Engagement After the Bounce | Digital Products Platform | Nathan Ives

Engagement After the Bounce: Getting Visitors Back to Your Website After They Leave

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Engagement After the Bounce | Digital Products Platform | Nathan IvesVisitors leave your website for a host of reasons.  But the fact that they opened one or more webpages indicates interest in your content.  Additionally, their visit means you now have better access to these people.  The question is how to reengage these individuals who, because of their interest, are more likely to engage with you than those others surfing the web.

Exit Popups

One highly effective method for reengaging those departing your website is a popup offering an additional value piece, a lead magnet, in exchange for the visitor’s name and email address.  Such popups appear when the visitor attempts to leave your website (mouse off of the webpage, close the webpage or tab, or click a link to leave the site), hence the name exit pop.

Regardless of the lead magnet, those signing-up should be entered into an email autoresponder sequence to fully reengage them with your website.

Branded Popups on Linked Sites

Providing links to other websites offers visitors additional value but takes them off your site.  StartAFire is a free link shortening service that places a popup at the bottom of the linked page.  This popup is fully branded with your favicon and website name; providing attractive, graphic links to two of your website’s pages.  Consequently, these popups seek to reengage those who have already expressed interest in the content on your website.

Push Notifications

A staple of smartphone engagement, push notifications are now available with some browser limitations on desktop and laptop computers.  PushCrew is an initially free service that enables push notifications to be sent to those who authorize such messaging via a popup appearing at the top center of the webpage they visited.  Like email newsletter signups, who better to reengage than those whose chose to receive additional outreach from you.

How to Make a Logo with a Transparent Background | Nathan Ives | Digital Products Platform

How to Make a Logo with a Transparent Background

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How to Make a Logo with a Transparent Background | Nathan Ives | Digital Products PlatformContemporary websites often employ full page background images, videos, or colors.  As such, your logo needs to have a transparent background so to not interrupt the field.

Graphic artists commonly create logos with transparent backgrounds.  Indeed, such formatting provides maximum flexibility for the logo’s use.  But if you are developing a logo on your own, how do you create one with a transparent background?

The easiest way we’ve identified to create a logo with a transparent background is as follows:

  1. Create your logo (letters, words, symbols, shapes, or some combination thereof) in Microsoft PowerPoint on a plain white background (default) slide. Do not incorporate a background into your logo.
  2. Open your photo editor, I use Microsoft Digital Image Suite, and create a ‘new’ photo canvas. The blank canvas in your photo editor should serve as the transparent background for your logo.
  3. Copy the logo from PowerPoint and paste it onto the blank photo canvas in your photo editor.
  4. Crop the logo photo; leaving a 10-20 pixel buffer on each side.
  5. Save the logo image as a .png file. (Saving the image as a .jpg file will cause it to have a solid white background.)

If you need different color schemes for your logo to accommodate light and dark backgrounds, duplicate the logo in PowerPoint, change the element color combinations, and repeat Steps 2 – 5 above.  This process yields identical logos possessing different color schemes.

Final Thought…

Whether or not you intend to legally register your logo as a trademark, I recommend affixing the trademark symbol, TM, to your logo.  Doing this publicly communicates your intention to use the logo as your trademark.  Such annotation aids in the protection of your logo even if it is not registered.

Of course, you need to make sure you’re not infringing on someone else’s logo before trademarking yours. (See Business Name Considerations)

Free Creative Commons Zero Licensed and Public Domain Images | Nathan Ives | Digital Products Platform

Free Creative Commons Zero Licensed and Public Domain Images

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Free Creative Commons Zero Licensed and Public Domain Images | Nathan Ives | Digital Products PlatformOwning and maintaining a high quality website can be an expensive endeavor.  Today’s high expectations demand fast loading speeds and attractive graphics.  But an attractive website doesn’t have to be expensive.  There are numerous free image resources available to add imagery and a splash of color to your website.

Creative Commons Zero Licensed Images

Creative Commons Zero licensing means that the creator of image or graphic deeded the work to the public domain and waived his/her rights to the work under copyright laws.  Consequently, you many copy, modify, distribute, and use the image or graphic for free – even for commercial purposes.  (Learn more about Creative Commons licensing at CreativeCommons.org)

Numerous websites feature high-quality, high-resolution Creative Commons Zero licensed images and graphics.  These stunning images and graphics can be used to bring your website, ebooks, training courses, or any other digital work to life.  Here are thirteen sources of Creative Commons Zero licensed images and graphics:

Public Domain Images

Photos taken by officers or employees of the United States government as part of their official duties are generally not subject to copyright restrictions on reproduction, derivative works, distribution, or display unless the image falls under an exception.  (Learn more at USA.gov)  Expansive libraries of United States government photos reside on Flickr as well as other images released under Creative Commons Zero licensing by the owner.

Depending on your needs, you may want to search for photos having other Creative Commons licenses (various restrictions apply) on Flickr.

Final Thought…

Whenever obtaining photos from online sources, be sure to confirm the website and individual photo’s licensing terms before use.  It’s your responsibility to honor copyright and licensing terms when using others’ works just as it is their responsibility to honor yours.

Nathan Ives | Digital Products Platform

Maximizing Engagement by Minimizing Required Data

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Nathan Ives | Digital Products PlatformLanding pages, including sales pages, capture personal data to enable follow-up engagement.  This data represents investments of trust and time in you and your business; an investment that must yield a significant enough return to be made.  Thus, it is imperative that you balance the amount of data required with the value offered.

Achieving Balance

As business owners, we naturally want as much data about our potential customers as possible.  We believe that having this insight will enable us to optimally market to and convert our website visitors into paying customers.

Website visitors, however, hesitate to share their personal information.  They worry about the security of their data and whether it will be used abusively.

Achieving the balance necessary to gain the engagement of potential customers involves several points:

  • Credibility: Website professionalism communicates a seriousness that instills confidence provided data won’t be abusively used (aka spam)
  • Privacy Policy: Your documented commitment to potential customers guaranteeing the security and appropriate use of their data; including not selling it to third parties
  • Offer Value: Personal data requests that are proportional to the perceived value of the offer and reasonably necessary for its delivery assures visitors that their data is being appropriately used

Proportional Value

Examples of proportional offer value to data requests include:

  • Online Comment Submission: First Name (optional), Last Name (optional), Email Address (optional)
  • Weekly Newsletter, Webinar, Training Video: First Name (typical), Last Name (optional), Email Address (required)
  • Reusable Template, eBook, or Benchmarking Report: First Name (typical), Last Name (typical), Title (typical), Company (typical), Company Size (typical), Email Address (required), Phone Number (optional), Other Information (optional)
  • Paid for Product or Service: First Name (required), Last Name (required), Title (optional), Company (optional), Company Size (optional), Email Address (required), Phone Number (optional), Address (required – physical product / optional – digital product), Payment Information (required – typically collected by the merchant services provided), Other Information (optional)

Final Thought…

Remember that the time to complete the data submission will be a cost that is also considered by visitors.  As such, evaluate the use of option selection lists to speed data collection when developing forms.  When such lists are used, always provide an ‘other’ option for those whose circumstances don’t fit the selections provided.

Digital Products Platform - Email Naming Conventions

Email Naming Conventions

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Digital Products Platform - Email Naming ConventionsEmail serves as a primary communications channel in our digital world.  While your email address will be aligned with your website URL, its prefix is an important part of your branding strategy.

Email Address Styles

Your email address says a lot about your business.  Below are several common naming conventions and what they communicate with illustrative examples using my name, Nathan A Ives, and the website, StrategyDriven.com, located in the United States:

Small Personal Business

  • First Name @ yoursite.xxx (example: Nathan@StrategyDriven.com)

Midsize / Large Business

  • First Initial Last Name @ yoursite.xxx (example: NIves@StrategyDriven.com)
  • First Initial Middle Initial Last Name @ yoursite.xxx (example: NAIves@StrategyDriven.com)
  • First Name . Last Name @ yoursite.xxx (example: Nathan.Ives@StrategyDriven.com)
  • First Name Last Name @ yoursite.xxx (example: NathanIves@StrategyDriven.com)

Very Large Company

  • First Initial Last Name @ Country Initial . yoursite.xxx (example: NIves@us.StrategyDriven.com)
  • First Initial Middle Initial Last Name @ Country Initial . yoursite.xxx (example: NAIves@us.StrategyDriven.com)
  • First Name . Last Name @ Country Initial . yoursite.xxx (example: Nathan.Ives@us.StrategyDriven.com)
  • First Name Last Name @ Country Initial . yoursite.xxx (example: NathanIves@us.StrategyDriven.com)

Country initials are two letters representing a country such as United States = US, United Kingdom = UK, and Canada = CA.

Secure

  • First Initial Middle Initial Last Initial Random Number @ yoursite.xxx (example: NAI123@StrategyDriven.com)