When should you update your banners on your website?

Many businesses use banners across the main pages of their website. These are often the first things a visitor sees when landing on the site and can have a lot of impact if done correctly. Some businesses have quite static banners that rarely get updated. These banners may show the business premises, members of staff or statements about the company or their products and services. These banners over time may become ignored if viewers notice that they do not change but it can also give reassurance to first-time visitors as they may be able to learn more about the business i.e how many employees you have, where you are based etc.

Banner placements can often be great for advertising sales that you may have coming up, the launch of a new product or news that you want to share. It is often a good idea to create a bank of images to use and rotate them from time to time to show that they are being updated.

Ideally, you should have the banners created by a designer and always make sure you use good quality images as poor images can give visitors the opinion that your products and service may be of poor quality which will often lead to them going elsewhere.

 

What is an infographic and what is it used for?

If you are delving into the world of digital marketing then you may come across the term infographic. An infographic is a graphic that represents information and is often used on websites or social media sites when you want to get a message across in an interesting way rather than just having paragraphs of text.

The old saying “ a picture speaks a thousand words” is still true and many people prefer to see something visually rather than read about it. They can improve cognition by utilising graphics to enhance the human visual system’s ability to see patterns and trends. It may be that you have data that you want to show in a graph or a pie chart. This will allow the visitors to instantly be able to spot an obvious trend.

We often get inundated with information through our emails, through websites and social media and we all try to collate that information into bite-sized pieces we can process. With the world running at such a fast pace, not many of us have the tie to read through pages and pages on content to decide if it is of interest to us, but we may have the time to quickly browse at an infographic to get some quick information then allowing us to read on if we feel it is relevant.

 

Spending time on your own marketing

If you are the web design or web marketing industry then you will probably be faced with the problem of trying to fit into your own work. If you own your own business then you will want to be able to market your company in order to get new clients but although you are aware of how important it is, it can still seem impossible to find the time.

Marketing is vital for any business to make it work, and some forms of marketing may work better for one business than it does for another. As with client work, schedule in some time every week to work on your own website and marketing. If you have a job that overruns then move your work forward a day or two but do not simply remove it from the schedule altogether. Many business owners forget to market their business as they have enough work to keep them busy, but if that work dries up they may find that they have nothing in the pipeline to turn to.

Often the more time you invest in your marketing the more you get back. Use your time effectively and monitor it as you would for one of your clients to check your return on your investment.

Getting your website ready for the New Year

With many companies going all out this Christmas, turning their website into a Santas grotto, it is important to have your new look already designed and in place to swap over to come January. You may not want to drop the festive theme altogether, especially if you are having January sales, but changing the tone of it is often a refreshing change for customers who may have had just about enough of Christmas at that point.

January is often all about fresh starts and if you have been considering changing your branding, then January may be the perfect time to do it. You will need to have already decided on your new logo/theme/colourways and hopefully will have them in place to switch over to. You may want to create an opening paragraph or visual that your customers see as soon as they land on your page explaining that this year you wanted to start off with a new look and then talk them through the changes you have made. It is vital to do this so they do not lose confidence in your business if they don’t recognise your branding any more.

Ensuring your website is responsive

Your website is often one of the only online advertising platforms you have and therefor it is vital that the sight not only functions as it should but also looks good on a arrange of devices. Your website is essentially the profile of your business and may be used to sell your products and services online.

First impressions count for a lot and so the first experience your customers have with your website can make a lasting impression and is often a huge influence on their decision as to whether to use your company or not. It is a fact that your website can not only bring in sales and enquiries but can also turn people away.

When designing a website it is vital that it looks and performs and a number of platforms and scree sizes. With nearly half of all sales being completed through a mobile or tablet device, it is vital that your website works for all. There are so many different types of devices such as desktop pc’s, laptops, mobile phones and tables that a site needs to be able to work on all of them to accommodate every one. You will not have to configure the website for every different device as making it responsive will allow the site to recognise the screen size and browser and adapt accordingly.