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Starting and growing a small business is no easy feat. I started We Build Stores on a shoestring budget whilst delivering fast food to pay the bills, so I've learned much about "bootstrapping" and business growth over the past couple of years. In the beginning, simply getting your first few customers under the belt can seem like a mountain to climb. As well as trying to generate an income from under the gun, small companies also have to contend with limited resources and budget constraints. Thanks to the power of the internet, you can now quickly be accessible from all corners of the globe, but of course, this is also true for your direct competition. It's a low barrier to entry, with just a broadband connection and cheap hosting required to enter the quarrelsome fray. Filling up the Amazon store with your products may seem like a great way to gain exposure, but it's a cutthroat business, and to make a profit, you need uniqueness to distinguish yourself in the global struggle for eyeballs. Here are my top ten small business growth ideas to help coax your fledgling small business from trembling in its soft and chilly nest to soaring like an eagle on a gloriously hot summer day. "If you want to soar like an eagle in life, you can't be flocking with the turkeys." -Warren Buffett Choose The Correct Website-Building Platform. I have written many articles exhausting the pros and cons of most software platforms, and you can follow the blog links below to read more. Here are the cliff notes: eCommerce software is an easy choice between Shopify and EKM. You will need deep pockets if you insist on developing in Magento. Brochure websites should be made with Wix. Pure blogging websites should be made with WordPress Booking websites, hotel reservations, gym membership sites and all kinds of other small business websites should be made with Wix. Most website design companies will tell you that WordPress is the automatic first-choice website builder platform for building a small business website, but it's not. WordPress is easy to install. That's where the ease of use ends. Installing plugins, keeping them updated, messing around with themes, not to mention getting involved in CSS coding, are all additional costs you don't need. WordPress is a blogging platform pressed into service as a bastard website design tool arising from the lack of any decent alternative. But now that Wix has matured into a comprehensive website design solution, there are few reasons to consider anything else. Fight me. WordPress will hinder your business growth. You are asking for trouble if you choose to build a website yourself with no skills. Too many things can go wrong, including your fundamental website design blindness. You will save more money by choosing the right website software platform and having it professionally designed rather than wasting time trying to do it yourself. Concentrate your efforts on what you are good at to grow your small business rather than trying to learn a new skill you will only use once. Make It Easy For Customers To Contact You And Answer In A Timely Fashion A website contact form is the bare minimum requirement for your new website, but people often prefer to call you directly instead of filling in forms. Invest in a landline you can dedicate for business use and use that number on your website. You can be judicious in how you circulate your mobile number so that in the event of a fast-growing new business, you are not tied down answering phone calls all day long. Website chat is a double-edged sword. On the one side, you can quickly close deals and strike whilst the iron is hot. On the other hand, you lose credibility if you answer chats late or leave them unanswered. Monitoring website chat is best left to someone who manages your social media, so it's best left alone until you have that person in place as your business grows. Social media is a great way to communicate with customers, so make sure those chat channels are easily accessible. Facebook chat is a reliable source of leads for many new startups. A Note About Managing Email Email is easily the worst communication channel for managing clients and their tasks. For one thing, the email address is usually only visible to one person, and for another, keeping track of what has been replied to in an ocean of text is a next-to-impossible task. It's well worth investing in low-cost CRM (customer relationship manager) software to make client management a breeze, and if you use Wix, then their bundled CRM tools are an excellent business growth investment. Consider becoming an inbox-zero practitioner moving all your to-do tasks into a CRM or a plain day-to-page diary for clarity. Make Sure The SEO Basics Are Covered Once you have commissioned your freshly designed website, you need to make sure that all of the pages are search engine optimised. This is a simple but laborious step. Your website design company will typically do this for you as part of the build, but some charge extra, and some omit this step altogether, so be clear that you want it done as part of the cost of building a website to save having to do it yourself. Open a spreadsheet, write down each page name and URL and then write an SEO-optimised page title and meta description for every page. Once you've done that, you can use Surferseo to optimise your page further and see how it will potentially stack up against the competition. Each new page you create goes into the spreadsheet, along with its page title and meta description for future reference. Don't forget to make sure your Google Analytics is collecting data and add your site to Google Webmaster Tools so that you can monitor its site health. Devise A Website Content Strategy Plan Your website content is the bread and butter of your online presence, so you need to have a clear plan for what kind of content you will create and how often you will create it. A great way to start is by looking at what similar businesses in your industry are doing. Note the blog post topics they cover, the frequency of their posts, and the overall tone and style of their writing. You can use this as a starting point for your content strategy plan and to gain website content ideas. One important thing to remember is that your content must be valuable to your target audience. It should help your customer solve a problem or meet a need. If it doesn't, they won't bother returning, and your business growth will falter. Another essential thing to remember is that your content marketing must be well-written and free of errors. This may seem like a no-brainer, but it's surprising how many small businesses make the mistake of publishing subpar content. Your readers will quickly lose faith in you if they see typos or grammatical errors, so take the time to proofread everything before you hit publish. Lastly, don't forget to promote your content once it's published. Just because you've written it doesn't mean people will automatically see it. You must actively share it with your target audience through social media, email marketing, search engines and other channels. Get Listed In Your Local Directories Make it easy for customers to find your small business by getting listed in all relevant local directories, including Google My Business, Yelp, Foursquare, and more. You can use Brightlocal to do the hard work for you. Getting listed varies from directory to directory, but it's generally a simple matter of creating a profile and verifying your listing via email or phone. Once you're verified, make sure to fill out your profile as completely as possible so that potential customers can learn everything they need to know about your business. Don't stop at the major directories; numerous niche directories focus on specific industries or geographical areas. These can be great for small business growth because they offer an opportunity to get in front of a highly targeted audience with your industry news. Generate Reviews And Testimonials Customer reviews and testimonials are essential for small businesses because they help to build trust and credibility. When potential customers see that other people have had positive experiences with your business, they are much more likely to do business with you. There are a few different ways to generate reviews and testimonials. The first is to ask satisfied customers if they would be willing to leave a review or write a testimonial. You can do this via email, social media, or in person. Another way to generate reviews is to offer some kind of incentive, such as a discount or freebie, in exchange for a review. Paying outright for reviews is forbidden, and you wouldn't want to get caught in that spider web. Finally, you can also try using third-party platforms like Google Customer Reviews or TrustPilot. These platforms make it easy for customers to leave reviews and testimonials, which you can display on your website or social media pages. Gaining Google reviews is one of the best business growth steps you can make. Use Social Media To Get The Word Out Social media is one of the most effective and affordable ways to promote your small business. Not only is it a great way to connect with potential customers, but it's also a powerful tool for building brand awareness and generating leads. To get started, create social media accounts for your business on all major platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Then, start posting engaging content that will resonate with your target audience. Be sure to post regularly and mix up the types of content you share to keep your pages exciting and fresh. You can share blog posts, photos, infographics, video content, and more. Just remember to keep your audience in mind with everything you post. As well as sharing your content, make sure to share other people's content relevant to your industry, showing that you're engaged with what's going on in your field and that you're not just trying to sell products or services all the time. Don't forget to interact with other users on social media. Like and comment on other people's posts, and respond to any comments or questions on your pages. The more you engage with others, the more likely they will remember your small business when they need something you offer. Start A Blog If you don't already have a blog for your small business, now is the time to start one. A business blog is a great way to generate leads, build trust with potential customers and generate business growth. When starting a business blog, be sure to focus on creating high-quality, informative content that will be relevant to your target audience. No one wants to read fluff pieces or marketing jargon; they want valuable information that will help them somehow. To get ideas for what to write about, consider your customers' pain points and the questions they are likely to have. Then, create content that addresses those needs and concerns. You can also use your blog to share company news, announce new products or services, and give insights into your industry. Don't forget to promote your blog posts on social media and through email marketing to get the most traction. You can also use paid advertising to drive traffic to your blog if you have a little money to spend. Build An Email List Email marketing is one of the most effective growth strategies to reach small business customers, yet many small business owners don't take advantage of this powerful tool. Now is the time to start if you're not already building an email list. There are a few different ways to grow your email list. Start by adding an opt-in form to your website so visitors can sign up to receive emails from you. Use social media and your blog to promote your email list and encourage people to sign up. Finally, you can also purchase email lists from reputable providers. Just be sure to scrub the list first to remove any redundant data, so you don't end up spamming people who don't want to hear from you. Once you have a solid email list, start sending out regular newsletters with valuable content, special offers, and anything else that would be of interest to your target audience. Get Active In Local Communities Getting involved in local communities is a great way to connect with potential customers and build brand awareness for your small business. There are several ways to get involved, such as joining local chambers of commerce or business organisations, sponsoring community events, or volunteering for local causes. Not only will getting involved in your community help you meet new people and make new connections, but it will also show that your small business cares more than just making money. This can go a long way in building trust and loyalty among potential customers. Bonus Tip: Create Compelling Videos Promotional video is one of the most powerful tools available for marketing your small business online. People love watching videos and are more likely to remember your brand if they see a video than if they read text on a website or social media post. To get started with video marketing, create a few short, informative videos about your products or services. You can also create video testimonials from satisfied customers or do a series of Q&A videos to answer common questions people have about your industry. Once you have a few videos created, post them on your website and social media pages, and promote them through email marketing and paid to advertise. You can also submit your videos to popular video-sharing websites like YouTube and Vimeo. Wrapping It Up Even with strapped cashflow, there are many things you can do to grow your small business. These ten ideas should help you get started on the path to success. If you need help with any of these steps or with digital marketing in general, we're here to help. Send us a message, and let's chat about how we can help you grow your traffic and sales.

Did I write this headline, or did I generate it artificially? Would you know how to spot artificially generated content anyway, and furthermore, is it any good? Artificial writing tools are becoming indispensable for a writer who needs to generate a lot of website content. However, just like any other software tool, it takes time to practice and learn the art of generating engaging content that will be absorbed rather than skim-read quicker than a plasterer applying his first arc of the day. Officially Google says that artificial content is considered spam. There can be no argument about that. In its raw format, the uncooked text generated by fake writers would not pass a human review, let alone be considered fit for consumption by any discerning reader. To get the most out of artificial writing tools, you must apply careful ideation and optimisation, adding tasty morsels throughout your prose to avoid sounding like a robot-driven monotone. There are no shortcuts to making content that rises above the gutter level of the regular content mills that blight most websites. Still, with some effort, you can produce content quicker, faster and more accurately than your competitors and easily pass a human review test, avoiding a quick elevator trip to the basement of search engine results. Here Are My Ingredients For Producing Scrumptious Content Candy Using AI First, you'll need a text generator, which spits out a stream of illiterate garbage until you learn to input the correct commands and fine-tune your artificial writing. I use jasper.ai for this part. That old maxim GIGO (garbage in, garbage out) was never more valid. The second is a grammar checker, which cleans up your artificial writing and turns it into readable sentences. Like most writers, I use the pro version of Grammarly. Third, a thesaurus will add contrasting and offbeat words to the tired, essential, vital and important tropes that Grammarly repeatedly suggests. A great quote dictionary will also help you fill out your content with a cutting edge that is plagiarism free. And the fourth ingredient is the secret sauce, the discarnate viscera that pulls it all togther. Without this, the candy can't be special, at least in the sense that content candy can be special. Without using your brain, Artificial writing is a barren superfluity of words, soulless and gutless, lacking the will to live, missing that joie de vivre we call personality. In the screenshot below I've removed my painstakingly typed text and left the headline intact to show you the type of output an artificial writer generates in seconds. There are tweaks you can make to vary the output. Adding a more descriptive content brief generates better results. You can alter the tone of voice by choosing to voice in the style of famous people like Tony Robbins or Oprah or even pointing to a website and asking to speak in that context. So, as you can guess, I'm not much of a fan of the writing part. I'm not even trusting it to contribute to this blog post. One day the AI will fight back and take control of the keyboard, much like the fictional HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey. What the Dickens! Idea Generation, Prompting, Solicitation, Thought Suggestions This is where my AI writing friend excels and saves so much time. Writing templates abound. Do you need to write a new blog post about that new business growth service? Enter a title, and the AI will rustle up five or six outline headings for your subsequent missive. Are you writing a product description? This is where AI writing provides semi-factual information written in a flash. There is no excuse for leaving product descriptions empty when you have an assistant who can examine the internet library and return a unique product description in seconds. There are content improvers, sentence expanders, blog post intro paragraph ideas, creative stories and even tools to rephrase text in "explain it to a child" format. The best thing about artificial writing is not the writing but the idea generation, the prompting, prodding and instructing that enables you to get on with the work rather than staring at a white screen and thinking of England. Can Artificial Writing Tools Make You A Better Writer? Yes undoubtedly. If you are constantly forgetting your P's and Q's and misplacing your commas, then it makes sense to at least use a grammar checker so that elementary errors are not yours to make my dear Watson. "Cooper! If you are more interested in watching the first IX than studying Shakespeare, you may come and stand in the bin, from where you will have a better vantage point." We used to call my old English teacher "Stumpy" but he was not a pale imitation of Mr Creakle from "Bleak House". As for improving your chicken scratch - no. AI writing is devoid of character and only suitable for the most mundane writing tasks. Holding a plot theme for writing fiction is wishful thinking. If your job is to educate and inform, you still have to use that underfurnished cranium. Artificial writers speed up the creation process by providing prompts and nudging you in the right direction; for the ordinary stuff, it excels. But it won't help you with creative thinking. That bit is all on your shoulders. Do you need help with your blog writing? Contact Me

Accept Payments On The Go - Anytime For small business owners, it's essential to have a mobile credit card reader so you can accept payments anywhere, anytime. But with so many options on the market, it can be hard to know which is right for your business. To help you make the best decision, I've compiled a list of UK mobile credit card readers. What Is A Mobile Credit Card Reader? A mobile credit card reader is a device that allows businesses to accept credit and debit card payments using a smartphone or tablet. There are many different types of mobile credit card readers available on the market, but they all work in the same way. You will need to download a corresponding app onto your smartphone or tablet to use a mobile credit card reader. Once you install the App, you can connect your mobile device to the credit card reader via Bluetooth or NFC (near-field communication). Once the two devices are connected, you begin processing payments. To do this, you will need to enter the purchase amount into the App and then swipe or insert the customer's credit or debit card into the reader. The funds then get transferred from the customer's account to your business, minus a small processing fee. The Benefits Of Using A Mobile Credit Card Reader Perhaps the most obvious benefit is that it allows you to accept credit and debit card payments without a traditional point-of-sale (POS) system. Another significant benefit is that mobile credit card readers are usually very affordable, with some costing as little as £20. Another advantage of using a mobile credit card reader is that it's highly portable, so you can take it wherever you go—ideal for businesses that move around frequently or have pop-up shops. Finally, mobile credit card readers are elementary to set up and use, so you can start taking payments almost immediately without going through a long and complicated setup process. What Are The Different Types Of Mobile Credit Card Readers? There are two main mobile credit card reader types: wired and wireless. Wired readers connect to your mobile device via a physical cable, such as a USB cable. On the other hand, wireless readers use Bluetooth or NFC to connect to your device. Wired readers are generally more reliable than wireless readers because there is no risk of losing the connection between the reader and your device. However, wired readers can be less convenient because you need to keep the reader physically attached to your device. On the other hand, wireless readers are much more convenient to use, but there is a risk of losing the connection between the reader and your device. The Best Mobile Credit Card Readers For Small Businesses In The UK 1. Zettle Reader Pros: Easiest To Use Wide range of accepted cards No contract, no monthly fees Easy sign up Send one time payment text links Cons: Support not available at weekends Zettle card reader overview The Zettle card reader allows you to accept credit and debit card payments on the go. It's perfect for small businesses, as it's easy to use and doesn't require a lot of setup. Connect the Zettle card reader to your smartphone or tablet, and you're ready to start taking payments. There are no monthly fees or contracts, so you only pay when using it. Plus, there's no need for a separate merchant account - Zettle uses your existing bank account. There is a fixed percentage of 1.75% per transaction. 2. Sumup Air Pros: Choice of two credit card machines Wide range of accepted cards No contract, no monthly fees Easy sign up Send one time payment text links Cons: Integrations are sparse Sumup card reader overview SumUp sells two credit card machines and a compatible printer: the SumUp Air card reader that connects to a phone app, a small and independent SumUp Solo and a standalone SumUp 3G Printer to print receipts. SumUp has the lowest fixed card rate, and there is no setup fee or shipping charge. You pay for your choice of card machine, then a fixed 1.69% fee for chip and contactless payments. Which Mobile Credit Card Reader To Choose? Both of these credit card readers will do the job admirably and of all the machines on the market these two have the best features for "no contract" credit card machines. The Sumup machine is the best choice if you need a printer. Zettle is the best machine for using as a point of sale terminal. So, which mobile credit card reader should you choose? If you are looking for the newest option on the market, then the Zettle card reader is a good choice. If you are looking for an affordable, easy-to-use option, then the Sumup card reader is equally good. Whichever option you choose, you can take credit card payments anywhere that you have an internet connection.

WordPress is the best website design tool ever developed, and you shouldn't even consider using anything else to build your website, right? I disagree. WordPress has a lot going for it as a blogging engine. However, making it look like something that wasn't hacked, bent out of shape and frenetically created by the web designer with no soul needs varying degrees of coding expertise. The CSS (cascading style sheet) knowledge required to wake a WordPress template up from its coma on life support and transform it into a design awards contender is prodigious. Similarly, making something that will adequately represent your business without leading to mouse-pointing guffaws behoves a dash of brio that you'll be hard pushed to find from all those vanilla design crowd vulgarities. WordPress is the most popular website design platform, but that doesn't mean you should follow the herd into website design purgatory. Sure, you will need some design chops to make the most of the Wix platform but dragging and dropping your elements to the page is a lot easier than searching through lines of code for the correct attributes to apply. Why You Might Want To Migrate Your WordPress Site To Wix I won't try and convince you of WordPress's shortcomings as a website design tool but, instead, I'll point those of you who are sitting on the fence and wavering in the wind to my Wix website review, which should dispel any reservations you may have had about jumping ship. The main reason you would use WordPress over Wix is as a blogging tool where it is inarguably a better website platform for the job. But after working with Wix for a while, you realise that a superior website development platform heavily outweighs the WordPress advantages. So, for those who just want to get into the migration and leave all those unworkable plugins behind here is my guide to migrating from WordPress to Wix. You might like to read my guide to eCommerce project management before you start to know what you are getting into and make an action plan using the right tools. The Steps Involved To Migrate A WordPress Website To Wix Step One: Create a free Wix account The first step is to create a Wix account. You can do this by going to the Wix website and clicking on the "Sign Up" button. You will then be asked to enter your email address, choose a password and select a username. Once you have done this, you can log in to your free account. Step Two: Create a free site on the Wix platform. You don't need to pay for a new site to test how the conversion process will work so that you can migrate at your leisure. Most of the work must be done manually, and unfortunately, there isn't a one-click automatic migration tool available. Your migration work can be viewed on an external Wix URL, so there is no requirement to connect a domain to do the migration work at this point. Step Three: Choose a Template Once you have logged in to your account, you can choose a template for your site. Wix has a wide range of templates available, so you should be able to find one that suits your needs. To choose a template, click on the "Templates" tab at the top of the page and browse the available options. When you find a template you like, click on the "Use This Template" button. Step Four: Recreate Your menu and page structure Once you've chosen the template you want to use, the Wix editor will automatically load: Top Tip: Once you've chosen a template to work with, you can't change it. However, a great workaround is to save your menu design and other custom work to "my designs", where you can reuse it on another site template. This way, you can start another site using a different template and then drag and drop the menu design you've already created so that you don't have to repeat all the work. The first design task is to recreate your site pages (About us and site content pages). When creating your new pages transfer the old page titles, page URL and meta description from WordPress to your new page like this: This way, you won't lose all your "on-page" SEO work. Next, create your menu and point the menu items to the new pages you have made. Then you have to work copying and pasting all your text from the old site to the new and adding your images. Step Five: Import blog content from WordPress Wix will import up to 4,000 blogs from your Wordpress site automatically. You can rename all the blog URLs to match your old WordPress ones so that you don't lose any search engine rankings, and you have access to an easy-to-use 301 redirect manager if required. Step Six: Check Your Work Give your handiwork a good review by inspecting it on the external Wix URL. You can share this URL so that others can view it. Once you are satisfied that everything is in place, you can connect your domain to the new Wix website and choose a suitable paid-for plan. Step Seven: Publish! If you got this far, congratulations! I'm sure you will have a great Wix experience! If you need help migrating your current WordPress website to Wix, contact us, and we will be happy to do the job for you. Although Wix automates the import of your blog posts, everything else must be done by hand, and recreating everything, so you don't lose search engine traffic, is no mean feat.

Why You Should Choose Shopify Or EKM Over Open Source eCommerce Solutions If you are an SME (Small, Medium enterprise), you should be looking at a cloud-based website builder solution for your next eCommerce project. Why? Because you can get started quickly, with the minimum of fuss and keep the development costs to a minimum. Shopify and EKM are great eCommerce website builders. I've used Shopify as my headline maker because it is the most popular eCommerce cloud-based solution. If you are the CEO or the decision-maker for your company, you won't go wrong with my recommendation. You can start immediately and never look back—no need to burn the candle deep into the night, making endless comparisons of eCommerce platforms and their features. That's it. That's all you need to know. Now go ahead and create your digital masterpiece! On the other hand, if you are the IT manager or a decision-maker who has to report to the board and whose job could be on the line if this doesn't work out, then you are going to need some facts, figures and a persuasive argument to back up your case. I'm going to make that argument for you. By the time you've finished reading this article, you'll be able to confidently state the case for starting your next eCommerce project "in the cloud" and give good reasons for ditching "free" open-source software like Magento. Here are seven excellent reasons why you should build your next eCommerce website using Shopify or EKM: Security We've all heard tales of the new Ferrari owner who drove out of the showroom and straight into the river, right? Letting people loose with expensive equipment that they don't have the experience to use is guaranteed to end in a disaster. It's the same with software, and just because you CAN open a hosting account today and install Magento doesn't mean that it's the best way forward for your company. Because Magento is "Open Source" and therefore "free", people overlook that it is complicated software. There are three security issues or "layers" that require monitoring to ensure you don't become a hacked shell of a company. The first is the hosting layer. In this layer, we are looking at ways an intruder can access the server either by using a brute force attack or a known exploit. The easy way to ensure that you don't fall victim to an attack is to buy quality hosting. If you buy hosting on a shared server, then you have no control over what other users install in their space for their website. Hopefully, your hosting company has control over this, or you could be a hacking victim through no fault of your own. VPS servers are more expensive but more secure, and already we are getting away from the notion of "free software". On your Magento installation, you need to ensure that you set the correct file permissions and don't allow unauthorised access. The automated Magento installer will set things up for you, but occasionally things don't work as they should, and file permissions get changed. Setting incorrect file permissions is the easiest way for an intruder to access your installation. Are you sure your website developer knows what they are doing? The second layer is the software layer. Magento is always being patched with new updates to resolve security issues, and you must keep your site up to date with the latest version. Out of date versions get hacked and sad people with more time on their hands than is good for them purposefully set out to find those old sites. That's true not just of Magento but all Open Source software. Don't leave yourself open to kiddie scripters looking for an easy target. The third layer is the payment gateway. All eCommerce installations need to be PCI compliant. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is the information security standard for businesses or organisations that handle credit and debit card information. Shopify meets all six PCI standards, and every new shop created is automatically compliant. You don't need to do anything to make your store comply with the regulations. Also, every Shopify store gets hosted on the Shopify cloud-based hosting network, which has a dedicated team of professionals monitoring its performance. The software is updated automatically behind the scenes, and every store runs the latest version. Scalable Hosting When you start building your site out of your back bedroom, the minimal amount of traffic you get isn't a worry for your hosting company. But look out! Magento is a known resource hog and eats up CPU and memory resources for fun. If you start doing well and business is looking up, your hosting costs can be a dead weight dragging your business down. To keep your site speed respectable you'll continually be increasing your web hosting costs. By contrast, all Shopify stores share the same cloud-based network, so performance issues are not a problem. Of course, you'll need to upgrade your plan as you grow, but you'll need to do that whatever option you choose. Shopify's hosting technology is the best in the business, and you won't be left crawling along in the slow lane. Rapid Development Magento is clunky and cumbersome to set up. There are so many options to be configured it can feel like you are spending endless days just getting the software ready to do something. Shopify has a rapid user setup wizard, and its cloud-based control panel is straightforward to use. Don't be fooled by the simplicity, though, because Shopify packs a punch under the hood. When a new feature gets added to Shopify, it gets added for all those using the platform and not just those that requested it. It means that custom website development is not an easy undertaking, but my advice is that if you think you will be leaving the essential Shopify roadmap, then EKM would be a better option for you. Blogging Platform Shopify has an inbuilt blogging platform you can use that is SEO friendly. With Magento, you'll be bolting on WordPress and introducing a whole new set of problems to be overcome. Why make all the hassle for yourself? The idea is to sell your products without spending all day configuring software. UX And User Design User design is a commonly overlooked advantage of an eCommerce platform centrally controlled and administered by a professional team. Making the software user-friendly is the goal of UX (user experience). By tapping into a global network of eCommerce stores, you benefit from a combined experience. If you choose Magento, you'll be left to your own devices to find out what your customers like or don't like about your site. Third-Party Integration Shopify uses REST API for integration with third-party software providers. You can integrate with "best of breed" providers like Kashflow to manage your accounting functions. Every new integration uses this API to "Talk to Shopify", making integration development easy. Cost Of Implementation A typical Magento developer charges out at £65 per hour in the UK. That makes regular patching and bug fixing an expensive business. Never mind the hours spent on setup and configuration. The constant maintenance and development means that an average Magento installation will set you back around £10,000. That's a lot of money to sink into a software development program that might not make its investment back for many months. By contrast, the "Pro" plan from Shopify at £69 per month means you can run for several years without even coming close to that sort of outlay. Oh, I forgot to mention that you'll also need to pay around £80 per month for hosting costs to run a Magento site. Summary It does not make financial sense to invest in Magento when many other alternatives are continually improving. Secure hosting, scalable hosting technology, fixed monthly costs, and the benefit of knowing that you are using a tried, proven and tested solution in the user experience field. Magento may once have been the only viable solution for new eCommerce stores, but that's not true today. Cloud-based solutions give you many benefits and considerable cost savings. Now go and impress your CEO. Need to know more? Read my Shopify review, my EKM review or Wix review to help you decide on the correct eCommerce software platform for your next business project.

Social Media is one of the most powerful tools available to businesses today. This is true both for companies that outsource social media management and those who want to manage social media in-house. The key difference between social media management and social media marketing is that a social media marketing strategy requires a lot more than just reposting user-generated content and replying on social networks and platforms to transmit the message for you. While it can be difficult on your own, using creative ideas can help you improve your campaigns. here are some of my best social media marketing strategy tips and advice for generating a thriving social media campaign 1. Customise Your Social Media Profile Pages Starting a social media profile is easy, but customising it to your business and making it look good takes time and effort. If you want the social media profiles for your business to reflect who you are as an organisation, take some time at the start to create social media profiles that work well across social media platforms. Customising social media profiles is the first step you should take. Once you have set up these social media channels correctly, it's much easier for users to find what they're looking for on your social media. First, pick social media platforms your customers are most likely to use. For example, you might decide on LinkedIn if you provide business services or on Facebook to run a paid advertising campaign. Discover your customer base on social media and create profiles for those social sites first. Keep it simple at the beginning so that social profiles don't become overwhelming. Once you have your social media profiles set up and ready, you can socialise them together to look consistent with one another. 2. Run Competitions, Use Coupons Social media contests have become increasingly popular recently, thanks mainly to their ability to generate social shares and traffic to your site or social profiles. It doesn't matter what type of contest you run because they all have one crucial thing: social media users love to participate in them. Offering social coupons, discounts or deals on social channels is a fun way to get social media marketing campaigns going with exciting content for social sharing, which helps build up the social community around your brand. People like social coupons because they feel like they're getting something special when it's just part of running an online business; social coupon offers also feel more authentic than simply posting adverts on social channels, which can drive away customers looking for professional opinions. You could try offering social discounts when people follow you on Twitter, like you on Facebook, subscribe to your mailing list or refer their friends to sign up! Many brands do this successfully by offering social coupons to new social media subscribers, so your social channels are full of great social content. For example, run a social media contest that asks social network users to create viral videos or share images on social networks. Social users will be more than happy to oblige because they share your branded content with their friends and followers. 3. Ask Questions On Social Networks There are few better ways to get social media users involved in social media marketing than asking them a direct question on social profiles and networks. This is because social media users have an innate desire to contribute meaningfully to any conversation around them. Being asked a direct question gets them thinking and sharing their opinions with the world. You need to ask a relevant social question using your company's branded hashtags or keywords, so nobody feels left out of the social conversation (make sure you've got social analytics to measure your ROI). 4. Use Social Media Ads While social media ads might seem expensive to generate social shares and social movements, they can be surprisingly cheap for businesses with big budgets. For example, social network advertising on Facebook is exceptionally cost-effective when used correctly. It allows companies to target their adverts based on specific interests or demographic information that users have already expressed online through Google queries, LinkedIn profiles or even Twitter bios. This allows businesses to promote custom social content that feels personal and transparent instead of looking like standard advert content seen in most people's newsfeeds every day. 5. Create Viral Social Content Easier said than done! Hundreds of social content lists have been published over the years, but very few offer social media users anything new. So why not create social content that people want to share? With short attention spans on social media, you have to immediately grab the audience's attention. Social media marketers can consider creating a social story that is explicitly based on social media. Did you know an entire social movement was created around a group of people struggling with loneliness? The Ice Bucket Challenge was conceptualised to raise awareness and funds for those affected by Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), known as Lou Gerhig's Disease. This social movement went viral not only because it was captivating but also because participants were encouraged to record themselves dumping ice water on their heads and then challenge others to join-which, propelled it across social platforms quickly. Another viral campaign that resonated with social audiences is the ALS ice bucket Challenge social movement, which raised social equity and brand awareness for this social issue. Everyone on social media was talking about it; on Facebook alone, there were over 17 million Ice Bucket Challenge videos posted To create something shareable, social media marketers need to consider making a social story that is explicitly based on social media. Social stories are graphics with a brief description of what's happening in the visual, allowing you to create a narrative around your social content. To create something shareable, it needs more than attractive imagery, and it needs a good story behind it! 6. Use Social Media For PR Social media is a fantastic way to get your company's name in front of social users without the expense of traditional advertising. It makes sense that public relations experts often use social media agencies to help promote their clients' latest ventures. They often use social media campaigns to help publicise movies, television shows, books and other cultural phenomena. Public relations is commonly associated with press releases and print media. In today's world of instant communication, Social Media For PR should be used by any company looking to make itself better known. The most significant advantage of using social media for PR campaigns is that it's far less expensive than pay-per-click campaigns or other forms of online advertising. High quality, engaging content can be used to boost your company's image and influence customers to buy your product or service. Social media serves as a great way to let the public know about what you do, which means they'll feel more trust in your services. 7. Use Social Media For Customer Services While social media might not be the best place to handle social customer service queries in real-time, it can undoubtedly help businesses struggling with social customer complaints overall. The first step in using social media for social customer service is to get a dedicated social inbox in place on your company's website (or even on Facebook) that lists out potential issues/complaints raised by social users without automatically responding or taking action. That way, any potentially damaging or false comments can be dealt with offline before they become public problems. Once you've got this process in place, you need to monitor each channel closely and update whenever a social customer service problem arises. Do you need help with your social media marketing? Contact us to see how we can help!

You've heard you should be using social media as part of your internet marketing strategy, but what exactly does that involve, and what platforms should you use for a successful social media campaign? Everyone is touting social media as the last word in your technicolour marketing dreams, but is that genuinely the case? This article will give you some answers and help you define a social media marketing strategy for your growing company. In 2023, there will be 43.1 million social network users in the UK. (According to this study). Roughly three-quarters of the population are captivated by their smartphones. Social media has become a mainstay of everyday life. As well as using social media posts to connect with friends and family, your potential customers also use it to interact with and follow brand activity. A social media campaign can be a valuable platform for increasing site traffic and boosting sales. These social networks allow you to follow influencers who may share links or post hashtags that lead their audience back to your site, increasing the likelihood of conversions. Whether or not you use social media as a marketing activity depends on your brand persona. Will your brand or company benefit from engaging with your customers and potential clients with a social media campaign? What Is Social Media Marketing? Social media marketing (SMM) is not a replacement for your website or a substitute for creating great content, services and products. Social media is a tool to amplify the message, engage with users and obtain feedback. The key takeaway is the word "engagement", a two-way street that means you will get involved with interacting with your user base. If you fail to connect and resonate with your followers, you are broadcasting into a black hole and all that energy creating content is wasted and a costly mistake. SMM doesn't mean direct selling, although that can be a part of the mix; it is more to do with the psychology of interpersonal reaction. What Is A Social Media Marketing Strategy? Any SMM strategy should evaluate the different social media platforms available. Instagram is primarily visual and image-based, Twitter is text-based to add images and video underneath your commentary, and Facebook is a commingling of all three. In the beginning, you'll want to use the organic (free) route for your social media campaign because that will allow you to make mistakes without having to pay for them! Paid for social adverts give you more control over your target demographic. With the lack of any clearly defined conversion measurement tools, calculating your return on investment from any social media campaign activity is a mystical practice, but no more so than that, say, of billboard advertising or even TV advertising. From the outset, you need goals to achieve. Even if these are hard to quantify, there can be no target to aim for without goals. Some examples of social media campaign goals you might want to achieve: Heighten brand awareness Connect with your target audience Direct selling Increase website traffic Generate new business Provide customer support This last one (providing customer support) can be a double-edged sword as the rules of engagement dictate that you should be timely in your responses. If you are the type of company that perpetually has "larger than expected call volumes" (read: understaffed), then getting buried in an avalanche of customer Tweets from social media users asking for help is not going to be your thing. The obvious starting point for anyone new to social media marketing is to use that old fallback: competitor research. Discover what your peers are doing to drive interaction and user engagement and copy them. Stealing ideas is an underused tactic in my book, but my reproduction differs from your blatant copying. Great copying means using the same tactics as your competitors but improving the message, making better images and writing better website copy. People who shamelessly copy and paste their way through life deserve all the karma coming their way. If you can't be original, then at least be authentic. Social Media Platforms The social media platform you use depends on your user demographic to reach and engage. All the platforms listed below attract a different type of user, and some people use several simultaneously. Me? Twitter and Instagram are my favourites, but a Facebook business page is an excellent addition to your overall marketing effort. LinkedIn LinkedIn is an essential social media marketing channel connecting you with other business users who share your interests, making it a great marketing channel for companies looking to connect with other business users. LinkedIn could be called Facebook for business users. If your company is interested in marketing to other businesses, LinkedIn is the perfect social website for you. With over 467 million users, your business must be on this network as part of your social media marketing campaign. Marketing on LinkedIn means connecting with others via shared interests and groups. Your company can create its group or join existing ones relevant to your industry, giving you the chance to reach those interested in what you have to say. You can also post updates and advertise on the site without having a personal account. Using LinkedIn, your business can successfully market itself among an entire industry of interested users leading to increased brand visibility, improved search engine results, enhanced customer relations, and even networking with potential new clients. Facebook Facebook has over two billion users worldwide, making it the most popular social media platform in existence! Companies can use Facebook to keep their audience up-to-date on new products, promotions, and sales. While other social media platforms are also helpful for marketing purposes, Facebook is a highly effective way to promote a company's brand. Here are some of the key features:- Facebook ads Using Facebook ads, companies can promote their products and services to a specific audience, which is extremely useful for expanding their consumer base. For example, if a company sells children's clothes, they could use Facebook ads targeted explicitly at mothers in the surrounding area. There are also options to create a lookalike audience from an existing customer list so that businesses can expand their reach even further. Customisation options This social media platform allows organisations to customise their pages with professional logos and images. Users can also buy virtual gifts for other users on special occasions such as weddings or birthdays. In addition, it is possible to add "apps" that provide entertaining features such as online games and quizzes. Engagement with your audience People can share photos and videos on Facebook, so brands often host contests to encourage engagement. For example, a company could create a competition that involves posting funny pictures or tagging friends in clever posts. The contest winner receives a free product from the organisation's store! View the Webuildstores Facebook Page Twitter Twitter is increasingly popular as a tool for user engagement, and Twitter hashtags are popping up more regularly on television soap and celebrity shows. Even TV dramas are commented on in real-time, but I have to ask who is so insecure in what they are watching on TV that they have to have it validated by the Twitterati? Who wants a thousand Tweets telling you Liverpool have scored when you have just seen it with your own eyes? Building a following on Twitter is incredibly difficult unless you have a popular product or service, and bootstrapping (building from scratch) is not for the impatient. Successful social media campaigns can be rewarded with hundreds of thousands of followers. However, you'll still need to send that traffic to a destination where they can immolate their credit cards. If you have plenty of witty one-liners, an acerbic way with words, are thick-skinned and can see past all the haters then Twitter might be your thing. See the Webuildstores Twitter feed. Instagram To get the whole Instagram experience, you'll need an Instagram for a business account: Get real-time metrics on how your stories and promoted posts perform throughout the day. Get insights into your followers and how they interact with your posts and stories. Add information about your company, such as business hours, location and phone number. Instagram is mainly a visual smorgasbord with some text added for good measure. We've found that the best image size to use is a square 750x750. The best Instagram accounts are visually appealing and usually owned by celebrities showing their toned bodies. Still, some companies like one peloton are using it to devastating effect by profiling their upcoming staff classes and providing motivational imagery. Instagram uses hashtags extensively to help you get your images discovered, but they only have a short shelf life of 24 hours or so before they get lost in the ether sphere. You'll need a lot of imagery or the self-discipline to take many photos and selfies to make Instagram work for you. View the Webuildstores Instagram Page YouTube Creating a Youtube channel might be the best marketing move you ever make. Alternatively, it could be the shortest film career you ever imagined for yourself. Take a look at some popular Youtube channels and see how advanced the video creation techniques and general production values have become. Consistently making excellent video content for Youtube is a full-time position for someone on your team. YouTube has become a widely used social media platform for business and personal use. With many unique features, it is no surprise that companies are starting to use the video streaming site as a marketing channel. Video Allows for Engagement YouTube is a social media platform where users can subscribe to each other's channels and share different videos, allowing for engagement between businesses and viewers or fans. For example, if your business shares tips & tricks about fixing cars for free on YouTube, you will be able to engage with followers right away since they would have shared interests in the topic you are discussing. Youtube Allows You To Make Money Online With Advertisements Another great feature of using youtube as a marketing channel is advertising. There are many different avenues for making money via advertisements on YouTube. One way is by sharing ad revenue with content creators. Massive, Vocal Customer Base Lastly, Youtube has an excellent customer base for any business using social media as their marketing channel. More than one billion people worldwide use YouTube each month, and the numbers keep growing! There are millions of potential customers for your business if it decides to join in on this ever-expanding social media platform. Subscriptions Allow For Additional Income Streams You must set up at least one subscription tier for every channel you wish to monetize beyond ads. The most common way to monetise your videos is through a monthly subscription. You will be able to keep 100% of the money generated by this tier, and you'll also get access to exclusive content and tools Social Media Influencer Marketing If you want your products promoted on a social media channel but don't want to go through all the hassle of building your follower base, then merely pay a well known "influencer" with a few million followers to pitch your product for you. It's product placement for social media and lucrative for the channel owner. To Summarise: Building a social media following takes a lot of hard work and persistence. Don't be fooled into following people, and hoping they will follow you back is a legitimate tactic for building your profile. All of the best influencer accounts follow only a handful of people and have thousands of followers themselves because they produce unique, exciting and engaging content. Here's a quick guide to platforms for your next social media marketing campaigns: LinkedIn is a website designed to put professionals in touch with other professionals and you can target connections based on demographics and interests. LinkedIn Premium will let you send inmail to other users that are not already connections. Facebook The key here is putting time into your Facebook cover photo - it needs to be crisp, clear and beautiful (or funny) so that people notice when scrolling down their newsfeeds. It's also important to post regular and high-quality content throughout the rest of your page. Facebook groups are a great way to interact with like-minded people and build a social media following because they allow you to stay in touch with other users long after they've left Facebook or even the internet. Find a group for your industry, jump right in and make sure you're helping out whenever possible! Twitter is more intimidating because of the instant feedback it provides, but if you are a wordsmith, that might be the place to make your name! Twitter is about reaching out to other people and sharing short, snappy thoughts with them. The key to making the most out of Twitter is following the right people back and liking or retweeting their content. Instagram requires a little more effort than Twitter, if only because there's no character limit for Instagram captions - but this also makes it worth putting more time into your images. It's all about creating engaging looking visuals that speak for themselves, then getting as many likes as possible! YouTube focuses on building an audience through videos that are entertaining or useful. You'll need to create high quality, engaging videos for YouTube, as well as getting your target audience to subscribe to them so they can see all of your future videos. Ello is a network that values nice, clean social media accounts with lots of followers and great pictures. You need to be interesting, positive and engaging for Ello if you want to get noticed and build a following there. Social interaction is at the heart of every one of these networks - especially on Ello! Whatsapp is a text messaging service owned by Facebook that allows you to communicate with users in your phone's contacts list. You can start a group chat or send individual messages - it's great for staying in touch when you don't have access to the internet! Snapchat is an app that allows you to create short videos and images that are automatically deleted after 24 hours. The key here is creativity - you need to be thinking about the content of what you're sharing and how it looks. It's all about getting creative if you want Snapchat to work for your social media campaign! Finally, Pinterest has become particularly popular amongst women looking for fashion inspiration and home decor ideas - but it's also worth considering because users pin around 50% more than they post on other networks. Pinterest is all about putting the time into curating visually stunning boards - then letting your pins do the rest of the work for you! Do you need help kicking off your next social media campaign? Contact us

Net Yourself A Dream Career With This Simple Website Copywriting Formula. It was over 20 years ago I picked up a copy of the Sunday Times and, when I had finally finished lugging it all home, watched it spew its guts out over the front room floor with its colourful array of motorised wheelchair advertising and straight to recycling print garbage, but the glossy magazine caught my eye. Buried amongst the celebrity interviews and foodie pages was a restaurant turned TV critic reviewing the week's Television. AA Gill was as heartless as a hungry grizzly bear, whether tearing apart poorly done TV drama or savaging undercooked restaurant food. His eviscerate penmanship brooked no mercy as he sought to "unpick the thing" from which, having succeeded, he took enormous pleasure. But equally, Gill was revered for his unique writing style, which would reveal how well something was made without being a sop to whatever he was reviewing. I've dedicated this blog post to the master critic himself and his incredibly unique blogging voice. AA Gill Was An Inspiration AA Gill died on the 10th December 2016 at the age of 62, not long after being diagnosed with "A Full English" of cancer. (His words, not mine). He had a controversial writing style that generated many complaints. Most notably, calling the Welsh "loquacious, dissemblers, immoral liars, stunted, bigoted, dark, ugly, pugnacious little trolls ", for which he was reported to the Commission for Racial Equality. They found he had no case to answer, and it was evident that he was playing to the gallery to most observers. It was always "the other lot" he disparaged when pressed on the subject, depending on whether you came from North or South Wales. "The most depressing and uncongenial meal, in an anaemic, echoey building, made even more wrist-slashingly ghastly by the sad and silent ghosts of a century of culture and élan and bibulous brilliance. AA Gill Reading the magazine all those years ago, I remember thinking Gill was a pompous twat. A hard-hearted and callous bastard who didn't care who he offended. But then, more recently, I read his autobiography "Pour Me", and I entered the life of a dyslexic alcoholic who, having got sober in 1984, took his second chance at life by becoming an unswervingly honest critic. Very few people are cut out to be critics or would care to be. Everyone has an opinion. Criticism isn't about having an opinion, it's having a value added opinion. Some opinions are worth more than others. Mine are worth more than most. AA Gill That was when I had my “aha!” moment, and I realised that Gill had merely found his unique writing voice. Telling it like it is is much harder than it sounds. Writing reviews that hype the visible good bits while sweeping the substandard under the carpet is the coward's way out. To become a better blogger and write copy that people wanted to read meant I had to become a better critic and develop a unique writing voice. Criticism is like being able to unbake a cake. When people fatuously ask why I don't write constructive criticism I tell them there is no such thing. Critics do deconstructive criticism. If you want compliments, phone your mother. AA Gill You can't call yourself a critic unless you are prepared to be completely honest with the subject matter and put it directly under the microscope, and most people won't do that. To become a website copywriting superhero and the one that everyone wants on their team, focus on developing the following superpowers: Copywriting Superpower 1 Kick The Booze Sobriety is the one superpower to rule them all. "Everyone wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die". Writing clear, concise copy requires a clear, focused mind. Once I stopped drinking alcohol, my writing improved immeasurably. And it's not just the website copywriting that improved, either. My productivity increased 10x once I had a few months of sobriety under my belt, and get this - the drawback of being the boring sober one on a party night is far outweighed by being the productive sober one at 5 am the following day. You'll still be going strong writing website content at 11 am when everyone is sleeping off their hangovers. It's a myth that drinking increases creativity, and although I tried hard for forty years, I could never make it work for me. Heavy drinking also ruins your libido, but fortunately, abstinence can quickly reverse the effects. Copywriting Superpower 2 Eat Healthily, Workout, Rest Once you get rid of the booze, you'll look in the mirror and realise what a dumbass sloth you let yourself become. Stop dodging the salads and start lifting some weights. You don't need to be Arnold Schwarzenegger, but a superhero needs a fit and healthy body. Highly sedentary jobs like copywriting can lead to many health problems in the long term, and being a keyboard warrior might not be something you want to be buried on your tombstone. You'll also find it easier to write copy if your brain isn't working overtime trying to get oxygen up into your head. Learn some intermittent fasting techniques, drink plenty of water and cut back on caffeine. Get some sleep. It's all stuff that is very well known to produce a positive effect, but do you have the self-discipline to follow through? Adopting the above two superpowers will put you ahead of 80% of the other web copy wannabees by the simple application of Pareto's principle. Copywriting Superpower 3 Learn To Type Fast It took me around 100 hours of practice to get up to an average touch typing speed of around 50 words per minute. Once I got there, any gains were minimal for the amount of time spent practising, and so that's where I stopped practising and focused on the web copywriting. Typing fast is not only practical; it's essential for getting tasks done correctly and promptly. Whether you're writing reports, typing out emails or code, typing fast can help you accomplish your goals more efficiently. 50-60 words per minute is a good typing speed and way above the average. Learning to touch type is a sound investment of time for anyone aspiring to produce copious amounts of web copy. Copywriting Superpower 4 Read A Lot Of Books You don't write a blog post in a vacuum. Read a lot of different authors, and if you haven't read books before, then start with a couple of classics that will open your eyes to how powerful the written word can be. Once you've read "Dracula", the film version will make absolutely no sense whatsoever. You'll be amazed at the magical, almost hypnotic effect that writing has when done well. If you immerse yourself in high-quality, compelling copy, your efforts will stand head and shoulders over the competition. Writing in the third person is a great way to improve your website copywriting. By noting how it affects others, you can adopt an objective tone and look at what you're doing differently. You'll notice that this lets you use vivid imagery more effectively, which will help attract attention from people aimlessly scrolling social media or browsing websites. Reading a lot of different authors from a third-person perspective will let you understand why some people resonate with some web pages while others don't have any effect. Once you've got a good feeling for how language affects other people, then your efforts will seem better by comparison. Since reading more books, my unique blogging voice has improved in leaps and bounds. Incorporating a different writing style and injecting variety into your written work comes from observing how others put their words together. My wife's barely-used Kindle has now become my new best friend. Here are some of the books I've read over the past couple of months: AA Gill: Pour Me How an alcoholic, dyslexic and frustrated artist became a highly accomplished, feared and revered restaurant critic. Cheryl Strayed: Wild How about a hike across the Pacific Trail to go and find yourself? Bruce Springsteen: Born To Run Get this in audiobook format if you can as the Boss narrates it. It's one of the best rock and roll autobiographies ever written. Guy Sajer: The Forgotten Soldier A horrific tale of survival on the Russian front from a German soldier's point of view. Steve Peters: The Chimp Paradox Why we do what we do and how to change your thinking. Robin Sharma: The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari Reading this book felt like a chore I had to do. A bit like "The Alchemist" I read it because it's in everyone's top ten list. But I obviously missed the point. Grant Cardone: The 10x Rule How massive action can make a difference for you. Instead of plodding along like everyone else Cardone encourages you to take 10X action to get the desired results. Keith Richards: Life How is this guy still alive? I'm not a fan of the Stones, the early stuff was the best and the apocalyptic "Gimme Shelter" was arguably their finest moment. If you ever wondered why the Stones' were never as good as they could have been, it was because Richards was permanently "out of it" through the seventies, rendering one-half of the songwriting duo impotent. Richards takes pride in once not sleeping for nine days straight. Funny how "Our Keef" always managed to find the hotel room that went up in flames due to "faulty wiring". Did you know Keef has not visited Mick Jagger's dressing room in over 20 years? This was a brilliant read if a bit rambling towards the end. Leo Tolstoy: War And Peace I managed about four pages before giving up. I may have missed something special but the BBC TV adaption made up for it. Be Different Being different doesn't mean being outrageously funny or false. It means putting a new spin on the content. You can't hope to compete with 101 other bloggers unless you have something to contribute to the conversation. Copywriting Superpower 5 Analyse Other People's Copy In general, most website copy is low-grade filler destined for the outer reaches of the ether sphere where it has no chance of being lit up by the sun. Once you find authors who are good at their craft, then make a point of studying their work or web pages. What makes it so good? How is it structured? What words are they using, and how do they make you feel? By deconstructing other people's website copy, you will develop a feel for what works and why while broadening your vocabulary at the same time. You might not be able to write like Shakespeare (and who would want to nowadays), but you'll sound good enough to resonate with your target audience and get at least 50% more sales on your landing page than your competitors. Copywriting Superpower 6 Write Compelling Headlines A compelling headline needs to grab your website user's attention within the first few seconds of their visit. It should be clear what content they can expect on the page, encouraging them to stay and peruse further. Keep in mind who the website user for your website is and what they expect to find on it. Keep website headlines short and straightforward, but make sure that they give website users enough information to decide if they want to stay on the website or not. Research what keywords website users are likely to use when searching for the product or content you advertise. Make website headlines personal by writing them from a first-person perspective. The easiest way to write headlines is to include numbers like this: Five secrets of effective small business headlines Nine proven ways to write great headlines for your company blog Three easy steps on how to write a great headline that converts Improve headlines by writing them in title case: How to Write A Compelling Headline for Your Small Business Ten Ways To Create An Irresistible Offer Six Tips That Will Double Your Conversions With Copywriting Copywriting Superpower 7 Get The Tools You Need To Do The Job Here are two tools that I wouldn't be without: A: Grammarly Grammarly is an instant editing tool that will help you make sure your copy reads as perfect as it possibly can on all devices at all times. It's easy to use and will pick up any mistakes you might have missed while writing or editing your copy, making it much easier for you to write quality content. If nothing else, its free version will act as a gatekeeper to you submitting material with obvious gaffes. B: Thesaurus Using synonyms will make your copy stand out from the crowd and help you sound like an experienced pro. It's an easy copywriting superpower to copy, open your thesaurus document, and copy the synonyms for your chosen words into your copy. It might seem like a waste of time at first, but after you've used it for a few weeks, you'll start "seeing" new words wherever you go. Copywriting Superpower 8 Become A Ruthless Editor Once you've written a piece of web copy, then set it aside for a day or two and come back to edit. Brevity is the name of the game, and you can tighten up your copy by editing down long sentences, finding synonyms for simple words, and cutting out any comments that don't add to the quality of your message. Cut out anything that looks or feels like filler. Readers want kicks, not filler - so keep editing until your message is lean and mean. If you can remove a sentence without losing clarity, then cut it. Focus on getting all your pronouns to agree with their appropriate antecedents and eliminate redundancies like 'overnight' and 'little by little. Remember that some things are better left unsaid rather than said poorly or pointlessly. If you're struggling with finding the right word, then work on improving your vocabulary instead of writing something mediocre. If it's possible to make your copy shorter without affecting its meaning, do it! Copywriting Superpower 9 Be The Authentic Version Of You Becoming authentic is the first step towards being a good writer. If I had to pick one writer whose authenticity leapt out from the page and startled you with raw honesty, it would be the sadly departed AA Gill. You can read more about writing in an authentic voice and my tribute to the great writer here. Authenticity is the best way to speak your mind and create a blog that people find exciting and compelling. Identify who you are as a blogger, and then continue to write like that person. You can define authenticity as being honest, genuine, and sincere about one's feelings, habits, or beliefs. Your blog has to sound like you to appeal to anyone. People like reading blogs with which they can relate. Be yourself when you blog, and let your voice shine through the words you put on the screen. If you're having trouble with this step, consider keeping a journal for a while. Writing in the third person can be difficult and requires plenty of practice. Once you've become accustomed to writing in the third person, you can begin making your writing more conversational. That's when it will be easier to transition into writing authentically for your target audience. Copywriting Superpower 10 Keep An Editorial Calendar An effective content strategy requires an editorial calendar. An editorial calendar is a list of content to produce and distribute through your blog, social media and other marketing channels. You will need to keep two types of records, low level and high level. The low-level stuff is the article idea, copy, headline, keywords and anything else that goes into making that piece of content complete. I like to use Trello to manage my low-level stuff (you can get it free here), and we also use it to manage customer projects. My “new idea tree” list of article ideas is in the left column. I add them as I come up with them in the shower or take the dogs for a walk using Trello for a smartphone. In the following columns are my draft blog posts with links to further reading or sources so I always have a steady stream of new article ideas. Here is what it looks like: The high-level stuff is your publishing calendar. You could also use the Trello date feature if you wanted to, but I like to see what I'm supposed to be working on in my Google calendar so that it gives me an overview of timeframes. There is plenty of dog walking and thinking time built into my schedule: Using this system when it's time to write I look in the calendar to see what I'm supposed to be writing and I look in the project board for the subject. Set a blogging schedule and stick to it. In the beginning, blog writing can seem alien and complicated, but this is true for every aspiring blogger—mainly when, in the early days, you know that hardly anyone will be reading your words. Try starting with one blog post a week, and within a couple of months, you'll notice an improvement as you gain confidence. I publish a new blog post every Friday, but that's a tight schedule for producing above average content. You can always go back and improve your older posts and update them with new links to keep them fresh. I like to edit the oldest post on the site every day, even if it means just adding links to more recent content. Copywriting Superpower 11 Define Your Reader As Accurately As Possible Conjure up a vision of the person for whom you are writing. Be as precise as you can in your imagining. My ideal reader is someone who is 40-50 years old, a small business owner or someone about to take the plunge into starting a business. They probably have limited IT skills but know enough to find their way around the web and manage their WIFI connections when visiting a Starbucks. They'll have a family to look after, so getting a website design set up quickly is essential because they don't have hours, days or weeks to spend endlessly doing research. Equally, the budget doesn't run into thousands, so a pay monthly website would be the ideal way to start. That's the person I'm writing for and who I imagine every time I sit down to write. Whenever I write a new blog post, I think to myself, "how will this help my reader". So there you have it. Stop drinking alcohol, eat healthily, exercise and sleep. Read books, study other writers you like and edit ruthlessly. Most importantly, just be you because no matter how good or bad your writing is, being authentic is the key to connecting with your reader. . You are well on your way to becoming a copywriting superhero, but in case you don't have the time or energy to be a content marketing monster, then contact us for some help!

Last week, we discussed starting your small business blog and generating that all important organic search engine traffic. This week I'm going to deep dive into the production techniques I use here at We Build Stores and give you some insight into the blog preparation process, content schedule and generating blog post ideas. So last week, we prepped you up with a once per week blogging schedule. That's a good goal for a small business owner because no matter how good your intentions, life (and running a business) get in the way of all the best-laid plans. Here are my best tips for planning out your blog content schedule. Creating Your Blog content Schedule If you have decided on a once per week blogging schedule, then get ready to produce 52 blog posts per year. Wow, 52 blog posts a year. Gulp! That seems like a lot. And it is. But let's not get bogged down with the details of blog frequency because what's important here is that you're going to do this and blog quality will trump blog quantity every time. The first thing you need to do is develop your blog editorial calendar, which essentially means laying out all your blog topics for the year ahead at a high level and developing a blog content strategy. You can go as granular as quarterly or even monthly, but I recommend yearly as an excellent place to start, so we'll go with that for now. We'll walk through how to create your editorial calendar in a Trello Calendar later on but for now, let's dive into blog topic planning. What Makes a Blog Great? Four elements make a blog great: variety, research, consistency and promotion. Whilst variety is the spice of life it makes sense to have your blog topics follow on from each other week after week to keep your customer focused and engaged. Your blog topics can be broken into four quarters, making it easy to plan a blog content strategy over the entire year. Here's what I mean: Quarter one (January - March): This will be our focus for the next twelve weeks, where we'll give a high level overview of the strategies for accomplishing certain outcomes like improving SEO performance or increasing revenue (or blog traffic). You can replace my goals with your content aims. This blog topic can be very granular and get into many tactics. To begin with, define a topic for each month like this: January - Starting a blog February - Starting a social media campaign March - Focus on getting more business from local SEO Once you have your global topic for each month, break it down into a weekly post. January Blogs Week One - Starting your small business blog Week Two - How to plan content for your blog Week Three - How to write compelling blog copy Week Four - Specific blog post writing tips In this way you introduce a new reader to your topic and then educate them weekly on the process of achieving it. It's a logical linear progression. February Blogs Week One - Start a social media strategy Week Two - Social media content ideas Week Three - Social media production values Week Four - Tips for increasing social media engagement. March Blogs Now we start getting into more specific details: Week One - Using LinkedIn as a lead geberator Week Two - Designing the perfect Facebook page Week Three - A guide to Google My business Week Four - Wrap up the first quarter with a summary of everything learned. Building a blog is all about creating high-quality content that does not necessarily have a direct ROI but helps build awareness and authority for your brand. Once you've defined your blog calendar you need to promote the content you write by either guest blogging on other authority sites, submitting your blog posts to directories or promoting your content with Google Adwords. You could also try finding an influencer who would like to create a joint venture with you (JV) to share with their audience in written form or during an interview. When paired with high-quality blog content, this promotion strategy can go a long way in driving blog traffic, email sign-ups and product sales over time. Your Seasonal Content Calendar Once you've created monthly blog topic buckets, it's time to move on to the final step of blog content strategy planning, which is creating a blog editorial calendar. A blog editorial calendar is simply laying out blog topics for each week over one year, but I like to turn that into something much more visual. Trello Calendar Board - Blog Topic Planning So now that you know all about blog topic planning and how versatile blog posts can be (there are blog posts that are perfect for blog promotion, blog traffic, brand awareness and more), let's take a look at how to plan blog topics using Trello. I use Trello as my blog editorial calendar so that these steps will be specific to Trello, but you should be able to adapt them based on what types of platforms or calendars you prefer. Create a board called "blog content planning." On the first row, create your first list for January blogs or whichever month you are starting your blog campaign. For each blog topic list, go back to your list of blog post ideas from above and start creating individual cards with blog post titles that fit into each month. For example, if one of our blog posts lists is about blog traffic, we can have blog post cards titled blog promotion strategies, blog content promotion strategies or blog traffic tips. Once you've done this for your blog topic lists, drag-and-drop each blog card under its respective blog topic list on your Trello board. Using Trello is a great way to visually see what topics you plan to cover for each quarter and show all of the ideas you could potentially cover in blog posts at some point down the line. With Trello, it's easy to reorder these blog postcards as needed as the categories are essentially just labels, so you can easily reorder them and make sure they make sense for blog promotion, brand awareness etc. Every blog postcard will change over time as you add blog ideas, complete blog post topics, and blog promotions expire, so you can go back to your Trello board at any time and edit blog cards. If you want to take it one step further, I recommend creating blog labels under each blog topic list. Although this is a simple process overall, once you get into it, you'll see that blog content planning is a great way to plan blog posts for the entire year, so your blog never has any dry spells. Blog Production Tools Here are the essential blog production tools you need to create an awesome blog! Grammarly Writing Assistant is a tool that helps with all writing tasks. Grammarly analyses text for grammatical errors and stylistic mistakes and provides the user with suggested edits and revisions throughout the process. The Grammarly Writing Assistant is perfect for blogging, as writing in the third person perspective can be tricky at times. Grammarly also provides word choice suggestions, so it's perfect for opening up sentences with action verbs to give them more of a dynamic feel. If you don't use Grammarly in the blog post during the editing process, you can still apply it to your text after publishing. Also, Grammarly has a plagiarism checker to make sure content is original. The Grammarly premium features include an extended thesaurus and the ability to export documents in different file types. Grammarly can plug into word processors, websites, and even Microsoft Office! The Jasper Writing Assistant is an efficient way to overcome writer's block and make blog production easy and fast. Using Jasper artificial intelligence (AI), writers can focus on creative content without worrying about the planning or editing stages; Jasper can do all the topic title research and make suggestions for blog content which is a huge time saver. Writers have complete control over their content with Jasper because it uses AI to ensure that each piece of content produced reflects the client's voice, tone, and brand identity. Meet deadlines with ease using Jasper writing assistant! Surfer Seo is an SEO tool that compares and analyses 500 different factors of your page's content against the top 10 ranking SERPs. Using data to show you what is missing takes the guesswork out of on-page SEO optimisation. It has three key features to help you optimise your content- SERP (search engine position results) Analyser Content Editor Keyword Researcher Surfer SEO will analyse 500 different factors across the top 10 results and then compare those with your webpage, giving you reliable, data-driven information on what's working right now for your specific keyword. Surfer currently analyses ranking factors like: Text Length Number of headings Number of Images Page Speed Keyword Density Partial Keyword Density Referring URLs Referring Domains Meta Tags Structure Optimising for keywords is a lot of work, but with Surferseo, you can discover the optimal keyword density. It also finds correlations between position in SERP and 500+ factors before generating an attack plan to make yourself as relevant as possible within your niche or industry. You can also learn what other words should be included on pages so that they rank higher than competitors' websites do! The page audit tool gives you detailed information on: Missing Common Backlinks True Density Number of words Exact keywords Partial Keywords Number of Elements Characters Time to First Byte Load time (ms) Surfer SEO also allows you to optimise your existing content with its SERP Analyser tool. So that's your blog content planning schedule sorted out and all the tools you need to make it a raging success! Time to get writing! Would you like help creating your business blog? Contact us

Blogging Is The Most Efficient Way To Dominate Your Market Employing the brightest mathematical minds on the planet, building an algorithm that filters out the weak from the strong, the wheat from the chaff, the Google search engine determines what the best search results are for your query. It displays them sandwiched between the paid-for adverts top and bottom of the page. There are alternatives to Google, but few people use them, and if they were a better tool for finding the information you need, they would be Google! In every iteration of the Google algorithm, there have been casualties who have fallen by the wayside. Hurricanes, Penguins and Panda updates have all exacted their terrible toll. You can obliterate a business by excluding it from search results, and some of the biggest and most successful websites have had their traffic reduced to a trickle overnight. Look at the recent plummeting figures for the dailymail.co.uk as an example. Of all the digital marketing techniques available to a small business owner, starting a blog to attract search engine traffic is one of the best investments of your time. It is the least expensive digital marketing route to getting your brand or small business heard above all the noise. However, creating a business blog is not "free". You have to put some time and effort into creating the articles that go together to make a successful blog and get great results. The payback is that your blog has a long shelf life in return for an investment of your time and will continue to attract search engine traffic for a long time, perhaps several years, after writing the original blog post. In addition to the search engine traffic that a successful small business blog attracts, you can also use the "content pillars" you create as the foundation of your social media marketing campaign. People will tell you that you shouldn't base your business model on search engine traffic alone and that it's wrong to rely on just one form of traffic to your site. But if Google didn't exist, then whatever replaced it would surely come to the same conclusion and rank the results in the same order? Search exists to find the best answer to the question, and making your website highly visible in those results is the holy grail of search engine optimisation. Create A Useful, Information-Rich Site Creating an information-rich site is your goal. Whatever your target market is, the written word makes up a large percentage of the way your website gets ranked in search results. Blogging is the way to feed the search engine more information. Keep writing quality content about your core subject, and eventually, you will gain recognition for being an authority in your field. Building a recognised body of work gives you valuable search engine traffic and a good reason to promote your site on social media. Many social media "experts" clamour for your business on Twitter, but most of them are missing the point. Being present on Twitter does not mean that you will be famous. Your blog and content is the surfboard on which you ride the social media wave. Without it, you will flounder in the water and drown. Content Marketing Is A Tortoise And Hare Combination Building a blog worthy of the name is hard work. There are no shortcuts. There is no growth hacking your way to the top. It is the meat and potatoes of promoting your company on the Internet. It will take six months of consistent effort to produce any meaningful results from a blogging campaign, and for those who persist, the rewards eventually far outweigh the effort involved in creating the content in the first place. Evergreen content, the kind that is always useful and doesn't become dated, repeatedly pays for itself. Imagine what you could produce from two years of consistent blogging? That is the scale of the job ahead of you, but by doing the work, you are giving yourself the best possible chance of being found in organic search for years to come. A Manifesto For New Bloggers A good blog post takes around four or five hours to write and add at least an hour or two for research and image selection. Content pillars that form the backbone of your blog can be two or three days in the making. Being in a settled environment and having an established routine are essential ingredients for writing your blog posts, it gives your brain and your subconscious mind the ability to be able to concentrate on the task you set. If you have a million and one things going on in the background, then you are never going to produce your best work. Publishing regularly is better than writing great content once in a blue moon. Being consistent and showing up is what will make the difference between a blog that is updated haphazardly or one thoughtfully constructed around a regular publishing schedule. Schedule Blogging Time With No Distractions. I like to write my stuff early in the morning before I start dealing with emails and other distractions. Start with just an hour a day and build up slowly to a couple of hours. As you improve, you'll find you can get an increasing amount done in this "sacred" time. Make Blogging Your Priority Website owners who pay for inexpensive blog articles don't give their website the respect it deserves. Being serious about your blog content is a required step to making it a success. If you are going to write a blog, then write it with heart and soul. Research your subject correctly and produce something that your audience will love reading. Here are my top five tips to help you, the small business owner, get your blog up and running in 2022 and start generating organic search traffic for your online business. 1. Develop a Mission Statement Develop a blog mission statement that is short, sweet, and to the point. The mission statement should tell your potential customers why you decided to start your blog in 2022. Print out your mission statement and keep it front and center of your office space so that it both inspires you to produce more content and keeps you on track with your business blogging. Think about why you want to start a blog "I am a strong believer in reaching for your dreams by creating a blog that helps small business owners increase their revenue and gain more customers. I love the idea of helping other people reach their goals, and ultimately help them live a happier, healthier life." Keep your goal in mind while writing posts - this will keep you focused on your blog topics when writing time comes around and is the foundation of a great blog. Setting some simple goals for your blog is the best way to start building some great content. make sure you have Google analytics installed so that you can measure progress. 2. Become An Authority In Your Niche You can't become an authority by publishing nothing, everyone has to start somewhere. If you are the type of person that suffers from self doubt or feelings of unworthiness then this could be the major hurdle you need to get over when starting your blog. it doesn't matter so much about the words in the beginning, the most important part is getting started. You only get better at writing and publishing by doing the work which is true of any creative practice. Over time you will build up a body of work that shows you are the expert and there's no denying it. Position yourself as an expert in your niche market by publishing a new blog post about current trends and related topics in your industry. Opinion pieces on current events are often the most popular on social media but these are also the hardest to write. Republish content from your blog platform through social media sites like Twitter and Facebook so that people who follow you online will find out immediately when you publish new posts. If you use WordPress or another content management system, learn how to customise it to manage feeds from other sites automatically into your blog page, Twitter feed and Facebook page. Extend your blogging efforts beyond the Web to print materials, submit articles or opinion pieces about current trends in your industry for publication in magazines, newsletters or other offline media where you can share ideas with people who might not normally seek out blogging resources. As with blogging, it is important to understand the needs of the people you are trying to reach through these means so that you can target content appropriately. 3. Create Content Pillars Create content pillars by compiling the most interesting articles on your topic into one document. These articles can be used not only as seed for new posts, but they will also help you "link up" with key bloggers within the communities where they were originally published because other bloggers may want to share your work via Twitter or Facebook. A good example I can give you of creating a content pillar is Pay Monthly Websites where I have consolidated three or four posts into one content pillar. Learn to effectively distribute content through your target platforms and your blog will develop a big enough audience to drive traffic back to it for more of the same. There are two main types of marketing: push strategy and pull strategy A push strategy involves using marketing techniques, media relations and advertising to make your company or products known to consumers. While this is important for businesses that are new to the market, it doesn't create loyal customers. A pull strategy focuses on various relationships with members of your target market through social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as other media outlets. For example, if your company is a new restaurant, you can create content pillars to use for blog posts about the cuisine your restaurant offers, competitor profiles or news items or trends in your industry that are worth sharing with others so they will want to follow you online. Create a blog that is updated frequently with information about the people you have hired to work for your company, recent menu additions or new items on your catering menu. The objective of any marketing plan is to create a demand for an item or service so that consumers will seek it out rather than wait passively for it to be thrust upon them through push marketing. 4. Frequency Of Blog Posting Write one article every week. You can write more if you have the time and inclination, but once a week is a good starting place, and it will ease you into solid writing practice, and consistent blogging gets the best results. Blogging consistency is vital to improving your search engine rankings and reaching your target audience. Blog consistency helps build trust with your readers, which in turn leads to repeat visitors, loyal customers, and more business opportunities down the road. Publishing one article each Friday (it's best to choose a specific publishing deadline day) means that Google sees a new page indexed in its system every week. This blogging strategy also helps your audience remember your site and come back to check out your latest blogging content. Blog as often as you can without sacrificing the quality of your blog posts. it's much better to make one wonderful post than several low quality pieces. If you blog less frequently, say once a month or every other week, readers won't be as familiar with your blog's tone and style. They might have trouble finding your older blog posts to return to if they missed them when they first got posted. A lack of familiarity with your blog will result in fewer loyal readers sticking around for future blog posts, which means little traffic coming back to your site regularly. Becoming part of someone's daily routine takes time. You need to consistently post new blog content for at least five months before most people begin adding you to their feed reader or checking out your latest articles each day instead of every couple of weeks. It can take several years for blog traffic to build up to your desired numbers. Keep your blog relevant and consistent with blog post themes, which will help readers understand what they can expect from a blog that covers a specific niche or topic. This blog post consistency, in turn, enables Google to find your blog easier because it gives the search engine a better idea of what content to display for a given search query. . Publishing blog posts more often could help your blog get indexed faster in the search engine results pages, but this isn't an instant ticket to increased traffic. New blog articles appear after the web crawlers have updated their databases. It takes time for blog articles to get crawled and indexed so they'll show up in search engine results. However, blog articles that blog more frequently will be crawled and indexed more quickly than blog articles that blog less often. 5. Share Your Posts On Social Media Don't be afraid to ask for social media shares from your audience when they finish reading an article you wrote. This is important because search engines like Google give preference in their algorithms to pages that are highly cited by other websites, or shared on social media networks such as Facebook or Twitter by individuals in your subject matter niche market community. You can do this with an 'ask' in the conclusion of your post or via a pop-up on your website (which will be closed if the user doesn't want to read it) which includes a call-to-action. Writing blog posts is essential for your blogging authority, but it's just as important to be able to tell people to share them – especially if they've enjoyed the article and learned something from it. In addition, blogging authorities who don't ask their audience for anything are missing out on a great opportunity to grow their blogging authority using social media marketing. Remember to use a blogging tool to schedule your asks for social shares on Twitter, Facebook and Google+. This way you can time these asks with an upcoming holiday or event so they have a better chance of being noticed. You should also consider becoming part of forums where your target audience is active – users from these communities are likely to engage in your blogging authority content and share it on their networks, helping you reach new people. Would you like some help starting your small business blog? Contact us and put our team to work on your next blog post idea!

Why Do You Want To Do A Website Redesign? A common customer enquiry is how to go about improving a website or doing a website makeover as cheap as possible, so in this blog post I'll go over some of the more common pitfalls and help keep you on the right path to digital marketing success. Before you begin to redesign your eCommerce website, ask yourself these questions: Why are you redesigning your website? What goals do you hope to achieve with the new web design? Are you trying to increase traffic, improve customer engagement or boost sales? Once you have a goal in mind, it's time to start planning the redesign. This will involve creating a project plan and setting realistic deadlines. I've already written a comprehensive guide to managing your eCommerce project and that's a good starting point if you have no idea what the redesign process involves. It's important to remember that website redesigns can be complicated and time-consuming, so don't try to do too much at once. Break the project down into smaller tasks and set achievable deadlines for each one. Migrating From One eCommerce Platform To Another Suppose you need to move from one eCommerce platform to another because your outdated installation got hacked or the rising maintenance costs of an open-source product are becoming unsustainable. In that case, migration is not as difficult as it sounds. There are many tools available to convert database formats from one shopping cart to another and so moving from Magento to Shopify, for example, is feasible. You will still need to do a lot of planning and preparation to ensure everything goes smoothly, but it's not the prohibitive task you might assume it is. If you need help then call us. Don't Assume That You Have A Broken Website. It's common for businesses to assume that their website is broken and needs a redesign. Maybe the site looks dated, or it's not generating enough organic search engine traffic or conversions. Before you go ahead and launch into a full-blown website redesign project, take some time to assess the situation. Often, all that's needed is a few tweaks to the existing design – a new logo, an updated graphic design or a change in layout – rather than starting from scratch. So before you spend time and money on a complete website overhaul, make sure that you definitely need one. Building successful ecommerce websites can be expensive and time-consuming, so be sure that you're doing it for the right reasons. Don't Make These Common Website Redesign Mistakes. Not using a responsive design: A website that isn't responsive to the size of the screen it's being viewed on. Using too many fonts or font sizes: Too many fonts make a website look unprofessional and hard to read; using too many font sizes makes text either too small or unwieldy large, depending on how many there are. Not using enough white space: White space is the space between elements on a page. Not using enough makes a website look cluttered and hard to read. Using too many images or graphics: Graphics can slow down a website's loading time, and too many can make it look cluttered and unprofessional. Not using clear and concise text: Long blocks of text are hard to read, and can be off-putting to website visitors. Having a cluttered layout: Too many elements on a page can make it hard for website visitors to find what they're looking for. Not using effective calls to action: Calls to action are buttons or links that encourage website visitors to take a specific action, like signing up for a newsletter, buying an item or contacting the website owner. Using calls to action in the right places can dramatically increase conversion rates. Mobile Responsive Websites Get Higher Priority With the rise of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices, website design has become more complex than ever. If your website isn't mobile responsive, you're losing business fast to competitors who are – especially for services that require user interaction like online retail or booking flights/hotels etc. So if you haven't already made your eCommerce website mobile responsive (i.e. it works on all mobile devices), make sure that you take the time to do it right because website design trends are moving in this direction. Your business requires a website people can use anywhere they go. SEO And Website Redesign If you're planning an eCommerce website design, it's important to keep SEO in mind. You don't want to launch a new site that's going to tank in Google search results and lose search engine rankings – or worse, get hit with a penalty from the search engine giant. One of the best ways to avoid potential SEO problems is to set up proper redirects from your existing website to the new one. Visitors who type in your old website address into search engines are automatically redirected to your new site's corresponding page. You can also use redirects for broken links and other 404 errors. Another thing to keep in mind is that you may inadvertently change or delete important pages or files that are ranking well in search results during a website redesign. So it's essential to do a thorough SEO audit of your web content before starting the redesign process. Don't Rush Into An eCommerce Website Design Don't dive headfirst into an eCommerce website design without taking the time to understand the root of the problem. Maybe your eCommerce business isn't performing well in traffic or conversions, but is that a design issue? Or are there other factors at play – such as poor marketing or ineffective copywriting? Before you start planning and designing your new website, take some time to research and analyse what's causing your current site to underperform. Then will you be able to address those issues with the redesign. Have A Clear Vision For What You Want To Accomplish Having a project management plan in place will help keep everyone on track and ensure that the website is completed on time – and within budget. Be sure to factor in website visitors' feedback throughout the eCommerce website redesign process. You want your website's new design to reflect your company's values and meet the needs of your target audience. So get input from stakeholders, employees and customers alike to create a website that truly represents your business. Get Feedback From Customers Before Making Any Decisions The eCommerce website redesign process can be a daunting task, but it's important to remember that you're not alone. There are plenty of people who are more than happy to offer their advice – including your customers. So before you make any decisions about the redesign, reach out to your customers and obtain user feedback. What do they like about the website? What do they want? Is it easy to find what they are looking for. By gathering this information and incorporating it into your redesign plans, you'll create a website that's not only visually appealing but also meets the needs of your target audience. And isn't that what we all want in an eCommerce website? The Key Things To Consider When Redesigning Your Website Include: Understanding your eCommerce websites current performance and addressing any issues Keeping the redesign process streamlined with a project management plan Getting feedback from stakeholders, employees and customers alike Understanding the business objectives Avoiding website design trends that are not feasible for most businesses Test Out Different Designs By Creating Wireframes And Mockups There's no such thing as a one-size-fits-all solution for an eCommerce website. What works for one business might not work for another, so it's essential to test out different web designs before making final decisions. One way to do this is by creating wireframes and mockups – which will give you a better idea of how the website will look and function. By taking the time to test out different designs, you'll be able to find the perfect layout that meets the needs of your target audience and reflects your company's values. So once again, don't rush into anything – make sure to take your time and plan accordingly! Get Your Next Project Off To The Best Possible Start If you're looking for a fresh perspective for your eCommerce site, look no further. We can help you do a complete overhaul of your current website or redesign one section for you. Put our team to work providing the content to make your new eCommerce site more engaging and effective than ever before.

It's not just about the web design, you know. Of course, having a suited and booted website ready to go out on a first date is going to make a fantastic first impression. But there's more to seducing a customer than good looks alone. In this article, I'm going to introduce you to three web design services you can use to stoke the fire and ignite the flames of your fledgling customer relationship. First off, a word about small business website design. Before you go spending thousands of pounds on creating a new small business website, consider that what the customer sees is the tip of the iceberg, and gaining their attention in the first place takes a lot of unnoticed effort. Just as getting ready for your prom date can take hours to make sure everything is ideally in place, making that first impression, whilst essential, is not going to count for much if you can't back it up with some substance in the conversation department. Paying monthly for website design makes complete sense because you are freeing up cash for other, less glamourous, website development services that nevertheless make up an essential part of your customer overture. Here are three small business website design services that will engage your potential clients and stare warmly into their loving eyes. A Regularly Updated Blog Keeping your blog fresh and active is essential for any business website, regardless of the size. It's crucial to include blog posts on your website and integrate with social media because your business website reflects who you are, and for the customer, reading a blog can be like staring into the soul of its creator. Show your visitors that you care by providing the most informative and helpful information. A blog can provide a community for website visitors to interact through the comments section, establishing an online business presence that can boost your small business website traffic and improve your branding. It will also show that you have customers who care about what you do as much as you do. Establish yourself as an expert in your business industry by sharing relevant content - information about trends, updates, events, and other newsworthy topics applicable within your business context. Your business blog can be an effective powerful platform in establishing your business as the go-to company in the appropriate industry. The more quality content you provide about your company, the greater exposure you get. How Often Should I blog? The best way is to start producing one blog post a week and commit to it, which is enough to start gaining traction with search engines and ease you into writing regularly, which can be a bit daunting at first. In today's world, blogging has become one of the most popular ways for businesses - large and small - to market themselves online because blogging is free and easy! If you're interested in blogging but don't know how or where to start, then check out our professional blogging services. Producing A Monthly Newsletter Producing a newsletter for your customers is an excellent way of letting them know about your small business services. There are many benefits to email marketing, and an email newsletter can be a great way of communicating important information and getting your business noticed. A timely topic will help the reader feel like they are receiving something useful, and because it's short and easy to read, it will encourage them to take action before moving on. Because you only have a few seconds for someone to read what you've written, brevity is essential. Every word must work hard: each sentence needs a clear purpose and should be interesting enough that people want to keep reading until the end. You should also include one or two photos to humanise the monthly newsletter and take the time to create a great hero image. Ensure your images are high-resolution and in focus; if you publish anything blurry, your audience will immediately delete it, so don't give them a bad user experience. The monthly newsletter is also a great way to break up any promotional content with helpful information like industry news, tips about how your products could be used (especially for online retailers), or changes in legislation. Many customers prefer to read short articles rather than watch business promotional videos for this reason, so long as you can present everything enough that people understand what's going on without being bored. Promotional content doesn't have to take over the exclusive monthly newsletter either: try using half of each newsletter for marketing material and the other half for regular monthly content. Social Media Marketing Social media marketing may seem like an unnecessary expense for most small businesses, but it can help you stay connected with existing customers and find new ones when used effectively. For example, if you own a children's clothing store, social media can be a great place to show off your adorable clothes and their social media profiles. There's also the opportunity for social commerce - using social media platforms to not only market your brand but sell products as well. For larger companies, social media marketing is even more critical since social networking sites offer ways to connect with your customers on an individual level- something that traditional ads can't do. A great example of this is Oreo, who used social media marketing in 2013 during a power outage at the Super Bowl by tweeting an image of an Oreo cookie with the caption "You can still dunk in the dark." This clever tweet was shared over 15,000 times. It also showed that Oreos were versatile enough to survive a blackout. Whatever social platform your business decides to use, social media marketing can be a great way to connect with customers, build brand awareness and promote new products. To Summarise I've given you three great ways to engage with your customer and begin to tug on the purse strings of their hard-earned cash. Building a website is just the start of a long journey into understanding your customer and pressing their buttons in the right order so that they feel good parting with their money. Any one of these website design services can easily cost more annually than the cost of an initial website design, but that's the price of driving high customer engagement. You can't be the father of the bride and get out of this world without having your wallet emptied.