Crocus Communications

By 1 Comment

5 Basic Principles of Effective Web Design

These days, only the most remote and old-fashioned businesses remain ignorant of the necessity of having a website; but unfortunately that doesn’t mean that we all know what we’re doing. Clunky websites that are slow to load or impossible to read on mobile phones are surprisingly common.

But you don’t need to spend big budgets on big agencies to get an effective website for your business. Whether you go it alone on a platform like WordPress or you brief a designer to create a bespoke site, there are some basic principles of effective web design to bear in mind…

1. Start with your business objective

What is the purpose of your website? What action do you want your visitors to take? Do you want them to read your blog posts? Sign up for your newsletter? Buy your product? Clarity on your number one objective will help you to focus on the most crucial information ‘above the fold’ (i.e. within the first part of the website that is visible without scrolling), with a clear call to action (a green button has been shown to work well!). This focus will also mean that you can get rid of all that clutter that doesn’t really contribute to your objective; white space can be very effective.

2. Make the navigation simple and intuitive

You may think you’re being creative with some never-before-seen design but all you’re doing is creating barriers between you and your potential customer, and the likely outcome is that they will simply give up and leave. People tend to read from left to right, they’re used to horizontal menus at the top or vertical menus down the left, and they’re impatient and will drop off if they have to go through too many steps or clicks. Bear this in mind and follow the basic conventions so that people feel immediately comfortable and can get straight to work with finding the information they’re looking for.

3. Make sure it’s mobile friendly

A lot of small business websites still don’t take into account the large and ever-increasing number of visitors that are using a tablet or a mobile. Depending on the nature of your business, the proportion of mobile users can be larger than desktop – so what’s the point in having some fancy design that simply doesn’t work for half your customers? Making your website mobile responsive (so that it adapts to the screen size of the device) doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg – many WordPress themes are mobile responsive as default, while if you’re working with an agency or designer you should specify this as a mandatory criterion of the site.

4. Keep the writing short and crisp

Don’t try to sound clever or get too creative with your writing, whether we’re talking about menu labels, call-to-action buttons, or the main body text on the site. Instead, make sure you’re using consumer language and avoiding jargon, highlight important words and phrases using bold and italics, break up long text with bullets and short paragraphs. Again, people are impatient and will be scanning the site for the information they’re after – confuse them or take too long to get to the point and they’ll get frustrated and go elsewhere.

5. Content, content, content!

Create content for your site that sits in the sweet spot between your business objective and your customers’ needs. Understanding who your visitors are and where they are coming from will help you to create relevant content that answers their most burning questions and keeps them coming back to your site. This content will help to build your credibility as experts in your field, build relationships with your customers and, of course, build your search rankings to get even more traffic to your site. Don’t forget to make the content sharable, so that your customers can spread the word for you; once you’ve created this content, you can also push it out yourselves in other ways, whether via email newsletters or via social media such as on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Next time you’re on a website – perhaps you’ll be doing your online banking, or booking a hotel, or trying to find a local restaurant – we suggest you spend some time thinking about how easy it is to find the information you’re looking for, whether the design of the site helps or hinders you, and what you might learn from their mistakes. Never forget that you’re a consumer, a human being in fact, as well as a business owner or a marketer!

We’d love for you to share examples of websites that you’ve found to be particularly good, or shockingly bad, in the comments below!

 

By 1 Comment

5 pitfalls of social media that you should avoid

Everyone today accepts that they need to “do social media”, but can you just jump in and “do” it? What are the risks? What are the main pitfalls when it comes to social media, and what can you do to avoid them?

1.    Thinking you can succeed without a strategy

It’s not just the big brands that need a strategy. You’ll save both time and money if you think things through before you start: Who is your target audience? What are they looking for and where? What types of content can you create to meet both their needs and yours, and what are the right platforms to distribute that content? Who is going to create that content and how much will it cost to make it of a sufficient quality? What exactly are you trying to achieve?

2.    Going for the easy win

Yes, it may be tempting to buy likes and followers at first, and, yes, a large fan base looks impressive on the surface. But would you rather have 100 fans who are loyal brand lovers and who will buy and endorse your product… or 5,000 fans consisting of fake accounts, people who are not in your target audience and who will never engage with your posts or care about your product? Building a genuine fan base takes time but it’s a far more effective strategy in the long run.

3.    Talking about yourself

Social networks are not just another stage for you to broadcast how amazing your product is. People are on Facebook, on Twitter, on Pinterest, to talk to their friends, to learn from experts, to be inspired. How will you make sure you’re relevant, how are you going to add value? How will you engage with your fans, make their lives easier, help them, entertain them? Social media is about having conversations, building relationships; it’s not just a one-way advertising platform.

4.    Ignoring your fans

Many big brands, luxury brands in particular, choose to preserve their aspirational status by maintaining a cold distance to their fans. It may work for the Chanels of the world, but for the rest of us, ignoring fans can be disastrous. Reward your fans for their loyalty, answer their questions, show them you care. When it comes to criticism, left unanswered it will only damage your brand. Be open and transparent, show that you’re listening, and find a way to make things right.

5.    Trying to please everyone

On the other hand, if the criticism really is limited to a handful of people and they are not part of your target group, then once you’ve addressed their concerns politely, you should move on and keep providing value to those who do appreciate your proposition. Trying to appeal to everyone, and diluting or changing your message every time someone has a different opinion, will eventually leave you with nobody liking you at all. You can’t please everyone.

Above all, don’t just leave it to the intern! Success on social media requires strategic thinking, a deep understanding of your brand, responsible public relations, thoughtful customer service… ignore that at your peril.

By Leave a Comment

How to write an effective digital marketing brief

A topic close to our own hearts: what to put in a digital marketing brief. Well, in fact, what to put in any marketing brief.

Your brief is a starting point for a discussion, but being clear at this early stage will save you both time and money…

1.    What’s the project?

Be clear from the start as to what exactly you’re asking for. Give a bit of background on your brand or your company, what you’re trying to achieve, and how this project fits in with those ambitions. What context is needed in order to understand the brief?

2.    What is your objective?

Describe the specific business challenge you’re facing. Are you a completely new brand and need to establish yourselves from scratch? Are you launching a new product and need to drive awareness? Are you repositioning yourselves and want to drive the new image? Perhaps you want to make your brand more accessible, increasing engagement and interaction?

3.    What is your brand proposition?

What does your brand stand for? Are you offering quality? value? convenience? reliability? What about your tone of voice – is it formal or can it be more relaxed? serious or tongue-in-cheek?

4.    Who is your target audience?

Are you targeting men or women? Teenagers or older professionals? Where do they live? What’s their occupation? What do you know about their interests, their lifestyle, their use of online media? Why would they want what you’re providing? Why not?

5.    Who is your competition?

Who are your key competitors? What do they stand for, who are they targeting, what are they doing to market themselves? How is your offer different?

6.    What elements do you already have?

Do you have content that you’ve already created? Do you have a website, a Facebook page, an email system? What can be changed, and what’s locked? Is there something that absolutely has to be included, and other things that are nice-to-have? Who do you already have on the team – a designer? copywriter? PR manager? Anything else that needs to be taken into consideration?

7.    What budget do you have available?

How much budget do you have available for strategy, and how much for things like content creation, community management, a paid marketing plan (e.g. Google adwords, Facebook ads, promoted Tweets)? You don’t have to split it up if you don’t know how to allocate it (after all, that comes from the strategy) but at least give a total budget and say what it needs to include.

8.    What’s the timeline?

When does everything need to go live? Do you have other fixed deadlines, for example a PR event that’s already planned or a particular holiday you want to tie into? What’s the overall time frame? Are you just asking for a one-off project deliverable or do you need ongoing support to manage your social platforms, to write blog posts, to track your results?

Clear communication on what you’re trying to achieve, and how, will help the agency or consultancy that you’re briefing to understand exactly who you are and what you want, and ultimately will enable them to deliver something that meets, and hopefully exceeds, your expectations.

By Leave a Comment

Crocus Communications incorporated today

Digital marketing consulting and coaching. Cultivating a mindset. Giving you the tools. Helping you grow.

Crocus Communications is a fresh new consultancy with deep roots in marketing and brand building, providing consulting and coaching to help brands and agencies to engage with their target audiences and clients in today’s digital environment.

The consultancy was created by Anna Lundberg, a digital marketing consultant and coach with broad experience in successfully building global brands in the consumer goods industry. She combines a traditional marketing background from Procter & Gamble with profound expertise in the area of digital.

Anna believes that digital is not some high-tech, complicated field to be outsourced to Digital Experts or else left to the young intern who’s here for the summer. Digital must be understood and embraced by all layers of the organisation and must be integrated into a cohesive brand-building strategy for which each and every member of the team feels accountable.

Crocus Communications works with brands and businesses in different life stages, from start-up to mature, as well as with PR and digital agencies, to define the right strategy to meet specific business goals and to devise a training programme to equip the organisation with the skills and the confidence needed to make it happen.

For more information, email info@crocuscommunications.com.

Get in touch

Contact us to discuss how we can support you and your business

Contact us here >>