Ladybugz Interactive started in the Fall of 2020 with Lysa Miller freelancing for women-owned and local growing businesses. Miller put her digital marketing and relationship-building chops to work, making her own web design and search marketing company a top priority.

“Many business owners make the mistake of not doing their marketing first,” says Miller. “But as a web design and digital marketing company, I had to focus on what I know best to grow our agency.”

Not wanting to build another agency, a few of Miller’s freelance clients urged her to start over and to do what she was doing for them, for others. So she did.

Within a few months, inquiries increased and Miller had no choice but to start the company by hiring Frank Pereira from Providence’s Ten12Design in late October. From there, Ladybugz continued to grow over the next year. We are now a team of 19 experts specializing in niche verticals for early growth companies in biotech, B2B, education, and non-profit. We’ve launched over 40 websites in our first two years and are servicing a clientele of more than 50 support and 10 digital marketing clients. 

Ladybugz also works with Boston area legacy brands to up-level their traditional marketing efforts helping them navigate these fluctuating and unpredictable times.

An Impressive Team of Digital Marketing Leaders With Decades of Online Experience

Finding amazing team members wasn’t that hard and it’s a crucial piece of our digital marketing success story. The pandemic had hit most freelancers relatively hard and Miller offered some seasoned experts an opportunity of a lifetime.

The ability to grow with Ladybugz along with keeping the option to still work in their freelance firms as they desired. In the end, Miller felt like these experts brought so much value to the table. With a shortage in the workforce, this model suited our agency just fine. 

Most of the team now represent the company exclusively, but the agency still slides contractors the perfect direct client when needed to let them fine-craft their skills on non-agency projects. The team consists of digital specialists in web design and development, brand building, web support, SEO, social media, online marketing, and more.

Digital and Creative Leaders Paving A Local Web Design Agency’s Success

Agency Mama Bear of Strategy and Growth 

Lysa Miller oversees Ladybugz’s overall growth, focusing on business development, demand gen, strategy, and operations. Lysa has worked in digital marketing for more than 20 years and understands how to create long-term success in an ever-changing online environment. 

Web Services Director and Fun Video Guy

Frank Pereira is a graphic designer and WordPress content implementation specialist. He manages computer networking systems and oversees layout designs that go above and beyond client expectations. 

Creative and Branding Leader

Morgan Kropa has worked with companies to perfect their digital online branding for more than a decade and a half. She understands the importance of businesses identifying and honing their brands online to ensure real-world results. 

Growth Leader

Aya Lanzoni leads our digital marketing team with project management and strategy. She keeps our digital marketing clients growing and happy. As a highly organized team member, Aya keeps deadlines in place and manages an awesome team of rockstars.

COO Extrodinaire 

Billie Kenyon is dedicated to customer success and is constantly coming up with innovations and improvements that benefit both the Ladybugz team and the clients they serve. 

User Experience Dream Team

Leanne Kennis, Alison Sullivan and our excellent designer, Ryan Kohler pair up to guide clients as they work to identify their digital voice, especially early-growth companies. The combined expertise makes for the perfect design, messaging, and user experience that flows together perfectly. A recent example of such a success story is Paradigm4’s new website.

Social Media Rockstar

Crystal Daher’s expertise is in digital marketing, social media, and SEO implementation. A beautiful new website means nothing if nobody can find it online, and Crystal ensures that Ladybugz clients’ content ranks highly in web and social media searches. 

Content Ranking Queen

Amy Westebbe is referred to as the agency’s secret weapon when it comes to ranking content. Amy is the voice behind many of our client’s highly engaging (and ranking) content. Our SEO team works with Amy to craft topics and website content that will read and rank.

Online PR & Events Maven

Meet Ola Patykowski our public image coordinator. Ola is the creator behind our social media reels and video promotions. Ola also helps clients with the same. In addition, she manages our Ladybugz awards, events, and media opportunities. Secretly she is our agency’s stylist.

Visual Storyteller

Wherever you find a Ladybug event or PR opportunity, you will also find our company photographer, Lis Rock, documenting it. Lis helps us tell our story through photo-journalism capturing real moments we can share with our friends and fans.

A custom interactive and iterative process (Agile!) for a successful website launch

The team at Ladybugz Interactive has created a unique method to help early-growth companies identify their digital voice. This agile process allows clients to get custom WordPress websites designed, developed and launched in just 8 to 12 weeks. Afterward, Ladybugz continues to work with clients to ensure the long-term success of their digital strategies. Learn more about all of the digital marketing professionals at our web design and digital marketing agency.

As an ecommerce design agency, Ladybugz Interactive leverages a blend of creativity, technical expertise, and strategic thinking to deliver online stores that are both visually compelling and optimized for conversions. Our team understands the unique needs of ecommerce businesses, ensuring every website we build is tailored to enhance user experience, drive sales, and support long-term growth in the digital marketplace.

Focusing our web design sights on growing companies in biotech and beyond

Throughout Ladybugz Interactive’s inaugural year, we have carved out a niche for ourselves in digital marketing for biotech companies, specialty education and non-profit organizations, and B2B and B2C companies. We specialize in affordable but high-quality service for early-growth companies, with a focus on woman-owned and minority-owned businesses.

See our impressive portfolio to learn more about the digital marketing strategies that Ladybugz has implemented for our clients. 

Our boutique digital agency gets featured in the online media (over and over.)

We specialize in helping clients tell their stories through digital marketing. Like any business, Ladybugz has its own story, which has been featured in print and on podcasts. 

A November 2021 article from the MetroWest Daily News highlights how Ladybugz from a one-woman show to one of the top agencies in the Boston area. When the pandemic required companies of all kinds to increase their digital presence, The Ladybugz team was there for clients who didn’t even know where to begin. 

For those who want to hear our digital marketing success story for themselves, we’ve been featured on the popular podcast The Resilient Entrepreneur twice. The first time, Lysa and host Michelle Mercier discussed how to block out the noise in your life, both personal and professional, to focus on success. The second time, Miller shared her advice on building strong relationships to grow your business.

For an in-depth look into our digital marketing success story, read our feature on Cloudways.com, a managed cloud hosting platform that features a blog with advice from industry experts. In this 2020 interview, Lysa shared the origins of Ladybugz, the team’s creative process, and her definition of customer success. She also highlighted the diverse clientele of Ladybugz Interactive, how the team has shifted during COVID-19, and how to balance personal and professional brands online. 

For more expert advice and insight into the Ladybugz creative process, see the full list of publications that have highlighted our work in the world of digital marketing. 

Continuously Named a Top Boston Web Design + Digital Marketing Agency 

Ladybugz Interactive has been recognized time and time again for our work helping dozens of companies create and maintain a strong digital presence. 

Ranked 2023’s Top Creative Agency in the USA on Clutch.co and The Manifest, proves the agency’s hard work is highly coveted and recognized in the industry.

Ladybugz Interactive was also named one of the Women-Owned Agencies to Watch Out for in 2021 by Agency Vista, a network of more than 46,000 marketing agencies. 

Clutch.co, a leading B2B research company, named Ladybugz Interactive one of the Top Global Creative & Design Firms of 2021 as well as one of the Top-Ten Women-Owned B2B Web Design and Digital Marketing Agencies. Ladybugz continuously receives perfect 5-star reviews on this platform. 

Most recently, Ladybugz was named as one of the Top Web Design Agencies in New England as well as one of the Best Boston Marketing Agencies by Agency Spotter, a site that uses customer reviews and data to help clients find marketing services worldwide. 

As Our Agile Digital Agency Evolves, Our Commitment to Our Clients Remains the Same 

While helping clients expand their digital presence, Ladybugz Interactive is expanding our physical presence in Boston and beyond. Our studio in Hudson provides a space for creative services – namely photography, video production, and podcasting – allowing our talented team of full-time staff and freelancers to exercise their skills and go above and beyond for clients. Additionally, the Ladybugz Interactive Boston Seaport office provides a central meeting point for digital marketing clients across the greater Boston area. 

As Ladybugz Interactive continues to evolve in 2022, we remain committed to our mission of providing high-quality digital marketing to local, early-growth companies at an accessible price. We will continue to bolster women/minority-owned businesses and focus on diversity. Hand in hand with this goal is Ladybugz Interactive’s commitment to supporting freelancers by providing regular work in a people-first environment. 

If your New Year’s resolution includes growing and maintaining a strong digital presence for your business, contact us to see what our award-winning digital marketing team can do for you.

So you need an effective SEO strategy that is unique to your business? Or a plan to have people find you online? But with so much competition, how do you create an effective SEO strategy that is unique to your business? Is there a formula to follow? No, not really. If there was, it wouldn’t be unique. 

You may have checked out one of the many generic SEO templates—but it fell flat. The same thing happened with the second and third templates; they all guaranteed a pathway to SEO success, but you’re no better off than you were before. There are best practices, and great learning tools out there but finding the golden nuggets of your SEO is really the key to make the  plan even more effective.

The reason is that generic, one-size-fits-all SEO strategies don’t take into account what makes each company different, and how that will affect their SEO plan. 

Front End and Back End SEO: The Secret to Search Engine Rankings

If you’re wondering about how to create your very own effective SEO strategy, here are 10 tips:

Don’t try to be anyone else.

Start by asking yourself this critical question: “How do I provide unique value to my customers?” 

Don’t believe that an article called “The guaranteed plan for SEO success” is the answer for you. There is no generic plan, so it doesn’t make sense to play follow-the-leader. It takes a lot of homework and planning to implement an SEO strategy that will work for your business, not anyone else’s. 

Identify customer-oriented goals.

Your SEO will bomb if you see your audience as nameless, faceless internet users. It’s crucial to find out who needs your solutions by answering questions such as: 

• Who is interesting in each of your product lines or services?
• How much education do they need before they purchase?
• What are your high-value customers buying, and why? 
• What are they searching on to find your products or services?

Next, think about their search intent—what problems do they have that you can solve? One idea is to try out relevant keywords and see what companies come up in the search results. Check out their online strategies to get ideas, then adjust like strategies to promote your own strengths. 

Build your brand using research.

SEO techniques work best when they support solid branding efforts. Take time to:

• Make your brand look professional and appealing to customers in your niche.
• Keep branding consistent across all digital media channels and vehicles, including written content, videos, podcasts, and social media
• Highlight your positive differentiators
• Build a personality for your brand, with an authentic unique voice.

Start with a cohesive web strategy.

The hub of your digital strategy is your website, so that’s where SEO begins. Each page a visitor lands on needs to be relevant to the search result they clicked on, provide quality information and create pathways to get to your high-value pages. The interesting thing is that even without a definitive strategy, your SEO will increase if you can keep visitors on the landing page and clicking through the website.

Here’s a basic checklist of some key factors to website effectiveness:

• Create a well-architected site that makes it easy for people to find what they want.
• Ensure your pages load quickly, no more than a few seconds. 
• Provide meaningful content by writing for humans, not for search engines.
• Use high-quality photos, videos, case studies, and other assets that personalize your company.   
• Make certain all the technical SEO elements are in place so Google can easily index your pages

Create quality content as a part of an effective SEO strategy.

A major SEO factor in Google’s algorithm is quality content. That’s why you can’t rely primarily on keywords for SEO success. Even if your keyword gets a high ranking in search results and attracts visitors, it’s for nothing if they leave quickly, with little-to-no interaction with your site. 

Don’t skimp on quality. Content on each page has to be high-quality and relevant to the visitor’s search. For example, if an insurance company uses “affordable term-life insurance” and lands on a page that is largely about disability insurance, the visitor is likely to be annoyed and frustrated. They may not only click away on that search, but they are less likely to return in the future.  

And don’t forget about readability. Use clear, appropriate language. Not jargon, overly complicated sentences, or overblown language when something simple will do. 

Leverage long-tail keywords.

Here’s another tip for success. Go with narrow long-tail keywords, targeting a narrow audience segment. For example, instead of “real estate agent in Boston suburbs”, how about “affordable rental apartments in Watertown.” 

You may ask, “But won’t I get fewer hits and leads? The answer is yes, but the leads will be more highly qualified—and closer to making a purchase. Other descriptive phrases about your company, products, and services provide opportunities for differentiation. 

Another looming issue is how to do keyword research. Despite what you’ve probably heard, basic research doesn’t have to be that complicated. My best advice is to start by defining your company’s goals, best customers, and unique attributes. You can supplement this information with one of the many keyword research tools available—including Google’s free keyword planner, plus more advanced tools such as SEMRush, Ahrefs, and SpyFu. 

Keyword Strategy for Your Website in 12 Easy Steps

Build a following.

One of the secrets of great SEO is using your social channels to grow a following. Regularly post items that are informative, topical, funny, or that highlight the work your team is doing—and include keywords. After viewing a continuous stream of posts, a follower may visit your website to learn more about you, subscribe to your newsletter, or participate in your community. 

When it comes to leads, a follower is gold. If they call about a potential project, they’re already a qualified lead with a positive impression of you. A follower is much more likely to hire you than a “stranger” who is unfamiliar with your company. 

Think about gradual change for an effective SEO strategy.

The good news about SEO is that you can start small. I suggest following the Japanese business process of Kaizen, or “change for the better,” a concept closely related to “continuous improvement.” Making a series of gradual changes is more realistic—and usually more successful—than a complete overhaul.

Think about it in terms of baking a cake. Your favorite cake recipe needs a little something extra, but you don’t just ditch the recipe. Instead, you improve the recipe, first by adding a pinch of brown sugar and next time adding walnuts. (In between you have a failed Craisin experiment). After adding five more minutes to the timer, your mouth is in heaven! And more ideas will follow. 

Kaizen easily translates to your business: Make small changes, analyze the results, and build on past results.

Build relationships to increase backlinks for an effective SEO strategy.

Backlinking for SEO seems a bit mysterious, but it doesn’t have to be if you focus on building relationships and sharing free content. For instance, if you’re a digital designer specializing in biotech, reach out to a high-authority hosting company. Suggest writing a guest blog that links back to your site, a win-win situation. They get free content. You get lots of SEO points, publicity, and website visitors. 

Here are some other techniques for backlinking:

• Participate in local events.
• Join industry associations.
• Provide free content for relevant non-profits. 
• Participate in forums like Quora.
• Produce instructional YouTube videos for others to include in their blogs

Be iterative. Keep learning and evolving.

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice. Like any other skill, you learn bit by bit, practice kaizen, and keep learning from your results. You can learn about any topic from my two favorite teachers: Professor Youtube and Coach Podcast.

The choices are endless but watch out—it can be addictive. 

Build an effective SEO strategy that is unique to your business

Without going through all 10 tips, the most important takeaway is to leverage your special attributes—the ones most valued by customers—can guide you in creating a cohesive SEO plan. The more ways you convey your uniqueness, the less direct competition you have. Be proud of exactly who you are, and use SEO to highlight your positive differences. It’s a great recipe for attracting the right clients.

]]> https://www.ladybugz.com/improve-your-blog-content/ Tue, 16 Feb 2021 19:05:04 +0000 http://ladybugzintera.wpengine.com/?p=9490 Here is your complete guide to improve your blog content and turn it into Rocket Fuel in 2022.

Out with the old content and In with the new they say!

It’s time to get serious about how to improve your blog content. Here is a quick checklist to help you drive more engagement and improve SEO—to enhance both new and already-published content.

Let’s start with the understanding that user behavior and search algorithms are changing all the time.

The most important thing when you improve your blog content or site content:

Google search algorithm is increasingly placing less importance on meta descriptions and the number of keywords—and more on quality, relevance, and user engagement.  With this in mind, let’s talk about eight ways you can improve content effectiveness—starting today.

1. Improve, expand upon and update old blog copy 

We should all regularly audit and evaluate our older content to determine if we should keep it, drop it, or update it. Business conduct this process in various ways, but we can look at Search Engine Journal’s perspective to give us an idea of what to look for:

There are various metrics you can you to determine how to measure these qualities, although some of it will come down to your personal judgment. Helpful measurements will include including page views, organic traffic, links, conversions, shares, and other signals of engagement.  

If page content is out-of-date but still performs well, consider updating it to build EAT scores. Techniques include improving the writing, updating facts and figures, enhancing the format, and adding interesting images and videos, and improving metadata.

2. Improve blog content with formatting and layout

There’s an old marketing adage I remember from decades ago: “People don’t read.” This is truer than ever as readers have more distractions, less free time, and a plethora of media choices. Most readers decide in the first few seconds whether or not to continue reading, so you have very limited time to capture their attention and encourage them to move down the page. 

Of the utmost importance are readability and scanability. People want to quickly and easily figure out what the article’s about and where to find the information that’s most important to them. Formatting is an excellent way to help accomplish these goals:

• Create headlines that say what the article about and why they should read it—without hype. 
• Use subheads and short paragraphs to break up long blocks of text and increase white space. 
• Pick a great featured image and sprinkle other graphics throughout.
• Highlight interesting details with bulleted items, pull quotes, and other techniques for emphasis.
• Represent data graphically through easy-to-read charts, graphs, and infographics.

Crucial Web Design and Digital Marketing Changes You Need to Make

3. Improve engagement on social media with OG and catchy headliners

Social media sites are the major drivers of most web traffic, so make the most of them. One way is by using Facebook’s Open Graph technology (OG) in your website’s html code. This social meta tag allows users to share their website pages directly to their Facebook page with greater control. 

Rather than relying on Facebook’s automated content generator, the OG protocol lets you determine the image and excerpt that represent your page on Facebook. These elements are converted to a single clickable image that will send users to the content page. It’s a little like the snippet on a search engine results page.

Using OG tags on your website can influence the performance of your links on social media to increase conversions and click-through rates, with the added benefit of signaling to Google that people are engaging on your site. 

You can use paid tools like Yoast SEO Premium to easily automate this process. There are also free tools that will generate the OG code for you to insert into your html based on the information you provide, such as site name, title, url, and images. Just two of these tools are Small SEO Tools FreeCodeTool.

Website Updates that Will Yield Big Results: 10 No-Brainer Fixes for Your Website

4. Leverage internal links to improve your blog content

Simply put, an internal link connects one page of a website to a different page on the same website. Well-placed internal links create natural pathways for users to find out more about topics they are interested in, which provides great value and a better experience. 

Whenever you write a web page or blog post, think about how you can link it to other pages on your site. For example, if you have one blog article about big dogs and another on Great Danes, why not link them to each other? If you also have a content offer called “A Guidebook to Caring for Big Dogs,” drive traffic from those two blog posts to that guide’s landing page. 

With each click of an internal link, from one page on your site to another, you get another page view and longer session duration time—both important website metrics. These indicators of high user engagement will also signal to Google that you have high-quality content.

5. Improve your blog content with links to other websites

Support your readers’ interests by including external links (also called outbound links) to helpful resources. Just like internal links, external links provide added value for the user. The most successful strategy is to link to relevant, high-ranking pages on well-respected sites that are popular with your audience. 

As you provide additional resources for your visitors, you also increase your authority ranking with Google. External links are evidence that you did your research by consulting other high-quality sources. Another benefit is that linking to relevant resources gives Google a better idea of the topic you are covering.

While one or maybe two outbound links can help a blog article, don’t go crazy. You still want to focus on internal links to keep people on your site.

25 Content Ideas for Your Website or Blog in 2025

6. Prioritize your messaging to help improve your blog content 

It’s important how you present your messaging, to both Google and your readership. For both user experience and search, you want to be clear about the topic of each page, as well as the context of each piece of information on the page. This is where formatting and heading tags come in.

Readers scan headings to get the gist of the page or article and also to find subsections that particularly interest them. It’s pretty much the same for search engines. Google uses heading tags to understand the topic and structure of the content for indexing.  

Your h1 and h2 headings are the focus of content SEO and where keyword placement is most important. The h1 tag is the main heading, which should convey what the article is about. Next on the hierarchy are h2 tags, your main subheads. Multiple h2 tags interspersed throughout the page are guideposts that introduce subtopics in an organized, logical way.

The hierarchy continues down to H6, although it’s generally not necessary to go beyond the h3 level. Since H3 and lower levels are less relevant to SEO, the focus on keywords is decreased. This gives you more room to be creative. Have fun with these smaller subheads and focus on capturing reader interest and keeping them engaged. 

10 Ideas to Skyrocket Social Media Engagement

7. Encourage social media shares

Promoting your content social sharing is the most effective way to expose your content to more potential leads. It’s also the most prominent way to drive traffic to your site. For SEO, while social media is not a direct SEO ranking factor, experts agree that social media signals have a high correlation with ranking position. 

An important factor is that each click from social media to your website counts as a valuable backlink (also called an inbound link) to your website content. Add other links to your site within a post and you further expand the opportunity for backlinks. And of course the more links to your content, the more opportunity for user engagement and conversions.

Some people focus too much on posting frequency. What you want to do is create a strategy that focuses on maximizing sharing and engagement. First, start by insisting on high-quality content. Next, ask yourself the following key points and use the answers to start building your strategy:

• Which channels are most popular with your audience?
• Identify your audience’s behavior and intent when they go on each channel.
• What does research show about the most effective posting frequency on each channel?
• What days and times does your audience visit social media platforms?
• Identify and utilize the type of content they engage with the most.

Regardless of its direct impact on SEO, a smart social media strategy that promotes high-quality content will  bring you greater exposure, boost click-throughs, and create backlinks—and most likely improve your page rank. 

Finding Great Content Ideas for Social Media Shares

8. Revisit your fonts and typography

Choosing the right fonts is an important design decision. Have you ever been on a website where the font is too small or doesn’t have enough contrast against the background color? If so, you probably didn’t stay very long. 

Here are some common rules of thumb:

Size Matters:

A common rule of thumb is that the ideal font size for the main body text is 16 pixels—neither too large nor small. But there are also font trends, and right now big fonts are in. Not only do they improve overall readability, but they enable access for the 8.1 million people with visual impairment. That’s 3.3% of the population that you could lose if your fonts are unreadable. In addition, large fonts can be fun, engaging, and direct the eye toward key information. 

Keep It Simple:

You’ll want to limit the number of fonts you use—perhaps one for headlines, one for subtitles, another for body copy, and maybe one for content where you want special emphasis, such as quotes. You also don’t want to go crazy with color; usually, two is enough. 

Don’t Crowd:

Dense pages are visually unpleasing and hard to read. Having enough white space looks more professional and helps people focus on what’s important. Look at the white space between lines and paragraphs, margins around images, and overall design—then declutter and make room as needed.

Convey Your Brand:

Having a font that is a mismatch with the brand can also confuse the reader or cause mistrust—such as an investment company site that uses a kooky lime green font instead of one that conveys strength, respectability, and trustworthiness. 

Boost the value of your content in 2022

Bring on the New Year with a bang, by reinvigorating your blog content for SEO.

These 8 tips should get you well on your way to getting a better page ranking. By playing by Google’s rules, you’ll bring more people to your website and increase user engagement.

]]> https://www.ladybugz.com/crucial-covid-19-web-design-and-digital-marketing-changes-you-need-to-make/ Tue, 16 Feb 2021 18:40:31 +0000 http://ladybugzintera.wpengine.com/?p=9482 A New Normal in Website Design and Digital Marketing

Today’s world is anything but business as usual. But our charge as digital marketers hasn’t really changed; we continuously seek ways to anticipate and respond promptly to our customers’ needs as times change, especially for the crucial web design and digital marketing changes that we may face. 

The difference is that the coronavirus caused an unexpected, instantaneous, seismic shift that has affected every aspect of our lives. Almost overnight, we started cocooning in our homes, performing tasks that would ordinarily take place in offices, shops, recreation areas, schools, restaurants, and other external venues. Amidst the tumult, we’ve had to immediately pivot toward new business practices.

We have also experiences changes in the digital world. This “new normal” has not only heightened online usage, but has also changed the public’s online behavior across digital channels. Without clear information, in most cases we’ve had to make important website and digital marketing decisions blindly, on the fly. More so, there’s no sign of when things will stabilize. Still, we forge ahead. looking for ways to help and engage customers while growing our businesses.

A 2022 Plan to Improve your Blog Content and Turn it into Rocket Fuel

Are you adjusting your digital assets for COVID-19?

So now, while it’s still a bumpy ride, many of us have settled in a bit. It’s the perfect time to ask ourselves two questions. First, have we made appropriate changes during COVID-19? Answering this question requires making a careful assessment of our current digital initiatives, assets, and website performance. The second question is if we’re in a position to continue adapting to an uncertain future. For this, we have to stay abreast of evolving audiences’ concerns, online behaviors, digital touch points, and performance trends.

Based on the answers to the questions above, we can find opportunities to provide better value to our audiences now and into the future. Specifically, how can we best tweak our websites, social media properties, and other forms of digital communication to improve customer experience? 

Here are some ways to meet the digital challenges of the pandemic:

• Adjust your website to current traffic trends: Analyze web traffic and performance trends over the past three to six months. Then, focus your efforts on pages that have jumped in popularity, finding ways to highlight them and make them more accessible for your crucial web design and digital marketing changes.
• Digitize Services: Don’t get overshadowed by competitors who have kept up with the times. Draw in customers by converting formerly in-person services to their digital equivalents, such as online ordering and virtual storefronts. Equally important, promote the availability of these services. 
• Personalize Digital Communications – Look for new ways to personalize, or contextualize, digital engagement. Leverage each visitor’s online behaviors and purchasing history to anticipate needs, convey the right messages, and highlight the most relevant content. 
• Examine Sales Shifts: Examine which products have exploded and which have tanked during COVID-19, and then shift digital focus as necessary—looking at visibility, navigation, CTAs, and social promotion.
• Remove old, outdated content: As you review your digital assets for alignment with COVID-19, look for opportunities to improve quality, user experience, and SEO on each page and on your website as a whole. Remove old content related to past events, obsolete products, and expired promotions.

10 Content Ideas for Your Website or Blog

Your COVID-19 information hub for crucial web design and digital marketing changes

The most important digital property is your website, and there are many avenues for improvement. At the heart of it, look for functionality, design, and content elements that will make it easy to get the most important, timely, and relevant information.

Some ideas for sharing COVID-19 information include:

• • Unified Landing Page: Make COVID-19 content visible and easily accessible by creating a single COVID-19 landing page. To help search engines recognize it as your key page for COVID-19 resources, put ‘COVID-19’ or ‘Coronavirus’ in the URL slug. To track the impact of the content, use a consistent term in the URL of all your COVID-19 content.

• Homepage Masthead: Your masthead, the most visible element on your site, is a natural place for pushing COVID-19-related information. It also conveys that you are prioritizing your customer’s current concerns. Placement of a “COVID-19 Information” link on your masthead will also signal to Google that your site has been updated for indexing and search. 

• Website header: Many users will enter your website on pages other than the homepage. This makes your website header, which sits at the top of each page, a critical location for pushing timely and relevant COVID-19 information to your visitors. 
• Alert Bar: An alert bar above the navigation can provide critical information, such as limited hours and COVID-19 protocols. Post-pandemic, this bar can include information about upcoming events and promotions. 
• Main Navigation: Add a COVID-19 link in your main navigation or as a dropdown. This will be another signal to Google that your site has been updated. 

Links on your website masthead, header, alert bar, navigation, and other digital properties should all point to the COVID-19 landing page mentioned above.

The Skyrocketing of Social Media 

Limitations on socializing, shopping, and other activities during COVID-19 have resulted in a social media explosion. Social media is the most common way that consumers get information about brands and products, according to 82% of respondents in a study for Deloitte. The same study found that nearly three-quarters of respondents increased their social media consumption during the pandemic. Even more, 14% of shoppers are making purchases through social media.

Perhaps most important, over half of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that social media plays a crucial role in impacting both their decision to consider and to purchase from a brand. 

The message is clear—refocus your efforts on social, especially encouraging social sharing. Take the time to understand how your audience’s social media behaviors may have changed during the pandemic, and update crucial web design and digital marketing changes accordingly. Also, check that all properties are branded consistently, have non-conflicting information, promote the right message, and are kept up-to-date. 

Alternative Channels for Crucial Web Design and Digital Marketing Changes

• Video/Virtual: Necessity is the mother of invention. People stuck in their homes are craving connection more than ever. With that in mind, consider increasing video content and virtual experiences to create stronger customer engagement.
• Email: Another result of spending more time at home is increased use of desktop computers. This has led a rise in email opening rates. For example, March and April of 2020 showed a year-over-year rise of 20% over 2019. 
• Mobile: The pandemic has also catapulted the use of mobile. Data from a global survey held in March 2020 revealed that 70% of responding internet users worldwide were using their smartphones or mobile phones more as a direct result of the coronavirus outbreak. Likewise, 70% of mobile marketers say COVID-19 strengthened their business, according to Liftoff’s Mobile App Trends Report. 
• Local: Also, recognize that even when our customers emerge from their homes, shoppers are more likely to stay local. You can leverage this trend by posting relevant information and changes in business operations in Google My Business, Facebook, Bing, and Yelp accounts. 

Local SEO Made Easy – Tips To Get Your Business Found

Your Message Takes on New Meaning

During these rapidly changing—and often emotionally challenging—times, people need businesses to be more transparent, informative, and empathetic than ever. Make it easier for them to do business with you by increasing the visibility of your current protocols (hours, curbside pickup, and similar policies). If you’ve altered your policies to be more customer-friendly, such as improved financing terms, find ways to consistently highlight this information on all digital channels. 

It’s more important than ever to do your best to anticipate questions, publish and post business changes promptly, and be responsive to questions you get through website forms, social channels, emails, and other interactive communication channels. Also, don’t assume you know how others think and feel. Try using polls and other mechanisms to ask what more you can do to help.

As you learn more about customer challenges during COVID-19, look deeper into how you deliver your messages digitally—the content, format, and timing. A study done for DigitalCommerce360.com provides this helpful information: 

• Don’t overwhelm customers: During the pandemic, respondents feel that the tone of the content is ‘overwhelming’ (17%), and ‘stressful’ (15%). 

• Relate to current events: 43% share more information and resources as they relate to current events. Try sharing timely and relevant industry information, community services, or helpful business policies.

• Participate with a cause: 37% are sharing more content supporting specific causes. If you participate in community events related to COVID-19, share positive activities and find ways to engage users. 

Furthermore, it’s not just what you say, but how you say it. Stay on brand, but with a new level of empathy about how your messages may be perceived. Review (and update as necessary) your copy, tagline, and imagery. 

https://www.ladybugz.com/googles-december-2020-core-update-for-seo/

Turn Your Crisis into an Opportunity

Companies that successfully move past the pandemic will be proactive, agile, and open to seeking new digital solutions. As we transition through different stages of the COVID-19 crisis and beyond, view your digital channels through the lens of how you can best support your prospects, customers, and business partners. Your digital team or agency can help you review and adjust your current strategies for the greatest success. Find expert advice….

These 12 hot web design trends will give you a strong foundation for creating a website that achieves your marketing objectives.

Hot Web Design Trends for 2022 #1.

The Need for Speed

People have very little patience for a website that’s slow to load. To begin with, 40% of users abandon sites that take longer than three seconds (source: Kissmetrics), and most (70-96%) will never return (source: Entrepreneur). A speedy website boosts organic search rankings, helps retain visitors, increases return visits, and improves your ability to compete. As you work on your website, think about how you can increase speed by, for example, removing seldom-used features, optimizing media size, and considering how your back-end systems affect speed.

Hot Web Design Trends for 2022 #2.

Security is Everything

In the first half of 2019 alone, data breaches exposed 4.1 billion records (source: Risk-Based). Phishing scams, ransomware, and social engineer attacks are just some of the tactics used by ever-more sophisticated cyber-thieves. Research from Gemalto found that 70% of customers would stop doing business with a company after a data breach, plus you risk significant fines and lawsuits. Be sure to use a secure hosting company, implement strong passwords, use malware protection, and take other steps to reduce security vulnerabilities.

Hot Web Design Trends for 2022 #3.

The Popularity of WordPress

Gone are the days when all websites were built by nerdy coders in windowless cubicles. Anyone can build a site with WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, and other do-it-yourself website platforms. With so many low-cost and even free DIY options, small businesses and “solopreneurs,” can easily start building a digital footprint by leveraging built- in tools for SEO, analysis, social media posts, and more—especially taking advantage of an almost endless supply of plugins. If you want to ramp it up, developers and graphic designers can adjust your WordPress site in endless ways, to your specifications.

Hot Web Design Trends for 2022 #4.

WordPress versus Custom Development

If WordPress is so versatile, why do people still choose to have custom-developed sites? DIY sites today are so flexible that it’s a valid question. Still, there are pros and cons to each, and it’s a matter of exploring relevant factors, such as:

• Creation and Maintenance: Consider the technical expertise of the people who will be creating, adding to, and maintaining the site. Determine how far do you want to deviate from a DIY template, as well as what type of ongoing maintenance will you need.
• Control: With WordPress, you are in control of all the elements—timeframe for completing the site, the process for making content changes, and adjusting other elements without relying on a developer’s timeframe—and without added costs every time you make a change.
• Goals and Specifications: Depending on your marketing objectives, learn if you can modify your desired WordPress theme to achieve the design and functionality you want. Determine if you can make those adjustments yourself or if you’ll need to hire a developer.
• Cost: No question…WordPress is the way to go.

Why WordPress is the Best Platform for Your Corporate Website

Hot Web Design Trends for 2022 #5.

Content Management

You have probably published more and more content over time, at an ever-increasing rate. Dealing with all of that content can get messy. Content Management Systems (CMS) help you efficiently create, optimize, publish, and logically manage the administration of it all, including:

• Determining who can make changes to your site
• Managing whether content is in draft mode, published, and if it is visible to the public
• Seeing when content was changed, viewing previous versions, and restoring older versions
• Controlling how content is connected and insuring that dependent elements are in synch
• Finding and grouping specific pieces of content
• Responding to and nurturing leads

Easy-to-use (and often free) CMS systems found in DIY platforms like WordPress provide ways for marketers to stay organized and automatically perform a wide range of CMS functions, without needed excessive technical expertise. Developers and those more technically oriented can get even more functionality with free, open-source CMS systems, such as Drupal and Joomla.

Hot Web Design Trends for 2022 #6.   

Scalability & Growth

As your business and functionality needs grow, your website needs to grow with you to handle bursts of traffic (such as on Black Friday), keep your site from getting bogged down, or crashing entirely. Without scalability, the user’s experience suffers and you can lose leads and sales. Scalability is especially critical for the exploding use of mobile apps. Popular ways to scale up include moving to cloud-based solutions, using flexible e-commerce platforms (such as WordPress), and ditching legacy systems.

Hot Web Design Trends for 2022 #7.   

Content is King + Queen

The phrase “Content is King” may be overused, but it doesn’t make it any less true—especially with the proliferation of blogs and social media. Content marketing is at the center of the marketer’s digital world, with 72% of marketers saying that content marketing increases engagement (source: Content Marketing Institute). Rather than annoying people with messages they don’t want, content marketing is “inbound,” attracting an interested, information-seeking audience—for better traffic, leads, and sales.

Hot Web Design Trends for 2022 #8.    

Designing for the User First

Websites are now inbound hubs that need to, first and foremost, serve the visitors we rely on. We need to give them what they came for—not just feed them information we want them to know. The new priority is to create a positive user experience (UX) that makes each visitor interaction as useful, seamless, and enjoyable as possible. UX starts with easy, fast access to the site, and goes through each leg of the journey while responding to the user’s behavior on the site. UX encompasses functionality, navigation and structure, the ease of finding appropriate information, aesthetics, readability, and overall enjoyment.

Hot Web Design Trends for 2022 #9.    

Building for SEO

Without optimizing content for SEO, websites performance plummets, and all your good work can simply get lost in the ether. Here are some facts illustrating that SEO (search engine optimization) is serious business:

• In 2019, organic search traffic delivered 53% of site traffic, as compared to only 15% from paid online ads (source: BrightEdge).
• The average traffic share generated by sites listed on the first page of Google search results is 91.5% (source: Chitika).
• Over 40%of revenue is captured by organic traffic (source: BrightEdge).

Whether you or a developer are building your site, and regardless of who creates your content, it’s imperative to educate yourself on the basics. WordPress and other DIY sites are increasing their SEO capabilities to meet demand, and it’s up to users to learn how to make the most of it—or discuss SEO functionality and administration with your website developer.

SEO is also constantly changing, from Google’s updates happening several times a year, to your competitors always improving their own SEO strategy to beat you to the top. Some of the new suggestions for improved SEO for 2021 include the importance of local SEO, voice search, mobile friendliness, and image and video related SEO.

Everything You Need to Know About the Yoast SEO 15.1 Plugin for WordPress

Hot Web Design Trends for 2022 #10.    

Accessibility

You can’t argue with the fact that making your website accessible to the most people will maximize its power. Don’t lose the potential of reaching the 19% of people with vision, hearing, motion, speech, and learning impairments (source: US Census data). That’s where inclusive design enters the picture. In addition to accommodating those with permanent disabilities, you’ll also broaden your reach to:

• People using mobile phones, smartwatches, and different input modes—such as keyboards, microphones, trackballs, and digital cameras.
• Older people with changing abilities as a result of aging
• Users with slow internet connections or limited bandwidth.
• Those in fast-changing situations, such as moving through various levels of sunlight.
• Users who temporarily can’t use both hands, such as when driving a car or in certain professions.

Hot Web Design Trends for 2022 #11.    

Proactive Maintenance + Web Support Partners

Small businesses and solopreneurs generally don’t have an IT department or developer on hand for daily website maintenance, including application updates, security issues, and other systems problems. For the most part, that’s okay if your site doesn’t have to manage complex data or highly sophisticated functionality. However, even a low maintenance site requires some degree of ongoing maintenance to keep it secure, increase reliability, back up content, and keep it up to date—and these elements are increasingly important. Planning upfront for ongoing maintenance ultimately saves you time and money, while supporting the user experience. Plus, a site that works well frees you up to focus on your other responsibilities.

Hot Web Design Trends for 2022 #12.    

The Rise of eCommerce

eCommerce continues to grow at a stupefying rate. Roughly four out of five Americans are now online shoppers, with half shopping with mobile devices (source: Pew Research). And the numbers keep going up and up. Today, even companies that never considered themselves an “ebusiness” have had to explore online sales simply to stay in business. Being competitive isn’t easy when you’re competing against behemoths like Amazon, Walmart, Shopify, and other giant sites. It all boils down to creating a unique site that potential and current customers will love, love, love. Some recommendations include optimizing for mobile, increasing security, focusing on local areas, and providing meaningful interactions with service reps.

How Will You Apply these 2022 Website Trends?

Website trends continually change and shift over time, and it can be hard to keep up.

How you apply these trends largely depends on your goals, staff expertise, time, initial investment costs, and ongoing maintenance needs.

Researching DIY sites and talking to a web design and digital marketing agency can help you figure out what road to take.

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Good thing is, it is spinning in the right direction. Responsive design, getting off that boring marketing rules of 3 clicks, 2 column layouts etc. We need something catching to the eye, which can be accessed on-the-go and something we will want to come back, again and again, day after day. So, is your website designed in a way digestible for an ordinary millennial? Are you aware of the fact that millennials are taking over the Internet?

Here is how I recommend engaging Engaging Millennials with content.

Never stop simplifying

Beauty is in simple things, yes! Never did anything reached the level to be so simple and easy-to-use for everyone. Generation Y can’t get enough of simplified content. Don’t be afraid to sacrifice chunks of content, clickthroughs and everything you planned for your site in order to keep it as straightforward and burdensome off content as possible. Millennials will know how to appreciate that and they will make worth your while!

Never stop innovating

Never ever think of how you reached to the point where you won’t have to change anything. Even if you are having big success with your site at the moment – customers are swarming in, you are considered as the coolest out there – don’t think that it will last forever. Because in today’s world no beauty is everlasting. Innovation in web design has never been considered greater advantage than today. And millennials more than anyone know how to reward those who are not afraid to innovate and bring new content to the table.

Never stop listening

An essential part of two-way communication has always been and always will be active listening. Face it, you don’t know it all! And it ain’t about what you think is the best, it’s about what people in cyberspace want and what do they think it will add value to their online experience. In order to bring to the table desired dishes, you will have to patiently listen to what they need. Always ask for feedback, whether good or bad, it can only benefit you and your business.

Never be offline

Yeah, basically this one is more of a habit. If you want to truly succeed and be a leader of the new generation lining up the Internet today, you will always have to be available to them. And by being available we mean practically being available in every technological or psychological way. Your site will have to be a safe haven for them, one place they will always resort to when they find a minute of their time in their busy lives to go to. When they are waiting in line to pay the bills when they are waiting for their taxi to arrive at a destination, that one minute that they have – you will have to reach out to them and connect.

Perhaps this can prove as the hardest task. Perhaps it really is. But it’s just the way of things today. Times change and so you should also. Breath in, breath out with millennials, it’s the only way you should be able to follow their lifestyle and be part of it.

Hellen McAdams is the chief strategist at Marketee.rs. She loves a good digital marketing strategy and isn’t afraid to ask questions everyday to keep up with the industry’s trends. If you have any comments or questions, shoot her a question at @hellen_mcadams.

HAPPY CONTENT MARKETING!

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Finding good content takes a multi-prong approach. Compelling social media content can and should come from multiple sources to keep your followers engaged.

Here are seven places you can find great content ideas for social media shares that will help you attract new followers and customers.

1. Engage in Social Listening

Why You Should Care About Audience Social Media Engagement

You’ve probably heard the old saying: If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, does it really make a sound? It’s the same thing with content (sort of). Producing quality social media engagement and blog posts on a regular basis is the staple of a good content and digital marketing strategy, but getting it in front of the right people and motivating them to take action (whether it’s signing up for your newsletter or ordering your product or service) is the essential part of the equation.

10 Tips to Boost Social Media Engagement Across Your Platforms

Engagement levels can affect everything from how visible your content is to how well it is being received by your audience. Like any good relationship, quality trumps quantity when it comes to social media. While having a large number of followers is certainly a goal worth pursuing, engagement levels will tell you what you need to know about your marketing strategy’s ROI. It can also give you some critical hints about areas that could use a little improvement.

Here are a few tips to help get people excited about your content.

1. Find the Magic Number

It might sound counterintuitive, but there is such a thing as posting too often or being on too many platforms if it ultimately compromises quality (a major engagement killer). You don’t have to be active on every platform or post every day to build and keep your audience engaged. Choose the social media platforms that make the most sense for your brand, and update your channels frequently enough to keep the content fresh without compromising quality. Posting one or two excellent posts per week is preferable to a mediocre post every day.

2. User Personas: What Does Your Ideal Audience Look Like (and Actually Want to Read?)

Every business and brand has an ideal customer, especially if you work in a particular niche. You want your content to be interesting and accessible to a large audience, but creating user personas for your content can ensure that you are engaging the right audience for your message.

3. Data Is Your Friend

While you definitely want to write for people and not search engines, understanding trends in your industry and using analytics data for your content will help you know your audience and how well your content is working. You never really know how well or poorly a piece of content will perform until the numbers start rolling in. Analytics data can help you guide your content strategy by showing you how your audience is accessing your content, and what posts are performing the best.

4. Create Interactive Content That Demands Action From Users

The comments section is one way to get people talking about your content, but you can really boost audience participation by publishing polls, quizzes, and contests that encourage readers to respond and share your content. Come up with a unique hashtag to create buzz and piggyback off trending topics.

5. Follow Up on Your Most Popular Posts and Content

Did something you posted last year or three months ago blow up and cause a sensation? Writing a follow-up blog or throwback to a popular post is a great way to boost engagement and keep people reading.

6. Keep a Content Library

Do you come up with your best ideas in the shower or while driving to work, only to face crickets and a blank page when it’s time to create content? Make a list of topic ideas and trends before you need them so that you never run out of topics for fresh content.

7. Offer Content That Solves Problems

How-to, top 10 lists, and useful hacks are always in style when it comes to content marketing. Content that offers useful information and helps to solve a specific problem can boost engagement and help to establish you as a thought leader in your niche.

8. Don’t Talk About Yourself All the Time

Think of your content and social media posts as a relationship. Ask your audience what they want, and listen to the answers. And don’t be afraid to throw in the occasional motivational quote or puppy/cat meme or video! Everyone needs a little levity and distraction from all of the noise on the internet from time to time.

9. Repurpose Old Content

Old and outdated content can be like dead weight that drags down your SEO rankings. Performing an audit from time to time is a great way to find content that’s no longer working. Updating old blog posts to adhere to new trends and SEO guidelines works to give your website a boost with minimal effort.

10. Offer Premium Content

E-books, case studies, and videos can help to attract qualified leads and keep people on your site much longer.

Finding the right mix for your content and social media strategy is both an art and a science. Experimenting is the best way to find what works (and what doesn’t) for your brand.

Liked our article: 10 Ideas to Skyrocket Social Media Engagement?

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How to Know if Facebook Ads Are Right for Your Business

The first steps in determining if advertising on Facebook is right for you are to understand how Facebook ads differ from other forms of advertising and to understand your market. While they are estimated to generate over $4 billion dollars in revenue, Facebook ads are best suited for marketers looking to generate demand, not make a hard sell. It may seem like a vague distinction, but it’s important to keep the end user in mind. While Facebook ads may be generating billions of dollars in revenue (which means people are definitely clicking), on the whole, people use Facebook to connect with other users and engage with content. They do not use it as a search engine to find and purchase products like they do with Amazon or Google.

Think of Facebook ads as a relationship-building tool. While the end goal may ultimately be to generate revenue from a product or service, they are most successful for marketers working with a sales funnel that converts prospects gradually over time. The ad is the first step in a process that eventually leads your target to convert.

Like any digital marketing tool, a little trial and error may be necessary to help determine whether you should incorporate Facebook ads as part of your marketing strategy.

3 Benefits of Incorporating Targeted Facebook Ads Into Your Digital Marketing Strategy

If you decide that advertising on Facebook makes sense for your business, there are a number of tools to help leverage your marketing dollars and capitalize on the built-in advantages of the world’s biggest social media network.

Volume

In terms of finding eyeballs and bringing your message to the market, it doesn’t get much bigger than Facebook. With roughly two billion users around the world, Facebook is a massive market for products and services of all types.

Reach

Because ads on Facebook can be shared, they have the potential to get your content in front of a broader audience as more and more people engage with and share your posts. Think of it as a helping hand in increasing your content’s organic reach and visibility.

Targeting

Targeted ads are the mother lode for digital marketers. With the ability to break down and target your audience by key demographics such as age, gender, location, interests, contacts, and online behavior, they make your message as relevant as possible to a specific audience, increasing the likelihood of getting a conversion.

With the right time and resources, and a little trial and error, Facebook ads can help you develop a highly targeted and sophisticated marketing funnel that’s within your budget.

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From major channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, to lesser-known ones like Reddit and StumbleUpon, every social network has its own culture and conventions that are shaped by user demographics and the structure of the site itself. For example, Pinterest is an image curation site that’s popular among women. That type of content won’t work on Twitter – a site with many user types and that uses text of 140 characters or less. Read on for a look at leading social media channels and the language that is “spoken” on each.

Facebook: Keep It Short and Timely

The granddaddy of social media sharing, Facebook has a simple structure that works for both business and personal use. Although posting content of all types is possible, the short, timely updates work best – especially if they are text-based and contain a link made clickable through Facebook’s own interface. Facebook allows long posts, but short and sweet posts that direct viewers to longer form content can encourage connection and gain followers. Facebook pages and groups centered around a brand can create a sense of community and give users a glimpse of a company’s culture and values.

Twitter: Less Can Be More

Twitter’s famous rule of 140 characters max can seem restrictive, but it works. Posts can be even more shareable if they are shorter still. Although primarily text-based, Twitter posts with images and video can also be shared. Since Twitter has such a large and diverse user base, Twitter lists are used to search out and target a number of different audience types; these lists organize followers and content around hashtags and keywords. With Twitter, companies can post frequent real time updates, share snippets of company culture and direct users back to the site for rich content.

Pinterest: Pictures Are Prime

Pinterest ranks among the top social media sites used worldwide, but its unique features can make it a challenge to use. The language here is images, which are “pinned” from a variety of sources and shared to other users’ accounts. Pinterest emphasizes curation rather than connection, but users can develop followers and direct them to a website or blog through comments and text in pin descriptions. With Pinterest, companies of all kinds can share personal glimpses of the company culture and let visitors know about new content and offers.

Instagram: Up Close and Personal

Instagram is for images – the more authentic, the better. On Instagram, users establish a connection through photographs that are personal and real – although they can be enhanced through any of the site’s 20 filters. Instagram users are typically young, although the base of older users is growing. Users can also target specific demographics through keywords and hashtags.

Instagram users also love interacting with brands on the channel, and they frequently shop directly from their accounts. On Instagram, business users can provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the company’s culture, or they can post candid shots and profiles of employees.

For many users, social media sites are more than just a place to connect – they also function as search engines, customer service interfaces, and messaging apps. Knowing the culture and “language” of each network can help your company build authority, awareness and lasting connections.

HAPPY SOCIAL MARKETING!

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