Does Your Website Have a Strategic Goal? - A Speakeasy Case Study

Most businesses today know they need to have a presence online and to many it means building a website to drive business. Unlike what most people think, a website should not just be a simple brochure or place to tell prospects what they do, but your website needs to have a strategic goal. Your website should be designed to drive traffic to reach the goals you have set. Let's take a look at website that Speakeasy had the pleasure of creating.

BiosCorp - The Case of Human Resources

When I first became connected to my client, BiosCorp they expressed the main issue they were faced with was human resources and finding qualified candidates to join their team. Let's take a look what what they were working with:

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When looking at their homepage, here were some issues that caught my eye:

• Difficulty reading the font due to size.
• Multiple fonts and colors not branded together.
• Links that were not displaying properly.
• Overall very busy and difficult to navigate.

Since their main objective was employment, here is what their application page looked like:

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From the interior page you can see there was room for improvement. And so I, along with my designers began the process of refreshing their website to reach their goal of increasing applications and making the process of applying for positions seamless. Below is our final product which you can view for yourself at BiosCorp.com.

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So what makes this redesign reach their goals and an improvement from their previous site?

• The branding is consistent throughout the website.

• It is very apparent this site is driving people to apply to work for them.

• The interior pages feature their employees and people they work with, which expresses the culture of the company.

• The site is easy to navigate and viewers can easily get reach their desired area of the site within a few clicks.

• Social media is easily seen and viewers can connect with Bios quickly.

You may be thinking, Kersten that is great you were able to help your client, but what do I need to know when I am building my website. Start with these questions in mind before you begin the process of building a website.

• What is the goal of your website? Are you wanting to increase sales, purchase something online, and/or have prospects call you?

• Who is your target market?

• When people see your branding and marketing materials do they know what you do?

• Does your branding express your company culture?

Taking time to think through and answer these questions is your first step to creating or updating your digital marketing. The following are key points to keep in mind when you do begin updating your digital media.

• Be consistent - Your branding needs to be consistent across ALL platforms, both digital and traditional.

• Keep it simple - Visitors of your website need to be able to easily navigate your website in as few clicks as possible.

• Express yourself - Your company has a culture and brand that needs to be expressed in your marketing. Brands that stand out and are not afraid to show their colors are the ones that will see success, especially in the digital world...it is all about TRANSPARENCY.

If you are ready to begin the process of updating your website and/or branding and would like a consult, simply contact me by sending me an e-mail or message me on your social media platform choice (you know I am on all of them...it's not like social media is my life ;) Also if this post was helpful to you, comment below or share it using the buttons below.

The Marketing Dame

P.S. Send my client BiosCorp some social media love and visit them on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

"Revitalizing a Tulsa Icon" - A Speakeasy Website Case Study

Whether you are from Tulsa or not, this Speakeasy website case study can help you and any company thinking about creating a website with some tips and tricks of web design. When the client came to me, the goal of the site was to create less questions for them to manually answer and for their website to be a place of information for prospects and ultimately to weed out those who were not serious about booking.

When creating a website, no matter the industry, the end goal is to drive sales and business, whether that is through e-commerce or being information driven. When designing a website you must take this into consideration and make the site as user friendly as possible while also creating an aesthetically pleasing experience for them.

Now lets take a look at the before and after shots of a well known event and wedding venue here in town, Harwelden Mansion which Speakeasy has the pleasure of working with.

Before Speakeasy

Old Harwelden Mansion Website

After Speakeasy

Harwelden Mansion Speakeasy Site

Now what were some keys to success with this new website and how it meet client needs. Let's take a look:

• Easy to navigate - Whether you are wanting to host an event or wedding, it is very clear to the user which areas of the site are meant to meet your needs through large buttons on the homepage. You do not have to slide through banners but are able to quickly find what you need in a short amount of time.

Harwelden Events

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• Branded logo - Before Speakeasy came in, the mansion had an image of a concrete "H" that is located on the actual building. Although it is a lovely image, it is difficult for that to translate digitally and use on promotional products like business cards, brochures, etc. Speakeasy came in a revitalized the logo to create something that would work well for them in print and web material, as well as something that people would begin to recognize as representing Harwelden Mansion.

Harwelden Mansion Logo

• Clean design - The previous website was full of content that was irrelevant to prospects booking the venue and much of this excessive information cluttered the homepage. We condensed and rewrote content to fit their needs and get to the main points that would meet the needs of clients. The site now allows people to easily find what they need and does not overwhelm their eyes.

• Use of Imagery - This venue is a Tulsa icon and needed to be shown in a new light. Through the use of updated photography and including images of recent events and brides, the mansion can now be seen in a new light as something that is appealing to more generations and their target market.

Harwelden Mansion Weddings Page

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• Social Media - Yes, of course brides and events need to be represented on social media. The previous website made it difficult to find the social media icons. The clean design of the new website makes it easy for visitors to interact with their social media and even share the content, such as the Pinterest "Pin" images option throughout the site. The more people you can get to share your brand the more awareness and ultimately sales you will generate.

• Removal of contact form - the removal of the contact form within every page of the site helped to filter out prospects that were not fully interested in the venue. Prospects that truly want to know about the venue have to make the conscious effort to contact the venue by navigating to the proper page, which means they will spend more time clicking through the site.

Now to recap what are some keys to a successful website?

• Ease of use - the ability for visitors to quickly and easily be able to navigate your website in as few clicks as possible....because lets be honest we are all busy and don't have time to click through a million pages to get information we need online.

• Branded design - your website needs to represent your company and its brand...period. Across your web platforms, (website, social media, etc) your brand need to be consistent.

• Drives sales - Your website is a sales tool, which means you need to treat it as such. Make sure your website directs visitors to meet your goals and to be able to easily do business with you.

• Create a fan base - Allowing visitors to interact with your brand via social media will begin to foster a group of cheerleaders and brand advocates for your company. Of course you must interact and create a reason for them to vouch for you with your social media...but that is a post for another day.

As you can see the revitalization of Harwelden Mansion, a Tulsa icon is now ready for the next generation of events and weddings. But a website is merely a stepping stone in the marketing of a business. If this post helped you or opened your eyes to the next steps for your digital marketing feel free to share it. If you would like a FREE consultation and review of your current digital marketing contact us today to get started. Creating a website and marketing plan should not be a daunting task, so let Speakeasy Market Strategies help!

The Marketing Dame

Twitter Account Stale?

So you have created a Twitter account....you are posting all the time.....yet you feel as if you are tweeting into space and/or no one is following you? You are NOT alone. Most small business owners know that social media is important, yet when it comes down to executing a strategy and gaining a following most businesses fall short. Now we can get into the ins and outs of all social media, but today I want to focus on Twitter. No matter how sound your content strategy and your consistency of tweeting....unless you are a large brand or celebrity, the likelihood that you will gain a large following is slim to none unless you have a Twitter follower growth strategy.

Who you follow on Twitter quote

First let's take a look at what NOT to do when trying to grow your Twitter account.

• Do NOT pay for followers.

As you have probably noticed there are many services that claim they can bring you thousands of followers instantly for a few dollars. Do NOT fall for this ploy. Twitter frowns upon those that use this strategy and Twitter can potentially suspend your account for this as it violates Twitter's policies. Also, there are services like Fake Follower Check that have a free service to see what percentage of fake followers accounts possess. You can see from my example below of my account and one of my followers that clearly has many "fake" followers.

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• Do NOT follow large numbers of people at one time.

Twitter has a limit of following more than 2,000 followers until you have at least 2,000 people following you. This prevents people from becoming overly spammy and forces people to grow an actual following. Although this feature can be frustrating to some, it really is for the benefit of Twitter users.

• Do NOT have services autopost content for you.

Now granted...having connected services seems like a HUGE time saver, but most of the time these features can hurt your account more than help it. One classic example of this is connecting your Facebook account with your Twitter account. Although this seems great, most of the time when you post on Facebook to Twitter you are not thinking about 140 characters and your message will almost ALWAYS get cut off. People on Twitter do not want to be navigated back to Facebook....they are on Twitter for a reason and it is not to be directed to Facebook. Also...one of the most annoying features of this is when you upload photos on Facebook, your account will autoposts to Twitter not with a description of the photo but the phrase...."I just posted a photo on fb..." This is not exactly professional. You can see in the example account used earlier that this account is connected to numerous autopost services. When most of your tweets are clearly autoposts, most will think this is not legitimate account but is being run by bots.

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One of the keys of social media success is being transparent and allowing people to communicate directly with you and/or your brand. By paying for followers or using spam tactics you are devaluing your account and you will begin to lose trust with customers and potential prospects. So how do you grow your following without acting like spam?  Here are some keys to success:

• Follow those that follow you (with the exception of spammy accounts).
• Follow users who are in your target market.
• Follow accounts slowly and not in large batches.

These keys will help get you started on the Twitter success train. Don't have time to manually follow people or manage a growth strategy? Read my case study below on how Speakeasy can help!

The Marketing Dame

Speakeasy Market Strategies Twitter Case Study

The following are real results of a few of my clients during a 90 day time period. These clients are in various industries ranging from weddings, food, and business service industries. All of these accounts are being grown by my own Speakeasy Twitter Follow Strategy.

Now unless you are a large celebrity, you will not get a large following overnight as explained earlier. The followers of the examples below have been strategically targeted to meet the needs and goals of each client. It is better to have a smaller following of those dedicated to your brand that will bring in sales, as opposed to a large following that is not your target and will not bring cash in your door.

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 The results above are for clients in various industries and results do vary.

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Now you may be asking....well how do you get these results? Of course if I told you I would have to kill you...just kidding...but obviously this strategy is my own proprietary strategy. What I can tell you is that my company:

• Does NOT pay for followers.
• Our following strategy is done manually and no auto bots are used.
• Our strategy gains you followers who are your target.
• You have control of your content, we will not tweet as you, but will simply grow your following on the back-end.
• Results are a GUARANTEE! On average Speakeasy clients received between 100 to 200 targeted followers each month.

Who's ready to get started today?

For just $75 per month you can get results. Click here to contact me, shoot me a tweet, Facebook message me, or any of the many ways to get ahold of me as you can see below.  

Need help growing you Twitter

You will not get the results you want if you do nothing....so contact me today!