Creative insights
Brand evolution – why branding is important in marketing design.
We were sitting in the office last week discussing the Boots branding and why it had never been updated. It got me wondering and I wanted to explore its history and evolution. Boots is one of Britain’s best loved brands. Built on 170 years of heritage, the Boots brand has evolved from a small herbalist store in Nottingham to a household name with flagship stores worldwide. From herbalism to get-well remedies, Boots was initially positioned as the store which offered traditional medicines at greatly reduced prices. As the brand grew and evolved it eventually started manufacturing their own line of products. With the growing market, Boots introduced beauty and skincare brands to their product offering including their own brands such as No7 and 17 that catered for a wide range of demographics. Over the years, people’s ideas about wellness and their relationship with wellness brands have changed, and consumers' needs…
The Value Of Trademarks
Branding is the key to any new business venture, and with branding comes the brand name itself. The most common way to protect your brand name is to have it trademarked, as trademarking can allow you to release merchandise, market and operate in numerous markets (as long as you select those in your trademark application). Trademarks can be tricky though and even household names have had their trademark requests denied: Kim Kardashian was denied…
The Weirdest Trademarks in the World
Trademarks are a legal way to ensure other people can't profit off of your original idea or phrase, though the rules for what can and cannot be trademarked are not exactly clear-cut and simple. They can be used to protect your business name against others from registering the same, so are key to your branding. Registering for a trademark isn't difficult, but being approved for one can be challenging and it can take a while…
Which Web Language Is Right For Your Business?
Forgive us: we might get a bit techy in this one. Imagine you’re in one of those scenes from Star Trek where Spock gets all logical. That’s us, right now – because web languages really do matter, even if they seem a bit esoteric to most of us. A web language is the code your site is written in – the computer characters that make it look and behave as it does in a web…
Graphic Design: What’s It All About?
Graphic design isn’t magic, but it can be mysterious. It’s easy to think it’s mostly about logos and Hollywood posters – but actually graphic design is all around us. Anything that has been designed visually to evoke a mood or a message has had some element of graphic design applied to it. In our digital world, graphic design is everywhere. Graphic design is about such fundamentals as colour and shape – if you’ve ever made…
3 Ways To Build More Trust In a Digital World
In today's market-place, trust is everything. As a nation though, according to the Express, almost one in five people don't trust anyone at all! Yet the key to selling is trust. We all know and love the old cliche “people buy from people” and that’s all well and good when you’re at a sales meeting but there haven’t been many of those happening over the last few weeks. So how can you build trust in…
Does a new business need a website?
Is a website necessary for a business that is only just starting out? Before you begin to make sales and generate a large amount of business, is there any point in spending money on a website? Will anyone find your site? In this blog post, I hope to answer this question and explain why a website is one of your initial business musts! Can you start a business without a website? You can certainly build a business without a website; however, you would have to consider investing in more traditional forms of advertising to help potential customers find you. Traditional forms of advertising include radio, TV, billboards, leaflets and offline PR. However, websites act as trust signals, so you could find your efforts and money wasted if you don’t invest in one. Additionally, there are ways of measuring the return on investment of building and maintaining a website that you…
Are face to face meetings necessary?
Emails, phone calls, letters, social media… today there are so many ways of getting in touch with people that we can sometimes forget how important it is to meet face to face. It can sometimes be hard to meet all your clients and contacts in person in the business world, is it still worth trying? In this post, I will explain why it is always worth making the extra effort! What are the advantages of face to face meetings? Face to face communication is better than other forms of communication because it helps build trust, offers a personal touch and is much more transparent than other forms of communication. It also saves time as you are more likely to leave a face to face meeting with a clear understanding of your next steps. Why face to face is better than email Emailing is efficient, saves time and money and is…
What is WooCommerce & Who Should Use It?
Key discussion points: Where does WooCommerce sit in the ecommerce vendor market?What types of business does it suit & why?What are the pros and cons of the platform?Out the box, how good is the core performance?What do your developers like and dislike about Woo? https://replatform.fm/library/platform-selection/what-is-woocommerce/ Podcast Transcribe James Gurd [00:00:05] Hello and welcome to Episode 28 of the Replatform podcast. Thanks, as always for listening in. It's myself, James. I'm joined, as always by co-host…
The importance of knowing your Strengths and Weaknesses
SWOT Grow your business and dodge threats by writing a SWOT. What it is A SWOT Analysis helps you to discover your business’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Strengths and weaknesses can be found internally, whereas opportunities and threats are external to your company. How its helpful Assessing your business’ strengths and weaknesses can help you to understand how your company is doing and how you could do better. Looking at your opportunities can help…
Why WordPress is great for SEO
According to W3techs, WordPress powers 60% of all the websites (with a known content management system) on the internet. A service doesn’t reach that kind of market share on usability and good advertising alone. WordPress works, and it works well. We're going to focus on the SEO benefits that come with using WordPress, and why it is our CMS of choice for carrying out Search Engine Optimisation projects. Out of the box: All WordPress sites…
Why have a blog?
What does a blog add to your website? Is it really necessary or just an optional addition? In this post, I am going to put forward some strong points for the addition of a blog to every website. The figures Statistics show that a blog can really help your business to grow. Businesses with blogs have around 55% more visitors to their website. This alone should be a great reason to add a blog to…
Brand evolution – why branding is important in marketing design.
We were sitting in the office last week discussing the Boots branding and why it had never been updated. It got me wondering and I wanted to explore its history and evolution. Boots is one of Britain’s best loved brands. Built on 170 years of heritage, the Boots brand has evolved from a small herbalist store in Nottingham to a household name with flagship stores worldwide. From herbalism to get-well remedies, Boots was initially positioned as the store which offered traditional medicines at greatly reduced prices. As the brand grew and evolved it eventually started manufacturing their own line of products. With the growing market, Boots introduced beauty and skincare brands to their product offering including their own brands such as No7 and 17 that catered for a wide range of demographics. Over the years, people’s ideas about wellness and their relationship with wellness brands have changed, and consumers' needs…
User Experience vs User Interface
User Experience vs User Interface Dropping the terms UX or UI into a casual conversation is a surefire way to stop it in its tracks, but if you're a business owner, you ignore these two design principals at your peril. User experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design are critical components of successful digital product or service development. So successful, in fact, that the generally accepted canon from experienced business leaders is that a return…
How to Build Brand Consistency into Your Digital Design
From managing budgets to researching competitors, marketing managers do it all. With so much on your plate, it’s easy to forget the basics, but brand consistency should never be overlooked. According to the 2022 Consumer Research Report, companies with established brand consistency could expect customers to pay a whopping 46% more for a brand they trust. This trend is growing exponentially because they also report that the stat has increased from 30% in 2021. Sounds…
How to talk to multiple target audiences
BIG or small, traditional and stuffy or bold and exciting; clients can come in all shapes and sizes, especially in b2b marketing. It's unlikely you're targeting one singular persona. I'm definitely envious if you are! So how do you appeal to them both? At Squibble we target small and large companies, up to 1 million or up to 20 million turnover. Targeting 2 companies at the opposite end of the scale can be tricky because their project…
3 Common Branding Mistakes To Avoid
Your brand is your promise, and it's important that you build it thoughtfully and deliberately. Branding is more than creating a good looking logo, creating a Facebook business page and uploading it all over social media with a catchy tagline. To create a real brand identity, you have to invest a lot of time and effort. There's ample research that needs to be conducted, you also need to clearly identify who your competitors are, what…
The Importance Of Your Logo
Whether you’re starting a business or have an existing business, your logo is your opportunity to create an instant and lasting impression that will resonate with your potential customers. Whilst it’s not so easy to measure the overall impact of your logo it is important that you make sure that your logo tells the right story. Logos are certainly important for big brands: If you see a bitten apple, a white ‘f’ on a blue…
The Value Of Trademarks
Branding is the key to any new business venture, and with branding comes the brand name itself. The most common way to protect your brand name is to have it trademarked, as trademarking can allow you to release merchandise, market and operate in numerous markets (as long as you select those in your trademark application). Trademarks can be tricky though and even household names have had their trademark requests denied: Kim Kardashian was denied the trademark “Kimono” leading to her rebranding to SkimsKylie Jenner was infamously denied the trademark “Kylie” after the singer Kylie Minogue opposed the applicationCardi B’s attempt to trademark the phrase “Okurr” was denied, as it’s a commonplace term that was widely used prior to the application. It’s no surprise that celebrities are keen to trademark phrases associated with them, as it can prove extremely lucrative. Famous sportscaster and boxing announcer Michael Buffer has held the…
The Weirdest Trademarks in the World
Trademarks are a legal way to ensure other people can't profit off of your original idea or phrase, though the rules for what can and cannot be trademarked are not exactly clear-cut and simple. They can be used to protect your business name against others from registering the same, so are key to your branding. Registering for a trademark isn't difficult, but being approved for one can be challenging and it can take a while to complete the process. Plus, trademarks must be renewed every few years so they can stay active. It’s recommended to use an IP specialist to help your register your trademark. From colours to poses and even pets, here are 15 bizarre things that you might not have realised are actually trademarked. Weird Celebrity Trademarks Taylor Swift In 2019, Taylor Swift filed court documents to trademark her three cats' names, "Meredith, Olivia & Benjamin Swift" for…
What Are The 4 Types of Logos?
Logos can be exciting. For many new businesses, a logo is the first thing they think about – something about having an ident makes a business seem more real. On the other hand, designing a logo can be overwhelming – for many of the same reasons that business owners often find the process so attractive. A lot rides on getting a logo right – and that means the nuts and bolts of designing one needs…
Why Is Packaging Design So Important?
Packaging is how a product presents itself. It’s also how it will stand out in a crowded marketplace. Whether on the supermarket shelves, in a promotional video or an online product shot, the box is an important part of the product – and the better it is, the more likely it is to encourage sales. What does “good” packaging mean, though? You can read another of our blogs on this topic to get more of…
What Makes Good Packaging Design?
Good packaging design catches the eye – but also the imagination. Artwork, shape, material and size all make a big difference when it comes to packaging, and achieving harmony in your design between all of these elements – and your brand – is key to achieve an effective package. We’ve written elsewhere about why packaging design makes such a difference to the fate of the product. Fundamentally, it’s because good packaging converts people into customers:…
What Makes A Bad Website Design?
Bad website design is confused web design – and we all know a muddled webpage when we see one. Our grandmothers might have told us that, if we’ve nothing nice to say, we should say nothing at all; but the truth is we can learn from the negative – it teaches us what to avoid. The principles of good web design are fairly simple and standardised: usability, functionality, attractiveness and appropriateness. Similarly, although bad websites…
Customer Touch Points
Customer touchpoints play a critical role in shaping the customer experience and can have a significant impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty. By optimizing these touchpoints, businesses can create a seamless and positive customer journey that improves their overall experience with the brand and help influence the outcome of your marketing strategy. Understanding customer touchpoints is essential for businesses that want to develop effective marketing strategies and improve customer service. A business needs to know its customers and how they interact with the brand in different situations. This understanding can help businesses identify the critical touchpoints where they need to focus their efforts to improve the customer experience. What Are Customer Touch Points? Customer touch points refer to every instance a customer may interact with your brand or business either online or offline. These interactions can occur at any stage of the customer journey and can be mapped out on…
Do Websites Need Maintenance?
Building and launching a website is a huge achievement for any business. But it’s also the start of something – an ongoing relationship with a new digital asset, and one which requires constantly attention. Few things can survive unscathed without some TLC every now and then: we clear our cars, dust our houses, update our software. Websites are no different: right after launch, web teams should begin to lovingly tend to them on a near…
Why Is Packaging Design So Important?
Packaging is how a product presents itself. It’s also how it will stand out in a crowded marketplace. Whether on the supermarket shelves, in a promotional video or an online product shot, the box is an important part of the product – and the better it is, the more likely it is to encourage sales. What does “good” packaging mean, though? You can read another of our blogs on this topic to get more of…
What Makes Good Packaging Design?
Good packaging design catches the eye – but also the imagination. Artwork, shape, material and size all make a big difference when it comes to packaging, and achieving harmony in your design between all of these elements – and your brand – is key to achieve an effective package. We’ve written elsewhere about why packaging design makes such a difference to the fate of the product. Fundamentally, it’s because good packaging converts people into customers:…
How Much Should A Website Design Cost?
It can feel like the most important question of all when it comes to web design: how much will it cost? Price, of course, is critical to all business decisions. The truth, though, is that websites are not so much expenses as they are investments – and how much a website should cost very much depends on what return you’re seeking to derive from it. Consider your conversion rate as a key metric: what is…
Why Graphic Design Is Important for Any Business
Graphic design is the art of appearances. Graphic designers craft how something looks so that it appeals to the target market, is appropriate to the function of an item, and projects the correct values and messages. Businesses need to achieve all of this in every single piece of communication they produce. That’s why graphic design is important for any business. Beyond these general rules of thumb, however, what can we say more specifically about the…
What Are User Metrics?
User experience matters. It’s why we focus so squarely on achieving great UX design at Squibble. We’re evangelists for the approach. But one of the questions we get asked a lot – understandably – is, “How can you measure UX?” The answer is through user metrics. It’s critical that businesses are able to measure user experience because achieving high satisfaction in their designs can make such a huge difference to retention and conversion rates. Bad websites have high bounce numbers – that means, essentially, that users leave them very quickly, and often never come back. You can talk to us about reducing your bounce rate; but the trick is to understand how user experience can be measured – and then start building solutions which take those numbers into account. What Are The Causes of User Frustration? Step one is to understand what users don’t like. User frustration powers user disengagement.…
Why Is User Experience So Important?
Business owners and marketing managers alike hear a lot about ‘user experience’ when it comes to websites and other digital assets. It sounds important, and that isn’t hype: ‘UX’, as it’s sometimes known, very much is crucial to making the most of digital communications. But what is user experience, and how can it be measured and accommodated in design projects, from websites to mobile apps? The good news is that understanding the basics of UX isn’t so difficult, and for businesses that means there is little reason not think about it – and engage experts to finesse their UX strategy. At Squibble, we do user experience every day – it’s baked into our approach. You can drop us a line to find out more, but we’ll offer all the basics in the below. Let’s go.y What Is User Experience Design? Fundamentally, user experience design is the process of building a…
The 3 Most Powerful KPIs To Help Your Business Grow
From conversations I’ve had with local business owners recently most have told me that they have had to revaluate their business goals and sales targets. For some COVID-19 has wiped their pipeline out and for others they’ve seen growth in new areas that they hadn’t considered before. Most of this growth is fuelled through online campaigns. A lot of small businesses that previously survived on networking alone with little to no web presence have seen…
3 Ways To Build More Trust In a Digital World
In today's market-place, trust is everything. As a nation though, according to the Express, almost one in five people don't trust anyone at all! Yet the key to selling is trust. We all know and love the old cliche “people buy from people” and that’s all well and good when you’re at a sales meeting but there haven’t been many of those happening over the last few weeks. So how can you build trust in…
3 New Years Resolutions You Should Consider
Don’t groan, I know New Years resolutions are overrated but we’re moving even further into uncharted waters. I think it’s safe to say that 2021 will be another huge year of change for B2B and B2C e-commerce. 2020 saw some huge giants succumb to the pandemic and at the time of writing this I am deeply saddened by the further damage done to our economy with Arcadia filing for administration with the loss of up…
Are face to face meetings necessary?
Emails, phone calls, letters, social media… today there are so many ways of getting in touch with people that we can sometimes forget how important it is to meet face to face. It can sometimes be hard to meet all your clients and contacts in person in the business world, is it still worth trying? In this post, I will explain why it is always worth making the extra effort! What are the advantages of…
Brand evolution – why branding is important in marketing design.
We were sitting in the office last week discussing the Boots branding and why it had never been updated. It got me wondering and I wanted to explore its history and evolution. Boots is one of Britain’s best loved brands. Built on 170 years of heritage, the Boots brand has evolved from a small herbalist store in Nottingham to a household name with flagship stores worldwide. From herbalism to get-well remedies, Boots was initially positioned as the store which offered traditional medicines at greatly reduced prices. As the brand grew and evolved it eventually started manufacturing their own line of products. With the growing market, Boots introduced beauty and skincare brands to their product offering including their own brands such as No7 and 17 that catered for a wide range of demographics. Over the years, people’s ideas about wellness and their relationship with wellness brands have changed, and consumers' needs…
How to Build Brand Consistency into Your Digital Design
From managing budgets to researching competitors, marketing managers do it all. With so much on your plate, it’s easy to forget the basics, but brand consistency should never be overlooked. According to the 2022 Consumer Research Report, companies with established brand consistency could expect customers to pay a whopping 46% more for a brand they trust. This trend is growing exponentially because they also report that the stat has increased from 30% in 2021. Sounds…
How to talk to multiple target audiences
BIG or small, traditional and stuffy or bold and exciting; clients can come in all shapes and sizes, especially in b2b marketing. It's unlikely you're targeting one singular persona. I'm definitely envious if you are! So how do you appeal to them both? At Squibble we target small and large companies, up to 1 million or up to 20 million turnover. Targeting 2 companies at the opposite end of the scale can be tricky because their project…
What Are The 4 Types of Logos?
Logos can be exciting. For many new businesses, a logo is the first thing they think about – something about having an ident makes a business seem more real. On the other hand, designing a logo can be overwhelming – for many of the same reasons that business owners often find the process so attractive. A lot rides on getting a logo right – and that means the nuts and bolts of designing one needs…
Why Is Packaging Design So Important?
Packaging is how a product presents itself. It’s also how it will stand out in a crowded marketplace. Whether on the supermarket shelves, in a promotional video or an online product shot, the box is an important part of the product – and the better it is, the more likely it is to encourage sales. What does “good” packaging mean, though? You can read another of our blogs on this topic to get more of…
What Makes Good Packaging Design?
Good packaging design catches the eye – but also the imagination. Artwork, shape, material and size all make a big difference when it comes to packaging, and achieving harmony in your design between all of these elements – and your brand – is key to achieve an effective package. We’ve written elsewhere about why packaging design makes such a difference to the fate of the product. Fundamentally, it’s because good packaging converts people into customers:…
What Makes A Bad Website Design?
Bad website design is confused web design – and we all know a muddled webpage when we see one. Our grandmothers might have told us that, if we’ve nothing nice to say, we should say nothing at all; but the truth is we can learn from the negative – it teaches us what to avoid. The principles of good web design are fairly simple and standardised: usability, functionality, attractiveness and appropriateness. Similarly, although bad websites are bad in a very large variety of ways, it is possible to categorise their failures into broad “what to avoid” groupings. It’s not that the team at Squibble spends all their time searching for badly designed websites … but we do all need a hobby. Seriously, we think learning from the mistakes of others is a good way of improving the results we achieve for our own clients – drop us a line to…
How Much Should A Website Design Cost?
It can feel like the most important question of all when it comes to web design: how much will it cost? Price, of course, is critical to all business decisions. The truth, though, is that websites are not so much expenses as they are investments – and how much a website should cost very much depends on what return you’re seeking to derive from it. Consider your conversion rate as a key metric: what is your current site doing for you? Could a new design help you improve? If your conversion rate is pretty low – two or three per cent maybe? – then the answer to that second question is almost certainly, “Yes.” What separates one site from another, though? Why does one design secure a conversion rate of two per cent but another manages twelve per cent? The trick is in good design, and here’s the first thing…
What Is The Purpose of Rebranding?
The purpose of rebranding can be easily expressed: to give the corporate image of a business – the public face a company uses to communicate with its customers – a facelift. Whatever the changes it enacts, a rebranding shifts a company’s visual profile in ways that align with the wider aims of its strategic comms strategy. It is in that alignment where rebranding gets interesting, then – because designing a new logo or giving a website…
The 3 Most Powerful KPIs To Help Your Business Grow
From conversations I’ve had with local business owners recently most have told me that they have had to revaluate their business goals and sales targets. For some COVID-19 has wiped their pipeline out and for others they’ve seen growth in new areas that they hadn’t considered before. Most of this growth is fuelled through online campaigns. A lot of small businesses that previously survived on networking alone with little to no web presence have seen…
Why Branding Matters
Understanding why branding matters can seem a lower-order priority. Running any kind of organisation, considering its logos or typefaces can feel like a distraction from the nuts and bolts of making it a success. But branding matters because it gives a company an identity that its clients can connect with. And those relationships power sales. Brands can forge intense relationships between companies and customers. We all see this in our day-to-day lives: the Apple or…
What Are The 5 Characteristics of A Logo?
Like most things of a certain type, logos share certain characteristics – or at least the good ones do. It might be true that all bad logos are bad in different ways; but the best logos each share a set of five characteristics that make them work. Understanding these basic design fundamentals when embarking on a branding process can really help things go well from the start: after all, knowing what you’re aiming for makes…
How to Measure the Success of Your Rebrand
A rebrand can be a tricky beast to navigate. When done correctly, it can make a big difference in your sales, brand awareness and so much more, but tracking and measuring the true impact of a rebranding project can be a difficult task in itself. In this guide, we give you all the information on how to measure the impact of your rebrand to ensure you’re meeting your goals and then some. What is rebranding? To put it simply, rebranding is a rethink of your current marketing strategy. This may take place due to a new product or service launch, merger or acquisition, to evolve the brand, update outdated imagery and brand messaging or reposition your brand in the current market. A rebrand can be something as simple as updating an old logo or it can be an entire overhaul that involves updating absolutely everything to do with your company.…
How to Write Your Own Goal-Smashing Website Brief (with Template!)
A website project is much like a road trip. You can’t just hop in your car and hope that it reads your mind and takes you to where you need to go. Not even Teslas have that kind of mind-reading capability (not yet, anyway). No, for now, you’ll still need to grab a map - physical or digital - and do some planning beforehand. This vital prep work is essential for a pleasant and stress-free journey. Likewise, creating a website design brief is a crucial preliminary step on your journey to a new, engaging, and strategically sound website. Download our FREE website brief template. It will guide you through the whole web design brief writing process. Download now What is a Website Brief? A website brief is a document created by anyone who needs a new or updated website. A good brief will detail the strategic outcomes,…
Mobile First Design: What Is It & Why Is It Important?
With over 50% of website traffic coming from mobile devices, it’s no surprise that businesses are beginning to put more emphasis on the mobile design of their websites. Users want to easily access information at their fingertips, that’s easy to digest, clear on the next steps and simple to convert. This means that mobile designs have to take into account space limitations and that key elements and calls to actions are prominently displayed. There’s also…
3 Reasons Why Most Web Designs Fail
If you invest in a website surely you would want it to perform at its absolute best? Oddly though there seems to be some unwritten rule that having a website, no matter how bad it looks, is better than nothing because “nobody really looks at it”. Obviously my view on this is going to be very biased but as a sales and brand asset shouldn't we make the most out of our websites?! Largely websites…
Which Web Language Is Right For Your Business?
Forgive us: we might get a bit techy in this one. Imagine you’re in one of those scenes from Star Trek where Spock gets all logical. That’s us, right now – because web languages really do matter, even if they seem a bit esoteric to most of us. A web language is the code your site is written in – the computer characters that make it look and behave as it does in a web…
Do Websites Need Maintenance?
Building and launching a website is a huge achievement for any business. But it’s also the start of something – an ongoing relationship with a new digital asset, and one which requires constantly attention. Few things can survive unscathed without some TLC every now and then: we clear our cars, dust our houses, update our software. Websites are no different: right after launch, web teams should begin to lovingly tend to them on a near…
What Makes A Bad Website Design?
Bad website design is confused web design – and we all know a muddled webpage when we see one. Our grandmothers might have told us that, if we’ve nothing nice to say, we should say nothing at all; but the truth is we can learn from the negative – it teaches us what to avoid. The principles of good web design are fairly simple and standardised: usability, functionality, attractiveness and appropriateness. Similarly, although bad websites…
How Much Should A Website Design Cost?
It can feel like the most important question of all when it comes to web design: how much will it cost? Price, of course, is critical to all business decisions. The truth, though, is that websites are not so much expenses as they are investments – and how much a website should cost very much depends on what return you’re seeking to derive from it. Consider your conversion rate as a key metric: what is your current site doing for you? Could a new design help you improve? If your conversion rate is pretty low – two or three per cent maybe? – then the answer to that second question is almost certainly, “Yes.” What separates one site from another, though? Why does one design secure a conversion rate of two per cent but another manages twelve per cent? The trick is in good design, and here’s the first thing…
Graphic Design: What’s It All About?
Graphic design isn’t magic, but it can be mysterious. It’s easy to think it’s mostly about logos and Hollywood posters – but actually graphic design is all around us. Anything that has been designed visually to evoke a mood or a message has had some element of graphic design applied to it. In our digital world, graphic design is everywhere. Graphic design is about such fundamentals as colour and shape – if you’ve ever made a choice between a square and a circle, you’ve done some graphic design. It is also a complex science which requires knowledge of how the human eye moves across visual material, of texture and space and typography. At Squibble, we’re nerds for good graphic design. That said, we’re also pretty good at explaining it in layman’s terms – so drop us a line to talk more. But let us try to put down the basics…
What Are User Metrics?
User experience matters. It’s why we focus so squarely on achieving great UX design at Squibble. We’re evangelists for the approach. But one of the questions we get asked a lot – understandably – is, “How can you measure UX?” The answer is through user metrics. It’s critical that businesses are able to measure user experience because achieving high satisfaction in their designs can make such a huge difference to retention and conversion rates. Bad…
Why Is User Experience So Important?
Business owners and marketing managers alike hear a lot about ‘user experience’ when it comes to websites and other digital assets. It sounds important, and that isn’t hype: ‘UX’, as it’s sometimes known, very much is crucial to making the most of digital communications. But what is user experience, and how can it be measured and accommodated in design projects, from websites to mobile apps? The good news is that understanding the basics of UX…
3 Ways To Build More Trust In a Digital World
In today's market-place, trust is everything. As a nation though, according to the Express, almost one in five people don't trust anyone at all! Yet the key to selling is trust. We all know and love the old cliche “people buy from people” and that’s all well and good when you’re at a sales meeting but there haven’t been many of those happening over the last few weeks. So how can you build trust in…
Does a new business need a website?
Is a website necessary for a business that is only just starting out? Before you begin to make sales and generate a large amount of business, is there any point in spending money on a website? Will anyone find your site? In this blog post, I hope to answer this question and explain why a website is one of your initial business musts! Can you start a business without a website? You can certainly build…
Brand evolution – why branding is important in marketing design.
We were sitting in the office last week discussing the Boots branding and why it had never been updated. It got me wondering and I wanted to explore its history and evolution. Boots is one of Britain’s best loved brands. Built on 170 years of heritage, the Boots brand has evolved from a small herbalist store in Nottingham to a household name with flagship stores worldwide. From herbalism to get-well remedies, Boots was initially positioned as the store which offered traditional medicines at greatly reduced prices. As the brand grew and evolved it eventually started manufacturing their own line of products. With the growing market, Boots introduced beauty and skincare brands to their product offering including their own brands such as No7 and 17 that catered for a wide range of demographics. Over the years, people’s ideas about wellness and their relationship with wellness brands have changed, and consumers' needs…
The Value Of Trademarks
Branding is the key to any new business venture, and with branding comes the brand name itself. The most common way to protect your brand name is to have it trademarked, as trademarking can allow you to release merchandise, market and operate in numerous markets (as long as you select those in your trademark application). Trademarks can be tricky though and even household names have had their trademark requests denied: Kim Kardashian was denied…
The Weirdest Trademarks in the World
Trademarks are a legal way to ensure other people can't profit off of your original idea or phrase, though the rules for what can and cannot be trademarked are not exactly clear-cut and simple. They can be used to protect your business name against others from registering the same, so are key to your branding. Registering for a trademark isn't difficult, but being approved for one can be challenging and it can take a while…
Which Web Language Is Right For Your Business?
Forgive us: we might get a bit techy in this one. Imagine you’re in one of those scenes from Star Trek where Spock gets all logical. That’s us, right now – because web languages really do matter, even if they seem a bit esoteric to most of us. A web language is the code your site is written in – the computer characters that make it look and behave as it does in a web browser. Digital information is stored as code, and software is designed to read that code and render it in a way that makes sense to mere mortals. But not all languages are created equal. In fact, some types of computer code are better positioned for some tasks than others. Some web languages are faster loading, others more stable or reliable. Though it might at first glance seem a question for nerds or geeks (and we’re…
Graphic Design: What’s It All About?
Graphic design isn’t magic, but it can be mysterious. It’s easy to think it’s mostly about logos and Hollywood posters – but actually graphic design is all around us. Anything that has been designed visually to evoke a mood or a message has had some element of graphic design applied to it. In our digital world, graphic design is everywhere. Graphic design is about such fundamentals as colour and shape – if you’ve ever made a choice between a square and a circle, you’ve done some graphic design. It is also a complex science which requires knowledge of how the human eye moves across visual material, of texture and space and typography. At Squibble, we’re nerds for good graphic design. That said, we’re also pretty good at explaining it in layman’s terms – so drop us a line to talk more. But let us try to put down the basics…
3 Ways To Build More Trust In a Digital World
In today's market-place, trust is everything. As a nation though, according to the Express, almost one in five people don't trust anyone at all! Yet the key to selling is trust. We all know and love the old cliche “people buy from people” and that’s all well and good when you’re at a sales meeting but there haven’t been many of those happening over the last few weeks. So how can you build trust in…
Does a new business need a website?
Is a website necessary for a business that is only just starting out? Before you begin to make sales and generate a large amount of business, is there any point in spending money on a website? Will anyone find your site? In this blog post, I hope to answer this question and explain why a website is one of your initial business musts! Can you start a business without a website? You can certainly build…
Are face to face meetings necessary?
Emails, phone calls, letters, social media… today there are so many ways of getting in touch with people that we can sometimes forget how important it is to meet face to face. It can sometimes be hard to meet all your clients and contacts in person in the business world, is it still worth trying? In this post, I will explain why it is always worth making the extra effort! What are the advantages of face to face meetings? Face to face communication is better than other forms of communication because it helps build trust, offers a personal touch and is much more transparent than other forms of communication. It also saves time as you are more likely to leave a face to face meeting with a clear understanding of your next steps. Why face to face is better than email Emailing is efficient, saves time and money and is…
What is WooCommerce & Who Should Use It?
Key discussion points: Where does WooCommerce sit in the ecommerce vendor market?What types of business does it suit & why?What are the pros and cons of the platform?Out the box, how good is the core performance?What do your developers like and dislike about Woo? https://replatform.fm/library/platform-selection/what-is-woocommerce/ Podcast Transcribe James Gurd [00:00:05] Hello and welcome to Episode 28 of the Replatform podcast. Thanks, as always for listening in. It's myself, James. I'm joined, as always by co-host Paul Rogers. How's it going tonight? Paul Rogers [00:00:16] Yeah, good. Thank you. No bit tired, a little bit more tired than usual. How about you? James Gurd [00:00:22] Lockdown fatigue, is it? I'm the opposite. I feel even better now. Which is amazing. Nice cycle ride this morning to wake myself up. So we got another interesting episode today. It's on a platform that I personally haven't had any experience implementing. I know about…
The importance of knowing your Strengths and Weaknesses
SWOT Grow your business and dodge threats by writing a SWOT. What it is A SWOT Analysis helps you to discover your business’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Strengths and weaknesses can be found internally, whereas opportunities and threats are external to your company. How its helpful Assessing your business’ strengths and weaknesses can help you to understand how your company is doing and how you could do better. Looking at your opportunities can help…
Why WordPress is great for SEO
According to W3techs, WordPress powers 60% of all the websites (with a known content management system) on the internet. A service doesn’t reach that kind of market share on usability and good advertising alone. WordPress works, and it works well. We're going to focus on the SEO benefits that come with using WordPress, and why it is our CMS of choice for carrying out Search Engine Optimisation projects. Out of the box: All WordPress sites…
Why have a blog?
What does a blog add to your website? Is it really necessary or just an optional addition? In this post, I am going to put forward some strong points for the addition of a blog to every website. The figures Statistics show that a blog can really help your business to grow. Businesses with blogs have around 55% more visitors to their website. This alone should be a great reason to add a blog to your website, more visitors means more chances to gain customers and sales. Gain credibility A strong, well written, insightful blog tells others that you know what you are talking about. It can help you gain credibility within your market and people will be more likely to turn to you when they need the services you offer if they trust you and believe you know your business well. Increased traffic A blog can help bring new…
Brand evolution – why branding is important in marketing design.
We were sitting in the office last week discussing the Boots branding and why it had never been updated. It got me wondering and I wanted to explore its history and evolution. Boots is one of Britain’s best loved brands. Built on 170 years of heritage, the Boots brand has evolved from a small herbalist store in Nottingham to a household name with flagship stores worldwide. From herbalism to get-well remedies, Boots was initially positioned as the store which offered traditional medicines at greatly reduced prices. As the brand grew and evolved it eventually started manufacturing their own line of products. With the growing market, Boots introduced beauty and skincare brands to their product offering including their own brands such as No7 and 17 that catered for a wide range of demographics. Over the years, people’s ideas about wellness and their relationship with wellness brands have changed, and consumers' needs…
User Experience vs User Interface
User Experience vs User Interface Dropping the terms UX or UI into a casual conversation is a surefire way to stop it in its tracks, but if you're a business owner, you ignore these two design principals at your peril. User experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design are critical components of successful digital product or service development. So successful, in fact, that the generally accepted canon from experienced business leaders is that a return…
How to Build Brand Consistency into Your Digital Design
From managing budgets to researching competitors, marketing managers do it all. With so much on your plate, it’s easy to forget the basics, but brand consistency should never be overlooked. According to the 2022 Consumer Research Report, companies with established brand consistency could expect customers to pay a whopping 46% more for a brand they trust. This trend is growing exponentially because they also report that the stat has increased from 30% in 2021. Sounds…
How to talk to multiple target audiences
BIG or small, traditional and stuffy or bold and exciting; clients can come in all shapes and sizes, especially in b2b marketing. It's unlikely you're targeting one singular persona. I'm definitely envious if you are! So how do you appeal to them both? At Squibble we target small and large companies, up to 1 million or up to 20 million turnover. Targeting 2 companies at the opposite end of the scale can be tricky because their project requirements are so varied. For a start, they both speak different languages and their outputs are measured differently. The smaller companies tend to focus on brand awareness whereas the larger companies usually have measurable KPIs. What's the core positioning of your company? The single thread that unites our 2 audiences is their need for our User Experience (UX) capabilities. This is at the heart of our core offering and forms part of our mission statement. It's also,…
3 Common Branding Mistakes To Avoid
Your brand is your promise, and it's important that you build it thoughtfully and deliberately. Branding is more than creating a good looking logo, creating a Facebook business page and uploading it all over social media with a catchy tagline. To create a real brand identity, you have to invest a lot of time and effort. There's ample research that needs to be conducted, you also need to clearly identify who your competitors are, what your business is aiming to achieve and what makes it stand out from the rest. Most importantly, you need to know your brand story and how that resonates with your offering and potential customers. Here are three common mistakes to avoid; No Solid Strategy Brands aren’t simply plucked out of thin air—they’re rooted in the company’s business strategy. All of the design elements, from the logo to the colors and typography, are carefully selected to…
The Importance Of Your Logo
Whether you’re starting a business or have an existing business, your logo is your opportunity to create an instant and lasting impression that will resonate with your potential customers. Whilst it’s not so easy to measure the overall impact of your logo it is important that you make sure that your logo tells the right story. Logos are certainly important for big brands: If you see a bitten apple, a white ‘f’ on a blue…
The Value Of Trademarks
Branding is the key to any new business venture, and with branding comes the brand name itself. The most common way to protect your brand name is to have it trademarked, as trademarking can allow you to release merchandise, market and operate in numerous markets (as long as you select those in your trademark application). Trademarks can be tricky though and even household names have had their trademark requests denied: Kim Kardashian was denied…
The Weirdest Trademarks in the World
Trademarks are a legal way to ensure other people can't profit off of your original idea or phrase, though the rules for what can and cannot be trademarked are not exactly clear-cut and simple. They can be used to protect your business name against others from registering the same, so are key to your branding. Registering for a trademark isn't difficult, but being approved for one can be challenging and it can take a while to complete the process. Plus, trademarks must be renewed every few years so they can stay active. It’s recommended to use an IP specialist to help your register your trademark. From colours to poses and even pets, here are 15 bizarre things that you might not have realised are actually trademarked. Weird Celebrity Trademarks Taylor Swift In 2019, Taylor Swift filed court documents to trademark her three cats' names, "Meredith, Olivia & Benjamin Swift" for…
What Are The 4 Types of Logos?
Logos can be exciting. For many new businesses, a logo is the first thing they think about – something about having an ident makes a business seem more real. On the other hand, designing a logo can be overwhelming – for many of the same reasons that business owners often find the process so attractive. A lot rides on getting a logo right – and that means the nuts and bolts of designing one needs to be taken seriously. Businesses should only turn to logos following quite a bit of homework: understanding a business’s values, ethos and target audience, for example, are all critical to developing a logo that sticks. Once the identity of a business has been nailed down, our designers set to brainstorming logo ideas with the internal team, arriving at an idea of what sort of logo might work best. It’s a good idea to familiarise yourself…
Why Is Packaging Design So Important?
Packaging is how a product presents itself. It’s also how it will stand out in a crowded marketplace. Whether on the supermarket shelves, in a promotional video or an online product shot, the box is an important part of the product – and the better it is, the more likely it is to encourage sales. What does “good” packaging mean, though? You can read another of our blogs on this topic to get more of…
What Makes Good Packaging Design?
Good packaging design catches the eye – but also the imagination. Artwork, shape, material and size all make a big difference when it comes to packaging, and achieving harmony in your design between all of these elements – and your brand – is key to achieve an effective package. We’ve written elsewhere about why packaging design makes such a difference to the fate of the product. Fundamentally, it’s because good packaging converts people into customers:…
What Makes A Bad Website Design?
Bad website design is confused web design – and we all know a muddled webpage when we see one. Our grandmothers might have told us that, if we’ve nothing nice to say, we should say nothing at all; but the truth is we can learn from the negative – it teaches us what to avoid. The principles of good web design are fairly simple and standardised: usability, functionality, attractiveness and appropriateness. Similarly, although bad websites are bad in a very large variety of ways, it is possible to categorise their failures into broad “what to avoid” groupings. It’s not that the team at Squibble spends all their time searching for badly designed websites … but we do all need a hobby. Seriously, we think learning from the mistakes of others is a good way of improving the results we achieve for our own clients – drop us a line to…
Customer Touch Points
Customer touchpoints play a critical role in shaping the customer experience and can have a significant impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty. By optimizing these touchpoints, businesses can create a seamless and positive customer journey that improves their overall experience with the brand and help influence the outcome of your marketing strategy. Understanding customer touchpoints is essential for businesses that want to develop effective marketing strategies and improve customer service. A business needs to know its customers and how they interact with the brand in different situations. This understanding can help businesses identify the critical touchpoints where they need to focus their efforts to improve the customer experience. What Are Customer Touch Points? Customer touch points refer to every instance a customer may interact with your brand or business either online or offline. These interactions can occur at any stage of the customer journey and can be mapped out on…
Do Websites Need Maintenance?
Building and launching a website is a huge achievement for any business. But it’s also the start of something – an ongoing relationship with a new digital asset, and one which requires constantly attention. Few things can survive unscathed without some TLC every now and then: we clear our cars, dust our houses, update our software. Websites are no different: right after launch, web teams should begin to lovingly tend to them on a near…
Why Is Packaging Design So Important?
Packaging is how a product presents itself. It’s also how it will stand out in a crowded marketplace. Whether on the supermarket shelves, in a promotional video or an online product shot, the box is an important part of the product – and the better it is, the more likely it is to encourage sales. What does “good” packaging mean, though? You can read another of our blogs on this topic to get more of…
What Makes Good Packaging Design?
Good packaging design catches the eye – but also the imagination. Artwork, shape, material and size all make a big difference when it comes to packaging, and achieving harmony in your design between all of these elements – and your brand – is key to achieve an effective package. We’ve written elsewhere about why packaging design makes such a difference to the fate of the product. Fundamentally, it’s because good packaging converts people into customers: a great box really can make all the difference to a consumer’s decision-making process. That’s why we pride ourselves at Squibble on delivering great packaging design for our clients. We achieve this by understanding each client and their product individually – because the best designs are ones that are closely aligning with a brand and its values. Drop us a line about our process if you’re interested to know more – but some of the…
How Much Should A Website Design Cost?
It can feel like the most important question of all when it comes to web design: how much will it cost? Price, of course, is critical to all business decisions. The truth, though, is that websites are not so much expenses as they are investments – and how much a website should cost very much depends on what return you’re seeking to derive from it. Consider your conversion rate as a key metric: what is your current site doing for you? Could a new design help you improve? If your conversion rate is pretty low – two or three per cent maybe? – then the answer to that second question is almost certainly, “Yes.” What separates one site from another, though? Why does one design secure a conversion rate of two per cent but another manages twelve per cent? The trick is in good design, and here’s the first thing…
Why Graphic Design Is Important for Any Business
Graphic design is the art of appearances. Graphic designers craft how something looks so that it appeals to the target market, is appropriate to the function of an item, and projects the correct values and messages. Businesses need to achieve all of this in every single piece of communication they produce. That’s why graphic design is important for any business. Beyond these general rules of thumb, however, what can we say more specifically about the…
What Are User Metrics?
User experience matters. It’s why we focus so squarely on achieving great UX design at Squibble. We’re evangelists for the approach. But one of the questions we get asked a lot – understandably – is, “How can you measure UX?” The answer is through user metrics. It’s critical that businesses are able to measure user experience because achieving high satisfaction in their designs can make such a huge difference to retention and conversion rates. Bad…
Why Is User Experience So Important?
Business owners and marketing managers alike hear a lot about ‘user experience’ when it comes to websites and other digital assets. It sounds important, and that isn’t hype: ‘UX’, as it’s sometimes known, very much is crucial to making the most of digital communications. But what is user experience, and how can it be measured and accommodated in design projects, from websites to mobile apps? The good news is that understanding the basics of UX isn’t so difficult, and for businesses that means there is little reason not think about it – and engage experts to finesse their UX strategy. At Squibble, we do user experience every day – it’s baked into our approach. You can drop us a line to find out more, but we’ll offer all the basics in the below. Let’s go.y What Is User Experience Design? Fundamentally, user experience design is the process of building a…
The 3 Most Powerful KPIs To Help Your Business Grow
From conversations I’ve had with local business owners recently most have told me that they have had to revaluate their business goals and sales targets. For some COVID-19 has wiped their pipeline out and for others they’ve seen growth in new areas that they hadn’t considered before. Most of this growth is fuelled through online campaigns. A lot of small businesses that previously survived on networking alone with little to no web presence have seen a huge drop in sales. Whereas companies who already had a strong online presence, particularly eCommerce stores have seen exponential growth. “Online retail sales grew by 23.8% year-on-year in April, a 10-year high, according to figures released by the IMRG.” Essential Retail It goes without saying that this is a fairly logical approach as most retail stores had to close. However, with such a shift in buying behaviour it’s unlikely that we will go back to…
3 Ways To Build More Trust In a Digital World
In today's market-place, trust is everything. As a nation though, according to the Express, almost one in five people don't trust anyone at all! Yet the key to selling is trust. We all know and love the old cliche “people buy from people” and that’s all well and good when you’re at a sales meeting but there haven’t been many of those happening over the last few weeks. So how can you build trust in…
3 New Years Resolutions You Should Consider
Don’t groan, I know New Years resolutions are overrated but we’re moving even further into uncharted waters. I think it’s safe to say that 2021 will be another huge year of change for B2B and B2C e-commerce. 2020 saw some huge giants succumb to the pandemic and at the time of writing this I am deeply saddened by the further damage done to our economy with Arcadia filing for administration with the loss of up…
Are face to face meetings necessary?
Emails, phone calls, letters, social media… today there are so many ways of getting in touch with people that we can sometimes forget how important it is to meet face to face. It can sometimes be hard to meet all your clients and contacts in person in the business world, is it still worth trying? In this post, I will explain why it is always worth making the extra effort! What are the advantages of face to face meetings? Face to face communication is better than other forms of communication because it helps build trust, offers a personal touch and is much more transparent than other forms of communication. It also saves time as you are more likely to leave a face to face meeting with a clear understanding of your next steps. Why face to face is better than email Emailing is efficient, saves time and money and is…
Brand evolution – why branding is important in marketing design.
We were sitting in the office last week discussing the Boots branding and why it had never been updated. It got me wondering and I wanted to explore its history and evolution. Boots is one of Britain’s best loved brands. Built on 170 years of heritage, the Boots brand has evolved from a small herbalist store in Nottingham to a household name with flagship stores worldwide. From herbalism to get-well remedies, Boots was initially positioned as the store which offered traditional medicines at greatly reduced prices. As the brand grew and evolved it eventually started manufacturing their own line of products. With the growing market, Boots introduced beauty and skincare brands to their product offering including their own brands such as No7 and 17 that catered for a wide range of demographics. Over the years, people’s ideas about wellness and their relationship with wellness brands have changed, and consumers' needs…
How to Build Brand Consistency into Your Digital Design
From managing budgets to researching competitors, marketing managers do it all. With so much on your plate, it’s easy to forget the basics, but brand consistency should never be overlooked. According to the 2022 Consumer Research Report, companies with established brand consistency could expect customers to pay a whopping 46% more for a brand they trust. This trend is growing exponentially because they also report that the stat has increased from 30% in 2021. Sounds…
How to talk to multiple target audiences
BIG or small, traditional and stuffy or bold and exciting; clients can come in all shapes and sizes, especially in b2b marketing. It's unlikely you're targeting one singular persona. I'm definitely envious if you are! So how do you appeal to them both? At Squibble we target small and large companies, up to 1 million or up to 20 million turnover. Targeting 2 companies at the opposite end of the scale can be tricky because their project…
What Are The 4 Types of Logos?
Logos can be exciting. For many new businesses, a logo is the first thing they think about – something about having an ident makes a business seem more real. On the other hand, designing a logo can be overwhelming – for many of the same reasons that business owners often find the process so attractive. A lot rides on getting a logo right – and that means the nuts and bolts of designing one needs to be taken seriously. Businesses should only turn to logos following quite a bit of homework: understanding a business’s values, ethos and target audience, for example, are all critical to developing a logo that sticks. Once the identity of a business has been nailed down, our designers set to brainstorming logo ideas with the internal team, arriving at an idea of what sort of logo might work best. It’s a good idea to familiarise yourself…
Why Is Packaging Design So Important?
Packaging is how a product presents itself. It’s also how it will stand out in a crowded marketplace. Whether on the supermarket shelves, in a promotional video or an online product shot, the box is an important part of the product – and the better it is, the more likely it is to encourage sales. What does “good” packaging mean, though? You can read another of our blogs on this topic to get more of a deep dive into what makes for effective packaging design; but in case you’re still not onboard with the idea that packaging really is as important as we’re saying it is, stick around here a little while longer. It’s not an exaggeration to say that packaging is just as important as your logo and brand. It might seem like a second-order element – an item created as an outgrowth of a brand – but actually…
What Makes Good Packaging Design?
Good packaging design catches the eye – but also the imagination. Artwork, shape, material and size all make a big difference when it comes to packaging, and achieving harmony in your design between all of these elements – and your brand – is key to achieve an effective package. We’ve written elsewhere about why packaging design makes such a difference to the fate of the product. Fundamentally, it’s because good packaging converts people into customers:…
What Makes A Bad Website Design?
Bad website design is confused web design – and we all know a muddled webpage when we see one. Our grandmothers might have told us that, if we’ve nothing nice to say, we should say nothing at all; but the truth is we can learn from the negative – it teaches us what to avoid. The principles of good web design are fairly simple and standardised: usability, functionality, attractiveness and appropriateness. Similarly, although bad websites…
How Much Should A Website Design Cost?
It can feel like the most important question of all when it comes to web design: how much will it cost? Price, of course, is critical to all business decisions. The truth, though, is that websites are not so much expenses as they are investments – and how much a website should cost very much depends on what return you’re seeking to derive from it. Consider your conversion rate as a key metric: what is your current site doing for you? Could a new design help you improve? If your conversion rate is pretty low – two or three per cent maybe? – then the answer to that second question is almost certainly, “Yes.” What separates one site from another, though? Why does one design secure a conversion rate of two per cent but another manages twelve per cent? The trick is in good design, and here’s the first thing…
What Is The Purpose of Rebranding?
The purpose of rebranding can be easily expressed: to give the corporate image of a business – the public face a company uses to communicate with its customers – a facelift. Whatever the changes it enacts, a rebranding shifts a company’s visual profile in ways that align with the wider aims of its strategic comms strategy. It is in that alignment where rebranding gets interesting, then – because designing a new logo or giving a website a new look isn’t really the purpose of a rebranding. The redesign process is how the goals of rebranding are met, but the real aims are linked to how a business relates to its clients. Of course, you can contact us today to discuss whether rebranding is right for you – but, if you’re curious, read on to learn a little bit more about the process and its principles. What is rebranding? Rebranding involves revamping…
The 3 Most Powerful KPIs To Help Your Business Grow
From conversations I’ve had with local business owners recently most have told me that they have had to revaluate their business goals and sales targets. For some COVID-19 has wiped their pipeline out and for others they’ve seen growth in new areas that they hadn’t considered before. Most of this growth is fuelled through online campaigns. A lot of small businesses that previously survived on networking alone with little to no web presence have seen…
Why Branding Matters
Understanding why branding matters can seem a lower-order priority. Running any kind of organisation, considering its logos or typefaces can feel like a distraction from the nuts and bolts of making it a success. But branding matters because it gives a company an identity that its clients can connect with. And those relationships power sales. Brands can forge intense relationships between companies and customers. We all see this in our day-to-day lives: the Apple or…
What Are The 5 Characteristics of A Logo?
Like most things of a certain type, logos share certain characteristics – or at least the good ones do. It might be true that all bad logos are bad in different ways; but the best logos each share a set of five characteristics that make them work. Understanding these basic design fundamentals when embarking on a branding process can really help things go well from the start: after all, knowing what you’re aiming for makes it easier to hit the target. There are broadly five key characteristics of a good logo, and the best will incorporate elements of all of them. So let’s take a quick tour around the fundamentals of logo design, starting with the big one. It’s worth saying before we start that our logo design team are experts in all these techniques and more – so give us a call to talk over any questions you might…
How to Measure the Success of Your Rebrand
A rebrand can be a tricky beast to navigate. When done correctly, it can make a big difference in your sales, brand awareness and so much more, but tracking and measuring the true impact of a rebranding project can be a difficult task in itself. In this guide, we give you all the information on how to measure the impact of your rebrand to ensure you’re meeting your goals and then some. What is rebranding? To put it simply, rebranding is a rethink of your current marketing strategy. This may take place due to a new product or service launch, merger or acquisition, to evolve the brand, update outdated imagery and brand messaging or reposition your brand in the current market. A rebrand can be something as simple as updating an old logo or it can be an entire overhaul that involves updating absolutely everything to do with your company.…
How to Write Your Own Goal-Smashing Website Brief (with Template!)
A website project is much like a road trip. You can’t just hop in your car and hope that it reads your mind and takes you to where you need to go. Not even Teslas have that kind of mind-reading capability (not yet, anyway). No, for now, you’ll still need to grab a map - physical or digital - and do some planning beforehand. This vital prep work is essential for a pleasant and stress-free journey. Likewise, creating a website design brief is a crucial preliminary step on your journey to a new, engaging, and strategically sound website. Download our FREE website brief template. It will guide you through the whole web design brief writing process. Download now What is a Website Brief? A website brief is a document created by anyone who needs a new or updated website. A good brief will detail the strategic outcomes,…
Mobile First Design: What Is It & Why Is It Important?
With over 50% of website traffic coming from mobile devices, it’s no surprise that businesses are beginning to put more emphasis on the mobile design of their websites. Users want to easily access information at their fingertips, that’s easy to digest, clear on the next steps and simple to convert. This means that mobile designs have to take into account space limitations and that key elements and calls to actions are prominently displayed. There’s also…
3 Reasons Why Most Web Designs Fail
If you invest in a website surely you would want it to perform at its absolute best? Oddly though there seems to be some unwritten rule that having a website, no matter how bad it looks, is better than nothing because “nobody really looks at it”. Obviously my view on this is going to be very biased but as a sales and brand asset shouldn't we make the most out of our websites?! Largely websites…
Which Web Language Is Right For Your Business?
Forgive us: we might get a bit techy in this one. Imagine you’re in one of those scenes from Star Trek where Spock gets all logical. That’s us, right now – because web languages really do matter, even if they seem a bit esoteric to most of us. A web language is the code your site is written in – the computer characters that make it look and behave as it does in a web browser. Digital information is stored as code, and software is designed to read that code and render it in a way that makes sense to mere mortals. But not all languages are created equal. In fact, some types of computer code are better positioned for some tasks than others. Some web languages are faster loading, others more stable or reliable. Though it might at first glance seem a question for nerds or geeks (and we’re…
Do Websites Need Maintenance?
Building and launching a website is a huge achievement for any business. But it’s also the start of something – an ongoing relationship with a new digital asset, and one which requires constantly attention. Few things can survive unscathed without some TLC every now and then: we clear our cars, dust our houses, update our software. Websites are no different: right after launch, web teams should begin to lovingly tend to them on a near daily basis. A business’s website is their window onto the world – and that means it needs constantly to look and perform its best. This is achieved through web maintenance. At Squibble, web maintenance is simply part of how we approach digital comms. You can contact us to talk about how we go about it, but this blog is a great place to learn the fundamentals. What Does Website Maintenance Include? Simply put, website maintenance…
What Makes A Bad Website Design?
Bad website design is confused web design – and we all know a muddled webpage when we see one. Our grandmothers might have told us that, if we’ve nothing nice to say, we should say nothing at all; but the truth is we can learn from the negative – it teaches us what to avoid. The principles of good web design are fairly simple and standardised: usability, functionality, attractiveness and appropriateness. Similarly, although bad websites…
How Much Should A Website Design Cost?
It can feel like the most important question of all when it comes to web design: how much will it cost? Price, of course, is critical to all business decisions. The truth, though, is that websites are not so much expenses as they are investments – and how much a website should cost very much depends on what return you’re seeking to derive from it. Consider your conversion rate as a key metric: what is…
Graphic Design: What’s It All About?
Graphic design isn’t magic, but it can be mysterious. It’s easy to think it’s mostly about logos and Hollywood posters – but actually graphic design is all around us. Anything that has been designed visually to evoke a mood or a message has had some element of graphic design applied to it. In our digital world, graphic design is everywhere. Graphic design is about such fundamentals as colour and shape – if you’ve ever made a choice between a square and a circle, you’ve done some graphic design. It is also a complex science which requires knowledge of how the human eye moves across visual material, of texture and space and typography. At Squibble, we’re nerds for good graphic design. That said, we’re also pretty good at explaining it in layman’s terms – so drop us a line to talk more. But let us try to put down the basics…
What Are User Metrics?
User experience matters. It’s why we focus so squarely on achieving great UX design at Squibble. We’re evangelists for the approach. But one of the questions we get asked a lot – understandably – is, “How can you measure UX?” The answer is through user metrics. It’s critical that businesses are able to measure user experience because achieving high satisfaction in their designs can make such a huge difference to retention and conversion rates. Bad websites have high bounce numbers – that means, essentially, that users leave them very quickly, and often never come back. You can talk to us about reducing your bounce rate; but the trick is to understand how user experience can be measured – and then start building solutions which take those numbers into account. What Are The Causes of User Frustration? Step one is to understand what users don’t like. User frustration powers user disengagement.…
Why Is User Experience So Important?
Business owners and marketing managers alike hear a lot about ‘user experience’ when it comes to websites and other digital assets. It sounds important, and that isn’t hype: ‘UX’, as it’s sometimes known, very much is crucial to making the most of digital communications. But what is user experience, and how can it be measured and accommodated in design projects, from websites to mobile apps? The good news is that understanding the basics of UX…
3 Ways To Build More Trust In a Digital World
In today's market-place, trust is everything. As a nation though, according to the Express, almost one in five people don't trust anyone at all! Yet the key to selling is trust. We all know and love the old cliche “people buy from people” and that’s all well and good when you’re at a sales meeting but there haven’t been many of those happening over the last few weeks. So how can you build trust in…
Does a new business need a website?
Is a website necessary for a business that is only just starting out? Before you begin to make sales and generate a large amount of business, is there any point in spending money on a website? Will anyone find your site? In this blog post, I hope to answer this question and explain why a website is one of your initial business musts! Can you start a business without a website? You can certainly build a business without a website; however, you would have to consider investing in more traditional forms of advertising to help potential customers find you. Traditional forms of advertising include radio, TV, billboards, leaflets and offline PR. However, websites act as trust signals, so you could find your efforts and money wasted if you don’t invest in one. Additionally, there are ways of measuring the return on investment of building and maintaining a website that you…
Brand evolution – why branding is important in marketing design.
We were sitting in the office last week discussing the Boots branding and why it had never been updated. It got me wondering and I wanted to explore its history and evolution. Boots is one of Britain’s best loved brands. Built on 170 years of heritage, the Boots brand has evolved from a small herbalist store in Nottingham to a household name with flagship stores worldwide. From herbalism to get-well remedies, Boots was initially positioned…
The Value Of Trademarks
Branding is the key to any new business venture, and with branding comes the brand name itself. The most common way to protect your brand name is to have it trademarked, as trademarking can allow you to release merchandise, market and operate in numerous markets (as long as you select those in your trademark application). Trademarks can be tricky though and even household names have had their trademark requests denied: Kim Kardashian was denied…
The Weirdest Trademarks in the World
Trademarks are a legal way to ensure other people can't profit off of your original idea or phrase, though the rules for what can and cannot be trademarked are not exactly clear-cut and simple. They can be used to protect your business name against others from registering the same, so are key to your branding. Registering for a trademark isn't difficult, but being approved for one can be challenging and it can take a while…
Which Web Language Is Right For Your Business?
Forgive us: we might get a bit techy in this one. Imagine you’re in one of those scenes from Star Trek where Spock gets all logical. That’s us, right now – because web languages really do matter, even if they seem a bit esoteric to most of us. A web language is the code your site is written in – the computer characters that make it look and behave as it does in a web…
Graphic Design: What’s It All About?
Graphic design isn’t magic, but it can be mysterious. It’s easy to think it’s mostly about logos and Hollywood posters – but actually graphic design is all around us. Anything that has been designed visually to evoke a mood or a message has had some element of graphic design applied to it. In our digital world, graphic design is everywhere. Graphic design is about such fundamentals as colour and shape – if you’ve ever made…
3 Ways To Build More Trust In a Digital World
In today's market-place, trust is everything. As a nation though, according to the Express, almost one in five people don't trust anyone at all! Yet the key to selling is trust. We all know and love the old cliche “people buy from people” and that’s all well and good when you’re at a sales meeting but there haven’t been many of those happening over the last few weeks. So how can you build trust in…
Does a new business need a website?
Is a website necessary for a business that is only just starting out? Before you begin to make sales and generate a large amount of business, is there any point in spending money on a website? Will anyone find your site? In this blog post, I hope to answer this question and explain why a website is one of your initial business musts! Can you start a business without a website? You can certainly build…
Are face to face meetings necessary?
Emails, phone calls, letters, social media… today there are so many ways of getting in touch with people that we can sometimes forget how important it is to meet face to face. It can sometimes be hard to meet all your clients and contacts in person in the business world, is it still worth trying? In this post, I will explain why it is always worth making the extra effort! What are the advantages of…
What is WooCommerce & Who Should Use It?
Key discussion points: Where does WooCommerce sit in the ecommerce vendor market?What types of business does it suit & why?What are the pros and cons of the platform?Out the box, how good is the core performance?What do your developers like and dislike about Woo? https://replatform.fm/library/platform-selection/what-is-woocommerce/ Podcast Transcribe James Gurd [00:00:05] Hello and welcome to Episode 28 of the Replatform podcast. Thanks, as always for listening in. It's myself, James. I'm joined, as always by co-host…
The importance of knowing your Strengths and Weaknesses
SWOT Grow your business and dodge threats by writing a SWOT. What it is A SWOT Analysis helps you to discover your business’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Strengths and weaknesses can be found internally, whereas opportunities and threats are external to your company. How its helpful Assessing your business’ strengths and weaknesses can help you to understand how your company is doing and how you could do better. Looking at your opportunities can help…
Why WordPress is great for SEO
According to W3techs, WordPress powers 60% of all the websites (with a known content management system) on the internet. A service doesn’t reach that kind of market share on usability and good advertising alone. WordPress works, and it works well. We're going to focus on the SEO benefits that come with using WordPress, and why it is our CMS of choice for carrying out Search Engine Optimisation projects. Out of the box: All WordPress sites…
Why have a blog?
What does a blog add to your website? Is it really necessary or just an optional addition? In this post, I am going to put forward some strong points for the addition of a blog to every website. The figures Statistics show that a blog can really help your business to grow. Businesses with blogs have around 55% more visitors to their website. This alone should be a great reason to add a blog to…
Brand evolution – why branding is important in marketing design.
We were sitting in the office last week discussing the Boots branding and why it had never been updated. It got me wondering and I wanted to explore its history and evolution. Boots is one of Britain’s best loved brands. Built on 170 years of heritage, the Boots brand has evolved from a small herbalist store in Nottingham to a household name with flagship stores worldwide. From herbalism to get-well remedies, Boots was initially positioned…
User Experience vs User Interface
User Experience vs User Interface Dropping the terms UX or UI into a casual conversation is a surefire way to stop it in its tracks, but if you're a business owner, you ignore these two design principals at your peril. User experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design are critical components of successful digital product or service development. So successful, in fact, that the generally accepted canon from experienced business leaders is that a return…
How to Build Brand Consistency into Your Digital Design
From managing budgets to researching competitors, marketing managers do it all. With so much on your plate, it’s easy to forget the basics, but brand consistency should never be overlooked. According to the 2022 Consumer Research Report, companies with established brand consistency could expect customers to pay a whopping 46% more for a brand they trust. This trend is growing exponentially because they also report that the stat has increased from 30% in 2021. Sounds…
How to talk to multiple target audiences
BIG or small, traditional and stuffy or bold and exciting; clients can come in all shapes and sizes, especially in b2b marketing. It's unlikely you're targeting one singular persona. I'm definitely envious if you are! So how do you appeal to them both? At Squibble we target small and large companies, up to 1 million or up to 20 million turnover. Targeting 2 companies at the opposite end of the scale can be tricky because their project…
3 Common Branding Mistakes To Avoid
Your brand is your promise, and it's important that you build it thoughtfully and deliberately. Branding is more than creating a good looking logo, creating a Facebook business page and uploading it all over social media with a catchy tagline. To create a real brand identity, you have to invest a lot of time and effort. There's ample research that needs to be conducted, you also need to clearly identify who your competitors are, what…
The Importance Of Your Logo
Whether you’re starting a business or have an existing business, your logo is your opportunity to create an instant and lasting impression that will resonate with your potential customers. Whilst it’s not so easy to measure the overall impact of your logo it is important that you make sure that your logo tells the right story. Logos are certainly important for big brands: If you see a bitten apple, a white ‘f’ on a blue…
The Value Of Trademarks
Branding is the key to any new business venture, and with branding comes the brand name itself. The most common way to protect your brand name is to have it trademarked, as trademarking can allow you to release merchandise, market and operate in numerous markets (as long as you select those in your trademark application). Trademarks can be tricky though and even household names have had their trademark requests denied: Kim Kardashian was denied…
The Weirdest Trademarks in the World
Trademarks are a legal way to ensure other people can't profit off of your original idea or phrase, though the rules for what can and cannot be trademarked are not exactly clear-cut and simple. They can be used to protect your business name against others from registering the same, so are key to your branding. Registering for a trademark isn't difficult, but being approved for one can be challenging and it can take a while…
What Are The 4 Types of Logos?
Logos can be exciting. For many new businesses, a logo is the first thing they think about – something about having an ident makes a business seem more real. On the other hand, designing a logo can be overwhelming – for many of the same reasons that business owners often find the process so attractive. A lot rides on getting a logo right – and that means the nuts and bolts of designing one needs…
Why Is Packaging Design So Important?
Packaging is how a product presents itself. It’s also how it will stand out in a crowded marketplace. Whether on the supermarket shelves, in a promotional video or an online product shot, the box is an important part of the product – and the better it is, the more likely it is to encourage sales. What does “good” packaging mean, though? You can read another of our blogs on this topic to get more of…
What Makes Good Packaging Design?
Good packaging design catches the eye – but also the imagination. Artwork, shape, material and size all make a big difference when it comes to packaging, and achieving harmony in your design between all of these elements – and your brand – is key to achieve an effective package. We’ve written elsewhere about why packaging design makes such a difference to the fate of the product. Fundamentally, it’s because good packaging converts people into customers:…
What Makes A Bad Website Design?
Bad website design is confused web design – and we all know a muddled webpage when we see one. Our grandmothers might have told us that, if we’ve nothing nice to say, we should say nothing at all; but the truth is we can learn from the negative – it teaches us what to avoid. The principles of good web design are fairly simple and standardised: usability, functionality, attractiveness and appropriateness. Similarly, although bad websites…
Customer Touch Points
Customer touchpoints play a critical role in shaping the customer experience and can have a significant impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty. By optimizing these touchpoints, businesses can create a seamless and positive customer journey that improves their overall experience with the brand and help influence the outcome of your marketing strategy. Understanding customer touchpoints is essential for businesses that want to develop effective marketing strategies and improve customer service. A business needs to know…
Do Websites Need Maintenance?
Building and launching a website is a huge achievement for any business. But it’s also the start of something – an ongoing relationship with a new digital asset, and one which requires constantly attention. Few things can survive unscathed without some TLC every now and then: we clear our cars, dust our houses, update our software. Websites are no different: right after launch, web teams should begin to lovingly tend to them on a near…
Why Is Packaging Design So Important?
Packaging is how a product presents itself. It’s also how it will stand out in a crowded marketplace. Whether on the supermarket shelves, in a promotional video or an online product shot, the box is an important part of the product – and the better it is, the more likely it is to encourage sales. What does “good” packaging mean, though? You can read another of our blogs on this topic to get more of…
What Makes Good Packaging Design?
Good packaging design catches the eye – but also the imagination. Artwork, shape, material and size all make a big difference when it comes to packaging, and achieving harmony in your design between all of these elements – and your brand – is key to achieve an effective package. We’ve written elsewhere about why packaging design makes such a difference to the fate of the product. Fundamentally, it’s because good packaging converts people into customers:…
How Much Should A Website Design Cost?
It can feel like the most important question of all when it comes to web design: how much will it cost? Price, of course, is critical to all business decisions. The truth, though, is that websites are not so much expenses as they are investments – and how much a website should cost very much depends on what return you’re seeking to derive from it. Consider your conversion rate as a key metric: what is…
Why Graphic Design Is Important for Any Business
Graphic design is the art of appearances. Graphic designers craft how something looks so that it appeals to the target market, is appropriate to the function of an item, and projects the correct values and messages. Businesses need to achieve all of this in every single piece of communication they produce. That’s why graphic design is important for any business. Beyond these general rules of thumb, however, what can we say more specifically about the…
What Are User Metrics?
User experience matters. It’s why we focus so squarely on achieving great UX design at Squibble. We’re evangelists for the approach. But one of the questions we get asked a lot – understandably – is, “How can you measure UX?” The answer is through user metrics. It’s critical that businesses are able to measure user experience because achieving high satisfaction in their designs can make such a huge difference to retention and conversion rates. Bad…
Why Is User Experience So Important?
Business owners and marketing managers alike hear a lot about ‘user experience’ when it comes to websites and other digital assets. It sounds important, and that isn’t hype: ‘UX’, as it’s sometimes known, very much is crucial to making the most of digital communications. But what is user experience, and how can it be measured and accommodated in design projects, from websites to mobile apps? The good news is that understanding the basics of UX…
The 3 Most Powerful KPIs To Help Your Business Grow
From conversations I’ve had with local business owners recently most have told me that they have had to revaluate their business goals and sales targets. For some COVID-19 has wiped their pipeline out and for others they’ve seen growth in new areas that they hadn’t considered before. Most of this growth is fuelled through online campaigns. A lot of small businesses that previously survived on networking alone with little to no web presence have seen…
3 Ways To Build More Trust In a Digital World
In today's market-place, trust is everything. As a nation though, according to the Express, almost one in five people don't trust anyone at all! Yet the key to selling is trust. We all know and love the old cliche “people buy from people” and that’s all well and good when you’re at a sales meeting but there haven’t been many of those happening over the last few weeks. So how can you build trust in…
3 New Years Resolutions You Should Consider
Don’t groan, I know New Years resolutions are overrated but we’re moving even further into uncharted waters. I think it’s safe to say that 2021 will be another huge year of change for B2B and B2C e-commerce. 2020 saw some huge giants succumb to the pandemic and at the time of writing this I am deeply saddened by the further damage done to our economy with Arcadia filing for administration with the loss of up…
Are face to face meetings necessary?
Emails, phone calls, letters, social media… today there are so many ways of getting in touch with people that we can sometimes forget how important it is to meet face to face. It can sometimes be hard to meet all your clients and contacts in person in the business world, is it still worth trying? In this post, I will explain why it is always worth making the extra effort! What are the advantages of…
Brand evolution – why branding is important in marketing design.
We were sitting in the office last week discussing the Boots branding and why it had never been updated. It got me wondering and I wanted to explore its history and evolution. Boots is one of Britain’s best loved brands. Built on 170 years of heritage, the Boots brand has evolved from a small herbalist store in Nottingham to a household name with flagship stores worldwide. From herbalism to get-well remedies, Boots was initially positioned…
How to Build Brand Consistency into Your Digital Design
From managing budgets to researching competitors, marketing managers do it all. With so much on your plate, it’s easy to forget the basics, but brand consistency should never be overlooked. According to the 2022 Consumer Research Report, companies with established brand consistency could expect customers to pay a whopping 46% more for a brand they trust. This trend is growing exponentially because they also report that the stat has increased from 30% in 2021. Sounds…
How to talk to multiple target audiences
BIG or small, traditional and stuffy or bold and exciting; clients can come in all shapes and sizes, especially in b2b marketing. It's unlikely you're targeting one singular persona. I'm definitely envious if you are! So how do you appeal to them both? At Squibble we target small and large companies, up to 1 million or up to 20 million turnover. Targeting 2 companies at the opposite end of the scale can be tricky because their project…
What Are The 4 Types of Logos?
Logos can be exciting. For many new businesses, a logo is the first thing they think about – something about having an ident makes a business seem more real. On the other hand, designing a logo can be overwhelming – for many of the same reasons that business owners often find the process so attractive. A lot rides on getting a logo right – and that means the nuts and bolts of designing one needs…
Why Is Packaging Design So Important?
Packaging is how a product presents itself. It’s also how it will stand out in a crowded marketplace. Whether on the supermarket shelves, in a promotional video or an online product shot, the box is an important part of the product – and the better it is, the more likely it is to encourage sales. What does “good” packaging mean, though? You can read another of our blogs on this topic to get more of…
What Makes Good Packaging Design?
Good packaging design catches the eye – but also the imagination. Artwork, shape, material and size all make a big difference when it comes to packaging, and achieving harmony in your design between all of these elements – and your brand – is key to achieve an effective package. We’ve written elsewhere about why packaging design makes such a difference to the fate of the product. Fundamentally, it’s because good packaging converts people into customers:…
What Makes A Bad Website Design?
Bad website design is confused web design – and we all know a muddled webpage when we see one. Our grandmothers might have told us that, if we’ve nothing nice to say, we should say nothing at all; but the truth is we can learn from the negative – it teaches us what to avoid. The principles of good web design are fairly simple and standardised: usability, functionality, attractiveness and appropriateness. Similarly, although bad websites…
How Much Should A Website Design Cost?
It can feel like the most important question of all when it comes to web design: how much will it cost? Price, of course, is critical to all business decisions. The truth, though, is that websites are not so much expenses as they are investments – and how much a website should cost very much depends on what return you’re seeking to derive from it. Consider your conversion rate as a key metric: what is…
What Is The Purpose of Rebranding?
The purpose of rebranding can be easily expressed: to give the corporate image of a business – the public face a company uses to communicate with its customers – a facelift. Whatever the changes it enacts, a rebranding shifts a company’s visual profile in ways that align with the wider aims of its strategic comms strategy. It is in that alignment where rebranding gets interesting, then – because designing a new logo or giving a website…
The 3 Most Powerful KPIs To Help Your Business Grow
From conversations I’ve had with local business owners recently most have told me that they have had to revaluate their business goals and sales targets. For some COVID-19 has wiped their pipeline out and for others they’ve seen growth in new areas that they hadn’t considered before. Most of this growth is fuelled through online campaigns. A lot of small businesses that previously survived on networking alone with little to no web presence have seen…
Why Branding Matters
Understanding why branding matters can seem a lower-order priority. Running any kind of organisation, considering its logos or typefaces can feel like a distraction from the nuts and bolts of making it a success. But branding matters because it gives a company an identity that its clients can connect with. And those relationships power sales. Brands can forge intense relationships between companies and customers. We all see this in our day-to-day lives: the Apple or…
What Are The 5 Characteristics of A Logo?
Like most things of a certain type, logos share certain characteristics – or at least the good ones do. It might be true that all bad logos are bad in different ways; but the best logos each share a set of five characteristics that make them work. Understanding these basic design fundamentals when embarking on a branding process can really help things go well from the start: after all, knowing what you’re aiming for makes…
How to Measure the Success of Your Rebrand
A rebrand can be a tricky beast to navigate. When done correctly, it can make a big difference in your sales, brand awareness and so much more, but tracking and measuring the true impact of a rebranding project can be a difficult task in itself. In this guide, we give you all the information on how to measure the impact of your rebrand to ensure you’re meeting your goals and then some. What is rebranding?…
How to Write Your Own Goal-Smashing Website Brief (with Template!)
A website project is much like a road trip. You can’t just hop in your car and hope that it reads your mind and takes you to where you need to go. Not even Teslas have that kind of mind-reading capability (not yet, anyway). No, for now, you’ll still need to grab a map - physical or digital - and do some planning beforehand. This vital prep work is essential for a pleasant and stress-free…
Mobile First Design: What Is It & Why Is It Important?
With over 50% of website traffic coming from mobile devices, it’s no surprise that businesses are beginning to put more emphasis on the mobile design of their websites. Users want to easily access information at their fingertips, that’s easy to digest, clear on the next steps and simple to convert. This means that mobile designs have to take into account space limitations and that key elements and calls to actions are prominently displayed. There’s also…
3 Reasons Why Most Web Designs Fail
If you invest in a website surely you would want it to perform at its absolute best? Oddly though there seems to be some unwritten rule that having a website, no matter how bad it looks, is better than nothing because “nobody really looks at it”. Obviously my view on this is going to be very biased but as a sales and brand asset shouldn't we make the most out of our websites?! Largely websites…
Which Web Language Is Right For Your Business?
Forgive us: we might get a bit techy in this one. Imagine you’re in one of those scenes from Star Trek where Spock gets all logical. That’s us, right now – because web languages really do matter, even if they seem a bit esoteric to most of us. A web language is the code your site is written in – the computer characters that make it look and behave as it does in a web…
Do Websites Need Maintenance?
Building and launching a website is a huge achievement for any business. But it’s also the start of something – an ongoing relationship with a new digital asset, and one which requires constantly attention. Few things can survive unscathed without some TLC every now and then: we clear our cars, dust our houses, update our software. Websites are no different: right after launch, web teams should begin to lovingly tend to them on a near…
What Makes A Bad Website Design?
Bad website design is confused web design – and we all know a muddled webpage when we see one. Our grandmothers might have told us that, if we’ve nothing nice to say, we should say nothing at all; but the truth is we can learn from the negative – it teaches us what to avoid. The principles of good web design are fairly simple and standardised: usability, functionality, attractiveness and appropriateness. Similarly, although bad websites…
How Much Should A Website Design Cost?
It can feel like the most important question of all when it comes to web design: how much will it cost? Price, of course, is critical to all business decisions. The truth, though, is that websites are not so much expenses as they are investments – and how much a website should cost very much depends on what return you’re seeking to derive from it. Consider your conversion rate as a key metric: what is…
Graphic Design: What’s It All About?
Graphic design isn’t magic, but it can be mysterious. It’s easy to think it’s mostly about logos and Hollywood posters – but actually graphic design is all around us. Anything that has been designed visually to evoke a mood or a message has had some element of graphic design applied to it. In our digital world, graphic design is everywhere. Graphic design is about such fundamentals as colour and shape – if you’ve ever made…
What Are User Metrics?
User experience matters. It’s why we focus so squarely on achieving great UX design at Squibble. We’re evangelists for the approach. But one of the questions we get asked a lot – understandably – is, “How can you measure UX?” The answer is through user metrics. It’s critical that businesses are able to measure user experience because achieving high satisfaction in their designs can make such a huge difference to retention and conversion rates. Bad…
Why Is User Experience So Important?
Business owners and marketing managers alike hear a lot about ‘user experience’ when it comes to websites and other digital assets. It sounds important, and that isn’t hype: ‘UX’, as it’s sometimes known, very much is crucial to making the most of digital communications. But what is user experience, and how can it be measured and accommodated in design projects, from websites to mobile apps? The good news is that understanding the basics of UX…
3 Ways To Build More Trust In a Digital World
In today's market-place, trust is everything. As a nation though, according to the Express, almost one in five people don't trust anyone at all! Yet the key to selling is trust. We all know and love the old cliche “people buy from people” and that’s all well and good when you’re at a sales meeting but there haven’t been many of those happening over the last few weeks. So how can you build trust in…
Does a new business need a website?
Is a website necessary for a business that is only just starting out? Before you begin to make sales and generate a large amount of business, is there any point in spending money on a website? Will anyone find your site? In this blog post, I hope to answer this question and explain why a website is one of your initial business musts! Can you start a business without a website? You can certainly build…