Monday 29 August 2016

Running a Business without a Responsive website? Do It At Your Own Risk!

0
If you remember some 10-15 years ago, having a website was optional but now you cannot actually run a business effectively without a website. Forget about the website, now you cannot make it without a responsive website, for people are using internet on multiple devices.

What is a responsive website?

A responsive website is the one that changes its appearance and layout based on the size of the screen the website is displayed on. The main idea behind creating a responsive website is to make it easier for people to read the information on smaller screen as well.

Before we go ahead with the reasons as to why a responsive website is so important for your business let me walk you through a few stats related to mobile usage worldwide.
• 91% of all people on earth have a mobile phone.
• 56% of people own a smart phone.
• 50% of mobile phone users use mobile as their primary Internet source.
• 72% of tablet owners purchase online from their tablets each week.
• Mobile web adoption is growing x8 faster than web adoption did in the 1990s and early 2000s.
• Just under 30% of emails are now opened on mobile devices. Over 10% on tablets.
• The average person checks their smartphone 34 times a day.
• 64% of decision-makers read their email via mobile device.
• Mobile web browsing accounted for 30% of all web traffic in 2012 and is expected to grow to 50% by 2014.
• 40% of mobile consumers turned to a competitor’s site after a bad mobile web experience.
• It is estimated that 1.2 billion people worldwide were using mobile apps at the end of 2012. This is forecast to grow at a 29.8 percent each year, to reach 4.4 billion users by the end of 2017.
Hopefully, the stats are enough to tell you about why you need a responsive website. Still let me explain it in detail. See! The stats clearly depict that how people are using multiple screens for multiple purposes that include marketing as well. In fact they mainly use it for various marketing purposes such as searching and comparing the products, making purchase online and so on. So, the more people are on mobile internet, the more crucial it becomes for you to cater them services that are mobile friendly. And, so you need a responsive website to make everything easier for the consumer, eventually getting yourself more sales.

Moreover, if you don’t have a responsive website the customer while reading your website on their phones or the distinguished devices might need to zoom in and out to read portions of the web page, which can be a frustrating experience for them. In most of such cases the customer leaves your website and goes to that of your competitors if they have a mobile compatible website. Resizing the site was just one concern; there are so many other things that need your attention such as the buttons on your website, the content on it and so on, as they must be optimized for mobile usage.
And, the idea is that you don’t need to make big investment for it as in many cases and existing website can be upgraded. I shouldn’t say it’s time to make your site ready for mobile users as the time has passed a long before and that you already have missed a large number of sales that could have been made through a responsive website. Hence, get a responsive website before it is too late and that your competitors outsmart you to an extent that it really becomes tough for you to even get up and give it a shot.


Courtesy:DSIM

Sunday 28 August 2016

Internet Marketers Always Talk About Visibility! Here’s Why It Is Important


Visibility ideally is important for any website but for a business website it is a must. After all, why have you created a website? Just to connect with your customers and make them more aware about you and your business. Right?
Your customers are already online. They are posting reviews, hunting for information, making a purchase online, talking about you and your business and so on. It is of course a good signal for you but then to join the conversation you need to have an online presence. Besides, the stronger presence you have on the Web, higher will be the chances of online consumers visiting your website and higher will be the conversions, which is your ultimate goal. So, your business website needs a strong visibility. Let me tell you in detail as to why it is so.

Drives traffic to your website

1
Like we said just now your consumers are online doing multiple activities on internet that includes searching for product & services and purchasing them as well. So, if your business or say your website is visible online, it will drive more and more traffic to your website.

Branding

2
A good visibility helps you establish a name for your business by enabling business to be potentially seen by millions. This eventually not only increases sales for your business but also increases the number of potential customers for you.

Local markets

3
You not only get to advertise your product in the global market, but if your product is meant for the local customers more, you can enhance your local visibility through various search engine optimization tactics and can drive more sales from the local market.

Besides!

While visibility is crucial for your business, it is imperative to back up this visibility with good content. No matter how well you have optimized your website for search engines, it will hardly work if the content lacks value. Consumers are looking for some information to resolve their concern but if your well optimized website with all the right keywords at place is unable to provide them with the valuable content or say the useful information, they are for sure going to bounce back and they might go to one of your competitors. Hence, content plays a very crucial role in getting your website a better visibility.
Apart from content there are a few more things that need your attention such as the user-interface of your website, its look & feel and so on.

Afterword
Strong business visibility is critical in today’s competitive environment when a large part of your potential customers are already online. By not having a good online visibility, you are actually missing out to a number of sales that you could have made easily. The good news is that there are many tools and services that can help you with this if you want to do it yourself. You can easily get visibility for your website through SEO, PPC, blog, posting articles on various offline and online channels, displaying banner ads on targeted websites, by having a Facebook fan Page, by strating a group on Linked In , by running a video on You tube and so on. So, gets started before it is too late!


Courtesy:DSIM

Thursday 25 August 2016

Why Your Business Needs a Website


They say-‘In this digital era if you don’t exist in the virtual world you don’t exist at all’.
And, to exist in the virtual world, you need to have a web presence.
And, to have a web presence, the first thing you need is a website.
So, how does a website helps your business and that why every business needs a website? Let’s see!

Website acts as a point of contact between you and your customers

Your website is your virtual outlet to sell your product and services. In today’s digital era when consumers prefer to search, compare and purchase product online than offline, you are actually ignoring hundreds of potential customers by not having a website. In fact, you not only need a website but a responsive website, for a large part of consumers is on mobiles or say mobile internet these days. Your website actually acts like a point of contact between you and the consumers in the online world.

It acts as a showcase of your work

For example, if somebody plans to buy any product or service from you, he/she must be doing a lot of research about you before they actually get to buy your product. Now, with the advent of internet things have become easier for consumers as they can easily research all about you on internet if you have a web presence. So, website is an ultimate place for showcasing your work and feature testimonials from satisfied customers that not only help consumers in their research but also incite their purchase decision to a great extent.

Is cost-effective

Unlike, the physical outlets that are associated with a lot of limitations, like limitations of timing, availability and heavy expenses for maintenance, a website is quite cost-effective. Besides, it is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for any kind of enquiry from anybody.

Doesn’t requires an experience

Anyone can have a website whether they are a tech wizard or not. You don’t actually need any experience or have to be tech savvy to own a website.

Helps you give your business a professional touch

Working with email accounts on platforms like Yahoo, aol, gmail or so for your business purposes doesn’t look professional at all. But then if you have a website, you have your own domain name. So, you can have email accounts on your own domain that actually gives a very professional impression.

In fact talking about why your business needs a website doesn’t seem something which is actually required, as by now everyone must be aware with the importance of having a website, the way world is transforming into a digital world and almost everybody on the planet has become so tech-savvy. So, go ahead and get a website before your competitors do.


Courtesy:DSIM

Wednesday 24 August 2016

How A Mobile Responsive Website Can Help Increase Your Business Revenue?

0
Homosapiens were never satisfied with what they achieved and so they kept on inventing ways to make life smoother and sophisticated. Perhaps they will never be satisfied in future too and will keep on inventing things and ways.
Almost two decades ago we didn’t have mobile phones but now mobile phones have become an integral part of our lives. We are so much dependent on it that forget about a day we can’t imagine an hour without it. Whether it is research, shopping or any other activity we prefer to do it through internet on mobile, for it is quite handy and can be easily used while we are on our go.
And, we very well know that marketing and life style of the people are inter related. If one will change it is sure to change the other. For instance, if people prefer to use internet on mobile than any other device, businesses need to include this factor while strategizing their marketing blueprint.
I think by now it must be clear to you that how important it is to consider mobile while doing anything and everything in your marketing venture. Still, let me give a sneak peek of a few statistics related with mobile that will make thing clearer to you.

Why a mobile-friendly website has become crucial for your Business?

• There are currently 4 billion mobile phones in use globally
• 1.08 of these are smart phones
• 50% of local searches are carried out on mobile devices
• 86% of mobile Internet users are using their devices while watching TV
• A third of Facebook’s 700 million users are using Facebook Mobile
• Half of twitter’s 175 million users are using Twitter Mobile
• 50% of local searches are carried out on mobile devicesNot just that mobile internet use is expected to overtake traditional desktop and laptop Internet use by 2014 as per a recent study.

It is evident from the statistic that how crucial it has become to have a website that’s compatible for mobile as well. Many businesses that have embraced the mobile web have experienced a surge in mobile traffic, such as Facebook, Twitter and so on.
By the way what is a mobile friendly website and what all factors are there that account for a mobile friendly website. Let’s see

A Mobile-Friendly Website

“You can view your website on your mobile device does not mean your website is a mobile-friendly website. “
A mobile-friendly website is the one that’s designed specifically for mobile or say smaller screens allowing easy navigation and only display information and content that are relevant for user’s needs.
Let’s take an example here in order to make out the differences between a website and a mobile site. Below is the screenshots of website and mobile site of eBay. Now you can easily make out from the picture that in both the sites they have taken care of simplicity, relevance and ease of navigation according to the respective devices.

Although people find it easy to access internet on their mobile but they can’t spend long time looking for what they want and so the mobile sites should be designed in a way that the experience the user has is quick and easy.

Be innovative and lead the way

If truth be told, only 2% to 10% of websites have been specifically designed with mobile users in mind, which signifies that majority of your competitors does not have a mobile-friendly website. Don’t you think it’s an opportunity to have an extra edge over your competitors by having a mobile friendly website before they do as mobile marketing is the future of marketing?
Besides, many studies reveal that bounce rates for websites that are not mobile-friendly are often between 85 – 90%, which means that there is an immediate loss in traffic of between 10 – 25%.
Besides, if you want to study about how it will affect your business, you can make use of Google Analytics data and find out how many people are visiting your site on mobile devices and their behavior while they are on your site.


So, don’t lag behind instead lead the way and be innovative by having a mobile friendly website before your competitors have to drive more traffic, generate more revenue and boost sales.

Courtesy:DSIM

Tuesday 23 August 2016

Top 15 Websites Worldwide By Unique Visitors

uniquevisitors10
Every day while surfing on the internet you come across various websites but have you ever felt curious to find out the most popular websites of the world? Have you ever thought about websites that see most unique visitors in the world? By the way do you know what exactly a unique visitor is? I’m sure you know! However, let me brush up your information on unique visitor before we go any further.
Unique visitor is a metric that refer to a person who visits a site at least once for a given period of time. However, each visitor to the site is only counted once during that given period of time, so if the same IP address accesses the site the site many times, it still only counts as one visitor.
Now based on the number of unique visitor they have, here are top 20 websites from all around the world.
Let’s have a quick look to them.

Google.com

1
Unique visitors: 1,100,000,000
Global rank: 1
About Google.com: Web search engine

YouTube.com

2
Unique visitors: 1,000,000,000
Global rank: 3
About YouTube.com: Platform for uploading, sharing and watching user-created videos

Facebook.com

3
Unique visitors: 900,000,000
Global rank: 2
About Facebook.com: Social networking site to keep in touch with friends

Yahoo.com

4
Unique visitors: 750,000,000
Global rank: 4
About Yahoo.com: Search engine and platform that connects to users to other Yahoo properties, such as Yahoo Finance and Flickr

Amazon.com

5
Unique visitors: 500,000,000
Global rank: 9
About Amazon.com: Online shopping destination for electronics, apparel, sporting goods and even food

Wikipedia.org

6
Unique visitors: 475,000,000
Global rank: 6
About Wikipedia.org: A free, web-based encyclopedia platform

EBay.com

7
Unique visitors: 350,000,000
Global rank: 21
About eBay.com: Online shopping Website

Twitter.com

8
Unique visitors: 290,000,000
Global rank: 11
About Twitter.com: Real-time communications platform

Bing.com

9
Unique visitors: 285,000,000
Global rank: 23
About Bing.com: Web search engine

MSN.com

10
Unique visitors: 280,000,000
Global rank: 33
About MSN.com: A collection of Microsoft-owned Internet properties

Microsoft.com

11
Unique visitors: 275,000,000
Global rank: 38
About Microsoft.com: Destination for purchasing Microsoft products, and downloading MS software and updates

LinkedIn.com

12
Unique visitors: 250,000,000
Global rank: 12
About LinkedIn.com: Social networking website for people in professional occupations

WordPress.com

13
Unique visitors: 240,000,000
Global rank: 19
About WordPress.com: Blogging platform

Pinterest.com

14
Unique visitors: 150,000,000
Global rank: 28
About Pinterest.com : Social networking website that allows users to save images and categorize them on different boards.

Ask.com

15
Unique visitors: 145,000,000
Global rank: 34
About Ask.com: A Google-powered search engine



Courtesy:DSIM

Monday 22 August 2016

How to Use YouTube to Bring Potential Traffic to Your Website

yt
In past few years, content marketing has increasingly become an effective way of getting potential traffic to your website. However, when you say content, it doesn’t only mean the written words as even videos happen to be a significant part of content. And,YouTube being the world’s third most visited website has made video marketing far more valuable in this digital era.
With 3 billion daily views and over 500 million people flocking to it each month, it is no wonder if YouTube has become the world’s second-largest search engine after Google. This is what that makes it an incredible platform for marketers longing to boost potential traffic coming to their sites provided they deploy the correct strategy.
While business are working smart and hard on other channels of digital marketing, very few of them know how to leverage YouTube to drive potential traffic to their websites.This is why we have come up with a few very practical tips on video marketing through YouTube which are as follows:

Create good Content

1
Just like the way you do it while writing content for your marketing blog, create a video content that carries a lot of value in it. Make it as informative, innovative, engaging and interesting as it could be. However, make sure you don’t forget the time factor while doing so, for the average attention period of adults is around ten minutes only. So, it is always better to create a video that’s not more than 10 minutes or in fact try making it 5-6 minutes lengthy.

Create good descriptions

2
Why descriptions so important? Because search engines identify your videos with their descriptions and other written information that gets indexed by them and this is your description that matches with the searches and makes your video to get displayed. No matter how perky your video is, if the description is improper, you are not going to get results you are expecting. So make sure you write a glossy description that captures the gist of your message and include relevant keywords. As far as its length is concerned, try confining it to 70 words or less.

List relevant keywords

3
While you upload the video, you get a section where you need to list keywords. Never overlook it as Google takes it in to account while giving the search results. Make sure you are listing the relevant keywords there. By relevant keywords here, it means the keywords that are relevant to your business and are most frequently used by consumers to find the product that you sell.

4
Call-to-action compels the viewer to take the action after they have viewed the video, if placed properly. It is a button-link that takes your visitor to the page you want them to visit for your business. So don’t forget to include a call-to-action with your video if you want viewers to take some action at the end of the video.

Make multiple videos for same product or service

5
Making more than two videos that are similar in terms of product or services and interlinking them at the bottom in the description will make people find you through different ways. Besides, Google considers links which refer to each other as more relevant and ranks you higher, which eventually brings more traffic to your videos and more clicks through to your website.


These were a few simple ways to drive traffic to your website through YouTube. Let me remind you once again that over 500 million people visit YouTube very month making it a great online market place for you. You Tube is a wonderful tool for building rapport with the customer and nurturing the visitors so that when they arrive at your website they are ready to take action, which eventually makes the conversion rate to go up.

Courtesy: DSIM

Sunday 21 August 2016

Homepage Vs Landing Page…Content Vs Design…Who Wins and Why?

Being a marketing professional you must be able to distinguish between a website’s homepage and the landing page. Both happen to be a place where the visitors land however there is a difference in the way they land the respective web pages. So, which one is more crucial for your business- a homepage or a landing page? Let’s see!
1
Below is the home page of DSIM. As you can see that the page is designed for wider ranging purpose and is not campaign based. Homepage is a reservoir of links connecting visitors to different information on the website. Whether it is the ‘about’ information, the’ contact info’, ‘blog’ or the about the ‘course curriculum’, you can find all related information on the homepage.
Homepage Content Vs Homepage Design
What do you think is more important when it comes to the homepage, is it content or design? Comparing the two perhaps will give a better answer. Let’s do that:
I. High quality, education-based content is quite helpful in increasing awareness, building trust, nurturing and converting leads, serving customers and even generating referrals.
II. A well-designed homepage helps you make your customer feel that you care about details and that you really want to add something fun and meaningful to their lives.
So, what according to you is more crucial? If I had to choose, I had certainly chosen both, for they perfectly balance each other and provide users with the best possible experience and you with the best possible results. Let’s see how:
• Good design pull customers towards your website while good content helps to retain them.
• Both of them together are responsible for developing a cohesive branding message.
• Even when it comes to search results, they play equally important roles.

Landing Page

2
Coming to the landing page of the website, it is a webpage that a visitor can arrive at or ‘lands’ on after clicking on an ad or a call-to action button. Below is DSIM’s landing page for illustration. You can see the page is designed for a single promotion and contains two links in the form of calls-to-action. This is what your landing page is meant to be. A landing page is created keeping lead generation in mind. So you must create a dedicated strategy for your landing page as they are really very critical for your business just like the way home page is for various purposes such as building customer relationship, trust building, educating the customers, and so on.
Landing Page Content Vs Landing Page Design
Same goes with landing page as well when it comes to whether content is more important or the design. Content and design complement each other even in a landing page too. Let’s suppose you have created very good content but have placed things irrelevantly on your landing page and the design is also poor, do you think the visitor will stay for long on your page or will take any action? Perhaps not! So design is as important as your content happens to be. And, as far as content is concerned there are so many things that you need to keep in mind while creating it for landing page such as its consistency with the ads, clarity of the offer and so on.

Afterword
Both homepage and landing page are equally crucial, for they both serve different purposes that are crucial for your business. You cannot overlook one for the other. Both need your equal attention as lead generation is almost impossible without rapport building and what’s the use of rapport building if you have not generated leads and made sales for your business. After all, you make every endeavor to get some sales, end of the day.


Courtesy:DSIM

Thursday 18 August 2016

Is Your Website Good Enough To Engage Traffic

You wanted to generate awareness about your business among the masses for which you created a lovely website and made it visible on search engines and on other various channels with the help of different digital marketing tactics such as SEO, PPC and so on. And, even you started getting considerable amount of traffic to your website as well. What next?
Your end objective in any business is to get some sales, for that you need to generate some leads and for generating leads you must engage your customers, you must make them do some activities on your website. Not everyone who visits your website has a buying intention. So serve the purpose for which they have visited your site, it could be anything, they might have embarked upon your website just like that while browsing the web so do some activity to engage them. Let that person do something on your website and this is what we call customer engagement.

What is customer engagement?

In simple words customer engagement is engaging customers through various activities.

Why is customer engagement important?

So, by now you know that to move the customer down the sales funnel, you need to engage customers. Is that all you need customer engagement for? Or is there anything else that matter no less than sales. Customer engagement actually bestow you with a base on which you can build and foster a lot of things that account for a better and flourishing business. By letting the customer to interact you are actually increasing the credibility of your website. Besides, each action taken by customer on your website tells you about the behavior of each customer and so gives you an idea about your next step with that customer. In short, some of the things that customer engagement does for your business apart from helping you make sales are:
• Establishes high-value, long term customer relationship
• Builds trust with the customers
• Helps to figure out customer’s behavior.

How to make your website more engaging?

Now, how would you be making you site more engaging as there are different types of consumers and you cannot cater to all of them at the same time with the same content. But yes no matter how different human beings would be a few things will always remain in common and that you need to take care of those things to make your site more engaging. In simple words identify with the human psychology and act accordingly. Here are a few ways you can make your site more engaging:
• Good Content and images
This is something I don’t need to tell as has been repeated a number of times that provide value through your content to the people and they will engage more with it on your website. Try creating immaculate and useful content with suitable and stunning images to grip customer’s interest.
• Too many choices may confuse the customer
People love choices but too many choices might confuse the customer and that they might not choose at all. So have diverse options on your website but don’t make it too cluttered.
• Social Votes
Visitors might find your site interesting yet they can feel confused to take any actions and seek the opinion of others. So, you must include testimonials and ratings highlighted on your site. Visitors are likely to believe the words by your ongoing customers for they have already used your product or services. It builds trust.
• Limited offers
People aren’t fool but it is a normal tendency that no one wants to lose something they liked and that if the offer is limited, it might prompt them to make the purchase instantly.
• Using the power of a Real person
To make your site more engaging and able to hold customer’s interest, try including pictures of your customers and clients in the reviews, testimonials or where ever required.
• Stories
Talk about your success and even failure stories as that tends to hold customers interest for they illustrate a true picture of you and don’t show a man made fake story that people might not buy all the time. However, you can always let your customer know in case of your failures that how you recovered from them.
• Commitment
You can increase brand loyalty by making a commitment or asking your customers to do so. It could be anything subscribing to a newsletter or even becoming your fan on Faceook.

So, this was all about customer engagement on your website. Hopefully, this piece of information must have helped you in making your website more engaging. Let us know in comments if you know some more ways to engage customers on your website.



Courtesy: DSIM

Wednesday 17 August 2016

6 Dazzling Homepage Designs

No matter what purpose your website serves, the homepage of your website is the first thing that visitors get to see when embark upon your website. So to hold the visitors interest and encourage them to navigate through various pages on your website, the homepage of your website must be built meticulously. A non-intriguing or a non-appealing homepage might repel the visitors and make them to leave your website from there.
Here are 6 best homepage designs and why we like them!

ART & CODE

1
WHAT IS IT ABOUT?
Art & Code offers graphic design, web development and SEO services.They manage printing processes and give you consultations on various services. Also, they make multimedia presentations and 3d models.
WHY WE LOVED IT…?
‘SIMPLICITY IS BEAUTIFUL’. The use of bold icons well placed gives the homepage an immaculate look. No unnecessary clutter along with ease of browsing gives the visitor a feel good factor.

SAGMEISTER & WALSH

2
WHAT IS IT ABOUT?
Sagmeister & Walsh is a NYC based design firm that creates identities, commercials, websites, apps, films, books and objects for clients, audiences and ourselves.
WHY WE LIKE IT?
Their homepage offers a very unique design. The way the tabs are placed on the floor as mats add on to the 3D effect. It’s distinctiveness and ease of use makes it the top among the best homepage designs.

LOUIS VUITTON

3
WHAT IS IT ABOUT?
Louis Vuitton Malletier, commonly referred to as Louis Vuitton or LV is a French fashion house founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton. It is one of the world’s leading international fashion houses; it sells its products through standalone boutiques, lease departments in high-end department stores, and through the e-commerce section of its website. For six consecutive years (2006–2012) Louis Vuitton has been named the world’s most valuable luxury brand.
WHY WE LIKE IT?
The very first look at the homepage depicts fashion. The way the banner pops up and asks you for you location (country) looks very clean and gives a notion that the fashion products are customized according to the location.

JAQUET DROZ

4
WHAT IS IT ABOUT?
Jaquet Droz is a swiss watch company that makes watches handcrafted to perfection and their unique design is quite appealing.
WHY WE LIKE IT?
Their homepage depicts what they do. You do not have to read anything on their website to learn more. The moment you look at the page, the beautiful image of a watch and a pic depicting that their watches are handcrafted to perfection. The clean and superior design is a quite alluring!

TV SAFETY

5
WHAT IS IT ABOUT?
TV Saftery is a website that promotes solutions available to protect your family and your TV. It also includes facts and figures to support that TV safety is essential.
WHY WE LIKE IT?
When you visit this website, you know the message they want to spread out to the people, i.e., pealse follow the safety rules while watching TV. The homepage is neatly done with well placed tabs and infographics.

APPLE

6
WHAT IS IT ABOUT?
Need I tell more…?
WHY WE LIKE IT?
Their homepage offers a very crisp and clean look. The upper portion of the homepage is dedicated to latest updates about their products and the tabs below are well place which offers ease of navigation. Amazing high resolution images of their products promote a very feel good factor and their website can be attributed as one of the reasons for their whooping sales!

KEEP THESE IN MIND WHILE DESIGNING YOUR HOMEPAGE
I know building the perfect homepage is not an easy task and that there are so many factors that have to be taken care of while doing so such as
i. Good logo and slogan to establish brand identity
ii. First impression is the last impression
iii. Visual and verbal clues reveal the core content of the website and encourage deeper browsing.
iv. A clear navigation is really very crucial.
v. A place for site-wide search is a must
vi. Fresh content attract return visitors.
vii. Visitors are looking for information and good, informative content provide them value.
viii. Multiple entry points make users to access site’s content in different ways apart from the navigation.
So these were something that you need to pay attention to while designing the homepage of your website. Let’s go ahead and see come of the best homepage designs of all time; see what is it in particular that they have been doing to make their homepage so effective.
So, we have seen some of the most productive and celebrated homepage designs of all time and have learnt a few lessons from them that we can apply while designing or modifying our home pages.These were just a few; there are a number of homepages in the web world that are quite exemplary when it comes to results that they give. Do let us know in comments if you find some.

Courtesy:DSIM