What Design Trends Should We Be Looking Out For This Year?
For small businesses it’s vital to keep ahead of the crowd and be up to date with design trends and new ideas that could help you innovate or reach new customers. The Drum recently spoke to a number of experts to discover their thoughts on the hottest design trends to watch out for this year. They’re talking VUIs, empathy, the speed of living, and old fashioned ‘good ideas!’
Hana Tanimura, senior designer, Google Creative Lab
Traditionally, design has been synonymous with some kind of visual output. But that is changing quickly, and I believe that designing ‘invisible’ interactions will become increasingly important in the future.
Voice user interfaces (VUIs) haven’t always been successful at creating genuinely useful experiences for people. But machine learning has advanced by leaps and bounds in recent months, which has in turn enabled huge improvements in the field of natural language processing. These technological developments have fueled a rapid evolution in VUI design, and we’re beginning to see designers grapple with the possibilities that a hands-free, eyes-free interface can offer. (While voice interactions aren’t appropriate for all situations, I believe they will become more and more commonplace as we continue to expect technology to work for and around us in a more seamless way).
Alan Dye, co-founder and creative director NB Studio
Michael Wolff, a good friend of NB and a collaborator on many projects, introduced Nick [Finney, co-founder] and I recently to this wonderful quote by Maya Angelou.
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”.
I believe that creating work that makes people feel something is what branding is all about. And it’s what NB have been doing for the past 20 years. Being...
Only 9% Of Small Businesses Focus On Website Conversion
The Digital Marketing Magazine recently reported on some research by marketing agency Digimax. The research asked small businesses about their discussions with web designers while working on creating their new website. Here are some of the key findings:
9% of the time spent in discussions focuses on website conversion
3% of time is given to branding
27% of discussion time was spent on layout
23% on graphics and pictures
Content takes up 38% of the time
Obviously, as a small business you want your website to looks great. You want it to be attractive and appealing, as in many cases it will be the gateway for new customers and new business. Content was given the most time for discussion and this, of course, is what keeps your users engaged – but then what? 98% of the businesses questioned actually said that they are building a website to make more money. So surely encouraging users to buy, or at least make an action, is the next (very important) step, once they have been impressed by a beautiful looking site and consumed all of your engaging content. So if you’re having a new website created, or you’re considering a re-design here are some tips to help turn your visitors into customers by considering your website conversion.
Website Conversion – What To Consider
Calls To Action – it needs to be clear and easy for your user to do what you want them to do. Whether that’s to make an enquiry, sign-up or buy something. If your CTA is hard to find, unclear or involves to0 many clicks or slow loading pages you risk losing potential customers.
Usability & Navigation – does your menu structure make...
More Women in Tech Could Mean a Big Boost for European GDP
Across the EU there is a lack of women in tech and ICT roles. In fact, women make up only 18% of the ICT industry in Europe, compared to 48% in non-ICT sectors. This map, very interestingly, shows the percentage of women in tech across Europe. The UK come in at a below average 17%. Bulgaria, followed by Estonia and Romania come in top and Luxembourg has the lowest percentage of women in tech at 11%.
This issue may stem from the fact that women are much less likely to choose to study a technology or ICT related course at university. The figures show that out of 1000 women in Europe with BA degrees, only 29 of them studied in the tech field. It’s also true that women who do go on to work in this sector are less likely to hold high-level positions and become managers.
This all may sound rather negative, however women are paid more fairly in the tech sector. So this may not only encourage more women into the sector, but may help towards closing the gender pay gap which we still hear so much about in the UK. There is also a huge skills gap across the EU, with an estimated gap of 800,000 jobs requiring specialist ICT skills. Taking all this into account the European Commission has stated that European GDP could be boosted by 9 billion Euros a year if more women...
Are Brands Neglecting The Baby Boomers?
We hear a lot about marketing to millennials but new research from global loyalty marketing agency, ICLP found that retailers may be losing touch with the over 55s. 82% of baby boomers said they felt their favourite retail brand just doesn’t understand them and their needs.
Perhaps the age of Snapchat marketing is not only excluding the baby boomer generation but leaving them feeling unimportant and under-appreciated. This is likely to push away a generation who have perhaps been loyal to a brand for some time, and lead them to find an option more tailored to them.
Baby boomers are a generation who have had it pretty good, they were the first generation to go abroad on holiday rather than to fight a war, and many have already comfortably retired on generous pensions. This, of course, means that there’s disposable income there for the spending. Brands within the travel, leisure, health and home improvement industries should most probably count the over 55s as one of their most important target audiences. So according to this research, what can brands do to keep hold, or regain, the loyalty of this important consumer generation?
Create stronger rewards programmes: 73% said that they would buy more if they were rewarded better by their favourite retailer.
Communication is also crucial: 60% would buy more if brands communicated with them better, demonstrating the value of retailer communications when it comes to building devoted and profitable relationships with consumers.
Reliability and honesty are key: 47% of Baby Boomers said that when it comes to retailers, when things go wrong, it’s important that they get a swift apology and solution.
Offer consistent and reliable products/services: 70% of Baby Boomers said that they would spend more at their favourite retailer if their products were consistent and reliable.
Build respect and...
How Close Are Small Businesses To Going Completely Cashless?
We may be closer than we think to our first ever cashless day according to Wired. Sweden is particularly close with only 20% of transactions made in cash in 2014, and with e-commerce continuing to grow strongly.
Finance Technology is a hot topic right now, not only in terms online sales, but in-store purchases too. It’s now easier than ever to be a market trader and accept cashless payments via various contactless payment devices, so perhaps small business is leading the way?
Speeding Up Service
In the US the popular salad chain Sweetgreen is soon to make the move to cashless with payment only via their app or by card. Sweetgreen co-founder Jonathan Neman told Business Insider “[going cashless] started with an imperative that we’ve always had at Sweetgreen: How do we simplify things?” The company believe going cashless will speed up service by 10% as well as reducing the threat of robbery or theft.
Plastic, Mobile and Apps
India and Canada also have cities where going completely cashless sooner rather than later look likely. Bus companies here in the UK have spoken about plans to roll out cashless systems within the next few years. Going back to the Sweden, The Guardian recently reported that “Swish, a hugely popular app developed jointly with the major banks including Nordea, Handelsbanken, SEB, Danske Bank and Swedbank, uses phone numbers to allow anyone with a smartphone to transfer money from one bank account to another in real time.”
The younger generation has grown up with card and app payments as commonplace so this is only likely to fuel the trend further. MasterCard said contactless spending in the UK had more than tripled in the past year, and The Evening Standard reported that it could be...
What a Smartphone Needs To Be For Google Daydream Compatibility
Google Daydream is the combination of Google’s new VR headset and virtual experiences. Not locked to specific devices, all you need is a compatible Android phone. The constant development of VR is exciting and there is much discussion and review about how new technology like this could completely change certain industries.
So to begin with, some of the benefits of the Google Daydream (courtesy of a review by Digital Trends) that set the technology apart in a competitive market are;
Daydream content is high-quality
Remote has a long battery life and is ergonomic
Daydream View is comfortable to wear
Easy to use
Affordable
So if you fancy getting involved and purchasing a Google Daydream headset (it also comes with remote control) here’s what is required of your smartphone.
Now, the Google Daydream site currently recommends two phones, the Pixel obviously being one, and the Moto Z the second. There are also other Daydream ready phones on the horizon such as the Huawei Mate 9 Pro, the Asus Zenphone AR, and the ZTE Axon 7.
Essentially your phone needs to be able to “handle a pair of 60fps streams and a very low latency and persistence rate. This means the phone can display VR without jittery images, without motion blur that could potentially disorient you” – VRHeads.com.
To handle Daydream a phone needs to have the right combination of specifications. It’s not enough to have some high-spec components and not others. For example, this is why the Huawei Mate 9 is not Daydream compatible but the new Mate 9 Pro will be.
Amit Singh, the VP of Business and Operations for Google VR said; “The combination of performance needs a few things in the stack. The right GPU, Android N and above, and OLED display. There are others,...
How Personal Assistants are Changing SEO As We Know It
In a recent video update from Distilled, a leading marketing agency and SEO, we learn about the strong link personal assistants have with SEO. The obvious link is there of course; one use for personal assistants is to ask a question and have them search the web. However, there is way more potential for these apps than simple search alone.
As Distilled explain, the main players in the intelligent personal assistant space include Apple’s Siri, Google Now, Amazon Echo, Microsoft Cortana, along with up-and-coming competitors Hound and Facebook M.
Rather than a search engine simply finding a list of possible answers to your questions, the huge potential for these apps is to anticipate your needs before you even need to ask. The advantage of Google and other big players is data. A certain amount of information can be ‘assumed’ based on demographics such as sex, age, location, occupation etc. but it takes more to really understand an individual (see our blog on retargeting for more on this.) What personal assistants like this are aiming to become is your ‘best friend’ so they truly know what you like and don’t like, what you want and when.
Google already offer advanced and personal search features – such as searching through your own private photos, your emails or appointments, and it’s likely that this will be a key part of personal assistants of the future. Google is known as a search engine, but think about their involvement in the Nest home device and driverless cars and the term ‘personal...
Account-Based Marketing | Here to Stay?
Growth hacking, micro moments, conversation marketing; all content marketing buzz words that have been buzzing around this year. In fact Contently have put together a list of some of the worst! Is account-based marketing (ABM) a concept that will stick and be adopted by SMEs, or is it likely to be forgotten by 2017?
What is Account-based Marketing?
Often used by B2B firms, account-based marketing brings together sales and marketing focus to a clearly defined set of target accounts. Instead of casting the net wide open and trying to appeal to as my companies as possible ABM is about working in detail on a small number of core clients.
So if you image the traditional sales funnel, built very wide at the top to attract as many prospects as possible and then narrowing to filter through the process. This technique is out with account-based marketing, and instead marketers will cherry pick the brands and organisations that make the most sense to them. Building a relationship and a strategy to work with these organisations means those accounts are getting dedicated time and resource, and also that campaigns and strategies are particularly personalised.
Why Now?
This chart from eMarketer shows that the majority of firms are considering incorporating an account-based marketing approach. The fact is that the idea has been around for years, whether labelled with this title or not. It is the advance in technology that has allowed marketers to identify these core accounts more easily and accurately in recent years.
What are the Benefits?
Clear ROI – Marketo point out that compared to other marketing initiatives, the 2014 ITSMA Account-Based Marketing Survey...
Being Sustainable | How Big Brands Are Learning From SMEs
The Charted Institute of Marketing have brought together some really nice examples of how, for big business, learning from SMEs might be very effective advice.
Many creative ideas, viral marketing and innovative campaigns have started life small, and having the ability and flexibility to be truly innovative and creative is often a trait of young and small business. Being nimble, pioneering and sustainable are other characteristics of entrepreneurial small business – and particularly qualities big businesses could do with learning from SMEs.
In the CIM’s special ‘Marketing Sustainability’ report they spoke to three thriving SMEs who have made sustainability one of their key focuses. By being sustainable they have found new marketing opportunities and new business. Here are the three SMEs the report featured.
Wyke Farm
About: Wyke Farm is muti-award winning producer of cheese and butter.
How they’re sustainable: The business is building a renowned reputation for pioneering practices, such as all energy in production coming from solar and biogas. This SME also encourages workers to continually develop sustainable innovations.
What they say: Richard Clothier, managing director said: “A lot of corporates that I speak to, particularly efficient ones that are good at lean manufacturing models, struggle with the concept of sustainability. There is often a myth that it will cost more or complicate the business. But SMEs like ours show that if you develop things incrementally, if you’re authentic and are prepared to invest in a sustainable model, you can grow the business and make it more appealing to customers.”
“The reality is that when you adapt the marketing strategy so that sustainability is at its core, the net positive impact becomes more apparent. It can actually yield savings and efficiencies that you would never achieve using a lean manufacturing strategy alone.”
Falcon Coffees
About: Flacon Coffees...
Keep Going with Amazon Go!
Amazon Go is set to launch in Seattle in early 2017 and could be the next step in revolutionising the way we shop in-store.
E-commerce and online shopping is developing almost daily, but our physical, high-street shopping experiences have been becoming more digitalized over the years too. Self-service checkouts, digital catalogues and more recently the introduction of augmented reality for some retail brands is changing the way we shop.
In what could be the next significant move for shoppers Amazon Go is a new kind of shop, that offers a new kind of experience. Walk into the shop and scan your phone (something like entering the tube) put your phone away and simply shop as normal, picking up what you want. The best bit is though, that you can simply walk out, now queuing, no checkouts!
How Does Amazon Go Work?
Amazon describe their ‘Just Walk Out’ technology to be similar to that of self-driving cars, using “computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning.” More specific information hasn’t been confirmed but it’s likely that cameras, sensors and artificial intelligence will work together to create the shopping experience of the future. But really as a user all you know need to do is have an Amazon account, which will be charged for what you take from the store shortly after you leave.
The first store in the US will be a grocery store where shoppers can quickly pick up ‘on the go’ snacks or do a bigger shop if they wish.
Amazon Go will of course give Amazon even more customer data about how...
