8 Guidelines for Exceptional Web Design, Usability, and User Experience

When it comes to designing or re-designing a website, it can be easy to get hung up on the aesthetics. “That shade of blue just doesn’t look right …. Wouldn’t it be cool to have the logo on the right side of the screen? …. How about we put a giant animated GIF in the middle of the page?”

However, if you’re truly trying to accomplish something with your website (e.g., brand awareness, lead generation, etc.), you’ll need to focus on more than just how your website looks.

In a world where folks have more than a billion websites they can potentially land on, you need to make sure your website’s design is optimized for usability (how easy your website is to use) and user experience (how enjoyable interacting with your website is for actual users).

Download our free guide to web design here for more tips on designing a user-friendly website.

Now, you could spend years studying the ins and outs of usability and UX, but for the sake of giving you a jumping off point, we’ve put together the following list of helpful guidelines to apply to your next web design project.

8 Website Design Guidelines for an Exceptional User Experience

1) Simplicity

While the look and feel of your website is important, most visitors aren’t coming to your site to evaluate how slick the design is. Instead, they’re coming to your site to complete some action, or to find some specific piece of information.

Adding unnecessary design elements (i.e., elements that serve no functional purpose) to your website will only make it harder for visitors to accomplish what they’re trying to accomplish.

From a usability and UX perspective, simplicity is your friend. And you can employ simplicity in a variety of different ways. Here are some examples:

• Colors. Don’t use too many.The Handbook of Computer-Human Interaction recommends using a maximum of five (plus or minus two) different colors in your website’s design.
• Typefaces. The typefaces you choose should be legible at the very least. And when it comes to colors, you shouldn’t use too many. A common recommendation is to use a maximum of three different typefaces in a maximum of three different sizes.
• Graphics. Only use them if they’ll help a user complete a task or perform a specific function (don’t just add graphics willy-nilly).

Here’s a great example of a simple homepage design from Rockaway Relief:

Strip away everything that doesn’t add value, then add some visual texture back in.

The great car designer Colin Chapman famously said, “Simplify, then add lightness.” This principle owes something to that mindset. Every element on a page must add value to the user or the business—and ideally, to both. Taken literally, the process of stripping away non-value-adding elements can produce a rather Spartan design. This is where adding some visual texture back into a page comes in. This approach means:

• The page focuses on the key content.
• The necessary visual texture and interest is present—supporting the aesthetic-usability effect—but not at the expense of the key page content.

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Strip away everything that doesn’t add value, then add some visual texture back in.

The great car designer Colin Chapman famously said, “Simplify, then add lightness.” This principle owes something to that mindset. Every element on a page must add value to the user or the business—and ideally, to both. Taken literally, the process of stripping away non-value-adding elements can produce a rather Spartan design. This is where adding some visual texture back into a page comes in. This approach means:

• The page focuses on the key content.
• The necessary visual texture and interest is present—supporting the aesthetic-usability effect—but not at the expense of the key page content.

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2) Visual Hierarchy

Closely tied to the principle of simplicity, visual hierarchy entails arranging and organizing website elements so that visitors naturally gravitate toward the most important elements first.

Remember, when it comes to optimizing for usability and UX, the goal is to lead visitors to complete a desired action, but in a way that feels natural and enjoyable. By adjusting the position, color, or size of certain elements, you can structure your site in such a way that visitors will be drawn to those elements first. 

In the example below from Spotify, you can see that the “Get Spotify Free” call-to-action sits atop the visual hierarchy. For starters, it’s positioned on the left of the page (most visitors scan websites from left to right). What’s more, it’s the only element above the fold that uses that dark purple color, which naturally draws your attention.

3) Navigability

Having intuitive navigation on your site is crucial for ensuring visitors can find what they’re looking for. Ideally, a visitor should be able to arrive on your site and not have to think extensively about where they should click next – moving from point A to point B should be as pain-free as possible.

Here are a few tips for optimizing your site’s navigation:

• Keep the structure of your primary navigation simple (and near the top of your page).
• Include navigation in the footer of your site.
• Use breadcrumbs on every page (except for the homepage) so people are aware of their navigation trail.
• Include a search box near the top of your site so visitors can search by keywords.
• Don’t offer too many navigation options on a page.
• Don’t dig too deep. In most cases, it’s best to keep your navigation to no more than three levels deep. (Check out this article for more clarity around flat vs. deep navs.)
• Include links within your page copy, and make it clear where those links lead to.

Another pointer: Once you’ve settled on what your site’s main (top) navigation will be, keep it consistent. The labels and location of your navigation should remain the same on each and every page of your site. Here’s an example from the InVision website:

And this leads us to our next principle …

4) Consistency

In addition to keeping your site’s navigation consistent, the overall look and feel of your site should be consistent across all of your site’s pages. Backgrounds, color schemes, typefaces, and even the tone of your writing are all areas where being consistent can have a positive impact on usability and UX.

That’s not to say, however, that every page on your site should have the same exact layout. Instead, you should create different layouts for specific types of pages (e.g., a layout for landing pages, a layout for informational pages, etc.), and by using those layouts consistently, you’ll make it easier for visitors to understand what type of information they’re likely to find on a given page.

In the example below, you can see that Airbnb uses the same layout for all of its “Help” pages (a common practice). Just imagine what it would be like from a visitor’s perspective if every “Help” page had its own, unique layout. (It would likely result in a lot of shoulder shrugging.)

5) Accessibility

According to comScore, tablet internet consumption grew 30% between 2013 and 2015. Smartphone internet consumption, meanwhile, grew 78% during the same time period. The takeaway here: In order to provide a truly great user experience, your site needs to be compatible with the different devices (and operating systems, and browsers) that your visitors are using.

At a high-level, this means investing in a website structure that is highly flexible – like responsive design. With a responsive site, content is automatically resized and reshuffled to fit the dimensions of whichever device a visitor happens to be using. (HubSpot Marketing customers: Using built-in responsive design, HubSpot content built on the COS is automatically optimized for visitors from any device.)

At a lower level, improving accessibility can be as simple as adding alt-text to all of your images (so visitors who can’t see images in their browsers can still understand what’s on the page).

Ultimately, it’s more important that your website provides a great experience across different platforms as opposed to having to it look identical across those platforms. And that can mean adhering to platform-specific design conventions instead of trying to squeeze in unique elements that users of that platform might not be familiar with.

This leads us to our next principle …

6) Conventionality

There are certain web design conventions which, over the years, internet users have become increasingly familiar with. Such conventions include:

• Having the main navigation be at the top (or left side) of a page
• Having a logo at the top left (or center) of a page
• Having that logo be clickable so it always brings a visitor back to the homepage
• Having links change color/appearance when you hover over them

While it might be tempting to throw all such design conventions out the window for the sake of being completely original or unique, this would (likely) be a mistake. It’d be akin to putting a car’s steering wheel in the backseat, which is to say: it would confuse people.

In order to provide the best experience possible for your site’s visitors, take advantage of the fact that you already know what types of web experiences they’re familiar with. You can use this information to make your site easier for visitors to navigate.

One of the most common examples of conventionality in web design: Using a shopping cart icon on an ecommerce site:

In the image above, you can see (from left to right) shopping cart icons from Amazon, Wayfair, and Best Buy.

7) Credibility

Ultimately, using web design conventions – design elements and strategies that visitors are already familiar with – can help give your site more credibility. And if you’re striving to build a site that provides the best user experience possible, credibility (a.k.a. the amount of trust your site conveys) can go a long way.

One of the best ways to improve your site's credibility is to be clear and honest about the product/service you’re selling on the site. Don’t make visitors have to dig through dozens of pages to find out what it is you actually do. Instead, be up front about it, and dedicate some real estate to explaining the value behind what you do.

Another credibility tip: Have a pricing page. While it can be tempting to force people to contact you in order for them to learn more about pricing, having prices listed clearly on your site can definitely make your business seem more trustworthy and legitimate. Here’s an example of a great pricing page from the Box website:

8) User-Centricity

At the end of the day, usability and user experience hinge on the preferences of the end users. (After all, if you’re not designing for them … who are you designing for?)

So while the principles detailed in this list are a great starting point, the real key to improving the design of your site is to conduct user testing, gather feedback, and make changes based on what you’ve learned. 

Here are a few user testing tools to get you started:

• Crazy Egg. Use this tool to track multiple domains under one account and uncover insights about your site’s performance using four different intelligence tools – heat map, scroll map, overlay, and confetti.
• Loop11. Use this tool to easily create usability tests – even if you don’t have any HTML experience. 
• The User Is Drunk. Pay Richard Littauer to get drunk and review your site. Don’t believe me? We tried it. Check it out.

(Read this for even more helpful tools.)

According to Vitamin T, 68% of visitors fail to convert because they don’t think you care about their experience. So as a final bit of usability/UX wisdom, start caring more! Put yourself into the shoes of your site’s visitors and keep them in mind every step of the way.

What other principles do you think make for exceptional website design and usability?

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in January 2012 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

 

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Why Prospective Students Aren't Opening Your Emails

Many schools send out blast emails. Any email address in their contact databases, no matter how the address got in there, receives every email the schools send out. In the early days of email (the ‘90s), this was an awesome marketing tactic because it worked. No longer.

People want and expect personalized content. If you keep sending information about your criminal justice program to prospective students who’ve expressed an interest in your medical billing certification program – it’s no wonder they’re not opening your emails.

When we say “personalize”, we’re not talking about inserting someone’s first name in a field tag. The most effective personalized emails personalize the content they provide. That’s how you get the right messages and information in front of the right people at the right time. 

Our own research revealed that targeting different emails to different personas resulted in a 16% increase in click through rates (CTRs). That’s the increase we saw merely from personalizing content at the persona level. 

Persona targeting is only the top level of your personalization options. Segmenting your email database into a multitude of smaller lists is the true key to precision personalization. 

A 2015 email benchmark report finds that open rates in North America remain steady at 32%. Of course, that’s the average open rate. And who wants to be average.

So there’s email marketing, and there’s email marketing well. If your school isn’t seeing open rates that get you into the top quarter of performers – take a look at how effectively (or not) you’re personalizing the content you email out.

Here’s our four-step process for improving your email personalization, and your open rates along with it.

Gather The Right Information

You can’t segment and personalize if you don’t know anything about the person behind the email address. Using online forms, surveys, and back-end data collection, you can learn a lot your digital visitors. This includes demographic, psychographic, and behavioral data. 

As you collect more data, you can refine your lists. For example, let’s say you create a list for leads that meet this criteria:

• High school senior
• Lives in targeted state or zip code
• Downloaded report on studying abroad opportunities

That’s not a bad start. But as that visitor continues to engage with your content, you also learn that they nearly always access content via a mobile device and clicked on a Twitter link to get to your blog post introducing a visiting professor from France. Now you can add them to an email list targeting mobile users, who also use Twitter. So the next email they get is one optimized for mobile with Twitter-sized content for them to read and share.

The great thing about smart lists is that your leads automatically get added to the right lists once they meet the criteria. And there’s no limit to the number of lists an email address can be on.

Use this Data Collected to Determine a Lead’s Place in Their Enrollment Journey

The more a visitor interacts with your content, as well as they kind of content they’re focusing on, the better you can gauge where in their journey they are.

Define some content and behavior criteria that indicate to you where a prospect is. Use that criteria to create lists targeting different phases. Behavioral indicators can include more frequently engaging with your content; spending more time on your site, but narrowing their focus to certain pages; shifting their attention from content you tagged for one journey phase to another; they’ve graduated from online content to attending in-person events.

Align Your Email Content to the Lead’s Place in their Enrollment Journey

Where a lead is in their enrollment journey is a critical piece of intel for sending out the most relevant content. A parent downloads your guide on how to select an academy for their child. Is now the time to send them an application package? Not really.

Instead, you send them an email with a short, embedded video interview with a current parent at your school, who’s talking about what was important to them in their selection process. At the bottom, you have a call-to-action inviting them to click on a link to a virtual tour of your school. That’s an email a parent at the start of their discovery phase is more likely to open and engage with.

You can download 50 custonmizable call-to-action buttons here >> 

And if they click on that link? That’s more intel for you to continue to refine the content this parent receives.

Monitor Email and List Performance

How prospective students and parents interact with past emails provides even more intelligence. Do they ignore emails about financial assistance issues, but always open emails relating to your school’s sports teams? 

You can select content and email frequency based on whether a lead is opening most of your emails or none. A lead with a high level of engagement may be ready to get pushed into the decision phase. Instead of waiting for the lead to go through a typical, longer email drip process, you can set up a smart list to capture leads that open a specified high percentage of emails over a fixed period of time to cut short the nurturing cycle.

For the recipient who isn’t opening any of your emails: Are they an outlier in this, or are they on an underperforming list? If the list as a whole is underperforming, re-assess whether you’re sending the right content for the specified criteria. If the content does seem related, take a closer look at the criteria. Were just a random collection criteria grouped together because you could, but they don’t really create an actionable segment?

It’s Not Them — It’s You

People do like emails that send them relevant, interesting content. If your leads aren’t opening your emails, then you’re not sending the right emails. Or maybe you are, but your subject lines are snores.

Email marketing isn’t going away. Your competition is investing resources to succeed in email marketing, which raises the bar for your own efforts. Personalizing your email content is the smart way to increase your email marketing returns.

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How to Become a More Efficient Editor: 12 Ways to Speed Up the Editorial Process

When I first started editing articles for HubSpot’s Marketing Blog, I didn’t quite realize how much time each one would take.

Depending on length, topic, author, and other variables, it can take anywhere from twenty minutes to an entire afternoon to edit a single blog post.

This post isn’t about cutting corners; it’s about editing efficiently. That sometimes means giving more thoughtful feedback up front so your job is easier when the final draft does come in. Other times, it means keeping a few key websites handy so you can refer to them quickly – whether you’re checking the author’s math or adding a Pinterest Pin It button to an image.

What are some ways to edit more efficiently while maintaining integrity? Whether you’re editing your own piece of writing or someone else’s, here are 12 ways to save time when you sit down and whip out that proverbial red pen.

12 Ways to Save Time While Editing a Piece of Writing

1) Find a quiet space to do your editing.

Don’t try to get your editing done in a meeting, or when you’re around chatty coworkers. Research shows that multitasking like that can make us far less effective at our work and increase mistakes and stress. And when you’re editing, you’re trying to catch those mistakes – so you want to be extra diligent.

Instead, find a place where you can plug in and concentrate fully on the piece in front of you. When you get there, turn off those pesky email and social media notifications, and put your phone on airplane mode (or, better yet, leave it in your bag). The phone part is particularly important: In a 2015 study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, people who received notification of a call – even if they didn’t pick it up – were 3X more likely to make mistakes. 

If you’re working through a piece of writing that’ll require more than a few hours of careful editing, consider blocking out chunks of concentrated time separated by breaks. Otherwise, you may lose focus and begin missing things. In fact, a study by the Draugiem Group found that the employees with the highest productivity spent 52 minutes working, followed by 17 minutes of rest.

2) Be sure the topic aligns with your content strategy.

You might be tempted to dig into the meat of the piece and begin meticulously editing it straight away. But, as an editor, it’s important that you put the content into context before you dive into the details. 

First, take a quick skim of the working title, the layout, and the main ideas covered in the piece. Think to yourself:

• Does this topic align with our content strategy?
• Will our readers and buyer personas care about it?

If you’re concerned the piece isn’t about a topic your readers will be interested in, think about how to tweak the angle.

You’ll also want to reflect on how the piece fits in with what you’ve written in the past – especially if the piece is a blog post. Search engines like Google might see the second post as duplicate content and penalize you in search. Even if Google doesn’t consider it duplicate content, competing for keyword ranking against another post from your own blog will hurt your SEO strategy. The questions to ask yourself here are:

• Have we covered this topic comprehensively in the past?
• Will it add anything new and interesting?

If both answers are yes, you might consider updating and republishing the original draft. 

3) Read for content & ideas first, grammar second.

Never start diving into detailed edits before you read the whole piece through. It’s important to reflect on it holistically so you can pinpoint places where the content and ideas can be made stronger. This may seem like we’re adding time here, but trust me, this’ll save you a lot of time and pain in the long run. If you’ve ever started editing a piece line-by-line only to realize it needs to be completely restructured, you know what I mean.

The key takeaway here is to recognize when the piece needs more work from the author. “Sometimes, an author sends a piece in before it’s ready to be edited,” says Corey Wainwright, HubSpot’s Director of Content. “Learning to recognize those instances can save you a ton of time, because otherwise you start just rewriting the piece, which isn’t helpful to either of you.”

Ginny Soskey, manager of HubSpot’s Marketing Blog, agrees. “Your job, as an editor, is to preserve the voice of your writer while making sure they are meeting your Quality Bar," she explained in her post on editing confessions.

If you notice the piece doesn’t flow well, or the introduction needs to be tightened up, or there aren’t enough points in the article for it to meet your standards for quality, then it’s better to send that feedback to the author via email than to try and fix it yourself.

If the piece needs an overwhelming amount of editing help, then the author’s writing may not be a fit for your publication – and you’ll save a lot of time by telling the contributor outright.

4) Check for places where the author can fill in the blanks.

Aside from providing larger, more broad feedback, you should also read through the piece to identify smaller improvements that you might want (or need) the author’s help on. Here are some questions to ask yourself:

• Are there any structural inconsistencies in the piece? For example, if they included an image in every section of the piece except for one or two, you might ask them to find an image for those sections for consistency.
• Are there any points that need more, better, or any evidence? Statistics and data can elevate the quality of your content and make it more interesting for readers.
• Are any sources missing citations? (This is a big one.)

As you read, take notes on these points in an email draft to the author. Once you’re done, make sure you clean up the notes so they’re comprehensible. 

5) Bookmark helpful websites for quick referencing.

If the content, ideas, and structure of the piece are all ready to go, you can get down to the nitty-gritty of editing the piece. This is where I like to keep a few websites bookmarked for reference. Here are the ones I prefer.

• Your company’s style guide: For when you want to double-check how something is spelled or referred to.
• Percent change calculator: For checking math.
• Your favorite keyword tools: For identifying top keywords for the content so you can use them in the title, headers, and relevant anchor text.
• Pinterest Pin It widget builder: For creating Pin It buttons for graphics or infographics.
• Embed code generator: For creating embed codes for any original graphics or infographics. (Learn how to use it here.)
• Click-to-tweet: For adding click-to-tweet links to tweetable quotes in a blog post. (Learn how here.)

For more ideas, read this blog post for the ultimate list of websites every blogger should bookmark.

6) Keep useful code snippets close at hand.

Along with bookmarking helpful websites, it’s also a good idea to have all those useful snippets of HTML or other code that you tend to use easily accessible. 

For example, you might notice that we add borders around many of our images on the blog. To add these borders, I need to add a specific snippet of code into the source code of the blog posts I write and edit.

To make this process easy, I save code snippets in my Evernote. When it comes time to add them to the source code of my blog post, I simply pull up the note and plug in the snippets as need. (Download our free guide to HTML here to learn some simple and useful HTML coding hacks.)

7) Read the piece out loud.

Reading out loud isn’t just good for memory retention; it’s also a great way to find errors in a piece of writing. You’re more likely to you find clumsy sentences and other things spell check won’t necessarily catch if you hear those errors out loud.

Best-selling author David Sedaris uses this verbal approach to fine-tune his writing. According to Fast Company, Sedaris tests his works-in-progress by reading it aloud to live audiences because it helps him notice imperfections in the text. As he reads, he’ll circle everything from confusing or misleading phrasing to closely repeated words or words that sound alike in the same paragraph

"I used to hate it when a book came out or a story was published and I would be like ‘damn, how did I not catch that?’” Sedaris said. “But you pretty much always catch it when you’re reading out loud.”

Reading out loud will help you catch these errors in the first go-round, which will save you time later.

8) Use “Find and Replace” to quickly fix common errors.

Here’s a useful tip from my colleague Ginny from that great blog post on editing I mentioned earlier. Think about it: What are the mistakes you tend to make when writing or editing? What things do you tend to miss? For example, you might notice that one of you typically get hung up on the difference between there/their or you’re/your. 

Knowing that, you can make sure to do a “Find and Replace” before publishing a piece to correct these little slipups. It’s a far quicker way to polish a piece than looking for these instances manually.

To do a “Find and Replace,” hit Control + F on a PC (or Command + F on a Mac), type in your problem word or phrase and click “Find,” and let your browser take you to the word or phrase. Then, look through each instance of that word or phrase and swap it out with the right thing when needed.

9) “Find and Replace” HTML snippets to quickly clean up a post’s formatting. 

You can use the same principle when you’re cleaning up the formatting of a piece of writing for a blog post or other piece of online content. Skip the time-consuming manual work and find specific pieces of code using “Find and Replace.”

For example, if you’re finding rogue <span> tags or other troublesome code in the source code, you can use “Find and Replace” to replace them with something else or strip them out completely.

Simply hit Control + F on a PC (or Command + F on a Mac), type or paste in the code, and click “Find.” Under “Replace,” either fill in the code you want to replace it with, or leave it blank to strip out the code completely. When you hit “All,” it’ll be gone.

10) Copy and paste the piece of writing into Microsoft Word to find spelling and grammatical errors.

It doesn’t matter how meticulously you eyeballed a piece of writing: More often than not, you will find additional errors using spell check that you would otherwise miss. 

If your writing software has spell check, use it. We also recommend pasting the content into Microsoft Word (length-permitting) for a final check. Just remember to give the document a few extra seconds to process your piece once you’ve pasted it in there, as Word takes a little longer to “read” your piece and uncover any mistakes. Then, you can go through it and assess any red or green squiggly lines you see.

11) Know when the content is good enough.

I know as well as any other editor that letting go of perfectionism is hard. But it turns out that perfectionism, while helpful in certain contexts, can become a major roadblock for productivity.

There will always be something you can do to improve a piece of writing – and it can drive you crazy if you let it. You might think of “done” as spending every possible minute improving, polishing, and refining a piece until it’s whittled to perfection.

But what are you sacrificing by making more, minor improvements? And are those sacrifices realistic? Are they worth your time? At some point, you need to ask yourself: When is “good enough" good enough? 

Of course, knowing what the threshold for "good enough" is easier said than done. Here’s a helpful formula to give you some direction:

1. The piece successfully solves the problem, addresses the need, or conveys the message intended.
2. It is clearly and distinctly on brand.
3. The quality of work is consistent with or above the level of previous work.
4. It has been thoroughly yet objectively scrutinized by other qualified individuals.
5. The final decision of preference had been left in the hands of the creator.

Make sure that you complete the most important editing and proofreading tasks. Then, once you’ve refined a piece enough to move on … just move on.

12) Keep this pre-publish checklist handy.

Before you hit "publish,” it’s time to do a final once-over to make sure you’ve checked all the boxes. While this seems like another extra step, remember that this is an investment of time that’ll save you from having to return to the piece later to make edits and adjustments.

But there are a lot of little things to remember before you publish a piece of writing – which is why my colleague Pam Vaughan created this online editing and proofreading checklist. Use it to ensure all the important boxes are checked before you hit publish so that when a piece of writing is shipped, it’s shipped for good.

How do you save time when editing while still giving the piece its due diligence? Share your tips with us in the comments below.

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The Psychology of Ecommerce: Why Your Loyalty Program May Not Build Loyalty

Loyalty rewards programs are a staple of retail and ecommerce brands, but what if they’re doing more harm than good? At their most basic, loyalty programs allow customers to accrue points or punch cards until free items or discounts are earned. But what if sometimes a simple “thank you” is all you need?

The Trivialization Effect 

Here’s the problem with a loyalty program that offers rewards of some monetary value: buyers often find the amount trivial. As in, why even bother? Consider for a moment the price of a fancy coffee. Five dollars sounds about right. Now, the seller of this fancy coffee hands over a punch card when someone buys, and that punch card allows for the reward of a free fancy coffee after ten purchases. Sounds pretty straightforward, until you realize the coffee shop is essentially giving buyers $0.50 as a “thank you.”

Framing is everything! You’re probably not going to turn away that free coffee, but there’s a good chance you won’t feel as though the coffee shop actually appreciates you when they’re pouring it. Why? Because sometimes a sincere “thank you” goes a lot further than a $0.50 reward. You’ll feel more valued if you’re working towards those stamps for a free coffee, rather than $0.50 back on your purchase.

The Proof in Numbers

A recent study asked hotel guests to rate how appreciated they felt upon receiving acknowledgment from the hotel. Part of the guests received a sincere thank you note, while the other part received $0.05 (yes, five cents). The recipients were to rate their feelings on a scale of one to seven. Those who received a verbal thank you ranked their feelings of appreciation at 5.6, while those who received the small monetary gift said they ranked the gesture of appreciation at 4.4.

Well, then. Of course, it’s easy to glean one fact from this particular study: the smaller the monetary gift, the more trivial consumers will consider it to be.

How Much Is Enough?

So, if you simply have to give a larger reward for buyers to feel appreciated, how large are we looking at? Another group was split into sections, with some receiving a verbal thank you, and the rest receiving varying percentages of their purchase price as a reward.

Those who received the verbal thank you felt more appreciated than those who received up to 10% of the purchase price as a reward (remember the coffee example from earlier?). However, once the reward tipped into 15% and higher, consumers said they felt more and more appreciated.

What Does This Mean for Your Loyalty Program?

Consider a points system where customers are rewarded for activities besides purchases and work towards a variety of rewards. For example, you can incentivize activities like leaving a review or sharing something on social media. In return, you can give them early access to sales or free shipping over a certain threshold.

Blending Appreciation with Social Responsibility

There is one reward that may eclipse even the verbal thank you. Remember when we discussed the Noble Edge Effect, where consumers are more likely to support businesses with a social conscience? Consumers love the chance to give back, which is funny because that’s exactly what you’re trying to do for them, isn’t it? 

The final study shows that consumers who are allowed to give their small financial gift to a charity will feel almost as appreciated as those who just get a verbal thanks. You get even more than their appreciation, too, since those buyers will see you as a socially conscious company and resolve to support you as often as possible. This one seems like a win-win, right?

In truth, balancing rewards, customer loyalty, and your genuine appreciation can be difficult. Pay attention to what your customers really want and then give it to them. Remember that loyalty goes both ways—they want you to be loyal to them, as well. 

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The Hazards of Working a Desk Job & How to Overcome Them [Infographic]

Sore neck. Blurred vision. Difficulty focusing. The feeling that your eyes are being burned into oblivion by your computer screen. If you’ve been experiencing any (or all) of these symptoms, there’s a good chance that you’re suffering from a terrible affliction known as “working a desk job.”

Even if you love what you’re doing, sitting and staring at a screen all day can take a toll on your well-being. And while there are ways to sneak in some exercise during the workday to offset a few of these negative effects, it’s hard not to wonder: What kind of impact is this routine really having on my health?

The team at FramesDirect answered that question in infographic form. What’s more, they uncovered some tips for overcoming the hazards that often accompany desk jobs – specifically the ones that impact our vision. For more, check out the infographic below.

Know of any other tips for being more productive while working a desk job? Leave a comment below.

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What To Do If Your Website Traffic Is Down

You’ve noticed a dip in website traffic. Your email marketing, social media and content strategy are all on target, so what’s causing a decrease in visits, and what do you do?

First thing: Don’t panic.

Keep in mind that Google updates its algorithm between 500 and 600 times per year — and that doesn’t even include the major updates such as Panda (2011’s emphasis on strong content) and Penguin (2012’s crack down on over-optimizing and keyword-based anchor text).

It’s good to keep an eye on your website visits and performance to notice change over time, but if you’re getting less traffic and fewer phone calls, it’s time to investigate further.

Step 1: Check your code.

Even seemingly simple website tweaks could result in the accidental deletion of your tracking code.

Whether you’re using Google Analytics or a marketing automation tool such as HubSpot, double check to make sure you’re receiving the accurate performance data from your entire website.

It sounds like an obvious check, but you won’t believe how often it can happen if you have a webmaster or someone else making website edits for you.

Step 2: Analyze your keywords.

Those search terms that had you on page one of Google last week — are they still holding up?

If a few of your website pages dropped from the first, second or third search result position down to seven, eight or nine, that could result in a major drop in visits to your website.

I recommend you look at your larger traffic-driving keywords and overall pages to see if there has been a decline in placement across the board. 

Even a drop in placement from the 1st page to the 2nd, 3rd, 5th+ page could be a sign that you’re in penalty — meaning Google sees suspicious or outdated tactics and lowers your search result ranking or removes your website completely from its pages.

There is plenty of keyword tracking software out there that can do all the heavy lifting for you. All you would need to do is check your rankings and monitor for big keyword shifts. From there, you should evaluate how bad the drops in rankings are and adjust your SEO strategy.

(Download the “How to Rank Above Your Competition Using Ahrefs.com” eBook to learn more about the free tool that shows which companies are ranking for your search terms.)

Step 3: Take a look at Domain Authority.

A key factor in calculating your search engine ranking is Moz’s Domain Authority.

It’s calculated by the frequency of new pages published, number of pages, number of outbound and inbound links and quality of links, among other parameters — and it’s so influential that Google weighs it in the algorithm.

So when Moz rolls out an update to the Domain Authority of all websites, if you’ve lost quality backlinks or stopped making updates, your ranking could fall and subsequently get a loss in website traffic.

You can keep an eye on it here.

Why is this important? Well, your website’s authority tells Google a lot. If your authority is dropping, it’s a signal to Google and other search engines that maybe the quality of the site isn’t as good as it used to be.

If the quality is suffering, Google doesn't want to damage its reputation as a search engine and deliver poor results.

You want to keep an eye on this on a monthly basis and make adjustments as you see your authority start to change. If it’s getting better, keep doing what you’re doing! If it’s declining, then it’s time to change your strategy — either by adding content that people would find interesting and linking to or reaching out to high quality sites for a link back to your site.

Step 4: Analyze for toxic backlinks.

Although Google says bad backlinks can’t hurt you, they definitely can.

Even if you believe you have strong and clean link building practices, you could be in penalty and not even know it — thanks to Google’s Penguin update.

You definitely should look for referral links that you wouldn’t necessarily want your website associated with. You can see this by taking a look at your referral traffic in your web analytics or marketing automation tool — pull up the data and ask yourself these questions:

• Do you have any partners in different parts of the world? 
• Do you see an increased amount of links coming in from a different language?
• Do you see links to pages that don’t exist on your website? 

Those are definitely things to watch out for as that could be a clear sign of a hacked website or unfavorable links. Unfortunately, I’ve been seeing a lot of this lately.

If you uncover toxic backlinks, compile a list and call in the professionals — it’s time to submit a disavow file to Google and start the cleanup process.

Step 5: Call in the outside reporting.

If you’ve made it this far and still haven’t found the issue, I recommend purchasing reports from SEMRush. This tool provides a small amount of data to show where you’re ranking, charts to show a drop in organic keywords and a look at whether there’s an algorithmic change.

Once you have the data,  a look the organic graph and analyze what it’s telling you: If you’re seeing declines in keywords and traffic, then check and see if it coincides with an algorithm update.

Typically, you can pinpoint what month and year your decline took a nosedive and research to see if Google rolled out any updates during that timeframe — there would likely be extensive coverage on Moz with advice on how to remedy the situation.

Final Thoughts

The truth is, Panda and Penguin are just the beginning of changes Google is going to roll out over the next decade.

Usually major algorithm announcements are made the same day they’re rolled out in search, but I tend to see movements in website data weeks — or even months — before that.

You’ll tend to see major movements in other industries before they’re rolled out everywhere, so that’s why I like to keep my ear to the ground.

You never truly know what Google will change next, so you have to keep analyzing what’s happening with your online presence and stay up to date with tactics and trends — it’s all part of a strong inbound marketing strategy.

We’ve got a bunch of great content on understanding keyword fundamentals, ranking above competitors and tips for increasing website rankings to help you master your search engine marketing strategy.

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10 of the Best Brands on Snapchat Right Now (And Why They're So Great)

It used to be that Snapchat was seen as a platform geared mostly toward teens and pre-teens. But over the last several years, Snapchat has added features and made changes that have helped to move it into a much broader space.

No longer are they a niche photo-messaging service – they’ve become an established media platform valued at over $16 billion and with over 100 million users. As for the age range of their users, eMarketer reported that 45% of all Snapchat users in the U.S. are between the ages of 18 and 24, and comScore found that 60% of U.S. smartphone users ages 13 to 24 use Snapchat.

That’s why brands from every industry and with all manner of target demographic – from Sour Patch Kids to General Electric, and even HubSpot – are using Snapchat to connect with their fans and customers in a way that’s low-cost, but highly personal and engaging. You’ll notice the content they post on Snapchat isn’t polished: it's raw and scrappy and fun. After all, Snapchat is all about letting your brand personality shine and relating to your target audience on a totally human level.

Before we list the best brands to follow on Snapchat, let’s be sure we all know how to follow brands on Snapchat and view their content in the first place.

(Click here to skip ahead to the best brands on Snapchat.)

How to Follow Brands on Snapchat

To follow brands on Snapchat, you’ll first have to make a Snapchat account of your own. Snapchat accounts are nothing fancy: no profile picture, no bio, no URL to your website. All you really have to do is download the free Snapchat app (for iOS here or for Android here), and then create an account by entering your email, a username, and a password.

Once you’ve made an account, you’re ready to find and follow brands (and other users).

Step 1: Open the Snapchat app and click the ghost icon at the top center of your camera screen (below, left). You’ll be taken to your home screen (below, right).

Step 2: On the home screen, add friends by clicking the “Add Friends” option.

 

Step 3: Time to add some friends. You can add friends in a few ways: by username, from your address book (i.e. your phone’s contacts list), by Snapcode, or from someone nearby.

To add folks by username, you’ll have to type in exact usernames to find people, as there is no account suggestion option like other social networks have. For example, Sour Patch Kids’ Snapchat username is @sourpatchsnaps, not @sourpatchkids – but you’ll have to type that.

To add a user by scanning their Snapcode, simply take a picture or screenshot of a user’s Snapcode with your mobile device. Then, find the “Add by Snapcode” option by following the steps outlined above, and choose the photo you took of the Snapcode. The app will recognize the Snapcode and add the person automatically.

Step 4: Once you follow the brands you want on Snapchat, you can view their Snapchat content the same way you’d view your friends’ Snapchat Stories: Open the Snapchat app, and then swipe the whole screen left to get to your Stories.

Brands aren’t set apart from other users, so you’ll have to find the brands among your friends. Click on a brand’s username to view their Story.

Now that you know how to find and follow brands on Snapchat and view their Stories, let’s get into the best brands to follow on Snapchat.

10 of the Most Innovative Brands on Snapchat Right Now

1) Sour Patch Kids

Username: @sourpatchsnaps

Many of the earliest adopters of Snapchat were teenagers, which gave the snack company, Modelez, an incentive to hop on the platform to promote its Sour Patch Kids candy brand. 

In 2014, one of the company’s major goals was to grow awareness among their core demographic: candy-loving teenagers in the United States. Because teenagers were reportedly spending more and more time on Snapchat, they decided to go there to create fun content teens could share with one another. 

The video below is an excerpt from one of its first campaigns back in 2014, called “Real-life Sour Patch Kid.” For the campaign, the company teamed up with Logan Paul, a social media influencer and comedian, who spent five days recording pranks around New York City via Snapchat. It was a play off the brand tagline, “First they’re sour, then they’re sweet,” as the pranks went from “sweet” at the beginning of the five days to more “sour” pranks as the week went on.

Each month, new Stories were released showing the “Real Sour Patch Kids” acting like regular teenagers. Below is an example of them showcasing their “favorite Halloween costumes”:

Image Credit: Shorty Awards

2) Everlane

Username: @EVERLANE

The retail company Everlane was another early Snapchat adopter, but with an even more daring approach to the then-new social platform. In November 2016, they wrote this on their official blog: “We’re here to make a bold claim. Snapchat is going to become the defacto social channel for Everlane. Over the past month, we’ve been testing it in small batches and we’re in love.”

Why did they love it so much? Because they found it was an even better way to showcase their radical approach to transparency than other social networks like Facebook.

“Facebook is a spot for updating our community and having one on one conversations,” read the post. “But Snapchat is completely different. Snapchat gives us the chance to explore transparency in a completely new way. No fancy cameras. No editing. Just raw, live, footage. It’s beautiful, and it’s the platform for the modern generation.”

Almost a year and a half later, they haven’t turned back. The folks at Everlane use Snapchat as kind of a backstage pass into their ecommerce business, their events, and their culture. They use the Snapchat Story feature to create narratives around giving tours of their spaces, interviewing customers in their brick-and-mortar stores, and previewing new products. On #TransparencyTuesday, for example, they use Snapchat to record a walkthrough of their business or factories.

 

 

3) General Electric

Username: @generalelectric

Would you ever have guessed that General Electric, a multinational conglomerate corporation, would have an active and effective presence on Snapchat?

They’ve actually done an awesome job of using their platform to showcase their geeky personality and to encourage interest in science – something they’ve done well on other social media networks like Instagram and YouTube. 

One of the best ways they use the platform is in a series in which they answer users’ questions by explaining scientific concepts in a concise and fun way. For example, they recently shared some of their findings from their emoji science curriculum, which they established along with the National Science Foundation.

.@WhiteHouse In honor of the #WHScienceFair we’re doing some #EmojiScience on our Snapchat. Check it out! cc: @POTUS http://pic.twitter.com/WWjeIWicbp

— General Electric (@generalelectric) April 13, 2016

In addition to sharing their emoji science findings, they also encourage their Snapchat followers to interact directly with them. “Just add ‘generalelectric’ on Snapchat, send us an emoji, and we’ll send you some science,” they wrote on their Tumblr. Here’s an example of the “science” followers might get in return:

GE’s global director of innovation Sam Olstein said about Snapchat, "The disappearing nature of its content encourages repeat usage and provides us with a unique way to celebrate invention with an expanding community of young fans.“

(To learn more about GE’s creative content, check out this episode of The Growth Show.)

4) Gatorade

Username: @gatorade

When a football team wins a game, it’s customary that the team dumps whatever sports drink is in the team cooler onto their coach’s head. During the Super Bowl football game in 2016, the folks at PepsiCo-owned Gatorade released a genius Super Bowl Snapchat lens that let anyone give themselves a Gatorade bath, too. (Note: A Snapchat lens is essentially a creative filter for your selfies. It’s what you see when your friends send Snapchats of them puking rainbows. Learn how to use Snapchat lenses here.)

Image Credit: Adweek

To create the ad, the folks at Gatorade partnered with Snapchat to purchase a sponsored lens, which costs around $450,000 per sponsored lens on normal days, and up to $750,000 on "peak days” like holidays and the Super Bowl.

Then, they had professional tennis player Serena Williams – whom Gatorade sponsors – star in the ad above. The ad shows her getting virtually “dumped on” by a cooler of orange Gatorade, thanks to the lens. The company tweeted out a GIF of the Snapchat to get the momentum going, and by the end of the day, the sponsored lens had reportedly been viewed over 100 million times.

5) Warby Parker

Username: @warbyparker

At Warby Parker, Snapchat is used for a variety of topics: everything from showcasing their products (“Today on Snapchat, we try on our favorite Crystal frames in 15 seconds”) to giving users a chance to hear from the company’s co-founder Neil Blumenthal (“Our co-founder Neil Blumenthal is inside the secret room today. Tune in on Snapchat as he answers your questions!”).

They have several Snapchat series, including a brand new one called “Desk Job.” In one recent Snapchat Story, they featured one of their brand creative managers for his five desk essentials. Once a Snapchat Story is up, they promote them on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. (I noticed they didn’t promote them on Facebook, which is probably a good thing: On Facebook, it’s important not be selective about what you publish and focus on quality, rather than quantity, of posts.)

Tune into Snapchat for Desk Job—today, Brand Creative Manager Matt discusses his five desk essentials! http://pic.twitter.com/QblOWLOv2x

— Warby Parker (@WarbyParker) April 19, 2016

6) GrubHub

Username: @grubhub

GrubHub, also an early Snapchat adopter, has been putting out content on about a weekly basis since late 2013. But they use Snapchat a little differently than many of the folks on this list. Rather than producing one-way content, GrubHub focuses on building out an active community by sending out Snapchat messages that require responses, like exclusive coupons, contests, giveaways, and promotional codes.

They became one of the only brands to interact with almost every single Snapchat message sent to them by users, every single day of the week. By the end of 2014, GrubHub had earned the highest Snapchat score of any brand (53,668 at that time). This impressive commitment to engagement earned them a finalist spot in the Shorty Awards.

The screenshots below are from a story they released where followers could send back a Snapchat of a “food doodle” for a chance to win a prize. (You can watch the Story in its entirety here.)

Image Credit: Fast Company

7) The New York Times

Username: @thenytimes

The writers, editors, and other folks at The New York Times use Snapchat a little differently – sometimes poking fun at their misunderstanding of it, other times using it as a storytelling platform (and then analyzing it in writing later).

For example, check out the Snapchat Story below from Nick Bilton, one of The Times’ writers. The Story is very meta: It shows his friend teaching him how to use Snapchat so he can write a story for The Times about how to write Snapchat Stories.

Like other brands, it’s very much a raw, behind-the-scenes look into the life of the writer. "I’m not actually writing right now. I’m just kind of pretending,“ says Bilton at one point during the Story. 

Here’s another example of a Snapchat Story from The Times that’s a little more serious. This one was part of an analysis of what makes an objectively good Snapchat Story, which later culminated in this piece by Talya Minsberg. For the piece, she recruited journalists at The Times to participate in a mobile challenge to create an objectively good Snapchat Story.

So, what makes an objective good Snapchat Story? Minsberg says it’s nearly impossible to define, but that "the best Snapchat stories generally are ones that tell a narrative in a personal, visual way that pulls in and keeps the viewer.”

Another important takeaway from her piece is this: “Even Snapchat stories must uphold the same standards as anything else published by The Times. There are just more doodles and emojis in a Snapchat story than you would see in print!”

8) DJ Khaled

Username: @djkhaled305

DJ Khaled may not be your typical brand, but he has single-handedly redefined the celebrity presence on Snapchat – and there’s a lot brands can learn from him. In March 2016, less than a year after DJ Khaled had even heard of the app, it was reported that his Snapchats were attracting around 3 million to 4 million viewers each.

What’s his secret? First, his style of shooting videos is really effective. He likes to pair mundane daily routines – like putting on deodorant and watering his plants – with funny commentary and one-liners. 

He has some mantras he repeats like “another one” and “bless up,” which he’s parlayed into some really expensive merchandise. He also likes to share “keys to wisdom,” and even got his own geofilter on a road trip to Las Vegas for New Year’s Eve (which anyone can do, by the way).

The combination of backstage pass-like topics, hilarious one-liners, and fun use of emojis makes Khaled’s account very shareable and followable.

9) Domino’s Pizza UK

Username: @DOMINOS_UK

The folks at Dominos Pizza have never been afraid to experiment with new social media channels. They were the first brand to use Tinder as part of a 2015 Valentine’s Day campaign, and their “Tweet to Eat” campaign let fans order pizza via Twitter by sending a pizza emoji.

As for their global presence, their social media teams around the world have adopted the platform at different times. For example, Dominos Australia started using Snapchat as early as 2013, sending out Snapchat Stories (like the one screenshotted below) that aligned with campaigns they were doing elsewhere on social media.

Image Credit: brandchannel

The U.K. team at Dominos Pizza didn’t get on Snapchat until January 2016, but they started out with a pretty cool experiment that led to a lift in orders. On January 20, 2016, they turned their Snapchat Story into a short film, titled “Dough to Door.”

The film follows the journey of a Dominos delivery driver who hits a few obstacles on his way to deliver a pizza to a customer – including an alien invasion. According toThe Drum, they also showed a sequence of random letters throughout the film that amount to an exclusive discount code they could then use online.

The folks at Dominos found that the low-budget effort led to an increase in orders. "The film drove a lot more orders then we would’ve expected even though it wasn’t really a massive driver for us,“ Nick Dutch, Dominos’ head of digital strategy, told Business Insider. 

Because Snapchat doesn’t offer much in the way of analytics (unless you are using Snapchat for paid advertising), the only way Dutch’s team was able to attribute that increase in orders to Snapchat was because of the unique discount code – so keep that in mind when you’re creating Stories of your own.

10) HubSpot

Username: @hubspotinc

 

While there are a lot of B2C brands doing cool things with Snapchat, there are far fewer B2B companies that have successfully built a following. This is a challenge we wanted to take on here at HubSpot, which is why we launched our Snapchat channel in March 2016.

To make our Snapchat channel valuable, we’re using it to serve as both a marketing and a recruiting channel – a place where we can showcase our unique culture and perks, our awesome employees, and the inbound philosophy.

On the marketing side, we like to give followers a good look inside the company and showcase our culture. The goal here is to be educational, informative, and lovable, which are very familiar goals on our marketing team.

For example, when BuzzFeed News Editor Rachel Zarrell came to HubSpot a few weeks ago to speak about viral content, we showcased some of her talk – and what employees thought about it afterward – on Snapchat.

 

On the culture side, we want to position HubSpot as a destination – and hopefully spur viewers to check out our other online offers like our blog, website, careers page, and so on. The key for us is using a human voice that fits in the Snapchat world, rather than a voice that’s stuffy or ultra-professional. 

 

What are your favorite brands to follow on Snapchat? Share with us in the comments. 

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