Services like Google Analytics are all the rage. Analytical software is developing at such a rate that some features are getting incredibly powerful. This blog post focuses on heatmaps, what they are and how they can be of benefit in developing your web site design.

What are heatmaps?

Heatmaps allow you to track users cursor/mouse movement around your pages. Areas that are clicked/viewed/used more frequently appear hotter. This feature lets you know exactly what users eyes are focusing on, as mouse movements are a pretty good indicator of this (Independent research found an 88% correlation between mouse and eye movement).

Heatmap benefits

They will show how far down your pages are viewed - With this feature, you gain a clear picture of how far users are scrolling down the webpage. Showing which parts of the site people are genuinely interested in. It especially helps from a design standpoint, as you are able to redesign with the most popular parts of the site in the most accessible places.

It’s great for showing what users of your website are most interested in. Armed with this knowledge, the ability is now there to focus more on targeting this particular crowd.

Dead areas - If there is a clear sign that certain parts of the website aren’t being viewed, then they may be more of a hindrance than anything. In this instance, certain areas can be removed or updated with better information as a way of making every part of the website valuable.

Allows for ad potential to be maximised - Heatmaps will help show which types of ads fare better as well as showing where adverts on the page are more likely to be clicked.

If heatmaps are of some interest to your, there are a number of popular companies providing great services. Crazy Egg and Click Tale are the choice of a number of big brands such as O2, LinkedIn, Yahoo and eBay but due to competitive pricing this service is suitable for most businesses.

In summary

Heatmaps are an outstanding tool from a marketing perspective. They can completely change the way a site is designed, with regards to content and the layout. It’s a real game changer, but should be used alongside a service such as Google Analytics rather than on its own.

Author Oliver Adams

Toxic Creative – RESULT DRIVEN DESIGN & MARKETING

Graphic design Northampton - Web design Northampton - Marketing Northampton

Related posts:

1. How to measure your web site’s successes and failings using Google Analytics
2. Should we keep our Yellow Pages advert?
3. Using Pinterest in your marketing mix

Pinterest is one of the newer social media platforms. Its whole premise is based around ‘pinning’ imagery of interest.

You must bear in mind that from a targeting perspective, the demographics of the users are quite striking. Around 80% of all Pinterest users are women between 25-55.

How Pinterest works

Each pinned item links to the original source image from a website. It’s a lot more visual than a Twitter presence and can draw in creative types. Pinterest is also producing more referral traffic than any other social media site (apart from Facebook).

If you use Google Analytics, this will help show what content is linking Internet users to your website.

To succeed, certain steps should really be taken.

1. Only choose Pinterest if its type of users match your target market. It’s only a useful tool for certain industries, mainly those with a link to creativity.
2. Your Pinterest page shouldn’t appear to be a blatant advert for your company. Internet users are savvy with regards to corporations trying to force feed them content. A personal account should be made as a result of this, with interesting content. It will therefore encourage people to naturally follow the account. Generally, company accounts don’t draw in many followers, unless they are one of the truly bigger brands. (Coca Cola, Nike Etc.)
3. Users will generally follow back, so any pages that you find interesting should be followed by you.

Whilst you can automate posts for Pinterest (similarly to other social media) it is worth spending a bit of time on there to achieve better engagement.

We can be found on Pinterest here.

Author Oliver Adams

Toxic Creative – RESULT DRIVEN DESIGN & MARKETING

Graphic design Northampton - Web design Northampton - Marketing Northampton

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2. Should we keep our Yellow Pages advert?
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The advice is great for customising how you interact with consumers who have already bought products from your website. By analysing particular trends, you can tailor the experience based on what they are interested in, which is bound to increase repeat purchases. It therefore benefits both you and the consumer.

Good email marketers focus on:

1. Sending the right content
2. To the right people
3. At the right time

I would heartily recommend that you take some time to read it!

Tips for E-commerce Email Marketers

Author Oliver Adams

 Toxic Creative – RESULT DRIVEN DESIGN & MARKETING

We’re based in Northampton and are experts in all aspects of graphic design, website design and marketing, from dynamic websites and printed literature to logo design and brand development … we do it all.

This video gives a very quick overview of what Google Analytics is. It is highly functional and you don’t have to be an expert to understand how to use it.

Some of Google Analytics key features include:

• Visitor counts

• Amount of pages viewed

• Website exit points
• Who your audience is
• Where visitors come from
• Which of your pages perform best

This is all information of importance from a marketing perspective, especially for targeting. The deeper you get into it, the more information you will see. I could speak about the service nearly all day and may not cover every feature. If you would like to see some useful tricks then this blog post will be of use.

It is quite astounding that such a service is free, especially when you think that the service Google bought out (Urchin), used to cost about £120 a month! But it isn’t the only player on the market. There are other free analytics alternatives such as Piwik and options that require you to pay. We feel that Google Analytics is the best option to use especially as it combines with Google’s other services such as AdWords and Webmaster Tools.

The benefits received for no money whatsoever can help you decide how to move forward with your business. Progression is achievable, if the statistics don’t look so great at first, this is just something that can be worked on and improved.

Author Oliver Adams

 Toxic Creative – RESULT DRIVEN DESIGN & MARKETING

We’re based in Northampton and are experts in all aspects of graphic design, website design and marketing, from dynamic websites and printed literature to logo design and brand development … we do it all.

Related posts:

1. Heatmaps – learn what your web site users do on your site
2. Groupon – Why you should be using it
3. Using Pinterest in your marketing mix

This isn’t all though. To help with their vision of developing more of a digital presence, we got to work with designing and managing their social media profiles. The process also required the inclusion of email marketing that allows London Property Review to send out monthly emails to subscribers, informing them when new issues are released. Having a ubiquitous presence online should be an important goal for most companies in 2013, it widens the scope for potential prospects.

We recently posted an article about the importance of having a digital presence as a publisher. Naturally, the next step was for London Property Review’s magazine to become available on the iPad! Here at Toxic Creative, we manage the delivery of the monthly app. Although the article covers the main points, the app has essentially helped the magazine to carry out a level of interactivity that just isn’t possible with the print copy. The reader has a choice of having the printed or electronic version, or both. It gives the consumer a choice. Using the app, potential house buyers can highlight whatever property they like and send it directly to others via all the most popular social network sites. The digital version is perfect for the publication and we can see it being a great tool for others companies too.

It’s an exciting time for London Property Review and we are happy to be along for the ride!

 Author Oliver Adams

 Toxic Creative – RESULT DRIVEN DESIGN & MARKETING

We’re based in Northampton and are experts in all aspects of graphic design, website design and marketing, from dynamic websites and printed literature to logo design and brand development … we do it all.

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1. Digital publishing on the iPad – The time is now.
2. 10 Tips for Social media marketing
3. Is responsive web design the answer?

It’s now official, U.K. residents are consuming more data on their phones or tablets than any other country. And with statistics also showing that responsive websites get more pages views, increased visit times and site conversions (sales or enquiries), responsive web design is a must.

If you don’t provide your website users with an adequate all round experience they will either have to suffer the endless monotony of zooming and scrolling or find a suitable desktop computer to use. For some users this is a mere inconvenience, while others may not be able to use the site at all. This sort of substandard treatment will cost you custom.

The solution to this problem historically has been to design a site that detects the device being used to browse and redirects the user to a site designed to handle them. Many sites have such mobile versions and it has worked out well enough. As technology changes and improves, however, more and more variations to the site become necessary. Sites that have adapted will need to continually change, while late adopters find it even harder to make the leap.

The new solution to this issue is Responsive Web Design, and it promises to change the field drastically.

What is responsive design?

The idea behind responsive web design is to have a single site that adapts to whatever device is visiting it. No longer will you have to detect the device and tailor a site to that device, changing it when the device specs change and keeping up on all the new technology. Instead, your site will detect the capabilities of the device and scale the site to it. Visiting the site on a PC, a tablet and a smart phone will show the same site in the same location, tailored to the display capabilities of the device.

A few good examples of this are listed below. Once on each site resize your browser window to see the layout change to fit.

microsoft.com

itv.com

starbucks.co.uk

worldwildlife.org

Creating a responsive site sounds intimidating, but it’s a valuable investment. Instead of having to create and maintain multiple mobile sites and the core desktop site, the site owner will only have to maintain the one responsive site.

How responsive design works

The primary factor in responsive web design is screen resolution. The width and height of the screen is an easy way to determine the scale of the device being used to access a site. A 1000+ pixel width screen indicates that the user is on a typical desktop or laptop PC. Smaller screens might indicate a tablet with a touch interface. Even smaller screens show the user is browsing on a smart phone, and require a more compact interface.

Scaling your site to the screen size is an easy way to allow any user to use it. Each element has a certain priority. As the screen size is reduced, the available space needs to be used for navigation and content more than flashy graphics. As the screen lowers into phone widths, things like small, dense clusters of text and text links become obsolete and are replaced by large and easy navigation buttons.

Passing Fad or Lasting Trend?

Web trends come and go. Some change the face of the Internet entirely, notably the break away from table and iFrame navigation into the realms of divs and CSS. Others, like the Web 2.0 revolution, leave a mark but fade into obscurity. Is Responsive Design another one of the fads that will soon pass and be replaced by a new status quo?

Most experts agree that as technology improves and market saturation increases, smart phones and tablets will become the method of choice for browsing the web. That means a site that caters to mobile users will benefit from early adoption. It can therefore be deemed that responsive web design is a great way to cater not only to current technology, but to future devices as well.

Author Chris Anderson

Toxic Creative – RESULT DRIVEN DESIGN & MARKETING

We’re based in Northampton and are experts in all aspects of graphic design, website design and marketing, from dynamic websites and printed literature to logo design and brand development … we do it all.

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Groupon is one of the first and by far the most successful ‘deal-of-the-day” websites, although there are a lot more now than there were a couple of years ago. Through their model, businesses offer a discounted gift certificate to put their name out there and try to gain new customers. It could be seen as an alternative to advertising, one that is also much cheaper.

From the perspective of a business looking to use it, it’s a simple idea.  You offer a particular deal at a discount in an attempt to draw in potential consumers. Groupon will then take a cut of the money received.

Why Is Groupon So Popular - brandtailers.com

As highlighted within this article there are a few very good reasons as to why Groupon is thriving. To show how great a business model it is, the company turned down a $6 billion acquisition offer from Google. They know exactly how great it is and this action proves the level of trust and faith in the model.

No up-front costs

Merchants will not be expected to pay any up front costs to get on the site, it’s therefore worth signing up to get a feel of the site.

Deals are localised

This means that you can choose exactly what regions you would like to target, thus making it easy as a local business. This model is actually perfect for local businesses, especially those worrying about how to create more awareness.

High levels of exposure

For those who might not be sold on the idea of Groupon, it needs to be seen for what it is – a great way of giving your company more exposure. Yes, by offering a discounted price, you aren’t making anywhere near as much money in this instance; but there is always the chance that first time buyers will come back again or buy more than the particular discounted product (if this is what is being offered). The opportunity is also there for word of mouth to spread if the consumer liked the service.

In fact, it can sometimes be TOO good…

Take these two examples, both deals ended up receiving so much attention that it actually backfired.

Cupcake calamity Website discount deal leaves baker swamped orders 102 000 cakes wipes profits - dailymail.co.uk

Groupon voucher deal ‘cost Hove firm thousands - bbc.co.uk

This shows the sort of interest and demand that can be created simply through Groupon. Although future businesses don’t need to worry about this as you can actually cap the amount of vouchers you offer so that this precise thing doesn’t occur.

Great for targeting younger consumers

Demographically speaking, it is great for targeting younger consumers. The 18-34 age group, as a matter of fact make up around 70% of the users taking up Groupon offers (according to their official website). This information is exceptional from a marketing perspective, in most cases Groupon could be used by those looking to target this specific market. Although this doesn’t mean that no one over this age ever uses the site!

To put it simply, Groupon works at drawing in new customers. You tailor a campaign which means you put up exactly what you want, therefore it suits your business needs completely.

 Author Oliver Adams

 Toxic Creative – RESULT DRIVEN DESIGN & MARKETING

We’re based in Northampton and are experts in all aspects of graphic design, website design and marketing, from dynamic websites and printed literature to logo design and brand development … we do it all.

Related posts:

1. How to measure your web site’s successes and failings using Google Analytics

8 reasons users aren’t filling out your sign up form

uxmovement.com

Very much a sore point for a number of internet users are some of the issues highlighted within this blog post linked above. It’s an interesting read. You are more than likely to have been consumed by the thought of one of these problems, that deter a lot of us from signing up for something new at one point or another. Mainly because with it, comes a whole set of uncertainties. Will I start to receive embarrassing junk mail? What if the company decide not to receive my cancellation request and go on to charge me? Why on earth does this service require my home address and phone number? Just a few of the questions running through users minds.  This post will single out some of the points originally made to help you make better web design decisions.

Be transparent with what you will use email addresses for

A big issue is that of spamming, especially if a user gives an email address which is vital as you receive a lot of important mail there. By being up front and letting them know exactly what you will use their email for, you encourage users to sign up to the service.

Long winded forms are sometimes more effort than they are worth – don’t bamboozle anyone

A lot of us will have been prepared to join a website only to be confronted with a form which almost seems to require you to give your life story. For this reason, users should only have to fill out the most applicable information.

Ensure users you won’t post on their social media sites

This also comes into play when a website uses Facebook and Twitter capabilities. It’s always a worry that friends will be spammed, and this is often why users will turn down the opportunity of connecting that particular account with their Facebook/Twitter page. Similarly to the last point it can be combated by being up front and informing users that their profile will never be updated on their behalf.

Are credit card details entirely necessary for a free trial?

Whilst businesses would argue that some of these unwanted inclusions are necessary, it doesn’t have to be this way. By making someone give their credit card details before beginning a free trial fills many people with a pang of doubt. If this is free, why must I give my card details? Trust, a lot of the time needs to be earned and services are potentially missing out on a wealth of future consumers this way. By giving users a free trial without asking for credit card details, it is likely to encourage a better relationship.

Although no direct statistics or research comes into play with this article, I feel that everyone will relate to a number of these points and it is also useful for those who currently run a website with similar forms.

Whilst businesses would argue that some of these unwanted inclusions are necessary, I would beg to differ. Ultimately, there are a number of reasons as to why users are deterred to sign up. With the number of security issues in the present day, this is no real surprise and websites should be more accommodating to their potential users.

 Author Oliver Adams

 Toxic Creative – RESULT DRIVEN DESIGN & MARKETING

We’re based in Northampton and are experts in all aspects of graphic design, website design and marketing, from dynamic websites and printed literature to logo design and brand development … we do it all.

Related posts:

1. NHS Northamptonshire micro website
2. Charity website design
3. Sales focused web design

We have created a web design glossary as an information guide.

Web Design Glossary

Adobe Photoshop: A desktop photo editor and graphic design tool used to create rich graphics and designs for websites.

ALT text: This “alternative text” describes a link or image to a screen reader.

Background: The area behind the website’s content, typically decorated with a color or image.

Banner Image: An image that is typically longer than it is wide, or wider than it is long, used for advertising or promotion.

Blog: Abbreviated form of “weblog.” Refers to a website that posts a series of articles on a given topic, or a given person’s life, on a regular basis.

Blog Archive: All old blog posts in one centralized location.

Blog Categories: The categories that describe the content of a blog post.

Blog RSS: A syndicated feed of all content posted to a blog, used within RSS reader applications or other utilities.

Blogroll: A list of links to other blogs, generally those of friends or professional resource.

Browse: To navigate and pursue the Internet, generally in search of very specific content.

Browser: The application that allows for browsing of the Internet.

Bullet: Indicates a list of items.

Clickable: A design element that reveals more information when clicked on by the user.

Column: A vertical area of images or textual content.

Copyright: Dictates the rights to a website’s content. Generally placed in the footer.

Creative Commons License: A license used to promote fair distribution, sharing, and credit, for creative works like web designs, graphics, and photography.

Crop: Removes a user-selected portion of an image.

Domain Name: The URL to a website, registered with an official registrar for a period of years.

Embed code: A non-HTML code used to embed HTML elements into blog posts or forum posts.

FAQ: An acronym for “Frequently Asked Questions” about a product or service.

Favicon: A small icon, visible in the browser address bar, that represents a website.

Fold: Alternatively referred to as a scroll line; indicates the division of content between that which is seen when a page loads, and that which must be seen by scrolling down.

Font: A typeface used to control the appearance of text on a page.

GIF: A compressed image format, sometimes used for animated graphics on websites.

Header: The area of content at the top of a page, generally for logos, banners, and navigation.

Heading style: Defined by the < H > tag in web designs.

Highlight: To emphasize content with a background color or pattern.

Homepage: The first page of website.

HTML: The markup language used to create a website, generally in the form of XHTML or HTML5.

Index page: Another way to refer to the first page of a website.

JPEG/JPG: A compressed image file used to store images for use on the web, generally used for large photographic images that require rich color depth.

Link: A way to take visitors to other content on the website, or content offered at a different domain.

Live site: A website that is currently available for the public to see and use.

Log in: To use credential sin order to sign into account and use it.

Margin: The space between content and the edge of a page or document.

Menu: A list of pages, options, or settings, which can be used by visitors.

Navigation: Allows users to browse different sections of a website using centralized links.

Online Store: A store that sells its products online to consumers.

Orientation: The horizontal and vertical position of a site, device, or image.

Outbound link: A link to a third-party website.

Page: Refers to an individual collection of posts and other content within a design.

Page layout: The columns, rows, and visual elements, which define a page’s appearance.

PDF: The “Portable Document Format” developed by Adobe, used to transfer important documents that cannot, or should not, be copied or modified by the user.

Pixel: The smallest bit of an image file or screen resolution.

PNG: Used to create a compressed image with mostly flat image colors or transparent elements.

Post: Content published to a blog.

Publish: To submit content for the public to read at their leisure.

Refresh: A button used to ensure the most current version of a site is loaded into a browser.

Resolution: The number of vertical and horizontal pictures in an image or on a screen.

Screen resolution: The maximum number of pixels that will fit on a computer’s screen.

Sidebar: Less important site content stored to the left or right of main content.

Sitemap: Shows the structure of a website as determined by content, pages, and posts, created by the designer or website owner.

Stock photography: Photos taken by others that can be licensed for use on a website for any purpose.

Stylesheet: Dictates the appearance of images, text, and design elements, throughout a website by using a central document.

Subdomain: A domain that is within a top-level domain, i.e. subdomain.domain.com.

Tags: Keyword-based descriptions of blog posts and content.

Text Box: Allows for the input of large blocks of text, typically paragraphs. Used to create blog posts, post comments, and craft other content for a website.

Text link: A link within the site, or to another site, that uses text rather than an image, allowing visitors to click on it and go to the listed website.

Thumbnail: A smaller version of a larger image, generally used within large blocks of content or to reduce the amount of time it takes to load a website on mobile devices or slower connections.

Type size: The size of a font used within a site’s content, generally set in the stylesheet.

Traffic: The number of visitors that come to a website during any given period. This is generally shown on analytics websites and other tools that show a site’s performance with end users.

Two-column layout: A layout that involves a central content column, supplemented by a sidebar to the left or right side where less important content is featured. Generally, such a layout is controlled using < DIV > elements and a cascading stylesheet that allows for it to adjust to a browser’s overall width.

Upload: To place an image on a website.

URL: A website’s address, typed into the browser address bar. This address resolves through DNS servers that tell a domain name which website to load and which server to pull the content from.

Verification email: Used to verify an email as active and accurate, generally for the purposes of communication between the site owner and the visitor, or for making sure that they are not attempting to post spam to a website or forum.

Video clip: A short, online piece of video that is used to entertainment or instructional purposes on many of today’s most engaging website. Video clips are typically stored in Flash or HTML5 document formats, making them highly optimized and portable across different platforms.

Website Speed Test: One of many tools that can assess how quickly a website loads for end users on varying connection speeds. because most search engines rank websites based on how fast they load for end users, these tools are a key part of designing a site and making it live on the web. They can also offer suggestions for improving load times.

Widget: Design elements placed into a website, typically within the sidebar, by major content management platforms. Usually can be dragged and dropped freely by the administrator.

WYSIWYG: “What You See is What You Get.” This refers to drag-and-drop web design utilities that allow designers to create new designs without having very much XHTML knowledge.

XML sitemap: Generated for the purpose of enhancing search engine optimization. Content management platforms generally produce and submit these sitemaps automatically.

Author Chris Anderson

Toxic Creative – RESULT DRIVEN DESIGN & MARKETING

Graphic design Northampton - Web design Northampton - Marketing Northampton

Related posts:

1. NHS Northamptonshire micro website
2. Charity website design
3. Biggest Web Trends for the Year 2013

Web trends no longer apply to just websites. All aspects of online marketing are linked. A website must be easily viewable on smart phones. If it cannot be read or accessed on phones, the company in question will garner a reputation for being out of touch with its target market. A new arena for web designers is touch-screen compatibility. They are only now figuring out the best ways to harness this new technology.

Do right by your customers

Businesses cannot build their websites according to outdated marketing rules. There are many ideas that are prevalent in the marketing industry that do not actually increase corporate profits. These notions treat consumers like they are stupid while still trying to make money off of them. Consumers can tell when a company is out to make some quick money. A telltale sign of a cynical company is a shoddy website with no compatibility features. A business has to prove that it respects its customers and wants to develop long-term relationships with them. Doing this necessitates a larger start-up investment, but it will pay off in droves when the business is able to sustain itself for a long time.

Adjust the marketing plan accordingly

All of these ideas should be reflected in a company’s web design. The company should focus on reaching consumers where the consumers already are. On an obvious level, this means that a company needs to make sure that its site looks nice on a tablet, laptop or phone; the site needs to load quickly and be easy to navigate on all devices of all sizes. On a less obvious level, these ideas point toward a need to tap into what customers think when they are shopping for the products or services that the company offers. It would be a mistake to design a website that reflects only the employees and corporate atmosphere of a business. The site needs to look like it was made for consumers. A business would be more successful if it polled its consumers and adjusted its marketing campaign to reach the people who are buying its services.

Image trends are changing

An interesting trend in web design is the increasing number of pixels that are contained in a single image unit. Designers are creating multiple versions of the same image, with the clearest, most detailed versions made to show up on the newest devices. Another purely aesthetic trend is the use of one big background image that stays in place. Old web templates attached text and smaller images to backgrounds, so the background images would scroll along with the rest of the content. When the large image is fixed in place, all of the content scrolls on top of it. With the background tacked in place, one way of displaying text is placing it on transparent panels. The background is visible underneath rectangles that provide contrast, allowing text to be easily read. This makes text legible without making the images in the background unrecognisable.

Less can sometimes be more

Minimalism is becoming very popular in the youth market. A minimal landing page with a fashionable design can be loaded on any device, and if it links to a more complex main website, there is a greater chance that consumers will visit that site eventually. A landing page doesn’t always have to convey every bit of information about a company. Building a brand and establishing an aesthetic identity is sufficient in some cases.

Some new trends are conducive to rapid consumption of information. A tool bar that stays attached to the top of a browser while the body of a website scrolls underneath it allows a viewer to access search features and other parts of the website without having to roll up to the beginning of the page. Continuous scrolling scripts load new information constantly so customers do not have to click over to new pages to keep reading. A great deal of information can be contained on a single page with sliding panels and circular image bubbles. Instead of overwhelming customers with blocks of text, the same content can be displayed in images with dynamic properties. This way, consumers will enjoy looking at the website and will be more likely to make purchases.

Author Chris Anderson

Toxic Creative – RESULT DRIVEN DESIGN & MARKETING

We’re based in Northampton and are experts in all aspects of graphic design, website design and marketing, from dynamic websites and printed literature to logo design and brand development … we do it all.

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