The Anatomy of an Effective Web Design

Color Scheme
(Web Design Elements)

Your color scheme should be applicable to your target audience. Less color can work in your favor in many cases. Most sites only have 2 colors in their palette.

Usability and Utility

a. Success or failure of site depends usability and function
b. Efficient user experience is easy to navigate and promotes returning visits

Effective Typography

a. Use color, size, and weight variation for titles and subtitles
b. Maintain legibility with correct line, letter, and word spacing
C. Line height should be 1.5 times your font size

Design Elements

a. Mock up wireframes of site
b. White space is necessaiy to separate units of information and create balance

Visited Link State
a. Color change of visited links helps the visitor to know which links they've clicked on

Design Elements
a. Attribute to the overall mood of site
b. Keep elements consistent
c. Attention to detail often makes larger impact
d. Less is more

Test Before Launch, Test Often
Have multiple outside parties test your site for bugs/user experience flaws
Don't test your own code: test on multiple browsers/computers

Answer the Question
Make sure the purpose of the site is clear to the user and fulfills their reason for visiting

Use Conventional Layouts
Layouts are familiar to user so they know how to navigate Promotes trust in site

Create Interest/Flow
Highlight site features: make navigation elements prominent Use effective writing, scannable layouts, and concise phrases Do not includes PDF files. PDFs break user's flow

Eliminate Friction for Users
Use clear structure and recognizable visual clues
Don't require too much of the user
Let users experience the site features before sign up
Focus attention by providing pathway from point A to point B

7 Digital Tactics For eCommerce Personas [INFOGRAPHIC]

"value hunter"
Example Tactic: Flash sale
She needs:
A clear value proposition
Discounts/Deals
Tiered Service Options

"Researcher"
Example Tactic: Reviews
He needs:
* expert/consumer Reviews
* Rating
* Recommendations

 "Brands Devotee"
Example Tactic: Loyalty Programs
She needs:
* Engaging UX
* Loyalty Rewards
* Social Platform

 "Social Butterfly"
Example Tactic: Social Discovery
She needs:
* Social Discovery
* Personalization
* Sharing Tools

"Replenisher"
Example Tactic: Free shipping
He needs:
* automatic Re-Ordering
* Subcription Service
* Loyalty Programs

 "Mobile Shopper"
Example Tactic: Mobile / Tablet Optimized Experiences
She needs:
* Responsive Design
* Local Stores/deals
* Notifications/Alerts

 "Gifter"
Example Tactic: Gift Collections
She needs:
* Gift Cards
* Wrapping Services
* Holiday Promotions

How Retailers Are Adapting to the Mobile Shopping Craze

HOW RETAILERS ARE ADAPTING TO THE MOBILE SHOPPING CRAZE

Like it or not, the time for retailers to adopt a mobile shopping strategy is now. Shoppers are using smartphones and mobile devices for all manner of shopping activities, including price comparison, product information, local inventory lookup, reviews and social opinion, and more.

As a result, Aberdeen Group has found that 61 percent of retailers are striving to improve their mobile shopping experience to meet the demands of today's connected customer. Below we discuss how, and why, they are adapting.

THE NEED FOR MOBILE SHOPPING CAPABILITY

As the old retail saying goes, “the customer is always right” Likewise, the number one reason retailers are adopting mobile strategies is because customers are beginning to expect it.

External forces driving mobile shopping adoption

Percent of Respondents

47% Rapidly changing consumer expectations
38% High consumer adoption rates of mobile devices
28% Proliferation of new-marketing channels
26%Increasing customer expectations for a cross-channel ex perience
21% Cultural and generational demographic changes of customers

Internal forces driving mobile shopping adoption

However, pressure from the outside is not the only reason retailers are turning to mobile marketing strategies. Retailers also cited several internal pressures as instigators of change.

54% Need to improve customer retention
50 %Need to improve customer satisfaction
24% Economic pressures to deliver greater ROI


PLANS AND STRATEGIC ACTIONS
Overwhelmingly, retailers are acknowledging the importance of mobile shopping capabilities for smartphone and tablet users.

Devices retailers aim to target for mobile shopping capability

Devices to Target

93% Smartphones
48% Laptops
76% Tablets
47% Mobile handheld computers
31% Netbooks
55% Cellphones

Mobile shopping strategies retailers are focusing on in the next 24 months

Only a little over one third of retailers currently have mobile web support, and even fewer have more advanced mobile shopping technology in place. However, that is all likely to change in just two short years. The biggest growth will be on the back end, with retailers making use of “offer optimization applications" to test the various components of their marketing offers for effectiveness and value to their audience.

Mobile Strategy

Offer optimization application
Currently Using 13%
Planning to Use 79%

Mobile search engine presence/advertising
Currently Using 18%
Planning to Use 76%

Mobile delivered coupons
Currently Using 13%
Planning to Use 75%

Content management
Currently Using 26%
Planning to Use 72%

Mobile web analytics
Currently Using 13%
Planning to Use 71%

Mobile storefront/M-commerce application
Currently Using 18%
Plannin to Use 70%

Video
Currently Using 13%
Planning to Use 68%

Quick response (QR) and other codes
Currently Using 17%
Planning to Use 64%

Mobile payment system
Currently Using 22%
Planning to Use 63%

Mobile web support
Currently Using 37%
Planning to Use 63%

Mobile gift cards
Currently Using 13%
Planning to Use 61%

How retailers are approaching mobile shopping adoption

While some retailers have already worked out how to accomplish mobile shopping adoption, many more have action plans and goals laid out to get the job done.

Goal

Ensure brand consistency throughout mobile channel 43%

Create a team dedicated to the mobile channel 29%

Deploy personalized mobile marketing campaigns 26%

Track and measure mobile marketing campaign results 23%

Automate mobile marketing program deliver)' based on customer behavior 26%

OBSTACLES  FACED

Despite the clear importance of mobile shopping and marketing, retailers indicated that they will face a number of obstacles both internal and external as they develop and implement their solutions.

Obstacles retailers face to complete mobile shopping adoption

Challenge / Percent  of Respondents

The vast number of mobile devices and operating systems 56%

No clear leader of mobile marketing initiatives 22%

An incoherent mobile marketing strategy 38%

Lack of consensus about yhe value of mobile marketing 19%

Questions about the tangible business contribution of mobile marketing 29%

Getting Started With Your Email Marketing Campaign - An Infographic

Getting Started

1. Who: Adding contacts to your email lists

[ ] Done Business within last 6 months
[ ] Subscribed to receive emails within last 3 months
[-] Purchased lists or 3rd party lists of any kind
[-] Scraped email addresses from internet

2. What: Creating your emails
Subject Line
[ ] Keep it short
[ ] Include your company name
[ ] Tell them what´s inside
[-] Avoid Repetition: Contacts Often unsubcribe from repettitive emails
[-] Avoid Promotional: Promotional words with CAPS or exclamation marks
[-] Avoid Personalization: Subject lines with person´s name get less views

3.Relevance: is one of the biggest reasons subscribers choose to opt out
[ ] Segement your list with sublists and send relevant emails
[-] Don´t send men an email about a shoe sale for women
[ ] Good Content: Keep your content interesting and not repetitive
[ ] More Links = More clicks

4. Bad Words: Avoid using spammy words in your email

Increase. Order. amazing. Pleasure. Free. Money. Credit. Check. Offer. Discount. Save. Erotic. Call Now. Your Income. Opportunity. Join. Cheap. Weight Loss.

5.When: when to Send Your emails and get the best response
Best Days: Tuesday, Wednesday, thursday.

6.Best Times
9am-10am: First hour of the day is one of the best times
3pm-5pm: Life changing - property and financial services
4pm-7pm: B2B get viewed by working late
7pm-10pm: Consumers - clothing, sports, gyms

7.How Often: getting emails too frequently is a major reason people unsubscribe
[ ] New Years Day
[ ] Father´s Day
[ ] Mother´s Day
[ ] Halloween
[ ] Christmas

Infographic / Why Content for SEO?

• 50% of consumers are more likely to click on a search result if the brand appears multiple times on the results page
• The keys to good content? According to Google Fellow Amit Singhal, the four factors to consider are:
  
• Provide original content or information, original reporting, research or analysis.
• Content needs quality control.
• Content should provide complete and comprehensive coverage of the topic.
• The content should be something you'd want to share, recommend or bookmark.
• Quality content makes your site visible in search engines, but perhaps more importantly for marketers, it can influence purchase decisions. More than half of marketers (57 percent) say their blogs have led to customer acquisitions, according to HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing Survey. From consumers’ perspective, it’s clear that content that can be easily discovered online is a preferred method of product and service research. Nearly three-quarters of shoppers prefer information from companies in the form of articles over ads, and 42 percent look to blogs for information about potential purchases.
  
  The value of content in terms of converting search (and other) site visitors holds true whether you’re in the B2B or B2C sector: Sixty-one percent of consumers are more likely to buy from brands that offer custom content, and 60 percent of business decision makers say content helps them make purchase decisions.
  
  While these numbers speak to the value of content anywhere across the web, a study from BlogHer demonstrate the value of SEO-friendly content, in particular: Nineteen percent of beauty buyers who say blog posts impact their purchase decisions report they stumble upon the most useful content via search.

10 Incredible Mobile Marketing Insights – Infographic

There are more than 7 billion people on the planet. 5.1 billion of them own a cell phone, but only 4.2 billion own a toothbrush.
In Some Countries there are more Mobile Suscriptions than there are People
It takes 90 minutes for the average person to respond to an email. It takes 90 seconds for the average person to respond to a text message.
Mobile coupons get 10 times the Redemption Rate of traditional coupons.
70% of all Mobile searches result in action within 1 hour.
There are more mobile phones on the planet than there are TVs
Four out of Five: teens carry a wireless device, and the majority (57%) view their cell phone as the key to their social life. 91% of all U.S. citizens have their mobile device within reach 24/7.
According to Facebook, there are more than 350 million active users [44 percent] currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices. And people that use Facebook on their mobile devices are twice as active on Facebook as non-mobile users
According to Yankee Group, global mobile payments (called m-payments) currently total approximately $240 billion and are expected to exceed $1 trillion by 2015.