Advertising is very unique. It is a mirror that reflects the time, people and the priorities of its age. An ad created for a 1980s audience would have little to no value in today’s marketplace. Its message and those delivering it wouldn’t seem authentic and it wouldn’t reflect the modern zeitgeist. And while great movies created in different eras still feel relevant today you’d be hard pressed to find any advertisement that could make that claim. Not only do most ads from the past feel outdated, some feel so far removed from anything relevant that they seem like they originated from an entirely different world. And in some ways, they did. 

In honor of Thanksgiving we wanted to share a collection of some of our favorite holiday ads from year’s past. 

These ads are certain to leave you entertained, bewildered and perhaps a little confused. 

Enjoy and have a happy and healthy thanksgiving!

Chesterfield Cigarettes and the Gipper

When people say things like, “it was a different time” this is the exactly the kind of thing they’re talking about. Imagining this ad with Bush, Obama or Clinton makes it even more amazing.

Hellmann’s Mayonnaise

“Is there anything on your Thanksgiving table that isn’t slathered in delicious, rich Hellmann’s mayonnaise?”

Schenley

At first glance that bottle resembles the formerly named Aunt Jemima, which is confusing enough as it is. But then you notice the plane and the schematics and the year and now we’re wondering if this man is supposed to be Vice President Truman?

Hellmann’s Mayonnaise (Again)

Hellmann’s, again making one of the most disgusting and unappealing food advertisements of all time.

Are we to assume that Hellmann’s wants us to purchase their mayonnaise, consume an entire jar, clean the jar and then shove as much cranberry sauce into that jar as possible? And then stick a wick in to that jar full of cranberry sauce and light it? You couldn’t just make an ad with a happy family and delicious side dishes to sell your Mayo, could you?

Zippo Lighters

That dog is going to get lit on fire before the New Year.

Sun Lamps

June’s got an amazing tan and EVERYONE notices. And it’s all thanks to Sun Lamp’s latest product which has certainly gotten the attention of June’s husband and caused her neighbors to become completely unhinged.

Dr. Pepper 

I remember when I was a kid and I was sick. I would stay home from school, curl up on the couch underneath a big blanket and my mom would put a pot of Dr. Pepper on the stove. Steam would squeak free of the pot, mom would pour it in mug and serve it to me, but only after I finished my Twizzler Noodle Soup.

Also, Frosty is a snowman. Hot Dr. Pepper will kill him. Hot Dr. Pepper is so good that Frosty is willing to die for it. Any brand nowadays would kill for that kind of loyalty.

Daisy Rifles

“You’ll shoot your eye out, kid…. and so will mom and dad and grandma and the nice man who fixes our piano.”

Daisy company wants to make sure that everyone in your family is prepared to fend off small rodents.

Whether you’re building custom landing pages or optimizing catalog pages, removing distractions and clutter is often the best way to simplify the customer experience and to increase the conversion rate of a landing page. The notion of keeping it simple is often abandoned due to group analysis and overthinking the landing page’s layout or content.That is why we have created this guide. Our goal here is to provide simple recommendations to improve your landing pages. 

There are three ingredients that can be simplified to achieve high converting landing pages: Layout, Message, and Response. These three elements will blend together to serve one purpose, to guide visitors toward your call to action.

Make the Layout Clean – Avoid Distractions

The layout and design will be the first test for simplifying your landing page and reducing distractions. Every element you choose to include, or exclude, will contribute to your overall success. Go for quality in choosing what to include, whether it is a video, image or infographic. Consider these observations as you build out your page:

1. Keep the layout easy to use.

This is really the underlying characteristic of a quality landing page as it sets the foundation for the rest of this list. Give your target audience an easy-to-use page that flows all the way through to your call to action..

2. Keep the layout fast.

Your landing page has to be fast to load, because slow sites are not easy to use and even more importantly, studies show that 53% visitors will leave if a site fails to load in less than 3 seconds. Optimize images and video using only those that are necessary to share your message. Avoid negatively impacting the user’s experience.  Sure, your landing pages need to be visually appealing, but not at the expense of time and patience. You may create the most beautiful and visually engaging landing page in the world but if it takes too long to load, no one is going to stick around to see it.

3. Keep the layout free of unnecessary clutter.

Avoid cluttering the site visitor’s first impression with popups. Popups are not a great way to make your landing page ‘easy to use’. Present your message without overwhelming your visitors and only introduce popups when they fit the situation and will provide added value.They should certainly not be on your landing pages.

4. Keep the layout organized.

Organize your information so there is a nice path to follow. Use bullet lists, callouts, charts, and other elements when such a grouping will help visitors follow your message. Always use clear headings giving your visitors a choice between which content to skim and which content to study.

Make Your Message Compelling – Avoid Confusion

Your landing page should be very purpose-centric. All content should be carefully vetted to ensure a consistent message. There are several things you must know as you create your landing page: know your product, know your customer, and know your purpose. With this knowledge you can keep your message on track.

1. Keep the message simple and direct.

Don’t make visitors think. Give them the details they need to make a decision. Vague claims might seem like a way to attract wider interest, but l it can also cause confusion. Tout specific benefits to keep their attention and draw them further into your page.

2. Keep the message informative.

Put yourself in their shoes.Answer all the expected questions about your product or service: ,  “What would I need to hear in order to make a decision?”. Present all the features you are proud of and connect those features to the benefits you want others to notice. Give as much information as necessary to encourage visitors to respond to your call to action..

3. Keep the message on task.

Know your purpose. Connect your stated features and benefits to your call to action. Show visitors how these features and benefits are within reach by signing up for more information, scheduling a phone call, or purchasing your product. 

4. Keep the message fresh.

Make sure your story is compelling. Show visitors how your claims are reliable by incorporating social proof and video for testimonials or demonstrations. If a live demo or free trial seems like a good option, consider the sign-up as your call to action. 

Make the Response Clear – Avoid Regret

You have built your page and sculpted your message to focus attention on your call to action. Don’t stop yet! Make sure you are asking for the response that you need.Both the request and the benefits of participating must be made clear. Don’t leave anything to speculation. Present your argument and ask for the response. Consider these suggestions to keep that focus:

1. Keep the response focused on the call to action.

Make the sale! If they’re on your site and Landing Page, you already have their interest and they have invested at least a little time in getting familiar with your offer. Make sure it is all pointing to the response you are looking for. Don’t leave them wondering. If you want to make use of a popup, try reeling them back in if I attempt to leave without accepting your offer.

2. Keep the response free from distractions.

Review your page again for anything that distracts from the call to action. Fewer  distractions, and again, avoid pop-ups right off the bat. Don’t play add-on and give them options that distract from your primary goal. Keep it to no more than two options for even a more general landing page.

3. Keep the response moving forward.

Each bit of information should move the site visitor further down the purchase path to accepting the call to action. Once the prospectI commits and accepts your terms, consider providing some feedback. Welcome your new customer to the family. Let them know what to expect next. Remind them how this decision will benefit them. And, say thanks.

Now that all the ingredients are in place, make the recipe your own. Monitor and refine your landing pages to ensure they are clean, compelling, and clear. Let the response to your call to action drive further improvements. Get feedback and incorporate it into your pages. 

No Distractions | No Confusion | No Regret

High converting landing pages are within reach. If you would like to discuss how InteractOne can help take your online marketing to the next level, contact us now. 

Each type of SEO — on-page, technical and external — effects how your webstore ranks on search engines. While many users understand the basics of on-page SEO, there is a aspect of SEO that often goes unnoticed unless you are a developer: technical SEO. Technical SEO encompasses site structure, crawling, indexing, alt attributes and more. We’ve already created a developer’s guide to help you understand some technical SEO basics, but now we are diving in even further. Keep scrolling to go through this technical search engine optimization checklist for your webstore.

Organize Your Site’s Structure

URLs are not the only elements that need a logical structure. So does your website’s structure as well. Your website’s structure is the organization of all the webpages on your webstore. Since your eCommerce store will have many product pages, you will want a flat structure where your site’s pages are only a few links away from each other. This structure allows your customers to have an easier time jumping between each page but also makes it easier for search engines to crawl 100% of your webstore. A messy structure creates orphan pages with no internal links pointing to them. Orphan pages make it hard to identify and fix indexing issues. Extensions like Ahrefs Site Audit and Visual Site Mapper will give you a birds-eye view of your site’s structure and how the pages link together.

Use a Consistent, Logical URL Structure

Once your site has an organized structure, it’s time to work on your URLs. URLs help users understand where they are on your webstore. While creating your URLs, you do not need to overanalyze their structure but you will want them to be consistent yet logical. And when we say consistent and logical, we mean backslashes or arrowheads that help users and Google understand where they are. 

For better understanding, let’s look at the Fawn Shoppe:

Fawnshoppe.com is the homepage, but after that, you start to see the URL titles branch off into other categories like > collections. From there, it continues with > baby-girl, > products and so on. These subcategories not only organize your site but also give search engines extra content to analyze. It also helps Google and users know that all these categories fall under the Fawn Shoppe. Another tip to remember is that shorter URLs rank higher than longer ones. Therefore, try to keep your URLs short and consistent.

Use Breadcrumb Navigation

Breadcrumb navigation is extremely SEO-friendly. It automatically adds internal links to categories and subpages to your website. Adding internal links to your categories and subpages helps solidify your site’s architecture, which makes it easy to scroll, search and land on new pages. A good thing to know about breadcrumb navigation is that Google turns URLs into breadcrumb-style navigation on the search engine results page. 

Here’s an example of breadcrumb-style navigation from Island Inn, a company InteractOne works with:

Spot Crawling and Indexing Issues

You want all major search engines to crawl and index your webstore. Crawling is the process where Google crawlers gather information across all the different webpages. Indexing takes the information and content found through crawling and places it into search engines. Once you have a new webstore up and running, you need to look for crawling and indexing issues. You can spot these problems by using extension tools like Screaming Frog, Coverage Reports on Google Search Console or Ahrefs Site Audit. Each one of these tools has its pros and cons, and it is up to your company to do the research and trial sessions. In many cases, companies choose to work with a knowledge marketing firm to look for and fix crawling and indexing issues. It is recommended by SEO specialists to work with professionals due to the level of knowledge needed to understand and implement it.

Use an XML Sitemap

Even though mobile-first indexing and accelerated mobile pages are essential sources to use to locate URLs, search engines like Google state that XML sitemaps are the second most important source in finding URLs. An XML sitemap creates a list of your website’s URLs, which acts as a roadmap to tell search engines what content is available and how to reach it. XML sitemaps help crawlers index webpages faster and more efficiently.

Check the Website for Dead Links

On your webstore, you want all your external and internal links to redirect customers to a working page. Dead links or broken links are links that do not lead to a working or live website page. As a whole, dead links will not make or break your SEO; however, they do make it harder for Googlebots to crawl your company’s pages. SEO specialists recommend websites doing a quarterly SEO audit check that includes searching and fixing broken links. Resolving these links will keep customers engaged and ready to keep scrolling through your website as long as they never reach a dead end.

Implement Hreflang for International Websites

What the heck is hreflang you may be asking? It’s definitely not a foreign treat or fancy car, but does involve helping international websites. Not every company needs to implement hreflang. Webstores that allow international users and purchases should consider having hreflang. It is not worth the investment for domestic brands who do not plan on expanding internationally. Hreflang permits search engines like Google to understand users’ locations to target the specific language they need to use on the site. This allows Google to automatically create different variations of your website for these global shoppers. Implementing hreflang is very difficult. There are many steps, requirements, codes and methods needed to get it started on your site. That’s why hreflang specialists recommend using tools like Aleyda Solis’s Hreflang Generator Tool to do the set-up, monitoring and adjustments. However, since hreflang is confusing and takes loads of work to implement, many specialists highly recommend working with a marketing firm that understands the ins and outs.

Improve the Page’s Loading Speed

An important SEO element that will keep popping up is your webpage’s loading speed. On average, customers leave pages if they take longer than 10 to 30 seconds to load. Shoppers want things fast, and if your site cannot provide fast user experiences, they will move onto the next store. In general, larger pages with high-resolution photos or videos take longer to load than shorter pages with high-resolution media. You can compress your images and videos to help improve the load speed, but you will end up with grainy, unclear photos. And as a webstore, you will want your product images as clear as possible. Instead, keep your high-quality images and videos and opt to a shorter webpage. Other ways to fix your webstore’s loading speed is by caching your site, test using and not using CDNs and eliminating 3rd party scripts. 

There are many more ways to improve your SEO as a whole. We’ve already created a guide to help you understand some of the search engine optimization basics to help improve sales. To dive deeper into what SEO tactics will work specifically for your company, contact InteractOne today.

Whether you’re selling flashy sets of custom racing wheels or children’s clothing or frames, images are absolutely integral to your e-commerce store. They make your website design approachable, they lend reputability to your product listings, and they give all those online shoppers who are visual learners a way to browse your digital shelves without having to read every tedious description and spec.

Your web images can be very effective off-site tools as well. From improved SEO, to ranking at the top of Google Images, to building your brand and audience via social media – sprucing up your web images and sharing them around can help bring a whole lot of new shoppers to your web store.

In this guide you’ll learn how to optimize and share your product images to drive more traffic to your website.

Being Unique Goes a Long Way

Whenever possible, it’s always better to use a unique image instead of a stock one. Search engines will count it as unique, relevant content, which lends a hand to your on-site SEO. It will also make your product listings stand out from your competitors – customers will see your product pages as tailored, refined, and reputable rather than yet another auto-generated product directory from an anonymous third party. 

• What If I Have a Huge Product Catalog or Drop-Shipping Program? If you have thousands of components listed for sale or a large drop-shipping program, taking unique photos of every product you have listed isn’t feasible. Still, you should take the time to snap quality, unique pictures of your top selling products (with multiple perspectives and vantage points whenever possible). Include those on the product pages along with quality product descriptions instead of copy-pasted manufacturer specs. This will make your pages really stand out from the competition.

• What About eCommerce Stores that Sell Premium Aftermarket Parts and Upgrades?  On the other end of the spectrum, if you’re an automotive aftermarket store offering custom car parts and performance components, it’s practically imperative that you focus your product listings around unique imagery. Whether it’s racing wheels or performance exhaust systems, selling premium aftermarket components is all about getting the viewer to picture the product installed on their own car. To accomplish this, you need to showcase quality images of the components installed on each specific vehicle that the component is compatible with. If a user is shopping for a custom muffler kit to install on their 2010 Ford Mustang, they’ll be much more enticed into buying it if they’re greeted with a picture of the kit installed on a 2010 Ford Mustang when they click the page. A manufacturer’s image of the uninstalled muffler kit or a stock image of it installed on a Honda Civic will come across as impersonal and generic to the shopper.

Turn Your Product Pictures into Billboards on Google Images

All of the usual SEO rules apply when it comes to ranking your store’s product shots on Google Images. Obviously, due to ample competition, domain authority is going to be the biggest factor when it comes to ranking stock images that you host on your server.

For smaller stores, the way to outrank the big dogs is to post unique product photos that are of equal or better quality than their stock counterparts. Google will rank those unique images within the top results of copy-pasted stock images that larger stores use on their product pages – as discussed above, using unique content makes you stand out from the crowd, literally in this case.

To make sure your unique images are properly scraped and categorized on Google Images.(Check back next week for our  “Image Optimization 101” guide.) For now, you can start by surrounding the images with a quality product description, fact-checked specs, and organic keywords that focus on the vehicle make and model which Google users will be searching for.

Reach Some Niches on Social Media

You can turbocharge the outreach of your web images by sprinkling them across social media. Pinterest is a great platform for this because it easily lets you cross-post images straight from your site, copy-paste a relevant portion of your product description, tag some relevant keywords, then set your pictures loose into the wild. Google Images automatically scrapes Pinterest too, so the images you post there and on your web store should pop up side by side in user searches.

Instagram is another great repository for your web images. Stock photos won’t play very well there when it comes to audience reach – they’ll come across as spammy and generic. Instagram is a platform where your unique images can really shine though. Simply cross-post them, throw on a cool filter if you want, and tag them with a dozen or so relevant keywords, such as the name and type of the component, the make and model of vehicle, and colloquial hashtags used by demographics likely to shop at your web store.

Finding the niche tags that are followed by the demographics you want to target with your products takes a bit of research up front, but it’s a great way to get your brand in front of the right users and potentially build a reliable network of social media followers that you can easily market to.

Image SEO Is One Integral Piece of the Larger Puzzle

Optimizing your images for search engines and cross-posting them isn’t a magic bullet that will suddenly flood your site with millions of viewers – unless by chance you post an image that goes absolutely viral. Nevertheless, it’s an integral part of the overall SEO picture that will give your web store a better foothold on the climb up the ladder of SERPs.

In the end – as always – content is king. Publish great content, supplement it with quality images, make sure everything is search engine optimized along the way, and your e-commerce store will have a great foundation from which to build.

If you would like to discuss or explore these techniques or any other site optimization or digital marketing issues for your webstore, please drop us a line.

Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) are the next big thing in the eCommerce world and for good reason. They provide a better mobile user experience and have proven to lower development & maintenance costs and increase conversions.

In this blog we’ll be exploring the current limitations of the mobile experience, both with sites that feature Responsive Web Design and Native Apps. And then, we’ll be analyzing the strengths of Progressive Web Apps and how they address the shortcomings of Responsive Web Design and Native Apps. 

To learn more about PWAs, check out our PWA Services page and read our most recent blogs Powering PWAs with the Payment Request API and What’s Next for Tech? PWAs, Headless eCommerce & Cryptocurrency

Check out our live PWA Demo Site too.

And, download this excellent Magento-produced piece, which dives deeper into a number of topics that we cover here.

Limitations of Responsive Web Design

RWD is a one-size-fits all grid system. A website with RWD scales itself to match each user’s screen, automatically resizing the website’s elements. While this does allow for a smoother, contextual browsing experience, there are a number of limitations that come with the RWD solution.

While RWD sites are functional, they are unable to take advantage of the unique features of a smartphone. Your camera, microphone and GPS services cannot be accessed by an RWD website. With an eCommerce webstore, this could prevent you from providing accurate shipping information or in-store local availability. Also, consider this impact on product reviews. The vast majority of people use their camera on their smartphone as their primary camera. With an RWD site lacking in camera access, you’re preventing users from uploading images of themselves and your product directly to their reviews. And, as we’ve covered in recent months, the importance of customer reviews and social confirmation are only growing. 

Mobile users also have different intents, interactions and expectations than desktop users. By using an RWD to ‘fold down’ your desktop into a condensed mobile version you’re unable to meet the unique needs of mobile shoppers.

RWD sites also drastically increase load times and, if the mobile user isn’t connected to a dedicated internet connection, this can quickly cause a data drain. This is due to the fact that RWD sites download the same code to display on mobile as it does on a desktop.

Limitations of Native Apps

Unlike RWD sites, Native Apps are built specifically for the features and functionality of smartphones and to meet the needs of mobile users. They feature simplified navigation and visual orientation tailored for mobile users. They also have access to the features of a smartphone like the camera and GPS. But while Native Apps do not suffer from the same problems as RWD sites, they come with their own unique set of disadvantages.

The biggest impediment to Native Apps is downloading the app itself. The act of downloading any app is a major (albeit one-time) commitment on the part of the mobile user. Users must go to their app store (Apple Store or Google Play Store), search for the app, find the app, select the app, download and install the app, register the app and login to the app all before being able to actually use the app.

In addition to the time commitment there is also the data commitment that comes with downloading an app. If the mobile user isn’t connected to an internet connection, then they are forced to dedicate a significant amount of cellular data to downloading an app. This is a commitment that many mobile users are either unwilling or unable to do. And even if a mobile user is connected to WIFI that doesn’t mean they’ll have the memory space available on their phone to complete the download. Smartphones all have a finite amount of space, much of which is taken up by a user’s personal photos, music and podcasts. They may not want to sacrifice their personal content for your app.

A fully functioning ecommerce app can be quite expensive to develop as well, especially if you’re building one for multiple platforms. Your Apple Store app and your Android app will each have unique requirements based on the platform. For smaller eCommerce stores the development of an app can run between $50k and $100k and some come run as high as $500k. And even if you get an app built, tested and uploaded to the App store, there is no guarantee that it will be embraced by your users or drive sales. In fact, a recent Forrester report showed that 4% of mobile commerce transactions in 2018 came from mobile apps and 49% of smartphone users download zero apps per month. In addition they only account for 5% of all online traffic and convert at 2.8%.

The Power and Potential of Progressive Web Apps (PWAs)

Customers are searching for an app-like experience that transcends the limitations of apps. That’s where Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) come into play. PWAs provide an engaging and smooth user experience that has been shown to increase conversion rates and accelerate growth. PWAs combine the best of both your ecommerce website and mobile app functionality. Here are a few of the benefits that PWAs add to your eCommerce capabilities.

Studies show that if your mobile pages are taking longer than 2 seconds to load then your customers are likely to take their business to a different site. That doesn’t give you a lot of time to get them connected to what they’re searching for. PWAs do not require a mobile web browser to re-render or shrink down the site, meaning that pages load faster and transitions are smoother.

PWAs are readily available to any smartphone user on any web browser. There is no need for any sort of additional download. Meaning that your customers no longer have multi-step installation and data roadblocks between them and a smooth, clean mobile shopping experience. PWAs are great for customers who have low bandwidth or limited data plans. This allows your customers to avoid heavy data usage associated with app downloads. And customers who use PWAs on their mobile browser don’t need to take up much space on the smartphones themselves. The data commitment for a PWA is a fraction of a native app.

PWAs make it easy on the development team too. A single codebase is used for both mobile and desktop. A PWA doesn’t require a seperate desktop solution, eliminating the time and resource investment that come with the development and maintenance of a native app. Your website will have a lower cost of ownership and a quicker time to market once your development standards have been established. The cost of a basic Magento PWA begins at $10,000 but can go as high as $35,000 with an average development time of two months. While, that commitment is nothing to scoff at, it is remarkably less than the time and money required to develop and maintain a Native App.

Your PWA is also able to be deployed, unrestricted, since there is no need to go through an app store. Meaning you are not bound by the terms and agreements or revenue share agreements demanded by these platforms. Additionally, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, nearly all web browsers on iOS and Android support PWAs.

Conclusion

Overall, PWAs simply make for a better customer experience. They minimize required touchpoints, allowing for a faster browsing and checkout experience. With a streamlined purchase process PWAs boost shopper engagement, leading to revenue growth and higher conversion rates. 

To learn more about PWAs and to implement one of your own, contact us today and let’s bring cutting edge technology and a more dynamic user experience to your site.