Are Your Visitors Getting the Most Out of Your Website?

If you’re a small business owner, chances are you wear a lot of hats on a daily basis. You might be responsible for marketing, sales, accounting, customer service, and a whole host of other tasks. So, it’s no wonder that you might not have a lot of time to spend on your website. However, your website is the one “person” on your sales team that never takes a break – it’s out there doing its job 24/7. As such, your website is one of the most important tools you have for growing your business. That’s why it’s important to make sure that your visitors are getting the most out of it. Here are four ways to help you do just that (plus a bonus).

Keep Your Content Fresh

One of the best ways to keep people coming back to your website is to regularly update your content. Whether that means adding new blog posts, products, white papers, case studies, or pages, fresh content will keep people engaged with your site. Not to mention, it can also help you attract new visitors and assist in search engine optimization (SEO) efforts and increased relevance in the search engine results placement (SERP). If you’re not regularly adding new content to your site, now is the time to start. Every day that goes by is another missed opportunity to help people (and automated systems like Google) better understand what it is you do.

Make Sure Your Site is Mobile-Friendly

These days, more people are using their mobile devices to browse the internet than ever before. That’s why it’s important to make sure that your website is mobile-friendly. If it’s not, you could be missing out on a lot of potential customers or clients by providing a poor user experience. Luckily, there are plenty of resources out there to help you make sure your site is mobile-friendly, optimized, and speedy enough to load quickly on smaller devices. Google even has a tool that will test your site and give you specific recommendations on how to improve its mobile friendliness.

Use Effective Call-to-Actions

Your website should be designed with conversion in mind. That means using effective call-to-actions (CTAs) throughout your site to encourage people to take the next step, whether that’s signing up for your email list, making a purchase, or scheduling a consultation. People need to know what the next logical step in the process is. Without CTAs, they might come to your site but they won’t know what to do next or how to engage. Make sure your CTAs are clear and effective in order to get the most out of your website.

A call to action tells a visitor what the next step is to take.

Make Your Services Clear

People use the internet with intent. If they have come to your website it is most likely by choice rather than happenstance. Make sure you are being as clear as possible with them about what services or products you offer. As people we are always assessing how others can help us to survive and thrive. We’re hard-wired for it. If we don’t see the benefit to us we move on (or worse, stop listening).

Bonus: Pay Attention to Your Analytics

If you’re not already paying attention to your website’s analytics, now is the time to start. Analytics can tell you a lot about how people are interacting with your site, what content they find useful, and what changes need to be made in order to make your site more successful. There are a lot of analytics suites out there, but the most well known is Google Analytics.

Google Analytics is a free service that can give you detailed information about your website like how long people are spending on your site and which pages they’re visiting most often. Reviewing this data on a regular basis can help you fine-tune your website so that it better meets the needs of both your business and your customers or clients.

As a small business owner, it’s important to make sure that you’re getting the most out of your website—after all, it’s perhaps the most important marketing tool to help grow your business. By following these four tips—keeping your content fresh, making sure your site is mobile-friendly , using effective CTAs , making your services clear, and observing your site analytics —you can ensure that your visitors are getting the most out of your website!

Need some help?

We work with companies around the world helping them clarify their marketing and branding with tools designed to reach the right people at the right time.

The post Are Your Visitors Getting the Most Out of Your Website? appeared first on shop.

Developing a Growth Mindset: The Value of Newsletters & Email Lists

We are often asked by clients whether it is worthwhile to pursue starting and growing an email list or investing time and money into a sales email campaign to help generate new leads. The reason these questions generally arise is because of a perception that newsletters and email campaigns are considered old (possibly out-of-date) methods of marketing. With so much focus on social media these days, many assume that these older methods of marketing are becoming out of date much like the newspaper when the internet came about. But is it true?

Time and again, marketing surveys and statistics from studies show that email marketing remains one of the most (if not the most) effective methods of building a dedicated audience. Despite the immediacy and popularity of social media platforms, they have not been able to upend the old-school efforts of a simple email list.

Is Starting an Email List Still Worth It? In a Word, Yes.

As mentioned above, the statistics that come from research and surveys continue to point to email marketing remaining one of the best direct marketing options a business owner has available to them.

On average, open rates for marketing-based emails average about 21%. While that might not seem like a large number, that ends up being roughly 21 out of every 100 people that receive the campaign – a far cry from what you can expect from social media and its algorithms.

Further, when we look at revenue expectations between 2020 and 2027 we see nothing but exponential growth over the next decade. It is estimated that by the end of 2023, email marketing revenue will top 11 billion dollars a year.

How does that gigantic number break down to a number that a small business owner can digest? Email return on investment (ROI) comes in at a staggering $36 of return for every $1 spent.

Why is Building an Email List a Good Growth Strategy?

Perhaps the main reason that email lists continue to be a solid direct marketing source is that it is a resource that has intent behind it. What I mean by that is that every person who subscribes to your list has made a conscious decision to be there. They have read the content, responded to your call to action (CTA), and decided that the value they receive is worth the price of their email address (currently valued at about $10-20 btw). The point to take away from this is that an email list is perhaps the most direct method of marketing to a dedicated audience that we have available to us because our audience has opted into receiving future emails from us.

An email list is perhaps the most direct method of marketing to a dedicated audience that we have available to us.

A strong email list of dedicated contacts is also an actionable marketing tool. It can be leveraged over time to help nurture individuals — converting them from skeptical consumers to loyal customers. Hence, the more value you provide to your audience, the better you show how you are the best option to help them survive and thrive.

Finally, and perhaps one of the most compelling reasons for creating a thriving email audience is that it can help to bring in business when we are facing the ebb and flow of incoming work. Having a dedicated audience in your back pocket means that when we face an economic downturn (personally, nationally, or globally) will still have a solid marketing channel available to us comprised of people that are already climbing the engagement ladder.

Positioning Your Marketing for the Future

The business landscape is a tumultuous one. There are economic upheavals seemingly waiting around every corner. The development of a strong and dedicated email list helps us to create a stable marketing channel that we can leverage in the future when we need it. Even more important than providing a point of stability in our marketing plan, though, is what that email list provides a brand in terms of engagement opportunities.

Our audience is there for us. They want to be there. While our email list may be made up of a variety of people who know varying amounts about our brand, it represents opportunity and potential. Each time we reach out to our audience we have an opportunity to provide value, open the brand story gap, engage and educate, share information about our services, bolster our brand perception, and eventually close the gap and make the sale.

Start Now

There is no better time to start building an email list than right now. Every day is an opportunity to grow your audience and get your message out there. The “Know, like, and trust” principle takes time. A robust and useful email list is a long game that takes dedication (like most things in our businesses) and knowing that is why we should feel a bit of pressure about getting started.

There is a lot to do to get started with email marketing, but this is a process that directly reflects a growth mindset. And having a growth mindset is one of the determining factors of whether we are built for survival over the long term.

Illustration by Erin Lynch.

The post Developing a Growth Mindset: The Value of Newsletters & Email Lists appeared first on shop.

What Are Website Cookies?

Cookies are small pieces of code that can store general information about a person’s website visit. Most often, this data is stored in your browser for later use. It helps speed up access by storing passwords, preferences, etc., that will be needed on subsequent visits. The data cookies store is most often innocuous – small bits of information that help a website manage a person’s session. How about a couple of examples?

Ever go to an online store, drop something in a cart, and leave the site without finishing the purchase? When you come back a week later, you notice the products are still in your cart. That’s cookies.

A more specific example would be when you go to a site, create a login for your new account, and then return later, and the site still remembers your login information. Yup, that’s cookies.

What Does a Website Cookie Policy Do?

The interest around cookies and cookie policies has to do with the fact that your website is creating the need to store those tiny bits of user data for later use, and that information is technically personal data — a scorching topic at the moment.

As consumers and digital migratory users of the web, we have the right to know 1) when data about us is being stored and 2) how that data is being used. A cookie policy focuses specifically on that #1 concern listed above. #2 is generally handled by a privacy policy stored on your website.

What Does a Website Cookie Policy Look Like?

A cookie policy will most of the time show up in the form of a simple banner either at the top or bottom of the first page on a site you visit. When you accept the cookie policy, the bar goes away, and guess what? It stores a cookie that lets the site know you’ve already clicked on the policy, so it does not show up again on subsequent visits to the site.

What Are the Advantages of Using a Cookie Policy On My Website?

As mentioned in my mini list in the last paragraph, the #1 concern a cookie policy addresses are letting your users know that information about their visit will most likely be saved for future use. The user has the right to accept that reality by clicking on an “I agree” button, or if it is a concern to them, they have the option to leave the site. Your responsibility is to inform the user; the choice then becomes theirs.

While currently, California here in the U.S. has a series of robust laws regarding the privacy of persona data, most states are still in the formation period of these laws, and they do not generally have any hard and fast rules. They are coming, though. Personal data and its use is a very heated topic, as it should be. Users want to know when data is being stored about them and the assurance that it is not being used for any nefarious purposes. And that is understandable.

Is Setting Up a Website Cookie Policy Costly?

Most of the time, no. If you are using a Content Management System (CMS), like WordPress or Joomla, you can most likely find a plug-in that will allow you to install it pretty easily. If you’re using Squarespace or another website builder service, it might just be the click of a button. If you hire a web designer to do it for you, it is not a time-intensive task generally.

In the End, Why Should I Consider a Cookie Policy for my Website?

Using a cookie policy comes down to supporting the rights of your users, respecting their concerns about how their private data is used, and ultimately, could be said to reinforce the user experience of your site visitors.

User experience is about reducing the cognitive load of your visitors so they can accomplish their goals quickly and then move on to other things. If protecting personal data is a goal, then including a cookie policy is ticking off that box to make your website be a solid experience for everyone who comes to it.

Finally, as I stated earlier, most states here in the U.S. are not requiring a cookie policy by law. Europe, however, is a different story. They have several laws that make things like cookie policies and privacy policies a matter of requirement. Here in the U.S., it’s not a matter of if, but when on this topic. Early adopters saw the way things were going overseas and quickly started implementing them here in the States. Now it’s become standard practice.

In the end, a website cookie policy is a good idea. Respecting the rights of our users and addressing their concerns about personal data is just one more way we build trust with our audiences, clients, and customers. That’s just good business.

Photo credit: Domenico Loia / Unsplash

The post When is a Website Cookie Policy Needed? appeared first on shop.

Clark College maintains an advisory board consisting of working professionals, campus faculty, and department directors to keep informed about how creative professionals practice in the workplace. This insight allows the college to steer the DMA program, keeping current processes at the forefront of student education.

As joint chairs, Erin and Brian will split their duties and the voting rights during their tenure. Erin currently teaches in the DMA program at Clark College and has his voting rights rescinded when he has an active adjunct teaching term. In those cases, voting rights will fall to Brian on essential matters, while Erin will abstain from voting according to campus policy.

This new role is in line with the agency’s continued dedication to the formal education process of upcoming designers and developers. It is part of their ongoing commitment to giving back to the future of the creative community.

The post Shop Partners to Chair Clark College Committee appeared first on shop.

What Type of Websites Are There?

Most of the time, we put websites into two simple categories. The first type is what we call a static website. You might hear them referred to sometimes as a “brochure website” or a “beginner website.” Essentially, a static website is just that, “static.” Generally, you have some content that you need a website for, and you don’t expect that content to change, or if it does, it changes very rarely.

Website maintenance, changes, and upkeep on a static website fall firmly into the hands of your web designer or design studio because it’s technical. The exception to that rule is if you are a bit savvy with HTML, and you can go in and cowboy code a few edits when you need them. Most of the time, however, that is not you, and so you need a professional to help you make changes on the rare occasion your static content needs to be updated. An excellent way to think of static websites is, “set it and forget it.”

The other type of website is a bit more complex. It’s called a content management system or “CMS” for short.

What is a Content Management System?

A content management system is one of the few naming conventions in web design that is actually a good description of what this piece of software does. Content management systems are a type of software system that keeps track of the different content on your website.

It usually uses a database to store things like images on web pages, written text used to describe your brand and services, product images in your e-commerce system, and so forth. The value of this is that the database logically stores all of the website content so that it can be accessed when someone wants to visit your website.

Ultimately, a CMS can save you money in the long run by allowing you and your team to update, evolve, and change the site over time to reflect your growing brand.

Another significant benefit of a CMS is that it’s user-accessible. What we mean by that is that you, the website owner, can log in to that CMS and do a host of things to add to, edit, or maintain your website — something you generally cannot do with a static site unless you know how to write code.

Ultimately, a CMS can save you money in the long run by allowing you and your team to update, evolve, and change the site over time to reflect your growing brand. Handling these tasks in-house means you don’t need to go to a web designer every time you need a change made.

When Would I Need a CMS?

Determining website needs always comes down to a question of intent. If you intend to make regular changes and updates to the website, you should be looking at a CMS to support your team. Even to the most ardent holdout, it has become apparent that regularly updating and adding content to your website is essential.

This last year of the pandemic shutdown has shown us just how valuable a website is to the success of your business in terms of providing important information to our customers and clients, selling our products in an online space, booking appointments, and being reachable when in-person contact is limited. Your website, therefore, is the ever-present information center for your brand. As such, it should be kept current and updated on a regular basis.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is nothing more than one type of content management system. It started a simple piece of software used to write blog posts on, but over the years, it has continued to build an enterprise-level infrastructure and community support arm that makes it perfect for small, medium, and large-sized businesses.

The standard layout of the WordPress dashboard.

Their software’s focused planning and evolution make WordPress a popular “multi-tool” that can be used to build simple to very complex websites. As a result, WordPress is used by thousands of companies and powers millions of websites. An online article recently reported that there are approximately 46 million active WordPress websites, accounting for roughly 39.6% of the internet. That is a staggering number.

The focused planning and evolution of their software makes WordPress a popular “multi-tool” that can be used to build simple to very complex websites.

What does that mean for you and your website needs? Well, if you are considering a CMS to power your site, you probably want one that has a wide array of support (from the software company itself and the community at large). Both of those are major selling points of the WordPress system.

There are other CMS options out there that are really good. Applications like Joomla, Drupal, Sitecore, and others will also get you to where you want to be and will do it well. But there is a reason that WordPress has achieved what it has over the years.

What is the Difference Between WordPress, Squarespace, and Wix?

Due to their crazy marketing campaigns, most everyone is familiar with affordable website services such as Squarespace and Wix. The promise of gorgeous websites and a low barrier of entry for just a few dollars a month are attractive to the entrepreneur looking to keep costs down. And, they should be.

Both of the Wix and Squarespace platforms are solid choices. They do a great job of getting business owners up and running with a good-looking site, and like other CMS’ like WordPress, they allow you to edit and revise site content when you or your team need to. That equates to flexibility and saving a few shekels.

The areas we typically see issues in for those considering a monthly managed website service are primarily two-fold. The first is related to getting up and running at the beginning. There are hurdles, and you should go into it knowing it will be a learning experience.

One of the consistent issues we see is the difficulty users experience in making their website look as good as the marketing promised and then keeping it looking good over time. It doesn’t take much to say that you can have a beautiful website for $25 a month, but putting it into practice is different. What you are being sold is the promise of a push-button service, but getting a template to look how it does in the demo can be a challenge for the uninitiated. That’s because good design is still good design and requires some skill to execute meaningfully. There’s just no push-button for that.

What makes Squarespace and Wix so popular is the ease with which they can create a website, but many times you need more than what those platforms can provide.

As a result, we have a fair number of clients who pass on a website with us due to the upfront costs and decide to save a few dollars using Squarespace or Wix. Though, they often come back to us to help build out their website on the new platform because it is challenging to get it to look good.

The second area we consistently see clients having issues with on these platforms are hitting the ceiling and outgrowing the service over time. What makes Squarespace and Wix so popular is the ease with which they can create a website, but many times you need more than what those platforms can provide.

Deeper technical needs that arise over time, like complex form submissions, automatic subscription services, custom integrations, etc. require a bit more lifting power than Squarespace or Wix provide. So, these tasks become infinitely more challenging to create in a beginner eco-system. That is where a CMS like WordPress shines. Because of its enterprise capabilities and deep community support, there is not much that WordPress cannot implement.

So, once again, that idea of intent comes into play. When deciding on what you should use to power your website, it’s worth spending time thinking about what you need in year one might vs. years 2-10 and beyond. They are most likely radically different.

There is nothing wrong with using Squarespace or Wix to power your site. Heck, we’ll even build it for you. But considering a more advanced CMS like WordPress from the beginning is always a good idea. In the long run, it could save you time and money.

Aren’t WordPress Websites Expensive?

Good question. The most direct answer is that they can be. Some considerations fit into that calculation, however. Here are a few items that can affect the price:

• What is the size of the site?
• Does it need complex interactions like animation or video?
• Does the site need an e-commerce component?
• Does the website need to talk to other services or technologies?
• Does the site need to meet accessibility standards for people with disabilities?
• Does the site need to serve content in different languages?

During our initial discussions, we’re looking at these considerations and others to help determine the cost of the website.

The critical thing to remember, however, is that the website is an investment. We often ask people to imagine that they have a full-time salesperson that they’ve hired to create interest in their company, generate leads, and represent the company’s best intentions and services. We then ask what would that be worth to them? What would they have to pay that person for 40 hours a week to build their business? Now, what is it worth if they are doing it 24/7? That is your website.

Your website is not a passive thing that you “need to have.” If you see it that way, then you’re looking at it wrong. A competent website adds real value to your business. It’s providing awareness, knowledge, and connectivity to your potential and existing clients. That is valuable.

Why Should I Consider WordPress for My Business?

As you’ve probably gathered from this article, much of the decision-making process regarding websites comes down to intent. Should I have a static site or a CMS? If I need a CMS, should I use a beginner platform like Wix or Squarespace or invest in a more robust service like Joomla, WordPress, or Drupal? In the end, it comes down to what you need to do with that site in the long run and what is the best, most flexible solution for your business.

WordPress is a solid choice if you need a more robust site because you are selling products, or you need to book appointments online, or you need a space where you can go from 10 pages to 50 or 100 pages in a year. Again, you want flexibility now and in the future for yourself and your team. WordPress is a robust option that lets you do many complex, technical things, but you don’t have to be a “techie” to manage and maintain it.

Which Way Should I Go?

Whichever direction you decide to go with your website, remember that much of what you do is about planning for the future. You want to pick a platform that will help you now, and that can grow with you in the foreseeable future.

The post Why WordPress? appeared first on shop.

Breaking It Down

We had real fears in February and March that we might be looking at a dire situation facing the studio. Once the news broke, and everyone started to realize that this illness was something very different from what we’d seen prior, projects that we were in the process of finalizing started to be put on hold—almost overnight. It was a mildly terrifying reality as we didn’t know just how deep that rabbit hole would go. February and March, as a result, were relatively lean months.

Building it Back Up

Towards the end of March, we started to see things turn around a bit. We’d discussed internally (and hoped) this might be a situation where clients realize (after the initial shock) that they still have this viable resource for marketing their services and products (read websites). Selling web work has always been a process of education—helping a potential client see a web presence differently, viewing their website as a part of their sales team, rather than an essential expense that provided no real long-term value.

It was a mildly terrifying reality as we didn’t know just how deep that rabbit hole would go. February and March, as a result, were relatively lean months.

Once we got into April, things began to pick up, and in May, they continued to pick up more, and in June, they continued to pick up even more. When we started looking into our Q1 and Q2 numbers, we realized that things had not only picked back up but were beginning to look a bit like a meteoric rise in incoming work. We put our heads back down and diligently got back to work so as not to thwart the momentum we had built.

Records Are Meant to Be Broken

Once we came out of Q3, we held our heads up and surveyed the landscape, assessing how things were progressing. To our amazement, we had already hit our pre-pandemic financial goals for the year, and Q4 would continue along the same line to end up with the most significant year our little studio has had to date. In the end, we saw sales in 2020 jump 78.8% over the previous year.

We realize that this is rare and that we are exceptionally fortunate to have seen this kind of growth. We’ve also realized that we are not the only ones seeing this type of change during this challenging year. As blog posts have slowly started to roll out and the discussions we’ve been having amongst others in the digital marketing and design fields, we hear from many of them that 2021 saw an uptick for these creative digital services providers. Perhaps we were right about our initial assessment after all??

Strategic Partnerships: A 2020 Sign of Advancement

There were a lot of things that we did right (and even more that we did wrong) in 2020, but probably the most significant thing was forming some key strategic partnerships with other agencies and lending our skillsets where possible.

Perhaps the two key partnerships we struck in 2020 were with Gravitate Design, RCCO, FPO, and Digital Uprise. Gravitate is a mid-sized digital agency that we have deep interior ties to. Two of our partners cut their teeth, so to speak, as employees of the agency in the past. Because of this, we’ve remained close to their amazingly talented team, providing support where we can. The partnership has become more profound over the years and culminated in 2020 with three high profile jobs that we worked as part of the team—bringing them to life. This strategic partnership will continue throughout 2021, and we’re happy to have it.

We realize that this type of growth is rare and that we are exceptionally fortunate to have seen this kind of increase.

RCCO (and their sub-companies, FPO and Digital Uprise) hail from Texas, and like Gravitate, we have formed deep ties with their exceptional team over the past two years. What started as doing a few small animation projects for their client, Whataburger, morphed into a tag team effort as we’ve taken on other development support roles for larger, global clients. This partnership will also continue into 2021 and beyond, and we’re glad to work with such a great team of creative professionals.

Partnerships are Forward Thinking

It may seem odd to lay out some of the specific details about inter-agency partnerships like this, but we’ve long felt that when agencies align with one another and use each other to leverage or elongate their skill chains, good work results. It also seems to us that as we move forward, the agency partnership model will continue to become a valuable resource for both large and small firms alike.

The Final Tally

So, how did we end the year that wasn’t? Well, here’s a quick breakdown:

Websites worked on: 80+

Websites launched: 13+

Logos and brands identified: 5

Hosting and maintenance clients: +38%

Overall sales: +78%

Lessons Learned

Perhaps the best way to reflect on growth and lessons learned at the end of such a tumultuous year would be to ask the people who made it happen. So, I did. Here’s a quick list of what we’ve gleaned from this pandemic induced suck fest that was 2020.

Erin Lynch, Creative Director

“Perhaps the most important thing I think I learned in the last year was how to wait and the importance of patience. We had no idea how 2020 would unfold once we could not leave our houses anymore. We discovered that we could do a solid job for our clients as a remote team and that business moves forward, even in the face of extreme adversity.”

Brian Ferdinand, Technical Director

“What can I say about 2020 that hasn’t been said so very many times already. It has been a decade crammed into a year that has seen some of the most significant changes, growth, and human resilience that I have witnessed in my lifetime. These challenges have translated across all aspects of life, including personal, business, and the world at large.

It’s hard to take the time to reflect on what has been learned with everything that has happened. It feels more like we are hanging on for dear life, and I think therein lies the lesson for all of us. If we don’t take time out for ourselves and connect with those closest to us, we are doing a massive disservice to our quality of life and possibly our very sanity.”

Jill Lynch, Illustrator

“One of the few good things to come out of 2020 for me on a personal level was learning to make myself dig deeper and grow artistically. There were several months that I felt paralyzed, where even thinking about putting pen to paper felt awful, painful even. I know myself, and when these periods arise, and I have to just ride them out.

2020 felt different. There was a heaviness that had almost taken on a life of its own, and I could feel it firmly rooted in my mind. It was not until well into the year that I felt able to start painting and working again. What I learned is that pain, sadness, and grief need time and space to exist. To be left alone for a while until they dissipate with time. I still feel this way on certain days, but I have been able to branch out, focus on, and make things that are very different from my previous work. It’s always a process, sometimes an uncomfortable one, and occasionally painful. But growth usually is.”

Chloe Anne, Project Manager / Designer

“For myself, a creature of habit, one could imagine the internal turmoil I went through when COVID hit, and suddenly we were working from home full-time. It is safe to say that adaptability was my biggest takeaway, lesson learned, and skill gained in 2020. It was also a trait I witnessed our clients and Shop partners flex as they navigated the unknown areas of state lockdowns and social distancing. Their determination provided a lot of hope during a low time.”

So, there we have it. 2020 was a lot like getting your finger cut off in a table saw and then having the doctor wrap it in a bandage filled with salt and gravel. Yet, here we are…still moving forward. We’re thankful for all the opportunities we’ve had to work this year, and with a bit of foresight, hopefully, we’ll endure for many years to come.

The post 2020 in Review: Working by the Numbers appeared first on shop.

TAG, We’re It

As a collaborative group of hungry creative agencies pushing to get Vancouver, WA (a small town in the big shadow of Portland, OR) on the creative map, we need to have a certain amount of drive. Most of what we do is taken with a shotgun approach in order to move with a certain amount of flexibility and dynamism so we don’t get weighed down in the details of our initiatives.

TAG, at its most basic, is a partnership between local creative agencies and studios. Each member of the group has access to the collective’s knowledge base, sharing information freely back and forth. We are also able to leverage one another’s workforces, pulling in members with specific skill sets to help us run successful client projects. It’s this elucidating quality that lets each agency operate from a space larger than their individual size and skill depth.

Doing What We Do

We were starting to plan the first Rise Up conference, a one day virtual (Zoom-based) event geared to help businesses cope with periods of great disruption. The pandemic of 2020 has wreaked havoc on businesses worldwide—many of them not knowing how to navigate these muddy waters. Our goal was to help.

Most of what we do is taken with a shotgun approach in order to move with a certain amount of flexibility and dynamism so we don’t get weighed down in the details of our initiatives.

The topic of the overall conference was heady and layered-making the three week time period seem even more unrealistic, but we marched on undeterred. What we achieved was, in my opinion, truly impressive.

In the span of those few short weeks we managed to plan, organize, and execute a full scale conference featuring three speakers and three panel discussions (totaling 24 speakers) and raising nearly $10,000 for local charities. We additionally, and most importantly, imparted information & advice on how to approach disruptions in our work lives, develop realistic expectations for change, and we explored ways to locate new opportunities and put a plan of action in place around them.

The Warm Fuzzies

The takeaways on a personal level, and for the studio, were numerous and eye opening—too many to list here. But here are a few of the most notable bits that Brian and I ended up walking away with:

• The power of camaraderie: A collaborative group is essentially about working together towards a united goal. We experience this every time we take on a TAG project. Seeing this in action for a purely altruistic cause drove home the importance of working collaboratively with others.
• The benefits of resource sharing: The creative professions are very tight lipped about things like processes, clients, and money. TAG has broken down those walls, and with good reason. We want to further the practice of other members. You can’t do that when you won’t have honest conversations.
• Design for good: I’ve had the opportunity to work with a variety of organizations doing work as a philanthropic work. I’ve never worked so seamlessly with a group doing it, however. Rise Up saw every one of these creative forces set aside their egos, take direction, take the lead, step up, and get it done. It was a joy to watch this unfold.
• Presence of mind: When you’re pulling an event together with so many diverse voices you never quite know how it will all come together. We were quite surprised at the unity and tone of voice that permeated the event. While we all come from different backgrounds and our experiences over the last few months have varied, we were nearly synonymous in our viewpoints and discussions.
• Affinity for action: 27 strong voices can lead to an awful lot of confusion and circuitous, confusing, or even wishy washy ideas. Yet, over the course of the three panels it became very clear that we were not there to bemoan the state of affairs. We were there to learn, share our thoughts with one another, discuss our methods of dealing with disruption and get stuff done.

The Rosey in Full Effect

I know I’m painting a rather creative, utopian picture. And you’d be right to call me out on it. Did the event run perfect? Not by a long shot.

At the end of the day, there were things that could have been improved or simply been done better at the event (a process we are working through as a group right now as we look at doing the event again in the months to come). Yet, given the crazy self-imposed deadline that we thrust upon ourselves; we put our heads down, acted as a united resource and pulled off a complex event that provided real value to an entire community. In the end, this is what I became a designer for.

The post Learning to Rise Up appeared first on shop.

“Out of your vulnerabilities will come your strength.”
~ Sigmund Freud, neurologist

Normally, slow periods are a great time for a business to refocus and take a look at its brand. What processes are working successfully, and which ones might need some tweaking or elimination? COVID-19 has forced us into reflective periods with a pre-determined focus: Whether our digital presence and remote capabilities allow us to keep working?

Let’s look at a few areas of our digital presence that are worthy of examination and refocus.

Your Social Media Presence: Birds, Cameras, and the Big “F”

A great place to start examining our digital presence is in how use social media to promote our business and build our brand. While many businesses have taken to social media over the past several years, millions of businesses still see it as more of a nuisance or estranged obligation than a valuable set of marketing tools.

Social media allows us to build a community that we can leverage and reach out to when changes in our business occur. The community you build via social media are what is referred to as “brand advocates”. These individuals are interested in your brand. They subscribe or follow and support the evolution of your company. That can be a powerful relationship.

If this pandemic has taught us anything it’s that communication with the public is essential. Social media allows us to inform and interact with our communities, sharing important information and updates. I had a conversation earlier this week with a client who mentioned that her husband had decided to indefinitely postpone trips to his chiropractor because they had not posted any information on how they were working in the face of the outbreak.

Communication and transparency is essential to consumers. By building, curating, and maintaining our social media presence, we are building a loyal group of followers who care about our businesses and will root for our successes and support us during our failures.

If you’re not building your social media presence, start today.

Your Website Content: The Who, What, Where, and Why

When we begin talking to clients about the benefits of a well designed, well-written website we often start with an analogy:

Imagine your website is the newest member of your sales team. Unlike a physical human salesperson, this one has the ability to work for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year promoting your business and building stability through a constant supply of new leads. This salesperson does not get tired. They don’t get bored or become unmotivated. And they don’t (and won’t) up and leave you when they get a better offer. How much would that be worth to you? What would you be willing to spend on an employee that was dedicated to your company? How much money would you commit to training someone who could deliver that level of service?

I hope you’re starting to see the point. A well written, well designed website will cost you money (fact), but when it’s done well it’s worth every penny you put into it because of what it can deliver to your business over time.

When we’re living in a COVID-influenced business scape, which member of your sales team is going to be on the front line acting as your first point of contact? You betcha! Social distancing is a killer, but your website has the ultimate immunity—allowing your clients to get up close and personal while learning about how your services and products can help them.

A well written, well designed website will cost you money (fact), but when it’s done well it’s worth every penny you put into it because of what it can deliver to your business over time.

Spend your downtime examining your website content. Does it say what it really needs to in order to generate business? If not, then it’s time to get to work.

These are just a couple examples of where we can refocus our efforts to build a competent digital presence. As businesses transition to remote work environments and continued online growth becomes a necessary focus, having a strong digital presence is crucial. A comprehensive funnel that allows us to effectively communicate with our existing customers while working to enticing new ones is the future of business.

The post Focusing on Your Digital Presence in a COVID-19 World appeared first on shop.

Shop is not immune to these feelings or concerns. Yet, we remain optimistic that these things will pass and recovery after this stumble will be quick as we emerge with no more than a couple of skinned knees. As a studio, in the interest of our client’s and our individual health, we have decided to step away and largely work in a remote capacity for the next couple of weeks.

We remain optimistic that these things will pass and recovery after this stumble will be quick as we (the collective we) emerge with no more than a couple of skinned knees.

Our studio is rooted in the remote work / digital nomad ethos and are perfectly able to continue supporting and working with our clients from a remote capacity during this time. We have spent the last year working on processes that would allow us to function in a distributed capacity for extended periods of time should the need arise. We remain committed to each of our clients and our focus, as always, will be in supporting their online business presence and creating thoughtful solutions that meet our client’s (and their user’s) needs.

We wish the best for those affected by this illness and pray for speedy, safe recoveries for families around the world.

The post In the Face of Uncertain Times appeared first on shop.

A better title for this article might be, “how GOOD web design can help your business” because there are just a lot of really rotten looking, and rotten performing websites out there. We all have our stories of poor experiences while moving around the web. Yet, when web design is done well it can put a business on the map giving them a visual boost (through a great looking site) amongst their clientele, help people complete the tasks they are there for and do it quickly because the site was designed with performance in mind.

What makes web design good is a multi-layered conversation. There are literally dozens of considerations and touch points that go into building beautiful, performant websites. Too many points to cover in the scope of this article. For our purposes here we’ll focus on some of the most important benefits and how they help your business.

Your Website is a Sales Tool

We have a lot of discussions with clients about budgets and the value of spending a few thousand to many thousands of dollars on a website design project. Helping people break free of seeing a website as just a thing that a business should have to seeing it as an investment in a sales person, a lead generation tool, and a brand platform can take some work. While Squarespace, Wix and other quick build platforms are a great resource for getting a site up fast and cheap, those very qualities also negatively impact the perception of web design.

Sure, you can get a site that costs you $14.95 a month with free, beautiful themes; but without strategy guiding your content, design, user flows, and the myriad of other factors that go into good web design there is no reason to expect that site to move the needle.

The analogy we often put forth to potential clients is to think of a website as a sales person for a company. If they were to hire a full time sales person to grow a business, what would they expect to have to pay them per year to retain their services? How much more investment would there be in training that sales person to adequately discuss and promote the company’s products? Now, would they see that time and money spent as an investment?

Investing in a website is like hiring a sales person—one that is working for the company 24 hours a day. A sales person that is always loyal, always ready to help engage new clients and develop new business. Good web design is the catalyst that helps grow businesses. The old adage, “you get what you pay for” is a truism in the field of web design. Sure, you can get a site that costs you $14.95 a month with free, beautiful themes; but without strategy guiding your content, design, user flows, and the myriad of other factors that go into good web design there is no reason to expect that site to move the needle.

Good Web Design is Beautiful

There are a lot of unattractive/ugly websites out there. Visual design, though, can be every bit as important as the speed at which web pages load. The California based usability company, The Nielsen Normal Group, has done extensive studies on what they call the aesthetic-usability effect which refers to how people perceive an attractive website as being more functional/usable than an unattractive one. People tend to abandon or leave a website that is unattractive, having formed a poor first impression of the company. If they do stay they generally tend to take that website or company less seriously, or they perceive the company as being less professional. Both of these situations can cost businesses clients in the long term.

Good Web Design is Functional

Like a well designed building; a functional, well-structured website helps users navigate pages, easily locating the content they are looking for and helping people to make purchasing decisions regardless of where they are in the buying process.

A well defined information architecture is at the heart of good website structure. Coupling a strong underlying organization for the pages on the site and a strong strategy for the content on those pages reinforces the brand, provides a clear understanding of what services the company offers, and answers questions. Good architecture also reinforces the idea of user-centered design, which is the process web designers employ to help people do what they came to the website to do. When people can find what they are looking for and find it fast, they are more likely to pick up the phone or fill out a contact form.

Good Web Design is Performant

Having a good looking, well organized site is great, but if the site does not load quickly and perform in a way that fosters usability then nothing else that was done really matters. According to research done by Google in 2018, mobile users leave a site if it takes longer than three seconds to load. Each second longer that a site takes to load the probability of a bounce (users leaving that web page without going any further into the site) increases exponentially. And users leaving a website obviously equates to lost income.

There are many factors that contribute to site performance—each one working in concert with the other to provide a reliable, fast loading site. These are considerations made during the strategy and building of a quality website. High performing websites are designed to support businesses.

As mentioned at the start of this article, there are a lot of other factors that go into good web design, but these three over arching groups are some of the most important.

Good web design is a process. One that takes time and attention to detail. There are a myriad of factors that stand between average and stellar websites, and the differences between the two can be what makes a website just something a business does because it’s a requirement and something a business does to drive development.

The post How Web Design Can Help Your Business appeared first on shop.