Wieting Design

How to Use Video Stories For Social Media Marketing

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How to Use Video Stories For Social Media Marketing

Short, captivating videos on social media allow businesses to connect with potential, new, and existing clients. Millions of viewers are engaging online with short video clips and temporary video stories, so if your business hasn’t created videos on social media yet then you may be missing out. Create them on your own or partner with a CT marketing & design agency like Wieting Design.

The truth is, if your target market is on Instagram or Facebook then you should be too, and one of the best ways to be discovered is through videos.

These clips may only last a few seconds but they make an impression – they’re captivating, clever, and straight to the point. Often created to look more raw and personal than videos you find on a company’s website or Youtube channel, these videos are made to build brand awareness and are typically low cost and easy to create.

A few things to remember when creating videos for social media:

-Use this opportunity to make a connection before making a sale. Social media is for sharing content with peers, so work on producing interesting and valuable content specifically for your audience, rather than straight out promoting or selling your business.

-Don’t be boring. Stay true to your brand guidelines but don’t be afraid to be bold and make an impression. When creating videos, know what your audience likes and interests them – use this as the basis of content to peak interest.

-These videos are short so keep them simple with one main focus per clip. Also remember that many videos are viewed with the sound off so include text or graphics for reference, but be sure not to overdo it.

-Define a goal for the video and have a clear call to action (CTA). It’s great if your audience tunes in to watch your video but make sure it’s clear what the next step is. Is it to contact you, sign up, visit your website, make a purchase, etc?

-Social media is a place of discovery and sharing, so be sure your company can be found. Use appropriate hashtags for your content and tag your location when posting especially on Instagram.

There are different ways to utilize short videos on Facebook and Instagram. You can post directly on your feed, create an ad to maximize reach, post previously edited videos, create live videos, or post an Instagram story (check out this Techboomers tutorial on creating and posting Instagram Stories; it’s much easier than you think and extremely popular among social media users).

According to Adweek “One of the things the proliferation of Stories has proven is the value of real, uncut content in the eyes of audiences, so documenting your journey with Stories make your brand approachable.”

While social media platforms are overloaded with posts, photos, and ads; short videos offer a breath of fresh air and authenticity for businesses. This form of marketing works for social media because these platforms were created for sharing, connecting, and entertaining one another – short videos do exactly that. After all we’re all human so use this chance to show the human side of your company.

Be authentic and give viewers a glimpse into who the company is, what it offers, and what it stands for. You can utilize videos for product releases, company news, discounts, education, streaming of events, and more. It’s a chance to make a real connection with your target market.

Take the first step & craft a social media plan.

We know that running your business takes a lot of work and marketing often gets pushed back. While time and budget constraints may be holding you back, an active social media presence doesn’t have to be time consuming or expensive. Try it yourself or partner with a professional marketing agency with a history of successful social media campaigns.

Wieting Design is a design & marketing agency based in Fairfield County CT and serving all of Connecticut with the experience to help improve your social media strategy. Contact us to schedule a consultation, or view our past projects including video production services.

Wieting Design | Social Media Marketing CT

Wieting Design is a full-service, graphic and website design agency based in Fairfield County, CT and serving all of Connecticut (CT). We are committed to sharing our experience and expertise in website design, graphic design, social media marketing, search engine marketing (SEM & SEO), and video production to help build powerful tools and campaigns that work for your Connecticut business. Whether your objective is to grow your reputation, create client loyalty, drive traffic to your website or set up a marketing strategy, we will adapt our approach to get you the results you need with the services we provide.

Marketing & Design for Different Generations

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The first rule of marketing – understand your target audience so that you know the best way to connect. For marketing and design, a simple demographic to consider is age.

Obviously different generations have different experiences, memories, and often different interests because of where they’re at in life, so it’s no wonder these groups may find different marketing designs appealing. Consider the following design trends when marketing to different age groups.

Baby Boomers

(Born approximately 1946 – 1964)

Baby boomers have wisdom that only comes with age, and at this point they’ve got a keen eye for finding the best solutions. When marketing to baby boomers, make sure your design and messaging is straight to the point. Exude a sense of familiarity but don’t be boring, and build trust right away. Incorporate a clean design with images and text that are neatly presented with lots of white space to separate the two, and make sure your font size is appropriate (especially for mobile). The AARP website and its Facebook page are great examples of designing for baby boomers and the preceding generation.

Generation X

(Born approximately 1965 – 1980)

Generation X individuals are in the peak of their careers. This busy lifestyle means they’re seeking less fluff and more answers with an honest and responsible feel from companies. Remember this generation grew up during a huge technology shift, so they’re a mix of traditional and modern. Transitional design is best to balance the two. Use transparency in messaging and imagery to showcase what this group is looking for: a company that’s conscious yet cool; for example Whole Foods.

Millennials

(Born approximately 1981 – 1996)

Millennials are optimistic and constantly looking for the next big thing. Connect with them by incorporating a vibrant look, bold colors, and excitement to give them the instant gratification they seek. With social media playing a great role in their lives, the opinion of their peers is front and center on a daily basis and influencers often are the ones who reinforce a brand’s value. Together this daring design and influencer marketing approach join creativity and authenticity to make millennials feel good and inspired about a company. View our social media services.

Generation Z

(Born approximately 1997 and beyond)

Generation Z grew up with technology so they’re accustomed to having access to global views and answers at their fingertips. Connected to the world from an early age, this group is looking for a strong, powerful presence and isn’t afraid of fluidity in design that changes as quickly as their interests do. Much of this group is still growing up, which in itself is a time of change and openness to experiencing new things. Incorporate dynamic, adventurous, and innovative design but be sure to maintain consistency in your messaging across all platforms.

Customize Your Marketing & Design

Whether your CT business has clients of baby boomers, generation x, millennials, or generation z, choose a customized design and marketing strategy that will be most effective. View our past design projects in Fairfield County and Connecticut.

By understanding your audience now, you’ll be able to cultivate a relationship that spans generations. Contact us to discuss your local business’ marketing strategy.

Wieting Design | Website Design CT

Wieting Design is a full-service, graphic and website design agency based in Fairfield County, CT and serving all of Connecticut (CT). We are committed to sharing our experience and expertise in website design, graphic design, social media marketing, search engine marketing (SEO), and video production to help build powerful tools and campaigns that work for your Connecticut business. Whether your objective is to grow your reputation, create client loyalty, drive traffic to your website or set up a marketing strategy, we will adapt our approach to get you the results you need with the services we provide.

 

Practices That Could Be Hurting Your SEO

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We all know the importance of using SEO (search engine optimization) best strategies, but are you familiar with practices that may be hurting your SEO? These may often be done unintentionally yet can have a big impact on your website’s ranking.

The following can negatively affect your SEO:

 

Bad Website Links

Inactive links or broken links go nowhere, and should be fixed or removed as needed. You can manually search for these, or easier ways include using Google Analytics or the plugin MonsterInsights for WordPress. While auditing, also check for nofollow links and redirects – if they exist, ensure they’re correctly placed where needed. Inactive links can stop web crawlers in their tracks resulting in a page not being indexed for search engines.

Spam Blog Comments

Spam links in your blog’s comment section can affect how you’re ranked; watch out for spam bots inserting irrelevant links like these. Using bad SEO strategies, these spambots try creating their own backlinks by commenting on others’ posts but this can hurt your ranking in the process. Links on your page help Google understand what kind of page you are, so a bad or irrelevant link can give Google the wrong impression. Have a good spam filter or monitor your comments to ensure no bad links exist in comments.

Slow Site Speed

You may have tons of awesome content on your page, including videos and high resolution images, but make sure your page is not overloaded. Watch out for oversized images, embedded videos, bad code, and overdue theme or plugin updates. A slow site speed leads to a longer load time that negatively impacts user experience, leading to increased bounce rates. Additionally, search engines may not be able to crawl all your pages when your site is slow (as to not overload). Use Pingdom to check your site speed and see if it needs improvement.

Not Using HTTPS

Safety online is important – users know this and so does Google. Search engines will rank safe sites higher because they want to send visitors to pages worthy of trust. Switch to HTTPS if you haven’t already; an SSL certificate ensures secure data transmission with encrypted data between the server and your site. Check if your hosting package includes this or if you need to purchase a security certificate.

Low Visitor Engagement

Posting quality content can improve your SEO, but there’s much more to it including how users engage. How are visitors interacting with your website? Are they engaged, completing calls to action (CTA’s) or sharing? How much time are visitors spending on the page? Google ranks sites based on how relevant they are, and if you have a high bounce rate it may lower your relevancy score.

Non Responsive Design

Searches being done on tablets and phones are increasing, which means your website needs to be responsive to these different devices. If not, visitors may leave quickly when the page doesn’t load or show correctly, in turn increasing your bounce rate and potentially hurting your SEO. Google is aware of the device trend and has even started indexing the mobile version of sites to make sure that users get the best access to what they’re looking for on phones. AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) can help with mobile speed.

Irrelevant Keywords

Keyword stuffing and using irrelevant words in the hope that your page gets noticed can backfire. Words that don’t match the content on the page will most likely result in a higher bounce rate when visitors realize they haven’t found what they were looking for on the site. Stay true to what your page is about without overdoing it; remember that it’s quality content that counts. (Note: Are you noticing a trend here? It’s all about being pertinent to the subject matter.)

Duplicate Tags and Descriptions

Make sure Google can successfully index your website; factors that may affect this are duplicate content tags or noindex tags. One can confuse search engines while the other will prevent the page from being indexed. Make tags relevant and also remember to tag your images correctly by describing what’s actually on them vs just listing the words you’re hoping to rank for. Be relevant for your topic and Google will reward you rather than penalize.

At the core of SEO rankings is the question – is my site relevant for what I offer and working properly? Keep this question in mind because Google is constantly analyzing this to sort pages in search engine results. At the end of the day, search engines exist to provide users with the best results and this is based on many factors. Some are easy to do on your own while others may require help from a search engine marketing expert like Wieting Design. View our SEO services.

With more than 20 years experience in marketing for local businesses in CT (Connecticut), we can work with you to improve and maintain your search engine ranking. View our past projects or contact us to discuss your local business marketing needs.

Wieting Design | Website Design CT

Wieting Design is a full-service, graphic and website design agency based in Fairfield County, CT and serving all of Connecticut (CT). We are committed to sharing our experience and expertise in website design, graphic design, social media marketing, search engine marketing (SEO), and video production to help build powerful tools and campaigns that work for your Connecticut business. Whether your objective is to grow your reputation, create client loyalty, drive traffic to your website or set up a marketing strategy, we will adapt our approach to get you the results you need with the services we provide.

 

Why Is Customer Experience So Important?

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Many factors determine why people choose to buy including the obvious quality and price point, but did you know that improving customer experience can improve your sales? This is often overlooked, but the way clients interact with your business from start to finish affects conversions, SEO, and brand awareness / brand loyalty.

According to Forbes, “Today, 89% of companies compete primarily on the basis of customer experience – up from just 36% in 2010. But while 80% of companies believe they deliver ‘super experiences,’ only 8% of customers agree. In other words, companies have a long way to go. And, that means there is tremendous opportunity to disrupt a competitor or gain market share in an industry.”

Conversions

How potential and existing clients interact with your company ultimately determines if they complete your call to action or not; from learning more, signing up, visiting a location, or completing a purchase. Your brand is synonymous with the experience it provides. Remember that clients want to be treated like humans and want to know your company cares. Know your audience and know their expectations so that you can provide the best customer experience for them, in turn improving conversions.

SEO

Search engines rank sites based on their quality and relevant content, so improved website engagement can benefit your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. When creating content and layout for your business site, consider how customers will interact with it. Provide a seamless experience for visitors that keeps them interested, interacting, sharing, and revisiting the site. An improved website experience will decrease the bounce rate and increase your click through rate (CTR) – all working to benefit your SEO. Learn about Wieting Design’s search engine marketing services.

Branding

A good experience makes people want to keep coming back, and in business this builds brand awareness and loyalty over time. The print material, website, social media, physical location, and all interactions with business staff attribute to the experience from start to finish and help define the brand. Consider every touchpoint and how to make it pleasant and memorable for consumers, so that they become loyal customers. Maintain consistency for all points of contact and know that building brand awareness and loyalty will increase your sales over time. View our design and branding services.

Given this information and the importance of user experience, consider how clients are interacting with your business – Are they satisfied? Are they engaged? Are their problems being solved? Consider how the process can be improved from start to finish, because your sales depend on it.

Your CT business can increase sales by improving user experience, and Wieting Design can help. Together we can plan your marketing strategy to focus on the entire consumer experience from initial discovery, learning phase, purchase, and follow up. Consumers are faced with countless options for products and services, but at the end of the day they choose to do business with ones they feel good about. From online interactions to in person meetings, customer experience is vital in decision making. Contact us today for help with your marketing strategy in Fairfield County CT and all of Connecticut. View our past projects.

 

Wieting Design | Website Design CT

Wieting Design is a full-service, graphic and website design agency based in Fairfield County, CT and serving all of Connecticut (CT). We are committed to sharing our experience and expertise in website design, graphic design, social media marketing, search engine marketing (SEO), and video production to help build powerful tools and campaigns that work for your Connecticut business. Whether your objective is to grow your reputation, create client loyalty, drive traffic to your website or set up a marketing strategy, we will adapt our approach to get you the results you need with the services we provide.

 

How A Copywriter Can Help Your Business

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Your CT business has so much to offer and no doubt deserves sales and marketing success. An often overlooked part of the marketing strategy is copywriting – the writing for your marketing needs. While you know your business best, your target market may have no idea and this is where an experienced team can help.

Consider the power of professional copywriting versus doing it yourself. A professional copywriter can help with the following:

 

Storytelling

Each company is just as unique as its people, and has an amazing story to showcase. The passion behind what you do, your vision, values, and competitive edge all make up this narrative worth sharing. A skilled copywriter can successfully tell your company’s story to educate and inspire clients to take action. This story can be shared across all platforms from print brochures to the website.

Branding

A great story should be shared over and over again with the right brand strategy. Marketing often gets pushed off to the side with busy day-to-day tasks, but a copywriter can step in to fill in the gaps. By following brand guidelines and maintaining consistency in all messaging, a brand becomes recognizable and gains meaning. There’s value in working on your brand, just look at Forbes’ 2018 list of most valuable brands.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The top resource we turn to for answers is the web. Search engines sort results based on what’s most relevant and this is greatly based on the keywords websites use. Copywriters take the time to learn about your business, industry, region, and clients, in order to fully understand and incorporate powerful words that clients may be searching. The result is a higher search engine ranking. View our SEO services.

Connections

People buy the idea / the vision before buying the item or service. That’s why all businesses must work on making a connection before making a sale. Emotional bonds are built based on trust, understanding, and engagement. A copywriter takes the time to not only understand your business, but also its target audience – their interests, pain points, aspirations, etc – in order to best speak to them.

Calls to Action

Once a potential client takes the time to learn about your company, what’s the next step? Without clear directions in your messaging or a clear path, the connection may stop. With the help of an experienced copywriter who understands human behavior, the art of persuasion, and clear messaging, your viewers can be geared towards your call to action. This means you’re one step closer to reaching your marketing goals.

Marketing and writing often gets put off to the side, and this could be costing you business. By working with experienced marketing professionals, you can get the results you deserve. Your brand’s messaging is extremely important and if budget allows, work with a professional copywriter versus doing it yourself. The power of your messaging goes a long way and can help with storytelling, branding, SEO, connections, and calls to action.

There are many benefits of working with an experienced copywriter and design team like Wieting Design, serving Fairfield County CT (Connecticut) for over 20 years. Contact us for your copywriting or design needs.

Wieting Design | Website Design Connecticut

Wieting Design is a full-service, graphic and website design agency based in Fairfield County, CT and serving all of Connecticut (CT). We are committed to sharing our experience and expertise in website design, graphic design, social media marketing, search engine marketing (SEO), and video production to help build powerful tools and campaigns that work for your Connecticut business. Whether your objective is to grow your reputation, create client loyalty, drive traffic to your website or set up a marketing strategy, we will adapt our approach to get you the results you need with the services we provide.

Website Development CT: How Bad Code Can Affect Websites

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Behind the scenes, your website’s source code works to tell the site how to look and perform; but what happens if your website is coded poorly? Despite maintaining a beautiful look on the front end to visitors, bad code can greatly affect how the site performs in the long run. Just because you can’t see or don’t completely understand the building blocks of your website, doesn’t mean these features should be ignored.

Poor code affects:

SEO (search engine optimization) – Information on the back end including page titles, meta descriptions, and links are created on the back end and play a big role in how search engines evaluate and rank websites. Your site needs to follow good SEO practices with a proper code, so that your page ranks where customers can find you.

PERFORMANCE: The source code gives the site instructions on how to perform, and with bad code your site gets bad instructions. These bad instructions can result in inactive links and slower loading pages, affecting the overall user experience. It’s important for your site to engage visitors and bring them towards your call to action; this can only be accomplished through a well performing site.

MAINTENANCE: Making updates and ensuring website security both depend on how the website is created on the back end. Bad code makes updating the website difficult and can even leave sites at risk for hackers. Once a website is built, its owner should be able to edit and update as needed without the help of a designer or developer, and this can be done with a well coded system.

LONG TERM COSTS: While a quick, low budget site may seem like a good idea initially, it may result in more time, energy, and money spent later on to fix. Your site is a reflection of your brand and works for you over and over again. It’s a project worth investing in and taking your time on to ensure that your site’s design and function come together as one with proper code.

What to do if your site has bad code:

If your custom site is outdated, loads slowly, or isn’t ranking as well as it should, then its code should be reviewed. If needed, an experienced web developer can help correct the existing site on the back end or create a new website with clean, high quality code.

Make the most of your website beyond just its look, and only work with an experienced and reliable web developer. At Wieting Design, a full service graphic and website design agency in Fairfield County, CT (Connecticut), we have over 20 years experience in website development to code your site correctly. Click to see our past website projects.

Our developer and designer come together for all website projects to combine style and function for your site. Contact us to discuss your website needs and to ensure that your site is working to its full potential.

 

Wieting Design | Website Design CT

Wieting Design is a full-service, graphic and website design agency based in Fairfield County, CT and serving all of Connecticut (CT). We are committed to sharing our experience and expertise in website design, graphic design, social media marketing, search engine marketing (SEO), and video production to help build powerful tools and campaigns that work for your Connecticut business. Whether your objective is to grow your reputation, create client loyalty, drive traffic to your website or set up a marketing strategy, we will adapt our approach to get you the results you need with the services we provide.

 

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Serving: CT, Fairfield County CT
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