Are you looking to improve your website’s user experience? A great user experience can increase engagement, reduce bounce rates and ultimately lead to more conversions. In this blog post, we will discuss five ways you can improve your website’s user experience.

Optimise website speed

Website speed is a crucial factor that affects user experience. A slow-loading website can cause users to leave your site, resulting in high bounce rates. To optimise your website speed, you can start by optimizing your images, minimizing HTTP requests, and leveraging browser caching. You can also use a content delivery network (CDN) to reduce load times for visitors who are geographically distant from your website’s server.

Implement responsive design

In today’s world, people use a variety of devices to access the internet, including smartphones, tablets, and laptops. In fact, 60% of mobile traffic comes from mobile devices in 2023. Responsive design ensures that your website looks great on all devices, making it easier for users to navigate and engage with your content. By implementing responsive design, you can improve your website’s user experience and increase engagement.

Enhance navigation

Navigation is a critical element that affects the user experience. A user-friendly navigation system can make it easier for users to find the information they’re looking for. To improve your website’s navigation, you can use clear labelling, keep menus simple, and provide a search bar. These elements will help users find what they’re looking for quickly and easily.

Improve website accessibility

Website accessibility is essential for users with disabilities or impairments. By improving website accessibility, you can make your website more inclusive and user-friendly for everyone. To improve website accessibility, you can use alt tags for images, provide text transcripts for videos, and ensure that your website is compatible with screen readers.

Use clear Call-to-Actions (CTAs)

A clear call-to-action (CTA) is essential for improving user experience and increasing conversions. CTAs should be easy to find, and their language should be clear and concise. By using clear CTAs, you can guide users through your website and help them take action.

In conclusion, these are five ways you can improve your website’s user experience. By optimising website speed, implementing responsive design, enhancing navigation, improving website accessibility, and using clear CTAs, you can create a better user experience and increase engagement. If you’re looking to improve your website’s user experience, contact SmartaStudio, and our team of experts will be happy to help.

In today’s digital age, having a website for your business is essential. A website can help you reach a wider audience, showcase your products or services, and generate leads and sales. However, simply having a website is not enough. To make the most of your online presence, you need to track your website analytics, and Google Analytics is an excellent tool for doing just that.

Google Analytics is a free web analytics service provided by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. It provides valuable insights into how visitors interact with your website, including how they found your site, which pages they visit, how long they stay, and more. By analysing this data, you can optimise your website to improve its performance and achieve your online goals.

Here are some of the key benefits of tracking your website analytics with Google Analytics:

Understand your audience

Google Analytics allows you to track key metrics such as demographics, location, interests, and behaviour. By understanding who your visitors are and what they are interested in, you can tailor your content and marketing strategies to better meet their needs and preferences.

Measure website performance

Google Analytics provides data on key performance indicators such as bounce rate, session duration, and conversion rate. By tracking these metrics, you can identify areas for improvement and optimise your website to better meet your business objectives.

Track marketing campaigns

Google Analytics allows you to track the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns, including pay-per-click (PPC) ads, social media, and email marketing. By analysing the data, you can determine which campaigns are driving the most traffic and conversions, and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Monitor website health

Google Analytics can alert you to technical issues on your website, such as broken links or slow-loading pages. By fixing these issues promptly, you can ensure that your website is functioning optimally and providing a positive user experience.

At SmartaStudio, we understand the importance of tracking website analytics, which is why all of our websites come with analytics integrated already. Our team of web designers and developers will ensure that your website is optimised for performance and that you have access to the data you need to make informed decisions about your online presence.

In conclusion, tracking your website analytics with Google Analytics is an essential part of your online strategy. By understanding your audience, measuring website performance, tracking marketing campaigns, and monitoring website health, you can optimize your website for success and achieve your business goals. And with a website from SmartaStudio, you can rest assured that your analytics are taken care of from the start.

In today’s digital age, businesses must maintain a consistent and cohesive brand image across all their digital marketing channels to remain competitive. This includes keeping your website design, branding, and digital marketing material in line with each other. Here are the benefits of doing so:

Builds Brand Recognition

Consistent design and branding help businesses establish a recognisable and memorable identity in the marketplace. A unified look and feel across all marketing materials, including website design, social media profiles, and digital marketing campaigns, help create brand recognition and builds trust among customers.

Creates a Professional Image

A cohesive and consistent brand image creates a professional and polished appearance, which can positively influence customer perceptions. A well-designed website and consistent branding show that your business is committed to quality, consistency, and professionalism.

Enhances User Experience

A unified design makes it easier for users to navigate and engage with your brand across different platforms. Consistent branding and design elements allow users to easily recognize your business and understand your messaging, which can help improve user engagement and overall user experience.

Improves Marketing ROI

When all digital marketing materials are in line with each other, it can help increase the effectiveness of campaigns. A consistent look and feel help build brand recognition, establish trust, and create a cohesive message across all channels, which can lead to a higher return on investment for digital marketing campaigns.

Supports Brand Loyalty

Consistent branding and design elements help create an emotional connection with your customers, leading to brand loyalty. When customers are consistently presented with a positive brand image, they are more likely to remain loyal and advocate for your business to others.

In summary, keeping your website design, branding, and digital marketing materials in line with each other can help businesses establish a recognisable and professional brand identity, improve user experience, increase marketing ROI, and support brand loyalty. By ensuring your business maintains a consistent and cohesive image, you can strengthen your online presence and position your brand for success in the digital marketplace.

If you would like some help with keeping a consistent brand image across your website, branding and digital marketing material – get in touch with SmartaStudio

The website of your business is the crux of it all. It’s where you have the maximum interaction with your target audience and so, it needs to be taken seriously. Investing in digital content should be viewed as a long-term strategy, adapting to changing audience needs & the ever-evolving digital landscape. It’s vital to keep up with the times and ensure your content and design is future-proof.

Constant technology updates make it mandatory for websites to keep up. By the time a website project is finished, there could be huge advancements in digital technology. This requires websites to stay current and updated. And if you don’t continue to critically review and improve your site, you run the risk of standing still, and spending more money on trying to keep up with this shifting technological landscape and trying not to fall behind your competitors.

What does website future proofing really mean?

Website future proofing is an important concept for anyone who owns a website or is in charge of managing one. It means making sure that the website is optimized for the latest technology and trends, so that it can remain relevant and competitive in the years to come. This involves taking into consideration factors such as mobile-friendliness, search engine optimization (SEO), security, performance, and other aspects of modern web development. By taking proactive steps to ensure your website is future proofed, you can ensure that it remains up-to-date and competitive in the ever-changing digital landscape.

Make it scalable

At any given time, your website and the infrastructure behind it may reflect where your business is, its goals and strategy, and the needs of your customers and/or audience. But what happens when these things change? What if you grow, diversify, or adapt your offering to a changing marketplace? You need to make sure that your website is scalable and flexible enough to support your needs now and in the mid- to long-term. Incorporating scalability into a website project from the outset sets you up for success later on and helps you plan more effectively from a budget perspective. This involves everything from selecting the right platform (CMS) to laying out a framework or even a design system for the project, determining how individual components will be built. But as important as the “what” is, the “how” is equally essential. 

Adopt the right approach to website development

Having an ongoing perspective on website development is key – it involves more than just the product itself. It requires a particular approach and mindset to be successful. While digital projects traditionally follow a linear, waterfall-style approach, agile methodology has been gaining traction in recent years. Agile focuses on short-term deadlines and splits the project up into sections that can be worked on concurrently through sprints – allowing for more fluidity and flexibility and changes in direction further down the line. 

We won’t get into all the pros and cons of agile vs waterfall here – this Forbes article does a fantastic job of presenting the case for both – but we’ve found time and again that the agile methodology is the most effective way of structuring projects in order to build future-proof websites and digital products that are best setup to support growth. Embracing an agile approach paves the way for releasing products more frequently and also encourages continuous improvement. It further creates a roadmap that ensures you are prepared to take on any eventualities.

Fine-tuning vs re-building

Re-building your website entirely from the ground up obviously takes a lot of time and significant investment. Taking this approach is incredibly cost inefficient, and it also leaves you vulnerable to potential problems with capability and security (which we’ll get on to in a second) as well as trailing behind your competitors. Planning and budgeting for small, iterative updates rather than wholesale rebuilding every 5 or so years helps to ensure that you make the most out of your investment and future-proof your business.

Keep on top of security

By not regularly monitoring and updating your website, you’re putting it at risk of becoming exposed to a number of security threats that may arise over time. This makes it important to see your website as an ever-changing asset rather than a static one. If your website isn’t supported and maintained correctly, you may miss updates to the core platform, extensions and security patches, leaving it vulnerable. 52% of WordPress vulnerabilities are caused by out-of-date plugins. Not providing a safe, secure, and reliable experience on your website could damage the trust you have built with your audience. Furthermore, a breach could prove costly and may even lead to you losing access to your website and the content you have created. It is essential to have a process and the right partner in place to properly support your website, in order to ensure your website provides a secure experience consistently and protects one of your most important assets.

Future-proofing your website isn’t a retroactive process – it should be built into its foundations. Setting yourself up with the scalability and flexibility to adapt and change at pace is the key to delivering a great digital experience, and being cost-effective while you do it.

At SmartaStudio we focus on building long-term partnerships with our clients, providing support packages designed to help them grow and evolve, not just maintain.

Got a vision for a future-proof website? Get in touch to start a project with us. 

The way people see and think about a brand is similar to the way they see and think about a person. If you have positive and strong brand reputation, potential customers will associate your business with positivity as well.

As opposed to a company’s reputation, your service’s reputation on the internet will play an increasingly important role in how you are perceived. It’s pretty straightforward – just like offline public perception is dependent upon a company’s reputation, online perception is dependent on your service’s reputation.

By considering the idea and emotions a customer associates with a particular brand, we can enhance the customer experience in any stage of interaction. Companies tend to provide customer service in different ways with regards to the user and the services they purchased. The best way to control your reputation is often through social media, emails, and chats.

(In other words, don’t forget that a brand’s reputation isn’t just about the customers. It includes everyone who has an opinion on it – guests, retailers and manufacturers for example too.)

Essentially, company reputations are really important in any competitive market. Successful companies need to prioritise this valuable asset.

What’s The Importance Of A Strong Brand Reputation For Today’s Businesses?

Strong brands go hand-in-hand with excellent service by your company. Building that effective reputation is the key to promotion, sales, and high customer satisfaction.

Research shows that people are more likely to shop at businesses with positive reviews. This means it’s important to not only resolve any negative feedback but also find ways to solicit and collect reviews.

We need to think about how your business is perceived in the market. There are various factors that occur to an organization.

Related: The importance of branding in your business

Market trust

You want people to trust you as a brand. That’s why it’s important to focus on your reputation and never slip up. This will show your customers that they can place their faith in you because they know that you’re dedicated to provide stellar service and quality products or services.

Moreover, it’s a fact that people prefer buying goods and services from brands that enjoy a solid reputation, Especially if people in their social circle use it’s products.

Higher sales

Studies have shown that brand reputation might be more important than we think. Businesses saw tangible benefits, namely that they raised both sales and profits. Fact of the matter is, it’s a huge boost to your business.

All this is possible because of the strong reputation. This reputation helps the brand stand out from competitors.

Customer loyalty

When a brand succeeds in earning more trust and positive reviews, the customers are more likely to continue to buy goods and services from it. The customer’s need for quality overrules any other incentives the competition might provide like discounts.

I would argue that there are fringe benefits to customer loyalty, such as being willing to pay a higher price. This is because, in the first place, you have already established yourself as someone who is worth paying a premium for.

Competitive edge

One fact that we can see for sure, is that the level of competition will always get higher. It’s hard for a business to make it through without a competitive edge – like a good reputation.

Having the edge over the competition means your potential for catching new customers increases, which boosts your brand’s market share.

Word of mouth

Happy customers are one of the most important assets of a brand, especially in this digital era. They serve as brand ambassadors and will enthusiastically recommend your company for free if they’re satisfied with your service.

It not only leads to increased brand awareness in the market, but it also paves the way for a business to improve its sales and profit margins over time.

What Are The Best Strategies For Managing Your Brand’s Reputation Online?

We’ll keep our focus on the ones proven to be the most effective, starting with:

Staying ahead of the curve

Being proactive is among the primary necessities for today’s brand managers. They should be thinking ahead of their competitors and the target audience. While branding online, the margin of error is relatively low, and any mishap can lead to a ripple effect in damaging the brand’s positive image.

If you make a mistake, it’s best to take responsibility for it and find an immediate solution as opposed to waiting.

Be specific about the deliverables

Social media has changed the customer experience in many ways and made them more intelligent than before. With endless mediums and channels to choose from, customers today have a world of choices for anything.

That’s why it’s important for brands to be very specific in delivery times and after-sales services. Experts recommend the ‘underpromise and overdeliver’ approach to avoid disappointing their customers.

Establish yourself as an authority

If you know that what you’re selling is the best in the market, you should be loud and clear about it. It will catch the eye of your target audience immediately, which will increase your brand awareness.

It’s essential that you are upfront about the quality of your product with potential clients and customers. Your competitors will say this too, so it is important to let people know why yours is better.

You will be establishing your brand as an authority in the marketplace, and people will turn to you for the latest and best content on it.

Be consistent and assertive

As they say, consistency is the key. The more you do your branding right, the more your reputation will go beyond the lifespan of your business. People can still love your brand even after it shuts down!

However, this demands the next level of consistency from your business. You have to make sure you deliver your best in all aspects of branding your business, from the quality of the products and services to the level of customer service you offer.

It’s hard to compete if you don’t keep up with your competitors. However, walking away from fighting your competitors is not the answer. If you think you’re outdoing them, then it’s your job to do more of the same.

Deliver on promises

You can’t overstate the value of fulfilling your commitments if you want to make the most out of your reputation. Fulfilling promises is fundamental to spreading positive word-of-mouth about your company.

Your customers want to see you keep the promises that you make, and if they know that they can rely on you then they will turn into your biggest brand advocates.

Value Feedback

It would be best if you realign your thinking this way. 

Who are you producing your products/services for? Your clients/customers, of course!

What if it’s not working well for them?

Redo your product/service to the requirements and likings of your customers. Otherwise, your business will earn you nothing but a bad name in the market.

You have to realise the importance of listening to your customers, gathering customers’ opinions about what’s not working for them and what areas they would like to see improved. 

Learn to accept and respect your customers’ problems, praises, issues, tips, or any feedback they give you about your product or service.

You’ll drastically improve your brand’s reputation considerably if you start doing this.

Feedback is the food of champions.

Conclusion

With the competition for business getting steeper every passing day, earning the trust and business of your target market is becoming a challenging task for most companies in all industries. It makes branding even more imperative.

Make a great customer experience your top priority. Also keeping a focus on the customer and employee retention and customer feedback to establish yourself as a customer-centric brand.

Though it might take some time, it will 100% help you grab your target market’s attention and earn respect in the long run. Once you achieve that, you’ll see sales and profits soaring as a result.

Images taken from Unsplash

SmartaStudio is proud to be playing our part in making a real impact in our community by becoming an official member of Donatable…

Donatable is a social enterprise that has been set up to support local businesses, develop a thriving, active community and enrich charities & community causes. By joining Donatable we provide you with a packaged programme of promotional services via our social media channels, strategic marketing, and community initiatives. Visit the website

The importance of our local community

SmartaStudio is a company that offers marketing and design services to businesses across the world, however, they are based in the Cheshire East area.

We believe that it is important for businesses to be active members of their local community. This is because it helps them to understand their customers and what they need better. It also helps them to develop new ideas for products and services.

We have a strong passion for our local community and aim to dedicate a percentage of our time to improving the online presence of businesses and charities from Cheshire East. Joining Donatable allows us to showcase our passion on a wider scale through their digital marketing efforts.

We have some exciting projects lined up with Donatable and can’t wait to share more over the coming months.

What is a rebranding and why do you need it?

A rebranding is a change of a company’s name, logo, or other identifying features. It can also refer to a change in the way the company is identified.

Rebranding might be necessary for many reasons. The most common reasons are:

– To give a company a fresh start and to remove negative associations with its old name or image.

– To introduce new products and services that require a different branding strategy from the company’s current one.

– To create an emotional connection with customers by using colours, fonts, or images that have been proven to elicit certain emotions in people.

How to Create Effective Brand Identity with a Rebrand?

Brand identity is a critical element of a company’s marketing strategy. It is the cornerstone for any company’s visual identity, and it can be the difference between success and failure.

Branding is often times just associated with your company logo, maybe a font and a colour or two, but it is so much more. Your brand is a visual representation of how your company aims to make people feel. It can be interpreted in different ways but always delivers the same message of ethics and belief within your company.

A rebrand is a process in which a company changes its logo, colour palette, typography, or other elements that are used to create its brand identity.

The goal of a rebrand is to create an image that will resonate more deeply with consumers and attract new customers.

In this article we will explore how to create effective brand identities with a rebrand.

What is the Process of Rebranding?

Rebranding is the process of changing the name, logo, or both of a company, product, or service. There are many reasons to rebrand. For example, if a company has changed its strategy and wants to focus on new products. Or if it wants to change its image in order to reach new customers.

There are two types of rebranding:

1) Re-positioning: The old brand is replaced with a new one that has different associations than the original one.

2) Renewal: The old brand is retained but refreshed by making changes such as updating logos and slogans

Here are some of the tools you’ll need in your brand toolkit:

• Logo Assets – In various file types, colours and arrangements
• Brand Guidelines – Usually a PDF that acts as an instruction manual for typography, logo usage, photography style, illustration and iconography as well as detailing your business mission, values and tagline
• Flexible Typography – A well-designed and well-chosen brand typeface will contain numerous weights for various uses and be visually dynamic and unique to your identity
• Mission Statement – A clear mission is the key to driving consistency across marketing collateral
• Defined Tone of Voice – Brand messaging and communication is built using tone of voice that feels representative of your business and the people behind it.
• Core Values – A solid set of one-worded values to shape everything you do as a brand and a business

The Best Tools for Planning a New Brand Identity or a Re-design

There are a lot of tools for creating a new brand identity or a re-design. There is no one-size-fits-all solution, so you need to find the best tool that suits your needs.

The first thing that you need to do is to define what your goals are. What do you want to achieve with the re-design? If you want to create a new brand identity, then there are some tools that will help you with this process and if you want to make some changes on an already existing brand, then there are also some tools for this.

Another thing that is important when choosing the right tool is your budget and time availability. Some of these tools require more time and money than others, so it’s important not only to know what they can do.

Related: Branding assets every company should have

How Rebranding Can Transform Your Business

The word “rebranding” means to change the appearance or image of a company. It’s not just about changing logos and colours, but also about changing the way people see your brand.

Rebranding is a strategy that businesses use to create an emotional connection with their customers. It helps to refresh your brand and redefine its identity in the market. Rebranding can help you grow your business by attracting new customers and increasing sales.

Here are some of the top things that you can achieve by rebranding your business:

Attract new customers

After some time has passed, your company message may have become stale and not relevant to your audience. It’s important to always keep moving forward. As you have changed in relation to your customers needs, so has your brand. It may not directly reflect the goals & mission of your company any more. When you rebrand your company or target audience, you can help increase customer interest. You can also offset some of the negative impression that consumers had of the old brand.

Achieve new goals

Rebranding can also be an opportunity to significantly shift the focus of your efforts, allowing you to achieve new goals. One of these goals may be, for example, you want to develop new products or improve existing ones. And, if it’s employees you want to be your marketing executives, then there are lots of marketing tactics you could try. Giving them plenty of opportunities to have input & get their creativity flowing is one way to get them involved for sure.

Increase engagement

Whenever there is something new or exciting – be it new products or changes to the branding of your company – you have the chance to create a buzz. By rebranding for example, you can reach audiences who are most likely already talking about your company through social media! These changes may be cause for concern, but instead of just worrying about them, you can reassure clients by outlining all the reasons you’re making these adjustments. Plus, you can talk about why these improvements are important.

Streamlines messaging

Have you ever felt like your company has lost its message or brand? A rebrand can help bring everything back to the main focus. If getting your online reputation under control has been on the back burner it might be the perfect time to get started with it. Not only will you clean up your online presence, but you’ll get a head start for dealing with other foreseeable problems.

Why You Should Trust an Online Marketing Agency for your Next Branding Campaign

An online marketing agency can help you with your next branding campaign. They have the skills to create a successful campaign that will help you reach your target audience.

Online marketing agencies are able to offer their services at an affordable price. They are able to do this because they don’t need expensive office space and they can use freelancers for certain tasks. This means that the cost of these services is much lower than what it would be if you were working with an in-house team of marketers, designers, and copywriters.

Get in touch with us at SmartaStudio to have a chat about your rebrand

What is Mobile Responsive Web Design and Why is it Important?

Mobile responsive web design is important because it allows a web page to respond to the size of the device being used to view it.

Mobile responsive web design is an approach that makes a website adaptable for viewing on different devices such as desktop, laptop, tablet and mobile phone. It makes sure that the site will look good on any device and be easy to use. Mobile responsive web design is important because it enables users to access their content from any device they want and not be restricted by the type of device they’re using.

Google now prioritise mobile responsive websites for their Core Vitals research when it comes to determining your rankings on Google search results (SERPs). It is vital that your website is fully mobile responsive and compatible across all devices in order to attract new visitors and potential customers.

How Does a Mobile Site Work & Why You Need One for Your Business?

Many people are now switching to mobile devices to access the internet. In fact, more than half of the people worldwide access the internet using mobile devices, while only 49% do so via desktops. This is why it is important for businesses to have a mobile site.

Mobile sites have become one of the most common methods of internet browsing for many people, with over 51% of the world is using them on a daily basis. This trend has given many businesses an edge in regards to SEO rankings because more people are visiting their mobile sites than before. Mobile-friendly websites are not only easier for people to access, they also give your business an edge in terms of SEO rankings.

The Importance and Popularity of Mobile-First Web Design

Mobile-first web design is a popular trend in the industry. It is important because it helps businesses to be more efficient and provide users with a better experience. Mobile-first design can be used for many things, such as creating websites that are accessible on mobile, designing for mobile-only users, and designing for desktop users who use mobile devices.

Mobile-first design has become so popular because it helps companies to reach their goals more efficiently. For example, if you are trying to create a website that is accessible on mobile devices then you would want to use this type of design so your site will work well on all kinds of screens.

Another good reason why people like this type of design is because it can be used for different purposes such as designing for mobile-only users or designing for desktop

The Basics of Creating A Great Website with the Full Potential for Smartphones

Here is a list of the basic fundamentals of a mobile-friendly website:

1. Test Your Site Using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Tool

It’s important to consider mobile friendliness before taking any further actions with your site. Doing this can identify where optimisation is needed, giving you an indication of how to prioritize what needs work.

One way to do this is by simply using your website on several different devices. Access the site on your own mobile phone or tablet and see how it looks and feels to use. This will allow you to get a feel for the loading times, how well the design works on a small screen, whether the content is still readable, and if the navigation menu is too long.

Once you’ve done that, you can go even deeper by using a dedicated testing tool. Fortunately, Google has created one you can use for free, which will show you if your site is up to its standards for mobile pages. Appropriately, this is called the Mobile-Friendly Test tool.

2. Use a Reliable Website Designer for Your Businesses Website

The importance of a website for a company cannot be understated. In order to survive in today’s modern, digital world, companies need to have a well-designed and up-to-date website. The struggles of trying to maintain your own site can be time consuming and tedious. That is why companies should consider outsourcing the work to a professional website designer. Get in touch with us today

Recently the team at SmartaStudio took control of the website maintenance, monitoring and support of Stoke-on-Trent based fashion business, Terraces Menswear.

We were approached by a referral partner of ours, Fifteen Group, with a view of providing fully comprehensive support and server maintenance over one of Terraces’ busiest periods of the year.

With the client in a desperate position, we set aside other projects and dedicated our full time efforts into supporting the website with its sale over Black Friday weekend. Here’s a breakdown of how it went…

The Scope

• Support and maintenance of a multimillion-pound E-Commerce website, which attracts thousands of users over the busiest weekend of the year for all E-Commerce businesses — Black Friday.
• Ensure the website runs smoothly, sales and orders are registered successfully, and the website is linking correctly with the client’s ePoS system.
• Ensure load balancing is triggered and runs smoothly during peak times.

The Client

Terraces Menswear is a men’s fashion retailer turning over circa £8m per annum through its website alone. With 5 stores across Stoke-on-Trent, Terraces is an established name in the men’s fashion industry and continues to expand its network of stores and online customers year-on-year.

The Results

The results were astounding. Terraces Menswear experienced a steady level of online visitors over the weekend, with many orders coming into the site across the 4 days of sale.

The numbers speak for themselves:

A record-breaking Black Friday sale for Terraces Menswear, we are so pleased it went smoothly for them and that they are happy with the support we provided.

Testimonial

From Rob Adams, Director of Fifteen Group Limited

“Fifteen Group Limited is a Technology Company operating in Stoke on Trent with a wide breadth of clients across multiple sectors. One of the solutions offered is bespoke Server Hosting solutions for complex eCommerce websites operating multi-million £ turnover businesses. Recently we had one of our long-standing eCommerce websites operating in the Designer Clothing sector move to a larger eCommerce Agency, the website was operating at circa £8m per annum and so the move needed to go smoothly especially with the annual Black Friday event happening in November which accounts for a significant amount of the overall income for the Website.

The move wasn’t as successful as had been hoped with the new Agency underestimating the complexities of the site and the Server Hosting that was required. The result being a site that suddenly became almost unusable from a user’s perspective, turnover dropping to unsustainable levels and constant angst from the customer base looking to place their orders for their designer clothes. Our client persevered with the new agency for 7 weeks, trying in vain to rectify the website but, with the Black Friday weekend only 1 week away and the risk to the business of not being able to trade and sell their stock, they called us and asked if they could move the website back to Fifteen Group.

Unfortunately, Fifteen Group was unable to provide the assistance needed in such a short time frame using our own team, as we had other clients gearing up for Black Friday and our resource was already stretched to the maximum. However, believing the mantra that “every problem is a solution waiting to happen”, Director, Rob Adams turned to his BNI Network, made some phone calls and was able to quickly form a POWER TEAM consisting of Ryan McCandless of SmartaStudio and an ex-employee of Fifteen Group and now self-employed web developer Rob Allport of F9Web.

The three jumped onto a Video Call and discussed the challenge ahead; the need to construct a Hosting Environment to support the website, the physical move of the website back to us and all of the Domain Name settings involved in the transfer together with ensuring that the 5,000+ products and images were correctly displaying and linked to the companies EPOS system and Stock Records; the last thing that they wanted was to sell stock they didn’t have!

Rising to the challenge, Ryan McCandless of SmartaStudio took the lead and worked diligently for almost 48 hours solid with Rob Allport, training himself in the way that Fifteen Group create Server Configurations and all the unique support challenges that are posed by high end eCommerce websites linked to EPOS and Stock Control systems. The website was moved back to the Fifteen Group eco-system and thoroughly tested with a day to spare before the Black Friday promotions started.

Ryan’s involvement then continued throughout the BLACK FRIDAY weekend, we created a WhatsApp support group consisting of Fifteen Group, our Client and Ryan so that any support issues could be identified, reported, and resolved immediately. Ryan made himself available to monitor the Website and the Servers for 18 hours each day from the Thursday through to the Tuesday after Cyber Monday. Every detail was covered off and from the end client’s perspective the Website operated flawlessly throughout.

The result was that the Website was moved back to Fifteen Group, a structured support solution was implemented utilising Ryan McCandless both now and for the foreseeable future and the Website was not only able to trade through the Black Friday promotions BUT exceeded ALL previous records for Sales over that weekend!

Fifteen Group has worked with Ryan McCandless on several solutions, but this is the first time that we have called upon Ryan to support us with almost zero notice and for one of our largest eCommerce Websites. Ryan showed true professionalism throughout, his ability to absorb the knowledge required quickly was incredible and he was an absolute pleasure to work alongside. Ryan was able to offer insight for the client in their UX and CX experience together with show his creative and graphics skills. Our client was so impressed that they have asked if Ryan can remain as part of the overall team going forward and we of course would be delighted for that to happen to.

Fifteen Group has no hesitation in recommending the services of Ryan McCandless of SmartaStudio.”

Conclusion

The maintenance and support for Terraces Menswear has been one of our most exciting and valuable projects to date, so thank you to Rob Adams and the team at Fifteen Group for the introduction and opportunity of handling this project.

We will continue to support and provide assistance to Terraces Menswear for the foreseeable future in order to help them grow as a business and break even more records!

The way your company looks isn’t all that matters. The identity it portrays reflects its personality and tone, and your brand is a reflection of that. It’s a part of the personality that your company gives off, and this is how people will identify you in the future. Branding is important, for all businesses of any shape and size.

Branding has always been a vital part of business, but it may be more important now than ever before. With social media, it’s easy for consumers to get exposed to new brands every day. This is great for people who have plenty of options and can do research to find the best one, but this makes it more difficult for businesses.

There’s a huge amount of competition today, so businesses need to go the extra mile of ensuring they stand out in a crowd. To succeed in branding, you need to invest in creating an engaging and attention-grabbing brand that will keep your audiences interested. Doing this will not only help get people’s attention but also allow you to control how they perceive your business.

More People Will Recognise Your Business

One of the most obvious reasons that businesses need branding is to help them get recognized more often. If you maintain a strong brand, it will stay in the minds of customers who like your business. This is much easier than trying to keep your business at the forefront of a customer’s mind without one.

However, a business with elements such as a distinct logo, attractive colours and other visual elements will be much more memorable. You could inject your brand into people’s daily routine in a substantial way through advertising, but it’s also possible to put your brand in front of someone without them even realising it. If they find what you have to say or show interesting, then there’s a good chance that they will remember seeing your work – even if they don’t want to use what you have to offer just yet. Eventually, when they’re ready to take the next steps, if your branding has stuck with them, they’ll come back to you.

Branding Can Help Build Trust 

Trust is essential for any business, but it’s not always easy to acquire. Lack of branding, for example, can make it difficult to establish trust with your audience.

It’s vital that people can recognise your business at a glance and without branding, it may be difficult for customers to understand what you have to offer.

If a company is confident enough to invest in a good logo and identifiable style, it shows its client that they have professional values. Most people would likely choose a business that has clear branding over one that doesn’t. Branding helps you show potential customers that you’re an established, credible business.

You can use this to tell people very early on what they can expect from your business. This is an investment you’re making to improve, and it lets people know that you want them to enjoy the benefits of your work. This distinguishes you from other companies competing for their attention.

You Can Improve Your Advertising

Your business won’t get very far without advertising. Branding goes hand-in-hand with advertising; if you want better advertising for your business, you need to work on developing a brand first.

If you’re looking to amp up your advertising, it can be tough to keep everything cohesive if you haven’t thought about your business’s identity and values. Taking some time to consider these will make it easier for you. If you’re advertising without a strong sense of branding, you’re missing the opportunity to create your campaign more effectively. By adding in your branding when creating your campaign, it is easier for people to recognise who they are and what they offer.

It’s Great for Your Employees 

Good branding also has benefits inside of your company. There is a value in knowing that the people you work with every day like and respect it as much as you do and feel like they’re part of a team. A company with great branding will find it easier to attract the best people and retain employees’ loyalty.

You can use branding to help attract new customers but make sure you also invest in aspects that keep your team motivated. Things like branded merchandise and apparel or investing in a more modern office space. If you can motivate your employees by creating a sense of unity through branding, you could end up seeing great results all around.

Branding Creates Loyal Customers

With good branding strategies, you can give your company a more human side that customers can identify with. It’s also important that they return to your business for future purchases. Branding is one of the best ways to connect with your audience and have an emotional connection. It lets you build a relationship with them so they can turn into loyal customers. Creating a brand that people care about can help you stay ahead of businesses without a strong brand identity.