by Francois Muscat | Jun 6, 2018 | CRM, General, Website Design, Website Development
If you’re not incorporating a chatbot into your website design, then you are already behind. The age of robots is now and the more people interact with them, the more they will realise the value of humanless interaction.
What exactly is a ‘bot’?
A bot is a computer program that automatically automates certain tasks, typically by chatting with a human through an interface. Bots plug into messaging and networking apps, and can play into larger strategies of tracking trends and consumer behaviour.
People shop and buy in a world of immediacy. Messaging is how they communicate. Having an app simply doesn’t cut it anymore because half of smartphone users download a whopping 0 apps per month.
Chatbots don’t require app downloads and people don’t have to pick up their phone to talk to an ill-informed service rep. By chatting in a familiar conversational interface, bots know they need to solve a problem and do nothing more or nothing less.
When chatbots are linked with a CRM, they get even smarter by leveraging past conversations to personalise their responses to a person’s unique situation and preferences. At a time where app usage and email efficacy are decreasing, chatbots offer businesses the opportunity to have one-to-one conversations at scale and customers a better way to interact with brands.
Do you need help with your website design or development? Then http://www.wsioms.co.za/contact-us contact WSI OMS today.
by Marelise da Silva | May 24, 2018 | Website Design
Most people know that infographics are appealing, but they’re not sure how to go about creating them. How many stats should you include? Should you be designing illustrations or charts? The long answer is that it depends on your goals, your audience and your topic. There is, however, a bit of a shorter answer if you look at web analytics.
According to research, the top five performing infographics average around 11 data points each. While you may be inclined to assume that more data equals more success, this isn’t always the case. If you spend hours compiling data and designing a comprehensive, long infographic, you may be disappointed to learn that this infographic drew fewer clicks and led to fewer conversions than their shorter counterparts.
Now that you know how long your ideal infographic should be, it’s time to discuss content. The infographics that draw the most attention and get the most shares give their audience the information they want. Instead of choosing data that would be popular to the masses, rather do research amongst your target audience to find out what would be specifically relevant to your ideal customer. You can browse through LinkedIn groups or pay attention to Instagram and Twitter hashtags to get an idea of the type of content your target audience is discussing.
One of the major tips that we’ve picked up over the years is to keep infographics very focused. Instead of sprinkling different interesting stats into a single graphic, keep your information very siloed so that you can drive a single, focused point across.
Need help with your graphic design or website design? Then contact WSI OMS today.
by Francois Muscat | May 23, 2018 | Website Design
Did you know that it only takes a website visitor 0,05 seconds to make a snap judgement of the website? Furthermore, 94% of all the website’s first impressions are design related.
You may have underestimated the power of graphic design and website design when compared to the impact that the content on your site has on a visitor. If you suspect that your web design isn’t yielding the results you need, keep these tips in mind:
- Be committed
Commitment to your brand’s style guide is key. Switching up fonts and colours on your site all the time is not a good idea. Consistency builds credibility and recognition amongst your audience. If you ever have the urge to pursue a little more flair, rather look at how you can switch up in-store marketing initiatives.
- Make Sure Your Site Is Idiot Proof
Forget everything you know about your brand, business and website and try to start learning from your website. Are your subheadings bold enough? Do your calls-to-action get lost in the content and design? Is there a clear flow of information on your pages? Ask others for their input as well. Design should be crystal clear, no questions asked.
- Turn Some Heads
Stop your website visitors’ cursors right in their tracks and wow them with your creativity. Infographics, for example, is one of the fastest growing content types today, so consider whether you could create one for your website pages. Showing rather than telling with infographics adds personality to your website and it can also have a bigger impact on visual learners.
Need a new website design? Then contact WSI OMS today.
by admin | May 16, 2018 | Digital Media Marketing, Online Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Visual Marketing, Website Design
Did you know that 95% of people have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service? And that 81% of people have been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video? Video marketing is a powerful way to boost brand awareness and sell more products.
A new infographic by Webmstersjury.com lists some key stats that would make any business owner or marketer think twice about ploughing their marketing budget into anything besides video marketing. 97% of marketers, for example, say video has helped increase user understanding of their product or service and 76% of businesses say it helped them increase sales.
Here are a few interesting statistics about viewing platforms from the infographic:
YouTube Video
- 87% of marketers have published video content on YouTube;
- Out of those, 90% found it to be an effective strategy;
- 87% of marketers say they plan to use video marketing in 2018.
Facebook Video
- 70% of marketers plan to use Facebook Video in 2018;
- 68% of marketers have published video content on Facebook;
- Of those who used it, 87% found it to be an effective strategy.
Instagram Video
- 41% of marketers have used Instagram video;
- Of those who used it, 78% found it to be an effective strategy;
- 44% say they plan to use Instagram video in 2018.
Twitter Video
- 39% of marketers have published video content on Twitter;
- 40% plan to use Twitter video in 2018.
LinkedIn Video
- 38% of marketers have published video content on LinkedIn;
- Of those who used it, 75% found it to be an effective strategy;
- 55% plan to use LinkedIn video in 2018.
For more interesting statistics about video marketing, see their video marketing infographic.
Need help with your video marketing or digital marketing strategy? Then contact WSI OMS today.
by Marelise da Silva | Apr 12, 2018 | Website Design
Whether you realise it or not, colour has a huge impact on people. It permeates our lives, our communities, our countries and our world. It’s in the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the products we pick up and it’s in the buttons we click on when we’re surfing the web.
Colours are visual stimulants that are talking to our primal brains all the time by asking questions such as: Is this fresh? What season is it? In order to answer those questions, you need to understand what colour means to people and this will depend on who you’re talking to. People’s cultural backgrounds and even their personal experiences will define what colour means to them.
Green and red, for example, are popular colours and they are both complete minefields. Green means ‘go’ or ‘yes’, but it can also mean money, wealth, nature, environment and envy. Red means ‘danger’ or ‘stop’, but it’s also a very passionate colour and it can refer to heat or delicious strawberry flavours, depending on the context.
To understand the use of colour on your website, you need to understand who your audience is. Research your audience, what you are trying to say, and the colours that other people have used to communicate the same messages.
It’s important to remember that consistency plays a strong part in colour communication and it’s hard to ignore. Warning signs, for example, are consistently red and yellow. Blue can mean that something is wet, cold or electronic. There are consistent colour messages in society for different things.
Our team of website design experts can make sure that the colours on your site communicate the right messages. Contact us for more information about web design and web development today.
by Francois Muscat | Mar 28, 2018 | SEO, Website Design
Website design trends are forever changing, just like every other aspect of online marketing! Because of this, it is important to ensure that your website mirrors industry standards. This means doing regular website redesigns and updates. While a website refresh may sound all well and good, you are probably wondering how it will affect your already existing on-page/off-page SEO and Google rankings. This is what you need to know:
What is important to remember is that when conducting a website redesign, the main goal is to preserve your existing rankings and online traffic. However, it is also to improve your existing rankings and online traffic!
You can relax a bit about the changes to your SEO seeing that Google now places a lot of emphasis on the quality of the user experience that a website can provide. Therefore, if the new website design allows for easier navigation, faster page loading times, and also offer the browser access to plenty of optimised, original and interesting content, your rankings are sure to improve over time.
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What Can Change and How to Fix it?
Obviously, when designing a new website, it is impossible not to see a change in your search engine optimisation. Things that can change include:
- URLs
- Meta data
- Page-level optimisation
- The removal of old content and the addition of new content
- Domain name, as well as subdomain
Here is how to preserve your SEO despite the new website design:
- Keep the old website live on a temporary web address, and ensure that it cannot be accessed by crawlers,
- Utilise 301 redirects,
- Save crawl data,
- Minimise changes to content that has received a positive response, and
- Save all on-page optimisation by crawling your old site.
Need help with a new website design? The WSI OMS team of digital marketing experts can help! Contact us today for more information about our services.
