Web Design

5 Ideas to Help You Increase Your Website’s Conversion Rates

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You’ve successfully managed to get visitors to your website. Now you just need to convince them that your company has something worthwhile to offer, and turn those visits into more conversions. Following a few smart tips will help you do just that.

Keep It Simple

Few things can deter a site visitor faster than a complicated website or long-winded form field. Site visitors want a simple and straightforward online user experience. Paring your email opt-in subscription form down to the essential will make it that much easier for visitors to get on board and become subscribers. According to Inc., you should aim to make your sign-up process 30 seconds or less.

Be Actionable

With all the information on your site, it may be challenging for visitors to decipher what is or is not a call-to-action. It should be easy for visitors to figure out what they can do to engage with your product or service. Actionable verbs like “click,” “sign-up” or “visit,” gives potential clients the incentive to act. Your landing page is a great place to put a call-to-action.

State the Benefits

To you, the benefits of your product or service are clear. However, for someone new to your site, your content is the best opportunity to learn what you have to offer. Explaining the benefits of your product or service in clear and concise terms, ideally as a solution to an existing problem will help you turn a skeptic into a customer.

Use Testimonials

You could have a game-changing product or service, but if your site fails to inspire trust, no one will be willing to give it a try. Testimonials from those who have used your product can go a long way towards convincing someone who may be on the fence about making a purchase. Similarly, any association you have with well-known brands, influencers or media outlets should also be prominently showcased on your site to help establish trust.

Visuals Are Worth a Thousand Words

It’s no secret that people respond well to visual stimuli. Why try to convince someone that your product or service is worth their time and money when you could just show them? Use photos or better yet, video, to demonstrate exactly what your company can do and you’re sure to increase your sale conversion rate.

Increasing your conversion rate may seem like an uphill task. But once people are on your site, you’re already done a lot of the heavy lifting. Implementing a few additional strategies will help you improve your conversation rate and generate sustainable growth and revenue.
Stay tuned to Marijuana Marketing Gurus for more helpful insights and marketing tips.

9 Website Design and Marketing Tips to Improve Your Local Business

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shutterstock_367645805Website design for any small business can be tricky, but when you are in the legal cannabis industry it raises the stakes. With a few effective website design tips, you can build your brand, generate sales, and increase your bottom line.

1. Set Specific Goals

This is so important yet so many businesses skip this point altogether. What do you want your website to do for your business? Do you want more leads to follow up on? Do you want to educate and inform your readers? Do you want visitors to pick up the phone and call? Whatever it is, define it before you start building a website.

The content that you create for your website will depend on your ultimate goals.If you are a cannabis dispensary you may want to get people to come into your shop.

2. Use A Common Website Platform

Using a popular website platform, like WordPress, means that you have more options if you need help later on. Choosing a proprietary platform will severely limit your options going forward.

3. Focus On Mobile

More and more consumers are using mobile devices to search for local businesses before they make a buying decision. Because of this, you must make sure your website is mobile-friendly.

By using responsive design you can ensure that your site will be viewed properly on any size screen. If your site takes too long to load or is not easily viewable on a consumer’s mobile device they will simply leave your site and move on to the next one, costing you sales.

4. Avoid Flash If Possible

This is a continuation of the above tip. Flash technology is not compatible on most smartphones and tablets nowadays. Visitors way not be able to load your site properly or be faced with a blank screen. This is not something you want.

5. Capture Contact Information

No matter what business you are in, email capture is an important part of any website design. Your email list is one of the most important assets of your business.

Design a pop up that will capture your visitor’s name and email address or offer an incentive, like a discount coupon, in exchange for their information.

6. Brand Consistency

Your logo, business colors, fonts and any graphics should be consistent throughout your website. If you have existing brand elements you need to use them on your website. Do not confuse your visitors.

7. Post Fresh Content

Update your website regularly with fresh, relevant content. this will not only please your readers but will help with search rankings.

8. Keep It Simple

You do not need flashy animation or graphics. Make your website easy for your visitors to navigate and find what they are seeking.

9. Clear Calls To Action

Be specific with what you want your visitors to do. If you want them to come into your store let them know. Make your calls to action (CTA’s) clear and visible. Use contrasting colors and fonts.

Responsive Website Design – The Modern Approach to Designing

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shutterstock_213551548Mobile users make up a very significant part of all Internet users. The statistics say it all. Around 60 percent of internet access is from mobile. Around 30 percent of people, use their smart phones to shop online. These numbers mean that at any moment your site will likely be visited using a mobile device. If your site is not responsive, your business will be losing untold amounts of prospects and revenue.

What Exactly is Responsive Web Design?

Responsive web design is an approach that suggests that a site’s design should accommodate different platforms, screen sizes and orientation. For example, if an android device were to access a site, the site would be able to switch to the appropriate scripting languages and resolutions. If you have a static site, it won’t accommodate mobile devices.

A mobile site and a static site perform very differently on mobile devices. A static site design is set to a certain size regardless of the device used to access it. It can be very cumbersome for mobile users to use it as they would need to zoom in and out to see site content. Sometimes, only partial content of the site will come up on mobile devices as some plug-ins such as Flash won’t always work on mobile.

A responsive design is much more flexible. It accounts for pixel resolution, screen size, and touch capacity. Responsive web design uses these elements to create an optimal user experience that includes ease or navigation and viewing. UI elements such as video players and text adjust automatically to different devices.

How Will it Help Your Canna-Business

It is reported that 46 percent of mobile users have a problem access websites due to lack of responsive web design. With a responsive website design as the new industry standard, you shouldn’t let that be the case for your site. Creating a mobile version of your site allows you to retain more of the visitors you are attracting.

Having a responsive website design helps your business in various ways:

Builds Your Online Presence – Your site is likely the first place visitors will come to learn about your business and will come back to order products and get updates. Investing in a responsive web design allows your site to make a memorable first impression while building a larger customer base and community.

Keep Up With the Trend – The cannabis industry has skyrocketed. Established canna-businesses are often competing with new entrepreneurs who implement responsive website design and, as a result, reach more customers.By adopting responsive design for yourself, you can stop potential clientele from being taken.

 

3 Reasons Why A Mobile-Friendly Website Design Is Essential

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shutterstock_253604875Mobile devices have changed the way we live, work, and play, allowing us to be connected at all times.

Here are three reasons why having a mobile-friendly website design should be a top priority when planning or reevaluating your digital marketing strategy.

1) Mobile’s a growing piece of the pie

60% of digital media use is through mobile devices and that is growing quickly (source: comScore). According to IBMCommerce’s Black Friday Report for 2015, the recent Black Friday saw mobile sales via smartphones surge more than 75%, even surpassing purchases made on tablets. More than 103 million consumers shopped online over Thanksgiving weekend compared to 102 million who faced the in-store crowds, according to the 2015 survey commissioned by the National Retail Federation.

These trends help show how bigger screens and easier mobile payment options, combined with revamped website design customized for the mobile environment, are changing consumer behavior.

2) Google rewards mobile sites

Google’s main goal of search ranking algorithms is to help provide their audience (web searchers) with search results that are relevant, authoritative and high quality. When users use Google on their devices, Google wants to connect them to the best mobile accessible sites in order to provide a good service. With mobile friendly website design these users won’t have to tap and zoom to read content, have issues with clicking buttons, and can avoid the annoyance of horizontal scrolling.

In April 2015, Google released their mobile-friendly ranking algorithm which heavily rewarded businesses with mobile-friendly website design with higher rankings in mobile search results.

3) Continue offering a better user experience

Just as Google is focused on providing a high quality mobile experience for their users, so brings a main benefit of focusing on a mobile-friendly website design.

Check out your mobile traffic in your analytics and you’ll surely see a trend in mobile website usage. Without a mobile-friendly website you are likely not able to offer an ideal user experience for this growing audience. Don’t just build a mobile-friendly website design that respond to screen size without thinking about your mobile users.

Be mindful that the intent and behavior of mobile users are often different enough from desktop users to help justify a more unique mobile experience. Mobile users may be trying to quickly find the closest location or to login to their account Along with ease of use, a mobile friendly site brings faster website speeds and downloads, which is vital for the digital user experience.

Next Steps

To get started building a new mobile-friendly website or to adapt your website, make sure you have a team ready to both build it out and maintain it. For a separate mobile website, you’ll want to integrate additional SEO structure and optimization that is unique for those site pages. Responsive design is a great option — probably the best option — but keep in mind it isn’t the only option. A mobile web development company will be able to present the best options for your website use and needs.

Why You Need an Amazing Website for Your Cannabis Business

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images-4You likely already know it’s nearly impossible to have any kind of business without also having a website to support it and your marketing efforts, but too many people fall short of getting the greatest benefit from their websites, which are critical in the cannabis industry. That means making your website unique with lots of great information for potential clients and updating and promoting it, instead of simply creating a cursory site with a nominal info on products and services and your contact information. If you are wondering why you need to have an amazing website for your cannabis business, here are reasons why.

Better Search Engine Results

When you have a great and truly unique website full of lots of information, you can rank very high on Google, Bing, and other search engine results, which can drive a lot more business your way. Google is renowned for its oft-updated search engine algorithms that place a premium on unique and informative content and rewards such websites with top positions in paid and organic search results for much lower costs. You have a significant competitive advantage when your website consistently ranks higher on search results and has more visitors from the kind of people who are most likely to need the goods and services your cannabis business provides.

High Online Usage Rates

No matter what type of cannabis business you might own or manage, odds are, you are dealing with a high percentage of younger consumers under age 40. When it comes to cannabis usage rates in the United States, the vast majority of consumers are between their late teens to about 30 years of age before usage rates start to drop sharply, according to results of the National Survey on Drug & Health. Studies also show that consumers in 2014 used their mobile devices for online searches more than computers – especially young adult consumers, who use marijuana at the highest rates. When you site is optimized for mobile and traditional online searches, you are far more likely to get their business.

It’s no coincidence that younger consumers, who use marijuana and marijuana products at much higher rates than their older counterparts, also use the Internet at much higher rates and mobile devices in particular. They grew up with laptop computers, smart phones, and mobile devices, like tablets and iPads, and are far more comfortable with their use than their older counterparts. Studies also show most consumers conduct Internet searches before making buying decisions. If they go to your website for more information, you are far more likely to be the one whose products and services they choose to buy, and having a great website will make that possible.

Increase Your Reach

When you have a great website for your cannabis business, you also can reach consumers far beyond your local market. Because you are on the Internet, your perfectly optimized website can draw visits from Hawaii to Maine and all points in between. If your business, like many in the cannabis industry, takes online orders and arranges package deliveries, then your potential market just became national in nature instead of limiting your business to your state or local market. Even better, you could be among online retailers who arrange purchases from wholesalers to consumers for a percentage of the sale and don’t ever actually stock the products. That means you have lower overhead costs and greater profit potential. You also will enjoy a significant advantage over your cannabis industry competitors who don’t optimize their sites and who don’t ensure their businesses make the absolutely most efficient use of their websites.

Stay tuned to Marijuana Marketing Gurus for more tips and industry trends.