Website Development Fort Lauderdale

Website Trends from 2015 and Predictions for 2016

As we prepare to ring in the New Year, it’s time to take a look back at the website trends from the past year before turning our eyes forward to the future. 2015 was a pivotal time for the Internet, with a number of developments that had a significant impact on web design. At Blue Interactive Agency, we’ve compiled a list of the most significant website trends from 2015, several of which will continue to influence web design in the upcoming year. We’re also ready to make our predictions for 2016 - after searching the latest web development news and studying the recommendations of industry insiders, we’ve identified the upcoming trends in website development Fort Lauderdale businesses will need to consider when creating their sites in the coming year.

Hottest Website Design Trends of 2015

#1: Responsive web design

With Internet users turning to mobile devices in record numbers and Google adding mobile-friendliness to its list of search ranking criteria this year, responsive web design was a shoo-in for top position on the list of web design trends for 2015. Responsive web design offers flawless performance on every device, with easy to access buttons, simple navigation, and viewports that automatically resize to deliver the best user experience.

#2: Single page, long-scrolling web pages

The growing popularity of mobile devices spurred the move from websites with multiple pages to single page websites where users simply scrolled down a long page. Some designers took the trend too far, with seemingly never-ending pages, but for the most part, scrolling websites delivered a much more user-friendly experience, since visitors no longer had to click through multiple pages to view all the content a site had to offer.

#3: Mobile-friendly elements

Several of the top web design trends of 2015 can be directly traced to the rise of mobile devices.  This includes “hamburger” menu elements, the ubiquitous three bars at the top of websites that condensed menus so sites were not so squished on smaller screens, and pinned headers that ensured that logos, identifying info, and certain navigation elements remained easily accessible even as visitors scrolled down long single-page sites.

#3: Full Screen Photo and Video Backgrounds

Full screen photo and video backgrounds gave websites a bold, dramatic look in 2015. By splashing a dramatic photo or an engaging video across the entire opening screen of a website, designers were able to capture the interest of visitors from the instant they arrived on the page. Clear or “ghost” buttons were commonly used on pages with full screen backgrounds; with just a thin outline and a simple label, these buttons were the perfect complement as they didn’t detract from or compete with the impact of the background image.

#5: Flat Design

Flat web design favors simple, clear designs without any of the shading, beveling, or embossing that characterized the look of early websites. While the principles of flat design have been around for some time, the smaller viewing screens of handheld mobile devices helped to ramp up the popularity of flat design, helping it to grow into one of the more pervasive web design trends of 2015.

Top Website Design Predictions for 2016

#1: Responsive web design

Responsive web design will remain the dominant web trend in 2016.  As mobile devices continue to grow in type and popularity, look for responsive web design to become so widespread that it starts to move from a website design trend to the established website design standard.

#2: Motion Design

Instead of simply showing boring, static photos and images, look for websites in 2016 to feature motion design - photos and graphics that incorporate video or animations that add movement to the still images without drastically increasing load time. Apple’s 2015 introduction of Live Photos (which combine a 3-second video with still photos) has brought motion graphics into the spotlight, but Live Photos can currently only be viewed on devices running IOS9, Apple’s latest operating system. The growing popularity of Apple’s hybrid photo and video format is certain to spur the inclusion in websites of other images that incorporate motion, such as cinemographs,  animated and interactive infographics, which can be viewed using any operating system or device.

#3: Minimalism

While full screen video and photo backgrounds were a top design trend in 2015, the pendulum will swing back the other way to favor minimalism in 2016. Minimalist web design incorporates flat design, then adds generous use of negative space, simple clean designs, and distinctive typography to stand out from the crowd. This web design trend will make a strong showing in 2016, as a way for the new crop of websites to visually differentiate themselves from the sometimes cluttered look of large-scale full-screen backgrounds.

#4: Modular design

Modular design, also known as grid- or card-based web design, was popular in 2015, and its use will continue to increase in 2016. Modular design is an effective way to present large amounts of information and images without overwhelming visitors, because it delivers content in easy to digest bites. Look for live tiles and creative sizes and shapes to add interest and drama that will keep modular design a viable design trend for 2016 and beyond.

If you’re interested in updating your website with a new look, Blue Interactive Agency is here to help. As our full roster of satisfied clients can attest, our dedicated Fort Lauderdale web design agency is well-versed in the latest design trends and technologies, and experienced at creating websites that stand the test of time. Let our talented team of web designers, expert coders, and graphic artists create a trend-setting, high performing website that will help ensure your company’s online success in 2016 and beyond.

Contact us at Blue Interactive Agency today at 954-715-5436 for expert website development services that will help ensure your Fort Lauderdale company’s online marketing success!

Fort Lauderdale Internet Marketing

How to Plan Your Internet Marketing Budget for 2016

With 2016 quickly approaching, your small business needs to have a solid internet marketing budget in place to start the New Year. Marketing budgets are up on average for 2016, according to a recent marketing survey by IBM and the CMO Club, which included CMOs in both B2B and B2C companies. The survey revealed that 57 % of respondents indicated that their marketing budgets will increase over the next 2-3 years. Simply increasing your marketing budget isn’t necessarily going to improve your return, however. If you’ve put off planning a yearly marketing budget, content to invest in marketing on a month to month basis, you may not see the results you were hoping for. The most successful marketers are those that have a well-defined Internet marketing budget that maps out their monthly spend. If you’re unsure how to plan your Fort Lauderdale internet marketing budget for 2016, this four-step guideline may help.

Establish your Marketing Priorities

Before you can allocate your marketing budget to the various internet marketing strategies, you first need to establish what your marketing priorities are for the coming year. Is converting contacts to leads your top marketing priority, or do you need to focus on increasing the number of leads you generate? Perhaps your best path to success consists of increasing revenue from your existing customers. You need to have a clear vision of your company’s business model in order to set your marketing priorities. Once you determine which marketing strategies are most important to your company’s success, you will have a better idea of how to assign your marketing spend.

Know Your Customers

When deciding where to invest your marketing budget, you should base your decisions on your customers’ online activities and behavior. Try to look for new internet marketing strategies that build on your customers’ established patterns. For example, if your customers primarily communicate through email, you may want to invest in a more sophisticated email newsletter marketing program. If social media is the best way to reach your target customers, don’t just allocate more of your budget to sponsored posts and stories; consider investing in short video development to garner more attention for your Tweets and posts. By reinvesting in proven strategies while branching out to related internet marketing avenues, you should be able to generate a larger return for your marketing spend.

Set Concrete Goals

The most effective internet marketing plans are those that have a documented strategy with concrete goals in place. The problem with soft marketing goals, such as “increasing engagement,” or “building your brand” is that there is no way to determine if or when you have met your marketing goal, and no accountability for the budget you invest.

By contrast, when you have solid marketing goals and a set marketing strategy, you can assign your budget according to the projected return of each strategy. If one of your marketing goals is to generate 5 more customer leads a week, figuring out the value of those leads will help you decide on the amount of your budget to invest. Devise a year-long internet marketing strategy, with clearly defined objectives and weekly, monthly, and quarterly goals. This allows you to adjust your budget as you go along, according to the success of your strategies. HubSpot has some helpful free budget planning templates that can help you set goals and plan your marketing spend.

Examine Your Past Performance

If you’ve done a good job of tracking the ROI of your Fort Lauderdale internet marketing strategies over the past year, you’ll have a clear roadmap to help you plan your marketing budget for 2016. Which internet marketing strategies were the most effective? Would those strategies be more effective if you increased the amount of budget allocated to them? Identify any poorly performing internet strategies and eliminate them – cutting away the dross from your marketing strategies can go a long way towards increasing your overall marketing effectiveness.

For more help planning your Fort Lauderdale internet marketing budget for 2016, as well as complete support for all your marketing strategies, turn to Blue Interactive Agency. As the leading internet marketing company Fort Lauderdale businesses trust to build their online presence, we have the experience and skill to help your company achieve the best ROI for its marketing spend in the coming year. Call us today for a free, year-end assessment of your Internet marketing strategies.

Contact us at Blue Interactive Agency today at 954-715-5436 for complete support for your internet marketing strategies in 2016 and beyond.

Fort Lauderdale Web Design

New Year, New Website: 5 reasons you need to update your website for 2016

Is your website ready to tackle the challenges facing it in 2016? There were some large shifts in the digital landscape over the past year, and your website may not be delivering the same exceptional user experience it once did.  Changes in technology and adjustments to the algorithms used by search engines can create website performance issues and vulnerabilities that could cost you customers in 2016. The best solution is to have an experienced web design agency do a page by page review of your website to ensure all elements are up to date with the latest digital standards. You can start by checking if there are any glaring problems you need to address immediately using Hubspot’s free website grader. Enter your website to see how it scores on the most important website elements. The grader will assess your site on five key issues – read on to discover what makes these issues so important that they are the 5 top reasons to update your website in 2016.

1.       Mobile-friendliness
Smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices outpaced computers as the most popular means of accessing the Internet in 2015. To stay current with this development, Google rolled out a mobile-friendly update that penalizes websites that deliver poor performance on mobile devices. Responsive web design is the perfect solution. Google loves responsive web design, and so will your customers - your website will automatically adjust to fit each device, providing a flawless user experience with easy navigation, appropriately sized viewports, and an exceptional overall user experience.

2.       Security              
Identity theft, phishing sites, and data intercepts have moved website security into the spotlight this past year. Listening programs and man-in-the-middle attacks captured customer information from some of the largest corporations in 2015, making many customers concerned about entrusting any personal information to websites. Updating your website with an SSL certificate will help protect your website from attacks and give customers more confidence about doing business with you online.

3.       Speed

Page loading speed not only affects the appeal of your website, it also helps determine your site’s search rank. Google recommends that a mobile optimized site should render above-the-fold content in one second or less. If your site is loading too slowly, a web design agency can optimize your images, code, and content for speed, to get your site whizzing along with the recommended quickness.

4.       SEO
SEO (search engine optimization) helps determine your website’s search rank position. Make sure all the critical elements on your website (page titles, meta descriptions, image information, heading, XML site map, etc.) are search optimized – since trending keywords and industry terms change over time, you may need to examine and update the keywords used on your site on a yearly basis.

5.       Content
Content marketing came into its own in 2015 as an effective way to drive traffic to websites.   Updating your website with new content helps Google to see it as up to date and relevant, two things that play a large role in determining how many customers will find your site in their online searches. There are a number of ways to update your website with content: linking your site to your social strategies, connecting to your LinkedIn profile, adding a blog, and incorporating videos are all great ways to start.

If you’d like some assistance getting your website updated for the New Year, Blue Interactive Agency is here to help. Whether you need a quick SEO refresh or a totally new responsive website design, our dedicated Fort Lauderdale web design agency has the experience and in-depth industry knowledge to get your website upgraded for the best performance in 2016 and beyond.

Contact us at Blue Interactive Agency today at 954-613-2351 and let our Fort Lauderdale web design agency give you a website upgrade certain to help ensure your company’s online marketing success!

Interactive Agency

How to select the right digital marketing agency for 2016

As 2015 draws to a close, it’s time to start thinking about how to meet your company’s marketing goals in the coming year. The need for a strong digital marketing strategy continues to grow apace, as consumers abandon print and television media in favor of Internet outlets. The Internet is rapidly becoming the most relied-upon source for information and entertainment, which means that traditional methods of marketing, from phone books to magazines, no longer have the reach or vast distribution channels they once enjoyed. As a result of this titanic shift in consumer watching habits, digital ad spending is expected to overtake TV as the biggest advertising category by the end of 2017, according to Interpublic Group’s Magna Global.  In order for your business to continue to thrive in the next twelve months, you need a tightly targeted, forward-focused digital marketing plan.  This makes finding the right interactive agency a top priority. If you’re wondering how to select the right digital marketing agency to guide your online efforts in 2016, try looking for these three essential interactive capabilities that are expected to prove critical in the coming year:

Strong Social Ad Skills

In 2016, the ability to create effective paid social advertising campaigns will be a necessary skill for any professional digital marketing agency. Over the past year, changes were made to the way Facebook and Twitter operate that made it virtually impossible for businesses to gain a wide customer reach through organic postings. Other social media platforms have announced plans to make similar adjustments to the way they operate, highlighting the importance of paid social postings as the best way to reach consumers through social media. Before hiring a digital marketing agency, verify that they are experienced at creating action-oriented social ads. You should expect to see some examples of Facebook Click to Website ads and Twitter Lead Generation Ads that the digital marketing agency has created, along with figures that chart the response the ads generated.

Native Advertising Savvy

Native advertising is going to be a critical area for businesses in 2016. Now that Apple has announced that iOS9, its latest mobile operating system for iPhones and iPads, supports ad blockers, businesses will need to turn to native ads in order to reach mobile customers. Native ads are different from standard digital ads because they look, act, and read like non-promotional content, which allows them to skate past the guards and traps that ad blockers throw up. Look for a digital marketing agency that is experienced at building brands through created online content that informs, entertains, and educates viewers. Ask if the agency can show you some advertorials (which look like articles but deliver sponsored content), sponsored posts, and other forms of native advertising that they have posted for themselves or businesses they represent.

Complete Video Capabilities

Businesses of all sizes and kinds are realizing the power of video to connect with customers.  From the unboxing videos that have been mesmerizing children across the country, to short videos that demonstrate recipes and answer tech questions, video marketing seems certain to be an essential part of most companies’ digital marketing strategies in 2016. The challenge lies in finding an agency that is just as skilled as tracking the effect of their video ads as they are at creating them. Look for a digital marketing agency that can show you some tight, effective marketing videos they’ve created, along with analytics that demonstrate the marketing reach they were able to achieve.

As you search for the right digital marketing agency to direct your company’s online efforts in the coming year, consider Blue Interactive Agency. We’re a full-service interactive agency in Boca Raton, experienced at utilizing the latest digital marketing strategies to effective promote our clients.

Contact us at Blue Interactive Agency today at 954-613-2476 for more information on the latest interactive marketing strategies to ensure the success of your small business in 2016 and beyond!

Social Media Marketing Agency

How to choose a social media marketing agency

Great news! After months of striving to grow your Twitter followers and boost your Facebook likes, your company has finally decided to take the plunge and hire a social media marketing agency. Now comes the not-so-great news - they’ve put you in charge of choosing the agency. A quick look on the web reveals a plethora of social media marketing agencies, all claiming they have the necessary skills to get the results you need.  How can you sort through the available social media marketing agencies and choose the right one to help your company? We’ve put together a short list of 5 essential qualities that are the hallmark of a skilled, experienced social media marketing agency – when you find an agency that has all of these qualities, you’ll know you’re on the right track. 

1. An active social presenceDoes the agency have an established presence on several social media platforms? It’s easy for a company’s website to claim they are skilled in social marketing strategies, but are they all talk or do they “walk the walk”? A professional social media marketing agency should have an active presence on the most popular social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn. Remember to check how long the agency has had their accounts - an agency that is truly experienced in social media will have a history of an active presence on its social media accounts for several years.
2. A portfolio of satisfied clientsHas the agency supplied you with the names of some past or present clients for whom they have successfully managed social media marketing strategies? While certain details of their work may be confidential, the right social marketing agency will be willing to outline some of the social strategies they have formulated for companies, along with the results they were able to achieve. They should provide you with the contact information for their liaison at each company; make the effort to follow up personally with each reference so you can gain insights into what the actual experience of working with the agency will be like.
3. Well-written, engaging contentLook through the agency’s website, blog, and social marketing pages. A professional social media marketing agency should have skilled copywriters on staff who are experienced at creating engaging, readable content for clients. Use this checklist to see if their content is well-written:
   • Is the content free of spelling errors?
   • Are there glaring punctuation or syntax errors?
   • Is the content written in a friendly, accessible manner?
   • Is the writing clear and concise?
   • Does the author provide sources to support the assertions made in the content?
4. Analytics to back up their claimsIs the agency willing to provide you with analytics and reports that support their claims of marketing success? Look for an agency that uses industry standard, third-party analytics and monitoring programs such as Google Analytics to measure the success of their social strategies in addition to their own reporting metrics.
5. A physical, “bricks and mortar” locationIn recent years, there has been a surge of social media marketing agencies that have no actual physical location, just an online presence. All communication and collaboration occurs in cyberspace, and you never get to actually meet with the marketers that you hire. All too often, these agencies rely on freelancers to perform their marketing duties rather than on full-time employees who will remain with the company. At any time, the writer whose work caused you to hire the social marketing agency could stop creating content for them, leaving you under contract to a social marketing agency with writers that have sub-par writing skills. Look for an agency in your local vicinity so you can actually meet the writers who will be responsible for producing the content for your social strategies.

If you’re ready to hire someone to help with your social media marketing strategies, consider Blue Interactive Agency. We’re a leading Fort Lauderdale social marketing agency with years of social media marketing experience and a full roster of satisfied clients. Our marketing team can provide you with a full range of social media marketing support services, including video production, content creation services, monthly social marketing maintenance packages, and more. Stop by our office for a free consultation on how our social marketing team can help ensure your company’s success.

Contact us at Blue Interactive Agency today at 954-779-2801 for more information on the latest social media marketing strategies to ensure the ongoing success of your small business!

Custom Web Design

What are the benefits of custom web design?

You’re searching for the right web design agency to create your company’s site when you see the ads: “Free website templates when you host with us! Design your own website in an afternoon!” The templates look attractive, and there’s a long list of possible functionalities that you can use. Sounds too good to pass up, right? For a new small business on a tight budget, these offers of a free website design can be pretty tempting… until you notice that the most successful businesses are the ones that have custom-designed websites. So why do so many successful, budget-savvy businesses choose to spend their budget on custom web design instead of using free templates? Let’s take a look at some of the benefits that custom web design provides.

Terrific Search Performance

Google and the other search engines award the highest spots in searches to the websites that are most relevant and provide the best information to answer queries. Free templates by their very nature are designed to be industry-neutral so they can be used by anyone. While this is a great strategy for the hosting company, it doesn’t help your website’s search performance.

When a professional web design agency creates a custom web design for your company, every element on it is optimized for the best search performance. There are a lot of “behind the scenes” checklist items that a professional designer incorporates to ensure your site performs well in searches.

With a custom web design, every element on each page is designed to boost your search engine performance. Your website will feature industry-related page names, correctly optimized keywords, Meta descriptions, images, and more, and a website structure that will help Google to see it as an industry authority.

Unique Branding

Think of the most well-known, trusted companies in your industry. They all have distinctive branding, with an instantly recognizable look that is uniquely associated with their company. You simply can’t get that with a web design template. You may be able to change the color palette or add in a logo, but you won’t have any real control over the design, layout, or features. You will essentially have the same site that others have, which leads to an average, “been there, done that” ho-hum sameness that won’t inspire trust in your customers.

With a custom website design, you can create your own unique brand, with a distinctive look that differentiates your company from others in the industry. You can carry over your unique branding from your other marketing materials, creating a unified, whole company identity that will make a favorable impression with customers.

Portability

Lastly, there’s a reason hosting companies offer those free templates – they want to make sure they keep your business. Basic functionalities that are needed to make sites created with these templates work are located on the hosting company’s servers, so will not work if they are hosted elsewhere. If you decide to leave and go to a different hosting company because the one you have raises its rates, or you start experiencing denial of service errors, you won’t be able to take your website with you. You will have the hassle of creating your website over again from scratch. A professional web design agency can create a portable website for your company that has host-neutral coding so it can be hosted with whatever company you choose.

If you’re ready for a custom web design for your company, consider Blue Interactive Agency. We’re a leading Fort Lauderdale website design agency with the experience and knowledge to create the ideal website to introduce your company to new customers. Our dedicated staff includes expert web designers, graphic artists, SEO copywriters, and skilled social marketers, all ready to create a winning website design to help ensure your success. We are ready and eager to develop the company website of your dreams!

Contact us at Blue Interactive Agency today at 954-406-4149 for custom web design services that will help ensure your company’s online marketing success!

Search Engine Marketing Professionals

How to hire the right professional SEM agency

Hiring a professional search engine marketing agency can make a big difference in the success of your paid search strategies. But how can you tell if you’re hiring the right one? Now that online search plays such a key role in purchasing decisions, it seems that practically every Internet marketing agency has added search engine marketing to the list of services they provide. Weeding out the agencies that merely claim they know paid search from the genuine search engine marketing professionals can be difficult, especially if you’ve always relied on in-house staff to manage your paid search strategies in the past.  We’ve put together a list of questions that can help. While these are certainly not all the questions you should ask a professional search marketing agency, they will help you determine if you are hiring the right SEM agency to handle your paid search needs.  

Who will manage our PPC campaigns?

A professional PPC agency should be willing to identify the specific personnel who will be responsible for your paid search campaigns. Ideally, the agency will have a dedicated SEM professional in charge of your account who will handle all the work related to your paid search campaigns. Some of the larger agencies will have a team that splits the work; that may be acceptable provided there is a single manager who is responsible for overseeing the team and ensuring the success of your paid search strategies.

Are you a virtual agency or do you have a physical office location?

Don’t judge an agency solely on how their website looks or what their marketing content claims. An agency that appears to be a fully staffed, well-established firm from their website material may actually be a single person working out of their basement.

This is one area where working with a local agency is a huge advantage.

When you hire a local SEM firm, you can go to the agency’s actual mortar and bricks location to determine how established the firm is. You can gain first-hand knowledge of the firm’s professionalism and meet the actual staff members who will be working on your account.

Do you provide your customers with right of access to all PPC data?

Look for an SEM agency that will give you full access to all data related to your company’s paid marketing efforts. Insist that the agency set up your Google AdWords and Analytics account in your company’s name, so you have complete access and rights to all of your PPC account information. This allows you to monitor your sales numbers and verify the costs of your campaigns. This also gives you the freedom to switch to a different SEM company if you wish, without losing vital access to your company’s marketing data.

How do you charge for your services?

There are a variety of ways that internet marketing agencies can charge for search engine marketing services. Some agencies simply charge a percentage of your overall PPC spend; be aware that this pricing model incentivizes agencies to continually push for the highest possible spend. Some agencies charge a flat rate for their SEM services, and others use a combination of the two.  Make sure you fully understand how charges will be calculated and insist on having the specific terms written into your contract.

Can you ensure a set specific PPC cost every month? 

You should be suspicious of any professional SEM agency that claims that they will have the same specific PPC budget costs every month, because the cost of pay per click campaigns will vary depending on the popularity of keywords and other factors. The best SEM companies instead will set specified PPC budget parameters, agreeing to ensure that your PPC spend will fall within a set budgetary range each month.  

What is the time length of your contracts and rights of termination?

Some agencies insist their clients sign a 12-month contract for SEM services, and only permit termination of contract if both parties agree. Signing a contract with these terms can seriously jeopardize the health of your company, since it can leave you stuck paying for sub-standard SEM services for a full year, with no recourse. Search engine marketing professionals that are confident of the quality of their services don’t have to trap their clients; look for an agency that is willing to sign a month to month contract that either party can terminate.

As you search for a professional SEM agency to handle your paid search needs, consider Blue Interactive Agency. We’re a leading provider of professional search engine marketing services with a dedicated staff that has the necessary skills and experience to expertly guide your paid search campaigns. Stop by and visit our office in Fort Lauderdale or call to set up an appointment to discuss what our SEM professionals can do to help ensure the success of your company.

Contact us at Blue Interactive Agency today at 954-613-2347 to  hire the right search engine marketing professionals to help ensure your company’s success!