International Women’s Day (IWD), celebrated annually on March 8th, is a global day dedicated to honouring the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women around the world. It’s a day to reflect on progress made, to call for change, and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in their communities and workplaces.

At teclan, we’re fortunate to have a talented team of women who play vital roles in driving our success. From leadership positions to frontline roles, these women contribute their unique skills, experiences, and perspectives to our company, making us stronger, more innovative, and more inclusive. Today, we celebrate and honour these remarkable women for their achievements, their leadership, and their commitment to making a difference.

Jackie: Leading With Experience and Compassion

With years of experience in running ecommerce stores and working in retail Head Offices, Jackie brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her role. She not only oversees our accounts with precision and care but also provides invaluable support and assistance to our customers.

Jackie’s dedication to her work is matched only by her passion for giving back to her community. For the past few years, she has been dedicated to raising awareness, and funds, for charities such as Held in our Hearts and SUDC UK which help to raise funds for research. Additionally, she’s taken part in a number of charity fun runs including 5ks and 10ks with the teclan team to raise funds for Mikeysline, a prominent mental health charity based in Inverness.

Through her involvement in local charities and fundraising efforts, Jackie exemplifies the spirit of compassion and generosity encompassed by the celebration of International Women’s Day.

Caitlin: Pioneering Success at a Young Age

Caitlin, our Web Project Manager, is a trailblazer in every sense of the word. Despite her youth, Caitlin has quickly risen through the ranks at teclan, thanks to her unparalleled drive, determination, and talent.  With a background in retail and digital marketing, Caitlin brings a fresh perspective to our web design team, delivering high-quality web experiences and results for our clients.

As the youngest employee at teclan, Caitlin has already established herself as a key asset within teclan’s developing partnership programme, where she is mastering the art of leadership and business growth, ultimately setting her sights on part-ownership of the company. Although the youngest participant in the programme, Caitlin has already showcased remarkable leadership and achieved significant success. At just 22 years old, she confidently conducts employee appraisals and has been making impactful choices that influence the entire business. She fearlessly shatters gender norms, showcasing that young women possess a powerful voice and a rightful place at the highest echelons of companies. 

Caitlin’s achievements are an inspiration to all, proving that barriers can be broken, and opportunities should be open to everyone, regardless of age or gender.

Helen: Building Strong Customer Relationships

Our Marketing Coordinator, Helen, is a true global citizen with a passion for excellence. With experience working for the Walt Disney Company and a Professional Certificate from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations to her name, Helen brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her role.

She was selected to take part in two international Disney programs, something that thousands of people apply for, affording the opportunity to live and work in the United States alongside peers from across the globe. During her tenure, she gained invaluable wisdom from leaders in entertainment and tourism, mastered the art of crafting compelling stories that resonate, and was trained to the highest standards of guest service expected by Disney consumers. Helen’s international exposure and steadfast dedication to customer service ensure our clients receive unparalleled marketing solutions that deliver tangible results.

Helen’s story is a testament to the power of women to shape and transform industries. Her steadfast commitment to nurturing client relationships not only underscores her ability to maintain enduring partnerships but also highlights the invaluable contribution women make in driving business success.

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Local Marketing and PR agency teclan is pleased to announce the addition of professional PR services following Marketing Coordinator Helen Mackenzie’s CIPR (Chartered Institute of Public Relations) qualification, which covers the planning principles of PR, media relation techniques, and how social media has influenced PR practice.

To achieve this award, Helen undertook a myriad of robust assessments in a broad range of PR disciplines, including the role of PR in organisations and society, the development of PR plans and strategies, the creation and management of communication that works, ethical aspects of PR and effective ways to determine the success of PR activities.

With the addition of this coveted certification in-house, teclan is excited to now offer a broader range of PR services to local, national, and international organisations, including PR strategy and planning, content management, media and engagement, measurement and evaluation, and PR leadership. All underpinned by the code of conduct and reference to ethics outlined in the award.

Following the completion of her certification, Helen said, “It has been incredibly rewarding to work towards this qualification as I feel it has allowed me to develop a number of skills which will be beneficial for both teclan and our clients. I have been interested in Public Relations for quite some time and feel very grateful that teclan has supported me in working toward this certificate. I now feel confident in my market research, critical thinking, analysis, and creative abilities when it comes to developing PR plans and strategies for our clients. I am also seeing the benefits of applying the concepts and strategies I’ve learned in this process to our content marketing and paid advertising campaigns as well.”

teclan managing director Fergus Weir said, “I am incredibly proud of Helen’s fantastic achievement. It is evidence of teclan’s commitment to the continual development of our great team, and our investment in increasing the skills and knowledge within the business. Helen is a hugely valued member of the team, and her qualification simply further increases her value to our customers and the rest of our team.”

 

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A well-positioned brand gives you leverage over the competition, to the point where people might even associate certain products or services with one particular brand, which is why many companies invest a lot of time and money into their brand strategies.

Benefits of strong brand positioning

One of the most notable benefits of a strong brand position is engagement. Being able to make authentic connections with your people, partners, investors, and communities means that you will build higher levels of affinity, engagement, and trust.

When people trust your brand, you will find yourself with a loyal customer base that finds your differentiators important and become advocates for your brand; so you not only benefit from a loyal customer base but also free word-of-mouth advertising thanks to your strong brand position.

Defining your brand position

While your brand guidelines may cover your mission, vision, values, and USPs, your brand positioning strategy should be defined around the following questions:

What does the brand offer?

By focusing on your specific offering, you can immediately highlight how you’re different from your competitors. Even if the difference is subtle, you can still establish yourself as unique or exceptional compared to the alternatives.

How do you do what you do?

In a highly competitive marketplace, it’s crucial to consider the ‘how’ of your brand over and above the ‘what.’ How do you go about providing your products or services that are better than your competitors? If you can answer this, you can position your brand with a more engaging style and personality.

What is your brand purpose?

Why do you exist? This is especially important if you are championing some sort of social cause, aim, or message.

How to create a brand positioning strategy

Once you have defined your brand position, you will need to create some sort of strategy to ensure that you are positioning yourself well. Here are some steps you can follow:

Assess your current brand positioning

You won’t know where to begin if you don’t know where you currently are. Unless you’re just starting out, you already hold some sort of brand position in the market. The first step is to figure out what that is. To do this, you’ll need to review your existing customer base and understand who they are. Do they align with your target audience? What products or services are the most popular? How do they interact with you and where? If the answers do not align with your goals, it’s time to review your messaging, goals, and vision.

Identify and research your competitors

Now that you know all about your customers, it’s time to look at the competition. After you’ve pinpointed those that are the most similar, you can start digging into their strategy, reviewing what their customers say about them, review their marketing tactics and observe how they interact on their social media channels. You could even add in a SWOT analysis to highlight where your brand shines and where it might be falling short. Once you’ve done all this, you should be ready to fill any gaps in the market you identified in this process.

Compare your brand positioning to your competitors

Once you know what your competitors are offering you can start looking at how you compare. Apply what you discovered about the industry, the target audience, and the market in general, and use it to draft a brand positioning statement. Are you more cost-effective or convenient? Or are you much better at customer service than your competition? Once you understand your competitor’s position, you can figure out where to place yours best.

What’s unique about your brand?

Something that your competitors fall short on is where you can shine. Maybe you offer a higher-priced service or product, but you know that your exceptional customer service team shines above the rest in an industry that lacks good customer service. And maybe that’s because you pay your employees a better wage than competitors because you are more ethical, which resonates strongly with your target market. Once you know where all the gaps are, you can hit the right points.

Whether you’re in the market for a rebrand or simply need to create a brand positioning strategy, teclan can help. Join us for our branding workshop here in Inverness on the 25^th of October or contact us today for a free consultation.

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Are you losing out to the competition, or seeing a drop in sales? Your brand could be to blame… In this half-day workshop, complete with hands-on practical collaborative tasks, we will cover the basics of colour, visuals, typography, values, and core messaging (templates included) that you can use to build (or improve on) your own set of brand guidelines.

The benefit of having brand design guidelines is that they help you present a unified vision of your business. In this lesson, created by teclan Marketing Director Hollie Ivy, you’ll learn how to create and use a brand style guide to create your designs within the larger context of your business. You’ll also learn how to think about and create goals for your design based on where you’ll publish it, whether it’s on your blog, on social media, or elsewhere.

Who is this course for?

While brands are often developed in a number of ways, this workshop is designed to extract ideas, opinions, and creative expression from leadership teams and business owners to entrench them in the brand-building process and help them identify, refresh, or simply better connect with their own brands.

1.00pm Teas/Coffees

1.15pm Introductions, Aims and Objectives

1.30pm Identifying the brand

a. Establishing your brand purpose

b. Establishing your brand vision and mission

c. Establishing your brand values

d. Establishing your brand personality

e. Positioning your brand

3.00pm Break for teas/coffees/etc

3.15pm Brand messing

a. Finding your tone of voice

b. Straplines and key messages

3. The visual language

a. Colours

b. Typography

c. Brand assets

d. Logo design

e. Imagery

4.45pm Q&A

5.00pm Close

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It only takes about 50 milliseconds for a person to form an opinion of your brand from the moment they land on your website. That opinion determines whether they stay or leave.

According to an article from The Cheskin Research & Studio Archetype, as far back as 1999, the six most important factors in building trust for an eCommerce company’s website are (in this order):

1. Brand
2. Navigation
3. Fulfilment
4. Presentation
5. Modern technology
6. Security

So, if a user’s first impression of your website is an inconsistent brand, or a brand that looks like every other website they’ve seen, why would they continue to look at your products or choose you over the competition?

Creating a brand that resonates

To hone the art of creating a good impression, you must create a brand that is irresistibly appealing to customers.

Here is a process you can use to ensure that you consistently stand out from the competition and resonate with your audience:

Trust is a key factor and brand consistency fosters trust

Brand consistency is the ability to deliver consistent messaging and design across all platforms over time. All messages and design elements should be in line with your brand themes, values, voice and mission. Again, we tend to trust people more who don’t change at the drop of a hat, and the same goes for a brand. If you are consistent, you are more likable and dependable.

Brand consistency also makes your business easily recognised, which means our customers will immediately start thinking about you when they see your marketing – without even being asked to make a purchase. When you make your customers feel like they know, depend on, and trust your brand, they are much more inclined to hit the ‘buy now’ button.

Establishing brand consistency

To create brand consistency that is on par with the bestselling brands, you need to nail the following:

In order to maintain a consistent brand, the single most important thing you can do is develop a set of brand guidelines that outline every aspect of your brand strategy that include your logo, colour scheme, tagline, typography and key messaging. Every employee who creates visual or written content for the brand should adhere to these guidelines at all times, across all channels.

How a compelling brand increases sales

Not only are customers more likely to buy from brands they trust, they are willing to pay more for their products as well.

On average, brands with stronger reputations offer a 31% higher shareholder return, enjoy a growth rate that’s three times faster that their competitors and a 31% greater revenue growth over a three year period compared to lesser brands.

Brand presence

It’s all very well and good having a bulletproof set of brand guidelines, but unless you are showcasing your brand in the right places, nobody will know you are there. A great social media presence is necessary for tangible e-commerce results.

According to data from BigCommerce, online stores with a strong social media presence have an average of 32% more sales than those who don’t use, or are not active, on social media. And 85% of orders from social media sites come from Facebook (Shopify).

But bear in mind: quality over quantity.

Focus on the social media channels that your customers use instead of what’s trending, make sure you have capacity to reply to user questions, comments and reviews and consider partnering with micro-influencers to reach your target audience cost effectively.

Conclusion

As an ecommerce retailer, your goal is to get more sales daily, and the key to more sales is a strong brand. While there are many different marketing channels that can help, if your brand is inconsistent, your values are unclear or you simply look exactly like your competitors, you will fall to the bottom of the ROI food chain quickly.

At teclan, our branding team has years of experience crafting compelling brands for eCommerce retailers that boost sales, and we would love to do the same for you.

Get in touch with us today to find out, for free, what you could achieve with amazing branding.

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When it comes to improving on-site conversions, strategic marketers know that design makes a big difference – yet building a high-performing website is overlooked far too often. Regardless of whether design is your forte or not, organisations trying to compete in today’s digital world simply cannot afford to overlook it, regardless of sector.

So here are a handful of vital web design elements that will give you an instant and sustained boost in conversions.

Clear Navigation

You have the power to direct users exactly where you need them to be. Navigation is a massive driver of conversion rates. Not only do the items listed in your main navigation make or break a user’s visit on your site, they also are a great way to clearly convey exactly what it is that you do.

If your conversion rates could be better, have a look at your menu items first. If you have 5 different drop downs, with 11 different options all cluttering the top header of the site, you’re really not making it easy for people to know where they should go. If this is your current site, a quick win would be to narrow down the options and ensure that one of those options includes a call to action page or link (contact form, click to call, etc.).

Respect a user's time

Or rather, lack thereof. People are very impatient when it comes to surfing the web. According to a study by the Aberdeen Group, a mere one-second delay in page load time results in a 7% reduction in conversions. So don’t underestimate the importance of loading times. Make sure you are continually checking your site speed and troubleshooting any issues that may arise.

White (negative) space

In design, whitespace is also known as negative space. Positive space is where the elements of your site live, where negative space is the empty sections in between. Without negative space, your website would be cluttered, illegible and unfit for purpose. Take special care to ensure that there is plenty of negative space throughout your site to ensure that everything is clear, scannable (essential, since this is how people read websites) and easy on the eyes. All of this leads to increased conversions.

Less really is more – which we cover in more detail on ‘Keep it simple’ below.

Responsive design

Based on our own experience managing accounts for over 1,500 clients across all sectors, more than half of internet traffic comes from mobile devices. If your website isn’t responsive, your losing sales – simple as that. This is one of the most basic of requirements for a website design.

If your site isn’t mobile-friendly, users will simple bounce off and go to a competitor that has the same information in a much better format, and we are not just referring to a desktop/mobile version these days. Screens comes in so many shapes and sizes now, your website needs to adapt beautifully to anything from a mobile phone to a 77” TV screen.

Keep it simple

We’ve all heard the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) mantra before and when it comes to web design, it’s particularly apt. Simplicity is essential when it comes to driving conversions. Look at your current website and ask yourself, is there a way to simplify this? Are there any distractions that can be minimised or eliminated? Is the design clean or cluttered. Is it clear what you are asking a user to do and have you made it easy for them to follow through, or do that have to click 5 times to find your phone number? Is it instantly apparent what services or products you are offering, or does a user have to wade through paragraphs and pages of text to find out?

Use high-quality images

It seems a small thing, but imagery plays a very important role in the perceived quality of your website. Studies have even shown that users are 60% more willing to consider search results with imagery and another 23% are more likely to reach out to businesses that showcases compelling images. But what’s a compelling image?

Research suggests you are best sticking to high-quality images that develop positive associations with the content and feel more personal (think own photography over stock photography and more lifestyle images over staged/posed). People like brands that feel personal and similar to themselves. If your photos are too generic, stock, stuffy or corporate, you could be turning visitors away.

The post Little web design standards that have a big impact on conversions appeared first on Digital Marketing Experts.

Your Return on Ad Spend is revenue (or leads) divided by ad spend. Also referred to as Return on Investment (ROI), it tracks the profitability of online campaigns, ad groups, keywords and individual products or services promoted online.

Return on Ad Spend is the most vital metric to rank your online advertising campaigns. Your most accurate return on ad spend figures will be obtained from Google Analytics which tracks revenue from all online channels.

This includes revenue and leads generated from advertisements on Google, your organic Google listings, your social media pages and email marketing. Not only does this figure track a Return on Investment, it acts as a barometer for a suitable advertising budget and the online profitability of individual goods or services.

As a results-driven agency, teclan are committed to providing our clients with a tangible Return on Investment. We don’t just show how many users have accessed a site as a result of our digital advertising, we demonstrate how much revenue and how many leads have been generated as well.

To track revenue for our ecommerce clients, teclan links Google Analytics with our client’s ecommerce platform. However, non-ecommerce clients also need to see a tangible return on their marketing activities.

Non-ecommerce Businesses

Non-ecommerce businesses often make the mistake of spending thousands of pounds on a website, without a digital strategy to support the initial investment. The idea that any investment (be it online or offline) will run effectively without maintenance is short-sighted.

teclan consistently review the Analytics accounts of prospective clients with no tracking in place. Established and market-leading firms without any knowledge of how users interact with their website leaves a big question mark over the effectiveness of their website, left running without a digital strategy.

Your Website Data

Questions you should be able to answer:

• What’s the most popular page on your website?
• How many times do users access the Contact Us page of your website?
• On average, how long do users spend exploring your website?
• How many users click on the telephone links on your website?
• What percentage of users engage with your website positively?
• How many users click on the email links on your website?
• How many users complete online enquiry forms on your website?
• What percentage of users click away from your website, after visiting just one page?

With the above questions in mind, is your website currently running without a purpose?

Your Website Health Check

Maybe it’s time for a Website Health Check with teclan? We are SEO, email marketing, pay-per-click and social media specialists supported by a team of highly experienced web designers. For more information click the button below:

Or speak to us directly on 01463 898043.

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