5 Tips for a Successful Landing Page

5 Tips for a Successful Landing Page

Creating landing pages is easy. Getting them right, though? That takes a bit more work. 

A great landing page can make all the difference in the effectiveness of your marketing campaign. It’s also essential for making a good impression and following through on the promises you made in your ad or social media post. 

Here are five smart and savvy landing page tips so you can be sure yours, well, lands:

1. Include a clear connection to your ad.

Whatever got someone to your landing page is what’s going to hold their interest once they get there. Stay focused and concise, and ensure your content gives a direct callback to its associated ad. 

2. Place your call to action at the top.

Assume visitors have a short attention span and provide them with need-to-know info upfront. For performance purposes, this should include the action that you want them to take, which should be clear, obvious, and above the fold. 

3. Create simple forms.

The simpler your forms, the more likely it is people will actually fill them out. You’ll have plenty of time to get more info after you’ve got a new lead, so aim for the basics now and fill in any blanks later. 

4. Make it responsive.

Landing pages need to be optimized for both desktop and mobile. Make sure your page looks great on both types of devices and that your CTA stands out just as much on a small screen as it does on a big one. 

5. Remove competing links.

A landing page has one goal — everything else is just superfluous. Remove any competing links (including unrelated internal links) and keep the entire page focused on achieving the action associated with your campaign. 

For more marketing best practices, get in touch, and let’s chat.

How to Write Your Brand Story

How to Write Your Brand Story

Are you telling the right story about your brand?

Your business’s narrative plays a huge role in how customers perceive it. It’s essential that the story you tell is well-aligned with your values, your objectives and your overall brand mission — and it’s important to be the one controlling this narrative. Here’s what a good brand story can do, plus tips for making yours a success.

What Is a Brand Story?

A brand story is the narrative that exists around your company. It includes your origin story, of course, but also goes deeper to encapsulate things like your values and priorities, as well as what you’re trying to achieve with your product or service.

Ultimately, this story helps humanize your brand and gives your customers something to connect to, trust and empathize with. It also serves as a cornerstone of your brand identity and a thread of connection tying together all of your marketing channels.

Elements of a Good Brand Story

All brand stories are not created equal. Some elements that separate the good stories from the not-so-good stories include:

  • Authenticity
  • Credibility
  • Personability
  • Consistency

Also key is to make sure that your story has a human element since audiences are more likely to connect with people than corporations.

Tips for Writing Your Brand Story

Whether you’re starting from scratch or making improvements, here are some quick tips for making your brand story shine.

  • Have a well-defined message. A brand story isn’t just a timeline of events. Your story should have a real purpose behind it and should be rooted in establishing and sustaining a solid brand identity.

  • Highlight adversity. All good stories have some sort of conflict in them. Be true to real events, but do incorporate an example of how your brand faced — and overcame — adversity.
  • Keep it simple. Your audience doesn’t have time to read a novel about your brand. Keep things simple and succinct.

Need more advice on building a killer brand? Get in touch.

4 Shopify Best Practices to Implement

4 Shopify Best Practices to Implement

Are you using Shopify? It’s one of the simplest and most popular e-commerce platforms available, and it has plenty of features to help you boost awareness and sales. But to take full advantage of Shopify, make sure you understand how to optimize your use of the platform.

Here’s what to know, including helpful tips you can put to work right away:

Let’s start with the basics…

Shopify is a subscription-based e-commerce platform that allows any business to set up a virtual store and sell their products online. Some of its key features include the ability to showcase products, manage inventory and facilitate payments — all while making stronger and more impactful connections with your customers.

And optimize with best practices.

Selling your products online gives you a bigger customer base, but it’s still up to you to grab people’s attention (and meet your revenue goals). Make sure you’re implementing a few best practices:

  • Copy: All of your products should be accompanied by descriptive, well-written copy. Keep it short but impactful, and always include a CTA.

  • Navigation: Break down bigger menus into smaller, more digestible sections so that your customers can easily see what’s available. And put an organized tagging system in place so shoppers can easily search and filter products.
  • Collections: Create curated collections to provide targeted recommendations and increase the scope of individual sales.
  • Design and Imagery: High-quality design and images make your products more attractive and let customers know what they’ll get.

Need help with your marketing? Get in touch anytime.

What is Omnichannel Marketing?

What is Omnichannel Marketing?

Are you familiar with omnichannel marketing?

While it’s easy to get confused with multichannel marketing, omnichannel marketing is a distinct approach with its own best practices — and its own big benefits for your brand.

Here’s what to know, including the basics of what omnichannel marketing is and some simple tips on how you can start adapting it into your strategy.

What Is Omnichannel Marketing?
Omnichannel marketing is an integrated, sales-focused marketing strategy that aims to provide customers with a cohesive shopping experience across all platforms, places and devices.

At its core, omnichannel marketing is about putting the customer experience first. The goal is to ensure that regardless of how your customers like to shop — on their phone, through social media, in-store, etc. — the messaging and interactions they have will remain consistent.

Omnichannel Marketing vs. Multichannel Marketing
Both omnichannel and multichannel marketing are diverse strategies intended to capture an audience in various places and in various ways.

Where they differ is in intent: While multichannel marketing is focused on simply building a brand presence on as many platforms as possible, omnichannel marketing is about bringing cohesion to that practice in order to boost sales.

Make the Switch to an Omnichannel Approach
Creating an integrated sales experience isn’t just better for your customers — it’s better for you, too. Here are some tips to get you started:

  • Know your customers. Build well-researched customer personas to understand how and where your audience prefers to shop.
  • Work on segmentation. Different customers have different needs at different times. Segment them into groups (for example, new customers and existing customers in need of re-engagement) so you can offer an optimized experience.
  • Focus on cohesion. You want to make sure your customers have the same experience regardless of where they are. Double-check your story, your message and your branding are consistent from channel to channel.

Need more advice? Get in touch and we can help.

Marketing to Gen Z: A Quick Guide

Marketing to Gen Z: A Quick Guide

Are you in touch with Gen Z?

 

The nation’s next big generation of spenders grew up in an era of connectivity and social influence, both in terms of how they relate to each other and how they relate to brands. To get their attention, you’re going to have to know what’s important to them. Here’s a quick explainer to get you started.

What is Gen Z?
Generation Z refers to young adults born in the years 1996 to 2015. And they’re about to surpass Millennials as the most populous generation on the planet.

How Gen Z Feels About…
As the most racially and ethnically diverse generation of Americans to date, it’s difficult to generalize about Gen Z’s opinions. What we do know though: Members of Gen Z have lived their whole lives online, and that’s affected how and where they’re spending their money — and their feelings about the market in general.

  • Brands: Authenticity is the name of the game when appealing to Gen Z, with 82% saying they trust companies more if they use real people in advertisements.
  • Capitalism: Only 20% of Gen Z has “very positive” views about capitalism, which is fewer than any preceding generation.
  • Social Media Marketing: Gen Z isn’t just completely tuned in to social media marketing they’re also redefining it. So while they’re happy to engage with brands, it’s increasingly on their own terms.

What It All Means
Gen Z has high digital expectations for brands. Looking ahead, you’ll need to invest in new platforms and the authenticity of your image.

This generation is spending big, but you have to earn it. If you need more guidance on how to do it, get in touch.

How to Write a Great Email Signature

How to Write a Great Email Signature

How to Write a Great Email Signature

 

Is your email signature sending the right message?

While it might seem like a small detail, your email signature reflects on both you and your brand — and it’s important to get it right. Doing so lends more authority to your outreach, and it can also have a major effect on your email response rates.

Here’s what you need to know about acing your sign-off, including some essential do’s and don’ts.

Why Your Email Signature Matters
There are a number of benefits to hitting the sweet spot with your email signature:

  • It tells recipients exactly who you are.
  • It further establishes brand identity.
  • It provides recipients with necessary contact information.
  • It provides your email with more authority.

From cold prospecting emails to brand newsletters, including a well thought-out signature is key to contact recognition, as well as to creating emails that convert.

Email Signature Do’s and Don’ts
Take the guesswork out of a great signature by following these do’s and don’ts.

  • Do link to your website. This gives recipients an easy way to connect your name to your brand.
  • Don’t forget the basics. Even the fanciest of signatures still need to include your name, job title, and a way to get in touch. A headshot can be a great addition too.
  • Do include links to social. Give your recipients a fast way to follow up — or give you a follow — on your social media pages.
  • Don’t use emojis (in most cases). An emoji may come off a bit too unprofessional, especially in certain industries.

Design and Topography Ideas
You’ve got lots of options when it comes to design. Here are some great examples to get you inspired: