WordPress has become the most popular and simple to use online platform for creating a website or a blog. The content management software has been commonly used by businesses and individuals who are interested in developing functional online pages that can be customised to represent their very needs. Understanding what is a Worpress website can help you make the best decisions for your online requirements.

The popular platform has been around for some time, originally developed in 2003, it has since undergone significant transformation to provide users greater flexibility and control over their web pages. Having developed a major following and a large community, more people are investing in the platform. It is also considered a more affordable option for creating your own web address and presence.

WordPress offers it users a content management system that provides individuals the opportunity to modify their site as they deem fit. Originally, users were restricted to creating blogs using this platform, however the introduction of various themes, plugins and similar features have made WordPress a top choice for developing both impressive websites and personal blogs. You can create any website of your choosing with the endless options that are presented online.

You can develop incredible online pages including eCommerce, forums and all types of media that can be used for various marketing purposes. Depending on the purpose for the site and the amount of flexibility you wish to exercise over your domain, you will need to choose between a . Org or a . Com address. A . Com address will offer a paid service while a . Org site provides more control.

To own your own website, you will have to invest in a . Org site that can easily be achieved by purchasing your very own domain name and hosting address. Everyone can use the site for a variety of purposes from individuals for personal blogs with regular updates to businesses looking to advertise its brand, products and services in an efficient and cost effective way. There are many government websites that have also been powered by WordPress.

With more than 30% of websites on the internet using the platform, it provides users incredible website building functions and a CMS or content management system. The popularity is owed to the ability to create multiple websites with this source and you are not limited to blogs. The site also offers resources and support you can easily access if you need help along the way.

This platform does offers users a basic or a standard site that can be used for free. This means you may download and install the software to start creating and running your online pages without having to pay for it. You will have to pay for the domain and hosting service that you will find with many supported providers.

If you are looking for a platform you can trust to start your very own site, the WordPress is a good start. The platform makes it easier to produce an authentic online presence that you can trust and your potential online audience will appreciate. Whether a blog, forum or business profile, use the modern site to create a powerful and dynamic presence today.

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At Acceler8 Media our aim is always to provide customers with the best web presence possible, whilst providing an exceptional level of support and advice. This is exemplified by the experiences of North West Asbestos who tasked us with rebuilding their website and implementing a combination of SEO and Google Ads to promote the new site. The review they provided in response to their experiences makes all of our hard work worthwhile:

‘Since joining Acceler8 Media our work has increased by more than 30%. The most amazing thing about this up turn in business is that the amount we were spending on marketing prior to moving to Acceler8 was more than double what it is now. They keep in touch with us and send us a regular up dates from our advertising with them. Fully recommend them.’

Ian
North West Asbestos

Year on year, the performance of the website continues to improve and the latest Google Analytics data demonstrates the uplift in traffic:

  • 41% increase in visitors to the website compared to the same period last year.
  • 37% increase in page views compared to the previous year, due to improved content and usability on mobile devices.
  • 42% increase in new visitors to the website compared to the same period last year.

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Digital marketing tools and methods have made quite an impact on the world of business. Keeping up with the latest blogging trends in 2016 in Lancashire will ensure that business owners and professionals are better able to capitalize on new developments and changing techniques. The latest ways to attract customers or advertise a business could end up making more of a difference than you might have expected.

Digital platforms that make it easier to communicate and interact with both customers and clients have created nothing short of a revolution in terms of how businesses and professionals market themselves. Failing to properly understand a trend, overlooking the potential benefits of a new technology or relying on an outdated method for your marketing efforts can be a big mistake. It pays to keep informed regarding social media platforms and opportunities.

Attracting and acquiring new clientele and creating new business opportunities can be all but impossible for those who fail to implement an effective promotional or marketing strategy. Social media and digital marketing are never resources that should be discounted. Ensuring that you know enough to make the most of such tools could make a world of difference in terms of your marketing efforts.

Knowing too little about online publications, social media services and the latest ways to attract greater number of readers could leave you in a very difficult position. Seeking to educate yourself regarding such matters is always in your best interests. From freelance professionals to established businesses and commercial organisations, following the latest style or trend can be an important concern.

Blogs that cover a range of different topics often utilize different formats and styles. A trend that may benefit professionals and organisations within one industry could be of little practical vale for another. Ensuring that you have proper insight, knowledge and understanding of such matters can help you to make the most of your efforts and ensure your posts enjoy greater levels of success.

Online information is often the most helpful way to follow a trend or catch up on changes within the world of online publishing. A quick Internet search may be completed in just a few moments and can provide you with all that you need to know. Reading up on how others who post content online are able to keep pace with changing technology and new reader habits can be a great help.

Outdated formats and posts could end up doing more harm than good. Poor posting habits and a limited understanding of the format or service could be costing you countless business opportunities. Making every effort to learn about the habits, services and styles that will better serve your interests is often in your best interests.

Online publishing is an important tool for many businesses and professionals. Learning how to optimize the effectiveness of your efforts and habits can play a key role in ensuring greater success in the future. Learning a little more about the latest trend is always a good idea for those who use their blogs to market their products or services.

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The landscape of digital marketing is always advancing, and in 2016, today’s advertisers should be one stage in front of innovation patterns and purchaser practices with one goal – they convey the data clients need and anticipate. There’s such a great amount of data out there – and individuals expect your message ‘on interest’, over the distinctive applications, stages and gadgets they have available to them. So, making a pertinent and responsive, normal brand experience by means of advanced means is pivotal.

In view of this, we’ve investigated what 2016 has in store regarding digital marketing and what we foresee will be the greatest patterns to develop for the year ahead.

If you are looking to stay ahead of the game in Lancashire, why not give Acceler8 Media a call?

7 Trends in Digital Marketing to be Aware of in 2016 – Acceler8 Media

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With increased hype around social media and web strategies, the New Year brings with it innovative ways to capitalize on media. Content marketing in 2016 focuses on interaction and means of attracting customers with access to information quickly in an affordable manner. This includes the use of podcasts, blogs, and undiscovered steps in social media to engage both new and existing clients.
While blogs may appear to to be an outdated strategy, it has received increased attention when combined with other strategies and efforts to engage and excite online audiences. Emphasis is placed on incorporating various marketing methods and placing into a single platform for an entertaining and efficient result. Providing customers with something new and familiar has been recognized as staying above the competition.

Blogs can be used to advertise various products, services, and brands, but can be more effective when interactive features are included. Podcasts, videos, and interactive posts offer a modern platform to appeal to traffic and to provide the best advertising. While the goal is to create sales, it must be achieved by engaging with the customer and developing trust in the brand or business.

Social media remains one of the fastest growing platforms for marketing purposes as it is fast, allows for real time posts and is affordable. Unfortunately many people lose interest in more of the same and require additional features and functions to maintain interest. Focus on telling a story through a service, product or brand development rather than isolate a range through traditional promotional methods.

Create innovative and unique brand awareness using platforms such as Instagram through story telling. This includes the balanced use of imagery or video marketing to attract customers and appeal to the emotion of online users. It creates a more memorable experience when the brand is associated with a particular tale and allows individuals to connect with the advert on a personal level.

Make sales easier and more efficient for the buyer by incorporating web strategies that can be easily accessed by mobile devices. Social media has been incorporated by many companies for the purchase of goods by commenting on particular products and allowing for the secure of a deal. Buying options may be linked to an application offering clients flexible solutions and security to encourage continued buying activity and business recommendations.

The digital and fast pace of communication mean that more people are interested in obtaining information or purchasing goods in a quick and simple manner. It is important to be innovative, but not to complicate the process involved in extracting data or conducting a sale. Careful use of video while including high quality descriptions prove most favorable for the modern online user.

Content is one of the most important strategies that must be adopted by all companies in the advertising of products and services. This includes associated brands with particular national days, emotions and innovative steps to attract and retain consumers. Brand development relies on effective interaction with the customer that can be achieved through effective story telling and access to accurate and updated information.

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Increasing conversion rates is a high priority for any company that relies on online sales to increase profits. Every time a user visits a website and fails to make a purchase it represents a lost opportunity. There are many ways companies can reduce lost conversions in Lancashire and beyond.

A/B testing is a popular technique for honing in on the marketing strategy that leads to the highest conversion rate. One example of A/B testing is creating two ads, each with a unique headline. Include an identical call to action on both ads and calculate the number of users that took the action for each version. This gives you a clear picture of which headline was more effective.

It is important to test one element at a time when A/B testing. Elements to test include page layout, calls to action wording, order button size, and the offer. You can also test the effectiveness of different media by creating one landing page with text only and one landing page with a video that utilizes that text as a script.

Another way to increase conversions is to create a compelling value proposition. Your potential customers want to know why they should purchase your product or service. You need to tell them in precise terms what sets your company apart from the competition.

When you are creating a value proposition, focus on at least one unique aspect of your company and its product or service. Identify your unique qualities and find a way to describe them in as few words as possible. Try to get your point across in a single sentence. You can use A/B testing to gauge its effect on your ideal prospect.

Eliminate the jargon, whether you are writing content for your website, blogging, or creating an ad. Fancy business language is not going to impress anybody. People visiting your site want reliable information in language they can clearly understand. Cut back on the marketing speak and stick to the facts. Imagine you are explaining your service or product to a friend or someone who has no previous knowledge about your industry.

Building trust with potential customers is among the best ways to encourage them to spend their money with you. Your website should look professional and be simple to navigate. Hire a professional designer to create an attractive layout and make sure your content is free of typos and grammatical errors. If you are careless in your presentation, potential customers will assume you are just as careless with providing your service or manufacturing your product. Make it easy for visitors to contact you by providing an email address, a physical address, and a phone number. Visitors need to be able to verity that a real organization run by real people is behind the site.

Finding effective ways to increase your conversion rate is an ongoing process that takes time. Do not expect your sales to increase overnight just because you changed the headline on your website’s front page. Take a methodical approach to improving the ways you communicate with your target audience and watch your profits grow.

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However much you try and educate people and inform them of the importance of having a mobile friendly website there are still plenty who fail to move with the times. Acceler8 Media only ever build mobile optimised websites and our customers throughout Lancashire have been reaping the rewards in their Google rankings.

Have a look at some of the stats in this wonderful infographic and see how important mobile device usage has become for internet users. Don’t miss the boat. Make sure your website is benefiting from the burgeoning amounts of mobile traffic.

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The crux of keeping any business afloat is generating new leads and ultimately customers. Now matter how well established your business may be, there always tends to be a natural turnover of the customer base for a variety of factors. Even if you endeavour to keep everyone of your customers as your number one priority there are always factors outside your influence which mean that you lose customers.

At Acceler8 Media we tend to think of our customer base as a leaky bucket. As we deal with a large number of SME businesses there tends to be a natural loss due to external factors e.g. retirement, closing the business, cashflow problems etc…. All of these things are outside of our control and no matter how good the work is that we have done for these customers they will always end up leaving. As such, in order to at least maintain the customer base and ideally grow it we are always looking to engage new clients.

Social Media is one of the services we offer to businesses, but it is also a massively important source of new work for ourselves. It wouldn’t be fair for us to preach the benefits of Social Media to our clients if we didn’t use it as a key resource in our own development. We have a number of followers on Twitter and they are made up of genuine businesses and networking opportunities. We focus on organically attracting business followers in and around Lancashire. Because of this it is fair to say that we probably generate at least one direct message a week enquiring about our services purely from our Twitter activity. This is in addition to our Facebook referrals which seem to be generated as a matter of course through referral from our customers individual accounts.

However, I think it is fair to say that we have never really capitalised on the power of Linkedin and the massive potential it offers for networking and referrals. We have decided that is definitely something we need to improve over the coming months and have found an excellent infographic with some great tips on how to use Linkedin. We think a lot of the information is invaluable and hope that some of our avid blog readers will benefit as well.

Watch this space and we will share any good news we get via our new Linkedin campaign!

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For every customer we speak to who is happy with the provider of their website, there is always another who is keen to recount their tales of woe. It never ceases to amaze me how many times we come across shockingly bad websites, produced by the same local businesses, still churning them out, week after week. Since day one at Acceler8 Media Web Design we have always maintained the quality of the work we produce and vowed never to resort to the levels of churn which litters the internet.

We understand that small businesses and tradesmen have budget constraints and we are more than capable of offering competitive solutions in this marketplace. However, just because your budget is limited doesn’t mean you have to have a poor website. Probably the main offenders for producing over priced and inferior quality work are directory companies. They have a large customer base which has been built up on the back of their now dying main product. In an attempt to try and revert the terminal decline of their businesses they are reliant on their salesforce to push these products onto their customers as an alternative to print. Unfortunately, all of their sites tend to b e developed in Asia, using templated designs and badly written, generic content.

In 2015 and beyond the first port of call for the majority of new or potential customers is your website. This is your shop window and the opportunity to showcase your skills and level of workmanship. If the user doesn’t like what they see, they will go straight back onto Google and look for one of your competitors. The one bonus of having a website with a directory company is that there is very little possibility of it being found via Google and portraying your business in a poor light.

OK. So you’ve bought into the fact that your website needs to look the part as well as perform on Google, but you are still not convinced that Acceler8 Media can offer you a cost effective solution compared to the local website, churn factory? To keep things simple I have sourced two websites for similar businesses in Lancashire as a direct comparison. Have a look and see which one you would choose:

Lancashire Landscaping

Tottington Landscaping

I’m hoping that you preferred Lancashire Landscaping, which has far more functionality and is aesthetically far superior? If so, you would probably be very surprised to know that it was actually £120 cheaper to build than the competitor site, with a management fee of half the price.

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