Category: Articles 🔎

In our digital world, people are constantly bombarded with content, meaning that marketers must find new ways to make their brand stand out from the crowd and grab the attention of audiences. Though organic content and traditional paid advertising has its place, it is important to to include paid social media campaigns in your marketing strategy. Social media ads have a much higher click-through rate than traditional web ads, making them a key component of any campaign.

Step 1. Develop a SMART Goal

In order for your paid social media campaign to be successful, you need to develop SMART goals. SMART goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely. Like any campaign, your social media advertising campaign should be well planned. For example, say your goal is to get more people to an upcoming event. Your SMART goal would be: In order to have a well-attended event, I will increase the number of RSVPs received to a total of 300 in the next two weeks by messaging people who have yet to respond.

Step 2. Define Your Targets

Once you have defined your goal, it’s time to identify your target audience. Beyond the audience that already follows you, how do you determine who else you should target? First, examine your demographic data from your social media and your website, and consider the following:

• What cities are website visitors coming from?
• What is the average age of your audience?
• What gender are they?
• What interests do they have?

Use this demographic data to craft a creative that will appeal to that audience. Which brings us to step three…

Step 3. Create Your Creative

Keep the text minimal on social ads, as the ads themselves are often fairly small, plus social platforms limit text to 20 percent. Also, make sure you choose a compelling image, as images can help drastically help increase your conversion rate.

It’s also important that you rotate your ads regularly to avoid what’s called ad fatigue. According to Hootsuite, this simply means that when users see your ad too frequently, they get bored and stop clicking it. This, in turn, causes your cost per click (CPC) to go up and engagement to go down. Make sure you create different versions of your ad to rotate during your campaign.

Step 4. Monitor Your Campaign

For the most part, ads can be set up then left alone for the duration of the campaign, but it is still important to check on them occasionally. Just keep a lookout to make sure your ads don’t go over budget, turn off for some reason or inappropriate comments have been left.

Step 5. Track and Report

This ties back into the first point, because if a goal isn’t specific, you probably can’t measure it. Part of creating a specific goal is identifying your KPIs–or key performance indicators. For example, if the goal of your campaign is to drive more traffic to your website from social media, then your KPI is seeing increased referrals and acquisitions from social media on your website. In order to determine if you’ve met your goals, you need to ensure you are using tracking URLs that point to a campaign-specific landing page. Otherwise, you may not be reporting accurate results. Make sure you are reporting on all ads regularly so you can identify which ads work best for your brand.

In the digital age, people turn to online resources for almost every need—including selecting their next doctor. Though traditional advertisements and word-of-mouth marketing still have their place, a good website is key to growing your health care practice. If you want to make sure your website is generating new business, make sure it has these four features.

1: It’s Search Engine Optimized Around Long-Tailed Keywords

We can’t stress enough the importance of search engine optimization (SEO) to help users find you organically. If Google can not properly index your website, then your patients won’t be able to find you. The first step to good SEO is determining your long-tailed keywords. Long-tailed keywords like “pediatric eye care in knoxville, tennessee” are much more specific and easier to find than short-tailed keywords like “eye doctors.” Make sure to use your list of long-tailed keywords throughout your site copy, blogs and metadata.

2: It Has a Regularly-Updated Blog

Now more than ever, are patients empowered to search for and draw conclusions about their health based on information they can access online. Of course, this can lead to a lot of misinformation about their health. There’s nothing you can do to stop patients from researching and drawing their own conclusions about their health based on online information, but you can establish yourself as a thought leader by providing up-to-date and accurate information on your website’s blog. By regularly posting blog content, you will accomplish three things:

1. Increase your SEO and website ranking
2. Increase brand recognition by establishing yourself as a thought leader in medicine
3. Attract new patients

You might think, wait, why would I want users to diagnose themselves online? That takes away from my business! Well, because your patients aren’t doctors. They still have to come to you to confirm their suspicions and access medications. By providing them relevant information, you are establishing yourself as a source they can trust with their health.

3: It Looks Good

When it comes to websites, you can judge a book by its cover. Google might not care what your site looks like, but your users do! If your website looks like didn’t survive the turn of the millennium, your patients might think your medical advice will be too and search for another practitioner that’s keeping up with the times. They might not be web design experts, but your patients can recognize a site that’s looks nice and has an easy-to-follow structure.

4: It’s Mobile Friendly

In 2015, Google announced that in ten countries, including the U.S., there were more mobile searches than desktop searches. This means that if your website isn’t designed to be responsive, you are missing out on a lot of potential web traffic. If you have the budget, consider placing call ads so when users find your practice, they can call your office with one tap.

Interested in redesigning your website? We’d love to help—contact us today!

We may want to go outside and enjoy the last of the summer weather but alas, duty calls. Check out these 10 productivity tips our team uses to stay on track throughout the day.

Where’d all the time go?!

Designsensory uses Harvest to keep track of where we’ve been, and Forecast to see where we’re going. Harvest lets us organize our time and expenses by project, and Forecast gives us a visual representation of our workloads.

Bullet points.

Kristen and I use the Bullet Journal system to stay productive. It’s easy to implement, and your notes and to-dos can be as concise or as detailed as you like, all while keeping things neat and orderly—plus we can channel our creativity with fun, colorful page spreads. There are tons of bullet journalists we follow online to get inspiration.

Block it out.

For Susan, earbuds are the secret to her productivity. We love our open office space—and our coworkers—but it can get pretty noisy sometimes, so earbuds are an essential office supply.

Take a walk.

We’re fortunate enough to be located next to a walking track where you’ll find many DSers making their daily rounds. Likewise, Erin prefers to eat her lunch outside to clear her head. She comes back feeling refreshed and with a new perspective on her work.

Take it digital.

Ian likes to use Trello to keep track of his tasks. The beauty of Trello is it offers desktop and mobile versions, so you can stay on top of it no matter where you are.

Post it.

Post-it® notes are perfect for all those little random reminders for yourself, or for messages you need to leave for your coworkers. I personally take my Post-it noting to the next level—I have a dedicated Post-it note color for each of my clients. My deskmates might call me crazy, but I #ownit.

Stretch it out.

Tuyen and the design team regularly get up and stretch or do yoga at their desks. This helps them combat common “desk job” ailments such as sore backs, stiff necks and even stress. Fun fact: Tuyen demonstrated her desk yoga techniques in this video from our friends at HGTV.

Write it down.

Sarah and Justin always carry a notebook and a pen with them so, if they get stopped on the way to a meeting or when going back to their desks, they won’t forget what someone asked them to do.

Nix the dread.

Sarah also likes to get her most dreaded tasks out of the way as soon as she comes in. This makes her feel accomplished right off the bat and sets a great tone for the rest of the day. 

Fuel up.

Team Designsensory combats the morning and mid-afternoon drowsies with a good old cup of joe from the Keurig. And we like to satisfy our afternoon munchies with some fresh popcorn. But, not at the same time, we promise. 

How do you and your team stay productive throughout the day? Drop us a line on Facebook or Twitter and share with us!

The modern marketing landscape is filled with ever-changing tools, platforms and trends. Staying on top of it all and making sure you’re utilizing the best tools with the most engaging content is almost a full-time job in itself. As we do our research, brainstorm with our teammates, polish our big ideas and plan out our campaign, we’re always asking ourselves . . . do you have the right marketing mix?

Many times we recommend public relations be in that mix. When done successfully, the long-term benefits of public relations are evident: brand awareness and credibility in the marketplace, an economical way to reach mass audiences and the ability to build loyalty, turning normal customers into staunch advocates of your business or cause.

Commonly referred to as earned media, public relations builds trust, as it’s a sign that media or other third parties are willing to endorse your brand. When our television show Tennessee Uncharted was up for a People’s Choice Telly Award earlier this year, we sprang into action sending out media alerts, e-newsletters and launching a social media campaign to ask people to vote for the show. After two seasons of quality production and engaging public relations work, the show was in an advantageous position: It had garnered brand recognition and a loyal fanbase that was eager to see the show (and the crew) succeed. So when it came time to ask for votes, the support was overwhelming and “Tennessee Uncharted” won the People’s Choice Award.

Public relations can also be incredibly cost-effective. Our efforts in an on-going design and public relations project with Knoxville TVA Employees Credit Union paid off when a story on the opening of a new branch in Morristown, Tennessee, landed on the front page of the Knoxville News Sentinel business section (circ. 119k+). Since public relations is often a more economical way to increase brand recognition, we prepared and distributed press releases to journalists in the area. Cost-wise, this action created high exposure at a low cost, rather than advertising the new branch in the paper.

Sometimes you just need public relations to make people aware of your existence. One way to do this is through social media. Having the right mix of fun, engaging, serious and educational content on social media promotes shareability and increases views and engagement. When we were asked by the Augusta Convention & Visitors Bureau social media team to come up with a strategy for increasing its visibility on social media, we created a plan that would reflect the brand while serving as a go-to communications channel of choice for all things Augusta.

Almost six months later, the Facebook page alone has seen an increase of 375 percent in organic impressions and an increase of 120 percent in page likes compared to the prior six months.

Interested in learning more? Contact us today to find out how we can maximize your marketing efforts.

Before any website goes live or any brochure is printed, before the concept is developed or the website’s wireframe is put together, before a single designer or web developer go to work, we first come up with a plan. Sure, that seems obvious. However, sometimes developing that plan requires a type of research many companies don’t consider. Through market research, we can gain incredibly useful insights that drive the rest of our work and render better, more focused campaigns.

When we partnered with the Boy Scouts of America to help launch and market STEM Scouts, we conducted online surveys, web usability testing and focus groups with parents and children (the target audience) to determine how they viewed the program and what would encourage them to respond more positively. The results defined the STEM Scouts program itself as well as guided us in creating a more integrated marketing campaign.

We conducted similar research for UT Extension to develop a campaign that would encourage healthy living in four counties in Tennessee. Through in-person and online focus groups and surveys, we interviewed people to find out what it was like to live in those counties, what it would take to change unhealthy behaviors and what are some of the barriers to healthy living. We even did an ethnography study, asking people to journal and take pictures of their daily life. The research helped us develop a few branding concepts, which we were able to test in a focus group. The BE MORE Campaign resonated the most with the target audience.

For Tennessee Tech University, we sought to discover how people perceive the university and how that affects their decision to apply. We interviewed high school seniors and Tennessee Tech freshmen, as well as Tennessee Tech faculty and staff through in-person and online focus groups and surveys. The research helped provide foundational information and insights to better understand the target audience, its decision-making process and its recognition of Tennessee Tech and other area colleges. We then developed and tested three different campaign ideas to originate solid recommendation that would best resonate with the audience.

Market research is essential to uncovering your target audience’s perception of your brand. Not only does it assess the quality of your current marketing efforts, but it also ensures consistent and effective interactions at every touchpoint in the future.

When we create websites, we strive to make them more than just an attractive place to read content. We tackle every stage, including design, with the user in mind. Why? Because this is what grows brands. Recently, we redesigned the outdoor education program website, Outward Bound. One of the goals for this website is to encourage the user to sign up for an outdoor education course. Here are a few things we learned as we worked toward that goal:

Research every angle
Sure, we reference design community websites and look at various trends that relate to our particular client, but we also put to use our own internal research. We dig deep into getting to know our clients and their needs. For Outward Bound, our technical director worked with the client to do a complete audit of the previous website, seeking to understand what worked and what didn’t work. Our designer and UX architect developed the initial wireframes for the site. We received valuable feedback from the client to revise these early stages to ensure the rest of the process went smoothly.

Test, test and test again
We value a team approach. This often means multiple eyes on the same project—from every member of the DS team taking a look at the initial wireframes and preliminary designs to collaborating with outside experts. In the case of Outward Bound, we worked with a UX specialist to test users on different sections of the website. Some A/B testing  was used to compare versions of the website to determine which ones performed better. We reviewed videos and screenshots of participants using the website, which helped guide us to a smarter design.

Expect changes
Even the smartest designs aren’t perfect. The research and testing phases allowed us to think more holistically about the website. Sometimes that brings up more questions than answers. To answer the remaining questions, we needed to develop design iterations so we could consider all the possible options. And, since we do value a team approach, many eyes reviewed those design iterations to help us make the best choice.

Make it easy
What we learned in these beginning stages helped us develop the final design. To guide users to the end goal (in this case, course registration), we employed simple but incredibly useful tools to make getting there quicker and less complicated. Photos give users a quick look at the story of Outward Bound without requiring them to read. Clearly defined buttons and big calls-to-action help convert a user to an Outward Bound customer.

Our work with Outward Bound will guide how we approach future clients. Even if you aren’t designing a website, keeping the experience of your customer in mind is an essential part of any successful business.

A lot of my time here at Designsensory goes into being creative for our clients, telling their stories and connecting people to their brands. Away from the office, I tend to do the same for myself, constantly thinking of ways to share who I am as a designer and mother. Overwhelmed by a million different project ideas in my head, I decided to start my own personal blog, Designerly.

So far, blogging has helped me organize and document my creative thoughts and projects into one place. A great tool for keeping me mentally focused, it has motivated me to take action on the many “one day I will” projects. I also hope to build an active community with my readers that will inspire creativity for both them and me.

Personal blogging gives me a viable way to share my passion. For this reason and many others, your business can also utilize this powerful tool to build a deeper connection with your clients.

Shares Your Knowledge. Shares Your Passion.
When your company writes a blog, you are allowing your readers to see a different, more personal side of your business, and this opens up a two-way conversation. More importantly, you are allowing readers to learn more about the individuals on your team.

Lets Your Team Contribute.
Employees are often siloed, with little collaboration between coworkers. A company blog provides a space where all can take ownership, adding layers of viewpoints to the voice of the company. Your business is made up of people first—much more than services and products. A blog is an easy way to showcase the vibrancy and success that culminates from the contributions of all the people and elements. Showcasing your appreciable assets from  a skilled team that brings years of experience and knowledge to the table can lead to new work.

Open Up Opportunities.
A company blog creates opportunities for collaborations and partnerships, and it adds pages in SEO to assist in increasing web traffic. Sharing timely and relevant blog posts can enhance your social feeds with rich content. Be strategic about the content you write, and the majority of your posts will be evergreen. Anticipate attracting  people who are interested in working with you on projects that fall outside of your products and services.

Your company is already a contributor to its industry. Begin your blog, and share it with the world.