Creative Agency Talk

Keeping Agile In The Evolving Creative Marketplace

Good news, if you are reading this post – you’re already one step ahead. In the current and constantly changing design and technology landscape, talent and drive are key – but being informed will push the envelope even further. Staying on top of industry trend patterns, innovators, designers and developments allows an already creative mind the space to open up even more possibility for future Read (or Listen) Up From blogs to print magazines and journals – gathering knowledge by keeping tabs on the latest publications is one of the best ways to stay in the know. Digital content is highly up to date but can be sometimes be fleeting since trends change so regularly. Keep an eye out for content patterns – if you begin to see multiple publications on the same topic that means it’s probably worth a second look. If you can’t spare the time, podcasts are also…

5 eCommerce UX Strategies that Can Boost Conversions

There’s a lot that’s been said about improving UI for ecommerce sites. But for the overall UX design, the UI design is only a part of the story. Not putting enough of an emphasis on a great user experience can mean the difference between a sale and website abandonment. While there are many aspects of UX that you can improve, here are five different strategies that will help you see an immediate lift in your sales conversions. #1 Improve the findability of your products Ask yourself this question: can users easily find what they’re looking for? Are the product pages listed in the right categories? Do you have a search bar that can accurately help users discover what they’re looking for and can correct misspellings or make alternative suggestions? You want to make it as easy as possible for users. You don’t want them to expend much effort or else…

Using Data to Heighten the Creative Process

It’s all too common for data to be seen as a creativity killer. To most creatives, the thought of analyzing content, numbers, charts and graphs has been seen as both a daunting and cumbersome process – an all out war against the design process. But what if data could be the key to what makes the creative experience truly free? With storytelling and user experience at the top of most brand strategies, data has become a necessary aspect of providing the right messaging (both visual and contextual) to the end user. Consumers are providing critically valuable information from the digital environment as they engage with brands, leaving a trail of signals. These cues, while backed in analytics, can help designers in creating rich experiential landscapes that exceed expectations across all platforms. As much of an oxymoron as it may seem, creatives need constraints to tap into true innovation. Without some…

For Better SEO, Look to Your Content

SEO is an integral component of digital marketing that accounts for a substantial portion of many companies (both enterprise and startup) revenues. Still, many are going about their approach with a ‘business as usual’ implementation – plugging in keywords and playing to what the auto generated engines will pick up. It’s not just about keywords anymore. To be truly optimized, content must be crafted with both the user and SEO in mind, and with an increased focus on quality and experience, content must be the driver. While this creates a better user experience, it can be a challenge to implement best practices when creating content for searchability. Understanding user needs is the frontline, while writing optimized content for organic searchability is paramount. Experienced search engine optimization experts and content developers, understand the underlying factors as to why writing unique and relevant content for websites it is important to ensure the long…

Anatomy of A (Successful) Creative Brief

We all know the optimistic feeling of winning a new client. The possibilities for the project are vast (at least as far as the budget will stretch) and the possibilities for creative are endless. With all the excitement, it’s far too easy to jump into a project, rushing with ideas and innovative approaches – both on the part of the client and the creatives. As the course of the project moves forward, inevitably, clients make changes, designers take liberties and as a result – the true message of the campaign can get lost in translation. This possibility for a communication breakdown can result in costly edits, time spent in development and meetings – or even worse, a stalled project. To combat the possibility of ill communication, a team must employ a few critical tools to aid in optimal workflow. Enter the creative brief – a document that could be described as the core of successful creative…

The Power of the White Paper for Brand Influence

Content is king, as they say – and nowhere does this resonate than with the discerning users of todays digital landscape. Now an integral part of any brand strategy, content marketing is an essential part of what an organization needs to survive. Customers are inundated with clever headlines, 140-character limits that tend to be leading (many times to nowhere), and graphics that may not be relevant to the message. No longer is lackluster search material going to bring conversions – and with that, a brand must deliver high-quality, useful and valuable content. This is where the often overlooked tool of the white paper comes into the picture. Designed to educate the market about a product or service, the white paper is a short document that complements the selling process with facts crafted to inform the user and heighten their knowledge about the organization. To be successful, the content must be useful…

Ideas First, Innovation Second

With a nearly constant stream of updates, optimization strategies and new technologies coming to market on a daily basis in the grand pursuit of disruption, the result can be somewhat uninspiring – stemming from lackluster and underdeveloped ideas. If the goal is innovation, then we could be waiting around for awhile. True innovation is lighting in a bottle and it won’t always strike when the time and conditions are right. To increase the possibility of disruption and innovation, ideas must flow freely and swiftly to even stand a chance of becoming a reality. It’s one thing to have a wealth of good ideas, it’s quite another to make them become a reality and on the road to becoming something useful, even life changing. A few aspects can aid in ensuring great ideas become disruptors. Speed It’s true, timing is everything. Time to market with a good idea is possibly the most…

Spring Clean Your Image with a Brand Refresh

If you feel that you are out of touch with your audience, it might be time to spring clean your image with a brand refresh. Rebranding is done for different reasons. Sometimes it’s to target a bigger audience that can be lead to growth. Other times it’s to adapt to the changing environment and stay competitive. Regardless of the reason, this is a big change that requires big adjustments to not only your brand presentation but to also how your company functions on an internal level. So where do you start with your Rebranding? The first order of business is to figure out exactly what you want to change and how you want to change it. Is your current strategy limiting you from growth or hurting your company in some way? How can you refocus and reposition the brand goals so that you can get on course to where you…

A Closer Look At Digital Personalization

The importance of a personalized brand experience is constantly on the minds of marketers, brand managers and designers alike. In particular, a digital approach to personalization, if orchestrated well, provides users with an experience that is specific to their interests and behaviors. A personalization strategy can range from the use of complex data usage – like that of Amazon and Facebook, which offers recommendations based upon viewing history or a simple approach on a more customer service oriented platform. Delivering a successful personalization strategy can be very tricky if not planned and implemented with the detail that users expect. Many initiatives fall flat and result in increased user drop rates and decreased user satisfaction. The ideal personalization plan can bring many benefits to both the user and brand it is supporting. Driving higher conversion, the content provided to the user is highly useful and aids in saving the user time in…

Simplify Design to Amplify Clarity

From design to content strategy, with specific attention to the web, minimalism has taken precedence. The right techniques can improve the legibility of design, create perception of expertise and foster true connection. The big question emerges: how can designers go about distilling down the essence of complexity to an elegant and powerful design without veering too far off course and peeling away valuable layers of information? We can all recognize that the current and longtime climate of complexity is building by the day. Complexity has become a large part of our lives and as a result, resources are at a minimum. A clear driver for a simplicity approach is to serve the user. Simplify (the message) Solve (a problem) Save (user resources: time, money) Taking steps to achieve minimalism will not only allow greater cognition for the user, but fast track the ultimate goal of conversion. Pare Down It’s inevitable that aspects must be removed or edited. There are only…