The opening night networking event that took place at the M Hotel clearly set the stage for what was to come. At the event, attendees were allowed to unwind after their travels, and hang out with friends and other attendees, and our Gorilla attendees were definitely excited to take part in the festivities. Our very own Account Managers Trisha Bates and Ashley were caught on camera as they participated in the poolside party. Check them out in Magento’s official highlight reel from the event.

Come check out new work from:
Chris Silva, Eric Mecum, Jesse Hora, Logan Faerber and Chris Sandlin

Drinks, jams & snacks will be present.

After party @ The Aberdeen Tap.

All are welcome!

For most businesses, the goal isn’t to increase site traffic. It’s to increase relevant site traffic. With that in mind, here are a few key things to consider when creating, or updating, your site’s content strategy.

SEO is an Ingredient, not a Recipe
Should SEO play a significant role in website content development? Absolutely. It’s a must. Should SEO be the primary driver in website content development? Absolutely not. Think of SEO as a single ingredient in a complex recipe required to create great content. Of course you should follow best practices for on-page and off-page optimization, without over-doing it, but the days of “Checklist SEO” producing results on its own are over. Too much gaming of the system and millions of frustrated web users duped into clicking too many dubious links for too many years led the major search engines to rethink how they deliver search results. The most notable change came with the Google “Panda” algorithm update of 2011. For companies serious about producing great content for their site visitors, this is a good thing. It’s an opportunity to separate your site from the pack, and your competitors. Rather than looking for shortcuts, we should embrace the opportunity to find better ways connect with our customers through content. Who’s with me?

Have a Plan
Content needs don’t happen overnight. It only seems that way. Very rarely does a business need require that “we need to get that page up ASAP.” But it’s a familiar refrain to anyone who’s ever been involved in producing website content. This is where planning can pay dividends down the road. A content strategy plan can help you prioritize content deliverables, maintain editorial momentum, manage the content lifecycle, match needs to resources (see below), separate what’s essential from what’s ”nice to have”, and chart your website’s future, among other things. To get there, I’d recommend following the follow steps, at a minimum.

1. Start with a thorough content inventory, so you have a baseline for measuring progress.
2. Clearly align (and define) your business and content strategy goals
3. Hold weekly (or bi-weekly) content meetings to assess needs, progress, etc. If it’s not on the schedule, other business priorities will likely push site content off the radar.
4. Create an editorial calendar; even a simple one can give you a big picture view.
5. Review all site content on a regular basis to ensure it remains accurate, relevant, and up-to-date.
6. Use analytics and other measurements to determine what’s working and what isn’t. 

Have the Resources
This is a particular issue for small and mid-size businesses. Very few companies have the luxury of full-time resources devoted to content development. Yet, the need to continually produce engaging website content to compete in the marketplace never goes away. The key is to balance content needs and resources to ensure a successful content strategy.

Content can take many forms beyond the written word, from images and video to infographics and audio podcasts, and beyond. It’s okay to think big. Just be realistic. Every piece of content needs a competent resource to produce it, and in most cases you won’t have access to all these content producers in-house. Also, consider that website content can have a relatively long shelf life and is often the first interaction site visitors have with your brand. This may not be the time to go with the lowest bidder. If you can’t do it right, it’s probably best not to do it at all. 

Have Fun
The whole purpose of having a content strategy is to tell your brand story in a way that best meets your business and customer needs. Find your voice. Find out what keeps visitors coming back. And don’t be afraid to have some fun along the way. It shows.

Post script: At Gorilla, content strategy is part of a collaborative process that deeply involves our award-winning design, development and marketing teams. And speaking of awards, we’re humbled and flattered that our corporate site is a 2012 Webby Award Honoree. Proof that all the hard work can pay off.

There seems to be little to no argument that the majority of American consumers prefer to do their research online prior to making their purchase. In fact a report done by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, found that 73% of US customers will research a product online before deciding to buy, but occasionally that can be where the ecommerce experience ends for some customers. Today’s shoppers have become far more sophisticated in how they make purchases. There are now multi-channel shoppers who may begin shopping from their computer, but make their final purchase in a brick and mortar store or from a mobile device.

This shopping trend has benefited retail giants like Best But, Target and Petco, who have online stores, mobile stores and multiple brick and mortar stores. On the opposite end, retailers that only have online stores haven’t been able to meet the demands of multi-channel shoppers. Of course there are the online mega stores like Amazon, Rue La La, and New Egg that have grown exponentially since their inception, but smaller ecommerce sites may start to feel the heat.

Despite the high demands of this multi-channel market, there are still ways for smaller ecommerce sites to compete with their bigger counterparts. The goal for these retailers should be to retain their customers after they’ve been drawn to their store. This can be done by creating a trustworthy environment that provides customers with the same comfort level that they would receive in a brick and mortar store.

For online retailers to create a sense of trust and comfort for their customers they have to find a way to simulate face-to-face interactions in a virtual environment. One way of doing this is adding click to chat features to help assist customers who have questions about any products, features, or policies on your website. In addition, telephone support has always been a tried and true customer service solution for online retailers. While these features are often present on most ecommerce sites, they can often be over looked because this information isn’t always easily accessible. This can be fixed by displaying support contact information on every site page, or having a click to chat box pop-up that appears soon after a customer visits your site.

In order to build that perfect sense of trust with your customers, it is important to be completely honest with the people that are visiting your site. This means clearly displaying return policies, contact information, privacy policies, and most importantly, shipping information. Being upfront with customers before they make a purchase is crucial to building trust and creating long-term customers. Having transparency with customers lets them know more about your business and makes them feel comfortable when making purchases from your site. Furthermore, providing reputable payment options such as Authorize.net, Google Checkout, and Paypal gives customers ease of mind when making credit card payments on your site.

In addition to making your online support readily available to customers and guiding them through the sales experience, it is also important to make your products available to customers at all times. With increasing sales of smart phones and tablet devices, mobile transactions are starting to become more popular. Because of this, it’s necessary for retailers to have versions of their sites that are optimized for these mobile platforms. For some smaller retailers, developing a mobile site can seem like a daunting task, but ecommerce platforms, like Magento, are adding m-commerce solutions to their platforms to make mobile sites available to all retailers. Additionally, new mobile technologies such as responsive design, allow retailers to have mobile versions of their full site without sacrificing content.

As the multi-channel shopping trend is going to continue to grow stronger, it’s important for small online retailers to know create a strategy to keep customers from leaving their site to make purchases elsewhere. While my strategy may not be prefect for every ecommerce site, it still provides a good starting point for online retailers to build from.

Sample work:

Check out more work from Chris here: www.chrissilva.com

Digital thumbs up from the Prime 8 Art League!

Congratulations to all the artists who participated and stay tuned for more information regarding the opening on May 25th.

Sample work:

Check out more work from Chris here: www.sockmonkee.com

Digital thumbs up from the Prime 8 Art League!

Note: The next selected artist will be revealed tomorrow.

Sample work:

Check out more work from Eric here: www.ericmecum.com

Digital thumbs up from the Prime 8 Art League!

Note: The next selected artist will be revealed tomorrow.

Sample work:

Check out more work from Logan here: www.loganfaerber.tumblr.com

Digital thumbs up from the Prime 8 Art League!

Note: The next selected artist will be revealed tomorrow.