To ensure that your new product stands out against your competitors you need to create contrast within your design and brand innovation. You packaging will play a major part in this role. Your product may be the best product on the market but unless you can rely this to your consumers then your product will remain hidden on the shelf.
Make sure that your product stands out! Studies have shown that a new product has a visibility of less than 40% so launching a new brand is always a challenge.
Common product failures are generally not down to the consumers rejecting the product but down to the product becoming lost in a sea of competing brands. For success you need to make sure that your product stands out from the crowd, giving your consumers the time consideration a new product needs to succeed.
You have approximately 5 seconds to grab the attention of the consumer. To make sure that this time is used wisely your packaging must be prepared. Do not over whelm your consumer with too much information. In this case less is definitely more if you try to over complicate the design and fill your packaging with unnecessary clutter it will have the exact opposite effect, encouraging your market to revert back to tried and tested products that they are already familiar with.
Keep all of the most important information on the front of the packaging. It has been discovered that less than 10% of consumers flip the packaging over to look at the back. Don’t miss out by relying on the back of the packaging as a marketing tool to initially capture your audience.
Try to stand out and earn your place on the shelf. Go big, bold and eye grabbing, draw them in with a punchy strapline, bright colour or something that will make them smile!
Create a contrast to competitive brands, by colour, structure & construction.
Colour is the strongest tool in grabbing the attention of the consumer. The best way to summarize is, to break the rules (of the category). Research your competitors brand and look at what you can do that will benefit your packaging and create a strong positive contrast against other competing brands.
Design packaging that will engage your consumers with your new brand. A good example of this is the new packaging for the ‘Hugh Jackmans, laughing man coffee tea and chocolate brand’. The new packaging for this product is centered around making people happy. The laughing man motto ‘is all be happy’.
To embrace this message the design team focused on creating a unique concept to illustrate their ethos while including the consumers in the process. The new brand encourages interaction with the market by inviting consumers to upload their own laughing face on the website for a chance to be used on future packaging. Not only does this engage the consumer but also drives important traffic to the website which acts as another powerful tool in launching your product.
The attention to detail is key in creating effective packaging.
Consumers purchase and formulate their opinions of new products by the packaging only, simply because until a product is tried and tested we have nothing else to formulate an opinion on. Make sure that your packaging remains true to the product inside and really gets across your selling points.
Consumers who will be interested in what your product has to offer will only buy if the packaging appeals to their interests and ethos, whilst truly representing the product. Make sure that your product is packaged appropriately. For example if you are promoting a product that is environmentally sensitive you may not want seal the product in a plastic sleeve, use an appropriate material and seal with a sticker instead! Don’t let your product down at the final hurdle by over looking the attention to detail.
Make sure your product emotes a sense of happiness, fun or relativity. This way you are proceeding to build a positive perception of your brand in the subconscious of your consumers. If you manage to do this then your product will do the rest!
We are without a doubt in an age where consumers genuinely care about the effect their products have on the environment.
We are without a doubt in an age where consumers genuinely care about the effect their products have on the environment. With landfills growing at a increasingly rapid rate, a large amount of consumers are making conscious decisions to purchase products that come in smaller and more environmentally friendly packaging.
To appeal to this increasing demand many companies are embracing this change by creating new environment sensitive packaging to showcase their products and their ethics.
Planet sensitive packaging covers a multitude of diverse subjects but here we are just going to look at a few examples of who is doing it well.
Apple are one such company who have really taken this concept on board. The New MacBooks come in much smaller boxes with less foam, less packaging and paper. The packaging has been carefully designed to reduce the amount of packaging by 41 percent in comparison to other similar Apple products. Smaller boxes are much better for the planet. As well as for obvious reasons by reducing the use of resources, Apple are now able to fit more boxes on each shipping pallet. This means more products will fit on each boat and plane. Fewer planes and boats now have to be used, resulting in fewer CO2 emissions. It’s only one minor change but a change which an international company such as Apple has an increasing positive impact on our environment.
Moving away from the ever popular technology sector and into food we come to discover that Waitrose are also pulling their weight!
The way consumers buy meat is set to change forever following the introduction of the new style ‘waste reducing’ eco packaging.
Familiar meat trays will become a thing of the past as Waitrose introduces snip and slide packaging that will remove 90 tones of plastic waste from customers’ bins every year. The packs can be easily snipped open and the contents slid into the pan, saving time in the kitchen as well as space in the refuse sack. Using ‘flow pack’ technology, already used for foods such as bagged salads and crisps, the packs are robust yet lightweight enough to withstand other items being placed on top of them in the shopping basket.
From these diverse companies and the billions of other companies involved I believe this is an area of packaging design which we are really stating to get to grips with!
Packaging is so critical today and consumers are more demanding than ever about how products look as well as how they can reduce waste.
I believe that Puma are a strong company that are really showcasing both of these factors, creating a vibrant visual impact as well as adhering to the concerns of the environment.
Puma are due to launch a new range of packaging for their footwear which saves on materials and creates advertising that will outlive the purpose of the packaging.
Boxes contribute to millions of tons of waste each year. Nike have considered this and are due to launch a new packaging concept which will eliminate the use of boxes. The idea is to create a cardboard insert which will be encased by a re-usable bag, therefore cutting down on the amount of redundant materials used by 65 %. The packaging also has no laminated printing, no tissue paper and weighs less for shipping while also eliminating the need for a plastic retail bag.
Millions of shoes shipped in this bag will reduce water, energy and diesel consumption in the manufacturing process by more than six percent per year. In summary: 8,500 tons less paper, 20 million megajoules of electricity saved, 1 million liters of fuel oil and 1 million liters of water will be conserved. During transport 500,000 liters of diesel will be saved and by replacing traditional shopping bags, the difference in weight will save almost 275 tons of plastic.
This is a fantastic case study to show that the need to create environmentally friendly packaging does not have to compromise the creative and visual effect required to capture the attention of the consumer.
As designers if we can follow the same policies when producing new packaging for the next design brief that lands on our desk, we can make high emissions, excessive energy and wasted materials a thing of the past!
.net magazine is the World's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. We are very proud to share that the Rubber Cheese website is featured in the December 2011 issue as CMS (content management system) website of the month.
Ryan Taylor (@ryanhavoc) is a freelance web designer and a regular contributor to .net magazine. He very kindly awarded us the CMS website of the month, interviewed us and featured it in the showcase section of the magazine. It's great to be noticed by our fellow peers so we'd like to thank Ryan for this accolade, it's very much appreciated!
This part of the feature considers what can be done for maximum impact and for minimum investment to really engage and inspire shoppers, to encourage them to buy more of the products you want them to, increasing your sales, margin and return on space… and there are a number of things you can do to make significant impact for little cost.
1. Make the interior (and exterior) of your store as inviting as you can…
2. Present your products clearly, full shelves, clearly and correctly labelled.
3. Analyse everything… know the commercial basis for every decision you make – because after all, you are running a business…
Summing up – Why you need to really focus on your visual merchandising…
Visual merchandising can make a good retail outlet great. Investing a little time and effort in giving your store a facelift can make a world of difference. Engaging some professional services to help with your branding, your window displays or your in store signage can make you really stand out from the crowd. Ruthlessly looking at your products profitability in the context of what presence on the display space you give them could give you competitive advantage… in a crowded market you need to pull out all the stops to give your customer the shopping experience they really want – but you can expect to reap the rewards when you get it right.
This article is part 1 of a 2 part feature on Visual Merchandising. Co-written by Kelly Molson and Clare Rayner "The Retail Champion".
89% of the UK population visit online retailers.
In this blog we look at how physical retail stores can compete with ever increasing online sales.
Calling all Independant Retailers. This workshop is for you!
In considering the importance of visual merchandising on retail businesses the single and most important reason is to engage and inspire shoppers, to encourage them to buy more of the products you want them to, increasing your sales, margin and return on space – after all, you are running a business! That engagement process of course starts even before they have set foot in your store…
This article is part 1 of a 2 part feature. Part 2 will explain what what can be done to make a difference, for maximum impact and minimum investment.
Why is visual merchandising important?
Clare says: The single and most important reason is to engage and inspire shoppers…
In considering the importance of visual merchandising on retail businesses the single and most important reason is to engage and inspire shoppers, to encourage them to buy more of the products you want them to, increasing your sales, margin and return on space – after all, you are running a business! That engagement process of course starts even before they have set foot in your store…
Kelly Says: First impressions count…
The exterior of your premises should be instantly appealing with clear, consistent branding applied to your signage. The entrance reflects the personality of your store and must entice the passer by to enter.
Creative and inventive window display…
An excellent opportunity to bring more custom to your store. Customers have only a few seconds to view and be attracted by your displays so keep them simple, bold and uncluttered. Cluttered, stale, or badly organised displays, are liable to do the exact opposite and turn those potential customers away.
Ensure any special offers are clearly readable and not too big / small, bearing in mind the demographic of your target audience. If your window space is limited try using bright colours and lighting to draw the eye, maybe even motion. Change the displays frequently based on how often your customers visit the store. A fantastic but dated display could do more harm than good.
Seasonal displays are a perfect opportunity…
Turn every browser into a customer. Use every opportunity that you can buy a card for – think Mothers day, Fathers day, Easter, Halloween, Christmas etc… I can remember my Mum taking me to Selfridges every Christmas just to see their displays! Could you make your store the one to visit?
3 key areas to be aware of in your visual merchandising approach
1. Avoid overwhelming / confusing the customer – Clare says…
It is very easy to be attracted to new product opportunities and be constantly adding to the range / choice you offer. The issue is that what can happen is that the sales you are achieving are simply shared between more SKUs, making your business more complex and putting you at risk of carrying excess stock.
Range proliferation can strangle a business from a cash flow perspective, so getting the balance right is critical. Too little choice will put customers off, too much will confuse them.
Ideally you should analyse your retail space to understand what the maximum number of products you can present at any given time is. Then be ruthless. Every product is costing you money both to stock and also it occupies your high cost retail real estate – if it hasn’t earned the right to be there, and it isn’t a product typically connected to the purchase of a high margin line (therefore earning it’s right by virtue of a related sale) then get rid of it – make way for a product that will earn you some money! Remember – focus on your return on space…
…Avoid overwhelming / confusing the customer – Kelly says…
It’s important your store is inviting and uncluttered. There’s nothing worse than walking into a messy store and feeling totally lost and overwhelmed with the amount of stuff in your line of sight! It will make potential customers walk out, trust me, I’ve done this myself.
Try to reference the layout by colour within a product category to ease the shopper’s identification of products they need or matching products. Take a leaf out of the online/e-commerce store design and display products with other products that they work well/look good with.
2. Make sure your ideal customers can feel at ease, to linger longer: Clare says…
Once you’ve got the potential customer in the store and have presented a beautiful, profitable range, you need to retain them for as long as possible – typically the longer they stay, the more they will spend…
…Make sure your ideal customers can feel at ease, to linger longer: Kelly says…
If you make your customers feel at ease, they will linger longer. Music, lighting, colours etc can all have a huge effect on the stress levels of the shopper. How many times have you left a store because it was too bright or the music too loud?
Try appealing to all 5 senses sympathetically and be aware that the demographic of your target market will feel different in different atmospheres.
For example:
3. Make sure customers can find products in store, and that they have the information they need to buy with confidence: Kelly says…
Your in store signage must be clear and concise. Too many signs will act like a hundred shouting voices, not enough and your customer won’t know where to go.
Keep it simple and in line with your existing store branding. Use fonts and colours that are easily readable from a distance, avoid script or fussy, ornate styles.
Products need to be presented in a way that the customer can understand exactly what they do and how they help them. This is where good Point of Sale and freestanding merchandise displays really come in to play.
Point of sale (POS) or checkout is the location where a transaction occurs. Use this area to display new products, special offers or “no brainer” purchases, for example lip balms, pens, small handbag sized items.
You can be really creative with these displays. Keep them simple and bold. There are hundreds of off the shelf display products you can purchase usually in plastic or cardboard.
Be creative with the products themselves. For example, if you were selling say paper napkins, create origami animals from them – instantly more appealing.
If you have own brand products invest in working with a design agency that specialises in packaging design so that your product appeals exactly to your target customer. The right packaging design can make or break a product, especially if it’s new to the market or has huge competition. A good brand and packaging designer will draw out the brand story and encapsulate that into the design, giving your product maximum shelf appeal.
This article is part 2 of a 2 part feature. Part 1 explained the importance of Visual Merchandising.
89% of the UK population visit online retailers.
In this blog we look at how physical retail stores can compete with ever increasing online sales.
Calling all Independant Retailers. This workshop is for you!
Melvin the Magical Mixed Media Machine (or just Melvin the Machine) is best described as a Rube Goldberg machine with a twist. In the film the ringing of an alarm clock triggers a chain of events that goes on for around 6 minutes including fires, giant domino rallies and paper windmills. Melvin the Machine was created by studio HEYHEYHEY where it was featured for 10 days in MU artspace during the 2010 Dutch Design Week. In February the video was shot in the beautiful ‘De Ploeg’, a (former) factory designed by Gerrit Rietveld.
New York is a busy city. People hustle and bustle around the city streets without much time to be nice to each other. So the people from Improv Everywhere decided to conduct a genius experiment. They placed a specially designed wooden lectern with a megaphone on top with a sign that read "Say Something Nice", in various public places around the city.
The prank collective said: "We wanted to see what would happen if New Yorkers were given the opportunity to amplify their voices to say something nice.”
As you can see from the video, the New Yorkers did just that!
We love this, it made us smile.
Calling all Independant Retailers. This workshop is for you!
89% of the UK population visit online retailers.
In this blog we look at how physical retail stores can compete with ever increasing online sales.
Good design is completely subjective. You only have to whisper the words "London 2012 Logo" to hear that some people think it's brilliant, and others think it looks like a bad scribble or something that resembles a Simpson's porn movie! Weird I know.
I’ve been asked the question numerous times in my career and have asked others the same. I've never been able to clearly answer it and I can't remember anyone I've heard or spoken to tell me either... until very recently.
Dieter Rams was born in 1932 and was chief of design for Braun from 1961 - 1995. He was responsible for designing products like the SK-4 record player and the 606 Universal Shelving System by Viscoe. Many of the items he has designed are featured in design museums around the world including MoMA in New York.
In the early 1980s Dieter was increasingly concerned by design and the "impenetrable confusion of forms, colours and noises". That was when he asked himself: is my design good design?
It was at this time he set out the 10 most important principles for what is considered to be good design. Some people refer to them as the 'Ten Commandments'.
The possibilities for innovation are not, by any means, exhausted. Technological development is always offering new opportunities for innovative design. But innovative design always develops in tandem with innovative technology, and can never be an end in itself.
A product is bought to be used. It has to satisfy certain criteria, not only functional, but also psychological and aesthetic. Good design emphasises the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it.
The aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness because products are used every day and have an effect on people and their well-being. Only well-executed objects can be beautiful.
It clarifies the product’s structure. Better still, it can make the product clearly express its function by making use of the user's intuition. At best, it is self-explanatory.
Products fulfilling a purpose are like tools. They are neither decorative objects nor works of art. Their design should therefore be both neutral and restrained, to leave room for the user's self-expression.
It does not make a product more innovative, powerful or valuable than it really is. It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept.
It avoids being fashionable and therefore never appears antiquated. Unlike fashionable design, it lasts many years – even in today's throwaway society.
Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the consumer.
Design makes an important contribution to the preservation of the environment. It conserves resources and minimises physical and visual pollution throughout the lifecycle of the product.
Less, but better – because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials. Back to purity, back to simplicity.
When I read these 10 principles for the first time it was like I’d had a brick thrown at my head! This man is a pure genius and sums up perfectly what good design really is. Is there anything you would add to the list?
The 10 principles of good design is Copyright of Dieter Rams. The image of Dieter Rams used on the blog picture is taken from the Viscoe website
Calling all Independant Retailers. This workshop is for you!
The first of six blogs explaining how businesses can create a website that actually works for their business
Wednesday 21st September saw Rubber Cheese as a conference sponsor for this years Retail Conference at the prestigious America Square Conference Centre.
We’d been looking for a charity event to take part in for a long time and when we saw a post for The Great Gorilla Run on Facebook, we knew it was the one for us. Kelly & Paul sigend up and Team Cheese were in!
Since the first Great Gorilla Run in 2003, thousands of people have donned their gorilla suits and run, jogged or walked the 7km City and Bankside fun run route that takes in sights such as Tower Bridge and The Tate Modern.
By taking part in the Great Gorilla Run, we have played a crucial role in helping save the remaining 720 mountain gorillas left in the wild.
Not being the best of runners, we both set out a training plan to follow, building up to running around 3.5miles twice a week. I say we but I think Paul might have struggled with this slightly!
Well, on the day of the run only one of Team Cheese actually made it to the race, sadly (or not so for him) Paul was struck down with a sickness bug the night before! Thankfully his amazing sister Nicole @nicolewfitness was able to step in at the last minute and make Team Cheese whole again! We also met up with Graham Carter @GrahamCarterGC who we’d met via Twitter a while back and the three of us ran round in the heat together.
We also met the legend that is Bill Oddie - photo's a bit blurry but here's the proof!
I was a really hot day and I’m not sure any of us had thought about how heavy and sweaty the costumes were! At 3 miles I’ll be honest and admit that I was ready to jump into the Thames to cool down! But we pushed on round the course which took in the beautiful sights of London, and finally completed the 5 1/2 mile route in 1hr 10 minutes. Not record breaking I know but you try lugging 9 pounds of sweaty fur around and see how you get on!
We are absolutely blown away with the generosity of our friends, family and clients and raised well over our £800 team target. At the last count we’d raised £1140!!!
There’s still time to sponsor us if you’ve not been able to yet, it’s open till November 24th. Just follow the link below...
The big question is, will we be doing it again next year? - I might make Paul run it on his own!
I had the pleasure of running this workshop at The Retail Conference last month. It received great feedback from some major retailers but we think it’s something that would appeal more to independent retailers...
We’ve developed a workshop that will show you how to achieve increased customer engagement and interaction, both in-store and online in a cost effectively.
“Applying eCommerce design principles to the High Street”.
In this workshop we explained why it is crucial for high street retailers to embrace the design principles and techniques used online, to combat the growing eCommerce and mCommerce sales figures.
This session is a must attend if you are involved in creating the retail marketing strategy, are responsible for your brand presence, either online or offline, or are struggling to compete with eCommerce competitors.
Rubber Cheese will outline the latest trends in digital display, and explaining how the iPad can be used as a cost effective alternative to purchasing display screens, acting as an interactive in-store display.
In this session you will:
This will be a lively, fun and interactive session, a must-attend for any retailer who wants to breath new life and a bit of 'theatre' into their in store experience.
If you’re an independent retailer would you be interested in attending this workshop? We’d love to get a local crowd together for this so please do leave a comment on below as it would be great to your feedback!
Wednesday 21st September saw Rubber Cheese as a conference sponsor for this years Retail Conference at the prestigious America Square Conference Centre.
89% of the UK population visit online retailers.
In this blog we look at how physical retail stores can compete with ever increasing online sales.
The Retail Conference is the UK's leading annual retail event encompassing networking, keynote speakers, seminars, workshops and an interactive panel discussion. It is the only event of its kind that offers free attendance to retailers.
This year was the first year we attended as a sponsor rather than a delegate and were also asked to run a workshop. We focused on what we know best “Applying eCommerce design principles to the High Street”.
In this workshop we explained why it is crucial for high street retailers to embrace the design principles and techniques used online, to combat the growing eCommerce and mCommerce sales figures.
The workshop was really well received with some great feedback from retailers and associates alike..
“I had the pleasure of attending Kelly's recent workshop at The Retail Conference 'Applying E-Commerce Principles to the High Street' and found it really informative and insightful. Kelly clearly knows her stuff when it comes to design for retail and I really enjoyed her friendly and down to earth presenting style and great use of visuals throughout the workshop, which kept everyone interested all the way through. She had a ton of people waiting to speak to her after the presentation too, which I'm guessing means they thought exactly the same as I did! Highly recommended.”
Jenna Gould, Public Relations Specialist
I’ll post the full write up for the workshop later today as we’ll be running this for independent retailers throughout the rest of 2011 & into 2012 in the Herts & Essex areas...
Credit to Dianna Bonner of www.worldvisionphotos.co.uk for the fabulous photographs.
89% of the UK population visit online retailers.
In this blog we look at how physical retail stores can compete with ever increasing online sales.
Imagine you've just invented the next best thing since the iPad. It's going to be huge and make you millions. Only tiny problem is, you need a cash injection to make it all happen.
Read on, because Rubber Cheese may just be able to help you...
Every now and then we meet with someone that has an idea so awesome that we weep for days because we wish we’d thought of it first!
Now this hurts, but we suck it up and enjoy the fact that we might be involved in developing an idea that without, the world would be a sadder and more complicated place.Trouble is, sometimes these awesome ideas need a little bit of an investment from somewhere to turn into world improvers!
Now some agencies might turn you away but we’re different. We’ll introduce you to Angels Den, the home of Angel investment for Business Owners seeking start up capital and businesses moving into high growth.
Angels Den is the only Angel investment network to offer one to one pitching at SpeedFundingTM events and with a great track record of success, Angels Den prides itself on its straightforward and friendly approach.
It’s quickly and easy and they offer support and guidance along the way.
For those that need a bit of extra help, we can arrange a consultation with one of our selected advisors that can help you prepare for the speed funding event. They will asses how much help you need and work out a cost efficient program for you.
One of our advisors has 100% success rate in that ALL our clients so far have received offers from Angels!!!
So if you’ve dreamed up the next Facebook or invented the gadget to rival the iPad, give us a call on 0845 867 6750, we’re waiting with the cheese & biscuits!
Well, ok maybe not RAaaaaaR, just RAR which means we’ve been accepted on to the Recommend Agency Register!
Rubber Cheese are delighted to have been accepted on to the prestigiuos Recommend Agency Register.
This is a particular honor for us as RAR only accept agencies which come highly recommended by their clients. Which means all you lovely people have been saying very nice things about us!
RAR spend their time finding out about agencies. It’s used by global brands, charities, corporates and anyone that is looking to work with an agency that is client recommended and delivers real results for their clients.
You'll find RAR useful if you:
And you never know, Rubber Cheese might just end up being the right fit for you.
Woop Woop!
It's been a while in the making (it seems like forever) but we have finally launched our brand spanking new website and shiney new logo! Hoorar!
There is a ton of new stuff on the website to keep you all amused and informed so please take a look around and let us know what you think.
The new site is a lot slicker and easier to update, so now it's in place we will be updating the site on a regular basis as we know that we have been a bit slack lately! (Client work always comes first!) So please come back to see how we are getting on, or alternatively sign up for Rubber Cheese Bites (our newsletter) and get 'our version' of what's new, business tips and design inspiration straight to your email.
Thanks for visiting and we hope you like the new site
Team Cheese. x
Now copywriters are going to hate me for this but I believe if you’re a small business of 1-10 people, then you should create your own copy for your website for one main reason; personality. I believe that personality in a website is key for a successful site. If you can express your personality in your website then you will have an emotional engagement with the person who is reading it. An emotionally engaged person is more likely to listen to your thoughts and react to them.
Here is a great example of a website with web copy that has personality:
Are you trying to appeal to a more discerning type of clientele? We’re not suggesting you put up ‘no riff-raff’ signs on your premises. That would be silly. But maybe you need a more sophisticated level of marketing to appeal to your target audience. Our Showcards may just be the answer. They’re ever so posh and available in a wide range of exciting finishes.
from Printing.com
Now what I love about the printing.com web copy is that it talks to you in a human way. There’s no jargon, there’s no talk about what printing machines they use and how great the inks are. Who cares about that!!? If you have a problem with your toilet and you call a plumber to fix it, you don’t ask that plumber what tools he’s going to use to fix it. You don’t care as long as he fixes it!
What the printing.com copy does is:
This is brilliant sales copy, but what makes it different to a lot of sales copy is that it does it with a smile.
Grammar and spell-check your copy
It sounds like a simple thing but you would be amazed by how many people don’t do this.
Spelling mistakes on a website scream of incompetence. There’s really no excuse for it with free spell checkers readily available. If grammar is not a strength, (and I’m speaking from experience here) then ask someone else to proof read the copy before your site goes live. It’s always best to have more than one pair of eyes on it!
Reading web copy is not as easy as reading a physical book. Most people won’t read long paragraphs of text on a site, but will scan for relevant information instead. So with this in mind try to keep paragraph lengths to a minimum by being informative but to the point. Try to use bullet points when you want to communicate overview details about services or products.
Don’t be tempted to use another website’s copy as you could be penalised by Google for duplication of content. This means that Google could just throw you off the Google listing.
Here are some useful tips from Google for creating copy that Google likes:
Above are some basic rules for creating copy that Google likes, but if you want to see real results and achieve good listings on search engines then I would always recommend using a professional internet marketing company like the very friendly bunch at e-mphasis
The second of six blogs about creating a successful business website. In this blog we talk about structuring a website the correct way
89% of the UK population visit online retailers.
You’ve probably seen a load of statistics like this, I seem to see them posted on Twitter on a daily basis.
If the stats are true then every retailer in the country should have an eCommerce website to sell their products, and if you don’t then you’ll be left behind.
Mobile Commerce or mCommerce is growing even faster. The smart phone and tablet market is growing at an extremely fast rate. 5.3% of the total UK web traffic comes from non-computer devices. Now 5% doesn’t sound like much, but it’s very early days for this market.
So we’ve established that all retailers should trade online through multiple channels, now let’s talk about what will happen to the high street shops. What can the high street do to increase sales and not be completely overwhelmed by the web?
I was fortunate enough to attend this years Screen Media Expo which was excellent and full of inspirational displays. One of the most exciting things I came across was at the Adidas and Intel stand. I caught sight of a virtual wall full of floating trainers, which I had to go and have a look at!
The spinning interactive adiVerse Virtual Footwear Wall I was viewing could put 8,000 shoes at a shoppers’ fingertips in a futuristic mash-up of eCommerce and high street retail.
Designed by UK based Start Creative and created by Intel in partnership with Adidas, the wall renders products in 3D and allows a shopper to spin and zoom in on the shoes and call up specs from a touch-screen display. Users can view intricate details and videos related to each product and even have shoes given to them by Lionel Messi…all virtually of course! Check out the video to see it in action.
The major disadvantage to this system is obviously the cost for implementing it. Most of us won’t have the budgets that Adidas have and I’m pretty sure this would have cost them a lot!
Thankfully there are ways that retailers can achieve similar results on a much smaller budget:
This sounds like an expensive option, but it’s surprising how cost effective this can be. It’s ideal for:
It’s worth noting that screens with an internet connection are much more productive as they allow for a creative agency to update the displays remotely. It’s also easy to have multiple screens work off of the same remote system.
Interactive display screens let a customer touch, move stuff about and push buttons on screen. This is a more expensive option but gives the user more freedom and is great for really engaging with the customer.
The Bouncepad iPad Stand
An alternative to buying display screens is to use a tablet device such as an iPad. This can act as an interactive display allowing users to read product reviews, and view in-store marketing. At Screen Media Expo I met Bouncepad who sell a really cool and easy to use iPad stand that is perfect for this job. This option is ideal for smaller shops who wouldn’t require many screens.
QR codes used on displays enable smart phone users to scan the code and view web links to find out more information about the shop or it’s products. Special offers can be hidden on pages that can then be used in-store.
Displaying an eCommerce site in-store allows customers to view the entire product range as well as reviews and company background.
Now if you asked the question,
Sound familiar?
To keep up with fast growing eCommerce and mCommerce sales figures, high street retailers must use the same techniques used online, in-stores.
The “about us” page is one of the most important pages on your site. Visitors want to know exactly who they are dealing with. This blog is a guide to what you should include in your about us pages.
A short paragraph explaining what type of company you are, what you do, why you do it, where you do it, who you do it for and your business vision & goals. The first paragraph should grab attention, people get bored easily and only really skim read websites so keep it short and informative.
Have a team page or personal profiles for each member of staff. This gives visitors a clear understanding of the person they are dealing with before actually meeting or speaking to that person. This instills a confidence in the team before they even make contact. Additionally it give your employees a sense of worth and feeling of being part of the team.
The personal profiles should include:
Note: I would recommend using a professional photographer for profile picture shots as the style will be consistent, making your employees look part of a team.
This is a great place to put your client or video testimonials. If you only have space for one or two testimonials ask your web designer to put the testimonials on rotation, so each time a user visits the page a different one shows at random. Read more about testimonials in Part 4 of this series.
If you have a company history you should talk about it. People like to work with established companies as they seem more trustworthy and credible. You can show your company history in a number of ways, one being a company timeline. Mention significant moments in the company history, such as awards you’ve won, when you moved offices or exciting projects you worked on.
You should have a clear call to action so visitors can contact you easily, don’t rely on the user to contact you via the contact us page.
The third blog of the series looks at creating website copy for your business website
Part 4 of the series looks at testimonials for your website and how useful they can be to establish credibility
I always recommend that businesses have testimonials on their websites. They are a great selling point and will help your business be perceived as a reputable and credible company.
People follow what others do, so if readers can see that clients rate your service then they’ll be more likely to give your service a try.
Here’s an example. Have you ever walked past an empty restaurant and thought “I’m not going in there it’s dead!” But then gone into a similar looking restaurant down the road to find its full, but you’ve still waited to get a table in the full restaurant?
The empty restaurant might actually be better, but because it’s empty and the other restaurant is full, you automatically think it must be better than the empty one. This is the same principle with testimonials, if you visit a website with no testimonials and a site with them, you would probably be more likely to go with the one that had them.
When you use testimonials try to have them spread across your site so people will see one or two on most of the pages they visit, and also have a dedicated testimonial page. I would usually include at least one on every page.
Don’t be afraid to ask your clients or customers for testimonials. If you’ve produced a good job for them they should be more than happy to supply you with one. When you ask your client for a glowing reference, ask them to be specific, how the service was beneficial and why they would recommend you to someone else.
If you work for a brand that is widely recognized and they allow you to, you should add the brand’s logo to the testimonial as visitors to your site will recognize that logo and be more likely to read what they have to say about you.
When using testimonials use this as a guide:
They say, “a picture paints a 1000 words” and being a graphic designer I think that quote is quite right! As broadband speeds become faster and video on the web becomes more wide spread it only makes sense to use video to promote your company. Film your customers talking about you and your service, highlight the services you offer and film the premises that you work from. A web user is just as likely to view a video than read text, so cover all the bases to gain the biggest audience.
I would recommend using a video production company to produce and edit the video for you. It needs to look professional otherwise it could have a detrimental effect on your business. There’s a lot of equipment used including camera’s, lighting etc, so don’t think about using the video camera on your iPhone to create it! For roughly 2 to 3 days work a good video production company should be able to put together a 1-2 minute video, which is plenty of time to get the message across.
The added benefits with video are the multi channel possibilities. You can post the video on YouTube or Vimeo so you can reach a wider audience.
A good example of a company video can be seen on Hannah Couzen’s website.
If would like more information about this service please speak to us
The second of six blogs about creating a successful business website. In this blog we talk about structuring a website the correct way
The third blog of the series looks at creating website copy for your business website
The “about us” page is one of the most important pages on your site. Visitors want to know exactly who they are dealing with. This blog is a guide to what you should include.
The structure of your website is crucial. It defines how users navigate your site to find information about your business. Your web designer should help you with this process and you should also speak to an SEO expert before you set the final structure, as they will help you to create an SEO friendly site. For this reason I won’t go into too much detail regarding keywords, headlines titles and section names, however listed below are some handy hints and rules for creating a great web structure that will really help your business.
Whether its creating more leads, increasing sales, or building online relationships you need to set goals for your website. Please read my previous blog for more details on this.
A good rule of thumb for an excellent web structure; your users should be able to easily find any of the information they need within 3 clicks.
Ideally this means that you should create a 3 level navigation system. Your home page will be the first level, your main sections will be the second level and then the sections within the main sections (sub sections) will be on the third level.
Create rough web diagrams to show the structure of the website. A web diagram is a type of visual aide that represents the relationship among parts of a whole.
Setting a hierarchy of information
You should create a hierarchy table of information. Gather all the information you want to go on the website and then transfer into a table with the most important information at the top of the table working its way down to the least important.
Once you and your web design team know this, you will be able to work out what information should be most prominent throughout the site.
At this point it would be good to talk to your SEO team who will help you define your keywords, heading titles etc, so your site will be structurally sound for good search engine listings. Once you know this your web design team should be able to proceed with the next stage of their design process.
Speaking from a web designers point of view, it’s usually best if we can have all the content upfront before we start to design the layout for a website. This is for many reasons, but primarily so we can be more creative with the space we have. If we don’t know how much content goes into a space then it’s a bit like having a plate but not knowing how much food we’ll have to go on that plate. If we receive lots of food that’s too much for the plate then the food piles up and spills over, causing a bit of a mess. If we don’t receive a lot of food, say a couple of peas, then those peas on that big plate look a bit lost. Now space is a good thing, but if you have to much space then it’s not making the best use of the plate or the space!
If we don’t know how much content goes into a space then it’s a bit like having a plate but not knowing how much food we’ll have to go on that plate.
Now I’m talking in an ideal world and the world isn’t always ideal. Business people are usually very busy doing what they do best, so having content ready for a site when they’ve only just realised their goals for it is highly unlikely. It takes time, time which a lot of people don’t have and that often leaves web designers waiting for content from the client.
As much as we’d love to help write your copy and gather content for your site, you know your business processes in more detail than we do, and with a little hard work you can create something brilliant.
In the next blog posts of the series I’ll show you how you can create brilliant content for your site; content that is user friendly and also Google friendly.
The first of six blogs explaining how businesses can create a website that actually works for their business
The third blog of the series looks at creating website copy for your business website
Creating a website for your business is essential in today’s fast paced world. Most people now look online for information about a business or service. It’s easy to do, you just go online, type the name of the business into Google and voila! You have everything you want to know about that business… or do you?
In my experience and I’m sure for most of you, if you type into Google the name of a particular business, quite often that business doesn’t actually come out on the top page of Google search, sometimes not even on the first page. Eventually if you do find the site, you’ll often be let down by how it looks or the content the website provides. If you can’t find the content you were looking for then we naturally get fed up and just leave. We continue on until we find what we were looking for, just somewhere else.
If this was your website then you’re losing business, business that you didn’t even know you potentially had, unless you check your stats on a regular basis.
If you had a retail store on the high street, with lots of shoppers walking in every day but with little or no sales, you’d probably have a re-think about how to convert the visitors into sales. You’d look at your pricing, the layout and design of your store, even yourself/staff and how you could improve customer service.
The process of creating a website can be broken down and analyzed in a similar way.
There’s a series of 6 blogs coming on this subject, but for now let’s start with the web design team that you will work with.
It goes without saying that you should ask an expert. Someone who creates websites as a profession. Not your 14 year old nephew who knows how to use Dreamweaver, but a professional who does it for a living and knows how to create an engaging, user friendly, aesthetically pleasing site that works specifically for your business.
I would always use a web designer or a web design company that’s been recommended to you. Ask people you know who’ve had a website created for them that works and ask them for the designers details. Alternatively just come speak to us! Once you do find the right design company for you, I’m afraid that’s when the hard work really begins!
You didn’t think it would be that easy did you?
As web designers we can’t be expected to know everything about all businesses. A good web designer will ask the relevant questions and find out as much about you and your business as possible. Here are some of the questions they should be asking you:
Company Profile
Aim of the Website
Your Target Audience
Brand Values
Goals
Budget & Timescales
Not only do the answers to these questions help web designers to plan a project, but they can also help you to focus on the goals for your website and let you take a step back and view your business as a whole.
So you have a web designer or company in place who knows what they’re doing, you’ve discussed with them what the goals are for the site and they understand about your business and your competitors. They should now be able to start the planning process. So what do you do now?
You need to start planning and creating content!
The second of six blogs about creating a successful business website. In this blog we talk about structuring a website the correct way
The third blog of the series looks at creating website copy for your business website
Hello, we’re Rubber Cheese, a full service creative agency specialising in design and development for the retail sector, located smack bang in the middle of Hertfordshire & Essex borders.
.net magazine is the World's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. We are very proud to share that the Rubber Cheese website is featured in the December 2011 issue as CMS (content management system) website of the month.
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