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Holiday Haul: Unwrapping Top Retail Advertising Strategies for the Festive Season

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Now that it’s September, this means the Holiday Season is approaching. This is the time for many businesses to take advantage and leverage the most lucrative time of the year.From revamping your landing pages to establishing brand awareness through holiday marketing initiatives, as well as exploring various methods to reach new customers and all the tasks in the middle, the to-do list appears never-ending.Get ready and buckle up as we unwrapped some practical strategies to boost your sales by the end of the year. Holiday Gifts or Exclusive Holiday Items Creating holiday gift bundles or collections is an effective strategy to capitalize on and boost sales. These collections can be a set of existing products assembled into gift sets for the holiday, which can cater to the needs and wants of holiday shoppers.Pro-tip. You can also create content or a blog for gift-giving ideas and showcase your special holiday product bundles to encourage shoppers to consider your offers. You may want to launch a specific online category dedicated to gift ideas to capture the early shopping mindset of consumers.When developing holiday collections for marketing, consider your target audience’s preferences, the holiday’s significance, and how your products or services can provide value during that time. Promote these collections through your website, email marketing, social media, and other relevant channels to maximize their visibility and impact on your holiday sales and marketing efforts. Holiday Theme Ads If you are running PPC advertising campaigns, consider adding a holiday flair to the ads. You can achieve this by incorporating holiday-themed elements into the ad copy and creative assets.You can do this by emphasizing your Holiday Offers. Promote special holiday discounts, gift guides, or limited-time offers in your ads to attract shoppers looking for seasonal deals.Try to use Festive Imagery. Include holiday-related visuals like using colors that signify the holiday, such as green and red, Santa hats, or gift-wrapped products in your ad creatives to capture attention.You can also extend this strategy to your marketing content as well. Consider creating blog posts about the holidays, such as holiday recipes or exciting gift ideas featuring your best-selling products.You may incorporate Interactive Social Media Campaigns as well by engaging your audiences. For example, Emerge is currently running Unwrap You Potential for the Holiday campaign by letting its audiences participate in a survey to determine businesses’ readiness for the season, which creates a sense of excitement. Limited Time Offers Creating limited-time promotions can encourage your customers to tap on the deal and drive a sense of urgency. It may use the fear of missing out (FOMO) phenomenon to convert visitors into buyers, but this has been a proven effective way to boost sales for the season.Moreover, you can use this strategy for clearance sales and building awareness for newly launched products.Other examples include free shipping, limited edition products, and exclusive discounts on the email list or subscribers. Revamp Your Website for the Holiday An easy way to introduce the beginning of your Holiday campaigns is through your website. This can be easily achieved by just adding some festive flair to your landing pages. For example, you can showcase it through Holiday-themed banners or headers to promote any Special Christmas Sale.You can also decorate Your Logo by incorporating elements like Santa hats, holly leaves, snow accents, and more. Wishlist for Search Campaigns Shoppers turn to Google first when searching for products to buy and give. Gift inspirations begin on search results. It’s a good idea to concentrate on timely Google Search campaigns for the Holidays.We suggest using keywords such as “gift ideas for women” or “holiday gift ideas.” Make your gift products visible as much as possible in search results. It is essential to take advantage of the season and ensure your landing page has the same festive theme for better relevance. Ready to Unwrap Success this Holiday Season? Advertising for the holiday can be exciting as there are many strategies to explore that would fit your brand. This involves ramping up promotional activities across marketing platforms to capture customers’ attention and offer them value to increase revenue during the holiday season.As the holiday season approaches, businesses need to harness the full potential of advertising strategies. By implementing holiday retail advertising strategies, you can transform your online presence into a festive and lucrative shopping destination. If you need help to set your retail business for success this holiday season, get a consultation with one of our experts.

Guides, How To's, Website Optimization

What makes an Effective Website? Five Simple Tips for Creating Content

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Is a website really necessary for your business? A twenty-year-old question, and the answer remains a resounding- YES! A business website is one of your most important marketing tools today. It plays a significant role in your brand and transactions, primarily if you use a digital-first approach to growing your online presence and reaching potential customers. Having a website is one of the many green flags for consumers. It establishes legitimacy, promotes comfort and trust in dealing with transactions, helps you effectively market products, understand customers, and brings them closer when you turn your website into a central point of contact for them and your business’s social media accounts. Sounds about right? But we know you have hurdles; after all, with over 1.9 billion websites, including your competition, how does your website stand out? You’ll need effective strategies to get the most results from your website marketing strategy. Yes, graphic elements and web design are crucial, but start by improving your website’s content first. A website should have consumable and relatable content enough to turn every clicking and browsing into a pleasant experience. Check below five (5) simple tips for creating content for an effective website. Understanding Content for Website Let’s first see the essentials of a website’s content. It is anything on your website that a user can use, read or interact with; categorized into three, you may combine any of these to produce amazing pieces of content. Textual anything written or text-based; blurbs or captions under main headlines usually found on your homepage, blog posts, news articles, product descriptions, or testimonials. Visual: anything your user can see or watch, like an album of pictures, background, video, or an infographic. Auditory anything the user can hear on your site, like songs, background music, click sound effects or podcast episodes. Despite having a myriad of these content forms, consider still a minimal and straightforward distribution. You want a smooth website. That is why understanding your audience’s demographic and psychographic profile can help you determine which contents are worth including. Concise, Clear, and Comfortable to Read Don’t make a website too wordy. Longer paragraphs do not equate to being informative and users would just assume all the information can be found in a pdf copy somewhere. Again, checking your website should feel like an experience- like how a customer visits a physical store. Stay true to your brand’s tagline or motto, pick a few keywords from the latter and reuse them for blurbs or your vision-mission statements. See this homepage by La Rosa Flower Shop – www.larosaflowershop.com Notice the usage of one-sentence content writing? Short yet it informs clearly, creates an impression, and moves the user to navigate more like he/she is window shopping. Furthermore, the usage of transition effects from one short statement to another, accompanied by varying background lessens scrolling action. Repetition of keywords related to the brand increases brand retention, and users begin to be more aware of the product and the business. You can include search engine optimization (SEO) on these keywords to further optimize the site on search engines. If your product or services cannot simply be compressed within one to two sentences, follow the inverted pyramid writing method when writing one-paragraph descriptions or blurbs. This writing style puts all relevant information, such as: Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How, in the first two sentences and proceeds to use the remaining sentences as explainers or additional information. Note: Read through your content before publishing and check for unnecessary words or details you can omit to shorten the text. For blogs or news, the ideal length should be between 2,100-2,400 words. Don’t bombard the article with pictures; one banner is enough; you may publish multiple photos via an album or gallery feature and link it to a keyword or phrase. Avoid Sounding Too “Markety” Users can easily read a “trying-hard” website. Speak your target audience’s language and pattern your content to what they would likely check. Example if your business has products that produce a variety of designs such as a shoe store- you’d most likely use words like: recent, new arrivals, new designs, limited editions. Complement these keywords on product descriptions using words that reflect the customer’s feeling and the benefits from purchasing to wearing them like “comfortable for school” or “perfect fit for the summer.” List specs and additional details, these don’t need to be part of a paragraph or blurb. Check Capital PH, a branded shoe distributor and their website www.capital.com.ph. Notice how they make the pictures shine more than the text? Text here runs more as labels and experiential descriptions rather than invoke the audience directly to purchase. Remember that your site’s end goal is to educate and inform customers clearly about your brand, second is to complete transactions, but definitely not to sell. Integrate your Social Media Content Social media is also a means for engaging communities and a large percentage of your audience is active on social media especially Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. The Medical City Clark’s website includes social media features. It makes sense to connect the two by including a space on your website into a hub from which your social networks connect or postings are visible. Adding a list to which you direct people to your social profiles is another way of getting this done. Lessen Tabs, Use Links for Redirections Sometimes you have so many things you want people to know about your brand or business you cram all of them on the homepage alone, which leaves a heavy impression. Users might get tired of all the information, which demotivates them to continue browsing features and other parts of your website. Manage the parts of your website creatively but concisely. A recommendable number of tabs is five, which includes ABOUT, PRODUCT, ORDER, FAQs, BLOGS, or other categories. Next is organizing and sorting information under your chosen tabs; for example, history, business story, and awards can all be boxed under ABOUT, and new products, on sale,

Guides, Website Optimization

Interactive Website Design Trends for 2023

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Interactive web design is set to be a major trend in 2023. As user experience is a vital component of web design, many techniques and tools are used to create a more interactive and engaging user experience. From parallax scrolling and kinetic typography to colorful gradients and immersive animations, websites have become more attractive, dynamic, and personalized than ever before. As always, staying up-to-date with the latest trends is important, so here are some interactive web design trends to check out this 2023! Hyper-Movements and Playful Animations Animations have always been a staple element in web design. It’s an excellent solution to improve engagement and interactivity, and adds depth in functionality in many different ways. Hyper movements and playful animations are the types that can create a more immersive experience for users, which helps maintain the attention of website visitors, making it likely that they will engage with the content on the website. Additionally, they create a sense of personality and fun and help to guide users through a website, highlighting important information and directing their attention to the key areas of the site, which is particularly beneficial to the brand. Overall, these type of elements creates a sense of discovery, making the web user experience more engaging and enjoyable. Fascinating 3D Worlds Web design can be so much more than flat dimensions, and 3D animation is unmatched when it comes to delivering visual pleasure. Three-dimensional animations can bring so much life to your page as it adds instant interactivity and interest from the users. It helps the page stand out more and it can pack more information with less space used up. It is one of the most powerful tool for visual representation of information. It is a powerful busines tool that has a universal appeal to people that create a great impact in a concise manner, especially in promotion. It may portray an entire brand with its products and services. 3D animation is sophisticated in nature, and incorporating it in your web design creates branding, attracts online traffic, improves cost-effectiveness, and promotes interactivity. Moreover, 3D animations gives a realistic feeling that creates a positive impact on people and compels them to stay longer. Digital Maximalism The “less is more” law in web design is a long has-been for some people in today’s world. Digital maximalism is an all-out war on white space, suggesting that every page element should be customized with animations, colors, contrasting patterns, and multiple fonts that are splashed all at once in a single web page. Some people would call this in the shape of anti-design as a constraint to the laws and mandatories of digital design. Being a contrast to minimalism, the new drift of this web design is to be different. However the designer should and must still have the knowledge of the color theory, layout, UX, and content structure to effectively pull it off. The challenge is to make the elements co-exist and to be unique, appealing, and useable altogether to the users. This web design trend is ultimately one of a kind. It speaks loud and clear for your brand, which helps attract attention, makes you stand out, and leaves an impactful impression. Going Retro Navigating your web page to the ‘90s is becoming a big theme in the web design world. These often include doodle writings, sticker graphics, and cut-and-paste collages. This kind of web design is characterized by earthy tones, grainy texture, and outlining that successfully nails the attention of the users. One of the primary reasons this design is inviting is its nostalgia factor. It evokes familiarity and gives a memorable aesthetic. Additionally, the retro design creates a sense of authenticity and connection to a particular period. It also can be a great way to tap into current trends and cultural movements, like the resurgence of retro aesthetics in pop culture. By incorporating this into your web design, brands can show they are on trend. Ultra Minimalism Ultra minimalism in web design refers to a style that emphasizes simplicity and minimalism, where white space is a key element of a design. It is characterized by using a limited color palette and a hyper-minimalist layout. Typography is also an essential element of ultra-minimalism web design. Sans serif fonts are often used, focusing on clear and legible readability. Large font sizes are also often used to create a sense of hierarchy and importance.Using minimalistic elements further helps create a sense of coherence, providing a clean, uncluttered, and easy-to-navigate website. Overall, ultra minimalism in web design is a design style that values simplicity, clarity, and functionality over ornate design elements. Parallax Scrolling Of course, there are ways to create the illusion of dimensionality without creating complex graphics. With parallax scrolling, you can create a 3D-like effect by moving different layers of content at different speeds as the user scrolls down the page. This creates an illusion of depth and immersion, making the website more engaging and dynamic. By incorporating different layers and movements, the design can draw users in and keep them engaged for extended periods. Parallax scrolling is a less common design technique, so it can help a website stand out from its competitors and create a unique brand identity. It can also tell a story or present information dynamically and visually appealing, making the content more engaging and memorable. This type of web design is a popular design technique that can help to create a unique and engaging user experience. However, it should be used with caution as it may have disadvantages, such as the slowing of page load times and the challenge of creating a responsive design that works well across different devices and screen sizes. Kinetic Typography Kinetic typography is a design technique that involves animating text to create a more dynamic and engaging user experience on a website. It enhances the visual appeal and impact of the text on a webpage. It creates an interactive user experience and encourages users to take specific actions on

Our Blog, Website Optimization

Why Landing Pages Are a Crucial Part of Marketing

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Are you not getting enough leads even when you have a lot of website visitors and you spent thousands of dollars on your landing page? Maybe it’s the picture. Or the headline. There is a myriad of reasons why you’re not satisfied with your website or the campaigns you are running. Let’s say you are running some Google ads and your social media efforts are fired up, yet the struggle is real to have a higher conversion rate. According to Wordstream, the Conversion rate is the percentage of visitors to your website that complete a desired goal (a conversion) out of the total number of visitors. What if I tell you that the reason you’re not getting any lead is that your landing page is boring and misleading? Yes, your landing page may be the culprit to your low-performing ad campaign. A landing page can help you: Increase conversions Grow your list of email subscribers Reduce bounce rates Generate the date and insights of your ad campaigns for future reference Improve brand awareness through interactions If done correctly, your inviting landing page can transform into a lead capturing machine that will be a crucial contributor for your marketing success. So what should you do, then? What makes an appealing landing page? A landing page has a single purpose – to prompt your audience to take action immediately with a strategically placed call to actions. It makes an impression to the visitor; it serves to inform them to take the action that you want them to do. These are what makes an appealing landing page: Relevance Firstly, it should have the basic qualities that make a visitor stay for a while. This includes fast loading speed, a great copy, and quality images to name a few. More importantly, an appealing landing page should be relevant. An irrelevant landing page makes a visitor bounce out of the process that’s why you’ll notice an increase in your bounce rate. For instance, if you search on Google with the keywords “order flowers”, the ad you clicked should lead you to a relevant landing page complete with the selections of the flowers, their prices, and an order form. Also, keep all information up-to-date. Put yourself in the shoes of your landing page visitors. Convey the relevant message to them. Charismatic Copy of your Landing Page Copywriting for a landing page is tricky because you need to be concise but not being too generic. Let’s have a small exercise. Try to strip off the fancy graphics of your landing page. Let the copy (content) remains the same. Does it deliver a strong and clear message? Think about that. If you have a landing page directed to a specific audience, it needs to directly affect the user and be personal to make them feel like we know their pain points. Tip: Shy away from putting generics like “Buy now” on your buttons, align the call to action to your brand or campaign. Declutter Copy? Check. Visuals? Check. Sign up forms? Check Yes, you may have everything you need for your landing page. But what if there’s so much going on? This can make the users more confused, not knowing where to look first. Eventually, your landing page will be abandoned as they feel overwhelmed with all the information they see. Bottom line: Declutter! Revise your copy if it needs to be shortened. Check your graphics if they are placed properly. Don’t worry about empty spaces. Because landing page elements, like us, need a space to breathe and decluttering your landing page can boost your ad performance in the long run. Very Human on the Visuals Human faces elicit human responses, plain and simple. It’s almost impossible to ignore a human face when it’s shown on a webpage. Text only comes in second priority to look at. Alternatively, also consider what’s the best human perspective to show. If you’re offering cosmetics, show only the above shoulders part while a watch company would often focus on the wrist and arms of the subject. Use Motion Graphics and Video Needless to say in this digital era, you will get a user’s attention when something is moving on their screen. Ultimately, adding videos to your landing page increases the chance of generating conversions. It can be an introduction video about your products and services, or much better, testimonials from your customer for social proof. Making an impact thru motion graphics and video can do lots of wonders for your landing page. Conclusion Your audience is getting savvier than ever. All they want right now is quality marketing. Have the right tools and content for your landing page to close leads. Ensure that you deliver them the value they are expecting, or have them bounce off your page. The latter is the sad part. Your choice. If you’re unsure if your landing pages are working for you, why not talk to us at EmergeLocal for a free consultation? We’ll wait.

Digital Marketing, Online Marketing, Our Blog, Web Analytics, Website Optimization

What are the qualities of a website that generates leads

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Have you heard this statement before? “I spent ($1000, $2,000, $5,000, $7000…) on my website and it looks really nice, but I don ‘t get leads from it.” We’ve heard it many, many times. Nothing aggravates me more than someone spending lots of money on a website that is designed to look nice instead of conversions. Who cares if it looks nice if it doesn’t generate leads? You’ll realize that it is a total waste. The lesson here is to think through the entire process when you make an investment into your business. Every website has a different ultimate goal. You want a website that generates: Leads Purchases Subscriptions Downloads Registration Most of the websites I’ve encountered, the ultimate goal is to generate LEADS. So we need to make sure the website is set up to deliver us what we want which is leads. In this article, I’ll discuss the top criteria of a website that deliver leads on a regular and consistent basis: What are the qualities of a website that generates leads Make sure that you are driving traffic to your website Whatever you’re doing to promote your product or service, always find a way to direct your potential visitors to your website. Your website is your physical store (virtually). It’s where people can learn more about what you offer. Imagine this, the more people will visit our website, the more likely they will buy from you. It’s also good for SEO because Google will treat your website as an authority if you get more visitors and they stay at the same time. In the long run, you can also take advantage of the retargeting. I’ll not tackle this one here, there’s an explanation about it here. Your website is super simple and easy to navigate When designing a website, always remember that you’re designing for your visitor, not yourself. You don’t want your visitor to browse the pages of your website and pull their hair because they can’t figure out what to click or do next. If this happens, they’ll leave your website and you lose one potential customer already. The “next step” where your visitor needs to do before the actual sale Your website should focus on the next logical step in a sales process and that is opting in for something of value to the visitor (not an actual sale). For example, you’re selling a house and lot, the next logical step is to schedule for a free site tripping. It’s not the outcome when you close the deal but it’s closest to what your ultimate goal is. Another example is you are a car salesman, what’s the next logical step? Think about it. It would be a test drive. By thinking the next logical step, you can create an enticing offer that you can use to generate leads. Speaks and behaves like a real human Want your company to stand out in 2017 and beyond? Try adding a human element to your brand. Forget about the “Our mission at Freedom’s Training School is to provide high-quality training atmosphere… blah blah blah”. Bryan Kramer, CEO of PureMatter said that there is no more B2B or B2C: It’s Human to Human. Humans strive for simplicity despite our innate complexity. Your website’s goal is to deliver your message to your potential visitors in a way they can easily understand it. Conclusion Anyone can spend money on a good looking website. Investing money into a website that looks good and delivers leads… well it’s another story. It’s a smart investment. Our moral lesson here is to think through each project and ask yourself the end goal. *Photo by Kevin Chan on Unsplash

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Our Blog, Website Optimization

Google AMP: 3 Benefits Your Business Needs to Know

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Thinking of improving your website’s loading on mobile devices? Is your website takes longer than 3 seconds to load on your smartphones or tablets? If your answer is a big YES, then accelerated mobile pages, or AMP for short is the perfect solution. In this article, I’ll share what Google AMP is, then we’ll discuss the benefits for your website. But before we dive into that, let’s check out this scenario. Imagine on your way home and decided to cook a dinner for your partner. Not sure what ingredients you have to buy on your grocery list, you take out your phone and do a search for “nachos recipe”. You’re on the road driving and the internet access is limited, and it feels that the websites you’re browsing is too slow. You get frustrated so you decide to close your browser instead. You are not ALONE. In fact, according to the study done by Forrester Consulting, 73% of mobile internet users say that they’ve encountered a website that was too slow to load and 40% of web users abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load. This kind of problem has a solution – the Google AMP. So what is Google Accelerated Mobile Pages? ​Google Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is a project backed by Google to make websites load quickly on mobile devices and across different platforms. Last February 26, 2017, Google has started to show search results on mobile phones with websites that AMP is implemented. To see what a faster mobile web might look like, Google developed this demo: ​What are the AMP benefits? Improve User Experience In the Philippines, 117% of Filipino are active mobile phone subscribers while the average daily use of internet via mobile phones is 3 hours and 14 minutes. These are the users who feel bad when they browse your website and when it loads too slow for them. With Google AMP, your website will load fast even if user is connected on a 3G signal. They can get the information about your business without wasting time and effort. Brand Identity A website that loads slowly means unhappy site visitors. That’s a bad impression to your potential customers. Google AMP gives your brand a positive impression to your potential customers. A mobile website that loads fast gives you a competitive advantage over your competition. Improve Search and SEO Performance Google says that nearly 60% of searches are now from mobile devices. Google is now heavily improving the user’s experience from searches coming from mobile devices. Since April 21, 2015, Google Search expands its use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. With Google AMP, it makes your website not just mobile friendly but loads faster on mobile phones. Protip: You can check your site’s loading speed using the Mobile-Friendly Test tool. I can create a tutorial, if you’re interested, but really wanted to go over the benefits of AMP with this post. Final Thoughts If you haven’t used Google AMP on your website, it’s time to give it a shot. Google AMP is the future of the web and it’s the perfect solution to speed up your website loading. It could turn your site visitors to real customers. Comment below if you are interested with a tutorial about the implementation of Google AMP to your website.

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