Proliferation

Jun 10
0

Three Indicators You’re Destined to Be a Web Designer

By | web development, website design | No Comments

Are you more likely to blow your entire paycheck at the local art supply store than the Apple Store? Do you carry a sketchbook in your back pocket or purse next to your keys and wallet? Do you cringe at terrible design concepts while walking through a local business subdivision? If you answered “yes” to any of the above questions, then there’s a highly likely chance that you have the DNA of a web designer. Here are a few key indicators that your life calling is to create innovative website design.

1. You Judge People, Places and Things by Font Choice

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You walk into a new restaurant, and as you’re waiting for a table, you decide to use the facilities. Plastered on the door of the restroom is a sign that reads “Please Ask for Key” — in Comic Sans. As soon as your eyes land on this repulsive font choice, you know that you can’t trust the quality of the restaurant. You grab your significant other and book it out of there faster than you can say Times New Roman.

2. You’re More Swayed by a Product’s Packaging Than the Actual Product

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We all might be a little guilty of purchasing a product based solely on its superior packaging — especially if that product is from Glossier, Everlane or Birchbox. The non-designer brain has no problem choosing the product with (shudder) ugly packaging; however, the brain of someone destined for the field of website design is repulsed by the mere thought of bringing something so homely into her home.

3. You’d Never Dream of Throwing Away Magazines

stack of magazines

Your magazine library is almost as extensive as your collection of books — and you wouldn’t dream of ever tossing one of your most beloved magazines. Is it the layout? The font choices? The general inspiration that they provide? It might be a combination of all three. Whatever the case, if you’ve got a hefty collection of magazines, it’s pretty safe to say that you’re destined to work in the field of website design — after you’re done pouring over the latest issue of Interview, naturally.

Jun 09
0

Letting Your Fonts Speak For You

By | Design, web development, website design | No Comments

Picking a font for a company webpage goes well beyond knowing the difference between Serif and Sans Serif. Though the basics of font choice are always a necessity, it is important to remember that picking the perfect font requires time, effort and expertise.

Some self-taught font fanatics and many professional website design companies have the skills necessary to take any website font from bland to brilliant. Selecting the appropriate font during website design allows for companies to draw customers in — and keep them there.

Being Influential With Font Choice

Fonts can do one of two things. Fonts can exemplify your message, enhancing the reader experience and creating a cohesive feel, or fonts can be disruptive and mess everything up. 

Good website design uses fonts to enhance the text and represent the company as a whole. If your company has an elegant feel, consider using a cursive or calligraphy font. On the flip side, if your company is big, bold and loud, let your font express that to the world.

Fonts have the ability to describe something about your company to consumers without express verbal explanations. Consider fonts to be the clothing choice of website design; if you wish to appeal to a group of classic southerners, you dress in classic southern attire. If you want your website design to speak to a classic southern audience on a subconscious level, you use a font that evokes a classic southern feel.

Finding a Font That Fits

After a company identifies what feel it wishes the font to portray, the actual font selection process begins. In many cases, individuals with website design expertise can help companies make the final selection. This ensure that a company is making the most appropriate selection.

If your company wishes to portray a big and bold image, begin looking at fonts that fit in that realm. As you study font options, take time to do the research. Find out what other entities use your font; knowing who else uses certain fonts helps make your final decision informed and educated.

In some situations, companies may wish to have their website design team develop an entirely new font for its webpage. This is perfectly acceptable when done carefully.

Fonts are used not only for website design but for company logos as well — eventually these fonts may evolve into a key factor in identifying your company. However, the time it takes to carefully select a font — especially in cases like these — will always pay off.

Jun 09
0

What UX Means for Your SEO Strategy

By | Google, SEO, Utah, Utah SEO | No Comments

There’s a problem with the way many companies are approaching SEO. We’re not talking about a problem at a few agencies in Utah. We’re talking about an industry-wide issue, and the issue is this: In an industry where SEO rules supreme, professionals are starting to treat SEO as war for keywords — when in reality SEO is a war for the consumer. You win that war through UX.

What Is UX?

UX is the standard abbreviation for “user experience.” Let’s be frank — it doesn’t matter how many customers end up on your website if they don’t stay. You could effectively use keywords all day long and have the worst UX on the World Wide Web — if your UX stinks, say goodbye to your customers.

How Does UX Work With SEO?

UX and SEO may seem like awkward stepsiblings at first, each on one end of the spectrum professionals have created in their minds of what makes up a successful Web approach. That’s simply not true. UX and SEO actually together work in beautiful harmony.

Think about it. The whole point of SEO is to get visitors onto your website and turn them into customers. In order to do that, you need to create an experience that attracts people, grabs hold of their interest and helps them accomplish what they came to do. It doesn’t matter if they came to book a trip to Moab, Utah or to buy a new DVD player as long as your website helps them do that in the easiest way possible.

Is UX Really That Important?

Don’t sacrifice UX to try and satisfy a Google algorithm. Amazing UX will naturally create an increase as happy customers share and distribute information about their experiences. Sally in Utah will be more than happy to tell her friend Peggy a thousand miles away about the awesome website she just found. She’ll probably tell all her blog followers too.

Keywords will always be important, but they’re a baseline that Google assumes you are already doing. UX is the new frontier of SEO, and as Google’s algorithms become more sophisticated, you can bet that UX will have a dramatic impact on rankings.

Jun 08
0

Twitter’s New Changes: What They Mean for Marketing

By | digital marketing, marketing agencies, Social Media | No Comments

Lift up your voice and rejoice! Twitter just announced some major changes that will make life at marketing agencies much easier. The changes are a step towards loosening Twitter’s strict 140-character limit in tweets, while still preserving its signature micro blogging charm.

Adios “.@”

 Under Twitter’s current formula, tweets starting with another user’s Twitter handle were only seen by the shared followers of the person tweeting and the recipient. Twitter users created the “.@” to circumvent this rule. When the new changes take effect, users can do away with that pesky period before the handle. Tweets beginning with a handle will be seen by everyone instead of being restricted.

Media Files

 In the past, photos, GIFs, videos, polls and quote tweets could take up to 25 characters each. The new rules do not count media files towards the character total. This is especially welcomed news for marketing agencies that rely increasingly on visual and interactive elements to engage with audiences. Not having to worry about characters being sucked up by media files means more room to be creative and share your message.

Twitter Handles in Replies

 When replying to another user, Twitter handles will no longer count toward the character limit, with one exception: Only names already in the conversation will be exempt from counting. Adding new handles to the conversation will still count toward the character limit.

Retweet Yourself

 That’s right, Kanye. The new Twitter will allow you to retweet and quote yourself. You’re so vain. You probably think this tweet is about you … oh wait, it is.

When Will It Come to Pass?

 In the blog post announcing the changes, Twitter’s Senior Project Manager Todd Sherman said users could expect the updates to roll out in the next few months. He also announced plans to help users get even more from their tweets. Marketing agencies can only hope that means URL links will one day not count toward those precious 140 characters either. Twitter gods, hear our plea.

Jun 06
0

How Google and SEO Changed the Marketing Workforce

By | Google, SEO, Utah, Utah SEO | No Comments

If not for Google, we wouldn’t be writing this and you wouldn’t be reading it. Thanks to Google, the increased need for digital content gave rise to a whole new workforce from Utah to the East Coast — and it all started as part of the genesis of online search.

Early in the internet days, search engines like Google made it possible to find information more easily online. To be found in a search, websites had to be relevant, which in the earlier days of the internet (just as now) meant your site had to be associated with certain keywords. This gave rise to what we now call search engine optimization, or SEO.

Initially, some companies would try to game the search algorithms and increase relevance by stuffing their pages full of keywords just to appear more relevant than they actually were. Meanwhile, more forward-thinking SEO firms in Utah were already focused on content and the user experience.

Luckily, Google had higher standards for what a website should be, and a cluttered mess of poorly placed keywords didn’t cut it. To respond to low-quality sites, Google continued to update its algorithms to reward sites that produce content relevant to their markets and keywords, while punishing those with poor content and shady SEO strategies.

This need for relevant — and most importantly — high-quality content changed the way companies approach marketing, and thus gave birth to what we know as content marketing today. Consumers in Utah and elsewhere suddenly had all the information they needed at their fingertips, so it was up to brands to be a part of the conversation by publishing their own content. If brands weren’t providing potential customers information they needed, customers could easily find it somewhere else.

Content became king because it allowed brands to improve SEO in Utah and nationwide, but more importantly, it started connecting consumers with brands they can trust.

This need for content caused a massive shift in how businesses approach marketing. Suddenly videographers, writers and designers were more in demand than ever. Digital marketing agencies popped up to provide these services, and artists of all media types had the opportunity to make an impact in the business world by developing content for brands in need. We thank Google for having the foresight to promote high quality content and give so many people the opportunity to enter the workforce doing what they love.

Jun 02
0

Fiverr, Freelancer, or Fusion: Who’s the Best Pick for Your Site Design?

By | web development, website design | No Comments

There are a lot of ways to get a website built. You can build one from ones of those janky site builders or hack one together on your own with WordPress and a $90 template. For a lot of small businesses in Utah, that might seem like a solid web development decision, but for those who want to stand out, it ain’t gonna cut it.

The best thing you can do is build something fresh from scratch. If you want to stand out among millions of businesses from Utah to Ukraine, it’s the only option you have. The question is, then, who can make it happen?

A lot of businesses are tempted to use freelancers, and several websites have popped up over the last few years that promise to set you up with a professional to get things done. But can they make the cut when it comes to web development?

Fiverr

Fiverr allows you to buy five dollar services from experts. The catch, of course, is that five dollars will usually just get you a quick fix on an existing website. Building something from scratch probably isn’t really feasible. For getting small, quick changes to what you already have, Fiverr might not be such a bad idea, but proper web development for your Utah business? Nah.

Freelancer

Freelancer connects you with an expert or experts who can complete an entire web project. You post information about the job, the scope, and your budget, and wait for someone to pick up your assignment. The trouble here is that while you can pay Freelancer to help you find people, you may not be totally certain about their skill set, ability to understand your needs and so forth. Finding a reputable, experienced freelancer can be a challenge through services like these.

Fusion 360

The awesome thing about hiring an agency for web development (particularly one based near you in Utah), is that you can find one with a proven track record and one that has lots of work samples. An agency such as Fusion 360 has a much, much more hands-on approach as they get to know your brand and we offer supplementary services outside of basic protocol. Content, video production, custom imagery and more are all things we can provide in addition to just the site design.

Ultimately, it’s up to the individual business whether it’s worth it for them to go the inexpensive route and risk being frustrated with a dull site, or find a firm that can deliver the killer digital properties they’re really looking for in a web design.

Jun 02
0

How to Repurpose Content Without Killing SEO

By | SEO, Utah SEO | No Comments

Coming up with new content ideas is the bane of any digital marketer’s existence. Let’s get real. How many articles about SEO can you really write before it all begins to sound the same? Simply republishing articles doesn’t work. Google can sniff out that ploy in seconds, and it will hurt your SEO more than help. So, what can you do to make your life easier and still improve your SEO? Repurpose content.

Repurposing is different from republishing. Republishing is simply copy and pasting, while repurposing is a recycling and refurbishing of old ideas. This can be done in several ways. We’ll share a few of our favorites.

Video

Video is a great way to repurpose content. Say you’ve written a blog post on the history of Utah. You can take this same idea, even the same information, and present it in a new way through video. Your new video on the history of Utah can be shared in ways that the blog post could not. It will also reach audiences that prefer video to the written word.

Infographics

If you’re looking to go viral, an infographic is the way to go. People love sharing infographics because they are a visually appealing way to share data quickly. That blog post on the history of Utah could easily be made into a graphic timeline — and Pinterest, here you come.

Presentations

Some pieces of content may lend themselves to a presentation like Keynote or PowerPoint. Think how useful a presentation on the history of Utah would be to a history teacher, and how quickly that teacher would share it with friends. Using document-sharing sites like Slideshare allows you to share the information while continually boosting SEO.

Podcasts

Could you expand an old blog post into a podcast? Podcasts can reach a more captive audience, like people working out at the gym or driving home from work. You can also invite experts to participate and expand on your chosen topic.

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Just paint it a few different colors and offer a variety of sizes.

Jun 02
0

How to Keep People Coming Back to Your Blog

By | Blogging, content marketing | No Comments

So you’ve been busting out content like a madman. You’re stoked because you’ve pushed out content every day this week and you’re positive your content marketing strategy is on lock.Trouble is, your blog traffic stinks. Maybe you have a decent number of unique visits, but nobody seems to be coming back except that one sad soul in his mom’s basement in Utah. You’re getting visitors, but you’re not establishing connections — you’re not building an audience. What should you do? How do you promote more regular readership and get a bigger audience?

Dig Your Hooks in

You need content that hooks readers and gets them wanting more. If you notice a lot of engagement on a particular post, whether it’s questions, comments, or shares, you’re doing something right. If your subject or copy just isn’t compelling for readers, you may need to switch things up in terms of your tone of voice, or the subjects themselves. If your content marketing gives people what they want, they’ll come back.

A niche focus can be your friend as well. There might be a dozen blogs about the life and times of Norwegian black metal flutists, but what about Norwegian black metal fluting in Utah?

Send Direct

If you’re not giving people an opportunity to receive regular email updates from your blog, you’re giving people just enough time to forget you exist. You want more readers than just the Utah basement guy? Get them hooked on your content, but add a regular newsletter send to your content marketing mix. Give readers an easy path to return to you and give them the content they like and you’re golden.

Sharing is Caring

Give your readers an easy way to share things through social buttons and sharing options. And don’t forget that you can’t expect people to find your content in a vacuum (with the exception of our Utah basement fellow). Instead, get on social media and share your stuff there so you can give people every opportunity to spread your message for you.

If you’re churning out lots of content, you’re doing one thing most businesses aren’t. All it takes is a few small tweaks to your promotion strategy to start really ramping up engagement and earning new readers by the minute. With some hard work, your content marketing strategy will start showing the results you desire.

May 27
0

Fusion 360: A New Generation of Revolutionaries

By | content marketing, digital marketing | No Comments

In the year 1776, a piece of paper signed by 56 men started a revolution. Sure, there’d been other revolutions before, but the world had never seen a revolution like this. This was a group of colonies with relatively nothing to their name rising up against the most powerful country in the world, and for what? For an idea that had never been tried before and, as far as the world was concerned, probably wouldn’t succeed. But it did.

That’s the thing about revolutionaries. They can see a future in the distance that others just can’t grasp. With creativity, hard work and a little bit of luck they don’t just embrace the new world. They create it. At Fusion 360, we are revolutionaries.

Fusion 360 doesn’t seek to be on par with the best marketing agencies in the world. We want to lead them. When other marketing agencies reach an advertising peak, we’ll be waving to them from the next summit.

You see, there’s a revolution happening right now. The world of digital marketing is changing and developing and growing, and we were there to sign its declaration of independence from the marketing strategies of the past. Other marketing agencies are joining the fight, but we’ve been out on the front lines for years, right where we want to be.

We’re a tight battalion of marketing soldiers. We collaborate together, eat together and fight many a Nerf battle together. This environment enables us to be creative and formulate innovative strategies. We’re not afraid to share new ideas — because at Fusion 360 ideas aren’t rejected, they’re improved. We work hard, and we play hard because that’s how you keep the spark of revolution burning.

Why are we like this? Why do we insist on rising up for ideas that have never been tried before? Because we are Fusion 360. We are the agency for the digital revolution.

May 27
0

Seven of the Best Easter Eggs on the Web

By | content marketing, digital marketing | No Comments

The Internet is a beautiful thing. It’s a place where ideas flow freely no matter how bogus, and the bizarre and ridiculous are welcomed with open screens. Everyone from digital marketing companies to your weird neighbor down the street who lives in his parents’ basement can take part in the worldwide Web. But there are secrets lurking in the hidden corners of your favorite websites. They’re called Easter eggs, and they are amazing.

We’re not talking about the hardboiled eggs you dye with your mom and hide in the backyard — which, let’s be honest, is a weird tradition no one seems to understand why we do. These Easter eggs are hidden “surprises” coders embed within websites and programs just because they can. Even digital marketing companies have been known to hide a thing or two in their websites. Now, we know you’re entering Nicholas Cage in “National Treasure” mode as you read this, so we’ve assembled a list of a few of our favorite website Easter eggs to get you started.

1. Wikipedia’s Easter Egg

Search “Easter egg” on Wikipedia. Check out the image of two rabbits in the right-hand corner. See the hedgehog? Click it. It’s basically Easter egg inception.

2. Buzzfeed’s Wilkie Takeover

Mark Wilkie is the chief technology officer at Buzzfeed, and clearly someone in the Web department loves him very much. Click anywhere in the white space of the Buzzfeed homepage, and then, type the Nintendo Konami Code (UP ARROW – UP ARROW – DOWN ARROW – DOWN ARROW – LEFT ARROW – RIGHT ARROW – LEFT ARROW – RIGHT ARROW – B – A). Suddenly everything’s coming up Wilkie.

3. Google Images’ Atari Breakout

Feel the need to travel back to 1976? Search for “Atari Breakout” in Google images, and you can play the game to your heart’s content.

4. British Vogue Dino

Even the British digital marketing companies love a good Easter egg. Visit British Vogue’s homepage, click the white space and type in that beautiful Konami Code. You’re welcome.

5. The Bacon Number

Even digital marketing companies love a good web gimmick. They also love Kevin Bacon, though they might not admit it. Someone at Google also loves Kevin Bacon because that person had a brilliant idea called “The Bacon Number”. Bacon Numbers operate under the theory that all celebrities are connected to Kevin Bacon by six or less degrees of separation. Each celebrity’s Bacon Number reflects that degree. Google search “Bacon Number” and the name of any celebrity to find out how close each has come to the incomparable Kevin Bacon. 

In case you were wondering, Chris Pratt’s Bacon Number is 2.

6. Pirate Language

Change your Facebook language settings to “English (Pirate).” Never gets old.

7. Earl’s Court Station

Here’s one for all you “Doctor Who” fans hitting a slow day of work at your digital marketing companies. Head over to Google Maps and search for “Earl’s Court Station.” Entering street view lets you catch a glimpse of a particular blue police box. You can even go inside by dropping your yellow street view dude right on the pin in classic map view or by double clicking the box from street view level.