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Why Your Business Needs a Digital Strategy

Establishing your brand’s website and social network presence is not the end of your online marketing effort, it’s only the beginning. How do you plan to proceed from this point on? Most businesses choose to run promotional ad campaigns when they have a new offering and to send email newsletter to people who have signed up for this. Do you think that this is effective or efficient? It’s neither. For exploiting all marketing opportunities which the web has to offer, you will need a complete digital strategy with clearly set goals and methods for achieving them. Let me explain why this is important in greater detail.

Effective Target Marketing
Let’s say you are making great SEO effort and it is paying off in the form of higher traffic. Has this resulted in higher conversion? If not, your on-page marketing doesn’t work. Maybe you are not targeting the right people or you lack re-marketing. What if your sales increase during an ad campaign, but drop sharply afterwards? This means that you have missed the chance to win loyal customers.

With a digital strategy, you will not experience these and similar pitfalls. In the core of the strategy sits your target audience. It will be clearly defined after thorough research on my part as a digital consultant. The strategy will feature all the right instruments for targeting prospects from search engine and email marketing to social media engagement and ads. With detailed analytics, we will be able to evaluate the effectiveness of each instrument and make improvements where needed.

Engagement and Loyalty
Individual marketing efforts have short-term effect and you most certainly know this from experience. With a complete digital strategy, you will not only be able to attract customers and to increase your sales in the short term. You will enjoy strong performance and steady growth in the long term because you will have customers who have a connection with your brand and who form an expanding loyal customer base.

Cost Efficiency
Do you know what ROI you are getting from your digital marketing effort? Around 53% of the businesses in the UK don’t, according to Smart Insights’ report for 2015. If you cannot measure what return you receive from each pound spent, you are most probably losing money. One of the key advantages of a digital strategy is that it will have accurate data for measuring performance. You will have a clear idea of how you spend your money and what monetary and non-monetary benefits like brand loyalty you are getting in return.

Long-Term Success
A digital strategy allows you to establish strong marketing fundamentals which will keep producing results over time without extra spending. Once you engage a large number of customers via your Facebook page, for instance, you will no longer need a large investment to maintain their interest. This will give you the opportunity to invest more in innovative tools for marketing. This is how the big players manage to stay competitive in the long term. You can be among them too.

Did you know that only 55% of organisations in the UK had a digital strategy in 2015? If you want to gain a leadership position in your industry, now is the time to get one.

Source: http://www.smartinsights.com/guides/managing-digital-marketing-2015/

Count on me and my team to build and implement a digital strategy for you. Email me or call my office and ask for Philip Philipov.

What Design Features Will Make Websites Successful

Just a decade ago, only big companies had websites and many of them were not particularly functional. Now even the smallest businesses are represented online. In this competitive environment, how do you grab and keep the attention of consumers and how can you achieve a higher conversion rate? There are a lot of factors for success, but I suggest that we start with the fundamental ones and namely website design.

As a web development consultant, I keep up with the latest trends in this dynamic field. This allows me and my team of talented designers and developers to give our clients effectively working modern platforms with long-term potential. Here, I will share the hottest trends.

Responsive Design
If you want your business website to be used from any type of device connected to the internet conveniently, you have to opt for responsive design. While it was viewed as highly desirable just a few years ago, now it has become mandatory. The primary reason for this is that more and more people now use their smartphones and tablets to browse the web, to shop and to share things with friends. In the group of adults aged 16 to 24, 96% access the web via their portable connected devices. Surprisingly or not, the share of mobile internet users in the group of adults aged over 65 is also considerable – 29%. Nearly half of ecommerce traffic comes from smartphones and tablets.
Source: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/rdit2/internet-access—households-and-individuals/2015/stb-ia-2015.html

Another reason why responsive design rules the scene and is here to stay is the change in the Google algorithms designed to give higher ranking to websites designed for mobile devices as well as for PCs and laptops. If you want to be found by prospects, you have to go mobile. Otherwise, all of your search engine optimisation efforts may be ruined.

Card Layout
This type of layout came into fashion with flat design and now it has evolved to meet the needs of internet users even better. The basic concept is quite simple. The web page contains clickable cards taking the user to other sections of the website. Each card has unique graphics and/or colour. It can also hold a short text presenting the section. This layout makes it really easy and convenient for visitors to find their way around and to reach the information or product that they are looking for. As the clutter is eliminated and the user enjoys flawless experience, the rate of conversion is bound to increase.

Custom Graphics
One of the main questions that I am asked as a digital consultant is how my team of web designers will make the website stand out among competitors. Unique images have been the norm for quite some time. Now the major focus is on custom graphics. Each feature from the logo to the enquiry button has to be visually impressive and aesthetically appealing. This is an effective way for building a strong brand image in the minds of users. It is possible for unique illustrations to be created for enhancing pages and sections. Infographics can be used for presenting information in a more interesting way.

Finally, no matter what the trends are, the business website has to be unique and to reflect the concept of the brand. Count on me and my team to give you this.

Get in touch via email, Facebook, Skype, WhatsApp or Viber or just call my office and ask for Philip Philipov.

Going Mobile for Better Marketing and Higher Sales

Just five years ago, a business website was perfectly sufficient for a company to carry out its marketing strategy over the internet and to generate more leads and boost its sales. Now, if you are not on mobile devices, you may not even get found by a large number of consumers, who are actually looking for your product or service. According to Deloitte, 76% of adults in Britain have a smartphone and these gadgets are used for much more than making calls. Now is the time for businesses to take advantage of the mobile revolution.
Source: http://www.deloitte.co.uk/mobileuk/#feature

Endless Opportunities
With responsive design, the website of your business can offer the same kind of user experience on smartphones, tablets, laptops and PCs. You will be able to sell products directly via mobile devices or have your brick-and-mortar business more easily found through integration with map applications. With just one tap on your phone number, the user will be able to call you via their phone. A mobile app, on the other hand, gives you constant presence on the mobile devices of your customers. You can exploit this for more effective marketing through push notifications. It is also possible for the app to collect valuable marketing data.
Going mobile will make it much easier for you to carry out promotional campaigns and to achieve better results with them, especially using the most popular channels at present – the social networks. According to the “Digital, Social and Mobile 2015 Report” of the We Are Social agency, 32 million people in the UK access their social media accounts via their mobile devices.
Source: http://wearesocial.sg/blog/2015/01/digital-social-mobile-2015/

Huge Market Potential
Consumers are actively using their mobile devices to find products and retailers and to make purchases. Statistical data from comScore shows that 31.7% of smartphone users in the United Kingdom rely on their devices to locate shops while 29.3% purchase goods and services via them. Over 23% of all users use their mobile to compare product prices and features. These factors establish mobile applications and websites as powerful marketing tools.
Mobile sales continue to grow. In Q4 of 2014, 40% of all online sales in the UK were completed via smartphones and tablets, according to research of IMRG and Capgemini. This is 3% higher compared to the same quarter of 2014.
Source: http://www.imrg.org/index.php?catalog=1769

By 2024, the annual spending via mobile devices will reach £53.6 billion, according to Barclays. The value of all sales influenced by a mobile channel is predicted to reach £112 billion. They will make up nearly half of all retail sales made in the country.
Source: https://www.barclayscorporate.com/content/dam/corppublic/corporate/Documents/research/Future-of-m-commerce.pdf

Staying Competitive
What is the competition doing? Businesses focus on solidifying and diversifying their presence on mobile devices. In a survey conducted by Econsultancy among 1,412 companies in the UK, 58% of respondents said that they had employed responsive website design as part of optimising for mobile devices. Another 49% shared that they have employed mobile applications. The competition for the minds and hearts of consumers is moving towards the mobile field and it is paramount for companies to act quickly.
Source: https://econsultancy.com/blog/66543-50-fascinating-stats-about-mobile-commerce-in-the-uk-2015/

If you want to gain larger exposure, to be more competitive and to get higher returns from your marketing efforts, mobile is the answer. My role as a digital consultant is to provide assistance with the development of a complete strategy for achieving top results.

If you are ready to go mobile, get in touch. You can send me an email or call my office at Whiz and seek Philip Philipov.

Effective Team Management for Top Digital Results

It is common for people to imagine that a web developer’s job involves sitting behind the computer in a dark corner and writing code for endless hours. I have to say that this perception is totally wrong. Web, app and software development involves a huge amount of teamwork based on creative interaction and reliable communication. My job as a manager is to lead the team in the right direction and to ensure that the customer receives the required product within the set timeframe. Let me tell you more about how I have organised the work and how I manage my team to produce excellent results.

Teamwork with Confident Leadership
On my team, I have web designers, web and app developers and software engineers who have the technical skills, talent and experience to produce outstanding digital solutions that match the needs of customers precisely. My primary role is to bring them together and to ensure that everyone puts 100 percent in every project. I hire people who have proven their professional abilities with the creation of actual functional solutions.

Another one of the fundamentals of our successful work is that we are all in one office working together. This makes communication easier and more effective. All team members are more motivated as well. When we start working on a project, everyone who will be involved sits down and the brainstorming session begins. I use proven techniques to make my specialists think out of the box. Every idea and contribution counts. I visualise how the work will be done. By taking all relevant factors into account, I develop a plan and schedule for the project and allocate the tasks.

Productive Communication
As a manager, I know that people are the most important factor for project success. That is why I listen carefully when my experts make suggestions and encourage them to point out potential obstacles. I am with my team every day and keep up to date with everything. We discuss the work that has been completed, how it has been done and what kinds of solutions have been implemented. This enables us to deal with challenges and to make improvements right away. It also gives everyone the sense of belonging and this is a major confidence and motivation booster. Both the work quality and productivity are maintained at equally high levels throughout the whole project.

Smart Problem Solving
My strategy for tackling problems is simple, but has always brought the best result. I sit down together with my team and we work to break the problem into smaller parts until we identify a part that can be resolved directly with the means available to us. Once we have the basis, we move onto the other parts and everything goes into place. When the details are all perfect, the big picture is truly awesome.

Achieving Perfection
I always plan everything meticulously to make sure that it comes out as perfect as I have envisioned it to be. My team of like-minded professionals adheres to this principle as well. We test each component and functionality of every website, app and software product that we develop multiple times to confirm that it is flawless.

With the right skills and motivation and with hard work success is inevitable.

You want to share your plans for a new web project? Contact me or call my office and ask for Philip Philipov.

The Road to Website Project Success

What makes a business website loved by users and profitable for its owner?

Many people assume that the secret lies with the appearance of the website while others believe that it has to do with its ease of use. Both are true to an extent, but the reality is that a website is successful only when it is based on a strategy for reaching precise business goals and achieving the highest level of user and customer satisfaction. Let me take you through the process of creating the blueprint for the future website and a plan for its development. As a digital consultant, I always explain to managers what I do together with my team of web developers.

Market Research
Each business website has one major purpose: to attract consumers using the internet and to turn them into customers. This makes it a marketing project as well as a technical one. For this reason, preliminary market research is paramount. This research is detailed and focuses on consumer behaviour and preferences and on the strategies, actions and achievement of competitors. Data is collected and carefully analysed. This analysis makes it possible for the new website to be positioned in the most effective way to attract consumers and to stand out from the competition.

Concept Development
The market analysis serves as the basis for creating the concept for the new website. This concept is developed in great detail with the use of mind mapping techniques and software especially designed for the purpose. The result is the website wireframe. This is the screen blueprint of every page. Every section is designed with the needs of the users in mind. Its position is carefully chosen to achieve clear logical flow and high aesthetic appeal. Both technical skills and creativity are used for developing perfect website functionality – easy navigation and orientation, compatibility with all browsers, responsive web design and fast loading. The concept is focused on achieving the best possible user experience. It is presented with the use of a prototype. All specifics are precisely defined.

The blueprints and prototype include not only visual and functional representation of the ideas of the team of web designers and developers. They feature thorough description of every component. This makes it even easier for the customer to get a clear idea of what their website will be like. The software-generated blueprint allows for modifications to be made easily and quickly. This gives us maximum flexibility and allows for higher productive efficiency.

Detailed Content Planning
Once the design and functionality concept is determined, the content of the website is planned in great detail. Simply put, the elements are filled with specific content. There are several major requirements for good website content. It has to attract the user’s attention. It must bring valuable information. It has to be easy to find and to use. It is our job to ensure that these requirements will be met.

The final step involves the setup of a schedule for the execution of the website project. Throughout the whole process there is constant communication between me and the client. As a consultant, I am always available to answer questions. The exchange of ideas and opinions is of immense importance for achieving the best end result.

If you have a website project in mind, let’s discuss it. If you call my office at Whiz, just ask the person to speak to Philip Philipov. I’ll be more than happy to hear from you.