Category: Digital Marketing Resources

Email marketing can be an extremely effective tool for businesses to stay top of mind with their customers, but without a focused plan, your email marketing efforts are not reaching their full potential.

Before sending out your next round of emails, read these 5 actionable tips for creating a successful email marketing campaign.

Tip 1: Set Specific & Measurable Goals

Strategic planning is the key to any successful marketing campaign, so before you send out your first email, determine your goals and objectives. Goals should be specific and measurable. For example, if you want to increase unique website visits, plan your strategy and content around this goal. Next, determine how you will measure the success of your campaign with a specific targeted number of visits.

Tip 2: Know Who You’re Trying to Reach

In order to send information that is relevant to your target audience, know who you’re trying to reach. Before drafting your message, determine who the intended audience is and what information they find valuable. If your message is not relevant to the receiving audience, you are losing out on valuable opportunities to connect and engage with that person. For varied audiences, provide unique content that addresses the specific needs of each segment.

Tip 3: Determine Optimal Send Frequency

The next question to ask before beginning your email marketing campaign is the frequency between messages. You can send emails out daily, weekly, or monthly, but make sure to be consistent. Have a set time each month to plan, write and send out your emails. Test to see which frequency is optimal. Sending emails too often can be annoying and may result in a high unsubscribe rate. Send emails too seldom, and your customers may forget about you.

Tip 4: Communicate Value in The Subject Line

As a Tampa web design company, we understand the importance of communicating value through email subject lines. Nearly one third of email recipients open an email based on subject lines alone. Find a way to communicate the value of your message through a subject line that speaks to your target audience’s needs. The best way to write great subject lines is through writing interesting content. Interesting content usually generates interesting subject lines.

Tip 5: Present a Clear and Concise Message

Rather than overwhelming the reader with lots of information, provide them with a clear and concise message that’s easy to digest. Most recipients will scan your email to pull out bits of information they find of value, rather than read it word for word. Inundating them with too much information will likely result in them ignoring the email. A good rule of thumb is to provide them with a little information they can absorb, rather than a lot of information they ignore.

Conclusion

Email marketing can be a great tool to connect with your audience, but only if it is executed correctly. Set specific and measurable goals, determine who your audience is, how often you will speak to them, grab their attention by providing value in the subject line, and present a clear and concise message. By keeping these tips in mind, you are on your way to integrating a successful email marketing campaign.

Leverage Digital is a Tampa web design and digital marketing agency. For more information, please call us today at (866) 611-6267 or request a free consultation.

As a Tampa web design company, we constantly look for ways to increase website conversion rates for our clients. We find that one of the most effective ways for businesses to turn visits into sales is by building trust and credibility, and one of the best ways to do this is through the use of testimonials. Studies show that testimonials help build trust and enhance your brand’s credibility with prospective customers, and consequently contribute to increased conversions.

– As reported by BusinessWeek, 70% of Americans say they look at testimonials before deciding to make a purchase.

– A study conducted by CompUSA and iPerceptions revealed that 63% of consumers indicate they are more likely to purchase from a site if it has testimonials.

– According to a Dimensional Research survey, 90% of respondents claim that positive online testimonials influence their purchase decisions.

Below, we outline three steps to effectively use testimonials to build credibility and increase website conversions.

Step 1: Actively Seek Out New Testimonials

Reach out to existing or past customers and ask them about their experiences with the services or products your company offers. Not only will you gain a testimonial for your website, but you will also gain valuable insight about their experience with your products or services. If the feedback you receive is negative, that’s okay. Negative feedback provides an opportunity to improve your customer experience.

Step 2: Use Testimonials That Address Pain Points & Highlight Benefits

Just because a testimonial is positive, doesn’t mean it’s effective. The most effective testimonials address the customer’s pain point and emphasizes the benefits your service or product provides.

An example of an effective testimonial is, “Prior to seeking the services of Company A, our business had difficulty with consistently meeting quarterly sales objectives. Company A’s services not only allowed us to meet our quarterly sales objectives, but enabled us to exceed them by 200%.”

Step 3: Place Testimonials Alongside Contextually Relevant Content

Testimonials are most effective when they’re relevant in context to the product or service being viewed. For example, if your business has three service offerings: A, B, and C, then a testimonial for service A would be most effective alongside areas of the website that are devoted to service A. This reinforces your credibility to the prospective customer for that specific service. In contrast, placing testimonials that are relevant to service B or C alongside content that discusses service A would add little value.

Conclusion

By placing effective testimonials alongside contextually relevant content, your website will be better equipped to build trust and credibility with prospective customers, and ultimately generate more conversions.

Leverage Digital is a web design company in Tampa. For more information, please call us today at (866) 611-6267 or request a free consultation.

Mobile usage is growing at a rapid pace and every business knows their website needs to be mobile-friendly. One of the most difficult decisions is choosing between a dedicated mobile website and a responsive website because both options have their advantages.

Responsive web design is an alternative solution to dedicated mobile websites. A responsive website detects and conforms to the dimensions of the screen on which the website is being viewed and automatically adjusts the formatting of its content and images for optimal display. At Leverage Digital, a web design company in Tampa we specialize in creating professional, mobile-friendly responsive websites.

Below, we outline 3 advantages of having a responsive website, and how it can help your business.

1. Better for SEO

Google has publicly announced that responsive web design is their preferred mobile configuration and refers to this technique as the industry best practice.

For companies that rely heavily on search engine optimization (SEO), a responsive website is the ideal mobile solution. With responsive web design, there is no risk of being penalized by search engines for duplicate content since the content that is displayed regardless of the device comes from the same website. Additionally, it is easier to manage one SEO campaign on one responsive website, than it is to manage two SEO campaigns on separate desktop and mobile websites.

Furthermore, responsive web design reduces load time since it does not require URL redirects, a technique that is used to direct users to a dedicated mobile website when a mobile device is used. Also, device-based redirection is error-prone and can have a negative impact on user-experience, which is a factor that Google takes into account when ranking websites for specific keywords.

2. Provides a Consistent User-Experience Across Multiple Devices

One of the primary benefits of adopting responsive web design is that it allows businesses the ability to provide visitors with a consistent user-experience across multiple devices.

Until recently, the most common mobile strategy was to create a dedicated mobile website, which is often a stripped down version of the desktop website. While this solution allows businesses to provide a “mobile user-experience,” it often results in a website that lacks the information mobile users are looking for, and leaves them resorting to the all-too-familiar “Desktop Version” link. If users have to visit the desktop version of a website on their mobile device in order to find the information they’re looking for, not only does this create a terrible user-experience, but it calls into question the purpose of having a dedicated mobile website in the first place.

Consistency is critical for keeping users happy, and this is where responsive web design fits in. Regardless of the user’s device and screen size, with responsive web design they will always be presented with a website that is consistent in both design and in the information that is provided to them, which is exactly what mobile users expect.

3. Reduces Site Management Costs

Another benefit of responsive design is that it saves business owners both time and money on development and maintenance of the website. Before the introduction of responsive web design, businesses had to create multiple versions of their website to accommodate the various screen sizes of their mobile users, all of which required time and resources to develop, manage, and maintain.

It is generally easier and less costly to maintain one responsive website than it is to maintain separate desktop and mobile websites. The reason for this is with two separate websites, businesses must incur the ongoing cost of managing and maintaining two separate sets of code and two separate sets of content.

With responsive web design, there is only one version of a website to maintain, which makes it the more cost effective solution for businesses in the long-run.

Conclusion

Responsive web design is better for SEO, allows businesses to provide a consistent user-experience across multiple devices, reduces site management costs, and gives businesses the ability to meet the needs of desktop, tablet, and smartphone users, all from one website. For these reasons, at Leverage Digital, a responsive web design company in Tampa, we recommend that every business owner consider a responsive website for their mobile web presence.

For more information, please call us today at (866) 611-6267 or request a free consultation.

Discovering that your website is listed first on Google Search for the products or services your organization offers is the dream of every business owner and marketer, but this is no easy task. In order to be #1, you must first understand that Google’s primary objective is to provide searchers with the best user-experience possible by delivering quality content that is highly relevant to their search queries. As a result, the only way Google will allow your website to reach the coveted first position, is if it helps them achieve this objective.

Follow these five steps to start improving your rankings in Google now:

Step 1: Target a Niche

The first step in implementing a successful search engine optimization (SEO) strategy that will drive your website to the #1 position in Google is to clearly identify and target a niche. If you’re like most businesses, you offer multiple products or services to different customer segments. So, identify the specific product or service you wish to promote, and the specific customer segment you wish to promote it to. Targeting a niche reduces your competition and also results in higher quality traffic to your website.

For example, let’s say you own a law practice in Tampa, FL. You likely want people who are searching for a lawyer in Tampa to find your website. In this scenario, not only are you competing against every other law firm in Tampa, but everyone who searches for a lawyer in Tampa is not necessarily interested in the specific practice area(s) you offer. So, in order to reduce your competition and increase the quality of visitors, you must narrow the focus of your SEO strategy to targeting people in Tampa who are in need of the specific practice area(s) your firm offers. If your firm specializes in multiple practice areas, focus initially on one or two areas that are the most profitable, or least competitive. Note that the logic in this example can be applied to any business, not just law firms.

Step 2: Select The Right Keywords

After you have identified your niche, the next step is to select relevant keywords. Your choice of keywords can have a significant impact on the success of your SEO strategy. This step requires research. Some key points that should be taken into consideration while researching and making your keyword selections are:

How competitive are the keywords?

How often are those keywords searched?

How relevant are the keywords to the customer segment you’re targeting?

How relevant are the keywords to your product or service offering?

If you are unsure which keywords you should target, we suggest reaching out to an SEO company in Tampa for professional assistance. Keep in mind that SEO is dynamic, so you should be prepared to evaluate and modify your keywords over time.

Step 4: Create Engaging Content

Once you have identified your niche and selected relevant keywords, it’s time to create engaging content using those keywords. Remember, Google’s primary goal is to provide the best user-experience possible to searchers. Therefore, in addition to relevancy, Google measures site engagement to determine if your website is providing their searchers with relevant and useful content. If your site engages visitors, this means they are finding the content it provides to be of value, which helps Google achieve its primary objective. As a result, Google will attribute more authority to your website and rankings will increase.

It is also important to continuously add fresh, engaging content to your website and give both searchers and Google a reason to keep coming back. Not only does this make your website a valuable resource for potential customers, but it let’s Google know that your website is an authoritative resource for your niche.

Step 5: Measure and Improve

The final step is to measure the results of your work and make improvements. Are your keyword selections generating the right kind of traffic? Are visitors engaging with your content? Is your website generating conversions? A successful SEO strategy requires constant analysis and improvement. The job is never done, because Google is always evolving and so are your competitors.

Follow these five steps, and you can greatly increase your chances of finding your website in the top position on Google.

For information on our Tampa SEO services, please call us at (866) 611-6267 or submit our free consultation request form today.

You spend a lot of time working on your email marketing campaign, but is anyone reading your emails? Your open rate can tell you a lot about your campaign and how successful it may or may not be. Email open rates can depend on factors which are out of your control, such as your industry, but there are other factors within your control that can have a significant impact as well.

Here are three quick ways to increase your email campaign open rates:

1. Have a Compelling Subject Line

A compelling subject line is made up of two key components. The first component lets the reader know what they can expect to find inside the email and the second makes the reader want to open it. A compelling subject line can be thought of as a promise that’s designed to capture your reader’s attention and should leave them with a desire to open the email and read more. Great subject lines are also short and to the point. A good rule of thumb is to keep subject lines within 50 characters or less.

2. Create Content That Provides Value to Your Reader

It’s essential that your content provide value to your readers. If a reader finds that the emails you send them are not relevant to their interests, it is unlikely that they’ll want to open your future emails. What works is an exchange of value. Your readers must find value in what you are sending them in order for them to give up their time to read it. To ensure that your content provides value to your readers, make sure that your subject line is relevant and provides a promise for some sort of value and that the content of your emails delivers on that promise. It is also helpful to consider using the services of an experienced digital marketing and web design firm in Tampa that specializes in email marketing.

3. Know When to Send Your Email

Another factor that can impact your email open rates is the time of day and day of the week that your emails are sent out. It will require some testing to figure out what your optimal send time is, but knowing the best time to send your emails can have a significant impact on open rates. A popular method used by many Tampa web design companies to find the best send time for emails is through A/B split testing. This is where the same email is sent to two separate email lists at different times. You can then compare the results to determine which email had the highest open rate. Another effective method is to look at historical data to see if there are any discernible patterns between send times and open rates.

If you would like to learn about our email marketing services, please call us today at (866) 611-6267, or submit our free consultation request form.

Many business owners mistakenly think that they need to focus all their online marketing efforts on generating as much traffic to their website as possible. While having a lot of traffic is not necessarily a bad thing, how much better and more profitable would it be to convert more of that traffic into paying customers?

Here are three easy and proven ways that will help kick-start your website’s conversion power and turn more traffic into paying customers today.

1. Phone Number

Be sure that your phone number is visible on every page of your website. Your customers like to know that they are working with a company that is accessible. Having your phone number appear on every page of your website will give the impression that your company is accessible, trustworthy, and credible. It is also very important to make sure that the phone number is in text format, and not an image. This will ensure that your phone number is clickable for mobile users, enabling them to call you directly from your website on their mobile device.

2. Contact Forms

Giving users multiple contact options increases the likelihood they will convert, and in addition to providing a phone number, contact forms are essential. Make sure a contact form is on every page of your website or is at least one click away. Limit the amount of information that you require on your contact form to the absolute essentials. If you make it too difficult for your visitors to submit the form, they likely won’t. As a web design company in Tampa, we understand the significant impact that contact forms can have on your website conversions, which is why we incorporate contact forms into every one of our clients’ websites. By having your contact forms readily available to your visitors and by limiting the amount of information you require, you’ll start to see higher conversions in no time.

3. Calls to Action

When a visitor enters your website, what is the desired action you want them to take? Maybe it’s subscribing to a newsletter, or maybe you’d like your visitor to schedule a consultation. Regardless of what action you want a visitor to take, calls to action are very useful. Calls to action (CTAs) are essential for encouraging visitors to take action. Effective CTAs should be clear, concise, and compelling. They should also be clearly distinguished from the rest of the site’s content.

Now that you know 3 easy ways to increase your website conversions, start putting them into action.

Leverage Digital is a Tampa web design company. For a free consultation, please call us today at (866) 611-6267 or submit our contact request form.

Flat design is a user-centric design style that has been around for quite some time, but has more recently started to make big waves in web design. Apple, Google, and Microsoft are among the many companies that have recently embraced this growing design trend. “Why,” you may ask? Because it works.

Flat Design: What Is It?

Flat design can be characterized as a minimalistic design style that focuses on color, form, function, and font by utilizing clean open space, crisp edges, and two dimensional graphics like the example above of Microsoft’s homepage.

Unlike skeuomorphism design, which uses complex design elements such as embossing, drop shadows, and textures to give off a more realistic appearance, flat design puts more emphasis on increasing usability rather than increasing aesthetic appeal. The theory behind this design style is that if a user is not distracted by all the design elements that are typically used in skeuomorphic designs, then the user will be better able to focus on what is important, the content.

Why Web Design is Going Flat

Great for Responsive Design

In today’s digital on-the-go age, more and more users are reaching for their mobile devices to search for products and services they find of interest. Responsive design allows businesses the ability to provide their users with a consistent user experience across the various devices used to perform these searches. Flat design is great for responsive design. Many of the best responsive design websites utilize flat design elements because this design style scales well to smaller screens and allows for faster page load speeds.

Easier to Use

When properly executed, a flat design website should be simple for users to utilize on both desktop and mobile devices. The limited use of design elements and removal of flashy embellishments, eliminates the unnecessary distractions that often cause frustration to users. Furthermore, the bold typography that is used within flat design is generally easier to read and the larger, less cluttered action buttons are more apparent. The shedding of the skeuomorphic design elements also enhance a website’s ability to be cross-browser compatible.

Encourages User Engagement

Content that is communicated in a simple and clear manner is more easily digested by a user. Hence, the effectiveness of flat design. The use of clean, bright, contrasting colors help to increase the visibility of buttons, highlight calls to action, and encourage user engagement. Additionally, because flat design websites tend to have fewer graphics and smaller image file sizes, they typically have faster page load speeds.

Is Flat Design Better Than Skeuomorphic Design?

The emergence of flat design as a trend shows that there has been a major shift towards user-friendly, minimalistic designs. At Leverage Digital, we have always espoused the importance of clean and user-centric designs. Though the winds have shifted in the world of web design, the important thing to keep in mind is that one design style is not necessarily inherently better than the other. They both have advantages and disadvantages, and so it depends on the needs of your customers and the goals of your business when deciding which design style is the best option for you.

Leverage Digital is a Tampa web design company. Give us a call today at (866) 611-6267 or submit our contact request form for more information on our web design services.

Your website is one of the most crucial elements of your marketing strategy. A poorly designed website can not only have a significant negative impact on your brand, it also has the potential to cost your business thousands of dollars in lost sales.

A well-designed website will be better equipped to provide your customers with a great user experience, which leads to increased conversions and ultimately increased sales.

When looking to design a website that will help increase your company’s bottom line, try to avoid these costly mistakes:

1. Ignoring Your Target Audience

One of the most important factors to take into consideration when designing your website is your target audience. Although your website should impress and help distinguish your brand from the competition, its main purpose is to speak to your customers. This is why it’s essential to take their needs into account throughout the entire web development process. When your website is designed with your customers in mind, it will provide them with a more enjoyable and valuable user experience.

2. Overdoing The Design

A cluttered or crowded design can do a major disservice to your website. Using too many design elements can be distracting and cause frustration when users are unable to easily find what they’re looking for. These types of designs can come off as unprofessional and disorganized, and can cause the user to embrace these same negative feelings towards your brand. When it comes to design elements for a website, a good rule of thumb is to use them in the same way you would spend money, which for most would be carefully and with purpose.

3. Missing Calls to Action

Calls-to-action (CTAs) are designed to prompt users to take a desired action. When properly designed and placed in optimal areas of a website, these actions help users navigate through a website and motivate them to continue down the conversion funnel until they ultimately become a paying customer. Business owners who feel they are not generating the desired results from their websites are often missing this fundamental component. When a website is missing CTAs, the business is missing out on a window of opportunity to convert visitors into customers.

4. Hiring the Wrong Web Design Company

Many businesses do not realize the importance of selecting a professional web design firm to handle their web development initiatives. This may be one of the most common and costly marketing mistakes a business can make. Selecting the right Tampa web design company can mean the difference between having a professional website that helps improve your brand and facilitate new business, or ending up with a poorly designed product that could cost you thousands of dollars and a great deal of time to fix. To get it right the first time and maximize your return on investment, choose a company that specializes in professional web design and also has a great track record.

5. Doing it Yourself

When it comes to having a professional website designed for your business, this task is better left to the professionals. It may seem enticing at first to save a little money upfront by doing it yourself. However, when considering the damage that a DIY website can cause to your brand and reputation, the intangible costs far outweigh the financial cost of hiring a professional Tampa web design company to deliver an effective website that improves your corporate image and attracts, rather than deters potential customers.

Leverage Digital is a web design company in Tampa, FL that specializes in designing professional websites. For more information, please call us at (866) 611-6267 or submit our contact request form.

Everyday, thousands of websites are compromised by malicious software (malware) that can jeopardize a company’s online integrity and security. Having a website infected with malware is not only a frustrating experience, but also a liability. Malware is commonly used by attackers to gain access to a website’s sensitive data and disrupt the operation of the business.

Malware attacks are not only a threat to the website owner, but they also pose a considerable risk to anyone who visits the site while it’s infected. Malware can infect your visitors’ computers or mobile devices, and steal their bank account information, credit card information, passwords, and other sensitive data.

“Malware can infect your visitors’ computers or mobile devices, and steal their bank account information, credit card information, passwords, and other sensitive data.”

In a 2013 Website Security Statistics Report by WhiteHat Security, it was found that 86% of the websites tested in their study had at least one serious vulnerability. In most cases, the number was far greater than that. A serious vulnerability is classified as one that could lead to a malware attacker having control over a site, user accounts, or sensitive data. The report also notes that 61% of the discovered vulnerabilities were resolved. However, it would take an average of 193 days for the vulnerability to be addressed.

In this amount of time, the damage is already done.

5 Ways Malware Attackers Can Compromise Your Website

There are many different vulnerabilities that a malware attacker can take advantage of to inject malicious code into your website. Here are five of the most common:

1. Password Choice Vulnerabilities (Brute Force Attacks): Over the years, many large scale password analysis studies have been conducted, and what they’ve found is a great majority of website owners use simple passwords such as “123456″ or “password.” These types of passwords are not difficult for experienced malware attackers to crack, and are an open invitation for malicious code.

2. FTP Connection Vulnerabilities: Many websites are often infected through a process known as password sniffing. This is where a silent Trojan or Rootkit, which has been unknowingly placed onto the website administrator’s device, is used to obtain the the username and password of the website. Malware attackers will then use the gathered information to access and infect the website with malicious code at a later time.

3. Website Vulnerabilities: There are several different vulnerabilities within a website itself that a malware attacker can use to inject malicious code. Some of these vulnerabilities include weaknesses in contact forms, login fields, comment fields, and newsletter subscription forms that enable the attacker to inject the malicious code through the form fields.

4. Server Vulnerabilities: Unbeknownst to website owners, many servers that are used to host websites have major security holes that malware attackers seek to manipulate to gain access to the files and code of websites on the server. These are some of the most dangerous types of intrusions due to the fact that if granted access, the malware attacker has the potential to wipe out an entire site.

5. Third Party Add-On Vulnerabilities: A growing trend among malware attackers is to use third party add-on (e.g., WordPress plugins) vulnerabilities to gain access to a website. To prevent this type of malware intrusion, before installing a new third party add-on, make sure that the add-on is reputable and regularly updated.

As a Tampa web design company that is highly experienced with malware prevention and removal, we recommend that if you suspect your website has been infected with malware to have an expert review your website for malicious code immediately. The longer malware remains on your website, the more damage it will do.

Leverage Digital is a web design company in Tampa. For more information regarding malware prevention and removal, please call us at (866) 611-6267 or submit our contact request form.