Selling online is twice harder than putting the products in grocery store. Even if the other products in an aisle with the same function, how a product packaging design makes a huge buying decision making factor. So how does a buyer decide to buy one product vs. another? Is it the colors, logo, price or how it is placed or perfectly well-done dieline? Too many options to consider for a simple decision to do – to buy or not to buy . First ensure that product packaging content is accurate. Software such as Global Vision Quality control platform helps to eliminate any errors in packaging.

Using this cues we have listed will enable you to make necessary moves for your products to sell on your ecommerce store.

Packaging influences subconsciously

– first impressions last in business. Basically the product is a representation of the company. If the company promises quality and experience. It should be telling the customers that in the packaging itself.

Product Convenience and Keywords

– effective alignment of product name, keywords and description helps customers find the product they are looking for. Making the decision to purchase easier.

Recognizable Icons

– Icons easily captures customer’s eyes in products. When a product has a personal and emotional touch even for an icon that promotes environmental awareness it suggests straightly that they need to purchase the product. A lot of best selling products are triggered by emotional memories since most of the consumer’s decisions to buy a product are based on its needs. So what better way to utilize that advantage than getting your products selling?

Typography and Colors

– just as keeping your website clean, clear and concise and pleasing to the users. So as the products should be easily read and have direct impact to the customers. And by that means, customers should be able to read the packaging easily without the migraine of so many redundant typography and flashy distracting colors.

With careful planning and consideration of your users, customers, products and packaging design, you can easily use your product as a powerful marketing tool for your business.

One of the many web owner problems last year was getting penalised by Google. This sneaky tactic is commonly referred to as Negative SEO; where people create bad or spammy links to competitor’s website so that whenever Google crawls their website they get penalised.

Its a method to get around Google’s success in cleaning the web with spammy link building that hinders spammers to play with the system and get the ranks in their favor so they take out competition with sneaky attacks instead.

So how would you spot an Attack?

It is evident that the attack will not be magnanimously seen if you are not an analytics geek who studies the numbers and links going into your website.

Sudden spike of links

– A sudden spike of links usually gets google’s attention and if google finds this links bad the website gets penalized.

Link hosted links comments

– Usually blogs are common victims to these attacks as links are posted into the blog comments. We call it “comment spamming” and its thorn by the side.

High keywords are the target

– With intense scan and audit you will see that a specific keyword will be target for the attack.

The immediate effect of the attack is you get penalised and losing visibility in the search engine. Removal of these links is one of the solutions you do immediately to get back on the track and inform google of the attack. It will take a little explanation and presentation of rankings, and evidence but once it is done. The Penalty can be lifted but the visibility have suffered. Google would like to see a lot of efforts being made in order to recover from the penalty but not to lose heart, you just have to wait for the next Penguin Update that Google will release.

Timing is key. Just like many aspects of your personal life, you don’t want to go on a holiday on the holidays to avoid the rush. Or hold a very important meeting when everybody is surely late by 8am. The concept is also true to creating content for your social media marketing. If you want your content to succeed in social media you’ve got to strategize well before you publish.

So what type of contents gets attention and shared a lot by people?

Great content is nothing if it’s not properly well executed. That includes moods, situations among other things that go around. Here are 5 top list content posts that get a lot of attention:

Videos

– giving the audience a fun or graphic representation of the brand or sharing a momentous occasion of the company.

How to’s

– usually these kind of posts answers a problem, gives a thorough explanation on how to go about it and focus on that topic solely.

Why Posts

– provides the readers a sense of purpose to help out or provide a point of view on a certain situation or topic.

What Posts

– giving further information on specified topic and references to a certain topic.

List

– focus on a certain topic, and then give out number of points and a brief conclusion.

The social analytics shows different results though to certain industries. Judging how every person is reduced to not receiving notifications to businesses that they don’t want to see or hear about. It is safe to say that the content should cater to audience preferences and behaviors. A close assessment of the social metrics is a good indicator for the audience tastes, timing and relevancy key especially if you want to your posts to go viral.

As a business owner you understand that you need to be found online as well in order for your business to continue to grow. But you don’t have any idea what to ask or look for when you are considering a company to design your website? You are not alone.

From our experience, finding a good web design company tends to be a bigger frustration to many business owners. There are a lot of companies out there that make a lot of claims but only a few that stand out and walk the talk. We have listed the 5 most important things to look for in a Web Design company.

Tip – Design

If you take into consideration the big changes in technology over the decades you’d understand that design is everything. Its one of the most competitive advantage that companies in the world use to get ahead. Its a different story how you will keep the users hooked in your website but getting their attention is.

The website with best design gets the customers and conversions. That zooms into the fact of finding a web designer that have good eye for design and details. And it can understand the latest trend, like mobile compatibility in all devices.

Tip – Price

Prices should always be reasonable. One common sin for some business owners is that they see their website as a “cost” not as an investment. For example you buy a phone, if you want a phone that will last for a lifetime or can live up to your demanding high volume of phone calls and audio playbacks, you need a quality phone and that comes with being pricey right? That logic goes with the price of web design

If you want awesome design and fast responsive website then you pay what you get. It is safe to consider that you are paying for time, and effort of artists that makes a website as a work of art with a functionality than just work of art that you put on the wall.

Tip – Web Maintenance

Web design companies interaction with the business owners usually ends when the website is done. It is absolutely necessary that the web design company should take time and patience in helping you understand how you take control of your website. Here at Graftene we offer web maintenance for clients. Take the updates and maintenance off their hands so that they can focus on other things like “Golf”.

Tip – Marketing

No matter how awesome and fast your website is, if its not search engine optimised it wont be in front of customers looking for your business. SEO (search engine optimization) is a crucial aspect that helps website rank in search engine. Helps in targeting your customers to your website, the web design company should be able to have that service as a back up. A web design company that builds website knows all the little corners of the website therefore will easily find their way in updating and keeping it optimized in the process.

If you want to handle the SEO yourself, we can recommend a simple 5 step process, but we always emphasize how a professional company that handles SEO since Google is very strict in rankings and what better way to help your business than lettng the professionals do the work.

Tip – After Service

Customer support is one of the best aspects of business. And if the web design company do a lousy job at giving you answers to your questions what more if you are having problems with your website and you are losing clients by the hour. Its a red flag if the web designers or company won’t take time in understanding your business and how critical it is to lose customers. It is also important to check your contract to see what after-service was agreed on before signing on for the service.

With that said, we havent even tackled the other crucial aspects like social media and link building but that is for the next blog post. Keep learning, keep giving value online and you’ll soon see how valuable this new marketing channel is for you.

If you are thinking of hiring us to do all the work for you, give us a shout. We love to talk. Seriously!

Its true with Mobile Apps, what will make an app successful in the market can fail miserably to other apps. That is why the dramatic increase of localization testing on mobile apps over the last decade. We have listed top tips that you should understand when localizing mobile apps and expand to the international market.

So how can you ensure that the success of your app locally equals to success world wide?

Develop an App for the international audience before going local

The world out there is so big that it can cover a big population when your app is launched. The bigger the audience the bigger the chances of notice. Usually the main objective is get feedbacks, reviews, suggestions for the app. Multiple languages, components, culture and western audiences havethe propensity to search for new apps everyday and test it out.

The second strategy other mobile apps businesses cater to is localizing mobile apps after it hits a certain download quota. Globalization – Localization; the demographics of the download data usually helps out with the target market of the app and its improvements.

Simple UI

Not all mobile app users are tech geeks and tech savvy. Majority tend to get confused about the use of the mobile app. Simplifying, catchy graphics and sticky color scheme should help enhance user interface and not complicate the app. Busy interface tend to make navigation difficult and slow loading time which converts user abandonment.

Understand Global Cultures and Sensitivities

Generate a study or understand how global mindset works, sensibilities, and expectations in reference to user purposes and principles that can be adapted to the design of the app.

Market Partnerships

There is always a possibility that you will overlook an aspect of the market. What you may learn from partnering with others in building a UI design can play in the success of the app than what you expect.

Experts that are grouped together always have the odds for success in any endeavor.

Search engine optimization helps grow awareness and attracts sales eventually. The general rule of thumb for marketers is, if the customer wont buy on the first time then make an impact that when they think of a certain product they immediately think of you. We know the problem that is why Graftene have listed some of the best realistic solutions that are effective marketing tactic that converts to sales.

Here are the tips in getting the attention you seek.

1. Be different. Defy the norm.

   Be the purple cow, or the green ox. Stand out among the crowd. If you cant stand out then editors have no reason to publish you on front page.

2. Hire a good copywrite

   Spend on a good content writer to write about you and your company. Lets face it. A company that doesn’t have a real business owner will not be considered by the customers. A real life person showing up in their website and talking and sharing a little bit about their life and story shouts legitimacy in their passion to help out and that is what customers want to see and read.

3. Be Visual

   Utilize Visualal platforms like pinterest, google plus, facebook among others in reaching the mass media. Emotional intelligence is a skill set and your customers are in the social media 24/7. So why not be there and be in front of them.

4. Engage in forums, social media websites and emails

   Work with your team to create a successful email template to be used within the company. Update “about”page and social media profiles often to show genuine profiles that reflects the business expertise. And when people compliment your posts and company take screen shots, or video clips to show to as tangible testimonies.

Be unique but not off topic. Be a giver of information but not outlandish that will appear strange than intriguing. Just be the best version of yourself and your company and eventually the right people and possible the customers will notice you.

When you build a company or a brand, everything you hear about the logo and its importance is true. And yet still fall to the trap of having friends doing it for you than letting an expert doing the design.

To further highlight how important the logo is, think of it this way: your logo will be your image. Its by far the image that will mark in your customers subconscious if not yet conscious of your existence (for customers that haven’t yet bought your product). Imagine an image that that pops into your head the moment you hear a name of a company or service. Its the first thing that customers think of first before saying your company name.

When a graphic designer creates a logo that precisely represents your company brand, your products, services, works that will brand at all the vast majority requires artistic professional eye, attention to detail, knowledge of different platforms and dedication of process.

Whether the logo is for a corporate established business or a start up, logo can withstand test of time and build the name with the business. Once you have decided on a logo and have started the business and getting clients, there is no changing it. Its yours for life and becomes your representation of your brand. If ever you do get board with your logo, you logo can always have an update depending on the milestone or the holiday celebration.

Search engine optimisation is an integral part of any business establishing presence online, but for businesses that are more confined to local customers, SEO can be more useful for finding new customers and improving visibility.

Search engines like google are constantly updating their algorithms to provide better and useful search results to users. It is vital to understand these systems to ensure that your business is being shown to the right people who are looking and want to buy your products.

Here at Graftene we have compiled best tips on improving your SEO and getting you online presence that you need.

Geo – Specific Keywords

Do not use generic keywords that relate to your products and services. Instead use location-specific keywords and phrases.

For example, your a bookkeeper and your deal with clients locally, you could focus on keywords like “Accountants Bournemouth or Bookkeeper Bournemouth” instead of using just “Accountants or Bookkeeper”.

Use local listings like Google, Bing, Yell, Yelp etc

Google places, yahoo locals, bing and other directories are a big factor in getting your website out into the world wide web. It is vital that your business is listed and NOT lacking in information. These important informations are, contact details -phone, email, address, website link -, map and a photograph of you or your representative and your business office. The more you present yourself as legitimate business the more the customers are safe in conducting business with you in the future.

Client Testimonials and Reviews

After your the transaction, encourage your customer to give you feedback and testimony of your service and their experience of their product. It works in many ways, you will be able to show to other customers that what you do is legitimate, the good reviews will be the one to vouch for your products and service and other critical reviews or feedbacks can be a room for improvement.

Be Mobile Responsive

With the massive flux of smart devices, it is also essential to have a responsive website that can easily be viewed by your customers using their smart devices. More often customers use their devices to book flights, order a product online or do restaurant reservations. Therefore it is also essential to be ready with this change. If customers can find you in local listings but your website is unreadable in devices and or user friend means loss of sales and customers and you don’t want that to happen. Stay ahead and talk to us for an meeting and how we can help you beat the competition.

One effective strategy that company applies in drawing audience is a well proportioned content strategy. Best example is trailers of movies or a sneak peek behind the scenes of the movie footage and engaging blog content that basically hooks readers. Normally a call to action linked to the contact form is found in the article or blog post, but some lifestyle blogs offer information without the value of selling to the reader.

You’d be so stoked on reading an email from your best friend that migrated to another country, right? The strategy applies the same way. Treat your customers like your friend. It’s another seo method in drawing the traffic to your website. You build relationships with your customers through interaction, interests rather than asking them to buy your products directly.

Did you know that 78% percent of readers surveyed last year considered easy, custom, personal content are read more times than the classic informative articles. Lifestyle method of sharing information is another promotion strategy in getting to stick to your company. With the right content, you can expand more reach increase click through rates on call to action posts with a subtle call to action and also improve organization brand exposure.

If you’ve been researching for new alternatives on assessing traffic, rankings and or just trying a new software to use for gathering insights, you may also consider trying these ideas in your analytics that you may have not used or reviewed in a while.

Geography and Visits

Have you ever considered checking what countries the traffic comes from? Then it would be a new way to think about the coverage being able to target the next strategies to certain demographics and geography

It can be a new insight for your PPC Campaign, or local target market to mix traffic sources. You can make the necessary changes in the Demographics/Geography settings in the analytics. All you need to is the population, paid and organic traffic. And making it into graphics to better analyze the data. Its also a great way to determine spots where new competitors are entering the market.

Frequency Time and Behaviour

If your users transact online, do they buy instantly or take time lingering in the product. Do you only have one chance in selling to your visitor? These are some of the many questions that can be answer by using the behaviour in frequency part.

High Value versus High Traffic

Do you get high traffic but no conversion or you get low traffic but high conversion? Landing pages are another indicator of the visits and the conversions of the visitors. Sorting through the landing pages and turning off the pages that are not converting visitors will increase website load time and limit clutter.

Linking your converting pages to your blog and social media can drive more traffic that are filtered to the users that are in search of your products than users that is by far not interested at all. The key is finding the users that is in need of your product or service.