Website Development Archives - Page 2 of 9

8 June 201828 October 2022

5 Tips for User Friendly Content

Above view of business man working place. Cup of coffee, laptop, notebook and pen. Business, education or blogging concept.

In this drive for more, more, more content, it can be hard to ensure that all your content is accessible. Sometimes it’s important to take a step back and ask yourself: Is my content readable?

Not every member of your target audience is going to be internet-literate, and not everyone is able to easily navigate websites from disabilities. These members of your audience are just as important as those who understand the internet. Catering to them allows you to expand your market.

The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) also has content regulations in place, so taking a look at your content can be the start of compliance and is a part of upkeep on your website.

Here are five tips to make your content as accessible and readable as possible

1- Use Headings Extensively

Headings help break up long blocks of text, allowing people to more easily scan content. Having properly nested headings is critical for both readability and AODA. This means a single H1 is at the start of the page, followed by secondary headings being H2, and so on.

This also means not using headings for spacing. The only time H1 should show up on the page is at the beginning, and all subsequent headings should have text in them. Screen readers rely on headings to determine the content of the page, and they are a key component of compatibility.

Easily scanned content also allows busy professionals to know if the page will be valuable to them, making them more likely to either keep browsing the site regardless of if they find what they want on that page. If they don’t find what they need, they know finding other content on your website will be easy because it’s well organized.

2- Make sure titles are descriptive

Jargon happens in any industry. But, be careful that your menu headings and links leading to other sections of your site are in plain language.

There is nothing more confusing than looking at a website and having to decipher what basic menu headings mean. This leads to guessing at what sort of content might be beyond the link. It’s a problem for those who screen readers, too, because unclear headings make it much slower to navigate website; people who rely on them might give up — and your website to get penalized in its SEO ranking.

Go through your menu headings and make sure somebody with minimal knowledge of your industry or organization can make a reasonable guess at what’s behind the menu item.

3- Employ Lists

Bulleted lists are easier to skim, and can act as a mini table of contents for longer pages of content. They provide high points that can then act as hyperlinks down to headings should such jumps be advantageous. Even if they’re lower on the page, their indented nature makes them stand out, causing people to pay attention.

Accordion lists are also useful for keeping pages at a manageable scroll length. While people are less shy about scrolling than they used to be, there’s still something intimidating about a long scroll bar.

Both techniques allow people to see the most important information at once, giving people to read the sea of content around them.

4- Ensure Logical Groupings

This is a fancy way of saying grouping like with like, which is harder than it sounds.

This is especially important when you have content that can fit under multiple headings. Information about programs and services offered can fall under multiple headings. It’s important to make sure the pages are cross-linked.

Really look at your content from top to bottom and determine if people would assume all the information under the heading (including sub-pages) can be found under the top heading. If it feels obscure or unnatural consider breaking off the content to something more appropriately named.

5- Have a Site Map

Some people know exactly where they want to go. If you combine proper headings and good page names, a site map is an invaluable tool to help people know where to look. Placing it in the header or in an otherwise prominent position will give people a shortcut.

A site map is also required for AODA compliance, allowing people to navigate easily.

If you keep these five tips in mind, you’ll be well on your way to having users get the most out of your content. And the more users can get out of your content, the more likely they are to trust your business. As an extra bonus, you’ll be closer to AODA compliance.

31 May 2018

The New Email Paradigm: Do More with Less

Header Image: Email Best Practices: Learn the tips to improve your email skills

As more companies adopt marketing automation tactics, you might expect that they are sending more emails; not if they’re doing it right. Some marketing automation software solutions have email engagement tools that enable better targeting and more effective email marketing. Not only does this improve your success and increase your ROI, but it also helps to maintain a good sender record.

The objective is to send relevant information and offers to those who will be most appreciative; and now there are more tools to hone that implementation. For example, SharpSpring introduced engagement-based monitoring and suppression tools late last summer. It assigns a score (from 0 to 16) to contacts, and that score changes automatically depending upon a contact’s actions (or inaction) with respect to your emails, forms, website and social media. If a contact reduces to a 0 score, they are deemed to be unengaged and are prevented from receiving emails. Their score will be automatically increased if they send you an email, visit your website, submit a form or download content. May sound harsh when many organizations want to get their information in front of as many people as possible, but this strategy has your success as its focus.

Inbound Marketing is More than a Trend

The genesis of inbound and automated marketing was the realization that interrupting prospects and trying to force their attention was becoming ineffective. Additionally, prospects are tired of receiving what they perceive as junk, and many countries have regulations in place to back them up. Engagement tools are an evolution along the inbound path, respecting prospects and helping you to determine who is interested in your information and who is at risk of becoming unengaged. (A comprehensive strategy would include campaigns to nurture those contacts and improve engagement where possible.)

Although it may seem counterintuitive, smart email suppression makes for more successful campaigns. To get a sense of how effective smart email suppression is, SharpSpring studied emails sent by 5,000 of their clients. Their analysis was done three months after they implemented engagement tools and automated suppression controls. It compared the month of September 2017 with September 2016. They found that the overall number of emails sent dropped by 30 million. However, as the graph below shows, both opens and clicks increased — dramatically fewer emails sent, but more opens and clicks generated.

Fewer Emails Delivered – Higher Engagement

To further illustrate the impact of strategically suppressed email delivery, the following chart normalizes the results for 1,000 email contacts (from this same study). The engagement tools allowed only 667 emails to be sent, but those emails generated more opens and clicks.

Targeting Engaged Prospects Improves Success

Suppressing Emails is Respectful, and Good Business

Another major benefit to employing email suppression is maintaining a good sender status. Big ISPs (e.g. Google, Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo) have included engagement in their algorithms for designating email as Junk or Spam. Keeping your delivery rate high with email suppression helps to maintain a good sender status, facilitating favourable delivery by the major ISPs. The best designed emails are worthless if they don’t make it to recipients’ inbox. The example shown in the chart above eliminated the possibility of any of the 333 unengaged prospects to become annoyed, and possibly file a spam complaint.

As you’d expect, email marketing for most organizations involves e-newsletters, promotional offers and simple auto-responders. An obvious starting point, but certainly not sufficient to sustain a highly engaged database. These email initiatives should form part of a larger strategy that includes content of interest and meaningful ways for prospects to engage with you. (Remember, inbound marketing focuses on earning a prospects interest and trust, so using email to simplu push out your promotions is not a sustainable model.) You should start with a thorough understanding of your prospects and customers, analyzing the journey they take in dealing with you, and determining where, how and when you could most effectively communicate with them.

You’ll reap greater rewards by using a more strategic approach to your email campaigns, ideally integrated with structured automated marketing tactics. In addition to email suppression, companies striving for best practices are also using personas, buying cycles, behavioural and list segmenting, dynamic content, and planned workflows to nurture and engage their audience.

Like most business people, you are probably receiving more emails overall, your own experience will support the importance of understanding prospects and delivering the content and experience that will keep them engaged. (Click here for Email Best Practices download.)

It’s worth noting that with the increasing use of content and emails as a distribution channel, there is a corresponding increase in unsolicited emails. It is important to respect CASL legislation in Canada. Not only because it’s the law and good business etiquette, but dumping a bunch of emails on people who likely have no interest in your services is not a good growth strategy.

17 January 2018

Put your best face forward!

Your profile picture is your first handshake, your first eye contact or smile, indeed your first impression online. LinkedIn reports that profiles with pictures get 21 times more views. Why is a view important? A profile view means someone found you interesting enough to click through to your profile and that is what you want. This next step is the equivalent of someone accepting your business card and taking the time to hear you out. To get this result, you’ll have to work on your headline which is tip #2.

But, back to the picture. If you do not have a picture, easy, get one taken or upload one to your profile. Make sure it is professional looking. After all, LinkedIn is a professional network, so post a picture of what you would look like if you were going to an event or a customer meeting. Avoid blurry or colored backgrounds and be alone in your picture. By this I mean, avoid cropping an existing picture and having someone else’s arm in your profile. If you haven’t updated your picture in a while, take a hard look and determine if you still look like yourself. You want to be authentic and not give a fake or biased impression from the start. If you need an update, then get a new picture taken and upload it to your profile. A profile picture should be updated every 5 years, at the minimum. If you would like to know more about all the small details that make a profile picture great, you can read more here from Pillar Research.

What you represent in one line!

Your headline is the one-liner that comes right below your profile picture and is always visible. Every time you post, engage with a post or share a link, your picture, name and headline will be what people see. Usually, you will see the title of a person or the company they work at appear in this one-liner but instead, use this opportunity to tell people what you are about and why they should contact you. I’ve seen a trend over the past few years of people calling themselves a guru or master of something, or stating their intention to help their customers and change their lives for the better. Remember to keep it simple! In one line, tell your future customer why you are the right partner for their business and what makes you so different from the competition. You can add your title, if relevant but simplify it to the important keywords. Finally, use action to explain your value proposition and make it clear why people should contact you. This headline should be captivating and interesting enough that people will want to click on your picture to get to your profile and learn more about your product or services.

Your pitch and a little about yourself!

Once you have made that first impression and got people to your LinkedIn profile, this is where you can give them your pitch. The summary is located right below your picture and headline, once people land on your profile. You will notice that only a few lines are visible and people can click to read more. You can edit this part by clicking on the small pencil in the top right corner of your profile, next to your picture and scrolling to the bottom of the editing window.

Very important to start with yourself. It is your LinkedIn profile after all and, even though we are going digital, people still buy from people. Start with 1-2 lines about yourself and what makes you passionate about what you do. Use the following questions to help you build your summary:

Why did you chose the industry you are in
What got your started
Why do you like what you do
What are you passionate about

Next, talk about your company, products and services. Make sure you include the right keywords for your industry and segment. Also, decompose your solution, are there other words that people would use to find your product or service? What are the business pains that your solution answers? Think in terms of what a customer would look for and include those keywords in your summary when talking about your offering.

Add a call to action at the end to tell your customers why they should contact you and how. The text in the summary is not hyperlinked, but you can write out your website or email, in order to make it easier for your customer to copy and paste in a new web window or email.

Finally, think of some media that you can add to complement your summary. Either a video, ebook, recent news clipping or your latest campaign can be uploaded to your summary to give some visual information to your prospect or customer.

Remember to take some time during the holidays to rest up and energized for the new year, update your profile and start off strong in 2018! The PROSAR team can help you achieve social success and reach your goals, just contact us here!

15 November 2017

Step 1: Personalise…

You have been choosing the right settings to target your ads to your chosen audience, you have been buying the right keywords to reach the right people when doing a search and you have been listening to your customers’ feedback on social media. So how does that all apply to your interactions on LinkedIn?

Well, LinkedIn advertising will get people to your page or website to learn more about your company, but personalization will remain the key to your success with individuals. Indeed, although it might seem old school, LinkedIn is based on the power of one’s network and the relationships that you, as a member, can build and maintain. After all, people still buy from people! In order to understand how to better tailor your approach via a connection request, a message or an InMail, let’s take a look at the meaning behind the word:

Personalize

Person – nalize

Person – analyze

Priority #1: Person

Your priority should always be the person you wish to address. On LinkedIn, it could be a connection, a prospect, a longtime customer, a potential new provider, etc. Every opportunity is a good one to connect. In order to stand out, you need to personalize your approach based on what you know about the person in front of you (virtually) online. Make it about them! Take an interest in who they are: look at their profile, their social media activity, recent posts or articles that they shared, and see what you have in common, or how you might be able to help each other. Remember that the main focus of any communication should be your customer or potential new customer and what they are interested in or how your product or service can help them improve their business, their lifestyle, their way of working or doing something in particular. Think of questions that are relevant to them.

The idea is that you want to get them talking. You want to give them a reason to answer your message, pick up the phone when you call or engage in conversation when they meet with you, and that reason is that you took an interest in what they do.

To do so, keep this in mind when writing to them on LinkedIn:

The first few sentences of a message should be about your prospect: What did you find interesting in their profile? What recent article that they shared made you want to write to them? What makes them so interesting?
Next, you should be letting them know who you are and how you could be of value to them. Keep this short!
Tell them in a sentence or two, why are you reaching out to them, give your message a purpose.
Finally, give them a call to action, ask them a question or give them a possible time to talk and discuss. Most people will answer when asked a question.

Priority #2: Analyze

Now, in the word personalize, you see the basis of the word analyze. The idea is that once you get them talking, you need to listen to what they have to say. Ask questions, either in written form, or verbally if you are on the phone with them, and take an interest. The more that someone reveals to you, the better you will be able to personalize your offer to their needs. You may have only one product, or you may have an array of products, but you still need to provide a solution to a problem that your customer is experiencing. And this information does not tend to be offered up easily as it might show a sign of weakness or an opportunity for their competition. Hence, your objective is to build a relationship with your customer and inspire trust.

Be patient. You might need more than one conversation to be in a position to make an offer, you will also need to analyze their behavior to determine their willingness to move forward with you towards a purchase or an investment. This is where the relationship part kicks in. LinkedIn will help you find the right contacts and connect with them, but you will need to build the professional relationship and maintain it until your prospect is ready to buy. Keep in touch online by connecting with them, sharing content and staying top of mind until it is the right time for them to call you back!

Finally, make sure that your LinkedIn profile is up-to-date, pleasing and well branded for your prospects. Indeed, a prospect’s first action is typically to look you up online. We will discuss the LinkedIn profile further in upcoming posts, but in the meantime, if you need any help getting started, just reach out to your PROSAR Strategist today!

13 October 2017

So what about Twitter for business? Your Social Landscape, Part 2

Last month we talked about your social landscape and how you could get started on social media, especially on LinkedIn. Moving on this month to another popular platform that has transitioned quite a bit in 2017, what about Twitter?

In 2016, Twitter made some very important decisions to battle user loss and try to revamp the platform’s image. With channels like Instagram and Facebook that are making video more accessible and popularizing the idea of stories, started by Snapchat, Twitter heard their users and decided to work on themselves. This said, a lot of minor but impactful changes arrived in 2017 and could be useful for your business. So how can you start your journey on Twitter?

Why should you be on Twitter?

Like any other platform, it depends on your audience.

Is your audience active on Twitter?

Are you in a niche market that has a forum on Twitter?

Do you operate a business that can offer quick discounts? Or exclusive deals?

…

My main advice is to take a look online. Go on Twitter, search a few keywords that are related to your business and see what are the results. When I worked with PROSAR on the social media presence of a soybean company, we never thought that growers would be online, even less on Twitter but yet, to our surprise, they were strong users of the network and many growers were online, sharing their story. This media became an important one in our social media strategy.

Do not push it aside too quickly for the new and shiny networks that are popping up on the social landscape. Depending on your business, Twitter could be a good fit for you!

How can you use it for your business?

Twitter can be used in different ways. One main use is support. Twitter is associated to speed and quick accessibility. For many customers, if they are not able to reach the company that is causing them an issue, they will go on Twitter, expecting a quick response. If this is something that makes sense for your business, then it is a great way to offer immediate support and resolve a customer issue, while the rest of the social world bear witness to your great service.

You can also use the platform to have an online presence during events. Most events, tradeshows and conferences will be live tweeting the event. If you are at that same event, you could be participating in the conversation, creating mindshare and thought leadership by sharing captivating quotes from keynote speakers or cool things that you see at the event. With the right tags and hashtags, your tweets could get picked up by the event and distributed to the list of participants following the event, hence giving you a much greater reach and increasing brand visibility. It could also be a way for you to promote your booth during an event or your own conference, if you are hosting one. You can widely expand your reach and number of participants if you live tweet your event and people can attend remotely.

Finally, you can increase traffic to your website but promoting blog posts or other content already available.

What new features help you better serve your customers?

Video

Instagram has been a leader in making video cool and accessible after YouTube. Even LinkedIn recently added a video feature to their platform. So Twitter, is also joining the video party and making live streaming a part of their DNA. As a business, you could add video to your virtual event. You could have a talk with your customers about a topic in particular or you could stream the launch of a new product. Video is a strong asset and is more and more a part of our content, so if you haven’t started experimenting with video yet, now is the time.

More characters to share your message

This might seem small, but it is not easy to fit all you need to say in a 140 characters’ limit. After many years, Twitter has finally made this policy a little more flexible. Indeed, images and videos no longer count towards your 140 limit, which means that you can still enrich your tweet with dynamic content without losing any space to add your brand and work on your messaging. Same for replies, so coming back to the support idea from the beginning, you no longer have to add the person you are replying to in your tweet, which means you have more characters to actually support your customer and answer their questions. Having worked in social media and managed communities online, I can confirm that these minor changes make a major difference in your online interaction with your customers.

These first few steps will help you get familiar with the platform and decide if this is the right place for you and your business. Get in touch with PROSAR today to have your first Social Media Audit and an overview of your landscape! We can definitely help you get started!

19 July 2017

So What About Social Media?

Two businessman connecting puzzle pieces togheter with copy space

What a beautiful landscape! And what about your Social Media Landscape?

So what about Social media? Is your company social yet? Or have you tried it, but didn’t have the time to manage it, and now have some ghost page that gets little to no engagement?

Indeed, social media has now been around for a while but not all companies or professionals are online. More and more, companies want to see value in a network before dedicating a resource to social media. They’re anxious to know how many new leads and customers a post, tweet or update will attract. So where does one start? Or start again, if this is your second time around!

What is your landscape?

Well first things first, where are your customers? And your competition? What about market trends? Start by doing some research and answering these questions — ideally with a social media audit. The key is not to try and be everywhere, but to find the right place. An audit will allow you to have a full overview of your social landscape and identify your strengths as well as your possible area of focus. When doing an audit, work with professionals (like the PROSAR team!) to get insight, feedback and a strategic overview, without having to invest in all the tools. For more info on what an audit includes and how to start, take a look at one of my past articles on the topic: 4 Tips when doing your first Social Media Audit.

Now that you see the lay of the land, pick a direction

Now that you have an idea of where you are and where you should be, make a choice. Is it LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Google+? Your audit would have given you an overview of what your competition is doing and how engaged your industry is with social media. Sometimes, it is possible that an industry or market is not using social media or might not yet see the need for it. This should not stop you from being engaged, and can even allow you to innovate in your field, but you will need to choose a particular focus. Do you want to improve communication with your customers? Do you want to reach out to new providers, partners or resellers? Perhaps you are in an industrial or manufacturing industry and want to be recognized as a reference in your field. Depending on your goal, you will be able to determine the best network for you. To start off, let’s take a look at LinkedIn. To learn more about the channels to consider and how to build your, check out our Online Marketing Plan blog.

The LinkedIn Landscape

Linkedin is a B2B focused platform. Beyond job searching, it is being used more and more as a way to connect with likeminded professionals and establish new business relationships. It is a place to create mindshare, position yourself as an expert or reference for your customers, and share knowledge through short articles that are then associated to your profile. If you have a strong team that is comfortable in becoming an ambassador for your company, and that you operate in the B2B space, LinkedIn could be a good opportunity for you to extend your reach quickly and start talking to CEOs, executives and other senior managers that are looking for information. If this sounds like your type of environment, here are the main things you need to consider:

Create a company page

If you don’t already have one this is the place to start. Create one so your employees can tag the company in each of their profile. This will also be a good place for prospects to find information about your company and access the website from one central place on Linkedin.

Create strong profiles

Profiles are an essential step when starting on LinkedIn. Prospects will click on profiles to learn more about the people and the company. Make sure your team has professional pictures, a good headline and an informative summary with engaging content.

Craft your company message

Give your team a 1-2 liner to describe what you sell and your corporate mission. By using the same keywords, the team will reinforce this message and your brand positioning, as well as arm them with the terms they can use to find more info online and better understand your solution.

These first few steps will help you build your professional presence online and help you develop ambassadors within your company walls. ‘’Start from the heart’’ to improve your branding and help it reach its potential. Get in touch with PROSAR today to have your first Social Media Audit and an overview of your landscape!

12 July 2017

4 Ways to Improve Your Current Website

I had been referred to a consulting company by a mutual print representative who said they wanted some help with their online presence. I reviewed their website, social media accounts and any relevant posts and pages that came up in Google searches. When I met with the President of the firm I explained where I felt their deficiencies were, and what I recommended as a solution; which included a revamp of their current website.

While she concurred with most of what I had to say, she replied that their website did not need to be replaced. However, she went on to say “but, it isn’t really working for us. What can be done to improve our website, short of an actual overhaul or revamp?”

Her response is both understandable and fairly common, which made me think about it further. If you had a website that was developed only two or three years ago, you may feel reticent to invest in a new one. But like this client (yes, she’s a client now), you may not be satisfied with your website’s performance.

If you are happy with the website design and branding, if it is an easy, intuitive site to navigate, if it is responsive (automatically conforms and optimizes for different sized screens) and if it is accessible (people with disabilities can navigate your website) — then you may not need a new website. But, if it isn’t actively promoting your organization or contributing to the sales process then you’re letting it off easy.

In our digital age, a website should do more than say who you are and what you do. It is an opportunity to engage with your audience and impress upon them your ability to satisfy their needs.

Here are four things you can do to help turn your current website from an online brochure, to an online marketing machine.

1. Content Audit

Do you know what content you have and how it fits into your overall marketing and sales goals? Don’t worry, most companies don’t. (This blog will help you get started: Own Your Content) We recently completed a comprehensive content audit ourselves and were surprised to see how many holes we had in our own content and strategy! (A reminder that it needs to be looked at regularly to properly guide your content strategy.)

Having content is good, but in order for it to be strategic it needs to fit into a plan. The plan determines what you need, the audit reveals what you have, you determine how it fits into the overall strategy and what other pieces you need to fill the holes. To make this manageable, we use a spreadsheet with columns for:

Source (web page, blog, whitepaper, infographic, etc.)
Topic
Name/Title
Funnel (does it fit top, middle or low in the info/sales cycle)
Workflow (what workflow or campaign is it part of)
Usability (our own scale on how useful/effective it is for our audience)
CTA (is there a relevant/custom call-to-action/ad in the content)

2. Improving SEO

The times of keyword stuffing are long gone, but the importance of keywords is still prevalent. Google’s keen sense of good online content can sniff out the junk to determine what is truly a good resource with many layers and forms of relevant content. And you know what? Your audience is pretty good at it too, so try not to fool either. Provide substantial content that is of interest to your readers, and in different formats, such as video, images, infographics, as well as text.

Meta data is still important as it is used in your search displays, so word your page titles and descriptions carefully, to engage potential readers as they search the web. Check out our 5-Minute SEO Check You Can Do Yourself.

3. Leveraging Social Media

Your website may not offer much engagement or opportunity for dialogue, but your social media accounts do. If social media accounts are relevant to your business, look for ways to integrate them beyond a linked icon on your home page.

Streaming social content on your website is easy and can spur involvement. Inviting dialogue or feedback on topical issues within your industry, requesting and displaying testimonials can be effective, and adding polls or contests can be fun and engaging. Be sure that whatever you do fits with your brand, audience, and is part of an overall engagement strategy. Simply getting clicks, likes, retweets, etc. really doesn’t matter if it isn’t moving your audience along an information or sales cycle.

4. Marketing Automation

Often referred to as Inbound Marketing, automated marketing enables a series of tasks to be automatically completed when triggered. For example, a client clicks on an e-newsletter link to your “Our Widgits” web page, and visits a specific new widget page three more times in a week. That shows some obvious interest, so your website may automatically send an email to the client with more information on that specific widgit, additional shipping information and a link to your delivery schedule. If your client clicks on the delivery link, another more informative email could be sent, and the appropriate sales rep sent a prompt to call said client immediately. II the client doesn’t click on the delivery link, then a different email with other information and an incentive might be appropriate, or links to relevant blog articles, or references from other clients who have ordered that widgit…

Point being, strategic tasks can be set up to happen automatically, accommodating for the receiver’s actions and sending the right information at the right time. It allows you to look after prospects’ and clients’ needs efficiently and effectively. (Read more in Get Personal With Dynamic Emails.)

These four items — a content audit, improving SEO, leveraging social media and marketing automation — can each contribute to making your website far more effective and engaging to your audience. Used in combination, your website will become a veritable marketing machine.

Photo credt: GettyImages

19 May 2017

Own Your Content

When you think of “content creation”, you probably think of a buzzword that vaguely means blog posts, maybe social media, but generally involving hours and hours of writing for somebody “over there” because content creation is a marketing task that can be cut when budget needs to go elsewhere.

What if I told you that you already have content created, live, and waiting for ownership— even if you’ve never had a blog?

Every piece of information you have on the internet, from your location to your contact information to your company description, is content. Each word you have put on your website or social media profile is an opportunity to build rapport and brand yourself.

Everything is Content

The internet relies on content to exist. Web design is to facilitate users reading content. Searches are to find content. If you have information on the internet, you have content.

Does Anybody Own It?

This is a question to ask yourself seriously before you begin evaluating your content. While it can be tempting to dodge this question so as not to take responsibility for bad content, answering it— at least for future endeavours— is necessary to improve your online presence.

Responsible for content doesn’t necessarily mean you write it. What it does mean is you create a standard for all future content, keep tabs on what content you have, and prune any unnecessary or outdated content.

Managing It

Once you’ve taken or assigned responsibility for your web content, it’s important to keep checking up on both the state of your content, and any rules that are being passed about web content.

This means:

Regular content audits to see what you have online
Pruning irrelevant content once it becomes irrelevant
Reading up on legal requirements such as AODA
Making sure all new content meets those requirements

While this looks overwhelming, it doesn’t have to be all done at once (or even all the time). You can schedule content audits based on how often you refresh your content— a slowly changing site can have yearly reviews, with yearly pruning. Faster changing sites might need every six months, or quarterly. Unless you’re constantly adding new things to the website, it’s unlikely you’ll need more than that

Legal requirements for content aren’t published too often, and by updating your content creation processes you can ensure all future content is compliant. Not to mention, having regular content audits means you always know what you have, and don’t have to make content you don’t need anymore up to regulations.

Benefits

By owning your content, you can start to evaluate every aspect of your online presence for its effectiveness, and start to think of why people visit your site. Is your content something people want to look for? Does it answer their questions? Does it help them trust you?

Looking over your content means you start to be aware of where you stand. Once you know where you stand, it’s far easier to take next steps and improve.

27 April 201728 October 2022

How Consistency Improves Your Branding – 5 ways to help your brand reach its potential

The purpose of branding is to go beyond simply creating awareness, with the intention of nurturing a trusting and loyal relationship. It’s a comprehensive undertaking that requires consistent use of your branded identity, in all of its forms. It’s no easy task to maintain consistency among myriad print, digital and broadcast touchpoints: letterhead, business cards, ads, billboards, brochures, website, blogs, social media accounts, emails, ebooks, posts, videos, TV, radio… Reputation manifests in everything that represents your organization, including the experience of dealing with your organization.

In our ever-changing digital world and increasing communication channels, consistency is an increasingly critical aspect in successfully establishing a trusted and sought-after product, service or organization. This article focuses on the role that consistency plays in successful branding. Here are five important considerations that relate to your brand consistency, and your ability to build a strong brand.

Start from the Heart

It all stems from your mission, vision, value statement unique selling proposition, any guiding principles for your organization. Ensure that they are authentic and aligned. A thorough understanding of what drives your organization and what it has to offer is the starting point. Your brand is the essence of what your market thinks of your organization; so consider what it is destined achieve, and what its brand should represent.

A full appreciation of your target market, their expectations and desires is also key. In order to be successful, you’ll need a receptive market; resonating with your audience paves the way to acceptance. Essentially, your brand should relate directly and explicitly to the belief system of your organization and that of your market.

Set the Foundation

Even small companies can find it difficult to ensure that everyone treats branding aspects in a consistent manner. Add to the mix associates, freelancers, consultants, suppliers, advertisers, etc. and the task of maintaining a common front becomes rather formidable. Create a Branding Style Guide (this is often done when a new Corporate ID is created).

A branding style guide doesn’t need to be a monumental tome with excessive rules and regulations, but should cover all typical print, digital and broadcast uses. It should also be reviewed and updated periodically (at least every 3 years) to ensure it is relevant to the media and technology you and your industry are using.

It identifies all items used in presenting your organization and sets guidelines for their use. Graphic and presentation components typically include logos, icons, colours, fonts, specific photos and illustrations, etc. People have a strong and lasting connection with graphics and colours, which explains the importance placed on logos and their use.

Content components incorporate tagline, slogan, lexicon, tone, etc. What you say and how you say it can provoke tremendous impact and evoke strong emotion. In order for your audience to learn to trust your organization, they need to identify with what you have to say. The vocabulary used and tone of corporate content can help to position your organization as genuine, knowledgeable, caring, expert, as a go-to source that can be relied upon. Note that having a consistent corporate tone doesn’t mean that all your content needs to sound the same. Individual voices and characters within your organization add depth and can help to attract targeted segments or personas.

Plan the Journey

Knowing where you came from and where you want to go makes it more likely that you’ll actually get there. To keep you, and the rest of your team, on track, plan how content and graphic identifiers will be used to build and support your brand. How will it get in front of your target market? What format will it take? When? Use an Editorial Calendar to ensure strategic, relevant and scheduled content.

Content generation provides many options (web pages, blogs, emails, social posts, ebooks, brochures, whitepapers, etc.) and is an influential means of attracting and reaching out to your audience. Consistency in template designs as well as voice/tone help build a strong foundation for your brand (keep that style guide close at hand!).

An editorial calendar maps out what content will be written, by whom, how it will be published, and when. It allows a strategic approach (ensuring consistency in both frequency and focus) and overview to ensure you are creating content that is of value to your audience as well as supporting your brand.

Chose your social media carefully, there are a lot of platforms, and just because they are cool or popular doesn’t mean it is a good fit for your organization. Also, consider the resources required to maintain an active and strategic presence.

All Aboard

Having the components, a guide and a plan put you ahead of most companies. But to make it all work successfully you need buy-in from your organization. Your brand may not be a strong rallying force of motivation (it should be!), but it must be embraced by all. The entire organization needs to understand and support your branding initiatives.

In order for your team to be part of the successful implementation of your branding plan, they’ll need access to info and files. All graphic components, the branding style guide and editorial calendar should be easily accessible to anyone who will be publishing and presenting on behalf of your organization.

Stay the Course

A brand strategy requires ongoing monitoring and attention. It’s part policing and part propping. You need to ensure that your team is adhering to the style guide and maintaining the image and voice to properly position your organization. You’ll also want to identify where the brand is weak and might require additional support.

Don’t be overzealous or near-sighted in your regulation. In these fluid times, acknowledge that things change and your brand strategy and implementation will need to evolve to stay current and relevant.

Do you have any thoughts on brand consistency or other considerations that could be added to this list?

Image Credit: mindscanner / gettyimages

20 April 2017

Hyperlinking for AODA and SEO

wooden puppet facing unknown endings from non-descriptive links

Hyperlinks have become ubiquitous online, for good reason. Smooth, streamlined text that gets rid of a messy looking url is the hallmark of websites. A simple “click here” or “download” can string users along your site without breaking up the paragraph flow, and can even be inserted within sentences for an unobtrusive experience.

Except when hyperlinks can bring you farther away from AODA compliance, and worsen your SEO.

Bad Links

A bad link is, simply, a link that doesn’t provide context within the hyperlink text. While it’s very tempting to use these, since they’re the least obtrusive, they aren’t AODA compliant.

Examples of bad links include:

“Click here”
“More info”
“Continue reading”

While they look fine in context of a paragraph, links are often not read within the context of their paragraphs. As a result, people who use screen readers will come across link text that gives them no information for what they are about to click, rendering your website frustrating to navigate at best.

Google also doesn’t like blank links without a description, and while it will follow the link to rank your content, it won’t give any extra points for making the link difficult to understand when taken alone.

Good Links

Thankfully, it’s rather simple to turn a bad link into a good link. It’s simply a case of adding context to the link itself.

Examples:

“Click here to…”
“More info on…”
“Continue reading about…”

By filling in the blank about what you’d previously discussed in your content, you make the link stand on its own. This means anybody or anything that comes across the link will know exactly what it leads to.

This makes your site easier to navigate, and you can get a few more points in search in the process. While it can be tedious to go through and check every hyperlink to make sure it can stand on its own, the peace of mind knowing all links are compliant is worthwhile.

Keep your website up-to-date, SEO savvy and AODA compliant. Check out our monthly maintenance packages.