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5 Website Design Tricks for Increasing Conversion

The purpose of a business website is not simply to present the company, but to convert interested visitors into customers. Let’s say you invest £100 in digital marketing and gain 100 visitors to your site. However, only 50 of them become your customers. What has made the other 50 go away? Maybe they haven’t been convinced about the quality of your product or service or they have found it challenging to take a specific action. As a web development consultant with a decade of experience, let me give you useful advice for achieving a higher conversion rate through design.

1. Arranging Elements to Follow the Eye Movement
You naturally look from left to right not only when you read. That is why it makes sense to put the most important elements on the left-hand side of a webpage. When you use a ribbon to present a product how do you arrange the different boxes on it? Given the natural eye movement, the top left and right sections should offer a picture of the item and a short description. Ideally, the bottom left section will have the “hook” which stimulates the customer to take action such as a discounted price, special offer, testimonial or positive review. The last section which the visitor will look at (the bottom right one) should have the call to action.

2. Gaining Credibility
If you have a new business, adding seals of approval from national, local and possibly international professional associations and quality assurance and consumer organisations will help you to convert more visitors into customers. When these have attractive shape, bright colour and simple font, they will be even more influential. For new products that you try to push in, you can use seals to place emphasis on the guarantee, a testimonial or the promotional offer that comes along with the item.

3. Letting Headlines Shine
The first text that people see on a web page has to have large enough font and to be clutter-free. It is a mistake to add embellishments or to have lots of components surrounding it. If you use push ads, make sure that they don’t show up to block the page’s content before the user has had the time to read the title.

4. Leading Consumers by the Hand
It should be easy for visitors to follow the path to taking action. Simple card design is fundamental, but it is also helpful to add visual cues such as arrows. You should never leave the prospect guessing what to do next. The ideal CTA button is not only big and brightly coloured. Giving it a lining will make it stand out. Adding a visual element such as a shopping cart icon will literally show the customer what to do.

5. Fast Page Loading Speed
Yes, if your website is slow, you will lose prospect customers. A study by Amazon has revealed that every extra 100 milliseconds of load time lead to 1% drop in sales. A recent survey among online shoppers has shown that two thirds of the participants changed their mind about purchasing a product due to slow work of the e-commerce website. Don’t let your conversion rate fall victim to technical matters. My team and I are readily available to give you a website with improved design and performance. Make full use of all five tricks for higher conversion.

If you want a modern and functional mobile-friendly website, send me an email or message me. If you get in touch with my office just ask for Philip Philipov.

The Scope of the Digital Consultant’s Work

Why do companies hire a digital consultant? The simple answer is that digital marketing and e-commerce have become so well-developed and advanced that a single person or even a team may not be sufficient to manage them. While a small local business may not have the right specialist for the job, a large company may be lagging behind competitors because their specialised department hasn’t been quick enough to catch up with the latest trends. The professional will help you get on the right track and achieve your goals. Here I will share with you how this works based on my personal experience as a digital consultant.

Key Roles
A business of any size, level and industry can take advantage of digital consultancy to improve its performance regardless of how long it has been present on the web. If you have just founded a new company or you have been using outdated and ineffective online marketing methods, you can get a head start or restart with a complete digital strategy. It will have clearly set business goals and precisely defined time frame, schedule and budget. It is my primary objective to tailor it to the specific needs of the business given its own characteristics, the marketing conditions, which it operates in, and its target audience.

Solving problems is another major role of the consultant. Most companies can clearly identify the nature of the problem related to their online performance, but cannot find the cause and come up with a solution. If you experience a drop in your online sales, for example, my role will be to pinpoint the weak points in your marketing, search engine optimisation and e-commerce website performance, to name the main areas. The next step involves determining the most effective and cost-efficient solution.
Very often, companies prefer to outsource specific projects like ones for website and mobile app development. In such cases, the role of the consultant can range from setting criteria and a process for hiring a developer to outlining a development strategy. As a consultant who has a team of developers and designers, I can execute the strategy as well.

Level of Client Involvement
Will the consultant present the ready strategy, solution or project plant directly or work together with members of the company’s team to create it? As the company or department manager, you decide how much involvement you and your team will have in the process. The bare minimum is for the consultant to have access to data and other useful materials and to establish reliable communication with the person in charge. Close cooperation usually brings the best results. This is what my personal experience has shown.

Effective Communication
No matter what the level of involvement of the client is in the actual work on the project, the two parties should be on the same page at all times. It is paramount for the digital consultant to keep the client up-to-date on the development of the project and to inform the company about any changes which have to be made. Similarly, if there are shifts in the business’s plans, the professional should know about them as soon as possible.

Managers are not supposed to be digital specialists, but they have the opportunity to hire the help which they need and to negotiate the most favourable terms when doing so.

If you are looking to hire an experienced digital consultant call me or send me an email or a message. When you contact my office at Whiz, seek Philip Philipov.

Lifting the Curtain on Bespoke Software Development

Why do businesses invest in custom written software? They simply don’t find an on-shelf product which meets their requirements. At the same time, managers are often uneasy about embarking on the journey of development, which they play an important part in. Will the product bring real value to the business? Will it perform well? Will everyone on the company team be able to use it effectively? As a digital consultant with focus on custom software building, I’d like to take you through the development process to answer these and other important questions.

Requirements and Value for Money
It is common for businesses to know where they have problems in their processes, but to be clueless about how to fix them technically. This is where the digital consultant can provide professional support. With research and analysis, I can pinpoint exactly what solutions the software should bring. We get to discuss them to define goals. With clear objectives at hand, the development process can begin. The planning and scheduling are left to us too.
The size of the investment is always an important matter. Instead of concentrating entirely on per-hour rates, it is important to run full cost-benefit analysis. A bespoke software product is a long-term instrument intended to improve processes and to keep costs down. That is why the focus should be on determining the break-even point and the return on the investment over time.

Features, Capabilities and Integration
The core purpose of the bespoke software is to help you perform a range of tasks more effectively and quickly with the use of fewer resources. That is why every feature and capability will be tailored to your specific needs. This includes taking into consideration the technical skills of your employees. The goal of my team of engineers and designers is to produce simple and functional interface and to make every operation easy and quick – no clutter, confusing menus or the need to go back several steps to check something.
Integration is another fundamental for achieving efficiency. The particular solution can be integrated with other software and with different digital platforms which you already use. If the email marketing strategy for your e-commerce website hasn’t been efficient, for example, it can be optimised with the use of bespoke software integrated with the website and with existing CRM tool. The application will be driven by customer data and have a reliable system for performance measurement in addition to a high level of automation.

Performance Testing
Quality control is crucial for successful software development. The new tool for your business will undergo multiple tests on various devices. The performance of each and every function will be carefully examined and analysed. This is how my team and I ensure that the software will work flawlessly from day one.

Deployment and Support
Every new beginning causes excitement and a little bit of apprehension. My job is to eliminate the second part completely. With the use of the right tools and skills, the technical aspect of the deployment will be hassle-free. Together with my team, I will make the learning curve for you and your people as gentle as possible via special training designed to bring maximum result in the shortest time.

What’s next after the software’s deployment? You and your employees will receive full technical support at all times.

Share what business processes you want to improve with custom software. Contact me via email or call my office and seek Philip Philipov to speak to me directly.

5 Key Advantages of a Mobile App for Your Business

Just a decade ago many companies, and especially small, medium-sized and local businesses, need convincing about the importance of a website for getting found by prospects and for building customer loyalty. Now managers are asking, “Why do I need an app when my website’s optimised for mobile?” As a mobile app development consultant, I’d like to introduce you to the unique marketing opportunities which the applications for smartphones and tablets have to offer.

App Store Presence
Mobile users access Apple app store and Google Play with the push of a button and watch out for new offerings every day. This will give your business’s mobile app exposure to all smartphone owners in the UK, accounting for over three quarters of the adult population. This is a fantastic way to promote your company and products on some of the most powerful platforms at present.

Customer Engagement
Once an existing or prospective customer downloads your app, this person is already engaged with your business. You will have constant presence on their mobile device and this is the foundation for getting repeat purchases and building loyalty. The application practically gives you a shortcut to retaining customers which is one of the most challenging and money-consuming tasks in marketing. My team and I will ensure that you not only have a well-functioning mobile app, but that it is especially created to engage your target audience.

Push Notifications
These messages are delivered automatically even if the customer is not actively using your app at the moment. This is a valuable instrument for telling users about new products, special offers, app features, events, company news and anything else that you want. Do these really work? A recent study has shown that the average push notification opening rate is 65% while the peak one is 80%. A marketing expert will be able to create attractive messages with compelling call to action targeting your audience for achieving top results.

Offline Interaction
You can readily choose what app features to be accessible offline to increase the level of customer engagement. These could be product catalogues, posts, audio content and much more. Nowadays, people rarely go offline, but when they do, they actively search for something to fill the gap. Wouldn’t it be great to have customers checking your products or articles instead of magazines, newspapers and other content on long flights or while travelling in the London Underground? When they go online again, they can be ready to make a purchase or take another action.

Effective Management
The performance of a website depends on the speed of the internet connection and the browser’s loading speed. A mobile app is used directly and can offer great experience even offline, as pointed out just now. These are important factors for gaining solid presence on the mobile devices and minds of customers. Furthermore, when you have an application especially tailored to the needs of your business, you can derive accurate performance analytics directly and use it for giving your marketing strategy a further boost.
The latest forecasts show that in the second quarter of 2016, there will be 43.2 million mobile app users in the UK. Your business can secure a permanent spot on their devices.

If you consider a mobile app for your business, email me or send me a message.

Mobile App Deep Linking is Important

Understanding Mobile Deep Linking
Mobile deep linking refers to using a URI for linking to specified locations or pages within mobile applications. There are various ways to use it such as SMS, email, notifications, social media, and so on. This directs users to relevant content not the apps home screen.

Types of Mobile Linking
• Standard Deep Linking – This directs your users to specified part of the app with the app URI. This will only work if the user has the app actually installed don their device or an error page will be displayed.
• Deferred deep linking – This type of linking directs users to specified content in your app if installed. If the app isn’t installed the user is directed to the app store listing of your app.
• Contextual deep linking – This serves the functions of both types of linking with the addition of being able to allow for better relevancy and precise tracking. Users and developers will find more use for this type of linking.

Mobile Deep Linking Matters
In the past, the adoption of deep linking was slow because of unclear benefits. You only benefited from standard deep lining if a user had the app installed on their device. Since we no have contextual and deferred linking, attitudes have changed towards deep linking. Companies now understand that deep linking has a lot of value for them as well as the end user.

User Experience is Enhanced by Mobile App Deep Linking
When users use deep links they have better access to content. You can direct the user to a specific screen and not your home page. If your linking to something in the app from some other page such as a social media account, the end user can be taken directly to that content.

Better Eengagement, Retention and Usage
With deep linking valuable usage metrics are improved. When a user is deep linked, there’s double the retention rate, double the activation rate, and the app is visited twice as frequently when compared to those that are not deep linked.

User Onboarding in Improved
The onboarding experience is improved with deep linking. When you use contextual deep linking for example, personalised app invites, offers or other incentives can be used.

Users are Re-engaged with Deep Linking
When you have an app that’s been inactive for some time, deep linking can be used to direct the end user to content which encourages then to use the app. A push notification for example, can be used to offer the user a new feature, exclusive deal or some other offer to get them back to your app.

Marketing Can Be Strengthened with Deep Linking
You can increase sales with deep linking depending upon your monetization strategies. You might offer a push campaign for example, with a percentage off to target your users so they can buy immediately from your app screen.

App Discoverability Can Be Improved
Mobile app deep links are indexed by Google. The content in the app can show up in the Google search results just like a webpage. You may get more users to the app through Google searches.

You Get More Insight into Campaign Effectiveness with Deep Linking
You can pass data with deep linking so you get more accuracy when examining the success of your campaigns. You can see if it’s SMS, email or deep linked ads, referrals, or social media which are driving downloads or users to your app.

Best Practices for Deep Linking
You need to present information in the best way with deep linking because it puts users on a different page than what they may expect.

You have to look at the architecture, information hierarchy, and app logic when deep linking. There may be other steps required for functionalities or features to work properly. If these aren’t corrected, the user would be sent to a page which doesn’t work the way it should. For seamless integration you have to avoid login pages and take the user directly to the content. If you don’t think about how the links should work, then the end user may have a poor experience.

Quality products are now using deep linking as an essential component for their mobile apps. App discoverability, enhanced user experience, more downloads, increased sales, and retention of users are the main reasons mobile deep linking is being used more often. Deep linking is valuable for both the user and a developer.