Free Website Security Seminar Offered by Design & Promote this July

On July 14, 2016, Design & Promote is hosting a free seminar at the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce to debunk website security myths and reveal the reality of website hacking dangers to keep your business protected. How safe from hackers, malware, and other predators is your website? All too often, website security is an issue that is overlooked, leading to costly website repairs. When you create a new website, your aren't done; websites require constant updates and maintenance to be effective. In fact, 73% of Wordpress websites are currently vulnerable- that’s nearly 55 million Wordpress websites. If you haven't updated your website in the past week, then you are probably one of them! Luckily, websites can easily be better protected with the proper security strategy. This July, Design & Promote has teamed up with WebClinic Pro to explain website security to local businesses and individuals in “Debunking Website Security Myths.” The presentation is offered as a free seminar in Naperville, part of Design & Promote’s series of free monthly seminars that are open to the public. In this Seminar: Securing your Website “Debunking Website Security Myths” will focus on explaining how website security really works, while dismissing certain misperceptions about how hacking happens. By understanding the reality of website security, you can take the necessary precautions to avoid a security breach on your personal or business website. Design & Promote CEO Bruce Jones, along with WebClinic Pro’s Jason Richmond, will be covering topics such as:

• Basic website security measures: encryption, backups, updates, scans, and more
• Website security on Wordpress websites
• Website hacking on commercial and non-commercial websites
• Time and cost effective website security tools
• The dangers of website loss, damage, and blacklisting

Join Design & Promote for our “Debunking Website Security Myths” Seminar Whether you are an individual with a personal site you created at home, a business with a web design and hosting team, or somewhere in between, join our free seminar in Naperville to learn how to prevent costly website damage by hackers. For any questions regarding the event, contact us at Design & Promote! When: Thursday July 14, 2016 from 3 to 5pm. Where: Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce- 55 South Main Street Conference Room A-55 S, Naperville, IL 60540   This is a FREE event, however RSVP is required. Sign up below!  

Powered by Eventbrite

The subsequent article Free Website Security Seminar Offered by Design & Promote this July was republished from www.designandpromote.com

Using Color Effectively In Branding And Logo Design

  Whether you're building a brand from the ground up, or you feel like your business's logo could use a facelift, you might be surprised to learn that there is actually a science behind effective branding and logo design. While being recognizable and memorable is priority number one in a logo, the colors you choose will elicit subconscious emotions from people. This is important to understand because these emotions should be a reflection of your brand's meaning and values.   Before you engage a logo design firm to start work, consider how the basic element of color will impact the perception of your brand.  

Choosing A Color For Your Logo Design

  Science has shown that color can stimulate a wide range of emotions, from euphoria to anger and everything in between. Let's take a look at some of the moods each color tends to invoke:  

Bold, Powerful Colors

  Red - The color red physically stimulates the human body by raising the pulse rate and causing excitement. In small amounts, it can be the ideal color if you want to quickly get a person's attention, but too much red can cause stress and anger. Target, Pinterest and Coca-Cola are famous all-red logos that positively stimulate the brain with pleasure and enjoyment emotions.   Black - The color black is bold, simple and sophisticated. It is often used to represent expensive brands or products. The Nike Swoosh and Chanel double "C" are instantly recognizable all-black logos that bring to mind high-end brands.  

Warm, Exciting Colors

  Yellow - The color yellow brings to mind sunshine. It evokes warm, happy emotions and can reflect the positivity and helpfulness of a brand. At the same time, yellow is the universal color for caution, and is used for tape, signs, flashing lights and other applications that require attention to safety. McDonalds, IKEA and Yellow Pages are all examples of brands that effectively use yellow in their logos.   Orange - Like yellow, the color orange triggers positive emotions. Known for boosting creative, energetic and youthful moods, brands like Nickelodeon, The Home Depot and Harley Davidson all use orange effectively.

 

Professional, Business-Like Colors

  Blue - The color blue is calming and evokes a sense of stability, confidence, power and credibility. While it should come as no surprise that professional brands such as JP Morgan, American Express, and Microsoft Word all use blue in their logo design, its prevalence in social media logos like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Vimeo, Flickr, and Skype might indicate that users are more trusting and embracing of brands with blue logos.

 

Tranquil, Nurturing Colors

  Green - The color green represents nature and the peaceful, relaxing and hopeful emotions surrounding it. Businesses in outdoor adventure, organic cooking, and science and engineering often use green. Whole Foods Market and Land Rover are popular all-green logos that successfully capitalize on the emotions that the color inspires.  

Royal, Spiritual Colors

  Purple - The color purple has long been associated with wealth, royalty and luxury. It is also connected with spirituality and the arcane. Hallmark and Crown Royal use purple and physical crowns in their brands that are well-known for quality products, while SyFy and Wonka use purple to represent arcane and magical aspects of their brands.  

Loving, Feminine Colors

  Pink - The color pink is nurturing, warm and healing and is often associated with femininity. Although a variation of red, pink is soothing rather than stimulating, and is used by well-known and trusted brands such as Barbie, Mary Kay and LG.

 

Clean, Sophisticated Colors

  White - The color white evoke emotions of purity and sophistication. Personal care brand, Kleenex, utilizes an all-white logo, as does technology mogul, Apple.  

Get A FREE eBook To Learn More About Branding & Logo Design

  Choosing a color for your logo design is one of the first steps toward creating a memorable and instantly-recognizable brand. To learn more about the impact of color, and for bonus material about how to use shapes in your logo design, download the free whitepaper, "The Science Behind Logo Design" from Chicago-based branding and logo design firm, Design & Promote. To learn more about our services and schedule a consultation, call 630.995.7109 or visit our site at www.designandpromote.com.        

This subsequent post Using Color Effectively In Branding And Logo Design was originally seen on Design & Promote

Use These 4 Simple Tips For More Newsletter Opt-Ins

  Email marketing has been going strong for more than two decades, and it's not going anywhere despite the critics. But in order for it to be effective, you have to have a solid strategy for increasing newsletter opt-ins. An email marketing company can help your Chicago business develop a comprehensive email marketing strategy, choose a third party email service, and implement a simple plan for increasing opt-ins and building your newsletter lists, fast.  

Benefits Of Email Marketing Vs Social Media

  The email marketing naysayers are the same ones touting social media marketing as the next best - and only - thing you need. Let's be clear: both strategies have their pros and cons. Social media excels at engaging users and giving your brand a "face" - when done right, followers feel like they get to know the people behind the brand and you become more credible and trustworthy. Email, on the other hand, provides guaranteed reach, more site visitors, clicks, conversions and ultimately, sales. Most seasoned marketers agree that a blended strategy is ideal, with an emphasis on email marketing.   While building a social media following can be slow going for new brands, building an email list can be fast and painless if you have the right strategies in place.  

Tip #1 - Use A Third Party Email Marketing Service

  Whether you use WordPress or another platform, it is highly unlikely it will have the built-in and robust features you need for effective email marketing. This is a common pain point among marketers, and the use of a third party email marketing service is the simplest solution   Some are better than others. Some are free. Some are pricey. All will make your life easier with a variety of stock and custom templates, workflow automation and auto-responder options, split test campaigns, and in-depth analytics about the effectiveness of your emails.   Some top picks include:   MailChimp Aweber Constant Contact   Once you have a delivery method in place, it's time to start increasing opt-in rates:  

Tip #2 - Make The Sign Up Process EASY

  Collecting a name and email address is usually enough. If your content naturally lends itself to segmentation, a couple extra questions are okay to better personalize your messaging. Be aware that too many questions may annoy visitors and result in them abandoning the sign up process. Alternatively, you might consider putting separate sign up forms (for separate newsletter lists) at different points on your site to capture your target audience where they already are.  

Tip #3 - Offer Incentives To Sign Up

  Especially if someone is on your site for the first time, they might not be ready to commit to receiving ongoing communication from you. Better to sweeten to deal by offering something valuable upfront in return, such as an eBook, whitepaper, free webinar registration, coupon/discount, etc.  

Tip #4 - Careful Placement Of Sign Up Form

  This is a hotly debated topic. Some businesses (and consumers) are vehemently against pop-ups of any kind; others swear by them. Many businesses choose a more modest approach by placing the sign up form on the sidebar, as a floating footer bar, or using a less-invasive slide-in or slide-up form at the bottom right corner of the screen.   While any of these will work to some degree, a traditional pop-up displayed at just the right time, can increase signups a hundred times over - and then some. What's the key? The timing. Pop-ups that are coded with exit-intent technology track mouse movements and display just as the user is making a move to close the window. Combined with a valuable incentive, the easy and timely opt-in process becomes virtually irresistible to your site visitors.   An Email Marketing Company Can Increase Your Newsletter Opt-Ins   Whether your business needs a brand new email marketing strategy, or you're just looking to streamline your existing strategy, Chicago email marketing company, Design & Promote can help. Give us a call at 630.995.7109 so we can learn more about your business's email goals and get started on a strategy to build your email lists, fast!

The subsequent blog post Use These 4 Simple Tips For More Newsletter Opt-Ins was available on Design and Promote

6-Step System For Writing Blog Titles That Drive Traffic

Your blog titles are like news headlines. That’s important to understand because research shows that six in 10 people move on after reading headlines; they ignore the stories attached to them.
You’re facing the same challenge with your blog. How can you ensure your audience clicks your blog titles when they see them on Google, Facebook, and in your emails? How can you motivate them to investigate further?
I’m going to outline a 6-step system below. The following should be part of your SEO content writing efforts to bring more traffic to your website.

Step 1: Use Your Target Keywords

Each blog post you write should be optimized for a specific keyword. Include the keyword in the title.
Doing so helps Google to determine what your blog posts are about. It will rank your pages higher in its index for searches on the corresponding phrases.
It’s also worth noting that keywords in your titles appear in bold when people search for them on Google. That draws the eyes.
Your audience will also be drawn to titles that contain words that reflect their interests. Even if the words aren’t in bold – for example, when your posts are shared on social media – they’ll still capture your audience’s attention.

Step 2: Reveal What Your Audience Wants To Read

Including your keywords is one thing. Writing blogs on topics your audience wants to read about is another thing entirely.
But it’s a crucial step to getting them to click on your titles and visit your site.
First, ask yourself what your readers are interested in learning about. Second, boil that down to a promise. Third, put the promise in your title.
Take a look at the title for this blog post: 6-Step System For Writing Blog Titles That Drive Traffic. The title makes a promise that addresses a topic you’re interested in.

Step 3: Include Numbers In Your Blog Titles

Numbers draw our attention. We’re hardwired that way.
There are a couple of simple ways to include numbers in your titles. The first way is to write your blog post as a list. Here are a few examples:

• 4 Signs Your Stress Levels Are Too High
• 10 Things Your Financial Advisor Won’t Tell You
• 15 Ways To Grow Your Retirement Account

A second method is to use data. Examples follow:

• Study Shows Ginger Tea Reduces Stress By 46%
• How To Boost The Value Of Your Stock Portfolio By 77%
• 1 In 3 Americans Has No Retirement Savings*

* The last entry is an actual headline for an article on Time.com.
The point is that we’re naturally drawn to headlines and titles that contain numbers. Use that to your advantage and you’ll drive more traffic to your site.

Step 4: Study Successful Blog Posts Of The Past

Look through your analytics. Find the blog posts with the highest click through rates from Google. Chances are excellent those posts have strong titles.
Try to fathom the reasons the titles struck a chord with your audience. What made people click on them? Use that insight to incorporate the same types of triggers in your future titles. 

Step 5: Address Your Audience’s Emotions

We’re emotional creatures. We’re drawn to content that makes us happy, angry, and sad. We crave material that will astonish us, make us feel empowered, or validate our predispositions.
Tap into this emotional vein when creating titles for your blog posts.
Following are a few examples, along with the emotions they’re designed to trigger:

• Have You Saved Enough Money To Enjoy Your Retirement? (fear)
• 10 Secrets To Raising A Happy Child (parental pride)
• How To Give A Show-Stopping Presentation (desire for respect)

Your audience is already experiencing a raft of emotions that reflect their concerns and aspirations. Tap into them. Create titles that appeal to these emotions and you’ll pull more people in.

Step 6: Offer A Solution

Millions of people search Google every day to learn how to do things and overcome specific challenges. Your audience is among them. Produce blog titles that promise solutions to the challenges faced by your prospective readers.
For example, suppose you’re an attorney who specializes in estate planning. Here are some of the challenges your prospective clients face:

• whether or not to establish a revocable trust
• how much life insurance to buy
• the best way to divvy up their assets to heirs

Create titles that promise answers to these issues. For example:

• 8 Situations That Warrant Establishing A Revocable Trust
• A Simple Formula For Calculating Your Life Insurance Needs
• How To Divvy Up Your Estate To Keep Everyone Happy

Actionable solutions to specific problems attract attention. They always have. They always will.
Creating blog titles that drive traffic to your website isn’t difficult. Nor is it complicated. It’s a matter of recognizing what people are naturally drawn to. Use the 6-step system I’ve outlined above to produce irresistible titles that complement your search engine optimization and generate more clicks and traffic.

 Original Post: http://www.designandpromote.com/6-step-system-for-writing-blog-titles-that-drive-traffic/

Local Chicago Clients, Stay In Lisle, Partners With Design & Promote For An Improved Website Design

Long-time local Chicago clients, Stay in Lisle, recently approached us for a full WordPress redesign. Since the lifespan of most websites is 2-3 years, it wasn’t surprising that the company wanted an improved website design with enhanced looks and functionality. The new site showcases more visuals and imagery that expresses the beauty of Lisle, and provides a better user experience that allows users to navigate the site easily and more quickly. Finally, the new site is fully optimized, and features a responsive design that allows it to be viewed on any device.
Here’s what we did for them.

The Discovery Phase

Stay in Lisle knew precisely what they wanted to change about their website when we met with them, and we brainstormed creative solutions to their concerns:
• The older site lacked visual imagery. The new site will feature high resolution photos of beautiful parks and recreation areas all over Lisle and its surrounding areas.
• Too much green. Design & Promote completely reimagined the new site and updated the color scheme to include richer colors for a visual boost.
• Inner-pages lacked functionality. We added functionality like tabs and other toggles to help people find information easily. Because people like to skim pages while reading, making information easy to find and digest is a great user experience (UX) design.

Additional WordPress Customization

So many of our clients prefer WordPress sites because of the vast amount of ways they can be customized. While you may initially select a “theme” to get started with, by adding plugins and utilizing the customization options within WordPress, there really is little limit to what you create. The end result can be a visually stunning and highly-functional site and looks nothing like a “template.”
Stay in Lisle wanted some specific pages customized to improve user experience and make utilizing the site faster and more convenient. Namely:
• Calendar/Events page – Instead of a singular page users have to navigate to, the new calendar is now a feed that scrolls across every page. While visitors can still go to the calendar page to look for future events, the quick scroll on each page shows what events are coming up at a glance, and will ideally result in higher interest and turnout for events.
• Special Offers page – The old website’s offer page had coupons aplenty, but the new site’s offer page is color-coded and organized by category, making it fast and easy for visitors to find coupons and deals for the service they’re interested in.
• About Us/Meet the Team page – The smiling faces haven’t changed on this page, but the functionality has. Now, the staff photos and titles are front and center, instead of being reduced in order to fit additional information like duties and contact information. The new site features flip card images, so that when you mouse-over an image, it flips to reveal additional information and contact buttons.

Are You Ready For An Improved Website Design?

If you feel like your users could benefit from improved website design and functionality, it might be time for an improved website redesign. Design & Promote has been here for local Chicago clients, like Stay in Lisle, to not only build their initial website, but to help them imagine a redesign that will poise them to take their business to the next level.
To learn more about website design services from Design & Promote, contact us today!

This post was originally published on Design & Promote's Website.

Better Mobile Optimization In Chicago Achieved With Faster Mobile Pages With AMP From Google

Earlier this year, Google launched its new AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) project. By now, mobile users should be starting to see the green “AMP” symbol with lightning bolt starting to appear on certain pages in mobile search results. These pages are specifically programmed to load lightning-fast – in fact, as much as 15-85% faster than other mobile pages, according to Google. And that’s the goal: a faster, more user-friendly mobile web experience for users on smartphones and tablets.
For marketers, this news means refreshing your mobile optimization strategy – if you choose to. Here’s what you need to know about Google AMP and the benefits to both marketers and consumers, so that you can decide if it’s right for you.

What Exactly Is AMP?

In a nutshell, AMP pages are mobile pages that are written in AMP HTML code. They have been stripped of many of the characteristics that can cause them to load slow such as JavaScript, CSS, and flash animation, to name a few. The user still gets the same content, images and ability to navigate and engage with your site as before, but the presentation is simpler.

AMP Benefits To Marketers

If you already have a fast, robust, high-functioning mobile site, you may be wondering if you really need AMP. Most marketers are finding that the answer is yes, for a few reasons:

• Boost in site speed. The result is that pages load much quicker, reducing the number of users abandoning your site and increasing the number of page views in a session.
• Better ad control. Not only is Google giving marketers more control over ad choice, format and placement, but there are already more than 20 ad tech vendors working with AMP to create faster-rendering ads.
• It’s backed by Google. While Google has not explicitly said that AMP pages will rank better, we know from the Mobilegeddon update of 2015 that the more user-friendly a mobile site is, the more favorable its rankings.

AMP Benefits To Consumers

The obvious benefit to consumers is site speed. We know that today’s generation of mobile users want the information they’re looking for delivered instantaneously, regardless of device. This means:

• Less frustration. You’ve likely heard the Kissmetrics stat that 40% of users abandon a page that takes longer than 3 seconds to load. This isn’t just bad news for your bottom line; it’s also incredibly frustrating to the consumer. Pages that load fast make users happy, and happy users stay on your site longer and are more likely to convert to happy customers.
• Ability to select AMP content. As the word gets out about the meaning of that little green lightning bolt symbol, consumers will begin to choose AMP pages over non-AMP pages. Most users don’t care whether the menu on a page is simple links or fancy buttons; they want fast, easily digestible content and are going to be willing to forgo all the bells and whistles in favor of a better user experience.

Whether Google is ready to admit it or not, the last point in each section above makes it clear that AMP pages will become ranking factors for mobile search eventually. If AMP sites pass Google’s mobile-friendly test, and users are consistently casting their votes by choosing AMP over non-AMP pages, it seems to be only a matter of time before we begin seeing a change in the SERPs.
Let Design & Promote AMP Up Your Site With Mobile Optimization In Chicago  
If you’re ready to improve site speed, traffic, and user experience on your mobile site, contact Design & Promote to learn more about our services for mobile optimization in Chicago.


Originally published on Design & Promote's Blog