When I started my business, I created three overarching categories of solutions I wanted to offer to my clients. While the verbiage might have evolved slightly, the gist of what I provide has not.
Decluttering Your Advertising
We have reached a tipping point after being constantly bombarded with emails, texts, news, and information buzzing our phones, computers, and TVs. We, as consumers, are spread as thin as ever when it comes to paying attention. It is hard for one to concentrate with all this visual and audible clutter. In the era of the Marie Kondo method of decluttering our homes, we also need to declutter our advertising so that the viewer pays attention.
As a designer, it is my job to coach clients to be part of the decluttering solution. A consumer can be dissuaded to do business with a company based upon their advertising. When a message is too loud, wordy, busy, and confusing, a potential customer will walk away. People don’t have time to figure out what you’re trying to say, so it needs to be concise.
Step 1: Clear Content
Consumers want to know information fast. You are competing for their time, battling against all the other noise. Tell them who you are, what you stand for, and how you can you make their lives easier. Your messaging must have direction to entice the potential buyer.
Step 2: Less Talk
I find a lot of clients feel compelled to over-explain. Hiring a copywriter can help you create clear and concise messaging. Consumers don’t want to get into the minutia of your product; they want the basics and will seek out more information if it applies to them. Simplify your message by presenting the problem and the solution as briefly as possible. You want to give the consumer direction to gather more information from your website. Clients and potential buyers today are resourceful—they will find you if they’re interested.
Step 3: Bold Design
Fortunately for advertisers, good design doesn’t always mean expensive design. Marketers don’t need to break the bank on photography. All it means is that your advertising needs to be visually interesting. If a photo is applicable and striking, by all means, use it. But, do not underestimate the strength of simple typography and the importance of white space, as it can provide the break in the noise that consumers need. With graphic use of color, line, text, and shape, you can create a stunning design that is more than affordable.
When you tie clear messaging together with bold design, you present your customer the most concise, decluttered version of your company. It will attract and keep clientele, which is the big goal for any advertising campaign.
Addie Mirabella is the owner of Mirabella Design Studio.
Is Your Website Responsive?
Many business owners may not even consider whether their websites are responsive, but in today’s internet, the answer may mean the difference between success and failure of their online business and overall web presence.
With that in mind, what does the term "responsive" mean in relation to your website?
When web developers talk about a website being "responsive across all platforms,” we’re discussing the coding of the website and its ability to format well across all platforms and devices. We mean the way the website looks visually on various screen sizes that make up today's collection of devices that people use to access the internet (i.e. widescreen HD desktop monitors, tablets, and smartphones…in both orientations of portrait and landscape modes).
As a web developer, I am asked to look at the websites of potential clients who are looking to see if their websites are up-to-date or need updating. The first thing I check is to see how the website formats on mobile devices like smartphones. Why is that important? As we all know, mobile smartphone use is increasing every day*, and many people use their smartphones to surf the internet and to purchase products online.
If your website isn’t responsive and optimized for mobile, you will miss out on potential mobile sales, especially if your website utilizes a shopping cart system. However, regardless of what type of website your business has and what functionality it utilizes, the website needs to look attractive and be usable on all types of modern devices used for accessing the internet. There have been instances where I have looked at websites that looked fine on an HD desktop monitor but were not remotely usable on a smartphone.
Here at WebWorm, we are WordPress developers. WordPress is a very powerful content management system that offers clients a state-of-the-art platform for their websites that is constantly being updated for security and functionality. We also utilize professional quality theme engines to build our client websites. The developers of modern high-quality themes make responsiveness and mobile optimization a top priority in all their coding.
Tony Culjis is the Director of Web Development at Webworm. If you want to learn more about this topic, or you want to find out how well your website ranks as far as being responsive and mobile optimized, please reach out. Whether you already have a website that you may want to update for responsiveness, or you need a new website built for your business, WebWorm offers services are that are professional, affordable, and with an unparalleled customer service.
*In the 4th quarter of 2018, 47.2% of the world’s internet traffic came from mobile devices. Source: Statista.