Roy Jonathan
Sawat Marketing – We help businesses reach their full Marketing, Website Design and Digital Marketing goals

Everything you need to know about threads
The social media world is in turmoil after Meta announced it would be releasing a new app aimed at competing with Twitter.

Officially called Threads, the new app is conversion-based, allowing users to post text-based apps (like Twitter) that other users can like and comment on. Twitter users are already encouraged to migrate to the app, as Meta is pushing his Twitter celebrity to give it early access. The onboarding guide reportedly encourages users to post twice a day to start building a community on the app.

Are threads the same as Twitter?

The main difference between Twitter and Threads is that the new app is a meta platform, so it can link to Instagram. This is a great advantage when setting up your app, as you can log in with your Instagram account, access your follower list and find people in your threads.

The app hasn’t been released yet, but it’s unclear to what extent Meta will allow users to integrate the platform. However, this does not exclude users from being able to share thread content and profiles on Instagram to increase engagement.

What does this mean for Twitter?

 A thread dubbed the “Twitter killer” could pose a real threat, especially now that Elon Musk’s domination of Twitter has done some damage to app loyalty. And if there’s one person who can stand up to Twitter giants, it’s Meta.
Meta, led by Mark Zuckerberg, saw an opportunity to grab more of the social media market (they already own Instagram and Facebook) by hijacking Twitter in a moment of weakness.
But what does this mean for Twitter? While the Twitter Challenger app is certainly a threat, he is skeptical that there will be a mass migration of Twitter users any time soon. Aside from possible complaints about Twitter’s development, there is nothing to encourage users to switch.

Will threads be free for users?

Similar to Facebook and Instagram, threads are free to download. However, it will likely offer the same verification options that Facebook and Instagram launched in May, requiring users to pay for meta-verification.
He costs £9.99 a month if you buy on their website, or £11.99 if you authenticate directly in the iOS or Android app, as Apple and Google have cut app payments. This confirms your identity and promises “proactive account monitoring” for duplicate accounts impersonating you. This is a model similar to the controversial Blue Sub on Twitter, but it has received less attention on the Instagram platform.

When will the app be released?

His Twitter replacement service on Meta is scheduled to launch on July 6th, 2023 (along with this great blog). A preview page for the iPhone app has already appeared on Apple’s App Store, and a user saw a teaser on his Instagram. The UK will be able to access the app, but EU member states will have to wait due to privacy restrictions.

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Check out our latest blogs to learn more about logos, branding, social media, website design and mobile apps. Sawat Marketing (www.sawat.co.uk)  

The containment measures implemented to stop the coronavirus pandemic plunged the global economy into a deep contraction. So even if digital transformation accelerated, most businesses still need to reduce marketing expenditures. Among various models, performance marketing strategies are more efficient and economical.

According to the US Census Bureau’s 2020 Annual Retail Trade Survey (ARTS), online sales increased by 43% during the pandemic. As more businesses embrace eCommerce, marketing and advertising technologies also evolved.

One of the most notable developments is the improved capability to collect real-time digital marketing performance metrics. Before the pandemic, for instance, marketing attribution was very challenging. Nowadays, data transparency lets pay-per-click (PPC) marketing agencies and marketers determine how campaigns and customer interactions contribute to conversions, sales and many other goals.

The ability to attribute enabled paid search marketing and Google Ads specialists use performance marketing metrics to optimize advertising campaigns, increasing efficiency and delivering better return on investments (ROIs).

What Is Performance Marketing?

A performance marketing strategy is a marketing model that allows advertisers to pay for results, which can be pay-per-impression (PPI), pay-per-click (PPC) or conversions like subscriptions, sales or downloads. It differs from most other advertising models, where advertisers pay upfront and could spend hundreds to thousands of dollars without a single conversion.

In traditional marketing and advertising models, determining the effectiveness of a campaign is usually based on statistical calculations. Such is the case, for example, with lead generation strategies where the cost per lead (CPL) is unpredictable. Digital performance marketing strategies, meanwhile, differ in that pay per click marketing agencies and Google Ads specialists measure the performance marketing metrics of advertising campaigns and attribute the marketing performance, like clicks or conversions, to different channels in real time.

In essence, a performance marketing strategy drives actions and tracks the results. Furthermore, it is easy to see the ROI of each asset, marketing activity, or advertising campaign at any given time. So, with performance marketing, advertisers can quickly see the cost of results obtained from paid marketing and advertising.

While large organizations have the financial capability to promote their brand, most typical businesses only have limited marketing funds. So for these companies, performance marketing is the most suitable digital marketing strategy, as payments are determined by the results obtained.

What Are The Pros And Cons Of Performance Marketing?

Performance marketing is an excellent option for companies that want to control their marketing and advertising funds. Rather than “hoping” to get the desired results, this omnichannel marketing model lets the advertisers set goals and pay only after obtaining those goals. But before committing to this strategy, it is best to know the potential downsides. Sawat Marketing is a Bradford based Marketing Agency.

Advantages

• Increased reach. Performance marketing comprises several strategies, such as affiliate marketing, search engine marketing (SEM), social media marketing (SMM) and PPC advertising. Tapping into these different channels, especially on platforms with large numbers of users, provides businesses with a rich pool of potential customers. Besides enhancing brand awareness, advertisers can also build stronger customer relationships.

• Real-time tracking. It is easier for pay per click marketing agencies and advertisers to measure performance marketing metrics and be transparent with the progress of each campaign, from click-throughs to conversions. Marketing and advertising attribution also help identify the best-performing partners and channels to focus on and pour more resources.

• Lower risk. Businesses can plan how much to spend and start with low-risk strategies. One such performance marketing strategy is affiliate marketing, in which payments are made only after the desired action, such as CPL or cost per acquisition (CPA).

• Flexible strategies. Performance marketing is customizable. So after measuring the metrics, advertisers can focus on partners and channels that provide high ROIs while stopping those that did not perform, leaving room to try other strategies.

Disadvantages

• Missed opportunities. Performance marketing agencies differ in experience, knowledge, tools and many other factors. Unfortunately, some miss opportunities by failing to turn performance marketing metrics into actionable insights.

• Cost. Remember that with performance marketing, advertisers are paying for the actual results. The narrower it is in the sales funnel, such as pay-per-sale (PPS) or cost-per-sale (CPS), the higher the cost. Although metrics like cost per lead are cheaper, there is no guarantee of conversion.

What Results Do Performance Marketing Provide?

As alluded to, performance marketing itself is not a specific marketing activity. Instead, it is a paid marketing methodology that bases payments on actual results derived from a pre-defined key performance indicator (KPI).

Regardless of the advertising or marketing strategy used, the most often used KPIs are the following:

• CPM (Cost-per-Impression). Each time an ad is displayed counts as an impression. So with CPM, advertisers usually pay for every thousand impressions.
• CPC (Cost-per-Click). Advertisers pay for the number of times users click on an ad.
• CPL (Cost per Lead). Advertisers pay for the number of times users take action, such as subscribing to a newsletter or signing up for a webinar. In lead generation strategies, CPL identifies qualified leads.
• CPS (Cost-per-Sale). Usually used in affiliate marketing, the payment system relies on actual sales.
• CPA. (Cost-per-Acquisition). In digital marketing, CPA refers to the aggregate cost of getting a customer down the sales funnel, from acquisition to conversion.

One term that may come up when discussing social media advertising costs and paid search marketing is cost-per-action, which some may mistake for cost-per-acquisition, as both share the same abbreviation. Cost-per-action, to be clear, refers to a specified action, which can be anything, such as click-throughs, form submissions, subscriptions, downloads and sales.

What Channels Are Best For Digital Performance Marketing?

As an omnichannel marketing model, advertisers can promote a business in dozens of channels. The following are some of the most popular ones that have provided good ROIs.

1. Banner Ads

Banner ads have been around for more than three decades. The first ad, bought by AT&T, appeared on HotWired (now wired.com) in 1994. While some internet users use ad-blocking technology to stop banner ads from appearing, this has benefited advertisers as users who see banner ads either consent or do not necessarily resent seeing them.

If there are other concerns besides ad-blockers, that is banner blindness/ad blindness, a form of selective attention. This phenomenon refers to a web behavior in which internet users consciously or subconsciously ignore page elements they perceive as banner noise or any other promotional clutter.

At any rate, banner ads proved to be resilient. Over the years, countless companies have had great success generating leads with more potential to go through the sales funnel.

2. Native Advertising

Native advertising, in simple terms, is a form of ad that appears “almost seamlessly,” matching the form and function of the platform where it appears. Often, users can recognize native ads as most platforms add labels, such as “Sponsored” or “Promoted” content.

Some examples of native advertising are as follows:

• Sponsored posts in the “Related Posts” or “Recommended Articles” sections or as in-feed button links.
• Boosted posts on Facebook.
• Paid video content in YouTube’s recommended video feed.

Native advertisements deliver a less intrusive and disruptive ad experience. Some critics, though, claim that they can be misleading, such as users mistaking them as a part of a site’s content. Regardless, one of the advantages of native ads is that they are more immune to ad blindness than banner ads, which is why they deliver impressive marketing performance metrics.

Native video advertising is a growing trend on social networks, with social media advertising costs and spending expected to increase by 20.1% year-over-year. YouTube, TikTok and Facebook Watch are the best media platforms. Others worth considering are Instagram Reels, Snapchat Spotlight and Pinterest TV.

3. Content Marketing

Content marketing is a digital marketing approach used by 90% of marketers, with 66% planning to increase their budget. Mainly, this strategy focuses on creating, publishing and distributing content to attract the target audience and take them through the sales funnel. Sawat Marketing is a Bradford based Marketing Agency.

The most popular types of content are as follows:

• Blog Posts
• Case Studies
• Checklists
• eBooks
• Guides and How-To’s
• Infographics
• User-Generated Content (i.e., testimonials and reviews)
• Videos

Content marketing is one of the best lead generation strategies, with 67% of marketers saying it helped them increase demands. Furthermore, 72% said it helped educate the audience, while 63%  said it helped them build customer loyalty.

Businesses can increase the effectiveness of content marketing by using digital performance marketing strategies that combine SEM, SMM and PPC.

4. Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing needs no introduction as it has become the most recommended digital marketing channel mainly because many people use one or more platforms. Each of these networks – Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, WeChat and TikTok – has over a billion users.

Social media allows businesses and advertisers to connect and engage with the audience. Besides increasing reach, interacting with users can help forge relationships, generate qualified leads and convert them into sales.

5. Search Engine Marketing

Search engine marketing aims to attract visitors to a website by using optimization techniques that boost page/post rankings in search results. A prerequisite to accomplishing this goal is to use search engine optimization (SEO) strategies to improve the crawlability and indexability of each page and post.

Building organic traffic, though, is a slow process that takes weeks to months to begin showing results. As an option, a brand can opt for paid search marketing strategies such as PPC campaigns run by Google Ads specialists and pay per click marketing agencies.

A big part of SEM success is integrating SEO strategies into content marketing. For example, a blog post needs to use the right keywords and incorporate best SEO practices to rank higher on search results, thus increasing a website’s search visibility.

In every performance marketing campaign that involves a website and social media, it is a given that SEO will play a critical role.

6. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is an advertising scheme in which a business pays third-party publishers or affiliates for every sale. Usually, the compensation is either a percentage of the sale or a fixed fee. But in some cases, it might be another marketing performance metric, like a unique visitor or lead.

Generally, affiliates can sign up with a company directly, like Amazon. Most affiliate marketers, though, use affiliate networks such as Awin and CJ Affiliate, each boasting hundreds of partners.

While there are conditions, affiliates are usually free to promote products and services by sharing a unique link containing their affiliate ID on websites and social media networks.

How To Build A Performance Marketing Strategy

Regardless of marketing or advertising campaign, performance marketing is result-driven. So the steps to build a strategy are generally the same.

1. Identify the Goal

Advertisers need to know what goal they are trying to achieve. Most businesses would choose one or more of the following:

• Brand Awareness
• Conversion
• Customer Engagement
• Lead Acquisition
• Paid or Organic Website Traffic
• Remarketing or Retargeting
• Sales

Most advertising platforms require advertisers to establish goals before creating and setting up ad campaigns. The reason is simple – goals determine strategies and marketing channels.

2. Choose the Digital Advertising Channel

Performance marketing agencies usually recommend diversifying marketing channels. One exemption is if an advertiser has a minimal advertising budget.

Nevertheless, creating two or more campaigns serves two purposes:

• Increase reach by spreading ad campaigns on multiple channels.
• Increases the chance of successful campaigns.

3. Set Up and Start the Ad Campaign

The processes involved in setting up ad campaigns vary by channel and platform. Usually, it includes the following:

• Identify target audience.
• Determine their pain points.
• Decide on a marketing message.
• Create persuasive copy.

Due to the complexities involved, many companies opted to hire pay per click marketing agencies or Google Ads specialists.

4. Track Analytics and Measure KPIs

Tracking analytics and measuring performance metrics is the strength of performance marketing. On websites, Google Analytics and Search Console provide a ton of data. However, they are not as comprehensive as premium tools used by SEO specialists and agencies.

Each social media platform provides advertisers with its analytics. Facebook, for instance, shows the following:

• Funnel analysis
• Customer Lifetime Value Analysis
• Revenue

As reputable performance marketing agencies know, there is no guarantee that every ad campaign will be successful. While some need to be ditched, most often only require some tweaking to optimize further and improve their KPIs.

Performance Marketing Is Best For Small-To-Medium Enterprises

Performance marketing is not restricted to one specific marketing or advertising campaign. Instead, it can be any of the popular strategies used today. The most important thing to remember about this method is that advertisers pay only for the results.

For small to medium-sized businesses, starting with one or two digital advertising strategies and with the help of reputable performance marketing agencies is a great way to promote products and services. While it does cost a little more, you are essentially paying for results already obtained.

If you would like to know more about “What is performance marketing?” and “What can it do for your business?” Contact us at 843-353-6383. Our SEO specialists can discuss cost-effective plans to grow your business.

Filed Under: Web Design, Search Engine Optimization, Online Marketing, Pay-Per-Click, E-Commerce, Local Online Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Internet Marketing, Online Reputation Management

Each year different companies build websites that match the latest trend in web design and so the question of what colours work best for websites is constantly changing. Whilst there are always classics in web design, such as monochromatic grey and black on white, each year brings about new unique colour palettes that take the design world by storm.

In this article, we’re going to cover the 5 trendiest colour schemes for 2022. This range is designed so that every business can get an idea of a potential trendy colour scheme they can implement on their website.

5 trending colours schemes for 2022

Pastel Colours – Archewell

Pastel colours create a soft, calming atmosphere on your website. In this example, we look at Archewell, a charitable foundation that utilises baby blue and soft brown shades to create a warm website that hints toward their compassion as a charitable organisation. Their images here look almost drawn onto the page and soft typography creates a calming, enjoyable experience.

Colours That Pop – Panic

There’s being high contrast and then there’s being loud. Creating a loud, in your face site can bring forwards thoughts of rebellion. In this example, we look at Panic, an animation studio promoting their ability to create loud stories (hence the loud site). Here their use of pinks and greens create instant contrast, with a minimalist style page allowing every key part of the site to stand out.

Muted Themes – ArkDes

If being loud isn’t best for your website, ArkDes has taken the opposite approach. Here we see a muted palette with a soft blue with grey notes serving as a background and overlay, partnered with the classic white and black. This theme is modern, calming, and sleek. ArkDes have created a subtle design here that merges recent trends to create a relaxing page.

Popping Accents – Golf Space

Have a soft, calming site that emphasises its elements with accents that pop can let you make the right parts of your website stand out. In this example, Golf Space have created a calming presence on their site with black, white and grey elements before pulling in a modern twist (which massively stands out) in lime green. This allows them to have visitors focus on their call to actions.

Happiness With Yellow – Lordz

Yellow has been constantly growing in popularity. This bright and cheerful colour evokes happiness within people. In this example, we look at Lordz, an urban dance academy based in Switzerland. Lordz websites pops with their primary colour, yellow, and creates an instant bright and happy feeling for visitors. The white and black colours bring this colour palette together and provide easy ability for visitors to capture everything from their socials to their navigation.

In order to succeed, startups need to be efficient and productive. Without productivity tools that create efficiencies, teams can become overworked, tired, and frustrated. It is important to manage resources effectively, especially when they are finite.

There are thousands of productivity tools on the market, making it challenging to decide what would be best for your team. That’s why we have created this list of the top 10 best software productivity tools, to boost your startup’s productivity.

THE 10 BEST PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS

CANVA

Canva can help non-graphic designers fool everyone around them with the beautiful designs they create. Anyone can use Canva to make social media posts, posters, promotional videos, brochures, business cards, or anything else your business might need.

There are also hundreds of premade templates to choose from when creating a design. Type your design aesthetic into the search bar and wait for your perfect template to show up. For example, if you prefer a minimalist design, type minimalist and select your favourite template option.

Premium levels of Canva also allow you to upload all of your brand materials. Then, any time you create anything, you can brand it with the click of a button. Canva helps your brand maintain consistency throughout all its visual elements. Another perk of Canva Pro is the ability to collaborate with team members in real-time on a design. The Pro version also allows you to resize your designs. So, if you want to take video content and resize it to use on your Instagram story, you can easily update the dimensions.

PANDADOC

PandaDoc helps you and your team easily share documents with customers. PandaDoc helps you create personalized documents like proposals, quotes, contracts, and more, and send them to customers to sign and approve. Documents can be easily created in minutes. You can set certain styles, including custom colours, themes, and fonts, so your documents have your branding.

The software also tracks the documents so you and your team can stay up to date with the customer journey and provide the best customer service experience. The software dashboard shows you which documents have been signed and which haven’t, so you can easily track each proposal or contract you send out.
PandaDoc offers a 14-day free trial and 3 different premium plans: Essentials, Business, and Enterprise. They also offer annual and monthly payment plans with a 34% savings on their yearly plans.

TEAMWORK

Teamwork is a well-named software that helps your team work together. Teamwork can help teams track deadlines, measure progress, define priorities, and hit their goals. It can help you and your employees manage tasks, generate reports, manage clients (with their built-in CRM), collaborate on content, and track time. Instead of spending time managing the project, focus your energy on the project itself. There are also integrations available on Teamwork. Use tools such as Slack, Drive, Hubspot, Dropbox, etc. alongside Teamwork.

Teamwork has a free version that includes 5 users, basic projects, task management, milestone tracking, and messaging between users. There are also paid options that include project templates, invoicing, advanced reporting, budgeting, profitability reporting, and more! Teamwork offers a 30-day trial for all new customers and a discount for annual payments.

INSIGHT TIMER

Insight Timer is a meditation, yoga, and sleep-help app with live classes, recorded courses, and workshops. The app offers yoga classes, 100,000+ mediation classes, group meditations, 1,000+ courses, offline listening, and live events. Teams can also take classes together in workgroups.

Workplace groups are where teams and coworkers can chat, meditate, take a class together, and recommend classes to each other. You can create an organization-wide group and then individual groups for each team. InsightTimer offers a complete dashboard so you can track overall employee trends within the app.

It might be strange to include this piece of software in a productivity blog, but it has been proven that better sleep and mindfulness mean less stress and anxiety. This, in turn, means a more resilient and engaged workforce. The pricing is excellent! InsightTimer offers a business plan for $99 per year with unlimited users!

RANK TRACKER

Rank Tracker helps you easily optimize your SEO. Rank Tracker offers:

1. Keyword tracker: After determining your chosen keywords, see if your website ranks for them. RankTracker can monitor your website and give you real-time feedback about your keyword rankings;
2. Keyword finder: Use this tool to find out what your customers are searching for. Then use these keywords to bring new visitors to your site. Simply enter a search term into the software. RankTracker will provide a list of possible keywords along with their search volume (how many times people have searched those keywords) and difficulty rankings (how hard it would be to rank high for these keywords);
3. SERP checker: This will provide a detailed analysis of the Google results that appear with your keywords. Use this tool to enter your keywords and see which of your competitors is currently ranking on the first search page;
4. Web audit: this tool checks your website in-depth and lets you know if there are any issues. Then it shows you how to fix them. Audits can be run as often as you want and can be stored in the system so that you can compare them to past audits;
5. Actionable SEO tasks: This feature is invaluable if you’re new to SEO. The software walks you through the entire process of setting up the SEO on your website. Each task is actionable and takes you one step closer to ranking on Google.

Rank Tracker offers 4 different paid plans with a 7-day free trial. There are small discounts for paying annually instead of monthly.

TRELLO

Trello is a project management platform, and one of the best productivity tools that can be used to complete almost any project! Trello is unique in that it is helpful for teams of 1 and teams of 1,000, as it can be customized to serve your exact needs. Trello, in its most basic form, includes boards, lists, and cards. But add-ons can help expand and tailor boards to help manage projects productively. If you’re a visual thinker, you can utilize the Gannt chart and calendaring options. If you need notifications updating you on your progress, you can set up notifications. Trello includes automatic workflows to help you stay on track, or you can create and maintain a productivity tracking add-on to measure your success.

Trello can sync with all your devices. You can also share boards between teammates and work on them simultaneously.
Trello has excellent free options, but there is an affordable pricing structure for businesses with larger teams.

ZENEFITS

Zenefits helps you attract and retain top talent by connecting human resources, payroll, employee benefits, and scheduling. Since all the details are taken care of, more time can be spent building a great workplace culture that helps employees thrive. This is one of the best productivity software tools for human resources.

Zenefits helps employers:
• Hire talent: The onboarding process is supported by Zenefits. The seamless support improves communication between you and your new hire and helps them through the process. 
• Retain top talent: Throughout their tenure at your company, employees will receive top-notch communication and advanced HR tools like compensation reporting. Great communication and easy tools like these will help them feel understood and appreciated.
• Stay compliant: Zenefits helps companies complete mandatory compliance tasks and government filings. The software keeps track of due dates and other details to prevent accidental mistakes.
• Improve productivity: Zenefits streamlines tasks like onboarding, benefits selection, and document signing. With Zenefits, all these tasks happen online and are self-directed, meaning employee time isn’t wasted.
• Improve employee experience: With Zenefits, employees can request time off, access documents, and make updates to their benefits online or on an app. Improving employee access to benefits and documentation offers transparency and trust between employees and the organization.
• Reduce errors: A fully digital system decreases costly human errors from manual data entry and paperwork.
Zenefits offers three base plans for businesses with annual and monthly payment options.

LATTICE

Lattice connects performance management, employee engagement, and career development into one piece of software.

Performance: Help your employees be as productive as possible by offering them tools to help them succeed. Tools that help everyone at your organization give praise, remove roadblocks, improve one-on-one meetings, give feedback, and more!

Engagement: Foster employee engagement and trust by listening to their needs and responding with solutions. With Lattice, you can request employee feedback through surveys, act on employee feedback, share plans in real-time, improve your onboarding process, and communicate with employees more effectively.

Career development: Lattice can help each employee create short- and long-term goals for themselves. Then they can connect their day-to-day successes with those goals to see their progress throughout the year. Lattice can also help you make career tracks or growth plans for your employees and help managers act as career coaches. Lattice is one of the best productivity software tools for performance management.
Lattice offers different bundles with different tools. You can pay per month, but there is special enterprise pricing for high-volume purchases.

ASANA

Asana is our favourite all-around productivity tool. You easily organize the project, prioritize tasks, collaborate with the team, and track progress. You manage your project from start to finish in one place.

XERO

Xero is your one-stop could-based accounting software! Connect your Xero app to your bank account, and all transactions are synced in real-time. This means that you no longer need to track your expenses in a spreadsheet. Also, Xero can send branded invoices and give you detailed reporting efficiently and accurately.
With Xero, you can pay your bills, store documents, connect your email to download receipts, reconcile expenses with your bank, automatically calculate fees and taxes, and more! Xero offers three different plans with monthly payment options.

Now that you know the best productivity tools for your startup, free up some more time by letting us handle your web design, SEO & marketing!

User Experience (UX) has become a lot more mainstream and companies have realised it pays off to ensure their website is optimised for usability. This is because providing a good user experience can have a very positive impact on their online conversion.

However, have you ever considered how accessible your website is to the millions of users with impairments?

What is website accessibility?

In short, accessible web design is the practice of making your website usable by as many people as possible. As designers, we often don’t think about people who aren’t able to use the website in the same way we do, which results in them having a worse experience or even being unable to use your service at all.

The latest government data shows that 22% of people in the UK – that’s 14.6 million – are living with a disability or impairment, but there are many more people who may be temporarily impaired (broken arm or another injury) or situationally impaired (holding a baby in one arm, looking at a screen in bright sunlight).

All of these people want and need to be able to use your services in a way that is as frictionless as possible.

Why should I care about website accessibility?

It’s ethical

Website accessibility is the right thing to do. As designers, it’s our responsibility to make sure we design in a way that’s accessible to all users irrespective of their situation, abilities or context.

As a result, the web can be a space which is inclusive to all, whether they have a cognitive disability, visual impairment or physical disability.

To comply with the law

The UK has website accessibility laws in place. In 2018, the UK government made it the law for the websites of central government and local government organisations, some charities and other non-government organisations to be coded and designed to meet the web accessibility standards, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1)

All UK service providers have a legal obligation to make reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010 or the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (in Northern Ireland).

If companies fail to make reasonable adjustments, they could be taken to court. In 2019, a blind customer successfully sued Dominos Pizza for not providing him with an accessible experience.

Positive business impact

Of course, improving accessibility to your website can also benefit your business in a number of ways:

• It allows more of your users to pass through your conversion funnel.
• Clean code (which improves accessibility) improves your site speed and SEO, making your website more findable in search engines.
• Improving digital accessibility doesn’t just affect users with impairments. Everyone can benefit from accessible web design. By making your website more accessible, you will improve the user experience for all your users.

It takes little effort

Creating an accessible website doesn’t have to require large amounts of budget or big changes. There is no need for additional features or content to make a website more accessible. A lot of issues can be solved with a little thought, planning and awareness, which will be covered later in this blog.

How to test website accessibility

WAVE is a free accessibility checker and evaluation tool you can use to test the accessibility of your website. 

You can either paste your URLs into the box on the site, or you can download their extension to quickly run diagnostics on any page you visit.

When you run WAVE, it produces a very detailed diagnostics report covering the main areas of accessibility, including contrast errors, alternative text on images and semantic HTML structure.

The reports created by WAVE are incredibly detailed and can be a bit overwhelming, especially if you’re new to accessibility. To give you a clearer overview on how to make your website more accessible, we have pulled out a few of the key areas below with tips on how to improve.

Ways to improve your website’s accessibility

Colours and contrast

Colours and contrast are especially important to allow people with impaired vision and colour blindness to navigate the website easily.

This affects a much higher number of users than you expect. According to the NHS, 8% of all men are colour blind and many more people suffer from some degree of impaired vision. As we have an ageing population, this will be an even more important focus for the future.

Accessible web design ensures there is enough contrast between any text used and its background to allow everyone to read it with ease. 

Testing the contrast of the colours used on your website is a quick job with this contrast checker tool. There must be a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 to provide enough clarity for users with impaired vision.

In addition, accessibility guidelines dictate that colour should never be the only way to convey information. In other words, there must be an additional cue (such as underlined text for hyperlinks) for those users who perceive colours differently and may miss our colour-based instructions.

Font choice and size

Font choice and size are also important not just to users with impaired vision, but also helps users with cognitive disorders like dyslexia.

In terms of choice, steer clear of Serif fonts (Times New Roman, Georgia, Garamond). The decorative hooks and swirls at the end of the letter strokes obscure the shapes of letters and cause reading problems for dyslexic users.

The good news is that you don’t need to change your website to Comic Sans to make it dyslexia-friendly. The letters of Sans Serif fonts (Helvetica, Arial, Open Sans, Roboto) can appear less crowded and are widely available in most OS and design softwares.

The default browser body font size is usually 16px (12pt); this is also the minimum advised font size for body text by accessibility guidelines.

It’s not just about text size, though. Increasing the amount of white space between both lines of text and individual words can really help users that are visually impaired or have dyslexia.

The following minimum spacing ensures that the requirements of those users are met:

• Letter spacing: x0.12 the font size
• Word spacing: x0.16 the font size
• Line spacing: x1.5 the font size
• Paragraph spacing: x2 the font size

Alternative text

Alternative text (or “alt tag”) is a tag in your HTML code that allows you to input a text description for images.

These text descriptions are used to describe images to visually impaired users who rely on screen readers. This means it is important to accurately describe the meaning or purpose of the image for those who cannot see it.

It may not always be necessary to add alt text. For example, there may be enough contextual indicators surrounding the image or the image has no other function than aesthetic. In this case, add an empty alt tag (alt=””) or it will get flagged as a missing alt tag by diagnostic tools.

Forms

Forms can be complex for anyone, but those with additional accessibility issues can often struggle when forms are too minimalist and unclear. Below are listed some common items that need to be addressed in order to tackle accessibility:

• Labels – using placeholder text as a label rather than text outside the field creates confusion as the text disappears when the user begins to type. Omitting crucial directions for the user in favour of minimalism or aesthetics is a major error to avoid.
• Borders – something as simple as a border around a text input is important for users with cognitive disabilities so it is clear where they need to click.
• Additional instructions – often forms use a minimalist approach in an attempt to declutter the design. However, this hinders the usability and therefore accessibility.
• Error messages – these should be indicated by multiple elements, commonly colour is used but in addition to this errors should be indicated via symbols or text.
• Review – forms should allow a period of review before submission to allow the user to correct any information.

HTML structure

Even when the web page looks good after following the basics above, it can still suffer from severe accessibility issues if the semantic structure of your code isn’t up to scratch. 

It’s important to ensure that all content structures are marked up correctly and follow a clear hierarchy, because people using screen readers will use this structural markup for navigation.

An additional bonus is that it also allows Google to better interpret your content which can benefit your SEO.

A piece of simple advice would be to have one <h1> element on your page and then <h2> for your next important sections. If you have a child of a subsection then use an <h3> and so on:

<h1>Usually your page title</h1>

<p>Some paragraph text here</p>

<h2>The next important section of your page</h2>

<p>Some paragraph text here</p>

<h3>Something not so important but related to the h2 above</h3>

<p>Some paragraph text here</p>

<h2>The next important section of your page</h2>

In short

Making your website more accessible doesn’t require a large budget or a lot of time. Using the tips and tricks above can already dramatically change the experience and make it more inclusive for ALL of your users.

Start including accessible web design in your design process now and you will not only create a more accessible and inclusive space for your users, but also improve your standing with Google. It’s a win-win for everybody. 

If you need any further advice on website accessibility, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

If you need help with your user experience don’t hesitate to contact us.

It’s becoming increasing harder to stand out especially in architecture and interior design where everyone has beautiful imagery. This article is to inspire you with visuals and give practical advice on what you can leverage with your branding to position your practice so your marketing is just as beautiful as your work.

Here goes with the best branding for architects & interior designers we have seen.

Utilise Typography

We start with Maldini Studios, an interior design and carpentry firm by Jens Nilsson. It’s not a typical approach to the industry but it utilises a bespoke typeface that seems to nod to the carpentry element of the business as letters seem to be chiseled. A combination of the colour and typography that you don’t often see in architecture and interiors, it does and will stand out against the competition.

Be playful with colour and shape

Architects can have a tendency to choose white, greys or blacks when branding their practice so it’s refreshing to see something a little more playful and colourful from Poseidon Helsinki by Kokoro & Moi. Inspired by Le Corbusier and the masters of geometric abstraction, it definitely stands out and allows for a flexible identity.

Make the branding flexible

This is a really nice idea that is suggestive of the 3D nature of buildings from Ascui & Co. Architects by Grosz Co. Lab. The patterns feel like an object lit from certain angles of a light source, this combined with different colours that resemble ‘temperatures’. The identity becomes flexible in pattern and colour to suit the intention of what is being designed.

Use the logo as a device

The next project is Fraher Architects by Freytag Anderson. The use of a very bold red catches your attention and the logo is designed to adapt into a flexible device that can be used to house images and text.

Think carefully about your name

Your name is just as important as your visual identity. DN&Co named and created the branding for Fathom Architects which stemmed from two meanings. The first to measure depth and two, to show a deeper understanding of a difficult problem. The lines are suggestive of measurement and help define areas for text and imagery across the rest of Fathom’s branding.

There are no rules

A very simple idea from AG Design Agency for Vikelas Architects. They created a typographic system that works not only with the logo but across all the branding. It’s different and it definitely makes you stop and look.

Design your own typeface

Zaha Hadid is one of the world’s most famous architects of recent times and a core element of their branding by Greenspace, is a bespoke typeface. Using type as a differentiating factor is so often under utilised in branding so if you don’t have the budget for something custom, pay attention to your typography as it’s an integral part of your brand.

Branding is all in the detail

The renowned David Collins interior architecture practice, created a very understated identity with the help of Bibliothèque Design. Again, a bespoke typeface was at the heart of the identity but close attention was given to paper, textures and finishing which can create something special in print.

Sometimes less is more

The concept for this project was based on the structural principle of ‘tensegrity’ which is very apt for the structural engineering firm Nosive Strukture, designed by Bunch. Sometimes all you need is a strong concept and everything else will flow from it.

Start your identity with the basics

The basics being the circle, triangle and square are the building blocks of architectural design which makes up this logo from Monument by Jack Renwick.

Use a device to run across your branding

A keyline as a device is prominent across all of the branding for Lynsay Bell Architecture by Touch Agency. The aim was to signify the forward progression, momentum and growth of the practice. Sometimes the simplest idea can translate across all your marketing when it’s executed well.

Think responsive

Identities have to be more and more responsive these days. From a billboard right down to a logo on an iphone. MOAA Architects by Inhouse created a responsive identity that is recognisable over many different formats which works nicely. The only downside being, you need someone who knows what they are doing with future applications to execute and retain the integrity of this setup.

Find some perspective

Inspiration can come from anywhere but the best ideas tend to be abstract rather than literal. Commando Group designed a dynamic logo for Krohn based on a room seen from a central perspective.

Add some personality to your branding

A lot of branding within the industry can be quite stark, so it’s nice to add some texture and personality. In this instance, Christopher Hall, a furniture and interior designer worked with Two Times Elliott to express elements of his Somata collection that was rooted in mythology. The pattern references snake scales used within the pieces.

Stay within the grid

The grid in design is there for a reason and this identity for Richard Murphy Architects by Touch Agency, utilises it to the fullest. The geometry is suggestive of their measured and methodical approach.

Go a little off piste

It’s not too often you see a stencil typeface within branding for architects, so it does add intrigue. This project for Falker by Hammeral Brecht also adds a nice element in print with a folded business card that gives a 3D element to their business cards.

Use a flash of colour

Sometimes all you need in a flash of brand colour to make your branding distinguishable. Hyphen by Pentagram sets a nice balance between minimal and timeless with a green a lot of architects would probably deem too bright.

Show off your colour combinations

If you are a business in a creative industry, having a good understanding of colour theory is absolutely essential. So why not express it in your stationery. Tale London by Two Times Elliott is a bold example of how you can use colour to your advantage.

If after reading this, you think you have to improve your branding to start attracting bigger and more profitable clients, we have a well mapped out process we can take you through. It’s helping a £5m client on their way to £15m and we have even put ourselves through it which has attracted numerous architecture and interior practices to renowned luxury brands such as Cartier.

5 Steps to the Perfect Social Media Strategy

Social media is an ever-changing world that continues to evolve as technology evolves. When it comes to developing a social media marketing strategy, it’s important to have a clear strategy to guide the way and help you navigate such an evolving landscape.

So, how can you create a social media strategy that will help you keep up with not just today’s landscape but also tomorrow’s? 

A solid social media strategy has 5 core steps: defining your goals, choosing platforms (e.g. Instagram, TikTok, Facebook), identifying your audience, connecting with them through engaging content, and always looking for opportunities to optimize and improve. 

Let’s take a deep dive into each step:

Step 1: Define Your Goals

Before anything else, it’s important to define your goals and objectives. What are you trying to accomplish? What do you hope to achieve through social media? This step is especially crucial if your company is new or if it has been active on social media for less than a year; in these cases, the best way to get started is by defining what makes sense at this point in time. 

For instance, if your goal is simply increasing engagement within your existing audience, then it may make more sense to not only focus on building an engaged community but also focus on building an engaged community where you already have one: Facebook or Twitter instead of Instagram or Snapchat. A goal like this might require focusing more heavily on content creation – posting pictures every day – and less heavily on launching new platforms until you’ve built up your existing platforms.

The type of content you publish should reflect your brand identity and audience—but don’t overthink what kinds of posts are necessary for every platform. You might want to include a mix of images or videos with text-only posts, or maybe just an image post every once in a while is all that’s needed!

Lastly, be sure to have both long-term and short-term goals in mind as well as personal brand growth versus business growth goals so that you can create an appropriate plan for each part of your online presence.

Step 2: Choose Your Platforms

Once you’ve found the right platform(s), it’s time to get started.

Before diving in, though, there are a few things worth noting. First of all: if you’re going to use multiple platforms, do it right! Choosing one or two platforms that are relevant to your business and industry is a great place to start—but don’t stop there. 

A large part of the success of these social media strategies will depend on how frequently you post on each platform. If you choose too many platforms at once (or if they’re all used for different purposes), it could be difficult for customers who follow your account(s) across multiple networks to keep up with everything happening in your world.

Having a cohesive social media strategy means choosing accounts that create a cohesive representation of your business — and often this means starting small with just one platform at a time.

Step 3: Identify Your Audience

This is an important step because it helps you to define the purpose of your social media presence. Your audience will dictate how you post, what content you share, and how you interact with them.

• Know who they are: This can be tricky – your audience is made up of people from all over the world with different backgrounds and interests! However, most businesses have some kind of general idea as to who their target market is and where they live (and if a business doesn’t know this information, then it’s time to do some research!).
• Know why they are there: The more specific your target market is, the easier it will be for them to find your brand online. For example: if I am looking for a new pair of shoes online and I type in “women’s sneakers” into the Google search bar, I will get many results back – but if I add “black high tops” into my search query, now only one website comes up as a result—that website being Nike’s women’s sneaker section!

Step 4: Connect With Your Audience

The fourth step is to connect with your audience. Social media should be used to build relationships and grow your brand, not just for quick sales or downloads. It’s about engagement, not spamming people with content that they don’t care about or want to see.

In order to do this successfully, you need to make sure that you are responding to comments made on posts, engaging with users who engage with you, building trust and credibility by being authentic and consistent in your messaging, and making sure that any campaigns have clear goals so the work you do can be measured against those goals.

Step 5: Optimize and Adjust, then Repeat

In the end, your strategy will be the product of the input from this process. It’s not enough to just have a social media strategy in place; it must be tweaked and adjusted as needed. You need to continue using this method on an ongoing basis so that you can see how your efforts are paying off and make adjustments as necessary.

• Make sure that you are using the right platforms for your goals
• Make sure that you are using the right content for your goals
• Make sure that you are using the right language for your goals
• Make sure that you are using the right hashtags for your goals

By following these 5 steps, you can create a social media strategy that will help you connect with your audience and grow your online presence. But remember: it will take time and persistence to see results. The more that you optimise and adjust your plan based on what’s working for you, the better results you’ll see from this process. 

Social media is an ever-changing world that continues to evolve as technology evolves. When it comes to developing a social media marketing strategy, it’s important to have a clear strategy to guide the way and help you navigate such an evolving landscape.

So, how can you create a social media strategy that will help you keep up with not just today’s landscape but also tomorrow’s? 

A solid social media strategy has 5 core steps: defining your goals, choosing platforms (e.g. Instagram, TikTok, Facebook), identifying your audience, connecting with them through engaging content, and always looking for opportunities to optimize and improve. 

Let’s take a deep dive into each step:

Step 1: Define Your Goals

Before anything else, it’s important to define your goals and objectives. What are you trying to accomplish? What do you hope to achieve through social media? This step is especially crucial if your company is new or if it has been active on social media for less than a year; in these cases, the best way to get started is by defining what makes sense at this point in time. 

For instance, if your goal is simply increasing engagement within your existing audience, then it may make more sense to not only focus on building an engaged community but also focus on building an engaged community where you already have one: Facebook or Twitter instead of Instagram or Snapchat. A goal like this might require focusing more heavily on content creation – posting pictures every day – and less heavily on launching new platforms until you’ve built up your existing platforms.

The type of content you publish should reflect your brand identity and audience—but don’t overthink what kinds of posts are necessary for every platform. You might want to include a mix of images or videos with text-only posts, or maybe just an image post every once in a while is all that’s needed!

Lastly, be sure to have both long-term and short-term goals in mind as well as personal brand growth versus business growth goals so that you can create an appropriate plan for each part of your online presence.

Step 2: Choose Your Platforms

Once you’ve found the right platform(s), it’s time to get started.

Before diving in, though, there are a few things worth noting. First of all: if you’re going to use multiple platforms, do it right! Choosing one or two platforms that are relevant to your business and industry is a great place to start—but don’t stop there. 

A large part of the success of these social media strategies will depend on how frequently you post on each platform. If you choose too many platforms at once (or if they’re all used for different purposes), it could be difficult for customers who follow your account(s) across multiple networks to keep up with everything happening in your world.

Having a cohesive social media strategy means choosing accounts that create a cohesive representation of your business — and often this means starting small with just one platform at a time.

Step 3: Identify Your Audience

This is an important step because it helps you to define the purpose of your social media presence. Your audience will dictate how you post, what content you share, and how you interact with them.

• Know who they are: This can be tricky – your audience is made up of people from all over the world with different backgrounds and interests! However, most businesses have some kind of general idea as to who their target market is and where they live (and if a business doesn’t know this information, then it’s time to do some research!).
• Know why they are there: The more specific your target market is, the easier it will be for them to find your brand online. For example: if I am looking for a new pair of shoes online and I type in “women’s sneakers” into the Google search bar, I will get many results back – but if I add “black high tops” into my search query, now only one website comes up as a result—that website being Nike’s women’s sneaker section!

Step 4: Connect With Your Audience

The fourth step is to connect with your audience. Social media should be used to build relationships and grow your brand, not just for quick sales or downloads. It’s about engagement, not spamming people with content that they don’t care about or want to see.

In order to do this successfully, you need to make sure that you are responding to comments made on posts, engaging with users who engage with you, building trust and credibility by being authentic and consistent in your messaging, and making sure that any campaigns have clear goals so the work you do can be measured against those goals.

Step 5: Optimize and Adjust, then Repeat

In the end, your strategy will be the product of the input from this process. It’s not enough to just have a social media strategy in place; it must be tweaked and adjusted as needed. You need to continue using this method on an ongoing basis so that you can see how your efforts are paying off and make adjustments as necessary.

• Make sure that you are using the right platforms for your goals
• Make sure that you are using the right content for your goals
• Make sure that you are using the right language for your goals
• Make sure that you are using the right hashtags for your goals

By following these 5 steps, you can create a social media strategy that will help you connect with your audience and grow your online presence. But remember: it will take time and persistence to see results. The more that you optimise and adjust your plan based on what’s working for you, the better results you’ll see from this process.