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The Wonders of Call-To-Action Buttons

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What is a call-to-action button?

A call-to-action button or CTA button is a piece of content intended to induce a viewer, reader, or listener to perform a specific act, typically taking the form of an instruction or directive. It is a button that directs customers to certain topics or to specific links to your website. This is also a great marketing tool, if used strategically.

TIPS YOU SHOULD FOLLOW:

  1. Use a CTA button design that will be cohesive to your overall design.
  2. Keep your CTA button related to the industry you are in, or in line with the business that you are in. Keep it natural within interface.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR CTA BUTTONS MORE CLICKABLE?

  • PROPER WORDING FOR YOUR CTA BUTTONS

    Remember all the talk about incorporating photos to make your contents more aesthetically pleasing for your clients? It does not apply for your CTA buttons. Texts and just mere texts are the way to go. You need to make it expressly clear so that the person who will click it will know exactly where he or she is heading to. For short, it needs to be direct as it is directive in its very nature.
    If you want your clients to know the benefits from availing your products or services, use the word “GET”, if you want them to browse a little further, use the word “SEE” etc. Just be direct to the whole point of your activity.
    Remember to keep it short but you can also use arrows to point out your CTA buttons to jazz it up a little bit and to make it a little more attractive to your clients. Using CTA buttons generates roughly 2.5 times conversion revenue than just typing out simple texts.

  • CONSIDER THE RIGHT COLOR TO USE

    Colors appeal to people differently which is why it is important to choose the perfect color for you CTA buttons of course considering the entire theme of your site. This basically means appealing to your demographics.
    If your audience is mostly men, choose something that will appear more to men or if your target is mostly adults, use a color scheme that will appeal more to their liking.

  • PLACEMENT OF CTA BUTTON

    It is well recommended by marketers to use at least two CTA buttons for every page of your article. One is utilized for encouraging your customers to learn more about what you are offering, you place the CTA buttons before the body of the entire page and the other is to convince them to buy or avail whatever it is that you are offering and that is placed usually at the end of the page.
    You also need to make it even more convenient for those who wish to buy or avail your offers by putting up links on how they can get their hands on your products or how they can avail your services.

  • USE ANIMATION

    Have you ever heard of the HOVER EFFECT? It is actually where you can change the button’s color on the mouse-over. This is to draw more attention to the CTA button attracting or enticing the readers to click on them directing them to what you want them to see. A blinking or shifting motion also is a great stimulus to our senses and it prompts our bodies to move.

Website Design Changes Guaranteed to Boost Your Revenues

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We are now living in a very advanced age, where everything is accessible in just a click of a mouse. Thanks to the power of technology and all of its wonders. But what corresponds to a lot of the advancements of technology is the declining utilization of the conventional medium such as the decrease of use of advertising.

HERE IS THE STATISTICAL RESULT WHEN YOU GOOGLE THE DECLINING RELEVANCE OF ADVERTISING:

  • Most of the rates are average — in other words, they combine statistics from both low-performers and high-performers to come up with an average. But the numbers of advertisements are increasing (resulting in more ads competing for user attention!)
  • Facebook really started taking its advertising game seriously when most of the “experts” began to declare advertising dead yet…
  • it reported a massive $8.6 billion in advertising revenue in the fourth quarter of 2016 alone.

Fear no more because hope is still here. You don’t have to lurk in the corners and cry over your decreasing ad revenue because I am giving you tips on how to keep boomerang your way back to the top.

  • ABOUT TIME TO REDESIGN YOUR ADS

    Banner blindness is a phenomenon in web usability where visitors to a website consciously or subconsciously ignore banners like information, which can also be called ad blindness or banner noise and that is according to Google. Now why do people ignore banners? You would think that it is because there are a lot of annoying ads that are popping up but no. It is actually because they are poorly designed. People click on things that interest them and if you don’t catch their attention, they will just continue scrolling down.

    Say for example, you visit a particular website with yellow as its dominant color, would you pay attention to an ad with a yellow color scheme? At first you might have taken a look at it but it will eventually grow on you and before you know it, you will forget that it is even there. It does not pertain specifically only to the color of you ads and your website. The point is you need your ads to standout, which is why coordinating your ads to the theme of your website is not always the best way to go.

  • SENSORY ADAPTATION

    Continuing our discussion on banner blindness, as mentioned above, it is not about the annoyance of all the advertisements that is keeping your customers away from seeing your stuff. Have you ever heard of SENSORY ADAPTATION? This is a phenomenon where our bodies eventually get used to certain things that trigger our sensory organs to the point where these things bother us no more. This can also be the logic behind your declining ad revenue. This causes people to ignore banners.

  • PAY MORE ATTENTION TO OPTIMIZING YOUR MOBILE ADS

    You have been living under a rock if you have not realized by now that mobile phones are basically the most important material thing in every person’s purse. With that, majority of these people browse the internet though their mobile phones which is why it is imperative that you focus on optimizing your mobile ads. This is not a hard transition because you can easily switch to responsive ads where they automatically adjust to the gadgets that your users are using.

Making a Millennial Friendly Website

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Let us face it. The era that we are now in is basically the era for tech savvy and internet dependent kids that we collectively call the MILLENNIALS. And that’s totally okay! Our world is evolving fast. Developments and discoveries happen almost every single day and that is because we people want to make everything more convenient for us. Our younger generations are the perfect example of how advanced our world has become.

My point? Millennials are basically the biggest market that every business venture wants to target. You may think that these are just a bunch of kids, how hard could it be to attract their attention right? WRONG. The demands of the modern world have completely become more complex and sophisticated and this is what every single business should meet, and that includes designing a website that millennials would fancy.

Here is how you can attract millennials:

  1. PAY ATTENTION TO MOBILE

    We all know how kids are these days. They can totally forget everything else but their phones. You can run a survey and I will bet on my life that there is not a single teenager who is not addicted to their mobile gadgets. They carry their phones almost everywhere and I mean EVERYWHERE. This is why it is imperative to design a website that is also perfect for mobile use. Design your site in a way that they will not get irritated and bored if they visit such on their mobile phones.

  2. MILLENNIALS FOR A CAUSE

    Our millennials are not only tech savvy but they are also people who love standing firm to something. They have their own vision and principles and you would be surprised that these kids are very much into charitable activities. This is why you need to use that to your advantage and incorporate philanthropic cause to your website to encourage them to support you. You are not only boosting your site but this is also a really strategic way to help those who are in need.

  3. USE WARM AND ENTICING UNDERTONES

    This is the fun part. We are talking about younger generations here. We are talking about how to make them follow our website. Here is the thing. Cut the boring crap and make your design a little more aesthetically pleasing especially for your biggest target market. Use designs that are inviting and familiar to their age and publish contents that are related to them and their time.

  4. THE SIMPLER, THE BETTER.

    While it is fun to jazz things up with extra features and what nots, the very best approach to apply is being direct and straight to the point. People lead a busy life. They don’t have luxury of time to figure out a maze. Cut to the chase.

It is very important to catch the attention of the younger generation because they are basically your largest market. They maybe young and they may still have a lot of things to experience in their lives but no one knows the online world better than they do. Indeed, they are the hope of our future, well, in this case, the hope of our websites.

Increase Website Sales Using These Infallible Principles

Macbook Pro

No matter how great your website is…

The reality is majority of the people who visit your website will not buy on their first go. As a matter of fact, they might not even come back to pay you another visit. Don’t take it personally; this is just how online businesses roll.  It does not really take a PHD to increase your ecommerce sales. In fact, boosting your online sales can be a piece of cake.

Here’s how:

  1. ADJUST YOUR COLOR SCHEME TO YOUR MARKET

    If you think color is just for added jazz, you are definitely incorrect. It does not only make everything look bright and pretty because the right choice and usage of color schemes can help you boost your sales on a higher level. According to a study that studied 100 brands along with 450 non-color blind participants, it has been concluded that color increases appeal and likeability toward a product. Another study also showed that color played an crucial role in marketing and decision-making. It was found out that people decide within 2 minutes of interacting with people or products, and that up to 90 percent of their decision is based on colors.

  2. GIVE THEM A BARGAIN

    The seller will list all the details pertaining to that particular product especially the price. Now, the tricky part is there are usually two or three prices listed for one item. It is usually its list price and actual price. The other is cheaper and the other is more expensive. This will create the impression on your customers that they are making a great deal on a particular purchase. This is not, by any means, a form of deceit but it is an effective strategy that will make them think that you are giving them a bargain.

  3. MAKE CUSTOMERS FEEL SECURED

    Your products can look like the most amazing thing that anyone has ever seen but there is a pretty big chance that people will still not bother to buy it. Why? They may question its authenticity or security. There are a bunch of fake deals going around the internet that is why it is important to give your customers the assurance that what you are selling is safe, sealed if it must be, and authentic.

  4. START A BLOG

    Blogging is a really great marketing strategy because people nowadays are showing more interest to blogs. People relate more to blogs because these are daily or weekly testimonies of people about a particular event, place, or product. Blogging has been a great medium for advertising products because people are now following blogs more than they follow anything else.

  5. LIMIT OPTIONS

    You may think that providing your customers with a sea of choices is great but in actual operations, it is NOT helping. Limit their choices. Most of the time it is not about the quantity, but it is most importantly about the quality of what you put out.

The list can go on, but these are the proven methods to boost online sales. Follow these easy and foolproof ways and use them when redesigning your website. Color choice is important so make sure you know your audience well before deciding on a particular website design.

6 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Web Design

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If you are someone who aims to be a successful web designer, knowing just the surface of web design is not enough. As a web designer, you must dig deeper and learn the ins and outs of web design. You must be able to understand what happens behind the scenes to have an edge over your competitors.

Below are some web design facts that will help you and your website:

  • Different web browsers will render websites differently.

    • Websites are rendered in different ways by various browsers. This is due to the factors such as parsing and rendering. It is how browsers translate code and display it on a particular device.
    • Let’s say for example, a website will look different when viewed on Google Chrome from your personal computer compared when it is opened on iPhone’s Safari. Some browsers will load the code in a specific manner but there were times that browsers wouldn’t be able to recognize a certain code at all.
  • Say no to templates.

    • One good reason to avoid templates: it restricts what you can do to your website. While using pre-packaged templates seems an easy way out for many people who have no or little knowledge about coding, using and relying on these packages too much will make you less credible.
    • These templates have unnecessary design elements and some bloated coding that would affect website performance. Also, there is not much else that you can do or modifications with these templates as it would look like a patched work.
  • Codes play a major role more than you think.

    • You may have the most well-designed website out there. It wouldn’t matter if you don’t even have audience that browses and uses the website regularly.
    • Web designers should make sure that the website is coded in a way that will definitely help people to find your website when they type certain keywords in a search engine. Everything from the domain name to meta tags, headers, etc.
  • Your design dictates viewers where to focus on your website.

    • While it is fun to put designs or texts on your website, but if a user cannot identify the important areas of your website easily, they will likely leave your page and just jump to another website that offers easier navigation.
  • Images and videos can affect your website.

    • Multimedia can be a powerful factor in your website, but it could have a drastically affect your website’s performance. Images or videos that are too large will take such a long time to load. Thus, it should be avoided by web designers to not risk viewers to grow impatient and send them away.
    • Utilization of optimized images and videos for your website is a must.  Web designers also should avoid outdated formats which aren’t supported by today’s mobile device platforms.
  • A 2-year-old website is obselete.

    • Lastly, you have to update your website. Keep up with fast-paced technology. Since the web browsers are constantly changing, the way to develop and design websites should change too!
    • Web designers should know the latest coding standards, learn about search engine algorithms, and browser compatibility . An outdated website may not properly display the different elements of your website. Worse, your website will not show up in search engine results.

 

6 Web Design Tips to Take Your Website to the Next Level

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Having a successful and continuously growing website is no easy task. You may want to consider things that might affect or hinder the growth of your website as well as how will your website stand out and shine bright like a diamond among the others in the same line. Having a clear idea on how you would want to appear or paint your brand on your target and engage them to keep returning to your web page is important to grow your brand.

Follow these tips to make your website flourish and gain more following:

  • Have a Clear Content for Your Website

    Knowing your main mission will help you set tone for your website. It is important to know what will be the content you are creating for you to keep tabs if your website is growing or if your website needs improvement.
    Studying your competition is also a good way to have new content ideas and improve what you are putting out. By continuously innovating and putting out more and new ideas, you build a stronger relationship with your audience.

  • Know Your Audience

    Having the ability to see how long people stay on your website, where they are coming from or what kind of audience you have allow you to create a better website and make the content of your website more suitable for desired your audience.

  • Have the Pages of Your Website Load Quickly

    Your pages need to load as fast as it could. You cannot make your visitors wait that long for your pages to load. When that happens, there is a big possibility that your website visitors will most likely just abandon your page and just go to another similar website.

  • Be Blunt

    Short yet clear headlines are essential. Nothing too fancy and long paragraphs should be avoided.
    Keep in mind that nothing will drive away your new visitors from your website than being bombarded with texts or words.
    All the information or texts on your wall should concise and direct to the point. Pithy and direct communication will help you attract more audience to your website. You can organize your pages using:

    • bullets or numbers
    • a lot of white space
    • short paragraphs
    • sections with subheadings
    • use images instead of text
  • Define the Path

    Upon arrival of a visitor to your website, what do you want them to do? Where do you want them to go? Having a clear path allows you to prevent your audience getting lost in the process.

  • Link to Social Media

    Social media is the perfect way and probably the fastest way to connect with your audience. It also a good way to strengthen and maintain your relationship toward them. Sign up to the top social media websites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat to reach new and younger audiences.

The most important thing you can do to grow and paint your website in a good light is to learn about your audience. Continuous discovering of ways to connect with potential audience will keep your website fresh, relevant and more useful. Use these tips to expand your website!

5 Reasons Why You Should Invest In Your Own Website

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Some websites have been neglected for way too long. It has been forever since the last update. The unfortunate circumstance can’t be helped though. The trends now will be out of date in a year or two.  Before you know it, your website has not been able to keep up. It looks old and when someone views it, you will feel embarrassed. Do not wait for this moment to happen.  Your website speaks for you and your brand. But it does mean you need to get the most expensive design. You just need to look for a suitable design that best represents your brand.

Listed below are FIVE reasons why you need to invest in creating your own website:

  • BEST FOOT FORWARD.

    You should always feature your best work. The world of online business is not far from having an actual store. You need to constantly update the window display to invite new customers. The homepage of your website is your digital window display. This is your chance to show the world your best work and prove to them that you can produce quality products.

    Your website will also be able showcase how you approach your business. If potential clients see confusing and cluttered storefront, they will abandon the page and will find another website that fits their standards. Web visitors are very critical on what they see. While you have their attention, dazzle them with your finest work.

  • INCREASED TRUST AND CONFIDENCE.

    You don’t need to hire and train a customer service representative. Your website will do that for you! Without  a doubt, you would want to make a good first impression online and when you poorly designed website, it is tantamount to employing a rude customer service representative. A well-dressed website is like having your very own friendly customer service representative who greets everyone with a smile. A well-crafted website can convert viewers to buyers.

  • THE NEW YOU.

    As time passes, your business expands to something bigger and larger. Not only will your products and services change, but there could also be a drastic shift in your target customers. Your  website should be able able to reflect the current you. If you do not update your website, you might not be able to invite your new audience. Investing in a new website will assure old and new clients that your business is catching up with the changing times.

  • SHOWING A VARIETY OF OPTIONS.

    How your brand is perceived totally depends on your approach. Whether you decide to update the blog section, add more social media post, or do all of them simultaneously, it really depends on you since you are the boss.  Sooner or later, clients will see the level of work that you are putting in. Conversion into sales is easier because your website was able to provide clients a variety of ideas through blog and image posts.

  • DOING WHAT YOU WANT.

    When you share your work to everyone, you redirect your business to a route that suits you. You show the world that this is what you do best and you will attract the right clients without even trying.  Doing something you are truly passionate about is priceless. So, stop what you are doing right now and gather all your best work in one functional website.

Web Design Features That Increases Sales

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If you are not able to boost sales despite tremendous efforts on social media, then, you have a problem. There are many contributory facts to this conundrum. The truth is that your website design can make a powerful statement on the buyers and their choices. You might want to improve certain features to encourage visitors to buy or contact you. The goal is to convert a visitor to be a buyer. If you have a lot of traffic, but little conversions, you might be wondering why.

Well, 94% of the first impression is based on the website’s design. To add to this, 75% of the users will conclude the credibility of a brand just by looking at the website.

Here are some techniques that can help you improve your own website and increase sales:

  • A VERY CLEAR AND UNIQUE VALUE PROPOSITION (UVP)

    It is the very reason why a potential customer should buy from you and not from your competitor. Make your UVP clear and obvious. Assure clients that you can provide products and services that is different from the rest.

  • WHITE SPACE

    Do not clutter your website especially on a page that you will sell something. Focus on the product, the description, and the price. When you indicate other unnecessary information, it can confuse people and they might not proceed with the transaction.

  • EASE OF USE

    Remember to put the vital content “above the fold” so that it will be visible without scrolling. Contact numbers, email addresses, and live chat should be accessible. If website visitors have a question, they can easily inquire about it.

  • VIDEO

    It still remains as one of the powerful mediums now. Allocating a space for video usually increase sales and conversions. Some companies were able to record a 144% increase in sales.

  • COLOR

    Consider your audience. If your target market are mostly women, then choose a lighter shade of purple, blue, and green. For men, darker tones of black, blue, and green are effective. Avoid colors like brown and orange. A change in color may result to a 21% conversion.

  • VIRTUAL CHAT

    It is good for a future buyer to know that they can have a quick chat online while they are looking into the different products and services. Real-time chat can increase trust. Potential clients will prefer sites with excellent customer service.

  • SHORT FORMS

    Customers do not want to give information about themselves just to score that free download. Go only for first name, email address, and zip code. If you are using Captcha test, try turning if off. See if the response rate is higher.

  • HEADLINES

    That big headline on your website should be able to answer your potential customers’ concerns. Whatever their concern might be, those big and bold text should make a statement and increase confidence in your brand.

  • FREE OFFERS

    Who does not like free items? Everyone will sign up when they see the word “free.” So, make sure your FREE sign is large and very visible. Add the fact that they don’t need to answer a bunch of questions and that they can immediately claim their item.

  • A/B TESTING

    Continue to test small changes on your website. It might have a little movement, but remember to change one at a time. You might want to try to change the CTA button color first. Then, you can change the placement of text or other elements. Wait for a few weeks before evaluating the data. This way, you will know if the change is permanent or you need to revert back to the original layout.

8 Website Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make

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When you are starting your business, chances are you have a budget in mind. You will surely allot a portion of it in building a website for your business. There are free website builders that will help you start a simple website on your own. If you are not adept in web designing, you could be committing some serious mistakes. Instead of driving sales, you will repel potential customers.

Here’s a list of what to avoid:

  • When navigation is not a priority

    When you do create your own website, please make sure visitors can find their way to the areas of your website. When potential clients browse, they won’t put in a lot of time trying to figure out where is this or where is that. If they can’t find what they want, they will leave and find a better website that has an easier navigation.

  • The purpose is not clear to you

    Building a website without knowing why will just lead to failure. You have to know if your goal is to gain exposure for your business or if you wish to sell your products online. Not all websites are the same. Each website has its own purpose and you have to know how to use it accordingly.

  • Thinking that any website is good rather than having none

    A website is a must nowadays, but if you are on a tight budget, you can still have an online presence without a website. Make sure that your name and contact numbers can be found in different business listings, social media sites, or online Yellow Pages. When your business starts to gain popularity, it is time to make a simple, professional, and nice looking website.

  • Trying to stand out

    When you dare to be different than the other websites, it won’t do you or your business any good. Create a website that is similar to most websites. Like any other common website, clicking on the company logo should bring you to the homepage. Contact Us and About pages are extremely important. It will provide the essential information of your business. You see, even online, people prefer comfort over style.

  • Struggling to make it exceptionally beautiful

    Look at Google; you will notice that the website is very simple. The colors used are just red, yellow, blue, and green. You don’t need a bunch of different colors to stand out. If your business is an advertising agency, fashion house, or web design studio, go ahead and be unique. If not, just stick to a minimalist design. Your clients will care more about the content than the colorful design.

  • Using .PDF files

    Not all people are tech-savvy. Not all potential clients have a PDF viewer and if they do, they probably won’t have the time to download one. Anything that causes stress, website visitors just simply click away. If you plan to attach any material to your site, use image files instead. Every device can surely view .jpg, .bmp, or .png files.

  • Too much advertisements

    It is not a good idea to allow your website to have numerous ads. Yes, you can earn through ads, but it can get pretty annoying when something pops up in the middle of the page.

  • Too much text

    When you are reading an actual book, words are parts of it. On a website, gigantic blocks of text are a huge mistake. Surely, it will scare visitors and they will hurriedly leave your website.

  • NOT Designed for all devices

    Last, but not the least, make sure that when you create a website, the design should look good both on a mobile phone and a desktop computer. Every device should be able to contact you.

10 Tips on How to be a Successful Web Designer

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Website Design is not just about extensive knowledge of Photoshop or mastery of a programming language. It is about finding the right balance of an alluring design and providing interesting content. Web design can be a fascinating and lucrative career. The job does not end at designing and building websites that are good to look at. You need to also consider other things.

Here are some useful tips to help you become a successful web designer:

  1. Communication skills are important.

    You should be able to effectively communicate with your client, an art director, and web developer. You have to speak clearly about your design choices and give enough reasons why it is the appropriate design for a website. If there are any problems in the future, you have to know how deal with them by using effective and good communication skills.

  2. You have to know how to sell yourself.

    There are many competitors out there and only the good ones will survive the web design jungle. It is a tough and tight world to participate in. Stand out by highlighting your unique skills and what separates you from the rest. Use all possible ways to boost your presence whether it’s social media marketing, word of mouth, or through business cards.

  3. Plan and then design.

    Like in anything you do, planning always come first because that where you get ideas that can inspire you. Effective planning has 3 distinct parts: research about the company, know the client’s needs and expectations, and learn more about its competitors and the industry it is on.

  4. Constructive criticism helps.

    Evaluate your work honestly and if you may stumble upon criticisms, be open to it and implement the suggestions you see fit. Some mistakes are easily seen by others. A fresh pair of eyes will definitely help you put things in perspective and help you save time.

  5. You are a Web Designer, and not a Graphic Designer.

    It is not right to assume that graphic designers can be a great website designer and vice versa. They are two totally different jobs. Concentrate on the sector of website designing and focus on it. Graphic design is another skill set. Perhaps, you can improve it in the future, but for now, focus on web design.

  6. Update yourself with new technology.

    You have to be technologically in tune with the many changes in the industry. Set a time to learn new things in your field. Know what is new, what is out, and what is trending.

  7. Be organized.

    No matter what your field of profession you are, being organized is one of the keys for success. Begin with organizing your computer by classifying and labeling.

  8. Attain Expertise.

    The more experience you have, the faster you will move up in the world of web design. People will always look at the projects you worked on or the company you worked with. This will gain the trust that you need.

  9. Be a team player.

    Work well with other because as the saying goes, “Two heads are better than one.” Know how to work with others and see how your work will improve if tasks are distributed to other teammates.

  10. Have a business sense.

    A good web designer does not only design, he must also know about salesmanship, balancing costs, and making value assessments. Then you certainly have an edge.

 

 

 

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