Google Search Console

Google Search Console (GSC) is a tool by Google that provides detailed information on your site’s traffic and search performance. There’s no better place to get this data than right from the source. It means you’re guaranteed to get accurate traffic data.

Aside from raw traffic metrics, you can see:

• total impressions,
• Google Search traffic,
• web traffic sources,
• your position search results,
• and your click-through rates.

Information is power when it comes to SEO and digital marketing. It should be the basis of any strategy, and GSC metrics can help with that. GSC also identifies any problems impacting your website’s performance. These might be poor mobile responsiveness or slow loading times. These features make GSC one of the best tools for checking website traffic metrics. Best of all, using the tool to track traffic for multiple websites is completely free and always will be. This is the case with any tool Google provides.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is another tool from Google that’s essential for website owners. This will be the case for as long as Google has such a huge search dominance. GA4 offers more detail on your website’s traffic than GSC. It shows where visitors come from and how they behave on your site. With GA4, you can track website traffic stats like:

• visitor numbers,
• how long people stay on your site,
• the pages they visit,
• and the actions they take.

Understanding your audience is the key to effective digital marketing. Google Analytics will go a long way to help you achieve this goal. You can see whether traffic is coming from search engines like Google, social media, direct links or paid ads. This lets you measure your ad campaigns’ effectiveness compared to SEO. You do this by measuring traffic from paid searches vs. organic searches. This means more informed marketing strategies and better resource allocation.

Use both Google Analytics. Also, use Google Search Console. Together, they’ll give you a full view of your website performance. You will be able to see exactly how users find you and what they do on your site. Since Google provides both these tools, you’re getting the traffic data directly from the source. 

Ahrefs

Ahrefs is a popular third-party tool with both paid and free options. It differs from Google’s tools in that it also provides competitor insights. As well as tracking raw traffic, you can use the suite of SEO tools to:

• check your website ranking for specific keywords,
• estimated traffic these rankings bring,
• see the total number of backlinks pointing to your website,
• and analyse the quality of these backlinks.

One of Ahrefs’ standout features for traffic analysis is its Site Explorer. The free version has limited access – but it does let you see where your competitor’s traffic comes from. You can also see the keywords they rank for and how much traffic these keywords likely bring them. This info is vital for a competitive SEO strategy. Ahrefs can also give you a site health report that highlights any performance issues. Addressing these issues can help improve your rankings and increase your website traffic.

Ahrefs has both a free and paid version. The free plan isn’t as in-depth as the paid one, but it still provides a clear traffic overview and how you compare to competitors. We use the free version of Ahrefs all the time to track ongoing SEO campaigns and do keyword research. We love its simple interface and well-structured data. That said, the free version doesn’t provide as much depth as some other tools on this list.

Semrush

Semrush is a popular marketing tool and a huge name in the SEO space. They have a free tool that also gives you insights into your competitors’ traffic as well as your own. SEMrush has both a premium and a free version, but the free version still has plenty of useful features.

With Semrush, you can:

• track your website’s keyword rankings,
• traffic estimates for these keywords,
• view the source and quality of backlinks to your site,
• and conduct a competitive analysis to see where you stand in your industry.

Semrush’s free traffic analysis feature is more limited than the paid version. It still provides a good snapshot of performance and user engagement. You can benchmark your site against your competitors. You can find strategies to improve your traffic. It’s a good place to start.

We’re a big fan of their Site Audit Feature. It’s great at picking up technical SEO issues that damage search engine performance. Issues we often see using this tool are slow page load times and missing meta descriptions. Fixing technical issues like these is the basis of any good SEO strategy. If you’re looking to enhance your site’s performance, check out our guide to improving website load time.

Serpstat

Serpstat is a powerful SEO management platform. It also allows you to track both your website traffic over time and that of your competitors. Like SEMrush and Ahrefs, Serpstat has paid and free plans. The free one is a great start for those who are new to SEO or have limited resources.

With Serpstat, you can:

• check the ranking of your website for chosen keywords,
• get track estimation for different keywords,
• examine the sources and quality of your backlinks,
• and perform a competitive analysis to understand your position within your market.

Serpstat provides a full view of search analytics. This includes keyword research, competitor analysis, and backlink checking. These can help you identify any missed opportunities to attract more visitors. Serpstat also has a Site Audit feature, much like that from Semrush.

One of Serpstat’s biggest strengths is its competitor analysis tool. Even using the free version, it’s comprehensive. You can see who you share the most keywords with. You can also see the traffic metrics for any website. Best of all, you can see keywords that are driving the most traffic for your competitors. This allows you to capitalise on them as well.

Hotjar

Hotjar offers a different perspective on website traffic analysis. It focuses more on user behaviour and interaction than raw website site traffic stats and metrics. It doesn’t provide traditional SEO metrics, like keyword rankings or backlink analysis. Instead, you’ll gain insight into how visitors engage with your site.

Hotjar provides:

• Heatmaps. These show where users click, scroll, and spend time on your pages. This can highlight what captures attention and what gets overlooked.
• Visitor Recordings. These show real visitor interactions on your site. They offer a direct view of user experience obstacles and engagement patterns.
• Direct feedback options from users like polls and surveys. Theyse help you understand your visitors’ likes and pains.

Hotjar’s focus on user experience metrics complements more SEO-focused tools well. The better you understand your users, the better experience you can create. This will mean a lower bounce rate and better conversion rates. Always keep in mind that user experience is the key tenet of SEO. Google’s ultimate goal is to serve users with sites they will enjoy. The better your site, the more traffic you’ll get.

Why Website Traffic Analysis Is Important

You can’t improve something if you can’t measure it. This is nowhere more true than in the field of digital marketing. Analytics are everything. For a digital strategy to succeed, you need to back it up with data.

You need clear data on how many people visit your site, what they do when they’re there, and how they found you. Otherwise, you can’t know if your content hits the mark or if your ads are engaging enough. Knowing how much traffic you’re getting helps you see patterns. This can tell you what’s working and what isn’t. This can help you make better use of your budget and get a better return on investment. If you see a surge in traffic after a blog, keep up the content marketing. The same goes for ad campaigns, social media marketing, and email marketing.

Lastly, measuring your website traffic also shows you how visitors use your site. This can help you make it easier to use and more enjoyable, which keeps people coming back. Knowing what content your audience likes helps you create more of it, making your site more relevant to their needs.

Analysing metrics and traffic statistics isn’t everyone’s favourite activity. But it is a necessity. Measuring the amount of traffic your website gets and where it comes from is the only way to make informed decisions.

Why Check Competitor Website Traffic?

You know now that checking your website traffic analytics is crucial. So is keeping an eye on your competitors. It’s one of the best ways to benchmark your site’s performance in your industry.

Knowing your competitors’ traffic lets you gauge the size of your shared audience. This can highlight opportunities for growth. Is your competitor getting a lot of traffic from a specific social media platform? That’s where you need to be posting. Analysing your competitors’ website traffic also helps you spot trends in your industry. You might find that your competitor is getting traffic from certain keywords or topics. Those are the areas you need to focus on.

If their content or ads are bringing them success, understanding why can help you adapt. This doesn’t mean copying what they do – rather, learning from their successes and failures. Not doing so means missing out on opportunities to improve your own performance and get more traffic.

The Different Types Of Website Traffic

Each type of traffic has its own value. It tells you how well different aspects of your marketing are working. The two types of traffic you should focus on the most are organic and paid traffic. Here’s a breakdown of the various types of traffic and what they can tell you about your marketing:

• Organic traffic refers to users who discover your website through unpaid search results. These users must have intent related to your product or service. As a result, they are more likely to convert into customers.High organic traffic is one of the best indicators your site is well-optimised for search engines. Job well done – your content aligns well with what users search for.
• Paid traffic represents visitors who come to your site from paid ad campaigns. These could include Google Ads and sponsored social media posts. Tracking paid traffic is the best way to measure the success of your ads. It’s best not to rely on paid search traffic too much – you have to pay a few cents every time a user clicks on your ad. This can get costly over time.
• Direct Traffic is when visitors enter your website’s URL straight into their browser. It can suggest that people are actively seeking out your website. Note: Google often puts unattributed traffic in the direct category.
• Referral Traffic iswhen a user clicks on a link to your site from another site. Lots of referral traffic means you’re making good content and building strong backlinks.
• Social traffic comes from links shared on social media platforms. High social traffic represents engaging content a social media strategy that works.

For more details on boosting specific types of traffic, check out our article ‘What is Organic Traffic, and How Does it Compare to Paid and Direct Traffic?

Know Your Audience – Know How To Succeed

If you’re a business owner, your website is one of your biggest assets for getting new leads. Regularly checking your website’s traffic is integral to understanding whether it’s working for you as it should. This knowledge lets you make better decisions for your website and business. Let us know which tool works best for you!

For more tips and resources, visit futuretheory.co/resources

As a website owner, you’ve probably spent a lot of time and resources developing your website and trying to ensure its success. However, increasing your website traffic through search engine optimisation or paid ads isn’t always enough to increase your revenue – a successful website encourages as many users as possible to carry out desired actions rather than just clicking on the home page and leaving.

Website Conversion Defined 

Website conversion is a key measure of how well your site turns visits into tangible results, whether that’s sales, leads, or any other action important to your business. Essentially, it’s about how effectively your site encourages visitors to do what you want them to do. This could mean anything from clicking a button to completing a purchase. Conversions are crucial because they’re a clear sign your site is not just attracting visitors, but also engaging them enough to take the next step in becoming customers or active members of your community.

Examples Of Websites Conversion

Some examples of successful conversions might be:

• Making a purchase
• Creating an account
• Booking an appointment
• Signing up for a newsletter
• Clicking the ‘contact’ button

 What Counts As A Conversion For Your Business?

Choosing the right action to measure for determining your website’s conversion rate depends on your business goals and what you consider a successful interaction with your site. Here are some steps to guide you:

• Identify Your Business Objectives: Start by defining what success looks like for your website. Is it selling products, generating leads, or perhaps increasing sign-ups for a newsletter?
• Understand Your Audience’s Journey: Consider the path you expect users to take on your website. Which actions are critical steps in this journey?
• Align with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Choose an action that aligns with your business’s KPIs. For an eCommerce site, this might be a sale, while for a B2B company, it could be a form submission or a download.
• Assess the Value of Different Actions: Not all actions contribute equally to your business objectives. Evaluate which actions lead to the most value, such as a direct purchase versus a newsletter sign-up.
• Consider the User Experience: Choose an action that is easily trackable and represents a clear intention or interest from the user. This could be as simple as clicking a ‘Contact Us’ button or as significant as completing a purchase.
• Review and Adapt: Your chosen action isn’t set in stone. Regularly review if this action still aligns with your business goals and adjust if needed, especially as your website and business evolve.

By selecting an action that closely aligns with your business objectives and customer journey, you can effectively measure and optimise your website’s conversion rate, ensuring it accurately reflects your site’s success in achieving your business goals.

How To Measure Your Website Conversion Rate

Tools like Google Analytics are indispensable when it comes to measuring your website’s conversion rate. They provide a comprehensive view of your website’s performance and key metrics by tracking user behaviour, traffic sources, and more. You can set up conversion goals in Google Analytics to track specific actions, like form submissions or product purchases. Additionally, consider using tools like Hotjar for visual insights like heatmaps, which can give you a deeper understanding of how visitors interact with your site. These tools, when combined, give you a well-rounded picture of your website’s effectiveness in converting visitors and can highlight areas that need improvement.

Calculating Your Website Conversion Rate

Calculating your conversion rate is a straightforward enough process, as well as being a vital Key Performance Indicator (KPI) to make sure you’re achieving your goals. To calculate the rate, divide the number of conversions by the total number of visitors to your website over the same period, and then multiply the result by 100 to get a percentage. For instance, if your site had 200 conversions from 5,000 visitors last month, your conversion rate would be (200/5000) * 100, equating to 4%.

Regularly tracking this metric allows you to understand how well your website engages visitors and prompts them to take action, providing a clear indicator of your site’s performance and areas that may need improvement.

What’s A Good Website Conversion Rate?

Understanding the average conversion rate for websites can be a helpful benchmark, but it’s important to remember that this rate highly depends on your industry and the specific conversion goal you’re aiming for. Generally, the average conversion rate varies widely across different industries, with some sectors seeing higher rates due to the nature of their business and target audience. You can also expect to see seasonal dips and peaks in your conversion rate.

A good conversion rate is often considered to be around 2-5%, but this can differ significantly. For instance, eCommerce sites might have different expectations compared to service-oriented B2B websites. A 2% conversion rate might be considered a high conversion rate for some businesses. It’s important to measure your industry standards and set realistic goals based on your industry averages to truly gauge how effective your website is at converting potential customers or clients. 

What Is Conversion Rate Optimisation 

Website Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) is the process of increasing the percentage of website visitors who complete a desired action on your website. It involves understanding how users interact with your site and adjusting elements to encourage more of them to take specific actions, like buying a product or service.

In the context of eCommerce, conversion rates are a vital metric that indicates how effective your website is in convincing visitors to make a transaction. By using CRO, businesses can more easily meet their website goals, whether it’s increasing sales, generating leads, or driving other forms of engagement. It’s about optimising the user experience to convert a higher proportion of the total number of website visitors into customers, thereby boosting overall business performance.

How To Increase Your Website Conversion Rate

If your website has a low conversion rate, don’t get discouraged – it doesn’t necessarily indicate failure. Instead, it’s an opportunity for you to optimise your website and adjust your strategy. Fortunately, there are some pretty steps you can take to increase your conversion rate – mostly centred around improving your overall website experience and following best practices when it comes to website design and website performance.  Here are 9 of the most fundamental steps to improving your conversion rate: 

• Identify friction points
• Ensure your Website is responsive
• Implement website personalisation
• Highlight your value proposition
• Simplify navigation 
• Add clear calls-to-action
• Streamline the checkout process
• Optimise web page speed
• Use trust signals

Identify Friction Points 

To boost your website’s conversion rate, start by pinpointing any friction points. These are areas of your website where users might be getting stuck or losing interest. Heatmaps are a great tool for this. They show where users are clicking and how they’re scrolling through your site through mouse tracking. By studying these patterns, you can find out where visitors might be dropping off or facing hurdles, like complicated navigation or unclear calls to action. Addressing these friction points makes for a smoother, more inviting user experience, encouraging more visitors to take the actions you want.

Ensure Your Website Is Responsive

As of December 2023, over 55% of website traffic comes from mobile devices, meaning responsive web design is imperative. Your website needs to look and work great, even on mobile devices. Websites that aren’t mobile-friendly can frustrate mobile users and push them away, harming your conversion rate.

A responsive design automatically adjusts to fit the screen it’s being viewed on, making your site accessible and user-friendly no matter how people access it. In 2024, most users expect a fully responsive design on mobile websites, and this is especially true for business websites. If you’d like to learn more, check out our article ‘What Is Responsive Design?‘.

Implement Website Personalisation 

Adding a personal touch to your website can significantly enhance the user experience and, in turn, your conversion rate. Personalisation could be as simple as showing relevant product recommendations based on browsing history or as complex as customised landing pages for different user segments. Tailoring the user experience to meet individual needs or interests makes your site more engaging and can encourage visitors to take the next step.

Highlight Your Value Proposition 

Your website should clearly communicate your value proposition through compelling website copy- what sets you apart from the competition and why visitors should choose you. This should be prominent on your site, ideally on the homepage and any landing pages. A strong, clear value proposition can resonate with your audience, giving them more reason to engage further with your site. Our guide to Creating A Marketing Strategy can help you get a clear idea of your unique value proposition.

Simplify Navigation

Lastly, don’t underestimate the power of simple, intuitive navigation. Your website’s layout should make it easy for visitors to find what they’re looking for without getting lost or overwhelmed. Streamlined navigation helps guide visitors smoothly through your site, leading them towards taking the desired action, whether it’s making a purchase, signing up for a service, or getting in touch. Making critical actions easier for people to find is one of the most fundamental ways to improve conversion rates.

Clear Calls To Action

Your website copy should have CTAs that are easy to spot and understand. They guide visitors on what to do next, whether it’s making a purchase, signing up for a service, or getting in touch. A good CTA can significantly influence a visitor’s decision to take action, meaning better results for your business. 

Streamline the Checkout Process

For online stores, the checkout process should be as smooth as possible. Minimising the number of steps to complete a purchase can lead to fewer abandoned carts and more completed transactions, increasing conversion.

Optimising Web Page Load Speed

A fast-loading website is crucial for keeping visitors engaged. By optimising elements like images and server response time, you can prevent potential customers from leaving your site due to slow load times. Unsure how fast your website loads or how to make improvements to your site that increase load time? Check out our guide to improving website load time.

Using Trust Signals

Trust signals like customer testimonials, SSL certificates, and industry accreditations can boost the credibility of your site. They reassure visitors that your site is trustworthy and that you’re a reliable business, meaning a higher percentage of people turn into paying customers.

Want To Increase Website Conversions?

At Futuretheory, we understand the importance of website conversion and how it can be a game-changer for your business. Our team focuses on creating and refining websites that not only attract visitors but effectively convert them into loyal customers or active community members with our bespoke web design.

If you’re looking to elevate your website’s performance and drive tangible results, we’re here to help. Our expertise in web design and development, combined with a keen understanding of digital marketing and what drives conversions, means the websites we create are powerful business assets for our clients. Contact us for a free quote to discuss how we can ensure your business is growing.   

To save you the legwork (or googling) of trying to find the perfect studio for you, we’ve compiled a list of the best dedicated studio spaces Canberra has to offer you and your crew.

What To Look For In A Canberra Studio Space

The first step to finding the perfect studio space in Canberra for you is to get a clear idea of what you need. Here’s what you need to consider:

• Natural vs controlled lighting: Natural light can be great if you’re after a more light and airy look – but it also means you’re at the mercy of the weather and have less control. Artificial studio lighting can be more reliable and can be manipulated in a studio setting to look like natural light.
• Size: Studios can vary greatly when it comes to size, from slightly bigger to the average bedroom to warehouse size. Make sure to consider the amount of space you need for lighting, audio, and videography and the number of people in your group. A cramped photography environment can be a lot harder to work in.
• Equipment: Some studios have extra equipment on hand available for us, like backdrops, lighting, and props. Other studios require you to hire it for an extra cost, while some require you to bring all your own equipment. Take stock of what you have in your personal arsenal and what you need for the shoot.
• Location: Choose a studio that’s easy to access. While there are options close to the CBD, quieter areas like Fyshwick, Beard, and Mitchell are also worth considering and generally cost less to hire.  Choose a studio with facilities to get changed, check hair and makeup, clean up or wash off if needed, cater or eat, and fulfil any other niche requirements for your project.
• Amenities: When you hire a studio, you’re often paying for the amenities available on-site as well. These might include access to kitchen appliances like a fridge or microwave, a changing room, refreshments, props, and furniture. 
• Parking: On shoot day, you want everything to go as smoothly as possible.  Showing up the morning of and finding out there’s no parking within a few hundred metres and you’ll have to haul your equipment up the road isn’t ideal. Make sure you check out the parking situation before you make a studio booking.

FT Studio in Beard

FT Studio, 15 minutes from the city centre. is definitely one of the biggest studios available for hire in Canberra. Their larger photography area, Space One, is 126 square metres in size with 6-metre high ceilings, giving you all the space to create. At that size, the studio would also be suitable for large-scale workshops, video productions, or a whole range of production needs.

The studio is fully blacked out, giving you full, adjustable control over light during your shoot, although you can open the 3.6 metre-high roller door if you still want plenty of natural light and flexibility. The exposed concrete walls make the perfect blank canvas for portrait shoots, headshots, or fashion shoots. In terms of equipment, you’ll have items including a portable green screen, a variety of furniture, lighting options and backdrops.

FT Studio also has a smaller studio for hire (15 square metres), Space 2, that’s ideal as a workspace for podcasts, webinars, small group meetings and recording sessions. This studio features access to podcast and live streaming equipment, including monitors, microphones, and a podcast recorder. It can also be used as a green room in conjunction with Space 1.

Amenities and facilities include:

• Bathroom with easy access and shower
• Common breakout and chill space with a lounge and a dining table
• Kitchenette with a refrigerator, dishwasher, and microwave
• Loading dock/area
• Optional add-on off-street parking
• Makeup station

FT Studio Pricing

Space One has a $120 hourly rate on weekdays. A half day costs $410, and a full day $640. Space Two will run you $ 50 per hour, $180 for a half day and $280 for a full day. They also accommodate weekend and public holiday bookings at an increased rate.

Lonsdale St. Studio in Braddon

Lonsdale St. Studio is 750 metres from the CBD in the Braddon neighbourhood, right next door to Civic Pub. They offer three different creative spaces available for hire, alongside a green room. All the spaces have been treated acoustically to ensure good audio quality and soundproofing – perfect for broadcasting. The sizes of the private spaces range from 19.5 square metres to 66 square metres. In terms of equipment, you get access to a range of colour backdrops, a cyclorama, lighting options, and photography and audio equipment that you can rent.

Amenities and facilities include: 

• Free NBN wifi for high-definition streaming
• Optional add-on green room with a small kitchen and makeup station
• Air conditioning 
• Accommodation and catering options

Lonsdale St. Studio Pricing 

Studio hire starts from $200 per hour or $795 for a half day for Studio A, which is their largest and most versatile space. Studio B is available from $150 per hour or $495 for a half day, while Studio C, suited for podcasting and audio recordings, starts from $95 per hour. If you need the Green Room, which provides a space to work or relax, it’s an add-on starting from $90. 

Studio Hire Options in Canberra

So there you go. These two studios are great options if you’re a photographer or videographer looking to hire a studio space in Canberra. If you know of other options, feel free to reach out to us and let us know. We’d love to include them on the list!

Benefits Of Using Breadcrumbs Navigation

Breadcrumbs navigation makes it easy for users to navigate around complicated websites. They improve the user experience by clearly showing the website’s structure, helping users understand their current location and how they can return to previous pages without relying on the back button. This feature is especially useful on complex websites with multiple levels of content. Secondly, breadcrumbs support better Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) by providing search engines with a clear view of the structure of a website, potentially boosting the site’s ranking in Google search results. 

Last but not least, they can help reduce bounce rates by encouraging users to explore the site more instead of leaving if they can’t find what they’re looking for immediately. Reduced bounce rates lead to better conversion rates: The longer someone spends exploring your site, the more likely they are to convert into a paying customer or client. Overall, integrating breadcrumbs is a straightforward way to make sites more user-friendly and search-engine-friendly.

Different Types Of Breadcrumb Navigation

There are three main types of breadcrumb navigation used in web design, each serving a unique purpose.  Each breadcrumb type enhances navigation in different ways, making it important to choose the right one for your site’s needs.

The most common types of website breadcrumbs are:

• Hierarchy-based breadcrumbs
• Attribute-based breadcrumbs
• Path-based breadcrumbs

Hierarchy-Based Breadcrumbs

Hierarchy-based breadcrumbs, otherwise known as location-based breadcrumb navigation, are the most possible breadcrumb path you’ll stumble across. Location-based breadcrumbs show the user their position within the website hierarchy, providing a clear path from the home page to the current page. Each part of the breadcrumb is usually separated by a “greater than” symbol (>) or similar divider, with the last item in the trail (the current page) often presented as plain text rather than a clickable link. This keeps the trail clear and easy to follow.

We use location-based breadcrumb navigation on our own website. For example, if you find yourself reading SEO articles on our website, you’ll see the breadcrumb trail Home > Resources> Search Engine Optimisation at the top left of the screen. Had enough of SEO? Users can quickly go back to the resources page and jump ship to read about website design instead or go back to the homepage.

Attribute-Based Breadcrumbs

Unlike location-based breadcrumbs that follow the site’s fixed hierarchy, attribute-based breadcrumbs are dynamic and change based on the attributes the user selects. This flexibility makes them particularly useful for navigating complex inventories or content libraries.  A mainstay of eCommerce websites, these breadcrumbs display the categories or attributes that the user has selected or that apply to the current product or page. Attributes can include things like brand, size, colour, or any other characteristic that helps define the item.

Path-Based Breadcrumbs

Path-based breadcrumbs, also known as history-based breadcrumbs, show the entire path a user took to get to the current page they’re on rather than just the attribute of that page of the site’s overall hierarchy. The breadcrumbs are unique to that user and their browsing session, providing a more personalised experience and allowing the user to retrace their steps more easily. The catch is that users don’t always browse in a logical way, often jumping around wildly instead, meaning path-based breadcrumbs can quickly become convoluted on large sites. They’re better suited for simple sites where users can only take so many paths, where the benefits to the user’s navigation experience outweigh the potential for confusion.

How To Add Breadcrumb Navigation To Your Website Design

Implementing breadcrumb navigation on your website is more of a necessity than an option if you have a large site and want to provide a positive user experience, especially for eCommerce. Fortunately, the process of including breadcrumbs on your website is straightforward enough. To get started, decide which type of breadcrumb suits your site best: location-based for hierarchical structures, path-based for tracking user navigation, or attribute-based for sites with filtering options. Once you have made your choice, follow these steps:

1. Map out your site’s structure: Understand and outline your website’s hierarchy or the paths users might take. This step is crucial for location-based and attribute-based breadcrumbs.
2. Design your breadcrumbs: Keep the design simple and intuitive. Breadcrumbs should be easy to read and click but shouldn’t overshadow the main content. Use arrows, chevrons, or slashes to indicate the path progression.
3. Place breadcrumbs consistently: Breadcrumbs are generally placed at the top of a page, below the navigation bar, but above the page title. Consistent placement helps users quickly find and use them.
4. Implement breadcrumbs in code: For location-based and attribute-based breadcrumbs, you can manually create links based on your site structure or use plugins that automatically generate breadcrumb trails. Popular SEO plugins for WordPress, like Rankmath and Yoast SEO, have built-in functionality that allows you to place breadcrumbs within a page. This might sometimes need tweaking but generally works quite well out of the box. For path-based breadcrumbs, consider using session or cookie data to track and display the user’s path.
5. Integrate with SEO: Use structured data markup, like Schema.org’s breadcrumb list, to help search engines understand and display your breadcrumbs in search results. This step is beneficial for improving your site’s SEO.
6. Test and refine: Once breadcrumbs are implemented, test them with real users. Look for any navigation issues or confusion and refine the design or placement as needed.

Breadcrumb Trail Best Practices

There are a few rules you should always follow if you want your breadcrumbs to be more of a help to users than a hindrance. Most importantly, your breadcrumbs should be intuitive and easy to understand. They should clearly indicate the user’s current location within the site’s hierarchy and provide a clear path back to previous pages. You can achieve this by using descriptive labels and a logical hierarchy of page links.

Secondly, ensure your breadcrumbs integrate seamlessly into your website’s overall design. They should be visually consistent with the rest of your site’s navigation and design elements and not be obtrusive or distracting to the user. Last but not least, it’s important to ensure that your breadcrumbs are always up-to-date and accurate. If a user clicks on a link in the breadcrumb trail and ends up on a different page than expected, it can be confusing and frustrating. Regularly review and update your breadcrumbs to ensure that they always provide accurate and helpful information to your users, especially if you frequently change your website’s site structure.

There are a few other things you need to cross off your checklist to design better breadcrumbs:

1. Keep It Simple: Breadcrumb menus should be straightforward, with concise text that clearly describes each page or category. Avoid using lengthy titles or complex jargon that could confuse users. 
2. Use a Logical Hierarchy: The breadcrumb trail must reflect a logical structure, aiding users in understanding your site’s layout. Each step should logically follow the previous one, providing a clear path back to the home page or main category.
3. Ensure Clickability: Breadcrumbs are links. Apart from the current page, every item in the breadcrumb trail should be clickable unless you want frustrated users.
4. Maintain Consistency: For the best user experience, place breadcrumbs consistently across pages and maintain uniform separators between levels. This consistency allow uses to find breadcrumbs and retrace their steps quickly.
5. Highlight the Current Page: Make sure to clearly indicate the current page within the breadcrumb trail. Typically, the current page is shown as non-clickable text and may be styled differently to emphasise that it’s the final point in the navigation path.
6. Don’t Use Breadcrumbs as the Primary Navigation Menu: Breadcrumbs should act as a secondary navigation scheme and never replace the main navigation bar at the top of the page. Your main navigation should remain clear and intuitive, with breadcrumbs providing additional guidance. 

Using Breadcrumb Navigation 

Using breadcrumb navigation isn’t always necessary. If they have no practical benefit to the user, they only risk overwhelming the user with too many navigation options. To strike the right balance, we prefer path-based breadcrumbs and ensure breadcrumbs appear when users are at least two clicks deep. Here’s an example of a website we decided where applying breadcrumb trails was unnecessary: https://curlycuts.com.au/

Ultimately, we make an educated call on how far into the website a user is and how likely they are to need context about their location on a website. The only way to do this accurately is to carefully consider the user’s needs and behaviour. This is always the key tenet of good web design, whether you’re developing an entire website or just implementing small features like breadcrumb navigation. It helps us create seamless and intuitive websites that never fail to deliver a positive user experience.

Light & Airy

You can give your photos a bright and softer look by lowering the contrast, increasing the exposure and using softer colour hues. This will make your pictures look a lot more dreamy, conveying a warm and romantic vibe.

Dark & Moody

Light & Airy not your thing? If you want to add a touch of drama and melancholy to your photos instead, this editing style is perfect for you. By upping shadows and contrast, you can create a strong visual impact. 

We also recommend controlling the light source, framing the subject in front of a dark background, and using props with darker shades. A studio with full natural light control is the perfect place to try this out. You can then apply this edit by boosting the subject’s brightness and bringing down the blacks and shadows in the background. 

Cinematic

Have you ever noticed that movies like Blade Runner, Fight Club, and In the Mood for Love all use specific colours and lighting to create certain emotions and draw your attention to details? For example, in Blade Runner, pink and purple hues give off the feeling of ambiguity and extravagance, while the red in In the Mood for Love creates a sensual atmosphere of love and hate.

The same method can be applied to photography as well. Just reduce the blacks and clarity and create an ‘S’ curve on the light and RGB channels. Then, you can tweak it until you get the look you want. Get inspired by your favourite movie and experiment! 

Earthy Travel

This editing style is great if you’re working with a wide range of colours. It subdues and saturates specific colours to bring out more details in your subject or landscape. You’ll often see cool colour combos like blue/orange and cyan/yellow, which can really make the blues in skies and lakes pop while complementing the orange/yellow hues found in sand, dirt, and stone. It’s super easy to achieve this look – just fiddle with the HSL (Hue, Saturation, Lightness) dials in your photo editing software until you get the look you want.

Film Look

Analog cameras are making a comeback. Their unique colour grading brings back a sense of nostalgia that many photographers are now replicating in digital photos. To achieve this look, choose a film stock you want to emulate, like the popular Kodak Gold, and apply the appropriate HSL manipulation and grain effect. Remember that most film stocks are typically overexposed, less contrasted, and have a slight green-blue tint in the shadows.

Start Experimenting

It’s always good to master the fundamentals like white balance, tone, and HSL first. Making tiny adjustments can do wonders for your photography. 

Experimenting with presets is a great place to start. Here’s a Lightroom preset that we’ve made for you to experiment with: https://ftstudio.gumroad.com/l/xehwb. Presets can help you understand the ins and outs of Lightroom and the possibilities of each panel. Learn from photographers that you like and create presets that mimic their look. 

Remember, the key is to keep experimenting and learning new things. But don’t go overboard with editing – sometimes, less is more when it comes to photo editing!

Knowing how well our SEO efforts are working helps us determine what works and what needs tweaking, allowing us to deliver the best possible results. Regularly tracking SEO performance lets us make informed decisions based on real data, ensuring that our clients maximise their return on investment. Let’s unpack how we measure SEO performance and why regular, comprehensive SEO audits are important.

Why Measuring SEO Performance Is Important

Measuring SEO performance is important for a few reasons. Firstly, it lets us see if our SEO strategies are working as they should. By keeping an eye on how a website ranks and the amount of organic traffic it pulls in, we can quickly spot what’s doing well and what’s not. This insight is valuable because it means we can tweak our SEO strategy on the fly, ensuring our clients’ websites stay ahead of the competition.

Tracking SEO performance often is also important because a website’s ranking can change from one day to the next, and what worked yesterday might not work tomorrow. Regularly checking our SEO performance helps us stay agile. We can adapt to algorithm changes, new trends, and shifts in what the target audience is looking for as soon as possible. This way, we can keep delivering the best results possible, keeping our clients’ websites visible and relevant.

Important SEO Metrics To Measure

There are a few key metrics we always keep our eyes on to gauge how well our strategies are performing. These metrics give us a clear picture of where our efforts are effective and where there’s room for improvement. These are the primary metrics we use to measure SEO:

• Keyword ranking
• Organic traffic
• Click-through-rate
• Backlinks
• Bounce rate

Let’s go through what these metrics mean and the value they provide.

Keyword Ranking

Keyword ranking refers to a website’s position in search results – commonly referred to as SERP – when someone searches for a specific keyword or phrase. It’s probably the most important metric to improve to increase site traffic. How often do you find yourself on the second page of search engine results or even scrolling halfway down the first page? Appearing higher in search engine results, ideally in the top 10 for the most relevant keyword, will result in much more organic traffic. Increasing keyword ranking and search visibility overall should be the primary goal when kicking off an SEO marketing strategy.

By monitoring how well our clients’ sites rank for specific keywords, we can also see how they stack up against competitors. This insight helps us make strategic decisions, like targeting less competitive keywords with a lower search volume where we can more easily secure a top spot or doubling down on efforts to outperform competitors in the most important areas.

Organic Traffic

Organic traffic refers to visitors who land on a website as a result of unpaid search results. Unlike paid traffic, which comes from ads, organic traffic is generated through search engines like Google when people search for keywords or phrases related to the content, products, or services a website displays. This type of traffic is considered highly valuable because it’s made up of individuals actively seeking what the website offers, making them more likely to engage.

Measuring organic traffic is essential for several reasons – Firstly, it provides a clear indicator of a website’s overall health and the effectiveness of an SEO strategy. An increase in organic traffic indicates that a site is becoming more visible and attractive to its target audience. Organic traffic can also offer hugely valuable insights into user behaviour and preferences, helping us further refine our SEO strategies. By understanding which keywords and topics drive the most traffic, we can tailor our efforts to capitalise on these areas and attract even more visitors.

Why Organic Traffic Is So Valuable

Of all these metrics mentioned, organic traffic is the biggest driver of business growth. Visitors who find a website through organic search are often further along in the buying process, having actively searched for relevant information or solutions. This means they’re more likely to convert into leads or customers than any other form of website traffic. 

Maintaining a strong flow of organic traffic can also reduce our reliance on paid search advertising, offering a cost-effective way to attract users over time. While paid search ad campaigns can boost visibility quickly, organic traffic builds a foundation of credibility and trust with users. You can read our guide to organic traffic and how to increase it if you want to learn more.

Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Click-Through Rate (CTR) measures the percentage of users who click on a website’s link after seeing it in search engine results. CTR is crucial because it tells us how relevant and appealing a website is to potential visitors as it appears in SERPs. If a CTR is high, it means it’s resonating with the target audience, suggesting that what we present in search results closely matches what users are searching for. It’s calculated by dividing the total number of clicks by the total number of impressions (how many times a website link is seen), then multiplying by 100 to get a percentage. Don’t worry if maths isn’t your strong point – there are many SEO tools that will measure CTR automatically. 

Monitoring CTR can help identify areas for improvement in our SEO strategy. For instance, if a website is ranking well but the CTR is low, the meta descriptions and page titles might need to be more compelling. On the other hand, a high CTR with lower rankings suggests the content resonates with users when they see it, indicating that we need to focus on other SEO aspects to increase visibility.

Backlinks

Backlinks, also known as inbound links, are links from one website to a page on another website. Backlinks are one of the most powerful SEO ranking factors – search engines like Google and Bing use them to gauge the authority and credibility of a website. The more backlinks a site has from other reputable websites, the more trustworthy search engines will deem it and the higher it will rank on SERPs. The process of gaining backlinks for the sake of SEO through content marketing or other means is known as link building.

Analysing the backlink profile can provide insights into a website’s performance and reputation. By examining the number and quality of backlinks, we can identify which aspects of the content or site are most valuable and attractive to other site owners. This information guides our content strategy and SEO strategy.

Bounce Rate

Bounce rate is a metric that measures how many people navigate away from a site after only viewing one page. The lower the bounce rate is, the better a website is at engaging and retaining visitors. While a bounce rate of about 40% is to be expected, anything higher indicates the website is failing to engage users or is taking so long to load that users lose patience and click away.

While bounce rate isn’t a recognised SEO ranking factor, and it’s hotly debated whether it directly impacts search engine rankings, it can still provide insight into SEO performance. A high bounce rate can say a lot about a site’s overall performance and its ability to engage users. The content might not be sufficiently engaging or clear enough to encourage users to stay on the site. Slow loading times, poor website design, confusing navigation, or a lack of mobile responsiveness might also be driving users away.

While Google might not directly take into account bounce rate when ranking websites, it certainly does factor in the quality of a site’s content and the user experience it provides. Fixing these issues will reduce the bounce rate and, in turn, improve SEO as well. 

External SEO Metrics

External metrics from third-party SEO tools like Moz and Ahrefs give us insight into how well a website is positioned in the broader digital ecosystem and the strength of its backlink profile. Here are four more ways to measure SEO results and gain a deeper understanding of how a website is positioned online:

Domain Authority

Domain Authority (DA) is a score developed by the SEO software Moz to predict how likely a website is to rank on search engine results pages (SERPs). It’s based on a scale from 1 to 100, with higher scores indicating a greater ability to rank. The authority score takes into account the quality and quantity of backlinks, the age and history of the website’s domain name, and the quality of the content.

DA isn’t a Google ranking factor and has no effect on the SERPs, but it does help us understand the overall strength of a website compared to others. It also gives us a firm idea of a website’s starting point – the lower a site’s DA, the longer its SEO will take to provide results. Consequently, we can adjust our expectations and timeline accordingly.

Domain Rank

Domain Rank (DR), developed by Ahrefs, measures the importance of a website by taking into account the quality and quantity of links pointing to it. A higher domain rank can indicate a website is seen as more authoritative and influential. Like DA, DR has no effect on SEO, but it still has its place. We use DR to measure link-building value on other websites. Having a backlink from a website with a high DR will benefit a site’s SEO. 

Page Authority 

Page Authority (PA) is similar to Domain Authority but focuses on the predictive ranking strength of a single page rather than the entire domain. Each page on a website can have its own PA score, influencing how well that specific page is likely to rank on SERPs. We use PA to pinpoint which pages on our clients’ websites have the most potential to draw in traffic and then optimise those pages to maximise their impact.

Page Rank

Page Rank, originally developed by Google, measures the importance of webpage links. While Google no longer publicly shares Page Rank scores, the concept remains a fundamental part of how search engines evaluate links. A page with a high number of quality backlinks is considered more important and is more likely to rank well in search results. Understanding this helps us focus on acquiring high-quality links to improve the relevance and authority of our clients’ pages.

Tools We Use To Measure SEO Performance

We rely on a suite of powerful tools to measure and enhance the performance of our campaigns. These tools give us the insights we need to fine-tune our strategies, ensuring our clients’ websites rank higher and attract more organic traffic. Here are the key tools we use and how they help us achieve SEO success.

Fortunately, not all of them come at a cost – there are plenty of free tools like Google Search Console that make it easy to measure and improve SEO performance. Aside from providing insights into performance after SEO campaigns, these tools can help provide actionable insights over time to get better organic results and improve our SEO approach to keep in line with changes.

Google Analytics 4

Google Analytics 4 is one of our primary SEO measurement tools. It’s the latest version of Google’s analytics platform, and it provides comprehensive insight into user behaviour. We use GA4 to track user interactions, website performance, and conversion rates. GA4 helps us understand a website’s users, recognise patterns, and optimise our clients’ websites for better engagement. It allows us to see which keywords and topics resonate with our audience, assess the quality of traffic, and how to optimise web pages to improve user experience for better on-page and technical SEO. 

Google Search Console

Google Search Console is another invaluable tool in our arsenal. Using Google Search Console provides insights into how the search giant ranks our clients’ websites, showing us the frequency of page appearances in search results, click-through rates, and average position for specific queries. This data helps us understand which keywords and queries draw traffic, allowing us to assess the impact of our keyword targeting and content strategies effectively.

Additionally, it offers performance data across different devices and countries, enabling us to tailor our SEO tactics to target audiences more accurately. By analysing this feedback from Google, we can refine our approaches to enhance site visibility and user engagement. Essentially, Google Search Console lets us measure our SEO success directly, allowing us to refine our strategies as we go.

If you want to cover your bases across multiple search engines, Bing Webmaster Tools has very similar functionality to Google Search Console to help measure SEO performance.

Pagespeed Insights

PageSpeed Insights is an essential tool for us, especially when evaluating the performance of SEO campaigns over time. It gives us a clear picture of how website speed and user experience metrics evolve following our optimisations. By regularly checking PageSpeed scores, we identify areas where a site’s performance might be lagging, directly impacting its SEO rankings.

This tool’s insights into loading times, interactivity, and visual stability metrics are invaluable for maintaining optimal website performance. High scores correlate with better user experiences, a key factor in Google’s ranking algorithms. Monitoring these metrics lets us ensure that our clients’ websites remain fast and responsive – which is vital for retaining high search engine rankings and improving overall SEO performance.

Nozzle

Nozzle plays a pivotal role in our strategy for tracking SEO performance when it comes to specific keywords. It allows us to track a website’s rankings across the board, providing a detailed view of how our clients’ positions in search results change over time. This tool’s depth, tracking not just the primary keywords but also long-tail phrases and variations, gives us a comprehensive understanding of search visibility.

By leveraging Nozzle, we’re better equipped to make data-driven decisions and tailor our ongoing SEO strategies to capitalise on emerging opportunities or to address any slips in rankings. Its detailed reporting helps us to pinpoint precisely where and how we can refine our efforts to ensure sustained improvement in SEO performance, keeping our clients’ websites competitive.

SE Ranking

SERanking offers a versatile set of valuable SEO tools that we use for keyword research, competitor analysis, and SEO auditing. Its comprehensive platform enables us to keep a pulse on our clients’ SEO performance and benchmark it against their competitors. The insights gained from SERanking help us craft strategies that push our clients ahead in the SERPs, focusing on the areas with the highest return on investment.

Website Auditor

For technical SEO issues, Website Auditor is our go-to tool. It does site audits to uncover issues that could be hindering our clients’ SEO performance, such as broken links, duplicate content, and on-page optimisation opportunities. It’s always important to ensure the technical foundation of our clients’ sites is solid before moving on to on-page SEO and content optimisation. TReducing any technical SEO errors, like broken links or slow loading times, paves the way for higher rankings and improved user experience from the get-go.

Ahrefs

Ahrefs is essential for our link-building efforts and content marketing strategies. Its extensive backlink database and content analysis tools allow us to uncover link-building opportunities and track our clients’ backlink profiles – essential for increasing their DA and overall SERP rankings. Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer helps us find high-potential keywords to target with our content. 

How Long Does It Take To Achieve SEO Success? 

When we talk about achieving SEO success, it’s important to remember that it’s not an overnight process. We often get asked, “How long does SEO strategy take to show results like more traffic?” Our answer is that it varies, but generally, you can expect to start seeing improvements in 6 to 12 months. We always approach SEO as a marathon, not a sprint. It requires a multifaceted approach with varying individual timelines, including keyword research, on-page optimisation, content creation, and link building. 

Here’s a quick breakdown of what we do and how it impacts the timeline:

1. Initial Analysis and Strategy Planning: We start by understanding our client’s business, their target audience, and their competition. This phase helps us to craft a tailored SEO strategy. While this stage doesn’t produce immediate ranking improvements, it’s a necessary starting point for long-term success.
2. On-Page Optimisation: Next, we focus on optimising the website’s content and structure. This includes making sure the site is mobile-friendly, loads quickly, and contains the right keywords. Improvements can start to show within a few months, but the full impact is often seen around the six-month mark.
3. Content Creation: We work on creating valuable, relevant content that resonates with the target audience. This helps improve rankings and establish the site as an authority. Depending on the competition, it might take a few months to a year to see significant movement in rankings from content creation alone.
4. Link Building: Establishing high-quality backlinks to the website from reputable sources is another critical component. This process can take time as we focus on building relationships and creating content worth linking to. The results from effective link-building generally become evident after several months.

We always make sure our clients understand that SEO is an investment in their future visibility and success online rather than a quick fix. While they might start noticing some positive changes in traffic and rankings in the short term, the most substantial and lasting results often become apparent after the first year.

The 2024 Canberra Day Appeal aims to raise $45,000 for their Advanced Puppy School. This fund will go towards training four new Labrador Assistance Pups, specially tailored to support individuals with PTSD. These dogs undergo an extensive 12-24 week training program designed to tune them to their owner’s specific triggers and provide unwavering support through the trauma and stresses of everyday life.

The value these service dogs provide cannot be overstated. They serve as a constant, reassuring presence for their owners and play a crucial role in managing symptoms of PTSD like night terrors and panic attacks. 

It’s community support and donations that enable ISDA to continue its invaluable work. During the 48-hour Give Where You Live campaign, every contribution, no matter the size, will be doubled in value through matched funding for the first $7,500. It’s a remarkable opportunity for the community to rally together and support a cause that offers a new lease on life to those who have served their country.

The campaign will run on 6 & 7 March 2024. Please donate at https://giving.handsacrosscanberra.org.au/event/integra-service-dogs-australia

However, deciding what kind of headshot you want, booking a photographer and knowing what to expect from your photo session can be a bit daunting, especially if you’ve never been in front of the camera before. In this article, we’ll give you the low-down on headshot photography services in Canberra. 

Why Choose Professional Headshot Photography?

Professional headshot photographers in Canberra do more than just take a photo – they capture your personal brand in a way that viewers can instantly understand. A polished headshot gives an impression of attention to detail and professionalism, setting a positive tone before you even meet someone. 

As your headshot is often the first impression people have of you and your brand, it’s crucial you take the time to decide on a headshot style and location and find a photographer who ticks all the boxes for you. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a professional in a corporate setting, or a creative individual, your headshots need to reflect your values, vision, and message. 

Choosing Your Headshot Style

Your headshot options go beyond just a shoulders-up picture against a white wall.  It’s important to be open to exploring creative or different solutions – making your headshot more memorable than the stock-standard ones you commonly see being used. Your options vary from the classic black-and-white headshot to a classic portrait style or duotone studio shots. The choice depends on what kind of industry you’re in and how you want to represent yourself online. 

We have a guide to some different headshot styles you might want to try to give you a headstart. 

Choosing The Right Photographer For Your Headshot

Once you’ve decided on a headshot style, you need a photographer with the right expertise to execute it. This is the most important step of all! No two photographers are the same – aside from having different styles, they might also have very different pricing and ways of working with their clients.  Here are the steps to take and what to look for:

1. Researching And Comparing Photographers’ Portfolios

Begin your search by exploring the portfolios of different headshot photographers in Canberra. Look for the style, quality, and variety of their work, and assess whether their aesthetic aligns with the image you wish to portray.

2. Reading Client Testimonials And Reviews

Client testimonials and reviews can provide valuable insights into the photographer’s professionalism, work ethic, and ability to deliver on their promises. Pay attention to the experiences of past clients to gauge the photographer’s reputation and reliability.

3. Experience And Portfolio

Look for a Canberra based photographer who specialises in business headshots or professional portraits in the style you want. A deep experience in headshot photography services will be a great advantage – they’ll be better equipped to coach you through your portrait session. Make sure you take the time to go through their gallery of images and assess whether their style of imagery matches what you’re looking for.

4. Comfort And Rapport

Make sure you read any client reviews or testimonials before you make a decision. One of the most important things to look for is a Canberra photographer that’s easy to work with, and that makes clients feel comfortable and relaxed. Being able to develop a good rapport with your photographer will result in a more enjoyable experience and can make a big difference to your expression and how relaxed and approachable you look in your headshots.

5. Good Communication Skills

‘Easy to communicate and collaborate with’ is also one of the biggest green flags to look for when you’re going through reviews! It’s important that your photographer is responsive and a good listener –  they need to develop a clear understanding of what you expect from your headshot shoot in terms of style, location, and editing. This will make the whole process as fuss-free as possible and give a better guarantee you get the results you’re looking for. 

6. Communicating Directly With The Photographer To Discuss Your Needs

Once you’ve shortlisted potential photographers, reach out to them to discuss your specific requirements. Communication is key to a successful collaboration, so ensure that the photographer understands your vision and makes you feel comfortable and confident in their ability.

The Importance of Location and Setting

Studio vs. Outdoor Shoots

Your options are almost limitless in terms of locations for headshots in Canberra, from dedicated headshot studio setups to natural outdoor backgrounds or iconic Canberra backdrops like the brutalist architecture of the National Gallery. Consider what backdrop best suits your image and the message you want to convey.

One benefit of choosing a photo studio rather than an outdoor location is that it allows for a more highly controlled, seamless photoshoot – the lighting can be perfectly tailored, and you don’t have to worry about background distractions or unpredictable Canberra weather. 

Whether you choose a studio or a more natural setting, make sure you consider how accessible and convenient the location is for you and the photographer, including parking and ease of getting to the venue.

The Corporate Headshot Session: What To Expect

A professional headshot photography session typically involves a few key stages, including consultation and planning, the session itself, as well as the review and selection of images.

Consultation and planning the session: Prior to the shoot, you’ll have the opportunity to discuss your requirements and preferences with the photographer. This may include the style of headshots, the background and lighting, and any professional retouching or editing requests for the final images. The more you plan and collaborate with your photographer, the more likely you are to nail your shoot!

The photography process and poses: During the session, the photographer will guide you through various poses and expressions to capture a range of images. They will direct and communicate with you to ensure that the shots reflect your personality and convey the professional image you seek to portray. Make sure to be punctual to get the most out of your shoot!

Reviewing and choosing your images: After the session, you’ll have the opportunity to review the images captured. The photographer might give a selection of proofs for you to curate, and you can discuss any additional editing or retouching requirements before the final images are delivered.

Depending on how many final images you choose and how much editing the images need, the turnaround could be anywhere from a day or two to a week – make sure you clarify your expectations with your photographer in advance and let them know if you have a time crunch.

Headshot Photography In Canberra: Pricing

Pricing for headshot photography in Canberra can vary based on the photographer’s experience, the length of your session, and any additional services, like studio hiring or having your pictures professionally retouched. It’s important to understand what’s included in the pricing, like the number of retouched images you’ll receive and what your usage rights are.

While pricing is an important consideration, remember that an exceptional headshot from a talented photographer is an investment in yourself and your personal image. Choosing a photographer whose style aligns with your brand and who can deliver quality results that reflect your standards will result in a better headshot and a higher return on your investment.

Branding Photography And Headshot Photography In Canberra

Futuretheory is a Canberra digital marketing agency specialising in websites, design, marketing and branding.  Whether you’re looking for an individual headshot or a branding session and corporate headshots for your whole team, we have the expertise and experience to help you present better online. We’ve been honing our craft since 2008 and have worked with clients across Australia. 

We’re happy to come to your office and capture you in your element, or you can choose to make use of our 126-square-metre studio in Canberra. Having such a large, fully equipped studio on hand means your options are limitless, and you can be as creative as you want when it comes to your business headshot, ensuring you stand out even more. Get in touch with us today if we sound like the right option for you. We’d be happy to provide an obligation-free quote and discuss your options with you.

Whether you’re a seasoned film user or just starting out in the world of analog film photography, having a convenient and reliable place to get your film developed is important. Fortunately, there are still some great options in Canberra that will bring your analog shots to life.

Canberra ProFrame (CanLab)

Canberra ProFrame – CanLab, a long-established name on City Walk, has been the go-to spot for film development for over 20 years. Their enduring presence alone speaks volumes about their dedication to film photography.

They also offer a range of other services, including high-quality printing and professional framing. Canlab has a strong reputation for reliability and exceptional service, and they’ve done well to earn the trust of both professional photographers and hobbyists in Canberra. 

Ted’s Cameras

If you’re looking for a reliable and convenient option for film development in Canberra, Ted’s Cameras is a great choice, with two locations in the city centre. Aside from their wide range of photography equipment and accessories, they also offer a high-quality film development service. They cater to both colour and black-and-white film and use the latest technology to ensure excellent results. 

The staff at Ted’s Cameras are known for their expertise and are always willing to help. They’re quick and efficient and pay attention to detail, so you can trust them to develop your film with care and precision. 

Photo Access

PhotoAccess in the Manuka Arts Centre is an ACT Government-sponsored organisation that offers photography workshops and film development. Their professional approach to film processing, combined with their educational and community activities, makes PhotoAccess well worth checking out if you’re passionate about film photography and want to further educate yourself on the process as well as get your film developed.

Ikigai Film Lab 

Ikigai Film Lab is a global company that develops 35mm and 120 C-41, black and white, and E-6 film all in-house. They have a slightly different approach to film development: While they don’t have physical storefronts, they’ve set up drop collection points across Australia, including a convenient spot in Canberra. 

You can drop off your film every Wednesday at The Cupping Room, a cafe in the city centre, making it easy and accessible for anyone in the area. What’s impressive about Ikigai is its quick turnaround time despite being a worldwide operation.

Keeping Film Photography Alive In Canberra

Film photography still holds a significant place in our culture, offering tangible textures and vintage aesthetics that many people find appealing. Shooting with film also challenges photographers to be more thoughtful and deliberate, leading to rewarding results.

As we’ve explored some of the best places in Canberra to get film developed, it’s clear that Canberra still harbours a growing community passionate about film photography. If you’re looking for some local inspiration, Thea Jade and Gabrielle Short are some great examples of photographers in Canberra still making the most of film.

Each time we choose to load a film camera, develop a roll, or print a photograph, we contribute to keeping the rich tradition of film photography alive. The continued existence of these film development services in Canberra is a testament to the enduring allure of film.

If you’ve got big dreams for your film photography shoot, we have just the place – FT Studio. With 126 square metres of space to shoot, you’ll have all the room to bring your film photography dreams to life.

In this article, we’ll go over some of the most fundamental ways you can improve your membership website to reach its maximum potential and drive forward your organisation’s goals.

Regularly Upload Industry Relevant Content

To keep your website visitors engaged and coming back for more, it’s important to regularly update your site with industry-specific information, news, and articles. Doing so positions you as a reliable source of information and an authority in your industry, building trust and credibility with your audience.

Improved Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Uploading industry-centric content will also help improve your website’s authority in the eyes of Google, meaning your website will rank higher for relevant keywords. Making sure you post content regularly is essential as well – the more you post, the more SEO momentum you’ll build, making your website more discoverable for potential members. 

Streamline Sign-Up And Renewal Process

As a member organisation, your online sign-up and renewal pages are the most fundamental part of your site. Ensuring they’re easy to use and up-to-scratch in terms of performance is vital. If the process is complicated, time-consuming, or takes too long to load, it can be hugely frustrating for users and deter potential members. Streamlining the process makes joining and staying with your organisation more appealing, improving member acquisition and retention.

How To Streamline Sign-up And Renewal 

You can improve the sign-up and renewal experience on your website by making sure the sign-up and renewal buttons are prominently displayed and easy to find. It’s important for users to be able to find the desired action and be able to take it efficiently. 

To save users time and effort, it’s also important to simplify forms as much as possible. This means reducing any unnecessary steps and providing clear instructions throughout the process.

You should also make sure users can pay for memberships directly on your site in an efficient and secure way. Your website should also offer multiple payment options to accommodate different preferences. This goes a long way with users – the last thing you want is for them to get frustrated with the process at the last hurdle. 

Put A Feedback Mechanism In Place

Feedback is crucial to ensuring your website meets your members’ needs. Implementing a system for members to provide input can give you valuable insights into their needs and experiences. 

You can gather feedback through surveys, feedback forms, or comment sections. You can use the feedback you gather about your website to make informed decisions about any future site improvements and new features your members would benefit from.

Improve User Interface

User interface (UI)  is the design and layout of a website that users interact with. It includes elements like buttons, menus, and graphics to designed facilitate a seamless UX. Your organisation site’s UI should be modern and aesthetically pleasing, using a colour scheme and layout that reflects your brand.

However, an effective UI goes beyond just good looks. You need to ensure that users can navigate your website with ease by creating simple menus and page layouts, making it easy for them to find what they need without any confusion. Clear, descriptive labels and consistent design elements across all pages can help improve user navigation.

Improving your UI is one of the most fundamental ways you can make your website more attractive to members. Remember to update your UI every once in a while as well – an interface that adapts to user needs and current trends will keep your members engaged and satisfied with their experience.

Ensuring Your Website Consistently Looks Great

It’s also vital to ensure your user interface is fully responsive, meaning it looks and functions perfectly on all devices and browsers. This means ensuring your website has adaptable layouts, readable font sizes, and accessible menus and buttons. More and more people are browsing on mobile in recent years rather than desktop devices, so ensuring your website is responsive is essential. 

If you want to learn more about responsive design and why it’s so important for professional websites, check out our quick guide to responsive design.

Run Usability Tests

Conducting usability tests is a great way to ensure your site is user-friendly and identify any navigation issues or user experience (UX) pitfalls. This can involve testing the site yourself, asking staff to use it, or hiring usability testers. 

Identifying any usability issues and friction points yourself will help you get ahead of any problems, like a confusing membership renewal process or slow loading times, before they cause user dissatisfaction. Ultimately, the goal is to make the user journey as smooth as possible, ensuring that your site is one that users want to return to.

Stay Interactive With Your Members

As a member organisation, your website should serve as a valuable tool to interact with your members and keep them engaged. You can do this by using your website to regularly update your members with newsletters, host webinars or online discussions, and create interactive content. This fosters a sense of community and keeps your members connected to your organisation.

Add A Frequently Asked Questions Page 

Incorporating a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page on your membership site can be a game-changer in terms of efficiency and user satisfaction. An FAQ page serves as a central hub for common inquiries, providing quick and accessible answers to your members’ most pressing questions. This enhances your user’s experience by offering them immediate solutions while also reducing the workload on your customer support or communications teams.

Aside from providing vital information to your users, an FAQ page demonstrates your commitment to transparency and support, reinforcing the trust and confidence members have in your organisation.

How To Create A Membership FAQ

When creating your FAQ page, focus on gathering questions that your members frequently raise. These can range from basic queries about membership benefits and sign-up processes to more specific questions about your organisation’s policies and events. Ensure the answers are clear, concise, and to the point.

It’s also crucial to structure the FAQ page in a way that’s easy to navigate. You can achieve this by categorising the questions into sections or themes that allow users to find the information they need quickly. Make sure to regularly update this page to reflect the evolving needs and feedback from your members!

Highlight Your Value Proposition

If one of the primary goals of your website is attracting new members, you need to clearly articulate your value position to users through savvy web design and carefully considered copy. Users should be able to deduce who you are, what you do and what your organisation has to offer them if they join almost immediately. 

Your value proposition should go beyond just listing the services or benefits you offer. It should convey the unique experience or impact that members can expect from being part of your community. 

To effectively communicate this, your value proposition should be prominently featured on your website, ideally on the homepage or landing pages. Use persuasive language that resonates with your target audience, and support it with testimonials or case studies that provide real-life examples of the value you provide.

Along with written content, consider using visual elements to reinforce your message. This might include infographics, videos, or images that align with your value proposition and make it more engaging.

Add Member-Only Content And Features

Adding exclusive content and features for members is a powerful way to enhance the value of your membership site. This exclusivity incentivises potential members to join and helps retain existing members by continuously providing them with unique benefits.

Member-only content might include things like exclusive articles with insights from industry experts, in-depth reports, or educational resources that align with your audience’s interests and needs.

What Are Member-Only Features?

Beyond content, think about incorporating member-only features on your site. This could include access to private forums, special networking events, or an industry job board. These features provide practical value and foster community among your members, increasing their sense of belonging and engagement with your organisation.

Regularly updating and adding to your members’ only content and features keeps your website fresh and your members engaged. Pay attention to feedback and usage patterns to understand what types of content and features resonate most with your members. This approach ensures your site remains dynamic and continues to meet the evolving needs of your member community.

Expert Digital Marketing And Web Design, Canberra

Implementing these tips on your member organisation’s websites is a surefire way to strengthen your online presence. However, unless you have web design, web development, and digital marketing skills, it’s no easy feat to build your website. Professional sites are held to a much higher standard than your average personal blog, and users expect perfection and high performance.

Futuretheory is a Canberra-based digital marketing and website development agency with over 15 years of experience. During that time, we’ve worked with over 100 clients all over Australia- many of these being for membership organisations. This makes us the perfectly poised agency to drive forward your organisation’s goals, whether it’s through a completely new website or our SEO and content marketing services. Contact us today for an obligation-free quote.
If you’re looking for more advice about how to position your organisation online, check out our comprehensive how-to guide on digital marketing for membership organisations.

What Are Online Job Boards?

Online job boards are digital platforms within websites where employers can post job vacancies, and job seekers can browse and apply for these positions. They serve as a great way for employers to find talent and for potential employees to easily browse industry-specific job listings. 

The Benefits Of Having A Job Board On Your Website

Adding a job board to your website brings heaps of benefits, not just for you but also for your visitors. It’s a great way to attract more traffic to your site, with both job seekers and employers regularly checking in. This extra traffic can also turn into extra revenue if you charge employers to post job listings.

Additionally, a job board serves as a community hub with your organisation positioned at the centre. This makes you a go-to resource in your field, increasing your authority and trust among your target audience. Plus, the data collected from job boards can provide valuable insights into the job market and user preferences, helping you further refine your services and what you offer with up-to-date industry insights.

Having a job board on your website also serves a marketing purpose by improving your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). An active job board with frequent job openings and posts helps keep your site’s content fresh. New content uploaded to your site regularly will improve your search engine ranking, meaning more eyes on your website. Having a job board can also allow you to rank for local keywords, e.g., Website Developer in Canberra, and show Google that you are a real, thriving organisation that is constantly growing.

Job Board Features

An effective job board should have a wide range of features to ensure it’s user-friendly and meets the needs of both employers posting jobs and individuals searching for them.

Free and Paid Vacancy Submissions

Your job board should provide options for both free and paid vacancy submissions. Free postings encourage a higher volume of listings, while paid options can include premium features like highlighted placement or extended listing periods. This variety ensures a wider range of job opportunities, attracting diverse users to your site.

Discounted Job Board Posting Fees for Members or Specific Users

If your site caters to members of an organization or community, offering discounted job board posting fees for members or specific user groups adds value to membership. It’s also an incentive for members to regularly use and contribute to the job board, fostering a vibrant, resource-rich community that encourages users to consistently renew their membership.

Fields That Job Posts Should Include

It’s essential that any posts on your job board are as informative as possible. This makes it easier for job seekers to find what they’re looking for and ensures employers only get suitable applicants. Essential fields to include in a job vacancy are:

• Position: Clearly state the job title. This could be a dropdown list for standard roles or a free text box for flexibility.
• Work Type: To accommodate different employment preferences, include options like a full-time, part-time, or temporary contract in a drop-down menu.
• Location: Specify whether the position is remote, hybrid, or in-office. This helps job seekers filter opportunities based on their location or work arrangement preferences.
• Organisation: A field for the employer’s name offers transparency and context about who is hiring.
• Closing Date: This allows the website to automatically archive job posts that are no longer open.
• Salary Range: While not all employers show salary information in job postings, open positions with salary ranges tend to have higher engagement rates. This could be a free number field, a drop down, or two boxes to allow the entry of a salary range.
• Contact Details: How job seekers can contact the posted if they have further questions. Include a name, email, phone number and company website.
• Desired Skills: Adding skill tags helps employers clearly define what they’re looking for, saving time overall and making search a little more flexible.
• Benefits: Allows employers to easily highlight and promote what makes their job listing enticing.
• Company Size: Allow employers to show their company size (i.e., 10-20 employees).
• Third-Party Application Link: Provide an option for employers to include a direct link to the application, whether it’s on their own site, or a third-party platform like Seek or Indeed. This streamlines the application process for job seekers.

Custom Development vs WordPress Plugin

If you want to add a job board to your website, there are two options: you can opt for a pre-made job board plugin or choose custom development. Each route has its unique advantages and suits different needs. We tend to recommend clients custom develop their website’s job board functionality, but here are the pros and cons of both:

WordPress Job Board Plugin

Using a pre-made job board plugin is a quick way to get your job board running. These plugins are user-friendly and great for those who aren’t too tech-savvy or don’t have a developer on the team. They let you easily create a job board without knowing all the ins and outs of coding. The downside is that they might not give you all the personal touches and specific features you’re after, like discounted job board posting fees for segmented groups.

Custom Job Board Development

Choosing custom development means you can make your job board look and work exactly how you want. It’s all about tailoring the experience to fit your site and your audience’s needs. You can get creative with the design and features, going beyond what standard plugins offer. The catch is that you’ll need some coding skills, more time, and potentially a bigger budget. But if you want something truly yours, that extra effort can really pay off.

In a nutshell, using a WordPress plugin is an easy and straightforward path to launch a basic job board, but if you’re after something more tailored and unique, custom development is the way to go. It’s all about what you need, what resources you have, and how personalised you want your job board to be.

Looking To Add A Job Board To Your Website?

We can help! Futuretheory is a Canberra-based digital marketing and website development agency with over 15 years of experience. During that time, we’ve worked with over 100 clients all over Australia, including adding and developing job board functionality in a number of them. Contact us today for an obligation-free introductory call or quote.

What Is A Website Launch Checklist And Why Is It So Important?

A website launch checklist is a structured list that includes all essential steps and checks required before, during, and after your website goes live. A website launch checklist will help ensure your website looks and functions perfectly and conveys the sense of professionalism you want it to. There’s nothing worse than visiting your website after launch and noticing glaring errors in your content or design once your website is live. Make sure to find a website launch checklist to help prevent that feeling and make sure your website runs and looks exactly as it should.

Having a website checklist in place also helps ensure your website is optimised for search engines, secure, and user-friendly from day one, ensuring its success and ability to meet your goals. 

Website Pre-Launch Checklist

As your launch date approaches, there’s still quite a bit left to do, even after the website development and design itself is finalised. It might seem overwhelming, but the payoff will definitely be worth it when you have a website you can proudly stand behind! Here’s our list of pre-launch essentials:

1. Proofread Any And All Content

Proofreading all content on your website is one of the most important steps in the pre-launch checklist. The content is one of the first things users judge when interacting with your website, and any errors or unclear messaging can negatively impact your brand’s credibility and professionalism. Here’s what to look for when proofreading content on a website:

• Spelling and Grammar: Basic, yet essential. Check for any spelling or grammatical errors.
• Punctuation and Syntax: Ensure proper sentence structure and punctuation for readability.
• Clarity and Conciseness: Eliminate any ambiguous or overly complex sentences. Aim for clear and concise communication.
• Tone and Style: Check that the tone suits your target audience and is consistent throughout.
• Branding Elements: Ensure that your brand’s voice shines through and that your key messages align with your brand values.

2. Replace Any Placeholder Images 

Placeholder images are great while website developers are still building the website – they give you a glimpse into what the final product will be – but they have no place on your new site after the time of launch. It seems evident, but forgetting to switch out placeholder images is a common mistake, especially if you have a large website with lots of imagery. 

Make sure to find high-quality images that are relevant to your content and match your branding and design. Or, even better – take your own original photos or hire a photographer to do it. The right images can significantly enhance the overall look and feel of your website, so make sure you take the time to get it right!

3. Review Meta Descriptions

Including plenty of meta descriptions in your website’s content is important for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). They influence how your website appears in search results and serve as the first impression for potential visitors. Well-crafted meta descriptions can significantly improve your website’s click-through rate from search engines, boosting your online presence. Remember to keep meta descriptions brief and informative, use relevant keywords, and maintain consistency with your brand’s tone.

4. Do Quality Assurance Testing 

Identifying and resolving technical issues is the main goal of quality assurance testing. These issues could include broken links, 404 errors or malfunctioning interactive elements. Since no developer is perfect, this step is crucial to ensure that your website launch is successful and that it has a professional and polished look. The most frustrating issues for users are often the small details like broken links, which can damage your website’s credibility.

5. Double-Check Your Website Design

Now it’s time to thoroughly review the design on each page of your website and make sure everything is cohesive – from the layout to the colour scheme and formatting of your content. A consistent layout improves ease of use and reinforces your brand identity. This means each page should follow a similar structure, making the journey through your website intuitive and seamless. 

You should also double-check that the colour scheme is consistent across your website and that the formatting, including font choices and sizes, is uniform. Clear and consistent formatting across your website improves readability and keeps users engaged.

6. Cross-browser And Cross-device Testing 

Compatibility and responsiveness testing is one of the most crucial steps to check before launching your website. Ensuring your site looks and functions the same across different browsers and devices means your website will be able to reach as wide an audience as possible. As of December 2023, over 55% of website traffic comes from mobile devices, so make sure not to overlook this step!

Taking the time to browse through the staging environment of your site on different devices and web browsers means you can solve any compatibility issues as soon as possible, giving your website the best start online possible and ensuring that your website provides a positive user experience (UX) no matter how your users are browsing your website.

7. Submit Your Sitemap To Google

If you’re launching a website, submitting your sitemap to Google is a crucial step in the pre-launch phase. It’s one of the most straightforward yet impactful ways to improve your SEO. A sitemap is essentially a roadmap of your website, listing all the pages and content, which makes it easier for search engines to crawl your website efficiently. Submitting your sitemap to Google means that their bots can quickly find and index your pages, increasing your likelihood of appearing in search results. 

Post-launch, regularly updating and resubmitting your sitemap is important – especially when you add new pages or make significant changes. This prompts search engines to re-crawl your website and update their index. 

8. Make Sure Your Website Complies With Applicable Laws and Regulations

Making your website legally compliant is essential. Start with website accessibility: ensure everyone, including people with disabilities, can use your site easily. This isn’t just good practice—it’s often required by law. Often, a few simple changes are all you need to ensure you have an accessible website that’s user-friendly for everyone.

Next, make sure you’re adhering to any relevant privacy laws in your region and write a privacy policy. Have a clear privacy policy that tells your visitors how their data is used and protected. If your website uses cookies, let your visitors know through a simple cookie policy. Lastly, include a terms of use page that outlines how visitors can (and can’t) use your site. These steps aren’t just about ticking legal boxes; they’re about building trust with your audience and showing you value their privacy.

We get it that these might seem like daunting tasks. To give you a headstart, we’ve got guides on how to write privacy policies and how to manage cookies on your site.

9. Make Sure Your Website Is Secure 

Making sure your site is secure is a must before. Start with an SSL certificate – it’s like a security guard for your site. It encrypts data between your website and your visitors, keeping their information safe from prying eyes. This isn’t just for websites that handle payments; it’s important for any site that collects any kind of personal data. SSL certificates also make your site look more trustworthy – you get that little padlock icon in the browser bar, which tells visitors they’re on a safe website. 

Getting an SSL certificate is one of the simplest things to cross off on this checklist – most web hosting providers offer free SSL certificates.

10. Set Up A Site Backup Strategy 

Making sure your web hosting provider has a solid backup strategy for your website is like getting an insurance policy for your online presence. Having regular website backups in place means you’re always prepared for the unexpected – whether it’s a technical glitch, a security breach, or just an accidental deletion. Think of it as a safety net; if something goes wrong, you can quickly restore your website to its last good state without losing your hard work. Regular backups keep your website’s downtime to a minimum and give you peace of mind.

Website Post-Launch Checklist

The post site launch checklist is something many website owners forget, but there’s still plenty of work to be done even after your website launch day to make sure every element on your website is running smoothly. This secondary checklist is all about monitoring and fine-tuning your live website to optimise performance. 

1. Announcing your new website

Launching your new website is just the beginning – now it’s time to shout it from the rooftops. Spread the word through social media, email newsletters, or a press release. Don’t forget to leverage your network either – encourage friends, family, and colleagues to share your site, too. Hosting an in-person new site launch party offers you the perfect opportunity to do this and is a great way to promote your new website.

An effective launch announcement can significantly boost your initial traffic, setting the tone for your website’s future growth. It’s also a great opportunity to gather real-world feedback after publishing your website. Consider asking your audience to do a quick survey a few days after the announcement to find out what they think!

2.  Test Website Performance 

Testing your website and its performance is like taking your car for a regular tune-up – it ensures everything runs smoothly and efficiently. After your site goes live, it’s important to monitor how fast it loads, how it handles traffic, and if there are any hiccups affecting user experience. A fast, responsive website keeps visitors happy and engaged and improves your search engine ranking.

 Tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and GTMetrix are the best way to do this, as they give you a clear picture of where you’re doing well and what needs improvement. If you find that your website speed isn’t up to scratch, we have a list of common causes and steps you can take to improve the load time of pages on your website.

3. Check For Broken Links 

After your new website launch, make sure you don’t have any broken links. Keeping an eye out for broken links on your website is like making sure all the doors and windows in your house work properly – it’s essential for your website’s function. Broken links can be a real hassle for your visitors, leading them to dead ends instead of the useful information they’re looking for.

 Regularly scanning your site for any links that don’t work helps maintain its quality and user-friendliness. Google Search Console is the best tool for this is, making it easy to troubleshoot and rectify any linking issues.

4. Continuously Tweak Your SEO And Optimise Your Website 

Announcing a new website launch is exciting and will often generate a lot of traffic, but it’s important to keep that momentum going after your ‘grand opening’ through continuous SEO efforts. The Google Search algorithm and prime keywords are constantly changing, meaning ongoing SEO work is crucial – what works today might not work tomorrow. Regularly updating keywords, content, and adapting to new SEO trends helps your site stay relevant and easily discoverable. SEO isn’t just about climbing to the top of search results; it’s about maintaining that position. While making your website as SEO friendly as possible before you’re ready to launch is important, it’s not enough!

5. Set Up Google Analytics And Other Website Analytics Tools

After the launch of your new website, make sure to set up tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to get a clear picture of how your site is performing. Are people visiting? What are they looking at? How long are they staying? This info is gold; it helps you understand your audience better and make informed decisions regarding your new site. Regularly checking your analytics lets you fine-tune your site and make data-driven decisions. Both of these tools are free, so there’s no excuse not to set them up!

6. Set Up A Feedback Mechanism

While analytics tools and metrics like your website ‘bounce rate’ or ‘time on site’ are great, they don’t always tell the full story. Once your website is up and running, consider setting up a mechanism to gather feedback from your website visitors.  Whether it’s through a simple feedback form, a survey, or a comments section, giving users a way to express their thoughts and experiences helps you understand what’s working and what needs tweaking. This direct input from users can highlight areas for improvement that you might not have noticed otherwise.

Whichever feedback mechanism you choose, it should make providing feedback as easy and quick as possible – no one wants to fill out a long, complicated form. The easier your feedback method is to complete, the more feedback you’ll get from users!

Need A New Site For Your Business?

Even with a comprehensive launch plan in place, building a website from scratch and ensuring a smooth launch can be overwhelming. Whether you’re using a website builder like Webflow or a content management system like WordPress, there’s still a lot of expertise required to create an effective business website. Websites for businesses, large or small, are held to a much higher standard than personal websites, and users expect every detail to be perfect.

At Futuretheory, we’ve spent over 15 years honing our website creation techniques, and we make every effort to stay sharp and in line with best website practices. We’re passionate about every step of the website development and design process and the outcomes they deliver for our clients.  If you’re interested in our website, design or marketing services, contact us today for an obligation-free quote. We also offer website maintenance and can host your website in a secure, fast environment.

It can seem almost impossible to decide between the two, as both Shopify and WordPress have their merits and pitfalls. Ultimately, which one is the right choice comes down to your specific needs and what matters most to you when building an eCommerce site. In this article, we’ll thoroughly explain the Shopify vs WordPress debate so you can make an informed decision about which one is best for your business.

What Is WordPress?

WordPress is a content management system that allows online store owners complete control over their website’s customisation, hosting, and plugins. As a result of this high level of customisation and control, WordPress is the most popular content management system in the world – approximately 43% of websites in the world are powered by WordPress.

WordPress is an open-source software, meaning it’s free to use, modify and distribute. As a result, WordPress is home to a vibrant community of developers who are constantly creating new WordPress plugins and extensions, as well as WordPress themes. Most of these are free to use, and new ones are added every day, meaning WordPress is an extremely flexible way to build a website. The downside is that WordPress website owners have to pay for hosting, maintenance, and domain name registration from a third party.

It’s important to note that in this article and our website as a whole, we’re referring to WordPress.org instead of WordPress.com unless specified otherwise. WordPress.com is a pay-to-use website builder rather than an open-source content management system. If you’d like to learn about the difference between the two and the pros and cons of each, we covered it extensively in our article ‘WordPress.com vs WordPress.org – What’s The Difference?’

What Is Shopify?

Shopify is an all-in-one platform that was founded in Canada in 2006 and has since gained a reputation as one of the best eCommerce website builders around. Shopify was designed to simplify the process of creating and managing an online store by bundling everything you need into one package. This includes web hosting, security, payment processing, and even inventory management. 

Overall, Shopify is a popular option for business owners who don’t have the budget or tech knowledge to develop a custom website and are looking for a hassle-free solution for building an eCommerce site. However, the downside of Shopify is that website owners have to pay to use Shopify, and the website builder offers limited customisation options when compared to WordPress sites.

Choosing Between Shopify And WordPress

When choosing between any CMS or website builder, here are the top things to consider:

• Pricing and costs
• Ease of use
• eCommerce capabilities
• SEO and marketing power
• Level of control and customisation
• Customer support available
• Security

We’ll go over each other these considerations below and give a full comparison of Shopify vs WordPress to help you make up your mind! It’s important to take into account your specific needs and preferences – no website builder or CMS is perfect, so making a list of your priorities will help you assess which one works best for you.

Pricing and Costs

Pricing is one of the main differences between Shopify vs WordPress, and it’s a big one! Here’s how WordPress and Shopify stack up when it comes to your wallet:

Shopify Pricing And Costs

Shopify offers tiered pricing plans, each with different features and transaction fees. While the basic Shopify plan is relatively cheap at $56 AUD a month as of 2023, you’ll have to upgrade to pricier plans like Advanced Shopify for added functionalities like multiple staff accounts or third-party calculated shipping rates. You’ll also have to pay $14.95 per year for your domain name. Even taking into account what you save on third-party hosting costs, this results in a lot more money spent in the long term than WordPress. Here are the different Shopify plans:

WordPress Pricing And Costs

While the WordPress software itself is free, there’s still a variety of costs involved. These include: 

• Hosting Costs: Unlike Shopify, WordPress requires you to arrange your own web hosting. WordPress hosting costs can range from affordable shared hosting plans to more expensive dedicated hosting, depending on your website’s size and traffic.
• Themes and Plugins: While there are thousands of free themes and plugins available, premium options often come with a price tag. These can enhance your website’s functionality and design but will add to your overall expenses.
• Development and Maintenance: If you’re not tech-savvy, you might need to hire a developer for initial setup or ongoing maintenance. This can be a one-time cost for setup or an ongoing expense for regular updates and troubleshooting.
• Additional Costs: Depending on your needs, you may incur additional costs for things like premium plugins for SEO, e-commerce functionalities, enhanced security, and backup solutions.

WordPress is known for its flexibility, but this can also mean variable costs. It’s best suited for those who want more control over their website and are willing to manage and pay for the associated responsibilities that come with it.

Ease of Use

Shopify Ease Of Use

Shopify is designed with a focus on simplicity. Its user-friendly interface allows for straightforward setup of an online store, even for those with limited technical skills. The process of adding products, customising the store’s design, and managing daily operations like order processing and product updates is facilitated by intuitive tools and clear directions.

WordPress Ease Of Use

WordPress, while offering more flexibility and customisation options, has a steeper learning curve. Setting up a site with WordPress means dealing with hosting, choosing themes, and integrating with third-party apps and plugins. The process can be overwhelming for beginners, especially if you want to custom-develop features or have issues that you need to troubleshoot. WordPress is great if you’re already comfortable with website development and ready to put in the elbow grease or are willing to outsource the process to experts – resulting in a more customised and powerful website overall. 

eCommerce Features: Shopify vs WordPress Comparison

Shopify eCommerce Features

It’s all in the name: Shopify is an eCommerce platform designed specifically for online retail, and that comes with a lot of benefits for Shopify users. It offers a comprehensive set of built-in eCommerce tools that are ready to use out of the box, covering everything from product management to payment processing and shipping, making it easier to set up and run an online store. 

Overall, Shopify is ideal if you’re looking for an eCommerce solution that’s straightforward to manage. However, this does come at a significant cost: Shopify charges a fee ranging between 1.4% to 2% of each transaction if you don’t use their integrated payment processing system, Shopify Payments, which can add up quickly and eat into your long-term profits.

WordPress And WooCommerce eCommerce Features

Setting up an eCommerce store in WordPress isn’t as straightforward as with Shopify, and you need to install a plugin like WooCommerce to sell products on a WordPress site. Although this may seem like an additional step tacked on to the already arduous process of creating an online store, it offers greater flexibility and control over the design and functionality of your store.  Most eCommerce sites on WordPress are run using WooCommerce, and it’s widely considered the best eCommerce plugin on the market.

WooCommerce allows you to create themes suited to your brand and industry, optimise your checkout experience and create custom product pages quickly. One of the biggest advantages is that it’s completely free and open-source. This means that you won’t have to pay any transaction fees or other hidden costs that are associated with other eCommerce platforms like Shopify.

All up, while setting up an eCommerce store on WordPress might need you to go through some extra steps compared to other platforms, installing WooCommerce offers greater flexibility, control, and cost-effectiveness in the long run. WooCommerce was created by the founders of WordPress, so you know it’s legit!

SEO And Marketing

Shopify SEO And Marketing

Shopify has built-in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) features and tools that make it relatively straightforward to optimise your Shopify stores for search engines. It offers basic SEO settings like editable meta titles and descriptions, automatic sitemap generation, and mobile-friendly themes. Shopify also provides integrated tools for email marketing, social media integration, and creating discount codes. However, for more advanced SEO and marketing needs, you might need to rely on third-party apps available in the Shopify App Store.

WordPress SEO And Marketing

WordPress offers you complete control over every aspect of your website’s SEO and access to thousands of free and paid SEO plugins – this is ideal if you like taking a more hands-on approach to SEO and don’t like leaving anything that important up to chance. 

Using WordPress allows you to oversee every step of the development and design of your website, meaning you can make sure your website is as SEO-friendly as possible from the very start instead of relying on Shopify and its systems and tools. Additionally, the ability to choose a reliable hosting provider yourself and choose your hosting plan means you can get complete assurance your website is fast and reliable, both important factors for SEO.

Control And Customisation 

Shopify Control And Customisation

Shopify offers a moderate level of control and a high level of ease of use. It provides a range of themes and an intuitive drag-and-drop editor that allows for basic customisation without needing extensive technical skills. However, there’s a limit to how much you can customise on Shopify without delving into more complex features like editing the platform’s Liquid code. Despite Shopify’s focus on eCommerce, this level of customisation isn’t the best for your online store. To stand out in the competitive environment of online shopping, it’s important your website is as custom as possible to match your branding and increase customer memorability. 

WordPress Control And Customisation

As an open-source platform, WordPress offers users unparalleled control and customisation. You can modify essentially every element of your site with complete access to the code and thousands of themes and plugins – the possibilities are almost limitless. This level of control is ideal if you have a specific vision for their site or require custom functions that simple website builders can’t offer. However, this also means that taking full advantage of WordPress’s customisation potential often requires technical knowledge or the budget to outsource development to a professional or agency.

Customer Support

Shopify Customer Support

One of the things Shopify is most known for is stellar customer support. Shopify support includes a 24/7 phone line and live chat, meaning you can get instant support, even in the middle of the night. This 24/7 support is available no matter what type of plan you’re on. Shopify also has highly active forums, thanks to the millions of Shopify sites, and a help centre with helpful FAQs to answer any questions. In the WordPress vs Shopify debate, there’s a clear winner when it comes to customer support. 

WordPress Customer Support 

Open-source platforms like WordPress don’t offer any formal support service. However, there are 810 million WordPress websites out there, meaning there’s an incredibly vibrant community of WordPress users and experts offering up a wealth of information and WordPress training. While this isn’t the same as a dedicated phone line for 24/7 support, any information you need to know regarding WordPress eCommerce, the different versions of WordPress, or updating a WordPress plugin is definitely out there.

Security and Compliance

Shopify Security And Compliance

As a hosted platform, Shopify takes care of almost everything concerning the security of your website, including security updates and maintenance, as well as providing SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificates for all its websites. This ensures that all customer data is encrypted during transactions. It’s also important to note that Shopify has to comply with PCI (Payment Card Industry) standards, which is essential for safely processing credit cards. 

WordPress’ Security And Compliance 

In contrast, security in WordPress is more hands-on. While the platform itself is secure, being open-source means that the responsibility of maintaining security largely falls on the user. This includes implementing your own SSL certificates, choosing secure payment gateways, and ensuring regular updates of the WordPress core, themes, and plugins. Additionally, the vast array of plugins means you’ll need to be cautious about what you install to avoid vulnerabilities. 

Essentially, choosing WordPress means you need to take a proactive approach to security. This either requires some technical know-how on your part or the assistance of a professional.

Shopify Vs WordPress: Final Thoughts

If you’re still wondering whether to choose Shopify or WordPress, let’s break it down:

If you’re just starting out or if you need a simple, straightforward solution without much technical hassle, Shopify might be the better option. It’s tailor-made for ease of use, offering an all-in-one package that takes care of everything from hosting to security. This user-friendly approach allows you to focus more on running your business and less on the nitty-gritty of website management.
Overall, it’s a solid choice if you don’t yet have the technical skills or the budget for a custom-built website. 

On the other hand, if you highly value customisation, flexibility, and having control over every aspect of your site, then creating an eCommerce site with WordPress and using WooCommerce is a better option. WordPress offers an unparalleled level of customisation, which can be a significant advantage for those looking to create a unique online presence. It’s well-suited for businesses that have specific requirements or those who plan to scale up significantly and need a platform that can grow and adapt with them.

In the end, the choice comes down to your individual business needs and what you want to get out of your website. They’re both great options on the whole – just make sure you take the time to do your research and make a clear list of your priorities before jumping in.

What Is Website Maintenance?

Website maintenance refers to the regular tasks and activities needed to ensure that your website functions effectively, securely, and up-to-date. Website maintenance tasks include a combination of

• routine checks,
• software website content updates,
• and performance optimisation.

A website maintenance plan should also include checking for any broken links and security holes, fixing any bugs, and backing up your site.

Why Website Maintenance Is Important

Keeping your website up-to-date and running regular website maintenance is essential to ensure your website functions as it should and provides a positive experience to your website visitors. It also helps improve your website performance. Your website is often the first impression potential customers get of your business – running maintenance on your website on a regular basis will help make sure that impression is a positive one. A website that loads slowly, is full of broken links, and that looks like it hasn’t changed in years is a surefire way to put off potential customers.

Moreover, making sure that your website is always up-to-date and maintained can actually increase your website traffic. Google and other search engines favour websites that are regularly maintained in search engine rankings – meaning that website maintenance will improve your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and actively help you reach more customers.  

Prevents Website Downtime 

As a website owner, running routine website maintenance also helps identify and address potential issues before they lead to downtime, ensuring your website is up and running for users as much as possible. This is especially important if you rely on your website for vital business functions, like e-commerce transactions or online bookings. Downtime is also one of Google’s recognised search engine ranking factors, meaning preventing downtime on your website will further improve your SEO and increase website visits. 

Why Running Website Maintenance Monthly Is The Way To Go 

For most websites, running ongoing website maintenance on a monthly basis is enough to ensure a secure, fast and well-performing website. Monthly website maintenance plans are the most common website maintenance packages on the market, as they provide just enough site monitoring and management that most websites need without running up high maintenance costs. Ultimately, they’re a convenient and cost-effective solution if you’re looking for a professional web maintenance service.

Do All Websites Need Monthly Routine Maintenance?

How often you need to maintain your website depends on your website type and needs. We suggest that most small businesses don’t need website maintenance monthly if their website only serves an informational function. How often you need to update and maintain your website depends heavily on the complexity of your website. However, there are a whole host of websites that need regular monthly site maintenance, at a minimum. These websites include:

• eCommerce Sites
• Websites of established businesses
• Websites with a lot transactions 
• Websites with a lot of functions and plugins 

These websites, in particular, need regular maintenance and monitoring to ensure they serve their essential business functions 24/7 to avoid a loss in revenue and stay as secure as possible. Even if your website isn’t on this list, you should still maintain and update your website at least once every 12 months and choose a high-quality website hosting plan that includes regular site backups. 

Canberra Website Maintenance Services You Can Trust

Our Canberra-based team offers monthly maintenance that allows you to rest assured your website is always running smoothly and working nonstop to promote your business. Our website maintenance includes secure backups of your site in at least two locations to ensure you never lose any data or content, as well as expert set-up and regular updates deployed with care. We also ensure your website speed is always up to standard as part of your website maintenance plan.

Leaving your website maintenance up to our experienced website development team means you never have to worry about the security of your website or website updates and can just focus on what you do best: running your business. Our monthly website maintenance starts at $280 plus GST monthly. We also offer a range of website services, including expert web development, design, and hosting.

As a full-service digital marketing agency, our team understands that a high-performing, well-built website can significantly enhance your business’s ability to reach more people and drive more conversions. This is what we’re passionate about at Futuretheory: helping businesses grow forward. Contact us to learn more about our services and get an obligation-free quote.

In the age of website templates and DIY website builders, many businesses are questioning if custom web design is still worth it – but having a website that reflects your unique brand identity through seamless, bespoke design delivers a higher conversion rate than template-based websites. In this article, we’ll explain why.

What Is A Website Template?

A website template is a pre-designed and pre-coded framework for creating a website. All a user has to do to get a templated website launched and live is change the wording to suit their business, add some content, and they’re ready to go. Popular providers of templated websites are:

• WordPress.com
• Wix
• Webflow
• GoDaddy
• Squarespace

These pre-built websites require no technical skill for business owners to set up themselves, making them an attractive option for the less-tech-savvy business owners out there with a limited budget, as there’s no need to hire a professional web design team. All you need to do is find the one template you like for your site and begin promoting your products or services on it that same day. However, pre-built websites come with downsides – they often offer limited customisation options, features, and lower performance metrics than well-built custom websites. This hurts your business’s online presence in the long term.

Why Go With A Custom Designed Website?

Custom websites are designed and developed from scratch, either by a freelance web designer or a web development company who have control of everything from your website’s landing pages to the back-end interface. While using a template to create your website might have a quicker development time and a lower cost in the short term, the time and extra expense that come with custom website development often pay off significantly in the long term. Building your website from scratch using custom design means:

• The chance to create a more memorable first impression
• Design tailored to your branding
• Better user experience 
• Higher Search Engine Optimisation
• Better mobile responsiveness 
• More scalability as your business needs change 

Want A Professional Website? First Impressions Matter

Attention spans online are fleeting, so the importance of a positive first impression can’t be overstated – especially for small businesses where every chance counts. Websites often serve as the initial point of contact between a brand and its audience, and within seconds, users form judgments that can influence their entire perception of your business. A custom-designed website from a reputable development agency gives you a much higher chance of making that impression a positive one that sticks with users even after they click off your site.

Ensure Your Website Stands Out With Bespoke Website Design

Establishing clear branding is integral to the long-term success of your online marketing strategy. It helps differentiate you from your competitors and clearly convey your business’s unique value proposition to potential customers. This is especially important for new businesses that don’t already have a loyal customer base and online businesses that need to stand out as much as possible in the digital landscape. Branding includes things like your:

• Colours
• Logo 
• Fonts
• Style choices
• Messaging and language 
• Overall ‘vibe’

Choosing to go with a custom website design allows the web designers and web development team you choose to work with to tailor every single one of these elements to match your branding during the design stage. On the other hand, most templates and themes have been downloaded by other businesses hundreds or even thousands of times. Additionally, most ‘pre-made’ website designs significantly limit the ability of your design agency to customise and personalise your website during the design process. This means a website without distinct graphic designs, colour schemes and navigation menus. 

A Custom-Designed Website Means A Seamless User Experience

A successful website is about so much more than just visual appeal – it’s vital that a new website for your business effectively engages people through positive User Experience (UX) as well. UX is all about designing a website that caters to the needs of users, including ease of use, fast loading times and a clear navigation menu. The better user experience your website provides to users, the better ability it’ll have to convert them into customers. This is why it’s one of the key principles of good web design.

Professional custom web design and development always places UX at the forefront when creating a website by keeping in mind accessibility, functionality, and logical visual hierarchy. This attention to detail, combined with flexibility and custom designs, contributes to a better UX compared to template-built websites. 

Choosing to go the custom route for your web design project rather than using a pre-built template also means website designers can add personalised features to your site to suit your user’s needs, improving UX. Examples of this might be a store locator, seamless checkout processes, or tailored search functionality. 

Responsive Website Design Agency

Responsive web design means your website looks, loads and functions perfectly no matter what device your users are browsing on, be it on mobile, tablet or desktop. All these devices have drastically different screen sizes, meaning your website design needs to be able to adapt accordingly without losing any functionality to be considered responsive.

Optimising your website for mobile devices might be more important than you realise: According to DataReportal, over 55% of all website visitors are browsing on a mobile device as of November 2023, up from only 30% in 2015. Most template website options are much less responsive than what you’d expect from a high-quality web design. This means you risk alienating over half your website traffic with a buggy layout and slow loading times if you use an unresponsive template.

Experienced web designers, on the other hand, are able to make sure your website is optimised for all devices using fluid grids, breakpoints, and media queries. You can read our article defining responsive design and its importance if you want to know more.

Better Optimise Your Website For Search Engines

Search engine optimisation (SEO) means tailoring your website to Google’s 240+ search engine ranking programs, which affects how high your website ranks on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS). Most of these factors are to analyse the quality of the UX your website provides. The better UX your website provides, the higher it will rank on SERPs, driving significantly more organic traffic to your website without the need for paid ads. 

Your website’s design can affect SEO significantly, and the only way to ensure your website follows SEO best practices is by hiring a reputable web development agency to create a custom web design rather than creating a DIY website with a basic website builder. Here’s why:

• Clean code and better crawling: Many template websites are built using bloated and out-of-date code. This makes it harder for Google to understand your web pages and rank them accordingly. 
• Better website performance: Custom web design from an experienced web developer means you can guarantee your website is as fast as possible, providing a better UX.
• More responsive design: Mobile optimisation is one of Google’s key ranking factors, and custom web design ensures this. 
• Reduced bounce rate: Bounce rate is how many users only see the landing page of your website before clicking off. Websites with a better UX have a lower bounce rate, indicating to Google that your website provides value to users.
• SEO plugins: Custom websites built on Content management platforms like WordPress and Drupal allow you to access 1000s of free plugins to manage your website, many of which provide more SEO control to improve your online presence.

eCommerce Web Development 

If you’re hoping to use your website for eCommerce, a premade website running on Shopify with limited functionality and customisation options won’t cut it the majority of the time. Instead, consider going with a custom web development agency with eCommerce web design experience. This will allow you to customise a smooth checkout process for your online store, product sorting, and specific search parameters for your users. Running your custom-built website on WordPress.org also means you’ll be able to use the powerful WooCommerce plugin to upload, update and sell products with ease on your website.

Custom Web Design Services for Canberrans

Futuretheory is a full-service website design, development, and digital marketing agency. Although we’re Canberra-based, we offer some of the best custom web design Melbourne, Sydney, and Australia as a whole has to offer. The websites we build are always unique, fast, secure and beautifully designed. Our team of experienced web developers and web designers will work closely with you every step of the way to ensure that your website is tailored to the specific needs and branding of your business. 

We also offer web services, including website hosting, maintenance, and search engine marketing. Our marketing team, web designers and developers have all the expertise necessary to help you grow forward online. If we sound like the agency for you, get in touch today.

Futuretheory Holiday Closure

Futuretheory will close at midday on Friday, 22 December, and open in the new year on Monday, 8 January 2024. While our office doors may be closed, we’re still here for support. Please email support@futuretheory.co if you need help.

Looking back on 2023

We have had a busy 12 months! A few things we did this year (on top of our client projects):

• Launched our new website
• Launched Inspo.st, an idea generator and a one-stop shop to get fresh content ideas
• Made some upgrades to FT Studio
• Welcomed new team members.
  

We celebrated the end of the year a little differently. Instead of the standard work drinks, our team brought out their competitive side with a few races at the electric go-karting course, followed by a team dinner.

We’re excited about the adventures that lie ahead in 2024 – if 2023 is anything to go by, it’ll be a great year for Futuretheory. Here’s our year, wrapped:

Thank you for being part of our journey. We hope you enjoy time with family and putting your feet up over the break, and we look forward to seeing you in the new year!

Writing a privacy policy for your website may seem daunting, but it’s crucial to establish trust and transparency with your audience. In this article, we’ll explore some of the key elements of a privacy policy and give you some tips on how to write a website privacy policy for your website effectively.

What Is A Website Privacy Policy?

A website privacy policy is a legal document that outlines how your website collects and processes the personal data of its users in plain and simple language. Privacy policies typically include information like:

• The types of data your website gathers from users
• What that data is used for
• How personal data is stored
• If any third parties have access to the data
• If your website uses cookies

Privacy policies might also mention user rights, data security measures, and procedures for users to opt-out or request changes to their data.

Why Do You Require A Privacy Policy?

Posting a privacy policy on your website is paramount in the age of increased user vigilance around privacy, cookies and tracking. Users want assurance that their personal information is being handled responsibly by the websites they visit, and a well-written privacy policy provides this assurance. Adding a privacy policy demonstrates that you’re committed to transparency and best privacy practices by clearly outlining how you collect, use, and protect user data, providing transparency about your practices.

The Laws Surrounding Privacy Policies And Data Protection 

There are strict laws in most countries surrounding how websites collect information from users and protect user privacy, and privacy policies are required by law in most cases. The Office of The Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) regulates the handling of personal information and is the most authoritative source of information on data privacy laws in Australia. It provides guidance on how to stay compliant with the latest regulations. If you’re ever unsure about privacy laws regarding your website, checking the OAIC website and following their guidance is the best way to ensure you’re in line with regulations. 

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a set of data protection regulations established by the European Union, and Australian websites don’t have to worry about being GDPR compliant. However, if your website targets a global audience or processes any kind of data from users in the EU, you need to comply with these regulations as well as the Australian ones.

What Is Your Privacy Policy Legally Required To Say?

According to the OAIC, your privacy policy must include the following clauses and statements:

• Your business name and contact details
• What kind of personal information you collect and share
• How you store the information collected
• Why you collect that information
• How you keep personal information secure
• If you disclose personal information to third parties
• Who can access and use personal information
• How users can lodge a privacy complaint 

Personal data is anything that could make a user identifiable, like their name, home or email address, bank details, medical records, IP address or any other personally identifiable information. 

At a minimum, ensuring you include the above specific requirements on your privacy policy page is the best way to ensure you’re covering all your bases. Privacy policies on websites are actively monitored by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), so getting it right is important!

How to Know If Your Website Will Need A Privacy Policy

Even if your business has a turnover of less than $3 million a year, you might still be required to have a website privacy policy if your business:

• Is a private sector health service provider, including complementary therapists, gyms, weight loss clinics, child care centres
• Sells or purchases personal information
• Are a contractor working under contract with the government
• Is a credit provider or credit reporting body
• Or is a residential tenancy database operator

If your business is covered by the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles and you don’t comply, you can face investigation and heavy fines. Even if you’re not covered under the 1988 Act, having an online privacy statement and policy is still heavily recommended to ease users’ privacy concerns!

Using a Website Privacy Policy Template

There are lots of free website privacy policy templates available online. Writing a privacy policy from scratch can be hard, especially if you have no previous experience writing legal documents, and these free templates can serve as a practical starting point. Here are the benefits of using a premade template to draft your privacy policy:

• Time and resource efficiency: Templates can save time and resources by providing a pre-structured framework, reducing the amount of effort and time you spend creating a privacy policy from scratch.
• Comprehensive starting point: Many templates are designed to cover a wide range of data collection and usage clauses, making it easier to cover all your bases.
• Legal Compliance: Choosing a template from a reputable legal website in Australia will help you stay in line with the relevant legal standards.

The Limitations Of Privacy Policy Templates

Templates are great, but putting a privacy policy on your website isn’t as simple as just downloading a template online and putting it in your footer straightaway. To be fully compliant, your privacy policy needs to be relevant and tailored to your business and specific data practices. No two websites are the same, so it’s unlikely a generic template without any customisation will accurately reflect your data usage.

It’s also important to note that templates might not adapt well to evolving privacy laws or industry-specific changes, so you have no way of knowing they’re up to standard unless you check the regulations yourself. 

8 Tips For Writing An Effective Website Privacy Policy

Now that you’re caught up on Australian privacy regulations, we’ll get into the nitty-gritty of how to write your privacy policy. Here are some of the most necessary things to include and steps to follow when writing a privacy policy yourself or customising a template:

1. Audit Your Data Practices

Before you write your privacy policy, take some time to do a thorough audit of your data practices, including how you collect, store and use that data. Understanding your own data practices inside and out will help you explain to your users how to keep their sensitive information safe and give them peace of mind.

2. Outline The Key Information 

It’s important to start your privacy policy with a crystal clear overview of what kind of information you’re collecting from your users. This may include personal details, contact information, and browsing behaviour. You should also tell users why you’re collecting each data type and how long you store it.

3. Explain Your Data Collection Methods

You should plainly explain the methods you use to collect data, like through cookie use on your website, forms that collect information, analytics tools like Google Analytics, and third-party integration.

4. Be Transparent About The Use Of Personal Data

You need to be transparent with your users about how you use their personal data and be honest about whether it’s used for marketing, personalisation, or to track your website visitors. 

5. Address Data Security 

One of the biggest user privacy concerns is data breaches and other security issues. Your privacy policy should outline any security measures you have in place to keep their personal information secure, like encryption, secure storage practices, and access controls. This allows users to make informed decisions about the use of your website. 

6. Explain User Rights

You should inform users about their privacy rights, such as their right to access, correct, or delete their personal information. You also need to explain the process for users to exercise these rights in as simple terms as possible.

7. Include Contact Information

You need to include any relevant contact details so users can contact you if they have any questions about your privacy policy notice, and make sure you keep this information up to date.

8. Make Sure To Include An Opt-Out Option

You should allow users to opt out of data collection used for marketing purposes or user tracking. You can do this by allowing granular cookie usage, where users can choose to accept certain types of cookies and not others. Your privacy policy needs to clearly explain how users can opt-out and unsubscribe at any time.

9. Make Sure Users Can Find Your Privacy Policy Easily

Your website design should allow for easy and clear access to your privacy notice. Users need to be able to find the link to your privacy policy with ease. Privacy policies are often linked to in the footer, and this is standard practice. However, while linking to your privacy policy in the footer is one thing, it’s often a good idea to make your policy more prominent when it’s most relevant, like at user registration and contact pages, as well as any data collection points like forms.

Putting your privacy policy in an easily accessible spot isn’t just for the sake of user experience – it’s a requirement for both local and international laws like the Privacy Act and GDPR.

If You’re Unsure, Seek Legal Advice

If you choose to write your own privacy policy and run into any uncertainty, you should play it on the safe side and seek legal advice from a law firm or other legal services that specialise in privacy regulations. Consulting with legal professionals ensures that your privacy policy accurately reflects your business practices, complies with relevant laws, and mitigates potential risks. Legal guidance can also provide clarity on industry-specific considerations, emerging technologies, and any unique aspects of your business that need specialised attention. 

Should I Include Terms And Conditions And Terms Of Use On My Website As Well?

Terms and Conditions, privacy policies, and terms of use can often get confused. However, they’re three distinct legal documents with some key differences. For one, only privacy policies are legally mandated. Here’s what the terms mean:

• Terms of Use is an agreement between a service provider and the person who wants to use the service. They often cover things like user behaviour, intellectual property rights, and disclaimers. Agreements to terms of use are often implicit, and you’ll often see the phrase ‘By use of this website, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Use’. 
• Terms and Conditions is a broader term that can include both terms of use and any other contractual provisions. Terms and conditions might also include details about payment terms, refund policies, dispute resolution mechanisms, and any other contractual obligations.

While these two documents aren’t necessarily a legal requirement like privacy policies, they’re often a good idea to have on your website if you’re providing a service or selling goods. They can protect you from any liability and lead to easier dispute resolution. 

Increasing User Trust

Crafting a clear and effective privacy policy is not only a legal requirement but a crucial step in building trust and transparency with your audience. As users become more vigilant about their privacy, a well-written privacy policy can assure them that you handle their information responsibly. We hope these tips provided some clarity around privacy policies so you can get a head start!

Remember, if you’re unsure about anything while writing your privacy policy, seeking legal advice might be a prudent idea. A legal professional can help ensure your privacy policy aligns with regulations and best practices.

In this article, we’ll explain exactly what reach is and answer the burning question many digital marketers and social media managers are asking: Has organic reach on social media been declining in recent years? 

What is Social Media Reach?

Social media reach measures the total number of unique users who have seen a piece of content during a specific time period. Total reach gives you an idea of how many people are being exposed to your content and the size of your audience on social media platforms like LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram, some of the most popular social media apps in 2023.

To understand reach on social media fully, here’s a short glossary of social media terms you need to understand how social media reach is measured:

• Social Media Impressions: Impressions refer to the total number of times your social media post is displayed to people, regardless of whether they interact with it or not. Reach and impressions will often be drastically different numbers. Here’s an example of social media reach vs impressions: If your post is seen 1,000 times, and some users see it twice, the total number of impressions might be 1,200.
• Unique users: Reach only includes the number of unique people who saw your content. Each user is only counted once, regardless of how many times they saw the same post.
• Potential reach: This metric estimates the potential audience of your advertisements based on factors like your number of followers and the platform’s algorithm. It gives you an idea of your content’s maximum reach potential. 
• Engagement: The overall engagement rate of a post is the number of people who liked, shared, or commented on your post or took further action, like clicking on your profile.

Why is Reach Important In Social Media Marketing?

Social media reach is one of the most important social media metrics. It provides key insights into the number of people your content is reaching and, therefore, how many people have had a chance to learn about your brand. The broader your reach and the more content in front of your target audience, the higher your chances are of fostering brand awareness and visibility online.

It also allows you to measure the effectiveness of different types of social media posts and your marketing campaigns. By measuring reach on specific posts, you can see which social media strategies, hashtags, and types of content are favoured by the social media algorithms the most. If you’re thinking of expanding to video content on social media, we’ve got a useful social media video spec guide to get you started.

Comparing your social media engagement ratio with the reach of your content can also give you a better idea of how compelling your content is. While it’s expected that many users who see your content won’t interact with it,  if your social media content has a high overall reach but your average engagement rate is minimal, it’s time to reassess your strategy. This means few people who your content reaches find it interesting or appealing. 

How To Measure and Track Reach Metrics Across Social Media Platforms

The easiest way to measure metrics like reach is to use a social media analytics tool that’s already built into the platform. Almost every social media platform like Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn has built-in analytics tools that allow you to measure social media reach, engagement, followers or impressions. These tools are great for calculating platform-specific data in real time. 

However, if you’re serious about tracking your social media analytics, it might be worthwhile using a third-party analytics and social media management tool like  Hootsuite, Buffer, or Sprout Social. These tools centralise and quantify analytics from several social media platforms, allowing you to take a more holistic look at social media strategy. These platforms also provide scheduling software, encouraging you to post more consistently, and allow you to track the effectiveness of a specific hashtag or keyword. 

Has There Been A Decline In Organic Social Media Reach in 2023?

Organic reach is the number of people who stumble upon your content through unpaid channels, like the ‘Explore’ feed on Instagram. This kind of reach is highly valuable to businesses as it allows them to reach the people most interested in their product or niche without spending money on ads. However, social media’s organic reach has been declining steadily over the past few years, meaning businesses have an increasingly smaller audience size on social media than they would normally unless they spend money. This can be attributed to a few different factors, including:

• Changing algorithms: Platforms like Instagram and Facebook have changed their algorithms to prioritise content from family, friends, and groups over public posts, making it harder for businesses to gain visibility.
• Over saturation: The rapid increase in businesses on social media means there’s increased competition for people’s attention, and it’s easier to get lost in the crowd. 
• Paid content prioritisation: Social media companies are increasingly prioritising paid ads over organic content from businesses, making it harder to gain visibility unless you’re willing to spend the money.

Is Posting Non-Sponsored Content On Social Media Still Worth It?

While the drop in organic reach might make shilling out to sponsor your posts seem appealing, trying to build up organic reach is still important for businesses. Generally, users trust and appreciate organic content more than paid ads. Organic reach reflects users who have a genuine interest in your brand and the content you post and serves to build long-term relationships and trust with your online audience. 

How To Maintain Your Organic Reach In Spite Of The Algorithm 

Not all hope is lost if you’re still thinking of reaching users organically as your primary strategy. Here are some easy tricks you can implement to boost your organic visibly on social media:

• Post when your followers are online. This will increase your chance of coming up in their feed. Instagram insights has a helpful tool showing when your audience is online the most often to help you do this.
• Focus on creating high-quality, valuable content. Social media users these days often suffer from advertising fatigue – refocusing your content to provide users or subscribers with useful information or entertainment instead of overt sales tactics will build your following and increase brand awareness, leading to increased sales in the long run.
• Start conversations: Foster user participation by asking questions, running competitions, encouraging user-generated content, and replying to comments promptly. Making your audience feel heard and valued will increase your organic reach and play into the algorithm by increasing engagement.

Looking For Social Media Post Inspiration? 

If you’re trying to up your social media game and increase your reach but struggle with content ideas, our free content idea generator can help. Posting regularly is important for the algorithm, and your audience, and this tool is designed to help with that and take some of the stress out of trying to build your online presence.

We’ve got some helpful tips that will help you prepare your business for the festive season and drive more conversions. We hope these tips take some of the pressure off, whether you’re a small business owner and this is your first holiday season or you’re a veteran of the holiday shopping frenzy.  Ensuring you follow these tips and give yourself plenty of time to prepare will help you avoid common mistakes many businesses make during the holiday season.

5 Tips For Holiday Marketing

The festive season is an important time for business – it’s the perfect time to reach new customers and increase your cash flow. However, it’s important to take the time to create a holiday marketing strategy and start preparing early so you don’t get lost in the crowd. Here are some tips to help your business get ready for the holiday season through marketing to have a successful holiday season:

1. Run Digital Marketing Campaigns

Investing in digital marketing this holiday shopping season will help your products or services reach a wider audience. Consider running social media campaigns, email marketing, and online ads. This will give you the extra boost you need not to stand out. You should highlight any seasonal deals your business is running and make sure your advertising is holiday-themed for better customer engagement. 

However, make sure you don’t wait too late to start marketing!  Many people start shopping for the festive period as early as November – getting your campaigns out in advance will help you make the most of the early crowd. 

2. Plan Your Holiday Promotions

You should give yourself plenty of time to plan and prepare your holiday sales and special offers well in advance. You should consider offering holiday promotions such as:

• exclusive discounts
• bundle deals
• buy-one-get-one-free offers.

These promotions help increase sales and attract customers. Planning these promotions early will give you plenty of time to communicate them through your marketing channels to build customer anticipation!

3. Create Gift Guides And Recommendations 

You can take some of the stress out of festive shopping for your customers by curating gift guides on your website and categorising your products according to common gift preferences, for example: ‘Gifts For Him’. This will help your customers make purchasing decisions, and it’s also a great way to promote the specific products you want to sell the most.

4. Offer Limited Edition Holiday Products

Introducing limited edition holiday-themed products is a great way to build excitement and generate a sense of urgency to buy your products. Limited edition products can create a sense of scarcity, encouraging customers to make purchases sooner rather than later. 

5. Create A Festive Atmosphere In Your Store

Decorating your business for the holiday season is a great way to generate increased foot traffic and let customers know you’re offering seasonal deals. To further add to the festive flair, consider offering gift boxes and gift wrapping. Don’t forget to show off that holiday spirit!

7 Ways To Prepare Your Business This Holiday Season 

If you’ve marketed your business effectively, you can expect a big uptick in both web and foot traffic. It’s important to start planning and preparing your business early to ensure you have the infrastructure to handle the increase in traffic and sales. A little preparation goes a long way during the busy time of year! Here are some essential tips for preparing your small business this year:

1. Make Sure To Adjust Your Business Hours

If you plan on closing your business between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day or just for the public holidays, make sure to inform your customers of your seasonal hours. This will mitigate any confusion or possible frustration from your customers. You should post your changed hours on your website banners, Google My Business Page, and over email campaigns. 

2. Ensure You Have Enough Stock

Inventory management and inventory tracking are important before any big sale, and the holiday period is the biggest of them all. Inventory management ensures that you:

• Have sufficient stock to meet the increased demand 
• Prevent disappointment for customers eager to snag the best deals 
• Can make as many sales as possible. 

In the lead-up to the holidays, it’s a good idea to look at your sales and monitor the popularity of products. This will give you a better idea of what will sell out quickly and what you need to stock up on so you can order early!

3. Hire Seasonal Employees Early

You’ll most likely need to hire seasonal employees to be able to handle the extra demand. However, hiring extra help as early as possible is important so you have plenty of time to train them. Seasonal employees can make the festive period much easier, but only if they’ve already had time to learn about your product and store policies! This extra training time will allow them to provide a better customer service experience.

4. Get The Roster Out A Soon As Possible 

Don’t forget to plan and communicate your holiday roster as soon as possible – this will help you pick up on any gaps early. The festive season is a busy time for everyone, not just businesses – getting the roster out early will also help your staff plan their schedules and ensure everyone is on the same page.  Having the roster set in stone well in advance will also help prevent any last-minute staff call-outs.

5. Ensure A Smooth Checkout Process

A smooth and hassle-free checkout process will make everything go a lot smoother, especially if you’re an online business. Consider streamlining the process as much as possible before the silly season. Some ways to do this are:

• Setting up a one-page checkout process
• Optimising the page for mobile as much as possible 
• Setting up Apple Pay, Google Pay and other quick payment methods

This will reduce friction during checkout and increase your chance of conversions. 

6. Optimise Your Website For Increased Traffic

If you’ve done your marketing right, you’re bound to see a surge in website traffic during the festive period. Ensuring your website can handle the extra traffic will prevent slow load times and provide a better customer experience. You should test your website’s speed before your business’s most busy period so you can troubleshoot any issues ahead of time!

7. Take Time To Reflect On Post-Holiday Sales

When everything is all said and done and you’ve settled in nicely to the new year, it’s important to take the opportunity to analyse what worked well for your business in terms of marketing and customer experience and what you could have done differently. This reflection will help you better prepare for next year’s busy season and help you become a better business. This step is especially important if it’s your first year in business! The team at Futuretheory wishes you luck.

In this article, we’ll explore key areas where delegation can significantly benefit your business the most.

Accounting 

Carefully handling financial matters is essential for any business, but it doesn’t mean you have to be the one crunching the numbers. Delegating accounting tasks like bookkeeping or tax preparation to a professional not only ensures accuracy but also frees up your time to concentrate on your business. 

A professional account also saves you from having to bear the brunt of worrying about tax compliance yourself. Additionally, you won’t have to worry about integration and fees for accounting software like Xero or MYOB yourself.

Marketing

Effective marketing is important for any business, established or new to the market, to consistently generate new leads and build brand awareness. However, an effective marketing strategy takes time to plan and implement, as well as multifaceted experience in content creation, SEO, copywriting, and more.  If you’d like to learn more about the ins and outs of marketing strategies, we’ve got an insightful article on how to create your own marketing strategy.

Delegating these tasks to a digital marketing agency can help grow your online presence without you having to spend 100s of hours on it yourself. Professional marketing experts are also better equipped, both in terms of tools and expertise, to navigate the ever-changing algorithms on social media and search engines.

Web & Graphic Design

Your website and logo design are often among the first impressions potential customers get of your business. These first impressions are vital to create a positive brand image. 

While it can be tempting as a business owner to handle something so important yourself, web and graphic design are often a lot harder than they look to an untrained eye. Delegating your design work to someone with plenty of experience helps ensure you have a user-friendly website that matches your branding and a logo that stands out.

Website Maintenance 

A well-designed website is a powerful asset for your business, but its effectiveness relies on consistent maintenance. We recommend running maintenance on your website at least monthly to keep it fast, secure, and functioning as it should.

Website maintenance includes tasks like updating plugins, fixing bugs, and checking for broken links. Not running frequent maintenance can negatively affect your search engine ranking and even cause your website to go down.

These tasks, essential as they are, can be tedious. Website maintenance requires a high level of expertise and large amounts of your time, both things that are hard to come by as a business owner when you’ve got other aspects of your business to focus on.

You’re better off delegating web maintenance tasks to another member of your team or subscribing to a monthly website maintenance plan from a qualified web development team. This will save you time and keep your website running smoothly.

Data Entry & Filing 

Data entry includes tasks like updating customer information, logging sales, scanning documents, and a lot more. While these tasks are important and need attention to detail, they’re also incredibly time-consuming and repetitive.

Data entry doesn’t require a high level of skill – this means almost anyone in your office can do their share of data entry, and there’s no need for you to do so when you could instead be focusing on decision-making.

If you have a small team and no one else in your business has the time to do data entry, consider outsourcing it to a data-entry service that can take care of all the nitty-gritty details. 

Packing & Sending

If your business involves shipping products, the logistics of picking, packing, sending and rerouting orders can be overwhelming. Although making sure all your products are packed and sent with care is an important part of the sales and customer experience journey, it can very quickly take up a lot of your time.

Your time is better spent on expanding your product line or improving customer service. Consider training or hiring a staff member to do it instead. Alternatively, you can outsource inventory management and order fulfilment to a reliable Third-Party Logistics (TPL) partner such as ShipBob, Shipmonk or even Amazon. 

By outsourcing this task, you can rest assured that your orders will be handled professionally, and it will also reduce the likelihood of shipping errors and delays if you’re already stretched too thin to focus entirely on packing and sending products yourself.

Cleaning

While cleaning seems like a task of lesser importance for your business when compared to other things like accounting, maintaining a clean and organised workspace is important so you and your team can maintain focus and stay productive. It’s also important to boost staff morale and leave a positive impression on any clients or customers that come to visit your office. 

However, if it isn’t delegated to anyone in particular, it can very quickly fall completely on your shoulders or not get done at all. As soon as you have an office space, you should consider hiring a regular cleaner to ensure your professional space is always presentable. 

For the smaller tasks like unpacking the dishwasher, wiping down eating spaces and keeping the office kitchen tidy, consider creating a chore chart for your team to make sure everyone carries the load, not just you. Chore charts are also a great team-building tool – they foster a sense of community and give your team more responsibility for the physical space they share with their colleagues.

Office Administration 

Office administration comprises a million different tasks that, although small, help to keep your office and business running efficiently and effectively without any hiccups. These tasks can include anything from ordering more printer paper and office supplies to troubleshooting broken equipment to liaising with your office’s landlord. 

If you have to focus on growing your business, increasing revenue, and project management, office administration tasks might quickly fall through the cracks if you try to do them yourself. Hiring an office assistant or manager can keep your office running smoothly and save you a lot of stress. 

Teamwork Divides The Task And Multiplies Success

It sounds like a cliche, but it couldn’t be more true when it comes to running a business. As a business owner, it can sometimes be hard to let go of the reins and trust that things will still go smoothly, but trying to do everything yourself is a surefire way to burn out and lose sight of the bigger picture you should be focusing on.

By outsourcing time-consuming and repetitive tasks, you can focus on what truly matters—innovating, strategising, and growing your business. Evaluate your business needs, identify tasks that can be delegated, and watch as your efficiency and productivity increases tenfold.

New Additions To Our Studio Spaces in Canberra

One of the most useful new features we’ve introduced is a sizeable makeup area in Space 1 for those all-important touch-ups between headshots or during portrait photo shoots. The makeup table features a large illuminated mirror, two handheld mirrors, two chairs and two full-body mirrors nearby, so you can make sure you’re completely camera-ready before your shoot!

We’ve added new furniture and props to our shooting spaces. This includes a selection of chairs, tables, stools and artificial plants if you’d like to add more visual interest to your photos.

We also have new gear on hand for photographers, including both wall-mounted and movable backdrops and two bright Neewer 660 PRO RGB lights. These news lights come with versatile lighting capabilities, imperfect for experimenting with different colours and brightness levels during your shoot. 

360 Virtual Tour

Want to take a tour of the studios before you book but don’t have the time? We’ve added a virtual 360 tour of our studio hire spaces to our website for just that event. The virtual tour gives you an idea of just how large Space 1 is, with 126 sqm to shoot, 6m high ceilings and a massive roller door for easy access and to let in natural light. Beyond just a photography studio, it’s a place to dance, rehearse, host workshops, or film large-scale productions for commercial use

New Meeting Room/Podcast Studio For Hire 

We also have a whole new, podcast studio available for hire – Space 2. This smaller 15 sqm space is ideal for podcasts, corporate meetings and smaller recording sessions. Space 2 includes:

• Access to Common Area
• 70-inch 4K TV (Hisense Series S5 – 70S5)
• Zoom PodTrak P8 Podcast Recorder
• 2 x RØDE PodMic (additional mics available)
• OBSBOT Tiny PTZ Camera
• M-Audio BX4 D3 4.5in Multimedia Reference Monitors
• Foam padding to reduce noise levels 

It should be noted that neither space limits what you can create – while Space 1 is ideal for larger shoots and Space 2 is aimed more at podcast recordings, Space 1 can also be used to record a podcast with a larger group, and Space 2 can be used for photography studio hire or even film studio hire.

Studio Facilities

We fully believe comfort leads to creativity – that’s why we’ve made hiring FT Studio as convenient as possible, with plenty of amenities and creature comforts so you can take a break and spring right back into action. These amenities include:

• Fully equipped kitchen facilities with a microwave, fridge and coffee machine
• Comfortable lounge and dining area in the shared break room situated between Space 1 and Space 2
• Large bathroom with a shower 
• High-speed wifi network with 250Mbps download speed
• Nearby street parking or up to 2 spots of reserved carpark spots available for hire

Additional Photography Gear For Hire in Canberra

We have also added some affordable photography equipment hire for off-site use (and of course, these can be included with bookings too). These include:

• Elgato Green Screen
• Heavy Duty Light Stand
• Heavy Duty Light Stand with Casters
• Heavy Duty Photographic C-Stand With Boom Arm
• Neewer 660 PRO RGB

Studio Hire Rates

FT Studio is available for bookings on weekdays, weekends and public holidays. The studio hire rates for Space 1 start at $120 an hour and $50 dollars an hour for Space 2 during business hours on weekdays. To see our half-day and full-day rates, check out our full studio hire rates page. Please contact us to make an enquiry if you have any questions! Our friendly team is always more than happy to help.

Looking for a photography studio or creative space in Canberra? Enquire today

Do we sound like the studio hire for you? If so, please get in touch either by phone during business hours or over email, and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Alternatively, we offer the option to book online through our handy portal.

FT Studio is located at 10d Alumina Street, Beard, Canberra, Australia.

In this article, we’ll explain the elements that make up a marketing mix, the roles they play and how you can create an effective marketing mix as part of a broader marketing strategy.

Marketing Mix Explained

A marketing mix is a framework that companies can use to market their product or service more effectively. It serves to provide focus and direction to a marketing strategy, with four key elements serving as pillars. The key elements of a marketing mix are:

1. Product
2. Price
3. Place
4. Promotion. 

These elements are known as the 4 Ps of Marketing and are the centre of any marketing mix. Over time, however, the 4 Ps of marketing have evolved significantly – something that we will also delve into later on.

Why Is A Marketing Mix Important?

By incorporating a marketing mix into their overall strategy, businesses can:

• Align their marketing efforts with their long-term objectives more clearly
• Better understand and cater to customer needs
• Understand how to differentiate themselves from competitors
• More easily adapt to dynamic market conditions
• Optimise resource allocation and decision-making

All in all, a marketing mix is a holistic approach that enables all your marketing decisions to be grounded in logic and planning. This ultimately nurtures long-term success.

Marketing Mix vs. Marketing Plan vs. Marketing Strategy

The terms marketing mix, marketing strategy and marketing plan can get confusing – they’re related but distinct marketing concepts. It’s important to have all three in place for sustainable business development. We’ve already defined a marketing mix, but here’s what a marketing plan and marketing strategy mean:

Marketing Strategy

A marketing strategy helps clarify the necessary steps to achieve your marketing goals and effectively promote your business. It establishes the long-term framework that shapes: 

• How you define your value proposition  
• Your company’s brand positioning 
•  How you intend to reach your target market 

Marketing Plan

On the other hand, a marketing plan focuses on the shorter-term aspects of marketing efforts, such as specific campaigns. It serves as the execution of the overall marketing strategy.

Best marketing practice is to develop your marketing strategy first, define your marketing mix and then create your marketing plans. If you’d like to learn more, we have a handy guide on creating a marketing strategy.

The Origin of Marketing Mixes

The concept of a marketing mix and the 4 Ps of marketing dates back to the 1960s, when professor Jerome McCarthy popularised it in his 1960 book ‘Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach.’ Although the term marketing mix had been gaining traction since the 1940s, McCarthy was the one to clearly define the pillars of a marketing mix with the 4 Ps of marketing.

In ‘Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach’, McCarthy put the concept simply: “Marketing mix is a combination of all of the factors at the command of a marketing manager to satisfy the target market.”

The concept quickly caught on and marked a notable shift in marketing strategies – shifting the focus from individual tactics to a more holistic and strategic viewpoint. By clearly defining each element of the marketing mix, businesses could create a cohesive strategy that addressed the complexities of the market and consumer behaviour.

How Marketing Mixes Have Evolved Over Time

It’s been over 60 years since the concept of marketing mixes was introduced – since then, the business market has changed significantly with globalisation and the rise of digital marketing. The access to analytics and better tools and resources has also driven a more data-driven approach to marketing.

Marketing mixes have had to adapt accordingly – marketing experts have now expanded the initial 4 Ps into ten key elements. The modern 10 Ps of marketing are:

1. Product
2. Price
3. Place
4. Promotion
5. Process
6. Physical evidence
7. Positioning
8. Packaging
9. People
10. Personalisation

The 10 Ps OF Marketing, A Break-Down

Now that we’ve given you plenty of context, here’s what each of the 10 Ps of marketing means:

1. Product

Effective marketing starts with a deep understanding of what it is you’re offering your target market. A product can be tangible, like a piece of apparel or equipment, or intangible, like a service or subscription. What matters most for successful products is that they fill a market gap and are unique enough to stand out.

To define the first P in your marketing mix, you need to ask yourself:

• What need does your product or service meet for your target market?
• How is it different from your competitor’s product?
• Where does your product stand in the market? Is it a high-end luxury brand, a niche offering, or widely accessible to appeal to a broad audience?

Your Unique Value Proposition

Ultimately, ‘Price’ in a marketing mix aims to clearly define your Unique Value Proposition (UVP) and answer the fundamental question, ‘Why should potential customers choose you?’ Your UVP should be at the core of all your marketing communications.

2. Price

Price refers to the monetary value customers are willing to pay for your product or service. Much consideration and research needs to go into defining your Price – it directly influences your product’s perceived value and positioning in the market. Choosing the right price significantly impacts your business’s revenue, profitability, and market share.

You have to consider things like production costs, how much your competitors are charging, and how much you can afford to mark down your product during sales promotion periods.

The Different Pricing Strategies

Additionally, price refers to the pricing models and strategies you choose. Common pricing strategies include:

• Penetration Pricing: Setting a lower price initially to gain a large portion of the market share quickly.
• Skimming: Setting a high price initially to recoup launch costs and increase perceived value.
• Value-Based Pricing: Setting prices based purely on the customer’s perceived value to increase customer loyalty.
• Dynamic Pricing: Adjusting prices based on real-time market conditions like demand surges or dips.
• Geographic pricing: Your prices vary based on location to maximise profits in different target markets.

The Different Pricing Models

Once you choose a pricing strategy, you have to decide on your pricing model – how you’ll charge your customers. This is especially relevant if you’re selling a service or software. Here are some common price models:

• Freemium: This is a popular subscription-based model popular among software as a service (SaaS) companies. It means offering a basic version of your product for free, hoping customers will eventually pay to access more features.
• Hourly Pricing: Commonly used by freelancers or contractors. This means you charge hourly for your labour. The downside is that it requires documentation to justify and a high level of trust from the client.
• Fixed Pricing: This means charging a flat fee per project instead of a direct exchange of money for time.

3. Place

Place in a marketing mix refers to how your customers will get your product and your chosen distribution channels. Here are some key factors you have to consider when defining ‘place’:

• Will your product be available in a physical location, like retail stores?
• Will your product be available from third-party retailers?
• Will you sell product or service online?
• What do delivery logistics look like?
• Where is your target audience most likely to shop?
• Is your product available locally, nationally or internationally?

Place encompasses all things distribution: The idea is to determine how you’ll make your product available to your target market in the right place, at the right time, and in the right quantity. To do this effectively, you need to understand your target market and how to best reach them and be aware of any limitations you might face because of supply chain issues or logistics.

4. Promotion

Promotion refers to how you plan to successfully market your product to your target consumers and generate interest from potential customers. Promotion covers:

• The marketing tools you’ll use
• Your plan for online marketing campaigns
• How you’ll handle public relations
• Who’s in charge of your marketing communication
• How to drive traffic to your retail locations

Essentially, this stage is when you decide your promotional mix and how you’ll communicate your marketing messages. In the digital age, your options are almost limitless. There’s email marketing, search engine marketing, social media marketing, television commercials – it can be overwhelming trying to choose.

The key is to conduct target market analysis and only choose to market on the channels that will resonate with your target audience most effectively. This will ensure you spend your money where it matters most and don’t spread yourself too thin.

The Extended Marketing Mix

Product, price, place and promotion are the original marketing mix. However, as we explained above, marketing science has evolved a lot over the past 60 years, and so have the key elements of a marketing mix. Here are the six additional Ps of marketing that marketing experts have put forward:

5. People

In an extended marketing mix, People refers to the human side of your business: the employees and sales force that make up your business. Defining how you want your employees to present and act is especially important if you have a physical store where the customer experience your employees provide is everything.

Here’s what People defines in the extended 10 Ps of Marketing:

• Customer service: The behaviour, attitudes and policies you have in place for your customer service team.
• Employee Behaviour: How employees present themselves and their behaviour during customer interactions. This includes factors like professionalism, communication skills, and the overall demeanour of staff members.
• Company culture: The culture and values that influence how employees approach their work and interact with customers. A positive company culture can contribute to a customer-centric mindset among employees.
• Employee satisfaction: How you plan to keep your employees satisfied and motivated in their work through employee satisfaction initiatives. 

6. Process

Process in the expanded marketing mix refers to the systems, procedures, and methods you’ll institute to promote and deliver your product to your target audience. Having well-defined processes in place helps ensure you can consistently deliver your product at a high level. 

These processes might include: 

• Quality Assurance: The processes and mechanisms you have in place to ensure the product you deliver is consistently high quality.
• Efficiency and Productivity: How you plan to optimise efficiency, both internally and in delivering your product.
• Technology Integration: The tools and software you’ll use for smoother processes, like booking software and staff scheduling platforms.
• Feedback Mechanisms: How you’ll receive feedback from your target customers, whether it’s through surveys, reviews or another form of communication.

7. Physical evidence

Physical evidence refers to the tangible touch point a potential customer encounters before choosing to buy your product. Physical and sensory evidence can make all the difference to the customer’s perception of your business and product. Here are the things to consider:

• Store presentation: The layout, cleanliness and overall feel of your physical stores.
• Branding and signage: How you’ll ensure consistent and memorable branding across your physical assets.
• Employee presentation: The uniforms, name tags, style, and any other visual cues that impact the customer’s perception of professionalism and competence.

8. Packaging

Packaging refers to the box or wrapping your product comes in. While it may seem like an inconsequential detail when compared to the product itself, the packaging of your product can hugely influence a customer’s confidence in your product and their decision to buy. Packaging is more than just a box, however. It also refers to: 

• The overall presentation of your product
• The visual merchandising of your product
• The sustainability of your physical packaging
• How well the packaging protects your project during transport

Packaging also includes any visual assets used to convey your branding, like business cards, your website, and staff presentation. Consistent and visually appealing branding across anything that packages information or products will increase brand memorability and help you stand out.

9. Positioning

Positioning refers to where your brand stands in the market compared to your competitors. It involves strategically creating a unique image and identity for your brand in the minds of your target audience. You can achieve positive positioning by establishing a distinct position from your competitors, emphasising the specific attributes or values that set your product apart.

Is your product more eco-friendly than most? Is it cheaper? Do you offer a higher level of customer service? By answering these questions, you can position yourself in the market and create a unique image for your brand that resonates with your target audience.

10. Personalisation

Personalisation refers to how you plan to tailor your marketing to individual sectors of your target market and buyer personas to resonate with them more effectively. 

In the digital age, personalisation in marketing has become easier than ever. Most search engines and social media platforms allow you to target your advertising to specific demographics, meaning you can tailor your messaging to different target audience segments.

You can also personalise your marketing messages by tailoring them to potential customers at different stages of the buying cycle, increasing your chances of conversion. For example, you can leverage email marketing and website analytics to reach out to customers who have abandoned their shopping carts and offer them a discount code.

The Value of A Marketing Mix

Clearly outlining your marketing mix through these ten elements will serve as a handy anchor to your business’s essential values and goals when developing your marketing strategy. The 10 Ps of marketing are also highly valuable if you plan on out-sourcing any of your marketing efforts or you need to pitch to investors – the 10 Ps can clearly convey the direction you want to take and how you plan to get there to any external parties.

Canberra Marketing Agency

At Futuretheory, a Canberra digital marketing agency, we’ve helped over 100 clients reach more people and drive more conversions through our website, marketing and design services. 

We pride ourselves on our strategy-backed, data-driven approach to marketing that consistently delivers tangible results to our clients across Australia. Our experienced team can take the hassle out of marketing, whether it’s through logo design, branding, SEO, copywriting, or advertising.

We also offer a comprehensive range of website services, including web design, development, hosting, and maintenance. If you need help growing your business online, defining your marketing strategy or reaching more people, contact us today.

By keeping an eye on the local news, businesses can gain valuable insights into market trends, consumer behaviour, and competitors, which can help them make informed business decisions. Being aware of local events and issues can also help businesses engage with the community more effectively, which, in turn, can help build a positive image, foster trust among local customers, and improve their overall brand reputation. 

Keeping up with the local news can also help businesses to better understand the needs and preferences of their local audience, allowing them to create more relevant content for their target audience and improve their content strategy. Here are some of the best ways to stay up to date with what’s going on around Canberra:

1. The Canberra Times

The Canberra Times is one of the most prominent newspapers in Canberra, established in 1926. They cover everything a traditional newspaper does, from international headlines to local news.  They’re a highly reliable source for breaking news in Canberra, and they cover a wide range of topics, including politics, business, sports, entertainment, and lifestyle. 

The Canberra Times is available both in print and digitally. Their digital articles are the best source for real-time and breaking news. However, access to these articles is restricted behind a paywall, and you need to subscribe to read them. Subscription starts at $4.95 per week.

2. ABC News Canberra

ABC is Australia’s national broadcaster and has dedicated news services for different regions. ABC News Canberra‘s primary focus is to deliver news that is relevant to Canberra, but it also covers the broader ACT region, including Queanbeyan, Yass, and Bungendore. 

ABC Canberra has a strong online presence, and you can also find them on TV and radio. Overall, ABC News Canberra is a valuable source of information for staying up-to-date with local developments and understanding the political landscape.

3. The RiotACT

The RiotACT is a locally owned and operated news and opinion website focusing on Canberra and surrounding regions’ news and events. The RiotACT was founded in 2000 and since then has become hugely popular thanks to its focus on independence and reader input. 

The RiotACT website has a thriving Canberra business news section, where they feature stories about entrepreneurial Canberra figures as well as news about the local economy and business openings and closures.

4. HerCanberra

HerCanberra is an online magazine that caters to women residing in Canberra. The magazine focuses on lifestyle, culture, health, and local events. In recent years, HerCanberra’s ‘Food & Drink’ section has become increasingly popular among readers. It features regular restaurant reviews and announcements of newly opened hospitality businesses in the area.

Besides food and drink, HerCanberra is also a reliable resource for information on upcoming events in Canberra. The magazine publishes a comprehensive weekly list of events happening in the city over the weekend. HerCanberra also regularly highlights local businesses in Canberra.

5. OutInCanberra

OutInCanberra is an online platform and lifestyle guide that focuses on events, entertainment, dining, and nightlife. One of the most popular features on the OutInCanberra site is its comprehensive event listings, including details about upcoming concerts, festivals, cultural events, and more.

Keeping an eye on the OutInCanberra website can provide insights into popular events, trends, and opportunities for digital marketing campaigns targeting those interested in Canberra’s social scene.

6. Canberra Weekly

Canberra Weekly is a free print magazine that’s distributed across the city on a weekly basis. You’ll often find copies of it available outside supermarkets, at local shops and community hubs. It covers a wide range of topics, including local news, events, lifestyle, entertainment, and community. 

It aims to provide a comprehensive overview of what’s happening in and around Canberra and often features grass-roots stories and profiles of Canberra residents, businesses, and events.

7. The Canberra Post

The Canberra Post is an independent local website providing ‘views and reviews’ from the Canberra Region. It offers local content, covering news and lifestyle stories from around the capital, as well as national and international issues of interest to Canberra readers.

The Canberra Post is a great place to find interesting facts about Canberra, food reviews, and suburb-specific information about local businesses.

Forums, Facebook Groups & Notice boards

While established news websites are great for finding reliable information about Canberra, the value of informal groups and forums online can’t be underestimated, especially for small businesses. They’re a great place to interact with the community directly, network with other businesses and gain local insight. 

However, make sure to check each individual group’s rules around self-promotion before you plug your business! Some groups are monetised, and you need to pay a fee before advertising.

1. Canberra Notice Board

The Canberra Noticeboard on Facebook is huge, with 148,000 members – that’s over a third of Canberra’s population. The purpose of the Canberra Notice Board Group is mainly to share information, news, and events and pose questions to the community.

Members often turn to the group for recommendations – an example of a typical post would be ‘Best place to have brunch in Canberra?’ This, combined with the large number of group members, makes it a powerful place for word-of-mouth marketing.

2. R/Canberra

Reddit is a hugely popular forum site, and Canberra has its own subreddit! It allows users to post links to local news, start a discussion, ask questions, share Canberra memes and vent about any local issues they have. It’s a great place to join in on community engagement and gauge public opinion on Canberra-related topics.

3. Local Area Community Groups

Almost every region or suburb in Canberra has at least one dedicated Facebook group. They’re a great way to tap into the community closest to your business, engage with potential customers, post updates, and promote local events.

4. Special Interest Groups

Special interest groups, like ‘Canberra Knitters and Crocheters’, for example, are a great way for Canberra businesses to reach niche target audiences locally. There’s a Canberra-centric group for almost any interest or hobby you can think of, some with thousands of members.

Finding the Facebook groups most related to your niche can help generate a loyal customer base.

5. Canberra Hospo Network

Canberra Hospo Network is a Facebook group with 17 thousand members. If you’re in the hospitality industry, joining is a must – it’s a great place to find relevant news about the Canberra hospitality industry, post job ads, and ask for advice.

6. Things On In Canberra

Things On In Canberra allows users to promote and discover local events around Canberra, like small business markets, live music, and community get-togethers. If you’re hosting an event or running a promotion for your business, it’s an ideal opportunity to reach a wide range of people and drum up excitement – the group has almost 40,000 members!.

Trying To Reach More People In Canberra?

At Futuretheory, we’re passionate about helping other small Canberra businesses grow forward online through marketing, websites, and design. We offer knowledge of the local market and friendly, personal support. We understand what it means to be a Canberra business and all the unique challenges it carries.

As a Canberra-born digital marketing agency, we’ve been helping Canberra businesses reach more people since 2008. We have a lot of trust and belief in Canberra and the potential it provides for growth and prosperity. Helping businesses realise this potential is why we do what we do.

Contact us to discuss how we can help you – whether it’s through our digital marketing services, creating a website for your business, or consulting and training.

Web Design Canberra 

Our experienced team of web designers knows how to balance beauty and function perfectly. The key tenants of our website design process are:

• Fully responsive: A  responsive design is guaranteed when you work with us. All of the websites we deliver are fully functional on mobile devices, not just desktops.
• Completely custom websites: We design websites that reflect your brand, and we never use premade templates, so your website looks completely distinctive.
• Search engine optimisation friendly: Web design can affect your search ranking. That’s why we use the WordPress Content Management System (CMS), which allows us to ensure your website is search engine optimised every step of the design process.

The end result of following these principles are websites that are not only visually stunning but align with your branding and help your business drive forward its goals. It’s this dedication and professionalism that has earned us a reputation as one of the highest recommended companies offering website design Canberra has to offer.

WordPress Web Development Services

Since 2008, we’ve built WordPress websites for both large and small businesses across Australia. Thanks to this experience, we’ve been able to fine-tune our website development process down to an art along the way. We develop awesome websites that work beautifully across all devices with a user-friendly layout that loads quickly.

Crucially, our websites are also intuitive to use and easy to manage and edit. During website development, we make it a priority to build a user-friendly backend that makes it easier for our clients to regularly update and maintain their sites without hassle. 

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) That Offers A Competitive Advantage

Also called Search Engine Marketing, our SEO campaigns are designed to help your website appear higher on search engine result pages (SERPs) on Google so you can connect with more potential customers. Our team understands that an efficient, well-thought-out strategy does more than just include keywords in your content. Instead, our efforts look at your website holistically, from the structure of your site to the user experience and page speed. The end result of this technical and content-based approach is long-term, steady SEO success that boosts your website’s overall visibility.

Affordable WordPress Website Maintenance & Management

Our website maintenance services offer you peace of mind that your website is consistently secure, fast and up to date for a fair price. Our team gathers their WordPress expertise to ensure your website works as a 24/7 asset to promote your business and has a high level of security and all the latest updates. This means you can sit back and focus on the other aspects of your business, knowing your website is in good hands. 

Web Hosting Tailored To Our Canberra Clients

We offer highly reliable website hosting with a 99.9% uptime guarantee, unlimited bandwidth and free SSL certificates. Additionally, our web hosting servers are located in Canberra – this means faster loading times for your target audience and, ultimately, a better user experience and higher SERP ranking.

Looking For Reliable Canberra Website Services?

If you’re in the market for a Canberra agency that you can rely on to do a great job, no matter your requirements, send us an enquiry today for an obligation-free quote. We offer site hosting, maintenance, development and design services for small and established businesses, and we’re flexible working with a range of budgets. We also offer digital marketing services, including Google Ads, social media, and email marketing.

In this article, we’ll explain exactly what internet cookies are, how cookies work, and go over some common concerns cookies raise surrounding privacy and security.

The Basics of How Internet Cookies Work

Internet cookies, also known as magic cookies, are small pieces of data that websites store on your browser after you visit the site. Cookies can improve your online experience by ensuring you don’t have to enter data like your username and password or your location more than once.

Online advertisers use cookies to track your online browsing habits and history and use this data to create more targeted ads. While this does increase the personal relevance of the ads you see online, some people consider cookie usage a violation of user privacy.

The Functional Role of Internet Cookies

Understanding the functional role internet cookies play online is important knowledge for both site owners and internet users alike and will help de-mystify them. Here are some of the important functions internet cookies serve:

1. User Authentication

When you log into a website, the browser stores your details and user authentication thanks to web cookies. This ensures you don’t have to input your username and password every single time you visit a site, and you stay logged in as you navigate through different pages.

2. Personalisation and User Preferences

Cookies store information about your preferences and settings on a website. This allows for a personalised experience, such as remembering language preferences, location, or specific content preferences. The cookies stored help tailor the content to your liking every time you revisit a website.

3. Session Management

Cookies can be used for session management by assigning a unique identifier to recognise a user’s session. Such cookies are temporary and are automatically deleted once you close your web browser. They help websites identify individual users, which is important for dynamic websites that require information from prior interactions to provide a personalised and seamless experience.

4. Online Shopping Ease Of Use

On online shopping websites, websites commonly use cookies to store information about the items in a user’s shopping cart. This means the items you choose to purchase will remain in your cart even as you navigate through different pages or proceed to checkout.

5. Website Analytics

Cookies can provide valuable data for website analytics by tracking information like a user’s browsing activity, pages visited, the duration of the visit, and interaction patterns. This data is valuable for website owners to understand user preferences and optimise the site’s content and structure, creating a better user experience.

6. Targeted Ads

Advertisers use third-party cookies to track users across different websites. This allows for targeted advertising based on a user’s browsing history, preferences, and interests. While this can enhance the relevance of ads, it also raises privacy concerns.

7. Form Auto-Fill

Web browsers like Google Chrome use cookies to fill out online forms automatically. When a user’s web browser saves information such as their full name, email, and address, they don’t have to manually fill out this information whenever they create a new account on a website or complete a web form, saving time and effort.

8. Form Auto-Fill

Cookies enable cross-site functionality, allowing different pages or components of a website to communicate with each other. These cookies help maintain a consistent user experience across different sections of a site.

9. Security Measures

Cookies are often used to store security tokens, such as session tokens or cross-site request forgery (CSRF) tokens. By storing tokens in cookies, websites can easily verify the legitimacy of requests, improving a website’s overall security.

The Origin and Purpose of Internet Cookies

Network engineer Lou Montulli invented HTTP cookies in 1994 and called them the ‘magic cookie’. Prior to this, websites couldn’t recognise a visitor from one visit to the next and had no way to store information like user preferences or password details. This means users would have to enter this information and configure their preferences every single time they revisit a site.

Montuilli, recognising the problem, implemented the idea of cookies by creating a small piece of data that could be stored on the user’s computer. This data, sent from the web server to the user’s browser, would then be included in subsequent requests to the same server.

Cookies were widely adopted in a short time, revolutionising the way we interact with websites today. Since 1994, however, internet cookies have evolved significantly, and there are now dozens of different types – some of which raise more privacy concerns than others.

First-Party Cookies vs Third-Party Cookies

All types of cookies can be categorised as either first-party or third-party cookies. Before we explain the multiple different types of cookies, let’s go over what a third-party cookie and a first-party cookie are.

First-Party Cookies

First-party cookies are directly controlled by the website owner and are mainly used to improve the user experience by storing session information and remembering user preferences. Users can control first-party cookies through their web browser settings. Compared to third-party cookies, first-party cookies are considered less intrusive.

Third-Party Cookies

Third-party cookies, on the other hand, originate from a domain other than the one the user is currently visiting. Third-party cookies are often used by external services (advertisers, analytics providers, social media platforms) to track user activity across multiple sites and deliver targeted content or services. It’s for this reason that they’re often referred to as tracking cookies.

Third-party cookies, especially in the context of online advertising, are often the centre of debates about privacy concerns as they track users across various websites. However, many web browsers like Internet Explorer offer third-party cookie blocking, so users can opt out entirely if they choose.

Google Chrome has plans to phase out the use of third-party cookies completely by January 2024 for the sake of user privacy.

The Different Types of Internet Cookies

Internet cookies have come a long way over the years, and as we explained above, they do a lot more than just remember your username and password. Here are just some of the different types of cookies:

1. Session Cookies

Session cookies play a crucial role in helping websites identify and remember users’ information as they browse. Session cookies are also known as temporary cookies, as they only store details of a user’s activities while they are on the website, and the session cookie gets deleted once the browsing session ends.

2. Persistent Cookies

Persistent cookies store user preferences and actions for an extended period, even after the user exits the web page and closes their web browser. Persistent cookies are used for long-term tracking, storing login credentials, and personalising content.

Persistent cookies help users by making their browsing experience more seamless, and they help digital marketers by allowing them to track their target audience’s online browsing habits.

Even though they linger a lot longer than session cookies, a persistent cookie does have an expiration date. On Chrome, for example, persistent cookies can’t have an expiration date longer than 400 days.

3. Performance Cookies

Performance cookies, which are also known as analytics cookies, are a type of browser cookie that collects information on how users engage with a website and other site data. The primary purpose of performance cookies is to gather data related to the website’s performance and user engagement. 

The information obtained from user sessions through performance cookies is then used to analyse and improve the website’s functionality, speed, and ease of use. This enables website owners to identify areas that need improvement and make necessary changes to improve the user experience.

4. Functional Cookies

Functional cookies, also known as essential cookies, are a specific type of cookie that a website requires to work properly. Essential cookies, unlike other cookies, are not used for tracking or targeting purposes. Instead, they offer fundamental features on the website like load distribution across different web servers to improve performance. They’re often exempt from certain cookie consent requirements.

5. Targeting Cookies

Advertising cookies, often called tracking cookies, are a type of internet cookie that is used to track user activity across websites and build profiles based on their online behaviour. Targeting cookies aim to deliver personalised ads and content to users based on their interests, preferences, and browsing habits.

Targeting cookies play a key role in ad retargeting campaigns for online shopping websites. After a user visits a web page, targeting cookies can be used to display related ads to that user when they visit other websites.

6. Flash Cookies vs. Traditional Browser Cookies

Flash cookies, also known as super cookies or computer cookies, are independent of the web browser. Instead, they’re designed to be permanently stored on a user’s computer instead of a user’s browser. While they share some similarities with traditional browser cookies, they have notable differences in terms of technology, control, and storage.

Browser cookies are typically stored in the cookie folder of the browser cache. Users can view and manage these cookies through their browser preferences and settings. Flash cookies, on the other hand, are installed on the user’s device. These types of cookies remain on a user’s device even after all cookies have been deleted from their browser.

7. Zombie Cookies

Zombie cookies, also known as evercookies, are a type of persistent cookie designed to be highly resistant to deletion. Unlike regular cookies that users can delete through browser settings, zombie cookies work by persistently recreating themselves even after a user has attempted to remove them.

This persistence can make them challenging for users to eliminate and has raised privacy concerns thanks to their ability to track users across different sessions without clear consent.

Privacy Concerns Related to Internet Cookies

The convenience and personalisation internet cookies offer come hand in hand with growing privacy concerns from users and regulatory bodies. Understanding these privacy concerns and how cookies work is essential for site owners to stay in line with regulations around web cookies and user satisfaction.

1. Tracking And Profiling

Internet cookies, especially third-party cookies, are often used to track user browsing habits. These tracking cookies allow marketers and advertisers to create user profiles with detailed insights into individual online behaviour. While this data is mostly used for targeted advertising, it raises concerns about the extent of personal information being amassed without explicit user consent.

2. Invasive Targeting

Internet cookies allow for highly targeted advertising with content tailored to individual preferences. However, this personalisation can feel intrusive when users are inundated with targeted ads that seem to be a little too intuitive. This poses a challenge for advertisers: striking a balance between providing personalised content that increases conversions and maintaining user comfort.

3. User Consent and Transparency

Many users may not be fully aware of the types of cookies in use on websites they visit. Privacy regulations, such as the EU E-Privacy Directive, emphasise the importance of transparent communication about third-party cookie usage and the need for explicit user consent. Websites are required to provide clear information on the purpose of cookies and offer users the ability to block cookies.

4. Data Breach Concerns

The accumulation of vast amounts of user data through cookies makes websites potential targets for cyber threats. In the event of a data breach, sensitive information that cookies track and store, such as login credentials, credit card details and personal preferences stored in cookies, could be exposed.

This has led to the common fear that cookies steal passwords. It’s important for websites using cookies to have robust security measures in place to stop this from happening.

Data Protection Laws Related To Cookies

The user privacy concerns and security risks associated with internet cookies, especially third-party cookies, have led to laws and regulations being put in place to protect users. This includes the ePrivacy Directive, which was introduced in the European Union (EU) in 2001 and further amended in 2009.

As part of the directive, consent is required before advertisers can collect or store any personal data. This means website owners must inform users of the cookies they use and how they will be used, unless they’re essential cookies for the website to function properly.

Website owners also have to provide the option to block third-party cookies, and make the process as user-friendly and clearly accessible as possible.

Internet Cookie Regulations in Australia

Australia doesn’t have any specific regulatory guidance related to cookies. However, website owners using cookies must comply with the Australian Privacy Act of 1988 and the Privacy Legislation Amendment Act introduced in late 2022.

These Acts mean that websites need to obtain content from users if they’re collecting any personal information through cookies that involves sensitive personal information like data related to health, race, criminal record, or sexual orientation.

Even though it’s not strictly necessary for most websites in Australia to gain consent before collecting cookies, it’s generally considered best practice to have a cookie pop-up explaining the uses of cookies on the website and give users the option to either accept cookies or block cookies.

How to Manage Internet Cookies On Your Website

As a responsible website owner or site administrator, knowing how to manage cookies on your website is important for respecting user privacy and complying with any relevant data protection regulations. Implementing transparent and user-friendly practices around cookies will increase the trust users have in your website. Here[‘s how to manage first-party and third-party cookies effectively on your website:

1. The Importance Of A Clear Cookie Policy

Having a clear, easily accessible cookie policy is widely considered best practice for websites today and will ensure you’re in line with any privacy regulations. Trust and transparency go hand in hand, and your cookie policy should reflect this.

This policy should detail the types of cookies used, their purposes, and how users can control or opt out of cookie tracking. Your cookie policy should also be easy to find. Common places to link cookie policies are in the cookie consent pop-up and website footer.

2. Have A Responsive and Clear Consent Mechanism

You should obtain explicit consent from users before placing cookies. Use banners, pop-ups, or overlays to inform users of cookies and prompt them to make choices regarding cookie acceptance.

It’s also important to make sure your cookie consent mechanism is responsive across all devices and screen sizes – This will ensure a consistent and user-friendly experience for visitors accessing your website from different platforms.

3. Consider Granular Cookie Controls

If you want to provide users with as much agency as possible, you should consider offering users granular control of their cookie preferences. This allows them to choose which types of cookies they consent to.

This might mean they accept first-party cookies but decline third-party cookies or only accept temporary session cookies rather than persistent cookies. This empowers users to tailor their experience based on their privacy preferences when accepting cookies.

4. Know Third-Parties Well

If your website uses a third-party service that collects cookies or monitors users’ online activity, you should clearly communicate this to users in your Cookie Policy, ensure that these third parties adhere to privacy standards, and provide information on how users can manage their preferences for these cookies.

How Cookies Impact Website Performance

Cookies can have a significant impact on web performance – every time you make a request to a web server for an object, like an HTML file, a CSS file, or an image, the browser will send the cookie in the request to the server.

This can slow down your website – especially if your cookies are large. While the size of cookies is normally small, having multiple cookies and repeated requests have a cumulative effect on your website’s speed. This can, in turn, affect user experience and your search engine ranking – check out our article about why website speed affects SEO to learn more.

To strike a balance between user personalisation and optimised performance, you should carefully consider the types and quantity of cookies on your website.

Using Internet Cookies With Care

From seamless logins to better insights into online activity, internet cookies are a powerful tool that play a huge role in how we use modern web browsers and advertise online. However, as with any powerful tool, responsible and mindful usage is crucial.

Using internet cookies with care isn’t just best practice – it’s a commitment to responsible digital engagement. By respecting privacy and maintaining transparency, website owners can still provide a personalised experience and gather valuable data while still fostering trust.

In this article, we’ll explore the importance of website loading speed and provide practical tips to test and improve it.

Why Is Website Loading Speed Important?

One of the most essential metrics for site performance is page load time. In many ways, your website’s speed is also a business metric – the faster your website loads, the more of a competitive advantage you’ll have online. 

Some reasons why website loading speed is important include:

1. A Fast Website Means Better SEO
2. First Impressions Count
3. Better UX, Better Conversion rates
4. Reduced Bounce Rate

A Fast Website Means Better SEO

Loading performance data is an essential part of Google’s core web vitals. These core web vitals are a set of metrics that measure the real-world experience of users. Google highly favours websites that provide a positive user experience and uses core web vitals, like web page loading time, as one of the many factors it uses to rank websites on the search engine results page (SERP).

Web pages that load quickly are more likely to rank higher in search results, which helps to improve the visibility of your site and attract more organic traffic. This can ultimately enhance your online presence and business success.

First Impressions Count

Internet users today have very little patience for slow load times. If your web pages take too long to load, users will click off before waiting around to see your content and what your business has to offer them. The statistics back this up – 40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load, according to a study from Kissmetrics.

If they do wait around, slow page load times might leave a sour taste in their mouth. A fast, fully responsive, well-designed website is the best way to leave a positive impression on users and keep them engaged.

Better UX, Better Conversion rates

Website speed and UX are closely tied. The faster your website loads, the more smooth and enjoyable the experience is for visitors. If people who visit your website find it easy to navigate, can access information quickly, and interact with your site with no delays, they’ll be much happier users.

A happy user is more likely to engage with your content, learn more about what you offer, and ultimately become a customer. Whether your goal is to sell products, generate leads, or encourage certain actions, faster load times can positively impact your conversion rate.

Reduced Bounce Rate

Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors that leave your site after only visiting one page. According to a test run by Pingdom, a website speed-testing tool, web pages that only took 2 seconds to load had a bounce rate of only 6%, whereas an 8-second web page load time brought the bounce rate up 59%.

This further backs up that a quick site leads to higher conversion rates. If users aren’t sticking around because your site’s speed isn’t up to standards, they’ll move on to the next. This is why page speed is especially important if you’re running an e-commerce website that accounts for the majority of your revenue.

How Fast Your Web Page Load Time Should Be

According to a 2023 study from Tooltester, the average web page load time is 2.5 seconds on desktop and 8.6 seconds on mobile websites. This is a good benchmark to aim for when it comes to page load speed – however, asking how fast a web page should load is like asking how fast you should run to win a 100-metre sprint. The answer is, faster than your competitors!

While many sources around the web say Google’s ideal page speed is under 2 seconds, we haven’t found anything that substantiates Google saying this. In our experience, Australian websites should aim to load in under 5 seconds, ideally in around 3 seconds.

How Is Web Page Speed Measured?

First, it’s important to explain what website speed is. Generally, website speed refers to the time it takes for a web page to load completely and become interactive for visitors once they have clicked on a link or entered a website’s URL.

However, website speed is more intricate than that. Page load time is only one metric that contributes to a bigger picture. Here are the other factors web developers use to determine a website’s speed:

Time to First Byte (TTFB) is the time it takes for a browser to receive the first byte of data from the web server. It indicates how quickly the server responds when a user sends a request.

First Contentful Paint (FCP) measures the time it takes for the first content element, such as text or images, to be displayed on a web page. It’s an essential metric for assessing the perceived loading speed.

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) measures the loading time of the largest content element on a page. This could be an image, video, or other significant content. It indicates when the most critical part of the page becomes visible to the user.

Time to Interactive (TTI) measures when a web page becomes fully interactive, allowing users to interact with all elements and features without delays.

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) assesses how stable the content layout is during loading. A lower CLS score means less visual instability during the loading process.

The above factors are what web developers and website owners work to optimise when trying to improve a website’s performance and page speed.

How To Do A Website Speed Test

Before we get into how to improve your site’s performance and speed, the first step is to see what your page load time is currently through website speed tests. A website speed test will help you see if there’s room for improvement and find any bottlenecks or issues that might negatively affect your loading speed.

Free Online Tools

There are lots of free and paid tools available that let you measure your website speed and website performance trends. Pingdom website speed test is one of our favourites. It allows you to test your site’s load time from three different locations, gives your site’s performance a score and highlights areas for improvement. You can select ‘Advanced Configuration’ to customise your test to your website’s needs.

If you want to try a few different tools, check out our list of our three favourite website speed tests. We go over the pros and cons of each website speed test so you can decide for yourself which works best for your needs.

Test More Than Just Page Speed

It’s important to not just test the speed of one single web page on the desktop version of your site, as this doesn’t paint the full picture of your website’s performance trends. Here are four essential tests you need to run as well:

Cross-Browser Speed Tests

Different web browsers may render your website differently, which can affect loading times. For example, your page load time might be respectable on Google Chrome but dismal on Microsoft Edge or Safari. Testing your website speed across different browsers and the latest browser versions can help you ensure a consistent user experience for all users.

Cross-Device Speed Tests

According to Statista, as of November 2023, over 55% of website traffic comes from mobile devices. If your website takes a long time to fully load on mobile devices, you risk alienating over half the people who visit your website. Make sure you run a speed test for all different devices to make sure your load time is up to scratch across the board!

Individual Page Load Time Tests

Don’t forget to conduct a speed test of the individual web pages on your site. While your landing page might load in under 3 seconds, vital pages like your ‘book now’ or ‘shop’ pages might have a much slower page speed because of added functionalities. This is essential to check, as these pages often impact conversion rates the most!

Website Speed By User Location

Different users might experience a very different load speed based on their location. Testing your website’s performance from various locations will help you optimise it for the locations that matter the most. You can do this by choosing a speed test that allows you to choose different server locations.

Consider Ongoing Monitoring Services

It’s not enough to do a website speed test just once. Your page load time can change at any point due to server issues or increased traffic. You should conduct website monitoring regularly to ensure consistency and do a range of different tests to ensure your core web vitals are always strong.

Common Reasons Why You Have A Slow Website

There are a lot of reasons why your site might have a slow load speed, but these are the most common reasons for slow page speed:

High Traffic

Experiencing a sudden surge in user visits can create a lot of stress on your server, leading to slow page loading times or even crashes. This is why it’s essential to have a hosting plan that can accommodate traffic spikes to prevent speed drops.

When considering your hosting plan, it’s vital to consider the amount of traffic your website expects to receive and the resources required for optimal performance during peak traffic times. A scalable hosting plan that can adjust to traffic fluctuations may be a wise investment to ensure that your website remains fast and accessible even under strain.

Too Many Images

Too many large image files can significantly reduce page performance. A simple configuration you can make to improve page load speed is compressing images as much as you can without compromising quality.

Make sure you’re not overdoing it with too much imagery, either. Sometimes, less is more, and ensuring your page’s content doesn’t have too many images will make your site faster.

Too Many Plugins

Too many site plugins can also slow down your average page load time. This is especially true if you have a WordPress website – the huge availability of free plugins makes it easy to go overboard.

While plugins are great for adding useful functions to your website, if you want to reduce page load times, it’s worthwhile minimising the number of plugins you have installed and only keeping the essential.

Poor Server Response Time

Even if you’re doing everything right on your end, the buck often stops at your web host when it comes to page speed and overall site performance. This can occur due to inadequate server resources or technical issues on the server side, resulting in slow server response times.

Consider upgrading to a more powerful server or hosting plan if this happens. Moreover, ensure that your server configurations are optimised to meet the specific needs of your website. This will enable you to eliminate bottlenecks and improve website performance.

Unsuitable Server Location

If your web host’s servers are too far away from the majority of users accessing your site, it can lead to increased latency and slower loading times for users in different regions. Make sure your web host has servers close to your target audience to prevent this and improve site response time. This is one of the most important things to look for when choosing a web host if you want a fast-loading site.

Too Many Ads

Excessive or poorly optimised ads significantly impact your website’s performance and page size, causing slower loading times. You should limit the number of ads on your site if possible, optimise ad sizes, and use asynchronous loading for ads to prevent them from obstructing the rendering of the page.

Asynchronous loading refers to the process where ads load in the background, meaning users don’t have to wait for the ads to load for the page to fully load. This can improve page speed and overall user experience.

Code Density

If you’ve already fixed the above issues and still have a slow page speed and input delay, bloated or inefficient code might be the culprit. To fix this, you should regularly review and clean up your website’s code by removing unnecessary elements and ‘minifying’ the code.

You can do this by eliminating unnecessary spaces, line breaks, and comments from your HTML files, CSS files or Javascript files. Doing so will reduce their size and improve website performance. There are plenty of online tools available and build processes that can automatically minify code during development to prevent this issue!

Outdated Content Management System (CMS)

Not updating your CMS regularly can impact how your site performs, including page speed. If you’re using an outdated version of your CMS or haven’t run updates recently, you could be missing out on crucial security patches and performance optimisations. These performance updates can enhance code efficiency, database queries, and overall resource utilisation, significantly improving page speed.

By keeping your CMS updated, you can ensure that your website takes advantage of the latest speed, security, and performance advancements!

How To Improve Your Website Load Time

Now that you’ve got a clear picture of why a fast-loading website is so important and the most common reasons for slow speeds, here are some more improvements you can make to improve your site speed:

Optimise with Google PageSpeed Insights

Google Pagespeed Insights is your best friend if you’re trying to increase your website’s speed. It provides a comprehensive analysis of your website performance data and core web vitals and diagnoses any performance issues. Crucially, Google Pagespeed Insights also gives you a list of recommended improvements to make.

Implementing these recommended improvements is a great first step to improving your core web vitals and your site’s speed!

Revisit Your Website Host and Plan

As we mentioned above, your web host could be to blame for slow page load time. Your web host can also affect SEO and a range of other website performance metrics. 

That’s why choosing a web host with an uptime guarantee, hosting plans that can scale with your needs, and high-quality servers is imperative. Overall, a reliable web host can improve page load times, enhance user experience, and boost your website’s SERP ranking.

Use A Content Delivery Network

A content delivery network (CDN) is a network of servers that delivers website content to users based on their geographic location. CDNs are used to improve website speed and browsing experience by providing faster and more reliable content delivery, along with security and other performance benefits.

CDNs have multiple servers worldwide, and when a user accesses your website, their request is redirected to the closest server in the CDN rather than the origin server where the website is hosted. The result is much faster website loading speeds for users far from the origin server.

CDNs also use load balancing to distribute traffic across multiple servers. This ensures that no single server is overloaded, optimising resource utilisation and maintaining consistent website performance even during high-traffic periods.

If you’re running a website that needs to reach users across the globe and support high traffic levels, using a CDN is essential to ensure your website performs well.

Looking To Improve Your Website’s Speed and Performance?

Futuretheory is a Canberra digital marketing agency specialising in websites, marketing and design. We understand the positive impact of fast loading times on a website’s user experience and increasing conversions, and we always make it a top priority when we’re developing, designing or hosting websites for our clients.

Over the past 15 years, we’ve developed an extensive knowledge of best website practices and have passed the benefits down to over 100 clients across Australia, helping them grow their online presence through strategy-driven, data-backed website solutions.

If we sound like the agency for you, contact us for an obligation-free quote. You can also browse through our work to see how we’ve helped other businesses in a wide range of fields.

If you’re looking to hire a copywriter to help improve your marketing strategy, understanding all the variants in the copywriting field can help you pick a copywriting strategy that aligns with your business objectives. Most professional copywriters excel at one or two types of copywriting, but you’ll soon learn why few can do it all.

In this article, we’ll review the core types of copywriting services available on the market today. From SEO copywriting, aimed at boosting search engine visibility, to direct response copywriting, designed to elicit a specific response from the reader, and brand copywriting, which focuses on crafting a brand’s identity and message – we’ll give you an in-depth overview of each type so that you can make an informed decision on which one best suits your business goals.

If you need a rundown on copywriting before we get started, check out our article explaining what copy is.

Sales Copywriting

Sales copy is a critical component of marketing and advertising material. It includes any type of copy designed to persuade the audience to take action, whether it’s making a purchase, subscribing to a mailing list, or clicking a link – essentially any action that increases sales or drives forward other business goals.

Sales writing is also often referred to as sales letters. The key to effectively delivering this type of copywriting is a concise and persuasive writing style that serves to grab the reader’s attention and hold it.

Sales Page Copywriting

For sales page copy to have the desired outcomes, it’s essential that the writer has a deep understanding of their target audience. This allows sales copywriters to tailor the wording to the target audience’s wants, needs, and pain points. By doing so, a successful copywriter can make the copy more relevant and compelling, increasing their chances of converting the audience to paying customers.

Application of Sales Copywriting

Sales copy is used in a multitude of different advertising and marketing campaigns, including online sales pages, radio commercials, product descriptions, and video sales letters.

SEO Copywriting

The success of a website today depends heavily on how well it’s optimised for search engines, and how far up a search engine results page your website appears – that’s where SEO copywriting comes in. It’s a highly specialised type of copywriting that involves a delicate balancing act between writing high-quality content that’s engaging and valuable for human readers, while still including as many relevant keywords as possible to rank higher on the search engine results page.

The Challenge of SEO Copywriting

Considering that most people don’t look beyond the first few search results on Google, let alone the second page, an effective SEO strategy is essential to getting your website in the eyes of potential customers. Add in the competition and increased push from Google for advertisers to do paid advertisements in search engine results pages (SERPs), and you’re suddenly fighting on two fronts – organic competition and paid advertisements. This is why good SEO copywriting, and marketing copywriting in general, is important.

Elements of SEO Copywriting

SEO copywriting projects require a few distinct elements, including a clear strategy, extensive keyword research, time, and expertise. While the results aren’t instant and SEO copywriting requires regular updating to stay fresh, hiring a professional SEO copywriter can make a huge difference to your ranking on search engines and your overall profits.

SEO copywriting might include the landing page of your website and any other website pages, as well as a blog post, product pages, and any other digital marketing materials. SEO copywriting usually requires the use of tools like the Google keyword planner, Surferseo, or WordPress SEO plugins.

Direct Response Copywriting

If the goal of a marketing campaign is to prompt immediate action from potential customers, direct response copywriting is the answer. Direct response marketing and copy are designed to prompt potential customers to take immediate action, whether it’s making a purchase, following your social media channels, or contacting you. This is the ‘direct response’ you’re trying to elicit from your audience.

Types of Direct Response Copywriting

This could be through direct mail, social media posts, sales pages, a Facebook ad or your more traditional marketing assets – no matter what the format, eliciting action through direct response copywriting can help achieve better outcomes.

As with many of the other types of copywriting on the list, knowing your target audience and how to best motivate them to take the next step after reading your content is the key to direct response copywriting. Direct response copywriting follows the AIDCA principle, which stands for ‘attention, interest, conviction, desire and action.’

It can be hard to incorporate all five things in a concise and entertaining way without being too transparent, but that skill is the essence of direct response copywriting.

Hiring freelance copywriters with great direct response copywriting skills can result in a huge jump in conversions and website traffic. Overall, direct response sales copy is hugely valuable for your marketing efforts.

Social Media Copywriting

Social media copywriting is a highly specialised type of copywriting that involves content writing for social media marketing posts that serve as the foundation of a social media marketing campaign. While the concept itself is pretty self-explanatory, social media copywriting comes with its own distinct set of rules and challenges.

The competition on social media platforms is fierce, and every word in the copy matters, particularly given the limited word count. Social media copywriters need to excel at crafting content with a few distinct elements: Similar to brand copywriting, communicating in a concise, engaging, and visually appealing all while incorporating a clear call to action is the goal.

Social media copywriting means the writer has to tailor their writing style to the platform they are writing for and the intended audience. Additionally, they should be skilled in writing for various social media formats, such as posts, stories, product descriptions, and ads.

The Challenge of Social Media Copywriting

All up, social media copywriting is a challenging task that requires creativity, attention to detail, and the ability to capture the reader’s attention within seconds. Marketing copy for social media has to be compelling enough to entice the audience to take action, such as clicking a link or making a purchase.

The constantly changing algorithms on each platform and rapidly moving social media trends also mean social media copywriting experts need to continually refine their skills to stay ahead of the competition and deliver the desired results for their clients: a loyal social media following, higher click-through rate, and more sales.

Email Marketing Copywriting

Email marketing campaigns and newsletters are important tools for businesses to communicate with their audience and promote their products or services. However, simply sending an email isn’t enough to guarantee success. Quality email copywriting is essential for the effectiveness of any email campaign.

Ensuring Your Emails Stand Out

Most people receive an overwhelming number of promotional emails in their inboxes every day. Email copywriting needs to be crafty and persuasive right from the subject line to ensure that your emails stand out from the crowd. The subject line is the first thing that the reader sees, and it needs to be interesting enough to encourage them to open the email.

The body of the email also needs to be carefully crafted to keep the reader engaged. The message should be structured in a way that is easy to read and understand. The language used should be simple and persuasive, encouraging the reader to take the desired action, such as clicking through to your website or making a purchase.

In conclusion, quality email copywriting is crucial for the success of any email marketing campaign or newsletter. This type of copywriting requires attention to detail, creativity, and a deep understanding of the audience. With the right approach, email copywriting can help businesses communicate with their audience and achieve their marketing goals effectively.

Technical Copywriting

Technical copywriting is a specialised skill that involves taking complex and technical information and presenting it in a way that is easily digestible for a broad audience. The goal of technical copywriting is to transform complex topics into clear, concise, and engaging content that any reader can understand.

Technical writing can be challenging because it requires the writer to have a thorough grasp of the topic they are writing about. They have to be able to break down complex ideas into simple, understandable language that is accessible to a general audience. Excellent communication skills and the ability to convey technical information in an engaging and interesting way is key.

Attention To Detail

Technical copywriting also requires strong attention to detail and the ability to organise information logically and coherently. The writer must also have a good understanding of the audience and be able to adapt their writing style to suit their needs. Overall, it’s a skill that plays a vital role in making complex topics accessible and understandable to a broader audience.

B2B Copywriting

B2B is a type of copywriting that focuses on creating persuasive and informative content tailored to the unique needs and dynamics of business interactions. In B2B transactions, the audience consists of other businesses rather than individual consumers. B2B copywriters play a crucial role in building strong business relationships and conveying value to other enterprises.

For this type of copywriting, writers need industry knowledge and to be well-versed in writing in a professional tone. It often includes educational content that addresses complex topics or provides in-depth information. Whitepapers, proposals, case studies, and reports are common formats B2B copywriters use.

A Unique Form of Marketing Copywriting

B2B copywriting often aims to generate leads from other businesses, so copywriters in this field have to be good at communicating Unique Value Propositions (UVPs). They need to be able to effectively communicate how a product or service can solve specific business problems, improve processes, or enhance productivity. In this way, B2B copywriting has a lot of overlap with outbound marketing copywriting.

The ultimate goal is to facilitate mutually beneficial partnerships and transactions. This form of copywriting serves as a bridge between businesses, effectively conveying the value proposition and expertise of one business to another.

By creating content that speaks directly to the needs, goals, and challenges of other businesses, B2B copywriters play a pivotal role in driving business-to-business success and fostering long-lasting professional relationships with business customers.

Content Marketing

Content copywriting for content marketing is one of the most popular types of copywriting. It’s all about educating and entertaining your target audience through inbound marketing and includes elements of leadership copywriting or thought leadership copywriting. It involves creating engaging and informative content such as blog posts, articles, and educational materials.

This form of content writing focuses on providing value to the reader, establishing authority, and building trust. Establishing authority can also be done through thought leadership copywriting on social media platforms. However, this can also be achieved through content marketing.

Web content marketing is highly useful for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) – having informative and useful content on your website is a great way to improve User Experience (UX) and naturally include relevant keywords in your website copywriting.

Creative Copywriting

Creative copywriting is often found in advertising campaigns. It uses storytelling, humour, and wordplay to create memorable and engaging content. The goal is to leave a lasting impression on your audience and increase brand memorability.

It’s especially useful for online ads and marketing copywriting- if you manage to craft an ad that your audience wants to share with their friends because it’s funny, that’s a lot more eyes on your business.

Video marketing and even radio commercials are two other forms of copywriting that can be considered marketing copywriting or digital copywriting. While both video marketing and radio commercials have visual and audio elements, ad copywriting through the script underpins the whole marketing campaign and can then be applied across other channels of a marketing campaign.

Brand Copywriting, Communicating Who You Are

Building and maintaining a successful brand identity can be a daunting task, requiring a deep understanding of your target audience, competitors, and market trends. One of the key elements of creating a strong brand identity is brand copywriting, which involves crafting purposeful and impactful content that resonates with your audience.

Brand copywriting encompasses a wide range of elements, including your brand’s tagline, business name, product descriptions, and the tone and language of your marketing materials. From the moment a potential customer comes into contact with your brand, copywriting plays a crucial role in shaping their perception of your business. It communicates your brand’s values, personality, and unique selling proposition in a way that captures attention and inspires action.

What is Brand Copywriting Communicating?

The power of effective brand copywriting cannot be overstated. It is a key factor in building brand recognition, loyalty, and differentiation. By creating consistent, compelling, and memorable content, you can establish your brand as a leader in your industry and build a loyal following of customers who identify with your brand’s values and message.

Public Relations Copywriting

Creating a positive image of your business is the main goal of public relations (PR) copywriting. Public relations copywriting aims to help you shape public perception, build trust, and manage your reputation. It’s an essential tool for businesses that want to establish themselves as industry leaders and gain the trust of their target audience.

How Can Public Relations Copywriting Help?

In today’s social media-driven world, a single misstep can quickly turn into a PR disaster. That’s where a PR copywriter comes in handy. They can help you navigate the complex world of social media and create a positive image for your business. They can also craft compelling press releases that announce major changes or new products that your business is bringing to the market.

Writing a press release that captures the attention of journalists and editors requires an understanding of strict editorial guidelines. Someone experienced in this type of copywriting can ensure that your press release meets these standards and gets as much visibility as possible. With their help, you can increase the chances of your press release being picked up by media outlets and reaching a broader audience.

UX Copywriting

The primary objective of a UX copywriter is to create content that facilitates a smooth and seamless user experience across the digital interface. This involves incorporating user-friendly language, clear and concise messaging, and intuitive navigation to guide users through the website.

Improve Your Website’s Performance

Good UX copywriting creates a positive and user-centric experience that not only keeps users engaged but also helps them accomplish their tasks efficiently. It involves taking into account the user’s needs and preferences and designing content that resonates with them.

Effective UX copywriting can also have a positive impact on a website’s ranking on search engines by keeping users engaged and on the site for longer periods of time, which leads to higher user retention rates.

Ad Copywriting

Ad copywriting, also known as marketing copywriting, is a type of copywriting that involves creating persuasive and attention-grabbing content for advertisements. Whether it’s digital ads, print ads, billboards, or TV commercials, ad copywriters are the masters of capturing the audience’s attention and motivating them to take a specific action, such as making a purchase, signing up, or clicking through to a website.

Effective ad copy often leverages emotional triggers to connect with the audience. It can evoke emotions such as excitement, fear, curiosity, or joy, depending on the campaign’s objectives. However, Ad copywriters have to be mindful of legal and ethical standards in advertising. They always ensure that claims are substantiated and that advertising complies with regulations in order to avoid getting in hot water.

Ad copywriters often work in collaboration with designers to ensure that the copy integrates seamlessly with visuals, such as images or graphics, creating a unified and persuasive message. Ad copy also needs to align with the brand’s tone and writing style, striking a balance between creativity and brand identity.

How To Choose The Right Type of Copywriting For Your Needs

From direct response to social media copywriting and technical copywriting – there are so many types of copywriting out there that it can be hard to choose a copywriter with the right skill set to help you.

The first step is to ask yourself what goals you’re trying to achieve by hiring a professional copywriter: is it to reach more potential customers by improving your ranking on search engines, improve your social media game or make your sales page more persuasive? Each of these different objectives involves a different type of copywriting with a few distinct elements.

By establishing your goals before you start looking, you can make a more informed choice about who you entrust your marketing copywriting, social media, website or public image to.

Expert Canberra Copywriting and Digital Marketing

Futuretheory is a digital marketing agency based in Canberra with over 15 years of experience. Along with our web design and development expertise, we also offer copywriting services. Our creative copywriters specialise in website copywriting, SEO copywriting, and content marketing.

Like everything we do at Futuretheory, every choice our copywriters make is deliberate and backed by strategy to drive your business goals forward. Our skilled team of copywriters is committed to creating words that tell your story and unique value proposition compellingly, generating tangible outcomes for your business.

Contact us today to discuss how our wordsmiths can help you and get an obligation-free quote.

In this article, we’ll explain the various marketing tactics so you can make an informed decision about what will work best for your business objectives. We’ll also outline how to best create a marketing strategy and measure its effectiveness.

If you’re taking the first steps to developing an online presence for your business, we also have a handy 7-step plan to creating a website.

Understanding Marketing Strategies

Before we dive into all the details, let’s start with the basics and define exactly what a marketing strategy is. A marketing strategy is a comprehensive, long-term plan outlining how you intend to promote your products or services to your target audience. It serves as a roadmap to guide all your marketing initiatives and marketing efforts.

Marketing Strategy vs. Marketing Plan

It’s a common misconception that the terms marketing strategy and marketing plan are the same thing and can be used interchangeably. However, they’re two distinct things:

Your company’s Marketing Strategy helps clarify what you need to do to achieve your marketing goals and maintain a competitive advantage. Your marketing strategy outlines the long-term framework that shapes:

• How you define your value proposition
• Your company’s brand positioning
• How you intend to reach your target market

Your Marketing Plan, on the other hand, focuses on the more day-to-day and short-term aspects of your marketing efforts, like specific campaigns. It’s essentially the execution of your overall marketing strategy.

Why Is A Marketing Strategy Important?

Even if your business is doing well now, thanks to word of mouth or foot traffic, having a robust marketing strategy in place is essential to keep that momentum going. It provides direction, ensures consistency, and helps you seize opportunities in the market.

It Helps You Spend Money In The Right Places

Having a clear marketing strategy also ensures you’re spending your money in the right places. Through conducting market research and identifying your target audience, you can guarantee your budget is allocated to the most effective marketing strategies for reaching prospective consumers.

What An Effective Marketing Strategy Outlines

Now that we’ve covered the basics of marketing strategies, we’ll go over the 11 steps to take if you want to create a marketing strategy for your business:

1. Define Your Business Goals

The purpose of a marketing strategy is to ultimately drive forward your business goals, so clearly defining what these goals are is what will shape your overall marketing efforts. Whether you aim to increase sales, improve brand recognition, expand into new markets, rebrand, or achieve other objectives, your marketing approach should align with these goals.

This alignment will serve as the foundation for your marketing strategy and the tactics you choose to take.

2. Conduct Market Research

The next step is to research your competitors and industry trends thoroughly. This will help you gauge your business’s standing in the market and understand which marketing strategies have worked well or not for other companies in your industry.

Know Where You Stand In The Market

By evaluating your competitors’ performance through competitive analysis, you can identify areas where your business can improve and leverage opportunities that your competitors might have missed. Furthermore, analysing industry trends will keep you informed on emerging technologies, evolving customer preferences, and new marketing channels, giving you a competitive advantage.

3. Identify Your Target Audience

Before implementing a marketing strategy of any kind, it’s important to have a clear understanding of who it is you’re trying to target. Your target audience represents the specific group of people who are most likely to be interested in your products or services.

By identifying your target audience and understanding their needs, preferences, and behaviours, you can tailor your marketing strategy accordingly for much more effective results.

Find your ideal customer base

When defining your ideal customer, consider demographics, psychographics, geographic location, and behaviour patterns. This data will help you create in-depth buyer personas, which are fictional representations of your ideal customers. These personas aid in visualising your audience, making it easier to produce content and messages that truly resonate with their needs and challenges.

4. Set Specific Marketing Objectives

Set clear and obtainable marketing goals. This is a pivotal step in planning your marketing strategy. Your marketing strategy becomes more focused and effective when your objectives are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).

It’s essential that your marketing objectives align with your business goals, as we outlined in Step 1. Here are some examples:

Example 1: If your business goal is to increase brand awareness, your marketing goal might be to boost social media followers and engagement through an active social media presence and engaging content. Implement a social media campaign that encourages user-generated content.

Example 2: If your business goal is to increase revenue, your marketing goal might be to increase online sales through targeted digital marketing campaigns and search engine optimisation (SEO).

These examples show how clearly defining what you want to achieve can make your marketing strategy goals laser-focused. This, in turn, will make it easier to make decisions and will result in a more successful marketing strategy overall.

5. Choose Your Marketing Channels

Now it’s time to decide where you’ll focus your marketing initiatives, using the knowledge you gained of your target audience, competitors and industry trends. Choosing your marketing channels isn’t a decision to take lightly – the channels you choose have a direct impact on how effectively you reach and engage your target audience and shape your marketing strategy as a whole.

What Is A Marketing Channel?

Marketing channels are the methods or platforms you choose to communicate with your audience through. This can be through digital assets or more traditional marketing. Digital marketing channels include:

• Email marketing
• Social media campaigns
• Search engine marketing
• Paid ads or pay-per-click advertising on social media channels
• Content marketing

This is not by any means a comprehensive list of digital marketing strategies. If you’re looking for more ideas and in-depth explanations, check out our article on the types of digital marketing Canberra businesses should use.

Traditional marketing channels, on the other hand, include:

• Print media
• TV or radio advertising
• Trade shows and events
• Direct sales

Reach Your Prospective Consumers Where They Are

Each channel has its strengths and weaknesses. The most important consideration is which one will have the most customer engagement. You have to go where your potential customers are to reach them effectively.

Using buyer personas and target market research, ask yourself if your target customers are more engaged on social media, if they frequently read email newsletters, if they prefer in-person events, and so on. The channels you choose should align with the preferences and behaviours of your target markets and potential customers.

6. Develop a Unique Value Proposition

Your unique value proposition is the distinct element that sets your product apart from your competitors and answers the fundamental question, ‘Why should new customers choose you?’

Look at any competitive advantages you might have and the key benefits you provide. Is your product of a higher quality than your competition? Is it more affordable? Do you have an extra focus on eco-friendly practices or excellent customer experience? How are you hoping to develop customer loyalty?

Your marketing teams should be able to boil down your unique value proposition into one concise, compelling statement that can serve as the core focus for all your marketing activities. Ultimately, your unique value proposition is the cornerstone of your brand identity and any successful marketing strategy.

7. Set Your Budget Allocation For Your Marketing Strategy

A firm, well-thought-out budget is vital to a clearly defined strategy. Your budget determines the available resources available for each marketing campaign, and how you distribute those resources can significantly impact your marketing performance.

Once you’ve set a total budget for what your company aims to spend on marketing, you have to decide what your marketing strategy covers and what you will prioritise most. The marketing tactics that will deliver the highest return on investment and align with your target audience’s preferences should be at the top of the list!

Time is Money

When defining your marketing budget, it’s also important to factor in time spent. While some marketing tactics are more cost-effective than others, they might require more dedication and working hours from your marketing or sales team.

Content marketing is a good example – although this marketing activity comes with no upfront costs, it requires a lot of time and effort from your team to be effective. However, the chance to increase organic traffic is often worth it! Here’s an explanation of why organic traffic is so high-value.

Keep Your Business Objectives In Mind

Your budget allocation should align with your overall goals. Are you trying to increase your number of website visitors and grow your digital presence? Allocate more of your marketing budget towards search engine marketing. Are you trying to retain more existing customers? Focus your marketing budget on developing customer loyalty programs.

8. Create A Marketing Mix

Your marketing mix outlines all of the decisions you’ve made during the previous steps in one place through a combination of four elements: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion, or the 4 Ps. The 4 Ps are an essential part of any go-to-market plan, but clearly outlining them in a marketing strategy document can help provide focus and direction to your marketing activity even if your business is long established.

The 4 Ps Of A Marketing Mix

1. Product

Product refers to the unique features of your product compared to your competitors. From an internal perspective, it also refers to how your product will continue to evolve over time to meet customer needs and how you plan on positioning your product to carve out a market share (affordable, luxury, niche, etc).

2. Price

Price refers to your pricing strategy, taking into account things like production costs, your competitor’s pricing and how much your target audience is willing to pay for your product. It also refers to how much you can afford to mark down your product during sales and promotional periods.

3. Place

Place is where and how your product will be available: through online sales, physical stores, third-party retailers, or a combination of the three. Is your product available locally, regionally, nationally or globally?

4. Promotion

Promotion is how you plan on reaching prospective consumers and which elements of a marketing strategy will be most effective. It also includes your messaging, visual style, and the marketing platforms you’ve chosen.

The 4 Ps Are Your Guidelines

Clearly outlining these four elements in one document will serve as a handy anchor to your business’s essential values and goals when developing your marketing strategy. It will also be useful if you plan on out-sourcing any of your marketing efforts, as the 4 Ps can succinctly convey the direction you want to take and how you’ll get there to any external parties.

9. Create A Detailed Marketing Plan

Now that you have a clearly defined marketing strategy, it’s time to create a comprehensive marketing plan that outlines how you are going to implement it. As we explained above, your marketing strategy helps provide the foundation for your marketing plan and guides all of your decisions. It helps you define the “why” of your marketing efforts, while your marketing plan focuses on the “how.”

Your marketing plan should include specific tactics, content, and activities that you will use to achieve your objectives. It should also have a clear timeline with deadlines and a schedule to help you stay on track. If you need a little guidance, you can find a free marketing plan template online.

10. Establish Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are quantifiable metrics that will help you determine the success of your marketing plan after you’ve implemented it. They provide valuable insights into whether your marketing efforts are working to achieve your goals or if you need to re-calibrate.

Your KPIs should be clear and directly tied to your marketing objectives. For example, if one of your marketing goals is to increase website traffic, a KPI might be to “increase monthly website visitors by 20% within six months.”

Number-centric targets

For your KPIs to be as accurate as possible, they have to be measurable metrics that can’t be swayed by subjectivity. They should involve marketing analytics with numbers, percentages, or specific values that can be tracked. This can include conversion rates, website sessions, revenue generated, social media engagement metrics, or email open rates.

11. Adapt & Evolve Your Marketing Strategy

Now that you’ve put your marketing strategy and plans in place, it’s important to assess, adjust and evolve it over time to suit changing markets and customer needs. This will help your company’s marketing strategy stay competitive over time and keep customer engagement high.

To keep your marketing strategy dynamic and optimised, you should conduct ongoing market analysis and KPI tracking, listen to customer experience feedback and do a semi-regular marketing strategy review.

Stay Innovative

Technology and how people respond to them is constantly changing. Even if your target audience responds best to print or email marketing now, this might change over time. This is why you should embrace innovation with your marketing strategy – experimenting with new technologies, platforms, and marketing methods can help you stay ahead of the curve.

Need Help Developing and Implementing A Marketing Strategy?

At Futuretheory, we’re experts in strategic marketing based on data-driven insights and backed by results. Creating a marketing strategy is complicated, and implementing it successfully even more so. Our experienced team can take the hassle out of marketing, whether it’s through consulting and training, branding, SEO, copywriting, or advertising.

We also offer a comprehensive range of website services, including web design, development, hosting, and maintenance. If you need help growing your business online, building your identity or reaching more people, contact us today.

The key to success is ensuring your business stands out amidst all the chaos and can handle the surge in traffic and demands. In this article, we will explore some essential steps to help you get your business ready for Black Friday.

Marketing and Promotion

Ensuring your business gets the traffic it deserves for Black Friday is the first step to maximising your outcomes. With so much fierce competition between businesses on the day, developing a strong marketing strategy ahead of time to generate hype is essential. Here are five good places to start:

1. Local SEO Optimisation

Local SEO optimisation will help you improve your online visibility in local search results, making it easier for potential customers in your area to find your business, especially in the lead-up to events like Black Friday. 

Some of the easiest ways to improve your local SEO are to:

1. Ensure your Google My Business page is up-to-date and accurate
2. Make sure your website content includes localised keywords (like Web Design Canberra)
3. Create content that speaks specifically to your local audience

2. Early Bird Discounts

By offering early bird discounts to incentivise early shoppers, you can help spread out the amount of traffic in-store or online on Black Friday itself and increase your sales over a longer period of time. An example of this might be offering free postage or a bundle deal for your customers the day before Black Friday.

3. Pre-Black Friday Teasers

If you wait to implement your Black Friday marketing strategy just before the big event, you risk losing out on traffic (especially in competitive niches).

Some channels you can utilise to build interest early are:

• Social media
• Email marketing
• Paid advertising (like Google Ads)

Some ideas on what you can post as teasers on these channels:

• Sneak peeks of upcoming offers
• Hints (like a blurred photo) of what’s to come

4. Customer Loyalty Program

Customer loyalty rewards are a highly effective way to increase customer retention and repeat business year-round, and targeting these rewards during Black Friday is a great way to ensure your most loyal customers feel appreciated and allows you to potentially tap into word of mouth from these loyal customers.

You can do this through segmented emails to your customers who make purchases the most frequently or use an existing membership basis. Some ways you can reward customer loyalty are:

• Early access to the sales
• Free shipping
• Increased discounts.

If you want to up your marketing game even further ahead of the big day, check out our list of 25 Black Friday Marketing Ideas.

Prep For Increased Traffic

If you run adequate promotion in the lead-up to the event, an uptick in foot traffic, website traffic and sales is almost guaranteed. Ensuring you have the infrastructure in place to handle the extra load is vital to providing a good customer experience and increasing your revenue on the day as much as possible. 

Here are some of the most important things to consider when preparing for the big day:

1. Inventory Management

Effective inventory management is vital before any big sale. It ensures that you:

• Have sufficient stock to meet the increased demand 
• Preventing disappointment for customers eager to snag the best deals 
• Ensuring you can make as many sales as possible. 

In preparation for Black Friday, it’s important to keep a close eye on your stock levels and monitor the popularity of your products. This will help you identify which items will likely sell out quickly and need additional stock ordered in advance. You should also consider ordering extra stock for any items that you plan to offer at a particularly good value for money.

2. Make Sure Your Website Can Handle the Load

Black Friday sales might result in a surge in traffic to your website, likes of which you’ve never seen before. Remember to ensure your website can handle the extra load before Black Friday – slow, unresponsive websites are a surefire way to deter customers and lead to missed opportunities! Even worse, your website could crash entirely due to server overload, and all your marketing efforts would have gone to waste.

By conducting load and performance testing of your website before the spike in traffic, you can take preventive measures ahead of time. If you find your website doesn’t perform well during testing, consider switching web hosts or upgrading your current plan!

If you find your website often goes down, check out our article on the most common reasons why.

3. Ensure A Smooth Checkout Process

A smooth and hassle-free checkout process is the cornerstone of a successful Black Friday. Consider streamlining the process as much as possible before the day. Some ways to do this are:

• Setting up a one-page checkout process
• Optimising the checkout page for mobile as much as possible 
• Setting up Apple Pay and other quick payment methods

This will reduce any friction during the checkout process and increase your chance of conversions. 

Black Friday aside, these changes are a good idea in general. Making the shopping process as effortless as possible will leave a positive impression on customers and increase their chances of coming back.

4. Roster Extra Staff

Accurately predicting staffing needs is a foolproof way to ensure your customer service is up to scratch, even with the increase in business. Rostering extra staff can help handle the surge in:

• Customer Inquiries
• Order processing
• Customers needing in-store assistance

Making sure your team can handle the load means you can maintain efficiency. Creating a smooth shopping experience means happy customers!

It might also be worthwhile considering extra training before Black Friday – well-trained staff will play a crucial role in ensuring everything goes smoothly. Make sure they know how to answer any questions customers might have and know what to do in case any problems arise.

5. Set up Increased Customer Support

Another way to handle the increase in customer inquiries and requests is to up your customer support. Consider providing live-chat support to address customers’ concerns in real time. This will:

• Improve the overall customer experience
• Increase their chances of making a purchase
• Decrease the chances of post-Black Friday returns

If this isn’t on the cards for your business at the moment, a more straightforward solution is creating an FAQ on your website. Consider answering common questions surrounding:

• Expected shipping times for different areas
• What your return policy is 
• Product specifications and features
• Sizing

These FAQs might save you future hassle and take the pressure off your customer support team.

6. Conduct Post Black Friday Analysis

Once all is said and done and the Black Friday rush subsides, take the opportunity to analyse what worked well for your business in terms of marketing and customer experience and what you could have done differently. This reflection will help you be better prepared for next year’s Black Friday and help your business evolve overall. 

You can conduct post-Black Friday analysis by looking at your sales and marketing metrics, like:

• Click-through rates
•  revenue by product 
• Bounce rate on your website
• Ratio of new to existing customers

 It’s also worthwhile checking in with your team – by having a staff meeting to talk about their experience over the Black Friday sales, you can uncover any friction points and problems that arose. 

Good luck and happy sales! If you’re looking to improve your marketing strategy year-round, read our guide on the types of digital marketing Canberra businesses should be using.

In this article, we’ll go over the copywriting basics and explain how powerful copywriting can be for businesses.

Why Is Copywriting Important?

Effective copywriting has never been more essential than it is now. In the age of digital marketing and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), attention spans are short, and competition is fierce. You only have a few moments to get your brand messaging across and engage readers, so choosing the right words is vital to generating conversions.

This is why good copywriting is so important – it serves as the first line of your marketing strategy to get customers in the door. Skilled copywriters have a deep understanding of how to cut through the digital noise and capture the fleeting attention of potential customers.

While anyone can write to communicate, it takes a different skill set to compel. Experienced copywriters have strong writing skills that allow them to convey an entire brand identity in just a few words and tailor every sentence to the target audience.

Types of Copywriting

Copywriting is a skill that is useful in almost every industry, regardless of geographic location or language. Some examples of how copywriting is applied in industries include:

• Cinema – video script writing and writing copy for movie posters
• Digital – copywriting for websites and landing page content writing, even social proof elements on a website like testimonials
• Real Life – resume writing and even social media posts
• Administrative – customer surveys and marketing emails/newsletters
• Journalism – attention grabbing headlines and of course, the stories themselves

As you can see, amazing copy is useful across industries. For more about the types of copywriting and more information about copywriting.

Copywriting Fundamentals

Whether it’s sales letters, web content or social media posts, there are a few cardinal rules skilled copywriters always follow to create high-quality content and boost sales. Here are six copywriting tips you should always keep in mind when copywriting:

1. Understanding Your Target Audience

This is the absolute foundation of a good copywriting strategy and any online content. Understanding your target audience before you start writing allows you to tailor your sales copy to address their needs, desires, pain points and motivations.

This will make for much more compelling copywriting that converts more of the audience into customers. Ultimately, a well-researched audience makes for well-written copy!

2. Clear and Concise

Good copywriting is clear and straight to the point. Otherwise, you risk losing your chance to grab attention. Use simple, straightforward sentences to ensure the key information is quickly understood, and avoid jargon or overly complex language.

3. Strong Value Proposition

Clearly communicate your product or service’s benefits and value to the reader, and explain how it can solve their problems or improve their life. Including valuable information like this when you write copy will hugely increase the chances of readers clicking through and making a purchase.

This doesn’t have to be through detailed product descriptions in your ads – one well-written slogan does the job.

4. Call To Action

A call to action means telling the ready what to do next in marketing materials, whether it’s making a purchase, following your business on social media, or contacting you. Every piece of copy needs to include a clear and compelling call to action to be effective.

5. Consistent Brand Voice

Brand copywriting is a specialised field in itself, but any form of copywriting or content marketing should always keep the client’s brand identity in mind. Maintaining a consistent brand voice and tone throughout your copy builds brand recognition and trust.

6. SEO Integration

SEO copywriting strategies are especially important when writing web copy. This includes content writing for landing pages, online stores, or a blog post. Incorporating relevant keywords into your copywriting for web pages will increase your ranking on search engines and drive more traffic to the site. Always remember that the goal of writing content for websites is not SEO, it is about writing helpful content that in turn customers (both new and current customers) enjoy, and in turn, Google also likes.

If you’re looking for more copywriting tips to brush up your content writing skills, check out our guide to writing great website content.

Why Hiring A Good Copywriter is Worth It

Outsourcing your copywriting, whether through a freelance copywriter or a digital marketing agency, might be a much more worthwhile investment for your business than you realise. Content creation of any kind is time-consuming and requires expertise to be effective, and copywriting is no exception.

Copywriting is more than just producing written text -it requires strong marketing and writing skills and a large dash of creativity. Writing persuasive, results-oriented copy is a specialised field that involves understanding the target audience’s psychology and translating that into compelling prose while remaining concise.

Hiring a skilled copywriter to create content for your business can increase traffic to your website and motivate more people to take the extra step and make a purchase or booking.

Experienced Copywriters vs. AI Tools

With the rise of AI tools that can produce content in recent years, there’s been debate over whether hiring a professional for copywriting is still worth it. However, hiring a copywriter still has distinct advantages and will continue to do so for a long time to come.

Copywriters bring creativity and a deep understanding of human emotions to their work and every single word. They can craft content using a conversational tone that engages your brand’s target audience on an emotional level using storytelling techniques to adapt to their unique needs. 

AI tools, on the other hand, lack the nuance and human touch that creative copywriting strategies need to be effective.

How To Measure Copywriting Success

Good copywriting and high-quality content writing have concrete outcomes and measurable effects on your business – it’s not about word count or an arbitrary measurement. You can measure the success of your copywriting strategies using key performance indicators (KPIs) like click-through rates, conversion rates, website traffic, and customer engagement.

It’s essential to continuously track and analyse these metrics using up-to-date information using tools like Google Analytics to ensure that your copywriting strategies are effective. Doing so allows you to make necessary improvements to your content and ensure it effectively engages with your target audience.

If you find you have consistently low click-through rates and website traffic, it might be time to rethink your copywriting strategy altogether or consider hiring professional brand copywriters.

Experienced Canberra Copywriting and Digital Marketing Agency

At Futuretheory, we offer a wide range of services designed to help businesses grow forward online through experienced copywriting, website development, design services, and marketing solutions.

As a digital marketing agency, we understand the power of compelling written content – it can make or break a website or advertising’s ability to convert viewers into customers. Our copywriting is engaging, crisp, and SEO-friendly, seamlessly incorporating keywords to drive more traffic to your business.

Whether you need an update to your existing copy or a complete refresh to your content marketing, we have the expertise to help. Contact us for an obligation-free quote, or browse through our portfolio to see our previous website, copywriting, and design work.

Step 1: Click the ‘Share’ button at the bottom of the video you would like to embed.
Step 2: Click ‘Embed’ in the pop up. This should be the first option.
Step 3: Click ‘Copy’ on the bottom right of the new pop up. The embed code will look something like below.
Step 4: Paste the code on the page that you want the video to appear.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/shDf7UaHNwE?si=mBHmlj8WzytkFKxk" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Black Friday is originally an American tradition, but the day of frenzied shopping and sales has also boomed in Australia over the past decade. The sales are no longer limited to just one day either – they’re now spread over a four-day period to include Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday.

In 2022, Australians spent a staggering $7.1 billion over the four days, so don’t underestimate the opportunity!

1. Early Bird Discounts: Offer exclusive discounts to customers who shop early – allowing you to beat your competition to the sales.
2. Limited-Time Offers: Create a sense of urgency with flash sales and time-limited deals.
3. Free Shipping: Offer free shipping on Black Friday to attract more customers.
4. Bundle Deals: Bundle related products for a special price.
5. Gift with Purchase: Provide a free gift with certain purchases.
6. Mystery Discounts: Let customers spin a wheel or scratch a card to reveal their discount.
7. Social Media Contests: Run contests on social media platforms with Black Friday-themed prizes.
8. Email Marketing: Send your subscribers a series of Black Friday emails to generate hype.
9. Countdown Timer: Use a countdown timer on your website to build excitement.
10. Loyalty Rewards: Reward loyal customers with exclusive deals.
11. In-Store Specials: Promote in-store-only discounts to drive foot traffic.
12. Mobile App Discounts: Offer exclusive discounts for customers who use your mobile app.
13. Cross-Promotions: Collaborate with other businesses for mutual promotion.
14. Email Teasers: Send teaser emails leading up to Black Friday to build anticipation.
15. Black Friday Landing Page: Create a dedicated Black Friday landing page on your website.
16. Social Media Stories: Post real-time updates and sneak peeks on social media stories.
17. Shop Small Saturday: Promote support for local businesses on Black Friday and Small Business Saturday.
18. Holiday Gift Guides: Create gift guides to help customers with their shopping.
19. Personalised Recommendations: Use data to provide personalised product recommendations.
20. Charity Partnerships: Donate a portion of Black Friday sales to a charitable cause.
21. Gamified Discounts: Create a game or quiz to determine discount levels.
22. Competitions: Run contests with valuable prizes for participants.
23. Social Media Polls: Engage customers with interactive polls related to Black Friday.
24. Scavenger Hunt: Create a digital scavenger hunt with discounts as rewards.
25. Bundle with Gift Cards: Include gift cards with purchases to encourage repeat business post-Black Friday.

Keep in mind that the more you tailor these marketing ideas to your brand identity and unique target audience, the more successful they’ll be! Also, consider combining several of these strategies together and cross-post across different social media platforms to reach as many people as possible. Good luck and happy marketing!

As a prospective website owner, it’s natural to be in two minds about which option best suits your needs. Each WordPress platform offers unique features and capabilities and caters to different preferences and requirements. In this article, we’ll explain the debate regarding WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org, and break down the pros and cons of each platform. The goal is to help you make an informed decision about which one to choose for your website!

How WordPress.com Websites Work

WordPress.com is a user-friendly website builder that runs on WordPress software, designed to simplify the technical aspects of creating and managing websites, especially for beginners. Automattic, led by WordPress.org co-founder Matt Mullenweg, owns WordPress.com. Despite overlapping leadership, WordPress.com and WordPress.org are two completely separate entities with different offerings for users.

Through WordPress.com, users can access hosting, domain name registration, security, and backup services all in one place, saving them a lot of time and effort. However, while the platform is easy to use, it has limitations when it comes to customisation options and control. WordPress.com also has a tiered pricing system, meaning you need to upgrade to more costly plans for added features.

How WordPress.org Websites Work 

WordPress.org is an open-source content management system. Unlike its .com counterpart, WordPress.org allows users to choose their own hosting provider or host their WordPress site themselves. This is why WordPress.org is often referred to as self-hosted WordPress. While installing the WordPress software is free, you will have to spend money on both hosting and a domain.

Because WordPress.org is an open-source software, it’s free to use, modify, and distribute. As a result, there’s a vibrant community of developers centred around WordPress.org that continuously develop new plugins, themes and templates. This means WordPress.org offers users a higher level of customisation with never-ending possibilities. 

Key Differences Between WordPress.com vs WordPress.org 

Now that you have a basic understanding of the differences between WordPress.org and WordPress.com, it’s important to have a clear understanding of what each platform offers and what factors to consider when making a decision. Let’s dive deeper into some of the most essential things you should keep in mind before choosing between the two options:

Hosting Your Website

WordPress.com Hosting

If you use WordPress.com for your website, managed WordPress hosting is built in. This means that WordPress.com stores your website’s content on its infrastructure, and you’re essentially renting space on the platform. This means that you won’t have complete control over the server resources, and you’ll be limited to the features and functionality that WordPress.com provides. 

However, the upside to this arrangement is that you won’t have to worry about maintaining the servers or dealing with technical issues, as WordPress.com takes care of all of that for you. It’s a trade-off between convenience and control, so it’s essential to consider your needs and priorities when making this decision.

WordPress.org Hosting

In contrast, WordPress.org allows you to have a self-hosted WordPress site. You have the freedom to choose your hosting provider and manage your hosting environment, and you have full ownership and control over your website and its hosting. Your website’s files, database, and all aspects of the hosting infrastructure belong to you. If you need guidance choosing a web host, check out our article that explains the basics and what to consider when looking for a web host.

While this level of control is great for some, it also means that you need to be more technically savvy and prepared to handle the day-to-day management of your website. This can include tasks like managing backups, installing software updates, and troubleshooting technical issues. However, the benefit of having complete control over your website and hosting environment can make the extra effort well worth it.

Customisation and Control 

WordPress.com Customisation and Control

Customisation: WordPress.com offers a range of pre-designed templates (themes) that you can choose for your website. While you can customise these themes to some extent, your options are more limited than WordPress.org. This means the websites made on WordPress.org are less tailored to your business, but the website development process is a lot easier. 

Control: In terms of control, WordPress.com has certain restrictions. Advanced customisations – such as modifying the website’s code or using custom themes and plugins – are generally reserved for users on the Business plan or higher. This means that your ability to tweak your site is limited unless you’re willing to invest in a more expensive plan.

WordPress.org Customisation and Control 

Customisation: With WordPress.org, you have the freedom to customise your website extensively. You can install custom themes and plugins, modify the website’s code, and create a completely unique online presence. Thousands of free and premium themes and plugins are available, with more being added by the WordPress community daily. As a result, the customisation options are limitless. To narrow down the options, here are some of our favourite WordPress plugins.

Control: The level of control with WordPress.org is unparalleled. Since you have complete access to your website’s code and server settings, you can fine-tune every aspect of your site. This level of control is ideal for developers and businesses that require a highly tailored web presence.

WordPress Plugins and Themes

WordPress.com Plugins and Themes

Plugins: WordPress.com offers a more restricted environment for plugins, and users on the free or lower-tier plans have limited or no access to plugins. You can install third-party plugins if you upgrade to the Business Plan, but the selection is still more limited than WordPress.org, and you can’t upload custom plugins.

Themes: While several themes are available for WordPress.com, your ability to customise them is limited. If you upgrade to a premium or business plan you can gain access to premium themes that you can modify somewhat, but you’re otherwise limited to the restrictive free themes.

WordPress.org Plugins and Themes 

Plugins: WordPress.org provides access to a vast library of plugins, most of which are free. This extensive plugin ecosystem allows you to add features like e-commerce, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), and contact forms to your site without having to pay an arm and a leg.

Themes: WordPress.org also offers thousands of themes, both free and paid. You can also upload and activate custom themes, enabling you to create a website with a unique and tailored design. The level of theme customisation is virtually unlimited, allowing for complete control over your site’s appearance.

WordPress.org or WordPress.com – Which Costs Less?

WordPress.com Pricing

WordPress.com plans run on a subscription model with four different tiers, and they all vary greatly in pricing and features. 

Free:You can use WordPress.com for free but with extremely limited features. The free plan includes an SSL certificate – check out our article on why SSL certificates are so important if you haven’t heard them before. You also get 1G of storage and access to free WordPress themes. However, the free plan has its downsides: you’ll have to have a generic domain name like ýourwebsite.wordpress.com, you can’t remove WordPress ads or monetise the site yourself, and there’s no customer support available. WordPress.com’s terms of service mean you can’t use the website for any commercial activity if you’re on the free plan. All up, it’s a pretty bare-bones approach to creating a website.

Personal:The personal plan allows you to create a WordPress.com site for only $12 a month and includes a free custom domain name, the ability to remove WordPress ads, and 6 GB of storage. However, your customisation options are still minimal without access to premium themes and plugins. You also don’t have access to SEO tools or the ability to upload videos, and you can’t use the WooCommerce plugin to sell products. If the goal of your WordPress website is to promote your business effectively, this plan isn’t for you.

Premium: The premium plan, at $22A a month, gives you 13GB of storage and allows you to use premium WordPress themes – a big step up from the highly limiting free themes. You can also monetise your site with WordAds, upload 4K videos, and customise your theme more with extended colour schemes, background designs and complete control over CSS. The premium plan also allows you to integrate Google Analytics – a powerful tool to track the traffic to your website. However, you still don’t have plugin-enabled WordPress.com or access to custom themes. This greatly limits your SEO capabilities compared to a self-hosted WordPress.org site.

Business: The business plan, at $54 a month, is where inclusions really start to ramp up, and WordPress.com says this plan is the best option for web developers. This plan includes 50G of storage, uptime monitoring, SEO tools, and the ability to install third-party plugins and themes. This makes a huge difference to how much you can customise your website, but $54 a month does add up quite a bit over time and still has less flexibility compared to WordPress.org.

WordPress.org Costs

Using WordPress.org is free – however, the freedom it provides can incur costs. These include:

Website hosting: As we explained above, the primary difference between the two platforms is that WordPres.org requires you to find a hosting provider or host the website yourself. Plans with WordPress hosting companies can vary between $10 to $50 a month, depending on whether you choose dedicated or shared hosting and the bandwidth your website requires. Most quality hosting plans come with free SSL certificates, domain name registration, regular backups and firewall protection.

It’s important to be selective about your hosting provider and plan, as it can affect your website’s speed and overall performance. You can read our article about how web hosting affects SEO to learn more. 

Website maintenance: Using WordPress.org might also mean paying for outsourced website maintenance. While you can maintain your website yourself, it requires a high level of expertise and large amounts of your time, which can be hard to come by if you’re running a business. WordPress sites require regular updates to remain secure and function properly, and installing WordPress updates must be done carefully so your site doesn’t break. Outsourcing WordPress website maintenance can cost between $10 to $100 a month but can save you a lot of time and effort. 

Paid plugins and themes: While there are thousands of free plugins and themes available on WordPress.org, thanks to its open-source nature, there are some behind a paywall. These premium themes allow you to customise your site even further and add intricate functionalities WordPress.com does not allow, like booking platforms and form integration. The average plugin runs between $50 to $200 a month. 

Ease of Use

One of the most critical factors to consider when choosing between WordPress.com or WordPress.org is ease of use. Not everybody is a born WordPress expert, and the two platforms differ significantly in how easy they are to use. Here are the key differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org regarding usability:

User-Friendliness of WordPress.com

WordPress.com is renowned for its user-friendly setup. It offers a guided, step-by-step process for building a website, and WordPress.com doesn’t require coding skills. If you’re using WordPress.com, you also don’t have to worry about hosting, maintenance, or security – this makes it a great option for a beginner looking for a simple website that allows a hands-off approach.

Learning Curve of WordPress.org

The WordPress.org setup requires a bit more technical know-how. You need to choose a web hosting provider, install the WordPress software, and handle server configurations. While this process isn’t overly complex, it can be intimidating for absolute beginners. However, once you get past the learning curve, WordPress.org offers extensive control and customisation options. You can change your website at the code level, install custom themes and plugins, and tailor it to your exact specifications.

Why WordPress.org is Better For Businesses 

We hope this article helped clear up the differences between WordPress.com and its .org counterpart. Personally, we always recommend choosing the .org version of WordPress. While WordPress.com works well for beginners wanting to start a blog or personal website, it’s not as well-suited for business websites. These days, your website serves as a visual storefront and is often the first impression people get of your business – so being able to customise your website freely to suit your brand identity is crucial. WordPress.com does not offer anywhere near the customisation options that WordPress.org does. The control WordPres.org allows extends to branding, user experience, and functionality, allowing businesses to create a unique online identity that aligns with their objectives.

Crucially, WordPress.org does not have the same limitations on e-commerce and monetisation that WordPress.org does. Even if you’re currently just looking to give your business a platform rather than sell products directly, it’s vital to have the option to scale up your e-commerce capabilities as your business grows. WordPress.org also has a huge number of SEO and marketing plugins available, ultimately helping more people discover your business.

Experienced WordPress.org Website Development, Maintenance and Hosting 

At Futuretheory, we’ve used WordPress.org to develop over a 100 websites for businesses around Australia over the past decade – check out our work to see some examples. During that time, we’ve gained extensive knowledge on how to leverage WordPress to develop and design SEO-friendly websites that actively drive forward the business goals of our clients. We also offer high-speed, secure web hosting, and worry-free WordPress website maintenance. If you’re looking for someone to launch and manage your online presence with expertise, get in touch with us.

At Futuretheory, we’ve designed and developed over 100 websites. Along the way, we’ve refined our process of planning a website into a well-oiled machine that consistently delivers positive outcomes to our clients. In this article, we’ll guide you through each and every step we follow to create an effective website plan:

How to Plan a Website

Creating a well-structured plan for your website is a vital step in ensuring the success of your online presence. Having a website project plan helps simplify the entire process, aids in adhering to your budget, and ensures your website also reaches the best possible outcome. Our approach has seven phases that we always follow when building a website, each with its own set of requirements and objectives. Our seven phases of planning a website at a high level are:

• Phase 1: Research and Discovery (Objectives, Target Audience, and Competitors Research)
• Phase 2: Details and Resouce Planning (Sitemap, Budget, and Timeline)
• Phase 3: Website Design (Wireframes, Mood Board, and UX design)
• Phase 4: Website Development (Front-End, Back-End, CMS, and SEO)
• Phase 5: Testing (Quality Assurance, Performance, Cross-Browser and User Testing)
• Phase 6: Launch (SEO, Hosting, Analytics and Monitoring)
• Phase 7: Ongoing Review (Updates, Monitoring, and Feedback)

Phase 1: Research and Discovery

There’s a lot of truth to the old saying, ‘If you fail to plan, you plan to fail’. That is why the research and discovery phase is one of the most essential steps to planning your website. By taking the time to conduct thorough research and analysis, you can gain a deeper understanding of your target audience and identify your competitors, which can help you make informed decisions throughout the website development process.

Armed with this knowledge, you can create a website tailored to meet your audience’s needs while standing out from the competition. A successful website depends on creating a plan, and the research and discovery phase is the first step in ensuring that you achieve your website goals.

Define Objectives

You need to clearly define what you want to achieve with a new website and what the purpose of the website will be. Are you hoping to increase brand awareness, launch an ecommerce website or improve communication with your audience? Each of these examples look very different during the web design process and development phase and require different resources. Defining the specific purpose of your website is crucial for:

• Clarity and focus: Defining your objectives prevents your site from becoming a confusing mix of ideas and features. This focus ensures that your design and content align with your goals.
• Measurable success: Well-defined objectives make success measurable. You can track progress with metrics and determine if your website is meeting its intended purpose. 
• Resource Allocation: Clear objectives and planning can help you make decisions about design, features, and content creation. This ensures that your resources, including time, budget, and manpower, are used efficiently.
• User Experience: Clear objectives lead to a better user experience. Users appreciate a site designed with a purpose, making their journey more efficient and enjoyable, ultimately increasing conversions.

Target Audience

Indentifying who you’re trying to reach is a pivotal step that will influence the design, the type of content to include in your website, and the overall approach. Where are they located, who are they, and how will they use the website? Ultimately, your website’s success hinges on its ability to cater to your target audience’s needs, preferences, and expectations. Here’s why it’s so important: 

• Customisation: Knowing your target audience allows you to tailor the website content, design, and user experience to resonate with them, leading to higher engagement and conversions as visitors will feel like the site speaks directly to their needs.
• Relevance: Defining a clear target audience enables you to create website content that’s relevant to their interests and pain points. This establishes a genuine connection, fostering trust and loyalty.
• Competitive advantage: Tailoring your website to your distinct target audience allows you to stand out by offering a more compelling experience, differentiating you from competitors with a more generic approach and generating more website traffic.

Competitor Analysis

The next step in the planning stage is identifying your direct competitors, and studying their websites allows you to identify gaps and opportunities. You can use this information to improve your website structure and plan, as well as to determine what to avoid. Moreover, studying your competitors’ websites can also serve as a benchmark for your website’s performance, helping you to set realistic goals and expectations based on industry standards.

A lot of popular SEO tools offer competitor analysis. Some of the tools we use and recommend are:

• SEMRush – https://www.semrush.com/
• Ahrefs – https://ahrefs.com/
• SpyFu – https://www.spyfu.com/
• SERanking – https://seranking.com/

SEO Keyword Research

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a cornerstone of creating a website plan and can’t be overlooked. The first step is keyword research, which involves identifying the relevant keywords to aim for in order to rank higher on search engine results pages. Keeping in mind your target audience and the keywords your competitors are ranking for, use tools like Google’s Keyword Planner to find keywords relevant to your business or niche that you should aim to rank for.

In tandem with Google’s keyword planner, the four online tools we listed above are an excellent place to start conducting your keyword research.

Phase 2: Details and Resouce Planning

Sitemap

The next step is to create a website sitemap. A sitemap is a visual representation of a website’s structure and hierarchy. It acts like a map that outlines the organisation of a website’s pages, content, and links. This helps designers and developers plan and organise the content and ensure that your website is logically arranged and easy to navigate. Our favourite website sitemap tool is Octopus – https://octopus.do/.

Technology Stack

Now, it’s time to decide on the technology stack you’ll use during web design and development and how you will host your website after launch. Selecting the tools that best suit your website needs, tech skills, and budget is crucial to ensuring the process goes smoothly and you achieve the best possible outcome. This includes the Content Management System (CMS) your website will be built and run on, the programming language used to develop it, and what kind of web hosting you’ll choose. 

The technology stack you use is a strategic decision that impacts your website’s functionality, performance, and ease of maintenance. It’s important to weigh up the long-term costs of each option, including licensing, hosting, and maintenance.

Budget and Timeline

Budget and timeline are crucial to any project plan, and building your website is no exception. The first step is defining the project scope – the number of web pages, features, and complexity of your website. A larger and more complex website will require a larger budget and a longer timeline. It’s also essential to account for the small costs that add up in your budget, including the technology stack, web hosting, domain registration, and third-party integrations your website needs.

Regarding the timeline, remember to account for every step from the initial research to pre-launch testing and allocate extra time for revisions. 

Legal Requirements

An important part of planning is ensuring you account for any legal requirements your business website has to meet regarding data protection and website accessibility. You might save yourself a headache by making sure your website is accessible and in line with disability access laws from the jump instead of having to go back and make significant changes after launch. Here are some examples of legal requirements you have to account for as the website owner:

• If you collect any personal information on your website, like email addresses, you need to have a privacy policy on your website. 
• If you sell any goods or services on your website, you need to be in line with consumer laws and include a refund, warranty and shipping information in your terms and conditions
• If you publish information or advice on your website, you need to include a website disclaimer
• Your website has to be designed and developed in a way that allows individuals with disabilities to access its content and features

Phase 3: Website Design

You’re ready to move on to the design! Our favourite tools to use are Adobe XD and Figma. When designing a website, it’s always important to keep in mind ease of use above all else. Check out our article on the fundamentals of great web design before you get started to build a solid knowledge base.

Here are the steps you need to include in your website design plan:

Wireframes

Creating the wireframe using Adobe or Figma is the first step of designing your website. A wireframe is a visual prototype illustrating the website’s content layout, navigation, and behaviour. There’s no need to worry about the content of your website at this stage – simply fill the wireframe with placeholder or ‘dummy’ content to get an idea of how it will look. This helps identify and rectify any potential issues early in the design process.

Wireframes are a crucial part of collaboration between a professional web designer and their client. They provide a chance for the client to get an initial look at what their website will look like before moving on to the development stage and add any input they might have.

Mood Board

Mood boards are a great tool to help guide the visual style of your site during the design stage, including the colours, fonts and images to include on your website. Creating mood boards helps you narrow down the overall stylistic feel of your website. We find mood board inspiration for websites using sites like Dribble, Behance, and Awwards.

Make sure you keep your brand’s style guide in mind when creating a mood board to ensure the final design aligns with your brand identity and goals. 

UI/UX Design

Now that you’ve solidified the look and feel of your site, it’s time to design the user interface, create the website layout and add the images for your website. If you want to design a successful website, make sure to factor user experience into every single design choice you make. The end goal, even beyond visual appeal, is to design a website that is easy to use and responsive. Ensure you use breakpoints, flexible media and images, and fluid grids to make your design as responsive as possible and guarantee a well-designed website. 

If you’re not familiar with responsive design and its importance, our article on the definition of responsive web design is a great place to start.

Phase 4: Website Development

There are many approaches you can take to develop a website. You can either develop the website from scratch, hire a freelance developer or agency, or use a premade website theme or template. It all depends on your technical expertise, the features you’d like your website to have, and your budget. Some of the most popular website development tools and website builders are:

• WordPress – WordPress is the most popular CMS in the world, thanks to the high level of customisation and flexibility it offers. With thousands of themes and plugins available, you can create a wide range of websites, from simple blogs to complex ecommerce sites. Thanks to its user-friendly interface, it’s popular with developers and beginners alike.
• Squarespace – Squarespace is a popular website builder known for its user-friendly, drag-and-drop interface. It’s perfect if you want to create your website without coding skills and launch it quickly without breaking the bank. However, using a website builder like Squarespace means your customisation and plugin options are limited when compared to WordPress.
• Webflow – Webflow allows you to create basic websites without the need for coding knowledge and offers more customisation options than Squarespace. However, the pricing model means costs can quickly add up the more features you want,

Front-End Development

Front-end development focuses on the visible part of a website that users interact with directly. Front-end developers use languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to create the layout, design, and functionality of web pages. This stage is essentially when the web designer’s wireframe becomes ‘3D,’ and the interactive elements, such as forms and the navigation menu, are coded. Doing this right ensures the website functions exactly as it should for users.

Back-End Development

Back-end development is the process of coding the hidden infrastructure that powers the website. This includes the website’s server-side logic, databases, user management, security, API, and more. These functionalities are what allow the website to function seamlessly and securely. While users may not see the back-end, it’s the engine that powers the website, ensuring that everything runs efficiently and that user data is managed securely.

Content Management System

If you’re using a CMS, now is the time to integrate it. This means installing the CMS on your server, configuring the settings, and setting up the necessary databases and files. Once the CMS is in place, you can start adding content. The CMS simplifies content upload, enabling non-technical users to add text, images, videos, and other media through a user-friendly interface.

Mobile Responsiveness

Ensuring your website is optimised for mobile devices during the web development phase is paramount. This is essential for a good website these days – over 55% of all people using your website will do so from a mobile device. If your website isn’t responsive on mobile devices, you risk alienating over half your website traffic through poor user experience. Google also highly favours mobile-optimised websites in the search algorithm, so make sure to complete this step! Use responsive design frameworks and CSS media queries to adapt the layout and styling to different screen sizes. It’s also important to optimise the content, images, and interactive elements for mobile devices to create a seamless user experience.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

SEO is a critical stage of developing your website, as it ensures that the website is discoverable by search engines like Google, making it visible to a broader audience. This includes ensuring your website is fast, easy to use, and populated with keyword-rich content. Pay attention to the more minor details your website may be missing, like meta stage, header tags, and alt text for images. These small details give search engines more information about your website and help them rank it accordingly.

The content you plan should always have SEO in mind, and remember to implement on-page SEO strategies when planning the content on your site! Making sure your website is also optimised as well as well-designed ensures all your hard work pays off and people find your website on search engines.

Phase 5: Testing

Quality Assurance

Now that your website is designed and developed, you’re almost there. It’s time for quality assurance! This means identifying and addressing any technical issues, such as broken links, 404 errors, malfunctioning interactive elements, and proofreading for typos or grammatical errors. No developer or copywriter is perfect, so this step is essential to ensure your website successfully launches and is as professional and polished as possible. It’s the small details like broken links that often frustrate a user the most and damage your website’s credibility. 

Performance Testing

Performance testing before launching a website involves evaluating its speed, responsiveness, and overall efficiency to ensure it provides a fast and seamless user experience. You can use sites like Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix to see how long each individual page on your website takes to load. If any of them take more than 4 seconds to load, you have to re-optimise it for the sake of user experience and SEO. Compressing images, minimising file sizes and using efficient coding practices can significantly improve performance.

Cross-browser and Device Testing

Once you’ve checked your website’s speed and optimised it accordingly, it’s time to make sure your website functions correctly and consistently across different browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer. Resolving any compatibility issues that may arise will help your website reach as wide an audience as possible successfully. You should also double-check your mobile is responsive by testing it on different devices, like mobiles and tablets. 

User Testing

Conducting user testing can help you uncover any less apparent issues with your website before launch. By gathering feedback from real users who interact with your site, you can discover any usability issues or areas for improvement and ensure that the website aligns with user preferences and expectations. 

User testing typically includes tasks like navigating the website, filling out forms, and providing feedback on their experience. This allows you to make informed adjustments before the site’s launch.

Phase 6: Launch

Pre-launch SEO

You’re on the home stretch – now it’s time to ensure the launch goes smoothly and your website gets the recognition it deserves after all your hard work. Putting in some more SEO work right before you launch will help! Make sure to submit your search map to search engines. This will help them crawl your site correctly and improve your chances of ranking highly on the results page. Next, set up your Google Analytics account and link it to your website – this will provide valuable SEO insights when it goes live. 

You should also dedicate some time to planning your content down the line and how you will promote your website after launch. This will make it easier to upload new content regularly after your site is launched – an essential part of SEO maintenance. 

Deployment and Web Hosting

Every website requires a host, and the host you pick can significantly impact your website’s security, speed, and SEO. Check out our article on how website hosting affects SEO and the different types of Canberra web hosting available to learn more. Using a reliable hosting service to deploy your website will set you up for success. Opt for a hosting plan that suits your website’s needs, whether shared hosting for smaller sites or dedicated servers for high-traffic websites. 

Double-check that all server configurations are in place and that domain settings are configured correctly to point to your website. This phase prepares your website for public access, making it available to users worldwide.

Website Launch

The moment of truth has arrived: it’s time to launch your website and make it accessible to the world. Once you’re confident that your site is ready for prime time, hit the ‘go live’ button with your hosting provider, and your website will be accessible to visitors. This marks the beginning of your online presence and the opportunity to connect with your audience! Just remember to promote the website continuously, whether through ongoing SEO or pay-per-click ads.

Post-Launch Website Analytics and Monitoring

Launching your website is just the start of a long journey for it to reach its maximum potential. To ensure the ongoing success of your website, keep an eye on post-launch analytics and monitor website performance and user engagement. 

Our favourite tool for this is Google Analytics, which is free – https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/. It enables you to track essential metrics like the kind of traffic your website gets, the number of visitors, and their behaviour on your site. Not all forms of traffic are equally important, and organic traffic should always be your priority. To learn more about organic traffic and how to generate it post-launch, we have a helpful article explaining the different types of traffic and how to increase organic traffic specifically.

Regularly monitoring these vital metrics will allow you to make data-driven improvements to your website and ensure that your site continues to perform optimally and remains aligned with your goals, helping you adapt to changing user needs and trends in your industry.

Phase 7: Ongoing Review

Updates

Staying on top of technology updates is an essential part of website maintenance. This is especially true for WordPress websites, as the themes and plugins require regular updates vital to the site’s function. Updates are also crucial for your website’s security, as they often include security patches! Consistently updating your website will help it adapt to changing trends and technology, maintaining its relevance and reliability for visitors.

As mentioned before, it’s also essential for SEO purposes to regularly update the content on your website to keep it fresh. Google favours websites that are routinely updated in the search engine rankings, meaning having an actively maintained website will directly help you reach more people. 

Monitoring

Regularly monitoring your website’s performance is another fundamental aspect of website maintenance. Use GT Metrix to track uptime (how often your website is down for users) and speed. These metrics help you immediately detect and rectify any problems, ensuring your website remains accessible and functional. There are also free online monitoring tools that help you identify any weak spots in your site’s security. Using these performance and security metrics tools – and often – will allow you to proactively protect your site from threats and maintain a positive user experience.

Feedback Loop

Metric tools are fantastic, but don’t forget about the value of direct feedback from the users of your website. Hearing from the users themselves allows you to gain direct insight into their experiences and expectations of your website, allowing you to make adjustments accordingly and offer a continuously improving user experience. You can encourage user input by implementing surveys, contact forms, or user comments. This will help you keep your website user-centric, which should always be the priority. 

Good Luck Creating Your New Website!

Planning a website can be daunting, but as we’ve outlined in this article, breaking it down into well-defined phases and steps can simplify the process. Whether you’re an experienced web designer or just starting, having a structured website plan is the key to success. By approaching your website development as a marketing strategy as much as a technical endeavour, following this website plan should set you up to create a website that engages your audience, stands out from the competition, and drives forward your business goals. We hope this website plan template serves you well!

Experienced Canberra Web Design and Development 

Although we’ve honed down this process to be as efficient and effective as possible, website creation is still something that takes time and expertise to get right. At Futuretheory, this is something we’ve learned after delivering over 100 websites to clients. If you’re interested in our website, design or marketing services, contact us today for an obligation-free quote. We’re passionate about every step of the website development and design process and the outcomes they deliver for our clients in Canberra and beyond. 

In reality, Google considers over 240 recognised factors when ranking websites, extending far beyond just a website’s content. Your website performance and core web vitals, such as speed and loading times, are also important when it comes to SEO and greatly influence your search engine ranking. Having an unreliable web host can negatively impact those core web vitals and, by extension, your website’s SEO. In this article, we’ll explain how web hosting affects SEO and what factors to look for when choosing an SEO web hosting provider.

What is Web Hosting?

Web hosting is what allows your website to be accessible online, and every website needs to be hosted. In short, when you pay for a web hosting service, you’re renting a small space on their server to store all the files and data that make your website functional. When someone tries to access your website, their browser sends a request to the server. The server then retrieves and displays your site on the user’s end. The web hosting provider you choose affects how quickly that whole process happens, and if the website host provider fails, so does your website – so choosing the right hosting provider is important. 

Why Uptime and Reliable Web Hosting is Important for SEO

Website ‘uptime’ is the percentage of time your website is accessible to users, including all its pages and essential functions. No website is up 100% of the time – sometimes, websites need to go down for essential maintenance, for example. However, if your host regularly experiences server issues, this will cause your website to go down and affect your site’s uptime. This could happen because they don’t have the infrastructure to handle large spikes in server traffic. Many hosting companies provide a 99.9% uptime guarantee, at a minimum. This equates to only nine hours of downtime a year. 

It can be hard to determine your website’s uptime – no one can watch their website 24/7. However, there are tools available online that allow you to run uptime reports, testing the reliability of your web hosting provider and holding their 99.9% uptime guarantee to the test. If you find that your host isn’t meeting this guarantee, it’s definitely time to find a more reliable one – the amount of downtime your website has can significantly harm your website when it comes to effective SEO. Here are a few reasons why:

Poor uptime hurts user engagement and SEO

The internet is a fast-paced environment, and internet users have very little patience for 404 error pages. If your website is down, they won’t wait around for it to go back up – they’ll exit and go to your competitor’s website instead. 

Google highly favours websites that provide users with a good user experience (UX) and have a higher user engagement rate. Poor website uptime will result in a higher ‘bounce’ rate (people who only visit one page of your website and click off), low session durations, and fewer pages visited by each user. Google uses these factors to determine the quality of your website’s UX and ranks your website accordingly. Having a good UX is one of the core pillars of Google’s algorithm, so having good website uptime and choosing a hosting provider that’s reliable is crucial!

Your website is often down? Google won’t be able to crawl and index it

Search engines like Google use bots called ‘crawlers’ to scan websites, analyse their content and index them accordingly. These bots check websites regularly to make sure the information they have is still up-to-date. If your website experiences frequent downtime because of issues related to hosting, it could coincide with the bot’s visit and prevent it from being crawled and indexed. This delay could impact the search engine’s ability to discover new content, leading to lower rankings and reduced visibility in search results.

If you’re wondering why your website is consistently going down even though your host has 99.9% uptime, check out our article on the most common reasons websites go down to rule out other factors.

An SEO-Friendly Hosting Company Should Ensure Fast Loading Times

Poor quality web hosting can result in slow loading times for your website, even if every other part of your website is perfect. This could be because your host uses poor-quality servers that can’t handle a lot of traffic, slow server response time from your host, or the server is a long distance from the majority of your website visitors. If you use shared hosting, slow loading times also might mean you need to update your web hosting plan you’re on to have more CPU, RAM, and bandwidth allocated to your website.

Having a slow website significantly impacts the UX and, in turn, impacts your SEO. Internet users are used to having everything available at a lightning-fast pace, so when a page takes more than a few seconds to load, frustration starts to set in. Anything more than a few seconds of loading time will result in a higher bounce rate, sending all the wrong signals to the search engine algorithm. The faster your website loads, the higher it’s likely to rank on search engines.

How fast should your website load?

The faster your website loads, the better. On the first page of Google search results, the typical page speed is 1.65 seconds, and one study showed that 40% of internet users will click off a site if it takes more than 4 seconds to load. These industry standards don’t just apply to the desktop version – these days, 55.5% of all website traffic comes from people browsing on mobile devices, so ensuring the mobile version of your website loads in under a few seconds is important, too. 

While there are many other factors that impact how quickly your website loads, such as how many plug-ins you have, the number of files that need to load and the size of the files, the quality of the web server plays a huge role. Choosing the best web hosting plan and provider for your needs is vital to ensuring your website loads quickly and is SEO-friendly. 

How to check your website speed

It’s important to regularly check how fast your website loads for viewers to ensure it consistently provides a smooth experience. There are lots of tools available online that allow you to do this, like Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix. These tools are free and easy to use – just enter your URL, and they do the rest of the work. If you find your website consistently has a speed index of over 4 seconds, no matter what alterations you make on your end, it’s time to find a new web host for the sake of your search engine ranking and UX! 

How your web host’s server location can impact SEO

When looking for an SEO-friendly web host, server location is one of the most critical factors. Hosting your website on a server in the same country or region as your target audience can signal relevance to search engines. This is because each hosting server has a unique IP address, and search engines use this information to determine the server’s location. When your server’s IP address is associated with your target audience, search engines will rank your website accordingly. This improves your website’s visibility where it matters the most, boosting your search rankings.

Server location impacts your website’s speed

When a user accesses your website, the request has to travel between their location to the server and back again. Therefore, hosting your website on a server closer to your target audience will reduce the physical distance that data has to travel. This, in turn, results in faster loading times for users in that region. This is especially important for businesses that cater to a specific area. For instance, a plumber based in Canberra would want their web hosting service to be located in the same region to ensure that their website loads quickly for their highly-localised audience. As we mentioned above, speed is one of the most critical factors in technical SEO, so make sure you select a web hosting service provider with servers in your specific location.

Consider whether to add a Content Delivery Network to your hosting plan

 If your business operates across the globe instead of one specific region, it’s best to pick a host that offers a Content Delivery Network (CDN). A CDN is a network of servers placed in various locations around the world. When someone visits the website, they get the content from the nearest server instead of the website’s main server. This makes websites load faster and perform better, no matter where the user is. However, CDNs can be costly and an unnecessary expense for smaller businesses trying to excel in a local market only.

Web Hosting for SEO Needs to Be Highly Secure 

Good hosting services do more than just make your website accessible to users – they also provide a secure hosting environment and implement robust security measures to protect their servers from unauthorised access, malware, and other threats.  This is vital, as most browsers flag non-secure websites warning to discourage websites from quickly through. If this happens to your website because your host offers poor security, it will result in a high bounce rate and tank your search engine ranking.

The same goes if your website gets hacked – Google might flag it as potentially harmful to users and deindex it entirely from the search engine results page. It’s important to remember that search engines always prioritise security and trust when ranking websites, so choosing a host that ensures your website is secure is essential for SEO best practices.

The importance of an SSL certificate 

The best way to indicate to search engines that your website is secure and protects the data of its users is to have an SSL certificate. SSL stands for ‘Secure Sockets Layer’ and is like a digital ID card for your website. When a website has an SSL certificate, it means that the information you send to that website, like passwords or credit card numbers, is encrypted or scrambled during transmission. This encryption makes it much harder for hackers to intercept and read your sensitive data. You can tell a website has an SSL certificate when you see “https://” at the beginning of the web address and a padlock symbol in your web browser’s address bar. 

Google highly favours websites with an SSL certificate and will always rank it higher than websites without one. Most good web hosting companies offer free SSL certificates as part of their hosting package, and this is one of the more essential things to look for when choosing a host. It’s an essential hosting factor not only for your SEO efforts, but the security of your website as a whole. 

Increased trust leads to better SEO metrics 

Having a secure website and an SSL certificate not only ensures the safety of your visitors’ data but also positively impacts your website’s SEO at an organic level. A secure website will have a padlock icon in the browser’s address bar, instilling a sense of trust in users. When visitors trust your site, they are more likely to engage with your content, spend more time on it, and explore multiple pages. Search engines take into account these positive user engagement metrics, like lower bounce rates and longer session durations, when ranking websites. Security+ can indirectly improve these metrics and is important to look for in a hosting provider.

Reliable Canberra Web Hosting

Web hosting is a commonly overlooked factor in SEO, but it plays a huge role in ensuring your website is fast and reliable, and this positively impacts your search engine ranking. We hope this article helped you have a firmer grasp of how web hosting can affect your SEO efforts and gave you some insight on how to choose the best web hosting for SEO. If you’d like to learn more, you can visit our resources page to learn more about SEO practices and all things website-related.

At Futuretheory, we offer reliable and fast web hosting with servers in Australia. We use enterprise-grade hardware for exceptional performance and speedy load times, as well as providing a 99.9% uptime guarantee. This gives you peace of mind to focus on other aspects of your business, knowing your website is in good hands. Our hosting features unlimited bandwidth and free SSL certificates. Our web hosting is also highly scalable, meaning you can upgrade from shared hosting to dedicated hosting at any time as your web hosting needs change and your business grows. We’re a great option if you’re looking for a hosting provider for SEO-optimised features.

We’re also an expert WordPress host, given that our team not only hosts numerous WordPress websites but is also comprised of WordPress developers so that we can look at your website holistically. An experienced WordPress host is able to make sure your website is optimised for everything that a WordPress website needs to run smoothly.

As a full-service digital marketing agency, we also offer web design, WordPress site development, maintenance, and SEO services. Whether you’re looking for a new website or just a new web host, we have the expertise and experience to help. Think we can help? Get in touch.

If you’re trying to up your social media game, check out our article on the top social media apps in 2023 to help decide where to best focus your efforts. We also just launched Inspo.st, a free content idea generator to make posting regularly more accessible. 

Facebook Video Specs

Facebook video ads come in various formats, reflecting Facebook’s dedication to ensuring that these ads are accessible across different platforms, including mobile and desktop devices.

However, this can be a headache for marketers as they have to make content that works on all those platforms and suits the Facebook video ad specs. Here’s a breakdown of the different Facebook video dimensions to help make that a little easier:

Facebook Video Specs For Feed

Feed is the constantly updating list of status updates, photos, videos and more in the middle of the Facebook home page. Your Feed includes updates and posts from friends, Pages, groups and advertisers.

Design Recommendations

Recommended size: 1080px by 1080px or 1080px by 1350px
File type: MP4, MOV or GIF 
Ratio: 1:1 (for desktop or mobile) or 4:5 (for mobile only) 
Video settings: H.264 compression, square pixels, fixed frame rate, progressive scan and stereo AAC audio compression at over 128 kbps
Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels 
Video captions: Optional, but recommended
Video sound: Optional, but recommended

Technical Requirements

Video duration: 1 second to 241 minutes
Maximum file size: 4 GB
Minimum width: 120 pixels
Minimum height: 120 pixels

Facebook In-Stream Video

Design Recommendations

Recommended size: 1920px by 1080px or 1080px by 1080px
File type: MP4, MOV or GIF 
Ratio: 16:9 or 1:1 
Video settings: H.264 compression, square pixels, fixed frame rate, progressive scan and stereo AAC audio compression at 128 kbps+
Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels 
Video captions: Optional, but recommended
Video sound: Optional, but strongly recommended

Technical Requirements

Video duration (desktop): 5 seconds to 15 seconds. Video duration limit may vary by objective.
Video duration (mobile): 5 seconds to 10 minutes. Video duration limit may vary by objective.
Maximum file size: 4 GB

Facebook Video Feeds

When people click a video from their Facebook News Feed, it opens in the video feed, which includes additional videos that they can watch. When you use the video feeds placement, you can insert your video ads between organic videos in the video feed.

Design Recommendations

Recommended size: 1080px by 1350px 
File type: MP4, MOV or GIF 
Ratio: 4:5 
Video settings: H.264 compression, square pixels, fixed frame rate, progressive scan and stereo AAC audio compression at 128 kbps+
Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels 
Video captions: Optional, but recommended
Video sound: Optional, but recommended

Technical Requirements

Video duration: 1 second to 241 minutes
Maximum file size: 4 GB

Facebook Stories

Design Recommendations

Recommended size: 1080px by 1920px 
File type: MP4, MOV or GIF 
Ratio: 9:16
Video settings: H.264 compression, square pixels, fixed frame rate, progressive scan and stereo AAC audio compression at 128 kbps+
Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels 
Video captions: Optional, but recommended
Video sound: Optional, but recommended

Consider leaving roughly 14% (250 pixels) of the top and 20% (340 pixels) of the bottom of the video free from text and logos to avoid covering these elements with UI elements such as the call to action.

Technical Requirements

Video duration: 1 second to 2 minutes (There is a maximum duration of 16 seconds for playable video ads.)
Maximum file size: 4 GB
Minimum width: 500 pixels
Aspect ratio tolerance: 1%

Facebook Search Results

Design Recommendations

Recommended size: 1080px by 1080px
File type: MP4, MOV or GIF 
Ratio: 1:1 (Ratios from 16:9 to 9:16 are supported but may be masked to 1:1. Use Ads Manager preview to see how your video will appear.)
Video settings: H.264 compression, square pixels, fixed frame rate, progressive scan and stereo AAC audio compression at 128 kbps+
Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels 
Video captions: Optional, but recommended
Video sound: Optional, but recommended

Technical Requirements

Video duration:  1 second to 241 minutes
Maximum file size: 4 GB
Minimum width: 500 pixels
Aspect ratio tolerance: 1%

Facebook Business Explore

Design Recommendations

Recommended size: 1080px by 1080px
File type: MP4, MOV or GIF 
Ratio: 1:1 (Ratios from 16:9 to 9:16 are supported but may be masked to 1:1. Use Ads Manager preview to see how your video will appear.)
Video settings: H.264 compression, square pixels, fixed frame rate, progressive scan and stereo AAC audio compression at 128 kbps+
Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
Video captions: Optional, but recommended
Video sound: Optional, but recommended

Technical Requirements

Video duration:  1 second to 241 minutes
Maximum file size: 4 GB
Minimum width: 500 pixels
Aspect ratio tolerance: 1%

Instagram Video Specs

Instagram Profile Feed

Ads in the Instagram profile feed appear within the feed view of public Instagram profiles of people aged 18 and older. When an Instagram user enters and scrolls through a profile feed, they may see ads between pieces of content. Advertisers can use the Instagram profile feed placement to expand their reach easily while using existing feed assets. Here are the different Instagram ad specs for the feed:

Design Recommendations

Recommended size: 1080px by 1350px
File type: MP4, MOV or GIF
Recommended ratio: 4:5
All supported ratios: 1.91:1 to 4:5
Video settings: H.264 compression, square pixels, fixed frame rate, progressive scan and stereo AAC audio compression at 128 kbps+
Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels 
Video captions: Optional, but recommended
Video sound: Optional, but recommended

Technical Requirements

Video duration: 1 second to 120 minutes
Maximum file size: 4 GB
Aspect ratio tolerance: 1%

Instagram Feed

Instagram Feed is the constantly updating list of photos and videos that appears when you open the Instagram app. The Instagram Feed displays photos and videos from accounts that people follow and from advertisers.

Design Recommendations

Recommended size: 1080px by 1350px
File type: MP4, MOV or GIF
Recommended ratio: 4:5
Video settings: H.264 compression, square pixels, fixed frame rate, progressive scan and stereo AAC audio compression at 128 kbps+
Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels 
Video captions: Optional, but recommended
Video sound: Optional, but recommended

Technical Requirements

Video duration: 1 second to 60 minutes
Maximum file size: 4 GB
Aspect ratio tolerance: 1%

Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories can bring your business to life in an immersive format, with options to add stickers, emojis and other creative elements. These full-screen vertical Instagram video ads appear to viewers between organic Instagram Stories.

Design Recommendations

Recommended size: 1080px by 1920px
File type: MP4, MOV or GIF
Recommended ratio: 9:16 ( Ratios from 16:9 to 4:5 and 9:16 are supported. Dynamic ads in Stories does not accept the 9:16 ratio and should instead use the 1.91:1 ratio.)
Video settings: H.264 compression, square pixels, fixed frame rate, progressive scan and stereo AAC audio compression at 128 kbps+
Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels 
Video captions: Optional, but recommended
Video sound: Optional, but recommended

Technical Requirements

Video duration: 1 second to 60 minutes
Maximum file size: 4 GB
Aspect ratio tolerance: 1%

Instagram Stories will play video ads that are less than 30 seconds for the full duration of the video. Video ads that are 15 seconds or longer may be split into separate Stories cards. Instagram will display either one, two or three cards automatically before giving viewers the option to tap Keep watching to see the remainder of the video. By default, the number of cards automatically displayed before prompting viewers to tap keep watching is tailored to each viewer.

Instagram Explore

Instagram Explore is a discovery surface where Instagram sources content from across the platform based on a given person’s interest. It appears on the same page as the search function and shows posts from accounts that the user does not yet follow. Ads in Instagram Explore appear between organic content.

Design Recommendations

Recommended size: 1080px by 1350px
File type: MP4, MOV or GIF
Recommended ratio: 4:5 ( Ratios from 1.91:1 to 9:16 are supported.)
Video settings: H.264 compression, square pixels, fixed frame rate, progressive scan and stereo AAC audio compression at 128 kbps+
Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels 
Video captions: Not an Instagram video requirement, but recommended
Video sound: Not an Instagram video requirement, but recommended

Technical Requirements

Video duration: 1 second to 60 minutes
Maximum file size: 4 GB
Aspect ratio tolerance: 1%

Instagram Reels

These full-screen vertical video ads are inserted in between organic Reels content. Once a user taps into a reel from Stories, Feed, or Explore, they will be launched into a viewer that exclusively shows reels that scroll vertically.

Design Recommendations

Recommended size: 1080px by 1920px
File type: MP4, MOV
Recommended ratio: 9:16 (Ratios from 4:5 to 191:100 are also supported)
Video settings: H.264 compression, square pixels, fixed frame rate, progressive scan and stereo AAC audio compression at 128 kbps+|
Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels 
Video captions: Optional, but recommended
Video sound: Optional, but recommended

Reels ads should not contain:

• Reels published before 15 October 2021.
• Licensed music. We recommend using original audio or royalty-free music available in the Meta Sound Collection instead.
• Media that has a face or camera effect.
• Media with a GIF.
• Media with product tags.
• Videos that contain edit lists or special boxes in file containers.
• Consider leaving roughly 14% of the top, 35% of the bottom and 6% on each side of your asset free from text, logos or other key creative elements to avoid covering them with the profile icon or call to action. To learn more, visit our guidance on text overlays and safe zones.

Technical Requirements

Video duration: 0 seconds to 15 minutes
Maximum file size: 4 GB
Aspect ratio tolerance: 1%

Twitter Video Specs

Twitter Video Dimensions For Feed

Design Recommendations

Recommended size: 1280×720 (landscape), 720×1280 (portrait), 720×720 (square)
File type: MP4, MOV
Recommended ratio: 16:9 (landscape or portrait), 1:1 (square)
Video settings: H.264 compression, square pixels, 30 FPS, 60 FPS, Minimum Video Bitrate 5,000 kbps, and stereo AAC audio compression at 128 kbps+

Technical Requirements

Video duration: 0.5 seconds to 140 seconds
Maximum file size: 512 MB

Video Ads

Design Recommendations

File type: MP4, MOV
Branding: Highly recommended throughout; if using a logo, it should be persistent in the upper left-hand corner. Prominent product placement is highly recommended for driving product consideration.
Video settings: H.264 compression, square pixels,  29.97FPS or 30FPS. Higher is acceptable (support up to 60FPS). The minimum Video Bitrate is 5,000 kbps and stereo AAC audio compression at 128 kbps+
Captions: Closed captioning or text overlays are strongly recommended.

Technical Requirements

Video duration: 15 seconds or less is recommended. Up to 2:20 is supported. 
Maximum file size: 1 GB max.  For optimal performance, we strongly recommend keeping files under 30 MB.
Looping: Videos will loop if the video length is under 60 seconds.

Standalone Video Ads

Recommended size: 1920 x 1080 px (landscape), 1200 by 1200 px (square)
Recommended ratio: 16:9 (landscape or portrait), 1:1 (square)

Video Ads With Website Buttons

Recommended size: 800 by 450 px (landscape), 1200 by 1200 px (square)
Recommended ratio: 16:9 (landscape or portrait), 1:1 (square)
Website title length: 70 characters. Please note — depending on device and app settings this description may truncate. Up to two lines of text are rendered on the card title; any text beyond that is truncated with an ellipsis. Although not guaranteed, limiting the description to 50 characters should ensure that truncation won’t occur across most devices.
URL: must begin with http:// or https://

Video Ads With App Buttons

Recommended size: 800 by 450 px (landscape), 800 by 800 px (square)
Recommended ratio: 16:9 (landscape or portrait), 1:1 (square)
App title: Truncated at 200 characters. Included from the app store; not customizable.
Call to Action: Install, Open, Play, Shop, Book, Connect, and Order

Video Ads With Conversation Buttons

Recommended size: 800 by 450 px 
Recommended ratio: 16:9
Conversation Card (original Tweet in timeline)
Tweet copy: 280 characters (same as above)
Hashtag: 21 characters, including the hashtag character

Pre-populated user Tweet (once user clicks on the CTA)
Tweet copy: 256 characters
Headline: 23 characters

Thank You Tweet (after user has posted the Tweet)
Thank you text: 23 characters
Thank you URL (optional): 23 characters

Video Ads With Conversation Buttons

Recommended size: 800 by 450 px 
Recommended ratio: 16:9
Conversation Card (original Tweet in timeline)
Tweet copy: 280 characters (same as above)
Hashtag: 21 characters, including the hashtag character

Pre-populated user Tweet (once user clicks on the CTA)
Tweet copy: 256 characters
Headline: 23 characters

Thank You Tweet (after user has Tweeted out the Tweet)
Thank you text: 23 characters
Thank you URL (optional): 23 characters

Video Ads With Polls

Recommended size: 800 by 450 px (landscape), 800 by 800 px (square)
Recommended ratio: 16:9 (landscape or portrait), 1:1 (square); However, 1:1 will crop to 16:9 in mobile timeline. 
Tweet copy: Polls can include up to 280 characters of Tweet copy that appear above the video.
Poll options: 2-4 custom poll options

Once you’ve written your copy and added your video, you can add two to four custom poll responses to create your poll.
Poll copy: 25 characters each

Each poll option can include up to a maximum of 25 characters of text (which do not count against the 280 you can include in Tweet copy).

Poll duration
Select a time between a minimum of 5 minutes and a maximum of 7 days.

Youtube Video Specs

Design Recommendations

Resolution: 1080p (Full HD)

Recommended pixels (px) for HD:
1920 x 1080px (horizontal)
1080 x 1920px (vertical)
1080 x 1080px (square)

File type: MPG (MPEG-2 or MPEG-4) (Can also accept: .WMV, .AVI, .MOV and .FLV .MPEG-1, .MP4, .MPEGPS, 3GPP, WebM, DNxHR, ProRes, CineForm and HEVC (h265))
Aspect ratio: 16:9 for horizontal, 9:16 for vertical. 1:1 for square 

Can Also Accept: 720p (Standard HD)

Minimum px:
280 x 720px (horizontal)
720 x 1280px (vertical)
480 x 480px (square)

Minimum px for SD:
640 x 480px (horizontal)
480 x 640px (vertical)
480px x 480px (square)

Technical Requirements

Video duration: Varies by format and campaign type. See the types of formats below.
Maximum file size: ≤256 GB

Types of YouTube Ads

Skippable Video Ads

Skippable video ads allow viewers to skip ads after 5 seconds. They can be shown on computers, mobile devices, TV, and game consoles.

Non-Skippable Video Ads

Non-skippable video ads must be watched before a video can be viewed. They can be shown on computers, mobile devices, TVs, and game consoles. They can be 15 or 20 seconds in length, depending on regional standards. On TVs, however, they can be up to 30 seconds long.

Bumper Ads 

Short, non-skippable video ads of up to 6 seconds that must be watched before a video can be viewed. Bumper ads are turned on when skippable or non-skippable ads are turned on. They can be shown on computers, mobile devices, TV, and game consoles. They play in the video player for up to 6 seconds long.

Source: Youtube Advertising

Specs For YouTube Thumbnails And Companion Banners

Thumbnails

Resolution: 1280 x 720px (1280 x 640px (minimum) acceptable resolution)
File type: .JPG, .GIF or .PNG
Aspect ratio: 16:9 
File Size: <2MB for videos; <10MB for podcasts

Companion Banners (For Desktop Only)

Dimensions: 300 x 60px
File type: .JPG, .GIF or .PNG
File Size: 150 KB (maximum)

Universal Safe Zones For Video Ads On YouTube

Overlays, call-to-actions and buttons may appear in different places depending on the format, campaign type and screen.

Use these images as a reference to ensure that important elements like your logo, product, supers and others are within the red safe area to avoid the risk of elements being covered within certain inventory.

Linkedin Video Specs

Linkedin Video Ads

Design Recommendations

File type: MP4
Video settings: H.264 compression, square pixels, 30FPS, and stereo AAC audio 
Captions: Optional

Recommended Dimensions:

Vertical (4:5):
Min 360 x 450 pixels
Max 1536 x 1920 pixels

Vertical (9:16):
Min 360 x 640 pixels
Max 1080 x 1920 pixels

Landscape (16:9):
Min 640 x 360 pixels
Max 1920 x 1080 pixels

Square (1:1):
Min 360 x 360 pixels
Max 1920 x 1920 pixels

Aspect ratio tolerance: 5%
Video Thumbnail File Format: JPG or PNG
Video Thumbnail Max File Size: 2 MB Video
Thumbnail Aspect Ratio & Resolution: Match video

Technical Requirements

Video duration:  3 seconds – 30 minutes
Maximum video sizes: 75 KB (min) – 200 MB (max)

URL Requirements

Landing page URL: Required
URL prefix: http:// or https://
URL characters: 2000 characters for destination field URL

Linkedin Shared Video

Design Recommendations

Recommended size: 1920px by 1080px
File type:  .MP4, .MP3, .AAC, ASF, FLV, MPEG-1, MPEG-4, MKV, WebM, H264/AVC, Vorbis, VP8, VP9, WMV2, WMV3, (no longer support AVI, QuickTime, or MOV files.)
Ratio:  1:2.4 – 2.4:1
Resolution: 256 x 144px – 4096 x 2304px
Video settings: H.264 compression, square pixels, 10 FPS – 60 FPS, and stereo AAC audio 

Technical Requirements

Video duration:  3 seconds – 10 minutes maximum file size: 75 KB (min) – 5 GB

Facebook, The World’s Biggest Social Networking App

Facebook is by far the most popular social media platform and the first of its kind to reach such a massive scale. According to Statista, the pioneering social networking site had just under three billion monthly users as of the second quarter of 2023. That’s a staggering number – almost 40% of the world’s entire population. Aside from having the highest number of users, it’s also the platform people in the US spend the most time on, at an average of 33 minutes per day. An astounding 1.7 million pieces of content are shared on Facebook every minute.

Interestingly, Facebook is the main source of news for many people. In 2023, 29% of respondents to a survey in the United States said that they used Facebook for news more than any other social media platform or other meta platform. Facebook is also the most popular platform for social media: According to a global survey in January 2023, 89% of responding social media marketers used the network to promote their business.

When Facebook launched in 2004, it was primarily just a way for people to connect with one another, reminiscent of the now-obsolete Myspace, allowing users to post personal updates and follow other users.  Today, Facebook has become much more than just a one-dimensional social networking platform, now having plentiful and ever-evolving features. These include Facebook Marketplace, which allows users to buy and sell products and services. There are also Facebook Events, live-streaming, Facebook Gaming, and the most recent edition – Facebook Podcasting, launched in 2021.

Facebook Groups are another popular feature, facilitating users who share similar interests to connect with each other and form a community. Additionally, the platform’s video-sharing features enable users to post both long-form and short-form videos, competing with TikTok and YouTube.

Meta Platform, formerly Facebook Inc, also owns Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger – all massive and continually growing social media platforms in their own right. This conglomeration of many social platforms dominating the social media landscape is known as ‘the metaverse’ since the 2021 rebrand. 

YouTube, The Biggest Video-Sharing Platform

YouTube has the second-highest number of monthly users of any social media platform in 2023, sitting at just over 2.5 billion monthly active users. YouTube was launched in 2005 and acquired by Google a year later for $1.65 billion. It was the premiere social media platform allowing users to share their own amateur video content with an audience, a novelty at the time. Since then, it has ballooned in popularity, with 38% of the global population using YouTube regularly in 2023.

 That figure only includes adults, let alone the huge number of children that use the platform. Unlike other social media platforms that have a minimum age of 13, YouTube taps into an entire demographic other platforms don’t officially, with its ‘YouTube Kids’ app. According to a 2020 study from the Pew Research Centre, 80% of all parents with a child age 11 or younger say their child watches YouTube, with 53% reporting that their child watches it daily.

YouTube has a huge audience in India, far surpassing other countries. As of July 2023, India has a whopping 467 million YouTube users. The US trails behind in second place with 246 million users, and Brazil comes in second place with 142 million users.

The volume of content on the video streaming site can’t be understated – 500 hours of video are uploaded to the website every minute as of 2021. Much includes ad breaks, and content with a wide reach often includes in-video sponsorships as well. This makes YouTube one of the best social media platforms for video advertising and influencer marketing, and the numbers back this up – In a survey from Hubspot, 56% of marketers surveyed in 2022 said YouTube offers the biggest ROI from marketing campaigns. YouTube’s worldwide advertising revenue reached 6.67 billion US dollars in the first quarter of 2023.

In 2021, YouTube Shorts was released, enabling users to post vertical videos between 15 seconds and 1 minute in length, comparable to TikTok and the Instagram Reels feature. As of 2022, YouTube Shorts have collectively received over 5 trillion views, following the trend in recent years of shorter-form video content many social media platforms are adopting.

Instagram, Photo-Sharing and Beyond

Instagram, another social platform owned by Metaverse, has the third-highest monthly active users of any social media site in 2023, at 2 billion.  Instagram was launched in 2010 and was initially pretty simple: users could share 1:1 pictures with their followers and overlay filters on top. The concept took off, and Metaverse bought the app for $1 billion in 2012.

 Instagram is particularly popular among younger audiences when compared to platforms like Facebook, with a more diverse audience. Almost 31% of global Instagram audiences are aged between 18 and 24 years, and 30.3% of users are aged between 25 and 34 years. Only 15.7% of users belonged to the 35 to 44-year age group. In terms of location demographics, Instagram is the most popular in India, with 201 million users. The US isn’t far behind at 157 million Instagram users. 

In the past decade, the number of features Instagram offers has increased significantly. Users can send instant messages with Instagram Direct, post Snapchat-style disappearing posts on Instagram Stories, watch short-form videos called ‘reels,’ and discover brands in the Instagram Shop function. Instagram Stories is one of the most popular features, directly competing with Snapchat. In January 2019, Instagram reported that 500 million users make use of the feature daily. 

Companies can advertise on Instagram by sponsoring either video or image posts to show up in users’ feeds, much like Facebook and many other social media platforms. This is known as ‘pay-per-click’ advertising, meaning businesses pay a small amount every time someone clicks on their sponsored post. The average cost per click on Instagram ads is between $0.70 USD and $1.00 USD.

WeChat, The Most Downloaded Social Media App in China

WeChat is a highly popular Chinese social networking app with 1.3 billion monthly active users. WeChat is owned by Tencent, a multinational technology conglomerate headquartered in Shenzhen. It was originally launched as an instant messaging app but evolved over time into a full-fledged social media platform. It has so many features that it’s often referred to as a ‘super app,’ negating the need for internet users to use other apps and platforms. Features include the ability to make payments with a digital wallet, share ‘moments’ with followers, shop, make video calls, and even translate things from English to Chinese.

This is not an all-inclusive list – the app is essentially a mix of Google, Apply Pay, Facebook and WhatsApp. The WeChat platform also offers ‘mini-programs.’ These are small, self-contained apps that exist within the WeChat app itself. They are a unique feature of WeChat and provide a way for users to access various services and functionalities without the need to download separate apps from an app store. This means users can order food within the app, book flights, read books, and play games all within the app- the options are essentially limitless. Tencent provides a development framework and tools for creating Mini Programs, making it relatively straightforward for developers to build and deploy these mini-apps and making it easy for brands to leverage them.

This combination of social news aggregation and essential everyday functionalities results in staggering use statistics: According to the most recent official stats from the platform in 2018, there are 800 million monthly active WeChat Pay users alone, and 50% of users spend 90 minutes per day on WeChat.

TikTok, The Most Popular Platform of 2023 Among Youth

TikTok is a short-form video-sharing app owned by Chinese company ByteDance, and one of the most downloaded apps globally. It was launched in September 2016 as an international version of Douyin. It saw a massive rise in popularity amid the Covid lockdowns, surpassing 2 billion users in October 2020. It now has just over 1 billion monthly active users worldwide and is particularly popular among young users, with 38% of its monthly active users being between the ages of 18-24. Music integration and user-generated content are the pillar stones of TikTok, making it a ripe breeding ground for viral music-based trends. 

The TikTok app allows users to post videos between 15 seconds and 10 minutes long and is well-known for its intuitive algorithm that encourages people to scroll onwards and onwards. As a result, it has the highest daily usage time of any app in the US. As of January 2023, TikTok users in the United States spent 32%  of the time they dedicated to social media engagement on TikTok, compared to 20% on Facebook and Instagram, respectively. 

TikTok’s popularity among Gen Z has made it a highly effective platform to advertise on through sponsored posts, particularly for brands with a younger target market. According to a recent article from the Financial Times, TikTok is projected to generate $14.15 billion in advertising revenue in 2023, up from $9.89 billion in 2022. 

TikTok has been giving other platforms with short-form video content a run for their money with its meteoric rise in monthly active users. It might soon do the same for music streaming services – in July 2023, TikTok Music was announced, a feature that allows users to share, listen to, and download music. The feature is currently only available in Indonesia and Brazil but is expected to expand to other countries in the coming months,

Current Social Media Usage Statistics Worldwide

According to Forbes, an estimated 4.9 billion people use online social media globally as of 2023. This number will only continue to rise steadily in the coming years, estimated to reach approximately 5.85 billion users by 2027. This makes social media platforms a bustling hub for businesses to reach customers, with 90% of social media users following at least one brand’s social media account. Gone are the days when print and TV advertising was king. Social media marketing offers opportunities for businesses that these older forms of marketing just can’t- like the ability to make the most of trends quickly and interact with their audience. This results in a more engaged relationship between brands and consumers, allowing businesses to build stronger brand loyalty and memorability.

The average social media user spreads their time across 6 different social media platforms, emphasising the need to cross-post on multiple platforms to reach as many people as possible. This isn’t as time-consuming as it sounds – social media scheduling apps like Publer allow users to publish a post on multiple social media sites at once with a few clicks.

One more statistic to hammer home the power of social media: the average person spends 145 minutes on social media a day. That adds up to 879 hours a year, or just over an entire month spent on social media every year. It’s clear to see why the social media advertising market is expected to reach $207 billion in 2023.

Who Is Using Social Media Apps the Most, and Where?

China uses social media more than any other country, with 1.02 billion active users in 2022. India isn’t far behind, with 755 million monthly active users. The United States comes in third place with 302 million users – 88% of its total population.

Unsurprisingly, younger age groups are the most likely to be active social media users – most of Gen Z would be unable to remember the world before social media. 84% of people between 18 and 29 use at least one social media platform as of 2023, and 81% of people between 30 and 49. That’s not to say older people aren’t highly active on social media as well. 73% of people between 50 and 64 use at least one social media site range, and 45% of people in the 65-plus group.

There aren’t any available 2023 statistics for how many women use social media compared to men, but according to results from a Statistica survey, there was quite a difference in 2021. 78% of adult women in the United States used at least one social media site, compared to just 66% of men.  

If you’re trying to up your social media game but struggling with content ideas, our free content idea generator can help. Posting regularly is important for the algorithm and your audience, and this tool is designed to help with that and take some of the stress out of trying to build your online presence.

Classic Black & White Headshot

Shooting your headshot in black and white can give them a timeless and sophisticated look. This is a great way to add visual interest to your headshot without taking a big risk, as they’ll always look classic. Black and white headshots are also great if you’re unable to find a pristine background, as removing the colour takes away a lot of visual noise and draws the viewer’s attention away from any distractions and towards the subject’s face.

Here’s another example of some excellent black and white headshots, but done in a different way. These pictures are taken in a studio, and studio lighting can often be harsh and unforgiving if not done just right. By converting the headshots into black and white, any harshness is eliminated, creating a softer effect.  Removing the colour from the photos helps to maintain cohesiveness, ensuring that the headshots look great next to each other, regardless of what outfits the subjects are wearing.

These headshots would fit right in on a sleek, modern website. They convey a feeling of professionalism and an established business.

Casual Headshot

The headshots taken below are taken against a textured background with a variety of wardrobe colours and poses. This style is much more relaxed than the studio-taken black-and-white photos above and gives the headshots a more approachable, friendly feeling.

This casual style of headshot is usually shot outdoors, taking advantage of the natural light, which is often more flattering. Taking all the photos against the same background provides cohesiveness when displayed side-by-side, while the differing wardrobe colours add visual interest. The varying poses and facial expressions also allow the photographer to display the subject’s personality in a better way.

Casual headshots are an excellent option if you want to build a personal connection with your audience and convey authenticity. They allow you to break away from the formality of traditional headshots and present yourself in a way that feels approachable and relatable to others.

Another positive of this headshot style is that it requires less technical skills and equipment. It’s definitely possible to achieve using a good mobile phone camera, just make sure you get your framing just right and consistent each time.

Duotone Studio Headshot 

Using duotone lighting is a fantastic way to make your headshot more unique and can be done in Photoshop during the editing process or with coloured lighting in a studio. The effect is striking, casting shadows across the subject’s face. Using this style is ideal if you want to stand out from the crowd and convey you’re not afraid to think outside the box – making it ideal if you work in a creative industry, such as design. To up the creativity even more, you can use alternating colours for the different headshots. 

Colour psychology is a powerful tool in itself, so make sure you put some consideration into the colour you choose if you go with duo-tone headshots. For example, blue is generally associated with competence and trustworthiness, whereas red is associated with love, danger and excitement.

Avatar Headshot

Here’s an especially unique, creative way to showcase your team. It involves full-body shots, cut and pasted into a white background side by side. It creates an effective reminiscent of a video-game character selection screen, which is a fun and playful way to stand out.

This style would be ideal for a fashion brand to show off its team and products at the same time or a creative agency to show its ability to break new ground. It does require the use of a studio, photography skills and editing know-how to execute effectively, but the distinctiveness is worth it if it reflects your brand perfectly.

Dynamic Group Headshot

Here’s another fun, artistic example to add some dynamism to your website. The example given shows the different members of a team in different positions, with the ability to hover the mouse and change the direction they’re facing. You can also click on the different teams to learn more about them. 

Far from a traditional headshot, the result is a “meet our team” page that will stay in the heads of viewers long after they click off. Taking a distinctive, artistic approach like this is a fantastic way to to increase your brand’s memorability and make people want to learn more. Just like the other unconventional example above, this style would require the use of a studio, as well as editing and web development skills to implement. This is a gernal rule for headshot photography as a whole – the more you want to stand out, the more work and skills it’ll take!

Classic Portraiture Headshot

This style sticks to some of the traditional headshot conventions (certainly more than the examples given above) while still adding an artistic flair. The high-contrast images, taken in front of different backgrounds around the office, is reminiscent of traditional portrait photography. This style is more like what you’d see on the sleeve of a book than a standard LinkedIn headshot. 

To achieve this look in your headshots, mix up the backdrops you use, and let the subjects express themselves with their poses and wardrobe choices. The high contrast of the images and the blurred background still allows the subjects to stand out while still having plenty of visual interest.

While you don’t need a studio, a professional portrait photographer and a high-quality camera will provide the best outcome for this style.

The below style is another example of more ‘portrait’ style headshots, this time outdoors with soft natural light and contrasting shadows. These headshots have a down-to-earth, approachable feel while incorporating a flair of creativity.

However, one downside of using shadows and natural light to add interest to your headshot is that they move quickly! This can make it hard to have consistent lighting throughout the headshots. Just before dusk, or ‘golden hour’ as photographers call it, is the perfect time for outdoor portraits – however, this generally only lasts half an hour, making it a hard concept to achieve in one shoot if you’ve got a large team.

Clean and Bright Headshot

The below is an example of headshots in crisp, modern style. The bright, consistent light gives the headshots a professional and polished feel, and while the varying poses and backgrounds give the impression of seeing the subject in their element at work and give a glimpse of their personality.

This style is ideal if you’re looking for the perfect balance between professionalism and memorability. While this could be achieved with a phone camera, a photographer will have an easier time making the headshots cohesive and achieving that ‘bright’ effect.

How to Choose the Right Outfit for Your Headshot

Choosing the right outfit for your headshot can make a huge difference on the impression the end result gives. Here are some of the most important rules to follow to ensure your headshot turns out exactly the way you want it:

• Avoid anything that draws too much attention away from the main focus: your face! This includes ultra-bright colours and loud prints. Solid, neutral colours are always the safest choice.
• Don’t wear ‘tight’ prints, like a shirt with a small checkered pattern or a tweed skirt. While these clothing items might look great in person, they can show up as wavy on camera and strain the eyes. This is known as the ‘moire’ effect:

•  Make sure your clothing is ironed, well-fitted and isn’t see-through. Sometimes, the smallest imperfection or crease in your outfit is much more noticeable on camera than in person. To avoid anything that might interfere with your perfect headshot, wear something that doesn’t crease easily, is completely opaque, and fits like a glove!
• Dress like you’re going to meet your most important client. While some industries have a more relaxed dress code than others and have a bit more leeway, it’s best to play it on the safe side and dress as professionally as you can.

Benefits of Using Google Trends

Thanks to Google, we can access an outstanding wealth of information at our fingertips. Our reliance on Google search plays a huge role in what information we see and the decisions we make – including our purchases. Long gone are the days of flipping through a hefty, alphabetized Yellow Pages book to find a plumber and picking the first one that starts with “A.”

Now, we’re much more likely to turn to Google and trust its algorithm to show us exactly what we’re looking for based on our search query. This makes understanding how people use Google and how to leverage that information a crucial marketing tactic for businesses today. Additionally, content creators can use it to find keywords and keep their finger on the pulse of what their audience is interested in. Journalists can use it to get real-time information about public interest. Here are some of the primary ways you can use Google Trends to tailor your marketing strategy and improve your content’s SEO:

Identifying Currently Trending Topics

You can see what searches are trending at the moment under the Google Trends ‘Explore’ page. While most of the top results are often major world events or celebrity news that might be hard to tie into your topic, the key is to look out for specific niches that relate to your business that are buzz-worthy at the moment or upcoming holidays and events local to you. This means Google Trends can help you find related and unique angles to write about that might not have a lot of keyword competition yet, plan out your content marketing strategy or ensure your content’s current relevancy.

For example, at the time of writing, the national mental health initiative R U OK Day is currently trending in Australia. Now would be the perfect time to publish a blog post about how your business looks after your employees’ mental health and what the day means to you.

This is a broad example. You can also use Google Trends to find trending search terms and topics related to your specific industry or niche. Relevant trending topics and related queries can help you better understand what your target market is looking for and adjust your marketing accordingly. For example, if you own a women’s apparel brand, you can type “women’s fashion” on the Google Trends Explore page to see currently trending related topics.

These five topics are currently breakout keywords related to women’s clothing. Breakout terms mean that Google doesn’t have enough data yet to give a before and after percentage of the search volume but that there’s been a 5000% rise in search interest recently. This makes them ideal keywords to use: they don’t have a large amount of competition yet, meaning it’ll be much easier to get a foothold and rank on Google. Now would be a perfect time for the hypothetical fashion brand to write a blog post entitled ‘Top 5 Suits for Spring,’ or advertise a promotion for sandals.

The downside of using breakout topics and queries as a keyword tool is many of the terms might just be fads and won’t benefit you long-term. A fad might be worth making a social media post about, whereas a truly powerful keyword with staying power is worth incorporating into your long-term strategy. This is where Google Trends differentiates from traditional keyword research tools: it shows you snapshots of what people are typing in Google’s search bar during a specific moment in time, not the total searches overall. However, tending terms and trending topics can help content marketers inform their decision-making as part of a larger keyword strategy.

Identifying Seasonal Trends

Google Trends is also helpful for finding seasonal trends and the right time to capitalise on them. Let’s say you run a clothing business that sells Halloween costumes. You might think mid-October is the right time to publish ads or run a pay-per-click campaign. However, you can use Google Trends to see that people start searching for Halloween costumes as early as the start of September, with a sharp upward trend until the 30th of October. This serves as an indicator you probably want to get a head start on your marketing earlier rather than later to capitalise on the seasonal trend. 

A flower shop would want to do the same thing around Mother’s Day with the keyword ‘florist near me’. Almost every business has seasonal trends and annual holidays that will result in a spike in traffic with the right marketing, and Google Trends can help. To narrow it down to seasonal search trends that are specific to your location, you can change the subregion to your state or city. This means you can plan to target the right keywords for your location at just the right time. This is particularly useful for smaller local businesses.

Identifying seasonal spikes in business 

Google Trends can be used as one data set to influence business decisions—for example, most cafés close for a week or two over the Christmas to New Year period. However, Google Trends shows that the search query ‘cafés near me’ has an annual spike in searches in late December and early January. This indicates a high demand for cafés that are still open during the festive season, and it might be worthwhile staying open as much as possible during this period to make the most of the demand. To see long-term data like this, you’ll want to set your date range to the “past 5 years” timeframe.

Monitor Your Competitors and Market Trends

You can also use Google Trends data to see how successful your organic marketing efforts are compared to your main competitors. To do this, go to the Google Trends Explore Page and put in your business name, then your competitors in the ‘compare’ box, and you’ll see how the search volume is trending for both. While this doesn’t provide a complete picture of how two businesses stack up against each other, it is a useful tool if you want to check how your marketing campaign is performing. If your competitor had a large increase in search volume during a specific period, you might want to check what marketing and promotions they were running at the time to get a better understanding of what works.

You can compare two search terms in Google Trends or as many as 25. Here’s how it looks, using some tech titans in the mobile phone industry (past and present) as an example:

Comparing search results also allows you to make informed decisions about which products or services you market and when, making the most of trends and seasonal fluxes. This allows you to discover what you should market and create content about at any given time based on the data you find in Google Trends. Using the example of women’s apparel business again, here are two items of clothing trends compared with each other:

One of Many Tools in Our Keyword Kit

While Google Trends doesn’t function as a standalone keyword planner, it can complement traditional keyword planners by providing a dynamic, minute-by-minute perspective. If you’re savvy enough to tell the difference between a fad and a search query that will stay on the up and up for a sustained period, Google Trends can provide a great opportunity to get ahead of the game and take advantage of rising keywords before there’s a lot of competition. Where Google Trends really shines is the ability to keep track of seasonal spikes and local trends – an important part of content planning. Digital marketing and SEO is a competitive space,  so using every resource possible – especially the free-to-use ones – can make a real difference to the success of your marketing and help you be one step ahead of competitors. Our article on Digital Marketing for Membership Organisations can also provide valuable insights that can be translated to almost any industry, as well as our article on how to generate organic traffic to your website.

MemNet Product Category Shortcode

[memnet-iframe url="/memberselfservice/merchandise.aspx?Category=Webinars" public="true"]

To show a specific category of product, you would simply refer to the category in the content after the = and before “. In the example above, you would replace Webinars with the category of product you have set on MemNet and would like to display.

AI, then, should be considered something additive to our jobs and something that can replace menial tasks or tasks that require the recall of large amounts of information. AI is also good at recognising patterns and detecting anomalies, but ultimately, AI is a tool we can use to augment our capability – not replace it. What if AI didn’t stand for Artificial Intelligence, but it stood for Augmented Intelligence – something that can add to human capability but is more akin to a tool in a toolbox rather than the only tool you will ever use or need?

AI is Generative, It Can’t Come Up With New Ideas

At the core of the AI debate lies a fundamental misconception. Rather than viewing AI as an autonomous, all-knowing entity, let’s see it as a tool. AI systems, such as language models (ChatGPT, for example), are trained on vast datasets containing existing human knowledge. They then recognise patterns and synthesise the information we feed them to generate text, make predictions, and assist in creative tasks. What gives a semblance of intelligence is simply a hugely complex series of logic loops looking for the answer it deems to be most correct based on the historically correct answer (thanks to the data they were trained on).

AI, as a result, doesn’t know what will become trendy in the future or what will become the next hit song. However, because humans are relatively predictable, AI can make a pretty good guess at what a song needs to do to become the next hit, but it doesn’t allow for the human anomalies we see all the time. These anomalies or shifts away from the norm are what it takes for a movie to stand out or a song to top the charts. If it were simply down to formulas, then we could all create a hit song.

Enhancing Human Capability

If we follow my thesis that AI is Augmented Intelligence, it doesn’t seek to replace human knowledge but to enhance it. Here are a few examples of how we use AI and how AI can augment the abilities in other professions:

• To apply the findings from extensive studies- we use an eye-tracking study from MIT to apply the results on designs to test for attention and clarity
• Monitoring active email or advertising campaigns to look for anomalies and alert us when this happens so that we can review it ourselves
• Lawyers can use AI to scan historical cases and condense this information to then apply to new cases
• Tesla uses AI in cameras to learn the world around it using cameras to get better at recognising objects and even predicting what cars around it are going to do

Marrying Creativity and Data

In our line of work at Futuretheory (and likely your line of work too, if you think about it), creativity is paramount. Augmented Intelligence allows marketers and designers to harness the power of data to inform and inspire creativity. For example, by analysing user behaviour and preferences, AI can indicate areas of a design that are too information-dense or instances where a layout draws attention to the wrong place.

Time is a precious resource, and one can use AI to automate routine tasks, such as data collection and analysis, freeing up more time for strategic thinking and innovation. This newfound efficiency can be a game-changer for startups and established businesses alike.

The Journey Ahead

As humans, we are responsible for ensuring that we use AI ethically and responsibly moving forward. Augmented Intelligence should be wielded as a force for good, enhancing our knowledge while adhering to ethical guidelines and respecting privacy. Like anything powerful, the wealth of data and information could easily be weaponised or used in nefarious ways.

The transition to integrating AI is not about fearing the rise of machines but embracing the possibilities of collaboration and increased efficiency. It’s about using AI as a powerful ally in our quest for knowledge, innovation, and success.

Embracing The Change

In conclusion, AI is like every other innovation that has come before it. The car replaced the horse, accounting software replaced spreadsheets, and email replaced letters. These aren’t bad things inherently, but the increase in efficiency left less work for humans, and these humans had to upskill or do a different job than before. Humans have always sought efficiency; that is what has allowed mankind to progress. If it weren’t for this innovation and ingenuity, we would all still be toiling away outside with rudimentary tools, and we wouldn’t have time to do things like putting the effort to get to the moon.

By looking at AI as a collaborator rather than something seeking to replace humans, we can harness its potential to enrich our expertise, drive innovation, and shape a brighter future. So, let’s embrace this journey and let AI augment our intelligence to do more, or do faster, leaving more time (hopefully) to spend with family, on hobbies or on your next business idea!

Search Engine Optimisation

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the bread and butter of any digital marketing agency. If you’ve ever wondered why certain sites pop up first when you Google something – it’s because they’ve been well-optimised.  Simply put, this means ensuring the content on your website contains the keywords people are likely to type in when Googling topics related to your business. This means it will rank higher on search engine results pages. By doing this, businesses can attract more organic traffic to their online presence and improve their chances of generating leads and sales.

SEO always starts with keyword research. Keyword research is the process of narrowing down exactly what words and phrases related to your business you need to use to rank higher on search engines. There are lots of tools available to help you do this, like Google’s Keyword Planner.

Adding SEO to your digital strategy will also help you reach Canberrans specifically. Canberra’s diverse business landscape and focus on innovation make SEO an essential tool for local businesses, so you can effectively reach the vibrant community of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across sectors such as government, education, technology, and healthcare Canberra has to offer. 

While Canberra has a smaller population compared to major cities like Sydney and Melbourne, it also presents a less saturated market than other cities in Australia. This provides businesses with an opportunity to gain a competitive edge using SEO strategies. By targeting specific keywords and optimizing their online presence, businesses can position themselves prominently in local search results, capturing the attention of potential customers and outshining their competitors.

You can do this by using location-specific keywords, such as making sure your website includes the phrase ‘in Canberra’, and making the most of your Google My Business profile by customising it with all the relevant information, such as your phone number and address. For instance, a local boutique can optimise its website by creating a blog that highlights the latest fashion trends and uses keywords such as ‘Canberra fashion’ and ‘affordable clothing in Canberra’. This can increase the boutique’s visibility on search engine results pages and attract more localised traffic to their website.

However, keywords aren’t everything. It is important to make sure the mainstay of your website is engaging, quality content. While keywords are important, Google will penalise websites that rely too heavily on them – otherwise known as keyword stuffing. A balance between keywords and great content should be the goal.

Content Marketing

Let’s expand on content, an entire digital marketing strategy in itself. Content marketing involves the strategic posting of high-quality, valuable content relevant to your industry on your website and social media platforms to attract new customers and keep the existing ones engaged. 

The different formats you can use are endless: blog posts, videos, infographics, and podcasts are just a few. The key is to always keep your audience in mind: think about what might interest them, and what they will find valuable, informative and relevant to them. This will get easier over time through trial and error and taking note of the content your target audience appreciates the most as you go. 

For example, a business that specialises in outdoor gear can create content that appeals to Canberra’s active and adventurous population. This will allow them to build a loyal following of engaged and interested followers who are more likely to convert into paying customers.

 Content marketing can also be a cost-effective way for businesses to drive traffic to their website and improve their search engine rankings. By creating high-quality content that is optimised for specific keywords and phrases, businesses can improve their visibility on search engines like Google, which can lead to increased organic traffic and ultimately, more conversions.

 Here’s another example: a local restaurant can create a blog post about the history and culture of the local food scene in Canberra. By incorporating relevant keywords and phrases, the post will rank highly on search engines for people searching for information on Canberra’s food scene. These viewers are all potential new customers – and if they found your blog post genuinely informative, they’re more likely to spend longer on your site, check out your menu what you have to offer, and ideally plan a visit. 

Canberra is the perfect place for businesses to make the most of content marketing, with its vibrant intellectual and cultural climate. Thanks to its numerous universities, research institutions, and government agencies, Canberra is a community that appreciates intellectual discussions, engaging content, and thought-provoking ideas. By posting content that stimulates conversations and resonates with Canberra’s residents, you can make the most of your content marketing.

Visuals are also an important aspect of content marketing to get viewers’ attention in the first place, and Canberra’s beautiful landscape provides ample opportunities to source your own images. From the picturesque landscapes of Lake Burley Griffin to the surrounding mountains and national parks, you have a multitude of options to integrate into your content and show viewers immediately you’re a Canberra-owned business.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is one of the most popular and effective forms of digital marketing in Canberra – and for good reason: According to a study conducted by the Canberra Business Chamber, 87% of Canberrans actively use social media to discover and engage with local businesses. Make the most of this by using social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and the professional networking site LinkedIn to build a social media presence and connect with your local audience, tapping into the sense of community these platforms enable. 

It’s a great way to communicate back and forth with your customers in a way traditional advertising doesn’t allow. By consistently posting interesting content that is likely to engage your customer base, your business can build a loyal following and increase brand awareness. These will also allow you to have a consistent stream of feedback from your customers and get ongoing insight into their brand perceptions.

Social media platforms also offer many tools for businesses to promote their products or services, like paid advertising and influencer partnerships. Much like Google Ads, you can target specific demographics and interests on social media platforms, making it a highly cost-effective and efficient way to reach your target audience when done right. This allows you to build an effective online presence and grow your business at the same time for a relatively low cost.

A local focus is important in social media marketing. Businesses can use social media to share their brand values and showcase their involvement in the local Canberra community – whom they want to reach most. To become a trustworthy member of the Canberra community, share updates about local events, charitable initiatives, and partnerships with other local businesses on your social media platform.

Canberra’s annual events and festivals also provide plenty of opportunities to leverage social media marketing. The Enlighten Festival, Floriade, and the Multicultural Festival are just a few examples of events that attract a large number of attendees and generate social media buzz. Local businesses that strategically incorporate event-specific hashtags and creative content into their social media strategy can benefit from increased visibility and engagement during these events.

One successful example of this in Canberra was the ‘Live in Canberra’ social media campaign by the ACT Government. This popular social media campaign featured stories from locals about what they loved about living in Canberra and was promoted on social media using the hashtag #CBR. This way of inviting participation is a great way to drive engagement.

The popular Canberra coffee shop, “Brew & Sip,” also saw a substantial increase in customer traffic and brand recognition after launching an engaging social media campaign featuring behind-the-scenes videos of their skilled baristas crafting unique coffee blends. The campaign encouraged Canberrans to share their coffee experiences using a dedicated hashtag, creating a sense of community and sparking conversations about local coffee culture.

Pay Per Click Marketing

Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing is another strategy with a high potential ROI (return on investment). It involves placing ads on search engines and social media platforms and paying a fee each time someone clicks on the ad. This form of digital marketing is highly targeted and can be incredibly effective in driving business growth and traffic to your website. When you search for something on Google, often the first half dozen results will have the word “sponsored” above them. These are companies using Google Ads, which allows advertisers to bid on keywords. The winning bid appears at the top of the search result and the advertisers pay Google each time a user clicks on it. Additionally, PPC marketing can be highly measurable with data analysis and analytics, allowing businesses to track their (ROI) and make data-driven decisions about their overall marketing strategy, allowing businesses to make the best use of their marketing budget.

PPC marketing in Canberra offers the advantage of precise targeting to specific requirements, enabling businesses to reach specific segments of their intended audience. Businesses can improve their chances of making sales by displaying their ads to the right audience at the right time. They can do this by targeting specific groups based on factors like location, age, and interests, and using relevant keywords. Here’s an example: if you run a beauty salon in Canberra, Google allows you to target women in Canberra aged 18-25 specifically. PPC marketing is different from other digital marketing methods like content marketing and SEO, because it can produce immediate results by directing traffic to a website. This makes it a great option for businesses looking to boost their website traffic vastly in a short time, generating leads and sales quickly in the digital space.

Canberra, being a city known for its vibrant food scene and love for local flavours, provides opportunities for businesses to deliver paid advertising campaigns to effectively to showcase their product or service. A restaurant in Canberra, for example, can utilise paid ads to promote its unique dishes and culinary offerings. By targeting keywords such as “organic restaurants in Canberra” or “locally sourced ingredients in Canberra” through PPC ads, a restaurant can capture the attention of Canberra residents who value high-quality, environmentally conscious dining experiences and compel them to give their venue a try.

Another way paid advertising can be leveraged in Canberra is by tapping into the city’s thriving arts and culture scene. Canberra is home to numerous galleries, exhibitions, and cultural festivals that attract both locals and visitors. Businesses such as art galleries or boutique stores selling unique handmade crafts can utilize paid advertising to promote their products or upcoming events during popular cultural festivals like the Canberra Balloon Spectacular or the National Multicultural Festival. By running targeted PPC campaigns with relevant keywords and demographics, these businesses can effectively reach art enthusiasts and festival-goers who are actively seeking unique experiences and products.

Another benefit is that because Canberra is relatively small compared to other major Australian cities, there might be less competition for online advertising space, causing lower costs per click, and increasing the ROI even further.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is another form of digital marketing you can use to drive forward your business goals, build brand recognition and increase engagement locally. We’re all familiar with email marketing; the average person probably receives at least 10 promotional emails in their inbox every day. However, there are lots of email marketing software tools available and strategies to ensure you don’t get lost in the crowd and can connect with your target audience on a more personal and direct level via email. 

Make sure you’re on the pulse of what’s going on in Canberra so you can integrate this into your email marketing campaigns and make them as relevant as possible to your target audience. By doing this, you can increase open rates on emails significantly by putting time-sensitive, topical local information that your customer base is interested in at the forefront of your emails.

For example, if you won a bookstore in Canberra, the Canberra Writers’ Festival would be a perfect time to email your client base offering a sale on books authored by speakers at the festival. The subject line could be: “Get read up before the Writer’s Festival with this deal.” If you have a clothing wear business, you can send your customers an email on a particularly cold day in Canberra showcasing your outerwear options, with the cohesive subject line “Make sure your coat can stand up to the coldest Canberra mornings yet.”

Digital Marketing Agency Canberra

Digital marketing has become a crucial business growth strategy to keep meeting objectives. While implementing one of the marketing solutions alone is useful, by combining the different strategies simultaneously and adapting them to Canberra culture, you’ll not only be able to reach your audience more effectively but also keep them engaged. If you want guidance or more tips, you can read more of our digital marketing resources here. 

We’re a Canberra-based digital marketing agency with a talented, expert team. We offer a range of digital marketing and web services, including custom web design, web development, branding, and SEO. If you’re looking to build a strong online presence to take your business to the next level, you can get in touch with us for an initial consultation at 02 6169 4422 or hello@futuretheory.co.

What is Web Design?

Web design is a crucial aspect of website construction, designing the ‘front end’, user-facing side of the website, including the visual design and user experience. This encompasses the website’s design and layout, as well as the overall style of a website. This includes the colour scheme, graphics, and overall interface that users see on the front-end layout of a website. The primary objective of an effective web designer is to create a website that is not only visually appealing but also user-friendly.

In addition to visual design, a web designer’s job includes other essential aspects of a website, such as ensuring that the site aligns with the client’s branding, encourages user engagement, and enables easy navigation. This means always keeping user experience (UX) and the user interface (UI) in mind throughout the design process. Many people think a web designer is a graphic artist, but they’re not the same thing: there are a lot more factors that go into a well-designed website. 

Web designers create a wireframe, which is a visual prototype that illustrates the website’s content layout, navigation, and behaviour. They then move on to deciding the website’s colour scheme and adding graphics and imagery. In essence, web design focuses on a website’s look, feel, and usability, shaping how users interact with and perceive it.

What is Web Development?

On the other hand, web developers focus on the behind-the-scenes of a website and back-end development. One of the biggest differences between a web developer and a designer is that they write code using programming languages such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to build web pages and the overall structure and functionality of the website. The web developer is responsible for selecting the platform the website runs on and writing code that ensures that the website is fast, secure, and works seamlessly across all devices. This is known as ‘responsive web design‘.

Web designers and web developers work in tangent with each other. While the web designer is responsible for the more visual aspects of a website and creating the website’s wireframe, the web developer is also responsible for writing the code that brings the vision to life. They build and enhance your website using their coding skills to ensure the website’s envisioned features and functions work correctly, including the navigation, forms, and interactive elements.

Defining the Difference Between Web Design and Web Development

Web development and design both play an integral role in creating a successful website, creating a union between design and functionality. The web designer is in charge of creating a striking visual appearance that promotes brand recognition and ease of use. A web developer is someone who uses code to make this design and make the website interactive, functional and ready for launch. The end result of good web designers and developers working side by side is an all-around attractive and effective website that meets the needs of both the business and potential customers visiting the site.

Similarities of Website Design & Website Development

While web design and web development are two distinct professions that require different skills, there are some areas where they overlap. Both occupations require technical knowledge and an understanding of programming languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Functionality and ease of use are also fundamental principles of both disciplines. For web designers, this means creating a layout with a clear visual hierarchy that structures information in a way that makes the most sense for users. For web developers, this means coding a responsive, fast website that doesn’t break.

Another key similarity is that web designers and developers both need to take a client-centric approach. They have to understand the client’s needs, business objectives, and target audience well to build a website that aligns with their brand’s identity. A thorough understanding of the client’s expectations is crucial for both professions to deliver a website the client will be satisfied with.

The Need for Cohesion

Design and development are two essential parts of creating a website and both have to work harmoniously to achieve success. A developer can’t code a website without a design; inversely, a website designer can’t bring their creation to fruition without a developer coding it. A functional website should have visual elements and features that align seamlessly, meaning the developer and designer need to collaborate and combine their skills to develop and design a website with a positive outcome. 

Working cohesively means the designer has to use their eye for design but also work within the limits of what the developer has the time and ability to code, and the developer has to do their best to ensure the end product is how the designer envisioned it. Collaboration ensures that design and development decisions align, resulting in a cohesive user experience. Together, they bring the vision of a new website to life.

Achieving the Same Goal

Website development and design share the same goal: creating an effective website. Both the website’s visual design and its code and functionality play a vital role in achieving this goal. This means website development and design are equally important in delivering a website that meets the user’s and client’s requirements. Web designers create the idea and design style using design and editing software, then web developers use a website builder platform like Elementor to bring it to life. Both aspects of website creation are equally important.

Developers and designers work together to ensure that the website has a seamless user experience, is accessible to all users, and is optimised for search engines. Ultimately, the goal of both website development and design is to create a website that is not only aesthetically pleasing but also functions well and meets the needs of its users.

The Value of Visuals

The importance of the visual elements web designers bring to the table can’t be understated and goes beyond just looking good at first glance. A seasoned web designer knows how to leverage user psychology during the design process to drive forward business goals through strategic visual hierarchy and strong branding.

The choices the web designer makes dictate the first impression people get of your business from when they first arrive on your landing page onwards. The web designer holds the power to make sure that the impression is positive by creating a clean, professional, and visually appealing layout. This will encourage people to stay on your website longer, increasing the chance of conversions. 

Should I Hire a Web Designer or a Web Developer?

If you need a brand new website from scratch, you probably need the expertise of both a website developer and a website designer.  Both web designers and web developers play integral roles in the life cycle of a website. However, if you’re looking for a refresh or update of your current website, you might only need the services of one and will have to put thought and consideration into which one you choose. 

The first step is to assess how your current website can be improved and make a list of the changes you’d like to make. This will help you make an informed decision about whether to hire a web designer or web developer.

The answer depends greatly on what elements you want to change or add to a website. If you want to update the look of a website to be more modern, match new branding or keep in stride with your marketing strategies, a web designer is what you’re looking for. Web designers also help you improve the structure of your website and ensure it’s easy to navigate and uncluttered. 

On the other hand, if you need to add additional functions to your website, like a contact form or an in-site shopping function, hiring a developer is a good idea. Part of the web developer’s job is also increasing website loading times and responsiveness, as well as running ongoing maintenance. 

Interested in Becoming a Web Designer or Developer?

Aside from offering a completely different set of services to clients, the two jobs also offer differing professional experiences with contrasting opportunities, potential salaries and educational requirements. If you’re considering a career in the website field, it’s essential to consider all these factors before you decide to be a web developer or website designer. We’ll go over some of these factors below so you can make a more informed decision about the career path you choose.

Job Prospects for Web Designers vs. Web Developers

Web designers and developers both have promising job prospects in today’s digital landscape. Web designers focus on creating visually captivating websites, prioritizing user interfaces and experiences. On the other hand, web developers specialize in coding and programming the back-end functionalities of a website. The demand for both professions is high due to the continuous growth of the Internet and e-commerce. Front-end developers with expertise in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are particularly sought after. Overall, the job prospects for both web designers and developers are projected to be favourable in the coming years.

Overview of Job Duties for Web Designers and Web Developers

Web designers specialise in using design software like Photoshop or Adobe Dreamweaver to create visually appealing websites. On the other hand, web developers write code in programming languages such as JavaScript, Python, or PHP to build the website itself. While web designers prioritise a website’s visual appearance and user experience (UX), web developers ensure its functionality and performance. There can be some overlap in job duties, with many web developers and designers having some of both skill sets. Collaboration with clients, project managers, and other team members is often necessary in web design and development projects. Web developers must have strong technical skills, whereas design skills are much more important for web designers.

Salary Expectations of Web Designers and Web Developers

This is potentially where website development and design differ the most: there is a notable gap in salary expectations. A survey found that Australia’s average web designer salary is $92,573 per year or $47.47 per hour in 2023, and entry-level positions start at $80,000. On the other hand, web developers earn a higher median salary at $105,479 per year on average or $54.09 per hour. Entry-level positions start at $91,977 annually.

It’s important to note that this is just one survey, and salaries vary greatly based on factors like experience, location, and employer. Most web developers and designers also find niches and have specialised skills that can bump up their salary.  For example, Full Stack Developers, who can build both the front and back end of a website or web application, earn a higher annual salary at $123,300 on average. Similarly, on average, web designers who specialise in UX make $115,000 annually. On the whole, although they differ, both professions offer competitive salaries with the opportunity to upskill for higher compensation. 

What Education Level Do Web Developers and Web Designers Need?

Employers highly value higher education when hiring either web designers or web developers, but the degrees to break into each profession differ. Most web designers often start by either studying visual or graphic design, digital media or website design on its own. On the other hand, web developers often have qualifications in computer science, software development or information technology.

It’s worth noting that not all successful website designers or developers have degrees, although it’ll help you get a leg up. It’s possible to break into the field and find success by self-teaching and showcasing skills through a portfolio. Regardless of your chosen path, continuous learning is essential to succeed in both professions to stay up-to-date with ever-evolving technologies and the latest web design trends.

The Potential Career Paths Web Development And Web Design Offer

Before jumping into either profession, it’s important to envision where you want your career to progress down the line and what the pathways are. Becoming a website designer allows you to progress to being a UX designer, visual designer, Chief Design Officer or even a creative director. Web developers can become front or back-end developers, lead developers, technical directors or Chief Technology Officers. 

Both web developers and designers can choose to work as a freelancer instead of joining a web design agency. Freelancing is ideal for people who value working independently, want a flexible work schedule or have the ability to work remotely. The downside of becoming a freelance developer or designer is that you always have to be on top of finding the next project to keep a steady flow of income.

Our Team of Web Designers and Web Developers

We hope this article has helped clarify the difference between web developers and web designers. Ultimately, web design and web development converge with a common goal: creating websites that are not only visually striking but function impeccably – catering to the needs of both the client and users. Whether you’re interested in becoming a web designer or a web developer or need to hire one, understanding the difference between them is important to make an informed decision and ensure you get the exact outcome you’re looking for.

If you need a new website, you should highly consider hiring both. This is the ethos we follow at Futuretheory: When a client approaches us for a new website, our team of experienced web designers and web developers collaborate to provide the client with a well-rounded, highly functional and well-designed website. 

What do the different traffic sources mean?

There are lots of different types of traffic, but these are the three main streams to focus on:

Organic search traffic refers to anyone who visits your website from unpaid sources, like from non-sponsored Google search results. It represents brand new eyes on your business and is essentially free traffic, making organic traffic the most important form of traffic your website can get. Any traffic your website gets from search results without any paid advertising or promotion involved is considered organic traffic.

Paid search traffic, on the other hand, refers to traffic from paid advertising campaigns you can run on search engines like Google or Bing. These search results appear first on Google with the “Sponsored” tag.

The biggest difference between direct and organic traffic is user intent. Direct traffic is traffic that comes from anyone who visits your website by typing in the URL directly in their browser or from a bookmark, not from a referring website. Lots of direct traffic can indicate loyal customers already familiar with your business. However, any traffic that Google Analytics can’t identify the referring website of is categorised as direct traffic, not referral traffic like organic and paid traffic.

Why is Organic Traffic Important?

The benefits of organic traffic are precious because they allow you to reach people who have never heard of your business. They’re not random people either – they come from organic search results by searching specific keywords on Google and other search engines, with a relevant and specific intent related to your business. This is the traffic that has the highest chance of conversion. As your organic traffic grows, you’ll also see direct traffic increase in time as a result.

Your website’s traffic also affects where your link on a search engine is ranked. Search engines like Google use website traffic as a metric to determine how relevant and popular your website is and rank it on the search engine results page accordingly, making it easier for potential customers to find your website when searching for relevant keywords.

Another benefit and key difference between organic and paid traffic is that it’s cost-effective, making it a more sustainable approach in the long run. While the strategies that drive organic traffic might carry costs initially, the traffic is free. On the other hand, every single click that comes from a paid search ad carries a cost. This cost is normally between $1 and $2 for every click – which adds up quickly if you’re hoping for a large spike in traffic. Organic traffic offers a way to diversify your traffic streams and reduce your dependency on these often costly paid search campaigns. 

Focusing your efforts on organic search traffic is also more credible to potential customers than paid advertising. Around 94% of all search traffic goes to organic results over paid ads because people trust the search results below more than the “Sponsored” ones above. This is why organic traffic is more important than paid traffic and the search engine marketing industry is growing exponentially: the market size increased 11.4% annually on average between 2017 and 2022, reaching $225.3 billion in revenue.

How to Increase Organic Traffic To Your Website Through SEO

The branch of digital marketing that focuses on improving organic traffic is called Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Google uses an algorithm to rank the order in which websites appear in search engine results based on over 200 factors. SEO is the art of fine-tuning your website in line with these factors, so Google ranks it higher when someone googles topics related to your organisation.

The first step is to find and analyse the terms with high search volume people use related to your business. This can be done through keyword research, using a keyword research tool like Google’s keyword planner. Keyword research helps understand user intent, allowing you to better tailor your website to match. These keywords should be integral to your website’s pages and content to increase your ranking when people search them.

These are some other key SEO strategies:

• Regularly populate your website with high-quality, keyword-rich content that your target audience will find genuinely informative and helpful. Doing this increases your authority with the Google Algorithm and gives people more reason to visit your site and stay longer. While it requires a bit of work and takes time to show results, this is one of the most surefire ways to increase your place in search rankings. To get a few tips on how to do this, you can read our guide to creating great website content.
• Make sure your website design provides a good user experience (UX). Good UX means ensuring your website is responsive and mobile optimised, loads quickly, and your website structure and layout facilitate easy navigation. Google takes all these factors into account when ranking your website.
• Another strategy is link building, or “backlinking.” This means strategically increasing the number of hyperlinks to your website on other sites. If your website is linked from one website to another to on lots of heavily trafficked and reputable sites, the Google Algorithm takes this as an endorsement that your website is valuable and trustworthy and ranks it accordingly.

These are just a few of the many different SEO efforts a digital marketing agency would implement to improve your ranking. SEO is an ongoing marketing strategy that takes time and expertise, but it is the best way to drive more organic traffic to your site in a sustainable, long-term way. The results won’t be instant, but if your SEO is done right, they will pay off, and you’ll see an increase in organic traffic. 

How To Track Organic and Direct Traffic With Web Analytics

Tracking your website’s overall traffic numbers is vital to ensure your marketing strategy is working and your website is doing well overall. You can access Google Analytics and Google Search Console if you’re the website owner. These are the best analytics tools to monitor how much overall site traffic you’re getting and whether the traffic lands on your website from paid, direct or organic sources the most. This is invaluable data you can use to make informed decisions about improving your website’s content, user experience, and marketing to get organic traffic on your site and reach your traffic KPI.

You can do this in Google Analytics by clicking on “All Traffic” and then “Channels” to see a detailed breakdown of where your traffic is coming from. For each channel, you can see detailed website analytics like bounce rate (how long users stay on your site) and how many individual people that source of traffic has sent to your website. You can click “Source/Medium” to get more detailed information about the specific websites and platforms driving traffic. Under “Referrals,” you can see a list of external websites that have referred traffic to your site, a great way to check on how your link-building efforts are tracking.

Under “Acquisition,” click “Organic Search” to see which keywords best drive traffic to your website from the search engine rankings. This is how you check that your organic SEO campaign is working and which keywords you should keep focusing on. It also offers key insights like impressions, click-through rate, and how your website ranks for different keywords. 

This website analytics tool is handy but not perfect. If you see an unexplained spike in direct traffic in Google Analytics, there could be a few reasons for this other than a lot of people typing in your URL directly all of a sudden. An experiment run by SearchEngineLand and Groupon revealed that as much as 60% of traffic considered to be direct traffic is actually organic traffic that Google Analytics has mislabelled. Sometimes Google doesn’t always get it right where traffic comes from.

We hope this article gave you a clearer picture of what direct, paid and organic traffic refers to and how the traffic is different. Now that you know more about organic and paid traffic, you might want to start learning about Search Engine Optimisation, what it is, techniques, and more! Start with our article on What is SEO.

In short, responsive web design is an approach to web design that means the site responds to the user and their environment, no matter what device or browser they’re using or how large their screen size/window size is. This is done by making the layout able to contract or expand depending on the user’s viewport (screen), creating an adaptive design that provides a better user experience (UX). If you want to learn more about responsive design, here’s a beginner’s guide. We’ll go over everything you need to know about responsive design, why it’s the way forward and the best way to create a modern, functional website, and some basic steps to create responsive websites and examples of responsive web design in practice. 

Why Responsive Design Matters

Having a responsive design for your website is crucial. It ensures that your website looks and functions at its best, regardless of the device people use to view it – be it a mobile device, tablet, or desktop computer. With over 55% of all internet traffic coming from mobile devices as of August 2023, optimising for multiple devices is more important than ever before. We live in a mobile-first world today, so while making your website responsive for desktops will always be necessary, you also have to consider the mobile version and different screen sizes during the website design process. This will help you avoid having a clunky and unattractive website with slow page loading times, which can drive away more than half of your website’s viewers. A survey conducted by HubSpot revealed that over 93% of people leave a website if it doesn’t display properly on their devices. As such, designers should never neglect the mobile version of their website.

Where Did The Concept of Responsive Web Design Originate?

Ethan Marcotte first introduced the concept of responsive web design in 2010 in an article for the design magazine A List Apart. Marcotte predicted the surge of mobile browsing and emphasised the need for web designers to adapt. He proposed that developers and designers move to create websites with one design that seamlessly responds to the user across all devices. 

The alternative is creating different designs for each device, otherwise known as adaptive design, resulting in a never-ending arms race to keep up with personal devices and mobile phone screens. Marcotte had complete conviction about the need for web designers to develop responsive design skills, stating in his seminal article: “This is our way forward. Rather than tailoring disconnected designs to each of an ever-increasing number of web devices, we can treat them as facets of the same experience.”

The Basic Principles of Responsive Web Design

Web designers can achieve a responsive website by strategically using flexible grids, layout elements, and adaptable images and media. Incorporating these elements in the web design process allows web pages to automatically adjust and rearrange their content to fit various window sizes. Doing this leads to smooth navigation, effortless interaction, and an enhanced user experience that increases user engagement and satisfaction. Web designers use HTML and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) frameworks like Bootstrap to create responsive websites. 

We’ll expand on the fundamentals of responsive web design below:

Fluid Grids

One of the key ways to make a design responsive is by using fluid grids. These grids allow content to resize and adjust based on columns. Essentially, fluid grids mean every element on the page occupies the same percentage of space, however large or small the screen becomes. The grid layout can also adapt based on breakpoints, allowing for a seamless and consistent user experience across different devices and screen sizes. By employing fluid grids, designers can create a flexible and adaptable interface.

Breakpoints

 In the CSS coding language, breakpoints are specific points in the range of screen widths that trigger changes in the design and layout of a website to adapt to various devices and screen sizes. Designers define these breakpoints as set pixel values in CSS. Once the website reaches these values, elements such as the grid and layout adjust to create a different CSS style to provide the best user experience possible. 

Designers can set breakpoints based on the screen resolution of different devices. Here is an example of the breakpoints a designer might set for their website, at which points the website will change:

• Small devices (e.g., smartphones): Below 600px
• Medium devices (e.g., tablets): 601px to 992px
• Large devices (e.g., desktops): 993px to 1200px
• Extra-large devices (e.g., large computer screens): Above 1201px

A design example of breakpoints in use would be a website that changes from multiple columns on a desktop layout to a single-column layout based on screen size at the 600 px breakpoint. You can also use breakpoints to shrink the sidebar to a simpler and smaller menu at specific screen sizes.

Flexible Images and Media

One of the most surefire ways to make your website more responsive is to ensure the images and media on your website are flexible. “Flexible” in this case means images and media should be dynamic and resized based on the width of the screen. This means responsive images always display in their original size unless the screen size is too narrow. If it is, the image’s width scales down with the size of the screen.

Using CSS, designers can ensure the maximum width of the image is set to 100 % of the screen or browser width. When the screen becomes too narrow, the image will scale its height and width without distorting or overflowing the layout. WordPress automatically implements this functionality for any images or media files uploaded.

Media Queries

Media queries are rules designers can set in CSS3 to ensure their website is both mobile responsive and desktop responsive. Media queries allow the layout, HTML blocks, font size, colours, and other design elements to change to accommodate the user. 

To work with media queries, designers must choose the breakpoints and rules they want to set. They can then apply the rules when certain conditions and breakpoints are met. These conditions might include viewport width, height, device orientation (landscape or portrait), or screen resolution. Designers can make their media queries even more specific, such as adjusting when the viewer uses a touch screen or mouse.

Here’s a simple example of how to use media queries: a designer might set a rule that reduces the text size when the user’s screen resolution is below 600px, the standard smartphone resolution.

Mobile-First Approach

Many proponents of responsive design use a mobile-first approach. This means they focus on the smallest screen sizes first and then progressively enhance the layout and features as the screen size increases instead of using the traditional method of designing for larger screens first and then scaling down. The idea is to ensure that the core functionality and basic layouts are, by default, optimised for mobile devices, meaning they never get left to the wayside. The mobile-first approach has its detractors, but it’s gaining popularity, considering mobile browsing now dominates.

Mobile-first design also ensures designers don’t add too many unnecessary elements to the website that would have to be axed for the mobile version.

Content Prioritisation

This leads us to our next concept: content prioritisation. If everything is emphasised, nothing stands out, especially on small screens. Not all content and features are equally important across devices, and smaller devices have limited screen real estate. A responsive website isn’t overloaded with features that only look good and function well on larger screens.

While having multiple columns and a wealth of informative content on your landing page might be great for desktop, it can look messy on mobile versions. This can cause essential information to be pushed down to the bottom of the page, forcing users to scroll endlessly. That’s why content prioritisation is critical. It involves identifying important content and ensuring it’s easily accessible and prominent, even on smaller screens, while less vital content is hidden or reorganised.

From A Design Concept to a Key Strategy

Mobile browsing has become even more popular than Marcotte could have possibly predicted in 2010, now accounting for the majority of all browsing. As a result, responsive design has gone from a concept to an essential strategy you need to implement if you want your website to be successful and have a good user experience. We hope this article helped set you on the right path to creating a responsive website that functions beautifully, no matter the device. If you need a bit more guidance, check out our article on the more broad fundamentals of web design.

The internet is a potent marketing tool, and having a firm idea of exactly how Australians browse the internet can influence your digital marketing strategies and how you design your website. For example, you might be surprised to learn how many Australians primarily use mobile devices to access the internet. This statistic underscores the need to ensure your website is compatible across all devices to maximise its potential reach.

Internet connection speeds in Australia in 2023

The median mobile internet connection speed through cellular networks increased 6% to 86.01 Mbps in 2023 – a big jump. 

The median fixed internet connection speed also increased by 1% to 53.06 Mbps in 2023. Fixed internet means the connection is sent to individual receivers from the main access point (typically supplied with high-speed fibre-optic lines).

One key takeaway from these statistics is that mobile internet connections are now much faster than fixed internet connections, thanks to the prevalence of 5G. In 2023, 5G availability reached 36.6% in Australia. As a result, Australia has some of the fastest mobile internet speeds in the developed world.

Browsing device statistics in Australia in 2023

As of July 2023, desktop computers remain the most popular device in Australia, holding a market share of 52.5%. Mobile devices are also highly favoured for browsing, accounting for 43% of the market share. Tablets, on the other hand, hold a mere 4.6% of the market share.

Mobile connections in Australia in 2023

Data shows there were 32.71 million cellular mobile connections in Australia at the start of 2023. This equates to 124.3% of the total population, meaning a significant amount of Australians have more than one mobile device, e.g. one for personal use and one for work.

Desktop screen resolution statistics in Australia in 2023

Knowing the most popular screen resolution sizes is essential for web designers to determine breakpoints, a key tool to creating a responsive website.

The most common screen resolution for desktop computers for Australians in 2023 is 1920×1080, taking up 24.2% of the market share.

1440×900 and 1536×864 were almost tied for the second most common screen resolution, coming in at just under 10% of the market share each.

Mobile screen resolution statistics in Australia in 2023

As for mobile devices, the most common screen resolution is 390×844 – the same screen resolution as the iPhone 12 and 13 models. 14.75% of mobile phones have this screen resolution in 2023.

414×896, the screen resolution of the iPhone X models, is just a little behind, at 11.14%.

The most common screen resolution for tablets is 768×1024, at 38.83%. This is the same screen resolution as the HP Touchpad.

Most popular search engine in Australia in 2023

Knowing which search engines to optimise for is crucial for an effective Search Engine Optimisation campaign. The most popular search engine in Australia in 2023 is Google by far, with 95% of the market share.

Bing comes second, with 3.75% of the search engine market share. Trailing behind at 3rd place is Yahoo!, at 0.73%.

Which Australians are using the internet the most in 2023?

Each business has a specific target demographic, and knowing how much this target demographic uses the internet, and how, can help influence your digital marketing strategies. 

The age range that uses the internet the most is 25 and 34. 3.76 million respondents within this age range reported using the internet. The next largest demographic to use the internet is people aged 35 to 44, at 3.26 million. The 45 to 54 age range isn’t far behind at 3.15 million.

All statistics and numbers are courtesy of Statcounter (gs.statcounter.com), Data Reportal (datareportal.com), and Statista (statista.com).     

How Often Should You Post

Posting regularly isn’t just for influencers. Whether you’re a small business owner or a freelancer, keeping your online presence fresh is essential. It drives more traffic to you and can even improve your search engine rankings.

However, we know that content marketing isn’t always easy. The more you post, the more eyes you’ll get, but consistently generating new content ideas is challenging, even for the most creative people.

Inspost Is Easy To Use

Creating content is hard enough, so we made Inspost as easy to use as possible. If you ever feel stuck and aren’t sure what to post, simply hit the shuffle button to get tons of ideas for your next post, no matter the format. The blue box has video-based post ideas; the red box has blog post ideas, the yellow box has ideas for shorter text posts like Instagram captions, and the purple box has photo-based post ideas. 

You can shuffle as many times as you need until you find the perfect idea for your post. We’ve kept our ideas simple and easy to follow so you can get straight to it without hassle. 

To try it for yourself, head to the website now and start shuffling. We’d love to hear your feedback. Good luck and happy shuffling (and posting)!

Good web design involves many important elements that may not be immediately obvious. During the design process, our team of Canberra web designers puts a lot of thought and work into everything from usability to typography. While creating a visually appealing website is important, the key principles of website design extend far beyond aesthetics. In this article, we’ll go over some of the core principles of good website design and the best practices every web designer should incorporate. If, while reading, you realise your current website is lacking some of these important principles, it might be time for a website redesign to make sure you’re following the design best practices.

Ensuring Your Site Design is Easy And Functional To Use

Having a website that’s clunky on mobile, slow to load and difficult to navigate is the easiest way to put off a visitor. Simplicity and ease of use should always be at the forefront of your mind while you design your website. It’s easy to get caught up in the visual aspects and forget that the visitor is looking to quickly complete a certain action or find a piece of information. Great design should go hand in hand with ease of use, accessibility, and functionality:

Ease of Use

Website visitors browse at a fast pace, so this means your website should be easy to use and navigate if you want to keep their attention. The key to achieving this is by prioritizing good user experience (UX) in the design and layout of your site. UX is all about crafting a website that caters to the needs of your visitors, ensuring that they can quickly find the information they need and complete their desired actions without hassle. 
To achieve a great UX design, it’s essential to have a well-structured website with a simple navigation bar and drop-down menu that allows users to easily navigate between different pages. 

Moreover, it’s important to ensure that all the essential information is prominently displayed on your website, such as the services or products your business offers, pricing, and contact information. This means you should arrange the different website elements in order of importance. This is also known as responsive design. Your home page should also be clean, uncluttered, and visually appealing, with clear text that conveys the message of your brand or business. By doing so, you’ll help your visitors find what they’re looking for quickly and efficiently.

All in all, a well-designed website that prioritizes user experience is key to ensuring that visitors stay on your site for longer and are more likely to engage with your brand or business. So, take the time to create a user-friendly website that meets the needs of your audience, and you’ll reap the rewards in the long run.

Accessibility 

Accessibility means your website functions seamlessly across different devices like phones and tablets. These days, mobile browsing is king:  more than half (56.96%) of all website traffic comes from mobile devices as of May 2023.  If your mobile website isn’t optimised, you risk alienating over half of your potential traffic. To further the point that a good mobile web design is crucial, HubSpot found that 93% of people they surveyed have clicked off a website because it didn’t properly display on their device. Your website’s design should be able to adapt dynamically to different screen sizes, and the layout should work seamlessly on any device and load quickly. Essentially, whether it’s an iPhone or an extra large monitor, your website needs to have the same level of visual appeal and functionality. 

 By taking the time throughout the design process to ensure your website theme is optimised for mobile devices and tablets, you can create a seamless user experience that will help your website gain the traction and success you’re looking for. In short, having a website that’s accessible across all devices is an essential part of modern web design. 

Functionality

Functionality: one of the most important principles of effective web design and the key to making a pleasing website. The name says it all: your website, and all the features on it, should function smoothly.  Having a website that’s consistent and reliable strengthens your online presence, reflects well on your business and can also help increase profits – especially if you have an in-site shopping function or booking and contact forms. If these don’t function as they should, it will result in a drop in conversion. 

Functionality also involves making sure your website loads as quickly as possible. According to a study by Kissmetrics, 40% of individuals tend to abandon a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. Moreover, the same study indicates that even a mere 1-second delay in page response can lead to a 7% drop in conversions. This is why functionality and loading times are key to a good website design.

Effective Visual Design Choices

Good visual design for a website, as we explained above, is multifaceted. Aside from just being aesthetically pleasing, good visual design on your site will also play into user psychology to drive the goals of the website. Visual design plays a large role in shaping visitors’ perceptions of your brand, how much they engage with your website, and their overall user experience. Your website should have a clean, professional, and visually appealing layout that creates a positive first impression and encourages users to stay and explore further. 

Consistent Design Choices and Branding

Consistency is one of the fundamental principles of effective website design. An all-over-the-place colour scheme can make your website design look haphazard and unprofessional. The same applies to any of the design elements on your website design.  Here are some design guidelines to help you stay consistent:

• Only use a handful of fonts across your website, and be deliberate in your use of them. This is one of the easiest ways to ensure your website feels cohesive.
• Pick completely contrasting or complimentary colour schemes and stick to them throughout your website. 
• Keep layout spacing and padding consistent throughout all your pages. This means your menus, search bar, and images should be in the same position on each page.

Sticking to your design choices throughout the design process is a simple way to make your website look and feel cohesive and well-thought-out, therefore increasing your brand’s credibility in the eyes of anyone who visits it.

Clear Navigation

One of the most basic web design principles is having a straightforward website navigation menu. Typically, the navigation menu is located on the sidebar or page header and contains internal links. It allows people to move between different pages on your site. Considering the limited patience of internet users, creating a well-designed navigation menu is crucial. It helps visitors find what they are looking for quickly and easily, preventing them from getting frustrated and leaving your site.

A visually appealing navigation menu is important, but its ease and efficiency of use should be prioritised. Keeping the design as simple as possible is the best approach; avoid overloading your drop-down menu with too many options under each header category. Additionally, limit the number of header categories to a maximum of 5.

Visual Hierarchy 

In web design, visual hierarchy refers to the way elements are arranged and presented on a web page to guide the user’s attention to the most important information first. This makes it easier for users to quickly grasp the content and structure of the page and find the information they need. Visual hierarchy is achieved through design techniques such as size, colour, contrast, alignment, and positioning, which all work together to improve the usability of your website.

To summarise, good web design should be appealing, user-friendly, and functional. User experience matters, so provide essential information intuitively and have a responsive interface across devices. Consistency and a clear navigation menu foster credibility and exploration. Following these principles should set you on the right track to creating a website design that represents your business in the best way possible and avoid some of the most common mistakes in web design. If you need further guidance, you can read more about website design here.

A good, professional business card is much more than just your name and contact information on card stock – it’s an extension of your brand. This article will explain everything you need to include and what design choices are available to create a standout business card and make a great first impression.

What Information Your Business Card Should Include

While the typical business card of days old tended to just include your contact details, company name and job title, there are many more options today for what to put on a business card. Your website URL, logo, and social media handles are options to include as well. With so many possible details to include, it’s easy to err on the side of clutter when creating your business card. It’s important to pick and choose which options reflect your business best – if you have a well-designed, regularly updated website, make sure to include your URL. If your social media game is especially strong, your social media handles are a must.

One good way to ensure your business card doesn’t look too busy is to minimise the number of words and include a QR code linking to your business’s website instead of a long URL. This is easy to do, with websites such as Canva and Vistaprint you might use to design your card also offering free to use QR code generation.  

Your Business Card’s Visual Design

Once you’ve established which information is essential to include on your business card, it’s time to start thinking about the visual design. Designing business cards is a lot easier than it used to be, with free business card makers being available online and thousands of templates available from professional designers. With so many options to customise your business card and tools that make the design process simple, the hardest part is making clear choices and picking a definitive design direction to take.

Make sure the design is cohesive with your business 

With a plethora of free business card templates available online today, your design options are endless. It’s important to think about the impression you want to give and pick a business card design that is cohesive with your existing branding in both colour scheme and overall style. Your card’s design should match your profession to be on-brand: for example, if you’re an architect who specialises in brutalism, you might want a business card that has a sleek layout with hard lines, and modern font and a grey and white colour scheme. If you’re in a creative industry like graphic design, your business card is the perfect format to show off your design skills and make bold, colourful choices with fun typography to match and capture the essence of your brand.

Strike a balance between visual interest and clutter

Part of creating a business card that’s eye-catching means choosing a simple and effective visual design. While you might want to include as many colours, patterns and text as you can, this can be confusing to potential clients. When it comes to designing a custom business card, making use of white space to reduce visual noise is key. You can make use of premade business card templates to help ease the design experience if you’re not sure where to find the balance.

Get creative with your business card size and shape

No rule says your business card has to be rectangular, read horizontally and have the standard 55 x 85mm card dimensions. One way to differentiate your business from the competition is to get creative with the shape and size of your card. While it’s also important to consider that most people put business cards in their wallet or pocket at first, a square business card, for example, is a lot more likely to stand out among a stack of other business cards or on a bulletin board.

If that seems too radical and you’re a traditionalist at heart, a business card with rounded edges might be a safe compromise for you. Vertical business cards, read from top to bottom, also stand out.

How To Design Your Business Cards Online

The internet is full of handy business card printing services and design tools that make it easy to bring your vision to life, meaning anyone can create business cards online. Whether you chose Canva, Adobe Illustrator or Vistaprint as your business card creator, the process is simple: Start by creating an account on the service which will make your design editable at any time so you can save it and pick it up later. Next, browse and choose from thousands of templates available until you find one that suits your brand. Have one last think about the information you’d like to include, any extras such as a logo, and input it. 

Afterwards, it’s time to choose your card stock, size and finish. Some easy-to-use business card makers offer more out-of-the-box options, such as linen or plastic at a premium. They’re a great option if you’ve got the room to increase your budget a bit more and really want to explore more business card options.

Most services that allow you to do business card design online also allow you to print business cards through their platform. But the most important step is yet to come: making sure you’ve put exactly the right details before you make your business card design final and send it off to the printers. There’s nothing worse than ordering a large number of business cards from the printers and realising when you receive them that you’ve made an erroneous error, so make sure to double-check for typos and that all your details are correct. Once you’ve done this, you’re ready to make your card that sets you apart from the competition!

MemNet Events Shortcode

[memnet-iframe url="/memberselfservice/eventbooking.aspx?selectedEventId=E007&HideTitle=true&HideHeader=true&HideVenue=true&HideOrganiser=true&HideFurtherDetails=true&HideCancellation=true&HideDescription=true&HideDates=true&HideMap=true&HideCPD=true" public="true"]

To choose which event you would like to display, change the Event ID in the code above, replacing only the content after =. In the code above, you would replace E007 with the Event ID.

Don’t fret – in this article, we’ll give you a comprehensive crash course. We’ll go over some of the most effective digital marketing strategies for membership organisations, like Search Engine Optimisation, pay-per-click advertising, and social media marketing. If you’re looking for new ways to grow your membership base and foster long-term engagement – this is the place.

Search Engine Optimisation for Your Organisation

SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, is an integral part of digital marketing. If you’ve ever wondered why certain sites pop up first when you google something – SEO is the answer. Search Engine Optimisation is done by fine-tuning your website to increase its chances of ranking higher when someone googles topics related to your organisation.

A significant part of Search Engine Optimisation is done through the use of keywords. Simply put, your website should contain the same words and phrases relevant to your organisation’s industry, services, and benefits.

By finding and analysing the search terms people use related to your product or service through keyword research, you can narrow down what people are looking for on search engines and leverage this to your advantage. You can use a keyword research tool like Google’s keyword planner to do this.

As search engine results are constantly changing, SEO is not a one-off project – it’s important to consistently do keyword research, check your Google Analytics and keep optimising your website to keep your place in the search engine.

SEO is More Than Just Words

Another essential part of SEO is making sure you have engaging, quality content that keeps potential members on your site. Relying too heavily on keywords, or keyword stuffing, may help your website in the short term, but Google penalises this tactic in the long term. It’s important to keep the human side of things at the forefront.

The fool-proof way to do this is to put your organisation’s best side front and centre. Draw your target members in with topics that interest them, informative content and answers to common questions and problems they might have. This also gives you a chance to show your expertise in your field, encouraging them to click through your website, learning more about your organisation and the benefits of joining along the way.

Keep It Local

To avoid getting lost in the mass of member organisations worldwide and reach those in your area, it’s important to make the most of local SEO strategies. You can do this by using location-specific keywords, such as making sure your website includes the phrase “in Canberra,” e.g. “The premier plumbing association in Canberra.”

Make the most of your Google My Business profile by ensuring it has all the relevant information such as your phone number and address will also help the search engine algorithm narrow down who you are trying to reach. According to Google’s Consumer Insights, “Near me” searches increased by 100% between 2019 and 2020, so now is the time to make sure your geotargeting is on point.

How Pay-Per-Click Can Help Your Membership Marketing

Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing, or search engine advertising, is a method of online marketing that allows advertisers to pay based on how many clicks their ad receives. Social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook, as well as website display windows, offer avenues for this, but the most prevalent is through search engines such as Google.

For example, when you search for something on Google, often the first half dozen results will have the word “sponsored” above them. This is thanks to Google Ads – a platform that allows advertisers to bid on search keywords. The winning bid then appears at the top of the search result.

Developing well-targeted PPC campaigns is one of the best ways to reach prospective members who are actively searching for services and organisations related to your industry, and ensure they see you first. Properly leveraging PPC marketing on either search engines or social media platforms can drastically increase the number of eyes on your organisation.

Know Your Demographic

It’s important before you begin advertising of any kind that you have a clear idea of who it is you’re trying to target. This is particularly important with PPC campaigns, as Google Ads will allow you to narrow down who you target by age, gender, household, income, and even parental status.

Suppose you manage a professional women’s association in a particular industry. In that case, Google Ads lets you target your ads specifically to women between the ages of 25 and 40 to help you attract this demographic.

The Power of Compelling Copy

Getting your organisation’s website link in front of the eyes of viewers is only half the battle: enticing them to click it among dozens of other options on the same search page is the hard part. Your ad must be eye-catching, to the point, and highlight the key advantages of membership.

Does your organisation pride itself on the networking opportunities it provides? Are member-exclusive events your biggest draw? With only a sentence or two for you to draw people in, make sure you put a spotlight on why your organisation is worth joining.

Don’t Let Your PPC Campaign Stagnate

Much like SEO, it’s important to maintain and freshen up your PPC campaigns continuously. With PPC advertising, you have the freedom to modify and update your campaign at any given time, unlike traditional print advertising which only allows for a single distribution. Make the most out of this flexibility by constantly updating your campaign.
The analytics available means you can easily see what works and what doesn’t, allowing you to tweak your PPC campaign to perfection. Keep optimising your keywords, ad placements, and copy to ensure you get the highest ROI possible.

The Golden Era of Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing (SMM) means leveraging social media platforms to build your organisation’s brand, attract new members and retain existing ones, and generate traffic to your website. Social media marketing is more important than ever, now far surpassing traditional advertising in terms of potential ROI.

Plentiful Platform Options

Start by identifying which social media platforms you use and your target audience is most engaged and active on. The options are plentiful, with LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter being the main giants.

As an example, if you run an organisation for professionals that offers networking opportunities, LinkedIn is the perfect place to reach your audience. If your organisation is less formal and geared toward a millennial audience, Instagram might be the best platform to focus your SMM campaign. If Gen Z is your target audience, TikTok is a powerful tool.

Social media platforms like Facebook allow you to “sponsor” your posts – this means you can pay to have your content seen by a wider audience, outside your followers and people who find your content organically.

Much like Google Ads, you can be highly specific with who you want your sponsored posts and ads to reach on social media. After selecting the platform to prioritize, leverage your understanding of the target audience and confirm you’re effectively targeting them.

The Magic of Both Paid and Organic SMM

Your social media marketing campaign should have a two-pronged approach – reaching audiences by sponsoring your content in paid campaigns, like with PPC marketing, and reaching them organically through quality content and online word of mouth.

While paid SMM can help you reach a broad audience, organic SMM is a powerful way to create member engagement as well. Achieving a perfect equilibrium between the two is crucial not only for effectively reaching out to your desired demographic but also keeping their attention engaged long enough to become invested in your organisation, while also fostering a sense of reliability and prominence.

Organic social posts are free and are only seen by your existing followers, people browsing the hashtags used in your post, and the followers of anyone who shares your content. Reaching your audience organically means regularly uploading engaging, quality content to your page that showcases the best of your organisation; the benefits it provides, as well as the activities and events on offer.

Show your audience success stories – how your organisation has helped its members. Testimonials from your members are a fantastic way to do this as they allow those who are considering joining your organisation to hear exactly why they should from people like them, their peers. This is an excellent way to build trust and increase membership.

Stay Engaged to Keep Them Engaged

Using social media allows your organisation to really stay connected with your followers. By consistently and swiftly responding to comments, messages and inquiries you can demonstrate, in an organic way, that you are committed to member satisfaction. Showing this to your followers by staying engaged is more effective than simply telling them in an advertisement that you’re committed to listening to your members.

Ideally, regularly posting and staying engaged should also allow you to have a direct and regular stream of feedback from your members, keeping you in the know about how they’re thinking and feeling about your organisation. This makes your members feel seen and heard, ensuring you know how to best keep your members happy. Always keep in mind that happy members are more likely to spread the word about your membership program.

Email Marketing

We’re all familiar with email marketing as a concept: most of us have dozens of promotional emails in our inbox at any given time, and the first promotional email was sent over 50 years ago in 1971. However, you might not be familiar with just how many tools are available today that allow you to optimise your email marketing and make it stand out in the crowd.

Rather than just sending out a mass email to your mailing list, these tools mean email marketing can help nurture your relationships with potential and existing members.

Make the Most of Personalising and Segmenting

Email marketing platforms, such as MailChimp, allow you to segment your email list and personalise the content for the reader. You can do this using information gathered during your member sign-up and onboarding process. We’ll go into this more in-depth below:

Segmentation

Email segmentation means breaking down your mailing list into distinct groups based on specific criteria such as different member categories, interests and engagement levels. This allows you to develop more personalised email campaigns to speak directly to each segment.

An example of this would be if your organisation offers student memberships, you can send only that segment of your members an email wishing them luck during the pre-exam period, and inviting them to a student-only event.
Vitally, you can segment your mailing list by where they are in their membership journey. You can automate your email service to track the membership cycle, send new members a welcome email, and those whose membership is about to lapse an encouraging reminder email to renew.

Personalisation

Personalising your emails means changing the actual content of the email to each recipient, such as automatically including their first name at the start of the email.
It sounds like a small detail, but according to the email marketing platform Benchmark, employing personalisation in your emails means a 27% higher unique click rate and an 11% higher open rate.

Using the name of the recipient in your email is just the simplest form of email personalisation. You could use email personalisation to include a specific call to action in your newsletter, for example. Remind existing members to renew. Get new members excited to attend their first event. The possibilities are endless.

What to Include in Your Emails

Getting members to click your email is one thing, but getting them excited to click every time they receive a notification from you is another.

Making your emails as interesting and relevant to your members as possible is key. The content you publish should be valuable to them and genuinely worth reading instead of purely promotional. Some options to include are industry insights, educational resources, exclusive offers, and referral programs. Now it’s time to create a call-to-action, something that encourages the reader to take the next step. Ultimately, your emails should reflect the vibrant community that your organisation is.

Learn What Works

Just like SEO and PPC, analytics and regular tweaking are your best friends when it comes to email marketing. Using your email marketing platform, regularly check your email campaign’s metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversion. Keep refining your email marketing strategy over time and optimising member communication.

Content Marketing

Content marketing involves creating high-quality, valuable content to engage and attract potential members. Create content to show your expertise and gain the trust of your audience. Content marketing can help you build brand awareness and increase member engagement.

The content you post to your website, social media platforms and include in emails should align with the interests and needs of your target audience. Make sure it focuses on topics that relate to your organisation’s field or niche, so the right people find you and stay engaged.

Cover all your bases

The different formats you can make original content in are countless and you should take advantage of this. Try and produce a variety of content: blog posts, articles, videos, and infographics are just a few of your options. Keeping your content formats varied helps cater to the different ways your potential members like to consume content.

Once your content is varied, engaging and otherwise down-pat, make sure it doesn’t get lost. Posting across multiple platforms like your website, social media platforms, and industry forums will make sure your content has the highest reach possible.

Understanding Member Personas

We’ve talked a lot in this article about demographics and target audiences, but these words can feel a little bit abstract and broad when it comes to actually producing content, writing copy and setting the parameters for your PPC ads.

For your digital marketing efforts to be effective, it helps to create an accurate vision of who you are trying to reach, instead of just a bundle of membership statistics. Do this by creating “member personas,” fictional representations of your ideal members. If you’re hoping to increase student membership, think about what kind of student would join your organisation.

An Example of a Member Persona and How They Help

If you run, for example, an association for freelance makeup artists, your member persona for students might be Kate: a 21-year-old woman, who is studying makeup artistry at TAFE. She’s worried about how to break into the freelance market when she graduates and is hoping to connect with more peers who can help her navigate her way.

Now, when you create marketing campaigns, you have a clear picture of who you’re speaking to. You have an idea of what their interests are, their worries and motivations. You can now tailor your messaging accordingly. You now know to focus on the network opportunities your organisation offers, provide plenty of educational content and resources, and focus on Instagram, the most popular social media platform for her age group and field.

Really Learn Who Your Members Are

When it comes to creating member personas, your existing member base is your best asset. Conducting research on your existing member data will help you get a much better idea of who the people are that want to join your organisation and help create member personas.

You can do this by collecting and analysing data. Conducting surveys, interviews, and creating focus groups is a great way to do this. It’s important to first cover the bases: what the main age groups in your membership organisations are, income levels, and career levels. This is the first step to creating multiple accurate member personas.

Besides raw data, interviews will also give you the more personal information you need. By asking the right questions, you can get a better understanding of how your members see themselves, their worries and wants, and how they work and live. Ask them questions that go beyond statistic gathering. Some examples might be: what challenges did they recently face, and where did they seek out a solution? Where do they get the majority of their information and news from?

Besides interviews, you should leverage the knowledge of other stakeholders about your members. Everybody employee in your organisation will have something valuable to say that helps you get another piece of the puzzle. Other tools available to you that can’t be forgotten are your website analytics and any existing member feedback you have.

Fostering Meaningful Engagement With Your Members

You should see your organisation’s digital presence as not only a way to target prospective members but improve and add to the experience of your existing members.

According to a 2018 study from Talk Triggers, 50% of people would pick word-of-mouth if they had to choose only one source of information, and 71% of people pass on word-of-mouth recommendations if they’ve had a great experience. The logic tracks that if you focus on giving your current members a consistently great experience, new members will follow.

Social media engagement is a great tool to foster membership engagement, therefore driving member retention, loyalty, and advocacy. The more engage your members are, the more likely they are to renew their membership and refer new members.

We’ve already discussed a few fantastic ways to do this above, such as delivering your members quality content, including industry resources and educational information in your (ideally personalised) email campaigns. In case you’re still short on ideas, interactive content is a great way to drive social media engagement.

This means hosting discussions and webinars on your platforms, posting member spotlights (i.e. “member of the month”), and hosting live Q&A sessions. These are fun, informative, and most importantly, get your members involved. Some other sure-fire ways to do this online are through quizzes and polls. They’re easy to make and for members to actively participate in, as well as giving them a chance to share their opinion.

Now that we’ve explained how to use digital marketing and how it can help you both gain and keep members, we wish you luck on your journey. Search Engine Optimisation is always a good place to start, and you can read more about it from us here.

We’ll also run through the technical stuff that may seem intimidating at first, like top-level domains (TLD) and keyword implementation. Plus, we’ll share valuable tools like domain name generators and checkers to make your decision-making process easier. We hope this comprehensive guide to finding the perfect domain name for your website will set you up for online success.

What is a Domain Name?

Your domain name is your unique website name that users enter in their browser to reach your website, appearing after the www. It acts as the online identity for your brand or business and should be unique, memorable, and relevant to your business. Domain names are registered and managed through domain registrars. Domain registrars are companies that act as an intermediary between users and the domain name system (DNS) by providing the service of domain name registration.

They allow you to search for and purchase available domain names, renew your domain registration and transfer ownership. They also maintain a database of registered domain names and their corresponding information, ensuring that each domain is unique and properly assigned to its owner.

Why Choosing the Right Domain Name Is Matters

Choosing the best domain name you can is essential for creating a strong online presence that resonates with your audience. You want your domain name to be distinctive and meaningful. Choosing a domain name that matches your brand can also enhance your online presence and help you draw in a larger audience and potential clientele. Your domain name should be easy to spell and pronounce, but it’s also beneficial to incorporate relevant keywords to improve Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). And finally, before purchasing your domain name, ensure you check for any trademark conflicts to avoid potential legal complications.

10 Tips for Choosing a Domain Name

Choose Top-Level Domain Names

When choosing your domain name, there are a few important elements to consider. First, you want to choose a domain name with a top-level domain (TLD). A TLD is the last segment of a domain name, such as .com or .org, that categorises and organises websites on the internet. Examples of TLDs include .gov for government entities and .edu for educational institutions. Choosing a domain name extension that ends in. com is always preferred for a business. This instantly establishes credibility and professionalism, and potential customers will find it more trustworthy.  Also, most phones these days have a “.com” key, which makes it easier to type your domain name.

If your desired domain is already registered with the .com ending – don’t worry. Your domain name doesn’t have to have .com – there are other options that also lend credibility to your website, like .au and .org. While having an extension like .biz might seem tempting, users are much less likely to trust it and, therefore, less likely to click. Other domain name extensions have specific uses, so make sure you choose one that suits your business. Having the right TLD can leave a lasting impression, improve your search engine ranking and solidify your online presence, so finding a balance between creativity and functionality is important.

Make It Simple, Short and Brandable

Good brandable domain names are short and easy to spell. Ensure you can picture your domain name on the back of a t-shirt – it should be catchy and easy to remember. Additionally, choosing a domain name that’s easy to type into the browser reduces room for error, increasing user-friendliness. Avoiding complex and uncommon terms also helps make your domain name more memorable.

In the same vein, longer domain names and domain names with hyphens, double letters and numbers are all to be avoided. They can create confusion and make it harder for people to find your website. Think about how easy it would be to share your domain name in conversation as well as in writing. If your domain name is long and complicated, this will be much harder. Anybody visiting your website should be able to type your domain name without a problem. Instead, choose a domain name that not only fits your business but is simple and easy to type.

Watch Out For Trademarks

When registering a new domain name, watch out for existing brand names and potential trademark issues because using a trademarked name can result in the potential loss of your domain and even legal consequences. You should perform a comprehensive trademark search of your potential domain name before you register it using online databases or seek guidance from an experienced intellectual property attorney. By doing so, you can establish a unique and original online presence for your brand or business without infringing on existing trademarks. To protect your own brand, you might also want to consider purchasing various domain extensions, as well as misspelled versions of your domain name.

Implement Targeted Keywords

Incorporating targeted keywords in your domain name plays a big part in optimising your website for search engines. Having a domain name with keywords ensures that your website appears more relevant to users searching for specific topics or products. Conduct extensive keyword research to identify popular and relevant keywords related to your business, industry, or niche. Choose a keyword that accurately represents the nature or purpose of your website, such as “travel” or “fashion.” However, avoid the temptation to stuff too many keywords into your domain name, as this can harm your SEO efforts instead – known as ”keyword stuffing.” Instead, focus on keeping the domain name concise, memorable, and aligned with your brand identity and business goals.

Balance Creativity and Availability

When it comes to picking the right domain name, finding the right balance between creativity and availability is key. You want a domain name that reflects your brand or business while also being easy to remember and spell. To recap: Avoid using numbers, hyphens, or uncommon characters, as they can confuse potential visitors. Focus on incorporating relevant keywords into your domain name to make it stand out. These keywords should be related to your industry, as this can help improve your website’s SEO. And lastly, make sure to research and check the availability of the domain name you want.

It’s also always a good idea to use a reputable domain registrar for a seamless purchasing process. By striking the right balance between creativity and availability, you can pick a great domain name that aligns with your brand and attracts potential customers.

Research Social Media Possibilities

Researching social media possibilities is another important step when selecting the perfect domain name. Along with finding the right domain name, you’ve got to consider its availability as a handle on social media platforms. By checking if your desired domain name is available on popular platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, you can ensure consistent branding. Using the same name across the board makes it easier for users to find you online. Having the same or similar domain name and social media handles helps enhance recognition and brand identity. So, make sure to do thorough research on social media possibilities before finalising the domain name for your business.

Check the Domain’s History

Before you register a domain name,  check its previous history to avoid any potential issues. You wouldn’t want to buy a domain name with a checkered past, as it could hurt your reputation. Conducting a thorough investigation will help you make an informed decision. Tools like Wayback Machine provide insights into how the domain was previously used and its overall reputation. Look for any signs of spamming, blacklisting, or penalties from search engines, as these can impact visibility and ranking. Additionally, it’s important to ensure that the domain’s past content aligns with your intended use. Reach out to the previous owner if possible, as they may have valuable information. Overall, by checking the domain’s history, you can avoid any potential red flags and confidently choose a domain name.

Use a Domain Name Generator

Domain name generators can be highly valuable tools if you’re stuck on how to pick a domain name. By entering relevant keywords related to your business or website, these online tools can generate creative and unique domain name ideas. Not only do they suggest available domain name examples, but they also provide variations, alternative extensions like .net or .org, and even synonyms or related words that might inspire you. This can save you valuable time and effort, streamlining the brainstorming and research process. Remember, though, that while these generators are fantastic resources, it’s essential to consider factors like brand-ability, relevance, and memorability when ultimately selecting your perfect domain name.

Make It Relevant to the Site Content

When it comes to choosing a domain name, one of the most important factors is making it relevant to your site content. Your domain name should accurately reflect the purpose or theme of your website, helping visitors instantly understand what your site is all about. It’s wise to avoid using numbers, hyphens, or special characters in your domain name as they can confuse visitors or make it harder for them to remember. Instead, opt for a short and easy-to-spell domain name that clearly conveys your site’s essence. Incorporate keywords that are relevant to your industry or niche to enhance search engine optimisation and attract potential customers. Additionally, it’s good practice to check the availability of your chosen domain name across different domain extensions (.com, .net, .org, etc.) to ensure it aligns perfectly with your site content and goals.

Domain Name Checker

A domain name checker tool is a helpful resource for your domain search. It allows you to search for available domain name options across a variety of top-level domains, such as .com, .org, and .net. By utilising this tool, you can quickly determine if your desired domain name is already registered or if it is available for you to claim. It’s the perfect tool if you’re having trouble finding an available name. With just a few clicks, you can discover the availability of your preferred domain name, avoiding potential conflicts with trademarks or existing websites. Take advantage of this tool to find a domain name that accurately represents your brand, is easy to remember, and leaves a positive first impression on potential customers.

Purchase the Domain in Advance

To ensure a smooth website launch and establish a strong online presence, make sure your domain name is purchased in advance. By planning ahead and securing the best domain for your website, you can make a lasting first impression on potential customers. This ensures you don’t lose your domain name to someone else purchasing it first and sets the foundation for success. If you don’t already have a web hosting service, some providers will allow you to get a free domain name upon signing up.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a domain name affect my website’s search engine ranking?

Indeed, the choice of your domain name can impact your website’s search engine ranking. A relevant and keyword-rich domain name can boost your visibility in search results. Avoid using hyphens or numbers as they may confuse users and search engines. Additionally, select a domain extension (.com, .net, .org) that aligns with your target audience and industry.

Can I change my domain name after I have already registered it?

Yes, it is possible to change your domain name after registration, but it can be a complex process. It may involve transferring website content and setting up redirects. Changing your domain name can impact SEO and temporarily reduce traffic. It’s advisable to choose the domain you want carefully upfront to avoid the need for changes later on.

Are there any restrictions or guidelines for domain names based on industry or location?

There are no strict restrictions or guidelines for domain names based on industry or location. However, we recommend you choose a relevant domain name for your site and avoid using trademarked names or confusing terms. Including industry or location keywords in your domain name can help improve SEO.

Should I choose a .com domain, or are there other options that may be better suited for my website?

While .com is the most popular domain extension, there are other options to consider. Country-specific extensions like .co.uk or .de are ideal for targeting specific geographic locations. Industry-specific extensions like .tech or .store can be used for niche websites. The best domain extension depends on your target audience and branding goals.

Conclusion

Choosing the right domain name is crucial for your online presence and brand identity. It not only represents your business but also impacts your SEO rankings and overall success. With our tips for choosing a domain name, you can make an informed decision that aligns with your goals and resonates with your target audience. A well-chosen domain name can set you apart from the competition and leave a lasting impression on potential customers.  You can read more about web hosting and Search Engine Optimisation on our site if you want to learn more.

Having a website that’s consistent and reliable strengthens your online presence, reflects well on your business and can also help increase profits – especially if your in-site shopping function is dependable. Your website having consistent up-time can also help improve your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), helping you reach as many eyes as possible. No website has a 100% (99.9% uptime is still almost 9 hours of downtime a year) uptime rate, so don’t stress too much if it’s down sometimes. Here are some of the main reasons your website might be down and how to fix them:

1. Issues With Updates

If you use WordPress or another content management system to host your website, it might be down due to a server software update from your host that you haven’t installed, causing compatibility issues. This can lead to your site being laggy or even website crashes. You can prevent website downtime by turning on automatic updates to make sure you’re always in the clear and keeping on top of updates; however, keep an eye out for website settings that can sometimes change with updates and cause issues. It is also important to manage website updates carefully for a website using numerous plugins and third-party software – you might consider investing in a website maintenance provider in this instance.

2. Server Overload

Users might not be able to access your website because of server overload. This happens when the server exhausts its resources and can no longer take any more requests. This happens because of spikes in traffic, for example, the first day of an online sale causing significantly more people than usual to try and access the website.

If this is a recurring issue for your website, you should revisit your hosting plan and see if you can upgrade it to suit a higher bandwidth in line with your changing needs. Sometimes this happens deliberately because of malicious attacks, known as distributed denial of service (DDoS). This is when hackers flood a server with fake traffic in order to overload it and cause website outages, negatively affecting performance and uptime. You can prevent this by making sure your host offers DDoS attack protection.

3. Host Provider Error

If your site is down for everyone, and you’re running the latest version and haven’t made any changes on your end, it’s likely an issue with your web hosting provider, and it’s their responsibility to fix the problem.

Often, this happens because your provider is running maintenance or experiencing server issues. If this happens, the best course of action is to contact your web hosting service and alert them, so they can fix the issue as soon as possible.

The right host will have multiple backup options in place to minimise downtime, such as multiple data circuits from different internet providers and backup generators to prevent outages. Most hosting companies also provide a guarantee, like 99.99% up-time – or only 52 minutes of downtime per year.

4. Human Error

No one is infallible, and human error is one of the most common reasons for website downtime. If you’ve recently made changes to your website, the developer might have made an error in the website code as simple as a typo. Websites need every line of code to be perfect to function properly, and with this level of precision, mistakes are bound to happen from time to time.

One way to prevent this and minimise your website’s downtime is to use a staging environment as the last step when you make any changes to your website. A staging environment is a copy of your website that allows you to test functionality and fix any bugs before the website goes live. This can reduce downtime significantly.

5. Expired Domain and DNS Issues

Your domain name expiring can also cause website downtime. Your domain name is your unique website address that appears after the www and is separate from the website hosting service. When you enter a domain name into your browser, it sends a request to the global server network that forms the Domain Name System (DNS).

You have to continuously renew your domain name, otherwise your website will go down. If you try to access your website and get a “This site can’t be reached” error, an expired domain is probably why.

You’ll be able to prevent this by setting your domain name to renew automatically so it doesn’t expire without your knowledge. This is important as not renewing your domain name makes it possible for other people to purchase, meaning your domain name could be up for grabs.

Your website could also experience downtime due to a domain name server outage. Just like web-hosting server outages, this can happen because of DDoS attacks against the provider, outages, or human error on the network administrator’s part. Choosing a reliable, reputable DNS provider can prevent this.

Here’s How to Check if a Website Is Down

The first step is to do a quick check if your website is down for everyone, users in certain locations, or just you. If only one user has told you they’re unable to access your website, don’t panic yet, as it could be a network or computer issue on their end.

To check the status of your website, enter your URL, then hold down shift while refreshing to make sure you’re seeing the current state of your website and not a cached version. You can also open it in an incognito tab or another browser.

If the website is working fine, the problem could just be on the individual user’s end. If this is the case, you can provide the user with tips to get the website back up and running for them, e.g., clearing out their cache, restarting their router, or contacting their internet service provider.

Just like most problems these days, there are online tools to help. You can also check your website availability by using website monitoring tools such as IsItDownRightNow or DownForEveryoneOrJustMe. These free tools will show whether a website is experiencing downtime issues in one click. It’s super easy to use – just enter the URL or the IP address of your website, hit enter, and it’ll help you determine whether the site works or not immediately.

When you receive feedback from a user that your website is down, but it’s still working for you, it’s also good to check whether the website is just down in certain locations. You can do this for free by using online website checker tools like HostTracker. HostTracker can send “pings” to 158 servers across the globe to see if your website is down in any specific areas.

What Is Website Uptime and Website Downtime?

Website uptime is simply the amount of time your website is “up” and accessible and functional for users. It’s a business-metric because having good uptime and response time can improve productivity and profits. Website downtime is the opposite metric, tracking the amount of time a website is ‘down’ or inaccessible.

Website Monitoring Tools

There are tools to check a website’s uptime and even track this data, as well as other metrics such as response time (how fast your website loads to users) and functionality.

Uptime checker and monitoring tools can notify you as soon as there’s a problem or your site goes down, so you can troubleshoot it as soon as possible and minimise downtime. It allows you to run reports, testing the reliability of your web hosting provider and holding their 99.99% uptime guarantee to the test.

Paid vs. Free Website Uptime Monitoring

Many uptime monitoring tools offer a free tier or free trials but paid uptime monitoring tools such as UpTrends have more features. Features you’ll have to pay for include monitoring multiple sites, mobile push notifications when your website status changes, and DNS monitoring. More advanced plans generally provide more information and can help you figure out the root causes of issues.

A paid uptime monitoring or website availability tool will also check whether your website is down more frequently, for example, every 30 seconds instead of every 5 minutes. However, if you’re running a personal website or a small online store, using the free options will suit you just fine – it’s just important you have one.

What Software as a Service (SaaS) means

SaaS is a software distribution model that uses the public cloud and is accessed via the internet. One of the main appeals of SaaS is that it is web-based software, requiring no traditional on-premises software, simply a web browser and a login. Software as a service platforms often only require minimal fees on a subscription, pay-as-you-go, basis. They require almost no maintenance or management from the user, saving greatly on time as well as cost.

SaaS has evolved significantly in recent years, allowing a dramatic shift in software delivery away from more traditional IT and one-off software licensing. The software vendors, such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud are now responsible for storing and managing all data in the cloud, and software updates and maintenance are also provided automatically. This means the user is no longer burdened by the need for in-house servers, networks, or the storage required to use these essential tools.

Benefits of SaaS

The advantages of SaaS offers are many thanks to its generally flexible, affordable nature. Software applications, resources, and tools that small businesses previously did not have the time or resources to implement are now available in a few computer clicks, with lots of upsides:

Cost effective

Let’s start with one of the biggest advantages: the SaaS model helps keep down costs. They require no great initial investment, no on-premise software, with no hardware or installation costs. They also eliminate the need for an in-house data centre. The SaaS model often runs on a subscription-based, pay-as-you-go, basis, with most providers offering a free trial and different pricing tiers depending on your business’ needs and scale.

Accessible from anywhere

In the era of a hybrid or completely work-from-home culture, accessibility is a great power of SaaS. The cloud environment is more useful than ever as it allows employees to stay connected with their team from anywhere. All that is needed to run the software is an internet connection and a computer. Access to the software can be gained almost instantly.

Low maintenance

With SaaS, the onus falls on the provider to maintain the software. Unlike traditional IT, the SaaS cloud provider continuously updates the software automatically, meaning massive time saving for small businesses.

Worry-free security

SaaS allows businesses to outsource their security needs to the service provider. This eases the pressure on an in-house IT department to protect against malware and other security risks. Most SaaS providers invest heavily in security technology, ensuring peace of mind.

Scalability

Traditional software required a licence to be purchased for each user, whereas SaaS vendors allow customizable subscription models that can be changed at any time to accommodate changing needs, allowing new employees to access software in just a few clicks. The different subscription tiers SaaS providers offer also allow you to only pay for the services and software tools you need.

Ease of Use

Most SaaS solutions are often highly refined to be intuitive to the user and require minimal training. If any problems do arise, technical support is available from the SaaS provider as part of the subscription cost.

What are the Disadvantages of SaaS?

Before you start thinking it’s too good to be true, SaaS also has its drawbacks, and it’s important to weigh these up as well. Most of these stem from the fact that using the SaaS model does, by nature, externalise all your software needs and therefore take away some control and reliability. If you prefer to be in the driver’s seat of your business’ IT, more classic software products may be for you.

Connectivity requirements

Because third-party cloud based software relies on internet access and cloud infrastructure, if there are any connectivity issues, you will be unable to access the software.

Recurring fees

As opposed to the one-off licensing cost of traditional business software, SaaS runs on a recurring fee system, meaning that while upfront costs are low, you may end up paying more over time.

Vendor lock-in

Another potential problem with a subscription system is that service providers may make it difficult for the user to cancel their subscription and switch service providers. While they do not do this explicitly, you may find yourself jumping through hoops trying to cancel your subscription or finding it unnecessarily difficult to switch your data to another provider.

Loss of control

Unlike traditional IT, you are often at the whim of the SaaS business. Updates cannot be deferred, and any changes to the tools you use are at the discretion of the provider.

Risk of provider failure

According to a study from McKinsey, an estimated 92% of SaaS companies fail in the first three years of business. One SaaS provider, Nirvanix, abruptly went bankrupt in 2019. Users were given one month to pull their data or risk it being lost. This leaves SaaS users at risk of losing valuable data if anything happens to the provider.

Examples of SaaS

Some well-known SaaS products are Dropbox, Outlook, and Slack. Even the hugely popular Netflix runs via the SaaS model. Here are some other examples of SaaS platforms that are highly useful for small businesses:

• Square, payment processing: Square is a credit card payment platform that allows any laptop or tablet to be turned into a payment processing device by simply plugging in a handheld device. Square also offers free analytics and employee management software as an add-on.
• Monday, customer relationship management: Monday provides an all-in-one CRM service on a subscription basis with multiple pricing options. It is easy to use and highly customizable.
• Deputy, employee scheduling software: Deputy allows small business owners to schedule shifts while simultaneously taking into account budget and employee availability, making the often hard-to-juggle task of scheduling shift work much simpler.

SaaS vs. Traditional Software Licensing

As previously touched on, SaaS and cloud computing as a whole has some drastic differences from traditional software development. Traditional software requires installation on the user’s computer rather than simply loading a page, free trials are not available, and a new version of the software will often require a new purchase. A far cry from the flexible, automatically updated, and scalable software as a service offers. One of the benefits, however, of traditional IT and keeping software in-house offers increased customization and control.

SaaS vs. PaaS vs. IaaS

Now that you know the in and outs of SaaS and how it stacks against more run-of-the-mill IT, let’s delve quickly into the two other most popular cloud delivery models. SaaS is one of three, the other two being IaaS (infrastructure as a service), and PaaS (platform as a service). Google, Amazon, and Microsoft all provide SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS services. Which one you choose is up to your individual business needs and how hands-on you like to be with your software and hardware.

IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service):

Infrastructure as a service is a cloud-based service that offers computing, storage, and network resources. It gives users access to software services and hardware on-demand rather than having to purchase it outright.

PaaS (Platform as a Service):

Platform as a service is a complete, ready-to-go cloud-based platform that allows businesses to host and create their own applications. It provides users with a framework to build customised applications while the provider hosts the customer’s software, manages and maintains all the hardware and software included in the platform, allowing the best of both worlds.

SaaS Market and Pricing Models

Now that you’re up-to-date on what an SaaS is compared to traditional software and its many business applications, the question you probably have now is how much it actually costs to get an SaaS up and running for your business. The answer will vary greatly depending on how much you want to get from your SaaS service and what pricing model the SaaS vendor uses. The three most common SaaS pricing models are:

Usage pricing:

Some SaaS vendors price by usage such as how much data is stored on your behalf or how much time you spend actively using the service, similar to a traditional phone plan. This is beneficial to smaller businesses and ensures they don’t end up paying the same flat rate as a large enterprise for a different level of utility.

Freemium:

Freemium is one of the most common pricing models you’ll run into in the SaaS market, with it being adopted by giants such as Google and Dropbox. Freemium means that the SaaS vendor also offer a permanently free-to-use version of their service, albeit with limited features. Dropbox, for example, offers 2GB of storage for free to every user, banking on the fact that when users reach their limit, they’ll pick the easier method of paying for a subscription rather than transferring their data to another cloud service provider.

Tiered pricing:

Many SaaS providers use tiered pricing. This model means SaaS vendors will offer different pricing options with varying amounts of features. This enables you to pick exactly how much service you need from your SaaS application software and not pay for tools and features you won’t use.

It’s important to factor in that many companies make use of more than one SaaS, meaning costs do quickly add up. According to the career advising company Zippia, companies spend $2,623 on SaaS per employee per year on average, with the average employee making use of 8.3 different SaaS products.

The Future of SaaS and Cloud-Based Software

Today, SaaS’ already has hundreds of potential business applications and this number will only continue to grow. Another study from Zippia showed that 99% of companies in the United States use SaaS, with 38% of companies running entirely on SaaS. It’s clear to see that using SaaS applications is on the rise and quickly innovating. Here are some of the expected trends the SaaS space will be subject to in the near future:

Artificial Intelligence

Like many other industries, the SaaS software will no doubt be shaken up by the rise of artificial intelligence. Companies will be increasingly using cloud AI to do market research and even automate email marketing campaigns.

Mobile optimisation

Far from traditional software development and infrastructure, SaaS products are increasingly optimised for mobile devices, not just computers to use the software. This allows for software delivered on the go and simple-to-use systems. Now, software is located wherever you are.

Increased security

Global trends are showing an increased amount of spending on cybersecurity in 2023, with end users spending 23% more on cloud security this year. With it clearly at the front of users’ minds going forward, this is sure to accelerate SaaS development and innovation in data and cloud security.

Now that we’ve explained in depth what SaaS apps are and how it stacks up to other options, will your business be making the shift, or do you prefer more control over your IT?

A little about you

• Enjoy researching and conveying your findings
• Great with people
• Care about the work you do and the outcomes you deliver
• Strong grammatical and copywriting skills

Your responsibilities

• Write content for clients and for internal projects.
• Edit content written by other team members.
• Optimise content for SEO (prior experience in SEO-driven content is nice to have, but training will be provided as well).
• Publish content on Content Management Systems (primarily WordPress).
• Suggest content ideas and provide feedback on the content calendar.
• Collaborate with designers, developers, copywriters, managers and clients
• Work closely with the Director and other team members – the ability to give and take constructive feedback is important.
• Take responsibility and drive projects forward
• Collaborate and communicate with the team – taking opportunities to contribute to the development of others and getting a taste for the other areas of what we do.

Requirements

• A portfolio of work demonstrating your copywriting
• Excellent communication skills (written and verbal)
• Ability to collaborate and work well within a team

What to expect at Futuretheory

• A small, friendly team who love what they do
• Comfortable modern office in Beard (5 minutes from Fyshwick) – away from all the hustle and bustle
• Parking close by (and it’s free)
• Access to modern software, tools and equipment

You must be legally eligible to work in Australia and speak and write fluent English.

Please note: this is not a remote role. This is an in-house position; you will be working at our office in Canberra.

Applications close at 10am on 7 June 2023. We will be reviewing and interviewing applicants prior to this, so we encourage you to apply at your earliest convenience.

Questions? Email hello@futuretheory.co

How to apply

Please apply through https://jobs.cvviz.com/ft/job_59803_Marketing_Assistant_(Content_&_Digital)

No two days will be the same, and you’ll get to work on projects of all sizes – from small one-person businesses all the way to large corporations. So if you like variety, and enjoy diversity in the type of work you do – this is a great opportunity for you!

A little about you

• Great with people.
• Have a keen eye for design and a portfolio to back it up (we aren’t worried about years of experience – we’re more interested in your eye for good design).
• A creative thinker who strives for innovation.
• Care about the work you do and the outcomes you deliver.

Your responsibilities

• Design practical, user-centred websites using modern design principles.
• Collaborate with designers, developers, copywriters, managers and clients.
• Work closely with the Director and other team members on design – the ability to give and take constructive feedback is important.
• Develop brand guidelines and implement them.
• Take responsibility and drive projects forward.
• Collaborate and communicate with the team – taking opportunities to contribute to the development of others and get a taste for the other areas of what we do.
• It’d be great if you have an interest or experience in other forms of media (videography, photography, animation, etc)

Requirements

• A portfolio of work demonstrating a keen eye for detail and a high level of understanding of design and UX fundamentals (please include a link or a document with your application)
• Excellent communication skills (written and verbal)
• Ability to collaborate and work well within a team
• Experience with modern design tools & techniques (Adobe Creative Cloud etc)

What to expect at Futuretheory

• A small, friendly team who love what they do
• Comfortable modern office in Beard (5 minutes from Fyshwick) – away from all the hustle and bustle
• Parking close by (and it’s free)
• Access to modern software, tools and equipment

You must be legally eligible to work in Australia and speak fluent English.

Please note: this is not a remote role. This is an in-house position; you will be working at our office in Canberra.

Applications close at 10am on 5 June 2023. We will be reviewing and interviewing applicants prior to this, so we encourage you to apply at your earliest convenience.

Questions? Email hello@futuretheory.co

How to apply

Please apply through https://jobs.cvviz.com/ft/job_59798_Web_&_Graphic_Designer

How Does SEO Work?

There are a few factors that come into play to get good SEO. This comes down to keyword research, optimising webpage content and earning inbound links to increase authority and ranking on your preferred search engine. SEO is a forever changing beast that needs constant attention as the rankings are likely to change regularly depending on the age, competition and/or algorithm of the search engine itself. The goal of SEO is to drive traffic to your website and then create domain authority with Google or your chosen search engine. When you have domain authority, you have visibility. This occurs when your site is showing higher on search engine result pages (SERP). 

How do I get my page ranked on Google?

Search engines work by using bots that essentially read through (‘crawl’) web pages to collect information about those pages and index them appropriately to be found by search engines under the right queries based on relevancy and authority. This index is what is used by a search engine when you look for particular terms in your web search, similar to a librarian who is able to look up the required information using an index. With Google being the dominant search engine available, most people optimise their webpages for Google’s search engine based on the sheer search volume it attracts on subjects.

Google has algorithms for SEO that are changing all the time. It works on analysing pages in the index and use ranking factors to determine the order pages should appear in search results. The idea is that the better optimised your website is for particular keyword terms and content, the higher up it will show in search results. However, this is heavily dependent on how much competition you have and might be more difficult to achieve if you have international and/or highly regarded competition. To identify and deliver the correct information to users, Google will ‘crawl’ each webpage to determine the search queries and identify the appropriate relevancy and authority of a page compared to the identified competition. You can obtain relevancy through hitting keywords on topics as well as other factors included in on-page SEO. Authority is measured by the popularity of a website on the internet which can be obtained by traffic to the website. This tells Google that this is valuable content for readers and it will increase your visibility when people search for you.

SEO vs Paid Search Advertising

The main difference between SEO and paid search advertising (such as Google ads) is that SEO relies on organic search rankings, which means you can’t pay to be in that space, you have to earn it. SEO factors in your content and website and using the search engine’s algorithm, it matches search intent of users to the content most relevant based on the given search keywords. To understand the difference between SEO and paid search advertising, you can see the advertisements at the top of most search results pages. These webpage links look the same as the other below though they do have the word ‘sponsored’ or ‘AD’ written above it, this is not SEO, this is an example of paid advertising. Search results that don’t have the words ‘sponsored’ or ‘AD’ are a direct result of SEO and are providing the most organic search results that are in line with the query posed to Google. These results are a direct reflection on how powerful search engine optimisation can be.

Utilising paid search advertising can help with the initial stages of SEO by helping provide potential clicks to your site to help booster your SEO rankings. Both options should be considered as strategies to increase your SEO. While the concept of SEO may seem easy to grasp, Google SEO has algorithms that are changing all the time. No one can predict when Google will change the algorithm, what will change and which pages will be punished for it. 

On-Page and Off-Page SEO

There are two important sides to SEO that need to be considered: on-page SEO and off-page SEO. In short, on page SEO refers to the areas of your website you can control including content and keyword usage. Whilst off page SEO happens outside of your website and relies on mentions and backlinks. We’ve explored the differences in on and off page SEO further below. 

On-Page Optimisation

On-page SEO refers to building content that will improve your ranking. This includes using the correct keywords, writing high-quality content frequently, making sure your metatags and titles are keyword-rich, it is well-written, and much more. Metatags are known as invisible tags that provide data to search engines and users about the content on your page. These tags don’t have a direct impact on search rankings but can increase click-through rate from the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). You can optimise these to highlight the most important pieces of your content to make your website stand out amongst the others in search results. These metatags are known to satisfy a person’s query but also intrigue them just enough to click on your site. These kind of tags come in many different forms including alt-text for images, headings, meta descriptions and many more.

Off-Page Optimisation

Off page SEO is optimisation that occurs off your website and onto either another site or platform. This can be in the form of backlinks, content marketing, social media and reviews. Backlinking involves building relationships and creating content that people will want to share. This then can link back or drive traffic to your website. Building backlinks can be a lot of work, though and is not as simple as on-page SEO. Off-page SEO is just as important in building your site’s domain authority against the other websites of your competitors. This type of SEO creates a higher authority with search engines and considers them more relevant, credible and trustworthy. Without it, your site may struggle to rank higher than your competitors that have a higher authority with a search engine.

Black Hat vs White Hat Strategies

No, we’re not talking about actual hats you wear on your head. These are both optimisation techniques you can try to reach your SEO goals. Though results will vary based on how you do it and which technique you choose to give a go. 

Black hat SEO strategy is when you go for quick gains but it does not bode well for long term SEO prospects. Many people used to use this type of tactic to rank sites, however times have changed. Black hat SEO uses sneaky tactics such as keyword stuffing and link scraping in order to rank higher, quickly. This can work for the short-term and will bring traffic to your site, but after a while, search engines like Google will penalise (or even blacklist) your site so you’ll never rank. These kind of tactics violate search engine guidelines in an attempt to manipulate search engine algorithms. This is not the way to go if you want your SEO efforts to count long term and turn into favourable search engine rankings. Not to mention many within the SEO industry believe this tactic to be unethical to get higher in the search results.

White hat SEO strategy is the SEO best practices to build a sustainable online business. White hat SEO is the safest of the optimisation techniques and works within the rules and expectations of users an search engines. It is best done by creating high quality content that is factually correct, user friendly and understanding the optimal keywords that users are searching for (without using too many keywords in one go as this can quickly become keyword stuffing which is a black hat strategy!). There are no tricks or quick fixes with white hat SEO that undermine an algorithm of a search engine. Doing SEO this way focuses on your human audience, using the appropriate search intent for SEO success. White hat SEO is not a quick fix to get obtain a search engine’s organic reach. It takes time, patience and can be a waiting game over a certain period of time but you will see your web pages rank higher on Google and other search engines if applied correctly.

Black Hat SEO Techniques

• Duplicate content: trying to rank for a certain keyword may cause you to create duplicate content so you can get the keyword/s in multiple times. Google may penalise this tactic.
• Invisible text and keyword stuffing: This is an older tactic where you include lots of keywords at the end of your article in the same colour as the background. This tactic will get you blacklisted very quickly and kept out of search algorithms and results.
• Cloaking and redirecting: Cloaking is a misleading tactic in the SEO world. It’s when you mislead bots into thinking there is relevant content on your page relating to a certain subject and then it’s not there. There are good and bad ways to redirect. The wrong way is to buy lots of keyword rich domains and redirect all the traffic to a single site.
• Poor linking practices: There are variety of ways to get links but some of them are black hat techniques. These include using link farms and purchasing links. Link farms are when a selection of websites all link to each other regardless of relevancy. Purchasing links is risky considering you don’t know what kind of links you will actually receive and how effective they will be. Do not purchase a package that promises 5,000 links in 24 hours – this is the wrong way to build links. You need to get links from relevant content and sites in your niche that have their own traffic.

White Hat SEO Techniques

• Understanding and implementing keyword research: back in the day, keywords just meant one word terms. Now they have become a string of terms. These terms can be longer phrases in a particular niche that draws in the intent and context of the page content.
• Creating quality, relevant content: the Google search engine has a variety of tools that it uses to evaluate site content. These things include the length of your content, topic and relevancy, distribution of keywords, age of article and internal and external links included. 
• Making your site responsive and mobile friendly: with more and more people using their mobiles to browse the web, it’s important to make sure your content translates well to mobile. This also includes user experience (UX) design which entails how a user experiences your website and the accessibility standards around it.
• Claim your local business listing (GMB): when it comes to local SERPs, having a local business listing can rank you higher than others on the map based on location. Research shows that more than 80% of smartphone shoppers conduct searches ending in “near me” to get the most relevant and geographically close option. 
• Utilising content marketing opportunities: creating content on your site is useless without traffic. To make sure your content is put in front of others, you can share links to your site or page via social media, through email marketing, and/or have it published on websites that have a higher ranking.
• Using schema markup: this is known as the language of search engines. It is used to read and understand your content pages. You can utilise schema markup by creating meta tags, title tags and many more for your pages. Using schema markup is important to Google as it can use this information to create snippets and fill out the “people also ask” section on the search results page. 

SEO Techniques for Success

SEO requires a lot of time, patience and action. It is not something you can expect to see results from in a day, overnight or even within a week. Depending on the site and it’s authority, it can take up to a few months for any changes to be seen and may only be a small change in the beginning. SEO relies on daily actions with a long-term goal. Here are a few techniques that can build up your website for good SEO:

Choosing a Simple, Memorable Domain Name

Your domain name matters more than you would think. If you already have a domain name, it’s not a massive deal for SEO but it can be the difference between users finding your website on the first go rather than scrolling through search results on their preferred search engine. Try choosing a domain name that does not include hyphens or generic names like bestbeautysalon.com. You want users to have a memorable experience on your site and that goes for the naming conventions as well.

Well Thought Out and Executed Content

There is a well-known saying “content is king”, coined by Bill Gates back in 1996. Research shows that a Google user is happy when they find the result that answers their query in the best way. Search engines like Google looks at ways to always try to provide the best experience possible by sending you to the content that is the most relevant and has the best user metrics. You should be making sure your content is answering questions correctly and the best way possible.

Creating good content however requires a few elements to be included:

• Quality: the competition in content can be fierce. Therefore, your content needs to provide high quality value. This involves adding more value than your competitors by making it more in-depth or more insightful to ensure your site ranks higher in the search. It also is helpful to create longer content – this tends to rank better as users peruse your site longer, which Google loves.
• Intent: Search engines such as Google will put lots of emphasis on the search queries intent. It wants to understand what the user is looking for when they search something. When creating your content, it is important to understand this as well. This will help you create the best content for your audience and the search engine algorithms.
• Freshness: Posting frequently helps your Google rankings. However, posting frequent content is just one way to keep your website fresh – you can also update old content with new or updated information to stay relevant and up to date. Updating your content can also help you stay at a certain level in rankings or even propel you higher than before. Updated information is always well regarded when it comes to SERPs.

How to write great content

1. Understand user intent: Before putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard!) you need to know what your reader will want to accomplish when they land on your page.
2. Know who your audience is: It is important to understand who your reader is – what they like, what they dislike, why they’re there, etc.
3. Break it up: People have increasingly short attention spans, so writing big chunks of text can be painful for the reader. Break it up with headings and images to help digest the information and keep your readers interested in your content.
4. Make it actionable: Every part of your website should have a clear call to action, including your content. It should be clear to the reader what their next steps are.

Conducting Keyword Research

SEO is all about targeting the right visitors to your site. You need to attract your target market, not just anyone on the internet. Attracting to your target market can lead to either selling your products or services to someone who is in the market for what you’re selling. This is where keyword research comes into it. Keywords are the phrases that users type into search engines to generate results. The key to keyword research is discovering and identifying terms and topics relevant to your business to match the user’s search intent. Google understands this technique and rewards a site by bumping a sites visibility up the search result list the more it gets found and clicked into. 

Utilising On-Page and Off-Page Optimisation

Improving the actual structure of each page can have big benefits for SEO. Common on-page optimisation strategies include optimising the URL to incorporate keywords, updating the title tag of the page to use relevant search terms, and using the alternative text (alt text) to describe images. Updating a page’s meta tags (such as the meta description) can also be beneficial. Google also uses on-page SEO to understand a users experience and intent for landing on a page which then helps organise and rank your page. Off-page optimisation can be utilised by having other sites link to your page. This works best when the content is relevant on both sites.

Introducing Images and Videos

Adding in images and/or videos is not a requirement for SEO though it does help show a search engine the quality of the site. It also helps to keep users engaged on your page longer the same way using longer content does. 

Creating Easy to Digest Website Architecture

While external links are helpful for SEO, so are internal links. You can improve your website’s SEO by making sure key pages are being linked to and that relevant anchor text is being used in those links to improve a page’s relevance for specific terms. An XML sitemap can be a good way for larger pages to help search engines discover and crawl all of the site’s pages. An XML sitemap is a file of all your websites essential pages so that search engines can crawl these pages to understand the website structure. It’s important to have Google crawl your website pages entirely to have an impact. This can be done through a tool called Google Search Console.

Using Semantic Mark Up

Another SEO strategy is optimising your websites semantic mark up. A semantic mark-up (such as Schema.org) is used to describe the meaning behind the content on a page. This can include helping to identify who the author of an article is or the topic and type of content on a page. Semantic mark up can help Google generate rich snippets to be displayed in the search results page as the main answer to a question – this can be in the form of extra text, review stars or sometimes even images. A great use of semantic mark up is by using heading tags within your content writing instead of manually changing the font size every time you need a subheading.

Focusing on Local SEO

Local search engine optimisation is best used for local businesses. You can use this by including a specific location into your keywords in content to ensure you come up for search results based on location only. This type of SEO is targeted for smartphone users mainly as searches locally generally occur on a smart device. While locality is imperative to local SEO, you must also include items such as the company’s name, address and phone number. These other items help the search engine determine your location even further. To rank higher with local SEO, reviews from users can help highlight the businesses authority in the online space.

Tracking Results on Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a Google tool where you can optimise the visibility of your website, check on indexing and crawled pages as well as search queries and errors. This tool will also tell you if you have anything important missing from your HTML and you can optimise for that. Google Search Console can be used to monitor the amount of traffic coming to your website, the amount of impressions you receive from search results, the click through rate and the average position your site is ranking on Google. A great feature of Google Search Console is their top queries feature which tells you exactly what areas your web pages are showing up in search results for users. You can also track how many clicks you get from certain terms which can help you understand how to optimise your content better for more search results.

Tracking Results on Google Analytics

Google has another product to assist with SEO called Google Analytics. Using Google Analytics, you can track your websites performance, understand visitors demographic and behaviour when interacting with the site, measure the return of investment (ROI) of marketing campaigns and improve your bounce rate of users. A bounce rate relates to the amount of time a user spends on a particular web page. By analysing your users bounce rate, you can determine how best to create enhancements to create the search experience longer and fulfilled.

Summing Up Search Engine Optimisation 

SEO is not a one size fits all approach to understanding how people search for products or services or how to rank best on the major search engines. There is no secret recipe unfortunately as there are many ways of tackling search engine marketing and optimisation. SEO can be a tough beast to tackle if you’re new to learning SEO. You can research and do a DIY job of managing the SEO for your webpages alone or you could engage with a SEO expert to learn, understand and see the benefits of utilising search engine optimisation for your businesses online presence. It’s best to try as many tactics as possible (without using black hat SEO techniques) to achieve the best result. You can’t put all your eggs into one basket with SEO, it works based on a variety of different components of your online presence. SEO takes time, effort and a lot of patience to hopefully achieve higher rankings on search engines though it is definitely worth the extra leg work needed to make it happen.

In this article, we’ll help you understand the importance of web hosting and how it can benefit your website. Whether you’re new to website hosting or looking for a better solution, we’ll provide you with the knowledge and tools to make an informed decision.

What is Web Hosting?

Web hosting is a critical aspect of creating an online presence. A web hosting provider stores website files and applications on a server so that websites can be accessed online. It is like renting a space on the internet for your website to exist. All the content that comprises a website, such as code, images, videos, and text, needs to be stored somewhere, and that is where web hosting comes in. Web hosting allows users to save money on local storage and maintain a reliable online presence. It provides a secure place to store content with added benefits like backup and support for security. While some web hosting happens locally via personal computers or servers, cloud-based third-party providers are becoming more popular. When searching for a hosting service, you can find a variety of free and paid options to consider. Web hosting is important for making your website visible to everyone. It’s crucial for developing an online presence for businesses and personal accounts.

Web Hosting vs. Web Server 

Web hosting and web server are two distinct concepts that are essential in creating and running a new website. Web hosting is the service that allows you to rent space on a server and make your website accessible on the internet. This includes website server space, bandwidth, security and technical support. On the other hand, a web server is a computer that stores your website files and delivers them to users who request them. Another way to differentiate between the two is, a web server is where your website files are stored (much like a physical hard drive), while web hosting refers to the act of renting a virtual space on that server so that your website can be available online. The web hosting provider takes care of the server maintenance and management, allowing you to focus on creating and managing your website content. Web hosting and web servers are important parts of creating and managing a website. Knowing the difference between them is crucial when selecting the best web hosting service for your requirements.

The Importance of Web Hosting

Web hosting helps you store your website content so that it can be accessed by the world. By using a reliable hosting provider, you can ensure that your website is secure, fast, and always available to your visitors. With features such as security backups and support, web hosting simplifies the process of establishing a robust web presence. A good website hosting service can be used for a variety of applications, including systems, virtual stores, blogs, and websites. The benefits of having a quality website hosting service are numerous, ranging from improved website performance to greater security for your website and its visitors. Choosing a trustworthy hosting provider is vital for your website’s performance and safety. A poor hosting provider can cause slow loading, downtime, and security issues, harming the user experience.

Three Main Types of Web Hosting 

Shared Hosting

This is the most common type of web hosting, and it involves sharing a server with other websites. This is an affordable option and is suitable for small businesses and personal websites.

VPS Hosting

Virtual Private Sector (VPS) hosting involves sharing a server with other websites, but with more resources allocated to your site. This is a good option for websites with higher traffic volumes.

Dedicated Hosting

With dedicated hosting, you have an entire server to yourself. This is the most expensive option, but it provides the most resources and control. 

What Makes a Good Web Host

Improved website performance: It provides you with access to a powerful server that can handle high volumes of traffic and ensure your website loads quickly. This is essential for maintaining your website’s credibility and to make sure your website provides a user-friendly experience. This is also particularly important if your website requires a lot of software or plugins.

Server uptime guarantee: A good web hosting provider should guarantee at least 99% uptime for your website. Uptime is the amount of time your website is available online.

Backup and restoration: A reliable web hosting provider must regularly back up your website’s data and offer an easy process for restoring it in case of data loss or damage.

Increased website security: A good website hosting account has security features like firewalls, backups, and technical support. This helps protect your business from cyber threats like hackers and viruses. Website security is particularly important if you website has a payment gateway or stores secure data.

Scalable: As your business grows and your website’s traffic increases, you can upgrade your hosting account to accommodate your needs. This ensures that your website can handle the increased traffic without crashing or slowing down. 

Email hosting: Your web hosting provider should offer email hosting, so you can create professional email accounts using your domain name.

User-friendly control panel: A reliable hosting account comes with a control panel that allows you to manage your website without needing technical expertise. cPanel is an easy-to-use tool that simplifies the process of hosting a website. It comes with a user-friendly dashboard that includes all the necessary tools and settings to manage your website.

Technical support: You’ll have access to technical support from experts who can help you manage your website and resolve any issues that arise.

WordPress Web Hosting

WordPress is the world’s most popular content management system (CMS), powering numerous websites on the internet. WordPress web hosting is specifically designed to optimise the performance and security of WordPress websites. With WordPress web hosting, you’ll get pre-installed WordPress software, automatic updates and specialised support for WordPress issues. WordPress offers both free and paid web hosting plans on WordPress.com. 

Should I Use WordPress or Regular Hosting?

WordPress hosting and web hosting differ in the services they provide. If you’re seeking a one size fits all solution, web hosting is the path to pursue. However, if you require a customised service designed specifically for high performance WordPress hosting, a WordPress host is the match made in digital heaven for you. WordPress offers both free and paid web hosting plans on WordPress.com. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Web Hosting Affect Your Google Ranking?

Hosting can actually have a significant impact on your Google ranking. Hosting is a critical component of SEO, also known as search engine optimisation. Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the practice of optimising your website to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). The speed, reliability, and overall performance of your website are key factors in determining your search engine ranking. Hosting your website on a fast and reliable server can improve user experience, resulting in lower bounce rates and higher search rankings. A reputable hosting provider can also offer crucial features such as SSL certificates to enhance the security of your website and boost its SEO. Therefore, it’s crucial to choose a reliable hosting provider that can offer the necessary features and services to optimise your website’s SEO performance.

What is cPanel hosting, and why do I need it? 

Control Panel (cPanel) is a tool that makes it easy for you to control your hosting account and server. It’s like a dashboard that you can use to manage your website. Most hosting providers offer cPanel to their customers, especially for those who share hosting with others. With this tool you can do many useful things like setting up a WordPress website or making a new email account.

What is the difference between website hosting and a maintenance service?

Website hosting involves the storage of website files, including images and content. Website maintenance includes the monitoring and optimisation of your website to make sure it is performing well. This takes into account things like malware removal, WordPress theme maintenance, and in some cases even analytics tracking and reporting.

Futuretheory – Expert Website Hosting in Canberra

At Futuretheory, our Canberra-based team offers a comprehensive range of web services to help your business succeed online. This includes our high-quality web hosting service, which follows best practices and ensures that your website loads quickly and has an uptime of over 99.99%. We understand that every business has different needs, which is why we will take the time to understand your needs and customise our web hosting services to your specific requirements.

Our Australian-based web hosting service is optimised for local businesses and offers enterprise-grade security features to protect your website from cyber threats. Regular backups also ensure that your website data is safe and secure. With our web hosting service, you can make your site is in good hands and always available for your customers.

In addition to web hosting, we are also a complete development and design agency, so our experienced team can also provide web design and digital marketing services to help your business grow online. We understand the importance of a strong online presence and can work with you to create a professional website that is optimised for speed, security, and user experience. With our digital marketing services, we can help drive customers and grow your business.

So, if you’re looking for unmatched, reliable web hosting services, website design or digital marketing solutions, get in touch with our team in Canberra. Our team of experts is here to help you every step of the way to ensure your site is helping you grow your business online and to achieve your goals.

The role is part-time, 20 hours per week, with the potential to extend to full-time in the future. Remuneration to be negotiated based on experience, but please use the full time salary as a guide. The remuneration on the advertisement is the full time range, your salary will be a pro rata amount based on this full time equivalent range.

The ideal candidate will have 2+ years of relevant experience with demonstrable results, strong communication skills, a keen eye for detail and a passion for helping Futuretheory and our clients grow.

Key responsibilities/skills

• Paid advertising management (Google Ads, Facebook Ads)
• Coordinate content marketing
• Liaising with external suppliers and clients
• Copy editing, writing, content upload and content management for websites, email newsletters and social media
• Social media management (YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest)
• Marketing analysis and strategy
• EDM Marketing

Nice to have

• An understanding of Search Engine Optimisation
• Conceptualisation and implementation of PR strategies
• Ability to make simple edits to video
• Experience using Adobe Creative Cloud programs

How to apply

Please apply via our Indeed advertisement – https://au.indeed.com/job/marketing-coordinator-330c0e367693f977

Before we share some of our achievements this year, we’d like to wish you for the holiday period ahead. We hope that you have a safe and relaxing break and wish you all the best for 2023!

Our Work In 2022

We delivered some great projects this year, across website design and development, branding and design, and marketing. The projects ranged from member organisations, to small businesses and start ups, to established businesses, across industries including haircare, education, construction, retail, eCommerce, charity and non profit.

Some Results

We delivered some results across Marketing and SEO that even surprised us – including tripling one website’s reach to over 600,000 impressions per month. Another project that stood out was a brand new website that launched in May – we took this site from 0 to almost 1,400 impressions a day and don’t see the growth slowing down.

In the new year, we will tally up the year’s data to get final numbers that we will analyse and use to better understand trends, strategies and how to deliver even better outcomes to our clients in 2023.

How to clear cache on different desktop browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge)

Sometimes, browsing the internet can be a pain because of problems with cached information. Clearing your browser’s cache can help you to retrieve information from the past and fix any problems. If you want to delete cache stored data from your browser, the steps vary depending on your browser. Follow these simple steps to clear it on different browsers. By clearing your browser’s cache, you’ll make webpages load faster the next time you visit them.

Clearing the cache on most desktop browsers can be done by using the Control + Shift + R keys together. You will see the tab you are on refresh and the browser would have also cleared the cache at the same time. Each browser also has the option of clearing the cache with more control, those steps are below.

How to clear cache on Google Chrome

To clear cache on Google Chrome, open the browser and click on the three dots in the top right corner next to your account profile icon. On the next page, select “Settings” from the search bar, type in “cache”. The first search result should be “Clear Browsing Data”, click through to that and select the timeframe you would like to remove data from. Options should include last hour, last 24 hours, last 7 days, last four weeks and for all time. You will then see check boxes that are on autofill for “browsing history”, “cookies and other site data” and “cached images and files”. If you’re happy to clear all this data, make sure the box is checked and then click the “clear data” button.

How to clear cache on Mozilla Firefox

Clear cache on Mozilla Firefox by going to the three lines icon (settings) on the top right side, select “history” and then “clear recent history”. You can select the time range to clear from. Firefox options include the last hour, last two hours, last four hours, today or everything (from beginning of time). Then tick off the history you wish to erase and then click “OK”.

How to clear cache on Internet Explorer

Once you have Internet Explorer open, select to the “Settings” button (the gear icon), then click “Safety” and select “Delete Browsing History”. From here you can select the types of data and files you wish to delete from your computer then click the delete button.

How to clear cache on Safari

Open Safari and select the Safari settings menu, from here click on “Preferences” and select the “Privacy” tab, you can choose to “block all cookies” by clicking the checkbox, then click “Manage Website Data”. Once in this window, you can choose to remove data from specific websites or you can “Remove All” from the databases. Then select “Done”.

How to clear cache on Microsoft Edge

To delete data from Microsoft Edge, open the application and select the “Menu” (the 3 dots icon on the top right corner). Once here, click “Settings” and then “Privacy & Services”. There will then be a button called “Clear Browsing Data”. You can select what items you want to clear in your browsing history.

How to delete cache on mobile and tablet browsers (android and iOS)

Clearing cache can help speed up your browsing experience and clear out temporary files that might be slowing down your browser.

Android devices

If you want to clear cache on an android mobile phone or tablet, open up your “Settings” and select “Storage”. From here you can select from a list of apps that are installed on your phone from which you can clear cache from. Choose the app you would like to complete this action on and then select the “Clear Cache” option.

iOS devices

Whether you have an iPhone and/or an iPad, you can clear internet files and website files on mobile browsers by going to your device “Settings” then selecting your web browser application (Safari or Google Chrome). Click “Clear History and Website Data”. You can also choose to block all cookies though some webpages may not be able to load.

What is cache?

Cache is a temporary storage area on your browser that helps speed up web browsing. This storage area is where temporary internet files are downloaded and stored. It helps to store recently visited pages, images, and other data. However, sometimes cache can become cluttered and slow down your browser. This where clearing your web browser’s cache comes in. Clearing cache helps to speed up your browser, by clearing out temporary files and cached data. It also helps to keep your browser safe from Hackers and Spyware.

What will happen when I clear my cache?

When you clear your cache, it removes the temporary internet files and website data from your browser history, cookies, and other web resources. Clearing the cache can help speed up browsing by restoring pages that have been recently viewed to your computer’s memory. When you clear history of internet browsing, this can be a form of troubleshooting for specific websites.

How long does it take to clear cache?

Cache clear can take a few different forms, but in general it’s the act of clearing data from web browser history, cookies, temporary files and other cached data. There isn’t one time range or estimate for how long it will take to clear cache and clear your browsing history – each user’s experience may be quite different.

What are cookies on your web browser?

Third-party cookies are small files that websites save on your computer from your internet browser when you visit them. They help the website remember your search history, preferences (such as language, site settings etc.), track how you are using a website so they can improve their performance, they also remember security information (like passwords) and can keep you logged into a particular website.

What are the benefits of clearing browser cache and cookies?

Clearing cache on your browser can have a range of benefits. For example, it can improve website performance and speed up page loading times. Additionally, clearing cache ensures that your browsing history is cleared, preventing you from submitting unintentionally private information. Clearing cache may also free up space on your computer and reduce the load time of future websites.

Frequently Asked Questions

How often should I clear my cache?

Depending on how often you browse the web and use your device, many people choose to clear their cache once a month or every two months. It’s generally not something you need to do every time you use the internet and you can choose to delete data as far back as you want.

What happens to saved passwords when you clear your cache?

When you clear your cache on your browser, all the saved passwords will be deleted. It is recommended to save copies of pages as PDFs or JPEG files in case you ever need them in the future. Clearing your cache before making any major changes to your computer can help prevent data loss and make sure that you have a backup of any important data. Please be sure to write down any passwords that you want to keep safe before clearing the cache on your browser. If you forget them, they will be gone forever.

How to delete a specific item from the cache?

Each web browser has a different set of steps on deleting cache. This includes single items. For example, if you use Safari, you can delete data from one website by selecting the “Preferences” button and selecting “Privacy” and then clicking on “Manage Website Data”. You will then receive a list of websites that have collected data from you. Once you have selected the website you want to delete, you can “Remove” to clear data from the website.

What is the best way to clear your browser cache?

Depending on your chosen web browser, you should be able to clear your browser data in the settings and then choosing history and then following the prompts.

Is it safe to delete my cookies and cache?

Yes, it is safe to delete your cache and cookies on your browser. Clearing your cache and cookies can free up space on your computer so that you can load pages more quickly. Additionally, deleting old data helps in reducing the number of ads displayed on websites, improving site performance, and reducing malware attacks. However, deleting cookies and cache on your browser can sometimes cause some websites to stop working or malfunction. Always make a backup of important files before making any changes or deletions to them just in case something goes wrong.

Is there any way to stop web browsers from storing personal information about me online?

Yes, you can clear your browsing cache in a browser to stop websites from storing cookies and other data on your device. Browser caching is a great way for websites to remember how you use the website. By clearing your browsing cache, you help clear all of this data so that third parties can’t access it. However, clearing your browsing cache will not delete any of the personal information that has been stored by websites where you have input your personal details.

What happens if I delete everything off of one device but leave it on another device and then try to access it through that device again (or vice versa)?

In most cases, when you delete everything off of one device but leave the data and browser files on another device, the browser will try to load all its files from the hard drive again. This can cause some issues, specifically if your browser is relatively old. Browser files can take some time to re-cache, which could result in an error message like “Cache failure: The document could not be loaded because there was a problem with its cache.” If this happens, try reloading or refreshing the page to see if that fixes the issue.

If I clear cache and cookies on my iOS device, will it affect my iCloud storage?

If you need to clear cache and cookies on your iOS device, your iCloud Drive will not be impacted.

Clear Cache and Cookies

Clearing your browser cache is an essential step in keeping your browser running smoothly. By clearing cache, you can remove temporary files and data that are used by your browser. This can improve the speed and performance of your browser, and may make it easier to navigate. In addition to clearing cache, you can also clear cached data and cookies on your phone. Follow the instructions below to clear cache on your browser and phone.

The ideal candidate will have at least 2 years of relevant experience with demonstrable results, a keen eye for detail and a passion for helping Futuretheory and our clients grow.

Key responsibilities/skills

• Develop WordPress child themes based on supplied website design
• Write efficient, clean, low maintenance PHP code and functions
• Utilise WordPress functions, hooks and filters to achieve desired layout/functionality
• Develop Gutenberg Blocks with Advanced Custom Fields using HTML, CSS, PHP and JavaScript, or React (no page builders ie. WPBakery Page Builder, Divi, Elementor, Visual Composer etc.)
• Setup/manage WordPress sites on cPanel hosting
• Configure user friendly WordPress backend
• Add functionality to existing WordPress sites
• Troubleshoot website issues
• Experience with Adobe Creative Cloud applications to export assets for website development
• Communicate with non-technical designers, team members, clients and other stakeholders

Nice to have

• Interact/integrate with APIs to develop custom solutions with WordPress
• Experience configuring and managing DNS
• Experience with UI/UX and website design

How to apply

Please apply with a cover letter and CV by emailing Germaine Muller at germaine@futuretheory.com.au

We expect to close applications by 23 October 2022, however, we encourage all applicants to apply as soon as possible as we may organise interviews with applicants prior to the deadline.

Note: successful candidates will be asked to participate in a short coding test.

You can read more about the priority allocation process on the .auDA website: https://www.auda.org.au/au-domain-names/au-direct/priority-allocation-process

There is no difference between the new .au domain name and existing domain names .au names from any perspective apart from the .au direct domain names being shorter thanks to the lack of the extra full stop and character (as is the case with .com.au or .org.au for example).

Should I purchase a .au direct domain name?

If cost is not a concern, then yes, we strongly recommend that you register .au direct versions of all your domains. This minimal cost ensures that you are protecting your domain name and all associated entities such as websites and email addresses. There is also the security that this provides in ensuring that malicious parties won’t be able to get a domain name similar to yours and confuse or trick your clients into parting with their money thinking that they are paying you.

The catch is that you are essentially doubling your annual domain costs, but if you have a brand that is worth protecting, then the expense is worth it and quite minimal.

Who can register .au direct domain names?

Eventually, everyone will be able to register a .au direct domain name. However, there is a priority allocation process in place for those with other .au domain names registered.

Where can I register a .au domain name?

There are numerous organisations that can register a .au direct domain name for you, including us. Please get in touch if you would like us to assist in managing your domain name(s).

When you’re designing websites, creating marketing collateral or doing anything else design related, a good stock photo will do wonders for your finished product. Often, you don’t have the budget, time, or skills to capture the photo you have in mind.

If you have a big budget, you can explore a premium stock image website such as iStock or Shutterstock. However, if you’re not willing to fork out large sums of money, a free stock photo website will become your best friend.

Finding a good stock photo (or a few stock photos) can be challenging if you don’t know the best places to look. A google search for “Free Stock Photos” or “Free Photo Websites” will bring up mixed results. Many sites will show a combination of some free photos, some royalty free photos, and a lot of paid images. It can be difficult to sort through the entire mix to find an image you can use for free. This is why you should turn to a truly free, and royalty free, stock photo site.

What is the difference between free stock photo sites and paid stock photo sites?

Premium stock image websites rely on people or businesses paying for specific images (or a recurring fee) to use their high-quality photographs and stock imagery. Often, these website costs or image purchases come at a high price for exclusive images, but there is a huge market of options available across the stock photography industry.

How do free stock photo sites work?

Free stock image sites exist thanks to on-page advertising and often less experienced, amateur photographers or up and coming photographers. Fortunately, this means you can find some great images for free, from largely undiscovered talent.

There are thousands of photographers who upload their images to free stock photo websites knowing it will be beneficial for small businesses or individuals while providing them with exposure and experience at the same time.

Free stock image sites allow you to use their photos often under Creative Commons Zero licensing, which means creators waive their copyright and other related rights to the asset. This allows you to use their free stock images (or other creative assets) for commercial use, absolutely free.

Best paid stock photo sites

Depositphotos

Visit: https://depositphotos.com/

Depositphotos is a stock photo site that prides themselves on high-quality licensed photos. They started in 2009 and have over 234 million photos. Depositphotos also has stock video if that is what you’re looking for.

Depositphotos Price and Inclusions

Depositphotos royalty free stock photos start as low as USD $0.83 per image in a subscription on a 25 image per month plan, or USD $14 per image on demand when purchased in a pack of 3.

Shutterstock

Visit: https://www.shutterstock.com/

Shutterstock is a great place to find high quality images, with a library of over 400 million photos and boast the addition of over 200,000 every day.

Shutterstock Price and Inclusions

10 downloads per month cost AUD $29 at Shutterstock, or AUD $49 for 5 images on demand, noting that this expires within a year.

Dreamstime

Visit: https://www.dreamstime.com/

Dreamstime has been around since 2000, as a royalty free stock photo site. They have over 190 million photos, illustrations, clip art and vectors for sale.

Dreamstime Price and inclusions

Dreamstime charges AUD $31 per month for 5 monthly downloads, while a credit package of 11 credits costs AUD $22.82, with custom packages available.

iStock

Visit: https://www.istockphoto.com/

iStock is part of the Getty Images family of companies. It was founded in 200 and hosts stock photos, vector illustrations, and even videos.

iStock Price and Inclusions

10 downloads per month through iStock costs AUD $40 per month, and credit packs can be purchased for as little as 1 credit at AUD $13.

Adobe Stock

Visit: https://stock.adobe.com/

Adobe Stock is part of the Adobe family of companies. They provide high quality, royalty free assets for all types of projects. Their assets include photos, vector graphics and illustrations, templates, 3D assets and even video and motion graphics templates as well as audio tracks.

Adobe Stock Price and Inclusions

10 downloads per month cost AUD $39.59 at Adobe Stock that is charged after your 14 day free trial has expired.

Best free stock photo sites

Canva

Visit: https://canva.com

Canva is an Australian-born creative website with free high quality stock photos as one of its services. Canva has o

Canva is an Australian-born creative website with free high quality stock photos as one of its services. Canva has over 1 million photographs and stock imagery available for use, through either its free service or the Canva Pro service.

Who uses Canva?

These photographs have been compiled with graphic design in mind – as this is a core service of Canva. So every photo is great for use on most graphic design projects, such as posters, social media graphics, flyers and more.

Pexels

Visit: http://pexels.com/

Pexels is a great stock image website (if not the best free image sites) to find a high-quality stock image and other royalty free images.

Pexels is a free stock photo website based in Germany. It was created by two brothers with a background in computer and software technology. The photo website aims to provide free photos that are more authentic and modern than some other free photo websites.

The benefits of Pexels

The free stock photo website stands out with its search function – which is easily filterable and multiple useful parameters make it easy to find the image you need. All photos on Pexels are nicely tagged, easily searchable and has a great variety of royalty free images that can be used for commercial use.

Pexels also has a branch for free stock videos – a great resource for when you’re needing something beyond a simple photograph.

Pixabay

Visit: https://pixabay.com/

Pixabay is our next pick for free stock photography. Pixabay has a large collection of free stock photography, vector image, and art illustrators. This website is also German-based, created by Hans Braxmeier and Simon Steinberger, who both have a background in computer technology.

Pixabay is also crowdsourced, which means users upload their free stock images to be used. Over 1.4 million files are uploaded to the website under Creative Commons Zero license (CC0).

What does CC0 mean for me?

CC0 does still mean there could be privacy and property rights, but Pixabay has a dedicated photographer and image editor who reviews submissions for quality and legality, creating a more curated collection. This is a great positive if you’re worried about CC0 license usage.

Unsplash

Visit: https://unsplash.com/

Unsplash has a large collection of free, high-resolution stock photography. The team at Unsplash looks through submissions and features the best stock photography on their homepage. All photos are released for free usage for personal and commercial use under the Unsplash license.

Unsplash was born from a Tumblr blog that offered leftover photos from photoshoots, for free. It was then developed and is managed by the owners of Crew – a platform connecting clients with freelance designers, web developers, and small studio services. The site now has over 500,000 free photographs and stock imagery with 10 royalty-free photographs being uploaded every 10 days.

The benefits of using Unsplash

Photos on Unsplash are high quality image, modern and authentic. The site uses its own custom license, which replicates a Creative Commons Zero license but removes the right to compile its photos (avoiding a competitor using its free stock images).

Where can free stock photos be used?

Most free stock photos sites allow use for personal and commercial use, but it is always good to check, especially if you plan to use the photo for advertising or marketing as copyright restrictions might not allow you to do so. Generally, we like to use stock photos for blog posts, and social media posts. They can also come in handy when showing someone an example of the photo you are trying to recreate – or even find on a paid stock photo site.

1. Homepage

Your website’s homepage will be the most visited page of your website. This is often where a visitor will land from search engines or if they type in your URL directly. Therefore, your homepage will likely be the first impression a potential client gets of your business.

Users will only stay on this page for a few seconds before moving to the next page (if your website has the right call to action or user flow set up). Or, they may only stay on your home page before exiting back to search results if they can’t easily find the information they need. Users want to be able to navigate your website easily.

Use your website to entice users to stay and explore. Headings should be easy to read and eye-catching. Icons should be subtle, so they don’t compete with the headings. You need a call to action (CTA) such as “see our services”, “book a consultation”, or “sign up to our newsletter” in a primary place on your homepage. The aim of this is to capture visitors’ attention before they exit to Google (or any other search engine!).

Your homepage should give a high-level snapshot of what is included in your website. As you scroll down the page, you should touch on most pages including your products, services, testimonials, partners and contact information. Try to look at your website from the visitor perspective – from navigation bars to images and copy. Present the information in a way that the visitor will understand and be able to follow.

You can use a tool such as Attention Insight to see how your homepage might perform with visitors. Attention Insight is a tool that uses AI to develop a heatmap based on thousands of pieces of user data.

2. Services page or product page

Your services or product page is the second most important page after your homepage. This is where visitors will be able to explore your core market offering – whether it’s a service they can book or a product they can purchase (online or offline).

Use this page to detail your services or list important information about your product. Begin with a summary or your main point of difference. After this, go into some of the more intricate benefits.

Dedicating a page to your services or products allows you to break it down in a clear and easy to digest way. This is also the place to show how you differ from competitors. Ensure to include a synopsis of services or a range of products, bullet points of the service or benefits of the product, videos and product images, and a call to action for more information, where to book or how to buy.

3. About page

Your about page is where you should show the core values of your business – who you are and what you stand for. Visitors will go to your about page when they want to know more about your company – and people are becoming increasingly more conscious of what companies they’re buying from.

Use this page to talk about exactly what you do. What can you offer your clients or customers that no one else can? What do you stand for in the world? What is important to you as a company? These are some of the questions visitors will be searching for on your about page.

Your about page is also a great place to let your personality shine through – whether you’re a fun cheeky brand, or a serious and exclusive brand, or something else entirely. This is where to show it off. Tell a story about the inception of your company – storytelling is one of the best ways to engage customers with your brand. You could even include a video from a director or key person in the company for a more personal touch.

4. Contact page

Your contact page is a very important page for your website – you can sell a visitor a service but if they can’t contact you, all that effort has gone to waste!

Visitors want to know how they can reach you, so make it easy for them on your contact page – they don’t want to search hard for it. Put all the necessary details above the fold and additional information (such as an interactive map) below the fold if necessary.

Don’t miss the opportunity to use a CTA such as “call us now”, “send us an enquiry” or similar. This adds that extra push for customers to complete the action, and makes it easy for them.

5. Blog page

A website that isn’t optimised for SEO is a website that won’t be seen. Search engines reward websites that look active and appear to be giving valuable information. The best and cheapest way to do this is by writing blogs.

Writing blogs on a consistent basis, that are related to your business area, will show Google and other search engines that you’re an authority figure on that topic. If search engines recognise that you’re an authority, they will reward you by showing your website higher in search results, increasing organic reach.

Additionally, a blog page will show visitors that you are an expert in the field. Once you build up a library of website content in your specific field, visitors will be able to read through and understand your products or services better. This will build trust with visitors that your company is the best choice.

These blogs are also great for sharing on social media. Blogs are great for SEO and they’re great for organic content to share with followers. Make sure to write engaging, interesting content that your followers would be interested to click on and read. This will bring more traffic to your website.

6. 404 Page

The ‘Not found’ page, or Error 404 page is the one of the essential website pages on this list, but for a different reason to all the other pages. While the other pages are important from a website content point of view, and contain pages of information that every visitor should be able to find out, the 404 Page is important in a more practical way.

What is the 404 page? The 404 page or ‘Not found’ page is shown to someone when an asset they are looking, like a page or an image, no longer exists in the location the link is taking them to. It is a way to inform a visitor of this.

Essential website pages

Every website should have these six pages we’ve explored above. These pages are critical in communicating your business or product to potential buyers or clients. However, these aren’t the only pages your website should have – there are plenty more pages that will be beneficial to have and will be specific to your industry or even business.

When looking at these pages, it is also important to think about SEO and website hosting – in fact, there’s a link between to these factors as well as we covered in this article.

The best way to securely store files

The best way to securely store files is to actually store files in at least 3 different locations. Ideally, they will be:

1. On a physical drive or device like an external SSD, flash drive, or Hard Drive
2. On a cloud storage system like Google Drive or Backblaze
3. On a physical drive or device (like example 1), but in a different location

By following the approach above, you diversify the storage locations of your sensitive data, important documents, and everything else. By doing this, you also diversify the risk of losing the files altogether. To break it down further:

• Location 1 ensures that you have a copy at hand, easy to access, and always on your person.
• Location 2 ensures that if your physical device was to get lost, stolen or destroyed, there is a back up on the cloud (generally understood to be a safe storage option).
• Location 3 allows for the worst case scenario where the cloud system goes down, or for cases where you have a large files that take too long or are too difficult to upload.

When storing your files, you may choose to encrypt them, or at least password protect them. Again, the decision to do this is a matter of personal preference, and potentially comes down to your perceived risk of someone getting access to these files.

Why move to .co?

We have a global audience. Our website has been visited by people from 75% of the countries of the world. While we are limited by being an English-only website, we cover topics with global relevance and application, and we wanted to extend this relevance to the domain name.

The website also reaches peaks of 400 visitors and 2,000 page views per day, organically, without any advertising. By having a domain extension that is global, we can create content that serves more people.

.co is shorter than .com

There isn’t a better way to put it. We wanted a domain name that was as short as possible while having the company name in its entirety, and .co was the only way to accomplish this.

.co is becoming more common

.co is a domain extension that is used by numerous companies today, including those like zip.co and thankyou.co who are well known consumer products. This increase in the public’s awareness of the .co domain extension, and studies that indicate that it is nearly as good as a .com from a recall and trust perspective, gave us the confidence that almost everyone would recognise futuretheory.co as a legitimate domain name and not an error/omission.

Why not .com?

The .com version of the URL has been registered since 2001, and when we first registered the futuretheory.com.au domain in August, 2016, we were 15 years too late! We may acquire the .com domain in the future if it comes up for sale again.

Take a look at many fast food restaurants and you’ll find they use red and yellow, as these colours encourage hunger while being friendly. In contrast, a restaurant like Subway chooses to use green and yellow instead of red to communicate and support their “eat fresh” tagline.

While there are some tried and true associations with every colour, things such as cultural differences can change a colour’s meaning drastically. For example, red in many western countries means passion or danger. In some eastern countries, red is a lucky colour. These two associations are very different and can change how your brand appears, depending on your audience and the context your business is in.

If you’re in the process of refreshing your website, or you’re creating your first website, one of the most important decisions will be the colours you use throughout the website for headings, links, design elements and more.

Why is colour so important in website design?

Colour selection can significantly impact a company’s bottom line – particularly if that company is mostly online. 85% of people claim that colour has a major influence on what they buy – so if you choose the wrong colour for your audience, you could be harming potential business.

You can test how colour impacts your bottom line by changing something as simple as your website button colours. When some companies experimented with button colours, they noticed a sharp increase or decrease in conversions. Beamax, a company from The Netherlands that make projector screens, saw a massive 53.1% increase in clicks on links that were red vs links that were blue. Choosing the right colour goes beyond website clicks too. A study on the mental impact of colours discovered that colours boosted brand recognition by an average of 80%. You can see this in practice when you think of a brand such as Coca Cola and their iconic red beverages.

So, colour is very important beyond what looks good. The right (or wrong) colour can have a big impact on your website visitors and conversions.

What is colour theory?

Colour theory is a set of fundamental principles that guide you in creating colour combinations that work together. It is important to understand these basic principles in the process of creating effective colour palettes for your website (or brand). Here are a few of the fundamentals in colour theory:

The Colour Wheel

The colour wheel is a great place to start when exploring colours. Most of us will have seen a colour wheel in some variation or another (such as in art class at school), and you may recall that there are primary, secondary and tertiary colours:

Primary Colours

The primary colours are red, yellow, and blue. If you combine any two of these colours, you create secondary colours.

Secondary Colours

Secondary colours are purple (formed by mixing red and blue), green (formed by mixing blue and yellow) and orange (formed by mixing red and yellow).

Tertiary Colours

Tertiary colours are combinations of primary and secondary colours, such as red and purple, yellow and orange, or blue and green.

Tints, shades and tones

Primary, secondary and tertiary colours are traditionally considered “pure” colours. They are bright, vivid and full of colour. If you add white to a pure colour, this creates a tint. It creates a lighter, less intense colour than the pure colour. If you add black to a pure colour, this creates a shade. And, if you mix white and black to a pure colour, this creates tones. Tones are more subdued than pure colours.

Contrast

Contrast is highly important in website design and when choosing colours for a brand. The higher the contrast, the easier that two colours can appear different from one another – such as a bright colour paired with a dark colour.

While it is important to consider the contrast of the colours, it’s also important to evaluate the contrast of their tone. Two different colours with an even tone will not have high contrast. An easy way to decide if two colours have good contrast is to convert them to greyscale – this will make the contrast much clearer.

In most instances, you want to find two (or more) colours with high contrast for website design, as this makes it easier to read and easier to locate buttons or actions. White text on a black background is the most obvious choice. However, there is a careful balancing act, as too much contrast can tire the viewer’s eyes (also referred to as eye strain or eye fatigue). The best places to use contrast are between text and background and between buttons and the background. Use less contrast between background sections or between the menu and background, if you are using too much contrast already.

What is colour psychology?

Colour psychology is a step beyond colour theory. Colour psychology is the science of how colours affect human behaviour and the subconscious associations people have with colours. This means, the choice of colour for your brand, product or website can impact how a person feels about it – they may become energised, calmed, angered or otherwise depending on the colour you choose.

Unfortunately, not every person responds to colours in the exact same way, and it can be somewhat of a subjective topic. Colour associations can change across the industry you’re working in, the culture you’re selling to, people’s personal beliefs, and different genders and their individual preferences. This means there are no guarantees about its effect on conversion and branding. Subsequently, this is why understanding your audience is so important. Despite this, there are some common associations with colours that have been proven more frequently than not.

Colour evokes emotion

Blue is the most popular colour in the world. People are drawn to particular colours because those colours bring out emotions. In the same vein, colours can also cause a negative reaction. And, these reactions can change depending on the context. In some contexts, red may cause a person to feel fear or anxiety, while in another it could communicate passion and excitement.

Colours used in website design need to be woven together seamlessly with other elements on the page, such as typography, imagery and copy. Be careful using particular colours depending on your product, service or industry. Colours may communicate different things.

Colour meanings

There are some common meanings associated with colours in most circumstances. Use these as a guide only, as depending on the context, these colours may have different meanings.

Red

Vibrant and aggressive, red can convey opposing ideas depending on the context. A deep red paired with black will give you a masculine, aggressive feel, while red paired with white or gold speaks to love and passion. Red often represents danger such as stop signs and blood.

Represents: Passion, power, love, danger, excitement

Blue

Blue is the most popular colour choice for brands, with around 40% of brands using blue as their primary brand colour. Blue evokes feelings of calm and peace. It’s also a trustworthy and reliable colour. Blue may also make your brand appear logical.

Represents: Calm, trust, peace, logic, reliable

Green

Green is a colour often used for healthy and natural products (or products that want to appear healthy and natural). Often, green can be used for wealth, abundance and prosperity due to its association with money.

Represents: health, nature, abundance, prosperity.

Yellow

Often associated with the sun, yellow is a warm colour that reminds people of summer. Yellow is the most visible colour on the spectrum. Yellow communicates happiness, optimism and friendliness. It can also be associated with creativity. Careful using yellow with colours like black, as these colours are often used together in construction and safety.

Represents: Happiness, optimism, creativity, friendliness.

Orange

Less aggressive than red but stronger than yellow, orange is often used in construction, safety and safety equipment. Orange can sometimes be associated with autumn due to the orange leaves. Orange can evoke a fun and energetic atmosphere.

Represents: fun, freedom, warmth, comfort, playfulness.

Purple

Purple is a colour used by brands that want to appear sophisticated and rich. Purple is a luxurious colour because of its long, traditional associations with royalty. It is also a mysterious colour because it can be dark and moody.

Represents: luxury, sophistication, loyalty, mystery.

Pink

Pink is a colour often used when marketing towards females and younger generations – such as ‘millennial pink’. Pink is a nurturing and gentle colour. It can also be sincere and warm. Hot pinks (moving toward red) can be energetic and exciting.

Represents: nurturing, gentle, sincere, warm.

Brown

Brown is not a frequently used colour. Brown can be associated with nature, in tandem with a colour like green. Brown is often used for security, protection and support services.

Represents: nature, security, protection, support

Black

Black is a bold colour. It can be associated with power and control. However, it can also be connected t elegance and sophistication. On the negative side, black can be linked to depression (as can blue).

Represents: elegance, power, control, sophistication, depression.

White

White is the colour of purity and cleanliness. It’s a bright, minimal and simple colour. White can also be associated with clarity.

Represents: purity, peace, clarity, cleanliness.

What are the best colour palettes?

A colour palette is a combination of colours that are used together and usually guide the design of a website, brand, publication or other. There are five main types of colour palettes: analogous, monochromatic, triad, complementary, and split complementary. Any of these palettes can be used to create an effective colour scheme.

Analogous

This type of colour palette uses colours that sit next to each other on the colour wheel. This can look great because the colours fit together nicely, but it can also be too subtle – which may be detrimental on a website.‍

Monochromatic

Monochromatic colour palettes use a single colour with various shades and tints of that same colour. This can be visually pleasing but can also miss the contrast needed for something like website design.

Triad

As the name suggests, triad colour palettes consist of three colours that are evenly spaced apart n the colour wheel. This can be risky in website design as it can appear noisy – but this may be ideal for some businesses who are looking to create a youthful, playful and artistic website.

Complementary

Complementary colour palettes contain colours that are on opposite sides of the colour wheel. This is effective for web design because they create visual balance. However, the colours need to be used at a 70:30 ratio, rather than 50:50 because otherwise, you will lose hierarchy. A complementary colour palette can be used to select a primary brand colour and a supporting, accent colour.

Split Complementary

Split complementary colour palettes are similar to complementary colour palettes but introduce a third colour that is near one other colour on the wheel. This is a great alternative to the complementary colour palette if you need more than 2 colours.‍

How do you use colour in website design

There are lots of free online tools that can help you create a colour palette for your brand or website. If you use the Adobe suite, take a look at Adobe colour, where you can pick colours on the colour wheel to create your own palette. A good place to start is to choose three colours – a main colour, a supporting colour and an accent colour. Use these colours on your website with the 60/30/10 rule – which is 60% your main colour, 30% your supporting colour and 10% your accent colour.

What colours are trending right now?

Although any colour can be used in website design, there are some trending colours being used on websites right now. These change frequently though and it’s often best to avoid relying on a trending colour.

1. Really bright, high contrast colours

Think bright oranges, warm pinks and bold yellows. Many websites will use bright, fun colours to stand out. This may be in reaction to a globally tough 2020/2021 with lockdowns and restrictions – brands are looking to bring back warmth and fun.

2. Natural tones

Many brands are leaning into soft browns, pale greys and off-whites. This is to bring back a ‘human’ element to a brand.

3. Analogous palettes

This year, people are looking for balance and harmony. You’ll see lots of designs that use one colour and rely on tints and shades to create contrast.

4. Soothing colours

Brands are leaning into colours that will calm and soothe their audience. This is often in the form of a deep, strong colour paired with soft pastel.

5. Pantone’s colour of 2021

Every year, Pantone selected a colour that represents the world at that time. This year, the 2021 Pantone colour of the year was actually two colours: Illuminating Yellow and Ultimate Gray.

What is SEO?

SEO (or search engine optimisation) is the process of improving a page or a website so it will appear higher in search engine results, such as Google. This means your product or service will see more visitors and likely increase sales or bookings. Search engines such as Google and Bing use bots to crawl through pages on your website and identify what your website is about. It uses this information to show your website in related keyword searches.

With so many websites in existence, Google, Bing and other search engines have the challenge of choosing which websites are most relevant to the user’s search. This is where key metrics come into play. Search engines will analyse website metrics (such as bounce rate and load time) to rank competing websites for the user.

What are the SEO techniques that we need to follow while designing a website?

Navigation and website structure

Your navigation structure and overall website structure can impact many important search engine metrics, including average time on page, bounce rate, engagement rate and conversion rate. If users are unable to find information on your website or have difficulty navigating through your website, it is likely that they will leave your page and go elsewhere. This causes your average time on page and bounce rate to increase, negatively impacting your SEO.

How can you create a good structure?

• Keep your menu system simple. Reduce the number of items on your menu to make it easier for the user to make a decision.
• Don’t use complex or technical jargon in your menu – instead, use terms that will be easily understood by the user.
• Your menu should be consistent on every page of your website. This means your menu shouldn’t change between pages and shouldn’t move locations either.
• Make sure your URL for every page follows the same structure and that it is clear, concise and descriptive. The user should be able to guess what page they are on from the URL alone. This means not using URLs such as futuretheory.co/fth124-usr-43/tarjf4902, and instead using a URL such as futuretheory.co/canberra-web-design-how-to-build-a-website/.

404 page

Often, users will quit a website if they encounter a 404 error page or message because they have hit a dead-end from a broken link or a page that does not exist anymore. This can be harmful to your bounce rate and other key metrics. It is important to reduce the likelihood of encountering a 404 page, however, there is a great opportunity to design an engaging 404 page that will keep users on your website in the event they do reach it.

Design a custom 404 page. Think creatively about how to grab the users attention and redirect them back to the home page or an equally useful ‘restart’ point. This can be done with photographs, images or creative copywriting. To redirect the user, consider including a search bar or a list of common pages to get them back on track.

Loading speed

The speed at which your website loads is an important search engine ranking factor.

There are a few factors that can impact your loading speed. Here are some things you can do to reduce your loading time:

• Minimise your CSS and JavaScript usage
• Use compressed images and files
• Use a content delivery network (CDN) if possible
• Minimise the use of redirects
• Use caching for repeat users
• Find a web host near your audience

Images, image size and alternate text

Almost every website you visit will use images – while some may only use a few, some designs will rely heavily on images and photographs. Relevant and interesting images can help increase the average time-on-page and engagement rate, while also making it easier for the user to understand what they’re reading about or searching through.

Unfortunately, using lots of images can slow down your loading time. And, if a user has a slower internet connection, there is a risk that your images will not load at all. When uploading images to your website consider the following:

• Add titles to images (where appropriate) and make sure they use relevant keywords
• Add alternate (alt) text to each image that is descriptive and keyword-rich. Alt text is used when an image fails to load, or when a user is viewing your website with accessibility features.
• Compress your images before uploading to reduce how many megabytes/gigabytes a server needs to load. This will not reduce the visible quality of the images but will increase load time significantly (vs uncompressed images).

Pop-ups

Pop-ups can be harmful to search engine results. In many websites, pop-ups appear as soon as the user lands on the site, which is bad for a few reasons. First, you make it difficult for the user to get to the information they expect to see. This adds another click for the user to close the pop-up. Second, the user may be deterred by the pop up immediately, and they could quit back to the search results, impacting your bounce rate. Even if the information below the pop-up is perfectly written, with the right keywords and all the information the user needed, Google may view this increased bounce rate negatively and assume the information on the page is not relevant to the keywords you’re showing up in.

If you desperately need to use a pop-up, try a non-invasive pop-up or an exit-intent pop up that only appears when the user is about to depart the website.

Responsive design

Modern phones, laptops and PCs have screens of all sizes. Your website needs display correctly on as many of those devices as possible. This is where responsive design is important. Responsive design uses one design, which adjusts particular elements depending on the screen size. For example, the menu system may change to a hamburger menu on a mobile or a small screen while it will show the full menu on a desktop computer. Google rewards mobile-friendly, responsive sites. You can test how friendly your site is with this tool: https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly

Website design affects SEO

There are various factors of website design that do impact how your website appears in search engines. Search engines such as Google take into account things like navigation and website structure, having a good 404 page, loading speed, images, images size and alternate text, pop-ups, responsive design and lots more. The more effective your website is at guiding a visitor and providing the right information in an easy way, the higher up your website will show in search engines such as Google.

If you’re after our Canberra web design services, get in touch and we’d be happy to help.

Does your business need a website?

In short, yes. Every business should have a website.

Once upon a time, a website may not have been a necessity for a business. Today, however, a business without a site can be practically invisible. Regardless of which industry you’re in, you should have a website. A retail store should have an online store, a B2B company should have a digital portfolio, and a tradie should have a site with services and contact information (or an online booking system if you want to get a bit fancy!).

Each business will have its own requirements for what kind of site it needs and how complex it should be. Depending on your budget, and how much time you’re willing to put into it, you can create a website that is as simple or complex as you want and need.

How do you build a website?

If you’re on a minimal budget, a DIY build is likely your best option. Head to a service such as Wix, Squarespace, or WordPress. These services offer drag and drop building, which makes it easy to create a nice looking site. However, you’ll want to make sure you spend time planning out your pages to make sure they’re as effective and functional as it is nice to look at. Websites like Wix and Squarespace will be limited in customisation so this is really only suitable if you’re building a basic site.

If you’re ready to invest in your website and you have more of a budget, make sure to engage a web designer in Canberra. A web designer will walk you through all the steps needed to design your site. They’ll know all the intricacies about which pages you need, how complex your site should be, how to get customers from home page to shopping cart and much more. A web designer will do the hard work for you by developing an effective and attractive web design.

How long does it take to design a website or build a website?

Building your own website can be done in a day (if you’re building something incredibly simple). In actuality, the planning, design and build should take closer to a month.

If you’re engaging a digital agency, a new website build will take at least 2 months. A web designer will spend time researching, planning, site mapping, wireframing, designing and finally developing and coding the website. A web designer considers your business and your customers, user experience (UX design), search engine optimisation, content marketing, how to build the best eCommerce website, your business brand and so much more.

What is the difference between a theme, template and custom design?

If you’re building your own website, you’ll likely be using a theme or template from a web design and building service. This runs the risk of your site looking similar to competitors.

Canberra based web designers will custom design your website, making it unique and stand out from the competition. This also gives you greater freedom, as website development can be customised to your wants and needs. At Futuretheory, we build a WordPress website with custom coding, allowing us to code almost anything you desire.

Should you get a designer to build your website?

In most cases, yes, you should get a web designer to build your site. Building your own website will become more of a headache for you than a cost-saving exercise. We often have clients come to us after they have tried building their own site but ran into issues with site security, building their eCommerce store, or couldn’t get the design to match what they had in their mind.

Does a designer provide web hosting?

Not all designers will provide web hosting. Some designers and developers will only build the site and will leave implementation and hosting up to you. However, some agencies (such as Futuretheory!) will design, develop, implement your site on WordPress and host your site with ongoing maintenance. Choosing an agency or designer that offers web hosting will remove the hassle of researching what goes into a good hosting service. It also allows you to be assured that your site will load quickly, be secure, and reach your audience effectively.

What content should you have on your website?

The content you need for your site depends entirely on the industry and goals of your site. Most basic sites will need a hero statement, reviews or testimonials from customers and information about the company. More developed sites will also include some form of content marketing. Content marketing will be search engine optimised (SEO) and will help your site show up on Google better. This type of content often requires a professional who knows which keywords to use and how to use them within a content marketing strategy.

What is the importance of website visibility on Google?

Having a great site is pointless if it’s not showing up in a search engine such as Google. There are algorithms and rules around what sites show up in Google’s results, and in what order. A quality website should be designed with this in mind, so that each title, sentence, image and design choice contributes to a good result in Google. A site designed through a drag and drop builder will likely not perform as well as a custom-designed website, so it’s best to work with a web design Canberra agency or web developer.

When I first learnt about the opportunity to undertake work experience, I was thrilled at the thought of this. I spent a while looking for the perfect work placement until I came across Futuretheory’s website. Their overview of what they had to offer had me intrigued, making my decision easier. 

My end goal for this short work experience was to gain more knowledge about the world of design and to see if this field was right for me and a career I would like to pursue. As this was my very first work experience, I had no prior knowledge of being in an office environment and I had no idea of what to expect when I first started. Despite this, I was looking forward to experiencing something new and different from my normal school routine.  

Reflecting back to my first day at Futuretheory, I was guided by the marketing coordinator, Kelsey, and she assigned me a couple of minor tasks which involved making posts for Futuretheory’s Instagram and designing thumbnails for their YouTube channel podcast, Future Tribe. On my second day, I worked on four more thumbnail designs which I really enjoyed making. Towards the end of the day, the Director of Futuretheory, Germaine, assigned me a project which involved designing a logo for a blog, WeCanberra. 

On the third day, I continued working on the logo, researching the different types of logos and inspiration to find out more about simple and modern logo designs, which was what Germaine was looking for. I began sketching out my ideas and experimenting with what worked and what didn’t. 

On the fourth and final day, I was walked through Adobe Illustrator by Kelsey, which I found quite difficult to get the hang of as I have never used it before. After experimenting and implementing my designs using Illustrator, I began this journal documenting my experience working at Futuretheory. 

Overall, my work experience at Futuretheory was positive. I am very pleased with the number of things I have learnt and experienced within the few days of being here. Although I didn’t get the full experience of a “9 to 5” job, I did get the most out of the hours I did spend here. I am glad to have experienced this wonderful opportunity, to get an insight into what a job is like in the real world. Thank you to Germaine and his team for enabling me to have this experience. I wish nothing but the best of luck to Futuretheory as they continue to grow and achieve great things. 

Q&A

What was the highlight of your work experience?

The highlight of my work experience at Futuretheory was the opportunity to express my creativity through many tasks and to be working in a different environment opposed to school. I also enjoyed viewing all of the designs they created for previous clients and being able to work on meaningful projects. 

What has been the most valuable thing you have learnt?

The most valuable thing I have learnt from working at Futuretheory would be the knowledge I have gained. Before working here I had no experience working with any Adobe applications but I had always wanted to learn it. Fortunately enough, I was able to be given the opportunity to use the application and be taught the basics, which will deem helpful in the classes I will be taking in the future. 

Has anything surprised you during your work experience?

If I’m being completely honest, I was surprised by how tired I was at the end of each day. Not even completing a full 9 to 5 job, I now understand what adults mean wishing for it to be Friday. The “lunch breaks” were also very different from school, as everyone would eat at different times and often at their desks, so it was just all weird to me. I also wasn’t used to such a quiet environment as school is often very loud and everyone’s always chatting nonstop. 

Do you have any advice for people looking at doing work experience themselves?

My advice to anyone wishing to complete work experience, would be to just go for it! I think it’s a great opportunity to experience what you are passionate about and to find out whether that field is right for you, or even to just get a taste of what a job in the real world is like. It’s a great place to learn many new things, which you can apply to future jobs, and even day to day life. 

Floor size

Often, the location of a studio will give you a decent indication of its floor size. An inner city studio will likely be smaller (and more expensive) while a studio located in a more industrial area may be warehouse sized (and cheaper!).

Smaller studios are good for headshots or small, close up photography or videography. Larger studios provide far more flexibility, to shoot both small, close up things and large objects that require wider angles and more area. A larger studio rental will be more suitable for a film production.

If you’re planning to host an event, a large floor size will also be beneficial. This will ensure you have room for a sound system for some great music, room for a catering crew and even an area left over for a live photoshoot!

Look for a studio that is at least 20 square metres for most standard shoots. If your vision involves something a bit more out of the box (such as using a car or if it involves a large group of people) find a studio with at least 100 square metres. 

Ceiling height

It is pointless to have lots of floor space if your ceiling is low – it will cut into your frame and restrict the floor space you can actually use. Find a studio with a ceiling height of more than 2m high. This will allow you to use the full capacity of the studio in most instances.

Studios with high ceilings may also be equipped with suspended lights and other goodies. This will give you more freedom to use lights and other equipment from a high angle, that you wouldn’t be able to achieve with floor mounted equipment. A high ceiling also makes it easier to use a large green screen.

Your vision and the subject matter

How much room will you need to shoot your subject or film your video production? If you’re a photographer only working with a single person for a headshot (with maybe one studio assistant) you won’t have any trouble finding a photo studio to accommodate your photo shoot. However, if you’re shooting a group of people, a large object such as a car, or even a single person with lots of movement, you’ll need to consider the space more carefully. For small shoots, look for a studio rental around 20sqm but for anything more find a studio at least 30sqm.

Larger studios are also likely to have more equipment such as different tables, unique backdrops and lots of light options. If you’re shooting smaller objects but require tables and other similar equipment, look for a larger studio that has these available.

Be careful about hiring a studio with large windows – they may allow too much natural daylight in and it will be difficult to control the light for your music video, photo project or food shoots.

Accessibility

Depending on their location, some studios will be much easier to access than others. Centrally located studios may have very limited parking and the ability to get into the studio may be through a small doorway or up flights of stairs. Industrial based studios are likely to have roller doors, easy parking and quick access. This is great if you’re bringing in a variety of props and equipment – particularly for a film, video shoot or video production. A roller door will also allow you to accomplish things like drive a car in, if you’re filming or photographing with large props (or the car itself!). 

Packing up and cleaning up

If you’re planning to use ‘messy’ props such as glitter or confetti, how easy will it be to clean up at the end of the photo shoot or film shoot? Consider the flooring and walls of the studio and how simple it will be to tidy. A kitchen is also a good consideration, in case you need access to water, tea, coffee and cooking supplies.

It’s also important to consider flooring and walls for hardiness and risk of damage. Working with props, lights and other bulky equipment adds a level of risk, so consider how easily you could damage walls and other parts of the studio. A cement floor and walls is your best option. 

So, how much space do you really need? (the numbers!)

A professional photographer needs a professional space. Here’s how much space you need for your project:

Headshot or half torso portrait: 

You’ll need enough room for your subject, the backdrop, and light equipment, which all up is about 3 meters wide. 

Full length portrait:

You’ll need about the same space as you do for a single half torso portrait, but you’ll need more room for the camera to move further away from the subject, which is about 5m back.

Group portraits or large objects:

This one is a harder thing to calculate, as it depends on the size of the group and the structure of the group in the frame. Aim to add a couple of meters of backdrop on each side of the group, and leave 1-2 meters beyond that for lighting. You’ll also need plenty of room to move the camera back to fit all subjects in the frame. 

Futuretheory studio in Canberra

Our studio, located in Beard, ACT, is ideal for almost any photography or videography project. The studio is 126sqm with roller door access and cement floors and walls. We have a variety of lighting equipment available, as well as backdrops and props. The studio manager will be available during your hire time. The studio is fully blacked out allowing you to light the space as needed. For natural light, the 5m tall roller door can be opened, flooding the area. Check out more about our space here: futuretheory.co/studio

The new location is 15 minutes from the city, 10 minutes from the airport, and 20-30 minutes from most parts of Canberra. Best of all, parking is free!

We look forward to meeting with and welcoming more clients at our new office as we return to a more normal life.

Take a glimpse at our new office:

You’ll be greeted by our Monstera as soon as you enter our office.

The meeting room is also designed to be used for previewing video projects thanks to a 75-inch screen and studio monitor speakers. It has also been configured to be used as an audio recording space.

The office is predominantly lit by natural light, with light bouncing off the various concrete surfaces and an exposed ceiling.

The open-plan office space is an intentional decision to encourage communication within the team and to add to the spacious feel.

When it’s time for a break, the dining table and couch are comfortable places to have a bite or read a magazine.

The biggest addition is our in-house 125 sqm studio, which is used for photography and videography by the Futuretheory team but is also open to the public through FT Studio.

Camera movements are a versatile tool in story-telling. The right camera movement can set the pace of a scene, put the viewer in the shoes of the character as they experience different things, or even add humour to a scene.

What are camera movements and why are they important?

A camera movement is the shift in view, frame, or perspective of a scene, created by movement of the camera or it’s lens. A camera movement alters the relationship between the character and camera, shaping the viewer’s perception of space and time.

Types of camera movements:

1. Zoom

This is the most common camera movement. A zoom can include zooming in, zooming out or the famous ‘Dolly Zoom’ popularised by Alfred Hitchcock – using a dolly to move one direction as the camera lens zooms in the opposite direction (this is explored further down this list).

Zooming can be used to magnify certain objects in a frame or to move attention to the objects relative vastness. Using the quick zoom (also called ‘punch in’) adds a sense of drama to the scene, while a slow zoom allows the viewers to observe the character’s sense of focus. Be careful not to overuse zoom effects throughout a video.

Uses

A sudden zoom into a character can be used as a scare factor or as a humour effect, as used stereotypically in sitcoms.

Slow zoom into the character gives the perception that the character is being hyper-focused and is often used in emotional or intense scenes.

Zooming out on a performer can show their contextual relation to the giant stage they are performing on.

Take a look at this example to see how the energy changes with zoom effects:

2. Pan

When panning, the camera remains in the same position but it changes the direction it faces. The camera rotates on a central axis from one side to another or slides to the side. This is used to follow a character in a large space, or to simply fit a large landscape in one shot. You can execute this with a handheld shot if you don’t have much equipment by turning your body (not just your hands) in the direction you want the camera to face.

Uses

You might pan from a character to the sand dunes of a dessert to give a sense of what the character is facing. The pan can also be used to follow a character moving about in a large space without allowing the audience to lose interest in the story.

Look at this example to see how a character moves in a space with a pan movement:

3. Tilt

Similar to panning, tilting fits more in a single shot while the camera remains in mostly the same position. However, in a tilt movement, the camera rotates on a vertical axis in an upward and downward motion. This has a similar effect on the viewers as the low high camera angle. However, tilt can also be used for physical spaces. You can use your wrist motion to get a smooth tilt movement with a handheld camera. A slow upward camera movement is used to elevate the significance of a character or a space, while the downward movement has the opposite effect.

Uses

You might focus on a bloody knife and tilt up to reveal a killer, elevating the significance of the character. Or, you could tilt down from the character to the knife if you prefer the significance to be on the murder. Tilts can be used to connect an object to a character or, if panning from ground upwards, a grand city or expansive plains in a ‘reveal’.

This scene from Captain America uses a tilt:

4. Dolly Zoom

In a dolly movement, the camera is mounted on a track and is moved in one direction (forwards or backwards) while the camera lens zooms in the opposite direction. With in-device stabilisation in many modern cameras and phones, you can walk (the industry term is ninja walk) towards or away from your character while zooming to create the effect.

The dolly zoom is often used when a character has just had an earth-shattering revelation or are about to face something significant. It creates a sense of vertigo for the viewer, to help them understand what the character may be facing.

Uses

Using a dolly zoom slowly towards a character allows the viewer to understand something is about to happen with the character or their mind.

Here are some of the best dolly zoom shots:

5. Truck

Similar to a dolly movement, in the truck movement the camera is mounted on a track and moved side to side. This is used to follow a character to show the interaction and movement in the environment while keeping the viewer at a constant distance – close or far. In films, for example, you see truck shots of characters walking down a street in a neighbourhood. The nature of dolly and truck camera movements following a character is the reason why these are also known as ‘tracking shots’.

Uses

A truck movement can be used to provide contrast in the story by following a character from one space to another, indicating to the viewer there is a change in story pace or mood.

In this montage, there are some forward, vertical and backwards tracking movements from classic movies. These are variations of dolly and truck camera movements:

6. Pedestal

In the pedestal, the camera moves up and down. Unlike in tilt, in this case, the whole camera moves up and down to frame a tall character, while keeping the frame at eye level for the viewers. The industry term is boom, jib up or jib down the camera. This movement allows the viewer to observe the space or the character more intimately than the tilt movement would allow. You can recreate a similar effect with a handheld camera – tuck your elbows in and keep the camera on your hip level, moving from a squat to a standing position, then raising your hands from your hips to above your head.

Uses

A frame of a boy standing against a wall smoking and the camera booms up to show the mother looking down from a balcony above. The eye-level frame allows the viewers to feel close to both the characters without breaking the story flow.

This scene from Inglorious Basterds captures the emotions of character, both above the floor and below, with eye level pedestal camera movement:

Bonus: Rack Focus

Rack focus is debated as to whether it falls under the camera movement or camera technique category. By adjusting the camera lens you can bring the camera from out of focus, to in focus. This is a simple but effective technique to shift the viewer’s focus from one character to another, or from a foreground to a background. If you don’t want to move the camera, you can get creative with this static shot. You can see this technique used here:

Notes from the author, Suhaib Kawish:

With this new-found knowledge of camera movements, I direct your attention to this captivating funeral scene from the 1964 film Soy Cuba. This funeral scene has a combination of different camera movements. Pay attention to the dolly movement that follows the characters, the pedestal movements and how it impacts your perception of the scene, and finally the tracking movement of the flag being passed around. You can explore this scene further and understand it in more detail if you read my previous articles about camera framing and camera angles.

The next time you work on a product promotional video or even a short personal project, look at ways you can incorporate these camera movements.

Some personal notes

These camera movements allow me to capture the emotions of the places I visit during my travels. Sometimes, I include my travel companions in the frame to increase layers to the story. I use a simple camera gimbal to carry out these movements, however, I have also got a similar effect with just my phone camera thanks to the in-built stabilisation and other features of modern cameras and phones.

Different camera elements, used individually or combined, influence a viewer’s experience and emotions. While camera shots allow the viewers to perceive the character and the story, camera angles help add layers to the story.

One journal article has found that viewers are more likely to retain and recall stories when watching videos with the right camera angles than without. Camera angles help shape the mindset of the character and the meaning of the story. Remember the characters from Pulp Fiction or the plot of The Dark Knight? A lot of how you remember them and your perception of them is because of the camera angles used throughout the films. So, camera angles build a narrative to the character, and in extension to the story which viewers carry after the story ends.

Below, we’ll explore how camera angles influence your perception of a character or scene.

1. Eye level

This angle is usually shot from the eye level of a character. This angle helps viewers identify with the emotions of the character. The eye level angle often helps humanise a character, placing the viewer on ‘equal footing’. Variations of this angle include ‘hip level’ and ‘knee level’.

Uses: Eye level angles combined with a close-up shot of a subject in tears will cause the viewers to empathise with the character and share the intensity of the situation. It can also be used to establish the character as a peer to the viewer, and together they go through the journey or story together.

2. Low angle

This shot tends to isolate the subjects from the surrounding, making them powerful and dominant. The low angle makes the subject look larger which brings the viewers’ emphasis on the character’s power. This could be a good or bad thing depending on the context of the shot.

Uses: To show the character’s empowering moment over the others in the story, like when Batman puts on the suit. Every King Kong shot to shot the ‘largeness’ of the character.

3. High angle

This angle is the opposite of the one mentioned above. The high angle makes the subject small and often powerless. These shots are used to convey the vulnerability and lack of protection. In a scene, the high angle shot can be used to contract the character in the context of the environment.

Uses: To show a character that has been humiliated, feels week, or sometimes to show freedom and relief. A high angle shot used in the Hobbit establishes the size of the hobbit and also defines how other characters look and treat him.

4. Overhead angle (aerial, birds-eye, God’s eye):

This shot is mostly use to establish the narrative of the story. The overhead shot conveys the larger picture of the story and the character in relation to it. The overhead shot, when taken from a long distance, is what makes a birds-eye view or aerial angle.

Uses: When you want to communicate the city or the place the story is going to take place. To reveal the start of a war an aerial shot is used to reveal the situation of the scene. To make the character look insignificant to the story or the environment. To cover more than what a low angle shot would cover in a scene.

5. Dutch angle

The Dutch angle is an off-kilter angle, portraying the psychological uneasiness of a story and intensified tension in a scene. The viewer experiences the insanity of a character. In movies such as The Dark Knight, this angle is associated with the character (The Joker), rather than the scene overall.

Uses: Portraying a non-traditional villain and his skewed vision of the world. It can be used to build tension among viewers and raise the stakes of the situation when something bad is about to happen.

BONUS:

A term often used by cinematographers is ‘angle plus angle’. This is when you use a low or high angle with a Dutch angle in a single shot. A use can for this is using a low angle with a Dutch angle to show the dominance of a character and psychological uneasiness of the scene. These shots are also used to convey vulnerability during uneasiness in the scene.

• 72% of customers prefer video to learn about new products
• 82% of businesses report that videos are a popular tactic for content marketing
• 43% of customers want to see more video content from the brands they follow

The numbers are clear – consumers prefer video. So, let’s get creating!

To get started, you’ll need a camera (your phone camera should do the trick!) and some content ideas. Below, we’ll explore how camera angles impact emotions in a video – and how you can leverage these techniques to take your video content to the next level.

1. Close up / Extreme close up

This is one of the most common shots in videos where the significance is on the expression of the character. There are two variations to this; the close up and the extreme close up. The close up frames the face of the character and often the top of their shoulders. The extreme close up (sometimes referred to as The Choker) covers part of the face.

Emotions: Intimacy and tension. The viewers experience the character’s emotions personally.

Use cases: In classic cowboy movies close ups are often used to highlight a high tension scene – the close up gives us a clear view of the characters eyes and expression. A close up shot establishes a strong emotional connection between the character and the viewers.

2. Medium

This shot is used when you want to show the body language details of the subject from waist up in addition to the surroundings. It is also known as the “Sweet Spot” shot as it increases the watch-ability of the scene, allowing the viewers to switch focus between characters and the surrounding environment. There are three variations; the cowboy shot covers the character to around the thighs, the medium shot is until the knees and the full shot covers the character to their feet.

Emotions: Makes the viewer feel involved in the story. The viewers become a direct audience (listener) to the character and feel like they are a part of the plot.

Use cases: Characters having a conversation, a character walking around a space and interacting with props, or in an interview for non-fictional videos.

3. Long or extreme long

A long or extreme long shot is to get a complete visual of the character and the surroundings. A long shot is one or two characters in a frame with their environment. In the extreme long shot, the character is nearly lost in the frame as it covers such a large environment. Long shots and extreme long shots set the plot in the story and give context for the viewers by establishing the characters interaction with their surroundings.

Emotions: Isolation. On-lookers to the story, not involved.

Use cases: An action sequence between 2 characters would be a long shot with more characters and will be an extreme long shot.

4. Over the shoulder

An over the shoulder shot is when the character is viewed from behind a character who is not the focus of the scene. This is used to show the reaction of one character towards another in a conversation. The character is placed in medium to close shot, so the viewers can focus on the expressions. Over the shoulder shots are used to show a character overlooking a scene from a distance. These shots help establish the relation two characters share or the characters share with the story.

Emotions: Connect and empathise with the characters. Third-person in a conversation.

Use cases: Discussions, arguments and intimate conversations between characters.

5. Point of view

The point of view shot or POV shows what the character is looking at, as if you were in their shoes. This is recorded from eye level to allow the viewer to get a better perspective of the character’s state of mind. These shots create anticipation and expectation from the viewer.

Emotions: First person perspective – an ‘in their shoes’ experience.

Use cases: Character waking up or drifting into unconsciousness. Looking through binoculars. Looking in a rear-view mirror while driving. The famous ‘follow me’ shots from Instagram are an example of POV shots.

Camera shots are one of the many elements in the art of video production. Keep an eye out for future articles exploring what goes into creating great video content – whether it’s a quick video for social media or a brand video.

Tilton’s products and services are used in a range of building types that include residential, commercial, retail and government projects. They have completed projects for a number of renowned Canberra businesses including Australian National University (ANU) and ACT Law Courts.

Life beyond business

When asked about his hobbies, Kosta mentions that apart from being a father to 3 wonderful children, he also enjoys fishing and hunting.

Tilton Racing

Kostinken Pohorukov is an avid racer, having raced in different formats with varying levels of success, including 6 podiums and 1 win. He has a race win percentage of 2.9% and a podium percentage of 17.6%

He has raced at hallowed tracks such as Mount Panorama in Bathurst, Sydney Motorsport Park in Eastern Creek and Phillip Island Circuit in Phillip Island.

In terms of race results, 2019, Kostinken Pohorukov finished with 154 at 7th position in the Radical Australia Cup racing a Radical SR3 RSX. You can hear more about Kosta on this episode of the TL podcast, interviewed by Thomas Le Hoang:

Kosta also gets involved with Time Attack. The Tilton Interiors Evo 9 Pro Class entry of Kostinken Pohorukov and his team have long been a force to be reckoned with in Australian time attack racing and has competed in every single Superlap event with a Pro Class victory to their name in 2009 at the final Oran Park event. Read more about it at https://worldtimeattack.com/index.php/tilton-to-hit-the-pro-class-with-a-new-weapon/

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Mitsubishi Ralliart 🇯🇵 🇪🇺 (@mitsubishi_ralliart83)

Kostinken Pohorukov also has a profile at Driver Database, take a look at https://www.driverdb.com/drivers/kosta-pohorukov/

A logo and a brand are not the same thing, even though the two terms are often used interchangeably. A logo is just one element of the broader concept of “brand identity”. Sometimes, you might just need a logo refresh but often a business requires a broader brand refresh.

What is a logo?

A logo is a graphic or symbol adopted by a company to aid in identifying its products and services. There are different types of logo – each adds a different attribute and identity to your company.

A well-designed and unique logo will help quickly identify and recall your brand. A logo makes your brand stand apart from your competition and creates an emotional connection with your customers.

What is brand identity?

Brand identity is the process of naming your business, designing a logo, selecting a colour palette, writing a tagline and deciding on all other design elements that are unique to the company and easily recognisable by its potential customers. A brand identity gives consistency in visual communication and increases brand awareness.

Brand identity is an element of the broader concept of branding. As part of branding, there is a focus on defining and driving the company’s values, voice, perception, promise and positioning in a competitive market. For a company to make a mark, to effectively communicate your services, emotionally connect with customers and stay relevant in the market as the business grows, branding is important.

Do you need a new logo or a strong brand identity?

If you are a business in its initial stages of operations, a company name and logo is a good first step. This will be your first face in the market and a part of your initial communications to customers, partners and even investors. However, as your company grows so does its attributes, values, customers and services. To be distinct from competitors and appeal to new customer segments, building a brand identity is key.

Working on brand identity, both in-house or with an agency will establish a company’s long-term visual identity with elements like a tagline, colours, fonts, and design style. Further down the road, these visual elements give direction to branding – market positioning and tone of advertising.

Branding gives emotions to your brand identity. Think of Nike: the highly recognisable tick is not just a visual image – there are traits that have been attached to the image to communicate who Nike is as a company. Without branding, the tick is just a graphic with no substantial meaning.

Building a brand identity takes time but it’s one of the best things you can do for your business. It increases a customer’s ability to relate and build loyalties with a company and its products or services. A strong brand identity is also important for employees, building strong relationships and allowing employees to feel represented accurately. Brand identity contributes to the overall direction of growth of the company.

Case Study: Kia Motors

At the start of 2021, the South Korean car brand, Kia, revealed a new logo and brand slogan through a world-record-breaking drone and firework display.

Kia is the second-largest automobile manufacturer in South Korea, following its parent company Hyundai Motor Company. In line with this success, Kia identified a need for a more refined logo and a slogan that aligned better with their customers.

Kia’s old logo was written in all capitals, missing the horizontal bar on the “A” and all three letters featured a serif flick on the top left to convey movement. The new logo is designed to resemble a handwritten signature, a “rhythmical, unbroken line,” the brand said in a statement. The brand explains that the symmetry “demonstrates confidence” while “rising gestures” of the logo embody Kia’s rising ambitions for the brand.

As well as a new logo, Kia revealed a new brand slogan: Movement that inspires (Replacing “Power to surprise”). This new slogan reflects the company’s bold transformation and represents its “ambitions to establish a leadership position in the future mobility industry by revamping nearly all facets of the business”.

Watch the display here:

Vinyl lettering is great because it’s long-lasting (generally at least 3 years) but easy to remove if you’re only advertising a sale or something short-term. The sharp edges, solid colours, and no background make it a versatile and professional-looking style of signage.

Vinyl stickers are adhesive, pre-spaced and cut from high-quality outdoor vinyl, which means no colour fading and it is hard-wearing. It can be applied to glass, plastic, metal, chrome, and painted surfaces to name a few.

You can use this medium to display your company logo and brand on your shopfront, or advertise opening hours, phone numbers and more.

Here are a few ways you can use vinyl signage in Canberra:

Vehicle Decal

Do you have a company car, ute, or van or do you want to use your personal car to advertise your business? Let your vehicle do the talking for you and apply vehicle signage. This is particularly great for trades who are frequently on the road – that’s an endless amount of (almost) free advertising!

Vinyl lettering can be applied to cars, vans, trucks, utes, trailers and almost any other vehicle.

Shop Front (Windows & Doors)

If you have a physical store, utilise your shop window. Vinyl lettering in Canberra is a great option for a shopfront, as this space is often used for semi-permanent messaging and shop signs. Let customers know when you have exciting new sales, when you’re offering a new product, what your opening hours are, or share anything else that will add value to your business.

In-Store (Walls)

Vinyl is also a great option for walls (both internal and external). A retail store, for example, could put fun quotes or mantras on a shop wall that adds to its overall brand and personality.

Personal Items (Such as a Laptop, Phone or Toolbox)

If you’re feeling a bit unique, add vinyl decals to your personal items such as a laptop or toolbox. Use every opportunity you can to advertise your business – whether you’re using your laptop at a cafe or taking your toolbox into high-traffic areas.

How Do I Design Vinyl Decals?

It is important to work with a designer who understands the printer requirements when designing a vinyl sticker. There are unique aspects to vinyl graphics that you may be unaware of, but a seasoned designer will understand what makes a vinyl sticker the best it can be.

Let Futuretheory do the hard work for you

Futuretheory is experienced in designing, printing and applying vinyl vehicle graphics in Canberra and vehicle signage in Canberra, shopfront signage, shop window information, shop signs and so much more. Save yourself the hassle and let us design signage for your business, let us print it and finally, let us apply it. Talk to us today about getting custom vinyl signage in Canberra for your business: 02 6169 4422.

Why are Facebook groups helpful?

There are over 650 million Facebook groups covering topics from all corners of the world. This means you’ll have no trouble finding communities full of like-minded members. For example, you can find a group dedicated to cool number plates, a group for sharing cool dogs, and for something really obscure, a group titled Tony Abbott Haiku Centre. With so many options, you’ll have no trouble finding a Facebook group to join that fits your needs.

Why should I join a Facebook group?

Business owners should be looking for any opportunity to network, learn and grow. A Facebook group can be that opportunity – find new ideas, ask for advice, ask questions, get feedback, and post about other business-related things.

Facebook groups are a community of like-minded people who want to keep up to date with social media trends, the entrepreneur community, or marketing and social media marketing ideas. They’re for people to ask for advice, learn to grow their business online, and find other related business ideas.

How active are Facebook groups?

Most Facebook groups (including the ones recommended below) have at least one post daily. How active a community is will change throughout the year, but you’ll always be able to ask for tips, support and ideas. The great thing about Facebook groups for business is that you only need to create a connection with one or two people for it to be worthwhile.

Most Facebook groups have content that has been built up over the years as members answer questions, share business success and other success stories, support members through everyday challenges, and so much more. Even groups that may not be active daily will have plenty of useful content to help take your business to the next level.

Some of the groups listed below also organise in-person meet-ups for a niche community, post live streams and provide more real-time content that will help you learn.

To help guide you, I’ve included the number of members in each group and the number of posts from the previous month too. Each section of this list is organised by the number of members.

Which Facebook group should I choose?

With so many Facebook groups available, it can be difficult to choose which ones are worth getting involved in. The list below explores some good Facebook groups in Canberra, Australia, Internationally and for women to help get you started in your Facebook group journey. Use this advice as a starting point and explore the list below!

Facebook groups for business in Australia

Business Business Business

This is a Facebook group where business owners can network and support each other in a judgement free place. The group is founded on the basis of support, respect and good manners. The founders encourage members to ask questions, share wins, promotions and more.

Creation date: February 16, 2014

Members: 32,500

Posts in December: 178

Get involved here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BusinessBusinessBusiness

Check out the page on Facebook too: https://www.facebook.com/BusinessBusinessBusiness.com.au

Australian Small Business Network

The Australian Small Business Network is one of the largest Facebook groups for Australian small business owners. ASBN welcomes anyone with a business, whether you’re established or just getting started. It’s a great place for entrepreneurship and sharing ideas online.

Creation date: July 27, 2007

Members: 16,000

Posts in December: 40

Connect with other businesses here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/smallbiz.au/

Australian Small Business Network was started by Conn3cted: https://www.facebook.com/conn3ctedtech

I am a business owner in Australia

This Facebook group is all about networking with fellow business owners and helping others grow their business. It is designed to help surround you with people just like you – to answer questions, give support and provide feedback.

Creation date: August 14, 2014

Members: 14,800

Posts in December: 161

Get involved here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/businessowneraustralia/

I am a business owner in Australia was started by Paul Warren: https://www.facebook.com/paul.warren.page

Entrepreneur Australia

Entrepreneur Australia touts itself as a Facebook group for entrepreneurs (established and up and coming) who are passionate about promoting their business, who like daily entrepreneurial tips and updates, and who are passionate about business values, principles and ethics in Australia.

Creation date: June 16, 2017

Members: 3,000

Posts in December: 178

Join here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ministryofmarketing/

Entrepreneur Australia was created by Ministry of Marketing: https://www.facebook.com/ministryofmarketing.in

Best Facebook Groups in Canberra

Canberra Small Business Network

Canberra Small Business Network is aimed at businesses who have just one person or a small team. The group is open to all and supportive of small business in Canberra.

If you are a business looking to do more marketing, list your services and products, or hire someone to join your team, join this group of Canberra locals.

Creation date: May 27, 2010

Members: 2,400

Posts in December: 166

Join here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/124323580924534/

ACT Local Business Marketplace

ACT Local Business Marketing is a group to make local buying and selling simple. Small, local businesses can advertise new stock, share product offers, seek partner vendors, and even let others know about upcoming events. The group is open for all business types who have locally sourced or created products and services.

Creation date: November 15, 2019

Members: 2,300

Posts in December: 127

Join here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/501962677060120/

The Canberra Small Business Directory

The Canberra Small Business Directory is dedicated to marketing local businesses, entrepreneurs, creators and other related services. Use this group to simply advertise your services, buy local or partner with others.

Creation date: October 8, 2015

Members: 1,200

Posts in December: 31

Get involved here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/564949996990549/

Canberra Events

Canberra Events is exclusively for event listings. Members here are either looking to share their own events or are looking to attend other events.

If you are a business that organises a range of events, you can use this group to share your event to different target groups. The group is open to all and has an average of two posts per day.

Creation date: January 31, 2018

Members: 680+

Posts in December: 20

Get involved here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/405423103225929/

Canberra Startups

Canberra Startups is an open, uncensored Canberra region startup group. The group has young students, entrepreneurs, and locals who are passionate about discussing the startup ecosystem.

The group is for anyone who is in search of a place to share and discuss all things startup, tech, entrepreneurship, investment, personal growth, business growth and even coworking.

Creation date: August 27, 2013

Members: 540+

Posts in December: 1

Join here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/CanberraStartups/

The Joyful Business Club

The Joyful Business Club is for anyone looking to have a side hustle or even quit their job to start a business. The group operates with a “no question is too stupid or silly” policy, making it a perfectly safe space for anyone seeking advice to being their entrepreneurship journey.

Creation date: June 11, 2020

Members: 420+

Posts in December: 18

Join here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Joyfulbusinessclub

Business at Breakfast

Business at Breakfast is great for business owners looking to network, provide or find referrals and refine sales and marketing systems.

The group has Canberran members from different background looking to launch or grow their businesses and are simply interested in talking to people. There are two meetings each week, currently hosted virtually due to COVID-19.

Creation date: August 19, 2017

Members: 250+

Posts in December: 16

Deakin: https://www.facebook.com/groups/103803077017390/

Creation date: December 5, 2019

Members: 80+

Posts in December: 5

Queanbeyan: https://www.facebook.com/groups/839452276497540/

Future Tribe

A shameless self-plug, Future Tribe is a group for entrepreneurs, freelancers and business to learn tips on topics such as marketing, entrepreneurship, growth, online marketing, and software. The members of the group link relevant quick-read articles, share insightful podcasts and discussion on new things in the world of entrepreneurship, content, digital, growth, and much more.

Creation date: December 2, 2020

Members: New and growing!

Posts in December: 8

Get involved here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/joinfuturetribe

Future Tribe was created by Futuretheory: https://www.facebook.com/futuretheoryau

(While you’re at it, listen to our Future Tribe podcast)

Facebook groups for business worldwide

Millennial Entrepreneur Community

#MEC is a community of over 70,000 business builders from all over the world, of all ages, nationalities and backgrounds. This group knows that growing a meaningful business takes hard work, solid strategies, top notch resources and a support team with a range of skills – which is what you’ll find in this group.

Start off your journey in this group by completing their #builderchallenge in the about section of the group.

Creation date: June 28, 2016

Members: 79,800

Posts in December: 277

Start the journey here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/7daytrepchallenge/

Entrepreneur Hustle

The Entrepreneur Hustle Facebook Group was created for you to share your story, journey, success, failures and one thing that changed it all around.

Creation date: December 28, 2016

Members: 64,000

Posts in December: 10

Get involved here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/dannyveigahustlegroup/

Entrepreneur Hustle was created by Danny Veiga, check out his Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/dannyveigahustle

Digital Nomad Entrepreneurs

This Facebook group was created for digital nomads who want to adventure and work with awesome like minded entrepreneurs. The founders create real life events and meetings around the world for the entrepreneur community to gather, creating amazing life-changing experiences.

Creation date: October 25, 2014

Members: 57,800

Posts in December: 25

Become a Digital Nomad here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/digitalnomadentrepreneurs/

Digital Nomad Entrepreneurs was created by Workew: https://www.facebook.com/workew\

Intrepid Entrepreneurs Community

This Facebook group is designed to help surround entrepreneurs with like minded people -people who are there to answer questions, give feedback and provide support. Intrepid Entrepreneurs Community runs a consistent schedule of topics so the group is always flush with conversation and idea sharing. Some of the themes include “Toot Your Own Horn”, “Monday Mindset”, and “WordPress & Hosting Questions”.

Creation date: October 28, 2015

Members: 17,600

Posts in December: 14

Join here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/intrepidentrepreneurs/

IEC was started for entrepreneurs by Intrepid Introvert, take a look at the Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/intrepidintrovert

Humans of Online Business

Humans of Online Business is for people who are building an online business and you want to operate in “HUMAN” ways, this is the Facebook group for you. The founders and group members are there to help you, learn with you, share their tips and much more.

Creation date: July 29, 2015

Members: 9,800

Get involved here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/goindependent/

Facebook groups for women in business

Like Minded Bitches Drinking Wine

LMBDW is a group for entrepreneurial minded and business savvy women who love wine! They have regular events in over 40 cities around the world and the Facebook group is a hub for business savvy women to collaborate and share ideas. This group is one of the best in this list, in terms of number of members and number of posts in the last month.

Creation date: July 14, 2015

Members: 143,000

Posts in December: 3,495

Sip wine with like minded women here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/LMBDW

Also check out the page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LMBDW

Entrepreneurs’ Abundance Mindset

If you’re an entrepreneur or small business owner with a “winning and abundant” mindset from all over the world, this is the group for you. The group helps each other by sharing tips and tools to take it to the next level. You’ll find help on marketing, digital marketing, webinars, personal development and more in this group.

Creation date: December 5, 2014

Members: 9,500

Posts in December: 568

join here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Entrepreneursabundance

Entrepreneurs’ Abundance Mindset was created by Francesa Moi: https://www.facebook.com/themeetupqueen

Women in Business Collaborative with Angela Henderson

This group is for the entrepreneurs community to feel connected, seek business advice and provide advice in order to help everyone grow their business collectively.

Creation date: January 3, 2017

Members: 7,300

Posts in December: 121

Join here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1322586367762977

Female Entrepreneurs Down Under

This group is for passion driven female entrepreneurs down under (Australia and New Zealand) looking to connect, meet up, share networks, inspiration, tips and support on a more local level.

The group has some themed days including Tuesday’s for tips where a member of the group has the opportunity to post a video or live in the group sharing tips relating to their area of expertise (for example, marketing or content writing) or Flaunt it Fridays for celebrating success from the week.

Creation date: January 2, 2016

Members: 2,100

Posts in December: 75

Get involved here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/108978099480252/

Female Entrepreneurs Down Under was created by Angela Henderson: https://www.facebook.com/angelahendersonconsulting

Business in Heels

Business in Heels is an international organisation with a chapter in Canberra. The group is for finding referrals, sharing knowledge and accessing resources for women in business.

The members of the group encourage informal networking by taking parts in events with educational speakers, referral days and coffee dates. You’ll need to answer a few questions before joining because this one is private and closed for women in business.

Creation date: December 8, 2013

Members: 1,000

Posts in December: 25

Get involved here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bihcanberra/

Check out the page on Facebook too: https://www.facebook.com/businessinheels

Facebook groups can be an effective way to grow your business locally and in niche markets, and the best part is they’re free!

Do you know of any other great groups? Let us know in the comments below!

Your website

You should have your opening hours listed on your about page, contact page or in your footer. If you don’t, add them in.

Communicate your updated opening hours by adding additional information in these sections, or by linking to a blog post or announcement elsewhere.

You might be inclined to add a pop up to your site to communicate this information but keep in mind that Google doesn’t look at pop ups positively, use a top bar on your site if you want to make sure people see your hours.

Google My Business

Google is arguably the most important place to update your opening hours. This is where people go for a quick overview of your company and for directions in Google Maps. Once you’ve updated your hours in Google My Business, visitors will be notified that you’re closed if they request directions to your location.

Here’s how you can update your Google My Business Listing:

1. You should already have a Google My Business account set up. If not, do that now: https://business.google.com/create
2. Sign in to Google My Business: https://business.google.com/
3. From your dashboard, navigate to either “update business hours” in the middle section, or “info” on the left panel (see the first image below). We’ll select “info” for the next step.
4. On the “info” page, scroll down to the section with custom hours. This is separate to your standard opening hours section. Select the edit icon.
5. Update the custom hours using the dialogue box that opens, then select save.

Social Media (Facebook)

You can update your opening hours on Facebook, but unfortunately there is no “holiday opening hours” functionality (such as there is in Google) which means you’ll need to update your standard hours just before closing and once again when you open in the new year. If you get a lot of business through Facebook, we recommend updating this or pinning a post to the top of your feed about your changes.

It’s also a good idea to share a post through your other social media channels just before closing up for the holiday – when your social channels will likely become quiet anyway.

True local, Yellow Pages, Yelp, Trip Advisor, and any other online business directories

These are particularly important to update if you’re a restaurant of other business that could be assumed to stay open during the holiday period. If you’re giving your staff some extra time off, let customers know through these directories.

Storefront

Don’t forget the all important storefront! This can be as simple as a hand written note displayed at the front of your premises (office window, shop door, workshop entrance etc.). Or, take it up a notch and design a holiday themed notice poster.

Tell customers your business hours through email

Don’t forget to reach out to customers too. Make use of that email list that may be gathering dust to let previous customers know when you’ll be open and closed. This a great opportunity to touch base with clients. Not only will it put your brand front and centre during the gift giving season, but it will create a sense of urgency for customers to take action before your office, store, or service is closed.

Another great way to tell customer you’re closing is by creating an email footer image that sits within your email signature. This way, every email you send out between now and the end of the holiday period will be another touch point for customers to get the information they need.

If you’re not going to be checking emails frequently, it’s a good idea to turn on ‘auto replies’ with a pre-written out of office message. This can include how long you’re closed for, when you’ll be opening again, what services are operating or an emergency contract number for businesses that have more pressing services.

Not closing for the holiday period?

Even better! Email your customers, share on socials and talk to them in person to let customers know you’re open and excited to see them. You might be in the minority of businesses open during the holiday season, so make the most of it and encourage customers to come visit you during their free time.

The social media world can be a volatile one – with platforms introducing new features all the time in an effort to remain relevant and profitable. Instagram introduced shoppable posts in 2018, allowing businesses to tag products in their posts, making it easier for customers to discover and buy. This was a game changer with some businesses reporting over a 1000% increase in profile traffic and some with a 20% increase in revenue.

The latest update from Instagram has taken this idea a step further. An Instagram Shop allows a business to display their products in a more comprehensive way than product tags allowed. It brings each product into one location on the business profile, making it easier for customers to browse and purchase. 

According to a recent press release from Facebook, the shift to focus more on ecommerce is in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the struggles it caused for many businesses:

“Right now many small businesses are struggling, and with stores closing, more are looking to bring their business online. That’s why we’re launching Facebook Shops and investing in features across our apps that inspire people to shop and make buying and selling online easier.”

Why should you set up an Instagram Shop?

1. You’ll reduce barriers and make shopping easier for customers

It can be an uphill battle getting customers to your store, so take your store to them! It’s simpler for customers to browse your products in-ap. If they like something, they’ll be more inclined to visit your website to purchase.

Shoppers can choose sizes, colours and designs directly from Instagram. They can then click the button linking them to your website and their preferences will be carried across. While this means less time on the website, conversions and sales will increase. 

2. The dreaded single bio link is solved! (Sort of) 

One issue many businesses come across is the limited single bio link. Any post mentioning a specific product needs to direct the user to the profile, to click on the link and then navigate further beyond that. This is a lot to ask of someone you’re also trying to sell to! The Instagram Shop has targeted links on each product, making CTAs more relevant and conversions a bit easier. 

3. Peer pressure and social proof

This introduction adds a new dimension for social media marketers and businesses who use strategies like social proof, trends and influence from peers to make sales. The Instagram Shop creates a more direct connection between a product and its popularity, based on the account, its number of followers and their level of engagement. Don’t take that to mean it will be harmful for smaller accounts though. This is an opportunity to lean on being ‘local’, ‘Australian’ or ‘exclusive’ if you have a smaller following. Focus your efforts more on connecting with individual customers looking for a more personalised experience.

4. Engaged and more targeted users

Instagram has a sophisticated (and constantly changing) algorithm. Fortunately, this algorithm makes it easier for you to find your best audience. A strong hashtag strategy and appropriate usage will make it easier for your target market to find your products. Instagram has great insight into what interests and preferences its users have. Thanks to the algorithm, your products will be shown to audiences who have shown interest in similar products to yours. 

Not only will you be finding more targeted audiences, you’ll be finding audience who are more likely to buy. If they’re browsing the Shop tab, they’re already intending to find something to purchase.

The Instagram Shop is going to be a great tool for small (and large) businesses. With reduced barriers, ease of browsing and more targeted customers, Instagram and it’s Shop feature should become a staple part of your social media strategy. Check it out and let us know what you think below. 

InnovationACT is a free two-month entrepreneurship program that provides the skills, tools and networks to those looking to begin their startup journey. This year, teams involved in the initiative were vying for a share of the $50,000 grant pool and additional startup support prizes from IACT partners.

Our package this year includes website, marketing and design services and we are delighted to support a Canberra-based startup in this capacity. It was a difficult decision to make, as all the participants had exciting ideas but we had to make our choice. This year we selected Sweet and Sour, a bi-monthly Zine focusing on the experience of being Asian in Australia, to receive our support prize.

“Our focus is on Asian identities, and the unique experiences associated with being Asian in Australia … Sweet and Sour and is a safe space to explore and share our cultures in a supportive and creative environment.”

Read more on the Sweet and Sour website: http://www.sweetsourzine.com/

Sweet and Sour hit a sweet (sorry) spot for us for a number of reasons.

“IACT this year had a really strong showing and it is fantastic to see business and ideas thriving in Canberra. It wasn’t easy to decide on who we wanted to present the package to this year. However, representation of Asia in Australian media is quite low, despite over 30% of Canberra’s population being people born outside of Australia. We think it’s a great opportunity to hear from more diverse voices and support a startup that is enabling that. We’re also excited to get involved in more traditional print media – something we have expertise in but haven’t been as involved in lately with the growth of digital media. We look forward to working with the team and see where we can take things.”

Germaine Muller, Director and Founder of Futuretheory

Despite not being able to come together in one venue this year (unlike last year), it was fantastic to see the strong and supportive network of established businesses in Canberra, all eager to help startups. 

Congratulations to all the teams involved this year! You can find out more about the initiative here: https://innovationact.org/iact20-awards-night-a-night-of-celebrations/ 

1. Pictorial mark logo

Pictorial mark logos are symbols or icons without words. In most cases, these icons are minimal and literal, such as Apple, Target or Twitter (pictured below).

The brands that use pictorial icons must build attributes around them to add depth and meaning to the image. This type of logo works as an image alone, so companies that do not have strong brand recognition will struggle to use these.

2. Abstract logo

An abstract logo is an icon designed to represent one or multiple aspects of your brand. An abstract logo takes a while to align with your brand attributes but when it does you have something truly unique.

An abstract logo absorbs the personality of the brand. Nike’s tick had no meaning by itself but over time, with careful branding, the tick has become synonymous with the company and what they stand for. Abstract logos can also be representations of concepts, such as the 5 rings of the Olympic Games representing the 5 continents of the world.

This style of logo is often not driven by any cultural implications. This makes it easier to take your brand national or international. Another benefit of choosing an abstract logo is that it allows you to have flexibility in the meaning and interpretation of it.

3. Wordmark logo

A wordmark logo is font-based and focuses on the name of the brand – think Coca Cola, Coles and eBay. The font style and colour represent the brand’s personality and target audience.

A wordmark logo works best if your brand has a distinct name (eBay, Disney and Nescafe, for example). When a brand’s name is combined with strong typography, it helps with brand recognition, which is particularly useful for new businesses. You can use conventional pre-existing fonts or create a custom font style.

4. Mascot logo

Mascot logos are illustrated characters who are usually the brand’s spokesperson too. In most cases, these characters are cartoon-ish, colourful, and fun. Mascot logo design often evolves as the business grows and diversifies.

Mascot logos are a great way to personify your brand. Think of Ronald McDonald or the mascots at sporting matches. Mascots can be difficult to rebrand so businesses choose a mascot they can stick with long-term. A bonus is that businesses can use mascots on merchandise for passive revenue.

5. Emblem logo

An emblem logo consists of a font within an abstract icon (or symbol). Emblem logos do not separate the text from the icon (where as the combination logo at number 7 does). These logos have a traditional feel to them and often represent a brand’s heritage.

Emblem logos are usually used by institutions and companies who have been around for a long time, such as the Australian Cricket Team or BMW. However, this doesn’t mean new brands can’t use them too. These logos establish authority and make the customer feel connected to a sense of tradition.

6. Lettermark logo

Lettermark (or monogram) logos use the initials of a brand with (usually) a long name. These logos are typography based and have a few letters from the brands name, which make it easier to identify and remember.

The simplicity and ease of saying the name works in the brands favour. H&M is short for Hennes and Mauritz, but it is far easier to remember the brand as H&M.

7. Combination logo

A combination logo has a wordmark or lettermark with a pictorial mark, abstract icon or a mascot. In most cases, these different elements are visually separated. You get a visual representation to your brand while also retaining the brand name for easier recall.

A new to the market brand gets a versatile image with a combination logo. Since a combination mark has text and visual elements distinctly separated, brands use this to reinforce recall in the consumer’s mind. Eventually, after a brand has reached a certain level of identification, brands strip it down to just one element. For example, Nike often strips it back to just the tick.

What is your favourite logo? Let us know below!

Site-wide considerations

There are some things to keep in mind regardless of what page you’re writing for. Before writing anything though, consider these:

1. Your audience: Think about who you’re speaking to. Who is your primary audience and who is your secondary?
2. Intent: Once you know who your audience is, what do you want them to do? What information would they be searching for and how would they logically find it? Identify a key message you want your audience to take away from each page on your website.
3. Search Engine Optimisation: Be mindful of writing ‘SEO optimised content’. It might be performing well on search engines but that doesn’t mean it reads well. Write content for the people reading it and then optimise where you can for SEO. If you’re interested, we also wrote about website speed and SEO – which may not be something you’ve considered.
4. Meta title/SEO title: A meta title, sometimes called an SEO title or page title is the page name that appears on a search result page. When writing a meta title consider these:
   • Every page should have a unique title
   • Keywords should be included in the title (but not forced – see number 3)
   • Consider adding elements to increase the click through rate (the likelihood of someone clicking on your link from a search result page).
5. Meta description: Similar to meta title above, meta descriptions appear in search results. All current indications are that meta descriptions do not have an impact on SEO. So, instead of focusing on SEO when writing a meta description, focus on increasing click through rate. You’re writing for humans and you want to convince them to click on your listing.
6. Links and internal links: Internal links are links that still remain within the main domain of a site. For example, ‘Get in touch’ at the end of the opening paragraph of this article is an internal link. Where it is logical, include internal links as this leads to visitors browsing more content within your site. When external links are included, require them to open in a new tab.

Unique pages

There are some pages within your website that have their own unique requirements. These include your about page, your services or product pages and your contact page. Here’s what to consider for each:

About

It can be difficult to write about yourself or your business. Start with questions and write dot points to answer each, then convert them into readable content. Here are a few questions to consider:

• Why do you exist?
• What do you do?
• How do you do what you do?
• What sets you apart? (Identify your point of difference)
• Does your business have any unique values?
• Who are the people in your team?

Services

Your services or product pages need to tell a customer exactly what you do and why it’s important. It should explain how your offering will create value and why it’s a better choice than competitors or other solutions.

When writing about your services, write about the benefit and value of your offering, rather than plain facts about it. For example, rather than writing “This blender has 5 blades” write “This blender will blend 50% faster than others thanks to its 5 blades”.

Contact

At a minimum, your contact page should have one method to get in touch with you. Elements you can include on a contact page include:

• Contact form
• Phone number
• Email
• Physical address
• Operating hours

You want to make it easy for customers, so take it a step further and explain information such as how to find your office or shop front (especially if it can be difficult to find), where you can park, what facilities you have (does your office have hospitality facilities or would it be better to meet at a café?) and any other information you think might be relevant or helpful.

Writing your content

Now you know what to consider and what to include on each page, you’ll need to start writing your content. Writing can be a challenge – you’re trying to fit a lot of important information into only a few words. Try these writing tips:

Sentence structure

Long sentences can be difficult to follow. Shorter, simpler sentences are easier to understand and remember.

Language

Don’t complicate it. It’s more important that a customer understands what you’re saying than to be impressed by jargon-heavy language.

Vary your word usage to avoid repetitive reading. If you’re overusing particular words, use a thesaurus to find alternatives. However, if you have a product or service that could be called multiple things, use the same term in all uses for consistency. For example, if you invoice clients, use the word invoice everywhere and don’t switch it out with words like ‘bill’.

Keep your style of writing consistent across your entire website. If you start off with a friendly, casual tone don’t switch to corporate and serious on another page – this will be jarring to the reader. Decide early on what kind of personality you want your content to show.

Show, don’t tell

Don’t say you’re the best, give examples that demonstrate why you are. Use specific and tangible reasons. For example, rather than “Our hand sanitiser is the best available” try “Our hand sanitiser cleans 50% more germs than regular soap thanks to 10 years of science-based development”.

Visuals

If you removed the ability to read individual words, how would your website look? Is it easy to scan with headings or dot points? Are there large bodies of text that look like they will take a long time to read? Find ways to break up bodies of text and make it easier for someone to read it – you want the experience to be enjoyable, not a chore.

Can you communicate the information you need to through a picture, infographic or other media? It may not need to be written if a video or image can communicate the message better.

Tell the reader what to do

Always think about using a Call to Action (CTA). At some point – usually toward the end of your content – include a button or sentence with a link that tells the reader exactly what you want them to do: “Contact us”, “shop online”, “sign up” etc.

Still not feeling confident writing your website content? Get in touch with us and we’ll give you a hand!

This all comes at the same time as the change of our business structure and a new addition to our team. So, why have we made these changes?

Going back to the start

We worked with our first client in 2008 on a video editing project. Since then, we have been involved in everything from web development, to photography, to marketing and design. On this journey we’ve had a name change and a number of logo changes but our goal has always been to represent who we are and what we do.

Why now?

Until now, our focus has been solely on our professional services (websites, marketing and design). Our vision is to build a more rounded business that is more accessible to more people, by sharing knowledge, tools and providing a creators space, all of which align better with our mission:

We make your goals come true.

The new logo

When we began exploring a new logo we had a number of requirements. It had to be:

• Modern but timeless
• Flexible in its application
• Distinct from others in the market
• Representative of the people behind the business

We went through over 250 sketches, countless iterations and extensive conversations before we refined our vision to what you see today. We arrived at a very minimal shape, complemented by crisp text that can be used at small sizes without losing legibility. It is flexible and lends itself to a design language that you will see used in our marketing and collateral moving forward. Our new logo is modern but doesn’t rely on any trends, so we can keep this identity for the foreseeable future. We believe the casual, quirky and bold icon represents us and the way we like to do business – welcoming, informal, and confident.

The refined blue

From our first brand colours of yellow and purple to our most recent vibrant blue – we’ve made some daring choices. We’re sticking with blue but we’ve reigned it back, allowing our bold icon to speak for itself. This refined blue is more palatable and can be used in more applications. It is a minor change but it feels like a more mature representation of who we are now.

The new website

Our new website replaces one that has served us well, but left us wanting. This new design fills a few gaps from our previous version and increases our capability as a business. An exciting addition (that we’ll be exploring more in a later post, along with other features) is our latest section – a central platform for resources, knowledge, our Future Tribe podcast and so much more.

What’s next?

With a new logo and website that better represents who we are and where we’re going, we’ll continue on our mission of making goals come true. We are looking forward to this next phase of Futuretheory and we are excited to start sharing more through our online home. Keep an eye out for our next announcement in the coming weeks!

(Looking for a specific term? Press CTRL+F and search away!)

B

Brand
A brand is a unique symbol, name, logo or even sentence that companies use to represent their products or services and distinguish from their competition.

Brand Advocacy
Brand advocacy is when a loyal customer of the company supports and promotes its products or services to others. These loyal customers are called brand advocates.

Brand Ambassador
Brand ambassadors are people (celebrities, influencers, leaders in niche communities) who are paid to endorse products and services of a company in a positive light. This is often done to increase reach of a brand.

Brand Archetypes
Brand archetypes are universally familiar characters, behaviours or personality traits that create human-like personas for a company to make them emotionally relatable to customers.

Brand Architecture
Brand architecture (or brand hierarchy) is the strategic organisation of all the brands and products under a parent company. It is a family tree of all the brands, sub-brands and names of products.

Brand Assets
Brand assets are elements (mostly visual) that make and help a customer identify a brand. The general brand assets are logo, name, colour scheme, tagline, jingle and packaging.

Brand Attributes
Brand attributes are core values and characteristics of a company that characterise the personality of the company (and brand). Brand attributes are established through images and colours used in the company’s communication to the customers.

Brand Audit
Brand audit is the exercise of finding a brand’s strengths and weaknesses, with the intention to identify opportunities and weaknesses of the brand in the market.

Brand Awareness
Brand awareness is the degree to which a customer is able to recognise and recall a company’s product. Related: brand recall and brand recognition.

Brand Champion
A brand champion is an internal manager or leader who is responsible for creating and developing communications required to build a brand. He or she also seeks support both from within the company and outside to increase brand equity.

Brand Collateral
Brand collateral is a collection of visual media used to promote the brand in marketing communications.

Brand Discovery
Brand discovery is the process for the company to answer the question: “who are we as a brand?”. This includes getting to know the customers, competition and market to define the brand’s values, characteristics and personality.

Brand Endorsement
Brand endorsement is when a brand asks a celebrity to be a spokesperson for a company, brand or product on a case-by-case basis. These celebrities are often chosen because their persona matches the brand, they’re well-recognised and the target audience trusts this person.

Brand Equity
Brand equity is the value of a brand’s financial and non-financial assets when compared to a other brands. Companies increase their brand equity by positively influencing customer’s perception of a product by making it memorable, high quality, low cost, easily recognisable etc.

Brand Essence
Brand essence is a single, intangible attribute of the company that differentiates it from its competitors in the eye of the customers. For Disney, magical fantasy is the brand essence.

Brand Excellence
Brand excellence refers to the actions taken by the company to support their values and integrity.

Brand Expansion
Brand expansion (also know as: brand stretching or brand extension) is when a company uses one of its established names from previous products or services on a new product or service to increase customer’s trust in the new offering. For example, Virgin expanding to Virgin mobile.

Brand Experience
Brand experience is a holistic set of activities carried out by a company to influence the customer’s feelings about the brand.

Brand Extension
See: Brand expansion

Brand Gap
A brand gap is the difference between customers’ view (or opinion) of your brand and the view you would like them to have. In other words, the disconnect between what customers know you for in comparison to what you want to be known for.

Brand Guidelines
Brand guidelines (also know as style guides) are an instruction manual on how to use the visual elements of your brand in different communication for consistency. A brand guideline usually includes visual elements such as name, logo, colours, and font and how to use them (or not use them) together . Some guides include details on brand voice, messaging, tone and other branding elements.

Brand Harmonisation
Brand harmonisation is the effort to keep a range of products consistent in naming, visual identity, market positioning and more across geographies or product/service markets.

Brand Hierarchy
See: Brand architecture

Brand Identity
Brand identity is the visual elements of a brand – name, logo, colour and design style etc. Brand identity is used to distinguish the company from its competitors and evoke specific feelings.

Brand Image
Brand image is the perception customers have about a brand and its offerings. Generally, these are aligned with business or brand values.

Brand Loyalty
Brand loyalty is the tendency of customers to buy services and products repeatedly from the same brand, rather than its competitors.

Brand Management
Brand management is the overall coordination of all brand activities and the brand strategy.

Brand Map
A brand map is the visual plotting of a brand on XY axes, where each axis represents an attribute that drives brand selection among customers. The attributes compared commonly are cost vs quality, taste vs nutritional value, usability vs functionality.

Brand Message
A brand message is the value proposition of a company and the language used to convey it. These motivate customers to relate with the brand and ultimately buy its products or services.

Brand Persona
A brand persona is a set of values, characteristics and attitudes the company shows regularly to better connect with its target customers.

Brand Personality
See: brand personality

Brand Positioning
Brand positioning is the conceptual space a brand wants to own. A brand positions itself as “the cheapest”, “the market leader”, “most premium”, “most accessible” and much more. A brand position differentiates a business from its competitors.

Brand Power
Brand power is the ability of a company to attract a larger share of its current market and increase the economic value of its products more than its content worth.

Brand Promise
See: brand message

Brand Recall
Brand recall is the ability of a customer to recollect a certain brand or its product when prompted with a product category or problem. For example, when you’re on a road trip and you need to stop for quick food, McDonald’s would be one of the first places to come to mind for many people. If McDonald’s is the first place to come to mind, they have strong brand recall.

Brand Recognition
Brand recognition is how familiar a customer is with the identity of a brand when presented with their logo, product, tagline or service.

Brand Relevance
Brand relevance is a metric, usually plotted on a matrix, to understand a customer’s preference of a brand over its competitors. This is a new matrix used to measure a brand’s success with four principles – customer’s obsession, ruthlessly pragmatic, distinctly inspired and pervasively innovative.

Brand Revitalisation
Brand revitalisation is a strategy adopted by mature brands when profits begin to decline or goals are not being met. The strategy is to look at ways to bounce back in the market through expansion, change in brand positioning or changing the target audience.

Brand Salience
Brand salience is the measure to which the customers think of or even notice a brand when making a purchase decision. Brand salience is particularly important in high cost purchases such as cars. However, it can also be highly important in lower-cost purchase decisions when consumers believe brand choice will make a difference, such as medicine or perhaps cleaning products.

Brand Strategy
Brand strategy is a marketing plan to develop a brand successfully and meet certain goals. This plan includes the visual creative elements and strategic decisions to achieve higher brand equity, salience, loyalty and recall among other goals.

Brand Tribe
A brand tribe is a group of people who collectively identify with the values of the brand or a specific product. The brand tribe does not always include customers but also supporters or celebrities who help promote the brand.

Brand Valuation
Brand valuation is the process of estimating the financial value of the brand’s assets and its association with the company’s current or future business results. This is usually conducted by an external organisation to avoid conflict of interest.

Brand Values
Brand values are the core beliefs that a company stands for, these are usually incorporated in marketing communications.

Branding
See: brand strategy

C

Challenger Brand
Challenger brand is a company going against ‘the way things have always been done’. These brands are generally not market leaders or niche brands but are changing the way of the norm as a strategy to stand-out in an already crowded market. Canva is an example which is changing the normal way of graphic design.

Coined Name
Coined name is a newly invented word or modified version of an existing word used for the brand or a specific product.

Competitive Advantage
Competitive advantage is the ability of a company to produce better or cheaper products and services in comparison to its competition. This allows the company to outperform the competition in the sales margin.

Corporate Identity
Corporate identity is the image a company consciously creates, through brand strategy, to present itself to the external stakeholders – customers, investors and the general public. Corporate identity includes visual design elements and marketing communication tone of the company.

Co-branding
Co-branding is a marketing strategy in which two or more brands form a strategic alliance to create a product or service. The Nike and Apple co-branded fitness tracker is an example.

D

Descriptor
A descriptor is a short word or phrase added to a non-descriptive brand name to help the customers identify the product or service centre to the company. Examples include the use of the word ‘coffee’ in ‘Starbucks Coffee’ and ‘ketchup’ in ‘Heinz Ketchup’.

Descriptive Name
Descriptive names are brand names that readily convey the core service or products offered by the company, such as Hotels.com, Bank of Australia and General Motors.

Differentiation
Differentiation is the process of researching to identify unique characteristics of the company’s product or service and using this in marketing communications to stand out among the competitors.

E

Employer Branding
Employer branding is the process of marketing the company as the employer of choice to a particular desirable potential employee audience.

Eponym
Eponym (proprietary eponym or generic trademark) is a brand which has become so famous and successful that its name is used as a synonym for the general class of products or services. There are many cases of this in Australia; Band-Aid, Doona and Esky are all brand names that have surpassed the original product name (plaster, duvet and ice box).

Ethical Positioning Index (EPI)
Ethical positioning index is used to measure a brand’s ethical positioning. The index identifies the brand’s positioning and obtains the customer’s values to calculate the final score.

Evocative Name
Evocative names map a brand’s positioning metaphorically rather than literally to give a bigger and deeper meaning to the company. The name ‘Virgin’, an evocative name, is used to describe the founders’ first time in the entrepreneurship world.

Experiential Name
Experiential names are used by brands that build upon the feeling or experience their products and services provided to the customers. “Origin” is an example of an experiential brand name.

G

Generic Brand
A generic brand is a consumer product without a widely recognised name due to lack of promotion and advertising.

H

Home-brand
A home-brand (or own brand) is an item packed, marketed and sold under the name of a particular retailer, usually a large supermarket chain.

I

Initialism
Initialism is a type of logo that is formed by using the initial letters or part of a longer company name. BMW is an example of initialism (Bayerische Motoren Werke).

Intangibles
Intangibles are experiential elements of a brand’s identity, such as brand promise, personality, positioning and value.

Invented Name
See: Coined Name

L

Logo
A logo is a graphic or symbol adopted by a company to aid in identifying its products and services.

M

Master Brand
A master brand is an umbrella or overarching company name under which all products are sold or marketed. Coca-Cola is an example of a master brand under which products like Coke Zero, Diet Coke and other name beverages are sold.

Monogram
Monogram is a type of log in which letters from the brand’s name or representing the brand’s name are superimposed to create a single abstract looking symbol.

O

On-brand
The term on-brand is used to define any visual or communication in advertising which supports or is appropriate to the particular brand being advertised.

P

Parent Brand
Parent brand is an existing and established brand that supports the rise of new products or services through brand extension. Parent brands share their identity to help establish credibility in the new products, ranges or businesses.

Positioning Statement
A positioning statement is a brief description by the company on how it can fill the needs of its customers in a way that the competitors don’t.

Private label
Private labels are products generally manufactured by one company for sale under another company’s brand name.

R

Rebranding
Rebranding is the process of changing the identity of the company. This can be done extensively by changing the name, logo and other attributes of the brand, or just part of it. This is done to keep the brand relevant in the changing market and stand-out among its competitors.

Repositioning
Repositioning is modifying the value proposition of a product, service or brand to change its positioning in the market and in the minds of the customers. Typically this is conducted when the target markets have shifted or when the product usage is different from originally perceived.

S

Service Brand
Service brands are companies who offer customer benefits which lie in immaterial performances as opposed to products (or materials). Airbnb is a marketplace for booking accomodation and is a service brand.

Slogan
A slogan is a text-phrase that is used as part of a marketing campaign for the company’s particular product or service.

Style Guide
See: brand guidelines

Sub-brand
A sub-brand is when the main brand creates a subsidiary with distinct characters yet related to the main brand. A sub-brand can have its own name and logo or have a similar identity to the parent brand. Coke Zero is a sub-brand of Coca Cola.

T

Tagline
A tagline is a short phrase used in advertising which is framed to add thought and sentiment to a product that customers can associate with.

Tangibles
Tangibles are elements of a brand’s identity that can be visually experienced, such as logo, graphics, colours, music and voice.

Touchpoint
A touchpoint for a brand occurs every time a customer interacts with the brand. A brand’s touchpoints include social media, TV commercials, emails, physical stores and referral programs.

Trademark
Trademark (or service mark) is a recognisable and registered element that is used to identify the company’s products/services. A trademark can be a name, logo, scent, jingle, colours, product qualities or a combination of these elements. Nike’s tick is an example of the brand’s trademark.

U

Unique Buying Proposition
Unique Buying Proposition (UBP) is what the customers want from a service or a product. After conducting consumer research the marketers can identify different attributes about the same product consumers want to hear. UBP is what consumers want marketers to say about a product.

Unique Selling Proposition
Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is a unique attribute that makes the company different from its competition. USP focuses on differentiating the company from its competitors, while Value proposition adds value to the customers. USP is what marketers say about a product.

V

Value Proposition
A value proposition is a unique attribute that a company offers in its products which will add value to the customer’s life and is not available in its competitors’ products. These are short summaries or statements that entice customers to buy the product. Uber’s value proposition is offering convenient ways to travel.

Verbal Identity
Verbal identity is all the non-visual elements that contribute to a brand’s positioning and identity. Verbal identity incorporates communication tone in advertisements, written phrases and style.

Visual Identity
See: brand identity

W

Wordmark
A wordmark is a type of logo which is font-based and focused on the name of the company. The choice of typeface and typography is based on the brand’s persona.

Think we’ve missed any terms or concepts? Comment below!

These similarities exist because web designers are increasingly understanding the way users interact with websites. WordPress is one of the most popular website design platforms due to its ease of use and template availability. This also means there are many websites who begin their design process with the same template, so the similarities between websites are hard to miss.

Despite these similarities, when we take a closer look under the ‘hood’ of a website, it becomes clear that every website is different. These differences include unique calls-to-action, a visitor’s journey on the website, use of images, addition or removal of different pages, the formal or informal use of language and overall business goals of a website.

There are surface-level similarities between websites and there are unique elements deeper down. So, back to the question – are all websites the same? To which the simple answer is no.

When working on a website you will come across some small and big decisions that will frame your website’s layout and functionality. These decisions are what make your website unique while still following some basic principles.

Websites are a reflection of your brand

Your brand has a unique story, so the elements of your website and how a use interacts with them will be inherently different from your competitors. In other words, no two websites can be the same because they are unique to your brand.

To design a website that stands out, it is important to understand your business and its brand elements. Communicating compelling stories of your brand helps customers align with your offerings. Why does your business exist and what is your backstory?

Websites are designed to meet your business objectives

Every website serves a different purpose to different businesses – where one website is a fully-fledged e-commerce platform, another is used to share free knowledge and information.

A website layout is designed with core objectives in mind, such as increasing sales, improving website traffic or generating more enquiries. The layout and content structure is strategically adapted to bring your brand closer to meeting the objective.

Websites are as much about your customers as your business

In most cases, a business’ website is the first point of contact for customers and every business has a unique customer profile. So, it is important to think of websites from the perspective of your audience. Customers are looking for answers – how can this brand solve my problem easily?

Your target audience is looking for specific information and they want this information with less effort. Your website layout should be designed to provide all your brand information in a way that is best understood by customers, compared to your competitors. Web developers and designers study a customer’s interaction with your website to best design the information hierarchy.

Websites are an ongoing process

To keep your website interesting, modern and unique, it requires regular updating. Tracking visitors’ interaction with your website and gathering analytics on your website’s performance helps keep your website relevant to the changing demands in the market.

A high-performing websites is continually optimised. They track a visitor’s interaction on the internet and deliver personalised experiences that better suit the specific user’s needs, reducing bounce rates and encouraging customers to come back for more. So, websites become unique and offer meaningful differentiation to the user.

No two websites are exactly the same. A website reflects your brand, your personal story, your unique target customers and an ever-changing business landscape. It’s these variations that interact with purpose to produce a unique website.

Do you agree? Let’s talk about it – comment below! 

This email only affects you if you use this link currently  – www.google.com/a/<your-domain-name>/DomainContact

If you use G Suite simply to send and receive emails, and we (Futuretheory) assisted you with setting up your account, you can safely ignore this email as we do not use the functionality that is being deprecated by Google.

For those who make use of that link above in their documentation or website, this email is simply letting you know that the link won’t function after 31 August, 2020 – so it would be a good idea to remove that link anywhere it is used.

If you need help on anything to do with G Suite and setting up emails, feel free to get in touch with us!

Every Tuesday we discuss the most important marketing and technology news you need to know about.

To follow Germaine on Instagram head to. https://www.instagram.com/germa_ne/

For more entrepreneurial related content head to the Future Tribe Facebook group and join our community. https://futuretri.be/fb

To learn more about how Futuretheory and how we can help your brand grow visit https://futuretheory.co/

Time Stamps

0m 00s: Intro + Notable news

7m 38s: Google’s Pixel 4 event
https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/15/20903295/google-pixel-4-event-live-blog-news-photos-announcements-products-android

23m 20s: Pixel unlock working with eyes closed
https://www.cnet.com/news/google-pixel-4-face-unlock-works-even-when-your-eyes-are-closed-unconscious/

25m 40s: Samsung fingerprint issue
https://news.samsung.com/global/statement-on-fingerprint-recognition-issue

28m 14s: QLD Government hires influencer for promotion
https://www.marketingmag.com.au/news-c/news-governement-influencers-tiktok/

32m 50s: LinkedIn launches events
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/linkedin-launches-events-to-facilitate-professional-meet-ups/565171/

35m 33s: Facebook opens search ads to all advertisers
https://marketingland.com/facebook-opens-search-ads-to-all-advertisers-269321

38m 03s: Snapchat goes after retailers and DTC brands with new Dynamic Ads https://techcrunch.com/2019/10/17/snapchat-goes-after-retailers-and-dtc-brands-with-new-dynamic-ads/

40m 25s: Wing launches first commercial drone service in US https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/18/20921310/wings-delivery-drones-virginia-first-flight

41m 10s: YouTube AR ‘try on’ expanding
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/youtube-expands-access-to-ar-try-on-ad-feature/564996/

For those who don’t know, InnovationACT is a free, ten-week entrepreneurship program that provides the skills, tools and networks to those looking to begin their startup journey. The program supports hundreds of budding young entrepreneurs from ANU and the wider Canberra region each year.

I’ve been aware of InnovationACT and their work since their inception, but my involvement in the previous years has been only as a spectator. This year, however, I wanted my involvement to be bigger. When Vicki Stanley, the InnovationACT program manager reached out, it was the perfect opportunity to really get involved, so Futuretheory offered a website, branding and consultation package up as one of the awards.

It is fantastic to see established businesses support startups in Canberra in this way, from law firms, to accountants, to printers, there is a very strong and supportive network of Canberra businesses ready to help startups.

Website, branding and consultation package

Our website, branding and consultation package was awarded to Two Step Tommy, who is developing data-driven generative graphics to help businesses build stronger brands and increase engagement with customers. (I’m not really doing the business justice, but more about what they hope to do will be released in the coming months).

It was a pleasure to meet Declan, one of the minds behind Two Step Tommy, talk about what he had in mind for the business, and talk about how we can work together in the future. I’m sure you will hear about Two Step Tommy very soon!

Once again, congratulations to all the teams involved this year, you can find out more on the official article at http://innovationact.org/canberra-student-startups-share-50000/

Does anyone read emails anymore?

How many emails do you get every day? I’m not here to say that emails are dead, in fact, that is my main means of communication. I’m also one of those people who subscribe to a lot of newsletters and read almost all of them. But it is something to consider. There was a time when people rarely sent or received an email, and in those times, your emails were much more likely to be read as well. However, today, email sending is cheap, so everyone is inundated by emails. I’m not saying that emails are of no use, but look at your email analytics and make sure that your customers are opening your emails – MailChimp has this fantastic resource that you can use to compare yourself with others, just remember that better numbers when you are small doesn’t mean that you can scale to a larger list and maintain the same open rates.

SMS is more likely to be opened but seems more invasive

There a movement towards SMS as a means of communication. It is already being used as a means of being updated on things like the status of your order, or where your shipment is, but there is also something to be said for the use of SMS for other types of communication. A hard thing to get around, however, is the fact that SMS seems quite personal and clients may feel like their personal space is being invaded if you were to text them too much.

Privacy concerns around Messenger

Facebook Messenger and other instant messaging platforms are extremely popular nowadays, but just as their popularity is rising, so is the concern around privacy. I know a number of businesses who rely on Facebook Messenger to do business, but not everyone is on Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp or any other number of instant messaging platforms. I would go as far as to say that both emails and SMS are more popular means of communication when measured by the number of individuals signed up. They may not be the most popular when looking at the sheer volume of communication, but the more important factor for most businesses should be having means of communication that more people can sign up to.

We should make it easier for customers

There are two ways to look at this – that’s why you see a completely opposite heading below. Let’s put it this way – customers don’t have to sign up to listen to you or hear from you, so you need to take away any level of difficulty in the signup process. It should be seamless, and ideally instant. By making it easier for customers to sign up, you’re adding more people who can hear about your latest news or promotions, a good thing for most businesses.

We should make it harder for customers

Just as much as making it easier for customers to sign up is in your interest, depending on the stage of your business, you may also find that the complete opposite is true. You may find that you have too many people signing up and this increases things like your email provider’s bill at the end of the month or your phone service provider’s bill at the end of the month. Some businesses may actually benefit by making it harder for customers to sign up as they could get a higher quality of customer if they have to jump through a few hoops to get to the end, and will happily go through the process.

Location and type of business matters

Location and type of business are very important considerations when talking about communication. Communication is a very personal thing that changes drastically from country to country, or even city to city, let along across different industries. As a Canberra web design and marketing consultancy, for example, our clients may be more business-minded and prefer to receive email newsletters, where the clients of a bespoke, Canberra based jeweller might prefer to get an SMS update. Saying this, however, giving the customer the option to select how they want to listen to what you have to say should always be an option.

Capabilities are getting there

Ideally, marketing and communications will move to a space where a business can send a single message out and the clients can choose how they would like to receive it and interact with it. Imagine a world where you can send out your monthly newsletter, and it goes out as a Facebook message, an email, and an SMS with little to no interaction on your part. Given the fact that even email segmentation is only just catching on, I imagine we are a little way away from this scenario that I described, but you should think about a little more – how can you talk to your customers in a way that they want to listen?

Why the name?

The first question that comes to mind is, why Future Tribe? It’s fairly simple. We wanted to give a name to the community of listeners and readers who access our content, and a tribe has a sense of sticking together and helping each other. The name still relates back to Futuretheory but it also has the freedom to exist independent of the work we do with our clients.

Making things a little easier for us

We love creating content. It is a core part of why Futuretheory exists and why the Future Tribe is now taking the reigns. However, the creation of content is resource-heavy and adds a lot of admin overhead. So by bringing the podcast and the newsletter under one name, we only have to manage one list for updates, announcements and news. This allows us to minimise some overhead while still serving our customers and creating content.

More content coming soon

Another reason for this reshuffle is that as the back catalogue of both written articles and podcasts continue to increase, we needed a banner under which we could separate our content and the future content we have in the pipeline. Our new website will be designed with a better home for ‘Future Tribe’ and a better focus on our content separated with the services that we offer our clients.

We’re excited to grow the ‘tribe’ and we look forward to the new types of content we’re currently working on.

What was initially planned as a small celebration between friends and family eventually turned into a fairly sizeable event with some nibbles, drinks and a whole lot of thank yous!

I’m happy that the night itself reflected what Futuretheory is all about, creating a welcoming environment where people can come and get to know each other in an authentic setting. There were no long-winded speeches, no ribbon-cutting or any other spectacles. It was simply a night where people from all walks of life came together to converse, celebrate and most importantly, enjoy some really nice food (thanks Krofne and Silk Cafe for the amazing spread).

Looking back on the messages people wrote on the canvas (that I plan to frame and keep to mark this milestone), I am grateful to have so many supportive people in my life and it is another reason to be excited about this new space and the future (no pun intended) of Futuretheory.

For clients, as well as anyone else who was unable to make it, please feel free to drop in. I can’t guarantee tasty doughnuts, but I’d love to catch up and show you around the space.

How the podcast started

To fully understand why we decided to start the Future Tribe podcast, we have to go back to an exchange Germaine and I had in the office about 3 months ago. We were chatting (like we always do – sometimes too much, might I add) and the topic of podcasts came up. Given that we are both avid podcast listeners we began to rattle off our favourite shows which ranged from more general shows, like the Joe Rogan Experience, to more business-oriented ones like Masters of Scale by Reid Hoffman. As we continued to ramble on, we both suddenly came to the realisation that despite being Australians who loved entrepreneurial/business-related podcasts, neither of us listened to any shows that were produced locally. Researching into the topic, we found that this is likely the case simply because there just aren’t that many Australian podcasts of this genre being produced. Moreover, the ones we did find uploaded quite irregularly or hadn’t uploaded a new episode in over six months – hinting to us that they weren’t still active or managed. Thinking the way marketers do, we immediately saw this ‘gap’ in the market and decided to create a podcast made for and by Australian go-getters.

As we began working on this project we soon found out that there is a lot of work that goes into creating a podcast even before recording the first episode – finding guests, booking in a time, choosing which platforms to release on and determining what equipment we were going to need to record (we have more podcast-related content coming that will go into our findings). However, what took us the longest to figure out was what the show would predominantly focus on. We knew it was going to have an entrepreneurial focus, but how broad would we go? Would we try to talk about local or national news? How long before we introduce sponsors – if at all?

To answer these questions we looked back at the philosophy that started Futuretheory, which was and still is to help local business people make their goals a reality. With this in mind, we decided to make the focus of the podcast about highlighting Canberran entrepreneurs and asking them to share theirs. We hope that by doing so, we could not only expose people to their endeavours but also show other go-getters in the local community that they can do it too.

Why the name?

As for the name, we want the podcast’s listener base to eventually become a diverse community of professionals who share our aspiration, a ‘tribe’ if you will. We hope that by cultivating such a community we can create an online space where people can seek advice and support from other like-minded individuals that will help them in their professional and personal endeavours. This is why we are also trying to develop an accompanying FB group for the Future Tribe podcast that fans of our content can join.

Tell us what you think

As you can tell from this article, Germaine and I are extremely passionate about this project. We would love it if you listened and gave us your feedback on how we can improve the show. The Future Tribe podcast is uploaded every Tuesday at 7am on all your favourite podcast hosting platforms and you can listen to our first few episodes using the link below.

P.S. If you have any suggestions on guests to have on, or are a ‘go-getter‘ yourself and would like to be on an upcoming episode, please email me at hayden@futuretheory.co to discuss.

The different ideas below are ones we have experience with, except for idea number 42(!) which is crazier than anything else. So they are tried and tested, guaranteed to bring you results.

If you would like to consult with us about any marketing ideas below, or if you would like to work together, feel free to get in touch!

1. Start a podcast (we’ve done this recently ourselves!)
2. Write articles on LinkedIn
3. Start direct email marketing
4. Develop an online course
5. Create a Facebook Group
6. Create a Marketing Plan
7. Put up an advertisement on Gumtree
8. Conduct a focus group
9. Do some market research
10. Create a website
11. Redesign your website
12. Explore your customer’s journey
13. Update/create a business card
14. Go to a conference
15. Take an online course
16. Present at a trade show
17. Join a business club/group
18. Conduct A/B testing on everything possible
19. Do a letterbox drop
20. Launch a discount/coupon campaign
21. Advertise on the radio
22. Record a video ad using your smartphone
23. Order stickers with your logo on them
24. Advertise in the local paper
25. Order an A-Frame for your shopfront
26. Create a social media presence
27. Create/update your Google My Business
28. Start writing a blog
29. Set up Google Analytics on your site
30. Add an email subscription form on social media
31. Create a free download for website visitors
32. Create/update your email signature block
33. Add sharing buttons on your website
34. Send out a customer satisfaction survey
35. Ask for referrals
36. Help a local club/group
37. Donate prizes for a local contest/trivia night
38. Establish a cross-promotion with another business
39. Hire a marketing firm
40. Request a website audit (many sites offer them for free)
41. Create a mascot for your business
42. Tattoo your logo (a little crazy!)

If you’re a Canberra business looking for help in marketing to Canberra, or even beyond, we’d love to offer you a no-obligation consultation. Simply get in touch with us and we can either meet in person or via video chat.

However, it’s certainly not all bad and there are plenty of Canberra based companies that are doing it right. So we thought we’d give you the rundown on what influencers are, why they are becoming more important and how they can benefit businesses big and small.

What is an influencer?

Put simply, an influencer is an individual or collective who has built an online following in a particular niche (e.g. gaming, makeup, fitness, etc.) via content creation. This relationship with the audience can then be leveraged by said influencers to influence the purchase decisions of their audience. 

Canberra native Camille Aniversario is a perfect example of what a modern influencer is. The mother of three originally started a personal Instagram account based around sharing photos of her young family and writing accompanying blog posts about their lives and blog posts of her family (https://www.instagram.com/camilleaniversario/). The account quickly gained attention from other Instagram users and traditional media outlets which allowed her to not only promote other local brands but also her personal endeavours.  She now is the owner of four Instagram accounts with a combined audience of over 22 thousand followers. The content found on these accounts ranges from simple lifestyle blogging to business promotion and more recently, advocating for local women’s rights organisations.

Why are companies moving from celebrities to more niche influencers?

As online content platforms have drastically changed the media we engage with and how we consume it, so too has it changed people’s views of mainstream celebrities. The younger generation no longer looks to inaccessible Hollywood movie stars for guidance and instead turn to more relatable online content creators. I mean who are you more likely to trust; a movie star who you might see in one, maybe two movies a year, or an online blogger who’s personal and professional content you consume everyday?

The statistics reflect this shift as well. A study conducted by Roth Capital found that 78% of millennials aren’t influenced by celebrity endorsements, whilst another conducted by MediaKix showed that over 80% of marketers find influencer marketing effective. Moreover, industry experts believe that as traditional media platforms continue to become eroded by online content hubs, global expenditure on influencer marketing is expected to reach $6.5 billion annually by the end of the year. This figure is even crazier when you take into consideration that expenditure was only $1.7 billion in 2016.

Why would you hire an influencer?

1. Improves Brand Awareness – Tapping into a highly engaged online audience is an effective way to further the reach of your brand as well as its general salience. The key to maximizing influencer strategy is ensuring that you’re providing valuable content that adds to their social media presence also, ensuring value on both sides.
2. People value authenticity (which is something that typical celebrities lack) – Influencers have spent years in some cases building relationships, trust, and credibility with their fans. People not only respect their content but also their personal recommendations which is something your brand can leverage in order to motivate their audience to purchase your product
3. Allows more niche-targeted marketing – Through relevant influencers, your content is placed in front of social users that are already interested in your niche. This means you can forgo spending additional funds on market research in order to find and test your target audience – the influencer has already done the leg work by curating an engaged audience
4. Cost-effective – Recruiting influencers to market your product is much cheaper than other traditional avenues. A study by Bloglovin’ shows that a majority of micro-influencers charge less than $500 for a sponsored post. Additionally, because of the targeted nature of influencer marketing that the strategy is effective in bringing in better quality customers which further increases its return on investment.
5. Can assist in content marketing – Most businesses are unable to dedicate the resources needed to constantly create engaging content for their customers. This is where influencers come in as they can help fill in the gaps of your own content schedule by producing more diverse (and in many cases higher quality) content.

Influencer marketing can be incredibly beneficial for startups, established businesses or simply those that have been struggling with gaining traction in their social media marketing.

If you wish to learn how you can effectively incorporate influencer outreach into your marketing strategy contact our team and schedule a consultation. We are proud to be on the cutting edge of this trend and we are excited to show Canberrans how this tactic can accelerate your online goals and benefit your brand! Keep an eye out for a list of Canberra influencers we are currently developing and will be launching very soon!

If you would like to be a part of our podcast, please fill out and submit the form linked below. If your application is successful we will get in touch with you via your preferred contact method and schedule a meeting to discuss this opportunity further.

If you want to be a part of this new project, do you have:

• strong ties to the Canberra community (you may be based in Canberra, or made your start in Canberra)
• time to dedicate approximately 30-45 minutes to conduct a video-call for the podcast (or come into our office to record the interview in person)

I am interested

Over the course of the last three days, I completed some work experience at Futuretheory. As a Year 12 student at Lake Ginninderra College, I aspired like many others to undertake a work experience that allows me to learn and grow.

The task of finding the right work experience host was long and didn’t seem within reach until I came upon Futuretheory’s website. The end goal of completing a short work experience was to see if the marketing field was the right fit for me and my future career. Before starting work experience, I had no prior experience in an office environment and had little idea of what to expect. Despite this, I was excited to experience something new and different from school and my usual day to day life.

On 1 July, my first day, I worked on a task that involved identifying target markets for a group called the ‘Future Tribe’. Prior knowledge from business studies classes helped me to complete the task and I also learned about the target markets needs, motivations and how to reach them. After completing this task, I worked on researching the world of podcasts. This research included finding out the most popular podcasting platforms and identifying podcasts that Futuretheory could partner with. I enjoyed these tasks as I found them interesting and I also learned about how a business in a similar space to Futuretheory would go about identifying and executing on opportunities.

On my second day of work experience I worked with Jasmine, an intern at Futuretheory. I started off this day by completing a solo task about social media and advertising which involved researching into local Canberra Instagram accounts. During the second half of the day, I worked alongside Jasmine to complete tasks involving writing and researching for a blurb about the new photography/videography studio located in the office.

After that Jasmine gave me a crash course on Adobe Illustrator, which I found difficult but interesting as I had never used the application before.

The third and final day of my time working with Futuretheory involved investigating further into the business itself. I completed a SWOT analysis which involved looking at the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats concerning the business. To finish off my last few hours of the day, I wrote this post detailing my experience of working at Futuretheory.

Overall my experience at Futuretheory has taught what it means to work within a 9-5 office environment – from the type of work you do to what day to day operations look like. The most enjoyable part of work experience was being able to implement what I have learned over the years in real life business tasks. Overall, I’m glad and thankful for this opportunity to work with the team and space at Futuretheory. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time and wish the best for the future of the business as they continue to grow and expand.

Q and A

What is the highlight of your work experience?
The highlight of my work experience at Futuretheory would be the opportunity to work with a business that works in the social and marketing space. I found it engaging to work with new people, in a new environment and learn from knowledgeable individuals.

What has been the most important thing you learned?
The most valuable lesson I have taken away from my time at Futuretheory would be living in the day to day life of an average person within a workplace. It was valuable as a young student on the verge of adulthood to see what the world looks like outside of school. I learned how different a usual school day is from a usual work day. All of which is valuable experience to bring into early adulthood and my time at university in the coming years.

Has anything surprised you during your work experience?
With Futuretheory being the first office/business environment I have engaged in, I had preconceived ideas of what to expect which where far from the truth. I imagined a large room filled with busy hustlers ready to start the day, which would be true for other office environments but Futuretheory is more of a digital space where work happens in the digital world rather than running around in person.

What are you thinking of doing/studying after school?
After graduating Year 12, I hope to study at the University of Canberra. I am yet to commit to a degree but the most likely outcome will be a Bachelor of Health Science with a Major in Marketing.

Do you have any advice for people looking at doing work experience themselves?
My advice towards others wishing to complete work experience would be to put your worries or negative thoughts aside and just give it a go! Work experience isn’t a hard chore like some think and instead is a valuable learning experience. Even if the work experience you choose doesn’t go as you expect, you can at least go on your way knowing that the specific field is not for you and explore other avenues.

For the keen-eyed who noticed, the time according to the dashcam is incorrect. It was actually 10pm not 9pm – I’ve been too lazy to correct the time on there.

As the Mt Stromlo Observatory reports, “It was a nice and bright but relatively small meteor. This would have been on the order of 20 – 50cm when it came into the Earth’s atmosphere. The blue-green color is iron melting in the atmosphere!”

We’ve just opened up our studio for hire in Canberra and of course, moved Futuretheory into the office as well. So seeing a meteor is supposed to represent good luck (at least in some culture according to this site: http://www.meteoritemarket.com/legend.htm), I’m going to take it as a positive sign!

For the uninitiated, a shared workspace or coworking space is a shared workplaces where independent entrepreneurs, freelancers and creatives can work and collaborate with one another. At its core, the business model is based off of the principles of mutual trust and the sharing of common core values between its participants. These spaces (which are usually situated in metropolitan areas) typically offer features such as high-speed internet, specialised facilities, centralised locations and free amenities to its members in return for a monthly or weekly fee.

Some examples of Canberra’s most popular coworking spaces can be found on curated lists at https://coworkingmag.com/australia/coworking-spaces-canberra/ and https://www.coworker.com/australia/canberra. Work Canberra is not currently featured on these sites list, but we hope it’s only a matter of time!

Whilst we are excited to offer a collaborative office space to fellow Canberrans, we also understand that one size does not fit all. So to determine whether a shared office space is a right decision for you we have compiled a list of  Pros and Cons as we see it so that you can make the decision for yourself.

Pros

So why has the Coworking business model taken the world by storm?

Cost effective

The most central benefit of using a coworking space is having the ability to work in a fully furnished office space without significant investment. Using a shared space allows you to operate your business without needing to compute and allocate funds for things such as rent, insurance, office equipment or other fixed costs that arise when starting a business. The infographic seen below is a solid depiction of how these expenses which are often overlooked can add up quickly and place the company in question into a large financial commitment.

This low barrier to entry is extremely beneficial to self-employed individuals or small businesses who usually utilise these spaces as they often do not have the capital to formally lease high-quality office spaces (particularly when starting off). With this being said, even if you can afford it financially, the time spent on sourcing equipment and furniture, talking to contractors and getting licenses is time that could be invested into building your business.

Scaling on demand/flexibility

Not being locked into an office lease also has the added benefit of increased flexibility for aspiring entrepreneurs or businesses. Most coworking space providers will offer members different workspace packages tailored to their specific needs (e.g. hot desks, designated working areas or even private offices). These options usually come with extremely short-term commitments that allow users to opt out if they feel they are not gaining value from the service. Conversely, this flexibility also facilitates growing companies to scale-up their operation with relative ease and bring in new staff our equipment immediately.

It should be noted that these on-demand cost structures are a lot like gym memberships. If you use the complete offering you get good value. But if you don’t, it can end up being a very expensive option.

Creativity and collaboration

Coworking spaces have often been described as the perfect mix of the best attributes working in an office and being a freelancer has to offer. On one hand, you have the agency to work independently on something you are passionate about, and on the other you are surrounded by a group of like minded professionals can use their expertise to develop these ideas.

Moreover, working in a shared office space is a great way to network and connect with a wide array of small business owners, intellectuals, freelancers and entrepreneurs everyday. Not only does this give you the opportunity to grow your personal brand, but it also enables you to outsource tasks to great talents when you need help with specific projects or time-sensitive tasks.

There is a reason people in business often say “it’s not what you know, but who you know”

Low-maintenance

Maybe one of the most unnoticed benefits a coworking space offers is the ability for individuals to begin working immediately. These facilities almost always provide furnishing, administrative assistance, amenities and snacks to its tenants so they can focus entirely on business-related tasks.

The last thing any business owner wants to do when signing the lease for a new workspace is worry about setting up furniture, internet or a dodgy printer that always runs out of ink. Germaine himself can attest to the many frustrating late nights he spent ensuring Futuretheory’s move to Fyshwick was as quick and seamless as possible.

Maybe put in a photo of how messy our office was when you first got the keys if you have one

Cons

Now before you get too excited and book in three separate desks, you should be aware that there are some drawbacks to undergoing such an endeavour.

Distracting events/crowds and commotion

Whilst this may not be an issue for many, I personally love my alone time. Being able to zone into my work without people looking over my shoulder, asking if I want a coffee or talking to me about the NBA finals ensures I am able to produce the best work possible.

Unfortunately, for people like myself, the fast-paced and dynamic nature of coworking spaces can sometimes make focusing on the task at hand difficult. It can be hard to do work at the best of times, but it becomes even harder when you have seven business meetings, three client pitches and twenty coffee breaks all going on in the same room. This is made even worse by the model’s lack of formal structure when compared to typical workplaces, which can make it difficult to draw the line between work and socialisation.

Sacrificed Privacy

Following on from the last point, working in a shared environment means you forgo an element of privacy to your work. Coworking spaces often forgo the use of walls for glass dividers (or no dividers at all) and limit the number of secluded work areas. This means you will likely have to deal with people glancing over your shoulder or overhearing your phone calls all day. Whilst this may seem like a minor inconvenience at best, you have to consider the possibility of competitors occupying the same office space and what would be the implications of them having such easy access to your information.

Collaboration is based on culture

As previously mentioned, collaborating with other professionals is one of the key benefits of using a shared office space. However, if the owners of the space don’t make a conscious effort to establish a collaborative and friendly culture between their tenants, the area becomes little more than a glorified library. This is often why you have to look beyond factors such as location and size when deciding upon a coworking space.

Conclusion

So should you be utilising a coworking space? Well, that depends. If you are a young entrepreneur, freelancer or small business owner looking to collaborate with like-minded individuals then it is quite advantageous. Conversely, if you find that you work best in solitude or the nature of your business involves sensitive information then it probably isn’t.

As with most things, the best way to tell if it is the best fit for you is to visit the space, which is easy given that there are a number of options in Canberra such as Entry 29 and Goodwork in the city, WOTSO in Dickson and Symonston, or even our friends at Keep Co who are less than 5 minutes away.

In this blog post, I want to cover a few of my thoughts and experiences. Living in Canberra I’ve been fortunate to shoot all around the capital, do a lot of photography while travelling, and will soon be opening my own photography studio in Canberra!