Rebranding your company may sound intimidating, but it is nothing to be afraid of. Most of the major brands and industry leaders have overhauled their image at one point or another—from McDonald’s to Instagram to the Huffington Post.

Rebranding can happen for a number of reasons. Maybe the company needs to re-establish its place in the market, or reflect a major new acquisition. Maybe there’s new technology to show off, or new industry trends to follow. Maybe the old brand has received criticism for previous mistakes, and needs to cool off for a while.

The fact is that times change, style changes, and consumer expectations change. If your company has been around long enough, chances are it will need to evolve and adapt to the latest trends if it is going to be successful.

Undergoing a rebranding can be a time-intensive process depending on your company size, marketing assets and the resources available for the process. If it’s time for your brand get a makeover, here are five important steps you don’t want to miss.

1. Think Carefully About Why You’re Rebranding
What do you hope to gain? What are the risks of walking away from an established brand? Do you have other options that might be easier? Rebranding takes time and money to do well—and should not be entered into lightly. Make sure you do thorough research before initiating a rebranding, including internal research.

2. Get Buy-In From The Top
The CEO and executive leadership of your company should be directly involved from the beginning, and should ideally be leading the initiative and providing a strong vision for the project. They’re going to be involved at some point: it’s better for that to be sooner rather than later.

3. Talk With Customers and Stakeholders
Talk to customers—yours, and other people’s—as well as industry partners to work out your brand strategy. Ask about how people perceive your organization’s strengths and weaknesses. Find out what frustrates them, what they need, and what obstacles stop them from working with you. Such information will help you position strategy and messaging that will help you thrive in your market.

4. Overcommunicate
Hammer home the new brand strategy. Share it in ways that prompt people to directly experience it. Continually lay it out through regular workplace communication and training. Make it part of engagement activities. Make sure the message gets through.

5. Find The Right Partner

If you’re thinking about rebranding, you’ll need a partner who understands that brand strategy is a business strategy, and can show deep experience melding the two goals. Remember: you’ll need to make sure your business pursuits are aligned with your brand. Rebranding only to fall short of your new promises is worse than not rebranding at all. If you want to make sure you are hitting all your goals, you should look for a digital marketing agency that can not only help you change your brand image but your online presence and processes as well. Approaching the project from this holistic perspective will help ensure your rebranding is a triumphant success.

Stay tuned for Part Two: 5 Mistakes to Avoid When Rebranding Your Company

Questions about how content marketing and web design strategies could elevate your brand and improve your bottom line? Schedule a consultation with one of our digital strategists by clicking here.

The digital revolution has allowed many companies and individuals to move past the format of trading their time and effort for money and into more passive and scalable income stream structures. 

The sports coaching industry is no different. This lucrative industry is expected to grow by $9 billion over the next four years, yet many trainers feel they have hit a financial plateau—whether they are self-employed or work for a sports training company. 

Last week, ATX Web Designs founder Daniel Griggs was featured in a Forbes article titled Sports Trainers: Monetize Your Knowledge and shared advice for coaches and trainers who are looking to scale their business and grow exponentially. The article explains some of the steps needed to create a digital platform that will turn knowledge and experience into profit.

These steps include:

​​1. Create content tiers. It is important to match your digital content to your audience. If you’re looking to monetize your knowledge for an online audience, you will need to identify audience segments and create tiers of content that apply to each one. For example, a college athlete needs a different approach than a mother of four young children.

2. Progress your audience over time. In the sports training world, people like to see results. One of the advantages of a digital platform is the ability to showcase and adapt to your audiences’ growth. Incorporating various levels of training and utilizing online self-assessments or even live video assessments are ways to create measurable results. 

3. Use existing platforms. There is no need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to creating and sharing online content. Platforms like Teachable, Podia and Thinkific are valuable tools for content creators and educators. You can even leverage social media platforms such as Instagram or TikTok to provide value for your audience and engage them in your marketing funnel. 

To read the full article,click here.

Instagram is not only a free tool for small businesses, it is an extremely powerful one. There are 1.4 billion users on the photo-based social media platform who spend about 30 minutes every day scrolling through content. About 200 million Instagram users visit a business profile at least once a day, while 130 million click to learn more about businesses’ products and services. 

Running a small business requires the ability to multitask and wear many hats. While large corporations have teams of people researching, posting and responding on social media platforms, small companies don’t always have the time to prioritize engaging on apps like Instagram. Unfortunately, this means that many small businesses miss out on the significant opportunities Instagram offers for building brand awareness, generating new leads, and even making sales. 

If you are a small- or medium-sized-business owner and aren’t able to dedicate a lot of time to social media management, here are a few tips to help you keep up with the trends and get the most bang for your buck when you are able to post. 

1. Optimize the link in bio. Make sure you include a link in your Instagram bio that takes users to an important page of your website. This should either be your homepage, a marketing landing page or your shop/services page.
2. Schedule your posts. Save yourself time and energy by scheduling your posts in advance. This will also ensure you are able to post consistently and produce fresh content for your followers. You can schedule posts through free features like Business Suite or upgrade to a paid post scheduler like Buffer  or Hootsuite for a more streamlined experience.
3. Interact with your followers. Consumers are more likely to purchase and promote brands that interact with them on social media. Set aside a day or two each week to respond to comments and questions so you can show your followers that you are active and engaged.
4. Utilize videos and reels. Video “reels” and video posts are some of the most popular content on Instagram. Posting a video about your company, product, or services will give potential customers an experience of your brand that they can’t get through photos or text alone. Consumers are more likely to visualize themselves using a product or service when they see it in action via a video.
5. Track your analytics. Instagram and other social media sites offer users data about posts, followers and engagement. By viewing your insights and analytics you will be able to gather useful information, such as which types of posts get the most engagement and when your followers are most active. This information will help you maximize your social media efforts.

Follow our blog for more digital marketing tips!

If you run a product-based business or e-commerce store, every piece of information on your website is critical—including your product descriptions. Many companies overlook their product descriptions, believing the product photos will speak for themselves. However, product descriptions can be invaluable for both SEO (bringing users to your site) and engagement (getting users to interact with or buy your products).

Here are 7 ways to create better product descriptions so that your audience is informed, engaged, and persuaded to purchase.

1. Make it accurate. It may seem obvious, but making sure your product description preciscely matches the product itself will help improve sales and brand image. About 50% of consumers have returned a product because it didn’t match the description.
2. Make it easy. Users want to gather as much information about your product in as little time as possible. Use short sentences, bullet points, and clearly delineated sections to help website visitors quickly scan the text while simultaneously being fully informed.
3. Get creative. Generic, boring product descriptions inform the user, but don’t necessarily create more engagement. Try infusing your write-ups with a pop of personality, humor, or a conversational tone tailored to your specific target demographic.
4. Benefits over features. Consumers are more persuaded by the benefits of a product than they are by the specifics of a product’s features. In your product descriptions, make sure you mention how this particular item will benefit someone’s life and solve their pain points.
5. Describe an experience. Help your audience imagine what it would be like to hold, wear, or use your product with descriptive language that sparks their imagination. If you can picture yourself using a product, you are more likely to purchase it.
6. Give examples or suggestions for use. By suggesting ways to incorporate your product into everyday life, you will provide your audience with clear examples of how useful and valuable your product is.
7. Collect data. The best way to know if your product descriptions are working is to track your website traffic and conversions to determine how well your e-commerce page or product page is converting. If something isn’t performing well, it’s time to make some adjustments.

Questions about how content marketing and web design strategies could elevate your brand and improve your bottom line? Schedule a consultation with one of our digital strategists by clicking here.

Millennials may be criticized for being entitled, self-focused, and spending $7 a day on expensive coffee, but they are also invaluable to your business—no matter what the industry. For all the flack they receive from older and more experienced generations, they have the power to make or break many brands.

Whether you offer a product or a service, are a large corporation or a small startup, here are three reasons your company should be focused on marketing to millennials:

1. They represent the largest demographic
   Millennials are projected to overtake Baby Boomers as the largest living generation this year, according to The Pew Research Center. Although there is some variation in the definition of the millennial generation, it is generally understood to be adults in their early twenties to late thirties. As young immigrants join this demographic, the population is expected to rise to a peak of 76.2 million by 2036.
2. They have enormous spending potential
   The average millennial earns about $56,000 before taxes each year and will likely spend upwards of $10 trillion within his or her lifetime. Collectively, this generation has upwards of $1.4 trillion in spending potential, making it the most powerful consumer demographic.
3. They can market your product and help build credibility
   If your company appeals to millennials in the right way, you can not only win their business but can also take advantage of word-of-mouth marketing and referrals. Social media channels are a common platform for millennials to share reviews and advocate for their favorite brands. A Boston Consulting Group Study found that 39 percent of millennials post product reviews, 35 percent share product links on LinkedIn, and 32 percent follow brands on Twitter. Winning over a single millennial customer could also mean winning over a group of their peers.

Questions about how content marketing and web design strategies could elevate your brand and improve your bottom line? Schedule a consultation with one of our digital strategists by clicking here.

Nearly 75% of individuals looking for an attorney begin their search online, 98% use a search engine and more than 70% visit a law firm’s website before making a decision, according to the National Law Review. That means it is critical for legal practices to have an effective digital strategy that will meet the demands of audiences in 2021.

In August, ATX Web Designs Founder Daniel Griggs was featured in an Forbes article titled The Best Website Strategies for Law Firms in 2021. The article discusses ways attorneys and law firms can optimize their online presence, reach more potential clients and grow their practices.

Some of the strategies recommended in the article included:

​​1. Make sure you own your website. If you don’t have 100% ownership of your law firm website, you could be losing business. It may seem tempting to hire a template-based web design company that can plug your law firm’s information into an existing website design, but this approach can prevent you from customizing your website and tailoring it to your target demographic.

2. Invest in SEO. Consumers in 2021 like to do their own research when determining the best products and services for them. An individual who is going to invest in legal services will likely use a search engine such as Google and scan through multiple websites before deciding on one they like. It is important that your website is search-engine-optimized so it appears on the first page of search engine results.

3. Employ mobile-first design. Consumers today are much more likely to use a mobile phone to search online and access websites than they are to use a desktop computer. The mobile experience should be the first priority in establishing a credible and engaging online presence for your law firm.

To read the full article, click here.

 Questions about how content marketing and web design strategies could elevate your brand and improve your bottom line? Schedule a consultation with one of our digital strategists by clicking here.

Video is a powerful tool for increasing brand awareness and engagement. In fact, more than 50 percent of marketers say video helps them build trust with their audience. Right now, video-based apps like TikTok are skyrocketing in popularity as are the video functions of social media platforms, such as Instagram’s reels. Studies have shown that more than 45 percent of consumers will react or convert after watching a video.

There is a right way and a wrong way to use video in your digital marketing efforts. If done correctly, video marketing can lead to incredible growth for your company. However, the propensity for videos to “go viral” can be a blessing and a curse. Earlier this year, the CIA released a recruitment video that spread like wildfire on the internet and not in a good way. The piece received ridicule and backlash for being “overly woke” and trying too hard to reach the Millennial and Generation Z demographics.

Here are 5 tips for using video content to connect with your online audience effectively:

1. Be real. One of the issues with the CIA video was its keyword stuffing and forced trendiness, which came across as inauthentic and gimmicky. It’s important that your videos feel real and personal to your audience so they feel they are connecting to the ethos of your brand.
2. Provide value. Your videos shouldn’t just be about pitching your business to your audience. Make sure you are offering real value as well. If you decide to produce video ads, mix it up with video content that is informative, helpful or humorous.
3. Vary your approach. It is important to use a number of different approaches to video content to see what really resonates with your audience. You can try short form videos, long form videos, interactive videos, and more to reach peak engagement.
4. Use high quality tech. Video quality standards have gone up in recent years. Even small social media influencers use professional lighting, tripods, and high-quality lenses to capture their footage. A low quality video might turn off a viewer before they even see what your content is about.
5. Add subtitles. Many people browse social media sites and websites on their phone with the volume turned down. In addition, some audience members may be hearing impaired.  Adding subtitles to your videos will ensure you are having the maximum possible reach.

 Questions about how content marketing and web design strategies could elevate your brand and improve your bottom line? Schedule a consultation with one of our digital strategists by clicking here.

The average consumer sees between 6,000 and 10,000 ads in a day. Being constantly inundated with paid content means that it has become easier and easier for people to tune out online advertisements. Studies have found that most individuals see an ad seven times before they engage with it.

Social media ads can be a great way to generate leads, convert new customers, and raise brand awareness. However, creating effective social media ad campaigns is both an art and a science, and it takes a lot of time and energy to craft something that will actually have an impact.

There are many strategies and techniques that can help your social ads reach more people and generate more engagement. But the biggest secret to creating an effective social media ad is understanding your audience and their values.

At the end of the day, people don’t purchase a product or service for the product or service itself. Instead, they are hoping that their purchase will meet some sort of internal value or need. These values can include things like health, safety, self expression, adventure and peace. Understanding these motivators and learning how to talk about them to your audience is the key to generating good social media ads. Anything less runs the risk of being irrelevant to your audience at best and losing their business at worse.

Here are three steps to understanding and targeting your audience’s values:

1. Create a customer persona. If you haven’t already, create a customer persona for your ideal audience. Break down their lifestyle, their habits, their background, and most importantly the problem they are trying to solve. This will help you better identify their core values.

2. Identify your motivating keywords. Different keywords and calls-to-action will appeal to different audiences. Make sure you are using the right words for your target customer. For example, an individual who is seeking adventure or self-expression might be motivated by keywords such as “discover,” “create” or “experience.” However, someone who is seeking relaxation or ease might be more motivated by terms like “enjoy,” “deserve,” “get.”

3. Experiment. Social media ads are all about experimentation. What your audience wants might change over time, so it is important to collect as much data as possible on how they’re interacting with your current post and ads. Double down on what seems to be working and don’t get too attached to your pet campaigns. Remember that these ads are about your audience, not your own personal taste and style.

Questions about how content marketing and web design strategies could elevate your brand and improve your bottom line? Schedule a consultation with one of our digital strategists by clicking here.

One of the best ways to increase website traffic for your business is through search engine optimization, or SEO, which improves the chances someone will organically find your website through an internet search. The higher a company ranks in search engine result listings for specific keywords, the more likely a user is to find that company’s website.

Google and other search engines use algorithms to determine which websites are most relevant to a user’s search query. There are a number of strategies that companies can use to make those algorithms work in their favor. However, because the digital world is constantly changing and evolving, it is important to stay up to date on the best SEO practices and how to implement them.

There is a lot of misinformation circulating about what is effective when it comes to SEO. This is mainly a result of certain standards and practices becoming outdated over the years as search engines become faster and better at identifying what users want and need.

Here are seven common myths about SEO to watch out for:

1. More keywords = better. While it is important to include relevant keywords in your copy, it can be detrimental to use too many. This is known as keyword stuffing and some search engines might penalize you for it.
2. Social media shares will impact SEO. It is always a good idea to create content that is easy to share on social media, however likes and shares on sites like Facebook don’t directly translate to a better search engine ranking.
3. Headers must contain keywords. Most experts would recommend including relevant keywords in your main site header, but it’s not necessary to stuff keywords into all your site header tags throughout the page.
4. Your domain name affects your ranking. Relevant and easy-to-understand domain names can help you build your brand, but a domain name that is too generic or contains too many keywords may appear less credible to users and may therefore negatively affect website traffic and ranking.
5. Meta tags should contain all keywords. Meta tags are useful because they tell search engines what your page is about and can entice users to click on a link. However Google doesn’t use the meta tag for ranking purposes, so stuffing keywords in the meta tags will probably do more harm than good.
6. It’s all about the words. Ranking high on search engine results is about more than the words you use in your tags and page content. It’s also about how well you engage users once they land on your site. If most users click on your website from a list of search engine results, only to quickly leave and return to the results to choose another option, it can negatively impact your future ranking.
7. You can get penalized for duplicate content. Duplicate content can confuse search engines because they don’t know which page to prioritize on search engine results. However, you will not be penalized for having duplicate content.

The click-through rate for Google Ads is less than 2%, and the click-through rate for Facebook ads is less than 1%. In today’s digitally competitive environment, that means your SEO strategy needs to be foolproof in order to attract new leads and customers online.

Ready to take your marketing to the next level? Let’s talk.

The largest consumer generation is entering its prime spending years, has a collective $600 billion in spending power, and is redefining the way we do digital branding and marketing.

We’re talking about millennials. Marketers have had their eye on millennials—or adults ages 23 to 38—for years and are paying close attention to this generation’s digital habits to understand how best to reach them in the oversaturated online space.

Millennials browse the internet on their phones three times as much as they do on desktop computers or laptops. That means websites today don’t just need to be developed with mobile browsing in mind, they need to prioritize mobile. In fact, experts recommend that service providers consider creating a custom mobile app to serve the needs of their customers instead of relying solely on the mobile version of their website.

Not all apps are created equal, however. There are several best practices that will help ensure your mobile app is millennial friendly and will meet the expectations and standards of this massive consumer demographic.

To upgrade your mobile app experience, consider the following strategies:

1. Streamline your login process. Accessing your app should be as quick and easy as possible while still maintaining high security standards. Login screens should be simple and intuitive with limited text or advertising content.
2. Reduce friction. The app user experience should be a seamless flow with no sticking points that make the user pause, stall or wonder “now what?”. Methods to reduce friction include eliminating extraneous steps, simplifying forms, reducing pop-ops and incorporating built-in suggestions.
3. Improve visual flow. The more your app design caters to the millennial aesthetic, the more likely this demographic is to trust your brand and engage with your content. Millennials tend to favor unique typography, large font, generous use of white space and interactive graphics.
4. Offer 24/7 support. Millennials expect prompt responses to support questions. Preempting questions through FAQ sections and offering round-the-clock support through features such as chatbots can keep millennial users engaged and happy.
5. Get a mobile app audit. A mobile app audit is a comprehensive review that will help determine whether you are reaching your target audiences in the most efficient and effective way possible.

Business owners have more options than ever when it comes to creating their own websites. What once required extensive coding and programming knowledge can now be accomplished through a drag-and-drop visual tool. However, while template-based and DIY websites are becoming more popular, they can also open businesses up to significant security risks.

Daniel Griggs, founder and CEO of ATX Web Designs, discusses some of these risks in an article recently published in Forbes, Is Your Small Business Website Secure?. The article outlines some of the common ways that hackers can infiltrate a small business website as well as some of the steps business owners can take to secure their sites.

These include:

• Upgrading to a secure server with an SSL certificate. If you collect private information from site users, you need a hypertext transfer protocol secure (HTTPS), which prevents the interception of data. Additionally, SSL will encrypt information so that it cannot be breached.
• Requiring complex passwords. Requiring all users to use complex passwords when signing into your site will help prevent their accounts from being hacked. For example, you can require users to use a combination of uppercase letters, lowercase letters and special characters in their passwords.
• Putting a firewall in place. Firewalls can block duplicate internet protocol (IP) addresses automatically, which prevents spammers and hackers from registering multiple accounts from the same computer.
• Using custom coding. Unfortunately, website templates built through CMS like WordPress can be more susceptible to hacking. Custom coding is much more difficult to breach.
• Updating plugins. Failing to update your software and plugins can result in security vulnerabilities and issues on your website.

To read the full article on the Forbes website, click here.

Questions about how content marketing and web design strategies could elevate your brand and improve your bottom line? Schedule a consultation with one of our digital strategists by clicking here.

Solopreneurs—or entrepreneurs who run a business on their own—are on the rise in the United States, numbering more than 40 million. Whether by choice or by necessity, solopreneurs wear every hat in their company, from CEO to accountant to customer service representative to marketing rep.

As busy people who are often operating on a tight budget, solopreneurs and small business owners sometimes overlook the importance of marketing their product or service in the digital space. There is a common misconception that digital marketing requires a large financial investment, so many solopreneurs see strong branding as a luxury rather than a necessity.

Regardless of the size of your business or ad budget, you can build a brand of your own. You may not be a Coca Cola, but you can still think about your message and how you want people to remember your service or product.

Here are three branding tips for solopreneurs that won’t break the bank.

1. Create an emotional experience. Branding has largely to do with the type of emotional experience you create for customers and potential customers. How do you want your audience to feel? Safe? Excited? Elite? Entertained? Use this emotional experience to determine everything from the look and feel of your logo to the tone you use on your website and social media posts.
2. Make it personal. Two advantages solopreneurs and small businesses have over larger competitors are personality and personalized attention. By making personal connections with customers and giving your digital content a strong personality, you can develop a strong brand that users are eager to follow and engage. Be sure to reinforce your brand personality across multiple platforms (such as website, social media and printed materials).
3. Use keywords. What terms or words perk your audience’s attention? What phrases do potential customers use to search the internet for the type of product or service you offer? By honing in on keywords you can achieve a better search engine ranking and more effectively engage your target audience.

You may not have a $250,00 ad budget, but as a solopreneur, you can still work on building organic traffic and generating attention for your brand. This, in turn, will lead to more leads, sales and brand loyalty.

The old saying tells us that “the customer is always right,” and successful brands know that there is a lot of wisdom in putting the customer first. After all, the reason your company exists is to provide a solution for some sort of problem that your customer has.

In the business world, the term “pain point” refers to a specific problem that your target audience is experiencing. It is the reason they are looking to your company (or your competitors) for a particular product or service. However, it is easy for businesses to get the pain point wrong or misunderstand what will really engage a target audience member and convert prospects into loyal customers.

This is because the obvious, surface-level pain point does not always address the core customer motivation. To really understand motivation, we have to understand that every human has a core set of psychological needs—such as safety, connection, respect, autonomy and freedom—and that products and services are simply ways to meet those needs.

For example, when John subscribes to a meal catering service, it’s not just because he wants to eat delicious food (although that might be part of the motivation). He subscribes to a meal service because he values his free time and autonomy and doesn’t want to spend hours cooking in the kitchen every week. His pain point is likely a lack of freedom and flexibility in his schedule or perhaps feeling overworked and overwhelmed.

By speaking to this hidden pain point, a meal service is much more likely to get John’s attention and convert him into a loyal customer.

To discover your customers’ hidden pain point, start with the obvious pain point and ask yourself what motivations might lie underneath. Then survey your target demographic and create audience personas so that you can confirm your predictions and narrow in on the core needs and desires your brand fulfills.

What value does your business offer?

Many entrepreneurs and business owners are accustomed to talking about the Unique Value Proposition (UVP) of their business. A UVP, also called a Unique Selling Proposition, essentially describes the benefits your company offers and how you differ from the competition. While it can be very useful to define your UVP, there is another way to think about business value.

Customers don’t actually buy products or services for the products and services themselves. This might seem like a bizarre statement, but it’s true. Customers purchase things that will meet a core, underlying need or desire for them, and these needs and desires are tied to the customer’s value system.

In other words, Jim doesn’t subscribe to a laundry service because he needs his laundry done. He subscribes because he values time and freedom—two things he will have more of if he outsources his laundry to a company. Similarly, Jill doesn’t buy a name brand purse because she needs a bag to hold her items. She likely purchases it because she values the respect and feeling of importance she will feel owning a designer handbag.

Coca Cola is a great example of value-based marketing. Coke commercials rarely try to sell soda. Instead, they sell a feeling of community, togetherness, and happiness. Their marketing motto is “creating brand value through content excellence,” and their campaigns certainly reflect that statement. For instance, the Share a Coke campaign encouraged customers to share a Coca Cola with a person whose name was written on the side of the bottle. Not only did this campaign produce viral video content, but it traded on the individual consumer’s personal connections to boost sales.

Companies that know the deeper value of their product in addition to the top level, immediate benefits can market and sell their brand far more effectively. Identifying and targeting core customer values and needs is the key to convincing them to invest in your product or service.

“Sustainable growth” has become a popular phrase in the business world. Startups and small businesses in particular are focused on scaling their companies quickly yet dependably. After all, a company that grows too quickly without the proper structure and processes in place might risk burnout or the inability to match supply to demand. On the other hand, a company that grows too slowly may lose momentum and squander all its capital.

Digital technology has allowed for the exponential growth of small businesses, particularly in online spaces. The startup trend reflects just how easy it is to launch a venture with limited capital and grow it steadily in a short period of time.

However, scaling a small business sustainably is easier said than done. There are many pitfalls and challenges that entrepreneurs and small business owners face. Without proper guidance and strategy, they may find their company either stagnating or becoming unstable.

Here are five best practices for scaling a small business in a way that will encourage reliable growth for years to come.

1. Focus on the problem you are solving. At the most basic level your product or service presents a creative solution to a common problem. Whenever you’re planning a new step for your company, you should keep this problem at the top of your mind. What is best for your customers and what will make their lives easier? Keep your audience in the center of your business decisions.
2. Start small. Before you worry about developing every single bell and whistle of a new product or campaign, you need to start with the proof of concept—in other words, the proof that your vision is feasible and achievable. Does this actually work? Could this idea be turned into reality? Start with small “experiments” and when you see what works, follow that path.
3. Know your benchmarks. What is success to you? Whether it is sales, site visitors, bounce rates, support calls, SEO ranking, brand engagement or otherwise, know the signs you are looking for to indicate your company is ready to move to the next phase or level. Make sure you are documenting and tracking this data so that transitioning to future phases becomes smoother and easier.
4. Give it time. Any time you introduce a new way of doing things it will take your target audience some time to warm up to the idea. It will take catering and hand-holding to help users adjust to your platform and processes. If a new idea doesn’t land right away, give it time and make small tweaks and adjustments before you abandon it completely.
5. Make sure your team is happy. High company morale is one of the biggest factors of success for a small company. If your team members feel connected and like they are making a difference, they will be more productive and more creative, allowing your company to innovate and grow.

Lawyers are like plumbers. We’re always going to need them. Through the ups and downs of the economy over the past 10 years, the legal industry has been steadily growing, but it’s also been going through some massive changes.

The truth is, even though demand is consistent, the legal industry will not be immune from the digital revolution. More and more people are searching for legal help online, and most clients will check out a lawyer’s website before hiring them. Millennials are driving a lot of this—they’re getting older, buying houses, running businesses, getting married, and getting divorced.

Legal professionals need to level up in the digital space if they want to compete. The Baby Boomer generation is aging out and the new generations have higher standards when it comes to online presentation and services. The sooner firms realize this and start investing in digital tech, the better chance they have at success.

Here are 3 tips for upgrading your legal website:

1. 1. Make sure you own your website. If you don’t have 100% ownership of your law firm website, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. If you created your website through a generic legal marketing site, it’s going to be hard to update and customize your site, and transferring to a new host down the road will be a nightmare.
2. 2. Invest in SEO. It’s all about the search engine rankings. Your website isn’t doing you any good if clients can’t find it. You need a solid SEO strategy and an experienced team that can implement it.
3. 3. Focus on mobile. Most people use their phones to search the internet. Yes, you need a great website, but you also need it to be optimized for mobile devices so that people who land on your site can find the information they need and know what to do next.

If you’re not seeing a steady increase of traffic, leads and conversions through your law firm website, then it’s time for an upgrade.

A lot has changed over the past year. We were already living in a digital age, but the COVID-19 pandemic has issued us into a new era where online business is not only popular—it is crucial. In fact, nearly 51% of small businesses have increased online interactions with their customers and about 36% are doing sales online, according to e-commerce support platform Oberlo.

Consumer habits and the global economy are changing, which means that the financial industry will be majorly affected—and credit unions in particular. As member-owned, non-profit organizations, credit unions will need to adapt to the times if they hope to compete with large banks and financial institutions.

Here are seven strategies that smart credit unions should incorporate if they want to stay relevant in 2021 and engage their target customer base.

1. Audience research. Consumers in 2021 are looking for different things than they were in previous years. If your credit union has researched your audience and created target demographics and customer personas, it is time to go back to the drawing board. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way consumers think and operate. If you want to make sure you are reaching your target audience, you will need to reevaluate who you are reaching and how.
2. Website upgrades. First impressions matter. The average user will leave your website after 10 to 20 seconds if they can’t find the information they’re seeking. To capture the attention of potential customers in 2021, your credit union website needs to have a responsive design, be aesthetically pleasing and connect to the user’s values and tech-savvy lifestyle. Simple factors such as typography and intuitive interface design may make or break your chance of engaging millennials on your website.
3. Mobile-first design. Today’s online consumers are much more likely to use a mobile phone to access a website than they are to use a desktop computer. They are also selective about their mobile app experience. For example, 43 percent of millennials have at some point abandoned mobile banking activity due to a poor user experience. Top reasons millennials may discontinue using a mobile banking app include lengthy processing time and complicated forms.
4. Social media. Social media accounts aren’t just a way to promote your product, they are channels for direct communication with clients and potential clients as well as a tool for building brand trust. The average consumer spends more than six hours each week engaging with social media, and the majority view social media as the most effective advertising medium.By directly engaging with followers, answering questions, commenting on posts and asking for feedback, your credit union can build trust and credibility.
5. Video capabilities. In 2021, more and more consumers are attending virtual events and communicating through video conferencing software. In the absence of in-person interaction, video is the next best medium for communicating the emotional and visual appeal of a product or service. The only thing worse than a lack of live and pre-recorded video content is poor quality video content—whether from a technical or production standpoint. Your credit union’s video capabilities should be on-trend and technically on-par with banks and large financial institutions in order to stay competitive.

Last month, ATX Web Designs Founder Daniel Griggs was featured in a Forbes article titled How Tech Can Revolutionize The Music Industry During the Pandemic. ATX the Brand is based in Austin, Texas—the live music capital of the world and a burgeoning tech hub. The Forbes piece explains how the tech and music industries can join forces to help preserve arts and entertainment during a time of significant loss and change.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

One of the biggest lifestyle disruptions of the Covid-19 pandemic has been the loss of live music and entertainment. For an industry that relied heavily on ticket sales and sponsorships from live performances, the restrictions on large gatherings and congregating indoors were a heavy blow. Some venues and artists attempted to find loopholes or work around regulations by hosting socially distanced events, but the concert industry still forfeited more than $30 billion as a result of the pandemic. The BBC estimated that musicians lost two-thirds of their income in 2020.

Enter the techies. As the owner of a web design and digital marketing agency, I have seen the demand for web-based solutions and virtual alternatives explode during the Covid-19 pandemic. My company is based in Austin, Texas, which is both the “Live Music Capital” of the world and an emerging tech hot spot that has outranked Silicon Valley for the past two years. It logically follows that Austin would lead the way in discovering new ways to optimize the convergence of technology and live music.

Austin’s annual music festival, South by Southwest (SXSW), typically takes place in March, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors from across the globe and generating more than $300 million in economic impact for the city of Austin. The festival was canceled in 2020 as a result of the pandemic but has reemerged in 2021 as a virtual event.

As a tech entrepreneur, I was excited about the possibilities of a digital SXSW experience, but as a music lover, I wanted something more. I was missing the raw, unfiltered, exciting nature of intimate live performances and underground events — that feeling of walking into a bar and discovering my new favorite local band or artist.

To read the full article on Forbes’ website, click here.

We were already living in a digital economy before COVID-19, but the global pandemic has emphasized the need for companies of all types to improve their online presence and prioritize digital marketing.

Studies show that in 2021, nearly 50 percent of consumers are avoiding leaving their homes and also predict that 2.14 billion people will buy goods and services online this year. After a year of lockdown, many companies have discovered innovative ways to market and offer their products and services online—and some are making the switch to virtual operations permanent.

While COVID-19 cases are decreasing and businesses in some states are reopening their doors, marketing will never be the same. It is time for brands to upgrade their digital presence or risk becoming irrelevant.

Franchises in particular can benefit from investing in their online branding. Franchises face a unique marketing challenge. To succeed, franchisors need to support the independence of individual franchisees while maintaining a brand continuity. Online marketing efforts need to be both creative and consistent.

Here are five ways franchises can upgrade their online presence to stay competitive and thrive in 2021.

1. Create a style guide. If your franchise doesn’t already have a style guide, then creating one will be essential to improving your digital marketing and branding. Cohesive branding is crucial when it comes to franchise marketing. Even if local branches have a lot of diversity, brand messages and brand personality should be consistent across local franchises and should match the corporate vision. In your style guide, you’ll want to determine the feeling or emotional experience you want to create through your brand, select a content tone, identify your key phrases and hashtags, and determine the unique visual components of your brand (colors, logos, etc.).
2. Conduct audience research. Consumers are looking for different things in 2021 than they were in previous years. The world has experienced widespread trauma and loss and has gone through social and structural changes that affect consumer priorities and behavior. Even if you think you understand your target demographic, it is time to conduct a new round of research to better understand your audience’s pain points and priorities. By understanding your audience more thoroughly and holistically, your franchise will be able to develop digital marketing strategies that are efficient and effective.
3. Utilize SEO. It is important for brand uniformity and visibility that each franchise location appears on the first page of search engine results. Many individuals do not scroll past the first page of Google results. While franchisee landing pages should be consistent and contain keywords that pertain to the target demographic, it is crucial that landing pages do not duplicate content. This could cause your company to be penalized by Google or other search engines. Also note that franchisee websites under independent domain names may take longer to be ranked by search engines than sites housed under a corporate domain.
4. Develop a comprehensive social media strategy. Social media can be a challenge for franchises. Since the medium is more personal than websites or traditional marketing materials, each account will inevitably vary in voice, tone, aesthetic, and frequency of posting. Franchises should develop a cohesive and comprehensive social media strategy that is controlled at the corporate level or develop a social-media-specific brand and style guide for franchisees. This style guide can be developed in-house or with the help of a marketing and branding agency.  
5. Integrate domain names. It is essential for franchises to present a united front and remain consistent across platforms. The landing pages for local franchise branches should either all be hosted under the main corporate website or they should have parallel, independent domain names. If a franchise decides on independent franchisee domain names, it is critical for each site to reflect the same brand personality. Franchises should decide on a domain name strategy and make it consistent for all franchisees. It may be helpful to host group trainings with franchisees to explain the strategy and reinforce consistent brand messaging.

As a franchise, it isn’t enough to have a polished corporate website. It is also vital that franchisee sites and social media accounts are consistent, are optimized for search engines, and reflect your corporate brand. Remember that a better digital structure will create more brand value, visibility and credibility, and will ultimately help your franchisees increase sales and retain customers.

ATX Web Designs offers branding strategy and digital brand development services. For more information, drop us a line!

Running a small business requires the ability to multitask and wear many hats. Entrepreneurs and small business owners don’t always have the resources to hire staff or assistants to complete the tasks that many larger companies dedicate whole departments to. A small business owner often has to handle the administrative, marketing, customer service and financial aspects of the company in addition to providing or organizing the delivery of products and services.

One aspect of small-business ownership that can feel daunting and overwhelming is social media management. While large corporations have teams of people researching, posting and responding on social media platforms, small companies don’t always have the time to prioritize engaging on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other sites.

If you are a small- or medium-sized-business owner and aren’t able to dedicate a lot of time to social media management, here are a few tips to help you keep up with the trends and get the most bang for your buck when you are able to post.

1. Schedule your posts. Scheduling your posts weeks or months in advance will save you a lot of time and stress in the long run. Instead of worrying about what content to post each week, you can block out a few hours of time each month to plan social posts ahead of time. You can schedule posts through the social media platforms themselves or upgrade to a paid post scheduler like Buffer  or Hootsuite for an even easier and more streamlined experience.
2. Post consistently. Studies have shown that consistency is key when it comes to social media posts. Whether you’re posting daily or a few times a week, maintain a regular pattern so that your followers know what to expect. The most recent surveys show that posting at least once per day on Instagram and Facebook will garner the most engagement, but posting consistently is more important than posting every day.
3. Add value with your posts. Your social media feed shouldn’t read like an advertisement. If most of your posts are promoting your products or services, you will lose engagement and followers. Instead, make sure about 70-80% of your content is something that adds value for your followers. Examples are educational information, tips and tricks, freebies and contests, or humorous content that provides a much needed chuckle.
4. Interact with your followers. Consumers are more likely to purchase and promote brands that interact with them on social media. Set aside a day or two each week to respond to comments and questions so you can show your followers that you are active and engaged.
5. Look at your analytics. Facebook, Instagram, and other social media sites offer users data about posts, followers and engagement. By viewing your insights and analytics you will be able to gather useful information, such as which types of posts get the most engagement and when your followers are most active. This information will help you maximize your social media efforts.

On May 21, ATX Web Designs Founder Daniel Griggs was featured in a Forbes article titled Digital Transformation is About Process, Not Products. ATX the Brand is based in Austin, Texas—one of the fastest growing tech hotspots in the country. Some experts predict it may eclipse Silicon Valley as a hub for digital innovation. Tesla founder Elon Musk is opening a factory outside the city and tech giants Intel, Apple, Oracle and Facebook all have headquarters or offices in the area.

As a web development and digital marketing agency, ATX the Brand works with many tech companies in the Central Texas area, as well as local entrepreneurs and startups. Our team is able to observe trends within the industry and speak to the ways businesses can successfully capitalize on new developments related to digital branding and marketing.

One of the biggest trends we have seen among Austin-area business owners is a push for the “digital transformation” of their companies in order to stay relevant and competitive in the rapidly evolving digital economy.

Here is an excerpt from the article on digital transformation:

The unfortunate truth is that many businesses equate their online brand with their website and see “digital transformation” as no more than a site upgrade or redesign. The fact of the matter is that digital transformation is about your company’s processes, not about your products. Your processes include your customer relationship management (CRM) system, your security, your marketing strategies and your administrative systems — and these processes are vital when it comes to sustainably growing your business. They are the pieces that your customer doesn’t immediately see or know to look for but will ultimately have the biggest impact on their experience with your business.

Your website and mobile app are important, but they are really just the tip of the iceberg. If your company hopes to stay competitive in the digital economy, you need more than a pretty website or trendy mobile app. You need to understand the mind and the values of the modern consumer and learn how to build your business processes around the needs of your target audience.

In focusing on the visual aspects of their brand, some business owners forget to ask themselves the following important questions:

• How do I manage bookings?

• How is customer data filed and organized?

• What is my process for following up on leads and inquiries?

• How are my services promoted and marketed?

• What is my process for gathering feedback and implementing changes?

The answers to all of these questions are critical for growing a business in a digitally competitive economy.

To read the full article on Forbes’ website, click here.

You’ve got to spend money to make money, according to the old saying, but how much should small and medium-sized businesses be investing into marketing and advertising? Whether your business is growing rapidly or you are just figuring out how to make ends meet, marketing is an essential component of company operations that you can’t afford to ignore. While some businesses do very well through word-of-mouth marketing, there is a limit to how much you can scale through organic referrals alone.

The U.S. Small Business Administration recommends that businesses generating less than $5 million a year spend about 7 to 8 percent of gross revenue on marketing and advertising. Other industry experts have suggested anywhere from 5 percent to 14 percent.

If these numbers seem high to you, or you are wondering how much you are realistically able to invest in marketing, here are five ways to stretch your marketing and advertising budget to get the most bang for your buck.

1. Social media. Social media platforms are free marketing tools that can help you raise brand awareness and gain customer trust. While social media followers don’t necessarily equate to sales, building out your Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms can be an extremely valuable long-term marketing investment. Make sure you are using your social platforms to provide value to your followers and engage with them regularly.
2. Experiment. Marketing is all about experimentation. Instead of sinking your entire monthly marketing budget into ads or cold email campaigns, opt for small, cost-effective experiments to see what type of messaging and content delivery strategies resonate with your audience most right now.
3. Partnerships. Partnerships and collaborations with other businesses are an affordable way to build your brand and get exposure. When creating partnerships, you want to work with companies that target your same demographic but are not direct competitors.
4. Media relations. Pitching your business to local media is a way to get free exposure for your company. When pitching, make sure that you provide a specific, timely angle or a reason that a certain publication’s audience would be interested in the story.
5. Incentivize referrals. By incentivising your current customers to recommend your business, you can boost organic traffic and sales. Affiliate programs, giveaways and contests are some relatively inexpensive ways to increase referrals.

On July 2, ATX Web Designs CEO Daniel Griggs was featured in Forbes in an article titled Is Your Small Business Website Secure?. As website templates and DIY web design programs become more popular, they also increase the potential risk of security threats.

The article outlines several ways that small businesses in particular can help ensure their websites can protect customer information and company data, as well as preventing other security breaches.

Here are a few of the important security questions business owners should ask about their websites, as outlined in the Forbes piece:

• Is your website hosted on a secure server with an SSL certificate? If you collect private information from site users, you need a hypertext transfer protocol secure (HTTPS), which prevents the interception of data. Additionally, SSL will encrypt information so that it cannot be breached.

• Does your website require complex passwords? Requiring all users to use complex passwords when signing into your site will help prevent their accounts from being hacked. For example, you can require users to use a combination of uppercase letters, lowercase letters and special characters in their passwords.

• Do you have a firewall in place? Firewalls can block duplicate internet protocol (IP) addresses automatically, which prevents spammers and hackers from registering multiple accounts from the same computer.

• Does your website contain custom coding? Unfortunately, website templates built through CMS like WordPress can be more susceptible to hacking. Custom coding is much more difficult to breach.

• Are your plugins up to date? Failing to update your software and plugins can result in security vulnerabilities and issues on your website.

To read the complete article, click here.

The web design industry is a fast-paced and rapidly evolving one. Every year, new innovations in graphic design, user interface design, marketing, and backend development lead to new trends for websites and mobile applications.

Over the past year, we have seen businesses of all sizes increase their investment in their web presence. We were already living in a digital economy before COVID-19, but the global pandemic has emphasized the need for companies to improve their online brand and prioritize digital marketing.

Consumer habits have also changed, with more and more individuals choosing to shop online instead of in person. With the increased online participation and standards of the modern consumer, it is essential for businesses to keep up with design trends and present a digital brand that is relevant, engaging and effective in meeting its long-term goals.

Here are the top 20 website design trends predicted for 2021:

1. Muted colors
2. Authenticity and honesty
3. Flat icons and illustrations
4. Retro fonts
5. Activism and supporting meaningful causes
6. Parallax scroll animations
7. Classic serif fonts
8. Playfulness and optimism
9. Illustrations
10. Abstract and surreal art
11. Minimalism
12. Personalized experiences
13. Vintage effects
14. Animations
15. Custom graphics
16. Interactive landing pages
17. Unique multimedia
18. Embedded videos
19. Non-traditional scrolling
20. Gradient color schemes

Questions about how content marketing and web design strategies could elevate your brand and improve your bottom line? Schedule a consultation with one of our digital strategists by clicking here.

About 42 percent of the world’s population, or 3.2 billion people, use social media, and the average user spends 2-3 hours a day on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. Businesses have recognized the value of engaging with this massive online audience and social media ads have become an essential piece of modern marketing.

There is an overwhelming amount of demand for user attention on social media websites and apps. The average social media user sees between 6,000 and 10,000 ads per day and is inundated with content. That means that it is more important than ever for businesses to be smart about the advertising content they produce.

Here are 10 tips for creating better, more compelling social media ads.

• Choose the right platform. Different social media platforms cater to different audiences. For example, members of Generation Z (16-24 year olds) are more likely to be active on apps like TikTok than they are to spend time on Facebook. Don’t waste time and money on social media ads that aren’t popular with your target demographic.
• Focus on audience values. Effective social media ads offer an instant promise to meet the values and priorities of their audience. Identity your target demographic’s key values and create a list of ad keywords that speak to those values.
• Include engaging photos and graphics. Most social media platforms are largely visual. If you want to quickly capture the attention of a user who is scrolling through social media, you need bold, engaging photos and graphics that will pause them in their tracks and encourage them to read your content.
• Simplify your copy. Attention spans on social media platforms are incredibly short. Users are typically scrolling quickly and mindlessly through their feeds and don’t want to do more work than is necessary to read advertisements. To make it easier for your audience, simplify your ad copy by removing jargon, long words, adverbs and most adjectives.
• Use a creative hook. A hook is the first line of your ad copy that catches the attention of a reader. A social media user may or may not even read your hook, but if they do, you want to make sure you are pulling them in with an intriguing question, a bold statement, a useful fact or a keyword that resonates with them.
• Create a straightforward call to action. The call to action (CTA) is the next step you want someone to take after they read your ad. For the purpose of social media ads, CTAs should be short, simple and compelling. Try using motivating action words such as “create,” “discover,” “get,” and “try.”
• Build a sense of urgency. You want to give your audience a reason to take action after reading your social media ad. Creating a sense of urgency will help motivate them to engage further with your brand and take the next step in the marketing funnel. For example, creating a special deal or discount with a time limit can persuade users to take action now instead of later.
• Personalize your ads. Users are more likely to pay attention to ads that feel personal to them. Try including your audience’s city name in your ad headline or call out their demographic by name, such as “parents,” “college students” or “entrepreneurs.”
• Maintain consistency between ads and landing pages. Consistency is key when it comes to online branding and the user experience. If your social ad is directing users to a landing page or website, make sure your colors, fonts, graphic design and content tone remain consistent between pages.
• Collect data and experiment. To a certain extent, social media advertising is a giant experiment. What works well for one company may not work for yours—even if you fall within the same industry or cater to a similar audience. The most important part of social media marketing is to collect data on user behavior and engagement and modify your approach regularly to prioritize the type of copy and design that works for your audience.

Questions about how content marketing and web design strategies could elevate your brand and improve your bottom line? Schedule a consultation with one of our digital strategists by clicking here.

Having a well-designed, user-friendly website is the first step toward developing a successful online brand. But great web design is practically useless without good copy. The text on your website is just as important as its aesthetic and usability.

Studies have found that website visitors will navigate away from a page if they cannot find what they are looking for within 10 seconds. That means your website copy has 10 seconds to convince users that your company can solve their problems better than the competition can.

Many business owners and entrepreneurs do not know where to start when it comes to creating content for their websites. It can feel overwhelming to try to condense an entire company or brand down into a few simple paragraphs on a landing page or homepage. As a result, many websites are bogged down by irrelevant or cumbersome content that turns site visitors away instead of converting them into paying customers.

Working with a professional content creator or digital marketing company is the best way to make sure your website messaging and branding is just right. However, there are a few easy ways that you can instantly improve your website copy on your own. Here are five strategies for creating more engaging, effective content for your website:

1. Focus on the user. Perform an audit of your site content and see how often you use the word “you.” The majority of your website copy, particularly on the home page, should be focused on the user and not on your company.
2. Move from problem to solution. Digital content marketing is about connecting with an audience’s pain points (the problem) and presenting your company’s product or service as a solution. Frame your content in terms of your audience’s challenges and how you can make their life better.
3. Promote benefits, not features
   . Instead of writing about the features of your product or service, concentrate your writing on the benefits customers will receive when using your product or service. This places the attention on the user and helps them feel more engaged with your copy and with your brand.
4. Include clear Calls to Action. Don’t assume your audience understands the next step they need to take in moving down the path to purchase—or that they will take initiative to move forward on their own. Each section of your website should indicate some Call-to-Action, such as “learn more,” “sign up,” or “browse our products.”

Provide value. Your audience’s attention needs to be earned, so each piece of content on your site should provide some sort of value. Identify what your specific audience values then use bold, simple headlines and straightforward copy that showcase how you can provide that value.

Having a well-designed, user-friendly website is the first step toward developing a successful online brand. But great web design is practically useless without good copy. The text on your website is just as important as its aesthetic and usability.

Studies have found that website visitors will navigate away from a page if they cannot find what they are looking for within 10 seconds. That means your website copy has 10 seconds to convince users that your company can solve their problems better than the competition can.

Many business owners and entrepreneurs do not know where to start when it comes to creating content for their websites. It can feel overwhelming to try to condense an entire company or brand down into a few simple paragraphs on a landing page or homepage. As a result, many websites are bogged down by irrelevant or cumbersome content that turns site visitors away instead of converting them into paying customers.

Working with a professional content creator or digital marketing company is the best way to make sure your website messaging and branding is just right. However, there are a few easy ways that you can instantly improve your website copy on your own. Here are five strategies for creating more engaging, effective content for your website:

1. Focus on the user. Perform an audit of your site content and see how often you use the word “you.” The majority of your website copy, particularly on the home page, should be focused on the user and not on your company.
2. Move from problem to solution. Digital content marketing is about connecting with an audience’s pain points (the problem) and presenting your company’s product or service as a solution. Frame your content in terms of your audience’s challenges and how you can make their life better.
3. Promote benefits, not features. Instead of writing about the features of your product or service, concentrate your writing on the benefits customers will receive when using your product or service. This places the attention on the user and helps them feel more engaged with your copy and with your brand.
4. Include clear Calls to Action. Don’t assume your audience understands the next step they need to take in moving down the path to purchase—or that they will take initiative to move forward on their own. Each section of your website should indicate some Call-to-Action, such as “learn more,” “sign up,” or “browse our products.”
5. Provide value. Your audience’s attention needs to be earned, so each piece of content on your site should provide some sort of value. Identify what your specific audience values then use bold, simple headlines and straightforward copy that showcase how you can provide that value.

Having a solid social media strategy for your business is a crucial element of brand marketing. The average person spends about two and a half hours on social media every day while millennials, the largest consumer demographic, spend closer to three.

Social media engagement—or the comments, likes and shares your posts receive—are the best indicator of an effective social presence. If your account has tens of thousands of followers but little interaction with those followers, your content is falling on deaf ears. As a commercial brand, your social media accounts should strive for quality over quantity and help you build a solid foundation of loyal fans and customers.

Whether you are a social media novice, or have an established company brand online, here are seven tips for improving engagement with your audience.

1. Post eye-catching photos and videos. On social media, striking photos and video content coupled with text get significantly more engagement than a block of text on its own. Incorporating multimedia is especially important on platforms like Facebook and Twitter that don’t require images for posts. Your photo only needs to be loosely related to your content, but make sure it isn’t click bait or you will lose the trust of your audience and the social media algorithms may work against you.
2. Ask questions. Polls and questions are great ways to interact with your followers on social media. Whether you post the question in your feed, stories, or in a live video or reel, you are sure to connect with your audience in a deeper way.
3. Be funny. A Sprout Social survey found that humor is the most desired brand characteristic after honesty, helpfulness and friendliness. Three out of four respondents said they wanted their brands to be funny, although only one in three thought snarky humor was appealing.
4. Get personal. Studies have shown that more and more consumers favor brands that feel personal and personable. Don’t hide behind a professional veneer (unless that supports your brand image). Try posting behind-the-scenes-content, personal photos, and posts that show you are a real company run by real people.
5. Partner with other brands. Cross-promotions and collaborations can be a very effective way to increase followers, sales and engagement. Partner with brands that have a similar audience and style to yours so that you can double down on what your followers already know and love.

Questions about how content marketing and web design strategies could elevate your brand and improve your bottom line? Schedule a consultation with one of our digital strategists by clicking here.

It is no secret that people like to think about themselves. It is one of our favorite topics. That’s why it should come as no surprise that when a user visits your website, they are usually thinking about themselves, their problems, and how your product or service can specifically benefit them.

User-centered design puts the customer in the spotlight. It puts their needs, objectives and expectations at the center of design and content decisions in order to better engage and, ultimately, increase conversions.

As a business owner, it might be tempting to build your website and online marketing strategy around your company’s history, mission and accolades. But research shows that the most effective way to generate leads and improve conversion rates is to put the user and their needs front and center.

Here are three ways to implement user-centered design and content strategy through your website and digital marketing.

1. Identify your audience
When a user visits your website, they should feel like the site was designed specifically for them. By understanding your audience and specifically naming or referencing them at the top of your site, you are signaling that you offer both relevance and value to them.

In today’s digital age, attention spans are short and a user could leave your website within a matter of seconds if they don’t find the content relevant. Users want to know “Is this product for me?” The faster you can answer that question, the more likely you are to engage with the user.

2. Identify their problem
The No. 1 reason a user will visit your website is because they have some type of problem they are trying to solve. What end users really want to know is “How will this product or service make my life better?”

Your website should be your best salesperson, and a good salesperson first gets to know the customer’s needs and then talks about the product or service. Your website should do the same. By setting up the problem-solution framework within the website design and content, the likelihood of improving conversion rates greatly increases.

3. Don’t brag
While reviews and testimonials can be effective in establishing credibility and brand trust, don’t get caught up in trying to prove how great your company is. Users want to determine this for themselves and too much bragging can begin to sound sales-y and turn some users away.

Instead, keep the focus on the customer and how your product or service can benefit them. Try using “you” language instead of or in addition to “we” language. Emphasize the value you can offer as opposed to how great you are at offering it.

By following these tips you can create a website that increases conversions through a client-centered approach. These tips can also be applied to your mobile app, social media and online marketing.

When most people hear the word “brand,” they think of a company name or logo. They may even picture a specific, popular brand, such as Coca-Cola or Kleenex.

Following this logic, many entrepreneurs and business owners think of their company brand as purely visual—how the product and marketing looks and feels. But a business brand is much more than colors, fonts and design. A brand image is the entire experience a user has when interacting with your business, including their emotional experience, their mental associations with your business, and their interactions with customer service. Ideally, this brand image closely matches the company’s mission and vision. If not, it may be time for a redesign or brand overhaul.

When creating or upgrading a company website, branding is one of the most important elements to consider. If your website branding isn’t strong, engaging and consistent, you are guaranteed to lose out on leads and customers. Sometimes a complete website redesign is necessary, while in other cases, small, strategic fixes can make a world of difference.

Here are five proven ways to strengthen the branding on your company’s website to boost your brand image and bottom line.

1. Simplify your content. Most company websites contain walls of text that overwhelm and distract the user. Typically, website users are trying to access information as quickly as possible. Shortening and simplifying your content down to its most accessible form will ultimately be more engaging for users.
2. Maintain a consistent tone. Your design and content should represent a consistent tone across all website pages. Whether your tone is casual, professional, creative, cheerful, serious, or something else entirely, make sure all your website choices reflect that style.
3. Focus on the user. Your website is about your user, not about you. All branding choices on a website, including design and content, should focus on the user’s needs, pain points and experience.
4. Make it easy. The most popular brands are easy on the eyes and on the brain. Don’t make the user work too hard to see or understand who your company is and what you do. Use simple, complementary colors, fonts and design choices that don’t distract from your main site messages.
5. Engage. Today’s consumers, particularly millennials, prefer brands that are friendly, conversational and engaging. Your website should incorporate user engagement strategies such as feedback forms, live chats, contact information, social media feeds and customer testimonials.

Over the past year there have been dramatic shifts in the way business runs in the United States. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the economic landscape and affected consumer habits and priorities. It has also altered the infrastructure and internal processes of many companies, leading to an increased focus on remote employment and digital services. Some industries—such as hospitality and tourism—have experienced major financial setbacks, while others—such as healthcare services and social services—are flourishing and expected to grow significantly in the coming years.

This means that B2B companies need to reorient themselves to the current business climate and pivot their marketing strategies to address the needs and priorities of 2021. We are living in a new type of society with new values, and experts predict that many of the pandemic-related changes are here to stay. For example, studies show that nearly 50 percent of consumers are avoiding leaving their homes and are purchasing more goods and services online. This shift will affect businesses of all types and sizes—whether they offer a digital-based product or not.

Here are five tips for B2B companies that will help them keep up with the times and tailor their marketing strategies to more effectively reach their target audience.

1. Create new buyer personas. Perhaps you have already identified your target demographic and analyzed them in great detail. Well, it’s time to go back to the drawing board. Because of the pandemic, businesses now have different priorities in reaching their customers, which means your B2B company needs to reevaluate your target audience’s pain points, needs and channels.
2. Optimize your website. More than 80 percent of shoppers visit a company’s website before purchasing a product or service. Business buyers also conduct thorough online research before moving forward with a particular company. In addition, the online spending of B2B buyers has been steadily increasing. This means that if your B2B website is not updated and optimized you will be missing out on leads and leaking potential profit.
3. Focus on social. One study found that 75% of B2B buyers and 84% of C-level executives rely on social media to make purchase decisions. Social media engagement and interaction can potentially have more impact than cold outreach, such as email marketing campaigns, so it is important to heavily invest in social.
4. Consider video and virtual events. A recent study by Cisco estimated that online video content will account for more than 82% of consumer internet traffic by 2022. Circle S Studio also predicts that virtual events and conferences are here to stay. If your B2B company isn’t taking advantage of video content and online events, you will be forfeiting leads and profit to the competition.
5. Improve buyer enablement. In today’s digital-first world, buyers are seeking a personalized, self-directed buying process that focuses on their needs and allows them to lead the conversation. Buyer enablement means reducing friction in your online marketing channels and creating user-centric design and content that seamlessly leads prospects through the awareness-consideration-purchase process.

ATX Web Designs offers branding strategy and digital brand development services. For more information, drop us a line!

Have you heard the story about the man who built his house from scratch with no plan, blueprint, or design? Of course you haven’t, because this would be a ridiculous approach to constructing a building and would likely be an enormous waste of time and money.

Before you build a house, you need to go through a planning process. You assess your needs, wants, and functional requirements, and you hire an architect to create a blueprint so the home is completely mapped out before ground is broken. Sometimes the planning phase takes just as long, if not longer, than the construction phase.

Building your business brand is similar to building a new house. It’s incorrect to assume you can have an idea for a product or service and jump straight into implementation. While it may be possible in rare circumstances, it seldom leads to a sustainable, established brand that can easily scale and grow.

Your business brand is the story your company tells. It is the holistic experience your audience has when interacting with your company. These interactions range from an individual’s experience on a phone call with customer service to a fleeting glimpse of your logo on a billboard to the content on your business social media accounts.

Building a brand from the ground up takes intentionality, strategy, and a clear vision for the future, as well as the steps needed to make that vision a reality. Simply put, you need a brand blueprint. Each aspect of your business—from colors and fonts to the wording of your emails to your website design—needs to align with your core mission, personal values, and financial goals or you will fail to build a solid, cohesive brand.

Your blueprint will need to include elements such as:

• A clear mission statement, Unique Value Proposition, and a list of short- and long-term objectives
• A breakdown of your target audience and their pain points as well as an analysis of competitors and general industry trends
• Clear user pathways and funnels to generate awareness about your company, educate your audience, and guide them to the solutions you offer
• A description of the emotions and values you want to appeal to in your audience as well as content and marketing strategies that support these value propositions and lead your audience to the desired call-to-action

By establishing a solid brand blueprint, you can more effectively increase leads, improve sales, create a company reputation, strengthen customer loyalty, and scale your business.

ATX Web Designs offers branding strategy and digital brand development services. For more information, drop us a line!

Every brand tells a story.

Some stories are like an exciting and compelling novel that the reader can’t put down. Others are more like a waiting room magazine that is skimmed and tossed aside.

So what story does your brand tell?

Your brand is the total impression your company makes. It includes your company personality, values, aesthetic, reputation, marketing strategies and customer service.

Brands succeed by telling a compelling story that rallies their target audience to action. A successful story has the following elements:

A hero. Every good story has a protagonist. In branding, the hero is your audience or your prospect. Not your company. Companies that focus on themselves and their accolades in their marketing content won’t effectively grab their audience’s attention.

A premise. The premise of a narrative is the overall message or concept it offers. Your company’s premise is the foundation for your brand and illustrates why a prospect should engage with your content. Without a solid premise, potential leads or customers won’t get past the first few pages of your story.

A problem. When is the last time you watched a great movie where the hero did not face any obstacles? In branding, the problem is your audience’s pain points. Successful brands hone in on their audience’s specific pain points and present their product or service as a solution to these pain points.

A victory. What makes the victory in a story satisfying? When the audience can emotionally identify with it and picture themselves in the hero’s shoes. Successful brands use strategies like impactful images, video, testimonials, vivid descriptions and clear calls-to-actions to help audiences imagine how a particular product or service will meet their needs and values—thus completing the hero’s journey.

That’s a real page turner.

Have a story you want your brand to tell? Reach to our expert team to schedule your consultation by clicking here.

If your website and mobile app are doing their job, they should run on their own. As an entrepreneur or business owner, your goal should be to get your digital platforms to the point where you are primarily monitoring the activity. There may be certain tasks you want to carry out personally, but everything else should be automated.

Here are three ways to automate your digital presence effectively and efficiently.

• Predict the questions. Ideally your platform design and copy will make things crystal clear for the user. However, there will be some users who still have questions about the process or who will need assistance. You can save yourself time and energy by preempting these questions and requests before they escalate. For example, a “How-To” or “FAQ” section of your website will go a long way in addressing common concerns. Provide users with everything they need and make it easy for them to get their questions answered. Not only will this save you and your team time, but it can also make your users feel that your company cares about them and their experience with your platform.
• Create customer service scripts. If an FAQ or ready-made response doesn’t address a customer’s concerns and they feel the need to personally reach out to your team, develop scripts and protocol ahead of time so you can work through each issue in the most efficient way. It is a good idea to track your customer service data so that you know the common sticking points and can see which methods work best for resolution. This will help you refine your scripts over time to make them even more effective.
• Automate communication. If you invest some time and energy into making customer communication as automated as possible now, you will thank yourself later. From invoicing to billing to updates and announcements, everything can and should be automated. Your customers should be receiving regular communications from your company to keep them engaging with your brand. These communications could be in the form of newsletters, member emails, blog posts, social media posts, text messages or other formats.

These days nearly everyone has had an app idea. What’s yours?

Maybe it came to you in the shower, or while driving, or when getting frustrated with a particular system or process for the 100th time. Over the past 10 years, it has become more simple to create a mobile app, but that doesn’t mean it has become easier. 

There is a lot of strategy, backend planning, design, and testing that goes into creating a successful mobile application. There are many companies that advertise mobile app design or development, but not all of them can help you build strategy and make sure your app will be popular and profitable once released. 

If you have an idea for a great mobile app and you’re ready to turn your idea into reality, here are the three most important things to keep in mind: 

1. Defining your audience and paint points first will save you a lot of time. All apps are essentially a solution to a common problem. The foundation of your app is your target audience and their pain points—which you will be helping to solve. By clearly identifying your demographic and the problem you are solving up front, you will save yourself a lot of time and energy in the future. 
2. Validating your idea is key. Validation is the proof that there is a demand for your app and that your app would work “in the real world.” You can validate your app idea by using keyword tools to prove users are searching for this idea, or by seeking out investors who have funded similar products. You could also build a landing page or email marketing campaign and gauge interest from your target demographic that way. 
3. You need to simplify more than you think. Chances are you’ve thought of several helpful features your app could include. However, the first iteration of your mobile app should be fairly simple and straightforward. Launch with only the core features of your app and eliminate those that are simply a bonus. This keeps your initial costs down and allows you to adjust according to early user feedback. 

The most important part of building a mobile app is passion. If you are passionate about your product and the problem it is solving, you will have the motivation to do what it takes to see it succeed. Want to learn more about getting your mobile app idea off the ground? ATX Web Designs is a full-service mobile app design and development company. Schedule your consultation today by clicking here. 

When designing or redesigning a business website, many companies start with the visual branding elements: the colors, the photos, the graphics, the cool features. 

Although content is sometimes an afterthought in the website development process, it is equally as important as functionality or design. You may have a high-quality product promoted on a sleek, modern website, but a weak content marketing strategy will still cost you leads and sales.  

Content marketing is the strategic creation of text and multimedia that informs a user and leads them through a specific journey—typically from awareness to consideration to action.

Here are five ways to improve your website content to more effectively market your product and keep your audience engaged.  

1. Know the purpose of each piece of content. Website real estate is extremely valuable. Attention spans are short and distractibility is high online. Each section of content on your website should have a distinct purpose. By knowing your end goals, you can more effectively mold your content to meet those goals. 
2. Provide value. Your audience’s attention needs to be earned, so each piece of content on your site should provide some sort of value. Identify what your specific audience values then use bold, simple headlines and straightforward copy that showcase how you can provide that value. 
3. Move from problem to solution. Digital content marketing is about connecting with an audience’s pain points (the problem) and presenting your company’s product or service as a solution. Frame your content in terms of your audience’s challenges and how you can make their life better. 
4. Include clear Calls to Action. Don’t assume your audience understands the next step they need to take in moving down the path to purchase—or that they will take initiative to move forward on their own. Each section of your website should indicate some Call-to-Action, such as “learn more,” “sign up,” or “browse our products.” 
5. Work with the design and functionality – The design and functionality of your website should not be developed separately from the content strategy. At ATX Web Designs, our designers, developers and content writers work together to holistically develop digital products that capture a company’s essence and effectively engage users. 

Questions about how content marketing and web design strategies could elevate your brand and improve your bottom line? Schedule a consultation with one of our digital strategists by clicking here. 

Hiring a web design and development agency is a smart move for businesses of any size and in any industry. These days, a company’s brand and reputation depend largely on its online presence. A high-quality website and engaging digital marketing content could be the deciding factors between a company’s success and failure. 

Not all web design agencies are created equal, however, and one of the most significant variables is size. If you’re considering web design services, you may be struggling to decide whether to hire a freelancer, small agency, medium-sized agency, or large agency. 

It can be a daunting task to wade through the pros and cons of hiring a small or large web design company, so we have simplified it for you. The following is a breakdown of both the benefits and disadvantages of agencies of various sizes. 

Freelancers

Pros: Cost and flexibility are two advantages offered by freelancers. Freelance web designers and developers typically set their own schedule and rates, and may be able to customize both for your project. 

Cons: There is less accountability and more risk when working with a freelancer, even those who come with positive reviews. In addition, a freelancer cannot offer the diversity of experience and skill available through an agency. 

Small Agency 

Pros: Small agencies (2-10 people) are sure to give your project personalized attention. They may also cater to a particular audience and have industry-specific knowledge. Sometimes, not always, small agencies charge a rate comparable to freelancers. 

Cons: Small agencies may not have the resources to complete complex projects in a timely manner. They may also not have the experience or technical skills that can be found at larger companies with more staff and a broader portfolio. 

Medium Agency 

Pros: Medium agencies are the best of both worlds. They have the staff and resources to handle even the most complex projects, but they are small enough to maintain personal connections with clients.

Cons: Medium-sized agencies may not offer the reduced rate you would receive from a freelancer or small agency. 

Large Agency 

Pros: Large agencies have experience and resources at their disposal. Their diverse portfolios and large staff allow them to take on extensive and complex projects. 

Cons: Large agencies can be less personal. Your project may be outsourced or viewed as just a number, and you may not receive the personal attention or customization you’re seeking. You may also encounter more bureaucracy and red tape with a large agency. 

If you have questions about your web design project and would like to discuss options with design and development professionals, please reach out to us. 

Branding isn’t just about recognizable labels or Superbowl commercials or even popularity. Every company that exists has a brand identity. 

Simply put, brand identity is how your consumers view your company or product. A business’ personality, values, marketing techniques and aesthetic all contribute to its unique brand identity. 

Some small businesses and new businesses might operate under the misconception that they need to be well-established or famous to have a company “brand image,” but that isn’t the case. 

It isn’t a question of whether or not your company has a brand identity, but whether you are harnessing the power of your brand. Branding is an important marketing tool that can be used to increase leads, improve sales, create a company reputation and strengthen customer loyalty. 

To further clarify, here is a short list of what brand identity isn’t: 

1. Your logo and tagline. Branding is much more than your company’s logo and tagline, or even your company aesthetic. Branding requires defining a clear message and tone and staying consistent across all your social media platforms, written content and marketing materials. 
2. Expensive. Creating a brand identity doesn’t have to be an expensive process. Even with a small marketing budget, you can develop a solid brand through identifying a niche market, appealing to your audience’s values, and being consistent in your marketing and customer service efforts. 
3. Permanent. Branding and brand image can be changed over time through a process called rebranding. If you don’t like the way your company is received by the public, you always have time to change. Major companies that have successfully gone through a rebranding process include Old Spice (which used to be known as a hygiene product line for older generations) and McDonald’s (which has shifted to be more health-focused in recent years). 
4. A one-time effort. Maintaining a strong brand identity requires regular upkeep. Consistency and continuity are key. By creating a consistent look, feel, voice and message for your brand and then regularly presenting the brand to your audience across a range of platforms, you will establish a credible and likeable brand image. 

ATX Web Designs offers branding strategy and digital brand development services. For more information, drop us a line! 

No matter how innovative, effective or successful your brand, you will always have competitors. Original concepts rarely exist—if you believe something is a great idea, chances are someone else thought of the same thing.

In a competitive market, what often sets your company apart is not the quality of the product or service, but the quality of the branding.

Branding creates the emotional experience for users interacting with your company. Effective brand strategy can generate new leads, increase sales and strengthen customer loyalty.

So how do you differentiate your brand in a fast-paced and ever-evolving digital marketplace? Here are five tips to get you started.

1. Find your niche. The more specific you can be in defining your target audience, the higher chance you will have of distinguishing your brand. Today’s consumers, particularly millennials, prefer brands that feel personal and customized. Narrowing your focus will help you market more effectively and effectively.
2. Implement strategic campaigns. Instead of paying for generic, catch-all advertising, design your marketing efforts around strategic campaigns. Research audience trends and build your campaign around a particular demographic and value proposition.
3. Appeal to values. Consumers are more likely to be emotionally moved (and consequently financially moved) by brands that appeal to their values. Find out what your audience values—such as security, ease, or status—and design your brand around those concepts.
4. Engage with your audience. In today’s digital world, consumers are more likely to interact with brands that are personal and responsive. Your brand’s online platforms, such as your website and social media accounts, should be friendly, helpful and actively engaging with your customer base.
5. Don’t skimp on design. Users will leave a website within a few seconds if the site doesn’t appear credible, useful and easy to navigate. Website design, photography and videography are not areas to cut corners if you’re looking to differentiate your brand. One poorly designed web page or sub-par photograph could make or break your brand image.

ATX Web Designs offers digital brand consulting and strategy services. Contact us for more information.

Solopreneurs—or entrepreneurs who run a business on their own—are on the rise in the United States, numbering more than 40 million. Whether by choice or by necessity, solopreneurs wear every hat in their company, from CEO to accountant to customer service representative.

As busy people who are often operating on a tight budget, solopreneurs and small business owners sometimes overlook the importance of marketing their product or service. There is a common misconception that marketing requires a large financial investment, so many solopreneurs see strong branding as a luxury rather than a necessity.

Regardless of the size of your business or ad budget, you can build a brand of your own. You may not be a Coca Cola but you can still think about your message and how you want people to remember your service or product.

Here are three branding tips for solopreneurs that won’t break the bank.

1. Create an emotional experience. Branding has largely to do with the type of emotional experience you create for customers and potential customers. How do you want your audience to feel? Safe? Excited? Elite? Entertained? Use this emotional experience to determine everything from the look and feel of your logo to the tone you use on your website and social media posts.
2. Make it personal. Two advantages solopreneurs and small businesses have over larger competitors are personality and personalized attention. By making personal connections with customers and giving your digital content a strong personality, you can develop a strong brand that users are eager to follow and engage. Be sure to reinforce your brand personality across multiple platforms (such as website, social media and printed materials).
3. Use keywords.. What terms or words perk your audience’s attention? What phrases do potential customers use to search the internet for the type of product or service you offer? By honing in on keywords you can achieve a better search engine ranking and more effectively engage your target audience.

You may not have a $250,00 ad budget, but as a solopreneur, you can still work on building organic traffic and generating attention for your brand. This, in turn, will lead to more leads, sales and brand loyalty.

Franchises are a popular business structure that face a unique challenge when it comes to marketing. To be successful, franchisors need to support the independence of their individual franchisees while also maintaining a consistent brand image.

There are three common marketing mistakes that franchise owners make, and they all  relate to the way independent franchisees present themselves online.
Here are the pitfalls to avoid when developing marketing strategies for your franchise:

1. Inconsistent franchisee sites and domain names. Inconsistencies between the corporate franchise website and franchisee landing pages create confusion for users and reduce brand visibility and credibility. It is important for franchises to remain consistent in how they present franchisee web pages. These pages should either all be hosted under the main corporate website, or they should have independent domain names. Your franchise brand could lose potential sales if users get a different experience on your corporate website than they do on franchisee websites.
2. Failure to utilize SEO. It is important for brand consistency and visibility that each franchise location ranks on the first page of Google and other search engine results. This allows for backlinks and means rankings will be boosted for any new franchisee. However, it is critical not to duplicate content on independent franchisee websites. This could cause your company to be penalized by Google.
3. Social media accounts lack uniformity. Social media management can be challenging for franchises. Since platforms like Facebook and Instagram are so personal, each franchisee account will likely vary in voice, tone, aesthetic, and posting frequency. Franchises should control social media at the corporate level or create a social-media-specific brand and style guide for franchisees.

A better digital structure will create more brand value, visibility and credibility, and will ultimately help your franchisees increase sales and retain customers. ATX Web Designs is skilled and experienced at helping franchises create consistent brands, rank highly on search engines, and improve sales through cohesive marketing efforts. Visit our franchise page to learn more.

Your website is likely the first place consumers encounter your brand, and the design not only conveys information about your products and services, but also speaks to your values, style, and relevance. 

In an article published by Inc., ATX The Brand Founder Daniel Griggs responded to five common website design myths and shared the reality behind good web design. 

Myth 1. Your website can’t serve multiple audiences
There may be gaps in technological knowledge and aesthetic taste, but that doesn’t mean your website design can’t appeal to multiple demographics. Work smarter, not harder, to engage with each of your target audiences by finding the areas where their preferences overlap. For example, the baby boomer and millennial generations may both prefer large font and less cluttered design. 

Myth 2. Content is content

Not all content is created equal. The average website visitor will leave a page after 10 to 20 seconds if they are unable to access the information they need, so your site should convey your main message as quickly and simply as possible. Be as bold and blatant as you can about answering the three W’s—Who are you? What do you do? Why should a user do business with you? If your website has a high bounce rate, this could be an indicator that you are not keeping it simple enough. 

Myth 3. You need to tell your whole story on your homepage

Your users’ first interaction with your website should make them feel like it was designed for them. Avoid overwhelming site visitors with details about every facet of your product or service and instead create clear calls to action that help specific audiences quickly and easily navigate to the content they need. 

Myth 4: A well-designed desktop version is good enough

A well-designed desktop version of your website is important, but research shows that the mobile version is crucial. The Pew Research Center reports that 28 percent of millennials are smartphone-only internet users, meaning that nearly one third of the country’s largest consumer demographic will be viewing your website solely on their phones. 

Myth 5: You don’t need a website audit 

Quality website and mobile app design requires a professional set of eyes. A website audit is a comprehensive review of your design and content that will help determine whether you are reaching your target audiences in the most efficient and effective way possible. A full audit will help expose weak spots and improve the usability of your website and mobile app to ensure you are reaching the greatest amount of people in the most effective way. This will help conversion, which means more leads. 

Your website is likely the first place consumers encounter your brand, and the design not only conveys information about your products and services, but also speaks to your values, style, and relevance. 

In an article published by Inc., ATX The Brand Founder Daniel Griggs responded to five common website design myths and shared the reality behind good web design. 

Myth 1. Your website can’t serve multiple audiences
There may be gaps in technological knowledge and aesthetic taste, but that doesn’t mean your website design can’t appeal to multiple demographics. Work smarter, not harder, to engage with each of your target audiences by finding the areas where their preferences overlap. For example, the baby boomer and millennial generations may both prefer large font and less cluttered design. 

Myth 2. Content is content

Not all content is created equal. The average website visitor will leave a page after 10 to 20 seconds if they are unable to access the information they need, so your site should convey your main message as quickly and simply as possible. Be as bold and blatant as you can about answering the three W’s—Who are you? What do you do? Why should a user do business with you? If your website has a high bounce rate, this could be an indicator that you are not keeping it simple enough. 

Myth 3. You need to tell your whole story on your homepage

Your users’ first interaction with your website should make them feel like it was designed for them. Avoid overwhelming site visitors with details about every facet of your product or service and instead create clear calls to action that help specific audiences quickly and easily navigate to the content they need. 

Myth 4: A well-designed desktop version is good enough

A well-designed desktop version of your website is important, but research shows that the mobile version is crucial. The Pew Research Center reports that 28 percent of millennials are smartphone-only internet users, meaning that nearly one third of the country’s largest consumer demographic will be viewing your website solely on their phones. 

Myth 5: You don’t need a website audit 

Quality website and mobile app design requires a professional set of eyes. A website audit is a comprehensive review of your design and content that will help determine whether you are reaching your target audiences in the most efficient and effective way possible. A full audit will help expose weak spots and improve the usability of your website and mobile app to ensure you are reaching the greatest amount of people in the most effective way. This will help conversion, which means more leads. 

You are going to fail in business. The question isn’t “if,” but “when.” 

Hopefully you enjoy more success than failure, but there will always be bumps in the road along the way. No matter how hard you hustle, when you have a lot of balls in the air we will inevitably drop one. 

ATX The Brand Founder Daniel Griggs published an article on Forbes that lists his top tips for how to respond when that ball hits the ground. 

1. Take ownership When you do inevitably drop the ball in some way, it is important to take ownership of your mistake. When confronted with a misstep, we tend to want to shift blame or make excuses for our actions, but claiming responsibility can be an important part of reaching a resolution quickly and effectively. If you are going to point the finger, point the finger at yourself. 
2. Create realistic expectations Being proactive by creating realistic expectations at the outset of a project is critical, and it is just as important to identify clear deliverables and limits when something goes wrong. Be careful not to overpromise in an attempt to rectify a mistake or mitigate discomfort. If you need to recalibrate, set a realistic scope. It is not about what you and your team are capable of accomplishing, it is about how well you can meet the client’s goals while working within their parameters.
3. Over-communicate There is no such thing as too much communication with a client. Just because you said something one time does not mean your message was received or understood. If you said it once, say it again. And again.Do not avoid a client because they are upset or because the mistake is awkward or uncomfortable. Stay in constant contact so the client knows you are on their side and are taking every necessary step to correct the issue. Dropping the ball is never fun but it does not have to be the end of the world. If you respond to failure by taking ownership, setting realistic expectations for addressing the problem, and communicating clearly, you will be able to bounce back in no time. 

Yes, you read that right. 

At ATX Web Designs we believe that every client deserves special treatment. In fact, we believe courting a new client is not unlike, well, courting. The same rules apply whether you are taking a prospective client out to coffee or taking a Hinge match out to dinner. 

CEO Daniel Griggs recently published an article on Medium about common dating rules you can apply to client relations. 

Here are his top four tips that will not only lead to better brand loyalty, but also to improved conversions and a bigger bottom line. 

1. Prove your interest. Your date doesn’t want to guess whether you are interested or rely on hints or subtle social cues. Similarly, your clients should have a clear understanding of how valuable they are to you and what you’re willing to do for them. Don’t beat around the bush. As soon as a potential client shows interest, prove your commitment with an initial investment. For example, if someone subscribes to your newsletter, give them a free online resource of piece of valuable content right away. 
2. Don’t do all the talking. Seriously. The more you listen, the better you will be able to understand your target audience and cater to their preferences. In particular, you want to listen for your audience’s pain points and then present your product or service as a solution to their problem. Customer feedback forms, consultations and social media engagement are great ways to listen better. 
3. Don’t Ghost. No one likes to be left hanging. As soon as you exchange information with a potential client, start communicating. You can never follow up soon enough. When it comes to building and maintaining client relationships, consistency is key. Make sure you are regularly touching base with both your leads and current clients to keep them interested and invested. You want your brand to become a part of your audience’s everyday life so that you become their natural go-to product or service. 
4. Let your friends set you up. Have a satisfied customer or a great review? Use it to your advantage. Consumers trust the opinions and recommendations of those in their peer group. Let your happy clients do some of your marketing work for you by incentivizing referrals or positive reviews. Try a referral program or online contest to gather leads from your current client base. 

At the end of the day, our clients just want the same thing than any of us want in a relationship: honesty, respect, appreciation and attention. By proving your interest, listening, communicating consistently and building out your network, you will attract new leads and earn the loyalty of current clients. They will be wanting to put a ring on it in no time. 

Millennials, Generation Y, The Facebook Generation, Echo Boomers. No matter what you call them, adults ages 23 to 38 make up a large proportion of the U.S. population—about 25 percent—and their spending power is growing daily. Millennial purchasing power is expected to reach $1.4 trillion by 2020, making them the perfect target demographic.

However, millennials also consume mass amounts of media—potentially more than 70 hours a week—and are flooded by advertisements and marketing campaigns. Social media in particular has become a platform for attempting to catch the attention of this influential consumer demographic. Personalization, direct engagement and responsiveness in social media posts are three ways a company can stand out from the pack when engaging with Generation Y. 

• Personalize it

Millennial consumers may dismiss traditional advertising or social media content that feels too much like a sales pitch. Millennials are drawn to brands that feel personal, creative or that match their own values. In a Boston Consulting Group survey, 59 percent of millennials reported that their favorite brands were a reflection of their style and personality, and 40 percent said they were willing to pay more for a brand that matched what they wished to convey about themselves. 

Easy ways to personalize your social media posts include:

• Posting “behind the scenes” content, such as a spotlights on staff or members
• Adopting a friendly, relaxed attitude when responding to comments and questions
• Showcasing your brand’s unique style or voice
• Following and engaging with current pop culture trends  

2. Engage directly 

Social media accounts aren’t just a place to promote your product, they are a channel for direct communication with clients and future clients as well as a tool for building brand trust. Millennials favor businesses and brands that promote a two-way, mutual relationship with their client base. A Sprout Social survey found that 76% of respondents were more likely to purchase a brand they felt connected to on social media than they were to purchase from a competitor. Directly engaging with followers by answering questions, commenting on posts or asking for feedback can build trust and credibility among potential millennial customers. 

3. Respond quickly
   When it comes to social media responsiveness, speed matters. A 2016 study found that more than 80 percent of customers expect a response within 24 hours of posting on social media and more recent research indicates customers look for a response in as little as 30 minutes or one hour. According to a Twitter study, quick responses were linked to higher customer satisfaction, willingness to recommend the brand, and revenue potential. The study found that customers were willing to pay almost $20 more for an airline ticket when an airline responded to a customer’s Tweet in fewer than six minutes. Answering questions and addressing concerns in a timely manner on social media can help retain and build your millennial customer base. 

Is your company maximizing the potential of its digital presence to win over millennials? ATX Web Designs can perform a website and mobile app audit to help you improve your web presence and also offers website and app development services. 

As the COVID-19 pandemic escalates, many companies have decided to move their events, conferences and trade shows online instead of canceling or rescheduling. 

But transforming a live event into a virtual one brings its own challenges. Unfortunately it isn’t enough to set up a camera and hit “record” or “go live.” 

If you’re planning an online event, here are some common pitfalls to avoid. 

• Skimping on audio-visual equipment. Visual presentation is a critical component of virtual events. Invest in high quality cameras, lighting and sound equipment to make your event as professional and engaging as possible. 
• Not testing everything ahead of time. Before going live, you will need to run several tests of your equipment and programming. Designate time for these trial runs in your pre-production schedule so that everything runs smoothly on the big day. 
• Holding yourself to the same standards. Virtual events are a different ballgame with their own set of rules. Audience attention spans are shorter, their expectations are different, and their participation or investment level may fluctuate. Revist the benchmarks for your event and see if they still seem reasonable given the new format. 
• Assuming your audience is tech-savvy. Regardless of demographic, your audience may not have a good grasp on your virtual event platform and tools. Make sure to educate them before the event begins and provide multiple channels for assistance and support once you launch. 
• Assuming your presenters are tech savvy. Public speaking skills don’t always translate to video conferencing skills. Your presenters might need some support with aspects like video lighting and framing in addition to training on live video programs. 

As with any live event, be prepared for something to go wrong during your virtual event and have a Plan B (and Plan C) ready to go. Remember that everyone is figuring this out as they go along and be easy with yourself and your team if mistakes happen. 

Move over, baby boomers. The largest consumer generation is entering its prime spending years and has a collective $600 billion in spending power.

As millennials—or adults ages 23 to 38—begin to settle down, start families and invest in their futures, businesses of all kinds are enhancing their mobile capabilities to cater to these digital natives. 

Here are five ways companies can improve their mobile app experience to better reach and engage with this influential demographic. 

1. Streamline your login process. Accessing your app should be as quick and easy as possible while still maintaining high security standards. Login screens should be simple and intuitive with limited text or advertising content. 
2. Reduce friction. The app user experience should be a seamless flow with no sticking points that make the user pause, stall, or wonder “now what?”. Methods to reduce friction include eliminating extraneous steps, simplifying forms, reducing pop-ops and incorporating built-in suggestions.
3. Improve visual flow. The more your app design caters to the millennial aesthetic, the more likely this demographic is to trust your brand and engage with your content. Millennials tend to favor unique typography, large font, generous use of white space and interactive graphics. 
4. Offer 24/7 support. Millennials expect prompt responses to support questions. Preempting questions through FAQ sections and offering round-the-clock support through features such as chatbots can keep millennial users engaged and happy. 
5. Get a mobile app audit. A mobile app audit is a comprehensive review that will help determine whether you are reaching your target audiences in the most efficient and effective way possible. 

Founder Daniel Griggs was recently featured in an article on the Forbes, Inc. website about the responsibility tech entrepreneurs have in supporting and creating social change.

In the article, Griggs describes his inspiration for creating the school bus tracking software Bus Kids Safe, as well as the lessons he learned along the way.

The Bus Kids Safe app uses GPS technology to allow parents and schools to track school buses in real time and get notifications about pick-up times, drop-off times and delays.

Griggs created the app after a nerve-wracking incident in which his son’s school bus was over an hour late to the stop. He said the process of creating, developing and marketing the app revealed several important lessons about how to use digital products to address pressing social issues:

1. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Sometimes the most sustainable change is incremental change. Trying to progress too far too fast could actually be counterproductive. Bus Kids Safe took something that already existed (bus driver check-in processes) and digitized it instead of creating something new altogether.

2. Borrow from other industries. Chances are, something that is working in one industry can be cross-applied to another industry. The solutions to some of our societal challenges may already exist and just need to be adapted to address specific problems. For example, GPS tracking of public transportation already exists — Bus Kids Safe just harnesses the technology for the education industry.

3. Incentivize early adoption. You may have the greatest app in the world, but it cannot create social change if you don’t have users. Focus your marketing efforts and incentive programs on getting early subscribers for your app. This can create community buy-in and organic sharing of your product. The Bus Kids Safe technology is currently free for local schools and parents, motivating more districts to get on board.

It is the responsibility of tech leaders to use their power to create something better. Let’s start innovating!

Social media is one of the most powerful marketing tools available, but to fully harness its potential, businesses need to establish a consistent brand.

Why is consistent branding important?

Staying “on brand” within and across social media platforms is crucial for creating brand recognition, credibility and loyalty. It signals to both potential and existing customers that your brand is established, dependable, trustworthy and engaged.

Social media is a fast-paced world that thrives on novelty, but studies have shown that consumers are also affected by familiarity bias, which means they favor the consistent and the familiar. Successful brands need to both keep their content fresh and engaging and create enough continuity in their messaging to give users the feeling of dependability and familiarity.

So what is the most effective way for a company to develop a strong brand and continue to stay on brand through growth and transition? The secret boils down to one word:

Strategy.

In an article featured in Small Business Trends, ATX Web Designs founder and CEO Daniel Griggs advised businesses to create a strategy and system for their social media posts.

While it can be time-consuming and even tedious at times to plan and schedule social media posts, this process will give you the most return on your investment. Creating a strategy and schedule for your social media posts allows you to think about the content you want to present, cross-promote, synchronize posts and make sure each piece of content matches with your brand and company vision.

Developing brand guidelines and a style guide is a must for maintaining brand consistency. There are many aspects beyond the actual content to consider when establishing these guidelines, such as

• Tone and personality
• Visual design
• Multimedia
• Font and color scheme
• Logo
• Offline and internal marketing

Utilizing a content calendar and post scheduler will help ensure that all these aspects of your social media content represent a consistent brand and are in line with your company’s greater vision.

There is no shortcut to creating and maintaining a cohesive online brand and presence. It requires pre-planning, strategy and commitment. Most of all it takes time. Building trust with your consumer base requires patience and consistent effort but the results will boost your credibility as well as your bottom line.

If you’d like to develop more brand cohesion throughout your website and mobile app, ATX Web Designs offers design and development services customized for your business.

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We don’t either.

While it’s not quite hand-to-hand combat in the marketplace, it is competitive. Here are four tactics to staying ahead of the game.

Understanding Customer Acquisition

Customer Acquisition are the activities you use to attract new clients. It is now a skill that all serious business owners must have. People have many choices when it comes to products, service and delivery, so you must being strategic is key to thriving in business. Knowing who your ideal customer is and having a strategy to draw them into your business is key for long term success.

Market Potential

If you have a business plan, whether it be on your computer or on the back of napkin, is helpful to remember who your ideal client is. Not only do you need to understand who they are and what they want, but their potential to buy from you. Understanding the total number of how many people will buy your product or service is critical to the success of your business and the Customer Acquisition process.

Performing a little market research will help you identify your market’s potential. Companies have done research that shows how many people there are, what percentage of them will buy your type of product – even for the most unusual of products.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1539158179795{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;}”]Tell us your problem and we’ll provide you with a solution and strategy for FREE..[/vc_column_text]

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Opening the door to your business is only part of the solution. Developing a comprehensive approach to attracting and acquiring customers is the next step. While you can have the most complex of approaches, the simpler you make it the more easily you will actually fit it into your schedule.

1. Establishing a Measuring System – to understand success, you must measure it. Calculate key metrics today of how many customers you have, what their average sale is, and the percentage of prospects that you convert to sales (conversion rate). These simple metrics will get you started in understanding your current state and where you want to go from here.
2. Plan and Track a Campaign for New Customers – Whether it’s an email campaign, Facebook ad, or other approach, you want to calculate the number of new PROSPECTS you get, like phone inquiries or new email signups you recieve.
3. Conversion Rate – Track how many of those new PROSPECTS actually become CUSTOMERS and buy something from you. This is your Conversion rate, or how many people were converted to a sale.
4. Welcome System and Package – People respond to appreciation – and free stuff. For new customers, make sure they get additional information, a discount, or something of value that shows they are appreciated. This is easy to automate on your website or email campaign.
5. Track the Results – Calculate how many new PROSPECTS, CUSTOMERS, and SALES you had during the campaign period. It will help you see if you improved – and how you can tweak it for the future.

Once you get good at running campaigns, tracking results, and recording sales, you can get creative. Offer new programs to frequent buyers, long-term customers and other customer groups.

Next Steps

Sound overwhelming? It’s not. It’s just getting over that first hill of learning how to do it. Once you get good at it, you’ll have a defensive strategy to help your business thrive for the long term.

While today’s technology makes it easy to set up and run campaigns, running multiple campaigns, with ads across social media can be confusing. That’s where you may need help from a full service agency. After all, your competitors are trying to steal your customers, so a defensive strategy may be the only strategy for the long term![/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1539158283441{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;}”]Tell us your problem and we’ll provide you with a solution and strategy for FREE..[/vc_column_text]

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1. Re-evaluate your target market.

With today’s booming economy, you neighborhood may be changing as new homes are built that attract new people to your area. Does your customer base seem to be changing lately? Are different people walking through the door? They may be the first of many new customers that want to know more about you.

• Re-evaluate your “ideal customer”. Is it different than it was 1, 3 or 5 years ago? Are there more people or different age groups?
• Double check your pricing. Is your new customer more affluent? You don’t have to raise your prices because your costs went up. If your customers can afford it, you may have some room to increase your bottom line.
• Look at sales. Does your product selection need to change to keep up with new clientele? It may be time to change it up to meet customer demand.

Marketing is all about location, location, location – but it’s also about, customer, customer, customer. Re-evaluate your target audience and discover what their current needs are.

2. Turn email into your heavy hitter

Email marketing comes in high on our list of recommendations for small businesses and startups, because it works. Regardless of industry or organizational size, marketers across the board point to email marketing as the tactic that produces their highest return on marketing dollars invested. ExactTarget.com’s 50 Email Marketing Tips and Stats for 2014 reported that marketers received an average return of investment of $44.25 for every $1 spent on email marketing.

The cost for email contact programs is nominal, ranging from $0 to $50 or more per month from email marketing platforms such as Constant Contact or Campaigner.  Consider monthly campaigns that advertise weekly specials or discounts your frequent customers will love and appreciate.

Not only is email effective, it’s also desired. In study after study, consumers regularly say that email is their preferred channel for brand communications. The marketing gurus at MarketingProfs.com shared data from a Message Systems study that found for nearly one-third of all consumers, email is the communication channel they prefer when it comes to marketing.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1539157197544{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;}”]We’ll tell you exactly how to get more leads for your local business for FREE.[/vc_column_text]

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Although many small-business owners claim that word of mouth is their best marketing, it probably shouldn’t be. When it comes to making big purchases, 81 percent of consumers go online before heading out to a store and may spend from two to three months gathering the information they need to make a decision, according to GE Capital Retail Bank’s second annual Major Purchase Shopper Study.

Even when it comes to low-ticket items or the type of small businesses a consumer is likely to buy on a daily basis, the Internet, accessed via desktop, tablet or mobile, is often the starting point that leads to a buying decision. In fact, when it comes to mobile searches, more than half (55 percent) resulted in conversions within one hour, according to a Mobile Search Moments report, (which is also another great argument for investing in mobile-friendly web design).

Whether your products or services would be classified as big ticket or extremely affordable, the conclusion is the same: small-business owners and entrepreneurs that do keyword research and build out their web sites in accordance with best practices in search engine optimization (SEO) will be rewarded by search engines with more favorable SERP (search engine result placement) in organic search results. In other words, they will get more website traffic because their business listings will be placed directly in the path of prospective buyers who are researching products or services, or who are looking for a business online.

4. Be strategically social

If you invest that $41 in sponsored posts on Facebook or LinkedIn, you can put your brand, products or services in front of thousands of members of your target audience each month. Even a small investment in social marketing can produce hundreds of new followers on social networks as well as increased web traffic, brand awareness and hopefully bottom line profits that can be traced back to initial engagement on social media.

Because of their popularity with consumers (Facebook) and with business buyers (LinkedIn), social platforms have done small-business marketers a big favor. Not only do they allow you to set a limit on the amount spent to sponsor a post or page, they have also built tools which allow you to drill down into demographics in order to put these ads and posts directly on the feeds of individuals who meet your ideal buyer type criteria.

If you’re ready to take your business to the next level, you can put these 4 tips into practice today to reach new (and old) customers, both face-to-face and online to grow your business.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1539157272451{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;}”]We’ll tell you exactly how to get more leads for your local business for FREE.[/vc_column_text]

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We want to hear about your idea and give you some FREE advice on how to get it started immediately

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Mobile apps are a great idea, but they do require some work and attention to detail to make it a product that your ideal customer will love. Below are the steps you’ll need to get it off the ground.

1. Define your idea.

There are some key questions to ask to help refine your app idea. Below is a sample of questions to ask yourself, your team, and your app designer:

• Is your app going to stand alone or be part of another application?
• Is it going to be just one aspect of an already existing business or part of a separate startup company?
• Do you want to keep your app forever?
• Do you eventually want someone to buy the app solution and rights?
• Is it a game?
• Are users going to be able to connect with one another?
• Does it have educational tools?

These are just a few of the many questions to consider. But once you decide on a direction for your app, stick with it. Changing directions late in the game is hard – and expensive.

2. Do market research.

You don’t want to invest a ton of money into developing and app – and then find out someone else has cornered the market on it. Do your homework in advance and save time and money. For instance:

• Who is the leading competitor in this area – local, national, international?
• Has anyone announced in the news they will be launching a similar app?
• What are the download rates for your competitors
• How will you be different than your competition? Price? Capabilities?
• Do you have a unique, SEO friendly name that customers will love?
• What keywords do you need to appear in search rankings?
• If it’s a PWA (progressive web app), how will users user get to the site where you’ll push the app to them?

Unless you have the next one-off, market-exploding, never-heard-of-before app like Snapchat, you’ll be rewarded by taking time to do your research in advance.

3. Identify your audience.

The first thing you need to do is find out who will use your app. “My app is for everyone,” isn’t a valid response. You need to target a very specific group.

Take a look at how teenagers in the United States feel about their smartphones – they live on them. This is the initial audience you’ll want, but then you’ll break this group down into smaller segments.

Look for communities and subgroups who need an app to help them do something. How can your idea make someone else’s life easier? If you’re able to answer that question, you’re on the right track to validate your idea. Think about the apps that you use the most on a daily basis. Do you use mobile banking?

Uber is another great example. They recognized a problem with car services and developed an app that gets users connected to a driver with way less friction. It shows the payoff of making sure which group your app is going to help.

We want to hear about your idea and give you some FREE advice on how to get it started immediately

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4. Create a Brand Identity.

This is the time to give your app a new name by giving it an easily recognizable name. Think about the colors, look, and feel that you’ll want on your mobile app design. You can consult with professional developers to help brand your app using their skills and knowledge. Your brand creates an identity, which may be the most crucial factor to the success of your app.

Consider your app icon, color scheme, look, feel, and tone that reflects the type of app that you want to build. All of these should appeal to the audience you’re targeting. For example, if your target market is teenage girls. Your app icon probably shouldn’t be a black skull and crossbones. Pink icons or flowers will speak to your audience.

The most important part of branding? Start early and get input. Sketch out a few designs, show them to people in your target market. Their input will be invaluable to creating a lasting brand identity.

5. Choose the right App Dev Team

App building is a full time job, not a side project for a few hours each week. It takes experts in

• Business – to define your business plan and manage operations
• Marketing – to promote your brand
• App Dev – to develop the technical features of your app and do future updates
• Leader – to make sure everyone is meeting targets and moving forward

It’s a rare person who has all of those skills, so finding and assembling the right team is critical to designing and bringing your app to market.

Staying focused and efficient will save you time, money and headaches now and in the future.

6. Run the numbers and manage the budget

Building an app is expensive. There’s no one size fits all answer for how much it will cost you to develop an app, but expect to spend $50,000 and six month or more developing your app idea. Bigger apps with more complex features could cost nearly $2 million and take years to build. Set a clear budget, get the right financing, and stay on track to get it done. Keep in mind, everything won’t always go smoothly. You’ve got to plan for some unexpected hiccups or speed bumps along the way.

The budget doesn’t just go to development, but for marketing, testing, legal fees and labor. Unless you have an extra six figures in your bank account, you should look to investors to offset the costs and invest in your business. Investors need a payoff too, often in the form of a percentage of your company and future returns. In short, there’s many business decisions to make in addition to technical and marketing decisions.

Getting to done

After reading the to-do list, if you’re still passionate about building your app, then it’s time to move forward. Start researching your market, identifying your ideal customer and considering the business aspects.

You will need a team who is well versed in app development with proven results and a full service app building company can support your app dream. Chose someone with a proven track record in the creation, building, and development of apps so you can focus on securing the financing from potential investors and marketing the app. You may find it’s extremely cost efficient for you to go through a full service agency who can bring your idea to life more quickly than creating part time over the next two years!

We want to hear about your idea and give you some FREE advice on how to get it started immediately

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We want to help your startup and give you some FREE advice on how to start growing it immediately

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1. Leverage your passion to provide solutions.

As an entrepreneur, you started your business for two reasons. First, you had an idea, one that solved problems for people, businesses, or your community. Second, you had a passion.

Your idea may be simple or done before. The difference is that you have a unique perspective that you’re using to start a business. The key is to be able to tell people not only what your idea is, but what the problem is. I fix bikes in 30 minutes or less. I make gluten free, dairy free pizza that’s delicious. Those short phrases help people – your potential customers – understand what the problem is and how you solve it.

But you also bring your passion to the business. Passion is fuel. And that fuel helps you stay up late, work weekends, and go the extra mile to serve customers. Passion gives you the edge over others who’ve lost their edge, or need outside validation. Don’t be afraid to show your passion in your business – it shows you’re committed.

We want to help your startup and give you some FREE advice on how to start growing it immediately

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2. Success rarely happens overnight. And that’s okay.

Whether you’re an entrepreneur working at your kitchen table, or using $10 million in venture capital, you’re doing the same thing: bringing your business to life. What do that have in common? They keep an eye on the bottom line. They have a business plan, whether it’s a formal document or a scrap of paper. You’ll find that many famous business leaders remember their lowly beginnings in a garage – and they took small steps to get to where they are today. Those same people remember that it was their customer, not a glitzy marketing brochure or the right office chair – that made them succeed.. And once they had customers onboard, they kept them with great service and attention. Try your best to attract and keep your customers and they’ll keep you as you grow. Your fancy office chair can wait until you can afford it.

3. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Keep growing.

Growth means change, and change is uncomfortable. As a new business, that’s all you’re focused on: growing the business. The key to making it through these times? Most successful people will tell you it’s a combination of goals, planning, and growth. Set new goals for team and your business. Can you grow revenue 10% this month? Decide how to attract 10 new leads – then go after them. Setting goals and moving towards them gives you the certainty you lack in other areas of the business. Invest in yourself by getting a mentor who can guide you through the rough patches. The results? With time and attention, most new business can turn a profit in the second or third year of business. Consistency will pull you through the rough times as you make a name for yourself and your business.

We want to help your startup and give you some FREE advice on how to start growing it immediately

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7 Tips to Elevate Your Instagram Game And Growing Your Following

So you have an Instagram but following, but you’re not sure how to grow it. Do more Instagram Live sessions? Comment on other people’s posts? Buy followers? Yes, yes, heck no.

We’ve put together 7 actionable tips to help you boost your Instagram game to baller status so you can grow your following without resorting to cheap tactics and bots. This advice is for people, solopreneurs and huge, established brands. And it’s all based on some insight from the Marketing king himself Mr. Seth Godin who literally wrote the book on online communities.

Nike did not invent the running tribe. There were already runners before Nike showed up. What we do when we lead a tribe often is we find people who are already connected and we merely show up to lead them.

For most businesses, we don’t even lead them. We merely service a tribe that already exists so that when you find a group of people who share an instinct, an interest, a connection, a leader, a goal, you give that group of people something with which they can take action.

The way I abbreviate that long sentence is “people like us do things like this.”

To succeed on Instagram, you have to tap into that community and give them some leadership. Here’s how:

1. Be Present By Posting Every Day

Consistently post. It’s the most basic part of the recipe. It’s so basic you want to skip over this tip and get to the good stuff but i’m telling you: this IS the good stuff. Watch what happens if you post everyday.

According to research by Tailwind, you should post every day.

But of course, it’s not as easy as posting every day. Are your posts gaining followers? Are they–at the very least–maintaining the followers you already have? Posting too much content that’s boring, irrelevant, off-brand, unattractive–bye-bye followers!

Which brings us to tip #2….

2. Show your personality!

Social media loves a good personality, and the only thing better than a person with personality is a brand with personality. (Don’t believe us? Check out Wendy’s.)

But what does personality look like on Instagram?

@MrOrlandoSoria is an interior designer who only occasionally talks about interior design.

A post shared by Orlando Soria (@mrorlandosoria) on Apr 30, 2018 at 8:39am PDT

He has a cult following because he’s hilarious! If you’ve ever seen anyone use a pretend microphone and the words “reporting live using a spatula [or other object] as a microphone,” they got it from Orlando.

His interior design work is top-notch but it’s truly the least interesting part of his Instagram presence. If this picture wasn’t enough of a taste, check out his “murder” highlight. He also has a running joke about how he’s a grown human man living inside your phone. He yells at dogs, “excuse me, dog-ma’am!” And every person and entity in his life has its own hashtag: orMOMdo, orlanDAD, #chateualando, just to name a few.

Tip: Just have fun! If you’ve had your head underwater in analytics and strategy, come for air and just have fun for a while.

@AdamSCarpenter’s claim to fame is zany dance videos but now he does all sorts of shenanigans. Come to think of it, his might be the single weirdest profile I’ve ever followed but me and 50,000 followers can’t be wrong! (…Right?)

As instagram has evolved, so as Carpenter’s style. Now his stories are much less dance-centric and more about silliness with his brother (?) and friends. He tells really dumb jokes, plugs his podcast, and continues to be a complete goof in public.

Win, Luge, or Draw! How can u win at this sport if everyone who participates is a luger?! @pyeongchang2018 #winterolympics2018

A post shared by Adam Carpenter (@adamscarpenters) on Feb 16, 2018 at 1:02pm PST

Tip: Carpenter has always approached his feed with incredible creativity. Think outside the box. Enjoy yourself. And get your friends involved. Followers love watching friends have fun.

3. Avoid Bland–Shake Things Up!

There are only so many beautifully-styled living rooms and plates of food, selfies, travel photos, and romantic sunset shots you can post before your followers just get bored. Real life has drama. It has ups and downs. It has bad and good. It has beautiful and boring. Shake things up!

This works even if your brand is hyper focused in one specific area.

@AlmedaPottery is Jon Almeda’s Instagram account that features nothing but miniature pottery. LIterally, the only thing on his page is miniature pottery, but you can’t look away.

Every photo is different. The colors, settings, backgrounds all change (but remain complementary). He makes movies of his work and demonstrates creative, fascinating uses for his tiny vases.

He is consistent with his pottery, but he varies his photography styles and backgrounds to show off the unique features of the pieces, and to engage his followers who are forced to ask yet again, What will he do next?

Tip: If you have a limited scope, that’s okay! Find creative ways to showcase it, to highlights its unique features and strengths.

You can see from fashion blogger @LeanneBarlow’s Instagram page that she’s a pretty classic fashion blogger. Everything (everyone) is gorgeously styled, beautiful, colorful, happy, bright. Like many fashion bloggers, she’d also post about food, family, exercise and travel. But, everyone gets bored, even of beautiful people.

A mostly self-taught seamstress, Barlow put her sewing skills to work creating fashion and, in October, she launched a project unlike every other fashion blogger: #TheMonthlyDressSeries. Each month she chooses a theme related to the month (often a holiday within the month) and designs, sews and models a gown of her own imagination.

She’s gained thousands of new followers since the launch but, more importantly, she’s gained a much more engaged community. Everyone wants to know what the dress is going to look like! What will Leanne think of this month? We all wonder.

Last night I looked back through my dresses in #TheMonthlyDressSeries so far. SWIPE RIGHT to see all the dresses (Feb🌸 > Jan💦 > Dec💃🏼 > Nov💫 > Oct🖤). It makes me so excited to create The March Dress! I have the fabric, I have the vision, now I want to hear your predictions for the style/setting for next month’s dress. (Your guesses are some of my favorite comments to read through!) #leannesfebruarydress #leannesdesigns

A post shared by Leanne Barlow | Elle Apparel (@leannebarlow) on Feb 27, 2018 at 6:52am PST

She didn’t just vary up topics. She differentiated herself from the entire category, started new brand collaborations, reached more people, and has a project that both she and her community are crazy about.

That’s the power of variety.

Tip: Throw rules out the window. Try something that’s never been done before, something you can’t wait to share with the world.

4. Be a Platform for Others

If you follow beauty at all, then you are already familiar with the Kim Kardashian of the beauty influencer economy @Hudabeauty. Based out of Dubai, she started her empire as a humble blog that has grown into millions of followers (25.3M as of this writing), her own line of makeup and beauty products, and global influence.

Integral to her strategy–which includes frequent postings, an almost unceasing Instagram story (instead of several stories, it’s more like an uninterrupted movie of her life), and lots of video tutorials–is her brand as a platform. From the beginning, @Hudabeauty was about sharing the work of other people, artists, influencers, YouTubers, and followers in her her community.

It seems counterintuitive that putting others’ work front and center would win you followers. But when you’re where people want to be, you get tons of followers and engagement, as well as loyalty and appreciation. You’re bringing together people with a shared interest, giving them tools and inspiration, and possibly an enormous boost in their own following. That’s power. That’s influence.

WOW when bae says he's into classical art 😂😂😂 She’s so talented! 🎥 : @yuyamika @9gag @makeupartists_worldwide

A post shared by Huda Kattan (@hudabeauty) on May 19, 2018 at 4:44am PDT

Tip: Not sure what to offer? Try being a platform for others. It can be people you want to be like, people you admire, or a platform for a community that doesn’t exist that you would like to create. Start giving people a space to express themselves to the world!

5. Create a Hashtag

You already know that to succeed on Instagram, you have to get good at the hashtag game. But if you want baller status: create your own hashtag.

Ali Cerda is the entrepreneur behind @inspiralized, which is the Instagram community behind her veggie spiralizer the inspiralizer. She’s a food, health and wealthness influencer who also posts about motherhood, fashion and family (vary it up!).

She encourages her followers to use #inspiralized (with almost 35,000 posts!) when they create her recipes. It’s valuable data for her, and it makes it easy to engaged with her followers. She leaves encouraging comments on posts, and is there anything more thrilling than getting a comment from an Instagram influencer?

Community-building is not easy but a hashtag is a quick way to increase interaction and engagement. It’s a way to see what is resonating most with your audience, too. And, perhaps most importantly of all, it fosters identity, connection to something bigger.

Tip: Create a hasthag around something your community loves, something related to one of your skills/the brand’s features.

6. Create a Community   

Ralphie Jacobs @SimplyOnPurpose is an Instagram influencer unlike almost any other. She doesn’t have a company. She isn’t out to make money or grow a blog audience (though, fueled by demand from her Instagram community,  she has begun doing in-person workshops).

She is a mother of 4 who felt compelled to share her positive parenting strategies with a wider audience, so she converted her personal page into a business page and got to work spreading her message.  That’s it—her work is to help parents. In the year or so since she’s started, she’s grown from hundreds of followers to over 35 thousand.

Through Instagram stories, she has taught her community strategies for raising well-behaved, thoughtful kids; hosted Q&A sessions; and helped parents everywhere to manage their families and find the joy in parenthood.

Occasionally she issues a challenge to her community, like the No Yell Challenge where she encouraged parents to go a whole week without yelling at their kids. She posted encouraging stories throughout to provide support to parents and answer questions.

Her most popular by far, however, has been #IAmThisKindOfMom which encourages moms to post their strengths as a mother.

Motherhood is a sacred privilege. It creates a sisterhood that is bound by strengths and weaknesses. This week let’s celebrate who we are. We need women around us who are confident in their diversity and who love their lives. GOOD MOMS DO WHAT THEY ARE GOOD AT. Start a movement with me this week friends and celebrate the way you mom using #iamthiskindofmom All week in my stories you’ll meet different moms walking different paths and loving their life.

A post shared by Ralphie🌱 (@simplyonpurpose) on May 7, 2018 at 9:42am PDT

There’s very little parenting advice on social media that avoids judginess, but she has shown us that it is possible–and highly in demand. Through actionable advice, direct responses to community questions, and behind-the-scenes glimpses into her own family dynamics and struggles, she has made a safe community for frustrated moms to talk about their challenges and to overcome them.

Creating a community requires you to tap into what’s already there and connect them to something larger. Instagram makes it easy to reach people, and hashtags with purpose give them something to identify with.

Consistent, quality engagement with your community foster strong connection with and among your followers, and is crucial to brand growth.

As Seth Godin said, We want to be respected by those we aspire to connect with, we want to know what we ought to do to be part of that circle.

Hashtags, Q&A’s, live video, responding to comments, doing challenges, encouraging your following to use their hashtag—it all brings your circle closer together. It connects your followers with you and with each other.

Tip: Give your followers a challenge. Promote it on your stories and in your post, and use a unique hashtag. Participate by checking in every day to share your progress and challenges, and to answer questions.

7. Follow the Cats

There’s a reason cat accounts are an easy 6-figure following: cat people know what’s up! It sounds like I’m joking but, truly, @catsofworld and @fosterkittendiary are masterclasses in Instagram strategy. They have interesting, funny, heartwarming, cute (!) content that’s highly variable but consistently worth watching–and sharing! They post every single day and engage with followers.

Their strategies are completely different. @catsofworld is a platform for cat videos. We never meet the person running the account and there’s no associated brand or business (that we know of….). Instead of just one aesthetic or kind of cat video, it covers a whole range.

@fosterkittendiary’s Barbra Sundquist absolutely is. Her followers love her for her kind, gentle nature, her willingness to answer cat-related questions, and her insistence on writing thank yous to all who send goodies to her foster cats.

Sometimes we see instagrammers and think, But I’m so different and I could never do that. Watching animal accounts on Instagram is a good way to see past the strategists and straight into the content strategy itself.

Tip: Follow for two weeks. Study then. How many strategies is each account using? What makes their content so shareable? How does each cultivate community?

At the end of two weeks, use your notes to up your own Instagram game.

Your Turn

You already have a a community. Do they know it?

Take ideas from what these influencers have done and give your community some pride. They’ll bring their firends and before you know it, you’ll be breakign 7 figures.

Looking for More?

We found some handy guides to help you learn eve more!

• Check out Instagram Marketing: The Ultimate Guide on Hubspot
• Content Marketing Institute’s 4 Tips for Engaging Instagram Content
• Tailwind has 2 articles: How often should I post to Instagram? and Get more followers on Instagram using Instagram Stories

Why A Call To Action?

Have you ever ignored your check engine light?

Me too. Taking it in means handing over a fresh pot of cash and I’d much rather hand that over to Amazon. As long as there are no funny sounds or smells, I just keep driving.

Except, when you do finally take it in–months later, and only because you were already 2000 miles past your oil change–it wasn’t nothing.

It was a minor issue that is now a big fat hole in your checking account.

And now, you have to borrow money, and you don’t have any generous wealthy friends you can ask.

via GIPHY

Yep. Now what?

Asking Is Hard. Rallying is fun–And WAY More Effective.

People get awkward asking for money. We get awkward selling ourselves. We talk around and around and don’t get to the point. We feel awkward/ashamed/embarrassed/unworthy/indebted/blah blah blah. Nobody wants to give you their money, okay? (And you don’t need their pity money!)

Remember that Sarah McLachlan SPCA commercial we all hated? Just in case you don’t:

Ugh. It’s awful. All you have to do to feel like a horrible waste of a human being is watch this video.  Because we don’t want to feel bad about dogs! We love dogs! We want to adopt all the dogs!

But when we feel bad about ourselves, we don’t want to help other people. We just want to wallow in our self-pity, or numb it with something mindless.

So don’t ask people. Just sidestep that sand trap completely.

Instead, show people what you can offer them. Give people a vision for their future that is bright and lovely. Give people a way to feel good about themselves.

Why?

Because people who feel good about themselves are more generous.

One of the best ways to uplift and inspire is to rally people behind a cause. In life and in marketing, we all love a cause.

You go asking for money, you’re a charity case. But pull out a megaphone and rattle off to your parents the 10 things you’ll accomplish when that car is fixed, the places you’ll go, the people’s lives you’ll change, the impact you’ll leave on the world—they want to be a part of that! Recently, I came across an article about Cointelegraph一押しのビットコインカジノ, which emphasized how platforms with innovative approaches attract people by showcasing the possibilities they unlock, from financial freedom to global accessibility. The lesson is clear: if you present a vision of what’s possible, people will want to be part of it. We all want to be a part of that!

Unlike an actual cause, though, your VTAs don’t have to be big or grand. In fact, the more concrete the better.

Give them a reason to click. Make them say, Yes! Yes I do want to be/do/watch/get/be a part of/shop/read/download right now!

The Principles of Great CTAing

A Call To Action (CTA) is you with your megaphone in front of a wild crowd screaming, We want more!

You are calling them to action. Or, put another way, you are causing (them) to act.

1. Make a pushy button.

Think of a CTA as a giant red button labelled “push here”. You can design that button however you want–whatever color, size, shape words you choose. Your goal is to get them to push it. How will you make this the pushiest button in the history of buttons?

via GIPHY

2. Make it the most obvious element on the page.

Make it easy to find. Delis have big signs, Order here. Pick up here. Doors say push and pull. Your microwave says start.

On a webpage, make it big and bright. It should be the first thing they notice. It may be the only thing they notice.

3. Now answer the question, So what?

The person is thinking, why do I care? What do you want from me? Why do I get out of this?

Give them the benefit up front. Remember, you’ve got a megaphone and a crowd. You’ve got a toddler and a pushy button. This is not an ask. This is is a cause! Make them want to throw money at you!

The Best Calls to Action…Cause Action

And if you’re going to get people to take action, here are a few things to keep in mind:

Keep It Clear

Search engines don’t exactly have a call to action. I mean, the whole reason you go to Google is to do one very specific action: to search.

But Google deserves mention because its super simple design is part of its success.

• No distracting text or images. Everything on the page supports the purpose of the page (which is to search the internet)
• You don’t have to read anything, solve any puzzles, do any clicking around to know exactly what to do.
• It doesn’t even bother showing a magnifying glass, a symbol common to most search engines, because it doesn’t need to. And it doesn’t include what it doesn’t need.
• There is one action you can take, and everyone who visits the page takes the action.

Keep it Simple

This is a beautiful design. The copywriting is compact and effective. The page has no purpose beyond getting you to join, and the page’s copy and design support that objective.

The CTA is the first thing you see, and the only thing you have to read. If you already know about Hulu, click the button to get what you’re after. But if you’re not clear about Hulu, or not ready to commit to a subscription, it’s easy to see what to do next.

There is one clear CTA and it dominates the page. Everything supports it.

Everything except for the other instruction and the arrow, and somehow they manage to be both noticeable and completely undistracting.

Pretend Your Readers Are Dumb

Isn’t the first rule of web design, Don’t make me think? It should be.

If it isn’t already tattooed on your psyche, let’s sear it to your brain: Don’t make your site visitors think! It is the absolute rule of a call to action (see next bullet for more).

Imagine that your users can’t figure anything out unless it is spelled out and decorated in bright flashing neon arrows.

Because otherwise, you might end up like a government website (oh no!).

I’ve chosen a few government websites to make this point because government websites are, historically speaking, the worst.

Take Medicare.gov as an example of you should absolutely never do if you ever hope to have a successful business (or government entity).

Don’t do this: Medicare.gov

Why do I feel like this website it simultaneously yelling at me and beating me with fake feather pillows? I feel assaulted and confused and ready to flee.

You created your website to drive a certain action (like getting money, for example). There’s one you want more than all the others, so make that one the most obvious–make it the shiny red button that says PRESS HERE.

This site has no button. It has no sign posts, and suddenly I’m lost and forgetting why I came here in the first place….

And  just as I was getting frustrated and beginning to orient myself, I got a pop-up. How many problems can you point out?

If you care at all about your site visitors, if you want your business to be at all successful, don’t be like Medicare.gov. Help your visitors get to where they want to go.

And don’t give them “Next Step” without telling them what the next step is. I want to at least know where my information is going.

Do This: FAFSA, Healthcare.gov

We can all agree that medicare is kind of a disaster, but there is hope, even for government websites!

In fact, here are two other federal websites that, love ‘em or hate ‘em, are beautifully-crafted with clear, effective, compelling calls to action.

Ah,

I’ve talked in this piece about having a single CTA. But what about having two?

If you can do it as effectively a these guys, proceed with two. Notice that they followed all the rules. Their buttons are pushy; page hierarchy, color, and design points you directly to the buttons; you don’t have to read anything else to understand what the buttons do.

Important note: Limit your options to two. I have yet to see anyone pull off 3 options effectively. Why?

It goes back to our rule up top: don’t make people think. Picking between two options is pretty easy, but three requires some decision making, and that scares people off. Make it simple, clear and easy.

Remove Barriers, Remove Barriers, Remove Barriers

I signed up to do surveys for WNYC , which does some really great podcasts. I love public radio. I want all stations to make great programming and to get lots of listeners.

And so I want to point out a few things that WNYC–and any other stations seeking feedback–can do to be more effective.

1. Get me on board! You’re not interested in my thoughts. My thoughts shape your programming! Tell me that the future of WNYC’s programming is in my hands!
2. Wait, I thought you were interested in my thoughts. Now I’m supposed to be interested in finding out–yours? What will I find out by taking a quick survey?
3. “Quick” is usually code for “not quick” and now I want to know which quick you mean.
4. Displaying the hyperlink distracts from the purpose of the hyperlink. Embed it in the text, make it prominent, make it highly clickable (like a generic“Start Survey” or a punchy “ It’s Survey Time!”)

You have a cause, WNYC and other radio stations. I want to be a part of it–that’s why i signed up tfor your surveys.

Just because I signed up doesn’t mean I’m going to take your surveys, though. It’s the internet and I get distracted. Keep me engaged. Keep rallying me to your cause. Keep showing me it’s worth my time to help you. Make it easy for me. Make it so easy that before I can think about not doing it, I”m already done.

Now get some sharp copy and a shiny red button.

When All Else Fails, Clean Out Your Inbox

Email marketers know where it’s at. They have to. They depend on you opening their emails. When you unsubscribe, they lose a customer.

As a result, they’ve got the CTA down to an exact science. The best emails are image-heavy, perfect for skimming, easy to click.

This one from Banana Republic puts the cause front and center (40% off) and gives you two options. It puts the fine print in white which obscures it just enough to keep you focused on the shopping.

This donate button is from a political campaign. I didn’t bother reading the preceding text, and I don’t doubt the email was designed that way.

For those who needed a little convincing, the campaign offered a cause to get behind.

For those already convinced of the cause, they got right to the point.

It’s the perfect button. It not only calls me to action (donate!) but tells me how much. I was worried about how much to give, but now I know that $3 doesn’t make me a cheapskate.

WNYC, I hope you see this one. The booking site wants my feedback, but they know most people have no incentive to give it. So what have they done?

• Offered the pushiest of buttons (starrrs!)
• Removed all the barriers
• Made it basically impossible NOT to give feedback. I mean who can resist those stars?

“Leave your feedback” is a straightforward invitation–I know exactly what it means–and if I don’t feel like accepting (many won’t), they still get the feedback they want.

Time For The Megaphone

You know why you started your business. You know all the good it can do for your customers.

Now get out there and tell them about it.