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Are you a social media addict?

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We at Graphic Alliance are big fans of social media but with every tweet, Facebook like, repin, LinkedIn connection and kooky photo we upload on to Instagram, are we getting one step closer to becoming fully-fledged social media addicts?

Well, here is my view of the different social media users and abusers that are amongst us. I’m sure everyone will know at least one or two people who fit these descriptions!

Social Media Virgins – those who have not and will not sign up to social media site – EVER. “There are no social media virgins these days” I hear you cry, but in fact there are still a few among us who have not been sucked into the world of social media.  My grandmother is perhaps the prime example.  She doesn’t own a computer and is frequently bemused as to why a peculiar cross symbol appears on her television screen during her weekly dose of Strictly. Put simply, social media is not for her.

The ‘Tried it once’ Tribe – those who have signed up and have decided it’s not for them. Fair enough. However for those who choose to refrain from social media as they think its cooler to be teetotal, you do not fit in here (we know secretly you check your Facebook at night!)

Recreational Users - those who like to dabble here and there, but could easily give up all forms of social media interaction for a week and not experience any severe withdrawal symptoms.

The Like-aholics - those who ‘like’ anything and everything. If I had to place myself in one of these categories I suppose it would have to be this one. I am a self-confessed like-aholic – I love to like.

Checked Out Crew - those who are so busy checking in at the train station, a local café, a restaurant, art gallery or club. So busy, in fact, that they have checked out of your conversation!

Hard Hashtag Abusers – if #yolo (you only live once) then why are some choosing to #hashtag and #abbreviate #absolutely #everything? #whatistheworldcomingto!!!

Eat-stagram Enthusiasts - those who love to eat, but will not eat …. Without posting a photo of their meal on Instagram. You know who you are!


A beginner’s guide to: Google Analytics

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The secret to good marketing, someone wise probably once said, is knowing what your customers want. Thanks to web tools like Google Analytics, website owners can do just that – understand customer behaviour, learn how to generate more leads and increase sales. What’s more, it’s absolutely free.

For the uninitiated Google’s online reporting system can be a mass of confusing graphs, figures and strange terms. But don’t be put off, there are a few simple ways to get stuck in. Here are some key aspects of the program and how can you use it to better engage your target market.

Traffic sources

Under traffic sources you’ll find how many people have visited your site, in the last hour, day, week or month, with a graph that demonstrates fluctuations over a set period. You can also find out how people got to your website, whether as a result of a link from another site (referral traffic), through search engines (organic traffic), by specifically typing in your address (direct traffic) or from Google AdWords adverts (campaign traffic). If you’ve instigated major changes to your website, or invested in a marketing campaign, this tab will help you to determine the success of those operations.

Visitors

As well as seeing how people got to your site, you can also discover which types of potential customers are finding your business – from their language and place of domicile to which internet browser, computer operating system and screen resolution they’re using. Although this information isn’t hugely significant to a lot of smaller businesses from a marketing point of view, it’s vital practically. It ensures that your site isn’t neglecting a cross-section of customers by not working properly on a specific browser.

Organic results

One of the most effective ways to attract significant customers is through search engine optimisation (SE0), and ensuring that your site ranks well in Google, Bing and other search engines when potential customers search for a relevant keyword or phrase online. The organic search tab in traffic sources demonstrates how many people are finding you through search engines, and the terms that they’re typing that lead them to you – giving you the ideas and the opportunity to attract even more through other relevant keywords.



Behaviour

A sub-section of the Visitors section, the behaviour tab gives more detail about whether your website is engaging with its users. It shows how frequently and how recently visitors return to your site, how long they spend on a page and how many different pages people view during their session – all of which demonstrates how engaged they are with your brand. This tab is a great tool for establishing which pages on your website are more engaging and more popular than others, and hints at how struggling pages could be improved.

Bounce Rate

Located on the Content tab, the bounce rate shows how many people entered your website and then exited without clicking onto another page. It’s a great indicator of how inviting and interesting your website is. Sites without engaging copy, exciting graphics or relevant products will suffer a big bounce rate. The UK average bounce rate is 49%.

In-Page Analytics

This section shows your site as it’s seen by customers and indicates the behaviour of customers while on a page – displaying the bounce rate, average time on page and unique pageviews. It also shows a percentage of which banners, pages and links are being clicked on during the process. This is a great tool for designers and content managers, as it shows which specific graphics, stories and offers grab a user’s attention, and how potential customers react on different pages.

Once you start getting to grips with Google Analytics and realise just how much valuable information can be extracted from it, you’ll find that virtually a day doesn’t go by without logging in to check the latest activity on your website!

The GA Games

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Last week we decided to make use of the fantastic space we have here in Clerkenwell by initiating the first round of the GA Games (#GAG).  The GA departments were given an opportunity to go head to head, playing on our custom made games table (it’s a pool table AND a table tennis table – can’t get much better than that!) in the fight to victory!  The sun was shining, power ballads were belting, and with beers aplenty we had ourselves a whale of a time!

JW on the decks….

Shanks showing off his skills…

Tim loving the GA games!

 

Walpole British Luxury Brands of Tomorrow

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Walpole British LuxuryLast week I was fortunate enough to attend the Walpole British Luxury Brands of Tomorrow event held at Brown’s Hotel in London.

Walpole British Luxury is a non-profit making organisation that furthers the interests of the British luxury industry. First launched in 2007, the Brands of Tomorrow mentorship and coaching programme takes selected companies through a cycle of quarterly educational workshops on areas such as business planning, marketing, distribution and internationalisation as well as one-to-one meetings with some of the UK’s most experienced luxury entrepreneurs.

Since relaunching the Walpole website in 2011 we have had the good fortune of working with a number of previous Brands of Tomorrow including The Real Flower Company and Miller Harris as well as Walpole members such as Temperley London, Silver Cross and Pelham Bell Pottinger.

Opening speeches at Walpole British Luxury Brands of Tomorrow

One-hundred-and-thirty applicants were narrowed down to just eight who were selected to participate in this year’s programme. These were The Business of Fashion, Olivia von Halle, Goat, Olli Ella, Paul A Young, Private White VC, Rachel Galley and Victor.

Each of these brands promise to be staples of the luxury industry, establishing a unique voice which can be seen clearly throughout everything they do. As a creative digital agency, two brands caught my attention for their highly integrated approach.

During my time at Central Saint Martins I had the pleasure of crossing paths with Imran Ahmed, founder of The Business of Fashion. What started life as a humble blog has become an indispensable resource for fashion executives, creatives, students and entrepreneurs and boasts more than 1M followers on the brands social networks. Needless to say I have since become a subscriber and readily pour over the latest industry insights on my morning commute.

Victor, the world’s first online marketplace for private jet charters and per seat bookings also captured my imagination. Victor opens the door to a new world of luxurious travel destinations that are not served by your average commercial airline thereby offering a unique travel experience that extends far beyond the flight itself.

Photos courtesy of Walpole

Graphic Alliance recommends – Sweet Boulangerie & Patisserie

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Located just seconds away from the Graphic Alliance base, this quaint little café on Exmouth Market is full of mouth-watering splendours that we simply cannot resist!  If you’re ever in the area and fancy a spot of lunch or a coffee and a cake then this place is a must visit! There are sometimes crowds during the lunch hour rush but don’t let this put you off, the queue is usually very fast moving and the food is well worth the wait!

Our favourites include:

The pastrami flat bread – a fine choice for any chilled meat lover. Best enjoyed toasted!

The lasagne – if you’re looking for a more substantial meal, Sweet serve a great recipe for this Italian classic.

The soup of the day – it’s reasonable and always tasty. We would recommend the Thai curry flavour!

The salad box – the portion size is quite generous and if you’re a fan of roasted vegetables, Greek salad and puy lentils then the salad box is the one for you.  It’s also suitable for vegetarians!

The lemon tart – this is our Managing Director, Linford’s personal favourite. It’s tangy, sweet and sensational.

14 tips to reduce eCommerce checkout abandonment

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A recent Baynard survey has revealed that a whopping 68% of baskets are abandoned during the checkout process. Are over half of eCommerce customers only window shopping or is there something fishier going on here? You’ll be pleased to hear there are many simple ways in which your checkout can be improved to help customers navigate and complete their purchase! We’ve listed 14 best practice techniques to help improve the effectiveness of your checkout. If you have any of your own then please let us know!

  1. Keep it simple – Every checkout process should be easy to use and understand!
  2. Navigation is key – Customers should be able to navigate back and forth within the checkout to view and edit all steps in the process with ease.
  3. Indicate checkout progress steps clearly – Customers should know where they are in the checkout process and the steps required to complete their purchase. Consider incorporating a progress bar across the top of the checkout page. An example can be seen on the Miller Harris website inset.
  4. Isolate the checkout area – You don’t want to distract your customers from completing the task in hand. Removing any unnecessary clutter, such as the main navigation bar, search boxes and footer information, will help prevent customers from being side-tracked out of the checkout process.
  5. Offer free delivery – Everyone loves to hear the word ‘free’ but many have become so accustomed to the offering of free delivery that they now expect it! One way to limit the hit to your business is by offering free delivery over a certain price threshold, the idea being to push up your Average Order Value (AOV). According to a recent Interbrand report, delivery charges are now the number one reason for abandoned baskets online!
  6. Have a great returns policy and make it explicit – When you can’t see or touch the products, customers want to know that they won’t be stuck with an unwanted item. It’s important to ensure the returns policy is accessible throughout the checkout process to give customers further reassurance.
  7. Add check out summary information – Customers should be continually reminded and reassured about their basket’s contents, delivery information, and prices.
  8. Invite customers to check out as guests – A recent study by Econsultancy / Toluna shows that 25.6% of online consumers would abandon a purchase if they were forced to register in order to buy. Rather than asking customers to register for an account before purchasing, invite customers to create an account once the purchase is complete.
  9. Safe and Secure – Display secure payment logos and the different payment options the website accepts, this will encourage confidence and will help gain your customers trust.
  10. Don’t hide costs – Nothing is more off-putting than entering the checkout to find the costs are more than you expected them to be. Ensure all costs are displayed upfront before reaching the checkout process.
  11. Only ask for relevant information – Forms should be as clear and concise as possible. The modern customer understands the value of their personal details so try to avoid requesting any unnecessary information in the checkout process.
  12. Don’t make your customers enter information twice! – If you’ve taken the time to enter your personal details, it’s extremely frustrating if you are required to enter the same details again on another page. You can help your customers by implementing address capture tools so visitors can speed their way through the checkout process. Postcode lookup tools are another great way to limit the amount of information a customer has to enter, and speed up the process.
  13. Optimise the order confirmation page – This page can do more than reassure customers that their purchase has been successful. Consider adding promotions or present the customer with other product suggestions that complement their purchase to encourage further sales. This page is also the ideal place to invite those ‘guest’ customers to register for an account since they have entered the majority of their details already!
  14. Set up goal and funnel tracking throughout – This will provide you with insightful information, allowing you to identify any problematic areas where your potential customers are leaving the checkout process.

References
E-commerce Best Practice Compendium By Graham Charlton, Econsultancy, November 2012

 

 

Is Drupal 7 CMS the best for corporate website design?

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Graphic Alliance loves Drupal 7 because it powers more than 150 sites for the federal government states and, frankly, if it is good enough for The White House it is surely good enough for our clients. For a more in-depth appraisal of the system and whether Drupal 7 CMS is the best for corporate website design, please read on…

Total control over page templates
The “Panels” system allows a site administrator to create any number of customized page layouts for their website.  At its core is a drag and drop content manager that lets you visually design a page and place content within the chosen layout to create engaging online destinations.  Homepages, landing pages, brochure wear, news and article based content may all be customized using functionality available to administrators that requires no coding skills.

 

Create as many page templates as your site needs

 

Create complex, content rich and engaging online destinations 

Manage page layout proportions using the easy to use interface, add new columns, rows for page content, then alter widths using the drag and drop sliders.

 

Rearrange content within pages using the drag and drop content manager.  Add, delete, hide and edit content with just a few clicks, no coding skills required.

Preview changes before publishing.

Site theme
Each site contains a comprehensive site styling control panel used for changing the basic colour theme of a site.  This easy to use interface allows administrators to safely make site wide style changes in real time and preview them as they do.  A complete website colour pallet overhaul may be made in minutes and applied once approved with the ability to roll back to the default any point thereafter.

Simple to use tools enable site wide style changes.

Content control
All site content is managed within an easy-to-use web interface. The system is built with flexibility in mind and handles countless content types including video, text, blog, podcasts, and polls with robust user management, menu handling, real-time statistics and optional revision control.

Typical content types used (but not limited to) within the CMS

  • Rich text content*: basic text and image editing, centrally controlled styling protects consistency within the site whilst providing sufficient freedom for varying content
  • Multimedia management*: upload many types of multimedia content types, images, pdfs, powerpoint files, etc. presented in isolation or within list formats
  • Webforms*: create and monitor custom data capture forms for online enquiries, polls, competitions etc.
  • Image slideshows: present collections of image content within interactive slideshows
  • Carousels: cycle through a set of different promotional features to enable a large amount of content to be presented in a singe area
  • News and/or blog content: quickly add article based content that is categorized and automatically features on the homepage, news listing page, related business pages etc. Used to promote knowledge leadership in specific areas whilst improving site SEO keyword density
  • Accordion: interactive areas of content that expand/collapse on request and is broken into logical sections, much like tabs
  • Views: create lists of inter-related content from both your own site and remote data stores, for example RSS, Flickr media, YouTube content etc.

and many more…

Rich text editing
Each website is equipped with a modern ready-for-use HTML text editor designed to simplify web content creation. It’s a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor that brings common word processor features directly to your web pages and allows administrators of all skill levels create and edit content.

In addition to the easy to use interface the editor is designed to comply with web accessibility guidelines.  The editor is WAI-ARIA and Section 508 compliant and also supports high contrast and interface keyboard navigation.

Create content using a familiar word processing interface tool.

Managing site media
The media management system provides an extensible framework for managing files and multimedia assets, regardless of whether they are hosted on your own site or a 3rd party site.  The core system presents unified user interface where editors and administrators can upload, manage, and reuse multimedia assets.  The media files held within this system may be summoned into place by the panels system to create engaging online content, image galleries, interactive slideshows, carousels, and large promotional banners are all content options for your pages.  Administrators are permitted to access tools allowing them to perform mass media file uploads for bulk uploads as well as an easy to use drag and drop upload tool for effortless uploads. All images are automatically resized and/or cropped to the sizes required for use within the website.  If new sizes are required they may be simply added and all existing media will be resized accordingly.

 

Upload as many files as you need in bulk or one by one.

Webforms – create custom data capture
Webform is a system for making surveys, polls, contact enquiry forms etc.  After a form has been submitted the visitor to the site may be sent an e-mail “receipt” as well as a notification being sent to specific administrators. Submission results are all stored within the CMS for basic statistical review and can be exported into Excel or other spreadsheet applications.

Drag and drop builder: build online forms just by dragging the required input fields into your form, use input fields, radio buttons, dropdowns whatever you need.

Multiple pages:  breaking your form into multiple pages can make it easier for you to categorize questions, and it also helps to make the form look less overwhelming.

Multiple E-mails: send e-mails to both the recipient and the administrator responsible for the form, include attachments, customize your sites response to submissions.

Instant Results: get at-a-glance information about how many submissions you’ve received and what people are saying.

Create as many online data capture forms as your site needs

Content in context
Contexts are checked before any piece of content is displayed to a site visitor.  Specific content areas of any given page may be classified as sensitive and only displayed to logged in users to create tiered content access within a single page or entire site.

Social networking
Social networking integration is also widely supported within the CMS tools. Modules such as the Facebook Connect module, Twitter module, and ShareThis module help expand your network, and make your product or message more engaging to a wider audience.  For example, the Twitter module allows you to connect Twitter accounts with site user accounts, display tweets on your site and if required automatically send a tweet whenever new content is published.

Efficient working – shared content
The Panels system mentioned earlier may also be used for items smaller than entire pages.  Repeating pieces of identical content may be used throughout a site but managed and edited from a single point.  For example, a site may contain numerous news article pages that all include details of the primary contact for news and an email newsletter signup form.  Should the contact details need to change then the shared piece of content may be updated once and the change appear instantly on all pages that feature this shared piece of content.

Extending the core functionality
With more than 16,000 additional add-on modules, the Drupal system can meet the vast majority of your site’s requirements in a cost efficient manner.  On the rare occasions that no existing module meets your exact needs, we are able to develop specific modules to complete specialized tasks.

Interactive seating plan for the Lloyd’s trading floor with content manager

Bespoke claims reporting tool for brokers to review outstanding claims status and notes

Workflow
The workflow system allows the creation and assignment of arbitrary workflows to CMS content types. Workflows are made up of workflow states, for example, a workflow with the states Draft, Review, and Published could be assigned to the News article content type.  Transitions between workflow states can have preprogrammed actions assigned to them. In our example, we could assign an action so that when the news article moves from the Draft state to the Review state an email is automatically sent out to the administrator who holds privileges to publish content.

Caching -  faster page load times
Since most sites have very specific caching needs based upon content and traffic patterns our CMS system was designed to let sites devise their own triggers for cache clearing.  Areas of content can be cached as a whole, the entire output of the page can be cached or just individual content areas that take time to download can be cached to optimize your audience’s browsing experience.

 

The post Is Drupal 7 CMS the best for corporate website design? appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

London Gay Pride 2013

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The official 2013 Gay Pride Parade took place last weekend transforming Soho into a magical dancing area full of dressed (and undressed) people. If you haven’t yet been then you are missing out on a truly unique and wonderful experience.

Marching through the streets of London, meeting beautiful people from around the world and dancing all day outside and inside gay bars was a perfect way to spend my sunny Sunday. My personal highlight was meeting this fabulous man named Paul who spent two weeks making this show-stopping hat. He was Irish, we drank lots of whisky, and had a great time.

I loved every minute of it and am already looking forward to next year!

The post London Gay Pride 2013 appeared first on Graphic Alliance.


Hiscox appoints Graphic Alliance to launch new digital project

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Hiscox - Specialist Insurance providerWe are delighted to announce that Hiscox, the international specialist insurer, has appointed Graphic Alliance to work on a number of new digital projects.

Hiscox are known for their ‘dare to be different’ attitude and provide a diverse range of personal and commercial insurance products. They provide an extraordinary level of cover to over 130,000 businesses in the UK and over 47,000 homes in the UK. Hiscox London Market underwrites international businesses, via the Lloyd’s insurance market, and their capability extends as far as insuring inter-planetary probes and observation satellites.

Graphic Alliance are pleased to be working with such a forward thinking and dynamic business.

The post Hiscox appoints Graphic Alliance to launch new digital project appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

Meet the team – Charlie Mitton

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We are thrilled to announce the arrival of Charlie Mitton, who has become the latest member of the Graphic Alliance Account Management team.

We’ve asked Charlie to fill in the new GA questionnaire so everyone can get to know her a little better…

The Official GA Questionnaire

Name: Charlie Mitton

Position in the company: Account Manager

How long have you worked for GA? This is my first week

Describe yourself in 3 words: Creative, open-minded, sociable

What sort of music are you into? A mixture, but my favourite bands are The Pixies, Modest Mouse & Pavement

Do you have any guilty pleasures? Peanut butter from the jar with a spoon (disgusting, I know)

What is your biggest achievement? I quit smoking 3 months and 12 days (and 4 hours..) ago, that’s definitely a big achievement for me!

If you could be any character in fiction, who would you be? Sherlock Holmes, every time!

If you won the lottery what would be the first thing you would buy?  A house in Barcelona

What superpower would you most like to have? Invincibility

What three items would you take to a desert island other than food and water? A camera, my iPod and a friend

Famous last words? ‘Either the wallpaper goes, or I do.’

The post Meet the team – Charlie Mitton appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

Is Magento eCommerce right for your business?

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It was not so long ago that companies who wished to take the plunge into eCommerce had to either commission a bespoke platform built specifically for their needs, or engage with one of the large enterprise level platform providers. Both options required deep pockets with costs quickly surpassing six figures. Then along came open source.

The largest and most well-known open source platform is Magento eCommerce; a fully-functional enterprise level solution. You need only view Magento’s impressive client list which includes Paul Smith, The North Face, Nespresso and Nike, each of whom use Magento to power their online stores to realise they must be doing something right!

But, is it right for your business? Here are some of the pros and cons of the world’s fastest growing eCommerce platform:

Pros

Open Source

The big advantage of Magento is that it’s open source, meaning that the code is publicly available and royalty free. Open source technology offers your business ultimate flexibility making it possible for you to modify the platform to fit your requirements, which isn’t always available with other eCommerce platforms.

Community

Magento has a growing community of passionate developers, users, and providers. The benefit to your business is that answers to common problems are easily accessible and help is on hand no matter how bespoke your requirements.

Advanced Functions

Magento is considered to be the most advanced eCommerce platform available on the market. If your business needs are complex i.e. they require non-standard eCommerce practices, such as personalisation of products, Magento has the capability to do it through its vast array of available plug-ins.

Integration

One of the headaches with any eCommerce project is the integration with third party systems such as payment gateways, delivery providers and ePOS systems. Magento is now so widespread that most large organisations (Google, PayPal, SagePay, Royal Mail) have developed specific Magento APIs that greatly simplify the integration process.

Cons

Less intuitive than other providers

To the uninitiated, the Magento platform can seem very complex. If you are using Magento for the first time, you might need the help of a professional who can guide you through the process. There may be other platforms on the market that are more user-friendly.

Lack of Developers

Magento has grown rapidly and, as such, Magento experts/developers are in high demand – there simply aren’t enough to go around. As a result there are many who claim to be proficient with Magento, but few who are truly experts. Fortunately, we have several based here at Graphic Alliance, ready to take your call.

Specific Hosting Environment

In order to work effectively, Magento must be setup on the correct server environment. Failure to choose the right environment may have an impact upon on the loading speed of the site and, more importantly, your sales. Hosting is something that should not be overlooked but yet often is. To get the best out of your website, whichever eCommerce platform you choose, you’ll need to ensure that your hosting package is right for the platform. It must offer enough bandwidth to cope with your anticipated traffic levels and be secure and PCI compliant especially if you are taking payment online.

Now that you are aware of some of the pros and cons of Magento, you’ll be able to make a more informed decision as to whether it’s the right eCommerce platform for your business.

For more information on Magento visit: http://www.magentocommerce.com/.  If you would like to chat with the Graphic Alliance team for more advice on Magento, please email: hello@graphicalliance.co.uk

The post Is Magento eCommerce right for your business? appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

Content Marketing is the New Link Building

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Google is constantly changing its rules with regard to the factors that determine your website’s Page Rank. The techniques that positioned you at the top of the rankings last month may be less effective this month, and those that didn’t work at all now have a real impact. It can leave you feeling like you’re playing a perpetual game of SEO snakes and ladders!

Google’s Penguin and Panda updates in particular have been causing havoc for millions of fellow website owners. It was not long ago that the links built to and from your website had an almost ubiquitously positive effect on how the Google bots ‘saw’ your website. Today, Google favours websites that provide useful, high quality information over those that create thousands of links to unrelated sites. It is about the quality of your links, not the quantity. But creating quality links to your website is no easy task. An alternative approach to SEO success is to implement an effective content marketing strategy.

The Top 5 Benefits of Content Marketing

1. The results are quantifiable

It’s a lot easier to measure the effectiveness of content versus the impact of a link. For example, with today’s social media widgets you can quickly keep track of shares, likes and +1s. You can see how much organic traffic your content creates, how many people were referred to it by another reader and so on. This is virtually impossible to do with links.

2. Content is rarely detrimental to your website

Provided that your content is well-written and informative Google will rarely class it as spam. If you fail to use the right keywords in the right places your efforts may be wasted but it won’t be detrimental. Links on the other hand can harm your website rank tremendously if the search engines deem them to be unrelated to the theme of your site theme, which most bought links tend to be.

3. Creating content is more cost effective

We found that the demand for our SEO services in London increased dramatically around the time that Google began emphasising the importance of quality content. The good news is that the costs of hiring a copy writer are significantly cheaper than those of a professional link builder.

4. Your content is immune to algorithm updates

The algorithm updates periodically released by Google rarely affect content on a website. They do however tend to affect links you may have already built and links you were hoping to build in the future. Google is notorious for changing the rules pertaining to links and link building because the ultimate aim of Google is to keep every website as natural as possible. By doing so they move a step closer to Larry Page’s dream that the “perfect search engine” would “understand exactly what you mean and give you back exactly what you want”. If your website is currently based on dubious links then rest assured it will be penalised by Google at some point in the future.

5. Writing content is a lot less time consuming than building links

One of the factors that Google uses to assess the usefulness of a website is the frequency with which new content or new links are added. It doesn’t take ten minutes to add a short blog post to your site every day or a longer piece a few times a week but it can take hours to find even a single link that will be judged as worthwhile. Even better, if you make use of our SEO services in London you won’t have to spend any time at all on either activity because we will do it for you.

The post Content Marketing is the New Link Building appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

Meet The Team – Robin Lewis

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We are delighted to announce the arrival of Robin Lewis, the newest member of the team here at Graphic Alliance!  Robin is an experienced Account Manager and has worked with range of prestigious clients such as Harvey Nichols, Matthew Williamson, Uniqlo, Kurt Geiger, Gieves and Hawkes and Links Of London. We are extremely excited to have Robin join the team and believe he will make an excellent contribution to life at Graphic Alliance. Get to know Robin a little better by reading his answers to the infamous GA questionnaire!

The Graphic Alliance Questionnaire

Name:
Robin Lewis

Position in the company:
Account Manager

How long have you worked for GA?
1 week

Describe yourself in 3 words:
Shiny, Happy, Person.

What sort of music are you into?
Not REM, particularly. I have an eclectic and open taste, leaning towards electro/pop (the kind of thing you’ll hear emanating from a bar in Shoreditch)

Do you have any guilty pleasures?
Phil Collins. His music, not his hair.

What is your biggest achievement?
When I was 14, I ran the 100m in 11 seconds. That and teaching myself the bass guitar.

If you could be any character in fiction, who would you be?
Such a vast question. Probably Doctor Who.

If you won the lottery what would be the first thing you would buy?
A round for all my friends.

What superpower would you most like to have?
Time Travel.

What three items would you take to a desert island other than food and water?
A Guitar, some rope (you always need rope, right?), and a pack of cards.

Famous last words?
I’ll be right back.

The post Meet The Team – Robin Lewis appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

What is Customer Insight?

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Does your business understand its customer base? You can have the most innovative products or offer a service that gives an undeniable return on investment, but if you don’t know the customers you want to target, you’ll only go so far.

Customer insight solutions in an online environment

It goes without saying that the amount of people using the internet to learn, shop and communicate has grown exponentially in the last fifteen years. Nowadays, the internet offers huge opportunities for businesses and also provides a wealth of customer information that businesses are able to learn from.

Customer insight looks at the different ways that a brand can communicate with an audience, whether that’s through a concentrated social media strategy, blogging and PR outreach or through a series of informative, entertaining blog posts. Furthermore, it offers the opportunity to monitor the effectiveness of these communications and develop them further.

Why is it important to analyse customer behaviour online?

Looking at the behaviour of potential and current customers is essential for any online business. Developing a better understanding of online behaviour not only helps a business to communicate relevantly with its customers and increase sales, it also allows it to develop its online offering – benefiting the customer experience in a wider sense.

Which tools can be used to map customer insight?

The internet is a goldmine for savvy businesses who are able to keep a keen eye on what customers are doing online.

The power of social media is not to be ignored. On Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social sites, customers’ opinions, behaviours and grievances can be highlighted and, if necessary, dealt with in a convenient manner. Facebook, in particular, also offers a detailed demographic breakdown of all people who ‘Like’ your brand, allowing you to see which age ranges and genders associate themselves with you.

What’s more, there are a number of in-depth analytical tools that can show a webmaster how visitors are behaving once they’re on a website. The most popular tool is Google Analytics, which can tell you all sorts of information about individual customer journeys – from what pages they clicked on, to whether they converted or how long they spent on your site before leaving.

Thanks to Google Analytics, you may establish that a specific page isn’t performing as well as others and make the necessary changes – whether that’s amending the design of the page or writing more relevant copy. This is just one way that you can use Google Analytics to monitor customer behaviour online and change your practices as a result – helping your website to convert more traffic and improving your customers’ experience.

If you need help shedding light on your target audience’s online behaviour, Graphic Alliance can help you! Learn more about their customer insight solutions here.

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When Redesigning Your Website, Don’t Forget About SEO

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Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) covers a huge array of techniques used to ensure that your website gets more views and rises as far up Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) as possible – all to boost your online business. There are hundreds of tips and tricks that can be used to increase the visibility of your site. When people are searching for something specific on a search engine, they’re more likely to follow the links on the first page of the results. The top few links are statistically the ones that get clicked most often.

With smart SEO, your web page is more likely to be one of those top links on people’s search results. This means more people are likely to visit your site, learn about what you have to offer and take advantage of your services. With the help of a good internet marketing agency, SEO can be an invaluable tool in your marketing belt. Agencies understand best how ever-changing search engines work and how best to optimise your page for the content it contains.

With an agency like Graphic Alliance by your side, you can easily include relevant keywords, edit content, and use other technical tricks to optimise your website. It’s also important to start to build quality inbound links that lead back to your website in order to give it a ‘thumbs up’ to Google. And the best way to get quality links? Write quality content that other, external websites will snap up! Top-quality guest blogging or offsite blogging is now the key to great links, authority in your industry online and great audience engagement.

Get Started With Smart SEO

So what about the content on your site? There are several ways to boost SEO and make your website more visible online with smart content usage. Here are some key elements to pay attention to when redesigning your new site:

Content

Ensure that your content is unique, fresh and updated regularly. Catchy titles, interesting ideas and good quality writing can make all the difference. People who are using search engines should want to click your link when it pops up on the results page so make sure your page titles and meta descriptions look good and read compellingly.

So what about your onsite blog? Well the more you blog, the more the search engines will lap it up! Studies have shown that a blog post or more a day has incredible SEO potential. It means Google sees you as relevant and on the button, as long as the content is of a high standard – no lazy blogging please!

Keywords

Do some proper, detailed keyword research (or have your SEO specialists do it for you! It’s worth investing in this as it provides the foundation of your project and will really pay off later). Choose a set of keywords that you want your page to pop up for (make sure you choose realistic terms with competition you can handle). Place these words in titles and headings so that the search engine catches them, but don’t overdo it or you risk being penalized for creating spam. Try not to place keywords too frequently in the body of text, or places where it doesn’t fit. Also, try variants of the set of words across the page.

When it comes to blog posts, keywords can be helpful too. Dig into your analytics data. Dig out all of the long-tail terms you can find (anything more than 3 words). Expand on these using tools like Ubersuggest and check out their potential before choosing a list of the most relevant ones. You may even be able to break them down into clear topics which you can target with individual blogs your visitors will find really helpful! They may even share your content – boosting your link profile and social presence.

Sitemap

With a sitemap you can show links to other pages on your website which the search engine bots will pick up on, indexing your redesign more quickly. A well-planned sitemap will give users what they want too, reducing the bounce rate and making your site all the more accessible. Search engines should give you a bump for this too!

So what are you waiting for? Well it might be that you’re lacking in expertise. If you need a helping hand, a clued-up internet marketing agency can set you out on the right path. To learn more, have a chat with the Graphic Alliance team today.

The post When Redesigning Your Website, Don’t Forget About SEO appeared first on Graphic Alliance.


Why Email Marketing is Here to Stay

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In the world of online marketing, little stays the same for long. In just ten years, search engine optimisation, social media services and PPC advertising have grown exponentially, while those practices are markedly different to what they used to be.

Email marketing, however, remains curiously similar to how it was utilised ten years ago. Sure, analytical services have improved and audiences have widened, but for an email marketing agency, the central premise of engaging copy and eye-catching design remains, somewhat reassuringly, the same.

It seems here to stay, too – but why? What is it about email marketing that makes it so popular with marketers?

It’s targeted

Social media is often lauded for the way that it can parachute a brand into the web space of a potential customer, but emails go one further – into someone’s personal account. Once the email is in someone’s inbox, the customer will have to read its title (at the very least) before electing whether to read on or delete it.

Customers have given you permission

What’s more, to be in your contact book, these customers have, at one point or other, registered their email address with you. Therefore, you know that they’re probably more inclined to interact with your brand – reducing the amount of wastage you incur on your marketing.

There’s ROI… and it’s easy to monitor

It goes without saying that marketers love return on investment. But even more than that, they love being able to monitor and analyse what they’re spending money on. In a similar manner to PPC adverts and SEO services, email marketing can offer essential analytical information on how your customers reacted to your advert and how they acted when they were on your site.

It tells you where to improve

Conversely, the analytical aspect of emails shows you where customers weren’t impressed with your offering – giving you an opportunity to improve the way that you interact with your target markets in the future.

The CRM offers insight

Nothing helps a marketer to target appropriate customers like a well-constructed database. Email lists are one of the most effective databases that you can find and even if your registration process involves a small questionnaire, the email process offers an intriguing and invaluable window into your target markets.

It’s more formal

Social media is great, but sometimes you don’t want to meet people on a level where they’re discussing their favourite thing to eat with French toast. Customers deal with more important matters on email accounts than on social media and meeting them in this sphere is a fantastic way to align your brand with a more serious, definitive mind-set.

It allows for integrated campaigns

There are many strings to the bow of the online marketer. As a result, it only makes sense to integrate emails alongside the other successful methods such as social media and offline advertising – giving you a campaign that’s designed to reach and affect as many people as possible in a cohesive, engaging way. Email is just another angle from which your campaign can reach the lives of your target audience. Learn more about email marketing with Graphic Alliance.

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Why You Need a Creative Error 404 Page

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What exactly is an Error 404 Page?

An Error 404 page is a webpage that pops up when someone clicks on a link for a website or a webpage that no longer exists, or has changed address since the link for it was published. The person searching for the missing page has no problem connecting with the server (this generates a different error page) but following connection, the webpage they want simply cannot be found.

Not only is this annoying and disappointing for the person trying to find the page, it could also mean a lost client or customer for you. Having a creative Error 404 page in place though could just save the day and steer your potential client back to your website.

Do you actually need an Error 404 Page?

You might be saying to yourself now that you don’t need an Error 404 page because there are no broken or dead links on the internet pointing back to your website. Rest assured though that somewhere among the billions of pages on the internet there are at least a few dead links to your website.

You may have taken a page down from your site because it was redundant, added new pages with slightly different search addresses, left links up for short-lived pages e.g. special offers, new promotions etc. or made a page unavailable while you update it and then forgotten to make it available again. All of these scenarios will result in an Error 404 page, but a creative page that includes a live link to your website will put your customers back on track.


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How to make your Error 404 Page creative

The easiest way to ensure your Error 404 page has the desired effect is to hire the services of a digital design agency in London, where the most creative agencies operate (check out Graphic Alliance for instance!). By doing so you are guaranteed a fun page that will endear ‘lost’ searchers to stay with you and visit your website.

Animated pages always catch the eye, as do colourful pages, and those that feature funny characters. Your 404 page needs to apologise for the broken or dead link, so cute graphics are also a big hit. A lot of website 404 pages feature animals, cartoon characters, comic babies and all kinds of computer graphics but if you aren’t sure what will re-engage your visitor then it is definitely worth consulting a designer for some inspiration.

After all, you’ll only get one chance to steer a lost soul back to the safety of your website, so be sure to get it right.

The post Why You Need a Creative Error 404 Page appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

WordPress, Drupal or Magento? Which Will Suit your Needs?

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So, you’re thinking of adding your new (or established) business to the World Wide Web but you’re unsure where to start. If you’re not what you’d call ‘knowledgeable’ about the process of creating a website then you’ll need help. In terms of a web development company, London is the place to look, regardless of the purpose behind your new website. London is a hub of talented web developers and designers so you should be able to find someone who can guide you through your website journey, such as the Graphic Alliance team.

In simple terms, there are three content management systems you’ll want to consider: WordPress, Drupal and Magento. Each has its own benefits and features so before deciding anything you need to think about what your finished site will be primarily used for.

WordPress

WordPress is probably the best known, free-to-use content management system available at the moment. Presently, nearly 20% of the top 10million websites are powered by WordPress and in total there are more than 60million WordPress sites on the internet. Obviously this hints towards the platform’s ease of use, but if you are unsure about what you’re doing your best bet will be to use the services of a professional WordPress website designer.

Features of WordPress that make it a popular choice with webmasters include:

• Themes – you can quickly change the look and functionality of your website by changing the theme without affecting the site content or structure. In other words, you can make your website completely unique and personal to you.
• Plug-ins – by using a variety of custom add-ons (or plug-ins) you can tailor your new website to your specific needs. For example, you could add a widget or a navigation bar or an animated scene. WordPress currently has over 26000 plug-ins in their database with new ones added on a regular basis.
• Mobile capabilities – WordPress websites can be viewed, updated and moderated using a wide range of mobile devices and systems, meaning you are always in control.

WordPress is generally used as a blogging platform although it is possible to create intricate and complex websites using it. Learn more about WordPress web development.

If you’re looking for a meatier website though, Drupal may be better for your needs…

Drupal

Drupal is like the big brother of WordPress. In terms of features, the two platforms are very similar; both offer a huge range of themes and plug-ins along with the ability to develop your site using more than just the core package. Drupal however is much more advanced in terms of user permissions and online promotion of your site content.

A lot of government and industry related websites are powered by Drupal because of the advanced features but this doesn’t mean it won’t be suitable for your business. It might be worth using a professional Drupal agency in London though, as the creation of complex websites can defeat even the most enthusiastic amateur webmaster. Learn more about Drupal web development.

Magento

Magento is different to both WordPress and Drupal in that it exists solely as a development platform for eCommerce sites. So, if you want to establish an online store then Magento is the platform to go with. Not only does Magento offer excellent marketing and SEO enhancement tools, it also has a powerful catalogue management system that enables users to easily navigate around your store, even when using the mobile application.

There are two editions of Magento: the Community edition which is free to use and the Enterprise edition which carries a licence fee. Obviously if you carry a huge range of products then the Enterprise edition should be considered. Saying this, you don’t have to have a major store to use Magento (although Samsung and Harvey Nichols do); and even your eBay store will benefit from a Magento website.

Again, the platform can be confusing if you’ve never created a website before but with the help of a Magento web designer you could be up and running and, more importantly, making money before you know it. Learn more about Magento web development.

In summary

In summary, if you’re looking to set up a new site, first analyse your needs and you can then decide which option will work best for you based on the key features of WordPress, Drupal and Magento.

• WordPress – perfect for personal and company blogging and simple websites
• Drupal – for more in-depth websites that may require numerous user permissions and advanced plug-ins
• Magento – for eCommerce sites regardless of size and growth potential

The post WordPress, Drupal or Magento? Which Will Suit your Needs? appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

8 Vital Reasons Your Business Should Be Blogging

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Does your business blog? Many people think that blogging is all about sharing your feelings, praising local restaurants or posting pictures of your cat. This may be true for personal blogs, but to your business a blog is so much more. By simply starting a blog you can attract new customers and increase your company’s profitability. Here are eight reasons why you need to start blogging:

#1 Blogging for SEO

There are so many benefits that blogging brings to SEO that mentioning them all would go well over the 8 vital reasons to blog. The most important thing to focus on is that blogging creates fresh content which can target longtail keywords. This can push your business up in search engine rankings, helping more potential customers find you online.

#2 Keep Up With News

Fresh content brings another benefit which is that it lets you keep up with what’s happening in your industry. This means that you can jump onto trending topics and try to direct traffic to your website. By doing this you can gain extra brand awareness and, if you frequently comment on these situations, you can build up your authority in the industry.

#3 Show Your Business Personality

Instead of being another faceless business, you can use your blog to inject a taste of personality. Do this by using humour in your blogs, showing your stance on a variety of topics or even introduce members of your staff. This can be a great way to spark up a loyal following and encourage people to use your services or products.

#4 Share Your Expertise

Prove that you know your field by sharing hints, tips and guides on how to do some of the basic things you need to know. Don’t give too much away though! Provide a couple of tips and encourage them to use your services if they require additional help.

#5 Develop Your Customer Relationships

Blogs allow you to build a personal connection with you customers, letting them get to know your business and products without having to leave the house. This can help you to build up a trusting relationship and expand your customer web simply by proving you are different to the rest.

#6 People Share Good Content

If you employ content writing services then they can create content which will encourage people to share it. The more your blog pages are shared, the more links will be created pointing back to your website. This in turn will increase your authority and boost your rankings in the search engines.

#7 Share Business Updates

Have you got a sale on? Blog about it! Is your company up for an award? Blog about it! Just announced your employee of the year? Blog about it! Anytime anything new happens in your business then write something about it, this can keep your audience updated to your latest products and drive more sales.

#8 Increase Your Traffic

Studies have shown that businesses who post blogs regularly receive 60% more traffic than similar businesses who don’t blog. Simply blogging once or twice a week can help to increase the amount of visitors your site sees, helping to increase your sales and brand awareness.

To find out more about creating the perfect content for your website talk to us today and see how we can help to improve the way you operate online.

The post 8 Vital Reasons Your Business Should Be Blogging appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

How a Responsive Website Can Win You More Traffic

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When it comes to driving traffic to your website, and keeping it there, having a responsive website can really help. The majority of internet users are now using tablets and mobile phones in order to access the internet, which means that you need to make sure these users get the best experience.

Poor usability can be extremely dangerous for online businesses, as users will not be able to navigate the website in order to complete a transaction. Here’s a bit more about how responsive websites work and why you should be using it:

What is Responsive Design?

Essentially this is a website design that is coded in a way that allows it to adapt to all different screen sizes, regardless of whether that’s a mobile phone or a 42” TV screen. This means that you will be able to reduce the issues with usability on mobile devices, without having to create a separate theme and redirecting mobile users.

 

How Does A Responsive Design Help?

Besides the obvious reason of providing a better user experience, there are many ways that you can benefit from using a responsive design. Some of these include:

• Faster Website – with a responsive website, it adapts to the screen and therefore reduces the time it takes for desktop sites to load on mobile devices.
• Lower Bounce Rate – faster sites that are easier to use will encourage visitors to browse your site and decrease your bounce rate.
• Preferred for SEO – getting noticed online is hard, but with good SEO you can increase traffic to your site. Having a responsive site eliminates having duplicate content and means you don’t split your site across several websites.
• Convert Mobile Traffic – because users will be able to negotiate your website they are much more likely to make purchases and enquiries online.
• Future Proof Your Website – nobody knows what technology will come out in the future but having a responsive website will prepare you for any eventuality.
• One Website For Everything – instead of using a separate mobile and desktop design, you only have to worry about one website design. This makes uploading and changing content much easier.
• Easier to Manage – having the one website means that you only have to manage one SEO campaign, deal with issues with one design and only need to carry out one lot of basic maintenance.

All of this works to bring in more traffic and help turn more of your visits into custom, boosting your online profitability and overall revenue. If you’re looking for a web development company in London then talk to Graphic Alliance today and get started on creating the perfect, bespoke responsive website for you.

The post How a Responsive Website Can Win You More Traffic appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

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