July 15, 2019
Don’t make Google unhappy!
A mobile-friendly website is no longer an option; it’s a requirement. This isn’t new – we’ve known for years that more and more people are using mobile devices to browse and search online.
The next time you’re sitting in a busy coffee shop, airport, or shopping mall, take a look around and see how many people are quietly staring at their phones. Chances are, you’ve already taken notice. Not since the creation of the television has our society been so captivated by a piece of technology as we are by the smartphone. The amount of information, entertainment, shopping, and other resources available at a user’s fingertips has made mobile devices almost a necessity for some people.
Since 2017, web traffic to all sites from mobile devices has hovered around the 50% mark. That means about half of your customers are likely seeing your site from their phone. Without mobile-friendly, responsive design, the user experience could actually be driving those valuable customers away as they choose to save the search until a computer can be used.
What is responsive website design solution?
Responsive web design (RWD) is an approach to website creation that customizes the layout, appearance, and functionality of a given site or page to the specific device and orientation or window size the user is operating. Text, images, menus, and forms automatically resize and rearrange to provide the best user experience. The need for zooming or scrolling side-to-side is eliminated, allowing customers to jump right into the content they’re looking for in a more customized and personalized web environment. In addition to providing a better user experience, RWD is significantly more cost effective than designing and maintaining a desktop and mobile website.
“But my customers don’t really use mobile devices, and prefer computers”.
This could be a very accurate statement, and data can certainly prove that web traffic to your site does not hit that 50% mobile device statistic. However, there are two factors that could be keeping mobile users away from your site. First, the user experience on smartphones or even tablets could be a reason for a high bounce rate. It’s possible how your images and text are rendering is an immediate call for a laptop or desktop, and potential customers are abandoning their visit. Google algorithms actually give mobile-friendly sites a bump up in the search results list. Your competitors could actually be stealing your spotlight before customers scroll far enough down the list to find you.
So how do my company and customers really benefit?
In 2016, 36.6 million internet users were accessing the web exclusively from mobile devices. In 2021, that number is predicted to increase to 52.3 million. How many of those customers would you like to see enter your sales funnel? Responsive design can expand your reach to those who prefer the smaller devices. For all customers, existing and potential, a consistent experience across all devices can actually increase leads and sales. Also, designing with mobile visits in mind can help to streamline content in order to really focus on what is most impactful. Your teams actually save time and money on managing the content as well as analyzing and reporting results. CTA Responsive sites are where it’s at—and where your site should be at as well!
Call Steve to get your site responsive and mobile ready–262-677-4696.
July 15, 2019
Strategic branding credibility instills buying confidence.
As the information superhighway (AKA the internet) expanded at exponentially rapid rates, so did the skepticism of consumers. With the ability to read reviews of any company, product, or service at the drop of a hat, brands have been forced to up their game in order to obtain and retain valuable customers. Whether analyzing Gen X, Millenials, or Gen Z we can be fairly certain each group is always trying to peek behind the curtain of clever advertising and see who can actually back up what they claim to represent and deliver.
Here are a few business corporate identity and branding ideas to make sure you are authentic and credible.
Determine who you are as a company and what you stand for.
If you’re a fairly new company, this could be as simple as examining your origins and why or how you started in the first place. For brands that have been around for a while, review where you have been, how your company, products, and services have changed, and where you want to go in the future. These are questions that are good to revisit from time to time in order to stay on brand or determine that a change in branding is necessary. First, think of what makes your products and services unique, and how they solve a problem. What emotions or beliefs surround those problems or the lives of your customers? Perhaps your product is more economical or environmentally friendly. Also consider the culture of your company, products, and services. If your offices tend to be a little more casual, let that show within your branding.
Build trust with your customers through consistent communication and service.
Once you have established your core values, be sure to remain true to them in all contact with customers. Be very careful when adding new ideas or stretching the existing values in order to reach a demographic you think has a lot of potential buyers. Luxury brands lose status when advertising as inexpensive. Economic brands can cause customers to look elsewhere when appearing too extravagant. That’s not to say you can’t customize the user experience in different ads within the same campaign. Identify the central values of your customer base, and then identify the demographics within. Create the strategy of the messages for each group based on shared ideals, but craft the copy and design to resonate more effectively on an individual level. Cultivating consistent communication applies to customer service as well. Preserve the company culture and create an environment that inspires your team to live up to the company standards day in and day out. Be sure all employees have a thorough knowledge of the company creed, and equip them with a steadfast guide for how to provide consistent service at every touch point.
Harbor a philosophy of transparency for better or worse.
Any brand that looks too good to be true probably is. In the past, brands have been very careful to only show users a very manicured version of their company. Customers want to see how brands are actively living up to the claims they’ve made about what they believe in. A company that boasts a commitment to helping communities must have evidence of ongoing efforts to actually help communities. A brand that claims to have hundreds or thousands of satisfied customers should have reviews and testimonials to back that up. With the good, must come the bad. No one is perfect and mistakes are made. Ignoring mistakes will not make them go away, but owning up to them helps to further develop the trust of your customers.
Companies consistently report a huge spike in engagement whenever they have to send out an email correcting some previous blunder. Allowing bad reviews to remain on a product page lets customers know that you are listening, and allows new purchasers to make up their minds about what reported issues are relevant to them. Authenticity and credibility are two assets a company cannot buy. They cannot be added to a website with a few words and a cool picture, or conveyed through a couple of ads. In order to appear authentic, a brand must actually be authentic. Maintain a solid sense of self and stick to what you do best because it is what you believe in. Credibility comes with consistently following the values of your company, and giving your customers an honest experience.
Contact us today for a free corporate identity and branding consultation.
July 15, 2019
Digital Marketing – What is it and what can data do for me?
First of all, what is digital marketing? Essentially, it’s a broad category of marketing activities that utilize the web, mobile, display and other digital mediums to communicate with targeted audiences. Quite simply, according to SmartInsights.com, it achieves marketing objectives “through applying digital technologies and media.”
It’s all about the data!
Digital marketing has become an imperative channel to consider as part of an integrated marketing strategy. It’s highly customizable, it’s measurable, and when done the right way, it can generate positive ROIs. In fact, it can deliver faster growth and higher profits for less expense.
Data is KING
Data rules in today’s society and if used the right way, can be the most valuable tool for your marketing. By utilizing data to test and optimize strategies correctly you can scale your marketing to run successful campaigns. Unfortunately one of the biggest obstacles for a business is the lack the expertise to work effectively with data. In order to create highly targeted and successful campaigns for our clients our main focus is on utilizing data-driven marketing solutions. You may have never taken a data statistics course or even know which tools to use and that’s ok. We here Guild Creative Inc., have built our foundation on utilizing data-driven marketing solutions.
Customization will make a big difference.
Every business is different and deserves an analyzed unique approach to their marketing. Our team has years of experience creating highly targeted and successful campaigns for our clients. We understand that consumers evolve and become pickier about which messages they read and which brand they engage with. Guild Creative is here to help create the personalized message that will speak to your targeted market. Let us dive into your brand, your goals and your current marketing tactics and compare our analyzation to your bottom line goals.
Our creative marketing campaigns are heavily backed with data tracking tools to know what attribution points are working. With these key insights we are able to evolve your campaign to continuously deliver the highest ROI possible. Collecting and analyzing data at every touch point is key. Find and retain your ideal customer. Determine who they are, what they really want and how to engage with them. By using data to guide the tactics and strategies, we can tailor campaigns to speak to your niche audience.
When you know about your customers and their behaviors you can create highly successful campaigns and data is the key to all of these BENEFITS:
- Higher Conversion Rates
- Very Cost Effective
- Strong Brand Awareness
- Easily Measured
- Competitor Insight
- Broader Outreach
- Targeted
- Greater Exposure
- Easily Tracked
- Higher Revenues & ROI’s
- Compete With Larger Corporations
- Scalable & Customizable
There are a vast number of digital tactics available. A successful marketing strategy will include a mixture of these, along with a few more traditional tactics. To find out what tactics will work for you contact Guild Creative.
June 14, 2017
Since our blog “Social Media Mayhem” was such a big hit, we thought we would continue the conversation. By now hopefully you are convinced that social media is something that is critical in your overall marketing strategy. Last issue we talked about what social media networks you should be on, now let’s talk about how often you should be posting to each network.
There are a number of social media management tools that can help you manage your social media engagement–planning, submitting, scheduling and sending out for you, but before we get ahead of ourselves, first things first–before you even think about how often, you need to consider WHAT you have to post. What you have to say can lead to how often you can/should be saying it . . .
Content is still the overall key. Is what you have to say informative and of most value to your readers? Depending on how much information you have to share will aid in determining how often you should be sharing the information. Is it possible to make each new posting fresh and new? There are endless posts out there on the topic of how much and how often, but I always suggest starting out simple. As a general rule, and what I have found to be a very easy rule to follow, assuming you do not have a staff person or team dedicated to your social media marketing, start simple with at minimum:
FaceBook: 1-2 posts/day for a total of 5-10 posts/week
Twitter: 3-5 posts/day for a total of 15-25 posts/week (this does include retweets)
LinkedIn: 1 post/week, with an additional repost of each post per month for a total of 8 posts /month. Also encourage that you share and comment on other’s postings off LinkedIn to get them to share your posts
Instagram: 1-2 posts/day
Let me also add, these recommendations are bare bones, at social media’s MOST basic level. You must consider who is your target audience, how often your target audience utilizes social media, what is your product or service you have to offer and what value can you offer by sharing your product/service on social media, including what visual value can you provide. All these pieces factor into your social media puzzle and plan as well.
Once you get the hang of posting and how frequently to post, you will also want to closely track your postings to analyze each network’s effectiveness. Is your target audience responding positively to your postings? That is the beauty of social media. Once you post, you can almost instantly see the response rates and make necessary changes to mix it up before the next post.
We have a number of resources at Guild Creative to help with your social media strategy. Contact Kathryn at kathryn@guildcreative.com
June 14, 2017
We would like to introduce you to Affiliated Clinical Services (ACS)’s new website. After the completion of their new building, at an easily accessible location, Affiliated Clinical Services wanted to make their online resources easy and accessible as well. With the new building, also came a new logo, fresh color scheme and overall updated look and services approach. Affiliated wanted their website to reflect their new approach and appearance. We at Guild Creative could not agree more. When your logo, signage, colors, brochures, all have a similar look and feel and your messaging is consistent in all these resources as well, it significantly adds to your overall brand identity.
Our goal in revamping their website was to enhance their new brand identity and make the information on their new website easy to find and accessible to all who may need the help and resources ACS has to offer.
One key feature of the new ACS website we designed was their Diagnosis/Treatment form and Clinician Finder. ACS has a vast number of Clinicians to choose from. The Diagnosis/Treatment forms helps users narrow the search to quickly find the best-suited counselors. Easy access to each clinician’s bios helps patients learn more about the individual doctors or therapists as well.
Check out http://affiliatedclinical.com and let us know what you think about their new website. Contact Steve for ways to help update your website. steve@guildcreative.com
June 14, 2017
Don’t underestimate the power of color. Color plays a critical role in branding, helping to create a positive image, assisting in brand recall, conveying your message, and more. Color is a key component in your overall marketing message and plays one of the largest roles to help elicit strong feels, emotions and/or desired purchase behaviors.
The color you choose should help you stand out—set you apart from your competition. It should be relevant to your business, industry or product. It also should have a connection to your audience. These all factor into helping aid in your brand/image recall.
The true meaning of any color varies greatly, but this write up says it best. According to entrepreneur.com:
Blue: Like the sky and sea is serene, also perceived as trustworthy, dependable, fiscally responsible and secure.
Red: Red is an attention-getting color of passion, but it also makes the viewer think of a Stop sign or Warning. What response are you hoping to create? Red can be aggressive, energetic, and provocative; so while attention-grabbing, it may also evoke an unfavorable response.
Green: In general, green suggests health, freshness and growth. The gamut of green shading promotes from a deep, dark and lush green, the feeling of prestige to the lighter greens with a feeling of refreshing and calming.
Yellow: Yellow is most always associated with the sun. Suggesting optimism, positivism, light and warmth. The eye sees bright yellows before any other color, making them great for point-of-purchase displays.
Purple: Purple is a color of emotions. Purple being a blend of reds and blues, passion and tranquility, is often associated with royalty and/or spirituality, along with mystery and sophistication.
Orange: Cheerful orange evokes exuberance, fun and vitality. Research indicates its lighter shades appeal to an upscale market. Peach tones work well with health care, restaurants and beauty salons.
Black: Black is serious, bold, powerful and classic. It creates drama and connotes sophistication. Black works well for expensive products, but can also make a product look too bold and heavy.
The color palette you can choose from is nearly endless. We have just provided you here with a quick snap shot of the main primary colors to consider in both your logo and branding, but there are so many more to consider.
What message is your color sending to your buyers? Keep your colors and messages true. Talk with Steve our design and color expert. steve@guildcreative.com
August 10, 2016
If you think your website does not need to be “responsive” to fit on mobile devices, we suggest you ought to rethink that thought. Better yet, read this article right now. In today’s business age, your site absolutely must be mobile ready. And here is why . . .
If you think that you don’t need your website to be mobile friendly because you simply do not have mobile users visiting your site, then think about this statistic: According to Smart Insights, “mobile digital media time in the U.S. is now significantly higher at 51 percent compared to desktop (42 percent)”.
So if your customers are searching for you, your product or service on a mobile device and they can’t find you, you have just lost out to your competitors whose mobile/responsive site can be found.
Still don’t think your customers are searching for you mobilely? Well statistics show that more than half of your customers are already there.
Another important factor to consider is that if your site is not mobile ready, Google will not register your site in their search results. You will loose critical ranking with Google. In addition, companies that have optimized their site for mobile users will be rewarded by having their ranking improved. Either way, without a mobile-ready site, you lose.
At Guild Creative, we recently launched two updated websites we helped make mobile ready.
http://weirfinancial.com
Weir Financial wanted their site to be mobile friendly making it easier to help inform and educate viewers on important investment and planning information. They have now put a number of financial resources and information into the hands of their new mobile users.
http://www.cretexseals.com
The goal behind updating the Cretex Specialty Products website was to provide their customers in the field with tools to better research their products and services. Many on-site contractors are using mobile devices to bring the office with them wherever they are. Cretex wanted to provide access to the products and specs that would be helpful while on the job. We enhanced the website with larger product images, quick key functions to open spec sheets, and an interactive graphic for product resources.
Two terrific companies to work with and we enjoyed creating a responsive website solution to meet both their own and customer needs.
Responsive sites are where it’s at—and where your site should be at as well! Call Guild to get your site responsive and mobile ready–262-677-4696
June 9, 2016
SEO & SEM
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) was once the primary focus for increasing your website visibility. Now there is a new focus called Search Engine Marketing (SEM). According to Google, it is important to use both to help increase the awareness and visibility of your site.
When you search and hit enter, those search results do not show up on the first page by accident. There’s a good chance that there is someone behind the scenes (web designer, SEO specialist, marketer or small business owner) making sure their website shows up in the search rankings when their product or services match what the user is looking for.
However SEO alone is just not enough any longer. Now to increase the chances that your website will appear in the top query, you will want to be sure to add SEM into your website marketing mix.
So, are you one to ignore the ads at the top of your online searches or are you one to take the quick way out and see what those ads have to offer? More and more, viewers are choosing to click on the ads and the SEM results are increasing for those using Google Adwords or the Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising. Finding the right balance for your particular business is what is most important. Let Guild Creative help you develop your best SEO and SEM strategy and increase your website rankings.
June 9, 2016
What does your logo say about you? What should it be saying? Is your logo something people will remember? Think of the logos for the following brands: McDonald’s, Nike and Apple. We all know the golden arches, the Nike swoosh and the silver apple with the one missing bite. These brands all have a memorable logo. We don’t need to even see the name of the brand to know who they are.
Your logo is the face of your brand. It identifies who you are and the one element that will symbolize your brand more than anything else. It is what will help keep your name/your product/your company in front of your customers. You will put your logo on signs, business cards, letterhead, invoices—everywhere you can think to be sure you are seen and remembered. So it is so important to get the design of your logo right the first time. To create and select the perfect logo design, you will want to think about the following:
• Who is your target audience?
• Who are you competing with?
• How are you different from your competitors?
• What kind of feelings do you want your logo to encourage?
• What kind of qualities do you want your logo to display?
• Would you like a tagline included in your design?
• Do you like the idea of a symbolic logo, a typographical logo or a mixture of the two?
Key components of a good logo:
• Does it properly represent my business?
• Is it distinctive, simple and clean?
• Is it functional across all mediums?
• Does it speak my message?
Many online services offer to create a logo for you for a mere $99. But remember, “you get what you pay for” and it is worth investing in a high quality, customized logo to identify who you are and provide memorable features specific for your brand, your company. Contact Guild Creative to help create a distinctive design just for you.
June 9, 2016
Our lives are so inundated with information and too many messages, we have learned to ignore the messages being thrown at us daily. Consumers having grown up in today’s information age, know that information is the key. We seek out the information that we are most interested in. The key here is that today’s consumers are “seeking out” information. So as a marketer it makes sense that you should be providing that key information consumers are seeking. Enter Content Marketing!
Today’s marketers are providing content to consumers with the purpose to attract and retain customers by offering information that is relevant and informative to positively encourage consumer behavior to make that purchase.
Rather than advertising that bombards us with messages to buy this or that, content marketing engages the consumer in conversation and encourages them to learn more without directly selling anything. You are selling the value proposition of your product by providing relevant information. If well written, you help the consumer make an informed decision to buy the product you are offering.
Good content marketing grabs attention by informing the consumer first and encourages them to behave (purchase) accordingly. Content is key and at Guild Creative, we help provide the content you need.
