The Website Development Process

While the coding process is a vital part of the website development process, it’s not the only part. Most people think that coding is the core part, but behind the scenes are other important stages of the web development process. These include stages of preliminary information gathering, planning, and post-launch maintenance.

If you’ve ever wondered how the web development process looks, this article gives you a good idea. Below are some of the main steps of the web development process.

Information Gathering

During this step, the web designer sets goals for the website and defines the website’s target audience. Every website has a target audience that makes it different from the other one. This step is one of the most important steps as it lays the foundation of the entire web development process.

Planning

The web designer creates a sitemap sketch for the website and a wireframe or mock-up of the same. During the planning stage, the web designer selects the technology stack to use from the programming language, framework, and CMS. What is mapped and decided here determines how the process will flow.

Design

From this stage, implementation begins. The designer creates relevant page layouts and reviews them. These are sent to the client who approves and gives feedback on the layouts. If there are changes to be made, the customer requests them, and the designer implements them.

Content writing and assembly

What is a website with no content? Here, new content is created depending on the number of pages on the website. The content is approved then prepared for migration. Here, you put the essence you want to communicate to your target audience and add a call to action.

Coding

This is a crucial part of website development itself. The graphic elements designed during the previous steps are used to create the actual website. The home page is the first to be created then all the sub-pages are added. This is followed using the web hierarchy previously created in the form of the sitemap. The static web page elements developed during the layout and mock-up creation are designed and tested here. Special features and interactivity is also added as well as the SEO for the website.

Testing, review, launch

Every link is tested to make sure there’s no broken one. Every form and script is checked, and spell-checking software is run to find any possible typos. Code validators are also used to check if the code follows current web standards. Check and recheck the website, ready to upload it to a server.

Maintenance and regular updating

A website is more of a service than a product. You don’t simply “deliver” a website to your clients. Always make sure everything works out fine and be prepared to make changes, if any.

Add a feedback system to the site to enable you to detect problems faced by the end-user. In such a case, the highest priority is to fix the issue as fast as possible.

Keep the website up to date using a CMS. This prevents you from bugs while decreasing security risks.

Now you have a better idea into what goes into the process, let’s get started on building your dream website!

Contact us today!

 

Begin Growing Your Small Business with 3 Simple Tips

In sales, one of the worst mistakes a small business owner can make is believing they only need to offer a product or service, and the work is basically done. Sure, you may be able to sell that approach to a small group of clients; but in order to reach your full potential, you must do more to grow your business. It is a prime opportunity for expanding your presence, and establishing your brand. Especially if there is no close competition. 

There will always be some kind of competition in your business, whether it is direct or indirect. It is natural for competitors to step on your toes while attempting to lure in customers. This can make growing your small business challenging, which is why you must work to get ahead!

Remember, having competition is a good thing. It pushes you to innovate, improve, and grow. Competitors challenge us in the best ways, reminding us of what we hope to achieve without products and services. Without someone to challenge us, it is easy to become complacent and reactive, disallowing us to reach our full potential. 

Therefore, in order to begin growing your small business and avoid getting left behind your competitors, consider the following:

Keep the vision of your small business clear

Stay up-to-date on trends by reading articles that pertain to your business niche. Follow what is happening in the economy in order to strategize more effectively. Most importantly, you must listen to your clients and their needs. Ask the what and why questions to get a clear picture of what you can do to make your business better. Your vision is dependent on their presence.

Be passionate

Your attentiveness to your work, the smile you bring to your clients, and your overall energy brings people together. They say a smile is contagious, and it is one of the simplest ways to make a client feel comfortable, well cared for, and heard. People can tell who loves their work, and that attitude can bond potential customers to your business for years to come. And of course, don’t forget to tell them “thank you” for their business!

You must be willing to innovate

Investigate new trends. You should not be afraid to take new steps to improve, as long as it is done with confidence. Seek to improve and innovate your products and services through refinement and customer feedback. You never want a customer to get away because they didn’t feel heard. And, of course, do not neglect your competition. 

With these three little things in mind, you will be able to remain competitive in your business, while laying the groundwork for meaningful, lasting growth. The world changes quickly around us, so we must all be prepared to change with the times—don’t get left behind!

 

Strategies for Bolstering Your Social Media Presence

Social media has become the communication method par excellence for the majority of the population. Social media allows us to interact with people anywhere in the world, gather news as it emerges, and nurture our interests. 

Thanks to social media, it is easier to interact with the public, advertise content, and reach potential clients. We can even discover communities that are attracted to our business offering. 

Strategies to position your business through social media

Several studies have shown it is increasingly difficult to keep our attention focused. In fact, capturing the attention of potential customers is even more difficult in a digital age.

To overcome this challenge and achieve the expected success, it is not enough just to publish constantly. It is necessary to take into account certain strategies. What strategies should we employ? 

Meet the public on social media

We should use social media to identify and segment our target market and ideal customer. Leveraging social media ad targeting and communities/groups strengthens our ability to discover our customer base. 

Create a valuable lead magnet

Lead magnets allow us to capture leads. A lead magnet is content we give potential customers to generate interest in our business. A lead magnet is offered in exchange for a potential customer’s email. Lead magnets are powerful, because they allow us to build a database of potential clients who have given us permission to market our product to them. 

We can offer  a variety of content as a lead magnets through social media, such as: 

  •  eBooks
  •  Free trials or product demos
  •  Tutorials, manuals, and guides
  •  Podcast
  • Checklists

Focus on clarity

One thing we should remember is to maintain clarity in our communications. If we write too much or diverge from the point, we can easily lose our customer’s attention. Some have said we exist in an “attention economy,” where digital marketing is as much about keeping attention as it is selling a product. On social media, focused attention exists in short supply.

 Create stories

In particular, social media is a great platform for creating stories that captivate an audience. To do captivate an audience, we must create a compelling story with a hero and an obstacle they have to overcome. However, to create a story that converts, we must not be too pushy or spammy. Creating a story is not easy, but a powerful story grabs attention and sells product. 

Reward the Audience

Rewarding our audience for following us on social media, subscribing to our content, or buying a product is a great way to get the attention of potential customers and promote our business. We can reward our audience with discounts, premium content, or other perks. However, we must be careful not to over-reward our audience, lest our efforts lose their power. 

Apply SEO Proper

The stronger the SEO more likely people will access our sites; therefore, it is important to use keywords and and conduct on-site and off-site SEO. Use SEO plugins like Yoast on WordPress to maximize our site’s potential. 

Good SEO is not only based on the content, though. We should ensure the images, links, videos, web design, loading speed, and parts of the site are functioning properly and work flawlessly. Here are some other important factors to consider: 

  • Have clear and friendly menus, with internal search engines and categories for content
  • Have buttons to share content on social networks
  • Use buttons to follow the site on networks

Your site must be able to adapt to different devices

Promote interaction on social media

Social networks allow us to interact easily with users. So we should make our audience like feel part of a community. We should give them the option to comment or interact in some way. 

Further, it is important to generate organic engagement. Strategies such as interest debates, surveys, content groups, and problem-solving can help us get closer to our followers. If we promote this type of interaction, it will inevitably cause our business to grow and evolve because we’ve simultaneously created a burgeoning community. 

Provide quality content

Remember it is not enough for your company to have a profile on different social networks. It is also necessary to have a blog to provide value to the general public. In this sense, it is important to generate quality content that resonates with users and is differentiated from our competitors content. Creating content that looks and feels like everyone else will not make us stand out above the crowd.

Our content must be interesting, pleasant, dynamic, and easy to grasp. The content should include photos, infographics, videos, podcasts, or webinars. People have a tendency to gravitate toward visual content that resonates with them on an emotional level. 

Set posting times on social media

We must know the best times to publish content on social media. This is essential to achieving more engagement. Usually, the schedule varies according to the audience and the content, but using Facebook Insights and Twitter Analytics will provide you with useful metrics regarding when your audience is most active.

Analyze the results

All of the strategies above are useful, but if we do not analyze and measure our results, they are useless. Leveraging metrics can give us insight into what we are doing right and what we are doing wrong. And some ideas that work for some companies may not work for others. The only way to know is to leverage data analytics to determine the proper course of action. 

Analytics help us understand our audience and the impact we are having on the networks. Sometimes it is not enough to have a great idea, we must also know how to analyze our results. The path to success on social media is about creating a great idea, marketing that idea, developing community, selling a product, and then determining your success or failure using analytical tools. 

Knowing Your Ideal Client is The Secret to Growing a Business

Knowing your ideal client will ensure your business grows…but it is not actually a huge “secret.” It just takes time and work to know them. Your ideal client is someone who is willing to adjust to the needs of your company. They are also fully willing to trust in your services.

It is essential for any business to know and identify its target market in order to gain traction. Understand that if you do not know who your potential customers are, you will not be able to design and implement an effective marketing campaign.

When you are in charge of a company you are tempted to say yes to any proposal or opportunity that comes your way.

Sometimes you may even go against your instincts and accept new clients, even if you know they aren’t the right fit. A lot of us do this to avoid losing a sale, which could also be a mistake.

How to identify your ideal client

The first step in determining how your product or service can benefit your potential client is to define the profile of your ideal client. Choosing the type of audience you want to work with is a process that requires time, consideration, and rethinking your business strategy. But it is necessary if you want to succeed. 

Reasons why you should define your ideal client:

  • Work exclusively with those with whom you are comfortable.
  • Fulfill your goal of improving your quality of life.
  • Encouraged to expand your services.
  • Focus your brand and marketing strategy more precisely, making it easier for your audience to find you faster.
  • Achieve that emotional connection with customers that all businesses desire.
  • Eliminate those types clients that do not jibe with your business

In order to focus in on your client, think about who they are on a fundamental level. You will start with think about basic demographic data and who they are on a fundamental level. Start with demographics: 

Demographic data:

  • Gender
  • Age
  • Location
  • Education level
  • Income level
  • Industry/Employment

Next determine what preferences and habits your ideal client possess:

Preferences and habits:

  • Interests
  • Hobbies
  • Passions
  • Types of blogs you are likely to read
  • What magazines do you read?
  • What makes you trust a new blog/brand/source?
  • Favorite books
  • Hobbies
  • What would you do on a day off from work?
  • Likes to travel? Where would I go

Then determine where your idea clients spend their time online and on social media:

Social Media / Online habits:

  • Do you use these networks? If so, how often?
  • Which network(s) or channels are you most likely to use to share information or recommendations with your friends?

Finally, decide what you want out of life so you can determine who your client actually is. These psychological factors will make sure you focus on the right ideal client.

Psychological factors:

  • Your primary need or interest in life?
  • Which are your biggest concerns or pain points?
  • What scares you or makes you feel frustrated?
  • Do you have any wishes?
  • What ambitions do you have?
  • Are you satisfied with your work?
  • Which ones are your values?
  • What objectives does it have?
  • If you buy your product, hire your services, or read your blog, how will it make you feel?
  • What kind of experience are you looking for when you are interested in a product or service?

There are hundreds of features and descriptions that can be used to create and define the profile of an ideal customer.

What happens when you meet your ideal client?

  • You can create an engaging communication message that catches your potential customer’s attention.
  • You create offers and promotions that arouse their interest.
  • Design products suitable for that ideal client that help them meet their needs or solve their problems. In this sense, I recommend that you read the following article: How to find a target audience.
  • Direct your strategies, actions, and efforts to attract clients who are really interested in your solution and are willing to pay for it.

How to create an avatar of your ideal client?

You just collected a lot of information. Now its time to design your idea customer avatar.

Design your avatar using two exercises:

  1. Grab a pencil and paper (or computer), and describe what your ideal client’s day is like, from the moment she/he gets up to the moment she/he goes to bed. 
  2. Once the description is made, define the profile of your ideal client, create the avatar or “buyer persona.” To do this, answer these questions on paper:
    • What is their name, sex, and age? Where do they work, what is their job and income level? How do they want to be treated?.
    • What are their goals and ambitions, what do they want to change (what problem do they have?), what is it that frustrates or discourages them and what makes them feel good?
    • What is their environment is like? how do they interact with it and what channels do they normally use for communcation?
    • What are their hobbies and what do they do in their free time? What do they usually do with their friends/family?
    • Who do they listen to and who can influence their decisions (including purchasing decisions).

What to do when you have defined your avatar?

Defining and having your ideal customer profile will allow you to understand your client. You will learn more about their problems and motivations. Having your ideal customer firmly in mind will allow you to create products/services focused squarely on solving their problems.

Doing this exercise will bring many benefits, both for you and for your company; among having more customers, generating more sales and, therefore, increasing your income.

Are you ready to define your ideal client? H2M Solutions can help you with that. Schedule a meeting with us here!

Also sign up for our newsletter and receive our COVID-19 Business Survival Guide. 

The Art of Out-Automating Your Business Competition

Many businesses don’t know much about automating their marketing. They spin their wheels when it comes to bringing in more customers.

They don’t know how to simplify the relationship building process, nor make interacting with their customers more seamless and consistent. Business owners end up juggling a bunch of minuscule tasks at once. Ironically, they end up failing to connect with their customer base. As a result, they lose more customers than they gain.

The piece they are missing is not necessarily a full marketing team or even a coherent strategy, although those items certainly help. What they are missing is an automated marketing system.

Automating Business Marketing in a Nutshell

There are many different interpretations on what an automated marketing system entails, and not all business people agrees on a consistent definition.

Automated marketing is the magic of letting a conversion funnel — the series of steps a customer takes until they buy — function automatically. It is a system of workflows that take care of tasks like reaching out to the customer so you don’t have to. It’s effectively the power of technology infused into the machinery of business.  There is actual evidence that business who embrace marketing automation will actually convert more leads and make more sales than businesses who do not:

An article provided some data on the differences: “According to the Aberdeen Group, Best-in-Class marketers are 67% more likely to use a marketing automation platform, with 87% of top-performing firms using this technology.”

So what are all the ways marketing automation can help businesses? 

  • Facilitate lead / customer generation
  • Segregate your audience
  • Relay ROI analysis and reports
  • Nurture your leads for you
  • Shoot out SMS reminders and automated texts
  • Provide automated reporting from your marketing dashboard

Implementing Automation & The Human Element

So what does it take to get automated marketing started for your business? It’s true, implementing automated marketing is a cost. The software costs. The professional or agency with automation acumen is also a cost. However, over the long term, automation will put your business into that 87% of top-performing businesses. At that point, the ROI will far outweigh the initial and overhead costs.

These solutions can be implemented fairly quickly, though. The business owners should simply be prepared to make changes regarding how certain business tasks are accomplished among his staff.

These types of marketing solutions will allow business owners to truly empower their business. It will provide a line of communication between their leadership and their customer, and also ensure that leads are treated like humans.

Some may believe sending automated emails to people is antithetical to being human. However, when people try to run their marketing processes without the help of automation, they may begin to miss leads and fail to connect with their audience. In this regard, they actually disconnect their business from their customer base. With automated marketing, connecting with customers becomes so much easier and cleaner.

If you believe it is time to automate your business, feel free to reach out and schedule an appointment. We’ll discuss whether marketing automation is right for you and your business:

Schedule a meeting here

2 Principles of Successful Marketing

Having marketing principles are everything, but many entrepreneurs forget that. Instead, they believe marketing is about sales; that it is solely about the bottom line.

In the past, that was true. A marketer was someone who just came up with ways to enrich a company – by advertising their products, and increasing sales.

This is still true, but it is only a fraction of the truth.

Marketing has evolved and become more personal, grassroots, and, dare I say, compassionate. Here is the big secret: Your customers prefer to have a relationship with you. They want to develop a rapport and get to know what you are all about. They don’t want to interact with a product or a faceless CEO at the top of a bureaucracy.

For example, If a woman likes to wear makeup, the reason she may choose to shop at a business might have less to do with the color of the product than the fact that the company promotes sustainability and sells environmentally safe products.

Or a family wants to feed their dog quality food, so maybe they visit the mom-and-pop shop that whips up gluten free biscuits in a home-like store in order to have personal contact with each of their patrons.

The Corporate Approach is Dying

Your customers have become more aware of sales tactics and business practices that eschew decent marketing principles. They need you to attend to their needs and desires. They enjoy specialty products and services that match their unique personalities and philosophies. The corporate world of one-size-fits all solutions just isn’t working anymore.

One Target Marketing Mag article mentioned the erosion of trust in the corporate world has driven consumers to explore smaller and more personal niche markets. The article went on to say that customers now crave authenticity.

But authenticity alone will not cause your business to explode with growth.

The Two Marketing Principles

So here is the question: how do you react to modern changes in the marketplace?

Here are my two principles:

  • Don’t JUST be about sales. Figure out how to connect with your customers. Get to know them and explore what they want and even what they are passionate about. Don’t let them become just numbers on a check or spreadsheet. In other words, look for connections that build a relationship. They want more than just a product; they want a cause to fight for and a human being to be inspired by.
  • Be authentic. Have a timely and relevant message. Communicate that message to your market and the world. I do not necessarily mean be overtly political or create shocking ads. I just mean – stand for something. Those who will stand for something naturally will attract a similar audience. The same goes for businesses. You can’t please everyone; if you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one.

I believe if we follow these two principles, the rest will flow naturally. More customers will come — and with them sales and profit will follow. Your job is to please them and make your business one they connect with and see as a place of compassion that stands for something wholly human and good.

Minimum Viable Audience

(Tip: try to find your “minimum viable audience,” and cater your marketing message to speak directly to your customers. Furthermore, the two principles should exist in your mission statement and purpose. If you haven’t already, you could create an automated system that can help facilitate this process and allow you to speak to your audience with consistency).

Please reach out if you are interested in exploring your opportunities and learning more about automating your marketing and customer interactions. Use this link to schedule a meeting with me: scheduler.

As an aside, marketing automation is a proven way to generate leads and help your business grow. One article said, “According to VentureBeat Analyst Andrew Jones, 80% of those using marketing automation saw increased leads, and 77% saw increased conversions.”

One Thing Small Businesses can do to Survive Covid-19

One Thing Small Businesses can do to Survive Covid-19

The Covid-19 pandemic has negatively impacted small business in small town America. Larger businesses may have an out in the form of extra resources, more money, and more friends.

Small businesses, on the other hand, have been utterly devastated by the virus. These businesses don’t have many resources. Their customer base is small and fragile. That means any shake up of the market could be detrimental to them. A representative survey by Wallet Hub suggested that 87% of small businesses are struggling as a result of the pandemic. Even if the $2 trillion dollar stimulus bill seeps into the economy in time to prop these businesses up, it may be too late.

That’s why these small businesses must react to the changes brought about by the situation. Notably, there is one thing they can do for themselves to survive, and even come out of the situation with more customers, more business, and stronger community ties.

These business must listen to their customers.



Listening to Customers Amidst the Covid-19 Pandemic

Customer’s needs don’t diminish just because a virus sweeps across the nation. People still have to survive. They still have needs and requirements. They still want to buy things. Some of them even want to support their favorite small businesses and help the community recover.

The worst thing a small business owner can do is throw up their hands and call it quits. Yes, the situation is frustrating. Yes, the bottom line will suffer. But if business owners decide to listen to their customers, they will likely learn that the market is not dead. For instance, in Abilene, Texas…a Facebook group called Support Small Business of Abilene emerged. The group already has nearly 6 thousand followers, which is great, considering Abilene is a medium to small sized town.

If business owners truly react to Covid-19 by listening to their clientele, they may yet survive. Groups like the one in Abilene are emerging on Facebook everywhere. The people in these groups are actively seeking out products, looking for new business, and trying to sustain some semblance of economic activity. If small business owners seek out groups like these, they would quickly get to hear from their customers, who still desire their business. The market only slows; it never comes to a complete stop. 

Pivoting and Changing

Nonetheless, some businesses may have to pivot or change their business model. As a result of Covid-19, many businesses have had to close or cease their operations entirely. It’s a scary thing to happen, but it’s survivable. The situation just demands that business owners get creative.

For instance, if a business was in the beauty industry, they likely had to stop doing business altogether. They can’t work with their clients, because of the nature of the business. As a result,  some in the beauty industry have pivoted to focus on selling products. In Abilene Texas, Illumina Day Spa, started to focus on selling clean beauty products via the internet.

At the end of the day, all pivoting or changing means is a business owner must listen to their customers and follow the market. Their customers still need them. Even during economic downturns and pandemics, markets still live, and not everyone in business keels over.