The DreamPix Studio

Web Design Trends in 2021

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Digital Trends of Focus 2021

The events of 2020 have greatly impacted the way that consumers consume information and the way businesses market products. Those changes will be reflected in web design trends in 2021. Specifically, it will be noticeable in user experiences and in brand positioning as companies seek to satisfy the customers who have emerged from the cover of Covid.

An Unforgettable User Experience

To make up for what we have lost in real-life experiences, web designers will blur the lines between reality and virtual reality by creating interactive digital experiences that wow. In-person events such as lectures and concerts have now found a new home on the web, and in many cases permanently. However, what began as static ‘Zoom’ videos have evolved into rich media productions with elaborate visual effects.

Personalization in web experiences will be brought to a new level. This appeals to the end-users sense of self. Our virtual identities with customized faces will take center stage on our screens feeding our unquenchable thirst for self-expression and individualism. Likewise, developers are offering flexible interfaces that allow users to customize their experience to suit their personal preferences.  These offerings all feed into the realization by brands that the customer and the customer experience are kings.

Brands Will Take a Stand

#BlackLiveMatter initiated a movement that inspired brands to be vocal about a cause that they believed in. Remaining silent sent an unspoken message that brands were in support of the status quo. Similarly, the recent crisis at the U.S. Capitol prompted an unprecedented number of brands, CEOs, and business groups to speak out against the riots and take strong public positions.

Organizations that promote the values and principles that are important to them will attract customers who share their sentiments and likewise feel connected to the product. This trend will likely continue. However, from a marketing perspective, brands should be cautious and consider the ramifications. Brands should look back at where they stood historically before changing lanes and inadvertently contradicting themselves. Also, they should refrain from speaking out on a subject that doesn’t warrant their brand’s voice or might potentially offend stakeholders.

Sensitivity to the Public Plight

It was a difficult year overall but 2020 did have its bright spots. For starters, brands have embraced the voice of optimism while unveiling their more sensitive and caring sides. Also, they have forged a united front in support of inclusive, healthy, and safe environments both on and off the web. With this new cloak of sensitivity comes a healthy dose of nostalgia for things that we may have been taken for granted before 2020. The flavor of retro will prevail across the web as brands strive to connect with the good old days!

Customer Marketing: Tactics to Boost Retention

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Customer Marketing
It costs 5 times more to acquire a new customer than to sell and retain an existing customer.

With all the noise in the market today, staying ahead of the competition and acquiring new customers is becoming more challenging. Did you know that it costs 5 times more to acquire a new customer than to sell and retain an existing customer? For this reason, companies who used to spend the majority of their budget on new leads are reallocating marketing dollars to focus on existing customer marketing. 

Research shows that customer retention is one of the main differences between companies that thrive and those that don’t. That doesn’t mean that companies should abandon the pursuit of new logos. However, they must remember that beating the competition begins with the customers who already know, like, and trust a brand. The bottom line is that the more customers a business can retain, the more likely they are to achieve business goals.

4 Reasons to Engage in Customer Marketing

  1. Existing customers have a greater propensity to buy if they are happy customers. 
  2. Targeting existing accounts removes the guesswork. For example, you already know their pain points, company, and personal preferences. 
  3. Brand loyalty is powerful. If a customer is happy with the product and service, they have no need to look elsewhere. Existing customers are easy to upsell and cross-sell. 
  4. Loyal customers should be an organization’s biggest advocate sending referrals that are 30% easier to convert than a lead. 

Five Simple Customer Retention Tactics

Where should you begin with a customer marketing program? The strategies below will help to keep existing customers happy for the long-term and boost profits.

  1. The Customer is King. Roll out the red carpet from the very beginning with a gushing welcome email and a superior onboarding process that wows them and leaves them wanting more.
  2. Don’t waste any time, the sooner you begin the nurturing process the sooner your customers will become brand advocates. Start by making the most of user generated content such as customer photos and positive feedback. This type of authentic advertising is impactful and you will reap the rewards. 
  3. Don’t miss the opportunity to highlight customer success stories, case studies, or testimonials. Your audience will be influenced by a recommendation that they consider genuine and trustworthy.   
  4. Be a good listener – that means responding thoughtfully on social media and carrying the conversation. Think of social media participation as being akin to be a good dinner guest.  Remember to always bring value to the table and don’t monopolize the conversation. After all, you want them to invite you back again!
  5. Don’t underestimate the value of rewards and giveaways whether they’re in-person or digital. Giveaways are a prime way to renew interest in your product while positioning yourself as engaged and thankful for their business.
  6. Be consistent with the distribution of your content. For example, don’t go radio silent for lengthy periods of time. Set reasonable goals and stick to those goals. 

Develop a Customer Marketing Strategy

Businesses today need to develop a succinct customer marketing strategy so that they can retain customers for the long haul. The ultimate goal is to turn customers into brand evangelists. The good news is that you already have an abundance of customer information at your fingertips which is half the battle in marketing. Here are a few ideas on what is trending in customer marketing for 2021.

The Best Apps for Small Business Owners

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More and more organizations are making use of the technology that is available to them for running their business efficiently.  Here’s a sampling of apps that are available from different categories that might help to make your job easier.

Payments

PayPal Here stepped out when Square came on the market. PaPal Here allows business owners to accept payments and track expenses.

Finance & Accounting

Gusto streamlines the company payroll, tax, and benefits process. For a more all-encompassing solution to your company’s payroll, perhaps something like this would suit your needs. It is a powerful, global tool with access to expert assistance to ensure consistent and accurate results in every country in which you operate.

Communication

Slack’s instant messaging platform allows you to organize your team’s conversations into separate private or public channels or to send direct messages. The platform also allows file and image sharing.

Time Management

RescueTime tracks time spent on applications and websites and sends you detailed reports and data based on your activity, providing an accurate picture of how you spent your day. It works on Mac, PC, Android, and Linux systems.

Organization

BoxMeUp organizes and tracks packages and containers. It also allows you to print the proper QR labels which you can scan with your phone to access a list of items in each container at any time.

Other Favs

Expensify makes tracking business expenses much easier. Additionally, there is also expense tracking software that can be downloaded onto a computer, whilst still allowing users to access it from their mobile phone. Expensify software allows business owners to track all of their receipts and expenses digitally. This makes it easier for them to see where the business is spending money and also simplifies tax season as all of the business’ expenses should already be filed on the computer or on the app.

The Name Game

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Does the brand name REALLY matter? This month the obstacle de jour is clients agonizing over their brand name. Should they use their own name? Is it too long, especially when using the same as a domain name? Does it speak to the industry it serves? The best answer is that when naming a brand, go with your gut feeling. If the brand is successful, no one will think twice about the name. With that said, it is important to consider how a name might work across media platforms such as in a domain name for example. Long names can be cumbersome to remember and difficult to use on print collateral such as business cards where space is limited. Remember that less is almost always more! A good brand can take on a life of its own regardless of its name. While it is necessary for a brand to have a name, it is not really necessary for the name to speak to the function of the product itself as the real brand-building lies in the story that the brand tells.

Some brand names are so great that they become part of our daily lingo. For example, we don’t search for information, we “Google it” and kids ask for a “Band-Aid” when they have a scrape, not an adhesive bandage. Here are a few interesting facts about famous brands and where their names were derived.

  • Amazon: Founder Jeff Bezos wanted a company that began with “A” so that it would appear early in alphabetic order. The Amazon itself was named after the largest river in the world – Bezos hoped his company would have such a commanding presence.
  • Google: The search engine was originally nicknamed “Backrub” because the system checked backlinks. Eventually, it was renamed Google which came from the misspelling of the word “googol” which represents the large number 10100.
  • Nike: The sporting goods brand was named after the Greek goddess of victory and the “swoosh” is symbolic of her flight.
  • Samsung: Korean for ‘Three Star’
  • Nivea: Derived from ‘Niveus’, Latin for ‘Snow White’
  • Volkswagen: German for ‘People’s Car’
  • Lego: A contraction from the Danish phrase ‘leg godt’, meaning ‘play well’ (coincidently in Latin for ‘I put together)
  • ADIDAS: A blending of sounds from the founder’s name Adolf (Adi) Dassler
  • Adobe: Named after the ‘Adobe Creek’ located behind the cofounder John Warnocks home.
  • 7 Eleven: A reflection of their extended work hours (7 a.m. to 11 p.m.)
  • Canon: Originally ‘Kwanon’, Japanese for the Buddhist Bodhisattva of Mercy
  • IKEA: An acronym comprised of the Swedish founder’s name and native village (Ingvar Kamprad and Elmtaryd Agunnaryd)
  • Pepsi: The soft drink was named after the digestive enzyme ‘pepsin’
  • Sony: Derived from ‘Sonus’, the Latin word for sound
  • Starbucks: Named after a character in the novel Moby-Dick
  • Vodafone: A combination of ‘Voice’, ‘Data’, and ‘Phone’
  • Wendy’s: Named after founder Dave Thomas’ daughter
  • SKYPE Derived from Sky-Peer-to-Peer which eventually morphed into SKYPE.

Voice Optimized Content is all the Rage

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When it comes to online marketing and technology, the strategy behind the game is ever-changing. Just when my clients were getting the hang of SEO, as it relates to keywords and keyword phrases we find out that Voice search has exploded and effectively blown up the old digital strategy making voice optimized content imperative. Last year 20% of online searches were conducted through voice searches and that number is expected to skyrocket over the next two years.

Google reports that 55% of teens and 41% of adults are using voice search at least once a day. This means that people are now using long search phrases and full sentences to look for products and services online. Marketers need to adjust their strategy accordingly and think in terms of natural phrases as opposed to the 3 and 4 word keyword phrases that have been popular for the past decade.  In fact, research shows that search queries beginning with “who”, “what”, “when”, “where”, “why”, and “how” have increased by 61%. That makes complete sense when we consider how one uses Alexa or Siri. The strategy is fairly simple in that the content on a website needs to provide the answers to questions that potential customers may be asking through a voice search.

4 Key Branding Rules

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The term “Branding” has been a popular marketing buzzword for several years now. Some of the information available makes the branding process seem monumental from the perspective of a small business owner. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Small businesses can effectively support and build their brand by following four simple rules.

  1. Take an Audience–Centric approach. Think about the person who is purchasing your product and refine your content so that it is relative to their needs. For example, there is a particular audience that seeks out a BYOB restaurant – frequent customers often have extensive wine cellars in their homes and prefer to select wine from their own collection. That’s a market niche. S
  2. Establish the proper tone of voice. It’s important that the tone of voice used is consistent across all mediums. A hip and casual business would be fine using teen-friendly acronyms on social media channels. However, B2B businesses likely want to speak in a more professional tone since business owners are the key audience.
  3. Know the core value of the brand. If health and safety are at the forefront of a sports-based business, be sure to communicate those values core values in blogs and social media posts.
  4. Consider blogging for exposure. Blogging is one of the best ways for business owners to spread the word by sharing knowledge as an authority in their field.

The Domain Name Game

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So you think that you’ve come up with an awesome name for your business and one of the first items on your agenda is to search for a matching domain name. Hold your horses! Resist the urge to start that search until you have brainstormed a list of possible domain names and are ready to make a purchasing decision.

Here’s Why

If you start your search and then decide to sleep on it before making a decision, the chances are likely that the domain name will either cost twice as much the following day or be scooped up by another buyer who has plans to hold it for a hefty ransom. Although large purchasing services deny that they save searches, studies have proven otherwise. The same holds true in the travel industry where the price of flights mysteriously goes up overnight.

What Else Should I Know

There are other factors to consider as well when selecting a domain name that can affect the price and marketability of the domain name. Among them:
1. Keep the name as short as possible – 3 words is best.
2. Try to get .com but do not fret if .net or .us are the best fits for your business.
3. Avoid awkward names such as speedofart.com or expertsexchange.com
4. Avoid using dashes or numbers in the URL

So you want to build an Email Marketing List?

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Despite rumors to the contrary, email marketing is alive and well and, collecting emails is pretty easy in today’s world. Last week, I asked a restaurant owner if he had considered taking advantage of seasonal opportunities by selling gift certificates online. Unfortunately, the profitable Black Friday and Cyber Monday retail opportunities had passed us by; neither of which should be missed by any C2C business. One of the easiest ways to capitalize on these opportunities is through email marketing.

Fighting from where we stood, we decided to focus on Valentine’s Day. We started with a drawing for a free $100 gift certificate. Enrolling was easy – a fishbowl was placed at the entrance to the restaurant. Visitors simply had to drop a business card or a completed slip into the bowl. Likewise, a pop-up link was added to the website urging visitors to sign up for a chance to win a $100 gift card. The links were simultaneously posted on Facebook and Instagram.

Voila! The restaurant’s email list multiplied threefold within the first hour. These simple marketing tactics are an effective way to gather leads to be used in automated email marketing campaigns.

3 Simple Reasons to choose WordPress.

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Many business owners find themselves in a quandary over which platform to use for their business website. There is no shortage of options on the market, from Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, and more. And then, of course, there is the almighty open-source platform, WordPress. While all of the above bill themselves as easy to use CMS (Content Management Systems), no two platforms are created equal. While today’s site builders do not necessarily require tech wizardry, there is a learning curve to each platform and some are more flexible and intuitive than others. Those choosing a platform for their blog or website may want to check out the arguments in WordPress vs Wix to see which best suits their needs.

Here are three simple reasons why WordPress is the most popular CMS in the world.

  1. WordPress is a free platform that comes with no strings attached. You can take your website and go home if you aren’t happy with the web hosting customer service. There are hosting platforms out there that offer WordPress hosting services so it’s easy enough to leave their services. With all of the other choices, you will have to start from scratch with a company change.
  2. The WordPress developer knowledge breadth is vast. Whether you are searching for a DYI tutorial or seeking a developer to do the work, all one needs to do is ask Siri.
  3. The design flexibility and plugin functionality available to WordPress are endless. Whatever the need, be it a login protected area, a bidding platform, or registration functionality, WordPress has a plugin to accomplish it all.

Should You Sell Your Product On Amazon?

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With Amazon bulldozing its way through the marketplace in nearly every industry, small business owners are fearful of being left behind in the rubble. Those who are selling products online, that are also available by large retailers, are at a competitive disadvantage and should find a way to set themselves apart from the superstores, perhaps by selling items not available on the likes of Amazon. But what about businesses who are selling their own product line? Should they join forces with the enemy by selling their product through the Amazon marketplace?

Absolutely! Even if the profit margin is reduced, it is best to sell goods in as many different marketplaces as possible. While the profit margin may be less, the volume of sales will likely be higher, making it well worth the effort. The Amazon eCommerce platform is powerful, and one to be taken on step by step as small businesses would otherwise not be able to gain such broad market exposure.

Should small retailers abandon their online store? No. They should keep doing what they do best, being an authority on their product line, and play big. A small retailer’s website should be filled with valuable compelling content such as “How To” videos and blogs that offer consumers insight into the product. If you don’t already have an online eCommerce store, you should get started with one right away! You can either use Shopify or Volusion (look at details here to find out more about them both). Creating your own eCommerce store is usually a great place to start when trying to sell online. If people can visit your online store, it’s more likely that they’ll spend more time having a look at other products too. This can increase sales for the company. However, when you’re selling online, it’s important to make sure that you have PCI compliance on your website, allowing your business to accept credit card payments. To make sure your business has PCI compliance, it might be worth looking into the security software offered by TokenEx. That should make sure that your eCommerce site is safe for users to purchase from.

Furthermore, digital eCommerce businesses might also want to find new ways to embrace current trends surrounding subscription-based business models.

With the rise of technology and software as a service (SaaS) products expected to continue soaring over the next few years, more companies seem to be moving from a revenue model where revenue is made from a one-time purchase towards a subscription model where revenue is made on a recurring basis in return for consistent access to the delivery of goods or services. To learn more about the software required for setting up a subscription-based business model, head to the FastSpring website.

The Amazon shopping cart is a marketing workhorse but it can’t offer the same personalized, interactive experience that business owners can to woo customers. They might even consider offering an incentive to purchase directly from the manufacturer such as a money-back guarantee. Remember that Amazon is only another marketplace and everyone has their favorite places to shop.