The marketing industry is no less than a war zone and it’s always a treat to watch them battle it out through billboards, print and digital media ads etc.
Here are the top 5 picks from the list of Red Dash Media.
Coca Cola (Share a Coke Campaign)
A few years ago, Coca Cola took the world by storm when it launched the ‘Share a Coke’ campaign. People went berserk as they enthusiastically clicked pictures of Coke bottles with their names on it. The campaign was such a hit with the masses because it gave them a personalised experience with the brand.
This remains one of the top favourites of every digital marketing company in Delhi Because it took something ordinary like a name and created something extraordinary out of it.
Dove (Real BeautyCampaign)
It’s 2004 and a young girl sees a curvy woman with freckles on the billboard of a soap brand. She smiles because she feels represented and ends up buying that soap later that week. With their ‘Real Beauty’ campaign, Dove struck a chord with their target audience who mainly struggled with the issue of body image. That move, right there, is quite bold for a skincare brand. They featured real women in their ads instead of models thus promoting the natural beauty of women and garnering their love. This continues to be an inspiration for every social media agency in India and the rest of the world.
Apple (Privacy Campaign)
Mark Zuckerberg really messed it up for software companies with the whole data theft thing being exposed. Tech giant Apple answered the suddenly raised privacy concerns of the masses by launching a campaign that highlighted the privacy protecting features of its phones. This just proves that there’s a brilliant marketing campaign hidden in every situation if you really look at it from a brand’s perspective.
Lays (Smile Campaign)
About 3 years ago, pictures of faces half covered with packets of chips went viral. The smile campaign by Lay’s was an iconic move by the brand. By printing smiles on their packaging the brand encouraged people to try different flavours and on every purchase the brand made donations to Operation Smile. This remains in the heart of every digital marketing company in Delhi as a classic example of marketing with a good cause.
McDonald’s (I’m Lovin It Campaign)
We saved the best for the last. In 2003, McDonald’s did something truly out-of-the-box by announcing a competition between the ad agencies of the world for a tagline for the brand. The winning entry was the iconic ‘BA DA BA BA BA I’m Lovin It’. For the first time ever an audio element was added to a brand’s logo and it still continues to capture the hearts of millions. You hear the tune and you immediately think of McDonald’s. Now, THAT is brilliant marketing and every social media agency in India will agree to this.
If you observe carefully, the common thread between all the campaigns is the element of simplicity. All these brands took something very basic like a name, a smile, a fundamental concern like privacy and spun magic with it. This just goes on to prove the power of minimalism.
On that note, this is Red Dash Media signing off.
A website is your place in the Virtual World. It helps the audience understand the brand, it’s product and services. It depicts that every element of the website needs to work towards a defined objective. It’s crucial as data says that 38% of visitors will leave a website if they find the layout unattractive.
Websites set the first look, builds trust and creates consistency. To keep you ahead from your competitors, website design is crucial in today’s digital age.
Here we are going to discuss the ultimate 7 web design process in 7 easy steps :
Step 1 : Setting Goal
This beginning stage is the phase of research, pivotal to how the further steps will come out. The foremost task at this stage is to get a proper recognition of the purpose of one’s future website, the target one wishes to achieve, and the audience you want to bring to your website.
During the process, one should consider a set of questions:
What type of website do you want to create and its goal?
- Who is your intended audience?
- What specific features do you want to incorporate on the site?
- Who are your main competitors?
Your website’s design is a direct representation of your brand, and it needs to come across as genuine, legitimate and appealing.
Step 2 : Sitemap and Wireframe
Sitemap creation is crucial in deciding how the content and features set in scope will crosscut. This is the second stage of the website creation which develops features that allows a user to form an impression of the website.
The sitemap should build a connection between the main domains of your website. The portrayal and depiction could help realize how functional the end product will be. The importance of sitemap creation is to build a manageable and easy to navigate website.
A wireframe is a visual depiction of the user interface. It is a draft about how a web page will look like with details of the page.
Step 3 : Content Creation
This stage is very crucial for the website creation. It involves framing the written content. One needs to picture all the features of the page in accordance with the sitemap and wireframe created in step 2. The entire product team should work together to optimize, test, and recapitulate the minute details of each page. The product team and marketing team have to work together to test the elaborate details of each page and develop a productive SEO strategy for the content.
Content serves two essential purposes:
It drives engagement and action
Short, fascinating, and intriguing content captivates them and gets them to click through to other pages.
Search Engine Optimization
Content improves a site’s visibility for search engines. Right Keywords are crucial for the success of any website.
Step 4 : Visual Elements
This step of website design is to create the visuals for the website. Images play a very consequential role in the website design process now. Not only do high-quality Premium quality images give the website and brand an expert look and touch as well as help in building trust of the users. Visual creatives help in increasing the engagement, clicks and overall revenue of the website as well. Visual design is the best way to convey and intrigue to the users. Right visual design can result in the success of the website.
Step 5: Website Structure
Website structure is the actual framework of how all the pages of the website link with each other. It’s main focus is on user experience and the priority lies on the sort of experience the brand wants to provide the user while navigating through the website. This should be in consideration with the goals of the brand as well as the goals of the user.
Step 6 : Testing
After completing all visuals and content, the next step is testing of the website. Each page should be checked and tested in detail to confirm whether all the links are functioning in the right way and the website is operational in all devices and browsers.
Meta titles and descriptions should be inspected as even the order in which meta titles are presented can impact the performance of the website on search engines.
Step 7: Launch
This stage is the most interesting part of the website design process. After checking every page and link in detail, and the brand is satisfied with their website, it’s finally time to go live with the website.
Website design is a constant development process that requires timely check and maintenance. To avoid any wrong step, you should maintain a proper checklist.
The trends of Zero Click Searches are growing with the evolution of the web. As people become more mobile in 2021, the pattern of search engine optimisation keeps on changing and evolving. User related searches have become more dynamic over the years with the introduction and innovation of voice-related searches, and general awareness of the web. One way Google is evolving its user experience is by creating a superior search results algorithm, where a user does not need to click on any link to get the answer they were looking for. The most common example of these searches boils down to currency conversion; time zones; word definitions, and the infamous ‘How to’ questions. Some other areas where these searches are gaining prominence are Database-style searches; maps and directions (best restaurant near me), and Encyclopedia-style searches. This has, however, raised the eyebrows of several lawmakers in different countries as Google can extract value from Zero Clicks, while other sites struggle to make revenues and gain traffic.
No Click Searches or Zero Click Searches Explained
Zero Click or No Click searches are a Search Engine Result Page (SERP) that answers a user’s query right at the top of Google search results.
In the above image, you can see an example of how a No Click search actually works. Similar to this, there are a lot of other search areas where a user would not require any further clicks to complete their search. This kind of search result satisfies the user’s intent without having to actually click on any result links. This can be very frustrating for content creators as Google swipes away a slice of their traffic. However, Google states that it has designed Zero Click searches with users’ best interests at heart.
According to a similar study published by SparkToro, 65% of Google searches between January and December of last year ended without a click to another web link.
The above image clearly shows the dominance of Zero Click searches and the trend has seen a very significant increase over the years. This may be attributed to Covid 19’s impact on user’s online behaviour during the pandemic.
Why People Do Not Click On Search Results
The very simple answer to this is that Zero Click searches are fast. Who wouldn’t want to get all the information in just a single click?
The answer to this question is very clear in regards to the above image. As keywords become more optimised, it will result in even fewer search visits. This has mostly to do with Google owning so much of users data, its sophisticated algorithms understand a user’s pattern and behaviour better than you can even imagine. This also helps Google improve on its user experience, but at the same time, it can leverage this data mine to its own advantage. The range of queries with automated responses keeps on increasing every day as Google explores ways to prevent users from moving on to another site. This leads to complications in measuring SEO efforts as the gaps between the numbers of searches performed, and the numbers of clicks on the searches differ substantially.
What are Feature Snippets?
Often, the Zero Click searches are answered by a knowledge card or a feature snippet. Social experts also use the term ‘Position 0’ to describe feature snippets. The reason for the term is the placement of these snippets above all the other possible organic search results.
Like in this case, a very common Google search on a currency conversion, Google is using Morningstar’s data as a snippet. How this works is Google pulls out a short answer directly into the SERPs, thus removing the need for the user to click on an organic search result. While this makes it convenient for the users and saves their time and effort, it can be a challenge for content creators and digital marketing experts who rely on organic traffic. But, Google has often highlighted that Zero Click results often help a site gain more traffic without creating new content or backlinks. That being said, most of the pages that win feature snippets are often ranked very high on the Google search list. So, that means that improving upon your Google ranking is all the more important or you will be lost in a sea of Google search results at a time when people don’t even have to scroll down for the answers they are looking for.
How to Optimize Featured Snippets
More often than not, featured snippets are not only affecting the simple database searches, but also the complex searches like, ‘recipes’.
In the above image, the snippet is displayed in long-tail keyword phrases. So, if you want your content to be featured by Google in a Zero Click snippet, the trick is to keep the snippet bid as simple as possible. This will make it easier for Google’s algorithm to pick up your post. To be in contention for a featured snippet, it is advised to add questions or keyword terms as a sub header and match the question you are trying to answer. Precise answer placements are the key and a specific 45-60 word answer right below the header will help push your content. And, for ‘how to’ questions, it is advised to use a list. The goal should be to make your answer as factual as possible.
Google’s Dominance with Zero Clicks
With the rise of Zero click searches, Google has amplified its stronghold over the internet world. Google’s dominance in search and marketing continues to be at the heart of several legal battles across the globe. Google faces more than 10 lawsuits in the United States, and numerous other countries around the world.
As Google controls the search results, it has slowly become a major competition for other websites. Most of the websites have started optimising their content according to that, but there are still many who lose a lot of traffic because of the Zero Click searches. The impact of Zero clicks is not evenly distributed across the sectors, but the travel and hospitality websites have taken the biggest hit. The online travel agencies and review platforms have lost a fair share of revenue and organic traffic. This raises a very important question about online regulations and whether if, and when they will be implemented.
Future of Zero Click Searches and Web Browsing
The change in online user behaviour and the shift towards mobile browsing and voice commands becoming more prominent- Google will continue adopting new ways to improve upon and seize other websites traffic and revenue. For now, it is in a far more subtle way and the voices that have been raised have not been heard. But, as Google keeps on churning profit out of Zero Clicks, and at the same time keeps on optimizing the user experience- people are in a bit of an iffy to whether to blame Google or take their side. Just as the Internet giant keeps on evolving, the online content creators will have to do the same. Some experts have sided with Google, throwing an answer to the SERP is more about how users want to access the information, and less about profitability and ad-clicks.
Organic clicks are on a decline and the way Google is heading, it is more likely that we will never go back to the times when page one meant ten organic positions, and at least a single click. So, the most important thing boils down to optimizing the feature snippets and playing along with Google. The only thing that is certain is that Google will keep on making changes to improve the user interface for SERPs, so to stay put in the digital marketing game, the content creators will need to stay up to date with the latest changes.
The natural evolution of content will keep on occurring and the natural unfolding of the progression of the content will mean that simple titbit of information like Elon Musks’ height and Delhi’s weather are not going to be your money-making content in the future. People are not interested in going to a website to get that crumb of information.
