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Branding 101: How to Get Your Design Business Online
Posted:Thu, 26 Nov 2020 10:45:16 +0000
You’ve named your business. You’ve sorted out the visual branding piece. Now, it’s time to get your business online so you can start making money.In this post, we’re going to look at where your web design business needs to set up shop online and how to get it up and running quickly.
Step 1: Set Up Your Website
As a web designer or developer, having a website is non-negotiable.
Not only does a website provide prospective clients with all the information they need about you, it can help you automate many of those annoying tasks that get in the way of your actual paid work.
So, let’s start here:
Buy Your Domain Name
If you haven’t done so already, use the business name generator exercise to come up with a domain name. You then have a couple of options for buying it.
To Do:
- Buy it from a domain name provider like GoDaddy or Domain.com;
- Or buy it from your web hosting company;
- Check the next step to see which option makes the most sense for you.
Choose a CMS
Use the same CMS as the one you’ll use to build your clients’ sites. That way, clients don’t wonder why you’d use something like Squarespace for your site, but then recommend WordPress for theirs, for example.
To Do:
- If you use a self-hosted CMS (like WordPress, Drupal, or Joomla), hold on this until you purchase your web hosting;
- If you use a hosted CMS (like Wix, Squarespace, or Shopify), you won’t need to do the next step. Instead, just sign up for your website builder and buy your domain name now.
Buy Your Web Hosting
If you’re wondering what the difference is between the various types of web hosting, read this post.
Basically, this is what you’re looking for:
- A hosting company with a good reputation that provides expert and timely support;
- An affordable starter plan — either shared or cloud hosting;
- Server locations near you (at the very least, in the same country as you);
- Top-notch security features at the server level as well as the physical hosting facility;
- Caching and other speed optimizations built into the server and on-site equipment;
- Compatibility with your CMS (look for one-click install, too).
Also, look for add-ons like SSL certificates, CDNs, and, of course, a free domain name.
To Do:
- Sign up for the hosting plan you want along with your domain name and SSL certificate (this is a must for SEO);
- Install your CMS from the control panel once you’re ready to go.
Build Your Website
Ultimately, you have two goals here:
- To build a website that convinces prospective clients that you’re the real deal;
- To build a website that prospects would want for themselves.
So, there’s no need to go crazy with outlandish features or futuristic animations and design. Keep it simple. Keep it neat. And give prospects an honest portrayal of who you are, and what you can do for them.
Design It
The first thing to do is take all that work you did to create your visual branding and use it to design your website.
If you’re building a WordPress website, consider starting with one of these multipurpose themes.
Build Out the Pages You Need
A theme will automatically create the pages you need (most of them, anyway). If you’re not sure which ones to start with, these are the ones your prospects are going to be looking for:
You may also want to add separate pages for Testimonials and Case Studies once you’ve accumulated enough of them to show off. For now, you can include samples of your work in the Portfolio page and testimonials on the Home page.
Fill in the Content
Even if writing isn’t your strong suit, that’s okay. So long as the content you write for your site is free of spelling and grammar errors, your prospective clients are going to focus on what you’re telling them, not on how proficient a writer you are.
That said, if you’re nervous about this piece of your website, here are some tips to help you out:
1. Be concise, it’s not just minimal design that goes over well with modern audiences. Minimal copy does, too.
2. Be transparent. Tell prospects what exactly they can expect when they work with you and why your web design services are going to be different from the competition.
3. Consumers don’t trust companies that use meaningless buzzwords and make empty claims. Instead, focus on writing about the real and very competitive skills you have. According to research from NIDO Student, these are the skills employers look for when hiring a designer:
4. Let your images tell some of the story for you. Just make sure you use (or create) images that will impress your audience.
5. After you’ve written your content, take a step back and tackle the structure and formatting from a designer’s POV.
6. Before you hit the “Publish” button, run your copy through Hemingway Editor to ensure your content is error-free.
Add the Right Features
When I talk about features, I’m referring to anything outside the main design and content on your website. These are usually sales and marketing tools like:
- Chatbot/live chat
- Contact forms
- Pop-ups or notification banners
- Discovery call scheduler
- Cookies consent notice
Only add the features you absolutely need. In other words, the features that will automate the marketing and sales tasks you’d otherwise have to manage on your own.
Step 2: Optimize Your Website for Search Engines
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a very important part of the work you do to get your business online. Here’s why:
After you launch your business and website, the next thing you’re going to focus on is getting clients. This can take a lot of work as you pore over the following resources for referrals and leads:
- Your existing contact list (i.e. family, friends, old employers, colleagues, etc.);
- Freelance job boards;
- Industry-specific job boards;
- Social media posts, pages, and groups;
- Google search results for “we’re hiring”;
- And so on…
And when you’re not busy cold-emailing prospective clients or talking to them on the phone, you’re probably going to be working on your business’ processes. Running a business is very time-consuming.
So, what happens when you finally start working on website projects? It’s not like the client search ends there. It’s an ongoing thing. Which is why your website needs to be optimized for search.
Once your site gets indexed by Google and starts to generate authority, your pages will rank better and the increased visibility will start generating leads without you having to actively make the first move.
SEO is a huge topic, so I’m not going to cover it here. However, the links below will do a good job of guiding you towards your next steps.
To Do:
- Speed up your website;
- Write your content and choose your keywords carefully;
- Play to your strengths. For designers, this usually means technical SEO;
- Use these four tools to evaluate and fix your SEO.
Step 3: Get Active on Social Media
Your website is going to play a lot of roles:
- Digital business card;
- Authority builder;
- Marketing vehicle;
- Sales platform;
- Content marketer.
But there’s one very critical thing it can’t do and that’s directly converse with your audience and grow your network. This is why you need to spend time building out your social media once your website is good to go.
As for which social media platforms to use (as there are way too many), here are my thoughts:
Become an authority on Twitter.
Twitter is a good place to share daily thoughts and interesting content you’ve found on the web.
Get discovered on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is useful because it’s another place to get noticed by potential employers, so make sure your relevant work experience and portfolio are up-to-date.
Connect with other creatives on Facebook.
It’s really hard to get noticed on Facebook unless you pay to play. Instead, use it to find groups that you can turn to for support, referrals, and brainstorming.
Share your work on Dribbble.
While you could use Instagram or Pinterest to show off your work, you might get more traction on a design-specific platform like Dribbble. Serve as inspiration for others and potentially get discovered by prospects looking for designers there.
Down the line you might decide to expand your business into recurring revenue opportunities like online courses. In that case, a platform like YouTube would be great. For now, focus your efforts on the main ones above.
To Do:
- Create your social media accounts;
- Brand them to match your website — both the visual component as well as the bio;
- Start sharing content on a regular basis. You can automate sharing with a social media management tool, but remember to log in at least a couple times a week so you can engage with others, too;
- Be careful not to commit these social media faux pas.
Wrap-Up
I realize this is a ton of information to throw at you. However, if you want to get your new business online and for it to succeed, you need to maximize the opportunities that are available to you.
I hope this three-part guide to starting a new business has been helpful. If you have any questions on the tips provided along the way, let me know in the comments.
Featured image via Pexels.
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8 Awesome Black Friday 2020 Deals for Designers (Up to 94% Off!)
Posted:Tue, 24 Nov 2020 14:45:00 +0000
If you’re interested in a sneak peek of this year’s best Black Friday deals, stick around. You’ll find a few web designers’ favorites, including a stellar deal or two.This year, more than a few of the popular retail outlets are shifting away from the traditional “camp out all night and bust open the doors when the store opens” shopping model. You might just prefer this less chaotic, ecommerce approach.
All of us are trying to adjust to what may eventually become a “new normal”. We may not like some aspects of this new normal, but there are bright spots as well.
More shoppers are likely going to shop online because of the coronavirus. That means you don’t have to fight the crowds while desperately attempting to socially distance. The shelves aren’t as apt to go bare, and shopping is easy, convenient, and safe.
1. Slider Revolution
You will find the Slider Revolution plugin incorporated in a host of WordPress theme tools and products. This premium plugin can in fact boast of more than 7 million users around the globe.
What you may not be aware of is that it is much more than just a WordPress slider. With it in your web design toolbox, you can in fact create just about anything you can imagine.
Expect to find:
- A stunning selection of elements including sliders and carousels;
- Attention-getting hero sections designed to make your home pages really stand out;
- Single-page websites with layouts unlike anything you’ve seen before;
- Modular structuring that allows you to rearrange and reuse sections however you choose and the ability to mix and match modules with any WordPress content;
- Add-ons whose cutting edge features push the boundaries of web design possibilities.
There’s more of course. To celebrate Black Friday and Cyber Monday you can NOW get any Slider Revolution subscription plan or one-time payment at a 33% discount.
Just click on the banner and use the BLACKFRIDAY code at checkout.
2. Amelia
When done manually, booking and managing appointments can be tedious and subject to mistakes and errors. Amelia provides an automated booking process that is oh-so easy to work with and is error free; just what you need to help you acquire more happy customers.
Key features of Amelia’s fully responsive design include:
- A dashboard system that enables you to track approved and pending appointments, booking changes, and revenue;
- Zoom Integration, Google Calendar, and Outlook Calendar sync;
- The ability to accept and easily manage recurring appointments that customers can schedule;
- Front-end customer and employee appointment and event managing and backend appointment adding, editing, and rescheduling;
- Email notifications for pending and approved appointments and events.
And much more that will save you loads of energy and a ton of time. Give Amelia a try, and if you like what you see (and you will), take advantage of the 30% Black Friday discount.
3. wpDataTables
wpDataTables 3.0, with its fresh, new look, gives you a host of different ways to generate attractive, customizable, and responsive tables and charts, and a host of different ways to present them.
- Tables can be created from most data sources, the most common being MySQL query, PHP array, Google Spreadsheet, Excel files CSV files, and JSON and XML inputs;
- A working knowledge of SQL is not required!
- Addons include Gravity Forms, Formidable Forms, Report Builder, and Powerful Filter;
- wpDataTables users can generate Tables and Charts quickly from massive amounts of data (saving hours of effort);
- Tables and charts are customizable and maintainable (editable once placed in use);
- Tables can be created manually if you wish.
Click on the banner now and take advantage of wpDataTables 30% Black Friday discount on all licenses and addons.
4. TheGem – Creative Multi-Purpose High-Performance WordPress Theme
In TheGem, the ultimate WordPress multipurpose toolbox, you will find:
- A rich selection of 400+ premium pre-built multi-page and one-page websites, all available for Elementor and WPBakery page builders;
- The ability to mix and match any of this demos, layouts and page sections to create your own unique look;
- Extended WooCommerce layouts & tools for making online shops, which convert better;
- TheGem Blocks: an ultimate tool for building webpages at the speed of light.
And much more. Just click on the banner and check this 5-star product out.
5. Mobirise Website Builder
Creating a Google-friendly can take time, unless you have Mobirise at your fingertips, in which case you have a number of helpful tools to speed things up.
- No coding, it’s all drag and drop;
- 3,600+ website templates are at your disposal plus sliders, popups, forms, and more;
- Many eCommerce features, including a shopping cart;
- Latest Google Amp and Bootstrap4;
- You can download Mobirise for free.
And, because it’s Black Friday, everything is yours at a 94% discount!
6. Get Illustrations
Get Illustrations offers royalty free and landing page Illustrations ready to drag and drop into your web design. You’ll have access to:
- An extensive library of 4000+ illustrations with more added every week;
- A wealth of design formats, including AI, PNG, SVG, Figma, Adobe XD, and Sketch;
- Free updates and new illustrations weekly (included in the bundle).
Click on the banner and use the Coupon Code BLACKDEAL for your 30% discount.
7. XStore | Responsive Multi-Purpose WooCommerce WordPress Theme
For anyone planning on creating an eCommerce store, the XStore name says it all. Key features you’ll find in this powerful and flexible WooCommerce theme include:
- More than 95 good-to-go-shops plus a full AJAX shop to get you started;
- 300+ pre-defined shop/page sections, a header builder, and a single product page builder;
- Elementor, WPBakery and $510+ worth of premium plugins.
Click on the banner and sign up to become one of XStore’s 55,000+ happy customers.
8. Kalium – Creative Theme For Multiple Uses
Kalium is an easy-to-use, easily maintainable multipurpose theme for WordPress users that is always updated to use the latest WordPress standards.
- Kalium provides its users with a host of professionally-designed pre-built demos and elements;
- Many plugins such as: Slider Revolution, WPBakery, Elementor, Layer Slider, Advanced Custom Fields PRO, Product Filter for WooCommerce, Product Size Guide,WooCommerce and other premium plugins are included.
Kalium is responsive, GDPR compliant, and gives you full eCommerce and top-quality customer support. It has a 5-star rating after 36k sales on ThemeForest – seriously impressive!
*****
If you hit the retail stores remember to social distance.
Or, if you would rather take a brief break from the demands of Covid-19, take advantage of one or more of the above ecommerce sales. As you can see, there are some excellent ones!
[– This is a sponsored post –]
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20 Freshest Web Designs, November 2020
Posted:Mon, 23 Nov 2020 10:45:00 +0000
As we approach our first winter holiday season since the pandemic set in, the world could feel like a very scary place; there is a great deal of uncertainty about the future for businesses, for young people in education, for jobs, for travel. Celebrations are certainly going to be a lot quieter this year.And yet, the web is far from showing doom and gloom. We’re seeing confidence and positivity in designs across the board. As businesses and people adapt to the demands of social distancing and WFH, we’re seeing a focus on simplifying, appreciating quality over quantity, taking better care of ourselves and our world, and making the most of our time. And this is reflected through design in a variety of ways: visually minimal style, pared down content, fresh colors, statement type, great photography, illustration.
There is confidence in abundance on the web. Enjoy…
Mammut Expedition Baikal
Mammut make outdoor clothing and equipment, and this microsite is for its Eiger Extreme collection. Stunning photographs of Swiss speed climber Dani Arnold climbing at Lake Baikal in Siberia are cleverly interspersed with details of the company’s products he can be seen wearing, along with links to buy. It feels natural, rather than forced.
Wavering Stripes
This a beautifully made site highlighting the experiences of people held in immigration detention centers in the US. The illustrations belie the grimness of the stories told — on the landing page there is a warning as to the nature of the content.
Juan Mora
Proof that holding pages don’t have to be boring, this ‘under construction’ site for interface designer Juan Mora is a far cry from the warning-barrier and stick-figures-at-work gifs of the web’s early days.
Cafecrema
Cafecrema’s simple, one page site creates the atmosphere of 1950s coffee shops through its illustration style, a jazz soundtrack, and a very mid-century modern color palette.
A N Other
Perfume brand A. N Other prioritises quality ingredients and materials, simplicity, craftsmanship, and the environment. Its website captures this perfectly, and invokes a sense of luxury as the result.
Puddle Sound
Puddle is an architectural and interior design company, who also do product and furniture design. For a Tokyo hotel project they created a vacuum tube amplifier, that is the subject of this site. It is as simple as can be with only the barest essential information, and with all attention focused on the product shots.
Hous
Hous Luxe Woningen are a Dutch company who build luxury homes. The high quality images, muted color scheme and generous use of white space in its website reflects this sense of luxury perfectly.
Who Cares?
Who Cares? is an interactive game designed to raise public awareness of endangered animal species. The illustration style is very pleasing, and there are some lovely little details in the animation and sound.
Ugly
This site for sparkling water company Ugly, uses bold, cartoonish typography and illustrated characters to add a lot of character to, well, water.
Glyphs
Glyphs font editor version 3 was released on 16th November. The accompanying site has a fresh feel, mainly due to its striking color scheme. The on scroll animation showcasing variable fonts is a nice touch.
Ruler Agency
Ruler Digital Agency uses color only in the images of work on its own site. Everything else is grayscale, even the images, which can be a really effective technique when it is used well, as it is here.
Zoë Pepper
Zoë Pepper is a collective of freelance brand strategists who work with early stage startups. The site is minimal without feeling empty, and utilises quirky illustration and scrolling animation to good effect.
Karst
Karst make notebooks using paper made from stone, and woodless pencils. Its site has a simple, clean feel with a muted, neutral color scheme that complements the colors of its notebook covers.
London Alley
London Alley is a production company who concentrate on music videos and advertising. Its site is simple and striking with plenty of video, and effective use of split screen.
LoveSeen
LoveSeen makes false eyelashes, and nothing else. The site has a fun, inclusive feel — more girl(and boy)friends together than glossy, high fashion magazine. It’s appealing and persuasive.
Chartogne-Taillet
This site for wine-growers Chartogne-Taillet uses illustration and an animated, ‘hand’ drawn map to create a sense of heritage, appropriate for a family with a long history of making wine in the Champagne region. It is reminiscent of a label on a good bottle of wine.
Refusi Studio
Refusi Studio is a design agency from Italy. This portfolio site is simple, with strong colors and big, statement typography. And a giant cartoon eye.
Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow is an interactive project from the National Film Board of Canada. It uses tweets to trace emotional ‘waves’ throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
Boost
Boost is a gummy (chew) vitamin supplement for the immune system. Big type, big graphics and lots of orange and purple — the colors associated with vitamin C and antioxidants — make vitamins cool.
Philiber
Philiber is a meal delivery subscription service, available in urban centers in Quebec. The site is clean and modern, with a comforting color scheme and a nice mix of photography and flat style illustrations.
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Popular Design News of the Week: November 16, 2020 – November 22, 2020
Posted:Sun, 22 Nov 2020 10:45:33 +0000
Every week users submit a lot of interesting stuff on our sister site Webdesigner News, highlighting great content from around the web that can be of interest to web designers.The best way to keep track of all the great stories and news being posted is simply to check out the Webdesigner News site, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the most popular designer news that we curated from the past week.
15 Best Illustration Tools in 2020
Slidepage 1.0 – Create Engaging and Swipeable Stories-on-the-Web, for Free
Notion Timeline – More than Gantt, for all your Projects
Unslack
UX Lessons from Big Sur
Pattern Collect
Apple Silicon M1 Chips and Docker
Difference Between UI and UX Design
How Many WordPress Plugins Should You Install?
5 Things I Wish I’d Known Before Starting a Design System at Spotify
8 Pure CSS Games You Can Play in your Browser
We Can do Better than DuckDuckGo
Fulljar – Simple and Privacy Focused Analytics
Accessibility in User Experience: How to Include People with Disabilities
9 Common WordPress Myths Debunked and Explained
Impressive Pure CSS Drawings
I Took 21 Online Courses, Here’s What I Learned
User Experience: Insights into Consistency in Design
How to Use Emotion to Make your Brand’s Content More Compelling
25 Free Icon Sets You Can Download and Use Today
6 Ways 2020 has Changed the Landscape of Design
25 Inspirational Quotes for Web Designers
9 Tips to Keep You Sane When Working with Multiple Clients
Write Code like You Write a Recipe
UI Coach – UI Design Challenge Generator
Want more? No problem! Keep track of top design news from around the web with Webdesigner News.
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Top New CMS Plugins, November 2020
Posted:Fri, 20 Nov 2020 10:45:35 +0000
Since there are so many CMS plugins out there, it can be overwhelming to choose the best ones for your website. We’ve done the research for you; this list contains the top new CMS plugins for November 2020. You’ll find useful plugins for WordPress, Craft, Shopify, and Joomla.Let’s get started…
WordPress
404 Page Editor
404 Page Editor is a simple WordPress plugin that helps you add custom text to the default 404 page on your website. The plugin comes with seasonal and industry-related 404 templates. One useful feature of the plugin is that it backups your current 404 page before changing it. So you can restore the backup page anytime you choose. The plugin duplicates your current 404.php page to wp-content/uploads/404-page-editor/ so you can easily find it. You can also change the text on the plugin to fit your local dialect.
UnusedCSS Power-Up
Most WordPress themes and plugins load their CSS in the wrong areas of your website. This can slow down your site. A slow website will reduce user experience and lead to increased bounce rates.
UnusedCSS will help reduce the size of your website’s CSS files by up to 95%. The best part is that the plugin works automatically. It will remove any unused CSS when visitors view any page on your website. UnusedCSS will automatically reduce your website’s load times by reducing your CSS files and page size. The plugin also optimizes the performance of other WordPress plugins and extensions. UnusedCSS also works with WooCommerce themes and plugins.
Simple Redirects
Simple Redirects is a WordPress plugin that helps you to automatically redirect requests to another page on your site or any other place on the web. The plugin allows you to easily redirect users from your old web pages to new pages using 301 or 302 redirects. You don’t have to worry about losing backlinks or page rank. Any incoming links to the old web page will be automatically passed along to the new page. The page rank on the old page is also transferred to the new page. The plugin is useful when migrating a WordPress site when don’t want to retain the URL structure.
HTML Validation
HTML Validation plugin helps you identify any HTML validation errors on your website. The plugin works automatically in the background of your website and will send you regular reports. There is a progress bar on the report screen to show you the progress of the scan. The plugin uses WordPress Cron to scan the content of your website. There is also an option for the plugin to automatically fix any HTML validation issues on your website. You can also choose to fix the issues manually.
Just Highlight
Just Highlight is a simple WordPress plugin that helps you highlight text in your posts or pages. You can use this plugin to highlight any portion of the page you want to draw the reader’s attention to. You can highlight the background of the page and also add animation to the highlighted text. In the WordPress admin area, you can change the speed and color of the animation. The plugin is compatible with Gutenberg, and the WordPress classic editor.
DeviantArt Embed
DeviantArt Embed is a simple plugin that helps you embed any work from Deviant Art into a post. The plugin provides a block for the WordPress block editor so you can easily embed the image. It uses a DeviantArt oEmbed API to pull the images and their descriptions, and creates an embedded image.
Static Optimizer
Static Optimizer is a static file optimization plugin that serves and optimizes static files on your website. The plugin will help you increase your website speed by automatically compressing your static files. It is easy to set up, you just need an API key to get started. Other useful features that the plugin offers include automatic JS and CSS minification, automatic image optimization, and processing of responsive images. You don’t have to worry about losing your files if their server is down. The plugin automatically backs up your files and will load your original files when their servers are down (either because of an upgrade, maintenance, or outage). By default, only images are compressed when you activate the plugin; you can also choose to optimize fonts, CSS, and JS files.
RankBear
RankBear is a keyword rank tracker plugin that helps you analyze your SEO efforts. With RankBear, you can track the keywords for each of the posts and pages on your site. While the plugin has a paid plan, you can track up to five keywords for free. On the free plan, you will receive weekly reports on each keyword you are tracking. You can search for the rank and volume of a keyword in every location supported by the Google search engine. RankBear is a lightweight software-as-a-service plugin hosted by Amazon Cloud Services. The plugin also offers the option to download the keyword reports to CSV.
Table of Contents Block
Table of Contents Block is a plugin that allows you to easily create a Table of Contents for your WordPress posts. The plugin is lightweight and will automatically add a Table of Content in your website’s posts and pages. You can select the heading tags you want to add to the Table of Content. It also has a dedicated support team to assist you. The plugin works fine with all standard WordPress themes.
Markease For WooCommerce
Markeaze is an all-in-one communication plugin that allows you to add live chat to your online stores. The plugin will help you improve your customer service by decreasing your response times. With the plugin, you can collect your visitor’s contact information via a widget. This feature is useful in building a subscriber database. You can also use the plugin to track customer behavior on your site, inform customers about new products, help customers with active orders, and collect customer feedback. You can also use the auto-reply function to answer commonly asked questions.
Craft CMS
Image Toolbox
Image Toolbox is a Craft CMS plugin that offers image-related tools for your templates. The plugin will automatically create a WebP variant of the images you upload. It also has a fallback for browsers that do not support WebP images. Other useful features the plugin offers include automatic creation of placeholder images and generation of responsive images with multiple variants. The plugin also supports Imager-X (or old Imager).
Element Panel
Element Panel plugin allows you to add elements and an eager-loading panel to the debug toolbar. This feature will help you benchmark your templates in Craft CMS. For elements, the panel has a dashboard that shows how many elements are populated. It also shows how many elements are duplicates. The plugin also shows you how many eager-loading elements are detected. Duplicate elements are grouped by field name.
Shopify
VStore Shoppable Videos
VStore Shoppable Videos is a Shopify plugin that allows your customers to shop directly from your videos. The plugin allows you to embed your products into any video. Since videos have a high engagement rate, this plugin will significantly improve your store’s conversion rates.
ProofMotion Video Testimonials
ProofMotion Video Testimonials plugin helps you to easily collect video testimonials. The plugin sends an automated email or SMS requests to customers asking for their satisfaction feedback after making a purchase. The responses are analyzed to determine whether the customer had a negative or positive experience. Customers that offer negative feedback are sent to customer care to help them with the problem they encountered. Happy customers are prompted to make video testimonials of their positive shopping experience. ProofMotion guides the customer through the interview so they can give the best testimonial. They also offer an on-site widget so you can easily share your testimonials.
Real ID
Real ID is a Shopify plugin that allows you to verify customers’ real identity using a photo ID and facial biometrics. The plugin is perfect for orders that have an age restriction, verifying flagged fraud goods, and selling expensive goods. Real ID will help you identify whether a government-issued-ID is fake during fulfilment. All the customer needs to do is take a selfie on their phone. This way, even if a customer has access to a stolen physical ID, they won’t still be able to make any purchase. The plugin can verify documents such as passports, visas, national IDs, driver licenses, and more. Real ID will help you handle GDPR compliance. The plugin is available in hundreds of countries around the world.
Joomla
Accessibility
Accessibility is a Joomla plugin that allows your website visitors to easily access your website content. The plugin will remove any barrier between the visitor and your Joomla site. There is no coding required and you can customize the plugin directly from the module manager. The plugin has a useful feature called Dyslexic Readability; this feature allows your visitors to set the entire document font to a dyslexic-friendly font. Visitors can also grayscale the page, resize the fonts, and resize the word space. From the backend module, you can add any custom CSS and JS. The plugin is also available in 12 different languages.
Reading Time
Reading Time is a simple plugin that will help you easily show the reading time of your Joomla articles. The plugin is easy to set up and does not require any coding. You can customize every parameter, including the text, in minutes. You can also choose to exclude categories, articles, and menu items. Reading Time also allows you to easily add custom CSS code from the plugin parameters.
Featured image via Pexels.
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How to Make Hyper-Personalization in Web Design Work For You
Posted:Wed, 18 Nov 2020 10:45:35 +0000
Personalization; it’s probably one of the most important design trends to emerge in recent years. As consumers in all industries become more demanding, they’re increasingly searching for online experiences that are customized to suit their individual needs and expectations.
Today, personalization exists in virtually every digital interaction, from adverts on social media to PPC campaigns and email marketing efforts.
Used correctly, the manipulation of demographic, behavioral, and other in-depth user-data can help designers to create dynamic, highly customized content for each website user. At the same time, these unique websites ensure that designers really make an impact on behalf of their clients, outshining the competition and driving amazing results.
What is Hyper-Personalization?
Basic personalization in web design involves making changes to a design based on what you know about your client’s target audience.
For instance, if you knew that you were designing for an audience that spends more time on their smartphone than their computer, you’d concentrate on building hyper-responsive experiences for small screens. For instance, the Canals-Amsterdam.nl website is specifically designed to support people using smartphones to swipe, tap, and scroll.
If you’re aware that your customer’s target market is other businesses, you might put more testimonials, free demo CTAs and other enticing components on the website to encourage investment.
Hyper-Personalization is an emerging trend for 2020 that focuses on going beyond the basic understanding of a target audience, to look at genuine customer data. Hyper-personalization is all about leveraging in-depth omnichannel data to drive more advanced customer experiences on every page of a website.
For hyper-personalization to be genuinely effective, designers need access to virtually unlimited data, from CMS systems, sales teams, marketing experts, and more. When you have that data handy, you can use it to:
- Design websites that showcase dynamic CTAs, featuring content relevant to each user;
- Implement sign-in screens for customers vs. demo requests for new leads on home pages;
- Showcase products similar to past pages when repeat customers return to a site.
Why is Hyper-Personalization Important?
Personalized experiences have always been important to the sales journey.
However, in an era where companies are constantly competing to grab user attention, you can’t just cater to your site designs to a group of people anymore. Increasingly, users are expecting specific interactive moments on websites, made just for them.
Amazon is an obvious example to consider here. As one of the world’s leading online shopping sites, Amazon’s efforts with website personalization are incredible. The Amazon website uses tools integrated into the back-end of the marketplace to watch everything a customer does on its platform.
As users browse through the website, the site jots down each category that you look at, and which items interest you. Thanks to this, Amazon can suggest which products you may be most interested in.
Websites like Madebyhusk also offer an incredible insight into hyper-personalization, allowing users to browse for the products that appeal to them based on in-depth filters like edging and color.
The result is a higher chance of conversion.
When customers feel as though they have complete control over their buyer journey, and that each step on that journey is tailored to them, they’re more likely to buy.
Better Converting CTAs
A call to action is an excellent way to move things along when you’re encouraging the buying process with your target audience.
Used correctly, your CTAs can encourage more than just cart conversions. They can also convince people to sign up for your newsletter via a subscription form, take a survey, or begin a free demo.
Regardless of the CTAs that you choose to implement, personalization will quickly make your requests more effective. According to studies, CTAs that are personalized are 202% more effective than generic alternatives.
For instance, Byhumankind.com uses a crucial statement: “Great personal care products don’t have to come at earth’s expense.” Followed by an engaging CTA to drive positive action from their audience. The company knows that they’re appealing to a customer interested in saving the planet, so they make the benefits of “Getting Started” obvious immediately.
Using data provided by clients, designers can figure out exactly how to position CTAs and offers for customers. For instance, notice that Humankind has a green colored CTA button.
Most buttons take advantage of bold colors like red and orange, but the green shade for Humankind further highlights the nature-driven personality of the brand.
Relevant Product Recommendations
Repeat customers are infinitely more valuable than people who purchase just one item from your site.
However, convincing a standard customer to become a repeat client isn’t easy. Sometimes, clients need a push to determine what they want to buy next.
Fortunately, as a website designer, you can help with that. Using dynamic modules in the product pages of your customer’s website, you can show individual end-users what they might want to purchase next from a specific brand.
These dynamic modules can use information about what each customer has purchased in the past, to suggest a new product or service. Amazon do particularly well in this regard, leveraging a vast marketplace and treasure trove of information to make quality recommendations. But you don’t need to be designing a considerable website for a global business like Amazon to take advantage of dynamic suggestions. Any business with a focus on hyper-personalization can benefit from this strategy.
Increased Time on Site
Any form of personalization on a website can significantly improve the amount of time a customer spends in that digital environment.
Imagine walking into a restaurant that seems as though it was designed specifically for you. The décor, the seating arrangements, and even the menu are customized to your taste. You’re more likely to spend your time and money there than on any generic food place you find on the street.
The same rules apply to website design. The more hyper-personalized you can get with your client’s design, based on what you know about their customers, the easier it will be to keep customers engaged.
For instance, the WarnerMusic.no website entices visitors with various high-quality images of popular bands and artists, before providing them with endless information about the brand and what it does. The designer of this site knew that it needed to appeal to the visual demands of the audience first, before offering useful information like featured artist lists, News, and blog posts to keep the users on site.
Hyper personalization is all about figuring out what kind of end-user you’re designing for, so you can build the digital environment that’s more engaging and compelling to them. Some designers even create dynamic pages that change depending on whether a customer is a repeat client or a new visitor.
Improved Loyalty and Affinity
Finally, it’s human nature that we all want to spend time with the people that treat us best.
We all value excellent customer service, which is why customer experience is the most significant differentiating factor for any organization today.
Web-based personalization works in a similar way. When you use your design tools to make the site experience that you give to each visitor warm, individualized, and welcoming, then your clients are sure to see a boost in customer loyalty.
Around 79% of consumers say that they’ll only consider buying from brands that care about them. As a designer, you can convince every website visitor that they’re going to get the experience they deserve. Just look at how TheHappyHero.com instantly lets clients know that they can expect a fun and friendly interaction on every page.
Accessing useful data from the companies that you’re working with before you begin developing and designing a website could be the key to creating happier customers and higher conversions.
The more delighted end-users are with the experience that a website gives them, the happier that your client will be with you – increasing the impact of your design portfolio.
If you can create customer loyalty and affinity for your client, then you will be able to develop the same feelings between yourself and your client. This could mean that you earn more recommendations as a designer and build your position as a leader in the industry.
Hyper-Personalization is Crucial for 2021
As companies continue to worry about how they can safely use data without crossing the line when it comes to customer privacy, hyper-personalization has stayed just out of the mainstream. While it may be a while before we see every website designer starting their process with piles of in-depth data, it seems that we are heading in that direction.
Customers in 2021 and beyond will undoubtedly want a more advanced and customized experience from the brands that they interact with – particularly in an era where it’s becoming much easier to deliver meaningful moments online.
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Exciting New Tools for Designers, November 2020
Posted:Mon, 16 Nov 2020 10:45:34 +0000
In the spirit of fall feasts, this month’s collection of tools and resources is a smorgasbord of sorts. You’ll find everything from web tools to icon libraries to animation tools to great free fonts. Let’s dig in.Here’s what new for designers this month.
The Good Line-Height
The Good Line-Height is the tool you won’t be able to live without after using it a few times. The tool calculates the ideal line-height for every text size in a typographic scale so that everything always fits the baseline grid. Set the font size, multiplier, and grid row height to get started.
Link-to-QR
Link-to-QR makes creating quick codes a breeze. Paste in your link and the tool creates an immediate QR code that you can download or share. Pick a color and transparency, plus size, and you are done.
Quarkly
Quarkly allows you to create websites and web apps both using a mouse and typing code – you get all the pros of responsive editing, but can also open the code editor at any time and manually edit anything and it all synchronizes. The tool is built for design control and is in beta.
UnSpam.email
Unspam.email is an online spam tester tool for emails. Improve deliverability with the free email tester. The service analyzes the main aspects of an email and returns a spam score and predicts results with a heat map of your email newsletter.
Filmstrip
Filmstrip allows you to create or import keyframe animations, make adjustments, and export them for web playback. It’s a quick and easy tool for modern web animation.
CSS Background Patterns
CSS Background Patterns is packed with groovy designs that you can adjust and turn into just the right background for your web project. Set the colors, opacity, and spacing; then pick a pattern; preview it right on the screen; and then snag the CSS. You can also submit your own patterns.
Neonpad
Neonpad is a simple – but fun – plain text editor in neon colors. Switch hues for a different writing experience. Use it small or expand to full browser size.
Link Hover Animation
Link Hover Animation is a nifty twist on a hover state. The animation draws a circle around the link!
Tint and Shade Generator
Tint and Shade Generator helps you make the most of any hex color. Start with a base color palette and use it to generate complementary colors for gradients, borders, backgrounds, or shadows.
Pure CSS Product Card
Pure CSS Product Card by Adam Kuhn is a lovely example of an e-commerce design that you can learn from. The card is appealing and functional.
Free Favicon Maker
Free Favicon Maker allows you to create a simple SVG or PNG favicon in a few clicks. You can set a style that includes a letter or emoji, font and size, color, and edge type and you are ready to snag the HTML or download the SVG or PNG file.
Ultimate Free iOS Icon Pack
The Ultimate Free iOS Icon Pack is a collection of 100 minimal icons in an Apple style. With black and white version of each icon and original PSD files, you can create sleek icons for your iPhone screen in minutes. And it’s completely free! No email address or registration required.
Phosphor Icon Family
Phosphor is a flexible icon family for all the things you need icons for including diagrams and presentations. There are plenty of arrows, chats, circles, clocks, office elements, lists, business logos, and more. Everything is in a line style, filled, or with duotone color. Everything is free but donations are accepted.
3,000 Hands
3,000 Hands is a kit of hands that includes plenty of gestures and style in six skin tones and with 10 angles of every gesture. They have a 3D-ish shape and are in an easy to use PNG format. This kit has everything you need from a set of hand icons.
Radix Icons
Radix Icons is a set of 15px by 15px icons for tiny spaces. They are in a line style and are available in a variety of formats including Figma, Sketch, iconJar, SVG, npm installation, or GitHub.
Deepnote
Deepnote is a new kind of data science notebook. It is Jupyter-compatible with real-time collaboration and running in the cloud and designed for data science teams.
ZzFXM Tiny JavaScript Music Generator
ZzFXM is a tiny JavaScript function that generates stereo music tracks from patterns of note and instrument data. Instrument samples are created using a modified version of the super-tiny ZzFX sound generator by Frank Force. It is designed for size-limited productions.
Image Tiles Scroll Animation
Image Tiles Scroll Animation is a different type of scrolling pattern using Locomotive Scroll. The grid creates a smooth animation in a fun and modern style.
Bubbles
Bubbles is a Chrome extension that allows you to collaborate by clicking anywhere on your screen and then dropping a comment to start a conversation with anyone. This is a nice option for work from home teams.
Tyrus
Tyrus is a toolkit from the design team at Airbnb to help illustrators make the most out of their design businesses. It is broken into sections to help you with design briefs, originality, deadlines, and feedback.
PatchGirl
PatchGirl is an automated QA tool for developers. You can combine SQL and HTTP queries to build any possible state of your database.
Apparel
Apparel is a beautiful premium typeface family with plenty of versatility in a modern serif style. It is a contemporary, classy, and fresh serif typeface with a laid-back. Its medium-large x-height makes it ideal for headlines and brand identity design.
Christmas Story
Christmas Story is a nice solution if you are already starting to think ahead to holiday projects or cards. The long swashes and tails are elaborate and fun.
Nafta
Nafta is a fun handwriting style font that has a marker-style stroke. It’s a modern take on the popular Sharpie font. It includes all uppercase letters.
Safira
Safira is a wide and modern sans with ligatures and a stylish feel. The rounded ball terminals are especially elegant.
Shine Brighter Sans
Shine Brighter Sans is a super-thin sans-serif with a light attitude. The limited character set combined with its light weight is best for display use.
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Popular Design News of the Week: November 9, 2020 – November 15, 2020
Posted:Sun, 15 Nov 2020 10:45:17 +0000
Every week users submit a lot of interesting stuff on our sister site Webdesigner News, highlighting great content from around the web that can be of interest to web designers.The best way to keep track of all the great stories and news being posted is simply to check out the Webdesigner News site, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the most popular designer news that we curated from the past week.
Quarkly – Design Tool for Creating Websites and Web Apps
Create your Personal Branding Strategy in 4 Simple Steps
How to Design a Landing Page
No Code MBA – Learn to Build Real Apps and Websites Without Code
Your Computer Isn’t Yours
Swatches – Generate Colors for Every Purpose
Markabaly – Cross-platform Markdown Editor
12+ Bootstrap Hero Image Examples
The UX of Among Us: The Importance of Colorblind-friendly Design
No, your Clean Code won’t Save the Planet
My Side Project Rocks – Share and Discover Side Projects
How to Test Content like a Pro: A Step-by-step Guide
MacOS Big Sur is Here
Free Fonts for Prototyping and Wireframing
Gamification: The Broken Way of Carrot and Stick
Everything You were Wondering About Apple’s New M1 Chip
Please Unsubscribe – Fwd Emails to Unsubscribe from Marketing
The Fonts in Popular Things Identified Vol. 2
How to Become a Self-taught Graphic Designer
Using PowerPoint’s Animated GIF Function
Scribbble.io – A Blogging Platform for Developers
How to Work with WordPress Block Patterns
The Power of Happiness: Being Safe, Free, and Supported
How to Handle Scope Creep in Web Design
Building Products
Want more? No problem! Keep track of top design news from around the web with Webdesigner News.
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10 Reasons Your WordPress Site Will Get Hacked (and How to Stop It)
Posted:Fri, 13 Nov 2020 10:45:56 +0000
A hacked WordPress site is as damaging as having your home burgled. It can completely shatter your peace of mind and adversely impact your online business. Why do hackers target WordPress sites? The answer is relatively simple: WordPress is the single biggest platform for website creation these days, so there’s a larger base to attack; this attracts the attention of online criminals.
So, how can a hack impact your website?
Depending on the type of attack, your website could suffer any of the following:
- It could be defaced completely;
- It could load or operate very slowly on any device;
- It could completely crash and malfunction;
- It could display the dreadful “White Screen of Death”;
- Its incoming visitors could be redirected to other suspicious websites;
- It could lose all your valuable customer data.
This list is not exhaustive but you get the idea.
Now that we know how a successful hack can impact your website and online business, let us look at the top 10 reasons behind WP hacks and prevent them.
1. An Insecure Web Host
Like any website, WordPress is hosted on a web host or server. Unfortunately, most site owners do not pay much attention to the web host they select and choose the cheapest they can find. For example, it is more affordable to host a website on a shared hosting plan — one that shares its server resources with many other websites like yours.
This can make your site vulnerable to hackers as a successful hack into any website on the shared server. A single hacked site can consume the overall server bandwidth and impact all the other sites’ performance.
The only way to fix this problem is to opt for a reliable host and a virtual or dedicated server.
Pro tip: If you’re already using a shared hosting plan, check with your hosts if they offer VPS hosting and make the switch.
2. Use of Weak Passwords
Weak passwords are the main reason behind successful brute force attacks that target your account. Even to this day, users continue to use weak and common passwords like “password” or “123456”; if you’re one of them, your website could land in trouble!
Guessing weak passwords allows hackers to enter the admin accounts where they can inflict the maximum damage.
How do you fix this problem? Simple, ensure all your account users (including admin users) configure strong passwords for their login credentials. With at least 8 characters, passwords must be a mix of upper- and lower-case alphabets, numbers, and symbols.
For added safety, install a password management tool that can automatically generate and store strong passwords.
Pro tip: You can use a plugin to reset passwords for all your users.
3. An Outdated WP Version
Outdated software is among the most common reasons why websites get hacked. Despite being free to download, most site users defer updating their site to the latest version, for fears of updates causing their site to crash.
Hackers take advantage of any vulnerability or bug in an older version and cause issues like SQL Injections, WP-VCD Malware, SEO Spam & other major issues like website redirecting to another site.
How do you solve this problem? When you see a notification about an update on your dashboard, update your site as soon as possible.
Pro tip: If you are worried about updates crashing your live website, you can first test the updates on a staging site.
4. Outdated WP Plugins and Themes
Similar to the previous point, hackers also take advantage of outdated, unused, or abandoned plugins and themes installed on websites. With over 55,000 plugins and themes that are available, it is easy to install a plugin or theme, even from unsafe or untrusted websites.
Plus, many users do not update their installed plugins/themes to the latest version or do not find the updated version. This makes it easier for hackers to do their job & infect sites.
How do you avoid this problem? As with the core WP version, update each of your installed plugins/themes on your site regularly. Take stock of all the unused ones and remove them or replace them with better alternatives.
You can update your plugins/themes from your hosting account.
Pro tip: We suggest setting aside time every week to run updates. Test them on a staging site and then update your site.
5. Common Admin Usernames
In addition to weak passwords, users also create common usernames that are easy to guess.
This includes common usernames for admin users like – “admin”, “admin1”, or “admin123”. Common admin usernames make it easier for hackers to get into admin accounts and control backend files in your WP installation.
How do you avoid this problem? If you are using any such usernames that are easy to guess, change them immediately to a unique username. The easiest way of doing it is through your hosting account’s user management tool, by deleting the previous admin user and creating a new admin user with a unique username.
As the first step, change the default username of your admin user and limit users who have administrator privileges.
Pro tip: WordPress has 6 different user roles with limited permissions. Only grant admin access to users who really need it.
6. Use of Nulled Plugins/Themes
Coming back to the importance of plugins/themes, users have access to many websites that sell nulled or pirated copies of popular and paid plugins and themes. While these are free to use, they are often riddled with malware. They can compromise your website’s overall security and make it easier for hackers to exploit.
Being a pirated copy, nulled plugins/themes do not have any available updates from its development team, hence will not have any security fixes.
How do you fix this problem? Simple, for a start, only download original plugins and themes from trusted websites and marketplaces.
Pro tip: If you don’t wish to pay for paid or premium plugins and themes, opt for a free version of the same tools that will have limited features but are still safer to use than the nulled version.
7. Unprotected Access to wp-admin Folder
To take control of your site, hackers often try to break into and control your wp-admin folder in your installation. As the website owner, you must take measures to protect your wp-admin directory.
How can you protect your wp-admin folder? First, restrict the number of users having access to this critical folder. Additionally, apply for password protection as an added layer of security for access to the wp-admin folder. You can do this using the “Password Protection Directories” feature of the cPanel in your web host account.
Pro tip: Besides these fixes, you can also implement Two Factor Authentication (or 2FA) protection for all your admin accounts.
8. Non-SSL Website
You can easily migrate your HTTP website to HTTPS by installing an SSL certificate on your site. SSL (or Secure Socket Layer) is a secure mode of encrypting any data transmission between your web server and the client browser.
Without this encryption, hackers can intercept the data and steal it. Plus, a non-secure website can have many negative implications for your business – lower SEO ranking, loss of customer trust, or a drop in incoming traffic.
How do you fix this problem? You can quickly obtain an SSL certificate from your hosting company or SSL providers. It encrypts all data that is sent from and received by your website.
Pro tip: You can get a free SSL certificate from places like Let’s Encrypt, but these provide limit protection that will only be sufficient for a starter site or small site.
9. No Firewall Protection
Lack of firewall protection is another common reason why hackers can bypass website security measures and infiltrate the backend resources. Firewalls are the last line of defence against hackers and work like the security alarm installed on your house. Firewalls monitor web requests coming from various IP addresses, including the suspicious (or bad) ones.
They can identify and block requests that are known to be malicious in the past, thus preventing easy access for hackers to your website domain. Web application firewalls can thwart various attacks, including brute force attacks, XSS, and SQL injections.
Pro tip: A firewall provides much-needed security and is your first line of defence. But it’s important to also have a malware scanner installed.
10. Lack of WordPress Hardening Measures
Typically, hackers target the most vulnerable areas or weaknesses within a WP installation, to illegally access or damage the website. The WordPress team has identified these vulnerable areas and has devised a list of 12 hardening measures recommended for every website.
A few of these include:
- Disabling the File Editor;
- Preventing PHP execution in untrusted folders;
- Changing the security keys;
- Disallowing plugin installations;
- Automatic logout of inactive users;
How do you implement these hardening measures? While some steps are easy to understand, others require the technical expertise of how WordPress works.
Pro tip: You can implement hardening measures on your own. However, some measures require technical expertise so in these cases, it’s much easier and safer to use a plugin.
Featured image via Pexels.
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How to Design a Contact Page That Drives Engagement
Posted:Wed, 11 Nov 2020 10:45:33 +0000
How can your customer reach you? If a client arrives on your website after searching on Google, what can they do to take the next step in a relationship with your brand, without buying anything?One of the primary aims of any website is to drive conversions. However, it usually takes between 5 and 8 touchpoints to generate a viable sales lead. People don’t want to convert straight away.
Since building a relationship with customers is crucial to success, it makes sense that the contact page would be an essential part of driving results. Unfortunately, a lot of website owners pay virtually no attention to that page. They ask their designer to create a page with their address and phone number on – and that’s it.
What many business owners don’t realize, is that the contact page is the door to deeper, more lucrative relationships with potential prospects. The design of this essential website element needs to be fantastic to drive results.
So, where do you start?
Defining a Well-Designed Contact Page
Let’s start with the basics, what makes a great contact page?
The complete answer to that question depends on the target audience. Some customers will want to see fun and friendly contact pages, complete with social media sharing buttons. Others will want to see a map that shows them exactly how to reach an office or business.
There are a few golden rules to keep in mind, of course. Contact pages should be:
- Easy to find: Don’t hide the link to the contact page on the website footer. Make it easy for customers to find out how they can get in touch.
- Simple: Don’t put too much content on this page or it will overwhelm your audience. Just let them know where they can go to get answers to various questions.
- Professional: Even if you have a friendly brand personality, your contact form still needs to be grammatically correct and well-designed to show a professional edge.
- Convenient: Make your phone number clickable so customers can use it on Skype. The same can apply for your email address. Provide easy access to social media profiles, and if you have a contact form – keep it short and sweet.
- Informative: Include all of your contact information in the same place. This may include your address, a map to your location, social media pages, email addresses, and even forums.
- Accurate: Ensure that the information on your contact page matches the information listed elsewhere. Check directories and Google my Business listings to be sure.
- Attractive: Yes, a contact page needs to look good too. Plenty of white space will make essential information stand out. A good layout will guide the eye through the page.
- Consistent: Make sure the contact form on your website matches the brand personality that appears on all of your other pages.
Take a look at the Tune Contact page:
It’s beautifully laid out, with clear information that’s easy to read. The company shows exactly why customers might want to get in touch and how they can reach out. As you scroll through the page, you’ll find additional office locations, email addresses for different teams (sales and support), and links to social media accounts too.
How to Drive Engagement on a Contact Us Page
A good contact page needs to look fantastic, showcase the company’s personality, and capture audience attention. However, there’s a big difference between a contact page that gets the job done, and one that convinces your audience they have to connect with you.
Here are some excellent ways to make your contact us page stand out.
Step 1: Using Color Correctly
Color and color psychology have a massive impact on user experience.
Studies constantly demonstrate the conversion powers of having the right shades on certain pages throughout your website. For instance, changing a CTA button from red to green can increase click-through rates by 27%.
However, every audience is different. The colors that drive engagement on a contact page for your company will depend on your target customer. A/B testing color palettes that match your brand personality is a good way to get started.
One interesting example of colors that make the right impact on a Contact Us page comes from Hubspot. Here, the brand maintains it’s brand color (orange), but it also introduces some new shades that convey trustworthiness and professionalism.
Blue is the most calming and credible color for any brand, The gradient that Hubspot uses here blends perfectly with its brand identity, allowing for a stunning contact page, with CTA buttons that still stand out.
Experiment with colors that can generate the right emotional response from your audience, but don’t ignore the golden rules of color in web design. You still need to showcase your brand identity, and you still need a way of making crucial information stand out.
Step 2: Humanizing the Customer Service Team
Some of the customers that arrive at a contact page are interested in your product or inspired by the potential of your service. Other customers will be looking for assistance because they’re frustrated with something or stressed out.
If you’ve ever had a problem with a product and wanted to reach out to the brand about it, you’ve probably noticed how annoying it is to find a blank contact page with nothing but an email address. The lack of effort and humanity in the contact page is enough to convince you that you probably won’t get a response.
But what if you add some happy smiling faces to the page?
Research indicates that brains are fine-tuned to recognize and appreciate human faces. Having a picture of your customer service team, or just any human being on your contact page makes you instantly more approachable. Your customers start to feel like they’re reaching out to a person – not an empty website.
Look at how engaging and personalized this contact page from Amber McCue looks:
Although you can show any human face on your contact page and potentially get results, showing your actual agents will be more likely to drive positive results. It’s a great way to showcase the authenticity and humanity of your team.
Step 3: Making it Easy to Find
A surprisingly large amount of the time, companies shove their contact information into the footer of their website, forcing customers to spend forever looking for them. However, your audience might not want to spend an age searching for your details if they’re in a hurry to get answers.
Stowing a contact page in a footer is also a problem for those visiting your website via mobile, as they might not be able to see all your footer details and links as well.
A Contact Us page doesn’t have to be a massive part of your website navigation if you don’t want it to be. However, it should be one of the first things your audience can see. Putting the information on the header of your website, or even sticking it to the top of the page as your users scroll is very helpful.
Zendesk makes it easy for customers to get in touch in multiple ways. First, the Contact section of the website is clear at the top of the page. Secondly, if you start scrolling through the Zendesk website, a “Get Help” button pops up, so you don’t have to scroll back to find assistance:
Remember, aside from making sure that your contact page appears in the right part of your website, it’s also worth ensuring that it’s easy to understand. Don’t use unusual terms like “Chat”, or “Chill with us”. Stick to tried-and-true options like Help, Contact, or Support.
Step 4: Making the Experience Relevant
There’s a reason why it’s practically impossible to find a one-size-fits-all contact page.
It’s because different customers need different things from your brand.
Some customers will be looking for the answer to a question; others will want to discuss something with your sales team. That’s why many companies are using adaptive contact pages that can change to suit the situation.
For instance, you may start by asking customers what they need help with. Zapier takes this approach with its Contact page:
By asking the client what they need straight away, Zapier can make sure that the visitor finds the right information, and the right number or email address for the appropriate agent. You can even scroll down the help page and look for something in the available help centre, using the search bar. Or you can click on View our experts to hire a Zapier pro.
Creating a dynamic and customized experience like this does a few things. First, it ensures that the customer will reach the right person to help them first-time around. This reduces the number of inappropriate calls your employees have to deal with, and the number of transfers.
Secondly, you deliver a better experience overall for your client, because they don’t have to repeat their issue to multiple people or start a massive email thread. They get the support they need immediately.
Dynamic contact pages can even save you some money and time. If clients decide to solve an issue themselves, using your resources, that’s great for your busy agents.
Step 5: Direct People to the Right Place
The central focus of your contact us page needs to be the available contact options. Centralizing the contact options on a page is an excellent way to make sure that they get the right amount of attention. Centralizing also means that your customers can spend less time searching for the contact details that they need, which is great for usability.
The Melonfree.com website uses a contact us form that’s centralized to immediately pull attention to the customer’s options for getting help.
Centralization isn’t the only way of using design principles to guide visitors on a contact page. According to Ray Hyman and Edmund Hick, increasing the number of choices on a page often increases the time it takes for people to make a decision.
When it comes to connecting with a brand, the right option for each customer will depend on the person and the situation they’re trying to overcome. For instance, a customer that needs to reset their password will probably be able to get the solution they need from an FAQ page.
On the other hand, someone who needs help using a new feature might need the guidance of a professional. To help guide customers to the right solution, Basecamp gives customers a variety of steps to follow to get the right solution fast.
The main purpose of the contact page is to help customers get the right answer with an informative form. However, there are unobtrusive alternative options available too. If all you’re looking for is a way to help yourself fix a problem, you can click on the help guides link before you ever scroll down to the form.
Step 6: Support the Contact Team Too
The best contact us pages aren’t just a great way to improve customer experience. Well-designed solutions also help the customer service team to save time and stay productive.
One of the primary metrics that companies consider when evaluating the success of a service team, is the number of replies required before an issue is resolved. However, if the initial question from a customer doesn’t contain enough information, this number often increases.
Using the design of the contact form to access the right information helps with:
- Automatically routing people to the right team member: Companies can set up segmentation rules that automatically send certain emails to different employees based on keywords. You might have questions that go to the sales team, and separate queries that you direct straight to the customer service team.
- Show appropriate support options and FAQs: Remember to give the audience a chance to help themselves before they reach out for extra support. Links to an FAQ page or self-service options can really reduce the pressure on a team. Some companies even add automated chatbots to the mix to help with self-service.
- Prompt for extra context: Although not every customer will take advantage of an opportunity to add extra information to a form, some will. Adding a box to your contact form for “anything we need to know?” is a great way to generate more information. Ban.do includes a simple “question” box where customers can add as much detail as they like. An option to add screen shots or documents might be a nice touch too.
Building Your Own Contact Us Page
Every customer has their own specific set of needs. The right contact page for another business might not be the right one for you. That’s why it’s so important to take some time getting to know your customers and speaking to your support team.
When you’re planning your contact page, it helps to ask yourself some basic questions about what you want to achieve. For instance:
- What kind of channels will our customers want to use to connect with us? Look at things like social media messaging, email, or phone calls. If you’ve got a relatively tech-savvy audience, then they might want to use things like instant messaging with chat bots too.
- How can we direct clients to the appropriate channels in as little time as possible? Having a system in place to automatically route your customers to the right agent will reduce the time to resolution for your customers. The faster you solve problems, the better your reputation becomes.
- What can we do to set customer expectations and build confidence before they speak to us? Designing a professional-looking contact page will increase customer confidence, while an FAQ section shows that you’re ready to answer common questions.
- How can we showcase a unique brand personality without making the page complicated? Everything from using distinct brand colors on a contact page, to adding images and illustrations reminds customers that they’re in the right place.
- What can we do to reduce the friction points in a customer’s path to contact? Avoid adding too many input options to a contact form and ensure that it’s easy to reach out when your clients have a problem.
Understanding exactly what your audience needs from you, and what they’re looking for when they come to your team for help reduces the effort involved for your client when they reach out for help. Remember, today’s digitally-savvy customers expect their interactions with companies to be as streamlined and simple as possible.
Make the Most of Your Contact Page
Contact pages are frequently an afterthought in the website design process. However, they’re one of the most valuable tools your company has. With a good contact page, you ensure that your customers can always reach you when they have problems. What’s more, you boost your chances of people wanting to reach out to the sales team too!
Good luck creating a contact page that encourages engagement from your target audience. Don’t forget to track your results from each design, and A/B test for optimization.
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