This does not mean that you should send the exact ad to Facebook or Twitter every day.  Change the photo, change the look, but get the same message to your customers over and over.

“Repeat It, Believe It”

Fact: This sentence will become more and more truthful every time you read it.

Studies suggest that repeated statements are perceived as more truthful than statements made less frequently, “presumably because repetition imbues the statement with familiarity.” In simple terms: frequency breeds familiarity, and familiarity breed trust.

So not only do consumers remember a statement that gets repeated, they are more likely to believe it, and think it is the popular opinion.

Have you heard the following expressions?

Got milk?
(used for 21 years, starting in 1993)

Just do it.
(used for over 26 years, starting in 1988)

What happens here, stays here.
(used for 10 over years, starting in 2004)

Tastes great, less filling.
(used since the 1970s)

Good to the last drop.
(used for over 97 years, starting in 1917)

Melts in your mouth, not in your hands.
(used for over 60 years, since 1954)

Breakfast of Champions.
(used for over 87 years, starting in 1927)

Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is.
(used for over 43 years, starting in 1971)

Depending on your age, many of those advertising catchphrases should sound familiar. Some you may have heard hundreds if not thousands of times.

In advertising, the term “effective frequency” is used to describe the number of times a consumer must be exposed to an advertising message before the marketer gets the desired response, whether that be buying a product, or something as simple as remembering a message.

More frequency = more effective.

There is no single “right” answer as to how many times you need to tweet out your phrase before it becomes a household phrase in your town.

How many times do you need to tweet out your phrase before it becomes a household phrase in your town? Many Marketers believe in the rule of seven.  Why not six or eight?  Who knows.  The point is that you have a clear, clever, catchy,  informational, or bold phrase and repeat it until the message gets across to your customer base. 

Was “Where’s the Beef?” a bit irritating?  Yes, but you’ve remembered it since 1984!

Stats in this article were taken from a variety of articles on the internet.

The post Repeat Your Message appeared first on Websites by Robyn.

To be a part of your hometown community and show them that you are interested in serving them, you need to be on the web for them. You need to be an active participant in the latest technologies and the latest social marketing to help your community reach out to bring customers to your town.

2. To Network

Passing out a business card has always been part of doing business.  Nowadays, having your website available in an inexpensive and simple way to reach the world 24/7.

3. To Make Business Information Available

A full-size color yellow pages ad will cost you thousands a year and only reaches your local area.  Imagine your information available to the entire world from any computer, notebook or cell phone.

4. To Serve Your Customers

Many people, like me, spend our evenings on the internet rather than watching TV.  We research, we apply for loans, and make facial appointments…..all on the web, while the businesses we are contacting have already gone home for the day.

5. To Heighten Public Interest

Add interesting information to your website that will get potential customers coming to it.  Anybody anywhere who goes to your website is a potential customer! Creating content that educates your customers about your products is the new standard.

6. To Sell Things

This is probably the number one reason anyone gets on the internet….to buy, buy, buy.  If your products are available on your website, you can make sales while you are sleeping. 

7. To make pictures, sound, and video available

A picture is worth a thousand words, but you don’t have space for a thousand words? The WWW allows you to add sound, pictures, and video to your company’s information. No brochure will do that.

8. To Answer Frequently Asked Questions

Tired of getting phone calls at work, answering the same questions over and over?  An F.A.Q.s page (frequently asked questions) is a brilliant way to answer those questions in detail once for the convenience of all of your customers.

9. To reach the masses

The “web user” is the highest mass-market demographic available today. College students, blue and white-collar workers, parents, and retirees get on the internet from 2 to 40 hours a week or more.

10. Open International Markets

With a website, you can open up a dialogue with international markets as easily as with the company across the street. Websites can be easily translated by the user, and pricing changed to any currency.

11. To Create a 24 Hour Service Business is worldwide but your office hours aren’t. Web pages serve the client, customer, and partner 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

12. To Make Changes Easily
Sometimes, information changes before it gets off the press. Now you have a pile of expensive, worthless paper. Electronic publishing changes with your needs. No paper, no ink, no printers’ bill.

13. To Get Customer Feedback
You pass out the brochure, the catalog, the booklet. But then get no sales, no calls, no leads. Marketing 101 says to keep testing the market, but that gets very expensive. With a Web page, you can ask for feedback and get it instantaneously with no extra cost.

14. To Test Market New Services and Products
Website customers are the least expensive market for you to reach. They will let you know what they think of your product faster, easier, and much less expensive than any other market.

15. To Reach The Media
On the web, your business reaches the media without any extra effort from you. The media is the most wired profession today since their main product is information and they can get it more quickly, cheaply, and easily on-line.

16. To Reach The Youth Market
If your market is kids and young adults, consider that the majority of schools, from Preschool to Universities offer Internet access for educational purposes. Your market is being trained to go online for their needs. Books, athletic shoes, study courses, youth fashion, etc. need to be on the Web. There will be nothing but growth in the percentage of the under 25 markets that will be on-line.

17. To Reach Special Markets
Selling left-handed scissors? Camouflage toilet paper? The Internet is the perfect place to be. With the 70 million and growing users of the WWW, even the most narrowly defined interest group will be represented in large numbers.

18. To Serve Your Local Market
Having your products, services, restaurant menus, etc. online, keeps your local community shopping local. They buy online for convenience, but then pick it up to save on shipping. It’s a win-win!

19. Millions are going online!
The number of people shopping online has snowballed in past few years and is expected to grow at a much faster pace in the future. The reason? The web offers the ultimate variety and convenience. Where else can someone go shopping in their bathrobe at 3 in the morning? Do you have the potential of 70 million people walking into your store? The Web gives potential to have unlimited customers coming to you.

20. Know your market….who is surfing?
a. It’s 2 in the morning….you’re having sleepless night, browsing through the internet. You click on a website and you spend a half an hour browsing and buying.
b. Like most professionals and students, you use websites to keep up with the latest fashion trends.
c. You search for unusual gifts for friends, which you rarely find in stores because you don’t know what you are looking for.
d. You want to get the awesome deal of a lifetime and compare prices easily.

Thank you Stormy S. Knight

The post 20 Reasons to have a Business Website appeared first on Websites by Robyn.

Here’s what I came up with:

• You’re a spy agency and don’t want to be found
• You have too many customers
• You’re making too much money
• Your primary customers are The Flintstones

All kidding aside, the most common reason we hear from small businesses for not having a website is: “we don’t need one.”

That’s unlikely due to the many uses for a business website including customer support, lead generation, educating your customers, contact information and location mapping, and most importantly ordering products and services.  But when it comes down to it, your website isn’t for you, it’s for your customers.

If a customer has ever asked for directions, about your products, what time you close, about your return policies, etc. then a website can help your business.  This kind of information could all be on your website.

If you don’t have a website, imagine how many prospective customers have searched online for your contact info, hours, location, products, etc.  If prospective customers can’t find this information about your business, then your business doesn’t exist and they’ll go elsewhere.  Wouldn’t you?

Some older business owners still believe a Yellow Pages listing is enough.  While Yellow pages are still used by older audiences, there are many younger people who’ve never even used the Yellow Pages.  Times are a ‘changin.

The best reason to have a website is that there’s no reason not to because these days getting a website is easier than ever.

As of this month, December 2016, 3,274,982,000 people worldwide have access to the Internet. No matter what your business is, you can’t ignore over 3 billion people.

Sooner or later, someone will type your name or business into a search engine.  What do you want them to find?  Nothing, or worse yet, your competition?  A Website will allow your business or organization to be “open” 24/7.

Every business should have a website.  BUT, here’s the exception to my rule: It’s actually better to have no website at all than to have one that makes your business look bad.

Your site speaks volumes about your business. It either says, “Hey, look, we take our business so seriously that we have created this wonderful site for our customers!” or it screams, “Hey, look, I let my 10-year-old nephew design my site. Good luck finding anything!”

Whatever you’re advertising, whether it be services, products, or yourself, a website is an easy and inexpensive way to promote yourself.  Every other kind of advertising will cost a premium.

Websites are like brochures that are free to reproduce, interactive, and quickly distributed to people who are already looking for them. No advertising medium even comes close to the ease-of-use and effectiveness of a Website.

At a minimum, you should have a website that gives the basic information — phone number, address, a list of your products or services, pricing, an “about us” page, and a contact page.  You should also make sure that people can actually find it in the search engines and directories, so a little professional help to get that done would be imperative. 

Your website is one of the most important parts of your business. Make sure you treat it as such.

Thank you entrepreneur.com and justaddcontent.com for information and statistics.

The post Does Your Business Need a Website? appeared first on Websites by Robyn.

The key is to create an ad campaign that works as an “Email Ad” and a “Facebook Ad” with a primary goal of selling a product, but then also up-selling future products.  When you reach out to your email marketing contact via Facebook ads also, you increase visibility, engagement and the value you bring to your current and potential customers.

Email Ad Campaign:

1. First, create an ad using your email marketing service like Mail Chimp, Constant Contact, Mad Mimi, iContact, etc.  Send this ad to all of your email subscribers.  Campaign your ad out to your email list a couple of times, waiting a week in between.
2. All email marketing services have a back-end analytics system that will show you if they C. Didn‘t open the email, B. Opened the email but didn’t purchase, or A. Purchased.  Segment your email subscriber list into C, B, and A email lists.  

Facebook Ad Campaign:

1. Then simply upload each segmented email list into Facebook (C, B, and A lists).  (Facebook will automatically glean out your email contacts who don’t use Facebook.)  Your goal is to turn your B and C lists into A’s.  This is not just to have a bunch of A’s purchase something, but also to have an A list of people to which you can up-sell more items in the future.
2. For the subscribers who didn’t even open your email (your “C” list), create a Facebook ad with the exact same message as your email campaign, since they never saw it the first time. Then, a few days later, once you see your Facebook ad analytics, segment this “C” list into your 3 lists: C. Didn‘t click on the ad again, B. Clicked on the ad but didn’t purchase, or A. Purchased.  
3. For the subscribers who opened your email or clicked on your ad, but did not purchase your product (this is your “B” list), create a Facebook ad, but change up information a bit.  There was something about your email ad campaign that didn’t convince them to purchase your product, so step up the pizzazz in your Facebook ad this time. If you’re selling wine, have a bottle of the wine in the email ad, but then a sexy girl holding a glass of wine in the Facebook ad.  Once again, a few days later, once you see your Facebook ad analytics, segment this “B” list into your 3 lists: C. Didn‘t click on the ad, B. Clicked on the ad but didn’t purchase, or A. Purchased.  At this point, if someone didn’t respond to your email ad or your Facebook ad, they are going to be your toughest audience.  Don’t delete them from your email list, but keep them in the “C” list so you don’t spend a lot of energy on them right now.  You can do this step one more time with your “B” list, seeing if you can get any more people into your “A” list (the buying people).

Up-sell Ad Campaign:

1. Now you want to just concentrate on your “A” list.  These are the people who have responded to your Email Ad Campaign or your Facebook Ad Campaign and have purchased your product.  These are “Buyers”.  We now want to convert these “Buyers” into “Repeat Customers”.   Since this audience is already familiar with your brand, analyze engagement metrics (likes, shares, comments) to measure the effectiveness of these ads. Their interaction validates how well the ad resonates with them, which results in a higher relevancy score, more social proof and free organic reach.
2. If you have an ecommerce website, a great way to increase the lifetime value of a customer is to cross-promote and/or upsell related products.  Utilize Facebook’s Carousel Ad Feature to highlight multiple products that provide additional value for previous customers. Show products that fit with items they’ve already purchase.  Example: If they bought a cat toy, then show them cat food, or cat treats.
3. Look for creative ways to divide your audience for the purpose of up-selling or cross-promoting other products they would find useful.  Depending on your business goals, consider segmenting your “A” customer list by product type, purchase amount, purchase date, frequency of purchases, age, gender, or whatever category helps you to target a specific audience. Then target a carousel ad to each audience.  Craft an ad with an exclusive deal, promo code, extended trial or free piece of content. Target this email segment every two to three months, depending on your list size.  

Remember, it’s more efficient and less expensive to keep your customers than it is to find new ones.

The post How to Create “Email/Facebook/Up-Sell” Ad Campaigns appeared first on Websites by Robyn.

Adding business info to your Facebook Business Page helps customers discover you and see what your business is about. And it makes it easier to find your Page on Facebook and with search engines.

1.  Revise Your “About” Section

While you are in your “About” section updating your contact information, be sure to check your “Category” so that it doesn’t just say “Category” under your business name in the header.  Go to “Page Info.” under the “About Tab” and choose a sub-category that is highly relevant for your page.

Then, in that same section, change your Facebook Web Address to your business name.  For example, mine is www.Facebook.com/WebsitesByRobyn.

Then check and update your address (which will automatically provide a map for your customers), phone number, business start date, short description, long description, hours, price range, parking, email, and your website address.

Note that if you select the Local Business category when you create your Page, customers can rate your business and write reviews.

2.  Make your Profile Photo and Cover Photo Relevant

Photos show customers what they can expect from your business.  The first impressions people will see are your profile photo and cover photo.

Your profile photo, the photo that is in the small box on the left of your header, will show up on all of your posts, so make it relevant to your business.  Your logo, your face, an object that represents your business clearly, are all good ideas for your profile photo.  

Using your business logo is really the best idea.  Branding your business (having a look and the style that people recognize as you) is imperative when marketing yourself.  For example, no one questions who is advertising when they see golden arches, right?

Go to:  www.facebook.com/CoverPhotoSize to see the exact dimensions both photos should be and how the profile photo sits on the cover photo.  Having your profile photo cover up an important part of your cover photo looks unprofessional so be sure to arrange it nicely.

3.  Set a Featured Video

Having a “Featured Video” on your Facebook Page is the newest must-have for businesses.  It will appear at the top of your About box in the upper left area of your page, and also at the top of your Page’s Videos section.

To set a featured video for your Page:

1. upload the video you’d like to display into your Video section.
2. Click Videos below your Page’s cover photo
3. Click Add Featured Video
4. Select the video you want to feature and click Add Featured Video
5. Once you do that, you can click the pencil icon at the top right of the Featured Video on the Videos tab to add a description to your video. It is particularly important to add a description to your Featured Video since anyone who clicks to watch the video will see it. Think of it as a “call to action”. The description wording also shows up in search engine results!

Note: This feature isn’t available to Pages that have age or country restrictions.

4.  Add a Call-to-Action

A Call-to-Action button is a way to get your Facebook audience to interact with your business. This allows you to display a specific “thing for people to do” next to your page’s Like button.  Currently, these are the Call-to-Action buttons available on Facebook:  Book Now, Contact Us, Use App, Play Game, Shop Now, Sign Up, Watch Video.  Some of the things you can use these buttons for are to advertise and sell a product, drive traffic to your website, book an appointment with you, or show a video related to your business. You can add a call to action to your Page at no cost.

To set up a Call-to-Action button, simply go to your Facebook page’s cover photo and click Create Call to Action.  Also, you can set up a separate call to action for a website, iPhone, and Android users.

5.  Allow People to Privately Message Your Page

While this feature has been around for a while, some businesses don’t realize its value. Think of messaging as a great reputation-management tool. People might be more likely to click the Message button on your page with a complaint before posting something publicly on your page.

To enable this feature, go to your page’s General settings and check the box to allow people to privately message your page.

    6:   Use Facebook’s Publishing Tools to Help you to Post on a Regular Basis.

It is important for brands to build online communities and connect with their target audience through social media.  You want to continuously make sure your Facebook page has new posts for your fans to enjoy.

You can always invest in a third-party tool and pay them to post content for you, but will that really be an accurate representation of your company?  You need to have your hand on the pulse of your advertising.

Good news!  Facebook has a built-in Publishing Tool that is perfect for busy business owners!

This set of tools allows you to schedule posts, so you keep your page updated regularly. All you have to do is take a little time one day a week to write some great updates for your page. Then schedule a new post to publish each day.

To access this feature:

1. Go to the Publishing Tools tab, select Scheduled Posts and click the Create button.
2. From the Scheduled Posts section of the Publishing Tools tab on your Facebook Page, click the Create button to start your scheduled post.
3. Compose your post and then select Schedule from the Publish drop-down menu.
4. From the Publish drop-down menu, select Schedule to schedule or backdate your post. Select the date and time to schedule your post.
5. When you’re finished, click Schedule.

Once your posts are scheduled, you will begin to receive notifications and comments that you can monitor. The post updates will keep your page fresh and open the door to engaging with your customers.

Remember that your Facebook page represents your businesses, so make sure every post is fresh and exciting, accurate and truthful, and includes an “action item” that encourages them to engage with you.

     7:   Writing Awesome Content

One of the most effective ways for brands to increase their popularity on Facebook is to consistently post quality content.

Your audience will get bored with posts that basically say, “Buy my Stuff!”, “Come to my Store!”  The best way to a consumer’s heart is to offer them something for free.  Now, don’t give away the cow….but a cup of milk will leave them thirsty for more.  Get it?  

Write up free article give-aways.  A hair salon may write: “5 herbal secrets to perfect hair”; a wine store may write: “Heart Healthy Wine Diet”.  Create your Facebook post, promoting your free tip give-away.  On that post, have a link to your website page which has yours with a pdf download button!  Now you have not only created engagement on Facebook with a click-through, but you’ve also got a potential customer to visit your website!

Similar to Google, Facebook puts a lot of emphasis on content quality and relevance. When deciding which posts to include in a user’s newsfeed, Facebook looks at engagement metrics, such as likes, shares, and clicks to determine the quality of each post. Typically, higher quality content yields a higher click-through-rate (CTR) and generates more likes and shares.

     8:  Use Facebook’s “Post Booster”

We’ve all heard of the dilemma, “I can’t get a job without experience, but I can’t get experience unless I have a job.”  You may run into the same type of dilemma with online advertising.  

Facebook factors in how many times people have gone to your page.  The more people engage with you, the more likely your page’s content will appear in that user’s newsfeed. This is why it’s so important for businesses to consistently (but not obnoxiously) post quality content. The better the content, the better the results.

But how can a page boost engagement when no one sees their content? This is where I would recommend experimenting with some paid promotions.

Facebook allows you to “boost” posts so they appear higher in your followers’ newsfeeds. The engagement you get for promoted posts helps to establish your credibility and effectively increases your organic reach.

To boost your Facebook Post:

1. Go to a post you’ve created and then click Boost Post in the lower-right corner.
2. Choose your audience and budget based on how many people you want to reach and how long you’d like your boost to run. You can also change your payment method.
3. Click Boost Post.

      9:  Advertise Your Business on Facebook

Facebook is a fantastic interface that helps you to create an ad that works.  There are a few steps to go through in order to create your ad, but it is well worth your time to create your ad with purpose.  http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/facebook-paid-ad-checklist has a wonderful list that walks you through the process step-by-step.  It’s not just about being a great artist.  These are the steps Facebook walks you through:

1. Choose the right Objective. There are 10 different objectives to choose from. The list includes everything from sending people to your website to getting installs of your app to raising attendance at your event.
2. Target the Audience you feel would be the most interested in your product or service. Some options include Location, Age, Gender, Education, Type of employment, Interests, etc.
3. Set your Budget. Facebook will pace your spending over the time period you set for the ad to run.  You can also schedule what days (before a holiday) or what times (lunchtime or after work when more people are on Facebook), etc.
4. Then you create your ad….with Facebook’s help.  Choose your photo (or group of photos you want to slideshow), your wording, the links to your website or App.
5. Once your ads are running, you’ll want to keep an eye on how they’re doing. To see their results, you’ll want to look in: the Facebook Ad Manager, a sophisticated dashboard that provides users with an overview of all their campaigns.  Check on your costs and the number of people who are engaging and clicking through on your ad for more information.  If your click-throughs are low, tweak your ad, change the photo, change the wording, until you begin seeing results.

     10:  Create a Facebook Video Ad

Use the power of video to get build your email list, and therefore get more sales for your business on Facebook.   64% of buyers are more likely to purchase a product after watching a video that explains it. (Data from comScore)

There are lots of ways to create a video. You can record yourself or another person talking about your product (the “talking head” video), or you can use images and animated text. You can get started with a short script and basic gear and improve as you go. Remember that people relate more to authenticity than to perfection, so just have fun with it.

Giving away something for free is the easiest way to get a customer to give you their email address.  

Step #1 – Writing your ad and script:

First, decide on your free gift and write ad wording for the Facebook ad. A weight loss clinic may structure its script like so:

1. 1. Are you struggling with your weight? Are you too exhausted to even try to follow a diet? (State a problem people commonly have that your business can fix.)  
   2. Power up your body, lose weight fast and safely!  (Then state what makes your product fix it that is unique to others.)
   3. Download your FREE healthy power shake recipe! Thousands have tried it already!   (Then offer your free item.)

The goal of your video ad is to entice people to sign up for something free.  They get their free gift and you get their email address for future advertising of products for them to purchase.   

Then write your video script:

Hi, do you struggle with your weight?
My name is …. and I’m the founder of ….
I’ve created a protein and vitamin Power Shake that tastes good, fills you up, and aids you in quick weight loss.
65,432 people have already tried it and have reached their goal weights.
Just click the Download button in this post to get instant access to your free shake recipe.

A video script like this will be approximately 30 to 45 seconds.  Practice it over and over until it flows smoothly and feels natural.

Step #2 – Set up your Equipment

Your equipment doesn’t need to be fancy.  An inexpensive webcam or even a nice cell phone can video your ad.  Make sure your background is plain and not distracting.  Good quality audio is very important.  Use a USB mic.  Lighting is also very important so light your room well.  Use a combination of overhead lights and lamps so there aren’t any strong shadows.

Step #3: Record the Video

Hit the Record button.  Remember you can record it over and over and then edit the best sections together.  Talk directly to the camera and feel comfortable like you’re talking to a person inside the camera.

Step #4: Edit wording and photos into your Video

There are lots of free video editing software programs out there.  Simply upload your video, edit it down to the clips you want.  Add in light music, product photos, etc. To look very professional, overlay your company logo onto the bottom of your video.  End your video with a photo of the download button that you want them to click. Visually explaining what action you want people to take can make a big difference in your click-through rate.  

Step #5: Start your Ad Campaign

Upload your video to Facebook!

     11:  Create Infographics

www.digitalinformationworld.com has brilliant online tools for Infographics that can make your Facebook Post content and photos too fun for anyone to pass up!  Get better click-through on your posts by using some of these great online tools:

1. Topsy.com
   Social media has become extremely important in content marketing in the last few years. So, you really have to know what the trending topics are to cash in on this enticing new playing field. Twitter is one of the top social networks around, and the beauty of it is – you don’t have to say much; you just have to know what is getting a lot of attention.
2. Portent’s Title Maker – Portent.com
   A great blog title can get you the attention you need, and this online app makes it so easy, it’s hilarious. It gives you pointers on why the title rocks, and even does it in an entertaining tongue-in-cheek fashion. If you don’t like the first suggestion just click on the refresh icon and it’ll give you another one.
3. Edugeeksclub.com
   Content writing may not be on the top of your skillset, but with a little help from the pros from Edugeeksclub, you can come up with great posts. If you find yourself pressed for time, you can get them to make your content perfect by having their professional team do the proofreading, editing, or writing it for you.
4. Venngage.com
   Using infographics is an excellent way to highlight important points, and get your audience to pay attention to what you are trying to say. Venngage helps you create an infographic if you are an absolute zero in image editing and manipulation. You still have to input your own charts and stuff, but they give you templates to use so you don’t have to do it from scratch. 
5. Nimbus Screenshot (Chrome Extension)
   Sometimes you need to take screenshots to illustrate a point. Most people know that the PrtScr key on the keyboard captures your whole screen so that you can paste it in Word or Paint. That’s fine if you want the whole screen; otherwise, you have to edit it. This add-on tool (Chrome, Firefox, Android, and Windows) gives you more control over what you capture. It also allows you to save, edit, and share your screenshots easily. 
6. Pixabay.com
   Images that break up your text and provide visual interest are an excellent way to increase the readability of your post. Unfortunately, you have to contend with copyright issues to use images on the Internet, or you have to pay to use stock photos. Pixabay offers copyright and royalty-free images you can use any way you like, and you don’t even have to attribute them.
7. Fotor.com
   If you get images from Pixabay, or you have your own, chances are you want to tweak them to make them unique. Fotor helps you do that even if you know nothing about image editing. This online photo editing service is quick and easy to use if you just want a basic edit and maybe a few enhancements. While it does not have the power of professional editing tools, it won’t give you a headache, either!
8. WeVideo.com
   Videos are a great addition to any website, especially if you have tutorials. This cloud-based video editing service allows you to make your own multimedia content easily. You can save your raw footage in the cloud, such as Dropbox or Google Drive, and edit from there. It is mainly compatible with YouTube and other online video services, so you can upload directly.
9. Piktochart.com
   Another tool you can use to make infographics, posters, and presentations on your site is Piktochart. You have templates, icons, images, videos, and charts. You can work in blocks and then compose the whole thing into an infographic when you’re done.
10. FontFace.Ninja
    We have all come across other websites with interesting font types that we would love to identify. FontFace Ninja is a Chrome and Safari extension, which will let you identify any website font type you encounter, try it in different sizes, and even download it. 

12.  Create unique art to capture attention for your Facebook Posts

a.  Create Word Clouds

www.tagul.com

www.tagxedo.com

www.wordle.net

Word clouds, also known as text clouds or tag clouds, are pieces of art created with just words.  The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can enter your own words, or enter a document, and the program with choosing the words that show up the most. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes.  You can even make your word cloud in a shape that reflects the topic of your Facebook Post.

b.  Cutomize Images with Wording

www.canva.com

Canva makes image creation super easy (especially for non-designers) with their premade templates, custom image sizes for every social media channel, drag-and-drop interface, cool fonts, and more. Design presentations, social media graphics, and more with thousands of beautiful layouts. It has everything you need for amazing design. Millions of Images – Design with millions of stock photographs, vectors, and illustrations. You can even upload your own.  Photo Filters – Edit your photos using preset filters or get advanced with photo editing tools, you’ll never be stuck for choice.  Free Icons & Shapes – Use icons, shapes, and elements with ease. Choose from thousands of elements for your designs, or upload your own.  Hundreds of Fonts – Access a great selection of fonts perfect for every design. All ready to go and accessible within Canva.

c.  Screen Capture

www.evernote.com/skitch

The go-to screenshot tool — Simply click and drag over the area you want to snip. You can circle things, point to things, blur things, and add text with just a couple of quick clicks. A product of Evernote, Skitch lets you save and store all screen captures into an Evernote folder of your choosing.

d.  Make Gif Animated Art

http://ms-gif-animator.en.softonic.com

Make your own gifs!  Gifs are .gif files – drawings that appear to move.  It’s a very simple tool, as much in design as in usability, with which you will be able to create your own animated Gif.  It’s created by Microsoft and it’s free!

e.  Create your own Infographics

www.easel.ly    www.visual.ly     www.piktochart.com

These are interactive layouts that allow you to embed charts, photos, and more. You can get started with a prebuilt template (and then customize yourself) or you can go truly bare-bones and build the entire infographic however you see fit. These programs come with a vast number of icons, shapes, and objects that you can drag-and-drop into your editor.

f.  Create a Meme

memegenerator.net

Create your own Meme around a concept and idea that pertains to your business.  A Meme is a humorous image, video, piece of text, etc. that is copied (often with slight variations) and spread rapidly by Internet users.  Browse the most popular memes on the internet and then create your own meme.

The post 12 Ways to Improve Your Facebook Business Page appeared first on Websites by Robyn.

• Your website is available to everyone, all over the world, all the time, 24-7, marketing your business while you sleep.  Of the 7 billion people on earth, 3 billion have access to the internet, and your website.  That’s a lot of customers!

• A website gives your business credibility, reputation and trust.  It used to be that businesses seemed shady if they weren’t in the phone book, had a phone number and a physical address.  Now-a-days, it’s generally accepted that a business must also have a website and email address.

• A professionally designed website boosts your image.  A one-man-shop could feel like a large business through a website.  It shows that you are not just doing a hobby, and that you really mean business.

• A website makes information about your business available to customers, with no pressure to buy, and ability to anonymously research your products or services.

• A website is affordable continuous marketing.  It’s an online ad for your business that you only pay for once.  Newspaper ads are important for local advertising, but the days of $1000 full page ads annually in the yellow pages are becoming something of the past.  Flyers and television spots are expensive and are hit-and-miss.

• Changing your business information is fast and easy on the internet.  Changing photos, wording, pricing and contact information on all of your catalogs, brochures and marketing materials get very time consuming and expensive.

• A website is a multimedia source of advertising.  A brochure can have photos, but sound and video make your website a 3-D experience for customers.

• Websites can have a FAQ page – Frequently Asked Questions.  This will save you tons of time on the phone, answering the same questions over and over.

• The amount of information you can get on a website is endless.  You can provide far more information than you could ever fit on a brochure, flyer or business card.

• With Google Analytics, you can see exactly how many visitors come to your site every day, what times of the day are busier, what pages they are reading, and how they found your website.

• Unlike other forms of advertising, a website allows potential customers to give feedback on your products and services.  Companies pay large sums of money to have their businesses analyzed for find their pros and cons.  With your website, ask for feedback and reviews for your products, services and customer service.  A website allows people to feel anonymous; therefore they will be brutally honest.  Take the good comments and pat yourself on the back.  Take the negative comments AND FIX IT!  Tom Hanks said, “There’s no crying in baseball!”  Well, there’s no crying in business.  You can’t afford to be offended.  

• A website is simply an incredible way to sell things.  You can’t beat the exposure.  And a website, even costing a one-time $2K-$4K fee, undeniably beats a $1K per month rent on a physical store!

The post Top 12 Reasons to have a Website appeared first on Websites by Robyn.

Do you remember the saying “If you build it, they will come” from the movie Field of Dreams?  Well that might have worked for a “baseball field in Iowa”, but it doesn’t work for the internet. In fact, you can have the most amazing, beautiful, informative website and yet get no traffic at all. It’s like printing business cards and then never passing them out.  

Social media is the fast, easy and inexpensive way to get customers.  Savvy business owners have to know and use a variety of social media networks in order to “shake hands with the public” and to stay informed about the latest interests and needs of consumers.

Here are the 7 most important social networks to bring traffic to your website:

1.  Facebook

Facebook is definitely the largest and most popular networking site on the web right now with over a billion users. A Facebook business page is used to advertise products and services, inform your “friend” or “like” base of special deals, new products, events at your business, etc.  You can also upload photos and videos to entertain or educate your customers.   

2.  LinkedIn

Anyone who needs to make professional connections should be on LinkedIn. Known as the social network for your career, you can promote yourselves and your businesses, outline your education and work experience and make connections with other professionals. Meeting customers, get in touch with vendors, recruit new employees, write articles, and keep up with the latest in industry news.

3.  Twitter

Like Facebook, Twitter has become a top source for real-time news sharing. It is the simplest of all social media platforms, with messages limited to 140 characters, and the added ability to share photos and links.  Use Twitter to give a “shout out” to your friends and customers about a current special – “30% off to the next 5 people who come to my store”, “Just got a new shipment of Beanie Babies!”, “Tonight is Taco Tuesday!”

4.  Google+

Google+ is the second largest social networking site, which has personal profiles for posting status updates, photos and videos, as well as “Circles” and “Communities” for sharing

information with different groups of people. Google combined the best of Facebook and Twitter into one site.  You can add new content, highlight topics with hashtags, and even separate contacts into circles.

5.  YouTube

Where does everyone go to watch or share video content online? It’s obviously YouTube. YouTube is now owned by Google and is tied right into your Google+ account. Create your own “Channel” and post videos about your business and the products or services you offer.

6.  Pinterest

Pinterest is a giant, inspirational, virtual bulletin board. To use this for your business, collect inspirational photos that relate to your products or services.   Are you a public speaker?  Post inspirational saying on posters. Own a coin store, a bakery, a massage business?  Post photos that inspire people to seek your business out and connect with you.

7.  Instagram

Instagram is like a visual Twitter.  It’s the ultimate social network for sharing real-time photos and short videos while on the go.  If you have new products, a party at your store, a busy night at your restaurant?  Snap a photo or shoot a video and post it on Instagram. Let your potential customers know that your place is the place to be.

The post Social Media…Who Needs it? appeared first on Websites by Robyn.

1. The price is under $1,000

If your website is costing you less than $1,000 bucks, then chances are your web designer is terrible and your website will be terrible too. We all wish we could spend $1,000 dollars and make millions, but if it were that easy everyone would do it.

Stop being cheap, because, you get what you pay for. You could easily buy a car for $1,000 bucks but again, you get what you pay for. If you still think your website should be under $1,000 bucks, eventually you will come crawling back to the web designer that was too expensive. Only now you’ll have to pay for a good web designer + the costs of your really cheap web designer.

Common Question:  How much does it cost to build a website?

My common answer:  Well, how much does it cost to build a house?  It depends on what you want.  Just remember that it isn’t really that much cheaper to build a 3 bedroom house as it is a 6 bedroom house.  It still needs the foundation, the plumbing, electrical, etc.  Same with websites.  You still need the whole structure built, no matter how many pages you want.

2. You found them on Craigslist

I advertised for business on Craigslist about 6 or 7 years ago when I was still a terrible web designer. From my experience, I learned that Craigslist is where cheap people can find other cheap people. Of course, every rule has its exceptions and I do occasionally post on Craigslist’s job board to see what’s out there but very rarely do I get the quality I’m looking for.

So, if you found your web designer on Craigslist you’re probably also breaking rule #1, by being cheap.

3. No weekly call during the website build process

Momentum is the energy and excitement that every new website project starts off with. It’s critical to maintain momentum throughout the course of a web design project. The second your web designer loses regular contact is the second you lose the project’s momentum. Your web designer should be in contact with you at least once a week.

4. No copywriting solution

Creating content for your new website is the biggest challenge every client faces. It’s also the #1 cause for delays. A good web designer will be prepared with a solution and warn you about this at the kickoff meeting.

5. Your web designer’s #1 goal is creativity

Creativity should not be the #1 goal for your website. In a survey by Hub Spot, 76% of users said that the most important factor in the design of a website is that “The website makes it easy for me to find what I want.” Only 10% of users said, “beautiful appearance” was the most important thing to them. Organization of content was their number #1 concern for websites, not creativity. The more organized your content is the longer users will stay. The longer users stay, the more likely they will buy. So, make sure your web designer’s priorities are correct.

6. Your web designer is related to you

“Never hire anyone you can’t fire.” You should know better than to hire a relative to work for you in the first place, let alone build your website.

However, if you do decide to hire a family member to build your website, they will probably give you an “unbelievable” discount. If they’re a pro, that’s great news; however, the bad news is that the project eventually won’t be worth their time, and you will eventually end up on the back burner.

7. Your web designer is YOU!

Peep author at conversion xl says, “If you designed your website yourself and you’re not a designer, it sucks”.  It takes years of experience to perfect what we do. You can’t learn this trade in a few hours.

8. You built it using a web tool

Anyone can learn how to use a cheap web design tool in an hour or so but you can’t learn what a good web designer has learned with years of experience. In other words, learning how to use a website builder won’t teach you how to design a website that will get targeted traffic, conversions, and sales.

In addition, just because you learned how to use Photoshop doesn’t mean you’re a good web designer. I’ve received so many resumes from people who know the Adobe Suite like the back of their hand, but their work sucks. Again, it takes years of experience to not be a terrible web designer.

9. They don’t ask enough questions

Your web designer should ask you lots of questions, especially before they start working on your project. They should ask everything about your 3C’s (Company, Competitors, and Clients). Questions should start during the initial sales meetings and kickoff meetings, and then continue throughout the strategy phase of your project. No question is a RED FLAG and the sign of a terrible web designer.

    8 sample questions:

1. What are your primary and secondary goals for your website?
2. Who and where is your target audience (local, national, global)?
3. Describe your typical client.
4. Who are your online and offline competitors?
5. Are you doing any marketing offline?
6. Do you have brand guidelines?
7. Do you have a content writer?
8. What will you provide? (photos, videos, images, brochures)

10. No architecture strategy

Before you start building a house, you hire an architect to make blueprints. Custom web design is very similar to building a house. Before designing any pages, your web designer should map out (blueprint) each page of your website and get your approval before designing and developing.

11. They have too many clients

I used to be guilty of this a lot. I had way too many clients and I could not focus properly on any of them. Therefore, they all suffered. I would jump back and forth on different projects, while ignoring others. It was horrible and stressful. Projects were constantly late and clients were not happy.

12. No scope of work

A wise man in project management for 20+ years once told me that 80% of the problems that occur during a project occur because of a poor scope of work. A good scope of work details all work to be performed and delivered. It is critical that both parties agree to the scope of work before the project is executed.

13. No conversion strategy

Has your web designer helped you define what your primary and secondary conversions are? A conversion can be a phone call, email sign-up, contact form, e-commerce purchase, or a button is clicked. Your web designer should help you define what your conversions are.

Primary conversions are actual sales made on the site or inquiries for sales discussions through a contact form. Secondary conversions are typical forms that capture emails. Your web designer should ask how you want to be contacted and how clients typically prefer contacting you. After all, this is why you built your website.

14. Your designer is from your IT department

I blame clients and web designers for this one. Nothing is more frustrating than someone in IT calling our agency to inquire about a new website. Shouldn’t someone in marketing be calling us? I will never understand why companies associate IT departments with web design.  “Website design is marketing”, not IT.

15. No SEO strategy

Let’s say you wanted to open a new store that required lots of foot traffic. Would you let your real estate agent sell you a very nice storefront without knowing or telling you anything about the neighborhood? Me either. In other words, if your web designer doesn’t do SEO, they are terrible.

16. No CMS

I can’t think of any good reasons why your web developer wouldn’t build your website on a CMS (content management system). A good CMS like WordPress is built on a framework that has prebuilt functionality saving you time and money.

17. Your designer is in a different country

Yes, they speak English, and yes they are cheaper but if you don’t understand how to properly vet designers and developers in other countries you will most likely find a terrible web designer who doesn’t do any of the items above, giving you a very frustrating experience.

The post How to know if your Web Designer Sucks appeared first on Websites by Robyn.

Headline

Your website needs to answer “What does this website offer?” within the first 3 seconds a visitor sees your site.  Keep your headline simple and to the point.

Sub-Headline

Your sub-headline should be a brief and concise description of what you are offering.  Don’t use clichés or over-used common phrases.  Be sure to describe what you can do for your customers without just bragging on yourself.

Benefits

You must explain to people “why” they need your service.  Explain the advantages and benefits of having your product or service.  People may not be ready to buy at this time, but you can offer resources in this section where they can learn more of why they need this product or service.

Call-to-Action

Having multiple “Calls-to-Action” is a great way to engage your audience.  Offer a “free demo” or “free sample”.  Be sure to email the freebie to them so that you are capturing their email address for further discussions.  Have a “read more” and a “buy now” button on your home page.  Calls-to-Action create interaction.

List Features

Bulleted lists are a great way to sum up the features you or your product offer.

Customer Satisfaction

Reviews/Testimonials are essential in today’s marketing.  Make them short and to the point.  A photo or name gives even more validity to the review.

Success Indicators

List or show logos for the awards, recognitions, and relevant education you have received.  This gives your audience a reason to trust you.

Menus

Your website menu should be easy to find at the top of the page.  5-7 tabs with sub-tabs organized below them will allow your customers to find anything they need easily.

Images and Videos

People are visual.  They want to clearly see what you offer.  Don’t use stock photos!

Secondary Call-to-Action

At the bottom of your website page, add a banner with a Call-to-Action to “Buy Now”, “sign up for our FREE Newsletter”, “Get Your FREE eBook”, etc.

Information Area

The footer of your website used to contain just your copyright information and possibly the name of your website designer.  Now-a-days, there is a pre-footer that contains important information such as navigation.  The navigation lists all of your tabs and subtabs in outline form so that at a glance your customers can find where they want to go.  The pre-footer also typically has a map, showing exactly where your shop or office is located.   Also include all of your contact information:  owner’s name (with letters after is applicable), business name, phone #’s, address(s), and a link to your contact page.

The post 11 Important Elements Your Homepage Must Have appeared first on Websites by Robyn.

People form their opinion about your site in milliseconds. It takes about 50 milliseconds (that’s 0.05 seconds) for users to form an opinion about your website that determines whether they like your site or not, whether they’ll stay or leave. (Recently Google confirmed the 50 ms number in their own research.) The first second on your website might matter more than all other seconds that follow. Make sure that second makes a great first impression. This first impression depends on many factors: structure, colors, spacing, symmetry, amount of text, fonts, and more. 

Make your web design simple and familiar (follow conventions – e.g. people have a fixed idea what an e-commerce site should be like). If you go for innovative, unconventional layouts – people are less likely to like them.

Eyetracking study —  Researchers monitored eye movements as subjects scanned web pages. They  then analyzed the eye-tracking data to determine how long it took to focus on the menu, logo, images and social media icons before they moved on to another section. They discovered that the better the first impression, the longer the participants stayed on the page.

The website sections that drew the most interest from viewers were as follows:

• Logo (6.48 seconds)
  • Main navigation menu (6.44 seconds)
  • Search box (6 seconds)
  • Social media icons (5.95 seconds)
  • Main image (5.94 seconds)
  • Written content (5.59 seconds)
  • Bottom of the website (5.25 seconds)

Elements that kill a design are complex, busy layout, lack of navigation aids, use of inappropriate colors, pop up adverts, slow introductions to site, small print, too much text, corporate look and feel, poor search facilities.

Good content is extremely important, but the visual appeal and website navigation appears to have the biggest influence on people’s first impressions of the site.  You gotta hook ‘em with design and then wow them with content.

Usability was the second most significant driver of first impression formation, followed by credibility.

It’s as simple as this:  People want to get inspired — DESIGN; they don’t want to waste mental energy on figuring stuff out – USABILITY;  and they want to be sure the website is legit – CREDIBILITY (which you give them with your content).

The post HOOK ‘EM with Design, WOW ‘EM with Content appeared first on Websites by Robyn.