Content Marketing

4 Fixes For Your (Painfully) Outdated Website

December 19, 2018 by Michael Sanders Leave a Comment

Websites have advanced a lot in just a few short years. In the ’90s, businesses simply aimed to set up online presences, resulting in an Internet full of electronic brochures. Since then, marketers have improved both the functionality and aesthetics of their websites. As a result, they’ve delivered a better experience to customers – and better outcomes for business owners.

The corollary for marketers is that with advances come heightened consumer expectations. Potential buyers increasingly need more from websites than basic transactions and facts about their favorite brands. They want to shop, learn, and play on their own terms, in a fun, user-friendly, and convenient format. Oh, and one more thing: they want all of that from their mobile devices, and they want it right now.

What Does This Mean For You?

It means that if your business hasn’t retooled its website in a while, you’re probably sending the wrong message to potential customers. And by sending the wrong message, we mean you’re losing customers to a competitor. Someone who is more fun, more user-friendly, more convenient, more mobile-responsive, and more “right now”. Luckily for you, we’re willing to take the time to outline a few ideas to fix your painfully outdated website:

1. Clean Up Your Site

Fast Fact: “94% of negative feedback for websites is design related”

If you’re like most of our new clients, you can probably find everything you need on your own website. And if you’re like most of our new clients, your potential customers probably can’t find a thing. That’s because when you build up a website over time, you begin to lose the intended structure. Your page organization fails to highlight newly released product lines . Links lead to 404 errors. Posts get housed under random categories. For the business owner, it’s just part of a growing business. For maximizing your website traffic, it’s a mess.

The problem is that your site might make sense to you and your team (after all, you made the mess) but your audience is probably lost. So have a fresh set of eyes look over your website. Within 5 seconds of landing, can she tell exactly what your company does? Can she find the blog? Subscribe to the blog? Give her a product description to “purchase” – how long does it take her to find, view, and watch a product video? How many broken links and outdated bits of information did she encounter in her journey? If just imagining this scenario is painful, consider a (free) website audit to discover simple ways to clean up your site.

2. Speed Up Page Load times

Fast Fact: “A 1 second delay correlates to a 7% reduction in conversions”

Customers no longer tolerate websites with slow load times. You can test the load times of pages and identify the bottlenecks with a number of online tools. You need these tools because your website is a lot slower than you think it is. You’re probably reading this blog on a desktop computer at work (i.e. you’ve got a fast, stable Internet connection). But how would it render on a spotty 3G connection? That’s where you might be losing the people who have better things to do than wait for your site to load.

Resist adding bandwidth-hogging (and annoying) features like videos or music that auto-load. Pick and choose design elements that highlight product features and engage readers – without slowing down your site. That amazing copy you wrote can only sell your product or service if the page renders. And if you have a hero video, 13 images and myriad design elements on the home page, readers never get that far. The best thing you can do is keep your landing page(s) simple. If a reader finds that landing pages take too long to load, that reader is probably going to hit the back button and shop with a competitor, instead.

3. Make It Mobile Friendly

Fast Fact: “57% of all US online traffic comes from smartphones”

How does your site look on a smartphone screen? Here’s one better: how does your site look on an iPhone X compared to an iPhone 6? If you don’t know the answer to those questions, you’re taking a big risk with your website. Customers increasingly rely on mobile devices for browsing. Many of our clients now get over 60% of their traffic from mobile channels. That means that whether browsing, shopping, or scheduling, your customers are probably doing it from their phones.

A mobile-friendly website is crucial to convert these users. Either have your site professionally redesigned for mobile or use one of the many responsive templates out there for WordPress, SquareSpace, or Weebly. Our design and marketing teams can review your bounce rates in Google Analytics (because you DO have Google Analytics code on your site, right?) to tell you what pages to focus on. Next, consider your contact us, make an appointment, and other lead generation forms. We haven’t even seen them yet but I bet they are too long, too free-form, and too hard to complete on a small screen.

Your best bet is to work with a digital agency that adheres to a mobile-first philosophy. The old practice of designing a website for desktop and then tweaking it for the mobile experience, later, is no longer good enough. Ask your current design team for their thoughts on accelerated mobile pages (AMPs) for your site. (If their answer at any point includes a blank stare, contact webdesign@dabrianmarketing.com).

Accelerated mobile pages are part of an open source initiative that allows developers to create web pages that load quickly on mobile browsers. If your website has a lot of different stories, products, and articles combined with high (or volatile) website traffic, AMP functionality could greatly improve your performance on mobile devices.

4. Refresh Your CMS

Fast Fact: “82% of customers have a more positive view of a company after reading custom content”

If you’re still relying on your website designer to update content on your site, you’re already behind the competition. Your marketing team should be able to add information to your site through an easy-to-use content management system (CMS), like WordPress. You should have multiple portions of your site updated regularly with current news, upcoming events, and recent blog posts to ensure that new traffic becomes repeat traffic.

Get more value from your CMS by implementing a process to review and update leading plug-ins. Plugs-ins are bits of software that can be uploaded to expand the functionality of your site. If you can imagine a way to extend and enhance your site, someone else probably has, too. And there is probably a plug-in to accomplish it.

Finally, grant multiple people the ability to post custom content. You can assign some to create content and others to review and approve it before it goes live. You can also outsource work to contractors, giving them limited rights to partitioned areas of your site. It takes a little bit of time and effort to get the most from your CMS, but in the end, the timeliness of content and ease of updates ensure a better experience for prospects, customers, and marketers alike.

Wrapping It Up

The user experience needs to be the forefront of your thought process when updating your website. It needs to be a friendly, smooth-sailing, information-packed adventure that leads prospects toward a conversion. Having an updated site can make all the difference between “I don’t have time for this” and “I’m ready to checkout”.

Once you’ve refreshed your site, set a few dates to review it each year. Keep an eye on other websites and note the things they’re doing that you’d like to see on your own site. Pay attention to the way other companies interact with their customers through their websites, and emulate the best practices that might work for your business. Sooner or later, the competition may even start to emulate you.

Using the information provided here will give you insight and a starting point to fix your outdated website. But if you need a more comprehensive plan to update your business’s website, reach out to our team to discuss our free site audit process.

In the meantime, we love a good laugh, so feel free to share your frustrations with outdated websites. Tell us about it in the comments below!

4 Steps To Find Your Brand Voice

July 19, 2018 by Michael Sanders Leave a Comment

Congratulations! You’ve just launched a new service and are eager to create a strong online presence. Or perhaps you’ve just been given the green light for your business’s first website redesign since Al Gore invented the internet. Either way, you’re ready to start the process of crafting a winning digital brand strategy. However, before you start shouting your message to anyone and everyone, there are some important things you need to consider.

The Importance of Brand Voice

First, you need to establish your brand’s voice, or how you plan to consistently express your brand through words. While images, videos, and podcasts have grown in importance, text-based communication remains critical to online marketing. Relatable language lends credibility to your message and can contain the keywords that your customers are searching for.

While you can certainly improvise and have some success, by not having a defined brand voice you risk confusing your audience with different messages. And since 83 percent of customer loyalty is driven by trust, mixing your messages makes turning first-time customers into returning customers that much harder.

Instead, consider how you’re going to communicate your value before you start a conversation with the audience. The process can be broken down into four easy steps:

1. Define Your Major Brand Traits

Think of a few words or phrases that describe your business, your product, or your culture. Are you professional or fun? A thought leader or a product innovator? Whatever words or phrases you choose, these brand traits will form the foundation of your company’s marketing efforts and the cornerstone of your brand voice.

The characteristics should reflect the value you aim to provide. Do your B2B customers want to hear that you’re adventurous? Maybe not. But if you sell gaming products, that trait might resonate with a large segment of your target audience.

2. Convey Why You’re Different

Odds are, the traits you’ve chosen to reflect your company aren’t exactly unique. We get it: here at DaBrian, we’re also quirky and authentic. Remember, you’re trying to reach the same buyers as competitors in your industry. This means there’s a good chance that you’re all defining yourselves in similar ways. However, if you can move past the “what” and the “how” to convey the “why” to your listeners, you can quickly set yourself apart from the crowd.

The WHY is about what a company believes in, not about what you make or how you make a profit. So extend each of your key defining traits so that they begin to tell a story. If one of your traits is “irreverent”, have a plan to explain why you’re irreverent. People want to hear your David vs. Goliath origin story, not the latest software features you offer. Influential companies link their purpose with their brand voice to convey why they are different.

3. Give Your Voice a Break and Listen Up

This is a key step that many companies skip in their rush to spread their messages. Don’t forget that the audience you’re trying to reach probably has its own way of communicating. Take a break from developing your own brand voice and tune in to what your peers, competitors, leads, and customers are saying.

Every industry has jargon that you need to be careful to include – or avoid – in your own messaging. Brands that fail to embrace the language of their target audiences come off as outsiders who don’t care about the people they want to work with. Companies that listen develop stronger brand voices, and come across as consultants instead of the latest in a long line of product pushers.

4. Put Brand Voice into Action

Once you’ve agreed on a few unique traits for your brand voice and confirmed that they align with your audience and industry, it’s time to put your plan into action. Extend your voice characteristics to include a few practical “do’s” and “don’ts” for your marketing team. If your brand voice includes “passion”, you might give the direction to include strong action verbs and to take a stand, even on controversial issues. You might also tell your marketers to avoid passive voice and lukewarm endorsements.

Lastly, make sure your team is on-board. Your brand voice needs to be clearly articulated to everyone in your organization as part of your overall brand guidelines. Go through examples of content that hit the mark. And show content that misses the mark, and make suggestions to fix it. Doing so will provide clarity for your content team and ensure that your brand voice is consistent across your marketing channels.

Conclusion

Developing your brand voice is crucial to conveying your brand’s personality and authenticity to potential customers. With just a few unique traits that resonate with your target audience, you’ll be on your way to digital content that builds brand awareness and customer loyalty.

For more information about brand elements to consider when designing digital content, contact us or leave us a comment below!

Local Copywriter Uses Psychology to Enhance Digital Marketing

April 13, 2017 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

Reading, PA Copywriter Uses Psychology to Enhance Digital Marketing Initiatives

As the new Copywriter at DaBrian Marketing Group, Christian H. Kline uses his expertise in psychology to write content that connects with digital users.

13 April, 2017 (Reading, PA) – DaBrian Marketing Group hires Christian H. Kline as their full-time Copywriter. In his new role at the agency, Kline utilizes his knowledge of human behavior to write helpful content for each client’s target audience.

His copywriting position at DaBrian Marketing allows Kline to create digital content that combines both industry-specific research as well as rhetorical techniques to match consumers’ needs. Kline determines the motivations and probable behaviors of users to encourage interaction within digital content. He creates visions and concepts that guide the intended audience to the client’s desired goals and objectives. After the creation of written content for websites, email marketing campaigns, or advertising networks, Kline analyzes that content’s performance through Google Analytics and other platforms that rely upon knowledge of descriptive and inferential statistics.

Content marketing is significantly involved in every aspect of the digital campaigns at DaBrian Marketing. As a result: Kline’s mission is to express a consistent, universal message through any and all marketing initiatives that contain creative material. Specifically, Kline collaborates with the Creative Director, Mark Mapp, and the Web Designer, Nick Davies, in order to ensure that campaigns offer users relevant, action-oriented narratives. Throughout all of the assets that he writes, Kline understands that words, photography, and graphic design compose each user’s experience with creative material.

Kline also notes the importance of collaboration with the Marketing department to ensure that consumers receive digital content in the most advantageous contexts: “I am thankful to be a part of the team at DaBrian Marketing; I enjoy applying the dynamics of human behavior and cognition to collaborate with both the Creative and Marketing departments.”

Christian H. Kline graduated from the Temple University Honors Program with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology. Courses such as Social Cognition, Industrial/Organizational Psychology, Advanced Undergraduate Statistics, Psychology of Creativity, and Cognitive Psychology prepared him for creative work at DaBrian Marketing Group.

Kline had his first taste of agency-life in the summer of 2016 as an intern at DaBrian Marketing Group. As the Content Marketing Intern, he wrote promotional emails, paid search ads, and web pages for both DaBrian Marketing and clients. Additionally, Kline filmed several of DaBrian Marketing’s promotional videos. During his free time outside of the office, Kline cooks, spends time with his friends, family, and dog, as well as conducts part-time psychological research at Penn State Berks.

Find more information about Christian H. Kline by reading his bio on DaBrian Marketing Group’s website.

About DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC
Founded in 2008, DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC is a full-service digital marketing agency that provides original and strategic digital marketing solutions for businesses. The team at DaBrian Marketing creates brand awareness, increases lead-generation, and identifies insights that improve sales growth. Services include web analytics, creative design, digital branding, pay per click (PPC) advertising, search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, and web design. Company headquarters is centrally located at 500 Penn Street, Suite 201, Reading, Pennsylvania 19602. For more information about DaBrian Marketing Group, visit DaBrianMarketing.com or call 610.743.5602.

Why Your Business Might Need a One Page Website

March 6, 2017 by Mark Mapp 1 Comment

Among businesses throughout the world (and, possibly the universe), one page websites are becoming increasingly popular. Just take a look at this list of one page websites
from Awwwards. They go by several names – including “single page” and “pageless” web designs.

While there are lots of benefits to using this simple, visual, and text-light design, this doesn’t mean that a one page website is always the right choice, though. A perfect example is Parallax Scrolling – an often-used pageless layout. It emphasizes flat design and responsivity of background images. However, its use is limited to certain templates because of technical aspects of its programming.

Before you implement a one page website, decide whether or not it is right for your business and your unique marketing goals. If the following attributes sound like your business, you will most likely benefit from a single page or pageless web design.

1) Your Business Tells a Story

A continuous scrolling experience creates the perception that you are actually reading a continuous narrative or story. Each section naturally leads to another section because the bottom of each is a cliffhanger to the opening of the next. MayeCreate Design would agree with us on this one.

As a result of no links to other pages, it is necessary to develop interactive features on your website – such as animations or lightboxes. Digital Telepathy discusses this in a recent blog post. Since users are always contained within that single page rather than multiple pages, you can easily concentrate their focus to engaging features. This means that your website is really a funnel to a contact form, subscription, or purchase that gets you in contact with users (UXPin Studio’s blog post). Every story leads to an ending.

2) Limited Content

For businesses with a small number of major products or services, a one page website would definitely be a helpful way to display that information. Without numerous offerings or plenty of content, save time and money by conserving the amount of space on your website (UXPin Studio’s blog post).

Also, straightforward or proprietary service-related strategies benefit from a one page website. If you technically or legally can’t talk for pages and pages about your business, use what suits you. Like shopping for clothes, a small amount of content needs a right-sized website to maximize users’ engagement.

3) Selling Your Business a Whole Experience

Often, businesses sell products or services that nearly always go together. A single page layout is perfect if you usually end up selling your offerings as a package rather than as individual choices.

Users read about all of your offerings on “one page” or within the same space. This emphasizes that your products or services go together.

4) You Want Your Customers to Get Through the Website Fast

It is rarely the case that a business wants users to spend hours or even days visiting and returning to a website. The point is most often to drive profitable traffic to your office or phone, ASAP.

Pageless web designs are effective ways to quickly escort users through a brief introduction before generating meaningful interactions and conversions. WholeGrain Digital will tell you the same.

5) You Want Your Website Cheap

Finally, what probably matters the most to you: the cost of one page websites. Good news! They are often dramatically cheaper than traditional layouts because of the consolidated amount of space and streamlined content (Digital Telepathy’s blog post).

On the Other Hand...

Again, be mindful that a one page website is not right for every business. This kind of web design might make it difficult to track data in Google Analytics and make the time to load your website longer (WholeGrain Digital’s blog post). So, if you’re focused on measuring or analyzing your website’s performance, a single page web design might not be your cup of tea.

In the end: you don’t want to make the decision to use or not use a one page website without the help of digital marketing experts (you know, like the folks on our team #shamelessplug). There are lots of aspects of your business to consider – including those listed, above.

Seen any well-designed one page websites? What do you look for in an interactive website? Let us know what you’re thinking in the comments, below. Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter to get more digital marketing advice.

Content Marketing Is Like Being a Parent

February 20, 2017 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

Content - A General Word for General Stuff

Quite literally: your content is any text (also known as “copy”), imagery, video, or other material that engages consumers. In other words: content is everywhere and on everything. When you engage in any digital marketing – digital branding, paid online advertising, social media marketing, search engine optimization, or web design – you will be creating and using content.

But, that’s just it! Once you create and use your digital content, the job’s not done. The biggest mistake that you can make is believing that your content doesn’t need to grow up.

Congrats! You’re a Proud New Parent

When you create content for your new website or digital campaigns, you basically become a parent to that content. Just like any good mom or dad, you’ll want to give your new baby constant attention. After you actually create and implement content onto web pages, email campaigns, or social media posts, measure your content’s performance.

Identify the areas of growth that you want to see and that define your business’ success. Keep track of how those areas change with your new content being used. If there is any room for improvement or progress, make necessary changes. Increase your business’ generation of leads by always enticing your target audience to click or call.

Your Content’s First Steps

It’s the moment that every parent loves, the most: your baby starts to learn how to walk! In the same way, your digital content needs to learn how to navigate your target audience to where they need to go. Continuously guide your content marketing to include new facts, consider new members of your audience, and feature new copy or visual material.

A recent article from Think with Google stresses the importance of every second in a consumer’s search for your products or services. Your content must always be relevant to what paying customers want at the moment that they search. Keep one eye on the path, ahead, by understanding trends in consumers’ behavior. Keep the other eye on your content to make sure that it’s walking in the right direction – profits.

But, don’t worry if your content falls down a few times. Creating effective and relevant copy, videos, and designs requires time and lots of practice.

Treasure Each Micro-Moment with Your Content

As your content starts to mature, you’ll also notice that the world keeps on changing, too. Technology always advances and consumers’ behavior keeps adapting to it. Your content must do the same.

Consumers searching on mobile devices are often moving around their local areas. Whatever they’re trying to find, they most likely need it, NOW. They want informative, helpful content that solves their problems at that very location. How can your digital content do that if it’s still a baby?

Another article from Think with Google reports that approximately 61% of people on smartphones will probably buy from websites that adjust their content to specific locations (data from Wave 3 & Google/Ipsos). If your content isn’t changing to meet consumers’ spontaneous and local needs, your content is unsuccessful. Protect your content from failure by creating new material that reaches and informs your audience at the right moments.

Before You Know It, They’re All Grown Up

That’s right. Sooner or later: your digital content is going to be a great success:

Your ad copy will inform searchers and emotionally attract your audience.
Your imagery will show consumers what they need in that very moment.
Your videos will answer any question that a potential customer has.

Create and implement effective content throughout your digital marketing campaigns. Measure the results with insightful analytics. Continue to optimize and refine your content to generate the leads and sales that you need. Always adapt your content to reach the right audience at the right time and place.

Your Content Will Always Be Your Baby

Just like parenthood – content marketing is a process that is never truly finished. But, it’s all worth it when your content raises your company’s revenue.

Need help raising your digital content, the right way? Just leave a comment and you’ll hear from us. Or,contact us to chat about your current digital marketing plans.

DaBrian Marketing Redesigns Mimmo’s Restaurant and Pizzeria’s Website

October 4, 2016 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

Reading, PA- DaBrian Marketing Group, a full-service digital marketing agency , launched a new website for Mimmo’s Restaurant and Pizzeria located on Morgantown Road in Reading, PA. Like the newly renovated restaurant, the website has been updated with a new design and style that showcases the beautiful dining areas and highlights the cuisine that makes Mimmo’s the go-to restaurant for families, couples and events.

The new website allows users to quickly browse Mimmo’s extensive menu, find directions to the restaurant or check the hours of operation through desktop and mobile devices. Each page has been rewritten through DaBrian Marketing’s content marketing service which has captured the Mimmo’s atmosphere and story through words. Users may also learn more about Mimmo’s banquet and catering services and choose to fill out an application for services directly from the website. This makes scheduling a family dinner, corporate meeting or class reunion easier than ever.

The dine-in and take-out menus are also available. Diners may browse the hearty array of appetizers, dinners such as steak, seafood and pizza meals, and kids or specials options that are all prepared with fresh ingredients. The menu choices also include the selection of signature cocktails, draft beers, gluten-free items and desserts, including homemade cannolis.

Dozens of pictures taken by Dennis Wojtowicz capture the restaurant’s exterior, interior and ambiance to provide a visual tour of Mimmo’s. Guests will see the front dining room which is designed for casual dining, conversations and family meals, as well as the quiet, intimate area with couples in mind. They can also view the banquet room where up to 130 people can comfortably gather for family dinners, wedding and baby showers, corporate meetings or drinks after work. The peaceful outdoor setting features a grand waterfall can also be seen on the new website.

A staple of Berks County since April 1997, Mimmo’s Restaurant provides guests with an authentic Italian experience. Mimmo and Lucy, the restaurant’s owners, originally opened the restaurant with the intention of providing excellent cuisine and sharing their family history. In 2015, they decided to renovate and expand the space to provide a rustic Italian feel while sharing the story of their family through murals and decor. For the past 20 years, Mimmo’s has welcomed diners to reconnect and relax over dinner and drinks. The owners, restaurant and staff have grown to be part of the community and eagerly welcome guests to learn more at mimmos.org. For information on website design and content marketing, call DaBrian Marketing Group at (610) 743-5602, or by email at sales@dabrianmarketing.com.

About DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC

Founded in 2008, DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC is a full-service digital marketing agency, focused on providing original and strategic digital marketing solutions for businesses, that want to create digital awareness, increase return on investment (ROI), and identify insights that not only will help achieve goals but will also help to increase your business’s efficiencies.
DaBrian Marketing Group’s services include email marketing, search engine optimization, website design, web analytics, social media marketing and more. Company headquarters are centrally located at 500 Penn Street, Suite 201, Reading, Pennsylvania 19602. For more information about DMG, visit dabrianmarketing.com or call 610.743.5602.

Originally Published on Newswire