Managing a sales team is no easy task. You have the potential to either make or break your sales reps. And there's tons of conflicting information out there. Effective sales managers recruit top sales leaders, provide them with the tools they need to bring in sales and watch the numbers grow. But it isn't always as simple as that. Sales managers can either inspire their teams and help them reach their goals or crush their morale, which leads to a decrease in your company's profitability. It can be hard to know what your sales team truly needs from you to hit their goals, make profits, and drive sales. That's why we've compiled these strategies to help you run a killer sales team in 2018. Running a Sales Team: It's a Big ChallengeRunning a sales team is hard work. It's not always easy to find a balance between encouraging quality performance and pushing sales reps with new goals. As a sales manager, your success depends on your team's ability to meet performance goals. But sometimes, it's hard to control and motivate reps. Luckily, there are a few steps you can take to motivate and encourage your team to excel. After all, your sales reps are the backbone of your business. The Importance of a Sales TeamBusinesses need sales to stay alive in the same way that humans need water. Without sales, your business will die. And as common as online sales are becoming, the need for sales reps to pick up the phone is just as important now as it's ever been. Building relationships is the key to closing sales. The Internet can't always build relationships for you. Only a good sales team can do that. Sales Team Positive EffectsFirst of all, salespeople understand your target client better than anyone else at your company. If you know your ideal client, you're more likely to capture the prospects you want. If you don't know your ideal client, your prospects won't have a reason to be interested in you. If your pitch is dull, dry, or impersonal, you'll put your prospects to sleep. Marketers usually have a pretty good idea of who your customers and clients are, but salespeople truly know. They can even put a name and a face to your prospects with customer avatars. Without a sales team, the marketing team wouldn't have a detailed description of ideal clients to use for targeting them more effectively. No one knows your ideal clients better than the people who spend all day talking to them. They understand their questions, concerns, thought processes, and more. And the top source of sales for sales organizations is – you guessed it – leads that the sales teams source. Salespeople generate qualified leads even better than the marketing team. That's why leveraging their knowledge and customer know-how will help your marketing efforts. Your sales team is with your clients every step of the way through the buying process, so they can help the marketing team target the right people. They talk to your clients through the entire sales funnel. Today's buying process isn't always as linear as a simple sales funnel. And salespeople know that. They understand the particular sales funnel model that applies to your business. This is important because satisfied customers tell an average of nine people about how happy they are with their experience. Dissatisfied ones, on the other hand, tell an average of 22 people about how unhappy they are with their experience. Salespeople make the customer experience smooth and enjoyable. They sell your product to real people with real concerns, questions, and objections. That's why you need them to perform at their best. There are two basic sales team structures that you can use to up your sales game. Sales Team ModelsEffective sales processes can't exist without effective sales team models in place. The two basic sales team models to keep in mind are:
Let's analyze the island model first. The islandThis old-school model structures out the responsibilities for sales all reps. It says that every sales rep is fully responsible for every step within the sales process – from generating leads to finalizing deals. This model is simple and encourages sales rep independence. The assembly line model is a bit more complicated. The assembly lineWith the assembly line model, there are four different groups that share different responsibilities:
Each group deals with a different kind of lead or customer. The first and second groups reach out and qualify leads. The third team closes the deals. The last team then deals with increasing customer lifetime value (CLV). How do you know which one model best for your team? TakeawayIf you're a startup, the island model probably isn't best for your business. It's competitive and aggressive. If you're in an established market, the island model could work for you. The assembly line model reduces the complexity of your sales cycle, boosts efficiency, and scales your team. With this model, one rep isn't responsible for every stage of the buying cycle. Once you choose a model that works best for your goals, here's how you can manage your sales team effectively. How to Manage a Sales Team EffectivelyA good sales team model goes a long way. But you still have to do your part to keep your team in check. Find and hire the best workersIf you aren't finding and hiring good workers, you won't see any success. Worry less about company culture and more about background and reference checks, assessment results, and how the interview goes. According to CPSA, there are five key qualities of a successful salesperson:
Empathy refers to an employee's ability to identify with customers, put themselves in their shoes, and make them feel respected. Once a sales rep shows empathy, they can gain the trust of customers without appearing judgmental. If a sales rep can read customers, show concern, and provide solutions, they're a winner. A sales rep with focus has the drive to accomplish their goals and stay on task. They are self-motivated, organized, and don't need anyone to tell them what to do. A person with a large sense of responsibility won't place the blame on someone else when they're in a difficult scenario. They accept errors, fix mistakes, and move past obstacles quickly. A salesperson that is optimistic is slow to accept defeat. Failure doesn't disrupt their positive view of themselves, and they can easily turn situations around. Ego-drive is similar to optimism, but ego-drive is focused on competitiveness. A person who is ego-driven is self-motivated with clear goals that they want to meet. Once you've selected workers who fit this mold, provide sales training to them. Provide sales training58% of employees who go through a structured onboarding program are likely to still be working at an organization after three years. If your sales team doesn't know your product like the back of their hand, they'll fall short when closing a sale. Make sure that sales reps understand product details and features so that they can effectively answer questions and solve client problems. For basic sales training and techniques, give Lynda a try. It has training courses on sales fundamentals that users can access on the go. Online videos and modules from industry experts make training less of a hassle, and you can track progress to make sure that reps have viewed the training sessions. Be sure to field train and provide detailed feedback. Listen to sales calls, review recordings, and offer specific feedback to your reps. You should also set a good team example to boost morale. Set an example and inspire themGoals drive salespeople, so achievement-based rewards aren't a bad idea. Don't keep training goals vague and general. Be specific. Tell reps which areas they're doing a good (or bad) job in and why. Did they reach a goal by a certain percentage? Tell them about it. Was their performance amazing on a difficult call? Offer specific examples of what they did right. If there's room for improvement, provide a brief, detailed breakdown so that they know exactly what to improve and how to improve it. Create sales processes that work, but be flexible. Create sales processes but don't be stuck to themIneffective sales processes are a huge barrier for sales departments. Many sales reps have proven and documented that having a sales process is effective. This process acts as an aid to help them meet metrics, convert clients, and close deals. Emotion is the basis for all sales. Logic comes later. A stuck sale means that there's no more emotion involved with a client. Reps have to bring that emotion back into the picture. Hit on a client's pain points and suggest how your product or service can make their life easier. Create a model for sales processes, but recognize that every sale and client is going to be different. Don't be afraid to step out of the box. Develop powerful strategiesOther strategies are more cut-and-dry and leave less room for creativity. Powerful sales strategies, such as CRM strategies, keep salespeople on task and bring in results time and time again. Sell your reps on what they can gain from sales processes. They can develop stronger skills by sticking to a process, rely on guidance through every step of a sale, and close more deals. Your sales process works, and your metrics prove that it does. Show your reps the proof, and they'll be more likely to stick with the script. Set clear goals so that there aren't any questions about the sales process. Set clear goalsStandardized scripts act as a framework for any sales process. A sales team's script might focus on identifying pain points, finding products that can relieve them, and offering them as a solution. These scripts serve as clear goals that reps need to stick to. Sales metrics do, too. Data and key sales metrics should be readily available to all members of your sales team. Be transparent and provide open data so that reps can unleash the full potential of sales analytics. Tell them which metrics you want them to hit. Next, keep in mind that you can't get respect if you don't give it. Respect every member of your team. Respect all the sales team membersAdmit when you make mistakes, even if you use data strategically and are usually right when it comes to making sales decisions. You should serve as a leader, but remember to learn from your own mishaps. Don't get angry or lash out when you lose a deal or miss a sales goal. Analyze your mistakes, try to learn from them, and share what you learned with your team. As you see problems, be open to new ideas and suggestions from your team. Anyone could have an actionable idea that could boost sales results. Don't be afraid of encouraging your reps to speak up, and don't shoot them down when they do. Communication is key. If you want your reps to understand you, you need to take the time to understand and listen to your reps. Keep things simple in the process. Keep it simpleHave you ever noticed that Apple, one of the most successful companies in the world, is such a simple brand? The brand's copy, imagery, ads, and products are minimalistic, sleek, and straightforward. And it works. Customers want quick, simple solutions. That's why you need to bring the KISS rule into your sales methods. KISS stands for “Keep It Simple, Stupid.” Customers want to know if your product works, if it fixes an issue, and what past buyers think about it. Don't deliver too much information here. Keep it basic and tell a clear, simple story. Your sales reps need to tell clients that the product works, that it solves their problem, and that people love it. Try to boil down your value proposition to a basic, short, sweet sentence for this purpose. You also need to analyze metrics and results. If you don't, you won't know what's working. Analyze metrics and resultsSales metrics and KPIs provide you and your team with quantitative, proven insights that showcase how well your methods are working. Drilling down into your data can help you figure out which sales reps are closing the most deals, which products and services are selling the best, and which strategies are paying off. You can even use data to determine which contact method is most effective for sales. By analyzing this data on a regular basis, you'll know what objectives to adjust or leave the same. Give regular feedback to your team so that they know where they stand. Provide regular feedbackWhen giving feedback, it's best to start with the positive. List two things that a salesperson is doing well and then one thing that they can improve upon. The SMART feedback model can help you do this. Make sure your feedback is:
You have to be disciplined about your feedback, though. Ensure consistencyYou have to consistently provide feedback to lead your team in the right direction. Feedback isn't a “one-and-done” task. You're responsible for delivering actionable and valuable feedback to your team on a regular basis. If you need to, schedule a brief feedback meeting with each team member every week. You also need to keep your team in the loop. Set up communication that worksRegular meetings are a great way to keep in touch with your team and check in. Conference calls can be just as effective. Email can be, too. If you want an even easier solution, communicate with your team on Slack. You can organize channels by categories, send links and attachments, and find every team member in one convenient place. Motivate your reps by rewarding their achievements. Motivate and reward great resultsYou motivate your team when you reward their great results. You can let people pick their own rewards to keep your job easy (and keep reps happy). Some rewards might include taking them to lunch or dinner, babysitting their kids, walking their dog, washing their car, or giving them a full day off. These rewards motivate the entire team. Who doesn't want to watch their manager wash their coworker's car? If you'd rather offer team-wide rewards, you could take your employees to a bowling alley, a sports game, the movies, or even an escape room. You should also encourage your team to never quit learning. Encourage learningWhen you invest in your team's education and help them stay on top of new industry techniques, you'll help them keep up with new trends. Books, podcasts, webinars, and e-books are easy to get. Sometimes, they're even free. If you have the budget, you can send team members to conferences or establish mentorship programs. Don't forget to enjoy the process, though. Don't forget to have fun!Meeting sales quotas is great, but it doesn't always boost morale. Having fun with your team to boost relationships is just as important as meeting goals. You can hold non-sales contests, create a fantasy football league, or hold a costume party.
You blog because you want people to discover your content and engage with it. But sometimes, your reach just isn't large enough. That's why it's good to diversify your content. Creating more content and putting it in more places gives you as many views, readers, and customers as possible. If you want to boost brand awareness and engagement, you need to be active on as many platforms as you can to spread your brand across the web. That's why most businesses use sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn in addition to their regular websites. But some businesses are missing a huge opportunity to publish content because they don't realize that they can post full articles to LinkedIn via LinkedIn Pulse. There are tons of reasons why blogging with LinkedIn Pulse is a win for businesses. Here's a complete guide to using and publishing on the platform along with actionable examples of how to do it. What is LinkedIn Pulse?If you want to build a good reputation online, increase your credibility, and reach a larger audience, publishing content on social media can help you do that. LinkedIn Pulse takes social media content a step further with an online news aggregation feed. Members can share self-publish content right to their audiences. The platform generates blog posts, insights, and news from influential industry professionals and businesses looking to extend their reach and share insider knowledge. LinkedIn tailors content to each individual based on their interests. That way, users only see the content that they want to see. Content for the Pulse platform originally came from huge, well-known influencers. Now, all LinkedIn members can create and publish their own content for their followers. If you're a business or a thought leader, this is an easy and efficient way to build rapport. After all, most businesses are already using LinkedIn in some capacity. According to DemandWave, 92% of B2B marketers include LinkedIn in their digital marketing mix. The platform also allows you to track the demographics of your readers to gain audience insights. You can view the industries, job titles, and locations of your readers as well as the traffic sources that they are using to view your content. If those features haven't already convinced you that LinkedIn Pulse can help you boost brand awareness, then read on. Reasons why you should use LinkedIn PulseYou might be wondering, “What makes LinkedIn pulse better than other networks?” Or you might be thinking, “Why should I worry about posting to Pulse if I already have a blog?” One of the largest advantages of Pulse is that the sole purpose of it is to help nurture and grow professional relationships. Because of this, Pulse is great for helping you connect with your audience on a deeper level. Connect with your audienceOn LinkedIn, your audience isn't just anyone. You know that your content is going to reach professionals at every level of many different kinds of businesses. And you can leverage this content to boost your visibility across the web so that you can steer your audience toward any future content that you may list on your profile. Just like any content that you post on the web, Pulse content can help you increase your search engine visibility. And LinkedIn will notify your connections every single time you publish a post. That way, your posts won't get lost among the crowd. Engage customers through useful contentLinkedIn Pulse is also great because it helps you engage customers through content that is genuinely useful. This is possible because of the unique nature of LinkedIn. It's a place where social and professional networking combine. Professionals on the site are motivated to grow, learn, and consume. They want to grow and interact with a network, follow people and brands they're interested in, and make connections. How do users do this? They have to engage with others and deliver content that focuses on their goals. If you create high-quality content, you can help your audience engage. According to LinkedIn, 62 percent of members say that they engage with content because it is informative or educational. 61% say that they engage with content that is relevant to them. If you post content that is relevant, inspiring, or educational, you're bound to build an engaged customer base in no time. But how does Pulse work, exactly? How does LinkedIn pulse work?Most of the content on the LinkedIn homepage feed comes from Pulse. Pulse users receive weekly email digests containing new posts, and users publish more than 130,000 original articles every week. There are mobile apps for both iOS and Android. To get started, users don't need to follow topics or publishers. They can just log in to LinkedIn to get personalized news based on their industry and connections. The cards on the interface allow users to skim through tons of content and publishers quickly. If users want to read a story at a later time, the app allows them to save it. Users can easily dismiss stories that they don't like, and they can follow authors with the click of a button. Each of these actions refines future recommendations. LinkedIn sends notifications from the app based on what's trending in a user's field, the authors that they follow, and their previous actions on the platform. If a connection or industry influencer appears in the news, LinkedIn will notify users about the piece of content that mentioned them. With Pulse, you can target readers with relevant stories based on their connections and professional footprints. All you have to do is publish on the platform to get started making waves with your audience. How to publish on LinkedIn Pulse to connect with your audienceBefore you publish any kind of content, you need a game plan. What's the big picture? Do you want to share insider advice, strengthen your brand, interest recruiters, earn your spot as a thought leader, expand your network, or all of the above? Step 1: Choose a message and start writing.Once you know why you're writing, you can choose a message and focus on who you'll be writing to. Pick a clear, straightforward message. Do you want to write tips for freelancers? Or maybe you want to write about the best practices for hiring new employees in order to appeal to those in management. If you're having trouble choosing a message, think back to what you've benefited from in your career. What advice would you give someone entering your field? Where is the industry headed? Is there anything big going on in the news that is going to impact your line of work? Once you have a topic or keyword, turn to Answer the Public to dwindle down potential angles. For example, say you want to write about social media marketing. Just enter in the keyword, and the tool will recommend hundreds of ideas in the “why,” “are,” “how,” “where,” “which,” “who,” “what,” and “when” categories. If you find it difficult to keep up with the visualization wheel, click the “Data” tab to see the content in organized boxes instead. Another great tool for coming up with content ideas is the Blog Title Generator from BlogAbout. Just click the “Refresh” button until you find a theme you like. Hit “Next” when you're ready to focus on creating the title for your new post. Once you have your topic ready to go, you can begin writing. Once you're done writing, you'll need to add an image. Step 2: Create and add an image.All Pulse posts allow you to upload a header image. The best size to upload is 600 x 322 pixels (or double that size at 1200 x 644 pixels). If your photo is larger, you can drag and reposition it to fit the header space more effectively. You can use free, high-resolution stock photos. Or, if you want to be more creative, you can create your own. It's easy to create custom blog graphics with Canva. Just sign up for an account or log in if you already have one. Then, click on the “Use custom dimensions” button. Canva doesn't have a template for LinkedIn blog images yet, so you'll need to manually enter your desired dimensions here. Next, use a free photo that Canva provides or upload your own image. Scale it to fit the space correctly and try out a few filters. If you want, you can even add the text (such as the title of your post), enter in some graphics (like your logo), or add a few icons. Once you're done, go ahead and download the image. From there, upload it to LinkedIn. You'll need an eye-catching headline to accompany your image. Step 3: Write your headline.Aside from your photo, your headline is one of the most vital aspects of a successful Pulse post. This is what readers will look at to decide if they're interested in what you have to say. Write a concise, interesting headline that uses keywords that are relevant to your post. Use numbers, facts, and statistics to create the impression of authority. Use powerful word choice to pull readers in. Intrigue readers with words like “amazing” or “fascinating.” Create drama with words like “kill,” “fear,” or “death.” Keep things short, sweet, simple, and to the point. If your headlines are too long, save some of the information for your introduction. Now, you're ready to finalize your post. Step 4: Finalize the post.You have your image, headline, and content where you want them. Next, you should finalize your article. The “Publish” button is in the upper right-hand corner of your screen. Before you press it, make sure that you've formatted your post correctly. Add in block quotes, bullet points, images, or videos and correct any header mistakes. If you choose to include links, double-check that they send readers to the right places. Check spelling and grammar. Typos and bad punctuation can ruin an article's success in the blink of an eye. At the end of your post, you can add up to three tags to help users discover your content. These tags will influence the channels that your article may appear on. It's best to add all three tags to take full advantage of this feature. Once you've double-checked your content and added the appropriate tags, you're ready to officially publish it. Step 5: Publish your post.LinkedIn doesn't yet allow you to schedule Pulse posts for future publication. If you don't want to publish your article just yet, set yourself a reminder to log into LinkedIn and publish it when you want it to go live. Once you do hit publish, the post will become part of your profile and will appear in your “Posts” section. Your followers and connections will receive a notification about your newly-added content. It will show up in their notifications, within their feed, and via email if they've subscribed to daily emails from Pulse. Any members who aren't following you but fit within your industry or share similar connections may also receive an update about your post, which could convert them into a follower. Your post will be searchable both on LinkedIn and off of it. Create a content calendar so that you will have a clear schedule for future LinkedIn Pulse articles. Don't forget to create a content calendarA content calendar will save you time in the long run. It will help you schedule out your content and keep it organized. If you spend time brainstorming content topic ideas now, you won't have to do it when you're ready to sit down and write. With a reliable stream of content, your readers will stay engaged. Try out a tool like Trello for creating your very own LinkedIn Pulse content calendar. You could even create a theme-based weekly post or round up that is exclusive to your Pulse readers like NPR's Weekly Roundup: Plan your calendar out for one to six months. Schedule as far out as possible so that there's no question about what you should be working on, when you should work on it, and when it should go live on Pulse. You should also plan to announce large events on LinkedIn like webinars, Q&As, interviews, product releases, conferences, and more as soon as you've committed to a date. Add these announcements to your content calendar, too. You should also test content before adding it to your Pulse calendar. Does it match your other content marketing efforts? Would you share it yourself? You don't have to set your calendar in stone, either. Keep an eye on your surroundings and competition. If something is trending, take advantage of it. What topics are your competitors talking about? How do your reader analytics look? If a topic just isn't working, don't be afraid to pull it. How to boost your results on LinkedInThere are a few things that you can do to elevate your posts on LinkedIn for the best results possible. For example, you should use keywords on Pulse posts just like you would on regular blog posts. Review profiles of others within your industry. What keywords are they using? Make a list of industry-related keywords and include them with each piece on your content calendar. Next, make sure that you've completely filled out your profile. As you fill out more content on your profile, the “Profile Completeness” or “Profile Strength” circle will fill in. Try to get that circle to be 100% blue since complete profiles usually rank higher on searches. To complete your profile, head to the “Profile” navigation bar on your account. Click “Edit Profile” and fill out every section. Be sure that you have a profile photo on your account. Update it regularly to match the photos you're using on other sites. That way, people will immediately recognize you and your company. You should also join LinkedIn groups related to your industry. Click on “Groups” in the navigation bar of your LinkedIn homepage. Then, search through groups that LinkedIn recommends for you. Join a few you like and share your content there. Engage with other members' posts, too. You'll also want to keep in mind that profiles with regular updates have increased visibility. You can stay active by simply updating your LinkedIn status frequently. This doesn't have to be difficult. When you have news about your business, make a point to share it with your audience. Now that you understand what LinkedIn Pulse is and how it works, you might be wondering if you should treat it the same way you treat your blog. The short answer is no. LinkedIn Pulse vs. your website blogWhen you publish an article on your blog, you publish it on your terms. On LinkedIn, you're publishing on LinkedIn's platform and LinkedIn's terms instead of your own. LinkedIn chooses how to show and share your articles. If you want Pulse to recommend your posts, you have to play by LinkedIn's rules. On your own blog, you can set up automatic sharing to social media, schedule out posts, and run your site the way you want to. That isn't the case on LinkedIn. When you publish on your own website, you gain SEO benefits and an increase in traffic for posting articles. When publishing on LinkedIn, you have to remember to link back to your site for the same results. You might be thinking that you can just publish the same article on your website and LinkedIn to “double dip” and get the best of both worlds. But that could actually cause more harm than good. When your content appears twice on the web, it creates duplicate content. Google doesn't like duplicate content, and it will penalize websites where the content shows up last. If Google can't figure out who posted the content first, it will penalize both websites. That means no ranking, which is not good. If you still want to publish on both platforms, there are two ways that you can do it:
For example, take this Neil Patel blog post about LinkedIn sales funnels. The LinkedIn post of the same article features a “Click to continue reading” button that directs users to the rest of the post on the website. There are many ways to leverage the power of your LinkedIn network. You can still use LinkedIn Pulse while also optimizing your site with blog posts. You don't have to choose one or the other. ConclusionSometimes, the reach you already have on your website just isn't cutting it. That's why you should diversify your content to get as much engagement as possible. By being active on several different platforms, you can gain more views, followers, readers, and customers. But most businesses and influencers don't know that they can post full articles on LinkedIn with LinkedIn Pulse. It's LinkedIn's news aggregation platform. By using LinkedIn Pulse, you can connect with your target audience, engage customers by writing useful content, and establish yourself as an industry thought leader. Pulse works by notifying users of recommended content based on their connections, industries, and interests. Users can follow brands, influencers, topics, and more. To publish on Pulse, choose a message and start writing. Create and add a header image that is 600 x 322 pixels. You can use a stock image or create your own on Canva. Then, write out an engaging headline. Keep it short, simple, and intriguing. Use numbers, statistics, and facts. Finalize your post. Double-check that you don't have any grammar or punctuation mistakes within your article. Fix formatting errors and add tags to your post. Then, publish your post to send it out to followers, connections, and others within your industry. Like most places, consistency is key on Pulse. Don't forget to create a LinkedIn Pulse content calendar to plan and organize content one to six months in advance. Use a tool like Trello to brainstorm and keep track of ideas and due dates. Boost your results by completing your profile, joining groups, interacting with other users, posting status updates, and targeting keywords with your posts. Never post the same content on Pulse as you post on your blog. If you do, Google might penalize your website. To avoid a penalty, you can either write two different versions of your post or only share a snippet of your full article on Pulse with a link to your website where users can continue reading. Take advantage of LinkedIn Pulse today to boost your brand awareness and engagement online. How have you taken advantage of LinkedIn Pulse within your industry? About the Author: Neil Patel is the cofounder of Neil Patel Digital. Remember Orkut? Or Friendster? How about MySpace and Classmates? Maybe you do, maybe you don't, because social media platforms come and go faster than most of us can keep up. For every success like Snapchat, there are plenty of others that failed to gain any serious momentum, even if they were fun and innovative ideas. Are you familiar with Vero? You know Facebook, of course, and Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, and WhatsApp. They're good (though not perfect). You probably use them at least once a day. But we don't find one platform that we like and stop. According to a recent study of social media in the United States, most people use an average of three of the top eight platforms. Facebook and YouTube are used by a significant percentage of those on other sites and apps. Consider them the stalwarts. Most people have an account on those two behemoths (Facebook has 2.167 billion and YouTube 1.5 billion users) and at least one other platform. But do you know Badoo, Snapfish, Tout, or Line? The point is, there are hundreds of social media platforms out there that you've never heard of, for virtually every niche, interest, or group of people. Some won't make it or be worth your time. But others may be the platform you've been looking for… And that brings us back to Vero. What is Vero Social Media?The words “revolutionary” and “game-changer” are tossed around too much these days. That said, I'm going to throw caution to the wind here. What is the Vero app? It's nothing less than the evolution of social media. It's both revolutionary and a game-changer. It's true social. Vero labels itself “more social, less media”, and with its focus on providing a natural and ad-free experience, it's hard to argue with it. Initially launched a couple of years ago by billionaire Ayman Hariri, movie financier Motaz Nabulsi, and venture capitalist Scott Birnbaum, the platform has only started to take off recently. Why exactly is anyone's guess, but growing frustration with Instagram and its incredibly unpopular algorithm, combined with a growing number of data leaks on other platforms, may have been the catalyst. According to Google Trends, Vero's popularity as a search term has been steady albeit not spectacular over the past year. The spike seen above occurred around the time the Facebook data breach became big news and people were looking for alternatives. Regardless of why, the app shot up from outside the top 1500 on the App Store, to #566, and finally #1 over the course of just a few days. It has since gone down again, but is seeing faster growth than at any other time in its history. Vero recently passed 3 million downloads.
~Ayman Hariri, CEO of Vero The Vero app strives for transparency where the other platforms prefer working behind the curtain. Vero v. Instagram v. Facebook v. Twitter – DifferencesOn the surface, the Vero app is very similar to mainstays like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You can post photos, videos, and links, share locations, or recommend books, music, and films. Others can like and comment on what you share. Sound familiar? But it distinguishes itself in some very important ways: No ads. No algorithms rearranging your posts and limiting who sees what. No data mining. Chronological feeds. In fact, Vero makes public its manifesto and business model for anyone interested in what they do, and why they do it. Vero believes that people naturally seek connections, and that explains the explosive growth of social media over the past 10-15 years. Here's what it all boils down to according to them:
Basically, you are the product sold to advertisers on other platforms. Facebook makes billions selling ads to brands and companies based on the data they collect from their 2.167 billion users. You are not a customer to them. You are a product to be sold. The same is true for Twitter and Snapchat and Instagram (owned by Facebook, lest we forget). Vero takes the opposite approach. By using a subscription-based model, they're beholden only to their users. Every decision, every tweak, every new feature, every change to their design and interface needs to keep their users happy and satisfied. They need to respond to the needs of their users. They have to address the complaints of their users. The user is the customer. The platform is the product. And that is a revolutionary idea in social media. But that's not all. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, LinkedIn, and others want you to spend as much time as possible on their platforms. They want you to engage in mindless scrolling of feeds for hours each and every day, because they collect data on your browsing behavior. The more users they have, the more they can charge advertisers. The longer you spend browsing feeds – which are increasingly becoming mostly ads and sponsored content – the more they can parade those statistics in front of their customers. 1.40 billion daily active Facebook users who spend an average of 20 minutes on the platform each visit is an enticing potential audience for an advertiser. American adults spend an average of 25.29 minutes per day on Facebook. And they want you to continue doing that. You don't need me to tell you that social media is addictive. It's designed that way. In fact, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter send out notifications intended to pull you back in to their platform over and over again throughout the day. Here, once again, Vero sets itself apart. While they do want you to use and enjoy the app, they also want you to be aware of how much time you spend on it. To that end, there are no push notifications, and they are the first and only social media platform to include usage info on your dashboard. You can quickly see how much time you've spent on the app each day and each hour of that day. The others don't want you to think about that. Vero very much does. As they say, “social media should enhance your life, not detract from it.” That too is a game-changer. 9 Things You Need to Know About VeroThere's always a bit of a learning curve when you start using a new app or service. New features, new ways of accomplishing tasks, new terminology, and so on. The Vero app is similar to other social media in some ways, and very different in others. It's not well known…yet. Let's take a closer look. 1. Vero was Launched in 2015As mentioned earlier, Vero is no overnight success. It was launched in 2015 to little fanfare, and failed to generate much attention. It did reach #45 on the App Store, but quickly fell out of the top 1500 apps on the platform. Its popularity over the past few years has been steady but unremarkable, with just a few hundred thousand downloads prior to its recent surge. But, as the saying goes, slow and steady wins the race. Towards the end of February 2018, it had about 500,000 users. It doubled that in just 24 hours, adding 500,000 new users on iOS in the US alone. Vero hit 3 million registered users on both Android and iOS in March 2018. 2. The App was Started Because of Personal FrustrationThe men behind Vero weren't looking to revolutionize the social media landscape. They were simply frustrated with what was available, and the pain-points of the major platforms. To begin with, feeds on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are subject to some mysterious algorithm that decides what to show, who to show, and when to show it. Those sites long ago abandoned the chronological feed, showing content from newest to oldest, much to the chagrin of users. And then, of course, there's the advertising issue. Over the past few years, the amount of ads and sponsored content in a typical feed has been creeping up. Platforms like Facebook are funded by those advertising dollars, so they're more concerned with keeping their advertisers happy than their users.
~Ayman Hariri On traditional social media, we tend to overshare and – for lack of a better word – “exaggerate” our accomplishments and activities because it's going to be seen by everyone. The team behind the Vero app wanted to eliminate all of that. 3. Posts Can Be Photos, Text, Music, or TV showsOr places, videos, films, and books. This allows you to truly share where you are, what you're watching, reading, or listening to with your connections. The app is geared towards a visual experience – just like Instagram – so even a post about a book you're recommending will automatically feature an image of the cover. Likewise for a song, album, movie, or television show. Photos and videos can be shared from your gallery, or you can opt to take a new one with your camera directly in the Vero app. 4. Friends v. FollowersThey're not the same. Friends are people you actually know in the real world. Followers (or fans) are those that choose to follow your account for some reason, usually because they enjoy your content. Would you share some big news or a personal tragedy with strangers on the street? Probably not. You'd go to your close friends. But on social media, it's an all-or-nothing situation that demands we either share with everyone or no one. Vero makes it easy to differentiate between the two groups. In fact, they've created 4 categories (more on that in a minute). 5. Vero is Free. For Now.The app will eventually work on a subscription model, requiring users to pay a few dollars each year. When they first launched, Vero planned to give their first million users a free-for-life account, but with their recent uptick in downloads, that offer has been extended. It won't last forever, though. In order to provide that ad-free experience, they do need to generate revenue in some way. The subscription fee – which will likely be less than the price of a cappuccino at Starbucks once every 365 days – will allow them to keep advertisers out and the customer experience their main and only concern. In addition to that, Vero is using affiliate links on recommendation posts. Click on a book, song/album, or downloadable film or show, and you're instantly taken to the corresponding purchase platform where you can opt to buy it. If you do, a small portion of that sale will go to Vero. 6. You Can't Register for Vero on Their WebsiteRegistration for Vero can only be done via the app. There is no option to sign up on their website. 7. Users Can Categorize “Connections”This is another key differentiator between Vero and Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and the like. Instead of only having one large group – fans/followers – there are actually four different categories for each connection you make:
Every time you publish a post, you'll be able to select which groups will see it with a simple sliding bar. Want to share something with only your closest friends? No problem. Have another post to send out to everyone? Piece of cake. You have complete control over who you share with…just like in real life. 8. Vero's Interface is Different from Facebook and InstagramYou'll immediately notice the color scheme is nothing like the other platforms. We've all experienced the slap-in-the-face bright light that comes with checking your Facebook feed at night. Vero uses a black background with white text and teal highlights. It looks great, and is much easier on your eyes. There are no usernames on Vero like we see on Instagram and Twitter. You set your first and last name, and that's what people see on your posts (although there's nothing stopping you from using something other than your actual name). And if you've ever struggled with making your photo fit the required square or rectangular shape and still look great, you'll appreciate the fact that Vero accepts images of all shapes and sizes. No cropping required. You can choose to edit your photos in the app itself – including a variety of filters like Instagram – but you don't have to make any changes if you don't want to. Along the top of your homepage, you see five icons (L-R): search, your user profile, collections (everything shared with you is organized into categories for easy search and retrieval), notifications (you'll receive one whenever someone wants to connect with you so you can accept and categorize them…but don't worry, as only you can see what category you've assigned them), and chat. Hit the “+” button to share a new post, and you're whisked away to the Create Post page. Select your post type – Camera (including stuff from your gallery), Music, Book, Link, Movie/TV, or Place – and share. Make a recommendation (or not), add a comment (or not), and finally select the connection categories that will see it. Done. From your user profile dashboard, you can manage your connections and account settings, review your previous posts and those shared with you under collections, send and review connection requests, and monitor your usage info. 9. You Can Add an AvatarI know what you're thinking: big whoop. All social media platforms let you set a profile picture or avatar. That's true. But Vero takes it a step further and lets you set up to three different avatars for the three main categories of connections. Your close friends will see Avatar A, while acquaintances will see Avatar B. You may want to have a bit of fun with your “close friends” avatar while presenting a more professional image to your “acquaintances”. Head to Settings > Avatars > Use Three Avatars, and select the image you want for each group. Easy. Should You Join?It depends. Vero is a relatively new social media network, and that comes with some growing pains and glitches. The app is officially still in Beta. It has somewhere in the vicinity of 3 million users so far, but that obviously pales in comparison to Facebook's 2+ billion, Instagram's 800 million, or Twitter's 330 million. If you're looking for everyone to be there, you may want to wait a bit longer. Some big names have already jumped on the bandwagon, though, including Rita Ora, Selena Gomez, and Zack Snyder. Look for the check mark icon to indicate an official and verified profile, but be aware that your favorite guilty pleasure (Kim Kardashian, anyone?) may not be there. But – and this is very important – if you're tired of the ads, the algorithms, and the extinction of the chronological feed, then yes, you should join. How to Use VeroIf you've ever signed up for a social media account, you'll find Vero a breeze to get going. Even if you've never had a social media profile (those people still exist, right?), you'll still find it a piece of cake. 1. Download the Vero appVero is available for both iOS and Android. 2. Sign upOnce you've downloaded and installed the app, you'll have to provide a few details to get registered: your first and last name, your email address, and your mobile phone number. Within seconds, you should receive a text message with a 4-digit PIN that you need to enter in order to continue. This is used to verify your telephone. 3. Add an avatarAfter registering and verifying your details, you can write your brief bio – you're given up to 150 characters – and select your avatar from either your image gallery, or by taking a new photo within Vero itself. 4. Add connectionsYour feed may look a little neglected at first because you're not following anyone and you haven't posted anything yet. But that's easy to fix. You can search for profiles to follow by name, hashtag, or keywords. Find the personalities and brands that matter to you, and follow them. Reach out to your friends, and connect (and assign them an appropriate connection category). Add new connections at any time by clicking the teal + in the top-right corner on your connections dashboard. Another great feature in Vero is the ability to filter what you see from every connection. Have that one friend who posts 30+ cat videos every day of the week? Turn off videos for that one person, and those damn cats will never clog your feed again. 5. Start postingWith a few connections under your belt, click the “+” button and make your first post. Share what you're reading, watching, or listening to right now. Or let others know where you are right now. Or share a thought, photo, or video. With its unparalleled control, you only share what you want with whom you want, and only see what you want from whom you want. And everyone sees it all ad-free and in chronological order. ConclusionSocial media isn't going anywhere. Social media marketing is a crucial cog for any business or brand. Platforms rise. Platforms fall. Will Vero buck the trend of “suddenly popular, gone by next week” that plagued apps-of-the-week like Peach and Meerkat? Only time will tell, but you have to admire the foundation and core beliefs behind the platform. Less media. More social. No ads. No data mining. Be a user, not a product. True social. Have you checked out Vero yet? Why or why not? What's holding you back? About the Author: Neil Patel is the cofounder of Neil Patel Digital. No website can stand without a strong backbone. And that backbone is technical SEO. Technical SEO is the structure of your website. Without it, everything else falls apart. Imagine you wrote the most amazing content in the world. It's content that everyone should read. People would pay buckets of money just to read it. Millions are eagerly waiting for the notification that you've made it available. Then, the day finally comes, and the notification goes out. Customers excitedly click the link to read your amazing article. That's when it happens: It takes over 10 seconds for your web page to load. And for every second that it takes for your web page to load, you're losing readers and increasing your bounce rate. It doesn't matter how great that piece of content is. Because your site isn't functioning well, you're losing precious traffic. That's just one example of why technical SEO is so critical. Without it working, nothing else really matters. That's why I'm going to walk you through the most important aspects of technical SEO. I will explain why each one is so crucial to your website's success and how to identify and resolve problems. The future is mobile-friendlyFirst, let's talk about mobile devices. Most people have cell phones. In fact, most people act like their cell phone is glued to their hand. More and more people are buying and using cell phones all the time. I actually have two of them. I own a work cell and a personal cell. This is becoming more common as “home phones” become a thing of the past. Google has recognized this trend. They've been working over the past few years to adapt their search engine algorithms to reflect this new way of life. Back in 2015, Google implemented a mobile-related algorithm change. People started calling it “mobilegeddon.” This was only the beginning of Google moving the focus from computer-based browsing to mobile-based. On November 4, 2016, Google announced their mobile-first indexing plans. Google's mobile-first indexing could be a game changer. Mobile traffic is now more popular than desktop traffic. And even more importantly, about 57% of all visits to retail websites come from mobile devices. You can see why Google's intention is to begin using the mobile version of websites for rankings. Just to make sure you knew they were serious, Google reminded us of this change on December 18, 2017. Why do we care what Google is doing? They own almost 93% of the mobile search engine market. In fact, mobile-first indexing has created enough conversation among marketers that it's one of the key topics of this year's Pubcon conference.
You need to make sure that your site is ready for this change. The easiest way to do this is to have a responsive site or a dynamic serving site that knows to adjust to screen size. If you have a separate site for mobile, you need to do the following:
You might already have some of those covered, but it's important to be sure your site is ready for mobile-first. Speed is critical to successWhether you're running a desktop site or a mobile one, speed is critical. If I have to wait for a site to load, I'm going to leave it. Like I said before, load time is a major reason that people abandon pages and sites. With every second it takes for your page to load, more people are giving up on it. If your website loads too slowly, readers will just click back to the search engine and try the next relevant link. This is called “pogo-sticking.” And Google hates pogo-sticking. If Google sees that people are leaving your page within the first five seconds of landing on it, they're going to drop you down in the search results. It won't matter how great everything else is if you don't have enough speed built into your sites. Have you been focusing your SEO efforts on bounce rates, customer engagement, or time on site? If so, you should be focusing on site speed because it will impact all of those metrics, too. How can you know if your speed isn't up to par? There are a number of online sites that can test this for you. A quick online test from WebPagetest or Google's PageSpeed tools can give you a general idea of how your site is measuring up. A more advanced tool I like is GTmetrix. It will help identify exactly what is slowing down your site. Make sure you test multiple pages. One page might load blazing fast, but you could be missing four that are slow as molasses. Aim to test at least ten pages. Choose the pages that you know are the largest and have the most images. Here are some common reasons a site has speed issues:
You might not be able to get a perfect score on Google's PageSpeed Insights the first time, but you can certainly improve it. Site errors will tank your rankingsSite errors are frustrating. It doesn't matter if we're talking about customers or search bots. No one likes site errors. Site errors are most often a result of broken links, incorrect redirects, and missing pages. Here are a few things you need to keep in mind in regard to site errors. You need to deal with 404 errors.When's the last time you clicked a link on your search engine results and ended up seeing an ugly 404 error page? You probably clicked “back” immediately and moved on to the next link. 404 error pages will increase customer frustration and “pogo-sticking.” As I mentioned above, Google hates this. You don't want to have 404 errors on your website. But here's the reality: Every website is going to have 404 errors at some point. Make sure you know how to fix them. For the occasions when you miss 404 errors, make sure that you at least customize your error pages. Make sure you're using 301 redirects properly.A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect to a new page. A 302 redirect is a temporary redirect. Using a 302 instead of a 301 can affect your readers and your search result rankings. If you use a 301 redirect, search engines give the new page the same “trust” and authority that the old page had. This means that if your old page was at the top of search engine rankings, your new page should take over that ranking. Of course, this is assuming that everything else is the same. If you only use a 302 redirect, the bots see it as temporary. Before 2016, this meant Google did not give the new page any of the old authority. Currently, Google says that any 30X redirect will keep the same page ranking. Despite the reassurance from Google, there is still some doubt about whether this is true or not. The fine print in the image above says, “proceed with caution.” The risk is that leaving a 302 redirect active for too long will make you lose traffic. It won't matter how outstanding your other SEO tactics are. It's not worth the risk. Even using 301 redirects can negatively impact your search engine rankings. This is because they can slow down your site speed. They can also signal that there is a problem with the structure of your website. Google sees this as an issue. They don't want to send traffic to sites they believe will be hard to navigate. Anything that hints that your website is not user-friendly is going to harm your search engine rankings. Find and fix your broken links.You're on a web page, you're reading an interesting article, and it has a link to something you want to know more about. You click the link, and nothing happens. You're probably slightly annoyed, right? What happens if you experience this a few times on the same website? I'm going to guess that you're not going to be happy. I know I wouldn't be. It's easy to end up with a broken link. You could have external links to pages that the webmaster has moved or shut down. It can happen to anyone. So how do you find them fast and fix them before they impact your customers and your rankings? Don't worry. It's not as complicated or time-consuming as you might fear. You just need to use the two tools and follow the four steps from this article. Watch out for duplicate site content.There are two major problems with duplicate content. One is having content that is the duplicate of someone else's. This problem should be obvious. Someone has plagiarized. Google is constantly trying to improve their ability to detect duplicate content, and they're getting pretty good at it. Unfortunately, the bots aren't high-tech enough to know which of you ripped off the other, so Google will penalize both of you. To help you avoid penalties, you can use Copyscape to make sure the content on your webpage is not too close to any other web pages. The second problem is that if you have too much duplicate or repetitive content on your own website, it can be really annoying for your regular, dedicated fans. No one wants to read five different blogs that all basically say the same thing. If your readers find that your articles are too similar, they will just stop following you. After all, they'll begin to believe you don't actually have anything new to say. Duplicate content within your site may not just be from a lack of ideas. It can also be a result of page refreshes or updates (if your update is on a “new” page with a new URL). So, how can you find out if you have duplicate content? Siteliner can help you find any duplicate content on your own website. If you find duplicate content on your site, the easiest solution is to delete it. But remember: You can't just hit the delete button if the page is already indexed. Remember the discussion above about site errors! If you are about to delete an indexed web page, be sure to use a permanent 301 redirect. What if you don't want to delete a page? After all, we know too many redirects can be bad as well. The next best option is to add a canonical URL to each page that has duplicate content. This will tell search engines that you know that your site has indexed pages that are duplicate content, but that there is one version that you want the search engine to direct visitors to. Know about other website errors.Like I mentioned above, poor website structure will hurt your rankings. Make sure you've built your website with properly-structured data. This means using categories and web page groupings that make sense. Solid structure helps improve the search-ability of your site. For example, what if I want to know if you've written an article on technical SEO? I'm not about to scroll through hundreds of blog posts looking for one on that topic. Instead, I will go to the search box and type in my keywords like I would on a search engine. If you structure your website properly, it will show me any articles related to that subject. Not only that, but it will pull them up quickly. It's a lot easier for your site to find relevant articles if it only has to search through a category rather than your entire website. Remember that speed is one of the top issues for sites. Structured data allows users and bots to find related articles faster. Building your structured data (which some refer to as schema markup) isn't all that technical. Schema.org exists for the sole purpose of helping improve the schema markup of websites. How does schema impact your search results? It helps describe your content to search engines. That means that it helps Google understand what your website is really all about. It also helps Google create rich snippets. Here's a normal Google snippet: Now, check out a Google rich text snippet. You can probably guess which one has a better click-through rate. This isn't about content or on-page SEO. This is all technical SEO. Some other technical site errors you need to watch out for are:
Never ignore crawl errorsSearch engines send bots to crawl your site all the time. A crawl error means the bots found something wrong that will impact your search engine ranking. First, make sure that you have a working sitemap and that your web pages are all indexed. If Google can't read a sitemap, then it can't even try to crawl your site. It won't know your site even exists. Avoid being the lost, forgotten soul by making sure you have an XML sitemap on your website. Of course, step two is providing that sitemap to the search engines. Once you've done this, the search engine should be able to index your pages. This basically means filing them for review so they can measure them against all other similar pages and decide how to rank them. If you get a no index error, it means that Google didn't register your pages. If they're not registered, they will not appear on the search engine results page. Even with the best content in the world, your traffic will be nonexistent if you don't show up on search results pages. If you don't believe me, look at these statistics: One common reason that pages don't index properly is URL issues. Make sure that your URLs aren't too long or messy. Avoid having any URLs that have query parameters at the end of them. Other indexing problems could be title tag issues, missing alt tags, and meta descriptions that are either missing or too long. Beyond indexing issues, there are other kinds of crawl errors. In many cases, the error is due to one of the site content errors that I talked about in the last section. Other types of crawl errors are:
Image issues can cause you a lot of problemsVisual content is a vital part of content marketing and on-page SEO. The problem is that this on-page SEO strategy can often lead to technical SEO issues. Images that are too large can tank your speed and make your site less mobile-friendly. Broken images can also hurt the user experience, increasing page abandonment. You know you need lots of high-quality images. But now I've just told you that the very thing supposed to help your rankings can hurt them. What do you do? It's easy. Just smush your images with Smush Image Compression and Optimization. This plugin will shrink your images down so that their size doesn't slow down your site. The best part is that it can do this without impacting the image quality. You get the faster load, without sacrificing beauty. You can also use WP Super Cache for creating a static image of your website. It's a similar WordPress plugin to Smush Image Compression and Optimization. Super Cache can lessen the amount of data your site uses and speed up your load time. What about broken images? Searching for broken images is the same as searching for broken links. You want to use a tool that can search your site for any broken images. Most tools that check for broken links can also check for broken images. Are your images using alt attributes? Since you might not always catch broken images right away, this can be helpful. You can use a website like SEO SiteCheckup to see if you've set up alt attributes on your site. If your image ends up broken, the alt text provides alternative information. Security matters more now than ever beforeGoogle has been cracking down on security. You used to be able to assume that http:// would be at the start of every website address. But that's no longer the case. Google has warned that as of July 2018, Chrome will begin to warn users if a site is insecure. No matter how excellent your content is, customers are less likely to click through to a website when a browser warns them that it might be unsafe. If your address is still using http, you could begin losing traffic fast (if you aren't already). Chrome is the browser with the largest market share in the world. Google has already made it pretty clear that they prefer https sites. Just take a look at how Chrome already highlights the security of https sites: There are different types of SSL, so you'll want to be sure you do your research to pick the right one for your site. ConclusionThere are three different aspects of SEO, and technical SEO is the most important of the three. SEO guidelines are constantly changing. Every time a major search engine significantly updates their algorithm, SEO has to adapt. But the good news is that the frequency of changes for Technical SEO is lower than the others. After all, it's not like search engines or readers will suddenly decide they're okay with slower speeds. If anything, you will see the average acceptable speed continue to drop. Your site simply has to be faster if you want to keep up with SEO demands. Your website has to be mobile-friendly. This is only going to become more important over time, too. It has to work without errors, duplicate content, and poor images. Search engines also have to be able to crawl it successfully. These things are all critical. They are crucial to your success on search engines and with actual readers and customers. If you want to prioritize your SEO efforts, make sure you tackle the technical aspects first. As I've mentioned several times, it won't matter how amazing your on-page SEO is if you fail at technical SEO. It also won't matter how great you are at off-page SEO if you're horrible at the technical stuff. Don't get overwhelmed by the idea of it being “technical” or complex. Start with the big, critical aspects discussed above and tackle them one problem at a time. How have you found success with technical SEO on your site? About the Author: Neil Patel is the cofounder of Neil Patel Digital. It's time for you to adapt to the latest marketing trends. Your company can no longer afford to ignore mobile users. Your website must be optimized for mobile devices. Why? Well, for starters, 80% of the top websites according to the Alexa rankings were optimized for mobile users. Plus, 80% of all Internet users have smartphones. It's easy for people to browse the Internet from their mobile devices. Doesn't it seem like everyone is glued to their smartphones all the time? Even those who aren't holding their phones right now, I'm sure, have them within arm's reach, either in their pockets, purses, or on nearby tables. This is great news for your company and your website. Our love for mobile devices makes it easier for your current and prospective customers to access your site. According to Statista, more than half of the global web traffic comes from mobile devices: As you can see from this graph, this number continues to grow each year. I expect this trend to continue in the years to come. This percentage is even higher in some areas of the world. For example, more than 65% of web traffic in Asia comes from mobile devices. No matter what industry you're in or where you're located, your site needs to accommodate mobile users. How can you do this? I'm here to explain the top principles of an effective mobile web design. If you can apply these concepts to your mobile site, you'll benefit from an increase in traffic and more engaged users. Ultimately, this will lead to higher conversion rates. Here are the top 10 tips you need to know. 1. Simplify your menusObviously, mobile screens are significantly smaller than laptop or desktop screens. Keep this in mind when designing your menu options. The menu of your desktop site can be more extensive and have lots of options. But this complicates things on a smaller screen. You don't want visitors to have to scroll or zoom in and out to see all the navigation choices. Everything needs to be concise and fit on one screen. Here's a great example of this concept applied by Domino's Pizza: Take a look at what their standard website looked like on a mobile device before it was optimized. Navigation was nearly impossible. Users had to zoom in to see the menu to find out how to proceed. If your mobile site is the same, it will crush your conversions. But look at how simple this menu is on a mobile-optimized site. Dominos was able to simplify its entire website into five menu options. Each option fits on the screen and has a clear destination. Evaluate your current website, and try to simplify the menu options for mobile users. 2. Keep forms as short as possibleThink about all the different forms you have on your website. If you're asking the visitor for a lot of information, it's not an effective approach. Instead, you should change the design to keep your forms short. Again, if someone is filling out a form on their computer, it's not as big of an issue because it's easier to type and navigate on a larger screen. But this isn't the case with smartphones and tablets. Evaluate your forms, and ask yourself whether you need each line. For example, if you're trying to get users to subscribe to your email list, you don't need their home addresses and phone numbers. Forms designed for buying conversions shouldn't ask the user what their favorite color is. Get their billing and shipping info, and end it. In fact, a long and complicated checkout process is one of the top reasons for shopping cart abandonment: If you want to reduce shopping cart abandonment rates from mobile devices, you'll need to change the design of your mobile website forms. 3. Clearly display your CTAsLet's continue talking about conversions. To have an effective mobile web design, your call-to-action buttons need to be obvious. Since we're dealing with a smaller screen here, you don't want to overwhelm the user by trying to squeeze more than one CTA on the screen. Think about your goal for each landing page. Are you trying to get downloads? New subscribers? Increase social media presence? Get visitors to buy something? Your CTA needs to focus on that primary goal. Focusing your attention on your CTA buttons will give you an edge over your competitors. That's because 53% of websites have call-to-action buttons that take users more than three seconds to identify. That's far too long. Your CTA should be easy to spot in just one or maximum two seconds. 4. Include a search functionThis design principle relates back to what I previously said about your menu options. Right now, some of you may have a menu with 20 or 30 different options. It may seem impossible to try to simplify those options to fit on just one page. Well, it can be done, especially if you add a search bar to your mobile site. Encouraging users to search for what they want reduces the need for you to rely on a large and complex menu. Too many options will confuse the visitor and kill your conversions. This feature for sure needs to be incorporated into the web design of ecommerce sites. Let's take a look at the home screen of an industry giant Amazon: Amazon sells over 12 million products. Take a minute to let that number sink in. I'm willing to bet your website doesn't sell nearly as many products. I'm not saying this to make you feel bad. But I want you to realize that if Amazon can use a search bar to help mobile users browse through millions of items, your company shouldn't have any issues applying the same concept for hundreds or thousands of products. Implement a search bar to simplify your design and make it easy for mobile users to find exactly what they're looking for. 5. Make customer service easily accessibleNo matter how much time and effort you put into simplifying your mobile web design, people will still have issues. Don't worry, it's all part of running a successful business and website. But the key here is being able to quickly and effectively help your mobile site visitors work through their problems. Make sure you've got obvious customer support information on your mobile site. Provide your phone number, email address, and social media profiles. Display anything that gives the user an option to contact a representative from your company as fast as possible. Put yourself in the shoes of a frustrated mobile user who has a question or problem. If they can't get help from your customer service team, it'll leave them with a bad impression of your company. Adding obvious customer support information to your mobile web design is something that can't go overlooked. 6. Size mattersNavigating a website from a desktop or laptop computer is simple. It's easy to control a cursor from a mouse or keypad. But browsing with your thumbs on a 4-inch screen isn't as easy. Keep this in mind when laying out different elements of your mobile site. Buttons need to be large enough to be tapped with a finger. Make sure you keep enough space between buttons so someone doesn't accidentally click the wrong one. Having to tap the same button several times to make it work will frustrate mobile users visiting your website. You also need to keep in mind the placement of clickable items on the screen: Keep in mind 75% of smartphone users use their thumbs to tap on the screen. This image shows you the best location on the screen to place buttons. Avoid the corners: it's hard for a person to reach those places with their thumb while holding a mobile device. The reach decreases further as the screen size becomes larger. It's in your best interest to place the most important elements and clickable buttons toward the middle of the screen. 7. Eliminate pop-upsGet rid of pop-ups on your mobile site. For the most part, people don't like pop-ups as it is. They are annoying and hinder the user experience. The problem with pop-ups on mobile devices is they become even more of a nuisance because they are so difficult to close. Recall that people use their thumbs to tap on small screens. The small “X” button to close a pop-up will be so small on a mobile device that users won't be able to close the window. They might even accidentally click on the ad while trying to close it. They'll get brought to a new landing page, which will ruin their experience. Sometimes users will try to zoom in on the close button to make it easier to tap, but then the dimensions of the screen get messed up as well. It's best to remove these pop-ups altogether. Come up with other ways to promote whatever your pop-up is advertising. 8. Avoid large blocks of textReduce the amount of text on the screen of your mobile website. Obviously, you'll need to use some words to communicate with your visitors, but keep sentences and paragraphs as short as possible. Large blocks of text are overwhelming and difficult to read. Remember, if a paragraph is two lines long on your desktop site, it might be six lines long on a smartphone. Take a look at how typography affects conversions: Keep these three elements in mind whenever you're adding text to your mobile site. Can the visitor comprehend your message? Where is their point of focus? What is the visual hierarchy? Eliminating large blocks of text makes this possible. 9. Choose the right fontLet's continue talking about the text on your mobile site. Picking the right font is a crucial design principle as well. Fonts need to be clear and easy to read. But you can also use fonts to set two lines of text apart. You don't want the text of one line to run into the text of another. For example, you could use all capital letters and bold font for the headline of a section. Then use regular capitalization rules and non-bold font for the line underneath to show a clear separation. You've got a small space to work with, so you can't rely on a page break or image every time you want to separate text. 10. Prioritize speedNo matter what changes you implement on your mobile website, you need to keep its speed in mind. Research shows that 53% of people will abandon a mobile website that takes more than three seconds to load. Take a look at how these bounce rates increase with increasing page loading times: The best way to keep your page loading time as low as possible is by simplifying your design. Fortunately, if you follow all the other principles I've outlined so far, this shouldn't be an issue. Eliminate unnecessary heavy images and flashing lights. Simple websites load faster and have higher conversion rates. ConclusionYour website needs to be optimized for mobile users. To do this effectively, you need to understand some important design principles. Simplify your menu choices, and keep forms short. Make sure your CTAs are clearly displayed, and stick to one CTA per page. Add a search bar to help improve navigation while clearing up space on the screen. You should make it easy for mobile users to contact your customer service team. Realize that people are using their thumbs to tap on the screen, so buttons need to be sized accordingly. Get rid of pop-ups as well. Carefully select an appropriate font that's easy to read. Eliminate large blocks of text on the screen. No matter what, make sure your mobile site loads as fast as possible. Follow these top 10 mobile design principles to maximize conversions on your mobile website. What design elements need to be changed on your mobile website? |
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June 2019
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