It's best to test these 4 design elements before using them across your site
It’s real easy to jump on the band wagon and employ design and usability elements that everyone else is using. But have you done your research to see if those elements could be detrimental to your conversions?
Before you leap, here are a few elements that should be considered before implementing them.
1. Rotating Picture Sliders
Slids or carousels, often used on a home page can make a dull site feel more flashy and active. And they make the most of a websites limited space above the fold by displaying several messages.
Perfect. Right?
Well, not exactly.
A study by usability expert, Jakob Nielsen , revealed that participants found it extremely difficult to answer even the simplest of questions when it came to the marketing messages in rotating picture sliders or carousels.
[video width="692" height="479" mp4="//www.smartinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/2016-01-11_14-54-58.mp4"][/video]
Participants simply couldn’t grasp each message when…
Twitter tweaks timeline to show most engaging Tweets top
Importance: [rating=3] (For Marketers using Twitter)
Recommended source: Twitter's blog
Twitter has been grappling with a series of problems of late. Falling share price, stagnating user growth and some high profile exits from some of the top brass. It's looking to re-invigorate itself, and has decided to do so by introducing a sprinkling of the magic that has made Facebook's newsfeed one of the most powerful forces in the world of digital marketing. I say magic, I mean algorithms.
This doesn't mean that Twitter is doing away with the chronological ordering of Tweets, that would be a big mistake given that it is what sets Twitter apart from other social networks such as Facebook. Instead it will use an algorithm to decide which Tweets you are most likely to care about (based on past interaction with the account there from). Then when you log into Twitter…
Debunking the misconceptions that may prevent you investing wisely in strategies and resources while creating Social Media Campaigns
As many as 72% of all internet users are active on social media, with 936 million daily active users of Facebook worldwide, one billion YouTube users and 270 million active Twitter users. And these figures are only growing each day. Given these statistics, it’s no wonder why social media has become the fuel driving the modern marketing machine. But, there is a lot of competition - just check out the Smart Insights infographic of the number of posts, tweets and status updates in 60 seconds.
It's understandable that there are many myths and misconceptions about how to use best social media to draw traffic to your sites, generate leads and boost conversions. Sadly, a fair share of marketers follow wrong practices and end up wasting their valuable time and resources on social media…
Your menus may be letting you down. Here's how to perfect them
When businesses are looking to understand why their websites aren’t performing effectively or reviewing options to convert more visitors as part of a CRO programme, they should take a hard look at the different types of navigation they are providing.
If some visitors can’t find their way around a website, or more importantly find what they are looking for, then a pretty website is useless to them.
The primary and secondary navigation menus are the key to getting visitors effectively around a website. Without an effective navigation menu in place, businesses risk confusing and frustrating their visitors. More importantly, they risk losing conversions and sales.
So how do businesses keep that from happening?
This article will go into detail on how to create an optimal navigation menu that effectively helps visitors find their way around.
Choosing Buttons
To start, businesses must choose buttons that will be…
Digital Marketing will increasingly become about visual storytelling
As we move into 2016, the digital marketing industry is inevitably bound to shift. While changes occur at all points throughout the year, there’s something about January that gives brands a fresh start. All of the sudden, we’re paying attention to the future, as opposed to reflecting on the past. Well, as you look towards 2016, it’s important that you focus on two words: visual storytelling.
What is Visual Storytelling?
It doesn’t matter what continent you travel to, which time period you study, or which people group you analyze, humans have and always will love stories. In the early days, people sat around campfires and told stories and passed along legends from one generation to the next. Today, we log into our Netflix account to watch the latest flick. Stories are what engaged and captivated the early inhabitants of the world, and somehow, they’re still…
Creating quality online customer support can turn prospects into sales
How many times have you raced into a store to quickly pick up a few things and immediately looked for a brightly colored vest to find a sales assistant or customer service person to help you out?And how many times have you scurried from aisle to aisle looking for what you came to buy and seeing no sales associate in sight? That gets real frustrating, real fast! This is how your online shoppers feel if you don't get online customer service right. They need help. And if they can’t find it – guess what, they’re gone, perhaps forever.
According to Forrester, if their questions are not answered quickly, 45% of consumers in the US will abandon their transaction.
Don’t think for a minute that your visitors don’t need your help to some degree. Econsultancy reports that some degree of customer support is need…
Facebook reactions to roll-out worldwide after testing
Importance: [rating=4]
Recommended link: Bloomberg article announcing roll-out and explaining the approval process
What's the change??
You may remember that this change was first mooted back in the early Autumn - Marie Page covered the new alternative Facebook Reactions in her Smart Insights post where she showed how Facebook were testing these different Emojis to supplement Likes. Facebook had tested a 'dislike' button but it was thought that this would generate too much negativity.
So, after testing, Facebook Reactions has now been fixed as a Like button alternative that comes in the form of six emoji with the following sentiments: Angry, Sad, Wow, Haha, Yay and Love.
This change will have a HUGE impact in terms of the number of online consumer interactions each day, and it will affect Facebook…
Defining content marketing is the first step to getting it right
A great question that will require a rather thorough answer.
In the broadest sense of the term, ‘content marketing’ refers to the creation of any piece of media that has the purpose of acquiring or retaining customers. Strictly speaking, you could quite reasonably argue that all marketing is indeed content marketing, and that in fact the concept isn’t anything particularly new or ‘Digital Age’, as it were, when you consider that anything from an in-store sign saying “Bargain Basket – 50% Off Everything” to a cigarette advert in a 1950s magazine could be considered as ‘content marketing’.
However, when we talk about the term today, in 2015 going on 2016, generally speaking, we’re making reference specifically to digital content that is distributed over the internet. The purpose of this content remains the same – to attract and retain customers – but the…
A social media policy is crucial if you want to be in full control of your social media interactions
One social media gaffe can ruin the reputation of even the strongest brands out there. No marketer wants to face a host of outraged consumers. Social media might be the best thing that ever happened to branding, but one wrong move and you can be sure that a PR disaster will drag behind you for years. The internet never forgets. How to avoid that risk? By building a social media policy to set up standards for social media usage at your enterprise. Here are some practical tips for developing a social media policy.
1. Set out the basic rules
Developing a social media policy requires a clear understanding of your main goals on social channels. Here are a few questions to help you:
What is…
Wordpress offers a host of opportunities for marketers. Here are seven essential techniques for managing your Wordpress site.
The primary goal of every online marketer should be to achieve maximum visibility for the site they’re promoting, while also facilitating an optimal conversion rate, in the most efficient way possible. To do this, many marketers have begun using robust, open source content management systems like WordPress to streamline and simplify site creation, search engine optimization, and ongoing content publishing. Wordpress is particularly popular for company blogs, but has suitable functionality and quality for other sites including SmartInsights.com!
Whether you've recently made the decision to jump aboard the WordPress bandwagon, or have been using it for years, there are most likely a few tips, tricks, and principles that you may have overlooked in your haste to keep up with the fast pace of online marketing.…
