Plan Ahead

The most important step in website development is planning it out beforehand. We recommend scouring the internet for website inspiration. Look for color schemes, formatting styles, design elements, or interactive features that you like and would work well for your website. Once you have your inspiration, start mood boarding! Organize your ideas into a visual representation of what you want your website to look AND feel like. This step will help you later on as a creative guide towards your end goal. 

Think About The Customer Journey

Proper organization is essential to a quality website. When customers visit your website, you want to provide a friction-free experience in which they can quickly and easily find the information they’re looking for. One way to do this is by having clear descriptive headlines, most likely at the top of the page. UX design is a skill, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to do on your own. When organizing your website, a good question to keep in mind is, “If I were a customer visiting this website for the first time, where would I look for x, y, and z.” 

You should also consider what device the customer will be using to view your website: desktop or mobile phone. The view will be slightly different for each device, so when formatting your page, ensure information is optimized so it is as accessible from a cell phone as it is a desktop. 

Simplify Your Visual Elements 

Our biggest piece of advice when it comes to website visuals is to keep it simple! Clean, modern designs are in right now, but even if modern isn’t your style, a simple, streamlined website design should always be the goal. Thinking back to user experience, when customers visit your website they don’t want to be overwhelmed. Pop-ups, animations, and moving elements can add excitement to your page, but they can also be distractions, so use them sparingly and only when they serve a purpose. The same idea applies to color schemes as well. Color and contrast are amazing tools for branding, but too many bright or contrasting colors can do more harm than good in terms of visual appeal (not to mention site readability), so keep those to a minimum as well. 

Add Calls To Action

Now that people are on your page, what do you want them to do? Adding, and emphasizing, a call to action like “learn more,” “schedule an appointment,” or “sign up” can be just the motivation your customers need to take that next step. Whatever your goal is, whether you’re trying to sell products, garner volunteers, collect donations, or simply raise awareness about your company, encourage your audience to interact with the website through a clickable call to action. 

Prove Yourself 

This one is more simple than it sounds. Prove you’re an established company by adding links to your social media pages. Nowadays, people look up a business’s social media pages almost as much as they look up their website when seeking information. Social media serves as an extension of your website, adding another layer of visuals and allowing your customers to gather information about your business that may not have been included on your website. 

When it comes to building your website there are numerous factors to consider and decisions to make, but keeping these five tips in mind will set you on the right path to creating an effective website. At Paperkite, we have experience in web development and know just how to design an innovative, eye-catching, and easy-to-use website that can help convert your audience into customers. Let’s talk about how we can take your website to the next level. 

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The pros of posting every day? One school of thought is, the more you post, the more engagement your page will have overall. Each post is another opportunity to increase your reach, so it makes sense that posting more leads to higher engagement. Another argument in favor of daily posting is repetition, repetition, repetition. The more people see something, the more they are likely to remember it. Seeing a post from the same account every day may spark just enough curiosity for them to click on your page to learn more. That conversion is the ultimate goal, and when you post frequently, the chances of achieving that conversion are higher. At the very least, posting every day will keep your brand at the top of your followers’ minds. Our final “pro” for posting every day is, major brands are doing it. In fact, larger brands with hundreds of thousands of followers often post multiple times a day. The average posting rate for large brands is actually 1.5x a day. If your goal is to amass a huge following, doing what the popular brands do is certainly a route to consider.

But wait! Don’t make up your mind just yet, because there are a few solid arguments against posting every day. First and foremost, the biggest downside to daily posting is it’s a lot of work, especially for small business owners. Social media management is a full-time job in itself. If you want to create impactful posts, you will need dedicated time for content planning, creation, publishing, and engagement. Not everyone has the time to devote to social media, so if your business is essentially a one-man show, posting every day can be more stressful than it’s worth. Additionally, there’s the classic mantra, quality over quantity. You want your posts to be eyecatching and engaging. If posting every day means that you’re throwing posts together to meet a quota, it’s probably not going to be as beneficial as taking the time to create quality content less often. Furthermore, fresh, relevant content is always the goal. It’s very possible that there simply may not be enough post-worthy things happening, and that’s okay! Saving social media for when you have a new product launch or an announcement can be even more impactful because it’s something current. Our final argument against daily posting is that if you post too much (more than once a day) it could be considered spam. That’s really only an issue in extreme cases, if you were to post 5 times a day, every day. Either way, odds are you shouldn’t be posting more than twice a day to avoid the risk of annoying your followers with constant content.

So what’s our final conclusion? The best number of posts is what you can reasonably pull off.
Above all else, consistent posting is the most important part of an active social media strategy, though there is room for variation depending on your goals. If your goal is to increase your overall reach, posting every day can certainly help achieve that goal. If you’re looking to boost engagement, fewer, but more interactive posts may be the way to go. We recommend that you pick a frequency that you can maintain over time. Decide your goals and your schedule, then stick with it.

Our social media team understands the importance of creating quality content for your business, and has experience managing daily posting schedules for social media accounts across various industries. If you’re looking to up your social media game but simply don’t have the time, let’s talk about how Paperkite can help.

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What is a Hashtag?

A hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by the pound key (“#”), that signifies a certain type of content. (Younger generations don’t even call it the pound key anymore; they’ve only ever known it as a hashtag.) Examples of popular hashtags include #travel, #food, and #makeup. Hashtags can be added to the captions of social media posts and will act as a live link to a collection of all other photos and videos that are posted with that same hashtag. Instagram, Linkedin, Twitter, and Facebook all allow for hashtag usage, though we typically don’t recommend them for Facebook. Twitter is where hashtags originated, but for business social media accounts, Instagram is where we see them being utilized most effectively. This is because Instagram is increasingly pushing e-commerce on their platform, a feature all businesses can, and should, take advantage of. On Instagram, you can include up to 30 hashtags per post, and up to 10 hashtags per story. Later, we’ll discuss whether or not you need 30 hashtags, but you do have the option. 

Why Should You Use them?

There are many reasons you should be using hashtags on your social media, the most important being that hashtags can increase your post reach, thus expanding your audience. When you include hashtags, your post becomes more discoverable to users that are interested in that hashtag. For example, if you own a doughnut shop and add the hashtag #dessert to your post, anyone searching for desserts will be able to see your photo, regardless of whether or not they follow you (so long as your profile is public). Hashtags are also incredibly useful for building an interactive online community. Creating hashtags that are unique to your business can be a way to build your brand while giving your followers a way to engage with your business on a more personal level. In addition, we recommend that you follow the hashtag you are utilizing as a way to keep tabs on competitors who may be using the same tags. 

Hashtag Tips and Best Practices

If you’re new to using hashtags, here are our tips for ensuring they’re being used effectively. When it comes to the number of hashtags per post, it’s more beneficial to start with 5-7 “good” hashtags, rather than including the maximum number possible. “Good” hashtags are ones that are relevant to your post, as well as your business. Including countless unnecessary hashtags can annoy audiences and may even be flagged by Instagram as spam. In terms of hashtag placement, Instagram recently recommended users include hashtags in the original caption, as opposed to posting them in the comments section, as some creators have done in a bid to “hide” the hashtags. We recommend taking it a step further by incorporating your hashtags into the caption organically (i.e. “With #spookyseason over, it’s time to start thinking about getting a head start on all of the #holidaygifting. Here’s our #giftguide for the dad in your life”). Finally, as a general rule, we recommend to our clients that when choosing hashtags, think about what your audience is looking for and try to include a hashtag that can speak to those needs. 

Hashtags are an incredibly useful tool that, when used correctly, can help your business get noticed. Our social media team has experience in implementing hashtags to help our clients grow their social media presence and attract new audiences. Make an appointment with us to discover the ways we can help grow your online following and how we can bring more potential customers to your business through social media.

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Red

Color experts have classified the color red as one associated with power, love, or fear. Red often evokes very strong feelings and is used when brands are trying to make a statement. Take ESPN for example ‐ I bet you can hear the hard-hitting beats of their introduction in your head, perfectly complimenting the bright red logo. Everything about EPSN is meant to grab viewers’ attention. This is the goal when using the color red in branding.

Orange

Orange is often associated with physical comfort, warmth, and is thought to be yellow’s more playful cousin. This bright color is associated with high energy, which is why it’s used by many brands whose target audience is younger, as in the case of Nickelodeon. Etsy, a company dedicated to creating a marketplace for art and creativity is another company that fittingly utilizes the color orange to tap into the playful nature of the brand.

Yellow

Many can agree that yellow signifies happiness, cheerfulness, and optimism. Brands looking to create a friendly connection with their consumer base often implement yellow in their branding and logo design. Snapchat is one such organization that utilizes the color yellow. Their app, devoted to bringing people together and maintaining communication reflects the values of friendship and cheerfulness that people tend to associate with this color. 

Green

The color green is considered to be reminiscent of balance, calm, and growth. Green is believed to relax the mind, serving as a fresh start for brands that are looking to create a more serene feeling amongst their consumers. The Holiday Inn hotel chain chose green for a reason; they want to portray their hotels as a place for relaxation and rejuvenation, and a green logo is one way to subliminally push that message. 

Blue

Blue is the one of most widely used colors in marketing. Blue is associated with being soothing, dependable, reliable, and like green, calm. Types of brands that take advantage of blue’s connotation are often healthcare or medical brands that are looking to capitalize on the trustworthiness associated with this color. brands like Chase and American Express also incorporate these ideologies through their use of blue. When looking at companies with blue logos, reliability is a usually key element of their Credit card values. 

But is implementing color psychology really the best way to create a memorable, well-perceived brand? In short, no. It certainly helps in terms of establishing a subconscious association with certain values, however; it must be said that just because your logo is blue does not mean people will automatically trust your brand. Humans all have unique life experiences that lead them to perceive colors in very different ways. While color psychology can be used as a general guideline, at the end of the day, everybody sees color differently, either because of emotional connections or physical traits like colorblindness, so color psychology shouldn’t be used as the end-all-be-all of color choice. Psychology aside, marketers can agree that it’s more important that your brand color “fits” your product or service. These color associations can be used as a starting point when determining how you want consumers to perceive your business, but don’t be afraid to diverge from these guidelines. Every company is unique and you want your color choice to reflect that. 

Here at Paperkite, we have experience in branding and know just how to choose colors that fit your brand and make your business stand out. If you’re reevaluating your brand’s color choice or just getting started book an appointment with us today. We’d love to talk more about what colors work best for you. 

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1. Lead with your strengths.

You can’t be all things to all people – maybe gastronomy is a red-hot visitor draw but your destination is loaded with historical sites. Use your strongest visitor themes – just like your mother said, there are plenty of people who will like you for who you are! (You do you, Portland.)

2. Offer what other sites cannot! Your story! Your exclusive content!

Tripadvisor and Yelp can’t tell a visitor what the hidden gems are, the “MUST DOs” for a destination. Focus on sharing content that they can’t get anywhere else. (This goes for social content too!)

3. When sharing your story, do it visually!

Visual content outperforms all other content –  that means images and videos – so prioritize your time and  resources toward gathering (from partners and visitors) and creating this kind of content. Bonus – you can use it on social too!

4. Bring your destination to life on the page.

Stop being just a warehouse for listings and start sharing your tourism assets in context of the visitor experience with itineraries, events, stories, and news of your destination.

5. Make sure visitors can picture themselves in the destination.

Evaluate your content. Do you see diversity and a broad spectrum of the human experience represented? You want all visitors to feel welcomed and included!

This also means ensuring your website content is accessible to visitors with disabilities (learn more). Again, it’s about inclusion!

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What’s New

Introducing a new product via live video is a terrific way to generate buzz and draw customers to your website. Use your social media accounts in the weeks before the big rollout to build anticipation.

Winner, Winner

What could be more dramatic than a live unveiling of your latest contest winner? Instead of waiting for a phone call or email, participants will be on your site actively engaging with content and be able to put a face to your brand.

Live Tour

A live tour of your business is an effective way to pull back the curtain and allow customers a glimpse of the people working behind-the-scenes to make your company a success. Offering a less scripted view into your company’s process builds upon the human connection and lets people see in real time how your products are made or how ideas are generated.

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2. Evergreen

If your funds are limited, opt for video content that will represent your business over the long haul, rather than focusing on a one-off or seasonal event. Concentrate on the core of what your company does to ensure you won’t have to update your video in a few months time, or worse, have an outdated video representing your business online.

3. Keep it Brief

Your video doesn’t need to be (nor should it be) a lengthy magnum opus. It’s best to keep your video short and to the point. Having a firm grasp on what your brand is and what audience you’re targeting will go a long way in providing a laser focus to your video, ensuring that your message comes across succinctly.

4. Use What You’ve Got

We’ve stressed the importance of spotlighting employees in your video marketing. And while the human connection is obviously critical in drawing in customers, it has the added benefit of saving money on hiring actors to do product demos or tours of your facility.

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