Ways to improve website marketing strategies

Best Graphic and Web Design Marketing Strategies

 2020 is not a terrible time to be a business owner. It is an exciting time, full of incredible innovations and intriguing new possibilities to set our brands for success and build resilience across the business organisation to assure continuity of service to current and prospective clients.
COVID-19 has taught us that in business and personal life, we need to plan for the unexpected. Our strategic business marketing needs to be adapted to cope with the unexpected.
We need objective plans, but they need to be flexible to make us more resilient than our competitors. And allow us to deliver a “business as usual” outlook with flexibility and creativity.
Goalposts are moving. And there is room for improvement; there is always room for improvement. That is the vision our business marketing should focus on: understanding what customers value to determine the best Unique Selling Proposition (USP) to gain success and stay active.
When looking for marketing ideas, I suggest reading the article Small Business Marketing Ideas That Can Make A Difference Today by Ashish Patel, from expresstext.net. Patel suggests three easy-to-follow ideas to boost growth for small businesses, which I reproduce below.     

Get Your Business Trending

• Create awareness for your brand with proactive word-of-mouth communication;
• Practice Guerrilla Marketing making your ad content memorable for prospective clients;
• Use SMS and Email to let your clients learn more about your product and your service;
• Use the power of Social Media free tools to market your business and track your marketing campaign’s performance.

Video Marketing

• Live Videos to maximise interactiveness a step forward;
• YouTube Ads with a short and exciting message in the first 2 seconds to grab attention, before the visitor, clicks that “Skip Ad” button (like I do!);
• Reviews in videos as a tool to personalise and engage the review.

Work On Your Content

• Create content that is SEO optimised to improve visibility;
• Create your blog or update your blog posts to rank higher and use the keywords that your target market is likely to use focusing on the quality of your content;
• Optimise your website using relevant keywords in the headings and making it easy to navigate (as you should know, web designer, to maximise conversions).

Be creative in your business! Don’t think only literally. On the contrary, think literally, laterally, convergent and divergently!

“Don’t wait until you’re in a crisis to come up with a crisis plan”

Phil McGraw

Web Designers Can Get More Positive Outcomes During COVID-19 Pandemic To Build Their Brand

Ways To Improve Your Web Design Business and Expand Your Relationships with Your Clients:

Do Pro Bono Work to Help Your Community

Pro bono Publico is Latin for “for the public good”; provide your creative work for a reason you are passionate about. Covid-19 has brought us to another side of life. Offer support to neighbours and local entities  – for instance, communication leaflets, posters and information sheets. Or just offer to help a person who is isolated pick up their shopping. Involvement with local aid groups definitely is “good free” work that will help you see the community’s needs as aid/charity groups tend to share knowledge in a very effective way. And small local help has the power to cement you to the values of our communities.

Find The Value of Graphic and Web Design During a Crisis

Robust design systems are helping many industries survive and even prosper in this crisis. Put this under your umbrella as you pick new projects. Keeping the user front and centre has been the main problem in almost all industries. They need to communicate more effectively with the user about firstly the virus, then the support they offer and then their response to the challenge to continue serving their clients. 
Look for problems, find appropriate solutions and offer your help and your capacity at this time. Elevate the clarity of communication; make it more friendly and positive. The whole community could use a friend right now. Put people first.

Start Your Help from Where You Are

It is easy to start support as an effort to help and then realise that there are risks and harms you have not seen before. Remember that the further we are from a complex dilemma, the less likely we are to have the full setting and discernment needed to contribute.
So it is easier to start your support to community groups where you know you will be able to help out. There are heaps of practical kinds of things you can do and be directly useful right now. Can’t think of anything? My suggestion is to get involved with community groups, local charities, and local business effort clubs, and you will find out quickly helpful things you can do.
Another option is to start with existing relationships. Are you web designing for a client involved with sporting activities, for instance? Trying times for them with strict restrictions, but staying active is critical for both physical and mental health. What are the specific problems they are facing? Remember that they depend on one-to-one interaction. How can they cope with social distancing?
Think of some benefits you can offer this client. Maybe provide them with free signs and posters they will need during this crisis. By doing this, you are providing extra customer service to your client and showing that you understand where their needs are supporting them during the crisis.
Elaborate on these points of assurance and promise them your business support will outlast the coronavirus crisis. You will be serving them in new ways reaching out to solve their needs and at the same time adding value to your brand.

Educate Consumers

Small-scale, local, direct efforts are robust. They leave a positive mark on your efforts. Never use web design to reap off other businesses during difficult times. On the contrary, let them know that your firm is also suffering from the dire circumstance at play (as we are!) and empathise with those affected and that you are ready to help them.
As a designer who wants to help, you should recognise your input as your share of the more substantial collective work. Let’s lift up each other with our help.

Web Designer’s Marketing Strategy for the Coronavirus Crisis

Be creative to improve your business marketing using creativity and consider problems as opportunities to do something better. Human beings can imagine and generate new ideas. Using this ability is called creativity.
The necessary life changes to minimise the spreading of the virus brings graphic and web designers new opportunities to create powerful illustrations and visual representations to communicate the message to the customers.
More people are rethinking their business opportunities and relying more and more on online services. Innovative smart solutions are developing around the globe and bringing prospects to web designers and developers to pivot their businesses and their careers.

Some web design strategies to build your business during COVID-19:

1. Review your portfolio – Position yourself to work in industries that are doing well. For example, eCommerce business is on the grow; therefore, emphasise your creative past projects to generate value;
2. Ensure that websites are ready for more traffic and demand (including your own site!)
3. Write new blogs focusing on new skills necessary to speed up innovations to adapt to the existing reality;
4. Activate your social media involvement;
5. Touch up with your old customers as many will be needing new setting up online to strengthen their online presence;
6. Use your time to do those pushed-on activities like cleaning up your codes and fixing up bugs in your mobile platforms;
7. Learn new skills which are in demand now and expand your knowledge of relevant skills, SEO, conversion rate optimisation, and eCommerce to place you in a better position to serve your clients.

Be Inspired with New Ideas and Start Planning for the Future and Surprise Your Target Audience  

Be in touch with your clients more frequently using email messages and newsletters to inform them about developments, policy changes business shifts, etc. Let them know that you are well, and that your business is working as usual.

Threats Perspective

There seems to be an advantage for freelance web designers working from home, but business, in general, still suffers from reduced spending habits by consumers and other companies. This means reduced demand for new websites that would typically accompany new launches or campaigns.
Other threads could include reducing expenses on SEO optimisation, site maintenance and other similar web creator services as small businesses will be trying to cut down costs. Ensure them that your websites are ready to complete their transaction online offering a useful easy-to-use, mobile-friendly, intuitive User Experience (UX) optimised to provide speed loading performance.   

Explore New Opportunities

• Explore new business opportunities that could surface. Pivot your business towards industries that require your skills, either in the short or long term. Continue helping your clients who are doubling on their online presence or those that need new websites to connect their services with consumers. Create a safer environment for web users and remote teams.

• Get involved in your community and create value for your business in your neighbourhood along with your target market. When people see the quality of your work, the attentive nature of your customer service and how you maintain your value propositions, they will remember you in the future when they “mean” business, and you will undoubtedly add a smile to their faces.

• Highlight how you and your business have learned from the COVID-19 crisis experience and how this learning will improve your performance and permanent improvements to the way you will operate in the future. This process inspires confidence from your target audience and shows that you own the situation instead of allowing the situation to take over you and your customers.

There is always a way to improve, and sometimes tough times are what we need to see the way to a better future. Focus on your business benefits, targeting them as potential prospects. Make a difference.
The coronavirus pandemic’s influence on small businesses, including graphic and web design, is going to be here for a while. Creative ideas and innovative marketing are leading factors for growing our businesses. What other ideas and rules would you share with us? Our goal is to survive and thrive in a post-pandemic world. Please, share your thoughts in the comments below!