Category Archives: Marketing

website security SSL

Why HTTPS and SSL are Important for Your Website and Users

Posted on

As a business owner, you have a responsibility to keep your customers safe. This includes keeping them safe online. When they come to your website, they shouldn’t have to worry about being hacked or having their sensitive information exposed. Instead, they should feel confident that they can use your site without worry or fear. Thankfully, there are tools that can help make your site a safer place to be, including HTTPS and SSL. According to a 2020 survey, 56% of businesses employ extensive forms of encryption, such as HTTPS and SSL. If your business is not yet utilizing encryption, C0MPLÉX1 can help.

Understanding HTTPS

If you’re not familiar with HTTPS, it stands for hypertext transfer protocol secure. The “secure” in the name is key. The whole purpose of HTTPS is to safely and securely send data between the website server and web browser. It is encrypted for the user’s protection. Ideally, HTTPS should be a part of every site, especially for those that require a login or that have users submit vulnerable information, such as their credit card numbers.

If you don’t use HTTPS, your customers will know it. Many web browsers will flag websites that don’t use HTTPS and warn visitors that your site may not be secure. Furthermore, you may have to deal with unwanted advertisements appearing on your site, which can look unprofessional. Thus, if you want to protect your site, your customers, and your reputation, using HTTPS is key.

Understanding SSL

When you rely on HTTPS, you’re also relying on Transport Layer Security (TLS). This encryption protocol was formerly called Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). Today, despite the name change, you may still hear TLS referred to as SSL or as SSL/TLS. It uses both a private key, controlled by you, and a public key to facilitate secure interactions with the server. The public key is included in the SSL certificate, a document that identifies the website. You can also include your business name in the certificate to help customers feel more secure as they use your site.

Help from C0MPLÉX1

At C0MPLÉX1, we’re proud to offer web design and web development services. Additionally, as an autonomous system, we can provide secure web hosting services and dedicated IP addresses. We are also skilled in technical SEO and utilize HTTPS, SSL, and other processes to help keep your business, your reputation, and your customers safe.  

Contact Us Today

If you’d like to learn more about how to keep your site secure or need website security consulting services, contact us today. Whether you’re interested in an audit of your current site or want to build a safe site from the ground up, we can help. We look forward to serving you.

Instagram account animation with hand holding megaphone

How to Create An Instagram Business Account

Posted on

Around 200 million businesses are using Instagram. If you’d like to be one of them, learn how to create an Instagram business account and how to use it to your advantage. In fact, as of 2021, it had 1.21 billion active monthly users. Even more importantly, 70% of online shoppers turn to the platform when considering a purchase. As such, it can be a powerful tool for businesses. Furthermore, creating a business account is easy, fast, and free. Just follow these simple steps to get started.

Getting Started

When you’re ready to create an Instagram business account, simply go to the site or download the app. You’ll be prompted to sign up. The process is easy and should take only a few minutes of your time. Once it’s complete, navigate to “Settings.” If you see the option to “Switch to Professional Account,” tap or click that. If not, tap “Account” first and then “Switch to Professional Account.” From there, click “Continue,” select a business category, tap “Done,” and then click “OK.”

Next Steps

Once you’ve made the switch, you’re ready to use Instagram for business purposes. Just click “Business” to add your contact details and, if you prefer, to connect your account to your business Facebook page. Your business account will give you access to:

  • Helpful insights about who interacts with your profile
  • The Professional Dashboard feature
  • Educational content
  • Performance tracking
  • Instagram Ads
  • A call to action button
  • And more

Unleash the Power

While Instagram’s built-in tools can be useful, effectively marketing on Instagram does require some work and know-how on your part. Fortunately, C0MPLÉX1 can help you use the platform to attract the right customers, boost brand recognition, and increase conversions. We can also show you how to sell directly from Instagram, optimize your content, and engage with your customers.

Contact Us Today

A business Instagram account can help you reach a wider audience. However, just like all social media platforms, it has to be used effectively. If you want help creating, designing, or optimizing your Instagram business account, contact us today. With our assistance, you can use this tool to its full advantage.

 

Start Thinking About Customer Experience On Your Website

Posted on

Nowadays, websites are usually the main source of information for potential customers to learn about a product. When you have a great website, it helps set the foundation for future online and in-person sales.

C0MPLÉX1 can help improve the chances your visitors turn into clients and customers through conversion rate optimization (CRO). CRO uses a variety of methods to entice customers into a desired action. 

If you want to continue to grow, you need to start thinking about the customer experience on your website. C0MPLÉX1 can help you give your customers a better overall experience with our internet marketing, CRO, and SEO services.

With so much competition on the web, a good strategy involves staying two steps ahead and being detail-oriented. Attend to your customers in the best way possible by staying on top of their wants and needs. 

Research proves that customers today are looking for a smarter online experience.  They don’t want to call your customer service line, but rather have their questions answered right on your site. While FAQ pages can be a good resource, it takes more than that to keep them interested and satisfied. 

How To Create A Good Customer Experience Strategy 

man holding tablet that says rate your experience

Once you start thinking about customer experience on your website, C0MPLÉX1 can help you develop a good strategy that will help turn visitors into happy customers. 

The best strategies come from understanding who those customers/clients/patients are and what they are looking to get from you. Customer and employee feedback is a great way to gain this understanding. C0MPLÉX1 offers reputation monitoring and management services that can help you stay better connected to your customers. We can help train you or your staff to become better at responding to both positive and negative reviews. This can improve your ratings and encourage more positive customer feedback.

It is important to invest in improving your technology and business processes. Though automating helps a lot, you must be careful never to lose you personal touch. C0MPLÉX1 can help streamline business processes on your website, while still allowing your business’ personality to shine. 

Identify the personality of your brand: 

Identifying the personality of your brand is important to help build customer loyalty and brand awareness. When coupled with solid marketing strategies, you can start seeing more visitors and higher conversion rates. Identifying the personality of your brand takes some research and creativity. Ask yourself questions about your business, such as what makes it special and what you want your customers to think of you. 

By answering these questions, and putting thought into finding a unifying theme to describe the products or services you sell, you’ll be able to figure out what makes your business special. This helps you better communicate your ideals and makes it easier for customers to identify with the brand. 

When you have a strong brand identity you increase your chances of running a successful marketing campaign. C0MPLÉX1 can help you develop your brand identity and create a pay per click (PPC) advertising campaign to go along with it. We are a certified Google partner and know what it takes to stand out in a crowded market. 

Pay attention to load times: 

A slow loading site can result in catastrophic results for your revenue. With so much focus on immediacy, impressing your customers only takes a few seconds and even a small delay can cause users to abandon your website or shopping cart in a heartbeat! 

 According to statistics collected by top web marketing experts, 47% of customers expect websites to load in less than 2 seconds and around 40% of them will abandon a website if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. 

C0MPLÉX1 has an expert team of web developers that can build or rebuild your website for maximum speed and efficiency. We can help speed up your load times through a series of techniques, such as reducing the number of HTTP requests that your site makes. We can also help you optimize your site with our technical SEO. This helps reduce load time and can improve your ranking on search engines.

See Also:

Market Demands On Software Engineers – The Value Of Good Developers | Your Prospects & Customers Are Getting Younger Every Day

Focus on great design:

Content and design may be the most important things when creating a successful website. C0MPLÉX1 has an expert team of content writers, graphic designers, and web designers who can give your site a look that will wow your customers.

When you start thinking about customer experience on your website, you must provide an attractive and functional design that keeps users latched on to your site. According to Adobe, 38% of people will leave your site if the layout is unattractive. 

Woman pushing a glass button for testing UX parameters. User experience concept

We can help you create a layout that is easy to load, has a modern and sleek look, and includes elements meant to enhance the customer’s experience when navigating through your site. 

A great website design should provide a good frame for the content and encourage people to shop and compare your products and services. We can help you do this while making your site’s navigation comfortable and easy. 

Keeping a smooth and simple design with lots of categories and proper organization, will make it easier for consumers to find exactly what they’re looking for. 

Create high quality, long-form content:

The best thing about long form content is that it provides users with more information, which in turn, translates into higher value. Great quality content answers all of your customers’ questions and gives them reasons to trust you and acquire your products. C0MPLÉX1 can create content that will be one of your greatest allies when it comes to providing a great customer experience on your website. 

We can create “How-to” tutorials, white papers, product guidebooks or comparison guides, and anything that comes to mind that might keep customers interested and make them ready to buy.

We don’t just focus on text. We can add extra resources, such as video, images, audio files, and infographics to make your site more interactive and interesting to visitors. Long form content gives you a chance to add a higher number of backlinks, which help you look better in the eyes of search engine rankings. 

Tell your customers exactly how your product or service can make a difference in their lives and see how this translates into more shares, more visibility, and of course, more sales!

With great content that is interesting and valuable, not only will users find you more trustworthy, but Google may also reward you with a better ranking by regarding you as an authority in your field. 

When you start thinking about customer experience on your website, you’ll find yourself one step ahead of most of your competitors. Success is not just a matter of selling great products and offering a good after-sales service, but also providing a great online experience. This will ensure your customers will want to return to your site and recommend it to others. 

 Contact C0MPLÉX1 today!

If you want to improve the customer experience on your website, contact C0MPLÉX1 today. We have the knowledge and expertise to help increase conversions and keep your customers coming back. Our professional team is highly trained in all areas of internet marketing and SEO. Feel free to ask us any questions on how to improve your customers’ experience.

Long Tail Keywords For Dummies

Posted on

Most SEO articles and tips focus solely on “keywords”. However, we will focus on long tail keywords which actually may have more opportunity to attract your target audience at a low cost.

Long tail keywords are generally comprised of three or more words in order to make the search much more specific. Even though short term keywords make for larger search volumes, much of their search results get taken away by large websites of the niche. Long tail keywords lead to more specific searches, which means that those who encounter your content through a long tail search will be truly interested in what your website is offering specifically to them.

For example, if your website specializes in selling music instruments in Raleigh, North Carolina, using the short term keyword “electric guitar” won’t be enough because typing those words into Google will generate thousands of results, of which the first few pages may be full of top niche and big established retailer websites.

Someone actually looking to buy an electric guitar may not just type in that short keyword. Wanting to be more specific, this person may use terms such as “electric guitar with flames in raleigh nc”. Right there at the top of those search results is where you want your website to be.

When it comes to long tail keywords, it’s all about quality over quantity.

Why You Should Focus On Long Term Keywords

If you’re still not convinced, here’s a wider list of benefits to using long term keywords.

  • Get higher rankings on search engines. Since the top websites for your niche may get the first spots of searches, you need to get more specific and target those in the less searched terms category. You will face less competition by not having to fight with more established/big box retailer websites. Using long tail keywords strategically allows you to aim for higher rankings in a shorter period of time while attracting and building the audience you’re aiming for.
  • Get better SEO benefits. Long tail keywords help search engines recommend your content to the right audience.
  • Improve CRO for your e-commerce. Long tail keywords are a great strategy for e-commerce websites to improve their conversion rates. Like the example we made earlier, people who search for “electric guitar with flames in raleigh nc” may be much more likely to make a purchase than those simply searching for “electric guitars”.
  • Long tail keywords are easier to include naturally into your content which makes it look less like you’re trying to sell something and more like you’re actually handing out useful information to your audience.

How To Use Long Tail Keywords:

The first thing you want to do is find the right long term keywords for you. This process consists of in depth keyword research over long periods of time. There are many paid & free tools in the SEO world, some from Google and other sources.

Once you have your long tail keywords, you can start creating content and including them in your existing content, starting with your URL and page/post titles. They can also be included in your paragraph leadings, body, as well as any internal links to your own related content and external links. You can even include them in images and meta descriptions!

Finally, don’t forget to track your long tail keywords performance so you can be certain you’re on the right track and are getting the most benefit out of your efforts.

image by oskay on flickr cc

Cutting the Cable Cord; The Future is Video Advertising

Posted on

It is becoming increasingly difficult to reach younger audiences via television advertising, and soon from now – it may be nearly impossible. Forrester Research predicts that 50% of all TV viewers under age 32 will not subscribe to a traditional pay TV service by the time 2025 rolls around. Currently, “cord-nevers” (people who have never subscribed to a paid cable TV service) comprise 18% of the U.S. population. And while the majority of cord-nevers are ages 32 and older, roughly 7% of cord-nevers are people ages 18-31. [source]

image by tomislavmedak on flickr cc

Increasing Engagement with Video Advertising

Cable TV subscriptions may be on the decline, but perhaps not surprisingly, time on YouTube jumped [source] 44% according to Nielsen’s Google-commissioned analysis, primarily due to mobile viewership. [source] With this information, brands and ad agencies are being forced to re-think their media strategies. The following are some of the things that they need to take into consideration.

#1 – Combine TV & YouTube

Google performed a study of 3,000 U.S. campaigns and looked at how total reach of millennials would be impacted if campaigns had replaced some of their TV advertising with YouTube ads. They found that without spending an extra dollar, 46% of campaigns would have benefited from a TV and YouTube combo, with an average increase in millennials reached of 42% compared to TV alone.

#2 – Use YouTube to Grow Engagement for Your Brand

Studies show that including “TrueView” ads on your YouTube videos can increase the likelihood of the viewer taking action. In fact, of those who watch at least 30 seconds or more of a TrueView ad are 23X more likely to visit and/or subscribe to that brand channel, watch additional videos by that brand and/or share the video(s). Marketers should pay attention to what their target audience’s needs are, and engage them in the micro-moments that matter.

#3 – Boost ROI by Increasing Views of Past Video Content

According to Google, viral content on sites like YouTube have a longer shelf life than the 15-30-second commercials you see on TV. Branded videos on YouTube have a long shelf-life, earning views for months, if not years. Those who employ the use of TrueView on newly posted videos see significant upticks in views for past content – by up to 500%!

image by Marco Arment on flickr cc

Other Tips for Successful Video Advertising

#1 – KEEP THE VIDEO RELEVANT

Just like any content you would produce for your website or other social media, the context of your video should appeal to your target audience. The more relevant, the better chance your audience will watch the entire video.

#2 – PERFORM A/B TESTING

One way to figure out which video ad performs better is by conducting A/B testing with your audience. Create several different types of videos, play around with video titles, lengths, and content.

#3 – BE BRIEF

Today’s Internet users don’t have time to wade through lengthy, drawn out videos. Keep your video short and sweet. Get to the point early on, avoid language that sounds too sales-y.

#4 – HAVE CLEAR CTA’S

Just like your online content, your video marketing efforts should include a clear Call-to-Action (CTA). Include this at the beginning of your video, at the end, or in the middle. Ideas of the kinds of CTA’s to include: social media links, your website URL, etc.

#5 – BRAND YOURSELF

Make sure you include some form of professional branding on or throughout your video. Ex: Place your company logo near the top of the video, near the side, or at the bottom of the screen.

#6 – ONLY PUBLISH HIGH QUALITY VIDEO

There is nothing worse than trying to watch a poor quality video. Depending on your budget, it would behoove you to hire a professional videographer or someone with the knowledge and expertise to help you a video whose technical and creative qualities look great on a variety of digital devices.

As we close out 2015, have a look at some of the top trending videos in 2014.

17 Interesting YouTube Statistics

  1. There are at least 400 hours worth of video uploaded to YouTube every single minute. [via]
  2. Only 5% of the videos posted to YouTube are driving most of the views. [via]
  3. 58M videos (5%) of YouTube videos are responsible for 95% of views on the site. [via]
  4. YouTube was founded in February 2005. [via]
  5. Slogan from 2005 – 2012 was “Broadcast Yourself”. [via]
  6. YouTube’s founders, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, were all early employees of PayPal. [via]
  7. The first YouTube video, titled Me at the zoo, shows co-founder Jawed Karim at the San Diego Zoo. The video was uploaded on April 23, 2005, and can still be viewed on the site. [via]
  8. In 2014 YouTube said that 300 hours of new videos were uploaded to the site every minute,[20] three times more than one year earlier and that around three quarters of the material comes from outside the U.S. [via]
  9. The site has 800 million unique users a month. [via]
  10. In October 2006, Google Inc. bought YouTube for $1.65 billion. The deal was finalized in November 2006. [via]
  11. Once users are on YouTube, they are spending more time per session watching videos. [via]
  12. On mobile, the average viewing session is now more than 40 minutes, up more than 50% y/y. [via]
  13. The number of hours people spent watching videos on mobile is up 100% y/y. [via]
  14. More than half of YouTube views come from mobile devices. [via]
  15. YouTube’s mobile revenue is up 2x y/y. [via]
  16. YouTube has over a billion users — almost one-third of all people on the Internet — and every day people watch hundreds of millions of hours on YouTube and generate billions of views. [via]
  17. YouTube overall, and even YouTube on mobile alone, reaches more 18-34 and 18-49 year-olds than any cable network in the U.S. [via]

image by Collin Anderson on flickr cc

Cutting the Cord, Prepping for a Cable-Free Future

While we can’t predict the future outright, all signs seem to point to one in which we access video content from multi-channel mobile devices. What has your business done to prepare? If you need help putting together a comprehensive Viral marketing campaign that gets RESULTS, contact C0MPLÉX1 today: (919) 926-8733.

How Luxury Brands Use Social Media to Reach Consumers

Posted on

Owning luxury items is like being part of an elite club where only a select number of people may gain access. While today’s luxury brands want to maintain this status, more brands are attempting to strike a balance between exclusivity versus inclusivity.

image by ...love Maegan on flickr cc

The The Digital Age & Luxury Brands

While some luxury brands have embraced the Digital Age, the vast majority have yet to do so, despite an ever increasing focus on digital marketing and advertising. According to L2, a company based in New York that tracks the digital impact of brands:

Online sales still represent just 6 percent of luxury companies’ total revenues. And roughly 10 companies, including Ralph Lauren and Michael Kors, dominate this digital world, generating a combined 65 percent of all traffic to websites associated with the luxury industry. [source]

Online consumers are wired in a different way. José de Cabo, co-founder and COO of Olapic, cites that today’s consumers are “used to seeing authenticity online.” Luxury brands would be wise to take note and back efforts that help build stronger connections with these consumers.

Better Digital Presence = Better Sales

By widening the net and tapping into the rich (no pun intended) possibilities that the Digital Age has to offer, luxury brands can revamp their digital marketing efforts to build deeper relationships and brand loyalty with existing customers, and find creative, innovative ways to engage new consumers.

Using Social Media for Sales:

Social media, while popular, is still a largely untapped area for most brands and businesses. In order to better navigate this space, brands must know where their customers spend the most time online, and what social media outlets they use with the greatest frequency. To accomplish this, some luxury brands hire agencies whose responsibility it is to research and identify where their product(s) show up online.

Example:

José de Cabo and his team work on behalf of several luxury brands. Part of their responsibility is to search the most popular social media sites to look for any and all photos taken by individuals where the brand is featured. So, Person ‘A’ may have a luxury handbag that they just got. Person ‘A’ posts a picture of the handbag to their Instagram account. The brand sees this and, in turn, features Person ‘A’ on their social media.

Alternatively, luxury brands may also use social media (like the above example) to feature it as part of a larger marketing initiative – either digital or traditional.

image by 八木 Ricardo 清介 on flickr cc

Wider Audience Reach

Many luxury brands recognize that when it comes to exclusivity and inclusivity, the two are not mutually exclusive – especially when talking about using social media to leverage a brand.

Example:

Calvin Klein (CK) is a popular luxury brand. CK turned to celebrity, Justin Bieber, to help with their marketing efforts. How? Bieber has a significantly larger following on Instagram (49.8 million followers) compared to CK (3.1 million). By making Justin Bieber a spokesmodel for the Calvin Klein brand, Calvin Klein also widens its consumer base, potentially opening it up to a new demographic.

Even though luxury brands want to maintain some exclusivity, by broadening the scope of their digital marketing campaigns and casting a wider net, they can still maintain their exclusive status while increasing brand awareness and product sales.