The creative process can take a long time to cultivate and is heavily dependent on the project’s goals. An idea for a project might be easy to come up with, but the execution can take time. When we think in terms of digital marketing, we might imagine that six months is an eternity. In the grand scheme of things, however, it’s actually a relatively short amount of time to measure success.

Here are some reasons why we at Clix believe that having a long-term plan as part of your creative digital marketing campaign is beneficial and, in the long term, brings success.

“Results” Are Time (and Budget) Dependent

Just as time is a limitation on the amount of work that can be accomplished in a day, so too can the budget determine what kind of creative output occurs. It is short-sighted to think that a carefully thought out marketing campaign will be totally successful if time is not a consideration to see those results.     

And what kind of time period can a business owner expect to see results? As in most aspects of digital marketing, the short answer is “it depends.” What industry are you in? Are your typical customers local or do they come from all across the world? What goals are you aiming for? Are they realistic, or are you expecting too much?

We often tell clients to give their campaign one year and compare the progress of the campaign to when they started. We have seen that there is almost always an increase in leads, improvement in search visibility based on their approved keywords, and better site experience overall.

Not everything will skyrocket during that time; it is likely going to be an incremental change rather than a radical difference. But if realistic expectations and goals are set and our suggestions are taken to heart, the improvements can be striking.

Rankings Are Important, But Not The Only Factor Driving Results

Search engine rankings alone are often seen by our new clients as the most important goal their business can achieve online. They want to outrank competitors on keywords they feel are relevant to their industry.

Many business owners do not realize that inbound marketing is changing every day and the relevancy of “SEO factors” is changing, too. For example, we are seeing more and more emphasis in search engines on local profiles, and we’re seeing mobile usability and load speed as increasingly important. If your local SEO isn’t up to par, or if your website isn’t mobile friendly, your competitors will show up before you do.

However, search engine rankings aren’t the end-all and be-all of success, and a well-designed and well-ranking website might not drive the results you want right away. For one thing, it takes time to get to that place in search engines, but another factor that affects your business growth is what you do on the ground.

Yes, it’s true – your “real world” presence will affect what happens in the digital world!

Here’s an example: You are a flower shop and you hire five employees. Two are full-time and work in customer service, one answers your calls and emails, and the other two help with flower arrangements. You have someone build you a gorgeous website that looks better than all of the other flower shop sites in your area and you begin the wait for the phone to ring.

Business is slow to build and picks up over time. You see more calls and receive more emails. But then you start to read your reviews online and realize with horror that your full-time staff is rude to customers and your flower arrangement team keeps messing up orders. The person you hired to answer your emails isn’t getting back to people on time, causing them to cancel orders before they even start. “How could I have prevented this from happening?” you ask yourself. Your business is literally in jeopardy, a feeling no business owner wants to have.

Believe it or not, inbound marketing could have mitigated this problem! With options like call tracking and recording, plus a vigilant eye on your online reviews, a team like the one we have at Clix can help you make decisions about your business and improve your customer experience. We offer marketing automation to help you follow up on orders, send out surveys, and many other campaigns to streamline your business services.

How Can I See Results Faster?

If a client comes to us and wants to begin driving leads faster, there are some campaigns we can run, but they often involve other services outside of inbound marketing, such as paid media campaigns and the previously mentioned marketing automation. The latter is especially effective if you already have a contact database instead of building one from scratch.

If you’re only interested in inbound marketing and want to see results, many business owners with a local presence begin to see improvements after we have worked on their local listings. And website redesign projects can make a website better from a technical standpoint (as well as from an aesthetic one), giving your site a boost with better optimized content and technical changes.

There are so many ways to impact your digital marketing campaign, but it all boils down to giving the campaign time to show results. Patience and persistence are absolutely necessary, and when you find a digital marketing partner focused on your business growth, there’s no telling what you can accomplish.

If you’re ready to grow your business through the digital marketing mix, contact Clix and learn how our team has helped many businesses see results.

The post Why Creative Strategy in Digital Marketing Works Better Long-Term appeared first on Clix.

Creative and logical design will not directly affect your Google Ranking in a technical sense. Creative design is not built for Google – it is built for the user (AKA your client or customer). The ranking increases are a byproduct of having a user-friendly design and functionality. Since the Panda update in 2011, user metrics have become a very important factor in digital marketing.

With that said, I think we need to explore what Google is and how it is supposed to work.

Google, in essence, was created to help users find websites they deem useful or informative. The results that appear on screen after a search query are determined by an algorithm devised by Google to mimic what they think a user wants or, more often than not, by user proximity or previous user history/experience. This algorithm is organic, ever advancing as marketers(and users) become more savvy and obviously to help Google’s business model.

A good analogy is to think of SEO initiatives as advertisements for a retail store and your website as a salesperson or the store’s layout. The advertisements get the person to the store. The layout of the store can affect shopping patterns with the salesperson answering questions and, ultimately, making the sale.

OK, that is neat and all, but how will design effect my Google rankings?

To quote Moz:

“When a search engine delivers a page of results to you, it can measure the success of the rankings by observing how you engage with those results. If you click the first link, then immediately hit the back button to try the second link, this indicates that you were not satisfied with the first result. Search engines seek the “long click” – where users click a result without immediately returning to the search page to try again. Taken in aggregate over millions and millions of queries each day, the engines build up a good pool of data to judge the quality of their results.”

SEO tactics and clean development can only take a website so far. When all of these optimization tools are sharpened, we turn to content and personal interaction with the site. So we know that Google’s algorithm can be directly affectedby how a user interacts with your website. Generally, when a person is an interested party, they interact with the website more (exploring multiple pages and more time spent on site can have a direct effect on Google’s ranking system).

Within this user visit, you have two major aspects that contribute to personal interaction: User Experience(UX) and User Interface(UI). These two facets of design often blend together, in unison, to help a user find what he or she is looking for (or maybe discover new services products, or ideas).

So, What is User Experience & User Interface?

User Experience, or UX, is the overall experience of a person using a product such as a website or computer application, especially in terms of how easy or pleasing it is to use.

User Interface, or UI is the means by which the user and a computer system interact, in particular the use of input devices and software.

So basically, UI is how a person interacts with the website, and UX is how that interaction makes the user feel. Common sense tells us that a slick, easy, and fun interface often leads to a better experience. This experience is monitored by Google, giving better designs a rankings or results bump.

The post The Importance of Creativity & Design on Google Rankings appeared first on Clix.

There is a very popular trend of creating double exposure effects for web, motion, and print graphics.

How to Create the Double Exposure Effect

The process is actually quite simple and I created a short video to show a simple and basic way to create this effect.

You will need 3 things for this tutorial…

• Photoshop (obviously)
• A portrait photo
• A landscape photo

The Final Double Exposure Effect Result

This is my first video tutorial but if I get a decent feedback, I will be shoot some more. I hope you enjoy the video and thank you for watching.

Meet Michael

Some of Michael’s work

The post VIDEO TUTORIAL: Double exposure effect in Photoshop appeared first on Clix.

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Web Site Design Template

download free template

website sketch grid

Mobile App & Design Template

download free template

 mobile device sketch grid

The post Grid Sketch Templates for Web and Apps Designs appeared first on Clix.

Today I have a quick tutorial on how to create a vintage or old photo effect in Photoshop using only layer effects.  This effect is very simple, does not require any downloads, and can be used using your preset items in Photoshop.

CLICK THE IMAGES TO SEE LARGER VERSIONS

STEP 1

The first layer effect is to add a stroke around your photo.  I would recommend using a light yellow or light tan color to give the effect of old paper that has aged from the acid and impurities inside the paper.  A white or light grey work great for a cleaner effect.

STEP 2

The next layer effect is an inner glow.  Be sure choose a dark color and change the blend mode to “multiply.”  This effect will provide some contrast between the photo and the stroke added previously.  It also imitates an old press that could often give a slight emboss effect from older printing plates.

STEP 3

Step 3 is a simple and subtle effect using the outer glow layer style.  This emulates a slight shadow and can also help provide contrast on the border.  Be sure to use a dark color and to change the blend mode to multiply and to keep the opacity on the lower spectrum.

STEP 4

The last step is to add a drop shadow.  Be sure to use a dark color, keep the blend mode on “multiply,” and adjust the opacity accordingly.  A more detailed shadow can also be created by hand (this is a great way to show a picture that has curled from age or may have bent corners.

STEP 5 (& beyond)

For this quick tip, I added a layer pattern, then changed the pattern to a simple noise-style pattern. Opacity was then lowered to give a messy, grungy feel.

I think turning the photo at a slight angle and duplicating the layer (being sure to rotate each layer) will help seal the idea of a vintage photo.

Other effects can be used to make a photo seem older.  These include…

• – Lowering the saturation for a faded effect
• – Adding folds and creases in the photo
• – Custom shadow effects
• – Old tape or staple marks on the photo
• – Faded writing on the photo or in the border
• – Adding a slight acid tint (yellowing) to the photo

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