Category: Articles 🔎

It’s not uncommon for brands to go through a website redesign every two to four years. Whatever the reason for starting a digital makeover, there is a process that should be followed—especially when considering a completely new design and development platform. Here are five considerations, from our experience, that we recommend you take to heart:

Usability Testing
First off, you need to have at least one main goal for the website. It’s easy to put the cart before the horse when you have big plans for how the website should look. However, remember that redesigns are not about you; they are about your user. We recommend starting with research to determine current challenges in the way people use your site. Methods such as journey mapping, User Experience (UX) teardowns, user testing and more can help answer important questions: Can your users purchase tickets on their phones? Is it easy to sign up for your newsletter? Is important content buried in the site? We can find answers to these crucial questions by looking at the site’s users, and we can tailor-make a website that meets and exceeds their expectations.

Also, if you don’t already have Key Performance Indicators (KPI) in place, now is a great time to start. Setting up these measurable indicators (e.g., number of checkouts, etc.) is one of the best ways to measure if your goals are being met.

Content Strategy
In order to develop a strong content strategy, start with an audit. Determine what pages, copy, images and other elements should stay and which ones should go. From there, create an Information Architecture (IA), or sitemap, that aligns with your new goals. Equally important is user flow, helping organize your site in a way that moves users down the funnel. If your main goal is sales, information should be organized in a way that highlights your eCommerce through product displays and convenient shopping cart access. Content strategy includes everything from creating audience personas, page nomenclature, hierarchy of content, consistency of tone and voice, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and much more. The focus, overall, should be on prioritization of content.

Visual Aesthetic
Assuming everything is informed and organized, the excitement of design can begin. Still, design is based on solving problems. That said, 75% of users admit that they base website credibility on aesthetics, which is a user’s first impression. Having a trained designer who will look at the research and create valuable solutions based on that information is the key to creating a new website that converts. Work with a designer and discuss their proposed design recommendations and process. With more and more users experiencing your brand on their phones, we design all of our sites to mobile first and progressively enhance up to desktop. This ensures a seamless look across all devices—and design fundamentally involves the look and feel of the user interface. In short, craft a design system that brings your brand’s unique story to life in a way that is engaging and informative to your users.

Technical Flexibility
Hopefully you’ve decided on a platform to build your site on before now, based on conversations with your team and whomever is developing your site. It’s vital to get a flexible Content Management System (CMS), meaning developers can easily add and change code and content can be edited by your team on the backend. Something to remember here is third party tools and how they appeal to the brand and new website look, if they’re not already integrated with the chosen platform. Let’s use the shopping cart feature as an example. If you don’t use Magento, Shopify or another eCommerce solution for your site, you will need to link to one externally. Ensuring that you use something that has design customizations enabled will help maintain an all-encompassing brand experience—this goes for external blogs, booking channels, login portals and other tools with which you may integrate. If you use something that’s not seamless, it distracts from the design decisions your team has made and, ultimately, reflects poorly on your brand. Lastly, we live in the age of iPhones and Androids, so find a CMS solution that handles responsive design seamlessly but in a way that is ADA compliant—being inclusive shouldn’t be optional.

Measurement & Media Promotion
Now it’s time for the finale! Or, in reality, the beginning. Launching a website is never the end, especially in terms of measurement, promotion and iteration. Media, whether organic, shared or paid, should be on your radar when your site launches to drive traffic. A paid media campaign—from display to social—will not only garner awareness for your brand and its website, but it can also bring in untold impressions and, with time, conversions. You’ll need a media expert to walk you through tracking codes, landing page usage and other data measurement capabilities. Whatever you do, don’t let your website sit alone.

Your site needs routine check-ups and measurement reports post-launch to make sure that it is continuing to reach users in the most effective ways. Consider Heat Mapping to see if users are clicking on important buttons and forms linked to your newly formed KPIs. You can always use A/B testing on your headlines and images to aid in conversion optimization. There are various measurement tools, so don’t be afraid to get in the trenches and improve the site as you go!

Launching a website is a huge undertaking that requires the use of experienced marketing creatives. Your website’s success depends on a dedicated team, organization and time. With the proper timeline and workflow, you can bring beauty to your brand and users. Use these considerations as a framework, but if you get caught up in the minutia, we’re always here to help. Happy website-making!

At Designsensory, we take pride in investing and cultivating young talent, like interns, new college graduates or people transitioning in their professional career. We’ve found that most every creative, especially these new professionals, experiences feelings of insecurity or undeservedness. This culmination of self-deprecating behavior called Imposter Syndrome can pop up during promotions, larger projects, meetings with public figures or a myriad of other situations. What if I’m a fraud? What if I can’t do the job? Regardless of that inner voice, you can combat these feelings with reality, and here are a few ways to do so:

Stop Comparing

The temptation to compare yourself with others is one that expands beyond the workplace. Before you give way to it, remember that everyone has a different journey and experience. What may seem like a highly competitive background to you might not seem like it to others. The world we live in is about perspective. Just because your perspective can’t see a reason for your success does not mean you are not qualified for a promotion, a difficult project or something else that brings you more freedom and/or responsibility.

Start Thinking

It’s highly unlikely that you’ve gotten where you are without leg work. Think on the things you’ve accomplished throughout your career, however long or short. Reframe your brain to see the successes as well as the failures. Although failure is a great learning experience, resist the urge to dwell on things of the past too long. Reread some encouraging messages or compliments, and take pride in knowing you learned from great mentors and are on your way upward.

Stop Doubting

If you’re like me, you overthink everything and occasionally doubt the efficacy of your work. However, no one is suddenly going to wake up and realize you are not fit for your job. Trust in your boss to recognize your strengths and weaknesses. Progressing is not being perfect at everything, but it certainly shows you have skills worth building on. Doubt is for the birds.

Start Talking

Now that you’ve tried to control the way you perceive yourself, talk to a close confidant about your thoughts. They will help put your mind at ease. They have worked with you, they know your ethic and your ability, and they will tell you the words you need to hear. Should they give you areas of improvement, file those away and work on them daily to boost your confidence. One more note: try to mentor someone. You’ll be surprised by the things you didn’t know you know.

Embrace It

Internalize your successes by repeating them out loud. If nothing else, embrace the fact that whether you feel like you deserve something or not, you have it. Take advantage of the opportunity and move on. Everyone at some point has been in your shoes, no matter how experienced they may seem. Take in the now and stop worrying about the past or the future.

If nothing else works, know that Imposter Syndrome is a symptom of success. It might be a long-term struggle to overcome your feelings, so don’t feel discouraged. Most importantly, be yourself and showforth a can-do spirit. 

Somewhere in the world, as I type this blog, someone’s gazing out a window—retreating from a world of cerebral overload. The quest for inspiration is one that many find intimidating, but it’s vitally important to care for yourself and your creativity. If you’re having troubles of your own in the creative department, here are a six popular things you can do to get inspired.

1. Go Outdoors

Nature is a tried and true way for anybody to get their brain fired up. For one, relaxation will filter out the negativity affecting your ability to process information. The more you do things you love outside, the more you will recover mentally—leaving plenty of room for inspiration to pop in.

2. Read / Research

Maybe it’s obvious, but reading and researching can inspire an idea quickly. Try reading social media posts, online books, websites, magazines, novellas—everything. It should probably be relevant content, but I won’t lie and say I haven’t found help from unlikely sources.

3. Travel

Going somewhere specific, even if it’s a nearby city, always inspires me in some way. When I travel, I see things I would have never seen, meet people I never would have met, and do things I never would have done. Try new foods. Shop at new places. Traveling is inspiring.

4. Get a Hobby

Find a craft or hobby that you enjoy. Some people thrive doing photography, others enjoy painting, sewing, playing instruments, physical activity, or, for our resident associate creative director, pottery. It doesn’t have to be grand, but it does need to be something that gives you butterflies and daydreams. Whether or not it’s related to your project, doing something tactile that you love will inspire you to break free.

5. Creativity Board

This is your own personal mood board. Find inspirational pieces on Pinterest, Behance and other sites that showcase beautiful work. Once you start seeing creativity from others, you won’t have any trouble delivering. Sometimes, being around the right people at the right time (even digitally) can bring out the deepest and most inspired thoughts.

6. Do Nothing

Yes, you read that correctly. Very often for me, after reading a strategic or creative brief, I have an overwhelming amount of information that can stifle my creative process. However, this brain overload can be used to our advantage as creatives. Once you have packed your brain full of everything you could possibly know about the subject matter at hand, forget it. Do nothing. Stop thinking about it. Nine times out of ten, the best ideas come when you don’t expect them. That eureka moment will come to you, so stop chasing it.

Now that I’ve used the word “inspiration” ten times or more within this blog, maybe you have some of your own. When the pressure to be great is high, find things that relieve it. The worst possible scenario is to stay stressed. Enjoy the process, and go with your gut. If you’re just not creative, then you know how to find us!

The first email was sent out in 1972, and the world of emailing exploded in the ‘90s. We now live in a much more technologically advanced world. So, is email now dead? With large rises in smart phones, handheld devices, VR and so much more, you might think so. However, email is still a huge part of marketing communication. Here are a few ways email has kept up in the world of ever changing benchmarks, and how you can use this tool to effectively market yourself and your products.

1. Mobile-Friendly

Like all smart platforms, innovative email providers have gone mobile. I would strongly suggest you use that to cater to a mobile-friendly world, since more than 48% of users check email on their mobile devices. Users have access to their emails in the palm of their hand, and they use that routinely. So, whether your campaign is good or bad (we’re betting good), it will most likely get significant recognition. Once you have an email platform that is mobile optimized, you’ll be on your way.

2. Targeting Capabilities

Targeting your audience is easy to accomplish through email marketing. Setting up segmented lists has never been more practical. Whether you accumulate emails through landing pages and form functionality, or not, you are creating a database of qualified leads. Not only can you get right down to business with audiences, you can also test the efficacy of campaigns with platforms like Mailchimp, Constant Contact or Emma. The real question is, how often will you send the emails and to whom? Remember, leads and customers have two very different needs, so at least two automated email setups may be necessary—with targeted content, of course.

3. Flexible Platforms

Email has gotten smarter in the last decade. Platforms have become a staple to email marketing because of the responsive design capabilities that they share. Not only can you optimize content with links to articles, blogs and more, but you can add images to help display your brand. Be careful, though, because you don’t want your design to go overboard. Studies have shown that shorter, text-only emails can be more effective. Go with your gut. Also, use a tool that has great social sharing capabilities—without sharing features, you miss out on extended reach and visibility.

4. Analytics

Before implementing an email marketing campaign, ensure your tool has integrated marketing analytics capabilities that can show you things beyond lead information. A great analytics tools will help you with the aforementioned social situation. Tools that show you social mentions, for instance, will generate a more tailored list of leads—you can send more targeted emails to subscribers who mention you on social. Additionally, an effective analytics tool will compare your numbers with benchmarks and allow you to adjust your strategy accordingly.

The advantages of using email marketing are numerous, and email should never be ruled out as a tried and true marketing device—and it shouldn’t be used without an integrated marketing strategy. Email experts go above and beyond with different platforms and in ways you might not imagine. That’s us. If you have questions or ideas, drop us a line.

There comes a (sometimes scary) day in every creative’s life when video concept meets concrete production. The client has approved the concept, the writer has penned the script, the creative director has thrown some mustard on it, and the production coordinator has set a date. Today’s the day this vision comes to life, and you’re left with sweaty palms.

So, just what happens on this glorious day? Well, that depends; sometimes, it’s better not to know all the things that can happen. Instead, I’ll tell you what should happen and things to watch for when you’re standing around on set without a clue.

1. DO: Bring the right stuff

Maybe this goes without saying, but if you’ve helped create the script, bring extra copies along. No one wants to be guessing what the voiceover is, or if someone has the final version. Frankly, things can easily get misplaced. Also, dress for comfort because it’s going to be a long day. A pro tip is to pack a bag as if you’re going on a day trip: tissues, lip balm, phone charger, sunscreen and sunglasses (if it’s an outdoor shoot), and other things you need during the day. Lastly, bring other work to do during long waits.

2. DON’T: Help the production crew

Unless asked. It can be tempting to reach out and help. However, you have no clue how to set up lighting. And trust me, you don’t want to be the one who threw off the production schedule. Ask if you can help prep the talent, or go over any last minute notes that may need to be clarified. Check with the art director about helping with wardrobe or scene set-up. Get close without getting too close.

3. DO: Use your voice

If something is coming together in a way that you don’t understand, express your opinion. The worst thing that can happen is that someone overrules your decision; the best, you just amplified the work and your reputation. Mic drop. It’s literally your job to keep the creative as sharp as possible. A writer, for example, should have no problem making minimal voiceover changes if the reading doesn’t sound natural.

4. DON’T: Know it all

The amazing thing about being on set is the opportunity to learn from others. Every production day is different, with an amazing group of producers, directors, photographers, sound engineers and so on. Take this time to absorb what they know and apply it to future situations. I’m not saying ignore #3, but do it wisely. Sometimes other people’s ideas work better. That’s what collaboration is all about.

5. DO: Have Fun & Wrangle

There are things you can do to help out, like grabbing a water for the director who is bending his back in a way that hurts his football injury from 1989. Just do it. Also, why not keep the talent comfortable, get to know the people around you better—perhaps it’s the client—and have a little fun? If you have multi-day shoots, this is vital. Everyone is near burning out, so keep up the energy. Speaking of client, sometimes they don’t know what to do, so just keep them busy and assured.

6. Finally, LISTEN.

The production people telling you what to do know what they’re doing. Look around at the amazing people in your corner. Take those moments of frustration and throw them out the window. At the end of a shoot day, you all either clink glasses or go home knowing that you had a productive day. Now just wait for the final product.

Typically, marketing and sales departments use a lot of traditional and digital means to reach audiences, but they miss out on important opportunities available through inbound marketing. If you don’t know the specifics of inbound marketing, or more importantly its value, know that there are effective tactics for generating leads and converting them to brand evangelists for you via this method. Here’s a quick tutorial.

Inbound 101
Inbound refers to the incoming traffic your brand is getting or wants to get. It’s customer-centric, as opposed to traditional/interruptive marketing, so you must create content that users want and need. No shade to traditional, but inbound works more efficiently for those who want to build trust with customers. An inbound methodology educates consumers in a way that makes them see their need for your product or service according to these phases: attract, convert, close and delight. Let’s explore these.

Attract
Everyone knows the significance of identifying audiences and buyer personas. So, let’s skip to the meat. Know your ideal buyer, target them, help them, buy them ice cream … you get the picture. Turn these strangers into friends by providing engaging content. Like what, you ask? Blogs, whitepapers, social media and other educational content that creates awareness.

Convert
You’ve created awareness, and the prospect is nearly ready to take the plunge. What’s next? Create a place where visitors become qualified leads, such as a landing page. Once visitors know their problem, they look for a solution. You have an answer, so make an exchange—give them a clear call to action in exchange for their email address. Don’t forget a thank-you page to help foster that close connection. Build up some digital real estate! But I digress.

Close
If the landing page is optimized and beautiful, you potentially gain a qualified lead that you can nurture via email. Double check that the leads you garner are the right fit for you as a company, and then send them a personalized note. If you have an email newsletter, make sure it’s full of content that eases their pain points. Be human-centered. You can always throw in a free product demo or case study that applies to them if you are unsure of relevant content.

Delight
You’ve made it. They are a customer. Don’t stop here. Be innovative, communicative and educational. Continue to learn from them in order to provide a better customer experience. This is a great time to evaluate and empower your employees as well—the face and backbone of your business needs to be solid and happy. After that, conduct surveys, analyze feedback and follow up with the customer.

None of this can happen without great content. If you need some more details, I’m here to help. Just remember the content Golden Rule—focus 80% of content on persona’s interest, and 20% on your own interests and sales-related materials. Don’t let all of this marketing speak take away from creativity and intuition, but use it as a guideline to smart marketing. Good luck!

This blog post isn’t a discussion of a grand new strategy that’s going to alter the course of your social media content calendar for the fifth time in a year. This is about the small things in day-to-day social media management to make your life easier.

We’ve already discussed content creation tools, choosing the right platform, tips for better paid social campaigns and everything Facebook, from Live to myths. Often, I need to find creative workarounds to accomplish tasks that aren’t built-in features of social media platforms or might just be a little hidden.

While none of these are secrets, these are ten tiny tips that have made my life easier as someone who manages multiple Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts on the daily.

1. Find the Permalink to a Facebook Post: Hover over the timestamp on any Facebook Post until you see the underline. Right click and choose “Save Link Address.”This link that you’ve copied directs to a dedicated page for the post outside of the Theatre presentation and simplifies planning, reporting and…

2. Use the Permalink to Schedule a Facebook Post: A permalink is also wonderful for sharing and scheduling. Paste the link into the status bar on your Page and it will allow you to opt for the “Schedule” option as opposed to being limited to “Post” when using the “Share” button.

3. Test Your Facebook Link with Dev Tools: Still pasting a link into the status bar and crossing your fingers a link preview will generate? Fear no more. While not always intuitive to social media managers, Facebook has extremely helpful developer tools that can help you, too. Among these are Sharing Debugger. Paste the link to the web page you’re sharing to see if a link preview will generate when shared and if there are any issues. At Designsensory, we ensure websites are optimized for social media—this includes designing and developing for any shared page on site to generate a big, beautiful link preview. However, I often face this problem when aggregating community news for brand accounts I manage. Before leading a crusade against “fake news,” Facebook would allow users to add their own image to a link preview so even if it failed to generate, Page managers could still make their content visually compelling. That time is long gone and your website needs to be optimized for social media.

4. Oh, You Can Test Your Links on Twitter Too: And of course, the same tool exists for Twitter. It’s called the Twitter Card Validator.

5. Find Literally Anything On Twitter: I don’t recall what lead me to Twitter Advanced Search because it doesn’t seem be listed anywhere on the desktop site or in the primarily mobile app. However, the tool lets you search for tweets using boolean search terms and cross reference the terms against accounts, conversations, places and dates. Entire campaigns can be created using this tool. A staple in the news and media publisher world, this tool can also be used to considerably plus your interaction with specific communities.

6. Yes, You Can Contact Facebook: Ever felt lost and hopeless with a specific issue and found yourself exploring endless unresolved threads in the Facebook Help Center? Well, the bright side is if it’s specific to advertising, you can chat with the Facebook Support Team.

7. Download an Instagram Photo: We recommend a number of our clients take a curation and community approach to content, which lends itself to needing a lot of user generated content (with proper credit always given). I personally dislike the watermark from third party apps when trying to quickly repost on Instagram. To download a photo from desktop, you can use various third party websites, extensions for Google Chrome like Downloader for Instagram™ or by inspecting the elements of the photo post and searching for .jpg on Instagram.

Now, time to stray a little off course. But these are the tips that have changed my entire workflow for the better, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t add them to this list. 

8. Dropbox is Your Best Friend on Instagram: I’ve recently needed to post hyper-consistently to Instagram Stories daily for a social campaign. Exporting studio-produced video from Final Cut Pro directly to my Dropbox in .m4v (I’m an iPhone user) and then downloading it to my phone when I need it has been a lifesaver in terms of storage and ease. Additionally, Dropbox has also helped us to aggregate high quality photos and works from multiple photographers, videographers, and designers here in the office that are ready to be posted to Instagram in one convenient place.

9. Get a Password Manager: Whether you’re at an agency or in-house, one brand alone could have a dozen passwords you not only need to remember but also protect. Don’t fool around, get a password manager.

10. Find the Right Social Media Platform: While nearly every social media management platform, from Hootsuite to Buffer, has its selling points and issues, we constantly reevaluate our social media platforms to find which is best suited for our current needs. At the moment, we’re using a stripped-down platform called GAIN that only focuses on content publishing. We chose it because it has a nice visualization of the content calendar (for those sweet, sweet pitch decks and reports) and a solid approval process for both internal and client review.

Want to walk through any specific issues your having from planning to reporting with social media? We’re happy to help. Just give us a shout.