Blogs

In the year 2009, a journalist by the name of Bob Walker set out to unearth if storytelling really is the most powerful tool that helps brands outshine their competition. He purchased 200 items from eBay and priced each item at $1 on average. He then contacted 200 authors and posed a question, “Would you like to be a part of the significant object study? That is, can you write stories for these items?” The authors were happy to oblige and fabricate a narrative for each item. One of the items was this intricately carved horse bust that cost around $6. The horse bust that was initially bought for $6 was sold, after it was compounded with a compelling story, for a whopping $65. Yes, you read that right! That’s around 10 times the original price of the object. And why did people buy it at such an exorbitant price? The story was engaging enough to coax them into making the purchase, despite the high price. Was this a one-off situation? No. The items that were bought for $200 were sold for $8,000. Insane, right? I don’t know what Bob did with all that money, but what I can tell you is that he taught us a valuable lesson. The power of storytelling and how it is impacting our lives. All the top-notch digital agencies are using storytelling or we can say the power of visual storytelling in cutting down their marketing costs and exponentially increasing their sales. Here is your chance to find out what the top agencies are actually doing that is working in their favor.

Twoodie

Let us start with Twoodie. The images they post are easy to understand. Everything is gray except the toys, which are the only pops of color in the images. Each image is telling us a story. A story of beauty, simplicity, playfulness, and fun. These are not just simple objects; with compelling visual storytelling, Twoodie has transformed them into phenomenal objects that are stirring, lively, and essential.

Charity Water

Every time we donate to a social organization, our major concern lies in whether our donations will serve their purpose and reach their destination in time. Charity Water does an awesome job of making sure that the money we are donating is benefiting the communities in getting access to cleaner water. And the best part, they are using storytelling to make us trust them even more than any other social organization. By portraying the happiness of people over the globe, they instill in us a passion for giving back to the community.

Knownsupply

There is a 39% chance that your best employees are thinking of quitting in the next month. How so? Well, a study by Gallup shows that if you do not keep your best employees happy, they are bound to leave the nest soon in search of greener pastures. Amidst a raging global war, brands are working hard to come up with the best teams and flaunt how happy they are and how much fun they have at their jobs. While everyone else is dreaming about it, Known supply is making it possible. If you’re working in Known Supply, you are valued for sharing your stories on your Instagram account.

The Wild Unknown

Are you into magic, tarot card reading, and the mystery of destiny? Well, I am not. But still, I bought the whole collection from The Wild Unknown. Why, you may ask? Their gripping Instagram visual storytelling cast a spell over me and made me buy the item. If you peruse through their Instagram feed, you’ll fall head over heels in love with the way they are narrating stories. Every picture and every piece is magical. Their stories will teleport you into a different dimension and you will return to Earth only after you purchase something from them.

Piston

Consider this: you just finished watching a James Bond movie for the umpteenth time. You’re highly impressed by the man. You’re walking on your way home and thinking; how can I be like this man? And you see a watch in a shop display that is exactly like the one Bond was wearing. You bought the $8,000 watch and you step out of the store feeling like bond. What just happened? The story they told in James Bond was compelling enough to force you to buy that $8,000 Rolex watch. Piston – a San Diego-based marketing agency is making the same impact on people. They are a nut most professional agency that markets themselves as the James Bond for the digital age. When you avail their services, they give you a feeling of heroism. It is just an ordinary agency that is using visual storytelling to turn your brand into a superhero.

The Happy Ending

You can use maps, data visualizations, and real-life photos to tell your story. Whether your goal is to boost your sales or bring traffic to your website, you need to harness the power of visual storytelling. Most importantly, you need to keep your hero – the audience- in mind. Whereas old customers preferred to skim through long product descriptions including even the tiniest details about the product, Generation Y customers are more predisposed towards the stories you telling them, about how your product is adding value in their lives! If you want your brand to stand out, you need to start telling stories that customers are willing to hear.

Artificial Intelligence is here to make our lives better. Whether it be asking Siri about a local restaurant or business, or probing Alexa about the outside weather. Netflix suggests what to watch next, or Amazon lays out all the products you could potentially be interested in; AI is reaching into our homes, and our pockets and listening to our commands. Artificial Intelligence has a plethora of uses; both business-related and personal. Facebook Messenger bots are just one example of how companies are quickly leveraging AI to streamline mundane tasks and customer service. Most modern-day consumers prefer to connect with a brand through messaging apps and are not afraid to make purchases via this channel. Many AI-driven software programs are eliminating a great deal of manual work, helping brands make better decisions about how to approach potential customers, personalize conversations, and above all, recommend existing leads that deserve follow-up. Chatbots make up the largest portion of artificial intelligence and they could save businesses a lot of money. Chatbots have the potential to save $174 billion across financial services, sales, customer service, and insurance. So, are you ready to incorporate AI into your marketing strategy? Also Read: Exploring the Potential of Artificial Intelligence in the Future If not, here are some easy ways to discover how AI can help you improve your marketing efforts and allow businesses to generate more leads in 2018.

Generate More Leads

I know it’s hard to believe for many marketers that artificial intelligence can actually help them generate more leads than their current, age-old, run-of-the-mill marketing techniques. Did you know that businesses that incorporate AI into their marketing efforts receive 52% higher conversion rates, 54% increase in user engagement and traffic, 58% more profits, and 59% better close rates for sales? In nearly every aspect, AI rules over human marketing. AI is less expensive, more efficient, and can perform many time-consuming tasks quickly. However, humans can still deliver more value and a high level of personalization that robots can’t. There will always be a special place for human marketers, writers, and customer support representatives. But regardless of the extremely high levels of human intelligence, robots are not far behind and are in fact learning fast enough. AI is going to rule lead generation in 2018 as it has the ability to give you a higher ROI for your hard-earned dollars than the average human. And that is pretty interesting.

Nurture Leads

Most people don’t simply visit your website and make a purchase. Marketers are well aware of the fact that a potential buyer will visit your website multiple times before making a final purchase decision. This is why lead nurturing has become ever more indispensable. You need to follow up on prospective leads with more offers to turn them from visitors to paying customers. Before the advent of AI technology, lead nurturing was done through manual prospect massaging, email segmentation, and email messages. Some stick-in-the-mud marketers still adhere to the notion that lead nurturing can only be performed by humans. But according to a recent study, 59% of Americans are willing to receive special offers and coupons via chatbots. As people are getting ever more comfortable with conversing with chatbots, incorporating them into your business strategy will help you grow. When it comes to customer retention, chatbots also come out successful. The average customer retention rate after one month of chatbot usage is 40-60%, while for apps, it has plummeted to 20-40%. Reason? Chatbots are tireless, supernatural beings who can deliver timely responses regardless of the time of the day and never forget to send a reply. In fact, they are simply perfect for nurturing leads and retaining customers.

Potential Customer’s Data

In today’s fierce business world, data is everything. Without valuable data, digital marketing agencies are dead. They need to know their prospects and customers through A/B testing which has now become possible with the dawn of artificial intelligence and chatbots. Since chatbots are new to the marketing world, they are highly experimental, with a plethora of untapped opportunities surrounding them. Since we are yet to find out the potential of these chatbots, continuous testing is vital. Botanalytics offers valuable chatbot data for digital marketers to improve their marketing efforts. Chatbots also boast a tremendous amount of conversations in a very short period, and each conversation is a valuable piece of data. When you choose a celebrity, it offers recommendations so you can buy products according to your celebrity’s outfit style. Every single customer who chooses a celebrity and buys a product represents a valuable piece of data. Chatbots can provide businesses with more and more meaningful data than they ever thought possible by funneling significant insights and figures into analytical tools.

Increased Brand Engagement

Would you rather respond to an email or a chatbot? Emails have been used for years, and almost every marketer has an email list which they use to send special offers to their subscribers. But chatbots are mainly untapped because they are new marketing arena. This is why customers are more interested in messages sent from chatbots rather than old email marketing tactics. Let’s consider this case study, where a company developed a bot that received a massive amount of engagement. The customers spent an average of 4.27 minutes talking to a bot, and the company received more than 780 replies. Let’s take another example of Madi, a shopping bot. When users send the bot a snap-shot of their hair and color, it offers personalized hair color suggestions drawing upon their facial structure, natural hair tone, skin tone, and myriad other factors. When users take a picture of their face and hair, a bot gives personalized hair color suggestions based on their hair color, face structure, and a variety of other features. By letting customers venture a foot forward into the awe-inspiring realm of artificial intelligence, chatbots can boost brand engagement quickly.

Outstanding Customer Support

For nearly every business, providing exceptional customer support is a big challenge. Customers have their concerns that need to be solved by a call center or a chat center representative. Businesses need to invest more to offer the best possible support to their customers. However, with the rise of chatbots, businesses can provide faster and better customer support. In the healthcare and banking sectors, chatbots are answering customers’ queries instead of humans, and they are saving 4 minutes per inquiry. How? When a robot is replying to customers’ questions, it simply saves money and time while allowing humans to perform operations that only they can do. More than 50% of consumers expect businesses and their support staff to be active round the clock to entertain their queries. Chatbots can stay up and work tirelessly. More than 71% of customers want to be able to solve service issues on their own. So, customers prefer sending a message over talking on the phone. Chatbots can save money and time and will likely be an important part of customer support in the future.

Closing Thoughts

With the increasing abilities of AI, services such as prospect data, customer support, lead generation, and nurturing are cheaper and faster. And that is good news for businesses. More and more entrepreneurs, small business owners, and startups can utilize the benefits of artificial intelligence and build a successful and profitable business. In 2018, the process of lead generation will be completely transformed by AI because chatbots have officially become smarter, better, and faster than humans.

However, 10 years down the road, Twitter has become a mainstream social media site. The same goes for Facebook; who could have imagined that a platform used for connecting with long-lost family members and friends would have such a vast impact on businesses? In fact, Social media has now become a vital part of any brand’s digital marketing strategy and is ingrained so deeply in our lives, that it is almost a travesty to consider a world without. Remember how you felt a jolt of excitement when you were first introduced to Twitter? Did you jump up with joy or brooded over what possible benefits this hipster platform could have for your business? I know I had my doubts. Despite the staggering statistics that you are bombarded with every second, the vast implications of Facebook haven’t dawned on some businesses, who still fail to employ this effective marketing tool to its full potential. Many digital marketers find it challenging to escalate website traffic, boost social media engagement, and create real conversions to increase their brand awareness. Today, the number of likes, shares, and follows determines the credibility of a brand. To create a loyal fan base and boost your sales, brands need to understand the requirements and preferences of their target audience. Prove to your audience that you are not an emotionless bot or a money-spurning machine. Try to engage, inspire, and surprise your customers with shareable and memorable content. Whether you are a digital agency, a mobile app development agency, or a young entrepreneur, if you want to compete with well-established brands and gather more and more customers on your social media platforms, you need to implement these winning social media strategies in 2018.  

Humanize Your Brand

We live in a digital age where businesses can easily find an app or a software program for handling each aspect of their social media marketing. From scheduling posts to direct messaging – you can improve your social media marketing efforts tremendously. While these are the most important aspects of your marketing company, you also need to make sure that your social media activities are not solely relying on automated tools. To cultivate a loyal and long-lasting relationship with your audience, you need to bring out the human side of your brand. Being real with people on social media is the key. Sure, your social media tools are helping you stay organized, automated bots cannot be relied on to answer the most sensitive queries and misgiving of your followers. These tools don’t have the ability to respond to a client’s query in real time. This can convey a negative message to your audience. People want real engagement with your brand. It is highly recommended to avoid using these robots and automated tools as they fail to embody the personality of your brand, especially when it comes to responding to a customer in real time. I’m not saying that you should steer clear of these automated resources. Smart digital marketers know when to use these automated resources and when they should add a more real, human touch. 

Provide Great Content

Being a digital marketer, you need to understand what your audience wants to read and tailor your content accordingly. You can use helpful, motivational, entertaining, and interesting images and memes to get your audience engaged with your brand consistently. In addition, videos, infographics, GIFs, quizzes, and fun tidbits let you intrigue your customers and lure them in every day for a dose of inspiration. You can attract an ever-increasing host of people by creating real and compelling content on your social media accounts. Post informative, valuable, and engaging content on your social media accounts, so that users regularly check your social media accounts to see what you have to say. Also Read: 5 Tips to Keep Social Media Safe When in doubt, follow the rule of 80/20. This translates into the fact that 80% of your content must be informative, entertaining, motivational, trending, and inspiring. This 80% of content shouldn’t contain any branded stuff or promotional posts. It all depends on what your target audience enjoys the most. If you find it difficult to unearth the preferences of your audience, you can check Facebook Audience Insights. Type in some topics of your interest and it will provide you with other brand pages, who are creating real content along those lines. Take all the tips and ideas you can from them and create similar content to post on your social media account. 

Don’t be Shy to Follow Others

Many brands aspire to accumulate a horde of followers, but they consider it beneath them to follow other people or brands. In the social media realm, this strategy doesn’t work. To create a massive social media following and increase engagement, you should follow other successful brands and people, especially within your niche. You should know how to follow others. As a rule, follow only those people and brands which are relevant to your industry, products, or services. Don’t overlook the significance of social engagement as it is going to help your brand in the long run. People are prone to remember brands that provide solutions to their problems more positively and helpfully. When you start following the industry leaders and relevant people and continue to provide them with feasible solutions, pertinent guidance, and relevant answers, your brand will soon start leading these people. I repeat; Don’t hesitate to follow other people. 

Measure Your Success

Several ways can help you measure your social media success. You can glean insights into your social media accounts from analytics and build your business on that foundation. Smart marketers always measure their success based on the social media engagement their brand is getting every single day on social media. It is important to figure out how many users are interacting with you regularly. Identify your key players who frequently comment on your posts or those who always seem willing to share your posts. Anytime, anyone likes, shares, comments, or retweets your post, your social media team should immediately take notice, and reply to those fans and followers to let them know that they are special to you. One amazing way of measuring the success of your social media campaigns is to set up a particular goal. For instance, your goal is to create 100 signups on Facebook with at least 15 shares, 25 likes, and 5 comments. These are some personal engagement goals you can create for your campaigns. It is important to understand and create goals by which you can track your engagement success on the social media platform of your choice. Every social media platform is different. The audience may be the same, but their behaviors on different social media platforms are different. It is advised to tailor content by keeping the algorithm and ergonomics of various social networks in mind.  

Foster Strong Relationships

Cultivating lasting relationships with your audience is one of the most effective social media marketing tips. While it seems pretty hard to build a relationship, especially on a virtual ground, with consistent marketing efforts, you can do it as well as successful organizations. Developing relationships creates brand loyalty and an avenue for fans and followers with whom you have just built a relationship. You invest your efforts and time, and eventually build a relationship, and establish that coveted trust. This separates a consumer who doesn’t know your brand intimately from the person you just created a bond with. Building positive relationships with your audience is a powerful marketing strategy and one that your brand should be taking advantage of every day. 

Food for Thought

These are the best social media strategies every brand should strive to follow consistently. You have a brand to build and a whopping number of followers who want to learn about your brand. When you invest quality time, effort, and knowledge into your audience, you will reap great results with these effective social media marketing strategies.

My college friend is an ambitious website designer. Just like any custom website design agency, my friend dreamed of rocking the boat with his website design skills. But as they say, when the fog settles down it is then we see what our target is. Although it was a magnificent piece of artwork when it came to design, my friend started worrying about when he started generating leads with the website. So, this was the time when I stepped in. We had a three-hour meetup in a Coffee shop (I take a high dose of Coffee whenever I need to think) and along came some ideas that can help my friend to start generating leads for his business.

20 Tips To Start Generating Leads With Your Website

Here you go:

     1. Start with Prospects' Pain Points:

Of course, the whole business is about your prospect, but we realize that on our website there were no pain points that we were addressing or demonstrating anything that can help the potential customer understand how our product will solve their problem. We revamped the website, the text, the photos, and even the taglines to what users really wanted.

     2. Educate About your Product:

It doesn’t matter if the product is new or old, you need to educate the users on how to use your product. Make videos, and slideshows, and show the user how the product is helping them to solve their problems. One thing you need to focus on is the creative. Be creative and make your users fall in love with how you display the why of your business.

     3. Use Persuasive Call-to-action Buttons:

You need to tell the users when and where to buy the product. Make clear and big “Buy Now” or “Order Now” buttons throughout your website. Integrate links into your blogs that will redirect users to the services you’re offering.

      4. Use the Power of Internal Linking:

At times when you write a blog, you solve a problem. And when users visit your website they are trying to solve their problem. In your blogs, you can use internal links that can help users to better understand their problem and once they understand it they will ask you to solve the problem for you.

      5. Write Content for a Kindergarten Kid:

Don’t ever let your users second-guess what you’re trying to say. If you’re selling a product ask them to buy the product. If you’re informing about a product launch make it easy for the users to relate to their problems. How your product can solve their problems?

      6. Use Persuasive Headlines to Steal Their Hearts:

Of course, you don’t know who is going to visit your website that is why you need to keep it neutral for both genders. The main goal here is to engage users with headlines that can find a sweet spot between your consumer and what service you’re offering.

      7. Build Your Brand:

It is not just about starting a business or making money. The goal here is to establish a brand personality for your brand. And align that personality with the needs of your consumer. Take human traits like honesty, transparency, and humor and defuse them into your brand personality.

      8. Include Visually Appealing Graphics:

Don’t just shoot your products with any digital camera. Use DSLR to take photos that can win the hearts of your customers. Pictures when done right, can trigger emotions and force the users to buy from you.

      9. Don’t Ignore SEO:

So what if you have the best product on your website? If the product doesn’t reach the user, what good it is in the first place? Plan to do SEO on your website. Hire an affordable SEO services agency to make peace of mind and focus on other important stuff.

      10. Make Your Products Searchable:

Use an intuitive search bar so that users can search for your products without thinking too much about them. Give them suggestions and learn their search behaviors. Make suggestions based on their patterns.

      11. Position Your Top Team in the Market:

When Tony Hsieh started using Zapppos.com Twitter handle, sales skyrocketed to around 250%. Why? Because people started trusting Zappos more when the CEO himself was on social media interacting with the public. Make your top managers write blogs for your niche.

      12. Be in the Front:

If people don’t see you often, they will soon forget you for sure. You need to be there in the front. With your blogs, with your promotions, and with your marketing strategies. Research shows that blogging 2-3 times a week captures most of the benefit in terms of customer acquisition.

      13. Keep an Email List:

Your marketing efforts depend upon the people you reach. You need to give as much information as you can to your audience and engage them to ask for more. Give eBooks, a marketing plan, or even a social media strategy, and ask users to give their email in return. Use that list to know what users want and give them the solution.

      14. Add Social Media Buttons:

Is your brand on social? If yes, are there multiple ways that users can connect with you on social media? If not, make sure you do it right now. Give users the option to connect with you with their favorite social media.

      15. Make it Easy to Connect with You:

Don’t assume that readers will think to copy your link. Make it easy for them to send your posts to friends and colleagues.

      16. Make it Easy for Users to Connect with You:

Make it easy for potential buyers to connect with you. One thing you can do is to include your “contact us” in your call to action buttons. A simple number, email, or even a social media connection can help your user to connect with you.

      17. Use Comments to Engage:

Offer prospects the opportunity to interact with your firm via the comments section of your blog. While this may not be as direct as other ways of using your blog, it can help you by getting questions in the open and answered.

      18. Make Fans Contribute to Your Blog:

One sure-shot way for brands to engage users is to allow them to guest post on your website. Alternatively, feature a customer of the week to help readers identify with other consumers.

      19. Connect with Users on Social Media:

Offer customers the ability to connect with you on social media. Give them ways to connect with you. This will allow them to build trust and do business with you.

      20. Promote Your Brand on Other Forms of Internal or Owned Media:

Expand the reach of your website using your other forms of internal media such as your emails, customer service interaction, signature files, and packaging. While this may sound like it’s circular, it helps introduce your website to people you didn’t know were interested in your content.

Call-to-Action

Our digital marketing agency cares more about your ROI than your profits. That is why we are here to turn your ideas into reality. For award-winning websites & game-changing apps contact us now!

So, are you ready to carve a classic jack-o-lantern out of your pumpkin? Or maybe you’re looking for blood-chilling costume ideas for your Halloween party. Or maybe you want some custom website design ideas for your Halloween website. Halloween is one of the most thrilling holidays of the year. And they say it is a season to be with your family that makes it special. Attend costume parties, play divination games, carve jack-o’-lanterns, visit haunted attractions, tell scary stories, and watch horror movies. The to-do list is endless. You can get ideas from the internet and do whatever feels creepy to you. You can try trick-or-treating on your own, or you can take inspiration from these scary websites.

1. IT Movie

From the pen of Stephen King, comes a horror flick that will keep you glued to your seats. And this movie will also intensify your fear of clowns. It’s not recommended to watch for people having coulrophobia, the fear of clowns because the main character Pennywise the Dancing Clown will keep you away from the kitchen even to drink a glass of water. For the Halloween, website inspiration check out the 360 Cinematic VR tour and act like a real-life hero. The website is just a collection of movie trailers and teasers. Do also check out the masonry gallery on the homepage, you can check the on-set photography & HQ screencaps from the movie. Also Read: Halloween Marketing Ideas to Increase Customer Engagement

2. CreepyPasta

If you’re planning to give a good scare to your friends at the Halloween party, here is one of the scariest Halloween websites that will contain some roof-raising creepy content. From stories, myths, and supernatural tales, to the history and origin of vampires, and werewolves. Creepy Pasta is frequently updated. To make things creepier, people share their own real-life scary experiences and stories.

3. Bloody Disgusting

Bored on All Saints’ Eve. Well, check out the Bloody Disgusting website. A full-blown website for all the horror freaks out there. Filled with stories and a selection of movies, scary videos, and video game reviews. This is one Halloween website that will surely drive your horror cells into action. There is also a horror forum for fans that are willing to share horror culture-related artifacts. If you want more Bloody Disgusting, there are several social media profiles you can follow to get the latest updates on what’s new in the world of horror.

4. Fangoria

The next one is the ultimate favorite of horror movie fans. In the Halloween website collection here is Fangoria, an online portal that is dedicated to horror culture. A website that is designed to capture horror fans with ghostly stories and real-life tales. Interviews with stars of horror movie characters. Here you will find a book and comic, game and toy, movie reviews, mixtapes, and a lot more.

5. Real-Life Ghost Stories

Want some real-life ghost stories, here is your chance to get some inspiration. People who have had paranormal experiences of any kind are encouraged to share them without fear of being judged. Real Ghost Stories can be the soundtrack of your Halloween party if you want to frighten your guests to death.

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Our digital marketing agency cares more about your ROI than your profits. That is why we are here to turn your ideas into reality. For award-winning websites & game-changing apps contact us now!

I haven’t met Elon Musk yet – but I am a big fan of the man. A genius-level Entrepreneur who started with a dream and outsmarted the competition. "Is your cucumber bitter? Throw it away. Are there barriers in your path? Turn aside. That is enough. Do not go on and say, 'Why were things of this sort ever brought into the world?'" ~Marcus Aurelius Einstein said it best "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them." As a serial Entrepreneur, I know what it feels like to stay on your toes all the time. To sacrifice your sleep, your family, and sometimes your personal space just so that you can initiate your business. Also Read: 6 Must-Do things before you quit your job I am just an ordinary Entrepreneur who is floating on the surface. For me, I am surviving. It is a long road ahead and I might be successful or not. But in either case, you, on the other hand, need to gear up for your success. You need to equip yourself with the basic tools that can make you successful. After studying Elon Musk for quite some time now, I figured out a specific pattern with which Elon Musk solves his problems. These are common skills that anyone can acquire. So, here I am laying down my understanding of problem-solving methods that you can adopt from Elon Musk: These are simple steps that you can use to solve any problem whether it is a personal or a business-related problem. The key is to follow the steps in the same manner as described here:

Step 1: Identify the Problem You Want To Solve

“It's so much easier to suggest solutions when you don't know too much about the problem.”~Malcolm Forbes The first step you need is to know the problem in and out. For instance, when I started my eCommerce website, the initial reaction I got was that "My product is too expensive" This was the realization phase. For Elon Musk, the first problem was how to raise investment for his dream. If you don’t know what is the problem you’re facing, you won’t take the necessary steps to solve that problem. To know what is wrong, you can ask for feedback. Feedback from friends and even from customers can help you get your first step right.

Step 2: List Reasons Why You Cannot Solve the Problem

The second part is to list down your limitations. Your limitation might include "My parts cost is too high" or "The CFO doesn't want to spend more money on innovation." For Elon Musk, it was building trust among the stakeholders. Because launching a rocket is not an ordinary thing. But the good news is, you don’t have a problem with that intensity. Your problem is small. So, you can list down the steps on paper, and what are your limitations.

How to Solve a Problem by Elon Musk?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grSdMoiMgb4

Step 3: Screw the Limited Resources

The next step is to know what you can do to solve your problem. Do you have the resources to solve that problem, or you will be required to hire external resources to solve the problem? Sometimes it is best to hire people with a different perspective. A solution for an over-expensive product might typically be moving manufacturing overseas - but then quality control and shipping costs can increase. A CEO and CFO might agree to cut one department to give more resources to a high-performing team, but layoffs might decrease office morale and severance packages reduce the financial benefit in the short term.

Step 4: Execute & Test Your Hypothesis

Once you’re done with the first three steps, now is the time to execute. If your core desire is to develop an inexpensive and effective product, then you might design a new product made with more sustainable and inexpensive materials, or with a completely unique engine or operating system. If the core of the company is to tackle innovation & product development, you need to introduce new departments or you can simply combine departments to get the creative juice flowing the company. You need to have an open-door policy so that you can analyze the problem and execute the solution based on all the facts that are available to you. Execution without giving a thought is a suicide mission. You need to lay down facts and execute. Once the execution is done, you need to compare the results and see what is working and what isn’t. For instance, for someone who is willing to start a business you need to test the beta version of your website before you really launch a fully-fleshed website. This beta version will give you results, and you can then analyze the results to do something about it.

To End it All

Elon Musk is a highly successful and intelligent Entrepreneur. You can learn a lot from him. His biography is a great read for everyone who wants to start their own business or are struggling with their business. Use the above tips to solve your business problems. You can always mold the steps in accordance with your business needs. But ensure that these steps can do wonders for your business.

With more than 1.2 billion websites out on the World Wide Web. You will have to make your website stand out from the crowd to get the attention it deserves. For that to happen, you should ask yourself questions such as “What makes your website different from others?” or ”Does it have what it takes to keep the user engaged, deliver a perfect user experience, and persuade them to return to your website?” If you cannot find the answer to the first question or the answer to the second question is no, then you need to consider conducting a usability audit for your website seriously.

This gives rise to another question, on which usability criteria would you test your website? To provide you answer to this question, Branex has created an infographic. Here is an infographic that will highlight eight website usability factors that you must consider to enhance the user experience of your website.

In the start, it was the dorm, the laptop, and a big idea. Then I read about journaling. Which raised another question. How can Entrepreneurs build a better business by journaling every day?

Start Your Day with Morning Pages

In The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron talks about morning pages. https://www.youtube.com/embed/3DA45eebMCg Morning pages will set the tone for your day. Additionally, it will empty your mind to think about what is most important for your business. You might have seen people having fancy diaries in which they write all about their life. But wait, there is a huge difference between keeping a diary and writing a journal. Also Read: 8 morning rituals of highly successful Entrepreneurs In a diary, you record all the actions that have happened on that day. While writing a journal goes one step ahead. In the journal, you analyze and retrospect your day. You write whatever inspires you, and if you’re an Entrepreneur who is willing to build a better business by journaling every day, you need to learn how to make the best use of journaling every day. When you’re small, you might have written a diary, or maybe not. In both cases, you know what to write in a diary, but now you’re grown up, and you don’t know what to write in the journal. Well, the good news is you’re here to learn more about journaling for Entrepreneurs. So, here are some things that you can write in your journal:

Log in Every Piece of Idea You Get

"Nothing is either good or bad, but thinking makes it so" ~William Shakespeare The thing with writing everything down is that you never know which of your ideas will change the world. Keep a journal with you at every time. And if you cannot carry a journal, use Evernote to keep track of your ideas. Here is my screenshot of Evernote where I am brainstorming some ideas for my next blog post. It is not about making sense of ideas. For now, write whatever comes to your mind. Write raw ideas. And later, you can craft those ideas for perfection.

The Lessons Learned

As an Entrepreneur, you will fail a lot. And if you do not learn from those lessons, they will keep repeating themselves. Every day you will be faced with good or bad experiences. What successful people do, is recognize the pattern when they get successful and analyze their failures. You can journal what have you learned from your mistakes that day. If you stumbled upon a presentation with a client, write that down. You missed a deadline, write that down. You messed up and order, write that down. Everything you write, ensure that on weekends you’ll analyze the mistake and see what went wrong. Use your failures to ignite the fire within. And use that fire to move toward success.

Fire Up Your Pressure Cooker

Journaling is an amazing way to release some pressure off your back. Did you get a passive-aggressive, condescending, or downright hostile email today? Did a client yell at you for something that was out of your control? There’s no more perfect place to vent your workplace frustrations than in the privacy of your own journal. In your journal, jot down the response you really wanted to send to that colleague or client. Read it a few more times if you want, then let it go. With journaling, you can take off all the pressure and clear your mind for better understanding. Jot down all your worries and it will help you make well-informed decisions.

Collect Compliments

It might feel a bit odd at the start, but once you start jotting down the compliments you get every day, you’ll see how blessed you are. How amazing you are. And how great it feels to get appreciated by the people you love and total strangers who are true about how you work and see the world. Reading compliments, again and again, gives you a feeling of accomplishment. A feeling that cannot be replaced by anything else. When you’re feeling down, just look at the compliments you’ve received. These compliments make your Entrepreneurial journey a lot easier and worth pursuing.

Envision Your Future

A person without a clear vision of the future is like a bird with no feathers. Bad Entrepreneurs live in their past, while great Entrepreneurs envision their future. While you’re on your way to success, you need to visualize where you want to be in the coming years. Write every day. Where you want to be soon. What rewards, achievements, and successes do you want in the future? The great thing about writing things down is that, when you write things down, half of the battle is already won. Use every sense you have. The feel, the touch, and the success-after-party you want when you get there. Write everything as if you’ve already achieved it.

To Wrap it All Up

As a struggling Entrepreneur, you will be faced with an enormous amount of pressure. And while you’re doing all the necessary stuff, it will get difficult to reach your full potential if you’re busy with these mundane tasks.

It was the design of the pen. Yes, the design which I still have in my memory. People might forget the words you had on your website, and people might even forget the images they saw, but one thing they won’t forget is the experience they had on your website. Once upon a time, when I was little. I used to admire this one pen. I cannot point out what exactly I love about the pen. Was it the flow of the writing? Was it the grip of the pen? But now I know what was it. Certainly, some things keep people engaged with your website. Most of the professional website design agencies have cracked the code for this. And now it is time for you to do the same. Let us first consider some basic tips.

What Makes Are E-commerce Website Designs Engaging?

1. Quality Product Photos:

Product photography is one thing that can help you engage more users than the design layout. Avoid using stock photos. Use real-life photos that are either actual humans or photos that are taken by professional photographers.

2. Easy Navigation:

It is not just about organizing the photos and text, a great website is a combination of photos, text, and how it is organized on the website. How customers feel while visiting your website. Can we find what they’re looking for? Are they facing issues while browsing the website?

Also Read: 7 Tips to Multiply Your eCommerce Sales

3. Promotional Messages:

Nothing strikes a user more than a persuasive text. An email, a greeting message, or a pop-up sign. Try out anything that resonates with your user. Check the response of each action item and see how customers are taking everything.

4. Killer Content:

You can persuade the user by the design, and you can even persuade the user by product photos, but one thing you must do is use killer content to grab the attention of the user. Using engaging taglines and cutting-edge vocabulary can take your website to the next level.

Captivating Demos

One of the ways to improve the usability of the website is to use product photos that can help the visitors relate their problems with their problems You can even use videos or 360-degree views & image zoom that put users in charge of the interface of the website. The aim of the store should be to create an experience. For instance, in a store, users can pick up the item and feel it in their hands. Providing images of every side of the product as well as a close-up view helps to provide a more tangible experience. Customers can view the product up close and personal.

Use Emotions to Force Action

The logo, the color, the image, and all the pieces of content of your website will evoke an emotion among the visitor. What you need is, to use that spike to force an action for the user. Remember, humans, want an emotionally authentic experience online. So (just as on Bold and Noble in the section above), set the mood of your brand with a unique style and match it with your tone, which can be conversational, humorous, cheeky, or whatever will further create that emotional connection between you and your customers. And, this is a good place to remind you that you must really know your audience to know how to create authentic emotions. As a shoe retailer, this brand sets itself apart by using a bold tone of voice. They aren’t shy in making sure their customers know that their shoes are made by renowned craftsmen, but they also keep it short simple, and conversational. This tone of cool confidence provides its customers with a base of trust, especially with the human-like voice. And they keep the same tone of voice with every aspect of the site: feedback, suggestions, explanations, and more.

Create a Seamless Experience

When I was starting out my venture for an ecommerce website, I visited around 300+ websites. Tried and tested every single one of them. What was I looking for? A seamless experience. Finally, I got one from a website. And next, I went to an ecommerce website design agency to create my website. Why is it important for the developers or the owners to create a seamless experience? Because the users are fed up with the conventional ways of browsing the website. Now the customer's trust is established upon the retailer experience that is given to the customers. If the customers see the same look, again and again, they will lose track of attention and nothing will be the same. You need to create an experience that will force the user to stick to the design. Make the user fall in love with the experience.  Don’t try to make a complex design, just make a simple one that can catch the attention of the user. One prime example is Zappos. What I love about Zappos is the possibilities for fine-tuning the experience to my own preferences, so that I can shop on mobile, the website, or in the store exactly how I want.

Social Sharing Options

One of the best ways to provide a powerful human experience through online retail shopping is to include a social feed that creates a bandwagon effect. Everyone is talking about your online store, so it must be great – an experience that we just can’t miss! Social media has become a huge part of our daily lives and is ingrained in the human experience for a great many people. Those sponsored Facebook ads, sponsored Tweets, promoted Pinterest pins, and even YouTube video ads are all an important part of making a connection with customers, promoting expression, and providing that human experience. Making that connection between the website and social media can be further enhanced with some simple design tweaks. The Eden website places social media icons in the header of their website for easy access. This not only gives customers more than one option for staying in touch but also reinforces the legitimacy of the brand in the minds of new customers.

Gone are the days when businesses could do away without a website. In today’s hyper-connected world, having a website is not an option anymore. It is a must-have weapon in your arsenal if you want to win and succeed in today’s internet-dominated world. Even having a fully functional website does not guarantee success. Your website should be visible at the top of search engine rankings, attract visitors, and convert them into paying customers. Phew! That is a steep challenge for web designers and developers. Every business wants to deliver an immersive user experience to its website visitors and turn them into loyal brand advocates through their website. Unfortunately, that is easier said than done. Designing a website that meets your business goals requires effective planning and execution and the right approach to market in order to achieve success. Your website is the face of your company online. It should convey a brand message you want it to communicate to users. Keep your target audience in the back of your mind when designing your website. Answers questions such as how users will perceive and interact with your website to develop a website that satisfies users. To make your website creation journey easier, here are 20 things you need to consider when developing a website to hammer the nail on its head.