Accelerating Retail- A Google Initiative

31 Aug 2020 Blog

COVID 19 has changed everything around us from the way we live to the way we shop.

The use of technology by businesses and people has soared and is visible with the increase in internet usage by 60 percent. There has been a substantial shift in retail spending from planning to buying products we need. These changes have brought about a complete change in the retail setting. Businesses today are using a variety of resources to understand the changing customer behaviour like google trends, survey, analysis of their data as well as social listening to be able to make decisions in real-time. Google has stepped up and has offered tools like “Rising Retail Categories” since May 2020 which highlights fast-growing product-related categories along with the location.

To help European, Middle East, and Africa retailers make the most of the digital opportunities, Google is all set to launch its new initiative “Accelerating Retail” in September 2020.

What is Accelerating Retail?

Retail accounts for 9 percent of jobs in the European Union alone and it will play a vital role in the recovery. Accelerating Retail is a platform designed to help retailers of all sizes across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa accelerate business recovery and growth and to be ready for the upcoming peak shopping season. The month-long program will introduce new products, tools, free training, real-time insights, and resources to plan for the future.

Why do we need a platform like Accelerated Retail?

1. Retailers need to respond to the changing needs of the consumers-The world around us has seen a major change after COVID 19 was declared a pandemic. Online shopping has seen exponential growth which has brought about challenges in decision making for the businesses. The needs of the consumers have changed and their buying journey which started from research to exploring options both offline and online have now gone through a change due to the uncertainty in the availability of the products. Consumers have become more open to exploring other brands and options available. Having said that they now need help in finding the right product, at the right place, at the right time. This provides a perfect opportunity for the retail industry to respond to the consumer needs and changes in behaviour while building their brand online and in-store through the use of tools of Accelerated Retail.

2. Recovery and growth through digital- Online retail demand have soared and the focus of any business now needs to be on providing great customer experience and build brand recognition. With the launch of a new version of “Grow My Store” in many countries, Google wants to help local businesses to improve digital shopping, grow customer traffic, and enhance the online customer experience to complete transactions. It is as simple as entering the business URL into the tool to get a customized report, digital traffic trends, industry benchmarks, and actionable tips to improve. This will help retailers reach their potential customers. Upgrading of Smart Shopping campaigns is being done to help with the acquisition of new customers and simplify advertiser onboarding. The use of “Rising Retail Trends”, which was specific to the U.S., U.K., and Australia has been expanded to other regions on the world to providing insights to fast-growing retail categories with locations where more interest is seen.

With the growth in online spending, the success of the retail sector will depend on the online and offline offering, and the customer purchase experience. Research conducted by Google in collaboration with Euromonitor shows that in the next five years purchases will be made in-store but retailers who offer in-store and digital platforms will gain the maximum. Through the use of digital technologies, retailers can become more resilient and ensure growth. Accelerated Retail will help make that possible and prepare retailers for what lies ahead.

Seven things digital marketers should do to improve their return on relationships (ROR)

31 Aug 2020 Digital Marketing

Loyalty, sharing, and recommendations represent relationships. The returns from such relationships are far better than what money can bring.  In today’s day and age social media is becoming a way of life for people and a way of business for companies who have realized the importance of it, especially for their marketing efforts. To be able to reach the target audience, companies need to focus their marketing efforts on building relationships and expand their metrics beyond Return on Investment to include Return on Relationship.

So, what is Return on Relationships? According to marketing strategist Ted Rubin, “ROR is the value you accrue by fostering a relationship with customers, whereas ROI is a measure of dollars and cents. ROR is the worth of each customer that will accumulate over time through effective social-media engagements.” Measuring the quality of customer relationships can help companies in establishing profitable, long term relationships based on trust.

Return on Relationships requires careful planning and execution. Let us dive deeper and look at what digital marketers can do to improve the Return on Relationship.

  1. Listen and Hear: It is essential to listen to the consumers first, their feelings, pain points, and what they are looking for to be able to understand them and develop trust over a period of time. Once this is done, they will respond to the message you put out and listen to you. Marketers should gather customer feedback through the use of Google alerts and other social listening tools like SocialMention, Buzzsumo, etc. which help in gaining visibility into social media and online reviews. Have a strategy in place to respond to feedback on social media and online reviews to prove to them that you understand what they are trying to tell you. The response should be well thought off and timely.
  2. Know your audience: The key to a good ROR lies in understanding the target audience to build trust and connection with them. Thorough research of the metrics like bounce rate, time spent on the website, and the behaviour flow help in understanding if what you are providing is what the customers are looking for.
  3. Make it about the “Them”: Give the audience a platform to show what they want, need, and are interested in. Conduct online surveys to know what the audience is looking for, how they feel about the product, its price, functionality, and experience. Social media is a place where the audience share and influence opinion about the brand. This can be beneficial for a brand if they have positive reviews and can be detrimental if they gain many negative views. Use the reviews to gain valuable insights into what works and what does not work and respond promptly.
  4. Look for ways to best serve them: The relationship between a company and an audience should not simply be about providing service for their time and money but should focus on how best to serve them. Digital marketers should provide free useful resources to help serve them by sharing expertise and creating useful content. Sharing expert opinions and content is a good way to boost the reputation and gain a new audience. This can be done through live sessions on social media, websites, podcasts.
  5. Constant Engagement: to have meaningful relationships with the customers, it is important to engage with them. Focus on getting to know the customers and give them reasons to engage with you. Brands can constantly reach a customer through posts on social media, blogs on topics that are important to the customers, and by sending out newsletters that can carry information regarding upcoming events, customer reviews, new product launches, etc. Ensure that they are responded to promptly be it on social media or respond to the content that is shared by the company.
  6. Be Genuine, Be Real: If there are any mistakes committed, own up to them. The consumers don’t expect perfection from companies but what they do expect is for them to be honest. To build trust and a solid foundation for a good reputation, it is best to own up on any mistakes and provide reasonable solutions. This leads to higher customer satisfaction and shows the prospective customers that you care. Ensure that responsibility is assigned to a person/team to monitor social media channels and respond to customers, prospective customers so that no communication goes unanswered.
  7. Build Relationships, build brands: When the focus of the marketing strategy of a brand is to build relationships, they pay more attention to who the customers are, their needs and preferences. These customers buy the product and services the brand offers and promote the brand by recommending it on their network.

ROR ultimately enhances ROI. As you add the engaged, focused, relationship-building aspect of ROR, your ROI increases, often exponentially.

Return on Relationship enhances Return on Investment. It requires careful planning and attention. Keeping the focus on engaging with the audience, understanding their needs and desire will help build relationships, thereby increasing the ROR. Know your people well before investing in social media marketing to have a high Return on Investment.

5 Best Ways To Promote Your Mobile App

28 Aug 2020 Mobile Apps

With over 2.7 billion smartphone users and 1.35 billion tablet users worldwide, the mobile app industry is thriving. As of the first quarter of 2020, there were 2.2 million apps in the Apple store and 2.8 million in Google Play Store. App usage is growing at a constant rate, without any signs of slowing down in the future and so is the competition to get a user’s attention. To stand out, the focus needs to be on developing an effective mobile app promotion strategy. This not only requires an understanding of the consumer behaviour but also extensive planning.

Whether launching your mobile app for the very first time or promoting the usage of an existing app, it is important to create and continuously improve awareness of the app with your target audience. This can be done by promoting your brand while paving the way for users to connect deeper with your products. The strategies to promote your mobile app include

  1. Researching the market and the competition – It is essential to continuously analyze the target audience and the competition. Identifying the likes and needs of the target audience, conducting thorough research of the groups, forums, websites, blogs they visit and the influencers they follow would help in maximizing reach and increase user acquisition. Collecting data on the competitors gives an insight into their apps and helps get a better understanding of how they engage with the users. It also helps to identify features that have not done well so that they can be avoided or improved besides any feature gaps that can be enhanced.
  2. Understanding the User Personas – A user persona defines who the user of the product is. It includes the demographics, mobile preferences, user’s interests along with the goals and challenges they currently face. User persona creates the foundation for user journey which helps in customizing every aspect of the mobile app and caters to the specific needs of the users. It helps in answering important questions like what the user is looking for, the operating system they use, the content they engage in online, the influencers they follow and the platforms to be used to best leverage paid to advertise.
  3. Content Marketing – An overarching strategy should be in place to improve app visibility through continuous content marketing. This would include sharing content through blogs, posts, boasting about the app features, including screenshots and videos of the product. As recently announced by Google, people do not find apps on apps store but look for them on search engines. Apps should be optimized so they can be found easily on search engines. Make the app discoverable everywhere. Search ads are the most effective way to promote an app and get people to download. It not only boosts app awareness but also drives downloads as the ads appear when the users are looking for it
  4. App Store Optimization – An app store is a place where people make a decision about the app. The app store page should be impressive and optimized to rank higher in search results leading to a higher rate of downloads. Good app store optimization depends on the title and the use of keywords. A good title is a way to rope users and effective use of keywords ensures that the app shows up when users search using the keywords. Due importance should be given to the description and visuals of the app to catch the attention of the user
  5. Promoting via Social media platforms – Use different social media platforms to expand the brand presence and connect with the target audience. Make sure that it is clear through the social profile that you have an app and have a link to download the app through it. Promote the app, its purpose features to create excitement around the product with engaging content.

Focusing on promoting the app is not the end game. It is essential to regularly analyze the mobile app KPIs such as app downloads, active users, retention, and daily usage rate to review the outcome of the above strategy and continue to increase download and improve app user engagement.

The mobile app industry is constantly evolving and companies have to keep innovating to stay on top of the app store. There is more data available than ever before to study and analyze to formulate strategies to launch and promote the app. Top priority should be given to the end-user and how they feel about the app to gain success.

The ROI of Social Media

26 Aug 2020 Social Media

Return on Investment is a performance measure used to assess the efficiency of an investment. ROI tries to directly measure the amount of return on a particular investment. Social media ROI is a metric showing how much value is generated with the investments made towards social media. In other words, social media ROI is the sum of all social media actions that create value. Value isn’t always measured in monetary terms for social media. If the goal is to drive brand awareness, then success can be measured against reach and engagement metrics

Having a social media marketing strategy is essential for most businesses today. Measuring the success of this is even more important to understand what efforts are paying off and what is not working to shift resources or alter the efforts to gain maximum results. Let us get a better understanding of Social Media ROI

What is Social Media ROI?

Social media ROI is the metric that shows how much value has been generated with all the investments made for social media. This is usually measured in terms of money but can vary for companies depending on the objectives set.

Why do we need Social Media ROI?

There are numerous reasons why it is important to measure ROI on social media.

It can help a company

  • Establish the value of social media for the business.
  • Show the potential impact social media can have across the business.
  • Help evaluate where the efforts and resources are reaping benefits and where they are not being utilized so that the shift in the strategy can be done.
  • Help in understanding the audience.
  • Support social media budget requirements.

How to measure Social Media ROI?

ROI for social media is a very tricky element to measure as it has many different meanings for different companies. Hence it becomes imperative for the company to have

  • Clear Objective– social media can create brand awareness but it is not always enough. To show value created by social media, the company needs to have clearly defined objectives for it which are aligned with overall objectives of the company. They can be based on lead generation, customer acquisition, brand awareness, customer experience amongst other things.
  • Goal setting– while the objectives define what social media will help the company achieve, the goals represent how and when these objectives will be achieved. Each goal must be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely.
  • Track the goals– social media metrics are required to ascertain if the objectives are being achieved and the goals are met. Some of the common metrics to track for ROI are reach, audience engagement, lead generation, revenue generation, site traffic among other metrics like comments, likes, and shares.
  • Social media spend– clarity about the investment in social media is necessary to determine the ROI. Four things that should be kept in mind are time spent by employees on social media, money spent on tools and platforms to achieve the goals, content creation, and funds allocated towards social ads.

Let us now look at the tools needed to calculate social media ROI

  • Social ROI calculator-it is a free tool that makes it easy to calculate the return on social media investment.
  • Google Analytics with UTM parameters–adding it to the social media ads’ URL will help determine how much traffic and conversions social media marketing efforts are generating.
  • Hootsuite Impact: it measures the ROI of social media across paid, owned, and earned social channels.
  • Facebook Pixel: allows tracking engagement and conversions from Facebook ads
  • Socialbakers Ads Benchmarks– measure your social media ROI in context by understanding how the return on Facebook ads investment is fluctuating day-by-day across regions and industries
  • Hootsuite Insights: helps identify conversations and trends within the industry, reach, brand sentiment, and more. It’s all backed by 100 million data sources, real-time results, and an easy-to-use interface.

How to report Social Media ROI?

  • Analysis of each social media platform, ad format, and ad placement is required to assess which of them is the biggest contributor.
  • Align the company’s objective with the metrics you want to Align metrics you want to incorporate in the report.
  • Present data for a period of time to determine the impact of social media marketing efforts.
  • Highlight the key Insights that show how social media marketing has led to the growth in business.
  • Identify profitable areas and those that fell short of with an explanation.
  • Work out a plan for the future that will help generate better social media ROI.

Steps to Improve the ROI on Social Media

The goal of a social media marketer is to improve the ROI. To achieve that the focus needs to be on social media optimization which means spending money where the best possible returns are expected. Let us look at ways in which ROI can be improved.

  • Social media management platform should be used to track the performance of posts and investment should be made where there is the highest potential to get results.
  • Content should be published at a time when maximum traction can be gained. It helps in making the most of the resources that are put in creating content.
  • The study of the competitors should be done to see what content are they promoting. This will help in making decisions about future posts and how to be ahead of the competition.
  • Social media is always evolving. The channels, content, and strategies that are used to connect with the target audience may be ineffective in the future.it is very essential for any organisation to adapt and change the strategy with time.

Social media is an incredible tool that helps a business achieve its objectives. Measuring social media ROI gives valuable insight into the success of the present and the past campaigns and pave the way for the future. But one must not forget that with its continuous evolution, there is always more to learn, assess, and more to achieve.

Using Artificial Intelligence to develop smart websites

25 Aug 2020 Web design

The web design industry is evolving constantly and growing at an unprecedented rate with the progress of technology. This evolution can be seen through the changing styles, adoption of new practices, and the use of innovative technology. The users aspire for enhanced experience along with content that is customized for them. Hence it becomes imperative for web designers to think out of the box to cater to the changing needs of the customers and that is where AI comes into play. It has unlimited potential which can be leveraged by the developers in streamlining the website management tasks and gaining higher response value from its target audiences where the focus is on User Experience.

What is AI?

AI is about building smart machines that are programmed to think like humans and perform tasks that require human intelligence. The distinctive feature of AI is its capability to rationalize and take actions that have the best chance of achieving a specific goal. Some of the activities of AI are learning, planning, voice recognition, problem-solving.

Why is AI important for the development of websites?

Artificial Intelligence as a technology is specially designed in a manner to think and behave like humans. With the increase in the use of this technology, our day to day life will see a tremendous change. More people are using the web and searching using AI like voice search, and on the other hand, the companies are using the technology to provide solutions/content/products personalized to the user. AI has many advantages like making searches faster for users, make interaction with users better, provide a personalized experience. Hence it becomes crucial for companies to use AI for their websites to gain the most the technology has to offer

Using Artificial Intelligence to develop websites

Traditionally websites were designed by a web designer using coding to create unique websites. With the development of AI technology, it has the power to design and build creative websites with personalization on its own. Let us look at some of the benefits of using AI for web design

  1. AI as a Designer– The technology is being used in easing website building and designing to enhance user engagement and experience and also work as a diagnostic tool. The AI is capable of helping designers in content, branding, layout as well as design. It helps in automating basic tasks and developing codes which can help save a lot of time and effort for the web designers. The quality of the website has become an essential element in the success of the digital footprint with the changes in the trends and stricter standards of search engines
  2. User Experience– It is the most crucial aspect of web design. AI with its advanced features has assisted designers to create interfaces that are more engaging, responsive, and human to improve UX. The site can identify the needs of the customers and provide a better understanding of how they feel about the products and services being offered. Analysis can help predict user experience on the site to ensure errors can be reduced to get the desired value. AI-enabled websites can process data to aid end users as per their interests. Today, web designers can transform websites for customers to have a more significant and enriching experience.
  3. Make search faster– Since most of the potential customers are using mobile devices, the trend that has seen the fastest growth in the development and optimization of the website through the use of AI is voice search. The core idea behind this to make it more convenient for the customer to speak and search the web. 58 percent of the consumers are already using voice search to find information regarding local businesses. Thus, AI is seen as a crucial element of web development in offering consistent voice communication between the customer and websites. Every business should look at investing in it in the near future.
  4. Chatbots– AI-powered chatbots are expected to help the online business save $8 billion worth of business cost by 2022. They have completely changed the traditional web design and made a dominant influence on how a customer interacts with websites. The introduction of chatbots has enabled more human-like interaction on websites based on natural language processing systems thereby generating meaningful conversations leading to higher engagement.
  5. Personalized content-Using AI, the website can show content designed specifically to a user. It suggests relevant content based on past behaviours of the users which leads to higher engagement and connects with the users. Similarly, with the E-commerce website, it makes the web experience more personalized for the users by suggesting and presenting customers with what they may be looking for leading to higher engagement and eventually leading to higher sales.

Artificial Intelligence is one of the most advanced technologies which is in high demand. It is being used to make site building easier and responsive, enhance user engagement, and use analytics to improve the performance of the website.

The effect of AI can already be seen across the web and it is clear that this phenomenon is here to stay. In the future, AI will play a vital role in every aspect of web design and development. Machine learning programs with AI will help develop an exceptional website that will help gain traction and serve to fulfill many objectives set by the company.

7 Reasons to Avoid DIY Web Design

23 Aug 2020 Web design

7 Reasons to Avoid DIY Web Design

DIY it! That’s the best method to save cash and you learn something new. But let’s be honest we can’t say the same when it comes to web designing.

Designing your website using a custom template is not a good idea. DIY website marketers are smart in that they are going to try and trick you into believing that you have the essential knowledge, insight, and skills to create a website that is unlike any other in your market.

Therefore, we listed 7 reasons you should avoid DIY websites at all costs!

  1. Your First Website, Your First Impression 

Quality is key. Your website is going to reflect your company image, so having a well established and maintained website is going to show your audience that you’re not here to play around. You’re a quality business that shows that you care about your online brand enough to invest it in.

This sounds like you’re off to a good start right? Well, you are! But only if you ditch the whole DIY idea. What a professionally built website can do for you is something a DIY website just cannot.

This is also your chance to market your brand! Only a well-conceptualized and designed website will attract and convert clients.

Your current clients and potential clients are going to evaluate your website and online presence before forming an opinion on it. So you want to make sure you leave an impactful impression on them because it’s not hard to switch from you to your competitors.

Some general mistakes that may drive your clients away include:

  • Images, gifs, or buttons that take too much time to load. Anything longer than 2 seconds is a no.
  • A layout that may be difficult on their eyes. Such as too many bright colours, flashy images or texts.
  • A layout that has hard functionality.
  • Unprofessional designs that make your business look low-scaled might insinuate that you also don’t possess the right knowledge and skills for the job.
  1. Back-End Functionality Matters Too! 

Don’t judge a book by its cover, ever heard that? Well, it’s the same with websites. Using a DIY designer might help you put together a page that looks functional on the surface but trusting the exterior is similar to cleaning your room by shoving everything in the closet!

There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work you’re going to have to do to develop your site!

But this what we want to avoid. SEO a.k.a search engine optimization is about the code on the back-end of the page just like the content on the front-end. Editing the complex back-end development yourself can lead to something very messy.

Let’s be honest, amateurish coding is probably not the best idea, it’s going to slow down your website and it will destroy the display of your site on desktop and mobile formats.

So, you definitely don’t want to wing this by DIY.

  1. Appearance on Mobiles 

Your website must be an all-rounder, it should be compatible with tablets and phones. 53% of web traffic and 63% of retail traffic is made up of mobile users. Also, 85% of adults want mobile phones to display the same quality of the website that a desktop would, this is crucial because 50% of consumers commonly don’t recommend businesses with a poorly designed mobile website.

  1. No Impact

Your website needs to be distinctive, impactful, and effective if you want to stand-out in the market. And this is hard to achieve with DIY website designs. Using pre-made templates or a free website developer means that thousands of businesses have already used it. Therefore, it’s ineffective and impossible to stand out!

Plus, DIY website developers usually allow very little customization unless you have a paid account.

  1. Not Secure

One of the most concerning things for any business is security, including virtual security for their website. Something DIY website designs seriously lack in, as most DIY websites offer minimum protection and are not able to meet or maintain volumes of high traffic. Therefore, you don’t want to use DIY website makers, your website could be comprised and private information could be leaked.

While professional website creators will provide you with technical resolutions which will help keep your website up and running, plus safe from cyber attacks, hackers, malicious threats, etc. They also improve your website performance!

  1. Are You Really Saving Money? 

Contrary to popular belief, DIY website designs aren’t as cheap as we think. The cost of hiring a professional web designer is always the deciding factor when it comes to website designing. But consider this, in the long run, you will have to hire someone, because if you go the DIY way you’re going to make mistakes and you’re going to need someone to fix them for you.

Additionally, professional designers ensure that websites receive traffic. Therefore, they are the ones that can encourage potential clients to look around your website and convert them into your consumers.

Plus, with a DIY website, they are more likely to switch to your customers quickly, and you don’t want that. You want your potential clients to look around and browse through your products or services.

  1. Modification Expenses

It’s impossible to start with free DIY website design and upgrade to a more customized design. Most DIY websites are set-up in a way that you cant access and make customizations. For this, you will need a professional website designer and this will definitely end with you having to pay more.

Additionally, some DIY website designers are ‘Hosted Solutions’. Which means you cant transfer your website to another hosting provider. That means if you want to move your website you cant! You’re going to have to build another one.

So just this once, don’t DIY it! It may sound and look easy but you really don’t want to go down that path.

6 Social Media Marketing Trends In 2020

18 Aug 2020 Blog

Every now and then there’s a shift in gears, redefining ‘success’ for social media marketing. Because of its dynamic nature, it’s hard to predict the outcome these trends could bring.

But what exactly are social media trends?

Social media trends are dynamic, it’s the propelling energy that’s taken every industry by a storm. Without social media trends, everyone would have a tough time picking the right technique for business growth.

Now seems like the ideal time for companies to reflect and reconsider their approach to social media marketing. Especially amidst the pandemic, corporations are already tasked with finding an equilibrium between discovering new and innovative ways to appeal to their customers and analyzing their fluctuating social data to understand what steps to take next.

Therefore, refocusing your perspective on social media might just be the right thing to do. But, before we start let’s talk facts.

On a daily basis, how much time do people spend on social media?

Research shows that an individual spends about 2 hours and 23 minutes per day on social media networking sites and messaging platforms.

Particularly ages between 16-24 allocate most of their time every day on social media, especially while watching TV – 72% of them are using social media!

Additionally, social media is an essential tool for most users, and marketers who have successfully realized its importance are now bridging themselves via these platforms to build successful relationships with their clients.

Simple, right? Not really, the market is slowly saturating. But don’t worry, we’re going to share some tips that will help you to stand out!

  1. Stories Are Only Getting More Popular 

There’s no better method than using stories to capture the attention of your audience. These few second clips are highly engaging, addictive, and catchy. They’re short enough to keep people interested hooked on them for hours and hours!

Plus, over 500 million people use the story feature on platforms such as Instagram, WhatsApp, Messanger, and Facebook every day. While over 4 million advertisers utilize stories every month for advertisement purposes.

This is a great feature to utilize if you want to increase your brand awareness, drive connection, or even network with people!

  1. Shop From Home Through Social Commerce

Who needs a mall, when you have social commerce. Shop from the comfort of your own home! Social commerce continuously helps to connect social media and commerce.

Nowadays, social platforms are operating vigorously to meet the demands of clients who prefer shopping through their social media platforms. For instance, Instagram launched shoppable posts so individuals can look through products without leaving the app.

While Facebook has Marketplace which lets users sell and list products on the platform. Additionally, Pinterest offers users Buyable Pins so they can shop for products and discover new ones!

How can you use this?

Well, first of all, you should use one or most of these emerging trends of social commerce efficiently. Look into different ways to show your clients how well the product you’re offering fits into their lives. A few techniques to try would be product unboxing and demonstration videos, use interactive visuals, video testimonials, etc.

Furthermore, most of these social media tools let you in on some insight about trending content schemes, popular hashtag ideas, how your followers are reacting and engaging with your content.

  1. Think Out of The Box

CREATIVITY is key! You don’t want your social media accounts to be bland and the same as everyone. Be creative, think out of the box! Find other ways to approach your target audience engagingly. This will surely increase your brand name and also keep your audience engaged.

Some ways you could incorporate creativity is by using interactive infographics also referred to as ‘gifographics’, which is a combination of GIF and infographics. Furthermore, you could also find influencers who would advertise your content on their social media accounts. This would increase your brand value!

As well as diversify your social distribution channels, use apps such as Snapchat and Reddit while using mainstream platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

  1. Video Content Is Rising 

Don’t sleep on video content! It makes up half of the creative content, nothing captures attention faster than visual representation. However, personalized videos gain more popularity, especially if you customize your content to cater to the needs of your audience. That’s why most brands focus on using short and engaging videos to connect with their target audience.

Additionally, research shows that 86% of people expect to see videos from brands in 2020. While 36% of them prefer education or explainer videos. Although, 14% prefer product demonstration videos.

On the last note, there are so many platforms to chose from, YouTube wins second place to Facebook in the context of active users. We also have IGTV by Instagram and of course the oh-so-famous TikTok!

  1. Are You An Influencer?! Let’s Collaborate.

Influencers are the hot topic right now, working with an influencer is the most authentic way to market your brand and product. Every day you see more and more labels collaborate with influencers, which is a smart idea because it helps the brand and influencer gain recognition.

Moreover, once you understand what the influencer brings to the table you can base your decision on collaboration on that, does your product target their audience, do you share the same/similar values? Will your product make a difference in their lives. How will this collaboration affect your current audience?

Therefore, try to pick an influencer who has similar values and ideals as your company that way you can target a large audience, your and their’s combined!

  1. Which Platform Is The Right Fit For You

Despite popular belief, every social platform available right now is advantageous to use. There’s no such platform that is “dead”.

For instance, Snapchat saw an increase in its daily active users during 2019 even after TikTok was launched and to this day LinkedIn is seeing insane growth for its B2B marketers.

On that note, brands should really think about which platform they want to spend most of their time promoting.

Although, let me give you a hint; you want to choose a platform where your audience is constantly active. That way you know where to nurture your brand image. There’s so much to choose from! But make sure that you choose a platform that will help you reach your target audience. After all, you need to be appealing to the right audience.

So these are a few of the social media marketing trends you need to be aware of! Make sure to keep a lookout for more!

10 Interesting Trends for Web Design for 2020

18 Aug 2020 Blog

The world that we live in today, it is imperative for any business to have a flawless and a ‘responsive’ website. A good website is responsible for nearly 95% of the first impression that people form about a company or a brand.

Websites have seen a complete makeover from the time of its inception. From providing basic information about an organization or a brand to now providing a platform to communicate with its users, engaging them, making them a part of the brand story to achieve higher awareness and higher sales.

Good web design is essential as it has a direct correlation with how a brand is perceived by its audience. For some companies, it plays a vital role as it is the only component leading to their growth and expansion.

Web design trends are evolving all the time. Incorporating the latest web design trends will ensure a modern and updated site. Web Design Trends 2020 is an absolute mixture of minimalism, bold typography to using ever-evolving high tech technology to take the website experience to the next level.

10 Web Design Trends for 2020

  1. Dark Mode: this trend was followed in 2019 and has stayed on and made its way into 2020. Dark mode designs are modern and make design elements stand out more, thereby creating a higher contrast ratio. Offering an elegant and sleek layout to having a positive impact on battery life and energy consumption, the dark mode has benefits of reducing the strain to the eyes by reducing the use of light pixels which lowers the brightness of the screen.
  2. Minimalism: is one of those classic web design trends that never seems to fade. This trend has even more relevance today as the attention spans are becoming shorter and so are the screen sizes. The main focus remains on the core features of the website rather than the visual appearances. The less a user has to think about moving around the website, the more attention they will pay to content. Photos and videos are an effective way to influence users with the use of minimal text.
  3. 3D Elements: one of the most alluring elements of web design that make a website more fun, engaging, and keep the visitors stay longer are the 3D elements. In 2020 more immersive 3D web designs will be seen creating higher engagement than ever before. The level of realism and depth that can be achieved is inaccessible by any other digital technology. This will especially hold true for e-commerce where such design will be used to present a product.
  4. Artistic Illustrations: the purpose of an illustration is to tell a story to the audience, to capture their attention, and help them visualize aspects of the product or service. Different styles of illustrations for web designs are a trend in 2020. It will not only combine art and design but will also look at aesthetics and photos. It is important to keep in mind to match the style of illustrations and graphics with the brand personality.
  5. Luminous Colour Scheme: use of futuristic colour schemes in the form of bold colour pairings to make the web designs come alive on screen are trending for 2020. A mix of colours like dark neon, hues of blue and purple and hot pink give a glowing feel.
  6. Black and White: web designs with the black and white theme have always been a trend as they have a very classy and elegant feel to it. Websites following this trend in 2020 are often minimalist with bold typography and artistic photographs or illustrations.
  7. Frames of White Spaces: bleed layouts have been a trend for a while but now web designers are doing away with it and are leaning more towards the use of solid structures and devising ways to use white space to give more structure to the designs and making use of clean frames for design stability. This enables the visuals to shine creating a sense of order to the website.
  8. Shadows, Layers, and Floating elements: are all about creating depth. Soft shadows and floating elements add interesting elements and depth to the page by giving it a 3D lite look. These can also be used in the text and photos. Layering multiple elements such as images, icons, videos, text can lead to a web presentation with an undisturbed flow. These elements create a sharp contrast from the classic flat design by giving the design a light feel as if the elements are floating over each other.
  9. User Triggered Animations: a growing trend in web design is having animation triggered by an input or action by the visitor. This is a very exciting feature and adds a new dimension to the webpage.
  10. Voice capable interfaces: voice search is taking over search on a website. This is possible now through AI and voice user interface technology. It becomes imperative for a website to have voice capable interface since voice search for search. It adds more functionality to the website and is extremely helpful for people with disabilities.

End of the day, websites should tell compelling stories through their design and content to engage and convert visitors into loyal customers.

The year 2020 is set to be a year of diversity when it comes to the trends dominating the web design. Trends are more futuristic than they have ever been to. This year will see the development of web designs being technology-driven apart from being eye-catching through the use of visuals, colours, and 3D effects and some of the old trends being reinvented to cater to the new styles. Web designers will have an array of choices to create an attention-grabbing web experience.

UI and UX – Two pillars of web design

17 Aug 2020 Web design

With the growth and evolution of technologies and procedures, web applications and websites have seen a complete makeover. What used to be a static medium has now evolved into a very rich and interactive experience. Every business that has a website needs to ensure that it is engaging and updated at all times. Making an outstanding first impression with effective use of the technology available is paramount in keeping the users connected and engaged to achieve the end objective of them buying the product or services being offered over its competitors.

Although two different facets, User interface, and User Experience are directly related to each other. A good user interface is critical for the success of a website and can be achieved by being a part of the wider user experience process. UI is the essence of all user experiences. It is mainly focused on the experience of the user when they use a website.

Let us delve a little deeper into User Interface and User Experience individually to get a better understanding of both.

User Interface

User Interface is the point at which the user interacts with the website. To achieve effective UI, the user experience should be seamless and it should achieve the maximum desired outcome with the minimum effort on the part of the user.

To achieve a great UI some important steps should be kept in mind.

  • Clarity of vision- the clarity of vision for interface design is of prime importance to know how the user’s needs and expectations will be met. It will also help you as a company communicate who you are, what you want to do, and what makes you stand out from your competition.
  • Goal Centric Design– the goal of the UI should be focused on satisfying the need of the target audience. Defining the personas, scenario planning and in-depth study of experience maps should be done to understand how the personas will interact with the website.
  • User-friendliness- the first encounter of the user with the interface should lead them through simple steps to achieve their goals. This can be achieved through the design layout, keeping the flow of content simple and consistent, and a call for action.
  • Assistance- the interface should help and guide the user. The design should be such that it helps the audience to intuitively locate exactly what they are looking for and provide constructive feedback after the completion of the task by the user. The feedback should make them feel comfortable and confident thereby enabling them to develop trust in the brand.
  • Recoverability– the interface design should be such to allow the users to repair their faults ranging from edition capabilities for already stored information to the restoring things to a previous state.
  • Call to Action– Carefully selected and well-placed Call to Action buttons make a significant difference. As long as the users are guided properly, the push is not required.

By investing in a good UI, the company can achieve its vision to truly understand their customer. They will have the ability to convert users into customers and retaining them, thereby outperforming their competition. This will lead to their customers gaining confidence. Engaging with a website should be a pleasure for all its users.

User Experience

User Experience is how the user feels when they interact with the website. A good UX should appeal to a range of different emotions, be easy to use at the same time, and should be engaging. The best thing for a company to do is to deliver exceptional UX is to step into the shoes of its target users and get a deeper understanding of the needs, wants, and expectations from the product of service.

To achieve a remarkable UX certain steps to be kept in mind

  • Simplicity– the website should not only be visibly appealing but the most important elements for a good UX are clarity and ease to use. The site should achieve its goal by providing engaging, relevant, and valuable information through its UI to the direct or redirected traffic to the website from search engines.
  • Consistency-The design layout should be consistent across all pages to assist a user to find the information they are looking for. A consistent design enhances the user experience and enables them to navigate the site effectively and quickly.
  • Standard and Minimal Design Pattern- tried and tested trends should be followed when it comes to designing the layout of the website and its navigation.

The key information should be put across most adequately and long body text should be avoided.

  • Structured Content – arranging and grouping of the information required to put out on each page of the website should be done to give it a consistent and standard structure to ensure its visibility once the user is on the page.
  • Personalization-A standard UX design will not work for every user. Users look for experiences that are tailor-made for their needs. Examples of this can be seen with Amazon and its product recommendation system which is aligned with purchase history and previous search. Personalization makes a user feel like the UX is designed just for them and this can have a great influence on customer engagement and retention.

A good UX is easy to understand, navigate, and interact with. It provides the user with the information/ service they are looking for in a pleasing and presentable manner. It leads to higher productivity and increased sales for the company and higher customer satisfaction for the users. It also serves the company in gaining new customers and retaining existing ones.

The primary objective of any business is making money which can be achieved through higher sales and growth of the business. Both UI and UX play a vital role in achieving the objectives by enhancing the user experience and customer satisfaction. Catching a user’s attention in a very short span of time is the key when the competition is intense.

A good UI/UX design helps in gaining the confidence of the user providing them with what they are looking for.

 

Expert tips from Casino Players

15 Aug 2020 Uncategorized

In the several hundred years since they have been around casinos have become many people’s favourite pastime, and no wonder really, because not only is gambling ludicrously fun, but it can also be really rather lucrative too. In the years since the Venetians first established the Casino di Venezia back in the 1500s there have been trillions worth of winnings paid out, making millions of people very rich indeed!

But here’s the thing: whilst it is not impossible in the slightest to win a large jackpot from a casino, it also isn’t exactly the easiest thing in the world either, and you certainly have to know what you are doing in order to succeed. People like to blame luck when it comes to winning or losing at a casino gambling game, but in reality smart decisions are what make the most difference. Read on for some expert tips from casino players from www.kingcasino.com. 

Choose slots to play by using their RTP and volatility 

Nowadays due to the online casino revolution online slot providers and online casino platforms are obliged to disclose some incredibly useful information about the games that they offer, and this is very important to acknowledge if you want to become a casino expert. The most important of these is called RTP (Return To Player), and it is a percentage that indicates the average amount gamblers can expect to see back from their stake on an online slot game. 

We would recommend aiming for higher than 96% in most cases, however it is important to remember that things like progressive jackpots can skew the RTP rating somewhat. Slot volatility is also an important thing to take note of, and the best volatility will depend on whether you are a high roller or not. High variance slots for high rollers, and low variance slots for low rollers – simple! 

Never play American Roulette 

This one might sound a little harsh to the yanks, however it is really important to understand the distinction between American roulette and European roulette. The former has one extra zero value on the roulette wheel, and whilst this doesn’t exactly sound like much, it actually serves to double the house edge, and therefore half your odds of winning.

This is why casino experts never play American roulette, it just isn’t worth it when the odds are that much worse. 

Avoid using the Martingale betting system 

Using different betting systems is a popular past-time for many gamblers, and they can often be a great way of spreading out your budget and introducing simple tactics into the way you gamble. With all that being said, however, there is one betting system that you really should try to avoid.

It goes by the name of the Martingale strategy, and the rule here is that you double your bet after each loss, with the view of regaining all your losses with the next win. Sounds good on paper, however in reality it just makes it way too easy for you to spend too much money and end up in the red.

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