There is no doubt that content is at the heart of marketing. According to HubSpot’s 2021 stats, 82% of marketers invested in content, and nearly 35% cited content creation as their primary marketing approach. 

Content goes hand in hand with SEO, paid marketing campaigns, social media, and inbound advertising techniques. Needless to say, modern marketing relies on content creation to succeed. And a huge portion of marketers agrees with this assessment. 

So how do you make your content stand out when countless others are producing the same? 

We all know consumers are bombarded with numerous pieces of content daily and don't have the time to consume it all. Gone are the days when a hastily written blog post with low-quality information and irrelevant backlinks would get attention from readers. 

Today, the audience wants high-quality, valuable, and legitimate information. Therefore, we must focus on the golden rules that will help us create premium quality content that grabs our reader's attention and keeps them coming back for more. 

Below are a few chosen rules of content writing that will help you create attention-grabbing quality content in 2023.

1. Know Your Reader

Who will read the content you're writing, and what do they want to read?

It may sound simple, but sometimes writers forget to visualize their audience before picking up their keyboard. The first rule of good content is that it satisfies your reader's user intent, i.e., the reason your reader searched a term on the search engine.

When you know your audience, you can provide them with the information they will find most helpful. Moreover, by knowing your audience, you can empathize with them and subsequently identify all their pain points and address them in your content. 

For example, suppose your reader is a pet enthusiast in Ontario who wants to buy a GSD puppy in their area. In that case, you can start your write-up by listing all the breeders in the state. Moreover, you can also put yourself in your reader's shoes and answer all the questions that may arise in their mind. This includes content related to the quality of the breeding program, the price of puppies, the application process, training and socialization, after-sale services, etc.

Understanding your reader helps you create content that is both informative and engaging to the audience.

2. Optimize Your Content

Modern businesses live and die on search engine result pages; therefore, understanding how to write content that ranks on SERPs is crucial in today's market. 

While your audience may find your content through different paths on the internet, the most common is through Search Engines. Marketing insights reveal that more than 44% of users engage with 3 – 5 pieces of content before contacting the vendor. These potential buyers use Search engines to find information.

Unfortunately, 90.63% of web pages get 0 organic traffic. To be among the other 9.37%, marketers must incorporate white on-page and off-page SEO techniques, such as:

• Analyze and find the right keywords
• Analyze your competitors
• Get high-quality, relevant backlinks
• Choose topics with search traffic potential
• Ensure the page is indexed

Most importantly, ensure that your content is relevant to the search intent of your reader. At the brink of 2023, stuffing keywords in irrelevant and low-quality content will not help you rank higher. 

Web pages that provide high-quality content, i.e., helpful, well-written,  well-referenced, and utilizing SEO best practices, will rank on SERPs.

3. Get to the Point from the Get-Go

Some call it the inverted pyramid method, but I call it getting to the point and fast.

Humans have an attention span of only 8 seconds. If your content fails to hook the reader and provide the information they need (or promise to provide) in those 8 seconds, you've lost your chance.

Your consumer will close your tab and open another one. 

Therefore, start your content by providing the most important information, i.e., the who, what, why, where, when, and how, and then move on to the crucial information explaining the first part. This may include background, evidence, logic, arguments, points, an expanded view of the most important information, etc.

Finally, you end your content with extra information, which is not critical to the main point but provides a deeper understanding. 

Reference: Ohio State University Press Books  

For example, if you're writing a blog on whether cherries are poisonous for dogs, start by giving the answer. Then discuss the intricacies, the dos and don'ts, the daily dosage, the methods, etc.

Can your dog eat cherries? Yes, but…

4. Keep It Short, Simple & Readable  

48% of adult Canadians have an average reading age between a primary schooler and a high school freshman, i.e., between 12 – 14 years. If your content is difficult to understand or takes too long to get to the point, your readers will switch to another blog faster than you can say, erudite! 

Therefore, the 4th Golden rule of content writing is to keep your sentences and paragraphs short and skimmable, i.e., easy to read, and your selection of words simple. Typically, experts recommend the following: 

• Sentences should be at most 35 words. 
• Paragraphs should be 2 – 3 sentences long. 
• Use headings and subheadings to break your text. 
• Use bullet points and numerical lists to provide more information in fewer words. 
• Use active voice and avoid passive voice. 

Luckily, many online tools can check the readability of your content and adjust it according to your audience. First and foremost, refer to the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level to help you understand the score of your content and adjust it according to your audience. 

Usually, 60+ on the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level is considered acceptable. You can also use Grammarly and the Readability Calculator to test your content. 

5. Use Multimedia

Include multimedia to make your text-heavy content appealing. Integrate relevant, high-quality images, videos, infographics, and other visual content to energize your text. 

Visual elements provide 3 benefits:

• They make the content attractive 
• They make it easy to communicate hard-to-understand concepts 
• They increase the readability of your content 

It’s not new information that human brains love pictures; they process visuals 60,000 times faster than textual information. Therefore, embedding images into your content is an excellent and easy way to improve your content. 

Here are a few tips on how to use multimedia in your content effectively: 

Photos, Illustrations & Infographics 

• Make sure the images are of excellent quality. Poor-quality photos ruin the content’s impression in the reader’s mind.
• Make sure the images are relevant to the content, don’t use images for the sake of using images. 
• The first preference should always be original photos for your content taken by a professional. Original photos are shot while keeping the brand, topic, and overall marketing strategy in mind, so the photos are 100% relevant and strengthen your brand. 
• However, if you have to use stock photos, make sure to purchase from reliable stock photo sites to avoid copyright issues. Moreover, customize your stock photos to match your content and brand identity.  

Videos 

• Create and use your original videos 
• If you are using someone else’s video, make sure there are no copyright issues. Also, give a reference to the video’s original creator. 
• Use videos when you need to explain a complex procedure or concept. They are also helpful when you want to show how readers should do something; for example, how to install window proofing, etc. 
• You can also use video to showcase your products or services. For example, Hydensiq used the video below to showcase its web development portfolio:

6. Keep it Interesting

Finally, keep your content engaging along with being informational. This is how you can do it:

• Don’t Give Vague Information 

Your readers may have a reading age of 12- 14-year-olds, but they aren’t naive. Readers know what they want to read about, and if your content provides the information they need, they will move on to your desired action.

Therefore, avoid writing filler sentences and giving vague, generic statements. For example, avoid a sentence like “the XYZ breeder has the best puppies in Ontario.”

Instead, be comprehensive by writing, "The XYZ breeders use selective breeding by testing their parent dogs for AKC-identified health markers and matching them based on temperament to get the best litter."

The more specific and descriptive your information is, the more valuable it will be for the reader. 

• Don’t be Monotonous 

How would you feel if you ate mac and cheese 7 days a week? By Sunday, most people wouldn’t want to even look at mac and cheese ever again in their life. Generally, people become fed up with repetition, and they lose interest. 

Therefore, mix up your words to keep your text vibrant and interesting. Here is how you can use a variety of words without wasting a lot of time:

• Use free online word cloud generators to keep synonyms handy.
• Use online lists of power words, emotional words, and persuasive words.
• Use tools like Grammarly to suggest synonyms for common words. 

However, remember to use contextually correct synonyms. For example, content in the context of this blog post can be replaced by online text, article, video content, blog, etc. But it cannot be replaced by happy, satisfied, or fulfilled.

Use a CTA 

What do you want the reader to do after engaging with your content? 

Do you want them to purchase something? Contact someone for more information? Watch a video related to the blog they just read? Read another blog post? 

At the end of your content, use a strong Call to Action to persuade the reader to take the desired action. You can use this strategy to increase sales and traffic to other website areas or promote your content by sharing it with friends and family. 

Suggest action through a clear and prominent CTA button, such as Read More, Subscribe, Call Today, Watch, etc. 

Write Content that Stands Out in 2023

Content is still king in the digital age, and your reader's experience must be your priority if the content is king. Whether you're looking to boost your game as a content writer or increase readership, the golden rules of content writing above will guide you in producing evergreen content. Go ahead—give your users a reason to stick around and keep reading. Contact Hydensiq for assistance in creating an exceptional digital marketing strategy.

1. Be Relevant
2. Choose High-Quality Pictures
3. Add CTA
4. Showcase Human Faces
5. Use Multiple Images and Views
6. Think About the Colors
7. Always Optimize for SEO

Imagine landing on a website with blocks of black-and-white text. No images, videos, graphs, or colors. Certainly, a bland layout like such would be unimpressive and stir zero emotions. Consequently, you won’t feel the urge to interact with the page and leave without taking action. 

Therefore, it is critical that you choose the right images for your website too. Humans are visual creatures and process images 60,000 times faster than text. Plus, attractive images make a positive first impression and increase the visitor’s overall satisfaction. 

However, finding the right photo to illustrate your brand and website can take time and effort. To help you get started, we have compiled a list of best practices for choosing images. With these strategies, you can create an aesthetic appeal, encourage conversions, and make the proper visual impact in no time. 

1. Be Relevant

The design of your website represents your overall marketing strategy. Hence, you should never select images just to fill up the space on your page. Every picture you choose should have a purpose and relevance to your brand. 

For example, the goal of an eCommerce page will be to sell products. To entice the prospective audience, you will need to use images that showcase your products in the most attractive way possible. 

Similarly, they should resonate with your target audience and the message you are trying to convey. Take the example of Millaw Kids. They specialize in kids' apparel that is soft and comfortable. The pictures of happy and relaxed toddlers display the same essence and make purchasing decisions easy for parents. 

2. Choose High-Quality Pictures

Generally, there are two options for acquiring photos to use in websites and other marketing materials: Custom Photography or Stock Photos. 

Hiring a professional photographer is ideal for custom imagery as they will provide you with a bank of pictures for the complete marketing campaign. However, in some situations, you may not have the choice to splurge on professional photographs. In that case, we suggest you consider purchasing stock pictures from reliable sources. The images are readily available in various categories to align with your branding. 

Regardless of the source you choose, make sure the pictures are high-quality. Poor-quality pictures with blur or pixelation will leave a bad impression on the visitors and easily be ignored. It is possible to improve quality with photo editing tools, but it's best to start with high-quality pictures and minimize the need. 

3. Add CTA

The images play a key role in establishing the marketing activities of a website. They should provide directional clues to the visitors and point them toward the desired action (buy now, subscribe, signup, etc.)

Take the example of Starbucks. They have maximized their holiday promotion by integrating a call-to-action within the image.

I am sure your mouth is watering at these options and compelling you to order. I know mine is!

4. Showcase Human Faces

Consumers want to see images they can relate to. They want pictures that showcase lives and problems similar to theirs. Or they want to see someone they would want to be like. So when selecting pictures, try to find ones that can stir emotions in your target audience. You want something that would make them think, ‘If I use this product, I will be as happy as the person in the picture!’

Take the example of Cluse. The famous watch brand uses pictures of different customers wearing their collections. Additionally, prospects can see how the watch pairs with different outfits, making it easy for them to shop for the look.

When using human faces, avoid candid, and cliche poses. The models shouldn’t feel alienating to the audience. Instead, they need to have welcoming and warm faces, someone everyone would want to meet. 

For instance, suppose you are displaying the customer service department of your brand. Using an authentic picture of your team is the best option. But if that is not possible, look for stock photos that are not intimidating like this one:

Instead, find pictures that your audience can instantly connect with, such as the one below:

5. Use Multiple Images and Views

Images play a pivotal role in eCommerce pages. Since the target customers cannot physically see the product, they rely on product photographs to visualize it. Therefore, add multiple high-resolution pictures of your products. The more angles you show, the better your audience will grasp the product.

See the product page of Muroexe, for example. Along with the textual description of the shoes, the brand showcases its collection from different angles. They also display the colors available in the specific model, allowing consumers to make a quick buying decision.

6. Think About the Colors

The colors you use in your branding emotionally affect the audience. They help you convey messages without actually spelling the word. Studies also show 90% of purchase decisions are based solely on the impact of colors. Plus, colors can improve brand recognition by 80%. 

And we have examples of famous brands like Mcdonald's, Coca-Cola, and Facebook to prove this theory. These brands have their bespoke color scheme, and consumers instantly recognize their marketing materials based on their specific palette. 

Now, let’s take a look at some basics of color psychology:

• Red: The color is associated with excitement and energy. It draws attention to new product announcements, fashion stores, sports news, healthcare, and emergency services. 
• Yellow: The color yellow attracts youth, warm feelings, and positive vibes. It is ideal for brands that wish to integrate the term ‘cheerfulness’ with their products. Just see the branding of Cheerios, Chupa Chups, and NesQuick, for example. 

• Green: The color green is the most soothing on the eyes and is often integrated with nature, health, and luck. It has a relaxing, calming effect and promotes new beginnings. However, avoid the hue when marketing luxury and tech products. 
• Blue: Blue is the color of big brands and banks. Just think of Facebook, Twitter, Dell, and Intel. The color encourages productivity, strength, and loyalty. It is ideal for dental care, high-tech, science, and legal products.
• Purple: The color of royalty communicates power, wealth, luxury, and sophistication. Use this color in images marketing products related to beauty and skincare, yoga, and spirituality. 
• Black: Black is an elegant color that symbolizes modernism and intelligence. It is good for luxury products, makeup brands, and fashion products targeting the male audience. But avoid too much black on your website, as it can overwhelm the eyes. 

These were just a few colors to consider when designing your visual strategy. Use colors according to the emotions evoked so they work for you - and not against you!

7. Always Optimize for SEO

Similar to textual content, it's well worth optimizing your images for SEO to enhance their visibility. Start optimizing your images by making sure they look good. They must be scaled to fit all screen sizes. 

Next, name the file name correctly so search engine algorithms can easily index them. For example, images are usually saved by a default file name like ‘IMG.07490.jpg.’ However, this title doesn’t give much information to search engine crawlers. Instead, give them appropriate names to make them understandable. 

Also, make sure your images have an Alt Text. Similar to file names, they give search engine crawlers a clue about the context. They are also helpful for accessibility and describe the content to the readers using screen readers. Make the alt text descriptive and clear, but keep it within 100 characters. 

Save the images in the correct format. The basic file formats for images are:

• JPG: The JPG pictures are perfect for photographs with no text. They have  ‘lossy’ compression, meaning the picture quality will decrease when the file size decreases. But generally, the file sizes of JPG are small, and you will not have to worry about loading speed when using them. 
• PNG: PNG files are typically used for graphics, logos, and text-heavy pictures. They also support transparent colors and give excellent quality.
• GIF: This file format best suits animations and graphics with few colors. 

Find the Perfect Pictures

Your website is a marketing tool, and every element you integrate within the design should serve as an opportunity to engage the target audience. A study by Skyword concludes that content with compelling images gets 94% more views than those without. 

But, if you use images on your website, you must ensure they are top-notch.
The right pictures will certify that your website is inviting for the audience and makes them return for more. Contact Hydensiq for more assistance in designing the perfect webpage.

Email marketing is a great way to connect with potential and current customers. It allows you to stay top of mind, share important information, and promote your products or services. When done correctly, email marketing can be highly effective. Here are a few tips to help you get the most out of your email marketing efforts:

1. Keep your email marketing list clean and up-to-date.

Make sure you are only emailing people who have opted in to receive your emails.

2. Segment your email marketing list.

This will allow you to send more targeted and relevant emails to different groups of people.

3. Write great subject lines.

Your subject line is the first thing people will see when they receive your email. Make sure it is clear, interesting, and catches their attention.

4. Personalize your emails.

Include the recipient's name in the email and make the email feel like it was written just for them.

5. Test, test, test.

Before you send out your email to your entire list, be sure to test it first. This will help you catch any errors and make sure everything looks the way you want it to.

6.  Track your results.

Email marketing platforms like Klaviyo allow you to track things like open rates, click-through rates, and unsubscribe rates. This data can be extremely helpful in understanding what is working well and what can be improved.

The only way to know for sure if your email marketing efforts are driving traffic to your landing page is to test, test, and test some more. Try different subject lines, calls to action, and email designs to see what works best for your audience. And don’t forget to track your results so you can continue to improve your email marketing campaigns over time.

By following these tips, you can make email marketing a powerful tool in your business.

Here are a few additional tips to make sure your emails are driving traffic to your landing page.

1. Use a strong call to action.

Your call to action is the most important part of your email, so make sure it’s clear and concise. Tell your subscribers exactly what you want them to do, and make it easy for them to do it with a simple link to your landing page.

2. Make your landing page the focus of your email.

Your email should be designed to drive traffic to your landing page, so make sure it’s the star of the show. Feature a prominently placed link to your landing page in your email, and make sure the design and content of your email supports your call to action.

What is the difference between mobile-first website design and responsive website design? Which is right for your business? To find answers to these questions, you need to know who your audience is, how they interact with your website. Are they predominantly viewed using mobile devices or desktop? How fast is their internet connection? How do you want the user experience on your website to reflect your Branding strategy? Once you have answers to these questions, you will be a step closer to making an informed decision on which design is best for your new website. 

Mobile-First Vs. Responsive

These two concepts have been getting tossed around by many people mistakenly believing they are one and the same. Well...They are not. While both concepts have mobile in-mind, they conceptually are the opposite. 

Mobile-first design is similar to designing a mobile app. All of the layout and functionality is designed 100% for mobile and then scaled up to be viewed nicely on tablets and desktop devices without much change. The key focuses include excellent mobile-user experience, fast loading times, touch screen centric interactions, and so on. 

Responsive design, on the other hand, starts on the desktop and then scales down to the smallest screen; mobile. While some websites are responsive and able to scale down the content to fit on smartphones, their core content and mobile speeds are geared more for desktop. However, with smarter design and optimization, responsive design can also be built to perform well on mobile devices in 2020. 

Why Mobile-First Website Design

Traditionally, Mobile-First designs make perfect sense when more than 75% of your website visitors are viewing through mobile devices. The mobile-first design makes their user-experience optimized and flawless to interact with on their smartphones. As more and more smartphone features get integrated into mobile browsers, you can elevate their experience by using smartphone features like camera, haptic feedback, voice detection, and so on. 

Why Responsive Website Design

Traditionally, responsive design is more common among B2B companies where their website design provided a lot of content. Furthermore, B2B audiences tend to visit more using desktop devices, and being able to use full features the desktop design offers makes more sense. Also, it proves to be great for SEO due to more content. 

Mobile-First or Responsive: Which to choose? 

This decision is easy yet a complicated one when thinking about the bigger picture. Yes, if 90% of your target audience is on mobile devices, then Mobile-First website design with a strong SEO strategy is the right choice. 

The reality is that in most cases, at least more than 75% of target audiences will be from mobile devices in 2020. But with smarter responsive designs being able to provide a great user experience on mobile devices as well as desktop devices, a responsive design may be the better route to take due to better SEO and its effectiveness on both devices.

However, be cautious that the responsive design is mobile-focused with mobile optimizations. There are many WordPress themes and developers out there who claim to provide responsive design, but all they do is scale the site down to fit on smartphones and does not offer great mobile user-experience. 

In conclusion, take into consideration what device your target audience is viewing your website on, your branding strategy, what goals you want to achieve through your website, and future trends. I bring up future trends, because with rising home-offices due to the pandemic, desktop viewership may increase again. 

Okay, so you have a great business idea. Now what? Branding. Great branding will rocket your great business idea into a big success. This is where the real work starts. Great branding is at the core of every successful business. It tells your customers who you are, what you’re about, and what to expect from your business. All in all, branding can make or break your business. Whether you are starting fresh or restructuring your small business, branding is particularly important in the digital age. This is because the first point of engagement a potential customer has with your business is done online. At Hydensiq Digital, we help make sure businesses get it right at its core. To help you get started, we have put together a few tips to help you rocket your business for explosive growth. Let’s get started!

• What is Branding? 
• Brand Strategy
• Building Your Identity
• Bringing the Brand to Life

What is Branding?

Before you move forward and start thinking about your brand, you would first need to know what branding is first right? So let’s define branding. Branding is the marketing practise of creating a name, symbol, or design that identifies and differentiates you from other businesses. It sounds simple and you may be eager to hop on and get started right away to create a business name and a logo. Hold on! Not just yet. Successful brands did a bit more planning than that. Let’s take a look at how you can plan for success in your branding.

Crafting Your Brand Strategy

Define your identity. Who are you as a company? Defining the company identity helps you avoid having an identity crisis, leading to a disorganized branding message. This is one quick way to have ineffective branding and get lost in the sea of underperforming brands. Understand your key value proposition. What makes you unique? Why should your customers choose you over the millions of others out there? Clearly defining your value not only helps you with your branding but also makes your future marketing strategies more intelligible and effective. Create your brand mission statement. Your mission statement is a concise declaration of what you’re about. If you are stuck, try answering these few questions: Who do I serve? Why do I care? What do I provide? What is my differentiator? What value do I bring? Define your ideal customer. You want to appeal to your target customers and build a brand that resonates with them. Branding is no longer about creating a product and marketing it to them; it’s about creating experiences WITH them.

Building Your Brand Identity

What’s next? Building your brand identity. Brand identity is defining the key elements and principles that will drive your brand. These key elements and principles include brand voice, typography, colour palette, and form (shapes and imagery).

Brand Voice

Brand voice refers to the personality and emotion infused into a company's communications. It encompasses everything from the words and language you use, to the personality and images your marketing assets aim to invoke. It is important to define your brand voice before getting far in the process. This is because your brand voice will dictate your stylistic and design choices. For example, if your brand voice is luxurious and elegant, you will likely want to use a clean sophisticated font. If your brand voice is loud and hip, you’d want to use a bold and colourful palette in your designs. So what’s your voice? Are you trendy and edgy? Professional and sophisticated? Rugged and outdoorsy? Figure out the voice you want your target audience to perceive you as.

Typography

Our brain creates associations with everything we see, and you can leverage this to build your brand identity. See our article: Why Simple Is Better For Your Brand Design for detailed concepts on how our brains process visuals. Now that you know how fonts play an integral role in your branding and brand voice, it’s time for you to choose your font. You can choose to use a font that already exists or create custom font designs that would be 100% in sync with your brand and message.

Colour Palette

Going back to how our brain creates associations, you can guess that colour is one of the most common and powerful associations we make. Your brand colour shouldn’t be based on just your favourite colours. Colour is such a powerful thing that based on the concepts of visual associations, there is a whole study just dedicated to colour. Colour psychology is the study of hues as a determinant of human behaviour. Colour influences perceptions that are not obvious, such as the taste of food. Colours have qualities that can cause certain emotions in people. Colours can also enhance the effectiveness of placebos. For example, if you want to build trust with your customers, consider using navy in your brand designs, as it is associated with responsibility and trust. If you want voice creativity, you may want to consider purple, which is associated with fantasy and creativity. You can learn more about colour psychology in choosing your colour palette and creating a unique colour palette that conveys your identity while standing out from the crowd. Use these colours as a guideline in creating your brand, not a rule book.

Bring the Brand to Life.

Once you figure out how you want to build your brand with a clear identity, you want to portray, it’s time to bring those ideas to life. Start by laying out everything about your branding on a brand style guide. This should include:

• Brand Story
• Colour Palette
• Brand fonts
• Imagery guidelines
• Brand voice details

If you already have a logo that is aligned with your guideline include it there as well. If not, get a designer to create one and show them your brand guidelines, so the logo aligns with your brand identity.

With today's social media platforms, the voices of consumers are louder than ever. This effectively shifted the balance of power between brands and consumers. In fact, with the growing popularity of online shopping, customer reviews and peer recommendations have greater influence in purchasing decisions than ever before.

So how can you leverage social media platforms to build your brand? The short answer - Influencer Marketing. Influencer identifies and targets individuals with a strong voice amongst certain target demographics. The CEO of GuruPeeps Inc., Natasha Nicole stated, “In a way, digital influencers are the new celebrity endorsement, but perhaps with even more pull among their followers. In building strong, authentic relationships with influencers, your brand earns their stamp of approval and this translates to their large following.”

In depth: What is a Social Media Influencer?

An influencer is any user on a social media platform who has a substantial number of followers and a clear position as an expert in a given field. “Influencers not only hold a lot of authority amongst their followers through their trusted opinions and advice; but they also embody the lifestyle itself that resonates with them,” Camila Kostco, COO of GuruPeeps explained.

Which Social Media Influencer is right for Your Brand?

Not every influencer is the right fit for your brand. You will need to identify influencers that have a clear position in your niche market while possessing the right voice for your brand image. Furthermore, with influencers across multiple social media, you will need to identify the right social media platforms that will effectively maximize your digital marketing initiative.

These new social media platforms, like Instagram and Snapchat, are able to generate huge followings with more direct niche subjects. While Facebook remains popular for some demographics if your key market includes millennials, it’s imperative you utilize mobile apps.

Why Influencer Marketing?

With influencer marketing, you are able to create a cost-effective campaign that is highly flexible to your needs. Through the influencers, you can target your demographic more efficiently compared to traditional advertising. Furthermore, if you’re a small business, you can significantly leverage influencer marketing to quickly build your brand loyalty through the influencers.

Where to Begin?

Trying to strategize a new digital media marketing campaign can be daunting and time-consuming. You may be wondering what steps to take in finding the right influencers and how to approach them. Don't worry; there is a lot of great content to help you on the web.

Here are a few tips to get you started:

1. Use social media searches and #hashtags to find the influencers in your industry.

2. Identify if the influencers have the right voice for the brand.

3. Don't just call up the influencers and ask them to promote your product. Build a genuine relationship.

4. With a wide array of metrics available to your business, track your ROI and the success of your campaign.

Whether you are a start-up or a well-established brand, influencer marketing is effective in building brands and customer loyalty. If you haven’t thought about utilizing it in your next marketing initiative, we can promise it is worth your while to look into. Have some more questions? Reach out to us at HYDENSIQ Digital and we'd be happy to chat more about it!

Let's find out the science behind "Keep it simple stupid" and how it can help in creating effective brand designs for all your digital marketing efforts.

According to research conducted by Google in 2012, users consistently rated websites with simple visuals as more aesthetically pleasing, than the more complex counterparts.

Additionally, highly prototypical sites (those with more visual associations with sites of its category) with simple designs were rated to be most aesthetically pleasing. You may be wondering, what does Google’s research on website designs have to do with brand designs? Well, it provides us with an understanding of aesthetic judgments and how we process visual information and gives credibility to the phrase “Keep It Simple Stupid”.

Visual Information Processing: Simple Designs

We all know different people have different preferences and tastes. However, the concept of simplicity is more aesthetically pleasing over visual complexity has been found to be universal. The reason behind this is because simplicity is scientifically easier to process.

We process visual information by converting the images seen through our eyes (retina) into electrical impulses, which is then sent to our brain. So, the more complex the image is, whether it’s colors or objects, the more information your eyes and brain will have to process.

Combine this with the fact that most people consume their content on their mobile phones making the visual plane very small. Complex designs become difficult to process quickly and are therefore passed over by viewers. On the contrary, being boring and simple will also yield a result of your brand being not memorable. It comes down to designing that simple, elegant, and yet eye-catching design that proves to be a challenging task for many brands and marketers.

Prototypicality: Relatable Designs

If you were to see a picture of a pink room, most of you would think “a girls room.” If I showed you a picture of a person with heavy black makeup, black lipstick, with piercings and ask you, “what kind of music?” Most of you would answer, rock or heavy metal.

Prototypicality is essentially a mental image your brain categorizes and associates with the things you interact with. These associations can be created through a person's experience and social norms. Our brain does this to lessen the cognitive processes of daily interactions.

So when your target demographic come across your brand's marketing ad or any brand asset that is in contrast with their mental associations, they will reject the information on conscious and subconscious levels. That being said, you will have to be careful not to be too generic and lack originality. The main point is to keep the content aligned with the user's mental image while being creative, and not triggering heavy brain process.

Cognitive Fluency: Memorable Designs

The two concepts discussed above relate to cognitive fluency. A simple explanation of cognitive fluency is that the brain prefers to focus on things that are easy to think about. That is why the brain creates these prototypes to make things easier to process. Therefore, the more the brain is exposed to something, the more you prefer it. This is because the more you are exposed to something; the less the brain needs to process it.

If your brand design assets are simple and/or have ‘prototypical factors’, the more effective your branding will be due to the low cognitive process, resulting in a ‘memorable’ brand. In contrast, if the designs are too complex and go against prototypical factors, it is likely the viewers will reject the information.

Although there will be anomalies where a complex image with abnormal prototypes will go viral on the web, the majority of likable Brand designs will fall under these concepts. It’s fair to assume that less is more and it’s best to keep it simple. Ready to get creative on your Brand Designs? Create beautiful Logos, Packaging, and websites with Hydensiq Digital.

Some brands are instantly recognizable. You can probably think of a few that really stand out. But, many companies struggle to build something that’s timeless, and it can be challenging.

This becomes even more difficult with online brands. There’s so much competition out there and it’s hard to get customers to be loyal. With this in mind, here are some top tips on creating a web brand that stands the test of time.  

1. Know your core values 

If you think about the biggest brands around, they have one thing in common: they stand for something and they know what their core values are as a business. 

Start by thinking about what your brand represents. Taking time to do this before launching any marketing campaigns or starting any design work can give you more direction. It can also ensure that your business is really clear and distinguishable for your customer base.

2. Get to know your audience  

This step is essential, especially for smaller or new businesses - if you want to attract more customers, you need to know who your target customer is and what they are looking for. 

Your audience should have specific needs, interests, and pain points. By focusing on these in your branding strategy, you are better equipped to build a brand that stands out to them. 

In addition to this, it’s important to research your competitors. Then, you can start to think about how you can differentiate your business from theirs and provide a unique selling point that will drive sales, boost loyalty, and develop a brand that’s truly timeless! 

3. Focus on delivering value 

Next, when building a web brand, you need to make sure you’re providing value. Rather than focusing on selling products, always take the time to get to know your audience and give them a meaningful experience. This is something that will stick in their minds for years to come. 

Whatever aspect of the business you’re focusing on - whether it’s customer service, social media marketing, your products, or something else - always aim for the highest possible standards and build a strong rapport with your customers. 

4. Use unique visual branding 

This one is a must. Your branding must be unique - otherwise, you risk blending in and your online business won’t be memorable. And, you will struggle to succeed if this is the case. 

To start, you need to create a unique logo. You can do this using a tool like Canva or hiring a professional. Additionally, you will need to create a website incorporating a complementary colour scheme. 

Once you’ve done this, you can start to create visual branding for all your online platforms, including your social media accounts, landing pages, and online store. These should all tie into your original branding for a more streamlined customer experience. 

This also applies to offline types of branding, like letters, business cards, or posters. You can get started on basic designs using an app like Adobe Express or hiring a professional for a truly unique design. 

5. Always be consistent 

Finally, if you want your audience to be able to recall your brand easily, you need to make sure your branding is extremely consistent. This applies to all your online channels and communication methods, and it needs to be done without fail! 

You need to make sure your logo and other visual design work can be used across all the platforms you use. Otherwise, your audience won’t connect it to your brand. 

This also means adapting your brand voice in blog posts, web content, and emails so that you maintain consistency in every part of your business. This will make your brand easy to recognize, which is such an important quality in a long-lasting brand.

The rate of how fast technologies are changing each day is daunting, yet liberating with new opportunities. It’s more important now than ever to stay up-to-date with technological changes and keep your digital marketing strategies current. Here are the top 5 Digital Marketing trends of 2022.

1. Mobile is Crucial in your Digital Marketing Strategies

You probably noticed the importance of mobile phones and the time consumers spend on their mobile devices every day. On a daily basis, we’re taking in a vast amount of information the digital age provides. And yet, some businesses aren’t implementing this valuable knowledge in their digital marketing strategies. It is crucial to strategize your marketing efforts with mobile in focus. From mobile-optimized website designs to mobile marketing elements, mobile strategies will be a top priority for marketers going forward.

Before testing ‘new’ mobile strategies, such as utilizing text to send reminders to customers, make sure your existing digital assets are mobile optimized. I mention ‘mobile-optimized’ and not ‘mobile-friendly’ because, if it is not optimized to achieve your specific goals, your digital marketing efforts are being wasted and not reaching the maximum potential.

2. Quality Content is Now a Must

Whether you get your world news from the Internet, TV, or daily papers, these news media companies essentially control the conversation of the day, week, and month. In communication studies, they call this media framing. Media framing can simply be described as the angle or perspective from which a news story is told. While the news is often thought to be objective and value-free this is rarely if ever the case.

So what is the best way to control the conversation in front of your prospects and customers? The answer is quality content. Take control of your industry topics and create helpful, authentic, and interesting content. Depending on your target demographic, the type of content can vary from a well-written blog post to Instagram story videos to podcasts.

We know “Content is King” and there is a reason why. Creating quality content provides diverse benefits to your digital marketing efforts, which include: steering conversations, managing brand images, and boosting SEO rankings. Every business should be focused on creating quality content and think like a media company.

3. Chatbots Will Dominate Customer Service

Chatbots. What are chatbots? Think of it as an A.I customer service representative that responds to your customer's questions and comments. Chatbots are a great way to engage, answer questions, and even close sales. This can help manage time and resources, allowing your business to focus on other tasks while the chatbot does most of the common grunt work.

When the chatbots are set up correctly, it’s hard to tell if you’re speaking to a computer or a real person. It’s quite amazing actually. However, I want to stress the importance of making sure these chatbots are set up correctly. If it isn’t, it can create a negative experience for the customer. In addition, implement an option to connect to a live agent in case any unforeseen technical difficulties arise.

To start, you can launch a Facebook chatbot to engage with your customers. Create an engaging and fun way to start the conversation. This helps to get the conversation started as the customers need to initiate the chat. With an average open rate of about 80%, chatbots are far more effective than email, making them a unique channel for businesses not to ignore.

4. Reviews Can Make or Break Your Conversions

Organic traffic from search engines still proves to be one of the top sources of web traffic for many businesses. This means great search ranking and search result presence are crucial. While there are various factors that go into your organic search ranking, the number of reviews you have (Google, Yelp, Facebook, etc.) is a key factor.

Furthermore, 50% of adults under the age of 50 regularly check online reviews before making a purchase. So, not only are reviews important for your search ranking, but they can also be the deciding factor for a sale.

5. Videos are Now an Essential

It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that video content is a valuable medium. In fact, 1 in 4 consumers loses interest in a company if it doesn’t have any video. Great video content is effective in keeping the consumers engaged, getting the message across more efficiently, and achieving better conversion as a result.

You don’t need an expensive camera or a film crew to start creating great video content. Get started with engaging Instagram/Facebook story videos and posts. If you’re in the business of selling physical items, you can also entice your customers to create unboxing videos. But always remember to produce quality over quantity.

As you get more familiar with the process, commit to creating at least 3 videos a month focusing on 3 different objectives and goals you want to achieve with the video content.

Now that we covered these 5 digital marketing trends, assess your digital marketing goals, pick a trend and start executing today.

Need some more guidance? We can help!

1. Install and Activate WooCommerce 
2. Follow Setup Wizard
3. Add Products
4. Setup Shipping and Tax
5. Setup Payments

Now that you have your domain and WordPress website setup, it’s time to get started on your e-commerce platform: WooCommerce. If you haven’t started on getting your domain and setting up your WordPress website yet, check out our article: How To Get Started Your WordPress Website.

STEP 1: Install and Activate WooCommerce

Search for the WooCommerce plugin from within your website

• Go to your website
• Go to: Dashboard > Plugins > Add New > Search Plugins
• Search for “WooCommerce”
• Install
• Activate

STEP 2: Following the WooCommerce Setup Wizard

This part is fairly straightforward. Just fill out the following steps and you're golden. 

WooCommerce Setup Wizard: Where is your store based? 

In this step, you provide the location details of your store. If you don’t have a physical store, the address where you are shipping from will be fine.

WooCommerce Setup Wizard: In which industry does your store operate? 

Here, you can select in which industry or industries your store operates. If you select “Other” you’re able to identify a different industry.

WooCommerce Setup Wizard: What type of products will be listed?

Here, you select the type of products you plan to sell in your store. Tip* If you are selling a service, you can select “Downloads” as that would make the product virtual. 

WooCommerce Setup Wizard: Tell us about your business

In this section, you can provide more information about your business, which will help us tailor the WooCommerce experience according to your needs. At the bottom, it will give you options to easily install some popular marketing plug-ins. I recommend unselecting all of them and installing them as needed later. 

WooCommerce Setup Wizard: Choose a Theme

This is the last step and simply select “continue with my current theme”. 

STEP 3: Adding Products

Before jumping into adding your products, think about how you want to organize your products into categories. For example, if you are selling clothing, this is how you might layout your category: 

Categories are managed from the Products > Categories screen. On the left side of the screen shows you the fields to create a new category and to the right are the categories you created. To create a category: 

• Add a Name.
• Add a Slug (optional); this is the URL-friendly version of the name.
• Choose a Parent if this is a subcategory.
• Enter a Description (optional); some themes display this.
• Choose Display type. Decide what is shown on the category’s landing page. “Standard” uses your theme’s default. “Subcategories” will display only the subcategories. “Products” only display products. “Both” will display subcategories and products below that.
• Upload/Add Image (optional);  Some themes have pages where product category images are displayed.
• Click “Add new category” 

Now let's get your products created. 

Adding a Simple Product

1. Go to Woocommerce > Products > Add Product. 
2. Enter a product Title and Description. 
3. Add an excerpt. This typically appears next to product imagery on the listing page, and the long description appears in the Product Description tab.
4. Go to the Product Data panel, and select downloadable (digital) or virtual (service) if applicable.

Product Data

The Product Data box is where you will input most of the important information about your product. 

General Section

• Price
  • Regular Price – Item’s normal/regular price
  • Sale Price – Item’s discounted price that can then be scheduled for certain date ranges. The sale expires at 11:59 pm of the specified end date
• Tax
  • Tax status – Taxable / Shipping only / None
  • Tax class – Choose which tax class should be applied

Inventory section

The inventory section allows you to set SKU and manage stock for the product individually and define whether to allow backorders and more. 

Shipping section

• Weight – Weight of the item.
• Dimensions – Length, width, and height for the item.
• Shipping Class – Shipping classes are used by certain shipping methods to group similar products.

Linked Products section

Using up-sells and cross-sells, you can cross-promote your products. When you are starting off, you can skip this section and come back to it. 

Attributes section

On the Attributes tab, you can assign details to a product. 

Now click publish and your product will be live. 

STEP 4: Setup Shipping and Tax

1. Go to WooCommerce > Settings > Shipping.
2. Click add shipping zone
3. Enter Shipping Zone Name
4. Select Zone Regions
5. Add Shipping Method

Once you have created the shipping methods, you click on the edit button to set the costs associated with each option. 

STEP 5: Setup Payments

The last and crucial step. You want to get paid right? We are almost done getting your store up and running. 

You will have Direct Bank Transfer, Check Payments, and Cash on delivery available by default. To accept credit card payments you will need to install a plugin for the payment processor you are going to use and set it up. Update: Woocommerce now has an easy install for Stripe and PayPal with the initial setup of the store. 

If you haven’t found a payment processor yet, we recommend using Stripe due to its security and ease of use. To start using Stripe. 

• Go to: Dashboard > Plugins > Add New > Search Plugins
• Search for “WooCommerce Stripe Payment Gateway”
• Install
• Activate

For a detailed setup and configuration guide see the Woocommerce Stripe Documentation. 

And that’s it! Now your Woocommerce store is all set up and ready to sell! If you run into trouble or have any questions feel free to contact us and we can help you!