you run your website, you should consider assigning different permissions and roles to help secure your platform from attacks. When a hacker manages to steal or guess the credentials of your site admin, they can do tremendous damage to your website. However, if you limit permissions, you can also limit the hacker’s opportunities if they do manage to gain access. This will also create a more organized workflow. For example, your social media manger can manage the blog section and your sales team can manage your sales pages. Make sure your company has a password manager so if an employee leaves, they can submit their username and password for the website or marketing manager. 

• Use an SSL Certificate 

An SSL certificate is a digital certificate that authenticates a website’s identity and enables an encrypted connection. Having SSL certificate means there is a security protocol that creates an encrypted link between a web server and a web browser. These help websites make secure online transactions and keep customer information private and secure. Most domain and hosting providers automatically include SSL certs, but if unsure you can check if you have an SSL certificate by checking if your browser has a lock icon. Click on it and a message should pop up telling you if you have an encrypted connection. If you do not see a lock icon there is a high chance your website isn’t secure.

Need help preventing your website URL from being blacklisted? Call 248.528.3600.

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1. Product Purpose

What purpose does your product serve? Is it a luxury good or does it help solve a problem your target market has? Make a list of reasons why someone would purchase your item and how they would use it in their daily lives. This will help you or your marketing team create content around the reasons why a customer would purchase your product and how to use it. Marketing avenues that pair well with this discovery are:

• Company Blogs
• Video Ad Campaigns
• Influencer Marketing 
• Paid Advertising 
• Guest Articles/Reviews

2. Price

Keep an eye on the economic market. Research similar companies to see what they are charging. Create an in-depth customer profile how much they make and are willing to spend on similar items. Calculate how much profit you must make before discounting your products. A popular technique a lot of ecommerce businesses use is to reward first time buyers with discount codes for their website through email marketing. 

3. Placement 

In what areas of the internet do you plan for your product to be seen? The destination should be your website that acts as a digital storefront, but where are other places your customers socialize on? Utilize Google Ads for SEO and social media marketing to maintain communication between new and returning customers. Now, social media can get chaotic and may require a digital agency to help you control comments, post creation, and profile updates. If you’re a small business, stick to one platform to start out with. Make sure it is the platform your target spends the most time on. 

4. Promotion

Brag about all the great qualities of your product. Highlight any unique features. Also compare how a customer would prefer your brand’s product over a competitor. If an existing customer leaves a glowing review spotlight it on your company’s website, social media, and paid ads. A few underrated ways to promote your product are: 

• Online Events
• Social Media Group Pages
• Chat Groups 
• Livestreams
• Podcasts 

5. People

People trust people more than bots or faceless products. You don’t have to have a person on every piece of content but sprinkling in a person’s face will help put customers feel at ease. This can come in many forms:

• About The Founder Page on Your Company Website
• Meet Our Team Page on Your Company Website
• Photos of Clients Using the Product
• Stock Photos of Models with the Product 
• Company Photos at a Tradeshow or Event 
• Videos of an Expert or Influencer Promoting a Product

6. Process

How is your product made? Where do you get your materials? Many people love to see behind the scenes of how the product they are about to purchase is made. Have photos or videos taken of the manufacturing process. There is a rise in demand of items to be made ethically. This provides proof that your company is true to their word, especially if your company claims to be eco-friendly or ethically sourced. 

7. Physical Evidence of Improvement

It is impossible to create a product that is perfect. There will be clients that leave negative reviews. Resist the urge to delete or hide these reviews. Have a ticket system or a way to contact the company for further feedback and refunds. If it is a problem with the product itself, take a “before” photo along with the negative reviews. When you fix the problem, take an “after” photo and post them on your website and social media. This will make clients feel heard and valued. 

Create a dynamic digital marketing strategy for your Ecommerce business. Call 248.528.3600.

The post The 7 P’s of E-Commerce Marketing   appeared first on Miller Media, Digital Marketing Agency, PPC, Industrial Web Design, WordPress.

1. Keep the Number of Fonts Used at a Minimum

Resist using more than 3 different types of fonts for your website. If you use too many it runs the risk of looking like a broken site, which in turn, leads to high bounce-rates. Usually there is one font used for heading, one for body copy, and one for your main home display image. You may have seen fancy websites that have a bunch of fonts and look cool, but those clusters of fonts are usually images and are not meant to be read. They often don’t have any important info about the company’s product or service. 

2. Use Standard Fonts 

If you are wondering “how can you tell what type of fonts you can use for web?” Well, Google Web Fonts and Typekit have you covered. They have downloadable fonts that are guaranteed safe for web usage. Whether you are custom coding or using a web template from a site like WordPress these fonts can be integrated. Keep in mind the other rules mentioned and not get too crazy with downloading too many fonts. 

3. Limit the Number of Lines 

If you have a have a lot of content you want to share, make sure to limit the number lines of text. A wall of text can easily tire out a user. A general rule is to break up paragraphs every 6-8 sentences and break up paragraphs with supporting graphics. Different types of fonts can also eat up width space so before going live test out your website on different browser, screens, and mobile devices.  

4. Choose a Typeface That Works Well in Various Sizes

Sometimes all you need is one font that comes in regular, bold, and italic. Find a font that has different weights, and you can use it for your body copy and headings. This will allow for easy contrast, and you don’t have to worry about mixing up fonts. 

5. Use Fonts with Distinguishable Letters

Certain fonts make letters too indistinguishable. Take the word “Illusion”. Can you tell which the capital “I” and which is the lowercase “l”? If your target market has vision problems or doesn’t use English as their first language you may want to find a clearer font. You are more likely to find fonts with distinguishable letters if your search for “serif fonts”.

6. Avoid All Caps

If you have a short headline or one word that you to emphasize using all caps it is fine. Avoid using all caps for any sentence longer than 3 words. Not only is it hard to read, but it looks like you are “yelling” at the user. Depending on what you are selling this can be a huge turn off. For example, you are selling psych services for people with anxiety. Which sentence looks more inviting:

“We here to help you calm down. Our company deals with patients with anxiety get back to living their lives.”

Or

“WE HERE TO HELP YOU CALM DOWN. OUR COMPANY DEALS WITH PATIENTS WITH ANXIETY GET BACK TO LIVING THEIR LIVES.”

7. Have a Reasonable Space Between Lines

In paragraphs spaces between lines, it is possible to be too tight or too far away. Usually, your template or code will default to even spacing, but you still want to check on mobile and other computer devices. If lines are running into each other or are too far away that they don’t look like the info is together, then this will negatively impact the user experience. 

8. Have Color Contrast

No light text on a light background and no dark text on dark background. If your logo or brand colors involve hard to read colors incorporate a neutral color (black, white, grey) into the web design. Neutral colors rarely destroy brand consistency. It is very important for text, especially if you want users to read it, to be in color that the majority of the population can see. 

9. Avoid Coloring Text in Red or Green

Speaking of hard to read text colors, red and green. Individuals that are colorblind cannot read red or green text, especially if it small. Avoid at all costs for body copy. You might be able to get away with large headings if your background is white, but it is best to avoid these colors. If these are your brand colors, incorporate them into the graphics instead. 

10. Avoid Using Blinking Text

While it fun to use flashing text for social media marketing or online ads, it is best to avoid on your actual website. Flashes or flickers can cause headaches or worse trigger seizures in certain individuals prone to seizures. Users want to able to read important info without interruption.   

Let us create a type-friendly website for you. Call 248.528.3600.

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1. Why are you rebranding? 

You could be in one of the situations mentioned above or there might be other reason you want to rebrand you company. Here are some common reasons companies rebrand:

• Branch Out Internationally
• New Mission or Main Goal for the Company
• Internal and external brand are not aligned 
• New Owner
• Product or Services has changed 
• Your target changed age or interest
• Name change 
• Tech industry change (how brand in consumed)
• Scandal repair 

2. What is your brand’s goal?

How do you want to reposition yourself in the market? Everyone wants to increase sales but be specific in your goal. Do you want the rebrand to focus on attracting a certain demographic to a certain product or service? For example, you are a clothing company who previous sold casual cloths for the public, but now you want to upgrade to sell luxury lounge wear for specially women. You will have to research and create goals around attracting middle-to-upper class women who enjoy lounge wear. 

3. Is your current brand outdated? 

This is more of a problem for companies that have been around for a long time, but small companies can also fall for outdated graphics if they don’t have an internal marketing team. Print used to be the primary source of advertising, so a lot of old logos can be geared towards fitting those standards. Also, old computer graphics and websites from the early day of internet may still be in use if you don’t have anyone maintaining your website. This can cost you clients due to them thinking you are not around anymore or worse your old website can be a security risk due to hacking of old PHP code. Updating you brand can create trust among new and existing clients. It will also indicate that you are up to date with current standards of your industry and technology.

4. What marketing strategies will help support a rebrand? 

Speaking of digital and print marketing, what avenues will you new graphics appear on? Think about all the place your brand needs to be represented on. Common marketing materials are: 

• Social Media Ads + Profiles
• Website 
• Google Ads 
• Google My Business Profile
• Business Cards
• Letterheads
• Outdoor + Indoor Signage 
• Clothing
• Tradeshow Banners
• Product Packaging 
• Photography or Illustrations

5. How long will a rebrand take?

Depending on how much research needs to be done rebrands take a long time. It evolves a lot of research of human behavior and interests as well as designing of different marketing materials. If you are losing salesand need change right away go ahead and rebrand. It is more of a guaranty that success will occur and leads to fast results. If you are doing good, but pivoting to a different demographic, maybe slow down and stay in the research phase a little longer before rebranding your marketing material. You may discover that a rebrand is not needed or that you could start a separate business. 

6. How much should your budget be? 

If you do the marketing research yourself and create graphics in a free generator it should cost, you next to nothing. However, this might not be good thing. Maintaining your brand may turn out difficult as you need more graphics to continue advertising. That also may deter you from more important task related to running your business. An effective rebrand done by a digital marketing agency starts at $30,000. If you’re a small business this may seem high, and you may get away with upgrading your logo for $2,000 and having your internal marketing team do the rest but consider saving for more advanced services in the future. 

Ready to rebrand your company? Call 248.528.3600.

The post 6 Questions to Ask Before You Rebrand Your Business  appeared first on Miller Media, Digital Marketing Agency, PPC, Industrial Web Design, WordPress.

Reward Customer After They Complete a Task 

Offer a discount code or free shipping to customers that sign up for the first time or spend X amount of dollars. This creates a positive experience and rewards customers for giving up their personal information to your business. Customers will feel they are gain a bonus in addition to the product. Create trust and build a relationship between your company’s brand and the client. Building on that trust will help increase revenue and purchase conversion in the long run because your company will be helping the client make a valuable choice. 

 Add a “Last Item Left” Label 

Exclusivity and scarcity motivate customers to decide quicker on whether to make the purchase. If an item is never coming back or not coming back for a long time, they may want to purchase the item right away, so they feel like they own something rare and unique. Most CMS websites such as WordPress call it a “Ribbon” feature that you add to your product, and it will show up at the top corner of your product image. Say something like “1 left” or “gone Oct 15”. 

Send a “Item Left in Cart” Email    

Sometimes clients like to gather products but purchase them later. This can lead them to forget what they have in their cart. Send a reminder email 2-3 days later, notifying them that they have items in their cart. A lot of email campaign plugins on websites allow you to automate this task, it is called a trigger workflow. Depending on the type of plugin, it might ask something like this: send abandon cart email every _______ days. It will also allow your business to track your web visitors’ actions. This is helpful info for when coming up with a marketing strategy to keep user retention. 

 Partner with an Influencer 

An influencer isn’t just a young famous rich person, it can also be anyone with knowledge authority. Take a local boutique shop for example. If a travel blogger gives a raving review about how much they admire your hiking boots, reach out to see it they would like a free pair in exchange that they wright an article exclusively about those boots and send to their readers. This can help increase web traffic and brand awareness. Keep in mind a lot of followers doesn’t mean those followers have purchase power. Develop a social media marketing plan to include market research and specifically target potential clients that would be interested in your product and are able to purchase it. 

 Offer Free Trial Periods 

This tip is more for software or subscription-based services. Some products clients like to try before they buy. Keep generic tools free but provide one advanced feature that make your product special and different from the competition. Don’t make too difficult to cancel. Have turn-off auto-renewal payment available in their settings. Some companies make the mistake of putting cancelation too deep in the app or website account settings and this ends up frustrating the client leaving them never to return. In addition, have a survey that you send to gain feedback on how you can improve your product. This will encourage brand loyalty and make them feel included in the creation process. 

Update your E-Commerce Website with these features. Call 248.528.360

The post E-commerce Techniques to Get Customers to Complete the Purchase appeared first on Miller Media, Digital Marketing Agency, PPC, Industrial Web Design, WordPress.

1. Half-Page Graphic 

Most commonly used for landing pages these elements are pretty simple and allows you to create contrast. Play with layers and give the illusion of depth to help your main product or service photo pop. 

https://www.straightfromyard.co.uk

2. A Framed Viewpoint 

This element can help you present CTAs (call-to-actions) in fancy ways. Limit the scrolling area in a frame and create empty space at the top and left or right areas. These layouts are often seen on architecture, museum, corporate, and other formal websites. 

https://korsel.bold-themes.com/main-demo/home-5/

3. Horizontal Scrolling  

Think of this element like you are flipping through a book or magazine. This element is best if you have a portfolio of items to show off. For example, you are company sells luxury wine. You can showcase you top sellers on your home page and users can “flip” through to view your brand’s story and products. A word of caution for this element, it can be glitchy on mobile so you may have to deactivate it for phone viewing. 

https://scepterandsword.com

4. Translucent Skewed-Shape Layout 

Use an abstract shape and dim the opacity a little to partially obscure your product or service shot. It acts as a little sneak peek and gives a feeling curiosity to your website. Brands that also want to covey speed, strength, and boldness usually adopt this layout.  

http://www.themestarz.net/html/lovely/index-parallax.html#nav-home

5. Dynamic 3D Renderings

Pre-rendered video or 3D scenes as backgrounds can create a unique look to your product or service. There are free assets available on websites like Canva.com, Pixabay.com, Shutterstock.com, and Adobe.com. 

https://www.drpepper.ca/en/

6. Line Design

Lines are an underrated way to clean up you design. Strategically place lines to break up important info. This will also come in handy if your website is copy heavy and has only a few pictures. 

https://www.display.care

7. Arrow Links

Point to where you want users to go to. Where they are bold or thin, arrows are a universal symbol of direction. Place them in areas you want potential clients to interact with. They can act as a sales trail for visitor.

https://consulting.stylemixthemes.com/barcelona/

8. Marquee

Use keywords as decorative elements for momentum-scrolling websites. Brands that use short action words should incorporate this element either at the top or the bottom of your home page. This will give you website movement and encourage the user to stay on your page longer. This great if you want to gain a higher-clickthrough rate. 

https://chriscarruthers.co.uk/home

9. Chaotic Centered Hero Piece

This is when a horizontally centered product or service has used different fonts, typefaces, and misaligned images that create abstract look. Be careful with this technique. Avoid putting any important in hard-to-read layouts. This look is mostly for snappy headlines and images that do not show off the product or service directly. 

https://www.therailpark.org

10. Gravestone Images

Gravestone images refer to an image with top border-radiuses edited to make the full composition look like half circle shape or a gravestone. Perfume, Shampoo, Vitamin, and other Wellness or Beauty website adopt this layout to look cleaner and more high-end. 

https://dt-aia.myshopify.com

11.  Misaligned Card

These kinds of cards have the text floating partially outside the background creating a nice depth effect for your product or service shot. This is best used both in informal and elegant styles. Make sure the drop shadow isn’t too intense otherwise it will look dated. 

https://theartoffinance.biz

12. Add a Hamburger Menu

In lieu of a traditional navigation where you see all the page names, try a hamburger menu. It appears as 3 lines at the top right corner of your website. Mobile is becoming the first device most people will see your website in, and the hamburger menu is more mobile-friendly than traditional menus. 

https://www.atumobile.com

13. Use Bauhaus Shapes

These shapes are generally made with rectangles with maximized border-radius on 1 or 2 corners. Bright colors are also incorporated. Bauhaus design has a rich history, and more people are starting to appreciate it in web design, not just print or architecture.

https://yourleadershipbridge.com

14. Rotated Text

Vertical text for headlines is a great element to create if you want to encourage users to scroll down. Like the marquee style, avoid using for important info, but use for headlines that are easy to read or well known to your audience. 

https://avantt.displaay.net

15. Animated Cursor

This element is underutilized by most. Not only is it fun, but it can act as a call to action. Have you mouse cursor come up as a circle that says “click” will encourage more people to interact with your website. User will stay on your website longer if they something to engage with. 

https://www.lecantiche.com

Let our team create a website with 1 or more of these elements for you. Call 248.528.360

The post 15 Graphic Elements to Improve Your Business’s Website  appeared first on Miller Media, Digital Marketing Agency, PPC, Industrial Web Design, WordPress.

1. Build Your Mailing List

Your email must be shared by users of their own free-will. Forms such as “subscribe”, “contact”, “become a member” are good examples to have on your website. When you collect their data include name, date, email, birthday or month, and any more pieces of info tailored to benefit them. Be careful not to violate privacy policies. To not come off as a scam, it best to give something in return for the info. Examples include discount codes, free eBook, or member-exclusive video. Remember to ALWAYS have an option of unsubscribing from your email list. It is illegal to send marketing emails without the opportunity to disengage.

2. Select an Email Service Provider (ESP) 

The old-fashioned way is to collect email addresses, add them to your contacts list under a label, and send email newsletters that way. This is time-consuming, inefficient, and you could be missing out on some fantastic online services that will increase your business efficiency. Here is the top 7 ESP used according to wpbeginner:

• Constant Contact
• SendinBlue
• HubSpot
• Omnisend
• Drip
• ConvertKit
• MailChimp 

3. Create a Marketing Strategy

There needs to be goals that you aim to accomplish in your email marketing plan. First start with your audience. Who are you going to be emailing? Who are you targeting to grab details to send your emails to? Knowing your audience can help you build your customer base and make sure you aren’t sending it to people who don’t need your product or service. Once you have your list and have been emailing for a while, segment your email info into groups. Organize by who engages, who opens the emails, and who clicks through. This will allow you to tailor different campaigns to your most engaged viewers. Speaking of content and goals. Are you trying to get the people who engage less to click through more? Do you want to reward the most active people on your list? Do you have news to give or a new product or service to market? Your campaigns should focus on answering these questions and be designed to accomplish these tasks.

4. Design Your Emails

Plan text on a white background won’t cut it. These emails usually end up in someone’s spam box or worse you email is reported and banned. You must add you brand colors and imagery to the email, so you look legitimate. Most modern email software in use, will also allow you to include HTML links, embed videos, and more, making it much more desirable to the end-user. Interactivity should help the potential client through the sales process. If you are struggling hirer a graphic designer or a digital marketing agency with designers to help you. 

5. Test the Email Systems

Before you send ANYTHING, test that it works. This also includes any automation you’ve set up. Here is a checklist of items to go through before you send to customers:

 Subscribe to your service and see if your free offer works.

 Set a test list with five or so emails with different browsers or different email software systems.

 Send the emails and then read them to find spelling or grammatical errors you may have missed.

 See if the emails work on mobile devices as well.

6. Implement Email Automation

If everything is working and you are quickly gaining more emails, it is time to start automating simple tasks. Have a welcome email, thank you email, the gift, and the multi-step EDM campaign all automated. This will free you from micro-managing email marketing and open up your time schedule to work on other more productive and profitable things with your business.

Too busy for email marketing? Let us do it for you! Call 248.528.360 

The post 6 Easy Steps to Start Email Marketing  appeared first on Miller Media, Digital Marketing Agency, PPC, Industrial Web Design, WordPress.

1. Collect Detailed Demographic Data

Ask “Do customers even want this project?” or “How does my product/service meet my customers’ expectations? After that, do market research on who might need your product or service. Discover their daily habits and compare them to your product or service. Think about in what way will it help improve their lives. UX focuses on getting to know a specific demographic and building a product/service that will enrich and engage those users. The goal should be to get them to purchase initially and continually engage with your business. Use Google Analytics and keep track of who is already visiting your website pages to start. Look for their location (do get more local engagement or distant engagement?), age, gender (including non-conforming), profession, and lifestyle (what other items or brands do they purchase from).  

2. Build Strong Customer Relationships 

UX incorporates extensive knowledge of the customers to gain an understanding of why they use the products or services they do. This helps you build what customers need, as well as what they want. Getting to know the habits and expectations of your target audience means you can speak to them more easily. Hit specific messaging points that will bring them into harmony with your company’s mission. Social media and information sharing define consumer tastes. So, if you get stuck don’t be afraid to ask directly through email surveys or social media polls or questions. These two effective marketing avenues could be considered a successful user experience in themselves. 

3. Create an In-Depth Competitive Analysis

Examine the landscape of products and services that users may choose to use instead of yours. It is vital for creating the right set of features that will make your business different from similar brands or services. You want to fill in the gap that your industry has yet to solve. This type of analysis helps your marketing team recognize what features resonate with potential consumers, and therefore should be emphasized in your marketing material. Start with a framework to guide your assessment. Frameworks usually include these items:

• Mission
• Elevator pitch
• Products offered
• Strengths
• Weaknesses
• Brand differentiators

After establishing a framework, select targets based on what other options your customers have. Prioritize which competing businesses you want to keep a close eye on and those that currently offer a product or service most like yours. You want to monitor them in the long term. Also be on the lookout for partnership opportunities with your competitors. Sometimes your strengths and weaknesses balance each other out. 

4. Make Sure There is Adherence to a Core Idea 

Your product or service must serve its central goal. Every feature and interface element needs to serve the core of the product/service. Follow good UX practices, like staying true to your core messaging at all your company’s brand touch points. From your website and offline to social media, your marketing material must look like it belongs to your company while simultaneously relating to you target viewers. Regularly audit your marketing material to make sure every piece has purpose and is fulfilling the mission of your company. If you are busy, start with hiring a digital marketing agency once a year to consult and discuss your marketing material. They can help with one area of your marketing that you are neglecting, or they can simply provide thoughtful questions to help you improve your client’s experience. 

Let us help include thoughtful UX into your business’s marketing strategy! Call 248.528.360

The post 4 Necessary Elements of UX Design for Your Marketing Plans  appeared first on Miller Media, Digital Marketing Agency, PPC, Industrial Web Design, WordPress.