Monday 30 November 2015

How to Promote Your Business Prior to Launching Your Website


Competition is so tough these days that marketers are not even waiting for the website to go live before starting their marketing blitzkrieg. And we simply can’t blame the marketers given the fact that it takes really long time to design and develop a website and to make it live on the web. First we have to plan it out in plain pen and paper, and then do some wire framing, making changes in the PSD template, editing the HTML files and so on. It is a time consuming process.

So, what are you going to do? Nobody likes the idea of paying online marketers for doing nothing till the website gets live. Believe us, you don’t have to. There is something you can do to promote your business online even if the website is not ready. Just design and develop a Coming Soon page for your website.

Coming Soon page is far better than featuring a blank page or a generic template developed by your web hosting company. The good thing about this Coming Soon page is that it does not take long time to design and develop. The idea behind this is very simple – creating a buzz for the brand even before the website gets live on the web. The purpose of a Coming Soon Page is to give the users some clues as to what to expect when the final version of the website gets live. It encourages the audience to interact with your brand and to become a subscriber just to get to know what the website has in store for them.

Some websites use Coming Soon page to encourage people to be a part of its beta program but in majority of cases, companies add a ‘Subscribe’ button so that people can be notified when the final version of the website gets launched.

Now, there are few factors that you need to take into consideration before you start designing a Coming Soon page for your website. Allow us explain them to you –

Focus On Brand

Since your website is in development stage, we can assume that you have some elements of the design ready or at least are agreed upon. For example, if the logo is ready or if the designer has selected a color scheme for the final design, you can start building something around it. Use the color scheme, logo or the font type while creating the Coming Soon page. This will help you make people familiar with the brand. When the final version will go live, this familiarity will help people relate the new design with the design of the Coming Soon page. This will give your marketing campaign a huge fillip.

Curiosity

You want people to talk about your brand right? Of course you want but making people talk about your brand is a tough thing to achieve. However, this is not an impossible feat by any means. You just need to add some elements of curiosity in the design of the Coming Soon page that will make people think about it or at least talk about it. For example, if you are trying to sell a new washing machine via your website, a message like this – ‘Tired of washing cloth? We have Something Revolutionary for You. Sign up to get notified. ‘A simple and intriguing message like this is enough to make people feel curious about your brand.

Give Them Some Hints

When people land on the Coming Soon Page, you need to give them some sorts of hints about the upcoming product or the project. Just using a gorgeous background image with some random texts like – ‘This is a Coming Soon Page’ is not going to help the people understand what the page is all about. Why should they care about a page that does not give any information about the upcoming website? They will simply ignore it and you should not let this happen. However, we are not asking you to spill the beans but you need to give them some sort of information otherwise they might not feel interested about the Coming Soon page. Like for example, if you are launching a new book, you might consider adding some paras of it to generate interest of the people.

Keep Them Updated

People will not be visiting the Coming Soon page every day and that means, you need add a Subscribe button that will allow people to get updates about the product or the website. However, there are no fixed rules as to how many times you need to send emails to keep them updated. Maybe sending one or two mails before the final version of the website gets live is a good idea. Don’t push it too hard. Just keep it simple.

Don’t Forget the SEO

It is fact that Coming Soon pages are not likely to rank high as they don’t contain much information. But that should not stop you from making the Coming Soon page a bit search engine friendly. Make sure that you have included Meta data and the also make sure that you have not blocked anything via robots.txt file. Don’t stuff too many keywords in the page because search engines would consider that an attempt to inflate the ranking of the website artificially and therefore, it can get penalized.

So, these are some aspects of Coming Soon Page design that you need to remain aware of.

Distributed by PX Media

Media Contact

Company Name: PX Media
Contact Person: Douglas
Email: douglas@pxmediainc.com
Phone: (626) 390-1082
City: Pasadena
State: CA

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Thursday 26 November 2015

How to Promote Your Business Prior to Launching Your Website



Competition is so tough these days that marketers are not even waiting for the website to go live before starting their marketing push.

We simply can’t blame the marketers given the fact that it takes a really long time to design and develop a viable website. Most important is to have a good plan, and then do some wire framing, making changes to the template, editing the code files and so on. It is a time consuming process. 

So, what are you going to do? Nobody likes the idea of paying online marketers for doing nothing till the website goes live. Believe us, you don’t have to. There is something you can do to promote your business online even if the website is not ready. Just design and develop a Coming Soon page for your website

Coming Soon page is far better than featuring a blank page or a generic template developed by your web hosting company. The good thing about this Coming Soon Page is that it does not take long time to design or develop. The idea behind this is very simple – creating a buzz for the brand. The purpose of a Coming Soon Page is to give the users a good idea as to what to expect when the final version of the website goes live. It encourages the audience to interact with your brand and to become a subscriber just to get to know what the website has in store for them. 

Some websites use Coming Soon Page to encourage people to be a part of its beta program but in majority of cases, companies add a ‘Subscribe’ form so that people can be notified when the final version of the website gets launched.
Now, there are few factors that you need to take into consideration before you start designing a Coming Soon Page for your website. Allow us to explain them to you:

Focus On Brand

Since your website is in development stage, we can assume that you have some elements of the design ready or at least have already agreed upon. For example, if the logo is ready or if the designer has selected a color scheme for the final design, you can start building something around it. Use the color scheme, logo or the font type while creating the Coming Soon Page. This will help you make people familiar with the brand. When the final version will go live, this familiarity will help people relate the new design with the design of the Coming Soon Page. This will give your marketing campaign a great start.

Curiosity

You want people to talk about your brand right? Of course but getting people to talk about your brand can be a difficult thing to achieve. However, this is not an impossible feat by any means. You just need to add some elements of curiosity in the design of the Coming Soon Page that will make people think about it or at least talk about it. For example, if you are trying to sell a new washing machine via your website, a call-to-action like this – ‘Tired of washing clothes? We have Something Revolutionary for You. Sign up to get notified.’ A simple and intriguing message like this is enough to make people feel curious about your brand. Be sure its big and bold with an obvious button to click on.

Give Them Some Hints

When people land on the Coming Soon Page, you need to give them some sort of hints about the upcoming product or the project. Just using a gorgeous background image with some random texts like – ‘This is a Coming Soon Page’ is not going to help the people understand what the page is all about. Why should they care about a page that does not give any information about the upcoming website? They will simply ignore it. You should not let this happen. However, we are not asking you to spill the beans but you need to give them some sort of information otherwise they might not feel interested about the Coming Soon Page. Like for example, if you are launching a new book, you might consider adding some paras of it to generate interest of the people. Its all about first impressions and perception. Give them something to think about like a thoughtful tag-line.

Keep Them Updated

People will not be visiting the Coming Soon Page every day and that means, you need to add a Subscribe call-to-action that will allow people to get updates about the product or the website. However, there is no fixed rule as to how many times you need to send emails to keep them updated. Maybe sending one or two emails before the final version of the website gets live is a good idea. Don’t push it too hard. Just keep it simple.

Don’t Forget the SEO

It is a fact that Coming Soon Pages are not likely to rank high as they don’t contain much information. But that should not stop you from making the it a bit search engine friendly. Make sure that you have included Meta data and the also make sure that you have not blocked anything via the robots.txt file. Don’t stuff too many keywords in the page because search engines would consider that an attempt to inflate the ranking of the website artificially and therefore, it can get penalized.
Plan your Plan and remember these aspects of a Coming Soon Page design. Good-luck with your new website.

Distributed by PX Media

Media Contact
Company Name: PX Media
Contact Person: Douglas
Phone: (626) 390-1082
Address:742 N Mentor Ave, 
City: Pasadena
State: CA
Country: United States

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Friday 6 November 2015

How to Increase Your Conversion Rate

Just having a great design is not the end of the job. In fact, if you browse the web for a while, you will realize the fact that there are hundreds of seemingly ‘perfect’ websites available but, the problem is, a vast majority of them are failing miserably to convert a single visitor on a regular basis.

As obvious, the purpose of a website is to make it easier for people to connect to the brand. But sadly, there are some websites that are doing just the opposite. They make it tough, if not impossible for the visitors to browse the websites properly and send an email.

What good is a website if it fails to encourage people to send you an email via the Contact Form, get subscribed to the newsletter or buy some products? No matter how many visitors your website is drawing on a regular basis, it would not matter much with an abysmal conversion rate. To make your marketing efforts get reflected in the revenue graph, you need to master the art of conversion optimization at any cost.

The growth of your business is invariably associated with the ability of your website to convince and eventually convert the visitors into customers. Failure to do so will result in the untimely demise of your business.

Now, the thing is, increasing the conversion rate of a website is not as complicated as it cracks up to be. In fact, a good designer is supposed to be aware of what encourages a visitor to perform a certain task. But sadly not all web designers are not aware of these marketing tricks. Don’t get depressed though. If you have no idea how to enhance the conversion rate of your website because here in this article, we are going to let you know the ‘secrets’ of conversion rate optimization. In case, you are finding it overwhelmingly difficult, you can contact a Pasadena based web Design Company who knows how to design and develop a conversion oriented website.


Simplifying the Buying Process


If you are an owner of an ecommerce store, you have to ensure that the visitors are not facing any kind of difficulties while trying to purchase products. By incentivizing the buying process, you will be able to convert more people. For example, some ecommerce stores tend to offer – ‘Free Shipping’ whenever a buyer makes a purchase of a certain amount. This type of incentive encourages people to make a quick buying decision in the favor of the online store.

Don’t force people to sign up while they are trying to purchase products from your store. Since an increasing number of people are browsing websites from their mobile devices, it would be tough for them to sign up because of its small screen size of the mobile devices. Therefore, there should be an option like – ‘Guest Checkout’. This will fix this issue.

Don’t confuse the visitors with too many options. It is a fact that too many options act as a deterrent rather than catalyst in the conversion path. The rule of thumb is that there should not be more than 3 options at a given time. You can confirm this rule by contacting any graphic Design Company in Los Angeles.


Call to Action


Visitors should not feel lost on a landing page. There should be specific instructions as to what you want them to do. For example, if you want them to purchase a product, the page should have a ‘Buy Now’ button. Similarly, if you want them to get subscribed to your newsletter, you need to include a pop up or Lightbox asking people to enter their email address to get subscribed.

However, you should not go too far with the concept of Call to Action because the presence of too many Call to Action buttons would only lead to confusion and the visitors will lose their concentration. This may result in lower conversion rate. Pasadena based Web Design companies are aware of this issue and which is why they are offering low cost conversion oriented design service.


Increase Trust Value

There are probably hundreds of websites available that are offering almost many of the same services. Then why on earth, should a visitor put his trust on your website? This is a valid question and you need to have an answer for that. The only way to convince the visitors that you are a leader in the domain is by adding some trust signs or seals like for example - VeriSign.

  If you have published some articles in leading journals like – NYTimes, CNN, Vice News etc, you should feature those articles/news in the landing or home pages. This will help you win the trust of the visitors. If possible, link to those articles or news from the landing or home pages.

  Have you hired someone whose profile really stands out or who is quite well known to the public? In that case, you have got a golden opportunity to promote the trustworthiness of your brand. Feature the profile of that person in the About Us section of the website to boost the confidence level of the visitors.

  By adding testimonials of your former clients, you will be able to add credibility to your website. The testimonials should be followed by the head shots of the clients to make them appear genuine.

  Another way you can make your organization appear trustworthy is by including some pictures of your employees in actions. By including some pictures of your office on the website, you will be able to make a point that your business does exist and it is a legitimate one.


Eliminate Distractions

The journey of a customer from the landing page to the Check Out page should be frictionless as much as possible. Buyers are finicky in nature and they tend to get distracted all the time. Therefore, your design should not be adding more distractions in that path as this would lead to Shopping Cart Abandonment – a term that casts terror in the hearts of the marketers.

You can start the elimination process by identifying the distractions on the web page. First try to figure out which design elements are not serving any purpose. Then start removing them but make sure that you are not making any sacrifice on the creativity front.


Focus on USP

Without having a clearly defined USP, (an acronym for Unique Selling Point), your website will not be able to seize the attention of the targeted audience. To put in layman’s words – USP is what sets your business apart from rest of the others. It can be anything like – Free Shipping, $50 Discount or A Hassle-free Return Policy.

Make sure that the USP of your organization gets maximum attention otherwise you will not see any major changes in the conversion rate of the website. USP informs and educates the audience about the benefits of buying your products or opting for the service that you are offering. Without it, people would have to spend considerable amount of time and energy to figure out the benefits of the products that you are offering. Since most people are lazy, they might think otherwise and decide to browse the websites of your competitors. So, the USP of the organization needs to get the attention that it deserves.

A/B Testing

You should not be satisfied with the existing conversion rate of your landing pages. You have to be bold and brave and start doing A/B testing. A/B testing is a process where you serve two different sets of a landing page to a group of targeted audience and then observe which version of the landing page is performing better. The design does not have to be entirely different from one another at all. Sometimes a minor change like changing the position of Call to Action texts is enough to trigger higher conversion. Based on the outcome, you will select the high performing version and this will definitely help you increase the conversion rate of the website.

So, these are some tactics that you need to implement in your marketing mix to see higher conversion rate from your website.

Distributed by PX Media


Media Contact

Company Name: PX Media
Contact Person: Doug
Email: douglas@pxmediainc.com
Phone: (626) 390-1082
Address: 742 N Mentor Ave,
City: Pasadena
State: CA
Country: United States
Website: www.pxmediainc.com

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