‘By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail’ – Benjamin Franklin. The planning phase is responsible for setting the foundations of your strategy. It involves understanding your current presence online, your resources and who will be responsible.

In this article, I want to look at how to organise an effective digital strategy. Follow me as we are going to look at that in this article. 

During planning we focus on determining the number of key factors:

• Purpose: What are we using digital to achieve or hope to achieve?
• SuccessOutcomes: How will the success of your digital activity manifest for your business so that you can clearly identify progress?
• ExistingChannels: What already exists so that you don’t duplicate channels but also know what you have already?
• Resources: What Time, Money and People do you have at your disposal?

Planning is crucial to gather as much information as possible and to set you up for success from the outset.

The purpose of the planning phase is to establish the foundations of your strategy, its requirements, your current activity, expectations, resources and internal ownership.

Planning gives you control early on but also creates flexibility in later stages because of how detailed your understanding of your strategy is.

Business performance is an important expectation because it is often misguided in solely looking at direct sales. Outside of just focusing on sales, it is important to understand success can also be measured in leads and engagement.

Customer engagement is often overlooked as a ‘hygiene factor’, when in fact it represents your brands’ perceived voice and tone. You have the potential to turn both into a part of your brand DNA on your site and on social media. Review these metrics to measure the effectiveness of your customer engagement:

• Awareness: Is your customer service giving you the ability to create higher awareness levels?
• Reduced Customer Service (CS) Costs: Is the use of social media allowing you to manage your CS expenditure?
• Insight: Are your customers giving you an insight into your products and services from which you can make valuable improvements?
• Sentiment: Is your CS quality adding value to the business by creating positive sentiment?

Reach The total number of people you can reach with your activity.

Are you able to prove that the engagement you are experiencing offers value to the business? The following metrics can help to measure user engagement:

• Insight: Are your activities on digital giving you additional insight into what your customers want or how you can design your products and services?
• Awareness: Is your activity showing an awareness of offers, products, services, etc.?
• Sentiment: Can you identify positive sentiment in how your customers are engaging with you?

• Comprehension: If you have complicated products or services – can you see that customers are identifying/searching for features and details that show an understanding of the product/service?
• Site Visits: Is your activity resulting in creative traffic to your site?

Earned Media Value: Is your digital activity resulting in earned impressions on top of your paid delivery? This is found within your social channels

The most important work is done in identifying early on what your expectations are from your campaign and what value digital will bring to it. However, after you execute your campaign, you can also look at the following metrics:

Objective Phase Of Digital Strategy: How To Set Digital Marketing Objectives

The Objective phase is the heart of the process. During this phase, you clearly outline your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and design a strategy to achieve them. The objective phase is focused clearly on beginning with Key Success Outcomes, identifying your KPIs and then designing a strategy that is measurable and clear.

Activities of the objective phase are intended to establish clear KPIs that will measure performance and include:

• Channel Objectives: What is the role of your channels?
• Media Benchmarks: What is an acceptable performance for your paid advertising?
• Content Objectives: What do you want your content to do?
• Audience Objectives: What do you want people to do in response to your activity?

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are finite metrics that collectively you can use to prove the existence of your Key Success Outcomes (KSOs). These varied KPIs can be used to measure individual performances of content and activity.

KSOs are the resulting outcome of a number of KPIs combined to create an outcome that is used as a marker of success. Firstly, you should create a rough list of all the possible success outcomes that are relevant to your brand. Then, using the SMART goal system, you should identify from your list of potential goals what are your Key Success Outcomes. SMART goals are:

• Specific: Is the goal clear and singular. Try to avoid multiple results, “we want more site traffic and the positive sentiment”
• Measurable: How are you collecting and generating data from your activity?
• Achievable: Can you do it?
• Realistic: Is this a goal that is realistic for the business?
• Timely: Can you achieve results within your given time period?

SMART goals are important for your organization as they are the successful outcomes on which your performance on digital channels will be measured.

For any organisation there are three levels of success:

1. Low Level: your subordinates’ success should be measured in shorter time periods. Establishing weekly goals and objectives that are achievable.
2.Mid Level: These would be goals for yourself. What do you need to achieve during your own review period? Don’t forget that the goals set for you are the ones that management perceive as the most important. Reach your goals and it becomes easier to sell in further investment.
3. High Level: These are the priorities for senior management. These are normally long-term results. If possible, you should limit the high powers to reviewing social twice a year. Any shorter and their expectations may not be met. Try to encourage time to prove results.

For any organisation there are three levels of success:

1. Low Level: your subordinates’ success should be measured in shorter time periods. Establishing weekly goals and objectives that are achievable.
2.Mid Level: These would be goals for yourself. What do you need to achieve during your own review period? Don’t forget that the goals set to you are the ones that management perceive as the most important. Reach your goals and it becomes easier to sell in further investment.
High Level: These are the priorities for senior management. These are normally long-term results. If possible, you should limit the high powers to reviewing social twice a year. Any shorter and their expectations may not be met. Try to encourage time to prove results.

Handling Digital Strategy Reviews: How It Should Be Done (+Examples)

Digital Marketing Reviews are an important part of the strategic process. Before you begin building the strategy, it’s important that review timelines are set in stone with the teams. It is sometimes important to put reviews in calendars for the year so everyone clearly knows during what period they are being measured. It is also an important part of ensuring that teams are adhering to the guidelines and the strategy set. Everything should be guided by specific timelines, activities and reviews!

Through consistent measurement, you have the ability to identify performance levels and make decisions on them. Underperforming content and tactics can be addressed. Improve content or at times scrapping activity that just isn’t working.

It is important to capitalize on strengths as much as weaknesses. Quite often, the focus is on improving underperformance. The opportunity is to also focus on positive performance. Strong performances give insight into a positive area of engagement. Can it be built on? Can it be made even stronger? Can we optimize through media, creative or process?

How will you spot your weaknesses? Over time you will begin to learn what your benchmark is. You will have the measure of what is good and what is bad. You will use these measures to spot what is underperforming. When something is underperforming, you should try to assume why that is the case, then adapt the message, copy or creative, and finally see how it performs.

In my last article, I have featured a clear phasing plan. It is from this plan that you decide when reviews should happen. In one document, it should clearly lay out the purpose of each phase, the activity occurring through the year and investment by time period/quarter/campaign.

It is so important to give the strategy room to breathe. Strategies in digital should operate for at least two years in an iterative process. Ideally, three-year visions for digital will result in long-term business success. Too many brands rush things on digital and as a result, they see early successes but it is not sustainable. If they don’t see the commercial return they can also revert back to traditional practices.
Remember, strategy takes time and commitment to building performance!

 Mobile Friendliness And Responsiveness : The Differences (+Examples)

Mobile-Friendly versus Responsive: mobile-friendly is a different version of a website that is shown to mobile users. Responsive means the website design is formatted to its ideal fit for the screen it’s on. Responsive is ideal and Google recognizes both as being optimized for the mobile user. Think of mobile-friendly as a step between nothing at all and a responsive site.

• Create a mobile-first experience through responsive design
• CTAs focused on mobile users (e.g. location and contact information)– what a user is looking for on mobile is different than what they are likely looking for on desktop. It also affects their checkout time availability.
• Content that is based on what a mobile user would be looking for. For instance, they may not want to view blog posts first if it’s an informative website about a local business– they are more likely to be looking for a phone number, address, reviews, and other info that allows them to make a decision “on the go” about the business (e.g. whether or not to go there versus its competitors).

The basics of an effective copy are:

• Clear: the purpose of the copy should instantly be understandable. For instance, “We offer air conditioning units to restaurants and hotels” is clear, versus “Our top-of-the-line system offers the highest possible AC performance for your hospitality business.”
• Enticing: the copy should pique the user’s interest. It should make them curious to complete the CTA or learn more about the offering. For instance, “We offer award-winning, certified air conditioning units to restaurants and hotels. No other competitors offer our same 10-year warranty.” is much more interesting, versus “Our top-of-the-line air conditioners are perfect for your restaurant or hotel.” You must explain why in an intriguing way to get your point across.
• Unique: be sure to point out how your products, services, and what you offer is different than your competitors. Be specific. How does what you offer to stand out from everyone else? For instance, “We stand behind our restaurant and hotel air conditioning units. No other competitors offer our same 10-year warranty.” versus “We outperform our competitors with our air conditioning units.”

Each website page should:

• Be easy to read through proper website design and layout: the layout should be intuitive and not make it difficult to read the content and interact with the website. The design and layout should have the sole focus of making the experience easy and seamless for the user.

• Be easy to find through proper website architecture and optimization: the user should immediately be able to find what they are looking for in a few clicks. Some designers and developers follow the three-click rule, which means a user should be able to find whatever they are looking for on a website within three taps or clicks (essentially 3 pages). This is disputed though– see references below for more insight.

• Be easy to understand through proper website content and layout: as mentioned in the previous slides, a copy needs to be easy to understand but keep up the user’s interest at the same time. Be specific and don’t overwhelm the user with too much information that users aren’t actually interested in. Most users only care about what is directly important to them, so cater to their needs.

• Include a call-to-action on each page: on every blog post and content, the page includes a call-to-action that is directing the user to complete a conversion or go to a related page with more information. For instance, if there was a landing page that was about a specific air conditioning model for pizza restaurants, your conversion could be completing an appointment form for a sales call or a contact form to request a pricing estimate for a specific business.

• Pages work together: pages with similar content should link together in a logical way to be as effective as possible.

A/B Testing In SEO: How To Test Website Elements Effectively (+Examples)

In my previous article, I looked at some of the facts that you need to know about web designing. In this article, I want to look at all that you need to know about A/B Testing in SEO. Follow me as we will look at this in this article.

What then is A/B Testing?

A/B testing means comparing two different elements of a website to determine what gets more clicks, conversions, and engagement.

This could include:

Pricing: lower versus higher sales

• Offers: a percentage discount versus a set amount off discount (could equate to the same or different values)
• Colours: e.g. does a patterned background make users buy more than a grey background?
• Placement of CTAs on the page
• Timing of animations or pop-up banners: 5 seconds versus 10 seconds

Here we see several examples for where A/B testing can be used:

• CTAs: For example, a green CTA box versus a red CTA box, or different offers, such as 50% off versus $50 off for a $100 item.
• Headlines: You could write two different headlines for a blog post and test both of them to see which one gets more click-throughs.
• Graphic elements: You could test illustrations against stock imagery and see which works best for your audience.
• Wording & content: Which works better for your audience, a long landing offer page or a short and concise one?
• Type of promotion or offer: For example ‘Buy one get one free’ versus ‘$50 off when you spend over $100’.

Some CMS, like WordPress, have plugins that will do the A/B testing for you or there are tools like Optimizely that you can set up to run an A/B test on your site.
Remember: It’s important to only test one element at a time!

A/B testing can be ineffective if too many tests are running at once: running more than one A/B test on a website doesn’t give us a clear picture of what actually worked.

Be sure to only run one test at a time:
Running more than one A/B test on a website doesn’t give us a clear picture of what actually worked.
A/B testing plugins for WordPress (for WordPress sites only):

• NelioABTesting.com: good for testing different elements on a WordPress site
• SimplePageTester.com: focused more on testing landing pages

Other tools that can implement A/B testing include:

• Optimizely: works across several different types of websites
• Five-second test: only offers initial impressions (the first 5 seconds) to gather users’ first impressions
• VWMO- test duration calculator: calculates how long to run a test

There are more examples below in the resources. Whatever test works best for you depends on your CMS, budget, and what you want to test.

A/B testing WordPress plugin examples:

• NelioABTesting.com
• SimplePageTester.com
• https://conversionxl.com/blog/ux-research-and-ab-tests/

More A/B test tools:

• https://www.optimizely.com/
• https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1745152?hl=en
• https://fivesecondtest.com/
• https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-ab-theme-split-tests/
• https://vwo.com/ab-split-test-duration/

#1 Pick one variable to test: this could be something like CTA button colour, page layout, or campaign offer (e.g. $50 versus 10% off, even though they are the same value).

#2 Choose your goal: what do you want to accomplish with this test? Choosing a specific goal will help you determine whether or not making these changes permanent will make a difference. An example of a goal would be: “Increase conversions 5% in the next 8 weeks.” Make sure it is specific and actionable.

#4 Set up your control and your challenger: only test one thing at a time, and always have a “control,” where the element doesn’t change. This is so you can make sure that a specific element actually makes a difference or not. For instance, if you wanted to test your offer, you would keep your “control” as your existing offer, say, $50. That would be the “A” in the A/B test. Then, you test the “B” part of the test, the challenger, like 10%.

  #5 Split your sample groups equally and randomly: you must have the same sample size in order to have a proper test. If one side was bigger than the other, then it may have the advantage.

#5 Determine your sample size: figure out how big your sample sizes are going to be. This is dependent on what you’re testing. For instance, if it was through email, the number of email subscribers helps determine the sample size (e.g. If you have 1000 email subscribers with a 4% click-through rate on average, you can assume 40 people will click through to the landing page you’re testing. This would mean 20 would be shown in test A (the control) and 20 would be shown test B (the challenge), on average. In most cases, the A/B test software randomizes or alternates it.

For instance, if we tested both the promotional offer and the headline of the landing page at the same time, and got a higher conversion rate, we don’t know if it was the headline OR the promotional offer that actually caused the higher conversion rate.

Be sure to only run one test at a time:

Running more than one A/B test on a website doesn’t give us a clear picture on what actually worked.
A/B testing plugins for WordPress (for WordPress sites only):

• NelioABTesting.com: good for testing different elements on a WordPress site
• SimplePageTester.com: focused more on testing landing pages

Other tools that can implement A/B testing include:

• Optimizely: works across several different types of websites
• Five-second test: only offers initial impressions (the first 5 seconds) to gather users’ first impressions
• VWMO- test duration calculator: calculates how long to run a test

There are more examples below in the resources. Whatever test works best for you depends on your CMS, budget, and what you want to test.

A/B testing WordPress plugin examples:

• NelioABTesting.com
• SimplePageTester.com
• https://conversionxl.com/blog/ux-research-and-ab-tests/

More A/B test tools:

• https://www.optimizely.com/
• https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1745152?hl=en
• https://fivesecondtest.com/
• https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-ab-theme-split-tests/
• https://vwo.com/ab-split-test-duration/

Unknown Facts About Video And Display Advertising

Video and Display are awareness-generating digital channels that combine the science and precision of online audience targeting with the emotional engagement of audio/video and creative visual formats. First, we must understand that video and display are awareness of generating digital channels. They combine both the science and precision of online audience targeting, which means highly relevant, effective campaign performance, with the emotional engagement of audio/video and creative visual formats that capture the attention of the audience and make the most of your advertising placements.

If you aren’t sure whether to consider display or video advertising in your advertising strategy, consider the benefits these activities can bring:

• Both display and video have the potential to increase brand awareness for your brand or product amongst your target audience
• You can drive consideration of your brand or product within your target audiences with visual advertising formats
• Create purchase intent for products or services with highly targeted advertising that clearly displays your product
• You can choose to increase reach (broad or narrow) for your content across a target audience, and drive frequency of exposure to reinforce your brand messaging
• Engage and re-engage with customers via display or video remarketing, which can mean upselling additional products to past customers or encouraging non-converting website visitors to complete their purchase
• You have the opportunity to choose from multiple types of ad formats to fit your advertising needs
• Video especially can be utilized to complement TV buying strategies and in some cases, video campaigns can extend TV advertising activity by introducing your content to online audiences that otherwise may not have been exposed to your ad.

It is important to distinguish display and video advertising, which are “push channels” that spread a message, from search engine marketing which is a “pull channel” that captures existing demand.

Both display and video advertising serve ads to people who are on websites/YouTube and match your audience targeting criteria. They may not be in the market for your product at this precise moment in time in the way a potential customer performing a search would be. However, they fit your target audience profile and may have the potential to become a customer in the future, hence the awareness driving function of display and video.

Video advertising is a branch within display advertising and has slightly different bidding mechanisms to display, and as we will see in further examples, it not only drives awareness but also engages audiences with its audio and visual elements.

Search serves ads to people who are actively seeking your product and show a certain amount of consumer intent for your products or services, this indicates they are already aware of your product(s), like it, and have already started to consider making a purchase.

The search network is considered to reach people at the end, or near the end, of the buyer’s journey. On the other hand, display and video can reach people at all stages of the buyer’s journey – particularly reaching them at the beginning and potentially finding new customers who were unaware of your product or service.

Both display and video advertising serve ads to people who are on websites/YouTube and match your audience targeting criteria. They may not be in the market for your product at this precise moment in time in the way a potential customer performing a search would be. However, they fit your target audience profile and may have the potential to become a customer in the future, hence the awareness driving function of display and video.

Video advertising is a branch within display advertising and has slightly different bidding mechanisms to display, and as we will see in further examples, it not only drives awareness but also engages audiences with its audio and visual elements.

Search serves ads to people who are actively seeking your product and show a certain amount of consumer intent for your products or services, this indicates they are already aware of your product(s), like it, and have already started to consider making a purchase. The search network is considered to reach people at the end, or near the end, of the buyer’s journey. On the other hand, display and video can reach people at all stages of the buyer’s journey – particularly reaching them at the beginning and potentially finding new customers who were unaware of your product or service.

Including display and video advertising in your advertising activity is extremely important. Display advertising has the potential to put your ad onto thousands of websites and in mobile apps, ranging from large websites to smaller niche websites against related content and interested audiences.

With video advertising, the user can choose what to watch – meaning you can have a captive audience of engaged viewers among those who choose to view your ads. This activity is made even more efficient when we consider that with YouTube, the advertiser only pays when the user chooses to engage – so we only pay when our advertising is being well-received.

save money. I also pay my bills with ease, you should try it out too

Generating Content Topics That Ranks: How To (+Examples)

As a content writer, I don’t know whether it has happened to you. There are times that you would like to write and you would not know what to write about. It is very possible you don’t just know what might be of importance to you. You just need to know what your audience might be interested in before you start writing at all. In this article, I want to talk about ways of generating content topics that ranks. Follow me as I will explore this in this article. 

Activities
Brainstorming: First and foremost, you need to gather teams together to brainstorm a selection of topics that can be narrowed down at a later stage.
Social Listening: Furthermore, you have to listen to your audience to find out what content they like, dislike or need to solve a particular problem.
Community Engagement: Also, you need to reach out to your audience and find out what content they would like from you.

https://youtu.be/PBKuzhSbV14

Tools
Tools like Pinterest, StumbleUpon and RSS feeds are fantastic resources to find content topic ideas. We will look at these tools a little later as they can also be used for content curation.
Bodyform, the women’s health brand, used social listening to help them create a piece of content that has reached over 6m people around the world.

How did they do it?

• They identified an opportunity through the comments of an individual on social media about what they considered misrepresentation in their ads
• They created a tongue-in-cheek video to respond to the user and showed utility in entertainment and brand personality
• It worked for them as they stayed true to their position of female empowerment and being brutally honest.

Content Calendars

Content calendars are a central document for mapping out social media content across platforms, days, times and objectives for a given period.

Benefits of using a content calendar in your organization include:

#1 Plan

The use of a content calendar in writing will allow you to plan ahead. It will help you to prevent a situation where you have to write on impulse. It will allow you to come up with an extensive article that converts leads to customers.

#2 Prevents writer’s block
Writer’s block is a situation where a writer, want to write but you are not able to come up with reasonable content. When you plan ahead before you write your content, you will not run blank when writing. This will improve the quality of content coming from your stable.

#4 Stay on track

Having a content strategy in play will also keep social content on track across multiple platforms and re-align the aim/strategy. With it, you can actually choose a theme of discussion for a particular month and decide how those topics will be discussed across different social media platforms. This will allow you to remain focused all through.

#4 Focus
in addition, a good content marketing strategy will allow you to remain focused. You would have drafted ahead some of the contents that will be posted across different social media platforms. It gives you the opportunity to remain focused on your content. You can prioritise your actions and see how you can engage your audience in order to get better results.

#5 Keep team focused

Another major benefit of content calendars is that they will keep your team focused on the assignment. With this, it is very easy for the theme to determine what will be their focus for a particular period of time. They can now work on how these goals can be achieved. This will greatly achieve team members achieve their stated goals.

#6 Alignment

Furthermore, having a content calendar will allow key dates for functional messaging and topical personality content. It will allow the organisation to align all their social media platforms so that there can be uniformity when it comes to what is being posted on all the social media platforms. 

All good content calendars will include five key elements which cover the who, what, where, when and how of your content.

• Copy: the text or narrative that goes with your post (be mindful that some platforms like Twitter have character limits so you’ve to be more succinct) this also allows you to sense-check grammar and typos
• Creative: the image, video, gif, poll or format that accompanies your copy
• Theme: who this content is for, and what purpose, pain point or audience interest is this content serving? This reminds you to stay on track and be relevant!
• Date/Time: when the post is being published and how long it’s being promoted for. Be sure to include relevant time zones, daylight savings, bank holidays and any other vital notes in relation to time.
• Platform: how the content is being published and where e.g. via Facebook Scheduler on Friday at 8 am.

Steps involved…

#1 Plan for the month
in order to have a good content marketing strategy in place, you have to make sure that you plan for the entire month. This will give you ample time for the implementation of all the plans that you have. It also ensures that you don’t spend the whole month planning without implementation. 

#2 Create a simple spreadsheet
There is a need for you to create a simple spreadsheet that covers all your plans. This spreadsheet might also contain a copy of all the contents that you plan to post across all social media platforms. You just copy and paste from there to your media platforms. 

#3 Add many details 

in posting your content, you need to ensure that you include as many details as possible. When you are detailed about your contents and its implementation, it will allow whoever will implement those plans to have enough details that he needs in order to implement those plans effectively. 

#4 Edit and amend
After you might have published your content calendar, you need to continue to review it so that it can be in tune with the reality on the ground. At times, you may need to send it to your team and try and get their input. This will ensure that you carry everyone along as you move on with the plan.

Aligning your content calendar with business activities is key. Consistency and alignment across your social channels with any consumer-facing messaging will add continuity and a brand narrative for users that is easy to follow regardless of whichever touchpoint they come into contact with you.

Key considerations would be:

• Your business priorities and timelines including any new products or promotions
• Any PR, Above Line advertising or Marketing activities
• Sponsorship of any description of your business
• In-store promotions
• Time of year you’re seeding your content to obtain relevancy. Consider the time of year your content is being seeded and the content needs of your audience at any particular time for a way of accessing their need state, e.g. at Christmas party invitations template, topics like gifting ideas and festive recipes are popular with B2C audiences online.

Content calendars can be weekly or monthly spreadsheets. The best practice is to embed any creative e.g. images or stills from videos into the spreadsheet. Timings paid support, target audience and target channel are all worth including.
 Designing a calendar template:

• Plotting out how your content themes will spread across the month
• Seeking input from all stakeholders
• Creating the content: imagery, video, text
• Plotting paid support where necessary

Another helpful feature is to keep a rolling spreadsheet and create a new template for each week or month. This will help keep content in the same place for easy reference.
Before creating your content calendar, it’s important to identify stakeholders for input of ideas, thoughts and recommendations on content. This will lead to a more rounded calendar and prevent potential future issues by allowing for:

• Accurate reflection of the business: content marketing should be fully representative of the full business
• Assistance in content ideas: never under-estimate the valuable input of colleagues in other areas of the business
• Easier approval flows: for internal sign-off

Content calendars should allow the inclusion of:

• An in-house editorial team of stakeholders

üCustomer Service, PR/Comms, Advertising, IT, Legal & Compliance, Product Business, Marketing, Digital / Social Media, Mobile, Web team, Sales

• Client (if applicable)
• Creative Team
• Media / Investors (if applicable)

   

  Fact Check Policy

  CRMNuggetsis committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent, and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.

  Become Part Of ourFan Base on Facebook. Click Here.
  Follow Us on Twitter.Click Here.
  Many Crypto. One place. UseRoqqu

  Hi, I now use RavenBank to send, receive and save money. I also pay my bills with ease,you should try it out too

  OUR MISSION

  To create well-reached contents that will increase the intellectual prowess of our readers.

  OUR VISION

  To become a reference point in the blogging space by the year 2030. We want to be among the first 30 blogs in Nigeria.

  Official Social Media Pages for crmnuggets.com

  To Get Email Updates when we post new content,Click Here.

Content Management System: How It Can Be Used To Manage Contents

A Content Management System, or CMS, is a web application designed to make it easy for non-technical users to add, edit and manage content on a website.

Not only do Content Management Systems help website users with content editing, but they also take care of a lot of “behind the scenes” work, including making content searchable and indexable on search engines such as Google (increasing its visibility and reach).

Content Management Systems offer the ability to enhance content through professional pre-designed templates and plugins such as social share buttons and “Click To Tweet” functions. They also facilitate personalization and responsive design, which is particularly important considering half of all emails are now opened on smartphones and tablets – a 500% growth rate over four years, according to QuickSprout.

Ultimately, a well-chosen CMS can help guarantee a positive customer experience as they consume your content. Popular offerings include: WordPress, Drupal, and Percolate.

A content management system is a single platform that allows a user to control content publishing to a website.

The benefits of Content Management Systems include:

• Automation: saves time
• Cross-publishing: allows for consistent messaging
• Content creation (if applicable): some platforms allow you to create content within them which reduces additional software investment

Task assignment: you can flag tasks to different team members

Some common examples of website CMS platforms:

WordPress: WordPress powers a full 25% of all websites worldwide, making it the planet’s most popular CMS. WordPress has become much more than a blogging platform. It can be accurately described as full-featured CMS with tons of options to add plugins that increase features and functionality. It increasingly powers larger corporate sites, and medium businesses as well as personal blogs. It is relatively easy to set up and has a wide range of support and training materials available (much of it is free).

ExpressionEngine: ExpressionEngine is a multi-purpose content management system with a modular web platform that offers three tiers of licenses: Freelancer, Non-Commercial, and Commercial. One of its benefits is its ease of use. Practically, this means that anyone can use it, without having to know PHP, the programming language EE is built in. The user interface is designed to make websites and content management as simple and friendly as possible, without sacrificing the dynamic power of the platform in any way.

Percolate: Percolate provides software to help teams successfully execute their marketing strategy. Percolate allows you to connect your content plans with the rest of your marketing initiatives. It has a centralized system from where you can coordinate your global content efforts, deliver better marketing results, and deepen customer relationships.

Considerations:

• Dynamism: how easy is it to edit the content? How much access have you had? How integrated is it across the digital and social web?
• Intuitive: how easy is it to use? Is it too complex or technical? It shouldn’t require too much technical know-how.
• Cost: CMS systems all come with an investment cost – what makes sense for your business? Does it provide value to your business or is it an expense you do not need?

Make sure to try out a few before you make a decision. Most CMS platforms will have a free trial option that will allow you time to see if the platform is right for you.

10 Content types And Formats For Marketers (+Examples)

There’s a whole host of content formats available to marketers. These can be grouped into format by Visual, Text, Audio and Review. There’s further specific detail on each format later in this article.

Visual content: the web is a visual medium and as such, most amounts of content formats are visually driven.

The most innovation in content comes in the visual format space. Designing visual content to be responsive to the computer, tablet and mobile screens has become an important consideration for all content creators as the user experience in relation to content is an important decider in retaining audiences.

#1 Whitepapers

• These are great knowledge-sharing resources that can help you build thought leadership and credibility in your industry. They’re a strong lead generation tool and can be a great awareness tool too.
• Make sure to educate readers by focusing on an industry topic that is relevant. Provide solutions based on research, insights and facts – a badly researched and flawed white paper could do damage. Make sure to keep the look, feel and language on-brand with your business e.g. “We at Coca-Cola did some research and found…” instead of “I researched…”
• Always include a logical link back to your business or website. For example, if you were a law firm, you wouldn’t do whitepaper research on sugar consumption. You might, however, do a white paper on the legal requirements for a business around calorie declarations on menus. Whitepapers can be text-heavy, so make sure to ease the reader’s job with interesting and high-quality visuals to break up any potential monotony in reading.
• Leveraging user data like email addresses for mailing lists or a social media endorsement to gain access to your whitepaper could be a consideration. Ultimately this could achieve a lower reach for your content but there is a better payoff for your dissemination of content. There are both arguments for and against. A potential avenue could be sharing part of a whitepaper to bait audiences in and then introducing a gate for the full report.

Typically whitepapers will:

• Focus on customer’s pain points
• Demonstrate solutions
• Keep to consistent company branding
• Include links to your website
• Include strong CTAs
• Use clear, crisp visuals
• Publish in. PDF format
• Consider gating content

#2 Ebooks

eBooks:

• These are usually shorter and more interactive than whitepapers. They generally focus on multimedia content and nice “how-to” guides rather than thought leadership pieces that aim to build utility and trust.
• They’re generally easier to distribute than whitepapers. Add a creative commons license for your e-Book to allow for sharing by third parties and make sure to amplify through your social channels.
• eBook formats are more likely to be read as they contain functional benefits that businesses can implement immediately rather than whitepapers which are a little more cerebral and require more dissection to process.

eBooks typically:

• Focus on customer’s pain points
• Demonstrate solutions
• Use of engaging multimedia and graphics
• Include links to your website
• Strong CTAs
• Experiment with formats
• Don’t gate content to help the message travel

#3 Infographics

Infographics:

• Are a great way to use data to tell a story
• More engaging than figures and visually appealing
• Can be used as longform singular content or split into social assets with additional motion graphic elements added.

Typically infographics should:

• Focus on 8 – 12 pieces of data
• Have references as the footnote on how the data was collated
• Use as many graphic elements as possible rather than just numbers and stats

#4 Blogs

• Allows businesses to journal their activity through long-form text and imagery
• Blogs have the added benefit of increasing SEO ranking when considered keyword dispersal is used
• Blog content also allows reasons for third-party websites to link back to your website which is beneficial for SEO ranking
• Case studies are often featured in blogs to drive thought leadership and credibility in business

#5 Images

• Are an effective content format within any digital presence
• Allows brands to convey a simple message with strong branding
• Consideration around resizing for “no click previews” on social platforms and also file sizes
• Optimum image sizes per platform change all the time so make sure to stay updated on platform changes
• Facebook’s 360 images allow static panoramas to be mapped into a social post and are really effective for content pieces like skylines or cityscapes.

#6 Interactive Content 

Interactive Content (Specifically Facebook Canvas):

• Interactive formats like Facebook Canvas allow users to dictate their own journey within a social space
• Limited formats are available for now but results are promising
• Taking over a full mobile screen with an immersive content format has increased clicks within the canvas by up to 500% more than account averages.

#7 Video Content 

Video Content:

• Video content is the number one form of content consumed on the web. 87% of content marketers use video in their online marketing.
• More than 50% of video is viewed on mobile.
• Audience retention rates for video content continue to decrease based on the sheer volume of content audiences are exposed to. Generally speaking, 20-30 seconds is the recommended length for brand videos which means:
• Simple narratives
• Easy to understand
• Branding within the first 5 seconds
• Disappearing or Ephemeral Video:

Snapchat Video
10m videos are viewed on Snapchat a day. However, the format only exists for 24 hours.

The platform allows for full-screen vertical video with additional features such as lenses (CGI animated overlays that interact with user-generated video) and filters (graphic overlays that brand onto a video). Videos are only 10 seconds long, however, they can be stitched together in a series of six videos to create a story on the platform.

If using Snapchat for your content marketing it’s worth investigating the audience usage in your market. The platform skews heavily to a youth audience from 16-20 so make sure the platform is right for you. Also, analytics and click-throughs are limited on the platform with self-serve advertising not currently available. Paid media on the platform can cost from $30,000 upwards for 3 x 24-hour slots for branded filters and up to $75,000 for branded lenses. Branded interstitials, full-page static video formats, exist as advertising on the platform.

Instagram Stories
Having replicated a number of features of Snapchat stories, Instagram stories sit as a format within the main Instagram app. Each user has a top menu that runs horizontally (as opposed to Instagram’s normal vertical feed) for a 24-hour life span and runs at a maximum of 15 seconds.

Similar filters exist on the Instagram Stories platform as well as full-page interstitials.

Initial reports have shown globally that daily usage of Instagram Stories has overtaken Snapchat as a platform for users so far.

Many have theorised that the reasons for this are easier to place advertising from brands, the existing utility and audience of Instagram and the ability to cross-promote content between Facebook considering the brand is the owner of Instagram.

Facebook Stories
These are the same format as Instagram stories but sit within Facebook in the exact positioning of Instagram stories.

Live Video
Facebook Live, Twitter’s Periscope, Instagram stories, Snapchat Live Stories and YouTube Steams have opened up a world of live streaming to content marketers to allow brand followers insight into the raw real-time activities of businesses.

Key considerations around this though are that the format can’t be promoted currently other than supporting posts and in a live context. Planning is crucial to make sure you have high-quality content.

360 Video
Facebook and YouTube both allow for full 360 formats within videos allowing users to see all around them.

This takes a lot of resources and planning to do well but can be a very effective format. Great examples of this include Disney’s Star Wars 360 which shows an alien planet.

Key considerations:

Video objective: an emotive brand film that’s worth investing in long-form vs short-form short and simple brand message.

Seeding platform: YouTube for longer pieces versus Facebook for 20sec versus Snapchat/Instagram Stories for 10-15sec.

Subtitles: 75% of video is watched in silent autoplay via mobile – consider using these for videos with dialogue.

#8 Articles

Articles are long-form social posts that help to build thought leadership or expertise in a particular area. They are very effective in driving conversation, and gaining additional perspectives and insight from peers within the same vertical.

LinkedIn and Facebook offer the facility to create long-form articles at present which factor in text, imagery and video into their creation.

In the example here I published an article on Instagram stories being launched in late 2016 and the implications it would have for Snapchat’s business model.

The statistics visible by the icons next to the author byline allow users to identify views, likes, comments and shares.

• It’s important to have a snappy and succinct title
• Articles load pretty fast as the content is mostly plain text so be sure to grab your audience’s attention in the first paragraph
• Engage with comments on articles to continue to amplify your credibility and expertise in the subject area.

#9 Templates and Checklists

Templates and Checklists:
These can be handy formats to help your audience and show them thought leadership.

The example shown here from Hubspot is a quick cheat sheet to content optimum sizing per platform. Why do they work for you?

• They add utility to your audience. They’re often something that can be saved down and kept for future use. Include branding and they won’t forget the brand that helped them out with useful assistance.

• Research what your audience’s pain points are so what you’re creating for them actually provides assistance and shows true effort on your part to understand the challenges of your audience.

#10 Webinars

Webinars:

• These online seminars can help you connect to your audience in a human way by putting a face/voice to your offering. The feeling of dedicated care that an individual can get out of a webinar helps build a relationship with your potential customer.

• Theme your webinars on a specific topic that you are an expert in and use visual aids e.g. videos, animations or PowerPoints over screenshare to talk them through how to solve their business need or educate them in a specialized area.

• Allow time for Q&A and discussion on their experiences. Be warned though, if you aren’t sure of the area you’re giving a webinar on, a Q&A could be tricky so be prepared in advance.

• Lastly, always provide a takeaway e.g. a follow-up email with the presentation you delivered or an invitation to ask more questions. Webinar audiences are investing their time in listening to your expert insight so maximize this opportunity as much as possible.

#11 Podcasts

Podcasts:
With the rise in online audio streaming from platforms like Spotify and SoundCloud, podcasts have become more and more popular. Globally, listenership has risen to 24% of online users with an audience of 18-54, affluent and educated individuals.

Podcasts are the perfect format to build your thought leadership on a topic. Make sure of the following:

• The quality of audio is high
• Each podcast has a discussion area or a theme
• Invite guest participants to add their insight and have discourse.

Be aware that a large volume of podcasts are consumed on the go e.g. commuting, so provide additional information like web links referenced in a supporting article that users can access after the show.

Also, there’s a great opportunity for content repurposing from podcasts where a 20-30 soundbyte could be transformed into a social object e.g. an image or a particular conversation point could be explored more widely in a follow-up blog post.

3 Components To Test Before Website Release (Examples)

In my previous article, I talked about some of the factors that you need to consider when you are trying to develop a website. In this article, I want to release take the time to talk about some of the components that you need to test before you release a website to a production environment.

You should note that testing this component will increase customer experience and boost customer satisfaction on your website. It will also guarantee that customers are coming back for repeat purchases. This will definitely increase revenue and boost the conversion rate on the website. Without wasting much time, let us look at some of these components together in this article.

What to test…

#1 Test on Browsers

The very first thing that you need to do is to test your website on different browsers and be sure that they are working perfectly. Definitely, you are aware that the majority of your users are coming from search engines and they are likely to be mobile phone users. You will not want a situation where your website is not opening well on their browsers.

You should not assume that it will open well. You need to actually open your website on Safari on MAC OS, Firefox on Windows 7, and Internet Explorer on Windows 7. Try as many combinations as possible and be sure that your website opens very well on those browsers.
 

#2 Mobile devices

Another major factor that you should try and consider is the interest of your mobile users. You need to know that majority of your mobile users will be accessing your website from their mobile phones. You need to be sure that your website is mobile responsive. It is also good that you ensure that your website has easy navigation for mobile users.

 They should be able to find what they are looking for easily. That is why you really need to work on the satisfaction of your mobile audience. Please find out how long it takes for your website to load on mobile phones. You need to decide on what you need to do in order to increase the satisfaction rate of your mobile audience.

#3 Login error

Also, you need to test your website for login errors. If your website happens to be a website where users will have to sign up for an account and they will be sent an activation code or link, you need to make sure that those technologies are not generating errors. You can actually attempt to sign up on your own and see how smooth the whole process is from the beginning to the end of the entire signup process.

#4 General Error handing

You also need to consider the general error handling process of the website. You should know some of the errors that are being generated on the website and how the server actually responds to some of these errors. You should also try to probe further the cause of some of these errors. This will assist you to know whether some of these errors can be traced to the theme you are using or the preferred hosting site that you have chosen as well.

#5 Session expiration and Gateway timeout

Another kind of test that you need to carry out on your website has to do with session expiration and Gateway timeout. There is a need to consider the general reaction of your website when a user stays longer on your website. You need to also consider the reaction of your website when users sign up or download files among others on your website. What are the actions that will actually warrant logging out of legitimate users? You need to consider whether such actions are tenable or not. All these have to be tested before the website is released to end users.

#6 Multiple language support

I have said it in one of my articles that when you are developing a website, you need to consider your end-users. When it happens that your website will have to accommodate users that are from different countries, you have to consider language support for your users. You need to consider language support for your audience.

You have to also peruse some of the languages translations and make sure that they are properly done. Many times that I have used Google Translate on my blogs in the past, I have observed that they have issues with their Yoruba language translation. I don’t know if that has been addressed.

 
Other elements that you need to test include loading time as well as stress testing for the site. This talks about how many users your website can accommodate at a time before it breaks down.

Websites are complex. There are so many things that are easily overlooked, like a broken link or a misspelled word.

And of course, a handful of things could go very, very wrong. Like what if you forget to test an important data capture form and then lose out on generating a bunch of new leads? Or worse, what if you forget to properly set up site redirects, and those valuable search engine visitors get a page not found message?

Instead of worrying about the what ifs, wouldn’t it be much easier to have a comprehensive website checklist to run down before every site launch? One that you could use for enterprise websites, microsites, landing pages, and everything in between?

Fortunately, we’ve created just that. Keep reading to learn everything you need to do before, during, and after launching a website. 

What You Should Do Before Beginning Your Site Design

Whether this is your first website that is being built from scratch or you are doing a website redesign, there are a few steps that you should take before hiring a web designer or diving in yourself.

1. Analyze your previous website (if applicable).

In order to make good decisions, you must first understand where you’ve been. That starts with your existing website if you have one. Ask yourself: 

• What is the purpose of a new design or overhaul?
• What haven’t hasn’t been accomplished with this existing site?
• How will a new design serve the new organization?

The answers to these questions can help you identify your gaps, which can then inform goal setting for the new site.

2. Crawl your old site (if applicable) and document its structure. 

You can get an idea of your site’s existing structure, pages, and assets by using a crawling tool such as Screaming Frog. This is a necessary step in creating your website development plan because you’ll have a more concrete view of what pages existed before, what redirects are in place, and what the meta data currently looks like.

3. Obtain benchmark data from your previous website (if applicable), and confirm testing procedures.

Not only will you want to compare how your new site performs compared to the old, but you’ll also want to continue identifying gaps that will provide data-driven insights to aid your new strategy.

Additionally, you’ll want to confirm testing procedures. Soon, you’ll begin testing your website to make sure all the different components are working, everything flows, and there’s a system for tracking bugs and enhancements.

Use a form (like Google Forms) instead of asking people to email their thoughts so the feedback-gathering process is more streamlined. Then, put one person in charge of choosing which bugs to prioritize, and filtering all the creative feedback you receive through the form.

4. Identify your goals for the new design, how you’ll achieve them, and how you’ll measure success.

Once the gaps are fully fleshed out, you can begin crafting your goals for the design. You may come to conclusions such as: 

• The current site is unwieldy, and we need ease of use. 
• The current site no longer looks trendy, so we need a visual refresh. 
• The current site doesn’t perform, so we need a more SEO-friendly structure with a better UX. 

Whatever your goals, you’ll want to understand exactly how a new site will help you achieve them so that you can craft its implementation accordingly.

5. List out action items, roles, and responsibilities.

Make a project management checklist for the website. What content needs to be written? What calls-to-action need to be created? 

Make a master list of the things you need for your website and deadlines for when they should be completed. 

Then, assign each action item to an individual or team. It usually takes a lot of people to launch a website: You have marketers writing the content; designers choosing images and laying out the overall look and feel; a technical team doing all the back-end development. To ensure everyone’s on the same page and there’s no role confusion, you’ll want to lay out a comprehensive plan for what each team or person is responsible for.

One great way to do this is by using the DARCI model, which stands for Decision Maker(s), Accountable, Responsible, Consulted, Informed. It’s a powerful tool that’ll help everyone understand which individual is responsible for completing which action items, which individual(s) or group(s) need to be consulted before any final decisions are made, and who needs to be consulted once a final decision has been made or an action has been taken. 

6. Prepare for worst-case scenarios.

Poll everyone involved in your website launch on their concerns about what could go wrong, and then devise a few backup plans for what to do when — not if — some of these things go wrong.

7. Choose a Solid CMS.

If you’ve never launched a site before, the long list below might intimidate you. However, it actually shouldn’t take too long to run through most of the aspects on this list — especially if you built your website with a solid CMS. 

A CMS, or content management system, often allows you to design a website from a pre-created template, optimize your content for SEO, and edit content after it’s published. If you’ve already built your website, you might have already gained experience with using a CMS. 

But, if you’re still building a website, one way to make going through this checklist less time consuming is by building your pages on a CMS that already does a lot of the work for you.

Alternatively, you can also test out CMS platforms like WordPress, Wix, or even Drupal.

8. Develop a consistent brand.

Decide on a consistent brand message and tone, one that you’re committed to presenting consistently across. This will make you look more legitimate, credible, and memorable.

1. Understand your value proposition.
2. Choose a mission statement, vision statement, and tagline that represents that value as well as your brand identity. 
3. Choose colors and fonts that convey that identity well. 
4. Decide on the type of imagery that you’ll use to further convey your messaging.

9. Create your technical SEO strategy.

Take some time to ensure that your website has been given a solid foundation for SEO success. From site architecture and content hierarchy to metadata and XML sitemaps, do not leave any stone unturned.

1. Perform keyword research and decide what you want to rank for. 
2. Create a content strategy that satisfies those keywords. 
3. Understand how your existing pages (if applicable) can be adjusted and which pages will need to be created new. 
4. Figure out which pages are no longer necessary.
5. Map out where unnecessary pages can be redirected to (using a 301 redirect).

10. Strategize your conversion paths.

Once you have an understanding of the primary pages that will exist on your site, you’ll need to figure out exactly what actions you want users to take and how you’ll capture their information. This includes thinking through: 

• What premium top-of-the-funnel offers are needed
• What bottom-of-the-funnel action will be presented on main pages
• What forms need to be created
• What landing pages and thank you pages need to be created
• How conversions will be tracked
• What actions will happen after a website visitor converts (email responder, etc.)

11. Set up analytics software.

1. Choose which analytics platforms you will be using on the new site.
2. Decide if any previous Analytics tracking scripts will be used or if new accounts/scripts are needed. 
3. Set up new accounts (if applicable).

12. Set a launch date.

Once you have an idea of what needs to get done before the launch, pick a launch date. Give yourself at least a month. Most agencies plan for two-to-three months of research, design, and development.

What to Check Once You’ve Built Your Site

Once you’ve chosen a CMS and built a site that you’re ready to launch, here’s a list of 80 things to check before, during, and after going live. Feel free to copy, edit, and make your own based on the software you’re using to launch and host your website.

Don’t have time to check all 80? Here’s a list of the most important highlights from each section:

We’ve grouped items based on pre-launch and post-launch, making sure to touch on page content, design, functionality, SEO, branding, analytics, security, and compliance. Keep on reading to make sure you don’t forget a thing before your next launch.

Website Pre-Launch Checklist

Before you launch, it’s important to review all of the content on your website with a fine-tooth comb. Of course, that means page content, but don’t forget about your premium content, too. From data-driven content and downloadable documents to rich media such as videos and images, you want to make sure everything is in place, working properly, and looking beautiful.

It’s important to note — you’ll want to set up a staging site to prepare your new website before going live. Staging sites are exact copies of your website on a private server that are used to prepare and proof content and code changes before they go live. The staging site is a place to edit and play around with updates in an environment that’s almost identical to the one that will be live. This is so you don’t have to worry about crashing your site or screwing something up when you make a change.

Later, you’ll sync content and templates between the staging environment and your live website via your content management system (CMS). If you’re a HubSpot customer with the website platform, you’ll find there’s a staging environment built right into the software. It allows you to generate a preview URL of the entire site, so you can click around and test things in context.

1. Make sure text is accurate and error-free.

• Site content has been proofread for spelling and grammar.
• Company contact details are accurate throughout the website.
• Generic content, such as lorem ipsum, has been properly removed and replaced.
• All premium content, such as case studies, ebooks, and whitepapers, have been proofread. Spelling and grammar are correct.
• Copyright date (perhaps in the footer) includes the current year.

2. Replace all placeholder images with final images and designs. 

On occasion, a website designer may use a placeholder image if they didn’t have the correct asset at the time of the page’s creation. It’s up to you to make sure each page is picture-perfect.

3. Ensure copy aligns with the new brand.

• The text has been copy-edited to ensure consistent brand voice and style. 
• All company tag lines and mission statements are up-to-date.

4. Check that all styling preferences have been implemented.

• Paragraphs, headers, lists, and other formatting are correct.
• Brand colors have been implemented correctly, including link and button colors.

5. Ensure your design is aesthetically pleasing.

• Scripts are optimized across web pages.
• Images are optimized across web pages.
• CSS is optimized across web pages.

6. Ensure that rights to images, fonts, and other content have been properly licensed or cited.

Even if you outsourced the design to a web designer/developer, the responsibility falls on you to ensure there are no copyright licensing issues. Otherwise, you could end up with a hefty infringement settlement on your hands.

7. Test the site for User Experience (UX).

• Website pages are compatible across browsers.
• Website pages are compatible across devices.
• Images, videos, and audio files are in the correct places, formatted and working on all devices.
• All premium content, such as case studies, ebooks, and whitepapers, are stored in their proper libraries/databases and work properly.
• Internal links across web pages are working properly. 
• Social media share icons are associated with the correct accounts.
• Company logo is linked to the homepage.

8. Check that the conversion paths have been implemented properly.

• All necessary forms are present. 
• Landing pages and thank you pages have been implemented. 
• The correct buttons and calls-to-action (CTAs) are present in the proper locations. 
• Everything is linked together appropriately.

9. Create your site backup strategy. 

You can prevent loss of data and protect against malware and other damages by properly setting up site security and regular website backups. Check that:

• Backup schedule has been created. 
• Backup location has been identified. 
• A plan for implementation is set to be put in motion after launch.

10. Store passwords and credentials in a secure place. 

Many individuals have likely been involved in the website launch up until this point, so ensure that passwords are reset when the time comes and proper password etiquette is followed.

11. Audit the technical SEO implementation for errors. 

• Pages have unique page titles. 
• Pages have unique meta descriptions. 
• Each page has a specific purpose, and pages meant to rank organically are optimized around a single keyword or set of keywords.

12. Conduct a stress test.

In a typical website redesign, it may not be 100% necessary to do a stress test because the traffic spike may not overrun your server’s capacity. But a stress test (also called a load test) is a must for any company that plans for a large influx of visitors during specific times — such as the holidays or after a major press event. It’ll help you figure out how much simultaneous traffic your website can handle by simulating up to tens of thousands of simultaneous virtual users from different locations around the world.

While stress tests simulate virtual users, the test won’t be totally replicating a real-life scenario — so you’ll want to find a test that brings you as close to reality as possible. Ask a developer which load tests they recommend. Here at HubSpot, many of our developers use JMeter by Apache, but this is a pretty technical tool that’s not ideal for someone who’s new to the concept.

Be sure to notify your host or provider that you want to perform a stress test before you actually do one. Otherwise, your test might look like a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack on your provider. Many providers (including HubSpot) consider an unauthorized load test a violation of terms of service.

User experience is a key aspect of how they view your company, so testing your website before it goes live will bring more confidence that visitors will not be immediately displeased with your offerings. When working with a web development agency, they will ensure that stress testing and other quality assurance measures are implemented to optimize the performance and user experience of your website.

Website Post-Launch Checklist

Let’s say you’ve done it. The button has been pushed, the domain is pointing to the new site, and you’re about ready to tell the world…

But wait just one second because you still have things to check for now that your site is officially live.

13. Test the site for user experience again. 

Just in case there was an issue with the implementation, you’ll want to ensure the experience is consistent with what you reviewed before it went live.

• Ensure your design is rendering as you expected it to across browsers. 
• Ensure your design is rendering as you expected it to across devices. 
• Ensure CSS/HTML is properly validated. 
• CSS styling is rendering properly.
• Favicon is in place and rendering properly. 
• Internal links across web pages are working properly.
• External links across web pages are working properly, and open in a new tab.
• Social media share icons are working properly.
• Feeds are working properly (RSS, news, social media).
• Company logo is linked to the homepage.
• 404 Redirect pages are in place (page-not-found.aspx).

14. Test your conversion path’s functionality.

Take some time to test and validate all of the different features on your website. Lead generation forms, CRM integration, and any other technology should work flawlessly across your website.

• Forms are submitting data properly.
• Thank you message or page displays after form is submitted.
• Form data is being emailed to a recipient and/or stored in a company database.
• Auto-responders are working properly (if applicable).

15. Check that integrations with third-party tools are running smoothly.

Integrations such as your CRM, e-commerce software, and/or marketing platform link to your site and help you run your business. If there is a potential issue that can cause data loss, you don’t want to find out way after the fact. 

16. Make a copy of the final website for backup purposes. 

Now that everything is in place and finalized, you want to have a pristine copy of it should you experience data corruption or loss. 

17. Ensure that backups are running properly. 

Now is the time to check the implementation of your backup strategy. Check that ongoing copies of the website are being created and stored on a regular basis.

18. Make sure your site is secure.

• 24/7 monitoring scripts are installed.
• There’s a plan in place for updating plugins (if applicable). 
• Ensure that all applicable parties are aware of your organization’s password etiquette policies.
• Purchase an SSL certificate if need-be. An SSL certificate takes up to two weeks to purchase and set up, so ensure you have it prior to launch.

19. Comply with all applicable laws.

Make sure your website complies with any applicable laws and regulations. Internet law can be sticky, and each industry has its own set of rules to follow. So it’s best to consult with your legal counsel to make sure you aren’t missing anything — this post is not legal guidance. Here are a few you might need to know about:

• Web pages offer accessibility for users with disabilities (WAI-ARIA).
• Web pages announce if the website uses cookies (required in some countries).
• Website is compliant with usage rights for purchased or borrowed code, images, and fonts.
• Terms and privacy policies are visible to website visitors.
• Website is PCI compliant (if you’re storing and processing credit cards).

20. Crawl the site to ensure no errors happened on launch. 

Compare the crawl to the previous crawl and see if you find any inconsistencies that were not intentional. You’ll also want to ensure that all pages have the proper search engine indexing settings.

Additionally, you’ll want to check for formatting consistency. Sometimes, font codes get dropped into a page accidentally, so you’ll want to scour your site for any of these weird formatting errors. Make sure all your formatting is consistent and there are no weird blips in your copy.

21. Check the technical SEO components for errors.

• Page titles, meta descriptions, and URLs are all present and match the original technical SEO strategy.
• Load time for site pages is optimized.
• A dynamic XML sitemap has been created.
• The XML sitemap has been submitted to search engines.
• Page URLs consistently reflect site information architecture.
• 301 redirects are in place for all old URLs (redirecting old to new pages).
• rel=”nofollow” tags are in place on applicable links and pages.
• Images on the website are properly compressed (which helps with load time). 

22. Optimize your metadata.

• Metadata is properly in place for any content in an RSS feed.
• Metadata is properly in place for any social media sharing content.
• Spelling and grammar are correct in all metadata.
• Alt tags have been added to every image.

23. Set up analytics.

Make sure your website is set up to capture web data and analytics. This valuable information will allow you to continually improve your website going forward, so you don’t want to forget this stuff.

• Your website analytics codes and tracking scripts have been inserted on website.
• Relevant IP addresses have been excluded from analytics tracking.
• Funnels and goals have been properly created in your analytics software (if applicable).
• Google Webmaster and Google Analytics accounts have been properly synced.
• Google Ads accounts have been properly synced (if applicable).

24. Start a post-launch enhancement list.

The website you launch should be functional, well-designed, and well-positioned. But it probably won’t be everything you hoped and dreamed on the first go — and you certainly don’t want to spend months of effort designing a site that people may not react well to. What if your client doesn’t like it? What if conversion rates plummet? That could add up to lost money and effort.

Instead, it’s best to publish a solid website, and then test and build on top of it — a website creation approach known as growth-driven design. Create a document that lists out all the things you can’t get done for the launch itself but want to add in the future, and add features and elements to it as you discover more about how users interact with the site. This you can do by using one of these user testing tools. 

How Do You Announce a New Website Launch?

This (hopefully) wasn’t a vanity project; you did all of this work so far for the benefit of your website visitors, prospects, and existing customers. Your next step is to tell the world about your new site design. Here’s how:

25. Build anticipation with teasers before the site is live. 

A launch of a new product, a launch of a new movie, and — yes — a new site launch all require marketing before the actual release. Think of the last movie you watched in the theater. Did you see the trailer before you decided to buy those movie tickets and popcorn?

Teasers for your website launch can only help to build anticipation and get users wondering what the new experience will be like. This can build buzz and interest once you finally break the news.

26. Create a social media strategy for the announcement. 

Decide what channels you want to promote the news on, how you will make the announcement, and how long the promotion will last.

As you craft your messaging, remember to focus on new features and how they benefit your audience. 

27. Identify exciting ways to promote engagement for the new site. 

For users who aren’t as involved in your brand, a new site launch might not seem like a big deal. Your goal, then, is to make it one. Provide an exclusive offer for the first users who visit the site. Or, create a contest that promotes engaging with the site’s new features. Whatever you choose, make sure you make it fun and interesting.

28. Send an email to your existing database. 

You may want to give existing leads and customers a head’s up about the new design, especially if it will cause any confusion when they next visit. You can break the news as a matter of courtesy but also sneak in ways to underscore the value you’re providing.

You can also alert all stakeholders of the redesign and ask them to spread the word of the new website. 

29. Continue to promote the launch for a month. 

Just because you post about your new website once on social media does not mean that your audience will drop everything to visit the site in droves. Make your launch a big deal, and keep the new functionality top of mind so that your audience is prompted multiple times to check it out.

Resources for Launching Your First Website

Launching a new website can be a tedious task, but you can alleviate some of the stress by using this comprehensive website launch checklist.

If you’re just getting started on your first website, here are a few tools that can help you streamline your process

• CMS: As mentioned above, a CMS can help you design your website, optimize and publish content, and track your analytics once it’s launched. If you’re looking to test out a few CMS options, start by checking out our 14-day free CMS trial.
• Blogging Guides: If you’re interested in using your website to publish a blog that could help you boost brand awareness, it can be helpful to start brainstorming topics. Here’s a great guide to how to be a better blogger with tips from our team.
• Landing Page Templates: A landing page is a great way to highlight a product or resource that your brand is offering. It’s important to know what elements lead to a landing page that will convert. Here’s a guide with examples. Additionally, when using a CMS like HubSpot’s, you can create landing pages from pre-designed templates.

Website Usability: How To Increase Users Mobile Experience 

In my previous article, I talked about some of the factors that you need to consider when it comes to website design. Those elements will assist you in designing a website that meets the need of your target audience. In this article, we will be discussing the concept of website usability. Follow me as we are going to look at that together in this article.

First and foremost, before I will define what website usability is, you need to know that there are some factors that Google considers when it comes to the ranking of a website. Although some of these ranking indices are not open to the general I am pretty sure that most of them revolve around how a user feels when they come to your website.

Google is much more interested in user experience when they come to your website. There is this belief that when you are applying for Google Adsense, the Google Engineers will actually visit your website to see the overall arrangements of your contents and other elements on your website before your website will be approved. If you are not able to meet up the minimum requirements, your website will not be approved. All this boils down to your website usability as well.

Website usability has to do with the process of developing the website in such a way that the website visitors can get what they are looking for. Here, you have to ensure that your website is well arranged so that visitors to your website are able to find what they are looking for.

If I may ask, what is the essence of good content when visitors to your website do not even know that such content exists? I need to also say that, it if is so difficult for your users to discover such content, there is a high probability that even search engines will not be able to discover such content.

The purpose of website usability is to present information in a clean and crisp manner. This goes beyond navigation buttons and tabs, it also has to do with the presentation of your content. You need to ensure that your content is written in good English. You also have to employ the use of subheadings and proper arrangement of your content so that users can easily find what they are looking for on your website.

Also, good website usability will also increase the conversion rate on your website. If you are able to present your information in the right manner such that users are able to understand what the content is all about. I also said in one of my articles that, when you are writing your content, you should try as much as possible to itemize the reasons why your prospects should buy your products and services. It will go a long way in convincing your target audience to buy your products and services.

You should not also forget to make use of signup forms and other means that will guarantee that users are returning back to your website to read more of your content. The email list that you have generated through your signup forms can also be used for what we call Drip Programs when you can be sending content that will allow prospects and customers to get more out of what you have to offer for sale. You should never miss any chances to turn your prospects into customers. This will definitely go a long way in increasing your sales.

Websites Navigation Scheme: How To Make Web Content Accessible

In my previous articles, I have tried to talk about some of the facts that you need to know about website design. In one of my articles as well, I have looked at some of the facts that you need to understand when it comes to website accessibility. In this article, I want to look at some of the facts to consider when it comes to website navigation schemes. Follow me as we are going to look at that together in this article.

A website navigation scheme is a feature on every website that makes it easy for users to find what they are looking for. I have said it in my previous articles, that it is not enough for you to have good content, your users should be able to discover that content without much hassle.

They should be able to find what they are looking for. I also said that if it is difficult for your users to find what they are looking for, it will also be difficult for search engine spiders to discover your content. That is why you have to make your website easy to navigate as much as possible.

When you have a good navigation scheme on your website, it tells your users that you are actually thinking about them. I need to say that what most people are buying in a product is satisfaction. When users feel that you are less concerned about their convenience on your website, they will have the mindset that you will care less about them when they ended up purchasing products and there is an issue with that product.

That means if you care less about the navigation scheme of your website, then you will care less about them.

I don’t know if you have ever wanted to travel to a particular location and are worried that you might miss the road. Some of us will be wary of embarking on that journey. We might want to give tons of excuses to our host on the reasons why we will not be able to make the journey, the same thing applies to a website with a poor navigation scheme.

You need to understand that your website navigation scheme is the roadmap to your website. It allows users to find their way around. It is just like a road sign. Even if you have not visited a place before, the road sign can assist you in navigating around the city.

Types of navigation Schemes…

#1 Hierarchical

This applies to sites that are information-rich and are best organized as a large tree, such as a library. If you noticed my blog for example, because I have many topics to write about, the information is also organized in layers for easy navigation through the entire website.
 

#2 Global

This applies to websites that have less information to offer. Their Tabs are in a kind of straight lines all through. There are no sub-layers at all.
 

#3 Local

This applies to websites that have a depth of information within a larger area. They may have a category that has larger information, this might have sub-layers that are different from Tabs that are available on the website.
 

8 basic navigation schemes for websites and blogs

#1 Embedded text links

You might visit some websites and notice that some texts on that websites seem to have a different colour. Such texts are embedded links that the author of that particular post wants you to visit so that you can have more understanding of the topic discussed.
 

#2 Left/Top Pop UP Drop Down

These are the drop-down menus that are available on the website where you can have access to more content. Most times, when you are on websites, you do not need to scroll down before you will see this drop-down menu which allows you to have access to more content that would have been difficult for you to locate on that website. This allows more content to be discovered.

#3 Tab Navigation

This is another common feature on any website. The Tabs are always arranged at top of the blog. They are used to sectionalize the blog. This allows you to focus more on content that is of special interest to you. I can say that such Tabs allow you to focus more on articles of interest on a website.

#4 Dynamically Generated URLs

At times, you might decide that you want your audience to really enjoy some set of articles and content that you do not want to place on the TAB section of the blog, you can create Dynamically Generated URLs that can be inserted in a TAB link. This will make it easy for users to click on that TAB or link and access such articles.

#5 Graphics Navigation Button

At times, instead of links that are inserted into websites and Tabs, one can decide to create Graphics navigation buttons that users can click on and they will be able to access some content. Let’s take, for example, I am creating a landing page and I have images of some of my previous works or organizations I have transacted business with. I can include images and embed links on it so that users can click on those links in order to read the testimonials.
 

#6 Site map

Most times, in order to make it easier for users and spiders to navigate through your content and find what they are looking for, you can decide to insert a site map or create a link on your website that allows users to navigate your content. This will definitely reduce the bounce rate on your website and assist your users in developing more content.
 

#7 Image Map

At times, your site map can also be in the form of an image map, you can actually design an image that actually tells your users more about your content and guide them in navigating through your website as well. This will ensure that users can easily find what they are looking for on your website.

In many of my previous articles, I have talked about some of the processes that you have to follow when you want to have a good website. In this article, I want to talk about how to develop a strategy and technology for website design. Follow me as we are going to look at that in this article.

#1 Research

One thing is very sure, in my own part of the world, we are so lazy when it comes to carrying out intensive research. I have also observed that for most projects, people do not always take time to consider the alternatives before they will actually choose a particular technology. You need to find time to analyse technology and understand the Pros and Cons of that particular technology before you will actually decide on a particular technology that you will go for.

There are times that people have gone for a particular technology and website development and they later discover that, that particular technology will lead to a lot of complications. You can avoid some of these complications by asking pertinent questions anytime you want to choose any technology.

You need to understand the good, the bad and the ugly side of any technology that you want to adopt. You have to know if you have the required skill sets to manage that particular technology.

What are some of the challenges that you are likely to face in its implementation? All these have to be answered before you can be talking of using a particular method for your website creation.

Also, you will not want to complicate issues for yourself, therefore you need to choose a technology that will make things easier for you. It is observed that most people are always funding choosing technologies that have not been tested. When they now want to use this for website implementation, some issues will start coming up that they will not be able to resolve.

You should try and prevent a scenario where you have to abandon your project because you have issues that you are not able to resolve. Make sure you have answers to all pertinent questions before you embark on your project.

#2 Identify Scope

When it comes to managing projects, there is something we normally referred to as Scope Creep. This happens when new requirements are added to the existing and you have not planned for it.

This will make you spend money on requirements that you have not planned for. You should try and avoid a scenario where scope creep happened in your project. Before you start your project. Make sure that requirements have been gathered and stakeholders have all agreed on the scope of the project. That is when you can now plan on how the project scope will be actualized.

Also, when it comes to managing your project, you need to understand the scope of your project. You need to understand what scope should be included or not included in your project. This will allow you to plan on the successful implementation of your project. Without successful scope management planning, your project will hit a brick wall.

#3 Be realistic

When it comes to website design and implementation, there is a need for you to be realistic with the project. You need to know whether you have the required resources and tools needed to achieve the project objective. Your planning should be based on what your resources can achieve. You should never start what you cannot finish at the end of the day.

In my previous article, I have talked about some of the processes that are involved in website creation, in this article, I want to look at some of the considerations when you are developing user interfaces and content for websites. Follow me as we are going to look at that together in this article.

Some of you might be wondering why user interfaces are very important when it comes to website creation, you need to know that, no matter how colourful or beautiful your website is, users will not return back to your website for more content if they find it difficult to find what they are looking for. If you have a poor conversion on your website and you have done all that you could, the next thing that you should suspect is your poor user interface. Now, let us look at some of the facts that should consider when you are developing your user interface.

#1 Spider friendly content

The very first thing you need to do is to develop contents that are spider-friendly. There is no other good source for traffic than search engines. Nothing beats that. If you have means of monetization on your website and you are not getting traffic from search engines, you will see that your earnings will be very low. So, you need to consider search engines when you are developing your content. You have to write contents that read from left to right and from top to bottom. This will allow Spiders to understand your website and index your contents appropriately.

#2  Create a robot. Txt files

There is a need for you to also create robot.txt files that will also enable search engines to understand your content better. I can say that I personally do not know how to create robot.txt but most times, it also comes with some of the plugins that you are using for Search Engine Optimization. If you are not sure that it has been included, you can actually install a separate plugin that will install robot.txt files on your cpanel.

#3 Title

Also, you need to ensure that the main page of each site should be the title of the page or article. That tells you that nothing should come before the title of the page. You should avoid a situation where other texts appear above the title of the page. This will prevent a situation where you are confusing the spider about what a particular page is all about. It will allow the page or the post to rank better on search engines.

#4 Java code issues
Also, you need to understand that most spiders cannot read Javascript. That is why you should not make Javascript the main script on your website. All Javascripts should be kept in an external file away from search engines. All you need to do is to link those external files where Javascripts are kept. This will ensure that you are not discouraging the spider from indexing your website.

#5 Avoid all-flash website
Also, when you are creating your website, you should avoid a situation where you are creating an all-flash website. A good example of that is when you have too much slider content on your website. It can actually affect the loading time of the website. This might also discourage Search Engines from indexing such websites as well.

#6 Alt text
Also, when it comes to the use of images on your website, you should always cultivate the habit of naming your images. This will assist the spiders to know what the images are all about. You need to know that Search Engines cannot read images. It is the name that you give to images that will allow the spiders to know what the images are all about. This will allow your website to rank better when it comes to image SEO.

#7 Needless Tables

Also, as part of your efforts towards having a good interface on your website, you should not include Tables if now that they will help to buttress your point. When it comes to using tables, it should be your last resort. You should only use it when you feel that, that is the only means of explaining the content better. You should know that you have a different calibre of people visiting your website, if the tone of your conversations is too serious, it may discourage them from revisiting your website.
                                                                                                                                                                                      
Other things to note…

• Repeat menu options in plain text at the bottom of the page if you cannot use CSS.
• Use of hover feature of CSS instead of creating mouseovers
• Define header tags in CSS form and use the header tags for titles and secondary titles within the webpage.
• Use only one h1 tag to avoid spamming the search engine.
• <title><title> is the most important element for the SEO of the web page.
• Avoid pages that are three tables deep. Search Engines always ignore these.
  Fact Check Policy

  CRMNuggetsis committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent, and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.

  Become Part Of ourFan Base on Facebook. Click Here.
  Follow Us on Twitter.Click Here.
  Many Crypto. One place. UseRoqqu

  Hi, I now use RavenBank to send, receive and save money. I also pay my bills with ease,you should try it out too

  OUR MISSION

  To create well-reached contents that will increase the intellectual prowess of our readers.

  OUR VISION

  To become a reference point in the blogging space by the year 2030. We want to be among the first 30 blogs in Nigeria.

  Official Social Media Pages for crmnuggets.com

  To Get Email Updates when we post new content,Click Here.

In my previous articles, I have looked at some of the facts that you need to consider when you need to host your website. In this article, I will be looking at some of the importance of web analytics for advertising and advertisers. Follow me as we are going to look at that in this article.

Now the importance…

#1 Decreasing bounce rate

One of the major benefits of web analytics for advertisers is that it will reduce the bounce rates on the landing. Bounce rate happens when visitors only click on the page that brought them to the website and no other page. When you have good web analytics in place, you will be able to understand the page. You will discover what content your visitors are interested in. This will allow you to sustain your visitors’ interest in your website.

#2 Measuring advertising results

Another benefit of having a good website analytics tool on your website is that it will allow you to measure your advertising results. Most times, you might be in a situation where you have to decide whether you want to continue to run an advertisement or not. If you do not know how the previous campaign has performed, you may not be able to decide whether you are going to continue the campaign or not.
 

#3 Targeting audience

In addition, having good web analytics in place will allow you to determine your target audience. Most times, when you need to determine who your target audience are, you need to analyse your present audience in order to determine who you are really going to target. This will definitely increase the conversion rate for your campaigns.
 

#4 Generating more leads

Also, a good analysis of web analytics will allow you to generate more leads. It will give you an insight into what your audience is really interested in. When you know the pages or posts that your audience are visiting on your website, you will be able to optimize that page in order to drive more audience to your website.
 

#5 Improving browsing experience

Also, having good web analytics in place will definitely improve the browsing experience for your users. From your analytics dashboard, you can determine the browsers that people are using to access your page and decide on the best techniques to adopt in order to boost the browsing experience for your users.

#6 Understanding traffic pattern

Also, web analytics will allow you to understand the traffic pattern for your website. You will be able to identify the exact location where your audience are coming from. This will allow you to work on how those traffic sources can be optimized in order to get more traffic from that source.

 
#7 Driving traffic
Also, analyzing your website analytics will allow you to plan on how you will drive more traffic to your website. Most times, your web analytics will allow you to discover where your traffics are coming from. If you are running ads on your website, you will be able to discover whether you are getting clicks from that particular website. You can also work on how to get more traffic from that website or advertising platform.

#8 Creating good web content

Having good web analytics in place will also assist you in creating good web content for your users. Most times, when you critically examine your web analytics, you will be able to identify the contents that your users are really interested in. This will allow you to write more of those content so as to increase customer engagement on your website.
 

#9 Increasing conversion rate

Also, having a good web analytics strategy in place will also increase the conversion rate on your website. It will allow you to carry out series A/B Testing in order to determine what works and what is not working as far as your landing page is concerned. This will enable you to do all that you need to do in order to increase the conversion rate on your website.

E-commerce websites are a special kind of website where you can buy and sell products online. I want to state categorically from the beginning that it is not all those that opened a website that actually succeeded in making such websites successful. In this article, I want to look at nine elements of e-commerce websites that you cannot do without. Follow me as we will be looking at those elements one after the other in this article. 

There is no doubt that e-commerce is growing, generating leads, and providing new business opportunities. The question now is can you keep up? Yes, you can if you can implement these nine elements that I am going to talk about in this article.

#1 Responsive design 

In a research that was carried out, only 22% of Digital marketers said they are ahead of the curve when it comes to responsive design. You need to understand that your e-commerce website is your office. You need to create a website that can blend with the need of the users. Having a responsive website will make users revisit your website. it will also encourage them to stay longer anytime that they visit your website as well.

#2 Mobile and Tablet compatibility 

Also, according to research, 48% of users say that if they arrive on a business site that is not working well on mobile, they take it simply as the business not caring enough. You need to understand that the majority of people visiting your site are accessing your site from a mobile phone.

That is why you need to put mobile users into consideration when you are developing websites. This will ensure that you are able to maintain a majority of your customer base accessing your site from a mobile phone. 

#3  Blog

I have always had to answer this question from business owners. Many of them are concerned and they always ask this question, “Do I really need a Blog ?”. Dear Entrepreneur, Yes you do need a blog. According to research carried out, companies that have a blog attached to their website have 434% more indexed content. The fact remains that search engines love fresh content. The more you post fresh content on your websites, the more you will have your page indexed by search engines. 

#4 Social media integration

As part of your efforts towards promoting your website and making it easy for people to reach you, you need to make sure that you included your social media channels on your website.

This will make it easy for people to visit your social media pages. They will also be able to share your content on their own social media platforms. According to research, approximately 46% of online users count on social media when they need to make any online purchases. 

#5  Fast loading time

When it comes to online conversion and customer/visitor retention on your website, you cannot do away with the loading time of the website. It is observed that people tend to leave websites that take time to load. According to research, 40 percent of people will leave a website if it tends to take more than 3 seconds for such a website to load a web page. 

#6 Lead Nurturing program

As an owner of an e-commerce website or a Digital Marketer, you need to have a lead nurturing program that allows you to develop your leads and increase their interest in your products and services. This can be a form of email communication or training that allows you to educate your leads on how your products and services can be of importance to them. This will allow you to convert more leads to customers. 

#7  Marketing Automation

Despite its innumerable benefits, it is being observed that it is not all Digital Marketers or organizations that make use of marketing automation. There are many benefits attached to marketing automation of your business and one of it is that it will allow you to concentrate on other aspects of the business.

It will also give the business ample time to study what works and what is not working as far as the organization sales effort is concerned. According to research, companies that automate their marketing efforts see a 10 percent increase in sales in the first 8 to 9 months. 

#8 SEO

Another important point that you need to consider is the need to be serious about Search Engine Optimization. You need to make sure that you are following the technical details so that your website can rank higher on search engines. This will also drive more organic traffic to your website. According to research, 70 percent of the link search users click on are organic traffics.