Google is going to a mobile first index soon!

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With the numbers of mobile users’ sky rocketing out of the atmosphere, it’s no surprise to anyone that mobile searches have surpassed desktop and at this point we do not think there is any turning back. With today’s world needing information instantaneously, a desktop just does not do and a laptop is a bit annoying to lug around with you. This is exactly where mobile devices and even tablets come into play. These devices allow the consumer to get the information they want, at the moment and it allows brands’ opportunities to be ‘near’ their mobile users. Per a recent Pew Research report, 46% of respondents said they could not live without their smartphones.

Micro-Moments

Google has coined a new term: ‘micro-moments’. Micro-moments are essentially a question or questions that a consumer has in an instant and wants to answer within that same instance. These moments are broken down into 3 stages: Immediate Action, Demand for relevance, Loyal to needs. Let’s define each of these per Google.

Immediate action – Smartphones allow us to act on any impulse at any time. We take immediate action whenever we want to learn, find, do or buy something.

Demand for relevance – When we act on our needs in-the-moment, our expectations are high and our patience is low. This makes the quality, relevance, and usefulness of marketing more important than ever.

Loyal to needs – Our preferences and purchases are shaped in these micro-moments. Ultimately, the brands that do the best job of addressing our needs in each moment will win.

As you can see these micro-moments are a make or break chance for your company to gain a loyal customer who will in return become a promoter of your company, so long as you continue to treat them with quality, relevant and useful content.

What you can do.

Identify a set of key moments in a buyer’s journey that you want to win or can’t afford to lose. Examine these moments of your buyer’s journey when they want to find inspiration, learn about your product, make a quick purchase or anything in between. For each of these moments put yourself in your buyer’s shoes. Ask yourself, “What would make this faster and easier? What content and features would be the most helpful?” Ensure your buyer’s journey is optimized across the board and that there are no hiccups along the way. You can never afford to under-serve your buyers, while every moment may not yet be directly measurable, you cannot allow anything to fall through the cracks.

What Google is doing?

Back in April, the 21st to be exact Google released an algorithm update that impacted mobile search results worldwide for mobile searchers. This update improved rankings for sites that provided a mobile-friendly experience to searchers on mobile devices, and, by association, demoted sites that did not. Well, Google is at it again and they are not joking around this time. Googler Gary Illyes announce at Pubcon that Google will be switching from a desktop index to a mobile index. This is a huge change. Google has always used a desktop version of a page for ranking, even when serving results to users on a mobile device. Big note, this mobile first index is not currently live. This is currently a pre-announcement/pre-warning to all site owners to get prepared for the upcoming changes.

Why Google why?

It’s simple with all research pointing towards a mobile first world it only makes sense to make this change. Now this is not something Google is coming out of left field about, Gary Illyes hinted at having been in testing for a little over a year now. Since mobile searches continue to sky rocket – this move is not a surprise.

How much time do I have, Doc?

Unfortunately, Gary Illyes did say that he will not give firm dates for this because dates can change. He did say though that Google will be announcing it with a blog post, which will include details about when the mobile first index is to take effect. It is also worth mentioning that Google has given site owners plenty of notice about these changes, such as when they made the plan to add a mobile friendly ranking boost. Now is the time to take your buyer’s journey and mobile experience seriously. With the current trends and Google moving forward with a mobile-first index it is not the time to sit idly by, it is the time to schedule your free consultation and see how we can help your business and your buyer’s journey improve.

What is Whitespace and How can it Help?

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What is Whitespace?

Whitespace is one of the most overlooked aspects of design and it is often pushed to the side for the sake of fitting as much information as possible into the space provided, whether that is digital or print. It does not always have to be white, that is why some designers call this space “negative space,” which just means “space left blank.”

Whitespace is divided into two categories:

  • Active Whitespace: the space that was left white on purpose to drive home a message or create emphasis on a design element.
  • Passive Whitespace: the space that was left white naturally while making the layout of the design.

 

How Can Whitespace Help Your Design?

 

1. Whitespace Improves Readability

We have all seen designs that look too busy, this often clutter look makes it hard for us to understand the message quickly and easily. This is usually because of the lack of Whitespace. These designs aren’t necessarily bad, the designer may have done this on purpose, but if you’re ever wanting people to quickly and easily read and understand your message, you may want to increase the Whitespace.

 

2. Creates Professional and Sophisticated Designs

Take into considerations some of the world’s most recognizable brands, such as Apple or Google. All these brands share a very similar design aspect: simple, clean, and lots of Whitespace. Let’s look at Apple’s website, both of these are great examples of how Whitespace can portray a professional and sophisticated personality about the Apple brand.

 

3. Creates Emphasis on Your Product

Looking back at Apple’s website again, you are immediately drawn to the center of the page where you see their newest product. Having a large amount of Whitespace around the focal point of the design helps the reader quickly find what you are trying to convey and often makes it much more impactful. Don’t forget, as Dictionary.com said, “Whitespace is as effective in a layout as type.”

 

Are Your Users Getting the Message?

These are just a few major impacts that Whitespace can have on your buyers. It is getting more and more difficult in today’s online world to make your business stand out and draw buyers in. Having the right amount of Whitespace can help, so take a look at your web design and ask, is this getting the message to my buyers? Is it portraying the professional feel that it should? Is my product or brand standing out or falling behind my competitors? If you are unsure about any of these or answered no, contact us for a free consultation to see how we can help make sure your brand is making waves.

Flash Is Dead

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Have you ever visited a website, either on your mobile device or on your desktop and get an error asking you to install Adobe Flash? Most people have and it is extremely frustrating.

While the web industry has been slowly phasing out support for Flash over past few years, Adobe announced on July 24th that the once internet standard will be phased out entirely in favor of more open current standards like HTML5. All support for Flash will end by 2020. That seems like a long way off but in the internet and technology world it is right around the corner.

Flash was once king of video and rich interactions, this final decision to end development and support comes as a result of a few big issues. There were no standards for Flash development, as a result lots of poorly developed Flash gave users poor experience. As Apple embraced the early iphone poor experience was not acceptable and so they refused to support Flash on iOS. Finally Adobe failed to adequately maintain the security of Flash for users, dooming it to be blocked by default on most all modern browsers.

What this means to business and site owners is that it is time to begin transitioning to safer, more standard solutions for rich interaction and video. Curiosity is always looking towards the future and using the best technology. We’re here to help you replace Flash elements on your site with current, standards driven solutions.. We have a deep experience with the latest techniques in HTML5 animation, interaction and video playback,  allowing us to recreate what in the past could only be found in Flash. A big added benefit is that by using web standard solutions, the old concern of “Will my site be viewable?” becomes a thing of the past. Just like Flash.

It is also worth mentioning that updating your website shouldn’t be exclusive to those that still leverage Flash. Updating your site can help boost your search engine rankings and increase traffic. It just so happens this is also something we specialize in and would be happy to assist with. Contact us today to see what we can do for you.

Our hats off to Flash, an innovator in its’ day, now headed toward a well earned retirement.

How do local listings affect my business?

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Before we can answer how a local listing affects your business, we first need to look at what exactly a local listing is, what it includes and what types there are.

A local listing is exactly that: a listing of businesses, normally within a directory, that points to a business by a few different variables, whether it be the business name, the business address, the type of business and/or social media presence within a certain area or city. This is taken a step further when it comes to Google. Google will gather the information from several different business directories to compile their own listing of your business, unless you have claimed your business with them.

 

It is highly recommended that you do this quickly, if you have not done so already. Having incorrect and/or outdated information can be devastating to your business. Imagine someone is looking for your business and finds out that you are already closed, when in actuality this is untrue or they go to the address shown, to only end up at an incorrect address.

What a local listing includes?

There are a few key areas that you want to make sure are 100% accurate. This includes the following: Your Business Title, Links and Citations, Categories, Reviews and Ratings, Photos and Videos, Social Factors and Other Attributes.

Your Business Title – This is one of the most critical  factors for ranking well in local search engines. Having a title that is consistent with an accurate business name is extremely important.

Links and Citations – Search engines find out about your business in two primary ways.  The first being crawling links that are inbound to your website and tracking sites where those links appeared.  The second is tracking citations of your business and where those citations came from.

What is a citation? Let’s take a quick pause to define what a citation is, so that there is no confusion. A citation is a ‘mention’ of your business name on websites other than your own. These ‘mentions’ should include the same information that a regular business listing does, i.e. the business address, the type of business and a phone number.

Categories – Many local directories allow you to choose between two to five categories that identify what your business is about. Search engines like Google will then use these categories to help decide which businesses to show for searches. Search engines will NOT show a business that is uncategorized – or even worse, incorrectly categorized – for sets of keywords. This is especially true for high demand keywords or phrases that already have several businesses associated within a category. This is exactly why having consistent and correct information about your business throughout is essential.

Reviews and Ratings – Reviews and ratings are powerful persuasion tools for customers that are on the fence about purchasing a product or service from your business. While a negative review can encourage a potential customer to hit the ‘back’ button, a great review can encourage a customer to pick up the phone and call you!

Photos and Videos – Having photos and videos help entice a potential customer into clicking on your business listing. This means taking the time to pick out the proper photos and videos you plan on showing to your potential customers; do not just put something up for the sake of putting something up. These photos and videos can be anything but putting up projects that your company has worked on, products you offer, your team and/or your office itself will lead to more clicks and more recognition.

Social Factors – The social component of local SEO is growing stronger with each passing year, and learning to participate in the social platforms your customers prefer is a fantastic way to further build your relationships. You can also interact with reviewers in a similar manner to Twitter and Facebook. Reviews are a key component to a business’s survival. Certain forms of social media activity appear to influence overall search engine rankings.  Their direct influence is unknown, but it is safe to say having a social media presence is important.

SIDENOTE. Not all reviews are created equal but having reviews is better than having none. There is an art to answering negative reviews to spin them into a positive outcome.  There is more to it but that would take another article.

Other Attributes – It is vital to list your complete contact information on your website in a format that search engines can read. This is a simple step that most businesses seem to overlook. Providing your contact information in a format such as an image, a flash player or any other non-text format that search engines cannot crawl will affect your search rankings.

Lastly, keeping up with changes to policies, the latest opportunities for promotion and what your competition is doing on major search engines and local listings are all good ways to ensure that your business is doing everything it can to be current and visible in the local search.

How does your local business listing stack up? If you would like to learn more on how we can help with your local listings please feel free to request a local directory analysis below. We look forward to working with you.

Time For A Check-Up: 5 Elements All Sites Need

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A business website is often overlooked or forgotten about. Most businesses forget to update them and the website is put on the back burner. It’s very important that your website be updated regularly and reflect your business’s current state and brand image. Here are 5 Elements your site needs – and if it doesn’t meet these 5 elements  it may be time to renew your website and bring it up-to-speed.

  1. Strong Brand– Having a consistent brand can set you apart from your competitors. Sending the same message to your clients will increase memorability and make sure your company is always your company. Your website is like an extension of your business. Think of it as your virtual office. When a visitor ‘stops by’ will they know they are at your business or does your website look like an outdated version of your business? Look at your site and make sure your colors, fonts, and imagery match the message you want to send.
  2. Content– Like we said above, this is your virtual office. Is your potential customer going to find the information they need while visiting your site? Furthermore, is the content relevant? The customer is looking for information and the information needs to answer the question “How does this apply to me?” Having the content up front is great but having them move deeper into your site is better. Strike a balance that gives them enough information but keeps them moving.
  3. Navigation– Your site’s navigation (also known as a nav bar) is usually at the top of your site. This is how your customers will navigate through your site and it should be simple and easy to use. It’s tempting to place all your pages in the top level of the navigation bar but this causes issues of a content overload and mobile responsive nightmares. It’s a good idea to group like-topic pages in drop downs to help the user identify where they want to go and then dive deeper.
  4. Call to Action– Call to Actions (also known as CTAs) are the buttons or links that grab attention and moves the customer deeper into the site. An example of this would be the button under the home page’s About section urging the customer to “Learn More.” Not having these in crucial locations can leave the customer stranded and ditch your site. Remember – it’s all about keeping them moving.
  5. Mobile Responsive– Not having a mobile responsive site is a website-killer. This is important because 55% of web traffic is from mobile devices and tablets.  Google now ranks websites based on whether they are mobile responsive or not [LINK TO MOBILE FIRST POST].

So, how does your website stack up against the 5 elements needed? Does your website need improvement? Acting now instead of waiting can help boost your site visits and increase customer conversions. This might be a big undertaking for most businesses but we are here to help. We are one of the area’s leading marketing and digital design firms and are experts on these subjects. Contact us today to see how we can help grow your website into the powerful resource is should be for your business.

Curiosity Becomes a Silver HubSpot Certified Agency Partner

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We are happy to announce that we are now a Silver Level HubSpot Certified Agency Partner. HubSpot, the world’s leading inbound marketing and sales platform, works hand-in-hand with Agency Partners to grow their clients’ businesses through inbound software, services, automation, and support.

Our Channel Rep was nice enough to give us a testimonial as well. Oscar Zamorano said, “We have been thrilled to work with Curiosity as a HubSpot Partner. Their savvy, sophisticated, and innovative approach to inbound makes them a company that businesses everywhere can learn from. Watching them transform their agency and their clients with inbound has been a rewarding experience!”

Over the past 2 years, we have grown businesses by incorporating inbound strategies to attract, engage, and delight customers. Our mission is to continue helping companies and people harness technology for effective marketing, to collaborate and ask insightful questions, to create excellent stories that connect brands with the world, and to improve ourselves and our clients through continual learning, exploration, and teaching.

If you would like to learn more about Inbound Marketing and the approach we use. Schedule a free consultation. We would love to explain the process that works for us and our clients.

Adobe XD – A Game Changer

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Adobe is always looking for ways to offer its customers new, effective, and innovative tools to help their workflow, and they hit the nail on the head with Adobe XD. In case you missed it, XD stands for Experience Design and was released about a year ago, on Apple devices as a beta program and has recently been released to Windows 10 users. The whole point of XD is to help designers and developers prototype websites for the production team and clients to see their website in action.

Currently, when a design firm, like ourselves, begins a new project it goes through six stages before launching; Research, Wireframing, Design, Prototyping, Proofing, and finally, Development. The current workflow from research to launch often involves bringing in a developer to code the prototype for review, which increases time and cost of the project.

Not any longer! This is the game changing part; with Adobe XD the new workflow is like this: Research, Wireframing, Design / Prototyping, Proofing, and then Development. That’s only five steps from start to finish! XD has changed the way the web development process works.  The designer is now the team member that prototypes the design.  As they design, the program builds a prototype and the assets for the development stage are being produced at the same time. The prototype can then be sent to other team members and the client where they can comment on the pages as they review them.

This program is currently still in beta, and Adobe has promised loads of features to be added, but we at Curiosity are already using this program because we want to make sure we are offering the most innovative design techniques and services to our clients.

If you have questions on our process and how we can use it to help you with your digital marketing campaigns, contact us today!

What’s the Deal with Buyer Personas?

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With every new campaign we start, we always start with buyer personas. But what is a buyer persona?!

Buyer personas (sometimes referred to as marketing personas) are fictional, generalized representations of your ideal customers.  Personas help us and our clients fully understand why we go through the efforts we do. In marketing, sales, product and services, understanding your ideal customer and being relatable to them is very important in optimizing your marketing efforts. Having this deep understanding of your persona(s) is critical to steer your content creation, product messaging, sales process and really anything that helps support your product and how it relates to your customer.

At this point you are thinking, “Ok this sounds great, but how do we come up with these fictional customers?”

Every new client asks this. But don’t worry, it is quite simple actually.  You just need to ask the right questions to the right people and present that information in a helpful way so the people in your business can get to know your persona(s) better than the backs of their hands.

The strongest personas are produced by market research and interviewing / surveying your existing client base. We always recommend businesses form at least 2 personas when we start a campaign, however some of our clients end up with 10 or 15 by the time they get used to the process. But like anything, start small. Trying to nail down 15 personas before starting a campaign only delays the efforts. You can always add, modify or expand personas as needed.

Should we build a “negative” persona?

In the beginning, no. Remember, start small. Build your two positive personas and over time add in a negative one. The negative persona should be your non-ideal client. I know… I know…. We want every client we can get right?  Answer is no. As your business grows, avoiding these negative personas will help your business grow by turning their business away.

But, keep in mind a negative persona is not always a grumpy high maintenance account.  These can be companies that do not see you as a partner or are just not a good fit for your business style.  Don’t feel like you only have poor client types in this bucket.

So how do we start the process?

As mentioned, buyer personas can be created through research, surveys, and interviews of your target audience. That includes a mix of customers, prospects and those outside your contacts database who might align with your target audience.

 

Here are some practical methods for gathering the information you need to develop personas:

  • Look through your existing client database to uncover trends about certain markets or verticals that fit who you have been targeting.
  • When creating forms to use on your website, use form fields that capture important persona information. For example, if all of your personas vary based on company size, ask each lead for information about company size on your forms.
  • Take into consideration your sales team’s feedback on the leads they’re interacting with most. What generalizations can they make about the different types of customers you serve best?
  • Interview customers and prospects, either in person or over the phone, to discover what they like about your product or service. This my friends is the most important step. We cannot stress this enough.

You’ve done the research, now what?

Once you have gone through the research, interviews and analysis, you should have some good “meat” to work with. Looking over this data, start to recognize trends.  Do you see consistent business sizes? Certain types of businesses? These are the trends we want to leverage in our fictional clients.

Using the worksheet,  begin to take this data and fill in each of the areas of the Persona Worksheet. Fill in the: Who? What? Why? How? sections as you see fit based off the data you collected. Keep in mind there is no wrong answer. These are best guesses off the data you collected.

Once you have all areas filled in, pass this worksheet around to team members, upper level management and your sales team. Get their feedback and see if it aligns with the views they see as well.

Finally the fun part. Give your persona a fun name. You have done the work and you should feel like you know this person like a brother or sister.  So give them a nickname like “Finance Timmy” or “ Doctor Sherry”.  This will help segment the leads as you start to see them come in and will give your team something to track against.

In closing, the persona process, although it can be daunting and time consuming, is one of the vital parts of optimizing your campaigns. Putting the time in at the start of the process is well worth the amount of time it will save in the long run.  Be sure to grab a copy of the worksheet and give it a try.

Does my website need an SSL Certificate?

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In 2017 the answer is yes.

In 2014 Google announced it would start giving a higher quality score for sites that showed a call for HTTPS in the address bar.  Over the past couple of years it has been more of a suggestion than a requirement but that has changed.  Let’s review what SSL and HTTPS are.

What is SSL?

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is the standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. This link ensures that all data passed between the web server and browsers remain private. In other words this tells your site visitors you care about their information.

What is HTTPS?

Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is the secure version of the standard web call HTTP, the protocol over which data is sent between your browser and the website that you are connected to. The ‘S’ at the end of HTTPS stands for ‘Secure’. It means all communications between your browser and the website are encrypted. Essentially this is telling your site visitors that the SSL Protection is in place.

 

What is the cost?

In aspects of business and the amount of clout this gives your site in Google’s eye? Minimal. Depending on the level of encryption and the person applying the security to your site, the certificates range between $75 – $150 per year.  Overall not a big drop in the bucket considering what business expenses can be these days. Depending on the information that your site shares will decide what type of certificate and level of encryption your site needs.  When selecting the SSL certificate consult with your web host or agency on selecting the right one for your business.

 

Why is this so important?

Now that we understand what these terms mean, why is it important?  Although Google originally announced that they will give more credit to sites with SSL in 2014, in a recent article on their security Blog, Google made another announcement; They are moving to a more secure web.

As of January 2017 Google started tagging any sites not running an SSL Certificate and showing HTTP as a non-secure site.

In this article, Google states that they have conducted studies that most web users do not consider the absence of a security as a need to avoid sending content through a site. This is a problem Google is working to fix as they move towards a safer web.  Your standard contact form may not be an issue yet. But based on the article, we can see this being affected in the near future.  Being proactive may be the best solution moving forward.

 

What’s next?

If you are ready to move forward with switching to HTTPS, contact your Web Host provider or agency about getting this in place. At Curiosity we always strive to stay on the forefront of development and strategy. Since this change every new website project or new WordPress build will be requested that the site have an SSL certificate in place. Clients may go against our judgement, but we suggest you require it as well.

 

If there are any questions on how Curiosity can help, please reach out and we would love to continue conversations.

Top 3 Current Email Marketing Trends

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1.  Email automation

From the outside looking in, it would seem that email automation is a lazy man’s way to email marketing, which in actuality it has been shown statistically that – automated email messages average 70.5% higher open rates than “business as usual” email marketing efforts.

By using email marketing automation workflows you can create personalized, automated email works that can be triggered in a number of different ways – when a contact gets added to a list, when a contact submits a form on your website and click a call-to-action in your email – to name a few. These email marketing automations also help in other ways by making you think a little harder on what should happen in various situation with your email and help eliminate human error, such as forgetting to send a follow up email.

2. More like a friend

The ‘less is more’ motto is becoming increasingly apparent, especially in 2017 when everyone is running full speed and does not have the time to sift through a cluttered email. At a quick glance, your customer should be able to quickly tell what your email is about.

Reducing clutter and giving your customers a more personalized experience is key here, include some interactivity to keep them engaged. Try using a call-to-action to offers that really speak to them or quizzes to get a better understanding of what they are looking for.

3. Optimization for mobile

Optimizing your emails to be mobile friendly is a must have or you run the risk of being deleted. There is no way of knowing really when your customer will decide to open your email but since  consumers now spend 5 hours per day on mobile devices there’s a huge chance they will be opening your email on their mobile device.

Want to learn more about these current email marketing trends, check out our page that is dedicated specifically to email marketing or fill out the short form below to receive a FREE consultation on your current email marketing efforts and how we can help to make them more effective and efficient.